The day was full of promise for Yang. Yesterday had been a blast. Today her sister was supposed to be back and back to normal. It eased her protective nature for her sister. It also simply didn't feel right to have half her team away. Tonight things would be normal again. She was even looking forward to classes tomorrow just to get back into the swing of things.
That afternoon she listened to Blake arrange for her meeting with people that Yang hadn't even known existed a couple of days ago. She'd known them as abstracts of course, but last Friday was when Blake had brought in the files on each, studying them like it was for a test. Yang guessed that wasn't too far off from exactly what was happening. She was going to be gone which left the room to herself. It was a shame that Sun was out of town. Having the room this empty was rare.
She settled for what she could get and called him. Their relationship was still on the rough side after Yang's admission of her proclivities, so she was devoting more time to him. He both needed and deserved it. It wasn't like it was a chore. Aside from the great times in the bedroom they had good times outside of it too. They were both fun loving care free types. Their senses of humor meshed well as did their opinions. Where they didn't led to some of their greatest conversations.
Neptune was still on her mind, but until Sun had made his decision he was off limits. Sun hadn't brought up her admission yet, not directly at least. Little statements here and there made it clear that he was still thinking it over rather than dismissing it and hoping it would be forgotten. It gave Yang hope. Nora knew her stuff.
"I'm just saying Blake can be a bit obsessive. You've seen her," Sun was saying.
This was one of those disagreements. "Yeah, but she's not that kid anymore who couldn't find a balance."
"That may be true," Sun pointed out, "but we're talking about someone who hasn't gone on a date in two years. That's pretty obsessive."
"You're just stung cause you were that last date," she joked. "You should be glad. It means no one's stacked up to her standards except you."
That was the wrong thing to say. "I'm not stacking up to your standards, that's for sure."
"Sugar, don't be like that. You are definitely all man." So much for it being a promising day. It was times like this that she really did wish she wasn't wired the way she was. It simply wasn't possible to get Sun to understand just how much she loved him, and cherished every minute she was with him, when she had feelings for another as well. People tended to let their pride blind them.
That wasn't a fair thought. It wasn't pride. It was Yang becoming a nun with a vow of chastity, or it might as well have been. That was the level her morals had changed in his view. Then she'd asked him to join in.
An insistent knocking came from the door. "Yang, this is urgent," was heard through the door. It was Glynda Goodwych, second only to Ozpin himself. If she said it was urgent then it was.
Sun knew that too, and he obviously heard Glynda. "Go, call back when you can."
"Love you, I will," and she hung up, heading to the door.
The serious face she saw upon opening it did not fill her with confidence. "I hate to tell you this. Ms. Rose and Ms. Schnee's transport went down on the way back to Beacon." The blood left her face making her already pale skin even closer to sheet white. The thought of correcting Glynda that Weiss did not have that last name anymore didn't cross her mind. Her over protective nature towards Ruby came to the fore, with worry for Weiss coming immediately after.
"Where, when, and how?" Her mind was working fast on the problem.
Glynda nodded, obviously pleased by how quickly Yang worked past the shock to get to business. "Over the sea between Patch and Vale, about ten minutes ago. We don't know why or how yet. I came as soon as we knew to tell you so there might be more information that has come through I don't know about. The Headmaster has already ordered a search to retrieve them. It should be organized by now."
A quick nod. "Then let's go."
As she ran through the halls she grabbed her scroll. The first person to call was Blake. What she got wasn't the instant "I'll be right there" she had expected, and arguing the point only resulted in being hung up on. "What the?" She dialed back and was put through instantly to Blake's message system. Sun was right; her friend was obsessing again and had lost perspective. Sun!
Her fingers ran over the scroll as fast as they could. "Sun, it's Ruby and Weiss. They're in trouble. I don't know how bad, but their transport went down. I'm on my way now to search for them."
