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My return to Vale was more quiet than I imagined it would be for some reason. I thought it would be as explosive as when I arrived in Atlas and I was mistaken. My trip around Mistral was violent as well. This was peaceful. And didn't these people deserve some measure of peace after black out day? Vale had been the hardest place hit by Mother when Cinder made her move. People had been gunned down in the streets by Atlas robots. She probably meant to destroy the kingdom. Or that would have been a bonus. It could have happened too. The Grimm feeding on wave after wave negativity as they threw themselves at the walls. The kingdom could very well have gone down in flames. It happened before, it could happen again.

There was no Tyrian or Cinder for me to hunt. There was only Rosé's training. Trying to prepare her for a tournament where people would be shooting at her was hard when neither Neo nor myself used a gun. But I managed to put ranged pressure on her with my blade-beams when we sparred. I still totally dumpstered her. It would be healthy for her to fight opponents she could actually beat. That would be positive. It would be a sign to her of how far she had really come. It was hard for her to measure herself relative to me. I was a bit of a giant. Even though I was declining I was powerful even for a huntsman. I was just going to be slumping from this point on until I finally bit it.

Hazel Rainart had never showed up in Atlas. There was little reason to think he or my step-father would come to Vale but I still had to put my feelers out for them. Junior never gave me a call back. I wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad sign. He could well be onboard with me. He could want me to go fuck myself. I wasn't sure. That was the thing about silence.

Still, I had dipped my feet in the waters of the criminal underground. I didn't really want to be a criminal again but I was keeping my options open. It would only be a crime if I got caught. So, when you do have to do something illegal, don't get caught, Cloud. There. Problem solved. Another crisis averted. Except not really. Cops weren't stupid and evidence always gets left behind. My weapon was distinctive. That was a problem with hunters and trying to kill anonymously. We left our calling card on the body with the tools we used. Pretty obvious point of fact.

Maybe while I was ordering Rosé's rifle sword hybrid I should pick up another blade of my own to do my killing with. Nothing would ever replace Crocea Mors but maybe a little something extra to do my illegal work with. It was worth a thought.

We found an engineer. First name: Prince, last name: Melnikov was the engineer and he'd been making huntsman weapons for thirty years. He and Rosé spent several long hours together while she described the features she wanted her weapon to have. She described the way she wanted it to unfold and expand like a pair of scissors from an assault rifle into a double edged hand a half sword with a keen Titania edge. It had to work with standard dust round magazines and it had to be sturdy on top of all the other design characteristics that needed to be upheld. It couldn't snap on her in a real fight against the Grimm. It couldn't bend so that it would no longer flow and unfold into a sword and back again.

There was a great deal to have in mind with something like this. That's why it was some people's whole jobs because hunters had their lives on the line. They needed their weapons to work one hundred percent of the time.

Rosé's blade was relatively thin and narrow. It was straight with double edged and tapering to a drop point. The blade would fold up like a pocket knife and the handle would slide forward and the entire inside of the weapon would switch places with the outside and it would become a rifle that was well suited to mid ranges.

This weapon would do. At least until her semblance revealed itself and then that might prompt a change. Weapons really are an extension of a hunter. They are a part of our bodies and minds. Ruby could probably kiss me for thinking that but it was true. Crocea Mors felt like a part of my soul. Using another weapon felt wrong somehow. It was like I was betraying myself in some strange way. I wouldn't be me without my weapon.

I wanted Rosé to feel that way around Falchion II. She stuck with the name and she was keeping her old blade as a momento. I couldn't find a fault in any of that. They were hers to do as she pleased with. If, at the end of the day, she told me she wanted to keep using just a plain straight forward sword I would have found it hard to argue with her about it. Luckily that wasn't the case. Luckily she decided to use a weapon that would have some range to it. I got away with my set up but I had almost died a lot and I had won the superpower lottery. Not everyone could fly, have super speed, and super strength, and have some weird power that forced the enemy to approach you or you would become even more dangerous.

I could camp behind my shield and charge my semblance and then go kill pretty much anybody on the planet. There might be a few outliers who could survive Omni-slash but they weren't going to be common and they were going to be hurt by it. I could floor just about anybody with a charge of my semblance. Sure I was now getting weaker with each passing day but for now nearly nobody could stop me. That wasn't necessarily a good thing. If I turned I could really do a lot of damage before they found the right people who could stop me. That wasn't the most reassuring thought when I considered that my mind was under attack.

Rosé didn't have any of that going for her. So I was glad she picked up a gun and I was glad she liked it. Having a gun could save her life. So we went to the shooting range with it for six hours a day and we trained swordplay for another six and then the last four hours were free. I worked her to the bone though. She said she wanted to win and that would only happen if she mastered her new weapon. You don't change horses in the middle of a stream. She needed to know how to use her new tools. She needed to know when it was safe to swap weapon forms and attack with her gun and when she needed to switch to the sword. It had to be both.

So the days were pretty busy for us all. But every night I was still plagued by visions of torment. They had become a pleasure but they were still there. My mother remained beneath the surface like some horrible beast of the deep. She was still out there plotting against me with my sisters. I really wasn't sure where she would strike next. Maybe she would attack Atlas again. There were two relics there all things considered, along with three maidens. That was the gooiest honeypot on the planet in all likelihood. The only other missing piece was summer. Gods only knew who and where she was. That meant the relic in Vacuo was safe. Unless Mother had summer in which case it was already hers. Which could very well be. Mother was not the type to be idle.

