'Matters of Dust are matters of Aura, which make them matters of the soul; in turn they are matters the mind, and at the center of the mind, you find the heart.'

'Of Dust and Men', act three, spoken by the antagonist.


17:42, RWBY room, third-year dorms, Beacon academy.

In the same way the second-year dorms were an upgrade when compared to those of the first-years, the third-year dorm only added to the trend. In addition to yet another healthy increase to the room's size, each of the girls has their own four-poster, and their personal closets now came with a lockbox.

"Yann~g! Why are you making yourself sooo~ pretty?!" Ruby finally broke down and asked the question that's been on her mind for half an hour. She tried concentrating on the Weapons Magazine she reading, but it was a lost cause.

"Meeting Car in the city, you don't want your sister to look like a train wreck, do you?" Yang, who spent the past hour picking clothes, brushing her hair, and putting make up, answered.

"But it' said school night~" Ruby started, and was ignored.

"I still don't understand what you see in that child." Weiss interjected. Considering she called him an ogre all last year, Cardin seems to have been appointed a new rank in the world of Schnee this year.

"You know, he has matured since the time he was picking on Jaune." Yang replied, trying a forth shade of lipstick.

"Aren't we talking about the guy who terrorizes first-years?" Weiss then giggled at a text she received on her scroll, and proceeded to text back.

"Hey, nobody's perfect... I can compromise brains for the occasional romantic flare." She winked and blew a kiss at Weiss to make a point.

It was Ruby who reacted, however, and the shiver down her spine was priceless. "You tell him," she began, passing the distance between her bed and where Yang was standing in an instant.

"That if he so much as makes a move on you-"

"Then we'll tag team together," Yang locked Ruby under her arm, and began a noogie, to her sister's dismay. "Right, Rubes?"

Ruby was about to answer when Nora burst the door open, shouting Ren's name at the top of her lungs. "Ren!"

"He's not here," Weiss answered, defending her ears.

"Just calm down, Nora." Ruby continued, still locked under Yang's arm. "What happened?"

Yang released Ruby in time to hear Nora's answer. "Ren's been gone since the princess's dust exploded, ('-don't get me started on-') and he won't answer his scroll."

"Sure he's around, somewhere," Yang returned to her preparations. "He's a big boy."

"Yeah, but it's almost supper, and we were supposed to meet Rory to congratulate her."

"What's a 'Rory'?" Ruby asked.

"My sister, she enrolled this year." Nora explained.

"I didn't know you had a sister." Weiss said, and got distracted when her scroll notified her of another text.

"Ooo~h, I want to meet your sister!" Ruby exclaimed. "I'll be good, I promise!"

"Fine, but let's find Ren first." Ruby and Nora left on that note, and cries for Ren restarted from outside quickly enough.

Yang finished working on herself ten minutes later, and took out the Bumblebee's key from the lockbox.

"Isn't it a two hour drive to Vale?" Weiss asked.

"Yup."

"Huh..." Was Weiss's bland answer to her bland response. "Come to think of it, haven't seen Blake since this morning."

"Don't know..." Yang tucked her helmet under her arm and headed out.

And don't care...


18:03, the Beacon library.

Blake was sitting on the railing of one of the third floor balconies; she was still reading a book, but the sunset she was facing and the slight drop in temperature that followed gave a really nice ambiance to the deed.

"So there you are," Ren stepped out to the balcony. "I was wondering if you left without me."

She had actually stepped out ten minutes ago – he was really into his book.

"You hungry yet?" He asked.

"A bit, figured I'd just eat from one of the stashes." There is a Beacon tradition among the students who spend too much time in the library: several 'stashes' of snacks have been hidden in the building and anyone can eat from them, assuming you knew where one was, and later filled it up for the next hungry reader.

"Sounds good," he reached in to an inner pocket and took out a pouch, which Blake quickly found out stored components for a long smoking pipe.

"When did you start smoking?" She asked.

"Since before we came to Beacon," Ren began assembling the pipe. "Nora is actively hostile to the idea, so I don't smoke around her."

