a/n: Welp, this took longer than it needed to. Welp! Here's what Yang was getting up to after she was stabbed! As a reminder: There's a TV Tropes page!

Chapter 12: Crash and Burn

"Her Aura levels are rising!"

"Make sure to remove the saber slowly, so her Aura has time to repair any internal damage."

"Ugh…" Yang could just barely make out a blurry light overhead, even as the distant voices grow closer, a horrible aching in her abdomen.

"Pull on three."

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

Yang screamed as she felt the cold, Dust-infused steel scrape against her body, her eyes turning red and her hair bursting into flames as she threw a punch at whoever's hands were on the blade.

"Shit! She's awake!"

"Where's the sedative?"

"Hold her still! Hold her still!"

"My Aura's not unlocked!

Yang's panic did not abate as she felt several hands all over her body, her arms, her midsection, her legs, and shoulders, yanking her back down as she tried to throw her captors off.

"Found it!"

Someone, she couldn't make out who, clamped a cloth over her mouth, and Yang felt her strength leave her.

"Her Semblance seems to have deactivated!"

Everything got blurry as she tried to remember why she was struggling.

"Sweet dreams…"

And everything went dark.


"You said you wouldn't hurt them!" were the first words Yang heard when she next woke up.

"Accidents happen on the field."

Yang's eyes shot open and she immediately sat up, immediately regretting it as she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. When she opened her eyes, she saw her father and Winter standing in the doorway, and it became clear that she had been resting on the couch.

"Accidents?" Taiyang incredulously remarked, "So you just 'accidentally' maim little girls all the time over in Atlas?"

"That is enough!" Winter shouted, "You should consider yourself lucky that I was willing to negotiate in the first place when you were conspiring with an enemy of the Kingdoms!"

"You attacked a kid and stabbed a student!" Taiyang shouted, "If you think I'm just going to let that slide-"

"Do you honestly think that anyone would believe your science fiction horror story?" Winter asked, "As far as the public is concerned, Miss Xiao Long and Miss Rose were both abducted by a dangerous fugitive, and I saved their lives." She turned away from Taiyang. "I did not intend to endanger either girl's life, so I suggest you forget that this ever happened and tend to their injuries. Good night, Mr. Xiao Long. Let your older daughter know that I wish her a speedy recovery." She walked out, the front door closing behind her. Taiyang sighed.

"You're the one who told her?!" Yang shouted, before wincing and hugging her abdomen.

"You're awake!" Ruby's voice called out. And Yang suddenly found herself shoved into the back of the couch as two arms wrapped around her and pulled her into a hug

"Ruby! Now's not the-" her words died in her throat when she caught a glimpse of Ruby's face, and the diagonal scar that started under her right eye and ended above her left. "... Ruby… Your face…"

"It's just a scratch, I'll be fine," Ruby insisted, "But what happened to you? I could hear you screaming when I woke up!"

"Winter stabbed me after she knocked you out," Yang answered, "And… Wait, did Bumblebee get away?"

"It was either him or you two," Taiyang stated, "And Ruby, we're going to have a talk about what you did." Yang scoffed.

"Like you have room to talk after you betrayed us!" she snapped.

"I was trying to protect you!"

"Well, you did a great job of that!" Yang replied, "Ruby's got a permanent reminder of what you did between her eyes and I got stabbed by some Atlesian bully who was way too eager to beat the shit out of Ru-Ow!" Yang's hand flew back to her bandaged wound.

"Yang, please," Taiyang interrupted as he walked over to the couch and knelt down next to her, "Your Aura… It's not done healing you yet. Your skin is mostly healed, but there's still some internal damage, both from the stab wound and from removing the sword."

"And who do we have to thank for that again?" Yang asked.

"Yang… I-"

"Or do you have a plan to save Bumblebee?" Yang asked, "Because, you know, he's kind of the only thing standing between us and an alien armada that sees us as pests to exterminate at best!"

