Volume I: Episode 2: Decisions

Yang felt her mind struggling to work as she sat in the driver's seat of her new car and watched the city blur by. Watched the city, and watched the steering wheel in her hands move on its own. Despite where she was sitting, it was clear she wasn't actually in the driver's seat, and she briefly wondered if she ever was.

"Yang? You all right?"

She jolted in surprise and turned to look around before she caught herself. "I'm fine," came the automatic answer. "Just… fine."

"Does that word have a different definition here in Vale? Because you don't look or sound like any of the ones I've heard for fine," said Bumblebee's voice from the speakers. "And you're gripping my steering wheel awfully tight."

"Look, this is just all a lot to take in!" said Yang as she forced her hands loose. "I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to be taking in."

"Don't worry," Bumblebee assured her. "I'm sure Optimus will be able to answer most of your questions when we meet up with him again."

That… wasn't particularly reassuring. "Most? Not all?"

"Yang, I know this is all very confusing, but in a lot of ways... we're just as lost as you are."

"That's not comforting in the slightest, you know," she pointed out. "Who- what even are you guys? What are you doing in Vale?"

"It's... a long story."

"How long?" Yang prodded.

"Only about... ten million years or so, give or take however long we've been on this world."

"..."

"Yang?" Bumblebee asked after a moment.

"Yeah, I think waiting for Optimus's explanation might be best," she relented. "Just… one thing."

"What?"

"Why me?"

"What do you mean?" Bumblebee asked, confused. "There's a lot of ways that question could be answered."

"I mean, why were you in that car dealership?" clarified Yang.

"Well, there's a story there too, but the short of it is that I was hiding out, scouting, spying, and generally trying to keep a lookout for Decepticon activity. As well as any information about my current location, of course. I'll tell you right now that those people who say Vale has no culture don't know what they're talking about."

"So it was just a coincidence then?"

"I don't know about that. I mean, that was all you jumping in to rescue those people tonight. What are the odds I would find someone like that on Remnant?"

"Higher than you'd think. That dealership is pretty close to Beacon, after all."

"Maybe you're right, but somehow… I don't think so. I have a feeling there's a lot more to you than meets the eye."

Yang felt a warm feeling stirring in her heart at those words. "Thanks, Bumblebee."

The cabin once again descended into silence, until the blonde decided to be the one to break it that time. "Soooo, Decepticons? I'm guessing they're what that Barricade guy was? Did they choose that name for themselves, or…"

"Believe it or not, yes," Bumblebee answered.

"Wait, seriously?!" said Yang with a laugh.

"You have to understand," Bumblebee elaborated, "I wasn't there myself - it was before my time - but things on Cybertron weren't perfect. Some people - the ones who would become the Decepticons - they thought they weren't being represented fairly, that our leaders were lying to the people to maintain power. Their rallying cry to the people was that they were being deceived."

"So they took it as their name," Yang murmured softly, the explanation bringing eerie parallels to mind. "'Decepticons.' The deceived?"

"Yeah."

After that, they lapsed into silence.

It was a long couple of hours.

They pulled up to an empty lot in an industrial district untold miles away from where they had started, stopping on the street outside.

"You don't have to do this, you know," Bumblebee said. "We can still turn around. I can take you back to Beacon, and you can just forget about all of this, go on with your life."

"Don't I?" Yang asked. "Could I? Won't Barricade come after me too?"

"Probably not," Bumblebee answered. "One fight, in the dark, with you moving that fast? Humans and faunus aren't the first organic species we've met. You all tend to look alike to a Decepticon. Keep your head down, and he probably wouldn't recognize you if you met again."

She thought about it. She really did. But…

"I'm going to be a Huntress," she said. "I made that decision a long time ago."

Bumblebee seemed to consider that. "Okay then." He drove on in, where the other Autobots awaited them.

As they drove up, the other Autobots transformed into their robot modes. Bumblebee popped the door open and, after Yang took her cue to climb out, followed suit.

"Greetings, Bumblebee, Miss Xiao Long," Optimus said. "You've already met Ratchet," he continued, tilting his head toward the mostly white ambulance Autobot. "He's our medic and technician, and this is Ironhide," he continued, gesturing to the red pickup truck Autobot.

"Pleased ta meetcha," Ironhide said.

"Uh, same here," Yang replied, looking back and forth between them "Is this… all of you?"

"No," Optimus answered. "Most of our people on this world remain in stasis. Now, Miss Xiao Long, I'm sure you would like to know about us, but our story is a long one. Where would you like me to start?"

