Yo!
Not a ton to say tbh. This is a bit of a shorter chapter, so you have my apologies in advance for that.
Start Chapter 14
Weiss blanks, then. Her brain might as well have shut off entirely for how she stands there, entirely uselessly, as Mercury Black bleeds out in front of her.
It is only Qrow screaming at her that snaps her out of it, and has her lunging forwards, already trying to come up with anything she can possibly do to save the boy.
She does her best to inspect the wounds logically, but it's difficult for her logical thoughts to try and compete with her more emotional ones at the moment. Mercury's bleeding rather heavily out of his stomach, and from what she can see through the rather sizable hole in his abdomen where the Arma Gigas' blade had nearly cleaved through him, his intestines have been severed in a few places.
It doesn't even occur to Weiss that Qrow had also been injured, shot twice in the leg and the back, until that moment. She looks over, her eyes wide and panicked, to see Qrow crawling his way over.
"I'm fine. Don't think about me. Save the kid."
Weiss is glad he's not commenting on the fact that Mercury had shot him. Even if that's true, he's just a boy, maybe – maybe – eight or nine years old.
But he might very well be younger.
"Do you have medical training!?" Qrow grunts out as he pulls himself into a sitting position, which can't be comfortable.
"None!"
"Then get out of the way."
Weiss does just that, almost eager for Mercury to no longer be her responsibility.
"Do you have medical training!?" Weiss feels the need to ask, however.
"Do I look like it!?" Qrow fires back, grimacing as he peels back a bit of Mercury's shirt to inspect the wound. "Fuck, I've got some, but I've never actually had to use it before. Luckily, we Hunters have a tried-and-true method for these sorts of things. It might not be enough due to the severity of his injures, but we can try!"
Qrow leans forward, places his hands on Mercury's chest, and begins to speak.
"For it is through pain that we become what we must. Through this, we harden ourselves, until our wills are as steel. Infinite in retribution and unbound by regret, I release your soul, and by my being, unshackle thee."
Mercury's entire body spasms as a gray light erupts out of him, and luckily, it seems to be a rather potent aura. Not quite as much as Jaune's or Yang's, but it's certainly much higher than Weiss' or Ruby's.
She looks down at the wound along his abdomen, and watches as it begins to close. The wound seals, and seals, and then…
And then it stops sealing, the boy's aura fading away into nothingness.
"Shit!" Qrow curses, "It's not enough! The wound's too deep!"
Weiss feels her heart leap into her throat. "What do we do!?"
"We operate on him as best we can, and then get him back to civilization." Qrow clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Fuck. You don't happen to have a needle and thread, do you?"
Weiss looks over at Qrow helplessly, who, despite his own injuries, hoists himself up, and uses Harbinger as a second leg as he hobbles back into Marcus Black's home.
"Keep pressure on the wound!" He shouts. "If he loses too much blood, then it doesn't matter if we can seal it!"
Weiss nods, forcing her mind to steady itself as best she can. It's… well, she hopes it will be enough.
She rips off her blue overcoat, and uses it to staunch the bleeding as best she can. Idly, she watches with a sick sort of fascination as the blood gradually seeps into the material, dyeing it a dark plum color.
Luckily, any further macabre thoughts are prevented by Qrow making his way back out far quicker than Weiss had expected.
"He had them out already," Qrow explains to her as he sits himself down beside Weiss. "Must be a constant thing, sealing wounds."
Weiss isn't sure she likes the sound of that.
"Now… this is going to be rather hard to stomach, but…" Qrow sighs, then looks up at her. "I need you to hold Mercury's wound open so that I can sew his intestines back up."
Weiss does her best to avoid vomiting on principle, instead nodding with a grim determination hanging about her.
She'd never once harbored any thoughts for becoming a doctor. Such had never appealed to her, and blood had always been somewhat of a sore spot. Such feelings had dimmed with time – being a Huntress had a habit of leading one to seeing blood quite often – but even so, Weiss had certainly never wanted to be this close to an operation in her life.
After this, she's fairly certain she won't want to be ever again, either.
Still, she does what she has to. She bites down on her lower lip, steels her stomach – she'll vomit when this is over, because thinking she can somehow hold this in is foolhardy – and reaches into Mercury's abdomen, prying it apart to give Qrow room to work.
"Fuck me," Qrow whispers as he kneels down, and sets up the light on his scroll to shine inside Mercury's body. "And frankly, fuck you too, Oz. Easy job in Mistral you say, just go in and check some things out, you say. Fuckin' asshole. Fuckin' Semblance."
Weiss doesn't look as Qrow does the difficult work, but she cannot stop herself from hearing, even with her head turned pointedly away. The squelches and gurgles are somehow louder than anything else, even surrounded by nature, sat in a clearing with a forest just behind them.
About five minutes in, Qrow moves her hands, and Weiss gladly steps away, allowing the man to work on sewing Mercury back up. She tries not to look, but catches an errant glance, and…
Well, she's held on long enough, she thinks.
So, she stands, gets as far as she can, and then throws up into the grass some ten or so meters away.
What feels like years later – but is, likely, only ten or fifteen minutes – Qrow sighs, wipes his forehead, and calls her over.
"Well?" She asks, her heart hammering in her chest.
"We're going to be cutting it close." He tells her, not mincing words. "I think he'll make it, but I'd give him 55/45 odds, and that's only because his aura's tough. I'll call ahead and have someone pick us up once I get signal, but this far out, it could be anywhere from three to twelve hours of walking between now and then."
Weiss swallows. "Then we should hurry."
"We should, I just don't want to have to carry him, that could upset the stitches, and I'm in no condition to–"
A glyph spawns beneath Mercury, and lifts him into the air without jostling him.
"Oh, right." Qrow laughs, somehow able to find humor in such a situation, when his hands are quite literally caked in blood, and his own body being held together by his aura and little else. "Schnee powers. Blanked on that."
"Come on, then." Weiss nods his way.
"We've ground to cover."
/
"So, uh…" Roman clears his throat as the two of them step inside of Beacon's forge, the room already hotter than it had been outside by quite a bit, without the forge even being in use. "I have absolutely no idea how you go about making a weapon."
"You're in luck, then." Ruby tells him as she sets down the metals, screws, and different moving parts that she'd picked up to be able to build Roman's weapon. "I do."
"I know you said you made your own, it's just…"
"Just?"
"I guess I just didn't want to assume that would carry over to me."
"For most people it wouldn't. I happen to quite enjoy smithing weapons, though." Although she hasn't actually had the chance to partake of her hobby in… it has to have been at least a year and a half, maybe more. If she doesn't count working on Crescent Rose, or upgrading the weapon, then she hasn't actually forged anything in going on four years now. "Shouldn't be much trouble. Although this will likely take a few sessions."
Roman nods his head. "I guess I just… I kind of wanted to be able to say I made my own weapon, y'know?"
"You were using a pair of crappy hunting knives up until today."
"Yeah, well, now I want to be able to make my own weapon."
Ruby snickers. "Seems like a personal problem, buddy."
Roman chuckles under his breath. "Well, at least you're not getting my hopes up."
Ruby's about to nod before she thinks more about the idea. "…I guess I could teach you, if you wanted?"
"Huh?"
"I can walk you through the process." Ruby says. "You're not going to be able to do everything; some of this stuff is pretty advanced, but I can let you do the simpler parts, and show you enough so that you'll be able to fix or upgrade your own weapon when the time comes."
Roman's eyes light up. "Nice! That'd be sick!"
A smile comes to Ruby's lips. "Alright, come on over. We've gotta' talk design first of all."
The design stage of creating a weapon has always been Ruby's favorite. Thinking up new ways to slash Grimm apart, to make her baby just that littlest bit better, or even to make huge, sweeping changes to its overall design… it always has her blood pumping.
The part where Ruby then has to turn those brainchildren into something that can actually function has always been Ruby's least favorite, since pretty much every cool idea she's ever come up with to upgrade Crescent Rose has died around there.
She's still a little mad she couldn't get the chainsaw edge on Crescent Rose to work.
Still, over the course of the next thirty or so minutes, the two of them hash out a basic design. Ruby hasn't steered Roman towards anything in specific, letting him figure out what it is he'd like to use instead of pushing him towards Melodic Cudgel.
And what Roman eventually settles on…
"So?" He looks to her with an expression clearing seeking approval.
"It's uh…"
Ruby looks down at the two and a half meter long great sword with some apprehension, especially the way that it can part down the middle and turn into a railgun.
It's definitely cool, just…
"Excessive?"
Roman puffs up. "I think it's neat!"
"Well, I mean, yeah, it's definitely neat." She admits, scratching at the back of her neck. "But a weapon this big is going to require you to learn to fight in a completely different way than you have your whole life."
Roman evidently hadn't thought about that.
"So… what would you recommend?"
"I'd say something with decent reach, but also something that's light, and can be flexible in a lot of scenarios."
"Like a sword?"
"A sword could work. A cane could, as well, or a rapier or staff."
"Hm…" Roman massages at his chin. "A staff, huh…?"
Ruby is actually pretty curious about Roman's sudden interest. "Are you thinking about using a staff?"
"Well, a guy I used to know wielded a bo staff. He was a tough son of a bitch, that's for sure. Ran with the–" Roman looks down at Ruby, coughs, then looks away. "Well, he wasn't on the right side of the law, I'll just say."
Ruby rolls her eyes.
"Anyways, the reason I was thinking about it was because I remember this one time he got disarmed, and instead of panicking, he just picked up a nearby metal pipe, and suddenly he was using that as a weapon just as well."
"It's a flexible style."
"I guess it is…" Roman thinks for a while longer, leaning against the back wall of the forge. "…Maybe… maybe a staff, with a blade inside of it?"
Ruby's eyes widened. "Like a hidden blade?"
"I suppose I could also use a cane, it's the same general idea, isn't it?" Roman shrugs. "Anything adaptable, like you said, that I can use in a variety of scenarios. I'm thinking a blade concealed inside a staff or cane."
"What about both?"
Roman's eyes widen. "Pardon?"
"I just thought… why not make it a staff that can shrink down into a cane, and then hide a blade inside the cane section." Ruby points out. "You'll likely want to invest in something that'll give you some ranged options, but then, you're on a team with me and Amber, and we both have range, so you could just be the melee guy."
"Sounds good, although…" Roman coughs yet again. "I've uh… got some experience with firearms."
"Do I want to know?"
"Definitely not."
Ruby groans. "I'll not ask, then."
"But I think trying to incorporate that into the design would uh…"
"Complicate things?" Ruby chuckles. "Yeah, it definitely would. Too many mechanisms all in one space. Especially if you're making a staff. I could make something that would be a one-time fire, like a spike on the end you can shoot off in a pinch, but that would be about it."
"Can you do that?"
"The one-time spike? Sure. It's just a coiled spring with a switch, not very difficult."
"Then I guess I'll take that too." Roman scratches the back of his neck. "I just… you're sure this isn't too much? I'm not trying to–"
"I'm telling you that I enjoy this stuff." Ruby chuckles. "Really. I like building weapons, and helping my teammate get a weapon is also directly helping myself, right?"
"I suppose, yeah." Roman coughs awkwardly. "Just…"
"You can thank me later." Ruby teases. "Maybe pay for the materials when I upgrade Crescent Rose at some point, how about that?"
Roman's expression grows a bit brighter at that. "Yeah. Alright. I can do that."
"Good." She takes one of the pieces of metal sat there, and decides she'll start with the hidden blade, first. It'll be a thin sword; almost has to be, to fit within a cane/staff hybrid. "Then… do you have any ideas for names?"
"Huh?"
"Well, your weapon has to have a name."
"Is that like an actual law, or just something you think?"
"It might as well be a law!"
Roman snorts. "Fine, fine. Uh… I don't really know. I like melodies?"
Ruby's eyes widen. "What?"
"Your weapon's called Crescent Rose. Crescent 'cause it's a scythe, but rose because you're, y'know, all rose themed. So, I like music and stuff. Figured Melody… something."
"Melodic, maybe?"
"Yeah, I like the sound of that! Melodic, uh…" Roman hums out in thought. "…Foil?"
"Foil? Like a fencing blade?"
"Yeah. That's kind of what the blade within is going to need to be, right?"
Ruby is honestly kind of impressed that Roman had managed to figure that out so quickly, and without any prompting. He seems to have a rather logical mind, then. He isn't like Ruby, in the sense that she always wants to come up with something cool, and is then constrained by reality.
