Chapter 76

Liam

Coming to in an unfamiliar room, Liam tried to push himself upright, only to wince and fall back down. Noticing his mechanical arm was currently missing, Liam grit his teeth.

"Damnit..." Liam groaned, his voice raspy and dry.

Liam went to roll over, only to fall off the bed and hit the floor of the room. Instant pain rushed throughout his entire body, making Liam yell out in pain.

Pushing himself up, Liam grit his teeth as he took pained breaths. Slowly, and painfully, Liam rose to his feet. Stumbling over to the desk in the corner of the room, Liam stared at himself in the mirror that sat atop it.

The person who looked back at Liam looked completely different.

A dark burn scar ran down the left half of his face, starting from his hairline and going down to the middle of his cheek. His left eye, thankfully, was still intact and, apart from his sclera being burnt black, seemed to be completely fine. He could still see out of it, and it didn't hurt as much as the rest of him did.

Letting out a slow breath, Liam noticed he was shirtless with countless bandages lining his torso. Taking a step back, Liam removed the bandages to reveal similar looking burns on his arms, chest, abs and sides. The wounds didn't hurt as much as they should have, meaning some time must have passed between everyone entering Vacuo and now.

Looking at his hand, Liam saw more bandages lining his arm, and even some on his legs. Taking them off, more burn scars were scattered across his body.

He couldn't believe his own eyes. It seemed not a single part of his body was unscathed from Cinder's attack.

Remembering what happened in that dark void, Liam clenched his fists, tears threatening to fall from his eyes as nearly everyone he cared about was now gone. Jaune, Chrome, Blake, Yang, and his sister, Ruby.

Clenching his fist, Liam slammed it down onto the desk.

"Damnit!"

Liam pulled his fist back and punched the mirror, sending countless cracks through the glass.

Yelling, Liam threw the desk to the floor. Punching the wall, Liam put a whole in it, causing his knuckles to bleed from the force.

His sorrow was soon replaced by rage. He had Cinder, he could have killed her. If he had just helped Jaune, the two of them could've-

"You're awake." A familiar voice said from the doorway.

Glancing back, Liam saw Mist standing there, just a few feet away.

"You!" Liam took a step towards her, only to wince in pain as he fell to one knee, clutching his side.

"Easy, tiger." Mist said, leaning against the frame. "Marek already went through the whole 'I don't trust you' song and dance. So, let's go ahead and skip that bit, yeah?"

"You're... with Salem!" Liam growled, fighting just to get back on his feet.

"Was." Mist corrected.

"Bullshit."

"Believe what you will, Liam." Mist told him.

Hearing a door open elsewhere in the house, Mist leaned out into the hall.

"He's awake!" Mist shouted.

A thud echoed through the halls as footsteps quickly approached the room Liam was in. Stopping in the doorway, hands placed on both sides of the frame, stood an exhausted looking Weiss.

"Liam!"

Weiss rushed over and knelt down, pulling Liam into a hug.

"Thank God!" Weiss breathed a sigh of relief. Weiss pulled away and began looking Liam's wounds over. "H-how do you feel? Are you okay? You're not still hurting, are you?"

"Slow down, Ms. Schnee." Oscar said as he walked into the room.

"Oz?" The two looked to the kid that walked into the room.

"After the injuries Mr. Branwen suffered, I'd imagine what he wants to do now is rest."

Liam rose to his feet, glaring at Ozpin.

"I want Cinder dead." Liam stated, his voice emotionless and monotone. "She's killed everyone close to me! She's- she-!" Liam's voice began to break as he stumbled backwards. Tears filled his eyes as the loss of his leader, cousin, sister, and friends sunk in on him.

Clenching his fist, Liam managed to keep himself from falling apart.

"Where's my arm?"

Marek walked in, Liam's mechanical arm in his possession.

"We had to do a bit of work on it." Marek said. "Should be working now."

Handing it over, Liam began to put it on. Weiss tried to help, but Liam turned away.

"I got it."

Weiss took a step back as Liam finished putting his arm back on.

Opening and closing his hand, Liam turned the arm to check it over. Once he confirmed it was working, Liam turned back to Marek.

"Where's my mom's cloak?"

Weiss got up and headed over to the dresser. Opening it, she pulled out the clothes Liam was wearing before.

"The cloak was burned pretty badly, but I did manage to save what I could and even got a bit of help from Maya. We modified it a little." Weiss said, holding the cloth out to Liam. Taking it, Liam looked up at Weiss.

His mother's cloak was expertly modified into a long jacket that went down to his thighs. There wasn't a zipper, so it still had a bit of a cloak feel to it.

"Thank you."

Putting it on without a shirt, Liam looked to Weiss again.

"Who's 'Maya'?"

Ozpin stepped forward.

"She's the woman of this residence." He answered. "She was kind enough to let us stay as long as we need. She's currently helping the people of Mantle and Atlas get situated. She'll be back soon so you can meet her."

"Hm."

Silence fell upon the room, which was broken by Weiss.

"Could you all give us a second in private?"

Soon, everyone except Liam and Weiss left the room.

Once the door shut, Weiss turned to Liam.

"I'm glad you're okay, but I wanted to ask: what exactly happened?"

"You mean in the realm?"

Weiss nodded her head in reply.

"What do you want me to say?" Liam looked over to an empty spot in the room. "Ruby, Yang, Blake, Chrome and Jaune all didn't make it. There's nothing else to say, really."

"But, how did they-"

"What difference does it make?" Liam got to his feet. "They're all gone! Each one of them fell."

"What about Cinder?"

Liam crossed his arms.

"She escaped with the lamp." Liam said. "But at least we still have the staff."

Hearing him mention the staff, Weiss looked down.

"Speaking of, why didn't you come back to help us? Why didn't any of you come back? Why did the realm get destroyed before any of us got out?"

With each question, Weiss felt as if she would break.

"The portal was one way." Weiss replied. "We couldn't come back. As for the realm, Marek used the staff to help us against attacking Grimm. We were being overwhelmed and needed something to fight them off. I wanted to keep the portal open, but..." Weiss trailed off. "I'm so sorry, Liam."

Liam slowly pulled Weiss into a tight embrace.

"I'm glad you're okay."

Weiss wrapped her arms around Liam, the two sharing this moment together.

After what felt like an eternity, the two separated. Staring at one another, their gazes turned to the doorway as someone cleared their throat.

A fox Faunus stood in the hall just outside the room. For some reason, she seemed extremely familiar, as if Liam had met her somewhere before. Her light brown hair, fox ears, and violet eyes all reminded him of Nicci.

She wore casual clothes, consisting of blue jeans, a yellow shirt, and an orange button up that was left open. She didn't have any shoes on, walking around in a pair of socks. Battle scars lined her arms, and she even had one running diagonally across her face, but she seemed to show it with a sense of pride.

"I don't mean to interrupt, just wanted to let y'all know: dinner's ready." The woman said. Her eyes then landed on Liam. "I heard you finally woke up." The woman entered the room and approached Liam. "Glad to finally meet you in person." She held her hand out to him. "Liam, right?"

"Yeah." The two shared a quick handshake.

"I'm Maya Redwood. Nice to finally meet you."

End of chapter 76