An: Sorry this chapter took a little longer. I don't have a set schedule for when this story releases because I know I'll never be able to stick to it, but I try and make sure I don't go more than 10 days without updating, but sometimes I just hit a scene where I have to beat my head against a wall to figure out how it should play out. Thinking about writing this story always makes me so happy and excited, sitting down and actually typing it not so much.

This couldn't be happing. It had to be a dream. Any second now, Jaune would wake up from this nightmare and Emerald would tease him mercilessly for screaming in the middle of the night. He would even be okay if he wet the bed as long as this would all just go away.

Jaune didn't know when he had moved, but he found himself on his knees, his hands warped around Lily's throat trying to keep anymore blood from spilling, for all the good that would do her. She was just so pale, and combined with her white dress, she already looked dead.

She was dead.

Clear tears mixed with the red liquid as Jaune tried desperately to save her.

Frist, he needed to stop the bleeding.

No!

First, he need to get her breathing.

No!

First, he needed to restart her heart.

No!

First, he needed…first, he needed…he needed…needed…

Jaune's hands moved along Lily's body aimlessly doing nothing more than smearing blood over here dress. It was like his body had been overloaded with all the signals his brain had given it and was now just performing the basic movements. It wasn't until something grabbed his shoulders that his mind and body reconnected.

"Jaune, what happened!" Emerald said shaking him out of his stupor. He wouldn't go as far as to say he could think clearly, but he was at least consciously aware. Aware enough to bring his shaking hands to his face and see the red smears they had become.

"She's dead," he said, clenching his hands and watching the blood leak out from between his fingers. "I couldn't save her."

"Jaune," Emerald said with a hint of sadness and guilt as she pulled him away from the body. "There wasn't anything you could have done."

"If only I had realized sooner. Gotten there faster."

Emerald pulled a chair out from under one of the tables and had Jaune sit in it. He did so without ever taking his eyes off his hands. "There wasn't anything you could have done, trust me. I've had a rough life, so I've seen a few corpses in my time, and she's been gone for a while. We were both sound asleep when this happened."

"We should have heard."

Emerald grabbed Jaune by the cheeks and made him look her in the eyes. He tried to turn away but her grasp held firm. "Look at me! You have to get a hold of yourself. We came here expecting the whole village to be mass grave. Were you not prepared to see some bodies?"

"This is different. I talked with her. She was here and then…"

"And then she wasn't," Emerald finished, releasing Jaune's head from her grip. To his credit, he didn't go back to looking at his hands or Lily's body. He only slumped forward like a puppet with its strings cut. "Listen, I know it must be hard. Seeing someone you know always is. You can detach yourself from death if you only see the aftermath because from your perspective corpses are always just that, corpses, but it's harder when you know the life that was snuffed out. Lily and you had a connection even if it was minor, you witnessed the life she had and what was lost when she died, but you can't shut down. I'm sorry, but this isn't a normal situation where you can take the time to mourn and fall into despair. Lily was murdered and her killer is still out there in a town where three huntsmen have gone missing. You have to be on the top of your game because I'm pretty certain this wasn't just a robbery gone bad. Whatever we were trying to find here just made its first visit."

"Then this is our fault?" Jaune said, slipping deeper into his slump.

"Get your head out of your ass. You really think that we're that important. If this was directed at us, the killer wouldn't have stopped with the receptionist. It would have come for us. Whatever did this was either targeting Lily specifically, or it was a random attack, and I know which one I've got my money on. How many more people do you think will die if we don't do something? How many people have already died?"

Jaune couldn't help taking a quick look at Lily's body. Was Emerald right? Was Lily's death and them being here nothing more than a coincidence? Who could say, but in either case whatever had done this was going to kill more, be it an attempt on the two of them, or other random townspeople. When Roman had given him that book that started it all, he had written down three things, the last of which flashed in Jaune's mind like a beacon.

It can always get worse.

That could not be allowed to happen.

