Sanctuary 3
AndrewJTalon
Experienced.
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- - -
The Arcadia Farmhouse doors opened up onto a modest wooden hall, dominated by a staircase going up to the second floor. Warm brown wooden baseboards ran about the walls, and a few simple knit carpets sat on the hardwood floors. A simple brass chandelier hung from above, shining in the sunlight the many windows let in. The wallpaper seemed to be a plain white... At least, Yang thought it was white. There were hundreds of picture frames covering the walls, ranging from images of Jaune and his many, many sisters with their parents at various ages, to black and white photos of relatives and friends, and several paintings.
Despite herself, Yang felt a bit more... Homey.
Jaune led Yang and Ruby into an adjacent living room. This was at the base of the round tower-like part of the farmhouse, and had a wide panorama view of the barn, fields, drive, and a CCT repeater tower in the distance. It was filled with worn but comfortable furniture: Couches, arm chairs, two coffee tables, and bookshelves filled with books and knick knacks. A player piano made of warm cherrywood sat in a corner, with a few swords hanging over it on the wall.
Yang's eyes focused against the glare through the windows. Her jaw dropped. She honestly would not have expected these people to survive the fall of Beacon, and yet... Here they were.
Velvet Scarlatina, that shy rabbit Faunus a year ahead of them, sat on a light green couch. She was leaning against the tall form of Cardin Winchester, who was fiddling with his huge mace. Velvet had gotten some combat pants, a T-shirt, and a brown jacket with a tac-vest-They were a bit big on her, suggesting she'd been loaned the clothes. Cardin was in his usual armor, though it had some touch-ups obviously made by a welding torch. His hair was a bit shaggier, and he had some stubble on his chin and cheeks. Velvet looked exhausted, but definitely comfortable sidled up against her former bully.
A dark skinned, red-headed girl (May Zedong, from Shade, she vaguely recalled) was dressed in her usual hoodie and jeans. She worked on a sniper rifle, doing some maintenance with the guts of the weapon spread out on a coffee table. Neptune Vasilias, looking a bit shaggy and unkempt himself, was nevertheless bent over May's weapon with her, fiddling with various components and talking softly to her.
A dark skinned, blonde girl in nun's robes sat on a pillow on the floor, deep in meditation. Arslan Atlan: RWBY had eliminated her team in the Vytal Tournament. She'd been tough, but ultimately no match for them.
Nora and Ren were on another couch, Nora solemnly working on her hammer while Ren sat in repose with his eyes closed.
Everyone's eyes focused on them as they entered. Cardin, Nora and Ren got to their feet. Velvet, May, Arslan and Neptune soon followed.
"Hey Jaune. Hey Ruby. Hey, Xiao-Long," Neptune said, putting a bit of his old cockiness in his voice. "Nice to see you back up and about! Knew a babe like you couldn't be kept down for long!"
"It is indeed good to see you well," Arslan added, bowing slightly, "You were formidable opponents."
"H-Hello," May greeted softly, her eyes unable to meet Yang's.
"Xiao-Long," Cardin greeted with a simple nod. Velvet smiled a bit tiredly.
"It's... It's good to see you again," she said.
"It is," Ren agreed, giving Yang the slightest of smiles. Nora gaped in shock, then grinned.
"YANG!" Nora leaped over the coffee table and embraced Yang tightly. She tensed up, but relaxed as Nora sniffled and sobbed genuine tears.
"I missed you! You look great! Ooh, you got your new arm! That's great!" She grinned. "It has a gun in it!"
"... Really?" Yang asked, blinking.
"Totally!" Nora enthused. "That's what your Uncle said!"
"He visited you, huh?" Yang asked, eyes narrowing a bit. And not me...
"He did say something about that," Ruby agreed, smiling at Yang, "I-I can take you through the features-"
"Later," Yang grunted. Ruby frowned, but nodded.
"S-Sure... It's been a long day," she said.
"So Arc," Cardin cleared his throat, "Your dad and his troops visited. Told us to wait here for you. What are your orders?"
Jaune paused. He sucked in a breath through his nostrils.
"We're on stand down," he said at last, "Dad wants us to take a break."
Velvet's eyes narrowed.
"Did he say for how long?" She asked, a hint of anger in her tone. Yang had never heard anything like it from the generally meek Rabbit Faunus.
Jaune shook his head.
"No. They got reinforcements from Doremy, so they want us to take it easy for a while."
