"You're improving," Weiss said after Yang successfully blocked her volley of blows.
"You've gotten pretty good yourself," the blonde-haired Huntress complimented back before throwing her own combo the heiress's way, only for those it to be blocked, too. "When did you learn how to scrap?"
Weiss sparred back, jabbing and kicking. "It's been nine years since Beacon, Yang. I had time to learn how to throw a punch. Are you afraid I'm taking your thing?" she taunted as she threw a left hook.
In the blink of an eye, Yang blocked the hook and kicked Weiss's feet out from under her, sending her to the sparring room floor.
"Should I be?" she confidently rebutted to her grounded teammate before offering her hand to help her up.
Weiss smiled and took her hand. Yang yanked her back onto her feet.
"You finally countered the dreaded left hook," the smaller girl congratulated.
"Yeah," the one-eyed brawler rejoiced. "To make up for my blind side, I'm turning my head a little to the right to put my left eye center. Less peripheral, but it widens my right side view a bit. It's working so far."
Weiss raised her fists up again. "Let's just make sure it really works," she said before throwing another volley of punches Yang's way.
The two shot back and forth at each other in a close-quarters dance, exchanging compliments between grunts.
"Any news on the virus?" Yang asked the heiress mid-spar.
"As far as I've heard, no," Weiss answered. "We've devoted nearly all of our attention to tracking it down. But nothing close to what you described has come up." As she finished her report, there was a lull in combat. "Why are you asking me, anyway? Your sister would know better than I would."
Yang's shoulders drooped as she let her guard down. "I've barely even seen her since I came back from…" She trailed off. "She's been in the field ever since."
Weiss let her guard down as well. "Is that a good idea? Don't her prosthetics impair her abilities?"
"You didn't hear? Her new ones showed up. Same material as my arm. Light enough not to slow her down; sturdy enough to not snap under her Semblance. And yes, she got them in red."
Weiss paused in surprise. "Ruby has new boots? How did I not know about this?"
"She was only here with them for maybe two hours," Yang explained. "She got back from a mission, got them attached, and immediately went back out to put them to use."
"Our team has a severe tendency towards obsessive crusades," the heiress pointed out. "Speaking of, how's Blake?"
Yang glared at Weiss before turning towards her sweat towel and water bottle. "That's not funny."
"Yang," Weiss followed, "I'm sorry. That was in poor taste. But seriously, how is it coming with her?"
"Slowly," Yang answered as she sat down against the wall. "At least it feels that way."
Weiss sat down next to her. "I get that. Last time, you didn't know if it would even work; if she would come around. Now that you know she can, you feel like your just waiting for that magic moment to make everything right again, yes?"
"Yeah. That and…" Yang trailed off.
Weiss filled in the blank. "And you want to know if she still-"
"Yes," Yang confirmed before the heiress could even finish.
Weiss paused a moment before placing a hand on her friend's shoulder and smiling. "She will."
Yang smiled back. "Well, I dunno about you," she said as she gathered her things and stood back up, "but I've worked up an appetite. Go clean up and grab a bite to eat?"
Weiss followed suit. "It might be best if we get our food to go."
"Why's that?" the blonde asked as they made their way to the sparring room exit.
"Do you remember that favor you asked me to look into?"
Yang stopped in her tracks. She turned to face the heiress. "Did you-"
Weiss interrupted her. "Get clean, get food, gear up, and I'll tell you on the way."
Adrenaline carried Yang through these tasks with record speed. Before Weiss could even make it to the landing platform, the excited blonde was already finishing loading up and prepping their Bullhead airship.
"You're changing it up, I see," Weiss remarked at Yang's modified attire.
Instead of her solid olive fatigues, she now wore a set in a lighter brown with dark green striping. Unlike before, all of her buttons were fastened; her cleavage put away. Around her neck she wore a scarf that draped over her right shoulder. Her golden hair was pulled back into a ponytail, keeping it out of her face. Over her right eye was a black eye patch with a yellow trim.
"I don't think I've ever seen you show so little skin," the heiress jabbed. "Don't tell me you're maturing on me."
Yang chuckled. "It felt like it was time."