Jaune rose to shaky feet. Emerald was absolutely stunted that he had gotten up and looked ready to catch him, but he did not fall. Instead he walked all the way over to Lily's body and dropped to his knees once again. "What are you doing?" Emerald asked.

"My job," Jaune replied. He looked at Lily, really looked at her this time. His eyes were still lined with tears and his body trembled to its core, but now all delusions were brushed away. Lily was dead and nothing could be done to save her. "We came here to investigate, so that's what I'm going to do."

"But, do you know anything about performing an autopsy or handling a body?"

"No, but I have to learn something because this is going to be my only chance." Jaune braced himself as he observed Lily with a critical eye doing his best to shut his emotions anyway. It didn't work out too well. He could still see the beautiful smile she greeted him with and his anger flared with he looked at the empty, motionless face she had now. From lost playground to lost life, it certainly was a big step up.

Jaune didn't need any medical degree to tell what Lily's cause of death was. Her throat had been slit wide open, not torn or ripped with claws or anything of the like but cut, probably with a knife. An odd choice for a supposed otherworldly assailant, but the misfit had used a knife along with nails to attack so that didn't really mean much. The other thing of note was that Lily was wearing the same dress she had been wearing all day which meant she probably hadn't changed to go to sleep. She must have been killed soon after he and Emerald went to their room. Was it possible the killer had been waiting for them to leave or was it just luck? How intelligent was it? Did it even have to be a creature's doing? Right not, there wasn't any solid evidence that unknown forces were at play. A human, or something that could pass for human, wasn't out of the question. In fact, why was Lily out here in the first place? Surly, if something was trying to kill her, she would have run into the backroom and locked the door, not just stand behind the reception desk, and why hadn't she screamed? Emerald had heard Jaune's scream and come down, so they should have heard her if she did. Had it been a sneak attack? Did she not notice until it was too late, or had the attack just been that fast?

So many questions, so many empty leads. How was Jaune supposed to figure out anything. He had a whole town to consider with every normal method being a possibility along with every supernatural method. He would have already called Roman by now, but his scroll wasn't getting a signal, so even his trump card was out of play.

Jaune's fingers grated the wood below him. He was angry and out of ideas. Emerald was right in that he couldn't afford to do nothing, but the drive was quickly wearing off. The Jaune who forged his transcripts might have said there was merit in never giving up, but be it by choice or circumstance, if he didn't get any results, it was all the same.

"So, what's the plan?" Emerald asked as Jaune got to his feet.

Jaune turned towards her, unable to keep the tears of his failings from falling. "I wish I knew."

Jaune sat in probably the most uncomfortable chair in all of Remnant, in the building that served as Bury's patrol center, the closest thing a frontier town had to a police station. Emerald had been adamantly against Jaune contacting them, sighting that they would obviously be treated as the primary suspects, and it wasn't wise to trust anyone in the town right now. Jaune wasn't just going to leave Lily's body there, however, and he thought that if they didn't say anything they'd be subjected to further restrictions and scrutiny. Not good since Emerald was a lifelong thief and the both of them had just robbed a museum.

Eventually his will had overridden hers and they got in touch with the village patrol. Oddly enough, while Jaune's scroll wasn't able to get any reception, the inn's desk scroll was still able to make local calls. Just another oddity that he didn't have an answer for.

True to Emerald's prediction the patrol had immediately brought them here for questioning and searched their room. Of course, they had been asked to relinquish their weapons, something that took more than a little coaxing to convince Emerald to do. They were each placed in a separate room and interviewed, Jaune only after his investigator nearly died of a laughing fit after seeing his onesie.

With everything that had happened, he had forgotten he had been wearing it, and he couldn't help but feel that Emerald had neglected to mention it as some sort of payback for calling the patrol in the first place. Jaune would have to get rid of it later, and not just because it was stained with blood. Luckily, they had been nice enough to let Jaune change into his actual clothes which only earned another round of laughter when they saw his hoodie.

Seriously, what was everyone's problem, Pumpkin Pete was cool.

