Chapter 22

Carry That Weight

XXXXX

Ironwood looked over the battlefield. It was over. The battle has never been in the favor of the Legion or the White Fang, even with their Aura awakened. When the Ace Ops had torn into the side of their lines their already bad situation had become perilous. Then those who had awoken their Aura had begun dropping dead. The outcome was sealed at that point, this turn of fate enabling him to march into the joint camp and capture whoever hadn't fled or died. A few legionaries had refused to be taken captive, either fighting to the last or slitting their throats, even as they had coughed up blood. Many had been too weak to do either, leaving Ironwood with quite a few prisoners.

He was on the edge of the recently captured camp, staring out at the sea of dead. His own fallen had already been removed from the battlefield, the medics saving who they could. Even then, the sight of the dead was a morbid sight, but one he refused to look away from. He had given the orders that had led to every single death tonight, and many of the dead White Fang were Atlas citizens. It was a grim price to pay, but it was a price he would pay over and over again to keep his kingdom safe. They had all made their choice, and so had the Legion.

Off to his side, a junior officer was reading a post-battle report. Despite not looking at the man, Ironwood's attention was firmly on everything he was saying. "We've fifty-two dead and around twenty wounded, with most of our knights either destroyed or damaged," the soldier reported, saluting. "So far, the dead and captured enemy number at approximately 350. We believe a few dozen enemies have escaped, both through the small break out group and through piecemeal runners." Ironwood mulled the numbers over in his head. He had been hoping for casualties to be borderline non-existent with how thoroughly he had stacked the advantages in his favor. Still, the casualties were within a hair's breadth of being 1:7 in Atlas's favor, and it was with the Legion revealing and utilizing Caesar's Semblance. Even his most fervent critic would be unable to paint this as anything other than an overwhelming victory. And the knights had been destroyed? Well, that was all right. Caesar's forces were broken, scattered, and at an eighth of their original strength from their original four-hundred. The strength of Atlas had proven itself, Caesar's days were numbered. Knights were a trivial price to pay for that.

"Specifically how many prisoners do we have?" He asked.

"Twenty-seven, eighteen of them White Fang and nine Legion," the soldier said. "When we breached the camp, the White Fang were far more willing to surrender. Most of our prisoners had to be stabilized when the negative effects of the mass awakening Semblance kicked in. As it stands, even with our intervention, there was an incredibly high fatality rate, with at least a hundred dead due to negative side effects of the awakening. But there's a concerning factor. Those who have been stabilized and are recovering? They have maintained their Aura. The awakening appears to be permanent, although we cannot say for certain with just field studies."

"And the leadership of the Legion and White Fang?" Ironwood asked, still looking out onto the piles of dead.

The man scrolled down on his pad. "Caesar, Lucius, Vulpes Inculta, and Adam Taurus were all confirmed to be part of the break out group. Caesar was also confirmed, from interrogation, to be the wielder of the mass awakening Semblance. Lucius and Vulpes are confirmed to have decay and emotional alteration Semblances as well. Of the four of them, three were confirmed to have escaped. We did, however, successfully capture Vulpes. We are arranging to transport him back to HQ as we speak." That was vital. Even if Caesar and Adam had eluded his grasp, he had Caesar's spymaster now. And if his intelligence was good, Vulpes was Caesar's primary means of recruiting local allies. On top of the loss that would be to Caesar, the knowledge that Vulpes had would be far superior to the fragmented intelligence he had gotten from Rumford.

"However, neither Legate Lanius nor Marie F. were spotted during the battle," the officer said. "We have been unable to determine where they are. All we've gotten from our prisoners so far is that a detachment was sent out on a mission. To where or why, we have no idea." Well, he already knew what his first questions for Vulpes were going to be. "And...it looks as if Team RWBY came out worse for wear."

Ironwood finally broke away from the battlefield, his gaze swiveling onto the officer. "What!?"

The man stuttered before continuing. "Of the four of them, three are listed as WIA. Weiss Schnee lost a finger, Yang Xiao Long an arm, and Blake Belladonna is suffering from internal bleeding and a ruptured kidney. They were all med evaced with the critically wounded five minutes ago. Ruby Rose was not harmed, but she was emotionally distressed. She was permitted to accompany them. Their detachment was the one who dealt with the breakout group and the leadership of both enemy factions. They appear to be responsible for the capture of Vulpes."

