RWBY: Shadows of Light

by B.D. Skunkworks

"I want to be a Guardian..." Those are the words that Ruby Rose has lived her life by; to protect those that cannot protect themselves. After proving her mettle in an unforeseen battle, she is invited to The Tower by The Speaker himself to live her dream. It is here that she not only learns the secrets of the Light, but of a threat that could destroy all of humanity's Golden Age...

16. Legend 16- The Ishtar Dilema

*Legend 16*

The Ishtar Dilemma

...

Quick A/N: Yes I promise this is a real chapter post this time, lol!

...

Fireteam Lilysteel had their orders, to destroy the Nexus mind that had decided to make Venus its home. Said task was simple enough, the trio of Guardians was more than up for the task, the location of the thing however, would soon prove itself to become something of a mild complication. For upon receiving the mission specifics from Winter Schnee, the team learned that the evil machine and its contingent had decided to nest underneath The Ishtar Academy. Granted it was miles and miles beneath them, but none the less, the people of the Academy literally had the greatest threat to their livelihood right beneath their feet! The sooner the thing was dealt with, the better.

Just outside one of the stone staircases that lead up to The Citadel, was where the girls were deposited from their group transmat. Yoko, the leader of the team, laid out their itinerary. "Alright Lilysteel, we've been planning this for months we know exactly what to do and how to do it. But seeing as we have to pass through a civilian zone to reach our mission site, we can't go in guns blazing. Best bet is for us to lay as low as possible."

"Right," said Velvet. Good job we don't tip anyone off to the battle that's going to happen right under their feet."

"Well, once we get down to it, all bets are off," Yoko replied. "Let's mount up, Lilysteel!"

One lucky break that did present itself under these circumstances was that The Ishtar Academy was but a stone's throw away from The Citadel here, or rather, a short Sparrow ride. The girls mounted up and made haste from The Citadel's courtyard. As they zoomed over the lush Venusian planes, Neo, ever the harbinger of playfully competitive spirit, managed to turn the trip into an impromptu race between the three of them. There was much artful weaving in and out of one anothers' slip streams as they jostled for position. In the end however, it was Neo's beautiful Phoenix model Sparrow that outstripped her competitors quite handily. She pulled up to a triumphant stop and made an adorably rude trumpet-nose gesture at her two teammates.

"Yes, yes, well met, Neo," Yoko said with humor. "But let's save our energy for the mission at hand, yes?"

Neo pouted playfully as Yoko looked to her other team member, Velvet, to find the girl in a somewhat rhapsodical state as she was staring up at the great statue of the one Lady Ishtar erected just outside the entrance to the academy. Yoko joined her side. "Quite a sight huh?"

Velvet nodded. "She must have been absolutely beautiful while she was alive. And what a mind too; to found a place like this..."

"Ishtar was long established before The Golden Age even," Yoko concurred. "People were brilliant back then too, even without Light."

They looked on at the relief of the ancient Venusian lady for a while longer before Yoko pulled them back down to Earth...or Venus rather. "Let's get moving."

The team leader laid out the plan. "Our goal is just passed the commons in this place. Our best bet is to keep our heads and weapons down until we get there, and when we do..."

Neo signed out the phrase, 'Showtime!'

"Precisely," Yoko said. "Let's go."

And so the trio entered the academy. They entered a stream of academically organized peoples that were going this way and that, all with a clear destination in mind. And despite the large number of occupants in this place, there was actually very little noise that reached their ears, which is probably why Velvet was able to pick up on a conversation between two passing men.

"Rahool, how many times have we had this conversation?"

"Enough times to know where it is going."

"And what I keep telling you is-"

"-Unimportant," the Awoken man interjected. "The fact of the matter is it would be an absolute crime to not get Schnee in here. A mind like hers would give our Cryptology wing the boost it so direly needs!"

The other man gave a sigh. "Very well, I'll extend the girl an invitation within the month."

As the team made their way through the painted starry blue corridors of the academy, Yoko was actually confident that they could do so while going mostly undetected. Nobody seemed to recognize them yet, and nobody questioned their presence here.

This lasted for about thirty more seconds.

As they broke into the commons, a group of rather idle young men espied them on approach. "Holy crap, it's Lilysteel!"

Dozens of heads instantly turned at the exclamation. "There goes our cover," Velvet whispered to Yoko.

