Burden and Blame Chapter 3

"Thank you, I'll let everyone know."

Weiss had gotten a call from the team she had assembled a month ago. They had news of how the medication was coming along. It had only taken a few days to research the essential components in order to solve the difficult issue of a coma. The assembly had composed a drug potent enough to possibly wake their sleeping leader. New problems arose with its testing, however.

"How's it progressing?" Blake inquired.

"Well, it's gone through the first phase of testing on mice put into induced sleep." Weiss said, hoping they didn't ask for more.

"So what's the verdict then?" Yang probed.

"Ten mice, one woke up."

"It's getting there!" Yang exclaimed, ready to hug Weiss.

"You're going to want to know something else before you get all excited." Weiss whispered, trying to not invoke a fiery wrath.

Yang instantly calmed down, and Blake's faint smile vanished. Everyone knew deep down that nothing could go that perfectly so soon. The two of them just looked at Weiss blankly, waiting for her to go on.

"I really didn't want to tell them this yet… It's going to crush them." Weiss thought quickly. "The mouse woke up, stayed awake for a few seconds before developing... Problems. Its heart, lungs, and several main arteries ruptured. It caused a very bloody scene, the mouse died slowly, and in agony."

"What about the other mice?" Blake asked looking as though she may vomit.

"They either didn't get enough to affect them at all, or got too much and died once the medicine got to their bloodstream." Weiss wanted to run out of the room, feeling terrible for the bad news. Nobody made eye contact as silence filled the room, tension thickening in the air.

A knock was heard at the door, relieving them of said tension.

"I'll get it." Yang said, quietly. "Coming!" she called as she approached the door.

Opening it, they saw a rather short rabbit faunus standing in the hall, clearly sad.

"A-are you Team RWBY?" She asked.

"Yes." Came a collective group answer as all three girls gathered around the doorway.

"Professor Ozpin would like to see you in his office immediately. He said it's about a girl named Ruby; it's urgent.

The girl had no warning as the team tore through the doorway, and shoved the poor girl to the opposite side of the hallway.

"Sorry!" Blake had yelled, but they were already halfway down the hall.

Bursting into Professor Ozpin's office without knocking, all of them nearly crashing to the ground, Ozpin looked up from his folder full of papers.

"Ah, Team RWBY. Thank you for making it your new goal in life to get here speedily."

Yang was firing off questions before Weiss or Blake could take a breath to respond.

"What's the news about Ruby? Is she alright? Is she awake? Why are we here?"

"I was just about to explain that Ms. Xiao Long." The professor took short glances at all three of the girls. "Now, I have called you in here because I have gotten word of a medicinal staff being assembled looking to find a remedy for a certain student."

"That would be my doing, sir." Weiss said taking a step forward.

"Hmm… I figured it was. This has made some major headlines, and the amount of Lien being put into this is quite substantial."

"We all need our leader back, and I figured I could assist." Weiss took a deep breath. "After all, this is my fault."

"No, it's not Ms. Schnee. I saw the footage of the mission myself."

"Footage?! There was footage?! How did he know exactly where we'd be?! He sent us on a race across Vytal to stop an alpha beowolf pack! He had no idea where we would end up! He told us himself that the area we were sent to cover had a seven mile radius." Weiss was lost in thought when Blake spoke up, shoving her back in reality.

"There was footage?" Blake asked, taking the question straight from Weiss' mind.

"Yes, indeed there was. In fact, I have the exact moment at which Ruby was knocked unconscious. Would you all like to see?"

Weiss, knowing what was coming, turned and walked out of the door, closing it gently behind her.

"I presume the rest of you will be staying?"

"Yes." The girls answered together, wondering what had prompted Weiss to leave.

Ozpin got up from his desk and pulled a small chip from a container. Walking over to a wall with a large view screen, he put the chip into a port, and walked back to his desk.

"Take a seat." He said, motioning to the chairs in front of his desk.

Collectively, the girls sat down. Ozpin opened his scroll, inputted a few commands, and set it down on his desk as the screen flickered to life.

It showed someone walking towards a window, the camera pointing towards the ground to view the streets below, shattered glass littering the streets. The person was apparently in a tall building in a rundown town.

"Wait, that's where we were!" Yang gasped.

"Shhh…" Ozpin whispered. "All will be explained shortly. Watch for now."

On the ground, four people with distinctly feminine characteristics walked down the other side of the street.

"That's us…" Blake thought, fear causing a chill to go down her spine. "How long was this person tailing us, and how did I not know they were there?"

"His name is Shadow, and I employ him to monitor students on missions so that I can keep track of your performance in the field. He's the same one who provided film and intelligence for me during the Emerald Forest exercise. Every mission you've ever done, he's been there."

The two girls remained in silence as they watched on, assimilating every bit of information they could.

