It had been about a week since Weiss had managed to convince Ruby to take back the position of team RWBY's leader and things had returned to normal. With the team's original leader now back in place, there were no more fights between the team's members and they were working a lot better together again. Both Blake and Yang had been very happy to hear that Ruby was going to be their leader once again, as they felt the younger girl was honestly the best person for the job.
However, even if her teammates were happy, Ruby herself wasn't. She was once again carrying the burden of being a team leader along with all of her other problems. Some of the other students had even started making rumors about how the scythe-wielder had become team leader again. Some said that she had threatened Weiss, while others claimed that she had bribed Ozpin into letting her be a team leader again. Whatever nasty rumors were going on about her, Ruby didn't care. She had become too used to hearing such things being said about her that she simply couldn't get worked up about them anymore.
Right now, the young team leader was heading towards her team's dorm on her own. She didn't know where her teammates were, but she assumed that they must have gone to Vale without their youngest teammate once again. If Ruby were to guess, Yang probably found a new club again and wanted to show it to her more "mature" teammates.
Despite disliking being left behind like this, the redhead couldn't get worked up about it. Much like a lot of other things she had to deal with, she had gotten used to it, even if it was painful. Not to mention, Ruby knew she was already greatly disliked by a lot of the other students in the school, so she would rather avoid getting on the bad side of her own team as well.
As she was walking, Ruby suddenly noticed a familiar person ahead. It was Jaune, who seemed to be looking for something or someone. Knowing that her fellow team leader quite often needed help, the redhead decided to walk up to the blonde boy and see what was going on with him.
"Hi Jaune," Ruby greeted the blonde knight. "Did you lose something? You look like you're searching for something."
"Well, it's not exactly like that," Jaune answered. "I'm just looking for my teammates. After the classes ended, I lost sight of them and haven't seen them anywhere. Have you seen any of my teammates?"
"I'm afraid I haven't. In fact, I haven't even seen my teammates for some time now either," the scythe-wielder explained. "I'm pretty sure that Pyrrha and the others are here somewhere. You just need to go someplace where they can often be found."
"That's kind of the problem, actually. I've already looked around all the places I could think of and haven't found anything. I've even tried calling them on their Scrolls, but they're not answering," the blonde boy said. "And to make things even more strange, the only people I've seen are team leaders, like us. It's almost like every student here that wasn't the leader of a team suddenly disappeared."
"That is strange..." Ruby said thoughtfully, wondering what could have caused such a thing to happen. "I can somewhat understand not seeing my teammates around, but not seeing the teammates of any other leader? Now that I cannot explain at all."
"Do you think we should look for one of the professors? Maybe they know what's going on."
"I'm not sure. While this is certainly odd, I don't think we should be getting worried yet. I'm sure that if we wait in our dorms, our teammates will most likely return soon."
"I guess you're right. I'm still going to look around a bit, though. Maybe I can find them somewhere."
"Alright. Good luck on your search."
The two team leaders went their separate paths with Ruby heading to her team's dorm, while Jaune went to look around for his missing team. The blonde boy decided to head towards the library, thinking that he might find one of his teammates there this time.
However, the knight didn't make it far, until something tackled him to the ground. Once he had managed to get over the shock from the sudden impact, Jaune found out that the thing that had hit him and was now latched onto him was none other than Nora, who seemed to be crying.
Before the team leader managed to ask what had gotten his ginger teammate so upset, he heard two more people rushing towards him. He looked up and saw the rest of his teammates heading towards him, looking very upset as well. While Ren managed to simply look saddened, Pyrrha actually tears running down her face.
"Jaune... we need to talk," the amazon managed to say while holding back her tears.
Meanwhile, Ruby was close to reaching her team's dorm, completely unaware of what was going on with her fellow team leader. She reached the door and began to pull out her Scroll in order to open the lock, when she heard someone running towards her. The young team leader barely managed to turn around, before a familiar blonde figure had crashed into her, swooping her up from the ground into a tight bearhug.
After she managed to clear her head from the daze that came from the sudden collision, Ruby realized that Yang was acting rather strangely. Not only had there been no overly-happy greeting from her elder sister before she had been pulled into the hug, but the hug itself felt strange. While Yang's hugs often felt friendly and playful, this felt more desperate, like the brawler was afraid of letting go of her little sister. To make things even more odd, Yang had her face pressed against Ruby's shoulder, and judging from the wet feeling that came to that area, the redhead realized that her sister was crying.
"Yang? Is something wrong?" Ruby asked, wondering what might have happened to her sister to make her act like this.
