Content warning: this chapter contains themes of death that may be distressing for some readers. Discretion is advised.

"Forgiveness is really a gift to yourself- have the compassion to forgive others, and the courage to forgive yourself."

Mary Anne Radmacher

Chapter 21: Back to Square One

*WHAM*

*THUD*

"Whoa-ho! Now you're getting it!"

Mercury was currently lying on the dirt and grass that he was originally standing on. His reason for not standing up was because Midori had just knocked him on the ground with a punch to the face. And now, she was staring at him with surprise. She then began to cheer to herself and congratulate herself for performing this feat.

This celebration came to an end when Mercury swiped his leg and made the eager girl fall with him.

"Revenge is mine!" Mercury said with a chuckle as he stood up.

"Dang it!" Midori cursed under her breath. When she saw a hand being extended to her, Midori took it and let Mercury take her off the ground. "Guess I celebrated too early, huh?"

"Oh, yeah," the cocky boy confirmed. "No big deal, you're getting there." He then wrapped an arm around her shoulder and began to walk towards a large truck. "Stick with me kid, 'cause I. Know. Everything."

*WHAM*

A force knocked Mercury back on the ground, causing him to quickly look up and see not only Midori laughing, but Emerald as well. "Bullshit," she said. "You didn't know I was with you back there."

Mercury groaned as he stood up. "I ever tell you how much I'm starting to hate your Semblance?" he asked.

"I'm starting to get the idea." Emerald looked over to Midori. "But really, you're getting better with your hand-to-hand. Now all you need is a weapon."

"Thanks," Midori said with a smile. "But, uh, I haven't really thought of a weapon."

"What's the matter?" Mercury asked as he rubbed some dirt off his vest. He then rubbed it on Emerald's pants with a smirk before avoiding her disgusted look. "Don't really know what you want?"

"I mean, yeah. Just a little." Midori leaned against a tree and sighed. "I'm sorry, this is all still really weird for me. One minute, I'm being used for my Semblance. And now I'm preparing to fight someone who commands both Grimm and people. I just... never thought my life would take these kinds of turns."

"No arguments here," said Emerald. "I used to be a thief before joining Cinder and everyone else."

"Yeah, and I was just a mechanic," said Mercury. "But I was never a stranger to fighting. It's funny, but I think I'm right where I belong."

Midori forced a smile. "I'm happy for you, Mercury. And I'm really glad you decided to help me fight. I just need a little more time to get used to this... y'know?"

"I mean, if you're having second thoughts-Ow!" Mercury stopped talking when Emerald jabbed his side for saying that.

"No, no, I'm not," Midori insisted. "First Kuroyuri, and then you guys? Whatever Salem's planning and doing isn't right."

"Speaking of 'not right'... you should check this out."

The trio turned to see Nora pointing back to the Dark Wing, where everyone had made camp earlier. After sharing a worried glance, everyone followed Nora to Eren and Cinder. The looks on their faces practically spelled the word "disturbed" when everyone took a seat. Ren was already sitting down, and he too was troubled by something.

"What's goin' on, guys?" Mercury asked.

"Nothing good," Eren replied. "When you were training Midori, we were going over what to say to Councilman Lionheart when we get to Mistral."

"I've been looking over this Scroll from top to bottom," said Cinder, who was holding Watts' Scroll in her hands. "I found a lot we could tell him, but then I saw a few files that were locked." Cinder looked over to Midori. "That's why I asked for your help a few minutes ago. It was a long shot, but it helped."

All eyes fell on Midori as she explained herself. "I tried using that Scroll to call for help when I was kidnapped," she said. "That well-dressed jerk carried it with him wherever he went, and I caught a look over his shoulder a few times. When I was healing the big guy and the Faunus."

"Midori told me that he used a few passwords for different things," Cinder said. "The first file unlocked when I tried one, and... well, you should hear this for yourselves." Cinder moved the Scroll's screen towards the rest of the group so they could hear.

"I already told you, these are all the ones closely affiliated with Ozpin!" a voice rang out from the Scroll. "This is all you need!"

"Choose your next words carefully, Headmaster," another familiar voice said. "It would be unwise to overstep your boundaries."

"But I'm telling you the truth! Once these Huntsmen and Huntresses are eliminated, this will be a thorn in his side!"

"Removing a cowardly Headmaster that Ozpin trusts could also be a thorn in his side."

"..."

"You choice, Lionheart. Choose or we choose."

"But if this many Huntsmen were to disappear, people would ask questions."

"Leave that to me. All you should worry about is giving Her Grace more pawns that need to be removed from the board."

"Very well. I'll send them over today. But I still need to answer any questions."

"Salem is sending me to see you soon. Don't fret, Headmaster. Soon, all will be well."

The recoding ended when Cinder turned off the Scroll's screen. When she looked back at Mercury, Emerald, and Midori, all three of them were shocked by what they had just heard.

"That... That was Lionheart," said Midori.

"He was talking with Moustachio there," said Nora. "Not just talking, but working with him."

"That's how Salem got that list of Huntsmen and Huntresses on here," said Cinder. "Gods know I'm not their biggest fan, but this is far from fair. Lionheart is trading their lives like cattle."

"All to save his own skin," said Eren. "This changes everything."

Everyone had no arguments there. They had decided to go to Mistral, and were practically just outside its front door. They had come all this way, and now it was clear they did it all for nothing. Their plan to warn the only person who had the power to help them was thrown out the window. Now what were they going to do?

"So what are we going to do now?" Emerald asked.

"Yeah, what's the plan?" Midori followed.

Eren cleared his throat before speaking. "The way I see it, we have three options. They're all risky, and we don't know everything just yet. So let's not jump the gun when you hear something you like or don't like."

"Yeah, alright," Mercury agreed. "Whatcha got?"

"The first thing we could do is stick with our plan before; showing all of this to Lionheart." Eren quickly saw a few skeptical faces in the group, specifically Ren's. "Lionheart doesn't seem to be like the others. He's trying to survive."

"So if we play our cards right, we might be able to get him to snap out of it," said Cinder. "He might not even know he was being recorded, this Scroll is practically blackmail for him."

"Can we really do that?" Ren asked. "Some of those people are already dead. There may not be any going back now."

Nora was a little surprised to see Ren lose hope quickly. "Hold on," she said. "If we recruited Midori, we could recruit others."

Despite this fact being true, Ren wasn't fully convinced. "It's still a little risky. What's our second option?"

"We do all of this, but without appealing to his heart," said Eren. "Salem got through to him through fear. We could do the same." While there was skepticism earlier, there wasn't as much for this idea.

"That's a little harsh," said Midori. "How would that make us any different from Salem?"

"That should be the least of our worries," Ren argued. "This is about our survival, not a good vs. evil story."

"If we go with that..." Mercury said while cracking his knuckles. "My dad taught me a thing or two about intimidation."

"I mean, it's better than the third option," said Cinder, who immediately looked back to Eren when she saw how confused everyone was. "I mean, as long as it's what I think it is."

Eren gently nodded. "Yeah, it is," he confirmed. "Look guys, if Lionheart is like the others... we have to treat him like the others."

"Wait, you mean kill him?" Midori asked. "No way, uh-uh."

"Midori, look-"

"No, this is insane!" Midori backed away from everyone. "Guys, tell me that you think this is a bad idea!"

Everyone shared a brief glance with each other when Midori gave her command. They were all thinking the same thing, and it wasn't what Midori wanted. They were surprised she was opposed to something like this, given what Salem made her do. But given the fact that she had just became a member of their team, it was understandable that she wasn't ready to take a life.

"Midori, what if it was one of Salem's people right now?" Cinder asked. "What if it was the crazy one that almost killed Mercury?"

"Well... I don't know, but you can't expect to-!"

"Hey, hey, calm down," Eren requested. "Nobody's making you do anything you don't want to do. Not anymore."

"Yeah, take it easy," Emerald followed. "I mean, these are still just ideas. And there's a fourth option too."

Eren turned around when he heard the contradiction to his earlier claim. "Huh?"

Emerald moved closer when the spotlight was on her. "Listen guys, when you're a girl like me, things like bending the truth are child's play," she said. "It's like Cinder said before, we can't really show this Scroll and tell the police who's really after these Huntsmen and Huntresses. But we could, you know, exaggerate a little."

When he understood the idea, Eren realized that this would be taking Lionheart out of the picture instead of killing him. "That's not a bad idea," he said. "But what should we say?"

"My dad knew a few guns for hire here and there," Mercury suggested. "Maybe we could pin it on them?"

"Maybe," said Cinder. "But plans like this wouldn't really be made up by mercenaries." She put a finger to her chin as she thought of another idea. "What about the White Fang? I heard they've been getting in trouble with the law in Mistral."

"They have been stepping up their game," said Nora, who recalled hearing about armed robberies and attacks on places that were strictly anti-Faunus. "But that might really hurt the Faunus, White Fang or not. I mean, the Kingdom cracking down on them for something they didn't do? That doesn't seem fair."

"Maybe we should cross this bridge when we come to it," Midori suggested. "Let's see how things play out in Mistral, and go from there."

"Yeah, alright," said Mercury. "I'm pretty good when I'm thinking on my feet."

"I'm sure I can think of something after a while," said Emerald.

"Wait, I'm confused," said Nora. "Are we still gonna meet with Lionheart? Or go to the police?"

"Going to the police may be more efficient," said Ren. "We have plenty of evidence against him."

"True, but Lionheart is a Councilman," said Cinder. "Who knows how many lawyers he could afford on his payroll? And what about that 'Ozpin' guy they kept talking about? Who's he?"

"I think he might have something to do with Ozma," Eren suggested. "I mean, he's still around fighting Salem. Maybe he's working with others, like us."

"Some teammates he has," Nora grumbled, earning a nod from Mercury.

"Maybe we should hear him out first," said Midori. "I mean, we have no idea why he's helping Salem."

"No, he's definitely protecting himself," Eren argued. "But I think we can give him the motivation to talk. And after that..."

Midori sighed with a nod. "Do what you gotta do. Just... don't let me be involved yet."


With a plan in mind, everyone packed up their camp and took the Dark Wing to Mistral. The remaining voyage from the outskirts to the city wasn't difficult; the all-terrain vehicle had made passing through villages and the forces of nature as easy as possible. The only things that seemed to take a toll on everyone were the time passing by and entering the city.

The city of Mistral was similar to that of the Kingdom of Atlas. Below the floating city was a decrepit place called Mantle, the remnants of the old Kingdom of the same name. When Atlas rose, the attention and the needs of Mantle became forgotten to the point where it was hanging by a thread.

The same could be said for Mistral, unfortunately. The capital city was the largest in the Kingdom, and had its fair share of an unbalanced society. On top, in the mountains, was the upper city. Houses, markets, and the Huntsmen Academy of Haven were all there. It was a peaceful, but slightly crowded, area that Eren and his friends had been to multiple times. From seeing Mercury in the hospital to shopping sprees, everyone had a reason to love the upper part of Mistral.

The lower half, however, was a place that was an antithesis to this paradise. Near and around the base of the mountains was a cesspool of run-down homes and under-the-table businesses. Crime rates were rampant and the people were as close-minded as one could expect. If one played their cards right and took caution when traveling, a suitable home could be made for a family. But one mistake was all it could take for life to spiral downwards.

