She was running. Running after the familiar red cloak that she knew so well. Running after her partner, not wanting to leave her alone.

"Ruby…!" she cried, trying her best to keep up with her. Trying to gab the cloak, but it kept slipping from her fingers.

Her partner was going somewhere far away without her.

"Ruby!" she cried again, scared of how much distance is between them now and used her glyphs to try to catch up.

It was no use, by the time the she reached Ruby, she was on the floor, heavily injured…

"Ruby!" Weiss gasped as she shot up and looked around, thanking the gods that she didn't wake anyone up and got up to wash her face in the bathroom, letting out a quiet laugh at how pathetic she looked in the mirror.

Quickly changing her clothes, she grabbed her weapon and snuck out of the Cotta-Arc house. She felt bad for sneaking away in the middle of the night, but she couldn't help it. They were so close to Atlas, she couldn't calm down at all. Not only that, that nightmare scared her and she started thinking back at their past battles. Battles where she was incompetent and brought down the team. It wasn't said, but that was how she felt, especially after the battle in Haven.

Gripping onto Myrtenaster, she walked towards an isolated area, not wanting to be too far away from the house but far enough where she could train in peace and not disturb anyone around.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and focused on her summons. She thought about which ones to summon, to practice against and summoned her usual knight. Gripping her weapon tightly, she pushed herself to summon a Queen lancer as well.

As soon as she did that, she felt drained and gritted her teeth. If two summons drained her this much, she'll just be a liability to her team and she didn't want that. She wanted to become stronger to help Ruby, not give her more to worry about.

She stood straight and looked at both of her summons, concentrating to make them fight each other to see how much energy it would drain her before she began to test her limits.

Since when has she become so weak? Was it because she didn't practice when she was back at Atlas? No… even before then, she was weak.

Weiss closed her eyes, thinking back on all the times she failed. Counting all of her mistakes starting from the most recent memory.

She lost to Vernal during the battle in Haven because she was overconfident in her summoning abilities and forgot about her sister's words.

She couldn't control her temper back at home during the party and lost her title as the Heiress.

She gave up the last remnants of her aura and sacrificed herself to give Yang an easier time during the tournament, but still failed in doing that.

She lost to the White Fang member and had to be rescued by Blake when she promised that she'd be fine.

She lost the chance to become team leader and threw a temper tantrum at the team.

She received a scar on her face wanting to apply for Beacon and almost lost that battle.

She always lost during her training sessions with Winter, always promising that she'd become better but has yet to.

She was born into the Schnee family.

The ex-heiress laughed at herself as she shook her head, looking up to see both her summons were gone and that she was exhausted, unable to stand on her own.

Gripping Myrtenaster again, she forced herself to stand up straight and closed her eyes, attempting to summon a knight again but jumped when she felt a hand onto her shoulder.

"S-Sorry, Weiss!" a familiar voice apologized to her.

"Ruby…? What on Remnant are you doing here this late?! You should be asleep! Resting!" Weiss scolded her, knowing that she should be taking her own advice.

"I couldn't sleep." Ruby frowned as she looked at her partner. "I heard you call for me... but you were gone and I was worried." She took a step closer to her. "I told you that we wouldn't leave your side for a second, didn't I?"

Weiss frowned and looked away from her, putting her weapon away and held onto her arm. "I…" she sighed, feeling more exhausted than she did earlier. Now here she was doing the one thing that she didn't want to do. Worry her best friend and partner.

The young leader gently took her partner's hands and guided her towards the bench, helping her sit down and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

Unconsciously, Weiss rested her head onto the other's shoulder, feeling a bit better now but was still angry at herself for making Ruby come and seek her out like this. "…I'm sorry."

"For?" Ruby raised a brow.

"For worrying you." Weiss said simply as she closed her eyes.

Ruby frowned and reached for Weiss' hand, holding onto it. "…You can talk to me you know."

"Speak for yourself." The ex-heiress laughed dryly. "You have a lot on your mind… let me deal with this on my own."

"Then I'll deal with what I'm thinking about on my own."

"Ruby…" Weiss sighed as she sat up, never letting go of her partner's hand. "Really, it's… nothing."

"Is it?"

Who were they kidding, they were both bad at hiding things from each other. They just didn't know how to talk about it.

"…we're partners right?" Weiss rubbed her thumb over Ruby's hand slowly, almost scared of the answer.

