When Neo arrived, Reaper was sitting off the bumper of a para-medic truck being checked over by a doctor. She ran to her dark lover's side, worried. When she got close she could make out that the paramedic was looking over Reaper's left hand. A hand that was bloody, mangled, and bent in odd places. Reaper spotted Neo when she started to visibly freak out. "Oh shit… Doc, can you hurry? I need to comfort my Ice Cream girl."

"Ice Cream?" He said, confused until he saw Neo himself.

"No, Reaper." Weiss interrupted. "I'll speak to Neo, you need to stay here with the doctor."

"Fine, mooom." Reaper complained. She didn't like doctors and hospitals any more now than when she was a criminal.

Weiss started leading Neo away. "Either she has a high pain tolerance, or the anesthetics hit quickly."

Maybe both… Neo thought as they walked. She knew at least one of those was true.

"Neo, I would love to comfort you, but I also know it's better to be honest. It's about as bad as it looks." Weiss confessed.

Neo looked back towards Reaper, who was arguing with the doctor about more painkillers. Worry shot through her again. 'What happened?' She signed.

"That idiot of yours thought it would be a good idea to take the whole building down on top of Creature. Except, she didn't chart her own escape. I guess we're lucky it's only one hand… but it is her left hand…"

Neo looked back to the heiress, puzzled.

"What, you don't know?" Weiss asked, genuinely surprised. "She's left handed. I know she fights with both, but her left hand is her forward hand."

Neo's eyes widened. Not only could she not fight with her scythe anymore, but maybe not at all either? No, she'll fight. We won't be able to stop her if she wants to try. Neo realized, almost frowning.

"The doctor should have his assessment by now. Let's go see what he says." Weiss waved Neo to follow her back to Reaper.

"So, what's the damage?" Reaper asked the doctor.

"How much aura do you have left?" He asked.

"None. Bone dry. You'd be lucky to get a jog out of me, and I doubt I can even spark. Even Ember can't seem to speak without effort right now." Reaper answered.

"Well, you will probably need a full eight hours of rest to get any of it back at this point." He said.

"And my hand?" Reaper asked impatiently.

"Without Aura, your body is healing in a more natural process. Unfortunately, it isn't shifting your bones back where they need to be. There is something we can do, but the only reason I have any belief it will work as we hope it will is because of your incredibly massive aura reserve." The doctor replied.

"Elaborate?" Reaper told him.

"We can surgically set your bones where they need to be. When your aura is back at strength, it will have an easier time repairing the rest of the damage." The doctor replied patiently.

"What will happen if we try to let it heal as is?" Weiss asked, out of curiosity.

"As I said," the doctor explained, "her hand is starting to heal as a normal, aura-less person would, which isn't setting the bones where they need to be. By the time her aura is at strength and starting to heal, it would be too late to set her bones naturally. Her hand would be disfigured forever. And on top of that, even with surgery, I can do nothing to guarantee any nerve damage would be reversed."

"Surgery it is." Reaper nodded. "How long will the recovery be?"

"Likely months." The doctor answered grimly.

"Shit…" The scythe master dropped her head.

"Maybe sooner, depending on your aura. I mean, you haven't screamed once… the amount of damage here, I'm surprised your conscious." The doctor continued his assessment as Professor Ozpin walked up behind him.

"Not the first time I've been broken." Reaper told him. "It is the worst, though…"

"Excuse me." The Headmaster announced his arrival. "Could I speak to Reaper alone for a moment?"

"She needs to go to a hospital as soon as possible, sir. Especially if she wants that surgery." The doctor advised.

"This will only be a moment." Ozpin smiled. Everyone filed out and Ozpin focused his attention on his student. "I've seen Creature. I'm sure you can see why I'm here."

Reaper's face turned stern. "You know Creature. I couldn't hold back. It was the only way."

Ozpin sighed. "I had thought we developed a little more mutual trust than that by now… Reaper, if you want me to help you sell that story to the council, I want to hear the truth. Why is Johnathon Wine dead?"

Reaper smiled and shook her head. Of course Ozpin saw right through her. "Johnathon Wine died a long time ago. What I did today was free a dead man of his pain. He wasn't him anymore, Oz. There was no going back."

