A/N: Yes, this was originally part of 'A Moment That Changes A Life When...' It's now an AU by popular demand. Details below.

Yang heard the door close behind Ruby. She'd pretended to be asleep when Ruby looked in; had barely spoken to her little sister in months, despite Ruby checking on her every day, knowing it hurt her and not being able to stop. She watched the red cloak fade into the distance, alongside the remainder of JNPR. Soon, all she could make out was Ruby's hood, Jaune's hair, Ren's coat, and Nora's skirt. Then, nothing.

The light was off, like it usually was, so that Yang could close the curtain and not have to focus on the sight of where her right arm just…ended. Truncated. Like her ability to fight, and with it her resolve. Like her hold on her so-called partner. Like Pyrrha's whole life.

She heard Dad calling up the stairs for Ruby, but didn't bother telling him that she was gone. He'd find out soon.

Sure enough, he walked by a moment later on the way to her room, then bolted back past, presumably upon finding the note that Ruby most likely left. It didn't look like he'd even glanced at Yang to check if she was still there.

Yang clenched her remaining fingers in the blankets as more useless tears rose, and felt phantom pains shoot through the hand that wasn't there as the sheets on her right side failed to contract.

Wasn't she stronger than this? Strong enough to keep going; strong enough to hold her team together?

Staring at her single hand, and the tied-off bandage marking the stump of the other arm, bitterness spiralled out of control again. Without an arm, how could she hold anything? Half of Ember Celica was gone. Her primary attacking and defending limb, both missing. Her balance was shot, especially for fighting or landing or the myriad other things a Huntress was required to do.

She couldn't hold so much as a pencil anymore. She couldn't prevent Weiss from being taken away. She couldn't keep Ruby from going on her self-appointed quest. She couldn't stop Blake from running. Hell, even with two hands, she couldn't stop her mother from leaving.

So what was the point in trying at all?

Yang's gaze meandered around the room, as she'd done so often in the past months, memorizing each tiny detail, before she paused on the corner opposite her bed. Her brain seemed to be moving slowly, and she certainly couldn't muster the effort to get up and check more closely, but something about the way the shadows fell in that corner seemed…off.

She just stared at it, not really focusing on the problem—not even really convinced it wasn't just in her own head—but after a moment, she saw a slight shimmer. Huh. She'd been right. She couldn't muster the energy to be worried or excited about an unexplained phenomenon though, or the motivation to react in the slightest when the shimmer came again, then shattered like glass to reveal the tiny, tri-colored woman who'd worked for Torchwick.

Yang closed her eyes as Neo's heels clicked slowly across the floor. She'd wondered if somebody would come try to finish the job. At least she figured Neo would make it quick; she'd had no hesitation in preparing a killing blow last time, and would have succeeded if not for…

But that rescue wasn't coming again. And Yang supposed she had just been living on borrowed time since the first one.

Neo's umbrella concealed a stiletto dagger; since Yang was sitting still, she could probably expect the stab to come in the eye or the throat, or maybe straight through the heart.

After several minutes' silence, Yang opened her eyes again. Neo stood beside the bed, empty-handed and arms folded as she stared critically down at Yang. Her parasol was propped in the corner in which she'd appeared.

"What?" Yang croaked, not having spoken aloud to anyone in days.

Neo tilted her head, then furrowed her brow and made several gestures with her hands. Yang stared at her blankly, and Neo tapped her foot irritably before repeating the gestures.

"I don't know your signs," Yang said tonelessly. "Don't know what you're asking."

Neo gestured as though raising a hood and swinging a scythe, then put a hand to her brow and peered around as if looking for someone.

"Ruby's not here," Yang said flatly. "She left to go keep fighting."

Neo repeated the scythe gesture, then raked a hand over her forehead as though slicking back her hair.

"Qrow? I don't know. He's probably following her."

Neo's eyes raked over Yang, lying in bed. She raised an eyebrow.

"No, I'm not going."

The eyebrow rose higher. Then Neo tossed her hair behind her, drew a finger across her left eye, and mimed raising a sword, followed by her 'Where?' gesture again.

"Weiss went back home to Atlas."

Now Neo raised her hands to her head and tilted them this way and that, like…cat's ears.

"I don't know where Blake went," Yang said, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes and her voice.

But Neo was too sharp. She leaned closer and gestured at Yang laying in bed again.

Yang shut her eyes and turned away. "No, I'm not getting up. I've got nothing to contribute anymore."

The impatient tapping of Neo's foot eventually drew her attention back, and she found the small girl standing with her hands on her hips. She gestured at Yang again, and then spread her arms, as if to ask 'Why?'

"Why do you think?" Yang snarled, raising her stump. "You think I can fight like this?"

This time, rather than mime, Neo just mouthed a single word: 'Practice'.

Yang's shoulders slumped, and she stared at her bedspread. "Why bother. Beacon's lost. Vale's lost. We've lost. Shouldn't you be celebrating?"

Neo's foot began tapping again. This time, when Yang looked up, Neo slapped her.

"I don't c-"

Neo slapped her again, and Yang felt her temperature start to rise as her Semblance activated in response to her being struck.

"I. Don't. Care." She gritted out.

Neo made a sharp gesture as if to say, 'So there'.

Yang blinked. She'd been expecting another slap, not… "You're saying you don't care?" she asked slowly.

Neo folded her arms again and nodded.

