Chapter 17: Dousing the Flame
At least half of an hour had passed by the time Qrow finished explaining the evacuation of Beacon, the establishment of the safe zone in Vale, the fall of the CCTS, and the mysterious flash of light. Yang took most of the news about as well as she could be expected to. For the most part, she had just remained silent and attentive, even though she already knew about the evacuation and the safe zone from her meet-up with Oobleck. Her primary concern had been her close friends and allies. Since the things Qrow explained involved none of those, it was all very unsatisfying to her. She didn't have the knowledge of the moving pieces in the background. Only Ozpin's closest and most trusted allies knew such sensitive information. As far as Qrow was concerned, Yang didn't need to worry about any of that right now.
He allowed his chair to fall back to its resting position on all four legs. From there, Qrow could see out into the hall, where most of the other visitors waited. He picked out a few faces from the crowd, just in case he couldn't answer one of the, in his estimation, four thousand questions he would have to entertain very soon. In doing so, he broke conversation with Yang for just a few seconds too long, and she pounced on the opportunity. "So… where's Ruby fit into all of this?"
"I was getting there," Qrow replied. He retold the story of his journey to the vault, once again leaving out sensitive information about dead maidens. "When Weiss and I made it to the top of the tower, we found Ruby. She was face down in the rubble of what had been the upper half of the top floor. That dragon caused the structural damage, but I can't tell you what happened to Ruby. I don't think anyone can. Well, at least not any more."
Yang raised an eyebrow, "What's that supposed to mean?"
There was a long pause before Qrow let out an apprehensive sigh, "Pyrrha went up there to try to stop the woman responsible for starting this whole mess. If anybody could tell us what happened to Ruby, she'd be our best bet."
"You're slippin' old man, even I know that we just have to ask Pyrrha what she saw up there. I'm actually surprised that you didn't figure that out yourself," she said confidently, despite a lingering feeling that she wasn't being told the whole story. After all, it was a major oversight by her uncle.
The professional huntsman found himself upset about the 'old man' comment from his niece. It caused him to retort more aggressively, more bluntly than he intended. "There is no more Pyrrha, Yang." He stopped for a moment, realizing how his words must have sounded. Yang stared at him, expressionless, wide-eyed. "Uh, I didn't mean for it to come across like that. When we got to the top of the Tower, we found Pyrrha's tiara, and her shield. She's gone."
"Pyrrha's… she's… no... I watched her fight… " It was at this moment, an emotional low point, that Yang started to understand the seriousness of everything happening around her. This wasn't only some sick game that a psychopath was playing to leverage their power. This was a war, and people were dying while she lay, resting in her stupid bed. Well no more, she thought. She threw the blankets that were covering her onto the floor. The abrupt re-introduction to physical activity caused pain to shoot through her right arm, which she fool heartedly ignored. Even though she hadn't used them in what seemed like forever, Yang assumed that after seventeen years of practice, she could manage the use of her legs. She pivoted in her bed, draping her legs off the left side.
Qrow jumped up from his chair, "Whoa whoa whoa! You can't-" was all he was able to blurt out before Yang pulled herself up by her left arm, using the nightstand between the two beds as support. Qrow rushed to the aid of his niece, concerned that she wasn't ready for any level of physical activity, let alone walking around. He reached out to help, "You shouldn't be out of-"
"Stop it," she lashed out verbally, while simultaneously swatting Qrow's hand away. The defensive action, combined with a complete lack of balance caused by her missing right arm, as well as an exacerbated weakness in her legs sent her tumbling backwards. It was the lamp on top of the nightstand, not the delusional young huntress that took the fall. The metal light clanged as it hit the ground, and the bulb exploded with a bright flash. Unphased by her close call, Yang pulled herself up, yet again, and faced Qrow directly. "I. Have. To. Do. This."
Qrow gave her space, afraid of what would happen if she tried to parry him again. "Do what, Yang?"
"Don't you understand? People are dying. Pyrrha. Died. Penny. Died. Ruby is… I don't even know. Blake needed me. She still needs me and I haven't even seen her...or heard from her in..." Her train of thought was broken by the onset of tears in her eyes.
Qrow tried to reason with her, "The people we're up against are more powerful than you could ever imagine. What chance would you have now, if you couldn't help Blake when you were at full streng-"
A left hook caught Qrow in the jaw. The exertion sent the emotionally charged, but physically drained Yang twisting toward the ground. Her reflexes tried to catch her, but failed to compensate for her injury, which was one of the principal points of impact with the floor. She let out the most agonizing scream since waking up the most recent time, causing a stir in the hallway. Qrow stumbled back a few steps, before looking back to Yang with an uncharacteristically shocked expression on his face.
