[X] Pursued Blake and the Dust Crystals.
Looking at the two White Fang terrorists in front of her, Yang took a moment to consider.
Damn it. She'd tried to hit that Blake girl, but now she was getting away. With the Dust crystals that the White Fang had wanted so badly, enough to prioritise getting them out.
She'd failed to stop Blake, or the main goal of the criminals here.
...Well, not entirely. It wasn't too late to give chase. Even if it meant letting these ones get away...
"Nora." Yang said, as she stared down the lion boy, with his bolas. "Which way did Ren go?"
"Down the alleys." Nora replied. "What are you-"
"These people don't matter." Yang continued, before speaking up so the two Faunus could hear her better. "They won't chase us if they want time to get their allies out, so let's go."
Nora nodded, which Yang noticed out of the corner of her eye, and after staring down her opponents for a moment, Yang noticed the lion boy turn back to the shop, towards the fallen comrades of his.
Taking the chance, Yang turned and ran into the alleyways, disappearing into it. A whip cracked out behind her, and Yang dodged away from the crack by firing Ember Celica to force herself out of the way. Jumping into the alleyway, Yang looked back to see Nora catch and throw away a bolas, and briefly saw the lion boy who had thrown it run into the shop.
The sirens grew louder as Yang ran into the alleyway, and Nora followed her a moment later.
"Do you have any better way of tracking Ren?" Yang asked.
Nora pulled out her scroll. "We set up our scrolls up with the same account because Ren said there was something that means one scroll can find the other. I dunno, I wasn't paying attention. I think if his scroll is still on him, I'll be able to find him? Or something? Did I just dream that explanation again?""
"...No, that can work." Yang said, moving around a corner. "Do you have the FindMe app?"
Nora flicked through, then ran into a wall, dropping her scroll.
"...Ow." She moaned. "That wasn't where I left it..."
Yang bit her lip as she ran back, looking back for a moment to confirm the two Faunus weren't giving chase.
Picking up the scroll, as Nora got to her feet, Yang pressed a few buttons, and a map opened up. There were two blips, one stationary and one moving in erratic patterns in a nearby area, full of alleyways and thin streets that made it easy to bounce around and hide.
...That was going to be frustrating, but at least Yang had her answer.
"Here." Yang said, throwing Nora her scroll. "Let's go."
She set off into a run, and Nora followed a moment later.
She should be able to win this. Ren went into pursuit, she had Nora at her side, and Yang herself wasn't exactly in a bad way. Her Aura was bad, but with three people attacking Blake, even if Nora was down a weapon, they should be able to keep enough pressure on Blake to keep her from using her Semblance well enough.
As Yang entered into an alleyway, she noted the marks on the walls where bullets had hit them, as well as scatter trash and a steel bin that had been thrown to the side.
Definitely a fight that went down here. Yang kept running in, ducking around another corner, and heard a commotion nearby. Making a beeline for that this time, she looked around, before realising the bullets were being fired above her.
It took a second for her to run up to the roof while she fired Ember Celica down, and she landed on it with a resounding thud.
Ren and Blake were there, dancing around each other. Ren was the slower, Blake using her Semblance to jump around him and always be just out of reach when he was out of reach. Ren himself wasn't as dodgy, but Blake was still using that red sword, and Ren was able to just keep deflecting and parrying.
She wasn't trained in that weapon, for some reason. Which was weird, and probably had a story behind it. But honestly? It didn't matter.
It was a weakness she could exploit.
Taking a brief break to reload Ember Celica, Yang looked up in time to see Blake barrelling for her. Smirking, the yellow haired teen slammed her head forward, smashing into the black haired Faunus, and making her stumble back for a moment. The blade swept to the side as Blake fell back, slamming into Yang's side and cutting through her Aura, and Blake disappeared into a black shadow again as Ren stepped forward.
The boy in green shot to the side, where Blake reappeared, and she parried with her blade.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to stand down?" Ren asked, as Nora clawed her way onto the roof. Her hand slipped, and she flailed around off the edge for a moment, before punching through the wall to hold herself in place.
"I can't afford to." Blake said, before flashing into a shadow again. She appeared at the side of the building, and as Nora climbed onto the roof, Blake fell off of it again.
Nora groaned as she watched. "But I just got up here..."
Yand ran after her, leaping off the building. As she fell, she noticed Blake reach into a steel bin, and pull out the bag of Dust crystals she had grabbed from the store.
Ren and Nora fell a moment after Yang. Blake dashed to the side, and smashed through a window.
Yang bit her lip. Damn it, why can't she just stay still.
She leaped into the window following Blake, and punched forward. Her fist hit a Dust crystal, and Yang had just enough time to see Blake looking down at her, with the sack half filled, before the Ice dust suddenly expanded. It hit another crystal on the floor at her feet, which hit more and more crystals and before long, shattered out to freeze her in place.
She closed her eyes and let her Aura burn outwards, melting the ice around her. Just as she was making progress, though, the red blade cut through the ice and struck at her neck.
Her Aura strained more and more, falling below half, and the blade was pressed in even more as Yang struggled against it.
"You just don't know when to quit." Blake hissed. "This would have been so much easier if you'd just given up, you know? I didn't want to have to do this."