"Something wrong? SOMETHING WRONG!?" Yang repeated with the volume of her voice increasing. She pulled her face away from her sister's shoulder in order to stare Ruby in the eyes, showing the younger girl her tear-covered face. "How about YOU tell me if something's wrong!? You've been going through such horrible things, yet you never said anything to me! Do you have any idea how that feels!? Why didn't you say anything!?"
Ruby was too taken aback by how her sister was acting to muster up any kind of a response to her question. Not only that, but she didn't know what the blonde was actually talking about even.
While the young team leader was trying to make sense of what was going on, she felt a hand place itself on her shoulder. Ruby looked behind her and saw Blake standing there, staring at her with a sad look on her face.
"Ruby, I can understand that it can be hard to talk to us about your problems, especially when we have been a part of them, but you should know that we are here to help you," the cat faunus said. "It might not seem like that, but we consider you our friend and we will always support you. So why don't you lighten some of your burdens by relying on us?"
"W-What are you two talking about?" the young team leader asked as she kept looking at her two teammates in confusion.
"Ruby, I... told them everything," Weiss suddenly said, making her presence known to her partner. The heiress had a bit of an ashamed look on her face, as she walked up to her teammates. "Not just about what it's like to be a leader, but also about all the things you have to go through. Not to mention, the things we have been putting you through."
"You did what?" Ruby asked while staring at her partner with wide eyes.
"She told us about all the burdens you have to go through as a team leader, along with how hard it can be with you," Blake explained. "She didn't just tell about it to us, but to all the students here that aren't team leaders. For the past week, Weiss had been organizing an event where she was going to tell all of Beacon's students that weren't team leaders about the burdens people in your position have to face."
"She told us how we were taking our team leaders for granted and how we should be thankful for you all! She also told us about how unfairly you were being treated by everyone around you!" Yang said while still crying and holding onto her little sister for dear life. "Why didn't you ever say anything, Rubes!? If I had known, I could have helped out! I could have done something for you, instead of just making things worse! I could have... I COULD HAVE AVOIDED BEING A FAILURE AS A BIG SISTER!"
While Ruby was doing her best to comfort her sister and telling her that she wasn't a "failure", Weiss decided to go to her partner and hug her as well. Upon getting such affection from the heiress, Ruby turned to look at Weiss with a surprised look on her face.
"Ruby, I'm truly sorry about everything you have to go through, but I still want you to remain as our team leader. We need you far more than you know," Weiss said. "However, that doesn't mean things can go on the way they had been until now. You've taken up way too much on yourself. Far more than a single person should carry."
"W-What are you saying?" Ruby asked, wondering just what her partner was talking about.
"What I'm saying is that from now on you have to share some of your burdens with us," the white-haired girl answered. "I know that we can't truly take the pain away or lighten the weight you're under all that much, but we can still support you. Whenever you feel like you're breaking down or need someone there for you, I want you to come to one of us. As of this moment, we will always be there to help you, comfort you and show you that you're not alone. We are your team, Ruby, and we will always be there for you to help you, no matter what."
Ruby's eyes were as wide as possible from Weiss' declaration. She looked at both Blake and Yang, who gave her looks that told her they were completely serious. The young team leader's teammates would help her carry her burdens from now on.
It didn't take long until Ruby broke down crying, but not from sadness. This time her tears came from relief, as she no longer felt alone with her burdens anymore. The redhead felt truly loved, as she was being hugged by her whole team, who wanted to show how much their youngest member meant for them.
Meanwhile, the members of team RWBY were being watched by two pairs of eyes, as Ozpin and Glynda were hiding behind a corner. The two professors had been interested in seeing how team RWBY was doing after everything that happened and were quite pleased with what they had seen.
"I suppose we don't need to worry about those four anymore," Glynda said while looking at the scene of a crying Ruby being hugged by her team.
"I think that is safe to assume," Ozpin replied as he took a sip from his cup of coffee.
"...You knew something like this would happen, didn't you?" the blonde woman asked suddenly. "This is why you let Ms. Schnee switch to being the team leader."
"I might have had a bit of an expectation, but things went far better than I had imagined," the headmaster answered. "For example, I had no idea that Ms. Schnee would go and organize an entire event in order to tell the students about the burdens of leadership. Not that I was ever against it, of course. I think it was for the best to let all the students know just what being a team leader is really about."
"So all is well that ends well then?"
"Indeed. While I can't speak for all of our teams, I think it's certain that at the very least team RWBY is going to be better from this whole experience."
Ozpin's words were indeed true. While it may have been a rough road, the members of team RWBY had become much closer from all of this. The four girls were now much stronger as a team and friends.