[X] Track down Miltia through her scroll or scanners. Even if Five doesn't go to Melanie, leaving Miltia at the mercy of a crazed for wasn't a smart thing to do...
[X] Check up on Ruby's point of view.
The machine beeped, as Ruby sat by it. The pace and pitch of the beeping kept changing, but after a few seconds, would return to a normal, healthy rhythm. After the first few times, most people would stop worrying. Every time there was the slightest change, it was like a knife through Ruby's heart.
Her older sister was on the bed in front of her, a mask over her face to force her to breathe. Bandages were wrapped around her arms and legs to stop the blood flow, and there was a large metal strip all around her torso to prevent the wounds from getting any worse.
Ruby looked over to the spear she had left by the door. It had two addition to it beyond being a spear. The way it deployed explosives, and the way it unfolded to grow more blades. The layout of the blades after being stabbed out wasn't useful for combat, angled mostly to be hard to remove without folding it again, and even folding it up again would cause more cutting. The bomb deployment didn't shoot it out, stuck to place, and activated on a cue rather than a timer.
That wasn't a weapon of combat. That was a tool for torture.
Turning away from it, Ruby's eyes turned down to Yang again. Her breathing was forced, the machine forcing oxygen down her lungs and draining the air out again as it went into her system. The machine around her torso kept her heart beating, and tried to prevent the wounds in her insides from being agitated by the movement of it. The machines was trying to kickstart her Aura so she'd start healing, and was pumping blood into her until then to stop her from bleeding out.
How bad were her internal wounds? Dito had been twisting the spear inside her, Qrow had taken one look at the scan then put it far away from her view, and even with all the blood put into her she just looked so pale. So frail.
Yang wasn't supposed to be frail. She was supposed to be strong. She was supposed to face any problem with a joke and a laugh, let Ruby know it was going to be okay, not...
"Hey." A voice spoke up, and Ruby looked over at her uncle. Qrow was resting by a machine, one covering his arm, recovering while his arm healed.
Yang knew he had other wounds. None as bad as Yangs, but he was stabbed and cut a lot. He'd tried to save her, and Dito had made him pay for it. He wasn't supposed to look weak either. He always seemed to treat things casually, like nothing really mattered to him, like nothing ever bothered him. Seeing him just helplessly screaming in pain because he tried to save her, desperately clawing towards her because even then he wanted to help...
"You alright, kid?" Qrow asked, with an uneasy smile.
You're hurt, she wanted to say. The words died in her throat, as she remembered how he had screamed when Dito had blown up his arm. Ruby almost didn't believe that the arm was still intact, let alone that someone could move while in that much pain.
Qrow followed Ruby's gaze to the machine over his arm, and sighed.
"Yeah, that's not too good." He noted. "But I'm fine. Forget about me."
She wanted to saw something, but words were so difficult, at this time.
Her uncle Qrow was injured bad, and even if he said he was fine, Ruby knew at least a bit of how bad wounds can get before healing stops being an option. His muscles had been ripped to shred, his bone shattered. There wasn't enough there to heal. Even if Qrow got back to Vale and saw a dedicated healer right now, the best they'd be able to do was stop it hurting until...
She looked down again.
"Hey, Ruby." Qrow spoke up, as she looked away. "I know what you're thinking. It's not your fault."
Of course it was her fault. Qrow had basically lost his arm because he was trying to save her. Yang had nearly died because she had tried to save her. If she'd just given in to Five, if she'd just not gotten caught, if she'd just never been around in the first place-
"Ruby." Qrow cut through her train of thought with a harsh comment. "I'm serious. You didn't do anything wrong."
She didn't do anything right either. Even when Qrow managed to get her off the wall-
The spear in hand, pointed at Dito, Ruby tried to keep her hand from shaking and tried to ignore Yang collapsed on the ground. Her breath caught in her throat, and she tried to just focus on staring Dito down.
"Oh, this is new." The boy said, clapping. "Little Red's got all-"
In a flash of red, Ruby stepped forward, slamming the spear into his chest and knocking him back. Don't let him talk, Ruby thought to herself. He may seem timid around Five but once you got him alone he spoke like anything human about him had been twisted, hearing him talk about the beauty in Qrow's screams was like a nightmare come to life. She was barely holding it together as it was, if he managed to unnerve her enough to turn the tables-
Forget it, she thought. Focus on the fight.
Dito recovered from his stumble, and Ruby twirled his spear, striking him with the ends for a moment and pushing him back, before leaping out of his arms reach and cutting him. His aura trembled, and he reached up to catch the spear. Undeterred, Ruby turned while keeping her grip on it and ran, swinging it around as she did so, and stopped right in front of the wall. Dito was thrown into it, and in the half second he let go of the spear, Ruby was able to find the button on the spear.
A small explosive dripped out of the top of the lance, and Dito's eyes widened in shock before Ruby detonated it, whipping at her own Aura even as Dito took the full force of the detonation.
Dito recovered quickly, but Ruby pushed into him almost immediately. Out of the corner or her eye, Ruby saw Qrow grab Yang, and start trying to carry her out.
Getting to help, Ruby realised.
