The training hall of Beacon Academy was a place that was never empty. Due to the fact that Beacon was a combat school that was filled with teenagers, it was common practice for students to work out their daily stresses by sparring with one another. The training hall always had a certain symphony of sounds resonating from within its walls, such as the unmistakable clang of metal weapons, gunfire, students either grunting or gasping for breath, and the occasional sound of chatter between sparring partners. Today someone desperately needed to rid themselves of stress, and that person was no other than Yang Xiao Long.

When Yang was in the training hall, it was sort of an unspoken rule amongst Beacon students to not even look at her, as that may lead to a battle with Beacon's blonde brawler. If anyone decided to pick a fight with Yang, that fight meant a loss for the challenger, usually accompanied with a trip to Beacon's infirmary.

The reason why Miss Xiao Long was so bent out of shape was that she had been rejected. Team RWBY's resident cat faunus had rejected Yang's proposal for romance for the 30th time this year. Each time Yang was ultimately told no, she simply stormed off to the training hall to cool herself off. Blake had caught onto this pattern Yang had developed, and decided to follow her in silence, in order to see what Yang did to deal her personal demons. Blake stalked her friend because she herself had no method of dealing with things of this nature, other than seclusion.

As Yang walked into the room, you could almost feel the aura of everyone shift. The clanging of weapons slowed, gunfire ceased, and all of the chatter died. Everyone in the training hall began looking fearful, all of them concerned that Yang had a personal bone to pick, however, the brawler appeared to have no interest in fighting, all she did was put up a moderately worn punching bag. It was an old leather bag, and it appeared asif the seams were starting to separate a small amount at the top. Yang quickly hung the bag, and started channeling her stress out of her body through means of strikes. Initially her attacks were mostly tame, but as Yang warmed up more and more she inadvertently began to channel her Aura into her punches. After a few Aura enhanced jabs, the bag exploded near the top. The now broken punching bag spilled out a sea of small plastic beads all around Yang. The blonde sighed, frustrated, and went to grab another bag from the supply room, but before she could do that she was cut off by the leader of Beacon's least favorite team.

"Well well blondie, what's wrong? Kitty didn't want to play again?" Cardin remarked with a slight chuckle, accompanied by roaring laughter from his teammates.

Yang was clearly irritated by Cardin's remark, and decided to make him pay for it. "Well if it isn't Mr. Winchester, Beacon Academy's biggest prick." Yang coolly replied. "Considering you have the largest mouth in all of the campus, how about a we have a little sparring match?"

Cardin gladly accepted the chance to prove himself, and show that he was the best jock in Beacon. "Alright you want a fight, you've got one." Cardin replied, so sure of himself. Maybe if Cardin wasn't made of 90% testosterone, he would have had the common sense to back down from a fight against Yang.

Yang grinned ear to ear at Cardin's acceptance of her challenge, and as the entire training hall was eavesdropping into the conversation between the two, all of the fighting and training stopped. People were about to see the biggest bully in Beacon get his ass kicked by Yang, not a single person at Beacon would miss this opportunity.

There was only one student who was not clamoring for a ringside seat. Blake was crouched underneath the bleachers of the training hall, observing her teammate about to beat the ever living shit out of Cardin. At that very moment Blake was filled with a mix of feelings, which was very unusual for the feline faunus. Those feelings consisted of excitement, pity for Cardin, and finally a feeling Blake had not felt in quite some time. Blake reflected internally as to what this familiar feeling could be. What is it? Is it pride for my teammate? No, that doesn't quite match. Joy? Not really. Before she could give a name to that unknown feeling, she was brought out of her introspection by the roar of the audience that had clustered around Yang and Cardin.

Once everyone had gathered around the two combatants, all that anyone could hear was the uproar of students all singing Yang's praises. Cardin now aware of the confidence of those around him hesitantly raised his mace, in a feeble attempt to be prepared for the onslaught that was about to take place. The blonde that stood roughly seven feet apart from him just smiled and inquired, "Ready to go yet? Or are you having second thoughts?" Yang just took a fighting stance, and engaged Ember Celica. The mace wielders' only response was to take a very pronounced gulp in a failed attempt to ease his nerves.

Yang took a deep breath in, focusing her Aura. As the blonde did so, any spectator could see the air around her begin to distort from the heat waves. The boxer called out, "Would anyone care to start a countdown?" In unison the spectators started counting down from 10. With each passing number, you could see Cardin get more and more nervous.

