AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thank you (again) for all the follows, favorites and reviews! Love you all! Well, I really like you... Yeah! Um... I know I said this one would be up sooner. But apparently I lied. Whatever, its here now, so ENJOY! Hopefully...
The Burnt Rose
Part Three: Promise - 2
-Ruby-
Ruby's internal metronome kept her in pace as she flowed through the familiar moves of combat, felling holographic enemies left and right. A punch there, then a kick and a swing followed by a complicated maneuver, which caused the lights of four opponents to go out all at once.
'Too dangerous? Ha!' Ruby spun and pulled out Crescent Rose, putting out nearly ten foes in one swing. 'Can't take the risk, huh?!' She finished off the closest ones and spun to survey the rest.
The fictitious enemies were at least ten yards away now, so Ruby planted Crescent Rose and began to fire. She knocked down the first wave before reloading and bracing herself for the impact of the charging holograms. "I love you." The memory of Weiss' voice distracted her and while she took out the lights in the front line, Ruby had neglected one that circled around to her back.
An alarm sounded and all the enemies froze as the one who had put a simulated gun to her head was lit up in red. The practice army disappeared and Ruby sat down hard on her butt. "Bullshit," she whispered to herself, only half in reference to the lost fight.
The quick conversation she'd had with Weiss a half hour ago still rang in her head. "So, this is how it's gonna be, huh?" Ruby had whispered, trying to avoid letting the two other women in on the conversation. "My safety is so important that I can't even go talk to someone?"
"Ruby, you saw the rose, you know what it meant. It's too dangerous to go out there right now." Weiss' voice was somewhat stern, fixed, as she was, in her decision that Ruby should remain behind.
"I'm a Huntress, I've dealt with more danger than most people would in a hundred lifetimes." Ruby's whisper was barely in check.
Weiss sighed, "This is different. When out hunting, we're the stalkers, not the stalked. With this, we don't know where the danger might appear. I doubt that the Manor is the safest place in Vale but you'd be much more exposed out there and I can't take that risk." Weiss was beginning to sound irritated, though she had a tender look in her eyes.
Ruby exhaled, "Whatever, just don't expect me to keep the bench warm throughout this whole– thing! I'm not just going to stand by and watch my friends deal with this without me."
Weiss gave a light laugh. "You'll keep the bench warm for as long as I say." She pulled Ruby down to her level to give her a quick kiss. "I love you." They parted ways then.
Ruby still wasn't happy though. The thought of her friends out there, quite possibly in danger, and without her there to help, made her gut churn.
"Aw, and you were doing so well." The sarcastic voice coming from the entrance to the practice room made Ruby look up. Yang was leaning against the door frame, fresh workout clothes on.
Ruby snorted in derision, "Oh yeah, I was doing fantastic," She leaned back on her hands, her accelerated heart rate returning to a normal steady rhythm. "Let's see you do better in my position; one eye, a weakened right arm and, what was that last one? Oh that's right; a death threat!"
Yang sidled over to Ruby and sat down next to her, a small smirk on her face. "Well, seeing as you've already mastered fighting with one eye and a weaker arm, my guess is it's the last one that's bothering you." Ruby didn't respond, she simply examined a wall filled with practice weaponry. Yang grew serious, "You know we would never let anything happen to you, right? I think the rest of us would die before that."
Ruby stood up and walked to the opposite wall, a sound of disgust escaping her mouth. "That's the problem, Yang. I don't give a damn about my own life." She turned to see a somewhat worried expression on her sister face. "I mean, I don't wanna die or anything, I didn't mean it like that." Ruby exhaled and sat down in a chair, "But I would rather die myself before letting any one of you do that for me."
"Ruby, you're outnumbered three to one on this. There's no way any of us will let that happen, and as long as we're all together we can make sure none of us have to die anyway." Ruby clenched her eyes shut when Yang said 'die'. The word had already been used too many times for her liking.
Then her eyes snapped open as she came to a decision, "You know what? You're right," Yang looked at her, confused. "As long as we're all together no one will die. I refuse to let that happen." She stood while she spoke, her tone; verbal evidence to the resolve she held for her statement.
Yang raised her eyebrows, "Okay then," She stood as well, "No one will die and that's that." She gave Ruby an all too familiar grin that tugged at her gut until she was grinning back. Yang laughed at the look of Ruby trying to hold back the smile. "In the meantime, why don't we practice?"
