I've Got You
The room filled with the echos of her screams of pain as Qrow rushed across the distance between them. The large wolf seemed stunned, not moving at all as it loomed above her body as her form tensed up. As he reached them he put all of his weight into his shoulder, shoving Mydnight to the side, away from his partner as the wolf fought to stay on his feet. As Qrow leaned down to look at Ambur however he couldn't get any sort of look at the wound, only the blood oozing out from between her fingers as she held them against her eye.
As Qrow looked to Mydnight he expected to find the wolf agitated with him for shoving him out of the way, but instead, he found the wolf slowly backing away from them. His ears were folded down and he seemed to be unwilling to look directly at Qrow or Ambur, forcing Qrow to assume that the wolf actually felt bad for what he had done.
"...Mydnight," he said softly as he held out a hand toward the wolf, only causing him to back away faster. "Change back come on we need to get her to the hospital!" He yelled a bit too loudly.
The wolf turned around as fast as it could and ran toward the exit. The gym had direct access to the outside world and Mydnight shoved his way through a set of doors and out of the building. Qrow cursed himself for not preparing better for this. "Ambur hey," he said as he began to help her up, putting her arm around his shoulders. "Keep pressure on it okay we are gonna get you to the emergency room."
"But!" She finally spoke with pain filling her voice. "What about Mydnight we can't just leave him like that!"
"Look we will find him later. Right now we need to get you fixed up or you are gonna lose that eye okay? I'll let Oz know and he can have others start looking for him."
/
As Ambur sat in her hospital bed she couldn't stop fidgeting. It was the only way for her to keep her hands away from her face. She had bandages wrapped around her head to cover up her new wound but the stitches beneath them itched greatly. She had never had stitches before and quite frankly she never expected to. Normally, if she had had her aura active this would have never happened but it had slipped her mind in the moment. Mydnight had caught her so off guard that she had forgotten to activate it. The doctor said that she might be able to keep the eye but there was no guarantee that she would be able to see out of it when all was said and done.
All she could do was sulk as she waited to be released. The time dragged more and more as the night continued. Qrow had brought her and left almost immediately at Ambur's own request to go look for Mydnight, so she had spent most of the night alone.
"Ambur!" She heard from the doorway, looking up just in time to see Liv run up to the side of her bed and grab onto her hands. "Oh my gosh what happened," she asked as she placed her hand on Ambur's opposite cheek.
"Ohhh Liv...man I'm really...glad you're here," she sighed as a tear fell down her cheek and she pulled Liv into an embrace.
"Who did this to you?!" Liv asked harshly before breaking the hug, seeing Ambur look back down to her lap. "Where is Mydnight? Weren't you supposed to be with him?"
"...N-nothing...nobody I'm..I'm okay," she tried to tell her. Deep down she knew this would never satisfy Liv's questions but she had to try to change the subject.
"What do you mean? Did Mydnight do this to you?!"
"No!" She lied. "Look can we not talk about it...please?" She pleaded desperately.
"Ambur this isn't nothing. I swear to god if he hurt you-"
"It wasn't his fault okay?!" Ambur finally yelled back as she began to cry.
Liv was stunned by her friend's words, lowering her tone and taking hold of Ambur's hand. "What do you mean...it wasn't his fault? I'm not stupid okay..." She said softly as she placed her hand under Ambur's chin and forced her to look into her eyes. "I haven't pressed the issue because you clearly haven't wanted to talk about it but I know that something has been up with him for a while. Tell me what the hell is going on."
Ambur couldn't stop crying as she searched for the words, wanting so desperately to disappear so she wouldn't have to spill a secret that didn't belong to her. "You..." she sobbed. "You have to promise me," she finally got out. "Promise me you won't tell anybody. Nobody!"
"I promise..." she said softly as she wiped a tear from Ambur's cheek. "I'm sorry I yelled but I need to understand what is happening between you two and why he would attack you. I wouldn't be a very good best friend if I didn't..." She smiled softly before pulling Ambur into another hug.
As Ambur cried into Liv's shoulder she silently cursed herself before taking in one long breath and sobbing the words into Liv's ear as quietly as she could. "Mydnight...he's a...a wolf..."
"I mean...ya I know that?" She said skeptically. "Have to be blind to not see that."
"No Liv I mean...he can turn into a real wolf," she said sternly as she broke the embrace and tried to dry her eye.
Liv gave Ambur another confused look before speaking again, "Did you hit your head when he hit you?" She asked as she eyed up Ambur's bandages.
"Listen to me!" Ambur half yelled. "I'm not joking okay! He's out there right now and he's probably scared to death because he accidentally hurt me while we were training him and I'm stuck here in this stupid bed when I need to be out there looking for him!"
"Alright alright shit sorry. Real wolf...sure," she said as she scratched her head. "But look I mean...even if that's true you shouldn't be going to look for him you should be staying away from him if he already hurt you once."
As Liv finished her statement though they heard Ambur's nurse knocking on the door of the room before she walked in.
"Alright Miss Magnaria here," she began as she handed her a slip of paper, "Is your prescription and if you have any issues with your stitches coming undone then please do not hesitate to come back." As the nurse spoke Ambur began to get up out of the bed, Liv finally taking notice of all of the blood on her clothing. The nurses had been able to clean it off of her skin but it was never going to come out of her clothes. "And get plenty of rest!" She called behind her as Ambur bolted for the door, nearly running into the door frame as she walked off-balance with her new handicap.
Liv ran after her friend, finding her leaning against the wall down the hallway trying to stay upright now that her depth perception was completely messed up. "Ambur slow down!" She called after her before grabbing onto her arm and propping her up, helping her friend walk down the hallway. "You need to take it easy. This is serious!"
"So is finding Mydnight! I can't leave him out there all alone, he needs me! What if Qrow can't find him?!"
"Well, Qrow is in much better condition to be looking for him than you are!" Liv yelled back as they reached the exit and Liv pulled out her scroll and began to dial a taxi.
"Liv I know you don't understand what's going on right now but I need you to trust me," She said as she grabbed hold of her friend's hands, keeping her from dialing the number and forcing the girl's eyes to meet.
"...Make me believe you...tell me why it has to be you!" She shot back, Ambur able to tell that Liv was beginning to fight back tears from frustration. "I don't want to watch you get hurt more than you already are!"
Ambur fell silent for several moments before speaking. "We've...been training his...other form for a few months now...He's only just beginning to get a little control over it...when he changes it's like...he's in a really thick fog and doesn't have control. I'm the one who has been helping this entire time and he only hurt me by accident...he just got a little too playful and caught me with his claw...I need to find him so he knows I'm okay...or he may never forgive himself and just...run away..."
"But Ambur you...You're not okay," Liv pleaded with her to understand. "You can't even walk in a straight line. How do you expect to go looking for him?"
Ambur fell silent as she accepted that what Liv had said was true. She really was in no shape to go looking for anybody, much less a wolf that could be hiding anywhere around town. "...Please help me," she said softly. "Liv I...I need your help and I'm going with or without you so please..."
Olivier sighed as she finally nodded her head and put her scroll into her pocket and began supporting her friend's weight again. "You're lucky I love you..." she sighed as the girls began to laugh. "So where are we going..?"
"Let me text Qrow," she said as she took her scroll out of her pocket and Liv could see her struggling to read the screen before Ambur sighed and handed the device down to Liv. "Could you please I can't...really focus on any of that right now..."
Liv took Ambur's scroll from her and began to type the message before both girls waited for a response. "He says he's searched the Signal grounds and surrounding area...fllyyinnggg around?" She said in confusion as she looked back up to Ambur. "What does he mean flying around?"
"Man..." she sighed as she closed her eyes and groaned. "Okay look there's a lot I need to tell you... let's go toward the school maybe he will end up running to places that he is familiar with since he is acting on instinct."
"...Okay..." Liv sighed again as she began to help her friend down the sidewalk toward Beacon Academy.
