Ruby

"Yang! Yang!" I cried out my sister's name, tears running down my cheeks. There was no response, she wasn't waking up. I couldn't help being terrified, seeing her fall limp like that. She looked awful: battered, bruised and bleeding. She must have used up all of her aura in that fight, the Beowolf had really injured her. But it wasn't looking any better. Its body was lying to one side of the factory, arms jutting out at the wrong angles and blood matting its fur.

The Beowolf had certainly made a mistake when it went after Blake. I was surprised that it had made Yang as angry as it had. Not that she shouldn't have cared, seeing Blake get hurt like that had made me angry too; but I was surprised that it had made her that angry; I'd only ever seen her flames turn white-hot a couple of times in my life, now I'd seen it twice in one night.

I held my ear to Yang's chest, listening for a heartbeat. I heard it thumping gently, not a weak heartbeat, just resting. She must have just worn herself out. I breathed a sigh of relief. I could just make out a faint movement in her chest, she was breathing. I sat down on the ground next to her, laying a hand on her arm. I gazed upwards, through the hole in the roof of the factory, basking in the silver moonlight. I closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of the night, tainted with the scent of blood.

A dark silhouette passed over the moon, casting a shadow over Yang and me. I opened my eyes as Weiss landed a few metres away.
"Ruby!" She cried out. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Weiss, just a few bruises." I replied without turning, gazing at the broken moon. Weiss stopped mid step as she caught sight of the Beowolf's corpse. She stared at it, looking somewhat shocked.
"Yang did this?" She muttered, incredulous. I chuckled lightly, rolling my neck to look at her.
"Yeah, turns out I didn't really help much." I smiled as Weiss shook her head, looking impressed. "I probably just got in the way." I spun myself around to face her, standing up.
"Is she okay?" she asked, turning a concerned look to Yang's still figure. I nodded.
"Yeah, I think she just wore herself out. She's breathing fine." I shared a smile with Weiss before turning serious. "How's Blake?" Weiss' smile faded as well, a worried frown taking its place.

"She's alive," she began. "But she's in desperate need of medical attention. She more than likely broken several bones, and she hit her head very hard. We'll need to get her to a hospital soon."
"Okay," I replied. "Well we're going to have to carry her and Yang: I don't think she'll wake up anytime soon either."
"Can you carry Yang?"
"I'll make do; we can swap halfway if we need to."

Weiss helped me get Yang out of the factory, carrying her gently out the back door. As we reached Blake, I hoisted Yang up on to my shoulders. I waited for Weiss to do the same for Blake before we began to make our way to the nearest hospital.

We sat in the waiting room in a hospital on the southern edge of the commercial district, waiting for any news of Blake and Yang. We sat in silence, the memory of the giant Beowolf still vivid in our minds. Once the adrenaline had worn off, I began to feel exhausted. I sat next to Weiss, my head dropping as I nodded off before snapping back up as I jerked myself awake.

After several minutes of me almost falling asleep before waking myself up, Weiss got to her feet. "I'm going to get a coffee; would you like one?" she asked. I looked up at her groggily, nodding. I shook my head, trying to clear some of the fog in my mind. "Cream and five sugars?" she asked, smiling lightly.
"Yes please." I replied, smiling back at her. She wandered off toward to coffee machine across the room.

I hung my head, resting my arm on my knees. I couldn't stop myself form worrying, I hoped Yang and Blake were okay. I began to imagine various scenarios involving a nurse with bad news.

"I'm very sorry Miss Rose, I'm afraid Miss Belladonna didn't make it. She passed away moments ago."
"I'm very sorry, but Miss Xiao Long is comatose, we can't do anything to wake her. We don't know if she ever will."
"I'm very sorry…"
"Miss Rose…"
"Passed away…"
"Never walk again…"
"No memory of her past…"
"Ruby!"
"Irreversibly blind…"
"Loss of short term memory…"
"Ruby!"
"Nothing we could do…"
"If she'd gotten here sooner…"
"RUBY!"

I snapped awake as Weiss shook my shoulder, calling my name. I jerked up, looking around wildly. Weiss shook her head at me.
"Honestly…" she muttered under her breath. "Here." She held out a steaming cup of coffee, the scent filling my nose. I took the cup, thanking her; it warmed my hands up straight away. I sighed as I sipped at it, trying to quell my nerves. Weiss rested a hand on my shoulder, the touch of her hand both soothing me and setting off that same anxiety I felt every time we touched. I smiled up at her, glad that she was here with me.

