Sand. Yang didn't like sand. It was coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it got everywhere. Especially in the joints of her prosthetic, and let her tell you, it was a bit of a nightmare to clean that out. Sandcastles were nice, she supposed, but you could really only spend so long making those before they kind of lost their charm. After all these months in Vacuo, Yang had already made her fair share of sandcastles.
A small sigh drifted from her lips. Speaking of all these months in Vacuo, they certainly hadn't been easy. That should hardly be a surprise though, trying to find room for an entire kingdom's worth of refugees was never going to be simple, even under the best of circumstances. Between shortages of food and water, disputes between the Vacuo natives and Atlas refugees, no one having any idea where the summer maiden was, and everything that had gone down with Tyrian, these had definitely not been the best of circumstances.
And that all was, of course, without even mentioning Ruby. Even just the thought still made her furious with herself. She should never have let Ruby stay behind, should never have let her sacrifice herself like that.
It seemed so obvious now, how she could've just demanded they figure out some other way to hold off their pursuers, then dragged Ruby aboard one of the fleeing airships by her hood before she could suggest some other way to martyr herself. But for some reason she just hadn't, for some reason she'd just meekly left her sister all alone.
For some reason she believed Ruby when she said that she'd make it out and come back to them all. And now, because she'd made that fatal mistake, Ruby was gone.
Suddenly becoming conscious of how hard she was clenching her jaw, Yang forced herself to relax at least a little. It wasn't easy though. Every time the thought of Ruby crossed her mind (Which was frequently, for the record), she wanted nothing more than to race off to wherever Salem was hiding out, to fight through however many grimm, and however many maniacs, she had to in order to save her baby sister.
But that was the thing, really, wherever. None of them had any idea where Salem was, or even what she was doing. She hadn't shown herself at all since Atlas, Tyrian had caused some problems in the early months but after they'd managed to corner him and given him a sound thrashing he'd disappeared too. It was good, of course, that Salem wasn't just rolling over Vacuo while it was still reeling from the sudden influx of Atlesians, but… why not? What was she doing instead? It made Yang antsy. And of course, the longer it took Salem to make a move, the longer Ruby had to suffer. Assuming she was even still alive.
Yang sighed once more. She hated even considering it, but the realist in her knew that it was all too possible. Or perhaps it was even more likely that she'd been turned into one of those… grimm hybrid creatures, like the hound they fought back in Atlas. She hated to consider that idea even more.
She grit her teeth harder, focused on that tension, that pressure, and let her other thoughts drift away. Thinking about Ruby… well, it certainly wasn't doing her any good. It wasn't as if everything was terrible right now, despite all the difficulties. At least she still had Weiss and Blake.
The three of them had gotten even closer since leaving Atlas, all leaning on one another for support through these hard times, all providing what comfort they could to the other two. It wasn't as if they could replace Ruby, not in the slightest, but the three of them were trying to make do as best they could. In the end, that was all they really could do, wasn't it?
And that was without even mentioning the others, Jaune, Nora, and Ren especially. It was a little morbid but… well, on some level it seemed like she could understand them all a lot better now that she too had lost a teammate.
Another sigh. It seemed she just couldn't stop her thoughts from drifting back in that direction. Usually she'd just try to lose herself in some work, or training, or anything really to distract herself at times like these, but annoyingly on this particular day the only work she had to do was waiting around and watching the horizon.
Supposedly, there was a big trade convoy coming in from Vale today, carrying a whole load of food and medical supplies that Vacuo was desperately in need of. Yang's job, then, was to keep watch for when it turned up, then to ride out, meet it, and guide it on into the city.
In other words, she'd been spending the last few hours standing around, staring at nothing, and keeping her fingers crossed that this supposed convoy actually arrived. Honestly, at this point she was starting to suspect it had been taken out by grimm somewhere between the last waypoint it had passed and Vacuo proper.
It certainly wasn't impossible, Vale was low on huntsmen at the moment and so their convoys could only afford to be lightly guarded. Maybe she should go gather up a team and head out to look for the wreckage, see if there's anyone they could save, and any supplies they could still salvage.
