Chapter 16
Negative news
Yang was in a anxious state, she was going to see her sister after a 70 or so hour missing time limit, so now the drop ship she was riding was going to the "red bain" a transport ship that found Reese and Ruby floating on the sea, and the ship was now heading back to Atlas airspace for the drop off to a better medical facility so that Ruby can get better treatment.
"Where is the ship?" Yang asks.
"It's about two miles out we will see it shortly." Winter says.
"Can we go any faster?" Yang says.
"Nope." Weiss says from the co pilot seat.
"Grrrrr." Yang says in frustration.
Blake meanwhile was just watching her partner in silence.
Yang then looked at her and Blake felt a little defensive.
"What?" Yang says.
Blake then frowns.
"Well I was remembering this person I met named yang who was calm and collected but now I see a yang where she is lashing out at anything when it comes to her sister and her husband ." Blake says back.
"Well when you get married and your husband is in critical condition then come talk to me." Yang says as she buries her head in her lap.
"There it is." Winter says.
Yang then gets up and sees the ship where Reese is.
"We are cleared for landing on platform four and where is yang?" Winter asks as she looks back and sees the door open.
"She jumped out when the craft was over the ship." Blake says.
Ten seconds earlier.
When Yang saw the opportunity to jump she opened the door and jumped.
The landing spot was really small but Yang was confident that she could make it.
WHUMP!
After she hit the ground, Yang was on full run and nothing was going to stop her.
Well except for security guards armed with tasers.
"AHHHHHHH!" Yang shouted as she was hit with two tasers.
"STAY DOWN DON'T DO ANYTHING STUPID!" One of the guards said.
"Get out of my way! My sister and husband is in there." Yang says weekly.
"You don't have clearance nor on the list of people we are expecting." Guard says as he pulls out handcuffs.
"She is with me." Winter says.
The guards look up to see Winter flanked by Weiss and Blake.
"Oh general Winter we weren't expecting you." Guard says.
"Shut it, let Yang go." Winter commands.
"Yes ma'am." The other guard says as he removes the prongs from yang.
Yang then got up and opened the door and continued her light run.
"Man nothing is going to stop her." Weiss says.
"Humm to be honest I was feeling the same way since it's my son that's involved." Winter says as she continues walking.
Yang made it to the medical wing and found the only door that's closed contained what she was looking for.
When she opened the door, Yang wasn't ready for what she was about to see.
"What the?" Yang says.
What she sees is the black armor that she was familiar with, she knew that was Reese but it's what he was doing that caught her attention. What Reese was doing was his body had wrapped around Ruby in a protective manner but it was like he was frozen in place.
"Hey Reese honey I'm here." Yang says in a soft voice.
No response.
"Do you hear me?" Yang asks as her voice escalates.
Again no response.
Yang was about to forcefully pull them apart when a hand stopped her.
"His armor is locked up; he can't move; it will need to be disabled." Winter says.
Yang then steps back and watches winter get to work.
"What can cause it to lock up?" Blake asks.
"There are several ways it can lock up, one if a remote transmitter commands it to do so, and the second way is if the operator has a life threatening injury, or it malfunctioned." Winter says.
Winter then gets to work on the armor and in a few minutes it starts to melt off of Reese, but they weren't ready for what they were about to see.
What everyone saw made their hearts drop, Reese's wound on his stomach area opened up and his intestines were hanging out and from the looks of it he lost a lot of blood.
"Oh shit!" Yang says.
Weiss screamed.
Blake was speechless.
Winter then grabbed the gurney and immediately got to the ER.
"I need two bags of universal blood stat." Winter says.
That was the last thing team WBY heard before the doors closed.
"What just happened?" Blake asks after a few minutes.
"Don't know but we are in another life or death moment." Yang says.
Ten hours later.
It was a boring ten hours for Yang as she couldn't see what was happening in the operating room, but on the plus side they are in Atlas airspace and they are about to land soon.
"Ugh why does this happen?" Yang asks.
"Do you remember what oobleck told us about this line of work?" Weiss asks.
"That we help people in need?" Yang says.
"That's one part." Blake says.
"What's the other?" Yang says.
"People will get hurt and sometimes die. It's not a pretty sight." Weiss says.
"The red bain will now be landing be ready to disembark from the craft." The captain said over the intercom.
Within a few minutes the ship landed and from what Yang can see from the outside there were two ambulances waiting for them. Just then two gurneys passed by one holding Ruby and the other Reese.
Winter came up right behind Yang and tapped her shoulder.
"Come over here, I need to talk to you." Winter says.
Yang nodded and walked away.
"First thing you need to know is both are alive and stable, so that's the good news." Winter says.
"What's the bad?" Yang asks.
"The bad is your sister lost some functions of her body, she can't have a family and…" winter says.
When Yang heard that part she stopped listening.
"My sister won't be able to have a family! What did Salem do to her? I'll make her pay!" Yang thought internally.
"Hey you listening?" Winter says.
