"I'd love to dance with you." Blake gave a gentle smile that caused her heart to race and took the proffered hand. "You look beautiful tonight."
"Not as beautiful as you!" She giggled back. She couldn't help herself, her faunus partner was just so entrancing. "I just figured, with this being your favorite song, you'd love to dance to it."
The ravenette gave her a surprised look and allowed herself to be pulled close.
"How did you know?"
With Blake's left hand in her right, she placed her other hand on the faunus' waist. The ravenette placed her free arm on top of her left, using the free hand to gently caress her upper arm.
"You told me during the first Vytal dance. I was wondering why you were sitting out a dance. You told me it was your favorite song and you just wanted to listen to it."
"That was two years ago, Yang!"
Swirling around together through the middle of the dance floor, the two partners grinned at each other. While Blake wore a perfectly fitted suit with coat tails and a boutonniere, she was dressed a little more extravagantly. In contrast with the white dress she wore to the first Vytal dance, this time she was wearing a ruffled yellow ballgown with black trim. Despite the way they were attired, she was leading while Blake was swept up in the dance.
"And?" She raised her right arm, spinning the shorter faunus under it. "Why would I forget anything about you? How could I forget anything about you?"
The faunus hummed as she was pulled in closer, amber eyes twinkling. "Do you remember what I told you after that?"
"That you'd only dance to this song once you found someone special."
"So I did. And now I'm dancing with you." Grinning coyly, the faunus reached up and swept her blonde bangs out of her eyes. "You remembered that and asked me to dance anyways. Is there something you need to tell me, Yang?"
"I…" She blushed at Blake's implications and turned away. "I'm just glad we have this one last night to relax before our mission tomorrow."
"Is that all?"
"No… I."
They both stopped as the song started to wind down. Holding eye contact, she leaned slightly towards her partner.
As the ravenette leaned towards her, they closed the distance. Lips mere inches from each other, nothing could ruin this moment.
"Yang, wake up."
Lilac eyes fluttered open slowly. Rolling towards the source of the voice, she squeezed her eyes shut once she saw the familiar red cloak.
"Go away, Ruby."
"Yang, please. It's been a week and you haven't gotten out of bed." The silver-eyed girl pleaded with her. "The council is getting restless, they need your statement and report of the mission."
"No." She replied flatly. "I didn't want to wake up."
"Yang…"
"Go away!"
"Ruby, go get ready. I'll handle this." A third voice spoke. The clack of heels and the creeping cold that entered the room was a clear indicator of who it was.
"Go away, Weiss."
"No. Not happening." The heiress spoke sternly. "Get up now."
She felt the warm comforter get ripped off of her. As the chill of early morning pressed in on her she quickly sat up in anger and stared down the one who dared rouse her.
"Why you-!" A cool, delicate hand landed on her mouth surprising her enough to silence her.
"I'm here to notify you that unless you show up to give your statement at 1100 hours today, you will be summoned by force." Dropping a stamped paper in her lap, the heiress turned on her heel and walked back out the door. As Weiss stopped briefly to snag Ruby's hand, intertwining their fingers together, she turned back again. "Don't worry. We'll be with you the entire time."
"Thank you for joining us, Miss Xiao Long." Ozpin addressed her calmly. "This won't take long, we just need your statement, as well as another matter we need to address."
"Another matter?" She looked up through tired eyes.
"We'll get to that after your report." A women sitting at the council bench facing her and the rest of her team spoke in a clipped manner. Besides the woman and Ozpin, the two other members of the Vale council sat at the bench as well. "This council is very busy. Proceed."
Standing slowly, she felt Weiss and Ruby each place a hand on her.
"We were assigned to locate and destroy one of the transmitters that the White Fang had been setting up across the countryside. Since the CCT towers were rebuilt, their security was tightened to prevent access by illegal parties. So the White Fang improvised and started setting up their own networks."
Taking a quick pause, she squeezed her sister's hand.
