"-and that was when Yang sucker punched me. The rest, well, you know."

Three of them stared back at me, breathless and unmoving. Weiss had been pacing incessantly as I told my story, one eye constantly on me no matter which she was turned to. The others sat on their bunks, just as tense but in varying states of confusion and annoyance. Blake shook her head and stared at the floor, while Yang and Ruby sat across from her and shrugged at each other, unsure of what to say. I doubt they counted on such a story from someone they had just met.

Leaning on the wall next to their door still dressed like a homeless woman and feeling just as useless, I didn't know what else they expected me to say. I had gone from A to Z, sharing every detail of my story since meeting Ozpin, and then some. Even then, I did not dare to tell them about Salem, not yet. Something told me that Ozpin wasn't too keen on letting anyone know about the coming end of the world as we knew it. Either way, without her it didn't make the tale any more difficult to tell. After all, it isn't every day you needed to explain how you crossed dimensions, woke up as different sexes and species, went on a rampage with an unknown power, and then casually became a student at the world's most famous combat school.

In between my rumination, Weiss stopped in front of me. She looked up at me, making the difference in our height obvious, and just glared at me. I could feel her judgment behind those cold eyes, and yet at the same time, they were strikingly beautiful. I would have enjoyed them more if I wasn't about to be screamed at.

"You expect us to just buy all of that? Honestly, what kind of idiots do you take us for?... Well, okay, maybe Ruby, but still!"

"Hey!" protested Ruby, still dazed and confused but able to defend herself.

"Honestly, I don't know who you think you are, but something tells me 'Rika Cortes' isn't it. I don't trust you, I don't buy your story, and I'm quite angry with you!"

"Hey, I already apologized for attacking you in the forest, didn't I? Whatever that was, it wasn't under my control, and I don't know what happened, just like I said before! I couldn't explain it, and I couldn't stop it, and now all I know is that when I get upset or angry, well…"

I looked down, seeing the beginnings of the black tendrils grace my hands once more. The grilling I had received from Weiss, in particular, put me on edge, and the uncomfortable silence from the others made me want to shrivel up into the corner. Between the four of them, it was an understatement to say I was upset.

"Yeah come on, Weiss, she already apologized. I mean, we saw both of her legs just grow back right in front of us, and you're more concerned with the fact that she hit you? There's a lot more to be confused about", said Yang, trying in vain to defend me, if but superficially.

"It's not about being confused, it's not about being angry even! Having your Aura unlocked like that, it's more personal than you think, more intimate. When it happens, you give away a part of yourself to another in the hopes that they accept it and use it to become stronger, to fight alongside you and an ally, a friend To have that person get up and attack you like nothing had even happened..."

She looked sad, almost betrayed when she looked at me. Her judgment made a lot more sense now. Offering a piece of your Aura, of your Soul, to someone you didn't know, especially if you weren't sure that they were going to live, and to have that sacrifice thrown away and used to try and kill you, it had to sting.

"Weiss, I-"

"No, I'm done! Talk all you want, but I've had my fair share. You can spin your stories about people coming back from the dead all you want, but I just-"

She made a break for the door, stamping into the carpet with her heels as she went, and put her hand on the door. I saw a flash of red move past me until it appeared beside Weiss and blocked the rest of her from leaving. Ruby looked to her with defiance, one hand on the door and another on Weiss' arm.

"Weiss, you're not being fair! Listen to her, she isn't some creep that just wandered in here, she has the backing of Professor Ozpin for Pete's sake! Sure, it's a lot to take in, but we have to try!"

"Ruby, I don't-"

"She's right, Weiss, I'm not lying, and I know exactly how to convince you."

She turned around and faced me, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms, waiting for whatever it was I had to say to her.

"Now, I know for a fact that this is going to creep you out, but please try your best to not kill me. I… know how you got that Scar on your eye. You were fighting that giant white knight, alone… and you got hit with its sword. Then you had to go sing, I imagine. But that isn't all!"

I turned a bit to face the others, fearing what would come next but feeling unable to stop.

"Ruby, one time you visited your mother's grave, at night, but then a pack of beowolves attacked, but you took them all out like it was nothing. Yang, you were at that bar in Vale and beat the ever-living shit out of the staff because you wanted information, then you ran into Ruby outside and Blake-"

"Stop!" screamed two voices in unison. I recoiled from the sound, seeing both Weiss and Blake now standing and looking at me with malcontent.

"You will say nothing. I don't care what it is you think you know about me, keep it to yourself!"

"Fine, call it whatever you want, but what I'm telling you all is the truth. I know all of these specific moments that you've had, because in my world… in my world, they've happened too. On Earth, Remnant is a cartoon. You all are characters, and we get a third-person look at all of your lives."

I turned to Blake, specifically, and looked into her eyes carefully.

