"Mission day!" Ruby screeched the words into the space of her team's dorm, hopping up onto her bed, being the first one among them to wake up. Yang cracked one eye open and stared at her little sister, watching as Ruby landed on the bed on her butt and bounced just a little bit.
It was a really good thing that she was used to this sort of thing.
"Why." Yang groaned, pushing herself upright and looking at the two other beds in the room. Weiss was sitting up and looking pretty close to downright murderous, while Blake didn't exactly look happy about the announcement herself.
"We have a mission today!" Ruby said, smiling widely as she hopped a little bit again. "I mean, you guys got the message too. Oh, I'm so excited, what if we see-"
"Ruby." Yang cut her sister off, and she did feel a little bit of guilt for that but didn't allow for it to take over her too badly for the time being. "We're all just getting up. Can you please give the rest of us time to wake up first?"
"Yeah, fine." Ruby said, pouting slightly as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm just really excited to go on a mission with you guys."
"It's the same departure rules as always, right?" Weiss asked, having climbed out of bed. She was in the process of fixing her bed, and honestly, who even does things like that? Yang definitely didn't know, but she shook the thought from her mind and glanced over at Blake.
Blake was in the process of removing her clothes from her dresser, setting them down on top of her bed. "Yes." She said, sounding very annoyed still. "Not that we know who we'll be going with."
"Whoever it is, I'm sure they'll be fine." Weiss said, holding her head up high now that she was satisfied.
"Yeah?" Yang asked, pulling herself up out of bed finally. She could already tell that her hair was a mess. She was going to need to be able to brush it out before they left for the day, but that was going to have to wait. "How do you figure?"
Weiss turned to them, lacing her hands together behind her back in a proper way that seemed to just be normal for people in Atlas- even civilians cut from a military sort of cloth. "Beacon is full of capable Hunters." She explained, like that was going to be all that was needed to explain her current train of thought. "Whoever we're paired with will be more than adequate."
"I hope it's Uncle Qrow again." Ruby said, bouncing slightly still. She was going to be a handful when they were out in the field if that was any indicator, Yang thought. It was going to be a pain, but once they were out of Vale, Ruby was probably going to calm down.
"It might be." Yang said with a shrug. "I don't know if he's at Beacon today though."
"Yeah, me neither." Ruby mumbled. "I just want for our mission to go well."
"It'll be fine." Blake said,turning to face the rest of them. She seemed almost confident about that, but Yang couldn't exactly ignore the way that she shifted around nervously in the place where she was standing. "Unless..."
"Unless we see grimm again." Yang finished for Blake, because she was absolutely certain that was what Blake was trying to say. "Right?"
"Right." Blake said. Her expression changed, her brow furrowing before she picked up the bundle of things that she'd gotten out of her bag. "Unless we see grimm again."
Yang didn't really know what she was supposed to say at that. Maybe there was something that would have been able to comfort the rest of them about what was going on, but if there was Yang couldn't figure it out that easy. So she decided to go for the next best thing that was available to her.
"We aren't going to know until we're out there." Yang said, holding her head high. "The best thing that we can do is get ready to go, meet the Hunter that we've been assigned to, and see what happens once we're out there."
"Yang is right." Weiss said, looking around the rest of the room. "We have a specific time that we're supposed to be at the city gates. We should get ready and head out. Maybe we'll be able to get something to eat on the way."
And yeah, that suggestion sounded really good, Yang thought. She definitely wouldn't have minded going along with it. "Sounds good." With that, she went to the dresser that she'd been able to claim as her own. She removed a set of clothes and then turned to her teammates. "Thirty minutes?"
"Thirty minutes!" Ruby responded, fistbumping in excitement. "We're gonna do it!"
"Yeah, we are." Yang laughed.
With that, the team separated to get ready, and sure enough, by the time that things were ready for them to go, they were out the door and on their way out of Beacon. On the way out of the building, Yang noticed Team JNPR leaving at the same time as they were.
That was… interesting. There was the possibility that there were multiple teams being sent out at the same time. Somehow Yang hadn't really thought about that much as a real possibility.
If that happened, then Yang figured that the news of real Grimm being out in the forest was going to spread soon enough. She watched JNPR walk for just a moment before tearing her attention back towards her team.