"The beginning's usually a good place," she suggested. "Who are you? Where are you from? Bumblebee mentioned the Decepticons and Cybertron."

"Cybertron is our homeworld," Optimus began. He dropped down to one knee and held up a hand. Light shone from his palm, and an image flickered to life above his hand of a mechanical sphere, brilliantly lit by the lights of an ecumenopolis, turning slowly. "Legend tells we were created by Primus, to be ruled by the Primes, but somewhere, we lost our way." The lights in the image grew dim, many of them winking out. "Our leaders grew corrupt and power-hungry and lost the blessing of Primus." At that, Yang could see the holographic planet go almost completely dark, lit only by fire and explosions, tiny in the image, but indicating a level of destruction on a scale she'd never imagined. "This led to a civil war that, as far as we know, continues to this day."

"'As far you know'?"

"We do not know how long we have been on this world," Optimus admitted. "We were seeking a refuge to regroup and rebuild our forces and resources with which to do so when were intercepted by a Decepticon ship. We were shot down and crash-landed on this world."

"How do you not know how long you've been here?"

"Because we have been in stasis for much of that time," he explained, "and the Ark's chronometer was damaged in the crash. We only awoke when our ship detected energon activity." He paused, then looked up at the night sky. "But I can tell you one thing. When we arrived on this world, the moon was whole."

Yang's eyes widened at that. "You- do you know what happened to it?"

"No," he said. "Our ship's sensors logged two major energy spikes, followed by a series of kinetic impacts on the planet. It is likely that that event is what happened to the moon, but that is all we know, and with our ship's chronometer offline, we do not even know when it happened."

"What about Barricade? The Decepticons? What are they doing here?"

"We do not know for certain," was Optimus's answer. "We know we damaged the ship that attacked us, and it is possible it crashed as well. It is also possible they returned more recently and discovered this potential to process dust into energon."

"'Energon'?"

"Energon is the lifeblood of our people. It powers our weapons, our technology, our economies… our very lives."

"And now the SDC is refining it from dust?" realized Yang. "Then that must mean that the Decepticons have… what? Formed an alliance or something? I don't know. Why would they work together? What would they each get out of it?"

"An alliance of convenience, perhaps," Optimus mused aloud. "Cybertronian technology has much to offer the people of Remnant, but it would be unusual for them to offer such an exchange. That they are working in secret, rather than seizing power for themselves by force, is… surprising. They believe that might makes right, in the rule of the strongest and the most cunning."

"And what do you believe in?" Yang asked quietly, looking down in thought.

"That freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

A long moment of silence followed.

"Okay, then," Yang said finally. She looked back up at him with conviction. "How can I help?"

Bumblebee's headlights were off when they slowly creeped into Beacon's parking lot; they had been off for the last five miles, Bumblebee instead relying on other sensors. Yang was silent when opening the doors in the building; a bottle of oil "borrowed" from the garage helped with that. So quiet was she that she was able to enter her dorm room without even hearing anything herself, and she was even able to do the same while getting dressed into her pajamas.

I was able to get away scot-free! she thought joyously as she was about to climb into her top bunk.

"And just where were you tonight, young lady?"

Yang's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates when she turned around. Ruby was up, and she was sitting cross-legged on her suspended bed. She was obviously trying to glare down at Yang, but sleep deprivation turned it into more of a squint. Thinking quickly, the elder sister adopted her best 'motherly' tone.

"I thought I told you not to wait up for me?" she said soothingly.

"Answer the question, Yang. It's four in the morning!" Ruby hissed.

The blonde smiled sweetly and gently padded over to caress her sister's cheek. "I'll explain later, Rubes. Right now, you need to get your beauty sleep. We've got a big day ahead of us when we wake up."

Unconsciously, the crimson-themed leader of Team RWBY allowed her sister to maneuver her so that she was close to lying down. "No, Yang, you need to explain yourself…"

Ruby's sentence died on her lips as she fell into blissful slumber the moment her head hit the pillow.

Yang smiled at her younger sibling's sleeping face and spoke softly while gently stroking her hair. "Everything I do, I do for you, Ruby. Even if I never tell you what it is."

As it turned out, they didn't get much beauty sleep and almost missed their first class. Aside from that bumpy start, though, it was just another day at Beacon. For the most part.

"So," Ruby asked as the team returned to their dorm after classes had concluded, "where were you last night, Yang?"

The blonde stopped short as the other three members of Team RWBY were now facing her expectantly. Her mind ran over all the incredible things that had happened on that fateful drive. She thought of all the revelations, and the promises made upon them. Things would never be the same after that night, but at the same time…

"I ask that you keep our existence here a secret," Optimus Prime requested. "In our current state, low on energon, our only defense is to remain unseen."