Like her he took in that information swiftly and without hesitation said "I'm on my way." It was the answer she had expected from Blake, and the one she had hoped for from Sun. At least one pulled through. She knew that if Ruby wasn't found she would need all the help she could get to hold herself together. If both of them were she wasn't sure there was enough support on the planet to keep her together. She also knew that every able body that looked made it more likely they would find them. After hanging up Yang called the other able body she needed, Neptune. It would lead to other problems. Problems she wasn't ready to face, but the more support she had the better she would handle this. Neptune gave the same answer as Sun.
Running through possible flight times she figured both would make it tomorrow at best, with Neptune making it first. By then they should have been found and the trip they were taking would be for nothing. Her reaction to call both had been a reflexive action. Glynda may think Yang had kept it together but in reality she was jabbering to herself in her head in a Ruby-like monologue. She didn't regret the calls though. If her fears became reality her reasons to call them would be validated.
Just to be sure, she called Blake repeatedly until she reached the transport that was waiting for her, getting angrier with each unanswered call. She knew her friend was in a meeting of importance to the faunus cause, but that knowledge became less tangible by the moment. Her fear led to anger, and anger led to hate. She never got the point of hating Blake. Her love for her teammate easily outweighed that possibility. As her thoughts went in circles throughout the search the anger was horrible indeed. That anger did lead to hate towards herself, and it was bolstered by guilt for failing her sister in some way. That lead to suffering, and it became too much. The only escape was to center on the fear and anger. Of all the emotions they were the easiest to handle, even though doing so was feeding into the guilt.
Climbing into the remaining search vehicle she found, and put on the headset that would connect her to the rest of the network of rescue workers. It had only been fifteen minutes since they had known Ruby had gone down. They had an excellent chance of finding them. She held on to that on the way out, using it to fight her raging emotions. She did not concentrate on the fact that Ozpin wouldn't send the entire fleet for a search area of what she thought might be within a fifteen mile radius. If she had concentrated on that she would have to admit there was more going on than she knew, and her panic would rise even further. She couldn't allow for that so it was best to ignore it. All that mattered was the search.
"We're heading directly to their last known position. The rest of the vehicles are going to do a grid search, with concentration on where the currents would likely drag them," the pilot told her through the headset. "We'll be there in twenty minutes." Yang added the numbers and flinched at the length. It would still likely be quick to find them, but if either were hurt that time was enough for them to get there too late.
"Roger that. Let's not waste the horsepower." They're fine, she told herself. If the transport was going down they'd leave it and use their landing strategies to make a safe dive. Those thoughts were not enough to comfort her no matter how hard she tried. Her philosophy of living in the moment and letting the future sort itself out was failing miserably. The possibilities in the now were just as bad as the future.
Over the radio she heard the different rescue vehicles as they got to their spot on the grid. The search truly was massive for such a small area. It didn't take long for each spot to be searched, and then the grid moved further downstream. Each time this happened over the course of the night Yang's grip to hope dwindled, and the fears became harder to escape along with the rest of the cycle that followed.
She found out that the rescue vehicle she was on wasn't there to search the surface. It had stayed behind the others because it was being outfitted with sonar to search under the surface for wreckage. The transport should have been quick to locate. It shouldn't be farther from the last contact than five miles as a conservative estimate. They searched where it had disappeared on radar within ten miles which is wider than it should have needed. They started in the center and worked their way out in a spiraling pattern. After hitting the ten mile mark they reported in, and then continued the spiral.
The hours started to trickle through her fingers leaving her more and more panicked. "We got something!" They were twenty miles from where they had lost radar contact. That was well beyond where they should have found it, and the sonar indicated it was another five miles beyond that. It didn't make sense.
"Are we sure it's the transport?"
"No ma'am. There is no transponder signal, but its size is about right, and it's definitely metal," Yang was informed. "We're already on our way to check it out. ETA about two minutes."
That was just enough time for Yang to get the breathing apparatus on. She didn't want to find them in that wreckage, but she couldn't wait any longer than necessary to know for sure. "We've reached it. Should be right below us. Lowering now so you can go in."
