AUTHOR'S NOTES: Want another chapter? Why not? I doubt I'll be able to maintain updating this story every day, but the muse was on her game tonight, so here's Chapter 2.

I'm no doctor, so a lot of the medical terms in here come from researching Acute Radiation Syndrome on Wikipedia, and checking out WebMD. So if I got it wrong, my apologies. Besides, literary license-we can't kill off Ruby Flight in the second chapter, after all.

Near Leszno, Poland

7 September 2001

"Black rain," Marrow Amin observed. "That's not good."

"No, it isn't." Weiss Schnee saw a spot where the felled trees had come together, forming a natural lean-to. "Better than nothing." They crawled underneath it, but not before Weiss took an emergency blanket from her survival vest, spread it out reflective surface up, and draped it over the lean-to. Then she joined Marrow underneath. Between the branches and the blanket, it kept the rain out. She took off her helmet; Marrow had lost his somewhere. "Now let me look at that wound of yours."

"Okay." Marrow winced as she dabbed antiseptic on it, then put a bandage over it. This left her face close to his, and he sighed. "What?" Weiss asked.

"This is a lousy place to have a date."

Weiss snickered. "I've been to worse places."

"Yeah? Where?"

"California."

Marrow laughed. Weiss finished her ministrations and sat down next to him. She looked up at the pattering of the rain. "We'll wait this out, then call for the helicopters. Did you happen to see Blake or Ruby?" She knew better than to ask about Penny; their friend was undoubtedly dead.

"No, I was too busy trying not to die—" He suddenly froze. Weiss almost giggled—it was like a dog alerting—but Marrow suddenly pushed her down to the forest floor. "What—" she tried to say, but he put a hand over her mouth.

Not fifty feet away, dressed in chemical suits, were men with AK-47s. They spoke to each other in muffled tones, and Weiss recognized the language: Russian. So did Marrow. Oh shit, he mouthed.

They started walking towards the lean-to, and Weiss realized in horror that there would be no way they could miss it, with the reflective surface; if it hadn't been for the rain, they would've seen it already. Slowly, she drew her pistol. She looked at Marrow, but he shook his head; he had lost his weapon on his wild ride through the shockwaves of the Maiden explosion. The men drew closer, and Weiss could see there was at least four of them. She raised the PPK. She could take the first one, which might be enough to surprise the others. If we're lucky, she thought. If she was wrong, the others would cut her and Marrow in half with the AKs.

Suddenly, Marrow grabbed her face and kissed her on the lips. She blinked in surprise, and then he was running, crashing out of the shelter and into the rain, making a great deal of noise. The four men instantly turned in his direction and shouted something, muffled by the masks. There was a burst of AK fire, and Weiss' heart leapt in her throat.

Then she heard Marrow. "Whoa, whoa, stop, eh? I surrender! I surrender!" Weiss crawled forward where she had a better view. Marrow was on his knees, his hands over his head, his tail wagging. "Don't shoot, guys! Huh? Do you speak English? Parlez vous Francais?"

"Who are you?" One of them prodded him with the barrel of the AK-47. Weiss aimed down the PPK; their backs were to her now.

"My name is Marrow Amin, 1st Lieutenant, United States of Canada Air Force! I'm a pilot!" He pointed to the wings stitched on his flight suit. "I got shot down, eh? You guys got shelter? This rain—radioactive! You got that? Radioactive!"

"You shut up!" the leader said, prodding Marrow again. "You alone?"

"Yeah, I'm alone," Marrow answered.

"You fly airplane?" He pointed back towards the crash site.

"Yeah, that was mine." He looked up at the men. "Are you Polish?"

That got him a kick from one of the men. "Not Pole! Russian! Work for Salem!"

Oh dear God, Weiss thought. She had to try to rescue him. They would take Marrow to Salem, and she would torture him like she had Oscar. They would figure out very quickly that Marrow was not a Typhoon pilot, but a F-35 pilot—and the brand-new, stealthy fighter would be something Salem would be very interested in. She centered the PPK and started to pull the trigger. Then their eyes met, and Marrow gave a minute shake of the head. "Well, whatever," he said. "I don't care if you work for Stalin. Let's get out of this rain, eh?"

