Hey everybody, short chapter this week, which was bound to happen since when I write these chapters I don't take into account where the breaks will take place when they're uploaded (This chapter was actually two chapters when written, but then gets uploaded as one, but now I'm on a tangent). I hope you all don't mind a short chapter or two (the payoff will be worth it), and I hope you enjoy it!

"Hello again!" Pyrrha chimed in with a smile as they all sat down. Bái smiled back at Pyrrha and waved as she sat close to Lykos.

"Hello, Mrs. Arc!" She exclaimed.

"I hope that you all are doing well this morning," Pyrrha continued.

"Doing great!" Cobalt declared.

"We're fine," Lykos answered for himself and Bái.

"I've had better mornings," Tawney grumbled as she placed her elbows on the table and rested her face in her hands.

"I guess the first thing that I'd like to say is that this team did a great job this year and even though you weren't able to finish as the top team, I have confidence that you'll do great things next year and give NITE a run for their money," Pyrrha explained. "You all did well against not only the Camazotz that we ended up fighting that was a bit unexpected, but let's not forget the train that you all managed to safely evacuate. You should have no problem keeping up with your third-year mentors next year."

"Titus mentioned something about that to me," Lykos noted. "Do they already have us assigned to a team?"

"Not currently," Pyrrha made them aware. "Glynda makes those decisions herself over the summer."

"Doesn't she take a vacation?" Bái asked. Pyrrha nodded and gave another soft smile.

"Of course, just not as long as the rest of us," Pyrrha informed her. "The sole responsibility of the tower's defense lies on Glynda's shoulders. It can be stressful, but she fully understood the job and its ramifications when she accepted it and has no regrets. She enjoys her job very much."

"With any luck, we'll be with ONYX!" Cobalt offered with dream-filled eyes. "If any team could give us the edge on beating out NITE next year, it would be them, they're something else. Orin's the only one that I know by name, but the girl is a certified badass, and the last two are a tag team that's being compared with the likes of Bumblby."

"Nobody calls them that anymore," Tawney scolded shaking her head.

"Ruby was really the only one to call them that in the first place," Pyrrha noted.

"Please continue, Mrs. Arc," Lykos politely requested.

"Of course," She complied. "Cobalt, remember that you're the leader of your team. Your name makes its rounds more than any other among the staff for the nonsense and shenanigans that you pull on a regular basis and I'm not saying that as a good thing. Your short-range combat is good and while I'm not sure if it's a result of your assistive armor or the visor that you wear, your long-range is something to behold as well. Once you find a way to stabilize your weapon's blaster, it'll serve you even better than it has already. Your mastery of your clone has proved impressive so far."

"That was more gratuitous than I expected, thank you," Cobalt told her.

"Bái. I want you to keep working with Lykos and Ren on the issues from your past. You might not ever remember the events fully, but you need to do your best to stay grounded in those moments of panic. The inhibitor was good in theory, but I'm glad to see that you've been doing well without it. The ice is your lifeblood. Try not to overdo it and learn to fight with your body," Pyrrha instructed her.

"Thank you so much!" Bái said bowing her head.

"Lykos, you've done a great job protecting your teammates, and placing second in your graduating class this year speaks volumes towards your skills and abilities. Your semblance might not always be the most practical, but once you find a way to pair it with your combat, it might be hard to stop you," Pyrrha informed him. "Great work."

"Thanks," Lykos replied with a nod.

"Tawney…" Pyrrha started with a sigh.

"There's one person to blame for all of this!" Tawney began defending herself.

"Stop chasing Neela," Pyrrha cut in. "You're your own person. Don't strive to be better than Neela, it's too narrow-minded. Strive to be better than The Maniac." Tawney looked at her wide-eyed for a long moment.

"Fight better than myself?" Tawney mumbled.

"You are the best aren't you?" Pyrrha asked with a wink. "And you want to be better than the best, right?" Tawney smirked and slammed her fists on the table.

"Yeah!" Tawney shouted.

"You're all dismissed! Don't forget that you have to help with and attend the graduation ceremony, and thank you for such a wonderful and memorable year. I'll see you after summer! Stay safe and have fun!" Pyrrha told them as they left. As soon as the door was closed it reopened, Coco strutting through it and placing her purse on the far side of the table from Pyrrha.

"Summer vacation time, let's grab our significant others and children, and get out of here!" Coco instructed her. Pyrrha laughed.

"You seem excited for someone who has to come back in the middle of their vacation," Pyrrha noted as she followed Coco out. Coco lowered her shades.

