Chapter 6: Those who are left behind

MANA's first week at Beacon was relatively uneventful, they got up, they ate, they went to classes, ate again, before going to bed. They had good friends, they spent many an hour getting to know each other. Even the harrowing nightmare barely came to his consciousness anymore. Everything seemed almost, peaceful…

It wouldn't last for long.

A few lessons during their week saw the team split up, not every team had every lesson together. So, on this particular day, Alden and Maya found themselves stuck in professor Port's class whilst Aegan and Nite had the period off.

"So! Can anyone tell me what's the best method for dealing with large groups of Grimm?" Ports cheerful voice boomed throughout the lecture room.

Alden leaned over to Maya who was sitting next to him. "Start a forest fire?" He whispered, referring to their uncomfortably close call during their initiation. Maya sniggered slightly and held her hand over her mouth.

Unfortunately, this was noticed by the professor: "Yes Alden? If you know, please share with the class."

"Umm… get reinforcements?" Alden joked.

Professor Port gave out a haughty laugh, "Well… you're not wrong… but most of the time it is not practical nor available."

Alden smiled but answered properly, "Try and use the enviroment to funnel them, get them into a spot where they cannot use their numbers."

"Exactly!" Port said. "Many a Huntsman have fallen due to being swarmed, obviously not myself… I was far too good of a huntsman to be caught off guard like that! Which reminds me of a tale when I was young…"

Alden zoned out at that point. The man's lectures were interesting, but the moment he began telling stories, Alden stopped listening, it was just showing off rather than any decent learning material.

Port droned on…

And on…

And on…

It was all about how "He was surrounded by the beasts!" but "with his superior knowledge and abilities, he caused a small avalanche and jumped off a cliff to vanquish his quarry!"

Yeah… Alden felt like he had better things to do with his time. When finally Port dismissed them he let out a sigh of relief. Maya stood on the tips of her toes and stretched her arms over her head, Alden could hear her fingers click.

They exited the classroom after letting the stream of other students go first. When they left Maya pulled out her scroll and clicked on their team group. Alden peered over her shoulder, Aegan's and Nite's faces were below theirs. Next to Maya and Alden in green letters was the word "free." Next to Aegan and Nite in yellow writing was "in lesson- double period."

"Well, we've got a few hours to kill, what do you want to do?" Maya asked

Alden scratched the back of his head in thought, "I'm hungry- Do you want to grab a coffee?"

Maya looked at him weirdly, "You're hungry, so you want to drink coffee?"

"Not just coffee, there a place in town my family always goes for lunch when we come up."

"Ah, ok…" Maya said she thought for a second "sure, why not?"

They took a right out of the classroom and navigated the crowded corridors find one of the side exits of the building. Pushing the door open they stepped out into the fresh air.

The grounds were dotted with students milling about. They could see a couple of Bullheads flying overhead, transporting personnel to and from Beacon. In the distance, an airship was conducting its final approach to the landing Jetty. They walked towards it, occasionally having to push through the crowds here and there. When they arrived at the Jetty they stood and watched the airship slowly turnabout.

"Hey guys! Where are you off to?" A chirpy voice sounded from behind them. They turned to see Ruby smiling at them, with the rest of her team not far behind.

"Coffee. How about you?" Alden said, completely oblivious to the slightly raised eyebrow of Yang.

"We're going to restock on dust, for the trip tomorrow," Ruby replied.

"We were going to do that," Maya said "But Aegan and Nite are caught in a double period, so we're going to have to go this afternoon."

By this point, the airship had slowed to a halt, the door opened and a few people trickled out as the swarm of students piled on in.

"Has anyone ever been to forever fall?" Weiss asked as the airship departed. Everyone shook their heads.

"Though if the postcards are anything to go by, it's a beautiful place," Yang said.

"Which is full of Grimm" Blake replied.

"Ever the optimist that one," Yang whispered in Alden's ear. Alden grinned, the bow on Blake's head twitched and she rolled her eyes, but no one took any notice.

Idle chit chat followed for a few minutes- interrupted by Ruby patting down her clothes frantically.

"What have you lost now?" Yang asked like it was standard procedure. Alden had known them since he and Yang where three years old and Ruby was one, so long enough to know that in fact, this was standard for Ruby.

