"A toast!"
Weiss held aloft her glass, and glared at the others until they did the same.
"To a job well done?" asked Blake.
"Yes, to a job well done. What else?"
Yang began to respond. "Well, it's just that… you see, we-"
"The job's not really done," sighed Ruby. Weiss lowered her glass, because she knew Ruby was right. They had successfully wiped out the Grimm that Torchwick's plan had released into the city. But they had no idea why.
"If anything, we just learned that we've got a lot more work to do," Blake sighed.
"Fine, then. How about a toast to pretending that our job has been well done?"
This suggestion was met with more support, and the girls slugged back their soft drinks in a gesture with little remaining meaning. Having spent the day cleaning the city of Vale up from the battle, they needed food, which is why they found themselves in the dingiest corner of the only bar still open in town. The tables were greasy, and so were the fries, but they had decided that they were not going to drag themselves all the way back to campus before they had something to eat- sacrifices in quality were to be expected.
The food did its job, however, and the growling holes in their stomachs were quickly appeased. Weiss paid the bill and Yang left the tip, and soon the quartet was mobile again, walking into the dimly-lit night, the shattered moon overhead not unlike the city's new collection of ruined buildings. Ruby's foot took a keen interest in some of the newly-arranged, shadow-veiled rubble, and decided to topple her towards the ground. Yang dove forward, but was unable to catch her sister. The smaller huntress faceplanted across the sidewalk, letting out a defeated cry. Yang dropped to the ground herself, cradling her sister in her arms. Blake and Weiss sprinted back a few yards to join them.
"Oh, no! Are you okay?" asked Yang.
"I'm fine, sis," groaned Ruby, wiggling out of Yang's grip. "Just tired from everything."
A thin trickle of blood on her cheek was enough for Yang to disagree.
"Hold on- you need a bandage."
"And where are we supposed to get one?" Blake grumbled.
"I've always got some on me, for fights, you know. They're right here in my…" Yang placed her hand on her hip, feeling for something that wasn't there.
"Don't tell me," sighed Weiss.
"…Hardcase, dammit. I must have left it back at the bar when I paid the tip. It's got my wallet in it, too."
"No, no, no no no!" protested Weiss. "We are not walking all the way back there! Do you have any idea how many times I'm going to have to wash this dress to get that smoke out?"
"I can go by myself," Yang replied. "As long as you take Ruby back to campus."
"We can do that," agreed Blake.
"And clean her face up."
"Yes, we can do that," Weiss said, rolling her eyes.
"Or, you know, I could," suggested Ruby.
"Use a disinfectant first!" called Yang, already running back.
"Don't take too long, sis!" Ruby shouted after her sister, as Yang disappeared into the dark beyond the streetlights.
Yang arrived back at the bar and was nearly bowled over by the smell of the hanging smoke. She hadn't noticed it before, but it was truly repugnant. She resisted the urge to pinch her nose shut, but she did wave her hand above her head as she asked "Has anyone seen a Hunter's hardcase? It's got a little heart emblem on it."
An arm extended from a shrouded corner booth, the hardcase perched between its fingers. Yang hurried towards the booth and grabbed the case, giving the hand's owner a quick "Thanks," before turning to leave. The hardcase did not leave with her- it remained held in place by the booth-sitter's hand.
"Sit down," a voice instructed.
Yang knew better than to trust the people that sat in the corners of bars, but she wanted her hardcase back and she knew she had a few rounds left in Ember Celica if she needed to make a statement. She let go of the hardcase and swung into the vacant side of the booth.
The arm that had previously been extended now folded inward, placing the hardcase on the center of the table, next to an ashtray full of crumpled cigarette butts. Sharp yellow eyes cut through the smoke haze, and just below them, a pair of lips parted to expose stained-yellow daggers.
"It's been a while, Yang," said the suddenly-more-familiar voice. Yang's mouth began to droop open. The smoke, her missing case, it was all beginning to connect. "You've sure gotten big."
The increase to Yang's own dimensions could not possibly compare to the giant on the other side of the table, who towered over her even while seated.
How long has it been? Seven years?
"Y-you, too," Yang stammered.
"Heh. That's an understatement," chuckled the giant, reaching into the pocket of her shirt to draw a cigarette and a lighter. The huge hand crossed to Yang's side of the table, offering the smokeable to her.
"No, thank you," said Yang, raising her hands in protest. "But maybe I can get you a drink? Strawberry Sunrise?"
"In a dump like this, you'd be lucky if they had a whiskey sour." The giant laughed some more, and Yang nervously joined in.
"You're still pretty funny, Silene."
"And you're still rocking those Huntress duds," said Silene, pulling the cigarette back to her side. She slipped it into her own mouth, its white like a scar on her pale-green skin. A flick of the lighter and a drag on the cig later, and the Faunus released a perfectly-circular smoke ring towards the hanging incandescent light, before channeling the rest of the smoke out through her nostrils.
"It's not just a costume, anymore. I'm the real deal. Just got finished with my first mission, too."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah. My team and I were the first to find out about the Grimm-splosion. We'd been hunting some clues down, but things got serious, so we jumped in and saved the day. Did a pretty good job, too," she bragged.
"Well, I suppose I have you to thank for being able to walk down the street unscathed."
