Chapter 10: Postmortem
Eleven people occupied a room originally designed to serve as a break room for the small hospital staff, maybe two or three at a time. There were not enough chairs for everyone to sit, so those who were the most able would stand. Despite strong protest from Weiss and Qrow, even Ruby was forced to attend. Currently, she was resting her head on on a rolled up blanket, covered by the cloak that Qrow had donated to the cause. Her contributions would be limited on account of the unconsciousness. Outside the room, a half dozen soldiers stood on either side of the door, acting as security until the conclusion of the event.
The door opened briefly, and General Ironwood stepped into the room with a transcriber in tow. "Anybody else?" Qrow jeered, clearly upset at the conditions in the room, but more so about his his niece's treatment.
"Now is not the time Qrow," Ironwood snapped back. "This can seem like an unnecessary process, but because of the Atlas-sanctioned nature of the mission, it must be conducted." He paused for a moment, reviewing the debriefing procedures again in his mind. "First, we need a head count. I'll need everyone to state their name for the record." So they did. Glynda, Qrow, Weiss, Qrow again, but as Ruby this time, five soldiers who had survived the mission, a transport ship pilot, co-pilot, General Ironwood and a transcriber. "Good. Thank you. Next, I will need a synopsis of the mission's objective. As its leader, I'll leave that part to you, Qrow," the General instructed.
"Sure thing Jimmy," Qrow turned to the transcriber, "You've got to do that word for word, right?" He nodded in the affirmative. "Well, this might not be so bad after all... The mission was twofold. Numero uno, assist in the evacuation of Beacon Academy. Part deux… ascertain the whereabouts of Headmaster Ozpin. That good?"
"That was… mind numbing…" Glynda noted.
Ironwood agreed, but decided not to dwell on the antagonistic nature of his colleague. "That will do, yes. Thank you." he paused again, this time weighing something in his mind. "Lastly, I need an After Action Report on the mission's details."
Qrow was taken aback by the General's choice of words. "Lastly?" he thought to himself… "These debriefings were known to take hours, what's his angle?" Feeling the weight of twelve anxious pairs of eyes on him... well, minus Ruby's... Qrow went ahead with recounting the story, using only general information, and leaving out any sensitive bits of the story, like Maidens or Silver-eyed warriors. Key points included the uncertainty surrounding Ozpin, the Grimm Dragon perched atop Beacon Tower, as well as the assumed death of Ms. Pyrrha Nikos.
"Thank you again Qrow," Ironwood responded, quite pleased that the level of sarcasm had been toned down for the longer account of the night's events. "Does anyone else have anything to add before the debriefing is concluded? I apologize for the abbreviated nature of this particular meeting, but I feel that our energies would be best spent elsewhere after the events of the last few days." No one wanted to be trapped in that room any longer than absolutely necessary, so silence prevailed for a moment, before Ironwood resumed, "In that case, I officially declare this debriefing adjourned. Everyone is dismissed." He reconsidered, "If I could have a brief word with Glynda and Qrow…"
The soldiers, pilots and a transcriber left the room. A doctor and two of his assistants saw to Ruby, informing the group that she would be brought to room 226, the same room as her sister. Weiss decided to go along with Ruby considering that she hadn't seen the rest of her team all night. After a few moments, the room was clear, save for the three remaining individuals. The guard was still kept up outside the door, for the sake of privacy.
Ironwood looked first at Glynda, then Qrow, trying to communicate his intentions before saying a word. "You left a few small details out of that story, didn't you Qrow…? When you spoke about being down in the vault, you didn't say a word about Amber. Am I to assume-"
"She's dead, James," Qrow interrupted. "I won't dance around it when it's just the three of us. I saw her after Weiss saved me. She had a single arrow piercing her chest. The same kind of arrow we found after the first attack. It's a safe bet that the Maiden's powers are re-united in her assailant."
"We still have no idea how Ozpin's disappearance fits into all of this," Glynda pointed out, "If she killed Amber, it's very likely that Ozpin would have been there when it happened, making him the only eye-witness. What else do we know about the situation?"
"According to Qrow's report, nothing. There aren't any leads, only theories." Ironwood replied.
"That's not… entirely accurate," Qrow said in a hushed voice. "There is one lead that might be worth following… Back in the vault, Weiss said that the reason that she was at the Tower was to find two missing students from Team Juniper. Pyrrha was obviously one of them, but the other was Jaune Arc. Before Weiss separated from Ruby, she got a call from Jaune, who claimed that Pyrrha was fighting someone very powerful at the top of the tower."
"It would explain why Mr. Arc was so anxious to go back to Beacon when we met him earlier, James," Glynda said, recalling Jaune's outburst just outside of the hospital. "He knew that Ms. Nikos was up there, and he knew who she was battling. He might be the only person left who knows what actually happened back there."