The questioning was a pretty standard affair after that. The investigators having already mostly made up their mind after seeing how distraught he was at Lily's death and his choice in clothing. Still, despite all their fun at Jaune's expense, it was clear that they were deadly serious about solving this cause. The patrol men who arrived at the scene looked just as horrid and disgusted at the innkeeper's death as he had. It gave him confidence that this wasn't a town wide conspiracy. They asked him about everything he knew or thought he knew. He tried to answer as best he could, but he knew his information was severely lacking. He couldn't actually suggest a supernatural motive or a creature of the unknown world.

When the questioning was done, they told him he could wait in the lobby for Emerald if he wanted, no doubt she was being far less cooperative than he had, and that the only thing he couldn't do was leave the village.

While he waited in the lobby he poured over his journal, which he had gotten back along with his backpack, trying to find anything that would help him find Lily's killer. Jaune was tired from the night being cut short but at the same time felt it would be impossible to go to sleep. It helped to plow through his journal, but it quickly became apparent that without more clues he wasn't going to get anywhere.

Eventually, Emerald walked out and took a seat next to him. She did not look happy. "I'm guessing they didn't give you back you weapon either," she said.

"No, they said they had to look at it to see if it was the murder weapon."

"Same here, but we both know that they won't find anything on either of them." Jaune gave her a skeptical look. "Stop that, I know what I am but I'm no killer."

"I didn't think you were, but can you really tell me that those blades haven't seen at least a little human blood in their life?"

Emerald had the decency to look a little embarrassed. "If they find anything I'll say it was for self-defense, it wouldn't be a complete lie."

"I guess," Jaune replied.

Emerald noticed the emptiness of his response immediately. "Jaune, are you doing alright?" she asked shifting her cold, irritated mood into a soft, calm one.

"I'm fine," Jaune said.

"You're clearly not," Emerald said putting a hand on his shoulder. They might not be the best of friends and did more arguing than talking, but Emerald wasn't about to let him waste away. "You're still thinking about Lily, aren't you?"

Jaune put his journal down, letting Emerald clearly see his puffy eyes and wavering mouth. "How couldn't I be? She's dead. I'm trying to move forward like you said, but every time I close my eyes I see her." Jaune choked up and a few tears ran down his cheek. He quickly rubbed them away with his sleeve like Emerald would think he was unmanly if she saw them. "I don't think I told you this before, but up until now everything has kind of felt like a game. Nothing I did felt like it had stakes. Sure, I got hurt and I put myself in some danger, but it never really felt like it. Slaying monsters and learning magic was fun; consequences and hardship would be way off into the future. At higher levels you might say, but that was idealistic, wasn't it? The world isn't like a video game. There isn't a nice little path you get to work up fighting harder enemies and making tougher decision as you go. Dire consequences can appear anywhere at any time, sometimes you aren't even aware till it's too late. Ha, what kind of hero am I? The first time someone needed my help, not only did I not show up, but I was happily sleeping away the night. My mom was right, dreams really do end up turning into nightmares."

"It will get better," Emerald said, awkwardly rubbing Jaune's back like she had seen some parents do to their children when they were upset. She could remember how badly she wanted that when she was still a child. There had even been a time where she had asked one of the older boys if he could do it to her. He punched her instead, and that was the last time she asked for anything.

"You said you'd seen bodies before. Did you lose someone?" Jaune said not noticing what Emerald was doing. "Does it really get better?"

Emerald turned away not wanting him to see the complicated look on her face. It had been a long time since she thought about that. She hesitant to tell him, but the way he was reacting to her sudden silence told her he needed to hear it.

