As Yang shuts her scroll, she looks over to her partner, who's still fixated on her with a nervous look in her yellow eyes. "Don't worry, I didn't tell them where we are, just that you're safe and we're together.", Yang gently explains to Blake as she tries to get the girl to relax, which seems to work.
Blake's stressed and nervous behavior seems to die down as her shoulders relax and she lets out a sigh of relief. The Faunus glances back up at Yang and asks, "So...how long did you know?"
"About your ears? A while. Actually, I noticed them all the way back when we were in the Emerald Forest. Thought your bow twitching every now and then was a bit odd, but the cat ears explain it. Not to mention your love for tuna. I didn't want to pry since you were clearly trying to keep them under wraps, so I stayed quiet. If you eventually felt like telling us about it, I'd have been okay with that, and if you didn't, I'd 've been okay with that too.", Yang explains as she puts a supporting hand on the girl's shoulder, causing a slight smile to come across Blake's face.
Their conversation is quickly halted when they hear someone let out a loud, attention-grabbing cough. The three huntsmen look over to see Sun standing in the doorway before asking, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your...teammate?", saying the last part as he fixes his hair dramatically.
"Sun, we're kind of in the middle of something here.", Blake growls as she glares over at the monkey boy, causing him to wave his hands defensively in front of himself.
"Calm down, calm down, I'm just messin' around. So, what's going on up here?", Sun asks before noticing Ash standing there. The two make eye contact, the linen-wrapped boy's cold gaze shooting a cold chill up the monkey boy's spine, causing him to suddenly growing pale with his tail sticking straight out.
"Sun? Are you...alright?", Blake asks the boy with a somewhat worried look as she takes a step towards him to investigate.
Sun suddenly snaps out of his shock before frantically replying with, "Well, I better get back downstairs! Tukson REALLY needs my help down there. Nice meeting you all! Bye!", and taking off downstairs like a speeding bullet.
"Wonder what's wrong with him...", Yang thinks as she glances over to see Blake's irritated scowl. "That a friend of yours?", Yang cheekily asks her partner, causing the dusk-colored girl to let out a loud groan.
"More like a lost dog that won't stop following me. He followed me all the way here and refused to leave.", Blake explains as she rubs her temples gently, trying to get rid of her now growing headache.
Much to the girls' surprise, Ash speaks up and comments, saying, "You seem to have a habit of doing that, Blake." The girls look over to the boy as he continues, saying, "You seem to avoid people as much as possible, either pushing them away or running away yourself. Are you afraid they'll betray you or something?"
"It's...it's complicated.", Blake nervously replies as she goes to put her bow back on. Before she can bring the ribbon to her ears, Blake stops herself and takes a deep breath, calming herself slightly as she looks back to her partner. "It has a lot to do with my time growing up in the White Fang...and why I chose to leave...", the cat girl, still somewhat nervous, explains as she walks over to the door and locks its various locks with the keys in her hand.
Yang raises her hands up, waving them dismissively as she tells her, "You don't have to tell us anything you don't want to Blake. If it's something you don't want to remember, I'm okay with leaving it all in the past."
This causes her monochrome partner to give her a slight smile before replying with, "It's alright, I think I just need to let it all out now. I've been keeping this all bottled up for so long, it's been really getting to me I guess." Once the door is properly locked, the fluffy-eared girl walks over to the resting area of the store where there are two chairs and a couch, and she takes a seat on the arm of one of the chairs. "Like I said, I grew up in the White Fang. You could almost say I was born into the organization. But back then, things were far different than how they are now. In the ashes of war, we were meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between the Humans and the Faunus. Of course, despite being promised equality, we were subjected to discrimination and hatred. We were nothing more than second rate citizens to them. So the White Fang rose up as a voice of the people, and I was there. I was at the front of every rally, I took part in every boycott, and I actually thought we were making a difference, but I was just a youthful optimist...a fool. Then, five years ago, our original leader stepped down and a new leader took his place, a new leader with a new way of thinking. Suddenly, our peaceful protests were replaced with organized attacks, we were setting fires to shops that refused to serve our kind, and hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. The worst part was, it was working! We were being treated as equals, but not out of respect but out of fear. Before I left the White Fang, the leader that led us down this path died, killed by a huntsman while out on a vital mission for the White Fang against the Schnee Dust Company. This led to the current leader's rise to the position and the organization's hatred for humanity to rise even further. Suddenly, our objective wasn't for equality, but for revenge. Revenge against those who discriminated against our kind, revenge for our high leader's death, and revenge against all Humans for their crimes against us. Everything...everything changed... So I left. I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their bloodthirsty crimes. Instead, I'd dedicate my life to becoming a huntress, and here I am, a criminal hiding in plain view! All with the help of a little, black bow...", Blake vividly explains her story as Ash and Yang take their seats to listen to her tale, listening closely to every detail of her past.
