16

"One of the students from Haven is, reportedly," Ironwood nodded in Regis' direction, "a Higher Vampire, like Mr. Regis. Moreover, while she and another of her teammates was present at the dance the night of the CCT infiltration, her team leader was not. While we have no proof that Team CMSN are plants by Salem, it is a reasonable inference. It is also a reasonable inference that their presence, the infiltration of the CCT by Watts' software, and the presence of at least one Grimm Titan in hiding near Vale, are all part of a larger plan bent on the destruction or neutralization of the Kingdom of Vale."

"It is possible," Ozpin pointed out neutrally, "that Salem's plan merely involves an infiltration of Beacon's Vault. If she has access to our systems, she will know by now that Amber is being kept in suspended animation there. She may be intending to deploy whoever it was who first injured her to claim the rest of the Fall Maiden powers, and use them to open the vault and acquire the Crown."

"It would be impossible, or nearly so, to penetrate the Beacon Vault without doing so concurrently with a full-scale assault on Vale," countered Ironwood, eyes still dark. "No other event would provide the necessary distraction to pull Beacon's huntsmen away from the defenses. Additionally, if Salem has access through my scroll to the Atlesian network, she may be able to turn our mechanized infantry against us.

"If we do nothing, Vale is likely to come under attack sometime between now and the end of the Vytal Festival. The most opportune time for Salem's attack would, most likely, be the Vytal Festival itself, for maximum chaos and the corresponding panic to attract her Grimm forces—possibly including one or more Titans."

"So we stop it," Qrow said. "Bring in that Haven team for interrogation, get your cybers on the network to find and disable whatever present Watts left us, even cancel the festival if we have to."

"That is the safest option," said Ironwood. "However, consider: In order to manipulate the Atlesian network, Salem will need control of the CCT infrastructure here in Vale. This provides us a pretext, in the event of such an attack, to sabotage our own communications infrastructure—to disable the CCT ourselves."

"And why," Glynda asked testily, "would we do that?"

But Ozpin understood. "Bringing down the Beacon tower would disable the entire CCT network," he said softly, "In the absence of the CCT network, Salem's agents would be unable to report on our movements. So long as we managed to remain hidden from the Grimm, we could deploy a strike team to the Grimmlands potentially undetected."

"You're suggesting," Qrow said, staring at Ozpin, "that we intentionally shut down all international communications, just so that we have a chance to sneak Yennefer and Geralt into the Grimmlands without Salem knowing."

"The alternative," said Ironwood flatly, "is a potentially decades-long all-out war of attrition against the Grimm in order to push them back to the point that we can successfully deploy a force to the Grimmlands themselves. An all-out war which we will almost certainly lose."

"Getting past the Grimm may not be all that difficult," said Yennefer idly. "It will not be trivial to set up a portal here—I don't have most of the reagents or tools I would normally use. But, so long as the enemy cannot find out I am doing so from inside the city, it should be possible to simply teleport myself and Geralt to Salem's fortress, then back out again once we are finished with our work."

Ironwood gave her a nod. "I defer to your expertise on that matter, Lady Yennefer."

"My expertise," muttered Geralt, "says that I hate portals."

"Oh, do stop whining, Geralt," Yennefer said, shooting him an amused grin. "It's unbecoming."

"Even if we execute this plan perfectly," said Qrow, "people are going to die. Innocent people. Civilians."

"Yes," said Ozpin sadly. "But that isn't the question, Qrow. The question is whether more innocent people will die for our not having done it."

"The answer to that question is almost certainly yes," said Barty suddenly, breaking his long silence. He looked at Ozpin. "Of all people, I suspect you are most accustomed to the ruthless calculus of the endless war with the Grimm," he said. "If you believe this is worth attempting, I will follow you."

Ozpin nodded gratefully at him. "Thank you, Barty."

Barty did not nod or smile back. "On your head be the consequences."

Ozpin grimaced. "They always are." He looked around. "Is anyone here not willing to help us carry out this plan? I believe it to be the best option available to us—but I readily acknowledge that I am capable of, even prone to, making mistakes. And my mistakes often have catastrophic consequences. If anyone has another idea, I am open to it."

"Fuck," muttered Qrow. "Yang is gonna be fighting in that tournament, Oz. Ruby and Tai will be in the audience. You're asking me to put my family at risk for this."

"All of us are putting the people we care about at risk," said Ironwood evenly.

