Please note!: This chapter was written at the time of RWBY V3E7. Since then, I've kept up to date with the third volume as it progressed and am waiting for V3E11 to release this weekend. This hardly has any influence on the actual plot, but just a heads-up because the A/Ns of this chapter reference no episode further than V3E7.


Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat! Never miss a... beat?!

I have no idea why that quote in particular is stuck in my head after watching all the episodes of RWBY Volume 3 that I had missed out on with my beta-reader Time96. I am not even sure what to feel about Neon Katt. I can see why people like her, I kinda like her too, but at the same time she was kind of... irritating. Not in herself, but I really didn't like the way she was treating Yang – the way she was doing it, she was showing EXACTLY the one kind of treatment that irritates me the most.

Still like her, I guess. Need to see more of her to say for sure. Flynt was cool, though. Or should I say `Flynt was coal, though.'?

Hashtag notevensorry.

Who we definitely need to see more of, however, is Neo, among others. Who else I wanna see? Well... You'll know at the end of this chapter~

...Still, as always when I watch new RWBY episodes, I now have those new catchy songs stuck in my head. Especially that new jazz motif of "I Burn"! Now, I don't think I've mentioned it before, but music really influences me. Simply the thought of not having music in the morning leaves me irritated, cause I need music in the morning like others need their coffee – if I don't get it, my mood is so bad I snap at everything and anything. I'm literally Weiss from Volume 1 for the entire day. And now imagine what this song does to me.

Know Darunia from Ocarina of Time? Know what happens to him when he hears Saria's song? Yeah, that's me when I hear the jazz motif of "I Burn".

Quite the opposite is the case when I saw that trailer for RWBY V3E8. Shit, my heart broke when I saw Yang's reaction to Blake's words. I broke down and sat here, staring at the screen, nearly crying myself.

Well, enough of that, not gonna spoil anything for those who haven't watched this far yet.

Before we move on to the chapter now, there's one last thing I'd like to talk about, seeing as how it was mentioned in the reviews a few times now: I am aware that some people want to see more Ruby in this story. And you will get it soon enough, as I want to write more Ruby as well.

The thing is, Yang is the one that will carry this story the most due to her involvement and personality. She fits into the greater picture better than Ruby does due to the way she acts and thinks, she is aware of how cruel the world can be and how it works. Especially the darker part of it.

The lack of this innocence, innocence that is part of Ruby even in this story, is what makes Yang a better choice to carry this story. But as I mentioned before, this will slowly change now, other characters – especially Ruby – will slowly become more present and will start to share part of Yang's weight. I wish I could explain it better, but I can't without spoiling too much.

All I can say is that there's gonna be more Ruby soon. A large part of the next chapter (not this one sadly) will focus on Ruby, and – rejoice! - the one after that is entirely for Ruby, with Yang only being mentioned.

Just wanted to throw it out there, so people don't think I'll just focus on Yang due to the more recent chapters.

Yeah, that's it. All I wanted to say.

Anyways, break a leg on this chapter!

...Wait, too soon?

DISCLAIMER: I do not own RWBY or its characters. They belong to Rooster Teeth.


Chapter 6: Promise of the fallen monarch

She blinked. Her eyes felt dry. Heavy. Almost like she had tried to read in poor lighting, straining her eyes.

Well, the part with the poor lighting was right, at least. And she had been straining her eyes to make out shapes in the dark. Self-imposed torture, if anything, as she had been the one to dim the light in the room by pasting newspaper all over the windows, not wanting to see the world outside. Not daylight, and especially not the night. She felt most comfortable alone and not knowing what time it was, anyway. Had stopped caring about what time it was, about hours, days and months. Hadn't left the room in forever.

She was paranoid. Openly admitted it. Had no trust for the world and the people that lived in it. Felt comfortable by sinking into the darkness, by people forgetting about her, and by her forgetting about the people.

Just how had she ended up here? Some years ago, she wouldn't have guessed she'd ever end up in that position, sitting at the bottom of a wall, hugging herself, sleeping day and night away right there, in that spot where she felt most comfortable at, away from all the little furniture that the room had to offer.

Not that she wanted more furniture. The room was perfect as it was. She had spent an eternity on it, on making sure that everything was in the right spot. At the right angle. Every little detail arranged so that it no longer bothered her. Her room was the darkest and least friendly in the entire building, her very own prison only because she had turned it into it. Could be so much more friendly and inviting, but she didn't want it to be.

She had obsessive-compulsive disorder. Openly admitted it. Everything had to be right. It robbed her sleep to know that something wasn't as she wanted it. Sleep, the only thing she felt comfortable doing anymore after all that had happened. All the loss. All the pain. She had seen them all fall with her very own eyes.

First, her parents, consumed by fire when she was only a few years old. Her father and her step-mother, for she had never got to know her real mother, crying in agony as the flames took them, begging for her and her half-sister to make it out alive. In a sense, she had already lost her life that night. Only in a sense though, for when she had made friends and had found what she had thought to be her place in world, she had regained new spirit. New hope.

Not for long.

For when death claimed her half-sister, she lost it. Lost it all. All her sanity, gone within a single night. Within one second. And after her sanity had been gone, the rest crumbled away bit by bit. The place she called home. Her friends – some died, others broke contact. Her acquaintances and contacts. Everything. Until she had nothing left. Until she was all alone. And only a burden.

That was when she began to retreat. To become introverted, and let no one and nothing close to her anymore. To stay in that room, to shut the windows and dim every bit of light. She had everything she needed there, with her. All in this one room.

The bed she never used, metal frame, round corners and edges. The table, the chairs and the kitchen counter, round corners and edges. The cupboards of which one contained countless letters from an old friend, round corners and edges, same went for the doors. No cutlery, not even plastic. The small private area of the room – if it could be called private, that was, with only a curtain to make it so – with a sink and a toilet. The walls and the floor, soft and comfortable. The few windows just below the ceiling, all decorated with newspaper now thanks to her, grate outside them to not let anything in or out. And the button by the heavy metal door, if she ever needed anything more than what she had.

She was suicidal. Openly admitted it. The reason most of the room was in the state it was in. No sharp objects, a guard outside the door to listen should she try anything like smashing her head in on the round furniture. Heck, even the curtain wasn't sturdy enough to hang herself by. She had tried. Had tried to end this miserable state she was in, this pitiful shadow of herself that she had become, in every imaginable way possible. Hanging herself. Cutting herself. Smashing her head in. Nothing worked.

They didn't understand. With everything she had once loved gone, she wanted nothing more than just to burn until there was nothing left to burn about. But the thing was – without all of it, there was just no fuel to this flame. Without everything she had once loved, there may be things to burn about in the world...

But there was just nothing left to burn for.

Losing everything – parents, half-sister, friends – had driven her to lunacy.

A sound in the distance made her perk up a bit, the sound of a heavy door opening and closing down the long corridor outside her room. With her sense of sight affected by the darkness, and that for such a long time, her sense of hearing had increased quite a lot. Nowhere near the level of a Faunus, but still.

Lazily raising her gaze a bit, taking it off the floor just in front of her legs, knees pulled up, she let her head fall to the right until she could spot the heavy metal door. The only door in the room. Not even a handle from her side. Were they coming for her? Was it time for food again?

Food – she didn't know what else to call it when they brought it to her. She had asked the guards to stop telling her whether it was breakfast, lunch or dinner, as it would tell her what time it was. Made her feel somewhat like a dog – they didn't care either what it was called, as long as it was food – but it wasn't that she minded. She had always considered herself an animal, either way. Had sympathized with Faunus – not that she considered them animals, like some scum out there did, like the 'oh-so-great' Schnee Dust Company.

She heard a key scraping along the metal door before being inserted in the lock. It moved, rattled, then was pulled out. Wrong key again – the guards never found the right one the first time, and that despite the fact that even she had noticed that each key had a small number, corresponding to the room it opened, engraved into the top, by then. How they still messed up, she didn't know.

Another key was put into the lock, tried, then pulled out. A third one followed, but turned out to be the wrong one yet again. She mentally rolled her eyes, her body too weak to actually do so. Came with the unhealthy lifestyle and the void feeling in her chest, her reason for life being removed.

Removed, tch. More like fucking cut out with a blunt spoon while she was wide awake.

Eventually, the seventh key inserted into the lock turned, and the heavy door opened. Just a tad, slightly ajar. Then, the door was closed again. She mentally rolled her eyes once more. They had forgot it again, the routine.

Routine. Fucking routine. How could they mess up something to simple? Life was made of routines. Her dull existence was made of routines! Her every damn second was a routine, and it was the only thing she could cling to while hoping that it all would eventually end! She didn't even care how – if fast and painless, or agonizingly slow. If she'd even be aware of it, or never know she died. She just wanted it all to be over.

Death. Mercy.

Or at least a new thing to live for. A new purpose in her life. That made continuing to exist bearable.

Slowly, she rose her head until it was upright. Let it rest against the wall behind her. Stared up into the darkness, could barely make out the ceiling due to how well her eyes had adapted to the darkness over the hours since her door had last been opened to give her a meal, at least some light falling into the room from the corridor's dull lamps.

The door had closed again. She waited. Waited until routine was back. Until order was restored.

It knocked on the heavy door. Exactly three times. Seconds passed, she counted. Five, six, seven. Her counting was as accurate as a clock, they couldn't fool her. Seven seconds – the guy outside was holding a clock for that, she didn't need one – no more and no less, and then, the hatch in the door opened.

"I'm coming in."

She didn't respond. Responding in any way would break the routine. The hatch closed, the key was inserted again. Whether or not it was irony that it being the wrong key didn't break the routine was in the eye of the beholder. The curse following that before the right key was inserted and turned was usual as well.

The door opened again, this time first slightly, then slowly further until it was completely open. Her eyes moved a bit to take in the sight of one of the doctors along with two guards, but she was tired and couldn't care less. Couldn't care less that being in there was like being in a prison in some ways.

The doctor – a young man with brunette hair, she didn't bother to remember their names and faces – standing in the door wasn't holding any food. Doctors didn't bring any food, the guards did. So she had been wrong. Was it time for a check-up again, then? Did time really pass this fast? Not that she was keeping track of it. Not like she hadn't lost any sense of time an eternity ago. Not that she cared.

"Sitting in that spot again, are you?" inquired the doctor after a few seconds of silence, slowly crouching down so that he was at eye-level with her, voice slow and soothing, "You really like it so much you never move?"

A grunt escaped her, rolled in the back of her throat. Only did so in order to satisfy him. She knew he wouldn't stop pestering her until she gave at least some sign of life. Justified, she was already looking like a corpse – it was only the lack of rot that assured them that she was still alive, that and these weak little signs of life. How they had not given up on her was a mystery to her. She knew she had.

"I see." he offered weakly, a small pitiful smile on his lips, which at least showed her he was genuinely feeling sympathy for her, "Well, we all have our favorite spots, right? Where we feel most comfortable?"

What was he expecting, that she was going to answer? A grunt was all he was going to get from her, anything more too troublesome. Not worth it. She was pretty much dead already and only waiting for her body to finally die and start rotting, like she was doing in the inside. Weakly, her head fell to the side into his direction.

"Ah, you're giving me that look." chuckled the man, though she herself wasn't even sure if she was looking at him, and doubted he was, "I'm talking too much. I know that feeling. I know how you must be feeling. You seem down."

Fucking clown, was he? What did she look like to him, sitting at the bottom of a wall, knees pulled up and arms behind her back? A happy person? The term was 'complicated grief', the thing she was 'going through'. Paired with paranoia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and suicidal thoughts. Attempts.

"Which is why I brought you something today. Some good news."

Good news? Good news?! Who the hell did that clown think he was, joking around like that? She hadn't heard 'good news' since her half-sister died years ago! Since friends and team members broke away one by one! And he talked about 'good news'? What, were they finally going to allow her to die next time she tried to kill herself? Not that she had tried to lately. Lately being in forever. Had given up eventually when the furthest she got was knocking herself out by slamming her head against the door, after which they just cushioned it from the inside.

The anger woken deep inside – the only emotion that still got the slightest reaction out of her – seemed to have shown on her face, as the doctor shook his head slowly.

"No need to be angry. Just wait until you hear what it is." he turned his head and gestured to one of the guards standing in the door, who nodded in return. As he stepped into the room and began to dig through the pouch at his belt, the doctor came closer to her and gestured her to lean forward, away from the wall.

Realizing what this meant, she complied in surprise, leaned forward so that he could reach behind her back – and then, one by one, undo the restraints until she could move her arms. She did, experimentally, then stared up at him in wonder and confusion.

They usually only undid her straitjacket when they brought her a meal, and tied her up again right after. Whatever led to this strange action was answered when the guard finally found what he had searched for – a thin object, somewhat old and worn for she had never cared much for it when she had still carried it on her own body. It was one of her possessions from back then, one she hadn't held in her hands for years.

Her scroll.

But... what for? She had given it away years ago, had seen no sense in keeping it on her person with how no one was ever going to contact her anymore.

"This may come as a surprise, but you got a call."

She turned her head to him so fast that she wondered how her neck hadn't snapped just like that then. Whatever was this man talking about? Another joke? A pitiful attempt at waking her hopes, which she had buried long ago? He had to be lying, there was no one left to call her! No one who cared enough!

"See? There's still some life left in you! You should see yourself right now, the light that has returned to your eyes!" exclaimed the doctor in glee, taking the scroll from the guard and then offering it to her. But she couldn't care less. Only stared at him – and then strained muscles she hadn't used in years. It felt weird. Unnatural. Hard, like she had forgotten how to do it.

"Who?"

A voice, dead and husky, void of emotion and lacking strength from underuse filled the room. Was only vaguely female, not anything like she remembered it. But it was her own. Should be. Would explain why she broke into a fit of coughing no second after the single word was spoken. She fell to the side, leaned as far as she could, then spat onto the ground. Didn't care what the two present with her thought.

She coughed again, spat onto the ground once more. And then, right upon recovering, turned her eyes until she could see the scroll still offered to her. Snatched it out of the doctor's hands with speed she had not expected the body she had thought of as dying to have. Energy was restored with this single action, just when she had thought she could finally die in peace...!

Was this it? The chance at a new thing to live for? Was there still anyone out there that she knew and that could offer her the hold she was lacking? That could explain to her why this all had happened?

"Who?" she croaked again, her voice sounding more female this time around, more like she remembered it to from long, long ago.

"A man." was the doctor's reply, "He called us half an hour ago, asking for your condition. He sounded genuinely worried about you."

"Who?!" she roared, demanded. Still, the doctor smiled at her – she knew why. This was the most active she had been in years. A simple call, snapping her out of her vegetative state in which she had been for years on end. This was the most progress they had made ever since she had ended up there.

"A man called Hei Xiong, Sarah."

Hei Xiong. Her hand holding the scroll slowly sunk. Came to a rest on her lap as she felt how her mind stopped working for a second. The name was familiar. So familiar. She knew immediately who he was. Memories were back, all of them.

Hei. Xiong.

She threw her head back. Threw her head back and laughed maniacally, didn't know what else to do. Fully turned lunatic, and enjoyed it.

"Junior!" she bellowed out in hysterical laughter, the name rolling off her tongue like she had never stopped using it. Hei 'Junior' Xiong, of all people! "Junior!"

Slowly, the young doctor rose and nodded, smile never leaving his face even as he watched how the female began to chant during her mad laughter. He glanced towards the guard that had handed him the scroll, saw how nervous and confused he seemed, but shook his head to tell him to not think about it.

