Roman lay on the cold ground, bloody and beaten, huddling in a corner. Blake had gotten her revenge. She felt full, as if she'd eaten a large meal. Now, it was time to finish him off. She stepped towards him, mindlessly walking through a puddle of blood, flecks of red hitting her legs. Her blade was just as crimson as the ground she walked on, hanging at her side. She stared coldly at the dark corner her target lay in, her ears numb to his whimpers of pain. He couldn't see her, she knew, but he could still hear her getting closer. She was vaguely aware that Roman had started pleading as the smooth, metallic noise of Gambol Shroud's katana being pulled from its sheath echoed throughout the blackness of the room. She twirled the blade a bit, not conscious of the noise it made cutting through the air or the blood that flew from it. She was solely focused on Roman and what she was going to do. Her vengeance was done; now she just had to kill him and dispose of the body. She felt no remorse; no guilt at the idea of lying to her friends about his fate. As she grew closer, still blocking out the increasingly loud begging of Roman, a light shimmered and flashed, illuminating the room. Behind Blake, Roman began to cry for joy when Yang walked into the room. Blake turned and regarded her friend coolly. Yang's expression, however, was far from cool. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open slightly. Her knuckles were going white with the force with which she clenched her hands together. Her friend was covered in blood. She stood in it, it was splattered on her clothes, and it decorated her blade. The puddle around her led to Roman, with a small white object in his eye, numerous stab wounds, a few bullet holes, and multiple broken limbs. Blood fell from his mouth, curved into a pained smile of relief, and tears streamed from his eyes. His clothes were practically all red.

"Fuck, fuck...thank fucking god...this bitch is psychotic! She...she..." He was unable to finish his sentence, but Yang was hardly listening anyway. Her eyes still wide in disbelief, she spoke. Her voice was shaky, cracked, and more high-pitched than usual.

"Blake...what is this? What did you do?" The faunus, having regarded her friend calmly before, began to look scared.

"Why are you here?"

"Thirty people dead? Some of them trained Hunters and Huntresses? Blake, not even the whole damn police force can't handle that kind of threat. Now answer me; what the hell did you do?"

"I got revenge, Yang. You know about that. You know how it eats at you, wanting someone to suffer. You have to understand!" Blake cried out in a sudden burst of desperation. Emotion flooded into her expression. She was terrified that had friend wouldn't understand. Perhaps she wouldn't even be her friend anymore, after this. Blake couldn't deal with that. She'd already lost Adam; she wasn't losing Yang either.

"I do. You know I do. But this...this isn't revenge. This isn't an eye for an eye. This is crazy. This is like watching a show where the psycho serial killer mutilates their victim without breaking a sweat. Blake, please...tell me that isn't you. I thought you left that kind of life behind when you left the White Fang!"

"I did! And I was never like that, not even back then."

"Then why do you look like one of them? I never doubted you, really. I never gave a fuck that you worked with the White Fang, that you killed people. I still never imagined that you'd do...this. Don't you dare make me lose that. I want to trust you, so just come with me. This can't be you." Yang held out her hand, her gauntlets not even activated. Blake looked at it, gritting her teeth. She wanted to go with Yang, to prove her right. But at the same time, she felt like she couldn't leave yet. Not without killing Roman. It would be like eating dinner without dessert.

"This can't be me, huh? But what if it was? Would you hate me, Yang?" She asked. The blonde didn't react, still holding out her hand.

"I could never hate you."

"Is that a lie?"

"I hope not." Blake sighed and held Gambol Shroud in front of her. Yang looked down, biting her lip and holding back tears.

"I'm sorry, Yang, but I need to do this. It feels wrong not to."

"Why?" That was all Yang said. Ember Celica was activated and her hand fell to her side. Her face, normally full of energy, seemed drained. She seemed drained. She didn't even bother to hide that she was silently crying. But all she said was that one word.

"Before we...do this, I just want to make a request. Please don't be lying. Please." Blake choked out, hardly able to speak.

