Yang was prepared for a lot of what was going to be thrown at her tonight. When it came to this sort of thing, she was old hat. She'd spent the better part of her later teen years bouncing from shady bar to seedy club. Chasing leads, hounding information, knocking teeth out of more than a few ugly mugs. Out of everyone, barring Blake, and maybe the Courier, she had the most experience with this. There wasn't anything she didn't believe she could handle. Going to T's? Easy. Getting Jumped? Cake walk. Getting a surprise guest? Always a nice change of pace.

Having now chased said guest for more than a block, and having successfully cornered him, did she find herself thrown a curveball.

Junior didn't look how she remembered, when she'd seen him. The last she remembered, he looked as put together as one might expect, for a gangster. Fine clothes, neatly groomed, and a general sense of composure. The look you'd expect of a larger player in the criminal underworld. And he had been one, once upon a time. Yang might've been a little girl at the time, but she'd paid attention to the news, and what her dad and uncle said. The Xiongs had been one of the larger families in the underworld, once upon a time. She'd known who she was messing with, when she went to the club the first time.

Looking at him now though, beaten, broken, and bereaved, it was like staring at an empty shell. She wasn't dumb. She knew the stereotype associated with her hair type and personality, but she paid attention. She knew about what had happened to Junior's club. It was easy enough for her to piece the information together. The news story hadn't exactly been a small one either. Most people pay attention when one of the last holdouts of an infamous crime family go up in flames.

Even if her memory of the evening was hazy, she could piece things together. She and the Courier were there, they had to be involved, somehow. It stood, then, that the fire started because of them.

And on the whole, she didn't care. Junior had it coming. She had it on good enough authority he was a creep.

But standing there, looking at him, in the gloom of the alley, she couldn't shake the feeling she got. The twisting in her stomach and the icy spike that sank into her spine. What stood out to her most though, was the look in his eyes. When he'd appeared at T's bar, he had a fearful, panicked look to him.

Now? Now his eyes held a clear, furious, vindictive, spiteful hatred to them. She recognized it well. It was the look that haunted her childhood nightmares. An unreasoning, incorruptibly pure vitriol that stared back out at you from the shadows of broken out windows and burned-out homes. Wanting nothing more than to snap up lost little girls in their jaws and tear them to pieces.

What he'd just said, had left her back there again, waiting on a silver platter.

"…What?" Yang asked, confused.

"You heard me." Junior said, slowly, evenly. "Isn't it obvious? What you and your boyfriend did?"

"…" Yang grit her teeth and glared more intently at Junior. "We burned your club down and beat the crap out of you and your 'boys'."

"Really, that's all you did?" Junior prodded. "C'mon Blondie, you're not that dumb, are you?"

Yang felt her lips curl up in a snarl. He fist slammed into Junior's chest, planting him against the wall. "I'm not the one currently pinned to the wall, am I?" She asked.

"No, but you can't even put the pieces together on your own, can you?" Junior sneered. "That makes you really fucking stupid."

"Where's-" Yang began to snarl.

"I don't know, and I don't give a shit." Junior answered, a crazed energy ebbing into his voice. "I only care as much as he cost me a few boys I could've had with me the night you and your boyfriend visited."

"He's not my boyfriend." Yang hissed.

"Don't care." Junior answered, in the same breath, carrying on. "I don't give a shit about whatever mess Torchwick is making. You do, and I have to guess that means your boy does too. Bad news for him. I've seen what you two do to people."

Yang didn't say anything, she merely glared at Junior. Letting her gaze burn holes into him. But if it bothered him at all, Yang knew he wasn't letting it show.

"… Do you really not get it?" Junior sneered, mouth curled up in a razor edged smirk. "I mean, maybe you wouldn't remember, with how much the two of you drank."

Yang tried not to let the words affect her. But she had a clear enough memory of the day after she and the Courier went to the Club. It'd been an important day. The hangover she'd started it with hadn't been any fun. She wouldn't admit to Junior how hazy the previous night had been. But she couldn't recall having had much to drink either. She wasn't a heavy drinker, not like Uncle Qrow or, as she discovered, the Courier, if Jaune's reaction to his moonshine was any indication. She wouldn't have had anywhere near enough to blackout.