"Fuck that!" she yelled as she ran and dived. She fired off a couple rounds from Ember Celica just before hitting the water to slow her decent and break the surface of the water. Doing that she kept her momentum, pushing her well below the surface before she needed to start swimming. "Are you okay ma'am?" the pilot asked with worry.
Her mask allowed for talking, with good reason. "I'm okay. I should be halfway down about now." It was a rough estimate, but she thought it was accurate.
"Roger. I hope you don't mind me saying this, but that was the ballsiest thing I have ever seen."
She would normally have a cheeky reply to that, but she was too focused. So focused that she almost forgot to turn on her tracking device. "Am I on the right trajectory?"
"Got your signal. You're about three quarters down now, and yes you are on target." Good, she didn't want to waste any more time than had already been lost. The water pressure was building. Normally a dive like this wasn't a problem, but the rapid manner that she had started, and continued thanks to the weight of Ember Celica, was causing the pressure to change rapidly. Her ears were the first to experience it with the pressure trying to burst them. Yang spared some concentration on her Aura to help protect her from the worse of the effects. It was difficult, but successful.
After five minutes going down she saw her target. "Captain something is wrong. The transport is intact."
"That is good news. We'll be able to look over the wreckage faster."
She'd reached what had become the center of her world. "You do not understand captain. There is no damage. It is as if it landed here." That was met by silence. "Entering now. The back hatch is already opened."
"Collect the black box. We need to know what happened and that's the best chance we'll have."
Some small portion of her brain went "D'uh." The rest was too eager to care as she went towards the cockpit. She stopped dead halfway through the vehicle. A splotch of red among the grey was easy to spot in the crystal clear water. Crescent Rose was not something she would ever mistake as anything else. Her panic reached a new level. Ruby would not leave her weapon behind for any reason. More importantly it was needed for her landing strategy. If she had jumped without it there was no way she would have landed safely. "Drop a line. I'm about to be too heavy to swim up without assist."
It wasn't that Crescent Rose was too heavy for her to pickup. Ruby was both strong and skilled which allowed her move the scythe with ease, but Yang was stronger. She picked up the weapon as if it weighed the same as a feather and put her feet under her. She might as well have been wearing weighted boots with Crescent Rose's weight. She started walking the remaining distance to the cockpit. "Understood. We'll have it down momentarily."
Yang calculated how far the vehicle would need to fly in order for the rope to reach her with the pull of the currents. Using that she estimated when the rope would get to her. She had about five minutes to look around after collecting the box she decided.
The exterior of the transport was perfectly intact, but the interior was far from untouched. The damage concentrated around the hatches. Knowing what to look for she noted that the damage was similar to one of Weiss's glyphs. Several different types actually. Weiss had been trying to open this hatch for several minutes judging by the type of marks, where they were, and how many. Yang was astonished because the door was still attached and it shouldn't have been with that level of abuse.
She also noted that none of the damage was from Crescent Rose. If they were having trouble getting out its high impact sniper form would make short work of the door. There was not a single piece of damage that showed she had tried, or any tears that would have resulted from her using the scythe. Adding it all together Yang did not like the answer she came up with.
"The rope should be there for you now," she heard over the com, breaking her out of her thoughts.
Out of a perverse feeling of necessity Yang tried the hatch and it opened. Actually the more accurate term was it fell, landing in the sand below. Immediately before her was the rope. "Roger, climbing on now. I'm leaving my beacon on board for easier location later." The ride up wasn't so bad. The box had its own satchel, which she had over her shoulder, and Crescent Rose was hugged close to her chest.
They traveled back to Beacon and she heard they were the last returning for the night. No sight of Ruby or Weiss had been made. Yang held her sister's weapon, her pride and joy, to her chest. A type of fear that she was not familiar with, and wasn't sure how to handle, coursing through her. Among their many classes throughout her time at Beacon loss management had been made available at three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. She'd taken all three. Right now they counted for nothing.
