The call line went as dead as one of the abandoned settlements that were all too common in Anima. Ruby’s stare fixated on the two pale-faced men. She awaited an answer with chilling patience.

“Wha-” Yang sputtered, turning toward her younger sister, “Ruby! Why did you-”

Ruby met Yang’s gaze, stone-faced. “I want to know why the two most important people in my life lied about something like this.” She looked back at the screen. “Dad, Uncle Qrow, I know everything. I know Yang is my sister, and that she’s the daughter of Qrow’s sister Raven. What I don’t know is why you couldn’t talk to me about something like this.” Her stoic facade crumbled as her eyes pooled with tears, and she choked on a sob.

“Hang on a minute, Ruby!” Qrow started raspily, but was immediately cut off.

“Don’t you trust me?” She continued to weep, her tears splashing against the backlit screen.

“It’s not that, Ruby,” Taiyang urged. “There’s more to this than you realize.”

“That’s probably true,” Ruby said, sniffling and doing her best to stem the flow of tears. “But what I do realize is that my sister, who until now was basically a stranger, had to come all the way from Anima to let me know something the two people I love most never could.”

Taiyang and Qrow stared back, speechless, their faces somber.

“Ruby-” Yang tried and failed to get a word in.

“Yang’s known this for less than a week, but she still tried to come and speak to us.” Ruby smiled wistfully at Yang, her cheeks still wet. “The truth was put out in the open for her by Professor Ozpin, but at least she tried to tell me herself on our first day here! You two knew this my entire life, and you let me think I was an only child.” Ruby hung her head, letting one last bitter sob out before wiping her eyes. “Why?”

Not knowing what else to do, Yang reached out and pulled Ruby close to her, giving her what she hoped was a warm and comforting hug. Ruby’s body shivered against hers, and it was as if Yang was experiencing all of the raw emotion right along with her. Yang knew that pain. It was the same pain she felt from the moment Raven bequeathed her a rusty locket and shared truths that shook her entire world. Now her poor, lovely, innocent younger sister was going through it, too. While this did hurt, at least from here on out they wouldn’t need to keep any secrets from each other.

The faint sound of voices in the distance stole Yang’s focus away from the heartfelt moment. Cradling Ruby with one arm and stroking her red-streaked hair with the other, she turned around and was surprised to see they weren’t alone. Several students were peeking out of their dorms at the two of them, probably wondering what all of the noise was about. Blake and Weiss stood at the forefront, looking on with concern. Yang had been much too absorbed in the moment to realize how far Ruby’s voice carried.

“Ruby,” Yang whispered, releasing her grip and tapping Ruby’s shoulder to alert her. Ruby raised her head, wiping her tears, and saw Blake and Weiss staring back at her.

“Blake? Weiss?” she said softly, hanging her head. “I didn’t mean to- ...I’m sorry for making a scene like this.”

Blake shook her head. “Don’t apologize.”

“I thought you two would never get whatever was going on over with!” Weiss declared, although with less venom in her words than usual. Yang had to wonder if she was actually feeling something underneath that prickly exterior.

Someone needed to take charge before this situation got any worse. Yang grabbed Ruby’s scroll from her limp grasp and whispered a quick, “we’ll call back” to their father and uncle, whose faces were still frozen in perpetual sadness. Then she held the screen out for Ruby to press the call end button. She ushered her sister back down the hallway with Weiss and Blake in tow, making sure to shield her from prying eyes. “Let’s get you back inside.”

Yang placed Ruby down on her bed with care, letting her process her emotions undisturbed. Weiss and Blake left Team RWBY’s leader to her own devices and got to work unpacking alongside Yang. Fortunately for Yang, apart from her armor and a few things from home, she hadn’t brought a huge number of items with her. Weiss was the polar opposite, with suitcase after suitcase piled onto her bed. She’d had them delivered to the room on a tall luggage cart.

Talk about overkill.

Sighing, Yang cracked her knuckles and neck. Once the school year got into full swing, she would probably be too overwhelmed to make time for much. Unpacking and any other lesser duties would need to be completed by 9:00 AM tomorrow, when they were to attend their first class. Traditional schooling was completely foreign to Yang, so she wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. Sure, she knew the basics of what Raven or Vernal had seen to teaching her, but little else.

“Yay, Beacon,” she said to herself with a half-hearted rallying fist in the air before getting to work.

