At 1802, Truck 201 arrived at the fire. Everyone got out quickly, and Ruby, Blake, and Yang all ran to the back of the truck to grab a supply line from the truck. Their job was to connect the line to a hydrant nearby. As Ruby and Yang hit the hydrant, Blake connected the other end to the pump of the ladder truck. Once the ends were connected, Ruby radioed, "Truck 201, here comes your water to the pump!"

Iomhair then took over pumping duties as Blake handed an attack line to Weiss, who was suited up in an SCBA. As the 5 SCBA-equipped firefighters from the truck then congregated at the front door of the apartment building, Rescue 201 arrived with a crew of 9, soon followed by Engine 202 with a crew of 11.

Once these trucks were on scene, Alfred radioed, "Interior to Truck 201, charge our 2 hand lines, we're going in." The 5 firefighters then walked into the building and went up the stairs. As they began to walk from the second floor to the third floor, a woman shrieked and ran downstairs, screaming, "There's kids up there! There's kids up there!"

Weiss shouted, "Ma'am! Ma'am! How many?!"

"At least 8 or 9!" She then ran down the stairs to the first floor before presumably running outside.

Alfred radioed, "Interior to Command."

The Assistant District 2 Chief, who just arrived, replied, "Go ahead."

"We got a woman claiming there's at least 8 or 9 trapped upstairs. You might wanna strike a second alarm."

"Duly noted, will do."

"10-4." Alfred then said to the team. "Everyone, mask up."

Weiss and Ren were the first to go up, holding a hose line. Ren said, "Apartment 3 Dash 7, right?"

"Yep, that's the one." Weiss and Ren could barely see on the third floor.

"Hey Weiss, I feel something on the floor." Ren then looked down and found that he had stepped on a child, no older than 12. "Oh fuck! It's a kid!"

Weiss then turned around and shouted, "GUYS! UNCLE AL! WE GOT A KID UP HERE!"

Alfred then ran up the stairs to Weiss and Ren and said, "Give 'em to me!" Ren then handed Alfred the unconscious child. Alfred then ripped his helmet and his mask off despite the choking and blinding smoke and put the mask on the child.

Weiss and Ren then crawled to the burning apartment, now fully-involved. Weiss said, "No... No... We gotta get in there and get those kids!"

Ren held her back, saying, "God damn it, stop! It's fully involved!" Ren then sprayed into the apartment. However, he was soon forced back when part of the ceiling collapsed in the apartment, pushing the flames out. He then felt another person that was on the ground nearby, this time an adult. He shouted, "Weiss, we got an adult victim!"

Weiss quickly crawled over and helped drag the victim with Ren. As they went down the stairs, they could hear the person's head bump with each step. Alfred and Todd Bannack quickly grabbed the adult victim from Ren and Weiss and carried her down to the outside. Weiss radioed, "Interior to Vigilant Command, tell Truck 201 to raise the ladder to the 3rd floor! We need more guys up here!"

"10-4, how many?!"

"At least 5 more guys!" Weiss thought to herself, "We're gonna have fatalities. There's no other fucking way. Oh God..."

Ren said to Weiss, "Let's go up again!" The 2 of them then ran up the stairs and searched the hallway of the 3rd floor. Ren found 2 kids and Weiss found 1. Within 15 minutes, they were all evacuated down the ladder of Truck 201.

As Ren and Weiss climbed down the ladder, bringing the last kid with them, a flashover suddenly occurred, engulfing the entire 3rd floor and knocking Weiss down, causing her to tumble down the ladder and also trip up Ren. Blake, Ruby, and Yang all ran over and caught Weiss and Ren. Ren was relatively okay and ran to an ambulance to get help for the kid, but Weiss was unconscious.

As she was laid down on the ground, Hermann ran over and said, "Weiss! My Weiss!" He ripped the SCBA, the mask, and the helmet off of Weiss. Ruby then unbuckled Weiss's coat and began rolling down her hip boots so she could take them off.

As Ruby ripped the now-rolled down boots off from Weiss's feet, she suddenly woke up and said, "Where... What...?"

Hermann asked her, "Wie geht's dir, Weiss?!"

Weiss groggily replied, "Vater...? Was ist passiert?"

"You went unconscious, Weiss. A flashover tripped you on the ladder."

"Oh, I see... Agh, fuck, my head hurts..." Weiss got up and felt her head.