Everyone in the Dark Wing was uncomfortable at the sights of lower Mistral as they drove through it. The streets were fortunately wide enough for carriages and cars to pass through. Cars, however, were a rare sight that always caught people's eyes. The only one who could tolerate and even enjoy being in a place like this was Mercury, who had come here from time to time.

"Ah, this place hasn't changed a bit," he said as he drove through the streets. He looked at the people staring at him without a care in the world, confident that he could take them on if they tried to do something. After all, he had done so before. "I can practically feel the humidity of this crap-hole." Mercury turned to Emerald with a cocky grin. "You feel that humidity?"

Emerald turned to Mercury while wiping sweat off her brow and trying to make her clothes not stick to her body. "...A pinch," she replied sarcastically.

Mercury chuckled to himself before talking again. "Yeah, this place basically defines 'anything goes.' Oh man, that's the town square I tore a new one with... Vernal..."

Mercury was so busy reminiscing on all the fun he had while spending free-time in lower Mistral, that he forgot the reason that made it enjoyable in the first place was because Vernal was always with him. If he was still recovering from his injury, Vernal had his back. And on his good days, Mercury would have hers. It was the perfect place for both of them, but there wasn't any kind of fun without her.

Everyone in the vehicle felt bad for Mercury when he thought about Vernal. But then they felt even worse when Mercury quickly played it off.

"Yeah, but who's got time for fun right now?" he asked sarcastically. "We'll be up in a few."

Cinder moved over to Mercury. "You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, fine." Mercury turned back to Cinder as he stopped the car. A line of horse-drawn carriages was blocking the path upwards, one that was moving rather slowly. "So, uh... we'll just make our way to Haven once we park this thing, right?"

As much as she wanted to help, Cinder could see that talking about Vernal was a sore spot for Mercury. And she could see that he wanted to put the mission ahead of his feelings. "Yeah, that's right," she said. Just then, a few people with bandanas and hoods over their faces began to move around the car. One of them even reached into his pocket. "I just hope parking won't be a problem."

Mercury could see that Cinder was eyeing the stragglers in front of them. A sense of excitement washed over him as he turned to Nora. "Hey, Nora," he called out. "Remember what we were talking about earlier?"

Nora looked out the windows to see what Mercury was seeing. Her excitement began to rise as well, surpassing Mercury's by tenfold. "Oh, yeah!" she said with a smile as she ran over to the front seat. "C'mon, Merc! Lemme push it!"

"Knock yourself out." Mercury moved his hand away from a big red button on the panel, one that Nora slammed down with her palm.

*WIRR*

A mechanical noise came from the outside of the Dark Wing, specifically the roof. All of a sudden, the mischievous people fell to the ground and scrambled away as fast as they could. One of them even dropped a gun that fell from his pocket.

Mercury and Nora looked at the computer panel in front of them, which told them that the car's turrets had been deployed when she pressed the button. And it was these turrets that had scared off the group of thieves.

The simple use of deploying the turrets instead of firing them was enough to make Nora feel even more excited and proud of what she had done. "I told you guys this place was fun," Mercury said with a smile. "Alright, let's get outta here."


The Dark Wing soon found itself in a parking lot once it had finally reached the upper part of Mistral. Finding a space like this was rare, and only used for horse-drawn carriages. But cars, when Mistral was visited by one, were welcome to stay there. Once they were confident that the Dark Wing was fine where it was, Eren and his friends traversed through the crowded streets to their destination: Haven Academy.

One of the reasons they decided this was the first place to visit and warn people of Salem was because Haven was open to the citizens for an orientation. The new school-year would be starting in approximately one month, and all four Huntsmen Academies opened their doors to any and all applicants. So Eren and his friends easily joined the next group of guests and followed them on a field trip throughout the school. No weapons were allowed, but Ren, Mercury, and Emerald were able to hide their weapons without much effort.

"Man, this place is huge!" Mercury whispered to his friends. His eyes were taking in every detail, from the number of classrooms to the size of the hallways. Although his skills lied with mechanics, he was impressed with the architecture of Haven Academy.

"This school has always stood out among the buildings in the city," said Ren. "Like the other Huntsmen Academies, Haven is the home of the Mistral CCT towers. Two twin towers were built in Mistral when Atlas gifted each Kingdom the power of the Cross Continental Transmit System."

Eren took note of two towers instead of one. "You think a second one is here in case one goes down?" he asked.

"Possibly," Ren acknowledged. "But Atlas warned each Kingdom that when one tower goes down, they all do. A distinct flaw, but an avoidable one as long as nothing happens to them. Perhaps that is why they were built as a part of the Academies."

"I wouldn't be surprised." Eren looked around the courtyard everyone found themselves in. "This place is practically a fortress."

"At least Huntsmen and Huntresses are doing one good thing," Cinder said with a low growl.

Midori worriedly looked over to Cinder. "Come on, Cinder," she said. "I heard things haven't really been fair with the villages and Huntsmen, but they're still doing their job. These towers have to show that, at least."

"They do, they do. But it's a little concerning, isn't it?"

Everyone stopped walking and looked to Cinder. "Concerning?" Nora asked skeptically.

"Think about it," Cinder began confidently. "People depend a lot on Huntsmen and Huntresses. First it's protecting our homes, then the Kingdoms, and now the only means of harmless communication. That gives them a lot of power."

"..."

The pondering faces on each of her friends gave Cinder the belief that she had proven her point. It wasn't something that she thought of out of the blue, but ever since Huntsmen failed her when she was a child. First it was the one who tried to capture her and Eren in Atlas, and then Mercury's father pretended to be one to get what he wanted. And from what August Cedar told her while she was training with Eren, things all over the world were very similar with Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Speaking of Eren, he was the only one who didn't seem as deep in thought as the others. He almost seemed sure of himself, in a way. "Eren, do you think so?" she asked, slightly worried that her best friend had other ideas.

"The thought crossed my mind," Eren confessed. "It's almost as if... society can't function without Huntsmen and Huntresses."

"But that's not true," Midori protested. "I mean, yeah, Huntsmen and Huntresses have a lot going for them. But there's never been a time when they abused that power. I mean, on a Kingdom-wide scale."

"True, but nothing can really stop them from doing so if they wanted to," Cinder argued. "The Council could say something, yeah. But Lionheart sits on the Council, and Huntsmen clearly outnumber them. And didn't we hear something about Ironwood sitting on two seats in the Atlesian Council?"

"I heard something like that before, yes," Ren agreed. "But that doesn't matter. What matters is why we came here in the first place."

"Right, right." Cinder looked across the courtyard to a particular doorway. "I think that's where the Headmaster's office is. Past those doors."

"That's what the guide said, you're right," said Eren. "Emerald, think you can use your Semblance to sneak us inside?"

"Not on a crowd like this," Emerald regretfully confessed. "I've always been able to work with one mind, but all these people could give me an aneurysm."

"Then we do this the old-fashioned way," said Nora. "Break away from the crowd and wait it out. If someone's around, Emerald can use her Semblance."

Eren was looking to the side of the courtyard when Nora proposed this idea. "I think we can break away now," he said. "Looks like they're distracted by something."

Everyone followed their leader's gaze to see that there was indeed something that had caught the eye of all the potential students and their parents. Where there had once been an empty space, there was now a wide array of targets and dummy Grimm. In front of these props was a woman in a white buttoned shirt and a brown skirt. Everyone recognized her as the tour guide who led them across the campus, and now it seemed she had something to say.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming today," she said politely. "While Headmaster Lionheart sends his greetings, he unfortunately won't be able to speak to you all before we leave. However, he has prepared a demonstration for you all. As you know, the Kingdom of Mistral houses multiple combat academies along with Haven. One of them, Sanctum Academy, was proud to instruct many unique students. One such student has generously volunteered her time to show you how your sons and daughters will be receiving instruction at Haven. And who knows? Perhaps she'll make her choice to join you here." The woman began to step aside. "So, without further ado, please join me in welcoming... Miss Pyrrha Nikos!"

The crowd applauded loudly as a young girl, roughly the same age as Nora and Ren, stepped out where the tour guide was standing. The girl was a redhead with bright green eyes, wearing a full suit of bronze armor; she was also carrying a sword and shield of the same color. As she waved to the crowd and thanked them for the introduction, Eren and his friends stayed exactly where they were. Each of them had heard the name before; Pyrrha was a celebrity throughout the entire Kingdom, known for her being a prodigy when it came to combat. She appeared in multiple local competitions both inside and outside of Mistral. Mercury remembered her face being on a cereal that he enjoyed eating from time to time. None of them had ever seen her in person, and now seemed like their lucky day.

Pyrrha quickly began to take out all the targets that had been set up for her. Her first choice was to change her sword into a sniper rifle, one that she fired at the targets while running towards the dummy Grimm. One of them was moving on automatic wheels, yet she dodged it by jumping in the air and cutting its head with her now transformed sword. She then threw her shield at the other Grimm, which bounced off the metal poles their "bodies" were on and moved on to the next ones.

To say everyone was impressed at the display and the opportunity to see the Pyrrha Nikos display her set of skills was nothing but the whole truth. The students and parents were almost captivated by the pride of Mistral, someone that could be just like them. The demonstration was very inspirational for everyone, even the infiltrators who were supposed to sneak away. Ren and Nora were impressed by her speed while Mercury had his eyes on the quickly-transforming weapon. The ones he made for his friends and himself never transformed that quickly, and he would have to take notes on the experience.

But out of all the spectators Pyrrha had attracted, none of them were as captivated as Eren was. He had seen all kinds of fighting in his life, but it was this kind of combat that made him feel a sense of nostalgia of all things. Pyrrha's speed on the ground and air made him think back on the only other prodigy he knew: Mikasa. The sheer will and determination of this fighting was almost identical to Mikasa's; so identical that it was almost scary. And when Pyrrha unexpectedly switched from her weapons to hand-to-hand, Eren couldn't resist the urge to think back on Annie's demonstration of her skills. It was almost as if the universe had taken the best of both those women and had placed them into Pyrrha Nikos, which had won Eren's attention and respect towards the girl.

However, it had also won something from Cinder, when she finally saw how entranced Eren was from the display: jealously.

The black-haired teenager couldn't help but feel heat rise to her face as she did her best to snap Eren out of the trance he found himself in. "Eren, come on!" she aggressively whispered. "While they're distracted!"

"Huh?" Eren mumbled when he saw Cinder snapping her fingers at him. "Oh, right! Guys, let's go!"

Everyone obeyed as they slipped out of sight and Emerald used her Semblance to cloak the team when the tour guide turned around. As they found themselves closer to Lionheart's office, they were able to sneak past a common door that Emerald could cloak if the need arose. The room was a simple one, a little larger than a storage closet. And it was the perfect place to wait it out until all was quiet at Haven. Eren sadly found his mind wandering back to Mikasa and Annie, causing him to once again miss his first home. The expression on his face was easily detected by a now remorseful Cinder, who regretted letting her emotions get the best of her. While she didn't know what it was that upset Eren, she could tell that her actions and jealously over a girl she hardly knew had a part to play in it.

But there would be a time to apologize later. Now... was the time for action.


Dusk had come upon Haven Academy and all tours had ended. The dorms were all empty and prepared for both new and old students coming to Haven shortly. The only room that was occupied was a special one in the school. The room was a spacious, autumn-colored one with a large mahogany desk. Along with the desk, there a small table with chairs in a corner for guests, with a unique tea set sitting on it. There were no guests at the time, and the mahogany desk was occupied by an average sized man with a big brown beard. This man was none other than Leonardo Lionheart, the Headmaster of Haven Academy.

