Yang wiped the tears from her face and sniffed as she found a nearby bench to sit down at, followed by a very worried Blake. "Yeah I'm fine," she grinned at her. "It's just been so long since I've seen Ruby."

Blake comfortingly ran her fingers over Yang's knuckles. "They must have stopped by on their way through I mean even if they are traveling by airship most stop in Vale anyway to refuel. Are you nervous to see her again?"

Yang huffed, trying to relieve her tension. "Sort of. I mean the last time I saw her in person we got into a huge fight."

"Over what?"

"It's a long story."

"I love your long stories remember?"

Yang looked into Blake's golden eyes and found them staring back at her earnestly. She really wants to know. She wasn't used to people having a genuine interest in her past but after being with Blake for a little over a week, she knew her girlfriend meant it. "Remember how Saber said that he could never find a job I failed at?" Blake nodded. "Well there was one job that was a failure and the reason he couldn't find it was because the only survivors are me, Ruby, and Weiss."

"What happened?"

"We had taken a job to escort a small caravan of people to the docks so they could get to Atlas. The only thing we were allowed to know was that they had some sort of important and dangerous cargo with them. Weiss and I weren't so sure about the job but once my sister makes a decision it's hard to change her mind."

"Why were you so leary about the job?"

"Something wasn't right with the guy who gave it to us. We had taken jobs like that one before. Escort jobs were we couldn't know what or who we were escorting. But this guy screamed shady. The job was completely off the books, he approached us, but the pay was really good and he spun one hell of a story about how we would be changing the world. Ruby always had more faith in humanity than we deserve."

Blake rested her head on Yang's shoulder but continued to look at her. "So what was so bad about these guys? What did you find out?"

"We were traveling in a long train of vehicles. Ruby sat up front with the guy who gave us the job, Weiss took a middle car, and I rode my motorcycle in the back where the cargo holders were and while I was there I could see the holders moving and heard noises coming from them. When we pulled over to rest I told my sister about it and we argued over whether or not to confront them about the cargo. I believed we were hulling something illegal and we didn't deal in illegal moves but Ruby believed we weren't supposed to know the cargo for a reason and that it wasn't our job to ask questions. In the end we asked Weiss what to do and she suggested we investigate ourselves. If it turned out to be something bad we would confront them and if not then we would simply pretend not to know anything."

"I take it you confronted them?"

Yang shook her head. "We never got the chance to. Turns out these guys were smugglers who landed an interesting customer. The cargo turned out to be Grimm."

Blake snapped her head up from Yang's shoulder. "Grimm?! What the hell were they doing with them? How did they even capture them?"

"Not sure," Yang shrugged. "See the cargo holders were completely closed off and so the only way to see what was in them was to open the door. Problem was they were locked. Lucky for us Weiss happens to specialize in dust and managed to freeze the lock so we could break it without alerting the others but as soon as we opened that door..." She trailed off and stared at her hands.

"The Grimm broke out," Blake finished for her.

"A few Beowolves crashed out of the holder we opened and the chaos that followed only attracted even more of them."

"And you fought them all?"

Yang shrugged. "We were trained Huntresses. Fighting large groups of Grimm at once wasn't necessarily something we were new at. What we were new at was dealing with that many Grimm while also dodging bullets from an incredibly pissed off caravan of smugglers."

"They shot at you!"

"They probably hoped they could finished us off and round the Grimm back up. They all died by either the Grimm or the crossfire and we didn't exactly leave unscathed either. Weiss got gored by a Boarbatusk, she has a nasty scar on her side now. I got this from an Ursa," Yang shouldered off her blazer and lifted the back of her blouse to reveal the long scars that raked her back.

Blake gasped and gently touched the scars. "Gods Yang," her voice was a whisper and it shook like she was on the verge of tears. "This looks like it was bad."

Yang shivered but it wasn't from the cold. Blake's touch was soft and careful but the scars were sensitive and it made her hair stand on end. She slowly lowered her blouse. "It took awhile to heal," she said as she shrugged her blazer back on, "but this is nothing compared to what my sister had to deal with."

"What happened to her?"

"She fought the Beowolves, all four of them, at once and she was winning, until Weiss got hurt. We heard her scream and both broke from our fight to help her but one of the Beowolves smacked her away before she could even get five feet. She landed in front of the Ursa,"

Blake's eyes got wide. "You got hurt saving your sister."

"It was either me or her and it damn sure wasn't going to be her," Yang gritted her teeth. "It was dark, and I could barely see anything but suddenly it got as bright as day and by the time the flash of light had disappeared, the Grimm were gone. I didn't last much longer before I passed out."

