6 Chapter 6: The Wounded Dragon, Part II

-morning when Yang Xiao Long finally rolled to a stop. She had spotted this pleasant-looking clearing some ways back while going downhill, and had decided that this was the perfect place to rest for a bit. Now, sitting against a tree with Bumblebee propped up beside her, she took her breakfast out of her bag: a couple of meat sticks, a starfruit, and some weird brand of protein shake that had caught her eye.

Thank goodness for convenience stores in the middle of nowhere, she though as she bit into the starfruit, which turned out to be very tasty.

It took Yang all of five minutes to finish her meal, after which she thought to get moving again; however, as she reached for her helmet, she paused. If the cashier at the convenience store had spoken right, she should be well into bandit territory by now. She didn't know much about bandits, but she did know that any predator is much more likely to be found on its own terms. If these bandits were like that at all, and she suspected they would be, then the best way to find them would be to let them find her. Besides, the weather was unusually fair this morning; it would do her well to enjoy it while she could. So there she sat, arms behind her head and eyes half-closed, waiting for her quarry.

She did not wait long.

The approaching footsteps were remarkably quiet, though that might have been helped by the already soft terrain. To her right, Yang could see a dirty looking man with a green bandanna coming towards her, a crossbow slung on his back and a sword hanging from his belt. Not even getting up, she turned her head to him with a bored expression on her face and pushed her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose.

"Can I help you?"

By then the man had stopped about five feet away from her, the sunlight reflecting off of something shiny and metal on his forehead.

"Nice bike."

"Thanks."

"Be a shame if someone stole it."

"Yeah, it really would. Not a great life decision, you know?"

She raised her left fist and cocked Ember Celica. The man didn't seem intimidated.

"Do you know where you are?"

"Enlighten me."

"Heh. You're in our woods. There's a toll for safe passage though these parts, in case you didn't know. Now, I've always been partial to busty chicks, so I'll make this easy for you. I'll just take all the Lien you got, and I'll let you go on your way with everything else. Give me any trouble, and you'll be walking to wherever you're going...if you still can. How's that sound, hot stuff?"

Yang thought about punching him across the clearing, but thought better of it; if this was one of Raven's people, she would have to at least try to play nice, or things could go badly between her and her mother. Of course, she also wasn't about to put up with the bandit for very much longer. She glared at him.

"You're one of the Branwen tribe, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Then I've got a better idea. I keep all my stuff, you take me to Raven, and I don't break any of your bones. How's that sound, ugly?"

The bandit's laughter rasped like a sword sliding out of its scabbard, the actual sound of which followed as he pulled out his katana.

"Let me rephrase that: we'll just be taking all your Lien."

Yang looked about to see three well-camouflaged bandits emerge from the treeline; the biggest of them carried a halberd, another twirled a meteor hammer menacingly, and the third cocked a very heavily modified battle rifle. The head bandit continued:

"And we'll be taking you to Raven, alright. We'll just see if she lets you keep that bike...or your other arm."

As he finished his sentence, the bandit scraped the point of his sword across the ground towards her with the back of the blade facing her, stopping only an arm's length away from her. Yang felt her left arm beginning to tremble at the words, "Your other arm", and planted in into the ground to stop it as she assumed a crouching position. She removed her glasses and was about to retort, but the bandit spoke first:

"By the way, my name's Zarik."

And before Yang could react, the sword tip flipped up and caught her sunglasses, sending them flying out of her grip. Zarik caught them with his free hand and put them on in one swift, smooth motion before posing vaingloriously.

"And I am a handsome motherfu-"

Unfortunately for Zarik, he never got to finish his self-congratulatory thought, for he had made a terrible mistake: no less than five golden strands of hair had been severed by the upward motion of his blade. Yang saw every one of them floating gently towards the ground; between this indignity and that of having been brushed with the trauma from Beacon, her vision went red. The bandit beheld but a brief glimpse of her fist before it smashed into his face, sending him flying into a tree twenty meters away.

The response from the others was immediate, as Yang knew it would be. She jumped out of the way just in time for a Dust round of some sort to send a layer of bark splintering from the tree behind her, and was beset by the two other melee combatants. Several meteor hammer strikes came in rapid succession, and it took the better half of her concentration to deflect or avoid them. The halberdier charged in with a sweeping blow at her torso, which she easily back-stepped; however, the butt of the weapon came jabbing at her with unexpected speed, conking her on the forehead and knocking her over. Yang gracefully managed the fall with a double back handspring and landed on her feet, but her left arm was then immediately caught by the meteor hammer's chain. Thinking he had her, the halberdier came at her with a mighty overhand blow...and was intercepted by his own companion, whose weapon Yang had grabbed hold of and used to swing him about. She instinctively spun out of the way of another Dust round as the two bandits tumbled into the bush, and saw the gunman running sideways and cocking his weapon furiously. She began to run towards him, dodging rounds as she went, but ended up inadvertently hitting herself in the face with her prosthetic when she was forced to deflect a round with it. Thinking quickly, she dropped to a roll and sent an explosive round from Ember Celica his way. As expected, he went into a dive-roll to dodge, and a second round hit the dirt just where he was about to land. Put succinctly, he went airborne.

