Weisser Ritter - Finale

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Requested By : Polemoduke

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Ruby rolled over to the early light of morning, the smell of smoke, and their pilot, funnily named Terrence Pilot - after the thingy in ovens, she'd asked - quietly saying, "I'm just trying to have you ready. Just in case, that's all."

"We understand the likelihoods, Mr Pilot. You need not dwell on it for our sake." She heard Pyrrha say, voice… Low and rough, like it usually was when she woke up. As Ruby sat up, yawning and stretching and unwrapping her cloak from around herself, Pyrrha turned to her and said, "Good morning, Ruby."

"Yep." She nodded, turning to the fire and scooting closer to it, smelling the little chicken and rice ration packs cooling beside her team leader. And the tea boiling in several cups beside the fire. Shaking off her sleepiness, she looked over at the pilot in his dirty white fatigues and asked, "How is your head?"

"Fine." He grunted, reaching up gingerly to touch the very tips of his fingers to the bandage wrapped around his head, his short brown hair matted by sweat around it. Sighing, he said, "Just glad I was wearing my helmet."

"As are we." Pyrrha smiled, using her Semblance to move the cups away from the fire and turning to sit, pulling her heavy leg-armor on while Ruby watched her. At first, she was just curious about the armor - it was so heavy, she didn't know how Pyrrha could deal with it - but then she noticed a stretch of pale thigh, and a jagged, pink scar right there, just below her skirt. Smiling without turning to her, she asked, "Yes, Ruby?"

"Oh, u-um…" She blinked and looked away from the woman's long legs and stammered out, "I-I just noticed your scar, was all."

"My scar… Ah, that one." Pyrrha finally turned to her, fingers going through the automatic motions to lace up her greaves as an eyebrow rose. "You want the story?"

"I-I was just curious was all…" Ruby muttered, tucking her knees into her chest and setting the cup Mr Pilot gave her on top of them, where she could sip at it easily.

"About my thighs…?"

"W-What? N-No!" She scoffed, flushing and stealing a moment to sip at her tea while Mr Pilot chuckled and laid down, looking up at the sky. Quietly, she stammered, "I-I was looking at your armor! I just sorta… Noticed it, was all."

"Kid," Mr Pilot sighed, "you're hopeless."

"I-I am not a kid!" Ruby pouted, "Or hopeless… I'm an optimist, in fact."

"By the Gods…"

"I got the scar when I was eleven." Pyrrha said, chuckling at the both of them as she finished lacing up her armor and rolled her legs from side to side, checking the straps and ties and fit as she always did. Satisfied, she grabbed her drink and food and handed Ruby her own food, sipping at her tea and sighing, "I was young, learning to use my Aura, and my father… Well, he was overconfident in me. Put me into a local exhibition. One of the other fighters had a scattergun and, well… A few pellets caught me, when my focus slipped. Only a moment, but a moment is enough."

"That's awful…" She could remember running into doors and walls when she was nine, and learning to handle her Semblance, but getting shot? "That sounds horrible… What did your dad do?"

"Chewed me out for 'losing my focus'." She sighed, shaking her head, "I'd rather not dwell on him."

"Okay." Ruby nodded, stealing a bite of food and mumbling, "Sorry."

"Don't be." Pyrrha smiled, bright and warm as she turned back to Ruby and shook her head. "Honestly, I am flattered by the interest."

"In more ways than one, I bet…" Pyrrha sighed and reached down, picking up a stick and pitching it at the man without even looking his way. It bounced off his chest and he sat up, glaring, "Hey! I'm injured, here!"

"Which is why I aimed for your chest." Pyrrha shrugged, "Or are your ribs broken? I suppose you'll have to be quiet if they are, hm? You would hate to aggravate them…"

"You…" He pointed at her, "Are kinda scary."

Ruby chuckled as the two bantered back and forth, eating their food as they did and getting ready for another long day of walking. Searching for their friends and searching for the way out all at once, for Mr Pilot's sake. In spite of everything, though, Ruby wasn't scared. Not for them, and not for her teammates either. Weiss was a smart cookie, and Jaune was more capable than Weiss was willing to admit, and way too considerate to let anything happen. They'd take care of each other.

