A/N: Thanks to 'Sylica Telca' (that's her discord name, I can't remember her FF name) for helping out with this chapter. Most of you will be pleased to see it's far longer than the first chapter. Without further ado: Chapter 2.

She opened her eyes to gray sky, unable to hear anything but a high-pitched buzzing.

She tried to sit up, only for the mother of all headaches to push her back down.

The sky remained a solid gray. No misty faint outlines blown by wind.

It was like someone threw a blanket across the entire sky.

She moved to sit up again, this time ignoring the headache, and instantly regretted it.

Wreckage everywhere. Floating bodies littered the water around her. Some clutching at drifting debris, some face down, others waterlogged enough to slip below the surface and stay there.

She looked down, making a quick mental check.

'Feet and legs. Check. Head. That's a definite check. Hearing? That was a no, but not gone.'

She moved to put her hands to her face, checking for injuries, but gave a muffled shriek when she moved her left arm.

Unimaginable pain lanced through her arm well into her torso.

She looked at it, and gasped.

She didn't remember having three elbows.

Her forearm looked like a sideways Z. What was worse was that she could see bone protruding through her sleeve, coated in scarlet. She must have bled for some time, because the blood had nearly dried and crusted over, giving her normally snow white sleeve the color of… well… dried blood.

She fell back, not wanting to agitate her broken arm further.

"HELP!" She cried out. Her hearing must have been coming back, as she could now hear other voices calling out.

She remembered her scroll. Hastily digging it out of her small coat, she held it up, the see-through screen giving the sky a green tinge.

It was dead. More than that, it was cracked and broken.

She threw the useless plastic aside.

Her shock must have been wearing off too, because now, even though it was still, she could feel the pain in her arm swell to excruciating levels.

Finally… mercifully… she blacked out.

When she woke again, she could only see gray again.

But it was different. The gray surface seemed closer, and yellow tinged.

She looked to her side.

She was in a hospital room, lit by candles.

That was odd. She wondered why a hospital needed candles in a normally powered building. This wasn't Menagerie…

'No, that was wrong.' she chastised herself

The door opened, letting light fill the small room, and a nurse and doctor rushed in.

There were no pleasantries, no small talk, while the Nurse talked.

"Two fractures, concussion, and several lacerations."

The doctor quickly looked her over, "Make sure the arm is splinted, rationed water, and only treat the dangerous lacerations. I needn't remind you we are in a severe crisis?"

"No, Doctor."

"Excuse me-" Weiss started, but the nurse shushed her harshly as she went about her duties.

"And I don't need to say our medicines are in short supply?"

The nurse nodded, now checking Weiss's ocular reflexes. The doctor, satisfied, left.

"Excuse me!" Weiss said again, only for the nurse to shush louder, "No talking."

"How dare you-" Weiss began again, and this time, the Nurse responded.

"I don't have time for questions Schnee. There are hundreds upon out there who need our help MUCH more than you do, even if that is a bad break. Now be quiet." The nurse said roughly before putting an apple and a small MRE in her lap and left.

The room went back into hazy darkness, the candle had blown out.

She wrinkled her nose at the MRE. She was a Schnee, and she'd rather die than let something uncultured like a frozen military ration pass her lips.

She sat up, wincing at the pain in her arm. They'd set it and splinted it.

She assumed there were limited supplies, if her arm wasn't only splinted. She'd have to get it looked at when she returned to Atlas… as much as she didn't want to go back there.

She noticed they hadn't even changed her clothes. Her usually perfect white dress was stained red, with splotches of gray and brown.

She knew being a Huntress wouldn't be a clean job, but… she did love her combat skirt.

Shrugging it off, she got out of bed, blinking past the wave of dizziness that beset her and walked to the door.

Opening it, she saw… chaos.

Dozens of white-coated doctors and nurses rushed to and fro, carrying patients in varying degrees of injury. Some, like her, had splints and seemed fine. Others had large bandages over their heads, arms, and legs.

With a small gasp, she realized that a few had lost limbs.

'That's-That's to be expected… not everybody has Aura, Weiss…' She thought to herself, but images of the bodies in the water flooded back to her. Even those with aura didn't stand a chance.

As she stood there, watching in shocked interest, a large blonde girl rushed by, asking doctors, nurses, and patients alike in a frantic tone, "Have you seen a girl in a red cape?"

The medical staff paid her no attention, while the patients simply shook their heads, and eventually the girl got to her.