"Well, at least you haven't had any noticeable mental damage from that, given the fact you were able to switch between 2 languages."

2 firefighters then walked over with a medical bag and opened it up. "Check if she has any cuts or bruises, guys."

"Wait, what about the kids?! That lady said there were 8 or 9 up there but we only got 4 kids and an adult out!" Weiss suddenly panicked.

Hermann said, "Don't worry, Weiss, don't worry. Listen, we can't go back up there. We're gonna focus on pulling people out from the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, floors. You'll stay OOS for the rest of the fire." He then walked away. "I gotta go in."

Weiss then looked down at herself, horrified that they had to leave at least 4 or 5 civilians behind because of the flashover. She then broke down in tears, crying, "No... No... No..."

Ruby hugged Weiss and said, "You did the best you could."

"But... It wasn't enough..." Weiss sobbed into Ruby's shoulder as the other firefighters continued to fight the fire.

By now, an angry crowd from the neighbourhood had formed, and they were not happy at the firefighters, particularly the volunteers. One of them shouted, "Amateurs!" That man then gave them the finger.

Captain Kirkridge, noticing this, walked over to the crowd and yelled, "Take that back!" He then radioed Fire Alarm to request police forthwith for harassment by civilians.

"You pricks are too slow! Why do we rely on you?! Hey, I'm talking to you, asshole!"

Finally, Captain Kirkridge snapped and said, "Shut up! We did the Goddamn best we could! We can't save everyone all the time! You wanna help us be faster, huh?! Then why don't you volunteer with us and actually help us change instead of sitting on your ass and complaining?!"

Alfred said to Arthur, "Captain, woah."

The paid firefighters on scene did nothing and ignored the sparring match as some of the volunteers from multiple companies congregated at the boundary tape. Another woman said, "You assholes wanna go?! We'll fucking go, fags!"

Yang suddenly shot up, walked over to the woman, and angrily said, "What, the fuck, did you call me?" Her eyes also changed colour.

"I called you a fag, 'cause that's what you are, faggot!"

She then took her helmet off and pointed at a pink, yellow, and light blue sticker on her helmet. "Wanna know why I have this on my helmet? Because I like people for who they are in their personality, not what they have in their pants. I'm ordering you to take back what you said, or I'll bash your face in." She then put her helmet back on her head.

Ruby said to herself, "Oh God, here goes Yang again, going off at another ignorant dickhead."

"So you really are a fag? Hah, see? My point is proven! Well then, bitch, I'll just take your oh-so-precious helmet then!" She then grabbed the helmet from Yang's head, also ripping off a long strand of hair in the process.

"You... You ripped off a bit of my hair..." Yang then activated her semblance and screamed.

The woman then punched Yang in the shoulder. Yang followed by punching the woman in the chest and launching her 10 feet into the air, scaring the crowd. They then backed away as Yang walked up to the woman and told her, "Who's the fag now?" She then grabbed her helmet and walked back under the boundary tape.

George, wearing his own company's gear, then ran to her and said, "Yang, are you alright?!"

"I'm fine. You might wanna get help for that homophobe, though." Yang then turned to 2 paid firemen and said, "You guys might wanna help that woman I punched."

They nodded slowly and walked over with an EMS bag to the homophobic woman. George said, "My God, Yang, that was... Wow..."

"I kinda let myself get away. I'll bet the tabloids will have a fucking field day with this. Ohhh shit..."

The trucks returned to the station at 10:14. Everyone was silent as all Vigilant firefighters who responded to the fire were ushered into the meeting room after taking their gear off.

The captain then spoke up. Arthur said, "Alright, ladies and gents, listen. Unfortunately, we had 6 fatalities, 5 of them children, in the fire. Additionally, that incident with the unruly crowd also landed all of us in the news. I want everyone to know that sometimes, this happens. Our older guys will remember that we've had a few fights in our history at fires. The last time we had a big fight was in 1994, when 5 companies fought after fighting a 3-alarm warehouse fire in District 1, including us. Now, what happened at Exeter Street wasn't much of a fight as it was a curb-stomp battle, considering that the woman who was attacked was knocked out in one hit. Now, legally, we are not responsible, since the crowd started the confrontation, and the woman struck Probationary Firefighter Xiao Long first, not to mention the homophobic slurs she threw at us."