"The mission was going flawless, we managed to liberate the town from White Fang control and evacuate everyone before reinforcements could arrive. Local militia members attempted to assist us, but we forced them to retreat with the rest of the villagers. Everything was going well until the White Fang came back and started dropping bombs.
"That's when…" She stuttered shaking tears from her eyes. "That's when it went to hell."
Retreating back into her memories, she relived that last moment.
"Look out!" The explosion hurled her across the courtyard.
Landing heavily on her side, she looked up just in time to scramble out of the way as the town's belltower came crashing down on top of where she had landed. Thankfully, her Aura had absorbed the damage from the explosion and the landing, though her shoulder would probably be sore the next few days.
The explosion had the secondary effect of feeding her semblance, making the next White Fang soldier that attacked immediately regret his actions. The man, the same lieutenant she had seen around Adam, and apparently defeated Weiss their first year, was a talented and powerful fighter. Maybe against any other third year, he could have prevailed, but she was Yang Xiao Long, and she was very pissed off.
Effortlessly blocking the man's chainsaw sword with the Ember Celica gauntlet on her cybernetic arm, her follow up cross slammed into the faunus' elbow. Although his Aura blocked the damage, her punch was strong enough to inflict enough pain to cause the man to howl in agony and drop his sword. With the man staggered, she rolled into a figure-eight pattern, unleashing a barrage of punches. Twisting about she kicked up one of her opponent's legs and stomped her heel into his other knee with a satisfying crunch. As he dropped she brought her fist down in one last punch, driving the man into the ground and leaving a crater in the cobblestone.
"Yang! There you are!"
Eyes flashing back from red to lilac she whirled around to see the smallest member of her team running towards her. Almost 3 years after they started working together, Weiss still wore almost all white, no matter what situation she found herself in.
"Oh hey, Weiss!" Dusting herself off she offered a fist out. Despite scowling back the heiress indulged her, giving her a light bump with her own fist. "I think I solved one of your problems for you."
Peering down into the crater, Weiss reeled back slightly. "I think you went a little overboard. But thank you."
"What can I say, I take pride in my work." She smiled at her shorter counterpart. "Come on, let's find Blake and Ruby."
"They went after some Grimm on the north side of town. Ruby thought that was where the White Fang transmitter was, and Blake is the one most familiar with their technology. After we saw you get thrown by that explosion, I came to help you."
"Aw, you do care!" She stepped forward embracing the white-haired girl in a tight embrace.
"Not now, you oaf!" Weiss squeaked out, giving her a rough shove. "Let's go!"
"Alright, alright."
Making their way through the crumbled remains of the town, eliminating the stragglers of the White Fang raiding party as they went. Hearing the sound of fighting getting louder, they rounded the last corned.
She gasped in panic. Her sister was in a desperate battle for her life. Despite the scattered bodies of White Fang soldiers and pieces of hijacked knights and paladins lying across the battlefield, Ruby was still up against several remaining paladins by herself. As a lucky punch hurled the cloaked girl backwards several meters something else caught her eye.
Behind the paladins, where the transmitter still stood undamaged, was several White Fang soldiers including the red-haired demon that cut off her arm.
"Adam…" She growled, feeling her ire raise once again. Releasing a shockwave of fire out from herself she screamed across the battlefield. "Adam!"
Turning towards her, the faunus gave her a bone-chilling smile. Reaching down, he pulled a body off the ground and held it high with one hand before plunging his dark red blade into the body. Letting the corpse tumble from his grip, it spun around give her a clear look at it's face.
"No… Blake…"
As Blake's body hit the ground her vision blurred to nothingness.
"And that's the last you remember?" One of the other men behind the bench inquired.
She just gave a quick nod before seating herself again.
"According to the rest of the statements, the mission was a success." The second councilman spoke. "The village was liberated, the transmitter was destroyed, 6 stolen paladins destroyed, 5 by the hand of Miss Xiao Long, and 4 of the most dangerous White Fang lieutenants either captured or killed, all, once again, by the hand of Miss Xiao Long."
"Unfortunately, a member of your team, one Blake Belladonna, was declared KIA by eye witness testimony." The woman spoke again. "Although no body was recovered, the statements are considered official record. Our condolences for your loss."
