Chapter 9

After making camp for the night the three companions made an attempt at sitting together and decompressing after another day trudging through the desert, but it didn't last long. They agreed upon how exhausted they were and went to their respective tents to rest. Despite the desire to sleep, Sun found he was still uneasy about Ruby's declaration from earlier in the day and he wanted to talk to Blake about it, "What do you think she meant?" he had set his pack to the side and was taking his boots off.

Blake was in the process of taking off her jacket and said, "What?"

"When Ruby was interrogating that girl, she said everybody's going to die. I can't figure out what she was talking about? And there's no way she was lying."

Blake put her jacket down and set to unlacing her boots, "I don't know what she was talking about either, I agree that she wasn't lying. Unless you can convince her to tell you what she was talking about then you'll never know."

Blake's appraisal hadn't helped his uneasiness and saying this all out loud made her realize she didn't like not knowing either.

They continued to get ready for bed in silence, each one pondering the possible reason for Ruby's behavior. It wasn't until a few minutes had passed and they were comfortably close together that Blake recalled the night that Ruby had rescued her. During their conversation Ruby had said something- Blake couldn't remember the word itself- but she had been angered by Blake's refusal to say where Adam was, and she had yelled about someone making the White Fang attack. So much had happened since then that she wasn't surprised she had nearly forgotten about it.

Her outburst from that night and earlier today had been because someone refused to tell her where Adam was. She claimed that Adam was going to attack another school, obviously stopping that would be a priority. But how would failing to stop him put everyone in the world in danger? Blake couldn't come up with any possible answer which made her more anxious to figure out what Ruby was so afraid of.

Ruby's hair was disheveled and there was a subtle frown fixed to her face. It was morning and she was already starting to sweat from the heat. She pulled her canteen from her bag and took a sip. Once again, she found herself silently cursing the White Fang girl from yesterday. She had been so close to finding out where Adam was and hindering Salem, but some angsty bitch with a vendetta against humanity had said no. Ruby took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.

When she left her tent the full force of the suns glare hit her and she let out a groan. She went over to the bones of the fire from last night and sat down to eat. There hadn't been much conversation and she had a feeling it was because of her lie about scaring the girl. Blake was too smart to believe her, and Sun had hesitated before agreeing. She didn't feel good about keeping the possibly world ending grimm leader supervillain a secret, but Qrow had said not to tell anyone and she could see the logic in that.

Before she could resume her brooding, she heard a tent door being unzipped and turned around to see Blake, who let out a friendly, "Good morning." Ruby responded in kind while she took a seat nearby. Blake asked, "How did you sleep?"

She had gone to sleep annoyed, but it was restful enough, "Fine. No bad dreams." It was only a matter of time until the next one, but she had bigger things to worry about.

"That's good to hear. Have you given any thought to what you're going to do since you can't find Adam?"

She nodded solemnly, "Yeah. I don't know if he's going after Atlas or Shade Academy, but I'm going to guess Atlas. I'll go there to warn them and stick around for when the attack comes."

Blake fidgeted with her fingers before saying, "I could go to Shade and warn them, if you want."

Ruby gave it some consideration. It would be nice to know that both schools at least had a warning before being assaulted. But if Shade was the one to he attacked, she didn't want Blake to face Adam on her own, even if Sun went too, she still didn't like that. Blake also had no clue as to the larger threat pulling Adams strings and it wouldn't be right to send her into that mess without warning her of the danger.

Even though she had carefully mauled the question over, she answered with a noncommittal, "Maybe. Are you sure you would be okay with that?"

"Absolutely, I'm sure Sun would come too."

Ruby believed he would, but that didn't instill confidence within her, "I'll think about it some more and let you know." Given how things had gone this far she couldn't entirely rule that option out, even if it made her uneasy.

Things were quiet for a little while before Ruby said, "I already asked what you were talking to that girl about yesterday, but you didn't give me a specific answer, could you tell me now?" That interaction had seemed odd. All Blake had to do was untie her and come back, for some reason she had spent some time talking as well and Ruby wanted to know why that was.

