There is nothing but fire.
Nothing but consuming revenge and consuming flame and consuming grief.
Yang struggles to her feet again. Ignores the blood pouring from the stump of her upper arm.
Cinder has done this. Cinder has killed the woman Yang loves. And all she has is fire.
Blake is trying to restrain her despite being close to death herself. Trying to hold onto her with shaking arms, telling her that Pyrrha is gone, that it's no use to keep fighting.
Pyrrha was the one who held her back. The one who caught her when she fought too hard and fell. The one who fixed all that was left after she burned.
And she has nothing but fire. Nothing but fire and memories and someone to kill.
Jaune tells her what he knows. Of Maidens and power and flame. Of the selection of Pyrrha to be the next Fall Maiden and the signing of her death warrant.
Cinder will find her. Without Beacon or Ozpin, there is no hope that Yang will survive. She will become one of thousands existing as ghosts in the consciousness of the present Maiden.
The thought is not an unpleasant one. Pyrrha continues to exist somewhere in her own mind. Yang will soon join her. It is far from a cursed existence if the one she loves is there.
Ruby tried to save Pyrrha. She repeats that, again and again. She tried. She was a moment too late. She weakened Cinder and drove her away, but could not kill her.
She gives Yang what she could salvage. A fragment of her tiara and a red sash burned slightly at one end. All that was left after Cinder's attack.
They return to Patch. There is no other place to go.
Yang exists. She does not live. All she can do is wait to die.
At any other time, she would have fought back against all of this. She would have tracked down Cinder. She would have tried. But she lacks even fire now.
Ruby leaves. She is not the type to give up hope.
General Ironwood sends a prosthetic arm, experimental Atlesian technology, that she can barely stand. It is not her arm. It is too smooth, free of calluses and scars and years of wear.
Blake stays. She says she has nowhere to go. Yang knows that Blake stays for her. Yang saved Blake at the cost of her own arm, and Blake does not let debts go unpaid.
Taiyang tries his best to help his daughter. He smiles as best he can. Tells Yang she should keep training. He does not understand what Yang has told him of the powers of the Maidens, but he continues to insist that he won't let Cinder hurt her.
Pyrrha is gone. Yang tries to find the former Maidens in her mind. Occasional memories that are not hers surface. Nothing of Pyrrha.
She fights. She has nothing but fire and her own death. All she can do is fight now.
Blake fights her and ducks away from balls of flame and tells her again and again that she has something to live for. Tells her that she is more powerful than she knows. Tells her that she doesn't have to die like this.
But Pyrrha is dead and all that Yang can feel is fury.
Months later, a woman shows up at their doorstep. Says she is the Spring Maiden. They have been tracking Cinder down for months.
Yang takes the chance at revenge instantly. She is a fighter. She will not hide any longer.
Blake follows.
Cinder hurls more fire at Yang. She ignores the hit and charges again. Cinder has to turn and put all her concentration on blocking the flurry of blows, allowing the Spring Maiden to hit her unprotected back.
Yang ignores her Aura dropping into red. Ignores her body already pushed past its limits and on the point of collapsing. Focuses on Cinder, floating in front of her, smiling.
The firestorm hits her. Drives her to her knees.
She will not leave this fight.
The Spring Maiden, through the haze of red, plunges a javelin into Cinder's back.
The fight is over.
The fire around Yang falls and Blake runs toward her.
Her sight is the first sense to break down. Her hearing swiftly follows. She hears "Yang, I" and silence. Touch remains for a few moments longer. A hand entwined with her own is the last she feels.
Yang is floating in a gray haze. Though she can see nothing, she understands instinctively where she is. Inside the mind of the woman crumpled over her own corpse. The full powers of the Fall Maiden are united in Blake.
Figures emerge through the fog. Some are young, some old. All women with golden eyes.
Pyrrha leads them.