Yang turned to see the remaining two combatants running at her, one of them now wielding a pair of hunting daggers in place of his chain weapon. She fired several rounds at them, but they dodged to either side, getting a perfect flank on her.

Perfect.

She immediately launched herself backwards and over the knife-wielder with a gravity-Dust round. Once she landed, a smile spread across her face; for the next few seconds, it would be just him and her. Apparently hoping to catch her off-guard, the bandit threw one of his knives at her before making a go for her midsection with the other. Precisely one sidestep, one arm grab, one sweep-kick, and one ground-pound later, Yang was just in time to face the halberdier's latest attempt at bisecting her. She dodged the first strike, the second clipped her defending gauntlet, and she avoided the low-sweeping third with a twisting flip. Again, however, she was surprised at the halberdier's speed as he took the opportunity to land a heavy hit on her mid-air. She managed to deflect the worst of it, though, and with a gravity-Dust round made another short flip backwards to land on her feet. The bandit, understandably oblivious of Yang's now-triggered Semblance, charged at her once more with a triumphant battle cry.

Yang decided that she was done with him for the day. She grabbed her metal arm to brace it and smacked the weapon aside, then grabbed the haft and decked the wielder across the jaw. He spun around at least once, after which she planted a kick straight into his nether regions. The blow sent him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

To her mild surprise, the bandit then got up halfway, but pointed at her with alarm.

"Holy gods - she's a Huntsman!"

That strained sentence was the last she heard from him before something slammed into her with substantial force. She tumbled to the ground and rolled to her feet to see Zarik, sword in hand and looking none too pleased. Amusingly, he was still wearing her sunglasses, though they were now completely smashed.

"Alright, hot stuff," he growled, tossing the glasses aside. "You're screwed now."

"Sure you don't wanna run, buddy?" Yang retorted, sounding a little more out of breath than she would have liked. "You heard your friend right there."

"Heh. I eat Huntsmen for breakfast."

Almost before he finished, Zarik launched himself at Yang, who had time only to raise her arms in defense. A dizzying flurry of katana strikes followed; Yang fought the temptation to use her Semblance to completely annihilate her opponent, gauging that he was far too skilled to be overcome by brute force. She resorted to staying on the defensive and waiting for Zarik to make a mistake. Unfortunately for her, the seasoned fighter made none, and despite Yang's best efforts landed several small but irritatingly painful hits on various places: one on the hip, one on the elbow, one on the shin...until anger finally overtook the young Huntress's better judgement and she lunged past his blade, hoping to land a solid hit on him. She missed, of course, and Zarik rewarded her with a taunting laugh and a solid whop on to the side of her head, knocking her backwards. She prepared to launch herself back at him, but then recalled the lessons her father had ingrained in her during his many lessons: Use your head. To succumb to emotion was to give control over to the enemy. As Zarik charged forward, she waited until the last second before rocketing herself backwards at an angle.

Now came the fun part. Yang's boots touched on the nearby tree she knew would be there, and she used the momentum to thrust herself further upwards and onto a high branch of another tree. Once there, she performed the same gravity-Dust based maneuver and launched herself back again, now firing explosive fire-Dust rounds Zarik's way. She saw him leap onto a lower branch to dodge them, as she expected, and began leading him on a tree-leaping chase. They went on like this for a hundred meters or so away form the clearing, Yang smirking all the way; she knew he would never be able to keep up, what with her Dust-augmented advantage and the amount of explosive rounds she kept firing at him. Sooner or later, he would tire out or she would nail him at range - and then she did, as a round exploded into the tree he was about to land on and sent him flailing to the ground. As soon as she landed on the next perch, Yang immediately turned round and leapt into the air, preparing to launch herself at him while he was vulnerable...

...and suddenly, something hit Ember Celica. She saw just then that Zarik, still lying on the ground, had somehow managed to pull out his crossbow and fire a magnetic grappling bolt at her. The wire pulled her towards him too quickly for her to grab it, but she was at least going to make something out of this. She balled her prosthetic hand into a fist and maneuvered her body so that Zarik would be pulling a great, big punch towards his face.

