#-program. it has me wrapped around its finger. for the continent shapes i just turned off the stabilizer n let my hand be shaky as fuck ✌

[spotsupstuff]

What did you use to make your map?

-pained- google images and Paint Tool SAI

lookit the shit

[sneezehq]

Reunite

Two familiar faces make an appearance in Mistral. Part of my ‘Eye for an Eye’ series.

If what Qrow told them yesterday about the maidens, relics, and magic was hard to believe, everything that Oscar—sorry, Professor Ozpin—explains to them is almost impossible to take seriously. But once again, Qrow shows no sign that he's joking. And there are too many things that Oscar knows that can't be explained away by this being some sort of elaborate prank.

Jaune, Nora, and Ren express similar opinions of surprise and disbelief. It's a lot of information to take in in just two days.

Oscar—Professor Ozpin—starts talking about the steps that they'll need to take in order to be ready to fight Salem. Step one is to recruit more Huntsmen and Huntresses to their cause. Qrow claims to have it covered through his connections.

"And step two," Professor Ozpin announces. "Will be getting the four of you into fighting shape."

There's a moment of awkward silence following his declaration. Finally, Nora pipes up. "But we already know how to fight," she points out. "We just crossed an entire continent, fighting monsters all the way."

Faster than any of them can blink, Oscar's body lunges forward, his cane coming to rest just short of the redhead's throat. "I'm afraid you all have a long way to go before you're ready to pose any real threat to Salem and her forces."

Nora scowls. "He's right," Ruby says. "I've never been very good at fighting without a weapon, and I've got a lot of adjusting to do." She brushes her hair away from her face to reveal her scar to illustrate her point.

Professor Ozpin nods, frowning. "I see. Well, I suggest that you children get some rest. Your training will start bright and early tomorrow morning. And Miss Rose, I have some past experience that you might find useful."

Ruby nods. "Wait," Jaune says. "If Ruby's uncle is going to be out recruiting Huntsmen, who's going to train us?"

Professor Ozpin smirks. "Well." He pauses to do a rather impressive flip onto one of the chairs. "I believe I was the headmaster of Beacon Academy. Oscar will need to practice as well. He'll inherit my muscle memory in time, but he'll still need to strengthen both his body and his aura." His smile widens at their shocked faces. "I'll see you in the morning, students."

Oscar, unprepared to be shoved back in control, wobbles in his unsteady perch on the chair, before crashing to the ground. Ruby rushes over to his side. "Are you okay?"

"You've got to be kidding me," he groans. Ruby helps him to his feet.

Yeah, that just about sums it up.

And so, their training begins.

The six of them quickly fall into a routine. Every morning, Qrow heads out to meet with his Huntsmen contacts, while the four of them plus Oscar train in the yard and the dojo.

Training is . . . difficult, to say the least. Ruby spends most of her time getting thrown in the dirt, and ends each day bruised and exhausted. At least when they practice with their weapons she can rely on muscle memory, but hand-to-hand is a different story. Fighting without a weapon had always been something that she struggled with, and her new lack of sight on her left side makes everything much more difficult.

But even as she struggles, Ruby is immensely grateful to be fighting again at all. Maybe it's silly, but ever since she'd woken up with a scar where her eye should be, a small part of her had been terrified that her life as a huntress was over. It feels good to be back in action, even as Jaune knocks her to the ground for the fifth time in a row.

"You okay, Ruby?" Jaune asks, offering a hand to help her back to her feet.

She nods and tries to catch her breath. "I'm good. Let's try that again."

Jaune frowns at her. "Are you sure? Maybe you should take a break, let someone else give it a try."

"I'm fine, really," Ruby insists. Even if sitting down for a few minutes sound fantastic, she needs to keep practicing. She needs to get stronger.

Oscar turns around to face them, his green eyes glowing faintly. "Miss Rose, you're not going to improve by continuing to strain yourself when you're already tired. Rest for a few minutes and try it again when you're fresh."

Ruby grumbles, but decides not to keep arguing. Jaune pats her on the shoulder as she makes her way over to the bench. She blinks, suddenly feeling less exhausted and sore.

It takes far longer than she would like, but as they continue to train, Ruby can tell that she's making some progress. Ozpin advises her on how to use her other senses to make up for her blind spots and issues with depth perception. He also teaches her how to extend her aura and use it to get a sense for her surroundings. When she's not fighting, she spends a lot of time meditating with Jaune and Oscar, trying to strengthen her aura and expand its reach.

Even as her hand-to-hand skills improve, Ruby knows that she needs to work on her ranged fighting. Her sniping abilities were affected when she lost her eye, and Ruby isn't sure if she'll ever be able to fully regain what she's lost. She even debates making some adjustments to Crescent Rose—she'd definitely be able to find the parts here in Mistral—but she can't quite bring herself to do it. It would feel too much like giving up. Plus, she tells herself, it's much easier to relearn how to fight without making changes to her weapon.

So instead, she practices her targeting and accuracy until the neighbors complain and her fingers bleed. Maybe she should start wearing gloves.

Oscar seems just as determined as she is to improve his fighting skills, and often they're the last two left practicing after everyone else calls it quits for the day. Their conversation from the other night still echoes in her head. "You've lost so much already," he'd pointed out. "How are you okay with all of this?"

She hadn't said it then, but if she's being honest, she's not okay with any of this. But whether or not she's okay with it isn't going to change the fact that it's happening, so she might as well just buckle down and deal with it.

Ruby still has nightmares about Tyrian most nights, but the benefit of Ozpin's aggressive training program is that most days she's too exhausted to let her dreams keep her from sleeping. She's thought about talking to Qrow about it, but he's been so busy lately, she doesn't want to bother him.

