The camera opens up to Team RWBY plus Emerald and Oscar are in the dining room of Schnee mansion.

Yang:*Sighs.* "Okay, Ironwood wants Penny and Asher, otherwise, Mantle is done for. So, how do we stop him?"

Blake:*Her ears go cat ears go down in sadness.* "Qrow and Robyn are still in his custody, and May said that Atlas security drones are watching the crater, so they're trapped too."

Oscar:"And Salem isn't going to stay gone for much longer."

Ruby has her hands on her head.

Ruby:"So then, it's impossible. Only if Asher was here." *She sets her hands on the table.*

Emerald:"See. If Miss Hero and her twin with all the answers doesn't have an answer, then we have ours."

Weiss:"Shut up."

Yang stands up and walks over to Emerald.

Yang:"Okay, then why don't you just leave?"

Oscar:"Can we please just give each other a chance? Emerald's not with Salem anymore, and Ozpin is back."

Ruby has her head on the table and she mumbles and Oscar sighs.

Oscar:"All of this doubt and worry and distrust, it isn't getting us anywhere.'

Ruby:*Yells.* "Then nothing has changed!" *She slams her hands on the table and she yells more.* "We're in the exact same place we were yesterday. Arguing over what to do while the kingdom waits to die." *She stands up*

Yang walks over and puts her hand on Ruby's shoulder but she throws Yang's hand off and runs out of the room. Yang runs after Ruby.

The camera moves over to another room that has Red team in it. They moves Asher to another room for some privacy. Donut walks in with some fresh bandages and he walks over to Asher's bed. Grif and Simmons are sitting in chairs next to the bed.

Asher still has a breathing mask on and has a peaceful look on his face. There's also still an IV drip attached to his right arm. His weapons arm on the floor next to the bed.

Grif:*Has his hand on his chin and is looking at Asher with worry.* "He'll be fine, right? I mean he always gets back up, it's even one of the things he says."

Simmons:*Sighs.* "I don't know, Grif."

Grif:"Come one Simmons, It's Sarge were talking about here."

Donut reaches them and crouches down to Asher and starts to remove his dirty and bloody bandages.

Grif:"What do you think, Donut?"

Donut stops mid removal and he sighs at looks up to Grif. He looks like he's trying not to cry.

Donut:"I don't know Grif, I'm trying to be hopeful here." *he goes back to removing Asher's Bandages.*

Simmons puts a clipboard with a sheet of paper that has some writing on it, on the bed.

Grif:"What's that?"

Simmons:"It's what Klein wrote about Asher's condition."

Grif picks it up and reads it.

Grif:"'A broken left arm. A bruised bone in his right leg. Electrical Burns on his left arm and chest. Slow and Unsteady heat beat of 20 BMP.' What BPM?"

Simmons:"Beats Per Minute. Asher's heart is beating so slow if it were any slower he'd be dead. So he's practically hanging on by a thread."

Donut:*Shaky voice.* "We have to be Optimistic."

Grif then reads more from the paper.

Grif:"'The Electricity that was released from Asher's robot arm did electrocute his brain and we won't know if there is any permanent damage until he wakes up. If he is to ever wake up.'" *He then looks to Simmons as a tear falls from his eye.*

Simmons: "It's not looking good at all for him.I don't think he's gonna wake up this time, Grif. I think our luck has run out."

Donut finishes removeing the dity banges and he grabs a cloths and a bottle of water and dumps some water on the cloth and cleans some of the dried blood on Asher's chest and arm. When he's finished the camera moves to Asher's right arm and shows a electrical scar that leads from the robot arm all the way to his chest and it ends where is heart is. The scar looks light a lighting bolt.

Donut:"This looks painful."

Simmons:"It must have been."

Grif:"Why does it seem that all the bad things happen to Asher. I mean I've only been crushed and had most of my body parts replaced with simmons and Simmons is a cyborg, but still. Asher's always getting hurt."

Donut starts to wrap new bandages around Asher's arm and chest. It's silent for a few seconds.

Donut:"You know, I think Asher would be yelling at you, Grif, for crying."

Grif rubs his eye.

Grif:"I'm not crying, I'm just... sweating from the eyes."

Simmons and Donut laugh.

Simmons:"I bet Asher would also be yelling at you because you didn't bring him more ammo."

The three then laugh.

Grif:"And I bet you probably would be kissing his ass again."

Simmons:*Points at Grif.* "At least I'm on his good side."

They laugh for a few seconds then they all quiet down and the sounds of Asher breathing is the only thing heard.

Grif:"Sarge is a tough Bastard. He never stays down. He will get back up.

Simmons:"Well, I hope you're right, Grif. We need him right now."