Ironwood stood up, "So, where is Jaune now?"
Glynda hadn't seen him in hours, "He was helping some other students with transporting the wounded from the ships to the hospital last night. One of the last ships to return to Vale had some of his friends and teammates on it. If I had to bet, I'd wager he's with them. If I remember correctly, his teammates are in Room 224."
"I'll take care of this one," Qrow offered. "I think this has to be handled with a certain amount of tact." He gave a quick wave, then left the room.
His two colleagues were stunned at the thought of Qrow using any measure of discretion in conversation.
Jaune woke up in quite the opposite of a fog. This time it was the morning sun shining through the hospital window, directly into his eyes. Squinting, he put his hand up to cast a shadow over his face. With his vision still blurred, he leaned forward in the chair he'd apparently passed out in. Before his nap, he'd been awake for the better part of the last twenty-four hours, save for a few moments in a rocket locker. After spending half of the night in a state of utter confusion, then the other half carrying the wounded that were arriving from Beacon, he was exhausted.
He'd made it through the night by keeping himself occupied and helping as many people as he could. Any time he stopped, Pyrrha entered his thoughts. He'd seen the flash of light coming from the top of the Tower, but had no context with which to form any sort of educated guess as to what it could be.
The terribly uncomfortable chair he'd fallen asleep in was positioned on the wall opposite of the two beds where his teammates rested. A quick scan of the room revealed that now, it was where only one of his teammates rested. Ren was sleeping reasonably peacefully in the bed closest to the door, while Nora was… making grunting noises from the ground beside her bed. Jaune got to his feet as quickly as he could, and stumbled over to make sure she was alright. As he rounded the corner of the bed closest to the window, he found Nora doing… sit-ups on the ground.
"NORA!" Jaune yelled, before realizing that Ren was still asleep. He lowered his voice to an angry whisper. "Nora! I told you no sit-ups. You have bruised ribs for crying out loud."
Even though she was clearly wincing in pain from each repetition, Nora didn't stop her workout. "Jaune, don't you… oof… think you should be… oof… resting? After the… oof… night you had, you should… oof… you're right I can't do this."
"Just take it easy for a little while, that's all I'm asking. You'll be back to your old self before you know it," Jaune said, helping Nora to her feet, then back to her bed, before taking a seat at the end of the same bed.
Nora smiled at the kind gesture, but the smile faded when she saw that the pain in his eyes far exceeded her own. "Jaune, she's gonna be fine. When has Pyrrha ever not been fine? I mean unless you count literally every social interaction between the two-"
"NORA!" The now awakened Ren shouted from across the room.
Jaune couldn't help but let a laugh slip out. After the nightmare of the last few days, he understood. His teammates had his back, especially Nora. She'd given him the space he needed to try to comfort Pyrrha before her match in the tournament. She could see the writing on the walls even if he couldn't. Jaune had considered detailing the last time he'd spoken to Pyrrha, and what happened, to his team, but every time he tried to gather the courage to even think about it, he nearly broke down into tears. Right now he needed to put on a strong face. That conversation would have to wait.
"Ren, it's okay. I- I get it. You guys don't have to tiptoe around it any more. She considered me to be more than a friend. I can see that now. It's just the… not knowing… ya know? I wanna talk to her. I want… I want to make everything right, but no one has heard from Pyrrha or Ruby or Weiss, and it's been hours. Glynda and Ironwood won't let anybody go to Beacon. They say it's too overrun with Grimm, so they quarantined it." Jaune thought about how little he was concerned with the Grimm infestation. "I don't care how dangerous it is! My friends are out there somewhere, and I'm sitting here. I've got to do something… anything..." He stood up from the bed, ready for action, but a hand grabbed his arm.
"WE…'ve… got to do something," Ren's calm voice corrected him from the opposite bed. "Pyrrha is our teammate too. What kind of team would we be if we just lay here when she needs us?"
Jaune looked back at Nora, who had been responsible for the restrainment of his arm. "I can't ask you guys to do that. You're both hurt, and if anything happened to-"
"Staaahp," Nora groaned. "Watching you sulk like this hurts more than anything that happened to me last night. Besides, you'd be a terrible leader if you didn't at least put it to a vote. And so far, it looks like you're outnumbered. This… is happening!"
Jaune tried to bring the cold realities of their proposed mission into context. "I'm not taking you guys back to Beacon in your conditions! You could be killed!"
"Then we'll die together!" Nora exclaimed in her usual happy-go-lucky demeanor, garnering worrisome looks from her two teammates.
There was silence for a moment before Ren spoke up. "Uh, Nora? Maybe try to be a little more... positive than… that?"
"Oops!" She backpedaled rapidly, "Then we'll fail together!" Ren let out an extended sigh, before sliding his legs out over the edge of the bed and slowly rising to his feet.
