Sorry it took so long to get this sucker out, but life got in the way. And this chapter was kinda of a pain to…well, if you see the author's notes at the bottom you'll see what I mean. Anyhow, hope you enjoy the story.

Chapter Three: First time for everything

"Left, right, left, feint, elbow, dodge, uppercut," Yang uttered to herself while she was shadowboxing, warming up for the sparring match between her and her father. She felt good about her odds today for she had been working on a strategy for the past few weeks on how to take him down. She knew that there wasn't much of a chance of out muscling him, and there was no way she could ever win through attrition because his endurance was far beyond her own. However, she held a definitive if slight speed advantage and her weapon range was considerably longer than his electro-gloves. So all she needed to do today was keep him at range and dance around him long enough to wear him down before she could move in for the finishing blow. Finally, she was going to score a victory against her old man, and it had been a long time coming as far as she was concerned.

"Hey, you done yet?!" she shouted across the clearing to him as she finished up her routine and started walking towards him.

"Not yet!" Taiyang shouted back. Yang shook her head, giggling a bit as she watched him go through his warm ups. No matter how many times she saw it, she still thought it was funny watching someone as bricky as him practice Tai-Chi. She had to admit though that he looked pretty graceful in his own way. She remembered that he picked it up a few years ago when his doctor recommended it to help with his back and joint pain, and he loved the results so much that he decided to incorporate some of the moves and stances into his own fighting style. Leave it to her father to figure out a way to weaponize his own physical therapy.

"Didn't you use to say that Tai-Chi was too flowery for your tastes?" she asked, stopping a few feet in front of him.

"Used to, but I also used to be an idiot. I have the right to be an idiot every now and again don't I?" he said while finishing up his routine.

"Big difference between having the right and abusing the privilege," she chided as she playfully punched him in the shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, just get moving," he replied while he made his way to the center of the clearing. As she followed behind him, she noted that it was quite a pretty day; the birds were singing, the stream was gently flowing, and there was even a nice, cool breeze. All in all, a perfect day to one-up the old man. Getting in their positions opposite of each other, she saw that old, annoying expression on his face. It was more subtle than it used to be, but it was still relatively easy to spot.

"Ok, which part don't you find acceptable now?" she asked, annoyed that they were still having this ongoing battle. It had been going on for two years already and she hadn't given him an inch, so what he was expecting now was beyond her.

"Look, I'm mostly over it… well, kinda, but just out of curiosity don't you think you need some… I don't know… a bit more… support?" he asked, making an awkward gesture over his chest area.

"They're just fine, thank you very much," she said. He was about to reply when she decided to beat him to the punch, "And before you ask; no, they're not in the way, no, I don't have any back pain, and yes, I'm aware that they are partially exposed. Is there anything else I can answer for you daddy dearest?"

"You know what, forget I ever brought it up," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Good, because the way I see it, you're just stalling for time," she said, pointing at him in an overly dramatic fashion, "Because today's the day I'm taking you down old man."

"Oh, and just how do you plan to do that?" he asked, a slightly sinister smirk spreading across his face.

"I can't tell you now, it'll ruin the surprise," Yang replied, tilting her head to the side, "Don't you like surprises?"

"As a matter of fact I do. Actually, I have a surprise for you to…Wanna hear it?" he asked. Curious as to where this was going, she made a gesture for him to continue.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking recently, Yang. I've come to accept that you are not a little girl anymore, but a young woman, and you deserve to be treated as such. So from here on out, I won't question how you dress anymore. Also…" he paused for a moment as he brought one of his gloves up for Yang to see as he fiddled with it, causing sparks to shoot out of it, "I won't be fighting with kid gloves on anymore."

"Oh, like I'm supposed to be impressed?" Yang asked, trying her best to play off the nervousness starting to creep into her voice. It didn't help that he flashed one of his infuriating 'I know something you don't' smirks.

"Hey honey, you know that one show you and your sister used to watch all the time? You know, the one with the guys that scream a lot and their hair turns spikey and golden?" he asked as he cupped his hands together to create a small, round ball of electricity. She nodded, watching the sparks shoot out from around the ball. With one fluid motion, he launched the orb so quickly that she only felt it whiz pasted her head and heard it explode behind her. She turned around to see that it sent dirt and rock flying everywhere, and it left a sizable scorch mark to boot.

[Welp, I'm screwed,] Yang thought. This was new information that didn't fit into her prior planning. She knew that he was always going easy on her, but how much was he holding back until now? Her theory that she could outrange him was in serious doubt, so did that mean he was faster than her too? She quickly shook the doubt from her head, trying to not psych herself out. Regardless of what he did, she was still going to hold to the plan and hope that her calculations weren't too far off. He must have sensed her apprehensions because he said, tauntingly, "Hope I didn't spook you too badly."

"No way! There is now way I'm letting you psyche me out! I know you're game!" she exclaimed. She was not letting her father have the pleasure of winning the mental game against her.

