Welcome to Downed.
This is a small series that I'm doing. In it, we see our Team RWBY get taken down over god knows where. Yang is the only one conscious and coherent, so she has to be the one to save her team. From what, you may ask?
Everything.
This story will have two, maybe three more chapters coming. I'm skeptical about this opening, but know that over the next few chapters everything will fall into place.
Without further delay, here's Downed, A RWBY mini-series!
Enjoy!
Heat.
That's all Yang felt. Everything around her was hot. It was tough to breath. She rose, slowly and sluggishly, and only had a few seconds to look around her before the she started to remember.
"We've just lost our left engine!"
"What's going on?"
"Losing thrust, altitude dropping! We're going in hard!"
"Right engine is burning now! Shut down the lines to the fuel cell!"
"Brace yourselves!"
They crashed. She didn't know where they were, nor did she care. She needed to figure out where her team was and get the hell out of here.
But damn was it smokey in there.
She went to the left side of the Bullhead's hull and kicked the door open. A rush of air hit her, almost with enough force to knock her down. Natural light was also let in, illuminating the downed aircraft's hull more than the fire did.
Yang looked around, and saw her sister, Ruby, by the door to the cockpit, unconscious. She rushed over and slung the younger girl over her shoulders. Next she found her partner, Blake. Replicating what she did with her sister, Yang slung Blake over the opposite shoulder.
Yang looked around, trying desperately to find the last of their team: Weiss. Near the back of the aircraft, sprawled on the ground, she found the heiress.
Yang knew she didn't have long before this thing blew them to high hell, and she couldn't carry three...
"Or could I?" Yang asked herself aloud. Quickly, she set Ruby and Blake down and began to rearrange them. Throwing Ruby onto Yang's back, Yang maneuvered the smaller girl to fit nice and snug, allowing her to throw her teammates on her shoulders.
"Damn am I good? Too bad no one is awake to see this." Yang told herself.
With her team in tow, she fled from the craft. She didn't realize, however, that the Bullhead and crashed precariously on a cliff. Vines from trees had kept it from falling. After she jumped out, however, the vines gave way and the Bullhead plummeted to the earth below.
It was a very hard drop, for all.
Yang hit the ground running, but the added weight made her stumble. The crashing aircraft behind her, which erupted into flames, shortly after, didn't help.
Yang looked around. Her surroundings were very... Swamp like... The water was ankle high, if that. The trees were large, the branches spaced out. She looked to the cliff that they had crashed into and examined the entirety of it. There was nothing, just a rocky surface.
Yang sighed, but moved along. She had to find something that they could use as cover, even temporarily. She wanted to examine her team for any injuries they might have sustained.
After a moment of searching, she found a large hollowed out tree. She quickly rushed towards it. After entering, she set her teammates down, one by one. All leaning against the wall, Yang began to do a quick once over of her teammates. First, Blake. The faunus clearly had just bumped her head, as no outside injuries said otherwise.
Weiss was next. The heiress had a gash on her arm, which her aura was currently taking care of. Yang sighed, relief flooding her. The way Weiss was when Yang found her on the craft led her to believe the injury was much worse.
Finally, Yang moved to her sister. Ruby didn't appear to have any injuries on her front. When Yang attempted to move Ruby to examine her back, she got quite the surprise. Ruby began to stir in her sisters arms, rubbing her head and moaning in pain. "Ah... Wha... What hap-"
"Ruby!" Yang exclaimed! "Holy shit!" She wrapped herself around her younger sister, giving her one of the tightest bear hugs the young one ever had.
"YANG!" Ruby choked out.
"Oh! Crap, sorry."
"It's ok, really. Nice to see you too." Ruby sighed, "Now... What happened? Where are we? And... why does my head hurt?"
"Ok, sis." Yang said slowly, understanding Ruby may be concussed, "Listen carefully." Ruby nodded, "The bullhead we were in? We crashed. I don't remember how, something went wrong, but we're down. You banged you head on something, clearly. I'm checking you out to make sure you're ok?"
"Don't worry about me! Check-"
"I've already done it, sis." Yang assured, "I'll know more when they wake up. Now how are you feeling? Anything else hurt?"
"Uh, well... Aside from my head?" Ruby asked, "My leg hurts a bit... I think my left arm is numb, too. Yang, where are we?"
"Beats the hell out of me, Ruby." Yang began to examine her sister, taking her left arm. It wasn't completely void of all color, but it was pale. "How does that feel?" Yang moved her thumb around the outside of Ruby's hand.
"I can feel it... barely. Ow!" She grabbed her shoulder, clutching it so hard her knuckles turned white.
"Woah! Ok, hold on. It may be... Got it! Well Ruby, you have a dislocated shoulder." Yang said.