…she trusted Ruby implicitly, but she was still adjusting to Beacon and tended to be loose-lipped around her new friends, like Vomit Boy. Blake was almost a complete unknown even after a month. And Weiss… she glanced at the snowcapped girl. Weiss was a Schnee. Twenty-four hours ago, that wouldn't have mattered, but now...

"I... ran into some people who needed help," she said finally.

"Did everything work out all right?" Ruby asked, concern on her face.

Yang thought back to the fight with Barricade and smiled faintly. "Yeah. Yeah, I think it did."

"Yes!" her sister cheered, then spun, her cape swirling behind her, and grabbed a comic book on her way to her bed.

"Okay, then," Blake said with a shrug, turning back to her book.

"Wha-?" Weiss looked at Ruby, then Blake. "Are you two serious?!"

"What?" Ruby asked. "We asked, Yang answered."

"Yeah," Blake agreed, not even looking up from her book. "That's good enough for me."

"But that's… that's… details!" stuttered Weiss. "I want details! You can't just leave us with so little information!"

Yang gave her a flat look. "No, you don't. You think you do, but you don't."

"Oh, yes, I do," Weiss insisted. "I want to know what happened, why you were out until - what was it, Ruby? Four in the morning? - helping these people, who you helped, what you helped them with, all of it!"

"Why?" Yang demanded. "Why do you need to know?"

"I'm naturally curious!" the heiress justified, her eyes now blazing with blue fire. "And you can add, 'why you're being so defensive' to that list."

"Weiss, drop it," Ruby ordered. "If Yang wants her privacy, let her keep it."

"Ruby, you're our leader, and I respect you, but we can't just let this go," Weiss said in a conciliatory fashion. "This isn't just privacy; it's obvious she's hiding something, something big."

"Fine!" Yang snapped, her eyes flashing from their normal lilac to a bloody red. "You want to know? You really want to know? It was a car full of faunus, refugees, escaped slaves! From an SDC facility!"

The air was split by the sound of paper tearing. Everyone glanced over and saw Blake staring at Yang, shaking with part of a page from her book in her hand. She seemed to regain control of herself quickly, though, and looked down, frowning at the sight of what she had done.

"Oh," Weiss said softly. "That- that's-" She paused, then shook her head, staring at the floor. "I keep lowering my expectations of Father, and yet, he still continues to disappoint."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Yang snapped. "You don't even sound surprised."

Weiss's head whipped up, and she glared back. "My father is a disgrace to the family name. He took the company my grandfather founded and dragged it through the mud, all in the name of power and profit. I absolutely believe he's amoral enough to do something like that. I just always thought he was at least smart enough - or maybe cowardly enough - not to do something this stupid. So, no, I suppose I'm not all that surprised." Her voice dropped low. "Just... one more thing I need to make up for."

"'Just'?" Yang demanded incredulously. "You think you can make up for this?"

"Both of you, stop!" Ruby yelled, jumping between her two teammates in a flurry of rose petals. "We're a team. We shouldn't be fighting like this. Especially over something that no one here is responsible for."

Yang looked down at her little sister, blinked, and only then did her eyes finally return to their normal color. "Fine." She walked over to a peg on the wall and picked up Bumblebee's keys. "I'm going out to the store. Do you guys want anything?"

Blake numbly shook her head, Weiss answered in the negative, and Ruby answered "Cookies!" Yang nodded, and then left them alone together.

"Sooo, uh, that happened," Ruby broke the silence that followed. "Weiss, are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" she snapped, stalking back to collapse into her bed.

"Oh, okay," Ruby moaned, looked back over to the final member of her team. "Blake, are you okay?"

"Why are you asking me?" Blake deadpanned mostly convincingly. "This didn't involve me at all."

"Huh," Ruby mused. "Good point."

"Rough day?" Bumblebee asked as they drove along into the city.

"You could say that," admitted Yang.

Bumblebee was silent for a long moment, then asked, "So, where we headed?"

"Shopping," Yang answered, glad he had let the matter drop. "Ruby wants cookies, and I still need to get those dust samples and books for the others."

"And we can just go in and buy all that?" Bumblebee asked. "That's it?"

"That's it," replied Yang with a smile. "I've got enough lien here to cover everything we need and more, which is good because I'll be blowing through this month's budget just on this."

"Is dust that expensive?"

"Books are; heavy too. Though I have noticed dust prices going up the last few months..."

"Market fluctuations?"

