Author's Note: I'd just like to preface this chapter by saying I'm very sorry for the delay in release. I had an assignment to do that was kind of kicking my ass, so I didn't have time to write. And I know, with the ending of the last chapter, that it was a horrible time to leave you waiting. So I'm sorry for that. Anyway, enjoy. And, as always, favourite, follow, review, and (hopefully) enjoy!
Weiss
No, Ruby. No. No. No. No! NO! I watched in horror, unable to react, as Ruby was sent flying across the room. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach as she crashed into the wall and slid to the ground. She didn't move. She didn't even twitch. She wasn't getting back up.
I turned my gaze to the creature that stood in the centre of the room. It reared up on its hind legs and bellowed in triumph. It looked like an Ursa, but it was bigger than any Ursa I'd ever seen. But if Myrka had giant Beowolves, it made sense that he'd have a giant Ursa as well. Its huge, hulking shape seemed to fill the room. I could see from where I stood that, if I were to stand next to it, I would barely be taller than its knee.
But I drew Myrtenaster anyway and took a step forward. Rage began to build up inside me as I approached the monster. This thing had dared to hurt Ruby, to even touch Ruby. I trembled with fury as I advanced.
A terrifying scream filled the room. It bounced off the walls all around, so I had no idea where it was coming from. Then an immense column of golden flames lanced upwards, burning a hole in the ceiling. Yang followed the flames into the air, her entire body wreathed in a golden inferno. She spun around in the air and slammed her fist into the side of the Ursa's head. The beast toppled over, its feet lifting off the ground by a few inches before it came crashing back down.
Yang followed it down, still screaming, and brought both fists, clasped together, down onto the Ursa's head. The plating on the monster's head split with a loud crack, the broken armour plates tumbling to the ground. The Ursa swung at Yang, who was forced to flip backwards to avoid the blow. She brought her fists up, assuming her boxer's position as it heaved itself to its feet.
I took the opportunity, while the Grimm was in the middle of pulling itself up, to leap at its exposed side. I used a glyph to send myself gliding across the room and plunged Myrtenaster into its side as I passed it. My momentum carried me past and forced the blade deeper into the Ursa. I tore the blade free as I passed it and felt blood stain my hand as it gushed from the gaping wound I left in its flank.
The Ursa spun to face me, roaring a challenge. I glanced down at the wound I'd cut into its side, it was at least a foot long, maybe two, and blood was pouring out by the gallon. But it wasn't going down, not yet. It took a stride towards me and I readied myself to attack again. But before I got the chance to, Yang crashed, feet first, into the Ursa's head. The beast's head was jerked to the side and it spun nearly full circle before spinning back and focussing its furious gaze on Yang.
"Weiss!" Yang called out as she readied herself to strike again. "You and Blake get Ruby out of here, make sure she's alright! I can handle things from here!" I looked at Yang, wanting to help her, but my concern for Ruby took control and I dashed away, sheathing Myrtenaster as I ran. I called out to Blake as I ran, but got no answer. I stopped to look for her, I'd have thought she'd be helping Yang by now, but she was nowhere to be seen. I focussed on getting to Ruby. That was something I could deal with now. I ran to her still form and knelt down beside her.
"Ruby?" I called out her name, but got no response. Not even a twitch of movement. My heart leapt to my throat as I recalled our battle with the giant Beowolf. Blake had been struck just like that: exhausted, unsuspecting and unmoving after the fact. Did Ruby have aura shock? No. Not now. We needed her now. And I couldn't deal with the idea of her losing her aura and not being a Huntress. Not being with me…
No, she has to be alright. She is alright!
"Ruby?" I called out her name again, shaking her shoulder this time. Still no response. I glanced back at Yang. She was still doing battle with the mortally wounded Ursa. I could see the wound beginning to take its toll. The monster was beginning to slow down. Its blows were sluggish and almost never on target. Yang had an easy time dodging them and counter-attacking. She'd be fine on her own.
I rolled Ruby over, onto her back and scooped her into my arms. I looked back at Yang once more, she looked like she was about to finish the monster off.
