Chapter 34: Burning Heart

It wasn't long before the rot snuck into her nose and constricted her throat.

Yang coughed into her hand a few times before she was offered something by Qrow. The man had pulled on a ragged mask with what appeared to be twigs sticking out of it. Quickly he showed Yang how to tie her scarf into something serviceable, and she stuffed the offered foliage into the makeshift cover. As she pulled it onto her face, a mix of dry earthy tones and sage drifted into her mouth. She breathed deeply and sighed in relief as the effluvial stench was washed from her sinuses. Yang blinked as her mind returned to her, the haze of the Rotted Vale clouding her thoughts and making her almost too dizzy to walk.

Yang tied the scarf a little tighter before her muffled voice whispered out, "Could've warned me before I started to choke Qrow."

The man shrugged at her, "Thought a seasoned huntress might know a thing or two about surviving down here."

Yang rolled her eyes, both still stinging at the haze as she picked her way across the dried shell of a monster carcass.

"Yeah, well with all the bullshit we've been dealing with the past couple of months, never got a chance to make it out this way," Yang said, eyeing the sagging walls of the hole they descended into. The large cavern was choked to the brim with bones and decaying skin. Somehow, be it through the dry and putrid air or perhaps the age of the grave, gave the scenery a claustrophobic feeling that crunched in on her as she descended. Yang's foot went through what she thought was a rock, but soon found herself greeted by the grinning skull of some lost beast. She grimaced and lifted her leg, expecting slime and gore, but only saw the crinkling of dried skin fall off her boot. She shook her leg loose and continued to walk.

"Yeah, I get that," Qrow was shirking off his bush and pulling bones into his cloak, offering a few to Yang. She gave him a look that was not marred by her mask, and the man simply shrugged his shoulders again.

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you. You come to appreciate blending in with the local color a bit more the longer you spend out in the wild."

Yang paused before picking up a ribcage, the small bones tumbling away before she offered it up towards the hunter. He nodded and helped her weave it into her clothes, taking a small bit of sinew as strong and tight as a rope and wrapping it around her to keep the bones in place. They spent a minute like this, picking up cracking skin and draping it over their bodies, pulling small bones and weaving them further in. When they were done, Yang looked like a mummy, or maybe like some crazed cultist as she rotated her body, hearing a small clinking of bones as she moved.

"Won't the sound attract monsters?" She asked, looking at Qrow and seeing how he had somehow managed to place a skull perfectly on top of his head. The man nodded, the bird-like beak of the skull he had donned shaking with the movement.

"Things are more likely to think we're strange if we don't sound like bones. Clinking bones means movement, and the only things that bother to disturb anything around here are big enough not to care what other monsters think. We'll be fine, but that doesn't exclude the people who actually care what's moving around down here."

Yang nodded her head, crouching a bit lower towards the ground and continuing her subdued march. It was eerie down here, she decided. The lack of wind made the air stale, and the rot of the bodies gave it a weight that felt like she was swimming through everything. Yang slid a little on a spine, the resulting clatter seeming to echo out but stop in the miasma around them. Yang stopped for a moment to see if anything reacted to her blunder, but was surprised when Qrow's hand found her shoulder and urged her forward.

"Don't worry, keep moving."

It wasn't long until the haze she felt on her skin became visible, like a brown and red fog that hung in the air, making it terribly difficult to see where her next step would take her. Turns out, it was through a corpse, her foot finding the ground through two feet of rotted skin. Yang grimaced and removed the appendage shaking off the sludge skin that hung to her leg. She took a steady breath, the scent of her mask feeling her nose and making her a little woozy, but probably feeling a bit better than she would if she was breathing in the poison around her.

Qrow had pulled ahead, looking strange as he stepped haphazardly, the act looking more like tripping than walking. He stopped and crouched down, his hand digging into the murk and grime and coming up with something she couldn't quite make out.

"What is it?" She dared, sidling up next to him and trying to control her gag reflex.

"Not sure… I haven't seen something like this since-"

There was a muted thud, and then a rattling of bones cascading through the caverns. Yang looked around but only saw a shifting in the swirling miasma. Her hand went to her sword hilt.

"What was that about things that don't care if they make too much noise?"

Qrow pulled her roughly to the side, attempting to drag them both back towards the mottled walls and tumbling bones. They pressed themselves tight against the mud and tried to still their breathing.

There came another shudder that shook the walls around them, and through the dark mists a shadow crept forward into the cavern. At first it was impossible to determine its shape, until a bright white glow emitted from within, like ghasts emerging from a crypt. It shone from three points, two of them swinging out wide as the creature stepped forward, and one swiveling high in the air, turning about as a deep sniff echoed through the air.

The monster's light was dripping from these three points, and Yang felt a tremor of fear as she recognized the Brachydios and its thick slime pooling around it. She chanced a glance at Qrow and saw the man with a lethal expression on his face. His eyes, so bright and crimson, seemed more like ice with the hard frozen look he held on his face.

Yang tried to calm her breathing, but the mix of effluvial and the stench of the rot made her stutter a gasp. She felt Qrows hand against her forearm, and tried to calm her nerves. Wordlessly they began to slide against the wall, attempting small movements so as not to draw attention to themselves.

The monster was gasping hard, a monotonous bellow that seemed to echo and vibrate the walls around them. Its eyes were the same bright white of its slime, the usual bright green ichor now a sludgy and chunky gray. The slime seemed to wilt the ground, eating through bones and dirt before creating a hollow scorched scar behind it. The Brachydios was limping slightly, one of its femurs poking out through the slag like scales and jiggling with each monstrous step that it took.

