Chapter 93

'Wait, what about Qrow and Robyn?' Ruby blustered, trying not to fall down the stairs. Ruby, Blake, and Weiss were still chasing down May who, like Jaye had suggested, seemed intent on returning to Mantle. 'Well maybe if we get them out of wherever they're being held… they could-.'

'No, see, you just don't get it!' May yelled, whirling on the girls. 'This is not a situation where everyone wins! Jaye got the point, that's why he's still up there and not down here with the three of you! Now, you all can come with me to help in Mantle, or I can drop you off near the front lines if you still want to help Atlas.' She stalked towards the girls. 'Your uncle and Robyn can't save us. We have to choose. So choose.'

Giving the girls an ultimatum, a silent pondering occurred amongst the three teammates glancing across each other. Their brief moment of telepathy was interrupted by a heavy pounding on the door, and the girls drew their weapons in response. Weiss paced slowly to the door, body tensed in anticipation of attack, and put her eye up to the peephole. Her face broke into a smile, and she threw the doors open with a gasp.

'Klein!' She squealed elatedly, the orange-moustached former butler bowing his head to her in greeting.

'Miss Schnee! I heard there was a patient here who needed my help?' He said jovially, the effects of his recent unemployment clearly not bothering him at all. Weiss averted her eyes to the floor.

'I, I am so sorry Klein. It's my fault that father fired you.' She lamented, and the man pulled his hat off his head as his eyes turned a bright green. He removed his hat from his head, holding it across his chest.

'Please don't worry my little snowflake.' He said. 'I-It had nothing to do with you.' He placed his hat back on his head, his eyes turning a bright red as he walked into the premises. Even his personality seemed to change, if the tone of his voice was any indication. 'And everything to do with Jacques!'

'Well, that's sweet of you.' Weiss sniffed, wiping a tear away from her face. 'But wait, how did you know to come?'

Klein spread his arms widely at the white-haired boy coming down the stairs as if to see what all the commotion was about. 'Aaaaah young Whitley, I'm so glad you rang. May I please see the patient? I understand it's urgent.'

'Yes, she's in Weiss's room. Just go up the-.'

'I haven't been gone that long, Master Whitley. I believe I can find it.' Klein interrupted, patting the boy on the shoulder as he walked past. Whitley continued to stand uncomfortably on the spot, scratching his head as Weiss stared at him.

'You called Klein?' She asked disbelievingly, and the young heir shook his head at the girl.

'That girl needs a doctor. I didn't do it for you.' He said, turning away from his sister. Weiss smiled at the boy.

'I know. That's why it means so much to me.' She said, embracing him. The practically tsundere boy finally relented, hugging her back, but their tender moment was promptly interrupted by a massive crash from outside. The present party stared at the source of the noise, aiming to investigate. 'Did you call anyone else?'

Ruby pulled the double doors open slowly, peering out to see the crater in the middle of their driveway. Dust and smoke rising from it, the three girls ran to the edge, peering over it to see what had caused the incredible amount of damage. Cradled in the middle of the rubble, Penny raised a trembling hand to them as she lost power, green liquid spilling from the cracks in her body like blood from a wound.

'I'm… I'm sorry.' She whispered, before collapsing against the ground.

'You've done a wonderful job, Mr Ryder. I'll take it from here.' Klein said, taking the forceps and needle out of the boy's hands. Jaye relinquished the items to him, getting out of the chair and stretching out his still aching shoulder. Klein immediately got to work on the last remaining wound, observing the girl still unconscious in the bed.

'You've done an impeccable job stitching her up. And wonderful you got her on an IV long before this; that will certainly help get her up and running all the faster.' He turned to the boy. 'Tell me, where did you learn such skills? A stitch as neat as this takes a lot of practice.'

'I had a lot of practice.' The boy said, shrugging his way out of his painfully heavy jacket. Klein indicated for him to remove his shirt, and he wriggled his way painfully out of the article of clothing. Klein raised an eyebrow at the numerous scars running across the boy's body.

'I certainly see that.' He said, turning the boy around and probing his shoulder. Jaye hissed in pain, and Klein promptly levered his arm upwards. 'Not to worry, just seems to be a patch of damaged muscles. It appears your shoulder is still sitting well in its socket, but I take it you've dislocated it before?'

'Yeah, a few years ago.' He said, groaning as Klein ran his fingers over the back of his deltoid. 'Had a bad tumble off the side of a building. Stopped myself by grabbing a railing, but it did no favours for my arm in the process.'

'Certainly not a mild injury, but thankfully it appears your body has adapted quite well to reducing the damage since that incident, though your shoulder definitely has much less security than before.' Klein declared, removing a small syringe from his leather bag, swabbing the boy's shoulder with an alcohol swab and jabbing him. 'This is just a little concoction of a few painkillers, nothing too heavy, and it should hold you until you can heal yourself. I still recommend not overexerting yourself too much for the next few days, but considering we are in the middle of a war I highly doubt you'll be able to follow my advice.'

'Thanks doc.'

'No worries.' Klein glanced at the girl as she groaned, moving her arms as her eyes barely fluttered open. He adjusted her IV bag carefully. 'Ah, impeccable timing. No need to worry, miss. You and your friend are going to be just fine.'

