As she and Blake walked towards Beacon, all Yang could think about was how glad she was to be home. Her mission abroad had been a good way to blow off steam, but being away from Blake for that long was always hard in its own way. The familiar sights and sounds of her home washed over her, and Yang couldn't help but smile.
She stepped closer to Blake and grabbed the Faunus' hand in her own, interlocking fingers. Blake shot her a smile and squeezed her hand. They walked like this until they stepped onto Beacon's grounds, then Blake extracted her hand and smoothed out her clothes. She always tried to look professional around students.
They crossed the empty grounds—students would be in the middle of their first class—and entered the building where Blake's office was situated. Kelly was already waiting in the office across the hall when they arrived. Yang was often amused by Blake's assistant. She'd never seen anyone so devoted to their job before, and such a mundane job at that.
Kelly followed them into Blake's office and stood almost at attention near the door as Yang flopped onto the lounge.
"Miss Belladonna, I've sent messages to everyone you instructed, requesting their presence here," Kelly said.
"Thank you," Blake said as she sat down behind her desk. "Did you inform our… new contact of what time to be here?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Then that will be all, thank you."
Kelly nodded and turned to leave. She paused for moment and looked at Yang.
"Welcome back, Miss Xiao Long," she said, then she left.
Yang watched her close the door, then looked at Blake. "I like her."
Blake rolled her eyes. "You say that every time she calls you 'Miss Xiao Long'."
"And until I stop liking her for it, I'll keep saying it."
The door opened as Blake chuckled and Ren and Nora strode in. Nora greeted Blake excitedly while Ren nodded politely at Yang. No words of greeting from Ren, just an acknowledgment of her return. Yang nodded back with a smile. She could read the message in the nod—more than just a greeting.
"Thank you for taking care of her," the nod said.
Yang scooted over to the end of the lounge. Nora flopped down next to her and Ren slipped onto the other end of it.
"So what's going on?" Nora asked.
Blake opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the door opening again. Jaune and Pyrrha stepped into the office and Nora threw herself across the room, wrapping her arms around Pyrrha. Ren walked over and shook Jaune's hand; Jaune smiled at seeing his old friend again. Yang glanced at Blake and saw the Faunus lean back in her chair, watching the reunion with a smile.
Over the sound of Nora's excited squeals, Yang heard a gentle knock at the door. The door cracked open and Kelly poked her head in. She caught Blake's gaze and mouthed something to her. Blake waved her in and Kelly pushed the door open, gesturing for someone to enter.
A gigantic hulk of a man appeared in the doorway. He wore no shirt, and was wearing a shield on his back, similar to Jaune's but pitch black. Crimson hair, almost as red as Pyrrha's, hung to his shoulders. Nora gaped at him, staring at his bare chest. Pyrrha looked at him with a confused expression. He certainly looked impressive, but Yang's first reaction was a small scoff. I could take him, she thought.
Kelly edged around the room towards Blake's desk, and Yang scooted closer. She brushed her lock of green hair behind her ear as she leant down to Blake.
"I still haven't received a reply from Miss Rose," Kelly said. "I don't know if she'll be coming."
Blake frowned and glanced at Yang, who felt a sinking feeling in her chest. There were only two places Ruby was if she didn't come to anything they invited her to: on a mission, or lying in bed, beaten to a pulp from her last mission. All of their friends were in the room, so if Ruby was on a job, she was out alone. A worm of fear crept into Yang at the thought.
She got to her feet and headed to the door. Blake got halfway out of her chair, moving to follow her, but Yang shook her head.
"I'll go and get her," Yang mouthed, hoping that Ruby was just asleep in her apartment.
Yang noticed Ren glancing between them and gave him a wry smile. He raised an eyebrow in question.
"Ruby," she mouthed. He frowned and nodded.
Yang slipped through the door and started down the hallway. The door opened behind her, and she glanced back at the sound. Ren was jogging to catch up with her.
"What're you doing?" she asked, confused.
"Going with you." Ren's voice was resigned, but determined.