She was sure of it.

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"Easy." Jaune coached her, arm around her waist as he supported her, let him lean on her with her own arm around his. She took another tentative step, felt the dim, distant pain lance up her hurt leg, but let it take her weight anyways. Jaune watched her leg as they took a few more steps before he smiled and turned, their faces nearly touching, to say, "Your leg looks great, Weiss. By this afternoon, you should be able to walk on your own."

"But only that…" She sighed, letting him set her down on a large rock a couple feet away from the entrance to their little cave.

And that's what it was, she realized. Theirs. And suddenly, the thought made her self-conscious about how dirty they'd left it. Their pseudo-blanket let crammed into a corner, and the trash from their dinner and breakfast. And with their fire still smoldering a few feet away, with the somewhat blackened kettle beside it. 'A Schnee does not make messes' her father's voice echoed in the back of her mind, quiet and cold and malignant.

She shook it off and turned as Jaune leaned against a tree a couple feet away and said, "Don't worry about it, Weiss. Honestly, I'm surprised by how fast you're healing. I expected it to take, uh, way longer than we were likely to be out here."

"Aura." She explained simply, "It does wonders."

"Yeah, it's bullshit, more like." He sighed, muttering under his breath, "A broken leg, healed in two or three days? Ridiculous…"

"Some can do it in one." She smiled, chuckling under her breath when he turned to her, head cocked to the side and eyes wide in surprise. Trailing a hand along her side, "Like I did my ribs. If you have enough Aura control, and it is your only wound, it's possible to heal in under a day. One man, able to boost his own Aura using Dust, could famously heal gunshots and mild breaks in minutes, even."

"Geez…" Jaune chuckled, "Where do I meet him? Sounds useful to know."

"He's…" She sighed, "He's dead."

"What?" Jaune blinked, "But with healing like that-"

"Such exceptional healing does not save one from a bullet to the brain, I'm afraid." She sighed, shaking her head and grimacing at the memories. Sighing, she said, "My father was… Less than kind, that day."

"He worked for him?"

"Bodyguard." She nodded, hating the memory but knowing it was better to share it than not. At least, according to her therapist. And besides, some part of her… Wanted Arc to know the story, for some reason."White Fang set a trap for my family. Killed my cousin, killed three of my father's guards, and nearly killed my father, too. Would have, were it not for then-colonel Ironwood."

"Were you…?" He reached up to touch his brow and she frowned.

"No." She sighed, getting the gist of his question and reaching up to run a finger along her scar. "No, I was at home. At lessons. Singing or fencing, I can't quite remember which. This came later."

"I'm sorry." He said before she could do much more than start to remember that day. She looked to him, blinking in confusion, and he said, "For making you remember that stuff. I… Didn't mean to."

"Oh." In spite of herself, she smiled. Shaking her head, she said, "Do not be. It's quite alright, to be curious. And I have long put to rest those memories."

"Alright…" He didn't look confident, but he nodded regardless willing to trust her on the matter and letting it go. Instead, he asked, "Will you be alright by yourself, while I go out looking for rescue again? And patrolling for Grimm, too. And bears…"

"That is quite a lot to patrol for." He shrugged and chuckled, and Weiss sighed. "I will be fine. Though I hate feeling so useless…"

"You're hurt, not useless." He grunted, pushing off the tree, "You're far from anything I'd call useless, Weiss."

She blinked. Blushed. Then ducked her head and nodded, "Thank you."

"Mhm." He didn't look, stooping to reach into the cave and fish out his sword and collapsed shield. Hanging them on his belt he straightened, rolled his shoulder until she heard it 'pop' and sighed and he turned to shoot her a little mock salute and said, "Back in a couple hours for lunch."

"Alright…"

"And if you really feel bad," he added, backing away and frowning, "you could always get a fire going, in an hour or so. Should be enough wood, and my kit is in the cave."