Yang walked up to a control panel on the wall, "So what'll it be; you and me versus a horde of Grimm, men, or flying monkeys?" She tapped through the menus while Ruby gave a short laugh.
"You know, Yang, I don't think you and I have ever gone against each other in hand-to-hand combat."
Yang looked at her, puzzled, "Of course we have. We practiced at Beacon all the time."
Ruby grinned, "Yeah, but I always used Crescent Rose in our fights. You're the closest thing we have to a bare-handed fighter on our team."
"Okay, so you want to fight me without the big ass scythe? Why? That doesn't seem like a fair fight." She raised her arm to show off the gold bracelet that was her weapon.
Ruby did her best to hide her amusement, "I've actually– sort of– picked up a new technique."
Yang cocked an eyebrow, "Really? I didn't see anything new just now." She gestured to the empty floor where Ruby had just fought the holographic army.
"Well I don't use it all the time, I still feel more comfortable with my old style."
"As opposed to your bare hands,"
"Nope," Ruby went over to the armory and picked up two pistols filled with blanks so as to avoid killing someone but to also give the proper recoil reaction. She held them up so Yang could see them. "As opposed to these,"
Yang smiled, "First off, slightly cliché. Secondly, those are guns; they kind of negate the whole hand-to-hand thing." She made some small karate chops at the conclusion of her sentence.
Ruby laughed, "I use their recoil for momentum, and need I remind you; Ember Celica are half shot-gun and, since your last upgrade, they have collapsible blades on the side." She raised an accusatory eyebrow at her sister.
Yang considered that for a moment before shrugging. "Alright then, if you wanna do this then let's go." She armed Ember Celica and walked out into the middle of the floor. Ruby swapped the belt that held Crescent Rose's ammo for one filled with blank magazines.
They faced off, beginning the match by circling each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Yang spoke, "Ladies first,"
Ruby smiled, "Age before beauty," Yang ginned at her quip, and then they both moved at the same time. Yang swung at Ruby who pivoted to face her shoulder towards Yang. Ruby then fired in the opposite direction so as to send her left arm flying towards her sister. Yang looked shocked at the speed of the attack, though she had had no problem deflecting it. Retaliating, Yang punched and kicked at Ruby with lightning speed. Rather than deflect her blows, Ruby danced around them, occasionally using the momentum of her sister's own attacks to throw her off balance.
They fought on, sweat beginning to bead on their foreheads. A few hits were made on both women, but nothing worthy of attention. "Where–" Yang spoke between blows, "Did you learn– to fight– like this?"
"Some old guy–" Ruby said, "That I met– while hunting!" Yang attempted a kick at her head, making Ruby duck and roll to the side as the foot almost came down on top of her. Had this been a real fight, Ruby would have sent a few bullets at Yang from her position. As it was, she needed to get closer to get in any hits. 'Maybe this wasn't the best technique to use,' Ruby thought in hindsight.
Yang began to walk towards her, fists up and ready. Ruby made as if to charge and the blonde reacted just as she'd wanted; by raising her right arm to swing. Activating her aura, Ruby flashed to Yang's right side, ducking low beneath the punch. Firing the gun in her right hand, Ruby sent her elbow flying into Yang's kidney.
The force caused her sister to grunt and fall forward onto a knee. Ruby place the barrel of the gun in her left hand to the back of Yang's head. "He couldn't pay me for helping out with his monster problem, so he offered to teach me this. Took about a week to get down." Yang raised both hands in the air, as if in defeat.
"Who?" She sounded confused and out of breath, clearly forgetting about the conversation she'd started before her little sister gained the upper hand.
"You know, the old guy that I said taught me all this. He did it as payment."
"Oh yeah," Yang seamed distracted by something, and too late Ruby realized what it was. Yang's right hand clenched into a fist and she swung the arm behind her head, beneath Ruby's gun. A fire hot blade shot out and sliced the gun in half before the gauntlet swung outwards and into Ruby's exposed belly.
Stumbling back, Ruby was then knocked off her feet as Yang spun and kicked. Ruby felt Yang straddle her then, and looked to see a gauntlet in her face and her sister hovering over her. "Well, it's a pretty cool technique, but you've got a ways to go before you can beat me."
"Maybe," Ruby agreed, "Or maybe not," She raised the gun in her right hand to point at Yang's chest. Had she held a real gun, one shot at the right angle and Yang would be down for the count.
Yang looked down at it, "Well, that's annoying." She rolled off her sister to lie next to her. After a while she said, "So, a draw?"
