Author's Note: Note: Unsure about schedule but for now let's go with Mondays and Thursday for the next few weeks. I want to leave a buffer for some parts so it might go down to just Mondays. The main story is on a short hiatus due to us being on vacation so I'm intending on this holding you over.

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What if...Ruby was Being Rhetorical

Part 3

Triage

He didn't get far.

There was a symphony of sharp twangs and cracks that made the children scream in fright again. The arm with the knife jerked and the weapon flew out of the suited hand and clattered across the floor.

There was a beat and intake of startle breath. Shock was first and Michael was quiet, swaying slightly.

Then the shock wore off and the pain registered.

Michael screamed in agony, falling against the wall in shock as blood pooled around the elbow and creases of Spring's suit, leaking. But only the right arm. Michael continued to scream as he blindly tried to get his arm (or whatever was left of it) out of Spring's, but he certainly didn't have the wherewithal to go through all the steps at the moment.

Ruby kicked the knife further away and advanced.

"I didn't even think of that," she mused. "Nice work Spring. Now, I've just gotta extract this piece of shit."

She set Betty aside and cracked her knuckles. She was so glad Hedy had actually explained this whole thing to her. Even though she'd been working on changing Spring's entire design, she'd still taught Ruby how it all worked. And how to open the whole system if she ever needed to for whatever reason.

Her movements were methodical and clearly she knew what she was doing. As she did though, she started speaking.

"How are they Mari?" she asked, keeping her gaze on her work and making sure Michael wasn't actually going to try anything. He seemed pretty distracted by the pain though.

Wimp.

"Do we need an ambulance?"

If she turned around now and looked at Hedy, saw her hurt and scared, then Ruby was going to do something she'd probably regret. Only because it would traumatise Spring even further. She was also asking for the rabbit's benefit though. He had to be scared out of his mind for the kids.

"Yes we do," Puppet said, his voice strangely calm, his attention on a little boy who was breathing fast and whimpering as Puppet pressed black and white fabric into his stomach, the white stripes quickly turning scarlet. "Shh. It's okay Benji. It's okay. I know it hurts but I have to hold it down very hard okay?"

Ruby could hear Benji hyperventilating as he cried, sounding weak. "I want my Mommy..."

"I know. She'll be right here. Just take deep breaths okay. Wiggy don't move."

"M-my arm..." Hedy whimpered. "Ginny..." she sobbed. "Is Benji going to be okay?"

"Your arm is broken, dearest. Be as still as you can okay? They'll be okay. Frederick, I know it's scary but you just hold Cheryl. Can you do that for me?"

The only answer he got was Fredrick whimpering as he nodded and Cheryl cried. It was good that she was crying. Crying meant she was conscious. That she was alive.

Puppet was quickly taking stock of the injuries. All of them had evidence of a beating ranging from bruises to broken bones. Three of the children might had been stabbed but it was hard to tell for sure. But they were still alive. Benji, Cheryl, and Ginny in particular needed an ambulance immediately. Ginny was half unconscious, her breathing shallow. Felix was limping but pacing by the door, the least injured supposedly, despite a possibly broken jaw and a bloody nose.

This was too much. He needed help. But he didn't know which of the children to send for help. They were all terrified.

Hedy saw him looking between them as he tried to figure out what to do. She just leaned against a covered vent, shifting on her feet and staring with wide eyes as she weeped.

Ruby tapped rapidly on the floor as she thought. She was halfway through getting Michael out but the kids needed help immediately, based on the stress in Puppet's voice.

She hadn't been fast enough to keep Michael from laying a hand on them. She shook her head. She didn't have time to feel guilty about that. They were alive.

She let out an aggravated sigh as she made her decision. Reaching up, she poked Spring's nose. It was a surefire way of getting any bot's attention she'd found.

"Okay, I know you want him out," she said to Spring, hoping he would focus on her voice for a minute instead of the crying. "But I need to leave him for a little bit longer. I'm going to go help the kids but Michael won't be doing much with his arm like that. I need you to hang in there just a little longer Bunny Boy." She maintained eye contact with Spring and gave him a reassuring smile before she braced herself and turned around.

No killing, no killing. She repeated the mantra in her head. Also no maiming.

–While Michael was still in Spring.

Ruby stood up and walked over to the kids quickly, trying to ignore the blood as she crouched down next to Puppet. She rapped her knuckles on the floor sharply and could practically feel the building perk up.

"I need a first aid box," she said tightly.

Puppet looked at her strangely before he jerked in shock when the box dropped from the ceiling, bouncing off the tile as it landed on a corner before settling.

"I'm good with first aid," Ruby explained, opening the box and digging through it. "I've patched myself up tons of times." She looked back up at him, meeting his eyes.

He looked so confused. And young. It would almost be adorable if he didn't have a smear of blood on his mask.

"You need to go get help since you know this building and I don't. The cops are probably already here but don't know where they need to go." She saw him shift and cut him off before he could argue. "I know you don't want to, but you've gotta go Puppet. I swear they'll all still be alive when you get back. And I don't break my promises."

