Castaway Island

Chapter 13: Rooftop Troubles

-DAY 30-

Today was the day, they were going to finally explore the top floors of the hotel and the roof to see where they could place the antenna and hopefully get one step closer to getting off the island. They carted over to the hotel with the antenna laying in the back. The five-foot-long pole like device they needed to find a place to put it. They left all the cabling behind since they could deal with that after they set up the antenna.

Yang easily picked it up and set it on her shoulder and Jaune took the front. After what happened on the hill, they were a bit more alert just in case. They had relocked the gate up to the hill but honestly it wasn't designed to stop Grimm. They would have to set up a patrol to check the fence line now and then.

Jaune opened up the front doors for her as they made their way to the fire escape. Yang sighed as she was thankful the hotel was only four floors high it was still walking up four floors carrying a large metal pole basically. It was on the third floor they came to their first problem. The stairwell had collapsed on the 4th floor.

It wasn't too bad but somehow the roof had caved in and took out the steps towards the 4th and roof.

"Think there is another way up there?" Yang asked trying to see through the rubble. She could see daylight and where a lot of rainwater had seeped through over time and then dried up.

"I mean there usually is more than one, right?" He offered.

"Let's try the 3rd floor and see where that takes us," Yang told him. He opened the doorway to said floor as she placed the device on the ground and stretched. "Damn that thing is heavy."

"Well let's leave it here then," Jaune figured she could use a break carrying it. "We can search for the way up and when we find it bring it along."

"I'm sure not hauling that thing around as we're blindly looking around," Yang pulled out her own flashlight in the darkened hallway. There were windows at the ends of the halls but the light coming in wasn't much from them. Besides it wasn't like the thing was going to spout legs and walk off on its own.

"Should we split up?" Jaune asked looking to the left and right of the hallway.

"After what happened the last time we split up in a new place, let's not tempt fate," Yang told him.

"Right, together it is," Jaune nodded as they slowly made their way down the left hall. They could see a few of the rooms had open doors, the electronic locks long since lost power, thankfully for the shut doors they had the master set of keys of the hotel.

"You think we can also find something useful left behind?" Jaune asked her.

"Well, we got the whole day, I'm up for a detour or two while we look for another stairwell," Yang shrugged. She was a little curious what they could find, they had found some suitcases left behind and long since raided them for contents. Most were clothing that didn't fit either of them but a few useful items like a hairbrush or some spare clothing that had fit.

They even found a few odd ends like a working straight razor, a couple of books. They found someone's scroll but when charged it was password locked of course. It was now sitting next to their broken ones.

The first few doors they opened they didn't see much, a few rooms that had been made and then never slept in, one had a broken window as they found a bird had built a nest in the ruined room. They closed that room back up in case the bird came back. They found one that was a mess, most likely someone rushing to get out and leave that night everyone else had.

Then they found a room with luggage in it and decided to take a look. Jaune opened one up to see female clothing in it. "Nothing much here."

Yang noticed hers was locked but that didn't stop her from just jamming in a screwdriver from the tool belt she was wearing and pop the locks forcefully. When she looked in she was shocked.

"Oh wow…someone came to play," She pulled out a set of handcuffs.

"She was a cop?" Jaune asked.

"Nope, these are special see the latch here?" She demonstrated that closing the cuffs and locking them that by pushing the small latch they came undone.

"Why would someone have handcuffs that don't really lock?" Jaune asked her.

Yang then pulled out a small black handle with multiple leather straps on it, it was a small whip. "The kind that uses them with this?"

Now Jaune might be the quickest on the uptakes sometimes but even he knew what that kind of combination meant. Now her comment about someone wanting to 'play' made much more sense to him. "So she was into…"

"Some pretty kinky stuff," Yang put them off to the side and pulled out more items. Black bracelet restraints, some robe that was smooth to the touch, scented candles a few blindfolds in various styles.

"Do people really use all this?" Jaune walked over to look at the contents. He pulled out a small silver thing, it was shaped like a spade with what looked like a fake jewel on the bottom. "What even is this?"

Yang took one look and burst out laughing.

"What?" He was starting to worry about what he was holding.

"That's an anal plug," she said between laughs.

He took one look at it and immediately dopped it. "Oh gross!" He started to wipe his hand on the bedsheet before realizing what might have been happening in this room. He felt the whole room was something he shouldn't touch without sterilizing it.

