Ruby woke up snuggled in close to Blake under the blankets on the couch. The older girl's shirt smelled like sweat and stone mortar dust. The fire had burned down to embers and Ruby could still hear the wind. When she sat up and breathed out slowly, she could see her breath.
Fully awake now, she pulled her cloak's hood up to keep warm as she slipped off the couch. Her scroll didn't have signal and its battery indicator blinked near empty. Ruby glanced at the outlet in the wall, but the overhead lights were still out. No power.
Ruby stuck the electronic device into a pocket of her backpack and got to work building up the fire while she tried to think of what to do.
The storm would probably keep the Grimm away, so that was good. But it also meant they couldn't get back to the clinic, to Weiss and Yang. The way the embers flickered, hiding low among the ash and dead coal gave her an unpleasant feeling deep in her stomach. Yang had looked pretty bad when she'd left. Ruby broke up some of the smaller twigs, suddenly anxious to rekindle the flames.
She never should have left. Crescent Rose worked just fine without bullets and there weren't any Liliac anyway. They could have gotten blankets from someplace closer. Then they wouldn't be stuck here.
How long had it been anyway? Ruby plunked a larger piece of wood on the fire for it to work on while she dug her scroll back out.
9:00 a.m.
"Blake," she jumped back on the couch, scroll in hand, "Blake, look."
Blake woke with a start, leaping from the couch and flinging her blanket aside, eyes wide and Faunus ears instinctively searching for any unusual sounds. "What! What is it?" Sensing no immediate danger, she turned back to find a Ruby-sized shape sitting patiently underneath her discarded blanket. "Oh." Ears half flattened in embarrassment, she pulled on a corner of the blanket to unbury her team leader. "Sorry."
Ruby posed, dramatically showing off the time and date as Blake pulled the blanket away.
Blake's Faunus ears fell flat at the numbers on the screen. They had been asleep for almost twelve hours - hours where any number of things could have happened to the clinic, to Yang and Weiss.
"We have to get back," her eyes darted to the hearth, watching the flames crackle and pop to better discern the fireplace's roar from the roaring winds of the storm still raging outside. Blake's grip tightened on the blanket in her hands. The storm hadn't let up in the slightest. "...Somehow."
Ruby dropped the act and braced both hands on her crossed legs on the couch. "Yeah. Think we could use a rope, or something?"
That way they wouldn't get lost, at least.
Blake's gears were spinning a mile a minute, fresh and re-oiled from a healthy dose of food and sleep. "Rope could work," she crossed her arms, finding she felt comfortable enough around Ruby to allow herself to think out loud, "If we tied one end to you, and one end to me... one of us could hold on to a building while the other tried to find a second building..." she started to pace, wandering back and forth in front of the fire.
"We would need some kind of signal - maybe a gunshot? Then the one who is farther out could help pull the other one to their position, rinse and repeat..." Blake paused mid-step, to look to her team leader, "If we had a map of the town to follow, maybe we could work our way back to the clinic."
The "plan" sounded absolutely ridiculous when Blake thought about it for longer than the ten seconds it had taken her to come up with it, but anxiety was eating her alive, and judging by the light burning in Ruby's eyes, the younger girl seemed just as eager to do anything other than sit and wait.
"Yeah! Okay," Ruby jumped up and dug in her pack for a piece of paper to draw a map on. "We just need some really long rope, to get from here to the first houses, right? That and... and..."
Suddenly she realized the wind seemed quieter than before. Was the storm letting up? Ruby scurried to the window.
It was too dark out to see, so she went to the door, cracking it open to take a look.
It was like looking into an ice cave. Ruby opened the door a little wider so she could see better by the scant light of the fire and some of the snow spilled in onto the floor. Most of it kept its shape, though—a knee deep wash of white sloping up to meet the roof of the porch. "Uh... this... might kind of sort of mess up our rope plan."
Outside, above the deep, deep snow, the storm raged on.