His responsibilities as a member of the Mistral Council had taken up most of his time, leaving his present duties as Headmaster to be done overnight. Not that he had any problems with that. Lionheart was a man who usually preferred his solitude over his social life, since his usual company was more or less wanting. He was also someone who was prone to burying himself in his work, which was exactly what he had been doing ever since he returned to Haven. At the moment, he was carefully reviewing student applications that were delivered before and after the tour.

"That's a shame," the Headmaster thought to himself. "There doesn't seem to be one from Miss Nikos. Perhaps she's had her fill of this Kingdom. And who can blame her?" A heavy sigh slowly escaped the man's throat when he momentarily departed from his train of thought. "Then again, the chances of her life being spared would be slim. Her absence may be for the best after all." His voice finally found its way in the room when he placed one more paper on a large stack. "It seems you're the last one. Now... onto other matters."

"A shrewd decision, Headmaster."

The Headmaster's heart nearly leapt out of his chest when Lionheart heard someone in the room. After recovering from his sudden bout of fear, Lionheart turned to his door and saw a well-dressed man with black hair and a black mustache. The man was grinning at the sight of the unexpected panic attack, almost gaining a sense of satisfaction and entertainment from the demonstration. Lionheart knew this was to be expected, since he knew the man well enough to witness his dark side.

"Good Gods, Arthur," Lionheart said as he caught his breath. "Are you trying to kill me?" When he saw the Atlesian's grin grow even wider, Lionheart quickly raised his hand as he stood up. "Don't answer that."

Watts' grin finally faded. "Relax, Lionheart," he ordered as he invited himself into the room. "I'm just here to discuss those 'other matters,' as you would say."

The Headmaster was dreading this reason, he knew exactly what the man wanted from him. But what he found odd was the fact that he delivered it personally. "I delivered the names you requested," he confessed. "And I already warned you how long that list was." Lionheart found a small sense of courage as he sat down again. "I told you Ozpin would be on to you and your friends."

"Yes, I remember. And we already have the list, you're right." Watts was currently looking at the books on the side of the room, but stopped when he asked a question. "So you admit it then?" He took out a white Scroll from his pocket and tapped it a few times. "You admit that you sold out your fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses?"

"Admit it? What kind of question is that?" Lionheart had a feeling the doctor's sadism had appeared once again, and knew how to play this game. Watts' arrogance and ego were much larger than Lionheart's office, and they needed to be tamed in order to gain a sense of normality when speaking with him. So rather than fight the sophisticated madman, Lionheart answered the question. "You know all too well what I've done for you."

"Say it," Watts ordered.

Lionheart sighed before answering. "I gave you those names, their Semblances, and their schedules. They're yours to do with as you wish."

"On the contrary, Headmaster, we both know who owns these Huntsmen and Huntresses now."

"Is that why she sent you? To prove my loyalty?" Dread quickly filled Lionheart's body and caused him to react in the best way he knew how. "Arthur, I can still be of assistance to her! You of all people should know that by now! Look, I'm sorry for my behavior, and I'm sorry it took me so long to compile that list for you. Just tell Salem whatever she needs from me, she'll have it! But if I had more time-!"

"Oh, I don't think Salem will be calling upon you any time soon," Watts said calmly, annoyed at the Headmaster's dread. "For favors, threats, or anything like that anymore. You have my word."

"...What?" Lionheart backed away from the doctor as he took off a long brown coat he was wearing. "Arthur... why are you here?"

Watts moved his hand to take out his Scroll again. "Just to pick up a little something," he said as he pressed a button. The Headmaster's voice then spoke from the phone, repeating the same promise he had just made to him. More specifically, to Salem. Watts seemed content with the recording as he gently threw the Scroll in the air and caught it. "I told you that-this was gonna be easy."

Lionheart quickly picked up on the fact that Watts' voice distinctly changed in the middle of that sentence. Rather than belonging to a middle aged man, the voice that rang out through the office sounded like it belonged to a teenage girl. True to this claim, Arthur Watts suddenly transformed into a teenage girl, a short one with light green hair and bright red eyes.

"What on... You're not Watts!" Lionheart shouted in surprise as his back hit the mahogany desk behind him.

"Yeeeeaaahhhh, no," Emerald said as she pulled out Thief's Respite and pointed the barrels at the Headmaster. "And you're no Headmaster. At least, you shouldn't be. Not with what you just told me."

"Who-Who are you?! What do you want?!"

"Answers. That's all we want, Lionheart."

"We?"

*CLICK*

The rest of Emerald's cloaking had ceased when she finally stopped using her Semblance, which left the Headmaster to hear and see a gun pointed right at his face when he turned around. He also saw six other teenagers standing around the room, and one of them was holding a green weapon in his face.

"Don't move," Ren ordered. "Place both of your hands on the desk."

"You-You're making a grave mistake, young man," Lionheart retorted through his evident fear. "Do you know who I am?"

Ren quickly nodded before giving his answer. "Councilman Leonardo Lionheart, Headmaster of Haven Academy. And traitor."

Quickly remembering that these children had gotten the better of him, along with evidence of his crimes, Lionheart admitted defeat and granted the intruder's request. When he put his hands on the large desk and ceased to move, Lionheart proceeded to do everything in his power to do what he had been doing for a long time; save his own life.

"Is one of you in charge?" he asked as he tried to remain calm.

Ren gestured his head to the right and moved aside, keeping his pistol on Lionheart's head as another young man with dark hair and a black shirt walked up to the Headmaster. "And... you are?" Lionheart inquired.

"Eren Yeager," the young man replied.

"And... what 'answers' are you looking for, Eren Yeager?"

"Why you've been doing this." Eren held out his hand and caught the Scroll that Emerald threw to him. "Why you've been helping Salem take down the people who dedicated their lives to stopping her Grimm."

Lionheart gasped when he heard that name. "How do you know about Salem?"

"We've met her before. And we're trying to stop her and anyone who agreed to help her."

"Nonsense! Nobody meets her and lives. Not unless she has a use for you."

"We're not her slaves, Headmaster. We're what you should be to her right now; her enemy."

"I..."

Lionheart was at a loss for words with the bold yet valid claims. He knew that taking the position of a Headmaster, let alone the position of a Huntsman, meant putting the safety of others ahead of his own. And yet, these children had no idea the power within Salem's grasp, how doing what a Huntsman should do was ultimately futile.

"I did what I had to do," Lionheart protested. "You're just children, and I don't care what Ozpin has told you. You have no idea of the power within her grasp, the size of the forces she commands!"

"If that were true, then we wouldn't be standing here," Eren stated simply. "We paid her and her friends a visit. She wasn't happy with the mess we left her."

"And we're not happy with the mess you left this place in," said Cinder. Eren silently approved of her point and continued to stay silent as she continued to talk. "You could've stood up to her, you could have been worthy of your position."

"Instead, you let some bully push you around like a child!" Nora claimed.

"Who are you to say?!" Lionheart protested. "How do you know she didn't let you leave?! Salem controls everything she casts her eyes on, and I've been trying to keep her at bay!"

"Oh, man the fuck up!" Mercury ordered as he walked behind Lionheart and pulled on his hair. "At least pretend to take responsibility for what you've done! Don't give some bullshit excuse!" As he pulled the Headmaster back and exposed his neck, Mercury looked over to Eren. "Eren, this is a waste of time! Whatever we're doing, let's just do it fast!"

"No!" Lionheart protested. "There's no need for violence here!" The Headmaster looked at every person in the room and saw how serious they were about executing whatever plan they had set in motion. But one face stood out; Midori's.

"Young lady, please help me!" Lionheart begged. "You know this isn't right!"

Midori quickly remembered what she said to her friends earlier, and how she wasn't entirely on board with this mission. She also knew that no plan had been set in motion for when they met Lionheart, and she could easily see where this was going.

"Eren, he's right!" she protested. "Don't hurt him!"

Eren quickly turned around. He could already tell that bringing her on this mission was a bad idea. She was practically a civilian, and a moral one at that. And yet, he couldn't just cancel his mission when his goal was right in front of him. Instead, he settled for a compromise. "Mercury, keep holding him," he said. "Ren, you can lower the gun."

"..."

Ren shot Eren a dirty glare, but complied when Eren didn't change his mind. Mercury stayed exactly where he was while Emerald decided to lower her guns as well. "Thank you," Lionheart said to Midori. "Perhaps we can help each other, you and I. I've saved certain Huntsmen before, I may be able to convince Salem to find a new Maiden instead of-!"

Lionheart quickly felt a cold grip on his neck that caused him to cease his talking. Ren was still angry at the Headmaster, regardless of what Eren had ordered. However, it wasn't just him who Lionheart had just invoked wrath from. For Midori was walking closer with fists clenched.

"You know?" she asked. "You know what a Maiden is?"

Lionheart quickly realized what he said and tried to take it back. "I-"

"You knew I was with Salem?" Tears began to form in her eyes. "You knew everything... and did nothing?!" Midori's eyes finally lost their hold of the tears as her arms impulsively threw weak fists at the Headmaster's chest. "Monster! You monster!" Nora quickly came to the rescue as she moved Midori away from the Headmaster.

"That does it," Eren thought to himself. "Time to talk, Lionheart," he said as he looked back to the Headmaster. "Tell us everything you know about Salem."

"I... I can't-" Lionheart gasped for air as Ren tightened his grip on his throat.

"What else is going on?!" Ren screamed as he loosened his hold. "What else did you give her?! Who is she working with?!"

"I-I only gave her the list of Huntsmen!" Lionheart finally confessed. "That's all she ever wanted from me! And to keep my eye on-!"

"How has she been killing them?!" Ren interrupted. "How does she do it?!"

"Ren, wait!" Eren ordered. "What are you watching for Salem?"

"I'm not done here," Ren coldly said.

"Ren, what are you doing?"

"You know who was on that list, Eren? Two people named Anthony Stark and Luna Blanca."

Neither of those names were familiar to anyone. "So what?" Cinder asked.

"They were called to help us the day the Grimm invaded, I recognized their faces!" Ren turned back to Lionheart. "Is that how she's being killing the people you gave her?! Are you responsible?!"

"Ren, wait a second!" Eren said as he moved closer to Lionheart. "What else are you doing for-?"

Ren quickly shoved Eren aside, causing him to crash into the smaller desk behind him. Cinder quickly helped him up while Ren was able to pull Lionheart from Mercury's grasp. He then began to violently beat the Headmaster. While a gold Aura was blocking his punches, Ren refused to cease his assault.

"Ren, knock it off!" Nora cried as she tried to pull him off Lionheart. But she too received a hard shove from the angry boy. It was clear that he didn't care about Salem anymore. This was just pure vengeance for the wrongs that had been done to him.

However, nobody could tell that Lionheart had just finished planning his escape. This was his office after all, and he knew how to get out.

"Please, have mercy!" Lionheart begged while Emerald and Mercury tried to move Ren off him. He was off the floor now, and Ren simply activated his Aura to block out any attempts to move him. "No, don't throw me against my bookcase! I beg you!"

Ren quickly saw what the Headmaster was talking about, and could see how afraid he was at the situation. He knew that the time to appeal through logic of heart was a fruitless endeavor. Now was the time to make fear into a weapon. So he began to do the opposite of what the Headmaster wanted.

"Not the bookshelf! Not there! No!" Lionheart begged once again. But Ren didn't give in to his request, and prepared to throw him.