Weiss was silent a moment before saying, "What? You're not going to make any sort of snide remark about my fashion change?"
Weiss was dressed in similar combat fatigues, these in grey with white splotches. On her torso, she wore a vest with several pockets for carrying dust vials. It was the most tactical Weiss had ever looked; a far step from her usual attire.
The only thing that looked more royal on her was the shiny, black leather scabbard that hung from her hip. That was the one piece on her person that exuded elegance over tacticality. In that scabbard, rested Winter's sword.
"You look good," Yang remarked.
The heiress was stunned a moment when Yang didn't take the opportunity to jokingly mock her. "You seem… different, Yang," she said.
"Not in a bad way, I hope," the blonde Huntress responded as she climbed into the Bullhead.
"I hope so, too," Weiss responded before following her teammate into the airship.
Instead of both of them going to the main cabin and wait for their pilot, Weiss moved to the cockpit and sat in the pilot's seat.
"You know how to fly, too?" Yang asked as she slid into the co-pilot's chair.
"Figured it'd be useful," Weiss answered as she started the Bullhead's turbines and performed her pre-flight checklist. "I've been learning for the last few weeks now."
"Huh, I didn't know that," Yang remarked.
"You were out of commission for a while. I'd say you had a good excuse for not keeping up with all of my activities. You know what you're doing in that chair?" she asked her blonde co-pilot.
"Not a clue," Yang jested.
"It's actually a lot easier than you think."
The moment Weiss finished that statement, the Bullhead lurched upward, back down to the landing platform, and the engine killed.
The new pilot was silent as she tightly gripped her flight controls. Yang poorly held back a chuckle.
"Don't you say a word," Weiss snapped.
"Never crossed my mind," Yang lied with her hands raised as Weiss started the Bullhead again.
The flight to Vale seemed to fly by faster than usual. Weiss spent a good portion of it passing along some of the lessons she'd had on flying. Yang was unusually retentive and interested in learning.
As they flew over Vale's countryside, Yang interrupted her flying lesson for a briefing. "So what're we doing, Weiss?"
"We're flying out to a small White Fang training outpost, "the piloting heiress informed. "It specializes in the training of child soldiers."
Yang thought back to that first group of deserters she and Blake had rescued. "Shit… That's a phrase I hope I never get used to hearing."
"Agreed," Weiss continued. "We did get lucky with our timing, though. According to what I found, they're between batches of recruits right now. The last group shipped out to Mistral four days ago and they're not due for a new one for another two weeks. The place should be lower staffed and we won't have to worry about the dilemma of fighting children."
"But you're certain that Kain is here?" Yang asked.
"I'm certain. Kain has been here for three years. He's one of the higher ranking training officers. Officially, the place is run by someone under the moniker 'The Black Bull.' Unofficially, the Bull is apparently unfit for the job and his disgruntled underlings have to pull his weight themselves."
"So they'll be poorly organized, too," Yang inferred. "We really did luck out with this one."
Weiss began to chuckle when a notification on her navigation system turned on. "We're almost there."
As Weiss began making her descent, Yang took her cue to prep all of her gear for infiltration. She didn't bring a silenced rifle or any heavy artillery this time. She was going in light with only Ember Celica.
With her gear ready, the blonde Huntress used the rest of their descent to get in the zone. All of the thoughts and feelings that she'd been keeping under control since The Devil's House, she brought to the surface. All of the anxiety and rage boiled her blood. She began punching her fists together, flaring her Semblance and building her strength.
As her teammate was psyching herself up, Weiss called back to her from the cockpit. "There's a forest on the Eastern side of the compound. I can set us down there and we can sneak in unseen."
"No," Yang refused. "Fly directly over and drop me in the center."
"That will be very visible and very loud," the Atlesian Huntress reminded her angry friend. "The whole place will know we're here before you even touch the ground."
"Good," Yang growled, her golden hair ablaze already. "I want to be seen. I want someone to tell him that I'm alive. I want him to know that I'm not defeated."