"Like a Grimm could do anything to you. I think they'd catch one look and run away."
"If only people were that smart," Silene sighed.
"So, what brings you to town? Are you still working on becoming a Huntress? Or are you here for the Vytal Festival?"
Silene had worked her cigarette into nearly nothing, and let it drop from her mouth into a waiting palm. Her fingers curled inward, crushing the still-smoldering tube under her claws with the faintest of hisses.
"I'm here on business, actually."
"Really? I never imagined you going into… anything, really."
"The job's pretty laid-back," explained the dragon, running a hand through her rusty red hair.
"What do you do?"
Silene drew another cigarette, lit it, and burned through half of it in a single breath.
"I hurt folks," she explained, smoke escaping with the words.
Yang would have gulped, but didn't want to risk swallowing any of the toxic fumes. "Like, bad folks?"
"Folks my employer doesn't like."
"Oh," murmured Yang. "Oh."
Silene leaned forward across the table, the remaining half of the cigarette dangerously close to Yang's face.
"You killed all of those Grimm, saved the city. You did a good job," she hissed.
"I don't like where this is going," whimpered Yang, whose attempts to retreat were halted by the back of the booth.
"But my employer didn't appreciate it. You understand what I'm saying, don't you, Yang?"
The tobacco-stained fangs were mere inches from Yang's nose. The Huntress nodded.
"Good," smiled Silene, leaning back into her side of the booth. "Now, my employer wasn't real specific when it came to how to deal with you. You could make this real easy and convince your friends to drop outta school, change your names, take a long vacation… nobody has to get hurt."
Yang reluctantly took a deep breath, drawing in the foul fumes along with the much-needed air. Someone- probably Torchwick- had put a price on her head. On her team's heads. On Ruby's head. And Silene, of all people, was here to collect. Her guts began to churn, sickened by the cocktail of anxiety, fear, and poisonous smoke. Everything they had worked for, everything they had discovered this semester- it all would end here. It was all for nothing. There would be no more answers. They would never know what Torchwick was planning, or who the woman on the train was. Was this really how the story would end?
It can't be. I don't want it to be.
Silene crushed yet another spent cigarette in her palm. "What's it gonna be, Yang?"
"We'll give up… over my dead body!" Yang accentuate her defiance by bringing a clenched fist down onto the table. Silene blinked slowly, and dumped the remains of her smashed cigarette into the still-wobbling ashtray.
"If that's how you want it."
The Huntress rose from her seat, grabbed her hardcase, and slipped out of the booth, attempting to appear calm as she walked towards the door. Before she arrived there, a thought occurred to her. She returned to stand at the edge of the booth. Silene glared out at her sideways as she lit another cigarette.
"I'm not scared of you, Silene."
A smile returned to the Faunus' face.
"You're as dumb as ever, Yang."
Yang furrowed her brow and marched back towards the door, but the second she was out of sight, she gave up the façade and set off at full-tilt, aiming herself down the shortest path towards Beacon's campus. She ran faster than she ever had before, cutting corners, leaping over rubble, ignoring the burning in her lungs and legs. She knew Silene wasn't chasing her, but she might as well have been. Yang rocketed up the stairwell, screeched down the hall, and planned on busting through the door with her shoulder- but the door was open, which caused her to tumble onto the floor instead.
"Yang!" yelped Ruby, who hopped out of her bed and onto the floor next to her fallen sister. A drowsy-looking Weiss turned on a light, and Blake peered over the edge of her bedframe cautiously. Yang took several deep breaths before she could even begin to form her words.
"We… might… be… in… trouble," she gasped.
"What is it?" asked Weiss, some disdain in her voice.
"Torchwick… is sending… an enforcer… after us."
Blake narrowed her eyes. "You had better be kidding."
"I'm not," groaned Yang, inhaling sharply. "Ruby, you remember that old Signal friend of mine I told you about?"
"Do you mean the bad influence one?"
"Yeah… Apparently she works for Torchwick."
"I cannot deal with this right now!" wailed Weiss, burying her head in a pillow.
Ruby rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Well, we don't have to… we're probably safe as long as we're on school grounds. Right, Yang?"
"Yeah… I think so," mumbled Yang. "She doesn't want to get her hands dirtier than she has to. Breaking into the school wouldn't work for her."
Blake slinked out from under her covers, crossed to the windows, and closed the blinds. "So, we're under siege."
Without warning, Ruby leapt into the air, beaming like a lunatic. "GUYS! We're UNDER SIEGE! Do you know what this means?!"
"Um… that we're going to die?" replied Weiss.
"We get to do siege stuff! We can cook a bunch of popcorn and watch The Defense of Mistral! We can finally play Remnant: The Game with all of the expansions at once! And, best of all, we can have a-"
"Don't do it," growled Blake.
"-SIEGE-over! We'll paint each others' nails and dare each other to guess how long it'll take before we starve! Or we can tell spooky stories!"
"Or we could figure a way out of this mess," suggested Weiss.
Blake nodded in agreement. "Knowing our enemy would be a good way to start." Two icy glares were directed at Yang.
"You… want me to explain how I know her, don't you?"
"Yes," said Blake and Weiss simultaneously.
"I'll have to start at the beginning…"