RWBY Through Worlds

32: Never Break Me

"Hey..." Blake came out too. "Yang...Ren...Jaune... Oh my gosh, Oscar..." She stared at him. Then she stared at the other two.

"How bad do I look?" Oscar asked.

"Let's just say I'd imagine a guy who just went three rounds with a professional boxer to look better than you," Shine said, helping him up. "Come on, can I get some help here, Jaune?"

Jaune took Oscar's arm.

Pyrrha helped them in. "You must have been through so much..." she said. She glanced up at Hazel. "I don't know you."

"How are you not dead?!" Emerald finally got the words out.

"Oh...hello again." Pyrrha looked at her flatly. "I came back to life."

"How?" Emerald said.

"Her." Pyrrha nodded at Shine. "Wait, where is Mr. West? He didn't--"

"He's fine. He's off looking for Qrow," Shine said.

"Oh..." Pyrrha let out a sigh. "I was really worried about you--" 

Shine hugged her.

"Yeah, thanks," she said. "I was too...but we're okay now, thankfully. I told you I'd bring them back."

"Thank you." Pyrrha hugged her back.

Emerald stared at this in amazement.

"This doesn't make sense." Hazel had put together that Pyrrha was someone important, but he'd never seen her in person, nor was he one to pay attention to sports events.

"Hazel, this is Pyrrha Nikos," Oscar said, as Jaune put him on the couch. "Cinder killed her about 6-8 months ago, I guess. She just came back to life, like, two weeks ago, so she isn't official yet, but I guess she and Emerald have met?"

"Technically," Pyrrha said tightly.

Emerald backed up. "But...she... You can't just..."

"Careful about that word can't," Shine said.

"More importantly," Hazel said, "has the Hound shown up here yet? Do you people have the Winter Maiden?"

"Yes...why?" Shine said. "What Hound?"

"The one that--" Oscar started coughing, but then he went on. "--that kidnapped me."

"That thing?" Yang said, horrified.

"It was supposed to find the Maiden." Emerald tore her eyes away from Pyrrha long enough to say. "Or Cinder was."

Shine looked at the door.

"With Wally and me helping you, you got here much faster than expected," she mused. "Maybe it hasn't beaten you here. Probably they figured you'd be in small numbers... Quick, girls, lock all the doors and windows."

"That won't slow it down much," Hazel said.

"It's better than leaving them wide open," Shine said.

The girls rushed to do that.

"Everyone else, go to Fria and keep an eye on her," Shine said. "I'll get Klein to come take care of Oscar--or maybe we should move him upstairs, come to think of it. Try to find a room we can defend better than this."

"Being boxed in might not be what you want either," Hazel said.

"We have people who can't run. It's a better shot than trying to dodge it," Shine said. "It can fly, right?... It'll be here soon if it tracked her. She can't fight it--that would kill her for sure."