Yang descended the stairs and greeted the staff, who were hard at work on serving breakfast and helping guests, as always. She’d made up her mind. She needed to leave town, but first, she wanted to thank the woman who offered her food and a place to rest her head.

A quick sweep of the room reassured her that he wasn’t around. Ozpin was the last person she felt like seeing right now. Relieved, she turned away from the buffet line and approached the kind woman in the apron who was always waiting with a smile. For once, the apron was completely spotless.

“Good morning, there,” the woman said as she turned away from speaking with one of the cooks. “How are ya feeling, miss?”

“Good, thanks. I’m heading out. I left the clothes you lent me hanging up.” Yang looked at the sign above the woman’s head that listed prices, and dropped two nights’ worth of lien on the counter.

“Oh, is that so?” The lady pouted. “Shame to see someone as helpful to this town as you go, but I wish you the best!”

“Thanks. I’m really glad I decided to stay here.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Yang turned and strode out of the inn, hoisting both straps of her bag up onto her shoulders. She didn’t know exactly where her next destination would be, but it didn’t matter.

Anywhere but Patch.

She started on the long walk out of town with heavy steps, weighed down by a flood of thoughts about the last two days. Whether right or wrong, she’d visited her father, only to chicken out when he did nothing but try to be nice to her. That wasn’t her. Even so, when she really thought about it, she was doing them both a favor. Her father, and even…

Even Ruby. Her sister, who hadn’t ever gotten the chance to truly talk with her. To learn who she was and decide how she felt about that information. No matter. Ruby would never see her again, so it was useless to dwell on. She’d go on and have a life of her own. Hopefully, a good one.

Yang grimaced as, against her wishes, she reflected on the conversation with Ozpin. Why had he bothered to approach her? He seemed surprised to hear that she knew the truth about him, so maybe he thought he could spin a tale and do to her what tried to do years ago with her mother.

Fat chance of that.

Even so, Ruby didn’t deserve to be a pawn in his plans. At the very least, she needed to know the truth. But to barge into her peaceful life with Taiyang and ruin it would be no better than visiting him unexpectedly had been. Seeing the lack of energy, but abundance of love, in his eyes when Taiyang spoke about both of his daughters told her that if Ruby didn’t know the truth now, breaking it to her might be too much. The conversation was tough for Yang when Raven told her the truth, so she could only imagine how it might affect her kind and gentle younger sister, who had her whole life ahead of her.

Yang’s feet crunching over twigs and leaves was the only sound she heard apart from the faded echoes of laughing, innocent children near the entrance to Patch. She couldn’t stand this. The weight of knowing their laughs were built on lies. That Ruby’s smile was, as well.

Ruby needed protection from Oz, whether she knew it or not. Even more so because she was ignorant of everything. She didn’t have that same look of knowing in her eyes that Raven, Vernal, or Taiyang had. The look that said without words how hopeless life felt. No matter what, the underlying sense of doom lingered, dampening even the happiest of moments. Yang perfectly understood why Taiyang would not have told Ruby yet, granted he probably should have. Everyone deserved to know the whole truth and make their own decisions.

While Ruby may not have been her responsibility, Yang was the only one in a position to help. She’d already decided to leave behind her days of letting others suffer while she stood by, doing nothing. So how could she leave Ruby at the mercy of Ozpin and his secrets? There was only one choice. A choice that would derail her goal of independently seeking adventure and freedom. One that would shackle her to a fate she might not be able to escape. But it would be worth it, if she could save even the smallest soul in the process.

Cursing under her breath, Yang stalked back in the opposite direction.

In no time, she was back in Patch, doubting herself the whole way to the inn. Yang grumbled as she trudged up the stairs to the second floor. She took her time walking along the narrow hallway, finding the most mundane details interesting in an effort to delay the inevitable. She noted the cracks in the walls that had been caulked, and the occasional lighter-colored floorboards that gave away where renovations were done in the past. She even gazed into the downlight overhead, observing a couple of dead insects that had found their way beneath its loosening plastic cover. They’d willingly sought their own demises. How silly.

I’m one to talk.

Yang finally stopped in front of Room 212. Mustering every ounce of willpower available to her, she raised her arm toward the door and knocked firmly, awaiting the beginning of her voluntary journey through hell.

