"I still can't believe they cut a hole in my skull!" Ruby yelped. Her fingers twitched, as if she wanted to reach back and poke at the spot, to see if she could feel anything.

"It was that or the pressure from the blood would have killed you," Jaune said.

"I know; the doctor explained all of that. It's just so weird. I can't believe it happened! At least it's a good excuse for this headache I've got."

"Yeah, your head's still healing," Yang confirmed.

It was about forty-five minutes after Ruby had woken up. The doctor had come in, performed some basic tests and smiled a lot, but the care of the conscious Ruby really wasn't much different than for the unconscious one, except with a lot more hope. With luck, she'd be able to go home in a few days, where she could recover in more comfort and, frankly, a lower risk of infection. The Roses would need to hire trained nurses to help monitor things, but in all there was little that could be done at the hospital, now, that couldn't be done for her at home.

There were still definite risks, of course: until the wound had healed, infection was a constant threat, and it was still too early to rule out the possibility that there had been permanent injury to the brain in some way. Those kind of gloomy thoughts could wait, though. Yang was too happy to have Ruby awake and talking to worry about them.

"I bet Dad's going to start in again about how being a huntress is dangerous work and I should give up on it," the injured girl added glumly.

"Can you blame him? After your mom died, I know he doesn't want you following the same path."

"Oh geez, Sis, not you, too!"

Yang shrugged.

"I know it's your dream, Ruby. I just can't say that I don't understand his feelings, after these last two days."

"I still think it's unfair that he doesn't have any problems with you being a huntress."

"I don't remind him of your mother, Ruby. Or even of my mother. Honestly, I think he thinks of me more like he would a son."

"Which is kind of weird. Who'd mistake you for a boy? Yes, yes, I know, that's not the point," she hurried to add, before anyone thought she'd gotten confused, "but it's still strange."

"Speaking of Dad, I'd better wire him to let him know what happened to you."

"You didn't tell him?"

"It…kind of slipped my mind," Yang said sheepishly. "Honestly, a lot slipped my mind, I was so focused on Torchwick."

"And on that note, I really need to get going," Jaune said. "I only came by in the first place to tell Yang about what we'd learned from the Malachites and that she wasn't going to be arrested, but now I need to get back to work trying to track Torchwick down. It's really great to see you awake again, though, Ruby."

"Thanks, Jaune," she said warmly, then dropped into a pout, her cheeks puffing out. "But I still can't believe that you let him get away like that! I mean, after I cut down his escape rope and everything!"

"Escape rope?"

"You didn't mention an escape rope, Jaune," Yang said.

"There wasn't one; he got away on that glider thing he had under his coat, like I said. What are you talking about, Ruby?"

"The rope! The one that came down from above that he was going to climb away on. I threw what was left of Steel Thorn at it and cut it in two. Then he got all mad and his cane turned into a gun—" She broke off suddenly. "You don't think I dreamed it, do you? Because of the head injury? Because that sounds weird even just saying it like that."

"The cane part is true, though," Jaune said. "I saw that, when I got out onto the roof. But whatever happened before that, I have no idea."

"Didn't you find the rope?"

"No, but it might have fallen on the roof. When Ruby fell, Torchwick left the roof right after, and I went down after Ruby. The constables might never have searched up there."

"Seriously? Jaune, there's a reason why the police keep getting treated like idiots in detective novels."

He glared at Yang.

"It's not like Torchwick was going to conveniently drop his visiting-card with name and address behind at the scene," he pointed out. "He's not that stupid."

"Okay, good point, but still, if you'd searched you at least wouldn't be wondering if Ruby saw a rope…from…above…"

Yang's voice trailed off as she and Jaune looked at one another, eyes widening.

"There's no tower or anything like that on the manor; the roof is as high as it gets," Jaune exclaimed, and they both rounded on Ruby. "That rope, where was it coming from?"

Ruby blinked.

"I don't know. Up, I guess?"