Morning came with a subtle crack of sunlight through a part in the curtains. It struck Yang across the face, its warmth rousing her softly from slumber. She yawned and stretched as she sat up, making her way toward the bathroom through a maze of opened suitcases left in the wake of their night of unpacking. Once Ruby recovered from her slump yesterday, she had thrown herself into the task of decorating their room, but ran out of energy and crashed before she was finished. Half-hung drapes and crooked posters remained as evidence of that unfinished effort. Yang emerged from the bathroom to find her sister and Blake awake now, too, and gave them a quick “good morning” before getting changed.

She’d asked Glynda to order her another uniform to accommodate her breasts, which were much less comfortable in any of the standard sizes. Impressively, a newly-tailored uniform arrived before they all went to sleep the previous night. Even more impressively, it was a perfect fit! Buttoning her vest, she looked around the room and saw Weiss was waking up, too. Fortunately for Yang, she swept the area just in time to notice Ruby inhaling to blow into a whistle. She slapped both hands over her ears fast enough to save herself from a sharp noise assaulting her eardrums. Weiss wasn’t so lucky. Ruby leaned in toward her, closer than even Yang thought was reasonable, and blew into the whistle, its shrill cry reverberating around the room. Weiss flailed like she’d been thrown into the shallow end of a pool with no swimming skills, and toppled to the floor in the most ungraceful fashion possible.

Blake, who had been reading until Ruby disrupted her peace with her ear-splitting surprise, rolled off of her bed, appearing unfazed. She set her book down with care. She’d slept next to it all night, even giving the prized possession its own pillow.

“Gooooood morning Team RWBY!” Ruby shouted.

“What in the world is wrong with you?” Weiss demanded to know of a smiling Ruby.

“Now that you’re awake, we can start our first order of business!”

“Excuse me?” Weiss asked, standing and brushing herself off.

“Decorating!” Yang announced, adopting a bright smile as she indicated Ruby’s work from the previous night. She hoped that joining Ruby in her enthusiasm would go a long way toward Team RWBY bonding.

“If you call that decorating, then I have so much to teach you,” Weiss announced matter-of-factly, strutting past her teammates.

Blake smirked and shook her head, turning back to Yang and Ruby. “Well then, let’s get started.”

That evening, as Yang sat with her legs dangling from the top bunk above Blake’s bed, she stared across the room at her sister, who had taken the bed above Weiss’s. It was hard not to pity Ruby. She was engrossed in a textbook, but paused and turned to look at Yang. Blake and Weiss weren’t back for the night yet, which left just the two of them, for a change.

“What’s up?” Ruby prompted.

“Oh,” Yang said, “sorry. I’m still trying to get used to the fact that we’re really together now. No secrets, no lies...just you and me.”

“Yeah.” Ruby smiled. “It’s nice,” she trailed off, casting a vacant stare at the wall.

Tilting her head to one side, Yang said, “You look like you have something on your mind, too. Is it about you and Weiss? She still giving you grief over being team leader?”

“No, it’s not that, but yeah, I am worried about Weiss. I was actually wondering something.”

“What’s that?” Yang leaned forward supported by both arms, genuinely curious.

Ruby reached for her scroll at the corner of her bed. She flashed a picture on-screen. “You’re her, aren’t you?” Yang gasped as Ruby continued. “I realized it back in the Emerald Forest. I saw something flying above the trees. It was too big to be a bird. I felt like I was watching a mystical creature from one of the books dad read me when I was younger. Almost like a dragon. What I saw looked a lot like this picture.”

The photo on Ruby’s scroll displayed Yang decked out in full battle armor, her hand on one of the kids from Patch’s shoulder as she smiled and posed for a photo. She hadn’t even realized Ruby knew about that incident, but it made sense now that she thought about it.

Yang nodded. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Everyone told me and Dad we were too late that day. That some brave lady had already come to stop the Grimm near Patch. It was on the same day you showed up. I should’ve put it together then, but I didn’t really know you yet.”

Ruby looked up from the photo, starry-eyed. “My sister’s The Dragon of Patch. Wow. That’s what they’re calling you in town now, you know. You’re like a legend! All this time, it’s only been me, Dad, Uncle Qrow, and a couple of other Huntsmen that everyone could count on if Grimm showed up. There’ve been a few close calls, and if you hadn’t been there to help that day, it could’ve been bad.”