"Maybe," Yang allowed with a shrug. "I'm not an economist."

"Neither am I," admitted Bumblebee. "I'm just a scout."

The pair rumbled along until they were well into the city, passing the dust shop closest to Beacon along the way. It had been discussed and decided that while buying from there was the cheapest and most convenient option, it was also the most likely to get the attention of her fellow students and thus, the grapevine. The last thing she needed was people wondering why Team RWBY's bruiser was buying dust that never seemed to make it back to her dorm.

When she did reach her preferred hit for this operation though, she found it to be in a most curious state.

"Closed?!" Yang gaped, staring in disbelief at the locked door and the sign in its window. She looked closer and found a piece of paper taped to the inside with writing scrawled on it. In a steady, even voice, the blonde began to read aloud, "'Apologies for the inconvenience. Our store was recently robbed of most of our inventory. Fortunately, we expect to be able to restock shortly and will reopen soon. Thank you for your patience.'"

Yang blinked and walked back to Bumblebee, more confused than anything. The pair went on to try and hit up another dust shop. This time, they found the police had cordoned off the area and were walking around doing whatever it was police did in situations like this. She didn't say it out loud, but she was starting to get the feeling she should have taken up that CSI elective at the beginning of the semester.

"Hello, boys!" she said with a a sway of her hips to the police officer nearest to the tape line. "What happened here?"

The officer gave her the once over, noting her school uniform, before replying, "Beacon student, eh? Well, there's not much to say here. Just another dust shop with its stocked cleaned out, but not a single cent taken from the register."

"That's strange," observed Yang simply. "Have you got any suspects yet?"

The officer chuckled. "Suspects? We got them coming out the ears, but no proof for anyone. Some say it's the White Fang, some say it's that Roman Torchwick guy, and others say the two are working together."

"And you?"

The officer shrugged. "Personally? I think it's the SDC. None of this dust is showing up on the black market, and stealing their own product to create an artificial shortage before selling it right back to people at a markup sounds exactly like the sort of thing they would do."

Yang couldn't help but nod in agreement and wished the officer luck before departing. They still needed to get that dust, after all. Thefts or no thefts, there was still work to do.

As luck would have it, things did work out. The first dust shop was closed, and the second dust shop was freshly broken into, but the third one? The third dust shop was just right.

"Thanks a lot, man!" Yang cheered as the store attendant hefted a carrying case full of dust canisters into the trunk of Bumblebee.

"No problem, miss. It's so nice to see a student from Beacon taking an interest in exploring different dust types," the clerk said as he finished securing the last crate. "Too many Huntsmen rely on just one or two tricks these days."

"Well," she said with a wide smile, "I do like to keep my options open."

When payments were settled and Yang was driving off, her eyes glanced up at the rear view mirror, and she unconsciously let off the accelerator.

"Something wrong, Yang?"

"Oh, nothing, just had a sudden thought: 'What happens when you slam a canister of gravity dust and a canister of hard light dust together over a canister of fire dust?'"

Bumblebee drove that much straighter after that. "Let's not find out, shall we?"

The sun was starting to set by the time they reached the slopes of Lookout Mountain. The place had a fantastic view of Vale and used to be the getaway for people wanting a little outdoor privacy, but a Nevermore attack about ten years ago had sent its popularity plummeting, even after the additional automated anti-air turrets on the cliff face were completed.

There was little risk of being interrupted here. Which was why, of course, they had decided on this spot as the rendezvous point for Yang to meet her Autobot contacts. It was a decision born out of secrecy and time constraints, but she had to admit that she didn't mind that much.

The Autobots respected her privacy, so she would respect theirs.

When they pulled into the parking spot, they found it occupied by Ratchet and Optimus Prime in their vehicle modes alongside a transport trailer. When Bumblebee approached, the two transformed into their robot forms. Yang, for her part, wasn't sure she would ever get used to that, and she really didn't want to.

Seeing something so wondrous should never become boring.

It was Ratchet that spoke first when Yang stepped out of Bumblebee.

"Do you have it?" he asked. "Do you have the dust?"

"Yep!" cheered the blonde as she opened up the trunk and began extracting the cases. "One canister of every kind of dust they had in stock, including hard light, and a basic primer. I also got some medical texts for you, Ratchet, history books for Optimus, and the most recent edition of The Atlas Atlas of Atlas Armaments from Atlas Publishing for Ironhide."

"Thank you," Ratchet said as he and Yang began transferring the dust from Bumblebee's trunk to the trailer.

"Don't worry about it," Yang replied. "Took a bit to find a dust store that hadn't been robbed, but other than that, it's no problem at all."

