The further into the tunnels the scientist led them, the deeper and darker the hole in Ruby's stomach grew. Every corner that came and went, Ruby expected to be jumped out of nowhere… or to run into…
"I'm not Weiss anymore."
She shook her head, trying to escape the intrusive thoughts that tainted her vision. Weiss was alive, and this scientist was leading them to her. They weren't too late. Ruby took a heavy breath, willing the weight and the feeling of pure wrongness to leave her body. She could barely focus like this.
"How much farther?" Coco asked, earning a frustrated huff from the hostage scientist in front of her.
"Not much, but we have to take the long way, so the other scientists don't see us." he quickly explained. Coco scoffed out a laugh, looking back to Ruby with an impressed smirk.
"He's clever."
Ruby hummed in agreement, her silver eyes following newly patched gouges along the surfaces of the facility. They all looked like they'd belonged to the same Grimm, but why they were so far into the tunnels, was yet to be seen.
"What made those marks on the walls?" Ruby asked quietly, rubbing her knuckles off one of the gouges in the steel railing as she passed it, "They're not from any Grimm I've ever seen..." The sharp edges had been filed down, leaving only an incave from the attack. The faunus let out a tense breath, shaking his head.
"Trust me, you don't want to know." he muttered, the air of fear surrounding it not going unnoticed by the two huntresses. Ruby and Coco crossed nervous glances.
"You better not be leading us to any of them." Coco threatened.
"N-no! I'd rather be shot by you than enter one of their cages!" he stammered.
Ruby hung onto that thought a little longer. The only time she had ever heard of Grimm being in cages was during the war, when power hungry warlords would set them in arenas to kill people as a sick form of entertainment for their people.
Another knife of terror pricked in Ruby's heart at the image of Weiss being thrown into one of those arenas, weaponless and hurt. Ruby bit her quivering lip sharply, wincing as copper began to seep onto her tongue. She spat it from her mouth, wiping her tongue discreetly on her sleeve in a weak attempt to rid herself of the foul taste.
A faint humming began to fill the halls as they paced ahead, combined with what looked to be glass displays not too far from where they were walking. Ruby could sense the atmosphere in the tunnel change as they got closer, pure negative emotion crushing down on her very soul and pinning her to her own despair and anxiety. Tears stung Ruby's eyes at the thought of doing anything anymore, urging her to blink away the salty liquid in confusion, "Gah, w-what is that?"
Beside her, Coco felt the same weight growing on her body, Gianduja slouching in her grip a bit. She grunted uncomfortably, pushing the dead weight of her weapon back into the middle of the struggling scientist's back. He took a breath and straightened himself.
"One of Torchwick's experiments." he explained, leading Ruby and Coco past a tall glass window that displayed a cage. Inside were tall, humanoid figures, covered in thick Grimm ooze that pooled on the floor where it dripped. It looked far more humanoid than any Grimm Ruby had even seen, hunched over on its hands and feet with a thick white layer of armour sprouting around its body. It looked up, sensing the feeling of negativity in the air, hollow red eyes staring straight at Ruby. It opened its mouth and tensed, screaming silently.
"Why can't we hear it?" Coco asked as the Grimm began to claw its way closer to the glass, its legs limp and unmoving. The scientist cleared his throat, and Ruby shuffled a few feet away from the glass in fear.
"Th-" The man hesitated, looking away from the cage, "He- It's a special type of Grimm, some twisted hybrid between a Haven breed and an Atlas breed." he explained.
"Why do you have Grimm like that?" Ruby asked, glad to be leaving the Grimm behind just as it reached out. She could hear its head press up against the glass as she passed the next cage, this one empty.
"We biologically enhance them; give them new abilities, see what inconsistencies we can remove. We make them better for the tournaments."
Ruby's stomach fell to the floor. Tournaments?
"You better not have done any of that to Weiss..." Ruby growled. The man stiffened, and Ruby watched as his throat bobbed when he gulped. For a minute, a white fury burned in her chest, her finger tightening on the trigger of Crescent Rose.
"W- We didn't want to-" he began, before quickly continuing in an attempt to fend for himself, "B-but Torchwick gave us no choice! It was her, or we became one of those Abominations. You have to understand, we all have families, children, to feed."