The camera moves away form then and goes to the Main Foyer, As Ruby is sitting on the staircase with her head leaning on the rail and she also has her hands wrapped around it. Yang opens a door and walks in and goes over to the ruined statue.

Yang:"You know, that giant hound kicked us around like we were nothing." *She puts a foot on the hand of the statue.* "But Blake said you and the schnees managed to take it down." *She looks over to Ruby.* "Still having to one-up your big sis, huh?"

Ruby:"Did she tell you what it was? Underneath?"

Yang:*She looks away.* "Yeah."

Ruby:"You know what that means then."

Yang sighs.

Yang:"I wouldn't worry about that."

Ruby:"That's what happened to Mom. What she was going to do to Asher."

Yang eyes widen then she starts to cry and crouches down with her hands in her head.

Ruby:"When I saw its eyes, I knew. Salem used to kill people with silver eyes, like Maria. But she's always wanted me and Asher alive." *Yang looks to her.*  But why would that change unless, when she met Mom, she learned she could do something new."

Yang stands up and sniffs.

Yang:"Ruby."

Ruby looks to Yang.

Ruby:"We shouldn't lie to ourselves. I wasted out time getting Amity up, thinking help would come, but it didn't, And Amity fell. Asher was nearly killed because of me."

Yang walks over to Ruby.

Ruby:"I was being childish."

Yang:"You were being optimistic." *She crouches down to Ruby and puts a hand on Ruby's knee.*  "Look, blind optimism isn't great, but no optimism means we already lost. We need hope. We need to take risks."

Ruby:"But mine didn't work."

Yang sighs and stands up.

Yang:"It still got a warning out. Ruby, they're not called sure things, they're called risks, and in case you didn't notice, my plan for Mante didn't work either. But we got Oscar back, and did a lot more that was never in the plan." *She sits next to Ruby.* "Mom took a risk the day she left, and I don't think, I don't think it went the way she wanted to," *She side hugs Ruby.* "But she's still my hero. Asher took a risk too, he knew what he was doing up there but something didn't go his way either. I'm so proud of him though." *She fully hugs Ruby.*

Ruby starts to cry but then glass is heard and Jaune is running down the stairs.

Jaune:"Hurry!"

Ruby and Yang stand up and They run outside following Jaune.

The camera moves over to Red Team as they stand up.

Simmons:"What was that?"

Grif:"I don't know."

Donut:"Let's go check it out."

They all head for the door but then a groan is heard. They look over to Asher and they see his eye flutter open.

Asher:"Where..." *He looks around.* "Am I."

Red team:"Sarge!"

They run over and crouch down to him.

Asher:"Guys?" *He tries to sit up but is having trouble and donut helps him.* "What happened."

Simmons:"You were electrocuted by your arm and you've been asleep, you almost died."

Asher:"I thought I did?"

Red team looks to each other with confused faces then look back to Asher.

Grif:"What do you mean, Sir?"

Asher:*Brings a hand up to his eye.* "I remember a... white light. I heard voices, they sounded like... my mom and Pyrrha and as I got closer to the light their voices got louder and louder. I was about to touch the light but, I was suddenly dragged away from the light and I woke up."

Donut:"That's strange."

They hear some yelling outside.

Asher:"What's going on?"

Simmons:"We don't know, we were about to go and look but you woke up."

Asher stands up and Almost falls over and his team is about to help him but he raises a hand and stops them. He steadies himself and stands up without problems. Asher then looks around and finds his shirt and he goes over to it and puts it on. It's been cleaned. He grabs his weapons and walks out of the room with his team following him.

Donut:"Any pain, Sarge?"

Asher:"Not much, my heart kinda hurts and I have a headache."

Grif:"Well, It could be much worse."

Asher:"Shut it, Grif."

Grif:"He's definitely fine."

Simmons:"It's good to see you're okay, sir."

Grif:"Kiss ass."

They reach the front door where Klein, Willow and Whitley are standing looking out to the others as they come up with a plan. The camera moves to them.

Klein:"My boy you shouldn't be out of bed."

Ruby:"Huh?"

They look over to see Asher being stopped by Klein from going outside.

Asher:"I'm fine. Nothing can keep me down."

The groups eyes widen and they all get up and run over to Asher.

Ruby:"Asher!"

Asher looks past Klein to see Ruby running at him and Klein moves to the side.

Asher:"Oh, hey Ruby-" *Asher sees than Ruby uses her semblance and red team moves away from Asher.* "Oh, no."

Ruby tackles Asher to the group and hugs him hard crying in his chest.

Ruby:"I'm so sorry, Asher!"

The others reach the two and Asher sits up and hugs Ruby.

Asher:"It's fine. I'm fine, now."

The camera pans out as Ruby keeps crying on Asher's chest and the screen goes black.

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11-15-2021

1742 words.