"Do you even remember what things were like. How much hell we both went through?!"

"Oh believe me I remember."

"Why the hell would I want to go back."

"Because all you'll find here is regrets…"


Even though everyone else was still trying to gather around every morning to hang out as they tried to always do. The last few days were met often enough with someone not making it till the first bell, or having to skip out due to a before class for a one on one session with Ms. Fall.

Or in Rwby's case because she had timed things down to the absolute last second she could stay by Jaune's side until she had to leave for class.

Today was of course different. Ruby had been called the night before and asked to meet them, to spend time with them after school since the mornings were clearly not working out for everyone. As Ruby walked towards the group with a tired look on her face scratching an itchy scalp from hair that had not been washed in days, she waved to all of her friends as she sat down and started to "listen" to the conversations at hand.

Neptune was sitting with Yang and was apparently attempting to explain a plan of his to try and bring Sun Wukong into the fold. It didn't interest her.

Blake and Weiss were talking together, largely ignoring her. As Ruby watched the pair she came to realize that it was mostly Blake talking to Weiss as the latter was staring down at a partially eaten school lunch she must have saved from earlier in the day.

"Strange, I've always known Weiss to bring lunch from home" Ruby mused as she briefly pondered the meaning of it. But ultimately decided it wasn't her priority.

Ren and Nora were talking in hushed whispers, Ruby noticed in the few times they could all gather that Nora and Ren were almost fused together at the hip. Ruby smiled a little at that, it's good that they had each other through some of the worst disasters that any two people could withstand.

Finally Ruby turned her attention to Penny who was keeping the same level of distance as she found herself doing, Penny looked somewhat sad at the situation and just watched along as she was trying to burn the moment into her memories.

"Why bother burning trying to remember this? Why look so desperate to remember us at our lowest point?" Ruby pondered silently.

As she thought it over she felt a tap on her shoulder, looking in the direction of the tapping person she saw Yang signing to her [Yo sis, you doing okay over there?]

Ruby leaned back and cracked her back and popped her own neck before signing [Yeah I'm kinda missing my own bed right now, but once Jaune wakes up I'll take a day and just lounge in my PJ's or something]

Yang blinked and put on a fake smile for her sister's sake before she signed in return. [Right, of course when he wakes up.]

[Well yeah I mean he's going to wake up eventually.] Ruby signed before he yawned.

[You're not wearing your hearing aids Ruby?] Weiss signed passively at her.

[The batteries in them died and I didn't have time to go get new ones.] Ruby signed out.

Yang reached over and ran a hand through her hair [Maybe we could take the time to go get you batteries and give you a chance to get cleaned up, I'm guessing you didn't pack shampoo with you.]

Ruby swatted her sister's hand away with a level of anger that she didn't expect from herself. [I'm fine Yang, I really should consider getting back to Jaune, he's going to need someone there when he wakes up and Mina has to work.]

Yang's fake smile faded as she signed out [Ruby, you need to take some time to mentally get ready just in cause Jau-]

Ruby slammed a hand into the table before she glared at Yang and signed out [Yang, I love you, but please shut the fuck up.]

"Hey I know you're upset Ruby, we all are, but we need to be all ready for him if he doesn't wake up," Yang said out loud.

[Stop being so fucking quick to write him off, I know you hated him Yang, don't pretend you didn't!] Ruby signed back as her heartbreak and rage flashed across her face in equal parts.

"No one is writing him off, I wouldn't accuse Ren and Nora of that, and it's pretty shitty that you're accusing us of it!" Yang said loudly. "I'm not writing him off but I'm not in fucking denial about his chances, you may not like to hear it, but I'm going to say it anyway no matter how much it hurts all of us."

Ruby started to look away only for her head to be forcibly tilted back to look at her sisters "Jaune as of right now, according to his own doctors, has so little of a chance to wake up that they are actively begging his mother for permission to take him off the feeding tube." Yang said directly and slowly so her words could be easily read by her sister.

Ruby's reaction was to force her sister's hands away and push her off of her as she grabbed her bags before she walked away with another word.

