Hero.

Part two.

…

Yang Xiao Long was confused. Completely, utterly confused.

Now, him being worried she could understand. The girl next to him, who she assumed was his sister being worried, she could as well.

What she couldn't comprehend however, was just how much worried and scared he was about her. His arms shaking and being so close to tears.

They weren't that close, right?

Or rather, they weren't just yet, as he would put it.

…Right?

"Estelle, we need to call an ambulance ASAP!" He ordered frantically, one hand around Yang's, the other around her shoulder.

"No, we won't." She argued back, then clenched her jaw shut, the heat in her chest surfacing once again.

"Estelle, now!" He cried, his blue not daring to part from the brawler.

"I,I,I…" She couldn't even manage a sentence, her eyes darting from him to her.

"…W-what should I do..?"

"Call an ambulance, damnit!" He cried out again, his voice shaking from fear and fury alike.

"Jaune, you have to calm down," She ordered brusquely, but didn't shout like he did. "I'm fine, okay?" She said, then noted right away how edges around his lips and eyes tightened tenfold. "Will be okay." She rushed a correction, yet he didn't relent.

"How are you fine, Yang?!" He started fiercely, completely ignoring her correction. "How in a world you doubling over in pain is fine?!" He demanded, taken over by fury more than concern it seemed.

"Jaune, just lis-" She immediately cut herself short, noticing how the younger girl was pulling out a scroll.

Before she even got a chance to write down a single character, Yang managed to swiftly take away the device.

"Hey!" He exclaimed just that, her free hand abruptly sealing his lips shut.

"Jaune, please, listen." She demanded clearly, unmistakably yet her voice carried a few soft edges with it.

He tore away her hand unwavering.

"Like hell I'll-"

She sealed his lips again.

"Just calm down a bit," She said, her voice even softer.

Despite it, he showed no compromise or even snippets of understanding and pushed her hand down to the ground.

"Yang-"

"I beg you!" She exclaimed, momentarily shutting him up.

"…"

He took raspy breaths, blinked utterly slowly or super quickly and truly was fazed there and then. She didn't want him to be, but wholly appreciated a moment of peace and silence. It gave her a chance to collect her thoughts and just perhaps, make him listen.

"Please, Jaune, just listen to what I have to say. Just listen, okay? To me, for a moment, alright?" She said, inspecting closely how he would react.

"…"

For a moment, he did nothing more than taking in those same, raspy breaths from before, only now he didn't even blink. Just stared wide open into her lilac, his eyes slowly narrowing as he did. When they were about half way closed, his blue ever so slowly made its way to the ground, his lip trembling terribly all the way through it.

"But…" His voice a mere shadow of itself, he looked so weak and vulnerable, even a meekest of insult's would crush his body and soul alike. So defeated, she couldn't bear to see him like this any longer.

"I'll be okay," She said gently, tried to level her eyes to his, but then noted his hand was utterly slack. Cautiously, she freed her hand and moved it to his face, lifting it so he'd look back to her. At first he didn't, but when her lips met his forehead, twice, he couldn't help himself but to give her a look.

What kind of? Neither he or she didn't know, but he'd certainly wouldn't forget hers. Those two, lilac eyes burning with sympathy he couldn't, didn't want to deny.

"Just breath, okay? Deep, deep breaths and when you'll feel like you're ready, I'll explain, okay…Blondey?" She allowed a more lighthearted smile show across her lips.

"O-okay," He barely said back, then felt her hand move to his cheek.

"Seriously, I'll be okay," She said, her words sounding truthful.

He, on the other hand, said nothing for a moment. Just breathed deeply as she suggested, the many lines and contours fading away from his face, making him look calmer.

"I'll listen." His voice proved so too, almost normal it seemed, if slightly sulky perhaps.

"There you go, Blondey." Her lips still a fine smile, she even chuckled a bit. After she did, she barely moved her lips apart, then closed them shut. Her lilac eyes hovering over Estelle now.

"I know this will sound a bit weird and all, but could you give us a moment, please? I need to have an eye to eye with him, alright?" She spoke slowly, calmly but not cautiously so it wouldn't come off any weirder than it already was.