The door opened as the girls bundled Penny through the doors. Blake held it open for them as they carried the robot girl in, who was much heavier than she looked, and a lot heavier than the average girl.

'She lost consciousness.' Blake called, eyeballing the robot girl. 'And she's… leaking.'

'Set her down, set her down.' Klein called, and they lowered the girl onto the small bed below her. Whitley raised his arms disgustedly, the green liquid clinging to his fancy clothes. Ruby glanced at the rather bewildered doctor.

'Can you help her?' She asked, as he ran a scroll over the robot girl to assess the damage.

'Even based on what you told me; I hardly know what she is.' Klein said, his eyes blaring red again and his personality changing once more.' He cleared his throat, seemingly returned to normal. 'But her basic anatomy seems similar enough. I can at least stitch up that wound.'

Thunder rumbled in the distance, coupled with yet another bout of explosions in the distance, and as if on cue the lights fizzled out with an electronic buzz. Whitely made a noise of complaint, and Ruby's scroll buzzed as if in response.

'Everyone okay back there? Just saw another bombing run light up the Kingdom.' May's voice rang out over the comms, and the girl glanced across the present members as if she needed to be sure. Jaye was still struggling to get his shirt on, what with his non-functioning arm, though it didn't seem like any of the girls had noticed or intended to help him.

'Looks like part of the city lost power. We're okay though.'

'Sorry I couldn't stick around, but time's running out for everyone in the crater.'

'No, we're sorry. Once we know what's wrong with Penny, we'll… we'll do something.' She said. May glanced out of her cockpit window, staring at an Atlesian carrier was torn in half by a giant, airborne, kraken-like grimm. She turned back to the skies ahead, avoiding fighting at all costs before she made it back to the crater.

'Don't beat yourself up kid.' She muttered. 'At this point, I don't know how much is left to be done.'

May hung up quietly, leaving them on that cryptic note. Ruby shook her head, closing her eyes as tears threatened to spill over them.

'It's all just… too much. The Grimm, the crater, Nora, Penny, how do we fix all of it?' She lamented, interrupted by a sneeze from the raven-haired boy. Jaye, having given up on getting his shirt on, yanked it off over his head and tossed it angrily at a nearby chair.

'Well shit happens.' He said, huffing angrily at the article of clothing, before realising that he needed to wear it in this cold weather, and promptly went to retrieve it. 'You can't fix everything at once, so just do whatever's in front of you at the time and you'll eventually get around to fixing something.' He gestured at the darkened room. 'I'm sure the good doctor will be able to work a little easier if we manage to get the damn power back on.'

'And how would we do that?' Ruby asked, interrupted by an unfamiliar voice from the doorway. The group glanced across the room at Willow Schnee as she leaned against the doorframe. Clutched in her hand was a bottle of probably bourbon, and Whitley sighed as he caught sight of who it was.

'So kind of you to join us, mother.' He hissed, and Willow smiled at her son.

'Believe it or not, I am above drinking in the dark.' She said, catching sight of the man in the middle of the room. 'Oh, hello Klein.' She continued sequentially from left to right, going over the unfamiliar faces and taking a step back as she caught sight of Jaye. She stood stock still, fear creeping across her face, poised as if ready to run away. 'N-Niflheim. W-What a pleasant surprise.'

'Willow so help me if you run or scream, I really will kill you.' The boy hissed, pulling his shirt on over his head. He struggled again getting his arm through it, and he glared around the room of able-bodied people not bothering about him. 'Can I get some goddamn help here?'

'SDC Executives have their own auxiliary power supplies in case of a city-wide blackout.' Weiss said, and Willow inched slowly towards the boy. She held out a hand, flinching away as he met her gaze, and as if he were some sort of strange, demonic being, took his wrist between just two of her fingers and threaded it through his shirt. He thanked her, somehow scaring the absolute nightlights out of her in the process, and she promptly backed all the way up to the doorway with her bourbon. 'It's extremely unfair, but maybe now isn't such a bad time for company perks.'

Whitley made a face like he'd just realised something. 'We don't just have perks; we have the company! The people you mentioned in the crater, they need a way out, right? There are rows and rows of cargo ships just sitting in the hanger because of the embargo.'

'And our own automated drones, like the ones at Snowshoe Shipping!' Weiss caught on, smiling at her brother.

'We can order as many as we need to pilot our ships and get people to safety while the Grimm are occupied with the general's forces.' Whitley finished. Blake raised an eyebrow at the heir to the megacorporation.

'We can?'

'I can.' The boy declared. 'I just need father's computer.'

'Then we definitely need to get the power back on.' Ruby said, turning to the door. Jaye rolled his eyes, grabbing his swords off the couch.

'Like we weren't gonna do that already.' He muttered, stalking to the door. Willow backed up to the banister in the corridor, and Jaye made a face at her as he passed.

'Honestly woman.' He grumbled, taking the bottle out of her hands. She flinched away from him as he raised it, and he gave her a look of long suffering. He sniffed its contents, taking a precautionary swig. 'I haven't even killed anyone close to you.'

He paced down the hall, the girls close behind, and he upturned the remains of the bottle into his mouth. He tossed it into a corner, hearing it shatter satisfyingly, and coughed as he felt the aftertaste of the alcohol burn in his throat.

'No better painkiller than that.' He sighed, squinting at the doors. 'Now where the hell is that generator?'