Back at it again people. And not only that, but volume 2 comes out tonight, get hype! But yeah, sorry this took so long but these last chapters are really taking they tole on me. I just want to get to the last 20 so that way all the interesting stuff can start, and oh boy is there gonna be some interesting stuff. I've been planning the events of the final 20 chapters for months now, and I'm so excited to write it. But of course, to get to those I have to pound out these last few stragglers. And as you can imagine, trying to make a persons every day life exciting is a bit of a challenge, even when it involves Roland. But yeah, these last few chapters will probably be pretty short and bland, considering its mainly gonna be foreshadowing and hints at what will happen in the future. Buuuut, to make up for my absence, I did write another story, and its on my profile. Just a short little one-off about Ruby and Weiss (Yeah, that's right, no Roland or Elisabeth in that one. Just some cute White Rose fluff). So if this doesn't hold you over till the volume 2 premiere, feel free to go check that one out as well. Also, in classic me fashion, this chapter does have some pretty serious stuff in it, so as you can see in that big bold writing below, trigger warnings.

TRIGGER WARNING

Roland ran.

He ran faster than he thought was possible. Faster than he had ever ran in his entire life.

His footsteps echoed throughout the empty, dark hallways of Beacon as he demanded his legs carry him even faster, the walls around him turning into blurs as he tore through the space. Around him he could hear voices, like someone was whispering in his ear.

"We trust you."

"She was my daughter."

"I love you Roland."

"Courtyard."

He dashed around a corner and exploded through a door, into the rainy night. He didn't stop to check where he was, he didn't have time, all he knew was that the fear gripping his heart was more than enough to keep him moving.

Now the voices were replaced, sounding different, much more familiar. The previous words had been those of his friends. Now, Roland only heard himself.

"No one is going to die."

"We'll be alright."

"Stay close to me."

His foot caught on something, sending him face-first into the dirt and rocks as he slid along the ground. Roland tried to pick himself up but found the strength leaving his body rapidly, barely able to push himself up as he saw the pool of blood forming on the ground below him.

He ran a hand across his body, feeling a massive cut along his chest and a gash on his face. Before he could do anything else something rolled him onto his back, forcing him to look up at the pitch black sky.

"Oh Roland. You've been running a very, very long time now. But you should know better than anyone." A silhouette stood above him, looking down as their eyes glowed with flames.

"Everyone breaks eventually." Their face was suddenly illuminated by a flame that appeared in their hand. A face that Roland knew all too well. Black hair, glowing orange eyes, all complemented by that blood-red dress.

As Cinder stood there, smirking at the boy who slowly bled out before her, other shapes started appearing beside her. As the drew closer their faces and bodies were slowly revealed by the fire as well.

First Roman stood at her side, then two more appeared, a boy with silver hair and a girl with eyes like rubies and hair a light green.

Next came a White Fang foot soldier, then the horrifying face of Project Andromeda. Then a Grimm, one of the raptors that had taken Roland's eye, going dangerously close to his face and snarling at the boy.

"Not yet. We still have a while to go." At the sound of Cinder's voice the Grimm pulled back, slowly circling Roland as Cinder knelt down.

"We'll be seeing you soon enough Roland. After all, you can't protect everyone. One by one, you'll all fall. Time to say goodbye." The flame in her hand grew, then she reached her hand back, preparing for a final blow.

Roland's eyes slammed shut just as he saw her hand coming down, feeling the blazing heat on his skin.

TRIGGER WARNINGS AGAIN JUST IN CASE YOU IGNORED THE FIRST WARNING

He practically launched himself out of bed, diving onto the floor and rolling on his shoulder, his hands gliding across the dresser beside him as he went, finding the handles of his swords.

With a metallic ring he unsheathed them, holding them up and ready as he felt his back hit a wall. Despite the lack of light he could see perfectly, able to make out every detail of the room he was in.

But he slowly lowered his swords when he saw that there was no threat. Roland wasn't in the midst of battle. He was in his bedroom. Except he wasn't the only one.

In his bed, sitting up with a worried look in her eye, a black-haired girl had her cat ears tucked tightly against the top of her head, her hands pulled to her chest.

"Roland…?"

"Elisabeth, I… I'm sorry…"

"They're getting worse aren't they?"

Roland couldn't find his voice and instead just nodded, dropping his swords and leaning against the wall.

"Roland, you can't keep going like this. It isn't healthy."

