Chương 141: 43
Chapter 43: Blakenstein
"What's wrong with her!?" Yang burst into the infirmary, ignoring Miss Goodwitch's attempts to stop her. Blake writhed in the hospital bed, shoulders straining against Doctor Oobleck as he tried to hold her down.
"Miss Xiao-Long, this is no place for a student-"
"I'm not leaving!" Yang cried, though the volume was drowned out by one from her partner. "Not until I know what's wrong with my best friend!"
"Miss Xia-"
"Forget it Glynda," a woman dressed in a white doctor's coat snapped. "You, girl, if you're going to stay then make yourself useful and hold her down." The blonde swallowed but nodded, pushing pas the doctor and her busy tale and grabbing one of Blake's thrashing arms. The other girl didn't seem to recognise her, didn't even perceive her – yellow eyes wide and frantic as she tried to fight off whatever she felt was attacking her. Even with Yang's prodigious strength it took the combined effort of Oobleck and her to hold Blake down.
"Hurts," the girl screamed, "hurts, stop it, it hurts!"
"Shh," Yang could feel tears drop down her cheeks. She couldn't remember ever feeling so helpless. "It'll be okay… it'll be fine…"
"Time to sleep," the faunus doctor stepped between Yang and Oobleck to slam a needle down into the girl's arm. The syringe was depressed the moment it hit, pumping something into the girl.
"Gentle!" Yang snapped. This was her partner… not some piece of wood that needed a nail hammered into it.
"She can't even feel anything I do," the woman growled, sounding more than a little frustrated at that. "But I'm not going to be able to figure out jack if she doesn't stop struggling."
Even so… even if Blake hadn't responded. She could have been a little more careful, surely? No… this wasn't the time for her to argue with the doctor trying to save her friend's life. She'd just have to assume the faunus knew best. Why else would she be the head of Beacon's medical bay?
Blake's struggles started to become slower, limbs dipping as drug induced lethargy slipped into her. The cries too became softer, a note of relief in them as her eyes closed. Yang freed one hand to wipe her brow. She could feel the sweat on her palm, the fiery temperature of her skin.
She would be okay… she had to be. I'm not losing you. I can't.
"Girl." Yang's eyes met the brown of the doctor, who had moved around to run a finger over Blake's wrist. "Give me a summary of what happened. How this happened."
"She just broke down," Yang tried to keep her voice strong, but there was an unmistakable waver in it. No one commented. Not the doctor nor Miss Goodwitch who stood nearby. Outside she could hear the Headmaster talking to Weiss and Ruby. Keeping them busy. "We… we were fine and she had just fought Torchwick. She won and came walking out – she looked okay, she was okay. Then she just… broke down. Collapsed on the spot screaming and didn't stop even when we crashed, even when we had to fight all those Grimm in the streets! If it wasn't for CFVY and LVN we'd have all been dead."
"She wasn't injured?" Yang shook her head. "Was she close to anyone when she came down with whatever this is?"
"Only Torchwick… and he was unconscious."
"I'll check for poisons anyway," another syringe came out and speared into Blake's arm. The blonde looked away as blood was drawn, filling the inside of the canister.
"Her aura readings are erratic." It was Miss Goodwitch who spoke, one hand on Blake's arm, the other on a scroll. "I've never seen anything quite like it. Her aura is hovering around the 70% mark now, but it keeps dipping and rising. It troughs at 67, peaks at 78. It won't stay still for even a second."
"Perfect," the doctor hissed, "Just what we damn well need." Yet another syringe came out, this one filled with an odd yellow liquid. By this point Yang could only swallow and trust the woman to know what she was doing. "How's that?"
"Rising slowly… the trough is at 69. It's rising, but definitely not stabilising."
"Well I can't keep filling her with aura boosters. There's no known way to actually create or boost aura, this just gives the body a hormonal boost to make more. If I fill her with too much, then she'll go into cardiac arrest." Yang shivered. There was one word she understood, though she wished she didn't. "Oobleck, I need you to find any books about this that you can – anything. I literally have zero experience with this."
"How can you not have any experience?" Yang shouted, even as the older man rushed from the room. "You're a doctor, you must know what to do!"
"I'm a specialist in the body!" The woman snapped back. She didn't even look at Yang. "No one's a specialist in the soul and aura's always been this misunderstood thing. The best I can say is that something is draining it, but that's pretty fucking obvious given the constant decrease."
"Nothing else?"
The faunus looked at her, eyes blazing, "I can make an accurate guess that she's dead if it hits zero."