"Damnit, not again." This wasn't the first time it's happened. Ruby's taken her speed a little too far over the years, and every now and again will crash. She's dislocated her shoulder once or twice, maybe three other times. Taiyang taught the two how to relocate a shoulder easily. 'A few years of being a hunter and a teacher and you learn a few things', he used to say.
"One sec, ok?" Yang put both of her hands on Ruby's shoulder, to which the younger girl almost cried out in pain. Ruby began to bite on her hood, knowing of the pain that was about to come. In a moment, it happened.
The sickening sound.
Ruby's hood did nothing, as she shouted in pain anyway. Gripping her left shoulder, she curled up. Yang quickly threw her hands over her sister's mouth, silencing the screams. "Shhh," She soothed, "It's over now. Can you feel your arm?" Ruby nodded, a tear rolling down her cheek, "Good. That's good. You'll be ok."
After a few moments, Yang broke off the embrace, checking to see if anyone, or anything, heard what just happened. "Ruby!" Yang called, "I'm going to go out and... explore. I'm going to go see if I can find a more permanent resting place, ok?"
"Yeah," Ruby said, slowly, "Sounds good." She pulled out Crescent Rose and readied it, just in case. She nodded to Yang, who departed.
Yang got a better feel for her surroundings. They were definitely in a swamp, no doubt about it. The smell, the environment in general. The one thing that irked her, however, was the lack of any wildlife. There was nothing, not even Grimm. It struck her as odd, but she shrugged it off, continuing her search.
She wasn't sure what she was going to find, let alone what she was looking for, specifically. The tree was nice, just... Damp. Everything was.
She didn't know how long she had been gone; though she knew it wasnt too long. She made sure to double take every now and again to make sure she knew where she was. Last thing Yang wanted was to lose herself in this swamp with her injured teammates to fend for themselves. After a moment of searching the cliff face, Yang saw something.
A hole.
Not just any hole, a cave. She rushed to it, further examining the inside of it, it was pretty massive. She readied Ember Celica and fired a round in, watching go. It was a test to make sure the cave was clear, and to see just how far it went in. Luckily, it didn't go too far in, and hit nothing but rock wall.
"Yes!" Yang cheered, "Awesome! We can make this our home until rescue gets here." She turned and ran back to the hollow oak tree she left her team in. It was pretty easy to spot, considering all of the trees looked the same. She burst through the tree line, and found herself on the wrong end of Crescent Rose. "R-Ruby..." Yang stuttered, "Wha-"
"Oh geez!" Ruby blushed, lowering her weapon, "Sorry! I didn't know it was you! I just heard a lot of rustling and-" Yang stopped her sister from getting too flustered, rubbing her head.
"It's ok, I understand. I was just a bit shocked to look down the barrel of your gun is all." Yang assured, "Hey, I found a cave not far from here, we can make it our home until help arrives."
"Great!" Ruby said, "Hey... Speaking of help, did you ever get a chance to call Beacon? Do they even know...?"
Yang shrugged, "I never got a chance to get into contact with them. I was too worried about you all. When we get into the cave I'll call them." Ruby nodded. "I'll pick these two sleeping wonders up and carry them over. Think you can keep me covered?"
Ruby cocked and locked her weapon, "Lead the way!" Though, she did have a hard time standing. Trying, and failing, to hide it from Yang didn't work, either. "I'm fine, don't worry." She assured. Though she knew she wasn't entirely fine, she couldn't let Yang worry about her. Their teammates were hurt more than she was, they had to take priority.
Yang led the way, Ruby close behind. The young leader had stumbled a few times out of Yang's view, but managed to keep up. Yang had to make a few stops along the way. Carrying half of her team was tiring work. She noticed that Ruby was taking in short, tired breaths. It worried Yang, as they hadn't been moving for too long.
She nudged Ruby, "Hey, you ok?"
Ruby nodded, "Yeah, I think so." She assured, "I'm just a little woozy is all. I think I breathed in too much smoke at the Bullhead."
Yang accepted this, but stayed weary. Ruby didn't have too much pride, rather she didn't enjoy being a burden. Nevertheless, they moved on. "It's not too far," Yang said, "Just a couple more kilometers." She never heard Ruby respond. Turning back, she saw her sister slumped against a tree. "Ah, damnit!"
Rushing to Ruby's side, Yang set down her teammates against the same tree Ruby was against. "Ruby? Ruby! Come on! Wake up!"