"I saw you attack that train with Adam, and I saw you leave him behind. I saw the pain on your face when you did it. He wanted to destroy it all, and you wouldn't let him. The only reason I know that is because what I say is true, all of it."

Blake was stunned. Drifting between anger, shock, hate, fury, and sorrow, she couldn't decide what to do with my words. Weiss, to a similar degree, stood by the door and simply looked into the ground, thinking difficulty about something. After a time, Blake simply sat back down, and with tears in her eyes she asked me, "Just who the fuck are you?".

"... The man you would've known on Earth isn't here anymore, so there isn't any use in talking about him. Here and now, that's a bit easier. My name is Rika Cortes, and Lawrence Cortes is my father. I came here to find him at Ozpin's behest. I want to help you kill and destroy whatever it is that may try to harm Remnant, but I'm still new to all of this. I don't know anything about fighting except for what I see in cartoons and movies, I don't know anything about Grimm, and I don't know anything about weapons.

To be blunt, I've been dropped into this with no fucking clue what to do, and I need your help, all of your help, to do this. Ozpin thinks that something bad is going to happen to Remnant, and soon, and he thinks that I have something he needs to stop that from happening, but I can't do it alone. I know I just said a lot of things that might make you want to do otherwise, but… will you teach me how to fight?"

I looked to all of them in turn, reiterating my words as best I could with a pleading gaze. None of them were willing to meet my eyes, all of them deep in thought or too embarrassed to speak. I sighed and sat down at a desk nearby, letting them soak it all in. I could not rush them if I was to gain their trust, but that didn't make the waiting any easier. They each sat on their own, keeping to themselves and likely wondering what this chaos of an argument would bring. Either way, the ball was in their court until one of them spoke.

The first to pipe up, surprisingly, was Yang.

"Look, Rika, or whatever your name is, or was, I'm gonna speak for all of us when I say that a lot of this makes no fucking sense, but something tells me it just isn't going to. I mean, being told that we're all cartoon characters being watched by another universe isn't something that you can just take lightly, and I'm not sure if I'll ever really believe that, but you weren't wrong about what you saw. I mean, shit, you didn't even need to ask us our names before you started talking, it was like you already knew us. If you were right about everyone else, I don't know, but… the pieces just fit together too well. If you were lying, a story like that would've fallen apart half an hour ago. I've seen my fair share of bad liars, and you don't sound like one, but if I'm going to trust you, I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me that every single part of what you just said is true. I need to be able to trust someone I'm going to fight with."

Yang stood and faced herself in my direction, a hard and confident stare boring into me. Taking a deep breath, I met her eyes and walked over to her, standing shoulder to shoulder with her and looking down to her face.

"Yang Xiao Long, everything I have told you all is true. I swear it on my father's life." I said.

With a small nod and an even smaller hint of a smile, she closed her eyes and breathed out.

"Okay."

"Okay?! That's it? That was all you had to offer?! Why the fuck do I even bother having sense sometimes?"

Unable to keep it contained anymore, Weiss unleashed her fury on the door, charging up a blow and unleashing it with her fist. It groaned under the impact, and a few shards of wood broke away as it imploded under the force, leaving a crater in the middle of it while Weiss simply walked out, slamming it behind her.

"Is uh… anyone else going to storm out like that?" I asked, looking back to the other three with my ears flat against my head.

"No, but I can't stay here either. I need some time alone," Blake offered, removing herself from the room in a fashion antithetical to Weiss, careful not to shatter the door even more. Ruby, surprisingly, didn't offer me any words, but just looked dazed and confused. She looked to Yang for a moment, and they shared some kind of unspoken words until they hugged softly and she too left, not meeting my eyes. After she left, it was just Yang and I alone in the room, witnesses to the chaos that my stories held and the damage that was left in their wake.

"Fuck me… that could have gone better, I guess," I mumbled.

"It's been a long time since I've seen everyone so worked up like this, and even longer since I've seen Ruby at a loss for words. She's not someone who hides what she thinks, she always knows how she feels and what she needs to do."

"People act weird when they're confused, I mean you see how I am, after all."

"Well, you don't know her like I do, and let me tell you that this isn't normal. I'm worried about her, and the others too."

"They need time to process, I can respect that. Remember how Weiss reacted when Ruby was made team leader? She seems like the type to take things pretty personally, not to mention the entire aura situation."

"Please don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Act like you know us. You may have seen us on whatever show you saw, but that wasn't us. We're real, we're people, and we have real people's emotions. We think we grow, and we change. I don't care what you say, there's more to us than you could have ever seen, so please don't go around acting like you know all of us, okay?"

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't think of it like that. I didn't really expect things to go like this, I guess, I didn't really know at all.."

"You've said that a lot. What exactly were you expecting then after walking into a portal into another dimension?"