Ruby grit her teeth together, her trigger finger trembling by her side. Her thumb hovered above the safety lock for a beat, before resting just beside it. Maybe under different circumstances Ruby might've felt bad for him, but not anymore. The scientists could've called for help, or put up a fight. Weiss had a family too. Suddenly Ruby was starting to understand why she had had such a problem with Blake when she found out.
"There-" the man stopped, nodding to one of the heavy metal doors built flat against the wall a few feet ahead of them. Ruby's heart plummeted, shoving past the scientist towards the door. She hooked Crescent Rose onto her back and ran, reaching the doors quickly.
"Weiss?!" Ruby called desperately, looking around the door for a way to open it. There was no call back, no voice back that Ruby longed to hear so desperately.
Tears stung in Ruby's silver pools as she whipped back to look at the man, her glare sharper than any knife on Remnant. "Open the door."
The man flinched, lifting his hand and brushing it against the smooth wall without any hesitation. He stopped halfway down the door, pressing against a concealed pad and revealing a digital screen behind it. He straightened his jacket with trembling hands as a blue glow surrounded his chest and name badge, remaining there for a second before fading away. Ruby listened as the door beeped, followed by what sounded like a locking mechanism starting to unhinge.
"There. I did what you asked. Now let me go," he said, meeting Ruby's glance as she anxiously waited for the door to open. She ignored him.
"You're going to wait here." Coco mumbled, tasing the man and watching as he crumpled to the floor unconscious. Guilt immediately pooled in her stomach, but she told herself that that was what they had been taught to do in this situation, and instead set out on tying him to one of the railing bars behind them.
Ruby pushed herself into the room when the door pulled back enough for her to squeeze through, squinting as her eyes were met by a blindingly white room. She blinked the blindness from her sight, noticing the hanging figure in the center of it.
That was the moment Ruby's world ceased to exist.
"WEISS!" She screeched, rushing over to her motionless, partially naked partner. In the blink of an eye, Ruby unleashed her scythe's blade and cleaved through the metal chains holding Weiss' wrists above her head. She fell like a sack of flour, collapsing into Ruby's outstretched arms with a hard thump. She felt so light.
Ruby cradled Weiss gently but securely, reclipping Crescent Rose on her back awkwardly. Ruby's throat tightened along with her grip, choking on the bulge in her throat as she spoke, "W-Weiss? C-Can you hear me?" She lifted her hand to Weiss' face, brushing some of her matted bangs from her eyes with trembling fingers. She looked so peaceful, even with dried blood crusted at the corner of her mouth.
"Weiss…" Ruby choked, her voice breaking while she pressed her palm against the smaller girl's cheek. She was so, so cold to the touch, and her skin was practically translucent. Ruby could see every vein up her neck and around her eyes, like someone had marked her skin with blue tattoos. Ruby clutched her head closer, wiping her own tears from Weiss' face as she sobbed. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"
She was too late. It was all her fault.
She had promised Weiss she'd be there for her, she was supposed to be her partner, she was supposed to protect her. It was her idea to go to that market, her fault they were followed. Weiss was gone- How was she going to explain this to anyone? She didn't… Gods, Weiss...
"Ruby, is-" Coco started, noticing the smaller girl on the ground with Weiss clutched close in her arms, "Oh no..." The elder woman hesitated as she realized what she was looking at. She laid her purse down by the door and moved closer, moving around Ruby's sobbing body to drop down before her. "Oh Ruby, I'm so sorry."
Silence settled between them for a moment, Ruby hugging Weiss' body tight to her own warmth as she cried. Coco felt her heart shatter for the young second year. She knew how close the two girls had gotten over the couple years they'd known each other. To lose someone so close- Coco couldn't even imagine the pain she'd be in if she lost any of her team.
Her brows knotted in sorrow at the sight of Weiss' pale, broken body. She reached out and held one of Weiss' wrists, pressing her thumb barely to the vein, hoping to sense something- anything that told her Weiss was still alive. Her eyes widened when she felt a weak thump against her skin, followed by another a few seconds later, "She- she's alive!"
Ruby looked up, her eyes rimmed red, "W-What?"
Coco kept a firm hold on Weiss' wrist, confirming that Weiss had a pulse, albeit a scarily faint one, "She's still with us, but just barely hanging on. We need to get her help, now."