"That's right, Sarah." offered the doctor, gesturing the guard to leave, "We'll patch him through to your scroll, he's currently on hold. Enjoy your conversation with him, but please don't overdo it, alright? We'll be outside the door should you need us."

She didn't reply. Calmed her hysteria enough to lower her head and stare at the scroll in her hands, unfolding it until the holographic screen became visible. Hitting the button, the screen lit up – no password required, they had made her remove it when they had confiscated it – and showed a simple orange background. She had removed the original image that had once been in its place, knowing that it only brought her pain and made her madness act up.

And then, she waited. Patiently, to her own surprise, but expectantly. She stared at the screen and waited for them to patch him through. Wanted to see his face, wanted to know what had become of him.

She had thought she had lost him along with all her other friends. He hadn't answered any of the mails she had sent or the calls she had made during the first few years in the asylum – she had never blamed him for that, she knew how the loss had affected him. How it had affected all of them. She could understand that he wanted to sever the ties and forget the past.

But that didn't matter. Not anymore. Not when her scroll suddenly began to vibrate in her hands, a small black window indicating an incoming call from an unknown number. Excitement took over, her formerly seemingly dead body filled to the brim with energy she didn't know she had.

Her hand was shaking when she reached out to accept the call. The scroll in her hands was shaking – she wasn't sure if out of excitement or weakness – as the small window was replaced with a much larger one that filled the entire screen. Blackness for a few seconds.

And then, a face that was familiar to her. Older, the beard was new, as was the red tie.

But that face, with the red shades – she would recognize it anywhere. So maybe they weren't the same shades he had worn back then, although similar a little darker, but still.

It was definitely the face of her old teammate.


Seeing the face on the screen of his newer scroll – the old model from his time at Beacon lying in front of him on his desk in his more luxurious office – Junior could only wince. It was her. It was Sarah Ulphur alright. But at the same time, it was not.

She was pale, and it wasn't just because of the dark room she was in. Her once so tan skin was pale and she seemed frail and thin, like she had lost a lot of weight. Her skin seemed to cling to her cheekbones, her once full lips pale and barely distinguishable from the rest of her skin. Dark red hair seemed longer than he remembered it, somewhat dirty, hanging into her face and covering part of it. The eyes staring through this curtain of red seemed dead, once vibrant amber irises lacking glow and life.

He had been right, and yet she seemed worse than he had imagined her to be. Was but a shadow of her once smug and strong-willed self, the sad and pitiful likeness of Sarah Ulphur. A depressive sight, if anything, she looked tired, had bags under her eyes, defeated and broken inside.

"Sarah..." he whispered before he knew what he was doing, shocked at what he was seeing, and not sure how to begin this. After all, it had been about two decades since he had last seen her. And he had not been prepared for this.

The ghost of a smile played at her dry lips, curling slightly up. Still, the rest of her face remained unmoving, almost as if she had forgotten how to smile. How to show expressions. The smile meant nothing if her eyes stayed dead. There was just no depth to it, no meaning.

"Junior." she chuckled dryly, voice dead as her eyes, "I honestly didn't believe I'd ever see your face again. Not after everything that happened."

"Justified, I guess." he muttered, shortly averting his gaze from the screen, "I... Until just a few days ago, I didn't want to face the past. Had locked all my things from back then away, scroll included. Didn't know you tried to contact me back then."

"I don't blame you." replied the figure on the screen, blinked for the first time since the call had begun, "Much, that is. I didn't want to face the past either. And we probably should avoid the topic as good as possible right now. Especially... that night."

He tried to meet her gaze, but it was her time to avoid, staring off to the side. He didn't need to ask what night she was talking about – she was referring to the night they lost a teammate. Where Sarah lost even more than just a teammate – her half-sister, and her sanity. The night of SPHR's downfall and the beginning of their descent.

"Didn't get my meds yet. Thinking or talking about it makes me... lose it." she added eventually, gaze slowly returning to the scroll in her hands, "Can keep it somewhat under control if I had my meds."

"I can't talk about it, either." admitted the club-owner in return and fell back in his chair, turning it to face the tinted windows and the room below that was soon to be filled with partying people, "I... I just can't."

On the screen, Sarah slowly began to nod, her thoughts seeming to be elsewhere though. Junior didn't dare to ask where. Had no right to.

"Right." mused Sarah eventually, blinking, seemingly returning to the present time and reality, "Let's avoid the topic then. Let's not talk too much about Beacon then, about SPHR from back then, or... that night we lost everything."

"I agree." spoke Junior and nodded as well. "Still, even though you're probably not gonna believe me, and even though words cannot really express it, I am sorry that I never called. It's not like I stopped caring about you and everyone else from back then, I just..."

"I understand, Junior. Hei." interrupted him the voice of his former team leader from the scroll in his hands, "I really do. If there's anyone out there who can understand what you were feeling and are feeling right now, it's gonna be me. And probably Roman, if he's still out there. Last thing I know about him is that he was expelled from Beacon right before us due to his kleptomania."

"Heh, funny you mention that." snorted Junior, but seeing the slight raise – ever so weak – of Sarah's eyebrow on his screen, shook his head, "That's a long story."

"I've got time." offered Sarah with the slightest hint of amusement – a weak chuckle and a twitch of the corner of her lips, not more, a morbid sense of humor at its best "But before that, what about you? What did you do after we all broke apart?"

The man took a second to lift his gaze, eyes first scanning the still empty dancefloor below through the tinted glass, before turning around to stare into the gloom of his office. Felt a twinge of unfairness and guilt, knowing that he sat in this luxurious and warm office in a building that he owned – a club that was by no means cheap or rundown, quite the opposite – while Sarah sat in her small room, locked away for hours on end with only the most necessary of things. It wasn't prison, but it might as well be.

"Forgive me the question, the assumption..." he began slowly, not lowering his gaze to meet that of Sarah on the screen in his hands, "But you don't know what's going on outside your room, do you? You didn't know about Roman or about me, so I assume that you don't know what happened to most of the others from back then, either."

Sarah shook her head ever so slightly, gave the most imperceptible of shrugs. "I stopped caring about the outside world long ago, Junior. They used to tell me things, used to bring me newspapers, but..."

Sarah gave a weak giggle and moved her scroll, slowly turning it away from her. Junior winced again as he saw the dim and nearly unfurnished state of the room she was in, spent her every day of life in, her every hour. It took him a bit to see what she wanted him to see, having to strain his eyes to notice the newspaper that covered the windows and let only very little rays of light in.

And only when he let out a quiet 'Oh' in realization, making a silent note on how the room looked even worse than he had imagined, did Sarah turn the scroll back to face her, the ghost of a smile playing with her lips.

"Yeah, that's how much I cared." she snorted weakly, shrugged a bit more animatedly than before, "So tell me, what is it that I missed about you? About Roman? And the others?"

Junior slowly lowered his gaze to stare at the dark wood of his desk. How was he supposed to tell her about all of these things? Without risking her to have an episode, which she had warned him of? The information he had wasn't exactly the most cheerful, some of it quite the opposite. Back then, Sarah had been a strong – especially headstrong, on that note – woman, but he wasn't quite so sure of that anymore, seeing her on the screen as but a shadow of her former self.

The Sarah he knew, too, was but a ghost of the past.

"I can handle it." spoke Sarah all of sudden, surprising him not only by the statement but the sudden strength in her voice that really sounded like her from back then for a second, "Whatever you throw at me, I can handle it, as long as it isn't about that night in particular or about Pa..."

Sarah trailed off, realizing she had nearly said the name. The name she had sworn herself never to use again. She balled her fists, closed her eyes, took a deep and long breath.

"I can handle it, I promise. I've talked about everyone else and everything else but her and that night with the doctors, and I never had an episode." begged the woman suddenly, and for the slightest of seconds, it was as if life returned to her eyes, "Please, Hei. Please."

He hesitated, still did even with her begging. The doctor he had talked to had said they'd be outside the room and listening to her reactions – he doubted they would hear much of the actual conversation, only if she lost it – just to make sure that she wouldn't suffer from an episode in case the wrong things were brought up. Told him that he should not blame himself for anything that might happen during the call. Even wanted him to not hold back about certain things as long as he was comfortable talking about it, and that Sarah seemed to be as well.

Slowly, he nodded.

"After Beacon, I retreated for a while. Rented a small apartment as far away from Beacon as I could. Lived my days, not knowing what to do or what to think. I actually didn't even know what I did know for sure any longer. It was as if my very perception of reality had shattered." he began, remembering only too vividly how much he had been in a situation not quite unlike the one Sarah was in, a small room and only the most necessary of things, "It took me months before I managed to break out of my isolation."

"Sounds familiar. Though I'm not sure how long I've been here. Don't even want to know." snorted Sarah, but then shook her head and gestured him to continue. He nodded and took a breath, recalled more. Couldn't help but chuckle at the next part.

"I'm not even sure what drove me after that, maybe I just jumped at the first opportunity. After months of taking on smaller jobs as something not quite unlike a mercenary, countless exterminations of Grimm that had become the very essence of my life, I stumbled across a building being sold in the middle of Vale during one of my stays. Big one, hard to miss. I have no clue what possessed me at that moment, but I bought it with the money that I had accumulated on my missions. Money I couldn't have hoped to ever spend with how simple I lived back then. Never staying in one spot for too long, never taking more than I could carry along, never buying expensive things. Only slowed down."

"That, coming from a guy wielding a heavy bat-bazooka hybrid sure is something." mocked his former team leader, earning her a roll of his eyes, "You still have that thing?"

"Only thing I held onto for real and that I didn't lock away with the rest." he replied simply, falling back in his chair, "Long story short, I bought the building and turned it into a club. Have been leading it ever since then, and turned it quite successful."

"A club? You?" inquired Sarah in what was obviously surprise, a hint of amusement in her tired voice, "Didn't see that coming. I mean, you pretty much looked like a croupier back then already, and the new style and the beard sure don't help it, but a club?"

"Also running another business on the side. Training mercenaries and providing their services." huffed the club-owner, though he didn't really take offense at her words, "And I'm selling information. Quite a rewarding business if you have the right contacts."

"And I suppose you do?" asked the woman on the screen, mockingly raising an eyebrow, "Still, I'm happy for you, Junior. You seem like you've found something worth living for."

"Yeah." he turned his chair, looked through the tinted glass down into room below, spotted the twins and Ruby with Tucker at the bar, Yang having left earlier with a shady excuse that only made him hope that she was not getting herself in trouble again, "And people are counting on me, too."

It fell silent for a while after that. Seconds passed by. Minutes. He was just watching them by the bar, watched as they had fun and enjoyed themselves, those who had once almost went down the wrong path like he had. The path of loss and self-destruction. And Sarah watched him, silently. He was aware of that.

"You mentioned Roman? And the others from back then?" Sarah rose her scroll a bit and adjusted her position against the wall, "What happened to them? Anything I need to know?"

Tearing his eyes off the girls and Tucker, Junior turned his chair back around to face the room and rose the scroll in his hands so he could meet the gaze of the dark red-haired girl on the screen. Nodded.

"I could tell you the long story for each, if you want, but this is probably gonna take us a while. A few years have passed, after all." sighed the Mistralian man. He really didn't want to tell the entire story of each person they had been close to back then, all the details and the stuff that shaped them. Sarah didn't really need to know, anyways.

"Nah, just give me a brief summary, that'll be fine. I don't think we have much time left today, anyway. Knowing the doctors, they don't want me to overdo it and will soon come to take the scroll back." replied Sarah with a short shrug.

Junior opened his mouth to say something in return, then hesitated and closed his mouth again after all. Thought about whether or not to say what he had on his mind. This was the best moment to do so, and yet he hesitated – not because what he had to say was bad, but because he didn't want her to get her hopes up. He swallowed the knot that formed in his throat.

"I'll sum it up for you." he began, made sure to meet her gaze and keep the eye contact up under any circumstances as he continued, "And if I find the time – if not, I will just take it – I will tell you the details. In person."

She perked up. Her dead eyes grew wide, the sparkle of life finally returning to them as the true meaning of that unfolded before her. The entirety of her expression changed, not just a part of it, turned to surprise and confusion.

"You mean...?"

"The doctor I talked to said it was fine if you were to receive visitors soon, given that you'd show more signs of getting better." explained Junior simply, expression remaining serious, "I'm not sure when I'll be able to visit, but know that I will."

"That..." she trailed off, seemed to struggle for words, mouth opening and closing. Finally, she stopped, closed her eyes to gather her thoughts. Nodded slowly. "I would really appreciate that. Thanks."

"No problem. I've missed you too, Sarah." sighed the man, offered her a small smile as he leaned further back into his chair, "So, who would you like to know more about?"

"Start with Roman. You guys may not be my team anymore, but I still want to know how you guys are." suggested Sarah, "It's not like I stopped caring about you."

"Same here." replied Junior, "And I believe that Roman doesn't feel any different, though I can't say that for sure. You know that we have our differences, me and him. We don't talk often, and have made a silent vow to not speak about the past unless absolutely necessary."

"I remember how often you two fought at Beacon." Sarah shook her head in disapproval, "How often one of you stayed away from our dorm room until late into the night to avoid further conflict. I remember you staying either over at QRTS's dorm room or at the gym with Qrow and Taiyang, or Roman 'going for a walk'."

"He's still 'going for a walk' ever so often, even more so than usual." sneered the man with the shades, turning his gaze away and rolling his eyes. 'Going for a walk', that was how they had called it back then, whenever Roman would leave and return richer than before. Upon return, he'd always insist that he had just 'gone for a walk to clear his head', but they all knew what he really did. All knew of his kleptomania and tendency to steal things when he was frustrated.

"So you two stayed in contact?" commented Sarah in surprise, "I honestly didn't expect you and Roman to do so."

"That's because we didn't." Junior turned back to the screen and shook his head, letting out a sigh as he realized he might as well tell her what Cinder was up to seeing as how it was connected to Roman, "I honestly didn't plan to, but Torchwick kinda made it hard not to know what he was doing."

"What's that supposed to mean?" inquired his former team leader, leaving him to sigh and run a hand through his hair.

"Roughly a year after I bought the club, Torchwick's name started appearing all over the media, and not for a good reason." began Junior to explain, but knew Sarah had caught on when her expression changed, "Let's just say he's notorious now for 'going for a walk'. Big walks. Taking lots of Dust wherever he passes through."

"Shit."

There it was, Sarah's famous cursing. He couldn't say he had missed it, but it still felt good to hear her act more and more like he remembered her to – she had given him a good scare when he had seen what she had turned into over the years. How dead she had seemed – both inside and outside – when the call had connected. She still looked worse than he had ever seen her, worse than even the night their teammate had died, but at least she didn't act like a corpse anymore.

"That's not all. Do you remember Cinder?"

"You mean Cinder Fall? That cruel woman that was on a team with Goodwitch, the old ironheart?" Sarah rose an eyebrow at him, "What about her?"

"For thinking of her as 'a cruel woman', you and her got along quite well back then." mused the man with a frown, but then put his scroll down on the desk and leaned over it, elbows coming to a rest on the table in a manner not quite unlike Ozpin did ever so often, "Cinder is controlling the underworld of Vale now and in charge when it comes to organized crime. And it just happens that she keeps Roman as her little pet on a leash. He's not too happy with it, but afraid of her. She's the reason I'm still in contact with him."