The screen flickered to a view from a rooftop, but it was further down the road and not the same building. The girls continued to walk and talk, planning out their combat strategy. They were quite far off, but the audio came in clear and crisp, almost like whoever was filming was standing right next to them.

"Also," Ozpin said. "You were bugged with microphones, and they've been synced with the video."

Blake and Yang nodded, having assumed this early on.

On the screen, Ruby was ready for action, laughing and pretending to karate chop at invisible enemies as Weiss scolded her.

"I'm going to kick their butts! They won't even know what's coming! I'll be fast and distract them, and Yang will blow them to pieces!" Ruby was acting like a ninja, activating tiny bits of her semblance to make it slightly more visual.

"You're going to get yourself killed acting like that!" Weiss was losing her already hardly present patience, and her leader was only making it worse.

"C'mon on Weiss! Have a little fun once in a while. You're always so uptight and whiny."

"I am not. I simply have a self-dignified image that I will maintain to the best of my ability."

"So, you're uptight?" Yang asked, chuckling a little.

Weiss groaned as she walked along. A rumbling shook the ground beneath them.

"I think we're close. Everyone get ready." Ruby matured almost instantly.

Weiss drew Myrtenaster with a flourish, dropping into a combat stance. Yang readied Ember Celica, loading in the belts of explosive shells into their chambers. Blake reached back and pulled out Gambol Shroud in its katana form. Ruby continued walking forward a few paces as she took a cartridge from the pouch on her side, and whipping Crescent Rose from its rack on her belt. Seamlessly she transformed her weapon into its fully extended scythe form, loading the clip into the chamber and racking the action.

Just as the last click of Ruby's sniper scythe had rung out, a wall from a factory in front of them was smashed to rubble. Two large beowolves came marching through the newly created hole.

"Plan of action, Ruby?" Weiss asked, ready to do whatever her leader commanded.

"Engage, and don't be killed!" Ruby yelled as she leaped forward, activating her semblance and disappearing.

"Thanks for the helpful tips!" Weiss yelled as she spun the chamber in her rapier, activating the blue dust and accelerating forward.

Yang and Blake hung back waiting to see what damage the two could do on their own.

"They're going to bring the building down." Yang said, more seriousness in her voice than usual.

"I'll bet money on that." Blake responded in the same tone.

Just as they predicted, Ruby reappeared above the beowolves, taking a hacking slice at both of them, just as Weiss took her horizontal swipe with a fully charged dust attack ready to freeze the creatures. Weiss saw that she would hit her leader if she followed through, so she diverted and slammed the blade into the side of the factory, sending a cascading sheet of ice up the wall. Ruby, not knowing what had happened, swung her scythe with full force, hacking off both heads in one swipe, but the momentum was too great to stop. Her blade struck the wall, fracturing it and causing a bit to crumble. Both bodies of the beowolves fell to the ground simultaneously.

"That's the second time I would have killed you this week because you wouldn't pay attention!" Weiss was furious, but only she knew it was because she would never forgive herself if she hurt Ruby.

"What are you talking about?! I clearly attacked first!" Ruby yelled back.

"We practice initial encounter attacks on a daily basis! How could you not know that I will always attempt to immobilize them!?"

"I'm sorry, alri-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the cracks spread all the way up the frozen wall. A bone chilling sound ripped through the air as the brick and mortar fell to pieces, both Weiss and Ruby right beneath the large chunks falling towards them, the rest of the building coming down with it.

Ruby closed her eyes, preparing for the end; an end which never came. She was hit in the side hard and scooped into a cradled position. Opening her eyes to see what had happened, she saw Yang who was carrying her away, and Blake trailing behind her with Weiss thrown over her shoulder.

Gaining a safe distance from the destruction, both girls were sat down as their rescuers gave a sigh of relief knowing that nobody had been hurt.

"You two are insufferable" Yang said between breaths.

Team RWBY had no time to prepare for the hell that had been unleashed upon them. Just as Weiss had opened her mouth to defend herself, innumerable howls and deep roars were heard through the streets on which they stood.

The camera cut out to another view from behind their current position on the street, showing the backs of all four girls as they turned to face the onslaught of noise.

"We are so fucked." Ruby said uncharacteristically, in a shrill whisper.

"Blake, how many?" Weiss asked, hoping for a small number.

"Uh, well… From what I can tell, maybe twenty-five at the least? I know there's three alphas. This seems like a den. We should go and call for backup, now. We just pissed them off."

Just then, a horde of beowolves gathered on the crumbled remains of the building, a swarming black mass. Naturally, their focus landed on the frightened team in front of them.

"Yep… We're fucked. I think we should be going now." Yang said with nervousness in her voice.

Splitting itself, the horde divided in the center, allowing three large alpha beowolves to walk to the front.

"Really, can we go?" Weiss asked with severe concern in her voice. "This isn't going to end well for us."

