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We took an airship out to forever fall. I managed to hold my stomach though I did turn a little green from the motion sickness. It seems that no matter how powerful I got as a huntsman a moving vehicle would always be my bane. It was frankly embarrassing. Huntsmen like myself don't get motion sick. That's not a thing. Except I totally did.

I had my dog with me and my weapon on my back. I stepped out of the craft into the gorgeous forever fall forest. Yellow and orange leaves fluttered from the trees which had plenty to spare. The gnarled grey and black trunks and branches of the trees reminded one a little of Grimm. And the red leaves emphasized this, they were as bright as a Grimm's insides.

"All right students: we're outside the walls - we're in danger. Keep on your toes and collect plenty of sap. Aside from that, have fun," I broadcasted my voice.

I was allergic to the stuff myself but it was supposed to be delicious. I just couldn't ever try any. Some things were like that though. They were delectable but not ever for me. It was bullshit but it was life sometimes.

I watched the teams spread out and I found a great grey rock to rest against while I waited. My dog started sniffing around and came up beside me. It sat and gave me a pointed look.

"What?" I asked the dog. Red didn't respond; it just kept giving me this look. Like: is this all? We came out here to lean against a rock?

"It's important for the students to have a safe zone to retreat to. Don't look at me like that."

The animal turned round and round for a moment before laying down in the orange grass.

It was scenic out here.

"Hey Prof?" I looked up to see Peach from team RYPP. She took a sip of the crimson sap from a jar and then she offered me that same jar. "Want to try some? It's really good." Behind her was the rest of her team and team CMAD.

I shifted and squeezed the long red handle of my blade behind me for reassurance. I ran a hand through my spiky hair. I strode across the clearing towards her and gave the jar a gentle push away from me with the tips of my fingers on my left hand.

"I'm afraid I can't. I'm allergic to it. I found out during my first trip out here as a freshman at Beacon, actually."

"Aw," she whined.

"Ooh. Rejection," Pine called out. "Better luck next time, Peach."

"I'll crack you like an egg at some point Professor," the pink eyed brawler snapped her fingers to emphasize her point.

I laughed a little. "Sure you will. You'll find I'm hard to crack."

"You're always so bold… I don't know how you do it," Yuma told Peach as she walked back to her team.

"It's easy. Nothing even happened anyways. What's all the fuss?"

"You know what the fuss is. Don't play dumb," Rosé cut across.

"We're out here making moves. No big deal," Peach went on.

"No big deal? Do you really think that?" Rosé asked.

"Gotta try, don't I?" Peach tagged.

"Professor, what was your trip to forever fall like when you were a student?" Yuma asked me.

"My trip? I almost died. There was an Ursa. I killed it but it easily could have gone the other way. I was talentless back then."

"It's hard to imagine you being weak," Rosé said.

"Well I was once. Super weak. Weaker than any one of you are now. I only really came into my power after Beacon fell."

They looked at me sort of disbelievingly. I'm not sure why. Was it really so hard to imagine that I had been so frail? It must have been because Daisy shook her head a little and Crystal's eyes were wide like she couldn't possibly see it amongst all the things she looked at.

"Will you ladies and gentlemen take my dog with you?" I called out.

"Sure," Rosé agreed. "Come on Red. Let's go, boy." My dog left with a single backwards glance towards me. Then he happily followed Rosé into the forest and I was left with my rock. Just my rock and me.

I reclined with my arms crossed. My gauntlets rang together a little as I folded my hands beneath one another. I sighed. Teaching could be boring at times but boring wasn't a bad thing per se. It beat dying or almost dying. That was a plus. I waited and listened to the students wander from my perspective point. Birds chirped and flew through the forest and small animals crawled about and fled before the students in their teams.

I was tired. My regimented routine left me exhausted by its very nature. I felt my eyes close and let my other senses extend outwards away from me. My sixth sense for danger and aura and my Mother given seventh for Grimm spread out from me and merged. I listened to the chatter of the students as my hearing reached out and I smelled the fresh forest and the decay of leaves.