However, it was Mercury who was able to see what was happening. "Ren, don't-!"

*CRASH*

Part of the bookshelf was destroyed when Ren threw Lionheart there. But instead of simply falling to the ground, the Headmaster appeared to fall through the debris. Everyone then saw that the wood was covering some kind of secret passage in the office.

And the doorway that had just been opened quickly closed when Lionheart pulled on an unlit torch. Now a stone wall was resting in between the teenagers and the Headmaster.

"Ren, you idiot!" Mercury screamed as he let go and tried to break the stone. Eren and Cinder quickly joined him and also berated Ren.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Eren yelled as he pressed against the stone. "He wanted you to throw him in there!"

"And I don't have my arrows!" Cinder yelled. "How are we supposed to get him out?!"

"..."

Ren silently stared at the wall as he was being yelled at. As soon as that stone wall came into existence, the rest of the world seemed to fade out for Ren. Words couldn't describe the overwhelming feelings of stupidity, anger, and hopelessness that was washing over him. He was so focused on the possibility of Lionheart being involved with his father's death that he couldn't see what was right in front of him.

The bottom of the truth was that his friends deserved to be angry at him. Ren wasn't good enough to do this. He wasn't good enough to guard Ymir, he wasn't good enough to strongly stand against Salem and her Grimm, and now he wasn't good enough to do what they came here to do. Nothing was going to make him forget any of this.

*BEEP*

*BEEP*

*BEEP*

A sharp beeping struck everyone's ears like bullets, causing them to cover their ears to block out the sound. Even Ren had lost focus on the wall to cover his ears. And he had a good idea what kind of beeping it was.

"An alarm!" Emerald yelled. "Lionheart's calling for help!"

"Bail, bail!" Mercury shouted as he ran out of the office. One by one, everyone began to follow Mercury's lead; but Eren hesitated as he looked back at the wall. He wasn't ready to leave, not without getting the answers he needed. He was looking forward to finding a piece of the puzzle that Salem made with her allies, and he wanted this so he could do a better job at protecting his friends and home.

"Eren!" Cinder called out as she ran back inside. "We gotta go!"

Eren snapped out of his trance and quickly followed Cinder. The run from the office wasn't long or difficult. What was difficult was running into a team of Huntsmen that was patrolling the grounds.

"You!" a man with a broadsword called out to the running group. "What are you doing here?!"

Eren's first reaction to seeing the opposition in his sight was to get out of the courtyard as fast as possible. But when he moved his leg a certain way, Eren quickly remembered that he wasn't wearing his gear. Cinder nearly made the same mistake, but caught herself at the last moment. A new strategy was clearly needed to get out of here alive.

Fortunately, Eren thought quickly and bit into his hand. Cinder was about to follow his lead, and so was Nora. "No, no, no!" he warned as he let go of his flesh. He then swept his open palm in the air, causing black blood to fall onto the ground in front of the Huntsmen.

"Oh!" Nora yelped, quickly understanding the plan. She then stepped back and watched the magic work itself. The pools that formed weren't large enough for a Beowolf or Ursa to emerge, but a wild flock of small Nevermores burst out of the tar-like water and flew in a frenzy around the Huntsmen. Everyone took this opportunity to escape, but Mercury felt a firm grip on his foot.

"Big mistake, pal," he said with a smirk as he slammed his other foot on the Huntsman's hand, causing his weapon to fire and leave a large hole in the man's flesh. As loud screams filled the air, Mercury rejoined his friends and continued to run.

The rest of the escape mainly relied on Emerald's Semblance, which hid everyone from one or two Huntsmen and Huntresses. But when she engaged it a third time, Emerald collapsed from mental exhaustion as her Aura shattered.

Midori quickly put her hand on Emerald's forehead. "I might be able to help her," she said as she closed her eyes.

"Hey, stop!"

Everyone turned to see another Huntress running towards them. Ren quickly fired his guns, despite the Huntress seemingly fading away and fading back again.

"No time!" Eren said as he looked at the Huntress. "Get outta here, Ren and I will hold her off!" The others quickly obeyed, despite Cinder's hesitation.

Ren continued to fire his guns until they ran out of bullets. Instead of reloading, he swung the ends at the Huntress in an effort to cut her. But the Huntress' body faded again, most likely due to her Semblance. She quickly caught Ren's hands and moved one of her arms towards his chest.

"I can crush your heart in an instant," she said. "Don't make me-"

*BAM*

The Huntress' focus on Ren made her forget Eren's presence and left her vulnerable to his wrath. With help from his Semblance, Eren landed a hard punch to the side of her head. This caused her to lunge forward at an involuntary speed and crash face first into a stone wall, which also caused her to lose some teeth in the process.

Eren and Ren were quickly able to catch up to the others, who were waiting near the exit of Haven Academy. The alarm that Lionheart sounded had drawn a lot of attention; every commoner of the upper city was near the entrance, trying to figure out what was going on. Even Pyrrha Nikos was there, concerned for the safety of the people inside. But the police were blocking the entrance, preventing her or anyone else from going inside.

This also left Eren and his friends without an exit. However, Cinder had an idea that could open the exit once again.

"Guys, stay here," she said as she offered a hand to Eren. "Eren, I need your help." Eren quickly took the hand and followed Cinder away from the exit and towards the side of the building.

"What are you thinking, Cinder?" Eren asked, hoping she had an idea.

"I was able to turn my arm into a Titan's arm without the rest of my body when we met Salem," she explained. "I might be able to do it again and make us an exit."

Eren could make a mental picture of Cinder's idea, given that a similar experience happened to him years ago. The logic was sound, but Eren knew the idea needed to be improved. "That'll draw some more attention, and the police might not move from the exit. Maybe when you make a giant arm, I'll make one at the same time."

Cinder was following along with what Eren was thinking. "I could mask the noise your arm could make..."

"And we'll make a real exit while everyone's distracted!"

Cinder nodded as she bit into her hand. "Let's do it!" Eren bit into his hand and moved away from Cinder. She was closer to the main exit, hoping the dust and debris would be enough to faze the crowd without hurting them. When she looked at Eren, who was waving everyone else to come over to them, he nodded as he moved his other arm to the wall. "On three. One... two... three!"

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Both of the explosions happened at the same time, just like Cinder wanted. She made sure to pull her arm back as far as possible, praying that nobody outside was hurt in the process. But the effort was well rewarded, for Eren had made an actual exit that wasn't as visible as Cinder's. As soon as his arm was free, Eren took Cinder's hand and led everyone outside.


The plan of escape was sound, but not without some bumps in the road. The attack on Haven was all over the news, specifically how Lionheart was successfully rescued. The time in his panic room had calmed him down and allowed him to give a very detailed explanation as to what happened. Although he was unable to give accurate descriptions of everyone, one person stuck out in his mind: Eren Yeager.

A sketch artist had managed to create a perfect copy of Eren's face from Lionheart's description, and had this copy on every news channel in the city. And soon, it would spread all across the Kingdom.

Lionheart was still making out images of Eren's companions, people he promised the citizens of Mistral would be brought to justice. But in reality, Lionheart desperately needed the evidence against him. If anyone caught wind of his involvement with Salem, there would be no prison secure enough to protect him from the wrath of the witch.

In desperation, Lionheart decided to place a bounty on Eren's head in case the police would fail. Multiple Huntsmen and Huntresses took the offer in a heartbeat, even regular citizens took the offer as well. And now, practically the entire Kingdom of Mistral had a bone to pick with Eren.

Which left the young man enraged enough to lash out on practically anything that moved.

Mercury had managed to drive the Dark Wing out of the upper half of Mistral, but didn't feel safe laying low in the lower half. There was no possible way the lowlifes down there wouldn't take the opportunity to bring in Eren and whoever came next on the news. He had an idea, but it was risky. Instead of leaving the city through conventional means, Mercury took the Dark Wing off the ground and flew it into the dense woods that surrounded the mountain Mistral rested on.

This gave Eren the perfect opportunity to work out his anger, for the woods were infested with Grimm all across the area. Rather than avoid any more attention, Eren and his friends cleared out the Grimm by hand. The rising smoke from the dead bodies would be hard to detect in the night, so nobody feared being caught anytime soon.

Everyone was more concerned with the events that transpired earlier.

"Eren, are you okay?" Cinder asked after she finished killing a decent amount of Grimm. She was watching him approach the Dark Wing while covered in ash. The last time she saw him like this was when he decided to leave Kuroyuri, which was one of the hardest things to see him do.

Eren simply shook his head before he spoke. "We were so close," he said. "I can't believe this happened!" He slammed his fist into a tree, causing Cinder more distress.

"Eren, just calm down-"

"No, I'm pissed!" Eren looked back to Cinder. "We could have learned why Salem has her eyes on Mistral, why she needed Midori so bad, and we could have walked streets like we used to!" Eren took sharp breaths as he addressed the elephant in the room. "We never failed this hard... thanks to Ren."

Despite wanting to see Eren calm down, Cinder couldn't disagree with the bold accusation. Everyone was going along as well as they expected, but then Ren ruined everything. And once again, it all had to do with Kuroyuri and losing his father. Cinder was sorry for what happened to him, but his emotions and current state of mind had become a liability. Eren allowed him to stick around after multiple outbursts and brooding sessions, but this was just too much. And Cinder couldn't find any reason why not to bring it up.

"What do you wanna do?" Cinder asked quietly. "Try to get through to him?"

"Good luck with that," a saddened voice called out to Cinder. She and Eren turned around to see Nora, who was wiping her eyes when she walked past them. "He just... won't listen," she said.

Eren let out a low growl as he walked to where he last saw Ren. And sure enough, he found Ren brooding against a tree. He was aware of Eren's presence and slightly turned his head at the footsteps crushing the twigs behind him. But rather than acknowledge Eren, he simply turned away from him.

"Hey!" Eren shouted as he stopped in front of Ren. "What the hell's the matter with you?"

"Don't worry about it," Ren maliciously responded.

"Don't worry about it?!" Cinder and everyone else heard the argument begin and started to listen for themselves. "Actually, you're right! How about we worry about the bounty on our heads, the fact that my face is all over the Kingdom, and we got nothing from Lionheart thanks to you?! This is your fault, dammit!"

"None of that matters! Weren't you listening to what I was saying to him?! He was responsible for what happened to Kuroyuri!"

Everyone was keeping an eye out for more Grimm, since this argument was definitely going to be one for the ages. Nevertheless, they attempted to calm the situation. "Guys, hold on a second," Emerald vainly requested.

"Why are you still going on about that?!" Eren yelled. "In case you forgot, the city is safe! And it's the least of our problems now!"

"The least of your problems," Ren retorted. "I still have my own reasons for joining you."

Eren slowly brought his arms out as he made his argument. "So we're supposed to forget about everything that could help us stop Salem so Lie Ren can get what he wants."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to! Ever since we left home, you have done nothing but think about Kuroyuri, leaving everyone else to pick up your mess!"

"Guys, come on," Mercury asked. But his words fell on deaf ears.

"My mess?!" Ren asked in surprise. "If my memory serves me right, you were the one who couldn't stop Salem when we were at her castle!"

Eren was slightly surprised to hear someone mention how he failed to stop Salem. He wasn't going to pretend that what Ren said wasn't true; he still had the idea to encase Salem in crystal, but first he needed to take care of her allies. "The attack didn't go as I wanted," Eren confessed. "But I wasn't the one who thought about giving up! Not me, not Cinder, not Nora, nobody but you! You're pathetic!"

