you're lost, you're found
rosabelle
"You did it, sis."
"Yeah," Yang said. "I guess I did."
Everything hurt, and she was sticky where three sweat-dampened bodies pressed up into hers. Around them, Haven Academy was a wreck. Half the population of Menagerie was still milling around on the front lawn. Lights still flashed from the Mistral police ships that circled overhead. Emerald and Mercury and Hazel were gone. Cowards.
But Haven was safe, and no one had died.
The relic wasn't what she expected. Not that Ozpin had been upfront about, well, anything, but Yang had been picturing something more... useful. Like a sword. Or maybe a book (it was the relic of knowledge). A dusty old tome would've made more sense than a lamp.
Whatever it was, it was with Qrow right now. He was with Oscar, tending to the kid, who seemed to have collapsed from exhaustion. Despite what Raven said, Yang trusted Qrow. She wasn't sure about Oz anymore, but she trusted Ruby and Ruby trusted Oz. That was enough. For now.
Maybe she should've held onto it.
"Yang?"
"I'm okay," she said.
At least Qrow cared enough to help her carry this burden. When the time had come to make a choice, Raven had left. Again. Yang had expected it, and she had no one but herself to blame for wanting anything else. Raven would always leave her. It was what she did. Yang knew this. She had better family than Raven now, and still. Still. She wished that Raven hadn't let her step into that vault.
"No," Ruby said. "You're not."
Arms encircled her again, and Yang closed her eyes. This was her little sister, all grown up. Even having been there to watch it happen, Yang couldn't believe it sometimes.
"I will be," she said, and leaned into the hug as more arms joined it.
"This is nice," Ruby said, leaning her head against Yang's shoulder. Behind her, Weiss had one arm wrapped around Ruby's waist. Her other stretched across the girl's shoulders, so that her fingertips brushed against Yang's arm.
Her arm.
Yang raised her head. Still in Ruby's grasp, she looked around the wreckage. She hadn't waited around to see what Mercury had done with her arm. She hoped the little shit hadn't stolen it. She wouldn't put it past him.
He hadn't, actually. It was on the ground, bright colors stark against the muted greens and browns of the front hall. It lay at the base of the staircase, not so far from where Yang had sprinted past Mercury and Emerald on her way to the vault. Discarded next to it were Crescent Rose and Weiss's rapier Myrtenaster
"My arm," she said.
"I'll get it."
Blake was the one to rise and retrieve it. She paused to sheathe Gambol Shroud, which also lay on the ground (Yang wondered what she'd missed while she'd been down in the vault), and then returned with Yang's arm cradled carefully in her hands.
Their eyes met, and she bit her lip. "It's pretty cool," she offered hesitantly, still standing.
"Yeah." Yang plucked her arm from Blake and popped it back into place, listening for the quiet whir as it reengaged. "You left."
Blake's ears twitched as she knelt. "I came back."
Slowly, Yang nodded.
"Sun and I came here to stop Adam." Blake dipped her chin. "He got away. I'm sorry. We couldn't go after him."
Yang didn't remember that night at Beacon, not much. Ruby had different holes in her memory and Weiss... Yang had never asked. What Yang had were nightmarish splinters of memory here and there, of fear and white-hot pain and bone-deep grief, and those were enough to make her fingers tremble. Adam had taken something from her that she could never replace or recover, but that wasn't the loss that had hurt the most that night.
"It's okay," she heard herself say. She'd forgiven herself and Blake, the day she and Weiss had had their heart-to-heart, and she hadn't realized it until now. "We'll get him. Someday. We'll get him together."