Chapter 2

I'm sat behind the front desk as a woman dressed in all white came in. I don't think twice about it when she begins to go up and down the aisles, but the way she appears to be scrutinizing everything rubs me the wrong way. Her icy blue eyes narrow as they finally seem to notice me sitting in the corner of the store.

"You gonna buy anything, or are you just going to keep looking around? Because if you need something, I can probably help you find whatever the fuck you're looking for."

"You've sure got a mouth on you," says the woman I called out to. She straightens her back even further than normal and continues walking with an air of superiority.

"You're clearly not from around here. So, what'll it be, lady?" I stretch my arms overhead until I felt a satisfying pop. As the woman mildly winces at the sound, I take in her attire. Her clothes looked too formal to be made in Vacuo and judging from the slight bead of sweat on her forehead, it was much too warm for the kingdom too.

"No, I'm here on official business," she said evenly. She takes out a handkerchief and dabs at her forehead in almost a robotic fashion. I almost laugh at how seriously she was taking herself, and her apparent need to save face. "Where is the owner of this establishment?"

"He's on break," I yawn out, not bothering to cover my mouth. I take a few steps closer and pick up an empty cup. I hold it out to her and ask, "you thirsty?" Despite me not really caring, I was instructed to be 'courteous' to whomever came in.

"That glass is filthy," she remarks, eyeing it for only a second. I take a look at it myself and narrow my eyes. There was a very very fine layer of dust on it that I could barely see. Nodding, I grab a rag from the front counter, and spit into the glass. After a few moments of cleaning, I present the cup once more.

"Better?" She didn't bother responding, but I could see from the disgusted expression she wore what she was thinking. "Listen, lady, that's how Mr. Loam told me to clean it, alright? You have a problem, take it up with him."

"You said he was on his break," the woman nearly seethes at me.

"He is," I say rolling my eyes. "He's out back, drinking. What, you think he went to the bar to do that? He still doesn't trust me to keep up his shop, I'm still on probation."

"Exactly, how long have you been working for Jack?"

"Hell, if I know. The days just bleed into each other when you're living in the middle of buttfuck nowhere." I reply annoyed. I set the cup down again and look over to the wall. "Well, my shift's over. Later, lady."

I hear her try to correct me about her name, but I don't listen, and instead walk back towards Shade Academy. I see two black streaks in the sky for just a moment, and I know Poe and Keres are watching out for me, but it bums me out to see them waiting for me to go back to them. I try to push the feelings aside and stand at the front gates of the Huntsmen school. I shut my eyes and take a deep breath to compose myself.

Stop doing this to yourself Astrid… you're better than this. You're not wasting your time here, this is all for a reason, stop doubting yourself, you stupid bitch.

"Is everything alright?"

I open my eyes, and see May looking at me with concern. "Uh, yeah, just waiting for you."

"Why are you crying?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked in a scoff. "I'm not crying." I touch my face and feel a tear running down my cheek. "What the fuck? Why am I crying?"

"I was hoping you'd be able to tell me," May says, following with an uncomfortable laugh. "Are you okay? Is Mr. Loam working you too hard?"

"Nah, he's paranoid, but not that bad. I just sat around keeping an eye on his shit like I normally do."

"Well, I can try to help you find another job if you want," she offers.

"No, no, no," I say in rapid fire. "He pays the best around here, and I really need to get out of this damn desert."

"Yeah, I know… you really want to see them, don't you?"

A flash of anger floods me for a moment but was followed by a deep sadness I haven't been able to shake. I ball my hands into fist, then exhale slowly. "I want to do so much more than just see them…"

"Oh, I see," May says, a bit dejected. She seems to shake it off in a brief moment, then grabs my shoulder. "Did you want to go train in the desert again? I can bring along Nolan if you want. I'm not really suited to be helping you with your melee combat."

"Yeah, bring him along," I said with a nod. "I need to work on fighting multiple people at the same time. I don't want either of you holding back."

"Great! Let's go!" she said, typing away at her scroll. "I sent him the coordinates."

I grin, in anticipation, when I realize I needed to check in with my Grimm partners. "I'll meet you there, I have to check up-"

"With your friends, right?" she finished for me. "Why don't you invite them to come watch? I really want to meet them."

"No, I rather they didn't," I reply a bit defensively. I can see some expression hiding underneath her pensive look, but I can't make it out. "Why are you so dead set on wanting to meet them? You've asked about them more times than I care to remember."

