Weiss's heart plummeted as she watched Ruby collapse.
The man was gone, Ruby was unconscious, at least Weiss hoped merely unconscious, and there were cracks spreading throughout the stone.
Weiss was utterly confused as to what had happened. Her mind worked in slow motion through her fatigue as she tried to decide what to do.
Clearly the tunnel wasn't safe, Weiss could see that. Which meant they needed to escape. How? Was she expected to carry both of the sisters?
Still unsure of what to do, Weiss nonetheless stood up and walked on shaky legs to where Ruby lay. Turning her over, Weiss was relieved to find her partner was indeed merely unconscious, her eyes closed and breaths coming rhythmically and easily.
So no danger to either of them dying at the moment. As long as… Looking at the cracks, Weiss realized she didn't have time to waste. She immediately began dragging Ruby down the passage towards Yang.
Once the sisters were lying side by side Weiss looked at them doubtfully. How could she do this? She could always choose to leave one, as she was sure she would be able to carry at least one of them out. But her heart didn't seriously consider this possibility; it had only recently begun to thaw but it had repeatedly surprised Weiss with how soft it was.
Not to mention no matter which I took the other would hate me forever, and our team would be ruined. Weiss sighed at the thought of Ruby's face upon hearing Yang had died. Weiss certainly didn't want to see that.
Not to mention, Weiss had already put a lot of work into saving her blonde team-mate, so why should she give up now?
This in mind, she decided to divide her assets and try to carry both out at once. She chose to move Yang, the heavier of the two, with glyphs. She drew several large white glyphs in the air, then passed them through Yang. Lifting the glyphs back up, Yang now floated on them as if they were a bed.
She then stooped down to Ruby. Wrapping one arm under Ruby's knees and one around her shoulders, Weiss flared her aura and lifted Ruby. The Schnee heiress was carrying another girl like she were a princess. Weiss decided to search for irony in the situation later.
Her vision blurred slightly as she lifted Ruby. Not wasting time, she turned and immediately began running down the tunnel, the glyphs carrying Yang zipping along to keep up with their master.
Weiss was panting within a few seconds. She was still very tired from her medical procedures. Her aura, which she had less of in reserve than either of the sisters she was carrying, was flickering badly as the only thing keeping it active was willpower.
Weiss was grateful, yet again, for her strict childhood which she had so despised while she suffered through it. She had been taught since a young age that her aura capacity was not as good as most huntresses would have; so for the entirety of her childhood she had always trained in precision and in minimizing energy expenditures.
The procedure on Yang, for example, would have normally taken several surgeons had they chosen to do it the way Weiss had done it; the energy and focus requirements were simply higher than normal people tended to have. But Weiss was a master in using as little as possible to do as much as possible, and her willpower was as strong as steel when she wanted it to be. Now was no exception.
Her muscles were the only part of her not literally drained, but unfortunately Weiss had never done significant strength training. As such, she had to put more of her aura into her limbs to give them the same strength that Ruby, Blake, or Yang could achieve with significantly less aura. It was one of the reasons Weiss had chosen her multi-action dust rapier, which was more rewarding for control and less reliant on brute force than most weapons.
Nonetheless, the strain was taxing Weiss heavily. She was now gulping for air, even though she had only been running for just over a minute. Looking at the cages for reference, she also realized bleakly that her run was laughably slow in her current state. It would be generous to call it a jog.
Her vision was now becoming extremely blurred. She didn't register the fact that she had reached the section of smooth wall that they had walked by earlier, nor did she notice the door set into it. She was focusing entirely on keeping her legs moving. Behind her she could hear the tunnel collapsing. She had gotten a decent head start on it, but now it was clearly out pacing them.
Ruby you dolt… You need to wake up… I can't-
As her mind began to go into its accustomed complaint mode, she felt her aura give out in her right leg. Weiss felt a dull thud of pain as her right knee collided painfully with the ground. Looking down, she saw and felt the aura draining out of her, more and more of her body losing energy as the loss spread. The instant it left her arms she dropped Ruby, utterly unable to hold the girl up with only her tired muscles.
Before she passed out, she remembered to lower Yang to the ground behind her. There was no reason to risk letting her team-mate get even more hurt, after all.
Satisfied that she had done all she could, Weiss slowly fell forward onto Ruby as the last of her aura drained from her chest, making it impossible to even sit upright.
Her last thought before succumbing to the darkness was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a proud one.
Well Ruby, I've had my turn at playing hero. I hope you wake up in time to save us from being crushed.
With that, Weiss's consciousness abandoned her. Even more rapidly than her aura had left her, Weiss was asleep within a second of her final thought.
Several hours passed before Weiss regained consciousness. The first thing she felt was hunger, reminding her that it had been a long time since she ate. Or had it? Weiss realized she didn't know what time it was, nor why she was laying on her stomach on top of something uncomfortably log shaped. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes blearily and looked down, and let out a startled gasp and blushed slightly as she realized she had been sleeping on top of Ruby.