Yang looked shouted out for Ruby to stop before she remembered her lack of hearing aids and instead decided to knock her own chair over while shouting "fuck!"

Neptune quickly helped Yang back to her seat as he spoke: "Hey it's fine, your sister was there when he went down, it's understandable that she might want to stay with him."

"She's Delusional…" Yang said, "All of us have accepted that he's not going to come back…"

Neptune smiled and patted her back "We all accept that he's not likely to come back, but we all want to hope for a miracle right now. Right everyone?"

Yang looked around at the rest of the table, Nora was tearing up badly and not making eye contact. Everyone else nodded in some form of agreement.

"I'm sorry everyone…" Blake said softly but just loud enough to be heard.

Yang looked at Blake and just asked: "What on earth are you apologizing for Blake?"

"I just feel like none of this would have happened if-" Blake started to say

"Hey, don't do this to yourself" Ren unexpectedly chimed in. "I spent a lot of time torturing myself with a lot of 'what if's' when it came to Pyrrha" Ren scooted his chair closer to Blake "Believe me, no amount of self-loathing or blaming can change the past, we all have to live for the future."

"I get it, Ren, I really do," Blake said, locking eyes on the table. "It's just not that easy for me to accept that I didn't have some small part in Adam's Rampage."

"Maybe you did in a small way, I think we all accept that Adam was a lunatic, and I never even met the guy in person," Ren said, "But you were his ex, not his keeper."

Ren's words hung in the air like a thick oppressive fog. Yang tried to break up the conversation by turning to Weiss "Hey you're being kinda quiet over there, how are you doing Weiss?"

Weiss just passively sighed out "I'm fine Yang, nice of you to ask."

Blake gritted her teeth for a moment, clearly holding back.

Yang seemed to pick up on this and asked again "You sure you're good? Nothing you want to talk about?"

Weiss just shook her head no and muttered: "No, I'm alright Yang."

"That's fucking bullshit, Weiss!" Blake said standing up suddenly causing her chair to slide back. "You're not fucking okay!"

"I said I'm fine blake" Weiss sternly replied, "Back off."

"Weiss you're not fine, I know your n-" Blake started to say

"What the hell do you want me to say, Blake? That I'm having near-constant nightmares, that I have to blast the music in my room so I'm not hearing my sister scream as she was murdered!?" Weiss cried out

"Yes, that's I want you to say, I want you to let me be there for you," Blake said as she rolled her chair towards her "I've been living under your roof, and I've honestly been closer to your dad than you in the last ten days."

Weiss sobbed out "I'm sorry!" Before she buried her head into Blakes's shoulder "I couldn't stop him, I couldn't do anything but listen!"

As Wiess sobbed into Blakes's shoulder, Yang moved next to her and started to rub her back, whispering "Hey, no one is trying to put you on point, or to blame you for your sister."

Weiss could only sob tears she had been repressing for almost two weeks into her girlfriend's shoulder.

Ren moved to sit next to Weiss as well and waited for her to come up for air so he could make an offer. "Hey Weiss, I know we're not the closest of friends, but I've been where you're sitting, I know what it's like to feel like you failed someone close to you."

Weiss looked at him and nodded.

"If you want, I can take some time for us to sit and chat one on one about how I managed to cope with it, maybe it'll help, I don't know," Ren said.

Weiss sobbed out in pain "I just… I just feel like I failed her…"

Ren nodded sadly "I know exactly how you're feeling right now Weiss."

Nora chimed in "I'll let you borrow him for a while if you need an ear." With a smile that turned fragile and false, "I know he can help you."

Yang looked around her friends and fought back a smile, she took pride in seeing her friends come together with the way they all use to when one of them was hurting.

Blake looked up at Ren and nodded "Thank you… I mean that."

Nora smiled "It's what that idiot friend of ours would have done if he were here."

The table went silent until Blake spoke up. "I… I guess now would be a bad time to mention I had a crush on him at one point."

Weiss leaned up "I knew you weren't joking about the threesome…" as she chuckled bitterly into her girlfriend's shoulder.

Yang burst out laughing "Oh my god you idiots are admitting that in front of his girlfriend!"

