Chapter 26
Colin
A nurse and two doctors ran into the auditorium and straight towards them. "You need to back up and let us take over." The doctor told them as he set his bag down next to ruby and grabbed some equipment. "I can't do that sir, it's against my oath and morals." The combat medic replied, going back to work on checking ruby's vitals, he reached behind her head to assess her neck and stopped. "What is it?" Colin asked. The medic said nothing and turned her head to the side, revealing a patch of skin about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide on the back of her neck that was covered in small black spikes. Colin immediately reached his hand up to his ear and a microphone formed. "This is Colin to all ships in range. We need immediate medical assistance, code Omega." He said into the device. Just then all of the people who were just on stage, including the ultra and space marine, burst into the room.
"Sir, we heard the code Omega, what is the problem." The ultra-marine asked weapon drawn. "We have another outbreak of Tyrranid. Lock the entire school down." Colin responded pressing on the mic again. There was a second of pause "Ian, we have a Tyrranid infection, its already in stage 4. We need everything, call my ship and tell them to get a cruiser or something atmospheric capable down here." He said letting go of the mic and going back to help the medic. "You need to leave, this is a student of Beacon academy. You have no right to …." He was cut off as the marine walked over and grabbed him and started dragging him away. "Unhand me!" the doctor shouted punching the armor clad marine in the face. The marine picked him up to his 9 foot eye level. "If you interfere again, I will remove you from the premises." He growled, dropping the doctor and putting his helmet on.
Just then multiple massive BOOM!'S that shook the building were heard. They put ruby on one of the stretchers they had been brought and were escorted by 15 armed soldiers outside. Before they got there they were stopped by Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch. "What is the meaning of this?! Why are you taking a student away without our permission?!" Glynda shouted at him, before being moved aside by a marine. She attempted to telekinetically throw him but he stayed put, completely unaffected. She looked at him shocked as they passed carrying Ruby on the stretcher, "I'll explain later, trust me." Colin said before getting outside. In the sky were 3 ships, one with a whiter and red hospital symbol, the other two blue and white. But these were meant for war, and the larger of the two had already started launching strike craft, the other landing vessels.
One of the ships landed just feet away and they quickly handed Ruby of to a team of medical professionals and motioned for Ozpin, Glynda, Blake, Weiss and a newly appeared Yang on board. They quickly took seats and he started explaining the situation. "We have a serious problem, Ruby is infected with a virus we call Tyrranid. It is essentially a very large bug/dragon that eats planets. We got lucky, it isn't going to eat your planet, and it will just turn it into a dead planet by extracting all of the mineral and organic resources from it. It appears in many forms, most of which are very alien in nature and deadly." He said to a still shocked audience. "My soldiers are establishing a perimeter around the school to use as a base of operations and triage center." He said as what he was saying started sinking in. "Have you been experiencing any mysterious deaths or…grotesque killings lately?" he asked, "No, nothing of the sort." Ozpin responded. This seemed to put Colin off for a second. "No it can't be…. Have you been having kidnappings, like a large number of them, 15- 25 a day?" he asked with a look that did not convey reassurance. "Yes. Exactly that." Ozpin responded.
"Is anyone going to tell me how my sister is doing?!" Yang asked loudly. "I'm sorry But we won't know until we have a full scan." He said as the ship landed, Ruby was quickly run off on a wheeled stretcher towards down one of the many halls. They reached the main sickbay and there was a flurry of people preparing. They all made way for the stretcher, and they made their way to the emergency care unit, where they were stopped by two guards. Yang tried to make her way past them but Colin stopped her. "We have to let them do their work alone, we'll only make their job harder." He said tears in his eyes. Yang just hugged him crying, they took seats in the hall outside the room. "We have some of the best doctors in the galaxy, they can save her." He said his hand on yang's shoulder. The rest of the group just sat there in shock. After a few minutes a marine approached Colin, he saluted "At ease soldier, what is it?" he asked "Sir, we have landing forces on the ground and we are currently reinforcing the building. The tech priests say it will take another 12-18 hours to complete." "Good, dismissed" the marine saluted and walked away. "Ozpin, Glynda you may want to reassure the public that the 3 massive warships in the air aren't here for them." He said. Ozpin nodded and he and Glynda got up to leave. Colin rubbed Yang's back reassuringly before getting up to escort Ozpin and Glynda to a ship that would take them back down to beacon.
When he came back he sat down in between Weiss and Yang, giving them both a hug and pulling them in comfortingly. They sat like that for what seemed like hours before they fell asleep. Colin was awoken by a Light tap on the shoulder, he groggily looked up to see Maria. "What time is it?" he asked not moving so as to not wake either Yang or Weiss. "Its 22:30, you've been asleep for 6 hours. Blake is sleeping in the commons on a cot, do you need anything?" she asked. "No, I'm fine." He said as both Yang and Weiss stirred awake. "What time is it?" Yang asked bleary eyed as Weiss stretched. "Its 10:30, do you need anything?" he asked "No I'm good" came both their replies. "Blake is in the commons on our left, along with food and drink if you need it." He said as he got up and stretched.
He walked around and came back with coffee and water. They drank some and just waited for what felt like an eternity as doctors entered and left the room. Eventually Blake joined them, and they sat in silence for another hour or two before a doctor came out and addressed them. "Can we see her, how is she?" Yang asked rapid fire. The doctor sighed and took his facemask off. "The infection has spread too far, there's nothing we can do. She has an hour at most…. I'm so sorry for your loss." He said opening the door for them. They got up, Yang and Weiss crying, Blake in shock and entered the room. To their right was ruby in a bed, hooked up to multiple machines. They slowly walked over to her, she recognized them and smiled. They sat down at her bedside as Yang cried into her arms. "Did the doctor tell you?" Colin asked "Yes." She responded looking at Yang. "It'll be ok, I'm not going anywhere." She said to a crying Yang. "It was my job to protect you, and I failed." She sobbed. Ruby picker her head up and looked her right in the eye "No you didn't, but now it's your job to remember me." She said. Yang nodded.
"I refuse to let a friend go down without a fight." Colin said defiantly "Didn't you hear the doctor, there's nothing he can do." She said. "But that's ok, if it's my time then that's how it works." Ruby said sounding much more mature than usual. "But what about us, don't we get a say, what we want." Weiss cried out. Hugging ruby from the other side of the bed. "Not right now…" she said but was interrupted by Colin "Yes. Yes we do. Ruby you chose to save my life, and that is a debt I can never repay. But now I'm going to choose to save yours. Everyone back up." He said his wings extending as he glowed a bright white. Everyone quickly backed off. "Ian, I'm gonna need your help for this one.", his voice reverberating off the walls, a bright white light appeared beside him. Out of it stepped a man, who looked a lot like Colin, and had the same wings. They locked arms and picked ruby up in between them and started chanting.