Their condolences. Fancy words with no meaning. No matter how sincere they may be, no words could bring back Blake. She was dead.
"And now the matter of your commendation." The first man spoke, walking down to stand in front of where she sat. "For your selfless effort in defense of our kingdom, as well as extraordinary conduct in battle, we hereby present you the Shield of Vale. As a recipient of this medal you receive the same honor and privileges bestowed on all previous recipients."
He opened the small felt lined box in his hands to reveal a small golden shield with the crest of Vale embossed in silver. The Shield of Vale was one of the hardest commendations to receive, most feats required self sacrifice to even be considered. And they were just giving one to her.
Pulling the medal out to inspect it closer, ignoring the silent protests of the councilman, she brought it up to only a few centimeters from her face. From the reflection in the small silver crest she caught a hint of purple, the reflection of her irises. Closing her eyes and slowing inhaling and exhaling she opened her eyes and stared back at the medal. Glints of red gleamed back.
"I refuse." She lowered the medal away from her face. "I don't deserve this."
"Of course you do." The councilwoman responded. "You are a shining example of what it means to be a Huntress."
"NO I DON'T!" She stood and slammed the medal down onto the table in front of her, shattering the wooden frame. The tendrils of flame streaming from her hair threatening to ignite the shards. "This means nothing! It won't bring her back. Blake is dead!"
Casting the bent medal aside she stormed out of the building, intent on returning to bed, and her dreams, as soon as she could.
"Blake?!" She lowered her gauntlets and stepped around the evaporating Boarbatusk Alpha she had just killed. She had been helping kill the remaining Grimm infesting Beacon for the last few months. The goal was to have the school cleared out and rebuilt by the middle of the summer, so students could return for the second semester.
Cautiously approaching the faunus, lest she disappeared again. "Is that really you?"
"Hello, Yang…" Blake looked down, avoiding eye contact.
Reaching out with her right, cybernetic hand, she lightly brushed Blake's cheek, recoiling when the ravenette flinched slightly.
"You've been gone 6 months. You ran away for 6 months, and all you have to say is, 'hello'?" She demanded. "Do you know how much it hurt when you ran off on me? I would have followed you to the ends of Remnant, and fought every one of your demons for you. But you never even gave me the chance. Instead, you left when I needed you the most!"
"I… didn't want you to get hurt on my behalf again." Blake looked back up, tears in her eyes. "I almost lost you once and I don't think I could have gone through that again."
"Well I did get hurt again, by you." She could feel the anger rising in her. The surrounding area was starting to heat up and her Aura exuding more heat in response to her emotions.
"I missed you so much, Yang." Tears now flowing freely from Blake's eyes. Leaping forward and clutching her tightly. "I promise to never leave you again."
"I'd never let you go again anyways." She embraced the faunus back. "I'll stay with you for-"
"Wake up, Yang" A sharp voice pierced the air.
"No no no…" She groaned out. "Why would you wake me?"
"You need to eat." Weiss set a bed table over her lap with food on it. "And you may be able to fool Ruby, but I'm going to stay until you actually have something to eat."
"Not hungry. I want to go back to sleep." She wiped her eyes as tears started to leak out. "She's still alive in my dreams. I just want to sleep."
"Yang…. You're a mess." The harsh expression on the heiress' face melted away, replaced with concern. "You haven't even touched food in several days. What's Ruby going to do if she loses her sister too?"
"It doesn't matter. She has you to take of her now."
"She still needs you too!"
"Just leave me alone."
"Not until you eat!"
"Alright." She mumbled out. "I'll eat as long as you leave me alone."
"Ok… I'll check on you in a little bit."
Turning around the snow-haired girl exited the room, softly closing the door behind her.
Looking down, she pushed around the food that Weiss had placed in front of her. Forcing down a few bites, she immediately felt sick. Placing her fork down, she barely managed to hear the quiet voices filtering in through the closed door.
"She's still getting worse, Ruby."
