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Slamming his mace into another training dummy, he wasn't even satisfied when it shattered. Not even the sweat dripping down his face could stop him from restarting the training program; it didn't matter to him that his aura was almost in the red. Nothing else mattered but beating his body hard enough that he could no longer think about Ruby. It had taken hours until she'd gotten out of surgery; thank the gods for Raven's portals and their assigned doctor being insanely efficient. No one had told them what happened yet but he knew it was Blake's fault. There was no other answer that made sense given that Ruby had gone to see the feline faunus and now she was lying in a hospital bed.
The others were piled outside her room waiting for any news about her condition; even Jaune who had taken to rocking back and forth in the fetal position and mumbling under his breath. It was sort of worrying but he didn't have time to deal with the blonde's issues. The only good thing was that Pyrrha's brain waves had started to pick up so the redhead would be waking up soon. That way she could deal with his issues. Weiss had taken to ranting about cutting the trade with Menagerie while Ren and Nora tried to calm her down; it wasn't working considering Yang had agreed with her. Dove and Sky were actually running around Atlas picking out plushies for when Ruby woke up since they had nothing else to do and someone, it was Yang, had let slip how much she liked cute things. He was honestly just glad that his team no longer hated Ruby. Even Russel was trying to keep himself busy by pacing outside the room with his hand firmly on his daggers. They were all simmering in that place between anger and fear with no one to calm them down. The only issue was Blake.
He hated her, there was no one he despised more in this world than Blake Belladonna. She'd done nothing but hurt Ruby since they met. The feline had dragged Ruby into battle after battle with the White Fang and even caused the reaper to kill someone. He knew that she didn't really care about getting blood on her hands, she was already covered in it, however, she did want people to love her. That was why she kept going after Blake hoping that the faunus would turn around and give her the affection she wanted. He wanted the faunus to appear in front of him so he could tear her apart.
"Why do all you Beacon kids turn to violence?"
With his current emotional state, it wasn't a shock to say that he threw his mace at the General seconds after the man spoke. There was no regret on his face when the man sidestepped causing the mace to hit the wall with enough force that it stayed there. Shrugging Ironwood made a mental note to have Winter file for repairs before tugging the mace from the wall. It had been a good throw. Weighing the weapon in his hand he felt mildly impressed that the boy could throw something so heavy with accuracy from so far away. Tossing the weapon back, he raised an eyebrow as Cardin caught it without hesitation.
"Why are you here," he asked resisting the urge to throw his mace again. There was no reason for the man to be here when they all knew he was a military general; he must have something more important to do.
"Hiding from Jacques," the man admitted. The Schnee was determined to drag his reputation through the dirt simply because he wouldn't allow the man to abuse his daughters. Honestly, he was considering just killing the man and citing treason.
"Could just sic Weiss on him, might help her calm down."
The idea of letting their resident Ice Princess out to deal with her father was enough to make Cardin smile for only a second. There wouldn't be much left of the man if Weiss was feeling especially vindictive. Besides letting any of them vent right now would most likely end in bloodshed; even Ironwood had been angry these last few hours. The man had spent a while making full use of Raven's semblance to argue with the chief of Menagerie who happened to be Blake's father. Of course, the cat would have connections that made her untouchable; that was just his luck. He couldn't touch the feline faunus.
Clenching the weapon in his hand he didn't hear the General speak, he was too busy thinking about skinning a cat, in fact, he didn't notice the man approach until a rough hand was laid on his shoulder.
"I need someone to go and get Ciel."
"You want me t-"
"Yes," he stated. Ozpin would never approve of what he was doing but he knew without a doubt that these kids were the future of Remnant. There was no longer any time to hide Salem's existence; the only choice they had was to take the fight to her and for that to happen everyone needed to know about her existence. These kids were going to be the first risk he took in this fight. Frowning slightly, he said, "When Ruby wakes up, I have a lot to tell you all."
(Blake)
Her hands were shaking; they hadn't stopped shaking since Raven carried Ruby through a portal back to Atlas. It was her fault; she knew that yet the only thing she could do was think about running away. Viper, an assassin, had done more to help Ruby than she'd been able to. It was her words that caused Ruby to get hurt, there was nothing that could get her leaders smile out of her head. Ruby had known, just like she did, that Ilia wouldn't stop but she'd followed the order anyway. There hadn't even been a bit of hesitation; why did Ruby always do this.
The reaper threw herself into danger without thinking about the consequences just to protect them. She didn't understand why Ruby even obeyed the order in the first place. All she'd wanted was for the fighting to stop and now Ruby was hurt; it wouldn't surprise her if her leader never wanted to see her again. Even her father wasn't talking to her right now, there was a chance that Atlas might start a war because Ruby got hurt. How were they supposed to know that Ruby was an Atlas licensed Huntress? To make things worse, Ilia had vanished so they couldn't even turn her in.
All of this was her fault. There was no one else to blame for Ruby getting hurt or the war they might have to face. Even Viper, the man that tortured people had tried to save Ruby when she froze. Why did she always freeze? She'd wanted to help yet her body refused to move it was as if she turned into a statue every single time someone, she cared for got hurt. It was all her fault.