"We'll see," he said. They both brought their gloves up to bump before squaring off. Not wasting any time, Yang started off the match by throwing a quick two shot combo while trying to create some distance between herself and him. He easily dodged both shots and retaliated by shooting off several bolts to prevent her from moving around while he closed the gap between them. One of the larger bolts managed to strike her in one of her legs, slowing her down just long enough for him to get her into a hold.

"So, how's playing keep away working out for ya?" he asked when he finished locking his hands behind her upper back and neck.

"Bite me," Yang replied with a growl, still struggling to break his lock.

"Eh, I have a better idea," he said, smashing his knee into her head. He went for a second strike but was stopped at the last second by Yang firing off a blast into his knee and quickly followed by blasting him in the stomach with enough force to release his hold on her. Capitalizing on the opportunity, she launched a jab-cross combo to his stomach and finished up with a left hook to his ribs before attempting to circle behind him. Recovering from the brief assault, he pivoted to launch an elbow followed up by a series of jabs, causing her to backpedal. Stepping forward, he started firing off multiple combinations of strikes that she barely had time to dodge or block as she kept trying to back away. She was looking for an opening to counterattack, and if one didn't present itself soon she would be backed into a corner or worse. Sure enough, his next strike was actually a feint that she didn't foresee, and the results were her arms being flung to the sides, leaving her torso and, more importantly, her head exposed. Charging up his gloves, he clapped his hands together mere inches from her face, causing a deafening noise and blinding her.

"GRRRAWW!" Yang howled in pain, flailing her fists wildly in front of her, hoping it would be enough to fend him off until she regain her sight and hearing. As the world started to come back into focus around her, she realized that he was nowhere to be found. Still shaking off the effects of the last attack as she tried to spot him through the haze of her vision, she had only enough time to regret not turning around as she felt the tap on her shoulder. He locked both of his arms around her waist and lifted her over his head, sending her crashing into the ground. Before she had a chance to get into a guard positon he already negotiated himself into a high full mount.

"Know why I like german suplexes? They solve problems," he said, that annoying grin of his plastered all over his face. Reaching down, he grabbed Yang by the nose and said, "Look, I got yer nose."

Yang wiggled her head furiously, infuriated that he was mocking her now. He let go of her nose and said with a hint of faux disappointment, "Awww, but you used to like this game as a kid."

Glaring and growling, she now had every intention of ripping his arm off and beating him to death with it when she got out of this. Or if she got out of this, considering he had her pinned with no way for her to counter. Tai sat straight up as he brought both his arms back, ready to end it.

"It's a bit of a shame it has to en…" he began, only to be interrupted by Yang hooking her legs around his arms and flinging him off of her. Before she had a chance to hop to her feet, he was already diving back at her. Prepared this time, she grabbed his right arm and locked both her legs behind his head, catching him in a triangle choke. If she couldn't knock him out, asphyxiation was a good second option. She felt herself being lifted into the air, and then slammed hard into the ground.

"I'm not letting go!" she shouted as she was lifted into the air a second time before being slammed with enough force that a small crater was created beneath her. She could feel his strength slipping, but she only had to hold on for a little longer.

Lifting her into the air a third time, he charged up both his gloves and pressed them against her before slamming her into the ground with enough force and electrical charge to stun her, causing her to finally release her hold on him. He stumbled backwards, gasping for air and fighting to stay on his feet. Recovering from being electro-bombed, Yang sprung to her feet and sprinted towards him, sensing this might be her only opportunity to bring him down. She peppered him with shot after shot until she was within striking range of him, then switched to hammering his stomach and ribs before he could regain his breath. Struggling to counter her onslaught, he tried to use his electric clap again but was stopped mid motion and received an uppercut for his troubles. She sent him reeling backwards before finishing up her offensive by kicking him in the chest, sending him flying back several meters.

"WOOHOO! YEAH!" Yang cheered, celebrating what she surely thought was her first victory.

Taiyang, for his part, had managed to pick himself up off the ground and regain most of his breath. He looked over to see his daughter was jumping around like a twit and had her back to him. He was contemplating hitting her with an arc of electricity to catch her attention, but instead opted to walk up right behind her and waited to see if she would notice. About forty or so seconds later, she had managed to dance around only to realize that he was standing a few feet from her. Letting out a yelp, she jumped back and yelled, "How long have you been standing back there you creeper?!"

"Long enough to realize you dance just like your sister," he said, then added, "So like a dork, essentially."

"Hey now, my dancing is stellar thank you very much…it's just not appropriate considering present location and company," she said. Looking her father over, she felt a wicked grin spread across her face when she spotted the blood on his forehead. Pointing towards her own forehead, it took him a moment to catch on before he brought his forearm up to wipe whatever it was off.

"I think you're about ready to quit," she said, her grin spreading further across her face. He was somewhat shocked by what he saw, looking up to Yang and back to his forearm again.

"When is the last time I bled?" he whispered to himself while he looked from his forearm to her to his forearm again, racking his memories to figure out when.

"Um dad, are you ok?" she asked. He looked up at her with an expression that was equal parts beaming and tranquil. It was quite disarming to say to least, and she felt like she would've been more comfortable with him yelling at her.

"I'm fine, just thinking about time again is all," he said. Shaking his head and chuckling to himself, he squared up against her and said, "I really will have to start treating you like an adult."