"Jaune," Cardin growled, "The walls aren't fully secure-They can't just exclude us! We've been fighting since we got here, damnit-!"
"We have our orders," Jaune stated flatly, "We're going to follow them."
Cardin grit his teeth. Velvet's eyes narrowed. The two of them united in anger like this was strange.
"Jaune, those monsters-!"
"I know what those monsters did, Cardin," Jaune growled, so deep and angry everyone stared in shock. Yang's jaw dropped as she beheld the transformation.
Gone was the goofy blond noodle. In his place was a hardened soldier, full of cold rage and steel.
Breaker Above... When did that happen?! She thought in shock.
Cardin ground his teeth, still glaring at Jaune.
Ruby cleared her throat nervously.
"M-Maybe... Maybe it's a good thing," she suggested, "We've been fighting without a break for over a week. Some of us longer."
"It would give us the chance to catch up on things," Arslan said, soft but firm, "And to recuperate. We will do no one any good if we're fighting our fatigue and the Grimm..."
She looked at Jaune knowingly.
"Among other things," she finished.
"H-Hey, I am totally fine with a break," Neptune said, laughing nervously, "Um... I mean, your sister-Hey, Orchid!"
A girl a little shorter than Yang walked out of the kitchen. Her blonde hair was cut short in a utilitarian pageboy. She wore jeans and a T-Shirt with the "Achieve-Men" logo over her chest. A pair of square glasses adorned her tired blue eyes, as she absent-mindedly tapped on a Scroll. Yang could see some kind of interface projected onto her glasses.
"Hello all. Hello Jaune," she said in a monotone. She walked up and hugged Jaune tightly. He returned the hug, rubbing her back.
"Hey Orchid. What are you doing here?" He asked, a small smile on his face.
"I live here," Orchid replied, her tone not shifting a bit.
Yang fought a snicker. Orchid blinked at the stares, then shrugged.
"You asked."
"Right, right, tell us what you told me!" Neptune said eagerly, "When we were at the repeater tower!"
Jaune glared at Neptune. He coughed and held up his hands.
"I was escorting her, I swear! May, you can vouch for me, right?"
"Y-Yes, he didn't... Um... We just did our jobs," May managed. Jaune slowly nodded.
"All right. Orchid?"
Orchid held out her Scroll and activated a holoprojector. Several technical diagrams and windows of computer coding appeared above them. None of it made any sense to Yang. Nora actually stood on her head to try and make sense of it.
"In essence, while the main CCT Network is down thanks to the virus implanted by the terrorists," Orchid stated, "Several regional networks are still mostly operational. The Gallian and Albion networks in particular."
"How did they avoid the virus?" Ruby asked, intensely curious.
"Twelve years ago, the system was due for a major upgrade," Orchid said, "As it was a joint venture between Albion and Gallia, both sub-kingdoms' Councils would have to agree on a unified upgrade plan."
"... Which would require both Councils to agree on something," Neptune deadpanned. Orchid nodded.
"Correct. Add in a scandal regarding embezzlement from the Modern Arts Grant, and the Councils of both nations collapsed in their respective elections to be replaced by new ones. They ultimately decided to save upgrading the servers for the regional repeater system for the year after this one."
"So we have communications?" Jaune asked. "Can we reach Vale? Beacon?"
Orchid shook her head, flipping through a few more holographic pages of what may as well have been hieroglyphics to Yang.
"Only intermittently. In addition, global communications are still down. We did get a call from Uncle Arjun over the radio.""
"Uncle Arjun?" Yang asked.
Jaune coughed.
"He's our godfather. He uh, he lives in Pandu, south-eastern coast of Animus."
"Well, what did he say?" Neptune urged Orchid.
She adjusted her glasses. "It appears that Mistral has fallen into civil war. Mistral itself, Pandu, Temujina, Fuujin-They're all at war since the CCT Network collapsed."
"Oh Breaker, no," Arslan whispered. Neptune gaped.
"What about Argus? Anything on Argus?!"
"I do not have any news on that," Orchid said in her monotone, "Though he did say that Atlas was holding to its treaty and had forces still stationed in Argus. Other than that? There is little to report. I am hopeful that we'll be able to get more as we work with other engineers across Gallia and Albion: Enough to get direct communication back with Vale to some extent. There is talk of reactivating the old cable networks, though most of those were destroyed by the Grimm."
Jaune sighed in relief, and hugged his sister again.
"Thanks Orchid."