"Oh." muttered Sarah quietly, only then to realize there was more to Junior's statement, "Wait, how is she the reason you are still in contact with Roman? You barely had any contact with Fall back then, and that only because she was also hanging out with QRTS."

"That's true, Cinder and I used to barely interact with one another. Never more than acquaintances." he huffed, narrowing his eyes at the screen, "But a lot of years have passed, Sarah, and things changed, especially with her now in control of Vale's underworld."

He leaned back in his chair again but didn't bother to pick up his scroll. Grew restless under the gaze of Sarah, knew she was dying to say something. She had that certain spark in her eyes, the hint of seriousness that only she could radiate.

Radiate. Back in her very best days, the best way to describe Sarah's emotions had been the word 'radiate' and its variations. Her smile had once been radiant like a thousand suns. She could radiate seriousness and anger like no other. All these things, and more.

She had never been overly strict, had a twisted perception of right and wrong, but to get on her bad side was equal to throwing oneself in the way of a train – Sarah hardly forgave. Held grudges. And yet could be so kind.

If anything, she was like a jack-in-the-box, now more than ever. Peaceful most of the time, but you knew she was going to explode eventually like a jack-in-the-box jumped out all of sudden, but just like it jumped out at a random point during the melody it played, Sarah could blow up at any time. And now, she was maniacal, too.

Just like a jack-in-the-box.

"Cinder and I still go by 'acquaintances', but my line of work leads me to work with her ever so often, and with that, Torchwick. You could go as far and say that she's my best customer in every way – she and her associates show up at the club and pay, she hires my mercenaries and pays, and she pays me for giving her the information she requires. Also is one of my sources of information in return, and one of the contacts I call if I ever need to have something done."

"So you've gone criminal now, just like Roman." sighed the dark red-haired woman, lowering her head into one palm, "Well, shit. And here I thought at least you'd be reasonable. Turns out you're just another jackass, Junior."

"I believe that there's a lot of people out there that would call me a jackass, Sarah. Much to your amusement, I see, since you've been one of the first to ever do that." huffed the club-owner, not having missed the smug grin on his former team leader's lips, "If I remember correctly, that was the first thing you called me on our first day at Beacon, right after it turned out that we'd be a team. You know, after initiation."

"You looked like one." reasoned the woman with a shrug, "First I stumble into Roman during initiation and make eye-contact with him, meaning my partner for the following four years would be a prick. I could've lived with that, especially when I learned my half-sister would be on my team. But to see you trail behind her onto the stage with an glum expression just rubbed me the wrong way."

"You didn't have to say it into the headmaster's microphone, though." snorted Junior in irritation, though he now recalled the event rather fondly, "Roman had the fucking time of his life right there, as had most of Beacon."

"Yeah." chuckled the madwoman, recalling it rather fondly as well, "Even the freshmen two years later had the time of their life laughing at that. Wasn't the first thing that Raven Branwen asked you whether or not you were 'the jackass' from two years before?"

"It was." growled Hei through clenched teeth. That, he didn't recall as fondly.

"Good times."

"If you say so, Sarah." he huffed, rolled his eyes mentally, "Still, to get back to the topic at hand – I'm okay with people calling me a jackass, but I'd rather not be called or considered a criminal or villain. I may have associations to some, but what I do myself isn't strictly illegal. Information rules the world, Sarah. That, and the occupation of a mercenary isn't illegal either, nor is training them. And I do not condone any illegal stuff in my club. I don't even condone racism against Faunus. Do it, and my security throws you out and makes sure you never even think about coming back to my club."

He reached for his shades and took them off, placing them aside the scroll on the desk before him. Adjusting his tie and fixing his suit, he used the moment to briefly consider where this conversation was going. Certainly in the right direction, Sarah seemed to be doing better with every second she got to talk with him, and he felt a bit better as well, finally getting to talk about everything with her.

But even though she had told him that she forgave him, he still felt a bit of guilt for never calling and checking on her. Had to give it more time.

"Congratulations." spoke Sarah suddenly, snorted in amusement and leaned closer to the scroll in her hands with her trademark smug grin, even if much weaker than he remembered it, "For that shitty and evasive, and yet so smart answer."

"Whatever." he sneered, "Who else do you want to know about?"

"Hm..." Sarah seemed to consider her answer for a moment, not immediately responding, "So I know what Roman is up to at the moment, he's working for Cinder now. Doing what he does best, I presume."

"Yeah, 'going for walks'."

"And I know what you're up to, Junior." continued the woman, ignoring him, "So what about Cinder's counterpart? What does old ironheart do?"

Junior chuckled at that, finding humor in the first answer that he thought of. "You mean aside Ozpin?"

Sarah laughed at that. Threw her head back and genuinely laughed, no madness in it like before. And Junior enjoyed seeing that, knowing that this was the one sign that Sarah wasn't completely lost – she was still in there, in that hollow dead shell. Had to be coaxed out gently, like he had just done.

"You're so full of bullshit, you know that, Junior?" giggled the woman eventually after calming herself a bit, "Still, is that rumor still going around? I have no idea how many years it has been, but it's been around since we joined Beacon."

"Weren't you the one who started it when she pissed you off big time during the second semester?" he inquired mischievously, and Sarah innocently turned her gaze away. Momentarily forgetting that they were a shady man owning a club and a madwoman in an asylum, and no longer students at Beacon, the two laughed to themselves.

"I have no idea what you mean." she sniggered, albeit clearly too innocently, "But in all honesty, what's ironheart up to nowadays?"

"Teaches at Beacon." he replied, "Ever since Ozpin became headmaster, she's been his right hand. Heard she's not the most popular teacher and kinda stern, but fair and successful."

"Sounds like old ironheart for sure."

"Yeah." he agreed, "Before you ask, though, I have no clue about the rest of her team from back then. Aside Cinder, of course. I didn't bother to keep tabs on them, and there's never been a reason to. They don't seem to be doing anything that makes someone want information on them, and they don't seem incredibly successful or I would've heard their names. There's little things that get past me and my sources, after all."

"Now you're just full of yourself." mocked the madwoman, "So that's what became of SPHR and GLCS then. And Ozpin."

Junior mentally slapped himself in the face, hard – GLCS, that had been the name of the team that Glynda and Cinder had been on back at Beacon! How could he have forgotten, with them being close? Well, not as close as SPHR and QRTS, but still close.

Then again, how had he forgotten most of these things? By denial. Complicated grief clouding his judgment and mind, blocking out memories.

"So, what about QRTS? You're still hanging with Qrow and his buddy Taiyang?"

And that was it, the question he had dreaded the entire call. He had known she'd eventually ask about them, that she'd bring them up. It must've shown on his face, as her excitement vanished, her smile falling slowly, as if the horrible truth was slowly getting through to her.

"What happened to them, Junior?"

Her voice was low, barely more than a whisper. The sadness in it made clear that she had understood the reason for his reaction. He wasn't sure if to tell her or not, feared triggering an episode, but knew that not telling her now was worse with her knowing half of it already.

"What's the last status you have about them?" he inquired, considered it to be the safest approach. Needed to know how much she knew before he began. But Sarah's reaction was a bit different than he expected – she lowered her gaze, closed her eyes, and moved a hand through her hair. Fell silent for several minutes.

"I knew something wasn't right when Summer stopped writing letters, and when I instead got..." she hesitated, rose her gaze again, "Nevermind. The last thing I know was that Raven and Taiyang broke up shortly after the birth of their daughter, that Raven went missing, and that Summer eventually started seeing Taiyang. If I remember right, Summer was pregnant when she last wrote."

Processing what he had just learned – even if he found it strange that Sarah knew all that, but not about things like Torchwick or Glynda – and watching Sarah slowly going through different emotions, from sadness and grief to confusion and doubt to sadness again, Junior slowly chose his next words.

"There was a fire a few years ago." he muttered under his breath, not able to look Sarah in the eye as he said it, "Taiyang and Summer didn't make it. Their house burnt down with them in it."

"Fuck." Sarah's curse was sharp, but barely more than a whisper, "Fuck. Just... Just that." She was lacking the words, words even he hadn't quite found yet. Still, as he turned to search her gaze, he found that she was slowly getting lost in thoughts, risked to start brooding. Knowing what it was, he quickly opened his mouth again to set things right.

"Ruby and Yang are alive! They're here now, here at the club! I found them little more then a week ago... Or maybe they found me, by accident, who knows." he burst out, startling her into staring at him in confusion, "Taiyang's daughters, I mean. Summer's daughter Ruby, and Raven's daughter Yang."

"I..." Sarah followed right up, hesitated and averted her gaze, her mouth suddenly feeling dry to her, "I know who Ruby and Yang are. I know they're with you."

Now this came as a surprise to the club-owner. Raising an eyebrow at her and grunting in confusion, he expected her to explain whatever this mysterious sentence meant, but she just shook her head. Kept avoiding his gaze, as if feeling guilty about something.

How could she know about Ruby and Yang, was the question. He didn't doubt that Summer had mentioned Raven's daughter in her letters to Sarah – something he had only learned now about, that Summer had written her letters – so that much was explainable.

But how could Sarah know they were with him?

"How is Qrow coping with that?" inquired Sarah instead of giving an explanation, still avoiding his gaze. He kept staring at her, not because he didn't understand the question, but because Sarah suddenly had turned all defensive and evasive.

This wasn't like her. Not like how she had been back then. Sarah was like her fighting style, straight forward and aggressive, powerful and always on the offensive. Not like this.

"How Qrow is coping with that?" he repeated, his voice monotone as he still stared at the shadow of what was once his team leader, which he had been just painfully reminded of, "He isn't. I didn't bother to re-establish contact with him after my isolation, but rumors have it that he's turned to drinking in all his loss. Some terrible drunkard now, but hasn't lost his edge apparently, if one can trust the rumors of a 'crazy alcoholic' openly picking a fight with Winter Schnee for some reason."

"First his sister, then his closest friends and his nieces." mused Sarah quietly, "Can't even blame him."

"Neither can I." agreed Junior – but then, taking a deep breath, exploited the new chance at questioning her that she had just offered him, "How did you know that Qrow still thinks he lost his nieces as well?"

She turned back to him, looking shocked. She was caught red-handed and she knew it, knew there was no way but keeping quiet again to avoid revealing the truth she was hiding. Her gaze moved away from the scroll, up to the cupboard on the other side of the room.

"Gimme a sec." she spoke, before straining her tired body to heave itself off the ground, legs weak and wobbly, forcing her to support herself against the wall, "I think I can show you."

"Show me?" inquired Junior, but could only watch as Sarah, still holding the scroll, wobbled through the room. Her legs seemed weak, and little did he know they were asleep from hours on end of remaining in the same position. Still, she eventually managed to reach the cupboard she'd been heading for, using it to support herself.

She waited for a moment until she could feel her legs again, agonizingly slow seconds passing. Only when she was sure that she could stand on her own legs did she rise to her full height and opened the cupboard, the contents immediately almost spilling out.

Letters. Letters on end, stacked in several heaps, all of them having the address of the asylum written on them, as well as a room number – Room 503 in the west wing – and Sarah's full name, in a curvy and very neat, albeit bold, handwriting.

Immediately recognizing the handwriting, Junior reached out for the top drawer of his desk, pulled it open and slid a hand inside. Pushing the stack of requests in the drawer aside, he slipped a hand into the hidden compartment at the back, fingers immediately finding what he had been looking for. Seconds later, Raven's letter to Yang lay before him on the desk. The handwriting was the same.

"Raven..." he muttered in awe, eyes turning once more to the quite remarkable stack of letters in the cupboard. Could it be? All of them?

"To be fair, most of the letters in there are from Summer." chimed Sarah in, almost as if she had read his mind, "Raven only started writing... Shit, I don't know when, kinda lost track of time in here. Summer hadn't written in forever, that's what I know."

"Raven has been in touch with you...?" mused Junior. Could only stare down at the letter in front of him in confusion. This contradicted every logic, even more so than before when it had only been one letter from Branwen. And now, an entire stack.

If she really didn't want to be found, why write so many letters? Why disappear off the face of the world, leaving virtually no trace, when she'd later sent letters upon letters to Sarah in the asylum? And why call him and showing him she was in his club, only to then disappear?!

What was she trying to prove?!

"For a while now, yeah. I mean, she's never wrote her name or the exact location she is at, but it is her." confirmed Sarah, "She's never spoken much about what was going on with everyone else, however. I didn't know most of the stuff you told me just now. She hasn't even talked about you or Ruby and Yang until her last letter."

"That so?" he inquired, though his mind was elsewhere. Recalling what Ozpin had told him – well, not specifically him, but all of his students back then – ever so often, he tried to calm himself down on the inside. He needed to take a step back – not literally – and gaze at the bigger picture, the picture he was failing to see.

Putting Sarah aside, Raven did not contact anyone in nearly eighteen years, that was a fact. Until her letter to Yang (and him, as Ozpin had deduced) showed up along with Bumblebee, it had not even been clear whether or not she was still alive. That was a fact, too.

Why Sarah? Where was the logic to this move, the method to this madness? What had motivated Raven to sent letters to Sarah without fearing that anyone that might want to find her would start tracing these letters back to where they came from?

Not putting an origin and a name on it? Was that really all the laughable attempt at safety measures that Raven Branwen, the only woman capable of escaping anyone – even Cinder – and anything, took? And there was no way Ozpin could play this down as 'Raven wanting to be found'. It wasn't. She didn't.

In the case of her letter to Yang, she had slipped some information in that they could only speculate to inform them of one of her next steps, but even that was highly hypothetical! So for her to make such a rookie mistake – no way!

Why? Why Sarah in particular? Why not take these safety measures, almost as if there was no need for them? As if sending letters to a paranoid madwoman in some asylum was...

Junior paused. Let seconds pass by, following the train of thought he had just ended up at. And groaned as he slumped in his chair, realization dawning on him. It was so simple.

Who would Sarah tell? And who would believe a woman that had lost her mind due to the death of the person dearest to her, that another woman she had been close to and that had vanished off the face of the earth was writing her letters?

Of course she had the letters as a proof, but that again led to the question of who'd Sarah tell. She had lost all contact and faith in the world, had grown paranoid and reclusive.

There was no better person in all Remnant for Raven to confide in. A single letter with some information and the request to an old friend not to show anyone these letters and to never talk about them, and Sarah would not say a word. Patiently wait for each letter and to learn more, to hear about Raven and her worries, her thoughts, anything Raven would tell her that she was not telling anyone. How hesitant Sarah had been before showing him these letters spoke volumes now.

"You know, Junior..." began Sarah all of sudden, pulling him out of his thoughts and making him face the scroll again, "You could've written, too. No birthday card, no Christmas card, not even a postcard from when you went on vacations."

"Sarah..." he groaned and rolled his eyes exasperatedly – at least her humor was back. Which was a good sign, had to be. Cause her gaze told him she was kidding, mocking him, as did the shrug that followed from her side and the smug grin on her lips. "I didn't even go on vacation in years."

"If you should, you know who to take with you now." she grinned and leaned against the cupboard in the sassy manner he had once known her for, "I could use a vacation from this shithole."

Whatever else she had to say after that, it was interrupted by the door to her room opening. Lifting her gaze and looking over to it, Junior watched as her smile fell and turned into an expression void of emotion.

Nonetheless, she gave the doctor standing in the door, his expression apologetic, a nod. She had understood.