"Wh…YEAH! That's right! You better if you want to walk outta here under your power," she asserted, squaring up as well. She wasn't sure why, but that look of Zen on her father's face was unnerving her. She had been in shouting matches with him and seen him angry enough it look like he would flip a table, but this was… she didn't know how to describe it. All she could say it definitely was creeping her out.

"Yang," he said, snapping Yang back to reality. She nodded, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"Don't hold anything back. I want you to hit me with everything you got," he said. Just like his expression, his voice didn't match the usual him either. It was calm and steady, like each word was carefully considered right before he spoke it. It was just as unnerving. She shook it off, believing it to be another way for him to psyche her out. She donned a cocky smirk and said, "I planned to. Like I said before, today's the day you're going down."

With that she jumped back and used the blasts from her gauntlets to propel herself upward to start an aerial attack. She blasted him with shot after shot, but the way he was moving it looked like most of the shots weren't connecting, and what ones managed to connect caused sparks to shoot into the air. She noticed that he had created another ball of electricity in his hands as he weaved in and out of her shots. She didn't have long to wonder what his next move was when he shot the ball towards her, forcing her to plunge to the ground to avoid it. She had just turned her attention back to him when she felt the orb whizz past her head before it made another attempt to strike her. She noticed while she was evading the annoying little ball that her father was moving his left arm in an erratic pattern, reasoning that he had a degree of control over the electric orb.

"Neat trick, but is that all you can do," she asked as she causally evaded the ball again. He shook his head slightly and brought up his other arm. With a few movements of both arms he split the ball into twelve smaller, but no less deadly looking orbs. Letting out a small yelp, she started scrambling like a squirrel that was fleeing from every cat within a one mile radius to avoid the menacing little orbs. It didn't help that even though this technique seemed to require the use of both of his arms he was still free to move around, making it that much more difficult to close in and counterattack. And every time she tried to get to the outside, the orbs would move to box her in to keep her confined to a relatively small area. Essentially, she was trapped in close quarters with him until the orbs either ran out of power or she forced him to disperse them. Neither was a particularly good option, but closing in and attacking him seemed like the better of the two. She made a beeline towards him as she dodged the psychotic little spheres, peppering him with a few shots before she got within striking range.

"YOU'RE MINE!" Yang roared as she attempted to toss him to the ground. However, she had telegraphed her intentions so clearly that it was a simple matter for Taiyang to dodge her attack and trip her up to send her tumbling to the ground. She had managed to recover in time to turn around to see that the electric orbs were barreling towards her. With no time to dodge the incoming barrage, she braced herself for impact as she was bombarded by all twelve of the orbs. It felt like every muscle in her body was about to give out as each orb slammed into her, only having a fraction of a second to re-brace as the next one struck. She attempted to resume her attack after the last of the orbs struck, but was caught by surprise when he was able to launch a flying knee to her stomach that was followed up with an electric palm strike to the chest that sent her tumbling to the ground again.

"Need a hand up?" he asked as he stood over top of her. She was shocked when she looked up at him to see that he showed no signs of fatigue. Even with his clothes being covered in dirt and sweat, you wouldn't be able to tell if he was in the middle of a training session or had just finished some light gardening, whereas Yang was panting heavily and could feel the muscles in her body screaming at her to stop right now. To top it all off, he was still wearing that tranquil smile from earlier. It had unnerved her before, but now it was outright infuriating to look at. Feeling her temper get the better of her, she let out an earth-shattering roar as her semblance activated.

"You know, for future reference a simple 'no' will more than suffice," he said, jumping back to assume a defensive stance. Frustrated at his nonchalant attitude and lack of damage done to him, she charged him. Making no attempt to dodge or block any of the bolts that were fired her way, she now planned on absorbing as much damage as possible before unleashing all of the pent up kinetic energy right back at him and hoped it would be enough to knock him unconscious.

It was Taiyang's turn to play keep away, evading Yang's attempts to close in while firing off bolts that were gradually wearing her down. He could have kept that strategy up until collapsed from exhaustion, but she had managed to score a lucky double blast to his left knee, causing it to buckle and keeping him in place long enough for her to get within striking range. Once within range she started raining down punishment on him, hitting hard and fast enough that he was force to take the majority of the blows because he didn't have time to evade. At this rate he would be forced to step his game up or risk falling to his own daughter, and he very well couldn't have that.

Yang continued to pummel him with everything she had plus the stored up energy she had absorbed from him. One good final shot and he would be down for the count. Figuring it was now or never, she finished up her assault with a roundhouse kick to neck, only to immediately be blown back by a surge of energy coursing through the air. Recovering quickly, she looked over to see what trick he had pulled out of his sleeve this time and took a step back in surprise.

"Damn that hurt like hell," he said while rubbing his neck. There were what looked like sparks of electric shooting throughout the air around him with no identifiable source as to where they would be coming from. It took her a moment to realize that he had activated his semblance. She had only seen it one time before, and that was long ago when he was explaining to her how her own semblance worked. It was similar to her own, but whereas she stored up excess kinetic energy to redirect it at her opponents, his allowed him to disperse the energy into the air around him.