She wanted to ask why, but something in Ren's gaze made her realise that he was going to follow her regardless, so instead she shrugged and continued down the corridor.
They left Beacon and got into Ren's car. He sped through the city, his face looking more and more grave with each second. It was strange. Ren had never been so concerned about Ruby before. He was worried about her, of course—they all were—but he'd never seemed so serious about the matter.
"Is everything okay?" she asked.
He grunted, but said nothing. Yang let it be. If Ren didn't want to talk, he wasn't going to. Something was different about today, Yang knew that, but she couldn't for the life of her imagine what it was. Let's just worry about Ruby for now, she thought. They needed to make sure she was okay—that nothing had happened to her. Ren's issues could wait.
Traffic slowed them down and set Yang on edge. She ground her teeth harder with every passing minute and by the time they made it to Ruby's apartment half an hour later even Ren was wincing at the sound squeaking out of her mouth.
An old woman walked out of the building as they climbed the stairs, smiling pleasantly at them. The door swung shut behind the woman until Yang dashed forward and grabbed it. Ren nodded at the old woman as he passed and slipped inside. She seemed confused by Yang's sudden lunge, but neither of them wanted to explain that they didn't live there, or that their scrolls wouldn't have let them in, so Yang let the door swing shut and headed for the stairs—the elevators wouldn't work without an authorised scroll.
The hallway at the top floor was deserted, but they tried to make as little noise as possible. The walk to Ruby's door seemed to stretch on forever. She didn't know how she knew, but Yang was already certain that Ruby wasn't there.
Despite the crushing sense of futility, Yang knocked on the door. There was no response.
She knocked harder.
Nothing.
A glance at Ren and a resigned sigh.
She knocked again, this time calling Ruby's name.
Something creaked behind them.
One of Ruby's neighbours was peeking out of his door at them.
"She's not home," he said. "I heard her leaving this morning. Pretty damn early too."
"Any idea where she went?" Ren asked.
He shook his head. "She don't talk much. Certainly don't stop to say where she's heading every day."
"Damn," Ren muttered.
Ruby's door seemed to shrink away from Yang as she stared at it helplessly. Her hand reached out to pull it back—to pull Ruby back—but hesitated an inch from the handle. For weeks Yang had felt like Ruby was slipping away from her, but hadn't known what to do to stop it. She'd been so wrapped up in not knowing what to do that she hadn't even tried. And here she was again, stopping just short of the mark.
Her outstretched hand tightened into a fist. Her fist bruised her thigh as she snapped it back to her side. Ren called her name as she stormed away. The pillar of golden rage marched on. Ren sighed, thanked the man, and followed her down the hall.
Yang burst through the front door with a glare that could impale a Nevermore at twenty paces. She nearly snapped her scroll in half as she tried to get it out of its pouch, then nearly broke it again as she wrenched it open. The Board appeared on the screen at the punch of a finger and Yang smashed her way into the personnel registry. It was the page on the Board that kept track of which Huntsman or Huntress took which job, and had proved very useful for finding Ruby in the past.
The scroll trembled as Yang's fingers tapped the keys with all the tenderness of a rampaging Deathstalker. Ruby Rose, she typed. She took a breath, tried to compose herself, failed, and pressed Search.
Ren's hand came down on her shoulder as the scroll thought. The small, swirling icon that indicated a search in progress had never seemed more infuriating. Her shoulder shook. The icon swirled.
"Yang!" Ren shouted in her ear.
Yang's head shot up and she blinked in surprise. It was rare that Ren raised his voice. He was shaking his head at her, ever so slightly, as if in disbelief.
"Calm down," he said.
Yang looked at him like he was insane. "How am I supposed to—"
"We've found her before," he cut in. "Relax. We'll find her. Look, search complete."
