Chapter 3
Yang's Lonely Summer, Part 1

She wouldn't be left in the dust ever again.

Not by anyone.

She just had to find her place and be worthy of it, just like everyone else.

Ruby was an engineering mastermind. Her quick thinking out in the field and her talent against Grimm was outstanding. When she put her skills to practice, she far outshined the lackluster markings she gained in the classroom. She knew the material like the back of her hand. She simply had trouble transferring that knowledge down on paper. Her mind had always been like a sponge, eager to learn, determined to become a huntress. Her teachers knew it too, which was why they brushed most of her failing grades under the rug with promises of mission assignments and extra credit.

Ruby worked hard to earn the grades she did. Even if she had to put in more effort than a regular student. She was already a great huntress, and would only get better with time.

Yang envied just how much the task suited her sister.

Blake had an education beyond the walls of Vale. She had seen the world on a larger scale. She had walked in the dense wilds, and preached words of peace and equality to hordes of people. Faunus and human alike. When faced with adversity, Blake questioned everything. Her sharp tongue cut to the core of many arguments. Her persistence and tenacity only aided her pursuits. When Blake fought, she did so with every fiber of her being. Her adaptability in combat was a further byproduct of how she viewed the world. She wanted it to change for the better, and carried herself with that goal in mind.

Blake might not be as suited to the trade as Ruby, but being a huntress wasn't her goal. It was only meant to serve as the power to make her voice heard among the masses. All in all, it was a noble thing.

Yang had to admit, she wished she had such a noble cause to fight for.

Weiss was every bit the intellectual that her teammates were. She had that masterful attention to detail that Ruby lacked, and the calm diligence to further research new facts as they came to her attention. Weiss had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and had also seen the world at large. Unlike Blake, she even had the fame to do something about it. She was a competent fighter, and always true to her word. Even to a fault. Deep down, she felt as though she had something to prove, and she would stop at nothing to achieve that goal.

To Weiss, her existence was her calling. Her family name, a legacy. There was something brutally honest about her choice in life. She willing carried a darkness that she swore she would see through to the most bitter end.

Yang's family was a mystery to her, and no matter what she did, those answer eluded her.

She hated it, all of it.

Sometimes, Yang even hated herself.

Why did she matter? What made her so special compared to her friends, or her family? What did she really have? Her temper? Her carefree attitude? Her body? So what if she could hit like a truck... Was that the only thing she had going for her?

It couldn't be…

She wouldn't let that happen.

She wouldn't be that worthless. She wouldn't be so easy to forget. She would make something of herself, or she'd die trying.

Yang grit her teeth and shook her head. She didn't want to think about all the ways she failed in the past. All of the moments she took for granted. Instead, she launched herself into another set of angry strikes. Her fists flying into an invisible barrier before gravity itself seemed to spit her backwards. Her feet left the ground, and she slammed into a reinforced wall.

"You're distracted again." Glynda Goodwitch chastised as she watched Yang peel herself up from the training room floor. "You need to focus."

"I'm not distracted." Yang said with a groan. She felt her back pull uncomfortably. Something slipped back into place with an audible cracking sound. "I'm just not used to having you as a sparring partner. At least not one-on-one."

With one hand on her hip, the master huntress looked at Yang with mild annoyance. "When you signed up for my summer workshops, I warned you that it would not be easy. Your enemies wouldn't think twice to use lethal force. I have no intention of killing you, but, giving you leniency would be doing you a grave disservice. You must adapt and you must overcome."

Yang took a breath, shaking out her aches and pains. "Yeah, I hear you. You don't have to read me the riot act."

The older woman frowned, lips thinning into a tight line. She looked up to the clock. They still had some time before her next student arrived. "Miss Xiao Long -" Glynda began sternly only to take pause at her formal address. She had to do better than that. She forced out a breath and tried again. "I fully realize I was not as involved in your upbringing as some of the others here at this institution. Regardless, I'd like to think I know you better than that by now. The student that I know, would have at least come close to striking me."

"What's with the sentimentality?" Yang fired back with a raise eyebrow. "It's not really your thing."

Glynda eyed the young woman thoughtfully. The bombastic brawler had always been difficult to deal with. She was aimless, often without a primary goal. Taiyang had his hands full when it came to his daughters, and Glynda had observed their care at a distance. She had offered womanly advice to Taiyang, when and where it suited her. Regretfully, she hadn't felt the same desire to keep an eye on the household. Not the way that Bartholomew and Peter had.

In retrospect, she should have been stronger presence in their lives. As it was, she hadn't even visited the girls as children. Once they became students, avoiding them was impossible.

