After Story I: Yang

Warning: These short stories are a follow up to Eternity Rising. Please read The Longest Night and Eternity Rising before reading After Story. Thank you.

One month after the Battle for Beacon

Yang felt cramped in the yellow car that she now drove down the highway. She should have been grateful that Ozpin was willing to give her a substantial amount of Lien to help her settle into her new life as a cripple. Sure, she was able to use her body again ever since the Shifter, Lia, healed her neck injury, but what the almost-goddess said was completely true; her body would never be as strong as it once way. Yang found herself struggling to do daily tasks, and for that reason alone Yang angrily began to call herself a cripple. Not for pity, but simply because she genuinely hated being useless.

Which brought her mind back to the money that Ozpin had given her. She refused to let him pay for her standard of living, yet he refused to not give her something. Eventually, she agreed upon allowing him to buy her a used car that she could drive around in place of her motorcycle. The man cheated; he bought her a twelve thousand Lien sports car. "It was used," he said with a mocking smile. Damn him, she thought to herself. Granted, it was a nice car, but her precious Bumblebee lay unused at her father's house now; she would never ride again in her weakened state.

But she couldn't get used to being cooped inside of it. She was used to being exposed to the elements on her motorcycle. The thrill of riding was what drove her to buy it in the first place. She sighed, almost wanting to cry. "I miss my bike!" she yelled to no one. She sighed, relenting in her imaginary struggle against the car. She'd get used to it eventually. For now, since she refused to let Ozpin pay for her home and necessities, she decided to go out and find a job. Unfortunately, that requires having contacts.

And she only had one contact in Vale that wasn't a student at Beacon. And for once, she was not looking forward to the coming interaction.

Junior sat happily behind the bar of his club, serving drinks to his customers with a polite and charming smile; the important trait of any true business man. Today is a good day, he thought. No Grimm attacking the town square, no war sirens, and no Blondie.

He mentally wanted to kick himself when he saw his bouncers rush into the door and close it. Son of a bitch¸ he thought. "What are you idiots doing?" he asked them angrily.

"Boss! She's back!" they answered.

"Damn it!" he yelled back. "I just replaced that door the last time she was here! What the hell does she want now!?"

They all stood behind the door with weapons drawn, the tension heavy upon them. Junior walked up to stand behind them. "Don't shoot her, you idiots. She gets stronger the more you try to hurt her." He turned to his DJ and motioned for him to cut the music. Silence. Why isn't she knocking the door down? Junior asked himself.

"It's a trick!" one of his men said. "She's trying to trick us into thinking she's gone!"

"Quiet!" Junior yelled. He approached the door and nervously put his ear upon it. A moment later, there was a gentle tap upon the door. "What is it?" he asked.

"Let me in," the blonde brawler said from the other side, her voice muffled.

Junior paused, uncertain. "Are...aren't you going to break my door down?"

She sighed. "I can't."

His jaw dropped. "What did you just say."

"I said that I can't break the door down. In fact, I couldn't even beat one of your underlings in a thumb wrestling match, let alone fight them."

"She's...she's joking, right boss?" one of his men asked.

Junior shrugged. He opened the door slowly, and Yang entered with a worried look on her face. "I'm...I'm not gonna get shot this time, am I?"

Junior gave her a curious look, examining her from top to bottom. "Whoa," he said. "You okay, Blondie? You don't look so hot." Standing before Junior, Yang looked thinner and less muscular than she was the last time he saw her.

"I've seen better days," she admitted. "I came to ask you something."

"If its about the woman you're looking for, or whatever, I still don't know anything. And with Torchwick dead, I doubt that's on the table. What can I possibly have for you?" Yang blushed, which caught Junior off guard, and mumbled something. He raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

She opened her mouth to repeat herself, but paused. "Can we...speak privately, actually?"

"You expect me to be alone with you?" he asked.

"Bring the twins if you want. Just leave the idiots behind."

Junior frowned for a moment before shrugging. "Fair enough. Militia! Melanie! Come with us. Boys, keep an eye on the club for me. And put your damn guns away! You're scaring the customers!"