That snapped Yang out of her trance.
"Hummm what?" Yang says.
"I was saying Reese needed to be transported to an advanced medical facility where a more complex surgery can take place, and here comes our transportation." Winter says.
Yang saw the armored convoy that's going to transport them to said facility.
"Miss xao long?" Some crew member said.
"Yes." Yang says.
"This is for you." The crewmen said while gesturing to a big box on wheels.
"What's inside?" Yang asks.
"Your husband's equipment." The crewmen said as he walked away.
Yang picked up the box and loaded it into the back of the armored limousine, she got inside to see the rest of her team waiting for her.
"Let's go." Winter says over the radio.
The five limos then moved out and at the same time they shuffled so that from the outside you couldn't tell where the VIP is.
Weiss then leaned over to yang and whispered.
"What did my sister tell you?" Weiss asks.
Yang simply shakes her head and starts looking out the window.
It was a short drive to the medical facility, and when yang saw it she was blown away with how it looked, on the outside it looks like a standard building painted white nothing new there, but on the inside that's where it got fancy, from the front door the reception desk was made of a new shining metal and some of the pillars are made of a stone that yang didn't know where it came from, then as they progressed further into the place yang saw the new tanks where they can take the DNA of a living person and they can grow new organs for people who need a transplant, then the OR that's where yang saw what was happening to Reese and Ruby.
"What are they doing?" Yang asks.
"Prepping them for a new treatment." Winter says.
"And what treatment is that?" Weiss asks.
"You see the green tank? Well they will be lowered into that tank with oxygen and there will be robots that have their DNA locked in and they will reconstruct their body's." winter says.
"Will they gain full functions of their body's?" Blake asks.
"Yeah but it will take awhile for them to get used to it." Winter says.
Then it started both Ruby and Reese were under the liquid and from what Yang could tell they were both asleep.
"Are they under?" Weiss asks.
"Yep, that green liquid has a numbing agent in it." Winter says.
Then came the robots with who knows what instruments on them ready for the procedure, then the arms got lowered into the tanks and they went to work slowly reconstructing the mussels for Ruby and Reese and for Reese he got a new intestines that took the longest, for Ruby with all the scars on her the machines had a hard time repairing her.
The surgery took an additional ten hours to complete in that time frame both Weiss and Blake were asleep in their chairs but Yang was awake the whole time. Winter then came from a door and she was holding bags of food for the team.
"You know you're starting to turn into Reese." Winter says.
"How do you figure?" Yang asks.
"Well you haven't slept yet since we got on the airship, and that was twenty hours ago." Winter says.
It then hit Yang that she was gradually turning into him, especially the endurance part.
"Well um I'm concerned for my husband." Yang says as she takes a drink of water.
"Eh don't worry I've been awake for forty hours." Winter says without missing a beat.
"What did you do?" Yang asks.
"Well in short, talked with Reese, then planned the operation for his team,then lead the team and gave them up to the minute Intel for him,then performed emergency surgery when he was on the ship,then well here we are." Winter says.
Yang sat there in silence.
"How do you do it?" Yang asks.
"What do you mean?" Winter asks.
"What I mean is. How do you stay awake for that long?" Yang asks.
"Technically speaking it's a classified training method, but what your doing right now is part of the training, but prolonged use of the method your using will cause long term damage to ones health, but when an operator uses the trick for a long time they will get several days of rest so they can recuperate." Winter says.
"I see I should get some sleep. But I won't rest until I see Reese in the recovery room." Yang says.
Winter looks down into the theatre and sees the head surgeon give her the thumbs up.
"They will be both transported to the recovery room right now." Winter says.
Yang had to wait an additional ten minutes before she was allowed into the room where she could see both her sister and husband sleeping off the after effects of the drug.
"What happened down there?" Yang asks Reese knowing very well that he can't respond back.
Yang then climbed into Reese's bed and put her arm around him and closed her eyes and submitted to sleep.
Several more hours later.
Reese woke up and he was dimly aware of his location.
"Uggghh where am I, and why does my mouth taste like crap?" Reese thought.
Reese then hears a woman moan and he looks to his left and sees the blonde hair of the woman he loves.
"Hey where have you been? i've missed you." Reese says in a low voice.
Yang then wakes up and looks right at Reese. Yang the put her arms around him and kissed him a lot.
"What happened out there?" Yang asks after a few minutes.
"What do you mean?" Reese says.
"What I mean is what happened during your mission?" Yang asks.
Reese then froze, he started to remember everything but when he got to the part where his team was evacing the image of a spike coming from the ground hitting kathryn and flatlining then came jack, the last thing he remembered was crystals last stand and after that came a blinding flash of light and a loud bang.
Reese then showed a new feeling, he was shaking and his eyes started to water.
"They….. my team didn't make it out?" Reese asks as a lone tear went down his face.
Yang simply shakes her head left and right. Remembering the screen where it showed the condition of the team.
Reese then buried his face into Yang's neck and chest area and started to cry.