"It's only been 6 weeks. She just needs more time."
"She needs help. She barely gets out of bed for anything, and she rarely eats."
"I don't think you understand how much she loved Blake. What would you do if you lost me?"
"I… I don't know what I would do with myself. Alright, we'll give her more time, but she needs help soon."
"Hey Weiss."
"Yes?"
"She mentioned that she's been dreaming backwards, from their last moment together, when they kissed at the dance, towards when they first met. What do you think will happen when she runs out of memories?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe that's what she needs to get better."
"That girl…" Ruby spoke, directing her attention to a raven-haired girl sitting against the far wall with a book.
"Do you know her?" As she focused on the the girl her heart stopped. She was the most beautiful person she had ever seen.
"Not really. She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could say anything."
'Whelp, here goes nothing.' She thought to herself.
"Well, here's your chance!' Grabbing her sister, she dragged the smaller girl over. She just needed an excuse to talk to this mystery girl.
"Hello!" She sang out as they approached. "I believe you two may know each other?"
Quickly losing track of the conversation as she was entranced by the girl's amber eyes, she was brought back in as her sister awkwardly flailed about like usual. It was her chance to make a move.
"So… What's your name?
The girl sighed. "Blake."
"Well, Blake. I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister! I like your bow!" She kicked herself internally, what kind of pickup line was that?
"Thanks…" Blake seemed irritated, time to try again.
"It goes great with your… pajamas!"
"Right…" Still not working, hopefully third time was the charm.
"Nice night, don't ya think?"
"Yes, it's lovely." The irritation on the faunus' face clearly visible now. "Almost as lovely as this book. That I will continue to read. As soon as you leave!"
Finally admitting temporary defeat, she whispered over to Ruby. "Yeah, this girl's a lost cause."
Instead of turning to leave with her, Ruby starting talking to Blake about books instead. A conversation that inexplicably ended in a play fight between her and her sister.
"What on earth is going on over here?!" A shrill voice called out, interrupting their scuffle. "Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"
Looking over, she saw a short, lithe, white-haired girl who proceeded to argue with the two of them until Blake blew out her candle, cloaking them in darkness.
Leading Ruby back to their bedrolls, she snuggled back into her sleeping bag and turned to her sister.
"Hey, Ruby."
"Yeah, sis?"
"That's her. That's the girl I'm going to spend the rest of my life with."
"That's great." Her sister grumbled back. "I don't think she likes you though."
"It'll be fine. I just have this feeling, ya know?"
"Ugh, go to sleep, Yang"
"Wake up, Yang." She could hear Ruby's voice.
"Yang, wake up." And Weiss' too.
When she refused to move, two pair of hands started shaking her.
"We just wanted to let you know that we were called on alert. We've found the last White Fang base." Weiss spoke loudly, preventing her from drifting back into sleep. "We have to leave now but, if all goes well, we should be back by tomorrow morning."
"You should come. Adam will be there. You can get your revenge."
"Ruby, Yang has barely gotten out of bed in the last two months, much less trained."
"So? We can help her."
"No." She interjected weakly, her voice quiet and hoarse. "Revenge won't bring Her back. Nothing can. Just go on without me."
"But, Yang…" Ruby pleaded. "We need you to get better."
"I will get better. Like Weiss said a few weeks ago, I just needed to reach that last memory. I dreamt of the first time I ever saw Blake."
"Are you sure, Yang?" Weiss glared at her suspiciously.
"Yeah, I'm sure I won't dream anymore."
"Ok."
"We'll see you in less than a day!" Ruby smiled and turned towards the door.
"Hey guys… sisters" She sat up in her bed, tangled bangs falling in her eyes. "I love you both."
"Love you too, big sis." Ruby smiled back at her.
"I love you too, Yang… big sis…" Weiss ducked her head hiding the blush on her face.
Listening for the front door to close and lock, she stumbled out of bed. Teetering on legs that hadn't seen exercise in months she slowly made her way across the house and down the stairs to the in home infirmary that Weiss insisted they had.