Ruby stared at Coco for another moment, before she looked down at Weiss. She moved her knuckles under her nose, feeling the faint in and out of air on her skin. Her eyes widened. Weiss- They weren't too late. Not yet. "Then we're leaving. You'll have to cover me." She reached up and undid the clasps holding her cape on her shoulders. She carefully wrapped Weiss in its warmth, before reaching for her scythe and clipping it to her back.
"H-Hold on Weiss-" Ruby whispered, bundling Weiss' body carefully and standing back up, making sure Weiss was- or at least looked comfortable in her arms. "We'll get you out of here. You'll be fine, just stay with me, okay?"
There was no response.
Ruby took a weak breath, nodding to Coco, who went ahead at the signal. The older girl grabbed her purse as she passed it, unfurling the giant weapon as she led Ruby and Weiss back out of Weiss' cursed cell. Ruby briefly glanced to the slouched faunus that Coco had tied to a pole nearby and frowned slightly. He'd done everything they'd asked; it felt wrong to leave him behind. He was a hostage too, no matter what they did to her partner.
Suddenly, an alarm began to blare, red lights flashing above their heads. Ruby almost jumped out of her skin, realisation hitting her as she finally noticed what looked like an anklet around Weiss' ankle with a red flashing light. She furrowed her brows, falling gently into a crouch and prying her fingers underneath the flimsy leather. She yanked with all her might, only to let go with a hiss after a few seconds as the fabric cut into her fingers.
"Great, she's got an electronic tag!" grumbled Coco, looking around frantically as she began to hear the distressed voices of White Fang around them. Ruby's breath grew quick, looking to Coco for some sort of guidance.
"Then what do we do?"
"We need to get it off her somehow," Coco answered, "But we can't stay here. Let's go, before we're cornered."
"Right." hastily agreed Ruby, rising back onto her feet. How could she have been so stupid? She should've known to watch out for something like that! She watched police movies all the time as a kid, and hostages always had some kind of tracker on them. Stupid, stupid!
"Ruby, come on!" Coco called again, having reached the end of the hall. Ruby nodded to herself, glancing down to Weiss' face again before moving to follow after Coco. The feeling of Weiss' head gently laying against her chest gave her motivation, but fear quickly trailed along with it. She was holding Weiss' life in her own hands, literally and figuratively. If she didn't get out, not only was she dying, but she was bringing a leader from another team and her best friend with her. She couldn't afford to be slow. Not when her partner's life was on the line.
Ruby and Coco ran through several halls, their heavy footsteps clanging off the metal flooring below them. The red lights and blaring were quickly forming a headache in the back of Ruby's head; her eyes were starting to burn. They passed dozens of glass cages, but neither girl looked inside them, too distracted with trying to escape to care. Ruby could feel Weiss moving ever so slightly in her grasp, sometimes accompanied by quiet breaths or whimpers at the unwelcome movements across her body.
A yell echoed from somewhere behind them, prompting Ruby to quickly glance back to find the owner of said voice. A scientist was pressed back against a railing in fear as a black body pressed itself against the glass from inside a cracked glass cage, too far for Ruby to tell what kind of Grimm it was. The man was frozen stiff, almost in a trance.
"Oof-" Ruby coughed as she bumped into Coco's back, staggering back a step.
Coco had stopped still, her weapon poised directly ahead of her. Ruby's skin pricked as she stepped to look past her. Fury boiled through her veins as Torchwick stared back. "You."
"Hello, Little Red." said Torchwick, leaning against his cane. Behind him was a small group of White Fang soldiers, each wearing their own expression of smugness and victory. He leaned slightly, noticing Weiss bundled in Ruby's arms. "I see you're playing hero again. I think that's mine, actually. Could I have her back?"
Ruby grit her teeth painfully tight, grinding her heel into the ground as a dark shadow covered her eyes. Coco's hand moved in front of her, stopping her from advancing if she tried to.
"Roman Torchwick, you are under arrest for murder, theft, kidnapping and experimentation, along with a long list of other offences. Surrender peacefully or I will have to resort to less pleasant means to apprehend you!" Coco threatened, cocking her heavy machine gun in her grasp. Torchwick laughed, looking at his backup before returning his attention to the leader of team CFVY.
"You are in no position to give orders here, little girl." Roman teased, before nodding to Weiss again, "Now, if you don't mind, I'll be taking my specimen and leaving before the boys in blue get here."
Ruby held Weiss closer, muttering quietly below her breath, "Do not call her a specimen."
