RWBY: Roses Can't See
Chapter 3: Support
It was a cold night on Patch island, not that Yang would know as she spent another day in her grey pajamas lying on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling again. She raised her remaining hand towards it before giving off a sigh. It's skin was smooth and clear, devoid of the callouses and burn marks she was so accustomed to seeing as a side effect from her semblance. She hadn't been in a fight; let alone train since the fall of her school, since the loss of her arm to Adam Taurus. The mere thought of it sent shivers down her spine as she pulled her hand away and rubbed the stump where the other once was.
She soon heard murmur's of grown men that jolted her out of bed. Their tones were gruff, making her eyes red from panic as the image of Adam flashed before her.
"I will take away, everything you love." He coldly said to her face. Of course this was what she heard him say to Blake, but these were the last words she heard before….her loss. It was a bitter feeling she always hated, having thrown tantrums in the past when Ruby beat her in video games. But never in her life had she suffered such horrid consequences, consequences that would stick with her forever. The reality froze her in place as she eyed the window where the voices originated. Her feet felt like they had cinderblocks weighing on them, the pressure so intense she felt tempted to just crouch and cradle her own head, silently begging the voices to leave so she could have some peace. She began to breath heavily as she felt the weight in her feet spread throughout her whole body, almost about to collapse from an urge to throw up before soon hearing a familiar voice outside.
"Dad?" she said frantically, dashing to the window and ignoring her soreness out of desperate need to see him, to know things were okay. She just had to know they were.
She plopped her face and hands on the window, as if a child planting them on a toy store and ogling the shiny new toys before them. The sound caught Taiyang's attention as he stole a glance at her from downstairs. As she met his gaze from afar, Yang breathed a sigh of relief that fogged her window a bit. He was okay, simply chatting with two other familiar faces at the front door, Professor's Ooblock and Port.
Her smile soon transformed into a frown with a grimace as she saw her father form a smaller one himself before quickly turning to face his old friends from Beacon.
Was he disappointed to see her? Yang couldn't help but ponder this sad thought as she focused her hearing, desperate to know what was troubling her father.
"I shudder to ask you of this…but is there still no word from Miss Rose?" Port asked with a sigh, making Yang wince at the mention of her little sister.
"Ruby? She said in shock, almost cracking the glass as she leaned on it to focus on them even more.
Tai sighed in discomfort and rubbed his arm at the question.
"No, not even a letter." He sadly said, still feeling his arms shaking from that day 3 months ago, the day he read the last letter with broken English written to him from her.
"Dad,
I know your probably freaking out right now, what with your blind little baby gone and all. Please forgive me for leaving you, but I must do this. Beacon didn't have to happen, but it did. Bad stuff happen regardless if your prepared for it or not, and Haven academy is certainly not prepared. We lost so much when those monsters decimated my school, so many good students and citizens lost their lives. Pyrrah, Penny, and….
Tai also recalled the wet stains of tears on the letter at that point from Ruby's crying. A wetness that made his heartstrings almost rip as he struggled to continue recalling her message.
"My team, my sisters arm…all gone. I can't imagine a worse pain than this right now, but I know my enemies certainly can. And they WILL inflict it upon Haven. I can't allow that to happen. I am going there with my new team, my remaining friends from Beacon whom I trust will protect me in your stead. Watch Yang for me, I know I can't be the one to save her from herself right now. My eyes will just cause her more pain. Uncle Qrow taught me well enough to move and fight without them so don't worry too much. I'll do everything I can to come back home safe after I stop the bad guys and save the day.
Dad…. I love you and Yang so much
(heart symbol) Ruby.
"I really miss her so much. I'd give up my whole house if I could even just hug her right now." Tai said sorrowfully, it wasn't even an exaggeration to his colleagues observation as they rubbed their heads nervously, worried for him almost as much as Yang, almost forming empathetic tears seeing him so sad.
"Have you thought about going after her? Bringing her home?" Ooblock asked.
Tai simply returned his gaze slightly to Yang.
"I have…other priorities right now." He sighed.
Yang gasped as she heard this, feeling a wave of shame. Her father was staying behind to look after her. She was keeping him from having Ruby back.
She soon felt the dark room within her house grow colder and darker as she felt the loneliness within it. She quickly stole a glance at a book she kept by her nightstand, a sense of nostalgia mixed with regret infecting her as she did. She smiled a bit remembering the days she read to her baby sister when she was little.
