A/N: Wait! Before you read this chapter, I highly encourage you to go back and read Always Late's incredible thirty-five thousand word omake which explores a potential/alternate future. It's amazing, and well worth the read. It's also what got my inspiration for this Quest flowing again, so you can blame this chapter completely on him.

Yang woke up somewhere new that felt familiar. An old wooden house, charred and smoldering from a nearly-dead fire. Wind slithered gently through empty windowframes, carrying the scent of charcoal and ashes.

"Where...? Obsidian?" She sat up, curling her legs beneath her and preparing to leap... but this felt like a Dream, so she wouldn't pretend to be too on edge. Still.

Your magic has stalled, Yang.

"Tch. Yeah, I know. It just doesn't... I can't get the same stuff out of it that the others can. I've tried what Ruby and Weiss do, and it just... doesn't work. I've experimented on my own, too. Nothin'."

You are in a unique position. The nature of your soul clings to your magic and consumes it; burning it as fuel in the engine of your Semblance.

Yang leaned her head back with a sigh. "Yeah. I... look, I don't really want to think about what my Semblance means, okay? Why'd you bring me here? I thought we were just going to keep fighting until I had an idea... Did something change?"

Yes.

She waited.

The magic of Ciel bears similarities to your problem in reverse, burning Aura to fuel magic. Thus, some of its precepts might be applied to interesting effect.

She blinked. Then she smiled. "Huh. Cool. What do I need to do?"

Meditate, and I will guide you through the exercises.

"Ugh." She rolled her eyes, but curled her legs underneath her and took a deep breath.

The essence of Soul Magic is to detach your sense of self from your body... but such a method will never work for you. However, there are other aspects that suit you: Cielans are deeply aware of the connections of the soul. The essence of 'Yang Xiao Long' is broader than the body that sleeps now – you are the sister of Ruby, and the partner of Blake, and companion of Weiss. You are a defender of Beacon, and scourge of the Grimm. Your soul reaches beyond the flesh, tracing along these connections.

She took a breath. "You forgot one." At the silent curiosity in the wake of her statement, she felt her lips tug upward. "I'm your student too, remember?"

For a moment, silence.

Yes. You are correct.

She smirked to herself, breathing slowly and reaching into her Aura for the thread of her magic. As Obsidian continued to speak, she lost herself in the smoldering feeling, the warmth that traced along the contours of her soul.

She frowned. Around her, in the eddies of the burnt-out house, flames flickered and sputtered, dying out almost as soon as they were born. Her Aura pulsed with warm light, the flames around her casting dancing shadows around the ruins, but no matter how fiercely she reached out she just couldn't get the fucking fires to listen. "God damn it! Why doesn't this fucking work?"

The method may be flawed. The theory is sound, but the soul is not always straightforward.

"Fuck, I can feel it! I just... I can't do it. I don't do well with this kind of stuff, Obsidian. Sitting and studying, meditating, whatever... I've always sucked at this stuff. I learn when I do it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but isn't there something else we can try? A Dream fight, or something? God, I need a break."

We shall stop here. For now, this is not a great priority.

She almost accepted. She wanted to. But... but... if she'd known this stuff ahead of time, could they have stopped Cinder from getting away?

Maybe. Maybe not. But... "No. Let's try something else. You can think of something, can't you?"

There was a pause.

A possibility exists.

"Okay, let's try it."

...It will be unpleasant. The nature of what must be learned requires specific circumstances.

"So? We..." She paused. Obsidian very, very rarely warned them. Maybe she should take that seriously?

...Except it didn't change anything, even if it was a serious warning. She still needed to know. Needed to see if she could push through this. "I don't care. Let's do it."

Something shifted, like the air grew heavier... but nothing else changed. Yang heaved a sigh.