Zarik was too smart for that, though, detaching the cable and getting out of the way as a now charged-up Yang smashed her fist into the ground and produced a sizeable shockwave. She wasn't terribly bothered that she had missed, but it did set her off balance as she turned to face her foe...and too late, Yang saw the secondary blade pop out of the pommel as Zarik thrust it up towards her abdomen. Her Aura had not broken yet, thankfully, but the blow did knock the wind out of her and lift her off her feet. The seconds worth of disorienting pain gave Zarik more than enough time to elbow her in the temple and follow up with a powerful katana strike that sent her flying into a tree.

Dazed for a moment, Yang shook the stars out of her vision to see Zarik charge in for the final blow, his blade flourishing confidently...and misleadingly, she realized. He wanted her to overthink his potential angle of attack, thereby stretching thin her defense. Yang instead fell into her trained instinct and simply waited for the attack. It came as a mid-way swipe, and she somersaulted past it. Without missing a beat, Zarik turned 180 degrees to his opponent for another flourishing attack. Yang crouched to avoid the blow and immediately sprang forward, grabbing hold of his sword arm as the flourish swung a little too wide. Once she had it, she turned her whole body counterclockwise, twisting Zarik's forearm with her and towards his waist. The bandit cried out in surprise and discomfort and dropped his sword, finding himself unable to face Yang to make any kind of counterattack. He tried to wriggle out, but there was no escape; Yang held him fast, victorious as the two stood there panting. After the considerable beating she had taken, she found she couldn't resist the temptation to gloat.

"Huntsmen for breakfast, you said? In case you couldn't tell, I am a Huntress."

Oh, no. Zarik was not about to let her have the last laugh like that.

"Heh...and I - hrrngh! - I eat those...for dessert!"

Too late, Yang saw that he had grabbed something from a belt pouch with his free hand. Zarik twisted violently towards her against her iron grip, roaring in pain as something popped audibly in his shoulder, and thrust the object down at her torso. Yang gasped and looked down, her eyes bulging in shock.

It was a crossbow bolt.

The bastard had stuck it in between her cleavage.

Yang could not believe what she was seeing.

"Why, you...you little - ACKPTH!"

She didn't even notice Zarik slipping from her grasp, because it was right then that an orange cloud of chemical-scented fog exploded from the bolt, completely engulfing the young woman. Zarik's plan, as subversive as it was, had worked just as intended. He laughed at the spectacle of screaming, coughing rage as he staggered away, then grunted in pain as he realized his right shoulder had been dislocated. With a snarl, he twisted it to pop back into its proper place, and went to retrieve his blade. By the time he had, Yang had gotten the last of the smoke out of her eyes and face, and locked her sight squarely on him. The majority of her person was stained a bright, neon orange; it would have been a comical sight if not for the absolute, unadulterated murder burning red in her eyes.

"You."

"That's right, hot stuff. We ain't done yet - "

Wait a minute. Burning red eyes...?!

It was Zarik's turn to gasp, the point of his sword lowering to the ground. Neither noticing nor caring about his sudden change in demeanor, Yang blasted herself forward to smash him into smithereens. Zarik narrowly ducked under the heavy attack and, as soon as she turned around, sheathed his sword. Out of the corners of his eyes he noticed his fellow bandits, since recovered from their wallopings, had followed them and were preparing to rejoin the fight.

"Everyone stand down, now!" he shouted with an upraised hand. Though obviously confused, his men complied. Equally if not more so confused was Yang, who seemed unsure of what to do next.

"What...?"

"Those eyes..." said Zarik, pointing fearfully at her; she realized then why he no longer wished to fight. "I know those eyes...what the hell is this? What's your name?!"

"Yang Xiao Long."

"'Xiao Long'..." Zarik whispered to himself, and it dawned on him then. "You're Raven's daughter...?!"

"Damn right I am. And you're gonna take me to her."

Yang saw Zarik's left eyelid twitch almost spasmodically against the steel patch on his forehead, and he seemed at a loss for words until he exploded:

"Why didn't you fucking say that in the FIRST place?!"

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All across Haven Academy's campus grounds, the sounds of clashing metal and shouting could be heard from the combat building, the largest of them all. On the outside, it looked little more than a very large mess hall. Inside, however...well, it was quite the gymnasium.

The center of the rectangular building was dominated by a primary and secondary sparring arena, the former over twice the size of the latter, and the remaining space was taken up by various training devices. Currently, a good portion of the room's noise was coming from the two combatants on the secondary arena.

"Block! Block - good, keep that shield up - now watch for an opening! Guard your - good, good parry! Now don't let me do all the attacking - oof! Excellent, watch your feet - there, good strike! - target me, not my weapons - feet - watch for counters - feet-"

Lionheart's saber swept Jaune's legs right out from under him, and his buckler knocked his blade out of his hand as he fell. He raised an eyebrow as Jaune got up.