"On feet!" The leader dragged Marrow up, turned him around, and held the Faunus' hands against his head, shoving him forward. He stumbled, but he did not look back towards Weiss. They went out of sight, and moments later, Weiss heard the chuffing start of a motor. She crawled around the shelter, and got a glimpse of a BTR-60 armored personnel carrier moving out of the forest. The sound soon faded away.

"Oh God," Weiss said, as she crawled back to the middle of the shelter. She put the pistol down, buried her head in her knees, and cried. "Oh God."

Near Wioska Myszy, Poland

7 September 2001

Maly—Ruby could only think of her as Little now—had shared more of her cheese and they had waited out the storm. It didn't take long. Ruby started at every weird sound, thinking it was Neo Politan about to come through the door into the barn, which left Little staring at her strangely. The rain stopped after about forty minutes, but Little waited another three hours before she motioned Ruby out of the old barn.

"My village is this way," she said, as they walked down a road through the forest, Ruby so tense she was nearly jumping at every shadow, expecting Neo. Little looked over her shoulder. "Relax. It's not too far. We should be okay if we don't stay out here too long." She reached into a pocket and handed Ruby a medical mask. "Here, put this on. It's better than nothing." Little took out a spare mask and put it on.

As they walked, they came out of the forest, walking through rolling fields of grain. Ruby wondered if this grain was now even edible, and knew that, despite the mask, she was almost certainly absorbing radiation by the second.

Then she saw the village. It was small, even smaller than Patch. Little led her towards a thickly-walled, yellow building that looked rather old, surrounded by a park. "It's not much," Little sighed. "I wish I could live all the time in Miami. It's so boring here." Ruby smiled. Little sounded like herself, when she and Yang had been growing up in Patch, where there was also nothing much to do. "Nothing to do but farm chores…well, anyway…here we are." She led Ruby up to the front door and knocked three times.

The door opened and Little took a step back as an AK-47 was shoved in her face. She said something in Polish that Ruby didn't understand, but it was clearly disgust; Ruby noticed Little hadn't even flinched. Ruby stepped closer, and the rifle was now pointed at her. The man behind it, tall and bearded, yelled something in Polish, and Ruby slowly holstered her pistol and raised her hands.

"Oh, stop it, Jan," Little said. "This is Ruby Rose. She's an American. A pilot." She turned back to Ruby. "Right?"

"Yeah," Ruby responded. "Fighter pilot."

Jan lowered the AK. "Fighter pilot." He pointed towards the sky. "You flying earlier? Protecting evacuation?" He cleared his throat. "Sorry, been awhile since I use—since I used English. Protecting the evacuation?" Ruby nodded, and Jan smiled. "Come in. You are among friends."

Ruby blew out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

They went down into the basement of the old building, which looked to be a school of some kind, and Ruby realized that the basement had been built as a fallout shelter, probably before the Third World War. It was thickly walled, and well below ground. Ruby was introduced to Little's mother, a matronly woman named Marysia; she too was a mouse Faunus, and Ruby was reminded of old children's books she had read as a kid about Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Marysia spoke passable English, and directed her to a shower. Ruby understood and stripped naked: her clothing would have absorbed radiation and had to be disposed of. The water was cold, but it felt good all the same. Marysia laid out some clothes for her. "These should fit, yes?" the older woman said with a smile. "These are Boguslawa's." Ruby looked a bit confused, and Marysia laughed. "Maly. Little's."

"Oh, I see. Sure." The underwear was strictly functional, and much to Ruby's chagrin, Little's bust was larger than hers. Once the rest of the clothes were on, she looked like a farmgirl, and Ruby almost laughed, thinking if Oscar could see me now! Her friend and lover was from a town in Nebraska that was no larger than this one. She was then given dinner, which Ruby wolfed down; it was excellent, but she was so hungry that it could've been MREs. There were about 30 people in the shelter, and though there looked to be plenty of food, she still felt guilty about eating it.

Jan sat down across from her at the makeshift table and dropped her survival vest next to her. "It's fine," he reassured her. He pointed to the shelves, and Ruby saw a Geiger counter there. "It's not badly radiated. We washed it and replaced the items."

"That's good." Ruby reached into one pocket and pulled out a gold coin. They had all been issued the coins when they had first arrived in Poland; she had about ten of them, each worth around fifty American dollars. She handed it to Jan. "Here."