Weiss fell silent. Yang's words were spoken with absolute resolve. She was on the warpath. We're really lucky this place is operating so abysmally, Weiss thought as she adjusted her course and opened the Bullhead's bay doors.
"You drop in fifteen seconds!" she called over the wind from the turbines now rushing into the cabin.
Yang stood in the doorway, looking out. She shut her eyes, and breathed. She had amped up her emotions to ready herself for the coming fight. Now, she focused them; channeled them to further her goals. She thought of her mission: to find and extract Kain. She thought of her purpose: not to stop the White Fang; not to save the world; not even to kill Adam.
She was here for Blake.
"Drop!"
Yang's red eye burst open. She leaped from the airship and swan dove towards the compound below.
A small crowd of White Fang soldiers was already forming on the ground beneath her. The ones with guns began firing up at her.
Yang flipped herself around to fall feet first towards the ground. She landed in the center of the hostile crowd. The force of impact supercharged her Semblance. She immediately flared it and released a fiery blast that dropped all of the soldiers around her.
As she stood from her landing position, the crowd around her began to slowly pull themselves to their feet as well. There were five of them. With Yang at close range, they all reached for their swords.
Yang spun to the closest one behind her and, with a rage-fueled roar, delivered a devastating right hook that sent the Faunus tumbling several yards back. Keeping her momentum going she circled back to a soldier rushing her. A swift uppercut threw him to the roof of the nearest building.
Yang continued to make the circle through the group of guards. She blocked the third's attack before sending him directly to the ground with a downward right hook. She caught the charging fourth by his collar and crotch, lifted him over her head, and slammed his skull into the dirt. For the fifth, she spun and delivered a lunge punch to his sternum. The man was launched off of his feet and sent crashing through the building wall behind him.
Five hits put five men unconscious and in need of a doctor for the broken bones. Yang was trying to keep them all alive. She didn't know what Kain looked like, and would hate to accidentally kill him. She was non-lethal for now
In the second's pause after downing her last foe, Yang heard the sound of a magazine being loaded into a rifle on her right several yards away. She spun with her guard up and her Aura ready to take a shot. When she spotted her attacker, she saw his body was already encased in ice.
Having thrown a canister of Ice Dust at the guard, Weiss rushed up to Yang's side, sister's sword in hand. "Blind spot!" she called attention to.
"Cover me!" Yang called back as another four armed guards ran out to join the fight.
Weiss did her job by summoning a flock of elemental crows to swarm the White Fang soldiers. Firing Ember Celica backwards, Yang launched towards the closest one. She used her sudden momentum to perform a somersault in air that ended with her heel coming down on the grunt's skull and sending him into the dirt.
This move put her within melee reach of the next soldier. He swung his sword downwards only for Yang to block it with her gauntlet. From there, she fired Ember Celica to her right, and allowed the recoil to force her into a 360 degree pivot. She followed the spin through into a powerful right hook.
Yang took a fraction of a second to look around. Right in front of her was a White Fang grunt recovering from the summoned murder of crows. Behind him was the last guard being barrelled over by a Boarbatusk summoning from Weiss. To her left was the Faunus that Weiss had encased in ice seconds before.
As the closest guard regained his bearings, Yang turned to the man on ice. She hefted his encased body off of the ground and swung him like a bat into his friend. She sent the standing guard to the ground and, iced Faunus still in hand, advanced to the one who'd been knocked down by the boar. She raised the block of ice over her head, and slammed it head-first into the downed soldier, shattering the ice.
Yang and Weiss regrouped to scan the compound for more attackers. When none showed themselves, they relaxed.
"I'm not normally a supporter of your more brutish combat methods," Weiss commented, "but that was impressive, Yang."
"We've got one still awake," Yang stated when she saw one of the downed guards squirming.
Weiss was put off a moment when Yang ignored her compliment. She could see how anxious she was. She wasn't her normal, free-spirited self. In spite of healing from her last mission, she was no longer the same as she once was.
The golden Huntress stalked over to the conscious soldier. It was the one she'd hit with the ice block. It hadn't knocked him unconscious like the rest. As she neared, she saw he was reporting into his Scroll. She slowed to let him finish. She was serious about what she said. She wanted to be known.