Blake moved first. She sent a purple wave of energy towards Yang and quickly used her Semblance to vanish. The blonde flared her Aura and the wave slammed into her. She didn't even flinch. It disappeared as it hit her and she turned to her left to meet her friend's blade. She sent a quick punch to block Blake's sheathe and deflected her katana strike with her other hand. She spun around Blake and kicked her in the back. Yang looked back to see her rolling on the ground and with a blast from Ember Celica, was sent flying towards her. The faunus used her Semblance and a shadow clone's blade met Yang's fist. Blake then came up from behind her and slashed three times in wide arcs, twice to the side with her katana and once with her sheathe. The third strike was aimed like an uppercut, going directly into Yang's spine, and knocked her into the air. Using a shadow clone as a kick-off point, Blake followed her and delivered a brutal axe kick that sent her flying back to the ground. A blast from Ember Celica shot into the air, but Blake's Semblance ensured that a clone took the impact of the attack as she flipped to the ground after pushing off of it. Then, Yang lunged at her again with help from her gauntlets, spinning so that her elbow went towards Blake's face. She used her sheathe to block and tried to trip Yang up, but her attempt was thwarted as the blonde light hopped over the sweeping leg and delivered two quick punches. Blake dodged them and as she wove around a third heavier attack, made her own offensive bid. Yang's foot suddenly flew up from the ground and collided with her friend's chin, and she reared back and then dashed forward, bringing her first from behind her head to Blake's face in a brutal attack. Yang herself pushed her back foot to increase her momentum and used a gauntlet blast to enhance the blow. She immediately shot after Blake as she slammed into the wall with a grunt. She punched again, but Blake ducked under it and attacked in a series of strikes, using her Semblance to take the few blows that Yang sent out. The blonde was on the defensive now, weaving under her friend's attacks and blocking what she couldn't dodge. Blake sliced downwards in a curved arc with her sheathe, and Yang sidestepped the blow. She then brought the blade up to Yang's face in a higher arced attack, and the blonde moved her head to evade. She twisted her body and fired a right hook, which Blake used a clone to block, pushing off of it to get closer to Yang. She spun twice, using first her blade and then her sheathe. Yang blocked both blows, but was met with a flurry of attacks that seemed to come from all directions, aided by Blake using her Semblance to gain different positioning around the blonde. She could only keep up her defensive stance for so long; Blake was faster than her.

"Hah...hah...shit..." Roman inched across the ground, trying to get as far from them as possible. Each movement he made caused a fierce shock of pain to erupt throughout his entire body, but he would be damned if he died in the state he was in. He was humiliated, and in the back of his mind he wanted to defy Blake by living. At the moment, however, fear was all he knew. He was afraid that Blake would win and turn on him at any moment. However, that didn't happen. He heard a cry as Yang grabbed Blake's arm in mid-strike and spun her around, throwing her into the ground and slamming her fist into her. Roman looked away, missing Blake wildly lash out her foot and tripping Yang, groggily but quickly landing strike after strike. The two were certainly evenly matched, but Blake had been eating and sleeping less and less in the days leading up to her attack on Roman. Yang, on the other hand, was in prime physical condition. After a few seconds, Blake's unconscious body rolled to the ground. Yang stood nearby, fatigued, but otherwise unharmed.

Blake's head shot up as her daydream ended. She was in the library, finding solace from Cinder's teasing and Primrose's questions. Lately, she had been interested in the time when her and Cinder had been enemies. The two answered her queries, trying to constantly one-up each other as they brought up their separate victories. Blake always had the last laugh when she mentioned that she and her team won in the end. Now, however, she didn't feel like laughing at all. She put her hand to her head and felt a cold sweat dripping down. Quickly wiping it away and regaining her composure, she went to put the book away and get some fresh air. She was still shaken. She didn't know why she'd been thinking about the past, or how it so quickly consumed her that she dozed off. What she did know was that, now more than ever, she wanted to see Yang. She remembered all too clearly how scared she felt, not of being arrested or fighting Yang, but that she would be driven away from her. It was the look in Yang's eyes that frightened her the most; the look of doubt and disappointment. Blake could understand what she had been going through, having had a similar experience with Adam when she saw his true colors. But he'd changed. Maybe, if she wanted to see Yang, she'd have to do the same. Or perhaps she didn't. Deep down, she knew that she had no idea what path she was going down. She felt the ways of her old life creeping back to her, but at the same time, she'd spent years trying to make up for what she'd done and find a nonviolent approach to obtaining what the White Fang sought. It wasn't until she heard about Yang that she thought about it, but now she began to lose herself in deep, confused thought. In the end, though, it all came down to one thing: repairing her relationship with Yang. Blake wanted to see her. She was sure that the blonde would be alright, now in rehab, but Blake felt more disconnected than ever. All she could do was hear what was going on in her friends' lives and offer sympathies and advice. For her, that wasn't enough.

