Chapter 16: Fall Forever

Roses & Thorns – Volume 1 – Chapter 16

-Fall Forever-

Blake's chest rose and fell at a quickened pace as her back connected with the solid truck of a tree, trapping her in a situation in which there was no escaping the assassin that towered over her. Her eyes flashed between the cold stare emanating from the singular eye of the enemy Faunus, and the sharp edge of Gambol Shroud's katana blade that was held out to the side. Even in the grip of fear from her impending death, the corners of her mind that remained rational spoke of the way that something was off about this.

A step in her direction was a half second too slow, an ear turned as if it were listening for something else, and a gaze that stared at her in an unfocused manner. All of these things allowed Blake to regain some control over her actions, as she crawled back into a sitting position against the tree and curled her fingers into fists. "Careful now, kitty-cat." The rough voice coming from the White Fang assassin was mocking, and the point of the katana was lifted in her direction, a warning of what would come if she continued her present course.

Even as she settled back into a more relaxed stance, confused as to why the older Faunus would not want to capitalize on a golden opportunity against an unarmed opponent, she watched as the woman's eye closed. The assassin was concentrating on something besides her, but the length of Gambol Shroud allowed her no idle thoughts of interruption. Energy as black as the night pulsed around the masked woman's form, and from where Blake sat, the world slowly lost it's color.

The shining silver of moonlight dulled into a more neutral white, and the red of the leaves that lay crumple beneath her form lost their hue until each vein on the fallen vegetation was a colorless gray. Blake felt what was happening more than saw it. The last vestiges of her aura, the attempts at recovery in the lack of continued strikes against her energy, burned away as the field expanded and enveloped the area around them.

She understood then, what the wolf Faunus' semblance was. The earlier chokehold wasn't simply draining her aura, it was nullifying it completely, burning it away to leave her weakened and defenseless. Blake started as the assassin's eye opened, no longer a static color. It now burned the glowing hue of blood in a world of grays, the single source of color left inside the bubble of non-energy. A satisfied smirk spread across the woman's lips, and the katana was raised to deliver a killing blow.

Movement caught her attention from behind the older Faunus, and Blake's gaze slid past the sanguine orb to investigate. She saw pieces of black floating down amidst a backdrop of gray, and realized far too late that what she was looking at were rose petals. A new fear replaced the old as she stared back at the assassin that was froze in place, about to execute her with her own weapon. But the wolf-woman wasn't looking at her, that blood red eye was not focused upon her, but instead drifting as if to peek behind them.

"Ruby, no!"

Her warning was either too late, or simply unheeded, as the girl entered the nullified area. A brilliant flash of red aura being burned away caused Blake to wince and raise a hand to cover her eyes, but she still caught a glimpse of the handle of Gambol Shroud rotating in the hand of the assassin, the katana falling into a reversed grip. The next sound that reached her ears was undeniably disgusting, simultaneously introducing the forceful impact of two bodies colliding, along with a moist squelch that caused her to recover from the flinch faster than she normally would have.

An instant of a shadow flying by was all that she saw before her eyes locked onto the form of the Faunus standing above her, rolling a shoulder as if recovering from a hit. Blake noted a distinct lack of Gambol Shroud, and the evil way a pleased grin seeped onto the wolf's expression. "Orders were I couldn't kill you.. But you make good bait, Belladonna." With each word, color seeped back into the world, and the nullification field dissipated.

"N-no." Rolling to the side of the tree, Blake abandoned all thought of her own safety as she scrambled forward, after that flash of red she had seen. It wasn't far from where she had sat, the crumpled heap of a girl that had rushed to save her from the assassin. The scene she arrived at was nothing short of grizzly, the black blade of Gambol Shroud stained a bright red and tearing through the fabric of the younger girl's signature cape. "No!"

Tears somehow found their way to her eyes through the haze of shock as her hand faltered a few inches above the shoulder she had been about to grab to turn the form over. Blake had experienced death before, such as it was with the life she had led before Beacon, but something was different this time. Grief was mixed with an all-consuming anger, and topped with a taste of despair as she heard the gurgle of a cough emanate from Ruby's prone body.

