Ruby watched as the first glyph exploded, only succeding in tearing the falling aircraft in half. She started to run back, convinced that she could save her teammates with her incredible speed provided she pushed herself to her limits. Blake caught her shoulder with her quick reflexes as her instincts told her what Ruby was planning.
The split second it took for Ruby to turn away and brush Blake's arm off, the aircraft hit the ground and exploded, a wall of unbearable heat forcing Ruby and Blake back from the burning wreckage.
"Time to fall back!" A hunter yelled to his team as the grimm continued to pour into the crater and the nevermore circled around for another attack.
"Blake, go." Ruby ordered, looking at the wreckage and trying to find a safe way through without getting too badly burned.
"There's nothing we can do." Blake said sadly. Even though she wanted to do something, she'd seen things like this happen too many times before, and there was never anything she could do to help.
"Still, go." Ruby said, turning away from the wreckage and drawing her scythe out to its full length. She loaded the explosive rounds and took out the nevermore with three well aimed shots. "Tell Ozpin I'm done being team leader."
"Ruby!" Blake called as Ruby ran off to meet the grimm head on with a burst of her speed.
Blake watched for a moment as Ruby didn't simply kill, but slaughtered the grimm. The row of bodies around her quickly doubled then trippled in size until she was fighting on what looked like a smoking mountain range as the creature's bodies slowly disintegrated.
Blake couldn't watch anymore and followed the other hunters, maybe they'd be able to do something, anything, to help.
Yang felt the heavy rubble from the street and nearby buildings slowly crushing her and Weiss who'd up until just now, kept them safe with her glyphs. Apparently it was a bigger drain than the girl had thought because now she lay pressed against Yang, unconscious.
"Hey! Ruby'll kill you if she sees you with me like this!" She shouted in the small area between her and Weiss's heads that allowed small movements without shifting the painfully heavy rock. Weiss grumbled but didn't wake. Figures.
Yang felt her gauntlet to see if it was still in combat mode. She was thankful that it was because she hated trying to think things through. She fired a round point blank at the rubble and blasted some of it away while also giving her hand a bad burn.
Now she only had to move her hand and do it once more. She cringed as the second shot tore away the top layer of skin on her knuckles and the metal gauntlet burned hot. She ignored the pain and pulled herself and Weiss out of the rubble quickly before it decided to collapse completely. The raging fire around them made Yang feel like she had stepped into hell, especially since the air was cold for a typical winter day in Vale.
She dragged her teammate to a nearby rock that might have been part of a building at one point. She was still close enough to the fire that they'd be warm but not close enough to split like sausages after a few minutes. She checked her scroll. Weiss's aura was as far into the red zone as she'd ever seen it and hers wasn't much better. What surprised her was Ruby's slowly jumping lower every few seconds.
"-ng" Weiss breathed a shuddering breath as she fumbled at her waist.
"What is it?" Yang asked, looking down at the broken girl as she tried to open her pocket. She succeeded and pulled out a single vial of dust.
"Don't aim close…" Weiss breathed through gritted teeth. "Get Ruby…"
"Sure thing." Yang took the unfamiliar dust and quickly loaded a shell and placed it in the last chamber of her undamaged hand.
"Over there…" Weiss turned her head with a whimper of pain as she looked at the smoke blurred hill where a small silver stroke flashed back and forth.
"Right!" Yang nodded and sprinted off to save her sister.
Ruby ignored the brand new and somewhat painful scratch on her arm as she twirled her scythe, decapitating three beowolves in one swipe before flipping a boarbatusk into an advancing king taijitu. The two headed snake didn't avoid the projectile and caused one of the heads to snap back from the impact.
143. There's still a ton of them. Where do they even come from? She wondered as she dodged a death stalker's stinger and killed one of the taijitu's heads. I won't stop. She told herself. She found it a sort of romantic climax to her story and would either survive by running out of grimm to kill, or die by being overrun by the horde.
