A Once Inferno Smothered To Embers

Pt. I

"And sometimes, you are going to be

as fierce as a dragon,

armed in scales of impenetrable gold,

and sometimes you are going to be

as vulnerable as a lamb,

soft and comforting in newborn wool.

Both versions of you deserve to be loved.

Both versions of you are needed.

Both versions of you are beautiful."

― Nikita Gill


The soft beeping of medical machines filled the area around Ruby's bed. Tubes and wires hung off Yang's little sister, and she wanted to tear each of them off and nurse Ruby back herself, but she knew that the doctors knew way more than she did. Still, after everything Yang went through to get Ruby back after Atlesian soldiers shot her, Yang did not want Ruby to be anywhere near them. Even after Weiss told Yang about the strange cult of unification and Ironwood's instance that he had rooted them out on the Dreadnaught, Yang still was on edge.

Three days since being given the rank of Specialist onboard the Mantle of Responsibility and she had been given her first order: Gear up and wait for next orders.

Of course, that was easier said than done since the prosthetic arm Yang used was still being repaired. While she could still use it no problem, after fighting with Ruby, there was extensive internal damage that, if left unchecked, would cause significant problems down the line. On top of that, since she was a newly recruited Specialist, she also got the authority to get a few upgrades from the onboard engineers.

Truthfully, she did not want any upgrades, just fix the arm and give it back to her, but after fighting all that Grimm, she realized that she needed more firepower. She was supposed to get her arm back today, she was just waiting on a call from the engineers. So for now, Yang was sitting by Ruby's side, watching her sister rest peacefully in a medical bed. Yang was making a mental list of what to talk to Ruby about when she wakes up when the curtain opened to reveal Blake.

"Hey," Yang whispered with a smile at her partner.

"Hey," Blake replied as she stood next to Yang's chair. "How's she doing?"

"Good, still sleeping, but her wounds are healing kinda slowly. That Aura stimulant really screwed with her natural Aura manifestation, so they're keeping a closer eye on her for now,"

"Well, according to Weiss, the Stimulant she was using was never designed to be used for as long as she had been using it. Just a quick boost to start the Aura then regular healing. Whatever stockpile she got her hands on was likely a bulk supply that was supposed to go to a MASH camp or something, Weiss's still checking the records on it." Yang felt Blake's hand rest on her shoulder and give a squeeze. "She'll be okay, she's stronger than we give her credit for,"

"I know," Yang reached up with her one hand and held onto Blake's. Yang just enjoyed the feeling on Blake's hand on her own as she smiled up at her. "Nice chest, by the way," That got a roll of the eyes from Blake as well as a chuckle. Another perk of being a Specialist was the body armour, specifically, the chest plate. Much like Weiss', Blake's chest place was white with her rank and name printed on the front corner as well as a number and symbol designating her company and squad. Yang had the same chest plate but needed to get it modified. Apparently, standard deviation Atlesian armour does not cover Yang's chest. Who knew that Atlesian's had smaller chests in general?

Still holding onto Blake's hand, Yang could see the distance in her eyes, the thoughts dancing just under the surface. "How you holding up?" Yang asked with a squeeze of her hand. Yang knew the trauma of losing a parent suddenly, but Blake did not have a copious amount of alcohol to numb her senses to it. The only thing Yang could do was be there for Blake during this time for her. Blake let a sigh and shook her head.

"Not great," She admitted. "There are just so many things I wish I had said, and now I'll never get the chance…" Yang squeezed her hand harder as she heard the emotion coming from her voice. "It's hard to accept the fact that she's just… gone, just like that…"

"I know…" Yang gently released her hand and wrapped her arm around Blake's waist and pulled her closer. From her seat, Yang's head rested against Blake's side and tried to comfort her the best she could. Yang remembered the feeling of waking up in her home and wondering where her father was, only to be hit with the fact that he was never coming home again. A sensation quickly drowned with booze. "No matter how bad things get, remember you have us,"

"I know," Blake took a deep breath and ran her hand through Yang's hair. The sensation of her nails skimming her scalp could put Yang to sleep, but the good feeling was gone too soon when Blake moved away with a sigh. "I need to get going though, the General wants my input about the Black Fang and what to do with the White Fang we managed to save from Mistral," Yang nodded and released Blake so she can go on but stopped her when she gripped her hand one last time.

"Love you," She said with a smile. Blake returned the words with a smile and was all but yanked down to Yang's level to kiss the girl. It was a quick kiss, but Yang tried to put as much love and warmth into it. She felt Blake push back against it, it deepened for a second before pulling away with a blush on her face. Yang could not help but smile at how cute she looked with her face all red. "I know it wasn't much of a first kiss, but I hope I did alright,"

"That… wasn't our first kiss," Blake grimaced.

