RWBY: A Thorn in My Heart
Chapter 9: My Heart Bleeds for You!
Ruby groaned in pain as she sat upright in her infirmary bed. This pain was not from her stomach wound, her broken hand, or even her mouth that was soar from Blake's punch. No, this hurt came from suffocation as she felt her friends squeeze the life out of her as they cried tears of joy at her awakening.
"Guys… can't… b-breath." she weakly stated fighting for air.
Hearing her plea, her friend's eyes widen in shock as they darted away to give her space, allowing her to finally inhale to her lungs relief. Still, Ruby couldn't help but smile seeing her friends shower her with such affection; it was something she felt tempted to do every time she saw Thorn's cute face.
The sudden thought of her baby's face sent a chill down her spine. Her memory felt hazy, but she vaguely recalled an image of him crying in someone's arms. She took a deep breath and clasped her forehead as any attempt to focus on the image hurt her head. She then darted her head around the room, urgently looking for her baby.
"W-Where… where is my son?" she meekly asked, fear infecting her tone.
Everyone's smiles quickly transformed into frowns, they were uncertain of how to break the news to their injured friend. But their hesitancy spelled it all out for Ruby. As dense as she was, according to Weiss at least, Ruby knew when others were holding something back from her for what they thought was her own good. However, when it came to her son's well-being she had no patience for secrets.
"Stop beating around the bush and tell me already" she sternly told her friends and family with a sharp glare. The others recoiled at her look, never expecting her to show such silent anger from the normally bright-eyed girl.
Blake, still sitting in the chair next to Ruby, broke the silence with a loud exhale. As she saw Ruby turned to her, obviously expecting her answer, Blake decided to fight the knot in her stomach and get the pain over with.
"You went through a major beat-down so I am sure you don't remember fully but," she began to explain.
"All I remember is my son crying in someone's arms, but who was that? Where is my son already!" she yelled, no longer able to contain herself.
The yell caused Blake to recoil as she lowered her cat ears in fear, she didn't know how to sugarcoat the painful truth. An image of a comatose ruby on the floor at Beacon surged through her mind as she feared the same response from the young mother at the revelation of her son's kidnapping. Blake then snapped back into reality from another yell,
"Blake!" Ruby exclaimed. She wanted, no she needed to know where her son was before she could calm down.
Seeing no other way around this, Blake finally decided to relay to Ruby her son was kidnapped by Tyrian and taken through a portal so they didn't know where to find him. Ruby's eyes widen in terror at the news, her memories of that ordeal finally hit her mind like a tidal wave. She began to hyperventilate after this, but was more shocked when receiving a sudden hug from her catgirl friend who brought her head to her chest.
"Just breath slowly and deeply, listen to my heart and try to match the rhythm." She urged her friend gently; Thorn needed Ruby to be strong so Blake wanted to make sure her friend didn't have a heart attack, not that she could blame her after what happened. Ruby, though shocked at first, began to feel the warmth of Blake's chest overwhelm her. She always appreciate her friends support, but usually couldn't handle hugs as well as she used to since her rape. For the first time in a year she felt comfortable with someone else's touch and complied with Blake's request, finally slowing her breathing down. The sight of her calming down gave extreme relief to Taiyang
"That's my girl." he said proudly before forming a serious look, bracing himself for what had to be said.
"Now look, we found out Cinder has Thorn right now." He hesitantly stated. His daughters frightened reaction proving his wariness warranted.
"THAT WITCH HAS MY SON!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, unable to contain herself any longer. Ruby threw her bed sheets to the floor and attempted to get out of bed before wincing in pain and clasping her arm and stomach. Yang and Tai grasped her back and shoulder and gently pushed her onto her back.
"Easy Rubes! You can't save him with your body broken like this" Yang yelled in a protective tone, fighting with all her might her exhaustion from blood loss. As much as she could emphasis her sisters desire to save her nephew, Yang knew in her condition Cinder would slaughter her and that's what the witch wanted. Blake looked on solemnly; she had her fears for Ruby's reaction validated as the latter began to struggle against her sister and fathers grips, not willing to listen. Blake eyed her friends watching this altercation with shock or sadness and notion them to pay attention to her next action.
She pointed to her ear and shook her head after pointing to Ruby as well.
"What?" Nora asked aloud, her voice almost reaching Ruby as she continued to yell and fight her families grip. Ren, knowing exactly what Blake meant covered Nora's mouth quickly to shut her up and whispered what she meant.
Nora's arms went limp as she calmed down at the realization Blake wanted to avoid telling Ruby about Thorn getting his ear cut, it was the last thing she needed to hear right now. Sadly, Blake couldn't calm down herself. She kept watching Ruby's outburst and noticed her heart monitor starting to beep rapidly, indicating her condition was growing worse. Feeling a knot in her chest, Blake decided to put an end to her crushes misery for even a moment, by knocking her out again. She hated herself for resorting to this but saw no other option at the time. Blake got up from her chair and looked down at Ruby.