"You are welcome. I am going to bed now, as I have been up for forty-eight hours straight rewriting IP Protocol codes for the region. Excuse me."
Orchid headed off towards the stairs, and climbed them out of sight. Cardin sagged a bit.
"Well... Maybe I'll get to call my dad," he sighed.
"Same," Velvet sighed, "They're up in Atlas. I... I'm glad they didn't come to see my fights. Not after all this."
"Agreed," Arslan said, "It was lucky for them..." She bit her lower lip. "After calling my family, I am hoping to get back in contact with my team. We were scattered during the fall."
May winced, and remained silent. The pain in her eyes reminded Yang of what had happened to her team.
"Same," Neptune sighed, "I lost Scarlet and Sage when we were evacuating to the airships. They took another but I don't know where to." He shook his head. "And of course, Sun ran off after Blake again."
"Blake?" Yang perked up. "Blake Belladonna?"
Neptune snorted.
"You know any other Blake Belladonnas he'd chase after? I did get a message before the CCT went totally down: That they were headed to Menagerie-"
Velvet seethed.
"Of fucking course they were," she growled.
All eyes went to the normally timid rabbit Faunus. Cardin was grim, but didn't move away from her.
Yang frowned as well.
"So... She's okay. That's good, right?" Yang asked. She was glad Blake was (probably) alive, but what was Velvet's deal?
"Sure. Two traitors running off together," Velvet sneered. Neptune gaped. Ruby frowned.
"H-Hey!" Neptune said, "Sun's not a-!"
"Oh, so the princess of the White Fang and your buddy just ran off to, what, elope?!" Velvet demanded angrily.
"I-I mean, I'm sure she had a reason-" Ruby tried, but Velvet angrily cut her off.
"She straight up abandoned you! Abandoned her partner!" She pointed at Yang. Yang grimaced and gripped her artificial arm with her real one.
"I-I mean... She-"
"She used to be White Fang!" Ruby insisted, "She wasn't anymore-!"
"And the White Fang attacked and destroyed a city," Velvet snarled, "Just as she conveniently gets away!"
"She-She's not like that!" Yang responded, though doubt tinged her words. "She was fighting against them-!"
"Well she did a HELL of a job, didn't she?!" Velvet spat, fists clenched, cheeks red, "A bunch of their goons caught my team! They shot Coco! They blasted Yatsuhashi and Fox away! I would have been next if Cardin hadn't charged in!"
Cardin grimaced and rubbed his chest. His other arm stayed around Velvet's waist, offering support and security as she raged.
She fixed a glare on Yang and Ruby.
"They murdered my team and their princess runs off?! Convenient, isn't it?!"
"She didn't have-She saved my life!" Yang shouted back.
"No," Velvet snarled, looking at the grim faced Jaune, "Jaune saved your life. Jaune carried you to the airship! Where was Blake, huh?!"
"She didn't have anything to do with this!" Ruby insisted. "I-I know Blake! She just... She..."
"She ran off with the rest of those murderers," Velvet seethed, now being restrained by Cardin's arm. "I hope Atlas invades and flattens them! I hope Atlas kills them all-!"
"That's enough!" Jaune barked. Velvet grit her teeth and scowled at him. Jaune shook his head slowly.
"That's not going to help," he stated. He looked at Cardin. "Cardin, Velvet... Go chill out. Relax. Get some air."
Velvet shot another venomous glare at them all. Cardin nodded slowly.
"Come on, Velv," he said softly, "Let's go chill out. All right?"
"... Fine," Velvet stated slowly. She narrowed her eyes at Yang and Ruby.
"But if I see her again? I'm putting a bullet in her head. The same thing her thugs did to my friends."
Cardin and Velvet walked out, Yang, Jaune and Ruby parting for them. The doors shut behind them, leaving only the clock ticking away.
"... I'll get started on dinner," Ren said quietly, rising and walking to the kitchen.
"I'll help," Arslan contributed, walking after him. Nora followed, though not without giving Yang, Ruby, and Jaune tight hugs.
"Um... I-I need to finish reworking my rifle," May mumbled, sitting back down with her head bowed.
"Y-Yeah, sounds good," Neptune said nervously, "I'll help."
Jaune hefted up Yang's luggage, his face stony.
"I'll show you to your room," he said to Yang.
"It's-It's mine too, Yang," Ruby said with a smile, "It's great. You'll see!"
"... Sure," Yang whispered, staring at her mechanical hand in silence.