There were now tiny cuts on her legs and feet, most likely originating from the shards of exploded light bulb that littered the area. Her eyes burned again, but tears continued to flow from them. Even despite all of her afflictions, she was still trying to claw her way back to an upright position. Qrow slowly walked towards Yang, watching her. As he neared, she lost her grip on the mattress she'd been clinging to, and slumped back to the floor. She now sat on the ground, with her back up against the side of her bed. Her left hand was doing its best to cover her face as she cried.
Qrow sat down on the ground next to her, ignoring the glass that sliced through various parts of his cloak and trousers. As calmly as he could manage, he spoke, "You're putting me in a really uncomfortable position. In like, three or four different ways." He saw that Yang had no intention to respond, so he kept going, "Pyrrha… she didn't do what she did to prove that she could. She did it because she had to. She did it to try to save the world… and the people in it. She would have told you it was her destiny as a huntress to fight tooth and nail, trying to protect her friends. That's what it means to do what we do, Yang. We have to exhaust every single possible option to help each other." He put his arm around Yang.
"Even then… it doesn't always work out like in the fairy tales. Pyrrha did what she felt she had to do. I'm not gonna pretend to know what happened up on that tower, but one way or another, Ruby survived." Yang looked up at Ruby. It still wasn't a comforting feeling to see her normally hyperactive sister like this. But Qrow was right. She was alive. "You did what you needed to do, too. Who knows what would've happened to Blake if you didn't come along." He paused while she tried to stop her tears. "Tell ya what. Why don't we get you off of this floor and back into the bed?"
She still didn't respond to his words, but Yang did begin to try to pull herself up, this time using the nightstand as a crutch. Qrow offered help, only to be refused again by the suddenly impersonal girl. He was able to get himself to his feet much more quickly than Yang, but her apparent reluctance to speak meant that he was just watching for more than a few seconds. It was unfortunate timing for him, as the commotion from before had awoken Weiss. From across the hall, she stormed into the room. When she saw Qrow hovering over her train wreck of a teammate, she snapped.
"What are you doing!?" Yang and Qrow were both caught off guard by her appearance in the doorway. Neither was sure who was being addressed. Weiss showed no hesitation as she marched across the room, past Qrow, and directly to Yang. She was very careful to avoid causing any discomfort as she helped Yang to her feet and onto the bed, then sat down next to her. She glared aggressively at Qrow, who was still watching the entire scene unfold. "You should be ashamed of yourself! Yang is in no condition to be out of bed," she said as she looked down at the place where her teammate had been sitting. "Is that glass? What is going on in here?!"
Qrow had become irritated that his niece was no longer acknowledging him, and now, he was being chastised by a teenager. "I was filling her in on what she missed. You kind of showed up at a bad time."
"The entire world is kind of a bad time. Whatever this is, it can't possibly be helping," she shot back.
Qrow had become visibly upset by this point, and began to raise his voice. "Look! I didn't tell her to get out of bed, she did that part herself. I tried to help, and I got clocked in the jaw. What do you want from me? Jeez! You're more like your sister than I gave you credit for."
"That's funny, because Yang let me help her up… so what'd you do to make her so upset?"
"That's enough!" The words tore through the air like a dull knife. Her voice was trembling, eyes were now red from the crying and excessive rubbing, but they had returned to their natural lilac color. The two verbal combatants immediately turned their attention back to Yang, who did her best to settle herself down. "I'm glad you're okay through all of this," she said as she placed her good arm on Weiss's lap. "I... just need you to tell me that Blake is okay..."
Qrow took the hint that he was not wanted, and retreated to his chair on the other side of the room, still fuming from his interaction with Weiss.
Weiss was not grateful, even in the least, that once again she would have to be the bearer of bad news. In her mind, she lamented the misery that she had passed along to her friends. First Jaune, now this?
Realizing that ever passing moment was eating away at Yang, she decided that she had to say something, so she started slowly, "Blake… visited you here... last night. It was... not too long after sundown. I must have dozed off, because I didn't see her come in." Weiss had to stop. Her heart was pounding, and she had no idea how she could tell the next part of the story, and even less of an idea how Yang would handle it. The anxiety was unmistakable in her muted tone and shaky composure.
Yang pleaded desperately, "Weiss…?"
"Sun… was the last one to see her. I talked to him this morning. When she was here, Blake… said her goodbyes. To all of us but... she's gone…" Weiss paused to gauge her friend's reaction before continuing, but there was no reaction. There was nothing. "Yang, she left us because she loves us too much to put us in danger. That psychopath… Adam… he's trying to get revenge on Blake. What he did to you… Blake couldn't live with the thought of anything like that happening to anyone else." Still, Yang showed no response.