"I don't really know, Yang. I'll be honest, I didn't put much thought into this. It didn't take Ozpin more than twenty minutes to convince me that this was the right path, and the way that things have been going I'm not entirely sure that he was correct. I mean, what am I supposed to do here, exactly, makeup ten years of combat training in three weeks like I'm some kind of prodigy, and then all of a sudden discover that I'm the savior of the world? It doesn't work like that. I… I don't know what the fuck I'm doing" , I whimpered, feeling myself break down more and more with every word.

Fuck, what was I expecting? In a matter of hours, I had managed to make enemies of Ironwood, Blake, and Weiss alike, and alienated Ruby. I had summarily chased away most of the people that had been there to potentially help me, and I still was no closer to figuring out what the fuck was my way forward with all of this bullshit. I mean, I could even be sad without the threat of blowing up and hurting people.

With tears in my eyes, I began to sob, sniveling and crumbling into a heap on the floor in front of Yang. To be honest, I didn't really care anymore what she thought, I had already lost most of my rapport anyways. Right now, all I could do was feel sorry for myself and regret everything that I had done since that night I met Ozpin. I wrapped my arms around myself, curling into as much of a ball as I could, and just let the tension build in every muscle that I felt. I stayed like that for who knows how long, just letting every emotion wash over me. I didn't care if I would lose control again, I didn't care if everyone hated me, I didn't care at all… everything was for naught, and I didn't know what to do. What the fuck was the point of me coming here, anyway? There wasn't anything I could do right, it seemed, nothing worked, it all just-

"Hey"

A pair of arms wrapped themselves around me, interrupting my descent into sorrow and bringing me back to my senses. I could feel myself returning to normal, breathing slowly until I opened my eyes and hazily noticed a mound of blonde hair covering half my field of vision. Yang kneeled beside me, holding me tightly in her embrace and radiating warmth. It was strange, I'd never really liked heat before, but as she held me it was comforting to be warmed by her.

"I'm not gonna pretend that I know what you're feeling right now, and I'm definitely not gonna pretend that things will be easy going forward, but you've done all that you can for now. Beating yourself up over all of this isn't going to help."

"T-that's easy for y-you to say. Y-you don't have clinical Anxiety… but I guess y-you're right… I'm j-just so fucking confused, Yang, and I'm so t-tired…"

"I know, Rika, I know. It's okay."

She squeezed me tight, and then released me. In the wake of her warmth, I shivered as the air felt comparatively freezing, noticing once again that I was barely wearing a functional outfit, looking like a random homeless woman than anyone that actually belonged here. No wonder Weiss thought I was crazy.

I didn't realize how long we had been talking, either, as when Yang opened the curtains I could see the remnants of a sunset tracing along the windowsill. She stood and watched it for a moment, looking lost in thought, while I felt myself fall back onto the carpet and stare at the ceiling, numbing my mind for a moment and wondering how exactly this was all going to go.

"Well, I think we have a bit before the others come back. You should get some rest if you're up for it. Who knows what will happen when we're all together again, and I think you'll need the energy."

Sitting up and nodding, I made my way to a chair in the corner, until Yang stopped me and pointed to her own bunk on the right.

"Take my bed, you need something proper. I think I need some time to think about things myself. Don't worry, I'll stay here with you while you sleep."

"O-okay, I guess. I mean, I won't argue, and I know you just said not to do this, but… why the sudden 180°? A minute ago you didn't trust me, yelled at me for interpreting you all like I'm your best friend, and now you're offering me your bed? What gives?"

"It… it's complicated," she sighed. "Things haven't exactly been great for us in the last few months, Rika. One thing into another, it's just been chaos. One person mad at another, people not sure who to trust, bandits running amok in the city and plots all around us, I'm just tired of all the secrets, all the mistrust, all the bullshit. It's been a long time since something was simple since I didn't need to figure things out for myself. You didn't hide from us, you told the truth… and I believed you. Sure, we have a lot to work out, and sure, you may annoy me a bit with some things, but hey, after all of that I think you've earned some sleep."

"I didn't know you felt that way"

"Yeah, I bet your cartoon didn't pick up on that, did it?"

I smiled, giggling a bit and answering, "No, it didn't."

With that I crawled my way over to the bunk and began my ascent, feeling Yang's eyes on me but not wanting to extend the topic any further. After a perilous climb up the baseboard of the bunks, I slithered into the blankets and felt warmth cradle me, clothes and all. Normally I would feel like a heathen for going to bed in my normal clothing, but I could accept today as an exception to the rule. After all, I needed my energy if Yang was right, we seemed to both have a feeling that this wasn't over yet.

But none of that mattered for now. Then and there, I felt warm and comfortable in the bed and felt myself drifting off more and more to sleep as the minutes went on. For all my anxiety, nothing could deprive me of sleep it seemed.

Not even a malding Schnee, a tempestuous Faunus, or a vexed silver-eyed warrior.