- - -
Well, that got rather dark. But what do you think?
The Arcadia Farmhouse doors opened up onto a modest wooden hall, dominated by a staircase going up to the second floor. Warm brown wooden baseboards ran about the walls, and a few simple knit carpets sat on the hardwood floors. A simple brass chandelier hung from above, shining in the sunlight the many windows let in. The wallpaper seemed to be a plain white... At least, Yang thought it was white. There were hundreds of picture frames covering the walls, ranging from images of Jaune and his many, many sisters with their parents at various ages, to black and white photos of relatives and friends, and several paintings.
Despite herself, Yang felt a bit more... Homey.
Jaune led Yang and Ruby into an adjacent living room. This was at the base of the round tower-like part of the farmhouse, and had a wide panorama view of the barn, fields, drive, and a CCT repeater tower in the distance. It was filled with worn but comfortable furniture: Couches, arm chairs, two coffee tables, and bookshelves filled with books and knick knacks. A player piano made of warm cherrywood sat in a corner, with a few swords hanging over it on the wall.
Yang's eyes focused against the glare through the windows. Her jaw dropped. She honestly would not have expected these people to survive the fall of Beacon, and yet... Here they were.
Velvet Scarlatina, that shy rabbit Faunus a year ahead of them, sat on a light green couch. She was leaning against the tall form of Cardin Winchester, who was fiddling with his huge mace. Velvet had gotten some combat pants, a T-shirt, and a brown jacket with a tac-vest-They were a bit big on her, suggesting she'd been loaned the clothes. Cardin was in his usual armor, though it had some touch-ups obviously made by a welding torch. His hair was a bit shaggier, and he had some stubble on his chin and cheeks. Velvet looked exhausted, but definitely comfortable sidled up against her former bully.
A dark skinned, red-headed girl (May Zedong, from Shade, she vaguely recalled) was dressed in her usual hoodie and jeans. She worked on a sniper rifle, doing some maintenance with the guts of the weapon spread out on a coffee table. Neptune Vasilias, looking a bit shaggy and unkempt himself, was nevertheless bent over May's weapon with her, fiddling with various components and talking softly to her.
A dark skinned, blonde girl in nun's robes sat on a pillow on the floor, deep in meditation. Arslan Atlan: RWBY had eliminated her team in the Vytal Tournament. She'd been tough, but ultimately no match for them.
Nora and Ren were on another couch, Nora solemnly working on her hammer while Ren sat in repose with his eyes closed.
Everyone's eyes focused on them as they entered. Cardin, Nora and Ren got to their feet. Velvet, May, Arslan and Neptune soon followed.
"Hey Jaune. Hey Ruby. Hey, Xiao-Long," Neptune said, putting a bit of his old cockiness in his voice. "Nice to see you back up and about! Knew a babe like you couldn't be kept down for long!"
"It is indeed good to see you well," Arslan added, bowing slightly, "You were formidable opponents."
"H-Hello," May greeted softly, her eyes unable to meet Yang's.
"Xiao-Long," Cardin greeted with a simple nod. Velvet smiled a bit tiredly.
"It's... It's good to see you again," she said.
"It is," Ren agreed, giving Yang the slightest of smiles. Nora gaped in shock, then grinned.
"YANG!" Nora leaped over the coffee table and embraced Yang tightly. She tensed up, but relaxed as Nora sniffled and sobbed genuine tears.
"I missed you! You look great! Ooh, you got your new arm! That's great!" She grinned. "It has a gun in it!"
"... Really?" Yang asked, blinking.
"Totally!" Nora enthused. "That's what your Uncle said!"
"He visited you, huh?" Yang asked, eyes narrowing a bit. And not me...
"He did say something about that," Ruby agreed, smiling at Yang, "I-I can take you through the features-"
"Later," Yang grunted. Ruby frowned, but nodded.
"S-Sure... It's been a long day," she said.
"So Arc," Cardin cleared his throat, "Your dad and his troops visited. Told us to wait here for you. What are your orders?"
Jaune paused. He sucked in a breath through his nostrils.
"We're on stand down," he said at last, "Dad wants us to take a break."
Velvet's eyes narrowed.
"Did he say for how long?" She asked, a hint of anger in her tone. Yang had never heard anything like it from the generally meek Rabbit Faunus.
Jaune shook his head.
"No. They got reinforcements from Doremy, so they want us to take it easy for a while."