/
"Mydnight!" he yelled out from the rooftop as he jammed his scroll back into his pocket, calling out in the night air in hopes of him hearing. "Dammit...where would he go? He doesn't have anywhere to go!" He yelled as he kicked his foot against the crest of the roof. As he changed back into his Crow form and flapped his wings, accelerating back into the sky he began to think to himself.
'This is all my damn fault. I should have been closer...should have been paying more attention. Been more involved. I know better than anyone how dangerous this shit can be and I stood back and watched as he took on an even more dangerous problem then I had to deal with...as usual.'
As he flew over the city he thought he caught a glimpse of Ambur limping down the street, and he thought he could even see someone else standing with her helping her along. As he got closer he came to realize that is was Liv and began to dive-bomb until he landed in a tree along their path, waiting for Ambur to notice him.
As the girls approached the shuttle bay to catch a flight back to the school Ambur tried her best to explain everything to Liv. "So ya basically for the past few months I have been spending a little time alone with Mydnight to help him gain control of the power that Oz gave him. It's not the alone time I'm looking for but hey...I'll take it."
"Even if it gets you killed? Ambur this is insane. Do you not see how not okay this all is?"
"Mydnight made his choice...it wasn't forced on him or anything like that."
"No, but you didn't get to choose! The choice to help him was made for you."
"No, it wasn't? I told you tha-"
"Ya, I heard what you said. But do you think, even for a second, that Oz didn't know you were going to say yes? He manipulated you because he knew you'd do anything for Mydnight..."
"...It's not...like that okay..." She protested quietly, though she knew that Olivier had a point. It was true that there was never any chance that Ambur would have said no. If Ozpin knew that she had feelings for Mydnight then it was possible that he had manipulated her into her new dog-sitting position. "Even if it was I don't regret it."
"You like Mydnight THAT much? That this," she pointed to Ambur's eye, "Really doesn't bother you?"
"...No, it doesn't...not at all. I signed up for this and I knew the consequences. I'm his partner and I swore to be there for him and I am going to be...no matter what."
Liv fell silent as Ambur's words washed through her mind. It never ceased to amaze Liv how good of a Leader Ambur had turned out to be. Never exploding on Rosa no matter how much she deserved it, doing what was best for the team even when at times all three of her teammates wanted nothing to do with each other. 'Now this?' She thought to herself as she looked up to Ambur's pain stained face, seeing her squint and grit her teeth with every step as she fought to keep her balance.
Though before either of them could think of anything else to say the pair heard a loud cawing from the tree ahead of them, growing out from its plot in the sidewalk. The girls looked up to find a red-eyed crow staring back at them. Liv first as she looked between the crow and Ambur. "...Is that..?" She asked without giving specifics, looking around them to find that there were no other people or traffic on their street.
"She knows Qrow," Ambur called out before the bird swooped down the tree and, in a cloud of smoke, changed it's form into Qrow's before their eyes as he landed on the sidewalk.
"You gonna tell Oz you told her?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow.
"I think we have more pressing issues right now Qrow," Ambur huffed as Liv let her go and Ambur slumped over, hands rested on her knees as she tried to stabilize herself.
"I can't find him anywhere," he said as he walked over. "Why are you out here you should be resting."
"I Need to help...I can't sit around and do nothing while he is out there scared and alone..."
"Look wherever he is I'm sure he is fine it's just a matter of finding him. Which I can do far easier than you can. Look at you...you can barely stand Ambur."
"Ya I tried to tell her that but she's not listening. You're not gonna change her mind," Liv grumbled as she stretched her arm out that Ambur had been using to support herself.
"I'm not giving up so you can drop the subject Qrow," Ambur breathed out as she stood up tall, swaying a little bit as she caught her balance, Liv rushing back to her side to catch her and help her stay up.
"...Fine. You check the school grounds and if he isn't there then go to your dorm and stay there, I can check the rest of the city and the surrounding area in that time. Don't push yourself," he pointed to her, putting on his best serious face before he jumped up into the air and changed back into his crow form and flew off, leaving the girls in the dust.
"He really doesn't think I can help at all...he doesn't expect us to find him at Beacon he just wants me out of the way..."
