Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. The wonderful characters and settings of the RWBY universe belong to Monty Oum and Roosterteeth

Chasing Shadows

Chapter 3: A Sheep in Lions clothing.

"Fuck."

Yang was not happy.

It had been a week now since Ruby left. One week since her mother visited, six days since she'd begun work on her new arm. Six long, frustrating days.

It simply wasn't possible. She had confirmed what almost everyone else had been expecting. You simply could not build a mechanical arm with only one hand. It just didn't work like that. The wiring alone was proving to be all but impossible. With both her arms fully functioning this would've taken two solid weeks of work, but she hadn't even passed the first stage yet in her current predicament.

Her stomach growled in protest at the long hours she had been working without pause. Her once bright lilac eyes now sat upon heavy bags and her treasured golden locks were greasy and unkempt. She had even slept in the warehouse one night, only to pay the price in the morning when her back screamed in agony with every movement she made.

Distantly she registered the sound of a door opening and closing behind her. She didn't turn from her work, she knew who it was. It had been the same routine for the past few days now, ever since she started sleeping in the draughty cabin.

"Yang honey?" He enquired slowly; careful not to spark his daughter's wrath as he had done the first time he attempted this… there was a new scorch mark on the wall to attest to the brilliance of that particular plan.

She didn't look up from her work. Not even as a plate of delicious smelling food was placed teasingly on the desk under her nostrils. She had to finish her arm; she would not be weak again.

"Yang honey. You've got to stop this," her father lamented gently, trying to ease her attention onto him with a light squeeze of her shoulder. "You can't build anything in your condition, let along a new arm, it just doesn't work like that."

"Why?" she asked.

Taiyang was taken aback, he hadn't managed to get a peep put of her these past few days, the only sound she had made was an animalistic growl when he tried to forcibly remove her from the room. He glanced back over the scorch mark that stained the furthest most wall and reflected on the genius of that plan.

"Well… you can't possible put together all the intricate pieces that –"

"No. Why didn't you come?"

"I…I uh… What?"

"Why didn't you come?" she asked again, louder this time.

"Come..." he stuttered confused, "… come where?"

"To me." She answered. Yang's hand was beginning to turn white as she gripped the screwdriver she held with all the considerable strength she had. "To Ruby?"

He knew what he was being asked. He had dreaded the question since his daughters return nearly two months ago. It was the same question Qrow asked him when he brought them home.

"I couldn't... there was no transport to Vale, it was chaos. The CCT was down, I had no way to contact any-"

"You got back from your mission weeks ago. I know, you wrote me and Ruby to let us know you'd got back safe. Why didn't you come before?"

"Why would I have come before? You were both quiet happy at Beacon and Qrow was there to look out for you."

Yang exploded.

The wooden chair turned to ash beneath her flames as she stood to face her father. Her eyes were the darkest red Taiyang had ever seen, darker even than Raven's. The flames that licked her skin burned white hot, so much so Taiyang began to sweat even as he moved himself back.

"I was quite happy at Beacon! I had just been accused of kneecapping another student during the Vytal festival! I had been arrested on international television! You should have been on your way to Beacon… to… to me as soon as that happened!"

Taiyang knew he would only make it worse by speaking. He should leave now before the flames that threatened to engulf him made good on that promise. Still, his pride would not let him leave just yet, no matter how foolish a choice it was.

"You had Qrow there. You've never needed me before Yang… never."

He knew it was a bad choice to speak.

He'd experienced Yang's outbursts before, he was her father, of course he had. He been burnt by his daughter before the same way Ruby had run away before. Every time both would be safe and happy in bed by the end of the day, apologies given and received by both parties. His semblance allowed his to slow time for a split second; it was why he was such a good boxer.

He didn't think it would be off much use now.

"Qrow! Qrow is not my FATHER! You need to take the responsibility for once. You cannot keep pawning off the responsibility on others! I wonder how quickly you would've been on a ship if Ruby had been arrested! Or would you have left me to deal with her again? After all I've been doing your job since I was eight anyways!" Yang screamed at her father, the small droplets of spittle evaporated the moment they left her mouth so intense was her rage.

This was everything she'd been bottling up; this was the years of resentment at her father and Qrow for putting others first. At Summer and Raven for leaving her like this. This was her anger at Penny and especially Pyrrha being taken far too soon from this world for reasons she didn't understand. This was her anger for being abandoned again by Blake. It had burst like a damn and she didn't think she could reel it back in.

She didn't know if she wanted to.

"Yang… I… you need to calm down" pleaded her father. "Please."

"You are a coward! She was right about you. Do you even care about me?"

"Of course I do Yang," pleaded the man, who even now cowered at her retreating flames. She was finally loosing steam. "I taught you how to fight, I showed you everything I know…"

"Why?"

It was a simple enough question, but as her eyes renewed the dark, blood red colour they had lost only seconds previously he could see why she was angry. In her mind, the context must have sounded bad right now.