"Yang got your tongue?" Cinder asked, interrupting Blake from her reading. She had been pouring through a book she'd read ten times already, her eyes looking at the words on the pages but her mind not processing them. She spent minutes staring at the same paragraphs before glancing somewhere else. The faunus shifted on her cot, the springs making squeaking noises as she did so. Cinder waited for her response, leaning against a wall.

"...You could say that."

"It would be best if you tried to be a little more present. You can't do a thing about her situation," Cinder replied.

"I know. That's not what bothers me," Blake said stiffly, earning a strange look from her cellmate.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"So...mind telling me?"

"And why do you want to know? You don't care about her," Blake asked, sounding harsher than she intended. She trusted Cinder, but was still unsure why she wanted to know about her situation with Yang.

"Think of it as friendly curiosity. I've got nothing else to do. Besides, I thought you trusted me. Or does the kitty still have her claws out?" Cinder cooed, moving closer to Blake. The faunus grimaced.

"Make another joke like that again, and you'll find out." Cinder laughed, and Blake found herself telling her what was on her mind.

"I...I'm worried. Not about Yang, but about me and Yang."

"Ooh, are you two-" Cinder had an amused look on her face as she spoke.

"No, we're just friends," Blake said curtly, interrupting. The amusement died down quickly, and her cellmate went back to listening.

"I'm worried about what she thinks of me. I feel so distant from her, and I can't help but wonder if she just doesn't care anymore. Maybe she decided I wasn't who she thought I was." She spoke the last part quietly, as if afraid to say it out loud in case that would make it true.

"She saw what you did to Torchwick, correct? Even I know that you weren't like that back in Beacon."

"And I am now? No...I'm the same person. I have to be. Yang just never saw me like that before."

"So you admit you are capable of doing such things?" Cinder asked, her interest growing. Blake wasn't surprised that the conversation was becoming more about her; her cellmate had always been intrigued by her encounter with Roman.

"I am. We all have moments of weakness. When Adam died, I was very weak. I even weakened myself." Cinder's amusement came back, but it was different this time. Blake took notice. It was as if she wasn't merely amused now, as if she'd realized something and was quite pleased by it.

"Hm. Well, there's not much I can say to comfort you. I can't say I knew Yang very well, or cared about her as anything more than an enemy to be defeated. All I can say is that Roman had it coming. I'm still a little sore over his backstabbing. Not to say that I trusted him, of course," she said.

"I forced him into it. Why not get angry at me?" Blake asked. She had no intention of defending the crime boss, but she wondered why Cinder didn't direct her annoyance at her.

"Because I like you, Blake. You don't need me to tell you that." Blake grinned.

"How mushy."

"Oh, just fess up and admit you like me too," Cinder replied.

"Why should I? You already seem to know."

"I just want to hear you say it." Blake sighed, and her cellmate chuckled.

"You have to be the most childish criminal mastermind I've ever met. And being a former White Fang member, I've met quite a few."

"You know how boring it gets in prison. One does one's best to stay amused." Blake stayed silent for a few seconds before looking Cinder straight in the eye and speaking.

"I like you too. Now I'm going to sleep; it's close to curfew." She fell on her back, tucked her book under her pillow, and closed her eyes.

"Nighty night, Blake. Whatever you do, don't dream about dogs." Cinder heard an annoyed grunt from above her as she hopped into her cot.

"...Glynda Goodwitch." This time, it was her turn to be annoyed.

"Ugh." Cinder had told Blake about her past with Glynda. She still felt pangs of guilt hearing her name. Even as she tried to bring Vale to its knees, she did her best to avoid her former friend. The two then tried to fall asleep, Blake repressing memories of Zwei while Cinder thought about her past for the first time in quite a while. However, both had the same brief thought beforehand. As strange as it seemed to them, they really were friends.