She knew deep down that only the second ending would be realistic, but at this point, she didn't care. Half her team had been wiped out by these creatures and that meant she was a failure as a leader. She would go down with her ship before having to deal with the loss of her sister and girlfriend, her two best friends.
"Ahhhh!" She yelled, using all her strength as she smashed her blade into the solid armour of the death stalker. She smashed twice more, cracking the armour before puncturing it and putting the creature out of commision. A beowolf that had snuck up on her missed by a millimeter as it tried to impale her on it's thick, long claws. The second swipe wasn't as lucky as it ripped a good chunk out of Ruby's calf.
Ruby stumbled and killed the beowolf at the same time as she prepared for the last head of the taijitu to strike. Ruby aimed her sniper and pulled the trigger to hear a loud click… no explosion of the round leaving the chamber.
Out of rounds… well, it's been fun! Ruby limped onto solid ground to face off the crowd of grimm that seemed to have gotten larger rather than smaller since she started fighting as the black mass slowly closed in around her.
"Ruby! Get down!" A voice yelled from the top of the smoking hill of grimm beside her.
Ruby didn't trust her ears and looked at the top of the pile. Through the black smoke, Yang stood like a conqueror. Her fist raised and aimed at the grimm below in her battle stance.
"Yang!" Ruby couldn't find any other words to express just how surprised and relieved she was to see her.
"Talk later, Rubes. Gotta go." Yang said as she started her volley at the grimm to provide Ruby cover to climb the hill.
Yang took out any grimm stupid enough to get close to Ruby and after only a few seconds, Ruby was beside Yang on top of a death stalker husk. Ruby grabbed Yang's arm but Yang continued to fire her rounds, clearly having fun killing the evil creatures.
"Let's go!" Ruby groaned in pain as she started to descend the other side of the hill.
"Wait… one… second!" Yang grunted as she emptied her gauntlet's ammo at the grimm, drawing them into one large group at the bottom of the hill. Yang grabbed Ruby's arm and pulled her back onto the dead death stalker. "We're going surfing!"
Yang announced her intention to Ruby just as she fired the last round that literally ripped apart more than half of the grimm at the bottom of the hill before the shockwave pushed the death stalker over the side of the hill. Yang slammed her aviators on, which looked ridiculous as one of the lenses had busted out and the other one looked like it'd taken a bullet.
The dead creature stopped and Yang sprang off it, scooping up the injured Ruby as she sprinted back to where she'd left Weiss. Even across the crater, she could barely make out the humanoid shape that sat slumped in the shadow of the wreckage as the black smoke billowed around her.
"WEISS!" Ruby screamed as she saw their destination.
"Grab her up gentle, and get going, I'll cover you." Yang said, dropping Ruby to go the last few yards. She pulled two new belts of rounds out of her belt and quickly flipped them into her gauntlets. She cocked both and started laying down cover fire at the grimm that were just beginning to advance past the massive hill of their dead.
Ruby found Weiss almost unconscious. Weiss gave Ruby the single round she kept playing with during their psychiatrist visit and Ruby felt herself almost cry.
"For… luck… right?" Weiss breathed past the pain that she was obviously in. She sucked in deep breaths through her clenched teeth as her nose appeared to be broken. One of her arms and her opposite leg seemed broken as well, and her face was drenched in blood coming both from beyond her hairline and her old scar that had chosen another great time to split open. She didn't blink the blood out of her eye as if she didn't even notice it.
Ruby found herself amazed that Weiss was even alive, despite the fact she looked like a corpse. She didn't say anything, she just picked her girlfriend up and placed a gentle kiss on a part of her face she prayed wasn't hurt.
"Okay, let's go!" Ruby called over her shoulder as she started to jog awkwardly with the additional weight and her injured leg. Weiss quickly slipped back into unconsciousness as the bouncing of Ruby's jog and her extreme exhaustion coupled with her blood loss pulled her into sleep.
