Chapter 28

Blake

Colin was dead? No he couldn't be, he couldn't be dead. He was one of the strongest people she had ever met. She thought to herself looking to Yang and Weiss, who were both staring at the wall, then her mind went to work. What could have done that to him? If he was so powerful how did this happen? And so many more thoughts raced through her head at breakneck pace. Then one thought stopped in the front of her mind. What about Ruby? How was she going to react when she got the news? She seemed to be closer to Colin than the rest, and who was going to tell her? No she had to keep her head straight. A man came over and escorted them to a shuttle with much protest from Yang, until he told them it was for Colin's funeral.

After the Ceremony

They made their way back to the recovery room where Ruby was. She looked fine, her skin was a little pink but other than that she looked fine. They walked in and Ruby picked her head up and smiled. "How's it going guys." She coughed out. They took seats next to her bed and Yang picked Ruby's hand up and kissed it. "We're doing well, are you feeling ok? Do you need anything?" Yang asked "I'm fine, who is that?" she asked pointing at Ian. Yang turned around "That's Ian, Colin's brother." Yang responded before regretting her words. "Where is Colin?" Came Ruby's quick question. Yang stopped and didn't say a word. Ruby looked around confused before Ian spoke up. "During your procedure we had a problem, something I have never encountered before woke up. It attacked you when you were at your most vulnerable, and would have killed you me and the entire fleet. But Colin chose to stop it, alone." Ian finished.

"Where is he?" she asked "He died to save us, we had his funeral an hour ago." Ian said taking a seat next to Blake. Ruby looked to her friends for confirmation, they nodded. There were tears in her eyes as she laid back on the bed. "I have something to show you all." Ian said standing up and pulling a small disk out of his pocket. He pressed a small button on the side and a perfect image of Colin appeared standing in front of them. "Hey guys it's me Colin." He said smiling "If you're watching this…. I'm dead, which sucks for me. But that's not what this is about. I wanted to thank you, for everything. You're compassion, friendship and tolerance. Because I know dealing with my shitty jokes is murder." He said laughing to himself. "Making the choice that I did was not really a choice. Saving my family and friends at the cost of my own life is no choice, it is a must." He said taking a deep breath. "I don't want to die, but I have the ability to save you all, so don't go wasting my deadness, ok." He said with a small laugh, but there were tears in his eyes.

"Thank you for making my life a one worth living. And to quote one of my favorite music artists, as he started singing. "And when I'm gone, just carry on, don't mourn
Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice
Just know that I'm looking down on you smiling
And I didn't feel a thing, So Friends don't feel no pain
Just smile back..." He sang smiling as the image faded to nothing. They were crying, openly even she found herself crying. He had been with them for less than a month but he had done so much, and now he was gone. They just sat there in a mournful silence crying for what felt like hours before they calmed down. "What now?" she asked to no one in particular. "We finish what he started, do what he was going to do." Ruby said defiantly "We can't let his sacrifice go to waste." She finished still fired up.

"It's good that you want to do good by his death, but you have some healing to do. So use the time to think." Ian said to ruby, getting up and walking away. They sat for some time in silence, only broken by a nurse coming to check on Ruby. They sat there in silence for another hour or two until Ian came back. "We are going to be transporting you back to the school, we have the fortifications complete and we expect to start the hunt for the Tyrannids in a couple days. So I advise you to stay with Ruby and let us deal with the problem at hand." He said "The shuttle is ready now, whenever you feel like leaving just ask the medical staff, they'll get you to where you need to be." He finished as he walked away.

They all looked to Ruby, "I'm fine to leave now if you guys are ok with it." She said slowly repositioning herself on the bed. They all nodded in agreement and Yang went go get a nurse. She came back with a nurse in tow "If you all are ready to leave follow me" the nurse said grabbing Ruby's bed and wheeling it out the door. They followed the nurse through the white halls, silent as they went. The eventually came upon a large grey blast door, the nurse walked over to the control panel on the side and swiped her card, the door hissed then slowly opened. They followed her through it and into a small hangar, where the transport from earlier was waiting. They went to the back and wheeled Ruby up the ramp and hooked her into the side of the ship with some straps, everyone else took a seat.

It wasn't long before a man in a pilot's uniform with a helmet at his side walked past them and into the ships cockpit. The ramp closed and lights flickered to life as they felt the ship lift off and accelerate. They didn't go far as the medical cruiser was about ½ mile above beacon. They landed and were escorted through a very fortified beacon to the infirmary where Ruby replaced one of the empty spaces. They stayed with Ruby for some time before heading back to their dorm, passing many marines with large guns on their way. When they had finally reached the safety of their dorm Weiss closed the window and laid back on her bed. "It must be really serious for this many people to be here, guarding beacon I mean." She said "But from what it did to Ruby, who knows?" she finished as she changed into her pajamas.

Supervisor

He and his wife were scheduled to see a boy who had just come in, not that they had anything else to do in the plane of judgement. He waited at the door for his wife. She came along and he opened the door to a white room with a table and 3 chairs, a boy was occupying the chair opposite to the other two. They walked in and sat down, he put a binder on the table and opened it. Adjusting his glasses he turned his gaze to the boy, "Hello there young man, how are you doing?" he asked. The boy looked at him oddly "Well for being dead, I'm alright."