Uh...I did a thing again.

Yang Makes a Discovery

There were a few times in your life when you felt truly angry.

Sure, if you consider how you tend to react to people touching even a strand of your hair as getting angry, or your admittedly reckless way of charging at targets when your emotions flare it would be easy to claim that you have a relatively short fuse. And yes, you were aware that you had a low tolerance for people messing with Ruby or your friends, but really, who doesn't get mad on behalf of the people they care about and want to cave an idiot's face in? As far as you were concerned though, those were just daily annoyances that you could quickly slap down and get back to more important things.

You were also aware of your reputation as a bit of a hothead, but you'd like to consider those incidents as varying levels of frustration rather than anger; it would be accurate to say that it's more of an expression of your 'fiery spirit' as Dad likes to say. Anger is completely different though.

In your opinion, to be angry was to have that ever-present flickering ember in your chest erupt into an all-consuming bonfire of blinding rage; one that refuses to be put out until whatever pushed you to your breaking point learned in excruciating detail why pissing you off was a bad idea.

So yeah, there were very few times in your life where you felt angry. And even as you watched Taylor and her hobo friend disappear through her creepy eye portal, you couldn't really say that you felt angry.

You were damn close to it though.

"What the hell is your problem?!" you grit out, turning your blazing red eyes from the rapidly disappearing portal to glare at your estranged mother, who was still staring at the closing portal with a confused frown. "Mom!"

Raven blinks with a start, meeting your furious gaze with her cold red eyes. "What's my problem, you ask? My 'problem' is that some random upstart dared to enter my encampment, attack my men, and attempt to attack me. She's lucky that that man was here to stop her from losing her head."

"Lose her head? Lose her head!?! Do you have any idea how messed up what you're saying even is right now!?"

"And how, pray tell, am I supposed to act in response to a supposed attack on my tribe Yang? The only reason I even gave the girl a chance to de-escalate was due to you and your little team here," She casts a glance towards your teammates, pausing for a moment on the nervous-looking Ruby before continuing, "The only real good thing that came out of this whole farce was that she brought you to me. Now come along Yang." You watch her turn away with an astonished look on your face.

'Come along? All of that just happened and she expects me to just obediently follow her?' You think to yourself furiously, clenching your fists as you struggle to contain the growing blaze in your chest. 'Did she even listen to Taylor at all? Even properly look at her before dismissing her existence entirely?'

Now, you'd be the first to admit that Taylor is very difficult to read from your limited interactions with her. But even if it's hard to tell sometimes because of Taylor's general demeanor and that ever-present smile on her face, you couldn't help but notice just how stricken the dark-haired girl looked the moment she saw your mother. And those words she said while you were stumbling over your own words after seeing your mother…

"Why'd you leave?"

You know that you weren't the only one that heard the pain in Taylor's voice, or saw how her expression completely crumbled when those words - that sounded more like a plea made out of desperation than a simple question - came out of her mouth. Even if she seemingly recovered after noticing the looks she was getting from you and the others, something like that just doesn't come out of nowhere. And for her to just blow her off like she didn't matter like that was just…

"No."

Your mother stops at your words, turning back to look at you with a raised eyebrow.

"No? Weren't you the one that wanted to see me in the first place? That was the whole point of this little venture of yours was it not," she says with that fucking tone that you're starting to hate—that cold, condescending voice that says more than anything about how much this whole thing is barely even a footnote to her.

"See? She doesn't even know who I am."

"You expect me to go anywhere with you after all of that?" You grit out, fists clenching hard enough to draw blood.

"After what, exactly? After I was accused of cowardice by someone that thinks they can judge my life and my decisions? Really, Yang, you should know better than to believe such lies," Raven says with a sardonic chuckle. Just hearing that almost set you off. It was only by the virtue of the fact that you and your team were essentially surrounded by potentially hostile forces that stayed your hand.

Instead, you force yourself to calm down, feeling the flickering flames of your hair settle back into its golden blonde hue. You want to say a lot of things right now; to call out her negligence and irresponsibility, demand who this 'Salem' that she seems so afraid of is, ask why she was so willing to acknowledge you, and completely ignore Taylor's existence.

"If anyone has the right it's gonna be her," You decide to say instead.

She raises her eyebrow again. "And how, exactly, does she—?"

"What she said was true, wasn't it?" you interrupt. "That your semblance lets you teleport to me anytime you want, right? But instead of doing that, you decided that it was easier to not show your face for over a decade and surround yourself with people who kiss your ass rather than be a mother."

Raven's glaring at you now, but you can't find it in yourself to care much beyond the cold satisfaction that your - and Taylor's - words are getting under her skin so much.

"I told you that I did what I did for your safety, Yang," Raven—lies, a voice that sounds like Taylor's echoes in your mind. "There are many dangers out there that you've been blind to in your life under Ozpin's thumb; dangers that I didn't want you involved in until you were strong enough to take care of yourself."

"I didn't need a protector! I didn't need someone who would 'watch me from the shadows' or some other bullshit excuse! I needed my mom," you pause, glancing at Ruby as you continue. "And thankfully, I had a Mom. An awesome mom who gave me an awesome sister, and who did more for me in the few years she was around than you've ever done."

Raven follows your gaze to your younger sister, who puffs up defiantly in response. "Yes, I'm sure that Summer did a wonderful job raising you in my stead in those few brief years. However, she was unable to instill in you the understanding of this world and the threats that are greater than the Grimm; Something that I can do now that you've made the wise decision to seek me out." She turns her gaze back to you with what you would've assumed to have been a proud smile had you not known any better.

