[X] Ruby Rose is already waiting by Yang's side.
"...It's going to be okay. I'll make sure of it."
That voice echoed in the darkness, as a song echoed through the girl's head. It was a slow song, one that seemed familiar, soothing the mind as it slumbered.
But the calm didn't last long. Before she knew it, she felt something pulsing within the depths of her soul. It was as if a rush of adrenaline had been injected into the metaphysical manifestation of her being, causing her unconscious instincts to scream that she had to do something.
It was a sense of wrongness that she couldn't quite shake. As if…
...She couldn't put a finger on it. Her mind was numb, and time was fleeting. Every now and then, her thoughts woulds just stop.
Was she dreaming? Was she awake, and just unable to process the world outside of her mind just yet?
What… Had happened, again?
The memories were slow to come, hazy in recollection, and painful to dwell on. Trying to piece together what had happened was like…
Trying to solve a puzzle, while every piece was burning.
But that feeling that something was wrong wasn't leaving. It was only gnawing at her worse and worse, as the memories began to slot into place. Fear and flames, smoke and sorrow. A roar and a legend, a scream and a familiar face, a song…
It was if a light was peering down at her, through the darkness, and the girl had not yet worked out if the light was another bad memory or not. If the light was a good thing or not.
They always say not to go towards the light, and the further the girl's mind strayed from the calm darkness and the soothing song, the more troubled she began. But if every fibre of her being was screaming at her, to go to the light, then there had to be something she had forgotten.
...There was a whisper from above, from the light. Vague, muffled, and full of grief. The girl felt drawn to the voice, even if she could not understand it.
No, more than that. It was something she needed to understand. Something that drove her to push through the darkness, even if her pain-addled brian had yet to realise what it was.
The memories were slotting into place, now. The corpse she had wept over, no, her father's corpse. The friends she had seen injured. The silver knight, the grey-haired boy, the Faunus covered in burns, the white dragon and the white woman, the desperate urge to fight, to stand and keep fighting, to not stop even when-
Even when-
Even when-
Her memories kept skipping, kept refusing to make the connection, cutting off with a sensation of pain and sorrow that made it hard to remember. That made it hard to want to remember.
But she needed to. The voice calling out to her, calling out a name, her name. She needed to answer it. She couldn't dwell in the darkness forever. Not when she was needed. Not when-
"Please, Yang…"
The sudden jolt of clarity ran through the girl's soul, and forced herself to awaken, pushing past the pain to shout the name that was suddenly all that mattered.
"Ruby!"
The name tore from her lips as she shot awake, her eyes ripping open to an almost blinding light, an unfamiliar ceiling, and---
"Yang!"
Her sister's arms wrapped around her, suddenly holding her tight.It was slightly painful, but at that moment, Yang couldn't bring herself to care.
Ruby was here. They were… They weren't in danger anymore, Ruby was here, and she was okay.
Perhaps more okay than Yang herself. How long had she been waiting for Yang to wake up? How long had she been at Yang's side, worried sick, because she couldn't pull herself together earlier?
On some level, Yang knew that train of thought was toxic and unfair. She couldn't help what the limits of her body were, how long she had taken to recover. But…
As hard as it was to remember what exactly had happened, Yang knew she had been hurt bad. A lingering sensation still assaulted her in some places, a remaining sense of pain from what had happened. And she knew that Ruby had seen it. She knew Ruby had seen her powerless, and had to save her, and now was the one who was visiting Yang in some kind of hospital while she…
...She still needed to get stronger, then.
"I'm sorry." It took Yang a moment to realise that it was Ruby who had spoken, and not just her own surface thoughts leaking out before she could stop herself. "I… This is my fault."
Yang tried to speak again, but the sudden desperation that had pushed her sister's name to her lips was gone, and it was suddenly hard to speak. So instead, she shook her head, as she tried to force out words again.
"If…" Ruby muttered. "If I hadn't run in there, if I hadn't tried to save Three… You wouldn't have-"
"No." Yang finally forced out. "You… It's not your fault. Don't apologise. It was…"
Yang's first instinct, to accept the blame for herself, she cut short. Ruby didn't need to deal with Yang's inadequacies right now. It was very apparent she was dealing with her own.
"...It was their fault." Yang said instead. And it was true, too. "The Faunus, Blake. The Silver Knight. The-"
The woman who looked just like an older Ruby. The woman who Ruby had called mum.
Yang's explanation cut off suddenly, and she could see the reaction on Ruby's face, as she put together why.
"...I don't understand." Ruby confessed. "It's… Messed up and confusing and it hurts. But we can worry about it later."