Yang felt her good hand tremble, her mechanical one oddly quiet in comparison. It shouldn't have been something she had focused on in that moment, seeing as impending death was a mere dozen meters away from them, but she couldn't help but find it poetic in some strange way.

Flesh was what betrayed us, despite our intentions. It embodied everything about life that was good and worth preserving, touch, strength, the fire of blood pumping through it and birthing life. But, such a wonderful thing always had drawbacks, and it was more common than not that your own body would betray its owner without a thought. It could falter, it could fail, despite total control, simply because the mind and instinct were at constant odds with one another. Maybe that's why the flesh was so intent on creating machines and tools out of things that didn't have the spark of life in them, as a way to overcome its own weakness. As some sort of desperate escape from its own incompetence.

But Yang wasn't one hundred percent flesh anymore, and for some reason, that seemed to make her feel a bit better.

Qrow stopped in their crawling escape, his chin pointing towards an obstacle along the wall, a desecrated skeleton of some incomprehensible creature blocking their path. He carefully picked his foot up and toed over the corpse. It was agonizingly slow, and Yang was sure his step wasn't wide enough. However, with a silent sigh of relief he successfully cleared the bones, only for his following foot to nudge the carcass, and send it collapsing into the ground.

The Brachydios turned its head, a growl growing into a groan that caused a blanket of bones and dust to rain down on top of them. Yang whipped herself into form, her sword and shield flashing out as she charged forward and held them aloft. She heard Qrow cursing and scrambling, the distinct mecha-shift of his switch axe ringing off the walls. The monster turned its head towards the sound, its eyes blank and unmoving, and lowered its head to the ground as it charged towards the man. The white point of its head carved through the detritus of bones and flesh, kicking them out in a wave as it roared death at the unlucky hunter. Qrow leapt to the side, his scythe carving along the creature's side and releasing a torrent of gray blood onto the ground.

"Qrow! It's blind! It can't see us!" Yang shouted, her feet slipping against the uneven ground as she held up her shield. The Brachydios tilted its head around towards Yang, its fist coming up and glowing with intensity. The monster pounded its fists into the ground as it moved towards her, great craters following each impact as it moved forward. Yang ran to the side, having to take a dive at the last second that brought her face to face with the effluvia covered ground. Her mask slipped a bit and made her gag fiercely before she was able to correct its position and stand back up on her-

The craters beside her erupted in explosions, the force of which she caught with her shield. However that didn't stop her from being thrown onto her back. It was almost as if something had picked her up and thrown her across the cavern, and she felt sharp pains litter her back as she landed on the decrepit bedding of the Rotten Vale. Yang got to her feet and tried to blink the layer of dust out of her eyes, only to see the mace-like tail of the monster swing her way.

She ducked through the blow and charged with her shield held up, her sword snaking its way into the back of the monster's leg, earning a roar of pain in response. She withdrew her blade from its flesh quickly, then rotated around in a circle and slashed again before side-stepping the kick that the monster gave in response.

Qrow leapt into the air, bringing his sword-form of his switch axe down across the monster's neck, only to have the monster swat him into the ground and cover him in that bright white goo. The man quickly got to his feet, much too quick for Yang to even comprehend how his feet moved so fluently across the bones. He sheathed his weapon and began to roll across the ground, smattering the goo onto the floor and discarding his makeshift disguise to rid himself of the biohazard he had been coated with. She tried to capitalize on the momentary distraction and slammed her sword into her shield, the slot of the weapon locking into her hilt and she extended it out with a backhand swing that scraped across the belly of the monster.

She didn't waste time, she couldn't if she wanted to survive, and brought the axe-head back down, feeling the metal bite into the ribcage of the Brachydios and giving a satisfying crunch in response. Yang pushed down with all her might, which wouldn't have been much if her prosthetic hadn't whirled to life.

The machine gears inside her arm snapped her false elbow out, giving her the extra push to cleave through the monster's side and ruin its organs. Offal and blood stained the floor, adding its color to the macabre painting of death and corpses, the Brachydios shuttered in its steps and collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain and fury.

Yang was breathing heavily, but she swallowed the filtered air into her lungs and took a step forward and flicked the switch along her hilt. Her hair floated into the air as the electrical discharge filled the space around her, arks of lightning whipping across the ground as she leaned forward and brought her weapon down with everything she had.

But her weapon didn't meet her target like intended, because Yang was swept off her feet by the monster's tail sweeping underneath her. She felt the hard scales crack against the side of her knee, and she screamed in pain as she fell to her side, the release of her elemental discharge missing the monster completely and crashing into the wall beside it.

"Yang!" Qrow yelled, his voice muffled by his mask and hard to make out over the monster's cries. He hopped back into the air and stabbed downwards with his sword, fire and energy pumping through the channels down the side of the blade as they emptied themselves into the side of the monster's face.

Flesh and skin burnt away in rivets, turning a foul liquid that leaked across the monster's face and into its open mouth. The screech it gave in response dwarfed anything it had screamed before, and Yang felt the high pitched sound in her teeth as she tried to pick up her charge blade from the floor.

Yang's knee gave out from underneath her, and she fell onto it with a growl as she adjusted the straps of her shield, tightening it against her forearm and using the bulk of the metal to pull herself back up.

Her ears were ringing, her head hurt, and try as hard as she could, she couldn't focus on the monster in front of her. She could barely make out Qrow in front of her, the man weaving around the monster's fists as they crashed into the floor, and the explosions that chased after him.

