Team SHDW Volume 2

Chapter 3: Of Runaways and Stowaways

"And that is?"

"I wanna stay with you for a while!" Diana blurted with an overly excited smile, "Just like how my brother and you guys did when you were growing up!"

Yang blinked a few times at the girl in surprise before she looked back up at Dante, "Are you sure? I mean..."

"Trust me," Dante replied, "If there was something wrong with that, my parents never would have left her out of the house, period. But your dad gave the okay, and I'm basically here as a glorified chaperone for her."

"You?" Yang couldn't help but giggle, "Chaperoning somebody? You can barely chaperone yourself!"

Dante huffed, "I'll have you know that only means I take better care of others than I do myself."

"No offense, but that's kinda sad."

The male teen deflated as Diana finally removed herself from Yang, "Yeah..."

Taiyang walked back in from the kitchen, now only holding one box, and cleared his throat, "In other news, guess what came in today!"

"What?" Yang questioned, now curious, turning to look at Dante.

Her friend shrugged, "Don't look at me. He's been excitedly talking about it, but hasn't said what it was to me yet."

"I can't wait for you to try this," Taiyang stayed eagerly, setting down the long white box on the coffee table in front of Yang, revealing the Kingdom of Atlas symbol on it. She looked at it and didn't move.

"Well?"

"It's... for me?" Yang asked unbelievingly.

"For you and you only."

With Diana now excited, Yang lifted the lid off the box to reveal a robotic right arm. Yang looked it over, somewhat wide-eyed while her father (and Diana) gushed. She blinked and her eyes drooped a bit, now a bit more distressed than pleased.

"Brand new, state of the art Atlas tech," her father described, "You know, I thought I was gonna have to pull some strings, call in a few favors, but you earned this one all on your own, kiddo."

Yang looked up, confused, "Huh?"

"Before I could even talk to him, General Ironwood already had one of his top scientists working on this, for you. He wanted me to tell you that you fought admirably. You should be proud of yourself."

Yang looked up at her father but said nothing, inquiring Dante to say to her, "You gonna try it on?"

"Yeah!" Diana spoke up in agreement, "It's looks really cool!"

"I uh..." Yang said hesitantly, "I'm not feeling too great right now. Maybe later?"

Everyone else in the room deflated a bit, Diana pouting while Taiyang put his hand to the back of his neck as he sighed and considered how best to respond, "Well, alright."

Dante frowned at his friend as she got up and walked up the stairs, Taiyang giving her an encouraging smile as she passed in front of him. Dante thought that maybe today was a bit too soon to bring Diana over to stay a while. Even if it had been almost a year since the Fall of Beacon, and Yang's condition had improved, he noted that she still needed more time to get used to things. After all, PTSD isn't something that someone can get over so easily. Yang thanked her father and continued upstairs as a visibly disheartened Taiyang bowed his head.

Dante knew he had gotten lucky in terms of getting out of Beacon's fall. Though very saddened by the loss of Pyrrha, that was the only thing damaging that happened, minus Hazel's leave for Mistral. But he knew that his other childhood friends in particular had gotten some of the worst of it. Yang got her arm cut off by Adam Taurus, who also just so happened to be the guy responsible for the murder of Skyler's parents. Skyler got to see that dismemberment happen, as well as face his parents' killer again. And poor Ruby had firsthand seen Pyrrha's death at the hands of Cinder Fall. Dante felt a bit of survivor's guilt for not suffering what they had.

"Hey, Dante?" Diana said, interrupting his thoughts, "Is Yang gonna be okay?"

Dante smiled at his little sister before walking over and patting her head, "Don't worry. She'll be fine... just give her until tomorrow. Then I guarantee that she'll play with you."

Diana's mood instantly shot up, Dante being thankful at that moment for childhood innocence, "Yay!"

Dante looked at Taiyang, who nodded and said, "Who knows? Maybe having her around will help things."

"Maybe," Dante agreed, but then frowned, "Just wish that Skyler had stuck around for a little longer though..."
_______________________________
Perhaps a bit of a random place to end the chapter, but hey, there was nothing else to be written. I honestly expected this chapter to be a little shorter, considering the original was mostly a Blake/Sun focused chapter. But hey, I finally got to introduce Diana! She's gonna stick around for a bit, unintentionally helping Yang with her PTSD. Because hey, adorable anime toddlers can solve anything. Till next time guys!