Yoko simply shrugged as they made their way across the space, amid torrents of excited shouts in their direction:

"You kicked ass on the CCN yesterday, Neo!"

"Velvet, you're so hot, marry me!"

"Traveler, Littner is so damn sexy! She can snipe me any day!"

The young man turned to his friend. "How does that even work as an innuendo?"

The girls took this sexually-charged adulation in the best stride they could as they did their best to remain focused on the mission.

Just at the end of the common space, did they enter the corridor that would lead to the service annex that was their mission site. Just inside, did they locate the security desk where a young woman was busy sweeping her eyes across the screen of her scroll.

"Um, hello," Yoko pried gently.

The young woman looked up. "Good afternoon, may you present your..." her eyes rounded as the recognition of her Guardian Idol overcame her. "Oh...my...Traveler..." she breathed slowly. ...you're Yoko Littner!"

The girl in question grinned somewhat uncomfortably. "Yep, I'm her..."

The woman plundered on, flush with a fanatical admiration that caused her words to be spoken with a near breathless haste. "Did you know that there are already three sniping montages of you up on the CCN?

"Really now?"

"That shot you made in mid-fall after jumping off that rooftop; how did you even do that!? And how you sniped that one guy after only seeing his reflection in a car door's mirror? That was amazing!"

Yoko was finding it difficult to get in a word edgewise. "Thank you but-"

"-And it's not just you, you're whole team's amazing! Velvet and Neo, you girls are so awesome!" The recipients of this comment nodded their approval. "And then there was that one time-"

Yoko held up a hand, her eyes locked on that of the young woman's', this combination of gestures bringing her to silence. "Since you know who we are, there's no point in beating around the bush." Yoko drew herself up strait. "I am Yoko Littner, leader of Fireteam Lilysteel. We are here from The Citadel, by order of Winter Schnee. Our mission site just so happens to lie beneath your academy, and we need to be there, now."

The young lady on the receiving end of this declaration didn't dare do so much as blink while Yoko was speaking. However, after her piece did she say, "Wow...that sounds pretty heavy..."

"It is," Yoko confirmed. "I'm going to need this annex evacuated."

"But there are over three hundred on-duty personnel here. I just can't-"

"-Just do it." Yoko said this with a simple forcefulness; a stern but somewhat gentle intimidation clear in her voice.

The young woman nodded as she rose from her seat. "I'll give the order," she said. And in jut a few minutes tie was the entirety of the Academy's workforce filing passed them towards the exit. A great number of them weren't exactly happy with the circumstance of this sudden evacuation, which was especially evident from what seemed to be one of the chiefs of staff.

"What's the meaning of this?" He questioned Yoko gruffly. "We have incredibly important work to do and you're seriously setting our schedule back with this crap!"

Yoko remained cool in the face of the man's rant as her Ghost materialized from her being. "The less you know, the better. Trust me."

"Guardians?" The man said, his eyes wide. "My apologies." He bowed his way of of Yoko's presence.

"Thank you, Simon," Yoko said to her Ghost.

The last of the worker's exodus had finally filed past now, leaving only the three Guardians and the young woman alone in this place. "So, uh...guess you girls need to get to work now, huh?"

"Quite so," said Velvet, flicking the action on her level gold scout rifle, the ever adaptable MIDA Multi-Tool. "Go on then, and lock that gate behind you."

The woman only nodded. "Traveler's Light," she whispered. She flipped a switch on the nearby wall and the security gate slowly rattled from the ceiling into the closed position.

Finally free from obstruction, Yoko initiated the mission. "Alright Lilysteel, lets get to it."

And their respective Ghosts transmatted their weaponry into being for this particular endeavor: Neo's primary weapon, the somewhat unorthodox level gold hand cannon, The First Curse, was already primed in her hands. Her feather-light sidearm, the Havoc Pigeon (Solar affinity), was strapped to her hip. And rounding out her arsenal was a level blue sword by the name of Future Imperfect (Void affinity).

Her Multi-Tool already set, Velvet loaded her special weapon, the Badlands MK.24 shotgun (Void affinity) and her level blue grenade launcher, Plemusa-B (Arc affinity).

Yoko's twin sniper rifle were already loaded as she lead the way into the annex of the Ishtar Academy. "Simon, scan for any Vex presences in the area."

The Ghost complied with the order as he collapsed his shell as to boost his scan's intensity. "Picking up on something big, but it's still about two clicks below us."