Instead of acting on her urge to turn the girl over, Blake instead scampered around to stumble into a sitting position near her friend's head. Silver eyes were wide and filled with a fear and confusion that she had never thought to see in the younger student's gaze, unfocused as it was. "Ruby.." The name choked as it rose in her throat at the same time as a sob, and her hands reached down to pull the smaller body towards her and cradle the girl's head in her lap.

A hoarse cough sounded, and a second later she felt a nauseating warmth flood over the hand that was touching Ruby's cheek. Her gaze was pulled toward the sensation, staring into the pool of blood that leaked between the spaces of her fingers, draining away into the dirt as it fell. The body Blake held shuddered as a small hand clawed at her forearm in a weak grip, and she got her first glimpse of the wound. The katana of Gambol Shroud was buried to the hilt in the center of the girl's chest, the pistol spattered with drops of red that had exploded out from the force of the impaling blow.

She struggled to remain calm as the sound of footsteps snapping twigs caused her to start and look over at the approaching intruder. Instinctively, a hand made it's way to her shoulder, only to find that her weapon was not present. Dread filled her mind as she recalled where half of that blade now lay, and she instead wrapped her arms about the dying girl she held, committing to protect her friend no matter the cost.

But when a form slid down to a kneeling position beside her, no attack came. A hand laid across her back, gentle enough in its intention to bring her up and looking at the newcomer. Red eyes stared back at her, filled with the same shattering that Blake felt in her own chest. "Amber..?"

"Pull the blade out, Blake." The redhead's eyes flicked down to the wounded girl, then slid back to her, a new light of determination evident within them. She knew in that moment what the other student's intentions were, and even with the gurgling cough that came from Ruby, Blake still hesitated. Her hand moved as if of it's own accord, wrapping around the hilt of Gambol Shroud and pausing as she looked to the Pinion girl. A nod answered the unasked question, and with that confirmation, she pulled as hard as she could.

What answered her efforts was a howl of agony from the girl in her arms, the sound gouging at her heart as she persisted.

Claire stumbled from the treeline, panting as she swung around to meet the challenge of the opponent she had been tangling with, but Calico did not step out from the shadows. The other Faunus remained back, mocking her with a laugh and holstering the pistols that had been used in their fight. Despite all her skill, she could barely match the cat-girl in combat, managing only to delay the assassin from reaching her friends until she had been forced into the clearing by the flow of the battle.

Then she caught the scent, the reason that Calico had been toying with her, and had allowed her to disengage in this direction. Sniffing as she turned, Claire found the source of the smell almost immediately, it's distinction familiar and terrifying. Ears covered in black fur and topped with gray twitched as the wind shifted, and the other Faunus slowly moved to look at her. The single visible eyebrow on the features lifted in surprise before the entire expression twisted into a dark grin. "Hello, little sister."

"Ruan." Claire felt a pang of memory thunder through her heart, generating no small amount of ache and rocking her back a step. From where she stood, the years had not been kind to her older sibling, with a half dozen new scars visible on her sister's face alone. A part of her yearned to cry out with joy, a part that she had thought long gone, destroyed by the weight of the past. What stopped her was the eyepatch that the other wolf wore, the bone white mask stylized in the same vein as the Grimm. "I thought.."

"Dead? No, not yet." Her sister chuckled, but it was a sound that conveyed no happiness. Hollow and uncaring, just as Claire's remembered in those last days they had spent together. There was something new, as well, a light in the remaining blood red eye that told of a unquenchable hatred, a burning emotion that had driven the older sibling through the wounds that should have meant death. "Your friend with the cape though? Not so lucky, I'm afraid."

Ruan raised her right hand so that her little sister could see it, stained red with the blood of the girl with the cape. Pulling a cloth from her vest pocket to clean herself, she glanced up from the work to see how Claire was reacting. There was such a delicious mixture of uncertainty and conflict in the younger wolf's gaze, a hesitation in the way the brunette peeked past her to the woods beyond, where the Rose girl now lay. Then came the anger, and slowly it twisted the youthful features of her sister's face until they were contorted into rage.

