Ren had no idea who he was fighting. He had no idea what her semblance was, or how she might react to any given move, or whether or not there was more to her weapon than just a parasol. What he did know was that she was, without a doubt, the single most irritating opponent he'd ever faced.
He ducked a swing of her weapon, then followed up with a series of jabs. She dodged all of them. While smirking. He turned to look back towards where his partner had been and grimaced.
"Penny!" he called out. "Could you—" Ren didn't get to finish, because the girl he was fighting chose that moment to bash him over the head with her parasol. He had to fight to keep his balance—that thing hit harder than it should've, considering its apparent weight.
"I can help!" Penny abandoned the fight with Torchwick and launched herself at Ren's opponent. A quick glance told him that Pyrrha and Ruby were fine—the thief was cursing under his breath, too busy defending himself against two opponents at once to return fire. It was a matter of time before he went down.
"Where's Sky?" Ruby asked between blows.
Ren replied with a terse, "Gone."
"What?"
"He left." Parasol Girl froze for a moment, looking towards where Sky had been. Ren lunged at her, but she slipped back and then circled around him. He started to turn, then cried out as he was struck across his back. Something hooked around his foot and pulled him off-balance so that he landed face-first on the ground. When he rolled over, he saw his opponent pulling a blade from inside the umbrella, eyes gleaming.
Penny struck out with a halo of floating blades, intercepting her before she could bring the sword down. Ren rolled hastily to his feet. Then, behind him, he heard Ruby yelp. He twisted around, and watched as she lunged at empty air—while Torchwick lined up a shot and fired. Pyrrha slammed into him with her shield, knocking him away just in time to disrupt his aim. Then she stepped back, head turning away from him, and let him land a hit across her jaw.
What—?
"Friend Ren," Penny said, "We should focus on our own opponent!"
He looked back and found that she had a very good point. Parasol Girl was dancing around her, slashing with the sword in one hand and blocking with the other half of the umbrella in the other. She didn't seem to mind, though—every attack was met with one of her floating blades, and there were too many of them for the girl to block. She took a nasty hit to the shoulder even as he watched, and backed away with her umbrella held towards Penny like a shield. Ren leapt into the fray, aiming for the enemy's back. Then he turned around, baffled. He'd missed completely, and before he could recover her sword dragged across the back of his neck. His Aura saved him, but he had to retreat to avoid a series of vicious slashes.
"Pomegranate!" Ruby shouted.
"What are you talking ab—ow! You little brats!" Torchwick sounded angry. Good.
"Apple!"
Ren aimed a kick at Parasol Girl's head. It connected, and he followed up with a slash towards her exposed side. Then, Ruby screamed. His head whipped around just in time to see the telltale flash of her Aura as it shattered under a heavy blow from Tochwick's cane. He laughed. Pyrrha put herself in front of her partner with an expression that was downright murderous.
Then Ren had to turn around again, because Parasol Girl was barely giving him any time to breathe. Penny helped him on that front, and he managed to position himself so that they were flanking their opponent. Now they just needed to—
One of Penny's swords slammed into his gut with the force of a runaway train. He made a pathetic huffing noise as the air left his lungs, then keeled over onto the ground and landed into a heap. His own Aura fizzled out.
"Ren!" Pyrrha reached out towards him, but couldn't move without letting Torchwick shoot at Ruby. Penny was staring at him, horrified, ignoring Parasol Girl completely.
"I'm so sorry!" she blurted. "I thought..."
Torchwick laughed. "Man, you kids have got to work on your aim. Say—er, not-so-little Red. Think you could move a little to the left?"
To Ren's horror, Pyrrha's head turned—and with it, her shield. "Don't!" he yelled. She didn't so much as look at him. Torchwick's semblance? Some kind of mind-control?
