A/N: Quick shout out to our guest reviewer, Ruby chose d, who wrote
"Your BFF is on the verge of death because the people she was trying to protect hurt her while she was already injured. Do you:
a) Go into hiding and call for backup
b) Invite them to finish the job
c) Push her off a building
d) All of the above"
We laughed because it was true.
- Fiercesomest
The bell tower had seemed like the only logical option. The forest had Grimm. The clinic had miners. And the cabin, well... Blake tried not to think about the explosions - both of them. But now, as she stood just inside the top of the stairwell with an arm around Weiss, who was clinging to her with both arms around her neck, she was seriously beginning to doubt her choice.
Not only had she been forced carry Weiss while leaping across the icy spires jutting out of the tower's side to even get in to the place, everything was encased in ice, inside and out. The cold was unbearable, but Blake pressed on, taking extra care with her foot placement on the iced steps as they descended deeper into the tower. She was determined to find the one thing she knew held at least some form of heat.
"Weiss," Blake shifted the heiress into a bridal carry to better see her face, "Weiss, are you with me? Where did you leave Myrtenaster?"
The coatless heiress shivered, arms still partway around Blake's neck, "Where did I leave it? Like I set it down on the other side of the room so I could pass out from blood loss?"
Amber eyes rolled. "Okay, so you left it where you collapsed." Blake ducked to avoid a low-hanging stalactite of ice as she continued her descent. They were nearing the bottom of the tower.
"Too bad it was blood you lost, and not that sour attitude," she quipped, biting back a shiver when Weiss's icy fingertips touched below her collar. "Although it looks like Yang was right," finally standing at the tower's ground floor - a veritable sea of ice - Blake's eyes flashed with mirth as she glanced down at the heiress pressing against her for some shred of warmth amidst the cold closing in on every side, "You really are surprisingly cuddly."
"Shut up. I'm practically in pajamas," Weiss really wished for the rest of her layers, or her coat, or an icicle to stab Blake with. But stabbing required effort. Maybe she would just poke Blake. Or stick it down the back of all of her collar. She really, really didn't want to lose her heat source, though, so she just huffed, clinging tighter, "As much as I appreciate the trip to recover my belongings, why are we not going someplace warm?"
"There really weren't many friendly options," the Faunus trailed off, her eyes traveling away from the snow drift spilling from the wide-open entrance over to the crystalline flower of ice where they'd found Weiss after the swarm... Blake stalked towards it, trying to halt the gruesome memories playing through her mind with another glance down at Weiss - clean, bandaged, still a bit cold, but above all, safe and healing. "Anyway, I was thinking we could make use of that red dust chamber."
"You want to stay here?" Weiss threw out the need for warmth and pushed away from Blake, arching her back and twisting to get loose and stand on her own.
The sudden movement caught Blake by surprise, throwing even her superior balance for a loop on the already slippery surface. Her foot slid just an inch too far forward, and flew out from underneath her, toppling the pair backwards. Blake instinctively curled herself around Weiss, Gambol Shroud biting into her back as she landed with a hard crack against the floor.
The Faunus let loose a pained growl, deep and gravelly, as if she could scare away the stars dancing in her vision from where the back of her head had met solid ice. "I won't have much choice if you knock me out..."
"You could have just put me down," Weiss growled back. She pushed herself up, halfway in Blake's arms, suppressing her shivers. Her tone softened, "Are you alright?"
"I will be once the room stops spinning," Blake mumbled, scrunching her eyes shut to keep the bell tower's spiraling stairs from actually spiraling. Keeping one arm around Weiss, she propped herself up on an elbow and shook her head.
"And for the record, I was only planning on staying long enough for Ruby and Yang to catch up." Because they were fine, and explosions or not, Blake refused to accept any other possibility.
Weiss heard her out in silence. She scowled at her hands, at the ashy snow. Her breath fogged in the air. "I'm sorry. I hate not being..." she closed her fists, avoiding Blake's gaze. "I'll be fine here for a minute if you still don't mind looking for Myrtenaster."
Blake tilted her head, amber eyes bright and clearly curious. Eventually, she rolled her eyes and smiled. "Of course," she sighed, very very gently butting heads with Weiss before gingerly setting her on the ice. She stood once she was free of her teammate's weight, making a beeline for the patch of ice that she could now see harbored a distinct glint of something silvery. "Let me know if you get too cold," she called over her shoulder.
"Just hurry up," Weiss sat hugging her knees close to her chest.
The wind moaned through the single narrow window not blocked by spires of ice. Even with daylight sneaking down from the upper floor and blue white light showing through the snow that had piled at the open double doors, the tower was shadowy. Spooky. The black smears of frozen Grimm trapped in the ice did not help.
"Hurrying," Blake responded, already stepping through the roughly hewn opening that led into the icy cocoon, taking care not to slip on the frozen blood that still coated the ground within. It really wasn't much of a search at all - Myrtenaster was lying exactly where they'd left it, looking sad and abandoned. Just behind the blade, partially frozen into one of the walls of ice, was Weiss's thick white outer coat, soaked in red from where it touched the ground.