Yoko gave the signal forward and the team pressed onward into the facility. During their trek, Yoko made note of the sheer number of computer terminals that happened to populate the place. "Sure were working hard down here, weren't they?"

"They're definitely up to something, but Ishtar was always so tight lipped about their operations that I couldn't guess what..." was Velvet's lament.

Ans as the girls rounded a corner, they all made a simultaneously shocked discovery. "Whoa..." Yoko breathed. Emblazoned on the wall just in front of them, was what was unmistakeably a Fallen insignia, denoting the potential presence of a Fallen house. But there so happened to be a small number of minor details that peaked the girls' interest even further.

"Look here," Velvet said. She ran her hand over what looked to be a series of blackened scorch marks just beneath the insignia. "Arc burn..." she whispered.

"There was a battle here then," Yoko mused. "Maybe The Fallen got mixed up with The Vex."

Velvet espied another detail, just at her feet. "Or," she said, bending to retrieve it, "this could explain it." Clutched between her index and middle fingers was a bullet casing, which she held out for all of them to see. ".38 millimeter, full metal jacket."

"So what are you thinking?" Yoko asked.

"Either the people of Ishtar have better weaponry than they're telling us about...or we weren't the first Guardians through here."

Yoko nodded. "Keep an eye out for any activity, hostile or friendly."

And they continued on, their weapons at the ready in anticipation of a sudden Fallen melee. Upon their entry to what looked like the main computer core of this place, did Velvet finally voice what was on all their minds. "This has been...easy..."

'Too easy' Neo signed in agreement.

Yoko put her back to the wall of the doorway near the core's exit. She whipped her upper body around the corner, peering down the scope of her Longbow Synthesis, intent on catching anyone or anything in the room beyond off guard. Seeing nothing, she lowered her rifle. "It's possible The Vex may not know we're coming..."

"As if," Velvet said. "Those things are tapped into confluxes all over Venus; they have a bead on our intelligence. And taking out this Mind will cripple them for good."

Yoko nodded. "But if the Mind is as important as all that, you'd think they would put up a much better defense of the thing; or any defense at all." After a short silence of contemplation, did she call to her Ghost. "Simon, what's your assessment of the area ahead?"

"This is the last place the Ishtar people touched. It's all Venusian caves from this point on."

"Alright, let's move."

After a jaunt down a short staircase and covering several yards of the indigenous Venusian landscape, did the girls enter the mouth of a small cave. "We're really deep down. This cave opens up into a much larger cavern," did Simon report.

Yoko tightened her grip on her Longbow. "We're close. Stay alert girls, they could be coming from any..." She became stone still as her ears picked up a sound. It was minuscule, so much so that no one who didn't possess the super hearing of a Hunter would pick up on it. And seeing as two of the girls were indeed Hunters, they heard it at the same time; a tiny whisper, indicative of a projectile moving through the air. And it was getting closer...

"Move!" They scattered, Neo performing a neat back-flip before landing on her feet again, her hand cannon swiveling about in every direction, trying to ascertain the direction from which the threat came. And just there in the space they previously occupied, bloomed a cloud of bright orange projectiles. They were incredibly small, but deadly none the less. And all three of the recognized it instantly. "A Swarm Grenade..." Yoko breathed. "But that would mean-"

"-And that, will be far enough, ladies," said a voice from a source seemingly as untraceable as the grenade from which it came. And then, did what little light that was in the cavern play over the forms of their assailants. A Guardian Fireteam now stood before them, blocking their path forward.

Yoko recognized them instantly. "Vector?" She said. "What are you doing here?"

The members of Fireteam Vector were as follows: Their first member, and Fireteam leader was a Gunslinger, whose stature was diminutive to be sure, but not quite as small as Neo's. Though he was small, his intense blue eyes and flaming red hair gave him something of a larger presence. His name was Jr. Well actually, he has a real name, but we'll just leave it at that.

Their next member was a Void Walker, and quite a powerful one at that. His physical appearance was rather exotic, with caramel-brown skin and stark white hair. His eyes were currently full of purple Void Light, and locked right on Yoko's own. He went by the moniker of 'Chaos', this named given to him for his rather unique innovation to the Void Walker's signature Nova Bomb Super.