Ruby laughed, "Yeah, a draw." She turned her head to look at Yang. "Hey, thanks for this. I actually feel a lot better."
Yang looked back at her, "I thought you might," Then she ruffled Ruby's hair, making her laugh again and roll away, out of reach.
(v)
The two women spent a bit more time in the practice room, wherein Ruby went and got the gift that Weiss had left for her. She wasn't sure whether she should wait for Weiss to get back before opening it, but as Yang was a bad influence, the package ended up open anyway.
When Ruby removed the lid she stared at what was it had concealed. Inside was an oval-shaped pad, just over seven inches long, and on it sat a small blade. Ruby grasped the handle of the blade and pulled it out. As soon as the weapon left the pad, which had held onto it magnetically, the blade extended, making the whole thing almost ten inches long. "Oh. My. God."
Yang looked at her confused, "What?"
"This is amazing!" She pulled out the pad and flipped it over to find strong, leather straps. Excited, Ruby began to clumsily attach the equipment to the underside of her left forearm, simply guessing that that's where it should go.
Yang took the box while Ruby watched the blade slide in and out as she removed and replace the knife on the pad. "You missed something," Ruby looked up to see Yang holding out a black ring.
Her excitement growing, Ruby slid the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand. "This is so cool!" A moment of delight later and she froze, her mind catching up with the reality of the situation. "Um, does it do anything else?"
Yang gave a light chortle as she pulled one more thing out of the box; a piece of paper with writing and diagrams on it. "Why don't you check the instructions."
After carefully examining the paper, Ruby set up some targets and stood in front of them. The instructions said to hold your thumb to the ring – which lit up a red line around the band – to activate the knife. Upon letting go, the weapon would leave the pad and fly forward, fast as a bullet. The longer a thumb was pressed to the ring, the farther it would fly. After hitting its target or reaching its calculated flight distance, the blade would return and slide gently back onto the pad.
Ruby tested its shooting capabilities on the targets, going from close to farther and farther away and then making them move. It took several shots, but eventually she hit the mark every time she let the blade fly. Ruby was elated to find how easy it was; the knife did most of the work for her.
While holding her thumb to the ring would send the knife shooting off like a bullet, Ruby found that if she merely tapped it then the knife would hover in front of her palm for a few seconds, waiting to be grabbed before settling back on the magnetic pad. Its capabilities made Ruby gush over the weapon while Yang looked on, appearing slightly worried for her sister's sanity.
When they left to go shower, Ruby took a closer look at the handle of the blade. The red and black design should have given it away right off the bat, but its deadly nature had been far more interesting. The style of the grip was very similar to Crescent Rose's shaft; it even had a small spike on the base. 'She must have had this custom made.' That was the only way to explain how similar the two weapons were. 'I'll have to come up with a name for you.'
After a second shower that day, Ruby returned to the dining room, fully clothed in her usual black and red. She walked in and overheard Yang talking with someone, someone with a very recognizable voice. "Sun!" Ruby said as she ran over to their mischievous, monkey tailed friend.
"Hey Rubes, it's good to see ya!" He stood and Ruby gave him a huge hug. She had always liked Sun, but ever since he had helped exercise her wounded arm back into a usable limb, Ruby adored him. He laughed at her excessive show of emotion.
"Sorry, it's just been a long time." Ruby said, letting go and backing up.
"Naw, it's cool. So how have things been, that bracer workin out for ya?" As the two of them caught up, they followed Yang into the entertainment room. She turned on the television and immediately began flipping through channels.
At almost twelve o'clock, the three of them were still sitting there watching TV and talking. "Velvet's been good, she's still working at the Sun-Drop Lounge with Yang, but she's been taking some classes, trying to get into writing for–" Sun was cut off by Yang standing up rather abruptly.
"Is that who I think it is?" Ruby looked at the TV which was the source of Yang's brusque question. She had flipped to a news channel and the screen was showing scenes of a park filled with cops, surrounding an Ursa and two Beowolves.
Sun had stood up to get a closer look at the three Grimm on the screen. "What the hell? I've never seen them act like that before. I wonder how long they've been standin' still like that."
Ruby was confused by the beast's actions as well, reminded of the Beowolf she had dispatched the night before. But Yang had said 'who' not 'what' and Ruby immediately saw who she was talking about.
Standing amongst the cops, no doubt talking about the three Grimm, was Blake and Weiss. Ruby gave an incredulous laugh. "Yep, that's them alright." It was a little strange to see them on screen like this. Being head of the SDC, Weiss of course made occasional appearances on news stations and talk shows for interviews and the like. Blake, as well, had made a few public appearances on screen. But when she wasn't expecting it, Ruby felt a little strange seeing her girlfriend on TV.