"Well, looks like we have to end this conversation here, Junior." sighed the madwoman as she turned to look down at the screen in her hands, "Still, what you said before, about visiting me here..."

He rose an eyebrow, halting in his movements, fingers already resting on his shades and about to pick them up. Sarah was smiling weakly back at him, as if pondering how to phrase it. Didn't take her long, however.

"Do you promise you will visit me?"

He didn't need to think about it. Picked his shades up and put them on, gaze shortly lingering on the showcase in the other section of the room. Unlike what he had thought the other night, he had not put his old scroll back into it. Had not locked it again. It was still open, all the memories released.

"I promise to visit soon."

Her smile grew a bit at that, albeit remaining mostly weak. Nodding to herself, Sarah gave a sigh and pushed herself off the cupboard she had leaned against, slowly lowering the scroll.

"I'll show you the letters then, I'm sure Raven won't mind." added the madwoman and slowly began to walk towards the doctor, "She has a lot of trust in you, you know? She never mentions it directly, but to entrust you with Yang and Ruby... You don't know it, but in her last letter, she spoke about them as if they were all she had in this world, Junior."

"I know." he confirmed quietly, then met the gaze of his former team leader for a last time, "Talk to you soon, Sarah. In person. Take care."

"You too, Junior. Thanks for..." she trailed off, wondered how to phrase this, how to express what she was feeling, but there was only one word for it, "Thanks for everything today. This means everything to me."

"No problem. Till then."

"See ya."

She hesitated as she reached for the button to end the call, not wanting to end the call just then. Not when she was having fun, not when she felt so alive for the first time in forever. Her body and her mind told her not to – and yet, she eventually touched the button. Ended the call.

A heavy sigh escaped her as she closed the scroll and handed it back to the doctor. The man was smiling apologetically at her, would have rather not interrupted – not when this was the first time in nearly two decades that he had seen her so happy, so alive. Not just a depressive figure, lying about at the bottom of her wall, only moving when she had no choice but to do so. A corpse, only refusing to die because it was following routine.

But now, she was regaining life slowly. The call had started something in her that years and time could not, had managed to do in mere minutes what over fifteen years of therapy had failed to do. A breath of life had filled these lungs, the taste leaving her craving for more. There was more to her than routine now.

As he turned away, giving Sarah a last reassuring smile, the doctor let out a small sigh. The scroll in his hands was warm from her hold. She wasn't a walking corpse, like all the other doctors called her, the pitiful colleagues that had given up on her. He hadn't. And now, he was proven right. Didn't feel smug about it or anything. Just happy, for her.

"Hey."

He stopped in the door, turned his head to glance at Sarah Ulphur over his shoulder. She wasn't looking at him immediately, her eyes as bright yellow as the element her name alluded to scanning the dim room they were in. But she turned to him eventually. Her expression was void of emotion. Just like always. As if she had fallen right back into that horrible routine that only served as the final stage of her downfall with the end of the call.

Their eyes met.

"Say, doctor..." she began and he chuckled on the inside, knowing that she didn't know his name and had never bothered to ask, "What time and date is it?"

His eyes widened in surprise, mouth falling open. Had he not held the scroll so tightly, it would've escaped his grasp and fallen to the ground.

Letting out a mocking and somewhat sinister chuckle, Sarah turned away from him and strode over to the window closest to her.

And tore just a small part of the newspaper off, letting the light of the full moon pour into the room.


The bell over the door chimed as Yang pushed the door open and entered the building, leaving the cold Monday evening behind and basking in the warmth of the lobby. The door fell into lock behind her and she shortly turned to look out through the large windows, taking in the sight of the orange-tinted streets of Vale.

Irritation struck her again. She really had planned to do this sooner, way sooner, that day but she just had to sleep late into the day, had she? Given that she had worked throughout the entire night at the bar with Tucker and had only gone to bed late in the morning, this was understandable, but it still infuriated her. Especially given that Miltiades had decided to get back at her for mocking her and her headache the other day, openly making fun of Yang for having completely missed most of the day.

Rolling her eyes, the blonde heaved her bag up again and swung it over her shoulder, approaching the reception desk before her and the young woman behind it.

The sun had nearly completely set, and the party at the club would start in only a few hours, two at best. Given that she had planned to help Tucker again, this left her with nearly no time to do what she wanted to do. What she needed to do.

And what she needed to do was to burn off some energy, or she was going to go crazy. Having not fought against anything since the Paladin a few days before, her only way of relieving the pent up energy her semblance created was through punching the living shit out of one punching bag after the other.

But that wasn't doing it anymore. Not all the time. It only served to help her so much to blow off some steam, but she was craving for an actual opponent, one that would be able to move. To act and react. To take some of her more powerful blows without bursting into stuffing. Someone who would learn from her moves and try to change tactic accordingly instead of always staying upright and taking every blow.

This wasn't a challenge. And she needed one. Which explained why she was standing in Vale's most popular gym at the moment and had just signed a membership. True to Roman's words, Cinder had rewarded their help in 'acquiring' a Paladin by paying them, though Yang had taken the blame for the damage the thing had received and had Cinder – even if only through Emerald, who had been their contact person, as the villainess hadn't shown up in person – cut her share a bit. Emerald insisted that Cinder was expecting the Paladin to be damaged and that there was no reason to, but Yang had still insisted on it.

Now, with the money from the train raid put aside for the creation of a weapon in the near future, the reward from the Paladin mission – even if it had been less of a mission, actually, as they had never been assigned to it – was more than welcome and served to pay for this membership.

Winking at the girl behind the desk, the blonde brawler turned away and approached the women's locker room. Throwing the door open, not caring what people would think of her, she strode in the room and rolled her shoulders, stretched her limbs.

It turned out that the locker room was empty, devoid of people. Which wasn't necessarily a surprise, given how late it was. Not that she'd have minded some company, but she was fine with the lack thereof as well.

Entering the middle aisle of lockers and finding an empty one, the blonde threw her bag down on the wooden bench in front of it and let out a sigh. Opening up the locker, she removed her coat first and threw it inside, then pulled her yellow crop top over her head and dropped it inside as well.

Spotting her own reflection in the mirror in the door, she took a moment to stop and look at herself. Took in the tattoos, contrasting with their colorfulness against her pale skin. The slight hint of abs that she had from her own training routine. The burn scars on her body. And the set of new scars she had received in only such a short time, Spider-Droid and Paladin having left their marks on her body.

Mercury might think she was invincible with this semblance, but he was wrong. Her semblance, while active, might numb the pain at least somewhat, but she was still human. Still mortal. Put a round in her skull with no aura to protect her, and it was over. Her rampage, no matter how brutal, stopped.

Offense wasn't always the best defense. But what would Mercury know? He only knew offense and, if she didn't get the wrong impression of him, trickery.

Still, she was very aware of how a weapon would increase her survivability. Especially after the fight with the Paladin – bare fists had been able to dent the metal, but only did so much. Her knuckles had been bleeding violently halfway through the fight, and it had taken days until they had recovered. The main reason why she had postponed her visit to the gym.

Turning away from the locker and to her bag, she pulled on the bag's zipper and opened it, allowing her access to its contents. Reaching inside, she grabbed the black crop top and a pair of matching sport trunks with two yellow stripes on each side, then put them on quickly. Didn't want to waste anymore time.

Her boots were exchanged as well in favor for more fitting footwear as well – she doubted the gym management would like to see her marching in there with her dirty boots – and a pair of black fingerless sport gloves put on, in light of her injured knuckles.

First time she was wearing them, too, but she already liked them. The way they didn't hinder her movements, but still offered some protection. She had bought them when Melanie had grabbed her and Ruby and had insisted they'd go shopping for some clothes and other stuff they'd possibly need, the perfect chance for Yang to grab everything she needed for her planned gym visit.

She was about to close the bag and stuff it into the locker as well, sure that she had everything, when she got a glance at the rest of the clothes in the bag – track pants matching her sport trunks in design, and the corresponding track jacket. Only reminded her of how wrong things had gone that day already, she had planned to take a breather after training and then jog back to the club with several detours on the way.

That was not going to happen anymore, she was sure of that. Heck, the gym would be closing soon anyway, and she was not going to jog through Vale by night, that for sure. Still, on a whim, she grabbed the jacket and tied it around her waist. Was not going to cover up any scars or tattoos, that for sure, but that hadn't been her intention to begin with. She had long stopped caring whether people saw them or not, the stares she got for them.

Pushing the track pants that now were the only article of clothing in her bag to the side, she pulled the towel at the bottom of the bag out and threw it over her shoulder. Then, closing her bag, she threw it over her shoulder, turned to her locker, and slammed it close.

Perhaps a bit more violent than she had planned to, but she hardly cared. Turned the key in the lock, then pulled the key from it and stashed it away into her bag. There were other places it was safe at, especially on her body where people had to get into her range to take it, but she doubted she wouldn't lose it during her workout. Especially if she were to find someone to train with, someone she could go to her limits with.

With her bag thrown over her shoulder, she strode over to the door that led to the main room, ignored the showers for now, but made note to make excessive use of them later on. She really didn't want to smell when coming back to the club and all the partying people. Especially seeing as she would work through the entire night at the bar with Tucker.

The main room was kind of like she expected it – large and spacious, several rows of different white and black training tools all over the room. However, seeing how late it was, only a handful of them were being used.

Out of the few people in the room, only one really caught her interest on first glance. He was a tall and muscular boy around her age, had dark skin and yellow eyes, his hair of a dark shade of green. Her originally seemed to have worn a white and green coat that was now hanging on the training tool he was at, revealing the black tattoos on his torso and neck – looked a little like wings on his chest and roman numerals around his neck, but Yang couldn't really tell over the distance. That he was bench-pressing didn't help either, though she had to admit that the weight he was pressing with ease seemed large and quite heavy.

She gave the other people in the room a short glance as well, but most of them didn't look anywhere as buff as he did. Rather scrawny individuals of varying ages, both boys and girls, mostly people who obviously were to shy to come during the more busy hours.

So, not really caring for them and not wanting to waste more time, she stepped further into the room, silently pondering what training tool she'd use. What muscles to train a bit with the limited time she had.

Of course, she didn't miss the large rectangular windows in the back, showing the adjacent rooms. Having visited the gym's homepage online, she knew these were smaller chambers for more special training sessions, offering hologram technology to generate different terrain, foes and even weather, and the option for random generation of these. Even offered Dust, provided by the Dust Companies.

Not that you had to use the things offered, some people simply retreated there to spar in, isolated from the rest. The second room she walked past was used like that, three people sparring in it, and she shortly stopped to watch them. She would've liked to see whatever was going on in the first room with how she could hear holographic Grimm's dying in rapid succession in there, but whoever used it didn't want to be watched and had disabled the option for spectators, the dust-infused window turning opaque and reflecting the light instead of letting it through, and the monitor above the window shut off.

Inside the second chamber, three people were fighting. Well, if you could call it that, with a serious-looking girl with a dark complexion, platinum blonde hair and golden eyes throwing two boys around and beating them up, never moving from her spot in the center of the room. She immediately piqued Yang's interest, especially with the way she was dressed – yellow robe with only one wide and loose sleeve on the right, a black tube top underneath, and black pants and shoes, as well as a red sash around her waist with a white symbol on it. Whether or not the bandages on her arms and legs were accessories or not, like her red necklace and her hair needle, Yang didn't know.

At least one of the boys she was flinging around like a yoyo – partly literally, her weapon being some kind of dart on a rope – was putting up somewhat of a fight, this one lightly tanned with amber eyes and black hair that fit with the rest of appearance; a yellow sash over a dark blue vest and gray pants. He seemed to have worn a dark gray necklace at one point, too, but it now lay discarded in one of the corners of the room. He must've lost it while being thrown around.

The other guy in there was kind of a lost case, though. He was flying through the room so often that Yang might as well have mistook him for a streak of pink and cream color, first being the color of most of his hair, the latter being the color of his outfit. He was of a dark complexion as well and about the other guys height. At least, she assumed, was hard to tell with how rarely he was standing upright and not lying at the foot of one of the walls, groping around for his assault rifle while writhing in pain.

Especially painful to watch was the moment when the girl used her rope dart to trip up the guy in yellow, snatching his staff and smacking it over her shoulder into the face of the guy with pink hair, sending him stumbling away from her, to which she twirled the staff over her head and brought it down on its owner's head. Not handing it back immediately, she thrust it over her shoulder and hit the other guy, having just recovered, right in between the eyes, knocking him over and sending him to the ground. Only then did she hand the staff back, tossing it onto its owner's lap, and immediately started bellowing something at the two that Yang was happy she couldn't hear due to being in the other room.

Though she looked a little bossy, standing over the two defeated boys and scolding them, Yang could immediately tell she only cared for them and didn't want them to get hurt in a real situation like that.

Still, the blonde's smile was weak as she watched the girl in the room flopping down onto the ground, sitting cross-legged in the center of the room and waiting for them to recover. A small glance to the small monitor above the window had Yang chuckling uneasy, however, the screen displaying that the girl's aura was still at hundred percent while her companions both were underneath fifteen, meaning they were defeated by standard tournament rules.

Not sticking around to see if the two got up again, even though the girl really impressed her with how easily she handled both, Yang turned away from the window. The other chambers didn't seemed to be used at the moment and empty, leaving the blonde to go and really pick a training tool.

She briefly considered if she could lift the same size of barbell that the tall guy was still pressing, but she decided not to try. Still, seeing as a treadmill wasn't what she wanted to go for – that was more Ruby's thing, running and all that stuff – she still claimed one of the empty benches, threw her bag next to it, pulled out her towel and put it on top of the bag, and prepared a barbell. Not like she was skipping leg day or was ever going to do so, that for sure, but for now she rather focused on her arms and biceps, seeing as how punching was more of her style.

She knew it wasn't wise to live by the idiom of 'punching first, ask questions later', or her more favorite derivation 'punch first, ask questions while punching', but she still followed it. With all her heart.

Starting with a relatively low weight – well, in her eyes, most people would've probably considered that quite heavy already – she slowly started her workout. For a while, she was concentrating on it, but as time went on and the weights she put on the barbell increased, she found herself pondering, drifting off into her thoughts with no one to talk to or keep her entertained.

Having literally missed the day after the whole Paladin-thing due to exhaustion and her body needing to recover, she had found that she had also missed several calls from Blake and had a handful of messages from Neo upon waking. While it quickly became apparent that Neo had been bored and simply wanted to know how she and her team were feeling after the Paladin, Blake hadn't even left a message on the answering machine, leaving Yang to call back.

Unsurprisingly, Blake didn't talk upon picking the call up and waited for Yang to speak first, her side of the video call remaining black the entire time. Even then, she was cautious and chose every word very carefully, almost as if afraid of revealing sensitive information, while also keeping the call as short as possible. It would've actually surprised Yang if Blake had acted any different, honestly.

Turned out she wanted to meet in person and start teaching her sign language as promised, giving Yang a time and location to appear at if she still was interested. When the blonde had showed up at the location, somewhat ironically the cafe near the Police Department she had seen the staged raid from, Blake was nowhere to be seen. Still, knowing how things worked with the White Fang due to Adam, Yang sat down and ordered a sundae, and Blake appeared no minute later and sat down opposite to her.

