Chapter 14

[Yang Xiao Long]

"So, mommy issues, huh? That's… boring," the man across from her commented, looking at the scroll he'd been given with an expression that mirrored his words. Yang, for her part, felt her eye twitch. She almost wanted to punch him from where sat across from him at a table that had been rearranged while the gang's people started working to clean up their club. Much of it had been damaged, but everyone was mostly fine… save for the three that Yang had fought against.

Not that Yang cared overly much about that. They were criminals. There was a reason why she'd come in and gone straight for a fight. What did it matter if she roughed up some criminals? She was doing society a favor anyway.

'Now, if this guy just hadn't been here,' she thought, glaring at the man across from her with lilac eyes. Her aura wasn't back yet, after all. Even if it was, activating her semblance would send it right back to zero really quick. If you ran out of Aura altogether, it took a lot longer than normal for it to regenerate. So… She was going to be in a rough spot for a bit, it seemed.

The point was, she didn't dare move from where she'd been told to sit, much as she wanted to punch Blackwood again. The stool felt like a trap and the person across from her was the spider, having her right where he wanted her. Blackwood, for his part, acted like it was all normal things happening all around. He had a drink in his hand and her scroll in the other with a picture of her mother with her old team.

She twitched when she heard a message come through, but kept her mouth shut. At least Blackwood swiped the notification away without so much as a glance. Thank the gods for small mercies.

Yang had found some other pictures of her mother through her searches, of course. There was plenty to be found about the Branwen Tribe on the Dustnet, but she didn't trust all of it. She knew, deep down and much as she didn't want to, that some – if not all – of it was true, however. It was still her mother and she wanted… she wanted something.

"So, this is neat and you look very alike, but… What did you want here that was worth all this trouble?" Blackwood said then, laying her scroll on the table and pushing it towards her. Yang reached for it slowly, partly because she was still very wary of the man and partly because she didn't know how to answer that. Ultimately… She did what she did best and got to the point.

"I should tell you… why?" she asked, still glaring. The man returned the look with an unimpressed one, eyebrow raised.

"Because if you don't, I can get you in a lot of trouble, if you know what I mean," he replied, leaning forward and resting his chin on his hand. "You did come into the club and started beating up people. I'm sure that won't look good for a… what? Huntress-in-training?"

"Please," she drawled before scoffing. "They are criminals. Everyone knows that."

"Do they?" Blackwood shot back with an amused smile. "Then why are they still around? Why haven't they been detained?" he asked, his grin widening when she remained silent. "You want to know why? Because they have nothing… or maybe the police are corrupt. The point is, nobody is going to stick their neck out for you. So… talk, because a beating is the least of your troubles right now."

She glared for a long moment, trying and failing to think of anything to retort with. She really was tangled in this spider's web, it seemed. She had nowhere to go and this bastard had her right where he wanted her. What would happen to her if he was right?... She could think of several things and none of them were good. At the very least, her spot in Beacon might be reconsidered, and she couldn't allow such a thing.

"... I want information about her. I heard… I heard Junior is the guy to go for information," she replied through gritted teeth. It wasn't all anger and frustration though, of course. She was also, she'd grudgingly – and in the privacy of her own mind – admit, afraid of this man. Nobody had toyed with her like he had, after all, neither so skillfully nor so mercilessly.

And she knew he could do so again, easily at that.

"Hm, I see. Well, now I'm curious," he commented, leaning back and taking a gulp from his drink. Then he set his glass down and turned to the side. "Hei!"

She saw the gang leader she'd heard about all but jump at the call, stiffening. As for her, Yang wondered if she'd heard right, unable to believe her luck. Had he really said that? Was this man, this stranger, going to give her just what she wanted? After thoroughly terrifying her? As if she weren't confused enough by her own feelings already.

"Yes?" Junior – or Hei, whatever – asked, walking up to them and sending a despective look towards her. Yang glared right back, but that was all she dared to do, considering the guy that was sitting across from her. "Need another drink?"

"That too, but I wanted to see if I could poke that knowledgeable brain of yours a little bit. Who's that?" Blackwood asked, pointing towards the scroll that she was still holding. Yang, for once, complied with a request without much fuss, turning the screen towards the gang leader. "I want to know what all this was for."

The man didn't look like he wanted to answer any of that, probably because of her. However, he ultimately took the scroll, looked at it, raised an eyebrow, and gave it back. The man then sighed and massaged the his eyes tiredly.