"When I was young," Emerald started, "like really young, before I even knew what it meant to be a street rat, an older girl, probably a little younger than we are now, took me in. If it hadn't been for her I doubt I'd be alive. She taught me how to survive on the street. How I had managed it before I had no idea. Sometimes I think my parents, whoever they are, just dropped me off on the side of the road hoping I would die from the elements. I'm getting off track, the point is, I wasn't the only one that this girl had taken in. There were probably a dozen others that she had picked up along the way. We lived in this little alcove in the industrial district with pieces of cloth strung up as a roof. I remember thinking it was the lapse of luxury at the time. This girl, Robin, was very kind and took care of us. She taught us how to steal, lie, beg, and even fight. We were able to do pretty well for ourselves because of her and I become one of her most frantic admirers. Every time she chose me to go with her on one of the riskier jobs I would become overwhelmed with happiness. I really thought we were friends."

"I'm guessing this story doesn't have a happy ending," Jaune said in a somewhat apologetic tone. It felt like he was hearing something he shouldn't be despite Emerald talking directly to him.

"No, it doesn't. The first thing you have to know about the streets is nobody is just nice. There can be kindness but it's always in I'll scratch your back you scratch mine kind of way. Of course, I didn't know this at the time, but Robin wasn't picking kids off the street out of the goodness of her heart. She was gathering recruits. She was trying to build an army that would be completely loyal to her. Her hope was that some of the kids she integrated would prove to have untapped potential. Most other groups only took in people that already proved themselves. Robin's planned to find them earlier. The problem was the more people you have in the group the more mouths you have to feed and for every promising child she acquired there were five other unimpressive ones. It's like we were trading-cards and she was trying to build the best deck. I was one of the promising ones so she kept me around."

"What happened to the unpromising ones?"

"They would go out with Robin one day and never come back 'lost on the job' as she would put it. Pretty blatant looking back, but when you were a kid with no one else to depend on you took for granted all the "accidents" that happened. I was with her for about two years before everything came to light, in the worst way possible. One day the leader of a rival group came knocking. It wasn't unusual for another group to attack you either to take you territory or send a message, but this one was different."

"Sounds like the mafia," Jaune commented.

"We weren't even close to them. The mafia's an organized crime syndicate. To them we were just children fighting on the playground. The only difference was that these playground fights had real stakes and there were no adults to call stop when blood starting spilling. Anyways, it was clear from Robin's and the rival leader's interactions that they knew each other. Whatever their exact relationship was I never learned, but they didn't part on good terms. He had come only to make Robin suffer. It was from him we learned about Robin's true nature. Half of the group turned on her right on the spot and with our sudden loss of numbers it wasn't much of a fight."

"You stayed loyal to her?" Jaune said, shocked.

"It must sound completely insane to you, but Robin was my friend and even if she was just using me for her own gain that was just the way of the street. I might sound cruel but as long as she didn't hurt me, specifically, I was with her. Most of her favorites thought the same way and tried to protect her. Sadly, in our blind loyalty, we didn't think things through. Seeing the writing on the wall Robin used us as bait to flee. I can't even explain what I felt after finding out. It was like part of myself had vanished." Emerald took a deep breath and composed herself to finish the story. "It only got worse from there. The man who attack us absorbed our group into his own. He claimed he was the illegitimate child of a Vale council member and demanded everyone call him Sir. He had a pretty similar style of leadership to Robin, but while Robin was kind and hid her intentions, he was brutal and open with his plans. His only form of testing was ring fights. Put two people against each other and whoever was standing at the end was the winner. I and the others who stuck with Robin got it particularly bad. He forced us to fight every other day against people we had no chance of beating. In fact, my first fight was against the man himself as a punishment for supporting Robin and letting her get away. I tried my best, but it was as much a show of force as anything else. He wanted to make it clear who was in charge now that Robin was out of the picture. You see one of the ways he was able to convince people that he was the son of a Vale councilman was the fact he had his aura unlocked. I don't think I would have been able to beat him even if he didn't have it, but since he did, I didn't stand a chance. He finished the fight by dislocating my shoulder."

Emerald rubbed her forearm as if she was reliving the pain and Jaune felt sick just hearing about it. "Is having aura really that uncommon?"