"Still vacation, baby," Coco informed her with a wink.

Raven stood outside of the cabin that she had once called home years… no, decades ago, and looked around the clearing that she and Tai had chosen and purchased. Patch was quiet and no one yet lived on the small island with the exception of the Beowulves that seemed to come in endless droves, but it was nothing compared to some of the people and monsters that STRQ had taken on in their years at Beacon. A few more houses had gone up, braving the wilds that the island occasionally mustered up in return for peace that was unlike anything that locales in the mainland could offer. Sure, the trip to town and back might take an entire day if you didn't have means of transportation to travel quickly across Patch, but the fresh air and time to think did people good.

She had run away from the tribe with Qrow, only to be scared back into it, a choice that she was slowly learning to regret. She wasn't sure that she'd ever have the strength to admit it, but this was it. This was the place that she should have decided on calling home, the place that she was finally going to call home. She was closer with Shadow than she'd hope to become, but there was something about that girl that was overly assertive, and Raven knew that came from her side of the family. Neela was a smart girl who was going to impress them all the older that she got… with some additional help from Raven, of course. Blake seemed like the perfect choice for Yang, the two balanced each other well, and Raven could only assume it was the reason for Yang's tame behavior through all of this. Yin and yang, for lack of better wording.

Yang… was still hostile at times. She could be flippant. She was annoyed quickly with Raven still. Raven sighed as the wind picked up and tossed her hair around, watching it sweep across the landscape, the grass bending at will and the treetops straining against it, the treehouse audibly creaking from the sudden gust that had formed. Raven looked at the dirt path beneath her feet and swallowed the anger that was rising up inside of her. She tried scaring Yang into loving her, and had even tried getting to know them as a 'last resort', but nothing had worked. Yes, Yang tolerated her, and things with Tai had nearly returned to what they were back when they were teens, but Raven felt this strong feeling clutching at her chest. She wanted Yang to approve of her being there… she wanted… Yang to love her…

Raven didn't deserve it. She knew better. Yang was just as stubborn as she was, a trait that seemed to be hardwired into the Branwen bloodline. She wasn't sure that her daughter would ever fully forgive her, and she didn't have the right to believe she would. Raven had missed many things in Yang's life and when the girl had shown up and asked for the whereabouts of her sister, Raven tried to show her tough love in hopes Yang would see the world for what it was and make her own decisions. Destiny is a difficult thing to alter, however, and Raven only came off as unloving and unkind and perhaps, at the time, she was. She could accept Qrow's hate, but Yang's stung. The wind blew even harder, nearly taking Raven off of her feet and she glanced around her. She checked the time, they'd be home for dinner soon and Raven was sure that she wouldn't be wanted, not to mention that Tai had to be wondering where she'd gone to.

Raven opened a portal, deciding that she had enough time to visit Summer before she headed back into the city for the evening, stepping through and being greeted by the same gust of wind from before, nudging her closer towards the headstone as she shut the schism behind her. It was hard to determine at this point if mother nature was simply messing with her, or if Summer was the one behind it. Raven had known stranger things to happen, and wouldn't put it past the woman to continue being a nuisance to her, even in death. There it was, the headstone that had brought her undeniable and unending grief.

They all blamed themselves, how could they not? Qrow was still convinced it was his bad luck. Tai should have seen the signs that morning when she left, taking care of the girls as Summer had a strange kind of determination in her eyes, but refused to say why. Raven liked to think that she took it the hardest, despite the fact that she wasn't as in love with her as Qrow, or as close to her as Tai. Summer had softened Raven when she attended Beacon, on her warpath to learn how to fight huntsmen, the girl had ruined her plans completely and set her on an entirely different course. Raven wondered if the grief had to do with how she'd become so cruel, Summer preached on and on about teamwork, but in the end, she'd done exactly what Raven would have done. It scared her to know that their leader and the most powerful of the four of them had died at Salem's hands.

Was this Raven's fault for writing her off? After she'd left she kept her distance the few times that Summer tried to bring her back, mock her ideas of making the world a better place through the use of teamwork. She never meant for Summer to go off on her own. But maybe Summer knew… Ozpin had warned her, told her not to go after Salem. Maybe she knew that she was going to lose the fight. She never would have left her husband and children on purpose, but to hold off Salem and give them a chance? Raven knew deep down that Summer would have done it all over again. It was the obligation that she felt to Remnant. She couldn't just sit by and watch, knowing that trying might slow Salem down. They hailed her as a hero, but few knew or could be told of what she did. Legends scatter, however. Unlike Ruby's actions, Summer's were done in secrecy, a battle that rivaled that of Ruby's but that the world would forever remain ignorant towards.