Nothing called out at me and when one team encountered Grimm they would destroy it. There were only small fish near here. Nothing that the students couldn't take care of. I could almost fall asleep and I lingered in the sun against my rock on the precipice of unconsciousness. I teetered without falling in and my head spun but it was a pleasant sensation. I felt my jaw relax as the sunlight fell on my skin and warmed my cheeks.

Then I felt a grating against my senses of something bigger. I opened my eyes and gazed out in the direction I felt the dangerous Grimm in and my sixth and seventh senses overlapped a little. It was probably just an Ursa and was nothing that the students working in teams couldn't handle. Still I should take care of it. It was a shade too close to where the students should feel comfortable retreating to.

I gathered my blade from my back and levitated in that direction. I floated away from the ship and slowed down as I approached the beast and I took actual steps at a speedy walk that slowed even more to a steady gait. I marched into the clearing where the beast lumbered. A great bear with white bony plates. It reacted a little to the sight of me. Had it sensed me as I had felt it? Was it shocked to find me more human than Grimm?

I strode forward and the monster charged at me with enormous steps. I lowered my blade and took off in an upwards sweeping leap. Pulling upwards, I divided the beast in two easily. Such monsters had been a match for me when I had last been here. Now they were nothing. I didn't need my Limit Break attacks to deal with them, let alone the terrifying Omni slash which had floored Raven Branwen full aura and all. That was my ace in the hole. The fact was that I just rarely needed it. I had my Cross slash and the Octa slash. Realistically as far as raw damage output I didn't strictly need more than that unless I needed to kill someone fast. Recently I hadn't done much killing. Maybe I was turning over a new leaf.

I retreated back through the woods back to my rock nice and slowly. I pushed branches out of my way with my right hand and put my sword back in its harness. The rock was patiently waiting for me where I had left it - dull grey and with flecks of iron to it. It stood out harshly in the bright and colorful forest. For a moment I empathized with it. I had always had dark and dull colors compared to my vibrant companions. Team RWBY and the other members of team JNPR were so bright in the clothes they wore. I had black and grey pants with thick heavy dark boots and a black cape. My harness was grey along with my gauntlets. My deep blue shirt was the brightest thing on my person and it was a dark blue a few shades less bright than my eyes. I suppose there was my bronze and white sword but even that seemed so dull compared to something like Miló or Akouó. Odd considering they had been forged together. Crocea Mors was mostly white with a few accents across the blade. It was the shield that was half bronze. Together, when I swept the blade about, it was a white and bronze arc.

So much had changed since I was last in this forest. I was not who I once was. I was still a scared person but I wasn't the weak boy I had been. I had killed and maimed and tortured. I slew monsters now. I had become a hero a little. Not the way I had wanted but wishes like those never came true like you expect. If they came true at all they came with a double edged twist. My relationship with Weiss was like that. It had come to pass but not at all how I expected. I sighed a little and recalled resting my head on her lap and I let my fingers drift to my lips as I remembered dozens of soft kisses against her full pink pouting mouth. Atlas had been a time of broadening experiences. I would never forget it. How could I? Such memories gave me strength. They were real amongst a myriad of fake, dream-like recollections. Holding Weiss's tiny form in my hands and picking her up to kiss me, hunting hungrily for her lower lip and running my tongue against the opening of her mouth ever so softly, what more could I have asked for as a freshman at Beacon when I had pursued her? In the end I did get more. More than I ever could have reasonably dreamed I would. It just cost a great deal for me to get there, in Atlas. My whole team and whatever Pyrrha was to me. I didn't know what that was still. I didn't get to know. I would never know, could never know. That was just one of my curses. And it made me want to swear angrily but there was nothing to direct my rage at. It was impotent. I was helpless.

A crimson leaf fell from a tree above me and the wind rocked it back and forth as it fluttered to the ground. I glared at it as though it was the leaf's fault I never got any closure with Pyrrha. Gods, she haunted me. Would I ever be good enough? I was a powerful huntsman but I still felt so unbelievably weak. All the strength in the world gave me nothing, no clarity.

