And here's Chapter 11. Enjoy!
Combat mode. The mode in which part of the user's Aura that was sealed away is released, allowing him to augment his Semblance and improve his abilities. In that form, a part of Lifesaver's functions are instead shifted towards combat-related functions, causing the stored Dust to be used at a much quicker pace. That also meant that Lifesaver's healing abilities were compromised, and with his Semblance stronger than before, Sapphire was also worsening his condition even faster, even further.
It was a mode in which he gambled his life. It was the only mode that the commander had allowed, but only when he had to fight to protect someone. Someone like a partner, a teammate, or a friend.
But now, to defend the enemy he swore he would kill, Sapphire Fall activated Combat Mode.
He felt the world slow down. Every sound became low and booming, echoing for an unnaturally long period of time. Every movement, no matter how minute, now felt like the air around it had been replaced with water.
The monsters approached. Seemingly oblivious to how dull their movements had become, the creatures without souls continued their charge, hostility emanating from every pore of their hideous bodies.
Feeling Daybreak and Duskfall slowly folding up to assume their bladed forms, each individual gear and part taking what felt like ages to settle into place, Sapphire rushed towards the incoming horde.
Several small missiles fired from Lifesaver's sides, spreading out before converging at the white snake, which was the closest. The explosions that followed did no more than stun the wretched creature, but it allowed Sapphire to get within striking range. With a backflip kick, he sent the Serpent into the air and let it spiral miserably to the ground.
Not pausing in his assault, Sapphire charged at the nearest Ursa and grabbed its flailing arm in mid-swing. Swinging the Grimm around with ease, he beat back a few more of its kind before hurling it at the Death Stalker.
The giant scorpion Grimm pierced through the thrown Ursa with its stinger, flinging away the carcass before it thrust its giant pincer towards Sapphire's neck. Grabbing it with two hands, Sapphire forcibly pulled the pincer apart, splitting it down the middle. Before the monster could elicit a cry of pain, several Dust Grenades exploded beneath its body, where there was nothing to cover it.
A beowolf closed in from behind, but Sapphire did not care; Lifesaver in Combat Mode was more than a simple pair of boots. The guns affixed to the holsters on its sides rotated, pointing its barrels at the enemy. In the next instant, they fired. Sapphire had not moved an inch; by reading the electric signals his brain sent out, the intelligent fully-weaponized mobile armor prototype Lifesaver could more than handle normal Grimm on its own.
As the Beowolf collapsed in a hail of bullets, Sapphire jumped, projected by the boosters on the soles of his boots. Grabbing onto the back of the Nevermore's head as it missed him with its dive, he used his free hand to stab at the massive bird in rapid succession. When the bird lost its balance and crashed into a bunch of trees, he leapt off, grabbed its tail feathers, and flung it into the air.
Sprinting back to where Blake was at, Sapphire picked up her discarded blade and threw it at the Death Stalker, which was still twitching. Even though two Ursi were in the way, the weapon still flew right through their stomachs and buried itself into the scorpion Grimm's head.
Without warning, Sapphire did a roundhouse kick at nothing in particular, until the black half of the King Taijitu shot out of the shadows and into his attack. It flew in an odd angle, crashing into the base of a small hill where several rocks tumbled down on impact, burying it.
Checking the condition of his weapons, Sapphire readied himself for whatever was approaching from the rustling thicket before him. Lifesaver was running out of Dust, but his Semblance would make up for that. Even if another Death Stalker or-
Rushing into the clearing created by the battle was Ozpin, followed shortly by Glynda Goodwitch. Behind them were the other students, each one looking as confused as the other. Sapphire opened his mouth to say something, but he paused upon seeing the look on his former commander's face.
"Neutral," he ordered, and Lifesaver gave off a series of hums and clicks. Almost instantly, the odd sensation that was his Semblance faded, although it did not vanish entirely. "She's over there. Check-"
A wave of pain flooded his legs, and in less than a second the ground rushed up to meet his rapidly fading vision.
The smell of lavender hung in the space, loftily filling his nostrils. As he slowly opened his eyes, Sapphire was greeted by a white ceiling with that appeared to be curtains at the side. As he registered the softness of the mattress below him, the moments before he passed out replayed in his mind in bits and pieces.
"I really did end up in a hospital," he wondered aloud.
"Not quite," a firm male voice said from somewhere to his right. "But close enough. This is Beacon's infirmary."
"It's not that heartening to wake up with a grown man by my bedside," Sapphire complained, his voice still a little groggy as he tried moving his arms around. "Where're my weapons?"
