[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.
The convey of vehicles rolled down the road, but stopped just shy of the entry ramp to the highway, as they saw the group walking down it. The car at the front came to a stop in front of Yang, and the sirens dropped in volume as the driver opened the door.
"Kids?" The young woman asked, as she stepped out from the vehicle. The sunlight glimmered against her armour, some kind of outfit made of clockwork and gears. "Why are there- What happened?"
She had gotten close to Yang a she spoke, a grim expression on her face as her eyes glancing from the teenager to the smoke on the highway behind her.
"There was an attack." Yang explained. "A woman in red. I don't know where she is."
"Any casualties?" The woman dressed like the inside of a clock asked. "Injured? Dying?"
"...One dead." Yang muttered softly, looking to the ground as she did so. She felt the tears welling up again, and immediately started blinking them away. No time to be sad now. Help was here, but the kids needed to get to safety first.
The woman seemed to realise something from Yang's split-second reaction, and, mercifully, steered the conversation away.
"Let's get you all out of here." She declared. "Just you and the kids, right? There should be enough seats for everyone."
Looking back over the group, Yang nearly spoke up to correct the woman, before she noticed that Em had disappeared.
Where had she gone off to? Did she leave without saying goodbye just as the rescue team turned up?
"Shit." The woman in the gears swore under her breath, as she looked over the crowd. Yang followed her gaze, and realised the reason for the reaction immediately. Carmine, of course.
"I tried to bandage her wounds." Yang spoke up, keeping her voice low as she stepped closer to the woman. "But I'm not a medic. Shot once in the ear and once in the hand. Might want to have someone look her over."
Gears nodded. "Yeah. Was gonna say."
She clicked her fingers a few times, and some people in the standard Atlesian soldier uniform stepped out of their vehicles.
"Hurry up and tend to the kids." She ordered. "And lose the helmets, too. You're gonna scare them if you keep the whole war image, and if your Aura can't take a hit without your helmet, I don't know why you're even here."
The soldiers shuffled forward awkwardly. Yang saw the crowd of children pull back wearily, so she stepped forward, smiling.
"It's gonna be fine." She assured them. "These are..."
...Military? Police? Was there even a difference in Atlas?
"...People who want to help." Yang decided. "They're just gonna make sure everyone's safe, and once Two stops looking for more people, she'll grab them and then come grab all you. It's gonna be okay. Trust me."
That had been enough, if barely. Some of the kids reluctantly stepped forward, and the Atlesian soldiers were hanging back enough that they weren't too intimidating, once you could see their faces.
"If there's not a bunch of injured up there, I'm going to guess that all these kids are from one group." The woman in the gears mused. "And thinking about it, I did hear radio chatter on an orphanage being burnt down earlier. Because the puppy kicking event was last week, I guess."
"All from the same place, yeah." Yang nodded. "The Schnee family were running the place, and everyone was heading for the main Schnee mansion to wait for Two to turn up."
The woman in gears winced. "Main Schnee place? Yeah... I'm not high ranked enough to know what's going on, but apparently, there's something going on up there, right now, and I'm fired forever if I risk anyones life going up there."
Yang felt her heart plummet, at the confirmation that something was going wrong in the place with Ruby in it.
She had to get there. Had to fix the problem. The Schnee manor was well guarded, but if things were bad enough that an Atlas officer was under orders not to approach the place, then that wasn't a good thing.
"Do you know the way to the Schnee guest manor, then?" Yang tried. "You know, where all the contest winners were staying."
"The power of owning a map makes such knowledge possible to grasp." The woman in the gears noted. "I'll give everyone the order to head up there. But what were you thinking, just now?"
Yang looked at the woman, and the woman met her gaze.
"You didn't react well to hearing about that bit with the Schnee place." She noted. "Got a friend there, or something? Well, whatever it is, don't. I can tell you right now that you should just rest for now."
Yang bit her lip to hold in her initial reaction, of yelling at the woman for implying that Yang should just leave Ruby to her fate. It's not her fault, she doesn't know. Yelling wouldn't accomplish anything but making Yang look unreasonable.
She was going to the Schnee manor. The kids were safe, and Ruby wasn't. That's all there was to it. So even if some Atlesian army person told her to sit out the whole thing, that wasn't an option for her.
"Just relax." Gears advised. Yang looked away, turning her faze towards the nearby paths. They weren't really in the city right now, but there were a few buildings by the highway entrance. A gas station, a fast food place, enough for there to be an alleyway.
As she looked towards it, Yang saw a head covered in green poke around the corner. An arm gestured towards Yang a moment later, beckoning her over.
...Em. So she'd gone and sneaked off, and was calling Yang over now? It'd be hard to leave the scene without looking suspicious, but...
"Just give me a moment." Yang asked, hanging her head as Em disappeared around the corner again. "I... I'm just gonna get some space, for a moment. The kids are still watching here, and after dad..."
Fuck, fuck, what was she doing, she was supposed to just be thinking of an excuse to get away from everyone else. Why did she instantly go for this topic, why was her breath seizing up again, why was her vision getting blurry again, why-
"I see." Gears noted, snapping Yang out of another spiral of depression. "Take your time. I can wait, and the others'll need a moment to get the kids calmed and ready to be transported."
