Commence

Yang woke the next morning to several foreign sensations.

The first was how she woke up. For the past four years, the little amount of sleep she had gotten had always been broken and fitful. The nightmares that plagued her were unrelenting and brutal, and there hadn't been a single instance where she could remember not shocking, screaming, or shaking herself awake. Every night, she was forced to stare into the blank eyes of those she killed, those she failed to save. The worst, though, were the ones in which she was forced to relive the day her life was destroyed. The worst were the nights where she had to watch Ruby die.

Again and again.

Sometimes she saw it exactly how she had back then. Her arm outstretched, panic and horror shredding her chest as she watched that amber stinger burst through her sister's abdomen. Others, she was Ruby, jerking forward when the attack slammed into her from behind. She had been Weiss, the vision of her partner's blood dancing through the air making her feel sick and her legs tremble. Blake, too, disbelief coursing through her entire system as her leader, her friend, was incinerated before her eyes. And other times…other times she had been Cinder herself. Fire had blasted from her very own hand, melting everything it touched, and sweeping over the girl in red with a heated vengeance.

Never once had she woken up not covered in cold sweat, heart pounding viciously in her ears as Ruby's final moments danced across her eyelids. But now, as lilac eyes slowly blinked open, Yang realized that she hadn't had a nightmare the previous night. She had made the transition out of sleep like a normal person. No great gasps or shrieks of despair.

As her brain tried to comprehend the sheer impossibility of an actual night's rest, her senses finally finished catching up with her mind, and promptly added a few more unusual anomalies for her to figure out. Things like an arm wrapped firmly around her waist. Or the soft warmth pressed against her from behind. The gentle tickle of breath across her neck. The solid thumping of a heartbeat resonating through her back. All of these combined to make Yang feel something she hadn't since that horrible day four years ago.

She felt… safe. Content, almost.

The previous night came back to her, and Yang shifted, pressing herself back into the embrace, anxious to glean as much out of the moment as she could. It had been a close thing. If Blake hadn't come to her, hadn't explained everything and grounded her, again, then she wasn't honestly sure where she would be right now. Definitely not in her partner's arms. Probably not in the hotel and maybe not even in Atlas. She was good at running away.

Blake murmured something gently in her sleep, moving the tiniest bit. Her lips brushed Yang's neck while she did so, sending shivers up and down the blonde's spine. Yang looked down to where her partner's arm rested on her abdomen, and began gently tracing from her forearm down to the tips of her fingers with her injured hand. The soft scrape of the gauze against the faunus' skin assured her that this was real, she wasn't just imagining this. She was glad she was still here.

Light filtered through the edges of the curtains drawn across the window, filling the room with a yellowed twilight. Yang turned herself over as gently as she could, doing her absolute best not to wake her partner. Now on her other side, the blonde took a moment to observe Blake. Her left hand reached up and lightly traced one pale cheek. Blake mumbled again, turning her head into Yang's palm. The soft feel of her lips sent fireworks skittering up the brawler's arm and throughout her body, swirling to her chest, where they sparked to life something warm.

As the feeling spread, Yang realized that this wasn't the first time she had experienced this. There had been a time, what felt like so very long ago, when she had felt this. It was a feeling she had long thought had died within her. She had honestly never expected to feel it again, and it almost startled her that it still burned this intensely beneath her skin. But as Blake's eyes sleepily slid open and focused on Yang's face and her lips curved upward in a soft smile, Yang's chest gave a painful throb, and she knew, she knew, that it was all still there. She may have tried to shove away and deny it, but it had returned roaring. No, maybe it had never truly left.

"Good morning," Blake said, gently nuzzling Yang's palm.

"Hi," the blonde breathed, not trusting herself beyond that one syllable. She retracted her hand as Blake levered herself up on one arm, her other still holding Yang's waist.

"What time is it?"

"I…don't know." It was the truth. She hadn't bothered to check, busy as she was admiring her partner.

Blake rolled over on her back, swiping her scroll from its position on the nightstand and lighting up the display. Her eyes promptly widened, almost comically, and she sat straight up. "Shit!" she cursed.

Yang was up beside her in an instant. "What? What's wrong?"