"No." He pushed it back towards her. "You defend us from GRIMM. We owe you, Miss Rose."

Ruby leaned back in the chair. "Yeah, well…I didn't do a very good job of it, did I?" She was half talking to Jan, half to herself.

Jan reached across and gripped her shoulder. "You did well enough. Not your fault NATO ran off, but…" He shrugged. "We are Polish. We are used to it." He motioned around the room. "When invasion began, we stockpiled—is that the right word? Stockpiled. This shelter was built in the 1950s. We thought perhaps Russians coming—again—but no Russians, thanks to you." He grinned. "Either Russians or Germans." Jan pointed to an old man, hunched over, reading a book. "Ludwik remembers when the Germans came in 1939. This…this is not as bad, Ludwik says."

"With all the radiation?" Ruby said.

"Not as bad."

"Holy crap," she whispered. Ludwik spotted her staring at him, and gave her a toothless smile. She waved back, then returned her attention to Jan. "Jan, listen…there may be other pilots out there. My unit—we lost—" Her voice broke, as she suddenly remembered Blake screaming for Yang, then reporting no ejection. "We lost…" Ruby couldn't finish it.

"We know," Jan said. "We sent out patrol when we saw the air battle. They have not reported back yet—we hope they were not caught by nuclear blast."

"Huh?" The nuclear explosion at Belchanow had been several days ago.

"The explosion? This morning?" Jan made an exploding noise, his hands expanding like a shockwave. "Cracked windows here."

"Oh!" Ruby realized he was talking about the Maiden. "No, that's not—it wasn't a nuclear weapon. It was the Maiden." Jan didn't show any signs of recognizing it. "Satellite weapon?"

"We don't watch much news out here," he told her.

"Just as well," Ruby mused. "Anyways, it's not nuclear. No radiation. A lot of damage, though." It occurred to Ruby that the Maiden explosion might have lifted yet more irradiated soil into the air, but there was no way to tell. She knew she needed time to think, to try to process what Neo had yelled. Penny had definitely used the Winter Maiden, but had she dropped it on herself? Or somehow survived?

"Good. We have enough—" There was a commotion upstairs, a lot of heavy footfalls. Jan was instantly up, joined by four other young men, who grabbed their AK-47s. Ruby pulled her Beretta from the survival vest.

"Casimir!" someone shouted, followed by a bunch of rapid-fire Polish that Ruby wished she could understand. She did understand the word doctor, and a middle-aged man came rushing out of a side room. Ruby lowered the pistol, as about eight men came down the stairs, bearing stretchers. She couldn't see them at first, but as they turned to go into the side room, Ruby saw a shock of bright yellow hair. The features were sallow, waxy, but they were undeniably Yang Xiao Long.

"Yang?" Ruby took a step forward, her vision swam, and a curtain of darkness fell as she collapsed to the floor. She never saw the other stretcher, which held the unmoving body of Blake Belladonna.

Blake awoke in darkness. She blinked and sat up, and realized she was alone. "Where is everyone?" She massaged her temples, then ran her hands over her body. She was still in her flight suit, which was strange, because she dimly remembered Yang cutting it off of her, and a cave, the rain, and her friend pressing herself against her, trying to keep her warm with body heat. She got to her feet, and to her surprise, her leg felt much better.

"Yang?" she called out. "Anyone?"

"Hello, my love."

Blake whirled and found herself staring into the mask of Adam Taurus. He reached up and pulled it off. "You never liked the mask anyway. You said you preferred my face, as scarred as it is." Blake saw the dead eye, the scorched burn of SDC across it. He reached forward, and Blake stepped back. "Blake, I only want to kiss you."

"This…this isn't real," Blake stammered. "This isn't real. You're dead. I watched you crash into the water."

Adam nodded sadly. "Afraid that's true. I didn't get out either, so I am definitely dead. Deceased. Kicked the bucket. Bought the farm." He chuckled.

Blake kept walking backwards until her back came up against the wall. Adam stepped closer, but stayed out of arm's reach. "Oh no," she breathed. "That means…" I'm in hell, Blake thought. I'm dead and in hell. She was somewhat surprised, but not entirely. After all, she had committed a lot of sins in the White Fang.

"You sure did," Adam said. "We both did. We had some fun, didn't we though?" He drew his sword, but didn't slash at her, instead swirling the blade in a circle. A blurry vision appeared, then came into focus. It was Adam and Blake, both naked, intertwined on a cheap hotel bed as Adam made gentle love to her, her first time. The image wavered, and it showed their last time, Blake pressed up against the wall of a Schnee mine the White Fang had just attacked in Germany, her pants around her knees, her underwear shoved to one side, yowling as Adam slammed into her from behind. Adam sighed wistfully. "I miss those times." The visions faded. "I miss when you loved me." The eye came back and centered on her like a gunsight. "You did love me, Blake?" Adam asked.

Blake was silent for a moment. "Yes," she said softly, forcing herself to meet his gaze. "Yes, I did love you."

"And I loved you, darling." Then he shrugged. "But then you left! Why did you do that?"

"You know why."

"Because I started killing more and more humans?" Adam laughed. "Oh please, Blake! They deserved it! You know they did!"

"Not civilians," Blake shot back. "You lost focus, Adam. You forgot we were supposed to be helping Faunus, not using the cause as an excuse to kill!"

Adam laughed again. "Oh yes, here we go. The moral high ground. What a hypocrite. You were no better. You killed, just like me. When you ran away—which you always do—" Adam stopped, and corrected himself. "Well, I suppose you didn't always run away. I'll be fair. Anyhow, you ran off to the Marines, and then you killed a lot of our brothers and sisters at Beacon. And at Menagerie." Another vision, this time of Fennec Albain, lying on a Menagerie street with most of his head gone. "I'd say you've probably killed more Faunus than the Schnees, Blake."

"They were trying to kill me!" Blake shouted. "They deserved—"

Adam slapped his hands together. "Exactly! They deserved it. I agree completely, Blake. They did. And you killed them for it. Just like I killed the humans that opposed us." He stepped closer, and Blake sildled down the wall away from him. "Oh, Blake, please. Stop it. Don't be afraid; I'm not going to hurt you!" He set down the sword and moved away from it. "There. Now we can be friends again." He pointed at her. "And we're not so different now, are we?"

Blake looked down at herself. Her flight suit had turned black, with red highlights, identical to Adam's but cut for her figure. She realized abruptly that she was staring through a mask, and ripped it off—it was also identical. "This is a nightmare," she moaned. "This isn't real."

"Could be," Adam admitted. "Though 'Nightmare Blake' has a nice ring to it. She sounds like she'd be a lot more fun. I imagine she wouldn't pal around with Schnees." Adam let out a long sigh. "What a disappointment that was. You, in the same flight as Weiss Schnee. You should've killed her and come back. We would've welcomed you back. Even after Beacon, we would've."

Blake tried to step away again as Adam moved yet closer, and tripped. She looked down once more, and stared into the dead eyes of Weiss Schnee, her gray flight suit covered in blood from a torn out throat. "Stop it," she snapped at Adam.

"Hey, I'm not doing it. I'm dead. It's all up here, sweetie." He pointed to his head. "A nice little cocktail of concussion and acute radiation sickness. This is your mind, Blake. And it's telling you what you should have done all along." His fingers brushed his chin in thought. "Hmm. What body should I show you next? Ruby Rose? Nah, she's not important. Poor, stupid girl, put in a position of authority she never should have had." He snapped his fingers. "But she ruined your career, didn't she, Blake?"

"Oh, go fuck yourself," Blake growled. Her fists balled and now it was her who stalked forward. "This wasn't Ruby's fault, you prick."

"Ooh, feisty Blake!" Adam grinned. "God, I loved your feistiness. That was a huge turn-on for me, you know? How you thought getting angry intimidated me. Babe, it just got me hard." Blake reached down and picked up the sword. "Oh, now come on, Blake. You can't kill what's already dead."

"I can damn sure try."

"But I haven't finished yet." Adam sat down on a stone bench that was suddenly there. "We haven't addressed the 800-pound elephant in the room yet. Or should I say, the five-foot-eight blonde elephant in the room." Yang appeared next to him, in her underwear, her eyes closed, hovering about two inches above the floor. "Pretty girl. Are you lovers?"

"What?" Blake asked.

"Simple question, sweetums. Are. You. Lovers?"

"No!" Blake exclaimed. If this was a dream, then her brain was getting increasingly strange.

"Hmm. You know, Blake, I don't believe you." Adam got up and walked around Yang, and whistled. "Wow. I can't say as I blame you much, though! She's hot as—what's the term she used to describe you? Hot as Georgia asphalt in June?"

"Stay away from her," Blake warned.

"Relax. I can't hurt her." He touched Yang's shoulder. "I don't have to. She's dying anyway." He nodded at Blake. "So are you, by the way. Radiation's a terrible thing. Oh well." He sat back down on the bench and slapped Yang on the rear; she did not react. "So. You're not lovers?"

"I already said no, dipshit."

"Really? That's weird. Because it wasn't too long ago you woke up with her hands on your tits. Not that I blame her, since you've always had really nice tits, Blake."

Blake's hand tightened on the sword. "You know, even the real Adam wasn't this much of an asshole."

"I wasn't? Huh." Adam shrugged. "Then there was that time she saw you naked when you were in that barracks together. She looked really turned on, Blake. I think Yang has some other-team tendencies, don't you?" She just glared at him. "Well, we both know you're straight—I mean, I sure as hell do." Adam leered at her, and she raised the sword. "Or are you?"

"Yang is my friend. My best friend." Blake snorted in derision. "And if we did become lovers, she'd be a lot better than you ever were."

"Ouch!" Adam waved that off. "I'll have you know I made you climb the walls. We both know it, Blake." He got up, slapping his thighs. "It's all academic anyway. You're both going to die. Together. The way it should've been when we fought over the Mediterranean. Weiss and Ruby will probably follow soon—pretty sure they got a fatal dose as well. Assuming Cinder and Neo didn't kill them. Not my problem, since I'm dead and all."

"That's right," Blake said. "You are."

Adam nodded. "True. But I just wanted to find out if Yang had replaced me in your bed. You do have a thing for blondes." Blake sighed, because sure enough, now there was a vision of her one-night stand with Sun Wukong in her parents' lodge. Adam watched, hands on his hips. "Damn. I will say that boy is hung. I can see why you hooked up. But I supposed he's moved on by now. He knows you're damaged goods. And dead."

"Go back to hell," Blake snarled.

Adam only smiled. "You first."

The ground opened up beneath Blake and she fell into utter darkness.

Ruby walked into the side room that was the shelter's makeshift hospital, and stopped when she saw Blake and Yang. Both lay in the same bed, covered in blankets. Her heart was thudding, an icy ball of fear in her stomach. "Doctor, um—"

The doctor turned around. "Oh, yes. You must be the other American fighter pilot. Riana Rose, was it?"

"Ruby. Ruby Rose."

He nodded. "Filip Strazinski."

She noticed his accent was English. "There's a lot of English speakers in this little town," Ruby remarked.

"Well, I'm not from here, I'm afraid—I was born in Krakow. I did my residency in London. I was actually headed home for a visit when the war came, and decided to stay in Wroclaw. Then the bomb went off, and I tried to head north…my car broke down, and here I am." He motioned her closer. "Don't worry. They're no longer radioactive. Do you know them?"

"They're my friends," Ruby replied. "The Faunus girl is Blake Belladonna. The blonde—she's my sister, Yang Xiao Long." The doctor looked like he didn't believe her. "We're half sisters."

Strazinski glanced at Yang. "Odd name. She doesn't look a bit Chinese."

"It's a long story." Ruby came closer and looked at Yang. She still looked very pale. "Are…are they going to live?"

Strazinski got to his feet. "I believe so, though it's hard to tell. Both women suffered exposure to radiation, far more than you did. Casimir's patrol found them in a cave; your sister was delirious and singing at the top of her lungs. She did the right thing, though: she stripped herself and Blake down to their underwear, and used her body heat to keep Miss Belladonna from dying of exposure." He put his hands in his pockets. "I can't tell for certain, but they probably absorbed about two Grays. Not great, but not terrible." He ran his hand through Yang's hair, then held it up for Ruby's inspection. "Your sister is not losing any hair, so I don't think she absorbed more than that." He lifted the blankets, just enough to show Ruby a spot on Yang's flank, but enough to preserve her sister's modesty. "Skin reddening is also common for ARS, and she's thrown up twice." He replaced the blanket and pointed at the IVs going into both of them. "That should keep them from dehydration, and I've added some medication that will help them fight off the ARS. Barring any relapse—or if I'm wrong—they should recover."

