I stayed up way to late in order to finish this tonight...(I guess for a lot of you, it's already tomorrow...) but here it is! Read and review - and this is still not the end!

Blake wandered across the deserted parking lot, looking wearily towards the decrepit building looming in front of her.

She didn't know how she had gotten to this place. The last thing she remembered was fighting Adam in the hanger…then staring up at Yang…then being here in this parking lot, staring at this unknown building. Seeing as how she no longer had a sword in her chest, she could only come up with one plausible conclusion.

She was dead.

She sighed as she looked around her. The parking lot seemed to have been abandoned long ago, as weeds now grew through large cracks in the concrete. There was a foggy wooded area behind her, although the trees appeared to be too dense to be real. Blake wondered if she would even be able to pass through them if she tried, they were placed so closely together. It seemed almost like they were forming a wall, preventing her from venturing away from the parking lot and the massive, foreboding building.

After making one slow, complete circle around the building and finding that she was hemmed in by trees on all sides, she decided that she might as well check and see if there was anything useful inside. It was clearly the only place she was allowed to go.

The double doors in the front entrance were open, with one side hanging completely off its hinges. She stepped delicately through the doorframe, hearing her footsteps echo loudly off the tile floor inside.

The front entryway was grand and large, with high ceilings and a reception desk placed right in front of her. She could make out several elevators placed off to her left, with hallways branching off to each side.

It may have once been a large office building, or a courthouse maybe, but it had definitely seen much better days. Windows had been broken, with glass shards laying on the tile floor inside. What little furniture there was in the lobby was covered in cobwebs and a thick layer of dust.

The stillness in the room was unnerving.

She took another step forward, wincing as her foot came down on a shard of glass and an outrageously loud shattering noise rung out in the lobby. She held her breath for several seconds as she wondered if the noise had alerted anyone to her presence, if there was anyone else there at all. After the noise disappeared and the quiet had returned, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Blake!"

She spun to her right as she heard the familiar voice call her name.

"Yang?"

The voice's owner had hardly registered in her brain before she sprinted off in the direction of the sound, no longer caring if anyone heard her running across broken glass. She blew down the hallway, passing door after door as she searched for her partner.

"Blake!"

She heard her name again, closer now.

"Yang!" she shouted out, no longer heeding where she was going as she raced towards Yang's voice. She could feel relief flooding her mind. She wasn't alone - Yang was here with her.

Rounding the corner at the end of the hallway and bursting into a large conference room, she abruptly put on the brakes.

"Blake."

There Adam stood, a smirk on his face.

"Adam?" she asked incredulously, looking around the room for Yang.

"Don't waste your time looking for her," he replied coldly. "She's not here."

Blake felt her heart fall at his words. But she had heard Yang…she knew that it had been her partner's voice…

"What are you doing here?" she finally asked.

"I'm not really here," he stated calmly. "I'm merely a manifestation of your subconscious."

She scoffed at his comment, but carefully took in his unarmed figure before turning away. He seemingly didn't mean her any harm right now and she was still determined to find Yang. She had heard Yang's voice…if Adam was there, Yang could be somewhere, too.

Adam fell in step beside her as she walked from the room. She left the door open as an indication to herself that she had already been in that room.

"You won't find what you're looking for."

"She's here. I know it," Blake replied without looking at him.

"Blake!" She heard it again, this time far away, from…outside. "Yang!" she called out as she rushed in the direction she had come, quickly leaving Adam behind as she sprinted back out the front doors in a matter of seconds.

Once outside, she could actually see Yang in the distance, walking around the edge of the parking lot.

"Yang!"

When Yang didn't respond to her call, Blake sprinted towards the girl, feeling immensely relieved as she grew closer and closer.

"Yang!" she yelled out again, but the blonde still didn't seem to be able to hear her. Blake pushed her legs harder, trying to get there as quickly as possible.

