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The fall of Beacon. Something that nobody could have ever predicted.
No one ever expected how such a symbol of hope and peace could become the center of a battlefield.
Dozens are now gone, the flames of the battle extinguished over the course of the night.
Now, months have passed.
And one of the heroes who ended the fighting has vanished.
She has not died. Merely taking on a new adventure.
Finding the ones that caused the fresh pain in her life.
On her journey, she takes friends that also survived the fall.
But as she does this, she leaves behind those closest to her. Family, friends and more.
The hero's sister has been crippled and bedridden up until the last few months.
Here at her homestead on the island of Patch on the coasts of the city of Vale, she feels that she can't do anything.
She is wrong.
Opening her eyes, Yang stared at the blank ceiling that had been greeting her every day for the past few months.
Shuffling herself, she used her good arm to steady herself and push herself against her pillow, sitting straight up.
She glanced out the window to her right and saw that the sun was already beginning to rise over the horizon.
It was the beginning of the second week in August. Ten months to the day since the fall of Beacon.
Taking her gaze away from the window, Yang glanced across the room and saw the empty bed next to her's.
She moved back into the room last month, wanting something of her sister to be close to her.
Every morning she wants to wake up to find the younger girl snoozing in her bed.
Yang knew that in the time between the fall, and the time that Ruby left, her birthday came and passed. Sixteen years. Now every day that passed, she was getting closer and closer to seventeen.
She couldn't help but think about the fact that it would have been the age that she could have been able to enroll in Beacon, but she had already managed to do that, years in advance.
Looking over to the shelf next to the window by Ruby's own bed, she examined the grimm figures that sat on the top shelf.
One of the beowolves faced directly towards Yang. Staring at the bone structured face of the creature, an image flashed across her mind.
The look of the swordsmen that ended any chance of her continuing the dream of herself becoming a huntress.
Her arm flared with a low burning pain. Looking away from the grimm figure, she looked to the single gauntlet that sat on her nightstand.
Shaking her head, she swung her legs over the side of her bed pushed the covers forward.
Grabbing a second pair of clothes from her drawer, she pressed them to her side with her right bicep.
Opening the door and walking over to the bathroom across the hall, she placed the change of clothes on the counter top.
She shut the door and turned on the shower.
Removing the bandage from her nub, she looked at the bottom of it in the reflection of the mirror. It was almost fully healed, just a few more weeks at this point. Well, as healed as it was going to be.
Slipping off her clothes carefully, she stepped into the shower.
In the shower, she made sure not to let her mind drift off anywhere that she didn't want it to go to. She knew that the shower was one of the places that the mind loved to go wild.
She had struggled with the shampoo and conditioner. She had stopped reaching for things with her right arm months ago, and she was already becoming pretty decent with her left handed writing. It was beginning to stop looking like random scribbles that are poorly drawn by a two year old.
Turning off the water and exiting the shower, she slipped into the second pair of clothes. A pair of long dark gray combat pants with small patches on each leg, on the right being a small cartoon bumblebee, and the other on the left leg being a small red rose in front of a white backdrop. The four colors of her team all being represented as one... even though now they were all separated.
She then slipped on her sports bra, not wanting to deal with trying to clip the back of it together. After that, she slipped on an orange tank top that showed off her stomach.
Walking out of the bathroom, she turned off the lights and shut the door behind her.
Tossing her dirty clothes back into the hamper in her room, she walked downstairs, smelling the breakfast that he dad was making in the kitchen.
As she reached the bottom of the steps, her father turned around and smiled to his daughter.
"Morning, Fireball." He called out to her.
Yang walked over to the island in the center of the kitchen and leaned her one arm down against the corner.
"Mornin', Dad." She greeted back in the usual unenthusiastic voice that she had attained ever since the disaster. "What's cooking?"
"Some bacon and eggs. Take a seat, they'll be ready in a few." Taiyang hadn't been the same since Ruby left either. His voice had been laced with worry since the moment he found the note lying on Ruby's bed. Even though things weren't going well, he tried to keep a positive attitude around Yang and when he went to go teach at Signal.
