Standard Disclaimer: All rights belong to those whose rights they belong to, primarily the glorious minds at Rooster Teeth, though quite namely not me. Don't own a thing.

Voices - Chapter 1: I May Fall

Sometimes the best of intentions can lead to the kind of end that changes everything. A word misspoken, an action thought to be helpful… Even an encouragement where restraint might have better served.

Yang knew that her partner was stressed. Blake had been acting off ever since their run-in with Roman Torchwick and his giant mech, now just a collection of spare parts thanks to the efforts of their team.

But their limited success wasn't enough for the Faunus girl. She knew they were out there, plotting something…

Meanwhile, Ruby and Weiss wanted Blake to go to the dance they were all planning, and while Yang knew she could get her partner to acquiesce eventually… Was that really in her best interests?

When Yang was upset about something, she needed to work it off. Whether it be exercise, sparring, heck just beating the stuffing out of anything at all was great stress relief.

So maybe that's what Blake really needed?

"Yang, if you're going to tell me to stop, you may as well just save your breath," Blake began, pacing in front of where the blonde perched atop a desk. They were in a deserted classroom for privacy, though really this could have just as easily happened outside as well.

She just thought it best if Blake was more comfortable, with only the two of them.

"I don't want you to stop," Yang began, but then hesitated.

What will help her get through this? How can I be the best partner for her?

"I want you…" the blonde continued slowly. "I want to help you."

"Help me?" Blake scoffed. "How? By making me go to this stupid dance?"

"No, by getting to the bottom of what the White Fang are planning," Yang retorted, her words flowing faster now that she had warmed up to the idea. "Let's go out, me and you. Let's track down where the dust is going, and take them down. Make an impact, interrupt their operations." She looked at her partner earnestly, her lilac eyes shining with warmth. "And then, after we take them down a peg or two… we can take a break. Maybe do a dance, maybe not. But we'd deserve some rest if we accomplish something."

Blake stared at her wordlessly, her own amber eyes holding back some unnamed emotion. "You'd do that for me?" she whispered.

"Hey, you're my partner," the blonde replied with cheerful confidence. "Ain't nothing I wouldn't do for you!"

"That's not enough of a reason," Blake murmured, unconvinced.

"Okay, look," Yang sighed. "I'm worried about you. I think you're likely gonna do this anyways, but I wanna make sure I'm with you when you do. I got your back, okay?"

Blake did smile then, the subtle little smirk that Yang always loved to see.

"Alright."

o o o

Blake crouched on the edge of the building, peering into the darkness ahead. Her exceptional Faunus vision allowed her to see far more effectively at night than any human might without artificial enhancement.

Some might say that ability made Yang's presence at her side irrelevant, but Blake would be quick to disagree. Her partner might have been of the opinion that she would have done this regardless of her support, but that simply wasn't true. Yang's presence there was far more important than the blonde realized.

All her life she had run away from her problems. Even ran from the White Fang when she realized there was no way for one Faunus girl to enact significant change within the organization by herself. When she let slip about her heritage to her teammates, her first reaction was to run. Her semblance, even, facilitated her tendency to run, leaving a shadow clone behind to take the hit so she might escape.

She was tired of running. And with the blonde at her side, a person who, incredibly enough, accepted her for all she was, perhaps she truly could stop running. Yang gave her the courage to stay and fight.

Perhaps she could stop trying to run from her feelings as well, and at least try to examine how much Yang meant to her.

She was startled from her reverie by the slight shift of the blonde bruiser and her murmured questioning. "Anything yet?"

Blake shook her head, belatedly realizing she wouldn't be able to see her in the darkness. "No, nothing. But I have a good feeling about this one."

"Okay," Yang simply replied with a nod. She was so trusting, so… confident in Blake's skills and experience. It was a little intimidating, to be honest.

They'd started in the early evening, scouting out several likely locations while tracking the triple-clawed marks that the White Fang liked to leave as indications of their activity. While they laid in wait at the fourth warehouse they'd investigated, the dance back at Beacon was ongoing. Yang had left a reassuring message with the others, who in turn promised they could handle the hostess duties without her.

