Chapter 33: Family Obligations
AN: Well, author's notes that are half as long as the rest of the story seem to not be happening for a little bit, don't really have a whole lot to say. Big thing is me putting up a poll on my profile to see what people want for an update schedule. So go vote and let me know when you want your twice-weekly infusions of this story.
Also, warning, don't go listening to Cold while reading this if you value your tear ducts. Had me in a fit of tears, and I know how the damn thing's gonna end.
In this special Ruby-centric chapter of Team RWKY, Kassidy fights for Yang's life, then has a conversation with Bob that gets the young team leader thinking.
(Perspective: Ruby)
No… not Yang… don't you leave me too…
Having fallen to her knees, Ruby looked at the scene before her with Weiss sitting to her side. After finding out that Yang had stopped breathing, Kassidy had dumped everything and set the brawler face up on the ground. After popping her knuckles, Kassidy had started with CPR, pumping on her chest and ducking down to try and force the air into her partner's lungs.
You said… you said you'd never leave me. That I'd never be alone…
"C'mon, blondie! Breathe, damnit!" Kassidy, having not found what she was looking for, started pumping on Yang's chest again. Ruby almost jumped at the hand that suddenly found itself on her shoulder, and looked through tear-filled eyes at her own partner, Weiss Schnee, doing her best to console her. The comforting touch was just enough to send Ruby over the edge, throwing her arms over Weiss and bawling into her shoulder.
You… you're not allowed to leave. You can't die on me. Not like that…
"How am I doing for time, Bob?"
"Another ninety seconds before she starts suffering permanent brain damage."
"FUCK! Listen up, partner. No dying without permission, got it?" Kassidy started throwing her entire weight behind the chest pumps, becoming almost violent in her attempts to resuscitate her partner.
"She-She'll be alright, Ruby. I know she will be. She's stronger than this." Weiss did her best to comfort the brunette in her arms, but now feeling completely out of her league in addition to being horrified. Ruby twisted her head back to watch Kassidy continue her work.
You can't join Mom! Not yet! We still have so much to do together! So many… so many adventures to have. That's what you always wanted, right? The adventure? We still need to do those! COME BACK!
"We only have time for two more attempts, Kassidy."
"I'm acutely aware, Bob."
No… Yang…? Please come back…
Through her own panic, Ruby almost missed the fact that instead of continuing CPR, Kassidy had leaned down and started talking to Yang. She had to fight to hear the words.
"Now listen here, Yang. You're not allowed to go like that. You hear me? Ruby's over there crying her eyes out because of you. I can't fight these guys alone. Your sister needs you. For fucks sake, I need you. I can't let you die like this…" Kassidy broke down into tears herself as she finished. "I can't let you die like Matthew did… I can't. I don't… I don't think I could take it. Which is why I'm going to do this one last time, and it's why you're going to breathe, damnit."
Yang… please… don't leave me…
As Kassidy got to work on what would either way be her last round of CPR, Ruby held her choked breath. Weiss was bawling her eyes out at this point as well, trembling so hard she and Ruby almost fell over. Neither of them watched. Suddenly, a quiet gurgling sound came from Yang. Ruby and Weiss' heads snapped up, and saw Kassidy pause in her compressions. The pause lasted almost for a moment however, as she bodily flipped Yang on top of her, balled her fists together under her partner's ribcage, and started pulling.
Weiss and Ruby were both infuriated at what appeared to be Kassidy trying to hurt Yang even more while the brawler was on her deathbed. It was Weiss, however, who was able to form words at this point. "W-What do you think you're doing?! Isn't she hurt enough?"
"It's called a Heimlich. Clears the lungs and air passages of blockages. In this case, the blood that had been pooling in Yang's lungs and preventing her from breathing in the first place." As if to accompany Bob's explanation, Yang started coughing up blood. Kassidy kept jamming her fists under her partner's ribcage.
"C'mon, you blonde bitch. You're a fighter. Fight for Ruby." Almost as though answering her partner's challenge, Yang finished coughing up blood and painfully heaved great breaths, before remaining unconscious and resuming her breathing in a far more sedate manner. Kassidy rolled the injured blonde off of her, face down into the grass, before making sure she could still breathe and letting out a deep sigh. "Oh thank every god in every religion ever. Both on Earth and on Remnant."