"Then why are you even here?"

The charades went a little longer this time. First a hand swept across her face, then a gesture like putting on a hat, and a motion like leaning on a cane. Then she paused, glancing up at Yang.

"Torchwick?"

Neo nodded. Then she flapped her arms and snapped her head forward with a biting motion.

"…got eaten?" Had Ruby mentioned something about that? "he's dead?"

Neo rolled her eyes up and let her head loll, plainly miming 'dead'.

"So what?" Yang asked. "Not like that was our fault. We didn't release the Grimm into the city."

Neo nodded harshly, her eyes narrowed.

"I don't understand," Yang said after a moment. "If you didn't come here to kill me…" Neo pointed at her parasol over in the corner, then displayed her empty palms. "Then what the hell do you want?"

Neo pointed at Yang, then the floor beside her.

"Why?"

Neo withdrew her Scroll and waggled it, then held in front her mouth, miming speaking as she tossed her hair. Then she paused, looking at the Scroll in her hands. She scowled, and snapped it in half, tossing it in the trash can.

"The woman from the broadcast? She gave you that?"

Neo glared, apparently aggravated that Yang had followed the wrong train of thought. She gestured with her hands across her chest just below the shoulders, then across at an angle just below her hips. Then she walked a few exaggeratedly mincing steps, looked at Yang over her shoulder, and opened her hands over her eyes.

And then drew a thumb across her neck.

"That woman…she's the one who caused this?"

A firm nod.

"And you want to kill her."

Another nod.

"For Torchwick?"

Yet another nod.

"But why me?"

Again the series of charades stopped, and Neo simply mouthed the words. 'Because you understand'.

"Understand what?" Yang said defensively.

Neo raised a skeptical eyebrow. She gestured around the bare room, up at the shut-off light, then at the door leading to the rest of the empty house. She pointed out the window at the road that Ruby had taken. She pointed at Yang's missing arm.

"What am I supposed to understand?" Yang repeated, feeling her temper coming back.

Glaring again, Neo opened her mouth wide, so that even in the oblique light, Yang could plainly see the missing tongue, and the scarring running down the back of her throat. When she felt she'd made her point, she closed her mouth again, and her lips formed the word, 'loss'.

Yang scowled. "Then you understand," she hissed. "Why I've just been laying here. You think I don't want to care? I can't help that I'm fucking broken and can't do anth–"

Neo slapped her again, and Yang felt her eyes turn. Her left arm shot out and seized Neo's collar, dragging the girl down to her level. Neo was smirking broadly, apparently at finally getting a reaction out of Yang. 'You care', she mouthed.

Yang just held her there, an inch away, breathing hard and trying to control her rage.

And then Neo leaned forward and kissed her.

It was so sudden that Yang didn't even think to react, and her Semblance died down in shock. She saw Neo's eyes narrow, though the girl didn't pull away. Instead, she forcibly deepened the kiss, biting down hard on Yang's bottom lip, and the heat started pouring of Yang in waves. She wasn't sure herself if or when she started kissing back, but by the time Neo broke away and straightened up, both of their lips were swollen and bleeding.

She yanked the blankets off Yang's legs and took a step back, bowing grandly.

Yang glared even as she swung her legs out of bed for something other than a trip to the bathroom for the first time in months. "I still hate you."

Neo grinned, licking her bitten lip, then jerked her head toward the parasol in the corner.

Yang ignored her, crossing to her desk. She got out a piece of paper, and fumbled with a pen for a few moments before a small, gloved hand snatched it out of her own and pushed her aside. Neo held the pen over the paper and paused, looking up at her, eyes switching colors when she blinked.

Yang took a breath, then dictated: "'Dad. I'm sorry for the last few months. Ruby was right. We have to do something. I'm not quitting. Yang.'"

Neo scribbled rapidly, but stopped before the final word and offered the pen back to Yang to sign her own name. Taking another deep breath, she took it and scrawled out the four letters as best she could with her left hand.

When she finished and looked up, Neo had strolled back over to the corner where her umbrella stood. She picked it up and half-turned, extending a hand back to Yang.

Yang picked up the yellow wristlet lying beside the note on the desk, and after a moment's fumbling, managed to get her hand through it. She twisted her wrist in a motion as familiar to her as breathing, and her remaining Ember Celica deployed around her hand. She clenched her fist, and was surprised to find it steady.

She took Neo's hand, and heard a sound like shattering glass.

ORIGINAL A/N: This one got heavy. Still, in a couple places, I want to point out that this is entirely Yang's POV, and Yang is…not in the best place mentally right now. She's failing to notice some things the way she normally would, and is drawing conclusions based on her own despair rather than rationality. (For instance, she's under the impression that Tai didn't even bother to look and see if she was still there, when in fact he made sure of that first even as he sprinted by.)

Personally, I've never really been into Baked Alaska, because they just didn't seem to have any common ground that you could point to in canon. For me, a ship needs more than just foe yay to get off the ground (or, 'out to sea, I guess), and all the interaction we had between Yang and Neo was them fighting without any communication. This is the first time that I've thought they might actually (canonically) have a leg to stand on.

Updated A/N: As noted, this chapter originally stood alone as a Baked Alaska oneshot. Lots of people then asked me, across various platforms, whether this was going to continue as an AU now that we aren't getting new episodes on the regular. And if you're reading this, the answer is, apparently, yes.