"Guys, stop it!" Nora shouted.

Ren was growing angrier by the second at what he perceived to be a pointless argument. "Pathetic?!" he repeated. "How is fighting for your home and your family pathetic?!"

Eren's fury wasn't going anywhere either, and it was going to stay there until the argument was over. "That is the furthest thing you've been doing ever since we started fighting Salem, and you know it! You've just been acting like a child!"

"I don't care what you think of me! I'm trying to honor Kuroyuri and the people there. If it means getting things derailed along the way, I'll take that chance!"

It was now Cinder's turn to stop the argument. But unlike her friends, she decided to join in instead of asking the boys to stop. "Not with us you're not!" she said, failing to notice Ren's blood boiling faster than before. "You can't put your needs above all of ours just because you miss your dad!"

Ren snapped his neck in Cinder's direction and said the first thing that came to mind. "How could you of all people possibly understand?! Orphans like you don't have a family!"

"..."

Eren's anger washed away like water when he heard Ren insult Cinder like that. Everyone else was also unable to believe what he had just said. Nobody said anything, not even Cinder. But what came surprising of all was the immediate transformation of Ren's face.

As soon as he realized what he just said, Ren felt horrible. His anger had dissipated as well, leaving him too shocked to even attempt to apologize. He was even more shocked when Cinder stormed up to him with her fists clenched.

*BAM*

Ren fell off his feet and onto the natural ground when Cinder threw her right fist at his face. When he moved his head up and felt blood fall from his nose, he heard his attacker say one thing before walking away.

"Fuck. You."

As Ren watched Cinder walk away and leave him to fend for himself, Eren quickly followed. Nora and the others watched them go, and took off after them one by one. The last one was Nora, who looked down at Ren with pity.

But this pity wasn't enough to help him off the ground. Instead, she joined her friends and left Ren alone.


When everyone made sure there were no more Grimm and hadn't gained any unwanted attention with Ren's tirade, Eren and the rest of the team began to set up camp. Emotions were all over the place, so making a cohesive plan of attack would have to wait until things became... tolerable, at the least.

The ones who were taking it the hardest were Ren and Cinder, with the latter not caring how remorseful he was. Nora was upset and, for the first time in her life, disappointed that Ren had the audacity to say something so hurtful and cruel. It had gotten so bad that Ren and Cinder didn't bother eating or joining the rest of the team. Instead, Ren was sitting in the Dark Wing while Cinder was sitting far away from the campfire.

"Cinder, it's starting to get cold," said Eren, who momentarily walked away from the campfire. "Can you at least come back to stay warm?"

"Eren, I'm sorry," Cinder said as she rubbed her arms. "I just want to be alone right now."

"..."

Eren accepted his defeat rather than argue with Cinder. It didn't take a genius to see that there had been enough arguing for one day, so he kept a semblance of peace and joined his friends at the fire. "She's not in the mood," he said.

"Well, she shouldn't be alone," said Emerald. "I'll go over with her." She began to walk over and abandon the warmth of the fire, but Eren quickly stopped her.

"She said she wants to be alone. Otherwise, I would've stayed there too."

"..."

Emerald looked back to Cinder once again, feeling a strong urge to ignore Eren and go over to her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Mercury, who agreed with Eren. Emerald took this as a sign of defeat as well, and immediately slumped down in front of the fire. Mercury sighed and threw a large stick into the fire. "Well, this is depressing."

"No arguments there," was what Nora attempted to say. But with her mouth so full of food, all that came out was "Nud argoom her."

Everyone looked over to Nora, who continued to eat heavily. "Is this what stress eating looks like?" Emerald whispered over to Midori.

"I think so," she whispered back. She then looked over to Eren. "Has Ren always been like this? It's been a long time since I last saw you all."

"Things have been pretty much the same," Eren replied. "But ever since his dad died, life's been a waking nightmare for him. And now, us too."

"Oh, right. Nora was telling me about it. Can I ask what happened?"

"It was when the Grimm invaded Kuroyuri. Well, under Salem's orders."

"And that was when you came after her."

"That's right."

Midori had been all caught up on how Salem controlled the Grimm and the abilities that most of the group had to stop her. While Eren was more willing to talk about the Titans, he decided to leave out the part of being from another world. That would come another day.

"This is so sad," Midori said. "I've been working with doctors in other villages before, helping heal sick and hurt people. But I was never able to fix any kind of depression."

"We're definitely gonna have to talk to him about this," Eren declared. "He'll have come to terms with what he lost eventually."

"Yeah, well... let's hope 'eventually' comes soon," Mercury sarcastically replied. "I'm telling you, I was this close to knocking his teeth out."

Nora swallowed her mouthful of food and looked to Mercury and Eren. "If he's not going to say it, I will," she declared as she stood up. "I'm really sorry for what he said."

"C'mon, Nora, this isn't on you."

"I know, but I've been trying to keep him on the right path since he... changed. Today was a bad day for that."

"Still," Eren said as he put a bowl of food down. "If anyone need to apologize, it's him." He then stood up and moved to the Dark Wing. "I think it's about time we talk to him." He walked into the car and looked around. "Ren, come out here."

"..."

When Eren looked across all the beds, he saw nothing. When he looked in the front seats, he saw nothing again. Ren was nowhere to be seen in the car, not even in the back. So he walked outside and told everyone "Ren's not here."

"He's not?" Mercury asked.

Emerald looked over to where Cinder was, and she saw her sitting alone. "He's not with Cinder," she said.

"I think I heard him walk behind me a minute ago," said Midori, who looked behind her and towards the only direction he could have gone.

"He must have come out when we didn't notice," said Nora. "He's always been quiet when he needs to be. I'll find him."

"Want us to go with you?" Eren asked.

"No, he's already upset enough. But just in case..." Nora leaned down and picked up Magnhild off the ground. "I got this." She then walked away from the campfire and walked into the direction Midori had been looking towards. She immediately found herself in the thick woods that surrounded the camp.


Please reread content warning before advancing.


The first thing Nora noticed was how quiet the woods were, which was surprising. She was sure that the Grimm they cleared out would simply return in bigger numbers, but there had been nothing ever since they set up camp. It was almost as if the monsters were giving everyone a break. Nora was grateful for this peace and quiet, which gave her the perfect opportunity to call for her friend.

"Ren?" she called out.

"..."

"Ren!" Nora called out louder. "Are you there?"

"..."

The silence began to annoy Nora, who was getting the impression that either Ren wasn't out here or he was ignoring her. Either way, the silence was telling Nora that she was doing nothing but wasting her time.

"Ren, come on!" she screamed in frustration, not caring about attracting Grimm or Huntsmen anymore. "You scream and shout at all of us, and decide to shut everyone out when we're mad?! Yeah, that's real mature of you!"

"..."

Nora continued to walk around the woods, turning her head in every direction as she hoped to see Ren. "I know you miss Li, but nothing is worth hurting all of us! I miss him too, trust me! But if I were to push everyone away because of it, what would I have?! What would you have?!"

"..."

Nora looked around again and again as she yelled. "See?! Nothing! We would have nothing if-!"

*THUMP*

Nora felt her back and the back of her head gently bump on something. She wasn't hurt, for the object was too soft to be a tree. And just as she bumped into it, the object gently nudged her again.

The confused girl turned around to see two legs in white pants swinging in the air. When her eyes followed the legs upward, Nora saw what was causing them to dangle.

Ren was hanging from a tree, with his head in a makeshift noose.

"REN!"


"The hell was that?"

"It sounded like Nora."

"Sounds like she and Ren are in trouble!"

A loud scream from the woods had caught the attention and concern of everyone in the camp. Eren quickly scrambled to his feet and ran into the woods. He didn't have time to grab his weapon, so he bit into his fist and prepared to turn into a Titan when he found Ren and Nora.

But a Titan wasn't going to solve the problem he discovered when he saw Ren hanging from a tree.

"Holy fuck!" Mercury shouted when he saw Ren. "What the hell happened?!" Emerald and Midori joined him and gasped at the sight.

"Help me!" Nora screamed as she cried. She was currently holding Ren's legs and pushing him up, trying to loosen the rope around his neck. "Somebody help me!"

"Emerald, cut him down!" Eren shouted as he ran over to Nora.

Emerald took out one of her weapons and loosened the sickle to the ground. "Get ready to catch him!" she said as she swung the chain. The strike successfully cut the rope and gravity made Ren fall to the ground. Eren and Nora quickly caught him as the others crowded around him.

"Holy shit, man! This is insane!"

"Is he okay?!"

"He's not waking up!"

"Someone check his pulse!"

The sight of the crowd surrounding Ren was finally caught by Cinder, who was the last to catch up with everyone. "Eren? Nora?" she called out to her friends, causing everyone to look back at her. "What's going on?" Her eyes fell onto the unconscious boy on the ground. "Why is Ren on the ground?"

Eren managed to take off the noose from Ren's neck and held it over his head. "He hanged himself from a tree!" he screamed.

Cinder gasped and ran over. "Oh, my Gods!" she said as she kneeled down. "Is he okay?!"

"I'm not feeling a pulse!" Midori said as she lifted her hand from Ren's neck. "But his neck's not broken, he must have choked on the rope." Midori leaned down and placed an ear on Ren's chest. "He's not breathing."

"Bu-Bu-But it didn't work!" Nora frantically cried. "We-We can still help, right?!" Nora frantically began to push on Ren's stomach, trying to get him to breath.

"Nora, no!" Midori yelled as she tried to grab her hands. "That's not how it works! Everyone give me space!" The teenagers immediately backed away from Midori. "Eren, see if there's a first-aid kit in the truck!" When Eren took off running, Midori gently moved Ren's head. "Doctor McCoy taught me CPR before I left, I just hope I remember everything."

"..."

Everyone nervously watched Midori as she worked. Before doing anything else, the young girl took two deep breaths as she wiped her forehead. "Okay, I tilted his head back and cleared his air passage," she said as she tried to remember everything Kuroyuri's doctor taught her. "Now it's time to compress the chest!"

Midori put her hands flat on Ren's chest and pressed down. She then began to move her hands up and down as she compressed his chest multiple times. Eren had returned with a first-aid kit as he was told, but didn't interrupt the procedure. As he watched, he felt a hand take hold of his. He instinctively took hold and continued to watch. Nora, however, stood as still as a statue as she cried and covered her mouth.

"Thirty!" Midori whispered as she stopped pressing on Ren's chest. "Okay, now for mouth-to-mouth." Midori took a deep breath and breathed into Ren's mouth. She made sure to close his nose while doing so, and then took another breath to repeat the process.

But Ren didn't wake up.

"He's not waking up!" Nora said.

"I know, I know!" Midori said. "We just gotta try again!" She prepared to compress his chest once again, but began to see something wrong. Midori didn't forget anything, the procedure was perfect. Breathing wasn't difficult, but maybe her chest compressions weren't hard enough. Midori was never a strong girl, which was what Ren needed to wake up.

"Nora, come here!" Midori said as she took Nora's hand. "I need you to press hard and deep on Ren's chest, okay?"

"Me?" Nora asked. "But I... I-"

"It's okay!" Midori gently pulled Nora towards her, making her kneel down. "Just do what I just did, press hard on his chest thirty times. You're stronger than me, you can do this!"