"Easy for you to say, Tin Man," growled Qrow. He shook his head. "There's no chance Summer goes along with this," he said. "She hates compromises like these. You'd have to keep it from her."

"I'm not a fan of compromising either," Geralt said darkly. "Choosing the lesser evil is still choosing evil." He shook his head. "Let me talk to Summer, see if she has any other ideas. If the two of us can't come up with anything, I'll convince her to go along with this plan."

"You're confident you'll be able to?" asked Ironwood.

"Yes," said Geralt.

Ruby looked up from her scroll as the door opened. Her lips twitched up into a small smile. "Hey, Mom."

"Hey, Little Rose," said Summer gently. She wore heavy black sunglasses over her eyes, and she kept one hand on the wall as she slowly tottered over to Ruby's cot. Her other arm was being held, gingerly, by Raven Branwen.

Ruby's—ex-stepmother? Or something?—seemed reluctant to offer Mom any real guidance, or maybe Mom was reluctant to accept it. Still, when they reached Ruby's bedside, Raven pulled up a chair for Summer and helped her sit in it before grabbing another for herself.

"How are you feeling?" Summer asked softly, reaching out vaguely in Ruby's direction. Ruby caught her hand and squeezed it gently.

"I'm doing okay," she said. "How about you? Are you… is your sight not coming back?"

"No, it is," Mom said, smiling reassuringly. "Just—slowly. I can already see a little, but my eyes are pretty sensitive to light. I should be right as rain in a week or two."

"That's good," Ruby said, letting out a relieved sigh. "That's really good, Mom."

Summer's lips twitched in an attempted smile. "How about you?" she asked gingerly. "I… heard about what happened. Are you… feeling all right?"

Ruby pursed her lips. Her bed was slightly bent to allow her to sit up a little during the day, so she was able to glance away from Mom down at the empty space in the blankets. She gave the question due consideration. "It aches," she admitted. "Not too bad right now, the doctor just gave me some painkillers. But once those wear off… it's not fun."

"I'm so sorry, baby," murmured Summer.

Ruby sighed. "It's my own fault," she said.

"Do you regret it, then?" Raven's voice was low, but not grumpily so—in fact, she seemed almost respectful. Certainly closer to it than she had been the day before.

Ruby looked up and met her gaze. "Some," she said. "I should have been more careful in the fight. I should have sent my teammates with you through the portal. Heck, I could have just dropped my scroll, had Weiss put a dome around the White Fang with it inside, and we'd have been able to come back for them later. But do I regret choosing to protect those people?" She shook her head. "Never."

"They were your enemies," Raven pointed out.

"My enemies," said Ruby, "are the Grimm."

"They were going to send all those explosions to blow a hole in Vale's defenses," Raven said, and now she sounded almost angry. "They were going to unleash those Grimm against the kingdom's civilians. How does that not make them your enemies?"

"It makes them criminals," Ruby said. "Terrorist, even. It makes them wrong. And I'm glad we stopped them. But my job is to protect everyone, not just the people I agree with, not even just the innocent. That's the point of the Kingdoms' walls—they keep all of us safe, not just the people the walls' builders thought deserved to be safe. I'm a Huntress—or, well, I will be. I man those walls."

Mom squeezed her hand tightly. "I'm so, so proud of you, Little Rose," she said, voice a touch hoarse. "As your mother, I wish you had just gone with Rae. I never wanted you to have to go through something like this. But as a Huntress… I get it. I don't know if I could make the same choice, but I get it."

The corners of Ruby's mouth twitched up. "My leg for, what, thirty people's lives?" she asked. "That's a steal."

"You're both insane," muttered Raven, but the rancor had gone out of her voice.

"Part of the job description," said Summer, shooting Raven a small smile. Then her smile fell. "I wish I had been here when you were first deciding to become a Huntress, Ruby," she said quietly. "I don't… I never wanted this for you. I'm so, so proud of you, but I never wanted this for you."

"Hey, I didn't want this either," Ruby said.

"But somebody has to do it?" asked Raven, glancing at Mom.

Summer's mouth twitched. "Something I used to say when we were in school," she explained to Ruby.

"Oh," Ruby said. "Well—no, that's not really how I think about it." She met Raven's gaze. "Nobody has to do this job. If nobody does, the Kingdoms fall and humanity goes back to struggling to survive—or even fails. But that's the thing—nobody has to. And if nobody chooses to, then nobody will."