"Ambur he just wants you to be safe," Liv retorted as she began to help Ambur walk down the road again. "What happens if you find Mydnight and he attacks you again?"
"Well..." she sighed, "then you're gonna have to help me take him down aren't you..."
"Ambur I don't have my weapon! What exactly do you want me to do?"
"Maybe it's time we test our theory about your semblance then...hmm?" Ambur suggested as Liv gave her a surprised look.
"Jesus Ambur, you have a really cruel idea of trial by fire you know that?"
"Look I can overpower him if it doesn't work you just...gotta point me in the right direction. It'll be fine...I promise. Besides if he sees me I doubt he will want to fight. More than likely he will want to run away again because of how guilty he feels. You just have to tell him not to," she assured Liv.
"...Okay, we will try it...but if he comes after us you need to promise me that you won't freeze up. You need to take him down if he charges us."
"I will...I promise."
/
As Liv and Ambur disembarked from the shuttle the girls decided that the best route to go would be to text Bronzine and see if he had seen Mydnight return to their room. Upon receiving his text back the girls discovered that Bronzine had seen no such thing, and they headed toward the cliff that led down into the Emerald Forest. The pair found the safest way down so Ambur wouldn't have to struggle with landing, and in the dark of the night, they headed deeper and deeper into the woods.
They were surprised to find that they weren't really in for an assault from the Grimm, eventually realizing that all of the monsters in the area were probably being pulled in by Mydnight's negativity if he really was there with them. This would prove advantages for them in more ways than one. Of course, it meant that Ambur did not have to fight, but it also meant that when the two girls did eventually begin to hear the growls of Grimm in the distance that the noise would likely lead them straight to their missing wolf.
As they came closer to the snarls of the wild beasts they began to lay lower to the ground, even eventually dropping to their knees and crawling toward a clearing where they could hear all manner of terrible noise. Ripping and tearing, snapping and cracking and worst of all the low growls of the giant wolf they sought. Ambur held back a long hanging limb of a bush so as to peak into the opening in the trees to find the large black wolf in the center of a large pack of Grimm, Beowolves, and Ursa mostly.
He seemed to be breathing quite heavily and the monsters were clearly agitating him but Ambur felt a hand on her wrist, looking over to see Liv looking to her for answers.
"I don't know," she whispered before looking back. "I can't really fight like this and even if I could I don't know if it's a good idea to get in between him and the Grimm. He may not be able to control himself very well yet so we could just get in the way and get more hurt."
"So what we are just supposed to sit here and watch him? What if they just keep coming?"
"If he needs us then we can jump in, it's not like either of us are useless without a weapon right? You fight with your hands anyway and I can at least defend myself if I stay still...I think," Ambur whispered softly as she wasn't entirely sure that her own words were the truth. She had killed monsters with her bare hands before but she had been able to see their attacks coming from either side of her face, not to mention she could judge when the opponent's strikes would land and now she wasn't sure that she could.
As the girls watched however Olivier had the good sense to reach into Ambur's pocket and take out her scroll, rifling off a text to Qrow so he could fly to their location and help if he needed to. Ambur knew deep down that this was probably a good idea but she still saw it as a risk. Ambur had gotten it into her head that she was the only one who could calm Mydnight down and get him to change back but somewhere in the back of her head she knew better. Qrow had known Mydnight far longer than she had and was really the only semblance of family that Mydnight ever had.
If it came down to it she may even have to admit that Qrow had a better chance of calming him down but for some reason, Ambur couldn't shake the feeling that it was her responsibility. As the fight ensued the girls tried to keep their gasps as quiet as they could, watching Mydnight lash out at each of the Grimm who came at him, tearing them to bits with ease. Most of the monsters were in more than two pieces before they began to fade away but of course, the others learned nothing by watching the rest of their pack fail.
Young Grimm were too stubborn to see when they were beaten or to walk away from a fight that they couldn't win, and Mydnight was making it very clear to all who watched that this fight that it could only end one way. He looked tired but nothing was going to stop the large black wolf from taking out his anger at himself until there were no targets left in his gaze.
