So, here we are once more. Not much to say in regards to this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 19: Shadow Plans

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.(Chapter Start)

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July 27th

Saturday

Clear

"You still haven't talked to Blake at all?!" Weiss exclaimed in surprise, stopping whatever she was doing with the glyphs on Azura's body to stare at him.

Azura felt a slight spark of shame run through him. Something about those oh so cold eyes that Weiss possessed always made him feel like a kid who just got in trouble.

"Well, no." he said meekly.

The pale girl frowned. "And why is that? Did you not say that you would talk to her?"

Her grip on his wrist tightened, warning him of her already building annoyance. If Azura didn't know any better, he would say something dumb right about now.

"I did say I would talk to her at some point."

The sigh that Weiss let out told him he still said something dumb. "You're really unintelligent."

"Ouch." Azura said, responding to the insult.

"She has a point. You have no sense of timing." Summer said.

"Double ouch."

Weiss returned to her task of touching the glyph on his wrist as she sighed again. Azura decided that it would probably do him good to promise to talk to Blake.

"Okay, okay. Will you forgive me if I try to find Blake and talk to her about it?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "It would certainly help in making the atmosphere between our teams much better, even if Blake hasn't exactly been the one to cause tension."

"Is Yang still being grumpy?" Azura said, joking once more.

"Try and think seriously for once, will you? Yang continues to get aggravated by you, and poor Ruby can't even talk about you in her presence."

Azura frowned. "I still don't know what I did to anger her. At least she kind of contains herself in the hand-to-hand combat classes…"

Weiss shook her head. "My theory is that it was because you never thought to mention that you knew the ghost of their mother was there, or that it took so long for you to even reveal your semblance, which just so happened to be able to let them see their mother."

"A part of her anger is because I was scared." Summer said, shamefully.

"That's not your fault." Azura quickly reassured.

Her silence wasn't comforting, but he couldn't worry about that at the moment. Weiss was still waiting for his response.

"I suppose that's a possibility. I can't really just talk to her about it, you know."

"No, I know that. Me and Ruby have been trying to get her to talk about it, so I guess that this isn't your problem just yet."

"Thanks, Weiss. Your help these past few weeks has been great."

Her cheeks were tinged pink from his sincerity. "Yeah...of course. It's what friends are for."

Azura chuckled at her embarrassment. "I guess I can actually get a reaction from you. Man, it would kill Jaune if he knew this."

Weiss scoffed. "Please, he's oblivious enough as it is. He wouldn't even know."

Azura laughed. "Are you turning him down at all?"

"He's only tried to get me on a date with him twice, both of which I denied. He isn't that bad about it, but I simply have no interest."

"I'm a bit surprised that the heiress doesn't think that Jaune is after her fame and money." Azura said with a smirk.

Weiss rolled her eyes and moved to his other wrist. "Why would I think that? The blonde oaf didn't even know what my last name meant when he first met me. You would think he grew up with this kind of knowledge."

Azura laughed nervously, thinking of how he grew up on Luna's life lessons and still didn't pay attention to the news to this day. "Er, right."

Luna was behind Weiss, looking completely fine despite knowing what the look that Azura was giving her meant.

"If you are looking at your mother after giving me such a response, I'm going to facepalm and question how you manage to function in society."

Azura shook his head, a sheepish smile on his face. "Nope. I'm a perfect and functional member of society."

"Then do you know how much trouble the staff at Beacon had to go through to help slide the event at the docks as students simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time? They had to classify most of it just because of it." Weiss said, saying this while still doing what she was doing with the rune.

She glanced up at Azura, only to see him blink once and remain silent. She didn't facepalm like she said she would, but she did sigh heavily.

"You're hopeless."

Azura chuckled. "That's why we have you, Weiss!"

"I am not your babysitter!" She responded indignantly.

"But Weiss, we would be hopeless without you. We'd drown in society if we didn't have our fair heiress to save us!"

"Shut up." Weiss said, unable to keep the amusement in her voice. "I need to focus on the glyphs."

A few moments passed by in silence before Azura spoke again.

"So, what are you doing? You're taking longer than usual this time."

Weiss finished up with his wrist before leaning forward and grabbing his jaw and tilting his head to see the glyph on his cheek. She spoke up once she started the process she did on his ankles and wrists.

"I'm loosening the grip, so to say, of the glyphs to allow for a slight bit more speed. If I had to guess, you would be going from around forty-eight miles per hour to maybe sixty. I don't want to make it go too high, otherwise you'll just end up losing control of it again."