Yang watched as Ruby moved as quickly as possible toward the stronghold. Yang was fending off the creatures as best she could, but at this rate, her ammunition would be long gone before she even got half way there. Please be getting reinforcements, Blake!
She continued fighting, pushing any hopes out of the way of reality. If need be, she might just be able to carry Weiss as long as Ruby could hold on piggy-back style without strangling her. Who am I kidding? I'm not that strong!
She shook the one thought that kept reoccuring that she'd dump Weiss and save Ruby if she had the choice. Ruby would never forgive her for that one, she knew, and it would result in her committing suicide by grimm as evidenced by the previous battle. She knew by simply looking at them that the two really loved each other, but she had been raised differently than Ruby. What Ruby and Weiss had was great, but it was also not what should happen. But it can't be that wrong, if she's this happy, right?
The circular argument swirled in her mind as she instinctively fired rounds at the grimm, stalling their advance. She decided that what she'd been taught was wrong, and her hidden personal interest that she'd been denying herself for months now came back full force as if it had always been there.
If I get all of us out alive, I will act on you. She decided, not having much hope that they'd be able to get to the fall-back point before they were overrun with grimm. She loaded her last belt of ammo into her gauntlet.
She heard the caw of a nevermore and looked up to see three relatively small ones headed her way. She hated the small ones more than any others because they were harder to hit, but still had the same strength to tear through flesh with their beaks and claws.
She fired eight rounds before she managed to take all three down and started to regret her lack of extra ammunition. If I get back to beacon, I'm getting bigger pockets too.
She fired the last of her rounds to cripple two deathstalkers that blocked most of the road, causing a temporary road-block until the other grimm got impatient and simply climbed over them.
"Yang!" Ruby called over the growls of the grimm as Yang backed away from them. She shot a glance over her shoulder to see five people running full tilt towards them.
"Just in time!" She called back, turning to catch up with Ruby. "I just ran out of ammo!"
"Learn to conserve!" Blake yelled as she got closer, tossing a small box at Yang. Yang flipped the lid and started putting the shells in her gauntlets. "I couldn't get any dust. All they had were slugs."
"Fine. As long as it cracks the armour on those death stalkers, I don't care!" Yang replied as she loaded the last round and tossed the empty cardboard box down in the street.
"You two, left side. You're with me on the right. Let's cross it!" The huntress said. It was obvious she was the leader of the team as the three hunters sprang into position. "You've got a block to go. We're only setting a trap before withdrawing."
She jumped to her teammate and started fiddling with a device. Yang took Weiss from Ruby gently, reassuring her that she'd be gentle. Blake let Ruby jump on her back and together they ran back to the fall-back point.
They rounded a corner and Yang gasped. A makeshift wall of what looked to be mostly metal scrap was erected. In the side was a small door, big enough for one person to get through while crouched. A man looking over the top yelled down to someone hidden on the other side and they opened the door, pushing a stretcher through.
A loud explosion echoed from around the corner as the assistance team came sprinting towards the door.
Yang placed Weiss down quickly, but was careful not to bump her head as the stretcher was pulled in. Ruby followed after jumping down from Blake and then the team that had set the explosives ran in followed closely by Blake and at last Yang.
"It is nice to see you all alive considering the reports of your deaths." Ozpin said in greeting as he passed papers to a man standing beside him and pointed to another who was waiting for his attention. "We don't have any to spare." He told the man who walked away grumpily. "You may return to Beacon where we have set up a temporary hospital in the sparring gyms."
Ruby nodded to him and followed the white clothed man pushing Weiss away down the street. As she walked past Ozpin, he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Your team did an excellent job today, Ruby. You should be proud." He smiled and let her go. She continued walking as he turned back to the crowd of people around him.
Yang and Blake followed in silence for several blocks until the long ramp started to take them up the side of the cliffs.
"Blake?" Yang asked, looking at the faunus beside her. Her ribbon had been replaced in her hair to hide her ears and her weapon was slung over her back carefully.