"Didn't you say you blew your monthly budget on this?" Bumblebee asked.

With a faint clank, Optimus lowered himself to one knee, much like he had the other night, and gently placed his steel fingers on her shoulder. "We appreciate your sacrifice, Miss Xiao Long. If there is anything we can do-"

Shrugging away from his hand in a sudden attack of shyness, she interrupted, "Well, for starters, you can call me Yang."

"Excuse me," Ratchet interjected. "What was that about robberies?"

Yang pulled out her scroll and pulled up a list of news articles. "Yeah. Apparently, there's been a rash of them over the last month or so. What's weird is whoever's doing it isn't taking any of the money, or selling the dust on the black market."

"You know, I've been thinking about that," Bumblebee said. "About what that one officer said. He might only be half-right. The Decepticons would have no use for money, after all, and the SDC - if it really is them - did try to keep things off the books. This way, there'd be no missing supply."

"No missing supply, no way to trace things back to their energon processing plant," Ratchet realized.

"Except now we have a lead," said Optimus.

"I have a few contacts on the fringe. I could try hitting them up, see if anything's been going on there," spoke up Yang. "Heck, maybe I could try to find those escapees again, see if I can get any more information that could lead us to narrowing down the plant's location."

"It would be best, I think, to leave the escapees be unless absolutely necessary," Optimus said. "They've been through enough. But your other contacts might prove fruitful."

When Yang got back that night, it was still early enough that everyone was still wide awake. They looked up from their interests and looked at her when she walked through the door. Once again, she felt like the center of attention.

She held out a bag toward her sister. "Your cookies, sis."

Yoink!

"Omnomnomnom..."

With that, the blonde turned to the white-haired heiress. "Weiss… I'm sorry. For… what I said earlier, I mean. Just because your name's in the company name doesn't mean you're responsible for everything it's accused of."

Weiss stood up and faced her. "Apology accepted, Yang." She looked aside. "And while you're right, I'm not responsible for my family's company… some day, I will be."

"Weiss..." Ruby prodded. The rest of the team blinked over at their team leader… who had obviously just finished her bag of cookies. Completely.

"And," Weiss added, "I would like to... apologize for poking into your private business. If… there's anything we can do to help...?"

"Thanks, but… what could anyone do against something as powerful as the SDC? Punch them in the face? They don't have a face to punch. Well, unless we count yours, and fat lot of good that would do.."

Weiss bristled at Yang's words. "I could do some digging, then use my position…"

"...to lose your title as heiress because clearly you've been under far too much stress if you think the SDC is running slave labor camps," the blonde finished for her. "Please, Weiss, I don't want wake up one day to a news article about how you've 'voluntarily' given up your position just before they fish your body out of the ocean."

The snowcapped girl paled to a degree upon hearing those words. "Father would never-" she cut herself off. "But I've said those words before, haven't I? And there are alternatives to that which get the same results."

Seeing Weiss clutch her chin nervously, Ruby decided it was time to interject, "I don't believe in a no-win scenario, Yang. The situation might seem hopeless, but I know that's only an illusion. That if we combine our resources, then I'm sure we can come up with a solution to this problem, or find someone who can."

Yang smiled sadly at her sister. "The SDC is far too strong for any individual to go against, and I don't think there's an organization out there that's willing to go to bat against them with these stakes on the line."

Ruby felt - and her sister could see - her expression harden like steel. "Professor Ozpin could. He could take on the SDC all by himself, and get others to as well."

"That…" Yang paused, feeling her mouth go dry in sudden realization, "...could work. He would need evidence, though, and I don't think that we can just go and find those escapees again. So we're going to have to wait until more show up."

"Then we'll wait, and we'll watch," was the resolute vow of Team RWBY's leader.

"You're willing to wait?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why is that so hard to believe? I'm a sniper, Yang! I've spent days waiting for the perfect shot before."

The other eyebrow went up.

"Hours?"

Yang crossed her arms.

"Oh, okay! Minutes! I've waited minutes for the perfect shot! That doesn't discount what I'm saying here. I'm willing to wait, think up alternate solutions, and not run off half-cocked. Is that what you want to hear?"

"That is exactly what I want to hear, Ruby. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to wash up and use the little girl's room. I've been wearing this uniform for so long, it's starting to ride up on me."

The rest of Team RWBY waited until they heard Yang stepping into a running shower before they all rushed into a group huddle, their faces almost touching.

"Okay, so we're all in agreement?" Ruby whispered. "We keep Yang out of the loop so she doesn't worry?"

Weiss and Blake both nodded.