She was about to say how cool it was to see their friends on the television when the angle on the screen changed. It went to a shot directly above the park, where eight black, unmarked airships circled the area, their guns aimed at the ground.
Ruby stood up and stared more intently at the images on the glass. All three of them were silent, not wanting to jinx anything into happening. And then out of nowhere, the airships opened fire.
-Yang-
Ruby and Sun flew from side to side as Yang swerved through the frozen traffic all around them. When the shooting had started, people driving towards the park had given up on trying to turn around and simply abandoned their cars, attempting to get to safety as fast as possible.
From the back seat, Sun shouted, "Do you think you could take those turns a little more gently?" He clung to the left hand door as he spoke, one hand over his mouth.
"I told you to put on a seatbelt!" Ruby said, taking the intense jostling she was receiving in stride.
"There was no ti– AH!" His words were cut short as Yang hit a left turn without even considering the brakes, sending Sun crashing into the opposite door.
As soon as the airships had begun to fire, Yang and Ruby were in the Manor's garage, closely followed by Sun. Hopping into the fastest looking car, they sped towards the park from the TV with barely any words spoken. No one wanted to give voice to the worries that beset their minds.
Yang's heart hadn't beat this fast since Ruby was injured. The thought that her friends, that members of her family might have been hurt, 'Or worse,' sent Yang into a rage. The steering wheel already held indents from where her fingers had burned into it.
Part of her mind wondered what was happening and why. Who or what might be behind whatever the hell was going on and what did they want, if anything. She attempted to quiet those thoughts however, because at that moment they didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was getting to that park and finding Blake and Weiss alive and safe, so right then she needed to focus. After several minutes of slow steady breathing, her heart rate lowered and she felt more alert.
Their guide to the park was a rising spire of smoke, an ominous symbol of what no doubt awaited them. Soon enough the low flying airships came into view, forming a massive circle in the air. Yang pulled the car over a couple blocks away and the three of them approached the park quickly but discreetly, using the cover of trees to hide from the unmarked airships.
They had been running for almost a minute when, out of nowhere, three Ursa were upon them. The beasts were dealt with quickly, lying in pieces on the ground, but their presence unnerved Yang. 'I thought there was only one Ursa in the park.' Yang, again, put the thoughts from her mind.
They continued their trek, running into a few more Grimm along the way. "What the hell is going on with the Grimm today?" Sun asked, after breaking the neck of a Beowolf with his legs. No one answered, because they were all wondering the same thing.
Finally, they reached the buildings adjacent to the park. The airships had stopped shooting long ago, but gunfire could still be heard. Several Grimm were moving towards the park a distance off. Ruby was about to run right underneath the ships and towards the beasts when Yang grabbed her arm. "Let's take out a few of those ships first." Yang gestured towards the tallest building across from the park. Its roof reached higher than the hovering aircrafts.
Ruby looked at it and nodded, taking off for the building with the other two in tow. Naturally, the elevator was out of service, 'Why should things like that work in a catastrophe?' So they all sprinted up the stairs, using their weapons to clear entire flights in a single jump. In, no doubt, a quicker time than the elevator would have given them, they were padding out onto the roof.
Yang spared a glance for the city. Vale sat in shadow, as the scattered clouds from the night before had successfully stretched until its edges were out of sight.
They went to the edge and looked down at the three closest ships. Ruby spoke up, her old role of leader noticeable in her tone of voice. "I'll take the one on the left. Sun, you get the one in the middle. Yang, go for the far right."
They nodded and backed up as far as the roof would allow. "Ready?" Ruby called to the other two, "Now!" They all sprinted straight for the edge.
Firing her weapons and kicking off as hard as she could, Yang launched herself high into the air, her hair getting whipped out behind her. As she began the exhilarating fall, Yang positioned herself directly over her assigned ship. Her arms were thrown out so as to better control her decent.
She aimed for the wing on the right, getting closer and closer. 'Wait for it, wait for it. Now!' Yang fired Ember Celica, making herself spin as though performing a violently fast dance. As she revolved, the fire blades on the side of her weapons shot out.
When she hit the wing her blades tore through it easily. The whole ship began to tilt, barely staying in the air. Yang had grabbed the main body of the ship before going into another freefall and worked her way to the top. Holding tight with one hand, she sent shotgun blasts at the other wing. When both were on fire the craft began to lose altitude and eventually went into a dive. Yang held on tight as the pilot inside attempted to guild the falling craft.