"Yes, aura can only be unlocked by someone else with aura and only huntsmen and law enforcement are supposed to have it. That said, the rich and famous usual have theirs unlocked for protection, or social statues, or just because it helps you look younger. Most normal people never get a chance to have theirs unlocked and the fact he had gave him credibility."

"But, why doesn't everyone have their aura unlocked? If it makes them stronger and safer than wouldn't the council want that. A lot less people might die of grimm attacks if they had it."

"The reason not everyone has their aura unlocked is because as you know it doesn't just work. You have to learn how to us it, some people might get themselves into even more danger thinking their invincible. The other reason is that the people who do take the time to learn how to us aura properly are probably the people who aren't going to use it for the best reasons. Combine that with the fact a single aura user can unlock the aura of any other number of individuals you would see a huge spike in crime. It's one of the reasons Junior's gang is so feared because he unlocks the aura of everyone who joins him, cooks excluded, apparently." Emerald jabbed. "The last reason, but probably the most important, doesn't actually have to do with aura itself but a byproduct of having it. If you have aura you have the potential of gaining a semblance and the damage a population could do if they were allowed to run around with undocumented and unrefined superpowers would be catastrophic. Just imagine what would happen if a kid got angry in class one day and unlocked his semblance that just so happed to be able to spew magma everywhere."

Jaune shuttered at the thought especially after imagining what his sister might do if they had any special powers. The world probably wouldn't be able to survive. "I see what you mean, but then how did you get your aura?"

"I'll get to that," Emerald said looking away from Jaune as she continued the story. "The time I spent under that man was the worst time of my life. I honestly thought it would be better to die. It was day in and day out of torture. I got it particular bad because I always had to fight boys and like it or not without aura to equal the field boys are just physically stronger than girls especially when that girl was half-starved. In a stupid way, though, I was lucky. I would get beat and hurt, but it would seem even in that hell hole chivalry wasn't quite dead because my opponents never took it to the extreme against me. The same couldn't be said for the other guys who had tried to defend Robin. It wasn't usual for their opponents to take it a step too far. When that happened, it was up to the rest of us to dispose of them. It wasn't long before I was the only one left. I knew that the only way to survive was to throw myself in front of the boss and beg him to unlock my aura so I could "help" him. Against all odds, he agreed, I just needed to do things for him first."

"What did you have to do?" Jaune asked.

That was clearly the wrong question since Emerald tensed so hard that Jaune could feel it through his seat. Her jaw locked and her finger dug into her palm so hard they drew blood. "It doesn't matter what he made me do! The only thing that matters is he kept his promise in the end. He unlocked my aura, probably thinking that even with it I wouldn't be much of a threat to him, unlucky for him my semblance just so happened to be a perfect escape plan. Not able to trust groups anymore and scared he might track me done if I did, I became a loner thief. Not the best when the streets revolves around favors and manpower but I made it work. Oddly enough, a couple years later, I was reunited with Robin. She was dead, tossed in a ditch like garbage, but it was definitely her, and you know what even after everything I went through because of her, I still cried." A single tear ran down Emerald's cheek even now. "So, to answer your question, it does get better, but you'll never forget. Not about any of them."

Jaune couldn't believe it. He didn't know what to say. After what Emerald had just told him, it made his despair for a girl he hadn't even know for a full day seemed childish. What did he know about loss? What right did he have to sit here and cry when Emerald had lost so much more so much sooner? "Emerald, I'm so sorry." Jaune tried to put his own comforting hand on her back, but she stood up before he could.

"The looks on your face tells me that you think I'm the one who needs sympathy after all this time despite what just happened to you."

"But—"

"No buts, I didn't tell you all that to compare pain. I told you so you would realize that you're not alone. Everyone has gone through hardships. To some it might seem like a trivial thing, like losing a favorite stuffed animal, but it doesn't matter because at the time the pain is as real as it will ever be, so don't be thinking that what you're going through is dumb just because it's not as blood filled as mine. Become stronger for your own sake, not mine."

It felt wrong to do so, but Jaune chuckled. After everything that had happened it felt good to laugh. Lily was gone and it was awful, but it wasn't the end. "Thank you, I really needed that."