As you are now, it only looked smug and triumphant—like she was so self-assured that her lies would be enough to convince you to abandon everything just for the chance to do…what? Start over? Act like the mother she never was?

Then you were struck with a dawning realization.

"You don't actually care, do you?" you ask softly.

"Why would you think—?"

"You barely even see me as your daughter. Hell, the only worth I am to you is as another fucking lackey in your group. If I didn't go out of my way to see you, you would've been just fine acting like I didn't exist. Taylor was right, you're a coward and a terrible mother."

You watch as Raven's smile crumples into a frown with a small amount of bitter satisfaction. She huffs and crosses her arms in annoyance. "I do not appreciate you throwing baseless accusations at me—" She starts, but you're long past listening to her make excuses.

"And what about Taylor? Do you even care enough to acknowledge her existence? Did you ever actually look at her before dismissing her? Hell, aren't you even worried that she's gonna get hurt fighting whoever this Salem is?!"

"And why, exactly, would it matter to me what happens to her?" She replies dismissively.

"Why wouldn't it matter?! You said so yourself that fighting her was pointless!"

"Because it is pointless!" She suddenly shouts out. You flinch back, startled by the sudden change in demeanor. "You have no idea what you're talking about child. You stand there thinking you have the right to judge me for my decisions when you are blind to the realities of the world you live in." Her hand sweeps out, gesturing towards the encampment. "Everything I've done—everything I've made and all of those you see around you right now. All my sacrifices were for the sake of one thing." She looks at you pointedly, cold red eyes bearing down on you.

"It's to survive. You have no idea of the dangers that exist beyond the Grimm Yang, and you will remain ignorant as long as you continue to play as a Huntress."

"'Play as a Huntress'!? How dare you—!"

"Weiss, not the time!" you hear someone whisper out and what sounds like muffled protests, but you ignore that in favor of the woman in front of you. You two stare silently at each other for what feels like hours as you consider everything you've just heard. If you're being honest, a lot of it sounds like the paranoid ramblings of a madwoman, but with how Taylor went out of her way to go after this 'Salem' person, there may be a grain of truth in there somewhere. And if you're being honest, you do want to actually understand why she believes that her path was the correct one to take; it's the whole reason you came out here after all.

However, despite all of the questions floating in your head and the desire to actually understand your mother—

"You…just really don't care at all, do you?" you eventually say. You watch as Raven rolls her eyes, and feel your heart sink.

"I thought that I made myself clear. I refuse to concern myself with anything that threatens me or my tribe, up to and including that girl. Whether she lives or dies is of no consequence to me," Raven sniffs in disdain. "She's made her choice, and I don't intend to care about another fool who throws their life away in Ozpin's war."

"…Of course you don't. That's the kind of person you are, after all," you say.

While this realization would've hurt a lot more a few weeks ago – not so much now though. Now, you just feel tired – your thoughts instead turn to the mysterious girl who stormed off to kill that Salem person. She knew that this was how your mo—how Raven was, and yet she still chose to take you to see her despite knowing that she would be rejected by the woman. Granted, you didn't exactly force her to take you to her, but just knowing that she was willing to put up with that kind of treatment just for your sake was…

Well. It would be a lie to say that you don't feel a bit crappy for your part in this whole situation.

She watches you silently for a few moments, searching for something in your gaze before closing her eyes. "Perhaps…it's too soon for you, Yang. It doesn't seem like you're ready to face the truth of things just yet. Regardless, I feel that you and your friends have overstayed their welcome." Opening her eyes, Raven settles a hand onto the pommel of her blade before striking out and cleaving a red portal into the empty space between them. "This will take you to Taiyang. Go home, Yang. Seek me out when you've grown a bit more."

"…" You do nothing but stare at the woman in disappointment, before shaking your head. "…Let's go guys. This…was a waste of time. There's never gonna be anything for us here."

You almost feel like you saw her wince at that remark, but she just shakes her head and walks away. You watch her go with a sad gaze, before feeling a hand rest on your shoulder.

"Yang," you hear Blake say. "I..I know that I can't understand how you feel right now, but we," she pauses for a moment, before continuing, "we're here for you, okay?" She finishes somewhat awkwardly.

"Yeah. Like you said, Yang, we don't need her or any of these jerks anyway," Ruby chimes in, glaring at the members of Raven's tribe who continue to watch your group cautiously.

"That's quite the understatement, but Ruby is correct. Besides," Weiss says, before pursing her lips in distaste and anger. "That woman was entirely…unpleasant. I honestly don't see how the two of you could be related to her."

The two she was speaking of, of course, went unsaid in your group. And while it would've probably made you somewhat irritated to have your mother insulted in front of you a few hours ago, right now?

Well, you'll take the compliment for what it was.

"Thanks, girls," you say, forcing a small smile on your face before eyeing the portal. "Let's just get out of here, alright? Dad might start to get really worried that something's up if we don't hurry through the portal, after all. And hey, at least you two get to meet Dad! He's kind of a dork, but he's pretty cool." Ruby nods excitingly in agreement, all too willing to help you change the subject to something less…heavy.

Best little sister ever. Or littlest sister now? Ugh, you're really gonna have to talk to Taylor whenever she comes back from fighting that Salem person about this whole mess. That's gonna be weird.

…

'Don't do anything crazy Taylor,' you think to yourself. 'Even if you're strong, I don't wanna see my sisters getting hurt.'

Because Bowler Hat Guy left it off at a part where the two would be bound to have a bit of a discussion, and drama.

Poor Raven has no idea what's going on but man she's kind of just really mean isn't she like damn lady don't be so rude.