A few minutes pass by as Weiss continued tinkering away at the glyph. Azura had to admit that he actually liked these moments of peace, where nothing of major importance was happening. It was comforting to have these moments again.

"Well, if you didn't know, everyone was going to meet up at the library soon enough. Something about 'bonding with friends', from what Ruby and Jaune said. I doubt that Yang or Blake are coming, so I wanted to invite you."

Azura smiled, since he was unable to really speak, trying to stay still for her.

"Good. It'll do us some good to be normal for once."

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.(Line Break)

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The library carried the same air of excitement as it usually did. It was late in the afternoon, so the librarian couldn't do much to stop the chatter of students as they lingered around at the tables.

In every sense of the word, it felt like a normal day for any student. Not that Azura knew much of what life as a student entailed still, but he felt like he had a grasp of the idea after a few months.

"With the way you think about these things, you make it seem like Luna did a terrible job of teaching you." Summer said.

"Yeah, yeah. She was an excellent teacher, Summer." Azura said as he followed Weiss through the library towards where everyone was sitting.

"I'm aware. As much as Glynda might like to say you are being aided by a grown huntress or two, you have your own merits."

The praise brought a small blush to his cheeks. He wasn't expecting that to be Summer's response.

"Thanks, Summer."

"Of course. Now, pay attention to your friends. I'll be here if you need me."

Azura finally came back to focus when they made it to the table that everyone was sitting at. There was an open spot next to Pyra and another next to Ruby. Weiss sat next to her own partner, while Azura took the other seat next to Pyra. As he sat down, he finally noticed that Remnant: The Game was sitting on the table again, this time with just the box.

"Do you guys just not own any other game?"

Ruby shook her head. "Nope. This one is fun anyway!"

"Right." Azura said in a deadpan way.

"Well, we still have to set it up. It should only take a few minutes." Jaune said, motioning for Ruby to help him set up.

As that was happening, Pyra spoke to him, quietly enough for him to realize that it was semi-private.

"Hey, partner. We haven't really had time to sit down and talk recently, have we?"

Azura smiled lightly. "Well, I know you've been busy with something. Which, speaking of…"

Pyra cut him off midway. "I haven't said much about it, I know. It's...I can't say. You don't need to get involved with it."

Azura frowned. "You know you can talk to me about these things, Pyra. I'm your partner, and we should help each other out."

"I know that, and I am grateful to have you as my partner, but I really can't tell you. I just don't want this to hurt the trust built between us."

Azura grabbed at her hand comfortingly. "It won't, I promise. I just worry about you, you know that."

Pyra smiled. "Of course. Thank you, Azura."

"Watch your eleven." Summer said suddenly.

Just as sudden as her words, Azura dropped Pyra's hand and snapped his head to where Summer said. Blake was standing there like a deer in headlights, and he could only assume that she was planning to be here before seeing him. She stiffly turned around and walked away like she was just now leaving.

Azura looked over at Weiss, seeing that she had noticed his sudden change in demeanor, while Pyrrha merely looked between the two of them with concern. He mouthed the word 'Blake' to Weiss and she sighed lightly, before hardening her gaze on him. He understood the point.

"Go catch up to her." It said.

Azura stood up in his seat, surprising Ruby, Jaune, and Pyra.

"Sorry, I have to do something. It just popped up."

Jaune brushed it off as easily as he did with mostly everything, merely trusting Azura's words. Ruby frowned slightly, but nodded anyways. Pyra was looking at him, her face showing a veiled disappointment. It made him frown and feel bad, but he had to stop putting this talk with Blake off.

"Sorry, Pyra. Just think of it as me believing in your intelligence!" He said with a smile.

Pyra returned it, not looking as rejected as she just was. Luna was already moving to where Blake had once been and was possibly going, and now it was his time to follow Luna. He moved swiftly, knowing that it would be better to try to keep up with Luna this time.

By the time he made it outside, Luna was quickly making her way towards the right of the library. The only place that Azura could think of in that direction was the private gardens, which made this hunt a lot easier than he thought it would be.

As Azura jogged his way to the private gardens, he wondered how he would manage to get Blake to stay and talk to him. Once he made it to the closest entrance to the private gardens, he decided that being direct with her might be best. Just ask her to stay and talk, and she might be willing to say yes.

But, once he made it to the bench he usually sat at whenever he was here, he saw that no one was there.

"Okay...I'm lost."

