Chapter 30

'Blake, are you awake?' Yang rolled over in her bedroll, gazing over at the dark-haired faunus. The girl lay on her side, eyes screwed shut, arms splayed out in front of her.

'Yeah.' She whispered, unmoving, and Yang rolled onto her back, staring up at the dusty ceiling. She watched a spider crawl across the dusty cement, making its way back to its web hanging in the corner.

'Why do you think he asked us about being a Huntress? Like...what was he trying to say?'

'Maybe he was just curious.'

'You think?'

'No.'

Yang glanced down at the white-haired girl, curled up quietly on her sleeping bag. 'Weiss, are you awake?'

'Of course I'm awake!' Yang flinched slightly as the white-haired heiress hissed at her. 'You two are talking!'

She rolled over onto her side, staring at the flames dance up and down, illuminating their faces against the dusty and desolate walls. 'And I think he...When I said I wanted to honor my family's name, I meant it. But...it's not what you think. I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a...moral grey area.'

'That's putting it lightly.' Blake commented, and Weiss rolled her eyes.

'Which is why I feel the need to put it right!' She hissed, sitting up from her bedroll. 'If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything! My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it.'

Blake turned away from the heiress, glancing down at her hands. She rubbed her fingers over her knuckles, clenching her fists. She stared into the fire, avoiding the other' gazes.

'All my life, I fought for what I thought was right. I had a partner...named Adam. More of a mentor, actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place. But of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be...not perfect for everyone.' She watched as the flames consumed a log, reducing its brown, coarse surface to ashes, spreading until the whole log was burning. 'I joined the Academy because I knew Huntsmen and Huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world. Always fighting for good. But I never really thought past that. When I leave the Academy...what will I–? How can I undo so many years of hate?'

'I'm sure you'll figure it out.' Yang assured her. 'You're not one to back down from a challenge Blake.'

'But I am!' She cried, clutching her hands to her chest. 'I do it all the time! When you learned I was a Faunus, I didn't know what to do, so I ran. When I realized my oldest partner had become a monster, I ran! Even my...! Semblance. I was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself. An empty copy that takes the hit while I run away.'

The faunus girl lay there, unmoving, as the fire crackled quietly between them. Yang rolled over onto her belly, poking her pillow.

'At least you two have something that drives you. I've just kinda always gone with the flow, you know? And that's fine, I mean, that's who I am. But how long can I really do that for? I want to be a Huntress...not really because I want to be a hero. But because I want the adventure. I want a life where I won't know what tomorrow will bring. And that'll be a good thing. Being a Huntress just happens to line up with that.' The blonde girl propped herself up on her elbow. She glanced over to the red-hooded girl, sitting by the hole in the wall, brushing a little dirt off her gauntlets.

'I'm not like Ruby. She's always wanted to be a Huntress. It's like she said. Ever since she was a kid, she dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day and never asking for anything else in return. Even when she couldn't fight, she knew that that was what she wanted to do. That's why she trained so hard to get where she is today.'

'Well, she's still just a kid.' Weiss said, sitting up, and Blake shook her head.

'She's only two years younger. We're all kids.' She disagreed, sitting up as well. The girls glanced across each other, the somber atmosphere only heightened by their dark, cold surroundings.

'Well...not anymore.' Yang chuckled, grinning at the girls. 'I mean, look where we are! In the middle of a war zone and armed to the teeth?'

'It's the life we chose.' Blake replied, and Weiss cut in.

'It's a job.' She declared. 'We all have this romanticized vision of being a Huntress in our heads. But, at the end of the day...it's a job to protect the people. And whatever we want will have to come second.'

The girls smiled at each other, renewing their convictions and their beliefs. Sitting above them, on a little shelf of rock and rubble, Doctor Oobleck snoozed quietly, a small smile gracing his lips. The girls glanced over at Jaye, who hadn't seemed to budge the entire time. He was curled up, dead, on his sleeping bag, seemingly oblivious to the world.

'Do you think he's dead?' Weiss asked, and Yang gave a nonchalant shrug.

'Meh, probably. Either that or he's awake but couldn't find the right time to join in.' She dismissed, crawling over to the sleeping boy. She leaned over him, glaring at his closed eyes. 'You're awake, aren't you.'

'Course I am. Who could sleep through this racket?' He groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. 'Though admittedly I was having a REALLY pleasant dream before you lot woke me up.'

'Oh? What kind?' Yang asked, grinning at him, and Jaye shot her a mischievous smile, drawing a knee up to his chest.

'The kind you don't want to say aloud.' He laughed, and the girls glared at him.

