Peace.

The waters of the slumber that coursed through Ruby's mind seemed to sooth every ache and pain in her body, even the ones she had apparently long since gotten used to. It was as though she was lying down in a pool of cool spring water, her body just barely immersed. She could feel the darkness that surrounded her, yet almost felt like she could see clear as day.

It was a feeling Ruby hadn't felt since her days at Beacon. Back then, the only things they had to worry about were failing grades and failing love. Even her own team's investigations had seemed to take a backseat to their daily school life. 'Oh man. My team…' She thought 'I haven't even thought about them these past few days except-'

Except when she was going to die.

And just like that, her peace collapsed, as the waters slowly grew murky, and lacked the pristine quality she had grown accustomed to, the aches of her body did not return – but her mind began to adopt an unwelcome yet familiar pressure at its back.

She had almost died hadn't she? The hollow eyes of an infinity without her friends or sunlight stared back into her own, a deep shade of red. The Pale Rider had come to stake his claim on the Reaper, and yet she wasn't dead. Her black surroundings almost convinced her she was, but the thrum of her lifeblood under her skin and her soul slowly extending outwards to illuminate the smothering darkness said otherwise.

Ruby wasn't sure how.

Divine intervention or not, the most unlikely of people in her life did what she herself had failed in her efforts to become…they were heroes.

The very thought almost stung her mind, the very idea of bigots as knights in shining white armor was instinctively repulsive. But what she had seen was almost undeniable.

Four knights charging to save the day at the last second, the dawn breaking through the stormy clouds and darkness that threatened to choke humanity out. There they faced the oldest enemy of both mankind – and Faunus - Ruby made sure to add, and did not falter. Three boys who had abandoned their friend to an Ursa now stood with their very same leader and did not falter.

Ruby wasn't entirely sure how she felt about destiny or divine providence, but she was sure, as Blake was part cat, that it didn't normally arrive in the form of Cardin- "butthead" -Winchester! While the man had certainly eased up on his attacks against students after his encounter with Jaune, he was still a cruel and unkind teenager. He wasn't even supposed to be a good fighter! Brute strength could only carry a huntsman so far, and while he did not lack from it – he sure lacked skill. They all did! Minus Dove Bronzewing of course, but he was hardly on par with any of her friends.

But then again, she had only ever seen them face off against large numbers of smaller Grimm or fellow hunters-in-training…

"Of course!' Ruby rocketed awake and sat upright immediately, nearly head-butting Cardin right in the jaw. "That's how you guys got into Beacon! You're actual-honest-to-Dog monster hunters!" Ruby cried in barely contained joy at the implications of such talent and the fact that she now understood the long standing confusion about CRDL.

Her joy was cut short when she realized everyone was silent and staring at her. Suddenly sheepish, she muttered "they kill big things well…" she finished with a bit of triumph leaking into her voice.

"So how long have I been carrying an awake runt?" grunted the voice of the teen she had almost head-butted a few minutes ago. Suddenly hyper-aware, Ruby felt an unfamiliar warmth of two arms – one along her back and one underneath her knees. Next she noticed her position, several feet above the ground, and previously resting lengthwise. And finally, she slowly turned her head to meet indigo eyes that mixed with annoyance and mild amusement at her realization.

Cardin had been carrying her bridal-style while she passed out in his arms. 'Probably drooled too...' she internally whimpered at the embarrassing situation she found herself in as she stared at the orange hair boy with shell-shocked terror. The familiar weight of her cloak was gone, and instead she found herself in one of her spare black tank tops and loose pink gym shorts – almost definitely Nora's. Around her right thigh was a thick wrap of bandages with a little bit of dried blood that had pooled at the surface of the cloth, and several cute pink Band-Aids with cats on them as well covering the scratches and scrapes that dotted her legs. Her arm rested in a sling, though she could feel her Aura had already begun to mend her apparently fractured forearm, she noted with a wince as she tried to move it.