"Feet, Mr. Arc, feet. Watch them, because they will either save you, or kill you!"

Jaune nodded, panting as he went to get his sword. Lionheart cracked a sideways grin.

"You're not getting tired already, Mr. Arc? I'm an old man, and I'm just getting started!"

Jaune faced him again, Crocea Mors held ready, and smiled back. "So am I."

"Ha-ha! Have at thee, then!"

While the two clashed once more, Jaune's teammates were busy with their own training. In the corner were Qrow and Nora; the latter was working on projectile deflection techniques with Magnhild, aided by the former and a dart-throwing machine.

"Use your weapon's momentum, Nora; remember the Pinwheel. Don't try to hit anything; you wanna create a barrier. Defense, not offense."

Unfortunately, Qrow wasn't nearly as loud of a speaker as Lionheart, and so the majority of his otherwise very useful advice was drowned out by the noise of the room. Thus did Nora's repeated cries of "Ow! Ow! Ow!" further add to the din. Next to them, Bolin Hori and Nadir Shiko were locked in an intense competition with the second device, with Bolin as the deflector. Their hoots and fun-spirited trash talking could be heard echoing across the building.

Across from Jaune and Lionheart on the primary sparring arena (the two of them occupied the secondary), Arslan Altan had taken upon the task of giving Ruby, Oscar, and Reese a basic instruction in hand-to-hand combat. The whole endeavor had in fact been Ruby's idea, who had not forgotten her failures at Mountain Glen and Amity Coliseum...especially not Amity. Oscar, of course, would need to learn the basics if his abilities as a Huntsman were to amount to anything. As for Reese, she had been more or less dragged into the exercises by her team leader. "You really need the practice," Arslan had said to her, which she took to mild offense.

Arslan was extremely methodical in her teaching: she would introduce one drill at a time, guide the trio through it until everyone could do it perfectly enough for her liking, and then leave them to keep doing said drill over and over again while she went to go spar with Lie Ren. These bouts typically lasted a good fifteen minutes or so, giving plenty of time for monotony to set in for the three learners. Once Arslan came back, she would test each one of them without warning to confirm their muscle memory, and then finally move on to the next exercise. It was just then that Arslan had returned to do this, and she suddenly turned to Ruby - who, caught completely by surprise, instinctively shot her foot straight up in the high kick she had just been practicing and struck her instructor square in the face. Equally surprised, Arslan fell on her back and lay there for a second before kipping up to her feet. This was sufficient time for Ruby to realize what had just happened, and her hands went to cover her mouth.

"Good job, kid," said Arslan, visibly impressed. "I actually felt that!"

"Oh, uh, thanks...and, sorry ab-"

"Don't ever apologize for doing a good job," the intense young woman cut her off, her finger pointed mere centimetres from her face. "Especially not to the enemy!"

Ruby started to stammer out something, but Arslan had already turned to Oscar, and the words died in her mouth. After she had finished testing her students, she unveiled to them that they were moving on:

"Now that you've all got a grasp on the basics, you're gonna start using them in combat scenarios. Two of you will spar while the other stands to the side. My rules are simple: kick your opponent's ass, do it without your weapons, and do it right. Ruby, Reese - you're first."

Reese was surprisingly good at hand-to-hand combat, Ruby discovered as the board rider sidestepped her cross punch and spun round to box her in the head with a kick. Such was the majority of their spar's substance; she consistently found herself outmatched by Reese, though there were a few times where she was able to take advantage of her opponent's mistakes. Ruby found herself knocked to the ground once more when Arslan finally had her switch places with Oscar. She walked to the side where she would stand for the next couple of minutes in a slight fog of frustration, not really paying much attention to the one-sided match in front of her. It was then that she saw a sweaty, headband-wearing Lie Ren walk up to her. She was about to greet him when she saw a familiar glint in his eyes that meant he had something to say.

"If I may offer some advice?" he said, proving her intuitions right.

"Go for it."

Ren motioned slightly towards Reese, who was in the middle of clobbering Oscar, and lowered his voice.

"Watch closely for when she goes for a kick..."

As he said this, Reese did exactly that. Oscar blocked a kick aimed at his face with upraised arms (that had been one of the drills), but the kick was a feint; Reese exploited the new opening and jabbed a second kick into Oscar's midsection, then tripped him. Ren let a sideways grin creep almost conspiratorially across his face.

"Every time she kicks, her arms drop, leaving her head vulnerable to counterattacks. Watch out for whenever she does that the next time you spar. And remember not to make the same mistake - I saw you do that a couple of times, as well. Another thing you might want to think about implementing in the future: Reese has a sort of natural rhythmic flow that adds to her momentum - see, right there. Though it's a bit more advanced than what you're learning now, I will tell you from personal experience that it is but one part skill and two parts mindset. You can talk to me whenever you feel you're ready to learn."