"Or what, Red?" Ruby hesitated as Roman began to laugh, looking to his wrist before removing his cap and bowing slightly. "Now, I must take my leave. Perry, make sure you bring me the Schnee alive, or else you won't be."
The muscled Faunus beside him grunted, lifting a heavy looking gun sword from his back and aiming it at the trio ahead of him. The array of smaller grunts followed suit, pulling out cheap weapons from their sides. Coco tensed, while Ruby carefully set Weiss against one of the railings. She couldn't leave Coco to fight these guys alone, but she could keep an eye on Weiss too if she supported Coco with ranged attacks.
She gently left Weiss against the rail, pulling the warm fabric of the cloak to cover the exposed parts of Weiss' skin. She placed a hand to Weiss' cheek for a moment, relieved to feel heat seeping back into her skin. "Wait here, okay? I'll be back in a second. Promise."
"Again with the promises you can't keep, Red? I thought you learned your lesson last time." Torchwick mocked as he melded back into the crowd of faunus,white coat and red hair disappearing from view. Coco bit her lip, loading in a round of her high impact dust as she prepared for the fight. Ruby joined beside her, unfurling Crescent Rose into its sniper mode.
"I'll take the big guy." Ruby said, meeting the brute's piercing gaze.
"I'll take the rest, then." Coco said.
There was a heartbeat of stillness before the ambush rushed towards the two huntresses, weapons drawn. All hell broke loose, gunshots and aura blasts being exchanged. Ruby sucked in a nervous breath before unloading paralysing Dust rounds into the oncoming wave, wincing at the sheer amount of noise that attacked her ears.
.
.
Weiss could hear something loud… dreadfully, painfully loud. The piercing noise dragged her from the abyss of her own tormented mind. 'Stop,' she cringed as her body began to wake up, trying to hold onto the warm darkness that had numbed her body, 'I don't want to wake up'. The darkness didn't listen to her pleas for death, the numbness slipping from her grasp and replaced by the sight of dull, flashing lights around her. She shifted slightly, expecting the painful pulling sensation of her heavy body on her shoulders to return... Except it didn't, and neither did the tight pressure and pinching around her bruised wrists. Her body was still in a lot of pain, horribly, sickly so, but the pulling sensation was gone. She was on the ground, her skin brushing against something cool and damp beneath her. The stagnant air and coldness of her cell was gone, replaced with a warm comforting feeling around her and… and the scent of roses.
The heiress took in a heavy, painful breath, flourishing in the warm, sweet scent of flowers, confused for a moment. She dug the tips of her fingers into the cape that enclosed her body, gripping onto the old fabric as a sense of dull awareness slowly returned. The way the fabric balled in her fingers, and the suffocating warmth that was enough to warm even the icy depths of her soul, felt familiar. She took another breath of rose scented air, holding it inside her lungs as she triple checked that this was real. That all of this was real. There was only one person on Remnant that Weiss knew, who wore such an old, suffocatingly warm, flowery smelling cloak. She tried to speak, finding her throat to be drier than Vacuo's deserted lands. The word came out in two dry halves, requiring a heavy breath between both of them.
"Ru...by…?"
.
.
Ruby's heart skipped a beat as a bullet grazed over her shoulder, glancing back to make sure the rogue shot hadn't hit her vunerable partner in the crossfire. Her head whipped around in panic, just in time to witness Weiss' pale lips barely moving on her face, her voice inaudible over the racket of the fight around her. For a moment she wasn't even sure if she saw it, but her eyes stayed on her partner's previously limp form. They widened as she witnessed Weiss stirring, fingers grasped tightly around Ruby's cape as she took heavy, laboured breaths that moved her entire frame. Tears jumped to Ruby's eyes at the sight, suddenly unaware of the giant White Fang Lieutenant behind her. Weiss and Ruby locked eyes for a beat, the younger huntress unaware of the looming threat.
.
.
