Ruby XXIII
Just outside the entrance to the sewers Weiss sat cross legged, peering down the tunnel with a spyglass. The rest of us were there with her discussing what had just happened.
"How did you know fire was the answer?" Asked Yang. She was still glowing bright yellow and intensely hot. Blake was using the heat from her body to roast marshmallows, they came out quite good too, surprisingly flavorful.
"Once you touched it the thing went up in flames, after that everything clicked. The slime on its body was flammable and so too was the water it lurked in because of how long it had been living there," I said, squinting before her radiance.
"That's my sister for you, always so clever," she slapped me on the shoulder and nearly lit my cloak on fire, "oh, sorry!"
"Don't worry about it. How long do you think this whole thing is gonna last?"
"Pardon?"
"The fire, Yang, the bright yellow fire,"
"I can't say. My semblance has never lasted this long before, and it's definitely never been this potent," my sister's semblance made her more powerful as her aura reserves were depleted. Suppose that aura could be represented by a number. The closer she got to zero the hotter she burned, faster she moved, and the more deadly she became. Another thing, her semblance used aura more efficiently as she approached zero, that was what worried me. Let's say she used her semblance while her aura was low, we'll represent it with a single digit number, let's say 7. Instead of reducing the remaining aura to 6 her semblance would consume only half that amount, dropping her reserves to 6 and a half, an almost unheard of degree of aura control. That effect only becomes more dramatic as the number gets lower.
In all likelihood Yang activated her semblance seconds before her aura was dispelled, at a point between 1 and 0, thereby consuming an infinitesimally small amount of aura. We may well lack numbers small enough to describe how little energy she was consuming. Normally her aura gets dispelled by an enemy attack before reaching this point. Suffice it to say we were in uncharted territory, and I didn't like it.
"Maybe you should have the clinicians take a look at you,"
"Why? I feel great," She spun on her heels and accidentally sent a ball of fire hurtling towards me. I narrowly avoided it, but the flame hit a bush and turned it to ash in a matter of seconds.
"Yang!"
"Alright, alright, I'll talk to the people at the clinic. Keep me posted on how Jaune and the others are doing,"
"Why would I do that? He's a cretin."
"Don't talk like that. Jaune might not be the most loyal of friends, I know that better than anyone, but he's still our comrade and right now he's in pain. He'll need us more than ever, all of us. We're gonna put our differences aside for a bit to help him, got it?"
"Got it," I agreed reluctantly and after that she walked away.
"So what's the deal with this Jaune fellow? He sounds like a prick," Mercury was assessing the damage to his metal legs, carefully judging how much had to be replaced and what could still be salvaged. In all honesty, his fake legs were the least surprising thing about today.
"Well, Jaune broke my sister's heart and now she's defending him. Friend or not, traitors are seldom given quarter. She can forgive him all she wants. That doesn't change how I feel,"
"He's going through a lot right now. It's noble of her to still be thinking of him and how he feels," said Cinder.
"No it's not. If anything it's hypocritical. Where was all this sympathy for me when I was dealing with the man who killed our mother? Everytime I looked into his silver eyes it was like losing her all over again. I dealt with him for months and even after I had him backed into a corner I couldn't get a confession! Where's my pity?" I promised to never abandon Yang again, but, in her typical fashion, she made keeping that promise difficult.
"I'm sure she has her reasons,"
"Oh, that's no good," Weiss murmured to no one in particular, still peering down her spyglass.
"What is it now?" I asked. She handed the spyglass to me and the problem became apparent. Two grimm identical to the one we just killed were lurking in the sewer. They stood parallel to each other, staring down the end of the tunnel. They sank back into the darkness as I alerted the others.
We discussed what was the best course of action to take and ultimately agreed upon going back in to help the others. CFVY and SSSN were still in the sewers. With those two monsters lurking around they didn't stand a chance. In Addition to that, there was another problem entirely. What if there were more grimm besides the three we had seen? Even with CFVY on our side the odds were stacked against us. Weiss was the one to suggest limiting the mission's goals to extracting our comrades. The idea was received positively and we began to head out shortly after.
"Led by demons, to hell we march," she prayed.