Yang would have benefited from a strong female remodel in her life. Yet, Glynda had long ago deduced that it wasn't her place. It was time to remedy her years of emotional distance. She collected two chilled bottles of water, and two moist towels. She draped one over her shoulders before tossing the other to Yang, watching as the brawler caught it.

"I could continue to send you flying about the arena like a ragdoll. Mind you, you'll never land a hit on me, not as you are now." She studied the monitor. Her aura was still perfectly in the green, while Yang's had already reached the end of yellow. "I find that speaking of my problems often help to ease my predicaments. It might suit you to try it."

"It's not anything like that... I've just had some stuff on my mind, that's all."

"Such as?"

"Well, future stuff, I guess. That and boredom." Yang muttered mostly to herself. "Hey, uh, why did you become a huntress, anyway?"

Glynda pulled off her glasses to clean them, considering the question. That wasn't something a person such as Yang would ask lightly. In fact, it likely troubled her a great deal. "To put it simply, I felt as though it would suit my needs. I'm happy to say that I was not incorrect."

"It's a lonely life. Not a whole lot of job security, either." Yang said then. "Can't imagine it was your dream job, or anything like that."

"No, most certainly not." Glynda replied thoughtfully. "What you must understand is that unlike many huntsmen, women often approach this profession differently. To most of us, it's a stepping stone for youthful endeavors." She said, handing Yang one of the cold water bottles. "Many women won't stop at merely becoming a huntress."

"They don't?" Yang asked, taking the offered refreshment.

"No, the vast majority have greater pursuits." Glynda said. "Having a license opens doors that would otherwise be closed."

Yang flinched at that. "Yeah?"

"Of course." Glynda said. "You've gained many practical skills. Graduating from Beacon shows that you've applied that knowledge successfully. Most men and women only finish schooling in one field of education. When you graduate Beacon, you will have spent four years honing many different crafts to a competent level. You would not have survived otherwise. These skills, along with your combat preparedness, allows you to apply for jobs that would otherwise be given to someone more qualified. On top of that, because you are a huntress, there are jobs out there that only someone of your skillset would qualify for."

"I don't know about that." Yang said, recalling Raven's outlook on the lifestyle. "From what I hear, some people just barely make it by."

"It is not a life of permanence, not for anyone." Glynda told her. "You won't grow old as a huntress. In truth, most stop taking missions long before then. The wilderness is harsh on the body, and inevitably there comes a time when you put down your weapons. Those that don't, well, they've often made their peace with dying long before."

"Looks like I have more to think about than I thought." Yang said, scratching the side of her head.

"In time, perhaps you will." Glynda agreed. "At this precise moment, however, you have only one concern."

"And that would be…?"

Glynda took her glasses off and placed them carefully off to the side. "To avoid ending up in the infirmary." Then she undid the immaculate bun that kept her hair in place, allowing her golden tresses to flow freely down her back. Pulling a pair of white fingerless gloves from her desk, she turned to Yang again. "I do hope you can manage at least that much." At Yang's dubious look, Glynda merely smirked. "Well now, I am Beacon's combat specialist for a reason. You may use your weapons and your semblance. Try to keep up."

With sweat already burning her eyes, Yang nodded as she pounded her fists together. "Bring it on."

When all was said and done, Yang couldn't land a single hit.

She waited until she got back to the dorm to cry away some of her frustration, but the luxury to vent her sorrow was short lived. Her scroll began to ring, and she brushed away her tears. She forced one of her perfect smiles and answered the call. She kept smiling, listening to Ruby talk about her training and the mission. Her young sister had such a zest for life.

Even that seemed to rival Yang's own in recent years.

"It was so huge, Yang! I've never seen anything like it, and then Uncle Qrow comes along out of nowhere and just slices it in half." She grinned happily as she bounced on her wooden seat. "I mean I knew Grimm got really big up in the mountains, but I didn't think they'd get that big. Though, Qrow told me that since it's so hot, most of them are migrating north to beat the heat."

"Sounds like you've had an exciting time out there." Yang chuckled softly as she looked down at the screen of her scroll. Her sister's retelling of a Grimm encounter probably wasn't exaggerated by the looks of the table surrounding her. A difficult mission was measured to how drunk their uncle was at the time. The man seemed to be partially sober as he spoke to a few old friends behind Ruby. "So, where are you two now, then?"

"Um, a few clicks southeast of the mountain range." Ruby said she moved her scroll to better see her sister. "Uncle Qrow says we have a few more villages to visit before we come back."

