A/N: Think of this as part of the previous chapter, just with an extra link in between it :P
Blake wasn't sure how long she had been running for, or how far, but after what felt like an eternity she had reached the edge of the crater and escaped that land of destruction. Throughout her hasty escape, her tear filled vision and multiple injuries caused her to fall over on more than one occasion, leaving her with stinging, grazed knees.
But the pain was mostly ignored for the majority of the journey, Blake's only concern was getting as far away from her team as possible for now. In that short moment with Yang, those few painful, agonising seconds, Blake had decided that she needed to leave, in order to keep the ones she loved safe, she had to leave them, because she was the cause of all their pain. She started all of this and she would have to end it, alone.
Yet even with the firm belief that what she was doing was the right thing, she couldn't help but pause and look back. She was leaving her friends behind, her family, she was running away again and she wasn't sure if she would ever come back. Yang was still where she left her, standing a little lopsided, watching her helplessly as she left her. The sight only served to cause Blake to feel even more guilt and chipped away a little more at her heart.
She was tearing them apart, from the beginning that's all she had been doing and now she still is doing it.
She forced herself to turn around and continue on, trying to squeeze the image from her mind.
Once she left the crater and was running through what remained of Forever Fall, the sun had risen above the horizon and shards of sunlight were peeking through the leaves of the trees. By that time Blake was exhausted and she was now moving at a slow walk, holding her left arm in her right as it continued to bleed. She looked down at her right hand, Yang's blood still clinging to her skin, her wound flashing through Blake's mind. She recoiled at the image, coming to a decision.
She moved through Forever Fall, using her faunas senses and skills to locate some sort of body of water. She heard the faint noise of running water, the soft trickling as water ran over rocks and gently continued on its way. She moved toward the sound and found the stream, a small river running through the forest, into the distance.
Blake moved toward it and fell to her knees by the bank. She leaned over and dipped her right hand in the water, letting the flow of the stream wash away what it could. She watched the dark, red swirls move from her hand and move down the stream, dissipating as the water washed it away. Some of the blood clung to her skin and she had to rub it off with her other hand, her left hand stung where the water washed over her wounds. Once her right hand was as clean as it would get she worked on her own wounds, cleaning them with the running stream, hissing as the minerals and salt in the water washed through her wounds and caused them to sting. Once the blood was gone she could finally see the wound, a gash that ran from her shoulder down to her elbow. The rest of her arm was riddled with smaller, shallower cuts, the inside of her palm was horribly scarred.
Once the painstaking task of cleaning the cuts as best as she could was over, she removed the ribbon around her ears, wrapping it around her arm using it as a makeshift bandage. She sighed and looked down at the surface of the water, her reflection looking back up at her. Her ears twitched and suddenly she was overwhelmed with frustration and anger, all directed at the person staring up at her.
"All your fault! All of it! Selfish! You're selfish! You wanted a new life, wanted to start again regardless of who you affected! Now look what's happened! Gah!"
Blake lashed out at the running water, disturbing its peaceful flow and ruining the reflection before her. She got to her feet and turned to leave, but someone was standing behind here.
"That's hardly fair to yourself."
Blake jumped at the sudden appearance of the man. She should have heard him approaching way before he got this close, but obviously she wasn't feeling herself at the moment.
"Kage? Wha-what are you doing?"
"Making sure I don't lose you."
Blake looked him up and down, he didn't fare any better than the rest of them. His thick, black hair was dishevelled and messy, parts of it was shaded crimson, probably from his blood. His right eye was half closed, a small cut above his brow causing blood to slide down past it. There was a cut across his cheek and a large portion of his clothing was torn and revealed bruised and tattered skin.
But all in all, his deep dark eyes didn't show any signs of pain or hurt. He just stood with a half grin looking at Blake. He cocked his head to the side and Blake realised she was staring.
"W-what's it to you where I go?"
"I'm not sure if you were paying attention before but, I did say my leader wants to see you."
Blake remained silent for a moment, "Who is your leader anyway, what does he want with me?"
"She actually, and that I wouldn't know. She didn't exactly fill me in."
"It doesn't matter anyway."
Blake moved past him and continued on, but Kage followed close behind.
"Why are you following me? Go away."
"I've been looking for you for a while, I'd really rather not lose you. Plus I have a feeling you might do something stupid later on."
"Don't think you're going to stop me. It's none of your business what I do."
"That's true, but either way I'm still going to follow you." Kage replied simply.
Blake looked at him, her eyes searching his mystery for some answers, but after finding nothing her gaze softened.
"I wouldn't get too close, you might get hurt."
Yang remained in her position, watching Blake until the faunas left her vision completely, which was when Yang's body became conscious of its condition and she collapsed to the ground.
"Yang!"
Of course by that time Ruby and Weiss had made their way over to her.
"Yang! Your back! Oh god!"
Ruby fell to her knees by her sister's side, disregarding her own condition in favour of her older sisters.
"I swear," Yang groaned, "It's nothing really."
"Yang don't be an idiot, we need to get help. Weiss."
Ruby turned to her partner, taking note that there was some sense of worry in the heiress' eyes. "Do you have your scroll?"
"Fortunately, it won't be necessary."
Ruby and Weiss turned toward the voice, even though it was unmistakable.
"Professor Goodwitch?"
