The office door swung open, and Qrow Branwen stomped inside.
"You had better give me a good reason for showing up here uninvited," he growled to his guest, who was waiting patiently in the armchair across from his desk.
"National security," answered the white-suited man.
"And that gives you the right to bring an armed ship to this school without any warning?"
"No, it doesn't. The headmaster's approval does, however."
"Shove your formalities up your ass, James. Gunships scare the kids."
"If they were being taught any international policy, they'd know that Atlas is one of Vale's strongest allies."
"It is now," huffed Qrow, slumping into his own chair. "What exactly is this security breach?"
"About two weeks ago a pair of White Fang agents left Patch. We don't know how or why they got here."
Qrow's annoyance began to fade, replaced by genuine concern.
"Your guys only spotted them once they were already done?"
"In terms of official Atlas operatives, yes. But we did catch wind of an unofficial operation, funded through Blizzard Limited, a shell corporation for the Schnee Dust Company. According to our source, Blizzard hired locals to intercept intel being carried by these White Fang operatives. There's no major base of operations for the White Fang on Patch, and almost no recruitment. If they were here for something…"
Qrow nodded gravely, putting the pieces together. "They came for the school."
"I'm not here for Jacques, Qrow. I'm here because I owe you one," said James Ironwood, leaning forwards in his chair. "Signal doesn't have a lot of things that would interest them. But if the Fang somehow caught wind of your- of our connections- it'd be a disaster."
"But how would they find out about Ozpin's secrets? Khan should be in the dark."
"We don't know yet. The most likely theory is that they were informed by an outside source, but if that source knew, why did they need a further investigation? It's still beyond us. That's why I'm here. We have to look for any evidence they left behind, anything they took. We have to learn what they learned."
"We can agree on that," said Qrow. "But how are you going to cover all of that ground on your own?"
"I'm not on my own," Ironwood laughed. "I've brought my star pupil. She's already surveying the campus now."
"I guess we'll see how special your operatives are," smirked Qrow, standing. "Let's get to work."
The girl purposefully marched down the footpath, a hand on her hip at all times. She seemed very determined and confident, though to Yang it was clear that she had no idea where she was going.
"She's heading towards the Combat building now."
"It's going to be common hour soon," contemplated Silene aloud from her hiding spot behind a trash can. "That building's going to be empty. That's how we'll confront her."
"She's pretty far down the way now. Let's go."
Silene rose from behind the trash can and worked her way up to a gentle jog, slow enough for Yang to keep up with her adult-sized strides. As they neared, Silene slowed back down to a walk, allowing their quarry to enter the building ahead of them.
"We'll lose her," Yang warned. Silene held up a finger in protest, standing still. Yang was about to ask why when the bell rung, and hundreds of students began to pour out of the building.
"Now," ordered Silene, and they advanced under the cover of the thunderous footsteps, swimming upstream against a current of people. Eventually the onslaught waned, and they emerged on the other side of the door with only a few stragglers still packing their bags. At the end of the corridor, the white-haired girl entered one of the demonstration halls. Silene charged ahead, and this time Yang struggled to keep up. She was more driven than Yang had ever seen her, her movements faster and more intense than at the Wolves' Den. She said that they wouldn't hurt anyone. This concerned Yang greatly. What was she planning to do once they caught this white-haired girl? On the other hand, Silene had never lied to her before. She had meant everything she had said before. What they had done had made her feel so sick inside that she had stayed home for more than a week, but Silene hadn't lied about any of it. She was scared of feeling that way again, but in her head she knew it must have been the right thing to do. Why did her heart disagree?
They reached the end of the hallway and darted into the demonstration hall, with its bleachers and floor-to-ceiling impulse field generators. The white-haired girl pulled out a scroll and began to slowly track it across the room, as if she were taking one long, boring video. When the door shut behind them, her concentration was broken. Yang watched Silene's fingers curl, digging into her palms.