"Before we go there's something I want to try," I told Mercury to hold still and I stole his remaining aura.
"What the hell?" he gasped.
"Apologies, there was a theory I wanted to test. My silver eyes give me a lot of different abilities, most of which I don't fully understand. Tyrian brought me back from the brink of death with the snap of a finger by giving me his aura, and he did it without touching me. It shouldn't have been possible, but he was able to do it because of his eyes. I've even replicated the technique to prove it,"
"No, that's impossible," Blake understood the point I was making before I had fully illustrated it.
"It is possible. If the silver eyes let me give aura to others, then I can take it as well. That being said, I have another idea,"
"Please, no more new ideas," groaned Mercury.
"Don't worry, this one doesn't involve you. Everyone come close." We all formed a circle and locked hands. Then I took the aura from everyone in the circle and distributed it equally among the participants. Weiss in particular had a lot of aura left over from the last fight, the lazy bitch. "We should be alright now. Everyone should be in fighting shape,"
"Then why do I feel so drained?" asked Weiss.
"Well a lot of the aura I used came from you. You've got a lot of it,"
"Whatever, just don't do it again. God, my head hurts,"
"Sorry, I'll try not to do that in the future. Um, anyways, let's mosey. We've got monsters to kill," I stammered.
We decided to leave Mercury behind at the entrance. He wouldn't be much help with only one leg and no aura. Also, he had little interest in venturing into the sewers for a second time. He had already proven his honor a hundred times over, he argued, what was the point in risking it all just to prove himself again?
The other issue was Cinder. She insisted on coming along with the rest of us, but I disagreed. "I know you're only here because of me," I told her, "You nearly died back there, I can't have you risk your life again because of me,"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about. I ventured into the tunnel to uphold my honor as a hunter," She said, lying.
"We both know that's not true. You don't care about hunter's honor, you care about your friends, about me, but that doesn't mean you have to do this. I won't think less of you for staying here," I placed a hand on her shoulder, but she batted it away.
"It's my life! Don't I get to choose? Can't I choose when and where I risk it all?" There was a lot that had been left unsaid between us and it seemed that it was all coming to a head at the worst time possible.
"No, you don't. You lost the right to do that after we became friends. Your life means something and I won't let you throw it away for me. Just stay here. I'll make sure everyone comes back in one piece,"
"You sound just like Jaune! He said he'd bring his team back in one piece and look what happened!"
"So what? Jaune makes promises he can't keep and people suffer because of it. I don't do that, Cinder, I'm different!" I grabbed the black haired girl by the hands and begged her to look at me, "I'll bring them back safe, I swear it before gods long since passed and those that are yet to come. Our friends, our family, will come back."
"Okay, I'll stay, but please return," She hugged me tight and for a moment we stood there. I thought about asking our small company to pull out and simply wait for Ozpin. However, that trepidation quickly passed, I let Cinder go, and our remaining forces made way for the sewers. In the last moments before our departure I convinced Emerald to stay with Cinder. It made things easier, seeing as I could only carry a few people with my semblance. Worst comes to worst, I wouldn't have to choose which friend to save and which to abandon, the entire party could be whisked away when it was this small.
Weiss, Blake, and I marched for quite some time, but struggled to find anything. The speed of the slugs was not to be underestimated, that much I could say for sure. Weiss summoned doves made of snow to scout ahead. After hours of wandering they returned.
"CFVY are that way," She pointed with her right arm as the doves perched on it.
"Anything else your birds can tell us?" Blake poked one of the bird's icy beaks and raised an eyebrow, clearly suspicious of the strange constructs.
"Most of them are there, a few are missing. I don't speak bird so it's a bit difficult to know exactly what it's saying. For now we just have to trust them," She led us down the dark path with a dove roosting on her hand. We had run out of torches as well as oil for lanterns so the only light which marked our path was the dove's eerie glow and a shard of dust carried by Blake.
Our feet sloshed with every step we took. Wet noises were the only sounds we heard. Then a bullet flew through the dark that nearly took my head off.
"Hold your fire!" I thought it was one of us who shot. Truth be told, in my panicked mind it was hard to tell which direction the bullet had come from.