"My shopping list!" Ruby panicked, "I checked it was there before we left and…"

"You dropped it on the jetty." Alden said reaching into his pocket and producing a small folded piece of paper, "I was seeing how long it would take before you noticed." Ruby just scowled at him as he handed it over.

"I hate you." She said.

"Love you too Rubes"

The airship descended upon the landing strip, the ramp deployed and everyone aboard disembarked. The airport at this time of day was bustling, airships were coming and going every minute. Hundreds of people were walking about, entering and exiting airships as they headed off for various destinations.

They waved goodbye to the members of team RWBY as they were headed in a different direction and they exited the airport and into the streets of Vale itself.

The sun was high in the sky, and since it was summer- it was completely unrelenting. Thankfully the helpful citizens of Vale had erected cloth shades along the pavement so everyone could walk around only getting slightly singed, rather than roasted all the way through. They could see the first decorations being prepared for the Vytal festival: bunting being stacked, and shipments of balloons being piled as well as tons upon tons of other stuff Alden couldn't recognise in the large piles dotted around the city ready to be distributed- Vale was sparing no expense.

"I'm not sure I like how quickly the tournament is coming up," Maya said.

"It's seven months away," Alden replied.

"Yep and before you know it, it will be two weeks. Hopefully we will be ready for it."

They dodged around a few crowds and families walking the street, crossing through the square where Maya had taken them before, over a small bridge and into the first few streets of the commercial district.

"You thinking of signing us up?" Alden asked, "To the Vytal?"

Maya nodded "As long as everyone wants to compete, I'm not going to force someone to."

"I'm up for it, I'm sure the others are too. I've got a feeling we make a great team."

"There's no question in that," Maya said "But some people simply don't like competition."

Alden suddenly stopped and grabbed Maya's arm, yanking her back slightly. The sudden momentum change caused her hand to move to the handle of her sword and look around, for any sign of danger.

"What is it?" she asked worryingly trying to spot whatever Alden had. He just turned and looked at her very seriously.

"Maya…" he said very slowly, before a giant grin took over his features as he couldn't keep up the act and began to chuckle softly, "We've gone too far, we need to go down there." He pointed to a street behind them.

Maya's jaw twitched and he fingers flexed before clenching into fists. Alden looked down.

"Please don't hit me?" it came out more of a question, than the statement it was intended as, he took a step back to give him a better chance of intercepting any swing she might send his way.

Maya just looked at him exasperated, "Why would you do that!?" she sighed, "I thought someone was getting mugged or something!" Alden burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, you looked so concerned and I couldn't H-help i-it!" he managed to stagger out while trying to get his breathing under control. Maya rolled her eyes and walked off as Alden was keeled over.

When Alden wasn't fighting off asphyxiation he looked up to see Maya wasn't in front of him. He looked over his shoulder, he could see the leather jacket and the tip of her tail disappear around the corner. Just as he was about to follow his eyes landed on a group of people standing by the corner, similar to them in age. They were talking and laughing between themselves and nothing seemed particularly out of order. That was until all their gazes seemed to track Maya when she passed them, as she got further away they all pushed themselves off the wall and began to head down the same street.

Alden jogged forwards and began following them, he looked at his scroll and clicked on Maya's picture, a map of their local area appeared on the screen and a small flashing red dot leading away from him but on the same road. The group he was following were deathly quiet, and they were gaining.

Alden began to mentally slap himself, why would they be following her? People go places in a city, he was essentially stalking them, not the other way round. He looked down to put his scroll back into his pocket. However, when he looked up the group was gone. Alden looked around, nope they defiantly vanished.

He passed a market stall, but backtracked as he saw a group of individuals blocking the entrance to an alleyway. He leaned up against the market stall and tried to peer through the various heads. Maya was staring back at him. The "leader" of the group seemed to be threatening Maya. Once she was sure they had eye contact she flicked her eyes up, towards the roof. Alden nodded and blinked up, disappearing in a flash and leaving numerous confused bystanders.

Alden flashed in on the roof beside the alleyway. He looked down: there were roughly seven people down there excluding Maya, they were outnumbered three to one, he felt a smirk form on his face, thugs like this feel safety in numbers, if they outnumber whoever they are threatening then they feel they always have the upper hand. But when it's a pair of Beacon students that was a very grave assumption to make. Alden knew he could just jump, grab Maya and they would both vanish and be long gone before they had any idea what happened. But they were threatening his friend, Alden was not necessarily violent- but they just ordered a large dish of pain.