"Um, hello there," said the girl, her ice-blue eyes blinking idly. "Do you have a class starting here? I'll get out of your way."
"No," said Silene, her voice hiding the force that her fists displayed. Already Yang could feel a cold sweat developing above her brow. "You don't need to."
"Well, all right then. It won't take long before I'm finished here," she replied, opening her scroll up again. Yang noticed why her hand had been at her hip- a sword hung from a belt there. Her uniform had pouches and buckles like a huntress. Armed and dangerous.
"You're Winter Schnee," Silene breathed.
The girl blinked again, and put her scroll away.
"Yes, that's right. Do I know you?"
Silene took a step forward. "You will."
Yang's heart began to pound. She was powerless to stop this. She was a Schnee. From what Silene had told her, they were rotten to the core. Did she deserve to get hurt, then? She couldn't find the answer.
Winter's hand came to rest on the hilt of her saber. "What do you want?"
"I want to talk," Silene said. Relief swept over Yang. It wasn't going to be so bad after all.
"About what?"
"About what your family does."
"My father? Or me?"
"All of you. I want to know how you sleep at night."
"I close my eyes and think happy thoughts," the girl replied. Her face was stern, like a picture Yang had once seen of a famous general's statue. She was older than either one of them-Yang hadn't realized because she was shorter than Silene, but the Faunus didn't make a good measuring stick. "Listen, my life is really complicated. I don't have time to explain it right now. I have a job to do."
"So do millions of people who work for you. But unlike you," Silene stepped forward again, "they don't get to sleep. No happy thoughts, I guess. They don't get to eat, either." Another step.
Winter's fingers locked onto her saber's hilt. "I'm not here to apologize for my father."
Silene continued to advance closer. "You should be."
"His crimes aren't mine."
"They are as long as you do nothing to stop them." Silene's rage was becoming visibly obvious now. Her eyebrow scales puffed out and her fangs were bared. Winter Schnee responded with something Yang had never seen a real human being do before. She turned her nose up and pouted.
"I can't believe I still have to deal with punks like you," she spat. "I gave up my place at the company so I could learn to actually help people, and this is the thanks I get, of course. I don't make policy decisions, I couldn't if I tried. But yet you have the audacity to come here and yell at me like it's my fault! Well, it's not, you scaly freak!"
Silene, now within a few feet of Winter, stopped. Yang placed her hands on her chest, silently pleading with her heart to slow down.
"Oh," Silene said, her voice soft. "I see."
"Finally! Now if you would please-"
"Business is business, am I right?" Silene continued.
"Yes, that's right," Winter acknowledged. "I don't like it either but that's how it is."
"Well," Silene laughed, "what's funny is that everything in business has a price."
In an inelegant but unstoppable motion, Silene closed the remaining gap between them, locking her right arm around Winter's throat. She began to scream, but the Faunus clenched tighter and choked the yelp down to a miserable hiccup. Yang could only muster a gasp, but the cold panic that filled her body was sharper than any shrill sound her vocal cords could create. The gasp almost formed the word "no", but fell short.
It turned out that Silene could lie. She didn't like that.
Winter struggled against Silene's headlock, but her additional years of training couldn't make up for the gap in strength between them- the Faunus' arm remained resolutely in place. Silene yanked the girl around and began to drag her towards the door.
"W-what are-" babbled Yang, stumbling backwards.
"She doesn't have any say in things," grunted Silene, taking awkward limping steps forward as she wrestled against Winter's protests. "But her dad does. I think we can convince him to make some changes."
She barged back through the door shoulder first, picking up speed as Winter began to squirm slower and slower. She was wearing out already. Yang stumbled after them, numb to feeling. She tripped over her feet and struggled to get back up. She didn't know Winter and didn't know much about the Schnee Dust Company, but what was happening couldn't be right.
"All we need to do now is make our demands," Silene strained. She trudged down the hall and shoved her way through the exit, stomping out into the open. She used her free hand to fish through her coat pockets and removed her lighter. It caught with a flick of her thumb. "We're… we're further now than the White Fang has ever gotten! We're going to change the world!"