The youngest girl blinked dozens of times, her crystal blue fidgeting all around as it seemed she was still completely lost in the whole situation. Eventually, it did settle on him, her gaze somewhat expectant.

"…"

It took him a while, but eventually he noted his sister was eyeing him. Once he did, his face twisted troublingly, an air of shame about him.

"…Sorry, precious one." His tone somber but kind, he took hold of her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

'For what?' Her look told him.

"For lashing out on you earlier. You didn't deserve it, yet I lacked any self-control and started to scream at you pointlessly, cruelly." He stopped just briefly, his face pleading for forgiveness, squeezing her hand just a bit harder. "I'm sorry," He said with sincerity second to none.

"It's alright." She balled her hand into a fist, placing it over her chest. "You just desperately wanted to help someone you care for. I'm sure you'd be the same if I was in big trouble," Her understanding formed an honest smile, she squeezed his hand back.

"…Thanks."

Just one word, but said everything she deserved to know.

"I'll leave you alone then," She said pretty much normally, perhaps his apology helped her to relax.

"Only for a while, kiddo." Yang added.

"Okay," Estelle said, her legs taking her somewhere else.

Once she was out of the earshot, Jaune let out a sigh, his lips folding into a smile.

"You know, where are times when I think that she's more mature than I am."

"Perhaps, but she's certainly a good child, a good sister." Yang added, their gazes coming together.

"Definitely." He agreed wholeheartedly, licked his lips and seemed to want to say something, but didn't for one reason or another.

"I know," She said, fully aware of the situation before her. "I guess I should start explaining myself. Only one problem though, I'm not exactly sure where to begin," She said, scratching her head.

"From the beginning?" He quietly uttered.

She squinted her eyes at him, a gesture which clearly said 'I know that already' but then let out a sigh and quickly made up her mind.

"Well, basically, about a week or so, perhaps a bit more, I supposedly got this hot lead to my mother's whereabouts," She said, but immediately could see it didn't explain anything to him. If anything, his brows furrowed from being lost at her words.

"So yea, I haven't told you this yet, but I'm actually searching for my mother."

"…Why?" He asked unsurely.

"Because I want answers." She started brusquely, confidently yet composure shrank soon after, her lilac dropping down to the ground. "And even more so, my dad needs some answers. He's the one who suffered the most when she left." She finished quietly, sighed and looked back to his face.

"You okay?"

"Yea," She said, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Anyways, like I just said, I got this new lead to where my mother could be, or rather, the person who would know. Obviously, I went to investigate. The guy's location was pretty shady, but I wouldn't stop because of it,"

"You went there alone?" He interrupted.

"Of course I did." She admitted flatly, evenly. "My mother's search is my personal business to deal with, even Ruby has no place to be any part of it."

"But…she's your sister."

"My step-sister by blood. Raven's my mother, not hers." She intoned so pointedly, he felt his heart thud just a bit harder the next couple of times.

She seemed to notice, her red changing back to lilac soon after. "Besides, Ruby's a bright, optimistic person, you know so yourself, Jaune," She said, her eyes kind and endearing in nature. "And I want it to stay so, no matter what, got it?"

Before answering, he thought for a moment, allowing her words to really sink in. Once they did, he was quick to realize she spoke out of care and love; like she would always do when talking about Ruby.

"Okay, I get it…You went to that place alone, what happened?"

For a moment, she showed a knowing grin, though knew better he wouldn't catch on just because of it.

"To say in short, instead of getting some answers, I got into big trouble," She said with a nonchalant shrug, as if that in and on itself was about as normal as admitting the water was wet.

"I often do, nothing new about it," She said light-heartedly, hoping he'd feel easier about the news then.

She guessed it didn't work too well, his expression souring, but fortunately, it lasted just shortly. His face revealing a tiniest of tugs in a single corner of his lips.

"I guess you do."

"Yea…although this time, I'll admit, I got into some really nasty one. I mean, the last guy I fought was one tough SOB, even if others were dangerous as well," She said, then paused for a lengthier moment.

He waited patiently, something she truly appreciated since she wasn't sure how to continue.

