AN: Wow, the response for the last chapter...thank you guys.

Here's part 8, I hope you enjoy!

Blake was no stranger to tense situations.

Her time in the White Fang and the following years of grueling training at Beacon had easily seen to that. Yet, as she and the rest of Team RWBY strode out of the airship hanger and into Beacon's grand courtyard, she couldn't help but feel like this was the tensest she had ever been.

Her muscles were coiled like a spring that had been wound too tight. Her ears and eyes constantly twitched and flicked in the direction of every sound and movement, listening and waiting; waiting for the move or sound that would ignite the ball of pressure that resided in the air like a bomb.

She flexed her hands as they swayed in time with her steps; her eyes quickly glanced to her right, towards the source of all the tension.

Towards Yang.

Instead of her normal happy-go-lucky gait, the brawler strutted along with what could only be venomous intent. Each step was precise, calculated, as if Yang was getting ready to strike at a moment's notice. Her hands were balled into tight, powerful fists, fists that were capable of sending a seven-hundred-pound Ursa sailing through the air as if they were little more than a feather.

If Blake was a tightly coiled spring, Yang then, was a viper ready to strike.

While Blake was concerned at Yang's newfound aggressive posture, what really had the Faunus tensing with every breath were her eyes.

Eyes that were normally so warm and welcoming were now cold and aggressive. Gone too, was their soft lilac color; in its place was the deepest and darkest red that Blake had ever seen. It was a red that could only display one thing, one emotion. Anger. Anger that was in its most pure and unadulterated form.

And they had been that color for well over thirty-hours. Ever since Yang had found the rest of them down in the dining room.

To say Blake was worried about the state of her partner would have been an understatement. She knew the blonde had a temper; she had seen Yang slaughter an entire herd of Boarbatusks in a rage fueled bloodlust. But this wasn't that. No, this was something far beyond that. It was primal.

If just the thought of Ozpin was enough to set Yang off this bad, she shuddered to think about what would happen once they finally came face to face.

It won't end well for someone, that much is certain.

She wasn't the only one concerned about the state of the team's bruiser. Blake had caught the long and troubled stares that Ruby and Weiss had sent Yang's direction on their journey to Beacon. They were both as worried about her as she was, Ruby perhaps even more so.

"Ah, Team RWBY." Blake's thoughts were interrupted as all four girls stopped and turned towards the sound of the familiar voice of their old professor, Glynda Goodwitch. The older woman glowered at them with her emerald gaze through the glasses that sat upon her nose. Her ever present tablet was propped against her hip. Her tone was dry, indifferent. "We've been expecting you."

The woman's black and purple cape billowed behind her as the wind blew softly across the yard. Her customary white blouse and black skirt barely ruffling against the wind.

"I bet you have." Yang said as she stepped out in front of the others. "Where is he?"

Blake shivered at the pure malice that dripped from Yang's voice. If Goodwitch noticed it, she chose to ignore it.

"Professor Ozpin is currently in a meeting." The older huntress glared at Yang. "And he is to not be disturbed until its completion."

"Let me guess, you're here to make sure it stays that way?"

Goodwitch nodded, a twisted smile forming on her lips. "Very astute of you Miss Xiao Long, perhaps if you applied that level of thinking to your studies you might have had better marks while you were here."

"Give me a reason." Yang ground out as Ember Celica activated around her wrists, "Please."

Blake's arms shot out of their own accord, her hands coming to wrap around Yang's arm as the brawler took a step towards Goodwitch. The two of them had never really seen eye to eye. Goodwitch was very much the disciplinarian she appeared to be, and Yang… Well Yang was Yang. As such the Faunus didn't need to be able to read Yang's mind to know what the brawler intended to do in her current rage filled state.

"Yang!"

She felt Yang tense up as she called her name out. Yang's entire body was trembling, her muscles flexed under her skin, Blake became painfully aware in that moment that if Yang really wanted to, she could break away from her feeble grip without so much as a second thought. Yang had always been the strongest of the group, but when she was angry… It was truly inhuman what she was capable of.