"Heh, there it is." Ruan readied herself as Claire charged, dropping into a defensive stance as the saber sliced through the air toward her. Instead of evading the clumsy attack, she stepped into it, grabbing a hold of the wrist and twisting it in an effort to disarm her sister. The younger sibling was not deterred, keeping a grip on the blade and raising the barrel of a pistol to aim at her.

Relinquishing her hold on the wrist, Ruan spun and smashed a fist against the barrel of the firearm, throwing her sister's arm wide and causing Claire to release the weapon. The pistol spun off into the darkness of the trees, and the saber was left as the younger Briar's sole defense. Another slash, driven by anger, pressed the attack.

Slipping back away from the edge of the crystalline saber, she watched with amusement as the blade caught fire, the Dust within ignited into a blaze. Claire lunged at her with a wild stab, a move that would have had more of a chance against any other opponent. But Ruan knew the rage that now fueled her little sister, and how predictable it made the younger Faunus.

A low stab was countered with a boot smashing down atop the blade, driving it into the dirt and holding it in place as Ruan reached down and gripped the hilt of it, crushing the fingers that were already gripping there. Surprise melted away some of the rampant anger in the brown eyes of her younger sister, a break in the rage that allowed her to smile mockingly as she suddenly lifted upwards, channeling her semblance into the weapon and it's bearer.

The sound of the blade shattering was more than enough to bring Claire back to a more rational state of mind, as she was thrown back from her weapon holding nothing but a hilt with a few inches of jagged metal attached to it. Off balance and now disarmed, she wasn't prepared for the agility her older sister displayed by tackling into her, taking them both to the ground.

Blake had seen it once before, Amber's semblance, after the fight against the Death Stalker in the same forest they were now in. It may have been more the shock than anything, but she found herself enraptured by the way the fiery aura lit up around the smaller girl's frame and shaped itself into burning wings that extended as the use of Aura continued.

When Amber's eyes opened, they were no longer just red, but instead blazing pools of fire as a hand pressed against the opened and seeping wound on Ruby's chest. Blake could not see if it was working, prisoner as she was to the spectacle as she shivered to the side, Gambol Shroud shaking in her grip as droplets of blood ran down the blade. She couldn't help but feel that this should bother her more, that letting the Pinion girl take on this was simply too much to ask.

But it's Ruby..

Her own thought boomed like the aftereffects of a lightning strike through her mind, flaring up everything that she was feeling at the moment, the mass of guilt and pain mixing with the tiniest spark of hope as Amber continued. A click sounded from the clearing where she had fought and failed against the White Fang assassin, and a gunshot followed it immediately. The redhead that was focusing on healing Ruby pitched forward, crying out in pain as Blake looked to find a cat Faunus aiming a strange pistol in their direction. "No!"

All thoughts of emotion were pushed aside with practiced ease as she scrambled to her feet and tore forward, gripping the bloodied hilt of Gambol Shroud tightly enough it felt as though her knuckles would burst. A blade on the underside of the flintlock the older Faunus had fired blocked her first slash, but nothing stopped her as she rolled under the deflection and stabbed backwards.

Metal scraped against the surface of an orange aura, causing sparks to fly as the cat danced away. Despite the fury of her first two attacks, Blake could not pursue her opponent quickly, her drained Aura still depleted. Dashing towards the assassin, she was forced aside by one of the pistols while the other was aimed toward the two girls she was trying to protect. The mechanism slammed down and lit the Dust contained within a barrel, sending another round towards Amber as she watched.

The light of Amber's semblance flickered a few times before burning bright once again, but Blake knew that they could not keep this up for much longer as she stabbed at the older Faunus. The woman spun into the attack and smashed an elbow into her face, causing the already tender tissue of her recovering nose to flare up in agony as she stumbled back. Two more shots rang out, and the mismatched eyes of her opponent met her gaze with a broad grin as tendrils of darkness snaked into her vision.

