It tended to start off with a knock on the door. That would always shake Yang from her thoughts. It meant that her father, Taiyang, was here to deliver food and try to give her a pep talk from the side of her bed.

It never worked. She was just still so mad everything. Mad at that masked man who took her livelihood away, mad that her partner left her. Mad that she was naive enough to believe she was unstoppable. And mad that Ruby was able to move past this and keep going.

"The door's unlocked, Dad. And even if it was you have the key anyway."

She wasn't sure why she bothered responding to the knocks. But she just wanted to lash out sometimes - it felt good. It pulled her thoughts away from her own pain. It made her feel big. But it was destructive. Even she could see that, but she did it anyway.

As her eyes fell toward the open door though, Taiyang stood in the way with a more… positive look than she had seen on him in the past week or so since Ruby left. It wasn't really happy, but it certainly wasn't sad.

She noticed he didn't have any food, so that meant he was here to try and talk to her again. Her lips frowned and she turned towards the window again. She heard him take a deep breath, resigned almost, but the sigh that came afterwards felt like it was anything but.

"Yang, Did I ever tell you about your great-grandfather, Chang Xiao Long? Pretty sure I told you this story before."

Yang sighed, casting her eyes away. "Quite a few times."

"Good, that helps things a little. So long ago, your grandfather beat up a bunch of baddies, trying to protect some girl. Long story short, he saved the world. Sound familiar?"

Yang nodded. It was a popular bedtime story that she and Ruby enjoyed when they were younger, but thinking back to it now only seemed painful. They were better days that were filled with naive thoughts and dreams.

"Now there's another part of the story I never told you." Taiyang took a seat on her bed. "I didn't tell it mostly because I didn't think we would ever have to come to it. But I'm finding that as more and more time passes, it's more applicable than I think. You see, there's a middle part here. Those bad guys he beat up were a part of a gang and ended up trying to get revenge. And as strong as he was at first, he was eventually defeated. He survived and got away, but they cut off his right arm."

Yang snorted. "Hmph. That's new to me."

"Should be. Never told you that part."

"Alright," she sighed. "So Chang Xiao Long is missing an arm. So how does he end up saving the world then? You weren't just telling me the story for kicks, were you?"

"Of course not. Now, let me get back to the story." He leaned in a little towards her. "The thing is, that girl he saved gave him another arm."

"What, like a prosthetic?" Yang didn't buy it, not at all. "They didn't have those back then."

"Not a prosthetic, Yang. She gave him a real arm, but better." He had a smile on his lips. "She gave him the God Hand, and with that God Hand, he saved the world."

"Dad, please-"

"I'm not done yet!" Tai spoke with a smug smile. "Near the end, he obtained the Devil Hand and with both he saved the world. But he also knew that he housed great powers - people would want to steal it from him for their own dark purposes. So he fled and somehow ended up in Remnant. He changed his name from Gene to Chang Xiao Long to protect those around him. If no one knew who or where he was, then those around him would be safe."

Her eyebrow rose a little. "Not to protect himself?"

"It wasn't called the God Hand for nothing, Yang."

"Okay, fine then. So where is he really from?"

"Oh, some place called Nevada," he nonchalantly replied. "Never heard of it, might be from Vacuo. I'm told it's kinda like a desert."

"Dad, this is hardly the time for fairy tales."

"Yang," her father sighed, "this isn't a fairy tale. You see, a good few years before you were born, I lost my own right arm too."

Yang rolled her eyes. "Runs in the family. Great."

And then she blinked before turning to face her father's right side. He still had his arm. She flashed her eyes up to him and back, a frown gracing her features. "So why do you have an arm now, then?"

This time it was her father's turn to sigh. "You're really dead set on that, aren't ya?"

"You are literally lying through your teeth, Dad." She turned her head back towards the window, where a black bird of sorts was staring back at her.

There was a deep, resigned breath. "Fine, fine. I guess all of this is just going to go over your head until I show you what's up. But I understand. I was like that, too."

"I don't care!" she snapped. She half-expected him to recoil a little, but instead he took it to the face and remained placid. "I just want to be alone," she quietly admitted. "I know what you're trying to do and I just…" she sighed. "I'm not having it right now."