Blake racked her brain in desperation, trying to come up with a way to diffuse the explosive situation before it had a chance to ignite.

"Professor Goodwitch," Blake was startled from her thoughts as Weiss came into view on the opposite side of Yang. The nervousness in Weiss's voice and face didn't go unnoticed by the Faunus as she stepped slightly in front of Yang, blocking the brawler's path to their old teacher.

"Professor, you said that you've been expecting us, yes?"

Goodwitch nodded, her eyes looking past Weiss directly at Yang. "That is correct."

"Then I'm sure that you've setup a place for us to wait until we can see Professor Ozpin."

"I did, yes." The older woman checked her scroll as it beeped. She hummed at whatever it was, "They actually just finished preparing it now. If you'll follow me."

With that Goodwitch turned and started walking off away from the girls.

Weiss let out an audible breath, "Come on Ruby."

Blake watched as the red and white pair followed after the older huntress. She wasn't surprised when Ruby looked back, concern clearly etched across her young face. Blake held her look until Ruby and Weiss went around a corner, vanishing from sight.

Blake was just about to let out a relieved sigh when a deep-rough voice broke the tense silence.

"Blake." The Faunus flinched, she had never heard her name spoken with that much anger behind it.

Her eyes darted up to where Yang's glowing red eyes stared at her. She shuddered involuntarily at the sight. If Yang noticed she ignored it or worse; she didn't care.

Yang's eyes shifted down then, "Let go."

Confused, Blake followed Yang's line of sight, her own eyes coming to rest where her arms were still wrapped impedingly around Yang's own. Realizing what the blonde was asking of her Blake loosened her grip, only to have Yang tear her arm away the instant her hold waned.

Blake, startled by the sudden and violent movement of Yang tearing herself away from her. Could only watch, stunned, as Yang turned away and headed after the others. Her heavy footfalls rung heavily in the Faunus's ears as she walked away.

"Y-Yang?" She mumbled her girlfriends name at a barely audible level, but Blake knew that she had been heard. She knew because of what Yang did.

Yang stopped, her head twisting almost imperceptibly around.

For a moment Blake thought that she was going to do it, she hoped she would do it. She hoped that Yang would turn around and look at her with those eyes, not the red ones, but those big lilac eyes that the Faunus loved so much and so loved to get lost in.

But Yang never did.

No, Yang did just the opposite. Blake could only watch as the blonde straightened her already rigid posture and continued on her way.

She never looked back.

Blake felt something warm and wet sliding down her cheek and only when Yang had disappeared around the corner did she bother to brush it away.

Yang was gone.

After Blake had regained feeling in the lower half of her body she had went after the others. She just barely managed to catch up to them as Goodwitch opened the door to the cafeteria, where she quickly shuffled them inside.

Nothing about the cafeteria had changed, not that she had expected it to. The sun's bright yellow light filtered in through the large church-like windows that ran up both ends of the dining hall. The only real difference that she could discern was that the majority of the tables had been covered by heavy-white cloths, their chairs turned upside down atop them.

It was strange seeing the cafeteria so… deserted. She was used to seeing it filled to the brim with ravenous teens that couldn't wait to slate their appetites. Then again, she had never seen the space during the summer.

Blake blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the large empty room; her quick reflexes the only thing that kept her from almost bumping into a covered bench. Goodwitch walked ahead and stopped by an uncovered table.

"You may wait here." The woman clipped as she checked her scroll again. "If memory serves Miss Schnee you are quite familiar with our cooking facilities, yes?"

"I am."

"Very well, you may help yourself." Goodwitch turned her glare to Yang. "Just try to not burn the building down."

Blake was pretty sure she felt the temperature rise.

Luckily for all of them Goodwitch took that final jab as her cue to leave, the eldest huntress wasting little time in departing. Leaving Team RWBY alone to their own devices.

They stood there for a moment, and even Blake had to admit the silence uncomfortable.

But so is everything else about this.

"Well," Ruby started, Blake could tell that the girl was trying to sound as chipper as she could. Unfortunately for her though, it came out as forced. "I guess we wait now."