The twins came when beckoned, and the four of them walked behind the bar and entered a back room. Upon entering, Yang saw that it was a mixture of a break room and a manager's office. There was a desk covered in paper work, two large, brand new black couches, and a safe presumably full of the profits from the club. Junior sat down at the desk and opened a nearby cabinet and pulled out a bottle of whiskey, pouring himself a small glass of the strong liquor. He offered the bottle to Yang, who politely declined. Putting the bottle down, he motioned for Yang and the twins to sit. The sisters sat together on one couch, and Yang sat alone on the other. "So," he began. "What do you want to discuss?"

Yang looked between Junior and the twins nervously. "Look, just...please bear with me, okay? This is hard for me to say." Junior gave her a curious look before sipping at his whiskey. "I guess you're curious about why I look so weak."

"That I am," he admitted.

"Well...long story short, because trust me, it gets pretty damn complicated, but I, uh, had my neck broken, essentially. I was almost paralyzed for life from the neck down."

"Oh, shit!" Junior blurted. "That's...uh...rough."

"Yeah, it wasn't pleasant. It happened during the Battle for Beacon. I was, uh, given some special medical treatment. That's the part that's hard to explain, so I'll just leave it at that for now. But, my neck was healed in the process. However...the damage has been done. I'm stuck like this forever. No amount of rehab will ever make my body as strong as it used to be."

"So you really are as weak as you look?" he asked.

"Why, you lookin' to get some payback? You'd win, but only if you killed me. Because if I survive whatever you do to me, my sister won't just sit idly by and let my attacker go free."

"The one in the hood?" Junior asked.

It was Yang's turn to give him a curious look. "How do you know my sister?"

"She didn't tell you? Well, I can see why she didn't. Back about three or four months ago, she came to me to get Roman's contact information. And she took some cigars from my bouncer. Said they were a peace offering."

So, that's how she became friends with Roman. I bet it had to do with her nightmare. Yang smiled. You are crafty sis. I'll give you that. Still gonna get a lecture though. Then a thought struck her. "Hey, wait! I came here looking for the same info and you told me you didn't know!"

"No, you came asking if I knew where to find him. Completely different. And what would you have done with his phone number, anyway? Called him up and asked him where he lived? Besides, I assumed you already knew about your sister looking for him. Figured she got into trouble or something and that's why you wanted to find him." He took another sip from his whiskey. "But, if it makes you feel better, I did hope that she was okay. So, did she get into trouble?"

Yang laughed. "The most amount of trouble. We were investigating what he was doing, and the whole time she was secretly friends with him. She tried to turn him, too. God rest the man's soul. He deserved a happy life. I can see that now."

Junior gave her a curious look. "You seem...older. Like you've matured."

"I guess being a cripple has made me look at the world a little bit differently." She sighed. "Which brings me to what I needed to ask you."

"You know, at this point, I'm used to you asking for strange things. What is it this time?" Once again, he lifted his glass of whiskey.

"I...It hurts me to say this, but I was wandering if maybe, just maybe, you could...give me a job."

Junior choked on his whiskey. "You want me to what?"

"Look," Yang said. "I don't like that it's come to this. But I have my pride, okay? Professor Ozpin, my father, Weiss's family...they all don't care to let me either live with them or to buy me a place to live and pay my bills. But I just can't live with that, you know. I'd feel too guilty, and it just feels like they pity me. I just want to earn my own wage. So, as much as I hate to ask this of you, you are literally the only contact I have in Vale. And since I had my injury, I'm unable to continue my education. So...I want to work here."

"Well, what can you do? You've already said that you're cripple and that you're too weak to fight, so as ideal as having you as a bouncer might have once seemed, it's a pipedream now."

"I can dance," Yang admitted.

"Not that kind of club, Blondie."

"Door greeter?"

"Does this look like a grocery store to you?"

"Teach me to tend the bar?"

"You kidding? It's not that easy! There are hundreds of mixed drinks that I've memorized and serve daily. I'm the only one here who knows how to make them all, and as such I am far too busy to teach you."