Yang pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down. After waiting for a short time, Taiyang slipped a plate of bacon and two eggs done sunny side up.
Using only a fork, she quickly devoured the eggs before savoring the strips of crispy bacon.
"Hungry today are we?" Taiyang asked his daughter.
Yang looked at him questionably, and then looked at her plate and saw that she already only had one strip of bacon left, while her dad was only halfway through his second egg.
Yang swallowed the bit of bacon that was in her mouth before she responded. "I guess so."
"That's good." He commented. "You haven't been eating much in the past few months. You need to build your strength back up."
Yang stopped chewing on her last piece of bacon when he said that.
"What for?" she asked.
Taiyang stared at his daughter blankly. "What do you mean 'what for'?" he asked. "You can't let this incident hold you down, Yang. That's not like you."
"But what will I be able to do? There's no way I can take on anything with only one arm. Sure, I can train my body back to where it was before, but what good will I be if I can only throw one punch at a time?" She glared at her dad.
Tai looked to the ground and sighed. "Alright. I won't pry anymore or push you to do anything." He said as he finished his food. He stood up from the table and placed his plate in the sink to be washed later.
"I'm needed at the school today for a meeting about the CCTs. Your Uncle is supposed to be there as well, but he hasn't been heard from in months either. He probably went out and followed your sister to make sure that she stays alright. But knowing him, I doubt he'll do much to help out along the way. Anyway, take it easy today, Fireball. I'll see ya tonight." He said as he gave her a smile and walked out the front door.
Yang sat up from her own seat with the final strip of bacon hanging out of her mouth and placed her own plate in the sink.
She walked over to a door across from the kitchen and opened it. Inside was a staircase that lead down to the basement of the house.
She began to descend the creaky wooden steps and was enveloped in darkness.
Her bare foot made contact with the cold stone floor, and she tugged on the string of the light that hung above her.
The dim light illuminated the room.
In the center of the room, hanging from the ceiling with a stool and table sitting nearby was a punching bag that looked to be torn in multiple places, but not enough for the sand to pour out. In short words, the thing was beaten to hell.
It was obvious that it was Yang's handy work when she was training. Walking over to the sand bag, she stared it down for many moments.
Yang looked at the nub of her right arm and imagined herself giving the sandbag a strong hook. It was always apparent that her right arm had a powerful hit than her left. But ever since she went to Beacon, she had trained her left arm more than the right at times to even them out in power.
Whenever she imagined punching something, she would think about the trouble and strife that she had gone through in the past. But now, it was just too overpowering.
An image of her team flashed across her mind now. Yang closed her eyes, trying to fully remember the picture. One of the pictures that Yang had taken of the four of them was just after the breach of Vale after they stopped the invasion... or so they thought. They were all so happy then.
Moments passed, and Yang reopened her eyes.
The punching bag was now smashed against the wall facing Yang. The leather straps that were attached to the chain that was hanging it from the ceiling were now completely torn, the chain swinging around in circles.
Yang's own left arm was now extended straight out. She could feel her aura coursing through her body, and her hair flaring around her neck.
She lowered her arm and took a deep breath as she began to calm down.
She looked at her arm and sighed. "So you can do that, but you can't heal the other one." she said to her aura, not expecting a response at all.
Turning around to the stairs, she made a mental note to clean that up later. She turned off the light by tugging on the string, and made her way up the steps.
When she closed the door, she saw that the mail was just slipped through the slit in the door. Grabbing the small stack of papers, she placed them all on the table.
When she did, a single letter slipped out of the step and made itself more notable than the others. With it being completely black, and the return address being a single word written in a silver ink.
Qrow
Grabbing the letter, Yang was surprised to get word from her Uncle who also up and vanished.
Yang saw that it was addressed mainly to her.
Yang went to open the letter, but rolled her eyes when she reached to open it with her right arm.