"There there." Yang says as she stroked his head and put her head on top of his.
"Why didn't they make it out? We had prepared for every scenario." Reese says.
Yang said nothing, she knew that he had to vent his feelings out and speaking would probably make more problems than solutions.
"Hey who is crying over there please stop." Said Ruby in a weak voice.
"Ruby!" Yang says with hope in her voice.
Yang then opens the curtains to show a barely awakened Ruby.
Ruby then looked at Reese.
"Why are you sad?" Ruby asks.
"I lost some of my friends while we were rescuing you." Reese says as he looks at his hands.
"As in. are they dead?" Ruby asks.
As much as Reese wants to deny it and say that they are really injured and they are fine, he is too deep into the conversation to change it.
"Yes they are gone I'm the last one standing of team 16." Reese says in a somber tone.
Ruby doesn't say anything but instead she throws her cover over her head and turns away.
Yang looks at Reese and well he shrugged his shoulders as a way to say leave it be.
"What do you think happened to her?" Yang asks.
"I don't know but time will show us soon enough." Reese says.
Winter and the rest of the group enter the room.
"I see you're awake." Winter says.
"Well when you survive a massive explosion while traveling a hundred miles per hour to outrun it takes a lot out of you." Reese says.
"You want to know what it took out of you?" Weiss says.
"I probably don't want to know but this big scar across my stomach is telling me otherwise." Reese says.
"Well when you were running at that speed your body couldn't take it your abdomen tore open and well Patty must have seen it open and caused your armor to lockdown, but when we opened your armor up your small intestine was hanging out, so we had to remove it and rebuild it." Winter says.
Reese stayed silent for a bit.
"Now here is the real question. What was that massive explosion?" Reese asks.
Everyone then looked at Winter with similar looks.
"What I'm about to tell you will not leave this room. What it was is a nuclear explosion. It's a feature built into all predator armor as a way to safeguard the classified nature in the armor. It uses a unique mixture of dust in it to create the reaction. It's only used as a last resort when the agent cannot escape or is in risk of capture." Winter says.
"Hold on, I didn't know that existed." Weiss says.
"Well it was something that was kept away from certain people, even ones in our family." Winter says.
"Hummmph." Weiss says.
"That's a first. Weiss doesn't know everything about dust." Blake says in a sarcastic tone.
That made Yang giggle a little, and Weiss was trying but failing to hide a smile.
While this was going on Reese was observing Ruby and the whole time she didn't smile one bit. There were some funny moments that made Reese grin a little.
"Humm hey where is Patty?" Reese asks.
"She is in an armored case with your armor, or she might be in the cameras." Winter says.
Reese then looks at a camera, and the whole group watched him.
"Can you see me?" Reese asks.
The camera then nodded.
"Good come to me." Reese says.
Now everyone was confused except for winter.
"Wait for it." Winter says.
Five minutes later everyone heard a tap on the door.
"Blake, will you get that?" Reese asks.
Blake then opens the door and sees no one.
"Very funny guys, nobody was there.. how did you get that?" Blake asks.
What she didn't notice was the helmet that Reese wears on his armor rolled right past her.
"Yang put this on." Reese says as he gives his helmet to yang.
She then put it on and looked right at Reese with a "well?" Gesture.
Reese then makes some hand gestures and at that moment Patty starts to translate.
"Your sister is not happy. I have read her charts and I noticed the hormone that controls happiness is not functioning." Patty says to yang.
9 hours earlier before Yang enters the room.
Reese wakes up and at first he can't move.
"Must be a numbing drug." Reese says to himself.
But just as quick as he woke up he is now feeling tired, but before he closed his eyes he noticed Ruby's stats on a paper and he barely caught a word "dopamine not detected" Reese then fell asleep when he heard a door open.
Present time.
"Winter, how is it that my sister can't feel happiness?" Yang asks.
"To be honest, whatever Salem did to her made it so she can't feel happy anymore." Winter says.
Just then Ruby started to shake and feel panicky.
"Stay away! All of you go away!" Ruby shouts.
"Ruby, it's us, your friends and family." Yang says in that caring tone.
"No youre not stay back." Ruby says as she falls off her bed.
"Winter." Reese says.
"Top drawer right side." Winter says.
Reese then opens his bedside table to find a drug injector with a dart in it. Reese then gets it armed just in time Ruby was starting to find objects to cause harm.
SMASH! that was a glass beaker being broken and now Ruby was holding it as a weapon.
"Yang down." Reese ordered.
Yang didn't question it; she then dropped to the ground and Reese fired the dart it hit Ruby right in the thigh of her leg.
Just then it took effect Ruby stumbled a little and Blake was about to help her but was stopped by winter.
"Wait a moment, she can still cause harm." Winter says.
Then a few seconds later Ruby dropped the glass item and slumped against the wall.
"You… not…. anyone …...I…..know." Ruby says as she blacks out.
"It's a lot worse than I expected." Reese says.
End
Yeah this took way too long to write