"Alright, now it's getting pretty fun, don't cha think?" he asked. She didn't know if he was being sarcastic or sincere, but that mattered little for she was at a lost on what to do next. She had heard stories from Qrow about her father taking obscene amounts of punishment and if even a small handful of those stories were actually true, then she didn't stand a chance against him now. She simply didn't have the firepower or even the stamina to faze him at this point. Sensing her hesitation, Taiyang's face fell into a scowl and he said, "Right as it starts getting good you lose your nerve…. I should feel ashamed of myself for raising such a coward."

Whatever hesitation she felt had evaporated into pure rage after those words. Charging forward, she tried hitting him with series of wild haymakers, but he was quick enough to grab both of her arms before she had the chance to.

"That was stup…" he started to say, only to be interrupted by Yang head-butting him. He was dazed long enough that she was able to launch a second one, causing him to loosen his grip on her arms so that she could free herself. She had given up on any form of strategy at this point, instead opting to hammer away at him until either one of them hit the ground and stayed there.

"WHOSE…STUPID NOW….OLD MAN?!" Yang bellowed as she continued her relentless attack on Taiyang, causing sparks to fly and crackle throughout the air around them. Even with his semblance up it appeared that she actually had him on the ropes, but appearances have a way of deceiving. He ducked one of her wayward punches and responded by turning her head into a speedbag as he unleashed a barrage of jabs, finishing up with brutal backhand that spun her around and expose her back to him. Rushing forwards, he wrenched and locked one arm behind her back as he charged up his other hand.

"Still you," he whispered to her before hitting her with a palm strike that sent her flying across the clearing. She bounced off the ground multiple times before crashing into a tree on the edge of the forest, halting her flight and sending her face first into the dirt. She laid there for a minute so she could reevaluate her current situation on just how screwed she was.

[On scale of zero to ten, I'm definitely in the eight and a half to nine point range by now,] she thought to herself. If it wasn't for her pride getting the better of her she would have seriously consider laying there till the match was over. But instead she struggled to pick herself up off the ground, finally stabilizing herself so she could stand on her feet. She looked over to see that her father was already half way to her position, stopping when he saw that she could stand under her own power. He pointed towards the corner of his lips in a way that suggested that Yang might want to check her mouth. She dapped a finger on the corner of her lips and turned her finger over to look at it to see that she was bleeding.

"I think you're ready to quit," he said, a look of triumph adorning his face. It was true, she was in no shape to continue. Most of her strength was drained and she was still breathing heavily. But he should've know by now that she wasn't going down without a fight. She used her middle finger to wipe the blood from her lips before raising it up against him and saying, "Why don't you come over here and make me quit, Taiyang."

Taiyang let out a low sigh and shook his head. Cupping his hands together, he charged up his gloves before slowly separating them vertically, producing a large and menacing sphere that was shooting out arcs of electricity everywhere. He couldn't help but to smile at the look of defiance on Yang's face as she braced herself for his attack. He shook his head again and whispered to himself, "You're gonna pay for that one honey."

The moment the sphere left his hands it started to fire off arcs of electricity in every which direction, seemingly random at first before she noticed that the arcs were striking in areas around her to keep her confined to relatively tiny area while it hovered in the air above them. It was yet another boxing in technique he had, leaving her no choice but to guard against the inevitable thrashing she was about to be on the receiving end of.

"GOT YA!" Taiyang screamed out as he sent out an electric arc that struck home, sending enough electricity coursing throughout Yang to leave her paralyzed and open to his final assault. The look on her father's face as he got within striking range of her told her that maybe flipping him off wasn't exactly the smartest idea she ever had. He pummeled her so quickly that her brain couldn't register exactly where he was hitting her, all she knew was she was hurting all over and it felt like she was being crushed. She didn't know how much more she could take until he launched a devastating blow to her liver, causing her aura to shatter and sending her to knees.

"Yang!" He'd yelled, kneeling down to make sure she was alright.

"Not gonna throw up, not gonna throw up," she chanted to herself, gripping her abdomen in pain while concentrating on keeping the contents of her stomach in their rightful place. It… didn't work to say the least.

"Welp, that's…ok, just…just get it all out," he said, holding her upright so she wouldn't face plant into what was at one time her breakfast and gingerly rubbing her back to help her along. Several seconds later, she had voided her stomach of all its contents and started to shake violently.

"Finished?" he asked, looking her over to make sure she wasn't about to start another round of heaving. He wasn't sure if she nodded or was shaking that much, but either way there wasn't much sense in continuing. He hoisted her up, slinging one of her arms across his shoulders and wrapping his other around her waist as they slowly made their way to the nearby stream. There was silence between them save for her panting and groaning. Once they reached the stream's edge, he lowered her enough to where she could flop onto the ground without hurting herself further before taking a seat beside her.

"Why do I have this feeling that you might have been deliberately trying to kill me?" she finally asked as she situated herself to sit upright.

"I might have overdone it just a bit, but in all fairness you know how I feel about disrespect….Speaking of which," he said before giving her a quick, sharp slap to the back of the head. She gripped the back of her head in pain as she turned to him and whined, "Why'd you do that for?!"