She had to get back in there, she had to do something! She couldn't prove them right, not now, not when she was so close. Yang had to will her body to move just to show she wasn't the dead weight they had said she would be. Anger and frustration built up in her body with each faulty step and blurred blink of her eyes.

She attempted something like a run but it ended up feeling more like a shuffle towards the monster, watching as Qrow was swatted again, the man crashing into the ground and not moving once he settled. Yang gave out a wild yell, attempting to grab the monster's attention again.

The Brachydios swung its head towards her, its face dripping to the floor as it screamed through its gored jaw and bloodied throat. Yang just held up her shield and tried to focus on her feet, readying herself to dodge out of the way of the next onslaught of attacks.

There was a bang, followed by a whistling, and the monster was coated in an explosion. More shots echoed through the cavern and Yang saw the creature's blood leap from its flesh, pittering out as if they were heavy raindrops striking the ground and leaping back out to the sky. The monster fell to its side again, and the gunners focussing on the hole Yang had made in its stomach. Great bullets slammed into the creature and mulched its insides, globs of blood and organ leaping out and covering the ground in an ever growing pool of white.

The monster shuddered against the attacks, before suddenly growing still. Its body continued to be torn apart by bullets before a whistle cut through the timpani strikes.

Silence encroached back into the cavern, and Yang felt the weight of her breaths as she dragged herself over to Qrow. Thankfully the man was awake, his eyes blinking rapidly as he attempted to stave off unconsciousness. Yang collapsed next to him, her knee giving out once again as she held her breath and drew down her mask. As swiftly as she could she threw a potion into her mouth, still managing to gag as the effluvia entered her nostrils. She coughed back into her mask and offered the second half of the potion to Qrow. The man nodded his thanks before pulling his own mask down and finishing the healing draught. Yang was a little disappointed that he hadn't choked.

"Shit," Qrow said as he fixed his mask to his face, "Eyes up firecracker."

Yang turned towards where he was pointing, several men and women who seemed to bleed from the walls and ceiling were approaching them. She grabbed her sword and held it towards them, still in a crouch beside Qrow, and tried to look a little less pathetic.

"Stay back!" She shouted, only to be met with silence. A figure broke from the group, and Yang could barely make out that it was a woman. Her form was thin but strong, all sharp angles and taught muscles. Her hand slid from her bow-gun and ripped off her hood, exposing a shaved head and a pair of sharp crystal like eyes. Her mask was much better fashioned than Yang or Qrows, and it made her voice much clearer and easier to hear as she chuckled at the two downed hunters.

"Cut the shit. We both know neither of you can put up much of a fight. How about you toss your weapons to us before we continue with any more pleasantries."

Yang chanced a look at Qrow, and the man caught her eyes with his own. She read that look in the briefest of seconds before letting her shoulders slack and her weapons down. She sheathed her sword into its shield, and undid the straps from her prosthetic, throwing the pair at the approaching bandits. Qrow disengaged his own weapon before slinging it out, the switch-axe falling onto her shield and sending out a resounding clunk.

"And the arm, no telling what kind of tricks you got in that thing…" The woman was leering at her, the nozzle of her weapon pointing up and at Yang's head.

"I can't detach it," She said, hoping that she sounded convincing enough, "It's sealed to my arm."

A bit of silence stretched between the two groups, a couple of the bandits gathering up their weapons while the others surrounded them. Yang met the leader's gaze and tried to give her best 'fuck you' look back.

The woman seemed to make up her mind and nodded towards another bandit, the man withdrawing bindings from underneath his cloak. Yang and Qrow let him bind them both, their wrists being secured behind their backs as the bandit took a third loop and strung it around their necks. Yang grunted as her airflow was constricted, forcing her to adjust her arms up her back in a painful position.

"Great, real fun stuff," Yang grumbled, not letting her eyes leave her captor's actions. The lead bandit chuckled sadistically, walking forward and shoving the barrel of the bow-gun underneath Yang's chin.

"Oh, you're not ready for the real fun. Not yet. Take them back to the camp!"

As the men circled back around them, and Qrow and Yang got to their feet, they settled on a steady march back towards the walls of the caverns. The bandits pulled back a sheath of flesh revealing a tunnel and began to file themselves through it.

She heard Qrow mutter behind her, just before they were swallowed up by the darkness, "So, things going according to plan?"

Yang eyed the bandits around them, and knew that they could hear her answer. She didn't care.

"Yup, all according to plan."

—

The tunnels snaked their way deeper into the side of the mountains, and at some point she saw the bandits let their masks fall off their faces. Of course, none of them decided to remove Qrow's or Yang's, and so the two continued their shuffling through the earth in mild discomfort. Yang's face was getting itchy, but she had to settle for twitching her nose against the harsh fabric in an attempt to scratch her itch. Her leg grew more and more steady as she walked on it, the potion worming its way through her system and healing her leg. She was glad it hadn't been her other leg, the one that continued to get broken on all her hunts. Potions worked their miracles, but even they didn't amount much to continuous trauma. She still maintained her limp however, hoping that they would think her more enfeebled than she actually was.

They continued through the dimly lit tunnel, coming across soft glowing lanterns every ten meters or so. Yang had attempted to talk to Qrow twice, mostly just to see how he was doing, but was met with the back end of a bow-gun for her efforts. She had settled into silence after that, mostly passing her time by staring at the back of the lead bandit's shaved head.

Eventually, after she didn't know how long, the lanterns grew brighter, and the tunnel wider. Yang saw them come to a door, and the lead bandit knocked on it quietly. After a few whispered words it swung open, and the group swiftly followed after. The door closed behind her, and Yang turned around to watch a man lock it tight. They had been brought into a large room, carved roughly from stone and filled with miscreants and rough silhouettes of what might once have been people. They sneered quietly at their approach, their faces obscured with torn clothes and filtered masks.