"Sounds like a long trip ahead. Try not to overdue it." Yang said.

"Yeah it's long, but going on horseback makes it a little faster." Ruby said, pointing the scroll's camera put of the nearby open window. Two large stallions rested in a bed of hay. "Weiss would have loved this."

"Yeah." Yang said fondly. "She really would have. Though I don't know if the horses would have loved her preening over them all the time. You know how she gets."

Ruby looked up over her scroll, nodding to someone off screen before looking back down at Yang. "I've got to go. We're going to try to get to the next village before nightfall."

"Alright sis, be safe, and stay hydrated." Yang said, bidding her sister goodbye.

The screen no sooner went to black that Yang guzzled down her own bottle of water. It was the hottest summer that Vale had seen in years. School children could fry eggs on the sidewalks, many of them gathered in clusters to do just that. Even the Grimm were more lethargic than usual, and missions to capture or kill them were lower than normal.

With the team dispersed, there wasn't much to do.

Yang had managed to keep herself busy the only way she knew how. Harsh physical activity. The local recreation center had just gotten some new machines, and she'd made good use of them. After a refreshing shower, she went back to walking around the streets of Vale. She even made a stop at the park to get some lunch from a vendor.

With one hand in her pocket, and the other holding a corndog she meandered about the city, taking in the sights. The corndog did nothing to fill her, and the creeping fog of unrelenting boredom began to sour her mood.

She itched for something to do. Something that wasn't roasting herself over a hot cooktop at Junior's bar. Her shifts were long, and paid just enough to get her by. Being a huntress wasn't easy, and while Ruby got by on a full scholarship, Yang was not so lucky. Tuition and dorm fees were expensive, and so were bullets and field gear.

A solid training hunt would have been entertaining, and given her some much needed income.

Yang fished out her scroll, scanning through the multiple messages that everyone had sent her. Even her dad was off having a good time. A photograph of Tai, Bart, and Peter had reached her inbox just the other day. The three men sat around a campfire, obviously indulging in whatever it was that Bart kept in his thermos. They had just started clearing the trail from Vale to Vacuo. Her father took a second photo right by a small outpost's gate.

If only she had her license, she could have gone with them. She had always wondered if the over-the-top banter Peter spouted was actually true. Whenever the three men gathered around the kitchen table, Peter told stories that made the ones in his class seem tame by comparison. Then again, the three of them formed something of a men's club, and Yang still doubted they would want a young woman like her tagging along with them anyway.

Another message from Ruby pinged her scroll a moment later. Ruby and Qrow astride their horses. They were about to take off back into the wilderness. There was a small message enclosed. – see, sis? It's a lot of fun. You should have come with us…- The caption beneath implored.

Yang only huffed in amusement. If Yang knew her uncle and sister, which she did, something was bound to end up being damaged before the summer was over. She sighed at the photo before closing it.

"Sorry Ruby, but I have my own training to do…" Yang told herself. "Can't let you pass me by…not yet."

Another long training session with Goodwitch left her body sore, and her mind busy.

She'd made so many mistakes during training. She knew she would probably make many more before the summer was up. She needed a distraction, but that was hard to come by. For as popular as she was, she was lonely.

Team JNPR were splitting their time up between Jaune's family and Pyrrha's, as was customary. Team CFVY had never separated after graduation, and spent almost all of their time on hunts. Team SSSN sent obscene and hilarious photos from time to time. Sadly, that just made her miss them more. She wouldn't see them again until the next tournament.

What was she to do?

She didn't work today, but, with no better plan she made her way to Junior's to idle away the long afternoon. She no sooner sat down that Weiss called to check up on her. The notion was sweet, but Yang couldn't help but feel inadequate. A small and bitter part of herself felt insulted. It was as if she couldn't be trusted to take care of herself. Yang also knew it was all in her own head. Weiss would never look down on her.

At the very least, though, Yang noticed she could be of some help. She lent a friendly ear as Weiss complained of family troubles back home.

"Of course, I have no intention of performing at another one of his charity benefits. I don't want to entertain some wealthy man's son for an evening, either. I came here explicitly to study. To no-one's surprise, the word 'no' is an entirely alien concept out of anyone else's mouth but his own. Furthermore, if his perpetual blather was not enough to infuriate me, he then proceeds to call Winter. What was even the point!?"

"He probably thought she would convince you to go…"

"Winter hates him even more than I do."

"Well, yeah, you're right." Yang says slowly. "But, she still talks to him all the time."

"Her position in the military requires it. She doesn't take tea with him for the pleasure of his company." Weiss sighed at great length. "That man is absolutely insufferable I tell you. Absolutely, completely insufferable!"