Yang took another breath and tried to calm herself down again. Ren was right. She could feel her hair beginning to smoulder about her shoulders; that was bad. She was just so… frustrated. Why did Ruby have to do this all the time? It had been a year, almost to the day, since Weiss left, and not once had she come to Yang for help. She'd never confided in her, never asked Yang to be there for her. And whenever Yang had tried to do it without being asked, Ruby had pushed her away. Weren't they sisters? Weren't they meant to have each other's backs? Both of their mothers were gone, their dad had been busy when they were children, so they'd always been there for each other. Why was this any different?
Yang shook her head and took a deep breath in, closed her eyes, and held it. She counted to ten. Then counted to ten again. And again. When her head started spinning, she gasped and sucked in another breath. Ren was looking at her with concern plastered across his face, but she shook her head and looked at the scroll.
Ruby Rose, it read, on active duty. Mission: Village assistance—training and fortification.
"'Village assistance'?" Ren read. "Does it say where?"
Yang tapped the More Info button and another block of text appeared.
Mission Assignment: 0500, Today.
Teammates: None.
Mission Location: Algard Village.
Ren muttered under his breath, too low for Yang to hear. Her eyes were locked on one line of text in the mission of outline, and she couldn't spare the attention to try and listen.
"Damn it, Ruby!" He spat.
"What is it?" Yang asked half-heartedly. She was still staring at the screen.
"She promised me that she wouldn't do this anymore!" Ren was furious. Yang could hear the venom in his voice.
"What…?" She muttered, still distracted.
"Yang, I'm sorry." Ren said, his voice suddenly much gentler. "This is all my fault."
Ren's voice faded away. Yang stared at the screen.
Teammates: None.
Ruby was out there alone. A shiver ran down Yang's spine. Ruby had up and left without telling anyone, out to some village gods knew where, alone. What the hell was she thinking?
"Yang!" Ren's voice buzzed like a fly. "Are you okay?"
The world seemed to contract. The edges of her vision faded to black. Ren's voice faded away. It was still there, but was almost unnoticeable in its irrelevance. Yang felt a fire burning around her. The image of Ruby's face made it burn all the hotter. When did Ruby become so stupid? Yang screamed silently.
Something shook her. Yang nearly lashed out at the interruption before she recognised Ren, his face a picture of concern. She forced the flames down, pushed her fury aside. We've got other things to deal with for now, she told herself. You can get angry at Ruby when she's home safe.
Ren took a step forward as the flames dwindled and reached out to her. "Yang—"
"I'm fine," she said, holding a hand out to stop him.
"Are you sure?"
Yang took a breath, stood as straight as she could and nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that. What were you saying?"
Ren watched her for a few seconds longer, still obviously concerned, but he eventually nodded. "I'm sorry, Yang," he said finally, his voice laden with guilt.
She frowned, confused. "For what?"
He sighed. "This… Ruby… Her going away is probably my fault."
Yang raised an eyebrow. "How could it be your fault?"
"I… had a talk to her yesterday, while we were out culling Grimm. Told her that what she was doing was hard on all of us and that she needed to take some time off to recover. That she couldn't keep going into the forests alone all the time, where she's liable to get killed."
Yang listened in silence. It was everything they'd all thought about Ruby, but no one had before had the guts to say it aloud to one another, let alone to Ruby herself.
"I told her about how hard it's been for all of us, and all she did was get angry. She thinks we don't believe in her anymore, and that we think she can't handle herself. She said she'd try and be… safer. That she'd try and make things easier for everyone, but I guess she decided to prove to us that she can take care of herself—"
"And that way we'd stop worrying about her," Yang finished with a sigh. "That sounds like Ruby alright. Damn it!"
Ren flinched. "Sorry! I didn't know."
Yang shook her head. "I'm not angry at you. Just at her. You couldn't have known she'd do something like this."
"But you said yourself, that sounds exactly like what Ruby would do."
She sighed. "What's done is done, Ren. Don't beat yourself up over it. Let's just focus on getting my dumbass of a sister back alive." Even though she was the one that made the wisecrack, Yang couldn't help but shudder at the idea of Ruby lying dead in a field somewhere. They needed to get her back alive. They would. No room for doubt, she told herself. No time for despair; not while there's hope. The mantra she'd used so many times before calmed her once again.