"I'm sorry can you repeat that? I wasn't listening…" Maya said as she returned her attention back to the thugs.

"You little shit… You know we have just the right tricks to make freaks like you shriek in pain." The leader threatened.

Faunus haters, Alden thought, the best and brightest of mankind, right here.

"Ohhhh… you were trying to be threatening? I've got some advice for you hotshot- get your message right next time, because you are failing miserably"

The leader growled and went to punch Maya, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him off balance before twisting it and pushing it behind his back whilst knocking his legs from under him with her foot. He collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain. The other six advanced- only slightly unnerved by how quickly their leader was put into the dirt.

Alden took this as his cue and jumped, deliberately landing on two of them, he channeled most of the energy into his right leg and he felt the ribs snap under his feet as he tore through their weak and untrained aura. The unfortunate recipient yelled out in pain, which caused quite a few heads to turn in their direction, in a split second glance Alden could see two policemen running towards them.

The remaining four pulled out knives to try and get them to back down, but all it did was give Alden and Maya permission to pull out theirs. Alden almost laughed when he saw one of the thugs go cross eyes- staring down at the tip of tempest's blade, just touching the very tip of his nose, with a click Alden was pointing the barrel of his other gauntlet at another thug. Maya had disarmed her two with her sword which, as it turned out could be folded into a small piece of metal stored under her jacket. Which was convenient as Alden had staved off all this time from asking her if she had forgotten it.

As the policemen arrived they saw the weapons used by hunters so thankfully didn't immediately try to arrest them.

"What happened here?" The first one asked.

"Faunus haters," Alden replied "They tried to assault my friend here."

The second one began speaking into a radio and it wasn't long before a police van arrived and four more policemen stepped out. Alden and Maya stuck around as the thugs were arrested, just to make sure they didn't get any ideas above their station. Once they were pushed into the back of the van the original policemen thanked them before heading off. Alden was only slightly unnerved by all the people staring at them, they did make quite the scene after all…

"Now," Alden began "Where were we?"

As it turned out they were literally a few buildings away from their destination. Alden led Maya into a small café looking building. The door was hooked to a small bell which dinged as it opened. The inside of the building had a white tiled floor, with the wall being clad in wooden planks halfway up the wall before being replaced with a white plaster. There were only half a dozen tables and luckily all but one were full.

As they approached the counter the back door opened and a friendly middle-aged women walked up to the counter.

"No family today lad?" She asked as she smiled at them.

"Nope, not today." Alden replied.

The woman turned to Maya and stepped to the side to allow a clear view of the menu behind her. "What takes your fancy?"

Maya peered at the menu and her eyes flickered over it.

"Umm… I'll have… A bagel and a black coffee please."

The lady smiled "I'll be right back" before heading out the back door.

Maya looked at Alden "Are you not having anything?"

"Of course I am."

"But… you didn't order." All he did was smile at her.

"Ta-da!" The woman said as she emerged from the back with their orders on a tray. Maya could see her stuff on one side, but on the other was another coffee cup as well as a paper bag with the unmistakable smell of bacon wafting from it.

Alden could see Maya eyeing up his side of the tray, "Are you psychic or something?" She asked. The woman followed her gaze towards Alden's order.

"Oh, this?" she smiled "Alden's being ordering roughly the same thing since he was a wee little thing."

Alden piped up "I even get a special button on their app thing which tells them I'm coming so I don't have to wait for it to cook." He smiled at the woman as he took the tray, "I am living the life." The woman laughed and Maya shook her head but smiled and followed him to the last remaining table.

Alden began unpacking their order as Maya was fiddling with her tail to make sure she wouldn't sit on it.

"As she said, Leda has known my family long before I was born, I think my parents save her from Grimm once… I believe that's how they were introduced anyway."

"Your parents are hunters?" Maya asked. Alden nodded

"The Cirqs have been huntsman and huntresses since long before the title became official," Alden said. "Although I was never forced to do the same, it just seems to run in the blood. What about you? Any of your family in the profession?"

Maya nearly burst out laughing mid-sip of her coffee. "No, no. Nearly the exact opposite." She grimaced, but Alden didn't push.