He looked around, noticing a place further back in the gardens beyond the decently tall hedges that were around the bench. He squinted, and was just able to see Blake looking at him from a small gazebo. Luna was next to her, floating just above the ground as she usually did.

"She's done with running it seems." Azura said to Summer.

"Let's hope that is the case." Summer replied.

Azura walked to the gazebo, trying his best to look as calm and letting her take in his every action. He could see her fingers lightly tapping against the wood of the gazebo, almost seeming nervous. About thirty seconds later, Azura entered the decently large gazebo, and Blake continued to look off towards the sky from where she was. He could see her still frame as she looked out, her black hair flowing in the wind. To Azura, it was the most calm he had seen Blake in two weeks.

"I always run from my problems, you know."

Azura remained silent as he looked at Blake, listening to her speak.

"I ran from the White Fang, my Faunus heritage, my team." She breathed out heavily. "My family."

She leaned forward on the railing, letting her hands hang in the air. "And now, I've been running from something that I caused…"

"Blake...this isn't your fault." Azura said, finally speaking.

Blake laughed, the sound hollow. "There's no need to sugarcoat it, Azura. The chain of events that lead up to you getting first injured, then put in a situation like this, is entirely my fault. There's no avoiding that."

Azura licked his lips before responding. "No one thinks that this is your fault, Blake. Not even I think any of this was your fault."

"And how is that possible? I dragged you into that situation when I ran away."

"I went willingly, Blake. I did that of my free will, and nothing more. Nothing but my own decision got me hurt and a ghost in my head." Azura said, taking a step towards Blake.

"Don't lie…" She replied quietly.

He took another step. "You are my friend Blake. Why would I not help you when you needed help?"

Two more steps. "I don't regret doing that. I know Luna doesn't hate you for my own mistake. Summer and I have this situation under control. There's no reason to blame yourself for any of this."

Just as he stood only three steps away from Blake, she quickly spun to face him with anger blazing in her eyes.

"I said to not lie!" She hissed, stepping towards him. "If I wasn't such a coward in the first place, this wouldn't even be a thing!" Another step. "And you have it under control? That's not what Ruby said! From what I see, you are living only because of headmaster Ozpin, who is a powerful huntsman, and your semblance remaining active!"

She clenched her fists and bit her lip as she was in front of him. Even with being taller, Azura had to admit to being intimidated by Blake when she was emotional.

"And you know what would have stopped all of that? Me! I could have made it so that this never happened! You were hurt because I was scared, put in a situation that has no reason to exist!"

Her anger seemingly sated as her eyes lost their furious energy and became much more tired. Azura was shocked. He had never seen Blake in such a state of emotion outside of her arguments with Weiss.

He gently reached out with his hand, having it be slapped away weakly by Blake. Keeping his hands by his sides, Azura shook his head and lightly sighed.

"Blake, there's no way that you knew that any of this would happen. You are blaming yourself because of hindsight."

When Blake didn't respond, Azura sighed again and continued.

"Look, it just isn't fair to yourself if you just blame everything on something you did. I'm not going to tell you how you should have acted, but I want to suggest something that you can do to help me."

Blake looked at him, her amber eyes hopeful. She truly wanted to repent for something she thought had to be repented for.

Azura smiled softly. "Forgive yourself. Because I forgive you, and I don't think you would want to ruin that."

The confusion in her eyes soon gave way to relief, a small smile making its way on her face. She leaned forward, the top of her head lightly hitting his chest as she sighed.

No words were exchanged, but Azura felt like Blake just needed to release her pent up emotions to truly continue on without shaming herself over his situation. He just hoped that it was enough to give her a desire to continue the trend of not blaming herself for things out of her control.

Twenty minutes later, and they were leaning on the same part of the gazebo that Blake was originally on. They sat in a comfortable silence, one that neither was too willing to give up any time soon. But, even the quiet bookworm of the group had a limit on how much silence she liked.

"Hey, Azura. About Yang…"

Azura glanced at her from the corner of her eye. "Hm?"

"I think I know why she might be acting the way she is."

Azura raised an eyebrow. "You cracked the code before our resident Ice Queen?"

Blake rolled her eyes, an amused smile on her face. "Not exactly. This is still very much a guess. Do you remember what she said after the fight at the docks?"

"Um, no? I wasn't exactly there, you know?"

"Well, she was suspicious of Summer. Seemed almost to not trust any movement that was made. I think it might be possible that she thinks that Summer is doing something to you. And, to be fair, what the two of you have is kinda close to some examples of possession."