Her eyes were open, the world spinning her blurry, dim vision like an ocean, churning her body around on its relentless waves, in its merciless attempt to kill what was left. She weakly gripped her fingers around the worn fabric for some kind of stabilizer, lifting her head in search of the owner of the garment. Her eyes found her not too far away from her, staring down at Weiss like she'd seen a ghost reanimate the dead. Weiss supposed that's what she must've looked like, nothing but a ghost of what she once was. Shame pinned her chest for the moment they locked eyes, hoping that maybe, maybe this wasn't just another dream. That she wouldn't wake up back in those chains, waiting to be called on for another match. Then Weiss noticed a tall, overarching shadow growing above her partner, a heavy sword lifted over its head and aimed at her distracted teammate. She tried to move instinctually, but her legs wouldn't budge, heavy, as if they were made of nothing but lead. Ruby, turn around! Weiss screamed desperately in her head, trying to claw her way out of the depths of fear that had claimed her being. Move!
Panic sunk into Weiss' heart, a familiar cold numbness bursting across her figure as she finally found what remained of her broken voice. She screamed, louder, and more raw, then she had ever done in her life.
"RUBY!"
.
.
For a second, all Ruby saw was blue.
She let out a pained yelp as something sharp tore across her face, dealing the final blow to her aura and tearing her skin with a single slash. She recoiled back, staggering into a nearby railing blindly and pressing a hand to the side of her face. A warm, soupy feeling met her fingertips, collecting on her hand as whatever wound she'd just received bled freely. She hissed, rubbing her eye with the palm of her hand in an attempt to clear her stained vision. She forced her eye open, red tinted vision meeting her. The wound must've only just missed her eye, she realised in relief. Any closer and she would've gone blind. She gently pressed her fingers to her cheek, finding a painful, deep, long slice cut into her skin. Her own blood fell from it and splattered on the ground, staining her neck and her dress collar.
What had even hit her?
"What the…?" Coco murmured, prompting Ruby to look back to where their opponents were, or had been. Instead of a mini-army facing them with their weapons drawn, a tall wall of thick, crystal blue ice had sprouted out of seemingly nowhere. The metal flooring was torn in half along with one of the displays having shattered into dust. Ruby's eyes widened, albeit painfully, at the sight. "Is that... Ice?" Coco continued.
Ruby had no words as she tried to figure out what she was looking at, the temporary shock leaving her speechless. That's when she picked up on the sound of heavy breathing mixed with confused sobs emanating from behind her. Both huntresses turned to look at Weiss, who was staring at the wall of ice with an expression similar to her two companions. Tiny, blue crystals growing on the surface of Weiss' hands, which were shaking as she tried to hold Ruby's cloak around her.
Coco took a nervous step back, glancing across to Ruby in unease, finally noticing the long wound on her face, "Ruby! Are you okay?"
Ruby ignored her, falling to her knees in front of Weiss while the ivory haired girl struggled to comprehend what was going on. Tears were sitting in Weiss' eyes, her breathing quickening with every breath she took. Puffs of frozen moisture left her lips in a small cloud each time she breathed out; the same type of mist you'd see on a cold winter day.
Ruby reached out to grab a hold of Weiss' shaking hands, taking her delicate, cold fingers and holding them tightly in Ruby's warm grip as she shook. Weiss flinched at the touch, a scared whimper escaping her.
"Weiss- Weiss, breathe." Ruby said softly, rubbing her thumbs off the back of her partner's soft hands. She felt Weiss' fingertips dig into Ruby's hand for a moment, followed by something sharp forming beneath Ruby's fingers. "Weiss?"
"I.. I didn't-" She croaked before cringing in pain, arms clutching at her ribs. The tears that had been forming in her eyes fell, leaving damp spots on Ruby's cloak. They landed beside two growing blood stains near her shoulder. Ruby was sure they weren't there earlier. She frowned worriedly, tightening her grip.
"Hey- Hey, it's okay. Can you walk?" Ruby asked, eager to get out of the twisting tunnels of the laboratory before anything else like this happened. She could hear Grimm starting to become restless, throwing themselves into their glass cages, attempting to escape. Ruby hadn't even checked whether or not the cage that Weiss had smashed held any Grimm inside it. Weiss finally shook her head slowly, gulping down a lump in her throat as she tried to recollect herself. Ruby did the same. "Then I'm going to pick you up, okay?"
Weiss nodded again, whining slightly as Ruby reached beneath her and scooped her form into her arms. She winced at the uncomfortable feeling radiating across her body, before falling limp again and falling against her rescuer's chest. Her world was spinning again, the black pinholes across her vision threatening to swallow her whole as adrenaline pumped out of her body.