She leaned back against the bed, looking up at the high dome of the ceiling. "One day," she said softly, "There will come a battle where there aren't enough Huntsmen. There will come a day when there aren't enough people who picked up a weapon early enough to train with it. There will come a day when the walls all come down. That day may even happen in my lifetime. And if it does, at least I'll be able to say that it wasn't my fault there weren't enough of us. At least I won't have to look at the horde and wonder if I could have turned the tide."

Summer brought Ruby's hand up to her lips. Ruby saw a tear roll down her cheek from beneath her shaded glasses. "I'm so sorry," she said.

Ruby smiled at her. "It's okay, Mom," she said.

"You seemed like such an optimist," said Raven quietly, looking thoughtfully at Ruby.

"I think I am one," Ruby said. "I believe that I can make a difference. I believe there's a possibility that I could be the difference between victory and extinction. If that's not optimism, what is?"

Raven was silent for a moment. "You said you will be a Huntress," she said. "Even still? After…" She gestured at the space where Ruby's leg should have been.

"Even still," Ruby said. "If I can't find a combat prosthesis, I'll learn to fight on one leg if I have to."

"You won't have to," came a deep, rasping voice from the doorway. Ruby looked up, blinking. Geralt stood framed in the doorway, his golden, slitted eyes inscrutable as he studied her. "General Ironwood's already promised to get you a combat prosthetic," he said, coming towards the bed and standing beside Mom's chair.

"O-oh," Ruby stuttered. "Well, uh, that was… nice of him?"

Geralt stared at her for a moment, as though he hadn't heard her. "…Yeah," he said finally. "I don't know how long it'll be before you can get fitted. Sorry."

"That's fine," Ruby said. "I appreciate it anyway. I can wait." She gave him what she hoped was a bright smile. "Not like I have much choice!"

He stared down at her emotionlessly. No—not emotionlessly. As she met his gaze she suddenly realized that what she was seeing was discomfort. She remembered something he'd once said about how people in his homeland thought Witchers were emotionless. Was this why? They didn't know how to read him, and he didn't know how to speak to them?

She wasn't sure what he was feeling exactly. But he was certainly feeling something, and he was uncomfortable with how deeply he was feeling it.

"How long are you gonna be bedridden for?" he asked.

"A few more days," Ruby said. "And even after that, it'll be a wheelchair for a couple weeks before I can start trying crutches."

Geralt nodded. "I heard what happened," he said. "I probably wouldn't have done what you did, I have to say."

"No?" she asked. "I think you would."

He frowned, sudden and stormy. "Do you?"

"It wasn't like I knew I'd lose my leg," she said. "I was putting myself—and, yes, my fellow Huntresses, my teammates—at risk to save people who probably weren't going to be especially grateful to us." She smiled wryly at him. "Sound familiar?"

His frown deepened into a grimace. "I feel like we've had this conversation before."

"You gave me my mom back," Ruby said. "You'll have to forgive me if I have a good opinion of you."

Raven snorted. "Sharper tongue than I would have expected, too," she said. "I know you didn't learn that from Taiyang."

"Nope," said Ruby. "From Uncle Qrow."

"Let's hope you don't pick up all of his bad habits," said Geralt, something dark crossing his expression. Then he shook his head. "Anyway. Summer, we need to talk."

"Hm?" Mom turned her head in his direction. "In private?"

"Unless you want to read Ruby and Raven in on everything right now," said Geralt.

"I already know most of it," said Raven, leaning back and glancing up at him. "So. You're Geralt?"

He nodded, looking her up and down before turning back to Ruby. "Can I borrow your mom for a minute?" he asked. "It shouldn't take long."

"Sure," said Ruby, waving them away. "Talk about your super-secret grown-up business. I'll hang out with Aunt Raven."

Raven audibly choked. Geralt blinked. Ruby shot him a mischievous grin while Raven thumped her chest.

He smiled conspiratorially back, helped Summer to her feet, and led her out the door.

"So, Geralt," Summer said, letting him lead her down the corridor. "I'm guessing Qrow told you what we found out?"

"Yeah," said Geralt, grimacing. "Not exactly happy about it."

"Of course not," said Summer. "But better you than nobody, right?"

"Guess so." He led her to an unoccupied room in the medical wing, then shut the door behind them. He helped her to sit on the empty cot, then sat on a chair beside it himself. "How are you doing?" he asked. "What happened?"

"Got ambushed," Summer said succinctly. "Turns out Headmaster Lionheart is a traitor. He set me up. I'd have been captured or killed if Rae hadn't showed up, and even then I wound up overusing my eyes."