"Alright." She said, more firmly this time, even to her own ears. Nodding, she stood and added, "I will keep walking, too. You said it was good for the bone."

"Just take breaks." Jaune said, slipping into the trees and calling back. "Later!"

"Later!" She called after him…

And then she was alone again, and eased back onto the rock with a grimace.

Back in Atlas, she'd been alone more often than not. In her room, at the dining table when no one cared to grace the room with their presence, and in her training hall whenever her father elected to not allow her instructor to come. And after he had fired her outright, a month or so before her battle against the Arma Gigas - as much an effort to undercut her attempts to leave and become a Huntress as the Gigas itself had been. It had bothered her then, but only in a distant, sort of detached way.

So why did it bother her so much more now…?

"You're just used to being with everyone." She sighed, pushing along the wall to get to the cave and easing down outside it, cleaning up their breakfast mess and stuffing the rubbish in a little plastic bag. Quietly, she muttered to herself, "That's all. Get over it."

She couldn't - not completely.

But she did distract herself with the cleaning, at least. And then checking Myrtenaster for damages.

Gods, she missed her Scroll… She'd given anything to read some of the stories she had downloaded onto it.

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Jaune sighed, kneeling beside the river as later afternoon sun-beams came down through the trees, scattering light and warmth all around him. After another long day, hiking all across the hills and looking for any sign of help, and coming up empty, he could feel frustration building up. He knew he had to be conscious of it. Every book he'd read on survival taught him the same thing. 'Do not get frustrated, or you will make a mistake, and a mistake can be lethal'.

"Damn it." He growled, shoving his canteen into the fast-flowing water of the river in spite of everything he'd learned. The water splashed up his arm, ice cold even now from its mountain-top source, and he shivered a bit for it. Shaking his head, he sighed, "How far were we thrown? This is stupid…"

And that, at least, wasn't the frustration talking.

He should have found something by now. Even wreckage from the Bullhead. But aside from the bits around where Weiss had landed, and a tiny bit of an engine a mile east of where he was, he'd found nothing. And no sign of the others. Which meant they'd either been thrown far enough to make finding each other harder than it should have been, they'd gone the wrong way themselves, away from Weiss and Jaune, or…

Or they were-

"No." He snapped, shaking his head and cutting the thought off as he screwed the lid onto his canteen and reached for Weiss'. "Don't even think it."

He wasn't superstitious - he didn't think that saying, or thinking, the words would make them true. But the other lesson he'd learned from his books had been to focus on keeping your morale up. Avoiding defeatism was a huge part of that. So, unless he saw a bod- Unless he saw proof, they were both happy as clams, safe and sound, without so much as a hair out of place.

"And that's that." He grunted, screwing the cap back onto the canteen and standing, both of them in his hands. "Tea isn't great, but it's better than just water… And need to boil this anyways, so-"

His mutterings were cut off by a crunch and a growl, and he turned, looking over the river at the beast that had stepped to its edge. It was huge, standing up on its haunches like the bear had yesterday, covered in black fur and long white spines. Its muzzle was scarred in places, and its head encased in very near to a helmet of white, with smaller plates dotting its neck until it met pauldron-like shoulders. And, out from it, the low growl echoed a second time, furious red eyes boring into Jaune's blue ones.

"Great…" He muttered, looking to the side as an Ursa Minor joined its older Major kin, huffing lowly. "Oh there's two. Perfect!"

Together, the Grimm roared, loping forward on all fours into the river, splashing water up as Jaune abandoned the canteens and drew Crocea Mors. The Minor was almost as large as the Major was, but unarmored, and reached him first as he backed up and planted his feet. Thinking back to Weiss' lessons, he waited until just as the Grimm leapt for him, jaw open and read to take him by the throat over the rim of his shield. And then he ducked and snapped up with his shield, driving its head up as he shoved it to the side and thrust his sword up.

Straight into its throat, where the venerable blade cut through fur and flesh like a knife through butter and pitching the dying Grimm to the side.

