Chapter 50
POV: Rocket
I woke up in a house I had never seen before. In the bed next to me, Ruby was still out. I noticed that I had a cast on my right arm. The last thing I remembered was pain. The room was small, with barely enough room for the two beds. There was also a chair with a young blond man sleeping in it. It looked like he was sleeping pretty lightly, so I was silent as I looked around. Ruby wasn't as she woke up.
Ruby: *YAAWWWN*
The man was instantly awake.
?: Ruby! You're awake! Thank goodness.
Ruby: What happened?
?: I was almost hoping to ask you two the same thing. Qrow found you both unconscious at the top of the tower. He got you out there, and brought you here.
Rocket: And where exactly is "here"?
He seemed to notice for the first time that I was awake.
?: Oh, sorry. We didn't know where you lived, so we brought you to our home. Welcome to Patch. I'm Ruby's dad. You can call me Tai.
Ruby: Wait, Yang! Is she ok?
Tai: She… she's going to be ok, it's just going to take some time... You know, for her to get used to things. She's too strong to let something like this stop her. I'm just glad to have my girl's back home.
Rocket: So, what happened with the school while we were out? Were they able to clear out the Grimm?
Tai: Things in Vale are under control. But the school? Things just aren't that simple. That giant Grimm… doesn't appear to be dead. Don't get me wrong, you did a number on it, but it isn't disappearing. It's just kinda... frozen. Now, I know that doesn't sound bad, but it keeps attracting more Grimm to the school.
Ruby was silent for a second. She seemed to be processing what he had said.
Ruby: Wait, I did what?
Tai: Hm?
Ruby: You said I did a number on it. What did you mean?
Rocket: Whatever we did, it appears to have caused a bit of memory loss. I've been trying to sort through what I did, too…
Tai: I… We can talk about it later. Things are just… kind of a mess right now.
Qrow: Things are always a mess, it's just people are starting to notice now. Mind if we have a minute?
Somehow, Qrow had appeared in the room without anyone noticing. The door hadn't even opened.
Tai: What, I can't stay here?
Qrow: Tai, please.
Tai kissed Ruby on the forehead and walked out, scowling at Qrow almost the whole time. Once Tai was out of the room, Qrow pulled up a chair in front of Ruby's bed.
Qrow: So, how are you two feeling?
Ruby: I kind of hurt all over.
Rocket: And… you know… broken arm.
Qrow: More like a shattered arm. Neither of those are surprising after what you two did.
Rocket: How bad was the break?
Qrow: Your arm was broken in 10 different places. It should recover fully, though. They were able to set it while you were asleep.
Ruby: What did we do? Everyone keeps saying that I did something! What are you talking about?!
Qrow sighed. He knew he would have to jog our memory.
Qrow: What's the last thing you remember?
Rocket: Let's start with Ruby since what she remembers would have happened before anything I saw.
Ruby: Let's see… I climbed the tower, and… when I got to the top...
She gasped.
Ruby: Pyrrha! Is she…
Qrow: She was already long gone when we got up there.
Ruby started choking as she finished the story.
Ruby: I got to the top of the tower, and saw Pyrrha… and that woman!
Qrow: We now know her name to be Cinder.
Ruby: Then, my vision went white and I felt a lot of pain, mostly coming from my eyes. That's when I blacked out.
Qrow: Ok. So, what did you see, Rocket?
Rocket: Weiss and I saw a silver explosion at the top of the tower. We decided that I would have to go up. After all, Weiss didn't have an actual way up. She cast a time dilation glyph, and I used my semblance after stepping on it, making time slow down further than I had ever felt it slow down before. When I reached the top, I was covered in fire, but I didn't really feel anything. I saw Cinder standing over Ruby with a piece of Pyrrha's sword, so I used my momentum from running up the tower to punch her in the face. The flames turned silver right before impact.
Ruby: Dangit, now I owe you 3!
Qrow: Why didn't your aura protect you?