"So," she said, "any idea where this Algard village is?"
Ren hesitated, then nodded. "I think so. It sounds familiar, but I'll check and make sure." He pulled out his own scroll and typed the village into the search engine. While it loaded, he glanced up again. "If it's where I think it is, you won't like it."
"I won't like it regardless," Yang muttered.
Ren's screen flashed white as the page loaded, and he swore under his breath. "Yeah, there it is. Eastern edge of the Western Dragon."
"Oh gods damn it, Ruby Rose!" Yang swore. "Why the hell would she go that far?"
"To get away from us," Ren said with a sigh. "Even if we go after her, she's got more than enough time to do whatever she's set out to do."
Yang mumbled curses of varying severity and enough blasphemous descriptions of the gods to make a priest cry. "Let's get back to Beacon," she finally said.
Ren nodded. "And then what?" he asked as they approached the car.
"I'll check the airship schedules on the way and find the earliest time I can book a flight there."
Ren raised an eyebrow at her over the roof of the car. "'I'?" he asked.
Yang nodded as she opened the door. "Yeah, 'I'. I'm going alone. I'm sick of all this. It's time Ruby and I had a sister-to-sister talk."
Ren and Yang had parted ways upon arriving at Beacon. He had climbed the steps to Beacon, mentioning something about Nora, while Yang had walked back to her and Blake's apartment. Now, two hours later, she was sitting at the kitchen bench with a small bag at her feet, cleaning Ember Celica, when the door opened.
Blake stopped at the end of the hallway for a moment, watching.
"You're going after her, aren't you?" she asked, her voice sombre.
Yang didn't look up from her work, but nodded. "Someone has to."
"And of course it had to be you…" A hint of bitterness crept into Blake's voice.
Yang stopped, set down the wire brush and turned towards her agitated wife. "Yes." Her voice was firm, unyielding. "It has to be me."
"I know," Blake sighed. "I just wish you didn't have to go. You just got back."
"She's my sister," Yang said, her voice turning angry. "I'm not going to let her run off on her own and just not worry about her, not with the state she's in."
Blake held up her hands in an attempt to placate her. "I know, I know. I'm not telling you not to go."
Yang grunted and turned back to her disassembled weapon. "How'd the meeting go?"
"Alright," Blake replied. She opened the refrigerator as she spoke and pulled out a jug of water. "Pyrrha was… sceptical, but agreed to help us look into it. Jaune and Nora both agreed to help pretty much right away, though you'd need a rampaging Goliath to stop Nora—she seemed so excited by the idea."
Yang chuckled quietly to herself. That sounded like Nora. Blake filled a glass with water and held the jug out towards Yang, an unspoken question in her eyes. When Yang nodded, she filled a second glass and slid it along the counter.
"Sorry I won't be here to help…" Yang said as she raised the glass to her lips.
Blake shook her head. "It's fine. It's probably not a bad thing having less people rooting around. We can be more subtle that way. The seven of us can handle it."
Yang quickly counted in her head. "Seven? I thought it was just you, JNPR and the block of muscle."
The Faunus rolled her eyes, clearly agitated. "Well that was the plan. But apparently Raud had told Kelly what was going on, thinking that we'd let her in on the plan because she's my assistant."
"You don't trust her?" Yang was surprised; Blake had only ever spoken highly of Kelly.
"It's not that." Blake shook her head. "I just didn't want to get her involved. It's not fair on her to be dragged into it against her will if it all goes sideways. But she seemed willing enough when we brought her in, so I guess it worked out alright."
Yang nodded as she scrubbed at one last smear of dirt, her tongue poked out in concentration. "That's good," she mumbled. "Keep me posted, yeah?"
"Of course," Blake replied with a smile. "As long as you do the same." She downed the last of her water and set the glass gently on the counter. "So when do you leave?"
Yang glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. "A couple of hours." She inspected her chaotic pile of weapon parts and, once satisfied with their cleanliness, rapidly reassembled them. The gauntlets shrunk down to bracelets, which she slipped around her wrists with a satisfied smile. Blake was watching her with sadness in her eyes, so Yang shot her a smile. "Do you want to go out for lunch before I go?"
