[X] No. She should stay behind. Investigate silver eyes. Contact Qrow and ask him to ask Ozpin, maybe.
"You're not going to go?" Piran asked, looking towards Yang. "I thought this would be the kind of thing you were into."
Yang shrugged. "I've had enough near-death experiences this year." She replied. "Even if the plan is sound, I'd rather not head towards what sounds like a really big battle. Bad for my health."
Ruby gave her a look which betrayed a measure of scepticism, but for the most part, she seemed happy that Yang was using her own health as an excuse, at the very least.
"I'm probably not gonna go either." Peri replied, looking around the room.
Yang, Piran, Peri, Nora, Ren, Sun, Sage, Gawain, Eris, Penny, Ciel and Ruby were all in the room together. They had been for a while, but the conversation hadn't really gone anywhere at first, what with how many people there were talking over each other.
"I concur." Gawain nodded. "I came here to have a look at how life was in Atlas, not to witness a battle. I do believe I have little reason to go."
"Would it not serve your Kingdom well?" Eris asked. "To be able to witness the path which Atlas shall follow in the years to come?"
"She does raise a good point." Sage mused. "The SDC and military are both backing this plan, so failure to the point of our death isn't likely. And no matter what occurs, it is sure to be a historical event in the making. I would like to be there when history was made, however it goes."
"Wow." Sun noted. "That's a lot of words to say you think it'll be cool."
"I'm allowed to be wordy." Sage objected.
"Yeah, and I'm allowed to make fun of it." Sun replied.
"Is that how friends usually interact, friend Ciel?" Penny whispered to the girl beside her, unaware that she was being loud enough to still be heard. "Should I interact with you in that matter?"
"No." The girl in the blue beret replied.
"Oh." Penny noted. "...To the first question, second question, or both?"
"Second." Ciel confirmed.
That was an odd interaction between them. Yang briefly wondered what Penny's story was. She seemed to be acting weird at times, staring a bit too much at people talking to her, and Ciel didn't seem like the sort of person who would be friends with someone like Penny, yet was Penny's go-to person to ask advise about.
...Then again, Nora and Ren didn't seem like people who would be friends if you didn't know how close they were. So it wasn't that weird. It was just something about Penny that made Yang think there was something weird about her.
Speaking of which, Yang looked over to where Ren and Nora were sitting. Nora was eating some sort of chocolate bar, on the logic that she's either talking or eating and nobody wants to talk over each other so she needs to be eating and thus people have to give her chocolate.
Yang somewhat suspected that she'd managed to scam everyone into giving her chocolate. But if she had, then Nora deserved that win.
"I mean, it is tempting to go." Peri spoke up. "But it will be a battle. Not quiet a war, but there will be an army fighting what would essentially be an army. Most Hunters go their whole lives without fighting the sort of things that One was talking about, and I'm not even a proper Hunter yet. Merely in training. And not even that good in a fight. I'm fairly sure I'd lose a fight to everyone here except..."
She frowned, looking around.
"...How good is your sister, Yang?" She asked, after a moment.
"Nearly kicked my ass in a spar not long ago." Yang replied.
"Ah." Peri nodded. "So I'm the worst."
"Don't say that." Ruby spoke up suddenly. "Yang's super biased. I'm sure you don't keep hitting yourself in the face."
"Don't sell yourself short." Yang replied. "Either of you. Ruby, you're amazing-"
She looked down, trying to avoid eye contact in embarrassment.
"-And Peri, you're way smarter than me so who cares if I can punch things harder?"
"I think we got distracted." Peri sighed. "As I was saying, I'm not really prepared to go into a real fight on that scale. So I think I'll stay here."
"So, where does that leave everyone?" Piran asked. "Yang, Ruby, Peri, and Gawain are staying. Eris, Sun, Sage and I are going. What about you, Ren."
The boy in green took a moment to consider it.
"What do you want to do, Nora?" He asked, before long.
Nora swallowed the rest of her current chocolate bar, and when given the choice between breathing and talking while she opened the next chocolate bar, opened her mouth to make noise.