Yang smiled proudly, swinging her legs out as she recalled her past feats. “The Dragon of Patch,” she said, testing the title out. She had to admit, the name had a nice ring to it.

The first few weeks of the semester went by largely without incident. Against all odds, Yang was starting to feel Team RWBY growing closer. Not in the same way as the Branwen Tribe, either. Back home, she felt like part of a mission-focused unit, which was comforting, but there wasn’t the same warmth that came with a genuine friendship.

On a peaceful Friday afternoon, Yang and her teammates strode along the streets of the city of Vale, casually observing the festivities taking place. An old shopkeeper busily worked to hang a banner display above an awning among a floating sea of colorful pennant flag streamers. How he expected his drably-colored dust shop to stand out amidst all of that was anyone’s guess. Balloons were being fastened to posts all around the city. Someone in a Grimm-themed outfit passed out lollipops to hesitant children. There was definitely a joke to be told in there somewhere, but Yang was too busy drinking in her surroundings to think of one. The words “Welcome to Vale!” were displayed in large print on a banner above a main street. Looking around, Yang realized every citizen seemed to have an extra bit of pep in their steps this morning. Even Weiss was glowing with excitement, for a change.

“The Vytal Festival!” Weiss called out, coming to a halt at the front of the group and splaying her arms. “Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile this much, Weiss,” Ruby noted. “It’s kind of weirding me out.”

Ruby wasn’t the only one. Yang held back a snicker.

“How could you not smile?” Weiss challenged. She danced giddily on the tips of her toes as she explained. “A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking.”

Ha! Anything but.

Unable to resist, Yang sighed. “You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring.”

“Quiet, you!” Weiss said over her shoulder, notably less snippy now that they were all on better terms with one another.

Honestly, Weiss’s sleep-inducing interests aside, Yang did want to learn a lot more about other cultures. Life with the tribe hadn’t really lent itself to expanding her horizons that way. The extent of her knowledge of the Vytal Festival was how often its venue, the Amity Coliseum, would return to Haven Academy as part of its cycle of kingdom-hopping. She kept track of this so that when it was Haven’s turn to host, she and a couple of other tribemates could pose as guests and pickpocket the audience members. But she wanted more than that now. She wanted to become a Huntress alongside her sister and new friends, and find out what else life had to offer.

Their journey around the city that day led them to encounter a strange, blissfully ignorant girl named Penny, and a blonde monkey Faunus boy whose name Yang still didn’t know. Poor Penny, who had taken an immediate liking to Ruby, was being grilled by Weiss for information about where to locate the Faunus in the middle of a square. The rest of the team stood nearby, as they had nothing to contribute.

Weiss shook their new companion and cried, “The filthy Faunus from the boat!” to clarify Penny’s confusion about who they were trying to find. Blake glowered at the Schnee heiress with more emotional intensity than Yang could recall her showing the entire time she’d known her.

“What’s your problem?” Blake spat. Her interruption had the unintended side effect of freeing Penny from Weiss’s line of questioning, and she slipped away to stand with Yang and Ruby.

An air of seriousness struck as Weiss and Blake locked eyes. While typically all for putting an end to one of Weiss’s entitled rants, Yang didn’t want things to go down this way. Not in the middle of Vale, with innocents nearby. What if Blake and Weiss got into a fight, putting others at risk? Even Penny, who claimed she was here to enter the Vytal Festival Tournament, did not look the part of a capable warrior. Then again, she’d been wrong before, Yang realized. She stole a glance at Ruby, who looked just as concerned as she felt.

All attempts to cut off or otherwise steer the conversation away from its current path were ignored. By some miracle, no physical fight broke out, but Weiss and Blake argued from the middle of the day well into the evening. Yang was dying to have a moment of silence by the time the group returned to their dorm, within which the two girls were still arguing. On the outskirts of the conflict, the half-sisters stood wide-eyed, quietly watching the disagreement snowball. Blake was pointing out something to do with the Faunus rebellion to highlight a weak point of Weiss’s argument when Yang turned heel and tugged at the collar of her sister’s hood, leading her outside into the hallway.

“Yang, wha-” Ruby sputtered, flailing goofily as she tried to find her footing. “Where are we going?”

“You’re going to call our dad,” Yang stated matter-of-factly, loosening her grip on the hood.

Ruby frowned and averted her eyes. “What? Why do you want me to do that?”