Despite all of her injuries, Ruby felt overjoyed. On their makeshift forest path, sunlight was breaking through certain patches of foliage, bathing her in warmth. Ahead of her, Nora and Ren were already walking towards her from their positions at the front of the group beside Sky. They were covered in bandages similar to hers, but Ruby was relieved to notice that they were walking steadily on their own two feet, Nora being the better off of the two as she had been carried away rather than beaten by an angry elephant and snake. Nora was sporting a green hoodie and track pants, while Ren wore a black V-neck with torn jeans. Further behind them and technically at the front of the pack was Russel atop a particularly large root that easily rose above them, squinting at their surroundings, his typical frown firmly cemented on his face. His outfit was the same as before, but now his hood had been tossed back, freeing his pale-green Mohawk to the elements.

A loud cough at her ears roughly shook Ruby out of her observations, turning back once more to Cardin who grunted in clear annoyance "Do you mind getting off of me now?" the tower of a man questioned. Blushing deeply at the fact that she had completely forgotten to get out the gruff man's loveless hold, Ruby nodded and lowered her feet towards the leaf-covered ground. "Easy now, I don't want to have to keep carrying you anymore, there's a reason we're at the back of the pack." Warned Cardin, attentive eyes watching her every move as she lowered one foot to the ground. Needless to say, the attention was mildly uncomfortable, but she was hardly in a position to complain. As her left foot graced the ground, she felt a surge of confidence underfoot as it held no pressure 'that's a good sign right?' Ruby mused internally as she swung her right leg out of Cardin's arms and onto the ground.

"Wrong move!" was all Ruby could choke out as pain lanced through her bloody knee like a hot steel going straight through her nervous system. If a neuron could only be firing at full force or inactive, it certainly felt like every one of them was firing. At each other.

Swaying instinctively off of her injured leg, Ruby's poor positioning sent her back into the arms of a decidedly annoyed Cardin. "Leg ain't good yet is it, Short Stop?" said the ginger, a sadistic humor leaking into his voice. 'Well that was unsettling' Ruby thought in discomfort at the sadist who had carried her for god-knows-how long. "You knew?!" the redhead hissed, rapidly losing all sense of gratitude for the snob. "Well, yeah – I am the one who wrapped it after all." Ruby's eyebrow raised as she glanced at the professionally wrapped leg, "Your Aura should have taken care of it by no-"

Any further musing was rapidly shut down by the energetic cries of a skipping Nora, now a couple meters ahead of the striding Ren. Beaming, she leapt and landed with a "Boop," in front of the duo. "Ruby! I'm so glad you're awake!" she cried as her eyes grew watery and attempted to crush Ruby's merely mortal bones underneath a hug more terrifying than any Grimm. Before the fear could properly register in her mind, a calm hand clasped over the pink berserkers shoulders – followed by Ren sighing "Nora, please don't put Ruby back into a coma."

The girl in question merely giggled before pulling Ruby into a tight, yet gentle embrace from within Cardin's hold (who merely rolled his eyes at the reunion). "I really am glad you're awake…" whispered Nora, her jovial mood gone as pale blue eyes looked deep into silver and words unspoken exchanged between each other, their meaning only known between the two of them.

"I couldn't deal with losing anyone else"

Smiling softly, Ruby returned the embrace, sniffling softly before Nora lifted her from Cardin's grasp and held her firm as they both began to weep their hearts out, the pain and agony they both felt sung in harmony with the relief and joy of seeing the other alive. After a few minutes, Nora placed Ruby back into Cardin's arms in a bridal-style and Ren strode forward, "It's good to have you back Ruby." Wiping her eyes, the fifteen year old grinned through her tear-streaked face and exclaimed "it's good to be back, Ren." That was all he said as he stepped backwards and turned, reaching out a hand with a small smile spreading across his normally emotionless features while he gestured for them all to continue forward.

"So," Ruby began, "how long have I been out?"

