"Oumdamn it!" The curse word floated around the now nearly empty cabin in the air ship. None of the team she had been sent with survived. Drops of blood splattered onto the iron floor. Today had not gone her way at all.
Yang squeezed the bridge of her nose trying to staunch the flow of blood pouring out of it. She took a deep breath reading herself and snapped her nose back straight her eyes watering at the pain.
"That Reaper bitch has one hell of a right hook." Yang groaned earning a chuckle from the white haired girl sitting on the seat next to her.
Strands of her usually perfect hair where floating around her head and she was holding her left arm, the sleeve stained with blood where the Black Death's blade had found a mark after Weiss's aura had depleted.
"At least we're alive." Weiss mumbled clearly shook up from the fight.
"You're welcome for that." Yang grinned around the blood making Weiss roll her eyes. "Sure, though I'm certain I saw that Reaper kicking your ass."
"Oh, foul language from a princess?" Yang asked getting to her feet and steadied herself against the wall till she found her balance on the moving floor.
"I'm not a princess you Oaf." she retorted watching as the blonde headed to the far wall and grabbed a first aid kit before heading back and sitting down beside her again. "Let me see your arm." Yang said as she opened the latches on the kit.
"And let a brute touch it, no thank you." she snapped narrowing her eyes at Yang who rolled her own eyes. "I'm actually medically qualified to deal with that." She informed her, holding out her hand for Weiss's arm who looked at her unsure before letting out a sigh and offered her her arm. "Thank you." Yang said pulling out a pair of scissors and cutting the sleeve the rest of the way off from the cut.
"I liked this shirt." Weiss grumbled.
Yang smiled, gently taking her arm, careful as to not hit the wound.
Weiss watched her, surprised that the other girls touch was gentle on her skin as she looked over the cut.
"It's deep, so you're going to have to have stitches." Yang said and Weiss tensed making Yang look up. "S'matter, you afraid of needles?" she asked winking at her. Weiss's face started to burn and she looked away. "No, I just don't want another scar." she said quickly.
Yang chuckled as she dug in the kit. "I think scars are cool." She said pulling out a spray bottle. "This will sting a bit, but it'll clean out your wound." She said spraying it over the cut.
Weiss winced as the wound started to burn a little. "Of course you think scars are cool you're a soldier."
Yang shook her head as she put the bottle away. "No, I think they show where we've been and what we've done, that's not necessarily a bad thing." she held up her right hand showing the back of her hand, a thin scar was between her pinky finger and ring. "I got this when I was a kid. My sister and I use to run through the house with are arms wide like we where airships, my hand caught a nail in the hallway, it hurt but now I'll never forget that memory." Yang said fondly her eyes distant.
She shook her head and pulled out a pack that had a sterilized needle and thread in it and cut it open with the scissors.
"Not all scars have such good memories." Weiss said looking away as Yang pulled the torn skin on her arm together and winced as Yang stared to stitch it together.
"I have a question." Weiss stated trying to keep her mind off her arm.
"Mhmm?" Yang mumbled concentrating on her work.
"In the fight you called the Reaper, Ruby."
Yang stopped for a second before continuing to stitch her wound. "Do you know her?" Weiss pressed. Yang stayed silent for a time before speaking. "No, I thought she was some one I've been looking for, I was wrong." she responded. But something in her voice told Weiss she wasn't telling the truth but she didn't know this girl well enough to push her for information, especially since she was sewing her up.
They stayed in silence as Yang finished up. "There you go." She said cutting the excess thread and Weiss looked at her arm, it didn't look to bad.
"This is to prevent infection." Yang said spraying another bottle over it before she wrapped it in a bandage.
"Thanks." Weiss muttered as Yang put the stuff back in the kit and closed it. "No problem." she responded wiping her face with a wet towel from the kit to clear the blood away and continued to try to keep her nose from bleeding.
The rest of the trip was in silence as they flew back to Vale.
Once the air ship touched down on the top of the building she was based at the door slid open and Captain Gold was standing on the landing platform waiting on them with a few other soldiers.
He motioned for the two girls to follow him as he headed off the roof. "Captain, about the men you sent with me." Yang said her voice sounding off because of the swelling in her nose.
"We've already picked up their bodies."
"That's not it, It's my fault they died." Yang stated, Gold looked over his shoulder at her. "No, It's the person who killed them fault, no one else's." He said, Yang looked away unable to keep eye contact. Weiss looked at the two of them suspiciously.
"It's good to have you with us Miss Schnee." Gold said holding a door open that led inside the building. "Not for me it's not." she huffed holding her arm as she walked in followed by Yang then Gold.
"You were wounded?" He asked as they headed down the spiral staircase. "It's just a scratch." Weiss said waving it off.
"My apologizes Yang should have done a better job at protecting you." Gold stated Weiss looked back to see a scowl on Yang's face. "I'm alive I think she did her job fine, Since we were against the Crimson Reaper and the Black Death." Weiss said not missing the pointed look Gold gave the back of Yang's head.
"Oh really?" he asked.
Yang nodded. "I was unable to capture either of them, once the Reaper's aura was depleted they fled." Yang explained.
"We'll discuss that later." He stated as they walked into a hallway. "My office is the second on the right."
Once inside he sat in his high backed chair while Weiss and Yang stood in front of his desk. "Now I suppose we should talk about where Miss Schnee will be staying." Gold said leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers.
"Yang, she'll be staying in your living area."
"What!" Yang yelled slamming her hands on the desk between them and leaned forwards. Gold stared at her unfazed.
"Is that a problem?" He asked.