"Oh, grow up," Yang pulled found the woman's other collection. "Well, I found her toys, huh this one is almost the same size as you."

She pulled out the dildo as Jaune was not amused. She winked at him and pulled out another item, this time a gag as she looked it over.

"Some people are into some strange stuff," Jaune sighed lifting the whip. "Wouldn't this hurt?"

Yang shrugged. "Kind of, depends on how it's handled, I guess? Oh, this might work."

One of the last things she pulled out was a black leather corset as she held it up. "Huh, might actually fit me, and it comes with a pair of panties, a garter belt and stocking, damn this woman despite some questionable taste knew how to accessorize."

The thought of Yang dressed up in that gave him a mental image that he wasn't prepared for. He really hoped this didn't awaken anything in him.

"Let's uh…move on." He swallowed as Yang got a glint in her eye. She might just come back later for some of the stuff in the room.

The rest of the rooms were pretty mundane in comparison. A few still had suitcases that they were able to open and find some clothing mostly. Some looked to fit as they placed the contents into a suitcase and placed them in the hall so they would be easier to find on the way back down. The search continued until they found another stairwell. This one looked to go up to the 4th floor above them.

They got the antenna and carried to up to the 4th but when they got there they saw the roof had caved in, in some areas. The walls were torn down leaving a few rooms exposed and even the floors creaking a little from their steps.

"Well, this isn't encouraging." Yang muttered carrying the antenna.

"Should be a roof access somewhere," Jaune was leading the way again.

Down the hallway they found a door labeled 'Roof Access Employees Only' on it. Unlocking it they finally made it to the roof. The sun was a welcomed sight as they took a moment to look around. They could see where there had been a small tower on the roof. At least until what looked like part of a tree still embedded in it had knocked it down. The tower had crashed through the roof and into the 4th floor.

There was a large hole now on the roof where being exposed to the elements hadn't done much to help reinforce the roof's stability.

Looking up the remains of the tower they figured that it was the best they could do.

"You think it's safe to connect it to that?" Jaune asked it was near the hole and the metal structure was broken in a few areas leaving jagged metal pointing to the sky, some of it rusting from all the rain going inside the metal.

"Well, we need this as high as possible," She looked at it. She could get it about maybe fifteen feet high before she got to the breaking point.

"Should we find a ladder or something?" Jaune asked looking at the height of it.

"Not sure where we'll find one big enough." She huffed out looking at it. "I got some stuff in my tool belt I brough with me to secure it up there, we just need to get it there. Okay here's an idea, I get up there and you hand it up to me."

"Are you sure?" He knew they didn't exactly have much in the way of options, but this was the highest point they could get to.

Yang thought it over. "I mean even with a ladder we would still have to do this, maybe I could at least rest it on the ladder while I do it."

"There should be a few around, like in a janitor's closet or something," He offered. "I really want to do this as safely as possible."

Yang had to give him that, she was strong but holding it up vertically while trying to secure it might not work. Even if Jaune came up with her that would be the two of them on a broken slim tower and it having to support both of their weights and that of the antenna, well she didn't like the thought of that. The thing didn't look like it was made to carry too much weight on it even if it wasn't broken and exposed to the elements.

"Alright, let's find this ladder," She sighed.

They started looking through every staff closet and utilities room they could find. They found a few smaller ones and a couple of step ladders, but it wasn't until they hit the first floor in the employes area in a utility closet they found the longest one that might work. They then had to haul it back up to the roof, which was a little awkward at times to get it up the stairwell.

Finally, back on the roof they placed the ladder down, both noticed however when they were by the broken small tower the floor beneath them shifted and groaned.

"That, doesn't feel or sound good." Jaune commented.

Yang's lips thinned as she too didn't like that, but they came all this way and did all this work that she didn't want to see it ruined. So, she was going to get this done as quickly as possible. "Okay let met get up there and hand it to me and then back off."

"What? Yang-"

She cut him off. "No Jaune, this is dangerous enough as is and I don't want too much weight."

Jaune didn't like it but she had a point about the weight. "If anything happens jump, even if you have to drop the antenna, it's not worth your life."

Yang didn't say anything as this was their one-way ticket off this island but the look in his eyes said he wouldn't let this go. She knew they couldn't just stand around arguing about it all, so she relented. After all he was going with her idea to back off, so it was only fair she compromised as well with him.