"Because you gave me the finger, that's why…and before I forget," he paused to deliver another slap to the back of her head, "It's either father, dad, daddy, or in this case sir. Not Taiyang or Tai. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yeah yeah old man, clear as crystal," she said, trying to play the situation off. Unfortunately for her, the look on his face told her he wasn't in the mood for her games. She dropped her shoulders and lowered her head as she said, "Sorry dad…sir."

Taiyang let out a chuckle and said, "I know you are. You got my temper and Raven's competitive streak, and you're still a teenager so I'm not all that surprise. Believe it or not, I was your age once too, and I was just as defiant."

She waved him off, preferring to stare at her reflection in the stream. While she was doing that, he was taking in the sounds of nature around him while going over the sparring session in his head. For what was supposed to be a few friendly rounds quickly turned into one of their most heated matches yet. It was the first time that he had to actually take her seriously as an opponent and put some honest effort into fighting her.

"Yang…good effort out there today. You've improved a lot, quicker than I could've imagined," he said. She scoff at this statement and replied with, "Whatever."

"Alright, what's wrong now?" he asked.

"You keep saying that I'm improving but I never see it. So either you're lying or 'improved' is a code word for I suck a little less than the last time," she said, turning away from him. He was about to press the issue when he figured out what she was sulking about. She really had improved in a lot of areas over the past year, including her temper, but if there was one fault she would probably never move pass it would be that she was a notorious sore loser. It came with her competitive nature, and he really couldn't blame her. After all, he wasn't too fond of losing either, but she had to understand that she was still in training.

"Hey I got a question for you. When is the last time I used my semblance in one of our sparing matches?" he asked. She shrugged her shoulders in response.

"I can't think of a time, and from the sound of things you can't either," he said. She shrugged her shoulders again. Letting out a small sigh, he continued his questioning, "So if I was a gambling man, I be willing to bet that a lot of those techniques I pulled out today were new to you. Tell me, would I've won that bet?"

"I guess so," she said. Satisfied that he was at least getting a verbal response out of her now, he asked his third question, "Have you ever seen me adjust the power setting that high on my gloves before?"

It was Yang's turn to sigh as she turned around to face him to say, "If you got a point to make, could you please just make it already instead of playing twenty questions."

"The point I'm trying to make is that you are better than I was at that age, but I'm not seventeen anymore. I'm a grown man with almost two decades of experience under my belt," he said.

"You don't say. Geez, I never would have figured that out on my own. Thank you some much for helping me with that little mystery daddy," she replied, the sarcasm practically dripping from her voice.

"Ok, I deserved that one, but hear me out," he began, making sure he had her full attention before continuing, "The training that you've been doing for the past seven years is more than anything I've received as a kid. So I know for a fact that, if by some madness of the space-time continuum, you were to face off against seventeen year old me you would do to him what I did to you. No questions about that. Case in point, I'm about a hundred percent sure that this was the first time your aura shattered on you whereas I already had mine broken like three or four times by your age."

"Wait…what?" Yang asked, confused by what he meant.

"Shattered, smashed, broken, and any other adjective and/or synonym you can think of," Taiyang replied.

"I don't need a grammar lesson," she said as she rubbed her temples to prevent the onset of an anger headache. She stopped for a moment to ask, "What do you mean by shattered? Is it like having your aura drained?"

"Not quite, but they are related," he said, standing up so he could pace around. Yang let out a groan of frustration, knowing full well she was about to be on the receiving end of a classroom style lecture.

"Every time your body takes damage, your aura drains. However, at fifteen percent or below, your aura enters what is unofficially known as the 'shatter point.' Essentially, when you aura is low and you're hit with enough force, it is in danger of breaking entirely. This not only leaves the individual in a near collapsed state and defenseless against fatal blows, but it also can wreak havoc on some semblances. With me so far?" he paused to make sure she was still listening. She nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"Right, so for certain semblances, such as yours and mine, having our aura's break on us can practically be a death sentence. The reason for this is because we can absorb and store kinetic energy in our aura thanks to our semblances. If our aura's are simply drained, the excessive kinetic energy will dissipate, but if the aura shatters, where does all that excess energy go?" he asked at the end and waited patiently for her answer.

"It…gets redirected…to our bodies," she said slowly, unsure if that was the right answer. It sounded right to her though.

"Bingo. The kinetic energy storage space was just smashed and it only has one place to go. So you add that on top of receiving a blow powerful enough to break the aura in the first place, and the damage done all at once is absolutely staggering…I'm kinda surprise you didn't pass out," he said.

"Weeell, I don't remember what happened between getting hit and hitting the ground if that counts," she said, gripping her stomach as she felt another surge of pain by just thinking about it.

"Yeah, sorry bout that bye-the-bye," he said. He took a moment to gather his thought before continuing, "But getting back to the original topic, my technique used to be so poor that my aura shattered on a semi-regular basis. I'd would run in and start flailing like an rabid animal while letting my semblance soak up the damage, and I'm paying the price for it now. Why do you think I have to take meds for this thing?"

