Winds of Change (Part 2)

Resident Beacon doctor Blue Monday tightened the cast on the unconscious boy's body. The celebrity next to him paced back and forth anxiously, as if she was contemplating how to best break the news to the boy. Poor kid lost everything to save his friends. Her heart really went out to the blond young man. She didn't even want to picture what was going on through his partner's head, poor girl, and judging by how he landed himself in the infirmary at the start of the semester multiple times, he worked hard to improve himself as a huntsman. So to have all hopes squandered in a freak unprecedented medical case like this?

Brothers, that hurt her heart to even think about.

Normally, when a huntsman broke a bone or received a severe injury like this, either they burn through their aura trying to heal, or they need some minimal surgery before their aura recovered after some rest. But this was a never-before-seen case that would surely rock the medical world.

Aura didn't permanently disappear unless you died. It didn't just go away. One possible explanation she had came up with was that the Arc boy just somehow fucking lost his soul, but wouldn't that mean he just died? He wouldn't have vital signs. It didn't make any sense.

Either way, his time at Beacon was probably over if Goodwitch heard about this. Ozpin seemed like the type to offer people some weird monkey's paw-styled deals to teach them 'lessons' rather than just kick a student out. Ozpin Osbourne was really into his mystic shit after all. That sort of stuff seemed right up his alley.

Oh! Since she technically discovered it, that could mean that they could name it after her!

Then again, Monday-itis didn't sound like a good name. Hmmm….

Eh, she could think of something better later.

The nervous redhead pursed her lips in a deep frown as her pace gradually increased. Her hair was obviously unwashed and frizzy. Its scarlet pigment had dulled into a drab maroon. She smelled like burnt wood.

Blue leaned back in her chair and bit the back end of her pen as she thought of a way to inform Headmaster Ozpin. She never could get a read on the man, honestly, but hey, he wrote her checks.

Okay, well, not literally-that was the job of someone else at Beacon, but you got the idea.

Blue bit down on the pen harder.

Now that she thought about it, did she really have to tell Ozpin?

It wasn't like he paid her much to begin with. So what if some kid got killed? That wouldn't be on her. That'd be the kid's fault if he kept moving forwards even after being told he didn't have aura.

Though she had to admit, seeing two of Beacon's finest teams come back all broken and battered like that? Man, that made for a haunting sight. Especially when that one redhead-the short one, the tall one was currently losing her mind over her partner-was rolled in with both her legs broken? Valkyrie? She wasn't quite sure, but Brothers, that chick looked like someone fucking died.

Oh and that Ruby Rose's arm? That was really gross. But at least it healed up nicely after her aura recovered.

Blue Monday felt her spine shiver, as if remembering the sight of-

Okay that's enough of that imagery. She already had it burned into her mind. She didn't need to revisit it.

She had seen some fucked up shit before-working as a huntsman doctor did that to you-but Blue hadn't ever seen anything like this.

Blue bit even harder on the pen in her mouth, causing it to explode its ink into her mouth and across her face.

POP!

Blue Monday licked her lips and swallowed the remaining liquid as she cleaned her face off with her anteater tongue.

Pyrrha Nikos' eyes widened like saucers as she was momentarily distracted from the boy's condition.

Blue threw away the empty pen into her trash can, which was already filled to the brim with the shattered remains of writing implements, and reached into her wooden desk for another for her to chew on.

Pyrrha took a step towards Jaune and away from the doctor as she caressed the wrapped pieces of Crocea Mors.

Was this Jaune's destiny?

To get a single taste of what he wanted so terribly before getting it ripped away from him?

Pyrrha gently brought the remains of his family legacy to her chest. A forlorn feeling flooded her body.

Despite the countless victories, earned achievements, and uplifting accolades she received, Pyrrha had failed to protect the first true friend she ever had after Mama signed her up to become a huntress.

Neither her mother nor the father she had never met were huntsmen.

She didn't know who her father was, and at this point, she didn't care about him.

Her mother came from a wealthy family that had cut off all contact with her, with the exception of sending her the occasional money she needed to raise her burdensome daughter.

After one worship service and a lunch meeting with her friends from the local church of the Brothers, her Mama had signed her up for combat school on a whim, and she found herself overwhelmed with a powerful religious conviction when Pyrrha proved herself to be so naturally talented. And, finally, Pyrrha had begun pulling her weight with the earnings from sponsorships and tournament wins. But… when it had mattered the most, Pyrrha's strength failed her.

Jaune hadn't though.

What was more precious to her? Jaune or her destiny?

Pyrrha was ashamed to admit that she didn't know.

"So who knew that Vomit Boy could snap like that?" Yang asked in jest, fruitlessly trying to lift the spirit of her team and the recovered members of JNPR. Not that she could blame them, her pride stung big time.

That… thing tossed them around like fucking toys. It wasn't even a fight! It just… It just played with them for its own entertainment. Like they weren't even considered to be obstacles by that robot-ghost bastard.

Yang bit the inside of her cheek.

It even tossed Pyrrha around, and Yang couldn't even get her aura down to 80% in a spar. And that alone infuriated her!

The worst part of it, however, was that the thing that had basically shattered each and every one of their auras in a single blow more or less, considered Jaune Arc a threat.

Jaune Arc, who had never beaten a single person in combat class.

Jaune Arc, who often found himself the butt of most of her jokes.

Jaune Arc, who nobody-except for those in team JNPR-took seriously.

He was a nice guy, and Yang enjoyed his company and how well he got along with her little sister. But, her strength had been a source of pride for… she didn't know for how long now. Probably ever since she was born.

He had been the one to deal the killing blow. He hadn't even hesitated either.

Well, she supposed everyone had their demons to deal with, but it was still unnerving to see such a… generally dorky but kind person do something brutal like that.

Sure, he did save their lives, but something in that gaze of his as he killed it made her skin crawl. And it obviously scared Pyrrha too if her frightened expression at the time was any indication.

Ren opened his mouth. "Yang, it was in self-defense and besides, it's not like that thing was a human."

Blake looked up from her meal with a disgruntled look in her eyes.

"Or a faunus. My bad." Ren took a sip from the monstrous concoction he had whipped up using… something Dr. Monday gave him from the infirmary, but whatever it was, it didn't look like food.

To their credit, JNPR-sans Pyrrha, who had been held back by the doctor-was taking it much better than them.

Of course they would, their leader just saved their lives.

Deciding to change subjects, Nora pointed to the orange on Weiss' plate.

"So you gonna eat those?"

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Nora, a polite lady eats everything on her plate. Of course I'm going to eat my orange slices."

Nora shook her head. "I meant the peel. If you won't have it, I'll eat it. Give it here."

Weiss raised her other eyebrow as she placed the remaining orange peels on Nora's plate. Chances were that she was just getting messed with, but Weiss could never be sure with Nora. And a small voice in the back of her mind secretly wanted to see if Nora would-

Nora threw a piece of the orange peel into her mouth like a potato chip.

Ah.

She really shouldn't have been surprised at this point.

… But the shock present on team CFVY's faces was pretty funny once she noticed it.

Actually, what were they doing here? Normally, they just minded their own business.

"'Sup." Nora burped out as she finished hungrily stuffing the last of the orange peel into her already full mouth.

"Excuse you, Nora."

Nora gave Ren a thumbs up.

"Hey, is Arc around?" Asked Coco, "we're pretty sure we ran into him or his dad or something while we were in Vale, and I was curious to see if I could get whoever does his clothes."

Yatsu shot her a weird look.

"What?" Coco looked over to her best friend's partner. "It's an acquired taste, but I think he pulled off the sailor-slash-cowboy look pretty well."

"Coco, that guy was a complete jerk." Velvet interjected as she attempted to pull her friend away from the first year teams. "His horsey was nice, but-"

Ren felt the need to interrupt. "What are you guys talking about exactly?"

Coco adjusted her sunglasses as she kicked a chair away from the table and sat down to speak to the male Mistralian eye-to-eye. "My team and I were helping out at a local soup kitchen in Vale for the required amount of community service hours you have to do as second years-"

"Wait, that's a thing?!" Ruby seemed to regain some of the energy she lost, momentarily forgetting their bitter defeat.

Velvet and the rest of team CFVY followed suit as they took their places at the table.

"Well yeah. Huntsmen are all about keeping spirits high and maintaining a positive image. You know, to reduce the threat of Grimm and what not?" Yatsu answered as he kicked back in his seat.

Fox's ears twitched. "You'll do it when you become second-years. I personally recommend the pet shelter."

"There's a pet shelter!" Weiss exclaimed a bit too loud than she would have liked before quieting down in embarrassment and trying to hide in her cafeteria seat.

"Either way, this guy walks into the soup kitchen all tired and asks where the nearest saloon is like it's a fucking cowboy flick, and for a second, we thought he was Jaune since the two are basically identical, and he answered to his name." Coco continued. "But last time I checked Jaune didn't have a horse with him at Beacon. Then he goes and stares at Velvet's ears like a creep."

