Useless:


Hey, it's me! So, here we go, my first proper oneshot. This will not be like The Stories of Boop, which was originally intended to be a oneshot. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!


Today was an average day. Actually no, scrap that, today was a pretty crap day. The lessons were boring, especially Professor Port's. The combat was dull, even Pyrrha was giving up throughout the fights. And after yesterday's events with the Grimm break-in at the city, all of us are completely out of energy. Nora isn't the talkative ball of energy that would slurp her pancakes. Ren is even quieter than his normal self, not even commenting on Nora's attitude. Pyrrha's tired, she's been sitting with her head on her desk and her hair in a mess. Yang doesn't seem to care about anything at the moment, with her cheerful front now gone. This shows a much darker, no not darker, sadder side of her. Blake hasn't even left the dorm room, not attending the lessons we've had today. Weiss is irritable, even more so than usual. And Ruby's in a slump. She's been slow, quiet and shying away from contact.
And what about me? What about Jaune Arc? I... I don't know. I guess I'm the one person trying to stop this volcano from erupting. The emphasis being on the word 'trying'. And what with me being me, I'll probably just make it even worse for them. They all did so well yesterday, slaying Grimm as if their... Well, their life did depend on it. And I only killed one Ursa. One. I didn't help them at all, I probably even held them back. I saw Pyrrha check on me more than once, I can tell she believes that I still need more training, which I do. Which I really, really do. If I can't kill more than one Ursa, why is Professor Ozpin even letting me stay at this academy? Probably because I'm an Arc, an Arc with need of improvement, but an Arc nevertheless. They always tell me that they need me, that nothing they do could be done without me. I always return that with a snort and a 'Yeah right'. Because, really, when do you ever need a person who can barely carry a book. That's right, you don't. I guess... I guess I'm just useless...
- Jaune Arc


I wish... I wish we could have stopped them before they reached the city. I really, really do. We may have stopped the Grimm, we may have caught Torchwick, but innocent people still died for nothing. They died for nothing. And we could've stopped that, if we'd been fast enough. Wow... Never thought I'd say that. A girl with a speed semblance telling herself she should've been quicker. And the all of those White Fang members who didn't make it out of the tunnel, they may have been the cause for it, but they are people too. They were people too, and now they're dead, all because of me. Because I. Was. Too. Slow. I was much too slow. They should still be alive, they had families to go back to. They may have even had children, waiting for them to return with a small bag of food to feed their starving mouths. And now they'll starve, more innocents will die because I couldn't move fast enough. Because I wasn't fast enough to stop it. The only person to have even attempt to tell me it wasn't my fault was Jaune, and I tried to believe him. I tried, and I tried, and I tried. But I couldn't get the thought out of my head, the screams of fear and pain as the Fauna of the White Fang fell of the train, or as the people of Vale were attacked and killed by the Grimm invaders. That we couldn't stop. That I couldn't stop. So, I can't be a good huntress if I can't even save one life... I'm useless...
- Ruby Rose


All those innocent people who died yesterday. Not one of them deserved it. I can't bear the fact that we failed to save them. I feel as if I've lost myself. As if I'm no longer me. I want to be me again. To be happy, to be unstoppable again. I want to be Nora again, to feel the energy of my life flow through my veins. But that Nora's gone now, that Nora has been replaced by the Nora who knows what the world is like. Who knows that the World will do as it pleases, that it doesn't follow you own command word by word, it only decides to. It chooses what it wants, even if no one other than itself would like the result. We killed waves upon waves of Grimm out there, and that can sap the energy right from you. You lose your energy, you lose your Aura, then you lose your life. We're lucky that Atlas' military showed up, otherwise we would have been over run out there. The dread I felt when Magnhild's weight truly tugged on my shoulders, the fear I felt when I would see anyone be thrown across the area like a ragdoll. We could have saved them, we could have been better. But now the World has shown it's true colours. I feel so small. So insignificant... So useless...
- Nora Valkyrie