"Blonde hair. Mechanical arm. One eye. Decimated the compound. I think she's here for-"
She stopped him there. She knelt down and grabbed his hand that was holding the Scroll. She wrapped her mechanical fingers around his and squeezed. He shrieked in pain and Yang heard the sounds of his Scroll shattering, as well as several of his fingers.
When he stopped screaming, she asked her question. "Kain. Where is he?"
The Faunus grunt panted several times to catch his breath before looking Yang in the eyes and spitting into her face.
Yang was frozen as she registered the man's retaliation, not even wiping the saliva away. Then she squeezed tighter. He screamed again. More bones snapped.
When his screaming died down, she used her other hand to lightly slap his cheek. "Focus. Right here, on me." She waited for him to refocus. "I just broke all of the bones in your hand," she growled. "Now are you going to tell me what I want to know? Or am I going to have to move down to your arm?"
Weiss was over Yang's shoulder, watching this interrogation go down. It was safe to say that she was worried about her teammate and her methods.
The man was silent a moment. His expression turned spiteful and he spit in the Huntress's face again.
This time, Yang was quick. She moved her hand to the thug's forearm and squeezed. His radius and ulna both snapped. He shrieked again, his voice beginning to go hoarse.
"Yang…" Weiss softly spoke up.
Yang couldn't hear her. "Ready to cooperate?!" she shouted at the wounded man. "Or should I move to the other arm?!"
He was getting delirious from the pain. Shock was taking over. He was having trouble forming complete thoughts.
Unsatisfied with his stuttering, the enraged Huntress snatched up his other hand. As she wrapped her metal fingers around it, his synapses started to fire again.
"Wait! Wait! Please!" he pleaded.
Yang stopped her manhandling. "Kain," she demanded again.
The Faunus's voice was a scratchy whisper by now. "He-he's in the command center. T-top floor... Adam... he's going to… hunt you down for this."
"And I'll be waiting for him," Yang promised as she raised her metal fist.
Weiss watched on as Yang put her knuckles through the man's skull. She stood in shock at the brutality as the one-eyed Huntress pried her hand loose and shook the blood off of it.
"We know where Kain is," the determined Huntress stated as she wiped the spit from her face. "Come on." She stormed off towards the command center, the tallest structure in the compound.
Weiss stayed behind to take in the carnage she helped deal out a moment longer. No, I was just keeping my friend alive, she rationalized to herself. I did the right thing… He was a killer. They were all killers. Killers who create more killers from children… I did the right thing.
Wait… The Heiress looked over the downed Faunus again. Boar, mouse, cat, monkey, lizard, rabbit… She looked over all ten of them. None of these are bull Faunus.
She spun on her heels and ran off after Yang.
By the time she caught up with her, Yang was already at the door to the top floor.
"Yang!" Weiss called in a hushed tone as she met up with her teammate.
"I covered the bottom floor just in case," Yang reported. "He was telling the truth. Kain's got to be here."
"I think Kain is the Black Bull," Weiss spat out, "the one in charge here."
"Yeah," the blonde said back. "But you said the Bull is incompetent right?"
"That's not what I'm worried about. I think I know why Kain is important to Blake."
Weiss could see the exact moment when Yang's mind put the pieces together. The click, the consideration, the doubt, the worry, the anger, and the need for confirmation.
Yang turned back to the door and kicked it open. The force behind her boot was enough to rip the door clean off of its hinges. As the door clattered to the floor, the two Huntresses entered the room; one with caution, the other with heated purpose.
Sitting on the other side of the room, in a lavish chair far too big for him, was a boy. A boy dressed in a small, black coat with red accents. A boy with two bull's horns sprouting out from loose hair that was black as night. A boy with narrow, burning amber eyes, glaring at the sudden intruders.
Yang stood silent and still, digesting the circumstances. Kain hopped out of his throne and stood opposite of her, not saying a word. Weiss was to Yang's side, bathing in the tension.
With the Faunus boy standing, Weiss could better gage his age. He looked to be about seven or eight. She did the math and came out with a disturbing chronological outcome.