"Alright, let's just hope we're both just being overly cautious." Yang told him as she started to climb the ladder. Climbing up the hot metal wasn't fun but at least it wasn't burning hot. Jaune came up with the antenna resting button on the top of the ladder. Already they could feel a shift with all the extra weight as Yang quickly got to work. First, she got some rachet tie downs she got from the mechanical building. These would hold it in place for her to attack something more permanent.

When it was tight enough, she tested it gently and it looked like it wouldn't move.

"Okay Jaune, let it go and you can back off now," she told him.

Jaune felt the roof creek with every move down the ladder and he really didn't like this. He moved away until the roof felt more solid as he waited and hoped things went well. This was risky and he was more worried about Yang than anything else.

Yang felt the sweat on her and not all of it was from the heat and exertion. She could feel the stupid thing sway a little and she had to work quickly. The tie downs would hold but she needed to make sure this thing didn't fall during a storm. She had lined up a few holes to the metal and planned to drill and bolt it in. It would give it extra support she hoped it would need. She pulled out the power tool and put on her safety glasses. She had just lined up the drill with the hole when suddenly the swaying turned into leaning.

She instinctively grabbed the metal of the tower as he breath caught in her throat.

"Yang! Get off of there!" Jaune yelled out seeing it lean from all the weight, then there was a huge cracking sound of breaking wood under them.

What they hadn't known or could have seen was that rainwater had got into the supports and had slowly been rotting them away. There were even pieces of the roof's wooden supports had breaks in them, these breaks were now cracking open.

Yang tried her beast to climb down, even thinking of risking a jump when suddenly the entire roof holding the antenna broke and she and everything fell. Jaune could only watch in horror as she and the tower disappeared, he stumbled to his knees as the vibration and shaking of the roof caused him to lose his footing. He rushed over as quickly as he could to the ledge and looked over.

"Yang!" he called out again he could just make out her blonde hair and some of her under pieces of wood and metal. She and everything hadn't just fallen through the 4th floor but she had landed into the 3rd floor. He was scared to death she might be seriously injured or worse.

"Come on Yang, speak to me, can you hear me?" He yelled out.

Yang groaned, she had no idea what happened at first as the last thing she remembered was working on the tower. She blinked seeing she was on her back and looking up at a hole in the ceiling, well ceilings now that she saw she was more than a floor down. She could hear someone yelling as her mind cleared it came into focus.

"Jaune?" She called out.

"Oh, thank god," she heard him call out. "Are you okay?"

She wasn't sure so she tried to move.

"I don't kno-AAAAHHH!" the pain flared up in her side.

"Yang!"

"I think I could use some help," She called up the pain that was now registering move into her voice.

"Hold on, I'm going to get down to that level and find you."

"Yeah, good idea," she softly said as she tried to figure out how badly she was hurt. There was a very painful and burning sensation in her side. She tried to look and thankfully she hadn't broken her neck or something, that was the good news. The bad news was she had a piece of metal now sticking into her side.

"Fuck…that's not good," She laid her head down and looked around. "Oh god damn it."

There was the antenna or what was left of it, the thing was snapped into two main pieces with other pieces all over the place.

"Perfect, just fucking perfect," She felt tears in her eyes as she tried to fight off the pain. Looking again she didn't see blood just yet, her aura was keeping the wound sealed for now. Much like how she lost her arm, aura could stop bleeding at least until it ran out. That was how Blake was able to get her to help before she had bled to death that day.

How much aura did she have left? She had to have taken some hits on the way down, in fact from how certain parts of her body were in pain she was sure of it. Her leg felt like someone took a baseball bat to it, her ribs certainly took a hit, one of her shoulders might be dislocated or at least the joint could be blown out. She could have a concussion at the very the back of her skull hurt like hell.

She could feel her toes and move her feet, so her spine at least was intact. The major thing was her side with the piece of metal inside of her. Aura was a strange thing, blunt force trauma sure it can take a lot of that, something sharp trying to impale you? Well then things were a bit different, since aura was spaced around the body, something doing a pinpoint attack could puncture through with enough force behind it.

Fall two stories onto said piercing metal and that was one way of doing it.

"Yang?" She could hear Jaune's voice in the hallway.

"In here!" She yelled out as much as she could. Not long later she heard him unlocking the door to the room she was in.

Jaune rushed in and to her side seeing her pined down. "Yang, are you okay?"