10. The bully started to hear everyone's expectations of the fight.

9. The hand that Wielded his mace began to tremble slightly.

8. The boy began wiping his brow, in an attempt to remove the layer of sweat that had begun to form.

7. Cardin tried get himself into a fighting position, only to fail at doing so.

6. Cardin looked around him seeing the ring of spectators ready to witness his demise.

5. The mace wielder looked to his opponent to see her confidently bouncing on her heels.

4. The brown haired teen started to hyperventilate.

3. He attempted to slow his breathing.

2. He failed.

1. The boy tried to prepare for what was to come.

Yang then leaped forward, and fired a right hook at Cardin's torso. Cardin just barely had time to parry the attack. Yang having failed with her right hook, decided to try a different approach; instead of trying to catch Cardin off guard she would take the defensive, and see what his move would be. If I wait for him to get close, I can give him an uppercut. That should give me the advantage. Now that the blonde brawler had a plan formulated in her mind she simply waited.

Cardin saw that he was getting the upper hand with that parry. Why isn't she fighting back? Is she actually afraid? The mace wielder didn't have the time to have an internal debate, Cardin took the opportunity as he saw it, and began an overhead swing of his mace.

Yang was prepared for an attack like this however, due to the fact that Cardin made the crucial mistake of looking where he was going to be attacking beforehand. In response, Yang simply waited for the attack to come. As Cardin swung, she grabbed the arm that was holding the mace, and stopped the attack with single handed. She looked at her opponent and saw the fear in his eyes. Now that she had Cardin defenseless, she gave him an uppercut with her free hand, sending him careening towards the ceiling of the training hall.

Yang wanted to finish the fight quickly. In order to accomplish her mission she jumped into the air to chase after him using the small propulsion from her shotgun gauntlets. As Yang neared closer to Cardin she was able to reach him at the apex of his ascent. Yang then slammed her right fist into his stomach, which initiated his quick descent to the floor. Within the span of about 1.2 seconds Cardin was on the floor coughing up blood. Yang simply took the the victory and went on her way, but not before she heard Cardin attempt to get the last word in. "How did I get beat by a filthy faunus lover"

Blake, with her heightened sense of hearing due to her faunus traits, was able to make out what he was saying. As Blake took in the scene before her, the sight that scared her the most was Yang. Yang was just about to walk out of there, and everything would have been fine, but she had to hear Cardin's loud mouth. Yang snapped her head around, and started heading towards the hunter in training on the ground, her eyes were the deepest shade of red Blake had ever seen.

Blake knew what was about to happen, she knew that Cardin was about to be murdered by Yang, which wouldn't have been all bad in Blake's opinion, but her logical mind instantly drew the connection if Yang was to go through with this, that it would be over for Yang. She would be kicked out of Beacon, and thrown into prison. Blake made a sprint over to Yang before she did something that she would regret for the rest of her life.

Yang was now hovering over Cardin, and Cardin looked rightfully terrified for his life. Yang was now looming over Cardin, with fury coursing through her veins. The brawler had her fist pulled back while she was building her Aura. She couldn't even distinguish sound anymore, all she could hear was the white noise of anger. Her fist began its descent, but was interrupted by sensation of ripping at the back of her head. Without putting any conscious mind into it, her strike had changed course to hit who ever had the nerve to tear out her hair. Once Yang turned around to see whoever her hair assailant was, she was devastated to see her partner Blake being sent to the other end of the hall, smacking into the wall on the opposite side of the room. After the initial impact of Blake's slender body hitting the wall, a bright flash of purple Aura was released. Her limp body slid down the wall to the floor, clearly in bad shape. She had suffered several bruises, a few burn marks, and undoubtedly a few broken bones. Blake looked up to see Yang rushing to her side.

Yang looked at her partner, with tear filled eyes. "Blake, oh my god Blake, I am so sorry." Yang said as she sniffled and removed the tears from her cheeks. "Blake please let me know you are okay. Blake, please let me know that you are alright." Yang turned to look at the crowd of people swarmed around her. "Someone call the nurse!" Multiple people got out their scrolls and started dialing for the infirmary.

Blake was fighting the urge to slip out of consciousness; she felt a pulsing in her head worse than any headache she had ever had. She knew she didn't have long before the thick darkness of unconsciousness claimed her, so she put all of her energy in muttering the words "Yang, I … Want to... " Blake couldn't finish her sentence without first coughing out more blood than seemed human, or faunusly possible.

Yang saw her partner, her friend, her crush, sputter out blood, and she knew it was all her fault. Yang did her best to be comforting to the black haired girl by putting on a smile, and saying speaking comforting words. "Shh. Don't talk, just relax. It will be okay." Despite Yang's efforts she couldn't help but succumb to the feeling of tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

Blake continued her speech contrary to her partner's request. "I... wanted to tell you... that I love you..." Blake now feeling accomplished stopped holding onto her painful consciousness, and decided to allow the darkness to wash over her, and put her into a deep sleep.

Yang didn't know how to respond, so she simply held her friend, and cried into her chest. As she was crying her words were still audible, but were muffled by the body of Blake. "I love you too Blake."