Wind tore through Yang's hair as the velocity of the ship increased. She looked off to her side to see Ruby and Sun holding onto their own falling ships just slightly behind her.
Looking back to ground, the sight that met Yang's eyes would have made her catch her breath had she not already been holding it. The floor of the park that was rushing up towards her was littered with broken and burned corpses. The bodies of murdered cops were torn, burned, and mutilated in disturbing ways due to the fire power of the airships. But not all was lost. Several officers were still standing and fighting the fresh Grimm that had swarmed into the park since the firing.
Yang looked closely and soon found what she was hoping for. Blake and Weiss were on the ground, weapons in hand, fending off a giant King Taijitu. Heart lightening immediately, a grin spread across Yang's face. Knowing that everyone she cared about was safe made Yang feel slightly invincible, even in spite of the present carnage.
Ruby and Sun's airships were veering towards each other and into a dense pack of trees on the edge of the park, so they maneuvered their way onto Yang's. Her ship was aiming for two nasty looking Death Stalkers that were advancing on Blake and Weiss from behind the great snake.
They all jumped off right before it hit the two Grimm, landing on the monstrous snake as it was attempting to wind its way around their teammates. Ruby sliced the head on one end in half just as Sun blew a hole through the other and Yang divided it right in the middle. The giant body hitting the ground sent up a huge dirt cloud, luckily, that muddled the view of any outsiders.
Yang rolled when she finally hit the ground, coming up directly in front of Blake.
Blake had a small grin on her face. "And you think I'm hot with the whole hair thing? I mean, I am, but there's really no way to top that." She gestured behind the blonde at the extravagant entrance she'd just made. Yang didn't respond, she merely grabbed Blake by the hip and the back of her head and pulled her into a deep kiss. Time froze, there were no more Grimm, there was no blood or fire or death; there was only Blake. The feel of her warm vibrant body against hers made Yang feel electricity course through her veins. All she really wanted was this perfect woman and having almost lost her made Yang's thirst nearly insatiable. 'Thank God, you're safe!'
Eventually Blake gently pushed her back, a smile still on her face. "Yang, I'm not sure this is the best time for us to get carried away" Yang breathed in deep, not wanting to stop kissing Blake but knowing that there was no time for it. She backed up and looked over at Weiss and Ruby, who were coming out of a similar exchange. Sun stood awkwardly off to the side with his staff in hand.
Blake went to Ruby and gave her a hug and Weiss walked up to Yang. The awkwardness from that morning's argument could still be felt, and Yang couldn't bring herself to hug Weiss, even if she was glad to see her alive. Weiss seemed to be struggling with what was best to say as well. "Glad you're not… Dead." Yang said.
Weiss furrowed her brow slightly, "Um, thanks," She appeared to accept that as passable pleasantries, seeing as she turned to Sun then and gave him a quick hug. "How did you guys know to come here?"
"We saw you on the news," Ruby said.
Suddenly, Yang became aware of the sounds of chaos all around. Through the haze of dirt she watched the bloodbath continue as the remaining police persisted in fending off the beasts.
"Now what do we do?" Sun said, raising his staff in preparation to fight off any Grimm that might come at them. The dirt cloud was almost gone now and soon they would become visible targets. "We need to move fast!"
Yang looked at Ruby who was staring around at the chaos that besieged the once beautiful park. Her good eye looked like it might be about to fill with tears and her jaw was clenched tight.
Blake spoke up, "We tried to leave as soon as the airships started firing, but the Grimm kept coming in and blocking us off."
Yang had an idea then. She looked over to the crashed airships, noticing that their wreckage lined up straight to the street outside the park. If they could get to the one Yang had brought down they could jump from one to another until they were out.
"I know what to do," Yang began, "We can use the wrecked ships to get out. We won't have to fight through all the Grimm that way!"
The others seemed to think that an acceptable solution, all but Ruby, who grew angry at the idea. "We need to help them!" The knife Weiss had given her was in Ruby's left hand and she pointed with it towards the dying policemen. "It's our job to defend people against this, why would we run?"
Yang could think of several reasons off the top of her head, and they were all standing around her.
"Fighting or running, decide quickly!" Sun shouted, as he twirled his staff above his head and brought it down to crack the skull of a Boarbatusk. The dirt had settled on the ground by then and several Grimm had taken notice.