The next second, Blake cried out in pain as she suddenly ran into a very solid object, knocking her onto her back as she crashed into it at full speed. Slowly getting back to her feet, she held her hand to her head in pain.

Yang was several feet from her now, but walking away from her, still shouting Blake's name.

Blake, very carefully, held her arms out in front of her. She frowned as she felt her hands bump into an invisible barrier separating herself from her partner. Running her hands along its smooth surface, it seemed to extend in all directions, reaching up into the sky higher than she could even reach.

"Yang!" she yelled as she jogged to where Yang was, making sure to slide her hands along the barrier the entire time.

"Blake!" Yang shouted again, seemingly unable to hear Blake call to her.

But Blake was walking directly in front of Yang now, separated by mere inches of whatever force was keeping them apart.

"Yang!" she tried shouting one more time as she slammed her fist into the barrier in frustration, feeling the bones in her hand nearly break from the resistance.

Yang stopped walking as she began to cry, holding her head in her hands as she continued to softly call out Blake's name.

Blake felt her own tears begin to fall down her face as she touched the barrier right in front of Yang's face, wanting to reach out and console the girl.

"Blake…please don't leave me…" Yang whimpered into her hands as she sunk to her knees, shoulders shaking as she began to sob.

Blake felt her heart break as she pushed both of her hands onto the barrier, struggling to be as close to Yang as possible.

"I won't! Yang, I won't…" Blake said, feeling tears spring into her own eyes when she realized that Yang couldn't hear a word she was saying.

A strong breeze suddenly began gusting across the parking lot, blowing Blake's hair forward into her eyes. As she brushed her hair back out of her face, she stared in horror as Yang began to fade away. The wind was eroding the blonde to nothing, blowing her away as if moving sand in the desert.

Blake's tears spilled over as she watched Yang disappear in front of her eyes. Long after there was nothing of her partner remaining, she continued to stare at the ground where Yang had just been standing.

Why was this happening?

"So sad."

She snapped her neck around to find that Adam was there, standing behind her with that same infuriating smirk on his face.

Then she realized.

Not only was she dead…but she had gone to her own personal version of purgatory.

She closed her eyes and hung her head as she let the realization sink in. There was no other way to explain it. Why else would Adam be following her every move while Yang was being dangled in front of her like bait, only to be ripped away at the last second.

She shook her head. She wasn't willing to give up. She couldn't give up. Even if this cruel game continued forever…Blake would keep trying to reach her.

Brushing past the tall Faunus, she trudged back towards the building, already knowing that there was nothing else to be seen outside. Once back inside, she walked through the corridors idly for several minutes, trying to ignore Adam's presence beside her as she looked and listened for any sign of Yang. She kept pushing open doors, revealing empty, undisturbed offices or conference rooms behind them.

She turned another corner and stopped dead in her tracks.

There was Yang, standing in front of another version of Adam.

Blake opened her mouth to call out her partner's name, until she realized that there was something strangely familiar about the image in front of her. She then realized that she had seen this scene before, and just recently.

Her heart began pounding as she watched Yang walk up to the boy, curling her fingers through his short hair as she stood on her tiptoes to draw her face close to his. Adam wore a grin as he gazed down into Yang's eyes.

The two of them froze in that position, with Yang's lips agonizingly close to Adam's.

Blake looked away in pain, wishing that the memory would continue playing, but the two figures remained fixed there, a half inch away from kissing. A personal nightmare for Blake's eyes only.

The non-frozen Adam laughed as he walked up to the frozen pair.

"Oh, I really did enjoy this moment…" he remarked fondly as he sauntered slowly around the two. "She really is a very attractive women, you know. Well…for a human."

"I know," Blake growled at him before spinning on her heel and stalking back out of the room, trying to leave the image of Yang and Adam far behind.

The last unopened door in the hallway revealed a staircase, leading Blake up to the next floor. She found that there was a beautiful stained glass window placed right outside of the exit for the staircase.

