"You're sure it's this way Jaune?"
Weiss huffed out the question between exasperated breaths, her chest rising and falling rapidly from the exertion.
For the first time in quite awhile, she was thankful to have the blonde boy around as he helped prop her up while they roamed the derelict streets together. She had already been running on empty when she and Ruby went to the tower, and by the time she got their leader up there, she could hardly walk straight. Her running into Jaune out of complete chance was something she could actually describe as good luck for once.
Between the blinding white flash from the top of Beacon Tower, the White Fang members seeming to be pulling out, and the monstrous draconic Grimm frozen in stone at the top of said tower, she would just have to believe that Ruby would be okay, their leader was strong and she chose to have faith in her.
She heard Jaune give her a ragged sigh in response, his eyes red and puffy, she knew he wasn't taking Pyrrha's decision to go well.
"But with her and Ruby up there they would be fine, right?
Weiss told herself this, though she found she was having a hard time just trying to convince herself of this without anxiety creeping its way back into her mind.
"Um, yeah Weiss. I think Glynda said something about a temporary hospital in the safe zone. It's supposed to be for any injured civilians and huntsmen, it should be up ahead so I hope we can meet up with the others there."
She noticed him pause, glancing over in her direction with a hint of concern in his eyes.
"You sure you're alright?"
Weiss huffed slightly, half from the exhaustion and half from the question, managing to muster up what little sass she had left in her.
"Of course! My injuries are superficial at worst, a couple small cuts and bruises."
She pauses, exhaling and deciding to give him a genuine look of thanks, letting her facade drop slightly in appreciation.
"Just tired, Jaune, to say I'm drained would be quite an understatement, you're doing plenty to help for what it's worth."
She saw him give her an appreciative nod, her answer seeming to satisfy him as he returned his focus to the pair's travel much to her relief. If Weiss was being honest with herself, even talking right now sent a splinter of pain up through her diaphragm. Either through exhaustion, or potentially through cracked ribs she guessed based on the feeling, she wasn't sure but was thankful for the silence that fell between the two.
Weiss focused on keeping herself upright with Jaune's help,though the boy seemed to be struggling himself by this point, and she did her best to be useful by sweeping and scanning the area with her eyes as they moved for any threats, though neither seemed to be ready for a fight at this point. She felt like they had been moving for hours, each step being its own small challenge. She was relieved that they had a relatively unbothered trip as the two came up to what seemed like a makeshift wall of debris, several huntsmen, Atlas personnel, and even some students from Beacon seemed to be patrolling around the area as guards.
She was thankful to be taken in quickly, while the clearly overworked and stressed staff hastily tended to and looked her over for injuries and the like, Jaune broke off and wished her luck with the hopes of meeting back up with his own teammates. While her minor scrapes and cuts were being bandaged, her thoughts drifted to her own team, clouds of doubt hovering like vultures at the edges of her mind as she worried about them.
"Ruby's fine, she has to be. Whatever happened up there obviously seemed to have helped with the Grimm, maybe some huntsman with a powerful semblance?"
This thought immediately came to an end as the clouds circled in tighter, drifting her towards the other two members of her team, the memory of Blake running off, and then Yang running off after her.
"Blake and Yang, would also be okay, correct? There is very little I think the two of them together couldn't handle… Right?"
Try as she could to reassure herself in her mind, the doubts were there and gnawing away at her from the inside out like a set of beowolf jaws, she just couldn't shake the feeling of dread that clutched at her body from the core.
She stewed on this nausea inducing mixture of feelings for quite some time, having been given a place to rest temporarily among the other patients. She had been brushed off quite quickly, when they poised she was in no immediate danger, which seemed fair considering the sheer volume of injured people here. It sent chills down her spine, and every single one that happened to have a similar hair color or feature to one of her friends sent new pangs of anxiety shooting through her arms.
She lost track of time, perhaps she even managed to get some brief, albeit troubled, sleep. She jolted to attention, a splinter of fear coursing through her for a moment before she recognized the voice of the person that awoke her, shaking her head slightly to clear the haze that had formed from her short respite. She looked up to find a familiar blonde monkey tailed faunus had lightly shaken her by the shoulder.
"Whoa! Hey Ice Quee-"
She watched him pause for a moment, a slightly conflicted look coming across his features before he looked a little embarrassed at her, rubbing the back of his head.
"Shoot, sorry sorry! Force of habit. Weiss, right? Man is it good to see you though!"
She was almost taken aback by the stark contrast of Sun vs the bleak place they were both currently in. The darkness of her mental state did not help the situation she found herself in, but she did give an appreciative nod at the gesture he made to take things more seriously at the moment.
"Sun! it's nice to see you too, are you doing well? Have you seen any of the others? Are they okay?"
She almost grimaced as she realized she couldn't keep the worry from her voice, the questions almost rolling out of her mouth on their own at him. Her attempts at composing herself failed utterly the moment she thought at all about any of her friends being seriously wounded, she was almost terrified to hear his answer despite her being the one to ask.
The look Sun gave her was very difficult to read, which was odd for someone who always seemed to wear his heart on his sleeve to her. She wasn't the best at interpreting what people's feelings were exactly, but she felt it was usually easy with him the couple of times she and Sun talked. Yet here he looked so… conflicted to her. Which was definitely not a good sign, only strengthening her anxiety further.