"I kinda wanna see it." Nora replied. "Like, it sounds like something super cool to see, doesn't it? And then we can sit up in One's airship looking down at all the dying Grimm and laugh like a mad queen. I can picture it now, me with a crown on my head, looking down through a gold-tinted window at the dying hordes of darkness, wearing a dress of a regal purple with gold trimming, the sun bearing down from above, maybe it's a little overcast allowing for a dramatic shadow to slightly tint the Grimm and allow the shadow to pass by and light up the ground beneath the sky as the Grimm are destroyed, reflective of the way the darkness was being defeated, Ren at my side to bring me more food..."
She trailed off as she finally got the wrapper undone, allowing her to bite into the next bar of chocolate.
"I guess I'll go then." Ren replied. "If Nora's been imagining it in that much detail, she must be looking forward to it."
Nora looked like she wanted to say something in respond, but had her mouth full, so whatever words she had said were inaudible.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth." Ren sighed. "It's rude. And some food will fall out of your mouth."
Nora made a panicked sound, and put a hand over her mouth as she kept chewing.
"Should we go, Ciel?" Penny asked her friend. "I'm not sure if we should attend. On one hand, General Ironwood has faith in this project, so it should be safe, but I'm not sure."
"Stay." Ciel replied. "Things we need to do."
Penny seemed to frown, then nodded. "Okay. I will!"
"What is General Ironwood like, anyway?" Eris asked. "I'm curious."
Penny looked at Ciel, and Ciel gestured back, leaning forward a bit to draw everyone's attention.
"I haven't met General Ironwood." Ciel noted. "Beyond a few speeches at the Academy. Not enough to know him."
Eris frowned, before seeming to realise something. "Ah, right. Atlas is more organised than Vacuo, you'd have less of a chance to meet with him."
"You've met the Headmaster of Shade?" Gawain asked.
"It's not that surprising." Eris replied. "In Vacuo, the Headmaster may essentially be the only authority with any power, but that power is based entirely on the generations of Hunters that pass through his tutelage. He's put in a situation where he simultaneously needs to focus on the students, but also on his other duties. Headmaster Gismor's preferred solution to this is simply to identify high-potential students only on, and have them serve as his aids for his military duties. It gives him a chance to properly understand those who would be helping to enforce his control of Vacuo, which he needs to keep that control."
"Huh." Yang noted. "So you know the Headmaster of Shade, then?"
"Not well." Eris continued. "I serve as an assistant every now and again, but it's not a job for socialisation. I'm only there because I have been able to maintain a rate of growth with my abilities, and demonstrated loyalty."
"So, the general keeps around powerful loyal people to make them more loyal." Gawain noted, frowning.
Eris turned towards him. "Are you trying to imply something? Vacuo's criminal elements are out of hand, and the control of the Kingdom isn't as stable as you have in Mistral. Loyalty is needed because loyalty is rare, Mistralian."
"Ah, apologies." Gawain quickly backpedalled. "I didn't mean any offence. It merely seemed odd, is all."
Stretching a bit, Yang stood up.
"Well, this has been a good talk." She noted. "But I wanted to call some people back home soon, and since everyone knows what everyone is doing, I think I'll do that now."
The conversation had been a fun little time waster, but Yang really wanted to make progress on solving that little mystery, of Five's motivation. All she had gotten out of One was that silver eyes were important and that she should find out more herself, and Qrow might be able to help her out with that.
...Besides, she was starting to get a bit of a headache, so some time away from the group might do her some good.
"I should go too." Penny noted. "I'm trying to learn how to craft weapons right now. As a hobby. I should keep working on my current project."
Ruby's eyes lit up. "Weapon crafting? How good are you right now?"
Penny took a moment to think about it. "Hm. I think I'm fairly decent? This current design should be a good test."
"I know a bit about making weapons." Ruby spoke up. "Do you need a hand? Is it a cool weapon? Are you treating it with love?"
"I am trying to be cautious in following the set guidelines." Penny noted. "I am trying to base this weapon off another one I have seen once. Maybe it can be a gift."
Noting that Ruby was happy and talking to someone who did seem harmless, even if they were a bit weird, Yang stepped out of the room, waving to everyone as she went.
Then, pulling her scroll out of her pocket, Yang quickly typed in a few numbers as she walked away from the room a bit, eventually reaching an open balcony of some sorts. Waiting for the call to connect, Yang managed to get an answer before long.
"Hey." Yang called. "How're you doing, old man?"