Yang didn't have time to take it in as she was shuffled past several of the layabouts. A man approached the lead bandit, eyeing Yang and Qrow sternly before addressing the woman.

"Vernal, what is this?"

Yang's eyes locked onto the woman, Vernal, and saw her give a twisted smile in response.

"Caught some more Astera trash sneaking into the Vale. Probably part of the same group we got the other day."

If Vernal was trying to be subtle, she was failing miserably. Yang knew that she was being nonchalant to get a rise out of Yang and Qrow. Yang suppressed her emotions and glared back at her, not willing to play the woman's game.

The man beside Vernal glanced between the two before clearing his throat, "She's down below… Should I tell her you've arrived?"

Vernal smiled even wider, "No, that's perfect. I'll take them straight to her."

Yang was shoved down another hall, scraping past several people as she felt the barrels of the guns dig into her back. After a while she heard a clamoring that bounced off of the stone, accumulating into a dull roar that seemed to pop into focus as she was shoved through a doorway.

The room opened up into a small colosseum, one with tiers of rough seats working downward towards an ugly sandpit that was stained with blood and sweat. Bandits of all ages and gender were cheering with wild abandon, the risk of noise reaching monsters outside their sanctum protected by the hard blanket of the mountain around them. Inside the arena two people were facing off against one another, a man and a woman. Both of them were holding rough, scrappy sets of knives in each hand, and both were dripping with blood.

The woman seemed a bit worse for wear, one of her eyes was closed as a curtain of blood-matted hair clung to her face. She was breathing heavily, sporting a limp that she attempted to keep her weight off of as her opponent circled her. The man across from her gave her a sadistic grin, holding out his daggers in a reverse grip as he inched closer.

Though Yang couldn't help but be sucked into the blood sport below her, she was shoved along and taken to the edge of the room, skirting the walls behind the audience as she and Qrow were taken to the opposite side of the arena. Through the mass of shoddy clothes and cheering mouths she finally locked her eyes on a woman she still wasn't sure existed.

Raven wasn't even watching Yang as she approached, the woman was curled up on a small throne made of bones and finery stolen from Astera. Her legs were crossed over one another, and she leaned back in a perfect pose of relaxation. The smile on her face was a mockery of joy, a twisted line that was only broken by the occasional sip of a goblet in her hands. The red stain left on her lips was darker than the blood that painted the arena below her. A stray drop fell down her chin, but her vile focus left her either uncaring or unaware of the liquid as she drank in the battle below.

The man lunged forward, kicking up a plume of dust before trying to hook his dagger behind the woman's lame leg. She rolled to the side, and through a gambit of luck or skill managed to narrowly avoid her tendons from being severed. The woman stabbed out quick, her daggers meeting air twice before a third strike dug into the man's chest, but just barely. He seemed to lean out of the strike before she could push it further into his heart, kicking her bad leg from out beneath her. Her impact to the ground was muted by the blood clotted sand, giving out a scream as she attempted to roll back up and defend herself.

But it wasn't meant to be. Just as the man dropped his knee onto the woman's chest, and held his daggers to her throat, Yang and Qrow were dropped to their knees in front of Raven.

Yang's mother spared her and Qrow just a glance, and maybe it was in her mind, but Yang could've sworn that her smile cut just a bit deeper before she stood from her throne.

"Cylus is the winner, and takes Militia's place as second lieutenant. Someone get her cleaned up before she bleeds out." There were both jeers and praise in kind being tossed down to the arena, and the man in the center seemed to lap it up, all while his opponent nursed her broken leg and waited to be carried out.

Raven finally turned to Yang, her face set with a cocky smile as she briefly looked over her daughter for what should've been the first time in years, and then focused on Qrow.

"Brother," Raven said, and several of the bandits turned in shock, "Two decades of chasing me around the globe, and this is how we finally meet. I would say you look good, but we both know that I'm not that good at lying."

"Quite some set up you got here sis," Qrow jerked his head towards the arena, "I see you've turned your love of murder into a nice little spectator sport. Real classy stuff."

Raven smirked, "It's tough keeping people entertained, even tougher settling disputes when you're cramped in caves surrounded by monsters. Tensions tend to run high… So you'll forgive me if we dabble in a little stress relief."

"Oh, like fighting for rank in your little army? Can't imagine that plays out real well with people's nerves," Yang said, and Raven's attention snapped back to her. The woman regarded her for a moment, before finally addressing her daughter for the first time in her life.

"Only the strong survive here Yang, that rule applies just about everywhere in the world. I'm sure you've learned that lesson a few times as well…" Raven's eyes drifted down to Yang's arm, and in that moment, she felt a surge of anger flick through her heart.

Yang felt the ropes binding her arms strain as she struggled to keep herself in check, but she didn't let her eyes leave Raven's. The two stared at each other before Raven let out a bark of a laugh.

"Bring them to the room, and Vernal?" The woman in question stepped up at attention and Raven said, "Why don't you rouse our other guests, we've had so many lately, and I think it's time we all had a chat, don't you think?"

Yang didn't have much time to process what had been said before she was kicked back up onto her feet. There was a grunt beside her and she had to bite back the urge to shout at the bandits as they smacked Qrow on the back of his head with a gun stock. The man didn't give them the satisfaction of any noises of discomfort, he simply stood up with a grimace and kept his eyes forward.