I sat down against my rock.

I grimaced and rubbed my face hard in my hands.

I felt a lurching pain near my heart in my chest but I ignored it. There was nothing to be done. I let the pestering pangs of pain ping purposelessly apropos the inside of my skull. This fine famine I had been given - the agony was blissful. My face twitched as I tried to smile vainly. It was no less than what I deserved. There were things I recollected dimly. My torment, now observed, should vanish. It was a certain throbbing ecstasy.

Gods above, what have I become? I had transformed into a powerful huntsman but it cost me nearly everything. I got Weiss but it took Pyrrha's death for me to get there. I had so much to do and so little time and I was wasting it. Where were the people who loved me? I had run from them. How could I look them in the eye ever again. All my wretched little wants plagued me. Had I done anything good at all? Or was it about to collapse in on me as it had so many times before. My cheek quivered as I frowned harshly. What was I doing? Being around kids… I was a hazard. It was selfish of me and nothing more. I wanted to do some good and I was willing to risk it all on it. I felt like I was coming down all at once off of some enormous long lasting high. I had smoked in the morning before my run and maybe I was coming off of that. I wanted to smoke again. I was a druggy. And here I was around children as an example of what to be. I wasn't a good example of healthy coping mechanisms. Or really anything in general except perhaps as a machine for killing. I was really good at that. But that was all.

I pinched the bridge of my nose hard with my right hand and grimaced.

"Cloud?" I looked up from where I sat with my left leg extended and my right leg bent. I rested my right elbow on my knee. My left palm was down in the grass. I glanced up to see Rosé. I know I wasn't supposed to have favorite students but I totally did. Team RYPP and team CMAD were sort of it. I genuinely liked them and there was certainly something familiar about them. The ironies were not lost on me.

"It's Professor Strife, Miss Gainsborough. At least in public. Don't put me in a corner and make me into the bad guy."

"It's a charade, though," she pointed out. "We're on a first name basis, you and I."

"But it's one you and I must observe," I reprimanded gently. "What did you need?"

"You look tired…"

"I am tired. I'm always tired. Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No, it's about the future. You're not going to stay a teacher forever. Are you."

"No… probably just this one year. Then I'm off. I have things I have to do."

"What will you do?"

"I'll go to Vacuo. Finish my business with Merlot. Then I'm not sure. There are other enemies I have as well - people who won't let me rest just yet. I have to take care of them, one way or another."

"Would you take me with you?"

"Don't you want to stay here? I thought you were settling well into your team. You don't want to hang around a dusty old hunter like me."

"You're always like that. Would you ever compete in tournaments? You'd do very well."

I snorted. "Yeah. I'd do pretty well. Might accidentally kill the competition if I got serious. It's not for me. When I fight for real I fight to kill and that's pretty much that. It's not a hobby for me. Not like it was for my partner, Pyrrha."

"Were you close to her?"

I exhaled hard. How the fuck was I supposed to answer that question? Yes? No? I might have been in love with her and never knew it until she kissed me then went off and died? She loved me but I never knew it until it was too late? What the hell? And all because I was a fucking moron. I should have known but I was so naive. I still probably was. Girls made little sense to me but they evidently liked me. How many other girls liked me besides the three I knew about? I had no fucking idea. It was complex enough without another one. What was I supposed to say? I let my right arm hang down and looked up at Rosé out of the corner of my eye.

"It was complicated," I decided after a long pause.

"That's your answer to a lot of things."

"A lot of shit in my life is complicated. I don't know what to tell you. Maybe my partner and I were involved but I had no idea until it was far too late. Then she died. It was complicated. Why? Are you having problems with your partner?"

"No. My partner is great but you'll never hear me say it to her face. Her ego doesn't need it. We get along pretty well and have a lot in common. I trust her. I was just curious about you."

"Well don't be. I try my hardest to not be interesting. Life just has a way of mucking everything up."

"You don't think you're interesting?" She asked.

"I really don't want to be," I winced. The problem was that I probably was. My life was full of twisted ironies.

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-WG