RWBY

Yang's Story

A Moment of Clarity

Shapes and figures within the dark, a land far away from the peaceful island she called home and the horrible emptiness of a void she could never fill that encompassed the hated, haunting nightmare that now defined her.

Her bright, golden hair was alight in the fires of the war to come, her eyes glowed red as the rage that filled her heart and all at once everything came crashing down as if the shattered moon above her had lost its place in orbit and plummeted down upon the world of Remnant in a hail of screams, destruction and death.

Yet even then, smothered in the pitch black of this her new reality, one single sliver of light appeared in the distance. A beacon, not unlike that of the school that had fell not so long ago, called to her over the void that separated them and it was in that moment that she heard a voice she could hardly remember, a voice so hard yet gentle that it caused her heart to stop for a moment in time when everything and nothing was clear to her burning eyes.

"Yang… I hope you'll understand some day…"

She awoke with a scream that filled the darkness of her room and almost as fast her father was there with a grip on the one and only hand she had left to hold. He had been sleeping in the chair next to her she realised, watching over her even after she had ignored his pleas to let him help, to allow him to listen and try to understand, but she knew, no one would understand.

Yang Xiao Long shifted awkwardly underneath the thin blanket even as she struggled to steady her breathing. Tears streamed down from her lilac eyes, coating her cheeks in a pattern which shimmered in the fading light of the moon as the first signs of morning began to show on the horizon and the sounds of the early birds chirping began a symphony deep within the forest that surrounded their family home, a home she had quickly learned to despise as much she loved.

This room was her prison, the house an unknown maze she could not navigate on her own and the outside world a place of danger and deceit that awaited her arrival in the form of that horrible red blade.

She blinked her eyes rapidly as if to dispel the thought of him, of that demon dressed in black who had taken a part of her both physically and mentally, who had torn her family apart once more and left her to live on without anything left of what once made her who she was. She hated him, she hated all of them and that anger was all that kept her going even as the long days confined within these four walls, this bed, this house, came and passed with the season where nothing changed and everything faded.

"Yang…? Yang!"

Taiyang's voice, her father's voice, just barely broke through the shroud of her burning anger. It was not the first time this had happened, he had been as much a prisoner to this house as she had, left alone to look over his eldest child while the younger Ruby ventured out into the world in search of answers to questions she herself had chosen to ignore and neglect. She came to miss her younger sister as the days and weeks had passed; the young Rose had often been her rock as much as she herself had once been hers, but now Ruby had others at her side to fight with her as well as a vigilant uncle who had left not long after she had, following and watching from a distance as their journey progressed, an adventure she wished she could have been a part of.

"I'm okay… It was just a dream."

She tried to sound strong, but the quiver in her voice, the tears on her face and in her eyes, told a story and a truth both of them had come to know all too well.

"You haven't slept for more than a handful of hours a night since you came home…" Taiyang stood and filled a pair of glasses with water from a jug on the bedside table, "You may not like it, but I've watched you every night, trying to understand what it is I can do to try and help you, but all I ever hear out of you is one word and the one thing I can't give you…"

"Mom" Yang said it before he had the chance, she had to, for she had accepted it and he hadn't, he never would.

Her father sighed heavily after a sip of his drink before handing the other glass over to her, the slight hesitation he had to let go of the cool cylinder until he was sure she had a good grip of it all too obvious, though she couldn't hold it against him, it wasn't his fault; she had kept telling herself it was her own.

Yang took a long swig of her own water, refusing to shut her eyes as she did so out of fear that if she shut them again, she would see his face, hear his voice and feel his blade as it took both her arm and her best friend away from her.

Most nights, her nightmares had been of that moment when Adam Taurus had taken advantage of her rage to beat her with naught but a swing of his blood red sword. She could still hear the sound of her own scream as it had happened, but it was the phantom pain, the feel of the arm she no longer had that had truly broken her even so long after that dreaded day had come to pass.

Sometimes she wondered what would have happened if things had gone differently, if she had stayed her hand and thought out her plan of attack before executing it in a way that would have seen the leader of the White Fang fall and allow her to rescue Blake from his wrath all at once without putting either of them in danger. It had only been that split second of fury that had led her fail, when her eyes burned with an overwhelming anger for revenge against the man who had hurt her teammate and was readying himself to make the final blow against her. She remembered hearing the voice of the Faunus even as they both lay on the cold, hard ground defeated and exhausted, begging for forgiveness for what she was about to do.

