"Yang, slow down! You cannot just go charging in there." Weiss shouted, her voice shrill as it bounced off the walls.

Ruby heard the shouting, before an all too loud sound of metal slapping against stone made her wince. She braced herself when she saw a mass of glittering light moving towards the door. Yang was very nearly setting herself ablaze. The way she was running down the hall was reckless at best.

"Ruby. Oh, thank god." Yang knocked the door off of its hinges as she pushed passed them and into the hospital room. There her bandaged sibling sat upright trying to master her quaking spoon, the soup shaking right off and back into the bowl.

"Yang, you bull-headed ox, what did I tell-" Weiss cut herself off as she saw Ruby sitting in bed, upright and awake. "Ruby! You're awake."

"Yeah, I guess I am. It's kind of hard to get any rest with the nurses poking at me all the time." She said weakly, peeking out from under her sister's wild mane of blonde hair. Yang was hugging her far too gently for comfort, and that wasn't lost on the younger sibling. "Do I really look that bad?" The drugs in her system and pallor color were only adding to her frail image.

"Honestly?" Weiss asked, weighing her options. Ruby didn't look healthy at all. "Actually, you probably don't want me to answer that question." Weiss said calmly after a short time.

"But, there is something I want answered." Yang butted in, sitting on the side of Ruby's bed. "What the hell happened out there?" The blonde asked, but Ruby only shook her head.

"Nothing that's a big deal, or that I want to talk about." No, in all honesty Ruby was tired. She just wanted to eat, and lay her head down on a real feather pillow for a change. If the doctors wouldn't move her into the same place Sun was, then she knew she might as well just relax. She needed to get better to see him. The only way that would happen was if she could somehow manage some rest. "Where's Sun, and Zhu?"

"Never mind about Sun, he's stable, and safe. Blake's with Zhu in the waiting room." Weiss replied evenly. "You are my primary concern right now Ruby. Yang's right to ask questions. What exactly happened?"

"It's a long story, made longer by the fact that I'm sure you were already briefed by the others. My recounting anything won't do any good...and besides, I'm tired." Ruby said, and it was no lie, the nurses made sure to pump her full of all sorts of medications. "Can we talk about this later? When I'm not so hopped up on…well, whatever the heck is making me shake so bad."

"Ruby, there's something toxic in your blood, and the doctors don't know what it is…" Yang told her. "We're worried."

"It's just whatever Grimm are made of. When they break into particles into the air, they become a contagion." Ruby sighed, her unbandage hand lifting up to push her long bangs out of her eyes. She really could use a haircut. "This isn't the first time I've gotten this kind of sickness, and it's not going to be the last. Being in the mines like I am, I inhale a lot of that stuff."

"That's Grimm blood Ruby." Yang said, but she shook her head. "That showed up in the panels, and every hunter knows what that is. This is different, and it's taking a toll on your aura." Carefully, especially so, she place her hand on Ruby's shoulder, feeling the heat there. It was as if someone poured fire dust right into her wounds. "What kind of Grimm were you fighting?"

"Nevermore did that gash, and it was only just the one…"

"I bet anything, I know what's causing the shaking. Dust poisoning." Weiss said after some careful thought. Seeing her friend's poor condition, Weiss remembered the pure toxicity of the dust mines. "I've seen this before…we all have. You never have reacted well to dust when after it's been refined."

"I've had my yearly shot for that." Ruby said her voice lingering on skeptical. "So it can't be."

"You're forgetting the most important thing. That shot relies on aura, which you don't have any…you spent three days getting carried through the underground walkways with no immunities to the unrefined particle lingering underground. It's as good a guess as I can think of." Weiss pushed shook her head. "The doctors should have tested for it."

"I'm sure they did." Yang frowned. "This medical facility is operated by the SDC, Weiss, it would be hard for them not to."

"I know, but new dust combinations crop up all the time. It's not an exact science, and we advance forward each and every day. There's no telling what sort of concoction she inhaled. That's why we inoculate anyone going down into the mines in the fist place." Weiss still felt sure though. It was something niggling in the back of her mind. "Not all dust shows up on lab tests. They could run the gambit and still come up with nothing…it doesn't mean it's not dust poisoning."

"Well, that's just fucking peachy." Yang bit out sarcastically.

"Relax." Ruby sighed, too tired to listen to Yang argue semantics with Weiss. "It's not fatal, even if it is dust poisoning."

"You're allergic!"

"And so is over eighty percent of Remnant." Ruby returned with a roll of her eyes. "So I get my system flushed out for a few days and pee like a racehorse. Been there, done that. It's my shoulder that hurts. If you're going to worry about something, worry about that."

"I am worried about that, Ruby, it's infected...disgustingly so. I can smell it from here, and I'm not Blake."