Her first thought was that this was a very odd place to have such an ornate window. The colored glass was arranged in the picture of a single white lily with a long green stem. Even though several pieces of glass had been knocked out of place, it was still gorgeous.

Blake paused for a few seconds to admire it. Besides her few glimpses of Yang, it was the only thing with any true beauty she had discovered in the building so far.

"Blake!"

She spun to her right and spotted Yang at the opposite end of a long corridor, waving her arm as she beckoned Blake her way. Blake immediately sprinted down the hallway towards the girl as Yang disappeared through one of the open doors. She skidded into the room at full speed, nearly slamming into the doorframe in her haste.

Of course, when she looked into the small office, she found that it was empty except for a desk, bookcase, and several cabinets. Yang had already vanished.

Blake sighed as she turned to trudge back out into the hallway, but paused as something caught her eye just as she was about to leave.

While everything else in the room was covered in the customary layer of dust, one small cabinet seemed to be much cleaner than the others. In fact, it didn't look like a single speck of dust had touched it yet.

She turned towards it curiously and pulled open the doors. Her brows furrowed in confusion at the contents inside.

Lilies, just like the one in the stained glass window, were neatly lined up inside the small cabinet. The flowers were still fresh and vibrant, as if they had just been cut yesterday. Each one was perfect, with not a single flaw in its appearance.

Blake leaned forward and peered closely at one of the flowers, wondering what something so alive was doing in a building that hadn't been touched in what seemed to be decades. They must be important somehow…but how…

She jumped as Adam suddenly appeared by her side.

"Wonder what those are for?" he asked curiously, causing Blake to slam the cabinet door shut in irritation. "Or who, maybe?"

She ignored him and looked around the rest of the room, but found nothing else that appeared to have been disturbed recently.

Before she left, she reopened the cabinet and gently pulled out a single flower, holding it up to her nose for a smell before placing it carefully back in its place. She stepped out of the room and continued her routine of checking the rest of the rooms, finding nothing. She made a mental note of where the flowers were before heading up to the next level.

"So…are you going to ignore me forever?" Adam asked as he followed her up the staircase.

"Yup," she responded curtly.

"Forever is a very long time not to have anyone to talk to," Adam commented, mostly to himself, as they continued their fruitless search.

As soon as they reached the next level, Blake's ears picked up the sound of someone sobbing. Gut wrenching, soul crushing sobs of pain were coming from the large corridor lined by a wall of glass windows which looked out over the degraded parking lot below.

Blake's heart broke when her eyes landed upon the source of the tears.

Yang was kneeling on the ground not thirty yards away from them, head in her hands as she wept uncontrollably. Blake rushed towards the girl, wanting, no needing, to comfort her. She had to do something to put an end to Yang's pain.

But she slowed down as she was five feet away, noticing phantom-like visions of Weiss and Ruby appearing behind Yang. Ruby knelt down by her sister's side, placing an arm around Yang's shaking shoulders as the brunette also cried. Weiss remained standing by her teammates' sides and stared forward, eyes filled with anger and hurt.

Blake's breath caught in her chest when she realized that the three of them were wearing their school uniforms.

This was Beacon.

This…this was when Blake had left.

Tears were streaming down her face as she listened to Yang's sobs. She had always done everything possible to avoid thinking about what it had been like in the seconds and minutes after she had left her team. But now, seeing it play out in front of her very own eyes, hearing how distraught Yang was…

This was too much.

This was torture.

Blake forced her feet to carry her the last few paces to Yang's side. She could have sworn that Weiss' image glared daggers into her as she approached, but she reminded herself that none of them could actually see her. She fell to her knees right in front of Yang, feeling her own distress swelling within her heart as she watched her partner suffer through unbearable amounts of pain. Pain that Blake herself had caused.