Yang watched Silene dangle the lighter under Winter's nose. The girl had stopped moving altogether now, but her eyes were open, wide with fear. Behind them, a third party entered the fray. The ground glowed blue in swirling rings, and a clawed arm emerged, white and blue, crisp, blinding in the sunlight. The disembodied limb made a low swipe and knocked Silene off her feet. Winter twisted as they fell, and struck the Faunus in the chin with her free elbow. She hadn't been weakening at all- she had been waiting. These two attacks were enough to shatter Silene's grip, and the girl broke away at a sprint. Silene awkwardly clawed her way back to her feet and prepared to give chase, but an unexpected weight had been added to her right ankle. She looked down, and found Yang clinging to her leg.
"Stop," breathed the smaller girl.
"Yang, what are you doing? We're so close! Let go!"
"Please, stop."
"Get off of me!" She shook her leg, but failed to dislodge Yang. Silene looked back over her shoulder. Winter Schnee was gone. There was no hope now. Despair burned into rage. She tugged against Yang's weight once more. She moved her leg, but she was not going anywhere. With a grunt, she raised her left leg and kicked the clinging girl in the face. Yang released her grip and sprawled backwards in the grass.
"What the hell, Yang?!"
Yang didn't really know what the hell, either. Pain arced through her face, a hot numbness with sharp edges. She hadn't been ready, hadn't used any Aura. She put her hand to her cheek and it came back warm and wet and red. What had happened? She had figured something out, she remembered. Put pieces together. Some secret had been revealed.
"You're wrong," she whispered. The pain in her face was travelling to the back of her head.
"What?"
"All of this is wrong," Yang sobbed.
"What do you mean, wrong? We're doing the right thing! They're the enemy! They hurt people, Yang!"
Yang coughed and realized that there was blood in her mouth too. "You hurt people. You made me hurt people."
"To teach them a lesson! You have to change people's minds somehow!"
"No," said Yang. "Nobody changed their mind. You just hurt people because you want to."
"I thought you were different, Yang," Silene spat. "I thought maybe your head wasn't polluted with shit like everyone else's. I thought we could get along. That this wasn't 'us' and 'them', but 'we'! But I guess I was wrong," she snarled, driving her foot into Yang's side. "That's how all of this is going to be! The whole world really does work like that! It's simple! Just so simple!" She kicked Yang again. "You are just so dumb!"
Yang couldn't feel much of anything anymore. She knew Silene was hitting her, but she couldn't process it. The only thing her world was made of was the pain in her head. It pulsed and grew with each second, each wave straying further and further out into her body. Her vision blurred. Colors faded out. Silene was still there, shadowy, distant. The way she talked made everything sound so important. There was something she said about pain. Lessons. School? No, she couldn't figure it out. Yang felt weightless. The pain was everywhere now, her stomach, her fingertips, her skin. She had felt it before, in the bar. And before that, she realized, when she stuck her finger in a lit candle. Burning, all over. Impossible heat, surrounding, consuming. She placed her weightless hands on the ground and pushed, moved her weightless feet underneath her and stood. Silene stepped back. Was she surprised? Yang wondered if she herself was surprised. But she couldn't really think. She tried to think about why she couldn't, and that was when she exploded.
Silene fell backwards, blind and deaf. She could still feel, and the ground that suddenly met her hands was trembling. She blinked the light out of her eyes, but as her vision returned she had to look away once more. Windows in buildings across the campus shattered. The temperature, previously average for a spring day, transformed into an oppressive swelter. Silene held a hand out, screening her face from the searing eruption. It was as if the sun had lighted on the ground. It was a blaze the likes of which Silene had never seen before- it had a force, an intensity, a direction just like a jet engine. But it blasted upwards, flames searing the sky. Inside the column of flame, two red orbs glowed like molten metal.