"Well, I have to admit," the thief gloated, raising his cane, "that is neat!" Ren forced himself to his feet, stumbled, then took a few haphazard steps towards Torchwick. He collapsed just behind him, his hand wrapping around the man's ankle. He looked down, raising an eyebrow, then kicked out. Stars erupted in Ren's vision, and for a moment everything went blurry. A gunshot rang out.
When his eyes focused again, Penny was standing in front of Torchwick with her arms outstretched. A patch of skin on her left shoulder had been torn away, revealing... nothing. No blood, only a glint of metal.
"Um..." she said, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. "I..."
Torchwick lowered his cane for a moment and stared at her. "Huh. That's new."
Penny backed up a step, looking around frantically. Ren tried to push himself to his feet, then collapsed when Torchwick gave him another kick—this time to the shoulder. She stopped backing away. Her eyes narrowed.
"I don't like you very much," she decided. The blades that had previously been orbiting her condensed into a tight ring, and light began to glow in its core.
Torchwick just laughed. "That's not nice. I think I'd rather you shot her—" he pointed at Pyrrha.
"Penny!" Ren yelled, though he knew it was pointless. "Don't shoot!"
"It's alright," Pyrrha assured him. "He's right there, she can't miss!"
"I think it's his semblance! He'll do something—"
Penny turned—slowly, inexorably. Pyrrha's eyes went wide, and she dived towards Ruby. Torchwick took the opportunity to shoot her, but her Aura took the brunt of the attack. Ren grabbed his leg again and yanked.
"Would you just—ugh—give it up already?!" Torchwick shook his foot frantically, trying to loosen his fingers. Then he kicked again, and Ren took the opportunity to pull while he was off-balance. He went down in a heap, cursing.
The sound of a blade being drawn made Ren look up. Parasol Girl was standing over him, grinning. He tried to push himself out of the way—he'd promised to do that much at least, to claw and fight and never give up—but the weapon was coming down and Penny was aiming unerringly at Pyrrha and it had all gone so wrong—
And then, there was fire. Ren heard a thunderous roar, then a wave of blistering heat, and then... nothing. He twisted around to look above him and found that Parasol Girl had backed off, flourishing her umbrella in front of her. And, standing at the end of the street...
"Professor Oobleck?" Ren blurted, staring at the man as if he'd just... well, saved their lives.
"Ah! Students!" He bowed. "My deepest apologies for not arriving sooner! I was still at Beacon when I got word you were here."
"That's... irritating," Torchwick said, flipping his cane around and leaning on it casually. "I don't suppose you'd just... let us leave, would you?"
"Most certainly not!" Oobleck glared at him. "I tend to take offense to people attempting to murder my students."
"Why, thank you." Roman tipped his hat and walked away, pausing only to wink at something over Oobleck's shoulder. Ren watched helplessly, reaching out with one hand. Parasol Girl shot him a longing look, then followed her boss.
"Professor!" Pyrrha groaned. "They're getting away."
"What?!" Oobleck did a double take. "My word, where did they—but I suppose that isn't our priority at the moment."
"But..." Pyrrha turned to look at Ruby, who was still lying on the ground. Her shoulders slumped. "No. It isn't."
"Penny," Ren grunted, finally hauling himself to a sitting position. She wasn't looking at Professor Oobleck—instead she was standing hunched, a hand over her shoulder. Her green eyes were wide with fear. "It's alright," he soothed, putting his hands out. She bolted past him, and he didn't have the energy to give chase.
"Miss?" Oobleck stepped forward, then stopped. "Was she... one of Torchwick's?"
"No!" Pyrrha shook her head. "She helped us."
He nodded. "Then she's no threat to us. Miss Nikos? If you would help me..."
Pyrrha pulled Ruby's arm over one of her shoulders, and Oobleck took the other. Ruby herself was struggling to lift her head. "My everything hurts," she mumbled.
"Me too," Ren said, managing a weak chuckle.
Slowly, painstakingly, they made their way away from the shattered storefront. Onlookers stared at them as they passed. There was a man with a pair of wolf's ears, a blond child who asked Oobleck for an autograph, and a green-haired girl whose red eyes lingered on them long enough for it to feel uncomfortable.