"We're-"

"You're late!" Weiss snapped, eyes narrowed less at the pair of them, and more at the blonde. Everyone else was already assembled around the table, looking fairly well-rested and throwing the pair sympathetic looks behind the heiress' back. Blake and Yang had hurried into the same SDC building they had used the previous evening only five minutes before. Which, unfortunately for them, was fifteen minutes later than Weiss had apparently wanted them there. Grand total: they were twenty minutes late, which made for a very irate Weiss Schnee.

"I'll bet anything this was your fault, Xiao Long!"

Yang, irises ringed red, opened her mouth to retort, but Blake laid a hand on her arm, and she closed it again. Golden eyes surveyed the room briefly before coming to rest on the white-haired woman. "Weiss, can we talk?" Blake's voice was level and infinitely calm.

Weiss shot a glance at Yang, as if suspecting she was up to something, before sighing and motioning toward the door. Sun appeared mildly worried as he watched her exit the room. Blake gave Yang's arm a brief squeeze and sent her a small smile before following her teammate out into the hallway. Weiss was waiting for her several doors down, arms crossed and fingers tapping impatiently.

"Is there any chance this could wait, Blake? We're already behind-"

"You need to lay off of Yang," Blake cut her off measuredly.

Weiss' fingers froze, and her arms slowly unfolded. Ice-blue orbs turned to regard the faunus coolly. "I need to lay off?" Blake nodded, keeping her expression neutral. "I've already told you that I refuse to coddle her, Blake. She'll get no sympathy from me."

"I'm not asking you give her sympathy. I'm asking you to lay off, give her some breathing room."

"You really think she deserves it?" Weiss hissed. "After what she did? Those people-"

"Were killed by Roman, and Roman alone. Be careful when playing the blame game, Ms. Schnee," Blake almost growled her last name. Weiss glared at her, but remained silent. "Yang has suffered enough, and I have fought too hard to restore even the tiniest sliver of the Yang we used to know to sit back and watch you destroy her all over again because of a stupid grudge." Weiss' jaw clenched as she prepared a response, but Blake continued before her lips could even part. Her voice was softer now. "Yang left. She made a mistake. I know that. You know that. And if you'd take a second to actually look, you'd see that she knows that too. Weiss, we all did things we aren't proud of after Ruby died. Every single one of us. You are not an exception to that."

Weiss averted her eyes, unable to hold the piercing golden gaze. "I can't just accept her back, Blake," her voice was quiet, all the previous anger gone. "I can't."

Blake reached out a hand and rested it on the heiress' shoulder. "I know you can't, Weiss, and you don't have to. I know that you're…unhappy with Yang," Weiss scoffed at that, "but the fact of the matter is she's here. She's with us on the mission whether you like it or not. All I'm asking is that you relax and try not to be so openly hostile. For the sake of the operation, if nothing else."

Weiss considered Blake's words in silence before giving a curt nod. "I'll try not to incite conflict."

The faunus gave her an easy smile. "That's all I ask." She gave the shorter woman's shoulder a squeeze. "Now let's get back before Sun calls the Atlesian military to come looking for you."

"That was one time!" Weiss protested loudly as they returned to the conference room.

As they opened the door, both of their blonde companions shot them worried looks. Weiss merely rolled her eyes at Sun; as if she and Blake were in danger of having a real fight. Blake slid into the chair beside Yang, resting a reassuring hand on her leg underneath the table. The brawler relaxed at her touch. Weiss took up the same position she had had the previous night at the head of the table.

"Good morning, everyone," she began, eyes moving from person to person, barely lingering for a heartbeat on Yang. "I trust you all slept well."

"The beds were like clouds," Jaune commented, staring dreamily at the ceiling, posture slouched. Weiss' eyebrow arched in annoyance. Pyrrha nudged him in the side with her elbow, and he jumped and blushed. "Um, sorry, Weiss, go on."

"Someday, Jaune," Weiss narrowed her eyes at the man, "you and I are going to sit down and have a long, in-depth discussion about rhetorical phrases and questions."

"S-Sure?"

"Jaune, honey," Pyrrha piped up.

He looked at her hopelessly. "Rhetorical?"

"More of a statement of fact that didn't require input." She patted his cheek. "But at least you're cute when you're trying."