"H-holy shit," she stammered, regaining her footing. The wind whipped around the fire, gale force, pulling at her clothes, tugging her hair back. Dirt and rocks began to give way to the storm, propelled into the air. They scraped and bit at her skin as Silene struggled to make out the center of the inferno. It had a shape, radiant but familiar. It was human. It was Yang.
The confusion that had filled Yang's head was gone. The world, as she perceived it, seemed very clear to her. It was white, poorly-defined at the edges, but easily understood. In front of her was Silene. Silene had hurt her. She was going to hurt Silene back. She pushed off the ground with her left foot and drove her right fist into the Faunus' face. She felt a satisfying impact travel down the length of her arm as the blurry black-and-white figure sailed away, head-over-heels, into the dirt.
Qrow stood, stunned out of motion, outside of the administration building. The tremors were small and steady, while the pillar of flame in the distance continued to convulse and fluctuate. This wasn't magic, he could feel it, the way the energy sang as it danced around his Aura. It was a Semblance.
Yang slowly crossed the field to Silene's crash site. The Faunus held her head, her teeth gritted in agony. Her hand brushed against one of her horns, and the tip crumbled off in her fingers. She gasped, and choked down a pained sob. Then she met Yang's burning red gaze.
"That's… pretty… impressive," she grimaced. "I… I guess… we're all monsters, deep down." Silene gave a short, pained laugh. "You're right… I didn't change my mind."
Yang felt something cold sweep over her, icy, empty. She fell to her knees, feeling the opposite of weightless. Color and edges returned to the world, and the burning went away. She remembered that this was what the world usually felt like.
Silene sat still and kept laughing that short, whimpering laugh. Yang felt herself lifted into the air, pressed against a familiar-smelling chest. Her father.
"Hey- it's all right, it's over," he said. Over his shoulder she could see Qrow sprinting their way, with Winter and a white-uniformed man not far behind. Her father was wrong. Whatever had just happened was not an ending. The white-uniformed man locked a pair of handcuffs on Silene and prodded her to stand at the point of a large handgun. A cloud passed over the sun and shadows crawled out into the world.
Ten years old, and Yang felt alone again.
Ruby stuck her finger into the center of the scroll, indicating the part of the map that glowed green. "Riiiiiight there!" she announced.
"Your big solution is for us to hide in the Emerald Forest?" asked Weiss.
Ruby shook her head. "Nope! We're not going there to hide. We're going there to fight!"
Weiss folded her hands in her lap and looked down at Ruby from her bunk bed perch. "That's the worst idea I've ever heard," she said politely.
"It makes sense," Blake refuted, pausing her calibrations of Gambol Shroud's sheath lock spring. "We're already familiar with it from our initiation, and we can get there easily. It also serves to isolate the battle from the rest of the school."
"Exactly. We'll have a home turf advantage, and if she follows us there, she'll have her back against the wall. Or a cliff, to be technical."
Weiss hefted herself down to the floor. "We'd have to be on our guard against Grimm in the area, though."
"There's just one of her and four of us. Multitasking should be easy," Ruby countered.
"We can't assume that anything about this will be easy," said Blake. "We don't know anything about our opponent. The little Yang told us doesn't have any bearing on what she's like now, so we're going in blind. That being said, the Grimm would potentially be just as much of a threat to her as they are to us."
Weiss nodded. "At least that much evens out."
The door clicked open, and a disheveled-looking Yang stepped inside, a towel draped around her neck.
"You okay, Yang?" asked Ruby.
"If I said I was, I'd be lying," her sister answered.
"We're here for you, if you need us," offered Weiss.
"Thanks, Weiss. All of you, really. I don't know where I'd be without you."
"Alone, probably," Blake mused.
"Guess I would be," Yang smiled as she crossed the dorm to her closet. She fished out her jacket and boots and tossed them on top of her bed. While she had been throttling the workout room's punching bag, it had finally sunk in. Seven years ago, she got lost in the woods. Today, she was going to fight her way out of them. This time, she wasn't alone.