Tearing the letter open carefully with her teeth, she shook the letter out of the envelope.
Inside was a small letter and a news article.
Hey, Firecracker.
Sorry I haven't been around lately to help ya through this.
I've been tailing your sister and friends for the past few months to make sure that they're alright, and figure out just what they hell they're doing.
'I know exactly what they're doing." Yang said to herself.
But I want you to know, that they're going to be overrun eventually when they bite off more than they can chew. And I don't think I'll be able to do much to stop them from doing so.
I know that this might not work, but I think that it would be a lot better to have the rest of her team by her side more than anything. True, she has the others, but I know one of them isn't as experienced, even though he seems to be getting better every day that passes. They'll be run down one of these days.
I've attached an article of a local villages paper on the route that were heading, talking about their unofficial hunter team.
You'd be proud of the little sprout.
I know you know where they're going. So you should give it a try and find your way here too.
You just might miss out on all the fun.
- Qrow
What the hell did that mean?
His letter made no sense!
What was she supposed to do? Talk to Weiss' father to let her come with her, and hunt down Blake?
Both things seemed almost impossible.
Yang looked at the letter again and saw that there was more.
PS. I've sent the same article and a similar message to your other two teammates, the emo one being a little harder to find. But you should go to the Schnee girl first. Winter said that she would like to help me out. Weird, I know.
Yang finally looked to the article and was shocked by what she saw.
A tornado of rose petals flying hundreds of feet into the air was one of the images. The image next to that one was of Ruby, Nora, Jaune and Ren all standing together. They had apparently been asked for a photo because they had been passing by the village in the middle of a grimm attack, and they managed to stop most of the grimm before too much damage was done to the village, even though many homes and lives were lost. The ones that were saved still counted. They stated that they had not revealed where they were heading, saying that the couldn't tell. And when they were asked how old they were, they were told "old enough to know what the world is like".
Yang examined the picture of her sister and three friends. They all had obviously... changed. Each one of them now had longer hair. Ruby and Nora's hair now each reached down to their shoulders. Even Ren's own hair had been very long before, with a thin ponytail that had reached down to the middle of his back, now his bangs were now longer than Yang had even seen before. Jaune's hair has stayed the same length, but was badly chopped, as if he had been cutting his hair with the blade of Crocea Mors. He and Ren had a bit of a stubble of a beard forming on their lower chins, Jaune's more noticeable than Ren's, the eastern boy always wanting his face to be a bit more cleaner.
Their faces though was one of the things that truly shocked Yang. They were all showed stone cold determination. As if they were unrelenting in their journey, and had seen more than the average huntsman and huntress in training should have seen.
Ruby's own eyes were half hidden by her hood. The usual smile that had always been on her sister's face, was now a plain straight face. No emotion being shown at all. The same could be said about the rest of them as well.
A knock at the door took Yang's attention away from the article.
She slowly placed the article and letter down on the table and forced her gaze away from the image of her not-so-little sister.
Opening the front door, she was completely taken off guard by who was there on the other side.
Her upperclassman, and second year huntress in training Coco Adel was there with her arms crossed.
"Coco!?" Yang asked.
Suddenly, the older girl pushed the blonde haired girl back and made her way into the house, shutting the door behind her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Coco asked
"I should be asking the same thing to you." Yang said, her eyes gaining the blood red tint.
"I'm here to get you off of your lazy and depressed ass, and have you join with your sister." Coco stated.
"Why should I? Just to go out and get my other arm sliced off?"
"Now that is one of the reason's why you should go. You need to redeem yourself for the foolish mistake that you made."
"Foolish mistake?" Yang asked, the statement surprising her.
"Don't act like we don't know. When Blake came around with you over her shoulder and unconscious, she explained everything to us. How you charged a swordsman without even thinking out of the pure rage of you seeing Blake hurt." Coco took off her shades, staring deeply and unnervingly into Yang's rage filled eyes.
"What, did my uncle send you or something?" Yang asked accusingly. "How much is he paying you for this?"
Coco looked confused. "What the hell are you talking about? Your uncle? You mean Professor Qrow?"
"Yes! Did he pay you to come and make me go after Ruby?"
"Why would he do that? I'm here on my own terms."
"Bullshit."
"Yang." Coco looked as if she was pleading for Yang to believe her. "I wasn't sent here by anyone. I came here with my own intentions. What makes you believe that I was?" She asked.
Yang then walked back over to the kitchen table and explained how she had gotten a letter from Qrow, and then showed her the news article of the unofficial Team RNJR.
"Yang, this is all purely timing and coincidence that I came here the same day that that letter from your Uncle arrived. But it's clear that we both have the same mindset. You need to get out there and join your sister."
"You mean her stupid quest for justice that may never come for the people who actually deserve it? What is she going to do when she comes across the people who did all of this? Kill them?"
"I don't know what she has in plan. But if justice is something that she does seek, then that is the exact reason why my team is going out."
Yang's mind stopped at that moment and her anger ceased. "What do you mean?"
"Me and my team have decided that Ruby and the others are right. The kingdoms aren't looking in the right places for the perpetrators of what happened in Vale. But the four of them won't be able to do it alone. So we're going after them and joining them. We may not have always been the closest in terms of friendship and all that heartfelt stuff, save for Velvet, but on the battlefield we were a group that truly worked well together."
Yang sat down on one of the chair at the kitchen table and pressed her hand to her forehead. "Not you guys too." She muttered.
"The world may not be the fairytale that we all want it to be, but we might as well try our damnedest to make it that way for others who can't."
"Then give me one good reason why I should go!" Yang shouted at her.
Coco thought for a moment, collecting her words and picking which ones would be the best to say.
"One of them is because even I can see is that Ruby is hurting, Yang."
"So am I, so ju-"
"I'm not done yet!" Coco shouted. "I know that you are as well, but Ruby was way younger than all of us when this all began. Her own sister almost died, and could have gotten more hurt than she did. Hell, said sister should consider herself lucky to be even alive. Ruby's team has been broken apart. All of them either running from their troubles, or being kept by their own family. She watched a close friend of hers die before her very eyes. And now, the dream school that she had wanted to go to for years was destroyed by Grimm, terroristic faunus, and Atlesian androids. So one thing I feel that would possibly bring her back, is seeing that her sister is fully okay and getting back into the fight. Because both you and I know," Coco held up the image of Ruby in the news article. "that she has been broken, deep down, even if she is trying to hide it to the others."
Yang looked down, her bare feet suddenly becoming fairly interesting. She remembered the days back when she would protect her baby sister from anyone who tried to cause harm, physical or mental.
Now she has gone on her own, leaving her protector behind.
But deep down, Yang knew that Ruby still wanted said protector to be around. To be next to her through all the strife that she's going through.
The world is a big place. But the more people that you have by your side that support you, the smaller it begins to look.
"But what can I do, even if I go?" Yang asked.
"Just because you have one less arm to fight with, doesn't mean you can't fight. You'll just have to adapt to fighting with one arm. Think of it as a sword. One weapon to take on the world."
"But my arm isn't a sword. Sure I'll have my last Ember Celica to hit some things from a range and still amplify my regular punches along with my aura, but the moment someone hits my one good arm, I'm done for the fight."
"That's what your aura is for. And we'll just make sure to have someone close by to you through all engagements. I recommend Yatsu honestly. I think you two can get along well together."
"Thanks. So the full crew is going?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know if anyone else is going to come?"
"We've been trying to convince some of the other teams from other kingdoms such as SSSN, and FNKI, but they've all been recalled back to their schools and they aren't allowed to be involved in any of the international affairs. But they have said that the moment they get a chance, they will try and meet up on the journey."
"Do you even know where they are?" Yang asked.
Coco sighed. "Actually, I was hoping that you would know where they would be." She admitted.
"It so happens I do." Yang then stood from the chair and went up the stairs, moments later she returned with another letter in her hands.
"About a month after Ruby left, she sent me a letter with the exact route that she and the others had mapped out and are taking. She told me that I was the only one who got the letter. The reasoning behind that is she didn't know where to send it for Weiss, or Blake, not knowing where Weiss' exact address with, and Blake being... Blake."
"So you might know where she is?" Coco asked.
"With the help of this article, I can possibly pinpoint their exact location or hopefully just arrive at their next checkpoint before them."
"Well, when is the article dated?"
Yang examined the article for a few moments. "It says the article was from at least a week ago. Which means they couldn't have gotten too far since this incident happened."
"You seem ready to help out now." Coco commented.
"I'm doing this because you're right, not because I want to. Eventually, I may find myself reluctant or thankful to go. We'll see if that happens on the road to the objective."
"So, what do you want to do about your other teammates?" Coco asked, veering away from the topic.
Yang stopped her eyes from looking over the map. "What do you mean?"
"Weiss and Blake. What do you plan to do about them? I'm sure you want to get them to go along as well."
Yang sighed. "Well, at the moment. I don't think either of them could come. Weiss is with her father in Atlas, and Blake ran off after you all got to Vale."
"She hasn't contacted any of you."
Yang shook her head, her face holding an expression that didn't look sure whether to be sad or angry.
"Well what about Schnee. From what I saw from that letter, it sounds like your Uncle is recommending that you go to her. It seems that her sister will help you out in some way."
Yang looked at the map of Ruby's plan. Yang would need to go very far north when the plan was for them to go east to Mistral.
"You look like you're planning something." Coco commented.
"If I can convince Weiss' father to let her come with us, however the hell I will manage to do that, I'll try and figure something out." She said, pressing her hand to her forehead. "I could then ask for a lift to your position, wherever you are."
"But how would we do that? Without the CCTs, there no long range communications on the scrolls so we can't get a pick up without an exact location."
Yang pondered over the question for a moment. "I'll ask them for a ride on a bullhead. Even if I can't convince Mr. Schnee to let Weiss come with, I'm sure he can arrange a bullhead to get me as far away as possible in the shortest amount of time."
"I guess. But what do me and my team do in the time that you're trying to get Weiss."
Yang shrugged. "I'd say just stick to somewhere on Patch. That'll be the easiest thing. The range of the scrolls are about the size of the island, so the short range communications should be enough to communicate with when I make my return."
"And how will you get to Atlas, let alone the home of the owner of the SDC?"
Yang walked over to a key hook, and spun around a pair of keys around her index finger. "I get on a boat and travel across the sea to the island, then drive my bike."
"So you're going to leave your bike at Weiss' place?" Yang's face fell at the thought of that.
"Oh."
"No, she won't." Yang and Coco turned in surprise when Taiyang raised notice to his being there.
"Dad, when did you get here?" Yang asked in surprise.
"I saw your friend on the road, and when I was walking, we walked past each other. As I continued, I got curious as to why she was going towards the house. So I decided to turn back and see what was going on."
"How much did you hear?" Coco asked.
"Just about everything starting at the point where you explained why she should go and join with her sister."
"And now I'm guessing that you're going to stop her from going?" Coco asked.
Taiyang hefted a deep sigh. "That is what I should be doing. But, Ms. Adel, yes, I know who you are, I fully agree that you are right. Yang needs to be by her sister's side for support if nothing else. And she'll get to the boat through me. I'll drop her off and I'll have a contact in Atlas pick her up. The guy owes me a favor."
"Are you sure, Dad?" Yang asked.
Taiyang reluctantly smiled at his elder daughter. "Of course, honey. I mean, I've actually wanted you to go out there for a while. I guess I should have just called one of your friends and have them yell at ya." He gave a small laugh at the end.
"I guess that means I should pack a small bag then, huh?"
"Your ammo is in the locker in my office." Taiyang stated.
"I'll meet you outside." Coco said to Yang as she walked out the front door, her scroll in her hand.
Yang walked up the stairs and grabbed two jackets, her light and heavy. Atlas was cold. Along with many other changes that she knew would need along the way.
For the first time in just under a year, Yang slipped Ember Celica on her wrist. The familiar feeling of the padded band on the inside greeted her wrist. She supposed she could somehow manage to fight with only one fist.
She packed up everything that she thought she would need, even retrieving the extra box of ammunition that was in the gun locker. Thinking ahead in time, she even grabbed an extra box of Ruby's standard ammo, some of which she had left behind.
Walking out of her room, Yang stopped in the doorway, her expression not showing any real emotion, still unlike her past stoic self.
She turned and looked at Ruby's bed, still perfectly made since the day she left.
The image of her little sister sleeping in the bed passed through her mind, it was something that she was aiming for. To make sure that Ruby makes it home safe.
Yang made her way down the steps of, and walked out the front door. Outside, Yang spotted Coco and her Dad chatting, when she shut the door, she spotted three other figures making their way up the road.
Velvet, Fox, and Yatsuhashi were making their way up the road, all dressed in their combat attire and ready to go.
Yang's own combat attire had obviously changed. There was not reminiscent of her old outfit, save for the tank top, and her shoes now being a plain pair of white and blue tennis shoes. And then there was her light gray jacket that had the right arm tied up to her elbow. She had a heavy jacket slung over her shoulder.
"Are you ready?" Taiyang asked as she walked over to them and the other three joined them.
"Yeah." Yang said, not sounding too sure of herself.
Taiyang lightly hit her left arm. "Hey. Stop sounding like this isn't something that you've never done before. Don't think that I don't know about your little excursions out to that nightclub, and other places around the city."
Yang's mouth hung open for a few moments before she blushed in embarrassment.
Taiyang then pulled his keys from a pocket on his jacket.
"Now, let's get you to the docks and on the next boat to Atlas."
"What are you guys going to do?" Yang asked Coco and her team.
"Your dad offered your place to us. He said that he had plenty of beds to go around. We really are grateful, Mr. Xiao Long." Coco added.
"He has?" Velvet and Yang asked in unison. Fox and Yatsuhashi, the two more soft spoken members of CFVY just looked surprised.
"By the way, if anyone comes looking for you, I won't say a word." Taiyang added in.
"Who would come looking for them?" Yang asked.
"Our parents?" Velvet suggested.
Yang nodded. "That's fair."
"If I may say, you two should get going. I checked the schedules for you on the way here. The next boat for Atlas leaves in about a half hour."
"It'll take us about ten to get to the dock." Taiyang said as he began to make his way to his car.
Yang turned to Coco, who was standing there with a smug grin spread across her face.
She sighed. "I guess I should say thanks, Coco." Yang said to the older girl.
"No problem." Coco said, extending her hand out for Yang to shake. "I just hope that soon enough, the good old Team RWBY will be standing before me, better than ever."
"With how much practice it seems my sister has been getting, I think we'll be there soon enough." Yang said as she accepted Coco's handshake.
'But before that, I'll need to track down Blake and her cowardly ass.' She then said to herself.
"Admittedly, I didn't think it would be this easy. I was honestly preparing to beat the crap out of you a bit." Coco said.
Suddenly, Yang's grip on Coco's hand increased ten fold.
The other girl seemed unfazed by the increase in pressure.
Coco grinned. "Now that's what I call a handshake."
Yang gave her own wild grin, with a bit of red hidden behind her lilac colored irises.
"Time to start this off... with a Yang."
Welp!
New story!
Another three shot.
This one I will finish. I promise.
Chapter two is already written.
It is a volume 4-ish setting. I guess you can call it a prediction.
Take it as you may.
Shout out to Shadow Nightblade or beta-reading and editing this edition.
Prepare yourselves for the next chapter... whenever I get around to posting it.
I really hope you guys enjoyed!
See ya next time :D