Chapter 41

…

This night should have been an ordinary one.

At the very least, she planned it to be, and truth be told, it was ordinary for a decent while. She was outside, training, and on this night, she was crushing all of the exercises like she hadn't before. Of course, it also meant that once she was done, she was spent to her bone, and some of the following minutes were spent lying flat on the cold ground. Under the infinite rooftop which was the night-sky. When she was rested enough, she rose to her feet, and wanted to head home.

And that's when this night came to be something else entirely.

She froze solid midway her second step, and only a moment later her foot awkwardly landed onto the ground. She didn't blink, and honestly, she seriously wondered if what she was seeing right now was real. After all, it was so sudden and completely unexpected. One moment she was simply in the process of heading home, and literally a second or two later, something unnatural appeared hovering just above the ground, and then a figure walked through that…something. A figure which she could faintly remember seeing before, somewhere, but the moment this person took off its bony mask, is the moment Yang Xiao Long momentarily lost her touch with the reality.

"Yang."

"…Mum?" Her voice was like a ghost. Barely, if at all, tangible, and she still couldn't believe she was looking at her own mum. Mother, rather. "What…" She tried a sentence, but it faded off, and she lost her voice completely.

She just continued to stare, flabbergasted, and the world around her seemed to shrink. Or perhaps disappear altogether, but even that wouldn't really faze her any more than she already was. She just…this…it truly was a surreal experience through and through.

Her mother appearing before her just like that.

She searched years for her. Chasing after clues and gathering information. Getting herself into all sorts of trouble, and at times, she even found herself involved in situations that she shouldn't have been a part of. But now, now here she was. Standing before her, and her expression speaking of nothing at all as far as she could tell. As if seeing her own daughter after so many years wasn't a big deal for her.

Then again, maybe it isn't.

A coherent thought managed to spark into her consciousness, and that was enough to finally bring her back to reality. And the moment she returned to her senses; she was finally able to actually feel something. At first, just mere flickers of a singular emotion. One heartbeat later, more flickers appeared, and they belonged to a new, different emotion. This continued many times over, and at some point, flickers became fireworks, and then fireworks turned to be a violent bombing. A complete and utter chaos within her, and eventually, she herself wanted to explode. And see what would become of it, but then, as her inner chaos and bombing reached its peak, she suddenly snapped.

Not by realizing what was within her, but by merely remembering.

She remembered months of absolute misery she had to struggle through. She remembered how much she hated herself during that grim time of her life. How horrible and weak, pathetic she felt, and if fact, she was.

"I want so stay here. For a while, at least." Jaune finally spoke.

"Thanks, lil'cracker," Tai said.

But then, she remembered Jaune coming into her life, and rekindling with her dad. She remembered everything they had to go through to get to the point where they were now. And lastly, she remembered, or rather, she didn't remember her mother being a part of any of that. Nor the good, nor the bad. Nothing.

She just wasn't there.

And once she fully grasped and accepted that truth, the inner chaos and bombing subsided tremendously. She calmed herself down, and her expression resembled her mother's, if only slightly hostile, perhaps. She set her eyes strictly forward and then, without uttering a single word, she just started to walk towards Raven.

Truth be told, her mother didn't know what to expect from her daughter. She couldn't tell a thing from her expression, she couldn't read her body language, and honestly, Yang's reaction to her sudden appearance was a stark contrast to what she expected it'd be.

When her daughter merely walked past her without even sparing a glance, Raven's mask finally gave in a little, and her eyes widened ever so slightly from being surprised, as well as confused.

"Yang?" She said her name, and after a couple of paces, her daughter stopped. She pointed her look upwards, as if looking at the sky, and some moments later, it seemed that she took a big breath, and then audibly exhaled. And then, a moment later, she partially turned around.

"I'm done with you, Raven," She said with an even voice. A tired one, but so it was even, and Raven's eyes dilated further, and even her lips opened up a bit.

Yang continued, and her expression seemed to grow weary too as she did. "When I needed you the most, you weren't there for me. When my dad needed you the most, you weren't there for him. Instead, you were off somewhere doing…I don't know, something. Something which I guess was, and will be more important to you than being with your family. And for the longest of time, I wanted to know, why? Why did you leave us? Was it solely your choice to do it? Why did you never come back? Why did you never even try to establish any sort of contact with us? Why, why, why?" Her weariness was her voice. She paused for a moment, and her lilac seemed to dull momentarily, but seconds later, the focus returned and she continued. "But you know, what? After going through everything that I had to, and experiencing plenty of things during the most difficult time of my life, I've fully realized something. I now know better than ever before what's truly important," She said, and then inched her body ever so slightly closer to Raven. "So really, there's only one answer I really need to know. Are you ever going to stay with us?"

Raven actually hesitated before answering. "No. It would be too dangerous if I did."

"…"

There was a brief pause, her lips a stiff line, her gaze going astray, and something stirred from within. It wasn't a chaos, a mayhem of thoughts or violent bombing of emotions. Just a small, bitter and cold wave extinguishing the minuscule torch she kept alive for all these years.

Disappointment.

"If so, we have absolutely nothing to talk about." Her voice was her disappointment, and she turned away from her mother. And then started to head home. "And by the way, don't you even dare to see him in person. I swear I'll rip your heart out if you will," She said one last thing, and then walked away in silence.

Raven just watched as she did so. Before she wrapped her arms around herself for comfort, and realized she hadn't felt so alone and weak in a very, very long time.

"You've grown stronger than I realized, haven't you?" She quietly said, and of course, no one answered.

That's when she felt completely alone.