After going back into vale city to stock up on supplies he spotted an unassumingly easy theft for extra cash, after a few minutes he was picking a Faunas woman's coat pockets draped over a chair. The moment he grabbed the money he wanted, Cole ran off through a crowd and into a dark, abandoned house with a small bed that had definitely seen better days.

Cole went over to the bed and began to go through the backpack to see what he had, but froze when felt the breeze of the outside hit him from behind.

In that very moment, he realized he'd been caught red-handed with what looked to be almost 2,000 lien, taking in a deep breath he ran as fast as he possibly could, jumping through an open window in an alleyway, since he knew the back alleys and twists they offered he thought he'd lost his unexpected guest when he ran into her and flared her aura, his backpack flew from his arm, he hit the ground hard and felt his head hit glass and cut his head pretty deep. His breathing went ragged at the instant stop, and coughed a few times from the surrounding dust.

"L-look lady, I'm just trying to survive out here, just give me my pack, and I'll let you have your money back" he said getting back up holding his bleeding head.

The woman in front of him took a long look at the boy standing in front of her, ashen white hair stained red, torn blue jeans, ragged and thin gray shirt with the entire bottom half missing in a way that looked like it was falling apart

His eyes looked into hers, and she saw that he'd resigned himself to be taken in or more likely taken down. He stood like he was starving from days of not eating and dirty from not bathing in a long time.

She moved toward him, dropping his pack on the ground, and wrapped her arms around him just as he closed his eyes, tensing up expecting her to hit and beat him like everyone else had done before her.

Instead of punishment he got a tender and warm hug, why was he getting a hug and not a beat down?

"You've had it pretty hard, haven't you?" she said.

She was holding him so tight he felt like he was being pulled back together, but even still it made him anxious and uncomfortable, so he tried wriggling out, but her grip was akin to a mother relieved to see her long-lost son

She smiled at him and grabbed his hand firmly, holding it, keeping him close by making sure he followed her down the street while she spoke about things he never caught onto because he was struggling to comprehend what was happening.

Taking him to her home, she explained to him that her name was Ezra valentine, she was a huntress with a knack of running into people who needed her help.

It was a bit of a touch and go for a few years, but he got comfortable living with her -in keeping with her personal promise to him, she gave him everything he needed to live comfortably and still have a sense of discipline. Some nights, he had such vivid nightmares that she flat out refused to let him sleep alone anymore.

One day at the pool in a beach house in vacuo Ezra heard Cole talk about he'd lived before living with her and how he'd lost his family at such a young age.

Now it made sense with him and his mannerisms towards everything, so she decided to let him sleep with her since he had woken her up while he was having a hard time staying that he lost his family.

She smiled at this and said, "I may not be your mother, but I want you to treat me like I am".

He looked up into her eyes sniffing and tearing up, "I can't tell whether this is a dream or not"

She smiled as she pulled him close and hugged him and kissed his head.

From then on, she had taught Cole many things from table etiquette to laundry, anything that was needed to help him become more self-sufficient.

After a few months, she decided to call a contact simply named the forger to get documents for herself and Cole, so it appeared that she'd adopted Cole and had him since he was a child and got him into a school for hunters like her; she thought friends was what he needed, so she had him put in the grade equivalent to the 10th grade seeing how smart he was.

The day she found out he had lightning powers, he was in a fight at his new school defending himself from bullies that tried taking his mask off. She was surprised and happy for both. While he was panicking, she was simply there to pick him up from after-school detention.

He was terrified of Ezra when he found out she was a huntress, and from then on, he did what she said and never disobeyed her no matter what. He was down right terrified she'd be upset or throw him out, but instead she told him there were worse things to have control of and said he was right to defend himself but not right in using his lightning to hurt a number of kids.

The superintendent and principal showed her the tape of his fight:

Five kids surrounded him in the hallway, his mask gone and scars on full display.

Cole makes a motion like he's asking for his mask back, but the kid uses his semblance to turn it to glass and dropped it, smirking wide as it went, shattering it all over the floor.

Cole clenched his fists and looked to have faked a lunge and stood there frozen, he was holding back.