Nora looked at everyone, who simply stared down at her. She knew Midori had a point, but she didn't know if she was capable of CPR. Midori felt horrible for putting an incredible burden on her friend, but she knew Nora's strength was necessary for this. And a little help would be better.

"Move your hands like this!" Midori ordered as she moved Nora's hands on Ren's chest. "Perfect! Now press up and down thirty times, just like I did!"

"Okay, okay!" Nora whispered as she did as she was told. She could feel her hands go deep into Ren's chest. The process was simple, Midori just had to remind her not to go too fast. But the fact that her best friend was in a spot like this made Nora even more scared than before.

About a minute later, Nora stopped her compressions and let Midori breathe into Ren's mouth once again. When there was no response once again, everyone began to lose hope. Nora, however, continued to push on Ren's chest. She needed him more than anyone right now, despite everything he said. She still had so much to do with him, so much to tell him. With each chest press she gave, Nora hated herself for never doing any of those things sooner or noticing anything like this sooner. This regret played into Nora pressing as hard and as fast as she could. But at this rate, it would take a miracle to save him now.

"GUUUHHHH!"

Ren quickly opened his eyes and inhaled deeply when Nora was on the fourth compression. Everyone gasped along with him as the young man sat up and coughed heavily, reaching for his neck in the process. After he became aware of all the people around him, Ren felt two arms embrace his torso.

"Ren!" she screamed as she cried. Words couldn't describe how happy she was that her hope wasn't misplaced, that her best friend had literally come back from the dead. However, this happiness quickly turned to anger when she remembered why she was crying in the first place. "Ren, what were you thinking?!" She picked up the makeshift noose and brought it to Ren's eyes. "Why would you do this?! Why?!"

Everyone continued to stare at Ren while expecting an answer, just like Nora. But all they got was a remorseful Ren looking down and attempting to speak.

"I...I'm sOrrY," he croaked, feeling the worst kind of pain in both his neck and heart.


A half hour had passed since Ren was successfully resuscitated. Everyone had grown either worried or even more angry than they were before. Of course, they were upset about Ren's behavior earlier in Mistral. But was this feeling something they would want to see him die to fix it? Not in the slightest.

The traumatic action wasn't successful in ending a life, but it was successful in increasing negativity that brought the attention of Grimm. So while Midori was using Healing Wish to tend to Ren's neck, which he refused to use his Titan powers on, everyone else took it upon themselves to protect the camp they made.

"Alright, that's it," Mercury said as he short a bullet from his leg into a Grimm's skull. "These meat-sacks won't screw off until we bring up the giant-fucking Goliath in the room."

"He's right," said Emerald, who brought her chains back into her weapons. "His temper was bad enough, but this? This is just..."

"I know what you mean," said Cinder, who took apart her bow and put her swords away. "But we have to say it. Ren... He tried to-"

"Shut up!"

*SLAM*

Everyone turned to the sight of an Ursa being crushed under the force of Magnhild and the angry young woman holding the war hammer. Nora, who was taking the event harder than anyone in the camp, tried to distract how she was feeling by killing more and more Grimm. While she successfully did the latter, everyone could see that Nora was heartbroken.

"I'm sorry," she said after taking a few breaths. "I just... don't wanna hear it. We all know what he did, we don't need to say it."

"Nora, Cinder's right," Mercury argued calmly. "I'm not happy about it either, but we can't ignore that... Ren tried to kill himself, okay? There, I said it."

Nora tightened her grip on Magnhild as she pushed it down harder on the Grimm at her feet. "I don't wanna ignore it! I just want him to be better!" Her knees turned to jelly when the corpse disappeared. "I want things to be the way they were between us." She looked back to everyone. "I want him back."

"We do, too," said Cinder, who quickly walked over and kneeled down to her. "Look, I don't care what it takes. We'll get Ren better, I promise." She looked over to Emerald and Mercury. "Right?"

"Of course," said Emerald.

"For sure," Mercury hesitantly replied. He felt pity for both Ren and Nora, but he doubted anyone in the camp had any ability to help him.

Cinder shared this concern, but didn't let it show. She instead decided to focus on what she could fix, starting with Nora delicate emotional state. She was grateful for Emerald and Mercury's support, but knew she had to hear from someone else.

"Eren?"

"..."

Emerald and Mercury turned to see Eren free of any Grimm around him. Instead of fighting, he was simply staring up at the moon with his blades in hand. Emerald and Mercury shared a concerned glance at each other before Eren finally broke the silence.

"I want to help him," he said as he turned around. "But we can't."

"Huh?" Emerald and Mercury asked simultaneously.

Cinder quickly stood up and continued to stare at Eren. "What do you mean we can't?" she asked in irritation.

Nora, who had finally stopped crying after getting Ren back to the Dark Wing, felt the return of her tears when Eren seemingly gave up hope on their friend. "...Eren?"

The young warrior let out a heavy sigh as he put away his weapons and walked over to one of the logs everyone had been sitting on. "I've seen something like this before," he confessed. "Someone who I almost looked up to, someone I trusted, change like the flip of a switch." He sat down on the log and rubbed his hair. "It wasn't until he betrayed me that I changed too. I wanted him to feel my pain, I wanted to break him... and then I got my wish. When we met again, he was this... broken shell of a man, racked with all kinds of guilt. And he wanted me to kill him. He wanted to die."

"..."

Eren let out another sigh as he looked up at his friends. "This is all... very familiar," he said. "I just wish I saw the signs sooner."

"...What happened to him?" Nora asked.

"He faced his demons. He learned to forgive himself, when everyone else forgave him. He wasn't helped by anyone, he only helped himself." Eren stood up again. "If we have the slightest chance of getting Ren back, he's the one who has to do something. There's nothing we can do."

Emerald and Mercury weren't sure who Eren was talking about, but Cinder had a good idea. Based on what she saw and remembered from Eren's memories, he knew a man named Reiner Braun. Reiner, a man split between his loyalty to the army he joined and the truth he discovered about Paradis broke him beyond repair. She had seen Reiner beg for Eren to kill him before he had miraculously been given new life during the Rumbling. Cinder had no idea what happened in between this gap, what it was that caused Reiner to appreciate life once again.

But she knew Eren was right. Somehow, in some way, Reiner's return to Paradis gave him the chance to confront whatever it was that broke him inside. And he came out stronger than ever. If she wanted Ren to do the same, Cinder had an idea about what should be done.

"Eren... maybe we should go home," she said calmly.

"Go home?" Eren asked.

"I mean, why not?" Cinder saw that she had gained the attention of her other friends, and she didn't give up now. "We have to lay low until Lionheart lets his guard down, and Ren needs to face whatever made him... you know."

"I think it's obvious at this point," said Nora. "Ren changed after Li died. I dunno, maybe he wanted to... be back with him?"

"Maybe," Eren agreed. "But you're right. Whatever Ren needs to confront, it's back in Kuroyuri."

"Can we really go back, though?" Mercury asked. "I mean, the Huntsmen don't have the balls to go this deep into the forest. But if we go out again, what's to stop them from seeing us and trying again?"

Cinder took a second to think about the logic of Mercury's question, which caused her to see no flaw in his way of thinking. "Well... yeah, but we're gonna leave eventually," she countered.

"And let them know where we're going?" Eren asked, seeing the foolishness in going away instead of towards Haven Academy. "That leaves a lot to chance, and people getting hurt when they find us."

"Eren's dead on," Mercury continued. "Maybe Ren can go alone. Kuroyuri's not that far of a hike. And if he plays his cards right, he can slip on an airship easy."

"If he wants to go," Nora replied. "If Midori wasn't with him, he'd probably try to hurt himself again." She suddenly had an idea. "Maybe I should go with him. Make sure he stays on the right path. You'll be fine without me, right?"

Eren nodded. "Maybe you're right," he said. "We'll talk about it in the morning. For now, let's just get some rest."

"Way ahead of you."

Everyone turned to see Midori waiting outside the Dark Wing while wiping her forehead clear of sweat.

"Hey, hero," Mercury said with a grin. "How you holding up?"

"Okay, I guess," Midori replied as she stopped rubbing her brow. "But really, I don't think that-"

"No, I'm with Merc on this one," said Emerald. "If it weren't for you, Ren would have died."

A strong heat rose to Midori's face as she looked away. "Come on, guys. I mean, Nora was the one who helped."

"Yeah, but you knew what to do," said Nora. "You were the one who taught me how to do CPR." She then pulled Midori into a hug before walking inside. "So thank you."

Everyone joined Nora inside the large truck. Eren was the last one to go in, given that he wanted to talk to Midori. "You sure you're okay?" he asked. "We were all pretty riled up out there."

"Tell me about it," Midori agreed. "I was this close to thinking that he was dead. I mean, I was close to giving up too. I'm not a hero."

"True or not, you're the one who stepped up. Regardless of how scared you were."

"You noticed, huh?" Midori let out an exhausted sigh. "Yeah, I was pretty freaked out. And given the fact that CPR survival rates aren't as high as TV makes them out to be, I'd say someone up there likes us."

Eren had heard the phrase "TV isn't like real life" more times than he could count, but he found this claim a little dubious. "It can't be that low," he argued.

"Ten percent," Midori confirmed. "Only ten percent of people survive when given CPR." Rather than looking at the shocked expression on Eren's face, Midori repeated her idea. "Yep. Someone up there must really like us."

"..."

Rather than remotely consider the possibility of the interference of a God in saving Ren's life, Eren walked inside the truck and saw everyone looking at the depressed young man. Nobody said a word, nobody disturbed him; and yet, Lie Ren knew what they were all thinking.

Eren took it upon himself to speak for everyone. "Ren, listen," he began.

"EveN iF I coUld tAlK abOuT It... I dOn't WaNt To," Ren choked out.

The sound of Ren's voice was like nails on a chalkboard, painful to everyone's ears. But Eren ignored the pain and continued to talk. "Don't talk then," he ordered. "Just listen. You tried to kill yourself, Ren. That's not something we can ignore."

"..."

Ren simply lowered his head in shame as he continued to listen. "Ren, do you know why we cut that rope?" Eren asked. "Why we didn't leave you hanging when we found you? It's because we're not ready to give up on you."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm still... I'm still not very happy with you," said Cinder, who was nodding when Eren was speaking. "But we still need you, Ren. As a fighter... and as a friend."

"Especially as a friend," Nora said as she walked over to Ren's front. "Forget Lionheart, forget Salem. We're not doing anything until we get back the Lie Ren we knew before all this. But there's only one person who can do that." Nora gently moved Ren's head to make her look at him. "You can."

"Which is why we're putting everything on hold," said Eren, who joined Nora. "Whatever you're trying to escape from at Kuroyuri, you need to go back and confront it. And when you're ready, come back to Mistral and join us." He then put a hand on Ren's shoulder and let out a sigh. "Please."

Nora nodded and spoke again. "One of us can go with you if you want. It might be better that way."

"..."

Ren looked at everyone who was staring at him. The plan proposed to him was definitely one they all agreed on, regardless of who approved it. And he knew they were all right; what he did in the woods was something nobody could ignore. But to go back to Kuroyuri? Ren was already thinking about how it would waste time they didn't have. Salem and Lionheart would be one step ahead of everyone if they all focused on him and his problems, something that could be handled later.

"Ren, stop thinking like that."

Ren quickly looked back to Nora, who was starring daggers at him. "I know that look," she said. "And this is not a waste of time. This is something that needs to change here and now. We'll worry about Salem when we're sure you're fine. Okay?"