"No problem." Emerald smiled. "Now, I'll ask again. What's the plan?

Jaune stood up feeling almost normal. "I think the first order of business is to make me stronger. Would you mind helping me out."

"Mind? I'm going to love every second of it."

The sound of fist meeting face shook the air as Jaune fell to the dirt, again. Emerald stood above him, sweating but without as single mark on her. "Care to try again?" She said that every time she beat him to the ground, and every time he got back up, rubbing his sore and bruised body.

"Is this really the best way for me to learn? I don't feel like I'm getting any better." They had been at this for hours now, so long that the night had long since ended. As much as Jaune would have liked to chase the monster that had killed Lily, he realized that not only did he have no idea how to track it but he would probably die himself if he did find it. He needed to get better, and if that meant letting Emerald beat on him all morning, he would accept it. However, if Emerald was just doing this for fun, he was going to be pissed.

"Of course, you're not getting any better. Aura isn't something you master in a day. It's going to take a while for you to learn how to make it work for you."

"Shouldn't I get a theory lesson first? You just brought me out here and started hitting me."

"Trust me this is the fastest way. Aura isn't something you can explain. It just has to come to you. Think of it like the skin of your soul."

"That the vaguest thing I've ever heard!" Jaune argued back. Emerald took his yelling as a sign he was good enough to go another round and quickly rushed him. Jaune had no hope of getting his own attack in, so he was completely on the defensive. Emerald was moving slower than she normally would, for his sake, but she hit just as hard. Sometimes he was able to block with an arm or a shoulder, but without being able to activate his aura it hurt just as bad. The worst part was that he didn't feel like he was making any progress. There was certainly something there, flowing inside him, but how to make that come out and protect him was an insurmountable problem.

He hit the ground, again. "Care to try again?"

Jaune wished he could use his aura to cause his glare to burn right through that irritating smirk. "I think it's time I called it quits. It won't matter how good my aura gets if I can't move afterwards."

"I understand," Emerald said offering a hand to pull him up. Jaune was a little afraid to take it, considering the likelihood of it being a trap to teach him to always be on his guard, but since he didn't think he'd be able to get back up on his own, he didn't have much choice. "For the record, you lasted a lot longer than I thought you would."

"Thanks," Jaune replied halfheartedly, not feeling like he had exceeded any expectations. "I'm going to take a look around the town. If I can't exercise my body anymore I'll exercise my mind. Maybe I can find a clue or figure something out."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"It's okay, I would rather have the time to myself."

"Are you sure? There's still a killer on the loose."

"I'll be careful, but I'm sure it will be fine. There would be much more of a panic if people were dying in broad daylight."

"I guess," Emerald relented.

"I'll meet up with you later," Jaune said leaving the small patch of forest they were training in.

Once he was out of Emerald's sight, he stopped and doubled back around making sure to watch out for his partner. He hadn't lied to Emerald about what he was doing he just had to do something else first.

He found a clearing that would be perfect. Dropping his backpack on the ground Jaune pulled out his chalk and journal. Emerald's story and getting beat around had dulled the pain, but Jaune had not forgotten. Jaune got started on his etch, marking the outline in green. It was by far the biggest he'd ever attempted, larger than him, and would be a lot more complicated as well.

It took about forty-five minutes to complete, having to fix mistakes as he went, but when it was done a new scene rose from the ground. A garden of flowers, bushes and vines grew large and proud. It was far from prefect and was more a mash of random colors and foliage. Obviously etches weren't made to spawn instant gardens, but using some notes Jaune had managed to jury-rig a work around. Already some birds and insects were coming to investigate the sudden change.

Jaune might not have been able to save Lily but he could still do something for her. If a garden in her honor was something she would have wanted or even liked, Jaune had no idea but it was the best he could do. He bent over and plucked a flower from the new garden the same color as Lily's hair. "A beautiful garden for a beautiful girl."