Penny waved it off chuckling out "Oh hey, it's fine, it really is."

"Well, I was joking about the threesome idea," Blake said with an involuntary giggle. "It was pretty brief, I think it lasted a week when we first met… Here was this guy that was treating me like a person. Someone who went out of his way to try and help me out."

Blake wiped her eyes as she kept going "I mean he didn't have to go so far as to help me out with my boyfriend problems… honestly, none of you did… but he stood up for me, welcomed me into a circle. It made me feel like I deserved to be in charge of my life."

Weiss chuckled "alright well shit now I feel bad for shooting you down." as she wiped her own eyes.

Blake groaned "I said I was joking…"

Weiss smile faded as she nodded "I know"

Penny started to giggle slightly "I don't blame you, Blake… Jaune's not hard to look at, well when he's not being all broody at least."

Weiss laughed off "So I'm kind of Glad Ruby wasn't here, I mean a show of hands, who didn't apparently have a slight crush on him at some point?"

Weiss, Yang, Ren, and Neptune, raised their hands. Ren turned to Nora with a raised eyebrow "Oh really now?"

"I never planned on acting on it," Nora said, sticking her tongue out.

"Fair enough," Ren replied as everyone at the table chuckled lightly.

Yang nodded his head "I… find myself regretting a lot of the things I used to think about him…" Yang said leaning forward "I, I spent so long seeing him as a threat to my sister that it never even occurred to me that he'd help save her life twice."

"You were just looking out for Ruby," Blake said. "No one here can fault why you were doing what you were doing at the time."

Yang stood up with a sigh "That didn't make it okay… At least I know better now… Hell, I hope he wakes up… I owe him a couple apologies."

"Well, you might get that chance," Ren said quietly. "Let's go, Nora, It's getting a bit late."

Nora nodded and stood up following Ren.

"We got to go as well guys, we'll talk again okay?" Weiss said as Blake helped her up and handed and slid her walker to her.

"I'm sorry penny…" Yang said once it was just her and Penny "You were so quiet over there I…"

"No… It's fine Yang." Penny said, "I'm glad Jaune has a lot of friends that care about him."

Something about the way Penny said that resonated strongly in Yang's head. "Is there something you're not telling me, Penny?"

Penny shook her head "No… No, I think everyone has enough on their minds at the moment."

Yang paused and tilted her head "Well… I'm going to hopefully catch up to my sister, otherwise, I'm going to drop her off some hearing aid batteries to her at the hospital, Shoot me an IM if you need anything okay?"

"Alright, Yang… I got to help my dad with som- Well I got to go help my dad." Penny said, interrupting herself with an unhappy tone in her voice before she left, leaving her and Neptune alone.

Yang turned to Neptune and just said "We better go…." Before she led Neptune off.

The next few days were destined to be quiet, everyone stuck to the routines they found themselves in this "Post-Adam world" they all lived in.

Three days later, a full thirteen days after Adam's rampage, everything changed again.


So Real talk, I originally planed a Yang and Neptune chapter to take place between the last chapter and this one, but I honestly found that the original point of the now skipped chapter was lost, so here we are. One step closer to the Endgame of this long and harrowing storyline. I was admittingly a little surprised that Yang was the one the take the lead in this chapter honestly, I don't personally considering myself to be particularly fond of Yang as a character in canon, and that might have come out with her generally bitchiness in past chapters, but putting her in the position to try and keep the rest of the cast focused was an interesting one.

Honestly I just let the conversation write itself, as I've done for most conversations in this fic.

So yeah I know I don't normally hammer out two chapters in this short of a time, but by my own admission not seeing alot of people comment on the last one kinda got me thinking it was a bad chapter or something. Paranoia is fun sometimes.

So yeah Dragonlord. Penny and Sun's situations are both kinda not fantastic right now. None of the characters are in a great spot mind you, but those two stand out. I think it is funny that Neptune of all characters evolved into the most, well frankly normal and well adjusted of the bunch. Every other character came in with some kind of psychological or physical issue. Neptune was just horny for Yang.

In anyrate, enjoy this extra chapter this week, and i'll see you all next time.