"Thanks, Ren," said Ruby, just as she was called up to spar with Oscar. She felt a little bad about fighting him, as she undoubtedly had the advantage; she was faster and stronger than him, he had just gotten a good walloping from Reese, and her previous years of Huntsman training meant that it was easier for her to process the monotony of combat drills than it was for him (Ozpin notwithstanding). All that said, she was also feeling very confident in going up against him.

"Ready...GO!"

Ruby immediately started with the same kick she had hit Arslan with, planning to nail Oscar right out of the gate. What she had not anticipated was Oscar beginning with similar swiftness. He launched himself at her to hit her with a cross punch (kind of like Yang would often do, Ruby thought, except much sloppier). Thus did Ruby's plan almost work; she hit Oscar square in the gut and knocked the wind out of him in midair, but she did not actually stop his momentum. Luckily, she remembered Ren's advice and brought her arms to her face to block what was left of his punch before he collided with her. They both went tumbling to the floor; Ruby rolled once and was instantly back on her feet, and Oscar brought himself to one knee with some effort. Ruby considered finishing off Oscar with a roundhouse kick, but hesitated briefly, as that seemed just a little too mean-

"Go, go! Don't hesitate! Press your advantage!"

Apparently, Arslan did not see it that way. Spurred on by her words, Ruby went in for the kill (well, not really, she thought). Her moment's hesitation, however, had given Oscar just enough time to mount a defense, and with some difficulty he blocked the roundhouse. Ruby was far from done, though. She let the force from his deflection return her left leg to her stance, and right away tried her opening kick with her right (she found she was starting to like that kick). She caught Oscar under the jaw, then went for the inside of his right leg to trip him up. Again, however, Oscar surprised her with his speed. He had recovered from the kick faster than she had anticipated, and shifted to Ruby's left to minimize the impact of her trip attack. He then followed up with a left cross punch just as Ruby was doing the same (the opposite cross punch followed the trip kick in their drills). Ruby saw it coming and batted it aside with her own punch, as it was already headed that way. Unfortunately, she had turned her whole body to the side in doing so, and Oscar boxed her heftily with his right, sending her back several steps.

Ruby regained her balance, her pride smarting more than her face, and looked at her opponent with some measure of bewilderment. Oscar seemed equally as surprised, though he had a slight grin forming involuntarily on his face. Neither of them seemed to notice the sudden pause in the fight until Arslan yelled out:

"Quit staring and keep at it! You've still got over two minutes left!"

Oscar was jolted out of his victorious stupor, and made the mistake of looking at the source of the words. He was subsequently hit by a war-crying flash of red performing a flying kick that Ruby would have called "unorthodox", and that Arslan and Ren and Lionheart and Qrow would have called "bad form". In any case, it worked well enough. Oscar went flying across the sparring floor, somersaulting at least once before finishing with a sprawl. Ruby saw his Aura flicker a forest green, which meant that he would have to sit out until it regenerated. She felt a slight pit in her stomach when she realized what that meant for her.

"Well, he's out," Arslan said, and then louder: "Reese! You're up again."

She turned to Ruby with a stare of pure, monotonal disappointment.

"If I ever see that kick on this floor again, I will personally beat it out of your sorry ass."

Ruby was ninety-eight percent sure that she was not joking. "Got it!"

By then, Reese was beside her. Ruby sighed. This match would not be over so quickly.

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The walk to the bandit camp was quiet, easily to the point of awkwardness. Still, Yang preferred it to the alternative of hearing Zarik mouthing off some more. What little he did say, though, surprised her:

"She might not show it right away, but she's missed you. A lot. Trust me."

Yang did not trust him at all for obvious reasons, but she couldn't help feeling slightly intrigued by that claim, as well as by another thing: the fact that Zarik knew of her existence. That predisposed Raven telling him about her...but if that was the case, then why would she do that? After all, if she had chosen to completely abandon her life with STRQ, why would she ever bother to bring it back up - especially with someone like Zarik?

Unless, of course...

Yang had begun to wander down the mental rabbit hole of "what-ifs" when she reminded herself of what she had come here for. Even if her mother had in fact wanted to be a part of her life and had been somehow kept from visiting her all this time - which seemed pretty illogical, considering what she knew about her Semblance - she was not here for a family reunion. Raven herself would be a problem for another day.

They went on for some time, with not so much as a peep from her escort. In fact, after having learned who she was, their demeanor had quickly changed from that of brutish ruffians to the most well-mannered gentlemen Yang had ever thought she would see in a pack of bandits. They had all apologized profusely and continuously for attacking her until Zarik made them shut up, for which Yang was grateful; and the big halberdier had even offered to carry Bumblebee for her, which she declined. Most impressive of all was that during the entire journey, which would last an hour or so, not once did any of the bandits check her out, not even discreetly - and Yang had almost a sixth sense when it came to detecting that sort of thing.