"Jaune," Cardin growled, "The walls aren't fully secure-They can't just exclude us! We've been fighting since we got here, damnit-!"
"We have our orders," Jaune stated flatly, "We're going to follow them."
Cardin grit his teeth. Velvet's eyes narrowed. The two of them united in anger like this was strange.
"Jaune, those monsters-!"
"I know what those monsters did, Cardin," Jaune growled, so deep and angry everyone stared in shock. Yang's jaw dropped as she beheld the transformation.
Gone was the goofy blond noodle. In his place was a hardened soldier, full of cold rage and steel.
Breaker Above... When did that happen?! She thought in shock.
Cardin ground his teeth, still glaring at Jaune.
Ruby cleared her throat nervously.
"M-Maybe... Maybe it's a good thing," she suggested, "We've been fighting without a break for over a week. Some of us longer."
"It would give us the chance to catch up on things," Arslan said, soft but firm, "And to recuperate. We will do no one any good if we're fighting our fatigue and the Grimm..."
She looked at Jaune knowingly.
"Among other things," she finished.
"H-Hey, I am totally fine with a break," Neptune said, laughing nervously, "Um... I mean, your sister-Hey, Orchid!"
A girl a little shorter than Yang walked out of the kitchen. Her blonde hair was cut short in a utilitarian pageboy. She wore jeans and a T-Shirt with the "Achieve-Men" logo over her chest. A pair of square glasses adorned her tired blue eyes, as she absent-mindedly tapped on a Scroll. Yang could see some kind of interface projected onto her glasses.
"Hello all. Hello Jaune," she said in a monotone. She walked up and hugged Jaune tightly. He returned the hug, rubbing her back.
"Hey Orchid. What are you doing here?" He asked, a small smile on his face.
"I live here," Orchid replied, her tone not shifting a bit.
Yang fought a snicker. Orchid blinked at the stares, then shrugged.
"You asked."
"Right, right, tell us what you told me!" Neptune said eagerly, "When we were at the repeater tower!"
Jaune glared at Neptune. He coughed and held up his hands.
"I was escorting her, I swear! May, you can vouch for me, right?"
"Y-Yes, he didn't... Um... We just did our jobs," May managed. Jaune slowly nodded.
"All right. Orchid?"
Orchid held out her Scroll and activated a holoprojector. Several technical diagrams and windows of computer coding appeared above them. None of it made any sense to Yang. Nora actually stood on her head to try and make sense of it.
"In essence, while the main CCT Network is down thanks to the virus implanted by the terrorists," Orchid stated, "Several regional networks are still mostly operational. The Gallian and Albion networks in particular."
"How did they avoid the virus?" Ruby asked, intensely curious.
"Twelve years ago, the system was due for a major upgrade," Orchid said, "As it was a joint venture between Albion and Gallia, both sub-kingdoms' Councils would have to agree on a unified upgrade plan."
"... Which would require both Councils to agree on something," Neptune deadpanned. Orchid nodded.
"Correct. Add in a scandal regarding embezzlement from the Modern Arts Grant, and the Councils of both nations collapsed in their respective elections to be replaced by new ones. They ultimately decided to save upgrading the servers for the regional repeater system for the year after this one."
"So we have communications?" Jaune asked. "Can we reach Vale? Beacon?"
Orchid shook her head, flipping through a few more holographic pages of what may as well have been hieroglyphics to Yang.
"Only intermittently. In addition, global communications are still down. We did get a call from Uncle Arjun over the radio.""
"Uncle Arjun?" Yang asked.
Jaune coughed.
"He's our godfather. He uh, he lives in Pandu, south-eastern coast of Animus."
"Well, what did he say?" Neptune urged Orchid.
She adjusted her glasses. "It appears that Mistral has fallen into civil war. Mistral itself, Pandu, Temujina, Fuujin-They're all at war since the CCT Network collapsed."
"Oh Breaker, no," Arslan whispered. Neptune gaped.
"What about Argus? Anything on Argus?!"
"I do not have any news on that," Orchid said in her monotone, "Though he did say that Atlas was holding to its treaty and had forces still stationed in Argus. Other than that? There is little to report. I am hopeful that we'll be able to get more as we work with other engineers across Gallia and Albion: Enough to get direct communication back with Vale to some extent. There is talk of reactivating the old cable networks, though most of those were destroyed by the Grimm."
Jaune sighed in relief, and hugged his sister again.
"Thanks Orchid."