"Yang… Ozpin's dealt with threats that keep me up at night, he can handle whatever the Decepticons throw at us," Taiyang insisted while refusing to meet Yang's gaze, "Besides Bumblebee's pretty tough, he wouldn't have survived two million years of war if he wasn't. I'm sure he'll figure something out. Besides…" His expression darkened. "We probably got too involved as is. Maybe it would be best if we just forgot these last couple of days ever happened." Yang's eyes turned red as she pushed herself up from the couch.

"What kind of Huntsman are you?" she growled.

"Yang?" Ruby questioned.

"Isn't it your job to look out for the people that need you?" Yang asked, ignoring Ruby.

"And as it stands, you and Ruby still need me," Taiyang replied as he stood up, "Ergo, it's my duty to look out for you two!"

"Dad, I'm going to graduate from Signal this Fall, and then I'll be off to Beacon in the Spring!" Yang shouted, "Do you intend to follow me to Beacon and coddle me until graduation?"

"You're not a Beacon student yet!" Taiyang shot back, "Until that day comes, you're my responsibility, and I need to do what's best for you!"

"So sending Ironwood's personal attack dog to stab me in the gut is what's best for me?" Yang asked, "Betraying the guy who saved my life twice is what's best for me? Selling me and Bumblebee out to the creature that tried to rip my fucking arm off is what's best for me?"

"It wasn't your fight, Yang!" Taiyang shouted, "We never should've gotten involved! Right now, we have to focus on getting the Grimm back under control, and you ready for when Signal reopens next week! This is way above your league and Bumblebee isn't your responsibility!"

"So what, I should just abandon him? Like Mom abandoned us!" Yang shouted as her hair burst into flames. The fire died down when she noticed her father wince. "Dad… I…"

"Just…" he sighed, "Go to your room and try to get some sleep…" He turned away from her. "It's been a tiring day all around…"


Yang laid awake in her bed, staring wordlessly at the ceiling. She hadn't even changed for bed. Ruby had dropped by to place Ember Celica on her nightstand ("Winter apparently thought that confiscating our weapons would hurt her cover story."). The curtains on her window were still closed, but even then every time she closed her eyes she could see his demonic glare. And the more she tried not to think about that, the more she thought about how Bumblebee had swooped in to save her and Ruby from that unusually lively Ursa Major, followed by how he had acted when she had an (embarrassing in hindsight) emotional episode right in front of him, followed by remembering how Shatter had apparently tortured him in the past if her statement at their first meeting meant anything.

"... Oh screw it," she stated as she sat up. She hopped out of bed, hissed and hugged her midsection, and walked over to her nightstand to pick up her Shot Gauntlets, checking the chambers. "So she emptied the ammunition." She put on Ember Celica and switched both gauntlets to bracelet mode. "That won't take long to fix."


Yang walked out of her house, ignoring the ax embedded in the front door, and made her way for the woods, a pack on her back, and the shattered moon illuminating the sky.

"Don't you think you're forgetting something?" a high voice asked. Yang whirled around to see her sister standing in front of the closing door, already dressed in her cape and combat outfit.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?" she asked the silver eyed girl.

"Couldn't sleep," Ruby answered as she walked away from the house, "Were you planning on sneaking out?"

"No…" Yang answered, "I was in the middle of sneaking out. If I was still in the planning stage, you wouldn't know."

"And where were you heading?" Ruby asked.

"Nowhere important," Yang answered as she turned away, "Just go back to bed, I have an errand I have to run."

"Okay, I'll go wake up Dad and see what he thi-" a yellow blur dashed over to Ruby and clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Don't. You. Dare," Yang warned.

Ruby smirked, and licked her sister's hand.

"Ew!" Yang exclaimed as she tore her hand away from Ruby's mouth and wiped it off on her shorts, "What the heck?"

"What are you really doing?" Ruby asked, "You packed up a back-pack, left a note in your bed, and took some ammo from the safe room! This isn't just an errand!" Yang sighed.