At last, the party of five reached a semi-clearing of about two-and-a-half acres, the noonday sun pouring down onto the camp before them. Mostly, it was an array of tents, crates, and carts, all of varying size. Encircling the area was a crude fence of barbed wire roughly seven feet high, and watchtowers could be seen emerging from the tops of the few trees that stood among the camp. There was a buzz of noise and activity from behind the fence; apparently, Zarik's return was of notable import.

"Home sweet home," Zarik muttered before walking ahead to the gate.

"Open up!" he roared, and the wooden double gate swung outward obediently. Zarik led the party into the camp, where he showed Yang a place near the fence to put her bike.

"Yeah, I don't think so," she responded. "I'll just keep it with me."

"I know what you're thinking," said Zarik. "But you better believe me when I say that ain't nobody gonna steal your bike now. Just trust us. Besides, I'm the boss here. We'll set it right over there."

And before Yang could respond, Zarik shouted across the camp:

"Rasque!"

Another bandit came running and skidded to a stop in front of them. He wore attire similar to that of Zarik's compatriots and carried a fighting staff.

"You and Meckley take that bike over there and make sure nobody except this woman here touches it. Anyone else tries any of that, you kick their shit in, and make it hurt. Rest of you, follow me."

Rasque and the halberdier, whose name was apparently Meckley, grunted in affirmation and did as ordered. Yang was not at all happy with this arrangement, but she knew she had little choice other than to take Zarik's word for it. Still, she looked behind her to make sure they weren't doing anything tricky. She saw Meckley saying something to Rasque as they stood guard, who exclaimed before they both returned her gaze briefly. She motioned to her eyes and then to them as if to say, I'm watching you. The two bandits made a point to avoid eye contact, and their vigilance seemed to take on an almost professional air. Whether this was loyalty or fear at work - or both - Yang could not be sure.

By this time, there was a small crowd of bandits standing to either side of the camp's central pathway. They generally looked as Yang had thought they would: a filthy, rugged bunch in well-worn combat gear strapped over ragged clothing. What she was surprised to see was children; though she could only catch fleeting glimpses through the crowd, it was clear that several of them were running about the campsite. Ultimately, she surmised that there must have been between a hundred-fifty and two hundred bandits within the camp...and every single one of them stank to hell. Zarik apparently noticed her struggling to resist wrinkling her nose.

"It's not usually this bad," she heard him say over the general clamor. "But it's been a solid four months since we've managed to nab any deodorant, and nobody's happy about it."

"Neither am I."

"Heh. I bet."

By then, they were about halfway to their apparent destination, a large tent roughly in the center of the encampment. Yang knew that the tent must be Raven's, and felt her heart rate rising as they drew nearer...she would finally be seeing her mother...the thing she had sought out for all these years, at last within sight -

Yang snapped herself out of her haze; inwardly, she began to curse herself for falling into that trap, and then relented. It was only natural for those emotions to start welling up now, of all times; still, she had to be on her guard against them. If she let them take over, she might ruin her chances of finding Ruby...and as much as she would like to ream her mother out for abandoning her, that was an outcome she could not allow. She returned to the world around her, allowing its solid reality to douse her disobedient mind like a splash of cold water.

Looking around, Yang noticed that the vast majority of the bandits who weren't starting to hassle Zarik had their attention on her, the men in particular. Attractiveness aside, she could see why this was; she was an outsider being brought into the camp, yet not as a prisoner, which was probably confusing and intriguing for most. An idea occurred to her: she could take her mind off of Raven by finding out what the bandits were saying. She tried to listen in on the conversations around her, though the increasingly heated dialogue between Zarik and his interrogators made that somewhat difficult.

"Would you take a look at..."

"Who is that...?"

"...explains why Zarik's back so early..."

"How come you back so early..."

"...kinda tech is that...?"

"Did you bring back the deodorant?"

"Ain't got none, we got sidetracked - "

"Atlas, I'll bet; you can tell from..."

"...what's with all them orange stains on her...?"

"...probably pissed off Zarik, or..."

"Whaddaya mean, you ain't got none...?"

"...could hit that all day..."

"...a new recruit...?"

"Where's the deodorant?!"

"Gimme a damn minute, I'll - "

"...would be nice, we could definitely use..."

"...she don't really look Atlas, though..."

"Why ain't you get deodorant?"

"...wish I had a bust like that..."

"If you lot would just shut up for one - "

"...she look almost familiar to you...?"