The four other boys rushed him holding him in place while the surrounding others were cheering them on while Cole took a beating,

right hook to the jaw

Left cross to his ribs

Uppercut in the stomach

Right jab in the middle of his mouth

Three knees to his chest and a final knee aimed towards his nose when the cameras went out with a brilliant flash of dark orange and gold.

Ezra looked at the two men and at the TV, asking "what happened after?"

The security guard cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Well ma'am, after the flash of light Cole exuded power we had no knowledge about and beat those kids bloody with his lightning, he was fighting like a raged out beast. When it first started his demeanor was not that of a mere boy".

"Whatever do you mean, sir?" Ezra asked, sitting down next to Cole.

"Well, like it's like I said, your boy wouldn't have fought like- Mr. Valentine had. He fought like a seasoned street fighter or...like a cage fighter; his eyes were feral, his movements were fast and explosive...but what I don't understand is this" he said, handing the principal a chart of some kind.

"What's this?" he said, dropping it on the desk.

"This, sir, is a chart of your strongest and smartest students, and the highlights in yellow are Cole's scores and grades from his admission to today; months of grades and scores of his performance. His test scores are second to none in the last two decades, his physical performance in my class, as well as his other classes, are near the top in such a short time"

The superintendent snatched the paper and got a cocky smirk, "not in sparring class. Nor in aura and semblance studies, they're just the worst in student history. You can't look those over, Samuel"

Cole grabbed the desk and stood up fuming in anger, but Ezra sat him down the second he opened his mouth.

"I'll handle this sweetheart" she said before scooping the paper up reviewing it and looked at him.

"His birth was documented as problematic" turning her attention to the two men in front of her, "his powers are a result of such. He lived his life without a semblance and aura...but clearly there's more to him than even I knew" that last bit cause a glimpse of a smile full of love to show only to disappear behind anger "the problem isn't him...it's your school and its treatment for the bullying and the lack of any fucks to give about stopping it at the source."

"Misses valentine, he hospitalized five students and damaged school property, this incident was a product of student's clear lack of control not because of the faculty. If you don't recognize-"

Ezra slammed a fist on the desk, splitting a spider web of cracks in the wood and glass. "I do not and will not ignore those topics, you jackass! I know how all that is probably a massive inconvenience for you and your oh so cushy rolling massage chairs and five

Star lunches, but my son was getting beaten like a punching bag, and he decided to take matters into his own hands and I'm proud he did. He, however, caused no damages in his fight apart from the cameras and those children you call 'upstanding students' and honestly-" she faced Cole and said "you did nothing but what you were taught to do and what you did was defending your life, nothing more."

"Ma'am if you think his punishment is over you're mistaken" the principal said abruptly.

She turned to him and let out a calming breath, staring at him.

"His after-school detention is for two months followed by three months of community service"

"no"

"Excuse me?"

"You're not, and my son isn't going to be punished for this" she said, teleporting herself and Cole out the door before slamming it behind them both.

"Ez- err...mom? Are you mad at me, cause I get it if you are" he followed her out to her car and got in. without a word more.

Ezra sighed with a smile "now why would I?" she looked at him and kissed his head, staining his hair peach pink. "You stood up for yourself for something that was private and personal. I'm rewarding you for that...but sweetie"

He looked up as quick as he could and asked, "yes?"

"Please try to make friends, it's hard seeing you alone when you don't talk to anyone, let alone interact with them beyond schoolwork."

"I try but I'm a freak to them!" he insisted, "I try talking about stuff like books, TV shows, or even the damn weather. No one seems to want to when I do all the work to interact with em"

She stopped at a light and asked, "what about that cute cat Faunas staring at you from the lockers when we left?"

His flinch caused a smile on her face to spread wide. "You got a girl crushing on you, and she's of my kind, you work fast" she said, teasing him red.

"She's in a relationship with the guy I hurt" he said, deflating into his seat.

"I'll take a guess and say you are a friend of hers, he got jealous and insecure, so he picked on you for months until you brought the thunder down on him today"

He groaned sadly at that.

"Prize goes to mom" she heard him sarcastically say, "she's also my class partner for social economics...we uh, kind of share a similar past, and he found me talking her down after her mom yelled at her for having a human friend, she cried after her mom called her something I won't repeat, but it was enough to make her break her phone and burn in her hand and cry on my shoulder."

