[X] ...Ruby needed her, but so did the kids. She couldn't run just now. She could wait until someone else was here to take care of them, they deserved that much.
"W-What's going on?"
The scent of burning rubber and flesh kept hanging in the air, the girl noted vaguely.
"Back up. Not over here. It's... You kids shouldn't be looking over here."
There was some kind of force pressing against her palm, and she found that her hands wouldn't stop shaking. It was weird, movement felt beyond her, but she was doing it automatically anyway.
This doesn't feel real. None of it did. She wasn't sure what was going on right now, anyway. Did the air really feel that hot right now? Was that smell just some kind of dream? She could barely see, through how blurry her vision was. It couldn't be real if she didn't see anything in detail, right?
"Why isn't she moving?"
She thought she could vaguely hear words, but it didn't feel like they had any meaning. It didn't feel like any of this had any meaning. What meaning could any of this have? What point was there to any of this?
"Yang? Are you with us? Yang?"
There wasn't any need for this. There wasn't a need for any of this. There had been burning and there had been killing and, for what reason? Why would any of this be needed? What had brought things to this point? Something had happened, someone had caused something, and then left without gaining anything. What point was there to that? F-For some stranger to just arrive without any reason, to k-kill her f-father-
Her breath shuddered, as she tried to close her eyes, tried to just disconnect again. But they wouldn't close for more than a second. Even if it had to be through tearstained vision, even as she drove her nails into her palm, she couldn't force herself to look away.
What was the point in this? Why did Yang have to go through this? Why did her dad have to die? Hadn't enough happened already? She'd nearly died so many times, and had never been strong enough to protect Ruby, and had never been able to figure out what the right thing to do was, and now this had happened. Her father was dead. And why?
Why wasn't there an answer?
A scream ripped through her lips, as she smashed her hand into the ground. The road beneath her cracked as Yang slammed her fist downwards, repeating the motion again and again, as her Aura strained against the repeated hits.
Punch the ground. Raise fist. Scream. Repeat. Punch. Raise fist. Keep screaming. Repeat. Repeat. Repe-
A hand caught at Yang's fist as she raised it again, and it gave her pause, as she found that she couldn't strike down again.
Looking back, Yang caught a glimpse of green hair, as the girl struggled to hold her in place.
"Got that out of your system?" She asked. "Because, look, I'm not gonna pretend I know what you're going through. But you're not the only person here, and these kids need someone right now."
Staring blankly at her fist, it took Yang a moment for her to turn her gaze behind her.
The children were still there, huddled by the ruined van that they had been in, just a few minutes ago. Some of them were crying. Some of them were looking as blank-eyed as Yang had been a moment ago.
Most of them were looking over towards Yang, at that moment. In the front of the group, Carmine was clutching at her injured hand, a fearful look in her eyes as she looked ahead.
Right. The orphans. All of the kids in Two's care, in Yang's care now that she was the only person here right now that they knew. She'd said it a dozen times already, that they had gone through too much. They hadn't known her dad, but they just saw a man die right in front of them. And then they saw Yang freaking out and breaking down.
People needed Yang to be stronger. She could find some time to be alone and go cry in a corner later, but for now, she didn't have time to be weak.
There was things she needed to do. People who needed her. That was a thought, she could use. Something to hold on to. Something to help push the memory of what just happened out of her head.
The kids needed her. She needed to be strong for them, get them to the Schnee man-
No. No, that wouldn't work. The woman had said something about the Schnee manor, hasn't she? Yang tried to think back to what she had said-
-like a spear at first, as it stabbed through her father, before it expanded in width as well, quickly growing into a sheet of death that cracked through bone, from the top of his heart to-
Her breath came out in a shudder again, but Yang managed to keep her eyes open again. Keep it together. Keep it together, Yang.
This would be fine. Stay here, manage the kids, wait for help to arrive. Head off to Schnee manor once the kids were safe, make sure everything was fine there, make sure Ruby was okay. Figure out some other distraction from there.
Taking a moment to calm her breathing, Yang nodded. The green haired girl- Was that Em? From earlier?- Let go of Yang's hand, and sighed.
"Jesus, this is fucked." She muttered. "Did not think I'd be getting into a mess like this when I woke up this morning..."
Vaguely nodding along with Em's statement, Yang wandered off towards the kids a bit, taking a moment to rub the front of her face first. Her tears had left their mark on her face, and she should try and clean that up a bit for now. Look strong. Forget what just happened. Look after someone else. See how long she could last before she had to think about-
-Blood pooled at the corner of his mouth, but no sound came out-
Her nails drove into her palm more, and she bit her lip as she wandered towards the kids some more.
"E-Everyone alright?" Yang asked. "Nobody's hurt?"