"Is… is Yang…"
"She's breathing for now, Ruby. But that's just the start of my work." Sliding a hand down her face, Kassidy crawled a bit to drag her gigantic backpack over and started digging through it. "Can the leg wait, Weiss?"
Weiss put more pressure on the cloth she tore from her dress to use as a bandage, before hissing in pain. "It hurts, but I can manage. I can keep the bleeding down for a while."
"Good, because Yang can't wait." Kassidy triumphantly pulled out an unmarked bottle from her bag, before dumping out a tablet and swallowing it. "Alright, step one: antacids. Step two… water. How much do I have in my canteen again?"
While Kassidy fiddled around with her water supply, Ruby had crawled over and held her sister's hand in a death grip. Tear-filled eyes carefully watched the pathetically weak but present breathing, the giant and still bleeding gashes in her back, and the paling skin that was far colder to the touch than the young girl was familiar with.
Come on, Yang… stay with me… please…
Another hand on Ruby's shoulder made her turn around to see Kassidy looking at her, eyes full of grief and concern as well as conviction. "I know, Ruby. I know this is hard. But right now, I need you to do a couple things for me."
"Anything!" Ruby yelled before she broke down crying again. "Please, just save Yang… please…"
A hand lifted her chin up, and brought Ruby's gaze back to Kassidy's. "I'll be damned if I don't, I promise. But I need you to go get some water for me. Think you can find a river or something, and fill this up?" Ruby looked down to an old copper pot that Kassidy had pulled out of her bag. She didn't bother asking why she was carrying that in her backpack of mysteries.
"Y-Yeah. I think I saw a creek not far from here. I'll be right back." Using her Semblance, Ruby wasted no time in searching for a source of fresh water, before indeed finding a creek and filling it with water. Meanwhile, her hyperactive brain was busy trying to have around seventeen different trains of thought at the same time, and failing at keeping them all separate. Zipping back to where her team was, Ruby skidded to a stop over Kassidy pulling some strange blue gloves out. "I got it. Is she still…"
Kassidy looked up and took the pot of water. Motioning for her to kneel, she began to explain. "Look, there's no easy way to say this, and I'm garbage at sugar-coating things, so I'm just gonna say it."
"Bu… no! Yang! Come back!" Ruby fell on top of her sister before getting dragged back up by Kassidy.
"Relax, she's the same way you left her. Which is a problem." Ruby's eyes began tearing up again, but she wiped them away and sniffled before looking expectantly. Kassidy sighed, then continued. "Right now, Yang's alive. Barely. There's still blood filling her lungs, and a bunch of major blood vessels got absolutely ruined. It's gonna take a lot of impromptu surgery for me to get the bleeding under control, hence the water to keep everything cleaned up."
"But she'll get better, right? She has to. She said she'd never leave me. That she'd never leave me alone. She promised! She can't die!" Ruby broke down again after shouting at Kassidy, before looking up and regretting that she didn't.
Kassidy looked like she was on the verge of breaking down herself. She looked down at her open hands, before pulling Ruby into a tight hug and shuddering. Ruby bawled into her shoulder, just as she let Kassidy cry on hers for a moment. Her sister's partner spoke through choked sobs, "Ruby… I know EXACTLY what you're feeling… and I swear to you on all that is holy… if there is a way to keep Yang alive, I will find it. I WILL find it."
Ruby tried to choke out a 'thank you', but her sobs kept it from being spoken fully.
"I need you to do something else for me, okay?" Kassidy held Ruby out at arm's length by her shoulders, waiting for Ruby's nod. She gave it, and Kassidy sighed. "Like it or not, our fight's not over. If not those Hunter-Killers, then there's enough negative feelings here to draw in Grimm for miles. I'll be too busy with Yang to keep an eye out, so you'll need to keep watch for me. Can you do that?"
Kassidy quickly found herself pulled into a strong enough hug to rival one from Yang herself, as Ruby clutched on for dear life. "Just bring Yang back. I'll take care of everything else. Just bring her back. Please."