He started rapping his fist against his chest where his heart was. Yang looked down at his chest and said, "I thought you said that was because of Ruby and me."

"Eh, you kids are part of the reason. More of you than your sister though," he said, chuckling at the dirty look Yang was giving him. His face fell back into a serious expression before he continued, "In all seriousness though, that's unnecessary damaged done to my body that could have been prevented. And that's just technique you have on younger me. That isn't even touching on conditioning or knowledge of the Grimm. So when I say that you're at a much higher level than me at that age you can trust that because I have the scarring to prove it. So you'll get there, you just need to be patient."

Having finished his impromptu lecture, he sat down beside her again. She was mulling over his words when he started speaking again, "Honestly, I would worry more about being passed up by Ruby instead of passing me up if I was you. You may have two years over her and more natural talent for combat, but she's keeping pace with your age group. Add to the fact that she's a quick study, and you've got competition from the little one."

"Ruby always wanted to be a huntress," Yang began, pausing to go over her thoughts to pick the right words, "but I'm going through with it because it looks like fun. So if she ends up being the better huntress, I could live with that…probably."

"While that may be true, we're talking about who ends up being the better combatant, not the better huntress," he said. Yang flashed a wicked, toothy grin at him before saying, "If that's the case, she better be ready to knock my ass out for that title."

The pair busted out laughing but were quickly interrupted by Taiyang's scrolling going off. He pulled it out to see who was calling him and said to himself, "It's Qrow. Wonder what he wants."

Taiyang hit the accept button and was about to answer when he heard shouting and a general commotion in the background of the call. Alarmed, he shouted into the scroll, "HEY, is everything alright?!"

His shouting had startled Yang enough that she gave him a bewildered look that asked if there was trouble on the other end of the line. He motioned to her that everything was fine when he heard Qrow's voice coming from the scroll. Taiyang turned his attention back to his scroll and said, "Oh hey Qrow, not too much. So I'll just pretend all the noise I heard wasn't anything to worry about. Anyways, what's going on?"

Taiyang turned to look at Yang with a deadpan expression, causing her to shoot him a quizzical look. Without taking his eyes off of her, he said in a flat, monotone voice, "Yes, a certain someone definitely isn't supposed to know about a place and a thing with the person."

It felt like an automatic response when her hand shot up to smack her forehead, amazed that Ruby still thought that she didn't know when she had people like their father guarding her 'secret.' Taiyang shot her a look that said he agreed with her before continuing on with his conversation, "I'm at the clearing with Yang. The one with the stream. We just finished up a friendly sparring match… How'd Ruby do…? Awesome. It went well, up until she threw up… Electric punch to the liver… Yep, but she got in a few good hits. One even drew blood… Yeah, but I got her back for it… Well, think about how your sister was at that age… So, did you want something or are you calling to chit-chat… Why, you paying…? Smartass… Ok, why are you offering…? What's the catch Qrow…? That's uncharacteristically sentimental of you… I do not cry that much… Like when…? To be fair, Ruby cried too… What, the ending was sad… You didn't find it heart-rending at all…? Well, in your case it's because you're a drunkard with a sadistic streak… Alright fine. I'll take the usual… Wheel a noodle stand over to the house if you can… What's the ETA…? Yep, sounds like a plan. See ya soon."

"Qrow's paying for lunch huh? What's the catch?" Yang asked the moment Taiyang ended the call.

"Beats me," he replied with a shoulder shrug before adding, "Good to know I'm not the only one that's suspicious. Makes me feel less like a paranoid crazy person."

"The operative word here being less," she said. She stood up slowly so she could stretch out without aggravating the pain that was still radiating throughout her stomach region. It had dulled considerable, but it was still enough to remind her it was there.

"I can't help but to be a little crazy. Have you met my family? Especially my older daughter." he said. She ignored him, preferring to continue stretching while she went over what he said to her early. Maybe her father was right. She did place first overall in combatives for her graduating class, and during her interview with Ozpin he made the comment that her fighting ability was on par with many of the upperclassmen at Beacon. So she must let all that go to her head to think that she could have matched her father right now. He said that she would get to his level soon enough, but she wondered where exactly his level was. Well, only one way to find out.

"Hey dad, I got a question. What are you like when you're holding nothing back?" Yang asked.

"I see where this is going, and the answer is you're outta your damn mind if you think I'm going to hit you at full strength. Believe it or not, I prefer you alive as opposed to a scorch mark on the ground," he replied.

"No, not I'm me. I wanted to see what you're really capable of…You know, so I can get an idea of where I'm at in my training," she said, hoping that would be a good enough explanation. He let out a short sigh and said, "Fine, give me a hand up and I'll show you."

The moment she helped him to his feet he started scanning the area for something to demonstrate on. Spotting a boulder that was a little over half the size of their house, he pointed at it and asked, "You see that big bastard over there?"

She looked to where he was pointing and nodded. He then pointed to another spot that was closer to them and said, "You stand over there and prepare to be… shocked."