"I uh, yeah I'm alright. I also did meet up with some of your team! Blake and Yang are here.."
He replied to her after a brief pause.
It did not take Weiss long to realize he neglected to answer the last and most important of her questions, her eyes widening in horror as she stared at him, growing slightly frantic.
"Sun, w-where?! Are they okay?"
Sun gave a pained look, Weiss only just now starting to notice how tired and stressed out his eyes were, the boy was clearly running on fumes and he seemed to just be holding it together for appearance sake, not that she wasn't perfectly used to that herself.
"I think you'd better come with me, it's better if you just see for yourself."
The room around Weiss seemed to spin, she felt the bile well up in her throat as she stared in horror at the scene in front of her, her legs feeling weak as if she might just fall where she stood. Her eyes flicked over to Blake first, bloody bandages surrounded the bedding around her, her side wrapped tightly. Blake seemed to be only half lucid, mumbling something that Weiss thought sounded like "I'm sorry" to Yang, who was in the other patient's bed across from hers. Weiss followed Blakes outstretched hand to Yang's, which was dangling limply off the side.
Weiss managed to compose herself slightly, taking a shaky step towards Blake and whispering out loud to herself.
"Blake...? What happened to-"
What little composure she had regained was shattered like a fragile mirror, taking that reflection of steadiness away along with her breath, only a gasp escaping her lips as those icy eyes set upon the blonde.
Yang lay on her back, IV equipment plugged into the usually sunny and bright girl like a grim machine, a sight that almost brought tears to the heiress. Only for those tears to spring forth anyways like a fountain as she set her gaze down the girl, resting on the bloody bandages that were wrapped around what was left of Yang's arm. Weiss could hardly believe it, her mind racing to try to justify what she was seeing, straining to try to see if maybe her arm was behind her body or head, each justification becoming very apparently wrong, her eyes welling up more each failed attempt.
Weiss could finally feel her body starting to shut down from the mental beating of emotions she was suffering, her heart hurt like it had been stabbed as she knelt down beside Yang's bed sobbing softly but openly. She hardly felt the hand of Sun falling to her shoulder, a knowing and grim look across his face.
To Weiss the world felt as though it paused for quite some time, the horrid images of each of her bloodied teammates burned into the girl's mind like a fresh wound as her tears started to dry up from the strain. She raised her head, looking over at Blake and then up to Yang, whose bedside was slightly damper from her tears.
"I'm so sorry for sending you off alone like that… it's all my fault..."
She uttered the words in a defeated tone up at the unconscious blonde, her sorrow evident as she knew she'd never forgive herself for this, even if she couldn't have known the outcome.
"If it helps, the docs said they'd be okay, they'll just be takin a rest for awhile."
Sun chimed in, trying to offer her some form of solace with a half smile.
Weiss glanced up, shooting the faunus an appreciative smile and drying her eyes on her sleeve quickly. A realization hit her, an uneasy look crossing her face, she wished it wasn't so obvious as Sun, noticing the shift, asks.
"What's up? Somethin else on your mind?"
Weiss felt a knot of anxiety twist in her as she hesitantly asked.
"Has.. Ruby turned up yet?"
The look on Sun's face told her all she needed to know, clearly she had been. Weiss noted the look on his face wasn't quite as grim, but still conflicted, those claws of anxiety gripping her lungs as she felt her breath start to leave her once more.
"She did yeah, I think it was her dad? Or maybe it was her uncle who brought her through. She seemed.. Fine? I think? I was kinda makin' sure these two were okay, but she got looked at, and then another guy with blonde hair showed up and they both took her away? My guess would be home, since she didn't seem to be hurt, just sort of knocked out?"
Sun's rough explanation was enough to set Weiss somewhat at ease, the knot untwisting itself at least a little bit, the look of relief on her face seemed to calm the faunus as well. She finally pushed herself up from the floor and grabbed a chair, placing it directly between her two unconscious teammates and sitting. She looked up to Sun, obviously shaken but confidently stating.
"As their teammate, I'll take over the watch."
She eyed the busy area around her, a very thin sheet being the only form of privacy their makeshift space had from the flood of injured and volunteers around them before looking back to the faunus, noting the tired expression he was trying to mask.
"Go check up on your team, you need rest too."
She smiled for the first time and rolled her eyes slightly, trying to lighten things somewhat.
"And Say hi to Neptune for me."
Sun seemed to try to come up with an excuse to fight her, only to give up, his body slumping slightly in relief, some stress seeming to leave the boy before shooting her a quick grin in response, putting his hands up in defeat.
"Alright alright, jeez! Make sure you rest too, I'll come back and check on you guys later."
With a simple wave he was gone, leaving the heiress relatively alone with her teammates, despite the clatter around her, she managed to settle in, leaning back in her chair she felt her eyes begin to drift closed again. Her thoughts darkened reflexively as the images of everything that happened today played through her brain like some kind of torture movie. Her last thoughts before drifting to an uneasy rest being.
"Today was.. Some sort of bad dream right? I'll wake up and everything will be normal."
The little lie Weiss told herself was just enough to let her world fade to black, the noises around her dulling, the dark angry clouds in her mind refusing to leave her.