"I'm so sorry…" Blake whispered through her tears, wishing that Yang could hear her apology. "I'm s-so, so sorry…"

Reaching out one hand, Blake moved to rest it on Yang's shoulder, only to watch her palm pass through the girl's image and fall limply back to her side. The images of the three girls instantly vanished, leaving only the sound of Blake's own sobs to fill the empty hallway.

"When will you give up?" Adam asked dispassionately from beside her. "You're obviously never going to be able to reach her."

Blake shot to her feet as her sorrow turned to rage.

"I will NEVER give up," she shouted in Adam's face, causing him to take a step backwards in surprise. "I don't care if I'm DEAD, or alive, or whatever the hell this is. I will keep trying to reach her as long as there is a single breath of air left in my chest. Even if I am cursed to relive these moments over and over again, I will never stop running to her!"

Adam held his hands up as he shook his head slowly in defeat.

"Why?" she asked as her anger began to dissipate. "Why did you do this, Adam?"

She wished that her voice hadn't come out so pleadingly, but she needed to know. He had been the closest thing she had ever had to family before she had joined Beacon…she may have abandoned him, but she had never intentionally tried to hurt him.

"There are always casualties in war, Blake," he answered simply. "You and I are not precluded from that."

She sighed in exasperation at his nonsense answer, throwing her hands in the air as she turned away from him.

Blake.

Blake heard her name again, but this time it wasn't a voice cutting through the air. No, it was somehow coming from within herself, signaling her for attention without making a sound.

Blake.

She felt it again, this time looking around her as she searched for whatever was trying to get her attention.

At the end of the hall, she heard a door open and glanced over just in time to see a mane of golden hair disappear through it. She raced towards the door, noticing that this time Adam remained standing in the hallway behind her, watching her go.

Ripping open the door, she found herself back at the staircase. Pausing briefly, she heard the sound of feet pounding on the stairs above her. She took the staircase in two bounds before pulling open a door to the next floor, surprised to find herself nearly falling outside onto the rooftop of the building. The wind was blowing furiously up at this height, throwing the door completely open as soon as Blake had pushed it open.

But there she was, standing on the other edge of the roof, her back towards Blake as she looked out towards the forest, blonde hair blowing sharply to the left as the wind ran through it.

"Yang!" Blake called out when she saw the girl.

And this time, something miraculous happened. Something Blake wouldn't have even dared to wish for minutes earlier.

As soon as she shouted Yang's name, the girl turned around towards her. Blake's breath caught as lilac eyes locked onto her own and a smile crept onto Yang's face.

"Yang," Blake repeated in a whisper as relief flooded through her. Yang could see her this time; Yang could hear her.

She began jogging towards her partner, only to be pulled abruptly to a stop by a forceful grip on her wrist. Glancing back in confusion, she found Adam holding tightly onto her arm.

"Adam, let go," she said, trying in vain to pull her wrist out of his grasp.

Instead of responding, he yanked her roughly backwards several steps. As she staggered to regain her balance, she finally managed to rip her arm free of his grasp, surprised to find that he released her voluntarily.

"Goodbye, Blake," he said softly.

She didn't have a chance to react before he threw his right foot out, the heel of his boot connecting squarely in her chest and throwing her backwards off the side of the building. There was no time for a single thought to cross her mind before she was plunged back into darkness.

Blake regained consciousness sometime later, feeling pain resonating through every inch of her incredibly stiff body. It felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to her chest several times in a row, which would make sense for just having fallen several stories off a building to the concrete ground. The effect of which made breathing feel like she were sucking in shards of glass, not oxygen.

She kept her eyes closed as she tried to pass back into unconsciousness, wishing the pain away. She definitely did not want to see Adam's smirking face when she was in this much pain.

Unfortunately, the opposite seemed to be occurring as more of her senses returned to her. Her hearing finally came back online, revealing a soft, rhythmic beeping and a soothing droning coming from nearby. She cracked her eyes open, not having heard any sounds like these anywhere in the building she had just been searching through.