"I- wha-? Oh! Hey, Yang." She said, drowsily, "Sorry, I do- I don't think I can-"
"Stop. Stay with me, ok? Try and stay awake. I'm going to take Blake and Weiss to the cave and come back to pick you up, ok? Just stay awake." She made herself very clear and spoke sternly, but Ruby could only nod incoherently. "Ok, just hold tight. I'll be back in a minute." With that, Yang left, dashing through the swamp with her teammates on her shoulders.
Leaving Ruby alone.
Her world was spinning and she was fading in and out of consciousness. Gripping Crescent Rose, she tried to stand from her position and walk, to follow her sister, who left with her teammates. Her legs, however, failed, leaving her behind.
'Why did she...? Oh, yeah... That's right...' Ruby thought slowly. She didn't know exactly what was happening, nor where she was. All she knew was that she couldn't walk, let alone stay awake. 'Maybe I should shut my eyes, just for a minute. I'll wake up good as... No, wait... Ah Yang wants me to stay awake. She'd hurt me if I went to sleep now...'
"What happened here?" Ruby wondered out loud, "Where are we?" She tried to think, to remember how they got here...
But before she could even think, she heard a noise. A splash. It jolted her awake. She turned to the swamp and saw the reverberation in the water from where the splash happened.
Heart racing, she forced herself on to her feet, and walked back slowly, her weapon still in hand. She kept an eye out, peering to the swamp. 'Where are you, Yang?'
Forcing herself to focus was hard. Ruby's vision was getting blurry with each passing moment. She wondered if the splash was just her mind playing tricks on her. She didn't want to find out. Ruby turned to the direction Yang went and tried to follow, but tripped over a root, which made her head hurt worse.
Then she heard it...
The sickening sound,
The hungry roar,
Ruby turned, and stared down the face of an old swamp dweller...
"Crokolisk..." She turned onto her back and fired at the beast, a Crokolisk was a Grimm version of a Crocodile, almost twice as long and wide, Black body with red streaks running throughout it's back. It's teeth were red as blood, and the mask it wore was white as bone. The skin itself was tough to penetrate with traditional bullets, but for Crescent Rose's high caliber, it was easy... After five or six bullets at least.
Ruby kept shooting, the beast before her now reeling from the impact of the rounds, but staying the course. After a moment, all hope seemed lost; Ruby was out of ammo and the beast was charging.
But then, a fiery blast from out of nowhere hit the crok square in the face.
Ruby turned to see a very pissed of Yang Xiao Long, eyes as red as Ruby's cloak, jump onto the Crokolisk's back. "How dare you!" She yelled as she pounded the Grimm into dust, "You think you can take my sister as your lunch?!" She grabbed the top of the crok's mouth, keeping her foot on the bottom jaw, and ripped the beast's head clean off. "I think not!"
After a moment, Yang calmed down and turned her attention to her sister, who was currently trying to tell if what just transpired happened or not. "Ruby Garnet Rose, you just can't seem to stay out of trouble, can you?"
"What can I say?" Ruby smiled, tiredly, "trouble tends to follow me."
Yang ran over, trying to help her sister up, but it was tough for Ruby to stand. It was clear that she had a concussion. Instead of leaving the younger girl to walk, Yang decided to lift her sister on her back. "The cave isn't far and I don't think you can walk on your own." She said, "Just get comfy up there." Ruby, again, nodded incoherently, and stashed away Crescent Rose.
It wasn't long before they reached the cave. Yang set Ruby down against the wall, next to Blake and Weiss, who were still out cold side by side of each other while laying on the ground. Ruby, still bouncing in and out of consciousness, looked to her sister and squinted her eyes.
"Yang?" Ruby asked, "Why is it so dark outside? It was day a minute ago?"
Yang shook her head, "We're in a cave sis, remember?" Ruby thought for a moment before rubbing her head, "Actually, don't remember. Sit here and watch them." She pointed to their still slumbering teammates, "I'm going to make a call to Beacon; see if we can get some help out here." Ruby nodded and began to watch Blake and Weiss, still clearly drowsy.
"Great," Yang mumbled to herself, pulling out her scroll, "I get two teammates who can't wake up and a team lead who's concussed. God can this get any worse?" She began to press a few keys, each one under the 'emergency' function of the scroll. After a few taps, password entries and verification codes, Yang finally made it to the Distress Beacon and pressed it. An alert popped up, informing her that the beacon was active.
She waited for a sign, anything, really. Someone to call and tell her that they had her signal. But, there was nothing. Just an empty notification that their transponder had been activated.
Yang sighed, slightly bummed. She was hoping to have someone call, or at least shoot a message, telling her help was on the way. "Rubes!" She called, "I think we're going to be staying here a while!"
"Yay!" Ruby cheered, no optimism in her voice at all.
