Well, that prologue was kind of depressing, wasn't it? Don't worry, I'm not going to make the whole story so oppressively grim (no pun intended), so be prepared for things to start looking up.
For starters, let's introduce a new player into the mix, shall we?
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1 week later...
Yang sat on the stump in front of the house, staring at the ground. It had been five months since Ruby left on her crusade, and she still showed no sign of coming back.
As time went on, she found herself caring less and less about whether her younger sister even would come back home. After all, pretty much everyone else in her life had left her: Raven, her amazing stepmom, her best friend...it's not like she was more emotionally fragile than she left on and could really use some kind of beacon (hah hah, puns) of stability, or that sisters are supposed to be there for each other or anything! No, Ruby was perfectly within her rights to just up and abandon her family and go save the world, traumatized sister and worried dad be damned!
She glanced down at her left hand, making a fist with it. She was actually starting to get used to only having one working arm, though the phantom pains were still annoying when they would flare up for seemingly no reason. She could do most things on her own without too much trouble: changing clothes, bathing, various household chores, she could do these without Lea's help most of the time, and if need be she could make herself food, though a cold cut sandwich was the most complicated thing she could do solo. Physical therapy was annoying, but not unmanageable. Thankfully, Lea wasn't unreasonable and wouldn't push Yang if she was struggling.
"...congratulations, Yang, you can squish a foam rubber ball," Yang sarcastically praised herself, "yippee…."
"Look at it this way," said a voice behind her, "now you're one step closer to becoming the Remnant foam rubber squishing champion!"
Yang turned around towards the voice, all her senses on alert. As far as she knew, Her father, Lea, and herself were the only people around for miles, and she didn't remember either adult saying they were expecting guest, so she was immediately suspicious.
Fortunately the person turned out to be Sun Wukong.
"Oh, hey Sun," Yang said, visibly relaxing. She turned back to her previous position. "What are you doing here?"
"...Well, you're a bundle of joy," the money Faunus noted, clearly being sarcastic, "It's been, like, five months already, don't you think it's about time to drop the angst?"
Yang whipped her head around, righteous indignation burning in her eyes. "I don't know," she said, waving her stump right arm, "you tell me."
"OK," Sun said, holding up his hands as he walked over to the stump, "OK...I get, you're still processing, that's cool." He squatted next to the tree stump. "But seriously, how've you been doing? I know it can't have been easy adjusting to…" He gestured broadly to her missing arm. "...that."
"Oh gee," Yang scoffed, standing up, "ya think?" She then began stomping back towards the house, Sun following her. "Did you come all the way here to rub that in, or were you just passing by and that was just a nice bonus?"
"Hey!" The Faunus tried to jump in front of Yang's path, but she simply brushed passed him like it was nothing and continued on. "I was concerned about you, OK? When did that become a crime?" She continued to ignore him as she ascended the front steps. "C'mon Yang, cut me some slack here! We're all-"
She abruptly whirled around and jabbed a finger into Sun's exposed chest. "There's no more 'we' anymore!" she declared, "There hasn't been for months, or do you not remember how everyone just up and disappeared after all the smoke cleared?"
The two teens stared at each other, neither willing to back down; Yang's eyes practically burning with anger and rage, and Sun's with determination to get through to his friend.
"Whatever you're mad about, don't take it out on me," he said eventually. "I'm your friend, and I really do want to help you feel better." He held out his right hand, before quickly realizing his mistake and holding out his left instead. "What do you say?"
Yang made no move to reciprocate the gesture. However, what Sun said did have an effect, and it was a good one; she let out a deep breath, her anger visibly melting away until exhaustion replaced it. She slumped down on the top of the steps, "You're right, I shouldn't get angry at you." She exhaled. "I just...I don't know."
Sun sat next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure you'll figure it out; you never seemed like the kind of person who'd let something keep them down for long."
"I used to think that," Yang huffed, "I also used to think that I'd still have both my arms, but you see how that turned out." She held out her stump.