Her eyes widened in shock at the sight in front of her.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, with her back turned slightly towards Blake, was Yang. Wearing what appeared to be pajamas, the girl's blonde hair was cascading down her back, looking slightly more unkempt than was usual. Her partner was staring deeply into the book she held slightly above her lap.

Blake had never seen anything more beautiful in her life.

But, was this just another mirage? Another trick designed to get her hopes up, only to have them dashed into oblivion?

She listened intently, focusing on Yang's soothing voice as the blonde continued to read softly out loud. The strength behind each word was pacifying…the melody intoxicating. If this was just another fleeting moment, doomed to vanish like the rest, Blake was going to savor it for as long as possible.

After quietly listening for several pages, Blake began picking up on the familiar character names and plotlines. She suddenly realized that she knew exactly which book Yang was reading.

Just then, Yang closed the book as she huffed in dissatisfaction.

"Seriously, why is she trying to do all of this by herself when Clyde would help her?" the blonde lamented to no one in particular before picking the book back up to resume reading.

"Because…" Blake managed to speak out, surprised to find that her throat was incredibly dry and voice raspy, "she…loves him…"

Yang flew off the bed in surprise, book flying to the floor as she dropped it from her hands.

"B-Blake?" the blonde asked, voice trembling as her lilac eyes instantly filled with tears.

Yang let out a laugh when she saw Blake looking back at her.

"Blake!" she cried out as she jumped back onto the bed and wrapped Blake in a hug more tender than anything Blake would believed Yang to be capable of. The movement was still painful for Blake, but she wouldn't complain as Yang's warmth radiated against her skin.

Tears filled Blake's eyes when she realized that Yang had actually touched her, and hadn't disappeared into thin air.

This was real.

"G-god, I was s-so scared, Blake. They kept telling me that you m-might n-never wake up…but I knew that you would!" Yang blubbered in her ear like a baby as she continued crying tears of happiness.

"Y-Yang," Blake said softly, her voice still protesting at the sudden use it was receiving.

Yang instantly moved backwards and looked at her, smile gone as she looked over Blake like a worried mother.

"I-I'm sorry, did I hurt you? I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have hugged you like that," Yang sputtered out the words rapidly as she wrung her hands in concern.

"Yang…I l-love you."

Yang froze, mouth hanging open as she processed the words. For a few seconds, Blake worried that maybe Yang didn't feel the same way about her anymore. That is, until Yang's smile reappeared, even brighter than before.

"I love you too!" she cried out as she pulled Blake into another hug, releasing her seconds later when she realized that she had put Blake through another somewhat painful experience.

But Yang didn't release her entirely, holding Blake up with one hand behind her back as she gently pressed her lips to Blake's in a kiss.

Blake closed her eyes as she was overcome by the sensation of Yang's soft, warm lips moving against her undoubtedly chapped and rough ones. Though Yang didn't seem to mind as Blake could feel her still smiling through her tears.

This kiss was nothing like their first one. There was no pain or suffering between them anymore. There was only love and affection…and the desire to make up for lost time.

Blake had to break away after not too long, finding that her lung capacity was excruciatingly too short. She leaned her forehead against Yang's, breathing heavily as Yang gently brushed a strand of hair behind one of Blake's ears.

After she had caught her breath, Blake leaned backwards slightly in order to gaze into Yang's eyes, finding the lilac orbs sparkling, more full of life than she had seen in a very long time.

"Sorry…" Blake mumbled in embarrassment for having to halt their kiss due to her lack of endurance.

Yang smiled in response, mischief twinkling in her eyes.

"Don't worry about it. We'll just have to work on your stamina," she replied with a wink before she leaned back in and gave Blake a single peck on the lips.

"No…" Blake continued, turning away when more emotions began brewing in her chest. "I'm sorry that it took me so long…to realize…"

A warm finger came to rest against her lips, halting her apology in its tracks. Glancing up, she found Yang looking at her with an affectionate smile.