Snow. Snow, snow, and more snow. If Yang never saw the stuff again for the rest of her life, it would be too soon. Unfortunately, right now it was all she could see. The brawler glanced up at the small space between the window's boards, hating the solid wall of white that had built up, completely blocking her view of the outside world.
A dazed glare was all she could manage from her spot in the center of the floor, surrounded by the smallest children and the elderly - those who needed her heat the most in the clinic's deepening cold. Between that, and bolstering Weiss's healing process any time the heiress would let her, Yang felt as thought she was stuck in a perpetual state of delirium.
Amethyst eyes drifted over to Weiss, curled up beneath the pile of blankets where she'd left her. Her breathing was even, peaceful, and Yang allowed herself a small smile at the sight. At least the heiress was starting to look a tiny bit better. Dust did that girl heal slowly. The brawler shuddered to think just how long it would have taken Weiss to get to this point on her own.
Right now though, she seemed to be asleep, something she wished she'd been doing more of herself. Quite a few of the townsfolk had taken to dozing as much as they could to stave off both boredom and the cold, including the small girl currently sleeping in her lap. It was the girl she and Ruby had first rescued before going to find Weiss.
Ruby.
Yang absentmindedly ran her fingers through the girl's dark locks, trying not to think about her little sister or Blake and failing miserably.
They had never returned.
No one ever returned, in the end.
Yang shook her head, clearing away the darker memories that danced at the edge of her addled thoughts. She held them at bay, absolutely refused to dwell on them. This was different. It was different. Ruby would come back, and Blake would be with her. She just... didn't know when. How long had they even been gone now?
A quick glance at the clock on the wall didn't help. The thing still said it was 4pm, its battery having suffered a premature death from the sheer cold brought about by the power outage... and how long ago had that been? They might have been able to track the time at one point, but that same power outage had starved their last working scroll into submission... yesterday? Two days ago?
The only thing she did know was that it had been long enough for the food supply to dwindle dangerously. The clinic, well stocked as it was, had not been properly equipped to house and feed forty-plus injured. At some point very soon they would have to restock their supplies, which meant venturing out into the storm...
Yang dragged her gaze back to the window, wishing she could just... melt everything. She was restless. Going stir crazy, even. And yet, she was so tired. All she could think to do was heal up, get herself and Weiss and the townsfolk better so that they would be ready to help if Ruby and Blake returned. When. When.
The little girl shifted in her lap, murmuring something about her mother.
Expression blank, Yang leaned forward, placed her elbows on her knees, and dropped her face into her hands.
The front door banged open and injured folks shifted to let Curtis get through with an arm load of wood. He was bundled up with a scarf over his mouth and face, and every inch of him from his boots to his dark, short-cropped hair was covered in snow.
"Found it?" Cyan looked up from redressing a gash in one woman's leg. She spoke softly, and Curtis responded in kind.
"It's not like it moved," he set the fuel in the narrow space by the wood stove and removed his glasses, shaking them to get some of the snow off. His tracks were footprints of pink snow. "Afraid the floor in the front room is kind of a mess."
"We'll worry about it later." When they had spare cloths and sheets to clean with. "Come eat something."
"I'm alright," Curtis let one of the less injured folks work at rebuilding the fire. The light highlighted the traces of grey in his hair, close to his ears. They had maybe a day's worth of food, and they'd already been scraping the backs of the cupboards, stretching what they had with their dwindling grain supply. Curtis cast a quick glance at Yang, looking away before he inquired in a general way, "I don't suppose anyone feels well enough to make a trip next door?"
They would have to tunnel through snow to get there, and who knew what they might find waiting for them in the ice-bound ruins?
Yang's head lifted from her hands. She put on a winning smile for the crowd, "A trip outside? Count me in, doc." She gently extracted herself from the girl on her lap and handed her over to the elderly man sitting behind them before getting to her feet, masking her brief shudder of fatigue as one of exhilaration.