"Give me a moment," was all that Junior said after that before turning and leaving, but Blackwood seemed content with how things were going. From there, the man just made himself comfortable while Yang continued sitting there… not quite knowing what to do with herself.

She was angry at the whole situation because none of it was supposed to go as it had. She was frustrated, because she knew she could do nothing about it. She was scared, because she knew she was at the mercy of someone she didn't know and who was allied with criminals.

And she was hopeful, because she wanted answers and it seemed like she'd get them, shockingly enough.

"What… What do you want from me?" she asked, unable to keep her mouth shut. There had to be a catch. People like this didn't do anything without a price. They would ask something of her, no way they wouldn't. Even without the information that she so desperately wanted, they had her in the palm of their hands with the fact that she'd attacked them. If she'd won, maybe things would have been different. As it was…

Yet, even with all that, Yang's heart still yearned for those answers.

Enough that a part of her wasn't dreading the answer to her question.

"Not much, honestly. I've already smacked you around and I think neither of us wants to make a bigger deal from this, really," Blackwood said with a shrug and a bored expression. Then his expression shifted once more, this time to a slight half-smile. "You remind me of a hothead I used to know a lifetime ago," he added then, snorting softly. "He never did think things through and it ended badly for him quite often."

"Is this going to end badly for me?" Yang blurted out before immediately cursing herself. Still, in for a Lien and all that. She set on her best defiant expression as she faced Blackwood. Because damnit all, she might have been defeated and she might be helpless… But she'd be all that still standing straight. She had some pride left still.

They wouldn't break her.

"Eh… Probably not more than it already did," Blackwood answered with another shrug. "You are not the sharpest knife in the world, but you don't seem dumb enough to make things worse for yourself now," he commented and Yang wondered if she should feel insulted or flattered… It was probably meant to be the former though. "Out of curiosity, do you know anything about your mother or is this an 'I don't know anything and want to find out what's up'?" the man asked with a tilt of his head.

For a long moment, Yang debated if she wanted to give an answer at all. Ultimately, the man was giving her the chance to learn some things about her mother she might not already, so… Maybe she could play nice… just a little bit.

"She's a… bandit," she answered, the words tasting bitter in her mouth. Oh, how she hated that her mother did that. She really, really hoped she had a reason for that. If she didn't… "She raids villages in Mistral, steals and kills."

"Sounds like a nice person," Blackwood said sarcastically and Yang glared at him. "Don't even know why you want to find out more then."

"She's my mother," she replied firmly, curtly. Raven had to have a reason for doing what she did. She just… had to. "She left… when I was little." More like she'd left right away, but it sounded less painful to say it like that. "I want… I want…" Reassurance that it wasn't because of her? That her mother wasn't just a piece of shit? That there was a reason behind it all that wouldn't hurt?

She didn't know.

"... Answers?" Blackwood finished for her and she nodded, somewhat stiffly. That was a good way to sum it up, she supposed. "Hm, makes sense then, I guess… Huh? That was faster than I thought," he said then, confusing her for a moment before he looked to the side and she followed his gaze.

Yang had to stop herself from getting restless when she saw Junior moving back to their table carrying a larger model of scroll. He gave her a spiteful look, but in the end just silently passed the device to Blackwood who muttered a thanks absentmindedly and started reading the information that he was given.

'It's right there,' Yang thought to herself, debating the idea of just snatching the scroll from Blackwood. It was just the fear that he'd beat her again and take away her one chance to learn more that stopped her.

It was a close thing though.

"Well, that's something," Blackwood said, which told Yang precisely nothing at all. However, he passed her the scroll after that, so she didn't get to say anything before the scroll took all her attention. In less than a second, she'd already started reading the thing herself, so intently that it almost felt like the words were burning themselves into her brain.

And what she found was…

It was…

Exactly what she feared. It was all that she already knew, but worse. Nothing about Raven doing anything remotely good. She was just a bandit, through and through. Lots of stealing, killing, and generally being an awful human being. It was all that she'd already found through the internet, but in more detail, in more gruesome, horrible detail.

Yang felt something inside her grow cold and hurt. And yet, she couldn't stop a part of her from still hoping. She couldn't help but cling to the idea that maybe everyone was wrong and there was a point to it all. She felt like a fool for that, but she couldn't not do it anyway.

Once she finished, she set the scroll on the table and pushed it away. She didn't want to read anymore. She wanted… She wanted to just go away and punch something. Instead, she found herself facing Blackwood, who was looking at her curiously.