But the Courier had also said he'd driven the two of them home after she did.

Her hesitance must've been visible to Junior. He latched onto it without a moment's waste.

"Do you not remember?" Junior asked, voice an animalistic growl. "What you did to my boys?"

Yang opened her mouth to say something, but the words couldn't find their way out. Things were very quickly spiraling away from her.

"How about I fill you in?" Junior offered. "Give you a play by play."

Before Yang could object, keep him how she wanted, he blustered on. Like Port lecturing about some long past hunt.

"You two strong-armed your way into my establishment like you owned the place." Junior snarled. "Ahead of opening, pushing my men back, acting like you owned the place. When we tried to make you leave, you fought back. And you fought back hard." He shook his head, sneering. "You knew what you were doing, coming to my club. Knew we wouldn't call the police, for the fat lot of good they'd have done me." A furious, fiery glow ebbed into his eyes. "Oh, but I wish I had. They'd have loved to bring both of you in for what you did."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Yang made no move to pull back, but she could feel Junior pushing forward, the muzzle of her gauntlet burying itself in his chest. She only barely pulled back enough to keep the trigger from tripping then and there.

"Go on." Junior hissed, words laced with venom. "You want to know, don't you?... Ask what you did."

"…" Yang wasn't buying what he was selling. She knew better than to trust anything Junior said at this point. He was pissed off she'd managed to corner him, was trying to pump him for information…

But something about what he was saying resonated with her. There were things that didn't match what she thought she knew. Maybe they would turn out to be nothing…

But she needed to know.

"… Who burned your Club down?" Yang asked.

Junior's smirk grew. "You did. You and your boyfriend." With each word, his smirk grew into a toothy smile. All thrill and no joy. "After you got through with butchering everyone, you set the fire to cover your tracks. Keep the police from following you, you vicious little psychopath."

Yang took immediate argument with that. Junior had to be lying about that part. That wasn't like anything she would do. "Oh bullshit-"

"No, nothing but the truth." Junior snarled, leaning further in. "Why do you think I'm here now, in some dirty back alley? You destroyed everything I had left!" The smile melted away from his face, replaced with vitriol and rage. "Do you have any idea what you did to me!? You destroyed everything I had left! My place of business, my crew, my assets! No one in this city will honor my markers now. No one outside it will do business with me!..." He began to compose himself, pulling back enough that it didn't seem as though he would try to attack her… yet. "You fuckers took everything I had left. And you butchered my crew to do it."

Yang tried again to find the words, but they just kept dodging her. Only giving Junior more room to build momentum.

"… Do you want me to tell you how you did it?" He sneered. "I can remember it perfectly. Watching how you two tore through everyone. Blood and guts everywhere. Oh how you must have enjoyed that."

"Shut up." Yang said, finally getting herself to speak. Her voice came out distant, unsure.

"You destroyed everything." Junior pressed. "I had over forty men with me that night, forty men! Do you have any idea how hard that should've been!?... But you tore through them like tissue paper. Just like you did the first time."

"Shut. Up." Yang snarled, trying to build her anger, find the strength to end this. Why did she feel cold? Why did her chest hurt?

"But this time you couldn't stop yourself, could you?" Junior sneered, a triumphant gleam in his eyes. "… You should've seen the smile on your face."

"SHUT! UP!" Yang bellowed.

Her fist crashed forward.

Thunder rang.

Junior crashed back into the wall. The stone walls of the building trembled as he hit. Yang could see the hairline cracks form in the mortar.

Silence hung in the air like a hanged man. The cold that'd invaded Yang pierced her heart like a million frigid needles. She felt her arm begin to tremble. But she couldn't tell if it was in anger, or something worse.

She realized what she'd done.

Then Junior laughed. A slow, wheezing, half-dead noise that would have been more at home in her nightmares.

"See." Junior's voice came, a thin, hissing thread like air leaking from a tire. "You just can't help yourself. Just as much a violent meathead as last time. But you fucked up this time. There isn't a single fucking thing you could do to me that'll actually matter."