Ezra opened the door to her car and said, "you're a good kid Cole, maybe even more, just make sure to keep the damage to a minimum next round"

He chuckled softly as he locked the doors and followed her in the house.

"You know the drill son, I'll have dinner finished in an hour or so; no dessert if your homework is not finished, okay?"

"But, mom, I don't have any homework for the week; the teachers are focusing on alternative learning as an experiment."

"Then finish your class work from the three classes you missed"

"okay"

She smiled watching him run up the stairs' bee lining for the bathroom. "He really does take after his mother from what he told me"

The next day she began to teach him to hone, control, and perfect his power. He was taught patience and to hold back unless absolutely necessary. Weeks passed, and he'd accepted Ezra and her home; instead of everyone else who had hurt him and tossed him aside, but she bore through his problems and stayed with him every step of the way to helping him be a better person.

She found out he had a bad habit of getting into fights with other kids and talking back to the faculty and leaving class when he'd finished his classwork, opting to shoot the wall outside the football field's bathroom.

Ezra was called in to elaborate on Cole's issues and how he'd repeatedly refused to remove his mask she'd given him as per his request to keep his scars hidden. But she didn't tolerate him being labeled a problem or troubled, so she decided to tear them a new one about how they ignored the problems in the school and pointed out that they only cared about the paycheck not the students. so, she taught him about restraint using food he'd probably love (which was difficult since he hated sweets with a passion) and when that didn't work she promised she would teach him every type of offensive and defensive martial art she could find but only because she saw how good he was at it, and the fact that she was training him made it all the more special to him.

After a while of this becoming a regular thing she pulled him out of school and homeschooling started becoming his new norm and with the change came him learning easier and more than ever. One morning, she came downstairs to find Cole asleep on the couch wearing an apron and covered in flour and cheesecake filling. Smiling at the scene, she decided vale might be a better option for what she had planned.

Six months of homeschooling later*

Both were currently in the valeian city center getting what they needed for winter when Ezra stopped him at a bench to sit down to relax drinking hot chocolate, and after an hour Cole looked at the woman and saw her ear-splitting smile and asked "what's with the cat-ate-the-canary smile mom?"

She smirked at him and replied, "well, other than me being proud of you and your dedication to do anything you set out to do, I'm just happy you're my son" she paused to side hug him assaulting his face with motherly kisses and added giggling at his groans of embarrassment, "and that you are the strongest boy I've ever met; I've decided to look into getting you enrolled for a huntsman academy"

Doing a spit take he coughed on his drink, "what!" he said coughing still.

"And since I'm your parental guardian now, I thought it's best to take you with me to sanctum academy; I'm a professor there teaching the combat class, so I can still pay for your schooling."

He was so happy he dropped the cup of coco knocking over bags full of clothes at their feet and hugged her with excitement "thank you, thank you, thank you, I promise I'll make you proud Ezra- I mean...mom." He blushed at his embarrassment, "I'll study hard and be the perfect student and son!" he was so happy he could swear he'd been finally given a chance at a new family.

She hugged him back, smiling at the new life they both now had planned and replied, "you already are" in his ear.

Separating from him, she and him picked up their stuff, but stopped when a rumbling noise and ground shaking grew with intensity until an explosion of debris and a freight train engine crashed through the city Square north side.

Ezra brought Cole close as they got low, with her protecting him. "Mom, what was that!?" he looked at her to see her frantic and afraid.

She snapped out of it and looked at him and said, "we need to-" suddenly a gigantic explosion erupted behind them tossing Cole and Ezra through the air knocking he went through a thrift store window and Ezra flew into a bus window sending it crashing down on its side on a café table and a few people in the process.

In the far east side of the city square another train rested inside a large trench created from crashing through the west side of the city wall, dead and injured people littered the streets, people screaming in terror while Grimm poured from the hole and began their destruction.