"I've been going a little stir crazy anyway." Yang offered an apologetic smile to those who had huddled around her for warmth, but she wasn't sorry at all. The clinic was filled to the brim with children, elderly, the severely injured, and a narcoleptic Weiss. There was absolutely no way she would let any if them out in that storm beyond the porch where Curtis had ventured. Yang turned her smile to the ever-patient physician. "So, which direction am I headed?"
Curtis motioned Yang over to the door, turning first to Cyan, "Pass me the big pot?"
She pulled a large stock pot- not as large as the one with broth on top of the stove, but still a fair size-and passed it over the folks on the floor, apologizing.
"We'd ask the Brooks about checking out their house if they were here-they're the neighbors," Curtis indicated through the wall to the north with a nod of his head, speaking low through his scarf. He handed Yang the big pot. "Snow's piled up high, and they're closest, so we're going to dig our way over. Sound good?"
Yang blinked down at the pot, turned it over in her hands, then winked at Curtis. "Yeah, I dig it." She flexed her fists and extended both halves of Ember Celica with a grin, "I've been told I'm good with my hands. Lead the way!"
Curt gave her a weary grin, his footsteps heavy through the mess of blood and melting snow in the entryway, "Watch your step."
The clinic, at the back of the level shelf much of the town sat on, tucked in close to the cliff, was subject to some pretty major snowdrifts. Curtis had already cleared a path through the knee-high snow at the front door to the log pile on the porch. The snow rose in an even swoop from the front door to the lip of the porch roof, as somebody had dumped a world of white sand on the tiny clinic and it had spilled to fill all the gaps it could reach.
"Cy and I pretty much hibernate when it gets like this," Curtis said, retrieving a wide snow shovel from beside the door and wading through the thick powder snow up to the wall of white. Suddenly, horrified he jumped to face Yang, "Dust, did I forget to offer you a scarf? Or long pants? Dust, aren't you freezing?"
"Pfft, I don't even know the meaning of the word." Yang waved a hand dismissively before pressing the backs of her fingertips to Curits's bristly cheek to demonstrate. His face was a good few degrees cooler, even bundled as he was. Pleased at his shocked expression, she withdrew her hand and stalked over to the literal wall of snow before them.
The brawler positively beamed at the frigid blockade. This had to be why Ruby and Blake were so late. There was no other explanation she was willing to accept.
The smile faded as she took in the sheer amount of snow. How were those two supposed to get through all this? This needed to be remedied right now.
She set the pot in the snowdrift and reached down to grab a handful of powdery white, finding it wasn't quite as powdery as she'd expected. The snow crunched pleasantly in her fist. With a roll of each shoulder and a quick stretch of her arms, Yang cracked her knuckles and threw a smile back at Curtis, already feeling more energized with a solid, physical task to focus on. "Well, let's get to it!"
Blake silently cursed the very existence of snow and ice and cold weather in general. Her gaze darted up to the small circular pane of glass resting closer to the ceiling, across from the loft. She had to move around the couch and partially into the kitchen to actually find an angle where she could look through it, but she thought she could see movement, swirling. "Do you think that window opens?"
"I don't know, Blake. We'd have to run on top of the snow," Ruby drooped. Running on top of the stuff was possible if she used her semblance, but any slow-downs meant she'd sink in up to her waist, or deeper, and have to get out again. Plus she wouldn't be able to see anything. Plus all the other houses might be buried too. How would she get in if she found one? How would Blake be able to follow?
She found herself wishing for her partner's glyphs. Scratch that- she wished for her partner. Ruby slumped on the back of the couch, mumbling into her crossed arms, "Weiss would be perfect for this."
The sight of her usually spirited team leader slouched over in defeat undercut Blake's drive, sending her desire to try their ten-second plan into a tailspin. It was probably for the better. The plan was reckless. It would get them killed at best. It didn't matter that they were trained fighters - even a fully fledged huntress couldn't fight nature itself.