Yang looks to her with a focused stare before asking, "But why?"
"Why what?", Blake replies with a confused gaze, and the blonde's stare flares up into a full glare.
"Why didn't you tell any of us? Why didn't you tell me!? We could've helped you, I could've helped you! All you would've had to do was ask!", Yang growls, a burning passion igniting the girl's spirit as she tries desperately to help her friend and her lavender eyes turn to a burning shade of crimson.
A slight frown comes across the pale girl's face as she looks down at the ribbon in her hand, gently rubbing it with her thumb as she says, "It's not like I wanted to hide this all for so long... It's just... I've been burnt before." Blake turns her focus back to Yang, and she continues on, saying, "Back in the White Fang, I had a partner. We knew each other for all our lives really. We were...close...but I didn't notice it until it was too late. As the White Fang's focus twisted, so did his. He wasn't the same person I grew up with, not anymore. He became something else, a monster. When I came here to Beacon, I only ever encountered lone Hunters and Huntresses, so I never expected Hunters to work in groups, so I thought that was how I'd be working, all alone. I didn't realized it until the initiation ceremony that I'd be stuck with someone for four whole years, and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to reach out to you...to tell you everything, but I couldn't. Every instinct I had burned into my body told me not to, to keep myself from getting attached to you because I'd probably have to run away again if you or anyone else found out what I really was."
Yang stands up and walks over to her partner before enveloping her in a warm embrace, squeezing Blake hard enough that she squeals a bit. As the blonde lets go of her, Blake can see a smile on Yang's face as the blonde tells her, "It doesn't matter what or who you are, we're friends, Blake. And when you're friends with me, you're friends for life, no matter how far you run away from me. The distance between us doesn't matter, it's that bond, the bond between the two of us that really matters. And no matter how far away we are, that bond won't break, never." Yang seems to think about this for a moment before a slight frown comes across her face, the blonde seeming lost in thought for a second before looking over to Ash with a smile and saying, "And I bet Ash feels the same way, right Ash?"
Ash gives a quick nod in response before adding, "It doesn't matter what lies in your past or what you are, what truly matters is what's in your heart. If what you hold in your heart is pure, then you have nothing to fear."
A warm smile comes across the saddened cat girl's face before she suggests, "Now, how about we make some tea? I'm a bit thirst after all that."
Yang and Ash both nod to her and the trio heads out into the kitchen to get something to drink.
Back in Beacon, it's getting dark as the shattered moon begins to rise up from the horizon. Ruby and Sapphire are going back to their dorms after taking Coco back to her dorm room. As the two are walking by the Amphitheater, they both get a quick ping on their scrolls and when they look, they see it's a message from Yang.
"They're alright, that's a relief.", Ruby notes as she reads the message from her sister.
Sapphire nods to the little redhead before putting her own scroll away and saying, "At least we know they're safe. We'll probably see them tomorrow."
"Ah, so they found her, huh?", a familiar voice asks from out of nowhere, causing Ruby to jump as Sapphire just glares at the source of the voice.
Reginald walks out from around the corner of the entrance to the arena, and Sapphire just nods to him, saying, "Yeah, Ash and Yang found her. They're going to be spending the night with her before trying to bring her home."
To their surprise, a slight smile comes across his face as he hears this and he says, "That's good. I won't lie though, I'm a bit jealous of that mummy boy. Getting to spend the night with two beauties, and I thought I was the lucky one."