The two ended their embrace, and Kassidy shot off a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am. Oh, and one more thing… don't panic if I start throwing up. My stomach's weak to blood and gore too, not just flights." Ruby and Weiss looked at her incredulously, and Kassidy looked sheepish. "Alright, time to get to work. You probably don't want to watch this."
At that, Ruby stood up and left Kassidy to her work. She could her the blonde talking to her computer about walking her through what needs to be done, but her thoughts were focused on two other things. I failed them. I'm supposed to keep my team safe, to make the right calls, and I failed. I didn't even make any calls, Kassidy had to do that. And now Yang's fighting for her life because of me… Dust damnit! In a fit of rage, she unfurled Crescent Rose and took her frustrations out on an adjacent tree, cutting it down more easily than any lumberjack. The trunk fell with a crash, and she sat upon the stump to begin her watch.
Those Grimm are out there. Those… things that tried to take Yang from me. If I see them again, I'll… I'll…
She jumped when something brushed against her leg. Looking down, Ruby saw that Weiss had drug herself over to the stump and rested her back against it. Beady blue eyes looked up at her, still shining with freshly cried tears. "Ruby, I'm so sorry about Yang. Maybe if I'd-"
"It wasn't your fault, Weiss." Ruby looked wistfully out at the forest she once gazed at in wonderment at the beautiful landscape. Now, she cursed all the red for masking the telltale red glow of a Grimm's eyes. "I failed as a team leader. I wasn't there to make sure you guys were okay, I wasn't there to make the right calls, I wasn't-"
"Don't do that to yourself, you dolt!" Weiss' quiet screech drug Ruby out of her self-loathing monologue and brought her attention to the heiress. "If I recall – and I do recall – you had gotten jumped by the second largest Hunter-Killer there. Well, not counting that Alpha that came out of nowhere and we had no idea even existed. Then, you went and drug off what was the largest Hunter-Killer from its fight with Kassidy. You fought two of the things one-on-one, and you've come out of it better than any of us, it seems."
Ruby was about to reply, but a retching sound behind them told the story of Kassidy losing her dinner while working on Yang's injuries. She took another sweep through Crescent Rose's scope to distract herself from the sound, and was pleased to see that, for some reason, there was still a complete lack of Grimm near them.
"I'm worried about Kassidy. Whenever we get back."
"How come, Weiss?"
"I mean, I get that she's upset about this. What kind of cold, unfeeling person wouldn't be upset at having their partner torn up, and having to close the wounds themselves? But… she's showing so much emotion. So much more than I thought she had in her."
Ruby shrugged. "She never does show a lot of emotion, does she? But like you said, it makes sense now."
"Does it? She's taking this personally. Remember the only two things she took personally? Really took personally?" Weiss scowled as Ruby shrugged again, and went on to explain herself. "The first time was when you were getting bullied by Cardin and his cronies. She shot them all, and threatened them with murder. The second time, she had those nightmares, spent the following day being a complete wreck, and drunk herself to sleep that night." Weiss shook her head to clear it. "If she's showing this kind of emotion again… I can't help but wonder what she's going to do this time."
Ruby's mouth opened, then closed, then her brow furrowed in thought. "Whatever she does, I hope she goes to Yang. They've always been looking out for each other however they can. It's even kinda cute sometimes, isn't it?"
Weiss looked off into the distance, scowling. In a few moments, however, her expression lightened. "They do seem to work well as partners, don't they? It seems like they were fortunate to be paired up together in Initiation."
"Yeah." She looked back at Kassidy hunched over her sister's body, frantically working with what looked like some sort of gauze cloth. "Do you think there's anything to the rumors about them dating? I mean, I know that Kassidy's been insisting there's nothing between them, but she's been awful indulgent of Yang's habits these past couple weeks."
"I wouldn't think so. Kassidy's been out of it for most of the month. I'd think her tolerating Yang's antics is more a lack of energy or desire to do anything about it. Besides, think about it: if they were going to get 'together-together' as Nora would put it, the most likely time would be after they shared a bed that one night. But no, they just got up, we all did our thing, and they pretended as if that never happened."