"..."

"Okay?"

Ren finally relented with a nod. As he did, Midori helped him stand up. "I think we should get some rest," she said. "We'll worry about who goes where tomorrow."

Everyone silently agreed and all got into their beds. Ren was the first one to get in bed, but he would definitely be the last one to fall asleep. In fact, there was little chance he would be falling asleep at all.

That was evident to everyone when they woke up to Nora crying at the sight of a note in Ren's bed.

"Went to Kuroyuri. See you soon."


True to his word, Ren indeed made his way to Kuroyuri. The travel wasn't as hard as everyone expected, given that Ren transformed into his Titan and used its Invisibility to avoid possible Huntsmen and Huntresses. Then, with some money he took with him, he paid for an airship ticket to Kuroyuri. He had made similar flights before, from Mistral to Kuroyuri. Whether he was asked to pick up essentials from the city or to spend time with his friends, Ren made this trip dozens of times.

But today was the one that made him feel afraid. Whether or not everyone was right about him, Ren knew what he had to confront was back here, specifically back in the small house he called his home. While he normally spent airship rides relaxing and keeping Nora company, Ren was trying to figure out what he would do and say once he landed.

His plan was mostly simple; rather than get noticed by everyone, Ren would use a cloak he bought in Mistral to hide himself and make his way home. Then, he would see how he could best confront what burdened him.

The only difficultly in this plan was figuring out how he could tell his mother what he wanted to do.

This part of being in Kuroyuri was inevitable. There was no other person he could talk to about his father other than An Ren. But what was Ren supposed to say? That he was wracked with enough guilt to hurt everyone he saw? Including himself? What kind of hope did he have if he brought this information to light?

Nevertheless, Ren made his way home when the airship landed in Kuroyuri. Avoiding people he knew was easy, but the boy stopped walking when he saw the amount of progress going on. Ren knew a lot of work had to be done after the Grimm invasion, but he wasn't expecting Kuroyuri to look this grand so soon.

Rubble and debris had already been cleared out with new buildings on the rise, and the holes where Grimm pools once rested were already covered with new soil. Soon, Kuroyuri would be looking as good as new; if not better.

Ren quickly remembered why he was back home in the first place. After pulling his hood up a little more, he made his way home. He could walk the path blindfolded if he had to, as returning home was never a challenge. This time, however, Ren was moving slowly since he was still trying to figure out the best way to describe things. Nevertheless, he managed to reach his front door before even practicing what he would say.

A part of him considered forgetting the whole thing and going back to Mistral. If he played his cards right, he could tell everyone about a successful trip and apologize to everyone. But Ren was never a good liar, especially when Nora was around. She could read him like an open book, from what she saw last night. It was possible she knew him better than he knew himself. There was no way he could return to his friends without results.

*KNOCK*

*KNOCK*

*KNOCK*

Each time Ren tapped on the door was strong enough to not only send soft vibrations on his knuckles, but also shivers down his spine. He had no idea what he was going to say, how he could possibly explain what happened earlier.

Fortunately, these worries miraculously washed away when An Ren opened the door and instantly recognized the face looking back at her.

"...Lie?" she asked with a sheer amount of surprise.

With Ren's depression now gone, he was able to smile and slightly bow. "Hello, Mother," he said slowly.

Despite the smile that he used to greet his mother, Ren couldn't help but feel extremely awkward about being here unexpectedly. He felt even more awkward when he remembered that he left without hardly saying a word, let alone a proper goodbye. Ren was beginning to wonder how he had the nerve to show up here in the first place.

But to An Ren, none of that even mattered. Her first instincts, which she willing followed, were to welcome her son with open arms and a long hug. "My son!" she whispered. "Thank the Gods you're home!"

Ren was at a loss for words as to how his mother could be so welcoming after all he did; or rather, all that he didn't do. But the hug was too comforting to refuse, and he found himself returning it with a genuine smile.

After a few seconds, An let go and looked at her son from top to bottom. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Have you eaten?"

Ren's smile finally disappeared as he began to explain. "It's a long story," he began. "May I-?"

"Come in, come in," An said as she moved aside. Ren graciously did as he was told and looked across the living room. The old saying "no place like home" immediately came to mind, and Ren felt at peace for perhaps the first time since he left. He had no idea how much he missed the old couch in the center of the room, the table near the windows, and the family picture on the wall.

This peace and moment of clarity, however, passed when his eyes landed on the small picture of Li Ren surrounded by candles. He then remembered why he came here in the first place, how devastated he was after the tragedy that struck so unexpectedly.

And how it was all his fault.

"Lie? Lie?"

Ren snapped out of these intrusive thoughts when he heard the sound of his name. "Huh?" he mumbled. "Oh, I'm sorry. Were you saying something?"

"Here, look," An said as she took a remote off a chair. She pointed towards the wall and pressed a button, causing a TV to appear and a news channel making a report.

"The authorities of Mistral are still looking for the main perpetrator behind the attack on Haven Academy, known only as 'Eren Yeager.' Anyone with information of this man is urged to call the-"

The television turned off as An put the remote down. "Do you know anything about this?" she asked. "Is that why you're here? Wait..." An looked back at the front door and began to panic. "Where's everybody else? Where's Nora?!"

"She's fine, Mother, I promise," Ren replied. "She's with everyone else, I just came here alone." He was beginning to see how distressing his actions had been to his own mother, and now he was beginning to wonder how Ms. Fritz was doing.

"Alone? Why would you come here alone?" Before she asked another question, An noticed something on her son's shirt. A piece of the fabric on the neck was missing, which was unordinary. Despite her son fighting for the town, he always made sure to keep his clothes undamaged when it was possible. And there seemed to be something red on his neck. Curious and concerned, An lifted her fingers to the shirt. "What happened to your neck?"

Ren wasn't ready to talk about his injury just yet, but his quick action of shielding his neck only made his mother even more worried. "Mother, wait a second," he implored her. "I can explain."

An could tell something was bothering her son, and she now knew his neck was a part of the problem. "Lie, move your hands."

"..."

Rather than argue with someone else or prolong the inevitable, Ren let out a heavy sigh as he moved his hands. He even moved part of his collar to reveal a fading red mark. Midori's work on the injury was enough to make him talk normally, but he refused to let the line disappear completely. He just hoped his mother wouldn't recognize what it meant.

But his hopes were in vain.

"Lie... is this what I think it is?"

The look of heartbreak on his mother's face made Ren remember how Nora and everyone else had a smile or expression when they saved his life. It was enough for the young man to finally break down and cry as he fell to the couch behind him. "I... I did something bad," he confessed.

An sat down in front of her son as he explained everything. From the day he left Kuroyuri to the night he hanged himself, Ren refused to leave any details out of the story. Despite his mother's heartbreak and own tears falling, Ren told her everything. And once he was done, he waited patiently for An to regain her bearings before she said anything else.

"Lie... what on Remnant would drive you to do something like that?" she asked.

Ren silently took a breath before responding. "I know how bad it was," he said. "When I shouted at everyone, I felt terrible. Especially to Cinder, she-"

"I'm talking about the mark on your neck. How can you think that commit-" An wasn't strong enough to say what her son had tried to do, so she chose her next words carefully. "How could anything good follow something like that?"

"I... I don't know." Ren lowered his head in shame. "I'm sorry."

"And everything else? Fighting against your friends? Causing Eren to be blamed for what happened to the Councilman? All of you might not be able to show your faces here again!" An was able to hold back any more tears for a while, but her next sentence was enough to break her hold. "This is... This isn't you, Lie."

"I know." Ren finally looked over to the picture of his father once again. "I've known for a while."

Following her son's gaze was easy, and so was understanding the root of all his changes. "Lie... this has to stop," she said as she dried her eyes. "I miss him too, every day. But I never blamed you for what happened. There is nobody responsible for Li's death."

"Yes, there is," Ren softly argued. "He wouldn't have been there, in that spot, if it weren't for me. This is my fault. Just like everything that happened after was my fault."

An mentally cursed the lack of progress she was making with her son. Of course she cared what he believed in, but she knew what Ren was saying wasn't true. And she was either going to convince him it was a lie or die trying.

"The Grimm killed a lot of good people that day," she reiterated. "But you, Nora, Eren, and the others saved more lives than I can count. Everything that you told me might be true, it may..." There was one important point An wanted to make, but she had to choose her next words carefully. "Some of the bumps in the road with your friends may be your fault. But it's not your fault that your father is gone. It's your fault the rest of us survived. That we lived to see tomorrow, thanks to-"

"No!"

Ren shot off the sofa like a bullet as tears fell down his face. "I can't be thanked for saving the city!" he claimed. "I wasn't good enough to stop the Wyvern, to help Eren kill the smaller Grimm, and I sure as hell wasn't good enough to save Father! I'm not good enough and I never will be!"

"..."

Ren couldn't contain his feelings anymore, he couldn't contain his grief anymore. And now he made things worse with his mother of all people, who was trying to help him. But he knew there was no going back, that nothing could be said to dissuade him from what he believed.

He knew it was a pointless endeavor, but Ren didn't want An to see him like this. That what Eren said in the woods was true; he was pathetic. And this trip back home was pathetic, it had only caused more pain and suffering. But there was no way An would let him leave like this, after being gone for so long. It was a foolish idea, but Ren decided to do the next best thing. He attempted to use his Semblance to conceal his feelings.

But it didn't work.

It did something new instead.

Ren's vision changed drastically, everything around him turned a dull gray. It was similar to how his body would change when he used his Semblance, but the whole world seemed to change instead. His mother had changed as well, but there was something around her that showed a single color. Around her body appeared to be pink flower petals falling to the ground. They surrounded her body as she stood motionless and looked at her son.

Ren looked down at his hands and saw flower petals around him as well. But these petals were a dark blue, a deep contrast to the pink surrounding An Ren.

"Lie?" An called out, noticing a mood shift. "Are you okay?"

The petals around her began to shimmer and faze from pink to blue, just like the ones around Ren. He quickly noticed how concerned she was, and how her attitude changed from calm to anxious.

"Are these... emotions?" Ren wondered to himself, thinking how the blue around himself was signifying his sadness and grief. "But why is Mother pink? Could that mean-?" Ren stopped thinking for a moment and repeated what An told him. "You... don't believe me," he said. "You don't believe I'm the reason he's gone."

"Of course not, Lie," An replied, the pink petals still surrounding her. Ren was beginning to understand that the pink petals were symbolizing a certain state of mind, that she genuinely believed what she was saying was the truth.

"But I... I don't understand. You know what happened to him."

"Yes, I do."

"You know I was there, that I was trying to make him come with me."

"Yes."

"Then how can you not blame me?" A dark thought came to Ren's mind when the petals around his mother shimmered to blue once again before turning back to pink. "Mother, is there... is there something you're not telling me?"

"..."

The petals quickly changed from pink to blue, revealing that An was saddened by the accusation. Ren quickly realized how stupid he was for asking such a thing and was ready to apologize.

"I'm afraid there is," An said before Ren could say anything. She moved away from her son and towards a cabinet against a wall. "Lie, do you remember me and your father leaving town for half a day? About a week before the Grimm attacked?"

"A week before?" Ren repeated. "I... I remember, yes. Father said he was taking you to a new restaurant that opened in Mistral."

"That's what he said, yes." An leaned down to a small door on the cabinet. "But we were actually going to Mistral's hospital."