"I see," Ironwood said. He hadn't made a mistake putting them on the flank, the fact that they had captured Vulpes was proof of that. But them having been so badly hurt was a call for concern. The Legion and Adam were that dangerous, then. He would need to talk to the team. They had all been asked to do a good deal, Weiss in particular, and they needed to know that their efforts had borne fruit. He had so much more to do. But he needed to know one more thing first. "And Pyrrha Nikos? Was there anything of particular note with her performance?"

"Let me see," the officer said, flicking through the report. Then he stopped. "This can't be right. Her team and the squad she was with claimed that she took out the entire one-hundred person detachment, the one that was trying to flank us. They were all Legion and had all awoken to Aura. It says here that miss Nykos is a prodigy, but even the Ace Ops would struggle to take on those odds." The man looked up from his pad nervously. "I'm sorry sir, there must've been a miscommunication. We're still trying to piece everything together. I'll get you a revised copy of the report as soon as-" but Ironwood cut him off.

"That won't be necessary, forward the rest of the report to my scroll, I'll read it on my own time."

"But-" the soldier hesitated. "Aye sir."

Ironwood nodded. As he did, his scroll began to ring. "Dismissed. I need to take this." The soldier hastily saluted him before running off. Pulling out his scroll, he saw Ozpin was the one calling him. Sighing, he took it. "Your candidate for the Fall Maiden has surpassed all of our expectations," he said. "Judging from what's happened out here, she's already on her way to surpassing Amber."

"I'm glad to hear it," Ozpin said. He sounded exhausted. "Because Salem's forces broke into where we were hiding Amber's body. Two men were killed in the process. They know that what's left of the Fall Maiden is with Ms. Nikos now."

"They what?" Ironwood said slowly. Anger was starting to seep through him. "Oz. Are you telling me that they waited until I was gone before they came back?" The intelligence leak he knew he had had transformed from a simple known fact to something that was openly mocking him.

"It seems that way. I was asleep in the private room you had given me when it happened." There was a pause as Ironwood heard the sound of Ozpin sipping something. It sounded like he was trying to relieve stress. "James, this is what Salem does. She's never favored brute force, it's always subterfuge. Whether Cinder managed to get a soldier of yours to turn or one of her own managed to slip into your ranks, I don't know. I've seen her do both before. You have to play the same game as her to counter it. Fight shadow with shadow, secrecy with secrecy. It's why Qrow has been my best ally in this fight ever since he joined me. We can't just stay in wait with an army, they'll see it coming. When you brought your army to Beacon, they adapted and nearly used it against us. And if the radical White Fang hadn't switched their allegiance to the Legion and leaked their plans before we could take Rumford prisoner, we wouldn't have known. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember, I know how she thinks. We need a more subtle approach to her."

Ironwood felt a spike of irritation. It was telling that Oz had spent a little too much time getting comfortable in his role as a teacher. He treated everyone else as if he were lecturing them and they just needed to sit down and listen. If Ozpin had just trusted him and worked with him, they could've easily have subverted Salem's cyber attack on their own. But now wasn't the time for fighting. He and Ozpin needed to work together here. "The lion's share of the Legion and White Fang have been decimated. They won't be able to head back to Mantle now with the limited supplies they now have, and if they head further inland they'll smash into Atlas's defenses. And I doubt they mean to retreat, it means certain defeat. They'll head straight for Atlas to try and take the Winter Maiden and the Staff. It's their only hope."

"I agree," Ozpin said. "I advise you to pull your most skilled and elite back to Atlas and have them guard both the Maiden and the Relic. Cinder and her followers have already proven they can outwit your soldiers. Relocating your entire army to Atlas will just signal that it's where they need to attack. We need a tightly knit group protecting both Maidens. Let them think everything is going according to their plan. If we're lucky, we may even be able to recover the full Fall Maiden."

"Are we certain that Salem won't try to capitalize on the situation to capture the Relic of Choice?" Ironwood said. "You need to consider something Ozpin, Vale isn't nearly as well defended as Atlas, and they may know you're longer there. They may take advantage of your divided attention. Do we know for certain if they even need the full Maiden? Is half a Maiden enough to open a Vault's door?" It felt more than a little frustrating for Ozpin to lecture him on how to defend his city, when Ozpin himself had left Vale relatively unguarded outside of the soldiers Ironwood had left there.