Weiss cleared her throat. "As I was saying." She paused for a moment, as if waiting for someone else to interrupt her. Nora made a sudden move to leap out of her seat, mouth opening to proclaim something, quite loudly, Blake was sure, but a firm grip on her arm from Ren stopped her in her tracks. She turned to look at him poutingly, but the Huntsman merely shook his head. She huffed and planted herself back in her seat, crossing her arms. Weiss did her best to thank the young man with her eyes. "We're going to be going over the mission parameters and the plan this morning. Before that, though, Blake and I have further information to share with you."

She pulled out her scroll, slid it open, and tapped a few buttons. The silver globe that rested in the middle of the table hummed with life, lights appearing across its surface. An image materialized in the air above it. A figure in a swirling cloak sketched out with rough lines.

"This is the reason Yang and I got a little held up yesterday," Blake explained, as the others examined the picture. "We spotted this person watching the aftermath of the explosion, and when we pursued them, they fled. We failed to catch them, but we think they're the one who planted the bomb."

"Roman?" Jaune asked.

Blake shook her head. "Their scent was one I've never encountered before, and their Aura…" Blake shivered, and Yang shot her a confused glance. "You may not have noticed, Yang, because yours isn't exactly working properly at the moment, but there was something…dark about their Aura. It felt suffocating, like an abyss."

Ren leaned forward, threading his fingers together in front of his face. "I've never heard of something like that. Not even Cinder's felt that way."

Weiss nodded. "She told me about this yesterday when we were helping to clear out the blast zone. I thought something about her description of this person sounded familiar, so I did some research into it last night." She reached out and tapped at another button on her scroll. The image of the cloaked figure shrunk away, replaced by a lattice of photographs. They all seemed to be focused on different buildings, each with shattered windows or doors taken off their hinges. Some featured police tape or a few cops standing around discussing something. "This is what I found."

The others leaned forward, eyes darting between the different images. Nora tilted her head. "And this is?"

"The robberies?" Pyrrha questioned.

"Indeed. These are all police photos taken at locations of recent Dust robberies. That, however, is not what I want to show you." A swipe at her screen, and the photos collectively darkened. All but a single, small area in each one. Inside of the lightened circles was a familiar, cloaked visage.

"They're in ALL of them?" Jaune's voice held a hint of disbelief.

Weiss nodded. "I only noticed it after going over through the photos a few times. None of the shots are clear enough to give us anything we could use about their appearance, unfortunately. Whoever this is, though, they've been returning to the scenes after the crimes. This, combined with their appearance at ground zero yesterday and their Aura leads me to the conclusion that whoever this is, they are, without a doubt, involved in whatever is going on." A silence followed her words while the assembled group digested those words.

"As such," Blake spoke up, "I'm adding a situational objective to our operation. If anybody should encounter this person, you are to place their capture as your highest priority, unless you are in pursuit of Roman or another objective you deem of equal importance." Blake narrowed her eyes at the holograph, now once more displaying the sketch of the cloaked figure. "You are to assume that this person is armed and very, very dangerous. Be careful if you encounter them, but do your best to capture them. This is a chance we won't have again, to acquire another direct link to the organization that attacked Beacon."

She watched as eyes in every shade, blue, emerald, sapphire, grey, turquoise, magenta, and lilac, hardened. They all knew what was at stake. What they stood to gain from this, or what they stood to lose.

Weiss took over once again. "As it stands, the capture of Roman Torchwick is still our primary objective. Following yesterday's discussion, we'll be raiding the three confirmed base locations we know of. If we don't find him at any of them, then we'll focus on securing any relevant information that will either lead to his location or reveal anything about our enemy. Everyone clear?" A round of nods answered her. "Good. Blake," she held out her arm towards her faunus teammate, "if you would?"

The faunus squeezed Yang's thigh before sliding to her feet. "The three locations Weiss sent me are scattered throughout Atlas." The globe whirred, and the image slipped to a top-down view of the city, with the streets and roads of Atlas cut out in white and yellow. Three red dots blinked rhythmically on the map. One in northern vale, half a mile southwest of the SDC headquarters. Another lay almost in the dead middle of the heart of the city. The last pulsed calmly from the southeast edge, bordering the suburbs that ran along the outskirts of Atlas.