"Ruby… are you... real?" Weiss asked quietly. Ruby frowned slightly in confusion, nodding for Coco to lead the way. The leader of CFVY spared another glance to the wall of ice, before folding up her gun and rushing ahead of Ruby and Weiss in the only remaining route out. Ruby shuffled her hold slightly, before gently moving into a jog behind Coco.
"I... Uh, yeah? Of course I'm real." answered Ruby, clumsily using her shoulder to wipe a fresh layer of blood from her jaw. Why would she ask that? Weiss' half-closed eyes faintly followed Ruby's movement, a shaking hand appearing from below Ruby's cloak to hover by the cut on her partner's face. She held it there for a moment, cool skin pressed against warm, almost as if she was proving that Ruby was physically there. She brushed her thumb across Ruby's cheek. Horror flashed across her face as she felt something wet brush against the side of her thumb, pulling her fingers back upon feeling the wetness on their tips and staring at them. She slowly registered the crimson colour on her skin.
"You're bleeding..." she breathed, her pupils shrinking, "I- ...I hurt you…"
"Huh?" Ruby asked, before noticing Weiss staring at the bloody streak down Ruby's face and neck. She paled, "Oh! Oh this? No, you didn't do this. I was hit by a, uh, a bullet."
Weiss' eyes shrunk again. "I... I hurt you-"
Guilt sunk into Ruby's stomach as she realised her attempt at lying wasn't working. "N-no- Well, you didn't mean to. It was an accident-" Ruby quickly grinned, ignoring the sharp wince and sensation of cracking caked blood on her face, "I'm fine! It doesn't even hurt."
Weiss didn't respond this time, tucking her arm back into the warmth of Ruby's cloak and staring into space. Ruby bit the back of her lip, looking around her as Coco turned another corner. She could hear glass smashing, followed by long, drawn out howls of Grimm as they escaped their confines.
"We have company!" Ruby heard Coco yell, followed by the sound of her mingun shooting. She heard the piercing screams of Grimm as they died just before Ruby turned the corner, witnessing as they turned to sooty ash. Coco was out of breath, as was Ruby, but they were almost out. Ruby recognised the gouges out of the floor from when they'd first entered the tunnels.
"We're almost there." Ruby muttered to Coco as she passed her, leading the way to the end of the hallway. "The entrance was just over here!"
As Ruby spun around the corner, she heard a loud scream to her left. She stepped back, her eyes landing on a Grimm she hadn't been expecting to see.
A Nuckleave.
Ruby heard Weiss gasp, drawing Ruby's glance once more. Weiss watched it with a strange look of familiarity, her entire body stone solid as she took in the sight. Fear pooled in Ruby's own gut at the strange look, answered by the loud cry of the Nuckleave opposite her.
"Weiss?" Ruby asked. Weiss flinched, but her eyes were still hooked on the Grimm opposite her.
"It's her."
Ruby frowned in confusion, looking up as Coco appeared and yelped a colourful word at the sight of the Nuckleave. The Grimm... Was hesitating? It was almost like Weiss and it were in a world of their own.
"It's who?"
"...Marion."
"Who?" Ruby repeated, jumping back with a yelp as a fireball launched over the Nuckleaves shoulder and caught fire to one of the electricity circuits beside her. She hissed as sparks erupted, turning her shoulder to protect her injured partner from the blaze. Coco also winced, grabbing Ruby by the shoulder and nodding ahead.
"The exit! Let's go!" She ordered, pushing Ruby towards the door they'd first entered through. Ruby gulped, turning her back to the Nuckleave and cautiously activating her semblance, pulling Coco in with her and shooting them forward and through the door. Ruby winced, her entire body exhausting instantly at the unaccustomed weight of the other two women. She fell to the floor, rose petals scattering everywhere as she curled herself protectively around Weiss. She cried as she fell against her sore shoulder, sliding to a stop by the feet of Velvet and Yatsuhashi.
"Ruby! Weiss!" Velvet yelped in surprise, crouching down to help her back up. Ruby groaned, carefully sitting back up to check on Weiss again. The heiress had returned to her unconscious state, her face pressed against Ruby's chest. Panic flashed across Ruby for a moment, prompting her to check Weiss' pulse below her jaw. A slow, sporadic beat met her fingertips, Ruby sighed in relief.
Yatsuhashi had helped Coco to her feet by the time Ruby recovered, the door they'd only just come through starting to pour Grimm free. Coco and Yatsu took to fighting them off defensively, as Grimm Ruby had never even seen before began to crawl forward, screaming and clawing hungrily at the small group of scared teenagers. Ruby had to fight.