A gentle silence befell the two as they ate, Alden moaning in pleasure as he tucked into his bacon sandwich. Maya looked at him slightly disgusted.

"What?" Alden said with his mouth slightly full.

"You!" Maya said laughing at his expression. "That can't be healthy."

"Uh-uh, this is the only known cure of vegetarianism." Alden said, proud of his comeback "Anyway we're in the school for the most active profession in the world- I can eat whatever I damn well please and burn it off within the next hour."

"Being vegetarian is not a disease." Maya accused

"If it's not a disease then it's defiantly a disorder, like lactose intolerance- if you can't have milk, you miss out on chocolate, if you don't eat meat, then you can't have bacon, and that makes life intolerable." Alden defended.

"… What?"

"Bacon is one of the meanings of life, you can't just ignore it!"

"Why are we arguing about bacon?" Maya asked

"Because it's an incredibly important topic which leads to a very serious question…" Alden leaned forward in his chair towards Maya, "Do you like bacon?"

"Yes."

Alden leaned back in his chair with an overdramatic sigh of relief "Oh, good. If you had said no then this friendship would have ended."

Maya laughed "you base your friends on food?"

"Is there a better way to judge someone's worthiness?"

"Hang on let me get my list." Maya retorted.

They fell silent for a few seconds as Maya took a bite from her bagel.

"When are the others getting out? We can't forget to stock up on dust." Alden asked.

Maya swallowed her mouthful, "In a few minutes. Once they're out I'll message them and tell them to meet us at the park down the road."

They quickly finished up and took their plates and mugs to the counter.

"You're the best Leda," Alden said as he handed her the tray. Maya pulled some money out of her pocket and began to hand it over the counter, just before Leda could take it Alden slapped her hand down.

"Hey!" Maya said whipping her hand back.

"You paid for dinner for the entire team, the least I can do is pay for lunch."

"I don't care," Maya said

"Well, I do," Alden replied.

They stared each other down, without breaking eye contact they both held out money to Leda across the counter. She just looked between them extremely confused.

"Umm…" Leda said.

Alden knew there was a very high probability that Maya wouldn't back down, but he had a pain.

"Thanks for lunch Leda," Alden said before dropping his money on the desk, he then reached out and grabbed Maya's wrist and focused on just outside the shop. When they vanished it caused everyone's heads to turn and stare at the place where they used to be.

"Alden." Leda hissed to herself "I told you not to do that in my café!" knowing he was long gone by now she would wait until the next time he visited to have a go at him.

The next thing Alden saw was Maya's shocked expression as her surroundings changed. They were in the park, with several people staring at them because they appeared out of thin air. Even the money she was holding out was still caught in-between her fingers.

"Wha-you-," Maya stuttered before looking at him very accusingly as she pocketed the money "You cheated." She sulked.

"I did nothing of the sort."

They were distracted when both of their scrolls, when they pulled them open they could see a notification icon next to the team symbol. Alden pressed it and Alden could see a new message in the chat room.

Aegan: Well that was boring. Where are you guys?

Alden: We're at the park.

Maya: You need to come down, we've got to restock on dust before the trip tomorrow.

Nite: Good idea, we're on our way. Give us 10 mins

"Talking of which, what shop are we going to?" Alden asked.

"Umm… That one?" Maya replied pointing to a shop not far away titled "Lereckin's very dusty store" which had a model of a large dust crystal next to it.

As they were waiting they lent up against the side of the tree in the middle of the park.

"Do you think we will actually encounter any Grimm tomorrow?" Alden asked.

"I don't know, there are Grimm in forever fall. Either way, it's better to go prepared."

They made small talk for a few minutes before they saw a pair walking into the park. Maya waved them over and the two changed direction towards them.

They gave quick greetings to each other before heading towards the shop. For the very dusty store business seemed to be booming. From the looks of things, this was one of the few dusts shops that hadn't been robbed recently, so prices extraordinarily low in comparison to other shops.

MANA fanned out, looking for what they needed. Alden beelined straight for the fire dust, he was running very low. He opened the small bag at his back and pulled out a few empty magazines and slotted them into the machine. His gauntlets folded out and the fire chamber rotated to the bottom and two half full mags were ejected. Once the machine was done filling up what he had given it he also inserted the two extra ones in to refill them.