Faunus ears dipping low with the weight of failure, Blake moved back to the couch and slumped down next to her team leader to stare quietly into the fire. Light cracks and pops of the smallish flame gave her hope, but those pleasant, familiar sounds of the fire were currently locked in a fierce battle with the raging winds outside, each mournful howl tainting that very same hope with swirls of anxiety.
If the blizzard had snowed them in all the way out here on the outskirts of town, how badly had clinic suffered, sitting so close to the mountain? Curtis and Cyan had already been fretting over how difficult it was to keep Weiss warm... What if the clinic had been buried entirely? What if the roof had collapsed under the weight of the snow?
Blake's ears flattened at a particularly fierce gust of wind. It was as if the blizzard was mocking them, chastising them for having used snow as a mere plaything days earlier, now baring its icy white fangs to back them into a helpless corner. It was not a pleasant feeling, knowing just how useless her semblance was for this situation.
Glyphs though...
"Yes she would be," Blake agreed with Ruby's earlier statement, adding quietly, "So would Yang."
How easy would it be for her partner's semblance to cut a flaming swath through the snowdrifts? Actually, Blake wasn't entirely sure how or if that would work - she tried to stay as far away from snow as often as possible and as such didn't fully understand how the stuff functioned - but it was a nice image. Not to mention, at the very least, those warm hugs of hers would help stave off the cold...
Blake cast a sideways glance at Ruby, internally flinching at the younger girl's completely downcast expression. Maybe mentioning her big sister, who had apparently taken a direct hit from the very lightning that had disintegrated an entire horde of Grimm, hadn't been the best idea.
Seeing Ruby so worried over Yang made Blake incredibly nervous. After all, Ruby was naturally the most familiar with her sister's semblance. She had been the one to assure her the brawler was totally fine after being thoroughly pummeled into the ground by an Atlesian Paladin. Was lightning different somehow?...
A promise she once made to Yang flashed through her head, to look after Ruby if anything ever happened, filling Blake with equal parts fierce pride and devastating sorrow. She bit her lip, reaching out to tap Ruby's shoulder. Once those quicksilver eyes looked her way, Blake opened her arms, wordlessly offering a hug.
It's what Yang would have done.
Yang hugs were frequent and (often unavoidable, though she sure wouldn't avoid them now), but Blake hugs were rare. Ruby would never turn down a Blake hug.
She slid into the embrace, resting her chin on the bigger girl's shoulder, breathing in the cold, woodsy scent of her hair.
A light came on in her mind. She jumped back, "Ooh! I've got an idea. Not a get-there-now sort of idea, but when the snow stops..."
Blake perked up immediately. Hugs really did work on Ruby. She leaned forward. "What kind of idea?"
"... the kind that might involve dissecting a bedframe," Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose in a practiced sweep that locked all of the weapon's springs and bolts into place, "Wanna help?"
The welcome sight of a smile back on Ruby's face brought about one of Blake's own. "Of course."
Curtis and Yang dug in shifts, shoveling snow and clearing out a tunnel big enough for them to walk upright in. They dumped most of the extra snow on the porch and packed it down to make space for more. Curtis let Yang warm the curved roof so it iced and remained solid, and she held onto the big pot when it was his turn to dig, melting snow for extra water in case the pipes froze up.
It took hours. Snow was always heavier than it looked, and hauling it out of the tunnel took time. They broke for a light lunch of broth and flatbread, courtesy of Cyan, before, finally, Curt's shovel struck stone.
"Should be the corner of the house," he called over his shoulder in the narrow ice tunnel. They widened the space, melting or packing snow wherever they could make it go in an effort to find the window. Maybe inside they'd find a nice, cozy scene—the neighbors intact. Who knew?
What they found instead was a hole. The mortar around the stones had been scraped or torn away, so when Curtis laid his shovel aside and dug, his arm broke through into a dark, cold space.
A hole like this meant the Liliac had broken in. Which didn't bode well for survivors.
The gap in the wall was about two feet in diameter, or would be once they dug the snow out. Wide enough to crawl inside one at a time. Curtis leaned back against the packed wall of their snow tunnel, glancing at Yang and motioning to Ember Celica. "Are those things loaded?"