"Dad's, what a pain, huh?" Yang chuckled as she listened to Weiss ramble on about her father's unpleasantness.

"A man who is as cantankerous as he is, could never be my father Yang." Weiss replies, a heat in her voice masking years of pain. "He an insult to propriety and human decency. We both know he's disinherited me completely. I no longer have any claim to the family fortune. He's taken away everything I may have been entitled to. I don't know why he thinks he can still influence what I do with my own bloody life."

"Uh, because he's an asshat." Yang said dumbly, shaking her head and sighing when she realized that she wasn't far from the mark. "Honestly, if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about him."

"Oh, I'm not worried, infuriated."

"Noted."

"Just who does he think he is, making demands from me when he doesn't do a thing to look after my needs anymore..."

"Weiss, he knows exactly who he is, and that's kind of the problem. He's still your dad, no matter what you say." Yang said, her voice easing up into something soft and understanding. "But you know what? Just because he's your dad, doesn't mean he has to be part of your family. Next time he pisses you off, just tell him to go fiddle and diddle himself someplace else."

Weiss sorted indignantly. "Yang...that's crass…"

"Not as crass a telling him to fuc-"

"Yang!"

"Alright, alright, easy on the blood pressure." Yang laughed, seeing the blush on her friend's face through the tiny screen. "Every dad gets a stick up his ass every now and then. Yours just got his lodged there permanently. Normally you just ignore him, and that's what you've got to do this time."

"I've been trying Yang." Weiss breathed. "But he's just so..." Weiss trailed off. "I'm lost for words."

"Right, okay, sounds like he got under your skin a little bit. You can fix that." Yang calmly told her. "Why don't you just go to one of those fancy all-you-can-eat joints with Winter tonight. Order a little of that bubbly wine you both like so much…"

"It's champagne." Weiss deadpanned.

"Yeah, that's the fizzy crap I meant." Yang said with a nod. "Just, go do that. Put work down, have a nice dinner, and enjoy some sisterly bonding. Take it from me, when you're dad's acting like an idiot, there's no better cure than blowing off a little steam with the only other person in the world who actually gets it…and Winter totally does."

Weiss seemed to think on this. "You're probably right…"

"I know I'm right."

"Thanks Yang…" Weiss murmured.

"Hey, don't mention it…just, enjoy your vacation."

"I will."

Yang set down her scroll on the smooth wood of the bar, a soft smirk on her face. With a flick of her wrist, she summoned Junior's attention. "Yo, Junior, something fruity, pretty, and with an umbrella."

She missed her team, and by the sounds of it, they missed her just as deeply. She tried not to think too much of it. She had her own things to focus on. An orange colored drink slid her way. It was decorated with a red and yellow umbrella sitting lopsided against the glass. Lifting the drink to her lips, she took a delicate sip. It was just the way she liked it, and with a thumbs up toward Junior, she returned her gaze to her scroll.

Idly, she flicked through the news, hoping it would be a good way to pass the time.

It was only after a few hours, and her second umbrella topped drink, that the barflies began to slowly fill into their nightly haunt. Yang knew some of them as regulars, and a few others as Beacon students. There were some newcomers though. Young adults that she had never seen before. One of the new faces even approached her.

"You're Yang Xiao Long. I saw you compete in the festival last year." A young man dressed in black said, catching her attention. "Between you and that crazy chick with a hammer, the arena was all tore up."

Yang looked to meet his gaze. He had to be about her age, grey hair and eyes. They were signs that he might be from one of the outer villages. Although Yang wouldn't exactly say that she had a type, he was easy to look at. She leaned over her drink with a smile, toying with that little paper umbrella. A nervous habit of hers, which was why she liked them so much. "You saw that, huh?"

"It was kind of hard to miss." He told her. "They were doing instant replays for weeks."

"Oh yeah, it was an awesome fight." Yang nodded, remembering the battle clearly. Taking the pointed end of her drink's umbrella, she poked at a few of the ice cubes slowly. "That 'crazy chick' I was up against, we're good friends. Her name's Nora. The teachers don't let us spar in class though, 'cause, well…" Yang trailed off with a smile. "You saw the arena. They don't want us doing that to the class room."

"I believe it." He said leaning heavily on the wooden bar. "What was your team's name again?"

She smirked, dropping the umbrella back to its place. "Team RWBY. I haven't seen you around before. Are you a student?"

"I'm transferring in with my team for the new term. The name's Mercury Black." He told her. "You mind if I sit?"

Yang just smiled and gestured to the open chair…