"Not what you were hoping for," he said, stating the obvious, which made her glare at him. What little specks of aura she'd regenerated bleed into her eyes turning them red again. The man was undeterred though, unsurprisingly but also annoyingly. "Yet, you'll keep looking, won't you?"

"None of your business," she spat out.

"True enough," Vincent agreed, which wasn't precisely what she'd expected. "Say, I have an idea for you to maybe get some more answers," he said and her semblance immediately turned off as hope blossomed inside her. A second later though, she stamped on it and glared once more, even if she couldn't muster enough anger to activate her semblance's effects.

"As if I'd trust a criminal like you with anything," she hissed and the man chuckled.

"That's fair," he replied with a nod and a grin. "So, you aren't interested?" he asked anyway and her glare intensified. The words were at the tip of her tongue, to curse at him and just stand up to leave. She was done there. She'd gotten what she wanted. There was no point…

"... I'm listening," she answered instead.

"That's what I thought," Blackwood said, his grin turning annoyingly smug. "So, if I'm reading your mother right… she doesn't care, not one bit. About anything at all, really, except herself, maybe this… tribe and, interestingly enough, power," he commented, saying the words "tribe" and "power" as if it were a bad joke. Yang was more focused on how much it hurt to hear someone voice all that. Not because she thought it was a lie, but because she thought it might be the truth. "What I propose is that you make her care."

"... How?"

[}-o-{]

[Ruby Rose]

'G2g tc of something. TTYL ' - Yang 7:12 pm

'K.' - Ruby 7:18 pm

'The store ran out of scopes, so I didn't get one. Are you done? I am hungry and it's late.' - Ruby 8:15 pm

'Yang?' - Ruby 8:25pm

'Helloooooo?' - Ruby 8:30 pm

'Remember you have the ferry pass to Patch… and the bike. I'll send you a ping. Come pick me up when you are finished' - Ruby 9:01 pm

[Ruby has shared her location] - Ruby 9:02 pm

"C'mon Yang, where are you?" Ruby mumbled while putting her phone away in her red wool coat pocket. She made sure to leave the volume as high as possible in case she received a response.

Her breath came in puffs of mist and her body shivered slightly. She tried to close her coat a bit more to fight off the cold wind of January, but it was useless. She wasn't willing to waste aura to act as a glorified heater either. Unlike her sister, she didn't have the reserves to keep that up for hours. So she had to make do with her coat for now, even though her legs felt like they were freezing, even when she was wearing tights.

Ruby couldn't truly complain. She was the one who had insisted on coming to Vale with her battle skirt instead of something more… winter-appropriate. What her dad and Yang weren't seeing was that if she gave up on it now and tried to use pants, she would be betraying herself and all other battle-skirt believers out there. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if that happened. At the very least she wore her beanie and gloves, so her head and hands were warm and covered.

If she was honest, she would much rather be at home wearing her comfy pajamas next to the fireplace. She could be relaxing in content warmth while she watched some Mistralian anime and drank a warm glass of milk with cookies. Instead she was there freezing herself to death.

Needs must, sadly.

Some limited edition detachable scope she had kept an eye on for the last few months was on sale that day, after all. Ruby refused to miss it after seeing how cool it looked in Tawny's musket. She was sure it would make Crescent Rose even prettier than she already was.

Luckily, it didn't take much for Yang to agree with her request of driving her to center Vale on her bike. Her sister probably had something else to do in the city, because she'd let her get her way a little too easily. A sacrificed dessert was well worth the lift up to Vale's Port to downtown.

Even a hundred desserts would have been worth it for the final goal of having the greatest weapon. Not that Crescent Rose wasn't already the best weapon in existence, of course. There was always room for improvement though.

"And I was so close too…" Ruby mumbled as she looked at the gun shop's storefront. A large fancy stand displayed a collection of weapons and accessories – which she had not forgotten to check for anything worth adding to Crescent Rose – placed in rows behind the thick glass. Glued at the front and center of it was a big pamphlet written in bright popping colors, showcasing the scope in question.

Ruby still couldn't believe she had waited in line for an hour on the cold streets, just for those scopes to run out as soon as she managed to enter the store. She could sympathize with the annoyed groans that followed as soon as the shop owner claimed they had run out. She felt just as disappointed as them.

Overall, the day had been a bust.

Her sister had disappeared to the gods knew where, ditching her with a bunch of strangers. She had to deal with a slow-moving line as she froze in the cold. She hadn't even gotten what she had gone there for. On top of that, she was really hungry since she had missed dinner to get a decent spot in the line. Not that it had worked out in the end.