Their third member, however, was possibly the biggest enigma. With his height and tremendous physical make up, one could guess right away that the man was a Titan, but strangely so. For you see, over two thirds of the man's body...was made of steel. While the incorporation of prosthetic robotics was nothing new to anyone in this day and age, he was the first to take the operation so far; both his legs were completely cybernetic, as well as the greater part of his torso. His left arm followed suit, complete with a mounted blade on the elbow. Possibly the only thing still organic about him were his piercing blue eyes and cropped blonde hair. He had long since abandoned his human name, as he was seen now as more Exo than human. And as a result, he had been given the designation Ziggurat-8, though those who knew him well simply called him "Ziggy".

"What are you doing here?" Yoko pried again. "Are you here to help us?"

"Mmm...not exactly..." Jr. said with cheek.

Ziggy spoke up then. "We were sent here, to ensure that you do not reach The Vex Mind."

A confused silence fell over Lilysteel then. "Wait...what?" Velvet said. "Why the bloody hell would you-"

Yoko held up a hand to silence her teammate. "If that is indeed true,"she said in a dangerous whisper, "then you will be deemed a hazard to our operation and will be dealt with accordingly."

` Chaos grinned rather wickedly at that. "That sounds martially near to a threat." He readied a flare of Void energy in his palm. "I like threats."

"This doesn't have to turn ugly," Ziggy said. "Just turn back, Lilysteel, and no harm will come to you."

Yoko exhaled through her nose. "You're going to need to explain yourselves, now."

Jr. sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Alright, it goes like this: your girl Winter may think she's got The Vex threat on lock, but she doesn't know the half of it. You see, The Vex are like bed bugs; you have to wipe them out all at once, or they'll just keep coming back. This little strike your running is adorable, it really is, but if you take out this Mind, The Vex will only double- check that- triple their efforts in replacing it; you'll only make the problem worse.

"We've got a true contingency plan in place for this. Ironwood is working with the most powerful people in the system to get this done. He's even nearly got The Night Witches on board."

Something of a collective shudder ran through the members of Lilysteel at the mention of the infamous Guardian force known as The Night Witches. "You've really got The Witches in on this...?" Velvet said. She turned to her team leader, "Yoko, we should call Winter."

Yoko nodded. "Simon, call Winter please."

The Ghost complied as he sent the signal through. And just a few moments from there, did the holographic form of Winter Schnee grace their presence. "Ah, Lilysteel. I trust you bring good news regarding your mission?"

"Not exactly ma'am," Yoko reported. Winter's eyes narrowed in question. "Maybe they can explain it better than I can." She jutted her chin in the direction of their current obstacle.

Winter turned herself around. "Vector..." she said. "So Ironwood sends his boys to mess with my girls. Explain to me why you are inhibiting the operation of my Fireteam."

Jr. stepped forward, as to be in Winter's full view as he gave his speech. "Listen here, I know you think you got the whole Vex thing under control, but we're here to tell you that you don't even know the half of it."

"Is that so?" Winter said.

"It is so," Jr said somewhat condescendingly. "Look, it's like I told your girls here; destruction of this Vex Mind is only gonna make things worse for us. If you-"

"-I will have you know that I have the brightest minds of The Ishtar region working on this-"

"-Yeah well, we've got Clovis Bray," Jr. interjected. "And I'm pretty sure that our eggheads can think yours under the table."

Winter huffed a breath of impatience before waving her hand in a dismissive finality. "Enough," she said. "I do not need to stand here and be told what I think I know, little boy."

A tone of severity had entered Jr.'s voice at that point as well. "That's little master to you, Ice Queen."

Winter turned her back on Jr. and addressed her team. "Fireteam Lilysteel, the mission stands. The Vex Mind is to be eliminated, regardless of what or who stands in your way. The mission stands. Schnee out."

And her projection vanished from sight, leaving only a tense silence in it's wake. Jr. whistled, "So that's how it's gonna be huh..."

Yoko set the stock of her Longbow against her shoulder. "You heard her, we have our orders; the Mind must be destroyed. If you insist on impeding us, then you will be named as hazardous to our mission, and you will be dealt with." Her teammates formed up, their weaponry at the ready.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Lilysteel," Ziggy implored. "Just turn back."

Yoko scowled. "You will be asked but one more time. Stand aside."

Jr. shouldered his level purple Hakke auto rifle, The Deal Breaker. "Not gonna happen," he said.

"So be it," Yoko said. "Fireteam Lilysteel, engage!"