"Ruby…"

"It was dark, and kind of foggy, remember? I didn't see. Honestly, I didn't even look. I was watching the Phantom Gentleman."

"Did either of you hear an engine?" Yang asked.

"An engine?" Ruby said, then the light dawned for her as well. "Ah! You think he had a dirigible!"

"It had to be," Jaune said. "Well, it could have been a balloon, but that couldn't be piloted in the same way. He'd have had to moor it to keep it from flying away, while an airship could maneuver over the house on its own power. But wouldn't we have heard it?"

"Wait..." Ruby began, evidently trying to remember back past the fog of her head injury. "I did hear the engine! Right before the rope came down for him!"

"You did?" Jaune asked. "Then why didn't I notice it?"

"I'm sure you did hear it," Yang decided. "I'd say you just didn't care—or think of it. Especially Jaune, since by the time you got there it'd have been already flying away from the house, so it'd be a noise you heard, but didn't think about since it didn't have anything apparently to do with the theft. And if he has a dirigible, then that explains how he's going to fly the country!"

Ruby and Jaune both glared at Yang.

"…Sorry."

"She's right, though. A private airship would be the perfect way to slip across the Channel. He could go where he wanted, how he wanted, as long as he goes under cover of darkness. And he wouldn't have to trust anyone that he wasn't already putting himself in the power of, since his pilot and other crew were involved in the Phantom's thefts."

"And there's only so many places in the city where you could hide an airship," Jaune exclaimed, slamming his fist into his palm. "I have to get going, put the wheels in motion."

"Jaune?"

"Don't worry, Yang. If I come up with any leads, I'll let you know. I won't leave you behind at the finish."

"Thanks," she said, smiling gratefully. "After all the mistakes I've made—"

He shook his head.

"This guy's got more tricks up his sleeve than a magician. If he tries to fight his way out, I don't think that the police are going to be able to stop him even if I had a dozen constables in tow."

Ruby nodded, then showed a sudden, pained expression as she realized that moving her head wasn't the best idea.

"He's right, Yang. I went hand-to-hand with him and he was really good. If he wants to fight, it'll turn into a military engagement if the police are to have any chance of winning. If that happens, all kinds of people could be hurt or killed, just like Edwin the footman or Sir Reginald or me."

"I need someone with your kind of skills along with us, if we're going to have any chance of stopping him," Jaune echoed. "And after what all of us have been through, I think that we all feel the same way about that."

"Don't worry. This time you can count on me." She extended him a hand and he clasped it firmly.

"And you can count on me to find him for you," he said, "so maybe I learned something after all."

He smiled, said goodbye, and left with a jaunty wave.

"So what was that about?" Ruby asked as soon as the door closed behind him.

"What was what?"

Yang, it will be noted, was not the best person in the world at deception. Her usual tactic to get out of answering questions was a flat refusal, possibly backed up by a threat to ram the questioner's foot down his or her throat. Those were not tactics that were useful on her sister; the latter was out of the question and the former didn't work well on someone who had mastered the strategies of wheedling and puppy-dog eyes.

Ruby didn't attempt to use such weapons this time, though.

"My dear sister Yang, are you keeping something from me?"

Nor did she need to, because while having it sprung on her out of the blue in this fashion wasn't easy, Yang wanted to tell Ruby.

"It's my fault," she admitted, exhaling.

"Huh?"

"What happened to you, Torchwick getting away…I'm so sorry, Ruby. I've made so many stupid mistakes these past two days, I don't know where to begin."

"I don't understand. You weren't even there, Yang, so how can it be your fault that I got hurt?"

"That's exactly it, Ruby; I wasn't there."

"And you don't think I can handle myself without you." Ruby sighed and let her head fall back on the pillow. "I suppose this just proves you right."

"No! That's not what I mean at all!"

"Wasn't it? Because it sure sounded that way."

"Jaune asked for my help, Ruby. I should have been there."