Puppet did not want any of them out of his sight. He glanced past Ruby at Spring.

He looked at Michael. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking for a moment.

The building rumbled underneath, just enough to startle him.

The first aid kit stuck out like a glaring little testament that he could trust her. Or at least, the building thought so.

He carefully set Benji to lay flat on his back, gesturing for Ruby to take his place holding the ripped suit leg over the stomach wound, which, thankfully, seemed to have slowed in its bleeding.

"Mari..." Hedy whimpered pleadingly as he got up, gears in his bare leg visibly straining. There was blood staining parts of his exposed wooden endoskeleton.

The other kids, the ones who could focus, were staring at the machinery in confusion and maybe fear. It looked strange.

Hedy didn't seem to care. She understood her friends were robots. Not "cartoon characters."

"Shhhh," Puppet whispered to her, cooing and crouching down for a moment to take her hand, careful of her broken arm and hyper aware of any fingers that might get pinched in the exposed gears and hinges. "I will be right back, Wiggy. I need to get help. Stay with..." he trailed off. He didn't even know her name. "Stay here."

Hedy nodded weakly and Puppet looked so pained as he tore himself away, stumbling back from the door until he was in the hallway, careful not to disturb Felix who was slipping into a dissociative state. The boy paced, eyes locked on the bloody rabbit in the room. Puppet ran the moment he had the space to do so.

With practiced motions, Ruby switched out the fabric for bandages, murmuring apologies to the kid as she did.

"You're doing great kiddo," she assured Benji. "Just a bit longer okay?"

She ran her eyes over the rest of the kids. They were hurt and scared and right now she was all they had.

"Okay kids," she said, a little louder than before. "I know you're scared but things are going to be alright. Puppet's going to get all the help you guys need."

It didn't look like they really believed her. Hedy nodded numbly though. She trusted Puppet at least.

They weren't dead. But this was going to screw with them no matter what. At least now the trauma wouldn't fester into murderous insanity. If all went well, they could get help that wasn't afforded to the dead.

Ruby kept up a steady stream of chatter as she quickly took care of the injuries in order of most critical. Immediately, there was a pit of dread in her stomach when she saw that Ginny was unconscious, or nearly so, blood slicking her hair.

The teen scooted over, letting a frightened and pale Benji cry as she supported his head with her jacket and gently lifted his feet. Poor kid was not bleeding out fast anymore, but he had still lost a lot of blood and was at risk of shock. A horrifying amount of the red in the room seemed to be his, and possibly Cheryl's, who also looked moments from passing out as Frederick held her steady despite his wrist being clearly broken.

One at a time. But she had to be quick.

"Ginny. Ginny!" Hedy cried, trying to shake her friend awake. "Wake up! Please. Wake-!"

Ruby stopped her. "Hey hey be gentle. Don't shake her. Did she hit her head, Hedy?"

Hedy nodded, snot dripping down her nose as she cried. "H-he..." Hedy couldn't describe it and put her hands around her throat to show. "Then he pushed her a-and..." Hedy started crying again as Ruby noticed the bruises forming on Ginny's neck.

No killing. No killing.

Ruby took a forced breath, wrangling her rage down. "She'll be okay when the doctors and police people get here, okay?" she said softly. "I have a very important job for you, okay? We need to keep her warm. Can she borrow your sweater?"

Hedy nodded, desperate to help.

"Okay, can you take it off without hurting your arm?"

Hedy was already wiggling out of her sweater despite clearly jostling her broken arm as she yelped in pain, even when Ruby tried to stop her. The baby mechanic got it off before Ruby considered cutting it with her pocket knife.

"Good job, Hedy," Ruby praised gently as they put the sweater over Ginny like a little blanket. "Now I promise I'll help you with your arm, but I need to check Cheryl first, okay? I have another job for you. You're in charge of watching Ginny and Benji. You tell me if Ginny starts to wake up or if her breathing changes. Same for Benji. Tell me if he falls asleep, okay?"

"Okay," Hedy whispered, sniffling as she focused on her friends.

Satisfied that she had Hedy's panic at bay for a little by giving her task, Ruby turned to Cheryl and Frederick, absently aware that Felix had started pacing in the doorway. He had a pretty severe limp but he wasn't crying about it so Ruby decided he could wait a moment.

"Hi sweetie," she said, trying to get Cheryl to focus unsteady eyes on her. "I hear it's your birthday today? How old are you now?"

Cheryl tried to move her hand to hold up her fingers but cried out in pain and gave up. "F-five..." she sniffled.

Ruby almost wished any of them would burst out screaming in a fit of fear, or even pain. She hated how quiet they were in their shock. She actually hoped there would be more screaming when they really felt safe and the adrenaline had worn off. Most of them were in a lot of pain at the moment and no six-year-olds should have the pain tolerance they were showing.

"Can I see your hand, sweetie?"

Cheryl shook her head, almost hitting Frederick in the nose with the back of her head. ".. h-hurts..."

"I know, sweetheart," Ruby said. "Can I try to make it hurt less?"

It took a few more minutes to coax Cheryl, but eventually Ruby got a better look at the source of all the blood.