She knew what happened thereafter, of course, but admitting that to him was an entirely different story.

"I…" She started, but not because she made up her mind, but because of his eyes narrowing in worry. "I got a bad wound. I mean,"

"How bad?"

"I got pierced through the chest." She admitted quickly, yet sealed his mouth with her hand even quicker. "Jaune, please, I really don't want to…" The rest of the sentence was lost upon a realization she had.

Her hand, he didn't try to force it away, didn't try to shout behind it, even his eyes were not as dilated as she'd expect them to be. Instead, it almost seemed like he simply waited for her to continue.

…The hand around hers was trembling just slightly, she only now noticed.

"Jaune..?" She let his name slip through her lips, waited a moment longer, then removed her hand from his lips.

"You're still alive and somewhat well so…I don't know, what happened next?" He asked, and she could still feel his hand trembling. Before she would answer, she squeezed his hand firmer.

"I beat the absolute shit out of him," She said so confidently, so straightforwardly, so Yang Xiao Long like he managed a brief, but honest grin across his lips.

"And then?"

"And then I collapsed. From the exertion and damage received, I lost consciousness, and by the time I woke up, the wound was pretty much healed. Even the pierced lung," She said, then almost chuckled for whatever reason there was when a fright washed over his face. She knew for a fact it was because of the last sentence she said, a realization that pierced chest in quite a lot of cases meant damaged lung as well. Of course, the heavy confusion which followed soon after she could understand as well. It proved he didn't miss her saying the wound, her lung including, was pretty much healed.

"I'll explain."

She knew already he'd have some questions about it all, so before he'd ask even just one, she'd simply explain in greater detail about what happened when she woke up.

…

Hot, burning sunlight striking down to the earth, but partially blocked by a black, utterly, completely dark mass of hair. Incredibly soft to the touch as it fell over her face.

Two, strikingly red eyes met hers.

Words she couldn't remember.

A smile she couldn't as well.

"Mom!" She snapped upwards with a scream, utterly lost to everything else.

A heavy heaving of chest followed thereafter, panting, gasping for breath and only then she slowly started to inspect her surroundings.

Grey, miserably so walls, dirt and what seemed like decade old mold everywhere, a barely spinning fan in one of the corners, each spin it made making it seem like it would explode any moment. A ghost of a carpet covered the floor, a wardrobe missing both doors positioned close to the window.

She squinted her eyes, and soon noted a single light-bulb handing by a thread from the ceiling, it constantly flickering in and out every so often. Either ways, she couldn't recognize the place at all. She wouldn't even it had seen better days; Yang simply didn't know where she was. Not that it scared or worried her really, but a sudden shard of memory however, did.

She gasped, her eyes wide open and quickly placed a hand atop of her chest, breathing. Slowly, cautiously so to note if anything at all seemed wrong. Ironically, when it didn't she grew more nervous. Frantically, she jumped to her feet and pretty much ripped off the jacket and t-shirt along with it. Her lilac immediately in hot search for any proof at all she didn't simply imagine someone piercing her chest. With-in some feverish moments, her fingertips came across a slightly distorted skin. Peering at it intently, she saw it to be an unnaturally white pigment like spot.

"What…" The rest of the sentence was left in her throat, she closed her eyes shut and tried to remember.

The stuff which happened before getting severely wounded she could, but anything after was a total mystery. No images, no distinct sounds or even smells she could cling onto.

Nothing.

Just some shitty place she didn't know, and a lousy proof she was truly pierced through her chest. Continuing to breath heavy, she ducked lower and searched her jacket for a scroll, soon noting it wasn't there. Instead, she saw it to be on the poor looking night-table close to the couch she was resting on earlier. Going over to retrieve it, she noted the device was still functioning. A glowing number above the message icon soon earning her interest. Pressing on it, she read.

'Yang, I'm not going to save you ever again. Please, for your own good, as well as his, stop searching for me. It will be better for both of you, if you will.

Simply forget I ever existed.'

She read the message and paused. Then read it again, again and again and paused once more.

"…"

The moment of peace was short-lived, her lilac snapped to red as she roared and threw the device against the wall. Of course, it smashed and shattered into thousands of pieces.