When they were finished he moved around the shop, stocking up on everything he had used, mostly fire and ice, but there were a few others. He walked up to the counter and paid for the dust and then joined Aegan by the door as Maya and Nite were finishing up.

"I don't get how you can stay awake during Oobleck's lessons." Aegan said, looking at Alden with something like a mix of disbelief and admiration.

"I just find his stuff interesting, I like the challenge."

"I would say you're alone in that opinion but Maya is just as into it as you are, you're a pair of nerds!"

Alden laughed "We're not nerds, you're just a bit dim that's all."

Aegan winced "Ow."

Maya was grinning as she and Nite walked up to them. "You know the saying… Light travels faster than sound because people can appear bright, but then they open their mouths."

Nite chuckled "Does anyone smell that? That burning?"

Aegan looked at them in mock disgust "I'm being bullied!"

"Well if you could come up with any intelligent replies, it wouldn't feel so bad!" Alden said.

They walked out the shop laughing. They were also not looking where they were going. Alden tripped over someone's feet. Whilst he quickly recovered, the person he tripped over hadn't and were tumbling over. Alden quickly grabbed their wrist to slow their fall before turning to their side and pushing them back onto their feet.

"I'm so sorry, Madam! I wasn't looking where I was going." Alden sheepishly said. Maya, also not paying attention walked straight into the back of him. Alden staggered forward but caused no more accidents. "Nor is anyone it seems…" He continued.

"Alden! Why did you sto- Mum?" Maya said as she walked up to Alden's side.

The woman's gaze snapped to Maya: "Maya! I did not expect to see you so soon!" She said. And pulled Maya into a hug. This meant Alden had a clear view of her back, just by the small of her back was a near identical tail to Maya's. Yep undeniably her mother all right.

"Are these your teammates you were telling me about?" Maya's mother asked.

"Yep this is Alden, Aegan and Nite" Maya said pointing out each of them in turn. "Guys, this is my mother."

"Call me Beth" She said smiling "It's good to meet you all." Everyone waved in greeting. Beth looked back at Maya "Do you want to drop by for a few minutes? Your dad would love to see you."

"You don't even have to ask, of course, I'll come." Maya replied. Beth then faced the others.

"If you would like to come to, feel free. There's free drinks and biscuits!"

"Well, if you put it that way!" Aegan said. Beth smiled and turned to move on.

"This way, come on." Maya said and they followed them deeper into the residential district. The afternoon sun was beginning its descent across the sky. Fewer people were crowding the streets so they found it easier to navigate their way through the twists and turns.

They soon found themselves on a street which just like any other: was full of houses, however, once they had crossed the road they were quickly ushered into one of the small gardens outside a house. Beth opened the door and gestured for them to follow her in.

"John! Look who I found!" Beth called down a small white corridor. They quickly took off their shoes by the door and followed her down the hallway. As they passed through Alden noticed a picture hanging by the kitchen door: It was a family photo, Standing at the back was a couple Alden recognized Beth standing on the left, though she definitely looked younger. There was also a man who had an arm wrapped around her shoulders, Alden assumed this was the father. Standing in front of them were two young boys, Alden could see small white tips of fur sticking from behind their backs. One of them was holding a baby close to his chest.

As they continued the hallway opened up into a large rectangular kitchen. It had wooden cupboards with granite worktops spanning around most of the room, in the centre was a large table and sitting at one of its sides was a man, unmistakably the one from the picture in the hallway. He was reading something off his scroll but looked up when everyone entered the room. Upon seeing Maya he smiled and stood. Maya walked over and hugged him.

"Hi dad." She said.

"Maya!" He said wrapping his arms around her. "How was your first week at Beacon?"

"Really good actually." She said stepping to the side to introduce them. "These are my teammates." She began naming them. John approached them and shook their hands in greeting. They were invited to sit at the table and the Alethas got to work. Soon drinks and a couple of plates of biscuits and various other treats were laid before them. As everyone tuck in a few questions were asked.

"So, how are the various teams made?" Beth asked.

"Chess pieces." Alden replied.

Beth and John looked at him like he just spoke in a different language.

"We had to fight our way through a Grimm infested forest, link up with as many other students as possible. Find a ruined temple, take a chess piece and take it back to where we started." Alden explained.