Gambol Shroud made quick work of the ice, and in less than a minute Blake was making her triumphant return to Weiss's side, the heiress's prized blade in one hand and her bloodstained coat in the other. Myrtenaster felt featherlight in her grip compared to Gambol Shroud, so it was no trouble for Blake to spin the rapier around one-handed to shift her hold to the blade's base. She offered Myrtenaster to its rightful owner, handle first.
"Heard you were looking for this."
"I told you that literally ten seconds ago," Weiss scoffed as she received her sword. It warmed to her hand, still shedding bits of frost. The bundle of mostly-white material under Blake's other hand caught her eye, "Is that my coat?" she set Mytrenaster aside and gave up trying to hide her shivers. Her lips were turning blue and her fingers were stiff with cold as she took the blood-stained garment and pulled it on, "Thank goodness, I was about to freeze. I didn't leave a pair of snow boots over there too, did I?"
"I didn't see any," Blake crossed her arms. "I suppose they might be buried even deeper in the ice somewhere. I could-" Blake stopped mid-offer, one Faunus ear twitching sideways, drawn to the distant sound of voices drifting through the sunbright snow blocking the front entrance. "Then again, you probably won't need them soon," she added before turning to leave, snow crunching beneath her feet as she came to stand before the entrance.
"Ruby! Yang! The door is over here!"
"INCOMING!" Ruby yelled as she blasted in through the snow blocked entrance on a scrap of Paladin armor she'd used as a makeshift snowboard.
She wiped out, tumbling into he snow and ice with Crescent Rose in a fit of laughter. Her red cloak wound up over her head, but didn't keep her from yelling as she tried to get her feet back under herself, "First place!" she wrestled her cloak back into submission, "Did you see that Nevermore? And me in the Paladin? That was so awesome! and Blake when you jumped off of hose flying Knights and-"
Ruby stopped dead.
"Did you get hit?" she practically dove to Weiss's side, silver eyes darting over the slick of frozen blood on her partner's coat. She tried to strip it off so she could stop the bleeding but in her panic she couldn't find the injury, "Weiss, where-what-"
"Let go of me, you dolt!" Weiss caught her ear and twisted to make her listen, "I'm fine. It's from before."
"Ow, yeah, okay," Ruby squeaked, releasing her grip on Weiss's coat in return for the freedom to rub her smarting ear.
Blake stepped closer to the pair, partially to place a hand on Ruby's shoulder in welcome, but mostly to avoid the screaming, barreling disaster that was her partner who shot through the snowdrift seconds later. Chunks of ice and probably stone flew from the impact of the brawler and her half-sled crashing headfirst through the spiked frozen surroundings and directly into the wall.
One of Blake's Faunus ears gave a nervous twitch when the shattered pile of ice didn't move immediately. "Yang?"
A muffled sound came from beneath the ice, and it began to shift. "Hey!" a blonde head of hair framing a bright smile finally emerged as Yang got to her feet, bits and pieces of ice cascading away from her like a frozen rock slide. She held a white snow boot in one hand. "There's a shoe over here! Oh," she paused to thrust her hand into the ice, pulling out its match. "Huh, make that shoes."
Weiss glanced at Blake and regarded the boots with disdain.
"Not mine," she fumbled with the zipper of her coat, her cold hands refusing to cooperate. Weiss colored a little, still shivering, when Ruby scooted over to help. She growled, "They're also not my style, but anything is better than frostbite."
"Yeah, guys, everyone okay?" Ruby shook snow from her hood, "Our cabin is kind of wrecked. We should scope out another home base. Are we good to move?"
Blake motioned for Yang to toss the boots over, catching them with ease. She quirked a brow at their bright pink rubber soles.
"I'm good to move." She knelt down beside Ruby and in front of Weiss, quickly slipping the boots onto the heiress's feet before she could protest more help. Yang had already bounded over to the group by the time she was done.
"I'm always good to move," the brawler flashed a tired smile, bending down to pull Weiss to her feet, one arm wrapped securely around her waist to hold her steady. Warmth radiated from her in soothing waves. "Weiss, how about you?" Yang grinned, "Need me to carry you~?"
The heiress clutched Yang's jacket cringing from the light-headedness that came with being made to stand up too fast. She powered through it, scowling, "Okay, firstly, stop dressing me when I'm perfectly capable of-"
"Maybe let's argue when we get there?" Ruby grimaced at having to interrupt Weiss, but it was creepy inside this tower what with the ice and the blood and the frozen Grimm. The wind moaned across the single open window, causing the hair to rise at the back of Ruby's neck.
They'd beaten the Nevermore and the knights, but they weren't exactly out of the woods yet.