A full minute went by without an uttered word. Yang and Kain remained still, glaring at each other while Weiss waited to see who would make the first move.
It was Yang.
The golden Huntress suddenly advanced on the boy. She thrust her metal hand out and grabbed the boy by the arm. He reacted by trying to fight her off, throwing punches and kicks with a surprising amount of skill for his age. But he had neither the strength nor reach to make the Huntress let go.
With her free hand, Yang reached to a pocket on her belt and drew an injector identical to the one she was forced to use on Blake at the Devil's House. She jabbed the needle into the boy's bicep and pressed the plunger.
The boy reacted viscerally to the needle, but over the next few seconds, rapidly slowed down and went limp.
Yang caught him before he could hit the floor and lifted him into her arms.
"He's sedated," she reported, her one eye finally reverting back to lilac. She stepped past Weiss and through the door. "We're done here."
There was no celebration after the Huntresses extracted Kain. There was no cheer when his sedated body was strapped into a seat. There was no sigh of relief when the Bullhead lifted off the ground and turned homeward bound. To Yang, this was all only a means to an end.
To Weiss… she wasn't sure. She was still shaken up from the methods used to get the Faunus boy into their airship. No matter how much she tried to rationalize it, she still felt uneasy.
"Yang…" she finally spoke up. "That didn't feel right."
"What do you mean?" the one-eyed blonde asked as she moved into the cockpit. She sat down in the copilot's seat to hear her teammate out. "We did what we came to do, didn't we?"
"Yeah. But… we tortured that man."
"It was effective," Yang rationalized. "It got us what we wanted."
"And then we killed him. That just felt… harsh… ruthless… and unwarranted. It felt wrong."
The look on Yang's face was one of disbelief. "Weiss, are you serious right now? After everything they've done, you're feeling sorry for them?"
"I didn't say-"
"You know better than any of us the evils they're capable of. They don't deserve our sympathy."
"I know. But-"
"Weiss, do yourself a favor and don't think about it too much. The things we do, they're not pretty. But somebody's got to do them. We have the ability, so it might as well be us."
"I- I guess you're right," Weiss said, trying to assure herself mostly.
She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. "If it helps, I'm the one who did it. I made the choice and acted alone. You were just there to keep me alive. You didn't do anything wrong. Your conscience is clear."
"Thanks, Yang," Weiss said. It was more of a common courtesy. In truth, the remorse and self-doubt didn't go away. Yang's rationale made sense, but the dirty feeling wasn't leaving. She figured this was a wound that only time could heal.
"The sedative will last another three hours," Yang noted as she began to doze off. "Wake me in two and a half."
And so Weiss was left to fly the airship in silence, accompanied only by her unwavering thoughts of morality.
Sleep came unusually easy to Yang. Ever since the Devil's House, she was averaging on four hours a night. Her thoughts had been cruel and unrelenting ever since that failed mission. Rest comes hard when your mind won't stop.
Truth be told, the only reason she was able to get to sleep at all now was because her body was exhausted. With her sleep schedule getting more and more uneven, using her Semblance the way she did today burned her out faster than normal. She needed this rest.
And rest she did. Sleep overcame her quickly this time.
But this did not prevent her mind from wandering. Dreams came to her. They were pleasant at first.
She dreamed of life before the war. She saw herself training with her sister on Patch. She was fighting alongside Weiss in the Vytal Tournament. She was dancing with Blake at the school dance.
The location changed and so did they. They were twenty years older now. They were in a cabin on Patch. Still, they danced.
She dreamed of after the war, once the fighting had stopped.
Weiss was there, pulling a freshly baked cake from the oven. She wore the formal attire of a CEO from Atlas, but in a relaxed fashion with her heels removed and sleeves rolled up.
Ruby and Jaune were there, too, older and noticeably close together. Ruby's cloak was white like her mother's and Jaune's hair was beginning to silver with age. Two smaller, child versions of them ran up and leapt into their laps.
And Yang and Blake danced. They danced just as they had twenty years before. They danced like that was all that mattered. They danced like two people who were happy. Behind them, their weapons decorated the fireplace mantle, covered in a layer of dust. It was a good life.