"Yang? Read book pwease?" a 4 year old Ruby asked her big sister.
They snuggled together in Yang's bed as she flipped through the Cherry Tail book. It was a story about a princess who awakened one night to find herself with a fox tail, making her family exile her due to Faunus prejudices and leading her to becoming a member of a tribe of Faunus. Open mindedness was an important lesson she wanted to teach Ruby. It would help her connect with more different types of people, like the faunus, like Blake, the cat girl's painful cry from Adam stabbing her stomach echoing in her head, making Yang shudder.
"I'll always have your back." yang grunted as she remembered her partner and Ruby say those lines. In a way, Ruby and Blake were the same in a good way despite being different species like Yang hoped. They both cared deeply for friends and family, and always showed up when she needed them the most in battle.
"What about after that?" she thought to herself as a bitter thought crossed her mind.
Both were gone, just like her mother leaving her alone to fester in her anger and pain without so much as a word, a goodbye. She gritted her teeth as she pondered if she even wanted to see them again before a realization clicked,
"See?" she whispered soon feeling an air of shame in her. That's right, her sister was blind and out in the horrible world that claimed her sight and Yang's arm fighting right now.
With an angry groan, Yang kicked the nightstand to the floor and sending the book flying.
"Why did she have to lose? Why did she have to go?!" Yang yelled.
It was so unfair to her to see her little sister that day blindfolded. It reminded her how she failed to both her sister and partner. She just wanted Ruby to stay at home with her where she would be safe.
5 months ago
Ruby and Qrow were outside the house while Yang lay on a couch watching TV. She soon turned her head to see out the window Ruby wobbling around with Crescent Rose. It unnerved her to see her blind sister handle such a dangerous weapon with her condition, almost getting off the couch to go outside and stop her. Yet her worries were somewhat alleviated when Qrow quickly lent an arm to support Ruby.
"Alright Kiddo, ready for the training from hell?" he asked her supportively, making Yang's ears ring.
"Training? But's she's freaking blind!" she yelled, red eyes flaring as she prepared to smash down her front door and charge at her uncle before the sounds of metal clanging and Ruby's warcry stopped her in her tracks.
She slowly walked back to the window to watch her sister, her arm stump in the bandages burning as she could feel Adam's blade again.
She saw Ruby swinging wildly with such deadly force any Grimm or goon unlucky enough to cross her path would be scared shitless. But not Uncle Qrow, he didn't need luck as he had skill and experience and showcased it as he smirked and nimbly jumped or duck to avoid each scythe strike with that cocky attitude Yang inherited.
Ruby meanwhile was groaning as she felt nothing connect to her Scythe, not even her Uncle's weapon after the first collision. The only hints to where her opponent was were his chuckling and footsteps she could barely hear as her scythe's strikes only served to drown out her hearing. Soon the sound of wind whooshing from each of her strikes consumed her along with frustration, something Qrow took noticed on as they approached the woods behind them.
"We got to improve your hearing first before you start swinging away kid." He said as he somersaulted behind Ruby as she swung and hit a tree where her Uncle once stood, her body freezing as she heard the sound of wood cracking.
"Wait! What did I hit?" she yelled before being grabbed by her cloak and yanked to the side to avoid the tree from crushing her unaware.
"Timber ya brat." Qrow said teasingly, leading to a sheepish grin from Ruby that made him tussle her hair in amusement.
"Thanks for the save Uncle now lets…wait…WHERE'S MY SCYTHE!? WHERE'S MY BABY?!" She yelled as she frantically crawled around and felt the ground, desperate to find her weapon. Qrow chuckled a little as he had already grabbed the Scythe and held onto it with other hand, but he was gonna let her panic some more while searching just for the fun of seeing her squirm.
Yang however, didn't feel amusement seeing her sister panicking. That slashed tree trunk that collapsed in her yard also gave her a gut wrenching feeling. Ruby was indeed only starting her training, but these dangerous scenario's, and her baby sis's desperate look on her face with those blank eyes were all she could imagine as a detriment to her health. She just wanted her to stay home and give up being a huntress, at least then she'd be safe.
"In a cage but safe."
Back in her room, Yang mused this thought as sat down on her bed and soon eyed the shiny silver arm prosthetic laying on her dresser. It was a high grade Atlas model equipped with grenade launchers, aura reader, and aura compatible to endure intense stress. Such a thing was clearly expensive and perfectly suitable for her being the reason her father was ecstatic when he brought it home for free as a gift from General Ironwood. Only problem was, she wasn't perfect for it.
