Interlude 2b (Hiatus Bonus)

Yang Xiao Long

The door opened. "Dad! Yang! The ferry to Patch was late, b—"

Ruby was cut off by her dad suddenly embracing her. "I was so worried about you…"

Yang stood up and walked over to them, before mussing up Ruby's hair. A corgi bounded after her and started running around the three of them, barking. "Me too. Shush, Zwei."

"Yaaang!" Ruby pulled away from her sister, but their dad wouldn't let go. "I was fine! You guys know I can handle myself."

Their dad shook his head. "We heard that Roman Torchwick was robbing a Dust store, that you got involved, and that you were being questioned. We…"

"What Dad's trying to say is, we didn't know what was going on, so we didn't know the worst didn't happen."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "What could have happened? I can take care of myself. Uncle Qrow's been training me really well, and I brought Crescent."

Their dad sighed and let go of Ruby. Yang immediately stepped in to hug Ruby, to her irritation. He sighed. "Ruby, Qrow says you're his best student, but you're still only a student. You've had two years at Signal. That's hardly enough to learn more than—"

"Professor Ozpin said I'm almost as good as Qrow."

"Really?" Yang asked.

"Well, something like that."

"Wait." Their dad frowned. "When did you speak with Ozpin?"

"I talked with him at Beacon. He was really nice! We talked about my education. Oh! He said I could go to Beacon this year!"

"What?" Yang could see the pain on her father's face for a moment, before he hid it under an expression of joy. "That's…great! I'm so proud of you."

Yang could guess what was wrong. Dad didn't expect both of us to be leaving home so soon. He thought only I'd be going to Beacon, that he'd still have Ruby at home for a couple more years. Now he's going to be all alone. Well, except for Zwei.

She tried not to let that trouble her, though. If her father was going to pretend everything would be okay, Yang could too. "You gotta tell me what happened."

Ruby nodded. "Well, I was at the Dust shop—it's From Dust Till Dawn, do you remember that one?—Anyways, there was a fight, and an explosion, and then I beat up some—"

Their father laughed. "Slow down, Ruby. Let's sit down."

"Oh!" Ruby squirmed away from Yang. "That reminds me, I got some pastries at Ms. Oryza's bakery!"

~0~

Yang sighed as she stared at her room. She had started packing last night, but had a long way to go. She decided to look through her books to see if any might be useful at Beacon. As she did, she felt her mind start to wander; after a few minutes of fighting it, she gave up on focusing on the books and just sorted them on autopilot while the thought about other things.

Man, I wish I could tell Ruby about Junior's nightclub. I can't wait until we're both full Huntresses, then I'll have some stories I can tell Ruby. Yang considered telling Ruby anyways, before deciding against it. She would have to explain why she went to the club, and aside from implicitly admitting that she didn't actually do what she went out to do…Yang was a bit embarrassed.

Yang dropped the old speculative-fiction novel she had been staring at for a minute and dug through an already-packed bag. She pulled out a photograph of Raven Branwen, her mother.

"I will find you," she whispered…but only because she knew no one would hear. Yang was embarrassed by her little quest. It wasn't just the childish motives, or the hopelessness, it was her unrelenting failures to get any closer to getting her mother back, or even understanding why she left, than the day she took Ruby to the mainland and almost got them both killed, wandering in the woods.

What was I thinking? Forget the danger, why did I expect to learn anything? But she couldn't say her later ventures were any more fruitful. At best, she got dead ends, like that Junior guy.

"…you can just call me sir."

Junior had squealed in pain when she grabbed him. She provided just a little pressure, enough to motivate him.

"People say you know everything," Yang continued. She took her Scroll out of her back pocket. The screen showed an image of Raven. "Tell me where I can find her, and I'll let you go."

"I've never seen her before!" he squeaked. "I swear!"

Yang squeezed harder. "Excuse me?"

"I swear…sir!"

He was supposed to know everything, but apparently that didn't include keeping track of missing Huntresses. But at least this trail turned cold before she wasted too much time on it. A tip, a few days scattered through a couple months finding more needed information, and then the confrontation. It could have certainly been worse, like that wild-goose-chase a couple years prior. It had taken her more than a year to hit the end of that. In retrospect, I don't see why I thought she was affiliated with the White Fang…

Yang tucked the picture back in her bag. I'm going to Beacon, and after that, I'll be a Huntress. I suppose I'll have other things to worry about…and I'm basically grown up now.

How long has it been? Uncle Qrow said she left right after I was born. She's been gone seventeen years—seventeen years ! Do I really think I have a chance of finding her now, when Dad and Qrow and Summer and everyone else couldn't?

Yang sighed, grabbed the novel she had dropped, and flopped on her bed. She tried to focus on the first chapters, on the story of the world's second-greatest warrior, seeking revenge for his father. After a few minutes, she realized she had reading the second page three times. She tossed the book aside again, and grabbed her bag.

She was still looking at the picture five minutes later, when her father knocked on the door to remind her to pack.