The glow of fire from the treeline died out behind Blake, casting the clearing back into darkness as the sounds of the two wolf Faunus fighting nearby became the only sounds in the night.

"Nyx, over here." Weiss put her shoulder to the door, groaning as she managed to shove it open. They had been lucky so far, with most of the tunnels they had used to get this far into the base still intact after the explosion. She shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if they had been trapped next to the collapsed section and forced to wait for rescue. They never would have made it.

The taller figure of the Pinion boy brushed by her as she took a moment to take in a deep breath and steady herself before following him down the long hallway. Lights that had once illuminated the base from the ceiling now hung in tatters from the concrete, shooting off sparks every few moments and providing what little light was necessary for them to navigate the narrow confines. What had once been a spacious tunnel was now a maze of beams and piles of rubble that had fallen through the structure, shuddering every few minutes as if to warn them that it was trying to follow the rest of the installation into the river below.

As the long passage of time marched on, Weiss found herself using the light of her scroll to reveal the more darkened corners and rooms that they passed, looking for any sign that the others of their Teams had made it through the destruction. It was inevitable that their luck would run out, however, as they reached a hallway that was completely caved-in, making passage impossible. "Well, now what?"

Turning to look at the dark-haired boy with a raised eyebrow, she gave a shrug of her shoulders, grimacing as she felt sweat seep into some of the smaller cuts that lay beneath her clothing. "Now we wait, I guess. The map that Claire and Ruby found has a tunnel that connects the interior of the base to these hallways, but it's two intersections ahead of this one."

"Let me see that?" She offered the scroll to him, narrowing her eyes as she watched him study it and glance about as if he was noting there position. After a long moment, he pointed to the door that led into an office near where they stood. "There should be a room next to this one that leads back into the hallway." Weiss failed to grasp how that was helpful as she looked at the portal for a long moment before returning her gaze to him, the yellow eyes crinkling in amusement. "Blast through the wall and we can bypass the wreckage, right?"

"Huh." Stepping past the other student with a determined pace, she turned the knob of the door and shoved it inward, finding the room relatively undamaged by the self-destruct. "It might actually work.."

The hum of a generator spun up behind her as Nyx marched in with his weapon in it's bow form, the thread of pure energy coming to life between each end of the limb. "Of course it will." He smirked at her for a brief moment before pulling back on the string, bringing to life an arrow made of the same plasma that powered Winged Triumph.

Weiss stepped back to stand beside him as the first arrow was launched into the wall, shattering the concrete and blasting a few inches of the material into gray dust. Another followed, and then another. It was not long before the hole was wider and allowed a glimpse into the next room, and she had to hand it to the other student's ingenuity at coming up with such a shortcut. The steady stream of bolts slowed, causing her to glance at Nyx as his fingers danced over the interface on the riser of the weapon.

Yellow eyes glanced up toward her. "Might want to cover your eyes for this." She didn't hesitate to do as she was told, knowing perfectly well what it was that the boy was about to do. Deprived of sight, she relied on her other senses to tell her when the blast would be coming. A build up of energy was the first sign, a hum that slowly grew to a thundering beat, and then a shriek as the missile was loosed and burned through the air. It culminated in the heat of an explosion passing over her skin as she felt tiny bits of debris impact and bounce away, leaving nothing but a light stinging sensation as she opened her eyes.

Where once a wall had blocked their path, now it lay opened to their passage and it's remnants crumbling from the force of the missile that had impacted it. They both moved forward cautiously, before stepping through the new portal with a swiftness that told of their unease of the structure's deteriorating state.

Weiss was not truly prepared for what awaited them on the other side, having expected another collapsed room and a denial of a way forward, or the hope for a clear path that would lead them out of this place. The one situation she did not truly anticipate was the blonde leaning against the doorway that led out into the corridors they had tried to circumvent, nor did she think that anything could possibly put the tough brawler in the current condition she was in.