The professor walked up to the three girls, kneeling opposite Ruby by Yang's side. She placed her riding crop to the side and inspected the wound carefully.
"Help is on the way, don't worry too much." She said coolly, looking over their wounds. "I assume you've all seen better days."
"We'll live." Weiss replied, looking away from the professor.
Goodwitch shot her a glance but returned her attention to the blonde gradually losing consciousness before her. She took a look at the object lodged in the brawlers back.
"This should probably come out." She stated.
"What? Now?" Ruby said, a little fearful.
"Yes now, I don't know how long the paramedics will be."
"Don't-w-worry Ruby, I'll be f-fine."
Goodwitch placed her hands over Yang's back, a faint purple glow emitting from her palms. The glow seemed to wrap itself around the wound and take hold of the object. Yang winced visibly as her face scrunched up as pain blossomed from the wound.
"In three." Goodwitch stated.
Yang nodded.
"Three, two, one."
Needless to say, Ruby had never heard her sister yell that loudly, or in that much pain before. The red head was filled with worry before the large string of curses began to leave her sisters mouth, then Ruby became a little embarrassed.
"I suppose I owe you an explanation." Goodwitch said, addressing the two conscious members of team RWBY.
After Goodwitch pulled the object free of Yang's back, and the blonde finished swearing and yelling, the paramedics arrived just as she gratefully slipped into unconsciousness. The paramedics themselves had to remind themselves who they were here for, the destruction around them distracting them easily.
A medical airship arrived to pick them up, Yang was moved in by stretcher whilst Ruby and Weiss were able enough to walk in themselves. Currently their visible wounds were being treated as they flew toward the nearest hospital.
Weiss had to force herself to stop hissing every time the medic dabbed at her cuts, the medic would be there for a while and Weiss didn't think it would be easy to hold a conversation when she was hissing every third second. Unfortunately, although she managed to stop the audible wincing, her body kept twitching every now and then.
"Well I guess that would be a good idea." Ruby stated.
Goodwitch was sitting across from the duo, Yang resting peacefully between them.
The professor sighed, adjusting her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
"After careful consideration of what you had told me Ruby, I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt, so I looked in to what you had told me and realised you were telling the truth. I was lucky enough to reach you in time. "
"You saved us?" Ruby asked.
"You were fortunate enough that I made it in time and was able cast a barrier around you all before the explosion. There was no way I could have stopped the explosion itself, but at least I kept you alive."
"Barely." Weiss mumbled as her arm instinctively twitched away from the medic by her side.
Goodwitch raised an eyebrow at the heiress but chose to ignore it.
"Where is Blake?" Goodwitch asked.
Ruby looked to Weiss but the heiress remained silent. "She uh, she ran away."
"Ran away?"
Ruby nodded.
"Why?"
"That's a good question." Weiss said softly, although they all heard.
"Come to think of it, wasn't there a boy with you as well?"
"Who? Oh him, we didn't notice he was gone, we don't really know him…at all."
After a short silence fell over them, they all sat in silence as the airship moved through the air, rocking gently every so often. Yang mumbled a few times in her sleep, her face creasing and cringing. The medic by Weiss' side finished patching the heiress up, all her cuts had been cleaned and the larger ones stitched up, although her dress wasn't faring any better.
Once the airship landed and they arrived at the hospital, Ruby was finally able to get Weiss alone.
"Weiss, are you going to tell her about Winter?" Ruby asked.
"Why? So they can ignore us and do nothing again? I don't think so."
"Weiss!"
Weiss sighed, "Ruby I don't think the White Fang would like it if we started to tell other people. If you know what I mean."
Ruby nodded, Weiss had a point, unfortunately it was a good point. It looked like they were really doing this alone. After a short silence Ruby spoke again.
"Weiss, are you worried about Blake?" Ruby asked carefully.
"Blake? Of course I am why wouldn't I be?" Weiss replied evenly.
"Weiss."
Weiss sighed, she honestly wasn't sure how she felt about the faunas right now.
"Ruby, now isn't the best time to ask me that."
"Weiss she's your teammate! Your friend!"
"I know what she is Ruby, but what she did isn't something I can look over easily."
"But can you really blame her?"
Weiss paused, she wasn't expecting Ruby to say something like that. "Excuse me?"
"Weiss, you know Blake and Adam have a history, you were about to kill him."
"He deserves it." Weiss replied, forcing herself to keep her tone even.
"Weiss, I know this is hard for you because your sister is involved and I'm not asking you to forgive Blake, at least not yet, I'm just asking you to be understanding. Blake obviously still has feelings for Adam, it wouldn't have been easy for Blake to do what she did, she knows how you feel about Winter and no doubt cares for as well."
Weiss listened as her partner's words came out true and wise, something Weiss wouldn't have expected Ruby to do.
"We know Blake loves us, imagine how conflicted she would have been. Weiss she ran away, again. No matter what she does, she's a part of the family and we can't lose her."
Weiss looked at Ruby, her silver eyes stern and unwavering. Weiss hated it when Ruby was serious like this, because she was usually always right.
"I know Ruby, I know." Weiss sighed, "But Winter is my sister, you can't blame me for that. I could have her with me right now!"
"But Adam would be dead and how do you think Blake would feel about you then?"
"Ruby we can't save everyone."
"Not unless we try."
A/N: Woah! Ruby stepping it up! She'll be a great huntress!
Tell me, is the angst real?
