AN: Italics = thoughts

Pain

Pain in her right arm.

This pain had came about two weeks after she put on her prosthetic and had continued to come plague her every night; robbing her of precious sleep. This had been on going for a whole week and half now. She knew this wasn't phantom pain either. No. This pain was in the remaining half of her right arm and this wasn't normal pain. This wasn't the aching pain that she would feel with phantom pain. This felt like the whole inside of her right arm was on fire. As if her right arm was about to spontaneously combust.

She tried to tell her father, but he had insisted that it was just all in her head. This was definitely not in her head. This pain was very real and she wished that it would just go away, but it never did. Instead, it got worse with each passing night. She didn't know where or why this pain had come. She looked over to her right to spy a digital clock with bright blue numbers reading 3:45 AM.

She breathed a heavy sigh. "Just a few more hours. Just a few more hours of this hell and I can sleep."

Her tired eyes shifted towards the ceiling. The pain usually stopped anywhere between five to six AM. She brought her left hand up to rub across her face with a pained groan. Even when she does get to sleep it's only for a few hours before her father comes to wake her up. She tells him again and again and again about the pain, but he doesn't listen. He tells her that training will make her feel better and that it will take her mind off of whatever is bothering her.

"I bet if Ruby was dealing with this he would actually listen to her and do everything he could to help her." the blonde amputee thought bitterly.

A few moments after her thought, a throbbing pain entered her head. Yang groaned in agony. "Oh come on! Really now? The arm was bad enough! Now I gotta deal with shitty headaches?" She was not pleased with this new form of pain. It seemed that life was intent on making her as miserable as possible. Yang promised to herself that if she made it out of this, she was going to viciously maim the nearest thing to her.

She looked over to her clock again to see the bright blue numbers reading 3:47 AM. The amputee let out a growl of frustration. It seemed that time was also intent on making her as miserable as possible too. She rolled her eyes back to the ceiling. She would just have to wait. It was the only thing she could do.

After several hours, the pain in both her arm and head had began to dissipate. Yang breathed out a sigh of relief. She was looking forward to sleep. Looking forward to an escape from reality. Even if it would only be for a few hours before her father came in to wake her up, but those few hours were precious to her. She looked over to her clock. 5:50 AM was what the blue numbers read. Yang shifted her gaze back upwards. She could feel herself being pulled into unconsciousness and she welcomed it. In mere moments, sleep had claimed her. Finally, she was granted her small, but precious reprieve from her life...That is if the nightmares stayed away.

A door knob turned and the door opened to reveal a tall blonde man. He walked over to his daughter's sleeping form and with an outstretched hand he gently shook Yang and she had responded with a tired groan. " Come on Yang. It's time to wake up."

Yang opened her eyes. She could already feel how lethargic she was without even moving. She looked over to her father to see his smiling face. "How the hell can he be smiling at me when I look like shit?"

"Had a rough night huh. Don't worry. A good breakfast and some training will eventually make you fine again."

"That's what you've been saying for the past week and a half now and nothing is fine. If anything, I'm getting worse."

Taiyang looked down at his daughter with a smile. "Nonsense. Yang this whole thing you're experiencing is just in your head. I know you can get pass this little setback." He turned around and started walking towards her door. He stopped in the doorway and turned his head back toward his daughter. "You watch. Someday this will be just a memory you're going to laugh at. Now hurry up and get ready while I make breakfast." And with that Taiyang had left.

Yang sighed. It was same thing all the time. It was as if her father lived in his own little world and refused to come out of it and actually listen to her. With a loud yawn, Yang sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bed. She sat there staring at the wall of her bedroom for a few moments before finally standing up. She winced as she could feel her knees creaking from fatigue. A few seconds after standing up, she began to maker her way over to the end table where her clock and prosthetic laid.

Yang starred at the metallic arm. When she first put it on it felt great. It felt like she never lost an arm to begin with. It felt so weightless and it didn't screw with her balance like she thought it would. It seemed that she was healing and that things would be alright, but then something happened. Something changed in her that she couldn't explain at all. She began to feel hot flashes and minor aches in her right arm. Eventually, those hot flashes turned into what felt like a raging inferno inside her arm. Like someone had put her arm in an oven and turned the dial all the way up.

Yang had grown to hate this metal arm of hers in the time when these painful changes began to occur. Now it felt cold and unnatural. Now whenever she put it on it felt heavy and she would often feel pain while it was attached. It felt like her own body was now rejecting the prosthetic for reasons that were beyond her understanding. In the week and a half since this had began, she had come to see her new arm as a testament of her failures. Her failure to protect Beacon, her failure to protect her comrades, her failure to protect her friends, and her failure to protect Blake.

"Blake" she thought longingly.