Ozpin hesitated before he answered. "I must admit, I don't know. This is the first time one of the Maidens has ever been divided. But rest assured that the Relic of Choice is safe, I have left special safeguards in place. Besides, Vale and Beacon are both safe in Glynda's capable hands." With most of the Relics and Maidens it was simple. The academy for each kingdom was built on a Vault that contained a Relic, one that only its corresponding Maiden could open, with said Maiden guarding the Vault. He had seen the Vaults for Haven and Shade academies, and was charged with the defense of Atlas Academy, along with its Vault. But he didn't know where the Beacon Vault was; no one aside from Oz seemed to. The man had only ever eluded to it with "special precautions" that left Ironwood rather frustrated. What if Ozpin alone wasn't enough? After all, wasn't his Maiden the one that had been compromised? "And while we're on the subject you should consider a replacement for the current Winter Maiden. She'll have to be the core of our elite team."

"I've been considering candidates already, I have a pile of resumes waiting in my office," Ironwood said. He did not like the idea of bringing anything less than his full forces to Atlas, regardless of how strong the current garrison was. It was the capital of his kingdom, how could he settle for anything less than everything? But before he could object, Ozpin continued.

"...This was the first time Pyrrha ever used her new abilities in combat. How is she holding up?" Before his tone had been calm and level before now, but here it faltered. He sounded melancholic and tired.

"I'm not certain. I've had fires to put out everywhere," Ironwood answered honestly. "I'll check in on her when I get a moment." He now felt as tired and worn as Ozpin. "There should be time after I assess Team RWBY's injuries personally."

"...Injuries?" With that word, Ironwood's blood went cold. He rarely heard Ozpin with a voice this frigid. "James? What happened to my students?"

XXXXX

Blake's eyes were heavy. Her body was sore, so much so that it hurt to move. For a long time, she laid wherever she was, unable to summon up the effort or concentration to do much of anything except the occasional twitch m. She was certain she could hear voices from far away, but had no idea who they were or what they were saying. Where was she? How had she gotten here? It was so hard to remember. For what seemed like an eternity, she drifted, not sure if she was conscious or not. Vaguely, she felt fatigue pulling at her. Sometimes she felt things shift underneath her, as if she had fallen asleep and woken up in a different position.

Then, after who knew how long, her eyes slid open on their own. She was blinded for a moment, her eyelids frantically blinking as they attempted to adjust to the light. Then, finally, they adjusted.

She was lying in a bed in what looked like an infirmary. A dozen other beds filled the room, a couple empty but most of them hidden by curtains that had been pulled to give their occupants privacy. Sunlight was shining weakly through a nearby window as dawn broke, out of which she could see towering silver buildings stretching towards the sky. An IV was set up next to her bed and hooked into her arm, and she could feel the thin, soft fabric of a hospital gown pressing into her. An ache pulsed through her, originating from her torso. Shifting, she peeled back her covers and lifted her light blue gown up. She wished she hadn't.

The place where she had been stabbed by Adam was bandaged, but even then she could make out the telltale signs of surgical stitches. She had been hurt that badly. Feeling sick, she let the covers and gown fall back over her. She felt weak and the site of surgery ached horrifically, but even through that she felt her heart hammer in panic. Adam had done this to her. Adam had hurt Weiss, and Yang. Trembling, she looked down at her hands. She had done that to Yang. Yang had gotten distracted trying to help her, and when she had tried to rescue Yang, she had snapped her arm clean off.

She had to get out of here, she couldn't be around them not after this. She had been stupid to think that she could just leave a terrorist organization and pretend she was a normal teenage girl. People like her didn't get to run off and just be friends with people who had their lives together. She had tried, and she had ended up dragging them all down with her. The farther she was away from them all, the better. Scrambling as fast as she could, which was far slower that she would've liked, she grabbed the IV chord and prepared to pull.

"What are you doing!?" Blake's entire body seized up as her head jerked in the direction of the person who had just shouted. Weiss was sitting in a chair right next to her bed. Judging by the wrinkles in her dress, the line of drool trickling down her face, and how she was rubbing her eyes, she had fallen asleep. She was waking up awfully fast, though. "Are you stupid? They put that in you for a reason!" she said, slapping Blake's hand away from the IV. "What were you thinking?"