Just then, a wave of Grimm poured in from the north, filling the clearing in seconds. The decision was made for them; they needed to leave, but the only way out was by battling their way there. They attempted to remain close as they fought, slowly working their way towards the wreckage.
Yang, Weiss and Sun were close together with Blake and Ruby several meters ahead. During the fight, Yang brought down a line of Beowolves with her fire blades, creating a temporary hindrance for the other Grimm. With the slight lapse in monsters, they made somewhat more headway towards the ships.
Then an Ursa appeared from nowhere behind Sun. The faunus would have been dead had he been alone. Fortunately, not one but four huntresses were present, and saw the beast at the same time. From farther behind, Ruby sent her knife flying into the monster's chest while Blake filled it with arrows. Simultaneously, Weiss shot some energy blasts at it just and Yang fired off four rounds from each gauntlet.
Sun had dropped to his knees and covered his head while deathblows were dealt mercilessly just above him. When the corpse slammed into the ground, he looked up. "Holy shit! How 'bout a warning next time?! God! Damn! Grimm! Mother! Fu–"
"Let's go, monkey boy!" Yang said quickly, cutting him off mid curse. As she pulled him up, Yang listened closely. From both far away and fairly near, screams, explosions and cries of the Grimm could be heard. "They must be all over the city!" Yang shouted to the other four. Their grim expressions were the only answers given. Then their foes closed in once more.
'We need to get out of here! They don't stop coming!' Then Yang's mind began to race again, ignoring her attempts to block out all outside thoughts. 'What is going on? How is any of this possible? Grimm don't fight like this, they don't have formations or create strategies. This is wrong!'
They were almost to the airship when the Grimm they were fighting froze and backed up, leaving them in a small clearing. "The hell…?" Yang said, keeping her gauntlets up and ready to use. Ruby and Blake were closest to the fallen airship with the other three a good ten yards behind.
Just then, a Nevermore flew out of the dark clouds above them. They all looked up at its malicious cry. "Weiss!" Blake shouted, gesturing to the gigantic bird. Gambol Shroud changed back into a bow as she pointed with it at the Grimm.
Weiss seemed to understand and she raised Myrtenaster, waived it and a glyph three feet across materialized between Blake and the Nevermore. Blake pulled back and fired several dust arrows through the shimmering symbol and into the Grimm beyond. When they first appeared the arrows were black, but as they passed through the glyph, they became red and looked as if on fire.
When the fiery, red arrows struck the creature, a burst of light exploded at the contact, leaving smoke and blood leaking in its wake. The two that hit its body didn't seem to faze the Nevermore, as if it couldn't even feel the holes being punched into it. When one ripped off its wing however, even a lack of sense couldn't have prevented it from veering right into one of the remaining airships.
The ship's left engine exploded at the impact, sending blood and bits of debris raining down to the ground. Yang looked closely, and then gasped. The ship had begun to fall, and unfortunately it was coming straight towards the five of them.
Yang's gut clenched as she looked around and realized there was nothing to do. The rest of the Grimm were keeping them penned up in this clearing. The burning ship was falling fast, small bits of metal and glass raining down around it. It would take several minutes to fight their way to a safe zone, and they only had seconds.
"Shit!" Weiss snarled, making Yang turn her head. She raised her rapier once more, waived it through the air and pointed. A massive glyph, thirty yards across, materialized twenty feet above them and the falling ship crashed into it. The metal, glass and fire all held, floating above their group like a deadly ceiling.
For a happy moment, Yang thought that Weiss would be able to hold it up. But then she saw the blood running down her nose and the strained expression on her face and she knew there wasn't much time. 'Oh no,' "Blake!" she shouted to the raven-haired women and pointed at Ruby, who showed every intention of running to Weiss. 'You promised. Please keep Ruby safe.'
Everything seemed to slip into slow motion then. The massive glyph disappeared in a vaporous gust. The groaning from bent and burning metal changed slightly as gravity began to pull it through the air once more.
Next to Yang, Weiss' knees buckled and her eyes rolled back. Reflexively catching and sweeping her into her arms, Yang turned to run out from under the falling debris. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blake pulling a struggling Ruby in the opposite direction, towards their original escape plan.
Yang had barley taken a step, however, before colliding with Sun, sending all three of them crashing to the ground. The last thing she heard was Ruby's voice screaming for Weiss before the wrecked ship crashed into her aura with more force than she thought possible. And then the darkness swarmed in to block out all sights and sounds.
