[X] Follow the destruction. If she found the fight, she could end it. If she found a body, she could tend to it. It might be her best bet.
Looking around the hallway, Yang tried not to think about what kind of state Nora could be in.
Ren and Peri had been kinda messed up, but at least the area outside the manor had been, apart from the gate and the door, mostly intact. Those entryways were likely to just be to get in, since neither of them were in the general area of the entryways and didn't have the same charred look.
But this pathway?
Rubble had been thrown all over the pathway. Holes in the wall, scars on the floor forged by blade, dents everywhere. A section of steel had been peeled away, like something had been scraped across and through it. And then there was a pile of rubble on a cracked and shattered floor, two holes in the roof, and everything beyond that was fine.
What the hell had gone in, in this fight? Nora had clearly been drawing the battle away from Ren and Peri, but there was too much damage here for it to just have been missed hits.
Blasting Ember Celica down, she threw herself into the air and through one of the two holes in the roof. Looking upwards, she noticed that the roof had another hole in it, lined up with one of the holes below her.
Whatever had gone on here, Yang wasn't sure. She noticed how, a bit further down in the hall, there was another hole in the roof past a section of relative intactness, followed by another hole in the wall. So there had definitely been some people being thrown through walls. Nora seemed the more likely option, but the details of the fight weren't exactly promising.
Rushing forward and through the hole in the wall, Yang found another devastated hallway. Rushing through it, Yang continued following the trail of destruction. Shattered glass from windows, steel walls rended apart, a hole in the floor forcing the fight back to the ground floor.
There was a splatter of blood on the ground, at the bottom.
No. No no no, no blood, blood bad. If the outside battleground was any indication, it wasn't the attacker who would be bleeding while being batted around. If there was blood, then it was only going to be Nora's blood there.
Yang didn't know her well, but Nora was a good person. She'd tried to stop Yang from tearing herself apart back in Vale, when she had fought Blake for the first time, and she was fun in general. She got along with Two and Cent, from what Yang could recall. She hadn't ever really hung out with all of them at once, but she was fun to be around. Yang would've looked forward to hanging out with Nora more.
She was going to be fine. Yang was gonna pull her out of here, pull Ruby out of here, get out of the building, and nobody was gonna die.
Jumping down the hole, Yang looked around, trying to follow the track to the next train of destruction, before stopping.
End of the line.
Against the wall, cackling with red electricity that was just barely audible over the alarm, was Nora Valkyrie. Her clothes were bloodied and torn, as she dangled off the wall. A chunk of sharpened steel was plunged into her arm, pinning it to the wall behind her like a jagged spike through the muscles in her arm.
"Nora?" Yang asked. The orange haired girl looked up, blood dripping on her forehead over her eyes, essentially blinding her.
"Who's there?" She asked. "Is that... Yang?"
"It's me." Yang confirmed, as she looked Yang over. Her weapon was nowhere to be seen, and it was hard to identify any details through the constant blast of red energy flowing through her body, but Yang could see a pained expression on her face, as she tried to prop herself up by pushing her toes against the ground.
Stepping forward, Yang ripped off a strip of cloth from the bottom of her shirt. She didn't know if this energy was going to hurt her, but her Aura should be enough and Nora needed help.
"Hang on." She said, reaching for the pinned girl with the cloth. "Let me clean you up a bit, tell me what happened-"
"Don't!" Nora shouted, shocking Yang with the sudden scream. Her hand jerked away, but the cloth whipped up at the sudden alteration in momentum. The end struck Nora just above the eye, where the blood had originated from, and Nora screamed as she instinctively jerked away. Her head hit the steel wall behind her, causing it to crack and break apart. Her body jerked ever so slightly, and all the red electricity flowing into her internalised, for that fraction of a second, for that fraction of a movement.
The arm pinned to the wall flexed, and the steel spike shattered. Nora's scream echoed out, overpowering the alarm as the fragmented iron cut into her internal muscles. Yang's eyes widened as she watched the chain reaction tear Nora's muscles apart.
"Fuck!" She screamed herself, as she rushed forward and caught the falling Nora in her arms. "Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't- Fuck, I... Fuck."
What the fuck had- No, forget about what happened, how it happened didn't matter, Nora was screaming, Yang fucked up and now she was suffering-
The red energy started flowing back out of Nora's muscles, zapping at Yang as she held Nora, but she bit her tongue and ignored the pain, as she tried to reassure the other girl. Nora's screams died to the sound of panting and whimpering.
"I'm sorry." Yang whispered. The sound was drowned out by the blaring alarm, so Yang cleared her throat before trying again. "I'm sorry."
"...S'okay." Nora muttered, her skin pale. How much blood had she lost? How badly hurt had she been just now, let alone in that last moment there? "Didn't mean..."
"What happened?" Yang asked, as she tried to lift Nora up. She cried out as her back stung, so Yang immediately abandoned that plan, instead just holding Nora in place.
"Fucking..." Nora groaned. "I just..."
"Take your time." Yang assured her. "It's okay, if this is hard on you, just work through it. I can wait."