For a minute Sun grimaced, not quite sure what to say to lift the blonde's spirits. He could tell she was emotional- well, more so than she usually was, if memory served -and he wanted to tread carefully; he'd heard stories when he first arrived in Vale of a nightclub owner that got his scrotum crushed by a "blonde haired demon".
It didn't take much to make the connection when he met Yang.
"So, uh...W-Weiss is doing good!" he managed, "At least, that's what Neptune says. Lucky stiff managed to get her new digits after she got whisked back home by 'dear old dad'..." He used air quotes here. "She doesn't really get out much, so apparently she's working on some super secret project she won't tell anyone about; no idea what it could be, but I'm guessing it must have something to with all that junk that happened back at the Vytal Festival."
"Good for her." Yang sort of sympathized with Weiss: both girl with a taste of freedom, and while the means we're different, both had that freedom taken away from them. And unlike practically all her other friends and loved ones, she realized that Weiss herself wasn't at fault for disappearing from her life, so she cut the girl a bit of slack.
"She says she's sorry about your arm, and that if there's any way she could help just let her know," conveyed Sun. "She also said that I was supposed tell you that as soon as possible or else, and this is a direct quote, 'I will personally use Myrtenaster to remove your most useful appendage', and I'm pretty sure she wasn't talking about my tail." He put a hand gingerly on his tail, which was twitching nervously.
Yang actually smirked at that. Not a big one, but still more than she'd smiled in a long, long time.
"Still doesn't like you very much, does she?" she asked.
"Nah!" He waved dismissively, "She loves me, she's just jealous of this!" The Faunus gestured to his bare chest, tapping his almost unnaturally sculpted abs with the back of his hand. He also waggled his eyebrows.
She scoffed again, though this one had no real malice behind it.
"Yeah, cause I'm sure that's exactly what Miss 'Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company' wants to be known for: her mythical six pack," Yang pointed out. She sighed, chuckling softly. "How come no one can ever stay mad at you?"
Sun just used both hands to point to his abs, which earned him a punch to said abs from Yang.
"I don't know," he admitted, wheezing a little from the blow, "I guess I'm just able to figure out the right things to say to people. Sage, one if the guys in my team, says it's mystery, but I like to think I'm just that awesome."
"And humble," Yang added. Then she furrowed her brow, looking at monkey Faunus quizzically, "Wasn't Sage the one who took a flaming coconut to the groin?"
"Pfft, heck no! That was Scarlet, and it was two coconuts, actually." He started snickering uncontrollably. "That actually reminds of something that happened last week," he said, managing to get his giggle fit under control, "If you're not doing anything, I'd be willing to tell it to you for a meal."
Yang took a moment to mull everything over. She knew things weren't going to get much better for her, not unless someone magically showed up at the door and handed her a new arm, but at the same time talking with Sun Wukong was making her feel better than she had since that day, and she was actually starting to enjoy it; even if it was just for a day or so, she just wanted to pretend like life was like it'd been before the Vytal Festival.
And it would give her a reasonable excuse to blow off PT for once.
"Sure," she said, propping herself on Sun's shoulder as she stood back up, "but I've gotta warn you, I'm only slightly better than my dad at making food, and he nearly burnt water once."
"Considering the last thing I ate tried to peck my eyes out when I got near its nest, it's an improvement." He accepted Yang's hand up and followed her into the house. "So, have you ever heard of a game called 'Nutball'?"
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Lea sat on Yang's bed, impatiently tapping her foot as she waited for Yang to show up. The girl was supposed to be doing her physical therapy right now, and yet here Lea was, going on a half hour of waiting for the blonde amputee.
She sighed, wondering not for the first time if Yang really took her recovery seriously. She didn't pretend to know the girl's priorities or how she thought, but her experience as a nurse told her that even depressed patients were at least a little hopeful to regain a bit of their lives back. Granted, she wasn't a psychologist, but she didn't need that kind of degree to recognize the look of joy on someone's face when they were able to move a limb after a traumatic injury, or to finally get the hang of a new, prosthetic arm or leg.