Once they were past any civilians who'd been in the area, there were concerned questions and suspicious glances. Professor Oobleck ignored most of the bystanders, aside from asking one of them to take his place supporting Ruby. Once he was free, he fiddled with his scroll for a moment until Goodwitch appeared on the screen.
"Bart. What happened?"
"They're not seriously hurt, as far as I can see." He frowned. "Torchwick escaped."
Her jaw tensed. "Well. I suppose that's the best we could have hoped for. Let Raspberry know that they will be facing detention."
"What?" Ruby, who hadn't seemed to be paying that much attention to... well, anything, suddenly perked up. "But we were trying to help!"
"You put yourself and your team in danger," Goodwitch snapped. "Be glad that it's only detention, Miss Rose, and not death or permanent injury."
Ren sped up for a moment so that he could look into the scroll. He did a double-take when he saw Sky peeking out from behind Goodwitch. The second their eyes met, his partner turned to stare at the floor.
Goodwitch sighed. "I'm glad you're all alive. Now, if you would kindly get back here so that we can assess the damage?"
"Yes ma'am," Ruby mumbled, and Pyrrha echoed her. Ren nodded assent, then immediately regretted it when it made his head spin.
Oobleck hung up, and a long silence descended on their little group. Then he turned to them and smiled. "Well!" he said, clapping his hands together. "I suppose I should offer you an extension on tonight's homework."
"We had homework?!" Ruby blurted. Ren put a palm to his face.
Weiss Schnee wasn't hiding. She was just taking a walk through parts of Beacon she was reasonably sure that none of her teammates would be in. And jumping at vaguely Blake-shaped shadows.
It certainly wasn't because she was scared of her partner. Just... well, she didn't have even the faintest inkling of how to go about mending bridges when she'd spent years getting very good at burning them. And if she said the wrong thing now, when their team was almost irreparably broken, there might not be time to figure out how to fix things before Goodwitch dissolved their team and her father decided to pull her out of Beacon.
She turned on her heel and stalked back the way she'd come, scattering a group of second-years and scowling so fiercely at one boy that he crossed the hallway to avoid her. It wasn't quite pacing, mostly because she wasn't using the same route. She was wandering aimlessly, occasionally stopping to make sure she wasn't anywhere between the library, the cafeteria, or their dorm.
Only when she strayed dangerously close to the library did she finally run into Dove. He was walking hurriedly, head panning back and forth, but she came around a corner at a bad time and bumped into him.
"There you are!" He gave her a polite smile. She found she wasn't capable of returning it, only of nervous fidgeting.
"Did you ask?"
Dove nodded. "My source will remain nameless."
"Ominous..."
He shrugged. "I didn't give out your name, did I?"
"So? What did they say?"
The corner of his mouth twitched. "You could stand to be a bit more polite, you know. I am doing you a favor."
"You sound like Russel."
"Right." He coughed into his hand. "Anyway, here it is—mostly word for word. Apparently you have to build trust by starting small. Let the other person take notes for you, share hobbies, things that wouldn't bother you if they didn't follow through."
She raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Really. According to my source."
"Who you won't name."
"Correct. Over time you build up to bigger things, promises that would hurt a little if they were broken. Keep going until you're friends."
"That's it?"
"That, or almost die together a bunch of times."
Weiss gave him a look, but he just shrugged. "Like I said. Mostly word for word."
"And this actually works?"
"It's not as if I've tried it. I don't make friends, they make me jump off cliffs."
"The longer we talk," Weiss said, eyeing him suspiciously, "the more I question the wisdom of taking advice from you."
"It's a good thing it's not from me, then, isn't it?"
"Then why won't you just tell me who said it?!"
Dove raised an eyebrow. "I have an addendum for you. Not from my source—it's all me."
"What?"
"Just say thank you, next time." He chuckled, then turned and headed back down the hall.