"Tsune!" Yang didn't hear Miss Goodwitch's response, nor whatever this Tsune said in reply. All she could do was stare down at her partner, a low whimper coming from her lips. No. No way, this couldn't happen. No way…
Blake please… I'm scared.
"Mayhaps I can be of help," an unfamiliar voice laughed. Yang's lilac eyes flicked to the new entry, a tall if elderly man garbed in a white coat and thick, rimmed glasses. Beside him stood Penny, the orange-haired weird friend of Ruby's.
"Do you mind?" the female faunus growled, "Am I running a medical bay or a child care centre?"
"Blake, Yang!" Weiss and Ruby rushed in, causing the doctor to throw her arms in the air angrily. "We heard screaming, is Bl-"
"Silence!" Miss Goodwitch slammed her crop into one hand, cutting them all off. "If you wish to serve your teammate then you will allow those treating her to speak. Am I understood?" The three of them nodded, eyes wide.
Through it all the elderly man had just stood there, but now he was at Blake's side, poking and prodding with bony fingers. "Fascinating… these readings, so very interesting. You were right to call for me Headmaster." All eyes turned to the final man at that comment, a raised brow from the medical officer.
"When I heard the initial reports that her aura was behaving strangely I thought to contact General Ironwood," the man explained. "Atlas' research into aura is the most advanced there is, and Doctor Polendina is something of a specialist in the matter."
"The specialist, thank you very much." The man dropped Blake's arm, the limb slamming against the metal rail. Yang wanted to rush over and catch it, but was afraid of somehow distracting them. "If this proves to be an issue with her aura and not her body, as I suspect, then there will be little a practitioner like you can do, my dear." He expressed the last to the fox faunus, who crossed her arms with a doubtful expression.
"And you believe you can do more? Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you an engineer?"
"More of a roboticist and scientist," Doctor Polendina actually blushed, completely missing the scepticism in the woman's voice. "Though I suppose I tinkered a little in my youth, really though, it was nothing more than an experimental stage. I swear!"
"Father can save friend-Blake," Penny promised to the three watching teenagers. "There is no one on Remnant who knows more about aura than father, and he has a vested interest in protecting her."
"I am wearing a jumper today daughter, must I check your eyes later?" Yang didn't feel very confident as the man shook his head. "No matter, we shall see to that later. I need a scan of her aura and any irregularities."
"Yes father," Yang made to point out that they had a scroll doing that, only for her mouth to open wide as the girl's arm opened up, a decent-sized screen coming out of it. Weiss made a choking noise beside her, while Ruby only giggled nervously.
"Yes, yes, she is a robot," Doctor Polendina waved his hand as though it should have been obvious. Perhaps in hindsight it should have been. "This is a secret of Atlas, however. So do keep it quiet or the good General will have you executed."
"No one is executing my students," Ozpin cut in before they could panic.
"Of course not, of course not. I'm sure nothing terrible would happen to them at all." Okay, that didn't sound very comforting. Besides, it wasn't like anyone would have believed them. No matter how weird Penny was.
"Her aura is erratic as the scans initially say," Penny commented, "but my scanners show that the aura expelled from her body is linked in a certain direction. It moves like a funnel… or perhaps rays of light."
"Can you track it?"
"Negative. Although it begins strong it fades and disperses after a few metres. I believe Blake's current problem is that her aura is dispersing into the atmosphere before it reaches whatever it is attempting to. This causes her body to supply more, to the same effect."
Dispersing, feeding something? Was this some kind of Grimm, or perhaps some terrible poison from Torchwick? It would be just like that bastard to have some kind of hi-tech gizmo capable of that. Perhaps the aura was going to him!
"As I suspected," the doctor clapped his hands together and turned to them. "Tell me my dears, does our dear girl perhaps have a certain bear that you're familiar with? About yay height, yellow fur?" He made some motions with his hands, sketching out the dimensions, but it wasn't necessary.
"It's in her room," Yang snapped. "I can go get it?"
"Please do so. I believe this could help Miss Belladonna to gather herse-…" he trailed off, all of them turning to Ruby who had one hand raised in the air. Her sister looked mortified, terrified and also more than a little ashamed.
"Umm… the bear… it… Blake's teddy bear was in my backpack at Mountain Glenn… Zwei brought it along. It…" she swallowed. "I dropped my pack when Torchwick grabbed me… he ended up hooking that instead of me. So…"
"So it's still there?" Blake would flip, when she was better, but it could be replaced right? Yang turned to the assembled adults, only to feel her throat go dry at the look on Penny and the Doctor's faces.
"Oh dear…" the elderly man whispered. "That's not good…"
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