Oh, how incredibly indecent of me! Bemoaning her own behavior, Weiss was glad to see Ruby was still sleeping, and hoped the girl wouldn't remember Weiss's behavior.
Weiss now looked around. As she looked around the tunnel she slowly came to remember where she was, and what had been happening when she passed out. The first thing that sprung to mind was -
The tunnel!
Weiss stood up and whirled about in one swift motion, terrified of the idea that she may be crushed at any moment.
Her mouth dropped into an open O shape at what she saw.
The tunnel had completely collapsed up to the point of the smooth stone wall, where the rubble abruptly stopped. Some cracks had tried in vain to spread, but had ultimately failed.
Remembering what she had felt earlier when passing the door, Weiss began examining the smooth stone wall. Eventually she found what she was looking for; a single large glyph was impressed on the wall. Less than a quarter of a centimeter deep, it had some sort of a gray material stretched over it which had let it blend seamlessly into the wall when she had only been looking with her eyes. Weiss had to tear off the gray covering to examine it.
A meter in diameter, it glowed a soft dark blue and its pattern was incredibly intricate. Weiss felt sure she could examine it for days and not fully grasp it in its entirety, for it used many symbols she simply didn't know. She could vaguely recognize several runes for repulsion and a few for stopping, in addition to marks which would make it expand its effect in a straight line from itself across the tunnel. So it was clearly some sort of security glyph. Against what, she wouldn't have been able to guess… had she not already seen its effects in stopping the collapsing tunnel and spreading splits in the stone.
The rubble had stopped directly on the edge of the glyph, and not a single crack at any point in the passage made it past half a meter after entering the glyphs field of effect. It became clear to Weiss then that this glyph had been Junior's first line of defense against that monstrous man who had killed him.
He must have been a smart man to have had this put in place… So why did he leave its safety? Weiss sighed softly. This only served as yet another reminder of what Professor Port enjoyed telling them constantly; the professor never stopped reminding them that even the most prepared, intelligent, or powerful hunter could lose his life if he was caught unprepared or in a lax moment. Weiss supposed Junior had fallen to much the same; a lax moment in his planning, and dropping of his guard against whoever that assassin had been. That was all it took to cause his end. A sobering reminder.
Weiss returned to the sisters, looking them over closely. Yang was still in stasis, much to the relief of Weiss, who had never actually tried to apply the theory before now. Ruby still seemed fine as well, aside from the fact that she hadn't woken up yet.
Redrawing Yang's glyphs and lifting her into the air again, Weiss stooped down to pick Ruby back up, activating her aura as she did so. This time her vision didn't blur, although her hunger and overall lack of energy still made it more challenging than it would have normally been.
Walking slowly, Weiss made her way to the end of the tunnel and back up the steps. She was surprised to find the club completely empty, but this was overridden by her immense joy at having escaped the repressive tunnel. Now that she was away from the disgusting atmosphere of that place, she felt like her chest had loosened, and she could breathe more easily.
Eventually she managed to find her way to the club exit. First out the sliding steel doors. Next, down a hallway, and finally she burst out the door onto the street of the city.
The late afternoon sunlight was blinding, shining directly into Weiss's eyes, and the city air smelled of pollutants and trash.
Weiss couldn't remember ever being so happy to be outside in her life.
Blake turned over in her bed. And again. And again… And again. It was completely hopeless, she couldn't feel at ease no matter what she did. It had only been a couple of hours since her team had left in a rush, and she felt useless. It was the first time in her life other people were out doing something and she was the one sitting behind, unproductive and unhelpful.
Her team-mates would probably assure her it wasn't her fault, that it wasn't fair to think like that when she was as injured as she was. To an extent, Blake knew such thoughts were true. But her heart was determined to feel guilty, and Blake was no match for her own emotions. She couldn't say if it was a side effect of being a faunus, since she had never experienced being a human, but sometimes her emotions seemed determined to stay whatever way they were rather than listen to the logical arguments her brain set forth in her attempts to dispel them.
If she was honest with herself, she found it quite frustrating not having control over her heart.
I suppose such is life. Blake sighed for the umpteenth time that afternoon. She would love to have something to claw at in her frustration. She didn't think that was because she was part cat, rather attributing it to human nature to be destructive when frustrated.
Finally she decided she absolutely couldn't take this anymore. It had been two days, she was mostly healed anyway. She didn't need all this concern. With this in mind she removed her heart beat monitor from her arm, and gently tugged the IV drip out from her arm. No sooner had she finished than a terrified looking nurse rushed into her room.
"MISS BELLADONNA! You almost gave me a heart attack, just taking yourself off the monitor like that!" The nurse wore a stern expression now, making her way over to Blake and putting on hand on Blake's chest, trying to push her back down. "You need to rest, young lady."