"Apologies, this place has me jumpy," the shooter was none other than Coco, the leader of team CFVY. Yatsuhashi and Velvet were with her as well.
"It's alright. We're here to bring you some news. The situation has changed dramatically. Two extremely powerful grimm are lurking inside this place. There used to be three, but the combined forces of RWBY, JNPR, and CME were able to dispose of one."
"I see. Any casualties?"
"Only one, Ren of JNPR was slain in combat by the grimm. Aside from him, Mercury of CME sustained major injuries and was left unable to fight any further. What about you? Where is everyone?" I asked.
"I'm afraid things haven't been looking good for us either. SSSN split off from us a while ago, there's no telling where they could be or what condition we might find them in. Our friend Fox is missing as well. A wave of sewage dragged him into the depths of this god forsaken place in the middle of our fight with the grimm,"
"So you've seen it?"
"Aye, it's a nasty thing. Though I suppose I have some good news for you,"
"What's that?"
"No grimm remain in these tunnels. Your forces killed one and we killed the other two. That means Fox and team SSSN are likely still alive, somewhere in here. We just have to find them. What do you say to a joint operation?" Coco smirked, but I just stood there, mouth agape. The four of them managed to kill two of those things and suffered zero losses. Had I not known who they were I'd think they were liars.
"I'd love to, I dreamed of the day you'd ask me this, but would that really be a wise move? All of you are out aura. Should we encounter any trouble in our search, well…"
"The three of us could die. Yes, I'm aware, and so are they," Velvet and Yatsuhashi nodded, their faces serious as sin, "It'll be fine, come on, let's go find them!" The hard headed girl led us down the tunnel that had whisked away Sir Alister and her remaining teammates followed closely behind her, confident in her leadership until the very end.
We followed them, but Weiss found the whole thing ridiculous, "You three should fall back and let Ruby take the front in case we make contact with another grimm."
"There are no more grimm. It's just like I told your captain,"
"Yes, but how do you know? We don't know anything about these things. There could be more lurking about, or worse, something even more terrible could be living in the heart of this hellhole,"
"Trust me, we took care of them,"
"But how do you know?"
"I know because of the feeling in my chest, I know that feeling better than my father's face. So believe me when I say there are no more grimm in this sewer. I know it's hard taking casualties for the first time and going up against something that your classes never could have prepared you for, but when it comes to field work trust the professionals,"
"Don't patronize me, I hardly knew the boy. Besides, I've probably seen more men die than you could imagine," Weiss smirked.
"Easy, girl, play nice," I urged, "it'd be a shame if I had to put a muzzle on you, you're pretty funny sometimes,"
"I'm not a dog!" She shouted.
"You really should be nicer to your friends, you never know how long they'll stick around," a strange voice beamed from the edge of the shadows.
I raised my weapon and got ready to fire, "show yourself!"
"What, it's me, Sun. Don't you recognize me?" Asked the monkey faunus. His blonde hair was darkened with grime and he was covered in scratches. Something was off about him though. He was all alone and he wore a bright smile on his face.
"Apologies. You're the boy from the entrance aren't you? Where's the rest of your team?"
"They're long dead and gone, eaten alive by that massive slug. They died because I was incompetent. After all, among the four of us I was the least fit to lead. So, when it came time to perform I failed and one by one my friends were taken from me," his tone was bubbly, nonchalant. I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on.
Blake asked him something in Mistrali. I didn't know the language very well, but the rough translation of her words were as follows: "Be ye flesh or phantom? If you're dead then go up and haunt this place no longer,"
"I'm not a ghost. Before you is the flesh of a failure and an oathbreaker. I promised to keep them safe and I couldn't. I guess it was just too much to ask of ol' Sun," he laughed. Coco punched him in the throat and grabbed him by the hair.
"Where is Fox?" She growled. Sun pointed to a barely visible body floating upright in the sewage. Before we could reach it though, a slimy hand snatched him and pulled Sir Alister deeper into the sewers.
"Wow, I guess I couldn't even keep a blind man safe, huh? Just my luck," he coughed. His face lit up with an eerie smile before Coco knocked him unconscious. She dropped him and his body slumped against the wall.
"What should we do, about him I mean?" Asked Velvet.