"Is that a joke?" John asked.

"No," Maya stepped in "We- well, Alden and I fought two packs of Beowolves, a pack of Ursai, avoided being skewered by a Nevermore, helped Nite and Aegan finish off a heard of Boarbatusks, and fight a swarm of Beowolves whilst our particular bit of forest was on fire." She elaborated.

"For initiation?" Beth asked.

"Yep, just initiation. I have no idea what they will have to throw at us later."

Beth shook her head and looked at John, "Our children will kill me from a heart attack one day." She said. John just chuckled.

"It's what we signed up for." He told her. They spent nearly an hour talking about what Beacon looked like, to the different teachers to the various studies they have done, even to their fellow students and friends like teams RWBY and JNPR.

Maya was interrupted midsentence when Beth's phone rang.

"Sorry everyone," She said but opened her scroll and held it to her ear. "Jack! How are you? Oh! Your coming round? When will that be? OK, yep, see you soon. Love you too." Beth hung up the phone before worryingly looking at Maya. "Your brothers are just down the street." She told her.

Maya demeanor completely changed from happy and laughing to very close to the stern seriousness when she is in a fight. She rubbed her eyes before turning to the rest of the team.

"Well, guys… You're about to get a crash course in my family. Well… There's no other way to put it… My brothers are part of the white fang."

The room became so silent you could hear a pin drop. Nite's face looked like the blood had completely drained out of it. Her breathing also sped up erratically. "n-n-n- the… white fang…" She looked like she was about to have a heart attack, or a stroke or faint. Maybe all three.

"Nite?" Aegan asked, "What's wrong?"

Nite was completely unresponsive.

Then they heard the door open.

Nite was gripping the edge of the table whilst squeezing her eyes shut, she was repeating "no, no, no, no, no" over and over again. This wasn't going very well.

Alden looked at Maya. "Can you stall them for a few seconds?" He asked.

Maya nodded and stood, she walked down the hallway to greet her siblings. "Hey, guys! How are…" Her voice trailed off as she disappeared around the corner.

Alden grabbed Nite and Aegan, they disappeared leaving behind a very shocked John and Beth, They materialized just below the front window as the door shut.

"Get Nite away from here and see if you can find out what's this Is all about. Maya and I will come as quickly as we can." Alden said, ready to teleport back into the house.

"Wait! Should I go in there, being a Faunus and all?" Aegan asked.

Alden shook his head, "You know Nite the best. If anyone can get her out of this state it's you. Besides, I'm a big boy now, I can take anti-human comments. It'll be fine." He then flashed and disappeared.

Alden was met with the very confused stares of John and Beth. "My semblance" he explained.

Just then Maya walked into the kitchen, followed by her brothers. One of them was only slightly taller than her and about as thin as a stick. The other was built like a tank, and taller than Alden. This one stopped and stared when he saw Alden.

"Is he a…?" He began.

"Yes Mike, he's a human." Maya interrupted.

"Why, have you brought, a Human into our house?" He asked very slowly, trying to be civil.

"Because he's my partner from Beacon." Maya replied.

"Mike" slowly approached Alden, trying to be intimidating, and if Alden wasn't a huntsman in training he would have succeeded. Out of respect for Maya Alden held back on any sass that was desperately trying to get out of his mouth. But his pride wouldn't allow him to take even a step back.

"You better watch your tongue Human." He hissed. "I haven't broken anything because you are in my parents' house."

Alden just raised a single eyebrow. "You know your sister, she wouldn't have even considered inviting me if there was even a scrap of those types of opinions in me." Alden noticed the other one hadn't moved and was looking at Maya for guidance.

Mike just took another step forward. "I don't like ho…"

"Okay, that's enough!" Maya instantly stepped in. Alden felt some amusement that even though Maya was clearly the youngest sibling this brute immediately closed his mouth. She looked over her shoulder at her parents "I'm sorry, we'll drop by another day." She said and dragged Alden down the hallway.

"It was nice meeting you Alden!" John and Beth called down the hallway.

"You too!" He replied before walking through the front door.

As soon as the door was shut Maya growled in frustration.

"Mike behaves like that to a stranger and then wonders why a lot of Human's don't like the Faunus.

"Don't worry," Alden said "I can take the words. Though thank you for the timely rescue."