After a short conversation about the events with the Paladin – Blake had heard about it in the White Fang – and a change of location later, and the promised lesson had begun. It went well, at least Yang thought it did – especially considering the state her hands had been in with the Paladin having happened only little more than twenty-four hours beforehand – even though it was exactly as hard and tedious as she had assumed. Given the purpose this was for, however, Yang didn't complain. Not if it meant that she'd be able to converse with the mute psychopath and finally learn what Neo – definitely the oddest and most interesting individual she had ever met so far – had on her mind and was willing to share.

That it meant that this put her into the list of possible partners for the voiceless assassin, a list which so far had only a handful of people on it, was an added bonus, increasing her chances for jobs from Cinder greatly. After all, the villlainess was more likely to pick someone who could understand and converse with Neo while also being able to work with her, rather than someone who had trouble understanding Neo's instructions and reactions. Would put a mission at risk if teamwork wasn't flawless, after all.

The day after that had been more interesting in comparison – not that spending time with Blake and actually learning something wasn't – as Melanie had approached them with the offer to go on a shopping trip. It had been loads of fun and something at least Yang found she had been in need of – a moment of relaxation, of just being a normal citizen of Vale in need of groceries, clothes and furniture, rather than a mercenary.

Of course, two triumphant missions hardly made her a successful mercenary, no matter what she had been up against, threats she hadn't been prepared for and that were problematic even for experienced mercenaries like the twins. According to Melanie, however, the reason for her inner turmoil and need for a short period of isolation – just wanting to do what she wanted, not someone else wanted of her – after just these two missions was that she was unfamiliar with everything. Being a mercenary, facing opponents of this caliber, the life at the club and the new daily rhythm. It all added up inside her – her semblance sure didn't help either, nor the conflict she found herself in with it again and again – and caused this feeling of exhaustion.

If she could trust the twin, more time would fix things, more exposure to it all. She'd eventually grow accustomed to the way things worked now and the time in between these feelings of exhaustion and need for a short period of isolation would increase until she hardly even felt any different after lots of missions.

She trusted Melanie on that. Miltia had confirmed it, too, as had Tucker – not a mercenary himself, mind you, but the person all of them talked to – when she had brought it up during their job at the bar.

The day off, just strolling through Vale with Ruby and the twins and buying whatever they needed, had done wonders, exactly as Melanie had predicted. This now, the visit to the gym, was the other part. The moment of isolation, just away from everyone and doing what she wanted to do, allowing her to ponder about the things that happened lately and where this all was going.

And heck, she couldn't wait for when she had grown accustomed and wouldn't need these moments as often. She was a woman of actions, after all, not of thinking. Her actions spoke louder than words. Spoke for themselves.

By then, she had added more and more weights to her barbell. She wasn't quite where the tall guy with the tattoos was yet, but she had come a lot closer to it as time had passed and she had been lost in her thoughts. Still, her limit for the day was reached. This was only the first time at the gym and she wasn't going to overdo it, not because some guy could lift more than her. Competitions were fine, really, but neither was this the moment for one, nor did the other guy know that she had briefly considered it to be.

So she just continued. Didn't increase the weight again. Planned to build up muscles, not damage them.

The blonde brawler wasn't quite sure how much time had passed – not so much that she had to leave quite then, her scroll hadn't notified her yet that it was time to leave, a feature she was thankful for – as a sound got her attention, pulling her out of her thoughts after all. A kind of hiss.

Turning her head a bit – not stopping – she found that the sound had originated from the one locked chamber to the very right, next to the room in which the dark-skinned girl was by then sparring with the two boys again. It had unlocked, the window becoming transparent again to allow view into the chamber that was now empty and clean again, the remains of holographic Grimm and virtual blood that must've stained it seconds before gone.

A bit curious of who had trained in there, Yang kept her gaze on the door as she continued to bench-press, silently wondering if it was an experienced huntress passing through Vale that wanted to keep herself in shape.

However, as the door opened and one individual stepped out of the room with a red and white sports bag, the identity of the room's occupant caught the blonde brawler off guard – she even nearly dropped the barbell on herself. And it was this slip-up that made the female that had left the chamber look over in curiosity, using the yellow towel she had thrown over her shoulders to wipe the sweat off her forehead.

"Yang?" she inquired in surprise, approaching the blonde that now quickly lifted the barbell high enough to mount it back on the bench press bench. Only after making sure that it would not fall off – and worst, crush or injure her – did Yang slowly sit up and turn to the other female.

"Pyrrha!" she exclaimed, equally happy and surprised to see the redhead, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Likewise." giggled Pyrrha, picking up Yang's towel and offering it to her, "I didn't know you trained here."

"Probably cause I don't." admitted the blonde brawler, momentarily stopping to bury her face in her towel, "Or at least, didn't use to. First time here today. I actually planned to visit sooner, but things happened."

"Don't they always?" joked the redhead, "I actually don't like to train this late, but you know... Classes and study tend to get in the way."

An uneasy chuckle escaped the brawler from the club as she remembered the misunderstanding with Pyrrha all of sudden. The redhead still assumed she was a student at Beacon. How she had in the first place, Yang didn't know, but she didn't quite feel like clearing up the misunderstanding just then.

"Yeah." she agreed, though she really didn't have any plan about how things worked at Beacon or any other combat school, "But Beacon has a gym, so why not use that?"

"I could ask the same." chuckled Pyrrha in amusement, though she failed to notice how uneasy that made the blonde before her, "But the answer is that I don't get the privacy I want at Beacon. Here, I can use one of the chambers and just train by myself. And the gym is usually nearly empty this late, as you can see."

"Well, that's true!"

"That aside, sometimes, I just want to be a bit for myself, you know? Away from Beacon and everything it brings." Pyrrha trailed off to sit down on the empty bench next to the one Yang sat on, "I like my team. And my classmates. And the teachers and the lessons. But sometimes I just want to be somewhere where I don't have to think about all that. Where I can just be myself."

Yang rose an eyebrow. That sounded a lot like what she was currently going through, albeit worse. But given that she knew Pyrrha's history and fame, this hardly came as a surprise, hearing that the 'sweet and overly nice' Pyrrha, idolized and worshiped, also could grow tired of her fame. Not like she ever basked in it or something.

"I know the feeling." offered the blonde, though she could only guess how bad it was for Pyrrha and how much the redhead bottled it up, "Sometimes, you just need to take a breather and do something you don't have to think much about. Where you can just turn all the thinking off and just let your feelings handle the rest."

Pyrrha, having been about to get lost in thought, was startled when Yang suddenly shot up. Grabbing her bag and tossing it at Pyrrha, leaving the redhead to catch it in surprise, the blonde offered her acquaintance the smuggest grin she had.

"That's why you and I are gonna spar now. I need to cool off, you need to blow off some steam against a real opponent." explained Yang before Pyrrha could even ask, gesturing the other female to follow her over to the room Pyrrha had just left moments before.

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha called after her, but still got up and followed, carrying both their bags now, "Shouldn't we head back to Beacon? What about curfew? I still need to meet up with my team, I'm supposed to meet them in...!"

Yang stopped to frown at her. Didn't know how to explain that she wasn't a student at Beacon and instead an orphan living in the backroom of a club with her half-sister. That there was no curfew for her. That she was out there, helping the criminals that hunters and huntresses – latter of which Pyrrha was going to be one day – were supposed to stop just as much as they were supposed to stop the threat of Grimm.

"Come on, just one round!" she insisted, lifting her fists and swinging her fists a bit at the thin air before her like a boxer, "Aside from it being fun, you were the one who just told me that you needed this!"

"I know." muttered the redhead, lowering her gaze and avoiding that of Yang, "But I don't want to get my team in trouble. Jaune's already had a bad start and has gotten into a bit of trouble, and I don't want to risk him getting in more problems."

The blonde rolled her eyes, unable to hold back the chuckle at the memory of the blonde boy that Pyrrha had been with when she had first met them in the train. As much as she felt bad about it, she couldn't help but think that he still was far from being a real hunter. Had yet to learn the basics, but was already trying the advanced stuff. And seemed a bit clumsy and goofy while doing so.

Didn't have to mean he was actually lacking skill, after all she hadn't seem him fight yet and most of the time she had seen him he had been asleep. For all she knew, he could be a skilled fighter and combatant, and just didn't look the part.

But her feeling rarely had been wrong before.

"It'll be alright. Besides, I've got my bike just outside, I could drive you wherever you need to be." offered Yang, gestured Pyrrha to hand over her bag. The red-haired student complied and passed the brawler's bag to her, to which Yang reached inside and, again showing that smug grin, pulled out the keys for Bumblebee to show them to her.

"You own a bike?" muttered Pyrrha in surprise, eyebrows slowly rising, "I didn't know you could get a driver's license for a bike before you're adult."

Yang cringed a bit on the inside, then rolled her eyes. Just hoped that Pyrrha wouldn't see through her just like that. A goody two-shoes, wasn't she? Worried about getting her friend in trouble, worried about licenses. Yang shuddered at the thought that Melanie or Miltia could be like that, and stop her from every little thing she was doing that wasn't completely legal or right.

It had been bad enough that Ruby and Melanie had teamed up to scold her for being reckless and picking a fight with the Paladin the other day, one more reason why she had picked up Blake's offer to meet up. She knew herself how stupid she had been, and that they had all right in the world to scold her, which made her feel even worse about it.

After all, it took Miltia two days until she had fully recovered after being thrown across the harbor by the Paladin, and it was a small wonder they all had managed to make it out of that fight without serious injuries or consequences.

"Yeah, you can." lied the blonde, but cringed at how unconvincing she sounded, "Great, right?"

"It actually is." agreed Pyrrha, leaving Yang to silently wonder how Pyrrha had just bought it, "In Mistral, you can't do that. Not that I'm interested, but I always find it interesting just how different things are when it comes to the kingdoms."

On the inside, Yang erupted into laughter, while keeping a perfectly straight face on the outside. Oh god, Pyrrha really was a goody two-shoes. Didn't want to accept the possibility that she was being lied to by... Well, they weren't just friends yet, so acquaintance was the right word, was it?

"Still, I'm not so sure about the whole sparring thing. If only a bit earlier, I would've agreed, but..." began the redhead again. She never got to finish that sentence, however, interrupted by a muffled melody coming from the depths of her bag. Quickly opening it and reaching inside, Pyrrha fished her scroll out of the bag and opened it up, accepting the call.

"PYRRHA!"

Both of them cringed at the volume of the scream. While Pyrrha just chuckled uneasily at the holographic screen, Yang could see a girl with short orange hair and turquoise eyes on the screen due to the nature of a scroll – being just a holographic screen, one could see the image even from the back. At least, with most models you could.

"Oh my god you've got to see what I just found, you won't believe it! It's absolutely crazy, you will not believe it, I didn't even know it existed!" squealed the girl – who Yang could only presume to be the infamous Nora that Pyrrha had told her about during the train ride a few days before. She certainly had the energy.

Another face showed up on screen behind Nora, this one belonging to a boy with black hair, a magenta streak on the left side of it, with his eyes matching the color of that streak. Opposed to the girl he was standing next to, he seemed calm, almost stoic.

"Nora found a cafe that doesn't only serve pancakes with syrup, but also with red sap from Forever Fall." translated the boy that Yang assumed was the final member of the team Pyrrha was on, his voice unenthusiastic and serious, "And that all day long. It's near the airport station."

Pyrrha remained quiet for a moment, staring blankly at the screen while Nora was bouncing up and down and waiting for her reaction, and the boy in the background merely gave a sigh and turned away.

"Oh." escaped Pyrrha eventually, apparently not sure what else to say. Unfortunately, 'Oh' was the wrong thing to say, as it only led Nora to start babbling more stuff that Yang didn't even bother to follow – something about Nora having the idea to open a place where you could ride captured Ursa Major and deal as much damage as possible. However that was connected to a cafe serving pancakes with red sap, Yang didn't know.

She wasn't quite sure if Pyrrha was listening either, as the red-haired girl looked rather lost as to wherever Nora intended to go with her barrage of words – she had just changed the topic entirely at that point, apparently already having forgotten what she was talking about before – since Pyrrha just pretty much smiled at the screen in obvious confusion.

"So, Ren..." she began eventually, even though Nora was still babbling, addressing the boy in the background, "Where is Jaune? Wasn't he with you?"

The boy – Ren – turned back to the screen, his gaze meeting that of Pyrrha on the screen. He pretty much seemed to ignore Nora's rant as well, albeit not completely, and nodded after a few seconds of silence.

"Jaune separated from us a bit earlier, said he had something to do. He said he'd be back in time for our flight back to Beacon." explained Ren. Nothing more, stayed with that. Pyrrha gave him an appreciative nod, then turned back to Nora.

"Nora." she spoke softly, interrupting the bubbly girl. Almost immediately, Nora stopped her rant and froze up, grinning widely as she – much to the further confusion of Yang – saluted to Pyrrha.

"Yes, Ma'am!" she shouted, then slightly tilted her head to the side and gave an adorable smile that immediately reminded Yang of Ruby, "What's up?"

"Seeing that we're approaching curfew, I'll pack up now, take a shower, and will head to the airship station. I'll meet you guys there." she replied, then smiled a bit more, "Make sure to remind Jaune of when to be at the airship station, okay? We don't want to have a repeat of last time, when he forgot the time and missed the airship..."

"Will do! Ren and I'll find him and make sure he's at the station in time!" proclaimed the bubbly girl. Turning her head to look at her friend behind her, Nora added a loud 'Right, Ren?!' that made Yang's ears ring due to its volume, and made her wonder how the boy in question remained completely calm without covering his ears, despite standing right next to her.

"Thanks, Nora. I appreciate it." giggled the redhead before Yang and smiled widely, "And I'm sure Jaune does, too. Once we're at Beacon and he's recovered from the flight, of course."

"You know, we should really find a different way to get him from Beacon to Vale and back." mused Nora in return, one finger coming up to tap against her lip. Seeing that Yang was giving her a questionable frown for that sentence, Pyrrha lowered her scroll and smiled weakly at the blonde brawler, nervously scratching the back of her head.

"Jaune has a bit of... motion sickness." explained Pyrrha shortly. And though she chuckled a bit at the mental image of Jaune throwing up the moment an airship began to move, possibly even at the thought of airships, somehow Yang wasn't even surprised.

"D'aw, Pyrrha's worried about loverboy's wellbeing, hm?"mocked Yang, immediately earning a blush and a roll of eyes from Pyrrha, though the latter ended with Pyrrha suddenly immensely interested in a spot somewhere to the brawler's right.

"I told you before, it's not like that!" insisted the redhead, albeit it sounded exactly as weak as it had sounded the last time Yang had heard the claim. However Jaune had not noticed the signs was beyond her, but that was just like teenage boys were about love and the hints they were given, right? Always so clueless.

"Who are you talking to, Pyrrha?" inquired Nora, the call still active, and Pyrrha rose her scroll back up, "Who's there with you? Wait, you're still at the gym, our flight is due in about an hour and you're super-duper far away!"

"It's just Yang. You know, Yang Xiao Long, the girl that Jaune and I met the other day in the train. I told you about her." sighed Pyrrha and rolled her eyes.

"I take offense at that. I mean, 'just Yang'?" snickered the brawler in question, not really doing so however, "If I were the one you're calling, I'd yang up on you."

Nora immediately burst into laughter on the screen, Ren in the background raising an eyebrow. As did Pyrrha after staring blankly at the blonde for about half a minute, mouth slowly falling open.

"Was that... Did you just make a pun with your own name? And insult me at the same time?"

