Yang rides as fast as she can to Mistral on her bike. Knowing that Ruby was there, she had trained tirelessly to help her sister in the quest to stop Cinder from taking any other kingdoms. However, she comes to a stop when she sees a young man in a white scarf standing in the road.

"Hey kid! Get out of the way!" She yells.

The stranger turns around and upon seeing his face, Yang realizes exactly who she's talking to… In response, she revs up her bike with fury in her eyes.

"You… You're the one who stole my ring… I'm gonna enjoy this Loki!"

Axel sighs, "I don't use that name anymore, Lovely."

"And you don't get to call me that! Now get ready to fight for your life you scumbag!"

"Don't try it Yang, I'm not some petty thief anymore."

Yang is tired of listening and drives her motorcycle at full speed towards Axel. Axel identifies the attack and quickly draws his knife and, with a slash in a split second, cuts the front tire of the bike, sending Yang tumbling onto the road.

"And that's why you should wear a helmet," Axel remarks.

Yang spits out a bit of blood and looks up at Axel, with her eyes dyed a deep red. She punches her gauntlets together.

"That's it! I'm gonna mess you up, cat!"

Axel smirks, "hey! Don't be a racist!"

Yang snarls and rushes at Axel, swinging at him in a blind fury before being quickly tripped and pinned.

Axel gives her a smile, "I didn't want to hurt you. Can we just let the past go?"

Yang responds by punching Axel in the jaw so hard he spirals into the treetops. Yang reloads her shotgun bracelets and sent an explosive blast upwards. The shot hits its mark and detonates, leaving Yang to wait for Axel to plummet. However, a very keen observation on her part reveals that Axel was now dashing from tree to tree.

Yang stomps in a rage at Axel's seeming taunt but is caught off-guard by Axel vanishing.

"Wait… Where did he go?"

"Right behind ya!"

Yang spins around and swings at the voice but Axel deftly dodges the strike and whips his knife out, the green plasma aura giving it the eerie look of a poisoned blade. Yang tries to knock the weapon out of his hand but his quick reflexes allowed him to snatch it back after it was sent skyward.

He follows up by bouncing off a tree trunk and delivering a kick to Yang's head, quickly getting in close to deliver multiple fast-paced slashes that seemed to chain into one-another.

With a last flip, Axel changes the knife into its magnum form and shoots once, hitting Yang in the head, the strongest part of her aura, causing her to fall backwards from the force of the high-caliber round.

"I told you Yang, I'm no petty thief any more…"

Yang gets up but then notices a single blonde hair on the ground, "You… Messed up…"

Axel turns around to see what Yang was upset about.

"My… Hair!" Yang shouts to the sky as her hair lights up in flames and her eyes glow with red energy.

Yang waits for Axel to run away screaming like the first time they met but is left slightly bewildered as he doesn't. Instead Axel pats his hands together while bending over, as if attempting to summon a dog.

"Hey! C'mon, c'mon!" He taunts.

Yang's fury reaches a critical point and she dashes at him with adrenalin enhanced speed. Axel is caught off-guard by this and Yang tackles him off of a cliff, sending both of them into a lair of Grimm.

Yang's eyes return to normal as she realizes her situation. The Grimm in the valley feel her panic and hear their crash and go in, hungrily licking lips and angrily gnashing teeth. As Yang's rage drains from her eyes, Axel's semblance takes hold with his eyes turning turquoise.

He cautiously scans the area and soon pulls his knife as he walks towards Yang.

Is he going to kill me? Was I not strong enough? No… Please don't let me die here! Yang thinks as the panic fills her mind, riling up the Grimm further.

Axel raises his blade over Yang just as a Grimm beast lunges at him. With a single mighty swing, Axel intentionally misses Yang and the knife bounces off a rock at such an angle that it cuts the Grimm's throat open and continues bouncing at every Grimm in the area. Yang sticks low to the ground with her hands above her head but with Axel standing in the center of the knife storm, completely unfazed. Soon the knife jets out towards Axel himself, but with a skillful sidestep and an outstretched hand, Axel catches the rogue blade and returns it to his boot.

"You passed," he says to Yang.

"Passed? Passed what?"

"My mission was to judge your skill. While you lack the discipline and focus to be a Strider, your skill, strength and speed were all top-notch."

Yang furrows her brow, "And how did you judge that by mopping the floor with me?"

Axel smirks his lovable smirk, "You got a hit in. Better yet, you got three, making you a cut above the average huntress, keep at it beauty."

And with the press of a button, Axel vanishes like a reflection in a broken mirror.