He turned, ignoring the dying Grimm to catch the claw-swipe of the Major, and staggered back under the force of it. The monster roared as it reared up, over him, and came down on his shield. He buckled under the weight, Aura sparking all across his body as he strained to keep the Grimm up. Snarling, he threw himself to the side and the Grimm crashed down into the ground where he'd been standing, ripping up the soil where its claws caught and tore. It didn't give him the chance to recover, turning and swiping before before he could bring his shield back up and brace, and the blow sent him staggering again, shield going wide as it leapt up and came down on him.

He buried his sword in its chest as it came down on him, right in one of the spots that Port had told him would bleed the monsters out, but the beast didn't die right away. Instead it closed its jaw around his shoulder, crushing down and ripping and tearing as he screamed and his Aura flared, doing all it could to keep it away. Until, finally, the Grimm turned and swung him around, slamming him into a tree so hard he felt his ribs bruise, Aura be damned, and he collapsed on the ground at its base, sucking in air and trying to push himself up while the Grimm reared up, looming over him.

Jaune didn't have time to recover, or catch his breath, before it started to come down on him again. This time, though, he lanced up to meet it, socking it in the jaw with the rim of his shield with enough force to shatter its teeth even as its weight drove him into the tree and his Aura sparked and threatened to give. The Grimm, smart enough to recognize that or just angry enough to try for more pain, pressed him into the tree harder, roaring toothlessly in his face while Jaune pummeled its armored shoulder and less-protected neck with his shield.

And, with his free hand, got a grip on his sword and twisted it inside the beast.

The Grimm's roar died in a wet sounding snarl, caught between a gasp and a gurgle and a roar all at once, and then it tumbled to the side, smoke trailing away from it. With it dead, he sank to his knees, Aura finally shattering around him as he sucked in air and felt every inch of his body burning from exertion.

"Damn…" He gasped, dragging himself up with the help of the cracks he'd left in the bark of the tree, sucking in breath as he did. "That was… Intense…"

But he'd won…

Or so he thought before he realized, a heartbeat too late, that for how bad a wound he'd given it, he hadn't seen the Ursa Minor start to smoke. And, behind him, he heard leaves crunch and spun, shield coming around to-

Its claw-swipe was weakened by its wound, but even still it was a bear, and the claw ripped through his light armor and into his chest beneath, carving long gouges into him as he was thrown to the ground and screamed, long and loud and raw. Dying as it was, the Grimm stumbled to stand over him, sucking in haggard breaths as Jaune tried to stymie the bleeding with one hand and drag himself away with the other, weapons abandoned in his sudden panic. Its jaw opened, clearly intent on taking his throat-

Before a spear slammed into its neck, followed swiftly by Mistrali boots as Pyrrha landed, hanging horizontally on the monster as it was thrown to the side. She quickly straightened as it fell onto its side and she twisted the spear, up and into its skull, ending it as Ruby and another man ran up to his side.

"Jaune!" Ruby screamed, turning as the man knelt beside him and yanked open his pack, "Help him, before he-"

"The wound isn't deep enough to worry about that." The man cut her off, pressing a thick wad of bandages to his chest. "Too shallow - I'm more worried about predators. Gotta seal the wounds up. Get the glue from my pack, we can seal it up, and then we get out of here. Find somewhere to-"

"Cave." Jaune grunted, wincing as Ruby handed the man a little yellow tube. Pointing up, towards the mountains, he said, "I can show you. Weiss is there."

"Alright." Ruby nodded, flicking the man a look and grimacing as she turned back to him and Pyrrha joined them, content the Grimm were both dead. Quietly, she said, "This is, uh, probably gonna sting."

He snorted a laugh - 'stinging' was the least of his worries at the moment.

But hey, at least they were back together.

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"Jaune!" Pyrrha heard Weiss call as they reached the cave and, as gently as she could, Pyrrha lowered the wounded man to sit on the ground outside it. Her eyes widened, looking at the wounds, and she asked, "What happened to-"

"He fought two Ursai, ten minutes that way, by a river." Pyrrha cut her off, collapsing on the other side of the cave's mouth while Ruby paced in front of it and the pilot laid out on the grass. Exhausted, but watching Jaune closely as he rested, she said, "He more or less killed them both on his own. I simply finished the lesser one."