"Yeah, kinda, even though I was only joking. Wasn't aiming to insult. And yes, I'm making puns all the time lately." admitted the blonde with a shrug, "People don't give me enough credit for it, though. Say I can only keep it up for xiao long."

Nora burst into even louder laughter again, having quickly caught on. Pyrrha however just groaned and rose a hand to cover her eyes, and Yang felt a bit victorious for having found something that even Pyrrha Nikos couldn't stand for too long.

"I like her already!" proclaimed Nora enthusiastically over the scroll, before looking all excited again as another thought struck her, "Oh! Oh! You said she's a student here at Beacon too, right? Is she coming with you? Are we going to fly back to Beacon together?"

Pyrrha seemed to wonder the same thing, as she rose her head and peeked over the top of her hand questioningly. The blonde brawler, while amused and interested, shook her head however.

"Nah. Thanks for the offer, though, but I have my bike outside, remember?" replied the blonde – even though it was more of an excuse, seeing as she wasn't a student at Beacon to begin with and not headed there, but for the club later on. With no curfew forcing her to come back home early, mind you.

"D'aw, we would've had so much fun..." pouted the girl on the screen in Pyrrha's hands.

"Pyrrha." spoke Ren up, getting the redhead's attention as Nora began to list 'fun' things they could've done together with Yang, "I believe you should leave now if you still want to take that shower and be on time."

"Yeah!" agreed Nora suddenly, baffling Yang by interrupting her own flow of words, "You don't want to end up being the next Jaune, right?"

"Alright, alright, I'm going." sighed the redhead and shortly gave Yang an apologetic smile for having to depart so suddenly, "See you at the airship station."

With that, Pyrrha hung up. She closed the scroll by pushing the ends together, then slipped the device back into her bag. Lifting her gaze, she gave Yang another apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry." she chuckled, then flinched as she remembered how often she said that as Yang's right eyebrow slowly rose, "For not being able to stay around and spar, and for leaving so suddenly."

The blonde rolled her eyes on the inside. Pyrrha Nikos, a goody two-shoes, through and through.

"Nah, it's fine." Yang rose her arms and crossed them behind her head, shrugged, "But know that I'm eventually going to call in that fight, so be ready for it. Another day, another time. Not necessarily another place."

"That's fine with me." agreed the redhead and threw her bag over her shoulder, "Still, I'm sorry."

"You're saying it again."

"And I'm leaving." added Pyrrha sheepishly and turned away, began to leave for real, "See you at Beacon, Yang!"

"Yeah, probably." called Yang after her with a big smirk upon her lips, watched Pyrrha cross the room and eventually vanish in the women's locker room. Her smile fell, turned into a frown. "Not."

From one to the other second, her good mood was gone. Justified, given that she had just missed her chance at proper training, and that with someone as skilled as Pyrrha. Combined with the rest of the events that day – or rather, the lack thereof – she found herself rolling her eyes and turning away from the chamber that the redhead had trained in earlier. Some days, life just hated her.

The tall guy she had seen earlier was still on his bench as she looked over, had added even more weight. Had there been more girls around, or more people in general, she would've accused him of being a show-off, but with that not being the case, she could tell he was actually interested in training.

As was she. Which was all the more reason she didn't waste any more time, as she had been doing with that pointless conversation with Pyrrha. Not that she didn't like the girl or anything, but she would've enjoyed it if she at least got to train a bit with her. Left her a bit irritated, that for sure. And seeing as negative emotions only served as fuel – or another factor, she hadn't quite figured that out yet – for her semblance, this left her even more agitated than before. Cause now, with Pyrrha gone, she was forced to go back to bench-pressing, when she really craved some action.

A loud impact not too far from her made her cringe and stop in her steps, halting her only a few steps into her journey back to the bench she had occupied before. Glancing right to find the source of the noise, she found herself staring into the second chamber again, the one occupied by the girl with the platinum blonde hair.

Turned out said girl had just flung the pink-haired guy against the window that Yang stood behind, and that he was now – aura completely depleted – lying underneath. Seeing that the boy in yellow was also on the ground and writhing in pain, the blonde brawler gave the screen above the window another glance.

Just like when she had passed the window before, both boys were defeated by standard tournament rules, and the girl was just fine, although she seemed to have taken at least some hits this round, as her aura level was at ninety-four instead of hundred.

And seeing the dark-skinned girl roll her eyes and stare at the two downed boys, Yang made a decision. She stepped up to the window, rose her hand, and knocked on the glass – even though she could've as well used the console next to the window to talk to the people in the room.

The reaction was imminent, the boy under the window startled so much that he nearly jumped, and the other two turning to the window. Yang wasn't quite sure if they could see her – they had no holograms active, so the window wasn't covered by one and should be visible – but still pointed to the door to her right.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, leaving her to wonder if they couldn't see her after all, but after the girl exchanged a glance with the boy in yellow, she headed for the door anyways. Nodding to herself and mentally preparing to be turned down, Yang approached the door from her side, waiting for it to open up.

When it did, the girl with the dark complexion stood in front of her.

"Is it time already to close the gym?" inquired the female, the strong and unwavering voice impressing Yang just as much as her fighting skill and strength, "We'll be done here in a moment."

"Oh, uh..." Yang scolded herself for the intelligent remark, wanted to facepalm, "No, I'm not part of the staff. Just another customer."

A platinum blonde eyebrow rose, the girl seemingly pondering whatever the reason for the interruption was then.

"Were we too loud then?" she asked, "I'm sorry if that's the case. We could keep it down a little. It's just that my teammates here need a rough reminder ever so often that they need to train harder."

"That's not it, either. I don't think you were bothering anyone." replied Yang and pointed over her shoulder at the nearly empty main room, "Rather than that, I've been watching you for a while, and how you handled yourself just fine against the two."

The girl's eyebrow rose higher. She cast a short glance over her shoulder to her two teammates, still recovering from the last fight, and gave a short grunt of what Yang assumed was agreement. Eventually, the golden eyes turned back to Yang.

"They don't take training as serious as I do, I fear. Which is why I remind them ever so often in the first place." the girl gave a shrug, and Yang watched in silent amusement as the beaten boys shared a sheepish glance, "I'm not saying they're bad fighters or useless or anything, but with a bit more of training, they could be more efficient."

"We'd do better if Reese were here..." piped the boy with the pink hair up in defense, his voice dark and husky, letting out a hiss of pain as he tried to move. The other boy rolled his eyes and actually got up without a problem, though he looked like he wasn't exactly unscathed either.

"Well Reese isn't here right now, Nadir. You know she's still recovering from the mission the other day." chuckled the boy in yellow and rolled his neck a bit, "And even if she were here, Arslan would still be beating our asses up for slacking off again. Maybe even harder."

"Damn right I would!" called the girl with the dark complexion – Arslan – over her shoulder, smiling, "You three have been slacking off lately and it shows! I'm your leader, I'm supposed to make sure you're being fit."

She turned away from Yang and crossed her arms under her chest, frowned at her teammates. "I told you, if you were at least training a bit and being in shape, I wouldn't even have to repeatedly remind you."

"With reminding, you mean dragging us to the next gym and beating our asses up. How often do you plan to do that?" complained Nadir from his position under the window. At this, Arslan began to smirk.

"Until you understand it completely and start training." offered the platinum blonde, "Seems you got the basics already."

"Don't be mean to him, Arslan. We know you express your love for your team in your charmingly rough way." chuckled the boy in yellow and rolled his shoulders, let out a gasp of pain when moving the left one, "Very rough way."

"Shut up, Bolin." huffed Arslan, though she seemed amused as she turned to Yang, "You two and Reese, you really are a bunch of idiots sometimes."

Smirking at Yang, she rolled her shoulders and her neck, before adding, "But at the end of the day, you're still my idiots and my responsibility, and I wouldn't trade you for the world."

"D'aw, knew you cared about us!" mocked Bolin, an equal smirk on his lips as he picked up his weapon, approached Nadir and helped his teammate up. With the other boy leaning onto him, the two started limping towards Yang and Arslan, the blonde brawler from the club making some space in the door to let them through the moment she realized they were planning to leave the room.

As they did, Nadir gave Arslan a high five, surprising Yang. "Show her who's the boss, Arslan!"

"Wait, what?!" gasped Yang, perked up, turning her head to follow the two leaving boys with her gaze until they claimed their places on the bench press bench closest to the chamber. Hearing Arslan give a chuckle, she turned back to the other brawler just in time to find Arslan stepping back into the room.

"That's what you wanted, right? To spar against me, I mean." offered the other girl as an explanation to Yang, "The reason you knocked on the window."

Yang cringed a bit and frowned. Was it really that easy to read her? And here she had given herself some credit for having been able to deceive Pyrrha. Even if she questioned how Pyrrha had bought her lie in the first place.

"Uh, yeah. How'dya know?" she inquired and followed the other girl, leaving her bag by the door, which was closing behind her the moment she stepped away from it and into the chamber. She shortly glanced over her shoulder to the door, found a button aside it that was most likely used to open it from the inside, and as she turned her gaze back to Arslan, she found that the female had already moved towards her spot close to the center of the chamber. "Name's Yang, by the way."

"Had a feeling." she shot back, though it hardly was an explanation, "Standard tournament rules, I suppose. Any holographic terrain?"

Yang shook her head to that and Arslan nodded, giving the two guys outside the room a sign that they'd fight in the room as it was. Yang noticed Bolin nodding, but didn't pay him much attention further than that as she claimed her spot in front of the other brawler.

"So..." she began with a final glance towards the window and Arslan's teammates, before taking up a stance and raising her fists, waiting for the sign to start, "You guys from Beacon?"

"You wanna talk, or you wanna spar?" shot Arslan back, surprising Yang anew, "How about we start fighting first? If you want to talk so bad, we can talk then."

The blonde brawler let out a huff, narrowed her eyes at her platinum blonde opponent.

"Fine with me."

Seeing as she was encouraged to start the fight, the slightly taller brawler launched herself at Arslan. Fists still at the height of her chest like a boxer, she closed in with one quick jump and swung her fist forward, aimed at the other brawler's face.

Arslan's arm shot up and blocked the punch, catching Yang off guard when Arslan did not even do as much as flinch under the force. Instead, she used the one arm that she had blocked with to push a surprised Yang back, staggering her.

Despite that, Arslan didn't go on the offensive and waited until her opponent regained balance, letting Yang come at her again. Although initially aiming at Arslan's face, Yang stopped at the last second to aim for the other girl's gut instead.

The hit connected and Arslan let out a gasp, forced to take back a step. In doing so, the platinum blonde twirled on the spot and extended her leg, hitting the feet of the other brawler and sweeping her off them.

Yang caught her fall in a somersault past Arslan, getting back up on her feet as soon as she could and turning around as to not expose her back to her adversary. Arslan had turned as well and was facing her, a self-pleased smile on her face.

"We're not from Beacon." Arslan changed her stance as she spoke, her right side shifting back as she move her right foot, both palms pointing at Yang, "We're ABRN from Haven Academy."

"Mistral?" escaped Yang in wonder, recognizing the name of the academy. Haven Academy was one of the academies of the kingdom Mistral, the best-known and most successful. Being Mistral's counterpart to Beacon, students who graduated from combat schools – like Signal in Vale, and Sanctum in Mistral – could join and were trained in more advanced things, continuing off where the combat schools ended.

The blonde charged at Arslan again, expected it as she was blocked and followed right up with her other fist. Did not expect Arslan to have caught on early and kick her legs away, leaving Yang to fall flat onto her face.

"Mistral." confirmed the platinum blonde as she brought distance between her and the other brawler that was getting up again, "Before you get the wrong impression from what you saw before, by the way, I'm not some rough or heartless woman."

Yang, back on her feet, used the back of her right hand to wipe her chin, stained with her own saliva from her surprise landing on her face, more specifically her mouth. Letting out a grunt, displeased with how Arslan was being mostly defensive and still managed to be in control of the fight, keeping it slow for now, the blonde glared at ABRN's leader.

"I didn't think that." she huffed, watching as her adversary fell into the same stance as before, "Fighting involves pain, no matter what kind. Even friendly sparring and training."

"I strongly disagree. Not even fight means people have to get hurt." countered Arslan, surprising Yang anew, this time only with words. Seeing Yang momentarily leaving down her guard as she perked up, the leader of ABRN changed to the offensive and charged, moving so fast that Yang nearly missed it.

Letting out a roar, Arslan brought her right hand forward, flat palm slamming into Yang's abs. The blonde let out a grunt of pain and surprise, the world seeming to freeze for a second – the next, she was flying through the room and slammed with her back into the next wall so hard she wondered how the wall didn't break.

It took her a moment to catch on that it wasn't a Paladin that had just hit her, albeit the force was nearly the same.

But with pain came heat. Energy. Her semblance kicked in and provided her with additional strength, though she hardly cared. Just waited until she could finally breath again, the impact having knocked all air out of her.

"This one does." snickered the girl with the dark complexion as she watched Yang slowly writhe on the floor, now painfully aware just how Bolin and Nadir must've felt, "I may be stern when it comes to training and being in shape, but it's only because I don't want them to get hurt out there, in the world beyond the academy. It may seem like tedious work, learning and training, but it's only for their best."

The platinum blonde rolled her shoulders, golden eyes never leaving Yang. "School and training is for making mistakes and learning from them, finding your weaknesses and either learning how to overcome them, or how to work with others to do so. For in the field, in the real fights against Grimm and the criminal scum out there, every mistake can be your last."

Although Yang cringed a bit at 'criminal scum', she understood Arslan's notion. Could only agree. Especially after the Spider-Droid and the Paladin, both of which had overpowered her at first and threatened the life of others. Even now, she didn't regret a thing, especially not regarding the Paladin – after all, the Vale Police Department had shamelessly announced that they would make use of it against the White Fang. Against Faunus.

"I care for them. They're more often than not acting like a bunch of idiots, always so childishly excited about the smallest things, but they're my idiots. I don't want them hurt." Arslan blocked it as Yang punched, smirked when the blonde immediately fell back again to avoid it when the platinum blonde kicked at her legs again, "In my own rough manner, I show them."

"Don't worry, I understand." replied Yang and rushed forward again, intending to speed the fight up a bit and go away from how slow it was, "And I think they understand, too."

And understand, Yang did. As a leader, as a person. While not handling things as Arslan did, she cared about her team and her new family, about all of them. She didn't want them to be hurt either, showed it, differing in how only because of her nature being different from Arslan's. Cause, even though she barely knew Arslan and her team, she could already feel that – even if they seemed to irritate her more often than not – the other brawler and leader cared for her team like family as well. And they did for her, too.

Yang's punch connected with Arslan's forearm, followed up by a left hook that actually got past the dark-skinned girl's defense and hit her in the jaw. Arslan twirled, used the momentum to extend her arms and swing them over her head down on Yang. While the first hit Yang and staggered her backwards, the blonde sent a punch to counter the other one, stopping Arslan's move.

Changing directions and jumping at ABRN's leader, Yang only missed with her punch from above because Arslan fell back and backflipped away, feet narrowly missing Yang's chin. The blonde knew it for sure from that moment on, that Arslan's reaction time and overall agility were superior to hers, the difference in training showing.

Ending her backflip in a turn, the monk-like woman surprised Yang again by making the first use of weapon in this battle. The rope dart fell out of her sleeve, Yang shortly catching glimpse of the rope being attached to Arslan's bandaged hand, then it was already thrown, the dart with the attached rope curling around Yang's left leg.