She didn't stop there, though.

Whatever little furniture there was, anything else there was to destroy, she did. Completely alien to any precaution at all, the world itself fading away into sub consciousness. She raged, and her inferno gave rise to violence she couldn't, didn't want to control, subside one bit.

The unbearable swelling in her chest, she had to let it go, yet no matter how much she swung her arms and legs around, the burning, boiling sensation didn't relent. In fact, it seemed to grow more painful. Literally, physically it did, making her realize something else was utterly wrong besides her mother.

Gasping and panting, the heat travelled through-out her body, she started to lose strength in her legs and fell to her knees.

'Splash.'

Bullets of sweat hit the cold floor, and she struggled to take in a wisp of air.

'Splash.'

Still, upon seeing a piece of her broken scroll lying below her form, she clenched her jaw shut, her trembling hands balling into fists.

'Splash.'

The amount of sweat hitting the floor increased, she felt a sharp pain.

'Splash.'

Something else made her heart thud violently, painfully so inside her chest.

'Splash.'

She doubled over completely, futilely whimpered for help, and let the hot tears fall down to the floor in abundance.

'Splash.'

She felt defeated. Hurt, vulnerable, but above all else,

Lonely.

…

"…Later, when I got the new scroll, I read the other message she'd sent me before that one. In a nutshell, it mentioned something about powerful drugs which enchanted aura effects tremendously. In my case, it was the healing factor and hence, the wound has healed in such a short time. One thing however, depending on various circumstances, there are some side-effects to deal with. In my case, I felt a burning sensation, swelling inside my chest, as well difficulties to breath at times. The latter is mute at this point, but the swelling still happens from time to time. Won't last for long though, not anymore, for sure," She said, and finally paused for a sec.

She figured he'd have something to say, yet he didn't. He simply waited, his eyes steady on hers.

"Well…actually, that's about it, Jaune. That's about all I can say about my shitty predicament."

"…Does rest of the team know? Any of them?"

"No, and I'd want it to stay that way," She said, pointedly.

He thought for a moment, his blue heavy in nature, then closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Okay, I won't tell anyone…Not even Ruby, even if I'd want to."

She pursed her lips sadly, then smiled a bit brighter.

"I appreciate it. For real, thanks."

"Yea…" He uttered quietly, weakly, falling silent thereafter. For a moment, she didn't say anything either, her eyes searching for his, while his wandered about. Eventually, she decided to speak up again.

"I'm okay, Jaune, for real," She said, and noted his eyes found hers for a moment, then went astray again.

"Yea…" He mumbled, pursed his lips and she noted they trembled. Before she could say a word though, his lips stopped trembling, even forming a smile thereafter. Honest one, no less.

"I know you are, will be," He said with much more confidence, his blue meeting her lilac, and staying so.

She simply smiled back, the warmth of his hand around hers reminding her of something.

"By the way, for how long do you plan to hold my hand?"

"Oh, sorry." He smiled apologetically, removing his hand from hers.

She grinned, shrugging nonchalantly. "I didn't say I minded," She said half-jokingly, her hand clutching around his.

He gave her a slightly surprised look, and she wanted to end the joke there, her hand parting from his, yet suddenly, his fingers wrapped around hers.

Now, she was the one with a slightly surprised look, yet it wore off quickly. Instead, her face was embellished with a beautiful smile. Much like his.

"By the way," She started calmly, then burst into a brief giggle. "I think your sister has given us plenty and more room at this point."

"Damn!" He exclaimed, then quickly turned his head and shouted her name. "Estelle! You can come back!"

She simply nodded from afar, her form moving over to them.

"She is your sister, right?"

"Yep." He affirmed, the aforementioned sibling soon standing next to them.

"A-are you okay?" She started with that.

"Absolutely, kiddo." She winked, her tone full with bravado.

"O-okay." She stuttered, her hands balled into fists, them pressed against her chest as she nervously looked all around.

"Seriously, I'm alright," Yang said so again, this time calmly, yet also sincerely.

The youngest Arc nodded.