" I don't have time to babysit!" she growled.
"Excuse me?" Weiss asked raising a eyebrow at Yang but she ignored the heiress.
"Well that wound you got looks pretty bad Yang, I think a week on leave will let it heal nicely." Gold said with a thin smile. Yang's eyes widened she couldn't believe he was doing this, he just didn't want her around for some reason.
"It's a fucking broken nose!" She yelled glaring at the man. "Your dismissed." He said with a wave of his hand and spun his chair around to show he was done talking.
Yang exhaled and spun around stalking out with Weiss following behind her.
Blake supported Ruby as they trudged through the snow as they walked from the airship landing area to the hotel that the White Fang was using as a base. Ruby's legs trembled and she would have fell If Blake wasn't holding her up. "Are you Ok?" Blake said, her breath hot on Ruby's ear. "Yeah, she just hits really hard." She chuckled then winced at the pain in her ribs, she was sure that Yang's last hit had either bruised them or broke them.
"Adam won't be happy." Blake mumbled as they headed up the stairs, on either side of the door were grunts standing guard.
"Screw Adam, we weren't expecting Vale soldiers." Ruby grumbled, her breath clouding around her face as a grunt held the door open and the two made their way through welcoming the warmth that was in the building. Ruby let out a sigh, Atlas was way to cold for her.
Adam was already in the expensive looking lobby waiting on them. He looked them over as Blake helped Ruby over to him. "Problems?" He asked.
Blake nodded, " For some reason Vale soldiers were there." She said. Adam cocked his head, "Interesting, did you do it?" He questioned the girl being held up by his old partner.
"No, our aura's ran out so we had to escape." Ruby stated.
"I ordered you to kill the girl!" Adam snapped. Ruby rolled her eyes, "I know but our aura's were done for." she repeated herself.
"You should have kept going till she was dead!" He yelled at Ruby. "I'm not dying for you." She snapped back.
Blake looked at her girlfriend concerned. "Ruby." She warned softly, Adam was a man you didn't anger.
"I think your forgetting your place." He bit making Ruby chuckle dryly. "No, you are forgetting my place." she retorted. "Now I'm going to my room." She said motioning for Blake to help her and they headed around Adam who glared at them as they made their way to the elevator.
"Whats with you?" Blake questioned as the metal doors slid closed and she hit the room number for the floor they were staying on.
"Adam needs to understand that I am not going to die for him or the White Fang." Ruby stated leaning against the wall as the elevator started upwards.
"Still you shouldn't piss him off." Blake warned crossing her arms as she leaned against the wall beside Ruby.
"He shouldn't piss me off." She retorted with a huff. "You've changed." Blake said softly and Ruby looked at her.
"Is that a bad thing?" Ruby questioned looking at the dark haired girl. "No." she mused. "I was just wondering where the soft innocent Ruby had gone."
Ruby sighed looking at the number of floors tick as they moved upwards, this was a really slow elevator. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "After I almost lost you, I realized I could no longer afford to be the way I was."
"That wasn't your fault, just don't get to dark on me." Blake said reaching out and grabbed the hand Ruby had on the handrail that ran around the elevator.
"What makes you think I'm dark?" Ruby smiled at her as she dropped the hand pinching her nose and interlaced her fingers with Blake's.
"It just seems that when you put on your mask you become someone else, and to be honest your a little scary."
Ruby blinked surprised, she had never meant to scare Blake. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to intimidate the enemy so maybe they would run instead of fighting." She explained with a grin, "I guess it didn't work, since we were the one's that ran."
Blake smiled back but a question in her head resurfaced as the elevator dinged and the door slid open. "Something's been bugging me." Blake said as she pulled Ruby's body close to her so she could help her walk.
"What is it?" The girl asked as they headed down the deep red carpeted hallway towards their shared room.
"That soldier, how did she know your name?" Blake asked and felt Ruby's body grow tense. "She's a old friend, I guess she reconized my semblance." Ruby explained her body relaxing as Blake nodded.
"Is she the reason we ran?" Blake questioned watching Ruby's face. She nodded as they reached their room and Blake opened the door and turned the lights on as she helped Ruby to the bed and set her down.
"It's Ok, I wont tell Adam." she said to Ruby in understanding and watched as relief filled her face.
"Thanks." Ruby smiled kindly at her.
"Now get your shirt off so I can bind your ribs." Blake ordered as she got up and headed into the bath room to get the first aid kit.
Ruby chuckled facing away from the bathroom and undid her hood and cloak laying it on the bed beside her before easing of her shirt with a hiss and inspected the damage. The skin was already bruising but on top of that the skin was also slightly burnt. 'Damn that Ember Ceila.' She thought as she heard Blake enter the room.
"Ruby?" Blake questioned and Ruby's blood froze, she had forgot about her back.
"What is this?" Blake asked, her voice shaking as she looked at her girlfriend's bare back for the first time, the scars that ran down her skin were to brutal for words.
"I'm sorry you shouldn't have seen this." Ruby's voice was tight as she reached for her hood but Blake moved quick across the room and climbed onto the bed behind her, placing her hands on Ruby's back making her jump slightly.
"What happened?" she breathed slightly moving her hands across the damaged skin as if her touch could heal it.
"It happened a long time ago." Ruby spoke softly her hands gripping the bed cover. She couldn't tell Blake the truth, that Adam had done it.
She could feel Blake's tears splashing onto her skin but she was frozen unable to turn around.
Blake cried, her girlfriend's words the final straw that broke the camel's back. It was a skill that she had trained a long time to get, but her ears could hear many things, including the slight tremors in someones voice when they told lies.