"I'm gonna try and break out Bumblebee," she replied, "There's only one military base on Patch, and finding it shouldn't be that much of a problem. So, I just need to go in, knock around some heads, bust out Bumblebee, and then we can make a mad dash for the Ark."

"So… You're planning to take on Winter's entire division on your own, in addition to Winter herself, her frost-sculpture minions, and Shatter and Dropkick completely on your own?" Ruby questioned.

"... I'd have Bumblebee's help as soon as I bust him out," Yang replied.

"If you make it that far!" Ruby replied, "Remember, even when we were exploiting Winter's tunnel vision, she still ended up beating both of us! If you're gonna bust out Bumblebee, you can't do it alone!"

"Look, Professor Goodwitch is held up in Forever Fall, Ozpin's busy doing headmaster things, Uncle Qrow's off on a mission doing who knows what, and Dad's made it pretty clear that he's not gonna help Bee anymore," Yang listed off, "So, what are you suggesting?"

Ruby switched Crescent Rose into sniper rifle mode and struck a pose with a smirk.

"I'm saying you're going to need cover fire," she stated.

"... Absolutely not," Yang replied.

"If you don't let me come I'll go wake Dad up and tell him everything!" Ruby threatened. Yang sighed.

"Did you grab your back-up ammo before coming out here?" she asked. A panicked look crossed Ruby's face, and the silver-eyed girl checked her pouches and pockets, before letting out a sigh of relief.

"I didn't forget anything this time!" she announced with a grin.


"I knew that girl was trouble," an Atlesian soldier said as she patrolled the perimeter of the airfield.

"I know Rose," her partner replied.

"Seriously Gil, if Specialist Schnee had just let us take that Valean ruffian into custody, we could've avoided that whole embarrassment with the Vale Council," Rose continued.

"I know, Rose," Private Gil sighed.

"And then she let the whole family off with a slap on the wrist!" Rose continued, "I'm telling you, if I was in charge, I'd have sent the lot of them to the Schnee Dust Mines where the SDC can work them to death alongside those stupid animals!"

"As amazingly cathartic as that mental image is," Gil started, "Unless one of those dumb foreigners works up the nerve to attack us, we're not gonna get the chance to do that without risking a war with Vale."

"... Oh like these 'people' could ever stand a chance against the might of Atlas," Rose scoffed.

"Intruder! Iden-"

BOOM!

"Time to put your Lien where your lips are," Gil remarked as he ran towards the sound of the explosion.

"... Never say that again," Rose stated as she followed after him.

.

"I never realized how big Patch was until now," Yang remarked dryly as she and Ruby approached the airfield through the treeline.

"Looks like they replaced the fence with multiple Hard-Light generators," Ruby noted, realizing that there was nothing but empty air between the "fence posts" surrounding the perimeter.

"So… We can waltz right in?" Yang commented as she dashed between two of the Hard-Light generators.

"Exa- Wait! No, we canno-"

"Intruder!"

Ka-click!

"Identify your-"

BOOM!

Ruby facepalmed as the hard-light barriers went up, separating her and Yang.

"... There goes subtlety," she groaned.

.

Yang watched as the now headless robot crumpled to the ground, the remaining six Atlesian Knights raising their guns. She raised Ember Celica and threw two punches, one to her right, and a second to her left, before launching herself at the right most robot. One punch took off the head, while one kick knocked it into its neighbor, allowing her to whirl around and face the two robots that were still shooting her.

BOOM!

BOOM!

With that matter taken care of, she was almost immediately surrounded by a dozen or so soldiers.

"Sit still, and we might reconsider filling you with holes!" one of them said as she pointed her gun at Yang.

"... Are you sure you aren't the Mistrali Cartel?" Yang replied. The soldier in question shrieked in rage as she pulled the trigger, prompting the lot of them to open fire.

Crack!

The soldier behind Yang cried out as a chunk of ice grew out of the back of his helmet, the impact from the Ice round causing him to topple forwards.