The days pass in a blur, and soon three weeks have passed since they visited Haven Academy. Qrow has been growing frustrated with the local Huntsmen. He'd started his search on the outskirts of the city, where the council held less influence, but after a couple weeks of nothing but dead ends he'd been forced to start searching within the city.

Which is why Ruby finds herself in the kitchen helping Ren, Jaune, and Nora make dinner. Qrow had left to meet with a bunch of his contacts in the city this morning, so the four of them had decided to prepare a big dinner for when he returned with their new allies in tow. Jaune is setting the table while Nora chops (and eats) the vegetables. Ruby and Ren are manning the stove.

She's scowling at Ren, who's claiming that she's going to overcook the food (for such a quiet guy, he's so bossy when it comes to cooking), when she hears her uncle's voice. "I'm back."

"Be right there!" she calls back, before getting distracted by a large plume of smoke from the noodles she's supposed to be watching. That's not good.

"Ruby," her uncle calls again, sounding impatient. She decides to leave dinner in Ren's hands.

"I'm coming!" she says, grabbing a tray loaded with a teapot and cups and making her way out of the kitchen and into the living room. She wonders how many people Qrow has convinced to help them. Hopefully enough for them to go after the Spring maiden. What are they like? What kind of weapons will they have?

She focuses on the tray as she walks, not wanting to drop it and make a mess when they have guests. "So, we didn't know how many people were coming, so we just cooked all of it." Ruby glances up to look at Qrow and the new arrivals. Her mouth drops open.

The tray slides from her hands. The teapot and cups shatter on the floor. Ruby doesn't even notice.

Whoever she was expecting Qrow to bring with him, it wasn't Yang or Weiss.

For a long moment, the three of them just stare at each other. Finally, Yang takes a few steps forward.

Ruby flinches back, racked with the guilt that she's been suppressing for months. She braces herself to be yelled at. Yang is probably furious, and she has every right to be. Ruby had left her sister when she'd needed her most. No amount of apologies can fix that.

"Yang, I'm so sorry! I should have stayed, and I should have talked to you more, I just wasn't sure if you wanted me around and—" Her vision blurs with tears as she tries to find the right words.

She freezes when she feels strong arms around her. Yang is—hugging her? "I love you," her sister murmurs, pulling Ruby closer to her.

Ruby hugs Yang back tightly and lets out a small sob. She's dizzy with relief. Her sister isn't yelling at her. She doesn't hate her for leaving. "I love you too," she manages to squeak out. The tight knot of guilt and worry in her chest finally starts to ease a little.

Across from them, Weiss sniffles loudly, and Yang and Ruby gesture for her to join them. They stand there for a couple minutes, arms wrapped around each other, relieved to be together again. It's almost perfect.

Ruby wishes Blake was here.

"You look different," Weiss comments when they finally let go, ignoring everyone watching them.

Ruby stiffens. Is she talking about—

"Yeah, I'm digging the new outfit, sis," Yang says, elbowing her playfully in the side.

Ruby laughs to hide her relieved sigh. "You too!"

Dinner that night is rowdy. The six of them talk over each other as they attempt to share stories from their travels. There's a lot to catch up about.

"Its arm is a tree! Its arm is a tree!" Nora cries, mimicking Jaune's shouts of horror. "And then Ruby used her super speed and zoomed in so we could attack it together! She was totally awesome!"

"Who, me? Did you see Jaune in that fight? He didn't even have a weapon and he still helped us take that giant Grimm down like it was nothing!"

"Oh, please, I couldn't have done anything if Ren hadn't figured out it's weak point."

The six friends grin at each other as Weiss talks about the charity event she disrupted and Yang shows off her new arm. Before they know it, Nora is challenging her to an arm-wrestling contest and they're all cheering their respective teammates on.

Ruby doesn't mean to keep what happened to her a secret, especially not from Yang and Weiss, but right now feels like the wrong time to bring it up. They're having a good time, just happy to be reunited again. The last thing she wants to do is bring everyone down. She'll tell them later, when it's a better time.

"How is it possible for six kids to make so much noise eating dinner?" Qrow complains. Oscar is standing next to him in the doorway.

They all look up sheepishly. Ozpin clears his throat. "I think we need to have a talk."

The sun isn't even up yet when Ruby decides to get up the next morning. Despite the tense conversation last night, she's just excited to have her sister and her partner back. When it becomes obvious that she's not going to be able to fall back asleep, she decides to go to the training grounds to meditate.

It's still early when she's joined by Weiss and Yang. Apparently everyone is having a hard time sleeping. They sip their coffee and chat as the sun rises. Ruby sighs. It's so nice to have team RWBY back together again.

Well, almost.

The moment she mentions Blake, she wishes that she'd just kept her mouth shut. It's obvious that Yang is still hurt by her leaving—but she isn't the only one hurting. And if Ruby is being honest with herself, she's getting tired of being yelled at when she's just trying to help.

But that's a selfish thought, so she shakes her head and forces it to the back of her mind. She sits up and lets out a long sigh that blows her hair out of her face, bracing herself to go and try to talk to her sister again.

Weiss gets there first. "Is everything okay?" Ruby asks, carefully poking her head in to see the two of them sitting on Yang's bed.

"We're good," Yang replies, sounding much calmer. Ruby lets out a sigh of relief.

It's quiet for a moment, and Ruby studies the floorboards, trying to plan for training now that they have two extra people. When she looks up again, Yang and Weiss are staring at her in shock. "What's wrong?"

"Ruby," Yang says, her voice trailing off.

"What happened to you?" Weiss asks.

Too late, Ruby realizes that they're staring at the left side of her face. Oh. Well, this wasn't exactly how she wanted them to find out. She forces herself to smile and arranges her bangs so that they're covering her eye again. "That's a bit of a long story. Why don't we talk about it over breakfast?"