After landing she stepped out and saw Blake and the anger she had been feeding hit. She couldn't look at her friend. She didn't trust that she wouldn't beat her to within an inch of her life at that second. Instead she silently walked away without looking back. She could not forgive Blake for her betrayal, not at that moment. Maybe never.
Passing Glynda she asked "Can I take one of the guest rooms for the night? I want to be closer to the transports in the morning so I can be ready for the search."
The Professor knew better than to ask about her classes. There was no point. Even if she would lose her chance at graduating Yang would be on one of the transports tomorrow, so she simply nodded. "I'll arrange it."
Yang wasn't asking for a room for that reason though. She couldn't share a room with Blake. She needed to be angry, and there was nothing else to be angry at. Ruby and Weiss weren't there. The teachers had no hand in this at all. She could Hold Ozpin at fault, but he'd done everything he could as soon as he knew. Only Blake had balked, run off to take care of things she felt was more important than her own team. It wasn't a fair thought, but it didn't matter. Not to Yang.
An hour after settling in the room Yang was sitting the bed with her back propped up by a wall. She was still holding Crescent Rose. Depression had settled in. She was actually angry with the classes that had told her what to expect. She hated that she could feel this and rather than just experience it she analyzed it, dissected what caused it, and how to move on. She needed to move on because she needed to have her head in the game tomorrow so she could find her teammates.
She needed to move on because deep inside, behind the fear, anger, and self loathing, she knew there was another teammate she was going to lose otherwise. This time it would be by her own hand.
A knocking on the door pulled Yang's awareness outward, away from thoughts she would rather avoid. Thoughts where she admitted to herself that her sister really could be dead. She had a guess who it was, and she knew it would be a bad idea to let her in. That didn't stop her from wanting it though. The depression was the worse of the stages for someone like Yang. She was a woman of action and of extremes. Like a switch her depression switched back to the anger she had yet to deal with.
"Come on in," she said, sounding almost casual about it. She wasn't disappointed as Blake's head peeked around the door. "What do you want?" she asked sourly.
"I-" Blake looked around uncertainly. Good, she should feel guilty. She should hate herself. "I wanted to talk."
Yang took up the thread of the conversation. "You want to make me understand why you didn't come? Why your precious White Fang was more important than your own teammates?" The anger in her voice was rising with each word. By the last word her eyes were red from the temper she was infamous for. Blake had to know she was in danger; that one wrong word would lead to a fight. "Was it worth it?"
The problem was there were no right words. Yang knew it too. She was pushing her friend into a corner that there was no escape. "It was necessary."
Wrong answer. Blake was getting ready to continue, but Yang charged the two feet that was between the bed and the door, the sound of her gauntlets transforming to full action. Blake must have known it was coming, but she didn't try to avoid it. She took the blow. Then Yang pulled the trigger. Fire erupted from her fist propelling Blake to the opposite wall in the hallway.
"I'll be sure to tell them that not searching for them 'was necessary' to you," Yang spit. Not that Blake heard it. The hit had knocked her out. Normally Yang's temper was like an explosion: powerful, unstoppable, but quick to end. Normally she wasn't facing the possibility that her sister was dead and the person before her had let it happen. (An overstatement of epic proportions, but in her state of mind it was the truth). Then she had the gall to try telling her it was necessary.
Her temper did go down to a low simmer. With disgust she threw Blake's unconscious body over her shoulder effortlessly, and headed to Beacon's clinic. When you were a combat school with active fighting a clinic, almost a small hospital, was a necessity. One of the nurses had a small flat attached so if she was needed she could be there in an instant. Blake needed it that night.
Yang had woken up the nurse with the bell made to summon her. "What happened to her!" Nurse Anderson asked in shock after a single look at Blake's face.
"I did. Tell her to leave me alone when she wakes up," Yang said as she turned and left. That statement was said by every piece of her. The anger which made her want to hurt her more. The guilt and shame of letting her anger rule her, and the self hatred. She wanted her friend as far away as possible before she did more.822Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHaemUJONIt
