"...And that's the match."

Professor Goodwitch watched as the two students that volunteered return to the waiting majority. Checking the time on her Scroll, the woman fiddled with her glasses. "Alright, I believe we have time for one more match..." Scanning the sea of heads up in the stands, the teacher's eyes stopped when noticing a pair of burnt orange fox ears poking out of the crowd. "Miss Autumn? You haven't sparred for a few days." Glynda suggested.

Rember shrugged and stood up. "Sure!" She smiled, making her way down to the floor.

"Would anyone like to volunteer to spar with miss Autumn?"

More than a few people snorted with amusement and reluctance. Many of the other students had been shocked and overwhelmed by Rember's whips before and had no wish to repeat the experience. In fact, only a few people could hold their own against the fox girl, including her team. Professor Goodwitch was about to voluntell someone when an exchange student raised his hand.

"I will." He said with a confident smirk.

The class watched the young man stand up and make his way down to the arena. Many of the girls started whispering excitedly to each other, while some of the students sneered at the canine ears on his head. Rember, on the other hand, didn't get a good look at her opponent until he reached her level, and when she did she felt her spine stiffen.

The grey and black wolf ears should have given him away immediately, but it was the grey eyes that held Rember's attention. The fox girl's ears could hear the tittering of female students. They giggled about the exchange student's height, and his smile. Someone commented on his dark hair, and his handsome face. Despite all this, Rember was paralyzed because she knew that face...and it was almost exactly as she remembered it. The high cheekbones, the scar on his chin. The way his eyes looked her over mischievously and the signature smirk he bore.

"Lupin..." she breathed, her own eyes wide.

She hadn't seen Lupin Grey since...no, she wouldn't think about that. Rember swallowed and readied her weapons as Professor Goodwitch called out for the match start. Across the floor Lupin drew his sword and gestured mockingly for Rember to make the first move.

Up in the stands Azure honed in on Rember's discomfort immediately. His partner was always loose when she fought, but she looked tense and stiff. Tapping into his empath ability, he was surprised to find anxious fear emanating from Rember, and he leaned in closer.

Below, Rember forced her apprehension down and tried to relax her muscles as she started circling Lupin. The tall boy's eyes never left her green ones, and eventually Rember sprang into action.

The fox girl gritted her teeth and lashed out with one of her whips and began a battle dance. Lupin dodged the blow, and was quickly forced to evade Rember's second whip. By the time he recovered from that, his opponent had worked her way behind him and pounced on his back, Ashweave retracted back into a baton and aimed for Lupin's throat. Anticipating this move, the wolf boy ducked and Rember flew over his head before tucking into a roll.

"Nice moves, Bera." Lupin grinned. "My turn."

His sword, which had been hanging limply in his hand, split down the center, revealing itself to be a firearm as well. Rember's eyes widened as Lupin took aim, and just as he fired she back flipped away from the shot. She danced away from three more dust rounds and turned to face Lupin with a snarl. Rember called on her semblance and heated the claws of her weapons before twirling and sending Stormshatter towards her target. A flurry of blows drove Lupin back as Rember drew closer. Ashweave wrapped around Lupin's weapon and Rember took the opportunity to send a shock down the length of the whip.

Lupin shouted in surprise as electricity travelled through his sword (which was conveniently made of metal) and into his body. As the shock subsided Rember wrenched Lupin's weapon away and did a handspring, kicking Lupin in the chest before she landed. The taller faunus fell to the ground with a grunt, and Rember pounced. She landed on her fallen opponent's chest and held a wickedly clawed baton to his throat. Green eyes glared down into warm grey ones, and Lupin smiled infuriatingly.

"Victory goes to Miss Autumn." Professor Goodwitch announced.

Sounds of applause filtered into Rember's ears and she shook her head before getting to her feet. Any other time Rember would have stayed to help her opponent to their feet but she stalked out of the arena as quickly as she could. Azure nudged Jad and Gayle as Glynda Goodwitch dismissed the class. "Come on." He muttered, worried for Rember.

The second half of KRME followed silently with confused expressions as Azure led the way through the crowded halls. Every few minutes he referred to his empath ability to find Rember again, but he was pretty sure he knew where she was going.

It wasn't long before Azure could make out Rember's favourite spot on the initiation cliffs, but he couldn't see her. His ability told him she was here...somewhere.

"Why are we out here, Pasty?" Jad asked. "I really hope you're not expecting us to go flying again..."

Azure ignored his friend, trying to figure out where Rember was hiding. "This is where Ber likes to hang out sometimes." Gayle informed her partner. "He's looking for her, right?"

"Mhm." Their leader confirmed, trying to tune out his teammates. He heard a rustle in one of the trees and looked up to see a flash of orange. Cocking an eyebrow he frowned and turned to Gayle and Jad and said "I'm going to stay here for a bit and see if she turns up. You guys go back to the dorm, she might be doing a kitchen raid or something."

Gayle gave him an unimpressed look, but Jad nodded and nudged his partner along. As soon as they were out of sight Azure turned back to the trees.

"I know you're there, Rem." He called quietly.

A quiet sigh reached his ears and a moment later Rember landed lightly on the grass a few feet away. Her eyes were red, and she sniffed as she straightened and faced her partner. She didn't say anything, but Azure eventually ventured a statement.

"You know him."

Rember nodded and wiped her eyes. "He was my best friend at Sanctum."

Azure's mind flashed back to the night Rember had told him about the White Fang trying to recruit her, and how the person who asked her was once her friend. "The one who tried to recruit you?"

Rember looked away self consciously, and her fox ears pressed back against her skull. "He did more than that..." she mumbled, massaging her left shoulder uncomfortably. She met Azure's gaze sullenly and took a deep breath. "I...haven't been...entirely honest with you." She admitted.

Azure tapped his empath ability. Heavy apprehension hit him, along with an undercurrent of fear and reluctance. His eyebrows drew together and he frowned. "What do you mean?" He asked, confused by his partner's emotions.

Rember looked at the ground and Azure noticed that she was trembling. This was more serious than he thought. "Rember, please talk to me."

The fox girl pushed her hair off her face and took a shuddering breath. "I'm marked, Azure." She said after a minute, finally meeting his eyes again. "The White Fang...well, you know how they are. They were furious that I turned them down. They decided that since I wouldn't join them they needed to mark me, make sure future White Fang members knew what I'd done." She snorted. "They actually called it a crime. Anyway...they tattooed me."

Rember pulled her gear aside and Azure saw a black tattoo, like a silhouette of the shattered moon, resting on her left shoulder blade. Seeing it reminded him of his own accursed brand, painfully grafted into his chest.

"...I still don't get it." He told her. "They could have done worse than that."

"They did." Rember said through gritted teeth. Her sudden anger threw Azure off guard, and he noticed a wave of heat roll off his partner as her mood darkened.

"Rem, why're you-" he started to say, but a stronger heatwave hit him and the grass at Rember's feet started to smoulder.

"Have you really never wondered why I don't use Dust? Why I shy away every time Gayle asks if we'll help her test a new compound? Why I won't even try to use someone else's weapon if I know they use dust with it?" She demanded, her voice shrill. Azure had wondered from time to time, but never to any great length. "Everyone knows how dangerous Dust can be! You can weave it into your clothing, or forge your weapon with it, or even wield it by itself." Hot green eyes flashed and Azure felt himself take an involuntary step back. "Well the White Fang took it one step further with me! They grafted Dust into my skin! They mixed some kind of Dust in with the ink they tattooed me with and now I can't use dust without killing somebody!" Tears rolled down Rember's face unchecked as she finally let her secret out, and it occurred to Azure that she must have been hiding this for years.

Rember let out a gut wrenching sob and buried her face in her hands before falling to her knees. Her shoulders shook as she cried and the heat that had been emanating off her disappeared.

The tears around Rember's eyes kept flowing. "The fact still remains..." She whispered, her head downcast. "If I had known about w-what that brand did..." The faunus now curled up even tighter. "It is my fault..."

"...Stop it..."

Catching the statement, Rember peeked out of her shell to see Azure looking down at the ground, his hair concealing his eyes. "But I-"

"That's ENOUGH." Azure commanded, to which Rember slipped out a small squeak. He was now looking at her with heated eyes, yet they also conveyed concern. "I'm not going to let you punish yourself over this!" He stated angrily, getting right into his partner's face.

Rember stared into her friends yellow eyes and felt the urge to hide. The memory of when Azure lost control was still vivid in her mind. She buried her face in her arms again, as she didn't seem to have the energy for anything else. Seeing his partner silently cowering away, Azure reigned in his attitude.

"Rember...please look at me." Azure asked, his voice as soft as a breeze. After a minute or two, she complied, looking at him with reddened eyes. Seeing that he had her attention, the young man continued. "...I understand why you feel this way, and why you feel the need to carry the blame for their deaths...but this is not your fault." He said in a serious tone, making sure she got the message.

"...How can you know that? How can you say I'm not at fault?" Rember asked, her mind screaming for an explanation.

Unexpectedly, Azure slowly placed a hand one Rember's shoulder. His eyes were closed, yet she could feel the concealed fire inside. Rember was a bit surprised by the gesture, as she had rarely seen this side of him before.

"Because..." Azure said with closed eyes, only to open them again. "...It was the White Fang that marked you. They're the one's who should be getting justice done to them for what happened to you. Rem... as far as I'm concerned, you aren't a killer." He concluded, a steeled tone in his voice.

Rember glanced away and shifted away from her friend. "Yes I am. I just hide it." Turning back to her partner she let an expression of such...fury slip onto her face that Azure's eyes narrowed. "I bury it, Azure, but it's still there."

Observing the fox faunus with analytical eyes, Azure debated his next move. He wanted to help, not do something to make it worse. "Is that so? How do you know that?" He asked, hoping he could get more from her. He hoped she was still willing to talk with him, if only for a short time.

"What, you think I can't hide something like that?" Rember snorted and gestured towards Beacon. "Every single student at this school is a killer in one way or another. It looks different on every person, but if we were all incapable of killing we wouldn't be in this field. Grimm, humans, faunus, it doesn't really matter where you've come from or how you got here, if you haven't killed something or someone yet, you will at some point. I just happen to have done it already, and learned that I have a morbid fascination with it."

"Mmmm...alright. You do have a point..." Azure admitted. Every Huntsman and Huntress had to be prepared to take a life in this job, regardless of who, or what it belonged to. "Rem...correct me if I'm wrong, but...have you taken a human life before? No faulty dust, no third party...It was by your decision alone." He asked ever so tenderly, but nonetheless serious.

Rember refused to make eye contact, staring at the ground. She crossed her arms over her torso and remained silent.

That was all Azure needed, and a weight tugged at the young man's gut.

Well...looks like we have a lot more in common than I thought…

Frowning in contemplative silence, an idea surfaced into Azure's thoughts. Judging that this would be his next shot of approach, he carefully decided how to articulate his message.

"You know...killing another living thing is something I've known how to do for a long time...Hell, I had to so I could live." He began, Rember partly paying attention. "Sure, out of all the things I've learned till now...is that killing Grimm...and killing people are two very...VERY different experiences." Sitting back on the grass, he motioned for Rember to come back down, to which she hesitantly, yet eventually accepted.

"I had my first kill ever when I had to save Wist-Wisteria- from a Beowolf during the...'sifting of the numbers', so to speak. I was only twelve then..." Azure reminisced, delving into his suppressed memories. "Though...twelve seems to have been the age for me...'cause that's when I had to take someone out too. At first, it was surprisingly easy. But as I look at it now, killing monsters is different from killing people..."

"...It's terrible that you had to kill so young, but I'm afraid I don't agree with you on your last statement." Rember said, shaking her head sadly. "People are monsters, just like the Grimm. The only difference is that we are capable of kindness as well as evil."

