When Yang was young, all she remembered was flames. Arching tongues of fire leapt through the sky like an arrow aiming for the sun. Her whole world was fire, bright and shining; but also wicked and harsh.
The blaze scorched the earth and everything in its path withered. Nothing was left behind but ash.
Ash… and Yang.
It had come out of nowhere and no one knew where it came from. Some said it was the "cleansing"; the final stage where humanity was truly at its worst and the gods tried to wipe the slate clean. Others said the sun was too strong for the atmosphere and it burned so viciously that it set their world aflame.
There were theories and tales, but no one knew the truth. Yang never even left the island or heard the tales. As far as she was concerned the world as she knew it was destroyed and she was all that remained.
Yang was human, she was certain of that one thing. Before the flames, before the brightness, she had a family. A small one consisting of just herself, her dad and her little sister. Occasionally her uncle dropped by to pay them a visit. She always loved Uncle Qrow and his tales.
But the day the fire swept through their land, she lost them. She didn't know if they lived and escaped to the mainland or if they'd died and joined the ashes in the ground. There was no way for her to know.
The fire didn't hurt her. As a child she wandered across the barren land without fear of being hurt. She stepped in cooling pools of lava and they were like warm water to her. She was immune to the flames and their power.
It was wonderful in a way. She sat by a burning bush and could put her hand in without fear. She could jump into the lava and go for a warm swim.
For what the world had become, she'd become like a god. Fire leapt under her command. When she willed it, flames exploded. It was her power, her strength. The flames were friendly.
But she never had to use it. There was no one out there to threaten her. To hurt her or make her scared.
Her only enemy was loneliness. For years she never saw anyone, any person or living creature. No plants grew either, except the occasional withered tree.
Sometime during the fire, she'd gotten turned around and with everything turned to ashes, she was lost. She had no idea which direction was towards the sea or more inland.
Patch wasn't a large island but for a child, the trip across could take months. WIthout a goal or destination, she wandered. She wandered for she didn't even know how long.
When she reached the other side, her eyes widened at the darkened sea. Ash had turned the sea grey. As far as she could see there was just grey and black. The occasional spark of red and then nothing.
With nowhere else to go, she turned back inland.
Now eighteen, Yang realised she was truly alone. This wasteland was her home.
And when tiny lizards with rippling tongues of fire approached her, Yang realised what this place really was. It was the ashes of a civilisation but also the birthplace of a new habitat. Her world.
Slowly the fire-creatures grew to trust and took her as one of their own. Yang became more beast than human. And she stayed, because she was happy there.
Almost all civilisation had been destroyed when fire tore through the world. Some people retreated to the sea, fire's natural enemy, to ward of the flames while others hid underground, in deep nests of caves.
Atlas only moved higher into the icy mountains to where they could not reach them.
Weiss had been young when her family travelled into the mountains. She remembered standing above in the clouds while fire raged beneath her. It was like being a god, standing above the world while it burned.
She remembered being fascinated by the colours and the beauty of destruction, even when it raged over her hometown. Fire was destructive but it was also enchanting. She couldn't take her eyes off it. She used to sneak out at night to sit on her roof and watch it.
Golden twists and flares burned through the night, sending off endless hisses of smoke. It was the most wondrous thing she'd ever seen and she was in love.
Years later, Weiss had grown up watching the fire below die down until it was nothing more than a couple of sparks. She'd grown up wishing to explore the wastelands.
Because through the smoke and the haze, she glimpsed movements. Something was living in the flames, something that logically couldn't exist but they did. No one knew a thing about the new land below them and she was determined to be the one to discover it.
So when the call came for young adventures to volunteer to journey into the wastelands, she leapt at the chance. Her father had been against her, her whole family had.
But Weiss was eighteen and free of any restrictions they tried to impose on her. Not one of them were going to stop her. She signed up the day the call came out.
The youngsters were assessed and Weiss, with her natural affinity for fencing and using dust, passed with flying colours. All of the chosen were partnered with another. They had to looked out for each other and protect each other from whatever dangers lay out there.
Her partner's name was Ilia, a pretty chameleon faunus whose eyes shone with passion. Ilia wasn't originally from Atlas but after the flames, she had grown up with them; unable to return home.
Years of forced cooperation meant that the Altesian people were more than comfortable faunus at this point. Groups like the White Fang didn't exist anymore. Weiss still held a tiny bit of fear inside her but it melt away when she saw Ilia's soft smile.
She grew to both trust and love Ilia. And Ilia grew to trust and love her too. They were the best of friends, each others only friend.
But neither of them cared. Their bond ran deep enough that Weiss knew she didn't need other friends as long as she had Ilia. And Ilia, Ilia swore she'd never leave her side.
The day of leaving arrived quicker than she realised. The years of training were over in a heartbeat and then the day arrived. They stood at the wall, a barrier created in an effort to separate the new mountain kingdom and the wastes beneath. It had been over a decade since any soul had passed over it. The air was high with tension.
Weiss held her rapier's handle with one hand and Ilia's hand with the other. Her partner was nervous, like most people around them. But Weiss felt only excitement. She'd never felt like this before. Never before had she felt happier.
And it was the most wonderful thing in the world.