"He's gone mad, we'll come back for him later. What's important now is finding Fox. We have to go deeper and find where that thing makes its nest. That's where we'll find him," Coco's teammates reluctantly nodded and followed her into the dark.
"So, what's the move, dear leader? Do we leave this man here alone or do we abandon CFVY and head back? Either way you're forsaking your fellow hunters. I wonder what you'll do," for as much of a nuisance as she was, Weiss posed a good question. Summer Rose would have found a way to bring everyone back to safety before things had gotten this bad, but sadly I wasn't her.
"Why do you think those two grimm just stood at the entrance and stared at us? If they wanted to eat more people they could've just kept lurking in the sewers, two teams were still in there." I said.
"Does it matter? It's not like Grimm think before they act," said Weiss.
"That's what common sense tells us, but I don't know. The actions we've witnessed today aren't consistent with those of a mindless creature. They stood at the entrance of the sewer because they knew we would follow them inside. That big one just now waited to take Sir Alister because it knew that his friends would come looking for him. Everything they've done so far has been in service of dragging us deeper into the tunnels,"
"Are you suggesting we leave?"
"I don't know. If we go deeper we'll be walking into a trap, but if we turn back Coco and her friends will die. I'm not sure what to do,"
"Haven't you done enough already? The only reason we're here is because Weiss begged us to come. That is to say nothing of the mercy you showed Cardin. Most other hunters wouldn't have hesitated to leave their quarry unconscious and bleeding in a ditch, but not you. You're different. You have a heavy heart and you struggle to leave people behind. Left to your own devices you would probably go after Coco and try to save her, and get yourself killed doing it. So, instead of doing that, why don't we all just go home? CFVY doesn't want to be saved, so forsake them." Blake's face was dark with both shadows and malice.
She was eager to abandon the other students in the tunnel, and who could blame her. CFVY weren't easy to work with and SSSN had been basically annihilated. The last surviving member of SSSN had lost his mind after failing to cope with the fact that his squad was wiped out. Whether we dragged him back to the surface or not, he wouldn't be of much use to anyone. A mad man, a half dead man, and three hunters who had resigned themselves to certain death; what sense did it make to risk our lives for them?
"I won't leave them. With these two feet of mine, by god, I'll march deeper in. I'll regroup with CFVY and we'll rescue Sir Alister. While I do that you two should take Sun back to the surface," As irrational as it was, I didn't want to leave them behind. Not long ago I had resolved to live more selfishly, to not be bound by the burdensome weight of heritage and legacy. And even though rushing in to save CFVY against all odds was exactly the kind of thing that Summer would try, I wasn't doing it because I was her daughter. I was doing it because I wanted to.
I knew I was strong, I knew I could do it. I don't care what my comrades said. Failing to save everyone would be a mark against my own pride. It was then that I began to develop a novel way of living. Two facts became clear to me: the past is far behind us and the future does not exist. Those two things, the past and future, aren't places we can go to. There exists no earthly way for us to receive visitors from such times as the past and future, nor is there any way for us to view the goings on of those temporally locked locales. As far as those of us living in the present are concerned, those places may as well be fairytales. Thus, the only things that matter are the events of the present moment.
It is through the present that we interpret the past and determine what will happen in the future. From there, it follows that whosoever sits atop the throne of the present, he who exhibits the most control over the here and now, can also be said to be the king of the past and future. Do you see what I'm saying? If one wins the contest of wills which characterizes the present then that person can bend the arc of history with their own hands while, in the same breath, reimagining the past to justify their designs for the future.
Merely living how I saw fit would never be enough. No, in order to be truly free I had to stand at the pinnacle of strength, head and shoulders above any of my peers. From there reality could be whatever I wanted. I would create a future where people could forge their own path by whatever means they had on hand. With this silver curse of mine I will reshape the world, millions will be free, millions will fly.
"You can't be serious! What if you can't find a way to save everyone?" Blake shouted.