He sees reality, and then builds around those constraints.
"Melodic Foil…" Ruby hums, before smiling. "I like it. Has character."
"Heh, you think?" Roman preens.
"Yep. Now c'mon, I'll show you how to draw out a tang."
"A what?"
"Just come over here."
"Roger that, ma'am!"
/
Cinder's not really sure what to think when she's brought along with her savior towards a training room within Evernight.
She wonders just what it is this is for. Her savior has before mentioned that he's going to be tested, that the woman who rules this domain, Salem, intends to see just how skilled he is…
She wonders if this is that. If Mr. Arc is going to fight.
When she sees two figures, one tall and burly, the other thin, lean, and scary, she thinks that she's likely guessed correctly.
Her savior leads the way, and Cinder follows hesitantly. The scorpion man – Tyrian, she thinks his name is – disturbs her in a way that she can't quite describe, and she's yet to find herself capable of mustering up the strength to even be near him alone.
"Ah, the rusted knight arrives!" Tyrian bows dramatically. "How grand of you to join us."
Mr. Arc says nothing, just stops and turns his back to the man, instead looking at the door, evidently waiting for something.
Cinder does the same, even if it makes her quite uncomfortable to have her back to the scorpion man.
Still, she'd have felt a lot worse about having her back to the mistress of Evernight when she floats into the room, her expression almost bordering on anticipation.
"Ah, you have all already arrived." Salem's lips turn up in the barest hint of a smile. "Good. Then we will waste no time. You know why you are here?"
"You want an accurate assessment of my abilities." Mr. Arc says.
"Mm. You will be sparring with Tyrian and Hazel both. These matches will be to fifty percent aura on either side. That way you can do the both of them right now."
Mr. Arc nods his head. "Who first?"
"It's up to you."
Jaune looks back, sighs, then says, "I'll fight Tyrian first, then."
"Ooh! I'm the favorite, did you hear that, Hazel dearest?" Tyrian leans up towards the other man, who just grunts out under his breath.
He also clears the arena, and Cinder, realizing that if they are to fight that they will need the floor, does the same. She… doesn't feel quite as bad standing near Hazel. When he looks down at her, there's a hint of something in his gaze that Cinder doesn't quite know the meaning of.
But it doesn't unsettle her, so she thinks that maybe it's a good thing.
"Very well, then. Begin when you are ready."
Tyrian launches himself forward, and Cinder takes a step back almost automatically. Her mind flashes back to that alleyway, where Mr. Arc had fought to save her from him, even when he'd just met her mere hours before.
The look in his eyes then… it had been something odd. Almost like Mr. Arc had been considering a thousand different little things, weighing his options.
Now, that look in his eyes is gone. Replacing it is a cold, almost calculating expression as he parries Tyrian's first blow, letting it slide off of his shield to the left. Tyrian allows himself to move with his averted strike, and his scorpion tail arcs up, narrowly missing Mr. Arc's face by the slimmest of margins as he dodges just in time.
He stabs forward, cutting across Tyrian's aura and causing the man to hiss out. Tyrian somersaults back, giving himself some distance, and then hunches over, starting to circle around Mr. Arc like some sort of animal might its prey.
"He's good." The man beside her, Hazel, speaks out suddenly. "No wasted movements."
Cinder looks over at him with confusion. "Are… you talking to me?"
Hazel peers at her out of the corner of his eye. "No."
"Oh. I-I'm sorry."
"You need not be." He says, turning his gaze back to the fight. "You have done nothing wrong. Watch the fight. You will likely learn something."
Cinder nods her head as she does just that, and she sees that even in the ten or so seconds she'd been talking to Hazel, things have already progressed.
Mr. Arc seems, at first glance, to be on the backfoot. He takes blows from his opponent several times a second, it feels, and Tyrian doesn't seem to be wearing himself out, either. And yet, when Mr. Arc does swing, he does so precisely, and rarely misses.
"He's… patient?" Cinder asks Hazel.
"Mm. He does not try and force an opportunity, like Tyrian does. That is not to say that his style is more effective. Merely that he is not being swept up in Tyrian's rhythm."
Cinder nods her head, her gaze narrowing. "Is he waiting for Tyrian to overextend himself?"
Hazel hums out, sounding almost impressed. "You have quite the eye yourself. Yes, I believe he is."