Turning away, Ruby collided with Dito again, even as he tried to get room. She had the reach with the spear, and Dito was slower then her. Even if he could hit harder then her, he wouldn't get the chance to do it.
She just had to focus. Not think about how Yang was hurt bad, was dying. Not think about how it was her fault. Clear her head and-
There was a vague memory, from her childhood. It was hazy and the context wasn't there, but it was one of the few memories Ruby had of when her mother was alive. It wasn't much, merely a small melody. A lullaby, and one that was calming even to the day.
Repeating it to herself mentally, Ruby charged into Dito-
And even after that, Dito had gotten away. Yang had been barely holding on when Ruby had gone to check on her, and Qrow had nearly made the wounds on his arms so much worse trying to get the machines set up to save her.
She couldn't stop Dito from running to help when Five called for him, she didn't know how to help Qrow help Yang and just had to watch, she...
Tears pooled under her eyes, as her breathing came out haggard. Over in his corner, Qrow sat up and pulled at the machine his arm was in, but wasn't able to pull it away. He looked at it, but didn't move.
He wanted to console her, Ruby knew. But he didn't want to upset her by showing off his ruined arm again. Wasn't that just a perfect example of this situation? He couldn't try to do anything to make her feel better because all he could do was make her feel worse.
There was a groan from the other side of the medical area, and Ruby turned to face the general direction.
...Oh, right. Roman was in here too.
"Spare me the family drama..." He complained. "Following soap operas is hard enough if you haven't watched from the start, I don't have any stakes in watching this sadness."
"Thank you for your consideration." Qrow muttered drily.
"A tad ungrateful?" Roman asked, looking up from his bed with a hand on his stomach. "I go through this to get your niece out of the fire-"
"Your friend Neo is the reason Five got her in the first place." Qrow replied with a glare.
"And I think everything's worked out." Roman replied. "Well, unless Five wins. That wouldn't be too good. I wasn't too satisfied with the whole 'Break you down with addictive songs until you're just dancing on her strings and willing to give anything for her' deal, and between you and me, I don't really want to see what she'll do when she's feeling vengeful."
"Thank you for your life story." Qrow drawled. "It was a great learning experience I finally put together the secret of sleeping with my eyes open."
Ruby tried to enjoy the way the two of them bickered, but then she looked down again and saw Yang again.
The room around her went silent and she looked down, sighing, and after a moment, Roman spoke up.
"You know." Roman Torchwick spoke up. "Lil' Neo's getting ready to go, in a moment. We've put too much on taking down Five to let failure be an option. Five was talking about you earlier, too. Dreaming of being a hero, apparently? Might do you some good to go for a run and go help Neo punch people in the face-"
"Like hell." Qrow suddenly snarled. "Do you think I'm going to let her go anywhere near Five again?"
"Oh, sure, we'll do this your way." Roman dismissed. "We'll let her sit around and wallow in her misery. She's really good at it, from the looks of things. A real champion."
Qrow curled his good hand into a fist, then looked over at Ruby.
"You're strong, Ruby." He said. "Stronger then you think. You'll be fine, right?"
The way the machines were maintaining Yang's breathing was painful. It was methodical and rationed out. Force air into her. Wait a second. Suck it out. It wasn't natural, it wasn't normal. It wasn't right.
Qrow muttered something under his breath.
"And she nails the landing." Roman continued. "Tens across the board. Gold medal moper, ladies and gentlemen."
"Keep talking, Torchwick. Give me an excuse."
"Someone's got a temper." Roman muttered. "I see where your other niece gets it from."
"There's gotta be something better..." Qrow whispers to himself. "There's got to..."
...If it wasn't for Ruby, Five never would have started this mess. If she hadn't been kidnapped, nobody would have looked for her, and nobody would have been hurt.
Yang's finger twitched slightly, and Ruby looked at it, a glimmer of hope on her face. But after that, she remained motionless. Of course. Yang was hurt too bad to wake up right now. Some involuntary twitch, a reaction to a nightmare or something.
...She couldn't just sit around here and do nothing. It was tearing her apart, seeing Yang like this. She needed to go out there, she needed to do something, she needed-
For a moment, a memory flashed through her. The first time she had ever seen Five, the expression on her face. First surprised, but then intrigued, predatory. She said something about Ruby's eyes, clicked her fingers, and then lunged at her, breaking her Aura down in seconds before casually dragging her away while the people around her did nothing.
Five was strong. Terrifyingly so. Could she really bring herself to face her again? After how easily Five had overpowered her before?
...There had to be something she could do. Maybe another one of Five's followers was walking around and Yang could run into them, maybe one of her rescuers was in a pinch, maybe there was something, anything, she could do, just to feel like she was helping?
[X] She should just stay here. She'd already caused enough harm, no need to worry Qrow any more then needed.
[X] She just needed to swallow her fear and go face Five. A Huntress always faced down terrifying foes, so why should she let this be any different?
[X] She needed to do something. She didn't care what, she just needed to go out, search the city, see a chance to be helpful and take it.
Now, while I could just keep following Ruby, narratively, it would be unsatisfying if the resolution regarding Five happened off screen. Oh, and it might be kinda important? If anyone asks, it was too important not to record. But from which perspective shall this be recorded?
[X] Taiyang
[X] Miltia