Groaning at his lame pun, she made her way to where he pointed as he got into position, having a side view of him and the boulder from where she was standing. She noticed that he slid a vial of dust into each wrist part of his gloves before powering them up. He stretched his arms out as far as he could from his body as he brought his hands together. Sparks were shooting all around his hands as he started to separate them, creating another sphere that was somehow even larger and more menacing than the hovering one he had used early. Once he got it to maximum size, he started to push his hands together to shrink the sphere. In the process of doing this, wild arcs of electricity were flying from the sphere in every which direction, almost as if it was actively protesting being squeezed. The smaller and smaller the sphere got, the more erratic and deadly looking the electrical arcs got as well until he hand managed to clasp his hands together again, stopping all arcs from shooting off. His entire body was shaking as he struggled to keep his hands together while he brought them up to chest height. Taking a deep breath, he pushed his hands forwards and opened them up towards the boulder, releasing a massive arc of electricity.

Before that day, she didn't know that electricity could explode rocks. But now, her ears ringing from a monstrous explosion that the whole island must have heard, she knew it. Slowly un-shielding her eyes to check the damage, it felt like her jaw would hit the ground when she saw that the boulder was gone. Not like he blew up most of it and left a small chunk behind, but there was a smoldering crater where a giant rock used to be. If it wasn't for the debris raining around them, she could've swore that he vaporized the entire thing.

"I THINK I MAY HAVE USED A LITTLE TOO MUCH JUICE! WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" Taiyang shouted at her.

"Definitely still have a long way to go," she said to herself, amazed by the scene before her. So amazed that she didn't notice her father had walked right up beside her.

"WHAAAT?!" He bellowed, startling Yang and almost causing her to tumble to the ground when she jumped back.

"Why are you screaming?!" she shouted back at him.

"OK, IF I'M READING YOUR LIPS RIGHT YOU'RE PROBABLY WONDERING WHY I'M SCREAMING! IF SO, THAT'S BECAUSE I'M A FOOL THAT DIDN'T PACK ANY EAR PROTECTION! BUT IN MY DEFENSE, I DIDN'T KNOW I BE DOING THIS!" He roared at her, completely obvious to the volume of his voice. She made several motions for him to stop talking until he regained his hear.

"ALRI…I mean, alright," he said, finally able to hear himself talk, "So, was that electrifying or what?"

"The one story Qrow told me and Ruby, the one where you blew up an entire herd of Goliaths…that's true, isn't it?" she asked. Taiyang smile and shook his head, saying, "More like an exaggeration. What happened is I hit the alpha with that technique and its head popped off, and the rest of the herd turned tail and fled. Major difference darling."

Her eyes widen and her mouth fell slightly open, astonished that he was so nonchalant about the entire event. She thought back to what Qrow had said a long time ago to her and her sister, about their father being like one of the dragons that you would read about in old stories. Standing here right now and witnessing some of his capabilities, she believed every word of it.

"So, quick question honey," he said, wrapping one arm around Yang's shoulders before looking her directly in the face, "are you gonna flip me off again?"

"N…No, sir," she said. He started laughing and tussling her hair before pushing her forward and saying, "Good girl. Also, its dad, not sir. Come on now, you're making me feel bad."

At that moment his scroll started ringing again. Having a faint idea who it was, he groaned a bit before answering, "Hello, Taiyang Xi… Hello Officer Finley… Woah, you guys could hear that all the way in town…? Um, the best way to describe it would be I electrocuted a boulder until it went kaboom… Why? Because I was training with my oldest daughter… Well, she's heading off to Beacon tomorrow and she wanted me to show her a few moves… I know it isn't the best excuse I've ever came up with, but it's the truth this time… Ok, so what's the damage going to be? Is it a fine, community service, am I going to jail this time, or some combination thereof…? Hey, that works… Ok, that works just fine… Thanks Rocky, you are the best, don't let anyone tell you otherwise… Ok, thanks again. Later."

"How often does that happen," Yang asked. Taiyang face scrunched up his face while he scratched the back of his head, then said, "I have the number saved in my contacts if that tells you anything. That was Rochelle Finley, an old friend from my academy days. She quit the huntress business and moved on to being an officer around here. She's a hardass, but she's done more than enough to keep me and your uncle from going through the legal system. Especially Qrow with all his public drunkenness. Speaking of, she says I owe her drinks every Friday for the next two and a half months for getting me out of this one."

"Oooooh, so this old friend wants to hang out for drinks huh? Is that the polite way people say it nowadays," Yang asked, nudging him in the shoulder. He laughed again and replied, "Not whatcha think kid. For one, she's married. Two, this woman could possibly drink your uncle under the table. So when she says I owe her drinks, she means I would've been better off with the fine."

"Well, while you were busy trying to keep your butt out of jail I came up with another idea…Wanna hear it?" she asked, flashing that wicked smirk of hers.

"Considering how great your last idea went for me, I would just love to hear it," he said, flashing a wicked grin of his own.

"Good man. It's gonna be an hour or so til Ruby and Qrow so up right? And considering those two take their good old sweet time doing anything, I figure we could have a bit more quality father-daughter bonding time," she said. She pointed over to an old hiking trail that they used from time to time and asked, "So I thought why not have a friendly little footrace? How bout it old man? You up for it?"