"Oz said the blindness was temporary?"

"Probably temporary." Summer shrugged. "Hard to be sure, but it is better today than it was yesterday. The doc said I might never completely recover, but hopefully I'll be close enough for Huntress work by the week after next."

Geralt studied her, noted the relaxed way her hands rested on her lap, and the juxtaposition with the tension in her shoulders. "And if you're not?" he asked softly.

Her lips twisted. "Then I guess I'll be spending more time with my husband," she said. "Most Huntsmen don't get the opportunity to retire. Honestly…" She sighed. "Can I tell you something, Geralt?"

"Of course."

"I'm not sure how I feel about this," Summer said quietly. "When I decided to become a Huntress, it was because I was an orphan on the streets of Vale looking for a way to earn real respect. Eventually I learned to care about the work, about the reason we do what we do. But now? Now I have two daughters who haven't seen me in twelve years. I have a family. One of those daughters just lost her leg to this same job. And yeah, I'm a Huntress—I went back out after only a few weeks back home, because that's the gig, and I love the work. I love feeling like I'm making a difference. But if a reason—an excuse—to step away from the Hunt and spend more time with my family just fell into my lap? I don't know if I could be disappointed about that."

"Even if that reason was an injury like this?" Geralt asked neutrally. "Even if it meant taking on a disability for the rest of your life?"

"I mean, I'm not happy about it," said Summer. "But when I was a little girl, a student here, I just assumed I wasn't going to live long enough to get old and go blind. From that perspective, getting to actually enjoy any retirement wouldn't be so bad."

Geralt let out a soft breath. "You don't have to tell me," he murmured.

"Yeah, I guess I don't," said Summer, smiling at him. "Anyway—what did you need to talk to me about? I guess Oz had one of his meetings?"

"Yes," Geralt said. "Short version, we put together a few things based on some fairy tales, and Yen and I need to get to the Grimmlands without being overrun."

"Hard thing to do," said Summer.

"Ironwood had an idea," said Geralt. "It's… not ideal. You have your scroll on you?"

Summer cocked her head. "I think so?" She reached into her pocket and pulled it out. "Can't really use it right now."

"Is it off?"

She handed it to him. "You tell me."

It was. Geralt handed it back to her. "We think the CCT network's been compromised," he said. "So any talk about the plans has to be with scrolls off."

"Got it," said Summer. "So what's the plan?"

"Let Salem attack Vale, then sabotage the Beacon CCT tower ourselves so Salem's agents can't report on our movements when we fly into the Grimmlands," said Geralt.

Summer's face fell. There was a moment's silence. "That's insane," she said.

"It is," Geralt agreed. "But I'm not sure we have any better options. I told them we'd put our heads together, and if neither of us could come up with a better option, we'd go with Ironwood's plan."

Summer sighed. "Shit. A lot of people are going to die, no matter what precautions we take, if we use this plan."

"It might also be the only chance we ever have to permanently stop Salem," Geralt pointed out. "I don't like it either, believe me. But I do think that it's better than doing nothing."

"I agree with that," Summer said, though she didn't sound happy about it. "I'm not sure it makes sense, though? It feels like there have to be easier ways to keep Salem's agents from telling her you're headed north than shutting down global communications. Can't we find a way to keep them from finding out in the first place?"

Geralt grimaced. "The hard part," he said, "is making sure they don't find out. Otherwise Yen and I might make it all the way to the Grimmlands only to get swarmed once we're too far out to get evacuated."

"Can't Yennefer make portals?"

"It's not easy to do from the field," said Geralt, shaking his head. "It takes equipment, reagents. We're already going to need a lot of those when we arrive so she can get the information we need. I'm not sure we can pack enough for a portal on top of it."

"What if Rae went with you?" Summer asked. "She can be your way out if you need one."

"If she's willing," Geralt said. "But if we try and fail, it'll put Salem on high alert. There's no guarantee we get another shot within my lifetime."

Summer bit her lip. "At what point does it become worth the increased risk of failure to save all those people?" she asked.

"Ironwood would say that any increased risk of failure isn't worth it," said Geralt quietly. "Beating Salem is too important to compromise on."

"I don't agree with that," said Summer, shaking her head. "It's important that we win, but it's also important how we win. The reason we're trying to beat Salem in the first place is to make Remnant a better place for its inhabitants. If we make it a worse one in the process, then we fail even if we succeed. I don't know where that line is, but I know that there is a line."

