Yang was falling.

Her Aura broken, the young Huntress was falling into the endless abyss, watching helplessly as the pathways where her friends were still fighting grew smaller and smaller. Soon, the entire evacuation point turned into a single bright dot amid the darkness, and then…

Then Yang woke up with a scream.

"Yang?" she heard a sleepy, familiar voice. "What happened?"

Yang slowly looked around. It was the middle of the night, yet she recognized her surroundings instantly. She was in her team's old room at Beacon, in her own bed to boot. And the voice she heard belonged to none other than…

"Blake!"

Her partner – who just turned a bedside lamp, though it was likely more for Yang's convenience than her own – was looking up at her from her own bed, worry clear in the Faunus girl's eyes. In the back of her mind, Yang noticed some changes – Blake's hair was back to its past length, and the girl herself looked somewhat younger – but that wasn't the important thing right now.

"Blake! Thank the Gods you're alright!" Yang cried out as she leapt from her bed straight to her partner – someone she thought she might have lost forever.

Blake froze as Yang hugged her, clearly not knowing how to react to the sudden gesture.

"Um… yeah, I'm… okay," she half-said, half-stammered, blushing slightly for some reason.

"What's going on?" they heard Weiss say.

Only then did Yang release Blake. But she did not answer Weiss's question, instead staring at her hands.

At her two hands, both made of flesh and bone.

"… and then I fell into the void."

Ozpin was silent for a long time after Yang finished her story. There was no one in the Headmaster's office but the two of them, and the only sound that could be heard was the soft humming of the clockwork.

At last, Ozpin spoke.

"Miss Xiao Long… to be frank, I'm not quite sure what to make of your story," he said slowly. "There is no Semblance that I know of which would be capable of transporting someone back in time… nor is it possible using magic."

"I'm sure it wasn't just a dream," Yang responded. "It was real, I've lived it…"

Only then did the meaning of the Headmaster's words sink in.

"Wait…" Yang gasped. "You're actually admitting it? That magic exists?"

"Yes," Ozpin responded. "Whatever the truth might be, miss Xiao Long, somehow you managed to come into possession of information very few people in Remnant are aware of. For this reason alone, you can rest assured that your words will be taken very seriously, and it is not my intention to dismiss them."

"So this is true then," Yang said. Then a thought came to her. "And the part about you not having a plan to defeat Salem – this is also true?"

Ozpin gave a brief, rueful smile.

"I'm afraid so. At the moment, my ambition is merely to save the entirety of Remnant from destruction. I do hope that perhaps, somewhere down the line we will discover a solution… but for now, all we can do is fight to protect what we have built, and pass the torch to the next generation. Something that – if what you said will indeed come to pass – we have apparently failed at."

"We haven't failed yet!" Yang retorted.

"True. Do not take it the wrong way, miss Xiao Long – it is truly admirable that even in such desperate circumstances, you have chosen to continue fighting. Still, the destruction of our Academy, the decimation of Mistral's Huntsmen, the fall of Atlas… it seems we have made many mistakes, I more than anyone else."

Ozpin clasped his hands in front of his face, his look pensive.

"Still, it's hard to believe that Leo would betray me… or that James would go to such lengths…"

Once more, there was silence.

"So…" Yang finally drawled. "What are we going to do now?"

"First of all – you must understand that this information must remain secret. I understand you might not approve, but too much is at stake – we simply cannot risk it."

Ozpin paused, but Yang merely nodded.

"Your team will be filled in, to an extent," he continued. "And miss Rose will receive instruction in the use of her unique powers – though I did not expect it to become necessary so soon. Other than that, I will do my best to verify the things that you have told me today. At the very least, serious inquiries will need to be made into Mistral and its Huntsmen. And, of course…"

Ozpin leaned back in his chair.

"Miss Fall and her team will be quietly investigated, and if we discover any irregularities, they will be swiftly acted upon. Speaking of which – I understand you will be vary of them, and will want to warn your friends, but still, please try to act normally around them if at all possible. The last thing we need right now is to arouse their suspicion."

Again, Yang nodded.

"I'm sure you have many more questions, miss Xiao Long, and I promise you they will be answered," Ozpin told her seriously. "But for now, I believe you should head back to your team, lest they become too worried… and I have a lot of things to arrange, as it turns out."

"Okay," Yang said, and then stood up and turned to leave. She paused before the doors of the lift, though, and turned to the Headmaster once again. "So… aside from acting as usual, what else should we do?"

"Train, miss Xiao Long," Ozpin told her simply. "Train harder than you ever have, and use your hard-won experience to help your comrades as well. You all need to become as strong as you can – for it seems that we all have much less time left than we thought."

Yang Xiao Long walked into the lift, and as its doors closed, the ancient wizard was left alone in his office, contemplating the development not even he could have foreseen.

A/N: Thank you for reading!

The prompt for this one is as follows: "After Volume 8, Yang wakes up back in her Beacon dorm room."