"SNIPER!" one of the soldiers shouted, and they all aimed their guns at the trees, prompting Ruby to drop behind the Hard-Light barrier as bullets whizzed through the leaves she had been hiding in.

"You idiots! Focus on the intru-"

POW!

Yang punched her out while she was distracted.

"Rose!"

Crack!

A lightning round fried his gun, allowing Yang to kick his legs out from under him and elbow him in the midriff.

"Dammit! She keeps dropping behind the barrier!" one of the soldiers shouted as Ruby dropped from the tree-branches again.

"Wait, who's watching the intru-"

Ka-click!

"Ah shi-"

BOOM!

The soldiers were clumped close enough together to get blasted into the barrier by a single explosive round.

"Is that all you got?" Yang taunted.

"There she is!" a soldier shouted as another dozen soldiers and another dozen drones charged right towards her.

"Apparently not!" Yang observed as she threw her arms out behind her.

BOOM!

Yang rocketed towards the next wave, winding up a punch as her eyes turned red and her hair burst into flame.

POW!

A golden fireball tore right through the group, before skidding to a halt behind them, Yang glaring at the still standing soldiers as the broken pieces of a couple of Atlesian Knights rolled to a halt around her, before wincing and covering her injury.

"End of the line, Valean bi-"

CRACK!

An ice round struck the side of the soldier's gun, frosting it over.

"What the-"

CRACK!

The soldier was knocked to the ground by a chunk of ice.

"Dammit! Would somebody take care of that sniper!"

BOOM!

Yang rocketed towards that soldier and punched him in the face, elbowed a neighboring soldier in the gut, kicked the legs out from under an Atlesian Knight, and got pistol-whipped by another Atlesian Soldier.

"We should've broken your legs before sending you home," she growled as she pointed her gun at Yang's head, "This is for getting me in trouble with the Specialist!"

BANG!

Yang's Aura absorbed the shock from the bullet, keeping her head from exploding.

"You done?" Yang snarled as her eyes turned red and fire ran down her hair.

"Uh…"

BOOM!

Yang's punch sent the soldier flying straight into the hard-light barrier as another pulled a knife and charged her. Yang simply bent down and tossed him over her shoulder using his own momentum, knocking him into one of his companions, before rocketing towards and bowling over two Atlesian Knights, before turning to face the rest of the soldiers who were pointing their guns at her.

"OH TO HELL WITH THIS!" the soldier who tried to blast Yang's head open shouted as she pulled out her Scroll and tapped the screen several times, "We brought the Spider Droid for a reason!"

"Rose! What the hell?" the soldier who'd tried to stab Yang shouted as the sound of mechanical whirring grew louder. Yang hazarded a glance over her shoulder, and saw a black mech with red circuits walk out from behind the hangar. It had four legs, two arms that ended in massive cannons, and two more cannons mounted on its shoulders. The blond brawler whirled around to fire two shots at the robotic behemoth.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Before the smoke cleared, two white beams shot out at Yang.

"Eep!" Yang jumped back as the smoke cleared to reveal that the Spider Droid wasn't even dented. The first blast missed, but the second didn't, knocking Yang onto her back and aggravating her wound. Yang bit down her pain and launched herself at the mech, delivering a flurry of punches that concluded with an explosion that launched her away. One of the mech's gun-arms swatted her to the ground. Yang tried to push herself up, only for one of the mechanical legs to kick her into one of the hard-light generators. The Atlesian Soldiers pointed their guns at the girl from Patch as she struggled to her feet.

"OPEN FIRE!"

Yang's eyes were wide open as she threw her arms out behind her.

BOOM!

The explosion tilted the generator, causing the hard-light barrier to flicker as Yang rocketed forwards, the Atlesian Soldiers riddling their own perimeter barrier generator with bullets.

"CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!" the soldiers stopped firing, smoke rising from the severely damaged hard-light generator as the field flickered far more rapidly. If the Spider Droid could understand that command, it couldn't, as it had already combined all four cannons and begun charging the laser attack.