"So if you turn down a job, it's not supposed to be all right if I take it instead? I'm a huntress, and danger is part of the job. Neither of us thought Torchwick was as dangerous as he actually is, and you had your reasons—"

"No, I didn't. That's the problem!"

"Come again?"

"I didn't mean what I said about why I turned Jaune down. It was just a bunch of made-up excuses so he could catch Torchwick without a professional bounty huntress doing the work for him." She went over it all again for Ruby, just like she had for Jaune nearly forty hours ago, everything she'd planned. "Don't you see? If I hadn't been so concerned with my silly plan, I'd have just taken the job when he asked and that would have been an end to it. You might not have been there at all, or if you had, I'd have been there too, to watch your back."

Ruby was silent for a few seconds.

"Nope," she finally said.

"What?"

"You don't owe me an apology."

"But I—"

"Was kind of stupid, yes," Ruby agreed. "But what it all comes down to is this: do you trust me as a huntress-in-training? There's no way you could have guessed Torchwick was so dangerous. Even Jaune didn't know. He was sure Torchwick was more than he could handle, but that's not the same thing. He hasn't had our kind of training, and doesn't use our kind of weapons, specialized and equipped with Dust. You owe him an apology for not taking him as seriously as you should, but so do I. If I'd really thought Torchwick was a fighter instead of a sneak thief, I'd have asked you to go along so we could face him together." She rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'm going to get an awful lecture from Miss Goodwitch on tactical assessments of the target, I just know it."

"No, we are. I earned it as much as you did, so the least I can do is take it alongside you."

"But you'd rather fall off the roof with me instead."

"Well, yeah. That woman is scary!" Yang joked, then her face fell again. "Ruby…there's more to it than just letting you go off after Torchwick like that."

"There is?"

Yang took a deep breath, exhaled in a long, heartfelt sigh, then began telling Ruby the full story. She left nothing out, starting at the hospital that first pre-dawn morning, then on through her trip to Junior's, her short but functional investigation of the Torchwick household, how she'd gotten inside the house, her fight with the twins, and at last how she'd gone up to confront Torchwick himself, only to be greeted by his mockery.

It was a purging, emptying out all the anger and the hatred and the guilt and beneath it all the gnawing, terrifying fear that had possessed her, the fear that Ruby would never wake up, that even if she lived she would never be the same person again. She'd turned that fear outward, wielded it like a weapon against anyone she held even a little bit responsible.

And maybe, somewhere in the back of her head had been the idea that if she hunted down Torchwick, if she did what she should have done in the first place, then…what? That God or fate or karma or something would magically put things right and bring Ruby back to health?

Only, she hadn't succeeded. Revenge, justice, or trying to correct a mistake, she'd done none of it, until all that had been left to do was rise from the wreckage of Torchwick's study and call for the police to come and clean up the mess.

By the time she was through, it was Ruby who had tears in her eyes. Yang just felt hollow, and faintly nauseous, as if she'd literally vomited it all up.

"Yang…" Ruby sniffled.

"I'm so, so sorry."

Her sister blinked.

"But why?"

"I told you, for—"

"And I told you, you don't owe me an apology. You owed Jaune a couple, for getting mad at him and for letting Torchwick get away, but I guess you already settled that part, right? And, um…well, okay, it really wasn't one of your better jobs, though fighting eight thugs at once was pretty impressive," she tried to soften the blow. "But revenge isn't something that you owe me. I didn't ask you to go after Torchwick, so how can you apologize for failing to do something that you didn't have to succeed at in the first place? It just doesn't make sense!"

Yang laughed; she just couldn't help it. Part of it was just her sister's roundabout way of expressing herself, though the underlying logic actually seemed quite sound. But more than that, it was the sudden shock of relief that surged through her. It was as if she'd been at the shore, and a wave had crested over her, washing away all the grime and foulness she'd been encrusted with, all the bitterness and despair.