"Yes?" Blake responded, not looking back as she continued to watch Ruby walk beside Weiss as if nothing had happened. "I guess they stopped fighting now."
"Huh? Oh, yeah… I guess." Yang replied. Blake sure wasn't making this easy. "Well, anyhow, I sort of promised myself I'd do something if everyone survived."
"Really?" Blake asked, her tone making it very clear she wanted no part of it, whatever it was.
"Don't worry. It's not something stupid like normal." Yang said with a nervous laugh.
"It wouldn't be you if it wasn't stupid." Blake shot back, still not looking at her teammate.
Yang couldn't figure out what to say to that, so she just said nothing. The two walked in that silence until they were almost at the top of the ramp. Yang reached out and grabbed Blake's hand to stop her. Finally, Blake turned to look at her teammate.
"You know, all this time I've been wondering if what Ruby and Weiss are doing is okay." Yang said, looking for an answer in Blake's eyes and not finding one. "But I don't see why I have to take what my mother taught me for most of my life as the only way things can happen. Do you know what I mean?"
Blake was silent as she pondered Yang's statement. "Well, I know your family adopted Ruby very young, and your mother left not long afte. So I assume there were things that you were taught that she wasnt."
"Nail on the head, like always." Yang smiled at how easy it was to tell Blake anything… well, almost anything. "Mom was about as racist and righteous as they come. Anti-faunus, anti-gay… she'd lay an egg if she knew what Ruby was doing."
"Well, I know that you got over my being a faunus pretty quickly." Blake stated, thinking back to when it had been revealed during a fight with Weiss.
"Yeah, well, I never agreed with that one even one percent." Yang said with a shrug. "But I never could convince myself that the gay thing didn't matter either, you know?"
"The usual argument over love verses procreation." Blake stated, having read extensive material on the matter in the library just out of curiosity and lack of other materials to read.
"Yeah… that. What do you think?" Yang asked, looking at Blake as if she might be able to tell if she was lying, which she wouldn't.
"I'd like to think that there is someone that I love out there. I don't very much care if it's a man or woman." Blake answered in her usual vague manner.
"I couldn't have said it better myself." Yang smiled, taking a step closer to Blake. "I also wanted to see if you felt the same way."
"Oh…" Blake started to turn away but Yang reached out and guided her head gently so they were looking into each other's eyes.
"I promised myself that if we all got out alive, I'd kiss you…" Yang whispered so quietly that Blake only picked it up with her faunus abilities.
"Okay…" Blake whispered her response as her eyes fluttered closed.
Yang leaned in carefully, not wanting to ruin the calm atmosphere by rushing. She felt Blake's breath on her lips and closed the space as gently as she could.
At first nothing happened. The two simply stood with their soft lips pressed together. Then Yang started to move and Blake mirrored her, deepening their kiss until they broke apart gasping for air.
"That was the best kiss I've had in a long time." Blake said with a smile.
"Oh, not the best kiss ever?" Yang mock pouted, jumping back into her normal routine with the cat faunus.
"Fine, but you better not tell anyone about us." Blake said threateningly.
"Why? What's wrong if people know?" Yang asked, completely confused by Blake's one-eighty from her earlier statements.
"I didn't say people shouldn't know, I told you not to tell them. I'm sure they'll put two and two together when they see us swapping spit before class." Blake joked. "And if they can't figure it out I guess I'll let you slap some stupid out of them."
"Well, good to know I'm the muscle and not the brains in this relationship." Yang commented, not knowing how she was supposed to take Blake's comment.
"Trust me, any relationship where you're the brains is destined to crash and burn." Blake laughed at Yang's pout as they continued toward Beacon to find the rest of their team.
"You forgot the mushroom cloud. Ka-booooooom!" Yang commented while making an explosion noise and miming an explosion with her hands.
"Yes. Yes I did." Blake shook her head and looped her arm through Yang's.