Blake gave her a funny look, "I asked her what she knew about us and why she didn't try to stop us." When Blake didn't expound Ruby prompted her with a patient, "And…".

"She said she knew our names, what we're doing, and where we're going. I also asked her how long she'd been in the White Fang and why she joined." Blake shook her head lightly as if trying to get the memory to fall out, "I wanted to try to convince her that the White Fang was being misled. It was an impulsive decision and I realized nothing I said would matter to her."

Ruby nodded, of course Blake was just trying to help the girl, she said, "She seemed pretty certain about how things are going to go for humans and faunus."

Blake let out a sigh that couldn't fully convey her frustration, "Getting revenge on humans isn't what the White Fang should stand for."

"Just because you couldn't change one persons mind doesn't mean you can't change others." Ruby tossed a piece of cracker up into the air and tried to catch it with her mouth, it hit her forehead and Blake laughed lightly. When she recovered she said, "Yeah, I know. I'm not going to stop trying." A relaxed silence followed and Blake reveled in the comfortableness of it.

Blake didn't know when would be the best time to address this but she had been speculating on it since her possible revelation last night, and if she and Ruby were going to be friends again than she shouldn't be scared about asking her, "Since we're on the topic of clearing up confusion, what did you mean about 'us all going to die' yesterday? I know you said it was a lie to scare her, but it didn't come across that way to Sun and me."

That was probably the politest way anyone had ever accused Ruby of lying. She focused on taking another bite of her breakfast and considered how to respond. Lying hadn't worked, and she didn't like doing it. She didn't want to tell Blake and drag her into the conflict.

Ruby put a comforting hand on Blake's shoulder, "I mean this in the nicest way possible: I've got things under control. All you need to focus on is what you came here to do."

Blake eyed her questionably, "I know you're trying to stop me from worrying, but it's not working. You're afraid of something. Last night I remembered when you saved me and what you said about the White Fang attacking. You didn't say Adam would be making them do it, I don't remember the name, but you said something else was driving them. That same panic in your voice was there yesterday when you yelled at that girl." Blake looked at her with no small amount of determination, "Tell me what's going on, I can help."

For the briefest of moments, Ruby thought about it. Having an ally to fight against Salem and her forces would be nice, she hadn't had anyone to count on for years. But what if she pulled Blake into this mess only for her to be killed. She found some resolve and said, "No. Qrow and I have been able to manage on our own, I don't think it would be worth risking your life."

Blake's eyes narrowed, "I've been risking my life since I was a kid, don't think that the threat of dying is going to stop me now."

Ruby couldn't argue with the truth of that, she also had to admit that she and Qrow had only been able to hold back Salem, they had no chance to defeat her by themselves. Eventually they would need to start seeking out more people, but was now the time? Ruby didn't know what to do, she just wanted all of this to be over and to spend time with the people she cared about. While trying to pick a response she and Blake saw Sun approaching, he said, "Hey, what's going on?" He had only heard Blakes previous statement and was wondering what they were talking about.

Blake turned to answer him, "I'm trying to convince her to tell us what's going on, but she won't."

Sun sat down with them and said, "If she wanted to tell us, she would."

"But we can help her." She was a little frustrated that Sun hadn't tried to persuade Ruby too.

Sun and Blake had agreed Ruby was trying to hide something from them. And Blake had pointed out that the only way to find out was to convince her to tell the. But she would have done that by now, Sun realized that whatever she was afraid of must be a big deal and he didn't want to try to add onto the pressure of it, so he would wait until she either handled it herself or realized she needed help. "We can help her when she's ready." Not wanting to act like Ruby wasn't sitting right there, he turned to address her, "You don't want to tell us what's got you scared, that's cool. But if you change your mind remember that we're ready for whatever." He finished the sentence with a cocksure grin that would have been wiped off his face if he knew about Salem. Though the sentiment was appreciated.

Blake dropped the issue and Sun started in on his own food, soon after he realized they hadn't looked at the remaining file for the upcoming base, "Hey Blake, is your backpack in the tent?"

"Yeah, why?" She looked over at him, confused as to why he would want to know.