"Ruby!" she exclaimed to get the silver eye girl's attention.
As she looked at the bandaged girl on the verge of tears, Blake felt an itch in her heart as she felt an urge to do something before knocking her out. Suddenly, Blake clasped Ruby's face and pressed her lips against hers to the shock of everyone present, especially Ruby. Blake knew it wasn't the time to confess to her, but she didn't care; all she wanted was to embrace her love one more time before pulling her lips away from the maiden. Ruby's eyes widen in surprise, unable to process what just happened. She didn't get much time to ponder this event as a strike from Blake's fist connected to her temple, causing her vision to go black as she passed out. Blake clenched her fist, feeling extreme anger at herself for this act before a small sense of fear arose. She knew the others would be angrier for this and had to explain.
"Okay everyone, I get your mad I hit her but…" Blake said as began to explain her actions before pausing. She did not see anger in their faces, but pure surprise except for Pyrrah, who smiled at her. The red head always had a knack for reading peoples feelings and was simply proud at her friend's bravery. This smile only causes Blake's face to turn as red as Pyrrah's hair as she collapsed to the ground, covering her face as she rolled around in embarrassment to her fathers amusement.
Halls of Beacon
Meanwhile, footsteps echoed in the halls of Beacon. The source came from a pair of pink heels walking towards Ozpin's office. They belonged to a pink and black haired woman who entered his room after knocking on the door. Her name was Neapolitan, a former agent of the White Fang and former enemy of Ruby. Neo had lived a hard life, from enduring a rape on her after her mother's death right in front of her, to being muted, and having to live as an assassin for Roman after he rescued her from the slums. Originally, she hated the world, and corrupt huntsman like the ones that hurt her, so found it ironic she was now a student at Beacon after she fought it for so long. As she entered the office to see the disapproving glares of Goodwitch and Ironwood, she could tell she wasn't fully welcome, not that she blamed them. Neo fully remembered the night she helped the White Fang capture Ruby, it was her who dealt the knock out blow. Her heart ached also remembering the news of how this lead to the young huntress being raped by Timber; how she helped bring about such a tragedy. To her, and to Goodwitch and the General, she was just as bad as the rapist that knocked up Ruby, whom she emphasized with and wanted to help with all her strength since then. Despite having been on her first team mission, Neo instantly ran back to Beacon after getting permission from her teacher once she received the simple text from Ozpin,
"Ruby needs your help come to my office immediately"
Ozpin, in fact, was the only one in the room to greet Neo with a smile.
"Good to see you Neo, sorry for pulling you back here on your first mission. I am sure your team were having fun and all." He said with a smile. Before he could begin to explain he paused at a hand being raised by Neo, who activated the voice collar on her throat, her only means to communicate.
"What does Ruby need help with?" she quickly urged with a robotic tone coming from the collar. Neo wasn't in the mood to stall with pleasantries. Glynda decided to inform Neo herself.
"Your old "friends" have Ruby's baby hostage." She coldly stated, showcasing her disproval of the former criminal. Neo looked on in shock, unable to motion her hand towards her collar to ask what happened. Ozpin quickly showed her Cinder's message on Glynda's scroll, since the General had smashed his own scroll in a fit of rage.
"Ozpin thinks your semblance could be the child's saving grace and more importantly a chance to capture Cinder." Ironwood stated in a professional tone, but didn't hide his disproving glare. To him, enlisting a former criminal was a risky tactic that shouldn't be relied on but felt no other choice this time. Glynda raised an eyebrow and glared at him in response.
"More importantly! More important than saving a baby?" she yelled, snapping Neo out of shock as she watched the teacher admonish the general for misplaced priorities. Before the two could bicker again, Ozpin quickly spoke up.
"Regardless of order, I think you could have a good chance to save Thorn by posing as Ruby." He began to explain. His idea was to have Neo transform into an image of an injured Ruby. Then during the exchange, she could attack Cinder and rescue Thorn allowing Raven, who would form a portal connection to Neo beforehand, to attack with their huntsman and capture Cinder and end this conflict. Glynda and Ironwood stood silently and pondered this tactic. As they finally stopped giving death glares to Neo, she internally sighed with relief at the lack of pressure from them.
Neo in fact felt a sense of pride and comfort from this proposal. Though a lot of pressure was placed on her, she felt it was another chance at redemption for how she hurt Ruby. Feeling the pride grow in her chest, Neo gave a wide smile as she quickly clasped her voice box,
"For Ruby and her baby, there's nothing I wouldn't do!" she proudly stated as she nodded, earning a smile from the headmaster. He knew it was controversial even amongst his staff to have admitted her, a former agent of Cinder; In the past he might not have even considered it himself. But meeting Ruby changed all that. He always believed she possessed a spark to inspire others through dark times; she certainly ignited it for everyone during the war by fighting despite her pregnancy. What really inspired the professor himself was how she found it in her heart to love her son even though he was a product of rape. If she could believe in the good and worth of others then he felt he should try to as well.
