Soulless Success


Author's notes:

Here's what Ren has been up to in this universe (Someone asked, so here it is.) He was born and raised in Vale. He never met Nora and as such has already graduated Beacon a year before Nora even gets there. Without his perfect best friend he's become reclusive and socially jaded. He protects the world as a renowned hunter but he does not participate in it. He does not live. He only allows others to do so.

Meanwhile Nora is starting her first year at Beacon. She's still Nora, but she's lonely. She has lots of people who she calls friends but she has no-one who really understands her. She has many people to talk to but she has no-one who will truly listen. Without her perfect best friend she will no doubt lose hope of ever finding real friendship before her time at beacon is done.


3 years after he had graduated Beacon Lie Ren was already living the dream. He was a renowned hunter who had already saved many lives. He had killed an Ursa that had found its way inside an apartment complex and he had participated in an infiltration operation that had recently taken down one of the more powerful dust gangs for good. He had more money than he knew what to do with and all the free time he could want. He didn't spend any of it. He was always on the job.

The only exception to this being when he got hungry. Then he would go to a lovely little Atlasian restaurant across the street from a laser tag arena. He had never gone inside the arena but he had seen Beacon students exiting the arena many times. One day he was drinking his tea when two students his age came barging into the establishment. They were soaked in sweat and hopped up on adrenaline. The boy with the monkey tail started walking over to Ren's table.

Wait, what? Why was he waving at Ren? The monkey boy sat down at the table and started drinking Ren's untouched water glass as the other boy more timidly approached the table before sitting. The two students lowered their heads and the human boy hid behind a wine menu. Ren simply stared at the two as they made themselves appear at home. A few seconds later the door flew open and two women stormed in searching intently. Ren could only assume they were searching for the two boys who were now sitting next to him.

After the girls had left the monkey boy introduced himself "Phew! they're finally gone! thanks a million Pinkeye. If you hadn't helped us out just then we would've been goners for sure. My name's Sun. My buddy here is Jaune. Those lovely ladies were our opposition in the arena across the street. They decided second place wasn't good enough and chased us all the way here. Guess we'll have to face the fire eventually though. I bet you know how that goes, am I right?"

Ren looked at the smirk on the boy's face. He was speechless for a few moments as this was the first time in over a year that he had interacted with anyone beyond paying for goods and services. He looked between the two intruders as he searched for the words. He shook away the flabbergasted expression and asked "I'm sorry, what were your names again?"

Sun leaned back a bit "Right, sorry about that. I can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. You can call me Sun. Fluttershy over there is Jaune. Do you have a name or do I keep calling you Pinkeye?"

Ren held out his hand "Lie Ren, nice to meet you."

Sun shook his hand vigorously with his grin growing by the second "Lie? that's an odd name. I like Pinkeye better." The boy stood and gestured for Jaune to follow "Well we should probably head back before our team starts to worry. Nice meeting you, Pinkeye!"

Ren winced at the nickname as he waved his new friends goodbye "Nice meeting you too."

The next week Ren was, once again, sipping his tea at his favorite restaurant. After a few minutes a familiar bang resounded from the front door as a certain monkey boy made his entrance very known "Hey! Pinkeye! I got some people I thought you might want to meet!" Ren saw Jaune enter before the two women who had been chasing the pair earlier. Sun came over and slid another table over to make room for the extra people. He waved in each person as he introduced them "I believe you know Jaune. The lovely ladies you may recognize as our predators from the other night. Yellow here is Yang. Pinky over there is Nora. Ladies, this is Lie. He likes sipping tea in the dark and long walks on the beach."

Ren glared at Sun before turning to the girls who he had just been introduced to "Yang, Nora, you can call me Ren. Nice to meet you."

Nora's face lit up "Your eyes are my favorite color! I love pink! Not that I'm saying i love you or anything. We just met and that would be weird. Speaking of which, it's a pleasure to meet you! Sun told us AAaall about you, well not all about you. He only told us everything he knows. But then again how could he tell us anything he doesn't already know? I suppose if he was being possessed by some kind of demon when he said it, or if he was under mind control! Is mind control possible? I guess there was that one time that guy told me to hold still and then I didn't move a muscle for 5 hours. That was a lot of fun. Those birds were so confused when the nest they had been building on my head just vanished! I did build them a new one and leave it behind though because if I hadn't then all their work would have been for nothing! That would have made me a Huuge meanie! right?"

Ren smiled at the girl. She seemed to say absolutely everything that came into her head. Complete honesty in its truest form, he liked that. He answered her question with his own "Well I think that depends on how long you were there. If they had just started then I don't think it's a big deal. They can just build another."

Nora thought for a moment "Yeah, it was only a few pieces of straw. I don't think it's a big deal."

The group stood in shock. None of them were sure what had just happened between these seemingly entirely opposite individuals.

Over the next few weeks Ren grew accustomed to the unexpected visits from the group of students. He quickly grew a fondness for Nora. She was so refreshingly real in a world full of deception. Eventually he accepted an invitation to the weekly laser tag games at the Lazor Blaztor Ultra arena across the street. He was teamed with Nora.

Sun quickly grew frustrated with failure against the duo and exited the arena before the match was over. Yang and Jaune gave a good fight. At the end of the day they walked away with second place and enjoyed a mustard pizza among friends. Ren had never had friends before.

Over the next few months Ren and Nora continued to grow closer as friends. She loved to talk and he loved to listen. He would mostly remain silent but when he had something to say he could rest assured that it would be heard.

Ren met the rest of the group too. He met Cardin, Velvet, Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha. After a few years he started dating Weiss but even then Nora remained the most important person in his life. Nora was the kind of friend that he knew he could depend on. She was his best friend. And it would stay that way forever, as it did.

When Ren died 85 years after he had graduated from beacon his only remaining regret was that he was going to leave Nora alone in this world. He didn't regret leaving Weiss, then his wife. Weiss would have the kids. Weiss would have her company to take care of. Nora would be left with nothing.

Nora knew she would need her other friends now that Ren was gone. She surrounded herself with all her favorite people and demanded of herself that she have a good time. It worked for the most part. She eventually stopped having to tell herself when to have a good time.

By the time she died she had made some good memories without him. But none compared to the memories she had of her best times with her best friend. Nothing could compare. After all, what could possibly compare to true friendship?