Yang groaned, as her Aura kept flaring up to melt the ice. The girl drove the blade in more.
"Y-You didn't want this?" Yang asked, as the ice around her mouth melted. "Funny that. I thought you were the one who started it."
"...Fair enough." Blake replied. "But I can't let you continue. Not now. Not when we're so close."
Yang considered, for a moment, asking what they were so close to. But there wasn't really a need, she felt. For one thing, Blake wouldn't give away her plan that easily.
For the other, Blake didn't seem to be looking behind her.
Another window shattered as Nora leapt in, slamming into Yang and pushing her into the ice. The ice cracked, and between that and the earlier melting, it was easy enough for Yang to let out a cry and burst free of the restraint. Her head shot forward, straining her Aura against the red blade before hitting Blake in the head, and she charged on.
There was a blur of black as Blake disappeared again, leaving the bag of dust crystals behind again. Her sword swept around and greatly brought down Yang's Aura, turning her momentum against her and forcing her to the ground. She dashed out the window a moment later, and Yang bounced off the floor.
"Get the dust back." Yang told Nora, as she turned towards the window. "I got this."
She broke through the window again, and saw Blake sheath her sword as she dashed around a corner.
"Hey!" Yang called, as she followed. She'd come this far, she wasn't going to give up now-
She turned the corner, and heard the shot of a gun. Blake's hand came up, holding the sword, with explosive force. A fiery trail followed the blade as it cut through the air, shattering Yang's Aura and slicing into her chest. Blood flew into the air, and Yang felt the snap of bones.
"...I'm sorry." She heard vaguely, as she hit the ground. She raised a hand to fire at her attacker before they could escape, but the dust round broke at the edge of the blade, as the girl in black sheathed it..
"But I can't afford to fail now." The terrorist continued. "Not with her still out there."
She was replaced with a black shadow, and Yang felt a sudden pain in her arm, and looked at it to see Blake forcing the hilt of the sword into the bone.
"You'll survive this." She promised. Then the sheath shook with the shot of a gun, and the hilt slammed into the bone. Yang screamed in pain, her right hand moving to grab the left. Her eyes closed as she concentrated on ignoring the pain, looking up to face off against her attacker even now.
Blake was gone by the time she looked up.
No.
No.
She wasn't being beaten here.
She distantly heard Ren and Nora calling her name, but ignored them, instead focusing on getting to her feet. She felt a pain in her chest and arm, but also in her stomach and leg. She ignored it.
One person.
One person.
What kind of protector was she supposed to be if she couldn't even beat one person.
She wasn't stopping now. She'd gone through worse. She'd lost those fights, granted, but that just mean she needed to do better now. Arm busted? She had another one. Chest hurt? Who cared. Her ribs were only slightly cracked and her vital organs were still intact. She could still fight.
And if she could still fight, the question became, why wasn't she fighting right now?
She took a step forward, and suddenly felt a hand grab her good arm. Yang looked back, and saw Nora holding her back.
"You're bleeding!" She exclaimed. "Look at you, your Aura-"
"Let me go." Yang demanded.
Ren stepped forward. "Yang, if-"
She didn't have time for this.
Ember Celica fired, and Nora doubled over with the bullet hitting her in the stomach. Between that and the shock of being shot at all, Nora's grip loosened, letting Yang break herself free and dash out to catch up to Blake again.
She stumbled, with the sudden intensifying pain on her scar, and in that moment, Ren was able to get ahead of her. He grabbed her shoulder and shoved her into a wall.
"What was that?" He asked. "Nora tries to stop you from going out and getting into a fight in a state like this, and you just shoot her? Why's it so important to you that you win this fi..."
He trailed off, eyes wide. Yang ignored whatever revelation Ren thought he was having, pulling free and trying to run.
She needed this, she needed this. She needed to be strong enough to protect Ruby, and if she wasn't strong enough for this, after all the training she'd gone through since fighting Dito? How was she ever supposed to be strong enough for anything? If-
"If only you could win one fight."
Ren's voice cut into Yang's train of thought, and she paused, looking up at him.
"I got that right, then?" He asked, looking melancholic. "Yeah, I know how that feels. Maybe not entirely, since you never ran away from a fight. But you're tired of it, aren't you? Bad things happening, and you can't stop it?"
Yang breathed for a moment, and suddenly realised how hard it was to do so.
"...I'm sorry, Yang." Ren said. "She's gone. You won't find her. And you need help more than anything, you're missing a lot of blood."
Damn it, no, she was so close. Yang looked away and tried to step away from Ren and Nora again, only for Nora to catch her shoulder this time.
"Lemme go." Yang slurred, speech suddenly difficult for her. There was a siren going on nearby, drawing close, and Yang tried to pull away from Nora.
"Stop it!" Nora said. "You're hurt, Yang, stop trying to-"
Yang batted her arm away, and in a fit of frustration, Nora grabbed the side of Yang's head.
With a sudden flurry of motion, Yang felt it bash into a wall, and everything went black.
Hours pass before Yang regains consciousness, finding herself in a hospital room again. Who's the first person at her side when she wakes up?
[X] Ruby
[X] Four
[X] Ren and Nora