"We'll be hitting all three bases simultaneously, to prevent any sort of warning or communication getting out between them. The teams will be as follows: the southeastern location will go to Jaune and Pyrrha." The two nodded. "The north: Ren, Nora, and Sun." Nora grinned widely and shot Sun a thumbs up, but the monkey faunus looked less than enthused. "Finally, Yang, Weiss, and myself will cover the base in the center of the city. As soon as we're done here, we'll go to our separate mission objectives. We will commence our respective assaults at 1200 precisely." She glanced at her scroll. "It's 1030. That gives everyone an hour and a half to get to where they need to be. Any questions?"

Sun raised his hand. "Yeah, just one. Why aren't I going with Weiss?" Said woman planted her face firmly into her palm while Blake smirked.

"Because, Sun, I thought you might be more useful if you didn't spend the entire mission staring at Weiss' ass."

"Blake!" Weiss spluttered. Sun, for his part, just shrugged, wearing an expression that could only be interpreted as 'fair enough.'

"I mean, have you seen it?" he mumbled, earning him a smack on the arm from a red-faced Weiss.

"Any other questions?"

This time it was Pyrrha who raised a hand. "What time should we expect to reconvene?"

"We'll meet back up at the hotel no later than 1500. If one of the groups hasn't shown up by then, and we cannot get in contact with them, we will assume something went wrong on their portion of the operation, and take the proper measures."

The crimson-haired Huntress nodded, satisfied by the answer, and by the thoroughness of Blake's planning. Yang, in her position beside Blake, was watching her with a furrowed brow. Exactly when had her partner found the time to plan all of this out? Was she just making it up on the spot? If she was, then Blake was even more amazing than Yang had given her credit for. And that was honestly saying something.

"If that's everything, then at this point I'd like to dismiss everyone, and officially commence the operation. I've uploaded the appropriate coordinates to each of your scrolls. Good luck, everyone, I'll see you again later."

"On your way out, each group grab one of the pouches," Weiss spoke, indicating a small pile of brown leather containers resting near the holo-globe. "They contain several vials of healing Dust. Should anything go wrong, use them when appropriate." Yang felt something ping in her chest as her comrades stood from their seats and grabbed the supplies. She wondered if Weiss always carried that Dust around with her now, or if she just had a stock ready to go for any situation in which those she cared about would be put in danger again. It had been four years, but Yang could still clearly see the ghosts of those that hadn't made it this far clinging to the white-haired woman. That extra weight would one day break her.

Yang knew, because it had done the same to her.

Soon enough, everyone else had filed out, leaving only Weiss, Blake and Yang. Weiss and Yang refused to meet each other's eyes, and Blake could feel the tension in the room steadily mounting.

"Well, ladies," Blake said as she stretched her arms over her head and arched her back. A satisfying series of pops trailed up her spine. "Just like old times, hmm?"

Yang almost pointed out that it was not at all like old times, but she stopped herself. She didn't need to.

None of them could help noting the absence of the final member of their original team. The lack of that chiming laugh echoing through the room, the scent of roses brushing their nostrils. Those days were gone now, and their team had long since fallen to shambles. But she didn't need to say that.

For now, they could at least almost pretend.

Because sometimes, Yang supposed as she watched Weiss fasten her weapon belt, that was the closest you could get.

A/N: So once again, first and foremost, I apologize that I am a couple days late with this one. In my defense, I lost all of Wednesday to work/driving (seriously, I drove for like 4 hours) and I'm currently on vacation with my family, so writing time isn't something I have in abundance. Either way, I wanted to have this up sooner, so I apologize for not being able to succeed in that.

On to the actual chapter. What'd we all think? Not a terrible amount happened this one, more of a transitional/expositional one, but I hope you all enjoyed it just the same. I wasn't intending it to be this long, but that's just the way it turned out. I'm not upset by it, though, hahah. Anyway, next chapter (hopefully) there's gonna be some Ren love, so look forward to that :D

As always, please drop me a review, let me know what you think. I love you guys 3

edit: because I think I've mentioned it once in passing, and I keep friggin' forgetting, a few weeks back, I started a side story to the Rending Trilogy called Reminiscence that will consist of multi/one-shots detailing different scenes and events in before, after, and in between the books of the main story. If you guys haven't checked it out yet, go do so over on my page. There's only one chapter up for now, but it's a the Cinder/Yang fight, which I know a lot of you wanted to see. So please enjoy!