6: A Tale of the Lonely Little Girl

image [https://i.imgur.com/F4la9m8.png]

It was so warm. Everything was so warm. The soft bed she slept on, the pillow her head rested on, the sunlight draping over her body like a blanket, the small, whimsical smile on her lips; everything felt warm.

Her eyes were closed as she lay still, enjoying her lazy day nap, one of the few times she didn’t feel the need for constant movement. She was absolutely satisfied simply enjoying her rest. She swore she could lay there until the end of time. In fact, there was nothing truly stopping her from doing just that.

That is, until he walked in.

She felt her stomach flutter as he gently sat down on the edge of her bed, as if he were trying not to wake her up too soon. Through her half-sleep daze, she knew he’d come to get her lazy butt up for the day, as he always did.

“Nora…” he whispered softly.

She could hear her name being called, but she still wasn’t quite ready to open her eyes, the alluring pull of the warm bed enough to drown out his calls.

He chuckled. “Come on, Nora, it’s about that time.” His hand, equally as warm as the bed she lie in, softly landed on her bare shoulder, and he shook it. “You can’t sleep forever, you know… Nora… Nora…”

The more he called her, the more she begin to fully awaken. Despite the comfort of her sleep, his sweet, soft voice was always a force that could entice her to do just about anything. As he continued to shake her, her mouth opened, mumbling out incoherent words. Her lips moved to say his name.

Suddenly, she found a searing pain run throughout her arm. He began to squeeze harder and harder. Her teeth grit. It hurt. Why was…?!

“Nora… Wake up!”

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Her eyes snap open wide. She shoots upright in her bed, thoughts running frantic, senses flaringly wildly. She lets out a scream. Sweat ran down her entire body, everything feeling painfully hot. Her heart beat against her chest like a drum.

As her eyes scanned around the room, everything was a blur. Her breathing was uncontrolled. Her hand shot up to her shoulder quickly, feeling to make sure the pain she felt wasn’t actually there. When she realizes her hand was the only one grasping her shoulder, her senses began to calm and her breathing began to slow.

She also realized that she’d been in a dream. Now she was ushered violently back to reality, the reality where she remembers that she did not sleep in a soft, warm bed, rather on top of a cardboard box behind a dumpster in a dark alleyway. She could faintly hear the sounds of the city crowd walking by during the night hours. Being deeper in the maze-like alleyway, it was doubtful that anyone had heard her scream.

Her eyes, wide just a minute ago, began to dampen. The excessive bags underneath became deeper and more noticeable. She looked down to her side, remembering her dream, the bed she slept in, the edge where he sat next to her, called her name. Her hand lightly brushes the part of the cardboard where the edge of the bed would have been.

As she does, it is then she finally notices the dried up tears running down her cheeks. Licking her thumb, she does her best to clean them up. After which, her head falls into her hands and her knees come up to her chest.

For a moment, she just sits there. Drowning out all the sound around her, she simply wallows in her own little world, not a thought on her mind, nor a purpose in her heart. She just wanted to sit there.

And then, just like that, her head shoots up, a large smile etched on her face, eyes shining brightly. She vanishes, then reappears to her feet, stretching out her muscles.

“Alright, Nora, time to straighten up!” she says excitedly. “You’ve got a date tonight and you two are gonna have some fun!” She chuckles. “Ruby’s waiting for ya’, so you’d better get your game face on, girl!”

Straightening out her damp pink shirt and torn shorts, she reaches down to her little nest and picks up her dark gray, cape like waist cloth and wraps it around her, well, waist. Digging through her shorts pocket, she pulls out a metallic, ring shaped object.

She holds it in her open palm and stares at it. A soft, melancholic smile is on her lips, her eyes taking on a look of sadness. Slowly, carefully, she puts the object on the top arc of her ear, being extra careful not to somehow snap it in half. Once it’s secure, she moves her hair behind her ear to show off her accessory to the world.

All set and ready to go, she puffs her chest out and puts on her so called “game face”. “Okay! I’m all set! I’m gonna split now! See you around, okay?”

As she turns to leave, she looks back one last time with a toothy grin. “Love ya’, Ren!”

And with that, she vanishes from sight, setting off to meet up with her newly made friend for her promised night of fun.

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6

A Tale of the Lonely Little Girl

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Whoosh!

She jumps over yet another gap between the building tops she ran across, something so second nature, she barely even had to pay attention too much to pull the stunt off. Instead, her focus was on the ear piece she fiddled with, only visible due to the fact that her long, red hair bustled wildly in the wind as she zoomed at high speeds through the Vale City night.

“You got it on good, sis?”

Removing her hand from her ear, she tests to make sure the ear piece would stay in place on its own as she ran. Finding the device to be secure, she nods.

“It’s on, Yang. I got it,” she says, responding to the voice of her older sister protruding from the device.

“Good-Good. Now, make sure to keep that thing as out-of-sight as possible. Nora probably wouldn’t notice anyway, but just keep on the safe side and have it covered at all times. Don’t wanna tip her off and have that lunatic going ham on you.”

“I will most certainly keep that in mind.”

“How close are you to the meet up spot?”

“Um…” Ruby looks around her surroundings, trying to get a good lay of the land, the memories of her first encounter with Nora replaying in her mind. “Should be about… 5 to 10 minutes before I reach the tower, give or take.”

“Alright cool. Remember, you just wanna get that girl to trust you and spill the beans on the things she knows, come clean to ya’…”

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“…We’ll be here listening in the whole time, so you just worry about Nora, okay, kiddo?”

“Gotcha”, Ruby says, her voice coming from a laptop atop the desk by Yang’s bed. “Talk to you in a minute.”

“‘Kay.” The blonde pull off her headphones and places them on top of the laptop. “Well, guess she’s heading to spot now,” Yang says, leaning back in her chair, stretching out.

Beside her, Blake pulls her own pair of headphones down around her neck. “I suppose that means we’re stuck waiting for now.”

“Looks that way.” Yang stands from her seat. She walks over to her bed and plops down on it lazily, hands behind her head.

From Ruby’s bed, Blake goes back to looking at her book. “I’d say she’ll do a great job, wouldn’t you?”

Yang snorts. “It isn’t her I’m worried about here. I swear if that crazy little troublemaker makes even the slightest wrong move…”

“Yang, for some reason, I hardly think we have to worry about Nora doing anything to Ruby. From what I’ve heard, it sounds like Nora actually likes your sister. Maybe Ruby was right. Maybe there is more than meets the eye with her new friend.”

“Yeah, well, jury’s still out on that one, kitty cat.”

“Well, while they are, let’s talk about something else. How have you been lately?”

The blonde sighs, turning over to her side. “Stressed.”

Blake smirks. “Same ol’, same ol’ then?”

“Har-Har.”

“Is it this case involving Nora?”

“Actually she’s got nothing to do with it. It’s the… other stuff that’s bothering me.”

Blake’s little smirk falls at the implications of Yang’s words. “Yes, I’ll admit… Ruby’s… “condition” is a bit alarming. Has what happened in the forest happened before?”

“Once. And only once.” The junior huntress sits up right on the bed. “You remember where we stopped in the story, right?”

Blake nods. “You… were running from the Grimm. Then you fainted after Ruby pulled that feather out of you. After that, you blacked out.”

“Yup. That’s when it happened for the first time. When Ruby turned into… whatever the hell she turned into.”

The black haired woman’s head tilted to the side. “Wait, how would you know that? You said you blacked out after the removal of the feather.”

Yang stands up and begins to pace the room slowly. “No, you’re right, I didn’t actually see it. But… someone else did. He saved us… found us in the forest almost dead. If he hadn’t taken us in, I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now.”

Blake discards her book to the side. “Who exactly are we talking about here?”

Unknowing to the blonde herself, a small smile stretched across her lips. Blake, on the other hand, did see it, and the small act piqued her interest. Yang’s hand fiddled with the scarf around her neck as her eyes dimmed. “My uncle Qrow…”

“Uncle… Qrow?”

“Yeah… The man that saved our lives…”

That’s when Yang came back to her senses and shook her head of the thoughts. “But, that’s a whole other part of the story. The point is, he saw everything that went down. He said he found me barely breathing, blood all over my body. That’s when he heard the sound of Grimm behind the bushes. When he went to go check it out, he saw two Grimm… and Ruby. She was… growling, surrounded by them. He was going to leap in and help, but… before he could… it was already over. By the time he realized it, Ruby had been alone, covered in blood from head to toe…”

A shiver runs up Yang’s spine. “I didn’t see any of it, but the way my uncle described it… God, it makes my skin crawl just thinkin’ about that image. I could never think of someone like Ruby having such a… primal look in her eye… Scares the crap out me…”

Blake looks to the floor. “It’s strange. I’ve always noticed some essence of that in her.” Yang looks up at Blake. “It isn’t nearly as apparent as how you describe it having been back then. But, I’ve always seen a small glimmer of primal instinct in her eyes. You can’t really tell if you don’t look directly into them, but… when you do… you can’t help but notice this beast like gaze. The way her pupils dilate every so often, the almost absence of light in the silver portion… If you look for it, you can see… something… you just can’t figure out what it is.”