They ended up walking down the same paths as JNPR did. As they approached the gate, Yang watched as Ruby slowed to a stop, and the others did the same along with her. Yang stopped herself, and watched as JNPR left with Professor Goodwitch.
There weren't any other teachers at the gate, and that was enough to send a spike of apprehension up Yang's spine. She looked over at Ruby, who looked a little bit worried about it all for herself.
"Yang?'
"Yeah," Yang replied, approaching the gate once JNPR was gone and leaning up against it. "I know."
"We could be assigned to Qrow again." Blake suggested, and Yang was surprised by that. There was a hint of something akin to fondness on Blake's voice. It left Yang with a lot of questions that she didn't really think she was going to get good answers for.
Weiss spoke up, shrugging and smiling softly herself. "He wasn't exactly punctual last time."
Blake and Weiss were probably right. It was entirely likely that they were being sent out with Qrow again. After all, he knew about what they'd seen in the forest the last time that they'd gone out.
Maybe that would be enough of a reason for them to be paired with him again?
Weiss stood by the gate and hanged her head just slightly. "Are we early?" She asked, and Yang looked over at her. She looked almost sad about the way that things were going, and that left Yang with some questions about the situation.
"We'll find out." Yang said, shrugging. "I mean, we go out-"
"-we fight," Ruby added, smiling widely. "Even if we don't run into any monsters, we'll probably get to learn something."
"Right." Weiss said, reaching down for the hilt of her sword at her side. She was spinning the cylinder of Dust attached to it idly, trying to concentrate on anything else. "You're right."
"We can only wait." Blake added. She paused, picked her head up, and glanced down the city road. Yang followed her partner's gaze, looking to figure out what she'd seen or heard.
She didn't see anything, and that left Yang with a few questions.
Blake blinked and looked back down at the ground. A minute or two later, someone finally arrived at the gate.
Yang hadn't been prepared for any of what they would see.
It was Qrow, walking alongside with the general and with a woman that Yang hadn't seen before. She paused for a moment, looking at the white haired woman and then over at Weiss. Weiss perked up a little bit, and she took a step or two forward.
It looked like Qrow was in a rather involved conversation with the other two. And also a little bit like he was getting ready to fight someone, if what Yang was seeing was correct.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby noticed him and bounced forward away from the gate. "Are we going with you?"
"Yeah, you are, kiddo." Qrow said, approaching them with his hands down in his pockets. "We've got a few hangers on, but we'll be fine."
Yang looked at the general and the woman that looked so much like Weiss and found herself feeling more than just a little unsure of what to think of them. Surely there had to be a reason for them to be there, but Yang also didn't want to be the one to bring it up. Lucky for her, Qrow was glad to just power on with his explanation of what was going on.
"Jimmy and Winter here are going to be following us to do their own recon." Qrow shot the general a look that couldn't exactly be described as kind, and Yang wasn't really surprised to see the way that he shot one back, just as harsh and cold as Qrow's had been. "Since apparently going on word of mouth isn't good enough anymore."
"We're here to do our own research." Winter snapped, turning towards Qrow. She had her hands balled into fists at her sides. The General's only response to reach out in front of her with his right arm, effectively penning her back so that she couldn't fight.
"Yeah, sure." Qrow muttered between looking at the four students that had been invited along. All of the girls looked at each other and fell into a line easily enough. Yang fell in beside Blake at the end, and Qrow smirked before glancing between the four of them. "So, who's leading the way?"
"I will!" Ruby cried, stepping out of the line and moving towards the front of their group. With that, everyone turned to follow after her. Yang felt a shiver crawl down her spine when she glanced back over her shoulder at the Atlesians. Ironwood and Winter looked at each other like they were trying to communicate something silently. It left Yang feeling dedicated to making sure that her team was going to be able to prove themselves as being good enough.
After all, these were people that were just there to follow and see what they had seen.
Ruby led the way though, and Yang fell into position with Blake at her side just behind her little sister. There was sort of an unspoken pact between the team- if someone needed to be backed up, the others were going to do it. They'd proven it back when Weiss' father had made a scene in the great hall at BEacon. Now, it was just a habit to prepare to act the same way.