Before the words were out of her mouth did Chaos Blink to the front of his team formation. And still in mid air, did he unleash his Nova Bomb. Yoko double jumped backwards, anticipating its imminent impact, but it never came. The over large Void bomb moved incredibly slowly, Yoko had never seen a Nova Bomb behave like this before and was somewhat fascinated by it. Neo, however, reacted more appropriately and and put a round from her hand cannon into it, causing the thing to explode forcefully. In the explosion's wake did Yoko suddenly find herself accosted by Ziggy. The expert melee fighter aimed several blows at her, which she dodged with the ease of her Hunter agility. It occurred to Yoko then that Ziggy wasn't really trying to hit her, just simply engage her at close quarters, effectively nullifying her sniping capabilities.

Neo was currently engaged with Chaos, her sidearm popping rapidly as her opponent Blinked this way and that. PFFT! PFFT! PFFT! The rounds of her Havoc Pigeon hit nothing but air. With one more swift Blink did Chaos close the distance between them and rear back his arm to strike, a charge of withering Void energy in his palm. But just as he committed to this strike, did he suddenly find himself engulfed in a plume of smoke that bloomed just where his target happened to be. And Neo was simply...gone. Chaos pawed at his stinging eyes as he tried to locate his target, only she found him first. Neo dropped from the ceiling, Future Imperfect readied to deliver a deadly blow, but there was a certain battlefield hazard that she had forgotten to take into account. In mid flight, was she struck by a Void seeker, that had splintered from the Nova Bomb that she destroyed earlier. Consumed by The Void, did her body drift into nothingness, leaving only her broken Ghost behind.

There was suddenly the sound of Hakke brand ballistics that filled the air, as Jr. trained his sights on Velvet, who had activated her Arc Blade and was attempting to close in on him. Velvet used her Arc-charged blade to deflect the incoming hail of bullets from Jr.'s rifle, which is exactly what he wanted; keeping her at bay long enough for her Super to expire.

And when it did, Ziggy abruptly broke off his string of attacks on Yoko and charged Velvet. Fully occupied with the Gunslinger in her immediate vision, she did not see him coming, but heard the report of his rapidly approaching heavy metal footsteps. She turned in his direction, taking her eyes off Jr., which was a fatal mistake. In an instant he activated his Golden Gun and incinerated her being with a single shot.

No longer being harried by Ziggy's attacks, Yoko was free to take aim at Jr., who she determined to be the much more dangerous target seeing as he had an active Super going. In just a hair's breadth did she line up her target's head with her sights and in almost the exact same instant, did she pull the trigger. The round would have taken his head clean off, were it not for a sudden wall of alabaster light that Ziggy had managed to produce from his being; a Towering Barricade. Yoko moved to adjust her aim but was struck full in the back by Chaos's energy drain melee attack. "Your Light is now mine," the Void Walker crooned.

Drained of nearly half of her bodily Light, Yoko wilted, collapsing to her knees. And it was there that she found herself staring directly into the maw of Jr.'s rocket launcher, which she recognized as the level purple Curtain Call. "Please give me a reason," he said. "Because I really, really, really, want to pull this trigger."

Ziggy stayed his leader's hand. He stood alongside Jr. as he stared down at Yoko. "It's over, stand down Lilysteel." He gave a somewhat sad shake of his head then. "Don't take it too hard; you didn't stand a chance."

Both Neo and Velvet had been revived by their Ghosts at this juncture and stood now looking rather helplessly at this impossible situation. Yoko couldn't bring herself to look back at them, her insides burning with shame, defeat, and the unavoidable finality of imminent surrender. Fireteam Vector was far too powerful for them to take on their own, and the result of the battle reflected that. Yoko's voice was listless and unsteady as she called to her Ghost. "Simon...take us up..." And they were transmatted from sight, not , however, without a final gesture from Neo; the middle fingers of both hands flipped in Vector's direction.

And Fireteam Vector was left alone in the cave, triumphant, but hollow, none of them truly proud of what they had to do here today. "Let's get back," Jr. said. "Ironwood will want to know what happened here." And the team was transmatted away.

...

Yang was awake, though she wondered why her surroundings were immediately unfamiliar. She then remembered that she never went home last night. Well, not to her home back at The Tower anyway; but home with the girl she had picked up at the club. A self-satisfied smile spread across her face then at the memory of last night, which had been a total victory in Yang's eyes; hot action in the club, and even hotter action in bed.