"Elisabeth, there isn't anything we can do about it. I'll be fine…"

"No, you won't." She threw the covers off herself and stood up, staring at her boyfriend with concerned eyes. "I know how bad it's gotten."

"What… What do you mean?"

"I mean I know more than you'd probably like for me to."

"Like what?"

"Like how I know you don't weigh as much as you should. Like how you haven't been talking to anyone for weeks, not even me. Like how you don't wear long sleeves because you're cold." Elisabeth had known for a while, but she had never found a good time to bring it up. Just thinking about the one she loved being in this state hurt her enough, but having to say these things out loud broke her heart even more.

As Elisabeth read off her list Roland felt like he was being hit in the stomach. He felt guilty about these things, but at this point it was as though he couldn't control it.

"Elisabeth, I'm sorry…" He slid down the wall and pulled his knees to his chest, feeling his eyes start sting. "I swear I try… I really to…"

"I know Roland, I know." Elisabeth slowly walked over and sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "You changed a lot in the past year, that's why these events are finally starting to affect you."

"They've never done this before though… I always just pushed them aside and I was fine."

"It's because you opened up Roland. That kid that I met at the start of the year, that wasn't you. That was a defense, a wall you had been forced to put up to keep yourself safe, and you trusted us enough to let us in. You don't have to be afraid anymore Roland, you don't have to protect yourself any longer. We're here, and we have your back."

Roland listened to her words, wiping the tears from his eyes and taking a few deeps breaths before he tried to speak again. "And if this doesn't stop? If I keep going through sleepless nights and exhausting days?"

"Then we'll find help. We have Ozpin, and Glenda, and all the other professors who have powerful positions. If you can't drive these things away on your own then we'll find something that can."

Silence settled on the room as Roland thought about what she said. It was true, they had powerful friends and limitless resources, so maybe things weren't as bad as he had originally assumed.

"Thank you Elisabeth…"

"You don't need to thank me. Its my job to keep you safe. Now, what do you say we go back to bed and try to get some sleep?"

"Yeah… That doesn't sound too bad."

"There ya go. Come on, I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning." Elisabeth gave him a smile as she helped him up, leading him over to the bed and laying down next to the boy.

"Everything is gonna be alright Roland, I promise. Nothing is ever going to hurt you." She wrapped her tail around his leg like she always did, feeling a little safer.

"I believe you… I just get scared sometimes."

"I know you do. But we're always gonna be here. No one is going to leave you."

Roland found her words easy to believe, but still something ate away at him. Some sense of danger, like the world wasn't exactly how it should have been.

"Hm."

"That's all you've said for the past hour. Ozpin, stop trying to avoid this." Glynda was getting annoyed now. This wasn't something they could afford to joke about.

"This will take time Glynda. We have to make sure every precaution is taken care of."

"We've already done that Ozpin, what we need to be worrying about is the students. This has been coming for a long time, and you're the one who brought this conflict into our home. We had enough to worry about, but now we have a full-fledged war brewing."

"We will be ready."

"Will we? Ozpin, do you really think you can pin all your hopes on that one, risky move?"

"Last I recalled my risky moves always pay off."

"This isn't a game of chess Ozpin, this is real life. We have children depending on us, trusting us."

"Oh, but it is chess Glynda. Or at least, very similar. And all we need is a bit of patience."

"Is that what you've been keeping that board around for? And why you rarely ever touch it?"

"Exactly."

"Don't you realize how serious this all is?"

"I realize more than anyone Glynda. More than you, more than him, more than the students. But if we succeed, we will rid the world of its evil."

"And if we fail?"

Ozpin went silent, staring down at the chessboard sitting on his desk before him. Red and white models were scattered about, each side missing more than a few pieces. At the moment, red was winning.

"We won't fail."

"You hold that much trust?"

"The plan hasn't failed so far. We've put it through many tests and it has always held strong."

"Sometimes I can't help but feel that you look at it in a different way. Like a tool rather than what it really is."

"I hold it with great value."

"Sometimes that's hard to believe."

"You'll see once this is all over."

"And how long will that take?"

"Not long… Two more years at the most."

"And what do we do with that spare time?"

"More training, more tests, more experiments. Weaken the enemy if we can."

Glynda let out a sigh, adjusting her glasses as she felt a headache coming on. "Well, what do we do now?"

