I do not own RWBY or any of the characters.

Episode

Fox watched as Ava payed the inn keeper. They had been on the road for weeks. After about three days of recovery, Qrow had messaged Fox that Cinder had headed for Haven. And once he knew that, Fox decided he had recovered enough. No memories had returned, but that didn't matter. He needed to find and kill Cinder. And so, they had been traveling to try and remove Cinder's main combat force. The White Fang.

"Are you sure about this?" Ava asked.

"No," Fox said. "But we don't have much choice. We have to stop the White Fang from working with Cinder."

"But, your plan..." Ava sighed. "How do you know it'll work? What if the White Fang don't follow? What if they turn on us?"

"Then we kill them," Fox shrugged. "It was fun playing the good kid with Ozpin, but it's time to ditch the practice weapons again. If the White Fang tries to stop us, we kill them. Any that fight us."

Ava nodded as they left the town, starting through the woods, both pulling out their weapons and scanning for grimm. "Okay. Any word from Sun?"

"Nothing yet," Fox said. "I'm not overly worried. Sun will take care of Blake."

"And try to steal her," Ava said.

Fox remained silent for a while, remembering Blake's words about having trouble deciding between them. "It's not stealing."

Ava stared at him a moment before looking to the front as a pair of Ursa Majors charged out of the trees. She opened her briefcase into a massive axe and split both in half. She collapsed it and took a step forward only for a Beowolf to skid out of the trees before slowing to a stop, beginning to dissolve. As it finished fading, Fox and Ava stared at the person left lying on the ground in shock. It was Wulfe. Shirtless, covered in gashes, and with his pants in tatters, but it was still Wulfe. Fox and Ava sprinted forward, dropping to their knees beside him, Ava hugging him and beginning to cry in relief and joy, as he groaned, opening his eyes.

"Found you," Wulfe groaned.

"Are you alright?" Fox asked. "Where have you been Wulfe?"

"Wulfe?" Wulfe repeated, brow furrowing before he shook his head. "I'm not Wulfe. Wulfe was killed by Adam. He fought for as long as he could. He used dozens of clones. But in the end, Adam killed him. I'm just the only clone to survive. Wulfe made me hide while he fought Adam."

"Your semblance is to create living, breathing clones," Fox said. "You may not be the original Wulfe, but you are Wulfe. You have all of his memories, right?"

Wulfe nodded.

"And you can use his semblance?" Fox asked.

Wulfe nodded again.

"Then you're Wulfe," Fox said. "And you have no idea how glad we are to see you."

Wulfe nodded, smiling and wrapping his arms around Ava, squeezing her for a moment before standing and looking around. "Where are we going?"

"To HQ," Fox said.

"We'll be killed on sight," Wulfe said. "And there's a very high chance that Adam is there."

"Most likely," Fox nodded. "But if he is, that means that you get a rematch, this time with backup, and I can repay him for taking Yang's arm."

"Yang lost her arm?" Wulfe asked.

"You've missed quite a lot," Fox said. "Come on. We'll fill you in on the way."

Fox pushed the bushes aside, allowing Ava and Wulfe to pass. He stepped through after them and they all stopped, staring at the village before them. It was small. Barely bigger than the last they had passed through, which had been little more than ten buildings. This one looked to have fifteen. They walked into it in silence, all of them scanning for grimm. Their journey so far had been quiet. They were attacked maybe twenty times a day, if that. Given how long they travelled, that really was nothing. They were covering ground at a surprising rate. Fox knew Ava and Wulfe were starting to wear down, but he wanted to take the White Fang out of play as soon as he could, assuming he could at all.

They walked to the building that had an inn sign out front and opened the door. So far, they hadn't seen anyone, and it seemed the inn was no different. They spread out, carefully searching the building, finding it was deserted. They met back up by the door and all shook their heads.

"We'll rest here for the rest of today and tonight," Fox said. "How much food do we have left?"

"Enough for the next couple days," Wulfe said. "We're still almost a month from HQ."

"I know," Fox sighed, nodding. "And we've been on the road for four already."

"Are we sure about all of this?" Wulfe asked. "The plan, going to HQ at all, letting Sun have so much time alone with Blake."

"If Sun wins Blake's heart then so be it," Fox said, opening a cabinet behind the desk and grabbing three of the room keys. "We have more important things to do, like stopping Cinder. Here." He tossed them each a key. "Tomorrow we'll decide how to ration the food."

"Fox," Ava said as he turned to walk away. "You never remembered what happened after the tournament, did you?"

"No," Fox said. "Why?"

"I don't think you need to worry about him stealing her as much as you might think," Ava said.

Fox stared at her for a moment before turning and heading upstairs to the top floor, finding his room in the furthest corner, away from all windows and entrances, then locked himself in and sat down, pulling out his scroll and staring at it. He had no messages. As always.

"Dammit Sun," Fox sighed. "You had better be good to her. It's the least you can do since I basically gave her to you."

He set his scroll aside and lay down, pulling the blankets up to his neck. It was barely past noon, but if her slept until morning, he wouldn't be hungry the rest of the day.

Fox opened his eyes, remaining silent and listening for the sound that had woken him. After a moment, his scroll vibrated and he released a breath he hadn't fully realized he was holding. He picked it up, opening it and staring. It was from Sun.

"Hey, finally got some decent signal," Sun's message read. "We took a ship to Menagerie. It's so...beautiful here. I don't know if you've been or not, but if you haven't, you should definitely stop by here. Soon. In case you don't get my point, come find us here so that Blake will finally cheer up and stop saying that you "probably hate her for abandoning you all." You're an ass for not coming after us anyway, but I can't, in good conscience, steal Blake if you're not around to defend your good name. I don't know what you're up to, but you need to hurry up and come to Menagerie. P.S. We're trying to get the faunus here to turn against the White Fang. P.P.S. You won't believe how big Blake's house is."

Fox closed his scroll and rolled onto his back. The clock on his scroll had read one twenty seven am. He groaned. He wasn't going to be able to sleep again for a while. Sure enough, he lay there nearly two more hours before sleep finally returned. Except, this time, it was tainted with flashes of a burning Vale, and of Ozpin's office exploding, and Pyrrha kissing Jaune goodbye.

Fox sat up, gasping for breathe before staring down at his hands. His head was still burning from his brain being forced to reveal its damaged memories, but the pain was fading. Fox pulled his shirt off and pushed himself out of bed onto unsteady, trembling legs. He staggered to the bathroom, catching himself at the sink and staring into the mirror. He stared first at the scars across his chest. One was a burn scar reaching from the center of his torso up toward his shoulder. It wasn't a bad one, just a couple shades more red than his skin, like a spot of very light sunburn. Another scar was on the right side of his abdomen, this one a bit more jagged than the first, and also indented a bit, though closer to natural skin color. The sides of his head, however, where he should have hand-shaped burn scars courtesy of Cinder, were completely healed, and his hair had grown back already. Having two relatively minor scars from a fight with a Fall Maiden was a blessing. However, currently, Fox wasn't focused on the blessing. He was focused on the memory of being hit with a dozen lightning bolts, and the feeling of Cinder trying to roast his brain inside his own head. He stared at his reflection, watching the color drain from it rapidly as his head throbbed and more memories began to struggle to pray. Then, he fell to his knees and bent over the toilet, heaving and emptying bile into the toilet. Once the first go had been finished, he began to dry heave, wishing he had eaten before going to sleep.

More memories began to assault him, these ones from long ago. He began to dry heave even harder, his body struggling to reject whatever it thought was in his stomach as he remembered chains and blades and barbed whips. He remembered a steak knife and the worst pain he had felt up until Cinder tried to cook his brain, and even that was a close call. He remembered not being able to sit down without being in agony for a full year, and that standing up and laying on his stomach had both been no better.

He dry heaved again, struggling to inhale only begin dry heaving again. He felt panic begin to rise even faster in his stomach. His panic attack from the memories had been bad enough, but now it was keeping him from breathing. He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling for his pocket only to remember he was in his boxers, his scroll lying on the bed, well out of reach. However, just as he thought this, the door broke inward and a moment later, Ava was beside him, her arms around him speaking to him, but his brain wasn't processing it. However, her presence helped. After a few seconds, he was able to catch a breath between bouts of dry heaving and from there was able to slowly calm himself, laying on Ava's shoulder, entire body aching and feeling dead.

"What happened?" Ava asked. "It's been so long since you've had an episode."

"I remembered some of what happened at Beacon and it triggered an episode," Fox said.

"How much did you remember?" Ava asked.

"I remembered my first fight with her before she got her Maiden powers," Fox said. "And I vaguely remember stopping Pyrrha from fighting her. And I remembered her cooking my brain. That's what caused the episode."

Ava nodded. "Anything else?"

"You sound like you're fishing, Ava," Fox sighed. "I don't remember whatever it is you want me to. At least, I assume you don't, since I assume I'd know if I did."

Ava sighed, nodding. "Sorry. I'm sure it'll come to you. Hopefully just without you having another episode."

Fox nodded. "We're resting here another day. I can't travel like this."

Ava nodded and remained silent. After a couple more minutes, she helped him up so he could wash his mouth and brush his teeth in the sink, then helped him back to bed.

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