Blake's smile didn't quite reach her eyes, but it was a small improvement. "Sure."
Yang swung her travel bag over her shoulder and wrapped an arm around Blake, kissing her briefly on the lips before heading for the door. Blake took a moment to slip Gambol Shroud onto her back and lock the apartment door before leading the way down to the basement garage.
The sped out onto the streets and cruised through the city to their favourite restaurant. It was early afternoon by now, and the street were empty by Vale's peak hour standards. Most people had finished their lunch break and returned to work, leaving the city looking a little deserted. There were people milling back and forth on the sidewalks, going about their business, but everything just seemed… quiet.
There were only two tables taken when they arrived at the restaurant; the quietest they'd ever seen the place. The crimson walls of the room seemed so much larger with no one else to crowd in the room. The maître 'd led them to their usual table near the window, away from the other patrons who were sitting under the crystal chandelier in the centre of the room, and they ordered their usual dishes. Once their waiter headed to the kitchen, Yang turned to Blake and enfolded the Faunus' hand in her own.
"So," she said as she stroked Blake's hand with a thumb. "What's your plan of action?"
Blake glanced around furtively before replying in a low voice. "Do you really want to talk about this here?"
Yang shrugged. "I never heard the details. Might as well."
After another brief glance around the room, Blake shrugged. "Well, we split up into teams. Jaune and Raud are investigating the docks and the warehouses around there. Nora and Pyrrha are keeping an eye on any incoming or outgoing freight trains or trucks and the warehouses on that side of the city. Ren is doing his… thing. He didn't really say what, just that he'd ask around—see what he could come up with. Kelly and I are investigated around Beacon, seeing if anything odd crops up in our records, as well as city council manifests and the like."
Yang was watching her thumb, still sliding back and forth along the skin of Blake's hand, but was listening closely enough to smile. "Sounds like you got the boring job," she chuckled.
Blake shrugged. "Yeah, well, they had a valid reason for it—"
"'They'?" Yang laughed. "They made you do it?"
Blake shot Yang a half-serious glare. "Shut up," she said with a pout. That's how Yang knew she was joking. Blake never pouted. "I'm the only one that works as part of Beacon's faculty. So I'm the only one that can look through there without looking immediately suspicious."
Yang raised her free hand placatingly. "Okay, good point. I'll give them that."
Blake pouted again, but broke into a laugh seconds later. Once their laughter petered off, they gazed into each other's eyes and Yang was struck by a realization of how lucky she was. What were the odds, she asked herself, of finding her? Of finding someone so damn perfect? She smiled lovingly at Blake, who returned it in kind.
The waiter appeared at the table, carrying their meals, and they broke apart. They ate quietly, only engaging in simple small talk now and then, just enjoying one another's company. Other patrons arrived while they ate, and another group left, but the pair ignored them. As they often tried to do, they shut the world out. Forgot their troubles, forgot about Yang's impending departure, and just relished one another's presence.
Too soon, they left. There was still time before Yang's flight, so they got ice-cream and just cruised through the city. Blake took Yang to her favourite spot: a small park on a hillside with a breathtaking view of Vale harbour. The sun danced on the surface of the water, and seagulls glided back and forth. The centrepiece though, for Yang at least, was the view of Patch, sitting alone in the water. A sight of home was always reassuring before a trip away. Yang smiled at the sight and kissed Blake in thanks. The Faunus' lips tasted sweet; a blend of strawberries and chocolate.
Eventually though, they left. Beacon wasn't far from the park, so they made it there with half an hour before Yang's flight. They waited in the terminal until the airship landed, then stepped out onto the platform. Wind blew their hair around, but didn't distract them from gazing into one another's eyes again.
Their lips met, and they said goodbye. As Yang turned to leave, Blake's hand grabbed hers and she turned back.
"Bring her back safe."
Yang nodded.
"I promise."