Her parents try to wrap her up in a hug, but they find themselves embracing a shadow instead. "Blake?" her mother says. She runs out into the hall. Blake looks at her for a moment from the doorway to her room. "Blake!" Kali takes a step forward. Blake disappears inside, closing the door with a bang. More like with a Yang, she thinks and immediately feels like throwing up.
Not-Adam is there waiting for her. "Running away again. How very like you, Blake."
Blake almost tears the room apart in her search for Gambol Shroud. "I'm not running," she hisses. "I just need some time to myself."
"Not yet perhaps. But you will."
She finds Gambol Shroud tucked under her mattress. She pulls it out of its sheath, automatically placing the blade against her forearm. It's been years since she had to do this. Adam used to hate seeing her get hurt. Then he hated seeing her express any weakness at all. Try as she might, though, she can't bring herself to press down. She looks at her other hand. It's shaking violently. She closes her eyes, tries to find that center of the storm inside she'd started to feel at Beacon.
"Hey." Blake's eyes fly open. She looks up at Not-Yang. She's reaching out with her one good arm, almost touching Blake. Drip drip drip. "Don't do that."
"Why not?" Blake says. She jerks her arm away. "It's just another way of self-destructing, like all of you seem to want."
"Yang wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." Not-Yang says. She's smiling. It's grotesque. She's grotesque.
"Well Yang's not here, is she?" Blake snaps.
"And whose fault is that?" Not-Adam says from behind her.
Blake whirls around to face him. "It's yours!" she says angrily.
"I'm not the one who forced you to run." He pulls out his sword and rests the tip of it underneath her chin.
"You told me you'd destroy everything I love!"
"And here you are. With your parents." Not-Yang says. She stands next to Not-Adam. Both sets of eyes are glowing red.
Gambol Shroud falls from suddenly-numb hands. "I- No..."
"It's like you said to me. You deserve it. You want him to hurt you."
"That's not- That's not-"
Not-Adam shifts his sword to his other hand and slaps Not-Yang across the face the way he used to do to Blake. Not-Yang falls to the ground. Not-Adam points the sword at her chest. "It's like I said to you. She is the price of your freedom."
She seems to see the muscles in his arm tensing beneath his trenchcoat as he prepares to stab. "YANG!" she screams.
The door opens, or rather it falls open, with her mother on top of it. "Blake!" Ghira is about to reach down and scoop her up, but Kali holds him back.
She moves into the room quietly, kneeling down next to Blake. "Honey?" she whispers. Blake doesn't respond. Kali's knee brushes against Gambol Shroud. She looks at it and puts two and two together. "Oh Blake..." She wraps her arms around her daughter, motioning to her husband to join them, which he does.
"Are you okay?" Ghira asks. "Did you, uh..."
Blake shakes her head. "I couldn't do it." she says tearfully. "I almost did though. I'm sorry."
"We never judged you for it." he says. "We wanted you to stop, sure, but we never thought any lesser of you."
"You should have." she mutters. Her parents frown. They wait for her to explain. She doesn't.
"Blake?" Kali says after a while. She pulls back to look her daughter in the eye. "Who is Yang?"
Blake flinches. "The best thing that ever happened to me." she finds herself saying.
"You said she told you she would destroy everything you loved." Ghira says.
Blake shakes her head. "That was- That was someone else."
"You've had a busy life." Kali tries to joke. No one says anything. She clears her throat. "Blake." she says. "You know we don't want to push you into anything, but we're very worried about you."
"I know." Blake says. "I wish I could tell you." She offers a smile. "It sounds like you heard a lot already."
Ghira looks at Kali. "That was your mother's idea."
She swats his arm. "You would have done the same if you weren't worried about breaking the door."
"It broke anyway!" he laughs.
Kali looks back to Blake. "How about we all get some rest? You can sleep with us in our room if you want."
"I-" Blake's eyes threaten to start weeping all over again. "I'd really appreciate it."