And so eventually, after a few minutes, there were none. Mydnight stood alone in the clearing breathing extremely deeply as his chest pumped. The girl's attention would be stolen however as the sound of a crow's caw forced them to look up to the night sky. They could see the silhouette of the bird on the cracked moon before Qrow swooped down and changed forms, landing several meters in front of Mydnight.
As he landed however and put his hands up in front of him to try and calm the wolf. Mydnight began to step backward rapidly to avoid contact with him as he began to snarl as his older counterpart. "Mydnight," Qrow said as softly as he could as he looked into the golden orbs of his glowing eyes. He tried his best to remain calm to show the wolf he meant no harm. "Come on we need to get you home bud you gotta change back," he again let out softly as the wolf refused to back down.
Ambur couldn't sit by and watch anymore, slowly standing from her position under the brush before taking slow steps out into the clearing. "Ambur stop!" Liv whispered loudly. "Let Qrow handle it!"
Ambur kept walking however, her vision moving between her feet and Mydnight, trying to make sure that she wouldn't trip over anything. She moved slow, with her hands out in front of her to try and show that she had nothing to hide. The wolf caught sight of her over Qrow's shoulder though and he froze in place.
At first, Mydnight continued to snarl as Qrow looked over his shoulder to find Ambur coming toward them. "Ambur get out of here. I'm not gonna let you get hurt again over this!" Qrow yelled before Ambur walked past him. Before she was out of reach though he grabbed for her wrist. "You're gonna get yourself killed!"
Ambur could only look back into Qrow's eyes and shake her head at him. "Let me go...I can do this..."
Qrow knew that he couldn't hold her back if he wanted to and reluctantly let her go as their attention turned back to Mydnight, who had finished growling at her and was beginning to look more and more guilty. He refused to look her in the face and he was stepping backward again toward the tree line.
"Mydnight," she began softly, grabbing his attention as he began to whine and couldn't sit still. "Mydnight please, stay. Don't run away. I'm not mad at you but I need you to listen to me..." She continued as she slowly made her way closer to him.
Again Mydnight's eyes dove down to the ground in front of him as he lifted a paw to his face and began to run it over his left eye, continuing to whine in shame.
"Myd it's okay..." she said again as she continued toward him slowly. Liv stood from the ground and walked toward Qrow, standing beside him as she bit her lip in anticipation, trying to hold herself back from interrupting Ambur's attempt. As Ambur shuffled her way toward the great wolf she continued to plead until eventually Mydnight reluctantly looked up into her face. "That's it," she said as she slowly held out one hand toward her partner, Mydnight hesitant to accept the gesture.
"Change back Mydnight..." Qrow barely heard from beside him, looking down to find Olivier beside him with her hands together over her chest. She had whispered it so quietly that even standing right beside him he had barely heard it. But as he looked back to Mydnight he saw his ears twitch, as if he had picked up the voice and his mood immediately seemed to change.
Without further hesitation, his whines stopped and Mydnight pressed his nose into Ambur's open palm as shadows began to radiate off of the wolf. As they cleared into the night sky the group found Mydnight standing before Ambur, looking around confused as if he didn't know where he was.
"Wha...where am-Oh my god!" He said as his attention fell back upon Ambur, his hands flying up to her cheeks, "Ambur what happened?!" He asked frantically. "Are you okay?!"
"Do...do you not...remember anything?" She asked as she raised her left eyebrow and squinted in confusion.
"What? What do you mean?" As Ambur began to realize that Mydnight had no memory of his day her hands slowly came up to take hold of his, keeping them pressed against her cheeks. Some of this was to comfort him from the words about to leave her mouth but mostly it was to keep him from recoiling away from her if he took it poorly. She then pulled him into her, forcing her partner into a hug, burying her face in his shoulder as he stood there, stunned.
"I'm so glad you're okay," she said softly as her eyes began to water. "I was so worried about you."
Mydnight again stood still in confusion, not sure what she meant before everything began to click in his head. "Wait did I...did I turn into the...Ambur," he said softly as she felt him take a deep breath and swallow hard. "Ambur, what happened?"
"Mydnight you...did this to me..."