The brawler flexed her fingers. "They don't need to be." She slid past Curtis, motioning for him to stand back a bit. Once he had shuffled a few feet away, she placed her hands against the last remaining barrier of snow between them and the opening in the wall. Feet shoulder width apart, head bowed, Yang called upon her semblance, feeling her hair rise with the heat of the familiar flames that began to flicker about her.
The flames were weaker than usual, hindered by the minuscule amount of aura she had to work with, but even still the snow didn't stand a chance. It gave way with the slightest bit of force, allowing Yang to push right through and drop heavily into the house.
Her flames illuminated a scene she wanted no part of.
Everything was in tatters - the furniture had been shredded almost beyond recognition, the stone walls bore deep groove marks. The flickering light of her semblance bounced back crimson-black from the floor, slick with frozen blood from the three bodies scattered in pieces across the stone floor.
Grimm had definitely gotten inside.
Just as she turned back to warn Curtis about the fate of his neighbors, a dark black form slammed into Yang's face from above, knocking her away from the opening and smashing her unceremoniously to the icy floor. She knew what it was before she even opened her eyes to see the Liliac's teeth gleaming white in her flames, reaching for her neck. Yang's fists were faster.
A heavy crunch echoed through the icy space when Ember Celica connected squarely with the Grimm's jaw, twisting its head completely around with a light snap and sending the creature flying back into the darkness from which it came.
The small boost she'd gotten from the surprise attack made her semblance flare, illuminating the area just enough to see where exactly the Liliac had descended from. A loft, where at least five more pairs of red eyes hung from the ceiling, staring down at her. They started to shift.
The brawler didn't waste a single second before scrambling to her feet and throwing a fist forward, shooting an incendiary blast directly into the middle of them. She watched with grim satisfaction as the group exploded mid-descent with short-lived shrieks of fury.
As their ashes fell to mix with the bloodied ice, Yang took a deep breath. Running on adrenaline but still a bit winded, she stuck her head back through the opening to look up at Curtis, still pressed against the wall of their tunnel. "...It's a good thing they were though."
"I'd have volunteered as back-up, except..." he indicated his beat-up snow shovel up with a wry smile. It was obviously not much in the way of a damage-dealing weapon. The smile dropped away as he climbed through the gap into his neighbor's home.
He paused, noticing the broken forms scattered on the floor. His jaw tightened. They did a quick sweep for any remaining Grimm, but found none.
"Take these," Curtis loaded Yang up with the few quilts and sheets stripped off the beds in the loft. Their boots crunched over something that might have been bone. The color drained from Curt's face. "Let me... I'll gather up things from the kitchen."
"Yeah - oh, actually wait a sec," Yang draped the linens and blankets around her shoulders to free up her hands, taking care to wrap them around herself enough times to keep from dragging in the... mess on the floor. She grabbed one of the pillows and stripped it of its case with practiced ease. "Here," she handed the pillowcase to Curtis, before stripping another pillow of its case for herself. "Easier to carry more stuff this way."
Curtis hesitated. Instead of taking the pillowcase, he touched his gloved hand to Yang's elbow, "Go on back. There's no hurry here."
Yang caught a glimpse of something familiar in the older man's eyes, but she couldn't quite tell if he was being kind, or if he just needed to be alone. Either way, it didn't seem safe to leave him behind... but they had swept the entire house, and she should probably check on Weiss, and she was starting to feel tired - her earlier rush of adrenaline was already running out. Building that ice tunnel had been exhausting - maybe even exhausting enough to help her actually sleep.
Still harboring a bit of reluctance, Yang draped both pillowcases over Curtis's arm and stepped back. "Yeah, the sooner we get everyone warmer the better." Turning on her heel, she headed down the stairs of the loft, calling over her shoulder, "Just be careful doc."
A/N: Yeah, the town's in bad shape, especially if there are pockets of Grimm around.
Stay tuned,
-Fiercesomest