"…We are…" Ruby nodded slowly.

"Then we shouldn't really be hiding anything from each other." The ex-heiress sighed deeply then looked at Ruby. "…If I'm going to be honest, you should to." She held onto her hand gently. "I'm your partner Ruby… your best friend. I want to help you with what you're going through."

Silver eyes looked into blue, both getting lost for a moment before Ruby looked away.

"I…" her hand trembled. "I'm scared Weiss. I just…" she sighed, trying to organize her thoughts. "Ever since the fall, there was so much going on. Penny and Pyrrha died. Blake ran away. Your father took you away to Atlas. Yang… I didn't recognize her because she was sad and I got scared and ran away with Jaune, Ren, and Nora to walk all the way to Mistral." Tears started to fall from her eyes. "I-I was attacked by one of Salem's men and Uncle Qrow was injured and almost died because I wasn't skilled enough to protect myself. When we finally got back together, you almost died. Now it's this whole thing with Salem and my silver eyes…" She sobbed, hastily and roughly wiping her tears away. "I'm supposed to be the team leader and keeping you all safe, but I can't even do that right. Some team leader I am."

Weiss frowned. Was this really everything she was hiding from the others? From her? Gently, she pulled her partner into her arms and combed her hair while rubbing her back. All of this on her shoulders. This wasn't fair. She's only 16. She didn't deserve this. No one asked for this.

"Ruby…" she started slowly. "It'll be ok—"

"How do you know that, Weiss? What if everything won't be ok?" Ruby pulled back, tears still flowing. "If we fail, then everything will be…"

"Ruby Rose." Weiss frowned as she placed both her hands onto her cheek so that she was looking into her eyes. "Let me finish first before you decide to shut me out again." She paused for a moment, thinking of what she was going to say earlier. "It will be ok. Do you know why? Because you're not alone." She wiped some tears away with her thumb before continuing. "You have Yang, Blake, and myself there for you. Even Jaune, Nora, Ren, Maria, Oscar… you're not alone in this Ruby. We're here to help you, so please… don't think for a second that you can do this on your own. You have friends to help you when you need it. If you can't stand, I'll be there to help you stand up and walk. If you have fallen into the darkness, then I'll just fight my way to pull you back into the light."

Ruby just stared at Weiss for a moment then tackled her into a tight hug, crying openly.

Weiss combed her hair and rubbed her back again, letting her cry it all out. Heavens know that the young leader really needed it.

Soon both young women lost track of time, unsure of how long Ruby was there crying onto Weiss' shoulder. It could've been five minutes. Ten minutes. Half an hour. An hour. Neither really cared. They both just held onto each other for comfort and warmth.

Once her tears has ran dry, Ruby slowly pulled away, wiping her face with her sleeve causing Weiss to roll her eyes and pull out a handkerchief and wiped her face for her.

"…do you feel better?" Weiss asked gently, holding onto Ruby's hand.

She nodded weakly and rested her head onto her partner's shoulder. "…your turn."

"What?"

"You said that we were partners… so we shouldn't hide anything from each other… so it's your turn now." Ruby wrapped her arm around Weiss' waist while the other still held onto her hand.

Weiss sighed, almost forgetting that she said that earlier and rested her head onto Ruby's.

"I don't even know where to begin…" she started then closed her eyes, exhaustion getting to her but maybe it'll be easier for her to talk. "I made you a promise that I'd be the best teammate that you'll ever have… but I feel like I'm just dragging the team down with my incompetence. I'm afraid of what my father would do once we reach Atlas. If what happened at the gates was any indication of what might happen, I'm worried about how Blake and Yang will be treated once we arrive in Atlas." The hand that the ex-heiress held on Ruby's started to tremble but the young leader gave her a gentle squeeze onto it to comfort her. "I'm trying to think of a way to defeat Salem, but I'm not sure how we can defeat someone who's immortal and…" she bit her lip, moving her head so that she was looking at her partner. "I'm scared… that I won't be able to protect you." She said quietly, almost above a whisper.

"Weiss…?"

"I… I had a nightmare about you… about you leaving me behind and by the time I get to you, you're dead." Her voice shook as she tried to hold back her tears. "I'm scared for you, Ruby... I came out here to train and become stronger, but I've mostly been reflecting on my past failures. Thinking back, I haven't grown at all. I'm still the weak little girl that's just a huge burden on every—"

SLAP

Weiss blinked when she felt both of Ruby's hand against her cheek, a stinging sensation finally registered that her partner just slapped both her hands onto her cheek.