If you had told me this one year ago, I would have laughed at you. If you had said that the Grimm would get past the walls, and into the city of Vale, I would have said you were mad and walked away. You could even have told me that last week, I still wouldn't have believed you. But now I do. Now I see the power they hold. They may not have souls, and they certainly do not have any heart similar to ours, but they do have a brain. The Grimm can register negative emotions, which is what calls them to any place. And when a train comes through the floor, people are definitely not going to be happy. Then when Grimm begin to pour through the hole caused by the train, they won't exactly be nervous any more, they'll be terrified beyond all rational thinking. I feel weak, like a dead twig, I can be easily broken. Even the slightest of movements can cause me to splinter. I feel anger, and hatred. I feel sadness, and fear. I feel as if I'm about to snapped by the cruel hand of fate. The emotionless stare that Death glares can freeze you still, or so that's what they say. Cardin today, well, he's noticed the stress. And used it to his advantage. He's been angering me, with a face full of glee. And it makes me feel so bad. It makes me feel so scared to lose what I already have, and I'm holding onto what I can. Ice Queen, they call me, with a heart made of stone, cold and uncaring. But what do they know... What makes them think they can call me cold? That they can call me 'The Ice Queen', why should I take it? My father once told me that 'You have to show perfection to have perfection', and that's means that I cannot give in. But I feel so enraged by their sneers and their comments. So scared by their stares and their glares. I'm frozen in place, I just feel trapped, as if I'm in ice cage. It's cold and unforgiving, the World that we live in. It'll laugh at us, and toy with us until it finds someone new. It makes you feel small, inadequate. But most of all, it makes you feel useless...
- Weiss Schnee


Oh, they call me 'The Invincible Girl' as I fight better than most. But my oh my, it was never enough to handle what happened. They say that I'm 'fated for victory', as I never seem to lose. But I lost yesterday. We all did. Some even more than others. We lost a fight, but some lost a family member. And that family member lost their life. The life that we should have been able to protect from the Grimm and any other threats to it. But we couldn't, we couldn't do our duty. We couldn't do our one job. And if we are useless, why do we try? We... I... Am useless...
- Pyrrha Nikos


Why would they do such a thing. This isn't how we would have acted five years ago. This isn't what he would have wanted. He wanted peace and equality between us and humans. He didn't want pain and suffering on both sides. And now look, the White Fang really are the radical terrorists Weiss said they were. They only want to end humanity, they don't want to be equals any more. And I ran from this, rather than trying my best to stop it when I could. And that's all I ever do. I run... I run like a coward. Why can I never stay to finish the fight? Why can I never do it myself? There is always someone else there to stop me, to send me away, to let me run. Is it because I can't do it. Can't I do it? Can I even get close to doing it? I want to end it, I have for so long. I have for so very long, yet I never can. I never can end it. And that means I have no use, no reason to try... That means that I'm useless...
- Blake Belladonna


Nora, I wish I could be like her sometimes. I wish I could be forever happy, and full of energy. But I can't, and I don't think she can any more, either. I learnt how the World treats people who don't try years ago. It treats them as if they are the scum of this World, that they shouldn't exist. I can only know that truth, you cannot convince me with any lie. I have seen it with my own eyes. However, not trying and uselessness are different concepts. Not trying is when you never start, or never finish as you don't want to. But uselessness means that you try, you try time and time again, and yet you never can do it. You never can be what they want you to be, you never can do what they want you to do. And in the end, the useless have to live with what they have failed, whilst the ones who never tried, never had to live with it in the first place. So, I am living with what I have seen, with my own past mistakes. I am useless.
- Lie Ren


I want it to end, for it all to be done. For us all to walk away, happy and unscathed. But that cannot happen, we have already lost this battle. This Grimm invasion was only the beginning of their plan, and they nearly killed us with it. They nearly killed Weiss and I on the train. If it hadn't been for that saviour in red, I would have been killed by that small, eye-swapping freak. I can never get it out of my mind. The way she toyed with me as I failed to hit her time and time again, and in the end, she took me out with one swift movement. Had it been any longer, and she would've killed me whilst I was unconscious on the hard, metal floor of the train. I need to know, I need to know why she saved me. Why would I be the one to be saved. What about all of the people who could've lived, many alive for one death rather than the other way around. Only one alive, for the many that died. I should have died there, and then maybe they could have been saved. I couldn't do it, and she wouldn't do it. She'd rather save me, one person, than thirty people and leave me to die. I have no use here. I'm not the fastest, I'm not the strongest, I'm not the smartest. I'm just the worst. I am worth nothing. I... Am... Useless...
- Yang Xiao Long


Man, I don't know when this went down the drain, this was originally meant to be called 'Family', and it was meant to start low-key but then become more upbeat. But then it turned into this. Anyway, I hope you like this oneshot, I hope you like 'Useless'.

Remember that Constructive Criticism is always useful, and keep moving forward!
Stinger out!