Taiyang let out a low, raspy groan. If this was the same trail he was thinking of, the one that was seven miles long with a ridiculous amount of brush and rough terrain, then he really didn't want to have any part of it. He turned to look at the trail and asked, "You sure you just don't want to call it a day so we can head back and clean up?"

"Oh, its ok daddy, I understand," she said, far too sweetly for it not to be deliberate, "You probably want to go home and take an afternoon nap. We all reach that age eventually."

"You…You are just a glutton for punishment, you know that," he said as he made his way to the edge of the trail.

"I have to be. Have you met my father? He commits child abuse on a regular basis," she said as she followed behind him. He looked over his shoulder to reply, "More like animal cruelty in your case."

Once they reached the edge of the trail, Taiyang looked over at Yang and said, "We go on my three count." She gave him a quick nod and readied herself for their next match.

"ONE…TWO...," he took off running before he hit the three count. Caught off guard for a brief second, she realized what he had just done and started running after him.

"YOU'RE A LOUSY CHEAT, YOU KNOW THAT?!" She screamed at him.

"AND YOU DIDN'T WAIT FOR MY THREE COUNT!" He screamed back.

/

Author's notes:

Ok, since nobody knows yet (minus any employees at Rooster Teeth that happen to be reading this…0.00008 percent chance of that) what Taiyang's combat abilities are, I had to take some major liberties with the character. I went through multiple articles and videos on both the world of RWBY and influences that it draws from. Please do note that this isn't a comprehensive research analysis by any means but just a quick explanation of my reasoning.

It's stated that semblances are like a manifestation of the aura itself, and that it's exceptionally rare for family members to have the exact same semblance (the Schnee family being an exception due to a rare genetic line.) We have no reason to believe as of now that Yang and Taiyang share the exact same semblance. But, given that Tai trained Yang himself I'm pretty sure they are similar enough.

My take on Tai and Yang's semblances is that they deal with kinetic energy. I know that anger plays a big part in Yang's semblance, but it seems like emotion in general can affect semblances of just about anybody. From what I've seen in the series and how Ruby explains it in season two, that the longer Yang is in a fight, the stronger she gets. Which means the more she gets beat up on the more punishment she can return, I say kinetic energy plays the biggest part in her semblance. There's a very good chance I'm wrong, but I'm flying with this theory for now.

So for Taiyang, I figured that instead of storing kinetic energy and redirecting it (as his daughter does) his semblance deals more with dispersing the energy around him, giving him kind of a tanky vibe. Considering that his fighting style is believed by the fan base to be absolutely brutal (once again, thanks to his older daughter) this type of semblance could potential cast Tai's character as a juggernaut of sorts. Also, this gives some contrasted to Taiyang and Yang that they could potentially invoke the Tiger vs Dragon trope.

A quick and paraphrased explanation from the site on tiger vs. dragon trope: Two spirits so wildly different and yet at the same time similar… the Tiger lunges straight ahead to bulldoze through his opponents (sounds like Yang for sure), while the Dragon is revered for patience and wisdom from which he derives his prowess… They are both Taoist and Buddhist symbols that can represent Yin and Yang (see what I did there)… the Dragon is seen as representing Spirit/Heaven, and the Tiger as Matter/Earth.

This ties in neatly with my next point for Tai's semblance in that his full name can read as Supreme Sun Dragon. While the sun can easily invoke images of fire, it is also a heavenly/celestial body, and the most common of the classic elements associated with heaven is lightening. You can see this in many, many ancient mythologies such as Zeus for the Greeks and Lei Gong for the Chinese. Given that he is an older character, most likely in his mid to upper thirties, and a parent on top of that, I can see him being a wiser, more patience version of Yang. Also to keep running with the heavenly theme and tie him to Ruby, wielders of lightening were/ are known to banish evil (or what is considered evil in the culture they come from) and Ruby has a type of evil buster with her silver eyes. While it's hinted she gets this trait from her mother, it does tie back into her father as well as reinforces his theme.

Once again, this isn't a comprehensive research analysis by any means but just a quick explanation of my reasoning. However, if anyone does want a comprehensive research analysis I'd be more than happy to provide one. To me at least, Taiyang is (or I should say has the potential to be) one of the most interesting characters in the entire series, and given that the world of RWBY is crammed full of interesting characters, that is saying something.

Author's gripes:

This chapter, just this chapter. Just all of the research I did to make sure I got as close to cannon as possible for a character that had, as emiya-excalibur put it, less than five minutes of screen time. I forgot how many revisions it went through and how long I've been fiddling with it, but I'm glad to be done with it, minus the invariably editing I'll have to do when I notice a grammar mistake three weeks down the line. But that's just me complaining. Thank you for reading this far. I appreciate it.

As always, hoped you're enjoying yourself so far, and if you have the time please leave a review. I appreciate any and all constructive criticism I can get, for it helps me put out higher quality stories for ya'll to enjoy. Once again, please and thank you.

Also, before I forget, if anyone has any story suggestions, fill free to drop a message and I'll response ASAP.