She had a good team, truly. It wasn't just Yang, they all had her back and wanted to help her with this.

I am far luckier than I can easily explain, starting with a simple meeting in a forest over the corpse of an Ursa…

It had been the second time she'd met Yang. The first, in the hall where all of the first years were bunking prior to initiation, hadn't really impressed her all that much. A buxom blonde who seemed rather flighty, even if she could easily see the affection between the two sisters. But once initiation had begun, she came across a whole new version of Yang.

Brash and confident, powerful and bold. A true warrior. And, were she to be honest with herself, terrifyingly gorgeous

She had not regretted her partnership once since that time, bad puns notwithstanding.

Far luckier than I should be, given the past I once led.

But that was why she was here, why Yang was with her for support. To right some of the wrongs of her past. Atonement.

Blake glanced to the side at some subtle movement, her amber eyes narrowed as she followed several shadowy figures as they dropped down to street level and crossed to the warehouse. Before long a truck pulled around the corner, headlights off, and the gathered figures quickly set to work in raising the loading dock door and carrying the boxes from the truck.

The dim light from inside the warehouse reflected dully off of the white masks of the laborers.

"Got you," she breathed. Blake reached out to clasp Yang's forearm, leaning further in so that her partner might easily hear her.

"Group of White Fang unloading a truck," she murmured. "I count ten, unknown how many inside."

Yang's brilliant smile would have been easy to see, even if she didn't have the vision of a Faunus. "Then let's go kick some ass."

Blake grinned back, squeezing the blonde's arm before rising to her feet. She grabbed hold of Yang's hand to lead her out of the shadows and over to the edge where distant street lamps gave them at least a little bit of illumination.

Wordlessly she dropped to the street level and raced off across to the next corner. A quiet thud from behind indicated Yang was right on her heels. Watching her back, just as she promised.

Seeing how they were concealed by the truck still pulled up to the dock, Blake darted forward and crouched just by the front bumper. Yang skidded to a quiet halt next to her, lilac eyes lit up with excitement.

"Ready?" Blake mouthed to her, slowly drawing Gambol Shroud from her back.

Yang gave her a cheeky wink and flexed her hands, dropping Ember Celica into place.

They each darted around a side, quickly taking the White Fang grunts by surprise. It was almost laughably easy to bring them down, all ten of them, and deposit them into the still half-filled truck, locking the door securely.

With a quick nod to each other, the pair of huntresses-in-training moved ahead like shadows, further into the warehouse.

"You hear anyone else?" Yang breathed next to Blake's ear.

The Cat Faunus shook her head. "Nobody at all," she murmured. They'd gotten to the center of the warehouse by now and stood, looking around in a circle.

The blonde let out a low whistle. "That… is a whole lotta dust."

Blake nodded numbly. Shelves were stacked with crates marked primarily with the Schnee Dust Company logo. As she peered closed, it seemed as if the predominant type was the explosive red dust, the kind which Yang most commonly used.

"Why would they need this much?" she wondered aloud.

"We could tell you," a low voice chuckled. "But then we'd have to kill you." Down at the far end of an aisle of shelves, along the wall of the warehouse, a large figure stepped out wearing the mask and uniform of the White Fang.

"Oh, who am I kidding," he continued jovially. "We're gonna kill you anyway."

Blake spun about as movement began to filter through her senses, large groups of assumed White Fang grunts spreading throughout the warehouse to surround them.

Dust damn it all… rookie move, Belladonna, well done… and now you dragged Yang into this…

"I'm sorry, Yang," she sighed to her partner.

"You kiddin' me?" Yang laughed joyously. "And here I thought this was gonna be boring. I'll take the right and you take the left?"

Blake grinned at her over her shoulder, bolstered as always by the blonde's indefatigable confidence. "You're on."

The Faunus girl nimbly leapt across, skipping off of one of the shelves to land just in front of a group of White Fang soldiers as they rounded the corner. She swept their feet out from under them, slashing out to disable the fallen grunts for good measure before charging forward once more. Behind her she heard the battle cries of Yang as she hammered her way through those on the other side.