"Thank you," she grumbled at his back. Then she was left alone, turning over this new information in her head.
It sounded awfully one-sided for her tastes. But she supposed that if the trust thing didn't work she could always try the last part. With that in mind she squared her shoulders, swallowed as much of her pride as she could, and promptly realized that while she now had an approach to try, it had never specified a place to start.
Fifteen minutes later she was standing in front of a coffee dispenser and scowling. Since she'd been avoiding Blake for the past... basically forever, she had no idea how much milk or sugar her partner would take. With that in mind, she guessed. Then threw out the resulting cup and tried again. Her fourth cup of coffee was deemed satisfactory—if only because she checked the time and realized that curfew was in less than an hour, and she might actually rather die than try to do this in front of Cardin. Thus armed, Weiss marched towards the library prepared for war.
Blake was in a far corner, hunched over a book. Weiss stood frozen in the doorway for a long moment. Then she chided herself for being stupid and walked forward with her head held high. Her partner turned towards her, eyes narrowing. Her mouth opened. Weiss shoved the coffee between them like a shield.
"Here," she said, placing it on the table. Blake stared at it like it was a bomb. Then, slowly, one eyebrow quirked upward.
"What are you doing?"
Weiss had tried to rehearse this a few times, but then gave up when she realized that it kept coming out differently every time. She folded her arms across her chest. "We're supposed to be partners, right?"
"I think you've made it pretty clear you're not interested." Blake stared daggers at the coffee, and Weiss gave it a little push in her direction.
"I'm saying that if we're going to stay here... we're going to have to work together. And in the interest of that..." she gestured at the cup. It was steaming invitingly. Blake didn't move to drink any.
"You... what, thought we could just ignore the past few weeks because coffee?"
"Hardly." Weiss shifted from foot to foot, then went ramrod straight out of years of habit. "I think we need to start somewhere. I think... this isn't going to work unless we're both willing to bend a little."
Blake looked down at the coffee again, her brow furrowing. The silence dragged on, and Weiss grew irrationally irritated with the slightly off-beat ticking of a clock somewhere behind her. Then her partner relaxed a fraction.
"I prefer tea," she said bluntly. "With that said, the gesture is... appreciated." Weiss nodded.
"May I?" She pointed to the empty chair beside Blake.
Blake thought for a moment, then gestured for her to sit. She did so. That seemed to be about as far as either of them had planned ahead.
"How do you like your tea?" Weiss asked, more out of desperation than any real interest.
"Milk, no sugar." No elaboration was forthcoming.
"Any... favorite colors?"
There was a long, shocked pause. Then, slowly, Blake turned her head and stared at Weiss. "...Why?"
"I thought it might be useful information," Weiss lied. Blatantly.
"Really." Blake smirked. "Will we need to color-code our pillowcases?"
"Ugh!" Weiss slapped a hand down on the table. "I panicked and copied Jaune, happy?!"
Blake laughed—it was a much softer sound than Weiss had expected. "He really asked you that?"
"Yes."
"What did you tell him?"
Weiss put her chin up. "I'd like the record to show that you've asked just as many inane questions as me, now."
"I thought we were two to one."
"What you put in your tea is hardly inane. After all, if the wrong beverage got us talking..."
"I guess you're right."
Weiss did an exaggerated double-take. "Sorry, say that again?"
"Don't get used to it, princess."
"I already am."
Something flashed in Blake's eyes. "Of course you are," she said acidly.
Weiss went rigid. "If you have something to say—"
"I have a lot of things to say."
"What is your problem with me, anyway?! You've had it out from me since the start!"
"I met you when you were shouting at someone for an honest mistake, remember?"
"That was—she could have killed us!"
"You were overreacting, just like you overreact to everything! And besides, at least half of that mess was your fault."
"How was that in any way my fault?"