Then a shrill, tiny scream split the silence, and she shot to her feet. Her heart pounded in her chest and her eyes darted around. Wh... I know that scream. Why do I recognize that scream? She bit her lip, but didn't hesitate to vault the empty window and tear into the woods around the cottage. At first, the forest was silent as she sprinted through the underbrush... but little by little, she started to hear it. Rustling leaves, snapping branches, low growls.

She caught glimpses of red and black through the trees around her, and realized she'd bulled her way into a swarm of Grimm. Even as her hands curled into fists, though... something bothered her. They barely noticed her, instead running in the same... direction as her...

... I know that tree. That's... that's that stupid tall tree Ruby climbed on Patch. Where she got stuck.

Her brain stuttered for a second, her heart hammering away as a feeling sunk heavy in her belly. No way. There's - it couldn't... right?

"Ruby! You have to run okay? Just turn around and keep going and don't stop no matter what!" An achingly familiar voice was just barely audible through the trees, and Yang's legs pushed her forward like a bullet. "Please, Ruby, please, don't let this be my fault, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry - !"

She burst into a small clearing.

She saw a little red wagon with a crooked wheel.

She saw two little girls, with black and golden hair.

She saw a pack of Beowolves circling and snarling.

She saw one lunge, its fangs closing in as the girl-in-red Ruby screamed in absolute terror, and then she saw red. Her Aura poured out of her skin in waves of shimmering heat, and the Beowolf melted in her grasp as her magic dipped lower and lower with each passing second.

For a moment, she locked eyes with that little girl she'd been once. Then she clenched her fists and smiled. "Close your eyes," she repeated what Qrow had told her, all those days ago. "This won't take long."

Little Yang backed up against the wagon with Ruby and scrunched her eyes closed. All around Yang, Beowolves dashed forward, trying to dodge around her to get at the tiny balls of fear.

She stared down at two little girls and took a deep breath. Then, she let loose, and fire bathed the clearing.

She looked at her hand, watching fire flicker in the empty spaces between her fingertips and thinking. Picking at her feelings, looking for something. She should be pissed, but anger just... wasn't coming. This was the kind of shit that would have had her lose it, if Obsidian pulled it before... before the thing with Blake. Before she started to understand. "All right. It worked. But... Obsidian. Why? Why that memory?"

Obsidian was a lot of things, but cruel wasn't one of them. When she did something like this, there was a reason. Worse, it was usually a good one.

You struggle to reach beyond yourself. Your image, the image of Yang Xiao Long, is... settled. Solid. It is a strength, to have so concrete an identity... but a weakness, as well.

"So you, what, wanted me to see myself a different way?"

You are many things. Among them... you are a defender. Never would you allow another to face danger in your place. Alongside you, perhaps... but never in your place. Your very nature cries out to take danger from others, to face the greatest risks as you stand before them. A wall to protect all you hold dear.

She licked her lips, thinking of the girls in the wagon.

It is dangerous, to walk that path. But it is one that is a part of you. You asked for a shortcut, to develop your soul. To reach beyond yourself. Now you have.

"Because I wanted to protect them." It wasn't really a question. Somehow, when she said it out loud, it solidified. Like a weight lifted off her shoulders and settled into her back. She stood up straighter, nodding to herself as her Aura flickered across her body. "Yeah. No matter what happens, no matter what we face... that's where I belong. Next to them, there to protect them when they need me."

Where one is weak, another is not.

She smiled.

Yang has advanced a skill! Fire Manipulation: D+ = C - The ability to manipulate energy by will alone. Yang's Aura is not conducive to normal magic; however, properties of Soul Magic have been applied. Yang can channel her element through her Aura, turning it into soul-derived Flame. When active, she burns with living heat that ripples off of her, damaging to enemies but never to allies. She can stretch her Aura from her body, allowing for pseudo-projectiles to be launched as part of an attack, or overcharge her Aura with magic in an explosive blast of heat at close range. Passively, even when inactive, this ability renders Yang mostly immune to all but the greatest of heat and flames.