"Ma'am please, I can eat food again and walk around, I don't need to be here. And to be frank, it's driving me up the walls just sitting here."
The nurse raised an eyebrow and said, "Wait a minute." She then pulled a small tablet out from a pouch on the back of her waistband and began tapping away at it.
Blake tried to steal a glance, to see who she was messaging, but couldn't find a way to do so discreetly. Unfortunately the nurse noticed her subtle head movements and said tartly, "I'm messaging Professor Goodwitch, if you must know. She's the one who spent hours talking with you after all, I'll see what she says."
Blake nodded, settling back in her bed, content to wait for an answer.
After a few minutes the nurse's tablet gave off a small boop. Opening it up, the nurse read the message, her frown gradually becoming more pronounced. Finally, she let the screen retract and stuffed the tablet back into its pouch. "The professor says you are free to go, so long as you restrain from entering any of the training buildings and don't overly exert yourself." Pausing once as she opened the door, the nurse added "Pyrrha Nikos is on her way, she's supposed to watch over you and ensure you don't break the rules. Don't leave without her or it's straight back to bed with you." The nurse seemed to smile at the thought of making Blake stay in the ward, but left without saying anything else.
Blake shuddered. That lady is a bit creepy, she thought idly. Eventually she pulled the covers all the way off herself and swung her legs out of the bed. Feeling slightly unsteady, she made her way to the wardrobe set in the corner of the room across from the bed and pulled it open. She smiled happily as she saw her own outfit was indeed there; patient gowns were not exactly high on her personal choices for fashion or for comfort.
Slipping off her gown, Blake briefly stretched as her body became more accustomed to standing again. Her legs were no longer wobbly, which was definitely a good thing; Pyrrha would have forced her straight back into bed without even asking the nurse if she saw Blake's legs shaking.
Moving at a leisurely pace, Blake began dressing. It took a few minutes, but when she was done she was finally starting to feel like herself again, feeling her outfit was perfectly complete as she finished by slipping her bow on over her cat ears.
I guess it's at least partly true, the saying that the clothes make the man. With that thought, Blake stepped out of her room for the first time since she had been wheeled in three days ago. She then had nothing to do but lean on the wall as she waited for Pyrrha, idly wishing she had a book to read. Since entering Beacon she had been hiding some of her less appropriate books, and she still wanted to finish Ninjas of Love. Perhaps this would be a good chance… if she could shake Pyrrha.
After a few minutes Blake began to feel impatient as she realized she had no idea where Pyrrha was, or how soon she would be coming to find Blake. Looking around, she spotted that there was a bench down the hall which was bathed in the pre-noon sunlight streaming in through a window directly behind it. Sitting down, Blake slumped and leaned her head back until her head was directly pointed at the window. Closing her eyes, she simply enjoyed sitting in the warmth.
If I ever end up in a hospital again, I'm going to have to request a window that gets afternoon sun.
After an indescribable amount of time, Blake heard a small cough. "Hello… Blake? Are you… awake?" It was Pyrrha's voice, sounding gently concerned.
Blake sat up, blinking her eyes open and turning to find Pyrrha was sitting next to her. "Hello Pyrrha. I hear you're going to be my watchdog?" This was said with a slightly teasing tone, but still warm enough to make it clear she was being friendly.
Pyrrha smiled and shrugged. "All I was told was not to let you do any over the top physical activities, or go into the training rooms. As long as you don't try to break the rules, it'll be more like hanging out with a friend than watching over someone." Pyrrha was as direct and friendly as ever, but Blake didn't miss the subtle hint; Pyrrha wouldn't stand for her breaking the rules the nurse had set.
Sighing, Blake got up. "Well, let's go then. I'm famished, I'd like to eat." Pyrrha nodded once before following Blake as she went to the cafeteria.
When the assassin filled with glass finally awoke, it was mid-afternoon. He crawled out of the hollow of the tree, which was still damp with his blood, and began to inspect himself and his surroundings.
The first thing he noted were the obvious signs that it had rained recently; the ground was damp, and there were puddles randomly scattered around him. He felt his opinion of himself drop as he realized he had probably only lived because of dirty water dripping off the tree roots he had sheltered under and into his mouth.
His arm and leg had both fully healed. The glass wounds were all sealed, the glass still embedded in his skin and the skin itself slowly beginning to grow around the glass.
This needed to be remedied immediately, so he immediately began pulling the glass out of himself. Initially, it was easy. Grab, tug, deal with a little pain, bleed a bit, done. It got more difficult, though, as more and more blood began soaking his front. He hadn't thought ahead far enough to start low, so not only were his hands becoming covered in blood, but many of the shards themselves were becoming slick from the blood dripping onto them from above.