Blake laughed. Maybe it was the harshness of the sound, the contrast between this and the gentler one she'd let slip before. Maybe Weiss was finally realizing how tense they both were, that her hand had clenched into a fist and was dangerously close to spilling the untouched coffee.
"Pause!" she blurted.
Her partner stared at her for a moment, livid—until something seemed to register. "I thought you hated that," she said suspiciously.
"I do." Weiss sighed. "But... I hate the idea of the team disbanding more."
"Does it matter?" Blake made a vague, frustrated gesture with one hand. "This has been a complete wreck from the start."
"I don't care. I just... need this to work. I'll make it work, if I have to."
"Why? You could probably come back next year and get a different team. Even if you can't, there are other schools."
"No. It's... it has to be here. Now. If I don't fight for it this time, if I just give up... then maybe I'll keep doing that. And I'm not doing that."
Blake seemed to digest that for a moment, sitting with her head cocked slightly to the side. Slowly, almost grudgingly, she nodded. Her hand extended.
"Purple," she said. Weiss paused for a moment, thrown, then managed a small, polite smile.
"Red."
They shook.
"You did what."
Ruby backed away a step, rubbing nervously at the back of her neck. "Um... well..."
"You did what?"
"It was an accident!"
"You did what?!" Yang lunged forward and grabbed her sister in a headlock, then started knuckling her head.
"Hey! Lemme go!"
"Nuh-uh! You fought Torchwick? Again?!"
"Yang—Yang, ow! Head wound!"
She let go in a heartbeat, then ran her fingers through her sister's hair to check for bumps. There was a cut near her temple, one that had been recently stitched up. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"
Then she froze. "Why do you have a head wound?"
Ruby whimpered.
"Ruby! What happened to your Aura?!"
"It was only down for like a minute!"
"A minute is a long time in a fight!" Yang knelt down in front of her, checking for more injuries. There was a livid bruise on one shoulder and a smaller cut on the back of her left hand. "You could have—you could have died, Ruby! What the hell?!"
"It wasn't like that!" Ruby squirmed a little when Yang pulled her hand closer to inspect the cut. "Seriously, Yang, you're being embarrassing!"
About three feet away, Nora was fussing over Ren's left eye, which had swollen halfway shut and turned a magnificent shade of purple. Then she circled around him a few times, poking and prodding. When he winced, she straightened up and put her hands on her hips. "See? See what happens when you run off on your own like a... like a lone-wolfing jerk?! Dove!"
The boy in question yelped and stood to attention. "Where are the bandages?!" Nora demanded. He hurried into the bathroom, where Russel had been hiding for the past five minutes or so. "And get some ice!" she shouted after him.
When he returned, he handed Ren a bag of frozen peas, parceled some bandages out to Yang and Nora, and then offered the rest to Pyrrha. She shook her head, then looked to the floor. "My Aura didn't break."
"You know," Nora said dangerously, giving Ren the kind of evil-eye that would have made a lesser man keel over on the spot, "when she says stuff like that, it almost sounds like she's the only one." He hung his head.
"Wait." Dove craned his neck to look past Pyrrha. "Where's Sky?"
All three members of RSPR froze. Yang felt her heart drop.
"He, um..." Pyrrha shifted from foot to foot.
"He left." Ren glanced towards the door. "That is to say, he ran away."
For a moment, Yang felt as though she was experiencing a slice of Ren's everyday existence, a profound calm that relaxed all her muscles and left her mind perfectly, blissfully clear. Then she marched out of the dorm with her hair swirling in her wake, already burning.
"Wha—Yang!" Ruby ran after her and grabbed her hand, digging in her heels to pull her back. "Wait a second!"
"Did you order him to go?!"
"Well, no..."
"Where is he?" Yang was dimly aware of Nora making a vague, violent gesture behind her—she took it to mean that her teammate would be staying with Ren but would very much like for one of Sky's limbs to be broken for her. Ruby had seen, and made a distressed mewling noise before giving her arm another pull.