He stood up to get the backpack, "I remembered we haven't looked at the file for the next base yet."

When he returned, he started reading, "James Olivine, he's been in the White Fang for nine years…not seeing any crazy weapons or tragic backstory. He's been involved with a lot of behind the scenes operations, but he doesn't seem too tough."

"Can I see it?" Blake held out a hand and Sun gave it to her.

Ruby had taken out the map and was doing some quick calculations to see how far away they were, after a moment she said, "We should be there around midday tomorrow." Blake had finished looking over the file in case Sun missed anything. She put it aside and said, "I guess we should start packing up." Sun was only halfway through his food and motioned toward the rest, Blake added, "I'll get the tent, take your time."

Ruby and Blake went to their respective tents and began to deconstruct them. A short while later Sun came over to assist Blake with anything still needing to be done. It wasn't long before they were ready to get moving. The day passed by slowly, aside from stopping to eat lunch it was largely uneventful. When the time came for them to set up camp again, they did so with a bored efficiency. The day culminated in a livelier fireside chat than the previous night. Even though the uncertainty of what Ruby wasn't telling them still weighed on Blake and Sun, that didn't hinder their attitude toward her. Particularly Blake who was still rejoicing in Ruby forgiving her.

Blake had been feeling the call of her bed since she sat down, and after letting out a handful of yawns she finally admitted defeat, she arched her back and raised her arms high in a magnificent stretch, "I think I'm gonna go to sleep." Ruby and Sun bid her goodnight and she shuffled away to rest.

Ruby was expecting Sun to bring up her withholding information again, instead he said, "You excited to be done tomorrow?"

"I would be if I was actually going to be done, I've still got Adam to worry about." It was also possible that she would get to Atlas and find out she was too late.

"Oh right, well let's pretend you didn't have to worry about Adam, what would you do?" A few answers came to mind; lay on the beach for a few days, spend more time with Blake, go straight back to Patch.

She answered, "Go back to Patch to see Yang." Then added, "Did Blake tell you that I wanted her to go see Yang when this is over too?"

"Yeah, she mentioned it, she sounded pretty nervous, but like the good kind of nervous y'know?"

Ruby nodded, "Yeah, I think it will be good for both of them." An obvious question occurred to Ruby just then, "Are you going to come with her?"

"I don't know, it's not like I don't want to, but hanging out with you and Blake has me thinking about what Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune are doing. It would be nice to catch up with them. I've spent so much time working with Blake and Ilia to help get rid of the White Fang that I never stopped to think about what I wanted to do or where I wanted to be."

"I'm glad I stayed, Blake means a lot to me and I feel good knowing what I helped accomplish. But I don't know what I'm doing next." Ruby waited for him to continue, he seemed to be thinking deeply then came out of it suddenly, "Wow, I didn't mean to get so 'what's my purpose in the universe' on you."

Ruby laughed a little, "I get it, I've thought about what I'll be doing five years from now and its just me hunting grimm. I still want to hunt grimm, but not by myself for the rest of my life. It would be nice to slow down and live life, spend time with people I care about." It's too bad Salem won't take a break to let me do those things.

Sun said, "It sounds like we both just miss our teams is all." He and Ruby chuckled at their own uncertainty of the future, "Yeah, maybe that's it." Ruby agreed numbly.

It's been 114 days since I've updated this story. That's a really long time and I'm sorry. I don't have a good excuse; it comes down to me being lazy. I've also got school and other hobbies that I like to do but I know for sure that if I had been using my time wisely it would not take this long to write one chapter that's less than 3,000 words. I should also admit that somewhere in the last couple chapters I got bored of what I was writing about, the good news is this arc is nearly done and I'm interested in what comes next. I also feel that my writing has decreased in quality because of the intervals: if I write for an hour one week then an hour the next week, there isn't a whole lot of focus or attention to detail going on there. Since classes are nearly over (until summer classes start) and I have time due to quarantine I will be working on the next chapter frequently and expect to have it done in a more reasonable time frame.

Thank you for reading this story, especially if you have stuck with it even though I have demonstrated how inconsistent my updates are. As always feedback is welcome.