Ren softly gasped at the revelation. "What? The hospital?" He thought back to that day, but he couldn't think of a reason why either of them needed to go to Mistral's hospital. If anything was wrong, they could have gone to the one in Kuroyuri. It wasn't as big or sophisticated as Mistral's, but it was still a hospital. "What were you doing there?" he asked.

"Your father was complaining of breathing problems a few days before. When he coughed up blood one day, we went to see Doctor McCoy. After he looked at your father, he said we needed to go to Mistral." An walked back to her son and showed him a brown folder. "These are the results of the tests the doctors gave him."

Ren slowly took the folder from his mother and opened it. But as soon as he looked at the first page, the folder fell from his fingertips and hit the floor.

"...He was sick?" Ren asked, seeing the words burned in his mind. "Father... was going to die?"

An nodded as she helped her son sit down to recover from the shock. "We wanted to tell you and Nora so many times. But with the SDC trying to take the town as their own and the aftermath... and neither of us knew how to tell you." An moved Ren's head to make her look at him. "When we recovered from the shock, your father and I knew he was living on borrowed time. I came to terms with that a day before the Grimm invaded. When I learned he died... I knew it was on his terms. He risked his life to help all those people because he knew he had to make the best of the time he had left. I wish we all had more time with him, but I knew it wouldn't be long."

Ren was beginning to understand his mother's line of thinking, but he was still uncertain about his involvement. "But if I didn't try to stop him, if I got him away-"

"Then nothing would change," said An. "We would have been with him longer, perhaps we could have eased his pain. But we can't obsess over the 'what-ifs' when it comes to this. Look what's happened because of it."

Ren had no valid argument for this. He never told his friends while he was traveling with them, but he always wondered what could have happened if he did things differently. He tried to show his friends, even himself, that something could have changed with the way he had been fighting. But the changes that came were never for the better.

Perhaps, if Li survived the invasion, the change wouldn't have been much better either.

"Do you understand now, Lie?" An asked calmly. "I'll always miss your father, and I'll never forget him. But I will never blame you for his death. I can't. Because no matter what you say, it was not your fault."

Ren looked down at his hands once again. The blue petals were still there, but they began to shimmer into a light pink. His way of thinking was beginning to change, along with his emotional state. But there was something holding him back, something that prevented him from gaining the state of mind his mother had.

"But... my friends," he said. "I hurt them time after time. There's no changing that."

"Are you sure?" An asked. "What you did wasn't fair to them, but they wouldn't have wanted to help you if they didn't care about you. You said they told you to come here, back to me."

"They did, but... they have every reason for casting me aside, for making sure I don't go back to them."

"Who said that was their plan? I didn't hear anyone say that. But I also didn't hear you say anything to them. Something to let them know you regret everything you said and did."

Ren looked down at the ground again. "Mother, I am sorry for hurting them like that. But how can I expect them to forgive me?"

"Forgive yourself."

Ren quickly looked back at his mother when she said this. "You may not realize it now, Lie, but this is a very important thing to do in your life," she said. "It's easy to be angry at the world, and angry at yourself. But it's hard to forgive." An wanted to say more, but she was having a rather hard time finding the right words. "Your father was always better with giving advice than I was. I'm sorry."

"..."

Ren couldn't help but commend his mother for trying to fill in her husband's shoes, to try and fill part of the void that was created when he left Remnant. And in an odd way, her discomforting claim helped him remember something his father said.

"Sometimes the worst action to take... is taking no action at all."

Ren quickly understood that both of his parents were right. His previous actions with his friends was him simply giving up on fighting. Not just that, but life entirely. He was taking no action to heal the wounds he was suffering, which had only proved his father's point.

And now his mother was telling him that forgiveness was an action he could take. Not only that, but it was the necessary action at this point. But she was honest as to how hard it was, when Ren was sitting in silence. All of his anger and grief came immediately as he tried to let it all go, he felt like he was sitting on that sofa for hours.

But he was finally able to find the three words he needed to hear.

"I forgive you," he thought as he looked at his hands.

The blue petals shimmered for a brief second before changing to a soft shade of pink. The sight of the color changing was enough to soothe Ren and cause him to feel a heavy weight off his shoulders. Now, whenever he thought of his father, he felt a sense of pride and joy that felt foreign to him. But that didn't stop him from letting it stay, or from hugging his mother.

"Don't apologize," he said. "I needed to hear that, really. Thank you, Mother."

An's shock at the second mood shift her son experienced. Nevertheless, she returned the hug and smiled. When the two eventually separated, Ren stood up and moved to the door. "Wait a minute," An called out. "Where-Where are you going?"

"Back to the others," Ren replied. "I have to help them. Properly this time, I promise."

An wasn't ready for the unexpected visit to end so soon, given that she had been worrying about her son's safety the moment he left. "Lie, wait," she requested. "I know you want to apologize, but do you need to leave so soon? I can make you something before you go."

"Thank you, Mother, but I don't think I can stay much longer," Ren confessed. He began to awkwardly scratch the back of his head. "I... may have left without everyone knowing."

An frowned as she crossed her arms. This was one detail that Ren left out of his story, and it resulted in a small amount of disappointment from his mother. And yet, she was willing to let this one slide since he quickly turned over a new leaf.

"Before you leave, I just need to hear you say it," she said. "Lie... are you going to be okay?"

Ren looked down at his hands again, seeing pink petals once again when he used his Semblance. There was a brief second of blue appearing, signaling a small amount of sadness under the controlled state of mind.

"It will take time, I'm sure," Ren replied calmly. "It's still hard to believe Father is gone. But this was a step in the right direction." He smiled as he looked up. "But I'll be okay. We'll all be okay." He quickly remembered something else. "Speaking of which, would you mind telling everyone else about the incident at Haven? Especially Ms. Fritz? Cinder really misses her."

An smiled. "I'll talk to her," she promised. She then opened her arms and moved closer to her son. Ren copied the movement and embraced his mother in one last hug. "Goodbye, Lie. Be safe."

"I will, I promise." Ren let go of his mother and waved goodbye as he left home once again. He then made sure to avoid the crowds of people going about their business. But curiosity began to get the better of him.

"My Semblance must have evolved," he thought to himself. "This is incredible! I wonder... what else I can see." Intrigued by his new potential, Ren got out of sight and used his Semblance on the people who couldn't see him. He soon began to see various colors such as green, red, yellow, and even pink. He was able to see each emotion manifest itself, from happiness to slight anger. Despite anger being present, the colors made Ren feel happy that nobody seemed sad or distraught about the current state of Kuroyuri.

That was the fact, until he turned around to see blue petals.

Ren quickly became concerned at the sight of the blue flowers. Unlike these petals, they weren't connected to a human or Faunus body. The petals were some kind of trail, leading away from the houses and towards a field of trees.

"Someone's in trouble," Ren quickly deduced. He began to move towards the trees, forgetting about returning to Mistral. He could buy an airship ticket later; first, he had to see how he could help the person in need.

The petals were definitely telling a true story. For when Ren made his way through the trees, he soon heard what sounded like crying. As he moved deeper into the forest, Ren was able to hear that the crying belonged to a child. He quickly remembered the day Nora was taken by Mercury's father, how she hurt herself near the woods like this one. He was sure that another child could be hurt just as easily, which emboldened his efforts to find the crying child.

And as luck would have it, Ren found the child leaning against a large tree. The child appeared to be no older than nine, and had dark brown hair. His arms were currently holding his face despite the fact that the tree was also hiding it.

"Hello?" Ren called out. The crying ceased when the child heard the voice. Ren briefly glanced up and down, looking for any sign of Grimm in the trees. When he saw nothing, he looked left and right. The same results came again, and yet Ren cautiously approached the child. "Are you okay?" he asked.

The child spoke without moving, and the voice sounded like it belonged to a little boy. "Can you help me?" the boy asked.

"Yes, I can help you," Ren promised as he walked closer to the boy. He once again looked for any signs of Grimm or wild animals. When he saw nothing once again, Ren reached his hand out to the child. "Let's get you out of-Ah!" Ren quickly pulled his hand back when he touched the boy's shoulder. It was almost as if the small touch burned him. But the touch wasn't burning hot.

The boy was freezing.

"Can you help me?" he repeated.

"..."

After he heard the boy repeat his question, Ren slowly stepped backwards. A sense of déjà vu quickly came to mind with the coldness and the repeated words. Nevertheless, Ren took a calculated risk as he continued to step away. In order to see if he was right about the boy, Ren needed to ask a question.

"What do you need?" he asked, hoping for a different response instead of a repetition.

Ren got the result he was expecting when the boy quickly turned around to reveal a chalk-white face with red veins, as well as a different voice answering his question.

"Your soul!"

A dark mist quickly escaped from the boy's body and flew towards the teenager. Ren ran fast, but the now-revealed Chill moved even faster. And then, darkness clouded Ren's vision.

Once again, the Chill had claimed a new victim.


Author's notes: hey everyone. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, sorry it took a while to write. Before we go, we just wanted to apologize in case our depiction of Ren and his actions were too much to handle. We got the idea from Reiner's actions prior to the Rumbling, since it's kinda obvious Ren's been acting similar to him. We don't encourage any action like this, its intention was purely for part of the story.

Also, we've been reading a lot of your comments from the last chapter, mainly about Winter/Ymir returning. We wanted to keep it a surprise, but here's a little something that might answer your questions.


*SNIP*

*SNIP*

*SNIP*

Bits of white hair fluttered down onto a tiled floor, from simple strands to clumps of fluff. They were currently falling courtesy of a pair of scissors and a woman's hand holding the scissors.

*SNIP*

*SNIP*

The long hair that used to exist was growing shorter and shorter until it stopped remaining past the woman's shoulders. Now it was simply hanging past her neck, and it was ready for the next step. The woman put down the scissors and reached for a small bottle.

A small bottle of brown dye.

A bottle of brown hair dye.

And it was absolutely free. Granted she didn't actually ask to get it and simply swiped it without anyone noticing, but that was beside the point. Luckily, the instructions for applying the dye were pretty easy, and the dye was said to set really fast as well.

A few minutes later, after rinsing away the excess dye from her head and hands, the woman finally looked at her reflection again.

It was honestly amazing how after a few simple changes that she looked so much different from Winter. But Ymir wasn't complaining one bit.

It was a bit of a rough job, but the style now matched what she used to have. And now thanks to the hair dye the infamous snow white Schnee hair was practically non-existent, and was now back to being brown like her old self.

Ymir smirked. "Better," she said. "Much better."

*KNOCK*

*KNOCK*

*KNOCK*

Ymir turned to the door behind her. "It's open," she said. The door then opened to reveal another woman, one with dark black hair longer than what Ymir's used to be. Her dark red eyes were currently staring at the new hair and the old hair on the ground.

"I almost didn't think you were going to do it," she said. "But it's not bad."

"When I say I'll do something, I'll do it," Ymir said as she fully turned around.

"Make sure you do. Because it'll take more than thievery and a makeover to survive like me."

"Are you bothering me just for another lecture?"

"No. Have you seen the news tonight?"

"Yeah. No doubt about it, it's him."

"Well then..." The woman reached down to her side and grasped a handle in a large sheath. She then pulled on it to reveal a long red sword. "I've waited long enough. It's time to see what Eren Yeager is all about. Are you coming?"

"She really doesn't listen," Ymir thought to herself. "...Fuck it." She let out a sigh as she reached down and picked up a sword leaning against the wall. "Lead the way."