Ozpin was relieved to hear Reaper's actions came from a place of compassion, however dark they were. He was also slightly amused to see Reaper had apparently adopted using Qrow's old nickname for him. They really are family. "Thank you. Now I believe you have an appointment with an operating table. I will excuse you from combat class for as long as you are healing. Not that you need combat training anyways." He joked as he left. While she had a short moment alone, Reaper looked over Creature's eye, a plan forming in her mind.

Team WBRN huddled in the Ambulance, all managing to convince the driver to let them ride with Reaper to the hospital. It was a little cramped, until Blake decided to ride in the front seat instead of the back and Neo just hopped on the stretcher with Reaper, being careful of her hand. Weiss noted that Reaper seemed deep in thought.

"Hey, what's on your mind?" She asked her convicted team mate.

Reaper thought about her words carefully. "We need to find Torchwick. Soon. Before Winter can take us off the case entirely."

Neo looked up with worry on her eyes, pointing at Reaper's hand.

"She's right." Weiss nodded, giving words to Neo's thoughts. "You're in no condition to continue this."

"I have to find him." Reaper deadpanned.

Weiss hesitated with her response, not sure she wanted to hear the answer. "Why does it have to be you?"

"So that I can end this." Reaper answered cryptically.

"I can't let you do that." Weiss told her. "You came back to Beacon to become a huntress, a better person. You've already killed Creature, and Roman doesn't have to die."

"And then he'll just get out again…" the scythe master scolded, "and keep coming after us… keep hurting people… he may not be the most perceptive person ever, but he smarter than any of us give him credit for."

"We have no idea where to find him. He hasn't even shown his face since he let Creature loose. It looks like he's in hiding right now, and you could use this time to recover." Weiss argued.

"That gives him time to recover too!" Reaper shouted. "And plan! And I refuse to just let that happen!"

"We don't even know how to start looking." Blake intervened from the front. "The notes were a bust. They're coded, but they translate into some schematic for an 'aerosol tracking spray'."

"I know how to find him." Reaper told them.

Weiss's eyes narrowed. "How?"

The ex-criminal shook her head. "Only if you agree to go after him with me."

"That's ridiculous." Weiss scoffed.

"Then I'll go on my own!" Reaper told her. "Even with my hand, do you think you can stop me!?"

SLAP!

Reaper was stunned. Her face had a giant red mark on it now, in the shape of Neo's petite hand. The colorful girl looked over the black clothed girl with a strong mixture of concern and anger. She couldn't believe she had to be the one keeping Reaper sane right now. Her eyes narrowed, letting them speak for her.

"Neo…" Reaper spoke calmly, almost sorrowful. "I have to… if he gets back out, and I could have stopped him… if he hurts people, kills them… hurts you… I can't let that happen."

"Reaper." Weiss spoke softly. "You need to let this fear of yours go. You didn't even know Valerie Hope, but she was a respected soldier in the Atlas Military. I doubt she would appreciate being the reason you start killing again."

Reaper froze. She hadn't even realized the root of this turn herself until just now. She debated ending Roman's life, sure… but it wasn't until that news, news of someone dying when she never had to, that pushed Reaper over the edge. Valerie Hope would still be alive if it wasn't for the scythe master's decisions. Reaper hung her head. She stared at her hand, bloody and mangled. She was so concerned with bringing down Creature, she didn't even consider her own wellbeing. And now she was paying the price.

"You're right…" Reaper eventually stated. "I've been letting myself go, over something that has never affected me in the past. I'm sorry…" She looked up. "But even so… I feel that Winter isn't serious about this investigation. I feel like she only came to confront me, and not Torchwick. I still want a shot to bring him down. Just one shot, Weiss. Please."

"No." Weiss answered, "I can't let you do that."

"Why not?" Reaper questioned.

"Because I've let you go too far off book already," Weiss explained, "We'll be lucky enough if Winter doesn't come down on you for chasing Creature. If we go off on our own to catch Torchwick, she will find a way to use that against you. She's not Ozpin or Detective Black, she wants you to go to jail. I'm not going to let you jeopardize all your progress with the Rehabilitative Custody. That's all without even mentioning your hand…"

"So, we're just going to let him go?" Reaper argued.

"Winter will find him," Weiss stated with confidence, "Whether or not it was a play to confront you, she still accepted the job."

"Yeah, I'll be really fucking surprised if she actually tries to catch him…" Reaper fumed.

"If we give her your info on how to find him, she'll be hard pressed not to," Blake pointed out.