"Yang, stop it! I mean, maybe he kinda ran off but he also called Professor Goodwitch and then she sent Professor Oobleck and if he hadn't shown up then we probably would have died—"
Yang stopped dead. Ruby bumped into her, then gave her hand another ineffectual tug. Slowly, she turned around to face her little sister.
"Would have died?!"
"Eep!" Ruby backed up a bit and hid behind Pyrrha, who was still hovering nervously outside BRYN's dorm. "Maybe not? I mean, I was kind of out of it at the end there..."
"Kind of out of it?!"
"Pyrrha was protecting me!" Ruby protested. "Right Pyrrha?"
Yang glared at her sister's partner. Her green eyes were wide, and she was turning redder by the second. "Pyrrha..." she growled.
"That's—um, well... I was trying! And I would have, it's just that Ren thinks Torchwick's semblance might be some kind of mind control or—"
It was at about that point that Yang could actually feel herself losing all capacity for coherent thought. All she could really do was screech, "Mind control?!" like a banshee and rush at Ruby.
Pyrrha tried to get in her way, and was shoved roughly sideways. Ruby tried to run, and was grabbed around the middle and pulled into a crushing hug. Yang buried her face in her shoulder, felt the fabric of her cloak against her forehead, and let out a shaky breath.
"You scare the crap out of me sometimes, you know that?" she said weakly.
Ruby patted her on the back. "Um... sorry."
"I might just handcuff the two of us together."
"That... would make sparring kinda hard."
"You're the only sister I've got, remember? You can't just..." Her voice failed.
"...Sorry."
"Ah, geez..." She rubbed circles on Ruby's back, felt her own heartbeat slow back down to something a bit less frantic. Then she stood up, keeping her arm around her little sister—her crazy, reckless, brave little sister who was going to give her a coronary someday. Her free hand wiped at her eye.
"We should probably stop before Alabaster thinks we're stealing their sitcom." She managed a chuckle.
Pyrrha was standing stiff as a board, her eyes fixed on what had to be the most fascinating floor tile in Beacon. On impulse, Yang hugged her too. She made a strangled, confused noise. "Thanks... for having her back."
Then she frowned. "And I guess I should thank... Penny? Who is Penny?"
"Oh!" Ruby perked up at that. "We met her in the docks—and it was all a little bit weird because I think she's almost as bad at talking to people as I am, and we all thought she was Nora for a second because all we saw when she was following us was her hair."
Yang's eye twitched. "Please explain why a random girl was stalking you before you give me another heart attack."
"She wanted to listen to us talk so she could learn how to make friends."
That probably made sense in some sort of weird, alternate universe—apparently the one Ruby lived in, and maybe also Jaune and the rest of RSPR—but Yang decided that as long as it wasn't malicious she didn't need to be able to fathom it. Instead she shrugged and went back into BRYN's room. Ruby seemed to be trying to step away from her. After a moment, she relented and let her go.
"So!" Nora was saying—declaring, really. "What did we learn today? Ren."
"No more running off to do dangerous things without you."
Russel raised his hand. "Um, does that include Dove and me?"
Yang stared at him. "I mean, do you want to stay in Beacon while the rest of us chase down wanted criminals?"
"Well, no. But I don't want to die either, and... uh..." he trailed off.
"We almost died," Ruby finished, wincing.
"Eight against two would be much better odds than four against two," Pyrrha pointed out.
"Uh, four?" Russel frowned. "Didn't Sky—"
Ren nodded. "He did, but we found a... er, plus one."
"Plus one?" Nora narrowed her eyes. "Who is this plus one?"
"Her name's Penny!" Ruby bounced on her heels a few times. "Her hair the same color as yours, so we almost thought she was you for a second but she's way different. I mean she's short and kinda quirky and hits a lot harder than it looks like she should and... wait..."
Nora had gone from suspicious to downright furious. "You found another me?!"
"She used swords and lasers," Ren said. "That, and she seemed less... violent." Nora relaxed at that.