Suddenly, Weiss hissed in pain, and Ruby looked down to see the cause. Apparently, Weiss had just shifted her leg and made the bones shift. The next hour was spent mostly in silence. Incredulously, there wasn't a sign of any Grimm at all. No Hunter-Killers, no Ursai, no Beowolves, not even a Creep. Ruby looked down, and saw Weiss whimpering in pain. Apparently, her leg was starting to get to her.
"Hey, how are you two doing?"
Ruby jumped at Kassidy materializing behind the two of them, before instantly wrapping her up in another hug. "Is Yang doing better?"
The uneasy silence that followed had Ruby breaking down into tears, before Kassidy swallowed thickly and brought Ruby's gaze to her own. "It's not looking good. I did what I could, I managed to patch up most of the major blood vessels and fix the tears in her lungs, but… there was just so much damage."
"No… no… Yang…"
Weiss was in a similar state of grief. "She's still alive, right?"
"For now." Kassidy joined Ruby on the stump, and sighed. "But she's not in good shape. I even gave her my emergency blood bag, but it wasn't enough."
"Wait, you gave her a blood transfusion? Without even knowing what her blood type is?" Weiss was beside herself. "Do you have any idea what you could've-"
"Don't need to know her blood type. Mine is O negative, universal donor. She'll be fine." Kassidy shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Either way, it won't be enough. She needs more blood, as well as medical procedures I can't give her. I've bought her some time, but… there's nothing more I can do for her. At this point, it all depends on how quickly the folks at Beacon find us."
Ruby trembled, her silver eyes wide and filled with tears yet again. "Can I… can I stay with her?"
"Not only can you, but you should. It's starting to get cold out, and she's losing body heat fast. Hypothermia's going to be a problem soon. You stay with her for a while, try and keep her warmed up. In fact," Kassidy paused as she took of her jacket, "take this with you as well. It'll help."
"Why not just build a fire?"
"Because, Weiss, as late as it's getting a fire is going to attract every kind of predator out here, Grimm or otherwise. Body heat's gonna be the best hope Yang has." Kassidy slung her rifle off her shoulder and loaded a clip of what looked like explosive ammo. "Go stay with your sister, Rubes. I'll handle watch now. See if I can't get a little work done on Weiss' leg also."
Ruby woke up in the middle of the night with a start. For the briefest of moments, she was confused as to why her vision was nothing but yellow, but then the events that had taken place before she nodded off came back. She stayed pressed into Yang's front, trying to give as much warmth to her sister as she could. Taking her sister's hand, Ruby felt only cold. This is really bad. Yang's never cold. Her semblance always keeps her ridiculously warm. After checking to make sure Yang was still breathing, Ruby ducked her head out from under her cloak that was laying over the two of them to look around them.
Weiss was a short ways away, buried under Kassidy's coat as well as her own. Her broken leg was covered in duct tape, keeping a makeshift splint in place. The heiress shivered, but otherwise looked fine. On the stump, just where she left her, Kassidy stood her vigil. Ruby took a few moments to look over the girl that fought so hard to save her sister's life. The tension that her bun put on her hair, almost looking like it would straight pull her hair out of her head if it was any tighter. The myriad of scars running up and down her arms, even more numerous than before due to no longer hiding under her jacket. Her hunched shoulders, slumped in defeat. And… singing? Is she singing? Ruby focused harder on the words, barely being able to make out a peculiar song she's never heard before.
"Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Livin' like we're renegades."
"If you want, I can pull the audio file up for you so you can stop butchering the tune." Bob's interjection nearly made Ruby jump.
"Nah, you need to save your power for tryin' to get communications back up." An uneasy silence followed for a good thirty seconds. "That was Matt's favorite song, y'know. Said it applied to the two of us perfectly."
"How so?"
"Just two kids, the best of friends, goin' out and causing some good-hearted trouble. Seeing what all we can stir up, havin' fun, and every now and then even gettin' back before it was dark." Ruby furrowed her brow at the funny accent Kassidy was using, before realizing that this was what Kass had called a 'southern drawl', whatever that meant. Her attention was regained, however, at Kassidy's next words. "I've made a pretty big mistake, Bob."