She felt a strange pull to that arm every day, wanting to put it on and forget her pain of losing her arm. But each time she so much as stepped towards it to entertain that notion, she felt an urge to hurl as she pictured Adam again and again each day. She honestly just wanted Ruby back to hug and talk to more than her old or new arm, but she was gone. As she looked back outside, Yang no longer saw the adults talking about her sister, they were gone just like her. What she did see, was the several tree stumps from her training sessions with Qrow all those months again.
"Search for heartbeats kid, it's the only real giveaway!" Qrow once yelled.
"Always keep your blade up, you can still feel it even if you can't see it!" he also yelled.
"Sense the vibrations in the wind, feel when a presence is around. You can't rely on that cane forever, you got to rely on other things." He also said.
These were the multiple lessons Yang had heard her Uncle drill into Ruby for months as she trained to overcome her blindness. She eyed her new arm again as she pondered those lessons. Were they really for Ruby?
She got up from the bed as she pondered this thought and slowly walked over to it. As much as her lungs felt like they were on fire, Yang felt a worse burn of self-loathing as she couldn't help but envy her sister right now.
"You always were braver than me kid." She sorrowfully said. She realized her sister hadn't let her crippling loss define all she was, she had worked hard and moved past it, yet here Yang stood, messy and a shell of her former brawler self. She had burned bars to the ground and decimated hordes of goons with a single arm, yet still found herself shaking like child scared of a horror movie from not being able to use both. It was ridiculous to her, just as she found her behavior these past months ridiculous.
"What am I doing? Ruby needs me, she needs her big sister not some lazy couch potato!" Yang groaned as she felt immense guilt, she needed to move past this and go out looking for Ruby. But as she drew a hand near that arm, Adam again glared at the back of her mind making her wince and arm tremble.
"No! No! She needs me!" Yang yelled as she shook her head and bit her lip, desperate to fight the pain and fear. She decided to fill her head with something other than her tormentor,
"I love you." Ruby's last whimpering words to her before she left her room. She should have responded, she should have replied in kind with love. No more bitterness, it was time to move on like she did and be the hero she was to Yang. After a few minutes of trembling and heavy breathing, she finally managed to grab the arm.
"For Ruby." Yang said after a short gasp.
Meanwhile….
Ruby sneezed violently suddenly, the act too quick for her to react and cover her mouth.
"Ugh, guess someone's talking about me. Probably dad again." Ruby groaned as she rubbed her nose a bit before her face basked in the warm sunlight. She was sitting on a bench outside a blacksmith's shop, waiting for her team to finish up on maintenance for their weapons.
She soon took a breath of cool fresh air, hearing the bird's chirp and the wind blowing calmly all making her feel relaxed. It was a rare privilege she found herself to have these days. Since the fall of Beacon, the neighboring kingdom's had been panicking and scrambled to build better defenses from the hoards of Grimm that infested the areas. Some blamed Beacon and its hunters for failing to kill them all, saying it brought them to nearby villages. Such an accusation that brought bitterness and rage to Ruby.
"Those idiots can say that after they fought and nearly died defending what's right rather than sitting on their butts eating donuts all day." Ruby thought to herself. Like she and Jaune told each other the other night, they did all they could to save everyone, but they weren't gods. They couldn't do everything, they just did their best and it wasn't enough but at least they did something unlike judgmental and privileged pricks. She was almost tempted to abandoned those kind of jerks when their villages were attacked by Ursa's and Nevermore's for that, though would silently chide herself for such petty reasoning, it wasn't in her nature to be that cruel like them, at least that's what she hoped.
Ruby sighed as she lay down on the bench, feeling slight discomfort despite her calm setting. The whole reason people were in this mess was the Grimm. She could hear heartbeats now thanks to her training, but what helped her identify presences also helped her discover their fear from frantic heartbeats. It was a lure to her just as much as the Grimm. She felt guilty for that lure as she wanted to make a difference for those people so they didn't have to live in fear, yet time and time again she would remember some very nasty jeers.
"Oh great a blind girls gonna save us. Why not just use your scythe to dig our graves instead!" A farmer whom they saved from hounds once yelled.
"How can she save us when she can't even see!?" a wolf woman faunus once cried as she defended her home from a Death Stalker.
Yet she would always amaze them and earn praise after defying those fears and killing the Grimm.