"You are welcome. I am going to bed now, as I have been up for forty-eight hours straight rewriting IP Protocol codes for the region. Excuse me."
Orchid headed off towards the stairs, and climbed them out of sight. Cardin sagged a bit.
"Well... Maybe I'll get to call my dad," he sighed.
"Same," Velvet sighed, "They're up in Atlas. I... I'm glad they didn't come to see my fights. Not after all this."
"Agreed," Arslan said, "It was lucky for them..." She bit her lower lip. "After calling my family, I am hoping to get back in contact with my team. We were scattered during the fall."
May winced, and remained silent. The pain in her eyes reminded Yang of what had happened to her team.
"Same," Neptune sighed, "I lost Scarlet and Sage when we were evacuating to the airships. They took another but I don't know where to." He shook his head. "And of course, Sun ran off after Blake again."
"Blake?" Yang perked up. "Blake Belladonna?"
Neptune snorted.
"You know any other Blake Belladonnas he'd chase after? I did get a message before the CCT went totally down: That they were headed to Menagerie-"
Velvet seethed.
"Of fucking course they were," she growled.
All eyes went to the normally timid rabbit Faunus. Cardin was grim, but didn't move away from her.
Yang frowned as well.
"So... She's okay. That's good, right?" Yang asked. She was glad Blake was (probably) alive, but what was Velvet's deal?
"Sure. Two traitors running off together," Velvet sneered. Neptune gaped. Ruby frowned.
"H-Hey!" Neptune said, "Sun's not a-!"
"Oh, so the princess of the White Fang and your buddy just ran off to, what, elope?!" Velvet demanded angrily.
"I-I mean, I'm sure she had a reason-" Ruby tried, but Velvet angrily cut her off.
"She straight up abandoned you! Abandoned her partner!" She pointed at Yang. Yang grimaced and gripped her artificial arm with her real one.
"I-I mean... She-"
"She used to be White Fang!" Ruby insisted, "She wasn't anymore-!"
"And the White Fang attacked and destroyed a city," Velvet snarled, "Just as she conveniently gets away!"
"She-She's not like that!" Yang responded, though doubt tinged her words. "She was fighting against them-!"
"Well she did a HELL of a job, didn't she?!" Velvet spat, fists clenched, cheeks red, "A bunch of their goons caught my team! They shot Coco! They blasted Yatsuhashi and Fox away! I would have been next if Cardin hadn't charged in!"
Cardin grimaced and rubbed his chest. His other arm stayed around Velvet's waist, offering support and security as she raged.
She fixed a glare on Yang and Ruby.
"They murdered my team and their princess runs off?! Convenient, isn't it?!"
"She didn't have-She saved my life!" Yang shouted back.
"No," Velvet snarled, looking at the grim faced Jaune, "Jaune saved your life. Jaune carried you to the airship! Where was Blake, huh?!"
"She didn't have anything to do with this!" Ruby insisted. "I-I know Blake! She just... She..."
"She ran off with the rest of those murderers," Velvet seethed, now being restrained by Cardin's arm. "I hope Atlas invades and flattens them! I hope Atlas kills them all-!"
"That's enough!" Jaune barked. Velvet grit her teeth and scowled at him. Jaune shook his head slowly.
"That's not going to help," he stated. He looked at Cardin. "Cardin, Velvet... Go chill out. Relax. Get some air."
Velvet shot another venomous glare at them all. Cardin nodded slowly.
"Come on, Velv," he said softly, "Let's go chill out. All right?"
"... Fine," Velvet stated slowly. She narrowed her eyes at Yang and Ruby.
"But if I see her again? I'm putting a bullet in her head. The same thing her thugs did to my friends."
Cardin and Velvet walked out, Yang, Jaune and Ruby parting for them. The doors shut behind them, leaving only the clock ticking away.
"... I'll get started on dinner," Ren said quietly, rising and walking to the kitchen.
"I'll help," Arslan contributed, walking after him. Nora followed, though not without giving Yang, Ruby, and Jaune tight hugs.
"Um... I-I need to finish reworking my rifle," May mumbled, sitting back down with her head bowed.
"Y-Yeah, sounds good," Neptune said nervously, "I'll help."
Jaune hefted up Yang's luggage, his face stony.
"I'll show you to your room," he said to Yang.
"It's-It's mine too, Yang," Ruby said with a smile, "It's great. You'll see!"
"... Sure," Yang whispered, staring at her mechanical hand in silence.
- - -
Well, that got rather dark. But what do you think?