Sapphire and Reginald seem to glare at one another for a moment before Sapphire asks, "What do you want, Reginald?"
"Me? I'm just curious where my teammate might be, that's all. Would you mind telling me?", Reginald sarcastically answers as he takes a step towards the two leaders.
"Yang didn't say anything about-", Ruby begins to answer before Sapphire gives her a sharp glare, causing the little red girl to stop mid sentence and let out a sudden yelp.
"Ruby, you just head back to your dorm, alright?", Sapphire tells her, causing the young girl to look up to her friend with a worried glance. Sapphire glances down at her with a slight smirk before saying, "I think it's about time I have a nice long 'talk' with my teammate here."
Ruby nods and leaves, heading for the dorms as Reginald and Sapphire glare at one another. Sapphire glances over to the entrance to the Amphitheater and crosses her arms before walking inside.
"Where do you think you're going?", Reginald growls as he follows her inside.
She doesn't even look back at him as she sternly replies with, "We're going to 'talk.' But considering you don't really like to listen to anyone, talking like normal people won't work. Instead, we'll have to talk through our weapons." As she enters the arena, she stands on one side with her arms crossed, glaring over at the boy as she waits patiently for him to enter the arena.
"So you really think you can take me? That's pretty bold of you, ya know.", Reginald gloats as he enters the arena, tightening his gloves as he gives them a good tug. He unleashes his wires as Sapphire draws a single blade from her belt.
"Just using one? I'm hurt!", Reginald sarcastically notes as he stands across from her, waiting for the battle to begin.
"On the count of three. One.", Sapphire begins as she takes her stance, ready to battle.
Reginald only smirks at this before continuing the countdown, shouting, "Two!"
As the two warriors shout, "THREE!", in unison, Sapphire rushes towards the boy at a remarkable rate. Reginald isn't phased by this, however, and quickly whirls his wires around to create a small barrier around himself, protecting him from any physical attack she might attempt. To his surprise, she activates the wind Dust in her Azure Drake, causing blades of wind to fly through his wires, falling apart as they hit his threaded barrier before reforming into smaller blades of destruction. Reginald manages to dodge most of them, but a few of the blades manage to scrape his aura, causing him to happily smirk to himself.
The wire-weaver quickly unleashes his wires in a gleeful rage, whirling them wildly across the arena in order to catch her off guard from the multiple angles he could attack from. Her left eye suddenly glows with a bright blue light as she manages to block every attack from every angle, even managing to defend herself from his attacks from her blind spot as she draws another one of her Azure Drakes and blocks the well-planned strike.
"She's a persistent one, isn't she? I guess that's the #1 ranked fighter in our class you.", Reginald thinks as he tries every angle he can imagine to catch the girl off guard, but she manages to block every attack as she slowly closes the distance between them. As she blocks another one of his wires, she throws her right blade at the ground, about halfway between her and Reginald, before it starts to glow with a black energy.
"Gravity Dust?", Reginald thinks in a panic as he's quickly pulled in by the blade's ominous black aura. Sapphire's also pulled towards the blade, and as she goes flying towards him, she places her sword in her mouth and draws two more swords, entering her three swords stance as she prepares to go on the offensive. As she goes to cut her opponent down, he pulls all of his wires back and uses them along with a portion of his aura to stop her overwhelming strength, forming a thick wall of wires to slow down her three blades while protecting himself from the rest of the attack's force with his silver aura.
The sheer force of the collision causes Reginald to go flying back a couple feet as he reels his wires back in, getting ready to block any oncoming attack she might unleash. The Azure Warrior quickly pulls up her sword from the ground as she draws her final sword, entering her final stance, her five swords stance. With two swords in each hand, one sword between her index fingers and her middle fingers and the other in between her middle fingers and her ring fingers, and the fifth one in her mouth, she triggers all five of their Dust cylinders, causing them all to ignite with burning flames.
Reginald counters with a stone barrier to block her out, but she simply slices through it with her four blades, lashing out at him with the blade in her mouth. The boy takes a couple steps back as he does his best to parry her attacks, but they only get stronger and quicker as she continues to force the boy back, slashing wildly and unrelentingly at the him.