Then, Alfred spoke. "We're not gonna punish anyone within the company for what happened there. The trauma from losing those kids would be more than enough if any punishment was needed. Of course, if any of you guys do not cooperate with police if they do launch an investigation, you will be suspended, and if you lie, you will be expelled. Also, I want no one making any statements to the media unless me, Hermann, or Arthur say you can. Doing so will get you expelled. No exceptions."

Hermann then spoke. "Finally, before the fight, Firefighter-EMT Weiss Schnee and Firefighter Lie did slip off of the ladder. They're both fine, and they both refused medical transport. Also, I just got a call from the hospital and I have good news. The good news is that the 5 guys we did pull out from the third floor are still alive. While we couldn't save them all, we did save many of them. Keep that in your minds. Focus on what we gained, not what we lost, okay? If anyone needs to see a shrink or anything, please do it. Suicides amongst firefighters, cops, and medics is rising as it is, and if one of y'all actually killed yourself, it would not put us in a good mood, to say the least. But seriously, if you need help, get it. Also, since the fire took away time to go to training for anyone that missed the BFCFR class last Saturday, you can also retake it tomorrow from 6 to 10."

Afterwards, Winter went over to see Weiss, still shaken by the fatalities. Winter said, "It's odd..."

"What is?" Weiss looked confused.

"It's odd how you barely reacted to the NAAF fire, and yet you were so shaken by this fire."

"That's because I could have prevented the deaths in this case! With the NAAF fire, I expected people to die. Granted, I was still pretty shaken up that so many died, but at least I was expecting some deaths. In this case, I thought we could save them all." Weiss wiped her eyes. "Jesus..."

Winter hugged her and kissed her head, saying, "Little sis, do you need help?"

Weiss shook her head. "No. I'll be fine. It's just some nerves. After all, I've seen you cry at calls too."

When Weiss got home, she immediately turned her pager off and opened the fridge. "Hello there, Mister Booze," she said in a mocking tone of voice. She then grabbed a bottle of Vodka and began drinking it.

She turned the TV on and watched a late night show. As she drank more, Jaune texted her, saying, "r u ok? heard about the fire"

Weiss texted back, "yeep im fne jaune how bout u?"

"tired from filling out paperwork. wana do something tmrw?"

"sure. anytime before 6."

"kay. I love you Weiss. goodnight"

Weiss looked at Jaune's text in disbelief. "He... He loves me..." She then began to cry again as she texted back, "I love you, Jaune."

After she stopped, she finished the bottle and threw it away.

"How could someone want to be with me? Like as husband and wife or whatever and shit? I guess that's the mystery of love." Weiss then walked to her bedroom and looked at a pack of cigarettes Blake had accidentally left there. She grabbed a cigarette, walked into the kitchen, grabbed a matchbox, and said, "Forgive me, God, for what I'm about to do. Or not, if you don't want to. I don't fucking care anymore." She then lit the cigarette and puffed it, coughing a few times before finally developing a tolerance for it. "No sir, I don't care."

After finishing the cigarette, she went to bed.

August 18, 2020

Ruby said to Yang as they ate breakfast, "I need to find a girl to date."

Yang looked at Ruby and said, "Huh?"

"I'm interested mainly in other girls right now. Do you know anyone who's a girl and likes other girls and is single, Yang?"

"Uhhhh... I know this one lesbian chick who's a cop that's single. She's 22 and has about a year on the job. She's dated a bi woman before, so you won't have to worry about any biphobia." Yang then wrote her number down on a napkin with a pen. "Here's her number." She then got up, dressed and ready to go. "Well, I gotta go to work, little sis. I'll see you in a few hours."

Ruby then waved goodbye and looked at the number Yang wrote down. Her name on the napkin was Gwenllian ap Meryk. "Hmmm... I could text her and see if she wants to do anything later this week..." After typing up a text, Ruby got dressed, brushed her teeth, and headed out.

Meanwhile, Jaune stopped by at Weiss's apartment. Weiss had gotten up and showered just before. When Jaune walked in, Weiss walked out of the shower, towel wrapped around her. They both froze and blushed at each other. Jaune said, "Uhhh... Hi, Weiss..."

"Same to you," Weiss awkwardly replied. "Jaune... Well, I'll go get dressed..."

Jaune replied, "Got it..." He thought to himself, "Damn, the sexual tension is so thick, you could cut it with a knife."