They were pulled away from the arena, taken to a covering against the wall that hid another hallway, Yang was trying to keep the layout of the base within her mind, but couldn't focus as she was roughly ushered through it. Yang stifled back a snort of discomfort and kept her head low. The walls of the tunnel didn't offer her much, and even her own mental map of the underground base was getting twisted in her head. It wasn't long before she heard a door open, and was shoved through. Yang sprawled across the ground, and Qrow was not far behind her, the both of them in a heap of tangled limbs as they tried to adjust themselves to something like a ghost of comfort.

Yang was able to position herself in a cross-legged position, sitting herself up so that she was facing the door. Qrow took a bit more time to position himself, his breathing steady and his eyes cold. The bandits closed the door on them, and left the two alone. Yang eyed the room for a moment, taking in the pilfered luxuries of Astera. Rugs, fine cutlery and clothes were draped across the stone carved room. Yang could only scoff at the level of comfort Raven had set up for herself, and she could only imagine how little the warlord had given out to her own people.

"So, not quite the reunion we were all hoping for huh?" Qrow said, shifting himself on the dirt floor.

"I never wanted a reunion, kind of gave up on that a few years ago."

Qrow grunted, "Yeah, well. Can't say I'm a big fan of the situation that we're in kiddo. You really think we can pull off an escape like this?"

Yang didn't say anything, and she only gave her uncle a nod before returning her attention back to the door.

It wasn't long before there was a commotion and a group of people were shoved through, equally tied up and sent sprawling across the floor. Yang couldn't help herself when she saw Blake, and leaned forward as she saw her girlfriend, Ruby and Weiss. Weiss was complaining loudly, and Ruby sat herself up and lunged towards Yang.

"Yang!" Ruby scootched herself over and Yang leaned her head forward and touched it to Ruby's. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, someone had to come and rescue you goofballs," Yang smiled as she said it, her eyes finding Blake's and her smile getting that much wider. Blake crawled over to her and leaned into her side before lifting her head up and stealing a hard earned kiss. Yang leaned into it, but the awkward angle made it difficult to keep the kiss anything short of chaste.

"Hey," Yang whispered.

"Hey," Blake's eyes darted down, "I don't think I can say that I'm happy you're here, but you're definitely a site for sore eyes."

Yang was about to make a snappy retort before she was interrupted, "Oh can we delay the incessant flirting?"

Weiss was disheveled, her braid fraying and loose strands of hair flying all over the place. She huffed as she sat up, and sat close to Ruby.

"The last thing I need is to be forced to watch something so uncouth while we suffer through this all." Weiss rolled her eyes before leaning into Ruby, who simply gave Yang a sheepish smile.

"Good to see you too Weiss," Yang mumbled.

The door opened again, and in strode Raven flanked by Vernal and a few bandits. She gazed about the room with a cold look before cracking a smile that could split a rock in two. Yang and the girls watched her with an equally cold silence as one of the bandits pulled in a wooden chair. Raven took the seat without even looking at it, as if she knew exactly where her lackey was to place it, or perhaps they were so indoctrinated to place it exactly where she needed it. Raven sat in a pose of ease, drawing her sword from its sheath and laying the blackened-silver blade across her lap. It was both an invitation and a warning, an insulting one at that. As if any of them were in the position to make a strike against her, or as if any of them had weapons to even challenge her with.

It was Qrow who broke the silence, flipping his hair from his eyes, "All right Raven, real cute welcome you've given us. Cut the shit and untie us."

"Why don't you-" Vernal was cut off as Raven raised her hand, the lieutenant fell silent and sat back, Raven's eyes had not moved from her brother. She held the quiet for a moment before standing and raising her sword.

Before any of them could cry out she made two swift cuts through the air, and Qrow's bindings fell to the ground, a tiny cut across his cheek dripping blood that trickled across his face and mingled with his stubble. Raven walked a circle around the group and made a swift cut at the back of each of their bindings. Yang tried not to flinch as Raven sliced through Blake's ropes, enraged at the lackadaisical way her mother wielded the sword so close to Blake. Of course she saved Yang for last, pausing for a moment as if she was considering not freeing Yang at all. With a small movement she cut the ropes, and Yang could breathe freely again. She didn't miss the slow scrape that Raven passed over Yang's mechanical arm as she slashed the bindings off, their eyes catching one another in acknowledgement of that little taunt. Yang ripped the rest of the binding from her neck before scooting over towards Blake and grabbing her hand. She felt a squeeze, maybe one of encouragement, of acknowledgement, or perhaps for the sake of steeling her own nerves.

Raven sat back down, her blade sitting across her lap, she let the oscillating waves play with the light, sending a wavering shine that sank into the cave walls. Ruby made a noise as Raven presented the weapon, causing the cruel woman to smirk.

"I was wondering when you would realize. You make the most wonderful weapons Ruby Rose, my men have greatly enjoyed their effectiveness after we looted Astera."

Yang glanced at Ruby before looking back at the sword. Yang could see it clearly now, the oscillating waves on the blade were rough, much wider than many of the other weapons her sister had forged. This was the sword Ruby had first made using her new luna-metal method, the one Ruby had sold to Yatsuhashi what felt like so long ago.

"What did you do to Yatsuhashi?" Yang had never seen Ruby look at another person how she was looking at Raven. Her eyes were narrowed and a shadow sat within her silver irises. Yang could see that Weiss had reached forward to grab Ruby's shoulder, as if she was holding the small girl back from making a rash move.

"Haven't you heard? It's the end of the world out there. Plenty of ways for hunters to perish without our help. The New World was a death trap even before this 'Grimblight' cropped up. I just happened to be lucky enough to happen across his… Dead body." Another smirk, another condescending word unspoken as it was writ clearly across her face.