Blake looks up to the blonde. “And on the topic of your sister, I never did bother to ask: what’s with those markings on her face?” Yang looked a bit taken aback by Blake’s question, not really expecting her to bring that topic up. “I’ve noticed those since the day I met her, but I could never work up the nerve to ask. Something didn’t seem right bringing it up. Did she put those on herself?”

Yang rubs her head. Her left leg lifts to the back of her right, scratching it. “Well… not exactly. They kind of just… appeared there after she did that… thing.”

Blake’s eyes widen and she leans forward. “Wait, are you serious? Does that mean more grew after…?“

Yang nods. “When I was helping her out at the clinic, I did a little check up around her body. Ozpin suggested it, to be honest. And, lo and behold, what do I see? She now has two more markings here…” Yang turns around, pointing at the small of her back. “And here…” She turns back around, pointing to the crevice just above her groin region. Blake puts her hand on her chin. “Every time she goes into the beast state, more seem to grow. It’s only happened twice, but its hard to deny now.”

image [https://i.imgur.com/RNfeZLS.png]

“What are they? Does anybody know?”

The blonde shakes her head. “Nope. Ozpin and Glynda ran plenty of tests and took a few samples. Thing is, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It’s like they’re just apart of her like her skin would be. In fact, other than standing out, they feel like how any other part of the kid’s body would. How’s that for strange?”

Blake shakes her head. “That little girl is the personification of an enigma…”

“Oh, would you look at that. Looks like you and her have something in common then.”

Blake lifts a brow at Yang. “Oh, so I’m an enigma now?”

“Just callin’ it like I see it. You now know more about me than anyone in the entirety of Beacon, or even Vale does besides Ozpin and Glynda, yet I barely know a thing about you. Heck, I don’t even know how old you are.”

Blake smirks. Straightening out her hoodie, she stands from Ruby’s bed before walking closer to Yang, the blonde watching with her arms crossed and a brow risen. Putting her hands behind her back, Blake stands erect before Yang.

“My name is Blake. Blake Belladonna. I am a twenty year old, black haired, 5”11, 115 pound, purpled eyed young woman living alone in a modest, two story house. I work as a waitress down at ‘Flowing River Cafe’ in my daytime hours, and as a freelance writer and journalist in my free time. Along with that, I take joy in spending my day reading a good book and drinking a hot cup of freshly brewed tea. I don’t tend to watch much television, but I will not deny partaking in a good movie once in a while. While I have no certificate of proven education, I was home schooled for a good while by former affiliates and I make sure to educate myself whenever I can to this day.”

She holds her hand out. “Pleased to meet you.”

Yang looks down at Blake’s hand, then back to her face, a smirk on her own. “Oh that’s real cute.” Blake gives the most sarcastic, cutesy grin she can muster up. “But you know that isn’t what I meant.”

Blake’s smile simmers a bit as her hand retracts back to her side. She takes a step or two away from Yang, with her hands behind her back. “Truthfully, Yang, my background really isn’t that interesting. And when compared to your story, I think you’d agree.”

“I don’t need terrible excuses you know. If you don’t wanna tell me, you can just say that and skip the bull crap. Just know that it’s a bit uneven that I’m spilling my guts out to you and you’re holding your cards close to the chest.”

Blake’s eyes fall to the floor. “I know. I’m sorry, it’s just… maybe it’s not the right time to tell you just yet. But… I want you to know that… I wouldn’t mind having someone to talk to about these things. So, take that for what it’s worth.”

“…I get it. I’m not exactly sayin’ we’re friends yet…” She walks forward and lightly punches the black-haired woman’s chest. “But I can see the potential.”

This makes Blake smile. “Big jump from being ‘just a monster’ not too long ago.”

Yang shrugs with a snort. “Well, what can I say? You do have quite the way with the ladies. Two in two months. Pretty impressive.”

Blake rolls her eyes. “Har-Har.”

Static emits from the computer at that moment. After that, the voice of Ruby can be heard.

“Yang, I made it to the spot.”

Yang and Blake look at one another, the black haired woman nodding. “Here we go.”

Blake walks back over to Ruby’s bed and pulls her headphones back over her ears. Yang walks over to the laptop atop the desk. Sitting in the seat, she takes her own pair of headphones and puts them on her head.

“Loud and clear, squirt,” Yang says. “Where’s co-co brain?”

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Ruby lands on the top of the tower Nora chased her to the night before with a soft thud, barely a sound being heard. Standing from her crouch, she cautiously walks forward, observing the area, not too keen on being taken by surprise once again.

Not seeing any sign of Nora, she speaks into the earpiece. “I… don’t see her. She’s nowhere in sight.”

“Huh. No kiddin’,” Yang says through the earpiece.

“Perhaps she’s running a bit late?” Blake suggests.

“No, I’m the one who’s a little behind,” Ruby says. “I really don’t think Nora would be late for this.”

“Maybe it was all just a hoax. Perhaps Nora pestering you was a one time thing.”

“Oh, it had better not have been!” Yang exclaims. “After what she did yesterday, that little brat better show up, or I’m finding her myself and dragging her to the police.”

“Yang, calm down, I was just kidding. I’m sure she’ll show up. Ruby, you’ll just have to give her moment, that’s all.”

“Well… I’m not too excited to be here, honestly,” Ruby says, slowly rotating to see the entire rooftop. “I know I suggested this, but I’m actually not too sure I was thinking straight early-“

“Ruuuuuubbbyyyyyyy~….”

The young girl freezes mid sentence, her body going rigid as the familiar feeling of being watched washes over her, a chill running up her spine.

“…Ruby, what was that?” Blake asks.

“Oh god, not again!” Ruby yells.

That’s when, from behind, Nora quickly pounces at her, arms outstretched to latch on to the redhead. However, she was ready this time. Twisting around quickly, she is able to quickly glance at the oncoming, huge mouthed Nora before thinking fast and teleporting from existence, leaving Nora to impact the ground where Ruby once stood.

Ruby appears a few feet away, still looking alert and ready. “Nora, are you o-out of your flipping m-mind?! W-What are you doing?!”

The orange haired child giggles to herself, rising from the ground. “You’re pretty speedy, aren’t ya?” She quickly turns to Ruby, a menacing, huge, toothy grin on her face. “Betcha I’m faster though!”

She disappears before Ruby’s eyes, surprising the girl. Staying on top of things, Ruby focuses and prepares to teleport once more-

“W-WAH?!”

However, just as she is about to, something latches onto her upper body, making teleportation impossible. Looking back, her eyes widen when she sees the hands of Nora keeping her in place, the same large smile still on her face.

“Here we go!”

“W-Wait, Nora, what- AH!”

Suddenly, Nora begins to spin the young girl around like she were a rag doll.

“You spin me right round baby, right round~! When you go down!” Nora pivots her foot hard on the ground, revving up for a massive throw at the railing of the rooftop. “When you go down, DOWN!!”

She throws Ruby hard, causing the young girl to go sailing straight out of Nora’s hands, through the air, and clean over the railing where a massive fall to the streets below awaits. Once she realizes what is about to happen, she-

“OH MY GO- AHHHHHHHH!!”

Yeah, that.

Ruby begins to rapidly fall to the street below, the large fall set to be a longer one than usual. She flails widely in the air, her mind losing all sense of direction. Her life begins to flash before her eyes as she prepares to splat on the ground in a bloody mess.

“AHHHHHHHH!!”

She thought about all the things she was never going to do and all the things she probably should have done, but didn’t do. It was now she realizes the regrets of her life and how she would rectify them had she been given another chance, or, at least, had she not been thrown off a building by Nora.

“AHHHHHHHHH- Oh, right.”

That was when Ruby abruptly remembers she had the nifty ability of “not dying by falling to one’s death”. Also commonly known as teleporting.

Quickly composing herself she focuses her mind and prepares to-

“Wait, hang on!”

Her concentration is interrupted by a voice coming from in front of her. She opens her eyes to see Nora falling along side her, arms crossed, an unamused expression on her face.

image [https://i.imgur.com/eSMObOB.png]

“Okay, yeah, Nora, you can’t just throw me off of a building and expect me to know what ’it’ is I’m not exactly doing right! What the heck is wrong with you?! Why’d you do this, anyway?!”

Nora shakes her head, sighing as she fell to the ground upside down. “Come on silly, you can’t just expect to go ‘whoosh’ all boring all the time. You’ve gotta mix it up, have some fun with it!”

“I’m sorry, is there another way I’m supposed to stop myself from falling straight to the ground at 150 miles per hour, or something?! Because I’m pretty sure that’s my best bet at getting out of this right now!”

“Well, first off, you’ve got to chillax a little,” Nora advises as she falls to the ground upside down (that’s something that needs to be reiterated, really). “Panicking about it isn’t going to do anything. You need to clear your mind of everything happening around you, then focus on doing something cool.”

“Nora, I have no idea what you are talking about! Can you just get to the point so I can stop myself from splatting on that ground down there?!”

“Okay-Okay, cranky pants. Watch and learn!”

Nora directs her attention to the ground, a sly grin on her face. She straightens her body to fall faster, passing Ruby up. Tucking her knees to her chest, balling up, she begins to continuously spin-ball downward, going faster with each passing moment.

