Author's Note: This Chapter was written by Kitty Lux as a follow-up to my first, Cat and the Canary, and you can find the original posted on her FF profile. We've decided to continue this fic together as a collaboration, each swapping every other chapter and picking up where the other left off. I'll be posting them here with the original "one-shot" that started it all, and we hope you enjoy the story that unfolds!


An hour into their reunion, and Blake hadn't broken her promise. Even now, Yang sat perched on Blake's extended index finger, those captivating yellow eyes gazing down at her lovingly in an act worth more than words. Blake's weary smile however wouldn't give way to a true, honest smirk the likes Yang had grown to miss over the last few months, and would likely be deprived off for a little while longer. That was okay though, because neither could possibly expect their old dynamic to just return as if everything had been right, as if Yang hadn't lost her arm, and Blake hadn't ran. Things just weren't that simple.

And it seemed as if questing after Ruby wouldn't be, either.

As it turned out, while Yang had been bedbound for the last three months, Blake had been very, very active, skirting the perimeter of Beacon and ensuring what few Grimm fell from the path to the academy were cut down before reaching the still-recovering city. She had also made a point to clear out the Beacon dorms, to which Yang attributed Blake's relatively well-maintained health and outfit. And, for the last month, Blake had been slowly carving her path toward Beacon Tower. She refused to leave without having explored the top, and without having finished one final sweep of the perimeter.

They also needed to find transport, permission to leave in the first place, and to notify what was left of Beacon staff of the growing perimeter assaults of the Grimm as the occasional bouts of panic, fear, anger, sorrow, and doubt pulled the creatures to the city itself. And then there was the last goodbye.

Yang refused to leave her father like Raven, Summer, and Ruby did. She'd say goodbye. She had to. She knew all too well exactly how much it hurt when the people she loved just disappeared.

"Hey, Yang?"

She chirped in response to her… partner…

"Can I tell you a story?"

She chirped again before moving up Blake's finger toward her hand, and the black-haired beauty turned it, allowing Yang to settle down in her palm.

"It's about my parents. About… why I stayed with the Fang as long as I did." Her voice cracked on the 'why' but she continued regardless. "Or rather… long enough for Adam to sink his claws in…"

Sensing her partner's mood, and the plummeting atmosphere, Yang stood, delivering a gentle peck to Blake's palm before flying her way to Blake's shoulder and nuzzling the girl's cheek. She almost didn't make it, her wing still failing after flying all the way from Patch with very few breaks.

The feeling of Yang's soft feather against her skin appeared to soothe Blake slightly, and she closed her eyes as she released a hard breath, a soft smile forming at the sheer presence of her one time guardian angel.

"I want you to know that I regret everything that followed, but I was blinded. My parents…. My parents were living in Mistral when they had me, and at the time, things weren't good for the Faunus there. They joined the Fang and, for a while, the boycotts, rallies, strikes, they were working. But it wouldn't last."

Blake had stopped moving at this point, and once she herself noticed this fact, she made a point of sneaking into the ruined remnants of one of the Fairground shacks, curling her legs beneath her as she ducked down beneath the counter and offered her hand once more to Yang who hopped back into her original position. There they stayed as Blake continued her story.

"The initial surge of support would soon die down as mankind turned against itself. Humans supporting Faunus equality went from being virtually unheard of, to being socially unacceptable. And the vast majority acquiesced. All those promises of change from small companies became empty when the giants stayed the same. They could barely scrape by as was. Supporting us would only end in their collapse… Sympathisers were few and far between, big conglomerates had too much to gain, and small time businesses had too much to lose. We were all alone, and change just wasn't happening. We needed… We needed something drastic…"

In her canary form, the term "pool" had never been a more apt description for the tears in her partner's eyes as she continued her story, her quivering lip all too prevalent from Yang's macroscopic perspective.

"My mom…" Blake's voice completely broke, and just like that it became all too clear why Blake had hidden herself. Her lip continued to quiver as her tears fell. She took a laboured breath as she continued. "She jumped the barricade during the Haven Seniors Championship… The two finalists didn't see her, and they couldn't stop themselves in time. She…"

Blake closed her eyes as she started to sob, her laboured breaths racking her body as tears fell, staining her cheeks and neck, and wetting her top. Not even the feeling of Yang's wrapping her arm around her, pulling her close, whispering words of love and light, could chase away her pain.

"She died, Yang. She died. And nothing changed… What more could we do!? What more could we give!? And yet… despite that… Despite her death, despite the futility of it all, we still fought, we still tried, and we still turned away suggestions of extremism. We refused to become like them… Until we did…"

Blake continued sobbing, curling into Yang's warm embraced who continued to hush her, continued to gently rub circles into her back, continued to hold her.

"You must've heard the story; the synchronised assassinations across the kingdoms, including one of the SDC higher ups. It was official. If mankind wouldn't give us what we wanted, we'd just take it. And I… even after everything that happened, myself, my father, we wouldn't follow. Neither would our leader… He stepped down but my father continued on. He wouldn't let me follow. Not anymore. The "peaceful" rallies were growing too dangerous now that Adam and the rest of the Fang were terrorising the world…. Turns out he was right. One night, my father just… never came back… Adam was the one who told me what happened…"

Yang's response was to just clutch Blake tighter, hold her closer. In that moment, she was almost thankful for Blake's breakdown, it saved her own horror from being witnessed. Blake wouldn't have to learn of how much the truth hurt her. She had heard stories, had seen discrimination, but this… She had never imagined things were so bad… "Misguided" was putting it lightly…

"I'm so sorry, Blake…"

"That's why I stayed, Yang. For him. For my father. For my mother. I… It's not what they would've wanted. It's not. It's what I wanted… I wanted equality. I wanted to make my parents' dreams come true. I wanted… And I didn't care how…"

As Blake petered out, the duo fell into prolonged sobbing, Blake crying on Yang's shoulder, as Yang just waited for the storm to pass, for her friend to calm. Once that happened, Yang looked down at her, forced her to meet her gaze, and wiped away the last of the tears with her only thumb.