"You've had your fun Raven," Qrow spoke low as he wiped his cheek, smearing the blood across his face, "Now let us go. We won't bother you any longer, we all have more important things to be focussing on right now."

Raven laughed, and it was haughty and short, as if she didn't want to waste the breath on such a useless noise. "Please don't insult me brother, not in my own house. How quickly will you run back to the General and inform him of our base? I may be a cruel woman, but not even I would place my people in danger like that. No, I don't think you get to leave, not with what's going on outside. You are all too useful to let you all go, just like that."

"What are you talking about?" Weiss said, and maybe no one else could quite talk to their own captor the same way Weiss Schnee could.

Raven pointed the end of her sword at Ruby, and to her credit, the smith did not flinch, even when the blade was mere inches from her face.

"Despite her looks, Ruby has the talent and brains to make the only weapons capable of matching the Grimblight. She would be my greatest weapon in culling the plague, and establishing my dominance in the New World. With her forging for us, we can persevere through this storm."

"If you think-" Ruby was cut off as Raven adjusted the point of the sword towards Weiss.

"Obviously Miss Rose will need a motivator, so her girlfriend gets the honored position of perpetual hostage," Raven watched Ruby, who fumed in silence.

"What? No heroic remark? No courageous rebuttal? Thought so," Raven flicked the blade to Qrow next, "And Qrow. Not many of these layabouts have the skill necessary to give me a challenge. And I can only beat Vernal around so much before I start to lose interest. So he will become my latest punching bag, and will finally get his duel he's been itching for so long."

Qrow made a noise of disgust, muttering an "Oh great," under his breath as he shuffled into the dirt.

Raven passed the point of her blade and settled it on Blake, the wyverian meeting the steel with her own hard gaze.

"The little researcher has a deep insight to the research of the commission. And since the library has been stolen away or burned down, I'll need her knowledge moving forward."

Raven pulled the sword up from the group, but her piercing eyes settled on Yang, "Everyone's got a use here, and in my camp, we don't tolerate anyone without a use. So tell me Yang," Raven lounged into her wooden chair, as if she was laying on a chaise longue, all ease, "What will you be useful for?"

It was quiet in that damp dirt room, as if the earth itself was snuffing out any sound and pulling them all deeper down. Yang felt Blake squeeze her hand.

"You value strength right?" Yang said slowly, Raven scoffed at her.

"Those who wield strength don't make mistakes like that girl," Raven lazy pointed her foot at Yang's prosthetic, the gilded metal adjusting almost as if in response to being mentioned, Yang sat as straight and tall as she could sitting on the ground.

"The strong learn from their mistakes," Yang's hand drifted to her abdomen before settling on her wrist, "How can anyone get stronger if they aren't constantly putting themselves in situations that they can grow from?"

The bandit queen laughed, "You think a few tussles with the Grimmblight makes you strong? What do you know about strength, with your fresh eyes and your mere months in this hell hole of a continent?" Raven stood from her seat, her blade pointing to the ground.

"I was barely older than you when I broke free from the Commission's fascist grasp, I was hunted for daring to speak out against their methodologies and their plans. It wasn't long till I brought together a group of people who thought the same as me. We were forced into hiding, forced to live off scraps for daring to dream of true freedom… And you call yourself strong."

Yang rushed as she spoke, "But they're not really free, are they? They live under your rules, forced to fight one another, forced to kill monsters. They don't have anywhere to go besides here, and so they don't have any choice. You call that freedom?"

Raven paused, but still had the audacity to smirk, "Now you're putting it together. Seems like some time with Summer and Qrow really put a few brains inside all that brawn of yours. I can't imagine your fool of a father had anything to-"

Yang slammed her foot into the ground, standing quickly and pressing her face close to Raven's. "Don't you dare talk about my father like that!"

The bandits all brandished their weapons, Vernals sword halfway from her sheath before Raven held a hand up and stopped them.

"There she is!" Raven was smiling wider now, almost touching her forehead to Yang's, "Maybe there will be some use for you after all. So why don't you play nice, and I'll let you see your girlfriend every now and then? Otherwise… Who knows what might happen?"

Yang tempered the flair of heat that spread through her, boiling her blood and reaching her eyes as they squinted in anger. She held her tongue, at the hundreds of insults and threats that threatened to spill forth from them. Instead she closed her eyes briefly before opening them again, meeting the crimson, insulting irises of her mother.

"How about this, you let anyone fight for rank around here right? Rule by strength? Well how about we get this over with a duel?" The air hung about them in a muffled silence, the bandits glancing at one another and shifting nervously.

"You got a lot of nerve coming here and demanding things from me while being held captive," She shifted her weight to one of her hips, cocking her hand upon it.

But Raven relented, "But I guess you get that from me. So what's on the table? You really wanna lead this band of hounds?"

Yang cracked her neck and crossed her arms across her chest, "Whatever gets you to let us go and get out of here? Yeah."

Raven's smile faded, "Well, if there's no other way to convince you." She stepped back towards the door, "Get them a meal, I won't fight a hungry opponent. When the time is right, I'll have my men come for you all, we will need an audience won't we? After all, it has been made apparent to me that my absence made you a brat. It's time I put you in your place, little girl."

Raven strode through the door as if a demon was after her, and some of the bandits followed her, leaving Vernal standing in the doorway. She left them with a glare before slamming the wooden door shut.

Yang felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist, a head pressing against the center of her back.