'I do hope it didn't involve any one of us.' Weiss threatened, crossing her arms, and Jaye grinned maliciously at her.

'Course not.' He laughed. 'It involved ALL of you.'

He laughed at the heiress's disgusted glare, laying his hand over Yang's. He kissed her gently, and the two girls immediately turned away. Yang ran a hand down his chest, resting it on his thigh. They broke apart, grinning at each other.

'I'm sure you'll find a purpose.' He whispered, and Yang squeezed his hand, smiling quietly. Jaye peered over her shoulder at Blake.

'And Blake, I don't think your semblance means what you think it does.' The faunus girl looked at him curiously, and Jaye turned his gaze to the wall.

'Leaving behind a shadow of yourself…you can look at it in two ways. You could take it to mean that you're predisposed to run away. OR, you can look at it as progress.' The girl looked at him like he was crazy, and he held up his hands. 'Hear me out okay? When you grow, when you develop as a person, what you were before is merely a shadow of what you are now. Leaving behind a shadow of yourself, just means that you're moving on. Past your troubles, and past your adversity. So fast that people can barely keep up, and are stuck staring at your shadow.'

Blake turned her gaze to the fire again, watching the flames dance. She scratched her ears quietly, adjusting her bow. As she did so, her fingers brushed against her fur, and she let her arms fall to her side.

'That's a strange way to interpret things.' She said, and Jaye shrugged.

'Eh, I took literature.'

'Well I doubt you're reading it right.'

'Is that so?'

'Yes.'

'Well, believe what you want. But whichever way you look at it, if your willingness to give up is a part of you that you don't think is right, then you should work to change it, rather than gripe about it. Your semblance doesn't define you. It blesses you.'

'Easy for you to say. You got a semblance that's not only useful, but doesn't exactly hold that much bad connotations on yourself.'

Jaye narrowed his eyes, his face turning dangerously dark. Blake flinched back slightly at the look, and Yang laid a hand on his shoulder.

'Jaye…' She warned, and he turned away. Staring at the wall, silence fell over the five for a moment. He took a shaky breath, eyes still fixated on the wall.

'Did you know I wasn't able to control my semblance when I was younger?' Blake glanced up at the boy, her drooping ears scrunching up her bow slightly. Jaye turned his eyes back to her, observing her quietly.

'My semblance kicked in at a very young age. I was barely seven at the time. The first time it kicked in was a disaster. I got mad, froze my entire room. Cloth, wood, metal, all of it crumbled at the touch. Frozen to the molecule.' He dropped back across his bedroll, Yang placing a hand on his stomach. He laid his hand over hers, running his fingers over her knuckles. 'That was terrifying. I would wake up some days finding my room frozen solid, and I'd be sleeping on ice. I can't feel the cold, so it never bothered me, but I almost froze the entire house once.'

Jaye got up, pacing around the fire. Blake watched him as he did, and Jaye formed a ball of ice in his hand, wisps of his aura weaving through his fingers.

'It was difficult, but it eventually stopped getting out in my sleep. I was able to bring my power under control. It was difficult, but I did it. Took a long time though. It was nearly two years before I could control it enough to sleep without fear, and even now I still sleep lightly.' He let his hand fall to his side, the ball of ice vanishing into the air. 'I wasn't born with a good semblance. If anything, at the time, it was a curse. I wanted it gone. I wanted to live a normal life. But things don't always go to plan.'

'I'm sorry, I didn't know.' Blake whispered, and Jaye waved a hand dismissively.

'I'm not guilt-tripping you or anything, I'm just giving you my perspective. The point is, I didn't let it define me. I was known as Niefelheim in the Faction. I was cold and merciless in battle, fighting with my very best no matter the occasion. But, I didn't let that become who I was.' He turned away from the girls, gripping the locket pressed against his chest. 'I still had friends, still had people I love and care about. I didn't become the cold, heartless, merciless person my semblance would represent. I didn't let myself. What your semblance is doesn't matter; it's how you use it that defines you.'

'Jaye's right.' Yang chirped, raising a gauntleted fist in the air. 'Going by description, MY semblance would define me as a hot-headed lump of violence. Since it's fueled by anger, it would also mean that I'm easily triggered, and NOT a nice person to be around. Instead, I choose to look at it from another perspective.'

The blonde got up, stretching, and plopped down next to Blake, throwing an arm over her shoulder. She grinned at the dark-haired faunus girl, and Blake smiled back gently.