"If a river appears before me I'll simply grow a pair of gills. Be it a stream or an ocean, I'll cross it all the same,"
"Ruby, please-"
"I'm going, Blake! You can't stop me. I have to do this," with that I flew off, after team CFVY, leaving Weiss and Blake to their task of escorting Sun to safety. While I soared through the sewers a million thoughts filled my mind. What if Weiss and Blake encountered another Grimm? What if they got lost and I was never able to find them again? What if Weiss had been lying this whole time, biding her time just to find the right moment to steal a few more souls? There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but that didn't matter. The only way something could go wrong is if I was incompetent. I had no intention of making a failure of myself in such a crucial moment.
I made it to team CFVY and things were about as dire as I expected. Yatsuhashi was in the clutches of the Grimm and his teammates were trying to free him. Coco fired at the monstrosity with incendiary rounds of fire dust, but this slug was a bit different from the others. It had a bony carapace and large spikes jutting out from its back. It laid on its belly while it devoured Yatsuhashi so their bullets had little effect. Velvet used fire dust to conjure a weapon that looked to be a mix between a longbow and a machine gun. She fired a volley or rounds the size of fence posts at the beast, but they did nothing.
When I arrived I rushed the Grimm with my semblance and absorbed it into my petals. I threw it out of the cloud, followed it, and picked it up again after it crashed into a wall. I had never taken something into my semblance and thrown it out without releasing myself from the technique as well, that was the first time I had done it and I felt as though my understanding of how my ability worked had grown exponentially.
After I threw it at the wall the spines on its back broke and cracks could be seen in its carapace. So I did it again and again, and again. The cracks grew and as puss leaked the wounds. I flung the monster upwards, released my semblance, and fired at its exposed underbelly. I put no less than a dozen bullets into it in a matter of seconds. As it fell towards me I activated my semblance again. I forced that monster to embrace the rose before I threw it to the ground and severed its head with my scythe.
The Grimm reached for its head to put it back on, but I picked it up with the blade of my scythe and threw it away. Its body squirmed in a disgusting fashion, but before long the wiggling stopped and the creature was presumed dead. "Where's your friend?" I asked.
"God's be good, Little Red, you're stronger than you look," said Coco.
"Where's your friend," I repeated.
"He's fine, we have him resting over there. We managed to get him back from the Grimm fairly quickly, but Yatsuhashi became entangled in the struggle. Things were looking desperate so I'm glad you came. Where are the rest of your team?"
"I told them to take Sun back to the Surface. No doubt he wouldn't make it if we left him behind. We should head back. I don't like the idea of the two of them being alone,"
"Right," Coco gathered her team and we began to make our leave. Yatsuhashi hoisted Sir Alister over his shoulder and carried him. Velvet had suffered a wound in her right leg and suffered a limp as a result. I offered her some of my aura and, although she seemed skeptical at first, she accepted my offer in the end and, with only a minor infusion of energy, her wound began to heal.
As we stepped out of the main chamber which housed the bony slug, I heard a loud sloshing noise. I turned around and it was none other than the Grimm leaping towards me. Sewage flew alongside it as it lept towards me. Flicking my weapon's barrel towards the creature's exposed belly, I fired. The Grimm was pushed back several feet and hit the floor with a mighty splash. Once I got a closer look I could see that the abomination had somehow managed to reattach its head while we weren't looking.
I didn't have the energy for another fight, and neither did anyone else. We made our retreat with the unconscious body of Sir Alister in tow. All the while the Grimm followed us. The four of us who could still move struggled to keep the beast at bay. It chased us through the sewers with uncanny agility.
Once it had Velvet in its hands I knew I had to do something. I activated my semblances and wrapped the girl in it. The two of us flew away at speeds that the slug could never match. The same couldn't be said for her teammates though.
Yatsuhashi carried Sir Alister on his shoulders and violently slashed at the black monstrosity whenever it got too close. Coco Adel, with both hands free, wasn't able to do anything, seeing as she was out of ammo. I placed Velvet down and told her to run. At first, the brown haired Faunus protested, but after enough pestering she obliged. Part of our agreement was that I tell her friends to run as well. Truth be told, I failed to uphold my end of the bargain.
I fired Crescent Rose several times at the creature's head, aiming for the weak seams which held its neck together. Most of my shots landed and before long it began blocking them. It cowered and slinked back into the shadows. Half a dozen hands flailed around its body in a desperate attempt to block my bullets.