"Yang.." Her first step into the room was little more than a fumbled attempt at getting closer, stunned as she was. The blonde had been caught in the explosion and subsequent cave-ins, that much was sure, but the current state of her teammate's body left Weiss amazed that she was still alive, let alone standing. Numerous cuts could be seen everywhere there wasn't clothing or gear to obscure it, splashes of red that stained the pale skin or the hues of the nearby fabric. A gash traveled from the edge of Yang's nose to the bottom of her chin, slicing through both lips and making the smile look more painful than relieved.

But the worst was the cascade of blood that was leaking from the open wound that had been slashed across the girl's forehead, a nasty looking hit that she was sure would have put a lesser person out of the fight completely. "Thought that might be you.." Yang spoke with a weary chuckle, and a voice that seemed far too weak when compared to the resolve that Weiss could see in the lilac colored eyes. "Need your help."

The blonde rolled along the wall that was being used as support, pointing off down the hallway. Nyx was the first to break through the shock of finding Yang alive and in such a state, surging forward to catch the brawler as she fell away from the surface that had held her upright. Weiss moved past them both, following the gesture a few steps before turning around. "..Iris?"

"Pinned, but not far." She watched as Nyx draped one of the girl's arms around his shoulders, holding Yang up as he nodded down the way she had come. Weiss gave a similar confirmation, spinning back around to march off in the direction she had been given. It was something, at least, that they could save these two of their teammates, and hope that the other four had made it out.

"This isn't yo-" Claire choked on her own breath as a hand closed about her windpipe, struggling to break free as the grip lifted her free from the ground and her view of the forest was suddenly upended. Pain lanced through her spine as she was slammed down into the dirt, but her lungs flooded with relief as the pressure was released from her throat, her body struggling to maintain consciousness from the combined assault of physical attacks and the draining of her Aura.

"This is me, pup. I'm not what you remember, true. I'm better, stronger. An Alpha." Against her will, a whimper passed through her lips as she squirmed on the ground, and the weight on her throat was replaced with a larger form straddling her. She was pulled a few inches off the ground by fists clenched on the edges of the tan jacket she wore, and Claire found herself face to face with her older sister, the rough features of her sibling twisted into a derisive sneer. "Still wearing this rag, really? Dad's dead, Claire. Time to move on."

"Let go of it.." It was pathetic, the way that she begged the older Faunus to release the jacket, the beginnings of a sob on the tail end of her tone. "Please." In the end, it only spurned Ruan on further, as the torn fabric was pulled further away from her chest. Each new sound of tearing caused the grin on her sister's face to grow larger and more sinister, until finally the cloth snapped and Claire fell back onto the dirt, tears beginning to burn in the corners of her eyes as she glared upwards.

Ruan glanced away to toss the scraps of the jacket to the side, allowing Claire a moment to collect herself and lash out with a closed fist toward the older Briar's face. It hit just as her sister was beginning to look back, throwing the other Faunus to the side and allowing her to jump atop the prone form and gain the advantage, winding back another punch. It seemed like whatever her sister had done to drain her Aura had done the same to Ruan's energy, as the strained knuckles of her fist smashed into the hard surface of a cheek bone.

A growl was all that warned her as both of her sister's hands closed about her head, pulling her down just as Ruan surged upwards. Their foreheads connected, but Claire was ill-prepared to take such an attack, ending up dazed and with her vision swimming as she was shoved off. She couldn't focus as fingers tangled through a bunch of her hair and forced her face into the forest floor, holding her down in a humiliating gesture.

"You never knew when to back down from a fight." A fist slammed into the back of her left side, causing her to cry out as she fell over, the hold relinquished on her hair as a knee pressed onto her chest. "You're beaten, pup, and your friends are probably dead by now. So here's the choice: You can join me, or.." A hand disappeared behind Ruan's back, coming back into view holding a knife that sported a wickedly curved edge. "Or I cut you out of the pack."

Regaining some of the focus she had lost in the recent bashing, Claire snarled in defiance, letting out a low growl as her ears twitched against the dirt. In response to her lack of a real answer, she was lifted by the hold on the back of her neck before being slammed against the ground, causing another cry of pain to escape as Ruan let out a sound of frustration and flipped her over. "Shared blood might mean something to me still, but my patience is limited. An answer, or I tear your throat out."