Geralt nodded slowly. "You're right. But that doesn't help us get a concrete plan of action."

Summer bowed her head. "How long do we have to think about it?"

"Ironwood thinks Salem will act at the Vytal Festival," said Geralt. "But I think we all want to have a solid plan well before that."

Summer pursed her lips. "It's not common knowledge that Yennefer can create portals, right?" she asked. "What if we just sent the two of you through a portal directly up to the Grimmlands?"

"I don't think we could bring all the equipment we need through a portal without multiple sorcerers to maintain it," said Geralt. "The only person who could transport that much equipment at once is…" He stopped.

"Ciri," said Summer, her mouth falling open. "Do you have a way to get in touch with her?"

"I don't," said Geralt, standing up. "But Yen might."

"I do not, as it happens, have a ready-made way to send messages between worlds, even to a target I know as well as I do Ciri," said Yennefer, but her brow was furrowed in thought. "However… I might be able to set something up within the next… two months, at a conservative estimate."

"That gives us only a few weeks of grace before the Vytal Festival," said Ironwood. His eyes were still the dead, dark blue which Geralt had been told meant he was using his Semblance. "How long will it take your daughter to reach us once the message reaches her?"

"A matter of days," said Yennefer, waving a hand. "A week or two, at most. No, the difficult part will be getting the message to her in the first place. If we can achieve that, then we have a way into the Grimmlands. A way which Salem can neither track nor intercept."

"How likely is it that you will be able to get this message out quickly enough for Ciri to arrive before the Vytal Festival?" Ozpin asked her. "A pessimistic estimate."

"Pessimistically?" Yennefer asked. "I would say even at my most pessimistic, it has better than even odds. But it's difficult to estimate such things. If I put all of my other projects on hold and devote myself wholly to this, I can have a better estimate for you within a week."

"Then that is what we'll do," said Ozpin, eyes hard behind his spectacles. "James—we will put preparations in place to use your plan if Yennefer is unable to get the message out in time, but for the moment we will rest our hopes on her success."

Ironwood nodded sharply. "Understood," he said. Then he blinked and his eyes cleared. "That… seems best," he admitted. "If we really can do this without putting the people of Vale at risk, that's ideal. It seems too good to be true."

"Sometimes the right choice is hard," said Geralt quietly. "But that doesn't mean that a choice being hard automatically makes it the right one."

"Well said," Ozpin gave him a nod, a wry smile on his face. "Something I have forgotten more times than I care to remember, over my many lives."

"Well," said Yennefer, turning on her heel towards the door out of Ozpin's office. "If there's nothing else, I have some research to do." Her lips quirked upwards as she met Geralt's gaze. "It's been a long time since I had such a tight deadline," she said. "It's certain to cause some stress. I hope you'll be by to help me relieve it, love."

Geralt smirked at her as she glided past him. "Will do," he said. Then he turned back to Ozpin. "Speaking of research," he said. "Should we start getting batches of Grimm oil produced?"

"Yes, of course," said Ozpin, folding his hands together. "Do you have the formula on you?"

Ruby woke up in agony. Her eyes fluttered open, and she immediately squeezed them shut against the pain. It felt like her whole leg was on fire, and the line where it stopped being real was the worst of all. She let out a breathless whimper as she fumbled at her end table for her scroll.

There was an intake of breath by her bedside, and then a hand touched hers. "What do you need?" Yang asked.

"Scroll," hissed Ruby through gritted teeth. "Nurse. Painkillers."

"On it," said Yang, and Ruby heard a scraping as she stood up, then rapid footsteps as she ran out of the room.

Ruby forced her eyes open. It wasn't just her team clustered around her in the gloom. JNPR were all there too, on the other side of her bed. Velvet was there too, watching her from the foot of the bed with sad eyes.

"Did we wake you?" Jaune asked, face ashen.

"No," Ruby choked out. "What time is it?"

"Half past eleven," said Weiss quietly. Her eyes were glittering, and her face was twisted, as though watching Ruby was putting her in pain.

Ruby grumbled something, unintelligible even to her. If her experience the night before was any indication, she'd go through this once more before morning.

Yang came rushing back into the room only moments later, followed by the nurse—a middle-aged faunus with patches of blue-green scales on his cheeks. "How's your pain?" he asked Ruby, already reaching up into the cabinet over her bed for her medication. "Scale of one to ten?"

"Seven," Ruby ground out. "A little better than last night."