* * *

Another, much less eventful stay at the inn filled the time between Yang’s reluctant conversation with Ozpin and the dreaded day of the written exam. She opened the door to the examination room at Signal Academy, ignoring the multiple pairs of eyes that zeroed in on her. Ozpin stood beside the exam proctor at the front of the room, delivering some kind of introductory speech to the rows of students crouching over their pamphlets, pencils poised to write. Thankfully, Ruby was not among them. They’d been assigned to different test days. She preferred it that way, so as to avoid running into her dad.

“Ah,” Ozpin said in a cheery tone, “Ms. Branwen, you’ve made it just in time. Please, take your seat there.”

Yang plopped into the corner seat nearest to the door and tuned out Ozpin’s long speech about the prestige and honor of attending one of the four Huntsman academies. She refocused halfway into him wishing everyone good luck. He walked away amidst a smattering of applause. Yang locked eyes with the suave, polished gentleman who had everyone else in the room fooled just before he exited. She couldn’t read his expression, but that was nothing new. All she needed to do now was ace this exam. Then she could move on to signing her name in blood on the contract that would allow her to become a Huntress-in-training.

Here goes nothing, I guess.

* * *

Finally, the day to board the airship to Beacon arrived. Yang would have hurried onboard, except that she saw her father speaking with Ruby. She hung back, blending in behind taller students who were crowding around the large door that had yet to descend and allow entry. Upon closer inspection, Yang noticed some kind of small, black-headed dog accompanying her family members. Possibly a Corgi? Ruby bent down to pet it, hugged her father so tightly her feet lifted off of the floor, and then joined the crowd of students. Yang was far enough away that neither Taiyang nor Ruby spotted her.

The door to the airship finally clicked open and slid into its lowered position. Everyone rushed onboard. Someone stepped on Yang’s toe, and another person shoved past her. Struggling to hold back the activation of her semblance, she waded through the masses, tight-lipped, and made her way up the ramp.

The airship was enormous, so she had no trouble finding a nice, quiet place along the wide window to lay back and relax. Her stomach churned as the airship hummed, slowly lifting away from the ground and taking to the skies. She saw the greens and browns of nature give way to an all-encompassing soft blue out of the corner of her eye. The flight was smooth, but simply knowing that she had to go through this again made Yang uneasy. She felt much more comfortable on the ground, yet in the space of a week, she had been forced to fly twice. Not one to shy away from new experiences, she decided to focus instead on the Beacon initiation process and her fellow students.

A blond boy wearing an armored chest plate tottered past her. He looked like he might vomit up his own guts all over the floor of the ship. She shook her head and looked away, laughing at the fact that she’d felt similarly before. But now that they’d set out for Beacon, Yang had to admit it wasn’t so bad this time. Compared to the bumpy takeoff on the airship from Anima to Vale, this ride was a luxury cruise ship.

“Oh, hey there!” a small voice chirped. Yang turned and looked directly into the eyes of her sister, who was looking her way with a smile on her face.

Crap.

Yang played off her reluctance to speak with a gentle wave, hoping the gesture would suffice. Ruby bounded over from the far end of the ship, shattering those hopes.

“Hey!” she said when she reached Yang. “I remember you from the shop the other day. So, you got into Beacon too, huh?”

Yang nodded and muttered a curt, “Mm hm.”

“That’s awesome! Honestly, I’m kind of nervous.” Ruby adopted a weak smile. “Are you nervous too?”

Yang shrugged. She was, but she wasn’t about to say so and open the door to small talk with her sister. She wanted as little contact as possible until she had finished sorting out her own feelings. Ruby wasn’t about to let that happen, Yang realized, as she launched into a lengthy monologue about her home life. Somewhere in the jumble of words she rattled off, Yang gleaned that Ruby’s combat skills recently caught the eye of Beacon representatives after her interruption of a local dust shop robbery. As such, she was invited to attend the academy two years early. Yang folded her arms, mulling over the fact that her younger sister was already in Ozpin’s sights. She let off an involuntary huff before she could stop herself, and Ruby immediately stammered out an apology, believing the frustration was directed at her.

“Sorry,” she added. “I’m not very good at this whole meeting new people thing, so when I saw someone I knew in here, it made me a little excited.”

In spite of her hidden concerns, Yang gave a half-smile, unable to hide her amusement at her sister’s lovable awkwardness. “It’s okay. It’s not you, I just had a bad memory.”

“Oh. Do you think maybe talking will take your mind off of it?”

Yang tutted, then dropped her arms in surrender. “Worth a shot. You first. What’s up?”

