The sounds of steel cutting and crunching through flesh and bone was rivaled only by the malicious snarls of the swarm of beasts that faced them.
The six warriors, paragons of bravery and skill, demolished the creatures of darkness known only as the Grimm with relative ease.
Their victory should have seemed inevitable.
However, only one thought permeated throughout Yang's mind, "We're going to lose."
That was the one devastating thought that overpowered all others within Yang's mind as she looked across the battlefield.
The swarm of Grimm was so large that it perhaps out-rivaled even the once great forces of the Atleasian Military, there were thousands, tens of thousands maybe even hundreds of thousands of the monsters fully prepared to devour their lifeless bodies in triumph.
The others hadn't noticed through their exhaustion and rage or had just chosen to ignore that fact for the sake of the group morale, but it was obvious for her to see that slowly, but surely they were being pushed back to the ship their one beacon of hope where they would inevitably be overwhelmed by the oncoming hordes.
They needed a diversion, something, anything that would keep the Grimm at bay in order to allow the Bullhead to take off and escort them to safety.
But she couldn't think of anything as she blew and tore through Grimm after Grimm.
In the end, it looked like their long journey would end here, and darkness would sweep through the lands.
But she couldn't allow that this wasn't about her nor was it about the world if she failed here then not only would her friends die but Ruby her little sister who she swore she would protect's wonderful life would be cut unnaturally short.
Yang would do anything to ensure that that would never come to be, to ensure that Ruby could live her life past this horrible war and once again experience the joys of living.
So then out of a mixture of determination and desperation, an idea was birthed, an idea that could potentially save them all.
She told the group that if they could start up the Bullhead that she could dump their explosives as well as her arm which was powered by an advanced Atleasian dust core, it would cause a massive explosion which might buy them enough time to escape.
Yang had never mentioned her arm's capability to do this anyone before, but, they were exhausted and desperate enough to ignore their suspicions and to agree to follow through with her plan.
She then secretively assigned Jaune and Blake two people who were jaded enough and whom she trusted enough to follow through with her directives, two very undesirable but necessary tasks.
Sure enough, they agreed to her requests with a salute and pained smile.
Nora and Ren disengaged from the frontline in order to give them cover fire and the opportunity to begin boarding the ship, and as they all ran to leave behind the bloody battlefield, Ruby couldn't help but notice that Yang made no move to board.
"What are you doing Yang!?" she hissed
Yang turned to look at her with a sad but undeniably beautiful smile and said: "Ruby, I need you to listen to me, I need you to know that you can't blame yourself for any of the horrors this war has shown you or will show you; I need you to know sometimes bad things just happen."
"Yang now isn't the time we need to hurry," she said desperately as dragged her sister's robotic arm towards the ship.
"I love you" was all Yang said as she pushed Ruby with all her force onto the ship and her hand slipped from the redhead's grasp.
She nodded, and Blake quickly proceeded to start up the engines and lift the landing gear while Jaune took hold of Ruby in a firm grip.
Then through the sounds of Ruby's struggles, cries, and screams, Yang gave the ship one final salute and ran towards the approaching horde.
As she activated her semblance and ran into the fray she smiled when she could no longer hear the sounds of the fleeing Bullhead.
With renewed strength and hope she fought till she felt she could no longer stand, and the dissipating corpses of Grimm filled the battlefield.
But she was Yang Xiao Long god damn it if she was going to go down she was going to go down in style.
So through her exhaustion, she stood and then she imagined all of the death and tragedy that had befallen her life.
Her teammate Weiss's assassination during the final defense of the kingdom of Atlas, Sun's sacrifice on Menagerie, her uncle Qrow's heroic death during the siege of Mistral, her dad's death saving her from the White Fang.
The anger kept building up and with it the power of her semblance, but it wasn't enough she needed more.
Pyrrha and Penny's death at the hands of Cinder Fall at the Vital Festival, Raven abandoning her, Summer never coming home and last of all, she imagined the worst sight that she could possibly think of the lifeless corpse of her little sister.
Then she released it all.
So much Aura shot out of her screaming body that all across the world people claimed they could see the bright pillar of flames that pierced the very sky above them, the entire world stood in awe as they witnessed Yang's last stand.
And then with her body completely drained Yang collapsed, and as her consciousness began to leave her, and the few remaining Grimm approached she just said "I'm sorry Ruby, but it looks like sometimes … sometimes bad things just happen."
Epilogue:
Years later after the horrible war that would come be to known as the War for Humanity the world found itself in a great time of peace and prosperity and the dark days of the past were all but forgotten.
However, on that day, a single middle-aged woman with dark red hair and silver eyes walked across a field.
This field was so unusually beautiful and decorated with bountiful yellow flowers that it had become known as the Yellow Sea and at the center of this renowned place stood a single unwavering tree.
The woman stopped suddenly as she reached it.
She walked towards it and at its base found an undisturbed old bloodied Atleasian mechanical arm, and as she picked up the old tool from its resting place, she could only think of one thing, some of last few words she had ever heard from the equipment's owner.
The woman choked back a sob, and in steadiest voice, she could muster said: "Sometimes bad things just happen."