I looked up at the sound of footsteps; a nurse was walking down the hall towards us. Weiss and I stood as he approached. I gulped down another sip of coffee, my nervousness coming back.
"How are they?" I asked. The nurse held up his hands, motioning for me to calm down.
"Miss Xiao Long woke up, and was speaking. But you were right, she was very exhausted, so she's gone back to sleep now." I heaved a sigh of relief at his words. Yang's okay… "But," he continued. "We're going to keep her here for the night, and probably tomorrow; she's suffered from a concussion and needs to had some fractured bones in her hands, but those should heal up in no time. Her aura's accelerated healing should take care of them." Concern shot through me, I hadn't noticed that. I'd thought she was just exhausted. "She'll be fine," he said, noticing my concern. "She just needs to get some good rest, no physical activity, for a while. We'll keep her here for now, but she'll probably be discharged by tomorrow afternoon." I smiled with relief for a second, allowing myself to rejoice in the news that Yang would be okay.

"What about Blake?" I asked, turning serious again. My heart leapt to my throat as the nurse frowned. "Miss Belladonna will live, and she's receiving treatment now. But we don't know what kind of condition she'll be in when she wakes up. Her injuries are very different from Miss Xiao Long's. Miss Xiao Long was injured because she'd used up most of her aura, she was naturally vulnerable. Miss Belladonna's injuries broke through her aura. It happens sometime if someone is struck incredibly hard by surprise, and they don't have time to bolster their aura. I'm sure you know, but your aura provides a shield for you at all times, growing stronger when you focus it. The monster that attacked Miss Belladonna broke straight through that passive shield. This can lead to what we call 'aura shock'."
"Aura shock?" Weiss asked. "I've never heard of it." The nurse nodded.
"It's not a very common condition, it's not very often that a Hunter or Huntress gets caught by surprise by something strong enough the break that passive shield," He answered. "It's also a fairly recent discovery. We've only seen three or four cases of it. So methods of treatment for it are still being discovered, we really don't know that much about it."
"But you said she'll live right?" I asked.
"Now that we've stabilized her, she will. But it's not surviving aura shock that's the issue. If you survive the blow, you'll live. Aura shock won't kill you. It just takes a while to recover from it. But half of the cases we've seen have resulted in the patient not being able to access their aura at all once they woke up. They don't lose it, no one can lose their soul, but they can never manifest their aura again."

My jaw dropped at his words. No aura? That'd mean Blake would never be able to be a Huntress, she'd have to leave Beacon, she'd have to leave us! I looked at Weiss, fear written plainly on my face. Weiss was looking at her nurse, composed and with a cool air of control. She placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"So she's just as likely to wake up with no adverse effects?" Weiss asked.
"Yes," the nurse replied. "As far as we know, she has a more or less fifty-fifty chance of going either way; we still don't know what causes a patient to go one way or the other. We think it's got something to do with how strong the patient's aura is, or how adept they are at controlling it. We're not sure if it's a physical or mental ailment, so we can't be sure which of the two is the deciding factor."
"So when is she expected to recover?"
"We'll keep her here for a week or so, we'll do what we can for her. She should wake up in a few days, all patients have seemed to remain unconscious for up to five days."
"Is there any correlation between time spent unconscious and likelihood of recovering her aura?"
"There doesn't appear to be, no."
"Well thank you very much sir, we'll get out of your way."
"Sure thing, I'm sorry we couldn't give you better news. For what it's worth, we'll send you a message an hour before we discharge Miss Xiao Long, so you can come and pick her up." The nurse said, smiling kindly at us.
"Thank you very much, I'd appreciate that." I replied, smiling back.

I was feeling confident that Blake would be okay, that put me more at ease. Whether it was strength of aura or control over it, she'd be fine: she had both of those. I was smiling as Weiss and I left the hospital and made our way back to Beacon, the moon shining down on us. I was still worried about Blake, but at least she had hope, she could pull through. As we made it back to Beacon, reaching the top of the cliff on which the school was built, fireworks began going off above Vale. Weiss and I stood side by side, shoulders touching, watching the vibrant colours fill the peaceful night sky. Despite my earlier confidence, I couldn't help but feel a nagging doubt in the back of my mind. Would Blake really be okay?