Blake had left her not long after, disappearing into the smoke and ruin of Beacon to not be seen nor heard from again since the battle's end. Yang had dared to hope early on that her friend would return to her, but it only dawned on her soon after that this was not the first time she had been left behind like this, no, but it had been the catalyst that had led to the once happy girl she used to be too disappearing into the fogs of the past, for in the end she had seen a truth long supressed by the loved ones she had surrounded herself with throughout her life, the ones that mattered most never did come back.

"I wish I could tell you Raven had a good reason for leaving like she did. Your mom was never an easy one to read, but I'll be damned if she wasn't as stubborn as cornered Ursa with more fight in it than sense…" Taiyang gestured toward a loan bird perched out on a nearby branch as he spoke, "…Or as good as her name, a raven nesting in a tree that'll just as soon be fire wood as it'll be a home." Yang almost smiled at the comparison, he may as well have been describing herself to an extent, though deep down she knew better, she didn't think herself capable of being as steadfast as her mother.

"Maybe if I was as strong as her, I wouldn't be here now… like this…" Yang clutched at the stub of her arm forcefully, welcoming the sting of the phantom pain that lingered there and gritted her teeth against the anger she felt every time she made herself feel it.

"Yang..." he called to her solemnly and placed his own hand on her shoulder, "Whatever about your mother isn't worth my daughter's life. I don't want to see the little girl I've watched grow up into what Raven was when she left; you deserve better than that and I know she would have wanted the same because she told me so when you were born…" Taiyang stood as he spoke, but never took his eyes away from her own, "I've let Raven go like I did Ruby, I let your Uncle Qrow go after them both while I took a back seat, but I won't let history repeat itself this time… I won't lose you like I, we, lost Summer…"

Yang felt a jolt run through her heart at the sound of her father's grief. Perspective hit her as hard as a blow to the stomach in that moment and she embraced it for all it was worth, knowing for the first time since her return home that she was not the only one broken by the world she had chosen to throw herself into when she decided to become a Huntress like her parents before her.

She flashed on an image of Ruby when they were still very young; on Summer Rose and her heartfelt smiles that brightened her days more than most anything else in the little world they had built for themselves on Patch in what seemed like a lifetime ago. All at once the memories flooded her mind's eye in a tsunami of feeling she had not felt since that moment at Beacon when her arm was lost to her and once more her eyes burned red, red like her mother's before her.

Yang clenched her hand into a fist even as she threw her legs over the side of the bed and tossed the blanket along with them. A moment later she was standing, allowing the strength to return to the stiff limbs which had hardly seen any use in the long time between the battle and her exile, yet remained strong and ready for when they would be needed again to fight another foe far greater than those who had come before, herself.

Walking over to her dresser, she pulled at the top drawer and removed a pair of dark grey cargo pants to replace the pyjama shorts she was quick to discard and replace, as difficult as it was, before reaching back in to take a pair of socks and pausing before turning back to face her father.

"Dad… can you…?"

Taiyang nodded with a small smile as Yang took a seat back at the edge of her bed and lifted each of her feet in turn so he could put her socks on her as well as tie the laces of the pair of white sneakers that sat next to the bedside table. He then took a hold of a tan coloured jacket which hung loose on the handle of the door and tied the right sleeve up using the buckles on its end before putting it around his daughter's shoulders and helping to set her arm comfortably without upsetting the fresh bandages from the night before.

It was only at that moment did they both feel and notice the red in Yang's eyes return to the bright shade of lilac they had been before he sudden rush of emotional strength. It was only a small thing, but to her especially, allowing her father at least a bit of time to do this for his daughter felt liberating enough to give her hidden smile enough of a push to show itself finally, as well as allow the tears she had been holding back for far too long to fall down her cheeks as she ducked her head and hid her gaze.

He embraced her then and held her close as she let her low cries echo off the walls in the silence of her room. It may not have been enough to fully quell the sorrow that yet festered in her soul, but for a brief moment of clarity, her heart, at least, felt lightened and free to beat once more.

"Thanks, Dad…" Yang whispered into his shoulder between her gentle sobbing.

"It's alright, Firecracker…" he spoke the nickname Qrow had often used for her with fondness, a smile and a tightening of his arms around her shoulders, "…I've got you."

Disclaimer: RWBY and all associated characters, locations and themes are the property of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC.