Chapter: 1

Necessary Suffering.

Yang, deep in thought:

That familiar scent of strawberry bushes and our wood-fed furnace was my first call back to consciousness from what seemed to be an ever present realm of sleep, I deduced that I must be in my home. In this state, my mind rushed back and forth from concepts that must be fiction, dreams and nightmares, some were things that happened before and some seemed utterly impossible.

One thing that was real for certain is that I saw Blake ran through with that bull faunus' sword, that event replayed in my mind a thousand times, but it felt unfinished, the memory itself almost seemed fragmented. Nevertheless, other things in my mind transpired, in one instance I was being devoured by Grimm and that would explain why I can't wake. In another I watched as my friends were being killed by the White Fang. Maybe I'm dead. What would happen to Ruby without her big sister Yang.

My mind stayed preserved partly because of my desire to know the unknown because I never did come into contact with Ruby that night and maybe Blake is dead, god forbid she is. My dreams pressed on for days, it must be days now it feels like an eternity since I last opened my eyes but I know in my heart that things will be ok, things usually turn up good for Team RWBY, we're heroes right? we defend the common people from monsters, I know we are the good guys, the heroes. I need to wake up, I don't know what's real anymore I can feel my heart racing and there is nothing I can do about it right now, I've convinced myself of, or debunked hundreds of possibilities as to what happened that night and what happened to me and my team. There is and end to this and answers too, I tell myself to just hang on, just awhile longer.

Yang's bedroom sat stale, like there was no fresh air or any moisture, devoid of any happiness and this was never the case in Yang's room. Yang's father had just replaced the sunflowers in a vase beside his eldest daughters bedside. A gust of wind knocked and rattled the shutters around on Yang's window and this familiar sound was enough to draw yang back into the world. "C-close the window plea-." whispered Yang with her eyes still shut. Taiyang turned to his daughter immediately and almost jumped at the words. "Yang are you ok!? please wake up, can you hear me? Yang!?" Taiyang shouted in excitement, hopeful and wondering if his daughter would come back. She fought with the paralysis that enveloped her body, muscles nearly atrophied. Her eyes slowly opened and revealed both of her lilac iris'. Her face was draped over with her long yellow hair. They stared for a few moments their eyes locked and not moving, finally Taiyang sat with a slump and a sigh of relief but took a moment to utter the words. "oh my god...oh god, Yang, I didn't think you were coming back." She sat up and could hear the relief in his voice.

"Aaand exactly how long have I been out?" The blonde grumbled with a sarcastic smirk on her face. "It's been just over a week, your sister has come in and out a few times but hasn't been able to stay awake for long, she's tough but... this, this is going to take time, for both of you." Her father spoke these words with a soft undertone of grief, she had picked up on his concern. Yang was confused. "Time?, time for what dad, I'm perfectly fine I think I just rang my bell pretty good, besides I'm tough as nails." The blonde scoffed after she said this trying to play it off, in reality even after a week her body ached and felt bruised. Her father just sat still, looking directly at her, his face was devoid of emotion albeit sadness. The room went stale again and in this moment Yang realized that maybe things might not be as good as she hoped for in her dreams, she reeled a slight tinge at the fact that something terrible may have happened. The window was still being battered by the shutters and this annoyed yang in an already semi-awkward situation with her father. "H-hey you still haven't closed those and I wanna know what happened to ruby so you better spill the beans old man." As she said this she tried to extend her arm to close the window. Her right arm.

"Look dad I know you're concerned bu-..." She felt surging pain in what remained of her arm, then her eyes widened and darted at her right side. In this moment of terrible clarity she saw what had become of her, just above the elbow her arm had been forcefully amputated nothing but a blood soaked bandage covering a stump of flesh was left. This is why her memory of Blake was fragmented, also the reason why she was out cold for a week. Yang Xiao Long, the close quarters fist fighter was no more, like her memories she was not whole and in this moment her life had changed, for the worse.

Yang's eyes stayed wide for a few moments, she began to tremble and soon turned her attention to her father, some words were attempted but none were spoken. She managed to mutter. "D-da..ad what i..s happening." Taiyang could hear her, he could see her but Yang seemed completely absent from the room. "Yang, listen to me, please just take it easy and let me explain wha-..." Taiyang was interrupted by yang, she began to breath heavily and audibly. "Yang you have to stay calm please, for me, I can help you, our family can help you!" Her heavy breathing continued, her right arm was bombarded with pain she couldn't feel earlier. Yang started to piece together what happened but all the repressed pain and memories hit her all at once, it was just too much.

"I can get you something for the pain if you want or I can sit here with you, even tell you what happened after you found Blake she-." Taiyang was interrupted by screams from his daughter. Just hearing her name sent Yang into a personal hell. Her purple eyes began to bleed into a crimson red, from the bottom of her iris going up, the red soon overtook the purple. Yang screamed painfully and loud. She thrashed around on her bed holding her head with her remaining arm, kicking her legs, sending her bed sheets flying. she managed to turn herself to the wall closest to her headboard and proceeded to do the only thing that seemed logical to herself, knock herself out. The blonde screamed "NOOO OH MY GOD NOO BLAKE WHY WHY WHY." with every spoken word she slammed her forehead against the wall trying to put herself to sleep to dull the pain. "HOLY SHIT YANG STOP!."

Her father tried to grab a hold of her but she was in such a rage that he couldn't get a firm grasp to hold her down. In the chaos and confusion Yang's door opened abruptly, it was her uncle Qrow, he was quick to pick up on the situation and started barking orders. "Tai! grab her now!." "She's outta control! get over here and help me for god's sake!" The two men soon were able to restrain Yang who could only scream inaudible words. Qrow took a syringe out of his coat and stuck it into Yang's neck. Tai was shocked to see him carrying around a thing like that. "What the hell is it that? what did you give my daughter." At this time the effects of the syringe took hold quickly and Yang slumped onto back onto her bed. Her eyes returned to lilac and she fell over onto her side, drooling and unconscious. "Relax, it's just some morphine, I figured that alteast one of your little monsters would need some after the fight they went through." Qrow said this knowing it would piss Taiyang off, he prepared for his response by grabbing his flask. Taiyang said nothing on the matter to Qrow's surprise he only said "How long will it last."

"Don't worry it's only a small dose, not enough to render her mind numb she's gunna need that, it should just feel like a good sleep to her." After speaking Qrow swiped his hair back and took a long guzzle from his flask "So what are you doing on Patch Qrow? I thought you would be looking for Ozpin." Taiyang said this without looking at him, his focus still on Yang. "Here to see my niece's, that gunna be a problem Tai?" Taiyang changed his attention to Qrow "No, Ruby still hasn't come back all the way, heh it's almost exactly like what happened with Summer eh?" "Tai, please, let's not go there, for both our sake." The two men concluded their conservation and exited the room Taiyang looked back in the door way, just behind Qrow, he looked at Yang, she was covered in sweat and her hair covered most of her face, thankfully there was no blood from the self inflicted head bashing. For now, Yang would be given the grace of a comfortable sleep.

For nearly thirteen hours Yang slept at some degree of peace. This slumber, however was not like the time she endured after the fall of Beacon. It felt good to her, she was almost able to forget the situation and just dream, thought her musing's did not dissuade her from the truth, during her sleep she allowed herself to accept the truth of losing her arm and how Blake was stabbed in front of her. She had never cried in her sleep until now even though she was unconscious she felt teardrops rolling off her face. It was in the small hours of the morning when she woke. Yang spoke some muffled words as she sat up, "W-what time is..." she tried to grab her alarm clock that was on her right side. "Oh... right I'm fucking useless now." with saying that she rolled awkwardly with her left to grab the clock. "Three eleven in the morning... great I don't even feel tired anymore... heh don't feel tired and can't feel my arm maybe...maybe this is it for me, maybe I'm gunna stay in this house forever I can't be a huntress anymore...not now not after...Beacon." Her yellow head hit her pillow again with a loud sigh. She held her hand up in front of her, the remaining hand and began to sob quietly. Through tears she spoke "I..I'm right handed damn it, what can I do with my-."

She was interrupted by Qrow who was leaning against her door frame. "Nishe monologue firecracker." She could smell the booze on him from her bed, she snapped up into a sitting position. "What the hell do you want Qrow? and how fucking drunk are you? you know dad doesn't let anyone drink in the house." Qrow shot up to a staggered stance off the door. "Not even closshe to where I want to be right now, kiddo and whatsh with the shwearing c'mon you're better than that." Yang pointed at her stump with her left "NO, I really am not right now I've got some serious shit going on right now, everyone does! and how does my dear uncle Qrow deal with it, oh oooh I know, at the end of a fucking bottle!" Yang yelled towards the end of her sentence, making her eye's turn blood red, the two just stared at eachother red eyes on red eyes, Yang's chest rose and fell with angered and heavy breathing. They stared quietly for a few minutes to hear if anyone was woken up by the yelling. As they stared, clouds parted from the sky allowing the bright moonlight to illuminate the room though the window in a cold grayish blue light, the solemn silence broke. "Yang...this, your arm, is not the end of you, you probably won't believe me now or maybe for a long time but...Yang, you are like your mother, my sister, too strong to let this beat you." Qrow said this as if he had been sober all day, his tone and facial expression were at the utmost seriousness.

"I'm.. I'm sorry I just don't know what to do anymore I really just want some time alone..." Yang trailed off, Qrow grabbed his flask and drained what was left. "All right kiddo but I'll tell you this, quickly, your sister has a gift Yang, the same gift as her mother, Summer." His niece could only look on as she raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this now?" Yang asked. "Because when she wake's up I don't want you think of her differently, you are going to learn some things in the coming days that you may or may not like this is a big one, she's more special than anyone thought but she's still your sister". Yang sat silent and let her uncle carry on.

"She has the same eyes as Summer, and in those eyes is a power, a power of untold capacity her mom had it, now she does. She ended the attack, she froze that giant Grimm on top of Beacon's tower, but she was too late to save..." Qrow closed his eyes and let out a sullen sigh. "Who died?" Asked the stern faced blonde. Yang knew it was one of her friends before he spoke the final words, she knew. "Pyyrha Nikos." Her uncle looked away from her when he spoke. "...Get out of my room." Yang said with tears starting to well up in her eyes. "Yang, you should know these thin-." "Get. Out." Qrow did not speak again, he turned around and staggered out of the room and closed Yang's door softly. As soon as the door shut Yang lost control again, she repeated the words over and over again with widened eye's. "Pyrrha's dead, Pyrrha's dead, Pyrrha's dead, Pyrrha's dead." Like a mantra, she softly said these words with a twitching face and blood red eyes. She lost control of her emotion's sending her into a fit of sadness, it already took everything she had to hold it together when talking with Qrow and now this. She bit at her tongue and lips until blood trickled from the small wounds she left, her nails on her left hand ran up and down on her thigh nervously until blood began to seep through. Yang thought to herself 'I'm supposed to be the tough one right? I couldn't save Blake, I couldn't beat the man who stabbed her and fucking mutilated me, a-and Pyyrha's...gone.'

Yang cried herself back to sleep over the course of a few dozen minutes, little did she know that her uncle Qrow was still on the other side of his niece's door, empty flask in one hand and the other, palm planted on his forehead, fingers tugging at his hair. He sat with his back on the door way, he would stay there until morning light.

At seven in the morning Yang's alarm went off, still set to the time when she used to wake up for her morning jog. This of course was a relic from the time before she attended Beacon. Her eyes were crusted over from tears. She lay in silence thinking of those words Qrow said to her just a handful of hours ago, that there are things she was going to learn in the coming days. Finally, she wiped her eyes clear of the dry tears. She sat up and reached over for her scroll, this time remembering to use her left. She whispered "...worth a try I guess." Yang wanted info on the events of Beacon's fall, she wanted the entire story. She thought '...Who would be willing to talk right now, Jaune? oh god no he's probably in a darker place than me right now, Ren? no... probably not anyone from Team JNPR.' "Sun, sun is probably the only person lighthearted enough to keep a level head through this." Yang texted Sun for about an hour and made sure Team SSSN was fine, also through Sun she learned of Blake running away, how Penny died, that Ozpin was missing, Weiss going back to Atlas and how Cinder was responsible for it all. Eventually she ended the conversation, exhausted from the constant waves of disapointment and grief from every terrible event that happened.

But one stuck in her mind while the others took a backseat, Blake, why did she run. Yang sat in her bed, still in her clothes from days before and said aloud "What damn reason did she have to run? what gave her the right to just save me and ditch me?" Yang grew angry the more she pondered on the subject. She went back to a prone position, laying on her stomach with her face pushed into her pillow. Her thoughts dwelled on Blake, and Blake alone. Yang didn't understand her partner's reasoning for running. She spoke softly into her pillow, "I don't know if I should hate you for running... but god damn it Blake, I kind of need a friend right now..." Yang heard someone speaking from down the hallway, it sounded like Ruby, the blonde thought 'Thank god... she's ok atleast...atleast I have some good news in my life." Then it hit her. How could she face Ruby, her big sister reduced to a cripple, she had always been able to protect and guide her sister now she was just a shadow of her self. Her heart picked up slightly, nervous at the fact her sister would have to help her now, how could she deal with it. Yang didn't know how much time passed until she heard tiny footsteps creeping up to her door, she felt depressed that she would have to talk to her sister while being bed ridden and handicapped. Her little sister was fine, and she was not. Then she heard her signature high pitched voice cry out. "Yang?" The blonde was hesitant, but she responded with only "Ruby."

Two full days would pass since Ruby and Yang would speak together, the first few days in quite a while that Yang would stay awake entirely, in this time Yang would hardly move from her bed, only to walk across the hall to the bathroom or to get water and food when no one was home as her father and Ruby often hunted and tended the grounds of the house. Qrow on the other hand would be called away for a lead on Ozpin that involved Signal Academy. It was still morning when Yang was left alone again, her father and Ruby left to collect wood for their furnace, she decided that it was time for a shower.

"Ok, Yang this is going to be nice and easy no trouble this time, you got this." she was referring to taking off her shirt which was one of her many newfound hardships, in this case the remnants of her right arm would get caught when she tried to take off any clothing. Once again, her shirt half way off, it caught. "Aw god damnit, I'm sick of wrestling myself..Ahhh! this so god damn dumb! screw this!" Yang tried for a few minutes to untangle herself from the shirt trap, and eventually succeeded, next was pants, pants were easy as long as there were no buttons thankfully she owned numerous pairs of sweatpants and pajamas. After the battle of the clothes she entered the shower, and just as she got in she heard the door open and Ruby spoke aloud. "Yaaaaang we're baaack, where are you." Yang thought to herself 'really, ten seconds ago I coulda used some help in here.' "I'm in the shower I can't really hear you Ruby." Yang yelled with her head poked out of the curtains. "Ok, let me know if you need any help, it's not like I haven't seen you naked before." Ruby shouted with a grin. "...ok." Yang didn't even attempt to make that last word loud it was really meant for her alone.

She hated that she needed help with just about everything, she discovered new things she couldn't do alone all the time now, even more she hated that Ruby of all people decided she would become some sort of caretaker, although she appreciated it, it just felt embarrassing and wrong. Albeit she knew getting help was necessary and was to be expected. Before, it took Yang nearly an hour to shower and get ready with her exceedingly long mane, even longer now with a single arm to do it. After going through the trial of another one handed shower she stepped out the curtain and grabbed the nearest towel. She dried herself off and her hair as best she could and put on some fresh underwear and pants, now came the shirt. Shirts were even harder to put on than to take off for her now, she set it on the counter and tried to snake her left arm into it. She thought 'I swear one day I will get good at this shirt business, god why don't I own any muscle shirts.' Yang gave up after a few minutes of trying. "...Damn it, Ruby! I need some help!" She shouted to her sister. Before ruby came inside she shuffled her hair in front of her missing appendage and her exposed chest.

Ruby was cleaning her scythe when she heard this and threw it down immediately and ran to the bathroom. "I'm coming Yang!" Ruby grinned, just happy to help. Taiyang, at this point knew to make himself scarce and left the house to go pick strawberries for awhile. Ruby opened the bathroom door to face Yang who was covered in damp golden hair. Yang would not look her sister in the eyes as she was enveloped in embarrassment, she stood in front of her, eyes looking off to the left. Ruby caught her predicament, stared at her and said. "Yang, I want you to look at me." The younger woman said sternly. Yang reciprocated and looked at her sister with furrowed brows and said nothing. "You are still beautiful, the arm doesn't matter to me or to anyone." These words hit Yang like a ton of bricks.

Yang wanted to say 'It matters a whole hell of a lot to me Ruby' She however, refrained instead she just smirked and said half heartedly "I just need some help with my shirt Ruby, I can't put it on right." All the while Ruby was nearly buzzing at the chance to help her big sister with something "Right, well I, being your super awesome team leader will help you, Yang Xiao Long with this shirt problem, now hold out your arms beca-..." Yang scowled with a mean look at ruby. "ugh I mean uh.. uh just one arm out please...i'm sorry Yang." Yang sighed and began to speak "Ruby, this is probably going to be routine practice for awhile could you please just ya know, take it easy?" Ruby frowned "Yeah, ok I understand." Yang held out her arm and awkwardly, Ruby put her shirt on for her which was almost as hard as doing it herself since her sister has almost no coordination in everyday tasks. "Thanks for the help Ruby." Yang said with some genuine content for a change, happy she was finally clothed.

Meanwhile Ruby just stood there with a big smile, not moving. "Uhhh Ruby..." Yang spoke softly "Hmm, yes Yang?" Ruby snapped to attention. "You can leave the bathroom now I-I'm ok I think." The blonde smiled scantly at her sister knowing she didn't know any better. "Oh! o-oh jeez yeah ok sorry Yang." Ruby used her speed Semblance to race out of the room leaving a faint smell of roses and small rose petals falling to the ground, Yang caught one and thought 'I can't slow her down, she can't always be there to help me but I can't even get ready for the day without help' she crushed the petal in her hand, holding back tears in her eyes as she would soon leave the bathroom and would not face her with red tearing eyes oh no Yang would not look weak. Yang kneeled on the bathroom floor her left hand covering her mouth even though she tried, the tears came through as she began to think about her situation on a broader spectrum. She thought of Blake, Beacon, Weiss leaving and Pyrrha. Soon all the bad things returned to her mind, she stayed knelt for a few minutes and wanted to curl up into a ball and just lay there, paralyzed in grief. Too many things occupied her thoughts and she began to sob progressively louder. After a few brief minutes she wiped the tears away but could not face her father or little sister, she opened the bathroom door with great force and walked a few steps into her room and with a great amount strength, slammed the door shut and locked it.

She immediately retreated to her bed where she felt like it was safe and had no intention of leaving it for quite some time. Taiyang had returned for a few minutes and bore witness to Yang's behaviour, he heard the door slam hard and he winced, asking Ruby "What happened now?" "She had a shower, and I had to help her... I don't think she likes me helping her but I can't refuse her." Ruby said picking up her scythe to continue cleaning once again. "No Ruby, you're right we have to be there for her, she may not like it but... w-we just have to ok?" Yang would calm down after a few hours and accepted the fact that Ruby did have to help her and things will come with time, atleast that's what she told herself over and over again, in order to calm down, in the back of her mind she thought it to be a lie.

Several hours passed during the day, it had only been mid day when Yang returned to her room after letting her emotions go again. Over the course of the day she would read some books that she had been neglecting for years and years, it really was never her thing to read much. Yang spent most of her time though, peering out of her window while laying in bed, just watching the world as the day unfolded she often would see her father or Ruby outside, their family never spent much time indoors anyway they used to be a family of huntsmen. Her favorite thing to see was the wildlife walking through the yard or birds nesting in the tree's, this was something Yang had enjoyed even before the fall of Beacon she loved watching animals, she thought to herself. 'Might be hard to build a birdhouse left handed but I could ask dad maybe.'