"That's good," said the nurse, pulling down a bag of fluid and quickly hooking it up to the IV stand beside her bed. He glanced at Yang. "This will make her drowsy," he said. "She might also be a little loopy. You and your friends can stay, but I ask that you keep it down and don't try and keep her awake."

"Of course," Yang said with a quick nod. "We'll be out of here in just a few minutes anyway."

The nurse nodded. "Call me if you need anything else," he said. He glanced at Ruby. "You remember how to reach me?"

Ruby nodded. He'd installed an app on her scroll that would let her call him at the tap of a button. "Thanks."

"Welcome," he said, and left.

"Should we leave?" Pyrrha asked softly.

"Please don't," said Ruby, still grimacing. "It still hurts. I could use a distraction until the meds kick in." She looked around at her friends. "What are you all doing here so late?"

"Just checking on you," said Velvet. "We were just planning to stay a few minutes in case you woke up."

"Well, I did," said Ruby. "Unfortunately." She winced, then tried for a smile. "It's good to see you guys though! Oh, how did you guys' missions go? JNPR, you were with Geralt, right?"

"Uhhh…" Jaune seemed lost for words. "It went… fine?"

"We fought Fenrisulfr," Ren said flatly.

It took Ruby a second to register that. When she did, her jaw dropped. "Wait. The Titan?"

"Yes," said Ren with a sedate nod. "Geralt and Regis were able to… capture it, with help from our Bullhead."

"How the heck were you able to capture a Titan?" Ruby asked blankly. "Aren't they, like, really big?"

Ren smiled tightly. "Apparently, when one kills the Titan its… soul, if Grimm can be said to have those, transfers to a nearby Grimm. We captured the new Fenrisulfr after defeating the old one."

"Oh, jeez." Ruby looked at her teammates. "I guess you guys already heard this?"

"We were talking about it before you woke up," said Blake. "It's… yeah, it's a lot to take in."

"Is it ever," murmured Nora. She seemed unusually subdued. Her eyes were on Ruby's absent leg, but they seemed faraway, as if her mind was somewhere else entirely.

"I mean," Ruby said slowly, "I guess it helps explain how the legends of the Titans survived so long, and why there are sometimes multiple stories about people killing a single Titan. They probably did get killed multiple times. And they just kept coming back."

Jaune shuddered. "Which is terrifying," he muttered. "As if the Grimm weren't bad enough already, now they've got unkillable giant monsters."

"Hey, that's the gig," said Ruby with an awkward shrug, lying on her back as she was. "The Grimm get unkillable giant monsters, and humanity and faunuskind get us."

"Yeah," Yang murmured. Her violet eyes were looking down at her own feet, below Ruby's bed. "Us."

Ruby grimaced, remembering the conversation she'd had with Yang the day before. "Yang… I don't want to argue about this again."

Yang started, blinking up at her. "Argue? Oh, no, Rubes. I—" She swallowed. "I wanted to apologize, actually. You were… well, I don't know if it's something you can be right or wrong about, but it's your choice, not mine. And I… I guess I'm…" She hesitated, seeming to wish she had better words than the ones on the tip of her tongue. "I'm a little jealous," she said in a small voice.

Every eye turned to her. "Jealous?" Ruby said blankly.

"Not of—of what happened," Yang said hurriedly. "No, that's horrible and I'm so sorry about it and…" She swallowed. "No. Not that. I just… After we talked, I got to thinking about how I'd react if it was me in your shoes. And I just don't think I'd be as strong about it as you are."

Ruby blinked at her. "Oh," she said quietly.

Yang shrunk in on herself. "I think partly I… I wanted you to question whether you wanted to keep doing this," she said quietly. "Because I'm questioning if I want to keep doing this, and I'm not even the one who got hurt. It's scary. And I don't get how you don't seem to be scared."

"Of course I'm scared," Ruby said. "That's why I'm a Huntress."

"Huh?" Yang frowned at her. "You're gonna have to explain that one."

"I'm scared that one day the Grimm will get me," Ruby said. "Or something else, something I can't control, can't prevent, can't stop. But if I'm a Huntress, at least I'll be able to see it coming, you know?"

Yang's face crumpled like paper. "I guess it must make sense to you," she said. "I just… I don't know."

Beside her, Blake took her hand. She said something, but it echoed oddly in Ruby's ears.

"Oh," she said, blinking. "Oh, I think the meds are kicking in—"

And that was the last thing she remembered for a while.