The worst part, however, was having to endure the funny looks and questions of fellow queue-dwellers due to her perfectly normal taste in combat skirts during winter. "No, sir, I am alright. I am not cold. I'm just shivering from excitement." "No, ma'am. I don't need you to lend me anything to cover myself. I can take it."

At first, Ruby thought she could tough it out. A thirty-minute adventure, in and out, and then back to a cozy warm home. So, she had refused their offers. Then, reality decided to kick her in the face and make the queue of people move at snail's speed. She couldn't show weakness by then though. Imagine how awkward it would be to ask for help when you had already rejected it. Ruby didn't think she would be able to survive the embarrassment.

So, she resorted to her only option: Suffer in solitude while trying to pretend she was alright. All the while rebuffing proposals of warm clothes from all passersby fearing that the people who had first offered clothes were still around and waiting to call her out. It really, really sucked.

"Yaaang, c'mon," she whined, taking her phone out again. Just as expected, there was no response from her sister. She made sure to send her another text just in case though. She didn't know where the blonde had gotten to, but it was already getting late, and the last ferry to Patch sailed at 10:30 pm. "Dad's going to be sooo mad..."

Ruby sighed, resting her head against the stone column next to the store, and watched her misty breath be carried away by the wind trailing off, losing itself among the crowd of people strolling about. She watched them mill about from her little corner to distract herself from the cold. The redhead had thought about just re-entering the store, but that would be seen as her admitting to being cold, and she wasn't sure if anyone who heard her say "I'm as warm as a summer breeze" was still around…

Brothers, what was she thinking?!

The young huntress-in-training shook her head to clear the memory she was sure would haunt her nights for at least a decade and decided to pay extra attention to the nightlife of Vale. A sea of humans and faunus moved chaotically across the broad pedestrian walkway that acted as one of the shopping streets of Vale. A flow of faces and colors blended with the bright neon lights of the stores and restaurants. Some of the Christmas decorations were still attached to the stores and public decorations, which gave the whole place a more festive feeling, even though the holidays had just finished.

Hundreds, if not thousands of people laughed, talked, and screamed together, trying their best to be heard by the rest of the masses who followed suit and repeated the process creating a chaotic mess of voices Ruby couldn't understand. The sound of shop bells and attractions joined the cacophony as people stopped to check them out or enter the many establishments. She could even hear the loud music coming from what she assumed was some kind of club. Even from a distance, she could feel the overly saturated bass thrumming into her bones.

It didn't matter how many times she saw it. It still boggled Ruby's mind how many people lived in Vale. Sometimes she struggled to think it only accounted for a fraction of Vale's total population. There must have been thousands of people there and they were nothing compared to the eight million people that lived in the capital alone, not to mention the rest of the kingdom.

Granted, more than three-quarters of the kingdom's population lived in Vale. It was only natural. Almost no one, not even huntsmen, wanted to be out there under the constant threat of Grimm. Even the missing quarter consisted almost entirely of big settlements, like Patch. Big enough to warrant the protection of several teams of Huntsmen and Huntresses constantly watching over them to make sure no sudden wave of Grimm decided to rampage through it.

Or even worse…

A Titan.

Another shiver ran through Ruby's body and, this time, it wasn't due to the cold.

It was only just recently, less than a year before, that the latest attack of humanity's greatest enemy had destroyed a coastal town north of Vale. The Kraken had swooped in one day with its giant tentacles and sunk the entire city in minutes. The army and huntsmen had taken only fifteen minutes to prepare and reach its location. By then, a quarter of the city had been dragged into the sea, torn right off the mainland by the Titan as one would the corner of a paper sheet.

The people had become no more than a free meal for the Titan and the other Grimm that seemed to follow the creature whenever it struck. By the time the fight was over, more than half of the city was completely below the waves or unusable. The army had lost a sizable portion of their ships and all they had managed in return was to damage the beast enough for it to decide to return to the sea. Something they knew it would easily recover from, just like it had done every other time it had attacked before.

She remembered watching the news that morning, horrified beyond belief at the destruction as the newscaster helicopter continued to circle across the port town of Baial. The memory of her dad hugging and comforting her and her sister, as they watched the army try and fail to kill one of the Titans, was at the forefront of her mind.

She still remembered the bile that rose from the back of her throat a week later when the news lady said that only a third of the population had died, and that was considered light casualties as far as Titan attacks were concerned.

"Here!" a loud voice blurted out loud from her side, startling Ruby out of her musings. She let out a squawk as a piece of paper was shoved on her face.

