Gamer4 in. You know, it pains me to say it, what with a story like this and the timing with which it was begun, but I don't really have anything special in mind for the upcoming Halloween. I do have a chapter in mind that might fit it, but we're too far away from it for there to be any real chance of it being uploaded on that date. Kinda sucks, but whatcha gonna do? Anyways, might as well dive right in nonetheless.
Disclaimer: Our enemies are gathering, the storm is growing deadly!
Chapter XIX
Blake Belladonna Visits the Circus
Jaune Arc knew, from the moment he awoke the following day, that the previous night's events had all been a dream. Of course they were- there was no other explanation- he was going to get out of bed, go into the bathroom, find nothing, and spend the rest of the day having fun with his new friends.
He peeked his head out of his room. As far as he could tell, the house was silent- indicating his mother had already left for the day. He stepped out, took a couple strides down the hall, coming to the bathroom door, reached out... and hesitated.
He was mentally scoffing at himself. What do you expect to see? he chided himself. There's not going to be anything in there- just the same old spotty mirror, dirty walls and floors- dirty, not bloody...
He took a long, deep breath and finally opened the door.
Despite the hours that had passed since the initial blood fountain, it was glistening on the walls, floor and ceiling as though it had just happened. Immediately upon opening the door, the tangy, coppery smell overwhelmed his senses- he practically vomited on the spot, but as it was, he still spent what seemed like an hour or two gagging on the bathroom's threshold.
Finally, he brought himself to a stop. Despite all this, he was now more determined than ever to meet up with his new friends- Team Loser. Desperate for some sense of normalcy- to reassure himself that there was a normal world out there. Maybe he could even tell them about- no, no, that would be a bad idea, they'd think he was crazy.
He thought on this as he got dressed- careful to avoid the underwear and socks containing the postcard. Maybe he was crazy- had he not seen an apparition in his mirror- an apparition bearing an uncanny resemblance to the woman they'd described as the kidnapper? It seemed as likely as anything else that the whole incident was simply a hallucination brought about by his fears, given form by the description they'd offered him.
If that was the case, he thought, double-checking the bathroom one last time before leaving the house, it was an incredibly realistic hallucination.
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It was a relief to step out of that shady house and into the bright sun outside. He quickly raced out of the dingier parts of Vale he and his mother lived in and started making tracks for the central areas. The air was refreshing after being cooped up in his house all of the previous day, and he found himself breaking into the occasional sprint in his excitement.
At long last, the arcade appeared over the horizon- a glorious building with all the flashing lights and whirring noises one would expect from such a place. And standing right out front, seemingly scanning around for an errant head of blond hair, was Pyrrha Nikos. She visibly brightened when she spied him coming over the horizon. "Jaune!" she greeted him. "Glad to see you could make it!"
"You haven't been waiting out here for me the whole time, have you?" Jaune asked nervously- he'd hate to think she was depriving herself of fun on his account.
"No- I just stepped out, and thought I'd see if-" She stopped herself mid-sentence, momentarily shaking her head from side to side. "It doesn't matter. I was just getting pasted at skee ball anyways..."
"Nora?" he guessed- while the pink girl had insisted on Jaune playing all the fair games the other day, the level of enthusiasm she'd expressed for them led him to think she might be rather good at them.
"No," Pyrrha shook her head as she took the lead into the building, guiding him towards the skee ball machines at the back. "Actually, Yang and Nora haven't shown up yet. Believe it or not, it's Weiss."
Jaune blinked as, sure enough, they happened upon the others just as Weiss was tossing a ball between her hands. After a couple experimental tosses, she held it tight in her left hand, wound up, and tossed it onto the ramp, where it rolled swiftly along, flying into the air, landing perfectly in the highest-scoring hole. At one side was Blake Belladonna, seemingly not paying attention at all- she was flicking through a book with a thick dust jacket. Paying much more attention- with a slight grimace on her face- was that girl from the other day, Ilia Amitola.
"You're not playing?" Weiss asked, turning to glance at Blake. "We have enough for you to take a roll or two."
"I'll just keep refereeing," Blake replied in an almost perfect monotone, not taking her eyes off her book.
Weiss shrugged in a 'suit-yourself' kind of way before turning to see Jaune and Pyrrha approaching. "Ah- you must be Jaune Arc. Pyrrha told us all about you. Pleasure."
She curtly extended her hand, and Jaune shook it nervously. "So... any idea when Yang and Nora will turn up?" he asked- it was somewhat awkward only knowing one of the people here.
"No telling," Blake piped up. "I haven't seen those two in a while."
"I haven't seen them since we split up after the fair," Pyrrha agreed, biting her lip slightly. "I hope they're okay..."
A dark mood seemed to descend on them for a moment, before Jaune spoke up. "Well... those two can take care of themselves- I'm sure they're just fine. Let's just wait a little longer, huh?"
"Sounds good to me," the other girl, Ilia, nodded. "I'm not keen on playing more skee ball with the Schnee." This was punctuated by a glare in Weiss's direction. Weiss bit her lip and looked away. Jaune raised his eyebrows at Pyrrha, who simply shrugged. Ilia led the way away from the skee ball machines, leaving Jaune to turn to Blake.
"Does she... have a problem?"
"She may not look like it," Blake muttered under her breath, watching as Weiss and Pyrrha followed Ilia, "but she's a faunus too- a chameleon."
"A faunus too?" Jaune asked, blinking.
Blake sighed, glancing from side to side before removing her bow. "Take a quick look- the bow goes back on and stays on."
All said, Jaune had about three seconds to view Blake's purplish cat ears before she quickly retied the bow. "Anyways, there's some bad blood between us and the Schnees. Weiss has gotten over it... Ilia, not so much."
"I see." Jaune threw a nervous glance over his shoulder at the rest of their group. "I see..."
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Unfortunately, the barb at Weiss's expense set the tone for the remainder of that visit. As they went around playing all the other games, Ilia only seemed to get more and more agitated as she consistently came out behind the others- primarily Weiss and Pyrrha. Blake continued to stick to her book, only looking up to throw out the occasional comment, while Jaune continued to trail behind them all- seemingly Ilia's only consolation.
The last straw, however, was when they began competing on the pinball machine- the game where Jaune finally came out ahead, scoring higher than Ilia, Pyrrha, and Weiss combined. Weiss, almost predictably at this point, had come in second, Pyrrha not far behind her, and in dead last... a very unhappy Ilia.
"Alright, Schnee, spill it," she finally burst. "You and your family have rigged this arcade somehow."
"I've done nothing of the sort!" Weiss objected. "I can hardly claim to be perfect if I have to resort to such underhanded tactics- not that my father would allow it even if I wanted to!"
"Bullshit!" Ilia snapped back. "I know you're cheating- you and him!" With this, she turned on Jaune, who jumped, looking remarkably uncomfortable being dragged into this heated argument.
"Ilia," Blake said warningly, lowering her book at last.
"Of course the man would want to force himself into this group, just to start dominating us all!"
"I... er... uh..." Jaune babbled a bit, uncertain how to react.
"He's lost every game up until now..." Weiss pointed out quietly.
But the harshest one was Pyrrha, who stepped between Jaune and Ilia, a sudden look of ferocity on her face that none had ever seen there before. "You take that back." Everyone blinked in surprise- coming from a girl who was usually so polite, that was no request- it was an order.
"What's wrong with you?" Ilia narrowed her eyes. "He's just using you to stroke his own-"
"Jaune is not like that," Pyrrha shot back. "You can either take that back or get out of here- just don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."
Pyrrha pointed behind her, where the door of the arcade stood. Despite her weight, she was still the tallest person present, easy, giving her quite the advantage in terms of intimidation.
Ilia glanced over to Blake, who was wearing- not necessarily a scathing look- but definitely not a supportive one either. She huffed. "Even Blake's been taken in by you freaks..." she grumbled before making her way out of the doors.
A long silence fell. "Sorry about her," Blake finally spoke up. "She's not usually like that- I guess today is just a bad day for her."
Pyrrha, on the other hand, widened her eyes, slapping her hands over her mouth. "Did... did I just say that?" she wondered out loud, turning to Weiss as if for confirmation.
Weiss's eyes were pretty wide themselves- she hadn't had as much interaction with Pyrrha as some of the others, but she'd had enough to know that little outburst was definitely unusual. "Yes... yes, I believe you did."
"Sorry about that, guys," Jaune looked down, rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't mean to cause any trouble..."
Pyrrha's eyes abruptly hardened again. "It wasn't your fault, Jaune. It was all her."
"I... I just wanted to go out and do something normal after last night..."
The words were out before he could stop them. "Why?" Pyrrha asked. "What happened last night?"
Jaune tensed up. "Oh... just... stuff."
"What kind of 'stuff?'" Weiss asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Maybe we can help."
"It's... uh... nothing you can help with," Jaune shook his head, looking pointedly away. "Look... why don't we just find another game..."
Pyrrha spoke up, a cold dread suddenly taking hold in her heart. "Jaune... did you see the woman?"
It was as if a cloud had passed in front of the sun, darkening the room perceptibly- despite there being little natural light there to begin with. Blake dropped her book, and abruptly, her bow contorted, signifying the flattening of her feline ears. Weiss gave fewer outward expressions, but her skin had noticeably whitened even more than usual, and her hands had clenched into tight fists.
"Yes... no... not exactly... kind of?" Jaune spluttered.
"What do you mean, 'kind of?'" Weiss interrupted. "Did you see her or didn't you?"
"I... I saw her reflection... but she wasn't in the actual room..." Jaune kept his eyes fixed on the ground, unable to face them as he delivered such a ridiculous story.
Blake's eyes were narrowed, and Weiss was biting her lip. Finally, Pyrrha placed a hand on his shoulder. "Jaune... we... we don't necessarily think this is as crazy as you think... please, tell us the whole story."
"It's... it's not possible..."
"Try us," Weiss spoke up, looking very much as though she was bracing herself. "We might surprise you."
Jaune took a deep breath, and began to explain the story- starting with the voices in the sink. Weiss and Blake visibly tensed at the mention of Ruby's name. Next came the hair from the sink, and while he neglected to tell them exactly why he'd cut his hair- a question he was still working out for himself- he did make it clear how certain he was that it was his hair the ropes had been twisted from. His audience's eyes widened as he described his struggle to keep away from the drain, until the blood's eruption. At long last, the image of the woman in the mirror, only to vanish when his mother had entered the room.
When he finally finished his story, it left a ringing silence behind, despite all the buzzing noise around them.
"Jaune..." Pyrrha finally broke the silence. "Are... are you sure you're okay, after all that?"
"I'm still not certain it was real," Jaune admitted. "I saw it, but part of me still thinks I must be crazy... part of me hopes I'm crazy..."
"What state is your bathroom in?" Weiss asked.
"I... I checked it before I left this morning... the blood was still there, but... I don't know... maybe I'm still hallucinating somehow..."
"One way to find out," came Blake's voice, and they turned to see her rising from her seat in a nearby game, snapping her book shut and tucking it away under one arm. "Let's go check it ourselves. If you're crazy, we won't be able to see it."
"You... you want to come to my house?" Jaune asked nervously.
"If it's alright with you, of course!" Pyrrha interjected immediately.
"No, no, it's fine by me, it's just that..." He didn't want to think what would happen if his mother came home early to find three girls with him in the bathroom. "It's just... let's be quick about it, okay?"
"Why, is there something else?" Weiss asked, somewhat urgently.
"Not exactly... just... my Mom..."
Weiss rolled her eyes. "I see," she nodded. "I wouldn't want my father to find out if it were me- but don't worry. We'll be in and out before you know it."
Jaune gave a nervous nod before leading them out of the arcade and back along the way he'd come that morning- all the way to his house at the edge of town.
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"So, this is your house, hmm?" Weiss asked as they approached it.
"I... I know it's not much," Jaune muttered, his cheeks reddening slightly.
"Be nice, Weiss," Blake lightly tapped the girl in white on the head with her hardcover. For a moment, she paused.
"Is something wrong, Blake?" Pyrrha asked nervously- given what they were here to do, she thought she had every right to be.
"No, it's nothing, it's just... that's usually where Yang or Nora would jump in and make a joke out of it..."
They looked around- indeed, they could hardly not notice the absence of the group's ringleaders- there was an emptiness there standing hand-in-hand with Yang and Nora's absence.
"Maybe we'll... we'll stop by their houses after this," Jaune suggested nervously. "You guys know where they live, right?"
"Where Yang lives," Weiss agreed. "I don't think we've ever really gone over to Nora's... but Yang will know, and if they're together, it will be at Yang's."
Finally, Jaune stepped forward and opened the door for them, revealing the rather ramshackle hallways behind.
The four kept close together as they ascended a floor, and eventually came to the bathroom that Jaune had sealed shut again after his morning excursion. Trembling far more violently than he had earlier, Jaune pushed the door open. He kept his eyes open long enough to see the blood still glistening on every surface, then slammed them shut- he didn't know what he'd do if the others couldn't see it.
However, as soon as the door opened, a collective gasp rose up from the girls.
"My God..."
"Oh my Dust..."
"You see it?" he asked, almost desperately.
"How could we not?" Blake asked. She covered her nose. "It smells..."
"It smells for me," Weiss agreed, recoiling slightly from the deluge of blood. "I can't imagine how it must smell for you..."
As Blake and Weiss pulled away, Pyrrha stepped in, running a finger along a wall, leaving a trail in the liquid and examining it closely. "I wonder where it comes from..."
"Who cares where it came from?" Weiss spoke up. "What are we going to do about it?!"
Blake was biting her lip. "Well... we can hardly leave it here..."
"Right!" Pyrrha nodded, turning to Jaune. "How about we help you clean this up?"
"I... I guess I have some cleaning stuff in the closet..."
"Do we have to?" Weiss asked, looking nervously at the room's insides. "Do you realize how many diseases blood can carry?"
"You can only catch them if it mixes with your own blood," Blake interjected. "Just don't drink it, and you'll be fine."
"Right," Pyrrha nodded again, clapping her hands together. "Jaune... show me to your closet. We'll get this cleaned up today."
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Over the next hour or so, the four of them did, indeed, clean up the bathroom- doing an effective enough job that it was actually cleaner than before the blood fountain. With mop, rags, and various cleaning fluids in hand, they wiped the mirror until it shone, mopped the floor until it was practically a mirror itself, and cleaned the walls until Jaune finally remembered, after so many years, what the pattern on it was actually intended to be. Whenever their buckets became too bloody to be feasible for cleaning anymore, they dumped them into the tub, allowing the nightmare of the previous night to go down the drain.
At one point, Jaune finally felt compelled to ask the question that had been nagging at his mind for a while now. "So... you guys... has something similar happened to you?"
"Hm?" Weiss asked. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, Pyrrha, Yang and Nora already told me about the woman- but they didn't tell me anything crazy like this. I was wondering- did you not see anything crazy, or..."
"We didn't think you'd believe us," Pyrrha agreed with his unspoken sentiment. "Would you have?"
Jaune could hardly speak against her- he'd been doubting his own senses not two hours ago. "So you did see something unusual?"
"A weeping angel," Pyrrha nodded, shuddering at the memory.
"A dying faunus," Weiss recalled, biting her lip.
Finally, they all turned to Blake, busy soaking the shower curtains in a filled tub. She finally noticed their gaze on her, and turned to meet it. "Yes?" she asked.
"Blake... at the campout, didn't you say you saw something, too?" Pyrrha recalled.
"Did I?" Blake asked, suddenly looking very uncomfortable.
"Yes you did," Weiss agreed, fixing her with an unflinching stare. "If I recall, you were just about to tell us when Oobleck showed up."
Blake bit her lip, and went back to thoroughly wiping down the plastic curtains. "I'm not sure what I saw..."
"Neither were any of us," Jaune threw his hat into the ring. "Whatever happened, I'm sure it's no crazier than anything any of us have seen."
"In a way, it's not..." Blake agreed, before pointedly looking away. "But in others..."
Jaune and Pyrrha watched as Weiss crossed the room and sat on the toilet right next to Blake. "Blake... please tell us. After everything we've seen... everything we've been through... do you really think we'd just laugh you off?"
Blake cast her eyes down. "No... no... it's just..."
She heaved a great sigh. "It... it was mid-September- not long after Ruby... not long after..."
Weiss patted her on the back, and she heaved a sigh. "It... it was right after that argument you and I had, Weiss... you remember the one."
Weiss flinched slightly, but did not pull away. Words were echoing through the months back to their minds.
"Of course faunus aren't evil- they're just as individual as humans- but an organization like the White Fang that uses violence to get its way-"
"They're just misguided!"
"They're willing to kill people!"
"They're very misguided, then!"
"Look, Blake, I get why you'd want to support a group fighting for faunus rights, but the White Fang? They're pure evil!"
"There is no such thing as pure evil!"
Neither could recall how the fight had started, but by the end, they'd been hurling every insult they could think of at each other, intent only on hurting the other. Yang and Nora had failed to intervene- they were too taken aback at the usually more stoic girls getting so fired up. Never before had there been such a fight within the ranks of Team Loser- nor would there ever be since. It had culminated with Blake storming off away from their spot at the banks of the Haven River, making her way back towards the main township. Weiss had bit her tongue at whatever she'd said last- she could no longer recall- and made as if to run after her, but Yang had finally intervened.
"L-let her g-g-go, Weiss... she n-needs to b-be on her own for a b-b-bit."
Jaune and Pyrrha stared at the exchange occurring before them- almost entirely without words. "I... I remember," Weiss nodded. "We never did get you to tell us where you went afterwards..."
"Until now," Blake agreed. "I went..." She stopped, sighed, and continued. "I went to the abandoned fairgrounds."
Jaune and Weiss's eyes both widened, but Pyrrha looked confused. "I don't understand... we were just at the fairgrounds-"
"The fairgrounds by the boardwalk," Blake interjected. "Those are where we always set up now... but a long time ago, there were other fairgrounds that this town used to use... almost a hundred years ago, now... but after... something happened... they've never been used again."
"My Mom's told me about it," Jaune put in. "The circus came through town one time... they set up in the old fairgrounds... and it seemed like a fun time for everyone... everyone loved it... but then people started disappearing, only to turn up dead, if they turned up at all... eventually, the police realized the circus was behind it, and they all got run out of town, except for the ringmaster... he was struck by lightning, and killed..."
Blake had been biting her lip slightly already, and began biting harder and harder as Jaune's story progressed. By the time it was through, she was drawing blood. "Stop... please, stop..."
"Sorry!" Jaune quickly stopped talking, raising his hands. "I- I didn't mean..."
"Why would you go there, Blake?!" Weiss broke in. "Especially with a kidnapper on the loose!"
"Like I said, it was in the early days..." Blake shook her head slightly. "Ruby was the only disappearance, and I guess it hadn't really set in yet that she was really gone... I always used to go there when I needed some time alone to think, so... I suppose it just seemed natural to go there to cool off after... after. I know the reputation the place had... but I guess I just didn't care as much then... I just wanted to be alone for a while... then...
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The sky was grey as Blake made her way through the ruins of the old circus. The tents were torn and ravaged by almost a hundred years of neglect beneath the elements. Even the old gates had fallen apart, allowing her easy access whenever she needed to cool down for any reason. Under one arm was her favorite book, Ninjas of Love, which she planned to read if she found anywhere to seat herself.
Everything in the area felt dead- despite Mother Nature having spent the past eighty or ninety years reasserting herself over the grounds, it felt like a place where nothing could grow, aided by the dead appearance of most of the trees- entirely barren of leaves.
Unwilling to trust the old benches and tables to still support her weight after so long, Blake did as she usually did- curling up beneath one of the trees on the outskirts of the tents and flipping open her book. She had hardly begun reading when she heard a voice, as if from a distance.
"Blake..."
She looked up immediately- she had never encountered anyone else in these grounds before, let alone anyone who knew her name. "...Hello?" she wondered out loud.
"Blake... over here, Blake..."
Blake found her eyes drawn towards the tents where, just at the edge of even her enhanced faunus vision, she spied a humanoid figure. Tensing, ready to turn and run at the drop of a hat, she began to draw closer.
Every step she took brought the figure into sharper relief. It wasn't long before she could make out all the fine features- the pink-and-brown hair, the multicolored eyes, the jacket, shirt, and boots... the parasol and the dark-colored ice cream cone.
"Come closer, Blake... I have ice cream..."
Blake did not lower her guard. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm a friend..." the woman whispered, yet still coming across as loud and clear as if they were right next to each other. "Someone who would never call you evil... I want to help you, Blake. I want to take you to another place... a place where humans and faunus live together in harmony... we're all happier there... join us, and you'll be, too!"
Blake began stepping backwards as the woman began moving forwards. "Stay away from me!" she yelled. Something about this woman was wrong. She couldn't put her finger on it, but every part of her- her faunus instincts in particular- were screaming at her to turn and run.
"Where will you run too, Blake?" the woman asked, a strange amusement alight in her eyes. "Without Neo, who do you have? Weiss, who hurls nothing but abuse at you and your kind? Yang and Nora, who stand by and let it happen? It's such a cold world, Blake... you'd be so much happier with me..."
"Stay away!" Blake repeated, continuing to back away herself, but unwilling to break eye contact.
"I see... you like it that way, don't you?" the woman asked, tilting her head with a slight grin. "Well, I'm not such a nice person, myself... you know what they say... homo... homini... lupus..."
The woman was changing. She was bending forward, her arms growing longer, her back legs seemingly reversing themselves. Her clothing was tearing away, fur was growing all over her body, and her eyes were turning more feral than any faunus's ever had.
Before long, the woman had been entirely replaced with an enormous snarling hound, foaming at the mouth, with bloodshot eyes and filthy, matted fur.
Blake's instincts won out, prompting her to turn and sprint away, the rapid pawsteps behind assuring her the creature was still on her heels. The world around her blurred as she dashed through the tents and trees, making her way to the fence. Unfortunately, she couldn't climb it- even her faunus nature was of no help with a fence like this one. She'd have to find somewhere where it had broken away- still moving mostly on instinct, she turned left and continued her sprint, the snarling of the dog close behind.
At long last, a gate appeared- she'd never been so happy to see it. She made to push it open- but despite its age and the abuses of time, it held steady. "No!" she screamed, pushing against it as hard as she could. "No! Open!"
The growling sounded off again behind her. She slowly turned to find the dog drawing closer and closer, a sick grin on its rabid-looking jowels as it drew closer. She clutched tighter onto the book in her hands, thoughts of its characters serving as her only comfort as death drew closer. As she braced herself for the end, she found herself muttering one of their names.
"Yu Narukami."
A ringing silence fell. Blake opened her eyes a crack, and saw the dog in front of her stop moving, tilting its head, almost as if in confusion- a confusion reflected in Blake's mind.
"Y...Yu Narukami!"
The dog took a step backwards. Blake cast her mind back towards the book. "Akira Kurusu! Yosuke Hanamura! Yukiko Amagi! Makoto Nijima!"
The dog was growling again, but in a more annoyed manner this time, and was starting to back away. Blake continued her onslaught, calling out names from all the books she'd ever read, holding Ninjas of Love in front of her like a shield, pressing her back against the gate. "Oboro-Maru! Li Kuugo! Yuki Nagato! Roland Deschain! Citan Uzuk-aah!"
This cry was courtesy of the gate giving way at last, sending her sprawling backwards onto the ground. She immediately leapt to her feet to see the dog still glaring at her from the other side. Clutching her book tightly, she turned and continued her run- this time, she didn't hear the sound of paws following behind.
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"I ran all the way home- I never looked back," Blake recalled. "I spent the rest of the year trying to forget it... but then more people started disappearing, and you started telling your stories around the campfire, and now this..."