Cole awoke bleeding and gasping for breath with heavy coughs clearing his lungs of the dust orb and smoke, standing up he looked around to see blood and people around him unmoving and cold. He struggled to look any more, so he felt it was best to try to walk out of there except the only thing he could do was limited with a broken leg, cracked ribs, a gash going from his hairline down his face and over both of his lips on the right side all the way to his chin and a large shard of glass in his leg, he looked down at it and tried pulling it out but flinched clenching his teeth groaning and tearing up. He needed to remove it and fast, so he grabbed it tight in his gloved fist and took Four quick breaths 'fuck it' he thought yanking it out and burned it closed with his lightning igniting the dust powder.

Despite trying not to, he let out a scream as the pain -as well as the scent of burnt flesh- overwhelmed his senses.

He couldn't see nor walk straight, his body hurt everywhere and wouldn't stop bleeding, clothes were torn and burned, but he only cared about finding Ezra and getting out of there as quickly as possible.

Using the broken frame to keep him upright he bore witness to pure carnage, running wild throughout the area but thankfully the Atlesian military and valeian hunters were working on the situation, but it didn't look good. Ignoring the glass biting into his hand, he took off to run through the chaos looking for Ezra.

"Mom!" he called out before he slipped on some ice and wet snow opening his gut wound and coughed violently, "ez- *cough, cough* mom! Where are you?!" he begged quietly trying to stay calm, but it wasn't working as he tried crawling through the cold and wet ground when something grabbed him by the back of his jacket and tossed him to the side.

Hitting the ground hard, he rolled onto his stomach staining the snow in blood he frantically looked around, he spotted Ezra on her back straining to hold back a knasher from biting into her. Teeth snapped closer and closer while she held it away from her.

In the worst possible way of fate, Cole saw a girl close to his age just...standing there frozen in place...just staring at them. Not doing anything, WHAT WAS SHE DOING!

"HELP HER!" he cried out grabbing the snow, but it was too late, with everything going on he missed Ezra's movements just long enough that he thought the knasher had succeeded in its kill but since he couldn't see straight he watched blearily as Ezra got torn apart.

She didn't even have a chance to scream as she looked into his mismatched eyes, crying.

And like that, the world around him faded away and memories of their time together came flooding in, the times he yelled at her in anger to leave him alone when she caught him looking for traces of his family's killer, crying in her arms when he was caught looking at an old photo of his family's happier times, the times he and Ezra laughed together, and a month ago he'd accepted her as a possible avenue for family, accidentally calling her mom when he'd asked for permission to buy him a music player; he loved her and accepted her as his parent...but now? She was gone.

"NOOOOOOO" he bellowed in anguish unable to feel the below freezing chill of winter, all that remained was pain.

His tears froze to the ground the moment it fell, watching the girl run off.

After ten minutes of crying he slowly crawled over to the necklace with a pendant of a Phoenix now soaked in blood; he had bought it for her intended as a birthday gift, but now it was a reminder of his guilt and pain, so he used his electricity to weld the chains together creating a bracelet crying a bit.

With all the negativity, he unintentionally drew the knasher back to him. When it made to eat a child when it tasted his pain.

"it's good you're not dead" he said, flat and numb. Balling his fists he doesn't hesitate in gathering lightning from everywhere in the surrounding area of exposed power lines, and dust rounds, then as if a bomb were dropped on the beast's head a storm of lightning bolts showered down peppering the rest of it's body. Rage burned through him like It did the day he lost his family. And At that moment moving forward, he made a promise to trust no one and fight his battles solo, and fight he did.

As the blinding light took him, he let out a roar akin to that of an animal with the lust for blood and took Ezra's twin axes in hand shaking and blind to pain and rage, pushing his lightning in the metal in the axes making them more dangerous. With blinding speed and brutality he tore Grimm apart like a shredder, But while his bloodlust was far from satiated, a specific memory replaced his rampage of sorrow and rage with a touch of grief.

Screams filled his ears from the Grimm he tore apart in a rage fueled frenzy, severing limbs and heads from bodies until his mind faded to elsewhere with a loud scream. "RRRAAAAAAHHHHH" With the dual axes in hand he looked like a crazed butcher with a vendetta to satiate.