Hugging her knees close to her chest she dug her nails into her pants trying to make herself stop shaking. It didn't help. There was nothing she could do to make her trembling stop, nor could she ignore the guilt winding around her soul. Biting her lip, she flinched as heavy footsteps thudded toward her. From the scent it was Cardin who was charging toward her like an enraged bull; her ears flattened on her head as she tried to make herself smaller.
It was moments like this that she wished invisibility was her semblance. Sun was trying to calm down Cardin, but she knew it wouldn't work. While she might not like Cardin, she knew that Ruby was everything to the boy. He was going to kill her, there was no other reason for him to be here. She deserved to die for allowing this to happen, didn't she? Raising her head as Cardin stopped moving, she winced at the look of pure loathing on his face. For once the expression wasn't because she was a faunus but because of her own actions. Then the berserker was looking away from her and turning all his attention to Sun.
"Did Ruby leave anything in her room," he asked keeping his emotions under control. The nod from the monkey faunus who shifted nervously was enough to make him sigh. Running a hand through his hair he glanced at Ciel who kept her eyes on the floor before saying, "Can you take Ciel to get it?"
The expression of indecision was solved when Ciel started walking toward the door forcing Sun to follow her. It was nice to know he was being left alone with Blake; really, he had the self-control not to kill her. He wanted to strangle her, but he knew that Ruby still cared about the feline. Moments like this were when he wondered if the girl was a masochist. Resting his hand on his hip he was glad that Ironwood had taken his mace.
"I hate you," he admitted refusing to look at the faunus. He'd never loathed someone as much as he did Blake. Noticing how much she was shaking he didn't even try to smother the vindictive urge to laugh at her. The bitter chuckle caused her to flinch, but he didn't care as he said, "But more than you I hate that Ruby will shake this off like it doesn't matter."
Looking away from him she bit her lip. The refusal to speak or admit that what he said was true was enough to break his already fragile control. Stomping toward her he felt a little better when she cowered but that didn't make a dent in his rage. Closing his hand around the collar of her coat he sneered as she winced, he hated her. He couldn't tell her to stay away from Ruby no matter how much he wanted to neither could he hurt her. Releasing her slowly he moved to put the coffee table between them before he did something that he would regret.
"I want you to tell me everything that happened," he ordered trying to keep his tone even.
(Adam)
Going over the video of Viper and Ilia's fight with Ruby for the fifth time he had no idea how to react. On a skill level, the girl was good, insanely good to keep up with Viper. The blonde man was one of the best however he hadn't been trying to kill her. Of course, he'd also never seen someone fight through Viper's poison before, it was kind of intimidating. She either had enough willpower to ignore the pain or she didn't even notice it. He was willing to bet it was the first option. His teacher was boiling in rage that he didn't even want to touch on seeing as how she might turn on him.
On the good side, all his people were off the island. Yuma and Trifa were now working on his plan to take over the White Fang while Viper was working on preparing Ilia to infiltrate Blake's group. The fact the Belladonnas were gearing up to take over the White Fang was enough to make him laugh; where were they when his people were suffering in Atlas. Despite her growing weakness, Sienna was far better than they were. At least she knew the pain the faunus actually faced while the Belladonnas stayed on their little island content to let their people suffer.
While Sienna and the Belladonnas were sitting on their thrones, he'd been the one to pick up the pieces and keep fighting for their people. Even with the weary exhaustion in his limbs, he'd kept going for years with no promise of reward. Now after all this time he wanted nothing more than to simply stop fighting this never-ending battle, but his people needed him, he wasn't allowed to stop fighting for them. That fact was the only reason he woke up in the morning despite knowing he might die at any time. The only people in his life that he truly trusted were Raven, his fellow students, and his soldiers. Blake had already proven that anyone could betray him for any reason.
He was getting tired of fighting this war. In all the time he'd fought nothing had changed except that he'd gotten gallons of blood on his hands. He'd tried so hard to help his people, yet he'd still been betrayed and left behind as if he didn't matter. How was he supposed to keep fighting when there was no end to battle? The simple answer was that he couldn't, not when he was slowly being consumed by the hate that lived in the hearts of everyone that he killed. Part of him thought that this hate and pain were things that he deserved, but no one deserved to shoulder the anguish of an entire race.
Glancing down at the frozen moment on his scroll, he could see the heartache in Ruby's smile. In a way both he and the little reaper were betrayed by Blake; the only thing was the girl knew exactly what was going to happen when she followed Blake's order. He would never have been able to follow an order that was basically committing suicide. It was almost as if the girl didn't even have a single ounce of self-preservation at all; he was hoping that was false. For someone so strong, she didn't seem to care about her own life at all.
Hi guys how are you doing today? What did you think of the chapter? Ruby's injury will have consequences. How do you think Ruby will react to learning that Ozpin is still alive? Also, four more chapters until Ruby meets Adam!
stay safe and have a good day
-Shyla