From below, the night owls of Vale City look up to see the orange haired girl falling at them, panicking at her free falling form. Suddenly, she vanishes from sight, confusing all who watched her plummet just a second before. Then without warning, she shoots out from the middle of the large crowd, carrying the same momentum from when she was falling to the ground, soaring over everyone in a huge arc. As she reaches the apex, she flips out of her balled up form smoothly, a hugs grin on her face as the wind rushes past her face.

“No way…” Ruby watched the entire stunt with a look of amazement.

“Hey, yeah, kid, I can actually hear the wind rushing pass your face!” Yang can be heard yelling insanely loud from the earpiece, almost as if she were panicking more than Ruby should have been at the moment. “Might wanna do something now!”

The redhead looks to wall of the passing building behind her. Her brows knit as a sudden rush of adrenaline washes over her. Tucking her knees in, she powers a mighty kick, like a sling shot. Firing out her feet, she hits the building side, giving her just enough a push to start falling at more of an angle.

On one of the lower buildings, she sees a flagpole protruding out from the side, giving her the next target to approach. From flipping, she does what she can to get as close as possible to the angle she needed to be at in order to grab the pole. Outstretching her hands, she is able to take the pole, the momentum of the fall giving her the right amount of swing to sling herself off the pole high into the air, rushing forward in a back flip.

As she rights herself, she prepares to hit an oncoming building top. She lands with a roll, skidding to a stop on both feet, one hand on the ground.

“Whoa…” she says, a look of wonder in her eyes at what she just pulled off.

“Hey!”

She jumps at being called. Looking around, she manages to spot Nora on a higher rooftop, running along it.

“There’s way more where that came from! Try and keep up!”

Nora dashes off the edge with a flip and lands on another roof, continuing her run. For some reason, Ruby finds herself getting fired up at the sight of Nora leaving her in the dust, her cheeks poking out in annoyance.

Assuming a crouched position, she readies herself, then takes with a dash. She flips over a few building gaps. Looking up to the buildings Nora was on, she sees that the teal eyed girl was taking a turn to the right. She looks lower for a way to follow and notices an open street, a few building bearing flagpoles and ledges big enough for her to use.

She maneuvers herself to make a hard right. She jumps off the building edge and lands on the street hard. A few of the surrounding people eye her curiously, but she was so into the moment, she didn’t even notice the attention on herself. Running to the row of buildings she’d been eyeing, She kicks off one of the walls and grabs on to the flagpole, flipping to land on top of it. From there, she jumps off and grabs a ledge, latching on so she could spider crawl up the building side.

Ruby reaches the top and climbs up on the roof, running in the direction Nora was. As she ran, she noticed a high building approaching, one she’d have a harder time climbing. So, instead, she latches on the front of that building and uses the smaller, yet attachable ledges to skitter across at an upward angle, managing to reach the top, her run never slowing.

Across the street were the buildings she sees Nora running across. She wanted to get over there.

She runs along her rooftop, never taking her eyes off Nora’s swiftly running form.

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She appears on the rooftop, walking forward, breathing hard. On her face, a large smile took it’s place, eyes closed. When she stops walking, she falls flat to the ground on her back with a ‘thud’. Right behind her, Nora appears, looking just as happy as Ruby did as she skipped to where the little girl lay.

Hovering over the redhead, she looks down at her and says, “So? Tell me that wasn’t a blast.”

Ruby opens her eyes, still breathing hard. “God… I forgot… how much fun… doing that was…!”

“I know, right? I love going on runs like that! Gets your blood pumpin’, doesn’t it?”

The young redhead sits up, breathing deep, wiping her forehead of sweat. “I haven’t felt that good since… well, since the first time I found out about my powers! That rush, the thrill…! Gah! It was incredible!”

Nora chuckles at Ruby’s excitement. “Well, keep going! What else did you feel?”

Ruby scrambles to find the right words, hands flailing around in uncontainable excitement. “Oh, Nora, where do I even begin?! The way the wind rushed through my hair when I jumped from those really big buildings? Gosh, that was pure bliss! Or-Or, when you and I were running side by side, seeing who could run the fastest? Oh, don’t even get me started!”

“Yeah, yeah! And!”

“God, how could I not mention that huge jump I made off that crane? Good lord, that was like living out my video games I played as a kid! “Leap of Faith” my butt! That was pure insanity!”

“Hehehe. I like hearing you happy like this.”

She turns to Nora. “Nora, you have no idea! I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this exhilarated! I can’t believe this feeling even exists! I just… Wah!” She falls to her back again. “…I really liked that.”

Nora decides to join Ruby on the rooftop floor next her, lying on her back as well, looking up at the clear night sky. “Yeah. Me too, buddy.”

Ruby lets out a sigh of content, her uncharacteristically large smile shrinking to a nice, soft grin. After a short moment of laying in silence, a thought comes to mind and her head turns to Nora. “Nora, that was really fun and all… but what exactly was the point of doing all of that exactly?”

Nora turns to the redhead. “Well, that is the point, silly. There was no point! Not everything has to mean something. Sometimes, you just do things because you can. For example, when you wanna run, you just gotta run! You don’t have to have a reason, you just run! Or when you wanna yell…” Turing her eyes back to the sky, she cuffs her hands around her mouth. “YOU YELL AS LOUD AS YOU CAN!!” She looks back to Ruby, grinning. “See? Just like that.”

Ruby chuckles. Her hand comes up to cover her mouth trying to hold her laugh in.

“And that. Don’t hold it in.” Nora’s hand comes up and takes Ruby’s wrist, pulling her hand down from over her mouth. “When you wanna laugh, you dig down deep and let out the cheesiest, stupidest one you can.”

Ruby smiles at the orange hair girl, looking away, a light blush on her cheeks.

“Go on. You give it a go.”

Ruby looks to Nora confused. “W-What?”

“Yell. Scream. Just let out the loudest one you can! But don’t be mad when you do. You don’t always have to be angry to scream. You’ve just gotta wanna do it! Let it loose! Go on, floor’s yours!”

Ruby looks hesitant, but, never the less, she slowly looks up to the sky and cuffs her hands around her mouth. She takes in a huge breath. Then, she-

“W-Wait,” she interrupts herself, turning to Nora. “What am I supposed to say?”

Nora’s lips puckers in thought. Shrugging, she says, “I don’t know. Just say something silly, I guess.”

Ruby takes a moment to think, trying to find the perfect thing to say. It only takes a minute for something to cross her mind, a mischievous grin spreading across her lips. So, cuffing her hands around her mouth, she takes in a big breath, and then, “YANG IS THE BIGGEST STUPID HEAD EEEEEVVVVVVVVVEEEEEERRRRRR!!!”

The yell was so loud that Nora and Ruby could actually hear it echo over the noise of the city below. As it does, the two girls eyes widen in surprise. They slowly turn to one another. Then, Nora begins to smile wide, a sparkle in her eye.

“W~OW! That was so awesome! That was way cooler than your mean yell!”

Ruby smiles shyly. “T-Thanks, I guess… Hehehe…”

Nora raises her hand in a fist toward Ruby. “Bump it!”

At first, Ruby looks at the fist confused. But, she gives in and, laughing, knocks her fist against Nora’s, causing the girl to giggle like a little kid, which, in turn, causes Ruby herself to giggle in amusement.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Whispering through her hidden earpiece, Ruby can hear her blonde sister speak to her.

“Love ya’, too, sis,” Yang says.

Ruby mockingly makes a kissing sound back at Yang, facing away from Nora so she wouldn’t see it. She looks back to Nora to see her still giggling away.

“See that, Ren, I got her to do it! This is so cool! Hehehe!”

It was low enough that Ruby could tell Nora wasn’t speaking to her, but it was like she was talking to someone. She lifted a brow.

“Uh, Nora?” she questions.

The girl looks back. “Yes, Ruby?”

“You, uh, still with me?”

She nods vigorously. “Of course! Why do you ask?”

“No, it’s just… you were kind of…” As she tried to explain it, Nora stares at the redheaded girl innocently. Ruby just sighs. “…You know what, never mind, forget it.”

“Okie-dokie then, buddy! You weirdo.”

After that, the two girls find themselves looking back up to the sky.

“See, Ruby?” Nora says. “Not everything has to have a reason. And not everything has to be bad. I thought you screaming was really scary. I hated it when you did it that one time… But the one you just let out? That was a nice one! That was just you having fun! That wasn’t a bad thing. And neither is that other side of you…”

That last statement catches Ruby off guard and she turns her head to Nora, surprised by what she said.

“I mean… it doesn’t always have to be. That beating in your chest when you’re running across buildings, that blood pumping through your veins, the feeling of uncontrolled energy; it’s not always a bad thing. You’ve just gotta… make it a good thing.”

“…Nora, there’s more to it than that,” Ruby says. “It’s not as simple as you’re making it sound. Those other sides of me… that scared little girl that ran away from you last night… that… beast that screamed at you after you chased me… those aren’t good things, Nora. They’re… sides me I can’t control sometimes… sides of me that make me have to take those pills.” She reaches into her jacket and pulls out the familiar orange bottle, holding it up to the moonlight. “These things… I need them… they help me… stay me…”

“That isn’t true! Those things don’t help you. They just make it harder to control yourself.”

“Nora, I don’t think you know exactly what I have to go through every single day. It isn’t as cut and dry as you may think.”