"Yang! Come on! Breakfast is almost ready!" Taiyang yelled from the bottom of the stairs. Snapping Yang from her thoughts.

The blonde shook her head. This wasn't the time to think about her partner. "I'm coming!" she yelled back.

Picking up her prosthetic, she brought the opening up to her right arm. Placing it onto the connector that sat at the stump of her arm, she twisted it a few times before hearing a click that told her the arm was secure. She walked over to her closet to change into her normal everyday attire. Opening the door, she reached out and grabbed herself a new set of fresh clothes.

After having changed out of her sleeping attire and pulling her hair into a ponytail, Yang turned to her mirror to make sure everything was in order on her person. She frowned when her eyes settled upon the unsightly thing that is her new arm. Every time she looked at the thing now her stomach turned in disgust. However, something was different this time. She squinted her eyes as she moved closer to get a better a look at what had changed. That's when she saw that her eyes were no longer their usual soft lilac color. Now they were a harsh deep crimson.

Yang blinked several times. She moved closer still to make sure she wasn't seeing things and she wasn't. Usually when her eyes were crimson it was either because her semblance was active or she was really angry about something. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down so she could return her eyes to their normal color. When she opened her eyes again she was met with the same cold red eyes."Well...this is new."

"Breakfast is ready!"

Yang looked over to her doorway and then back to her mirror. She gave a tired sigh and she started to walk over to the entrance of her room. When she came to the doorway, she was startled by a loud deep, throaty kraa outside her window. Yang snapped her head back towards her window only to find a black bird perched on a branch in front of her window. She recognized this bird. This bird had been coming and sitting in that exact same spot for months now. Was it watching her? "No. No way. Why would a bird be watching me? That makes no damn sense...Then again, plenty of things that have been happening to me don't make sense."

Shaking her head, she raised her eyes back up to look at the bird's strange red eyes. She wasn't even aware that birds could have red eyes. As she continued to look at the black corvidae's eyes, it apparently took notice of this and shifted it's gaze slightly up to meet Yang's. A small shiver went down her spine as the bird's eyes locked onto hers. It was as if this creature was peering deep into her soul. Silently judging her with its gaze.

"I think I'm going crazy. It's just a damn bird. There is no possible way that it has the intellect to judge me." she quietly muttered.

"KRAA!" the bird had let out in response to the young huntress-in-training as if it completely understood what she said.

"Oh be quiet you. No need to get your feathers so ruffled."

"KRAA!"

"What did I just say you noisy bird?"

"KRAA!"

Before she could provide a response, her brain had caught up with the whole situation and told her just how ridiculous this whole thing was."I think I actually have gone crazy. I'm having an argument with a BIRD of all things." she thought as she held her left hand over eyes."Whatever. I'd better get downstairs before dad decides to annoy me."

The bird silently watched the blonde make her way out of her room. It lifted it's wings and gave a mighty flap, sending it airborne. It flew around the wooden house until it decided to land on a branch that gave it a good view through the kitchen window to see Yang taking a seat and begin her meal. When Taiyang came into view, its crimson eyes glowed. He was trying to talk to his daughter, but it seemed she was more interested in picking at her food.

Some minutes passed and Yang was putting away her dishes. The raven hopped three times over to the right to get a better look and to keep Yang within in its line of sight. After a few moments, the bird had decided that it was time to go. It jumped into the air and began to beat its wings. As it flew through the sky, it turned its head back to the Xiao Long residence for a few seconds before bringing its gaze forward once more. The bird would return. It would always come back

AN: I'm back! Sorry for not posting anything for such a long time. I had a few health problems that are now resolved. So anyway, this is my new story for RWBY. It's an idea that had popped up in my head a few months ago. Like with my previous story, the main focus is on Yang (she's my fav character). I do want to stress this though. This story will not be pretty. Trust me I'm making myself feel bad for what I'm about to put poor Yang through. Some of you may hate me for it (don't worry. I'm gonna hate myself too.) Also, I wont be doing The Truth About You anymore. Just didn't really like the direction of that story and didn't really like what I was doing with Raven. So I'm going to delete it. Also, this will be a Bumbleby story, but it will also have Whiterose, Renora, whatever Qrow and Winter is called, past Tai and Raven, and maybe past Rosebird. Raven is also important to this story and I really wish people would start putting her in Bumbleby stories more. Also, is it normal to never feel satisfied with your writing or to think that it is bad in some way? I also, did some research on ravens too. If anyone is confused by the word corvidae just know that it is a family of birds that ravens and crows belong to.

At any event, I also took some inspiration from a story called Chasing Shadows by Of Wizards and Phoenixes. Seriously, it's really good and the author deserves more love on that story. Just keep in mind that the author sustained a sports related injury and had some nerve damage and is going through PT right now.