"Name's Yang Xiao Long, by the way." She introduced herself, accepting the handshake offered to her.

"And mine's Estelle Arc. I'm the youngest in the family, turning twelve this year, as well as am…" She trailed off for a bit, her cheeks growing red. "I'm brother Jaune's sister, but that's obvious, I guess," She said in a tiny voice, a sheepish smile across her lips.

"Okay then," Yang half said half chuckled, quite amused how timid the child was. Then again, given how they met…

"By the way, sorry for the…unimpressive first impression. Trust me, very rarely do I look so miserable."

"It's alright…As long as you're truly okay, it's fine," She said with a tiny, unsure smile.

"I just want you to understand and relax a bit, kiddo." Her words ringed truthful, she simply wished the child to ease up on the whole situation prior to this. Hence, when she noted Estelle's shoulders moving just a bit lower, a sign of her easing up a bit, she felt herself smile appreciatively. Even if overall, she still looked sheepish and uncomfortable around them, so much so, that even Jaune started to wonder about it.

"Is something wrong, precious one?"

"N-no, it's just," She stopped herself short, her crystal blue momentarily hovering over their linked hands.

"I…can I look around for a bit?"

"I mean…" He started, but couldn't finish from all the thoughts racing through mind.

In all honesty, her face looked mostly neutral, a rather noticeable blush on her cheeks being the only feature which stood out a bit. That, and her eyes fidgeting all about, painting a picture that she was just nervous and sheepish right now.

Well, given the fact about the whole situation earlier…

"…Sure, go ahead."

He figured she acted quite normally, all things considered.

"Thanks," She said, looked at the pair just a bit longer, then turned around with a smile both of them missed.

Couple of moments passed quietly, they simply watched the child go, but then her lilac turned to his blue.

"Sorry." She apologized sincerely, but he had no clue why.

"For what happened earlier, you know, my not so cool first impression on her. It's because of that, that she was all nervous and stuff. Sorry about that," She said, then couldn't understand why he looked so apologetic thereafter.

"Your first impression on her wasn't the best, sure, but I certainly didn't make the situation any better, did I? If anything…I'm the one who should apologize, not you. I mean, I'm so used to seeing you strong and confident, a total bad-ass in short, that seeing you hurt and vulnerable was just something unusual for me. I totally panicked, couldn't compose myself at all, and the rest you…well, know," He finished, a sheepish, apologetic grin across his face.

"Hey, it's alright." She reassured. "I mean, it's not exactly easy to calm yourself when you see someone doubled over like I was. Especially since it was me, you know, the total bad-ass among them all," She said with an oomph, liking the way he chuckled because of it. "Besides I…" She trailed off a bit, her features softening and giving him a kind look. "I didn't mind that you did, well, okay, I did but also appreciated it, or at least now do," She said, noting his eyes going elsewhere for a moment.

"You're welcome," He said, his eyes back to hers.

She didn't say anything, just smiled and crossed her legs.

He didn't either, just looked up the night sky. A gesture she was already familiar with, however, him squeezing her hand harder was something she couldn't read. His face also didn't tell her much, if anything, he looked peaceful, even tranquil perhaps, yet there was just something about him which made her…

"Jaune?" She said his name, yet it seemed like her voice fell on deaf ears. "Jaune?" She tried again, this time getting some sort of response from him.

He sighed, narrowed his eyes and his blue slowly found her lilac.

A smile. A forced one, she guessed, from how quickly it faded. He looked down to the ground, then back to her eyes.

A smile. What kind of, she didn't know.

"Can I tell you something?" He asked in such a way, she wouldn't be able to say no. Whenever it was a good thing or not, she wasn't sure.

"Of course, Jaune."

"I mean, I'm not even sure if I really want to, but you've been so honest and open about your problems and such, I figured, I could share some of mine as well, you know?"

"Jaune," She shook her head. "If you don't want to, then don't, it's that simple."

"But I do…I think. I'll only know for certain once I'll tell you," He said, and smiled again.

Sadly, weakly, as if searching for help.

"Go right ahead then," She said, and his eyes brightened.

She noted she enjoyed it so much when they did.