“Seriously?” Yang folded her arms. “You know he’s got to be worried sick about you. Uncle Qrow too. You haven’t contacted them in weeks. I get that they hurt you, but don’t you think you’re being a little extreme here?”

The silver-eyed girl grumbled something unintelligible, clenching her fists. “Qrow can’t get calls anymore. He’s on a mission with his scroll turned off. He told me that call was going to be his last for a long time.”

“That’s not the point, Ruby. Besides, are you really okay with knowing those angry words you said to him were the last thing Qrow heard from you before going off on his mission?”

Ruby sighed. “Yeah, well...he should’ve thought about that before he hid a whole chunk of my life from me. Dad too. Yang, how could they? I always used to say I really wished I had a sibling. They looked me in my face and lied, every time. I just don’t get it. Dad’s so kind, and Uncle Qrow’s always been there for me. So how could they?”

Undeterred, Yang started down the hall toward the nearest exit to the courtyard. “Let’s ask,” she proposed. Ruby dragged her feet, growling in protest.

While Ruby was still more or less her old self around their team, she couldn’t hide her feelings from her sister forever. Whenever they were alone, Yang saw cracks in Ruby’s mask of positivity. She was hurting, and most likely constantly thinking about her actions on both that night and the following day, when she and Yang called Taiyang and Qrow back. Even now, as they stepped out into the courtyard and the cool, crisp air hit them in waves, something about the way Ruby carried herself, right down to the dulled shine of eyes that usually sparkled with life, but now oozed sadness, frustration, and anger.

Not that Yang didn’t understand. She’d felt the same way every day of her life since hearing the truth from Raven, but Ruby was different. She had something special about her that wasn’t meant to be tainted by holding grudges and pushing others away. It just felt wrong not to intervene. Yang examined Ruby’s thin-lipped frown, searching it for some hint of positivity. Where was the smile that always brightened up her day?

Yang stopped near a bench far away from other students. A raised concrete cube was hollowed out and filled with potted plants. One of its tall walls became the backrest for the bench, adding a splash of color to the otherwise uniform design of the courtyard.

Maybe Ruby wasn’t bothering to smile because she felt there was no need to put on airs around her, Yang considered. That was a good thing, right?

Then why doesn’t it feel like a good thing?

Ruby slowed to a halt behind her. “Come on, Yang,” she pleaded, hugging herself. “Can’t we go back inside? It’s cold out here!”

“Sure,” Yang said with a sly smile. “After you call.”

Grunting in response, Ruby yanked her scroll out and stared at it hard. Yang raised an eyebrow expectantly, tapping her foot.

“Oh, alright!” Ruby blurted out. “I give.” She dialed the number, hesitating to press the call button. Yang slid over next to her and guided her finger toward the screen. Snatching her hand away, Ruby asked, “Why is it so important to you that I make up with Dad anyway?”

“Come, on, Ruby. Why would you ask me something like that?”

“No, seriously. I really don’t get it. You can still talk to dad whenever you want.”

Yang sighed, biting her lip. “Okay. If you really want to know, it’s because...because I sorta feel responsible.”

Ruby tilted her head. “Hm? Responsible for what?”

“For all of this!” Yang threw her hands up. “If I hadn’t come along, everything would be fine right now. You and Taiyang had such a close bond. I never meant to come between you two.”

Ruby frowned. “Yang…”

“What? It’s true. I came all of this way, and I couldn’t even tell you the truth myself. Professor Ozpin had to do it for me.”

“But you were going to, right? Isn’t that what you kept trying to tell me before initiation?”

“Doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t.” Yang kicked a pebble across the courtyard.

“I guess that’s true, but like I said last time we talked to Dad and Qrow, you only kept it from me for a few days. Not my whole life, like they did.”

Yang groaned. “Look, Ruby. No matter what, I still think you should hear them out. I’ve been told it’s important to look at situations from different perspectives.”

She cast a wistful smile up at the sky at the thought of Vernal’s sage advice. The same advice that led her to cut a clean break from her mother and travel here. While taking Vernal’s words to heart hadn’t gone as planned, Yang believed she’d made the right choice. Now she had a new opportunity to cement a strong bond with her sister that wasn’t built on lies, and she refused to let that go to waste.