That had me on my toes and unable to relax in the slightest. I could literally feel her scheming. I just couldn't get a bead on her actual thoughts. It should be possible for me to do. There was a connection between our minds. That's how I was able to feel my sisters. There was something to be said for time and distance in all of this but I should be able to read her mind the same way she was able to get into my head. It was risky and dangerous and I should really just be staying focused on building my wall of maddening terror which she had inspired. I should focus on my defenses. But there was also something to be said for going on the offensive. Put Mother in a corner for once and see how she responds. Attack her mind rather than sit back and take her beating - that sort of thing.

I could take a mental beating now. Her psychic pressure had turned me to diamond. But I should be able to do more and turn it around on her and my sisters. Reverse the connection, flow upstream, drink of those waters. Was it possible? It seemed like I was knocking on the door of trouble. It would probably answer swiftly. If I wanted Ruby's dream to come true the best thing I could do is banish if not vanquish my Mother. But was the best way to do that really to remain constantly on the back foot? Should I really remain patient and bide my time, waiting for the right opportunity to destroy her? Perhaps I should be thinking about ways to create an opportunity. Read my Mother's plans and stop them before they came to fruition rather than constantly be reacting.

I didn't know. I couldn't know. But sitting back and being patient was working to a degree. I was better now than I had been in Atlas. Even with all of Ruby's and Weiss's help I was doing better on my own than with them. Not through any fault of theirs but through the revelations I had on the road.

This wasn't about them. This was about me and my problems. And they were problems I had to deal with on my own by their very nature. Ruby and Weiss just couldn't help me. I hated putting them through that. All they got to do was watch me suffer. They had been nearly completely helpless to stop it. I know it had frustrated them even if they wouldn't admit it. It had been part of why I had left. I attacked them for fucks sake. I hated that they saw me that way.

I never wanted to be like that again. Another puppet. But how? My semblance did something. It let me resist and hold my breath until I passed out. That advantage came from me. And thank the gods it did when it did or I might have killed them. If she had puppetted me with my semblance active I would have ripped them apart. My own loved ones. Again.

I had to do things right the first try from here on. I had to be careful no matter which path I chose. I really just had to do the best I could. That's what it came down to. And if it wasn't enough then a lot of people could die. As in literally everybody.

But no pressure.

So I would do what I could. The things I was doing with Rosé had to count for something. It was some good I was truly doing that nobody could take away from me. I was adding something good to the world. In Atlas I took away evil with Tyrian and Cinder. Doing good and removing evil aren't quite the same thing though I was also destroying evil with Raven Branwen. That wasn't quite opposing my mother but it was still evil I had taken. It counted. It could never undo the damage I had caused but it counted for something.

What I was doing with Rosé was more than that. It was like spending time with Ruby and Weiss. It was pure. Mother couldn't ruin that for me. She could find new minions as I'm sure she had in the past and would once again but she couldn't take this away from me.

It might not be enough but it was me at my best. It was me pushing my limits.

I wrote a letter to Weiss and Ruby. I told them about the upcoming tournament and my meeting with Headmistress Goodwitch. I told them about the possibility of reading my Mother's mind. Their opinion mattered more to me than anyone else's in this regard because it was by my reckoning that they had the most to lose if it turned sour on me.

Sure.

Everyone everywhere could die if I fucked up.

But I didn't really care about everyone everywhere to be completely honest. There were just a handful of people I did care about. It was them who I didn't want to die. Your average person I couldn't really care less about.

Yeah I saved lives where I could but that was because I was bored and I could do it pretty easily. I know not everyone feels that way. Ruby doesn't. She might die for some civilian one day and that scared the fuck out of me. She might throw away the lives of everyone she could have saved if she just ran away not to mention her own precious life which mattered more to me than some random civilian. I wrote to her as much. It probably wouldn't get through to her. She was stubborn. Maybe she wouldn't get it but Weiss could help explain it to her. I was sure Weiss had thought about that.

I bet it scared her too.

I'm sure I worried the crap out of both of them. Not much I could do about it, though. I had a monster goddess in my brain. Thems was the facts. I wrote to them that Vale was peaceful and rebuilding well. I wrote that I hoped I'd get to see them soon through the new CCT. It would be nice. I gave them an address that they could use to write back to me. I didn't want these letters to stop and it would be nice to hear back from them. This one way communication sucked in comparison to what could be. I wanted that fixed and I wanted to hear their honest opinions about going on the offensive against Mother.

"Another letter?" Rosé asked me.

"Yet another letter," I agreed.

"Who are you always writing to?"

"I have some classmates from Beacon who survived and I want them to hear from me. It's hard to say what we were or are. It's complicated."

"Were you close?"

"The closest. Well, of the survivors anyways. A lot of my relationships to the deceased are also complicated and deeply confusing."

"So what? You spend most of your time confused?"

"Pretty much. Yeah." I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "I'm going to go send this thing. Back in a bit." I walked out of my room and down to the hotel office with the letter. The attendant at the front desk directed me to where I could send it and I did.

As soon as the letter was in the box out I felt a flood of relief. Soon I would actually be able to hear back from them. It had been months.

I missed them. There wasn't much I could do about that but I found my thoughts on them all the time. Or at least during my free time. I promised myself 'soon.' Soon I would have what I was looking for. I could be with them. I could hear back from them. And gods willing I could have that family Ruby wanted and I found my thoughts drawn to as though magnetic. I focused on it hard. I got tunnel vision. One day I would have that.

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-WG