"Do you really think this is the best idea?" Blake said, her lips pressed against Yang's back. Yang could only lay her hand on Blake's and tighten her grip.

"Yang," Qrow said, standing from the floor and further wiping at the blood across his face, "If you had told me this was your plan from the beginning, I might've knocked you out and tied you up." The man sighed, "Raven has had years of experience killing other hunters, even guild knights. And I'll be honest, she could beat me on a bad day."

She turned around and looked at Qrow, "I don't care about the possibilities or the what ifs, I need to get us out of here, and I'll do it." Yang switched her gaze to Ruby, who was standing holding Weiss, gazing back at her sister.

"It's what I do you know?" Yang offered them a lazy smile, one she hoped wasn't too shaky.

—

Yang was led through a tight tunnel, one not lit by torchlight, but illuminated by a light at the end of the tunnel. Yang took steady steps, the ground below her feet giving way to sand as she stepped out into the arena pit. Even though a fight had occurred not half a day earlier, there seemed to be even more bandits crammed into the crude stadium seating around her. They called out loudly and jeered at her as she entered the light. Yang glanced around before she settled on Ruby, Blake, Weiss and Qrow, all sitting next to Raven's throne, bound and surrounded by guards.

Yang let the bit of anger bubbling in her throat escape from her mouth with a fast exhale, she closed her eyes and drowned out the noise of the room. Her hands dropped to her chargeblade, pulling the sword from the sheath within the shield and gripping both tightly. There was a brief moment where her strength and will faded, where her grip almost fell slack and her weapons nearly dropped to the floor. Then, just as the noise bottomed out and the sharp shrill of silence entered her ears, she raced through her memories. Memories of Ruby getting sick hardly a month into the voyage into the new world. Memories of an awful stench filling the library as Blake tried to hide her disgust. Memories of Weiss punching a hole clean through a Yian Guraga with a smoking arrow, her face lit with victory and relief. Of that fateful night when Blake pulled her into a kiss in the deep of the night, and the hope that filled her. Finally she remembered Ruby, and the soft song she sang as she brushed through Yang's hair, and all was right in the world. Yang's strength returned, her grip tightening, her blood roaring. She could do this, she had to.

She heard an unmistakable unsheathing of a sword so faint and silent in the roar she had tried to phase out.

Yang hardly had time to open her eyes as she lifted her shield up and caught the silver blade, the force of the blow sending her skidding back several feet. Yang slowly lowered her shield, her lilac eyes peering over the edge as she saw Raven settle her longsword against her shoulder.

"Not even a 'Hello'?" Yang said, standing into a relaxed guard, her sword pointing to the ground.

"Just testing your general perception, can't have a hunter join my ranks who doesn't know what's going on around her. Well, that is if you survive this fight." Raven strafed to the side, and Yang went the opposite way, the two circling around one another as the roar of the bandits reached a precipice.

"You know I'm not going to hold back right? Just because you're my blood, doesn't mean I won't kill you," Raven finally pulled her sword up towards her body, her other hand wrapping around the hilt in a practiced grip as she held it straight in the air. She stopped, and widened her stance, crouching slightly.

"Never expected you to," Yang held her shield in front of her, crouching as well and pulling her sword up towards her head, the tip of the blade pointing at Raven.

They stayed like that, for just a moment, one that stretched into eternity. Yang's eyes flicked across Raven's stance, eyeing for the smallest of movements, the tiniest of openings. It was like thunder when Raven struck first, her sword going from its upwards stance to a side swipe from the left, the luna-metal blade leaving a black after streak in the air as it flew.

Yang parried with her sword, twisting her wrist to deflect the blow just shy of her body, she could feel the air tickle her nose as the blade swung inches from her face. She stepped to the side and pushed in with her shield, catching Raven's follow up with the brunt of the metal, feeling the force of the blow shock up her arm. The resounding cry of the strike reverberated in the room, and Yang felt the crack that split down her shield. Three phials filled in the mechanism of her chargeblade.

She stabbed towards Raven's hip, then spun opposite towards her knees, her blade meeting air and causing a wave of sand to soar through the air. A quick glance and Yang saw Raven in the air, her knees drawn tight and her sword held over her head. Yang rolled to the right as the sword sunk into the ground, hopping up on her feet and bringing herself back into her stance. Her sword hovered next to her face in a guarded position as she slowly side stepped Raven, the woman settling her longsword on her shoulder as she matched Yang's pace.

"Not bad," Raven called, "But strength is more than cute tricks with a sword." The woman flipped the sword behind her back in a flash before it appeared in her other hand, she rolled her wrist as she flipped the blade around.

Yang stepped into her guard, faster than most, and smacked the strike that came towards her body in response. She swung upwards, a blow that should have cleaved her mother from hip to shoulder, but again, only met air. The woman spun around with grace, her sword flowing like water and death. Yang spun the opposite way and met the blade in a crouch, the metal bouncing against her bulwark and flinging into the air. A phial slotted into her chargeblade. Yang took the opportunity to score a scratch against Raven's inner thigh, a shy but flowing cut that made the woman click her tongue.

They stood apart from one another, in their guarded stances, a momentary pause that had the bandits nearly frothing at the mouth for more carnage.

"Well, as loath as I am to admit it, you're a natural. I suppose that's to be expected given my blood flows through your veins. Do you know how many lives I've taken? How many I've slain over the years? They are like drops in a river!" Raven swung impossibly fast, two, no, three strikes whirled in front of Yang. She caught one against the crossguard of her sword, one again against her shield, but the last raked across her ribs and elicited a scream.

The final vials fit into the slot of her chargeblade.