"Well, that's too bad, because it's the truth and it's time for you to accept it." He walked in front of her gaze, blocking her view and forcing Yang to look up at him. With an air of determination, he quietly rolled his right sleeve up his arm and she blinked. He had his fair share of scars, but she realized that none of them seemed to be on his right arm. As her eyes traced upward, she could see a clear line where the scars seemed to suddenly appear.

And then in what was the craziest thing Yang had ever seen (and she had seen some pretty crazy things until now, she thought), Taiyang Xiao Long tore his right arm off.

She nearly fell off the bed in shock. "DADHOLYSHITWHATAREYOU-"

"Yang, calm down."

"No! You- Dad- what-" her mouth flapped like a lame fish. "What just- did you just-"

"Tear off the God Hand to give it to you? Yes." He handed the limb towards her, amputee side first.

She batted it off with her left hand. "Ew get it away from me!" This was too much! All Yang had planned was moping in her bed! She did not expect her father to remove his arm in front of her face and then suddenly offer it to her.

And then she realized that there was no blood. No glowing aura flying around everywhere. Just… an arm.

She realized how quickly she was breathing. She gulped once. She gulped twice. Her eyes traced up to her father and then back to the arm. It was doing nothing to calm her down. This was too much! First some dumb fairy tale and now here-

He casually shaked it in front of her. "You gonna take it or what?"

She fainted and fell out of the bed.

Yang still wasn't quite believing that her right arm was back. It felt just like her own arm. It even changed its shape and tone to match her body. But it was an arm. And she felt powerful. More powerful than she ever felt before. Like she could punch someone into the Milky Way.

It did nothing to remove her confusion, however, which was further exacerbated by her father's explanations.

"Alright, so two big things you're gonna want to keep in mind. Well, kinda three but the last one is pretty unlikely." They were sitting at the dinner table, with an assortment of things in front of her. "The first is your diet. You can kinda eat as you normally do, but keep in mind that if you're ever feeling weak or if you've suffered a lot of damage, fruit is gonna keep you going."

"Fruit? Really?" Yang furrowed her brows at her father. Really, after waking up and seeing that he still didn't have his arm back, she should have expected this by now.

He seemed to pay no attention, waving off her concern relatively easy. "Yeah, fruit. In particular, there are four of them that seem to be the most potent. First is strawberries - you'll feel like you've just had a great night's sleep and be ready to go. Then it's bananas, oranges, and lastly cherries. It's pretty straightforward - just carry some fruits with you into any fight and you'll probably be okay."

She nodded dumbly. "Any idea why it's fruit?"

"No clue, but again, straightforward and hard to screw up."

"Okay then," she accepted. "What's the second part?"

"So you know how you have a semblance that makes you stronger as you get hurt? Well, that's still going to be there." Taiyang leaned down and picked up something with his left hand and placed it on the table. "With the God Hand, there's a different type of perk that goes with it, but we need to test it out. What works for me might not work for you."

His words, however, sailed right over his head as Yang was once again lost for words. She looked up at him, then back down, then back up.

"Dad, this is a porno mag."

"No, Yang, this is a testing aperture for us to determine what increases your strength with the God Hand." Taiyang with such a straight and easy face that she balked.

"Dad, look, this is clearly a porno mag!" She rose to her feet, putting her hands on the table and pointing accusingly at him. "The cover clearly says PlayVale and it has a woman that doesn't even have a bra on! Tell me this is not a porno mag."

"Yang, listen to me. This is a testing device. I know it looks like a porno, but I was in your spot almost twenty years ago when my father put me through this same test. Now sit down. We need to figure this out." Without waiting, he flipped the cover open, which actually revealed another magazine cover instead of any particularly sketchier content. "Tell me, which one of these cover images make you feel stronger?"

She needed to remind herself that this was all stupid. "Can I have a beer first?"

"Yang-"

She didn't even bother to answer him, instead getting to go to the fridge and pulling out the bottle. "I'm looking at porno mag with my father who just tore off his arm and gave it to me claiming that it has magic powers. I think I deserve a beer."

Her father gave no response this time, simply waiting for her to return to her seat. Popping the tab, she chugged it down at the fridge and tossed the can before plopping herself down back at the table. Looking at the two images, one was of a man and the other was of a woman, both dressed in underwear and staring heatedly at her.

She first looked at the man. He was certainly attractive. Muscular body, but not overly bulky. But she felt nothing different within the arm. No flare ups or particular feelings of strength.