“I know that. I know exactly how it feels.” The young girl puts her hand on her chest. “…It’s terrifying… When your heart starts to beat out of control… the world starts to close in around you… it starts to get harder and harder to breath… Everything begins to blur around you, it gets hard to stand up… You feel like you’re the only person in the world… like there’s no one who can help you… You’re confused… You’re scared… You feel like… You feel like you’re about to die… And it’s terrifying…”

The whole time Nora spoke, Ruby stared at the young girl, honestly at a lost for words, eyes wide.

“That’s what it’s like for me, too… Every single day, it’s a constant battle not to fall for it… But I figured it out. I figured out how to deal with it. It took some time, but… I made it this far, right?” She completely turns to Ruby now, slightly sitting up. “I know what it’s like to deal with that other side, Ruby. And I know what it’s like to wanna fix it. And there’s nothing wrong with that bottle you’re holding. But there is something wrong with depending on it. And there is definitely something wrong with thinking that something’s wrong with you.”

Her hand drapes over Ruby’s softly. At first, Ruby flinches away, but soon lets Nora do what she wants.

“I know what it’s like to be scared, Ruby. But… You can’t let that fear… get in the way of you trying to be happy.” She smiles.

Ruby notices Nora’s hand unconsciously reach up to her ear. On it, that’s when she notices a silver ring like object on the upper arc of Nora’s ear.

“‘Keep moving forward…’ No matter how bad things seem to be… no matter how sad you are one day… don’t let that anxiety get in the way of your happiness. Don’t let that fear stop you from striving for something better.”

The redheaded girl looks down to the hand atop of her own. As Nora’s surprisingly wise words echo through her mind, Ruby nods slowly, looking into the teal eyes of the orange haired girl next to her.

“Thank you, Nora…”

Nora smiles back. “Don’t sweat it! Just trying to be the bestest friend I can be!”

Her legs come to her chest as she bends back, then kicks herself off the ground. Ruby sits up, looking to Nora as she stretches.

“And with that, we shall end our night of fun time! I think we’ve had enough happy happy fun times for now! If you still wanna hang out, we could always meet up tomorrow. Sound good to you, buddy o’ pal?”

“O-Oh, um… y-yeah, sure. That sounds fine to me.”

Nora smiles wide. “Good! Then meet me at the docks same time tomorrow night! And I need you to bring a few utensils also. You’re gonna need some cardboard, a mask for your face, and a whole bunch of spray paint! We’re gonna do something a little different!”

“W-Wait. What are we doing at the-“

“Ah-Ah-Ah!” Nora wags a finger at Ruby. “These lips are sealed! No spoilers shall be given, my dear Ruby! Just be at the spot and I can promise you that we’ll have some more happy happy fun times, okay?”

Ruby gives Nora a suspicious glance. “…Fine… I’ll see you then.”

Nora nods. “And I will see you!” And then, she begins to sprint to the edge of the building, still looking back at Ruby. “I had tons of fun tonight! I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?! Bye, Ruby!”

And with that, she jumps off the building and leaves Ruby’s sight, as well as leaves the girl alone. Ruby raises a hand, a soft smile on her lips.

“Bye, Nora…” she says quietly.

From her earpiece, she hears Yang speak up. “Sis, we still know nothing about why Nora attacked the dudes in the suits… You know that right?”

And with Yang’s point made, Ruby can do nothing but smack her forehead into her palm and mutter, “…Crap baskets…”

----------------------------------------

The door to the apartment bedroom swings open. Ruby enters the room, taking her hood down from her head. Near the desk by the window, Yang and Blake sit, the black haired woman looking to Ruby, the blonde leaning back in the chair in thought. On Yang’s bed, Jaune and Pyrrha sat, also watching as the red cloak wearing girl came in the bedroom.

She raises a brow at seeing Jaune and Pyrrha suddenly in the room. “I’m back,” Ruby greets.

“Who is Ren supposed to be?” Yang asks out of nowhere.

Ruby tilts her head at Yang’s unprompted question. “Weird way of saying ‘hi’, but, yeah, hello to you, too, sis. And… Pyrrha, Jaune, when did you guys get here?”

Jaune waves to Ruby. “‘Sup, Ruby. We, uh, kind of snuck in around the time Nora apparently threw you off of the roof and Yang stared into space with her mouth open like a hippo the entire time.”

“Oh. Well, good time to join in. So, you heard everything else then?”

“Yup. Pretty much all of it.”

Pyrrha giggles. “I’m… quite fond of Nora. She’s… cute.”

Ruby shrugs. “Yeah, well, easy to say when she isn’t throwing you off buildings. Other than that, yeah, she’s adorable.”

“You seem irritable,” Blake notes.

“Actually, I’m in a pretty good mood, believe it or not.”

“Ahem.”

Yang’s clearing of the throat causes all attention to direct back to her. This makes Ruby roll her eyes.

“Yes, dear sister, you were saying something about a Ren?”

“Thank you.” Yang continues where she left of. “Sometimes Nora will start to go off on a rambling fit and strike up conversations with someone who isn’t you, like there’s someone in the area with you two. You notice that, Rubes?”

Ruby places a finger on her chin. “Now that you mention it, she did do that. I just put it off as her being coco for Cocoa Puffs, or something? Why?”

Blake moves closer over to Ruby. “We’ve noticed she has the habit of doing it now and it piqued out curiosity. Did you happen to notice any sort of transmission device on Nora’s ear; something she could use to, perhaps, communicate with an unseen assailant?”

Ruby shakes her head slowly, going over Nora’s image in her mind. “N-No, not really. I mean, she has this ear ring thing on her… right one, but I think it’s just for show. Or, maybe something from her friend.”

Yang twirls around in her chair, facing Ruby. “Well, she’s talking to someone, because this person is apparently responding. And ‘he’ apparently goes by Ren.” Pyrrha raises her hand to get permission to speak. Yang rolls her eyes. “Really, is that just a thing we’re doing now? Yes, Pyrrha?”

The amazonian woman lowers her hand and speaks. “Perhaps this Ren is an as-of-yet seen accomplice to her mischievous activities as Ms. Belladonna suggested.”

“That’s a thought.”

“A possible friend or lover on the sidelines she ‘pretends’ to converse with as a means of organizing her thoughts?” Blake puts in.

“Could be. Pretty out there, but I’ll consider it.”

Jaune snaps and smacks a balled hand in his open palm. “Booty call she had to cancel, because she was with Ruby the whole night.”

At that very moment, for the very first time in his life, Jaune had the uninterrupted attention of not one, not two, but four unrelated women all at once. Pyrrha’s gaze was one of awestruck wonder, her eyes wide, mouth slightly agape. Yang’s was one of disgust and annoyance at how one boy could possibly be as stupid as Jaune was. Blake looked puzzled, her eyes making it glaringly obvious that her mind was currently working in overload to figure out the method in which Jaune’s own mind came up with such a ludicrous, out-of-nowhere answer like that.

Ruby looked… absolutely lost as to why they were currently staring at Jaune so intently. So, in hopes of getting some much needed answers, she turns to Yang and, in a completely, unbelievably innocent way, asks her older sister:

“Yang, what’s a booty call?”

And now, three of the four pairs of women eyes and an extra set of male eyes slowly turn to Ruby, each and every one of them sharing the exact same expression of pure horror that a nice, sweet, innocent child like Ruby just said “booty call”, and the fact that the very same girl was now expecting someone to explain to her what a “booty call” was.

So, like any good sister put in such an awkward situation would do, Yang puts the burden of dealing with a little girl like Ruby on the shoulders of the next available sucker. That sucker just so happened to be Blake.

“You got this one, right, Blake?” Yang asks quickly.

“What?! W-Wait-“ Blake sputters out.

“Sweet, awesome, great, you’re a babe.”

With that, Yang turns back to Pyrrha and Jaune, leaving Blake to awkwardly stare into an expecting Ruby’s eyes. She lifts her hand in a “as you may know” manner, but quickly drops it down, shaking her head.

“Okay, so we can assume this Ren guy isn’t that last one, Jaune,” Yang says, putting a dose of venom in the blonde boy’s name. He shyly grins and shrugs, causing Yang to shake her head. “But, whoever he is, he may be close to Nora, and he may be someone worth looking into.”

“Actually, Jaune and I could possibly snoop around a bit and pull some information up,” Pyrrha offers.

“That’d be great, but that might be a little tougher than you think. We only have one name, and we aren’t even sure if it’s a first or a last one. Could take a minute to find one specific Ren, y’know.”

“Well, I’m sure we can figure out something. We’ll just split the workload between Jaune and I, and you and Blake. We’re bound to find something sooner or later, right?”

Yang leans her head against the backrest of her chair, sputtering her lips, making a sound akin to a rotor. “Alright, do what you two can. Anything helps, I guess. See if you can’t find any ‘Rens’ in the Vale City area. We just need a breadcrumb to get on this trail. Just do the best you can. I’ll let you two know when Ruby and Nora are getting ready to meet up tomorrow night. Sound good?”

“Yes.”

“Gotcha,” Jaune says, hopping up from the bed, Pyrrha following his lead. Before he exits the room, he turns around one more time and asks, “While we’re doing this, what are you all gonna be up to?”

