Ruby sighed out in relief, lowering her hands as Pers left. Hopefully that would clear their bad water for now. But she now had another literal water to mind. The issue with taking water from sources such as water taps or fountains: Usually not the best thing because of present bacteria.
Normally, it wouldn't be a problem to just drink it right up, since one's immune system would take care of it. But since they now had to make use of it for a recovering Nora and a recovering Oscar too, they kind of had to boil it. And they were having trouble.
As part of a building standard set much likely by Ozpin in his day, materials for flooring had to be fireproof so that, in case of an emergency, fire had a harder time spreading and, therefore, didn't cause as much damages nor deaths.
However, it also meant that now that they needed to light a fire to, you know, boil water, cook and have a source of light, they couldn't. 2 Fire Dust Crystals spent for nothing and the only source of light they had for the day was now gone until the morning. They were using their scrolls for light…but the batteries were due to run out after they used the last of their remaining Lightning Dust Crystals.
"Well. Can't light the floor up. Any ideas?" asked Blake, while Ruby had a brief conversation with Nebula.
"Hmm. Didn't you guys bring a box in earlier?" asked Weiss, turning towards Jaune and Ren
"It's not wood. It's metal. Otherwise, we would have pitched that idea earlier" Ren replied.
Meanwhile, Nebula had apologized to Ruby for Pers' behavior so far
"She just has a bit of an itch against shoplifters" Nebula said, continuing to explain Pers' attitude
"Yeah. I know. We don't exactly have a stellar record" Ruby replied
"Well. Maybe once things calm down enough for us to go out and help, that record will improve" said Nebula
Ruby stopped to think about it, then smiled and replied. "Yeah. You are right, there's always another day"
"Good" Said Nebula, then heard the guys in Ruby's group begin to talk a bit louder
"We should check in with them" said Nebula, heading inside to find them struggling to light a fire
Ruby followed Nebula and there began their predicament. They couldn't start a fire. It didn't start in Beacon…it didn't start in Haven either…but it did start in Atlas. Because of Cinder that is…wait. It started BECAUSE of Cinder. Cinder has Maiden powers…Penny has Maiden powers. It all matched up
"I have an idea" said Ruby, beginning to walk towards Penny
"Ruby, what are you planning?" asked Yang, confused at why was Ruby walking towards Penny
"Remember back in Atlas? When we fought Cinder?" said Ruby
"Yeah but…how does that help us? She just summoned…fire" said Yang, the realization dawning onto her, alongside everyone else. If they could awaken Penny from her suspension mode…that meant that they could light a fire and boil the water for Nora.
Ren stopped a moment then question Ruby
"Wait…wouldn't she malfunction if we try forcing her out of her sleep?" He asked.
And so they were all in a predicament. Wake Penny up and risk a malfunction or keep her asleep until she wakes up, which nobody knows when that will be, and wait until they can get clean water to treat Nora's wounds with.
"I guess we should just ask Theodore" proposed Nebula
"Alright…who's coming with me?" asked Ruby while heading for the exit
"I'm going with you. You're still new to Shade, don't push it" Nebula replied
Coco, Velvet and Neptune just looked at them
"Why not ask him for help tomorrow? It's getting late. We could bring you some water then we all just get to sleep" proposed Neptune
And just like that, their dilemma was resolved, Neptune spared some water from his team to help Ruby's and they all had to settle to just sleeping on the floor, scattered around the classroom for the night.
Everyone was struggling to get comfortable. Their whole life, even through the most dire and difficult moments, they had a cushion, a place where they could simply lay down and rest. Now it was gone, their new cushion now being the cold, hard tiles of ceramic on the floor. Foreign floor for all of them.
Yang in particular was having trouble sleeping. No matter how hard she tried, her body didn't take kindly to sleeping on the floor. Always a spot going too hard against the floor. But then…she felt a stinging pain, as if there was a needle in her fingers…her right fingers. She tried to ignore it at first. Nothing to really wince about. But the pain grew stronger on her arm the closer she got to falling asleep.
"Just a bratty brawler!" she heard.
"A firecracker!"
"Violent brawler!"
Everything kept sounding inside her head as the pain grew more intense, her right fingers still feeling as they were slowly getting riddled by more and more needles. A crippling fear began climbing up her nerves, cruising through her veins as the voices began to become more united, more uniform.
"MANIAC!"
"MANIAC! MANIAC!"
"MANIAC! MANIAC! MANIAC!"
"Maniac" She heard…but this time, it was Ruby saying it.
Yang then wakes up. She is in a cold sweat, slowing down from hyperventilation, her jacket drowning her in heat…but it was night-time. Nights in the desert are supposed to be very cold. She turns towards her right arm. The pain had settled. It was still there. Black and yellow metal. No flesh to be found. She goes back to sleep….Or at least she tried to.
Everyone woke up next morning to some serious aching all over their body. Sleeping on the floor. Ruby woke up first, but remained on the floor, her neck, as well as the back of her head aching a bit since she had slept facing the ceiling. Blake and Weiss woke up with pain on their left shoulders and hips, since they slept facing sideways.
Ren and Nora had slept facing up but made the wise choice of using some of their clothing and gear pouches for pillows. Oscar was still asleep but would wake up with pain on his right hip and with a numb forearm, since he used it to rest his head.
Yang woke up the last, with pain on her chest since she had slept facing the floor for a while…but also woke up with a numb foot and an aching right shoulder and hip.
Ruby slowly rolled to the side "Aaaghhh…" she winced out as she slowly began pushing herself up. It was a bit of a struggle since they were all still in the process of regaining full awareness.
"Morning...guys" She called out to them.
"Good Morning, Ruby" replied Penny, already awake. Good thing about remaining a robot was that she didn't have much of an issue with just resting on the floor, because...well, she's metal. Bad thing was...Watts' virus was still inside her. Dormant...but still present.
Blake began wincing of pain as she got up, first having to kneel and crawling away before getting up, while Weiss crawled up to the wall to drag herself up.
Yang, on the other hand, woke up having slept little. The stinging pain from last night showed up again before she finally fell asleep, but once she woke up, it was accentuated by her now aching right shoulder.
More than anything, Yang was groaning and wincing. It caught her off guard and was now struggling to get up because of it, as she couldn't roll right in order to kneel.
"Yang, are you okay?" asked Blake.
"Gaah….B-blake…" Yang replied, in a very forced, low of breath tone. She then continued:
"My…my arm…It hurts!"
Blake went to help her. She tried to pull her up from her right arm, only for Yang to then faint, Blake's hold intensifying it all until she reached her limit.