"Yeah," Yang mumbled, "I know that feeling, sis." She looked up to the sky, and saw that it was getting darker. It struck Yang as odd, since it was still very much day time. Then, it hit her, "Storms... Great." She stood up, "Ruby! I'm going to go out and tear some trees apart, try to find something to keep us warm, ok? I won't be out too far. Yell for me if anything happens."
Ruby gave a thumbs up and continued to watch over her team. Yang headed out, trying to beat mother nature. A race against the clock would be an understatement, as Yang could hear the rumble of thunder overhead. This storm was moving fast, and was probably the reason no one could respond. No one wanted to respond, because with the storm overhead, it would just give the team a false hope of help arriving soon, or endanger a rescue team if they wanted to attempt a pickup.
Yang , again, sighed as she tore apart an oak tree. The one good thing was that she could let loose some pent up aggression. The Oak tree fell and split apart, creating big enough chunks to be used as fire wood. There was a lot too, but she didn't have an issue making a few trips.
She picked up a large bundle and dashed for the cave, realizing that it would start raining anytime now. Running in and dropping it all off, she nodded to Ruby, who returned it without saying a word. This happened two more times before the rain began. But Yang was happy with what she brought in. It was enough to last a while.
After arranging some wood around her team, she used some of her semblance to light the campfire, and sat back. Finally, after what felt like hours, she had a chance to rest.
She sat next to Ruby against the wall, who slouched over. Yang put her arm around her sister, welcoming her to a warm embrace. "Yang?" Ruby called, quietly.
"Hm?"
"What happened...?"
"I... I don't... We lost an engine, I know that much... But I don't know how." Yang replied, honestly, "You tried to ask the pilots what was up, they couldn't tell us. Then we crashed."
"Man, what a story," Ruby said drowsily, "Good ni-"
"No, no no no no no no, you can't sleep young lady." Yang said, shaking Ruby, "You can't sleep with a concussion."
"I'm not concussed, I'm just-"
"You hit your head in the bullhead."
"No, I hit my shoulder in the bullhead."
"What's two times three, then?"
Ruby looked up to her sister quizzically, "What?"
"What. Is. Two. Times. Three?" Yang replied slowly, "If you don't have a concussion then you can do simple math. So, what's two times three?"
"Six." Ruby replied easily.
"Five times three?"
"Fifteen."
"Ten times ten?"
"One hundred. Yang, I don't have a concussion."
Yang held up her index and middle finger, "How many fingers am I-?"
"Two?"
"Now?" She held up her thumb, index, and middle finger.
"Three?"
"No-"
"Yang!"
"Ok, fine!" Yang gave in, "But I'm still under the impression that you are, sis. You could barely stand out there, and aside for that little test you showed all of the signs."
"Yang," Ruby looked up to her sister, "I get it, trust me I do. But my aura has helped out and my headache is gone. I can see a little better now. Plus my aura shielded me from any damage to my head. Why do think it was my shoulder that was messed up?" Yang thought about it for a moment, "I'm fine, trust me. I'm just tired is all."
Yang sat back, then, with her free arm, took Ruby's cape and covered the girl in it. "Fine, but I'm not letting you go easy. I'll check up on you every now and again." She gave in. It was a dangerous game she was playing, but if Ruby did feel better, then she should be fine. Ruby flipped up her hood and fell asleep in her sisters embrace.
Once again, Yang sighed. She looked at the fire, then outside of the cave, watching the storm rage on. Her head fell back onto the rock wall behind her, "Well, shit. Doesn't this just suck?"
Well doesn't that just suck?
So Ruby doesn't have a concussion anymore! Yay! Though she is tired as shit. I'm not going to go in depth with why she's so tired (in the story, at least), so I'm going to explain it here: Her use of Aura to protect her from any serious injury, and her use of Aura to bring down the concussion a bit, is why she's so tired. It's left her exhausted. So don't worry, she doesn't have a chance at dying because she's sleeping with a concussion.
By the way... If you or a friend has a concussion or you think they do, do not let them or yourself go to sleep. Ever. Get to a hospital immediately. You are putting yourself in danger. You don't have Aura to help you, remember that.
Anyway, with that little tidbit out of the way: This is a little side project for me. Just something to do to pass the time and get through some writers block of my main story. I don't imagine this to be a huge success. I actually don't think I did very well with the opening. Something was missing and I don't know what it is. Bah, I'll figure it out.
Enough about that, tell me what you think! Did I do good? Did I suck? Tell me what you think?
Also, though this may not seem like it now, this is my practice at relationships. No smut... Ever. Rather I will try to involve ships somewhere in the next two chapters. It might ruin the story, it might enhance it. I don't know. But damnit I'm willing to try.
Thanks for reading.
Until Next Time.