Arslan tugged and Yang fell, having her leg pulled out from under her, but she didn't hit the ground – Arslan had closed in and was standing before her, turning one one leg with the other pulled up to build up momentum, which slammed painfully in the blonde's side a second later and sent her flying into the wall again.

"You're not from any academy or combat school, are you? While you're skilled, you lack the proper training. Your lack of weapon, proper stance and routine gives you away." deduced Arslan, astonishing Yang by how perceptive she really was, being able to tell that in just a few blows being exchanged, "Interestingly enough, your berserker-like nature seems to have found its call in your semblance."

Yang's eyes widened. Giving a glance to the window – not to actually look out to where Bolin and Nadir were watching with great interest – she found the faint shape of her reflection looking back. True enough, her eyes had turned red. Her semblance was active in the sense of pouring out energy, despite there not being a reason as to why, no cause she was believing in like the protection of someone.

Just when Yang thought she had understood her semblance, it did something out of the ordinary again. Or what she believed to be ordinary. She was sure of her former deduction, however, that it was a cause she believed in that activated it, and not a certain level of physical trauma or energy stored inside.

There had to be something else. Something she had yet to find out.

"It was hard not to notice, although I'm not entirely sure of what it can do." began Arslan and Yang turned her gaze back to her, "You started off strong and powerful, but with every time I hit you and send you down to the ground, your physical strength further increased. And just now, your eyes turned red as you hit the wall and got back up."

The platinum blonde began to swing her rope dart around, letting it orbit her hand as she kept grinning at the brawler from the club.

"Based on this observation, I'd say that your semblance is either passive in nature, or that you have little to no control over it." continued Arslan, then caught her weapon and narrowed her eyes, "Even without it and the proper training, your strength and style impress me. We differ in how we fight, despite both focusing on hand-to-hand combat, but neither of us is wrong in his path. You find your call in chaos, fighting like a berserker, while I seek order, focus on routine and tradition. You act, I react."

Seeing Yang pull her fists up and shift in her stance, Arslan fell back into her own stance as well, shoved her weapon back into her sleeve with one hand, sticking the dart into the bandage at her wrist so it wouldn't fall straight out again.

"What are you, my shrink?" mocked the blonde berserker. Blindly – much to her later chagrin also exactly to Arslan's words moments before – throwing herself at the monk-like fighter, she actually managed to land two hits right after another, the first striking Arslan in the face and the second one in the gut.

Planning to pull her fist back, wanting to strike Arslan again, Yang found herself unable to move her hand – Arslan had grabbed her wrist and was holding it with a power that Yang found herself unable to comprehend right away. Seeing the smirk on the face of ABRN's leader, the blonde immediately caught on, understood that Arslan had allowed herself to be hit the second time.

The monk-like brawler suddenly pulled on Yang's hand, forcing her to stumbled forward and into the direction of Arslan. They didn't collide, the platinum blonde moving out of the way, kicking against Yang's shins as she did, only to followed up with changing her direction and sending another kick into Yang's back.

The wall came closer, but Yang was prepared this time. Pulled both hands up and caught herself by placing them against the wall. Turning her head, she glared at Arslan, who chuckled and experimentally kicked the air sometime. Mocked Yang with it, showing her she wasn't even exhausted in the slightest.

Slamming her fist into the wall, Yang turned around and went at her again.

"Tell me, what are students from Haven doing in Vale? Not like it's a visit to the next city." inquired Yang as they began to trade blows again. Finally, the speed of the fight was picking up, Yang starting to understand Arslan and thus being able to block more hits than before without constantly getting better views of the walls than she intended to.

"We're here on a vacation. At least, that's what the others call it." revealed the team's leader, dodging a right hook and jabbing Yang painfully in the side that was left unguarded, "Got a week off in light of an upcoming festival, and Reese got some friends here in Vale that she wanted to visit. Of course the others got excited by the idea, so they teamed up on me and dragged me here. I only agreed because we would've come to Vale next week anyways for this festival."

Ducking as Arslan suddenly turned and tried to kick at her head from the side, then blocking as she rose and the same foot came swinging at her from the other direction with the back of her forearm, Yang frowned.

"This may be just my impression, but I think vacations are needed as much as training." offered Yang as she pushed the foot away, although Arslan didn't lose her balance and just returned to her initial position.

"I agree. And even though the others use it to slack off, I respect that." Arslan fell back, and as she threw her rope dart at Yang this time, the berserker sidestepped, "They got the rest of the week off to enjoy themselves here in Vale."

"Well, it never gets boring here in Vale, let met tell you that much." chuckled Yang, albeit she had to think of the Paladin as she said that. About Roman and Neo robbing a Dust Shop somewhere. Cinder sitting in a dark room around a table with Emerald and Mercury, planning sinister things as only a single light shone down on them. About Adam and Blake lurking in the shadows. About her own faction in the club.

For a second, Yang thought about stepping on the dart embedded into the ground after it had missed her, but decided against it in worry that Arslan might still just trip her up if she did that. Instead closing in to keep Arslan occupied and on the defense, she rushed past the dart at its owner. Right before she reached Arslan, however, the dart rushed past her and was caught by Arslan and stashed away.

"Which makes me wonder..." Arslan trailed off as she blocked the blow, turned her hand to grab Yang's wrist and twist it painfully, "If you're not from Beacon or any combat school, then what are your affiliations? What is that you do that would require this kind of skill in combat, especially unarmed?"

Yang hesitated. Twisted her hand out of Arslan's grip, but blocked the next strike instead of countering. How much could she tell Arslan? How much would Arslan believe? The girl seemed more perceptive than Pyrrha, that for sure, and she had noticed things that others had clearly missed. Would Arslan see it if she were to lie?

What if it wasn't directly a lie, but only half of the truth?

"Security." the word poured out of Yang's mouth without a problem, "I'm the barkeeper and part of the security at a local club."

By then, their fight had evolved into something more. A constant trade of blows and strikes, more of a dance than a contest. One attacked, the other blocked, tried to turn it back around but only received the same result.

"Live there, too. With my little sister, actually."

Arslan suddenly caught Yang's punch from above. Narrowing her eyes at her opponent, Yang swung her other arm forward with the intention of hitting Arslan's jaw with her forearm, but the monk-like brawler caught that as well and deflected it. Getting irritated, Yang just yanked her fist back with all her might in intention of freeing it, but Arslan had been waiting for that and simply let go.

Completely overdoing it this way, Yang found herself falling backward without any hope to regain balance, leaving her wide open for her opponent. Arslan made use of that, closed in within the blink of a second and rained a hail of fists down on the blonde's abdominal region. Yang could only grunt during the first few blows, but then regained balance by luck and prepared to strike back.

Arslan ducked the right hook, exploited it that Yang had just overdone it again and nearly lost balance again by kicking against Yang's right shin the moment she got up. A curse escaped the taller blonde, but it was cut off when Arslan first hit her with a left hook to the jaw – strangely, hand open as a palm rather than curled to a fist – and then swung her entire arm back to hit Yang in the jaw with the elbow of the same arm.

The world was blurry when Yang reeled to the right, but her semblance kicked in and drove her on. With a roar, she twirled and intended to come back at her opponent with a clothesline, but the moment she was facing Arslan, she immediately knew she had just royally screwed up.

Arslan had fallen back into her initial stance – meaning she was too low to be hit – and waiting for Yang's comeback.

The berserker's roar ended when the flat palm of Arslan's right hand hit her in the stomach with a force that surpassed even that from before. She hit the wall again, bounced off it and hit the ground, the world but a blur - she was running low on aura.

A glimpse towards the window showed her the stupid grins of Bolin and Nadir just behind it, but she also found what she had been looking for, the screen above the window, the same position as the one outside.

Arslan's aura was still at 70, while her own was down to 20. Just one or two more hits, and she would've lost by tournament rules.

How good then that the heat inside had become a blaze with that final hit just then.

"My turn." she spat as she pushed herself up, finding that Arslan had sent a glance to the screen as well. Meant more than just her turn to strike back. "Shouldn't you be four? As far as I know, teams at the academies are made of four people."

"You mean Reese?" inquired the platinum blonde and shifted her stance, wary of Yang's movements, but let out a sigh, "Reese, well... Before we left Mistral, we had one last routine mission. A Grimm extermination. And she was careless, and... well, got hurt."

"Oh..." Yang hesitated with her attack, saw the worry on Arslan's face and couldn't bring it over herself to strike, "I'm sorry. Is she going to be...?"

Arslan perked up, seemed confused for a moment as if not understanding whatever Yang was implying. And then broke out in laughter.

"Oh no, you misunderstand. She wasn't hurt by the Grimm." cackled the monk-like brawler and rolled her eyes, "She was being careless and naive again. Thought she could be cool and whatever, and jumped off her hoverboard as it slashed through a Grimm with the intention of landing on a branch in one of the trees. Lost balance the moment she landed, and when her hoverboard returned to her, she missed catching it because of that. Sent her falling off the tree instead. Landed painfully on her tailbone while not protecting herself with aura."

Yang winced terribly at the thought, her own tailbone hurting at the imagination of the event. This only served for Arslan's grin to grow and her to shrug.

"I've warned her often enough, and the only way that girl learns is by making mistakes." huffed Arslan as she rose from her stance and crossed her arms, chuckled to herself, "She's recovering already and should be fine any day now."

Shifting to her stance again, Arslan let out a sigh. "Sadly, it really was a routine mission. Especially for Reese. In every way..."

Yang winced again, shuddered at the thought.

"Alright, let's just finish this." huffed the taller blonde, rose her fists again and narrowed her eyes at Arslan. With her semblance charged now, all she needed to turn this back around was to land a very few hits, only two or three more to win by tournament rules.

"Right." Arslan took a deep breath, smiled, "Come on. Standing there won't let you win."

She took the bait, charged and roared. Arslan may have understood how her semblance worked, but not what its limit was. And by the time she would've understood, Yang would've won the fight.

She reached Arslan, pushed off the ground. The platinum blonde shifted her right foot further back, one arm at her side and the other one extended forward. Yang swung her fist forward, aiming at Arslan's face – an area that was bound to remove lots of aura if hit by the power she was currently having – and still roaring. And then, Arslan herself began to roar as she swung her other hand forward and pulled the extended arm back.

Arslan's palm hit Yang's abs and the blonde felt her body freeze in midair, as if held by an invisible force, some kind of vibration going through it. Her momentum still carried on and her fist actually managed to hit Arslan square in the jaw.

The same moment, she was catapulted backwards.

Whatever curse she had meant to utter, it failed to leave her mouth as all air was knocked out of her, long before she even impacted with the wall and bounced right off it. Hit the ground a good few steps away from the wall she had been slammed into. Her vision was blurry and limited, tunnel vision taking over.

Arslan, at the same time, reeled to the side under the force of Yang's punch. She twirled and tried to return to her former position, but failed to stand upright and collapsed onto one knee. One hand came up to her jaw and she stared at the ground to her feet for a moment, breathing heavily. Felt like throwing up for a moment.

Turning her slightly blurry gaze to the screen, she hissed. Spotted Bolin and Nadir through the window, both on the edge of their seats, staring in astonishment. Yang Xiao Long's aura was down to zero, the blonde berserker having lost the fight.

Arslan's aura was at 35. Yang's hit had just removed half of the aura she had left, and had managed to get somewhat through to her. Even with the area she had hit – the jaw, being part of the head, an area that aura was more concentrated at normally due to being a vital spot that damage had to be avoided in – this was an enormous amount for just one hit. Even a final one.

Unless, of course, it was exactly because it was a final hit.

Slowly lowering her hand from her still throbbing jaw, Arslan slowly began to grin, even if only a bit. She watched Yang lying on the ground before her, defeated and breathing heavily, and let out a small chuckle.

She understood perfectly now how Yang's semblance worked.

"Well, shit." escaped Arslan before she could stop herself, a rare moment in which she did not control her words, "I'm gonna feel that one in the morning. Not that you look any better."

She let out a loud huff and took a deep breath, moved her jaw experimentally as she strode over to where Yang lay. Stepping over her, the monk-like fighter chuckled a bit to herself, especially as Yang weakly rolled over and, in reaction to her opponent's words and due to her lack of breath, just flipped Arslan off.

"Yeah, I like you too." taunted the leader of ABRN, gave her team members a gesture that they were fine and done, "Well, seeing as you're just going to listen now, I might as well make it worth your while and give you some advice. I just want to help. I mean you weren't doing bad, but you made some serious rookie mistakes in between. Like I said, you weren't properly trained, though."

Yang rose an eyebrow, to weak to ask her what that meant. Arslan still understood and nodded, before sitting down next Yang's head and rubbing her own jaw a bit.

"You have two major flaws in your style, and at least one of them is a problem with your personality." continued the brawler that was still able to stand, "The first mistake you made, the one anchored in your personality, is that you to let me provoke you. Never get provoked."

Yang's eyebrow rose higher, and Arslan rolled her eyes.

"Don't tell me you didn't notice it!" groaned the monk-like brawler, "I made you attack me first at the very beginning and I simply had to defend myself to learn your fighting style! How you fought and how I had to act accordingly!"

Seeing Yang's eyes narrow at her, Arslan actually groaned.

"That was only the beginning, though. You constantly were on the offensive and gave me massive chances to counter or react, just because I provoked you into it!" Arslan rolled her a shoulders a bit, felt how sore they were, "It's not the second major problem you have, but you constantly seem to forget that even though your punches are powerful and seem to get more powerful the more you endure yourself, your hits are slower than most. Leave you open for opponents faster than you, or give them chance to prepare."

She stopped to get up on her feet, then bowed down and extended a hand to help Yang up. The blonde berserker accepted and let Arslan help her get back onto her feet, but didn't say anything and just kept panting.

"Your other major problem is your feet."

Immediately, Yang frowned, then glanced down to her feet. Almost expected to find something off about them. And Arslan simply rolled her eyes, muttered something about being like her teammates under her breath.

"Oh good, you remember you have them." snorted the leader of ABRN in a mixture of amusement and exasperation, "Why do you forget that in a fight?"

"Huh?"

"You focus mainly on punches. Your fighting style doesn't include them." began Arslan with a sigh, "Doesn't have to. But even if it doesn't, you can't just forget about them like you do. During the entire fight, aside from one single moment, you completely left them open for me to attack. If you didn't notice it, most of the times I managed to hit you, I either went for your legs first or staggered you."

Yang rose her gaze from her own feet to blink at Arslan, what the other brawler was saying slowly getting through to her. Seeing this, Arslan nodded. Together, they slowly approached the door leading outside the chamber, had no reason to stay inside the training room. Especially as Yang wanted nothing more than to sit down and wait for her aura to recharge, and there was nothing to sit down on but the ground.

"You need to work on that. Don't let yourself be provoked, and focus on your movements and your feet. All the strength you have and develop over the course of a fight is worthless if you're easily defeated. Think of an opponent faster than you, maybe slightly smaller, a trickster at work."

For a weird reason, Yang could actually imagine the scene that Arslan was describing. Saw herself, standing in a narrow steel corridor with a smaller and faster opponent, chests stacked along the walls. Her imaginary opponent was Neo, Cinder's smallest associate. Had that cocky smile of hers on her lips, the color of her eyes changing with every blink, the parasol open and leaned onto a shoulder, despite them being inside. Yang felt her hands ball to fists.