"I… because…" He knew what the answer was; he remembered the conversation clear as day. He also knew what would happen if he said it aloud, he would probably never see Yang again.

"Stop! Stuttering!" She raged

"Because you had to protect Ruby!" He shouted back, loud enough to be heard behind the snarling rage that consumed her.

"You see father."

He did.

"Did you teach me anything because it's what I wanted?"

He remembered that day… She had been so young, maybe seven or eight. It was right before Summer died. Back before they knew she was even missing. She had only just left for her mission.

The young blonde giggled as her father led her outside by the hand. "Why are we out here daddy? I wanna go inside and play with Ruby and uncle Qrow some more." She tried to pull her father back into the house, but try as she might the large man simply would not budge. She giggled again as he smiled down at her.

He took her to a small hut behind the workshop, which she was only allowed into with her father, mum or uncle Qrow. She knew what the small hut was. It was the place where daddy and mummy disappeared to at separate times to train, for hours and hours on end. She had never been allowed in here before.

"Yang" her father said, sitting her down in a soft and squishy chair far to large for her small body. Her feet kicked happily over the edge as her father spoke to her. "Do you remember what happened to Ruby last year?"

"When she ran into a wall using her flower powers and had to go to the hospitals?"

Taiyang chuckled at the name 'flower power', it seemed as if both girls were set on using that name for Ruby's semblance.

"Yes. That's the one. Now Ruby will be starting big school soon, at the end of the summer in fact. Do you remember we talked about this? About how Ruby would be going to the same school as you?"

"Uh huh" chirped the little blonde happily, her legs still swinging away. "I'm going to be the best big sister ever! I can help her with her homework and make sure she eats her fruit at lunch like you and mummy do!"

"Well, Ruby is special Yang. The other kids might not like her because she can do things they can't yet." He began slowly, allowing the girl to take in every word he said.

"Because of her flower power?"

"Yes Yang, because of her…" he sighed using the name his daughters had given it, "flower power."

"Some of the kids might be mean to her, and we can't be there to protect her when she's at school. You'll need to do that for us."

Yang didn't even stop to consider her answer. "Okay" she replied, happy to be the best big sister ever. "I remember you told me to go get a teacher if someone was mean to me, so I'll look after Ruby and make sure to get a teacher if anyone is mean to her."

Taiyang sighed. He was struggling for the words to explain this in a way his seven-year-old daughter might understand. "Well yes Yang, you should always get a teacher, but sometimes there's not a teacher nearby. What do you do then?"

"I tell them to stop being mean to Ruby" she replied innocently.

"What if they don't?"

She didn't have an answer for that one.

"Yang, Ruby is special. One day you'll be special too, but for now we need to make sure Ruby is okay, and I need you to help your mum and me make sure she's okay. If Ruby gets scared she might accidentally use her… flower power… and hurt herself again. You need to stop people who might bully your sister."

Yang was confused, she had always been told to be nice to people and that generally people would be nice back. Some kids were mean but they stopped after a teacher told them off, why couldn't that work for Ruby?

"I don't want to hurt anyone." She whispered to her father, a small pool of water forming in her bright lilac eyes, which had grown wider as the conversation progressed.

"Do you want Ruby to get hurt?" He felt remorse for doing this, but he knew it was the only way. Yang had never been one to get in scraps before, she liked to use her words and trusted himself, Summer or Qrow to make sure everything was okay.

"No." She sniffled.

"Then you've got to learn to protect both of you." He said, staring into his daughters lilac eyes with his own bright blue ones and hoping she would agree to his plan.

She still seemed doubtful, he could see it behind the slowly falling tears. He knew why, he was asking her to question everything she had been taught by him before this point.

"But you said to help people. That hitting people was bad."

"I said hitting people without good reason was bad. Yang I need you to do this," he looked her right in the eye. "For Ruby."

The young blonde looked confused for a second more before sniffing loudly. She wiped away the tears that had fallen and looked at her father with all the determination she could muster in her young face. "Will I be a good sister if I stop them?"

"The best" he assured.

The memory faded away as a salty drop of sweat stung his eye. She was still there, waiting in all her primal, fire and brimstone glory, for an answer.

"I…" he stuttered. Never had he been afraid of his own daughters, never, not once.

Until now.

"I did it for you too Yang. You just needed some convincing to learn, can't you see? I would've taught you it all in a few years anyway! It just happened you needed to learn… sooner, than either of us would've liked"

"That's the story of my life with you" her last sentence was cold, it had lost all the fiery passion with which mere seconds ago she had been filled. Taiyang fluttered open an eyelid, and eyelid he didn't know he'd closed to see his eldest daughter wandering of into the blizzard that had brewed outside. He knew he should follow her, but nothing in its right mind would dare touch her like this.

He took the time to breathe.

A/N: I've really been in a writing mood these past few days. Don't expect updates this quickly in the future, but i'll keep writing as long as the Mojo is there.

This chapter is unbeta'd, please leave a message with any glaring spelling/grammatical mistakes you find.