"I can't possibly begin to understand what you went through. And I'm not going to pretend like I do. I just… I don't blame you, Blake. It wasn't your fault. You were just… trying the make the world a better place. You didn't realise that you still had a choice. And I promise that one day we'll make that change. We'll change all of it, Blake. We will."

Unable to speak, Blake just nodded and Yang smiled before pulling her back into a hug. They remained that way for a minute before Blake pulled away, using her detached sleeve to dab away the tear streaks on her face.

"You don't know how much this means to me…"

Yang could guess. She'd never seen Blake like this. A girl like her certainly didn't seem like the type who could cope with such loss and come out unscathed. Yang didn't. To this day, behind closed doors, she'd cry wondering why Raven left. And there was a reason she never visited Summer's grave… Blake had hid from this, blocked it out; tried to pretend like it hadn't happened. But it had. And it broke the girl way back then, and no one had ever helped put her back together. The fact that Blake had even told her in the first place…

"Thanks for telling me all of this, Blake. This can't have been easy…"

Blake smiled the weakest of smiles.

"I just need you to know…"

Yang smiled back.

"I do. And I'm always here if you need to talk."

In that moment, Yang felt herself shift onto her knees. She leaned forward, cupping Blake's cheek in her hand. And soon, her lips were pressed against Blake's forehead. It was fleeting. And it had never happened before. But to Yang, it was only what felt natural.

As she pulled away, Blake made no mention of the act. Instead, she reached up to the counter and used it to pull herself back to her feet before offering a hand to Yang. Yang raised her brow questioningly.

"It's the least I can do," Blake spoke, seemingly unfazed by the mess her emotions had just caused – not that she could clean up the tear streaks, dry her vest, or clear her bloodshot eyes. Yang merely accepted, letting Blake pull her up.

"You alright?" she asked once she was back on her own feet.

"I'll be better," Blake responded in a not-unfamiliar monotone.

"Take however long you need. You're the only one of us with a weapon, remember?"

"Right."


By the end of the next hour, Blake had calmed, and the two had journeyed up to the top of Beacon Tower, where they were treated to the relics of the war. However, the shattered glass, scattered gears, broken furniture, even the giant Grimm, all were ignored as Blake and Yang gravitated toward the last remnant of their dear friend…

Pyrrha's bronze headpiece…

Yang gasped and transformed on instinct, hiding from the horrors of reality in her newfound form. However, with her wing clipped so, she fell, and Blake stumbled to catch her, panicking as she fell to her knees beside Pyrrha' headpiece, Yang nestled in her hands.

"Are you okay?"

Yang chirped in response to Blake's desperate question and Blake could see her partner's violet canary eyes locked on the very headpiece that triggered her 'escape'. Blake teared up as she leaned forward, prompting Yang to jump out of her hands and allowing Blake to fall onto all fours as she sniffled away.

Once again, Yang couldn't bear to see Blake is such a state, and for the second time that night, she returned to her human form where she was sat with her knees tucked beneath her. She reached forward, her hand shaking as she took Pyrrha's crown between her fingers as if it were made of glass. She glanced down at it, tearing up alongside her partner.

"You might not have seen it, and it might not feel like it right now… but you were a hero, Pyrrha. Things are… Things are bad, yeah, but… Man, they could've been so much worse… If this is all we have left of you then we aren't ever losing it."

She paused, glancing at Blake who was simply watching Yang give her tiny eulogy, before turning her gaze to the heavens.

"Y'know, it was you who gave me the courage to carry on? I wanted to quit. I just… I did quit. But then… But then when I was sick of living every day inside that room… When I was sick of hating Blake, and missing Weiss and my sister, that's when I thought about you. And I knew… I knew that quitting wasn't the answer. If you could do this, then I could stand up, and leave my room, and I could find Blake again. And maybe one day I'll find my mom, too. Thank you, Pyrrha, for everything. I love you. Blake loves you. We just… We love you. And we'll see you again… one day…"

At that, Blake reached over, taking the headpiece out of Yang's hand just to hold it for a few seconds, her eyes locked on the dusty bronze piece. Smiling down at it, Blake blinked away the last of her tears before standing and finally taking in the room. Yang followed as she walked toward the frozen wyvern, quickly storing Pyrrha's crown in her pack before reaching out to rest a hand on the snout of the behemoth.

"It's… actually real…"

The disbelief in Blake's voice urged Yang to speak up.

"You didn't know?"

Blake glanced behind her to see Yang stood, staring up at the body of the Grimm whose shadow they were standing in. "No. I see it every night. But I just… How? How is this possible?"

A roll of her shoulders only served as an unwelcome reminder of what Yang was missing, the uneven loads being lifted and dropped. "I wish I could tell ya. Apparently Ruby did it but I've only heard bits and pieces."

"Ruby?" Blake asked without a hint of disbelief as she glanced up at the drake's body. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Because it's Ruby?" Yang asked rhetorically and Blake smiled.

"Well, when we find her, she can tell us herself."

"Seeing is believing."

"Why do you think I had to come here?"