Blake was just about to agree when the sound of a chair being roughly dragged across the ground filled the air. The Faunus turned in time to see Yang flipping the chair around backwards before she plopped down onto it.

"We wait."

Blake hated it.

She hated the sound of Yang's voice.

"Weiss you need to relax!"

"Don't you tell me to relax, Ruby Rose! It's been two hours! Two!"

Blake watched the exchange between her two teammates silently. They had been bickering like this for the last fifteen minutes. The pressure and weight of just sitting around and waiting, it seemed, had finally gotten to Weiss.

It had started out innocently enough with the heiress pacing back and forth in front of their table. It had then quickly escalated to her mumbling to herself as she paced. Uttering things like:

"What is taking so long?"

"He should be here by now…"

And Blake's personal favorite:

"This is ridiculous!"

It had been Weiss's last exclamation saying, that she was going to go and break into Ozpin's office and drag him out, that had finally prompted Ruby to respond. And as much as Blake agreed with Ruby that Weiss needed to calm down. She had to admit that the heiress had a point.

They had been waiting an awfully long time.

"Look Weiss, all I'm saying is that you should save your energy, that's all."

The heiress spun on her heel mid pace, her eyes glaring daggers at the younger girl. "So you're saying I'm weak now?"

"I didn't say that!"

Blake sighed as her friends continued their quibble.

At least they're acting normal.

Blake wished that she could say the same for Yang. Ever since they had arrived in the cafeteria the brawler had taken to being quiet.

Yang was never quiet.

There were days where Blake even wondered if Yang knew what the word meant.

She cast a wary eye towards her partner, Yang still sat; leaned over the table with her arms crossed in-front of her, her head resting on-top of them. Her eyes were closed, hiding the red whirlpool of anger that Blake knew to reside there.

To the untrained eye it looked like Yang might be asleep, but not to Blake. No, the Faunus knew that her partner was awake; she could tell by the expression that the blonde wore.

When Yang slept, her face was blank, impassive, almost as if the girl had not a care in the world. Now though. Now, Yang's face was contorted- albeit subtly- in a scowl. A scowl that, along with her tensed up muscles, warned of the fire that was raging just beneath her skin.

Blake's hands balled into fists under the table, fingernails cutting into the calloused skin of her palms. She ignored the pinpricks of pain that sprung from her hands as she watched Yang. An internal battle raging within her own head.

She felt so helpless, she wanted to scream. It hurt her to see Yang like this, so consumed by her anger. She wished she could think of something, anything that she could do to snap Yang out of her trance. But she couldn't, and deep down she knew. She knew that there was nothing that she or anyone else, even Ruby, could do to break Yang out.

In the nearly five years that she had known the brawler there had only ever been one remedy for when she got truly-mad like this and that was to just let her go. Just allow her to go and blow off her aggression until she finally returned to normal. In the past Blake had been okay with this. Not to say that she didn't worry about her partner, because she did, their relationship had just been… different at the time.

And she knew why.

I wasn't in love with her then.

The thought still felt foreign in her mind, despite her having accepted it as fact days ago. I just want her back. I want things to go back to how they were before this mess.

She knew that could never happen. Whatever path their lives had been on, they had been changed on that rainy day in Forever Fall. This was their reality now, and Blake wasn't sure if she liked it.

That's when she heard it.

The Faunus was pulled from her thoughts as her cat ears perked up, the extra set of ears twitched as the familiar sound of a door being opened reached them over the drone of Ruby and Weiss's continued squabble. What she heard next caused her entire body to stand on alert. Her spine straightened as she sat up, ram-rod straight in the chair. Her eyes locked onto the hall that served as an entry-point at the far side of the cafeteria.

She strained her hearing as she waited for the faint sound to come again. Seconds seemed to drag on like minutes as she waited, her attention never once wavering…

There!

She had been sure before. Now she was certain.

"Guys," She blurted the word out through gritted teeth as the noise continued to draw closer.

Ruby and Weiss silenced almost immediately.

"What is it Blake?"

The Faunus ignored Ruby's question as she continued to listen to the sound. Less than one-hundred-feet…

"He's coming," She finally answered, her eyes still locked on the hallway.