Claire could feel the edge of the blade scrape along her stomach, it's tip digging beneath her shirt and setting a chill into her bones as she realized just how vulnerable she was at the older wolf's mercy. Nevertheless, she settled her expression into a glare, staring up into the single blood red eye that scowled back down at her. Memories of that orb being filled with happiness were swept away from the intensity of the anger that she saw there now, from the utter lack of warmth. "We're not family. My sister is dead."

The scowl faded into a grin, and the knife was pulled back from her skin. She saw the weapon flip in the other Faunus' hand into a reversed grip, and Ruan let out a dark laugh. "Wrong answer, Claire." Even as the blade descended toward her chest, she heard the sharp whistling tone of a thrown weapon, and a silvery dagger shattered into the side of her sister's killing instrument. The crystalline fragments dissipated almost instantly, but the force of the impact shoved the older Briar's attack to the side, and the White Fang assassin whirled about to face the new threat.

Yang stumbled through the doorway to the room where she and Iris had survived the destruction of the facility, freeing herself from Nyx's grip as she slammed into the desk and slid around the obstacle. The tip of her boot impacted the metal of Siren Melody as she moved, the weapon laying to the side of the fox-girl she had left to search for help, an empty hand beside it.

"N-no.." Sliding down into a kneeling position next to the still form of Iris, Yang reached out and gently cupped the girl's face, already feeling a sob bubbling up in her chest. It proved unnecessary, as eyelids fluttered a few times before sliding open, revealing a tired gaze that broke into a small smile when it spotted her.

"You're back."

Yang was about to reply when she was pushed to the side by the form of Nyx Pinion. "Iris? Hey, need you to stay awake, alright?" The boy slid down and looked to be examining the fox-girl, pausing when he saw the edge of the wound present on his teammate's thigh. After a long moment where she wanted to yell at him to explain what it was he was seeing, he turned around to look right at her. "Yang. Going to need your help getting her out from under the beam, but we'll need to stop the bleeding quickly."

A nod was all that she could answer with as she moved forward to reach around the edge of the beam that had pinned her girlfriend, while Nyx did the same. "Weiss, pull her out when we get it off of her." The golden eyes of the Pinion boy turned toward her, narrowing slightly as he gave a nod. "On three. One, two, three and lift!" She did as he commanded, pouring all the strength she could summon into lifting the object, and to her surprise she was able to contribute more than she had been able to before.

They managed to get it a few inches off of Iris' leg before the blooded jeans were pulled away from Yang's field of view, and a muttered confirmation from Weiss was enough that they could drop the beam a second later, both of them sighing in relief as their muscles ceased aching. Turning back, she saw her teammate already hard at work, pulling the belt from the loops that housed it on the fox-girl's pants.

Yang moved past the heiress, crouching beside her girlfriend as the soft features of Iris' face continued to contort into an expression of agony, the screech that had been uttered earlier traded in for quiet whimpers that spoke volumes of how well the fox-girl was containing the pain. The indigo eyes slid open after a moment, then widened as a scream came from the girl, a reaction to the belt being tightened above the wound that was now allowed to bleed freely. "That will do for now, but.."

She glanced over at her teammate, finding that Weiss was looking back, a deep concern etched into the Heiress' features. Yang gave a nod, understanding perfectly what it was that the other was getting at. By the time she looked back to Iris, the fox-girl's eyes were closed, with only the steady rising and falling of the Faunus' chest as a sign of life. "We need a way out, fast."

"There might be.." Watching as Weiss pulled out her scroll, Yang made a motion to stop her teammate before the heiress rubbed the back of a hand across her forehead in an effort to wipe away sweat. Cold blue eyes found her with a confused look, one that she returned with a shake of the head, staring at the smear of Iris' blood that now covered the other student's skin. "Yes! We're here, in this room." A finger pointed to the location they were at now on the map, then slid to a nearby spot. "This is a shaft that leads to the surface, like the one that Claire and Ruby were going to use."