Yang nodded numbly, as she walked off towards the alleyway. She was stumbling slightly as she did so, as the memories kept bombarding her.
She couldn't even fucking talk about it without breaking down. She could barely think about it as a distraction without reducing herself to a wreck. She had things to do, she had a sister to protect, so why was it so hard to push this out of her mind?
"Hey." Em noted, as Yang turned the corner. "You alright?"
Yang took a moment to muster up the energy needed to lie, and that moment was one too many.
"...Dumb question." She admitted. "Of course not. Shouldn't have asked. But you had somewhere you wanted to go, right?"
"Yeah..." Yang noted, numbly. "Schnee manor. Sister. Save one family member for a change."
"Let me guess." Em continued. "Military telling you not to?"
Yang nodded. Words were too hard right now, with how she had just metaphorically rubbed salt into her own emotional wound.
"Well, screw that noise." Em decided. "Come on, follow me. I know a place we can get a taxi, and if we hurry, we can get on board before anyone even realises that we're gon-"
"Why are you helping me?" Yang asked. Em looked back at her, as she continued. "You don't know me, or what's going on. So what reason do you have?"
Em seemed to ponder the question for a moment.
"Tough one." She admitted. "I've mostly just been acting on instinct so far, to be honest. I guess it's because I know how much it can matter, to get someone to lend a hand when you really need one?"
"What d'you mean?" Yang asked, as Em started walking, forcing her to start walking as well.
"I... Don't really want to talk about it." Em admitted. "I grew up on the streets, and it was only this year when someone finally stepped in and helped me put a roof over my head and eat consistent meals. Is that good enough for you?"
"...I'm sorry." Yang apologised. "I didn't know. I just thought it was weird, after seeing my-"
The cold grip on Yang's heart tightened as her memory turned in that direction again, and she almost tripped over at the shock of the pain in her heart. Em spun around and caught Yang before she could fall, visibly straining under Yang's weight for a moment before pushing Yang back to her feet.
"Don't think too much about that." Em advised. "If you need a proper explanation, just keep it in mind that I don't want to risk my life myself. If things get dangerous, I'm running. But until then, I can help, so why not help?"
...It was almost funny. That simple concept, helping because there wasn't a reason not to, reminded Yang of her sister, for a moment. Maybe Ruby wouldn't have said she'd be running if things got dangerous, but that kind of idealism was something that felt like a core part of Ruby. Always being happy and optimistic like that.
How was Yang supposed to tell her that their father was dead?
Tears were rolling down Yang's face, and Em seemed to realise that she wasn't going to be keeping Yang's attention on things just yet. Her thoughts just kept wandering, without the kids in the immediate area it was getting hard to focus, and trying to think of how she was going to save Ruby just kept reminding Yang of on failure or another.
Yang's newest spiralling depression was broken when a roar pierced through the heavens, smashing through her sorrowful mind like a hammer through glass.
She didn't even know what the roar was from. It didn't sound like a Grimm roar, even taking into account the differences between how all the different Grimm interacted. It didn't sound like a wyvern, either. Yang hadn't seen a real one in person, but one of Winter's summons were of a wyvern, and Yang could swear that she had heard it roar before. This was different.
It was a powerful roar. Yang was surprised the windows weren't rattling despite how loud it is, how loud it was even after the sound travelled far enough that the source wasn't even on the horizon. A blatant roar, too. Intimidation or a challenge. Those were the only reasons something would roar so bestial in the middle of the capital of one of the Four Kingdoms. The source was either strong enough to fight everything else that came to face it, or was powerful enough that the roar was discouragement from anything that thought it could resist.
It was either some kind of Grimm that Yang had never seen before, something powerful in the Kingdoms drawn by the despair of whatever was going on, which would more likely than not involve heralding a wave of Grimm attacks, or it was something else entirely, something like the Undine or other magical beast, which had been tamed or used by the people who were launching this attack. Who were attacking military bases and Schnee manors and random highways.
Yang wasn't sure which was worse. Either way, a slow dawning thought came to her after a moment, and the dread it inspired washed out everything else Yang had been feeling.
The roar had come from the North-West. Where the main Schnee manor was.
Where Ruby was.
Yang's breath quickened, as her brain pushed aside trivial concerns such as her own sorrow and breakdown. Something was wrong here, very wrong here, and if there was even the slightest chance that Ruby could be hurt as a result, then Yang had to treat that as if it was an absolute certainty without her intervention.
It was hard enough, knowing that she would have to break the news about dad. That wouldn't be helped if Ruby was missing limbs and her new friend had gotten killed as well. Or if Ruby herself didn-
"That's not good." Em noted, paling. "Let's... Hurry up and get running, before the military starts looking for us."
Nodding, Yang paused for a half second to wait for Em to start, before she set off into a run.
She was going to keep her sister safe, and until then that safety was ensured, nothing else mattered.
To speed over the otherwise uneventful trip, let us take a moment to stop away from Yang Xiao Long one more time, and observe the current state of things in regards to someone else caught in the chaos.
[X] Nora Valkyrie
[X] Periwinkle Flowers
[X] Eris