Yang puts her hand on her chin as she ponders for a moment. “Me and Blake’ll be getting ready for the next time we deal with Nora I guess. Maybe even do some ‘Ren’ searching of our own. And Ruby…” she addresses her sister. “You go ahead and get some rest. You’ve done more than enough for one night. Try and get some sleep, okay, kiddo?”

The redhead nods. “‘Kay.” She looks to Jaune and waves. “Good night, Jaune.”

He waves back. “G’night, Ruby. Sweet dreams.”

She sighs. “If only…” With that, she walks over to her bed and plops on to it like a sack of bricks, face first, unmoving. Jaune can’t help but to chuckle at that.

“Alright, I’m gonna head out.” He throws up a backwards peace sign. “Deuces.”

Yang mimics the motion. “Deuces.” The blonde leaves the room, closing the door behind himself, leaving Yang, her sister, and Blake alone. Yang directs her attention to Blake. “I know I just volunteered you to help me with this research crap, but you can head home if you want.”

The black haired woman shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. I suppose I can stay here for the night. That is, unless your offer to let me leave was really just your nice way of saying ‘get the hell out of my house’.”

“Oh come on, really? Do you seriously think I’m that much of jerk to be like that?”

Blake, instead of answering, just continues to stare with deadpan eyes.

Yang crosses her arms over her chest. “Well. I see where we stand now. Whatever, kitty cat. You can take my bed this time. I’ll sleep on the couch, because that’s what nice people do.”

“Uh-hu. Keep telling yourself that, Yang.”

“I can let your ass sleep on the floor if that’s what you want. Keep sassing me and that’s damn sure what’s gonna happen.”

“Hmgh!”

Blake and Yang turn to Ruby, who talked from her position on her bed. But, due to her face being buried in a pillow at the moment, her words came out muffled and incoherent.

“Kid, lift your head. Can’t hear a word you’re sayin’.” Yang says.

Ruby complies and looks over to her sister. “Swear, Yang! What is with you and the potty mouth?”

“Aren’t you supposed to trying to sleep? Why are you all up in my business?”

“It’s kind of hard to sleep when you’re cursing up a storm over there. And you know as well as I do that me sleeping isn’t going to happen any time soon.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Ruby,” Blake says. “I didn’t know I was bothering you.”

Ruby smiles at Blake softly. “N-No, you’re okay, Blake. It’s normal for me not to sleep much anyway.”

Yang lifts her hands in a “WTF” manner. “WTF, Ruby? Why the heck does she get off so easy?”

“Why don’t you sleep?” Blake asks, ignoring the blonde.

Ruby eyes widen, looking as if she were caught off guard by Blake continuing on with the topic. “O-Oh, um… It’s… nothing, really. Just… have a bit of a hard time sleeping at night. T-That’s all…”

“Do you have some sort of insomnia? Are you experiencing night terrors of some-“

“Okay, that’s a enough talking for the night,” Yang interrupts, wrapping her arm around the blackhead’s shoulders. “Ruby, you need to get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow, ‘kay?”

Ruby nods slowly, then turns her back to the two ladies, lying down on her bed. Yang and Blake look at each other, and Yang flicks her head to the door, motioning for them to depart. The blonde drags Blake along and the two leave, closing the door shut. Yang walks forward, Blake following behind at a slower pace before stopping in the middle of the living room.

“Yang, did I… cross the line back there somehow?” Blake asks.

Yang stops her walk toward the kitchen. She sighs a little, then, turning back to Blake, says, “Nah-Nah, you’re good. Just… I wouldn’t recommended trying to get in the kid’s head quite yet.”

Blake tilts her head to the side. “Get in her head?”

“Like, try and figure her out. No offense, but you aren’t quite on that level yet. She isn’t quite as open as I’ve been when it comes to personal stuff.”

“O-Oh. That wasn’t my intention. I just wanted to make sure she was okay, that’s all.”

“No, I get it. Just… for future reference…”

Blake’s eyes lower to the floor. “I understand. I’ll keep that in mind… So, what are your thoughts on this whole Nora situation right now? Do you think this is going anywhere?”

Yang scratches her head, putting a hand on her hip. “Well, in terms of what she knows about the ‘Men In Black and Red’, we still know absolutely nothin’. But, we were able to get a glimpse into the crazy mind of Nora, so that has to count for something, I guess.”

“Ah, you don’t seem too sour over that. Don’t you want to figure out what Nora knows?”

“Well… I mean, yeah, that would be nice… It’s just… I dunno…”

“You wanna know what’s going on with Nora, don’t you?”

Yang groans. “I knew this was gonna happen, I just knew it. I’m more concerned about the kid now more than anything. She just… just…”

“Reminds you of Ruby?”

Yang gives Blake a glare. “…You saw this comin’, didn’t you?”

Blake smirks, walking past Yang. “When Ruby told us about her plan… I had my suspicions. When you actually agreed to it…” She turns to Yang, smirking her way. “It was pretty much set in stone.”

And with that, she enters the kitchen, out of sight, leaving Yang to groan and roll her eyes.

----------------------------------------

The Next Day

----------------------------------------

Pages flip as eyes scan over the numerous words scattered across them. In less than a minutes time, more pages are turned so that she can continue reading. Documents and printouts were all over the floor, littering the room and tabletop in front of the television. She sat on the floor cross legged, back leaning against the couch behind the coffee table, her normal, more battle ready attire traded out for her school issued uniform, the brown jacket and tan vest hanging off the armrest of the couch leaving her in a simple white, button-up shirt.

Pyrrha’s attention was squarely focused on the task at hand, no sign of weariness evident on her features, despite the long hours she and her blonde mutual had been going at this. Speaking of whom, she pauses her research momentarily to look up on to the couch where her associate Jaune was… currently snoring away.

She grins. “Well, you tried, I suppose…”

With the many papers and books scattered across his body, one would think the guy was using them as a makeshift blanket of sorts. While she was sure the documents were the ones the two had printed out at the library, the books were the oddballs out, they catching the redheads attention. She reaches out and carefully (she didn’t want to wake Jaune up now, did she?) takes one of the three books over his body. Closing it shut, she looks at the cover.

“‘The Art of Aura Flow’… Huh,” she says. She looks back to the sleeping blonde, he unaware that Pyrrha took the book off his chest, snoring away like there wasn’t a care in the world. She couldn’t help but lightly chuckle at the sight.

After organizing the mess she made, she stands up from her spot on the floor, stretching out her sore muscles and a sleeping leg. She carefully steps over the documents and walks down the hallway of the boy's designated dorm room. She now stands between two doors, each on different sides of the hall. Looking between the two, she places a finger on her chin.

“Which one is…?” she questions. Following her gut, she randomly picks the right, twisting the door knob and opening the door. “Oh…” Pyrrha is met with the sight of a cleaned out room, no sign of anyone having even lived in it.

Something completely untrue. For, not too long ago, a certain white haired heiress took refuge in the very room Pyrrha had accidentally stumbled into.

The redhead had been in here a few time before after Weiss invited her here, and she remembered it being a lot more jammed packed in the reasonably sized space. She recalled two whole dressers pressed against the walls, brimming with the many garments the whitehead had brought along, beautiful silk curtains lining the top of the window sill, a desk top sporting a large, stainless mirror, and a closet filled to the brim with (you guessed it) more clothes. The bed was covered by high class, softer-than-clouds blankets and pillows, something Pyrrha, admittedly, loved getting the chance to touch.

That was the room before. Now… it felt empty; cold. All that was in the room was a plain, stripped bed and an open closet door, the inside empty just like the room. Everything felt so bland, so dry, so… lonely. It only further reminded Pyrrha of how much she actually missed the prissy little girl. Despite her flaws, she was still a friend, one that Pyrrha would love to see again.

“I hope you’re all right…” she whispers, hand landing on her chest. Shaking her head, she remembers the reason she was back here in the first place. Taking one last glance around the room, she slowly, gently closes the door shut, turning to the one behind her.

She opens it and finds the room she’d been searching for. She looks around Jaune’s room with an impressed gaze.

“It’s… cleaner than I thought,” she says.

And it really was, too. There wasn't even much in the room, a simple, blue blanket covered bed, a computer desk complete with chair, and a moderate sized clothes dresser were the only things actually in the room. Not much else, really. She’d expected to see a lot more junk lying around, littering the place. But she could honestly admit that the room might actually be cleaner than even her own. Not bad.

Walking over to the bed, she takes hold of the blue blanket and rolls it up over her arm. After that, she makes her way back to the living room, and wanders over to the boy still sleeping on the couch, his position not having changed a bit. She carefully removes the various papers and book off of him, he not making a sound the whole time. When that was finished, she spreads out the blanket and slowly puts it over his body. When she does, he finally fidgets a little, snuggling up to the warm, familiar blanket.

Pyrrha smiled softly at the boy. She turns to look at the mess she made all over the floor, sighing to herself. “I should probably clean this up.” Then she members why she made the mess in the first place and shakes her head. “And then I guess it’s time I head back to the library. Goodness me….”

She turns to the spot she sat in before and spots a pink plastic cup, one she’d been drinking out of while working. After picking it up, she was disappointed to find it empty of it’s contents, only small, melting pieces of ice remaining. She turns and eyes the refrigerator sitting in the kitchen behind her. She then gives the sleeping Jaune a look and smiles.