Hugging Yang again, tighter this time, Ruby choked back some words. Yang hugged her sister back to reassure her
"How long have you been here?" Yang asked. It was a very obvious shift in the discussion, but Ruby had probably thought about that enough while Yang was out. "How long have I been out?"
"It's been a week." Ruby explained. "I woke up yesterday, myself. Been waiting for you ever since. Only leave for meals."
She reached down to the ground out of Yang's sight. Yang tried to sit up, but found herself unable to just shift her body upwards easily, for some reason. There were some machines plugged into her arm, it seemed, and a lot around her waist now that she looked, but it felt like there was something more…
Ruby's hand came back up again, holding a sleeping bag. "They got this for me last night. I didn't want to leave in case you woke up."
...Yang had to admit, part of her was happy about that. The last she'd seen of Ruby, it had been bad. Her brain was still reluctant to actually process what had happened, but she'd been hurt really badly, and Ruby was still in danger. If her sister hadn't been here when she woke up, who knows what Yang would have done?
But…
"...Didn't anyone try to stop you?" Yang asked. "Why didn't Uncle Qrow-"
A sudden expression flashed across Ruby's face, somewhere between shock and grief. Tears started forming in the corner of her eyes, quickly falling down her cheek as she tried to look away.
But by the time Ruby was trying to rub her eyes clear, Yang had seen it. And once she saw it, that was enough. There's only one reason why she'd react like that.
...It…
Yang had know Qrow was either still in Atlas or nearby, he had been up not long ago and had a tendency to move mysteriously fast sometimes. She'd have thought that he would be here to look after Ruby while Yang was unconscious. Even if Yang had been angry at him for keeping secrets, he cared.
But…
Ruby's tears didn't lie. There was a reason Qrow wasn't here now.
"He's…" Yang muttered, her voice sounding hollow. "He's dead, isn't he?"
Ruby once again pulled Yang into a tight embrace, a she wept. And before she could stop it, Yang felt herself crying too.
What the hell? Why had this happened? Why did Qrow have to die? The last time Yang had spoken with him, she had been angry. She'd avoided him for a while before now because of that anger. She'd never gotten over it, never tried to make it right, and…
And now she was never going to get the chance.
But somehow, that wasn't the end of it. Her father was dead too. Yang couldn't forget that, no matter how scattered her recent memories were. He was dead. And so was Qrow. Both of the guardian figures that the two girls had were dead now, killed in what must have been the same day.
It was just them.
It was just the two of them. It was only Ruby and Yang, and Yang wasn't strong enough to look after Ruby. She didn't have the ability to keep her safe, or the mental strength to bear through it. It had barely been any time at all since that was proven, since Yang realised that her quest for more strength was hurting Ruby. How was she supposed to look after her sister when she was like that?
This couldn't be happening. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair, damn it!
What had Yang and Ruby ever done to deserve this? Why had the two of them suffered so much, this last year? Why wasn't it enough that Yang had been hurt so badly on a school trip outside the Kingdoms? Why wasn't it enough that Ruby had been kidnapped by a madwoman of incredible power for no apparent reason? Why wasn't it enough for Yang to be hurt so bad that she could still feel the pain of the scars months later, because she just wanted to save her sister?
No, it wasn't enough. It was never enough. Everything seemed to come back around to hurt Ruby or Yang, in the end. The terrorist that Yang had briefly fought back in Vale had returned, burnt down an orphanage, and attacked people yang cared about. And the mystery Yang had briefly started to investigate, about why Ruby's silver eyes mattered to Five and why One thought they were important…
This was the way they found the answer to that?
Why?
...Ruby's eyes. The power she'd demonstrated. The fact that she had managed to fight after being stabbed in the chest.
That mark that was on her forehead, even now…
VI
"Six…" Muttered Yang.
Again, she thought to herself, she was forcing herself to think something differently. But what other choice did she have?
Anything was better than this. Letting herself stew in despair and powerlessness, cursing fate, she'd be trapped into that enough. If she had something else to talk about…
"Huh?" Ruby asked, before apparently getting it. "Oh, yes. I'm… I guess I'm like Two now, aren't I?"
"...I guess this explains why Five wanted you." Yang muttered. "I guess she recognised enough."
"Yeah." Ruby sounded, her voice sounding low on energy as well. "I suppose so."
The two girls were silent, as they tried to think of how to force the conversation to continue.
"...At least I'm stronger now." Ruby tried. "I don't think I'm going to have problems with anyone but…"
Her.
Zero. Ruby's mother. The woman in white had done her best to kill both Three and Ruby, and Yang had no idea why.
It…
"Did I miss anything?" Yang asked. "After… After I passed out? Anything that makes all this make sense?"