Jaune turned back to Nora, offering his hand to help her up. He'd been against this idea wholeheartedly, but he was outvoted three to one. Nora, Ren and his own heart wanted closure to this night of uncertainty and angst. His brain was trying to communicate the danger and recklessness of this plan, but not doing so successfully.
It was Ren who brought up the first hoop that they would have to jump through to make this plan work. "The security forces around here are not like going to let us climb up to Beacon, much less steal an airship. So how do we get there?" Jaune hadn't thought about how to actually get to Beacon aside from using transport ships, which weren't running at the moment.
"Let's just get down to the ships across the street, and we'll figure something out. You're right about the security though, Ren. They won't be happy about what we're doing, no matter how we end up doing it," Jaune surmised.
"Maybe they'll try to taze me, bro" Nora joked. She got a laugh from everyone in the room.
Several minutes passed as Nora and Ren changed from hospital gowns to combat armor. It took longer than normal due to general soreness and fatigue. Jaune felt like it was a short eternity passing, but at least they were going to do something. His mind was racing, but it was as close to being at ease as it had been all of the previous night. For better or for worse, he'd know. No more uncertainty.
"Hey guys, I'm gonna run next door to Yang's room. Hopefully Blake's there, so I can let somebody know what we're doing, just so they can… you know… save us when we fail," Jaune said to Nora, who smirked at the wisecrack. "Just so you know, I'm absolutely not letting either of them come along. I don't care how many votes they get... I'll be right back."
He opened the door to his room, and poked his head out into the hall. The nature of what he was about to do meant that it was probably a good idea to avoid suspicion, so Jaune made sure that there were no soldiers in the hall who would wonder why he was leading what were essentially two cadavers out of the hospital. Seeing that it was all clear, Jaune turned to his left and headed to room 226. It was a safe assumption that Yang wouldn't even be awake yet. Whatever had happened to her was savage, and she would need a lot of time to rest.. It was hit-or-miss with Blake. She could be really friendly or really blunt, depending on whether or not she'd had her tea. Her injury was also particularly vicious, and she wasn't supposed to be up and moving around this soon.
He knocked softly on the door. As expected, there wasn't much activity inside. "Blake? It's Jaune, can I come inside real quick? I need to tell you guys something." Now he could hear footsteps. He wasn't especially close with Blake, but Jaune knew that she'd be more comfortable around people she knew. Now that he'd established that he wasn't some doctor coming to change a bandage or something, she'd let him in. Jaune was sure of it. The footsteps stopped just inside the door. There was a moment of hesitation, before the door slowly swung open.
Jaune's heart proceeded to skip several beats. Everything was wrong again. Standing before him was not the dark-haired Faunus who he was expecting. Instead, he stood face to face with a very disheveled-looking Weiss, who was clearly caught off-guard by his arrival. Tears were beginning to well in her eyes, knowing what she was about to have to say. She had been struggling with how to handle the news of Pyrrha's fate for the twenty or thirty minutes it had been since she got out of the debriefing.
For a moment Jaune stood, stunned, trying to understand how he could have missed so much. He hadn't planned on falling asleep on that chair in the first place, but even still, his rest only lasted for a couple of hours at most. As his thoughts snapped back to the present, he began to draw completely unsubstantiated conclusions about what her presence here meant. His brainstorming was interrupted by Weiss burying her head on his shoulder.
Her voice was muffled somewhat by the thickness of Jaune's battle fatigues, but the words came through very clearly. "I'm… I- Jaune… we went… as fast as we could… there was no time… Ruby tried to save her… I don't know what happened…" Then nothing. The proud heiress quietly sobbed on his shoulder for a few moments, before taking a step back and looking straight into his eyes, before being robbed of a chance to speak.
"Weiss… what are you saying? Who did Ruby try to save?" Jaune asked the question, half in ignorance, half in denial. He never had been able to deduce who Weiss was with at the time of their conversation on the scroll. As he began to put it all together, it all began to fall apart. "Weiss…? What happ… Where's… Pyrrha…?"
Weiss slowly lowered her head, prepared to present the only vestige that remained of Pyrrha Nikos. When she struggled to unfasten the tiara from her belt, Jaune noticed. He looked down, and saw his nightmare become reality.
He stumbled backward, then forward again, clearly off balance. His legs shook. Everything shook. A sudden tightness in his stomach and lightheadedness paralyzed him. He dropped to his knees, arms bracing himself against the door frame, eyes glazed over, fixated on the floor. There were no tears. He knew her death was a possibility, but now was the first time his mind was attempting to come to terms with it, albeit unsuccessfully.