"Reaper, we're trying to help you here," Weiss assured, "If you go after him, Winter will take you down. God forbid you kill him in the process, people will have ammunition against the entire Rehabilitative Custody program."

"Yeah, right," Reaper argued, "People are already forgetting I was the first case, especially since Neo won the tournament."

"They'll remember real quick if you make headlines like that," Blake pointed out, "trust me. If people want to step on you, they'll take every authority they can grab to do so."

"We can't let you pursue Torchwick," Weiss reiterated, "I'm sorry."

Neo reached out and gingerly took Reaper's left hand, her eyes full of concern. You need to fix this, too, her multi-colored gaze said.

Reaper knew at this point she wasn't going to turn the decision around this time. Even Neo didn't want to chase Torchwick anymore, and she was the only other one who might have a proper, personal reason to. With a deep sigh, Reaper conceded a short "Fine."

"Good," Weiss nodded, "Now, about you figuring out how to find Torchwick?"

"I think I want to keep that close to my chest," Reaper resisted.

"Well, it has to be an object," Blake deduced. Everyone gave her a stare. "She didn't have this new information until after her fight with Creature. If it was pure knowledge, she would have had it before then and used it to find him in the first place."

"It's not like Creature has ever been in any state to offer knowledge," Weiss agreed.

"Exactly," Blake nodded, "It's something she got from Creature, so it can't be some extra knowledge. It has to be some kind of object."

"Well?" Weiss held out her hand.

Reaper refused with an adamant glare.

"We can always have you searched?" Weiss reminded her.

Reaper scowled and pulled the eye out, slamming it into Weiss's hand.

"Creature's eye?" Weiss looked over the object, "How does it work?"

"Sorry, Weiss…" Ember spoke. Apparently, Reaper had gotten pissed to the point of her other half taking over. "There wasn't an instruction manual you could pat down out of us."

Neo frowned at Ember after this exchange. It made it clear she still wanted to try and find a way to chase Torchwick herself, despite it obviously being a very bad idea. Sometimes she wondered if Reaper didn't enjoy the criminal life more than she let on… she seemed to have a harder time shedding her criminal tendencies than Neo herself, and the petite mute was at it for far longer.

A nurse walked down the hospital corridors. Black hair, red lipstick, standard outfit. She blended in excellently with the rest of the work force and walked with such purpose anyone who saw her would assume she was already on task. Even the doctors would not pull her aside. The only thing she did of any suspect was look at a photo in her possession, though she made sure to do so when no one was looking at her.

She passed by the observation room of a current operation, finally finding where she was supposed to go. Inside the operating room, a woman under anesthesia was having her hand heavily worked on. This had to be her, the woman in the nurse's picture. It would be a few more hours until the girl was let out, so she moved on to find things to pretend to do until Reaper was moved into recovery.

Those hours passed quickly, and Reaper was moved into her own room. Hospital hours had already ended, so Reaper was alone for the night. The nurse promptly let herself into the room.

Reaper was awake, fiddling with the cast covering her hand. She noticed the nurse immediately, and something about her felt wrong. Something about her eyes… they weren't always pink, were they? No, Reaper couldn't seem to remember them being anything but yellow. "W-who are you? You're not my nurse." Reaper asked, guarded.

Suddenly, though, she was calmed. Everything seemed alright as she looked into the nurse's eyes. Those strange eyes that were every color and no color all at once. Her irises flexing and shifting, becoming a rainbow phantasmagoria.

"It's alright," The nurse assured, "I'm just here to give you a follow up injection. An aura booster if you will."

"What…?" Reaper couldn't place her voice. It was as if she forgot it as soon as the nurse stopped talking. "Aura booster…? Doesn't sound right…"

"Of course it doesn't, this is a dream after all." The nurse said next.

"Right… of course it is…"

"One of those short dreams… where you fall right back into darkness and forget about everything in the morning… no matter how hard you try." The nurse took Reaper's arm and pushed the black substance within her syringe into her patient's vein.

"That's disappointing…" Reaper spoke absentmindedly, "Your… pretty eyes…"

"Yes, those you will especially forget," The nurse sounded almost sad, "Goodbye my friend. The dream is over now."

"Right… of course…" Reaper yawned, "I'm… tired… pretty eyes…" The dark woman fell right asleep.

A ditched wig and nurses uniform in a dumpster three streets over would be the only evidence that anyone was ever there, if anyone had noticed the girl long enough to begin with. But who would even bother questioning a dream?