“I’ll be stealing one of your water bottles if you don’t mind,” she says quietly.

Moving around the couch, she heads for the kitchen area, aiming to take some water from the fridge. Once she reaches it, she takes the door handle and swings it open to reveal the rather sparse contents. She scans around in search of the water bottle, moving jarred pickle slices, a bottle of mayonnaise, and some relish around.

“Water, water…” she repeats while searching. After moving aside one more jug of milk, she spots her prey. “Ah, there we are.” She reaches out to snag up the…

The refrigerator door slams shut with force. Her hand moves quick to a knife holster on the kitchen counter beside the fridge, taking one of the more sharper looking ones. Once wielded, she points her weapon to the side in the darkness of the kitchen, eyes alert, squarely on an obscure target further into the kitchen.

“Stay right where you are, or I will take action.”

A shadowed figure stands frozen, making no move where it stood. Because of the darkness of the room, she couldn’t quite make out what the intruder looked like. The only thing she did know was that the intruder was female, standing significantly shorter than herself.

Knife still readied, she slowly moves to the side, reaching out for the light switch on the wall. She flips it up and the room becomes illuminated. Standing on the other side of the kitchen, frozen solid, a nervous look on her face, an orange hair girl wearing a pink shirt stands. The girl looked to be a good bit younger than Pyrrha.

Pyrrha narrows her gaze. “You will tell me who you are and why you are invading my friend’s home now.”

The young girl, looking back and forward between Pyrrha and the knife she held, can be seen slightly jumping at the commanding tone of Pyrrha’s words. Swallowing, the girl speaks.

“H… Hello… M-My name is Nora…”

At the answer, Pyrrha’s eyes widen, her knife arm slightly dropping.

“I… just want to talk…”

Slowly, the knife drops more and more, Pyrrha still processing what was happening at the moment. “Nora…? Why are you…?“

She stops herself short, something that causes the orange haired girl to give a concerned look. Pyrrha remembered something very important: she wasn’t actually supposed to know Nora. This should be the first time the two are meeting. So, mentioning Ruby, or the fact that she already knows the girl might ring off a few alarms in Nora’s head. She had to play it cool, go along with the moment.

She clears her throat, raising the knife up higher to seem more convincing. “Okay, Nora. What exactly are you doing intruding this residence?”

The young child fidgets where she stands, looking to floor. “I… I just wanted to meet you… that’s all…”

Pyrrha tilts her head. “Do I… know you?”

Nora shakes her head. “N-Not exactly. But I sort of know you. I-I saw you… fighting those mean guys a while ago. You helped my friend. I… I thought you were really strong, so…”

“Wait… Have you… been spying on me?”

Nora puts her hands out in defense. “N-No, no! I wasn’t spying, I was just…!” Upon eye contact with he redhead, Nora loses her words and puts her hands behind her back, eyes falling back to the ground. “…I… I mean… yes ma’m, I was… I’m s-sorry…”

By now, any sense of danger radiating off the young girl had passed. Pyrrha was fairly certain Nora hadn’t shown up to do her, nor Jaune, any harm. Her knife arm was now down to her side.

She sighs. “You know, this is not the best way of going about meeting someone, young lady.”

Nora’s head dips further. “I’m sorry…”

Pyrrha can’t help but to smile at the girl’s shyness, not expecting such a humble attitude after hearing Ruby describe her. “Do you always tend to break into people’s houses when you want to meet them?” Pyrrha says this while walking over to the knife holder and replacing the one in her hand.

Nora looks up slightly. “Not really… you were a special case.”

Pyrrha lifts a brow. “Special case?”

The orange haired girl smiles. “I… I think you’re really strong. You handled those jerks with such grace. Watching you fight was like watching a ballerina. But not like that white haired girl. More like a really buff ballerina with a rifle stick.”

Pyrrha chuckles. “I believe you mean my ‘javelin’, actually. Not ‘rifle stick’.

Nora nods. “Y-Yeah, that thing…”

“And is that really the only reason why you wanted to speak to me?”

Nora fiddles with her fingers. “Well… and I thought you seemed really nice, and sweet. You… remind of someone else I really like, so… I kind of like you.”

Pyrrha crosses her arms. “How long exactly have you been watching me?”

“…Long enough to know you’re really nice.”

“I’m not really sure how I feel about that, to be honest. Do you think you could perhaps not spy on me from now on?”

Nora nods vigorously. “O-Okay. I can do that”

“Thank you, Nora. You know, if you really wanted to speak to me, you could have simply approached me normally. You seem like a very well mannered young girl, so I’m sure I would have had no problem talking to you.”

She smiles. “T-Thank you. I just thought you’d get mad if I bothered you.”

“And you thought breaking in here would be a better alternative?”

“You weren’t supposed to know I was here.”

Pyrrha almost found herself letting out a laugh at that for some reason. “I can’t believe I actually understand that. Well, I suppose you’re lucky it was this house you happened to barge into. Anyone else and this conversation might not have gone as well.”

Nora cheeks glow a brighter red than usual. “Maybe not…”

“It’s okay, though. I forgive you.”

The child gives the redhead a smile. “I knew I was right about you. You really are nice.”

Pyrrha smiles back. “Well thank you, Nora. You are quite the sweet young lady yourself.”

Nora chuckles, rubbing her nose.

“Actually, Nora, if you don’t mind, I’d like to speak with you some more. If you want, we could sit down for a minute and talk over lemonade.”

Nora looks caught off guard by Pyrrha’s offer. “U-Umm… I mean, sure, I guess we could… talk a little.”

“Wonderful. Well, go ahead and take a seat at the table.” With that, she turns to the fridge, opening the door to retrieve the contents. While she did, a soft smile stretches across Nora’s lips as she watches Pyrrha.

“I knew I was right about you…” she says low.

Pyrrha easily spots the pitcher of lemonade on the bottom shelf and grabs the handle. “So, Nora, I’d like to know a little more about… you…”

As Pyrrha lifted herself from the fridge, she found herself, once again, alone in the kitchen, the orange haired intruder nowhere in sight. She looks around, thinking perhaps that the girl simply moved to a different spot. When no trace of her is found, Pyrrha’s shoulder’s sag.

The sounds of a gust catches her attention and she turns to a window on the kitchen wall. That was when she noticed that it had been open, letting in the breeze, alluding to the obvious escape Nora must have took. As well as the obvious entrance it would also seem.

“Good… night, I suppose…” she says.

“Yo.”

The redhead jumps at the sudden voice and quickly turns to the couch in the living room. Yawning and scratching his blonde head of hair, Jaune looks over the couch at Pyrrha with tired, half open eyes.

“I-I’m sorry, Jaune,” Pyrrha apologizes. “Did I wake you?”

He shakes his head, another yawn escaping. “Nah, you’re good… Were you… talking to somebody just now?”

Straightening up, the women looks back to the spot Nora was standing in only a moment before. Sighing, she responds, “I… suppose…” She thinks back on the recent events, still unsure of what to make of it all. However, she decides to put it out of mind for now. She looks to Jaune. “Would you like to accompany me to the library?”

He is clearly looked taken off guard by such a random question. “W-What?”

“I need to make a run to the library to do more research. Would you care to join me on my trip?”

He scratches his chin. “Uh… Y-Yeah, I mean, sure, why not? I’ve got a few things I need to return anyway, so… I guess I’m in.”

She nods. “Excellent. Then we can depart…”

At that moment, a spark of light catches her eye on the floor. Her curiosity piqued, she strides over to the object on the floor. Jaune follows her path with a confused glance.

“Pyrrha?” he asks.

The amazonian woman reaches the object and bends down to grab it. Once in her hands, she stands back up and looks to her enclosed hand. When she opens it, three pink rose petals slowly fade out of existence as if never having been there in the first place.

“Interesting…” She turns and walks past Jaune.

He gives her a confused look. “What is goin’ on with you today…?” he asks under his breath.

“Come Jaune, we should get going.” She opens the front door as she says this. “Oh, and by the way, that person I was speaking with was Nora. I’ll fill you in on the way.” And she closes the door.

He nods in understanding. “Oh, okay…” And then he realizes what she just said. “Wait, what?!”

----------------------------------------

Click.

Click.

She types words into the search bar: Rens in Vale City.

19,300,000 results

She scowls at what came up on screen. Perhaps that wasn’t the best search query. She thinks of something better to put into her search. Another try.

Nora Vale City

16,200,000 results

…So that helped absolute nothing. And the worst part was, one of the top results was some video about a stupid guy in a bat suit. She had no clue how that even pertained to her search, a look of confusion etched all over her face.

Her forehead rests on the arm perched atop the desk she sat at. The library she found herself in was deathly quiet, even given the fact that libraries are meant to be, well, silent. This was due to the late hour she decided to give the building a visit, most other students having turned in for the night. Either that or they’re disregarding school curfew hours and roaming the streets, something she needn’t worry about, due to the library being on campus and open 24/7.

Other than the small number of night crawlers doing some last minute studying, internet browsing, or simply hanging out, Pyrrha found herself and her newly made friend, Jaune, alone.