Yang watched as Nyx peeked over the shoulder of the heiress, the Pinion boy giving a nod as they decided their course. He moved past Weiss and slipped both arms under the shuddering form of Iris, and she was forced to watch reluctantly as he lifted her girlfriend from the ground with a groan, glancing at her once he was steadied. "I got her, don't worry."

A slim arm wrapped around underneath her own, and across her back, lifting her from the position that she had been in. Weiss had taken on the duty of supporting her without any provocation, causing Yang to glance over with a raised eyebrow. "..What? You're not going to make it on your own."

The laugh that she normally would have had at the situation of the heiress helping her walk was let out as a slightly more forceful breath through her nose, but it brought a smile to Yang's face nonetheless. It made her giddy, to see an end to this nightmare finally in sight.

Blake felt a hand close about her shoulder, pulling her back as a caped form whirled around her, deftly twirling a scythe in a complicated maneuver before slamming the blade into the ground. It was a move that she had seen before, but never had it been executed so gracefully by the girl that had employed it. There was a practiced and lethal quality to this routine, and the man that now stood as a barrier between her and the older cat Faunus had a palpable sense of danger about him.

It was not lost on Calico at all, who stepped back with a hesitation that had not been present before. No matter how easy it had been to best them, it seemed that the assassin wanted nothing to do with fighting a Hunter. The staring contest lasted a matter of seconds before the Faunus with mismatched eyes turned and bolted, sprinting for the treeline.

Blake swept her gaze across the clearing, looking for the wolf Faunus that she had fought before, finding only two other people. Claire was being helped off of the ground by Memphis Slate, the Huntress that had substituted for Professor Port the last time they had come to Forever Fall. It seemed to be over with the arrival of the two seasoned veterans, and she allowed herself a moment to breath as she doubled over and pressed both palms to her knees.

A hand gently laid on the shoulder that she had been roughly displaced a moment earlier with, and she lifted her gaze to find two red eyes staring back. She recognized the man from the fight at the docks, the one who had arrived to pull them away before the local authorities had arrived. "Thank you." Blake breathed the word out as quietly as she could, still not trusting that there wasn't some other threat waiting around the corner.

Qrow answered her with a nod, his gaze lifting from her to dance over to the woman that had accompanied him before returning. "Where are the rest of you? Where are my nieces?"

It hit Blake like a brick, the sudden realization of what Calico had been doing during their fight. Her chest seized up, everything constricting into a cold sensation of panic. "..Ruby." All thoughts of exhaustion were lost as she bolted for the trees where she had left the younger girl, the darkness surrounding the area damning as she slowed to a stop a few feet away.

Where once there had been piles of fallen red leaves and dense underbrush, there were only ashes. It looked as though fire had raged in the spot without spreading, leaving behind a blackened circle. In the middle of the burned zone were the two girls Blake had rushed off to protect. Even in the low light, her Faunus heritage allowed her to see the form of Amber draped on top of Ruby, two ragged holes visible through the back of the chestplate that protected the Pinion girl's chest.

White metal was stained a deep sanguine, two rivers flowing off the edges of the armor, and a stillness to the body that told Blake exactly what it was that she was looking at. Dropping down to a crouch, she didn't acknowledge the arrival of the Hunter that had come to aid her, and she softly laid a hand on the shoulder of the smaller girl. The skill beneath her palm was still warm, but there was no life to be seen in Amber's red eyes, one of the girl's hands still firmly pressed against the wound that she had been trying to heal.

Blake slowly slid her gaze to what she dreaded to see, the blood now drying from where it had leaked out over pale skin and clothing. Gently as she could, she lifted the hand away from the wound, only to find a new river of red rising out of it at her disturbance. Momentary panic was washed away by a slim hope at the way the gash seemed much smaller than it had before, and how Ruby's chest was straining to rise with the intake of a breath.

"Ruby.."