"On his own…?" Weiss murmured, sitting beside him and leaning over him, eyeing his wounds in spite of the reassurances the man himself muttered. "Is-Is that glue-?"

"Thank miss Thigh Highs over here." The pilot sighed, waving a hand at Pyrrha even as she scowled and Ruby turned to pout at him, tired of his day-long teasing. "She lost y'all's emergency flare-gun in the crash. So I had to make due with my own emergency kit. He should be fine, though."

"I lost nothing," Pyrrha defended quietly, "My pack was ripped open when your ship exploded around us."

The pilot only shrugged and, hopeful, Ruby asked, "But he will be fine, right…?"

"Sure." Mr Pilot answered, "Gonna have some wicked scars, though. And a hell of a story, judging from the Princess' splinted leg."

"What-" Pyrrha turned and, true enough, Weiss' leg was in a splint. Though it looked mostly healed, she couldn't help but ask, "Weiss, are you-"

"I am quite fine." She cut Pyrrha off, standing and limping over to the cave before crawling in. "Come on, now. We need to wash the blood that remains on his chest off, and get it properly bandaged. Do any of you have any wash cloths?"

"No." Ruby answered, "I, uh, didn't think to pack any… I'm sorry."

"Don't be, you couldn't have known." Weiss sighed, pitching a little pack of bandages out for Ruby to fumble and catch. "I have a spare skirt in my pack, just give me a moment."

Pyrrha noted just how expensive one of Weiss' skirts were. But she didn't mention it, flicking Jaune a look and frowning. She hadn't packed spare clothes for such a short trip either, and knew Ruby hadn't - she'd gone over her own pack a half dozen times with the Mistrali woman before she was satisfied with it. So she sat, quiet as the grave, and watched Weiss come back to sit and rip her skirt up into long lengths of at least clean cloth, one of which she poured water from a canteen onto so she could use it to clean the man up while Jaune pouted.

"Weiss, you don't have to-"

"Shut up and rest, you idiot." Weiss cut him off, too focused on her work, apparently, to think about her words. "You took care of me, so now it's my turn. A Schnee always pays her debts. You understand me?"

"Sure…"

"Good." Pyrrha smiled, watching Weiss nod and continue with her work.

Content for now, Pyrrha settled in to get her own rest and said, "Come morning, we make for the emergency zone. Mr Pilot, you can guide us. Right?"

"Yep." He nodded, "Global Positioning System is about all I have that survived the crash."

"Good." She nodded, closing her eyes.

Until Jaune finally asked, "Are you seriously calling the pilot 'Mr Pilot'? You could have asked his- Ow, Weiss! Careful!"

"Sorry." The Schnee sighed, "But I agree. Why haven't you asked his name yet? Surely you've been traveling together…"

Pyrrha just groaned while Ruby and the Pilot both laughed, until the man hissed and pressed a hand against his head, "Ow, okay, laughing bad…"

"Karma~" Ruby sing-songed, earning a little laugh from Pyrrha while the Pilot grumbled under his breath.

All was well that ended… Well, not well, per se, but with all of them alive, she supposed.

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Dino Guy :

Yup! Progress all around, hehe…

Haldracc :

They actually, unironically, were. Lmao. All they had to deal with was a man with all the snark of a man who exists as a pun.

A Shifty Sort :

Glad you like it!

However, nothing is coming BETWEEN Ren and Nora. You shall see soon enough~ As for Pyrrha, she's always a challenge, but mostly because she's almost completely flawless. How do you write the Invincible Girl? Lmao. All I can do is my best with her.

Geralt Res :

She got lucky in the respect to her bag being nearby, in spite of her not wearing it. But that luck only went so far, given the bear and her leg, lol. And yes, you got a Pyr and Ruby perspective. XD

Lea Rosenwulf :

Shush! XD