Then Yang looked more closely at the woman. An arm was placed just beneath her chest, and she had one of her bangs falling over her eyes. A leg was daintily crossed over the other. Her figure was nice too, tone belly, smooth skin, generous cleavage.

She felt her arm tingling with strength. Her fingers flexed, ready to smash heads in and pummel enemies into oblivion.

"So I'm going to assume the woman is what's triggering the God Hand for you," Taiyang said as he pulled the book back.

"Hey, I didn't say that!"

"I could see it though," he muttered, flipping past several pages. "You were just kinda lingering there." He put the book back in front of her. "Here, take another look." This time it was between a man and woman sharing a deep stare, with the other page showing two women in the same position.

Yang knew that she enjoyed viewing the other gender, but something about the pair of women just kept making her arm tingle. She frowned and looked up at her father.

"Dad, honest question. Does this reflect… you know…"

A/N: You know, for how popular God Hand is among video games fanatics, and how popular video games are among us, I'm surprised that no one has done anything like this. This was literally one of the things I thought not long after Yang got her arm chopped off. Granted, everyone was kinda rolling in the feels and everyone sorta needed a pick-me-up fic, so maybe it was expected.

But really? I can't be the only one who's played God Hand out here. Great game, really fun, stupid humor that for all its campiness works. Plus you literally punch the daylights out of everything. Midgets, barrels, gorillas, demons, fat guys, ninjas, robots, just about everything under the sun, really. And it's great. If you have the means, I definitely recommend a play through, not just watching a LP of it.

I think what's also really cool is the story image I have with this. I finally took the time to learn some GIMP and I now have this awesome mashup of a picture. It's hard to not like. In high res it's a bit easier to spot the imperfections with my photoshop attempt, but in this case I think it serves its purpose well. Also the base image wasn't exactly the best that was available, but again, it serves it's purpose.

Anyway, a few things - this is just meant to be silly. Nothing overly serious, as you can probably tell. At the same time, though, it does touch upon Yang a bit in regards to her orientation. So far the actual show says nothing openly about ships, Chibi not withstanding. In my mind, I'm drawn back to the second episode of season one where she admits she's enjoying the view and see a brief shot of the guys. I think in my head I interpret it as her being heterosexual, or at most bisexual. But it's probably going to take a deeper look that I honestly don't have too much time for.

I just find that Bumblebee is sorta average. Nothing canon really drives me towards the ship outside of what an author tries to do. I do enjoy me some YangxMercury for some reason though, despite how there is no evidence for it.

Anyway, I don't own RWBY, and I certainly don't own God Hand. And outside of maybe one more small piece that is maybe only a page long or so, I really don't expect this to go anywhere, so this is really just a one-shot from me.

Leave a review, and I hope you enjoyed this silly idea of mine! And as I mentioned in "A Harsh Lesson" I have made a tumblr and am now confident enough to start saying it exists. You can find me as "drunkdragondoes". I think my username was already taken, so drunkdragondoes it is. I'll be trying to be active there as well since sometimes i'll just disappear from this sight for weeks and have nothing going. Not trying to be dead, after all.

But finally, that's it!...

Actually, speaking of sexual orientation and Mercury...

Eventually, the test ended, and Yang discovered after two more beers that her trigger image was boobs. This included drunken crying and suddenly being unsure of her orientation, though Taiyang assured her that his mother inherited the God Hand and went the whole 'flowers and lilies' before meeting her husband, so she was probably overthinking things. It was, he repeated, just a testing aperture to determine what increased the God Hand's strength for her.

The next day she woke up with a hangover. Everything seemed almost second nature with her right arm as she dressed and she wondered what the day would bring.

Then Taiyang opened the door to her room with his own right hand.

"Dad… is that the-"

"Devil Hand?" he finished for her. "Yes."

And with minimal fanfare, she was suddenly given supplies, a bag of dried fruits, and shoved out the door, being told that she was to bring Ruby home before suppertime.

It was hard to believe. Two days ago she was moping about in her bed, and now suddenly she had a right arm again, brimming with power, and while a little confused, generally sharing a more positive outlook on things. But it felt nice to be outside again, though her mind wandered to other stories she was told by her father and she wondered what else might have been true...

MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, VALE, FOUR YEARS AGO

"Mercury, are you there?"

"What is it now, dad?"

"Come, I need to tell you something…"