At long last, the bathroom was spotless- sparkling clean in a way it had not been in years. If only those within it felt the same.
It was Weiss that finally broke the silence. "We have to tell Yang and Nora."
"Why?" Blake asked, nerves clearly written into her face, her voice sounding as though she were on the verge of tears. "Why do we have to do anything about this? This thing almost killed us all already-"
"And it's already been kidnapping all these other kids!" Weiss countered. "Velvet- Coco- Blake, this thing took Ruby!"
Blake froze, as though something was caught in her throat. She didn't know how to communicate just how she felt at the moment- of course she hated that Ruby had been taken- she had loved the girl like her own sister! But it wasn't just fear of death that made her so desperate to avoid this creature- the fact of the matter was, this creature was wrong. She had done a lot of reading in the past, of far off lands and impossible events, but she had been able to stomach even the most horrifying through the understanding that it was all just a story- if anything got too terrible, all she need do was close the book. There was something else at play here- the creature she'd encountered on the old fairgrounds had almost certainly been life-threatening, yes, but far above that, it was threatening to reality as she knew it- it was a sign of so much more, so much that she didn't know how to accept or cope with.
Jaune spoke up, speaking slowly, and with fear etched into every word. "I... I think we should tell them, too."
"Thank you, Jaune!" Weiss nodded, crossing her arms as she turned to him.
Jaune nodded. "I think... I think, if nothing else, it'll be nice for us to all know that there are others who are in on all this- power in numbers, and all that... and... yeah..." His voice trailed off as he realized how little he actually had to say on the subject.
Pyrrha took up the slack. "I agree, Jaune- whether we can do anything about it or not, it's best for everyone who knows to be together." She moved towards Blake, and lightly touched her shoulder. "So... how about we go to Yang and Nora, tell them everything that's going on... and then we can all decide what to do together. You know, like a team?"
Blake looked up, giving a weak nod and a weaker smile. "Right... a team." The smile disappeared. "Alright... we'll tell Yang and Nora. Past that, I can't promise anything- I just want to stay the hell away from this thing."
"So it's decided then," Weiss nodded, looking around. "Come on- let's get going to Yang's house, Ms. Nikos."
Pyrrha blinked in surprise. Ms. Nikos? Where had that come from?
"Ms. Nikos?" Jaune asked, bizarrely enough, using the same voice that Weiss had just been speaking in.
Pyrrha looked around in confusion as the light in the room began to fade. "Ms. Nikos?" Blake took up the line, and the three of them began repeating it as the darkness grew thicker and thicker.
"Ms. Nikos? Ms. Nikos?"
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"Ms. Nikos? I'm sorry to wake you up, but we'll be landing soon."
Pyrrha's eyes flew open, immediately taking in the brightly lit plane cabin surrounding her. One of the flight attendants was standing in front of her, looking somewhat concerned. She nodded slightly. "Thanks for telling me."
"You should fasten your seatbelt, Ms. Nikos."
Pyrrha glanced down, and saw that, sure enough, her belt was unfastened. Now she remembered. She'd gotten up to use the bathroom, and forgotten to buckle up again when she sat down before slipping into slumber.
"Of course," she nodded, reaching down and buckling up.
"Was something wrong?" the stewardess asked. "You didn't seem to be sleeping well..."
"Ah, just some... odd dreams," Pyrrha explained briefly, forcing a smile. "Don't worry about it."
"Very well." The stewardess bowed before heading further back in the plane, leaving Pyrrha to gaze out of the window. Far below, she could see the lights of the airport she'd soon be landing in. Far beyond that- several miles away, though much closer from this height- she could see the lights of central Vale.
For the first time in almost thirty years, she was coming home.
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Hope the ending wasn't too abrupt for you. Before I sign out, I'd like to thank long-time reader and reviewer Spidershadow5 for the idea of Neo's form when confronting Blake- I had basically everything in mind except the actual form she'd take, and his input gave me the nudge I needed to actually get this chapter out in a timely manner. Thanks very much for the reviews, and on that note, please R&R, constructive criticism embraced, flames, not so much, Gamer4 out!