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Pyrrha stood in the Beacon basement where she gained the Fall Maiden's powers, the giant hall filled with scorch marks, craters and bloodstains. She looked to where the machine that held Amber was, the girl's corpse having somehow risen and standing right in front of her. Her eyes were empty and soulless, but her look wasn't. That of pain, and anguish. Pyrrha stepped away and blinked, and now stood atop Ozpin's office, giant cogs littering the ground along with more burnt concrete. In front of her stood the monster that orchestrated this entire tragedy. The thief, murderer, rightful owner, Cinder.
The woman had a cruel smile upon her face, enjoying every bit of the massacre she organized, as she looked upon Pyrrha's eyes with glowing amber orbs, before drawing her arm back and summoning her glass bow, the arrowhead pointed straight at Pyrrha's chest. Cinder fired, there was a great white flash, and then, nothing. Pyrrha floated in an empty blackness, feeling numb as she thought back to her fight with Cinder. She was all alone here, just like before she came to Beacon. There was another flash, this one smaller and yet more intrusive, as Pyrrha felt herself drift out of unconsciousness and opened her eyes.
She wished she never opened them.
The hospital walls were a clinical white, was the first thing she noted. The second thing was Nora and Ren at her bed along with a person she never met before, saying something to her team mates she couldn't make out. Why were her ears ringing so much? She tried to move, but her body ignored her commands, resulting in an awkward shuffling which brought Nora's attention to her.
"Ren! Look she's waking up!"
Pyrrha groaned at the sudden noise and increase in volume as Nora and Ren surrounded her. She squeezed her eyes shut at all the sudden noise, before opening them again to see the doctor in front of her and her team mates a little farther away but still close to the bed, waved away by the doctor as to not disturb her.
"Miss Nikos, can you hear me?" Pyrrha nodded at the doctor's question as he wrote down something on a clip board. They went through several quick tests, the usual of 'how many fingers am I holding up' and 'how do you feel', but Pyrrha barely registered them as her thoughts consumed her. She felt like she was forgetting something important, but what? Before she could try to ponder the question more, the doctor cleared his throat to grab Pyrrha's attention.
"Well Miss Nikos, your right foot has to be bandaged due to the wound, but apart from that your body is in perfect working order. Try not to exert yourself during the following week or two." Pyrrha nodded dumbly at the doctor's statement as she looked at her right leg and felt that feeling of numbness again, memories from the battle at Beacon rushing like a tidal wave.
More specifically, the memory of her holding Jaune's broken body in her hands, an arrow through his chest as he whispered his last words to Pyrrha. The dam broke. Nora and Ren barely even got a word in as Pyrrha's sobs cut through the hospital atmosphere, her body wracked by spasms as she cried. Cried about Penny, the poor girl she ripped apart like paper. About Ozpin, the headmaster who gave his life so she and Jaune could leave the basement. About Beacon, the only place where she felt truly like a person and at home for years, ripped away cruelly. And finally, Jaune, her partner, leader and the man she loved, his life sniffed out by a glass arrow so hers could continue.
It just wasn't fair. She didn't deserve this, Jaune didn't deserve this, her team didn't deserve this, so why had such a tragedy happened? She didn’t know, and that made her hate Cinder qll the more.
She, with the remains of her team, sat there on the hospital bed, crying for who knows how long, wasting the hours and tears away.
Yang's room was dark. She knew this, because she hadn't left in what felt like ages, lying in her bed with her eyes open, lost in the dark corners of her mind. She knew it was dark, and always was, except for when Dad came over with food she barely touched, or Ruby came in trying to cheer her up. So, when the light from the door was lasting much longer than the few seconds it took for her sister or Dad to open and close it, she reluctantly sat up, using her left arm to support herself, (why not the right one?) her right just a stump, (why is it a stump?), and her eyes widened.
Pyrrha stood in the doorway, forgoing her bronze armour in favour of-
Oh. Oh fuck. She knew about Jaune. Yang could tell both from Pyrrha's dead expression, closely mirroring her own, and that she was wearing Jaune's old bunny hoodie. The thing had seen better days, with patches sewn over holes in it and having a few stains. Most importantly, a brown stain underneath a patch that was over Pyrrha's heart. Pyrrha herself looked like shit, her hair was messy and she looked like she'd been crying for days, her eyes puffy and red.
"Hey Yang," Pyrrha said, her voice coming out stilted, as if she was forcing herself to not let her emotions seep into her tone.
"Uh, hey Pyr," Yang, cursing in her mind as the words came out. Pyrrha didn't seem to react at Yang using Jaune's nickname for her, but Pyrrha was always good at hiding things. At least she could, unlike Yang who had to live with losing her right arm (because of Blake) forever. She decided to speak before her mind consumed her again. "You, uh, doing alright?"
Pyrrha just smiled sadly, either because of the awkwardness or because Yang really knew the answer. She wasn't alright, and neither was Yang. "As fine as I can be, I suppose. Are you okay?"
Yang considered lying, just like she always had been doing to Ruby and Dad, but she looked at Pyrrha's eyes, two emerald orbs that looked to almost be begging Yang for something. I'm the only one who could understand, Yang thought. Of course, Ren and Nora would, but Pyrrha had been crushing on Jaune for almost the entire year. Losing a friend is bad, but losing someone you love is worse, like losing a part of yourself. Like an arm, or your partner.
"No," Yang said, looking away as Pyrrha came closer and sat next to her. Pyrrha grabbed Yang's chin and looked at her, both of the girls on the verge of crying.
"Me neither," Pyrrha said, and dug her face into Yang's shoulder, hugging the blonde as Yang did the same.
The two of them sat sharing their sorrows until the long hours of the night, two fires that have been reduced to embers exchanging what comfort they could.