"You… have you seen a girl with a red cape? About yea big?" Blonde girl gestured with her hands about midway up her chest.

"I… No, I have not. In case you haven't noticed, I'm injured." Weiss said, perhaps a bit more rude than she meant to.

A flicker of red flitted across Blonde's lilac eyes, "Watch it, Princess."

Before Weiss could retort, however, Blondie had moved on.

Having had enough chaos, Weiss moved to close the door, only for the doctor to rush up to her, holding an armful of bandages.

"If you're well enough to stand and talk, you're well enough to help. Besides, we need that room for other patients." He said, pushing the bandages into her arms. When he grabbed her bad arm, she winced. "Right. Sorry. Here." He said hurriedly, giving her a bag, "Anyone who calls for a bandage, give them what they need." He barked before disappearing into the crowd.

She stood there momentarily, she was a Schnee, not an errand girl… but again, part of being a Huntress meant helping the people…

Three hours ago

Yang's eyes shot open.

Without moving, she made a quick mental check. Hands, feet, legs, arms… check check check.

As she remembered what happened, she sighed with relief. She felt a warm mass pressed against her. Ruby was safe.

The crash had knocked her out… but at least she was alive. And so was Ruby.

Reaching around, she made to feel Ruby's head, but something was wrong… she touched stubble.

Looking down, she jolted back.

Indeed, a figure was draped across her body. However, the large figure was not Ruby. It was a lanky kid with a green Mohawk.

What's more… the kid was missing an arm at the shoulder.

Yang jumped up, rolling the guy to his side, cursing to herself. If only she'd paid more attention to Signal's first aid class…

She first checked his pulse. It was faint, but there.

She noticed a blue travel case nearby, ripped it open, and grabbed a shirt.

It was a hoodie with a bunny imprint on it. She paid it no mind as she ripped it apart, stuffing it into his arm hole and putting pressure on it.

She didn't know how long they'd been there. A few hours at most, with Yang repeatedly switching shirt after shirt to staunch the bleeding.

Finally, she heard an engine sound. It wasn't a Bullhead, but it was getting closer.

Boats appeared from the horizon, about two dozen. Help had finally arrived.

Yang helped a few other survivors carry wounded toward the edge of the wreckage so the Boatmen could get them easier.

She couldn't stop looking for her sister. Red cape, black boots, red skirt… anything telegraphing her little sister's position. Maybe it was shock… maybe her brains were scrambled in the crash, but she found herself getting increasingly dizzy.

This was especially apparent when she lifted a larger boy with rusty orange hair, and stumbled, almost falling over an edge into the water. She felt a hand on her arm, steadying her. Turning, she saw a girl a little shorter, with black hair and a torn black bow…

No. Not a bow, cat ears. Damaged, like a tabby cat's ears after a fight.

"Need help?" The girl asked.

Yang nodded, and Black took the guy's other arm.

"I'm Yang." Yang introduced herself.

"Blake."

"Are you okay? You're ears are…"

Blake stopped, feeling at her ears, seemingly panicked.

"They look fine… might just need a few stitches."

"It's not that… it's… I guess it doesn't matter. Let's go." Blake finished, and started forward, nearly pulling Yang off her feet.

"Woah… careful, sist-" Yang stopped herself, images of Ruby racing across her memory. She bit that down. She needed to know her sister was okay… but she couldn't think of that now. Not when other people needed help .

"It's nothing. Leave it." Blake answered, signaling the end of that conversation.

"Okay… Do you know what happened? What made the airship crashed?" Yang asked, feeling the need to keep talking.

"I don't know… I thought I heard something about a shockwave before we went down. I don't know what could cause that kind of massive reaction, but it must have been big."

Yang slipped a little, but quickly steadied herself, "We're almost there… we should get there quickly. This guy isn't looking so good."

They went the rest of the way in silence. By the time they reached the boats, it'd started to rain.

They gave the boy to the medics on the boat, but before he got on, he turned, "Ya know, we still have a little room… if you want to get back to land, we can take ya."

Blake agreed quickly, but Yang didn't, "No… I have to find someone. My sister. She was with me when we went down… and now she's not. I need to find her." She said the whole thing in one breath, not realizing she was rambling.

"Yang. We have to have gotten everyone off this half, and look," Blake pointed to the boats leaving the distant other half, "If they don't have her, then…" Blake's voice died.

Yang straightened, easily finishing Blake's sentence. She nodded and entered the boat. She had to be on the other boats.

She had to.