Coco pulled up a photo of the man.

"I just ended up pointing him in the direction of the closest club in town, and the guy hopped onto his horse. Dude was kind of a dick though. Didn't even thank me."

Ren tapped his fingers against his thigh as he drank whatever mystery potion he had made with the doctor's permission. "Jaune's currently in the infirmary right now, but I'll definitely let him know when he wakes up."

"But I'm not sure if he'd know anything about this guy."

Jaune's arms felt like they were being slowly tightened-like they had soccer cleats stomping on them-as his eyes slowly opened. The infirmary was barely lit, though he could make out the faint outline of an empty desk.

Good. Doctor Blue Monday seemed like the type of person to watch her patients sleep, so it was nice to find out that wasn't the case.

Jaune turned his head to the right.

Beside him, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha slept silently, causing him to smile in return.

That was just like them. Always waiting for him. Always slowing down for him to catch up. Always letting them down.

His smile turned into a scowl.

But…

It was good to see them all recovered although Pyrrha definitely looked worse for wear. Her uniform was much wrinklier than normal, and her hair was obviously unkempt.

Oh, she also stank, but Jaune was weird. He liked that. It was a pleasant smell of sweat and nerves. As though she had just finished working out.

Dopamine hit him pretty hard.

Oh God, that made him sound weird, didn't it?

He meant the fact that Pyrrha was clearly a tomboy as a kid. The celebrity-despite the makeup she'd wear in public-wasn't a girly girl. She was just Pyrrha. She definitely didn't seem like the type to dress up or care about that stuff. Or care about romance. Jaune knew she was religious and that she obviously was very sheltered when it came to certain… things, but that just made her all the more endearing. Although, she was surprisingly touchy too.

Huh?

Jaune bent his knees to press him up on the infirmary bed. Normally, his aura would have already healed everything by now. Pyrrha did say he had a lot, so maybe it was just recovering slowly?

She did say people with large amounts of aura tended to recover slower thanks to their aura taking more time to charge back up, but something was off. His typically only took a few hours to get back to 100%. What was going on?

His thoughts drifted back to that thing and the sensation of his fist as it busted its face open.

Jaune's heart clenched.

But not because he was remorseful.

But because he wasn't. He didn't even feel anything while killing another sentient being.

Self-defense or not, Jaune wasn't sure if he would feel remorseful if it wasn't. And… didn't that make him a bad person?

Pyrrha's eyes slowly fluttered open as Jaune calmed down.

That was right. He had done it to save his friends…

For the first time, some small part of Jaune felt like he belonged at Beacon. As though he had earned his place by being the one person to take down something that had so overwhelmingly defeated eight of the strongest people he knew. The same people who he thought he'd never be able to be as strong as in his life time.

"I'm sorry…"

Hatefully glaring at the so-called 'master thief' in front of her, Cinder Fall instinctively attempted to summon a fireball in the palm of her hand to threaten him with before deeply scowling. She didn't know why she couldn't use her magic anymore-chances were Ozpin somehow found a way to resurrect Amber, but she mentally promised to make whoever was responsible for taking her destiny away from her suffer. She had done everything needed and meticulously planned every step of the Fall. She had all that power in the palm of her hands, and it left her!

Cinder clenched her fists. She swallowed the growing anger that grew in the back of her mind back down.

"I quit."

Roman smugly glared back, undeterred by Cinder's growing desire to try and remove his head from his shoulders.

Where did this moron find the courage to stand up to her?

A week, no, a day ago, he would have been trembling if he did something like this. Not that he would, the man had quite the selfish bone in him, but, still, he had somehow found the gall to go up to her and sneer in her face. Brothers, how she wished that she still had the Maiden powers right about now. Nonetheless, Cinder maintained control as she forced herself to keep the plastic expression on her face.

"Any reason for your resignation?" Cinder summoned a glass knife from her back. "Would you like to offer a formal complaint?"

Roman kept that infernal look on his face as he blew smoke in her face.

Cinder almost snapped right then.

That… that fucking, cocksucking, arrogant dickhead! FUCK!

Cinder, despite her calm appearance, was burning up on the inside.

"Jesus, let me think of some…" Roman kicked up Melodic Cudgel and spun it with his wrist. "If I'm being honest, Cindy Lou Who-can I call you that? I'll call you that. We just don't see eye-to-eye."

Alright. No more messing around. This guy needed to die. Immediately.