Nora nodded, and Yang felt some of the blood dripping down Nora's forehead flick off into Yang's own face.
"Armoured girl." Nora eventually decided, trying for sentence fragments rather than sentences. "Lightning Aura. Broke gate. Hurt Ren. Tried blocking. Semblance, lightning stronger."
Yang took a moment to try and determine the meaning behind it, before she started to put it together.
"You get stronger from lightning?" Yang asked. Nora nodded, as Yang kept working. "And you fought someone who made electricity, so-"
The mental image came to mind, of what had just happened. The way that the energy had flowed into Nora when she had moved, the way that a small flex had shattered steel so easily...
"They made you too strong." Yang realised. "Too much energy, not enough control. Your arm flexed, and it was enough to-"
Nora winced, and Yang immediately realised that it might not have been a good idea to talk about that.
Nora's arm was in a really bad state. If she got medical aid soon, then she might be able to address it, but how the hell was she going to get to medical aid right now?
"Is there anything else that needs tending?" Yang asked. "Any other wounds?"
"...Cut." Nora noted. "Back sore."
"Can you move?" Yang asked. "If we hurry, we might be able to get somewhere. There might be some kind of wound treatment area nearby."
"...Think I know one." Nora continued, her voice sounding less pained, more consistent. "Two. Heard from others. Top floor, and nearby."
"Then let's get you to the nearby one, then."
Nora shook her head.
"Not good one." She tried. "Minor med bay. Main one top floor. Better care."
"So I need to get you to the top floor if I want to get you better help?" Yang asked, for clarity. Nora nodded, and Yang continued. "How much better?"
"Much." Nora croaked. "Not sure on details. Nearby one's just to make sure? Next to weapon craft place, minorish wounds."
Next to the weapon crafting pla-
Yang's eyes widened, as she pieced it together. Weapon crafting place. That's where Ruby would be. There'd have to be security in place around weapons, and where else would she be before the alarm went off?
But...
Yang didn't know for sure, what the different medical bays would have. But she knew from experience, from back in Signal, that it was expensive, having intensive care units in medical bays. Her school had one, by the weapon forging and combat testing area, but it wasn't meant for wounds as bad as Nora's. In the worse case scenario, all it was good for was keeping students comfortable while a transport was prepared to take them somewhere that could treat more serious wounds.
The Schnee were rich, but with much less dumb teenagers without training having access to weapons, there was less of a need to have their weapons bay be able to treat wounds. If they went there, and it was only as good as Yang's school?
Nora might not end up keeping that arm.
But... It was right next to Ruby.
Could she take that risk? Could she risk Nora losing a limb just to save her sister? Could she risk leaving Ruby in the path of danger just to make sure Nora was tended to?
"'s go." Nora muttered out, as she moved to push off Yang. She stood up for a moment, her arm flopping like a dead fish to her side, and took a step forward.
Her back arched, and Nora screamed again, as her good arm reached for the centre of her spine. She collapsed, groping for her back, and Yang noticed how much blood was soaked in the back of her shirt.
"Nora!" Yang called, as the girl continued to lie on the floor, groaning in pain. "Fuck, hold on, let me carry you."
"No..." Nora groaned out. "I... Can walk. Not gon-"
"Shut up." Yang snapped. "I don't have time to argue this with you, Nora. You've seen where being stubborn gets me and Ren, back in Vale and that village where we first met. Don't add to the list."
Pulling Nora off the ground again, Yang ignored the energy zapping into her, bleeding off Nora.
"You Semblance was making you stronger, right?" Yang asked. "So even a small movement would make a wound a lot worse. Don't tear yourself apart because you don't want this red stuff hurting me."
"...People still here." Nora groaned. "Carrying a handicap."
"You're not too heavy." Yang replied. "Not much of a handicap. Just hold on to my back, or let me carry you, and-"
"Gun." Nora declared, looking towards Yang. "Can't fire both while carrying me. Give me one. I'll fire."
The suggestion surprised Yang, but thinking about it, it made sense. The main issue would be the recoil, and Nora usually fired a grenade launcher and carried around a hammer anyway. The boost to her muscle strength was only going to make her be able to account for the recoil more. She could make it work, maybe. And yeah, Yang would have to use an arm to carry Nora anyway, and Nora had a good arm.
Reaching for her wrists, Yang unwrapped Ember Celica, and moved around Nora to help her move her good arm.
"Do you want to test fire it?" Yang asked. "Get a grip on it?"
"...No." Nora admitted. "Back hurts. Don't wanna test."
"Alright, then." Yang decided, putting her arms under Nora and picking her up. She could adjust her grip on the move if she had to, but the best starting place here was to put Nora on her back and hold her in place with both arms. She could probably quickly shoot once or twice without Nora slipping, and that should be enough time for Yang to buy space to put Nora down.
Top floor, better medical assistance but leave Ruby behind. Bottom floor, get to Ruby but limit how much medical assistance Nora could get from an automated system.
"You know the way, right?" Yang asked. "Let me know, what direction for-"
[X] "The one on this floor."
[X] "The top floor."