"Lets go out tomorrow." Yang said hopefully. "You know, if there's anything in Vale that hasn't been levelled by then."
"Sure. And if the city is levelled, we can always have some fun hunting." Blake smiled as she cracked her stiff neck.
"Kitty's acting like a tiger. Rawr!" Yang laughed, reaching up and scratching Blake's ears.
Blake let loose a loud purr that surprised her and made Yang smile even wider. She felt her face grow red in embarasement and she looked straight ahead, not really seeing where they were walking.
Yang leaned in close to Blake's ear and whispered. "I think that was the sexiest thing I've ever heard."
Blake ignored Yang for the next few minutes as the blush slowly left her face. When Beacon finally came into view at the top of the cliff, Blake pulled Yang away from the main path, guiding her across the lawn to a bench that looked out over all of Vale.
They sat down and looked at the decimated city in the setting sun. Orange fires glowed in the distance from bonfires that were surrounded by civilians and in the farther area past the barricade, a wall of flame was slowly making its way across the farthest edge of the city. The abandoned part of the city looked like it had been bombed out. Large craters pocked the normal cityscape and small fires burned here and there around smoke flares that were just dying down. Yang was almost convinced she recognized one of those as the helicopter that had almost killed her.
"I just have one question." Blake sighed as she looked in dismay at the disaster zone. "After everything that happened with our aura, why didn't we go anywhere?"
"Well, we're sort of stuck in school." Yang replied quickly. She was afraid that Blake would ask her that question, and wasn't necessarily ready to answer it.
Blake looked over at Yang, her eyes narrowed. "You know I didn't mean travel." Her tone left no room for argument as she paid carefull attention to Yang.
Yang sighed and closed her eyes to the setting sun, letting out a long breath. "I guess the short answer is that I was afraid to go any farther than we already had."
"You've been sleeping on that couch for a month." Blake pointed out with a little bit of a laugh in her voice. "I thought you just didn't like me that way after all."
Yang smiled at the thought of how her grades had improved drastically after she started to get up early on a daily basis. Her temporary happiness disappeared as she was once again faced with the reason she was forced to sleep on the dreadful piece of furniture.
"It's not really…" Yang started and stopped. "It's just that…. God, this is hard…. I guess I just couldn't get it out of my head that it's not supposed to be like this. That we're not supposed to be like this."
"Oh…" Blake looked crestfallen at Yang's words.
"But back there I realized something." Yang said, looking out at the fire she thought might be the burning helicopter. "I thought I was going to die when I saw the helicopter come down… I would have too if Weiss hadn't saved me. And in that final split second before Weiss tackled me… all I could think of was how stupid I've been. And seeing how Weiss and Ruby are when they're together… I couldn't help but wonder why I was wasting my time and my chances."
Blake felt a tear come rolling out of her eye as she watched Yang staring out at the sunset. Somehow she felt like Yang was finally opening up to her the way she'd been hoping she would for the past month. She was so happy that she couldn't think of anything to say in response.
Yang turned to see Blake's smile. Tears were running down her face as she tentatively reached her hand out to Yang. Yang took Blake's hand in her own and leaned forward.
"I'm so, so sorry that it took my almost dying to slap away my stupidity…" Yang appologized, her eyes locked directly with her teammate's. "And I promise that if you give me a chance, I will make it up to you however I can, for every day I made you think I didn't like you."
Blake couldn't speak so she just nodded her response and Yang sealed the deal with a kiss that was rather salty. After several moments, Blake was back to normal and Yang seemed to have grown an inch like she was just bursting with happiness.
"We should go check on the rest of our team." Blake said, remembering the horrible state Weiss had been in after saving Yang.
"I guess I better start repaying Weiss for saving my ass, huh?" Yang chuckled as they walked back to Beacon hand in hand.
"That might be a good idea, but I have a feeling Ruby's got everything covered." Blake responded, enjoying the feel of Yang's hand in hers.