What I Once Was: Volume 2

Chapter 19: Broken Wire

Y/n and Robyn moved at a pretty good pace, one manning the coil, the other keeping watch. They've been walking for roughly twenty minutes. Once again, the muggy air weighs them down with constant sweat and heat. Y/n knew he'd never get used to the humidity. About halfway to the beach, they begin to hear the clicking beginning to rise, indicating it's after eleven.

"Come on. I want to put as much distance between me and this beach as possible. Frying is not how I want to go." Roybn says.

"I'll take the coil for a while," Y/n says. It was definitely harder work laying out the wire than guarding, and Robyn's had a long turn.

"Here," Robyn says, passing him the coil.

After climbing over a few large rock formations, Y/n feels the coil suddenly jam to a stop. Both are alerted, looking at the distant wire cautiously.

"What is it?" Robyn asks.

"There's something..." Y/n trails off, pulling the coil a few times. 'Maybe it's caught on one of the rocks' he thought.

All semblance of that trail of thought left him however when the whole coil jerked back, indicating this was no rock.

'Someone's here' Y/n thought immediately.

And he was right. There's a sudden vibration when suddenly the thin bronze wire from above springs down at them, bunching in tangled loops and curls around their feet. It only takes a second for the duo to register this rapid turn of events. Robyn and Y/n look at each other, but neither of them had to say it. Someone not far above them has cut the wire. And they'll be on the pair at any moment.

Y/n's hand frees itself of the coil and has just closed his hand around a throwing knife when he sees Hazel reveal himself up ahead. But he never had a chance to let the knife fly from his hand because the impact of the metal cylinder of the coil to his head dazed him. The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back in the dirt and vines, a terrible pain in his left temple. His vision blurs in and out of focus as he strains to make the two moons floating up in the sky into one. It was hard to breath, realising Robyn was sitting on his chest, pinning him at the shoulders with her knees.

He feels something stabbing into his left forearm which elicits a painful screech from the Tiger faunus. He tried to jerk away, but was still too incapacitated. Robyn was digging something, Y/n guessed the point of her knife, into his flesh, twisting it around. There's an excruciating ripping sensation and warmth runs down his wrist, filling his palm. Robyn then swipes down his arm and coats half his face and neck with his blood.

"Stay down!" she hisses. Her weight left his body and suddenly he was alone.

'Stay down?' he thinks. 'What? What is happening?'

Y/n's eyes were shut, blocking out the inconsistent world around him, trying to make sense of his situation. All he could think of is Robyn shoving Sheele to the beach.

"Just sit down, will you?"

But she didn't attack Sheele. Not like this. Y/n wasn't Sheele, anyway, he wasn't nuts.

"Just sit down, will you?" continued to echo around inside Y/n's brain.

He hears footsteps coming. Two pairs. Heavy, not trying to conceal their whereabouts. In his daze he saw a brief flash of someone's pink hair.

"He's as good as dead! Come on, Neo!" Hazel's voice calls out. Then he's alone a second time as the sound of their footsteps disappear into the night.

He drifts in and out of consciousness constantly, looking for an answer to that statement. Was he? Was he as good as dead? He was in no position to make an argument on the contrary. In fact, rational thinking for him was a struggle. This much he knew. Robyn attacked him. Smashed that coil of wire into his head. Cut his arm, probably doing irreparable damage to veins and arteries, and then Hazel and Neo showed up before she had time to finish him off.