Welcome back! Also, time to remind you of the... painful chapter in Part 1. I'm sorry, but I had to do this.

Storm was in the courtyard, sitting on a bench, when he caught sight of Crystal marching towards him. She was in school uniform with her arm in a sling. He assumed the powered caste he built for her was against school rules, and that's why she wasn't wearing it. She sat down beside him and sighed.

"Tough match?" Storm asked.

"We lost," Crystal replied.

He was surprised. He didn't think anybody could beat Crystal's team. "I didn't think SNOW was that good."

"They have Whitney Songbird on their team."

"Oh. That changes thing a little." He sensed that may have been a little insensitive as an awkward silence grew between them. He decided to change the subject. "So, you missed a good fight out here. Some Atlas specialist fought a drunken guy with a sword."

"Who won?"

"Well, I feel that the drunk could have won, but the Beacon headmaster broke up the fight."

"Hm." Crystal was quiet for a while again. He felt like there was something they needed to talk about, but nothing was coming to mind. "Storm, we need to talk about the other night at the dance."

As he remembered, Crystal left him at the dance with only the word "cinder" to wonder about. Cirocco, Rain, and Ember ran out as well—mostly because Azura was still pretty mad about Cirocco. He was hesitant about talking about it, but it seemed that Crystal was as well, so this may have been his only chance to know what happened. "Go ahead."

She hesitated, and then spoke again. "I… I'm sorry for leaving you like that. It was… wrong to do so."

"It's okay, Crystal." He thought of something else. "That party was getting lame."

"Lame? You use that word now?"

"Actually, I really felt silly using that word just then."

She laughed. But then she got serious again. "Storm, I don't think we're… right for each other." He lowered his head and sighed. It was hard to take, but it also relieved him a bit. He had felt similarly, but didn't want to say anything as it might have hurt her feelings. He wasn't sure how these things worked anyway. "Besides, I'm a Taryn, and you're… What did you're father do?"

He was offended by the question. That was an outmoded way of thinking, and one he personally didn't like at all. But he chose to answer it, grudgingly. "He was a soldier—Mistral Defense Force—but now he's an accountant."

Crystal cocked her head. "Well, all the same, I do not think my father would approve, and… I don't feel that you're…"

"Okay, so the dance was just a onetime thing," he said, wanting to get this over with. This was painful, and he didn't need it going on longer than it needed to be. "Are we still friends?"

"I don't see why not, though if you attempt to court me…"

"I get the message." So that was that. He wasn't going to date Crystal now—not unless he had become a knight or something in the last five seconds.

He got up, and began to walk away after saying a farewell to Crystal. He felt like a lukewarm liquid washed over him, and turned hot in his stomach. What he had done may not have been the right thing to do, but that's what he had done, and he couldn't go back on it now.

He didn't go far before he heard Crystal say behind him, "Wait." He stopped and turned around. "Do you want the arm back or…?"

He quickly realized she was talking about the powered caste he made for her. He had actually been working on that for an addition for his own armor, and then painted it green for Crystal. He kinda wanted it back, but… "Keep it. You need it more than I do."

"Thank you."

"No problem. Anything for a friend." He reconsidered his words. "Well, almost anything."

Azura came out of the bathroom, almost staggering. Maybe that… whatever it was she had for lunch wasn't so good for her.

She was surprised to see Rusti sitting on his bed. She would have expected him to be somewhere else, making advances towards women who didn't want them. He seemed to be looking in the vague direction of the door before he turned his gaze to her. "Hey, Azura," Rusti said as if he wanted to engage in a longer conversation.

She didn't want to talk to him that much, but felt that it was unavoidable. Rusti would just run after her if she left. "Hey. Want do you want?" she replied.

"I…" he started. It seemed like he had trouble starting this talk.

"Spit it out," she said, wanting to get this over with.

"I told you about my brother Tyson, right?" She nodded. While he hadn't mentioned him by name, she assumed that was the brother he became a Huntsman for. "Well, he's here in Vale. And so is the rest of my family."

"Why don't you talk to them?" she asked, hoping he would take the suggestion.

"I wasn't very close to my parents when I left, and… I'm not really sure about how to approach Tyson." She cocked an eyebrow. Why? "When we were young, we couldn't always do what normal brothers did. While I was on the jungle gym, he was sitting on a bench reading a book next to parents who had brought their children there.

"But when we teenagers, well, things started to change." Of course they did. "Apparently being in a wheelchair gets you a lot of sympathy and sympathy gets you girls."

She was surprised and slightly outraged. "You used your brother's disability to get girls?"

"That's a good summary." She was aghast at this. But that was in the past; not like he'd do it now, right? "Me and my brother had such fun those days. But now I don't know. Not long before I left for Haven, Tyson got into a little accident. He had to go to the hospital, and I… ran. I haven't spoken to him since."

So, he and Tyson hadn't gotten any closure. She began to pity him. "Go see him," she said, keeping emotion out of her voice.

"It'd be awkward. Besides…" He paused for a while, before continuing, "I don't know how to approach him after all this."

"Are you a coward?" she said.

"What?!" he almost yelled as he stood up.

"Are you a coward, Rusti?" she repeated, also standing up. He was taller than she was, there was no disputing that, but she was still taller than most women she had met in Mistral or Vale. "Because only cowards don't have the guts to visit the ones they love!"

"You don't know anything about this!"

"You don't think I know what it's like to see a love one's bones shatter?" she yelled. "You don't think I know what it's like to see them in bed, unable to stand? Let me tell you one thing, Rusti: you may think you know how it is to see a loved one confined to a wheel chair, but your brother will heal and stand again. I know what it's like to see someone fall and never stand again."

Instead of summoning some retort, Rusti went to the door and opened it, making it slam into the wall. Before leaving he said, "Why did I ask you this?!" and slammed the door behind him.

She almost cried, but didn't. "Good riddance," she said, and laid down on her bed to think.