Blake's eyes snapped open, pain registering throughout her body, and for a moment she had no idea where she was. It was pitch black and cold and there was a sound of trickling water in the background. Are we underground? She looked up along the tall rock walls to see a jagged opening above where the light from shattered moon high was shining in. The events of earlier came back to her in flashes, getting struck, the canon, explosion, falling and… She saw her partner's crumpled form among some rocks and debris.
"Yang!"
She cradled Yang in her arms, shaking her shoulders to wake her. A fear, like she had never experienced, gripped her when she didn't respond. She took in her partner's appearance with her Faunus eyes, black soot marks on her cheeks, and … She bit back a gasp when she saw her back, a circular mess of torn and bruised flesh. Yang must have taken a direct hit from the Paladin's cannon to protect her. Tears started welling up in Blake's eyes.
"Yang… Please wake up… Please?" She gently shook her shoulders.
Suddenly Yang sucked in a sharp gasp of air, her eyes opening wide as she felt a terrible pain from her chest and back. Blake watched in horror as Yang coughed up a mouthful of blood. She slowly brought up her arm to wipe it away with her sleeve. Something was broken inside of her, internal injuries for certain, bones, organs, or both, she wasn't sure exactly what.
Blake was relieved that her eyes were open but she knew that Yang was still in bad shape. Then she felt the anger bubbling up from deep inside her.
"Yang, you idiot… Why did you do that?"
Yang looked her in the eye and managed a weak smile.
"What are partners for?"
Hearing the weak cheer in her partner's voice nearly broke Blake's heart. She shook her head vigourously, dropping tears on Yang's face.
"No Yang. I haven't been a good partner at all," she sobbed. "I said those terrible things to you, I'm an awful person, you shouldn't have saved me, I'm not worth it…"
Now there was anger in Yang's eyes. "Of course you are!" she croaked but immediately went into another coughing fit, and there was more blood. Maybe she shouldn't talk anymore.
There was silence now. Blake took a moment to survey their situation. With her sensitive ears, she couldn't hear the sounds of the Paladin or the White Fang soldiers anymore. They must have left, confident that the intruders were vaporized by the blast that left that large crater. She looked at her scroll, shattered and blank from the electromagnetic pulse from the blast. No doubt Yang's was too.
She wasn't sure how long she was out, but they were probably missing long enough for Ruby and Weiss to be looking for them, but they were trapped deep underground. She needed a way to get their attention. Her eyes searched the surroundings for something and came to rest on Yang's bright orange scarf.
"I'm just going to borrow this okay?" Blake said, carefully undoing off the scarf around Yang's neck.
"Mm'kay" Yang replied absentmindedly, staring off into space.
Blake tied the scarf to the pistol of Gambol Shroud, aimed it to the sky, and pulled the trigger launching the scythe out the cavern hole. She felt the blade stick into something solid as the ribbon went taut. After that, there was silence for a while.
"Blake," Yang said. "If I don't make it—"
"Yang don't! Don't even think that, don't you dare!" she cried. Don't you dare think about leaving me.
Yang wanted to ask her to take care of Ruby, to tell her dad that she loved him and was sorry yet another woman in his life was leaving him, but Blake clutched her hand so tightly, and stared into her eyes with such intensity that she let it go.
"O-Okay."
Yang could feel herself getting weaker and weaker with each passing minute. She wasn't sure how long she could hold on, she might as go out smiling.
"Y'know…" Yang began. "It's actually kind of a romantic scene. You holding me in your arms… Moonlight shining down…"
Blake let out a sound that sounded like a bitter combination of a sob and a laugh. Situation as bad as it was, her partner was still a shameless flirt. She decided to play along.
"Well you should know," she sniffled. "That I don't' kiss on the first date."
Yang's eyes widened in surprise.
"Did you just make a joke?" she laughed.
Blake managed a smirk. "What if I did?"
Yang chuckled. "I always knew you had a sense of humour…" She closed her eyes with a smile still on her face.
"Yang…?" There was no response. "Yang!? Yang!" she screamed.
Just then a spotlight from an airship was shining down into the cavern, the sound of the whirring blades filling the air.