"Oh." He said simply.

They had thought of that as a possibility, but brushed it off almost as quickly as they thought of it. To see it possibly be the case almost scared him.

"Thank you, Blake. I trust you to know Yang more than us. You are her partner after all."

Blake nodded. "Of course. Well, I think I should leave you alone with your thoughts. I'll see you at dinner, right?"

Azura nodded and smiled. "You will. Thanks for the talk, Blake."

He watched her walk off, her stance much less rigid and uptight than before. Less stressed than it was in the past few days. Once she left his vision, he felt a frown pull at his lips and sat down on the nearby bench inside the gazebo. Her words troubled him, since it made him even more unsure of how to try to get Yang to talk to him.

"It's a little hard to take in, isn't it?"

"Yeah...I'm sorry, Summer."

"So am I, kid. So am I."

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.(Line Break)

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Azura blinked open his eyes, feeling a hand gently pushing his shoulder. Shaking his head as he sighed softly, he looked around and took in his surroundings. The area was still full of light, but it was easy to tell that it was creeping towards twilight. Focusing more on his immediate surroundings, he found Pyrrha looking down at him, amusement glittering in her green eyes and red hair splayed out, still in a ponytail.

"Hey, sleepyhead." She said.

Azura groaned as he fully sat up. "Hey, yourself. And who are you calling sleepyhead? I wake up nice and early every morning with you."

Pyrrha smiled. "Yet you are the one who always naps. What other nickname would I have for you?"

"Well, I always find myself in an awkward or bad situation since I came to Beacon. Surely that counts?" He replied jokingly.

Pyrrha frowned, possibly missing the joke. "Well, you're back down to just one, right?"

Azura nodded. "Yeah...me and Blake had our talk. Now it's just Yang."

Pyrrha shifted and moved to sit next to him. "Is there anything I can do to help with that?"

"This is something that me and Summer will have to fix."

"I know that. But, I can still help. We're all a little unsure of why she is being this way." She said.

The white and red haired boy shook his head. "Blake thinks that it might have something to do with my situation specifically. She guessed that Yang thinks that Summer is doing something to me. Something like possession."

Pyrrha was silent for a few moments, processing the information. When she did so, she just seemed to be left with more questions.

"Does it have anything to do with that talk you and Ruby had with Ozpin?"

Azura tilted his head. "What do you mean? She's been angry for a while."

Pyrrha shook her head. "No, I know that. But, I know that Ruby has been slightly jumpy since then, and I know that she told her team about it. I don't have the details, but if it was something bad enough to shake Ruby up, then wouldn't that fuel Yang's thought process about your situation?"

"That's...true. That's very true."

"Hey, Azura?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you tell us these things? I had to practically beg Ruby to tell me what was wrong."

Azura stayed silent for a few moments, unsure of how to describe why he didn't tell anyone. He let out a sigh, shrugged, and frowned.

"It's just how I am. It's usually just me, Luna, and now Summer that learn these things. Maybe I don't think it's worth it to make anyone worry. Maybe I only trust Luna and Summer. I don't really know what to tell you, sorry."

"No...it's okay. I just wish you would be more willing to share with your own team. We went over this before you and Blake made your escape, but I feel like I haven't done enough to try and bridge that gap. I can't expect you to do it alone."

They sat in silence as they let the words sit in the air. The sun slowly continued to set over the next few minutes, and the occasional breeze flicked Pyrrha's hair towards the side of his head. The peaceful nature of the private gardens was in full effect, and Azura couldn't help but smile as he thought of it.

"Why don't we work towards fixing that? Go ahead, ask me a question."

"Only if you ask one back."

"Fine."

Pyrrha cleared her throat before asking her question. "Was it hard? Growing up the way that you did."

Azura shrugged. "Well, growing up wasn't hard, that's for sure. But, with the outside education guy coming to a place like Beacon, it feels a lot different. It can be hard to keep track of everything. What about you? You were apparently famous, did that make it hard growing up?"

Pyrrha chuckled softly. "No, not that bad. It wasn't great, but it was far from horrible. It was just...suffocating? I didn't feel like I was old enough and ready enough for something like fame. Now, less serious this time. Favorite class?"

"Combat class. It doesn't bore me half to death. You?"

"I prefer history. My matches are typically just against Yang or Weiss...it's a bit boring at times to not have any change in opponent. And I get to watch Jaune doodle on his paper. He might still be learning as a fighter, but he knows how to draw."