She hadn't lied to them, not really. She was going to get better. Of course, anything was better than the pain she was feeling. And she was absolutely certain she wouldn't dream again, or have to wake up ever again.
Using her scroll to look up the necessary medications, she easily found the bottle she was looking for. Closer the door the the cabinet she saw her reflection for the first time in over a month.
He was proud visage was ruined. Dull, tangled locks surrounded her head in an oily halo, obscuring most of her features. Above her gaunt cheeks sat two lusterless, bloodshot eyes that peered out of the blonde mess, not a trace of hope or happiness to be found.
Turning away she made her way back to her room. She already had her note prepared there. The obligatory goodbye that told her survivors that it wasn't their fault. She just couldn't go on living anymore. She had to hope for one last chance of seeing Blake.
Laying back down she twisting open the bottle and eagerly swallowed as many pills as she could, gulping them down with several glasses of water. As the darkness crept up on her, she smiled for the first time in two months. She would be seeing her beloved soon.
"Yang!" A sad voice spoke up from behind her. "What's wrong?"
Spinning on her heel, she managed to hold back her shock as her eyes fell on the last person she expected to see, and the one that she wanted to see most.
"Blake!" She ran to the faunus, sweeping her up and spinning her around. "I hoped I would see you."
"I want you to know how much I love you. How much I need you."
"Of course I know that!" She exclaimed. "I never wanted us to be separated. It's my fault you died. I should have been by your side the entire time."
"It's not your fault. I wanted vengeance for you. When Adam cut off your arm, it was more than a limb that he took. He showed me that all my mistakes, all my demons could come back to harm you, the one person I wished to protect the most. I never wanted you to get hurt again. So When I saw him in that final battle, I wanted to redeem you. I wanted to show you that I could protect you from my past."
"Blake I would've fought them with you. I would've stayed by your side no matter what."
"That's the sad part. I promised I would never leave you again and yet, I abandoned you. I should've been the one to check on you after the explosion. Weiss and Ruby would've still been fighting the Paladins and you and I would have fought Adam together."
"It doesn't matter anymore." Yang smiled down at the girl in her arms. "We're here together now. And will be, forever."
"Please, Yang. I need you back. Please come back to me!" Blake looked back up at her, amber eyes shining with tears. "I can't do this without you."
"What are you talking about? I'm right here."
"Yang…" She looked down again as the weight pressing against her disappeared. Blake was gone. The faunus' voice became distant "I need you, come back to me."
"Where are you?! I'll follow you anywhere! Just tell me where you are!"
"Yang, wake up." The sobs sounded a lot closer this time. "Please wake up."
Lilac eyes fluttered open. Electronics softly beeped in the background as sounds of sobbing overran her sense. Slowly looking to her left, she saw for the first time someone she thought she would never see again.
"Blake…" She managed to croak out, her throat dry and voice crackled through days of misuse. "Is that… Is that really you?"
As the black-haired girl looked up, she got the first real look of Blake since their last mission together. An unearthly pallor had settled on the girl's face. Blake's black hair was cut short and ragged and new scars criss-crossing the ninja's visage. Tired yet hopeful eyes stared straight at her.
"Yang? Yang!" Blake immediately crashed forward onto her, throwing emaciated arms around her. Despite the faunus' frail appearance, a warmth suffused her, the first warmth she had felt in a very long.
"How? I don't understand?"
"I somehow survived Adam's attack. His blade missed killing me by only a few millimeters. I woke up at a White Fang base, but I held hope of seeing you again."
Blake collected herself before continuing.
"Then Weiss and Ruby showed up with the rest of the hunters. They killed him for us, Yang. They saved me. Then they got home just in time to save you too."
"I'm sorry." She sobbed into Blake's neck. "I'm so sorry. I thought you were gone. I couldn't live with it anymore."
"It doesn't matter anymore. I'm here now. You should get some rest."
"No." She stated as defiantly as she could. "I never want to sleep again."
"Don't worry. I'll be here when you wake." Leaning forward Blake gently kissed her on the lips. "And now our first kiss will never be our last."