Ruby jumped as Blake suddenly moaned in her sleep, and began thrashing around. Strazinski quickly went around the big bed and put his hands on her shoulders, trying to hold her down before Blake tore the IV out. Ruby ran over, pushed the doctor to one side, and seized with sudden inspiration, began gently stroking Blake's hair. Blake stopped moving, and smiled languidly, though she remained asleep. "Mom?" she whispered.

"You're okay…" Ruby hesitated. She'd never met Kali Belladonna, so she had no idea what pet names her mother might have for Blake. "You're okay, kitten." It sounded stupid for her to say, but Blake relaxed even more, murmured something about her mother and that her bedroom was cold. Ruby kept stroking her hair, and couldn't help but smile as Blake started to purr.

Strazinski smiled as well. "That's a good sign. I think Miss Belladonna had a concussion, by her head wounds. She has a fracture of her leg as well, but it was a greenstick; that will heal. If she's lucid dreaming, then her brain is intact." He paused. "Hopefully. If I was in a hospital, I'd know."

"Can we take them to one?" Ruby asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Too much radiation to get there, assuming there's even any room. They've already absorbed enough; further exposure will kill them."

"Dammit." Ruby watched her friends. They were in that bed because of her. No, she corrected herself, not because of me. Neo shot Yang down. Cinder got Blake, I guess—assuming Neo wasn't lying, the little bitch.

But Yang wouldn't have been shot down if she hadn't been saving you, Ruby's inner voice taunted.

Strazinski saw her expression. "Are you all right, Miss Rose? You did collapse earlier. Have you felt nauseous or feverish?"

"I'm fine," Ruby half-lied. She was fine physically. "Just shock. I thought my sister was dead."

"I see. Well, I can leave you here with them, I think. Miss Belladonna should wake up by tomorrow—if she does, I can confidently predict she'll recover fully from the concussion. If either start convulsing, yell for me. They may vomit, so turn them on their side if they do." He patted her shoulder. "I need to check on Miss Rataj—she's pregnant, because of course someone is pregnant in the middle of a war zone. Then I'll get some sleep. You should do the same. I'll have Maly relieve you—she's elected herself a nurse."

"Doctor," Ruby said. "Um, I didn't have a chance to ask Casimir, but…there was a fourth pilot down. Weiss Schnee."

"The Weiss Schnee? The heiress?" Strazinski sounded shocked, then nodded. "Oh yes, I remember reading that she was a fighter pilot."

"I think she got shot down too." Neo had bragged that Weiss was losing fuel. She might have gotten home, Ruby thought, but something told her that Weiss was down as well. "She would've been close to us."

"Then I hope she found shelter, Miss Rose. I wouldn't want to be out there in that." He sighed. "I'll talk to Casimir, and he might want to search for her. But don't hold your breath. The Schnees aren't exactly liked around here." He checked Yang and Blake one last time, then left, leaving Ruby with Yang, Blake, and her thoughts.

AUTHOR'S NOTES (SUPPLEMENTAL): Two-thirds of Ruby Flight is back together, though it's a bit backwards from canon RWBY. Maly is indeed Polish for "Little" (at least according to Google Translate), and her village-Wioska Myszy-translates to "Mouse Village." Naturally, it's not a real place.

The idea that Blake has a nightmare about Adam was something that came to me while I was writing up the outline to this chapter, along with the brief callback of Nightmare Blake from Ice Queendom. Does this mean we're building up to the Great Bumblebee Kiss in this story? Maybe...and maybe not. That's a shipping war I don't really want to get into (I'm probably pushing it with Rosegarden and Slushpuppies). I won't give anything away, but note that, to this point, I've written Blake as straight, and Yang as more or less bisexual, though "bi-confused" is probably a better term. So I will neither confirm nor deny Bumblebee is going to happen in this story, which I'm sure will manage to piss everyone off.