A gunshot.
The room was bathed in a red glow.
A Nevermore's cry.
Jaune shouted in agony. Ruby collapsed in tears. Their children were gone.
A scream.
The cake fell to the floor and disintegrated. Weiss's fine clothes were in tatters. She was dirty and frail and curled up in the corner with a look of sheer horror plastered on her face.
A soft laugh.
Yang spun back to Blake. She was held in the arms of Adam.
The paint peeled off the walls and flames rose up around them. Wailing and screaming filled the room.
They were in the Devil's House.
Yang raised her fists to fight. She was seventeen again. She wore her clothes from nine years ago. She had both arms and both eyes.
A blade's swipe.
She watched as her severed arm fell from her body. Her vision went red as her eye bled profusely. She wore a hospital gown.
She looked helplessly into the lifeless mask of Adam as he raised his blade to Blake's throat.
Blake did not resist. The blade was in her hands now, placed against her own throat.
"She's mine again."
Yang's eyes burst open.
She took a moment to regain her bearings. She was back in the airship's copilot's chair. She looked down to her hands. Her limited periphery proved her missing eye, and she still had a replacement hand.
It was a dream; a bad dream. She was centered again and sat up in her seat.
"You were really tired, weren't you?" Weiss inferred.
Yang was about to answer when she saw New Beacon on the horizon through the cockpit canopy. She quickly spun her head around to their captive to see his amber eyes open and glaring back at her.
"I told you to wake me before he was up," Yang scolded the heiress.
"I tried," she responded. "You didn't so much as budge. So I let you get another hour in until we got back to base. Now that you're up, though, we'll be landed in a few minutes."
"Okay," Yang said after a brief delay. She was still shaking the sleep from her eyes and the dream from her mind.
Weiss took a moment before noting, "You started getting restless right before you woke up. Bad dreams?"
"...Yeah," Yang responded.
"Do you get them often?"
"Yeah."
"You know, Ren might be able to help you with-"
"I'm fine," Yang interrupted. "I'm fine."
Weiss took a concerned glance at her friend. She seemed better this morning. "Just make sure to take care of yourself, Yang."
"Yeah. I will. Thanks, Weiss."
Weiss offered a supportive smile before taking a deep breath. "Now if you'll excuse me. I need to focus. I did pass the landing part of my flying exam, but I'm still not a master at it yet."
"Just get us down in one piece," Yang jested. "I don't want to have done all this just to die in a-"
"Shh! I said I need to focus!" the heiress snapped as she began to lower the Bullhead to the landing platform.
As was customary, there was a crew of armed Huntsmen there to meet them on the landing pad. Weiss reported her imminent arrival and of the captive they were bringing in. Kain was described as a White Fang captive rather than a refugee, so Team CFVY was brought in for the escort. They were more combat adept than the younger recruits that were normally posted as base guards, but they weren't as aggressive and trigger-happy as Team CRDL.
Weiss exited the airship first, hand on her sword just in case. Team CFVY took the cue and readied themselves to draw their weapons at a moment's notice.
Yang was cautious when undoing Kain's restraints. She'd shown up at his door, leveled his soldiers, forcefully sedated him, and flown him out into the middle of the ocean. And he hadn't uttered so much as a syllable. She had no idea what he was going to do.
She had Ember Celica expanded as she unlatched the harness that held him into his seat. He still wore his cold glare through the whole process. She quickly moved out of his reach and waited for him to move.
The boy scowled up at Yang and rose from his seat. The two locked eyes, both waiting for the other to make a move.
Kain finally made his. He turned from Yang and stepped out of the airship. He looked around, making eye contact with each and every Huntsman on the platform.
Yang stepped out of the airship behind him and placed a metal hand on his shoulder. He sneered and shook free from her grip. The surrounding Huntsmen all took a step closer.
When the Faunus didn't escalate, Yang calmed CVFY. "Easy, everyone. We're okay."
They kept their weapons stowed, but were more uneasy about the young boy's demeanor. For a child under ten, he held himself with power and authority.
"We need to bring you to the medical center," Coco informed. "You all need to be checked for any traces of biothreats you might've picked up. New protocol."
