Eclipse - Act 2 - Of Blood and Truth

Chapter 19 - Kill or be Killed

Jaune

His heart was pounding.

He may have not been their friend, maybe not even their ally at times...but he was a person. A living, breathing person, and as a Huntsman or a Huntress, it was their duty to save his life. Killian laid unconscious on the gurney with his stab wound bled over his shirt. There was so much blood, so much of it... it legitimately frightened Jaune to see how much blood was out of Killian's system all because of a single wound.

You'd think he'd be used to seeing blood, or knowing the damage a single blade could do after everything – but seeing it first hand? It never ceased to scare him.

"Nurse! We need a nurse!" Pyrrha called out as she helped Jaune and Blake push the Gurney, whilst Winter and Weiss followed behind them. They jogged alongside the gurney, when they saw one of the Nurses drop her clipboard down on the table and she ran over to them. She caught up beside them and looked at the man who desperately needed their help to survive the stab wound that Qrow inflicted upon him.

"What's his injury?" The Nurse asked.

"Stab wound." Jaune answered, she stared at the wound and saw how much blood was already from his system.

"He's lost a lot of blood already, we will do what we can for him. But I have to ask you to wait outside the operating room." The Nurse commanded, she took the handles from Jaune and pushed the gurney into the Operating Theatre where they could do their work. The five of the Hunters stood outside of the room, their hands were shaking fearfully, but not even for Killian's safety.

Of course they did not want him to die, for – for all his flaws and broken logic – he was still a human being. Jaune pushed his hands against his face and he sighed, shoving his digits through his blonde hair. "Oh by the Gods...this is not good." Jaune groaned, shaking his head with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, as if the world didn't already have a grudge against the Academies, this will definitely not help our case. Stabbing Killian like that? What the hell was he thinking? He's just gone and proven Killian's whole case." Weiss groaned in annoyance, frustrated at the entire situation. She sat down on one of the chairs and she buried her face into her hands. "And it's my fault."

"What? C'mon, Weiss knock it off. It was Qrow, not you." Jaune told her.

"No, Jaune. It is... I had Ruby and I could have taken her in. But instead I let her go, and she got to Qrow. He was protecting her." Weiss explained to them all, Blake shook her head in disagreement though.

"No, it's not you're fault. He would have attacked Killian no matter what, he hated the man with a passion. Just like most of us." Blake explained, she paced back and forth and she sighed, she felt the sweat bead from her skin, rubbing her eyes as she stood there. Pyrrha stood beside Jaune, she held Milo down against the marble floor, waiting to figure out what they could do next.

The only one of them that did not look shaken in any way from what Qrow did was Winter, she stood by the wall, where there was the display of drawings from children who came here. Injured from countless things, sometimes they were little playground injuries, some were sick, and then there were the scary ones. The ones that were facing death, not things that just needed to be patched up.

Winter never liked hospitals, not because she didn't like being in them – but because she hated seeing people who were innocent in pain. A natural response of someone who was trained to protect people, no matter the cost. Weiss looked at her sister, noticing how she had little to no reaction to all this whatsoever. "Winter?" She asked her.

"Yeah?" Winter replied.

"Are you, alright? I mean you haven't said a word, did Qrow stabbing Killian get to you? Like us?" She asked her.