The month before Yang's release from rehab was at first very difficult for everyone. Weiss was sent on no less than five missions within the span of a week. She still had no replacement for Garth, and with Mona dead, Lilac was the only half-competent member of her team. Melee units and ranged units were occasionally slain and new ones came in, although the death rate for the group was shockingly low. They still had over half of their original members after a week, which had never occurred before. Weiss had truly earned their respect. However, she grew more weary with each loss, looking more pale than ever. She worked her team increasingly hard, and often talked to her friends on the phone, not having time to leave the house often. Pyrrha was different as well. She was more somber and smiled less. She was still kind and polite, but it felt forced. Jaune was worried, but had a lot on his plate as well and his time was taken up. He took it upon himself to help Ruby now that Yang was gone. Pyrrha often joined him and Weiss did as well whenever she had a free moment, but he, for the most part, took responsibility. He and Pyrrha came over, drove her to work, and drove her back home alone. He sometimes even stayed with her and talked late into the night. Ruby herself had a lot to do as well. She worked extra hard, now having to pay her bills alone. Jaune had offered to help her but she refused. She worked later than everyone else, so Pyrrha went home alone as Jaune waited for her to be done so he could drop her off. Ren, Nora, and Sun tried to be available to help whenever they could, but had more to do than just hunt Grimm. The various anti-faunus groups around the city were growing more and more brazen. As such, Sun was busy dealing with them, and Ren and Nora gathered information, occasionally having to get into fights of their own. But, in light of recent events, the three felt unhappy despite their efforts. They felt like their vigilante ways were more of a distraction from the reality of their lives as opposed to a noble undertaking. Even Nora didn't feel the same rush she got from their work. The only good thing going on for them was their visits to Yang, where they learned that she was struggling greatly, but making small progress. Something was better than nothing, for her and for them.

As the month went on, things got better. The depression that had fallen over everyone was lifting. News about Yang was more promising than ever; after the initial week, she was recovering at a very fast pace. Everyone was relieved and proud, especially Ruby; she knew how strong her sister was. What didn't kill her made her stronger. It was as if her Semblance worked for her emotions as well as her body. Neptune, although he had been delayed, was back. Everyone was quite happy to see him, especially Sun. After a brief talk with everyone else as he tried to catch up, he spent the day of his return talking to Sun. He had left the Mistral Police Department, but arranged a transfer to the one in Vale. As such, he would continue his education. He also offered to buy an apartment for him and Sun to share, an offer which he persuaded his friend and teammate to accept. He was also brought in on Sun, Ren, and Nora's crusading and gladly joined them. With his connections to the police, he could be of great help. At the Trenches, things were dying down. After a nonstop flow of dangerous missions, twenty within the month, there was little Grimm activity and Weiss had time to herself. Jaune, Ruby, and Pyrrha had a similar experience. They weren't as busy as usual, although Ruby kept herself occupied by looking at weapon blueprints. For Jaune and Pyrrha, their relationship felt deeper than ever, both emotionally and physically; they had endured a great sadness. They also began to invite Ren and Nora over more regularly to visit, something all four of them enjoyed. So, a little after a month, when Yang was going to be released from rehab, everyone was already in high spirits. The excitement of seeing their friend again just made them even happier.

The group met Yang outside of the rehab center, a tall, peach-colored building surrounded by grass and parking lots. They had been told that her recovery, both physically and emotionally, was quite impressive. Her Aura, which had been deteriorating due to her dulled, alcohol-influenced senses, was completely back to normal, and she seemed to have returned to her old self. She certainly looked the part as she ran to meet everyone. She looked healthier and moved with more flexibility. Ruby, Weiss, Sun, Neptune and team JNPR stood in a line, waiting for Yang with bated breath and moist eyes. It wasn't long before she stood in front of them. Everyone smiled, but nobody spoke. They were just too happy to see each other again. Words couldn't express it; the looks in everyone's eyes were enough. It was, after a while, Yang who broke the silence.

"So, have you all been...longing to see me? Huh? Get it?" After a second, everyone burst out laughing at the weak pun. It made one thing clear: the Yang they knew was back.

Ha! Puns and stuff! Anyway, Look forward to more of the happy reunion (or don't; it's up to you) next chapter! And now that Yang's drama has come to a close, it's time for Blake to step into the foreground. As always, feel free to leave reviews and criticisms. I tried to make things a little more upbeat this chapter, something I'm not used to doing in this particular story. Hopefully it's not too cheesy or anything.

Also, I think RWBY withdrawal is already getting to me, and I'm coming down with some Weiss withdrawal too. I know; I'm weak.