"That being?"
"I started carin' too much."
"Since when was that ever a mistake?"
Yeah, like Bob said. Since when was caring a mistake? And… she does care about my sister? Maybe there is something to the rumors?
"You wouldn't understand. She just… Yang reminds me so damn much of Matthew. And when Ruby kept breakin' down… I went and broke down too. I couldn't let her die like that."
"I'd be pretty appalled if you did let her die like that."
"Survival's a numbers game. You should know that better than anyone."
"And what numbers are you drawing from presently?"
"Time and supplies spent givin' Yang even a chance to survive. The smart decision would've been leavin' her and Weiss to die."
The… the SMART decision?! Why? Why does she think leaving her partner… and mine… would be a good idea?! Ruby's rage festered shortly before the conversation continued.
"And yet, you didn't do that."
"Just because I said it was the smart decision don't mean it've been the right decision. But the fact remains I've gotten soft. Weak."
"Does it?"
"Now ain't the time to be talking in riddles, Bob."
"Running is easy. You've been doing it for the past six years. Leaving Yang and Weiss behind as bait for the Hunter-Killers would've been the easy way to ensure your and Ruby's survival. But like you said, it would also be the incorrect choice. You would be robbing Beacon of two of the best first-year Huntresses it has, Ruby of a big sister, and the Schnee Dust Company of an heiress. And that's just the easy stuff. I haven't even gotten into running simulations and making predictions of their impacts on the future."
Kassidy shook her head and let out a snort. "Maybe you're right. Either way, I'm gettin' too attached to the girls. Need to be more careful of that."
"Is that to do with your crippling fear of your emotions, or your half-hearted attempts to dissuade the current rumors surrounding you?"
"Now'd be a real good time to shut up, Bob."
"One last thing, how come you alter your speech patterns so much when you're around people as opposed to just by yourself?"
"Just cause pickin' up new accents is easy, don't mean keepin' 'em is easy. That Valean accent of theirs tears my throat up somethin' good. Louisiana – or at least my excuse of a Louisiana accent– that's what I grew up on, and it's what's easiest. I'm also pretty darn sure that such an accent as mine don't exist here."
The conversation died there, with Kassidy humming a tune to herself as she kept her vigil over the rest of the team. Ruby ducked her head back down over her cloak. Yang slept on, pained but alive. Okay, so Kassidy's focus, first and foremost, is survival. If she's been doing that for most of her life… and she's scared of getting close to people… that actually explains a lot about her. She's so afraid of dying that she never lives, and she doesn't know how to do it. If – no, when – we all get out of here, I need to spend some time teaching her how to be a kid again. Yang always did say Kass seemed like that she grew up way too fast. Maybe a couple cookie-eating marathons. Yeah, that'll do it. Already forming plans about what the team would do when they all got back, and how she'd make things up to everyone, Ruby drifted off back to sleep.
AN 2: So, the return of Matthew, that mysterious boy from Kassidy's nightmares, and Ruby thinks that Kassidy's afraid of relationships because she grew up too fast. If only she knew that things aren't always that simple. And if only she didn't forget that Kassidy hates sugar. Coming up: Round two, fight! Anyways, Reader Response time.
Baconlord53: Plot twist indeed. How does RWKY perform at half strength? Guess we're about to find out.
Akshka: Glad to see you're still enjoying things. And don't worry, I have no plans to quit anytime soon.
AgentDraakis: Well, Yang's not dead… yet, anyway. Still up in the air if the duffs back at Beacon decide to be competent for a change.
annjames: She's alive, for now. May or may not change next chapter.
James: I aim to please. And if I can get people cussing me out when I leave them on a cliffhanger, I'm gonna have to pull a George W. Bush and call that "Mission Accomplished".
Tykene: I know, right? These girls really need a vacation soon. Except I'm evil and throwing a couple more things their way before they get the chance to relax. I see that you liked Sundays/Wednesdays, but I still felt putting a poll up to get more opinions would be a wise option. Sorry.