The house across the street was a single story affair. Very cold and very empty. There were a couple of holes where the wall joined the roof, big enough for Ruby and crew to yell through and then wriggle in to search for survivors, but the smears of black and red in the poorly barricaded back room told the same story as the dozens of other ghost villages Huntsmen and Huntresses came across in their travels.
Snowy light filtered in from the hole in the eaves, illuminating the cluttered main room. The thick, dark rug was scattered with snow that had blown inside. Several musty and patched couches were crushed up in the corner near the fireplace. Miner's gear, frayed ropes and boots and broken picks waiting for repair, hung or were piled against the walls.
Ruby shut what was left of the door to the back room, her stomach a hard knot. "Okay. Let's patch that hole up and... and Yang, could we get a fire?"
"Uh," Yang snapped out of the slight daze she'd fallen into while staring around at the complete wreckage of what was probably once a living room - or had it been the lobby of a small workshop? It was beyond recognition either way, with the deep claw marks scoring every surface and the dulled crimson patterns spattering whatever surface could stain. When faced with such a vivid example of the destruction wrought by the Grimm, the brawler had to fight to keep the heat building beneath her skin in check, mindful of Weiss, who she still had pressed to her side after helping her through the hole near the ceiling.
"Yeah sure, no sweat," she managed to reply, her relaxed tone belied by the strained smile she flashed to Ruby before turning to call over her shoulder, "Blake, get in here, no one's following us."
A small grunt preceded a bit of snow being knocked to the floor as the Faunus in question poked her head through the opening, ears flat to match her slight pout. "It never hurts to be careful." Despite her disgruntled reply, she slipped through as requested, nimbly landing beside Weiss without a sound. Still, she kept one Faunus ear twisted, tracking the air outside.
The partnership shared a brief glance, Blake raising a brow at the subtle flick of Yang's eyes down to Weiss. She responded with a slight smile, but made no move to reach for the heiress, simply standing close by and at the ready should she be needed. The brawler shrugged, releasing Weiss from her grasp to stalk over and set to unblocking the half-blocked pit of the fireplace.
Weiss was pale and looked like she wanted to sleep for a month. She stumbled to the nearest couch without even inspecting its state of cleanliness and curled up facing the back cushions.
Ruby took a second to quietly assess her team. The adrenaline she'd had at the cabin had run out, leaving her feeling like she'd been bench-pressing that Paladin instead of piloting it. Patching up the hole near the roof could maybe wait. Especially since it was broad daylight and the opening was kind of their front door right now. She rubbed her aching arms. "Um... actually, Blake, want to come help me find something to eat?"
"Good call," Blake nodded, lacing her fingers together to serve as a step for Ruby to reach their Grimm-crafted exit. Her eyes darted in quick succession from Yang, to Weiss, then up to Ruby as she approached. "But... let's not go too far," she murmured, not incredibly keen on leaving their partners behind for a second time.
"I kind of meant come to the kitchen but..." Ruby took one glance through the low doorway at the crusted over, mostly empty cupboards and hunched her shoulders up. Apparently whoever had lived here subsisted on alcohol and canned blueberries. "Mayyyybe let's try next door. Any requests, guys?"
"No macaroni and cheese," Weiss said without opening her eyes.
"You know I'm good for whatever," Yang responded through clenched teeth as she set her jaw and pulled apart the couch blocking the fireplace to use as tinder.
Blake didn't particularly like the obvious glance Yang stole at the cabinets filled with assorted liquors, but she kept any chiding remarks to herself. "So, anything that isn't macaroni and cheese," she surmised, "Simple enough. We'll be back then."
At those words, Yang finally glanced back at Blake and Ruby, fixing them with a weary smile, "Yeah all right, just don't go disappearing into another snowstorm this time, 'kay? I can only handle so much anxiety in one lifetime."
Amber eyes rolled, pausing half-way to fixate on the smoking piece of couch Yang was white-knuckling in the hand that wasn't melodramatically pressed over her heart. "Sure. Just try not to burn the house down while we're gone."
Yang traced Blake's line of sight to the chunk of wood catching fire in her hand. She hid it behind herself with a sheepish grin. "Right. Just, be careful?"
"I do believe the Ruby Rose forecast calls for sun, cold winds, and juuuust a touch of debilitating fear for any and all Grimm nearby," Ruby hefted Crescent Rose to her shoulder, cheerful as could be. A glance at the small entrance near the ceiling, and she had second thoughts, collapsing her giant scythe down and stowing it at her belt. Still, Yang looked really worried. Ruby stood up under the fatigue of fighting robots well, though, and still had enough energy to shoot her big sis a mock salute, "Just yell if you need us."
Yang's grin brightened, and she wholeheartedly returned the salute, "Roger that!"
Sporting a small smirk, Blake eyed the opening in the ceiling that led outside, silently daring the skies to defy their fearless team leader.
A/N: Also, holy smokes, I just started the school year AND moved into a new apartment. I'm blitzed. This isn't even Tuesday. Did we post a chapter last week...? Who knows.
More chapters ahead, though, folks!
- Fiercesomest