She slid in on her side, bowling over another pair of the enemy and giving them vicious kicks to the sides of their heads. More soldiers were pouring in, and she realized that if she overextended herself she'd be cut off from Yang. With a quick backflip, leaving behind a shadow clone for good measure, she jumped up on top of the shelves and took off running.

Where are they all coming from? What is this, a convention or something?

Blake deftly dropped onto the head of a rather large bear faunus, twisting as she fell so that she would land on top of him. The sheath in her hand made a loud crack as it slammed against his skull, knocking him senseless.

"Yang!" she shouted, trying to focus on where the majority of the explosions were coming from.

But there were far more explosions that could be attributed to Yang alone. She saw a pair of struggling figures fly past a cross-section of the shelves, her blonde partner engaged in furious combat with the White Fang soldier who had spoken to them, likely their leader. He had some sort of close-ranged shotgun in one hand that doubled as a club, and he was sending out reckless shots to try and bring Yang down.

Carelessly firing off explosive rounds within a warehouse filled primarily with red dust…

"Yang!" she screamed again, far more urgently as she raced forward after the pair. A few grunts tried to impede her progress, but she easily batted them aside as the mere nuisances they were. She headed deeper into the warehouse, desperate to catch up with her teammate.

And then the floor beneath her shook as a shelf full of dust began to detonate ahead of her.

"Oh, no," she breathed, skidding to a halt. She couldn't find Yang, and the entire place was about to go up and leave a crater the size of a city block…

As she spun helplessly in place, she was suddenly tackled from the side by a blonde figure. Yang's eyes glowed a bright red, and her luxurious mane was aflame, matching the fiery explosions that were spreading through the warehouse, up the walls and across the ceiling.

Yang wrapped her arms around the raven-haired girl, draping her body over her torso and tucking her head into her shoulder. "I got you, Blake," she whispered.

You always have, Yang...

And that was her last conscious thought for quite some time.

o o o

When Blake woke once more, it was a slow and gradual process, as if she had to struggle through massive underbrush to reach clarity. When she could finally make out her surroundings, she cautiously kept her eyes closed still.

Hospital? I can hear… beeping. Machines, liquid dripping… There's something pinching my arm, I think? And… my legs are sore. Sheets over them are irritating. And I think my bow is gone... dammit...

Eventually she pushed outwards and sensed other people in the room, soft voices conversing across the way.

Ruby, and… Weiss?

Finally, with a gargantuan effort, she managed to peel her eyelids open, blinking at the harsh overhead lights. The Faunus girl hitched a breath at the effort it took to move her head ever so slightly to the side where she'd heard the voices.

"Blake!"

The diminutive brunette team leader leapt to her feet from the couch where she'd been lying against Weiss. The heiress scrambled towards her as well, the both of them hovering over her anxiously.

"How are you?" Ruby asked worriedly, her eyes red and bloodshot. "Can you… Are your legs feeling okay?"

Blake frowned slightly and attempted to clear her dry throat, but all it did was cause her to cough weakly. Weiss quickly brought over a glass of water, carefully lifting the straw to her cracked and dry lips.

She gratefully took a long sip of the tepid water before moving back slightly. "Legs?" she whispered hoarsely.

"Oh, yeah…" Ruby glanced down at the end of the bed. "Your legs were… well, they were burned pretty badly. Doctors healed you up, but they were worried about some loss of… I dunno really."

"They thought you might have lost some nerve endings," Weiss interjected smoothly. Blake noted absently that the heiress' eyes were just as bloodshot as Ruby's. "Hopefully they were able to fix everything."

"How… long?" she managed next.

"Um…" Ruby looked down at her feet. "Four days."

Blake blinked her eyes uncertainly. She'd been out for four days? But that didn't explain why just Ruby and Weiss were here. If Yang was hurt as well, then at least one of them should be with her.

"Yang?" she whispered.

Ruby's lower lip trembled as she tried to speak, but could only shake her head and turn away, her arms crossed tightly around her middle and her shoulders beginning to tremble.

Her white-haired teammate laid a gentle hand on Blake's arm, ice-blue eyes swimming with tears. "She… didn't make it."