I wish I knew how to heal more than just her body, the nurse thought, absently tugging on an elastic meant to help Yang keep what was left of her right arm in shape. It's a pity she isn't from Atlas, or she'd already have a prosthetic.
After another ten minute of waiting, Lea got up and went looking for the wayward teen. Yang often appeared to be lost in thought, oblivious to the world around her, and these states of fugue could sometimes last an entire afternoon if not interrupted, and even then it would take some prodding to snap her out of them.
It was looking like this was another of those cases.
As she exited Yang's room and headed down the hall he heard a commotion coming from the direction of the kitchen. Her first thought was that Taiyang had come home early from his trip, but she dismissed that almost immediately once she recognized that the second voice didn't belong to Yang's father.
As she got closer, she began to make out what Yang and this stranger (it sounded like a boy around Yang's age, but it wasn't anyone she knew lived in the area) were saying.
"I never tried this with one arm before."
"Don't worry, you'll do fine! Trust me."
"I've never even done it the normal way!"
"It's easy, I do it all the time; sometimes I only use my tail!"
"Yeah, but you're, you know…."
"Just relax and don't think about it too much. Seriously, this is for your own good."
"...OK. Just...don't laugh if I mess it up."
"I only promise to try."
Lea quickened her pace, a bit unsettled by what she was hearing. It wasn't that Yang might be getting it on with some boy, she was fine with teenagers being teenagers, but if that the reason why Yang was blowing off her rehabilitation….
As she turned the corner she stopped in her tracks, the scene that was playing out even more shocking than she thought: Yang was standing in front of the stove, wearing an apron (the boy must have helped her tie it), holding a frying pan with an egg cooking in it. The boy, who Lea now saw was a Faunus, was standing next to her, gently guiding her arm up and down. He did this a few times before he jerked her arm sharply up, sending the egg flipping into the air before in landed back in the pan, sizzling as the other side began cooking.
"Oh my god!" she cried, "I didn't think I could do that!"
"Told ya you just needed to relax," the Faunus boy said, patting Yang on the shoulder, "If you keep practicing, then you can get fancy with it!" He took the pan from her with his monkey tail and deftly flipped the egg again, this time spinning the pan around before catching the egg. "See?"
"That was pretty good," Yang nodded, "In fact, I'd say it was eggcellent!" She then proceeded to slap her knee, laughing heartily.
"...you know," the boy said, "I think I liked you better when you were emo." This earned him a punch to the ribs.
Lea smiled, watching the scene play out; any frustration for Yang's lackadaisical attitude evaporating. Since coming to work at the Xiao-Long house she couldn't remember a single time when Yang had laughed, much less even bothered to crack a smile. Not to mention that this boy had managed to get her to use her good arm without worrying about the other, whether he knew it or not.
She knew Yang still had friends, but it hadn't occurred to her to encourage the blonde hair girl to socialize with them; if she weren't so proud of Yang for finally being able to enjoy life again, she'd probably berate herself for not being a better caregiver.
I'll give her another hour, she resolved, turning around and letting Yang and her friend have time to themselves.
Who was she to interrupt this moment of happiness?
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See? I told y'all thing would start looking up for Yang! (Because dang it, I don't want my favorite RWBY character to be miserable forever!) This one is going to be interesting in that it's sort of the inverse of Stages; where that story started benign and got more angsty as it went on, this one is suppose to star bleak and hopeless, and gradually get more upbeat and positive.
Because let's face it, RWBY isn't going to get happier any time soon, and like I said, I want some justice for my favorite character from that show.
And for those wondering, I plan on eventually reuniting Team RWBY, but that's not going to happen for quite a few chapters at this point. However, rest assured that it will happen, that's inevitable, and I know how I'm going to do it.
Anyway, the plot should start happening next chapter, the one after that at latest. In the mean time, leave a review and let me know how I'm doing.