Cinder spun her knife to her front as she bent down into a combat stance, eager to plunge her knife into the confident yet unguarded ginger's throat. Roman Torchwick had always been a nuisance-a useful nuisance until now, so it wouldn't affect her plans too much if he were to be disposed of now. She had planned to do so eventually; she just hadn't expected to be forced to do so this soon.

It was his partner who she was worried about. That Neo Politan girl was the real problem. The mute girl had an unnerving presence to her. Like she could gleefully cut someone's face off without any malicious intent. Chances were that she was dealing with Mercury and Emerald at the moment, judging by how she wasn't accompanying her friend to take her down.

Then Roman did something unexpected, something she could have never anticipated from her interactions with the man thus far.

He took off the stupid hat that he was comically obsessed with keeping on his head at all times.

Then, he pushed back his orange bangs to reveal the right side of his face.

"Call it a divine epiphany, if you will. I just came to a realization is all." Roman pursued his lips before growing uncharacteristically serious, leaning back and pointing at her with his right index finger. "You, Cinder Fall, are a brat. An unprofessional one at that."

What was this dickhead saying?

"You act like you're above everyone, as though you're so superior as you plot and scheme to get whatever you want. Never taking the direct approach…"

His right eye pulsated with power, glowing a dim yellow that illuminated the drab warehouse surrounding them. Unlike his left green eye, his right was an old brown with small notches on the sclera, and in all capital letters, a single word curved around his pupil.

TURBO.

On his right cheek, a small smile-akin to the type one would see on a jack-o-lantern-gleamed with a bright light.

"Which just tells me one thing. You're insecure, so you lash out. You're weak, so you do everything you can to get that power you so desperately desire. So that maybe, just maybe, someone, anyone, would actually care about you."

Cinder grit her teeth. Who was he to judge her? He killed and stole all he wanted! How was he somehow more morally righteous than her?

Don't bring that bullshit into this!

She never expected Roman to be the hero type, ugh.

"You're pathetic."

Roman's form seemingly doubled as a being with no facial features manifested beside him.

It was a ghastly sight and caused Cinder to momentarily pause. What kind of semblance was this?

It looked like one of those uniforms one would see fencers wear. Black and white, its head resembled a mesh helmet, and its armless upper body was seemingly made of two separate parts that arched backwards with its branch-like arms. The lower body looked like orange melting wax that had cooled down over time.

Whatever it was, she didn't like it.

"What is that thing-"

"I never thought my old man's teachings would ever really come in handy, or that I'd ever pick them back up…" Roman continued as Cinder darted forward at him, her knife aimed at his eye.

"MASTER'S CALL."

…

Cinder's head was riddled with millions upon millions of migraines, causing her to drop the blade and fall down to her knees. Her hands grasped around the sides of her temples as she struggled to keep it together, as if her head was physically splitting apart.

"GAH!" Cinder screamed as she felt something wet and warm spill from her ears and nose.

Roman walked over to the collapsed pseudo-Maiden with a clear pep in his step before moving his index finger over her chest.

"H-how?" Cinder coughed as confusion overtook her.

"Boom." Roman brought his thumb down.

Cinder's heart exploded.

"You prattled on and on about your destiny when it's clear that it doesn't give a shit about you." Torchwick planted his foot on her head, humiliating her. "Well, take upon your future sins and bear them properly. Take responsibility for your life. Everything that you would have done to those undeserving of your treatment of them in the future gets transferred onto the present you instead. That is the ability of my MASTER'S CALL."

Roman blew smoke at the soon-to-be-corpse as it began incinerating on its own into orange light that blew into the wind.

"When I was a kid, my old man would recite a verse over and over again until I eventually got sick of it. But it's kinda funny in retrospect. I never thought I'd pick my copy of the book back up, but something happened. I don't know what, but I'm using it. And whatever it is, it makes me not even stand the idea of working with a piece of shit like you."

Roman brought his foot down onto the ground, slamming Cinder's ashen head into the concrete floor of the warehouse before she was somehow bitten in half.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Cinder's consciousness ceased.

"I gotta say though…" Roman turned his back to the last pile of ash. "I'm pretty bad about that myself."

He was a professional though. He wasn't some brat with a psycho complex or anything similar. Roman Torchwick beat up people and stole from others while listening to Beethoven, thank you very much. He wasn't a terrorist, and it was insane to think that he owed his epiphany thanks to some cowboy-wannabe. Roman had standards at one point in his life.

He had just forgotten them along the way.

He wasn't a hero.

He was just doing whatever fate ordained and rolling with it. Cinder displeased him and that was all there was to it.

Roman Torchwick was a simple man with simple needs after all.