Weiss leaned her head back against the metal of the Bullhead's transport bay, too exhausted to do much more than hold the sobbing blonde close as Memphis Slate worked to keep Ruby alive a few feet away. They had emerged from the base close enough to where the rest of their teammates been fighting that it was easy to reach them, and she could not truly describe the feeling of relief when she had spotted the two Hunters that had come to aid them.

That relief had quickly turned to horror upon realizing the condition the other four students were in, having thought that Iris and Yang would have been the worst of the wounded. She had caught only a glimpse of the stab wound in Ruby's chest, the tearing that was continually covered by a seemingly never ending spout of the younger girl's lifeblood. But worse than that was the sounds that Nyx had made upon seeing his sister's body, wails of sorrow that had cut to the depths of her own heart as she had watched him embrace Amber's corpse, pleading that she return to him.

And now she watched a Huntress wearily check the pulse of a wrist before gently setting the hand down once again. Ruby was always so vibrant, so full of happiness that it was infectious, so driven in pursuit of her goals. It was the sharp contrast to how the girl now lay limp on the floor of the transport that made Weiss disbelieve that this could be real, and that reaction numbed her to the shock of her own emotions as she stared at the pool of red that was meandering its way through crevices of the floor with each new buck or turn of the Bullhead.

Blinking rapidly a few times to regain some measure of control over her mind, Weiss looked to the girl she now held close, finding that Yang's eyes were trained upon the same thing she had previously been enraptured with. Nearby lay the prone form of the fox-girl they had found buried in the rubble of the base, Iris' eyes opened once again and focused on the ceiling, narrowing every so often in a tired grimace as the wound on her leg shifted.

She couldn't see Blake, the Faunus sitting on the other side of the small divide that separated the two halves of the compartment, but she could hear her teammate. Her ears had to strain over the sobbing that came from Yang, but ever so often she caught the soft sound of sniffling, or the intake of a a breath clogged with snot. It didn't take much to know that the cat-girl would be staring at Ruby just as she had been a moment earlier.

On the opposite side of where she sat, Weiss stared at the dulled gaze of Nyx Pinion, the archer no longer displaying a stoic persona. Even at the distance she was, she could clearly see the trails that tears had raked through the dust on the boy's cheeks, and she found it hard to lay any judgment on him for crying. The body of his sister lay next to him, Amber's eyes closed and her form still, stripped of the armor that had been ruined by the White Fang that had attacked them. One of the wings proudly displayed on the black t-shirt the girl had worn was stained with blood, the once bright and burning feathers now a deep red color.

It was then that Weiss looked at the last member of the two Teams, her gaze finding the deep brown of the other girl's eyes with an uncertainty. It took a moment for her to realize that Claire was staring past her, not truly focused on anything. The wolf-girl's face and neck were bruised, some parts of her tanned skin even cut, but the strangest thing of all was the torn clothing that was clutched in a white-knuckled grasp. The jacket that she had always seen the Faunus wear looked as if it had been ripped apart intentionally, torn instead at the seams rather than the fabric having been cut.

So stuck within her own thoughts, Weiss did not realize that the other girl had noticed her staring until the wolf ears flattened against Claire's head. Flecks of blood red shone amidst the brown hue of the Faunus' eyes as the overhead light caught the orbs in the right way, and she saw the reflection of tears brimming up as they stared at one another. Seeing the girl she had thought the fiercest of them all giving in broke the last barricade of the dam she had erected to fend off her emotions, and Weiss was left to pulling Yang closer into an embrace as sobs began silently wracking through her body.

Author's Note: These last few chapters are probably the most re-written I've done so far. Originally Iris was going to join the White Fang, and other things.. I like this version better. Anyway, I do plan on doing Volume 2, but I am also going to be focusing on my Cyberpunk fic. Roses & Thorns will be put on a rather indefinite hiatus while I do that, but I may come back and do a chapter now and then, I'm not really sure how much time I'll have. But, I do plan to finish this, so don't fret! Thank you to all those who followed, favorited, and reviewed! 'Til next time! -Fox

Quick Update: There's still one chapter to Volume 1, I realized that wasn't very clear in the original note!