"Oh? You've been watching him, have you?" Azura smirked as he spoke.

Pyrrha blushed. "I, uh…"

Azura laughed. "I'm just kidding, Pyrrha."

"Er, r-right." Pyrrha responded, laughing nervously.

Azura got up and stretched. "Well, you woke me up. What do ya say to getting some food?"

Pyrrha shook her head and laughed again. "Sounds good to me."

As they left the gazebo, Azura smiled and bumped his shoulder against hers.

"Maybe you can sit next to Jaune and cuddle with him."

"Azura!" Pyrrha said, a light blush creeping up her cheeks.

His laughter filled the empty area. It just felt good to still have these normal moments between all of the crazy.

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.(Character Shift)

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Neo waltzed into the office of the warehouse that she and Roman were currently using as their base of operations. The man had just gotten out of a meeting of that Cinder woman, and he leaned against the table with a lit cigar in his hand. The bags under his eyes showed signs of exhaustion, and it filled Neo with a need for bloodlust.

She wanted that power-crazy bitch to die. More than anything.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the cane-wielding man spoke to her.

"It's been a long day, Neo. What do ya need?"

The sentence would have seemed like he was annoyed, but Neo had been his partner in crime for so long that she knew he was just stressed. When you have a power-crazy group of people much stronger than you ordering you around, it was bound to happen.

Neo tilted her head, wondering how she could phrase this to Roman. He brought the cigar to his mouth, breathed in, then breathed out the smoke. Neo snapped her fingers as a smile grew on her face.

Roman watched her grab a piece of paper and a pen. She scribbled furiously, the handwriting remaining neat. Anyone who said that being mute had no benefits, Neo would just show them how fast she could write or type and have it remain neat and concise. That, or she could just kill them.

"What's all this about, Neo?"

She finished what she was writing and thrusted it towards Roman, who simply grabbed it out of her hand. When he read what she wrote down, his eyes widened for a moment before simply frowning.

"Neo...I know that this was the kid that you were fighting-"

Her glare cut him off.

"I'm not calling a fight 'playing'." He shook his head. "Anyway, I fail to see why exactly you are saying that we should try to get him to help. He's a Beacon student, there is no way he could help, if he even accepted."

Neo threw her hands into the air in annoyance. Why did the mute one always have to spell it out? She took a few moments to write on another piece of paper, once more pushing it towards Roman. The man took another puff of his cigar before grabbing the paper.

Neo certainly hoped that this would make her thought process a bit more clear. She had spelt it out as clearly as she could.

It had said, "That kid was saved by some ghost or something, probably his semblance. He fought like some demon had taken over, or a full grown hunter."

Roman sighed. "I'm still not convinced. The kid still almost lost to you, even if he pulled his semblance out."

Neo ran her hands through her multi-colored hair as she frowned. Another note was sent his way.

"You think he could be of use? I doubt he would be willing to lend any criminal a hand, even if he knew what we did." Roman sighed. "Look, I know you don't act like it, but you are worried about our survival. I am too, Neo."

A momentary pause filled the air as Roman brought the cigar to his mouth again. He spoke once he brought it back down.

"I don't think he would help. No matter how strong he might be, it's a much greater risk to even try it."

Neo grit her teeth, no sound of annoyance coming out. Clearly though, Roman was smarter than that. They did indeed know each other very well.

"Look, I know you don't think I should turn it down just because of a risk, but...a risk like this is too large for what we are trapped in."

Neo tightened her hands into fists, her gloves groaning from the strain. She walked out of the room, feeling her urge to cut something slowly building in the back of her mind. She wanted to show Roman that she could help in more ways than just her illusion and skill, but it seemed that he wasn't willing to even take the risk to see.

"Looks like I'll just have to take the matter into my own hands." She thought.

A wicked smile grew on her face at the idea. All she had to do was show something to that kid, be it with intimidation or appealing to his compassion, to get him on their side. No, on her side.

Azura Heart was a name that was carved in her mind, and she wanted nothing more than to break him. To have complete dominance over such a potentially strong person. And if she had to play nice to get that, then she would play nice. The thought pushed her wicked smile into a sadistic one.

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.(Chapter End)

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At first, I had no plan for Neo to be any more involved than I needed her for at first, but over time, it just made sense for her to do more than what Neo and Roman were shown to do in the show. At least, to me. I do hope that you liked how Neo was portrayed in this little bit, because she'll be a character that pops up now and again.

Have a good day/evening!