"Yang!" I called out to her. "I can't find Blake!"
"What?" Yang cried, she sounded incredibly worried. She danced away from the Ursa to buy time to think. "Maybe she led everyone else away!" I glanced around and, sure enough, none of the other students were in the room. I'd been so focussed on the Ursa and Ruby that I hadn't even noticed.
"Okay!" I cried out. "I'll look for her down the hall!" Yang leapt back into action, throwing furious punches at the nearly-dead Ursa. I turned away and dashed down through the door at the end of the hall.
I gently lowered Ruby to the ground when I reached the rest of the students. She still wasn't moving, her face was white as snow and she felt cold. What was happening? Did she really have aura shock? Was I going to lose her? Forcing away my fears, I stood up and cast my gaze around for Blake. But, again, she was nowhere to be seen.
"We led everyone else away once we saw you two were on top of things." A voice said behind me. I yelped and flinched, before recognising the voice as Pyrrha's. I turned to face her and nodded my thanks.
"Have you seen Blake around?" I asked. Alarm shot through me as I saw Pyrrha's brow furrow in concern. I already knew what she was going to say.
"No, I thought she was with you." She said, sure enough. I glanced back down at Ruby. Yang had asked me to look out for her, but Blake must be back there somewhere. Yang was busy, and Ruby was safe, for now. I knew that I should go and search for Blake, but I couldn't bring myself to leave Ruby's side.
"Hey! Give me some help over here!" I turned towards the voice and saw Yang jogging down the hall, holding Blake's limp body in her arms. She reached me and Pyrrha and laid Blake down next to Ruby.
"What happened?" Pyrrha asked as she bent down to inspect Blake for wounds.
"I don't know," Yang replied, kneeling down next to Pyrrha. "She wasn't fighting. I thought she was with you guys. But just as the Ursa came down, I saw her lying on the floor. So I scooped her up and brought her here. I haven't had a chance to check what's wrong with her."
"Did you see any blood around where she was laying?"
"No, nothing."
"Hmm…" Pyrrha moaned thoughtfully as she checked Blake over. Yang got to her feet and moved over to check on Ruby.
"How is she?" she asked me. I could only give her a worried frown, it wasn't looking good. "Do you think it's… aura shock?" she asked quietly.
"I don't want to believe it," I forced myself to say. "But we might need to consider it. She hasn't moved at all." Yang clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut. I could tell she was terrified to consider the idea as well.
I knelt down and rested a hand on Yang's shoulder.
"Go and see to Blake," I said. "I can take care of Ruby." Yang looked up at me, and I was shocked to see tears brimming along her bottom eyelid. She nodded and dashed the tears away before turning back to Blake.
I slumped from my kneeling position to a sitting one, next to Ruby. I let out a long sigh as I gazed down at her peaceful face. I was already beginning to resign myself to the fact that Ruby had aura shock. A few days after Blake had recovered from hers, now Ruby had fallen victim to it too. I mentally shook myself, trying to push away the pessimism washing over me. I reached out a hand and lightly stroked a line down her cheek. Come on Ruby, you've got to fight this.
My heart leapt as I saw her mouth twitch. She was moving! I pulled my hand back as she opened her lips, ever so slightly. It couldn't be aura shock; she was waking up minutes after passing out. Aura shock put people in a coma for days. My heart soared as she opened her mouth and I heard a faint moan issue forth. I leant in close as I realised she was mumbling something.
"Weiss…" I felt my cheeks flush as she whispered my name. "Stop it…" I jerked back in shock. Even now, she was dreaming of things like… that? I couldn't believe it. "Stop it, Weiss, please stop it." she started growing louder. "You've got to stop it, please." I started to grow worried as I heard a desperate, pained tone enter her voice. I waved Yang over and she hurried to my side. "Weiss, please… Stop it. Stop it." Her voice was steadily growing louder with each thing she said. "Stop it. Weiss, please. Stop it. Stop it! Stop it! SOMEBODY STOP THE WHISTLING!"