“Well, okay,” Ruby mumbled after a moment, “I guess I’ll hear Dad out.” She dangled her arms like dead weight, then flipped her scroll up into the crook of one palm, tapping the appropriate number keys to dial her father.

Seconds passed like years. Yang lounged beside Ruby, trying to appear calm. Her eyes were practically glued to the pulsing backlight of the screen. When it lit up and displayed a clear, moving image of Taiyang’s face, the air left Yang’s lungs. It was time. The whole family knew her secret, and now they were going to talk it out. Ruby’s second outburst the day after her initial conversation with Tai and Qrow hadn’t left things on that great of terms, or allowed for much in the way of counterarguments. Not even from Yang. However, now the blonde was putting her foot down. They needed to try and mend whatever damage was done before Ruby and her father and uncle’s emotional wounds worsened. Yang held out for the faint hope that time had softened the blow the truth dealt. The blow she dealt to their peaceful lives.

“Oh, Ruby!” Taiyang said, a conflicted smile on his face. “I’m so happy to hear from you two!”

Ruby swallowed a lump in her throat. “Hi, dad.”

“Hey,” Yang said in a more upbeat tone than her sister, knowing she would need to guide this show for it to go anywhere. “Ruby and I have you on the line because we thought maybe you’d like to say your piece about everything. Is this a good time?”

“Oh, no, no,” Taiyang said, juggling sheafs of paper in the foreground of the camera view. “Any time is a good time for my girls.” He cast the papers aside somewhere out of frame, and then crossed his arms atop the desk he was sitting at, eyes reddened from what looked like a long night of grading assignments. Yang saw Ruby forcing back a frown at the edge of her vision.

“Dad,” Ruby began, “I was just so hurt before, but now I think I’m ready. Tell me everything.”

He hung his head, letting out a heavy sigh. “Okay, Ruby. Look. I didn’t hide things from you because I don’t trust you. It’s...things were just complicated. Yang’s mom, Raven, was on the same team with your mother, Qrow and I. She wanted to leave and return to the tribe, but I didn’t want our family to be separated.” Yang saw him hesitate, tiptoeing around the true conflict he and Raven faced. “Anyway, we fought about it for a while, but in the end she decided to go alone because I wouldn’t go with her.”

“Why not?” Ruby asked.

Taiyang looked at Yang. A heavy silence set her on edge. They both knew why, but the difficult part was how to explain it to Ruby.

“The tribe’s...dangerous,” he began, pausing to consider his next words. “Raven and Qrow didn’t attend Beacon for the reasons Summer and I did.”

“Ruby,” Yang said. Her sister turned to her. “This is what I was explaining to you before. You know, how the tribe was feared? It’s because of how strong we were. Raven and Uncle Qrow went to Beacon so they could learn how to kill Huntsman and Huntresses, and used those skills to make the tribe a stronger fighting force.”

Ruby put a hand to her mouth. “What? That’s so…”

“Yeah,” Taiyang said with a sober nod. “That kind of lifestyle isn’t what I wanted for our family. I’ve never agreed with the way of the tribe. Raven knew I didn’t, so in the end, she left and I stayed here in Patch. It hurt so much, but I kept moving forward. I tried to start a new life with Summer, and of course, that’s when you came along.” He smiled warmly at Ruby.

Ruby relaxed her shoulders, seeming semi-satisfied with the answer. “I think I get it. Why not tell me about Yang, though?”

Taiyang frowned. “It only made sense, as bad as that probably sounds. Raven and I agreed it would be best if Yang didn’t know anything about me. After you were born, Qrow and I decided to keep you as far removed from the dangers of the Branwen Tribe as possible. That’s why he left, you know? Qrow wanted to live an honest life as a Huntsman instead of going back there. We both wanted you to be safe. I know your mom would’ve wanted the same.”

Ruby didn’t respond, folding her bottom lip inward as she took in her father’s words.

“Ruby,” Taiyang continued, “I honestly did want to tell you, at least about Yang. But Qrow and I figured you would probably want to go see her in Anima, and that…” He took a breath. “That just wasn’t safe. When Qrow let me know Raven was going to tell Yang about us, I was excited. I hoped that you two could finally meet.”

Yang smiled at Ruby, rubbing her shoulder the way she had done to hers earlier. Ruby seemed to respond well, cracking a weak smile.

“But when she came to Patch, we, um…” Tai trailed off, glancing at Yang. She picked up where he left off, saving him from the awkwardness.

