Menagerie

"I don't get it," Sun yelled as he slammed his cup onto the table. "How can they just sit around while the White Fang is getting ready to attack?"

"Because not everybody's like you and I. The faunus here on Menagerie, the ones not born on the island, moved here because they were tired of fighting, of having to struggle constantly. Menagerie is filled with people who just want to be left alone, and here we are asking them to put the rest of the world before themselves," Blake responded.

"I guess I never really thought about it like that."

"The problem is whatever happens at Haven is going to affect them wether they like it or not. If Adam gets his way and Haven falls, it's just going to make things worse for the faunus, everywhere."

"Adam," Sun stirred his drink, "he's the guy you used to, work, with?" He asked hesitantly.

Blake sighed. "Yes."

"Sorry, forget I brought it up." He put his hands up and moved his tail behind him.

"No it's okay. Have you ever met someone and thought, 'they are the personification of, this word?'" Blake asked.

"Uhh."

"Okay, well I remember getting to know Ruby and thinking, 'this girl is the embodiment of purity.' Eventually I saw Weiss was defiance, and Yang was strength."

"Well, what am I?" Sun asked cheekily.

"Jury's still out on that one, but I'm leaning towards ernest."

Sun threw his tail around his back and drank from his cup with a smile.

"At first I thought Adam was justice, than I thought he was passion. But I eventually saw that he wasn't any of those things. He was spite. Not hatred, not rage, spite."

"Adam won't except equality," Blake continued, "only suffering for what he feels the world did to him. His way of thinking is dangerously contagious. That's what worries me about Ilia. She's not like Adam, not yet at least, but I don't know how long that will last."

"She was your friend," Sun stated.

"She was," Blake responded. "Her chameleon traits meant she could pass as human. She could've lived a normal life if she wanted, but she didn't. I always admired her for that." Blake looked out at the ocean, as if she was looking for her lost friends on the horizon.

"Ilia lost her parents in a mining accident up in Mantle, and she joined the White Fang. Like me, she was more or less trained on the road alongside other faunus. She learned to survive, to defend herself, but as people like Sienna and Adam began to gain a following, she became more dangerous. I guess I did too." She slowly stirred her drink in a shell. "My parents tried to get me to leave with them. I refused, I had Adam and Ilia after all."

"You know we're going to have to face her eventually," Sun said calmly, to which Blake replied with a sigh.

"I know."

"So what are you going to do?" he questioned. She looked up at him.

"I'm going to try to help her the way you helped me."

"What?" He hadn't expected that.

"You showed me that sometimes you have to be there for a friend, even when they don't want you to be. I was drowning in guilt and fear, I tried to push you away but you didn't give up on me, and I'm not going to give up on Ilia." Her voice got a lot more serious than before. "It's about time I save my friends for once." Sun nodded in response.

Mistral

Oscar yelled as he brought a hard strike down to the ground. Work like this was more exhausting than he had originally thought it would be.

"You're really getting better, huh?" He looked up in surprise and saw Ruby at the base of the stairs. "Are you hungry? It's almost dinner time."

"Yeah, that sounds good. I was just about to call it a night anyway," he answered.

"So, you've never fought before?" Ruby tried to start a conversation.

"Just the occasional small grimm. Nothing like this though." He rubbed the back of his neck to get a bit of stiffness out of the joints.

"Wow, you look like a natural." She half-heartedly sauntered forward.

"It's strange." Oscar looked at the Long Memory. "I've only had this cane for a few weeks, but it feels like I've had for a lifetime, longer even." He realized what he'd just said. "I probably sound like a crazy person, don't I?"

"I mean, uh, yeah just a little, but at this pace you'll be combat ready in no time." She smiled as she said it, until she remembered who always used to say it. Oscar knew something had happened to her, just from the sad look in her eyes. He wondered if he should ask her, but decided against it. "Well, I'll see you upstairs." She began to make the journey back up to the second story.

"How do you handle all of this?" He blurted out.

Ruby stopped in her tracks. "What do you mean?" She didn't want to turn around. A single tear escaped her eye and slid down her face. She wiped it away and turned to face Oscar,

"I'm, scared. More scared than I've ever been in my entire life. More than I ever thought was possible." He began to take the Long Memory to the backpack he had originally brought with him. "I always knew I wanted to be more than a farmhand, but this? Who would ask for this?" He placed Ozpin's cane against the weapon rack and knelt down to open the bag.

"We all went to Beacon because we wanted to help people, but you're right. None of us asked for this either." Oscar put the old cane in the backpack. "We just have to press on and-"

"How can you be so confident?" Oscar turned on her, his voice steadily getting louder. "People have tried to kill you, the world's about to go to war all over again. How are you okay with any of this?" He saw that Ruby was backing away from him, almost as if she scared, even though she had no reason to be. Then, there was the look in her eyes from before, and at the point he knew, that he had messed up.

"When Beacon fell, I lost two of my friends, Penny Polendina and Pyrrha Nikos. I didn't know them for very long, but that didn't change the fact that they were two of the most kind-hearted people I've ever met, but that didn't save them." Tears started to roll down her face, and Oscar knew just how much they meant to her.

"Pyrrha thought that if there was even the smallest chance of helping someone, that it was a chance worth taking, and because of that, she died fighting a battle she knew she couldn't win. And Penny, was killed, just to make a statement." Ruby tried to wipe some the tears away, but more kept coming.

"I'm, sorry." Oscar had nothing else he could say. He had never experienced anything close to that before, and he hoped he never would.

"I am scared," Ruby locked eyes with him, "but not just for me. Beacon shows that Salem will kill anybody, wether they stand against her or not, and that, scares me most of all." The look in her eyes changed from one of sadness to a deep fear. "Pyrrha, Penny. I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt, that I didn't think about them everyday since I lost them, that I didn't wish I had spent more time with them. If it had been me instead, I know they would've kept fighting too, no matter how dangerous it was, so that's what I choose to do. To keep moving forward." And with those last words, the final tears fell from Ruby's eyes, and Oscar could see the pain and sorrow and grief she's had to live with for the past several months.

She placed a hand on his shoulder after drying her face on her sleeve. "Come on, if we don't hurry, Nora's going to eat everything. It wouldn't be the first time." She got about halfway up the stairs before she stopped and turned around. "Hey Oscar. This isn't going to be easy, but the fact that you're even trying says a lot about you. You're braver than you think." Those words hit him deeper than he thought they would. He watched her climb the final steps before she disappeared from view.

She really is remarkable, isn't she? Ozpin inquired.

"Yeah, she must've been one of the best huntresses at Beacon, huh?" Ozpin gave a little chuckle.

In some ways, yes. In many others, no. She has her quirks, her faults, just like everyone else, but she also possesses something unquantifiable. A spark, that can inspire others even in the darkest of times.

"This must be really hard on her too."

It most assuredly is.

Author's note: And that's going to do it for this chapter. Sorry it took me so long to get it out, this chapter was actually a way bigger pain in the ass than I thought it would be. I've been typing so fast for the past three hours that my shoulders are now starting to hurt. On another note, I'm not sure if I spelled Pyrrha's name right. If I did, tell me and if I didn't, tell me. Give me any corrections for the story, but if you have ideas, message me about them, don't leave a review with your idea. I want to make sure that if any body does give me an idea that people won't mistake it for a story spoiler or something like that. Also, I'm going to be starting a new poll after I post this chapter about my Rose Wolf story that I adopted from Gizmo Gear. Look at the top of my profile for it and leave a review if you feel like it. Until than, I'm out and I'll see you all(figuratively speaking)in the next chapter where we will be going into team VLCRY's past with Cinder and how she came to be a part of their team. Goodbye for now. End author's note.