Speaking of Jaune, she looked around in search of the blonde boy, deciding it best to take a break from her research. While her search queries may seem as if she literally just started her browsing, the redheaded woman had actually been at it for about 3 hours straight now, searching every database, social media site, employee list; anything she could get her hands on. All in search of one person named “Ren”. And this Ren also had to have some sort of relation with Nora.

Predictably, things weren’t exactly going so smoothly for Pyrrha.

“Why did I think this was a good idea…?” she asks herself with a sigh.

Standing from her seat, she scans around the general area for any sign of her partner in crime (or justice in this case). Not catching a sight of him, she decides to walk over to the assortment of neatly aligned tables between the huge rows of books. There, she found she and Jaune’s base of operations, where the two’s supplies, a pile of books and papers, were strewn about. However, out of the list of items, the pile of books were a new addition since she walked over to the computers. Most likely, this must be Jaune’s doing.

In fact, Jaune had joined her there to assist in tracking down the Ren they were looking for, but wandered off an hour into it, Pyrrha thinking he’d return soon. Of course, seeing as she couldn’t find him, that obviously didn’t happen. Curiosity taking over, she decides to take a quick look at the books Jaune apparently gathered together while she did her research. Out of the stack, one caught her eye, one she recognized seeing recently.

Picking it up, she reads the title. “‘The Art of Aura Flow’…”

In fact, the three other books accompanying the one in her hand all related to things pertaining to Aura: how it was used in combat, the different kinds, and the history. Strange.

“Ow! Damn it…”

That was a voice that sounded all too familiar. And due to the virtually dead silent nature of the building, his voice stood out all too obviously. With that, she could easily track down her associate.

As she walked away from the table, it was soon she was able to find where her friends voice echoed from. She ends up reaching a book section titled “All Things Aura”.

When she turns the next corner, she sees the boy she sought out sitting on the floor between the shelves, his thumb in mouth, a look of annoyance on his face. Smiling, she casually strolls over to him. He seems to not have noticed the girl yet, even when she’s pretty much standing over him. She bends down next to him, amused by his complete ignorance at her presence.

Taking a look at the title he apparently cut his finger on, she says, “‘The Mechanics of Aura’ by Mika Settler.”

As soon as she speaks, Jaune squeaks in surprise, turning to Pyrrha with wide eyes, his thumb still in mouth.

“You know, I’ve actually read this version before and, I must say, it’s one of the less helpful ones out there. Personally, I’d recommend ‘Systems and Connections’ by Sayaka Miyazaki. It is much more detailed and enriched with the history of Aura. Also very current.”

Giving her an annoyed look, he says, “W-Well… I’ll be sure to put that in the queue.”

He picks up his dropped book and closes it.

“Jaune, why are you looking so deep into Aura?” Pyrrha asks. “You do know how it works, do you not?”

“Y-Yes, Pyrrha, I know how Aura works. Can’t a guy get a bit of Aura study in for class?”

Pyrrha puts her hands up defenseless. “Oh, by all means, study to your heart’s content. I just find it odd that you would be doing so much of it due to your proclaimed hatred of studying, and the fact that no exams pertaining to the subject have been announced in any of our classes.”

“W-Well, maybe I just want a… bit of refresher on how it works and stuff? Maybe I find the inner workings of Aura to be fascinating.”

Pyrrha simply looks at him with a flat expression.

“Don’t look at me like that! I happen to find Aura to be really interesting.”

“I completely believe that, Jaune. I just find it hard to believe that you would spend so much time actually reading about it.”

He sighs. “Look, Pyrrha… I just… gotta do this, okay? I need… I need a few answers and I’m hoping one of these stupid books can give me them.”

Pyrrha gives Jaune a look of suspicion. Then, a thought passes through her mind. “Jaune. Could you look at me for a second?”

“What? Pyrrha, I really don’t-“

He is shut up by the sight of Pyrrha being only an inch or two from making the two’s noses touch. A hot, bright blush forms on his cheeks. A drop of sweat rolls down his face. His eyes darted from side to side, he not very comfortable with the proximity and Pyrrha’s blatant disregard for personal space. She, on the other hand, stared unblinking into his eyes, a stern look on her face.

“…Well, this isn’t awkward in the slightest,” he jokes.

“Shush,” she says calmly as she continued to stare.

It was as if she were looking for something. And she was looking hard, too. Jaune could almost feel her entering the depths of his soul as she scavenged for whatever it was she sought to find. The longer she looked, the more frustrated her face became, the harder she focused. What had she been trying to find?

Finally, she snaps out of her search mode and her eyes widen as she moves back and away from Jaune, he letting out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding in.

“Geez, Pyrrha,” he says after clearing his throat. “Maybe warn a guy before you go wandering off into the dark recesses of his soul, would ya’? Felt like you were probing me, or something?”

“Your Aura hasn’t been unlocked….”

“I mean, god, I have nothing against being so close to a pretty girl like yourself, but…” he freezes as he catches what Pyrrha had just said. He slowly looks up at her. “…W…What did you just say…?”

She continues to stare at him. “Jaune… your Aura hasn’t been unlocked yet. It still lies dormant inside of you.”

His face takes on an alarmed look. “Pyrrha, wait, I can ex-“

Suddenly, she grabs his head and holds tight, catching him off guard.

“Pyrrha, wait-“

He can’t even finish what he was saying before his body is covered in an odd feeling and he becomes weak. His body turns to jelly. It was like every part of his being was put under a spell of indescribable ecstasy, a chill running through his body. He could actually feel Pyrrha’s Aura flow through him as she focused with eyes closed.

Time passed and, as it did, her face grew more frustrated. Eventually, she releases her hold on him and her eyes snap open, she taking a deep breath in, Jaune almost falling over to the floor.

“Pyrrha, seriously… you gotta say somethin’ before you do that…” Jaune says with a slurred tongue.

She looks at him confused and shocked. “I… I couldn’t unlock your Aura…”

He does his best to straighten himself up and compose himself. “Yeah… I tried telling you that wouldn’t work.” He shakes, a smaller chill running up his spine. “My other teachers… back in training school tried to do the same thing. Even Headmaster Ozpin gave it shot. Needless to say… it was no-go.”

“But… that can’t be possible… You’re required to have a grasp of your Aura flow to get accepted into Beacon. How are you…?”

“Believe me, I was just as surprised when I got my enrollment letter approved. I honestly tried to enroll as a bit of a joke. I… really didn’t think they’d accept me, so I just tried my luck. I had nothing to lose, really, so… I figured… why not, you know?”

“But… How…?”

He shrugs. “When I got here, Ozpin himself tried to unlock my Aura. When he couldn’t, I knew I’d be sent home right then and there. I was prepared to apologize for wasting his time and everything. But he still let me attend after asking me why I wanted to come to this school. When I asked him why, he just said… ‘That’s a good question.’ Then he just… walked off. I still have no idea what that is supposed to mean.”

He scratches his head. “If you don’t already know the obvious, I’m on the bottom of the student list. I had the worst scores during the exam at the beginning of the year. My combat, skills and Aura scores are abysmal. So, I make up for it by doing the best I can in my classes. I try to ace every test I take, I turn in as much homework as I can; I figured if I could at least show I know my stuff, then maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to…”

He drones off as he looks to Pyrrha, who stared at him with the same shocked and worried expression.

“Uh… Pyrrha, I know my whole ‘not having Aura thing’ isn’t the greatest thing ever, but I’m not gonna die, or nothin’… I mean, right?”

She shakes her head slowly. “Jaune… you can’t graduate like this.”

He looks taken aback by her words. “Well… glad to see you have so much confidence in me.”

“Jaune… knowledge is only half of the requirements to graduate Beacon… No matter how good your grades are… it won't matter when you reach the end of your time here.”

“…E… Excuse me…?”

“At the end of your time in Beacon academy, you are required to take a final exam. This final exam is separated into two large parts, each having multiple smaller categories in them. One half of the exam is knowledge that needs to be known to become a Hunter. The other half is a test to assess whether you are able to apply the knowledge accordingly on the battlefield. After the exam, if you manage to pass, you then move up to the next phase in your training: ‘The Junior Elite Hunter Society’. From there, the true training to become a Hunter begins. The point is, Jaune… passing classes won’t be near enough to survive in the field… and certainly not enough to graduate Beacon…”

The whole time Pyrrha spoke, Jaune’s face sank lower and lower. “So… So I don’t even have a chance… of making it to the next level…”

Pyrrha says nothing.

His hand lift and cover his face. “You’ve gotta be kidding me… I… I didn’t even…” He grabs his hair tight. “T-Then why would he accept me into Beacon? Why would Headmaster Ozpin allow me to enroll in his school if he knew I couldn’t even make it out of here?”

“…Perhaps to prove a point?”

He looks up at Pyrrha. “What?”

“Jaune… think about this. During your time in Beacon academy, students are never exposed to actual, live Grimm until their third and forth years attending the school, and even then they’re in a controlled environment where danger is at a minimum. It isn’t until one manages to make it to Junior Huntress status when they are able to personally confront Grimm with the assistance of trained, full fledge Hunters. Do you realize what that says about Beacon academy?”

Jaune nervously shakes his head.

