Blake refused to open her eyes. She refused to move, or speak, or do anything that would spoil this perfect moment. She was wrapped in the arms of a goddess. Her face was being brushed by that golden hair that seemed to radiate the warmth of the sun. Giant breasts pressed up against her own; soft and warm. There was no world around the two of them. No people, no White Fang, no Roman Torchwick or Grimm, no Remnant. There was only the two of them, wrapped in this embrace forever. She nuzzled her face into Yang's neck and kissed her. Yang rubbed the back of her head, played with her long, black ears affectionately. She whispered wonderful things into Blake's ear. It didn't matter how long they stayed like this. There was no passage of time, either. Just her. The goddess. She was the entirety of her own, perfect world, and she allowed Blake to share it.

The pain started in Blake's lower back, where she'd been stabbed. She whimpered, but Yang held her tighter. A burning pain shot through Blake's body. A carefully-crafted Dust weapon that prevented one from raising their Aura, provided the Aura wasn't raised when it struck. Blake winced, and pulled Yang in ever closer.

"Its okay, Blake," Yang whispered, pain in her own voice," Its okay."

"Yang, don't." Blake begged, suddenly feeling excruciating pain in her ears, "Don't leave me."

"Its okay... I love you, Blake."

"Don't say it, Yang!" Blake cried, "He kills you when you say it!"

Yang kissed Blake's forehead and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Tell Ruby that-"

There was a sickening sound of metal cutting flesh and striking bone. Yang gasped. Blake opened her eyes and looked down. Her stomach turned. The tip of Gambol Shroud, her own sword, had burst from Yang's chest, extending out from the space between her breasts. Blake screamed. Yang seemed to be trying to speak, but she was silent, and blood poured from her mouth. Blake reached out to take hold of Yang again, to help her, but she couldn't move. She was tied to a chair.

The sword was pulled back through Yang's body, and she collapsed at Blake's feet unceremoniously. Blake screamed and cried and called out Yang's name. A monster stood over Yang's body. A shapeless void with an ever-changing face. It took the face of a tattooed, scarred man with a goatee. Then it took the face of Roman Torchwick. Then a Grimm. Then Adam Taurus. Then Blake's own face. Then it became a sickening mix of them all. And then the monster put it's foot down on Yang's shoulder, levelled Gambol Shroud at her head, and fired. Chunks of skull were blown off. Blood matted and stained that beautiful hair. Flecks of brain matter splattered Blake's boots. A final spasm went through Yang's body, and then she was still.

The world fell apart. The goddess had died. There was no reason, no logic, no meaning in this world any longer. Blake screamed and the world around her became chaos and pain. A vortex of blood.

Blake's eyes snapped open. She wasn't in that horrid place anymore. She was laying on her back, on soft linen. Fluorescent light filled her eyes. Steady beeping came from the machines around her bed. She had bandages wrapped all over her body. Wires were attached to little sensors on her chest, an IV ran into her hand, and an oxygen tube ran to her nostrils. She sat up slowly, and her body was racked with pain. She fell back to the bed and looked down at herself. She was covered in bandages. Some parts of her body were swollen. There were dark red patches where the bandages needed changing. She could remember each place the knives had cut, or the knuckledusters had struck, cracking bone. But the worst pain was on her scalp. It felt like it was on fire, but there was something else. A bizarre feeling of wrongness. It almost felt like-

Blake sat up again, ignored the pain in her body. She ripped the wires from her chest, tore out the IV. She stood, placing her bare feet down on the cold linoleum floor. She looked around and saw the door to a tiny bathroom.

She stumbled through the door, flicked on the light switch. She looked in the mirror. She had a massive black eye on the left side. It looked like it had been healing for a couple of days. A bandage was covering the top half of her head. It was too tight over her ears. They couldn't possibly fit beneath it. She reached up, and slowly began unraveling the bandage. Tears formed in her eyes as layer after layer fell away until the whole thing fell in a bundle at her feet. Sections of her hair had been shaved to allow for stitching. Where her ears had been there were only two scars, freshly stitched shut. She touched one of them. There was a twinge of pain, but something else. She could still feel it. It felt like something was still there, but it just... wasn't. Blake threw the lid of the toilet up and vomited. Most went into the toilet bowl, some dripped down the side. More followed, worsening the mess, then more after that. Eventually she was just dry heaving, bent over the bowl of sick. Her mouth tasted foul and her lungs burned.

A nurse came in, drawn by the monitors going crazy from being disconnected. She found Blake sitting on the bathroom floor, slumped against the wall, weeping. She helped her up, and led her back into bed, Blake almost comatose as the nurse pulled the blanket back over her. She stared at the ceiling, eyes blank but still leaking tears, as nurses reconnected the monitors, put in a fresh IV, and bandaged her head back up. When they were finished, one of the nurses called her name. She had to say it several times before Blake responded.

"Your team-members are outside. We can let them in if you want." She said.

Blake nodded.

The nurse left the room. A moment later, Ruby rushed through the door, followed by Weiss. Ruby had a look in her eyes like Blake had never seen. Weiss had a look of pained empathy. Ruby dashed over to Blake and leaped onto her bed, hugging Blake tightly. Weiss looked alarmed.

"Ruby, be gentle! She's still-"

"Oh, Blake!" Ruby wailed, "Oh Blake, we've been so worried! We've been here day in and day out, and we were just here half an hour ago, and they forced us to go down to the cafeteria to eat something, and then they called us right back and-"

Blake was hugging Ruby back, fighting back tears. She tried to speak a couple of times but nothing came out. Finally, she managed to make a sound.