"Velvet, take care of Weiss!" Ruby ordered, gently passing her partner to Velvet, who was crouched beside her. The rabbit faunus nodded, carefully wrapping her arms around the Schnee's fragile body. Her eyes widened in alarm at the state she was in, her rabbit ears pinning back.
Now that Ruby knew Weiss was in safe hands, she could finally let out all the pent up, raw emotion that had been building up inside her over the last few days. With a gruff sigh, she fully unfurled Crescent Rose from her back, holding it painfully, planning out a route of attack before blasting into the sea of black and bone in a tornado of rose petals.
For a moment, all she saw was black as she spun her blade, using the motion of her semblende to slice through thick flesh as she raced through the waves of Grimm that fled from the laboratories. She could hear screaming down the halls, joined with the chalky taste of smoke that lined the back of her throat and made it hard to breathe. She finished her sprint, spinning in a circle before kicking up and out of the sea of Grimm, now taking aim with her sniper. She caught a few bigger Beowolves in the head before she hit the ground, landing just in front of Coco and Yatsuhashi. Gods, her shoulder hurt.
"They just keep coming!" Yatsu grumbled, hacking straight through the torso of a Sabyr as it leapt forward. The cat fell in two pieces, laying still for a moment before fading to black.
"Yeah, and if those weird hybrids reach us we're all done for," Coco finished, loading in another round of ammunition that she was quickly running out of. Ruby hummed in thought for a second.
"We need to block the door," she called, spinning her scythe in her grasp as a Ravager flew for her face, severing its wing from its body and sending it straight into Coco's range of fire.
"Any ideas on how?"
Ruby wasn't sure. The only way they could really block the door was to bring the ceiling down again, or use some kind of Dust to seal it. The ceiling was already unstable from their previous encounter, Ruby knew that if they did it again the whole first floor would collapse on them. A lightbulb went off in her head, looking back to Weiss as memories of the giant ice wall that separated them from their attackers came to the forefront of her mind. She looked back to Coco, "I might have one. Cover me."
Coco huffed, readjusting her grip as Ruby sprinted off. "I hope you know what you're doing, because I don't know how much ammo I have left for Gianduja."
Ruby slid to her knees as she got closer to Weiss, her momentum carrying her to Velvet who sat there, holding her. The Faunus looked up as Ruby got near, before glancing down to Weiss again, who was barely even conscious.
"Weiss? Can you hear me?" Ruby asked quickly, wincing as a fireball from a manticore somewhere blasted over their heads. Weiss' eyes grew bright for a moment, recognising the sound of Ruby's voice, before letting her eyes droop down again. She heaved, her chest rattling as she fought through the hot agony coursing through her body. Ruby's heart shattered watching Weiss writhe, knowing the heiress was probably trying to act much better than she felt. Velvet noticed too.
"She's in bad shape, Ruby, she's losing a lot of blood. She... She might not..." Velvet fell silent, knowing Ruby could figure out the rest. Ruby placed her knuckles to the side of her partner's face, starting to notice the wet stained splotches on her own cape that stuck to Weiss' body.
"She'll make it- She... She has to-" Ruby said softly.
Ruby looked behind her as Coco and Yatsu were pushed closer, losing space between the sea of Grimm and the collapsed ceiling. Smoke filled at least half of the room now from the fire that raged below them, the heat of the fires making it hard to breathe. They were losing.
"Velvet!" Coco ordered, "I think it's time for Anesidora."
"Right!" Velvet responded, handing Weiss back to Ruby as carefully as she could and hopping to her feet. She joined her leader and pulled out her camera box, forming a sleek blue version of Coco's own weapon in her hands and opening fire on the Grimm. Yatsu charged forward with Fulcrum in his grip, hacking and slashing through any Grimm that the Dust enhanced bullets wouldn't get though.
Ruby watched as team CVY worked their magic, while she sat uselessly behind them with her unconscious partner in her hands. The way they worked together seamlessly was amazing, like they'd known each other their whole lives and could predict each other's movements. The way Velvet and Yatsu lined up targets for each other, and how Coco's semblance tore through weaker Grimm… If they hadn't been in such a bad predicament, Ruby was positive that she would've been foaming in awe; seeing the best team in Beacon work like clockwork was inspiring.