Within the confines of the fortress that had formerly been known as Yang, everything had stopped. The last words that had made it through before the drawbridge had been raised were 'she's gone.' It wasn't fair. A few days ago, the worst thing that had happened to her was being called fat. Then a disqualification, followed shortly thereafter by a dismemberment. Pyrrha… the best fighter, hands down, that Beacon could boast was killed, fighting for her friends. Then Ruby. Ozpin, the voice of reassurance and stability… gone. And now Blake was on the run. Her closest friend, her first partner from their initiation in the Emerald Forest. It was all too much to handle.
Weiss had been trying to offer solace in the background, to little effect. In her current state of shock, Yang was completely disconnected from the world around her. The news of Blake's departure took Qrow by surprise as well. His anger diminished greatly once he began to understand what, exactly, he had said to upset his niece so quickly. He stood up from his chair, and casually made his way to the bedside, next to where Weiss was sitting.
Reaching past Weiss, who was still greatly irritated by his presence, he gently rested Yang back onto her pillow. After making his way around the bed, he picked the sheets up off of the floor and covered her up to her chest. Qrow thought for a moment, carefully selecting the words he considered appropriate to defuse the emotional time bomb that was Weiss. They came from a dark place, where he wouldn't normally go around his immediate family, except that neither one of them was likely going to absorb any of it.
"I know what this feels like, Weiss. Right now, you probably hate me. You have every reason to. From your perspective, I'm some apathetic drunk who watched his own blood crawl around on the floor. Truth is, you're right." She looked up at him with angry eyes, but allowed him to continue without interruption. "I've been doing this for a long time. Long enough to know that this kind of thing can ruin a person. I've watched it happen. Twice. The real tragedy of it is... it was the same person. He lost two loves. Two teammates. Two mothers. But you know what? He came back. And that's why I know Yang will come back. Grieving is a natural process. People move through it at their own pace, and to interfere with it… well… that's how you end up like me."
Weiss was surprised to discover that Qrow had apparently recovered his heart from the black hole that must have absorbed it earlier in the day. Over the last forty-eight hours, he had been the wise, supportive huntsman who she needed to help her survive. But in this time of mourning, he had become a cold, callous man who had withdrawn into some sort of mental shell.
"I've seen so much death over the years that it barely even affects me any more. I've lost family, friends, teammates, people I only knew for a few minutes, and everything in between. I would never wish that on anyone."
Weiss didn't know how to form a proper response to the sudden outpouring of honesty. This was clearly a man with a deep seeded emotional disconnect, but also a man who was well versed in how to deal with loss. They were just kids, not even eighteen years old. "What makes you so sure Yang is going to get over this?"
Qrow smiled, "Because the person who lost two loves? That's her dad. I've known Taiyang for a long time. He's kind of a softie, but that just means he can bounce back that much better." Weiss knew very few details about her teammates' parents, but learning that recovery from heartbreak apparently ran in the family was… somehow reassuring. "I wish I could promise you that everything's going to be fine, but I can't. All I can tell you is the same thing I told Ruby and Yang. You kids are gonna go far, but you have to keep learning, and you can never stop moving forward."
She just shook her head as she stood up, amazed that despite having a heart of stone, Qrow always had the right advice to give. "You should be more careful. You're coming awful close to being a nice guy again."
"Yeah, yeah… Don't get too used to it. It's mostly just so your sister doesn't attack me again next time I see her. Oh, and here's some more 'nice guy' advice. Don't worry about these two. I'll keep an eye on 'em. You should go find something to do to get your mind off of all this. Maybe go see if you can help clear out some of the Grimm that pushed into Vale this morning."
As Weiss walked past Qrow she stopped. "Now that you mention it, I do have an errand to run. But I swear, if I come back here and find everyone laying on the ground, you'll join them."
"No promises." He quipped.
She simply sighed, unsure how anyone could be so nonchalant, given the circumstances. Turning to Yang, who was now staring blankly past Ruby and out the window, Weiss offered the best consolation she had. "Don't worry about me, Yang. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."
She stepped through the entryway, pulling the door closed behind her. Addressing the somewhat thinned crowd that had remained in the hall even after the extended wait, she indicated that Yang wasn't in a condition to accept visitors right now. She promised to keep as many people updated as she could on her teammates' conditions, and then set off towards the lobby. Finally free from the burden of being a caretaker, Weiss set about the business she had meant to attend to many hours before.
As she neared the street-side exit to the building, Weiss felt a vibration in her pocket. Instinctively, she removed her scroll from it, and opened it to see who was calling. It read, 'Father'. Wait... what? That's impossible, she thought as she closed her scroll again. The CCTS has been down for days.
She stepped out of the building, and noticed that there was now another, different vibration, at the same time as a great shadow was cast over her. A titanic luxury transport ship was passing through the skies nearby. On the side of it was the emblem that she knew all too well, paired with the words Schnee Dust Company.