Ruby's self control not to rip Michael out of Spring and kill him right there was being tested.

No one had ever told her Michael fucking cut off the little girl's finger! Cheryl's thumb was missing.

Ruby genuinely struggled to keep her breathing even and said nothing for a moment, even if her silence might stress the kids. She was just too angry to even pretend. Granted, it was a relatively minor wound compared to what he had been about to do to them, but something about the intentionality of doing that to the youngest of the group made her blood boil far more than she was expecting.

She was vaguely aware that Felix had paused in his pacing beside her.

Benji had mentioned once that Cheryl sucked her thumb and was teased for not breaking the habit at her age, but Ruby had never really questioned why she never saw the ghost kid sucking her thumb. Michael really was that cruel...

How the fuck was she still surprised by him?

"Do you like cake, Cherry?" Ruby asked, somehow getting her voice to a level of calm again as she chatted to distract the girl as she wrapped Cheryl's hand in gauze while simultaneously looking for the missing body part. It was not a well-lit room.

A nod.

"What's your favourite flavour, Cherry?" Ruby asked, using the nickname Hedy only occasionally used.

Confetti.

"C-confetti..." Cheryl hiccupped.

"Oh really! I love confetti cake too. But my favourite is chocolate.

Ruby kept chattering, even when she moved to clean and bandage the cut above Frederick's eye, and did her best to immobilise his broken wrist.

There was movement out the corner of Ruby's eye. She wasn't able to stop Felix from grabbing a pipe from a box of junk that had spilled in the chaos. He hurled it across the room, screaming in rage as it collided with Spring head, the rabbit taking the brunt despite the pained noise Michael made at the impact.

"GO TO HELL! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!" he screamed in helplessness and fear as he sobbed, grabbing objects to throw across the room. The force wasn't as much as that first throw, the poor kid's adrenaline catching up to him and crashing immediately after.

He heard Hedy's sobbing starting up again as she called for "Spring," saying something about how it wasn't his fault and it wasn't him and how sorry she was. She begged him to stop.

He was too angry to listen as he just started throwing whatever he could at the bloody rabbit until someone caught his hands and pried something out of them before they wrapped him in a hug. He fought, of course. He was terrified. He didn't want anyone but his mom to even touch him. He struggled, but something about the action felt safe, even if he resisted it. He just broke down sobbing, too weak to fight anymore as Ruby cooed and rubbed his back.

Ruby knew invading his space was a bad idea and probably scared him more, but at that moment, it was too risky for him to be throwing things when he could barely even see straight through his tears. She didn't want him attacking Spring, either.

"It's okay kiddo, it's okay. It's over," she murmured. "I know you're angry and you're allowed to be angry. You're allowed to feel however you want. But don't hurt yourself Felix. Come on, let's go sit with the others. I just need you all to hang in there a tiny bit longer."

Puppet would be on his way back now. She just needed to keep the kids calm for a bit longer.

"I'm going to make sure the man who did this gets into tons of trouble, okay?"

There wasn't any point in explaining to Felix that it wasn't Spring. Not now. Not when he was scared and hurt. If he was still in the room when she pried Michael out, maybe that would help. But she wouldn't force him to. Not if it delayed the kids getting help.

She managed to coax Felix back over to the others, letting him cry into her shirt. But Hedy was distressed too.

At least Ruby was good at multitasking, especially when comforting kids.

"Spring's gonna be fine," she promised. "I'm gonna get that bastard out of him, okay?"

Hedy tried to suck in her shuddery breaths as she cried in a mix of relief, fear, and pain. "It's not him. It's not him. It's not..." she tried to explain. Her arm was clearly hurting more, distracting her from being able to talk. She was pale from the pain.

Ruby needed to take care of it before Hedy accidentally made it worse. The downside of calming the kids down was that they were starting to notice the pain more. The crying was shifting more from fearful whimpers to louder whines. It was hard to tell what injuries Felix all had, too. He wasn't obviously bleeding.

Ruby worked as gently as she could to stabilise Hedy's arm.

"It's not," she agreed softly. "It's not him."

Felix was curled up too tightly to for her to check over properly but his pulse was strong when she pressed lightly on his neck.

She couldn't really do anything more. They were as stable as they were going to get and now they needed the professionals.

Puppet and Scott were first through the door unsurprisingly. They were followed by-

Ruby shied away from the thought. She didn't want to even think about it because she didn't know how she'd react.

She looked away when he- the cop followed them in.

"They're stable," she told Puppet shortly, carefully extracting herself from Felix. "Except maybe Ginny. She needs help now. I'll get the bastard out of Spring before he bleeds out."

Scott almost didn't see the twitching, blood-soaked figure on the other side of the room and when he did, he looked ill. "No one's supposed to-"

"Uncle Scott!" Hedy cried out, her tears renewed. "Mari...Mari..." She reached for Puppet.

Ruby still wasn't looking. She couldn't. But she couldn't avoid the agony of hearing the man's voice as he rushed to check the children, speaking gently to them.

"Hey Wiggy. It's okay, kiddo," Derrick Stone said calmly as he checked them over.