"Hey, Raven," came a voice from behind her. She turned slowly to face Yang, her blonde hair whipping wildly in the wind like her own, the two of them staring at each other for a long couple of seconds before Raven started to walk away from her, down the path towards the woods where she'd fly away once she reached the main road. "You don't have to leave right away."

"It's normally better if I do, isn't it?" Raven asked her as she passed by. Yang reached out quickly, stopping her, refusing to look at Raven who searched her face as she stared at the ground.

"My entire childhood I wanted you here," Yang spoke, her words heavy as they rested in Raven's ears. "And after everything that happened in Mistral, I came to terms with the fact that you wouldn't be coming back. You wouldn't be there like I needed you to be. But I guess once Blake came back I didn't really need you anymore. She helped put me back together. For a long time, I didn't think about it until Qrow told me that you wanted to come back and that you wanted to apologize." Yang felt a tear slip down her cheek and she let go of Raven's arm to wipe it away.

"I wanted you to stay away," she continued. "The drama that you'd bring with you and the pain that I was reminded of. I just wanted it to all go away and the easiest way to do that was to convince you to go away." Yang looked at her, their eyes locked. "But the more time that you spent with Shadow and the closer she grew to you, I realized that what I wanted was just as selfish as what you'd done to me. I couldn't just run away from you, this is something that I needed to face head-on." Yang shook visibly and Raven reached out awkwardly to comfort her, but Yang took a step back, snatching herself away. "I'll forgive you for Shadow's sake."

"But not your own?" Raven asked. Yang shook her head repeatedly, drawing in a deep breath.

"Maybe eventually, but I need more time," Yang told her. "I can see the effort that you've been making, and seeing you doesn't piss me off nearly as much as it did, to begin with, but I still need more time."

"I don't expect forgiveness," Raven told her. Yang looked back up at her confused. "I wouldn't forgive anyone who did what I did. There's nothing that I can do to make up for what I took from you. Even if you did have Summer. She was stripped away from you too soon, and I was nothing but a coward that was unwilling to look back." The wind finally stopped and Raven swallowed hard before beginning to walk away. "Just know that at the end of the day, I love you, Yang." Raven disappeared into the woods as Yang stared on, torn between the rage that filled her that she desperately wanted to let out in a scream, a cry of anguish, or chasing down Raven and finally relieving herself of the pain and forgiving the woman.

"Is everything okay, Yang?" Blake asked as she approached her wife. Yang nodded and dried her face before smiling at Blake.

"Of course!" Yang stated, making her way across the clearing to the grave.

"Was she here?" Blake asked. Yang ignored her for a moment, looking away. "Yang…"

"I said I'm fine," Yang bit. She looked at Blake whose ears flattened and Yang instantly regretted her reaction. "I'm sorry, Blake. Yeah, she was here." Blake wrapped her arms around Yang from behind.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Blake inquired again. Yang nodded.

"I'll be alright," Yang corrected. Yang looked the gravestone over before nuzzling her head against Blake's cheek, the Faunus's chin resting on her shoulder. "Tomorrow is Neela's birthday."

"She'll be eighteen," Blake reminded her.

"How did that happen?" Yang asked as she slipped free from Blake's grasp. "I still remember the day that we saved her."

"Old enough to drink," Blake stated nervously.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that, she knows that you'd kill her," Yang laughed.

"At least we don't have to worry about boys either," Blake said chuckling. Yang groaned.

"Yeah, just Elli if she ever gets a clue," Yang noted.

"Neela's planning on telling her Friday," Blake reminded her as they held hands and looked out across the landscape.

"She seems pretty excited about it," Yang pointed out. "I wonder what suddenly got into her."

"Hard to say," Blake offered. "I remember you confessing out of the blue."

"Hey!" Yang defended. "You weren't exactly being subtle with those long glances of yours." Blake playfully shoved her. Yang sighed. "I guess we should probably get back home and make dinner."

"Want to have some fun after Shadow goes to bed tonight?" Blake asked moving in for a kiss.

"It's like you can read my mind," Yang smirked kissing her hard. "Come on! Time's wasting!"

Tomorrow is Neela's birthday, but doesn't that mean... Next week, Chapter 130 - One Wrong Step!

A big thank you to AG_Nonsuch, Helihi, Cadhla182, Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. The artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.

Until next week, stay classy, and make sure to wash those hands!