“These are the last years students are able to decide whether or not they truly want to become Hunters. When one becomes a Hunter, a normal life ceases to exist. From that day forward, they have sworn to give their lives to protecting the lives of Remnant from the danger of the impending darkness. They wouldn’t just throw people into that sort of role outright. It would be too much of a change. No one would be prepared for something so daunting. These years in Beacon, these final years in normality are your last chances to figure out whether the life of a Hunter is meant for you are not. And the first two years are the ones with the highest dropout rates of any further ones. Do you know why that is?”

He gulps. “I… have an idea…”

“Because students realize it’s too much. They can’t handle it. Fear overcomes them and they return to the safety of normal life. And, after that, if those first 2 years don’t scare you off, the next two just may do the trick.”

“So… you think Ozpin let me attend Beacon… so I could see why exactly I’m not qualified to be a Hunter?”

“One thing I know about Beacon… is that this school is meant to mentally and physically prepare you for the life of a Hunter. One thing the teachers and staff aim to do is to make sure you are prepared to go outside of the barriers that separate the Grimm and the people and not be killed in an instant. If they don’t believe you to be ready, then they don’t trust themselves to send you out there and survive. They’re trying to protect you from running to your death, and I believe the Headmaster’s method… is to let you save yourself.”

He lets out a grim chuckle and his eyes avert to the floor. “…I knew it…”

Pyrrha’s eyes widen at Jaune’s remark.

“I knew I didn’t belong here… I knew it was all just a big dream… I knew I wouldn’t be cut out to be a Huntsman.” He puts his head in his hands. “You know… when you told us about Nora stopping by the apartment… and how she only talked about you, Ruby and Weiss… but not me… I didn’t blame her. Because, if you recall, while you three fought those suit guys… I was hiding behind a wall like a coward. And when you and I met Yang for the first time… and she couldn’t even be bothered to remember the face of the guy she almost burned to a crisp the whole test… I still didn’t get mad. Because I wouldn’t remember my mug either. I was just the guy that ran around screaming like a pansy…”

He laughs darkly and shakes his head. “I’m a complete waste of time… to this school, to the teachers, to Professor Ozpin, to you… Every bad thing Weiss said about me was right on the money. I am a wimp. I am an idiot. I am a waste of space. I don’t deserve to be a Hunter… who the hell am I gonna protect… when I couldn’t even protect one little girl…”

Pyrrha is stunned by Jaune’s proclamation. That last line left her especially speechless. She looks around, her mind scrambling for some kind of way to cheer the blonde haired boy up. She opens her mouth to speak, thinking she had something good to say, but immediately closes it after deeming her potential words useless. All she could do was look to the ground solemnly.

“No wonder Weiss left me alone… She’d be better off at home than with a useless partner like me…”

That was it. That was the last straw.

A new found fire within her, Pyrrha takes on a motivated glare and stands to her feet, hands balled.

“Jaune, look at me,” she says sternly.

The boy complies, slowly looking up at her. He finds himself jumping back at the sight of Pyrrha towering over him with a hardened look on her face. She glared daggers into him, drilled holes through him. It was at that moment that he remembered this woman was the one to top the class charts.

“Do you want to be a Hunter?”

He stares up at her, intimidated. “H-Huh…?”

Without warning, Pyrrha’s hand reaches down and firmly takes hold of the front of his hoodie, pulling him up to her level, he yelling in surprise.

“I asked you a question, Jaune. Do you, or do you not want to be a Hunter?”

“W-W-What?” he stutters out.

“‘What’ isn’t an answer, Arc. You have degraded and talked low of yourself long enough and, frankly, I’ve grown tired of your self loathing. You may not realize it, but there is an ember in your heart begging, pleading to receive the proper oxygen it needs to become the flame that is your potential. I have never met a more humble, kind, brave person in my life who can also be the most self hating, down in the dumps, sad sack all at the same time. You constantly speak of how you don’t deserve to be a Hunter, but the truth is, Jaune, I believe you’re one of the few who the world needs to be one. I’ve only known you for a short time, yet I can clearly see that. So why can’t you?”

Jaune stares on, honestly lost by now.

“Now, I shall ask you again. Do you, or do you not want to be a Hunter?”

“…Y…Yeah…”

“‘Yeah’ what?”

“I… wanna be Hunter…”

“I can not recall someone who wanted something so bad to exclaim it so weakly. Say it louder.”

“I… I wanna be a Hunter…!”

“Louder!”

“I wanna be a Hunter!”

“And why, Jaune Arc, do you want to become a Hunter?!”

“So… So I can protect the people I care about!”

“Only them, Jaune?”

“S-So I can protect the people in Vale City!”

“Just Vale City?”

“All the people in Vale period!”

“Come on, Jaune, I know you aren’t the selective type! Someone with as big a heart as yours wouldn’t be satisfied with protecting only a part of a whole! Now stop being modest and state what you shall do as a Hunter! Say it loud! Why do you want to be a Hunter?!”

He grits his teeth. His hands ball. Every muscle in his body tenses up.

“SO I CAN PROTECT EVERYONE! YOU, RUBY, WEISS, YANG, ALL THE HUMANS, ALL THE FAUNA! I DON’T WANT WHAT HAPPENED TO MELODY TO EVER HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ANYONE AGAIN! I WANNA PROTECT EVERYONE! ”

“Excuse me!”

Jaune and Pyrrha are taken out of the moment when they hear a voice yell at them from the end of the hall. When they slowly look over, they are met with not only the glare of the Library attendant, but with the many curious gazes of the other occupants in the building. Jaune and Pyrrha eye each other awkwardly as Pyrrha still holds onto Jaune’s collar and Jaune simply hangs there like an empty paper bag.

The older library woman simply points her finger, suggestion the two teens pack their things and get out. Pyrrha and Jaune smile awkwardly.

“We’re… terribly sorry, ma’am…” Pyrrha apologizes, gently placing Jaune down. “We’ll… be out of your hair momentarily.”

The old woman nods with a “hmph”. When she notices the many nosy onlookers, she glares at all of them and they run off, not wanting to get a piece of her fury. Once they scatter, she wanders off after giving Jaune and Pyrrha another glare, leaving the two alone once more.

Pyrrha clears her throat. “Well, that got a bit out of control, but…” She looks up at Jaune who is still a head taller than her. “I will help you.”

He looks at her curious and surprised. “W…What?”

“If you’re serious about becoming a Hunter… than I would like to offer my assistance in training you.”

“Pyrrha, wait-“

“I could teach you all of the things I know, start you off with the basics, help you find a combat style that suits you, then perhaps even get your Aura unlocked.”

“Okay, that’s great and all, but-“

“If we work together, I am confident we can get you in peak condition long before the final exam even comes up. I know we can do this, Jaune-“

“Pyrrha!” He calls her name as he takes her shoulders. “Hold on second and listen to me.” He sighs low, his hands dragging down the side of her arms gently. “…Why…? Why do want to help me so much? Top of the class training with the bottom trash…? Why waste your time on someone like me…? What exactly…. do you see in me…?”

She smiles softly. And then, her hand slowly raises and lands on his chest. “This…”

He looks down confused. “My left boob?”

She laughs. “No, silly.” He joins her as she chuckles. She composes herself to continue speaking. “Could you… be serious for one second. Goodness.” She takes in a breath, controlling her laughs. “You have a big heart, Jaune… I haven’t met too many people with as big of one as yours… What you lack in combat skill, you make up for it in drive. Jaune, the easiest part of becoming a Hunter is enrolling in the school. This is the part where the bad seeds are weeded out from those who are serious about becoming a Hunter. That’s why fellows like Cardin Winchester are let into the doors. Because time will pass and he won’t be around long. But you, Jaune…”

She presses slightly harder into his chest, feeling every beat of his heart.

“You’re a good person. The world could use more people like you. I mean every word when I say… if the world were in your hands… I’d never have to be scared again…”

She reaches down and takes his hands into her’s. He looks down at their intertwined hands.

“You’re better than you think you are, Jaune… And I’d bet my life on that…”

He finds a smile forcing itself on his lips. It was a genuine smile, one of pure joy. He looked like a boy who honestly did not know how to process words like Pyrrha’s, as if having never received them before. The feeling was alien to him, yet… welcomed…

“…Thank you so much, Pyrrha…” he says with a noticeably shaky voice. “Thank you so much for believing me…”

She returns the smile. “And I always will…” That’s when she lets go of Jaune’s hands and playfully reaches up and ruffles his hair, receiving a chuckle from him. “Now come on, puppy dog. We should probably head home before we get another scolding.”

“Y-Yeah, that’s a good idea.” He notably sniffles. “O-Oh, what about the research?”

Pyrrha sighs while picking up the book Jaune picked out. “Dead end, unfortunately. I honestly don’t know what I was expecting to find with such vague information, really.”

“Ah man, bummer…”

A buzzing noise emits from Pyrrha’s pocket. She reaches in and pulls out her handy scroll, expanding it out and tapping a message button that popped up.

“What is it?”

“A message from Ms. Xiao Long. She says that it’s almost time for ‘round two’. I guess Ruby and Nora are about to meet up.”

“Oh, then we should probably get a move on. I wanna be there for that.”

“My thoughts exactly. Let’s get going.”

With the many books in hand, Jaune and Pyrrha prepare to pick up the rest of their things and call it a night on an unsuccessful run for information. Well… at least something got accomplished. Just not exactly what the two set out to do originally.