"Let me be a damn janitor then!" Yang yelled, standing up.

Junior stood up, towering over her. "You're too weak! You admitted it yourself. You really think you can move a ten gallon bucket of mop water with the state of your body?"

Yang flinched, looking down at her own muscles. She sat down and put her head in her hands. "I don't know what to do," she muttered.

Junior felt a pang of guilt and regret. He sat down in his seat once again and lightly sipped at his whiskey. "Look, Blondie...I'm sorry. I really am. But...I don't think I can help you."

She nodded while holding her head. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry," Junior said again. "Seems like every time you come in here, I can't ever help you."

"I'm sorry to have put this on you so suddenly," she said. She stood up once again, and Junior and the twins were shocked to see a tear roll down her cheek. She made her way to the office door. "I'm...I'm sorry I've caused you so much trouble over the last few months." She reached for the door knob.

"Wait!" Militia said suddenly, standing and grabbing Yang's hand. Yang turned and met the black and red clad girl's eyes. Her gaze was serious and determined. She turned to face Junior. "Surely we can teach her to run the bar, Junior."

He sighed. "I honestly wish I could, but there's just no time for it. Between serving customers, doing the paperwork, and being an information broker...I just can't."

Militia smiled. "Do you really intend to grow old and retire without choosing someone to fill in for you here?"

"Well...no..."

"Teach her how to serve the drinks at least. Melanie and I have worked with you long enough to know how to do the paperwork. Then you'll only have to worry about the information broker side of your work."

Junior's jaw dropped. "I don't know."

"Think about it," Melanie added from her seat. "Someday, she could even become the new information broker of Vale. Think of it as taking her as an apprentice...except you pay her a living wage in the process."

Junior looked between the twins. He smiled. "It's not like you two to like someone. Why?"

The twins smiled, and simultaneously said, "She beat us once; made our work interesting."

Militia added, "She helped us out when we thought our work was dull and useless. So, we'd like to help her out in return." She turned to Yang and gave her a friendly smile. "We've always liked you; ever since you beat us. It breaks our hearts to see you in your current state."

Yang looked back between the twins and Junior, her eyes hopeful. "Well?" Melanie asked.

"Ugh!" Junior said. He picked up the glass of whiskey and downed what was left. "Fine!" he said.

Yang's eye's beamed. "Really? Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Junior said, reaching into a drawer of the desk and pulling out a job application. "Quickly fill this out so I can make it official. As soon as your done, we start."

"Wait," she said, confused. "I start working tonight."

"Quickly!" he said. "Before I change my mind. You're working until we close tonight!" He looked at the clock on the wall. "You've got a seven hour shift ahead of you. I hope you're ready to learn, and learn quickly." Resisting the urge to cry happy tears, she accepted the job application and immediately began filling out the particulars. While she wasn't looking, Junior secretly smiled. Happy to have you on board, Blondie. He paused, realizing something. "Hey, Blondie."

"Hm?" she asked, looking up from the paper work.

"What's your real name?"

She smiled. "Yang. Yang Xioa Long."

Song: Burn - Ellie Goulding

Author's Note

I realize this was a quick follow up to Eternity Rising, but I just wanted to get started as quickly as I could. I couldn't help it. This will not be a full length story, however. The other stories in the Shifting Remnant AU have been novel length, but this will just be five short stories following five characters from Eternity Rising.

And no, I'm not going to do the R-W-B-Y format like the trailers did; I'm going chronological in my timeline. I consider the end of Eternity Rising to be The Battle of Beacon. Yeah, the Epilogue ties alot of that up, but there's a massive time skip from the last chapter and the epilogue. So, what do our characters do after the Battle of Beacon? Well, here, one month later, Yang begins her life as a "cripple" as she calls herself, and starts working for Junior.

Who next? Well the next chapter will take place a couple of years after this...but who will it be?

I will admit one thing though; who our five characters are.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang obviously, but the fifth is...

NEO!

I really liked writing for her. Am I the only one who's come up with the idea that she's a robot? I feel like I might be, if not one of the few.

Well, till next time! :D