In a split second, he sees an opening in her unwavering attacks, underneath her as she focuses her sights on him with her unending attacks, and sends a single threat through, aiming to catch her off guard with the hard-to-see wire. He places the wire near her feet, aiming to trip her while she approached him, but she jumps over the wire without any hesitation.
Reginald's eyes widen in horror as he thinks, "I-impossible! Nobody can see my threads so easily! How did she know my trap was there!?" The boy quickly surrounds himself with his wires as he forms a spherical barrier to protect himself from every angle, but Sapphire sees through this and tosses two of her extra swords, one from each hand, at him. Much to his surprise, she feeds them perfectly in between his wires to almost reach his chest, but he's able to stop them in time before they can do so by using most of his wires to wrap around the dangerous blades until they came to a stop. But before he can counter, he's met with three quick slashes.
The furious weaver manages to see her after-image with her legs glowing with her blue aura as she moves past him and he thinks, "No way, she's this quick too!?"
As the flames die down from her blades, the cylinders on her three blades rotate until coming to a stop on her ice Dust. She quickly slashes the air, sending a wave of icicles flying towards the boy, forcing him to dodge out of the way of the attack. This causes him to drop her Azure Drakes in order to use his wires to defend himself, allowing her to recover her blades as she rushes him down oncemore.
With barely a second to think, he sends his wires out to catch her approach, but Sapphire pushes them aside with walls of ice that she makes as she slashes at the ground. This works out perfectly for him as he ignites his wires with fire Dust, causing the ice to melt into a large puddle on the ground. Reginald quickly leaps up into the air, balancing on a thin wire to make it look as if he's floating in mid air, before changing the element of Dust to lightning Dust. This sends a powerful current through the water, and almost shocks Sapphire, but she stabs one of her Azure Drakes into the ground, and as its earth Dust causes the blade to turn to stone, she lands on top of it to avoid Reginald's well-planned attack.
"She dodged that one too! This is ridiculous!", Reginald growls under his breath, to which Sapphire chuckles.
"What? Giving up already?", Sapphire taunts the boy before leaping up to the wire he's balancing on with her eye still glowing with a blue flame. To his surprise, she balances on the wire perfectly, as if experienced in such an awkward form of combat situation.
"Not even close! Let's see how well you keep up in my domain!", Reginald quickly replies before unleashing the full power of his wires, attacking her from literally every possible direction. Instead of blocking however, she evades the attacks as she rushes Reginald down, bobbing and weaving between the wires she can while cutting through the ones that deny her access, pushing them aside to form a path with her swords glowing with what little Dust she still has left in her cylinders.
Reginald, completely caught off guard by this, doesn't seem to hesitate and clashes with the girl, head-on, wires lashing out against her powerful blades. As the two glare each other down, he notices the glowing light around her eye, causing him to finally put it together. "That's your semblance!", he exclaims before the girl knocks away his wires and slashes him with her four remaining swords, depleting him to 15% of his aura as he falls to the ground with a thud.
As she finally runs out of Dust, her Azure Drakes stop glowing and she sheathes them in their proper sheathes as she says, "Game over."
"It's over, you've lost.", Sapphire explains as her eye reverts back to its normal state. To her surprise, she only hears Reginald cackling to himself before busting out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
The comical boy sits up and places his hand over his eyes as he laughs to himself and says, "You could read every move I was gonna make before I even thought of them myself. What a pain."
His leader jumps down to his side as Reginald reels in his wires before pulling up her final sword out of the ground and returning it to its sheath like the others. "So you figured me out? That's my Semblace, future sight. It takes a lot of my aura to keep up for long periods of time, and using it repeatedly at first was beyond draining, but now I can use it about ten times in quick succession or hold it for over two minutes before having to let my aura rest.", Sapphire explains as she walks over to the defeated boy, seeming to tower over him as he looks up at her with a slight glare.
To his surprise, she reaches a hand out to him, and he seems to only glare at her for a moment before a smirk suddenly comes across his face. He reaches out his hand, uncovering his still shame-covered face as he says, "I guess you win this round, Boss."
As Sapphire hears him calling her 'Boss' in a non-sarcastic tone for the first time, a confident smile comes across her face. "Alright, then let's get going. We have a party to get to.", Sapphire tells him as she pulls the boy up to his feet.
"A party? What the hell for?", Reginald questions her as he dusts the dirt off of his pants and vest.
Sapphire turns away from him and heads for the exit as she explains, saying, "Jaune invited us to a party for his team and friends. He wanted to make sure we all had a good time before the end of the year. Are you not coming?"
Reginald just chuckles to himself and says, "I guess I have to, don't want to hurt the poor guy's feelings. And maybe I'll get to see that Pyrrha in a little less armor for once~" As Reginald says this, he's put into a trace at the thought of Pyrrha's curvy body in a pair of yellow short-shorts and a red tanktop with her long red hair flowing elegantly down her back, drool starting to run down his face at the mental image in his head.
Before he can save the image into his mind forever, Sapphire slaps the boy over the back of his head to bring him back to reality. "Could you stop daydreaming and move already? We don't have all night, you know.", Sapphire growls and Reginald just smirks before saying, "Come on, that was a good one too. Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?"
As Ruby walks up the stairs to the third floor of her dorm, she stops at the last couple steps to catch her breath. She huffs and puffs, trying desperately to get air into her tiny lungs as she mutters to herself, "Curse these tiny legs! Who the heck broke the elevator anyways! I can't handle walking all these steps until the end of the semester!"
As she goes to finish her trek up the stairs, she stops when she hears Weiss desperately call out, "Pyrrha please, just listen!"
Ruby peeks around the corner to see Weiss talking to Pyrrha as the warrior stands in front of her team's room.
"Why should I? Your line of thinking yesterday was nothing if not disrespectful to the title of Huntress. If anything you should be shunned for what you've done.", Pyrrha scolds her as the amazon gives the heiress a cold glare over her shoulders, reaching for the door to her room as she does so.
"Pyrrha, please...I just...I need someone to talk to.", Weiss begs, her eyes seeming somewhat defeated as she looks up to Pyrrha for help.
Noticing this, Pyrrha's harsh glare melts into a concerned glance as she thinks, "I've never seen her like this... I wonder what happened." "Fine, I guess I can spare a moment. But don't take my kindness as forgiveness.", Pyrrha softly replies as she takes Weiss' hand and drags her towards the stairs.
Ruby quickly darts down the stairs to hide before Pyrrha gets close enough to see her. The crimson ninja hears the sound of the two girls rushing up the steps and sneaks up after them. "Since when did Pyrrha and Weiss become close enough for Weiss to reach out to her like that? What's going on?", Ruby asks herself as she reaches a door to the roof. Cracking the open door just a bit so she can see, Ruby starts gets a small taste of what's going on out on the roof.
"Now what did you want to talk about so badly?", Pyrrha asks in a kind, concerned tone as she looks over to Weiss.
Weiss turns away from her with her arms crossed and says, "I'm just...I'm confused."
"Confused? Confused about what?", Pyrrha questions the stumped girl with a raised eyebrow.
Weiss quickly whirls around and exclaims, "Everything!", before starting to pace around the roof in a perfect circle. "Back in Atlas, people would always look up to me. They would do anything I told them, listen to anything I wanted them to, and never ever disobeyed a direct order. The only people who didn't were members of my own family, and I left to rid myself of them. But now...everything's so different... Now, nobody listens to me, nobody respects me or my skills, and even the Headmaster is looking down on me and calling me a mistake. I feel beyond anxious and like I'm being suffocated under a pillow! It's just one thing stacking on top of another!", Weiss finally admits as her formation starts to break, her perfect circle becoming sloppy and unorderly as she tries to find the right words to describe these bizarre feelings she's been having.
"I see...", Pyrrha awkwardly replies as seems to glance over at the doorway, seeing an odd shimmer of red as they talk.
"You're the only one I feel that really knows what I'm feeling. You're Mistral's own version of Celebrity Royalty. You had to at one point or another go through this problem, right? How did you get through this?", Weiss mentions as she approaches the red-haired girl, desperate for an answer to her problems.
Pyrrha seems to focus on Weiss for a moment before asking, "So now that you're at Beacon, nobody is treating you how you should be treated? They don't notice your 'incredible skills' and 'raw talent,' like your family would? And now that everything's just piling up on top of you, almost smothering you in stress and anxiety?" Weiss quickly nods to this, which Pyrrha sighs at, saying, "I guess I can somewhat relate to what you're going through. I did go through a phase like that myself once, before I came here to Beacon."
"It was a few years ago, I had just won my second Mistral regional tournament and I was beyond full of myself. Fans would come up to me in waves just to have the chance of having me breath on them. I thought nothing of those below me, seeing them only as a way to increase my fame and promote my title as the Invincible Girl of Mistral. But that all changed at the Junior Remnicient.", Pyrrha explains and Weiss nods in response.
"That was when you encountered Sapphire Cobolt for the first time, correct?", Weiss asks, to which Pyrrha nods in response.
Looking away from Weiss, Pyrrha begrudgingly admits, "It was the first time they held such an even for the junior league, so I never anticipated such a challenge. I made it through my first match with ease, but the Grand Finals was where I finally lost my title." "It was a tough match, the two of us trading blow after blow before she finally came out on top, beating me and becoming the first Junior Remnicient champion.", Pyrrha continues as she clenches her fist, remembering every hit and slash she threw Sapphire's way. The emerald-eyed girl turns to Weiss with a focused glare and explains, "After that day, I was fuming with rage and hate. I thought there was no way I could've lost, not to some random girl from some off-the-map patch of dirt... And that's when the accident happened..."
"Accident?", Weiss nervously asks with a concerned look as a disheartened look comes across Pyrrha's face.
Pyrrha gives the snow white girl a single nod and goes on, saying, "Yes, though I had a generally good grasp of how to use my semblance, I could easily lose control of it when my emotions ran high, which led to...that day..." After a moment of hesitation, Pyrrha lets out a heavy sigh before telling Weiss, "On that day, I lashed out with my semblance and caused a massive car accident... A few people managed to walk away from the incident, but not everybody..."
Weiss takes a step back and Pyrrha just looks off into the distance, regret seeming to pour off the girl. "Nobody seemed to know what actually happened and the police blamed it all on a faulty wire in one of the traffic lights, but I knew the truth. I caused that accident, and no matter how much I wanted to reach out to the families that lost their loved ones that day, my agent refused to let me. He told me it would only cause people to ask questions!", Pyrrha continues before turning to Weiss with a twisted in sorrow and remorse, recalling the day in vivid detail.
The crimson gladiator takes a few quick steps towards Weiss as she growls, "Those weren't just some nameless people who I hurt that day! They were people, with lives, and families! They were children who asked when daddy or mommy was coming home! They were people, and I was scum because I thought they were nothing more than some playthings that could be thrown away at a moment's notice!", as tears start to well up in her eyes.
Wiping away the salty tears nearly blinding her vision, Pyrrha looks to the heiress with a slight frown as she says, "I'd advise you not to make the same mistake I did and look at everyone as an equal, be they Human or Faunus, it doesn't really matter. They're people and they deserve to be treating as such. And if you want to fix this mess you've made yourself between you and your teammates, you'll have to humble yourself as much as possible. It doesn't matter how skilled or great you really are, nobody wants to work with someone who's pompous and ungrateful."
As the renowned warrior starts to take her leave, she calls out to Weiss, suggesting, "Perhaps the first step to humbling yourself is learning how to admit you were wrong and apologizing." With a motion of her hand, the steel door swings open, revealing Ruby's presence as she falls out onto the roof.
Weiss seems furious with the hooded eavesdropper at first, glaring at the young girl before noticing Pyrrha's equally stern glare focused on her in turn. Pyrrha gives Ruby a helping hand, pulling the girl to her feet as she says, "I'm going back to my dorm now. Jaune's throwing a party to celebrate the time we've all spent together. You two should swing by when you're done. Ren's making pancakes, and they're really good~"
After giving her offering to the duo, Pyrrha gives Ruby a kind smile before leaving to return to her dorm.
This leaves the two partners alone on the roof together and Ruby awkwardly tells her, "We need to talk."