The children didn't respond, as they looked up towards Yang. There was a variety of emotion shown in there. Fear, shock, there was even a few kids looking at her with pity, because that's exactly what Yang needed right now. She needed people who had gone through stuff as rough as these kids to be the ones pitying her-
A hand tapped Yang on the shoulder, and she looked back towards Em at that prompt.
"Everyone looks fine." She said, in an overly cheerful, chirpy tone. "But maybe it'd be for the best if we got away from the wreckage a bit, so it's easier for help to get to people."
Yang nodded. "...Yeah. Makes sense."
The highway they were on was elevated, above the ground by a significant amount, and it's take a while to get to a way off that the kids would be able to use as well. And...
...And maybe some distance from here would do her some goo-
Don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it think about literally anything else-
"Let's go." Yang continued, nodding. "Everyone good to go?"
Just focus on helping them for now. Focus on everyone else. Let everyone else be the important thing.
Almost silently, the various kids started moving timidly, standing as Yang started circling around them, luring them away from the burnt remains of the fight without having to make them walk past her fa- the collateral damage.
Yang looked back over them as they started moving, and as Em walked past her. Near the back of the ground, she noticed Carmine was just standing there. She wasn't moving, and she wasn't looking up from her hand. As the majority of the crowd walked past Yang, the fox Faunus' gaze started to turn back, looking towards-
"Hey." Yang spoke up, stepping towards Carmine. "Are you okay?"
"...You're still here."
It wasn't even a whisper, what she said. Not really. Honestly, Yang wasn't even sure if she'd properly heard it, if Carmine was talking at all.
"Thing's can still get better, can't they?"
She clearly didn't expect an answer, but Yang still prepared to give her one, up until she realised where she had heard those words recently.
It had only been ten minutes, since Yang had been in that van, with her father saying those words back to try and reassure the traumatised kid. And now this had happened. It had barely been a different breath, between him saying that things can improve if you were still alive and him dying. Apparently, still being here meant things could get worse, as well.
Yang's cheeks were growing damp again, she realised. Bending over to try to get to eye level with Carmine, Yang didn't even bother pretending to smile as she looked towards her.
"Hey." Yang tried. "We gotta go, okay? It's going to be over soon. Don't worry about it, it'll all be over soon."
"When is it ever over?" Carmine replied, as she listlessly wandered past Yang, in the general direction as everyone else.
...She didn't have an answer to that, Yang realised. It was never over. Every time she thought she'd gone through enough, every time she thought it was time to stop and enjoy the peace, something else happened. Over and over. Never ending. And it was only getting worse.
How much longer would it be, before it wore down on Yang? She was already barely keeping herself functional for the sake of others, and the last time something bad had happened, she'd shut out Ruby for months without noticing how badly she was hurting her sister. At what point does Yang just give up? Was there even a point to continuing now?
...Questions for later. Questions to ask herself when she found a nice corner to cry in. Push it out of mind. Push everything aside. Helps the kids. Help Ruby. That was all she could do right now.
Shaking her head to bring herself back into reality, Yang quickly caught up to Carmine, and stood at the back of the group of children as they made progress towards getting through the highway.
"Didn't you say you had a van?" One small boy asked Em, near the front of the group.
"Not enough for everyone." She replied. "We don't need to walk that far, though. The closest exit's not too far from here, and helps on the way. Listen close, you can hear the sirens already, can't you?"
Closing here eyes to help her focus, Yang took a moment to scan the area, before she finally heard them in the distance.
Good. Emergency response. About time. If they had been here five minutes ago-
Focus on the now focus on the others, she'd have time for her later.
A thought occurred to her suddenly, and Yang suddenly took a detour, walking towards the edge of the highway and looking down. She swept everything she could see from there, trying to catch a glimpse at the woman in red.
She was out of sight, but Yang couldn't see under the suspended road anyway, so that didn't really mean much.
She noticed Em and the kids looking over at her, as she walked back, and tried to play it off casually.
"Just looking around." Yang justified, reaching for a lie. "There were other people here a minute ago, who went running once everything started. Was hoping there'd still be some around to get some more cars to drive us down."
"I don't want to get in a car again..." One of the boys noted near Em.
...Yeah, Yang didn't blame him, after what had just happened.
It wouldn't be too much further now, to get to the exit ramp. They should be able to wait there for a minute or so before hailing over a rescue vehicle and getting out of there. Yang could ask for a lift back to the Schnee manor from there, hopefully. If there was something dangerous at the Schnee place, Yang just needed to send the kids somewhere safe to wait for Two and go find Ruby. If the Schnee mansion was safe after all, everyone could just go there and it'd be fine. Perfectly fine.
If she said it often enough, maybe she'd start to believe it eventually.
[X] When the emergency response team arrives, one of them takes Yang to the Schnee mansion. Em disappears around here and the kids get sent to safety.
[X] When the rescue task force finally turns up, they're against the idea of letting Yang run off. Em helps Yang sneak away to get to the Schnee mansion.