"Look, I hate to complain" Said Thane.

"No you don't" Retorted Helen.

"…No I don't, but why did we come to patch by airship instead of trying that new feature on our bikes?"

"It's still in the prototype stage, we don't have time to fiddle with our bikes to make adjustments if something goes wrong." Explained Grey.

"True, but I get the feeling that we aren't gonna be able to test that much for a while"

"you think Oren's ok?" Asked Helen.

"Oren is the smartest one of us, and is easily one of our most powerful fighters. While you two," He said looking at Thane and Sam, "are better suited for stealth and subterfuge, Oren is almost designed to fight hordes of enemies at a time, like me. I'm sure he's fine, he'll probably show up one or two days after us."

After arriving on patch. Team GHOST asked someone nearby for directions. They rode their bikes to a cabin in the woods nearby to a cliff. It was close enough to a town to not be completely secluded, but far enough away for whoever lived there to maintain a level of privacy. Grey knocked on the door, and was promptly greeted by a man with hair the color of sunlight. Upon seeing them, the man got quite a quizzical look on his face. Grey couldn't really blame him; they were quite an unusual sight even without the motorbikes.

"can I help you?" the man asked.

"Are you Taiyang Xiao Long?" asked Grey

"Yeeea, why?"

"we are 4th year students at beacon. We are on a team with Oren."

"Oh You must be team GHOST. Oren used to write all the time, and Ozpin has mentioned you a couple times. He holds you in very high esteem." Taiyang said, now much less skeptical.

"Ehem thanks. Can we come in? we just got back from a mission and have some questions about what happened while we were gone."

"ya, I'll bet. Come on in, I'll make some tea."

They made their way into the cabin, and sat down in the living room and a few minutes later Taiyang showed up with some tea for everyone.

"So where is Oren?" He asked.

"He stayed behind to scout out Beacon, told us to look for the guy who raised him." Said Grey

"That'll be Qrow. He's been disappearing quite a bit recently… so you guys have seen Beacon then?"

Grey heaved a long heavy sigh before saying "… yeah. So Qrow's not here now?"

"no."

"Can you answer some of our questions then?"

"I... I'll do my best."

And so Taiyang recounted it all. The initial Grimm attack caused by a train crash from a sealed subway, how his daughter Yang broke somebody's leg during the tournament, and how the very next day the shock and panic caused by witnessing a student kill a robot huntress in the tournament caused a massive invasion of Grimm. He told how the white fang started releasing Grimm in Beacon, how their leader cut off his daughter's' arm, and how someone hacked Atlas's tech, turning an army of robots on the huntsmen and citizens. Finally, he told of the Dragon Grimm and how it just spawned more Grimm and the battle between the ones called Pyrrha and Cinder on top of Beacon tower, how Cinder killed Pyrrha and somehow his other daughter named Ruby froze the dragon on top of the tower.

"Oren ain't gonna be happy" Said Sam "they're weaponizing Grimm? That's messed up."

"The fact that the Communication Tower is down, that means the whole CCTS is down. All global communication has been cut off." Said Helen

"And Ozpin's missing!? I've seen the man fight, what the hell could've beat him?" asked Thane

"… Our tactician is gonna have his work cut out for him when he gets back." Said Grey.

"Listen any friends of my family, is family to me. You guys are welcome to stay until you plan your next move."

While Grey and Taiyang discussed sleeping arrangements, Helen went to find the restroom. She had just cleaned herself up and was about to walk downstairs when she… felt, something in the next room. She knocked on the door.

"come in." said a tired voice.

She opened, and laying on the bed, staring out the window was a girl. The girl was Missing one of her arms. Eventually after a minute of silence the girl turned and saw Helen for the first time.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Helen, you must be Yang, I've heard a lot about you."

"The arm gives it away right?"

Helen could feel the sadness and weariness in Yang's heart, she decided she had to help somehow, even if it was just a little bit.

"actually I've heard a lot about you from Oren. He is on my team at Beacon."

At this Yang's feelings changed slightly, from pure depression to curiosity with hints of joy and excitement. She knew she couldn't heal Yang, or force her to heal. She had to figure out a way to motivate her to heal herself. She was trying to decide how to go about doing this, when the voice of Grey spoke in her head.

"Let me help" he said. Suddenly Helen's head was filled with memories that were not her own, she assumed they must be Yang's. Suddenly Helen knew how to motivate Yang…. She had to piss her off.

"Though you seem a bit different than what he described."

"What do you mean?"

"He said you were fiery, optimistic and strong. The words he said were ""Doesn't let anything stand in her way"". Yet I find you laying here after your first real injury, wallowing in self-pity." There it was. That initial spark of anger. It was working.

"Excuse me?"

"Hey I mean don't worry about it. Nobody's perfect. Oren must have just been wrong. I mean if he were here he would probably talk about how good mechanical limbs are nowadays and that you shouldn't be whining about losing something that can easily be replaced." Helen could feel the spark growing and growing.

"I don't think you understand what's been happening around here," Started Yang

"I don't think I need to," cut in Helen "all I need to know is that you don't care about you sister, father or friends anymore."

"How dare you! Of course I do!"

"Then why are you laying here feeling sorry for yourself instead of training to better protect them. That missing arm of yours isn't a reason to quit. It means you're not strong enough. What do you do when you're not strong enough? Get stronger. Get stronger so it doesn't happen to you or more importantly any of your loved ones, ever again. Cause all your doing right now is making the people who care about you sad and worried. I find that to be just plain selfish." That spark she could feel inside Yang finally exploded into a brilliant flame.

"…Thank you." Said Yang.

"Don't thank me. I copied that speech from Oren. Got stabbed in the gut pretty bad by a death-stalker in my second year. I just stopped wanting to function for a while. He snapped me out of it."

"Ya that sounds like something he would do. What else did he say?"

"He said it would be hard at first, but you have to remember that in this line of work, it's never about you. That's why you should share your burdens, because if you try to shut out all the people who care about you, then you break."

"He should follow his own advice then."

"You noticed that too huh?"

"how could I not?"

"So what now?"

"I guess I got to get stronger."

"That's the spirit! You need anything then team GHOST is happy to help."

"Thanks"

With that she went back downstairs. The voice of Grey appeared in her head again.

"I thought you were trying to get her angry?" He asked.

"Not angry at me, angry at herself. Her heart needs healing, but she is the only one who can heal it."

When she came back into the living room Grey gave her a nod of approval. Eventually they went to sleep. Grey stayed in the guest room, Helen in Ruby's room (apparently she wasn't home at the moment), while Thane and Sam had a chair and couch in the living room. Eventually a thunderstorm had started and rain was pouring down. Grey woke with a start, and immediately woke up the rest of the house including Yang and Taiyang. He never spoke when they asked him what was wrong, he merely led them to the front door and opened it. Standing in the rain were two figures. One was recognizable as Glynda Goodwitch a professor at Beacon. The other was clearly Oren, but it looked like he was holding a body. Then the face of the person he was carrying came into view.

"NO!" shouted Helen who immediately took off towards Oren. Oren put the body on the floor as Helen started cradling it and crying.