"Well I've been carrying you for about a day and a half" stated Cardin with a snort, earning a sharp glance from Nora before she turned back and began to divulge information at an alarming rate. "After CRDL saved us, which was totally weird by the way, Sky packed up his awesome mortar cannon explosion thingy-" she glanced at Ren and she chose her next words carefully "-which I have no intention of replicating…" A raised eyebrow, "Ever. We started to check over everyone's injuries, which is when the skin on your knee kind of…popped!" she finished with a grin, despite Cardin's wince and Ren's grimace as they each remembered the sight respectively. "Cardin was on it pretty quick, whipping out needles and bandages and everything! It was pretty awesome, actually." She added, earning her a derisive snort. Plowing ever onwards, Nora continued, "You passed out, and when everyone was getting wrapped up by Sky and Cardin, Russel and Dove searched the wreckage for any of our left over gear and they salvaged what they could, but we aint exactly got a lot of clothes right now. Though –" She added with a nod to Russel up on the root, eyes scanning the treeline for an easy route for his wounded party to pass through, "Russel made sure he didn't go through our lady-things, and waited for Ren and me to come get them!"

That last part earned a raised eyebrow from Ruby, as the slightly pink Ren focused on a very interesting tree branch on the other side of the forest. Cutting into the momentary silence, Cardin spoke up "So why am I the one carrying the twerp while you can clearly do it just fine?" Nora beamed in response as she twirled around and showed her bandaged stomach and giggled "Nah. Can't!" Ren stepped in and tutted as he exclaimed "Nora! I warned you not to move too much. Your wound opened up again!" He raised a palm to his face as Nora simply stuck her tongue out at him while he applied fresh bandages to her midriff.

"Anyways," she cheerily continued as Ren finished his work, "we wanted to stay and rest while we waited for you to wake up, but both Jaune and Cardin agreed that we needed to get you to the hospital as fast as possible." The unspoken sentence of 'who'da thunk?' echoed to all parties of the conversation.

That was certainly a surprise for Ruby, as she tried to imagine the two of them smiling and nodding at the same idea. The image made her head hurt as she went through a mental checklist to see if she was still concussed from her fall. Suddenly going stock still, Ruby turned to look Cardin in the eyes – who in turn merely blinked once to acknowledge her existence.

"Cardin…" her voice shot clear warning at the man, despite its pitch, "Where is Jaune?" she finished, suspicion clear on her face as she recalled the one time their teams went down to Vale for a few hours and Jaune stayed behind because of his motion sickness, and they found him walking around and bumping into walls in the school basement with a toilet bowl stuck to his head. They all tried to get him out until Yang got fed up and literally smashed his head against the wall and broke the ceramic. While Jaune was grateful, Ruby wasn't entirely sure what the worse option out of the two was.

Cardin's eyes merely hardened as he met hers, any possible mirth was gone from those indigo pools. "Jauney-Boy thought he should go on ahead to Mistral while we slowly made our way back and get help," he scoffed, raising his pitch so that it cracked a bit as he imitated Jaune "Maybe even get a Bullhead!" This earned him a single "Ha!" from the root Russel and Sky were currently sending a rope ladder down, the noise coming from Russel obviously as Sky just smirked at the recollection. Still smiling at his own joke, Cardin turned his gaze from his teammates up ahead only to see a scowling Nora, a shaking head from Ren and an intense sense of worry coming out from Ruby as her pleading eyes looked up at him. Sighing slightly, he continued and did very little to hide his distaste from his voice "It's not like I left him to die! You three would never have let me hear the end of it! So Dove drew the short straw and I sent him along with your bumbling idiot to make sure he doesn't die under some rock." Still frowning at Cardin's poor choice of words, Ruby turned her head back towards the path they were following, only allowing her frown to fall when he clearly couldn't see her face as a smile swiftly replaced it.

'Yay! Jaune's safe! That's…surprisingly unexpected' she realized as they stopped in front of the loose ladder. Ren and Nora, seemingly familiar with this procedure, began to scale the large root. Ruby watched as the climbed almost ten feet of old gnarly tree, with Sky and Russel pulling them over the side. Realizing she would have to climb with her upper-body strength alone, Ruby clasped the rope and began to pull, only to have Cardin tear her away with a quizzical tone in his voice "What are you even doing?"

