The following month went by in a blur. Yang awoke the very next day, and understandably freaked out about her arm. Blake filled everyone in about what had happened, from the Vytal tournament to their skirmish with Adam. How Yang jumped in to save a pinned Blake only to have her arm partially severed and amputated by the doctor. How Ruby and Weiss showed up just as Adam was ranting about his "love" for Blake and turned the tides. They tried to gloss over that Ruby personally cut him in half for what he did to her sister, it must be hard for such a young girl to not only witness but to enact such violence on someone else.

Yang was not dealing well, her father Taiyang and Uncle Qrow trying their best to help but were also having their hands full with others; it was all hands on deck trying to keep the growing crowd calm as well as killing the remnants of the Grimm, so it all fell to Blake, Weiss, Ruby, and because he wanted to help, Alex.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Yang said, finally breaking the silence that filled the room since she awoke and had to find out she had been maimed. Ruby and the others were out helping the survivors, so Alex volunteered to keep an eye on her and help anyway she needed. She has been…less than cheerful at hearing it but never told him to leave.

"Just here to help, I never found my team and Ruby picked me from a crowd. Just making myself useful for now I guess." His answer accompanied a shrug as he sat back in his chair next to Yang's bed. They were still in the tent, but the doctor swore that until she could walk on her own without the pain medications, she could stay there. Alex filled his time with killing himself internally looking through pictures on his scroll of little Ada and himself, also pictures of his teams and their missions. He was always big on pictures since his memory was always spotty, but now it just opened wounds that needed to stay closed until everything blew over.

"And what about after? You just gonna leave?" Yang had said, and at the same time, the temperature in the tent seemed to rise a bit. Alex glanced up at her and noticed her eyes took on a red hue and his eyes narrowed.

"I don't know. I have no plans that I'm aware of, so as long as people need me, that's where I'll be. If that takes me from you guys, it won't be my choice." This answer seemed enough as Yang blinked away the red from her eyes and seemed to soften up a bit. Her shoulders relaxed and she let out a breath.

"I just worry what will happen with Ruby when you do. She's grown used to having you as part of the 'team' and she needs all the help she can get. I don't know what she'll do if you just disappear." Finally opening up, she said more words just now than in the past week. Progress.

"As long as she can ask for help, I'll be here. I've got nowhere else to be and if it helps her at all, I'll do whatever is needed."

"What about your family? Your friends?"

"…Gone."

"…I'm sorry, I didn't know." She starts to ball up the sheets in her fist and the start of tears hits her balled fist.

"It's not your fault, you couldn't have known. It was just a harmless question." Alex says, patting her on her shoulder. She tenses for a second before nodding. She announces that she's going to get a bit of sleep and rolls over. Not wanting to be creepy, Alex takes the opportunity to stretch his legs. His walk only took him outside the door, but he'd been sitting there killing himself for the past few hours, keeping a seemingly mute girl company.

But as harmless as her question was, it put salt into old wounds. Pocketing his scroll, he crouched down in front of the door and silently sobbed to himself.

As his parent's taught him when he was little, don't let them see you cry, otherwise they won't rely on you. And if you can't be relied on, you'll be left behind. That's what the pack does.

-The next month-

Yang is finally out of bed and Blake won't leave her alone, Ruby is busier than ever and Weiss won't let her forget it; but not because of a mission, not some fearsome Grimm that needs planning to take down, but because Beacon re-opens finally. As they walk the new grass that lines the castle grounds, and listen to the empty sound echoing off the walls, the nostalgia hurts; of a time where all they had to worry about was if Glynda was going to snap one of these days, or if Ozpin really did just like torturing first years by tossing them off a cliff into Grimm infested terrain.

There was to be a new ceremony to have a new year welcomed as well as re-sort the teams as needed. The ceremony was held in silence as old teams had replacements picked from those still living, and outliers were put to existing teams to keep them from being left alone. Why they didn't just create new teams from the outliers is anyone's guess, but who was going to complain to a man covered in burns? Yes, Ozpin survived his fight with Cinder, he ended her life by his own hand, but did not leave unscathed. Team's RWBY and JNPR stayed the same; however RWBY was excited to welcome their new recruit: Alex, who stood silent through the whole ceremony, and walked away as soon as they were told they could.

The walls filling with students again trying to find their dorms, and all Alex wanted was to be alone. Nobody said anything about the fallen teams and they were to be okay with this change. He was as far from it as possible.

His team's faces were starting to blur in his memory, and his pictures did little to help. He was starting to not recognize them anymore and that terrified him. He didn't want to forget them, not their times together either. But at the same time, Team RWBY would need him and he had to be strong, even if he had to act as if he were made of stone. Unbreakable.

During his wanderings, he almost ran into the grey haired headmaster head on, barely dodging.

"Sorry sir, I wasn't minding my surroundings…" Alex said bowing his head. He stood head and shoulders over the headmaster, but this was a man demanding of respect, he faced the war head on with his students and helped pull them out of it somewhat intact. There stood Professor Ozpin, leaning more heavily on his cane than before but still sporting that same mug, and with a push of his glasses closer to the top of his nose, he cleared his throat.

"No worries, but I have to ask: what can keep you so out of sorts?" His tone sounded kind, but his delivery belied his concern. He truly did love his students.

"Nothing." With that, Alex tried to walk away, but Ozpin's words stopped him short.

"We may seem to be moving on, but the wounds will not be forgotten. I'm sorry for your loss and I cant begin to imagine they pain you're going through, but just know that you're not alone in this. It may not be your team that you came here with, but they may just grow to be more than you had hoped." And as if to cap off his speech, he took a sip from his mug and turned on his heel and walked away. Alex stood there for a second, pondering what he was just told and accepted it.

Yes, he felt pain for the team that he had abandoned, and for that he could never forgive himself, but he should at least give them a chance. Maybe they'll help fill the void.

-Later, in Team RWBYs dorm-

Alex walks in and immediately has an icy finger thrust in his face, it's owner staring him down with sapphire eyes.

"Just where have you been? We've been waiting on you to have a team meeting, and we kind of need the team to have that?" Weiss' voice cuts through any thoughts Alex has and drags him back to reality. All four members of team RWBY stand in front of him, watching Weiss interrogate him, some with arms crossed and Ruby sitting in her bed reading from a comic, ruby colored headphones covering her ears and music barely heard out of them filling the awkward silence.

"I was talking to the headmaster about an issue, it's been resolved." He says, going cross-eyed while staring at Weiss' perfectly manicured nail inches from his nose. How did she reach that high anyway? Maybe it's the chair she stole from one of the desks to stand on. Who knows, really?

"Well now that you're here, we can get this underway…RUBY!" And with that Ruby is at attention after flinging her headphones behind the bed in a panic, but quickly recovers and stands in front of the team.

"Alex, in all honesty, this meeting was to discuss what to do about you. We've been a team for so long that it feels weird to suddenly change that dynamic, especially since we've already got our partners, but you're the outlier." Ruby gave the speech short and to the point, but Alex didn't feel any easier about it. The only thought going through his mind was simply: 'oh shit.'