In RWBY's Shadow

Comforting Friends

"See Yang?" Smit nearly yelled in response, struggling to be heard over the roar of the crowd. "Lilly, what's wrong?"

Another wave of pain had her lurching forward once more. Gritting her teeth, she pushed the pain aside and tried to get out of her seat. The sudden rush of standing up had her head swimming, and she nearly fell onto Smit as a result. He caught her, hands tightening on her arms, both to keep her upright and prevent her escape. It seemed he wasn't about to let her rush off without some sort of explanation.

"Something's not right," she managed as pain receded slightly to a knife in the side of her head. Considering before it had felt like Yatshuhashi had buried his massive blade there, this was a marked improvement. "W-what happened out there?"

"Yang barely beat Mercury," Smit began explaining, pointing to the board high above that still showed Yang's aura just above elimination. "As she walked past him, though, he must've said something to set her off. She blasted his leg for no reason."

"No that's...that's not right." Lilly watched the replay yet again, seeing exactly what Smit had described, but refusing to believe it. "I was connected to Yang the whole time. I saw h–ah!"

Lilly's legs buckled as a fresh wave of pain coursed through her skull, only keeping upright thanks to Smit's unrelenting grip. Eyes watering, she forced her feet back under her and shook off Smit's restraint. This time, when he offered her the painkillers, she greedily snatched them. Honey offered the rest of her drink, leaving Lilly to chase the pills down with her partner's fizzy beverage. Normally prefer water, but the caffeine should help these kick in faster. Right now, she'd do anything to relieve the pressure quicker.

"You saw something again, didn't you?" Randi asked, already sliding out into the aisle and blocking those behind her so her team could escape together.

"Yeah. It was just like last time, but worse." The pain was more intense this time, but Lilly meant the result of the hallucination more than her own pain. Last time, it had led to Coco being eliminated from the Tournament – a likely conclusion anyways, given Yats was already out. This time, though, Yang was under arrest and Mercury had been maimed. "I just...I need to get to Yang."

"We'll head back to the dorms," Smit announced to the team, even as Honey, of all people, took the lead. The small girl pushed through the confused crowd courtesy of her Semblance, making people yield before the suddenly much larger girl. Smit walked alongside Lilly, the two stumbling up the stairs in Honey's wake, while Randi brought up the rear. Their small procession hurriedly carved a path to the exit, thankful to be on the Vale side. Lilly could see students further down enduring all manner of trash raining down on them, though, luckily, none of them chose to retaliate. The last thing they needed was for Huntsmen to turn on civilians. The last thing Lilly saw as they finally made it to the exit tunnels was the replay screen finally cutting out, replacing Yang's assault with the logo of Vale.

"What makes you think she'll be at the dorms?" Honey's question gave Lilly pause, but Smit kept tugging her along to keep up with the girl, who had returned to normal now that they were out of the worst of it. "I mean, those were Atlas troops that detained her. Ironwood might have her taken somewhere else."

"Where else would he go?" Randi countered. "He wouldn't take her into the city with how riled up the people are. Someone might try and take matters into their own hands. Beacon is probably the safest place right now, and you know Ozpin would push for it." He'd done as much for Smit, she left unsaid.

"If nothing else, we might run into the rest of her team. Plus, I doubt all that noise was helping your migraine." Lilly couldn't exactly disagree with that last part. Already, her head felt a little better and her brief stint of vertigo had worn off. Whether the painkillers or the reduction of stimuli were more to thank, she really didn't care. "Speaking of migraines...you said you saw another one of those hallucination things. What did you see?"