Yang didn't say anything. She was frozen.

Junior pushed off the wall, standing. Yang could see where she'd hit him. It was hard for her to make him look worse than he already did. But the spot on his chest, clothes ragged and burnt where she hit, stuck out plainly. He didn't draw any closer to her, he remained at the wall, leering at her.

"Nice job, Blondie. But, this time, I. Win." He sneered. "You and that freak are made for each other. Now, if we're done, kindly fuck off back to where you came from."

He turned suddenly and bolted down the alley, running for the mouth of it. Yang could've stopped him. It wouldn't have been hard. She'd caught him easily enough.

But she couldn't bring herself to move.

So she just watched, as he ran down the alley, turned the corner, and disappeared. It was like watching through someone else's eyes. Yang couldn't bring herself to do anything. It took everything she had just to try and stay focused. Ignore the feeling of cold and unshakeable dread that was seeping into her bones.

What Junior had said, she couldn't have done that, right? After all, the news hadn't said anything about a bunch of dead bodies suddenly turning up. They would have, if as many people as Junior claimed had died. They would have a field day with that… Unless, maybe they wouldn't? The kingdom was already on edge. If it came out that so many people had suddenly turned up dead, the effect could be devastating. Grimm were attracted to negative emotions. If in the middle of all this, several dozen people were found dead, the damage could be catastrophic. Suppressing certain events wasn't unheard of. Oobleck said it used to be a lot more common back during the Great War. But who'd say it still wasn't?

But she couldn't have done it. She'd remember having…

Yang shuddered, hugging herself. She suddenly felt as though she'd be sick.

She hoped she'd remember something like that. But the longer Yang tried to remember that night, the more she realized how much of a blank it was. A big blackhole in her memory that swallowed everything dropped into it. Junior could've said she'd spent the night drag racing, and she'd be no wiser.

The only feeling that cut through the chill she felt was the pounding in her head. Tried to fit together pieces that might have once matched, but were now like broken glass.

Junior was lying. He had to be. She couldn't.

But she could have.

That truth was obvious to her. She knew her own strength.

Junior had to be lying.

She knew she couldn't trust him. But the only other person who was there was…

Yang felt her heart stop.

A memory came back to her. Not more than a day or two prior.

The Courier had wanted to talk with her.

About what had happened in the Club.

What happened with Junior.

… Was Junior lying?

"… Yang?" A voice asked.

Yang spun around in an instant, and her heart snapped back into rhythm at rocket speeds. She found herself instantly ready for a fight.

She found Weiss there instead. Watching her, curious and confused. Now cautious as well, as the heiress observed Yang's weapons warily.

"… Is everything ok?" Weiss asked, slowly, mindfully.

"… Y-yeah." Yang lied, lowering her arms, taking slow breaths.

Weiss nodded, still eyeing her, then looking briefly around the alley. "I… guess you didn't catch him?"

"Who?" Yang said, blinking.

"Um… Junior?" Weiss asked.

"Oh… no." Yang lied. "He, um…. He got away."

"… Ok." Weiss said, looking at her in concern. "Is everything ok?"

"… I don't know." Yang answered, dry swallowing.

Weiss nodded, still watching Yang. Studying her closely. How long had the two of them separated? It couldn't have been for more than a minute or two, could it?

What an impossible pair of minutes.

Yang turned toward the mouth of the alley. She steeled herself, tried to bury the feeling that wouldn't go away. "C'mon. We… we need to figure out where to go next."

"… Ok." Weiss said, voice soft, quiet.

The two of them left the mouth of the alley, turning the opposite direction Junior had gone. Some part of her hoped she never ran into him again. A completely alien feeling to her. She preferred it when guys like Junior felt that way about her.

There was nothing Yang could do now. Whatever had happened at Junior's Club, it happened.

But not knowing would kill her sooner than anything else. The amount of blood that could be on her hands, how was she supposed to live with that? Was she supposed to? Did she even have any on them? The only answer she could see was trying to figure out what was true.

There was only one other person who could tell her.

She needed to have words with the Courier.