Maya smiled tiredly, "Don't sweat it… Though where did Aegan and Nite go?" She asked.

Alden pulled out his scroll and clicked on Aegan's picture. "That way." He said pointing down the street. They took off at a run, following Aegan's signal. They turned right around a corner and in the distance they saw a small green space. When they arrived they could see Nite and Aegan sitting on a Bench on the other side. They too sat on the bench next to Nite and Alden looked at Aegan to see if he had any answers. Before he could say anything , however, Nite began to speak:

"L-Last year" She sniffed, Aegan held out a tissue, she smiled in thanks and blew her nose before continuing. "There was a big event going on in vacuo. Some kind of music festival or something." She was looking off in the distance, her eyes were distant and unfocused. "My family decided it would be fun to go, so did my friends and their families." Her gaze dropped to her joined hands in her lap. "There were over two thousand people, all in one space… During the festival we heard shouting, screaming and then there was a massive explosion, I only survived because I was at the very edge of the field it was held in, I was lucky that I didn't get up because the vans arrived and people wearing the masks of the white fang got out and started shooting anything that moved." Tears began falling down her face.

A grim look of recognition dominated the expressions of the rest of the team, "The Lanid festival massacre." Maya said. Nite just nodded.

"I was so scared, so I just laid there… I hoped that they wouldn't notice me." She then completely broke down, with sobs wracking through her body.

"I should have done something!" she cried. Maya got on her knees in front of Nite and pulled her into a hug. She said nothing but rubbed her back, Nite pushed her eyes into Maya's shoulder.

"If you had done something, then you would have been killed," Maya said, "You wouldn't be here now, and you wouldn't be around to do something about it." Nite nodded and began trying to control her breathing. Maya looked up to Alden and Aegan:

"Just so everyone knows, I take no part in the white fang. Trust me, I know my brothers technically count as terrorists, but they haven't done anything yet. I've been tracking what they're doing and trying to get them to see the white fang for what it is, I've made a lot of progress on Jack- the one that didn't threaten you." She pointed that last sentence at Alden. "But Mike… sometimes I feel that he has let his hatred consume him, Jack is just following him, but I'm scared Mike will try and get him to actually do the more extreme stuff."

She looked down for a second before meeting Alden's eyes, "If they do, I will be the first person kicking them in the dirt, you can count on that. I will not let them hurt anyone. Yes, in general, the Faunus are being oppressed by humanity, but that is not the way to solve it."

Nite had calmed down to speak again: "My Semblance changed that day… I used to be able to create static copies of people and objects. But there was so much death and despair… I don't know why it changed. I lost everyone I knew- all my friends. All my family. When I told you that I moved from Vacuo and you were everyone I knew here? On initiation day? I was being very literal, you were the only people I knew on an even remotely personal basis." She flopped back on the bench and looked up at the evening sky. "I'm sorry…" she said, "You deserve someone better than this for your teammate."

"Bollocks," Aegan retorted "We wouldn't change you for the world Nite, we've got your back." Alden rested his hand on her shoulder. Nite smiled.

"Thanks, guys," She said. Maya pulled her into another final hug.

"Come what may, we've got your back." She said, "We've got everyone's back."

"Yay, go team," Alden said. Everyone laughed.

"Well, that just killed the moment!" Nite said.

They sat for a few seconds in silence before Aegan let out a yawn. Maya stood.

"Yep, I agree. It's getting late and I can hear my bed calling me." She said. Everyone stood and they walked back to the airport.

AN: Hey everyone, sorry to bother you all. This chapter took longer than usual because it was an attempt to make this chapter better than the average quality. I feel that the original chapters are a bit... lacking. I have plans to slowly over time update them. This story loses a lot of views in the first chapter, this could because it's not everyone's cup of tea (All fanfics which add a new team to the story get consistently fewer favs and follows than any other story.) I would like your opinions if you prefer the longer,(hopefully better) chapter over the more frequent ones. Any reviews telling me exactly what you think would be a godsend, even if it's just a private message any feedback would be hugely appreciated. (Even if you hate it, go ahead I won't take offense.)

Thanks for your time guys, and I will see you in chapter 7 where the glowy-eyed shadows make a grand return.

Until then, I hope you have enjoyed the story so far!

Etherway