Azure drew out a long sigh. "And you really believe that?" He asked. "Then what does that make us, Rem? What does that make you, a person who's killed someone because you chose to? Or myself, who's taken the lives adults and children alike without a second thought? What are we then?" He finished firmly, trying hard to temper his inward emotions. He would not accept his friend punishing herself as if she'd done the same crimes he committed. She didn't deserve it!

Rember's eyes were hard as she stared into the distant Emerald Forest. "It still makes us killers, Azure. The only difference is that most of the time we don't let it define us." She replied, finally turning to meet her partner's gaze. "Azure, every time I'm in battle I aim to kill or incapacitate as quickly as possible. I always tell people that it's just my fighting style, that I don't want to get into a prolonged confrontation, and sometimes that's true, but most of the time?" She sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead. "Most of the time it's because if I don't get it over with quickly, I'm afraid of what I might do."

Azure's eyebrows pulled together as he tried to deduce what she was saying. "What do you mean?"

The fox girl's ear twitched, the way it did when she was nervous. She looked away again, and started massaging her shoulder unconsciously. Eventually she let out a deep breath.

"Remember when I said I have a morbid fascination with killing?" Azure nodded. "I...oh gosh, I don't even know how to explain this. I just...I have this problem, I guess. When I'm in battle, I don't just want to defeat my opponent, I want to toy with them, to see just how far I can push them. I want to see how much pain I can cause before they finally crumble, and then gloat as the resignation and realization of how helpless they are enters their eyes!"

A strange hunger appeared in Rember's own brilliant greens, and she shook her head irritably, squeezing them shut. When she opened them again her eyes were cold and indifferent. "If that doesn't make me a monster, I don't know what does. I can't control it all the time, and to be completely honest I don't think I want to."

Azure took his time processing the news. He really was getting to know a whole new side of his partner he had...no idea about. The boy then broke out into a quiet, dry laugh, attracting the cold gaze of the fox girl in the grass.

"Heh, having bloodlust? Believe me, I know. I mean, look who you're talking to, being the infamous 'Nightmare', and all that." He joked half heartedly, trying to invoke some sort of positive reaction from Rember. If it worked, he didn't see it on the outside.

"See...Nightmare...was my codename given to me while in Black Claw. And soon...he became a part of me. First he was a voice in my head, um, in the heat of battle when I was fighting...or when I lost control. But then...he became an entirely separate persona, eagerly waiting to spill blood. And ever since then...He's always been there, hiding in the back of my head, tempting me to take it a step further when my opponent's on the ground so he can take over… That last part sound familiar?" The half faunus asked dryly.

Rember only shifted her head up and down once, staying quiet.

"Thought it would." Azure stated flatly. "So believe me when I say, I know what it feels like...to be scared of what we would do if we let ourselves off the chain...Rem..." The boy scooted a bit closer, yellow feline eyes focused. "I try every day to keep my inner evils at bay. Hoping that somehow, someday, I'll be free of my curse. I've let myself fall before, and it took so much from myself and a few choice words from a friend to put me on the path of light. I know someone who has the exact same curiosity as you, Rem, and he is the same man that I have to stop because he has no problem in letting his twisted pleasures run rampant." Azure took a brief pause to let his last statement sink in. "People can be bad, yes. But if you're just going to blindly assume that everyone is evil...then why are you at Beacon?"

Rember picked at the grass in front of her with a frown. "...Because she would want me to be here." She whispered, her eyes watering. She wanted to say more, but there was a lump in her throat. A familiar smiling face swam in her mind, and Rember found herself fighting a sob. "I'm a monster, Azure, a murderer. I'm just trying to-to use that darkness in me to take down other monsters. Because she would want me to do that. But sh-she was always so scared of them...oh gosh, what would she think of me now?" Rember gasped, letting the tears fall.