The more she thought about it, the more that started to sound like a good idea. Even if it wasn't a sure thing that the convoy had been destroyed, they were late enough at this point that the possibility seemed real. Of course, searching for it out in the desert would be a little like searching for a needle in a haystack, and it wouldn't be easy to find huntsmen and huntresses that could just drop everything for an expedition like this, but… gotta try to be at least a little optimistic, that food would make a massive difference to the refugee situation in the kingdom, they couldn't just give up on it.
Right as Yang was about to move out, though, she finally noticed it. A small spot cresting a dune on the horizon, barely a speck really, but unmistakably there. Quick use of some binoculars confirmed it, that was the convoy she'd been waiting for. This was great news, of course, though unfortunately it came right alongside some bad. Namely, the flock of grimm descending onto it right before her eyes.
No time to waste, then. Yang bolted over to where she'd left her beloved bike, Bumblebee v2.0 (it'd taken her a while to scrounge together the parts, but over the course of her time in Vacuo she'd managed to put together her own version of the gravity dust powered hoverbikes Pietro had lent them over in Atlas), and immediately kicked it into gear. Her baby could manage a pretty impressive speed across the open desert, though given how far away the convoy was the grimm may have ripped the whole thing to shreds before she could make it. Here's hoping whatever huntsmen they'd brought along could buy enough time for her to arrive.
The wind whipped through her hair as she rode, going fast as she could possibly manage. Her heart was hammering, a nervous energy filling her for reasons she couldn't quite place at first. Soon she realised, though. After everything that had happened… well, she was desperate for a win, for something that could at least start to put right all the many problems she was struggling with. Just something, anything would do.
The distance closed little by little, and Yang was ever so thankful that none of the convoy's vehicles had exploded just yet. Their guards were clearly doing their job right. In fact, Yang could sort of make out one of them fighting now, though the distance was too great for any real detail. Whoever it was was flitting about within the grimm swarm, reducing monsters to puff of smoke with impressive speed, their movements a blur of… red.
Yang's chest tightened. That… was just a coincidence. It had to be. Right? But… but what if?
Somehow, she managed to eke just a little more speed out of Bumblebee, rocketing across the desert faster than she'd ever ridden. If her heart had been hammering before, now it felt like Nora was going to town on her ribcage. Part of her brain still whispered about how low the chances of this really being her sister was, but that possibility, that slim hope, urged her onward nonetheless.
And then she caught sight of it. The gleaming steel arc of a scythe twirling through the air. She felt like she could cry, scream, and throw up all at the same time. Surely she was about to wake up, this was all going to just be a dream, and yet… no, she was awake. She was awake, and the closer she got the more undeniable it became that it was Ruby fighting out there. It was really, truly, her.
And then, a trail of fire streaked through the sky, incinerating a grimm on its way down before landing at Ruby's side. Yang quickly realised that there had been a person at the head of that flame, who now rose to their feet at Ruby's side, brandishing two glowing black and orange swords.
It… couldn't be.
As if on cue, Ruby activated her semblance, zooming around the group of grimm in a tight circle. Her speed sent clouds of sand up into the air behind her, the storm temporarily blocking Yang's view as it whipped up into a little miniature whirlwind. Then all that sand seemed to stop, to condense, a molten glow filling the air as it all melted down into… into blades of black glass.
The blades remained still in the air for a second more, before all at once bursting into motion, a hail of razor sharp death whipping across the battlefield and reducing what had once been a sizable pack of grimm to a cloud of black smoke. And then, very suddenly, everything was still.
Well, almost everything. Ruby bounced energetically over to her companion's side, her seeming cheer a stark contrast to their more reserved demeanour. They were… talking. Just talking, happily, like it was completely normal.
After what felt like an eternity, Yang crested the last dune that sat between her and them, skidding to a stop and stumbling off her bike as fast as she could manage. The two huntresses turned to face her, three eyes between the two of them, two silver and one gold. Ruby Rose and Cinder Fall.
"Yang!" Ruby's voice wavered, heavy with too many emotions to count.
Yang answered the only way she could think to, under the circumstances.
"What the fuck?"