Ruby rolled her eyes and sighed. Yang wasn't wrong. It hurt pretty badly, but it was what lingered underneath the bandages that worried Ruby the most. She'd said it before, but Atlas winters were the worst. "It doesn't matter, Yang."

"What do you mean…it doesn't matter?"

"Well, when you have no aura, and poor blood circulation…" Ruby shrugged. She knew it back out in the field. She knew it the second her fingers began to go numb. She unwrapped the tips of the bandages, her fingers were black at the tips, carrying on through to the second knuckle on each one.

"Sweet Jesus…" Yang murmured, as Weiss wordlessly swallowed hard.

Coco had warned her to great length that Ruby's injuries were severe, but the extent of the damage wasn't something Coco could discern. Now, Weiss knew why. Frostbite was a terrible thing. It discolored skin, numbed the nerves, caused sores and blisters, inflammation, and a large number of complications. Ruby's hand was covered in those milky white seeping blisters.

"The hand can be saved, but the nerve damage is too substantial. I can't use my weapon like this, I found that out in the field. If they take it off at the shoulder, I can get some of the highest quality cybernetics that Atlas has to offer. Military grade, dust forged, cybernetics." Ruby frowned then, seeing the shock and anger at war in lilac eyes. Yang speechless was never a good thing, and Ruby sighed. "There are other modules, ones that start at the wrist, or the elbow, but those aren't nearly as robust as a completely new arm…so I figured…if I'm going to have them do it anyway…"

"And…what you're saying….is that this is…elective…" Yang found her voice unbelievable tight. "You're…you're choosing to….do this?"

"Well, choosing…that's a strong word…" Ruby murmured offhandedly. "I mean…look at my hand…"

"You said they could save it."

"They can, but, I can't fight that way."

Yang knew Ruby was a gearhead, but hearing her talk about amputation so casually…that was just a bit too much to take. "Ruby, no…you can't."

"Kinda have to…"

"You don't have to be a huntress!" Yang bellowed. "You don't have to lob your fucking arm off!"

"You don't have a say in this Yang!" Ruby shouted back.

"Enough!" Weiss hollered shrilly, her voice echoing in their ears even moments after the fact. "Will you both just shut up? This is no time to be chomping at the bit. Ruby, you're in no condition to do anything more than to sit here and rest, and I do mean rest." Weiss cut in between the both of them. "Arguing about this will have to wait."

"Weiss!"

"This is not the time. The doctors can't do anything right away, Yang. Not with an outright infection in Ruby's shoulder. The process for elective cybernetics is rather extensive. Brain scans, auxiliary chips, measurements, the process is endless…and besides it's…" Weiss swallowed hard. "It's not exactly uncommon for hunters to do something like this…" Thinking about the details bothered her, but even her spine wasn't entirely bone anymore. It was reinforced with military grade surgical steel, allowing her to have most of her mobility back. "This an argument for another time…" Then she gave Ruby a withering look.

Yang took a hot breath. "She's not doing it, there's no argument about it."

"You're not my mother." Ruby shot back. "You're my sister. Act like it."

"I am!" Yang fired back heatedly, as Weiss lifted a palm to her face. "I'm telling you, as your big sister, to pull your head out of your ass. You are not going to switch a flesh and blood arm for a fake one."

"That's it! I've had it! Yang, out now!" Weiss ordered tersely. "Ruby Rose, don't think I don't have a few choice words on this, because I most certainly do."

Trouble, as they say, always seemed to come in three's. Sun finally woke from he sleep, finding himself in a world of pain and disorientation. His bandaged side had seen better days, but his clear liquid diet never tasted so good. Recovery would be a long stretch, but he was well enough, at the very least, to be taken home and put into a proper bed. Hunters were simply that robust.

Hearing the news about Ruby, though, concerned him. "…and she really wants to go through with it?" Sun asked, his voice choked.

"Yes, apparently so." Blake replied, washcloth in hand as she scrubbed Sun down. "When I visited her yesterday, all she wanted to talk about was you, or the new specs of the latest cybernetics modules."

"She always had enjoyed machinery." Sun cringed, trying to find the silver lining, a difficult task, in his humbled opinion.

"You're right about that." Blake agreed, forcing on the conversation, rather than the task at hand. The man reeked of smells that were far too gross to even consider, and all of their noses suffered for it. They couldn't very well give him a proper bath yet, not with stiches adorning over half of his side. She could, at the very least, help him sponge himself down. "Though, I think this goes above and beyond the level of Ruby's usual passion for the subject."

"No, you're right...It's just, strange to want that, I guess. Going fully cybernetic, even on just one limb…" Sun let out a low whistle. "We're not talking a scroll programmed and operated rigging here…we're talking completely cybernetic. As in brain tells arm what to do, arm does it…right?"

"That would be greatly oversimplified, but more or less correct." Blake said a bit uneasily. "I don't know how I feel about it, to be honest. The only person I've ever met to decide on cybernetics is the general himself."