Blake froze. The plan had been to get out before anyone else on the team could stop her. Just looking at one of them would make leaving that much harder. And now, she hasn't even gotten up and Weiss had already caught her red handed. "Blake, I asked you a question!" All Blake could do was stare, at a lost for words, her heart hammering and breath short. Weiss was angry, but there was also a glimmer in her eye that Blake knew. She was scared. "Well?"

Out of instinct, Blake glanced around for an escape route. Weiss was between her and the door, could she handle the window when she hadn't fully recovered from surgery? "Blake what are you-" Weiss began, but she trailed off. Comprehension was dawning on her face. "You were going to run." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. It was like a knife through Blake's heart. She tried to say something, anything, in her defense. She couldn't. It was the truth and they both knew it.

A horrifically long minute of silence passed between the two of them. Then, eventually, Weiss held up her right hand. Her right pinkie was covered in bandages. To Blake's relief, there wasn't no abrupt stop. The whole finger was there. "I was very, very lucky," she says softly. "The doctors were able to reattach it. They say it may take months before it feels like normal again, before I can move it the way I used to. And I was the lucky one. Yang? She's the one who got it the worst out there." Weiss sniffed. "They said her arm had a rate of decay equal to something that had been dead for weeks, there was nothing they could do. Ruby cried herself to sleep more then once. Only when she thinks I'm not looking though."

Wait, more than once? "How long was I out? Where are we?" She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"They took us to Upper Atlas to treat us. As for how long, two and a half days," Weiss said. "They had to keep you sedated while they operated. Your kidney has ruptured, they had to remove it. It's been a long couple of days. Yang's barely conscious for most of it, Ruby's barely keeping it together. And…" she hesitated before pulling out her scroll. "And I have to deal with this being all over the news." She showed the scroll to Blake. A news app was open. "Winter Schnee Memorial Charity Ball Tonight: Grieving Father Pledges Million Lien Donation." Slowly, Blake's eyes trailed down. All of the top news stories were dedicated to the same topic, regardless of publication.

"Blake? I don't know if I'm ever going to see my sister again. I don't know where she is, what's being done to her, or if she's even alive." Weiss sniffled. "My own father and half of Atlas seems to think she isn't. Please. I don't think I could handle losing anyone else right now. I need you. We all need you."

"I...I can't," Blake said. She sounded pathetic, her voice weak and raspy. She tried not to think about how the chances of a missing person being found after 48 hours dropped radically. "Weiss, I hurt people. I make things worse by being around them. I need to get out of here. The longer I stay the more-"

"You promised!" Blake was taken aback. Weiss had screamed before, but this was different. Her voice was high and on the verge of breaking. She had leaned so far forward in her chair that she was at risk of falling out of it. She stared unblinkingly at Blake, tears starting to glisten in her eyes. "You promised that you would come to us the next time something like this happened, you would come to us. And you were about to run away. You can't do this to us Blake. We need you right now." She swallowed. "We...we all need each other. You need us too, I can see it in your eyes. I know what someone looks like when they're hurting but they don't know how to admit it." She looked down, sadly. "I saw it in Winter's eyes a lot when we were growing up."

Blake didn't know what to say. What could she say? She wanted to say that Weiss was wrong, that it was more complicated than that, but she couldn't make the words. Then, before she could stomach up any words, Weiss hugged her. If she had been speechless before, this had effectively rendered her mute. Of her three teammates, Weiss was easily the one least prone to displays of affection of any kind. Her wrinkled, worn dress pressing into her was a feeling she was feeling for the first time. Something broke inside of her.

It felt like a dam inside her was giving out, not a large dramatic break, but slow erosions. Tears began to slowly trickle down her face, small pockets that felt as if they took forever to reach her chin. Sniffles punctuated her breathing, along with shallow sniffs as her throat tightened. "It's hard. I know it is," Weiss said softly. "I can't pretend to know what it feels like to have someone like Adam Taurus in your life. But I know what it feels like to be alone."

Gently pulling back, she softly dabbed away at Blake's tears. She paid no heed to the ones that were starting to drip down her face. "When Winter left home, I was alone. My mother drowned herself in her sorrows, my little brother hates me, and my father saw me as a tool. The only person who cared about me was a servant named Klien who watched out for me, and he had to be careful about it. My father wouldn't take kindly to staff getting too friendly with his heir. So most of the time I had no one."