"So that means…" She chuckled. "Never."

"You get the idea," after the pipe had been assembled he started prepping the tobacco, and Blake returned to her book.

"Reading in the dark will ruin your eyes," He said, and Blake looked up, at where the sun used to be.

She didn't even notice it got dark, with only the artificial lights from inside affording their luminescence.

She then looked towards Ren, and their eyes locked for a moment, it passed quickly though, when Blake twitched her cat ears.

"Ohh… Forgot about that."

Did he, really?

Ren finished his work on the pipe and lit it. Moments later he puffed a cloud of smoke.

For a second there, the puff looked a lot like a charging Boarbatusk, before losing its form.

"That's a nice trick," it really was pretty cool.

"I thought so too, so Nora's father taught me." He replied, before inhaling again.

Great

"What's the deal with you and Nora, anyway?"

Ren exhaled, it was a normal, formless cloud this time. "It's… Complicated…"

My life story.

The next few minutes dragged on in silence.

"Finish up and let's head to the cafeteria," Blake finally got off the railing.

"I thought you didn't want to?"

"I remembered it is fish night." Blake went back inside.

She didn't wait for Ren to follow her.


20:18 Recovery Ward, Vale Central Medical.

The first thought that crossed the Headmaster's mind when he reached the hospital was how terrible the coffee was. It not that he didn't worry about Pyrrha - he spent all day doing that, and he'd already talked to her doctor.

She was awake.

He entered Pyrrha's room, which appeared as much like a workshop as it did a hospital room. Her weapon was dismantled into what looked like a hundred components and neatly arranged across the movable treys the staff usually use for medical equipment.

Pyrrha herself, bandaged head to toe, with a central line connected to half a dozen IVs, was on the bed, working on one of the components with precision tools, and Juane was sleeping in a chair in the corner – he must have worried himself sick.

"Pyrrha," Ozpin said a silent minute later. "Was I being vague during our talk yesterday, when I let you come back to Beacon?"

She didn't look up, continuing her tuning. "No."

"I told you not to strain yourself."

"You did."

"Then what were you thinking, bleeding all over the Ranger's Plaza?"

"So that's what it was called."

"Don't evade the subject." Ozpin warned.

The wounded girl finally put down the tools, she must be ashamed, because she still wouldn't look at him. "I had to make sure."

"Sure of what?"

Finally, she looked up at Ozpin, her eyes speaking of defiance, not against him, but to herself. "I'm not half of what I was."

"You're wounded," he said flatly. But her stare didn't waiver, so he sighed and continued. "Let's say you're right, from what Coco told me, you can still take down half the teams that graduated last year, on your own."

"It's not enough," she lowered her gaze, and a barely perceptible thud came from a weak punch against her bed.

"It's never enough, but you have to let your body heal, you are not immortal, and if you push yourself again like that, you will die."

He felt his words finally sink in. Getting the old Pyrrha back would be a slow process, and even then he wasn't sure it would actually be his star pupil who would be coming back.

He placed his hand on hers supportively. "Listen to you doctors and get better, then we'll work to bring you up to snuff, what do you say?"

"Fine," she finally answered.

"Good, I'll come back to visit you again in a few days." He proceeded towards the exit. "I want to see you better next time."


20:26, outside the Vale Central Medical.

When Ozpin left the hospital, Coco was already waiting, sitting on a bench.

She'd spent the day shopping, trying to get her mind off Pyrrha.

It worked, to a certain degree.

As he approached, she handed him a Stardust coffee cup. He thanked her and mumbled about the quality of the 'swill' they sold in the hospital.

He sat down, and they both drank.

"How is she doing?" Coco finally broke the silence.

"Not as good as I hoped," Ozpin replied. "But certainly better then I feared."

"Will she return to the school?"

"Next week, if she gets the clear... Her aura is slowly starting to heal the body."

"That's good," she took another sip.

"It's now more about her mind then her body, if she doesn't take this and evolves, she won't be the fighter she remembers she was, and that's a slippery slope."