Rocket: Around 1 hour earlier I had fallen off a ship cruising at 45000 feet.
Qrow: Oh… Well anyways, do either of you know how you actually were able to damage her?
Ruby: I have no idea if I even did anything, but maybe it was because Rocket punched her at Mach 1 billion?
Qrow: Well, I can tell you one thing. With her power, it should have done nothing. What was the first thing Ozpin said to you when you first met him?
Ruby: Something about…
Qrow: Silver eyes, right? That's an incredibly rare trait.
Ruby: So? It's just an eye color.
Qrow: You're special, Ruby. In the same way that your mother was special. Same with you, Rocket.
Rocket: Wait, but my eyes aren't… silver…
I realized that the grey flecks in my eyes were in fact not gray, but silver.
Rocket: But, how do flecks count as having silver eyes?
Qrow: Basically, when two silver eyes parents have a child, it will always produce a silver-eyed child. If one parent has silver eyes, and the other doesn't, it will produce a silver-eyed child, as long as 1 generation had two silver eyed parent within around 10 generations. If they didn't and that is the 11th generation, then it will produce silver flecks. It has less power than someone with full silver eyes, but it is more controllable. Flecks still count as silver eyes in the above combinations. If someone with flecks has a child with someone without silver eyes, the silver-eyed trait will go away.
Rocket: But why did all of this help us hurt Cinder?
Qrow: Silver-eyed warriors were said to be the best of the best. It's also said that even a look could kill a grim. It's a ridiculous story. But anyway, nobody is quite sure what the full powers of a silver-eyed warrior are. People with the powers Cinder had could be affected by the silver-eyed powers worse than most people.
Ruby: So, what do we do now?
Qrow: Ozpin has gone missing, and it's up to me to pick up where he left off.
Ruby: When do we leave?
Qrow: I'll be going alone. You two still need to recover, and the enemy's trail goes all the way to Mistral. That's a little far for two pipsqueaks like you. Well, I have to go now. I'll see you around.
And with that, he walked out.
Rocket: So, what do we do now?
Ruby: First, we should probably get up and walk around.
Rocket: Yeah, sometimes beds are just too comfortable.
Ruby: Agreed…
We both groaned as we stood up. After walking around the room for a second, my legs finally decided they wanted to be legs again.
Ruby: So, what are you going to do?
Rocket: I have no idea. I don't have a home or parents to return to…
Ruby: You could stay with us!
Rocket: I'll have to work out details with your dad, but I guess that's the best option.
We thought for a second. This was going to be an interesting few weeks, with the Xiao Long's basically adopting me-
Ruby: Yang?
Ruby had walked into the hallway and opened Yang's door while I had been thinking. I quickly followed her. Yang was silent, so Ruby was about to shut the door.
Yang: Ruby.
Ruby: I'm so glad you're ok!
Yang: But… I'm not.
Ruby: At least you're alive. So, what happened to everyone else?
Yang: Weiss' father came for her. He thinks it's too dangerous here for her.
Ruby: And what about Blake?
Yang: And Blake ran! After everything, she just ran away! She stayed for a week, made sure everyone was being taken care of, and then she just ran!
Ruby: There has to be a reaso-
Yang: No there doesn't! Sometimes, bad things just… happen, Ruby.
That took the wind out of Ruby's sails. She was silent for a bit.
Yang: Just… leave me alone. I need to think over everything.
Ruby walked over to the door.
Ruby: I love you.
Yang didn't reply. Ruby simply shut the door and walked back out.
Rocket: Well, that was pleasant.
Ruby said nothing. Her mood seemed more somber than usual. I went ahead and left to the kitchen, and worked everything out with Tai. I had 3 months until I got my cast off, and even then I had a couple of weeks until I would be back up to my full potential. Until then I worked on my left arm since I had significantly less coordination with that arm than I did with my right arm. No matter what, these next few months were bound to be interesting.