Ruby turned back to him and crossed her arms, and did her best to seem agitated like Weiss, but only ended up looking like she was denied a cookie at the age of four. "Trying to climb the ladder?" she said, placing extra emphasis on the word trying. A snort echoed from high above as she saw Russel standing over the edge of the root, stretching his arms above his head before lowering them towards her and wriggling his fingers. "You idiot, you can hardly sit up properly. Just try not to panic when Russel lifts you alright?"

Before she could respond, she found herself gently lifting out of Cardin's arms, her eyes growing wide as a strong gust of wind rose up from beneath her – much to Cardin's clear amusement. She slowly rose a few inches, then a foot. Soon, she was rising towards the top of the root. Her eyes darted around on instinct as she searched for something to grab hold of, but to no avail. Doing her best to remain calm, she did everything she could to ease the rumblings in her stomach as flashes of the crash began to flood back to her.

Falling. Screaming. Explosions. A complete loss of control oh god oh god no no no no-

Her eyes snapped open as she felt two firm hands clasp around her waist, plucking her out of the air. Glancing behind her, she looked into the eyes of Sky Lark, CRDL's resident mute. Her breathing steadied as she grabbed a hold of his plate mailed arms in fear, looking right into his eyes. The man just gave a simple, unquestioning nod as he sat her down on the root, taking great care with her leg. "You good?" asked Russel, the winds calming down once more as he deactivated his semblance. She simply nodded, to which he simply turned back to face further down the path. Peering over the now-much-less-terrifying edge, Ruby saw Cardin patting his hands together with some dirt and spit – which was gross Ruby noted, and seemed to prepare for his own ascent, only to watch as the ladder next to her began to rise and wiggle as Sky began rolling it up. Confused, she asked Russel, "Why is he rolling it up?" the hooded man turned to look at he, his frown not disappearing as he snorted and called over the edge, "because Cardin is too fat to climb a ladder!"

The tower of a man roared in indignant rage as he leapt towards the root, causing Ruby to squeak in surprise as he punch a hole into the tree, using swinging his other fist higher up, and repeated this process, using lower holes as foot rests. Reaching the lip of the root, Cardin tried to take a swing at Russel before even getting his feet under solid footing again – which Russel dodged neatly, a small smirk appearing on his stony visage. Nora guffawed at the situation while Ren merely chuckled. After a minute or two of swinging and kicking, the party got back on their way.

When Ruby voiced her question on how she was to get down, Cardin merely picked her up again and jumped off the tree and landed on the forest floor with a thump. As the party descended one by one, Ruby took the time to ask Russel, "So your Semblance is that you can control wind?" her awe overwhelmed any sense of subtlety she may have possessed. Her question earned her a nod, though she hardly registered it as she imagined herself flying through the air like a super hero.

A super hero that can't fall.

"So why don't you just lift everyone over every object?"

The teen sighed and rubbed his eyes in his tired annoyance with the young girl and simply stated "I can't and don't want to lift everyone every five seconds, not to mention how fat Car-" he was stopped as the man in question growled from above Ruby, "Watch it, Russ." He spat. The threat shut the boy up, but Ruby still caught sight of a flash of teeth as he pulled his hood back up and over his head.

Three hours had passed in relative silence as the group hiked through the forest, neither party really having anything to say beyond a few words here and there. Ruby had offered several times that Cardin could take a break if he needed to, or that she could try and walk again. Most times he merely ignored her, while others he would snort in derision – continuing his ceaseless march.

Ruby took this time to contemplate about talking to Cardin about their mission was, but ultimately realized that while they had saved them all, they weren't necessarily allies yet. They were still the mean spirited boys from Beacon who had just so happened to be near-

Just like that it hit her. 'I didn't even ask how they found us! Ugh. Weiss was right, I really am a dolt…' Clearing her throat, she tapped on Cardin's shoulder, knocking him out of his daze as he looked down at her and moaned "Ugh…what now?" Sheepish for a second, Ruby quickly pressed forwards before she floundered as usual and ended up blurting out "How-did-you-find-us?" she shot out in one breath. Cardin paused for a beat – and Ruby felt nervous and awkward, almost as though she had stepped on a landmine.