Bury was running the same as ever when Jaune made it back to town. The news of Lily's death must have not been revealed yet. It might seem dangerous and cruel to keep that information locked away, but in a small town like this, it was best to deliver information slowly lest people start to panic and attract the grimm. It wasn't right, and Jaune hated the policy, but sometimes it was better to keep people ignorant of danger than force them to face it head on.

It was why he wasn't surprised to see the Wood Mill Inn without any yellow tape or roadblocks. Condemning the place would be a pretty bad way to keep a secret. Jaune only planned to walk up to the porch and leave the flower at the front door, but when he got there he saw the door was slightly opened.

Surly the patrol had locked the place, but a quick push to the door showed it was, indeed, unlocked. The thought of going inside and placing the flower on the reception desk overtook Jaune's mind, but at the same time he was very reluctant to do it. Could he really go back in there and see where she had died? He was finally starting to recover, and he didn't want to make it worse.

Jaune step in, anyways. His legs were shaking and his heart was pounding, but he would see this to the end. Lily deserved it.

Jaune didn't know if he was expecting the Inn to look like a haunted tomb, but just how normal it looked caught him off guard. The nice atmosphere was still there and everything looked the same. Actually, everything felt a little too normal. Why were the lights on, and why was the fireplace lit?

"Hello there," a young girl with blue hair said, "welcome to the Wood Mill Inn. How can I help you?"

The flower dropped from Jaune's hand as he looked at the impossible. "L-Lily, you're alive?"

"Um, do I know you?" Lily asked, her head tilted in confusion.

"It's me, Jaune." He said talking a couple steps forwards. It was defiantly her with that white dress and gorgeous smile. "Don't you remember? You checked me in yesterday and we spent a long time talking."

Lily took a few steps back clearly nervous about his approaching presence. "I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken. We didn't have any guests last night."

"That can't be. Look I even have the room key to prove it." Jaune quickly reached into his pocket to get it only to find it wasn't there. He looked back up at Lily, who had moved even farther away from him.

"I'm sorry sir, but I've never seen you before in my life."

Emerald was hungry, a bad thing since she didn't have any money to pay for food. Luckily this had been a common problem throughout her life and she knew how to fix it. Ever since she had moved in with Jaune she hadn't needed to pickpocket money, but she made no promises that she wouldn't and what Jaune didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

She was stationed at a busy road looking for a good mark. Picking a mark was an art form. You couldn't just steal from anyone. Any mistake would cost you dearly so it had to be perfect. Kids and teenagers were easy target almost never paying attention to what was happing around them, but they usually didn't carry a lot of money if any at all. Their parents were too aware always looking out for threats to their kids, or an approaching thief. The prime target would be alone, usually male and usually in a rush, or distracted in some other way. Bonus points if they were drunk but it was too early in the day for that.

It was these people Emerald kept her eyes out for. There was man in a suit with brown hair who looked promising but then he started hitting on some girl. She would probably notice if Emerald tried anything. She could put an illusion on both of them if she had to, but that was a risk that really didn't need to be taken. Another man, probably in his late fifties, walked down the street with slumped shoulders and a pissed mood. He would have been good, but he kept nervously looking at the crowd around him like he was waiting for one of them to jump out at him. A woman this time was looking at a store window completely obliviously to the world. Emerald started walking towards her thinking she found her mark, but then an employee came out to greet her. It was while Emerald was walking back to her lookout point that she saw a perfect target. An overly large man yelling at some teens to unload a cart faster.

It didn't even take a minute, Emerald walked over very casually, made a pass behind him, and was suddenly in the possession of a brown wallet. Then she ducked into a nearby diner and took a seat. A quick glance under the table showed that there was more than enough lien for a meal. "Excuses me," Emerald said, wavering a waitress over, "can I have the turkey sub and a salad?"

"Of course, I'll get that right out for you."

"Thank you very much."