"Now?" Ozpin looked at Glynda, then back to the board. He picked up the white queen, who had been pinned down in the corner, and moved her to F4. No damage would be done to either side, but it would ensure the queen's safety for a few more turns and limit the other teams options. "Now we wait."

"Queen has pawns?"

"Yes… Queen has pawns…"

"Hows he been?" Yang took another bite out of her ice cream, trying to avoid getting her hands covered in the melting droplets.

"Getting better. Doctors say he has some kind of PTSD, but they think they can treat it. While we were there they went ahead and did a full examination. Apparently the aura manifestation in his body is getting stronger, but in a good way." Elisabeth fanned herself with her hand, having already finished her ice cream and wishing it wasn't such a hot day.

"Isn't his manifestation in his head though? I don't see how that could be good in any way."

"Yeah, but they think he might have more control over it now. They say the only way to be certain is for it to activate, but the obvious problem is he can't control it and no one even wants it to come out."

"Ya know, when was the last time that thing came out? I don't think I've seen it for a while."

"Hm… I think the only time it really came out was back when I was kidnapped. He took that entire warehouse to the ground."

"What about The Time?" Ruby had remembered seeing black flames on Roland's body then, but his eyes weren't black. To this day it was still something that confused them all.

"Well, we still aren't sure. He doesn't like to talk about it, and honestly I can't blame him." Elisabeth was fairly comfortable talking about The Time, but she knew that it had hit Roland harder than the rest of them. He still blamed himself for what happened, despite his friend's attempts.

They had all agreed on calling it The Time a while ago. They used it to refer to the night Adam had kidnapped them all and lined them up, then killed Cobra right in front of them. No one had been able to bring it up without tripping over their own words, and so calling it The Time made things much easier.

"Well, any trouble been brewing lately?" Yang wanted to change the subject. She still wasn't entirely certain she had moved past those events.

"No, and I think it makes him restless. He always needs something to keep his mind occupied, keep him from thinking too much. All he can do now is sit in his apartment all day, it bores him to death."

"Has he tried getting a job? Maybe that could keep him busy."

"Roland? A job? He hates people as is, but put that man in a social environment and he would flip out."

"True enough. I suppose he's also got a bit of a reputation around Vale nowadays."

"Indeed he does, just like when you guys took down that Nevermore. The entire town freaked out and thought you were a bunch of superheroes, remember that?"

They laughed at the thoughts, remembering how everyone had overreacted to the simple initiation that RWBY had gone through.

"How bad has it gotten for him?" Weiss could still remember people asking for her autograph whenever she left school grounds.

"Oh, pretty bad. We went to the movies last week and this swarm of people just completely rushed us."

"Damn. I imagine he didn't like that?" Yang could only imagine what kind of consequences the people had fallen under.

"Actually, he did surprisingly well. He just stayed calm, waited till they all stopped talking, and just told them to move out of his way. And they did so."

"Sounds like they got off easy."

"Well, kinda sorta. We were almost home free until this one guy grabbed his cloak."

Yang couldn't help but laugh, knowing that whatever Roland did was entertaining to watch. "How'd that turn out for the guy?"

"How do you think? You must've taught him a few things, cause in true Yang fashion he uppercutted that poor guy into the atmosphere." Even Elisabeth was laughing a little now, remembering that it was a funny scene to see.

"Looks like I taught him well." Yang laughed and finished her ice cream, tossing the stick into a nearby trashcan. "But I'm amazed. He adjusted to city life fairly quickly."

"Yeah, he's doing' pretty good. But what about you four? What have you all been up to since school let out?" Elisabeth looked at the group of four sitting in front of her, knowing that they must have some exciting stories to tell.

"Ah, not much. Weiss here had been working us half to death over that tournament. Other than that it's just been the frequent hang out sessions and occasional movie nights." Yang nodded towards Weiss as she talked.

"That's only because I want to ensure one of us wins. I won't be foiled by some group from another school." Weiss crossed her arms over her chest, knowing that they'd appreciate her extensive training one day.

"We won't be beaten Weiss, don't worry. Speaking of the tournament though, are you two gonna enter?" Blake looked at Elisabeth, wondering if the faunas had any plans to win.

"Roland and I have been thinking about it. He says he'd like to try, but obviously he's worried."

"That it'll come out?" Ruby wouldn't blame Roland if he didn't enter. If his semblance came out during a match, no one would be able to stop him.