"Let's apologize later...or never. You're back, and that's all that matters right now."

Blake smiled and nodded her head in agreement. They were going to start brand new – a clean slate from here on out.

At that moment, Blake swallowed thickly, realizing that her mouth was still drier than a desert. Yang noticed and hopped off the bed (much to Blake's distress) and went to fill a glass of water from the pitcher sitting by the windowsill. That was when Blake noticed the many different cards, stuffed animals, and flowers sitting on the ledge underneath the window.

Yang followed Blake's eyes as she came back and carefully handed Blake the glass of water, helping Blake resituate so that she was propped up against her pillows and able to drink properly.

"Those are from all of your admirers," Yang began, teasing her slightly. "Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Jaune, Sun, Velvet, Professor Ozpin and Glynda…Ruby, Weiss…pretty much everyone you know. You might want to be careful when you open Nora's though. I'm prettyyyy sure it's a snake."

Blake's eyes widened as she stared towards the brown box with a few air holes poked in the sides, before she noticed something familiar sitting at the end of the line of gifts.

"And that one?" Blake asked, pointing towards it.

A single, long-stemmed white lily stood out from leaves of green, planted in a small clay pot.

"Ah…" Yang began, looking slightly embarrassed. "I found that outside the other day, growing up between the cracks in the sidewalk. Can you believe that? A flower growing underneath a piece of concrete? I had to bring it back here for you…so I dug it up and replanted it here."

Blake smiled as she looked at the flower, just as beautiful as the ones she had seen in her dream.

"You do know…lilies are poisonous to cats," she joked, grinning as she watched Yang's eyes open wide in horror.

"Y-you're kidding, right?" Yang asked in dismay.

Blake chuckled and shook her head no.

"I'm so sorry! I'll get rid of it right now!" the blonde exclaimed, moving to get off of the bed and remove the flower immediately from the room (likely by throwing it out the window in her haste).

Blake gingerly laid a hand upon Yang's arm, freezing the girl in her tracks before she had managed to stand up.

"And you do know that I'm not really a cat, right?" she asked teasingly as she gazed fondly at her partner.

"U-uh…yeah…I…totally knew that…" Yang replied sheepishly as her body relaxed in relief.

"Oh! I need to message everyone and tell them know that you're awake!" Yang suddenly realized as she jumped up and raced across the room to found her scroll. Blake sighed and took a sip of water as Yang excitedly typed out a message to everyone, then threw the device down on a chair and climbed back onto the bed next to Blake.

Yang sat cross-legged again, this time facing Blake, smile never leaving her face.

Something caught Blake's attention out of the corner of her eye. She looked down to the floor, noticing the book Yang had been reading haphazardly laying open on the ground. She resisted the urge to wince at the painful way the front cover had bent backwards from the fall.

"Ninjas of Love, huh?" Blake asked curiously as she saw the cover, causing Yang to blush.

"Well…yeah…I figured that it might be one of your favorites…" Yang replied as she reached down and pulled the book off of the ground. She focused her attention intently upon straightening out the bent pages as Blake laughed at her.

"Could you keep reading?" Blake asked, feeling a wave of exhaustion roll over her.

"Absolutely," Yang replied happily. "But first…"

The blonde leaned quickly backwards and kissed Blake on the lips, causing Blake's eyes to widen in surprise. Yang giggled as she turned back to her book, flipping through the pages in search of where she had just left off.

Blake smiled and shook her head in an attempt to lessen some of the blush rising on her cheeks. Yang began reading as if nothing had happened, voice rising and falling as she made her way through the text.

She closed her eyes as she listened to Yang's voice, feeling a calming energy join her exhaustion. After not too long, she felt Yang slip a warm hand over one of her own. She couldn't have stopped the smile from creeping onto her lips even if she had tried.

Yes, this was most definitely real.