Her fears were unfounded, however, when the man let out a deep-bellied laugh that she had never heard before. She had heard his sneers and deriding guffaws, but this was something different it was almost…good natured.

After a few seconds, he finally stopped laughing and looked at her and gasped out "Are you freakin' serious? You guys got hit by a Nevermore, caught on fire and exploded in the middle of the night in a forest! It didn't take much to realize that someone may need our help. We had been camped nearby and it was my watch, and we hurried towards crash. I made Sky carry the supplies because he's the worst fighter by far," This earned him an upturned finger from the blue haired mute up ahead, to which he snorted and continued with a more serious tone, "I'll be honest though, I wasn't expecting you four of all people. Speaking of which, what exactly are you doing this far away from Vale?" he finished, punctuating this by kicking a rotten log that was in his path completely apart rather than jumping over it like the rest of the group.

Ruby stiffened. She really didn't want to tell him anything – he didn't deserve to know how they felt. How she felt. How Jaune felt. He could tell she was tense, and looked down at her as he tried to figure out what her deal was. She merely looked away and muttered "I don't want to talk about it."

Much to her surprise, he didn't press any further, and responded with "We all got secrets, Shorty."

They walked in awkward silence for a few minutes – Ruby's arch-nemesis – until the trees began grow slimmer and the roots began to grow shallow. Soon enough, they broke out of the treeline and onto a clear Cliffside that overlooked one of the most beautiful landscapes Ruby had ever seen.

Down the cliffs ran a huge field of whistling grass that seemed to shiver with the wind. On the far side of the filed lay a breathtaking mountain range that reached high into the skies, so high that Ruby couldn't see beyond the clouds that hid their peaks. In the grassy valley between the two barriers was a small river, at least from Ruby's view, which wound all the way towards her right, leading straight into a humongous lakebed that seemed even larger than the sea between Patch and Vale! To her left, she could see a long white wall that boxed in the field, standing firm in-between the two mighty natural barriers of stone, the cliffside and the mountain range. On the sandy white shores of the lake rested a beautiful city unlike anything Ruby had come across.

The city had a large outer wall that spanned a few miles, encompassing the lower districts of the city and factories. Beyond that lay another wall with majestic heraldic symbols flying in the wind though – she couldn't properly see what rested on them. At the top of this City rested a massive structure that could only be a CCT tower, much like the one they had in Vale. 'though with the one in Vale being destroyed, this one wouldn't be working properly…' Ruby shook out those thoughts. With those memories, she wouldn't be able to admire what laid in front of her. She could deal with that later. Much later.

Her eyes met Cardin's for what seemed to be the ten-billionth time today, he merely waved his hand dismissively towards the city and stated "Welcome to Mistral, slack-jaws. It aint all that it's cracked up to be." His point was hammered home as a Bullhead rose up from below the cliff's edge.

A few minutes later, and they were standing (or in Ruby's case, carried) in front of a big white Villa outside the city limits. Jaune had met them on the Bullhead, his sickness overcome by his worry over Ruby's obvious injuries and sending several glares towards Cardin, which she abated by saying "Naw, don't worry about it. Cardin just carried me for like three days, I think you should cut him some slack." Jaune merely stared at her with a blank look on his face, perplexing her until she realized what she had just said.

'Did I just defend Cardin Winchester? What on earth is wrong with me?! To be fair, he did save our lives…and carry me… and he wasn't that different from Blake when she's annoyed, so it wasn't so bad when he wasn't talking… Maybe he isn't such a jerk after all?'

"Yeah Arc, lay off. It didn't help that she was way heavier than I expected."

'Yeah. Nope. Still a jerk.'

Dove had been pretty quiet on the return flight, talking calmly with Cardin for a few minutes as he relayed a message, to which Cardin hissed in frustration before he moved to go speak with the pilot.

Rather than go to the hospital as planned, the group had been dropped off at this- Ruby took note of the heavy automated turrets that sat on the walls of the manor, clearly identifying them as friendlies – heavily defended miniature castle.