"Yeah. He thinks he can control it, but being the leader of Luna and all has made him really cautious. Roland can be cold at times, but he doesn't want to hurt an innocent."

"Well, even if he doesn't enter its no big deal. What about you though?"

"I think I might. I doubt I'd get very far, but it'd be fun to fight some real people instead of those training holograms."

"I know what you mean. Fighting a VI just isn't the same as going against another person, is it?" Yang knew better than anyone that the holograms were nothing compared to real life. After a while the VIs got predictable and easy. People are a different ball game.

"No, it's not. Plus, they don't have enough variety. I feel like I'm getting rusty. I never thought I'd say this, but I could go for some sort of mission right now. Two months being out of school gets pretty boring."

The rest of them agreed. After being at Beacon for so long they had become accustomed to the constant risks and never-ending battles. Though none of them actually missed it, they did feel like a piece of their lives was now missing.

"As long as its nothing like that damned White Fang base. God I still have nightmares about that hell hole." Yang would never forget that place as long as she lived.

"Don't even get me started on that. I didn't sleep for three straight days after that thing. Roland almost made me go to therapy." Elisabeth felt shivers run up her spine as some of the memories flashed through her mind. She could still remember every single detail of that day.

"Ugh, I'm just glad that whole thing is over and done with." Yang had to shake her head to clear the images out.

"Agreed. But we should probably get going, we've been sitting here for like, an hour." Elisabeth scooted her chair back and stood up, picking up her purse and slinging it over her shoulder.

Yang nodded in agreement. "Yeah, lets head out."

Roland stood on his balcony, looking at the city before him. The sunlight was so bright it hurt his eyes, but he didn't mind all that much. It was a nice day, one that deserved enjoyment, and that was what Roland intended to give it.

So he stood and watched, feeling slightly calmed by the subtle sounds of the city around him. Cars lightly drifted by on the streets below while people chatted as they ran errands. It wasn't the silence of the woods like he prefered, but it was better than nothing, so he would take it. After all, at least he didn't have to worry about Grimm.

But his attention was torn away from the sights when he heard his doorbell ring, already able to guess who it was.

Roland let out a sigh and pushed off the railing, stepping back inside and sliding to glass door closed behind him. He still hadn't broken his habit wearing nothing but sweatpants while inside, but he didn't bother to grab a shirt or even wrap his cloak around his shoulders, knowing that his new arrival had seen him in this state plenty of times.

So as Roland opened the door and his assumption was confirmed, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

"Your fan club is growing." The delivery man held out a package and a clipboard, giving Roland a friendly smile.

"I still don't know how they figure out where I live, but it creeps me out that this many people tracked me down." Roland took both items and set the package down, then signed his name on the paper like he had done uncounted times before.

"Well, at least they'll never try anything. Apparently people think you're invincible."

"People are idiots then." Roland handed the clipboard back to him and laughed. "Do they think I was born with a blind eye and a scar?"

"That they are my friend, that they are." He laughed as well, then gave Roland a nod. "Knowing theses people, I'll probably see you soon."

"Most likely. Take care."

"You as well Roland."

As the man started walking away Roland closed the door, rolling his eyes as he looked at the package. It was a small box, wrapped in orange paper.

"I'm oh so excited to see what wonders this one sent me." He picked up the box and pulled the paper off, tossing it into a nearby bin and walking over to his couch.

As he sat down he pulled of the tape and opened the box, unamused at the contents inside.

"Let's see here…" He pulled out a pink envelope, looking at his name written on the front in neat handwriting. "Interesting, but nothing new." He set down the envelope next to him and retrieved a second, much smaller box of candy. "Right, I find something edible sent to me by a complete stranger. Cause I'll definitely eat that without question." Roland was still incredibly cautious, even in everyday life, and so the box of candies joined the green paper in the trash bin.

"Now, what has this one written…" He opened the envelope and pulled out the folded sheet of paper, quickly reading the small paragraph that was written on the page.

"Such an inspiration… I admire you so much… You're amazing… Blah blah blah, yadda yadda… Please send return letter if you can." It was the same thing he had read on many other letters, just phrased differently.

"Yeah, sorry, but I don't do strangers. I'm no celebrity kid, go find someone else to fantasize over." He folded up the paper and set it in a draw with all the others that he had received. Roland honestly wished people would just leave him alone, but he knew that was unlikely. Humans are known to be stubborn after all.