"SHIT!" Yang crossed her arms in front of herself as the weapon fired, before she was engulfed by the beam. "AAAAAUGH!"

The beam tore right through the hard-light generator, blowing it apart as it tore through the earth beneath it, toppling several nearby trees and bringing down the entire perimeter barrier. Only then did the Spider Droid cease fire and separate its four cannons.

"YANG!" Ruby screamed as she dropped from the treetops to dash at the smoking crater the blast created.

"You'll be reunited with her in the pits of Hell soon enough!" Rose shouted as she pointed her gun at the other girl.

FWOOM!

A pillar of golden flames dispelled the smoke.

"What the-"

Ka-click!

BOOM!

A golden fireball shot out of the crater and tore through the Spider Droid's chassis, piercing its torso before skidding to a halt on the opposite side.

BOOM!

The Spider Droid erupted into fire and shrapnel, destroying the remaining Atlesian Knights and sending the soldiers flying.

.

Yang panted as she dropped to her knees, broken robot pieces raining from the sky around her, her stab-wound burning from the strenuous battle. She risked a glance at her Scroll, and noticed that her Aura had been reduced to a thin, red sliver on the display.

"You know, I wonder if you still have enough Aura to survive a headshot," a woman's voice said. Yang shut off her Scroll and glanced over her shoulder to see the same woman who had called the Spider Droid approaching and reloading her gun.

"Wanna risk it?" Yang asked with a smirk she hoped didn't look too forced. At that, the woman sprouted a predatory grin.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then," she taunted as she pointed her gun at Yang's face and put her finger on the trigger, "Goodbye!" Yang closed her eyes.

BANG!

Clink!

Yang opened her eyes.

"I won't let you hurt her," Ruby growled after deflecting the bullet.

"... Okay, I'll just kill both of you then," the soldier decided as more soldiers surrounded them.

BOOM!

The shutter door to the hanger was torn off its hinges by an explosive blast, grabbing the attention of the gathered soldiers.

Ruby helped her sister up, and both of their eyes widened as Shatter stepped out of the hangar. Without a word, Ruby activated Petal Burst and dashed to the wall of the hangar, pressing herself and Yang against it so Shatter wouldn't be able to see them.

.

"Hey, what the hell are you-"

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you," Shatter replied, "Send Mortilus my regards."

Yang covered Ruby's mouth and her own, resisting the urge to scream as the soldiers' bodies were torn apart by the Energon blasts. Soon the smell of burning flesh filled the air as the airfield was riddled with charred bones and half-melted corpses.

Neither had time to process the massacre they had just witnessed before hearing another set of mechanical footsteps.

"You didn't leave any for me?" Dropkick whined as Yang froze.

"You need to save your ammo for the Autobots," Shatter replied as Ruby took her sister's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

They got the Ark's coordinates, Yang realized, They know where the Ark is. There's going to be a whole army of Dropkicks rampaging across Remnant, and there's nothing I can do about it!

CLANG!

Yang's hyperventilating stopped as she heard a familiar voice hiss in pain.

"Ah, B-127, I almost forgot about you!" Shatter commented.

"I didn't," Dropkick replied.

BOOM!

Ruby clamped her hand down over Yang's mouth, muffling her sister's voice as they both heard a short cry of pain, followed by a machine shutting down.

"Let's see Ratchet patch that up!" Dropkick laughed.

"A fitting end for the traitor who got us into this mess," Shatter chuckled, "Come on now! Let's decapitate the Autobot Resistance once and for all!"

The two sisters remained still as they both heard the now-familiar sound of transformation, followed by two airships taking flight. A red Atlesian Dropship and a blue Bullhead took flight, and Yang tore her sister's hand off of her mouth and ran around the corner and into the hangar itself, her heart stopping as her eyes fell on the mangled scrapheap in the middle of the room.


The pile of debris that used to be Winter's office shifted as frosty Beowolves dug through the rubble. Eventually, one of them was able to pull Specialist Winter Schnee out of the mess.

