Author's Note: Hey guys, sorry for the false alarm, but I re-wrote part of this chapter. As I've been working on the next chapter, something in this chapter kept nagging at me, so I decided to do some re-writing before I continued on. I revised Raven's explanation because I scrapped the double agent part. I want to take this story into more of a helping Ruby recover drama type, and I felt that the double agent part was unnecessary.
Chapter 3
Mission Report: Search & Destroy/ Recovery
Mission Location: Patch
Mission Roster: Leader: Qrow Branwen, Assistant Hunter: Doctor Oobleck, Team JNPR, Team RWBY
Mission Goals: Stop the incoming horde of Grimm. Rescue, or in dire situation kill, the student Ruby Rose
Mission Summary: N/A, Pending report from Mission Leader.
Injury Summary; Written by Nurse Joy of Beacon Academy: Miss Nora and Miss Pyrrha returned with minor injuries and are healing fine with their auras. Huntsman Qrow returned with a minor concussion from blunt-force trama. Both Mr. Lie Ren and Miss Schnee returned with two cracked ribs and have been treated properly. Mr. Arc's left shoulder was dislocated; the shoulder has been reset and must be kept in a sling until properly healed. Miss Belladonna has a large gash along her left thigh. The wound luckily missed any major arteries and has since been stitched and dressed. Miss Xiao-Long returned unconscious, but with no injuries. Blood work found a powerful sedative in her system that appears to have been voluntarily ingested. It appears to apprehend Miss Rose, three tranquilizer darts were used. Normally this would would be a severe overdose for a girl her size, but her system seems to metabolizing the sedative at an abnormal rate. One civilian was brought in, Mr. Xiao-Long. Mr. Xiao-Long was rushed into surgery to deal with a major laceration in his side, seemingly caused by a scythe by the shape of the wound. Luckily the wound is not very deep but will require time to fully heal.
End Report.
The elevator doors opened to reveal Qrow entering the Headmaster's Office. Ozpin turned away from the mission report, "Qrow, shouldn't you be resting?"
"I'm fine Oz. Figured you'd want to know what happened."
Ozpin nodded. "How is Miss Rose?"
"We need Raven."
Ozpin sighs, "That bad?"
"Oz, Ruby is in deep. She pulled the voices of the Grimm from Yang's subconscious and she had a breakdown. I had to give her my sedative to stop her screaming and she almost overdosed. Ruby seems to be resisting but she lost control quickly. We had to use the tranquilizers to stop her from killing one of us."
Ozpin sat in thought for a moment before responding, "I'll send her a message and try to get her here soon. Until then, we have to have a conversation with your nieces."
"Be prepared for Ruby though Oz. Salem sent her to kill you, the 'King of Liars', and everyone who helps you."
"Hopefully by being here, she will be far enough away from the Grimm and will be more docile."
Weiss slowly opens her eyes. Looking around she sees that she's in the infirmary at Beacon, sharing a room with her entire team. Her eyes quickly found their way to Ruby. The younger girl seemed physically fine, but she is strapped down to the bed with an IV in her arm feeding a sedative into her system to keep her unconscious. 'Ugh, what happened?'
The door to their room opens and both Qrow and Ozpin enter the room. Weiss tries to sit up, but a searing pain runs through her side. With a hiss of pain, Weiss leans back against the headrest of the bed.
"Now do be careful Miss Schnee, you have two cracked ribs."
"What happened? Is everyone alright? The last thing I remember is Yang screaming and Ruby attacking."
"Everyone will recover, but some have a bit of healing to do."
"Who are the worst?" Weiss asked, fear creeping into her voice.
"Mr. Arc's left shoulder was dislocated while fighting the Beowolves, but no permanent damage was sustained. Both Miss Belladonna and Mr. Xiao-Long will be bedridden while their wounds heal and will require some physical rehabilitation."
"How bad is Blake?"
"Luckily the wound on her leg missed any major arteries, so it is a simple matter of the wound healing and reconditioning the muscles. Her recovery shouldn't be too difficult."
Weiss turned away from her headmaster to look over her teammates. Qrow's voice cut through her thoughts answering her unasked questions, "Yang and Ruby will be fine physically, but mentally is another story. I won't go into too much depth yet, but you'll hear everything when we talk to both of them."
Qrow blatantly ignored Weiss' frustrated glare as he walked towards Yang's bed. Past the two family members Blake is sitting up, watching the older man carefully. 'When did she wake up?' Qrow leans down and places a strange white strip of paper under Yang's nose. Whatever the strip was, the smell seemed to stir Yang from her slumber.
Yang suddenly shot from her bed pushing Qrow away from her. Scanning the room, worried red eyes met a set of calm amber eyes. Yang visibly relaxed at the sight of her girlfriend, quickly pulling the girl into her strong grip.