"Wait, what? When did we kiss?"

"When you were blackout drunk, and I had to carry you back to Neo that one time,"

Yang just groaned and ran her hand down her face. "Damn it…"

"It's okay, I'll count this one like it," Blake smiled as she finally left Yang alone with Ruby in the infirmary. Yang could not help but smile at her partner as she left, but the smile disappeared as soon as she was out of eyesight. Another good moment ruined by her own drinking addiction. She pulled her flask out, stared at the faded yellow leather band wrapped around the metal container, and shook it to guess how much she had left. Popping open the cap, she brought the opening to her mouth and tilted her head back to let the poison past her lips.

With her promise to Neo, she relented at one gulp before lowered it and closing it. She wanted more, she really wanted more, to just down the whole thing and ignore the work and pain around her. But she could not do that to Neo and Blake after everything that has happened. With all her willpower, Yang pocketed the flask and leaned back in her seat and held her head in her hand. "Baby steps…" She whispered to herself.

"Specialist Xiao Long to the engineering bay! Specialist Xiao Long to the engineering bay!"

The announcement made her jump as the voice interrupted her thoughts of maybe taking another sip would not hurt. Glad for the distraction, she pushed herself out of her chair and leaned over Ruby to kiss her forehead. "I'll be back," she told her little sister before leaving the infirmary and down the Dreadnaught's halls.

It took Yang some time to get to the engineering bay from the infirmary. The closer she got, the more pungent smell of machine oil and grease got. Arriving through the door, she was assaulted by the sound of machines drilling and cutting all kinds of materials to repair weapons, vehicles and in Yang's case, prosthetic limbs. Walking up to the desk, the person behind it looked up and hovered at the stump of her right arm.

"Xiao Long?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. He had safety glasses on and a disassembled handgun across his desk.

"Yep," Yang said with a small sigh. With a head jerk, the man began to walk deeper into the bay, and Yang followed him to a work station with her arm sitting on a small stand. Her first impression of it was that it was much larger than it was before. Next to it was the remaining half of Ember Celica, clean and polished and better than she had seen it in a long time.

"Right, first things first," The man said as he plopped a scroll tablet on the table and brought up the specs in a hologram for her to see. "So, we've upgraded the capacity of your rounds, so you'll be able to use your ammo belts that you were using before. We also added more plating when it's opened and ready to fire," To prove his point, he hit a switch on the scroll and her arm transformed in front of her eyes. The wrist expanded, and extra armour plates slid up the wrist, covering the entire forearm in more protection.

"We also added some new types of ammo you can use with it, like these little bastards here; this is a sticky grenade that can be triggered remotely by you," He placed one of them on the table, and Yang picked it up to inspect it. It did not weigh any different than her usual shots, and she would never say no to more utility. "If you have any questions, I'm sending a manual of the upgrades and specs to your scroll," He tapped a few more commands into his scroll, and Yang felt hers vibrate with a chime.

With a nod, Yang lifted the arm, lined up the ports from the arm to her stump, and locked it in. After a quick electrical jump as the plugs connected, Yang moved her new arm around and flexed her fingers. Happy that everything was working as well as it was before, she focused and pooled her Aura into her arm. She watched as the chrome metal react to her Aura and turn a brilliant yellow as it had before. The familiar dulled sensation of touch returned, and she picked up her old bracelet and slipped it over her left wrist.

"How's the fit?" the man asked as he came around to inspect the fit and make sure everything was working fine.

"Fine, feels good to be armed again," Yang smirked as the man gave her a deadpanned look and pointed to the door.

"Get that shit out of here,"

"Your loss," Yang shrugged and started leaving the engineering bay before she started a riot with how funny she was. Before she could leave, Yang met with someone that looked familiar with white hair and rich blue eyes hobbling into the bay on a set of crutches with one leg of her pants rolled and pinned above her knee. They locked eyes with each other before the older woman nodded.

"Specialist Xiao Long," She nodded.

"Uh, hi. Do I know you?" Yang asked, "I don't want to be rude or anything, but you seem really familiar,"

"Yes, you know my sister, Weiss," Then it all clicked in for Yang. The hair and the eyes were a dead give away. She remembered Weiss talking about her often in Beacon and recently since her room was next to Ruby's in the infirmary. "Thank you for looking after her for me,"

"Yeah, no problem," Yang said as she stepped out of the way and followed Winter to a different station in the engineering bay where a leg was sitting on a similar stand and Yang's arm. "Weiss told me what happened to you with the poison and everything, I'm sorry about that, I didn't know that would happen to you,"

"No one did," Winter said as she sat down in a chair that Yang brought over, seeing there was nowhere for the elder Schnee to sit to attach her leg. "Thank you. We're still not sure how deep Watts got his tendrils, but we're working on it," The woman sighed as she set the crutches against the table and lifted the leg off the stand and inspected it before undoing the pins that held the pant leg closed.