"That could have gone better," She groaned as she pushed herself to her feet and dismissed the Beowolves, "If I chase them in the airship, I should have time to…" her voice trailed off.

The Autobot was laying on the ground, covered in a pink liquid, smoke rising from the burn mark on his chest, his once-glowing eyes now dimmed and staring off into nothing.

Winter was pulled back into reality by the sound of an anguished scream, and glanced over to see Yang Xiao Long fall to her knees and start crying.

How did she- Rather than dwell on that thought, Winter jumped down from the ruins of her office, using her Glyphs as stepping stones to slow her descent, before dashing out of the hangar, trying to ignore the glare from the scarred face of the silver eyed girl.

"Men, we need to-" her orders died in her throat as her eyes fell on burned and molten remains of her soldiers. "I… My airship, I can still catch up to them!" She dashed away from the carnage.

.

"Yang…" Ruby started as Winter's airship took flight, "We need to warn Ozpin."

"What can he do?" Yang asked, "We don't even know where the Decepticons are going!"

"We need to do something!" Ruby argued, "We're not helping anyone by just sitting here doing nothing! He wouldn't have wanted…" Her voice trailed off as Yang pushed her hand off her shoulder and stood up. "Yang?" Ruby questioned as her sister walked over to Bumblebee's broken body.

"I have an idea," Yang replied as she took off her backpack and placed it on the ground, "I packed the tools I use to clean and repair Ember Celica. You go and bring me engines, servos, circuit boards, anything you can salvage from the tech that got smashed up during the fight. I'm going to try and stop the bleeding."

"Yang… What are you-"

"I don't know if we can fix him, or if he's already gone," Yang replied as she knelt down next to Bumblebee and took several tools out of her backpack, "But we owe it to him to try!" Yang took a deep breath. "I need some spare parts to fix him with, and we don't have a lot of time, so go!"

Ruby saluted her sister, dispersed into petals, and flew away. Yang took a deep breath.

"Well… Here goes nothing," she stated, "Hopefully I don't mess this up even worse…"

And the surgery began.


a/n: Not the note I was originally going to close on, but this felt like a more natural stopping point. And now for responses to reviews:

barrera2009: Glad that was cleared up and I hope this chapter was to your liking!

MadTitan9: I actually have my own idea for how the AllSpark looks in this universe, so you'll see.

TheReckless1One: Remember, Atlas is allied with Mistral, which is an empire in everything but name. Outside of that... Does the word "Empire" even exist in Remnant's lexicon?

Z-King: Congratulations, you are the only reader who commented on Cybertron's transformation.

Mobian: I wanted to keep some consistency here, but also keep some reference to his more famous name. And we will be seeing more of the Maximals as time goes on.

ssjSega: I've actually been thinking on Grimlock in particular for quite a bit, since I am ALSO a huge fan of the Dinobots. And yeah, the comparison between Optimus Prime and Ironwood WAS deliberate. If we're going to compare Ironwood with ANY version of Optimus, I'd say that he's most like the Bayverse version of Optimus Prime, but with a LOT more paranoia.

merendinoemiliano: If I ever do a Shattered Glass story based off this setting, that's pretty much what SG!Raven would be like. I'm going to be keeping this Raven's characterization in line with what the show gave us, however.

Yeah hi sorry: I was actually debating whether to go with "Convoy" or "Prime" before deciding to take his Japanese name ("Lio") with his Western rank ("Prime"). As for other Hasbro Properties, I've actually been debating a crossover with one Hasbro-owned property in particular. In fact, I used a Transformer who ORIGINATES from an official crossover with said franchise back in Chapter 2 and "Like Judas Thereupon Kissed".

The Protector of the Universe: You see, I have plans for Blake.

Aztec 13: May we learn from 2020 and the years that led up to it so that we may avoid an encore in the future.

Just three more chapters everyone! And the next chapter is ANOTHER one I've been looking forward to writing for quite some time! See you all then!