Sighing, Cardin placed his helmet on and pushed the heavy mahogany doors of the small castle open to reveal a large courtyard. Before them laid an ornate carved pathway that led to the steps of the manor. To either side of the path stood tall men in armor and helmets very much like Cardin's own armor, except they wore a deep sea-blue with golden borders along their vambraces and chest plates. In their hands rested simple steel cudgels, very much like Cardin's mace but to a much smaller degree. They also held kite shields with a similar colour scheme to their armor, with a golden border surrounding the simple blue steel of the shield. Emblazoned on them was the same crest on Cardin; a golden Phoenix rising. They locked their shields together, forming two steel walls on either side of them. Not a single solider spoke or moved.

In the courtyard rested four great flags that billowed in the winds. Three were black, while the remaining one showed Cardin's crest once again. Cardin began walking forwards, Jaune holding Ruby's arm rather than letting her walk on her own or carrying her. The eight of them reached the steps, where in team CRDL dropped on one knee and bowed their heads towards the great ornate doors that led further inside. Before Russel could tell them to kneel, the great doors swung open.

Standing in the doorway was a behemoth of a man. Standing at almost seven feet tall, the stranger was only made more imposing by his muscular physique that could still be seen underneath all of his armor.

His armor was another matter entirely.

It was pitch-black, covering a large portion of his body, while gold-tinted chainmail covered what it could not. Emblazoned on his chest rested the very same symbol she had seen plastered everywhere – yet she could tell that it did not belong to Cardin. No, the sigil belonged to him. Resting on his arm was a great-axe that was taller than her. Its edges a simple silver-sheen as the steel shone in the daylight, while the shaft it was seated on was made of a familiar red metal that Ruby couldn't quite place where she had seen it before.

But most frightening of all? The man' face.

He wore no helmet, instead option to let his bright orange pony tail go free as wind whipped the courtyard. He had a bushy orange beard, one that even Weiss would be proud to own. His eyes were a narrow and weathered pair, radiating cold and stern authority that sent shivers to her very core. His mouth was set firmly shut, his brow furrowed in contemplation as he stood at the very top of the steps and looked down on them.

Suddenly, his mouth shout open and a deep, rolling voice boomed out "The Phoenix shall rise again!" causing Ruby to leap in fright, almost falling back onto her bad-leg if Jaune hadn't caught her. All around them, the guards and CRDL boomed back in loud unison that hurt Ruby's ears "The Phoenix shall rise again!"

His scowl not shifting, the Lord of the manor slowly walked down the steps, stopping in front of Jaune, who was liable to break down into tears from his fear at any moment as the scariest man they had ever seen stood above him.

"So you're an Arc, yes?"

"…"

"Speak up, boy!"

A loud gulp, and then to Ruby's immense pride, her friend looked the Lord in the eyes and said "Y-yes sir. Jaune Arc."

A few seconds passed… and the strangest thing they had seen yet happened.

The man broke into a wide, toothy grin as warmth poured into his previously dead-cold eyes. "WONDERUL!" he boomed, "How are Elizabeth and Louis?"

Silence reigned once more, until Jaune began, his fear lost in the midst of complete and utter bafflement, "Uh. S-si-?"

"Please, call me Henry."

"Uh. H-henry? H-how do you know my p-p-parents?"

"Why, my boy, that's quite simple really!" he threw his arm around the boy, causing Jaune to slump under the considerable weight, and pulled him around so the two of them faced the courtyard;

"We were teammates!" he beamed.

Cardin audibly retched inside his helmet.

AN: Hey guys! Jupitermonkey4 here! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry it took a bit longer to get out than I would have liked, but school hit me hard this past week. I really appreciate the reviews, follows and Favorited - the feedback really motivates writers like myself, so thanks a lot!

Shout out to my Beta TimmyTam0907! You dah best! I would recommend you go check out his story "Kingdom Come"! It's a phenomenal story and he is updating quite frequently.

That's all I have to say, so until next time - Cheers!

Edit: I noticed some glaring errors that really bugged me so I reposted the chapter :p