Well, at least if they went down, they went down fighting.
"Get away from the ceiling."
Ruby jumped as Fox's voice suddenly echoed through her mind, scrambling to her feet as the heavy slab of concrete from the first floor began to glow black and shift in place. The heavy piece of concrete began to lift into the air like magic, quickly settling back into where it had been before the bomb had been set off. Ruby watched as the concrete fixed itself back into place in wonder, before looking behind where it had been.
Yang, Blake and Fox charged forward, stopping just before Ruby. "Whoa, that's a lot of Grimm!" Yang commented quickly, cocking Ember Celica and sending two fire Dust propelled shotgun blasts into the blackness. Blake appeared by Ruby's side, wild amber eyes checking over their team leader, and then down to Weiss.
"Is she..?" Blake asked, too nervous to finish the end of her sentence. Ruby shook her head.
"She's alive, but she's hurt really badly." Ruby said. Yang glanced back down to her sister, and then to Weiss.
"What's that thing on her ankle?" The blonde asked, turning and sending two more Dust powered shells into the Grimm as they backed off slightly. Ruby had almost forgotten.
"It's a tracking tag." Blake explained quickly, standing to swap out for Yang. "Yang, break it off!"
"Right!" Yang fell to one knee, prying her fingers under the thick black plastic and tugging. The material strained for a minute before shattering and falling to the floor in two pieces. She quickly hopped back onto her feet after that, turning to help her partner, "You need to get her out of here, Rubes. Don't worry, we can cover you."
Ruby's mouth opened to object, but instead she jumped as a rough, yet familiar hand plopped on her head. She looked back in surprise to see a tall, raven haired man looking down at her with a mixed look of pride and relief. "Uncle Qrow?!"
"You have no idea what kind of trouble you're in!" came Glynda's irritated voice, standing to the other side of Ruby and Blake. Ruby looked up in awe as the vice-headmaster brandished her crop, but she had a look Ruby's didn't recognise on her face. The older woman sighed upon seeing the horde of Grimm advancing on her already exhausted students. She pushed her glasses up her nose. "However, we will discuss the consequences to your actions later. Get outside, there's an airship waiting for you."
"And miss out on this? No way, I have to take my temper out on something, plus, I still gotta win against Qrow in something." Yang hollered as Qrow and Glynda stepped forward. Qrow pulled his own sword from his back with a laugh, a glint in his eyes and a smirk on his scruffy face. His heavy buster sword suddenly started to shift, transforming into a scythe not too dissimilar from Ruby's.
"Alright Firecracker. You're on." He looked back down to Ruby and nodded to Weiss in her grasp. "Just get her outta here, kid."
Ruby took a breath, looking down to the pale, bloody form of her partner and back up to her newfound family. "Okay. You better come back." She pivoted on her heel. Rose petals swirled around her feet as she charged her semblance, before bursting off with a rush of speed that splintered the floor beneath her. Ruby's world became colours, using what she remembered of the entrance to lead herself out. As she passed through the lobby, she noticed several of Ironwood's machines standing around with several more White Fang members arrested. The outside was no different, with Faunus sitting on their knees in chains in rows alongside the stolen Dust trucks.
It wasn't hard to miss the giant, white airship that had landed in the clearing just beside the building, blue banners waving in the engine gusts as it sat in wait. Ruby stopped her semblance, sliding on her feet along the muddy ground. She stopped just by the main doors, clutching Weiss tight to her chest. The ivory haired woman in her hands groaned faintly, the colour that had briefly returned to her face quickly fading due to the sheer amount of blood she was losing.
"Help!" Ruby called into the airship, causing the doors to open. On the other side was someone Ruby had heard Weiss mention several times before, and who she could only assume to be Winter Schnee. She really looked like an older version of Weiss, with sharper eyes and a battle hardened look in them. Despite that, Ruby could feel the emotion hit her aura like a train when she stepped out, sapphire blue eyes locked on the form of her younger sister.
Winter looked up to Ruby suddenly, urging the leader of RWBY to straighten her sore back a bit. "Ruby Rose?"
Ruby frowned in surprise. "You know my na-"
"Get in." Winter ordered, hooking her hand under Ruby's shoulder and pulling her up. Ruby winced at the pain that accompanied the gesture, but quickly scrambled into the side of the ship without a second word.