Ruby frowned. “I’m a little nervous about getting moved ahead two years. I don’t want anyone to think I’m special.”

“Well, the only thing worse than being special, I’d say, is the opposite.”

With a soft brush of her red-streaked hair, Ruby looked up in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“It’s better than being invisible, just taking up space.” The words held a strange weight as she spoke them, and Yang paused to reflect on why. She realized that this was the first time that her thoughts about all of the recent changes in her life were spoken aloud. Ruby, completely oblivious to the meaning behind them, nodded and idly tapped a foot against the floor of the ship.

“I guess that’s true.” In the middle of humming to herself, Ruby stopped short. “Oh! By the way, my name’s Ruby Rose. What’s yours? I should have asked earlier.”

“Yang.”

A sound coming from a holographic screen near the opposite wall seized the sisters’ attention. Yang squinted at the unexpected disturbance. Some kind of news report. A man’s voice echoed throughout the airship.

“The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities.”

Wavy locks as orange as an open flame swept sideways in an on-screen mugshot, concealing part of the face of a smirking man. He sported several fresh bruises. His one visible eye, a bold, forest green, stared back at Yang, looking into her soul with an intensity she’d rarely seen outside of her tribe. Playful smirk aside, she could tell he was capable of effortlessly translating his negative emotions into violence. She wasn’t in much of a position to judge, given her past, but at least she regretted her actions. This man seemed unapologetic, gleeful even as he stood before law enforcement. Something told her he was every bit as dangerous to society as the news reporter proclaimed.

The speaker followed up with, “If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa.”

While he was speaking, Ruby’s cape twitched at the edge of Yang’s line of sight. Casting a quick glance sideways, she found her sister staring intently at the ginger-haired criminal, as if she recognized him. Judging by her clenched fist, the memory he stirred in her wasn’t a good one. Yang raised an eyebrow, deciding to hold off on questioning Ruby until the report ended.

“Thank you, Cyril,” said a female anchorwoman whose face flashed onto the screen. Her lavender hair stopped just above her neck line, and not a strand was out of place. Yang recalled seeing her once before - probably during one of the rare times she and some of the tribe members visited Mistral to trade in the underground markets. The text directly below the woman’s face identified her as ‘Lisa Lavender.’ “In other news, this Saturday’s Faunus civil rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony.”

The White Fang.

That name struck a chord in her. While the Branwen Tribe hadn’t had any run-ins with the group for as far back as Yang could remember, the White Fang was a household name. She learned by word of mouth that its members had become increasingly troublesome to human settlements in Anima. Judging by the stories people told, they may well have been on their way to achieving a threat level equal to that of the tribe. She wasn’t afraid, but that didn’t mean she would go out of her way to cross paths with one of them. She already had enough to worry about.

“The once-peaceful organization has now disrupted-”

Lisa’s broadcast flickered out of view and was replaced by a hologram. Students crowded around it from all sides. A hum behind Ruby and Yang drew their attention to the nearest wall, where an identical hologram appeared.

“Hello, and welcome to Beacon,” said the person in the hologram. She was an expressionless blonde woman wearing glasses and a deep purple cape.

“Who’s that?” Yang asked before she could stop herself.

“My name is Glynda Goodwitch,” came the hologram’s apt next words.

“Oh.”

Following a speech about the honor of being selected to attend Beacon and protect peace in the world, blah, blah, blah, the hologram faded.

“Wow,” Ruby whispered as she looked on in awe. She approached the window to gaze at the forest of tall, dark spires below. “Look,” she said, “you can see Signal from up here!” Yang stood at her side, equally entranced, but for different reasons. “I’ve never been this far away from home before,” Ruby said with a frown.

Yang sighed. “Me either. “But...I guess Beacon’s our home now.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Ruining the moment, the nauseous boy from earlier staggered past. Although she sidestepped him, Vomit Boy stumbled in Yang’s direction, activating her warrior instincts. She strafed away and, without thinking, spun him into a grapple, one arm pinned firmly behind his back as she drove him to the floor. Upon impact, he spewed a fountain of puke with the force of a water jet. Several nearby students shrieked and leapt clear of the blast. When it was over and she realized what she’d done, Yang could only back away in embarrassment. The boy stared up at her from the floor, mouth streaked with green, and groaned in a mixture of pain and confusion.

“Sorry.” She chuckled, running a hand through her hair. “Reflexes.”