Chapter 2.
Death
Now I wasn't here for this next part, obviously, but I learned about it a little later – and it's important to tell you – so anyway. As I was currently knocked into next week, Blondie, well, she was dealing with her own can o' worms, one she opened herself.
-{O}-
Yang felt numb.
And why wouldn't she? She'd only just crippled a kid for life.
Yeah, safe to say none of the thoughts going through her head were very self loving and bright.
Yang sat in the waiting room of Vale Central Hospital, waiting for the police to come and haul her ass into a cell and through away the key. Instead of her just deserved punishment, the Headmaster of Beacon strolled through the automatic doors and told her that he had made it all go away.
"W-What?" Yang whispered, stunned and confused.
"I took care of your problem." Ozpin repeated with a small smile, like one a grandfather would use to console his grandchild. "In six months time you'll be in Beacon, like this little… "incident" never happened."
"Incident?" Yang whispered before her tone turned to a growl. "Incident?! I crippled someone! And Brothers know what other damage I've done! And you call it an "incident"?"
Ozpin looked positively shocked at Yang's outburst. "I… I don't understand?-"
"No, you don't!" Yang growled before stomping off, not wanting to hear whatever else Ozpin had to say.
"I… might have made a mistake."
-{O}-
Yang stomped through the halls in a rage fueled haze, then paused and thought better of it as her anger landed her in this position in the first place, and slumped into the nearest chair with her face in her hands.
"Oh, you've done it now, Yang! Couldn't get yourself out of this one if you tried."
As Yang wallowed in her own self hatred, a frantic nurse rounded a corner and perked once she saw her.
"Oh! Miss! Miss!" The Nurse called.
Yang looked up and around before dumbly pointing at herself.
"Yes!" The Nurse beamed. "Your boyfriend's awake!"
"Oh, he's not my-" Yang tried to explain, but was interrupted by the Nurse dragging her to the room of the boy she crippled.
"Oh hush now, only two kinds of people worry that much over someone going into surgery, loved ones or "loved ones", and you clearly aren't his sister." The Nurse chirped as she lead Yang to her self-induced doom.
"Surgery! I knew I messed him up bad, but I didn't think it was that bad." Yang thought grimly.
After an eternities worth of a few minutes, Yang was shoved ungracefully into the newly crippled boys room.
And what a miserable sight he made…
A neutral grey blanket covered all but his head – which was mostly covered by gauze – only leaving his right eye and mouth uncovered. But she could see the outline of his body, most noticeable the lack of his left arm – as in the entire arm – and right leg from under his knee.
A steady beeping sound filled the deafening, suffocating, silence of the room.
Yang didn't know what to do, after all what could she do, and so she sat in one of the chairs in the room, waiting for the inevitable screaming and justifiable blaming.
After a minute or two, Jaunes eye opened – and widened at the sight of Yang – while the beeping of his heart rate skyrocketed.
"W-What… are you… doing here?" Jaune crocked out.
Yang flinched back as if struck by the boys fearful tone and mile-a-minute heartbeat. "The… the Nurse kind of… forced me in here." She cringed. "She thought I was… your girlfriend."
After another minute of silence, Jaune started laughing – or at least as close to a laugh his probably punctured lungs could manage – before trying to whip away a tear with his left arm, then succeeding with his right.
"That… was the best joke… I've ever heard." Jaune smiled before turning deadly serious. "But seriously… why are… you here."
"I…" Yang gulped. "I jumped into the ambulance without really thinking." She combed through her hair with nervous motions. "I actually thought – hoped – I'd be arrested once we got to the hospital, but… the Headmaster, "pulled" some strings and… poof, it's… it's all gone." Her eyes turned blood red. "And… and that's, that's such, such… bullshit! I… I crippled you, ruined you life, and what… I'm suppose to get off Scott free?"
Yang slumped into her chair with her head in her hands. "I don't know why I'm telling you this." Se laughs, a pitiful hollow sound. "It's not like you're going to forgive me."
"I'd like to say I do." Jaune broke the cumbersome silence. "But I don't know if I can." He pauses for a moment. "I know it's the right thing to do, be the bigger man dad would say, but – but – I'm going to be the one who doesn't have an arm, a leg, an eye." His remaining eye looks toward the ceiling. "I'm going to be the one who will never live his dream."
Once more Yang was in want of words, whither they be of comfort or self hatred – who could tell – but more than anything, she wanted the silence to end. But it didn't, for there was nothing that could be said. After a few minutes of oppressive silence, the Doctor arrived to do some checks and shooed Yang out the door with a warning that visitor hours were up for the day.
And so, Yang returned to Patch – to her life – all the while remembering the words from the boy who's dream she destroyed.
"I'm going to be the one who will never live his dream."
"Tsk, what the hell have I done." Yang bemused as she gazed over the water towards Vale, towards Jaune.
-{O}-
Jaune looked at the Doctor in front of him.
She was a tall, willowy woman, with lightly tanned skin and scarlet hair. A pair of red half-frame glasses sat delicately on her aristocratic nose, lightly obscuring her brown eyes. She wore the typical long white doctors coat with business casual attire under it, consisting of a pair of dark slacks with a maroon dress shirt tucked into the waistband.
The Doctor smiled softly. "Hello, I am Doctor Jacqueline Scarlet, I am in charge of your recovery Mr.?"
"Jaune, Jaune Arc." Jaune answered automatically.
"Well you can remember your name, that's good."
"It is?"
"After what you went through? It's a miracle your even awake after such little time." Her smile fades slightly. "But, it's going to be an uphill battle from here on out, sorry to say."
"Don't be." Jaune smiles sadly. "You didn't force me to fight someone who could launch grown men with a punch – and had wrist shotguns."
"You have a sense of humor, that's really good."
"Really?"
"Yup, in my experience, people with a sense of humor tend to do better with physical therapy."
After a few routine check ups, where Dr. Scarlet checked if his motor functions were still intact and a few other things, she left so Jaune could catch some hours of sleep.
-{O}-
Just under six months later…
Jaune, now sporting an eye patch on his left eye and what amounts to a peg leg compared to must other prosthetics – as it's all he could afford after the Hospital bills damn near whipped him out – found himself in a Dust store called From Dust Till Dawn browsing the selves for some fire dust for his motels stove.
He was dressed in a simple pair of navy jeans and a white button-collar tee with black sleeves, with the left sleeve being empty, and an auto-loader concealed at his four-o'-clock – as he couldn't walk around, or use, Crocea Mors anymore – with a pair of black converse high-tops finishing off his look.
Jaune was about to pick up his Dust before a feminine voice – accompanied by the sound of a wheel-gun's hammer being pull – telling him to put his hand up, with a bit of a stutter.
"I'm afraid I can only put up one." Jaune said as he complied.
"Oh y-yeah?" The woman asked. "And why is that wise guy?"
Jaune slowly turned towards the woman – who turned out to be a White Fang terrorist with what looked to be deer horns holding a slightly shaking wheel-gun – and revealed his missing arm and eye. "Cause I only got the one to raise."
A flicker of pity and recognition flashed across the womans uncovered mouth. "You're the guy that tried to stop that Huntress, aren't you?"
"Yup." Jaune answered. "Fighting Huntress' and sassing people who hold me at gunpoint, what can I say?"
"A-Alright, now listen-" The terrorist was interrupted by another terrorist flying through the shops window, now whether it was voluntary or not, who knew.
But Jaune wasted no time and drew his auto-loader and pistol whipped the terrorist in front of him, knocking her out cold.
"Well, good job Jaune!" Jaune mumbled to himself. "Seems you've got a knack for landing yourself smack dab in the middle of dangerous situations – nothing could possibly go wrong this time!"
Sorry for the delay, and the short chapter, I had trouble writing the latter half of this chapter, and before I get a bunch of reviews saying how Yang getting off Scot-free makes no sense, if Ozpin can make it to where team RWBY doesn't get in trouble for the Atlasian Mech fiasco, he can make an extra injured citizen mean diddly squat. Thank you all for reading, and your patience, and I hope you stick around for more.