"W-what?" she asked, taking the piece of paper instinctively.

"You had a really sour face there. It looked a lot like Mr. Grumpy, so I thought: Oh! They'd totally be a match made in heaven!" Ruby looked at the girl, who handed her the piece of paper. Orange short hair framed two soulful, expressive cyan eyes staring at her. A cream-colored beanie that matched the girl's coat and gloves protected her from the biting cold. Or at least her upper body, because the girl seemed to be a fellow believer of battle skirts too given that she wasn't wearing anything but high socks and a pair of boots that matched the rest of her outfit.

Unlike the huntress-in-training, the girl didn't seem to have any problem ignoring the cold. The girl's body and hands moved enthusiastically, uncaring of chilly night winds or the odd looks she was getting due to the high volume she was screaming at. She was also loud, even considering the cacophony of voices on the congested street.

It didn't take long for Ruby's honed socially awkward instincts to flare to life and realize this girl was, much like her sister, her bane.

A natural extrovert!

'Oh, no! Someone's trying to talk to me! Help!' Ruby panicked.

Her sister wasn't anywhere close for her to use as a social shield.

She was doomed.

"Nora, please don't scare another potential customer," chided a male voice.

Ruby turned to see a tall boy about her – and the scary peppy stranger's – age standing right behind the latter. Dark hair done in a messy low ponytail along with a pink stripe on his side bangs. Calm soothing lavender eyes seemed to plead the extroverted girl to behave, only to turn towards her and soften in an apologetic way.

"I'm sorry about her," he apologized with a bow.

"N-No, I'm cool- I mean! I am cool as in cool cool, not cold cool. I am not cold at all. I am just okay. I can take it all day. The cold and the conversation, I mean," she claimed with bravado, fighting hard to not fidget and look away as her mind registered the word vomit that had just come out of her mouth.

'Brothers smite me now!' she thought to herself as her face became as red as a tomato, if how hot it felt was anything to go by.

"I… see," the boy said with an odd look that made Ruby want to be swallowed by the earth. "Either way, I hope you are having a good evening. We just wanted to share with you the opening of a weapon store not far from here. I am sorry if we interrupted you," he shared while bowing again.

"Yep! We're here working hard! I made the pamphlets, by the way!" exclaimed the orange-haired girl, striking a proud pose. Nora, Ruby believed she was called.

Curiously, she looked down at the piece of paper given to her. It was a colorful pamphlet with crude drawings all over the place. The name of the store written at the front in big bold rainbow-colored letters.

'Celestial Armory.'

'Never heard of this place before,' she mused. Well, she was certainly interested. As a self-proclaimed weapon lover, Ruby knew and had visited virtually any weapon store in Vale. She hadn't heard of a new one opening close by at all though.

Debating on what to do, Ruby fished her phone from her pocket once again. As expected, there were still no messages from Yang. A grumble escaped her as she put the phone back inside her pocket.

'Well, I guess I have nothing to lose,' she decided.

It beat freezing to death, after all.

[} Chapter End {]

[Actually Important Notes this time, please read!]

Adrian: Well, Yang's dealing with Vincent's… Vincent-ness, while Ruby is fighting her toughest enemy yet, the cold. Both are in quite the pickle, I'd say.

Arc: Will Yang finally find closure to her deep family traumas? What has Vincent planned for her? Will Ruby learn from this experience and actually wear pants? Will she be capable of having a regular social interaction without putting her whole foot inside her mouth? Find out in the next chapter of Departure… maybe, we still got to write it to see if any of these things get answered there.

Adrian: Also because… Well, aside from the last chapter, Departure wasn't doing too hot. So, it's kind of hanging by a thread right now, not gonna lie, guys.

Arc: It is an awkward situation to be in, admittedly. Departure is one of our oldest stories and used to be one of my favorites. In fact, in terms of follows and favorites, it is the most successful out of all our stories. The problem is that there seems to be very little interest in it when it comes to feedback (except for the last chapter). Now, I know that demanding for reviews is considered crass for authors, and I sort of agree. But at the same time, we have dozens of stories on the sidelines waiting too and a very limited schedule to update. So we would like to know if you guys actually like this, or would like to see this active spot be taken by another story of ours you believe has more potential or holds your interest.

Adrian: So, yeah, if you guys like this story for one reason or another, let us know so that we can be aware that people actually like this and that it's not just some random story to kill time. Otherwise, I guess we can take this off the rotation for Mondays and replace it with something else. Not that we'd absolutely abandon it, but updates would be much rarer, for sure.

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