I offered a hand to Yatsuhashi, but from the dark came the Grimm. The slug leapt over us, grabbed Yatsuhashi, and landed not five feet away. The ebon abomination before us wallowed in sewage, taking sneaky bites out of Yatsuhashi.
Once again, I used my semblance. I pulled him from the jaws of the beast, but his wounds were serious. I flew beside Coco and held him in my arms. With him unconscious and Coco out of aura it would be impossible to carry everyone out. I ran my hand over his forehead and spoke a prayer for him, and then again for the whole group. If there was a god then he would lead us to greener pastures, beyond this foul nightmare.
Silver tears dripped from my face and landed on his armor, steaming as they fell. Once more that familiar feeling returned to me. And this time I was actually able to recognize it. Before I had awakened to the power of the silver eyes the feeling of using them was familiar to me. The power of the eyes brings me a two-pronged sensation: one of sadness and dissociation.
The first time I cried without feeling sad was when my mother was buried. It didn't feel real. The whole affair felt more like an out of body experience than something that was actually happening. I refused to believe that it was happening to me. Sure, some girl had just lost her mother, but, in my mind, that girl wasn't Ruby Rose. And how could it be? Ruby Rose's mother was Summer Rose, the greatest hunter there ever was. If she could be killed then no one was safe, not even her own daughter.
I deflected, dissociated, and lived in my own delusion. The silver curse had felt strange to me for so long, but now I know its true identity. It is the needle which draws blood from my heart with every pulse, it is the distance between me and my peers, the thing that separates me from everyone else. The silver eyes draw power from pain. They are a physical manifestation of suffering, passed down from parent to child.
My vision went white and when I could finally see again the slug was crumbling to dust. White flames danced around it on the surface of the sewer water and the heat in the air was unlike anything I'd ever felt. I was rather pleased with myself at first. That was the first time I was able to do that on my own. Everything seemed fine, until I looked down. Yatsuhashi's legs were gone.
I knew I didn't have complete control over my power, but I never could have imagined something like this would happen. He was still alive, I checked his pulse, but he wasn't responsive. Two smoldering wounds were all that was left of his legs, that and a few piles of soot. Then everything went white again. When my sight returned I saw a hole in the sewer wall that wasn't there before. It glowed like molten rock. The same thing happened again and again. My powers were going out of control and I couldn't stop.
"What's going on!?" Shouted Coco Adel, she had managed to wake up Sir Alister, and I told the two of them to take Yatsuhashi and run. It didn't take much convincing. Once they were gone I wouldn't have to worry about hurting anyone else. My eyes kept firing beams of light that burned deep gashes and holes into the walls. I tried to regain control, but the guilt from almost killing Yatsuhashi made it impossible to keep my composure.
The longer it went on the stronger the lights grew and the deeper the holes became. If things continued at that rate, it wouldn't be long before the whole sewer collapsed. The least I could do for my comrades was to resist long enough for them to escape.
I tried thinking about Weiss to calm myself down. It worked for a while, but eventually the white hot blasts continued.
"Ruby!" A white haired woman who looked exactly like Weiss ran up and hugged me, however this was surely an illusion conjured by my mind to cope with my impending doom, "What are you doing here? Everyone left the tunnels hours ago!"
"Hey, Weiss, guess what?" I didn't even give the apparition a chance to respond, "I love you,"
"That's nice, but we have more pressing matters to attend to, like getting you out of here," She tried to pull me up, with surprising force for a ghost, but I knew better.
"Oh, don't do that! Don't try to save me! I know you're not real. Weiss would never come back for me." The white haired woman planted a kiss on my lips and in an instant I knew.
"That real enough for you?" She asked.
"You're really here. Oh, my god. Get down!" I threw Weiss off me and faced away from her. Another burst of light and fire spewed from my eyes. God knows what would have happened if it hit her.
"What the hell?" She shouted.
"I'm sorry, I can't control it. The lights, they just keep coming. If any of them so much as touch you you're a goner, so just stay back!"
"Can't you shut it off?" The rest of our team showed up as she asked. Weiss told them about what was happening and the three of them started working on solutions.