"How did you get out of there?"

"There was a small town nearby that heard the commotion and sent some help. I woke up in the hospital a couple days later, my aura had healed me but I was still stiff. Weiss's injury was the least severe so she was already released by the time I woke up."

"And what about your sister?"

Yang leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "When the Beowolf smacked her away it cut clean through her remaining aura and it's claws gouged the left side of her face, taking her left eye with it. She was still unconscious when I was released to see her. Weiss hadn't left her side and it looked like she hadn't slept either but when I told to get some sort of shut eye she just mumbled 'nonsense' and continued to stay awake. Ruby was out for another couple days before finally waking up. I should have been happy, ecstatic even, that she was awake but all I could feel was anger," Yang sighed. "Huntsmen were put up on this pedestal and were always depicted a certain way. Always do good, never leave a job unfinished, save the world, blah, blah, blah. And Ruby always believed those tales, tales I used to tell her, but I sat there, staring at my injured baby sister, knowing that the world didn't work that way, and I decided that I no longer felt the same love for my job that I used to. So I decided to put my job as a Huntress on hold and take a similar job where my skills would still be useful but I wasn't held to that same standard. I could make my own rules and do things my way but when I told Ruby about it..."

"You two fought about it."

Yang nodded. "Everything was a mess then. We were all still recovering and all of us were tired as hell. She couldn't understand why I wanted to give it all up. 'Four years of training and you're just gonna toss it out the window,' she told me. And I was. I did in a way. I had become a Huntress for the adventure but I stayed on a team with my sister to protect her. But when I saw her with that bandage over her face and watched her just smile and say that things could have been worse when the doctor told her she had lost her eye, I knew that I had failed."

"You didn't fail Yang!" Blake shot up from the bench and knelt in front of her. "Injuries like that are a risk of being a Huntress. I'm sure Ruby knew that and I'm sure she didn't expect you to protect her her whole life."

"It was my job," Yang insisted. "Summer told me to watch out for her before she left and our father asked me to keep an eye on her in academy."

"You took an Ursa claw to the back for her."

"And she still lost a part of her," Yang muttered. "Looking back our fight was so stupid. She didn't want me to go but I couldn't force myself to stay. I told her I needed space, some time to think. I could always go back to being a Huntress, I'm still licenced, but that job took so much from me. Ruby's mom died a Huntress, our father was gone often on jobs which left me to care for Ruby, my mother was even a Huntress before she had me and went back to being a bandit, and then it took part of my sister. I just couldn't do it anymore."

"Everyone has a breaking point Yang," Blake's voice was soft and reassuring as she gently rubbed her thumb over Yang's knee. "Even the strongest of us have a limit."

Yang flinched as Blake's hand gently wiped her face. I was crying? She couldn't even feel the tears falling down her face. For eight months she had kept that story to herself and in a matter of minutes Blake had gotten her to spill every last bit of bitterness out of herself. She sniffed and shook her head, clearing her emotions. "Man I sound like I'm talking to a therapist. I should pay you for these sessions."

Blake stood and offered her hand. "I'll let you buy me a drink how's that?"

Yang took her hand and stood before gently pulling Blake's hand to her lips. "I think I can do that."

"I do have a question though," Blake said as they continued on their way.

"Shoot."

"You said a flash of light saved you from the Grimm. Did you ever find out what it was?"

"This power is yours Miss Rose. Only you can decide who you trust enough to tell but be careful. Some may look to exploit your gift for their own gain."

The words of their headmaster immediately popped into her head. It was their second year at Beacon when Ruby discovered that her silver eyes were more than just pretty to look at, that they were a weapon against Grim. While Yang knew Blake certainly wouldn't exploit her sister, Ozpin was right that it was Ruby's choice who to let in on her gift.

"That isn't my story to tell I'm afraid," Yang shrugged. "Though I do hope one day you're able to hear it."

"Fine," Blake sighed playfully, "keep your secrets."

Yang laughed but it was hallow. She has no clue the secrets I'm keeping from her. The knot in Yang's gut tightened as it usually did when she felt guilt. I'm sorry Ghira, she thought as they approached Crosshares and she held the door open for Blake, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this up.

"Well look who finally decided to show up!" The voice that greeted them was bossy and a little pompous. And Yang found that she missed it terribly.

Knowing her partner wouldn't be far behind she looked past the snow white hair of Wiess and into the single, shimmering, silver eye of her sister. "Been awhile hasn't it sis."