"That's okay, then," she decided. "She's not me if she's not ready to break a few legs to make an omelet!"
Ren chuckled. "This is why you're banned from the kitchen, Nora."
"I thought that was because I found out flour can be an explosive."
"That too."
Nora grinned, but only held it for a second before she turned serious. "Hey, Ren?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I come over to your dorm tonight?" He glanced up at the clock.
"I suppose it is after eight." He tapped his chin a few times. "Although... I could always stay in Brine's, if no one else minds?" They shook their heads. Nora grabbed him in a hug.
It was at about that point that Ruby and Pyrrha said that they needed to go. Yang subjected her sister to another hug, ruffled her hair—while taking care not to aggravate her cut—and sent her on her way.
"I really will handcuff us together the next time something like this happens," she said, once Pyrrha and Ruby had left the room.
"You won't be alone!" Nora replied cheerfully. That seemed to make Ren a tad nervous.
"I mean, I know it's good for her to make new friends and have adventures and stuff without me, so that she can get out of her shell more... but come on!"
Dove plopped down on his bed with a heavy sigh. "You know, certain people have been giving this team a lot of grief, but I'd argue we're the sanest ones in Beacon."
Ren hummed thoughtfully. "I'm going to have to disagree with you, on the grounds that you four would definitely have done the same thing if the opportunity presented itself."
Dove didn't have any rebuttal to that.
"Speaking of!" Nora smacked a fist into her palm. "Next time you guys go after Torchwick, sharing is caring!"
"We were planning on telling you as soon as we had a better idea of where he might be," Ren admitted. "But Sky wanted to look around the area first, and... well, we ran into him when we weren't expecting it."
Yang clenched a fist. "I... have to go do something."
"It's past curfew," Dove warned her.
"Yeah, I know. I won't be out long." Before anyone else could argue, she walked out the door, heading... somewhere. Sky wouldn't be in RSPR's room, Ruby had said they'd only gotten back recently and he'd been with Professor Goodwitch then. If he was going to get to the dorms, he was going to have to pass through this hallway. With that in mind, she hung back out of sight around the corner and waited.
It didn't take long. She heard him long before she saw him, and it only took the sound of footsteps for her to know who he was. It wasn't like anyone else would be walking around in the dorm building this late. The second he turned the corner she was on him, grabbing him by the collar and shoving him against the nearest wall. He stared at her, frozen with shock and fear.
"I'm not happy with you," she said, her tone light and pleasant. He paled, but didn't speak. "See, I heard this funny story about you abandoning your team, which happens to include my favorite little sister, in the middle of a fight with a wanted criminal who's already tried to kill her. So...?" He gaped like a fish, stuttered out a few nonsense syllables.
"Are you going to say anything?" she demanded, pulling back and then giving him a little shove so that his head hit the wall. He whimpered.
"Seriously?" She shook him. "Seriously?!"
"I—" he squeaked, then flinched when she glared at him. "I'm s-s-sorry."
"Why?" He was trembling, his knees knocking together. She let go of him in disgust. "Why even come here if you're going to run off at the first hint of trouble?"
"I... I don't know," he mumbled, looking at his feet.
Yang took a deep breath in, then out. She snapped her fingers to get him to look up, then popped him just below his left eye.
"Ah!" He stumbled back and hit the wall again. She punched him, hard, aiming for where she'd seen the bruising on Ruby. He fell.
"That's what happened to your teammates when you were gone." He sniffled, curling into a ball. "You had your Aura up. They didn't." Another breath, to settle the churning in her gut.
"You called Oobleck. That's the only reason I'm not chasing you out of Beacon right now."
Sky didn't respond. She couldn't see his face from where he'd buried it between his knees. Yang turned and walked away, feeling if anything more worked up than before. When she slipped back into her dorm and headed straight to the bathroom, neither Ren nor any of her teammates commented on her absence.
Yang wondered, as she drifted off to sleep, what ran through people's heads when they decided to run.