"So rude." Qrow complained. "And I'm doing fine. Bit busy right now, need to go drop by an engineer to fix a bug in this damn arm, but fine. Can we get to the point please?"
"Your arms acting up?" Yang asked.
"It's nothing." Qrow replied. "Just annoying more than anything. If this is just a social call, can I call you back later?"
Yang considered fretting further for a moment, but eventually decided to get right to the point.
"It's not just a social call." Yang admitted. "I was talking to One earlier. The Intoner."
"Ah." Qrow replied. "Had something important to say, did she?"
Yang rubbed her forehead a bit, and tried to ignore the headache as she thought back to the meeting.
"Not really." Yang replied. "She kept going on tangents, when I asked her about why Five took Ruby. I'm not even sure how the conversation shifted at some points. She did say one thing, though."
"Oh?" Qrow asked.
"She didn't think Five was lying about taking Ruby because she had pretty eyes." Yang noted, pausing again as the headache flared up more. "She... Just thought that Five recognised some sort of significance, in the eyes. Didn't say a word about why that could be, though. Just asked me to look into it myself. Said something about Ozpin knowing something."
"...You couldn't get any information out of her?"
"I'm getting a headache just thinking about it." Yang complained. "Why is it that people who know things are never straightforward with telling people things?"
"I feel like that's a dig at me teaching you magic the way I was taught." Qrow noted.
"Well, anyway." Yang continued. "You work close enough to Professor Ozpin to talk with him, right? Has he ever mentioned silver eyes to you before?"
"Occasionally." Qrow responded.
"He said something at the meeting, didn't he?" Yang asked suddenly. "About Ruby not being effected by the song because the silver eyes represented something?"
Qrow was quiet for a moment.
"I... Think he did?" He asked, sounding a bit pained. "I asked him about it after the fact. He said..."
He trailed off again.
"...How much did I drink last night?" He asked suddenly. "Sorry, I'm feeling a bit hazy all of a sudden."
Seriously?
Yang felt her frustration begin to grow. "Uncle, I've been sitting in the dark as to why my sister was kidnapped for months and you-"
"Hey, don't misunderstand." Qrow called back, sounding pained again. "I'm sorry, I really want to help. I'm just suddenly feeling terrible."
"That's convenient." Yang noted bitterly.
Why couldn't she just have one person be able to give her answers? Why did it have to be so difficult to get information that could so much as hint at an answer?
"Look, Yang." Qrow spoke up. "I was gonna head up to Atlas tomorrow. Boss' given me some days off now, as it turns out. Work I was supposed to do dried up. He should have some time free between now and then, I'll let him know you wanted to ask him some things and we can go from there, okay?"
"And what happens when Ozpin starts not answering questions?" Yang asked. "When someone else gets away with just not saying anything? Am I ever supposed to be figuring out what's going to happen here? Or am I just going to sit around without knowing why-"
Qrow sighed. "Yang, I know you're pissed off right now, but I really gotta go."
"Yeah, go." Yang replied. "Waste of time this was."
She hung up her scroll, then took a moment to make herself breath.
...Damn it, she was getting too worked up over this.
She had every right to, considering everyone was jerking her around and avoiding the question, but all she wanted was a motive. To know why. Was that so hard?
...Damn it, she just needed to relax. Qrow claimed he would be here tomorrow or something, fine then, she'd try to forget about this until then. Ruby'd be upset if she got too obsessive over something again, and failing to get answers wasn't even as big a deal as failing to protect people. This wasn't worth upsetting Ruby over.
Sighing, Yang rested against a wall for a moment, and considered what to do with her time to try and unwind until then.
Keeping in mind that Qrow would probably not be arriving until after the Intoners leave on their conquest, Yang...
[X] Spends some time with Two. She's a happy person. She'd work great for unwinding right about now.
[X] Just hangs out with Ruby for a bit. Maybe they could try doing to a shooting range, help Yang work through the stress.
[X] -Wait, One's plan needed all the Intoners, at least by implication. So Four should be back sometime soon too. Maybe Yang should say hi to her.
[X] Decides to unwind by finding a view of something good looking. Namely, those Mistral kids, Sun and Sage.
[X] ...Forget about unwinding, this had gone on long enough. Go find Five and get the answers out of her, even if Yang needs to beat them out of Five.