She swallowed. "It's a nightmare, Blake," she said. "Every little worry and fear turn inward, they eat you from the inside out. You have nowhere to go, no escape from it, and it twists you. Twists you into something you hate." There was a long, pregnant pause. "Twists you into something you end up being ashamed of." Now it was her turn to give a deep sniff as she wiped at her own tears. She did so far harder than the gentle hand she had used with Blake, as if she was ashamed and wanted to hide it. "You can't do that to yourself," she said, her voice now strangled. "I won't let you."

Finally, Blake found her voice. "I'm the one who took Yang's arm," she said, her voice raspy. "I tried to get her out of there and I ripped it off. I hurt her, Weiss. She trusted me and I hurt her." Some of the grim resolve that Weiss had been building up over the course of the conversation slackened here. "How can I look her in the eye again after that? How can you look me in the eye after Adam took your finger?" She looked down at the bandaged hand again. "He hurt you trying to get to me."

"I already told you, I'm a Schnee," Weiss said. "I could've never met you and every single White Fang member in that camp still would've wanted to kill me. I'm everything they hate, everything wrong with the society they want to tear down. And as for Yang. That's...I...well." For the first time, Weiss faltered. Blake could see it, she was frantically searching for a way to absolve her of responsibility. But every word she half formed died on her lips, doubtless knowing that Blake would find the comfort hollow. Even if Lucius had been the one who had caused so much damage to Yang's arm, she had been the one who had snapped it off. She had inflicted the physical trauma that had most likely induced shock in Yang. Her partner. And Blake had hurt her. Even if it was unintentional, even if she had been trying to save Yang in the process, it didn't matter.

Just as she was about to turn away, Weiss found her voice. "She'll forgive you."

Blake blinked. It hadn't been the response she had been expecting. "How? How can you know for sure?"

"Because sometimes we hurt the people we care about without meaning to," Weiss said. As she spoke, she folded her hands and looked down on them. "My mother loves me, I know it. And I still love her. But she hurts me. When she locks herself away, drinks to the point where she takes a second to recognize me, and just isn't there? She hurts me. She doesn't mean to, I'm not even sure if she realizes what she's doing half the time. But it still hurts. Winter hasn't talked to her in years, and I can't blame her for it. But she's still my mother. I still love her, even if she makes it very hard." More tears gently slid down Weiss's face. "Even if I can't be around her right now."

Blake wasn't certain where Weiss was going with this, but the heiress had done a good job of seizing her attention. "My mother has been like this for years, Blake. Years of general neglect and self indulgence. Even after all of that, I just want her to get better, to go back to the person she was. My sister thinks she's a lost cause, that she'll drink herself to death and that'll be it. Our mother hurt Winter too, and I can't even bring myself to say Winter's wrong for cutting ties. But I can't help but hold out hope."

Sniffling, she looked up. "You've stuck by Yang through a lot, even though we're only getting started as Huntresses. Torchwick, the White Fang, and now the Legion. We're not just classmates anymore. We're more than that. She'll forgive you. And even if there's a chance she might not, you need to find out. Because if you're worried about what she'll think of you, what do you think she'll think if you're not here when she wakes up? You owe her that much."

Blake swallowed. "I'm scared," she said. A small part of her knew she wasn't saying anything Weiss didn't already know, but she had no choice. Weiss had to understand. "I've been scared ever since Adam came back into my life. I can't stand it. I feel so weak and pathetic."

"You're not," Weiss said, hugging her again. "You're one of the bravest people I know. Not everyone can do the things you've done Blake. Trying to make things right after joining the White Fang. And you don't have to do it alone. I'm here with you." Reaching down, she took Blake's hand in her unbandaged hand. For a good long while, they stood there, both of them silent. Eventually, their tears began to dry. Blake forced herself to take deep breaths, fighting down the ever present fear gnawing away inside of her. Weiss was right. Being there when Yang woke up was the bare minimum she needed to do.