The two pulled apart, tears streaming down Yang's face. "I'm so sorry Blake."
Blake gently stroked Yang's hair, "Yang I'm fine. We all thought that we had Ruby under control, and I will never blame you or her for what happened. All that matters is that we're all here alive." Yang's tears stopped and Blake wiped the remaining away.
"Yang." Qrow's voice interrupted, pulling the blonde's attention away from Blake. "This is an important question that I need you to answer truthfully. Do you hear the voices right now?"
Yang sat in silence for a few moments before answering, "No, I don't. Qrow, what happened to me out there?"
"Yang, the Branwen family has a long family history; most of which is lost to the currents of time. At some point in our family line, one of our ancestors experienced something similar to what Ruby is going through. Grimm genetic material tends to dominate over its human counterpart so the physical attributes have continued down the line."
"So Ruby was right? I'm a monster?"
"No!" Both Qrow and Blake yelled at the same time. "You are no different now than you were last week. Our red eyes are just a physical trait, just like your bright blonde hair. What you are never makes who you are, and knowing where it comes from shouldn't either."
"What about the voices though? I could hear the Grimm!"
"You always could; you just didn't recognize them. They were buried deep inside your mind, and they often agreed with your conscious thoughts. Every time you've fought a Grimm in your training all they wanted to do was kill you, and all you wanted to do was kill them."
Weiss interjects, "They were thinking the same thing?"
"Or at least close enough that it never stuck out to Yang. It didn't help that Ruby somehow pulled those thoughts to the foreground in Patch. While you were focused on making sure Ruby was alright, she pulled the violence from the background. The sheer difference between the two trains of thought is what overwhelmed you."
"So how do I prevent that from happening again?"
Ozpin interjects, "Hopefully keeping your exposure to the Grimm at a minimum for a while will let your mind rebalance and the issue will resolve itself. Unfortunately we can't be sure thanks to Ruby's involvement, so there is no guarantee. If it fails to right itself then we'll have an expert help you recover the balance."
"Who would be the expert, a psychiatrist?"
Qrow and Ozpin share a concerned gaze before Ozpin continues, "No Yang, this expert is the same one we'll be using with Ruby. She has extensive experience because she has a similar condition to what we think Ruby is experiencing."
"What's her name?"
Qrow sighs, "Yang, it's Raven." Yang's eyes go wide. "What!?"
"Yang..."
"Don't 'Yang' me! You have not only the ability to call my mother, but to bring her here and you've never told me?!"
"I would have never come." Raven seemed to just form from the darkness in the corner of the room. Even Blake didn't know she was there. At seeing her mother, Yang jumped from where she was sat next to Blake. Rage apparent on her face, Yang stomped over to Raven. Standing only a foot away, mirrored eyes locked their gazes.
"Why not?" Yang growled.
"Because it would have endangered you all."
"And how's that!?"
Qrow crossed the room to stand between the two women, "Raven got the short end of the stick. She has always had a harder time coping with our heritage."
"I left to learn self control. After I gave birth to you, it only got worse. I couldn't stand the idea that I could hurt Tai, hurt you, so I left. And as much as I hate what I did, the isolation helped. I can never undo what I did, and I certainty don't deserve forgiveness, but I will do everything in my power to help Ruby recover."
Raven was startled when Yang suddenly hugged her. "I'm not ready to forgive you, I may never be, but I understand. You're so much like Ruby; putting everyone else before you. Just please, help Ruby come back."
"I promise Yang, I'll do everything I can to help her." The two pulled away and Raven turned towards Ruby.
"Has she come to yet?" Qrow shakes his head in response.
"We should move her to a different room then. It would be best if we had fewer people around her to prevent her from panicking."
Ozpin stood and quietly left the room, presumably to get a private room for them. "I suggest it just be us family in the room."
Weiss spoke up, "I want to be there too." Raven looked over at the heiress, studying her. "You have several cracked ribs so you need to rest, and in the case of Ruby reacting violently you'd only be in the way."
"Don't worry princess, you'll get to see her soon." Weiss rolled her eyes at Yang's nickname for her. "Fine."
"Don't worry Yang, I'll keep an eye on her." Blake said.
Ozpin reentered the room with a few nurses. "They will help move Miss Rose to her new room." The nurses carefully wheeled the unconscious girl and all of the medical equipment down the hall with Branwen siblings and Yang in tow.
Author's Note: Sorry for the shorter chapter, but this seemed like the best place to leave it. Next chapter we'll see how Ruby is doing and is Raven can help her control her new condition. As always hope you all enjoy and I'll try to update soon.
