JOURNEY

Volume Two: Who You Really Are

Prologue

Jordis Program Compound, 29th October, year 88 ABC (After the Battle of Calenhad).

"Go, go, go!"

Three figures ran down a cold metallic corridor towards an exit, a host of robotic figures chasing after them clunkily, firing rifles as they went. One of the fleeing figures was a tall, blonde-haired man, a black cloak slung over his shoulders. Every so often he would turn, raising a large white shield to block incoming fire from their pursuers. The second was a woman with white hair, limping as she ran and carrying a metallic Dust rapier. The third was a woman with a red cloak, hood slung over her face and a gunmetal sword slung behind her back, carrying a small red bundle.

Ruby Rose hated running from a fight, but surely even she knew when to recognise that a fight was unwinnable. That, at least, was what the white-haired woman - Weiss Schnee - hoped. Ruby's red cloak fluttered behind her as she raced for the exit, an elevator that would take them to a secret escape route this compound's creators had installed.

"Keep going!" the black-cloaked man - Jaune Arc - yelled, falling back under fire as his shield kept taking the hits.

Weiss turned and raised her rapier. A series of glyphs appeared on the walls surrounding their pursuers, and from these a series of armoured figures carrying giant sword emerged, carving through the robots. A moment passed, and the armoured figures had finished their work, before dissipating.

Weiss breathed out, before slumping against the wall. Jaune turned to look at her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I'm… I'm not good at this stuff anymore. Can't… can't keep up."

"We're almost out of here!" Ruby called back. "I've called the elevator!"

Weiss grimaced as she pushed off the wall, limping towards the elevator. Jaune stayed behind her, his shield still raised. She noted that his grip on the sword part of Crocea Mors wasn't perfect.

"Still not used to using that hand?" she asked.

"Is now the time?" he asked harshly.

Weiss grimaced. "Look, I know -"

The sound of footsteps from the other end of the corridor cut her off, and she looked to see a man in a black Atlesian military outfit walking towards them, a cloak slung behind him regally.

"Black," Jaune growled. "Ruby, problems!"

"Miss Schnee," the man - Soren Black - said calmly as he strode towards them. "Mr Arc. Miss Rose. This is futile. You have nowhere to go."

Weiss felt a sudden realisation hit her, even as the elevator pinged. "Jaune, help Ruby get out of here. I'll hold him off."

Jaune frowned. "You're kidding."

"We're not leaving you!" Ruby called back to her. "Weiss, the elevator's here, we can -"

"You can't," Weiss cut her off. "You need to get that baby out of here. I'll hold him back."

Jaune said nothing for a moment, and then fell back. "Ruby, into the elevator."

"We can't leave Weiss!" Ruby shouted.

"She's buying us time," Jaune said sternly. "Go!"

He turned back to look at Weiss, even as she settled into a guard stance as Black approached. She didn't bother looking back, instead focusing her energy into once more summoning a glyph. Another armoured figure appeared before Black, who drew a sword expertly and blocked the first heavy overhand the knight delivered. Weiss focused as hard as she could on maintaining the knight, knowing that once he went down she was doomed.

She risked a glance back at Jaune and Ruby. Jaune has pressed the button for the elevator to move, and the two of them looked at her.

"I'm sorry," Weiss said to Jaune.

He nodded curtly. "I know."

"Weiss," Ruby said despondently, and then the elevator doors closed.

Weiss closed her eyes and concentrated on the knight, but Black was only toying with the summoned construct, before carving it in half with a single strike.

Drained, Weiss fell to one knee. Holding up Myrtenaster, she tried to lash out, but he caught her wrist with ease, squeezing it until it cracked. Gasping in pain, Weiss let go of her sword and finally slumped back onto her knees.

"You gave your life for them," Black said calmly. "I can respect that. But it doesn't need to be this way." He knelt to be at eye level with her. "You know what I'm doing will benefit Atlas, benefit the world. Why don't you -"

She spat in his face. "Go burn in the hells, Soren."

Without any visible change of expression, Black stood. He let out a sigh.

"Jacques will be… disappointed," he said quietly. "But I can live with his disappointment."

And then he drew his blade and ran in through Weiss' chest. She gasped for breath, her eyes widening in horror, and then with a single motion he shoved her body backwards, before cleaning his blade with one gloves hand, staring at the blood idly.

"Regrettable," he said evenly. Weiss couldn't listen to hear if he said anything else. She felt the life leave her, her body going quite numb.

At least, she thought as she slipped away, Ruby and Jaune got out…

Outside the compound's secret exit, the two figures raced through the surrounding woods, heading towards their extraction - really just a getaway Bullhead they'd concealed. Ruby was crying, trying not to lose control, but…

Dammit, Weiss, she thought. Not you, too.

On the Bullhead, which had fortunately not been discovered, Ruby sat down, still cradling the bundle she'd been carrying.

"It's amazing that she's not woken up," Jaune commented as he headed for the pilot's seat. "Any normal baby would've been screaming."

"Y-yeah," Ruby stammered, still struggling to cope with what they'd left behind. "But then… I guess she's not really a normal baby."

"Guess not," Jaune agreed. He set the Bullhead into motion, concentrating as he pulled up. "No sign of further pursuit. Guess they don't want to make a scene."

"Yeah," Ruby said quietly. She started gently rocking the infant in the bundle, who burbled slightly but made no other noise. "Do you think she's okay?"

Jaune inputted a command, setting the autopilot, before coming to check on them both. He opened the bundle slightly, and smiled at the little dark-haired baby within.

"I think she's fine," he said softly. "Seems to be enjoying the ride."

Ruby made a small 'heh' sound. "Yeah." Her expression grew somber. "So… what now?"

"We've got a long journey to decide that," Jaune said quietly. He wiggled his winger at the sleeping baby, making a small cooing noise, before sighing. "What do you want to call her?"

Ruby looked up at him. "Call her?"

"Well, yeah," Jaune said. "She needs a better name than 'Subject Zero Zero One', doesn't she?"

Ruby looked down at her, before smiling softly. "How about, 'Jo'?"

"'Jo'?" Jaune repeated. He nodded slowly, mulling the idea over. "Yeah. 'Jo'. Why not?"

"Jo it is," Ruby said, smiling at the newly christened child. "Welcome to the rest of the world, Jo. You're gonna love it."

The baby - Jo - just made a small burbling noise in her sleep.

Author's Note: welcome to Journey Vol. 2: this story is a continuation of the events of Vol. 1, so anyone not familiar with those events may wish to read Vol. 1 first in order to get the full experience (and, obviously, to know who any of these OCs are).

To those of you returning with questions from Vol. 1, I can assure you that those questions will be answered very soon. And then, of course, the consequences of those answers will have to be dealt with…

My especial thanks to everyone who followed and favourited the first volume, and to RoyalPsycho and MS Void, both of whom keep me honest and motivated.

I hope you enjoy this. Cheers,

Jed.