He leapt toward the horde headed right for him hoping to feast on his flesh and gnaw on his bones, and when he got close enough the world disappeared in a flash of light

At the dinner table Ezra noticed how quiet he was and cleared her throat catching his attention "are you feeling alright sweetheart?" initially he remained silent but after a moment of thought he said "a-am I ever going to stop missing my family?" he finally asked, "I mean I killed them so do I even deserve this?" he gestured to the home he'd been living in since she picked him up off the streets.

Ezra stopped short of taking a drink from her wine glass and gave him a sympathetic look gently taking his hand into hers "oh Cole" she said feeling a bit guilty, "it's okay to miss the people you love Cole, but that doesn't mean you have to stop missing them. Even after I die, I want you to know that I am happy you were here with me because you are important to me and I couldn't ask for anything more."

Hearing those words Cole broke down and rushed over to her seat and hugged Ezra happy to have heard those words, the surprise hug from him made her laugh a bit and hugged him back

"I promise I'll always be there for you" she whispered in his ear, letting him cry his heart out on her shoulder. She let him empty his heart out, uncaring about the food to focus on him for now. "I pro-promise I'll m-make you proud" he sobbed.

After the blinding light dissipated Cole was missing and the Grimm around him was ash and charred bone, but Cole himself was too heartbroken to notice that the sudden burst of power he unleashed he had accidentally absorbed the power from all around him in the buildings, power boxes and lamp posts

Everyone in the area were so busy tending to everything else, they didn't notice Cole was already gone, save for a curious little orb that was blown up in his rampage.

Knowing he shouldn't stay there, Cole fled into the alleyway and puked hot bile and chocolate flavored coffee crying for death to go take him as well but after an hour it never came, so he chose to pick himself up and made his way back to Ezra's house.

Heading home he ignored the world, letting it disappear from his standpoint, when he walked through the door he was already prioritizing what he didn't need and what to keep that was hers, he even went so far as to keep paying the bills until he found a cheaper place and keep what he wanted that was Ezra's that had sentimental value. All in all, he'd sold everything except for the photo album, her bed, and everything on it, her weapons, her armor, the training instructions and videos for when he was home alone as well as the rest of his studying material, and her gift to him: dust crystal infused combat boots. Everything else he put in his smaller apartment or sold for extra lien (which got him close to half a million lien in value) and funny enough he kept her clothes since he couldn't bring himself to sell any of them, and it wouldn't feel right. 'Maybe when I find a woman she can wear these' he thought as he put her black cloak in the box with her axes and combat gear.

'Why did this happen?' he thought, stepping away from the box to try to think things over.

After a few minutes of mundane chores around the room, his emotions blew up from the inside out by punching the wall making a decent size hole in it before taking a few hours to rest and plan the future out in his apartment.

emerald forest*

one year and eight months later*

bleeding and exhausted, Cole soon realized just how lost he was in the emerald forest with low supplies, broken weapons, and low on his lightning reserves and surrounded by S class Grimm but They were just too afraid of a human to kill, regardless that he was weak and could be killed at any time, so they just kept their distance.

But one fledgling Beowolf charged his taxed form and slashed him in the gut, sending him crashing back first into a tree. His electricity wasn't enough to completely shield him from the attack, but it was enough to protect him from being cut too deeply.

The force of the attack left claw marks so deep it pierced skin through his armor that now lay on the ground in pieces and the tree he hit splintered bark and cracked the wood under it. Bark showered down on and around him.

Pushing himself up to his knees, he began coughing up blood, spraying the grass with the red fluid, thankfully it wasn't too deep.

Holding his hand up shakily at the horde, muttering "for fuck' sake gods...*cough*...can't I catch a break-"

Cough...cough* he froze when the sparks barely flickered in his palm and a bit of fear came out, "shit" he looked up and smiled at the outcome of ignoring the trespassing signs and trembled knowing he was defenseless his hand fell in front of him fingers began to dig into the ground, "can't really say... I didn't see this coming" he said with small sparks flashing here and there but faded as fast as they came. A wendigo Grimm stalked toward him and went for the easy kill rand snarled raising its arm to take his head off, but instead of death's sweet cold embrace he felt a heat so strong it threatened to scorch his blood soaked flesh, when he looked up, he realized the heat was coming from a blonde woman with lilac eyes and yellow shotgun gauntlets, but his eyes were on hers and not in a good way since a familiar rage rose from him seeing those red orbs he hated more than anything. A white dressed girl stood near a red clad girl and nearest to him was a fourth girl dressed in black with cat ears wearing a genuinely worried expression on her features.