"Then… scorpion guy– er, Tyrian, sorry…" Hazel's got a tiny, almost absent smirk upon his face, however, so Cinder thinks she's probably not in trouble. "Is he not worried he will overextend?"
"Tyrian is many things, but worried is never one of them. If I didn't know better, I'd say he has a death wish, but it is more than likely that he simply does not care for his own body in any way. He will do anything he can to win a battle."
Cinder frowns at that.
The next minute or so is all it really takes for the battle to be decided. Mr. Arc is striking far less often, but far harder, whereas Tyrian is hitting against his opponent's aura every second, but with glancing blows. Finally, Mr. Arc surges forward, tackles the scorpion man to the ground, and places his sword against his neck.
"Oh, a shame, that." Tyrian laughs, his stinger, too, pressing against her savior's stomach. "It looks to be a draw, rusted knight."
Cinder's not expecting for Salem to offer up an opinion, but she does. "Actually, I do believe that is Jaune's win, Tyrian. After all, a strike like that would kill you, and your venom would take a time to kill him in return. He very well may be able to cure himself of your affliction before perishing, and I think that uncertainty means it is his victory."
Tyrian looks appalled at that as Mr. Arc gets off of him, and sheathes the nondescript steel sword he'd borrowed from Salem's armory inside his rusted shield. Tyrian is glaring daggers at him, and Mr. Arc is sighing, clearly agitated.
If Cinder has to guess, he's agitated that Salem's decided to make him the target of Tyrian's ire.
"Now, then, Hazel?"
The man nods his head as he steps forward, idly cracking his neck.
Cinder finds herself shaking as Tyrian steps out of the arena, and comes to stand just off to Cinder's right.
"Hmph." Tyrian sneers down at her. "You seem afraid, girl."
Cinder looks away, unwilling to say anything in response to that.
Hazel and Mr. Arc's fight is a lot quicker. That's mostly because Hazel is in a different weight class to her savior. He does his best, but they're both close range fighters, and he has no method of striking out against Hazel that doesn't involve getting close to him.
And anything close to Hazel seems to be well within his domain.
"Hazel claims victory, then." Salem hums as she steps up. "I suppose that makes sense. You seem to be a middle ground between your two opponents. Not quite as fast as Tyrian, and not quite as strong as Hazel. You are, however, far stronger than Tyrian, and far faster than Hazel."
"It just doesn't matter when Hazel can bearhug me." Mr. Arc wipes sweat from his brow, seemingly not too angry about being beaten.
"No, it does not. Even so, I have seen enough here today. You, Jaune of Arc, will be in charge of Cinder's training."
Cinder's eyes widen, even as she feels a surge of vigor within her breast. She looks over towards her savior, and sees him nodding resolutely, before looking to Cinder as well and giving her a small smile.
"You will begin tomorrow. She will be tested against Tyrian and Hazel herself within the next few months, so I would recommend you do not go easy on her."
Mr. Arc grimaces, but nods all the same. "Noted."
"Very well, then. I leave you in charge of everything regarding Cinder's training. I would advise you do not disappoint me."
And with that, Salem turns, and moves out of the room.
Tyrian and Hazel both go next, seemingly unbothered, and suddenly, it's just Cinder and Mr. Arc left in the space.
"Hah… so I'm training you, huh?" Mr. Arc chuckles. "Can't say this is how I thought my life was going to be like a month ago, but they do always say reality is stranger than fiction."
"Mr. Arc?"
"It's nothing." He lies to her, and it is very obviously a lie, but Cinder will not call him on it. "And just call me Jaune, honestly. I'm only… I'm only six or seven years older than you, right?"
It's odd, because it seems like the truth, but the way the man says it makes the statement sound almost comical.
"Well then, I suppose we should start slow, and work our way up. First off," He walks over to one of the stands off on the opposite side of the room, and draws a straight sword from off of it, casually chucking it towards Cinder. She catches it, and tries to adjust to its weightiness. "Show me what you know."
Cinder nods her head, takes a breath, and then charges forward.
End Chapter 14
Alright, that's chapter 14!
Next chapter will be focusing in on Raven and Yang, as well as other things. Probably. Who knows. I know, but like, I'm forgetful.
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