“It was my fault, Ruby. I asked Dad not to tell you who I was that day, when I visited the cabin. So please don’t take it out on him.”

Ruby turned to Yang, then to her father and back again, wide-eyed. “Really? Why?”

“It’s like I already said. I was scared. Too afraid of what you might think of me if you found out. I felt bad about butting into your peaceful lives, and thought I shouldn’t have even bothered showing up, especially after all the things I’d done in the tribe. How could you accept me?” Yang looked away, full of shame, but Ruby thrust herself toward her sister and delivered a tight hug that made it difficult to breathe.

“I do accept you,” came the short girl’s muffled voice from the crook of Yang’s neck. “It’s okay.” She came up for air and returned her attention to Taiyang. “And I forgive you and Uncle Qrow too. I’m sorry.”

Taiyang rubbed the back of his head, reminding Yang of her own nervous tic.

Must be genetic.

“It’s perfectly understandable why you held it against us,” he said, “and I promise I’ll be more honest with you in the future. Qrow and I both will. Whenever he returns from that mission he’s on for Oz, I’m sure he’ll say as much.”

The sisters wiped their eyes, gave each other one last hug, and said their goodbyes to Tai.

“Now that that’s all taken care of,” Yang said with a clap of her hands, trying to remain cheerful, “looks like we’ve got another relationship to fix.”

Ruby sighed, letting out a slight chuckle. “Weiss and Blake.”

“Yeah,” Yang said, rolling her eyes. “Weiss and Blake.”

Nothing could have prepared the two for what awaited them as they re-entered the dorm to find their teammates still deep into a several-hour debate about the morals of members of the White Fang organization. According to Weiss, her family, the rich and famous Schnees, had been at war with the White Fang for many years. She’d lost family and friends due to their frequent acts of terrorism, and her father incurred heavy business losses that he took out on his family. On her.

Weiss leaned against the windowsill, fists clenched, glaring out into the night sky as she explained all of this to her friends. Realizing the story she was telling would be a lengthy one, Yang took a seat in a chair near the opposite wall. She could empathize with the hurt in Weiss’s eyes. The look that said she felt all alone in her pain. In truth, Yang couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed in her treatment of the Schnee princess up until now. Her taunting of Weiss had surely done little to ease the struggles she endured. Yang squirmed in her chair. Ruby stood by Weiss’s side and tried to touch her shoulder the way she had Yang’s, but was shrugged off.

“You want to know why I despise the White Fang?” Weiss announced again, stepping away from the window to face Blake. Dignified as ever, the princess held her head high with a chilling calmness that conveyed her anger better than a hateful scowl would. “It’s because they’re a bunch of liars, thieves, and MURDERERS!” Weiss inched closer to Blake with every condemning word, the intensity of her expression matched only by Blake’s defiant one.

“Well, maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!” Blake exploded.

The room fell silent. Weiss’s rage melted away, replaced by an open-mouthed stare of disbelief. She shrank back. Yang and Ruby looked at one another for confirmation of what they’d just heard.

“I-I…” Blake tried to say. Averting her eyes, she abandoned all attempts to speak and darted for the door. She hurried around the corner and down the hall so fast that she was little more than a black blur.

“Blake, wait!” Ruby squealed, running after her. “Come back!” She stopped in the doorway, deflating when she realized Blake was long gone.

Yang half expected Ruby to activate her semblance, but her sister must have realized Blake didn’t want to be followed and had chosen to respect her wishes. Only time would tell if that was the right choice.

Yang awoke early the next morning and, through a few stealthy acrobatic maneuvers in the dark, slipped out of bed and reached the door without alerting her sleeping teammates. Last night had been draining, what with all of the emotional baggage flying around. She needed some air.

Outside, the former chilling breeze was now a warm one. All the better for Yang, given that she’d decided to go for a stroll that turned into a jog. Walking around alone left her with too much nervous energy. She decided to circle the main building of the campus twice. Halfway through her run, a glint at the edge of Yang’s vision drew her off of the beaten path. She headed toward an archway where she thought she’d spotted some movement and turned the corner to find something - no, someone, she would never have expected.

“Hello Yang,” said Raven Branwen, leaning against the columned wall as she stared up at the starry sky. Her stark-red eyes locked onto the speechless blonde, whose mouth hung open. “Is that any way to greet your mother?”