Almost as if on cue, Blake jerked on the ground, her body convulsing. She let out a piercing scream as well. No words, just high-pitched, inarticulate screeching. Everyone cringed and covered their ears. I shared a terrified look with Yang. The whistling? That was what had kept her unconscious? I felt relief that it wasn't aura shock, but the whistling meant something just as bad, if not worse. Myrka was here.
"Well what have we here?" A voice echoed down the hall. "It looks like someone here is a half-decent fighter." We all looked at each other in fear. What were we going to do? Myrka, the man bent on destroying Beacon, was here, just down the hall! My heart skipped a beat as I realised what him being here meant. What had happened to Ozpin and the teachers? It had to have been another trap, a ruse to lure them away.
"Damn it," Yang muttered, punching the ground. "It was another trick. We played right into his hands again!"
"What do we do?" I hissed at her.
"I don't know… Should we go after Ozpin?"
"Who knows what Myrka wants to do here? Us leaving might be the last thing that lets him do it." I said.
"Okay, so we're staying. But we need to get Blake and Ruby away from his, we need them to help us sort this out."
"So we're running?"
"We're running."
Yang scooped Blake into her arms while I picked up Ruby.
"Okay, people!" Yang called out. "Fall back. We can't deal with this without a plan. Move!" The students around us were more than happy to oblige, they started running down the corridor before Yang had even finished speaking.
Vicious roars echoed down the corridor behind us. Myrka must have sent some of his Grimm to chase us down. I grimaced as I picked up my pace. I couldn't fight while I was holding Ruby, and I didn't want to lay her on the ground when there were monsters around.
"Yang," I called out. "They're after us! We need to do something."
"I know! But I can't just drop Blake here!"
"We'll handle it!" Jaune called out. Yang and I both looked at him in surprise. Jaune would never be able to hold them back, even with his team helping him. But, nevertheless, he turned around to face our pursuers. Pyrrha, Nora and Ren kept running for a couple of steps before they realised that he'd stopped. I looked at Pyrrha, trying to convince her with my eyes alone to not stay behind. But she nodded at me reassuringly and took her place next to Jaune. The pair of them formed a shield wall across the corridor, while Nora and Ren readied themselves behind the pair.
I hesitated, looking back at Team JNPR.
"Weiss!" Yang yelled at me. I spun to face her. "They made their choice. We need to go. We can't help them like this. Once these two are safe, we can come back and help." I glanced back at JNPR one last time before I turned away and followed Yang to safety.
Ruby was still moaning in my arms as I ran. I couldn't make out any of what she was saying. All I could hear was her mumbling and her agonised tone of voice. I pressed on, trying to catch up to Yang before we lost sight of everyone else.
I stumbled, mid-stride, as Ruby jerked in my arms. I tightened my grip on her, trying to keep her still, but to no avail. Her arm shot out and her fist collided with the side of my head. I jerked my head away from her, trying to avoid her flailing arms. I turned down a side corridor, following Yang, and saw Yang having a similar trouble with Blake.
"Yang, just keep going!" I yelled. "If we get them far enough away from him, they'll be fine."
"We don't even know where he is! How are we going to fight him like this?"
"Who said anything about fighting him?"
"I did! He's the one who's responsible for putting Blake in hospital. Now he's hurt Ruby too. I'm not going to let him just get away with that."
"Well we can sort that out later. Just keep running for now, we need these two on their feet first."
The further we ran, the more the two of them calmed down. I sighed with relief as Ruby stopped flailing her arms. She wasn't waking up, but she was relaxing. That meant we were getting further away from him.
Now that Ruby had calmed down, my thoughts drifted back to Team JNPR. I couldn't help but worry about them. I couldn't hear anything from behind us anymore. And I didn't even want to consider what that could mean. I knew that Pyrrha and the others were capable, but they were facing far greater numbers. All I could do was hope that they were okay as I carried Ruby further away from danger.
Yang stopped running in front of me and looked down at Blake. I kept running until I caught up, wondering what was going on. The last of the other students passed out of sight, none of the stopping to wait for us.