"You think that makes you strong?" Yang spat, ignoring the river of blood that coated her side. "You're just a psychopath justifying her rage!"

Yang stabbed her sword into the shield of her chargeblade, the latent energy and static making her hair rise into the air, her golden locks becoming lightning. She swung out to the right and extended the weapon to its full length. With a roar she swung the axe-head in a wide arc, Raven deflecting the blow but stumbling back. Yang continued the momentum in a twirl and swung again, Raven ducking and stabbing forward. Yang twisted her stomach away from its point, digging the axehead through the dirt and delivering an uppercut, again meeting Raven's blade. The woman was raised up from the force of the blow, forcing her another step back. Yang clicked a button on the haft of the hilt and lightning crackled up along the weapon and exploded at the end of the axehead. With a scream Yang slammed the chargeblade into the ground, an eruption of lightning blanketing the ground and throwing up a cloud of dust.

Yang breathed heavily as the dust cleared in front of her, yet instead of a prone body, there was nothing. A shadow leapt from the dust, Raven holding her sword with two hands. The sword flashed its evil shine through the air, and Raven was grinning as she was about to bring down a helmsplitter on her defenseless daughter.

Her shield was gone, her weapon sunk into the dirt, there was nothing stopping Yang from being split in two.

But Yang remembered something, something she saw in the glean of the lunametal blade above her, in the smile of her mother as she poised herself to tear Yang in two.

Ruby only got better as time went on.

With a resounding crack Raven's blade collided with Yang, sending a cloud of dust around them. The spectators fell silent as the dust cleared slowly. Standing in the center were two figures, Raven with her mouth open and her blade held tight in a hand. Yang stood there, her arm shaking as she held Raven's blade with her prosthetic, a small crack forming in her palm.

"Gotcha," Yang said.

There was a deafening snap as she flexed her fingers and split the blade in half. Yang disengaged her sword from the chargeblade and swung at the woman, but Raven was a true warrior, and even with her blade snapped in half, she blocked the blow with her metal. Raven sprawled across the ground and Yang didn't waste a moment, leaping at her mother with only her sword in her hand..

Raven stood quickly and parried again, but her counter attack fell short, the body of her blade nearly a third of its original length and causing her to over balance. She threw a foot down to stop herself from tumbling forward, her mouth hanging open at the impossible turn of events. Yang spun, and dragged her sword across her mother's stomach, the screeching of metal against her armor the only sound in the quiet hall. Yang saw a spray of blood leave the tip of her sword, and completing her spin, kicked Raven in the leg, sending her crashing to her knees. Yang stabbed at her dominant shoulder, only for Raven to catch the strike on the crossgaurd of her sword, sending the blade flying through the air and sinking into the sand behind her.

Raven hardly had a moment to even breathe before Yang's prosthetic slammed into her cheek, sending her crashing into the sand and forming a dark bruise nearly immediately. Yang leapt up into the air, both her hands on her sword. Of all the things she saw in her mother at that moment, the surprise, the blood leaking from her nose, she saw most apparent the deep shock of fear dancing in her crimson eyes.

Before the blade crashed into the ground, Raven rolled to the right, the sand flying through the air before she stopped on her back, but before she could stand, the tip of Yang's sword pressed against her throat.

"Yield!" Yang roared.

Raven flinched, her hand itching towards the shattered half of her sword. Yang pressed the tip of her blade deeper, eliciting blood from Raven's pristine white neck.

"I said YIELD!"

Raven laid there, with hard shallow breaths, ones taken in fear of expanding her throat too far and piercing into Yang's sword, before she held her hands up and turned her eyes to the side.

A silence stretched across the arena, before a roar went up.

Yang slowly pulled her sword back, half expecting Raven to lunge for her shattered weapon and take another swing at her. But when her mother stayed on the ground she finally spun around and pointed her sword at her captive family.

"Release them! Now!" The bandits holding guard over her family made quick work of severing their bindings, and it wasn't long before Blake, Ruby and Weiss had leapt into the arena and were rushing towards her.

"You know, you probably should have killed me," The raspy voice of her mother crept over her like a swarm of insects. Yang turned, her sword hand strong, her prosthetic gleaming.

"I can still kill you now," Yang said lowly, only for the two of them to hear. Raven crossed her arms and their eyes locked.

For some you might imagine that there were unspoken words said between the two in this silent purgatory, this moment of calm and killing intent between them where no one else was present. However, Yang could only feel the cold sizzle of a long held grudge die, felt its last claws drag across her soul as she left it behind her. She faced away from her mother, and embraced Blake.

The Wyverian crashed into her, holding her tight as she dug her face into Yang's chest.

"You're an idiot," Blake started and a hiccuping sob cut her off from the rest of Yang's warranted berating. Yang could only pull her closer before Ruby crashed into her next, followed by Weiss.

"You're an idiot, but I'm glad you're alright," Weiss said next, Ruby punching her in the shoulder before digging into Yang's side.

"How did you know your arm could take that hit?!" Ruby asked.

Yang scoffed, flexing her prosthetic, "Come on sis, I've known you for your entire smithing career. You always get better with time."

Ruby beamed at her before snuggling in closer. The cheers of the bandits began to quiet, and questions filled the air as the team disengaged from their hug.

Raven stepped up to Yang, her chin held up despite the defeat, "Well, what are your plans now? You're in charge whether you want to be or not."

Yang steadied herself, the weight of the fight finally settling into her muscles. She tried not to let it show as she cocked a grin, her hair immaculate and her heart burning bright, "You're going to take us to the source, and then help us kill the Grimm of course!"