Emerald past the time by looking out the window and watching the people go by. She wondered what Jaune was doing and if she should be worried about him. It would be really bad if he got killed or hurt, and not just because she would lose her benefactor, but because she would feel a little guilty. Maybe she should have called there training session early. He hadn't looked too good by the time he called it himself.

"Here you go," the waitress said setting the food down in front of Emerald, letting the delightful smell hit her nose.

Ah, Jaune's probably fine.

Emerald reach out to that beckoning sandwich, but just as her fingers grazed the bread it disappeared.

Her sandwich just vanished along with her salad. Emerald quickly looked around the diner to see if she was just crazy or anybody else had seen her food be vaporish in an instant. Nobody did, but there was something a little more concerning to Emerald.

The whole diner had shifted. There were different people in different places. A waitress caught the look on Emerald's face and walked over. "Is everything okay? Have you ordered yet?" It was the same person that had served her not even a second earlier but her hair was done up slightly different and her uniform was a little bit cleaner.

"Yes, I have," Emerald said, not knowing what to do. The waitress accepted that answers and left. Something was wrong, everything felt different. Emerald didn't know how it felt different but it did. She needed to find Jaune. Emerald reached into her pocket planning to put some money on the table to make it look like she didn't just run out, but the wallet she had stolen wasn't there either.

She had no choice but to leave the diner only a moment after she entered. Once she was out on the street it was even more apparent that something was amiss. It was still Bury and people were going about their day like normal, but it wasn't the same scene she had looked for her mark in. Everything was different but at the same time familiar. It was a bustling outdoor market. A woman in a bright yellow dress was buying some food from a vendor. Kids were drawing pictures of grimm with sticks, in the dirt street. An apple fell from a food cart and was quickly snatched up by a teenage boy with curly orange hair. "Boy you better get back here, or I'll spank you so hard you wouldn't be able to sit for a week!" The boy's father yelled from a nearby house.

Emerald breath caught as she realized that she had already seen this before. Quickly she located the same metal merchant she and Jaune had talked to when they first arrived. He was in the exact same place with the exact same items for sale.

He smiled when Emerald walked up which was already a bad sigh. After what she said, he shouldn't have been very happy to see her. "Hello there, I see my fine collection has caught your eye. Can't say I'm surprised. I am the number one salesman in the town!"

"What's todays date?" Emerald asked harshly.

"Well, I believe it's the 12th of May…um, is something wrong"

Emerald had gone completely pale. It looks like they had finally found the problem with Bury. May 12th had been almost three months ago. Around the same time Bury had gone dark.

Excerpt from a book not yet written

I have taken it on myself to put together the story of that time. After all history is the backbone of all caretakers' work, without it we would never improve, and what better way to spark the creative musings than memorializing them. In the summer of that year, there were a serious of events that at first were completely unrelated, but would set the stage for things to come. While each of them would be important in their own right, it was the fact that they all happened in such a short period of time that gave them their historical prominence. The attack on the Fall Maiden, the betrayal of Blake Belladonna and Adam's ensuing rage and grief, Weiss Schnee's abandonment of Atlas Academy for Beacon, Torchwick's crime spree, the end of that unsavory business in Bury (chapter 9), and of course, Ozpin's offer to the sliver eyed child soon after. It is rare for people of such character to be brought into existent and allowed to expressive themselves. It is even rarer for so many of them to share a generation. It is unbelievable that all of them would gather in one place. I don't like to think about alternated histories since they are pointless, but even I give in into my curiosity and wonder to myself what would have happed if Ozpin had gone with his gut and accepted the caretaker knight into his school.

An: I wonder how many people think this twist came out of nowhere, it wasn't exactly anyone's first guess, but if you go back a chapter and pay attention to mentions of time and the position of the sun throughout the chapter you may find some rather odd inconsistencies.

As for Emerald, she is given her spotlight and a backstory. It came out a lot darker than my original plan and it made me question if I should change the rating of the story, but I think it will be okay. It does help to explain why in this universe Emerald didn't join Cinder. She had already gotten burned with Robin and didn't want to go through the same thing again.