"Ruby..."

Ruby rose up and looked Blake in the eyes.

"Yang... she told me... I don't..."

Tears quite suddenly came streaming from Ruby's eyes. Blake began crying with her. Weiss sat down in one of the chairs and covered her eyes, whimpering. They stayed like this for some time. When Ruby finally spoke, all three were still crying.

"I don't know what I'll do without her. My big sister. Somebody took her. And they almost took you, Blake. I'm barely holding on without Yang. I'd have died if I lost you too, Blake."

Weiss stood and hugged the two of them. More time passed.

Eventually, they found themselves sitting in silence, having finally stopped crying for now. Weiss was once again in her chair and Ruby sat at the edge of Blake's bed.

"What are you going to do, Ruby?" Blake asked, breaking the silence, "Are you leaving Beacon?"

"I'm going to spend some time with my father," Ruby answered, "But I'm coming back. How could I lose all my new friends after this?"

"What about you?" Weiss asked, "What you've gone through..."

Blake looked at Weiss, "I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to do next."

"Whatever you do, we'll be there for you," Ruby said, "If you leave, if you stay, no matter what, we'll be by your side."

"Thank you, Ruby."

"Blake... you should hear it from a friend," Weiss said, "The police have been pushing to question you. They questioned Ruby and I, but we didn't know anything, of course. They want to know what happened."

Everything flashed before Blake's eyes at once. The ambush, their Auras being disabled, the torture, one of the thugs taking Blake's sword and-

Blake trembled.

"We were attacked. We were tortured. Yang was murdered. What else do they need to know?" Blake asked.

Ruby looked at her with helpless concern.

"They don't know how your attackers died. They don't know who killed them, or how they did it."

Blake thought for a moment, then rubbed her forehead. She felt another twinge of pain from her scalp and withdrew her hand.

"I don't remember. I remember them dying. I don't remember how."

"I understand them being curious," Ruby said, "How could three people just... explode for no reason?"

Blake was silent and stared at the floor for a moment. Suddenly, Ruby's words hit her. She grabbed Ruby's shoulder and looked her in the eye.

"Three?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, "there were three bodies blown to pieces."

Blake burst up from the bed and, in a smooth motion, grabbed her IV stand and threw it across the room. The tube was ripped violently from her hand. The stand struck a window and shattered it. Blake swung and punched the wall beside her, putting a solid dent in the drywall. She turned to her friends, her eyes blazing with anger. Weiss stood with her hand over her mouth. Ruby looked terrified.

"There were four! There was a fourth guy there!" She screamed.

"Blake, Blake, please sit down." Weiss said, reaching a hand out.

Blake thrust her finger at Weiss forcefully, "Get your sword."

She moved her finger to Ruby, "Get your Scythe and all the ammo you have."

"Blake-" Ruby began.

"Blake, are you out of your mind? You're still recovering! You've been in a coma for three days! You can't fight now!"

"I didn't know what I was supposed to do. But that's because I thought those pieces of shit who murdered Yang were dead. If one of them is still out there, he has to pay. We're going to go find him right now. I'm going to find him, and I'm going to hurt him, and then I'm going to kill him."

As she finished this statement, she took a step forward, and her left leg abruptly gave out. She slumped to the floor. Ruby rushed to her side. Weiss sighed and hurried over to help. Blake was gritting her teeth, fresh tears appearing. She grabbed the edge of the bedside table to try and help lift herself up. Her knuckles were white.

Weiss placed and hand on either side of Blake's face, tilted her head up to look Blake in the eye.

"You haven't eaten in days," Weiss said, "You're injured. You're in shock. You are in no condition to fight."

"I need to. We need to. He has to pay." Blake whispered, her voice cracking and almost silent.

Weiss kept staring into her eyes, only a twitch of one eyelid to show that she was holding back more tears herself. Blake breathed heavily, closed her eyes, and heard Yang's voice.

I'm not asking you to stop, I'm asking you to slow down. Yang's words echoed through Blake's mind as clearly as if Yang were right there. Blake opened her eyes, looked up at Weiss. She looked at Ruby, who was struggling with all her might to lift Blake back to her feet.

Blake slowly worked herself to her feet. She climbed back into her bed. Weiss helped pull her blankets over her.

"Once I'm out of here, we find this guy." Blake said.

Weiss nodded, "Like Ruby said, we're by your side."

Blake glanced at Ruby. Ruby looked determined.

"I'll go see dad when my sister is avenged."

"Then I better get my strength back quickly. Can you get a nurse to bring me some food?" Blake asked Weiss.

"You're not eating hospital food!" Ruby declared, "I know what you need!"

She ran from the room. Blake and Weiss stared after her, confused. They exchanged few words waiting for her to return, Blake closing her eyes and almost dozing off, Weiss laying back in her chair, and resting her eyes. In ten minutes, Ruby returned, panting heavily and holding a package wrapped in paper, with a familiar smell emanating from it. Ruby unwrapped the package, revealing freshly grilled tuna, fresh from the fish market.

They ate together, talked, cried a bit more. But at the back of Blake's mind, she kept picturing Yang.

I'm going to find him, Yang, She said to herself, I'm going to make him suffer for what he did. And then I'm going to kill him.