Yang nodded in understanding and looked to Weiss. "Care to lead the way?" she asked.
Weiss nodded and gestured to the boy. "This way," she said as she turned toward the base's medical center. The boy cooperatively followed. Yang remained in arm's reach of him the whole way. Team CVFY tagged along several feet behind, not letting their guard down for a second.
As the group made their way to medical, Yang called out to Weiss, "Hey, let's go around through the north entrance."
"Why?" the heiress asked, looking back. "That's on the other side…" She trailed off when she saw the look Yang was giving her. She looked down to the black-haired, amber-eyed boy again. She ran through the medical building's layout in her head and understood. "Okay."
The escort went around the building and entered through the north entrance. That corridor was lined with quarantine cells on either side. Only a few were filled. They housed White Fang officers that were recently taken prisoner for interrogation. They started showing up after Yang was injured and Ruby took her place in the field. Most of them were recovering from nasty scythe wounds as well.
Once Weiss came into their view, leading the pack, they all began shouting insults and threats at the Schnee. But when they saw Kain behind her, they all turned quiet and pale.
Then the group reached the last cell, separated from the others. Inside, Blake was sat on her cot, suffering from a serious migraine. Her memory had gotten fuzzy. Twinkles of her old life were slipping through the haze of her fictional one. The hypnosis was beginning to wear off.
Weiss slowed to a halt in front of Blake's cell, watching with concern at her teammate's confused agony. Yang and Kain stopped behind her.
This was the moment Yang was waiting for since she'd given Weiss a name and asked her to find its owner. She had no idea what might happen, but she kept her hopes up.
Yang knocked on the plexiglass door panel. "Blake?"
The cat Faunus jerked her attention to Yang. She felt a calming feeling of comfort come over her. She saw Weiss and the calming ease was replaced with the White Fang resentment toward the Schnee name. Then she saw the boy.
She was stunned. Her eyes were wide as saucers. Her cat ears stood up straight. She forgot to breathe.
"Kain?" she muttered in shock.
"Hello, Mother," he finally spoke.
There was a moment of stunned silence. Blake suddenly doubled over and clutched her temples. She began to scream in pain.
Yang acted in an instant. She slammed the control to open the cell's door and rushed to her partner's side. She heard Coco shout to try and stop her, but she wasn't worried. She'd seen this once before already. In spite of Blake cries of pain, Yang's eyes teared up and she felt a smile spread across her face. The illusion was broken again. Adam's shroud of control was lifted.
Blake was herself again.
The migraine began to die down and Blake looked to the blonde Huntress whose arms she was held in. She placed a hand lightly on her right cheek and traced her thumb along the edge of her eyepatch. Tears began to fill her eyes, too. "I'm so sorry, Yang."
This time, it was Blake who closed the gap. She leaned forward and gently pressed her lips to Yang's.
Every atom in Yang's body screamed in pure joy. She remembered her father telling her as a child that you can't always get what you want. But today, she could. And she did.
The kiss went on. Neither wanted to be the one to pull away. In that moment, the world around them did not exist. There was only Blake and only Yang.
They left the rest of the prisoner escort to stand idly by and wait. Team CVFY was caught up in a range of emotions varying from confusion over Kain's revelation to joy for Blake and Yang working out again.
Weiss was caught up in her own hurricane of thoughts as well. Hers were the same joy for the couple, but also conflict and concern. Her moral questioning of the means by which Yang arrived here returned, even more confused now with the happy ending that came from and seemed to justify those means. She also worried for the future of the couple as she watched the young, horned boy at her side: Blake and Adam's son.
Kain was unreadable. His expression was unchanged since his capture. He still wore that glare; those amber, Belladonna eyes locked on his captor and his mother.
A/N: I've been thinking about this chapter for a while. And it expanded a LOT. I decided to do some different stuff than I normally do. Never written a dream before, for instance. That was an impulse that just felt right.
And I did choose to go with the happier ending to the chapter than I had initially planned. I've been putting Yang through the ringer and I felt I should give her something positive.
As always, feedback welcome.