The New Rose

Chapter 28: Overcoming the Past

Ruby's scroll rang its alarm, eliciting a groan as she pressed a button to cease the ringing that pounded her ears and slowly stood upright in her hotel bed and rubbed her eyes. While her 2 hour nap worked wonders in getting rid of her soreness, it still left her with a feeling of nausea and a headache.

"Damn it… I really need my 8 hours." She groaned as she weakly pushed the covers off her and headed for her bathroom. Even if she felt dizzy, a little antacid and headache pill coupled with a hot shower would be all she needed to wake up fully. Despite her irritations, she couldn't help but feel a little excited for the party tonight with Cana, Erza, Jenny, and Mira. The way they praised it made it seem like the nightclub they went to a month ago feel more like a kids birthday party. What really sold Ruby was the food being raved about by Cana. Her stomach was rumbling, she honestly didn't eat much since camping in the sector 5 quadrant. Cana always showed her and the girls the best restaurants in Atlas so Ruby knew she could be trusted to pick a nice meal.

"Fuck, anything's better than trail mix right now." Ruby sighed in the shower, letting the hot water alleviate the discomfort in her to a degree. It wasn't just the mix that tasted like chalk that brought down her mood; it was that whole experience back at sector 5 and vale. She really trusted her team to act professional for their first mission and look what happened.

Yang disrespected Oobleck, they all disobeyed her orders, and worst they made the White Fang accelerate their terrorist attack. As Signal pointed out, it could have all been prevented had WBY just listen to her. So many people died today, yes terrorists but that was still a lot of people they could have interrogated for Intel. Now that Intel was lost because WBY didn't trust her to lead them. She felt it was a bit sweet to hear them care about her safety, but that showed they completely lacked faith in her abilities, just as she shouldn't have had faith in them to do their jobs right. Now Ruby was going to have to talk with Blake and drag her into this investigation, but a dark thought was creeping into Ruby's head as she got out of the shower and did her hair.

"Can Blake even keep her mouth shut?" She thought bitterly.

While Blake was certainly no stranger to secrets, something Ruby clearly fired back at the cat emo when confronting her back at Beacon for talking smack about her, Ruby knew she was closer to Yang and Weiss than her by a long shot. She didn't put it past her to share with those 2 things Ruby didn't know.

After all, she certainly was more than willing to gang up on her with those 2 than stick up for Ruby, another in the long list of things irritated Ruby about her. Despite this, Ruby couldn't find it in her to want anything bad happening to Blake, she felt imprisonment from Atlas was a risk to getting her help, despite the generals promise, and was honestly grateful Litchi and Sindel spared her team that fate when chewing them out for their recklessness. The thought of those 3 rotting in a cell wearing the same orange suits as Cinder and the others brought shivers to Ruby's spine.

"Thank God I have the best bosses in the world." Ruby silently said as she let the warm water ease her aching muscles and headache.

As Ruby got out of the bathroom to get changed, she checked her scroll for new messages and saw only 1 this time, from her Uncle Tai. Ruby felt a pit in her gut as she had a feeling he was going to bombard her again with demands to quit her job and go back to Beacon. She rolled her eyes in annoyance and sighed.

Her Uncle's overprotectiveness reminded her of Yang's, hell it wasn't just looks the two Xiao Long's had in common it was their nosy attitudes. She honestly feared if she ignored his message again, he would keep blasting her scroll and annoying her tonight with constant calls and buzzing.

"Lets just get this crap over with already, then I can get on with my night and my life." She bitterly groaned as she reluctantly opened the message, only for her eyes to widen a bit before tearing up at something she never expected to read from him.