"Hey, Zarik - "

"...worry, Boo, I like yer knockers just how they - "

"WHERE'S THE FUCKING DEODORANT?!"

The sudden scream snapped Yang out of her already tenuous concentration, and she looked around annoyedly for the source. Zarik, meanwhile, had finally lost his temper.

"Up my ass!" he yelled back, and the crowd instinctively shrunk backwards a couple of steps. "Now shut up, you dumb bitch, or I'll go find a Boarbatusk and feed it your sorry ugly ass!"

"You was supposed to get deodorant," another bandit shouted, to several cries of assent. "Why ain't you get it?!"

"As you can see here, I found something a bit more important!"

Zarik motioned to Yang as he said this, and the protests begun with new intensity before he could get another word in. Yang knew she could probably clear it up with a couple of shots in the air and a dramatic reveal of her identity, but she was almost beginning to enjoy watching the screaming match between Zarik and his fellow thugs. Almost...until one particularly brave, shaggy-haired individual spoke above the rest:

"Since when in the hell does 'Go find some deodorant' mean 'Grab me a whore and call it a week'?! Raven's gonna have your - "

"Oh, that is it - " Zarik snarled, and his katana was out in an instant.

Yang did not like the unfortunate bandit's little comment one bit, and was seriously considering letting the him have it. However, Zarik had already bared his sword, so she figured action on her part wouldn't be necessary. Still, she readied her weapons in case things got really messy.

As it turned out, things did not get messy at all, because it was right then that a massive thunderclap ripped through the air and silenced the entire camp. Everyone turned in unison to see a short-haired woman standing several steps in front of Raven's tent, evidently the cause of the thunderclap. She did not look pleased.

"What the hell is going on here?! Are we trying to bring a horde of Grimm down on top of this camp?!"

She scanned the scene in front of her for a moment, and then her eyes rested dangerously upon one person.

"Zarik. This ruckus stinks of your foolishness. You had best explain yourself."

Before Zarik could say anything, someone shouted out from the crowd once more:

"Damn right it stink! Tell 'er where's the deodorant at!"

"I'll tell you where my sword's gonna be at, you miserable little bastards!" Zarik shouted as he whipped around, and the jeers quieted to a grumble.

"Well, Zarik," the woman said, a smile starting to form at the corner of her mouth. "Where is the deodorant?"

Yang saw Zarik's left eye twitch again, and she braced herself for another bout of screaming. This time, however, he seemed to catch himself, and he sheathed his sword.

"As I was trying to tell these idiots, we got sidetracked. Something a lot more important came up." He turned to Yang with a gesture. "Tell 'er your name."

She did. The woman's eyes narrowed, then widened. She ran back inside the tent. The camp was a-mutter in the minute or so following. Yang paid no attention this time, though; she knew what was coming next, and was mentally preparing herself for it. She could not allow any sign of weakness to show; no fear, no emotional outbursts, or anything of that sort. Not when her sister's life could be at stake.

At last, even the mutterings of the crowd hushed as the woman stepped through the flaps of the tent once more, followed by a masked warrior in red from whom pure dread radiated. Yang couldn't see her mother's eyes, but she knew that they had locked gazes. She took a breath before addressing her mother -

- and nothing came out.

It was then that she noticed the tightness in her throat and chest. She realized that she had unconsciously fixated on the fact that after all the time she had spent searching for her mother, she was finally there. It wasn't a dream or an illusion this time, and she wasn't unconscious. Raven was standing right there in front of her, in the flesh -

Focus, Yang told herself. She forced herself into a state of semi-relaxation, letting the tightness leave with a shiver through her left arm, and finally spoke:

"Mom-"

"Yang-"

The two women had begun at the same time, unintentionally cutting each other off. Yang, caught off-balance by this, struggled to make her next response. Raven filled the silence.

"Why have you come here?"

It was a reasonable question, yet something about it seemed off to Yang. There was suspicion in Raven's voice, that was certain - but what she found strange was an underlying note of something else. It wasn't fear, nor was it anger, but it was heavy with a sort of expectancy - almost like...hope?

All the same, Yang was on the spot now. She was glad she had rehearsed this beforehand -

"Wait," said Raven, before she could get a word out. "Zarik...why is my daughter stained orange?"

At these words, a collective gasp of realization emerged from the crowd, who then began loudly muttering again before Raven silenced them with an upraised hand. Zarik and his men, who up until then had been looking extremely smug, now seemed just as nervous as the others. Yang relished in the sight.

"...Uh, I - see, we didn't know who she was at first - " he started, but Yang seized her opportunity for some sweet payback and cut him off.

"Oh, no. I'm telling this story," she said. "If that's alright?"

"Please, do."

