Patch hadn't grown much from the last time Blake was here, although the last time she was here only lasted a day and that day was hazy at best. Still, it was quaint, if nothing else. There was very little traffic on the roads this early in the morning.

She walked alongside the main road, hands in her pockets, trying to figure out which way to go to make it into the outskirts and towards her destination.

She'd been so hasty to get here that she hadn't put much thought into the actual route. It wasn't unnatural for Blake to wander, she had incredibly good senses and could usually find her way around any strange place given enough time. This was different only because she didn't want to wait. She was impatient and perhaps a little unprepared, but her reason for being here was more important than anything.

Her ears perked up at the sound of a chiming bell in the distance, she honed in on the noise, listening as it rang again and soon she followed that noise in hopes of finding an open shop for directions.

As luck would have it, a small restaurant had opened and Blake peeked in through the large windows to see a man and a woman setting out trays of food and cleaning the tables.

Stepping inside, both of the occupants inside turned to her with bright smiles on their faces.

"Hello young lady! What can I—oh!" the older woman gasped in surprise and Blake hesitated in the entranceway. "You're a Faunus?"

Blake frowned. "I am. I'm not here to cause trouble."

"Oh no," the woman stepped forward quickly. "No not at all, you just caught me off guard is all. Not many of your kind in Patch. Of course you are welcome to come in and eat, I'd never turn down a paying customer!" She laughed at herself before placing a hand on Blake's back and guiding her inside. "Please sit anywhere you like, can I get you something to drink?"

"Actually," Blake tried to speak up but was nearly shoved into a booth as her knee smacked the bar holding up the table. "I was just hoping for directions."

"Well we can give you that, certainly. My husband and I have lived here our whole lives. Know every inch of Patch like the backs of our hands. But it's so early and such a long day ahead, a good meal is the best way to start it!"

Despite her rush, Blake couldn't deny that she was hungry and whatever she could smell being prepared in the back was incredibly tempting. "I—okay, I suppose a quick bite couldn't hurt."

"Of course not! Now…a drink?"

"I'll have tea, please."

"Excellent," the lady pushed up her glasses and reached behind herself to reveal a menu. "You go over this, I'll bring you your tea and you can tell me what you'd like to eat. We have an excellent tuna egg omelet." Blake peeked up at her, ears flicking just a bit. "Oh I'm sorry, is that offense, I just assumed—"

"It's fine, actually, that's what I'll have." Blake said before handing back the menu. "I've always had a soft spot for tuna."

"Wonderful!"

At that, Blake was left alone while her meal was prepared and so she reached into her pocket and pulled out her scroll.

She didn't have very good reception here, not at all like Haven, but still it was enough to get a call out and she had a promise to keep.

"Hello?" He sounded tired, she'd woken him up.

Blake smirked. "Told you I'd call."

"Ugh," Sun groaned and she could hear him rustling around in his bed. "So you did. I forget that you don't waste time so I should have expected this. What time is—Blake it's not even six yet."

"It's nearly eight where I'm at. Besides, now you'll have time to do something productive with your morning. Go for a run or read a book."

"You're a monster, Belladonna." He muttered with a muffled voice, she was certain he'd buried his face in his pillow. "So you made it then?"

"I did, trip here was pretty uneventful too, which was nice. Caught a long flight out of the city and we landed this morning. Even managed to sleep a little."

"Cat nap." He teased and she rolled her eyes. Sometimes he was so much like her that Blake wondered if blonde hair instantly meant sarcastic pain in the butt.

"Something like that." She said before looking up to see the older woman arriving with her tea. "Thank you." She said and earned a smile.

"What's that?" Sun asked.

Blake poured some sugar in her tea. "Waitress, I stopped to get something to eat."

"Faunus friendly in Patch?"

She chuckled. "More like unaware. The way she looked at me when I first showed up it was like she'd never seen one of us before." She glanced back to see the older woman wiping down more tables. "Nice enough though, not bad for a first encounter."

Sun was quiet for a moment; Blake couldn't help but wonder if maybe he'd fallen asleep. "Hopefully a sign of things to come?"

"Hopefully," Blake breathed before taking a sip of her tea. "It's natural to be nervous, right?"

He chuckled. "I didn't think that word was in your vocabulary."

"Being nervous is a nothing new for me, I just hide it better than most. Nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs or something right? That's a human saying isn't it?"

"You don't even have a tail."

Blake rolled her eyes. "That's not the point. I'm nervous, but I'm here and right now that's enough."

"How long do you plan on staying?"

That was the million lien question. How long would she stay? The simple answer was to say as long as it took. She knew that what she was planning might not be easy, but a part of her couldn't help but hope that the news she brought with her would be enough. That she could come here and make everything better and be…happy. Perhaps for the first time in her life.

She wanted it more than she'd ever wanted anything in her whole life. Like the culmination of every terrible thing she'd endured would finally be worth it all.

"Indefinitely." She finally answered, satisfied enough with her short, cryptic response. Sun hummed over the line. "What?"

"Nothing, I hope it's everything you hope it will be."

As Blake's food arrive, she once again thanked the older woman and took in the scent of her meal. "I'm not getting my hopes up." She admitted before cutting at her omelet.

"Right," she could hear Sun laugh. "Neptune misses you, by the way."

"Oh?"

Sun sighed. "Yeah, he complains that the apartment isn't as clean without you here. He misses your morning conversations with him over tea and something about…yoga?"

Blake smiled slightly at the memory of Neptune trying to keep up with her morning workouts. Shortly after her mission, when she finally collected enough of herself to return to the real world, she stayed with Sun and Neptune while trying to figure out her next step. They'd been incredibly good to her, they'd taken care of her during the hardest months of her life.

She missed them both dearly.

"I'll be back to see him soon."

"Don't you mean 'indefinitely'?"

Such a smart ass.

"Listen, I have a delicious breakfast to eat I should probably let you get back to sleep."

Again he hummed. "Now there's an idea." Blake grinned again. "Hey," his tone dropped faintly. "Don't forget to take care of yourself, too, okay? You've been in a good place for a few months now. I'd hate to see you lose that."

Growing up as she did, Blake knew better than to take for granted the feeling of being cared for. She cherished it. "Thank you, Sun. You and Neptune…for everything."

"Anytime. Bye Blake."

"Bye."

As she hung up, Blake felt a renewed energy and took in the scent of her breakfast.

Today was going to be a good day, she just knew it.


With a full stomach and a burst of energy, Blake sat in the backseat of a transport cab that was taking her to the place the waitress at the restaurant had told her. Apparently, Taiyang Xiao Long was quite well known in Patch. It was no small news when he and his family made a home here. The great hunters from team STRQ carried a reputation with them that surpassed that of most other teams.

There was a time when Blake wondered if team RWBY would ever reach that level. Of course their time at Beacon had been cut far too short and each member was split apart. It was the darkest of times for Blake, a time riddled with bad decisions that led to worse decisions.

Many of those long nights alone were spent wondering how her team was. She thought about Weiss more often than she'd expected. Even before Blake had decided to leave Weiss had been picked up by her father. Still, Blake remembered the way Weiss fussed over an unconscious Ruby on that airship out of Vale. Forcibly taking over her care from her Uncle Qrow and letting Ruby's head lie in her lap the entire way home. It was a far cry from the girl who screamed at Ruby the day they met for knocking over her things.

Of course when they landed in Patch that day, Mr. Schnee's fancy ship was already waiting to take Weiss to Atlas. She barely had time to say goodbye to Blake—they'd been the only two of their team awake at the time, before she was rushed away in tears.

Weiss had asked Blake to look after Ruby for her, Yang too. Blake promised, a promise she broke in a string of mistakes that nearly destroyed her life when she ran away.

She wandered for a while, seeking out Grimm in forests to fight, finding new talents as her skills developed. She only ever had one goal in mind and each day was about driving towards that. A life lived on revenge was bitter and empty, but that was all she had after Beacon.

That and the memories of the team that made her feel at home, and the partner she ran away from that made her feel like family.

It doesn't matter. You fixed it, Blake. You finally fixed it and today you can rebuild all of that.

This made her smile, something she was doing far more of than she had in her entire life. Certainly it had been hard to do the things that she had done, but they had to be done. She had to gain her revenge, for the childhood that was taken from her, the innocence she was never allowed to have. However, it was as much for her as it was for Yang.

Yang.

She was going to see Yang today, for the first time in five years.

The nerves returned in waves and Blake tightened the grip on her bag to try and combat them.

By the time her ride stopped just outside the small house hidden away in the far end of town, Blake was nearly shaking. She stepped out, paid the driver and walked slowly to the front door. This was as far as she'd ever made it into Patch. Five years ago she ran before ever making it to this place. Before Yang ever had the chance to wake up, because Blake knew that if she saw those lilac eyes, there was no way she could have ran.

Taking a deep breath, Blake hoisted her bag over her shoulder and knocked three times.

She clasped her hands in front of her and waited, she could hear steps coming towards the door and for a fleeting moment, she thought that she could still run.

It wasn't even a desire, just a notion that she could and a small dose of pride in knowing that she wouldn't, that she didn't want to run.

The first thing she saw when the door opened was blonde hair and her heart leapt into her throat. A second later it wilted at the sight of a taller man with a scraggly beard and tired eyes looking down at her.

His hair and his eyes, his presence, it reminded her of Yang. This had to have been her father.

"Uh…hello? Can I help you?" He asked as he peeked over her shoulder. Judging by his body language he was not used to many guests.

"I uh—" she stammered for a bit before she regained her composure and extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Blake Belladonna. I—I'm looking for Yang."

She saw his eyebrows raise for a moment before his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "You're the B, aren't you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, Ruby was R, she talked a lot about Weiss, the W, and then Yang was Y. She mentioned you a lot but did not tell me you were a Faunus." He smiled. "You're the B in RWBY."

A vice gripped Blake's chest as she nodded with a sad smile. "I was, yes. I was Yang's…" the sentence died on her lips. She had no right to call herself Yang's partner. Not anymore. "Is she here, by chance?"

"She's not," Blake's knees went weak and he must have noticed her falter. "I mean not here here. She doesn't live with me. She lives down that hill to your right in a small cabin of her own. I've got a good chunk of land up here and that place was just sitting down there doing nothing so she moved in a couple years ago."

The sudden realization struck Blake that Yang had stayed here the entire five years. She hadn't left Patch at all. The dreams she'd had of becoming a huntress, of traveling the world and seeking those thrills she talked about so much never came.

It's not too late. Blake thought and it wasn't. If she could restart her life at twenty-two years old, so could Yang.

"Do you think she'd mind a visitor?"

"Can't hurt to try," he said. "I'm Taiyang, by the way. Taiyang Xiao Long." He extended his hand and Blake accepted it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Blake Belladonna. Yang's descriptions of you do not do you justice."

Oh…

She found herself flushing as her ears twitched atop her head. "It's good to meet you too, sir. I uh…I suppose I better get going down the trail."

"You're here at a good time, she'll be outside watering her flowers soon."

Blake thought for a moment that she might have heard him wrong, but as he waved goodbye and went back inside, she knew he hadn't.

Still, the idea of Yang tending to a garden seemed…odd.

You're the one skipping along town and grinning like an idiot. You of all people know how much things can change.

The further down the path Blake went, the more into focus the small shack at the bottom became. It wasn't a very big space, but she could see a small lake set just behind and behind that was a view of nothing but the forest that seemed to stretch on for miles.

The first true sight of Yang came from the vision of her motorcycle resting against the far wall. It looked as if it had been untouched for years, covered in a disheveled tarp and cast aside. Meant for another life.

True enough however, there was indeed a very plentiful garden that wrapped around the front of the cabin. There were flowers in full bloom, with varying colors of red, white, purple and yellow. They were beautiful.

This whole area was almost magical, like another world that was separated from the craziness of the cities she'd been in her whole life.

A moment passed as Blake enjoyed the view before she heard the front door opened and peeked up to see someone coming outside.

Blake wasn't sure what she'd expected, but Yang looked every bit the vision of beauty and power she remembered. Her blonde hair still hung far down her broad back, only this time it was tied up in a ponytail. She wore a yellow t-shirt with black shorts and brown boots. Her body still seemed to be amazingly well sculpted. If Yang wasn't getting out of the house much, she was certainly doing enough in it to stay in shape.

The next thing Blake noticed was the watering can held between her teeth as she turned around after shutting the door. That was when she realized that Yang only had one hand to work with and suddenly it all came crashing back to her.

She hadn't forgotten, but it still caught her off guard. She found herself staring at the missing limb, those same feelings of guilt and regret threatening to consume her.

A loud bang made her jump and she saw that the watering can had fallen to the ground. Her eyes trailed from it up to Yang and where she expected to see lilac staring back at her, she was met with an inferno of red.

"What the hell are you doing here?"