"Yeah, well those things are freakishly expensive…and trying to teach your brain how to use it, that's way harder than using a scroll and a command prompt to program it." Sun shrugged then, cringing as Blake ran the cloth along his tail. There were just some things he'd rather not think about, and that was one of them. "I mean, at that point, we're talking brain surgery too, right?"

"Yes."

"And no one's stopping her?"

"It's..." Blake shook her head. "Don't give me that look. It's not my place to tell Ruby what to do. I'm not all together fond of the idea, but then again, none of us really are. Not even Ruby herself, I don't think...but you know her." Blake continued, setting the water basin off to the side. "If there's anything Ruby picked up from Yang, it's that goddamn forced smile. At this point, I don't know if Ruby's talking about it with me our of excitement, or dread."

"Speaking of Yang...she uh, blow a gasket?"

"That's putting it mildly." Blake assured as she handed Sun a fresh shirt, draping it over his shoulders. "Currently, Yang is in denial, and Weiss is already insisting she's going to cover the cost in full if Ruby can't be reasoned with. So far the two of them haven't been able to bribe Ruby out of it, but I think that's because Ruby likes her independence."

"I don't know about this…maybe Yang's right…maybe Ruby should just ret- OW!" He yelped. "Watch it."

"Never say that again." Blake admonished, his tail still firmly in her grip as she combed the fur. She'd yank again too, if he even thought about it. "She loves being a huntress…no one has any right to take that away from her."

"Yeah, but I'm going to make it so she doesn't need to worry too much. I mean, she's got you guys too, right? And in a few months, I'll be back in the field…I'll take the SDC jobs with Neptune, that way she won't have to." He grinned at that. "I already got everything all planned out. I'm going to take her on a courtship soon, we're going go back to my home town, all let her meet my family…then we'll go to this little place I know about…just me, her, and Zhu…I'm going to make her my mate…"

Blake swallowed hard, and sat down beside Sun. Blake sighed, wondering how best to say the words. How could she tell him hunting would never be in the cards again? The news would be devastating, and she didn't want to cause him any more pain. When no easy way came to her, she forced a smile instead. Focusing on the positive, clinging onto it desperately, took everything she had in her. "So, you're really going to take another mate so soon?"

Sun nodded, leaning back on the headboard. "Zhu needs a mom. I can't raise a kid by myself, and I'm not just going to keep rutting Ruby like some horny teenager. I need more than that, she deserves more than that. I was up in those mountains, and she was all I could think about…and then that damn Grimm came along and…" He cut himself off, hand absentmindedly falling to his wound, fingers caressing the bandage. "Anyway, I know it seems fast, but I'm not going to sit on my ass and waste life away…I got things I want to do…and I'm not getting any younger."

Blake nodded, finding it strange that Sun's usually playful gaze turned thoughtful then. He took a soft but pointed sniff, seeming to contemplate the small little lives already eager to communicate with the world around them. "So, you freaking out yet?"

"I don't think there's much to 'freak out' about." Blake laughed. "Why, did you?"

"Every damn day." Sun said quietly. "It never bothered Octavia much, but it drove me crazy that she couldn't tell the same things I could." He wondered if human women really were that clueless, or if his senses really were that enhanced. "Doesn't it bother you that Weiss will never know this time with them? I mean, I take a sniff, I can already identify them."

"In small ways." Blake admitted. "Though, I'd never blame that on Weiss. It's not her fault…"

Sun shrugged. "Never said it was, but trust me, I get it. Still, it's okay to be a little miffed about it."

Blake nodded, a memory coming to mind. "I remember once, when Coco was carrying Jade. She came over madder than a hornet, saying how clueless Fox could be. She complained about it. Pregnancy didn't suit Coco well at all. At the time, I thought she was just hormonal, but now?" Blake shrugged. "I think I can sympathize on some level. I feel the same, in some ways. Weiss can't understand. She will never know their scents, or this aspect of their personalities, but she doesn't need to. Humans connect to their children differently."

"That was the good thing about Octavia…at least she got to carry him…she had some measure of closeness." Sun shrugged then. "Though Zhu, seemed to wedge himself into odd places. She always Said that he was digging into her back."

Blake nodded. "I suppose that's the one thing that's a little depressing. Weiss won't even have that, and every day they become more alert…they're reacting now, in ways they never used to. The smallest boy, he flails around so much when he hears her talking…and our daughter…she's the night owl. I feel her kneading around in there, and her scent gets stronger when she does. Their brother doesn't draw too much attention to himself, but he's just as alert."

"You pick out names yet?" Sun asked.

"We haven't had the time to discuss it." Her thumb brush over a spot she had felt a kick, her ear twitched a bit idly. "Besides, Weiss is their sire, their given names are up to her."