"You see him?"

"I hear him."

"Are you sure it's…"

Blake silenced Ruby with a pointed-glare. She knew that the rest of her team didn't share her Faunus heritage, and by extension her enhanced hearing, and as such it was hard for them to understand, but it would be nice if they would just believe her for once. After all, how many times had her hearing saved them in the past?

"Okay, so he's coming…" Ruby's words trailed off as she looked over to the hallway herself.

"Well it's about time!" Blake looked to where Weiss was standing, arms crossed indignantly across her chest as she glowered towards the hall.

Hearing Weiss's cold exclamation seemed to snap Ruby out of her trance. "Blake, how long do we have until he gets here?"

Blake directed her ears back towards the hall. The sounds were closer but she still had to strain to pick up the footfalls. "About a minute."

"Okay," Ruby nodded as she stood up and moved to the end of the table. "Look, I know that Ozpin isn't anyone's favorite person right now."

That's the understatement of the year. Blake kept the thought to herself, and even managed to keep from rolling her eyes, once she saw how serious Ruby had become.

"But, we need to remember why we're here." Ruby said, pointing down at the table for added emphasis. "We're here for answers. Not to start a fight. So when Ozpin gets here we'll just have to stow whatever personal feelings that we might have. Agreed?"

Blake agreed quickly. Despite the anger she felt towards the man she agreed with Ruby. Revenge wasn't why they were here. Weiss's frown seemed to deepen even more. Only after receiving stares from Blake and her girlfriend did the heiress relent and agree.

That just left…

"Yang."

Blake looked to her partner as Ruby called her name. Despite having easily heard the entirety of the conversation Yang still hadn't moved. And if her current reaction to her name being called was any indication she still didn't plan on moving anytime soon.

"Yang!" Ruby called again. This time louder and more sternly than before.

Blake winced at the annoyed aggravation that seemed to drip from Ruby's voice.

It worked though, because Yang finally moved. Not a lot; just enough for her to crack one of her red eyes open, enough to show that she was in fact listening.

Blake felt her heart sink at the sight of the red coloring. A small part of her had been hoping that the long wait would have cooled some of Yang's fiery aggression. That hope it appeared, had been misplaced.

"Okay," Ruby started up again, "Now that I have your attention. Yang, I want you to promise me that you'll behave once Ozpin gets here. No: punching, screaming, and definitely no fire. Do you understand?"

Blake held her breath as the two sisters kept their gazes locked. Time seemed to tick by ever so slowly as she watched them, her eyes never once leaving Yang's form.

"Fine," The blonde mumbled the word into her arm as she reclosed her eye. Ending the stare down.

Blake let out the breath she had been holding in relief. Not only at Yang's answer, but at what she had seen in the other girl's eye before it had closed. There had been the briefest glimmer of lilac. It had been fast, so quick in fact that had Blake blinked she was sure she would have missed it. But it was there, and that meant one thing. One thing that filled the Faunus's heart with so much joy and relief that she wanted to uncharacteristically jump up and scream.

Her Yang was still in there, and she was much closer to the surface than she had previously thought.

"Ah, there you all are."

Her ears twitched at the sound of the man's voice. Blake's gaze shifted up and away from Yang's form, to look at the man that Ruby and Weiss were already staring at.

Ozpin had arrived.

AN: So…additional story time! Guess who went on vacation and forgot his laptop? If your answer is me, then you are correct! Which is why this chapter is what it is, and not the giant awesome payoff you guys were probably expecting…

Everything you just read is what I had typed up before I left last Monday. I got home yesterday and have been trying like mad to finish the second half but, with being tired and all that jazz it just isn't going to happen by the end of the night. So I made a decision to go ahead and post the completed part of the chapter.

The reason I decided to do that is twofold. I promised you guys you wouldn't wait 15 days for an update, and well it's honestly a good spot for a cliffhanger…Don't kill me…I'm sorry!

On a brighter note! You can expect the next update much, much, sooner…

As always please leave any feedback and criticisms, and have a good night!