"We're not going anywhere." Ruby's voice had changed drastically, meaning she had kicked herself into leader mode. "This is our mission, and we're going to complete it." She unfolded Crescent Rose, putting it in rifle form. By natural reaction, everyone followed suit, drawing their weapons.

"Alright, so here's the plan: Kill them all, then go home and eat cookies." Ruby said with plenty of malice and determination while raising her rifle.

The alpha beowolves roared loudly, giving out the signal that lunch was now being served. They surged forward, bullets ringing out, cutting down a few, but it was no significant loss.

Ruby bolted forward, reloading her ammunition and extending her scythe blade, taking a large swipe and sending fur and blood everywhere.

Weiss had taken a more tactical approach, using an air step glyph to gain a vertical look at the battlefield.

Yang gave Blake a nod, and launched herself into the air, a few feet from Weiss. Taking aim, she fired Ember Celica several times into a black crowd, peppering a few of the beasts.

Blake ran straight into the throng, firing Gambol Shroud several times before morphing it to injure the close range opponents that were within her reach.

Though all members were hacking, slicing, and gunning down the wolves, it seemed as though Blake had underestimated the number by many. In fact, it seemed there were more now than when the battle initially began.

"We're not getting anywhere Ruby! We have to get out of here or we'll be overrun!" Blake yelled in a panic.

Ruby thought as she diced wolves.

"Blake's right… This is becoming hopeless."

"We're falling back! Yang, you and Blake cover Weiss and I, and we'll take down whatever we can on our way out!"

"Gotcha covered Sis!" Yang yelled as she ducked under a swipe from Crescent Rose. "Blake, jump!"

Blake sprung into the air just in time as a salvo of white hot bullets went spiraling below her, clearing out the nearby area.

"Weiss!" Ruby called. "You hear what's going on?"

"Yeah, I'm ready! Let's take the alphas down, or at least try!"

"Go!" Ruby ordered as they sprang into action.

The team executed the plan. Weiss and Ruby moved quickly towards the leaders of the pack as Blake and Yang kept the grunts off their backs. Putting a bullet through the first's jaw, he dropped in a mess of gore and black fur.

Weiss had moved in, as the other was dazed, slipping her rapier charged with ice into the stomach of the second, freezing it solid. Pulling her blade outwards, she knocked the pommel onto the large frozen wolf, effectively smashing it into pieces.

The third was more prepared after watching its fellow wolves expended. Knowing what was coming as ruby swung her scythe in a large arc, it caught it on an arm spike and deflected, flinging Ruby to the side as it flailed. She hit the side of a building, slumping to the ground.

Weiss was in shock at what had occurred as the alpha advanced towards her. In a desperate attempt, she swung her blade, charged with red dust, only to be rebounded off a protective bony plate. Pulling back and swinging, the wolf knocked the girl off her feet and sent her skidding along the ground. Jumping forwards, the large wolf landed on her chest, shattering several ribs and pinning her beneath its massive weight.

Blake and Yang were too distracted by their own objective to see their teammate lying in dire need of help. The wolf decided to make the final blow by reaching up, and bringing its massive clawed hand down. As it raised up and swung downwards, time slowed. Weiss saw nothing but a blur of something ram itself into the arm of the extremely large creature.

Ruby had come to save Weiss with whatever strength she had left and had thrown herself at the twisted animal. Not prepared for the early contact, the beast looked confused as it followed through. Making solid contact with the side of Ruby's head, once again she was flung from the spot and crashed nearby with a loud thud.

The creature looked away from Weiss as it observed the girl that has appeared out of nowhere. Weiss took this opportunity to hold out her fingers and create a holding glyph around the alpha's throat, moving it to hold the monster in midair, effectively cutting off the air supply. The alpha flailed around with no hope in sight, slowly suffocating. As the alpha made its final movements, Weiss flung the beast to the ground with a flick of her fingers. "Nobody hurts Ruby and lives…"

"Yang!" The injured girl yelled, pain surging through her, but she continued. "Call for help! Ruby's hurt!" The pain had got to her head, and the world around her faded to black.

Yang stopped battling the smaller wolves to see who had yelled her name. What she saw was her little sister lying on the ground, a pool of blood surrounding her head, and Weiss with an alpha beowolf lying next to her, both of them unmoving. She pressed an emergency button pinned to her waist that was connected to her scroll, sending an immediate signal to Beacon, telling them something went wrong.

Her scroll spoke. "ETA for emergency evacuation at your location: Fifteen minutes.

"Blake! We're not waiting around for them to find our bodies! We're leaving now! Grab Weiss!"

The screen in Ozpin's office cut to static. It seemed that Blake and Yang shared the same feelings of shock and confusion at what they had just witnessed as they had wide eyes, mouths slightly opened. Both of them had not been expecting what they had just seen.