Weiss lagged a little behind, but Yang tried not to think too much of it. She probably just wanted to be a bit closer to her sister if it was possible, and that wasn't something that she could blame Weiss for. It wasn't quite the same, but Yang knew for a fact that she would have done the same for Ruby if they had spent time separate.
It was a long walk, but sure enough they approached. The general decided to hang back towards the entrance of the clearing, almost like he was afraid to keep going or get too close. Winter followed them in though, a few paces ahead of Qrow.
Even still, even the ones that had been there before didn't allow for themselves to get too close to the pool. Not after what they'd been told. Yang stared down into it and saw her reflection stare back at her, transparent against liquid black.
She glanced up at the General and Winter and decided to speak up, since Qrow was apparently taking a back seat here.
"We made it." She said quietly, looking from Winter to the General to Qrow. "So-"
General Ironwood hesitated, and Yang just watched him. He looked from Qrow to Winter to the pool and let out a quiet sigh. He looked between the four girls, and Yang was sure that he was about to say something to them. Instead, he just stared back at the pool, or maybe even into it- looking for something that he hadn't identified.
"You've all done very well." The general said, holding his head high like he was trying to pass down an order of sorts. "I'm sure that Qrow can lead you on the way forward in this mission. We will be here."
"You're… staying?" Yang asked, blinking. "But I thought that-"
Qrow scoffed. "The first part of this mission was that you four were going to act as escorts to ese two.." He said with a shrug. "If we ran into anything, it would have been up to you four to go ahead and deal with it. Since we haven't seen anything, that means that we're moving on."
"That's... weird." Ruby said, blinking, and Yang really couldn't help but agree. This definitely wasn't how she'd been seeing the mission going at all. "I mean, what if-"
"If something happens here, the two of us are more than prepared to deal with it," The general said calmly. "I can assure you that your work is just important."
"Alright." Weiss said, and Yang raised an eyebrow because Weiss being the first to speak up in that case. She'd been expecting for anyone else to take the lead. "If you're sure."
"We'll be fine." Winter spoke up.
Weiss didn't say anything, just nodded slowly and let the others take the lead.
Qrow was the one to go to the front. The girls just exchanged a look before they started after him. Ruby first, then Weiss and Blake, and Yang decided that she was going to take up the rear of their group.
The four of them walked together until Qrow decided to speak up.
"Alright!" Qrow shouted, his hands behind his head in a very relaxed manner as he walked at the front. "So who wants to guess what we're doing here?"
"Are we on a scouting mission?" Ruby asked, her pace picking up enough so that she was walking at Qrow's side. "Because that makes sense."
"You've got it." Qrow answered. "Jimmy and Winter needed to see that thing up close and personal. We figured that the best way to deal with that was show you a proper escort mission."
"Right." Weiss said, catching up with Ruby. "So now that it's just us we're scouting..."
"But what are we scouting for?" Yang asked. "Because you really haven't given us a whole lot to go on."
"Guess." Qrow said. "Because you guys are able to figure it out."
"We're looking for more of those... pools, aren't we?" Blake asked, and she sounded so calm that Yang almost couldn't help but think that it was chilling. "You've all made a big deal out of us being the only ones to know."
"That's it." Qrow said with a quiet laugh to accompany it. "I know that you guys know what those things do, so I can guess that you know just how dangerous they are."
"If I may-" Weiss started, and there was something in her voice that didn't sound confident at all. "What makes everyone so sure that there are going to be more out here?"
Qrow paused, his expression far away. It was almost like he was looking for something up in the trees that nobody else knew about. "Well," Qrow began, his voice hesitant. "These things just have a history of popping up in clusters. And any of them appearing all of a sudden means that we don't know much about how this should go. Ozpin has us mostly working on guesswork based on how things used to be."
Yang nodded. "So how are we supposed to even find new ones if we don't know about how they show up in the first place?"
Qrow stopped where he was walking and turned around to face their team. All of them slowed to a stop behind him, and Yang slipped into place beside Blake.
He just stared down at all four of them.
"That's part of the problem." Qrow explained calmly. "When we don't understand things, it means that we can't predict how anything will end up going." He shrugged. "So we can only guess that we'll see cluster patterns like we used to."
