Chapter Text
Ruby marched through the mud as the heavy rain battered against her armor. She sees her breath appear through her helmet as the rain continues to drop the temperature around her. The army around her pays it no mind as they all continue to march to the sounds of prayers coming from the priest around them. The songs they sing are in a language she does not understand as she is not from the same land as the army that marches. But adopted into it by the marriage of her wife that she now misses as she continues to march. The language sung around her reminds her of her wife that would sing in the same tongue in their home as they lay on the couch laying her head on her wife's swollen belly while the white hair woman run her fingers through her short hair. She misses it. Misses the sound of her wife's voice. Her touch. Her kisses. So she continues to march knowing that she will fight for what lays behind her. The family she was forced to leave behind but for a cause that will save not only her family but the land that adopted her. She pushes through the exhaustion and the pain in her legs as the heavy rain weighs her down.
The steel armor that covers her sinks her feet into the mud after each step but she continues to march. Her heavy scythe attached with a magnetic clamp clanks against her armor on her back. She looks to her left side to see a man that towers over most of the men and women around them. His massive frame covered in the same steel armor as her but more bulky to his size with his massive axe on his back. To her right side marched a woman much taller that her with a spear on her back and a shield on her arm. Nikos was her name if she remembered correctly. From a family of warriors like herself who now marches to an unknown battle with an uncertain outcome. How ironic she thinks. The armor around the Nikos woman was much like her own fitted to her more feminine figure but still layered in heavy steel. She returns her gaze back to what lays ahead of her. The line of silver steel that marches through the mountain pass. The flags of her wife's homeland lay at the front of the army along with the white hair figure of her sister in law. She can see Winter ride on her horse leading the army not bothered by the rain that drenches her clothes under her armor or the hair that clings to her face.
Ruby smiled as memories of her wife and sister in law would celebrate her first birthday in Atlas. Times when peace was around them and their family was whole. Now they both march together for the ones they left behind. For Winter it is her homeland that she was born and raised in, friends that she grew with, family that she loves, all that she knows lays behind them. Threaten by the enemy that lies ahead of them that wants to destroy it all and burn her home to the ground. So she marches through the rain, the mud, the cold that seeps into her bones to fight for her homeland. For Ruby its her wife. Her unborn child. The family she started and would do anything to protect. To ensure that her child will have a future were they can choose who they want to be and what they want to do with their life. A choice in life that was denied to her and her wife at first but fought to achieve what they have now.
She feels her marriage ring on her chest. The cold metal laying on her skin but it doesn't bother her as the significance of the ring comforts her for the coming battle that will come. The songs sung around her blend with the noise of the rain drifting her mind to times of her wife. Walking into the kitchen of their home finding a slim woman standing by a stove in a white dress making some food she can not see. Her long white hair lay untied with the bottom reaching her legs. Her porcelain skin shines with the sun hitting anything that isn't covered. As her wife tilts her head to her direction deep blue eyes bore into her own silver. A small smile spreads across her wife's face. A smile that Ruby cherishes and loves. A smile that she knows only her presence can bring to her wife. "Guten morgen meine liebe" she can her from her wife's voice. A voice she continues to deeply miss. She moves up to her wife hugging her from behind as she continues to cook resting her hands on the swollen stomach. "They been missing you my love. They finally calm down with your touch" she hears. The thought brings a smile on her face as she marches through. My baby. My child. With the woman I fell and come to love she murmurs in her thoughts as the image fades and returns to the present.
So she continues to march following those around her as they follow her sister in law to a battle with an unknown future. She continues to march through the heavy rain that batters her armor of steel. She continues to march as her heavy armor weigh her down into the mud that sinks her deeper into the ground as the rain continues to fall. She continues to the sounds of priest singing in the native tongue of her wife. She continues to march to a war to protect the family she had to leave behind a family she deeply misses. "Il be home soon Weiss" she whispers.