During the day, Taiyang would knock on her door periodically to check on her or to help her maintain her wound and apply her bandages, Ruby would also come into her room just to talk or show her something on her scroll. She didn't like the company but couldn't really avoid it either. Time had passed and today was the day that they would have a family dinner for the first time in a long time, Patch was home to many native species and one in particular was the Longear Moose, Taiyang had hunted one earlier in the week and it was ready to be cooked. This was one of Yang's favorite home cooked meals, Ruby hated it but would gladly eat it anyway, just to see her family together again. Yang heard her father yell. "Girls, dinner is ready!." Yang sighed, she was sort of nervous and sort of content on getting out of bed for awhile, it was a mixed feeling, she did however feel glad to be eating something nice rather than finger food for a change. "Here we go." She spoke as if this was a new found chore, hopping out of bed. "Awwww moose steaks, daaad c'mon." Ruby made it to the table first and was a little disappointed in her father's choice. "Ruby, me and Yang like it now that's two out of three, plus we can make chocolate chip cookies together later if it makes you feel any better." Her father said this while taking a seat that would sit opposite of Ruby. "...I like makin' cookies with Qrow..." She spoke with a mock frown. "I heard that and will remember it young lady." Taiyang said with squinted eye's and a sarcastic tone. Yang was the last to arrive, she gave a ghost of a smile to her dad and sister. "Hey sweetie, I didn't tie the bandage too tight did I? grab a seat kiddo." Taiyang was glad to see his daughter out of bed.

"Yaaang why do you gotta like moose steaks you gotta be on my side." Ruby was practically bouncing in her seat. "The bandage is fine, thank you and moose steaks are awesome Ruby, suck it up." Yang took a seat after saying this, sitting with Ruby on her left and her father on her right. She looked down to see a knife and fork and tried to grab both as it was basically automatic, her father and sister caught this, Taiyang sighed, closed his eyes anticipating another emotional episode, Ruby was going to speak but before she could Yang said "...I can't eat." It was silent and the mood dropped to a low point. Yang laughed for a few seconds "Hahahaha I-I can't even eat my food on my own oh man this is priceless oh, how pathetic is this?" Her face was twitching slightly.

"Yang, I can cut it up for you if that would help..." Ruby reached out to grab her hand, Yang pulled away "No! no it's fine I'm gunna to do this myself." Ruby and Taiyang sat on a razor's edge waiting for the blonde to explode with rage. Yang picked up the knife and attempted to cut her steak, she dragged the plate around the table and the steak flopped onto the table's surface, one handed, this was impossible. Taiyang spoke as softly as he could "Yang i'm sorry, I wasn't thinking I should have made this easier for yo-." He was cut off by Yang stabbing her knife into the table. "This is bullshit! how am I supposed to live now?... I can't write!, I can't shower!, I can't cut food!, I'm fighter who can't fight, I can't go out in public without being stared at!, I can't change clothes, I can't live a fucking normal life anymore!" Yang didn't know when she stood up and knocked her chair over backwards but that seemed the case, her eye's were set ablaze with red fury, a look all too familiar with Taiyang. There was a few brief moments before Ruby spoke "...Yang we're gunna help you get better plea-." "I don't want your goddamn charity little miss special eye's, It's been me taking care of you for as long as I can remember not the other way around." Her rage made Ruby wide eyed and there was evidence of tears in them. "For god's sake, Yang! do not talk to your sister like that she's trying to help you god damn it." Taiyang was now standing, facing the crazed blonde.

Her heart was beating so fast that the barely healed blood vessels and capillaries burst in the end of what used to be her right arm, clearly visible to the other two. "Ha-hahaha! I-I can't even get too mad and I hurt myself." She turned to Ruby who had tears running down her eye's, Yang pointed at her stump "Look Ruby!, see if you can help me with this c'mon! what are you waiting for!" Ruby's eyes darted all around the room and finally she had enough of this situation and in a flash of rose petals she used her semblance to run outside of the house. Taiyang shouted "Ruby! WAIT! oh hell, look what you did Yang, now I have to find her, she didn't even take Crescent Rose, she has no weapon!" Yang looked her father in the eye's and shouted. "She's the special little girl with the stupid special eye's she's going to be fine dad!" Yang was now pacing back and forth not knowing what to do with herself in her anger, breathing heavy through clenched teeth. "Yang! control yourself! I'm going after Ruby before she hurts herself or gets lost."

He grabbed a coat from the rack near the door and ran out of the house leaving Yang alone to herself. "Ahh god damn it I hate this family." She peered onece more at the table where she embedded her knife, shook her head and returned to her room. In her room she paced back and forth, once again there was too many things going on for her to deal with, the primary problem for her was that she made Ruby run away. Now, she wasn't just mad at Ruby, or trying and failing to eat dinner with her family, she was mostly mad at herself for getting frustrated and redirecting her pain on others for unjustifiable reasons. She stopped pacing and sat on her bed biting her lip with furrowed brows, she wanted to continue to condemn Ruby for being who she was, she tried to find reasons to hold up her anger. 'She's my little sister and what? now she's got some kind of great power and what gives her the right to help me, she probably thinks i'm hopeless, hell I think i'm hopeless... if it was anyone else, would I even feel different, she's fifteen for crying out lou-.' She stopped herself in thought. She felt herself calm right down, like watching her motorbike's speedometer going from one hundred to zero. 'She's fifteen, oh my god she's still a child, it's so hard to remember that, She's fifteen and her mom is dead and her sister is handicapped, her friends have died and now she's gained some kind of hidden power.' Yang stared blankly at her doorway lost in thought. "She's probably more fucked up than I am right now...how could I be so selfish, her helping me is like her...coping mechanism."

Yang fell back on her bed after saying that aloud, feet hanging off still, her left hand covering her eyes and she whispered "I'm literally the worst person in the world right now." Yang remembered Ruby doing this kind of thing in the past for reasons that didn't even come close to this, for instance when she had to wait two years to join Signal after Yang did or when she broke something when she was learning to use Crescent Rose, Yang knew where she would be so did Taiyang, she would be at her mother's epitaph. She knew they would return soon so Yang got up and went to go and tend to the wound she had opened again, she walked across the hall to the bathroom. When she walked in her eyes were down to turn on the sink and to wet a towel to wick the blood away. She kept her eye's down as she removed the bandage revealing the gruesome scar on the end of her arm. She thought 'I'm going to be better about this, it's only necessary suffering... I can get better with time.' She smiled and looked up to the mirror to see crimson in her eye's. She didn't understand, she knew she had calmed down she expected to see her lilac eye's staring back at her, she was sure that she calmed down. "What the hell?" Yang questioned, she closed her eye's and shook her head, took some deep breath's and opened them again, still red. "Ok...? this is... different."

She was very confused at this point so she focused her mind on happy thoughts, of Blake and her friends, Ruby's laugh and playing video games on her scroll with Qrow. After a few moments her eye's returned to their normal light purple shade, she smiled and said. "Well that's better, that was really kind of weird... get a grip Yang." It was the first time she had to force her eye's back into a neutral state. She cleaned the wound and sloppily applied a fresh bandage, she was just happy it was staying on this time. A few minutes passed and Yang was attempting to mend her mistakes by cleaning up the now cold food on the dinner table, then the door opened abruptly and Taiyang, followed by Ruby, walked through. Taiyang spoke "Yang! do you have anything to say to your sister?" Ruby kept her eyes glued to floor "No." She replied and began to walk towards Ruby, her father piped up "What do you mean no? you can't behave like that it's not how I-." He stopped after he saw what Yang would do, she walked right up to her sister and with one hand she embraced her against her chest and rested her head on Ruby's shoulder, holding on to her with a fierce, yet gentle grasp.

Ruby's jaw dropped and tears began welling up in her eye's which went wide and stared at the wall in front of her, she grabbed on to her sister in a hug for the ages. Yang grit her teeth, with a tear ridden face and closed eyes she said with a powerful voice "I-I am so sorry!" Her voice was cracking and high pitched, she began to bawl openly and her legs buckled and they both fell to their knee's still tightly connected, they would stay there crying on each other's shoulder until there were no more tears to cry.