"I've been better, can you get this stuff off of me?"

"Of course, hang on," he quickly got to work. He had to push some wood off her and her leg had some of the tower on it. Thankfully while it was pressing down on her it wasn't crushing her leg. He managed to get her leg out, she did make painful noises at first, but she told him to just keep going no matter what. Eventually he moved enough that he thought he could pull her out of the room.

"Okay, I'm going to hold you under your armpits and pull, let me know if I need to stop." He told her.

Yang nodded her head bracing for it. When he pulled her body screamed at her, but she pushed through it, she wanted out from under all that, then the piece of metal in her side hit something then she screamed.

Jaune nearly dropped her as she was mostly free. "What happened!?"

"My side…" Was all she could say.

He looked and now he would see she was stabbed in the side. "Oh god Yang, we-we need to-to get you to the clinic or something!"

"That would be nice," Yang sighed. "Wonder if we can find any painkillers while there. My aura is keeping it from bleeding out, but I don't know for how much longer."

"Alright, let's finish getting you out and we'll make our way there." He carefully pulled her out the rest of the way and knowing he couldn't carry her with the metal and how it was sticking out they would have to walk it.

Jaune was supporting her as her hand was on her side trying to make sure the metal didn't move as much as they slowly made their way down the hallway. He didn't like how pale she was looking, most likely from the pain she was enduring but also, he had no idea if she was bleeding internally or not even with aura.

"I'm sorry I wrecked the antenna." She said as they were slowly making their way down the stairs.

"Don't worry about it, it was an accident," he told her.

"All my fault," she almost whimper.

"We knew the risks," he gently told her. "It was unstable."

"All my fault we're here," she told him. "Had to take you on that stupid plane, had to ask for something else to see. All my stupid fault." She was in near tears now.

"I could have said no, I went along with it," he told her trying to keep her spirits up.

Yang unfortunately didn't think so, she felt this was all her fault and was wondering if this was karma for getting them into it. If this was her punishment for dragging Jaune along and nearly getting him killed. She had flashbacks to when she was a child and had gone looking for Raven with little Ruby with her. Pulling her along in that little wagon and nearly getting them both killed.

Why did she had to put everyone in danger? Was she cursed? Even a part of her wondered if this was why her mother left, did she see how much trouble her daughter would be? Tears feel from her face as every painful step racked her body. She could hear Jaune trying to comfort her, she tried to focus on that, but it was just so hard.

They were nearly to the ground floor by now and Jaune was thinking they could make it, just a little bit further just down one more flight and then walk to the clinic and they would be set.

"Jaune…" Yang said weekly.

"It's okay Yang, we'll get it done, we are almost there just hang on."

"My aura ran out…"

Jaune felt something on his hand around her waist as he looked to see red liquid. She was bleeding out now, he felt it on his hand and could see it going down her side and leg. Her legs gave out as she collapsed onto the flat stairway between floors.

"No! No-no-no-no-no," He saw the blood coming out and quickly pressed his hands against the wound trying to prevent more of it from coming out of her. He ignored her hiss of pain as he did so. This couldn't be happening to him again he couldn't lose someone else because he couldn't do anything. His mind kept flashing back to Pyrrha. Her kissing him, her shoving him into that locker, the locker flying away. The moment he found out she had died with only her circlet left of her, they didn't even have a body to bury.

Red.

Red like her hair had been.

Red like Yang's blood.

Red covered his hands.

Red covering her body.

Too much red.

Yang felt herself getting weaker, she felt cold. Was this how she was going to die? Bleeding to death with Jaune on some island. Would he bury her outside with the others they found, a simple marker that would be the ending of her story? She was going to leave Jaune alone, all alone on this island and she hated herself for it. She felt the lump in her throat at leaving him alone like this.

"I'm sorry Jaune…" she whispered out.

At least she wasn't dying alone, she looked at him as he tried in vain to save her. She could see him trying so very hard. At least the last month hadn't been too bad, she was enjoying her time with him she realized. Being with Jaune as she looked back on it all had been fun. She wished it could have gone on longer, she wished she could have seen her family again, her friends, even Blake if only for some closure.

Jaune could see she was fading, and he wished he could do something, anything! He couldn't let this happen again, last time he had been too weak and Pyrrha pushed him away to go off an die alone. He had tried so very hard to get better, to get stronger and here Yang was bleeding to death in front of him and he couldn't do a damn thing.