All in all, he removed seventeen pieces of glass in about five minutes. The last two gave him the most difficulty, as they were little more than nubs on the surface and extremely slippery.
His job finally done, he lay back against the tree trunk for a few minutes, his breath coming in ragged breaths. He drew from his waistband a small container filled with water and, with shaking hands, fumbled with its twist off cap for a bit. Once he got it open he immediately poured it all down his parched throat, fearful that he would die of dehydration before anything else. Aware of the fact that he was also in great risk of becoming anemic, he only gave himself a minute more of rest before picking himself up. He needed to hunt. If he managed to successfully kill something its blood would serve as water to replenish his own lacking blood levels, and he would need food soon as well.
However, he was not in a good condition for hunting. Instead he employed a grisly baiting tactic; sticking his fingers into his wounds, he thoroughly coated them in blood before flicking the red liquid onto the ground in front of him. Going around the clearing, he repeated the action three times, each 90 degrees from the other in terms of the tree trunk and a few meters away from the tree.
Once he had spread his blood well, he drew his dagger. Turning towards the smooth tree trunk he leaped directly upwards, stabbing his dagger into the tree when he reached the height of his jump, at about four meters. From here he was able to pull himself up with his right hand until it the dagger was even with his shoulder. He then reached across with his left hand, cupped his palm over the shaft, and removed his right hand. Next he shoved downwards with his left arm until the dagger was next to his left hip. Now he could finally grab onto one of trees tall branches and pull himself up into the tree.
He settled here to wait. He felt fortunate when a brown bear stomped into the clearing just a short while after he had settled in, sniffing at the leaves his blood was on. Moving through the branches until he was directly above it, he formed his hands into a shape suitable for crushing bones. His palms directly by each other, and his fingers folded up so that the nails touched and his 2nd and 3rd sets of knuckles were facing outwards. Aiming these knuckles at the bears head, he dived out of the tree head first, arms stretched in front of him to strike the bear.
It went both better and worse than he had planned. Better, because the bear died from the single attack. His knuckles shattered its skull and sunk deep into the bears brain. Worse, because he felt two of his fingers break, and most of them dislocate.
He took the time to force his dislocated fingers back into place, leaving the broken fingers, his right ring finger and left index finger, alone. He knew they would heal themselves in his sleep.
For the immediate moment, he wasn't concerned with eating though. He immediately began letting the blood trickling from the bears neck pool into his palms, drinking as much of it as he could. When this was depleted as the bear's heart stopped completely and gravity was no longer sufficient at the angle the bear's body was at, he resorted to even more desperate measures. He set his water container down, its top open. He began scooping out the bears brain in small handfuls, squeezing gray matter and, more importantly, blood out of the spongy flesh and into his flask. When it was finally filled he picked it up and drained it in two long gulps.
Sated, he walked back over to the tree and leaned up against it. He was planning on napping and making a fire to cook when he woke up.
His plan was interrupted by a soft pinging sound.
Scowling, he pulled out his tablet and pulled the screen out from its small folding container.
He saw the battery life had about 1/3 of its total charge left. It had been a long time since it got power added, but it had also been inactive for most of that time. He saw the reason for the pinging was an incoming call from his least favorite person, and that he had missed three calls from the same man.
He flicked accept nonetheless, and a video of another assassin, similarly wrapped completely in all black, popped up.
His eyes were solid gray, lacking pupils or irises.
"What do you want Cerberus? Has our wonderful guard dog decided he has some information he would like to bless me with on this fine day?" He sounded annoyed, even to himself. Cerberus may have trained with him when they were in the regular programs, but the two men had undergone significantly different experiments.
"Easy there, Vulcan. I'm just calling up to tell you something I know will interest you." Cerberus leaned forward in the video, his eyes crinkling showing he was smiling beneath his wraps. "I assume you remember the experiment that broke you?"
Vulcan was gripping his tablet tightly, wanting to destroy it. But he didn't. Instead he simply said "Everyone knows about my experiment. I was subject nine to experiment thirty-two. It broke my ability to use aura correctly, and instead granted me improved healing abilities. It's the curse I live with." He spat the last words out.
Cerberus pulled his wraps down, so that Vulcan could see his face. So that Vulcan would see as he gave an enormous, sharp and toothy, smile. "I thought you would like to know that your target is Ruby Rose. In other words, subject number eight to experiment thirty-two. And, if you follow the scientists' line of thinking, her success is what made you a viable candidate. In other words…" He paused, and when he resumed speaking his voice was a whisper. "Ruby Rose, your target, is the reason you're a broken hound, Vulcan." With that Cerberus terminated the call, leaving the forest quiet.
Vulcan stowed away the tablet. He could feel his blood boiling.
He wouldn't wait a fortnight. Ruby Rose would die tonight.
Well, that was an unpleasant thing to write with the bear.
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