"Good, I am grateful for your cooperation" he replied respectfully,
Now we need to contact Raven fast to explain the plan to her. We'll need her help for this to work, but I can't reach her right now since she's in the Menagerie." Ozpin explained to his compatriots that the faunus kingdom had limited communication signals with Remnant due to racial hostilities.
"I'll need to contact Qrow first, perhaps he can get in contact with his sister somehow?" Ozpin said as he tried to call the Branwen sibling, only to receive no reply. Panic flushed his mind as he repeatedly tried to contact Qrow to no avail.
"Damnit Qrow, now of all times just pick up!" he said to himself in frustration, he could just imagine what Qrow was doing right now and it wasn't the right time.
Meanwhile…
Qrow was lying on the floor at his brother-in law's house with a flask in his hand. Qrow had clearly been drinking; he had always done so in stressful times to coup. But in his other hand was a reason for his intoxication, sadness. In his hand was a white cloth stained with blood he used to wipe his face of his nieces blood. Qrow remembered when he had gotten home, after throwing Taiyang into the portal to stop his outburst; he had gone to wash his face with that cloth. When he noticed so much blood on it, he looked up to see his face covered with some splats of Ruby's blood. Soon a frightening image in the glass replaced his face. It was an image of Ruby crying at him, blood drawn from her mouth as she uttered words that stabbed him deeper than any sword could go,
"It's all your fault!" the imaginary Ruby screeched with rage.
Qrow recoiled in horror as he raced out of the bathroom. Sweat dripped down his face as he panted with fear. He knew what he saw wasn't real, but the image was so realistic. In his haste, he tripped on the living room couch and fell on the floor, clasping his aching head. Suddenly a flask fell out of his coat pocket and, despite wanting to avoid drinking when Raven could need him to come back to the mansion at any second, he couldn't resist the urge to drink and forget that haunting image of his injured niece. Each chug from the flask brought a light sensation to his head, causing him to smile with joy as the pain finally ceased. But each time he exhaled and stopped drinking, the image of his bloody and broken niece, vines and thorn's shooting a smashing around flooded his mind. "It's all your fault!" the fake Ruby kept screaming. Qrow nearly cried as he kept taking swigs to stop this image. He hated it more with each swig as he felt it was completely true. He was right there when Ruby and his grand nephew needed him but froze up when seeing her hurt. He could have flown over there and fought off that scorpion bastard but chickened out over thoughts like "He might shoot me in bird form" or "Would my semblance make this worse?" but knew they were just cowardly excuses. The drunken old huntsman laughed to himself at the hypocrisy as he remembered chiding Yang for not being there for Ruby when he was there but couldn't help her either. He found it funny how he could preach and fail to follow up. Then again, his life has always been a bunch of failures he just blamed on his shitty semblance.
"Yeah, *hiccup* why would rubes need me for" he stuttered through hiccups as he continued his binge.
Several minutes later, Qrow snored on the ground as he blacked out from being drunk, unable to respond to the several alerts his scroll was getting from Ozpin. Suddenly a portal opened in the living room, which Raven emerged from.
"Qrow quick! We need to call Ozpin and..," she said with urgency before stopping to hear snoring coming from the ground. She rolled her eyes in disappointment, but not surprise, to see her brother drunk on the floor.
"Get up you idiot, Ruby needs you now!" she yelled with disdain as she kicked her brothers arm, but all he did was giggle and roll on his side, ignoring her coaxing.
Raven glared at him with disdain. She should have guessed Qrow would go on a drinking binge, but cursed herself for assuming he could have controlled himself when Ruby had been counting on him. As she pondered her disappointment, she noticed a beep from Qrow's scroll as she picked it up in haste at seeing Ozpin's name on the message.
"Oz! Perfect timing, I am sure you heard Cinder's message. We need your help to convince Ironwood to help us rescue Thorn!" she said with urgency.
"Perfect timing indeed then Mrs. Branwen. I have the General here and he's already agreed to help." The headmaster smirked to himself, correctly guessing the woman's surprised reaction over the line.
"I have a plan to get Thorn back and capture Cinder. I'll explain it later at Beacon, can you summon the others from the Menagerie and meet me here quickly? Time is off the essence," he said as he looked at his watch impatiently. He was counting down the time since Cinder's message to ensure he wasn't going to miss the deadline and their chance to free Thorn.
4 hours had passed and with only 20 to go until the exchange, he needed to make everyone was ready for the fight ahead of them. Any screw-ups and this would turn into a blood bath.