Rage burned in his heart, seeing her and a blonde raven again after so long, but physically couldn't do anything except weakly glare at them and mentally jot them down for future punishment.

The one in red looked at the other three and smirked "Blake you keep him safe, yang make sure the big ones die, I'll take care of the faster ones and Weiss you can cover Blake if need be"

"That's not the plan we discussed, and you know it you dunce!" the girl in white said as she advanced with yang at her back helping her, Blake stayed with Cole as Ruby used her semblance to cut down the more agile Grimm. These girls were all beautiful in their own ways, but cole's were concretely set on the pools of silver that met his with hope.

"She's right Ruby, you have got to stop doing this whole 'making it up on the spot' shtick, it really needs to stop!" the Faunas girl yelled as she cut down a few creepers.

The blonde wasn't paying enough attention to either of her teammates because she was more distracted by the amount of blood Cole had been losing from his chest, shoulder, and neck.

"Good thing we dropped in when we did, or you'd be in a Grimm state" the blonde said, skidding past Cole with an Ursa's mouth in her hands.

Letting Blake turn him over on his back, he glanced at her with a weak glare and watched her violently twist its head to the left ripping its jaw out of place while Weiss froze the bottom and stabbed it in the back of the head, pushing the tip of her sword through its mouth.

"Pay less attention to him and more on the horde he brought Xiao long!" the heiress yelled as a knasher lost its head to the redhead, which of whom flew past the Grimm when she used Blake's ribbon to propel herself toward an alpha Beowulf.

To Cole there was far too much to pay attention to, and even harder to register it all, but Blake was busy hastily wrapping bandages around Cole, much to his dismay.

Throughout the fight, Cole weakly tried moving away from Blake, face contorting in pain every time she'd clean and wrap his wounds.

After the fight was won, the girl in white was panting and holding herself up against a tree, redhead was chuckling at yang for getting her fist stuck in a tree and the Faunas was holding Cole in her lap in too much pain to pay attention to them anymore.

"Piece...of...cake" redhead muttered before collapsing into the ground and accidentally hit her head on a rock, the other three laughed a bit before helping her up.

Cole coughed a few times before letting out a sigh of relief fainting in the sun hoping he was going to be safe in their hands, but it didn't matter because right now, all he wanted was to rest his eyes, and the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness were the trees blowing in the wind and leaves falling to the ground into his blood.

"Hey, aren't you going to thank us or- ugh never mind" Weiss said noticing he'd passed out, either the pain, blood loss, OR the energy he'd used throughout the battle from before, it didn't matter since he gave in to rest for a while.

"Huh, he's actually kind of cute, I got dibs." yang said, lifting him in a bridal carry and looked him over for a few seconds. 'Hope he's into blondes' she thought with a smirk.

"Anyway, he's probably lost a lot of blood, possibly has mild dehydration too. We need to get him to beacon's medical staff now! Weiss, call ozpin and tell him we got him, Blake grab some fire dust crystals and some water" Ruby said putting her scythe away.

"Put him on the floor yang, he'll lose more blood that way if you hold him like that" ruby ordered, conveying she was annoyed with her treatment of his body.

Yang rolled her eyes and put Cole on the floor, "we'll be here a while, I just know it"

"Ozpin is going to be so proud of us" Ruby said before she heard him ask, "how many wounded this time?" she nervously chuckled and said that there was only one but not from her team. While she was busy, Weiss conjured up a small block of ice for Cole's fever, Blake finished patching up his wounds, and yang kept an eye out for more Grimm in case the horde came back.

end of another well written chapter. hope you enjoyed the read and if you have anything constructive to say i'll keep it dully notedfor the other chapters and hopefully i improve the quality of the story.I'm going to be honest, with the world doing so poorly this is my escape when i need to be myself most. no ship in the fandom is my favorite but i hope you have an idea or two about who you'd like to see happen.stay healthy and take care of yourselves.

Comment anything you think could be worked on at:

H6pp1n355_in_misery.

Criticism is appreciated