No… that's not… That isn't possible, Yang can't die, she's… she's invincible, she was right there with me, she… she shielded me and protected me… from…

Oh my Oum, she sacrificed herself to save me.

Her sore frame was suddenly wracked by sobs as her world fell apart. She closed her eyes against the hot tears that flowed down her cheeks, and felt Weiss lean down to carefully envelop her in a hug. And then she felt as well Ruby leaning in on the other side, and both of her shoulders were soaked from the tears as they all mourned the passing of the sun.

o o o

Blake felt drained, emotionless and empty. The doctors had come and gone, inspecting her and cheerfully letting her know about her remarkable recovery, far better than they had expected. They praised her exceptional aura healing and told her that she was sure to be released within the next few days, even though she'd need to remain on bed rest for at least another week.

Her bow was back in place on her head, Weiss having thoughtfully brought another one from their room for when she awoke. It was a nice gesture, even though the infirmary personnel all knew about her Faunus heritage anyway.

None of it mattered.

It's all my fault. She'd still be here if I hadn't… if we didn't go to that warehouse. I might as well have killed her myself.

Both Ruby and Weiss, still tearful but without an ounce of reproach for her actions, had finally left at the end of visiting hours. Left her alone with her own guilt.

*Oh, stop beating yourself up.*

Blake drew in a shocked breath as she looked around the empty room. That was not her own voice. "Great," she sighed. "Now I'm hallucinating. Just what I need."

*Hey, it took me a lot to even figure out how to talk to you, don't just blow me off already.*

"Who's there?" she whispered harshly. "This isn't funny, show yourself!"

*Well, that's gonna be a little hard to do, kitten.*

Blake let out a strangled gasp.

That's… impossible… Yang?

*"I'd say in the flesh, but that'd be a lie.*

"What…?" The Cat Faunus screwed her eyes closed, shaking her head from side to side. "No… no no no that isn't possible, I'm… I must be going crazy, there's just no way…"

*I dunno about the crazy bit, buuut… it's certainly different.*

"How are you in my head?" Blake hissed angrily. "How can you even be?"

*Never been accused of bein' the most book-smart of the team, I think you and Weiss fight for that title. But, if I had to guess… maybe you absorbed me? Or… maybe my aura, and I just came along for the ride?*

The doctor's words came back to her, regarding her miraculous healing from her injuries, her exceptional aura levels…

It was difficult to deny it, though, the voice in her head was most certainly that of a certain blonde bruiser who she'd just been told was a burned corpse.

"What the fu-"

*Hey, language, kitten, I've had a rough day.* Yang's voice was filled with her usual good humor, even if it was tinged slightly with a bit of panic.

"You've had a rough day?" she screeched, quickly lowering her voice back down to levels that wouldn't cause a Wolf Faunus to howl. "You're supposed to be dead! How are you… What…"

*Easy there. Don't really get it all myself yet. But… looks like we're still partners?*

Blake lowered her head back to her pillow.

This must be what going mad feels like.

*If it is, I guess we'll find out together, huh?*

A/N: Whelp, like the synopsis said, this ain't your average Bumblebee love story. Couple of notes to make here. For starters, I don't anticipate on this going on for too many chapters, I don't have it fully fleshed out yet but there's a definite end in sight. As of right now I'm thinking only five, but it might be more. Also as of right now I'm going to try and keep this to a weekly posting schedule. But, if you've followed my other stories, you should just how well I adhere to that… And this also will make the fifth ongoing story I'm working on at once. I think I have serious issues, or at least a slightly masochistic tendency.

This is definite AU as it diverges from the RWBY storyline within Season 2 Chapter 6, Burning the Candle. I think you'll probably recognize the exact point it goes off-script.

So, what would you do if one of the most important people in the world to you ends up in your head, right in the middle of all those unresolved feelings? Guess we're gonna see how Blake takes it…

Lessee, anything else… Oh! I need some nice Bumblebee art for the cover. Any volunteers for something simple? I suck at trying to contact artists to use their work, I was amazed mustachioedoctopus actually got back to me regarding the Purruby art for A Thorny Tangled Triangle...

Thanks for taking the time to read. Please do drop me a review and let me know what you think so far.

Stay shiny!