"You wish to be armed in an infirmary?" Ozpin enquired.
"You can never be too careful," Sapphire shrugged.
"Yes, that is correct," Ozpin agreed. "That is why reckless behavior should be avoided. Acts like using this would certainly fall into such a category."
Ozpin produced a small, circular object the size of a collar pin from his chest pocket, holding it up so that Sapphire could see, causing the younger man to groan.
"I found this curious device on Lifesaver," Ozpin explained. "It seems to be able to give off a special frequency that draws in Grimms."
"You touched my legs while I was asleep?" Sapphire asked, not making eye contact. "You have some fine tastes."
"As a result of your recklessness, you and Miss Belladonna were put in a lot of danger," Ozpin stated plainly. "No doubt you intended to take on all the monsters at once so that no one else would have to fight, but as you can clearly see now, that did not work out; Miss Belladonna was in quite a bit of shock."
"Was she hurt?" Sapphire asked, bolting upright as he suddenly remembered, before hissing in pain and collapsing back onto the bed.
"Not physically, no," Ozpin replied. "But I cannot say the same for her mental state. I expect it had something to do with what you said to her that night."
"I said the truth," Sapphire mumbled defiantly. "She'll be disappointed to hear I'm still alive."
"Is that what you really think?"
Sapphire looked away. He wanted to lie, but he was sure Ozpin would not be fooled that easily.
"Why did you go so far as to use Combat Mode?" Ozpin asked. "If you wanted to kill her, you could have just left her to the Grimm. You clearly knew the consequences of using it, so why?"
"You and your nefarious brainwashing," Sapphire answered. "Saying stuff like 'partners' and all that-"
"So you saved her because she was your partner?" Ozpin asked. "Even though you swore to kill her?"
"I swore to kill Monochrome," Sapphire snarled. "The woman I paired up with was too weak to be the Monochrome I knew."
"Her eyes," Ozpin offered, referring to what Sapphire had said to him that night. Wordlessly, Sapphire nodded. "They didn't look like a killer's eyes, yes? I would like to offer you an idea to ponder about while you rest: consider the possibility that Miss Belladonna never goes back to being Monochrome. What would you do then?"
"That's not-" Sapphire began.
"If it does happen, what would you do?" Ozpin repeated.
"I…" Sapphire stared at the ceiling, unable to speak. "She's still Monochrome. Nothing can change that."
"And yet you protected her because she was not the Monochrome you knew," Ozpin reminded. "As I have mentioned before, people change. You are no longer the weak child who could not hold back your Semblance. You are no longer the greenhorn of a mercenary who is wet behind the ears, unable to protect his team. In the same sense, is it so difficult to imagine that she can change for the better as well?"
Sapphire continued to remain silent, but the lack of talking only made it more difficult to not think about those words. To make matters worse, there was a part of him that wanted those words to be true. Was it because he did not want to kill her? But if so, why?
"Your selfishness made your teammates' worries increase instead of letting them share the burden with you," Ozpin said in a slightly louder voice, making Sapphire flinch. "And most importantly, you put two of my precious students in danger. That is something I absolutely cannot forgive. How you manage to make up for that mistake is up to you."
With those words, the headmaster of Beacon stood up and headed for the door.
"Oh yes, I forgot to mention," he said, stopping halfway. "I'm glad you chose to protect Miss Belladonna, even if it meant you had to use Combat Mode."
"Blake?"
Not turning to look at the owner of that voice, Blake let the wind flutter against her hair as she sat on the roof, looking at the sunset.
"What is it, Ruby?" she asked, still not looking at her.
"I-I thought you might be hungry," Ruby said meekly. "So I brought you a sandwich."
"Thanks," Blake replied flatly. "But I just don't have the appetite right now. Sorry."
"O-oh," Ruby said, slightly crestfallen. "That's okay! How about we talk, then?"
"Ruby, I-" Blake began, turning to look at her leader for the first time. She almost gasped. "Why are you crying?"
"I-I'm not!" Ruby replied hastily, rubbing her eyes. There were no tears to wipe away, but the marks left by previously shed trails down her cheeks could not be erased so simply. "I-I was cleaning the dorm and… um… dirt…"
"Ruby," Blake said, a hint of exasperation in her voice as her expression softened. "You know you're a bad liar."
Her shoulders drooping, the fearless, bold leader of Team RWBY sighed with a melancholic look of disappointment on her face.
"Come sit next to me," Blake offered, turning back to look at the sunset. She felt the young girl sit down on the edge of the rooftop to her right. For some reason, she had a soft spot for Ruby. "What's on your mind?"