Ruby touched her eyes tenderly, still wishing more than ever to see the looks of happiness as they locked their eyes on their savior. It was a bitter blow to lose her sight not from the hellish training she went through to support herself, but not being able to see the joy from others.
But Ruby sat up and soon smiled in relief as she remembered she could still hear that joy very well as she heard her friend Nora laugh joyfully at Jaune about something.
The walls of the shop muffled some things, but Ruby could swear she heard things like, "Bunny" or "pajama's" almost making her want to burst in there and ask what was going on. But Ruby sighed as she decided long ago to take things slowly, including walking. She had too with her cane now basically being a third leg for her. At least it was red like her scythe as Jaune said.
"Well speak of the devil." Ruby joyfully said as she heard her teammates walk out the store, Jaune's heartbeat pounding a bit, obviously feeling embarrassed and stress to Ruby. Ren and Nora's chuckles were dead giveaways to Ruby, she had to know what happened. Her curiosity flared, Ruby ran up to Jaune, inches away from his face as she stopped knowing where he was due to her hearing, to his surprise.
"Sooooo, what happened in there?" she said like a kid saying "ooooooh your in trouble" at school when a kid got called to the principals office.
Jaune felt Goosebumps from this, he just couldn't let her know as he held up a shushing finger to his mouth and bared his teeth at his teammates not to tell her, to their amusement.
"Oh Jauuuuune, what are you hiding?" Ruby asked with a coy tone. She made it clear she was going to get an answer soon.
"Oh!…uh…Nothing at all, just a new shield and…" He said, but his heartbeat defeated that lie as she shined a smile that practically made him screamed unfairness as he sweat nervously.
"Liarrrrrrrr" she sang playfully, darting around his body and even poking his cheeks trying to annoy him into coming clean.. Nora was jittering at this point, Ren not even bothering to keep a composed face, this was just too funny for him.
Suddenly Nora screamed as she couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Jaune's got a cartoon bunny t-shirt!" She yelled, earning an annoyed groan from Jaune as the cat was out of the bag. Ruby held a hand to her mouth as she processed this, soon forcing back powerful hiccups that urged her to laugh if not for her friends ego.
"A…*hiccup* bunny?" she giggled.
"Pumpkin Pete okay! He was my favorite growing up! Cartoons, pajama's, cereal! I had to send in 50 box tops for this and I wasn't going to give it up then!" he yelled in defense, but this just made it harder to save his image as Ruby let loose a small laugh, almost choking on air.
"You…send in that many…for a bunny shirt!" Ruby chuckled. Jaune hung his back and arms forward in defeat.
"Yes" he whimpered.
Ruby couldn't take it anymore, her head grew giant to his face (like a cartoon) as she laughed as loud as she could to it before collapsing on the ground trying to gasp for air.
"I guess we don't have to grow out of some things." Ren said trying to be helpful to his leader, but the latter saw his snickered look and wasn't pleased nearly crying in fact.
After a few minutes of trying to collect herself, Ruby finally calmed down and got down to business.
"Okay, our weapons are all clean and ready for battle, but what did you really get Jaune?" she asked him curious. He had said he had a special project when they arrived but she wasn't sure if it was really just an upgraded shield.
"It really wasn't just my shield, I asked him to do something special to my sword too." Jaune said with a grin, not that she could see, but she could feel his heart beat warmly and could tell he was happy.
"How did he improve your family heirloom *gasp* can it shoot fire or generated wind blades!?" she asked while waving her arms and making whooshing sounds to mimic the blade strikes in her imagination.
"Nope." He simply countered like she had done to him when he was feeling like a bad leader and shitting on himself half a year ago at Beacon. God he was grateful to her for that, it gave him the courage to try and train harder, it's what really brought him and Pyrrah together. He just had to tell her the good news now.
"I had some leftover metal from Pyrrah, I asked him to add it to my sword." He said warmly, earning a shocked look from Ruby as she felt the enhanced sturdiness of the glistening metal of his blade. It brought a tear to her blank eye as she could only imagine the smile of her dead friend and how honored she would totally be learning her lover had decided to add her metal to his family treasure.
"She'd love it, now she can always be by your side." Ruby said warmly, earning a hug from a happy crying Jaune for this sweet comment before Ren and Nora joined. Even if Pyrrah was gone, they could almost feel her warmth too as if she was hugging them now too, as if their team…no, their family was truly whole again.