She did just that, with Zarik interjecting things like, "I said I didn't know who she was," and, "That's a lie, she hit first!", and then getting shot down by Raven each time he did. At last, Yang got to her favorite part - or was about to, that is, when Zarik interrupted once more:

"She had me in an arm lock, what the hell was I supposed - "

"For the last time, Zarik," Raven growled, "you will speak when prompted. Continue, Yang."

She did, in full detail. At this point, Zarik was fidgeting where he stood, and was starting to turn a shade of red. The other bandits, for their part, responded with a mix of shock and that sort of fearful glee one gets when a compatriot is caught doing something they shouldn't. After Yang finished, Raven shared a glance with the other woman, who seemed to be fully enjoying herself, and then stared at Zarik for several very long seconds with her hand on her sword before finally speaking.

"Come now, Zarik. Is that any way to greet your cousin?"

Yang was too thunderstruck to say anything at this revelation. Zarik spluttered helplessly as laughter and jeers of "Hillbilly! Reeeee!" arose from the crowd behind him, his left eye twitching madly.

"Dammit, Raven, I didn't know who she was! I wouldn't have - "

"Enough, Zarik. I believe you. As infuriatingly juvenile as you can be, I have had yet to question your devotion to me and to the tribe since you returned from Atlas. Consider this embarrassment to be punishment enough. Now go do something useful with yourself...in fact, disperse the crowd. My daughter has been kept waiting for long enough."

Zarik, visibly relieved, merely nodded before turning around and yelling at the assembled tribe:

"Alright, then...everyone who's tired of smelling like shit, get ready now, 'cause we're going raiding first thing tomorrow - and we ain't coming back 'till we find enough deodorant to last us a year!"

Any trace of ill will towards Zarik seemed to immediately evaporate from the tribe, who cheered and scattered about the camp - a testament to the allure of deodorant. Yang stood there watching him, her mouth agape as she tried to wrap her head around the revelation that this man was, in fact, related to her. When she came to the realization that she actually could not, she mentally dropped the issue and turned to see her mother approaching her. The noise of the camp around them seemed to fade into the background; as far as Yang was aware, it was just the two of them, now standing only six or so feet apart.

"He's not Qrow's, in case you're wondering," said Raven, with a hint of a chuckle. "Actually, he's your second cousin. After our parents were killed by Grimm, we were in our aunt's care for a short time - she was a little younger than you are now - until the tribe found us and took us in. Our aunt came to accept her lot in life like we did, found a man she fancied, and that was that."

That was more than enough information for Yang to take in at once, to say nothing about how Raven could talk about something as horrible as that so casually. And she still had trouble believing that Zarik was her relative. Once again, Raven filled the silence.

"Now, without any further interruption...I had asked why you had come here."

There it was again: that faint twinge of hope that Yang was picking up in her mother's voice...but she had a mission, and that came before anything else. Thus, she steeled herself before beginning anew:

"I've come here to ask a favor of you."

"Ask."

Her tone was not at all unfriendly, and even...welcoming. Now Yang was even more confused; she seriously wondered if what Zarik had said to her in the woods was true after all. In any case, she wasn't about to question her apparent good fortune.

"My dad told me how your Semblance works. You can open a portal that leads directly to a person you've bonded with. You've made a bond like that with Qrow...and I need you to take me to him."

Raven appeared taken aback by this, if only slightly.

"And why do you need to go to my brother?"

"Because I know that he went to keep watch over my sister. I'm going after her for the same reason. The faster I can get to her, the better the chances are that she'll...that she'll be okay when I find her."

For a while, Raven was silent, leaving Yang unsure of what would happen next. Then, slowly, her hands went to her mask and removed it. Yang felt once more that tightness in her chest and throat as she saw her mother's face for the first time outside of a dream. But what unsettled her the most was her expression. Through the colors of many emotions and unseen thoughts, two words made themselves clear across her hardened face.

They were anger...

...and sorrow.

"I suppose I should have known better than to hope for the best," Yang heard her say to herself, and upon hearing the word "hope", her mind immediately began tumbling over itself as she latched onto it. For a moment, she had no idea what to think or even feel, as she once again found herself considering the possibility of her mother actually wanting her - but that changed quickly, as she once again dismissed those ideas as impossible.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she asked, perhaps a bit more accusingly than she had meant to. Raven looked up at her.

"Yang...there are so many things you need to know. Now, I am..." She seemed to struggle through no small amount of reluctance. "...I am willing to do this for you. But just this once, and on one condition: you listen to what I have to say about this. Are we in agreement?"

"Fine by me. Whatever I have to do to make sure Ruby's safe, I'll do it."

"We'll see about that...because I am going to tell you everything."

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AN: Zarik is based off of a fictitious character that my younger brother designed. Credit for his inspiration goes to him.