She had seen what Neo was capable of when she had arrived at the end of the fight with the Paladin, making use of the Paladin being unable to move. It took her two well aimed strikes to put it out of commission. Two.

"If you act as you did before, she will simply avoid your every strike. Continue to mock you, maybe not even in words."

Imaginary-Yang rushed at Imaginary-Neo, fists flying at the smaller opponent. But Neo simply tilted her body every time, not even much, avoiding strike upon strike with ease that got under the skin of Yang just as much as the smug grin and the eyes, even as her imaginary self mixed kicks in. It was as if Neo foresaw every one of them.

"Eventually, as I did, they will adapt. Have seen your pace and general style, and only have to react. Use your own strength and body against you."

The Neo in front of Yang's inner eye mixed her hands and her parasol in, began to block the hits that she formerly avoided. Then only shifted a slight bit to the side and let Imaginary-Yang come a step closer with the next kick of the blonde. And just had to turn and use her agility and flexibility to bring her own leg up to the height of her opponent, kicking the imaginary brawler into the temple and knocked her to the ground.

Yang winced physically as the scene before her inner eye came to an end, though she knew that Neo would've continued on and mercilessly defeated her. Without taking as much as a hit.

"I see you understand where I am going with this." huffed Arslan as she saw that Yang had snapped out of her daydream, the blonde looking disoriented, especially considering that she hadn't really noticed it when they had left the chamber and joined Bolin and Nadir in the gym's main room. She had even picked up her bag as she had passed it by the door and was carrying it.

At one point, the tall green-haired guy with the tattoos had come over and had watched the fight as well, now sitting on another bench and silently watching as Arslan and Yang looked at each other.

"What about your semblance?" inquired the platinum blonde, her gaze as serious as when Yang had first seen her, "I understood the gist of it during the fight, but that's not what I mean. Do you have it under control?"

Yang considered this question for a moment. The answer was 'no', quite obviously, but it went further than that. All the complicated aspects of it came back to her mind, the things she didn't understand yet.

"No, I don't. And I honestly don't think there is anything to control about it." grunted Yang, sat down on an empty bench and leaned forward until her elbows came to a rest on her legs, "I think the actual problem with it is that I don't fully understand how it works. At times I think I do, others I don't. More often the latter."

"Hm." Arslan huffed, exchanged glances with her teammates, then with Yang, "I don't think there is anyone that could help you with that but you."

"A semblance is the reflection of your soul and aura, it's special and unique for each person." chimed Bolin in, "In order to understand it, you'd have to ask yourself how to use it. Understand yourself."

"Ever tried getting in touch with yourself?" inquired Arslan. A weird thought shot through the blonde's head and despite her weakened state she had to snort and snicker. The boys rose their eyebrows in confusion – Arslan simply groaned, blushed and rose a hand to massage her temples.

"You know what I mean." drawled the team leader through clenched teeth, "I'd advice trying meditation. Don't say anything to that, simply accept it – I know what doubts you have right now, simply seeing your face. But this might work."

Finding one of her former questions answered – Arslan could read her like an open book – Yang simply shrugged. Yes, she had doubts. It wasn't that she thought of meditation as nonsense or completely stupid, but she doubted that she'd have the patience for it. The skill, as weird as it sounded.

The platinum blonde shared a glance with her teammates again. It was around that time that the green-haired boy simply stood up and left them, walking back to his bench to fetch his coat and bag. Silently, Yang watched as he crossed the room and vanished in the door to the men's locker room.

It was nearly dark outside by then. The once orange light of the setting sun had turned into a slight gray, shadows of lampposts and buildings long and dark, swallowing the alleys in darkness. Knowing that she didn't have much time left until she'd have to return to the club for her job as a barkeeper, she rose her bag a bit and meant to reach inside to pull her scroll out, wanted to know how late it was exactly. Not that she'd have to, the scroll would notify her when it was time.

"Here."

She stopped, the bag opened just a bit, and looked up to find Arslan offering a slip of paper to her. Confused, she put her bag down and accepted it, found a line of numbers on it.

"My scroll number." explained Arslan before she sat down next to Nadir, the clumsy boy nearly falling off the bench as he made some space for her, "It probably isn't that useful, seeing as we're heading back to Haven in two weeks, but while we're here, feel free to call me for a sparring if you ever feel like it. You're a challenge, and I like challenges."

"Yeah." agreed Nadir excitedly, then added with a jab into his team leader's side, "You could spar with her in our stead. Would save our asses from being beat around."

Arslan rolled her eyes at that comment, but smiled in amusement. These guys had a weird synergy, at least in Yang's eyes. While it often seemed like the boys were just irritating Arslan, it was only on first glance. On second, if one looked closer, it became apparent that they didn't just irritate her and that she actually didn't mind it that much. She did care for them, exactly as she had said.

Now of course, Yang hadn't met Reese yet, but she had the feeling that she fit right into the picture of three somewhat clumsy team members and their leader being something like their guardian. Energetic and naive, if what Arslan had said was true.

In a way, much to Yang's amusement, team ABRN felt like a weird little and happy family. Bolin, Reese and Nadir were all somewhat childish, and Arslan was something like their mother.

It brought a smile to her face, but she didn't utter her thoughts out loud.

"It could also come in handy if you ever visit Mistral." offered Bolin, his suggestion sounding more reasonable than that of his teammate, "Call Arslan if you do and let us know. We could show you around the place."

"Will do." chuckled Yang. Could only imagine what ride she'd be in for if she ever made that reality. At least, it wasn't unlikely that she'd ever visit Mistral. If what Melanie and Miltia had said was true, their missions as mercenaries had led them to other kingdoms before, even if rarely. Apparently, the White Fang and Cinder occasionally had something to be done that didn't happen in Vale. At least in the case of the White Fang, she could imagine what that was.

"Hey, Yang." called the platinum blonde suddenly, then leaned over and reached inside her own bag. She pulled out two bottles of water – Yang noticed the name of a brand in Mistral on the front – and threw one of them to Yang, leaving the blonde to catch it.

"You should try it." urged Nadir, pulled a bottle of his own bag, "It's pretty good."

Seeing no reason not to, the blonde accepted the offer. Opened the bottle and took a generous gulp, felt how it refreshed her. Calmed the heat still lingering in her body, although it wasn't really physical. Not anymore, her semblance already calming down.

Lucky coincidence, too, seeing as how she had forgot her own one at the club.

"So, how do you guys like it here in Vale, so far?"

"We didn't get to see much yet. Just arrived here this morning." replied Nadir, sent his team leader a glare, "And someone had to drag us to a gym right after lunch to beat our asses up."

"You mean to remind us that we had been slacking off and that she had silently accepted it until today?" offered Bolin right away with a smirk, correcting the other male, "That Reese went ahead and got herself hurt during the last mission didn't help the image of us being out of shape."

"Probably not." agreed the boy with the pink hair, sighing.

"I could show you around a bit later this week, I know the city pretty well." offered the blonde brawler, thinking of the club and her life on the streets, both of which had led her to know Vale, "And if I ever come to Mistral, I call you guys and you return the favor."

"Sounds good." grinned the boy in yellow, "I think Reese would like that, especially."

"Yeah, speaking of her, where is she? This Reese, I mean?" inquired Yang, raising an eyebrow at the incomplete team before her, "Shouldn't she be with you? She can't be that hurt."

The boys exchanged a glance and blinked, Arslan not even caring to answer. She just rose her bottle to her lips and chuckled, then took a sip.

"Reese originally meant to, but at least one of the friends she meant to visit is leaving Vale tomorrow and wasn't sure if she'd be back this week, so Reese decided to visit her today." explained Nadir, "You should've seen her as she left. She can barely walk upright, so she took her hoverboard. Fell straight off and landed on her ass again. Nearly cried."

"She still was so determined to go that we couldn't stop her, that stupid girl." sighed Arslan as she lowered her bottle. Rolled her eyes.

Yang rose an eyebrow. Arslan seemed to roll her eyes a lot.

"How did she get friends here in Vale to begin with? Is she from here?" asked the brawler, "I mean, having friends over in the other kingdoms sounds pretty amazing. And comes in handy, I bet."

"You got us now." offered the pink-haired and smiled widely. Yang couldn't help but smile back, especially when he rose both hands to point at himself. Weird guy. Oddly sympathetic, all of them.

"Reese met most of them online in forums." began Bolin to explain, seeing as no one else was going to, "Music, weapons, video games. You name it, she's been there, done that. That girl has an interest in everything and anything."

"Especially skating." huffed Arslan.

"And illegal and experimental things." added Nadir.

Silence.

"Illegal experimental things." sighed all three present members of ABRN in perfect unison, leaving Yang to blink in confusion. And wonder.

"Feels like there's a story to that." she inquired, and only achieved that Arslan actually let out a groan and lowered her head in frustration.

"One?" chuckled Bolin uneasily, "More like, one thousand."

"She gets in trouble all the time and we have to save her ass."

"Arslan especially."

The platinum blonde rose at that, hand still on her forehead. She tossed her bottle back into the bag to her feet and rolled her shoulders, then took a deep breath and met the gaze of the blonde berserker on the bench opposite to hers.

"Let's not talk about Reese right now or I'll get a headache." spoke Arslan, "I can only imagine what trouble she is getting herself into at the moment and what I'll have to deal with at the end of the night or tomorrow."

She sent a glance to her two present teammates, seemed to ponder about something a moment that seemed to involve them. Deciding against it as it seemed, since she never said anything, Arslan turned back to face Yang with a challenging smile upon her lips.

"Hey Yang, do you feel up for a second round? Let's see if we can work on these flaws you have."

Yang, as well as Bolin and Nadir, rose their eyebrows at that question. Of course, she couldn't tell what the boys thought about, but Yang seriously considered the offer. Her body didn't quite feel up for it at the moment, aura still recharging, but she did feel a bit better than before.

That aside, her semblance should be able to give her a second wind. And she should still have the time for that.

She rose from her seat on the bench, stretched her tired limbs. Rolled her neck. She was aware that the three members of ABRN were watching her, waiting for her answer. And giving a chuckle, she nodded.

"Nah, I don't think I'm up for a second round, to be honest." she admitted – not knowing that Arslan was proud of that decision, acceptance being the first step – and grinned at Arslan, "Still, I'd be willing to work on my flaws a bit. Just not in a real fight, the night shift at the club starts soon and I have to be back for that."

"That could be done." chuckled the platinum blonde and nodded in agreement. She handed the guys her bag and pointed at the chamber she and Yang had fought in. "Just tell me when you have to leave."

Yang picked up her bag and showed it to them, patted the side. "Got my scroll to inform me in time to take a shower and head back to the club."

Arslan's grin grew.

"Nice. Ready?"

"Sure."


"You know..." began Tucker, getting the attention of the girls sitting at the bar before him, but then focused on Ruby, "Your sister is awfully late, don't you think? Didn't she say she wanted to work again tonight?"

"Uh..." Ruby rose an eyebrow, glanced to the others at her side, thought about it for a moment ,"I think she did, yeah."

"She really is late then, work starts in about an hour. Where did she say she wanted to go again?"

The twins and Ruby exchanged a frown, neither of them quite sure of the answer. Tucker saw that and chuckled uneasily.

"I'm not sure." replied Ruby eventually, "But she said she'd have her scroll to remind her on time."

"Do you think she's off, getting herself into trouble again?" sighed Melanie from the side, groaned at the thought that Yang could be somewhere in Vale with another Paladin on her heels. Miltia, drinking from her glass with a straw, reached over and patted her back. Held her own comment back.

"Let's hope not." mused the youngest of the three girls, although she had that bad feeling too.

"Well, never gets boring with her for sure, at least." joked the barkeeper and shrugged, "Well, for all we know, she could simply have planned to be here just on time, and is already..."

He was interrupted by a loud melody, leaving Tucker and the girls to frown at each other. Immediately, all of them reached for their respective scrolls and checked them, thinking it was theirs, even the girl to the right of the twins – Ruby was to their left – did.

Confused gazes were exchanged, everyone silently wondering who it belonged to.

And then, slowly becoming aware from where the sound was coming from, all of them looked over to the low cupboard behind Tucker, next to the liquor cabinet. There, next to a small bottle of water, lay a scroll and rang.

Melanie groaned, head meeting the bar in frustration.

Ruby simply chuckled uneasily when everyone turned to her.

"Oh."


And there we have it.

Looks like Melanie doesn't have to worry this time, Yang didn't get herself in trouble. Well, other than with Melanie, so I guess she still is... Yeah. We'll see how that evolves. Next time.

Before we move on to my notes, I'd like to thank Time96 again for beta-reading this. I know I say it every time now, and I will continue to do that until the end I guess, but I just can't say it often enough. Especially considering under what circumstances he does the beta sometimes, like even on Christmas.

Now, on to my notes.

You probably noticed, but I like ABRN a lot. Especially Arslan and Reese. I really want to see more of them, even if they're only minor characters. God, if you would've seen me when they first appeared... I mean, I was practically begging for Arslan to speak at least once (shame she didn't) cause I really wanted to know if her voice fit her design. And god, did I love the way she rolled her eyes at Nadir and Bolin screwing up near the end of the fight. She totally has to put up with their shit all the time.

By the way, about the voice thing - that is secretly my greatest worry when it comes to Neo. If she's ever going to speak (though I prefer her as she is, with only slight noises and no words spoken), I really hope her voice fits her incredibly great design. There is an exception to that which I'd be okay with as well, but that's kinda hard to explain and entirely personal, and would only work with the right background for her. Which we don't know yet.

But this isn't about Neo, it's about ABRN. Now, I'm saying ABRN, even though Reese wasn't with them. One might wonder where Reese is... But what if I told you that she actually was in this chapter? I didn't forget about her, that for sure, and she'll appear. Soon.

Like, I actually planned more for this chapter and had to split the content up into two chapters.

Yeah, Reese Chloris confirmed for the next chapter. Again. She was in this chapter above.

Now a small fun fact before we move on: As I was writing this chapter, I was watching the RWBY vs. ABRN fight several times (and Weiss & Yang vs. Flynt & Neon...). While eating Neopolitan Icecream and drinking energy drinks. Never buying pomegrenade-cranberry flavor again. Juicy as hell, but the aftertaste isn't exactly to my liking. Maracuya, though... I totally dig it.

Didn't sleep the entire last night. I think I can see through time.
What is up with Yang and her warcries in the fight against ABRN by the way?

Back to the notes!

Now, although there is a large part with Junior and the OC Sarah at the beginning of this chapter, Sarah will not play a major role in this story, but a part in Junior's smaller subplot, happening in the background. For now, in this chapter, she served as character development for Junior, however.

With Tucker before her, Sarah is the second OC introduced. She won't be the last either, but please know that there will NOT be many OCs in the end, and that they will at no point be the major focus of the story. Their only role is to support the plot and character development. Sarah only got a bit of characterization here to avoid Junior talking to a bland and meaningless character, and because she will appear again.

Especially if I really ever decide to write a prequel to this story like I have stated before. I have some ideas and if people are interested in it by the end of this story, I might go ahead and write about Junior's generation at Beacon and the events that started all of this. But that is still quite a bit away, we've only just started.

I think that is all I've got to say. It was already quite a bit, even though I really wanted to keep my A/Ns shorter. Oh well.

Now then, this was SorrowfulReincarnation with another chapter of DC AU, and I see you in the next chapter, when we continue from here.

So long~