RWBY Through Worlds

194: Damage Done

While the team was camping out, the people waiting in Vacuo and Vale were getting more anxious the longer they went without hearing from them.

Tai had remained in Vacuo, because, if they all returned, he figured it would be to Vacuo, the closest kingdom.

Zwei seemed anxious also.

Penny had tried to keep cheerful-- and Robyn to keep morale up.

Watts had many cheerful predictions about how doomed they probably were, but Robyn had him busy monitoring the Amity Arena, since without Pietro there, he was the most skilled at it. And she had him watched closely to be sure he didn't tamper with it, but now he had little reason to.

Kip was enjoying not being attacked by Grimm while he was in his home kingdom and not tailed by his mother... but also he was worried because she was still in the hospital and didn't seem to be getting that much better.

On the day Raven and Hazel appeared, there was some talk of wondering if the group had simply perished, though Robyn kept assuring everyone it had not been long enough to call it yet.

Whitley, Willow and Klein had their doubts.

Then Raven showed up, and Tai thought they were all back for a second... until he saw only two.

"Did...did everyone else--?" he began.

"No." Raven held up her hand, not in the mood for sentiment. "Everyone's alive, last we saw them. Battered, bruised, and demoralized in some cases, but alive."

"Did you find Salem?" Tai followed up.

"Not yet," Raven said. "We're camping... We're low on supplies thanks to some nasty Grimm interference. I risked coming back here to replenish."

"We can't stay gone for long," was the only remark Hazel felt he needed to make.

Tai didn't really understand Hazel that well and supposed Raven just brought him along for muscle.

"The giant here and I are just going to grab what we need and go," Raven said. "We're about 2 days out from her lair, tops, at least if we're right about where it is... Had some detours that made it take longer."

"What happened?" Tai said. "Actually, you look awful..."

"I don't want to talk about it." Raven narrowed her eyes at him. "I'd rather tell the whole story after it's over than now. Makes it seem too finished, and it's not. It's hardly begun. I didn't even want to come back, but Likstar made me because it was 'practical'. Feels wrong if you ask me, not finishing a job, but..."

"We're finishing it," Hazel pointed out. "And we're wasting time discussing it. Whoever is in charge of supplies, we need to find."

"Robyn and the Schnees are mostly in charge of those," Tai said.

"Right, we need more dust also." Raven snapped her fingers.

"But you're going to at least tell me how the girls are doing?" Tai pressed, following her as she left the area he was sitting in.

"If you want to know that badly, why didn't you come?" she replied.

"Really, from you?" Tai snorted. "You know why."

"Yes... well, I still think it's hilarious that Cinder qualified and you didn't," Raven said.

"Is she... causing trouble?" Tai was not confident of Cinder leaving Ruby alone.

"Surprisingly, not much." Raven still didn't want to talk about it.

"Cinder knows her place," Hazel said flatly. "Even if she tried to step out of it, she knows it deep down."