"At least she has a lot of friends."

"The finer advantage with Beacon's training regime," Ozpin drank some more. "I've excused Juane for now, and I'll make sure the others can visit her, too."

Coco finished her coffee and started arranging her things. "Can you make sure she gets this?"

She gave him a shopping bag, one of a very large number she was picking up.

"You know, I thought I wouldn't be seeing you for at least a couple of years, considering you were the one who asked to be assigned to Atlas."

"The General put me in contact with the ASS after the incident, last year... What can I say, you knew I was a patriot."

"The Secret Service? You're a spook now?" Ozpin finished his own cup and stood up.

"Nah, but as you can see... I'm not planning on seeing home, anytime soon."

They parted and Coco left for her rented apartment in Vale.

She assumed Ozpin would head directly to the school.

She was wrong.


03:32, Entrance to the third-year dormitory, Beacon Academy.

Cardin always assumed he'd never be the adult, in any relationship. He was happy being the frat boy, the occasional bully (for fun and profit,) or even just the one to be taken care of.

Quite honestly, he was afraid of Yang, when they first met. It was only early last year that their social circles began to intersect, and somehow, he didn't know how, he got on the woman's good side.

Yang was energetic, upbeat, spontaneous, and all such good things.

The rest was history, he asked her out, but she chose the place, and the hookup was good.

Yang was there, however, when Pyrrha got hurt, and she hasn't been the same since.

Granted, she's been doing all of the same stuff, and it's only been a few weeks.

But her motives for doing anything these days are almost self-destructive in nature, so all he could do was make sure she didn't get into fights when they were out, or pass out in gutter or something.

We've all been out of character for a while now, Beacon has that effect.

The old Cardin would never have been thinking such thoughts, but he wasn't the old Cardin.

"Thanks... For taking care of her."

Carrying the knocked out Yang into the dormitory at three in the morning, and lost in thought, was not a situation he expected to meet anyone in, least of all the cat girl.

Reading a book in the entrance to the building, and wearing her pajamas.

"Well one of us has to," he could see, even in the shadows of the artificial lighting, that Blake had a pained look about her, as he passed with Yang in tow. Dust... I told myself I would be more tactful. "Sorry... Look, I know you care about her, and I don't know what happened during the hunt, but whatever happened, just talk to her already."

She looked down, not at her book, as it was closed, and didn't answer.

He started to move again, then she finally answered. "When we first arrive at Beacon, they partner us up, tell us that we'll be together for four years. They told us our partner will be the one we trust most, the one who trusts us the most..."

Yang tensed, and mumbled indecipherably in reaction to Cardin's relatively sudden movements, as he turned around to look at Blake.

He could see her sad eyes even though he couldn't see the rest of her face. "But what if I don't deserve that trust? If I don't deserve her as my partner?"

"You already know the answer to that if you wait out here, through the night, for us to return," he said, without even thinking about it; it was, in fact, that late. "It's not about what you deserve, it's about Yang, and what she deserves."

Who the Dust died and made him the smart one?

Shit, I really should be more tactful.

They exchanged pleasantries and he put Yang in her bed, then went to sleep himself.


'The Morning After' Afterword:

I made a few correction now that I'm more alert, but all in all I'm content with the way it turned out. This came as I surprise to me though, as writing this took me over twice as long as it should have.

I've actually had a few problems, which start with not really being all that good with non-combat scenes, then Blake decided she wouldn't conform to my original plans for her in the Ren/Blake scene (a really sappy shoujo protagonist archetype) which completely threw me off momentum, and after lamenting a few days I came to the compromise you see in the scene: a slightly less sappy shoujo protagonist archetype, and a skip along the plot-line (which will comeback to bite me later.)

And if that wasn't enough, I accidentally deleted the finished copy of the chapter when I was trying to back it up, so I had to redo about half of it.

So yeah... More ground work with this chapter, and probably the next few too, as I still haven't touched the plots for half of my cast yet.