Weiss took a moment to finally detach the tiara from her belt. She held it for a moment, before kneeling down with Jaune. She could clearly see that the life had been sucked out of him. He was almost totally unresponsive. Her words weren't eloquent, they weren't carefully thought out, they were a raw stream of emotion. "Jaune… I'm so, so sorry. I just… we just couldn't go fast enough… I told Ruby to get to the top of the Tower… After that… I just… don't know." She sniffled a bit, wiped the tears from her eyes, and attempted to compose herself a bit more before continuing. "When Qrow and I finally made it to the top… we found Ruby unconscious, and Pyrrha's tiara. I don't think anybody knows what happened up there."
Some part of what she said triggered Jaune. He lowered his arms from the door frame, and carefully grasped the tiara, almost without looking at it. He held it up to his face. The harsh reality of what he was looking at finally started to pervade his thoughts, but it wasn't despair. "Weiss," he started softly, "It's… not your fault. It's what… Pyrrha wanted. Not that she wanted to… I don't know…" He stopped to organize his thoughts for a moment. "She asked me once if I believed in destiny, like… if I thought our entire existence was for a specific purpose. Pyrrha told me that she thought her destiny was to protect the world... I don't know if we'll ever know what happened on that tower, but she protected me."
"She did a lot more than that, kid," Qrow's voice reassured him. "Her sacrifice may be the first step along a path so saving us all."
Jaune turned his head just enough to get a glimpse of who was addressing him. "You must be-"
"Qrow. Yeah, that's me." He put his hand on Jaune's shoulder. "Listen, we don't have to have this conversation right now. Take some time with this. Let it sink in. As soon as you don't feel sadness for stuff like this is when you know you've lost your humanity… who you are. She's gone, but her legacy… well, that's you. She died so that the rest of us could have a chance."
Qrow then knelt down, addressing both of them. "It doesn't have to be today, and it doesn't have to be tomorrow. But there are some things you need to know... some things that are going to make this picture a lot clearer. When you're ready, come find me, and we'll talk."
With that, he left them. After a few minutes of silence, Jaune found it within himself to stand up, and offered his hand to Weiss to assist her. She accepted, and they now stood as they began, in the doorway, burdened by the sadness of Pyrrha's passing. At the same time, it was an almost comforting feeling to know the truth, to have the realization that despite her passing, this was the thing Pyrrha had sacrificed everything for.
Weiss was the first to speak in Qrow's absence. "I… wasn't sure how this was going to affect you Jaune. It's part of the reason I didn't come to you right away. I wasn't trying to avoid you, I promise. It's just… I didn't know how to tell you. There's really no words that can express how sorry I am that I couldn't help her. I should have been there for her. For you. For Ruby. I let a lot of people down-"
"That's enough, Weiss." Jaune insisted. "I won't let you beat yourself up over this. You did everything you could. Ruby too. But Crow's right. Pyrrha did all of this to protect the rest of us. She knew what she was doing and she did it on her own terms. I don't think she knew from the beginning, but at some point she made a decision… and that decision didn't come easy for her. When this all settles down, I'll tell you the whole story. For right now? I just need you to go easy on yourself." For the first time, Jaune looked past Weiss into the room. Ruby lay silently on the bed closest to the window. He let a small smile slip, comforted by the sight of Ruby safely back with her friends. "Take care of your team Weiss. They need you. Just like right now, mine needs me."
They stood in the doorway for a time, in somber solidarity for everyone and everything taken from them in the last few days. Weiss took the opportunity to move close enough to give Jaune a hug, which he reciprocated. The embrace lasted for a few seconds before the two parted.
"Thanks again Weiss. For everything. You did everything you could have possibly done. There's not a shred of blame that falls on your shoulders for this. Just so you know, if you need to talk to me about anything, I'm right next door. I'm gonna take some time with this like Crow said, so I'll be around." Jaune turned to head back to his room before stopping himself. "Hey, I almost forgot… if you get a chance, go find Neptune. He was pretty worried about you all last night."
Weiss thanked him for being so understanding, and for telling her about Neptune. She was grateful that she had something else to think about for a while. She backed into her room and softly closed the door.
Jaune made his way back to his room slowly, with her tiara still in his hands. He'd done his best to put on a good face for Weiss, but now he was going to have to deliver the news to his two teammates.
It wasn't easy. When he opened his door, his teammates were in exceptionally good spirits, ready to start their secret mission to save Pyrrha. They were stunned when Jaune entered the room holding her tiara. Ren was pretty level headed about most things, but Jaune could tell how hard this hit him. Even still, he didn't cry. Ren only did that around onions. Nora, on the other hand, immediately broke into a full weep. She was the happiest person Jaune had ever met, so seeing her upset like that made him give in to his emotions and join her. Team Juniper was a family, and they had lost one of their own.
The rest of the day was full of reflection, for both the good times and the bad. It helped everyone cope. There were tears of joy and tears of sadness, and a greater appreciation for their own lives and those of their friends, preserved through the heroics of their beloved Pyrrha Nikos.