At first they suggested I simply walk backwards to the entrance while they guided me, but that would never do. My silver eyes would bring down the entire tunnel before we even came close to the entrance. Even still, even after explaining that, they didn't want to leave me. My semblance wasn't working either so I couldn't just fly out.
"It's over for me. Just go," I told them.
"It's your power, right? Just get a hold of yourself, I know you can do it," Weiss hugged my back and refused to let go. I felt her breath on my neck and clasped her arms as they wrapped around me.
"You have too much faith in me, my lady. I'm sorry, but it seems our story ends here, just let me go," I said, to no avail. She only gripped me tighter, until I felt the beating of her heart clear as day. As I pleaded my case and begged her to leave I noticed my condition beginning to improve. Yang, still glowing with yellow flames, screamed at me to get it together and Blake loudly wept at the thought of leaving me behind. All the while Weiss fed me encouraging words.
I took a moment to collect myself, closed my eyes, and when I opened them again everything was under control. My eyes weren't spewing fire anymore and I could once again see clearly. With the help of my friends I managed to reign in whatever was going on.
"See? I told you it was easy," said Weiss, as she ran her fingers through my hair.
"What about that was easy?" I batted her hand away, somewhat offended at the idea that what I had just done took little effort.
"Well, it all happened rather quickly didn't it? Honestly, if you were just going to turn it off I don't know why you didn't do it earlier,"
"Hey, Weiss," I stared into the pale blue of her eyes, which shined brilliantly even in the dim light we found ourselves in.
"What is it?"
"Go fuck yourself," I got up and gave my sister a hug. Then I offered Blake a rag to wipe her tears. From there the four of us made egress and regrouped with the other students outside the tunnels.
Once we arrived outside we found Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, and team CFVY waiting for us. We were greeted with great fanfare and basically revered as heroes. I apologized to CFVY for wounding Yatsuhashi and even tried to give him some of my aura to restore his missing legs. And although it didn't work they thanked me for the attempt. He was still unconscious. I insisted on being there the second he woke up, whenever that may be, so that I could apologize and explain what I did. I insisted, even though Coco and Velvet said it wouldn't be necessary.
"With all the shit that happened in those sewers, we can't be mad at you. If you didn't come our whole squad would have been wiped out! Yatsuhashi losing his legs is a tragedy, but we'll work around it, we'll find a way, just you wait. There's gotta be a spare pair of ham hocks out there somewhere," said Coco
"You aren't mad?" I asked.
"No, I'm not. You're strong, Ruby. You did all that you could and came out alive on the other end, be proud of that,"
"But I took his legs from him. He may never walk again. How could I ever-"
"Oh shut up. If you hadn't come we would be dead. What happened to Yatsuhashi is only a small price to pay. After all, which would you say is more valuable, the career of one hunter or three?" I couldn't believe what Coco was saying.
"How could you say that-"
"What she means to say," Weiss interrupted, "is that she appreciates your forgiveness and looks forward to Yatsuhashi's recovery."
"Aye," replied Coco, "take care team RWBY, this world of ours is a chaotic one and I'm excited to see what you make of it!" She and her team left, making way for the clinic so as to get Yatsuhashi some help. The heat of the flames that came from my eyes was such that his wounds were already sterile and cauterized. Even still, it would be best to get him to some kind of surgeon.
"I guess you weren't lying when you said you'd bring everyone back alive," said Cinder.
"No, I said I'd bring everyone back in one piece and on that front I was proven a liar. Yatsuhashi is missing his legs because of me,"
"Something tells me he'll be fine. The worst that could happen is that the boy gets sent home with a warrior's honors for the wounds he received in battle. His family will no doubt be compensated generously, and perhaps even granted lands and modest titles," argued Cinder. She was right, but in my mind that didn't make it okay. He was injured because of me. The boy may never walk again. That isn't the kind of thing you can just ignore and leave in the past.
Hunters were complicated people and I was still new to their world. A hunter is a pragmatist above all else, even when it comes to their friend's lives. With each day I thought of myself as less of a hunter and more of my own person. Since it no longer fell on me to continue my mother's legacy I didn't need to be a hunter, per se, I could just be myself. And thank god for that.