But amidst this satisfied elation, there was just a twinge of...guilt? Regret? Both sensations stemming from the realization that she truly wanted to spend that night with Blake. Her heart thumped painfully at just the mere thought of the beautiful Faunus. It could have been her that she was lying next to right now. Yang chewed on her bottom lip as it dawned on her that maybe the girl just wasn't interested. She didn't answer when she had called her yesterday morning, nor did she respond to any of those sexy pictures that she sent her.

A tiny sigh escaped her. When she got back from her patrol mission this afternoon, she was going to hunt Blake down personally and lay out exactly how she felt. Never, not once in her life had Yang struck out with a girl. And Blake Belladonna was not about to be the first.

She closed her eyes then, intent on catching just a bit more sleep before she left for The Tower. Unbeknownst to Yang however, her Ghost had popped out of her body and now hovered in the center of the room, haven been taken over by a remote source.

"YANG XIAO LONG!"

Both Yang and her partner were up in an instant; shocked alert by the incredible force of the voice. And right there in the middle of the room stood Pyrrha Nikos, as projected by her Ghost, Celica.

"I want you in the Vanguard hall, front and center, asap!"

Yang pulled the bed sheet up over her body, covering her bare chest. "But, ma'am, I'm not dressed, I'm not even in town-"

"-I don't give a shit." Pyrrha plundered on. "Get here, now!"

And her projection faded, leaving only a stunned silence behind.

"Holy hell, was that Pyrrha Nikos?" Said Yang's partner.

"Yep," Yang said. "My boss." She flung herself out of the bed and made her way to her Ghost, clad in nothing but the skin she was born in (providing a most fortunate view for her partner.)

"What do you think she's so mad about?" Celica asked his Guardian.

"Not a clue," Yang said. She held her arms out to her sides. "Celica, armor me up, Hunter variant." Celica complied, shining his familiar blue beam over Yang's form. And in just an instant, was Yang clad in her secondary armor scheme of cream, black and gold.

As Yang stooped to tie the ribbons on the back of her boots, did her partner say, "So...guess you gotta take off, huh?"

Yang stood up strait again. "Yep," she said simply. Celica settled into the palm of her outstretched hand. "Lock on to The Tower's transmat zone."

Celica "nodded" as he locked the coordinates. But just before Yang's takeoff did her partner cry, "Yang, wait!" Yang turned to her. "You'll call me?" She asked hopefully.

"Sure won't." And in a flash of blue was she gone from the room.

...

And exactly twenty-three seconds from there, did Yang land back in the familiar setting of The Tower plaza. She wasn't too far from the Vanguard Hall from here, so she covered the short distance in a flat-out sprint. And there in the Hall did she find her Vanguard captain at her post. Yang filed in, just slightly out of breath, and adopted the posture of attention.

Pyrrha did not take immediate notice of her, as she was currently in communication with someone on her scroll. "That's excellent news, Winchester," she said. "Just hold position, Rosenkreuz will be there within the hour." She cut off her scroll and finally rounded on Yang. She both inhaled, and then exhaled the same breath through her nose. "Tell me, Yang, you are a Titan, are you not?"

What the hell kind of question was that? Of course she was a Titan. But Yang chose not to voice that particular response. "Yes ma'am, of course."

"Then I'm sure you are more than aware of the Titan Codex?"

The Titan Codex. Yang knew of it of course, but she had never adhered to it. Growing up in a family consisting entirely of Hunters, she never had a Titanic role model to instill such values in her. Out of curiosity, Yang had looked up a copy of the Codex online. There was a bunch of ballyhoo about honor and stalwart-ness, about how Titans were the first line of of the people's defense, and blah, blah, blah. Yang just liked to fight and explore; to go wherever life happened to take her; to heed the call of thrill and adventure...more or less like a Hunter would.

Pyrrha continued, "Not only have you violated the Codex of the first and second pillars, you managed to make a complete ass of yourself last night." Seeing Yang's eyes scrunch up in question, did Pyrrha present her scroll to her. The scroll displayed the page of a popular video sharing site . And though the footage was less than stellar, haven been taken by the scroll cam of an onlooker in the crowd, there was no mistaking Yang there, fighting off hoards of bouncers in The Life Exotic with kicks and punches. Pyrrha read the video's title aloud, "Busty blonde brawler brutally batters bouncers..." she shook her head, "Classy." She met Yang's eyes. "This video already has well over two-million views. Congratulations, you're officially infamous."

Yang could see where this was going. "I apologize, ma'am," she said smally.