"...If you did, so did I." Ruby mourned. "I…"
She hesitated, clearly wanting to say something but holding back, before pushing whatever she was thinking down.
"One wanted to talk to me, apparently." Ruby said. "Maybe she had answers. I didn't leave you alone long enough to talk to her. Maybe she'll say something."
"...Maybe." Yang didn't have faith in One's ability to explain things, not after the last time Yang had tried to get answers out of her, but there wasn't any way she could dodge around the subject now that this had happened, right?
"...Where are the doctors?" Ruby asked suddenly. "Surely, someone has to know that you're awake, by now…"
"We should go talk to them, then." Yang said in reply. "Just need to-"
She tried to move her legs aside to slide off the hospital bed, but noticed after a moment that she hadn't moved.
Confused, Yang looked down on her body. There was a machine attached to her waist, but she should be able to just slide out from it. It wasn't clipping her in, it was just like a healing machine that had been left left over her instead of being put back up.
"...Ruby." Yang began. "Is there something holding my legs in place? I can't move them, but I don't feel anything…"
Ruby seemed taken aback by the question, giving Yang a sudden look of horror.
"I…" She began, sounding apologetic. "It's… I tried to fix it. I had the Song power, I don't understand it but it came naturally, but it wouldn't work. Your body rejected it past a certain point and I couldn't do enough to fix it. I…"
"Ruby…" Yang tried to calm her down, but the horror of her voice was infectious, and an uneasy feeling settled in Yang's heart. "What happened?"
"...We couldn't fix what m- what Zero did." Ruby said softly. "I'm… I'm sorry."
What? What Zero.,.
Pain carved it's way through Yang's side, just beneath her ribs, and as it cleaved through her body-
The memory finally sparked in Yang's mind.
She couldn't feel her legs move. In fact-
She…
Her legs had,,,
Everything below her ribs had lost all feeling. Right where Zero had broken her spine.
That's what had awoken the power within Ruby, wasn't it? Seeing Yang so helpless. Unable to even move.
Yang couldn't stop it. The tears couldn't be held back, not any longer. She wept, openly, loudly, her restraint gone. She felt Ruby try to pull her into a hug again, but the world outside of Yang's mind faded away once again.
Her spine was broken. Broken, and wasn't healing. She…
What was she supposed to do now? How could she be a Hunter like this? Losing a limb was often a career-ending injury for a Hunter, even Qrow had been a lot less active after losing his arm. An injury like this?
How was Yang supposed to fight like this? How was she supposed to defend herself, let alone Ruby? How was she supposed to help people, enjoy a Hunter's life, look for her mother, do any of the things she wanted to do as a Hunter?
This was…
Yang didn't even have a word, to describe it. Bad was too small. Terrible didn't fit. Nothing seemed to fit.
Ruby tried to console Yang, but her words were lost on the girl. What could she say to make this better? What could possibly ever make this better?
A bitterness rose in the back of Yang's mind. This was what she as letting break her? This was what brought Ruby to the point of consoling her? Not their father's death, not their Uncle's, not the disaster that savaged Atlas, not the fact that Ruby's mother had tried to kill her…
...It was something this selfish. Something that should be small, comparatively. The small, selfish pain that was Yang being crippled, and coming to the realisation that the life she had wanted, the path of a Hunter, had ended. That she wasn't able to protect anyone anymore, that she wasn't able to do any of the things she had wanted…
How selfish of her. And yet, she couldn't help it. With everything else, Yang had tried to distract herself, tried not to think. Pushed it back, or pushed it down. Done everything she could to just be able to talk to Ruby.
But she couldn't ignore this, couldn't pretend it wasn't real. The reminder was there, in the complete lack of sensation in her lower body, in the inability to move her legs at all…
And so, as Ruby Rose fell silent, Yang Xiao Long wept.
---Just at the edge of her awareness, soft enough to almost be mistaken as imagination, Yang heard an angelic melody, as her sister began to hum a song.
It was a soft thing, a gentle thing. Melancholic and sorrowful, but with something else hidden behind that. Yang couldn't identify it right now, but the sound of her sister's voice humming such a thing made her…
Smile, almost.
It was a small joy, a small calm, but it was still here. She'd lost everything else, but…
The song ended. Yang's tears still fell, but quieter, Whatever Ruby had done, it had helped. Yang didn't feel as overwhelmed, now. It…
It wasn't going to last, Yang knew. But for now, it would do.
And so the two sisters waited, in each other's embrace, silently.
Eventually, the silence was broken-
[X] -by Ruby. "Come on. Let's go talk to One. See if she can make sense of this."
[X] -by a voice at the door. "A beautiful song, Miss Rose. May I take a moment of your time?"