'Instead of focusing on the fact that I get angry, I decided to think about why I got angry. From there, the answer was simple. The things that set me off the most is seeing others, especially Ruby, get hurt. That makes me REALLY angry, and that makes me stronger.' She grinned at the dark-haired boy, elbowing Blake lightly in the gut. 'My semblance isn't just being angry, violent, and having a short fuse. Instead, I get angry because the ones I love and care about get hurt. And my desire to protect them gives me strength. I take damage and dish it back, because I would take the blows for them. Not because of revenge or any silly desire like that. Looking at it that way…I've got a really cool semblance!'

Blake smiled at the two, dropping her gaze onto her hands. She reached up, touching her bow, feeling her ears move gently underneath it, and smiled wider.

'Thanks you two. That helped a lot. I get what you mean, and I think that's a great way to look at it.' She said, hugging her knees to her chest. She turned her gaze to the boy, who was busy scratching his nose. 'Jaye…I don't really know if I can quite accept your view on my semblance just yet. I know myself and how I am; how I always have been. Until I can find a way to change myself, the nature I know I have, I'll just be a coward who escapes. But, I promise I'll try.

'That's all I needed to hear.' He grinned, and the four teammates laughed quietly together. Settling down, they checked their watches.

'It's nearly time for my shift.' Yang declared, stretching her arms. She kissed Jaye goodnight, waving Ruby to her bed and taking her place beside the hole in the wall. Climbing back into their bedrolls, the other four lay down, staring into the light of the fire between them. Glancing across from him, Weiss looked as if she wanted to say something, but as soon as their eyes met, she rolled over, avoiding the confrontation, and Jaye shrugged.

'If she wants to talk about something, she will.' He thought to himself, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. As he did so, he felt the cold wind blow past him, and he turned his back to it, facing the fire. Peeking through the flames, he watched Yang's hair rustle in the wind, as if the girl sitting by the wall was enveloped in fire. Stretching a hand out, he reached for the warmth he'd fallen so in love with, and sighed in comfort as he felt the heat in his palms. Pushing his bedroll closer to the fire, he basked in the warmth, sighing in content.

Jaye jolted awake, his hands flying to his weapons. Excalibur was out in a flash, and he levelled it at the wall, scanning his surroundings. Nothing was moving, save the fire, and the occasional shifting of his teammates' as they slept. His eyes swept across the dusty walls, the ever-present grime, and his snoring teammates. His eyes came across a pair of knees, and he glanced up at the blonde girl who had seemingly just finished her guard duty.

'Did I wake you? Sorry about that.' She said, and Jaye placed a hand over his eyes.

'No, sorry. Wasn't your fault. I just felt like something was wrong.' He admitted, returning his sword to the ground beside him. 'I think I'm just still a little unsettled.'

'If it's about what you told us earlier, you know we won't ever judge you for something like that.' She said, patting him on the shoulder. 'You don't have to worry about it.'

Jaye nodded in acknowledgement, hugging his knees to his chest. Yang gave him a reassuring smile, and took his hand in hers. Jaye ran his thumb over her knuckles, staring at her soft, pearly white, and surprisingly unblemished hands. For all of her training, it appeared she did still take care of her skin and nails like any typical girl her age. Still, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was wrong. Yang glanced up, staring at something, and Jaye followed her eyes to an empty bedroll. He cocked his head in confusion, finding nothing peculiar about it.

'Where's Ruby?' Yang asked, and Jaye mentally slapped himself for not realizing sooner. They only had four bedrolls between the five of them. Since one of them would always be on watch at some point, it made little sense to bring an extra. The empty roll should have tipped him off. Or under normal circumstances, it would have. Yang shot to her feet, eyes still transfixed on the empty bedroll.

'Where's Ruby?!' She repeated loudly, and the other two girls shot awake, turning their bleary eyes on the blonde girl. Doctor Oobleck shot down from his spot on the ledge, appearing in the shadowy doorway.

'Maybe she just went to the bathroom?' Jaye suggested weakly, fully aware that regardless of how irresponsible she could be, under the circumstances, it was unlikely she would do so without alerting Yang. The five turned their eyes on the doorway as a furry creature charged in through it, yipping as it did so.

'Zwei?' Yang gasped, catching the dog as it charged at her, panting. She cradled him in her arms, rubbing his furry head. He wined quietly, staring at her with worried eyes, and Blake got to her feet.

'What's going on?' She asked, still a little disoriented from having been shocked out of sleep, and Doctor Oobleck raised a finger in the air.

'Grab your weapons.' He declared, raising his thermos. 'Your leader may be in trouble.'

Chapter done! Next is the train fight!