"So we're just going to walk around out in the woods until we find something?" Yang asked, stepping forward and letting her arms splay out at her sides. "Because that sounds kind of useless."
"Yeah, well not every job is fighting." Qrow responds, and Yang is almost a little bit taken aback by the way that he sounds when he says it. "Sometimes what you're going to have to do is just walk until you find or see things."
Blake shifted at Yang's side, picking her head up like she was trying to listen for something. Qrow noticed it and looked over at her.
"What's up?" Qrow asked.
Blake almost locked up, her eyes going wide in surprise. She was clearly taken aback by something. Shocked, almost.
"Nothing." Blake said, snapping herself back down into a forced state of calm. "I just thought I-"
Qrow turned his head a little bit. "You wanna-"
"No." Blake said, but her voice came out a little too rushed. "I don't think it was anything."
"That's..." Weiss started, and she was looking over at Blake like she didn't know what she was supposed to say. "What if it is something?"
"Weiss is right." Yang said, turning to face Blake a little bit surprised. Qrow didn't say anything, just let himself hang back and cross his arms over his chest. That only told Yang that he was giving them a chance to work things out for themselves. "Because if there's something-"
"It was nothing!" Blake snapped at them, and for the first time she broke away from the ranks. She stared the four of them down, and all that Yang could think of was that Blake was like a cat with her hackles raised. Ready to lash out at any moment. "If it was something-" She grit her teeth together. "I'm not talking about it, it was nothing."
And yeah, that? That was all that Yang needed to be able to lose her patience with this conversation. She could feel the heat burning low in her gut and coursing through her veins. The best thing that she could have done was to try and keep her temper under control, and so Yang just let herself ball her hands into fists at her sides in the hopes that she was going to be able to keep calm.
Despite that effort, when Yang spoke up she wasn't able to keep her frustration from coming out in her voice. "If you're acting like this, it's clearly not nothing!"
"Why won't you just listen to me?" Blake snapped right back at Yang. "It's nothing. I know that it's nothing!"
"But you won't tell us what it is!" Weiss cried, breaking into the conversation for herself. She took a step forward and ended up at Yang's side, for better or for worse. "What if there is something and you won't tell us?"
"Yeah!" Yang added.
"There. Isn't. Anything." Blake bit the words out with a certain sort of viciousness to them. With that she took the first step back, beginning on her way out of the circle. "I can't deal with this right now."
"Blake!" Ruby cried, taking a few steps forward to chase after her.
Blake just narrowed her eyes at Ruby and then broke into a sprint, leaving them behind for some reason that Yang couldn't think of. It was that more than anything else that made the rubber band in Yang just snap.
Her eyes lit up in red, and Yang felt like her entire body was on fire. She began to set foot after Blake, but was only stopped by her uncle.
"Stop." Qrow said, calmly.
"What?" Yang shouted at him. "Why are you-"
"She'll be back." Qrow said, and he sounded a lot more confident than Yang felt about the issue. "Chasing her won't make things any better. You'll only escalate things."
"What do you mean?" Yang turned towards her uncle, feeling herself ready to spring and attack over the suggestion. Blake was leaving and it was like he didn't even care about what was going on. "We can't just-"
"Give her a chance to cool down." Qrow snapped back at her, just as harshly. "I'm serious, Yang."
Yang blinked, knowing that her eyes were still bright red and still feeling like she was burning from the inside out. She wanted to be able to do just about anything, but wasn't exactly in a good position for it. She needed to be able to get something done and she needed to be able to clear things out.
And that meant that she needed to go after Blake.
"Sir," Weiss said, taking a tentative step forward. "What if-"
"She'll be fine." Qrow grumbled. "Trust me on this, your teammate can handle herself, and if she needs to, she'll come back."
"But-" Ruby piped up. Qrow just shot her a look that was deadly enough to kill. Yang watched her little sister's mouth clamp back shut and then accepted that maybe there was no getting out of this situation easy. She didn't like any of it.
Qrow just took the reins on the mission and decided that they were going to keep on going.
Blake would find them if she wanted to, and Yang...
Well, she wanted to believe that.
But she couldn't.