"Oh, that's not even the best part," Pyrrha went on. "Allow me to read you some of the video's comments." Yang shuddered; nothing good ever came from a video's comment section.

"Damn, that bitch thicc as fuck, yo!"

"Pause at 2:36, you can see up her skirt!"

"Glad to see The Tower are still recruiting common thugs for their Guardians :/ "

"Ma'am, please...I get it..." Yang's insides squirmed as she began to shrink into herself. But Pyrrha did not relent:

"That's the Rosenkreuz chick, right, how could the Vanguard ever condone this?"

"That's the last time I ever go to that club."

"So this is how Guardians spent their free time? Fuck the Vanguard! And fuck the Guardians!"

Yang was properly ashamed at this point. During those events, she never stopped to think how her behavior could damage her reputation, as well as that of The Vanguard's, which she was supposed to represent.

"In acting as you did, you not only embarrassed yourself, but you embarrassed The Vanguard as well, which means you embarrassed me." Yang flinched at the force of her last word. "I will accept this kind of behavior from none of my Titans, especially a rookie like yourself." She paused here, as she approached the climax of her address. "Yang Xiao Long, you are hereby demoted by one rank." Pretty harsh, but that she could deal with. Hell, she could earn that rank back this afternoon during her mission. "Furthermore," Pyrrha continued, "You are hereby suspended from all Guardian activities, and you are not to leave The Tower for seventy-two hours. Clear?"

"But ma'am, my team has a mission, I-"

"You should have thought about that before your little excursion last night, now shouldn't you?" Yang couldn't argue, of course Pyrrha was right. "You are dismissed," Pyrrha finished.

Yang gave a half-hearted Titan salute and slunk from the hall. Celica popped out of her head, "Well that was bullshit!" He fumed. "What are we gonna do?"

"Guess we gotta break it to the girls..." Yang said.

Upon her exit of the hall, she ran into Coco, who was reclined coolly against a nearby wall. "Had you some fun last night, did you?" She said with a small smirk.

"You could say that..."

"Bet Nikos brought the hammer down on you pretty hard, huh?"

"Yup.."

Coco smiled. "Don't worry too much about it, I did dumb shit like that when I was your age too." She hooked her index finger under Yang's chin and raised her head from it's lowly position. "Chin up, kiddo, it'll be alright."

And she departed, making her way into the hall. "Man, she is so cool..." Celica said.

"Yeah," Yang agreed. "C'mon, we gotta meet with the team..." the dread was palpable in her voice.

And after a lethargically lengthy walk, did Yang swing open the door to her and Ruby's quarters. She found her two teammates already geared up, looking over their scrolls and discussing tactics. Their chatter died away as Yang entered the room. "Great, you're here," Ruby said in greeting. "We were just...what's wrong?"

Yang sat on the edge of the bed as her teammate stared at her expectantly. "Pyrrha saw the video from last night at the club..."

"And?" Weiss said.

"She wasn't happy." She took the silence as cue to continue. "I got demoted a rank, and...I'm grounded..."

"What!?" Ruby said. "But she knew we have patrol duty! That's just- that's just..." she couldn't find the right word to describe this injustice.

"I'm sorry..." Yang moaned, tears beginning to fill her eyes.

Ruby Hugged her older sister. "It's okay, we'll just..carry on I guess."

Weiss was poking about her scroll. "We could pick up a floater. There are any number available."

Ruby shook her head. "No, they don't know our team dynamic; they'll just get in the way."

Yang buried her face in her hands. "Girls, I'm so, so sorry," she sobbed.

Weiss rested her head atop Yang's own, doing what she could to console her. "Don't worry, everything will be fine."

Ruby strapped her Psi Umbra across her back. "We should get going, Team Cardinal is waiting for us." Weiss nodded as she followed Ruby to the door.

"Good luck," Yang said somewhat helplessly.

Ruby acknowledged this with a nod and a sad smile before she closed the door after herself and Weiss.

Left alone, Yang flopped down fully on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Dawn of the first day," she muttered. "Seventy-two hours remain.."

...

*End of Legend 16*

...

A/N:

Well this took long enough in posting. A real update this time, one that I've been wanting to do for a while now. Not much to it other than floating the story back to the top shortly while I figure out what to do next. Maybe chapter 17 will be up sooner-ish rather than later-ish...we'll see. So until then, thanks for reading.

-B.D. Skunkworks.