"Hey, you okay?" I heard Yang ask, and I realised that Blake was waking up. Sure enough, her eyes were open and she was smiling up at Yang.
"Yeah, I'm feeling fine now." She replied. "What happened? The last thing I remember was Ruby getting attacked. Is she okay?"
"I'm fine." I looked down in surprise at the sound of Ruby's voice. Her eyes were open and she was looking over at Blake with a reassuring smile.
"Ruby!" I cried. "You're okay!"
"Yeah, I'm okay now." She said, turning her smile towards me. My heart soared at the sight. She was smiling at me again, she wasn't mad anymore. "Can you put me down? I can stand." I lowered to the floor and stepped back with a smile. I fought back the urge to throw my arms around her. "So what happened?" she continued. "I remember getting attacked by… something. I just had time to get my aura up, but then I blacked out."
"Myrka's here." I said solemnly. "His semblance knocked both you and Blake out."
"Oh no..." Ruby whispered. "He's here? What about the chapel? Was that just another trap?"
"I guess so," Yang said. "Either way, he's here and Ozpin isn't. We need to deal with him somehow."
"But how?" Blake asked. "Ruby and I can't get anywhere near him without losing it."
"I've been thinking about that," I said. "Ozpin said that the more he focusses his semblance, the stronger it works on the subject, but the less it works on everything else around him. So if we keep him focussed on one thing, if we keep him distracted, his semblance should narrow down to whatever Grimm he's using to fight us. It shouldn't affect you two."
"That makes sense," Blake said thoughtfully. "But that means we need to keep attacking him, specifically, non-stop. If he has Grimm around him, acting as guards, we won't be able to take them out. If we kill the monsters around him, he won't have anything to concentrate his semblance on."
"It won't be easy, but it's the only way we can do it. The rest of the students could be anywhere right now, they're still running. But Pyrrha and the others are back the way we came. They can help us."
"So we need to get back and make sure they're okay." Yang said.
"Help them?" Ruby asked in a concerned voice. "What's going on?"
"We were getting chased by Grimm and they stayed behind to cover us."
"What!?" Ruby yelled. "Then we need to go back and help them!"
"And we will, Ruby," I said in an attempt to calm her. "But you and Blake can't. We don't know where Myrka is, but this spot seems far enough away that he can't affect you."
"So… what? Blake and I can't fight?"
"Not yet." I said. "We need to distract him, get him focussed on us, first. So you two stay here, we'll send someone back to get you once we track him down."
Ruby looked ready to protest, but a shake of Yang's head stopped her words before they even formed. She hung her head and nodded dejectedly. I couldn't stop an amused smile from spreading across my face. I patted her on the head and my smile widened further at the sight of the pout she shot at me.
"Just wait here, Ruby," I said. "It'll probably work out better for us anyway. You and Blake can act as backup, you can surprise him." That took the pout off Ruby's face.
"Right…. He won't even know we're coming!"
"Exactly. This time, you'll have the jump on him."
Ruby grinned wickedly and nodded.
"Right, we'll be right here. Be quick. I don't want to get bored, sitting here." She said.
"We'll be quick, Sis." Yang said with a grin. "You just sit tight."
"Be safe," Blake said to Yang, giving her a quick hug. Yang returned the hug with a laugh.
"Safe is boring."
"All the same. We all need to make it out of this alive."
I smiled at Ruby, but she seemed troubled.
"Hey, like Yang said, we'll be quick." I said.
"It's not that," she said. "You be safe too." I looked at her in shock. Ruby, concerned for me? "We need to… talk about what happened before. So… um… you need to be careful." I was at a loss for words.
"I… I don't… Uh… Yes. Of course. I'll be careful." I stammered. Ruby smiled all the same.
"Alright! We're off!" Yang shouted excitedly. I nodded and, after giving Ruby another reassuring smile, took off down the corridor with Yang. We needed to find Pyrrha and the others, and then it was time for us to go on the offensive.