"Ruby—"

"No… it's my turn to cheer you up now. So listen up, Weiss Schnee." Ruby looked at her seriously.

Weiss blinked the tears away, never hearing Ruby use her full name like that before.

"You're not a burden to anyone here, ok? We all love and care about you." She said gently, making sure that she was looking into those icy blue eyes that she cared about so much. "You haven't failed me or anyone else. You're doing your best and you never left anyone willingly. You're the best person a friend could ever ask for, Weiss. We'll worry about your Father once we arrive in Atlas… and as for Salem…" she sighed, unsure of how to really say. "We'll come up with something, but one step at a time. I really meant it when I said that we wouldn't leave your side for a second. We'll find a way to Atlas, seal the relic, then figure out what we can do with Salem."

The ex-heiress gave her a soft smile and nodded slowly, pulling Ruby into a hug.

They stayed like that for a while longer before slowly pulling away. "…we should head back before your sister kills me."

"Yeah we should." Ruby merely laughed, realizing how late it was and stood up.

Weiss also stood up but stumbled forward only for Ruby to catch her. "I guess I'm still exhausted…" she laughed at herself as she wrapped an arm around Ruby's shoulder.

"Don't worry. You're really light… like scary light. Have you been eating well?" Ruby frowned.

"Ruby, we've been together a good amount of time since we found each other in Mistral. I've been eating the same food that you have been." Weiss merely rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that you eat the same amount." Ruby started walking back towards the Cotta-Arc house.

"Well some of us doesn't have a monstrous appetite like you, Yang, and Nora!" Weiss laughed as she leaned onto her partner more, wanting to lie down in the bed now that some weight was lifted from her shoulders.

Ruby laughed at her joke and nuzzled against her head. "Feeling tired, princess?"

"Ugh… don't call me that horrible nickname again." Weiss groaned as she closed her eyes.

"Aww, so do you prefer me calling you Ice Queen?" Ruby grinned.

"How about I call you 'crater face' instead of 'dolt'?" Weiss smirked when she felt her partner's grin fall.

"…I can't believe you still remember that."

The ex-heiress merely rolled her eyes. "It's hard to forget such an… explosive meeting."

"Well I said that I was sorry!" Ruby stuck out her tongue at her partner, quietly opening the door and walked in, helping Weiss walk towards her room.

They both turned away from each other as they changed their clothes, Ruby glancing at Weiss in time to see the scar that marred her beautiful body just weeks before.

Unconsciously, she walked towards her partner and lightly touched where she was impaled, causing her to jump.

"R-Ruby?!" Weiss was surprised by the act and frowned when she looked like she was about to cry again.

"I just…" she bit her lip and moved towards the bed, sitting down. "I'm sorry, Weiss."

Shaking her head, Weiss knelt down by the bed so that she could see Ruby's face. "This was because I was overconfident in my summoning abilities and wasn't thinking about… my other skills."

She had a good number of things that she could've done. Time-dilation, holding the enemy in place, use offensive dust like fire and ice… none of them crossed her mind because she was stubborn about summoning her knight.

"So don't think that my wound is your fault, Ruby."

Ruby just nodded weakly and lay down in bed. "…Can you… lie with me?"

"Scared that I'm going to run off again?" Weiss raised a brow but she saw how scared Ruby looked at her with those silver eyes of hers. Frowning, she moved onto the bed with her and held onto her closely. "…you're lucky that I'm tired and don't want to move too far."

"You know that I love you." Ruby giggled as she snuggled up to her partner.

"I love you too—wait, Ruby?!" Weiss blushed madly but didn't get an answer, Ruby was already fast asleep. "…Dolt." She gave her a soft smile as she kissed her forehead, holding onto her protectively as she fell asleep.

Yang smirked as she folded her scroll after saving the confession and picture of them cuddled together.

"You know...she's going to hate you for this." Blake chuckled quietly.

"And it'll be worth it!" Yang closed the door as quietly as she could. "Payback for making us worried."

A/N: Ok.. it's been a really long time since I wrote stuff like this so sorry if the characters seem out of character. This takes place a little after Vol 6 episode 8. Hope that y'all enjoy it~ Please read and review~