She'd made mistakes. She'd been foolish about turning down Jaune's request. And she'd let her emotions take over that, and that had led her into further mistakes, errors in judgment. There was no escaping from that fact. But those mistakes were her own.

She hadn't failed Ruby. Not if she ever wanted Ruby to be able to stand on her own feet.

She'd only had the metaphor punching her in the face for two days now. Jaune had told her all about Sir Reginald and how he'd treated his ruby. Even Junior had shown his contempt for that kind of obsessive collector. Yang couldn't go around locking Ruby away forever; the only way to protect her against everything was to deny her the right to live. She'd always be there to help if Ruby wanted or needed it, but that wasn't the same thing as saying that any bad thing that happened to Ruby was automatically Yang's fault for allowing it to occur.

"Yang, what's so funny?"

Yang smiled at her."

"You, little sis. How'd you ever get to be so smart with a blockhead like me as an example?"

It was a testament to Ruby's character that she did not immediately answer, "I learn what not to do by watching you," or "you're a great example of what happens when I don't think things through clearly," or something else along those lines. (It was a little worrying to Yang how easy it was to come up with those examples at her own expense, in fact.)

"Yang, I've been your little sister for almost fifteen years. Well, okay, actually I've been your little sister all my life, but, I mean, that we know about. You've been looking out for me since that very first day, so of course I know how you think about that. It'd be weird if you weren't thinking that way."

Yang found herself blushing.

"Aw, geez, Ruby."

"I mean it!"

"I…well…um…" She gave up and shrugged. "Thanks."

"You're welcome?"

"You don't sound quite sure," Yang teased.

"Hey, I'm new at this. Usually, you're the one giving me advice or helping me get my head on straight about stuff. I don't have a lot of practice doing it the other way. Hey! Maybe it's the head injury. Instead of damaging my brain and making it hard for me to concentrate or something, it put me in touch with my inner sisterly wisdom."

Yang chortled.

"I…don't think that's quite how it works, Ruby."

Her sister pouted.

"You're no fun. Oh! But hey, if that's the case, then I must have been this wise and profound all along." She smirked, though the smugness was at least seventy percent feigned.

Grateful or not, Yang's character wasn't as admirable as Ruby's, probably as an older-sister type of thing.

"And weren't we all surprised to learn that, huh, sis?"

Ruby stuck her tongue out at Yang.

"Maybe you could owe me a little apology," she huffed.

"You had your chance," Yang shot back cheerily.

"Well, you'd better watch out, then, because next time I'm not going to let you off the hook so easily."

"Sure you will, 'cause you're just a little softy when it comes to your big sister."

Ruby snorted derisively, then winced again.

"I've got to stop moving my head. Yang, could you do something for me?"

"Sure. Anything."

She was expecting something along the lines of getting her a drink or fetching the nurse or adjusting her pillows, so what Ruby asked for came as a surprise.

"Make sure that you get that Torchwick guy."

Yang grinned.

"Let's see. So far Torchwick has insulted my friend, made me lose one of my best contacts, made a complete fool out of me to the point that the Malachites are probably still laughing at me, and on top of all that, he hurt my sister." She punched her right fist into the palm of her left hand. "Hell, yeah, I'm going to get him!"

After all, she might not owe him revenge for Ruby, but she had plenty of good reasons all of her own.

~X X X~

A/N: "Blockhead," unlike a fair amount of the dialogue in this story, is not an anachronism.

I also owe significant thanks to RadiantBeam for making a distinct point with regards to the way revenge plots work in stories like this one, when I was discussing with her a couple of different paths that the story could follow after the fight at Junior's. Some hints of that point, which was mildly brilliant, show up here in Yang's thoughts, though not half as impressively as she put it. (This went together very nicely with my plot reasons for why Ruby woke up now, rather than at the end of the story—even in an AU fic, most readers (and certainly those who know my writing generally) aren't going to believe that I'd kill Ruby off, so why save that emotional moment for the end in the name of "suspense" that isn't actually suspenseful?)