Shifting onto one knee, Azure answered gently "I don't know, Rem. I'm not her. I can guess though, 'cause I had a sister too, ya know?" He ventured, Rember's moist eyes sparking with an expression Azure couldn't put his finger on. "If it were my sister...she would've understood that I did what I had to in order to survive. And regardless of all the unforgivable things I've done...she would've forgiven me in a heartbeat...because that's just who she was. I meant the world to her, and nothing could ever change that….Heh, even when she was being a smart mouthed brat..."

Azure felt a nostalgic grin sneak on his face for a moment before recomposing to his earlier attitude. "I have no doubt that your own sister feels the same way. And I know she doesn't think you're a monster. I bet she loves you just as much now as when she left." the young man affirmed.

The streams around the girl's eyes flowed harder. "But I'm a-" Rember started before Azure placed a hand on her lips, silencing her.

"No. No more of that." Azure ordered gently. "You want to know who I see in front of me?" He asked, to which the fox blinked in response. Lowering his hand, the half faunus answered "I see a girl in pain. Someone who's had to go through hard trials and horrible losses. A girl who, despite of everything that has happened, still as the strength to smile. A girl who still carries the weight of her actions on her shoulders as punishment, and makes them feel three times as heavy as they actually are."

Azure shook his head again before continuing, "You're no monster, Rember. Monsters forget about all the evil they've done. Monsters relish the pain they create. You and I haven't forgotten, because we feel guilty about what we've instigated. But most importantly..." Azure paused, taking his right hand and wiping off the tears running down Rember's left cheek, holding out the salty droplets in front of her. "Monsters...don't cry because of the wrong they've done." He finished, his voice a whisper.

Looking down at her tears, Rember wiped her nose with a free arm. "...How do you do it?" She asked, sounding hollow. "How can you be so calm after all the wrong that you've done?"

"Heh, I wouldn't say that, but…" The young man in white thought for a moment, his eyes contemplative whilst scratching the back of his head. "Mmm...I guess...I just choose to be. Rem, any advice I can give is just keep on doing all you can. That's all I can do. That's all anyone can do. Also, find a good enough reason to keep on living."

Getting to his feet, Azure continued. "I'll also extend the same question I asked Lynn: Why are you a Huntsman? If you can figure that out...I think you'll be able to find peace. Not just for what happened to your sister, but with everything."

Rember continued to sit in the dirt as she stared up at her partner, her eyes slowly turning back to mirror their old, more positive appearance. "What're your reasons?" She inquired, her voice also returning.

Azure responded immediately with a small, gentle smile. "Still not a hundred percent sure honestly, but I believe I live because I want to protect everyone that I can from the things I went through. To have the chance at redemption for my previous sins. And...I promised Lynn I would, and I don't plan to ever break it." He then outstretched a hand to his friend, pulling her to her feet when she accepted. "As for why I fight as a Huntsman..." Azure said, smile widening a fraction. "I just feel...it's the right thing to do."

Suddenly, a ringing sound went off in Azure's pant pocket, and the boy pulled out his Scroll, reading the newly arrived message to himself.

'Have news regarding Creed. Come when available. ~Junior'

Eyes widening a fraction for an instant, Azure stuffed the electronic handheld back in its previous spot. He could do that in a bit. "Anyways, you have a lot of things on your mind, and bet you want some space for some reflecting. I've said my piece, so...here." The boy then gently placed a small pouch with Rember's favorite cookies in the fox girls hands, closing them when she held the confectionery. "For if you get hungry while you're out here." He finished, his voice calm as ever.

Rember gazed down at her closed palms before flicking them back up to a departing Azure, impulsively asking "W-where are you going?"

The boy turned around. "Something's just come up, and I need to go. Don't worry, I'll be back soon." He replied reassuringly. "Feel free to let me know when you've got your crap in order and then we can practice my dancing or something!" With that, Azure turned back to Beacon, not saying another word.

Watching until she couldn't see any sign of her partner anymore, Rember rested the hand holding her friend's gift over her chest, turning around to the view of a golden sun. "...Thank you." She whispered, clutching the pouch firmly whilst allowing herself a small, appreciative smile.