He wanted to rage, he wanted to cry, he wanted to just hold her again.

He just hadn't realized just how much she had meant to him in the past month, they had grown so close that before he knew it, he cared for her. Not just in a friendship way either but he honestly felt like something was growing between them. Now, just like with Pyrrha he was denied whatever the future was going to hold.

"Please…don't let her die, Brother Gods, anyone…please…" He wasn't much of a religious person, but he was desperate. Even if Salem herself showed up and offered him a deal he would have taken it just to keep her from dying.

In that moment of desperation something inside of him awoken. He felt something rushing out of somewhere deep inside as he opened his eyes to see his hands glowing. He could feel his aura in them, he could feel it going into Yang.

"W-what is this?" He said in wonder.

Yang gasped as her eyes widened. She felt a refreshing flow going into her as she noticed her body was starting to glow white.

"What is going on-ow!" She tried to move but the metal was still in her side.

"Yang! I think, I think I'm doing something." Jaune told her trying not to lose concentration.

"Yeah…feels like it," Yang felt strength returning to her body as she looked to see where the side was covered in her blood, so where his hands and the floor. She really shouldn't be feeling this good with that kind of damage she figured, but she wasn't going to look this gift horse in the mouth. She could feel her aura not only returning but also being strengthened in a way she had never felt before.

"Jaune, I think you're doing something with my aura." She looked down again and a thought hit her. If he was enhancing her aura that might mean the way aura healed a person might also be increased. It also meant they had to do one more thing to get her to heal and she wasn't looking forward to it.

"Hey Jaune, I hate to say this but you're going to have to pull that out." She told him.

"Wait, what?" He looked at the metal in her side.

"I really don't want to heal up with that thing inside of me still," she told him, having that still inside would cause nothing but problems down the line. She wasn't sure if he was fighting off infection as well but the sooner, they got that out of her the better.

Jaune's mind was going to a similar path knowing it would be bad to leave it in. "Okay, on three?"

Yang placed a metal finger in her mouth as she bit down on it, she was sure this was going to suck as she nodded.

"Okay…one…two…three!" He pulled as she bit down hard enough to almost crack a tooth on her metal finger. A primal scream came out as she moved as Jaune tried to keep her still.

"It's out Yang, it's out, just calm down, I got you, I got you," He tried to sooth her.

Yang's robotic arm fell to her side as she gasped out. "Fuck me that hurt."

Jaune looked to see that the hole wasn't bleeding, in fact he could literally see it slowly starting to close up. "Wow, this is really working."

"I'm not sure what you're doing but keep it up," Yang sighed as whatever he was doing was also taking her pain away. She felt a warmth instead of a sharp burning pain in her side. It felt nice, like being wrapped up in a blanket made of sunshine.

"Thanks, Jaune, you saved my ass there," she eventually said just enjoying the sensation.

"I couldn't let you die," he said softly. "I'm just glad this is working."

"Best semblance ever I'd say," Yang smiled, glad that not only Jaune found his semblance, but it was just the right kind in the right moment.

"How do you feel?"

Yang thought about it. "Good actually, it's very warm and relaxing despite me getting impale earlier today."

"It looks like you're nearly healed," Jaune looked at her skin and the flesh were closed now. There was an angry red mark but that was starting to fade away.

"How's it looks Doc? You think I can still pull off a two-piece?" Yang joked although she wouldn't mind a scar, she did hope it wasn't too bad.

"Trust me it will hardly be noticeable," he told her.

There was a silence between them as his healing went to work.

"Sorry about the antenna," she said suddenly.

Jaune shook his head. "It was a long shot anyway and because I'd rather have you back then some antenna. I'm just glad you're going to be okay."

"Thanks," Yang however did feel bad, they had lost their best chance to get off this island. At least for now, they would try to find something or someway off but right now she was just glad to be alive. She had come so close to death then she was comfortable with. Just when she thought she was going to die, Jaune had reached out and pulled her back.

Looking at the blonde young man she couldn't help but feel something for him in this moment. Being there for her in the dark moments, saving her life, all the things they had shared and gone through on this island started to open her eyes to a new world of possibilities with him. But those thoughts and feelings she would look into later, right now she wanted to get healed up to walk and then they had to figure out what the next steps were now that the antenna looked to be lost.

TBC..