"Still, it's good to see you're okay."

"Your concern is appreciated," She said as she lined up the caps and slipped into place. Yang watched as the familiar momentary pain of the connections passed her face before taking a deep breath. "If you don't mind me asking, how long have you had your arm? You seem like you can use it so naturally,"

Yang lifted up the metal and carbon limb and inspected it. How long had it been since she had gotten it? How long since Yang had left Patch? It was hard to describe the passage of time since she was rushing from battle to battle, drunken haze to nearly dying a bunch of times. The three days she spent on the Dreadnaught felt like an eternity while travelling across Sanus and Anima to get to Mistral felt like only a few days when it must have been longer.

"I don't know, not that long, though, a few weeks, maybe?" Yang said as she tried to think of how long it had been. "The days had been kinda blurring together for the last while,"

"A few weeks?" Winter asked as she stared at her arm.

"Yeah, it was tough when I was thinking about it, but once I channelled my Aura through it, it seemed like it knew what to do after that…" Yang grimaced as she scratched the back of her head. "Does that make sense? It's really hard to describe, and I don't know if that made any sense…"

Winter only stared at her before pushing herself onto her feet. "Yes, I understand, thank you." Her eyes were unfocused, and it sounded like she was distracted. "If you'll excuse me, Specialist, I have somewhere I need to be," Without waiting for a reply, Winter rushed past Yang out of the engineering bay, limping with every step. Weiss had told Yang that Winter was Ironwood's second in command, and she must be swamped. Still, it was nice to know that she was not the only one to have a cybernetic limb, it would be nice to talk to her about it in the future.

Since she did not need to be in here anymore, Yang began to walk across the Dreadnaught towards the armoury. With her weapons back in her possession, she needed to get a requisition order for her ammunition. She was on her way when someone caught her eye, someone she had not seen since before the Mistral battle. "Emerald?"

The woman, who was about to walk past her stopped, and they stared at each other. Before Emerald could react, Yang rushed towards her and wrapped her arms around her friend and pulled her in close. "Oh my god, I've been so worried about you!" The woman in her arms struggled against the hold, but Yang refused to let her go until she knew Emerald was safe. Finally, Yang released her and held her by her shoulders so she could breathe.

"Why would you be worried about me?" Emerald asked as she fought to get some of Yang's hair out of her face. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to warn her, but Yang was just so happy to see someone she thought might have been dead.

"Why wouldn't I be worried about my friends?"

Emerald just stared at her with her red eyes. "Since when were we friends?" Yang just stared back at her.

"Since Patch?" Yang was not sure why Emerald was having such a hard time understanding that. "You came to help me, over and over again. Like it or not, you are my friend, and I always care for them. Have you not had a friend before?"

Emerald was quiet, trying to understand the words Yang had told her. "Not like this," her voice was soft, and Yang wrapped her up in another hug, this was recuperated by the woman in her arms.

"Well, this is what friendship feels like, and it's not just me. The rest of the team will be more than willing to help you out too, trust me on that." When they finally released, she could see tears welling in Emerald's eyes, and Yang could not help but to smile a little.

"Thank you,"

"No problem," Yang said as she rubbed Emerald's back. "So, what are you doing here?" She asked as they began to walk down the halls together.

"I've been helping Ozpin." She said once she collected herself. "For a man who seems to know everything, he still needs a pretty big team to get everything done. We've been working on trying to find out who else was in Watt's inner circle and rooting them out,"

"Yeah, it was those assholes who shot Ruby,"

"How's she doing, by the way?"

"Good, recovering but still in a coma. Hopefully, she wakes up soon,"

Emerald nodded as they made it to the armoury. Yang told her that she needed to put an order in for her shells, and Emerald had some business to take care of for Ozpin and Ironwood. Yang turned to walk in when she heard Emerald call her name out. Leaning back out, she saw Emerald nervously rubbing her hands together.

"I don't suppose you've seen Jaune, have you?"

"No, I haven't," Yang said and saw Emerald deflate a bit. "Hey, there were lots of Bullheads heading out of Mistral, and not all of them were coming here. I'm sure he's out there just fine. He's a tough guy, I'm sure he's fine. We'll see him again, I know it."


A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter feels a little bit like a filler, the Recovery Arc is more about character's interactions with each other rather than any major battles. Now, that's not to say that there won't be big fights, I've got plenty of those coming up but it won't be the main focus.

StreetAngelJ is still out with his surgery but is making a speedy recovery and hopefully will be back to editing my garbage soon!

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And as always, thank you for taking time out of your busy days to read my slice of madness!