"I wanted to ask you that," Ruby whined. "Your face when we found you in the forest was scary, Blake. We were all worried about you but no matter what we said, you just wouldn't respond."
"Oh," Blake said, somewhat lamely. "Sorry about that. I had… a lot of things on my mind."
"Can you tell me about it?" Ruby asked. "Maybe we could… talk this through?"
When Blake realized it, her mouth was already open. She slammed it shut immediately, biting back on the words that almost escaped her lips.
"I'm sorry," Ruby said suddenly, her mood downcast. "I shouldn't have tried to pry."
"It's alright," Blake replied, more gently than she thought she would be. "It's just… I don't know how to begin."
"Yeah, I think I understand," Ruby said. Blake looked at her in surprise. "When I saw Sapphire lying on the ground and blood was coming out from inside his boots, I was so scared. I never saw anyone die before, and I never want to. When I saw that a friend of mine was hurt and the thought of him dying crossed my mind, I was so frightened…"
Blake said nothing. Ruby had clearly misunderstood the reason for Blake's shock, but instead of correcting her, the Faunus continued to listen.
"My mother, Summer, went on a mission once and never came back," Ruby said. "I tried not to think about it, but when I got older I just kept fearing she might be… you know… gone for good. I didn't want to think about it, but even now I still get nightmares about it sometimes."
Blake understood then. The times Ruby tossed and turned endlessly at night had been because of that. Blake had always attributed it to Ruby's abnormally high levels of energy, but now she just felt stupid for not realizing.
"Ruby, I…" Blake paused. She had to say it. She needed to get it off her mind. "That's not it. When I was fighting, I froze when I remembered what Fall said to me about his teammates. They are all dead because of me. Even if I didn't kill them directly, I didn't stop my- my partner back then from killing them. I kept thinking about how it was all my fault, how I ruined his life, and I froze. I couldn't think straight and-"
Without warning, Ruby leaned in and hugged Blake, holding the Faunus close and squeezing her tightly.
"Ruby?!" Blake exclaimed in surprise.
"Hugs make everything better," Ruby replied childishly. "If you feel that way, then you should talk to Sapphire about it. I'm sure you two can find a way to solve the problem."
"I-I can't," Blake insisted. "He lost everything because of me. If I go to him now-"
"You mustn't think like that," Ruby said in a surprisingly firm voice. "You're always worrying about everything yourself; we know you want to put an end to things and you don't want to drag us into any danger, but we're friends, aren't we? We're Team RWBY. You can rely on us. No one should have to shoulder all the worries by themselves; we need friends to listen to us and talk us through them from time to time. That's what Sapphire's missing right now, right?"
Letting go of her friend, Ruby looked at Blake with earnest eyes. Her silver irises met her amber ones, reflecting her firm belief in what she said.
"I don't want you to worry by yourself, Blake," Ruby pleaded. "We all want to be there for you, and we want to be there with you. We'll always be by your side, so please, please, don't keep it all to yourself."
Blake said nothing for a few moments. She was feeling guilty, but now for another reason altogether. All her life, she had tried to do everything by herself. After leaving Adam behind and attending Beacon, she took it upon herself to change the way the White Fang did things. She thought of it as her own responsibility to defeat Roman Torchwick and worked herself to the bone for that purpose, until Yang taught her to slow down.
She had always felt alone, isolated, but in the end, she had been the cause of it all. She was the one placing walls around her heart, blind to the efforts of those trying to help her. Even though she thought she understood that, she had gone back to worrying by herself again after hearing Sapphire's words.
She worried alone, and that almost made her charge into a battle she could never win. She worried alone, and now it resulted in Sapphire risking his life to save her. In the end, all she ever accomplished by herself was to make her teammates – her friends – more worried about her.
"Er… Blake?" Ruby asked, before widening her eyes in surprise when the Faunus suddenly wrapped her arms around her.
"Hugs make everything better, right?" Blake asked, her voice slightly muffled. "Thanks, Ruby."
She might have been a childish girl two years younger than Blake was, but Ruby Rose was a competent leader. To Blake, who had insufficient experience in the field, she was also a dear friend.
No one should carry the burden alone. Her team had taught her that. Sapphire, who was alone, would never come to know that. This time, it was Blake's turn to stretch out her hand towards the lost child alone in their own suffering. It was her turn to be a teammate, and share the burden of her friends. Even if it meant crossing blades with him to make him see that.
Thank you, she repeated in her head.
I'll be honest: something felt kinda missing with this chapter. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but if you spot it, dear reader, do let me know.
And as always, thanks for reading!