"Where is she?" Blake asked. Instead of answering, Weiss gently got up and pulled back the curtain to the bed next to hers. Blake's breath caught in her throat. Right there, sprawled out and in a deep sleep, was Yang. Like Blake, she had been changed into a hospital gown. Unlike Blake, her company wasn't sitting in a chair next to the bed. Ruby was curled up in the bed, tucked into a small corner between the edge and Yang's legs, her arms wrapped around Yang's remaining arm. The sheets just below her face were soaked.

Weiss sighed as she saw this. "The nurses are going to kick her out if they see this," she muttered. Blake said nothing, merely looking at the reason why Yang was there in the first place. Her stump had been bandaged, though it seemed to stop a bit higher up than the last time she had seen it. With a pang of regret, Blake couldn't help but wonder if the doctors had been forced to remove more decayed flesh. She swallowed, fighting back the nausea, and turned her attention to Yang's face.

The blonde brawler looked uncomfortable in her sleep. Her mouth was lolling open, her head was awkwardly tilted to the side, and a subtle contraction of the muscles seemed to dominate her expression. Her hair had always been an untamed mess, but usually in a wild and flowing way. Now it was slowly accumulating knots and mats. It didn't feel right. Nothing about this felt right. How would Yang react when she woke up? Would she be able to still be a Huntress? Would she blame Blake if she couldn't?

"They need to rest right now," Weiss said, pulling the curtain shut. Turning, she returned to her seat. "I'll stay here with you until they wake up." Once again, she took Blake's hands in her own.

"Thank you," Blake whispered back. She didn't know what she was going to do when Yang woke up. But she had to do something. Shame from her almost escape was already burning her stomach. But Weiss made it more manageable. She had, after all, made a promise.

"Do...do you want to go to the ball for your sister?" she asked hesitantly. "Check in on your mother?"

Weiss looked away. "I can't. Not right now. Going there is admitting that she's dead. And I can't stand to see my father make a media circus out of her disappearance. As for my mother, you need me more. She'll be all right." Blake felt a rush of affection and sympathy for the girl sitting across from her. Without thinking, she reached forward and pulled Weiss into a hug.

"Huh?" she said, arms frantically wiggling in shock. "What are you-oh. Oh ok, this is-we can do this." Her return of the hug wasn't as confident as the first time she had hugged Blake. Despite everything, Blake chuckled. "Oh stop it," Weiss snapped, but her voice lacked venom. Blake simply leaned into the hug. She felt warm for the first time in awhile.

XXXXX

Author's Note: A reminder, I wrote Mantle into the story before it was made clear Mantle was directly under Atlas. When they said they moved the capital, I thought "ah, they moved the capital in the way its Tokyo and not Kyoto, so they're probably a few hundred miles apart." I thought the city under Atlas was Lower Atlas in a Bladerunner, dystopian kind of way. Then Volume 7 happened and it turned out when they said they moved the capital, they mean they literally dug it up and made it float. So oh well, James spent too much time in my version of Mantle for me to just go back and make changes, so this is now an AU where Mantle is detached from Atlas itself and the city under Atlas is Lower Atlas.

Side tangent, I think I put Blake leaving at the end of Volume 3 up there with Zuko siding with Azula at the end of Book 2 of AtLA. It made character sense and worked into a character arc, but god I didn't have fun with it. Volume 3's ending in general is best described as an emotional gut shot, but I'm that weird guy. I can have bad guys hurt the heroes all day I'm generally fine. When a hero hurts another hero, that's generally when it gets me. But that's the fun thing about FanFiction. We can explore what ifs. What if Weiss wasn't taken by her father and could talk Blake down from leaving? How could that change Yang's recovery? Because while losing the arm hurt her, I think the thing that really put her into a spiral of despair was that she felt abandoned. Considering Yang lost not one but two mothers, one who just left her, I don't think it's a huge jump to say she has abandonment issues. So, let's see how this changes things.

I was considering another scene, but after I wrote the scene between Blake and Weiss, I decided otherwise. A scene like that needs space to breathe. The next chapter can have that scene. In the mean time, I managed to write a chapter in a week! Heck yeah! I don't know how long I can keep this up, so let's enjoy it while it lasts.

I would like to thank my legacy Patrons, SuperFeatherYoshi, xXNanamiXx, RaptorusMaximus, Davis Swinney, Mackenzie Buckle, Ryan Van Schaack, ChaosSpartan575, and LordofNaught for their amazing support.