May looks as if she doesn't want to answer, but I refuse to look away. A moment passes, and she lets out a sigh. "It's just I want to see what sort of people they are," she explains. "I'm sure if they're anything like you, we'd all get along great."

"We're really nothing alike," I answer, thinking to their Grimm nature. For a moment, I realize how quickly I answered, and try to come up with some explanation. I look around for a moment, and see we're, for the most part, alone. I decide I would tell them about how they're like, instead of what they're like. "There used to be five of us, but two of us didn't make it off the island." I look up and see May's face drop a bit. I shut my eyes for a second and remember the two friends I lost. "Their names were Randal and Sandy… We've known each other since we were little. Sandy was the youngest, and he… was killed first." I feel my hands trembling, and I shut my eyes tighter. "He was killed, right in front of us. Randal and I lost it, everything after that is a blur, until Randal and I were separated for just a moment. He was cornered, and I was too far away to do anything about it…"

"I'm sorry," May said, wrapping me into hug. "I… I don't know what I was thinking! I had no idea."

"It's not your fault," I say, although my voice is quiet. I feel the cold anger set back in, as I evaluate once more what I could have done differently. May lets go of me, but clasps my hands in hers. "It's mine. Never before that day did I let my emotions get the better of me, but since then, they've been dictating everything I do. Like right now, I feel really fucking angry and sad and shit… but I'm remembering them right now, which feels… I don't know."

"Do you not talk about it with the others?"

"Oh, I would if I could," I laugh humorlessly, retracting my hands from her gentle grip. For a moment, I realized that the warmth of our hands was quite pleasant, but I quickly push that thought aside as I think back to my two remaining friends."Poe isn't one to be sentimental, and I feel Keres is the one taking it the hardest. I have to be strong, for her, you know? I love that bastard Poe to death, and as smart as he is, it feels like talking to a rock when stuff like this comes up. Keres is the opposite, and I feel like if I say the wrong thing, she'll shut down. She's way more emotional that all of us, but it's what makes her so endearing."

"Is that why you don't bring them around?" she asks me.

"What do you mean?" I question, confused. "I don't bring them around for their sake. They really hate humans, and I'm the only exception to them. They'll attack most people on sight if they feel they're a threat to me."

"They sound overprotective…"

"Well, it's allowed me to live this long," I point out. "Although, it is nice to have a little freedom every now and again. Look, I should really go check up on them, alright? I'll meet you there in a bit."

"Right, of course," she said with a sad smile. "I'm just glad I understand now."

I make my way towards an area near the edge of town that Poe had taken a liking to. It wasn't extravagant, but it isolated enough that the two Grimm could have a bit of space to wander without fear of being spotted. As I approach, I let out a whistle, letting them know that it's me. Before I could finish my little tune, I'm knocked off my feet by Keres again, and I start to laugh.

"You really need to stop that," I say between my chuckles. I look over to Poe who eyed me suspiciously. Slowly, he made his way over, but didn't make a sound. "Are you really mad at me still? I've been on time for my check-ins for two weeks, and I haven't passed out again. What more do you want?"

He responds with a low caw and continues to stare. Keres emerges from my shirt, and flies around Poe. I vaguely hear her airy wisps of vocalization, and I feel bad for not understanding her. The two continue to have their exchange, and I'm starting to feel left out.

"Hey, guys? Look, I'm actually doing something today with Nolan and May," I announce, catching both of their attentions. "Also, May says hi again."

Poe flies at me with an alarming speed, and I duck to avoid his tackle.

"What the hell, Poe?" I shout, picking myself off the sand. "Why'd you do that?"

CAAW

"Oh, fuck off!" I say, rolling my eyes. "What do you know?" Poe picks up a bit of height, and I can already tell what he's planning. "You feathery bastard, if you shoot those damn things at me, I'll fucking skin you!"

Sure enough, he lets out a barrage of razor-sharp feather at me. I jump off to the side to avoid the brunt of the attack, but the sand causes me to slip. I try to catch myself, but I'm knock over by dozens of dagger sized feather making impact. I roll down the dune to get away from the assault and recompose myself.

"You're an envious little jerk, you know that?" I taunt. "What, a girl can't have more than two friends?"

I reach for my sword, as I know that if Poe was really going to be throwing a fit, I'd need to be able to defend myself, but find that it's missing. The scarab alone is still hooked to the belt May gave me, and I frantically begin to look around for the blade. To my surprise, I hear clashing of metal, and I peek over to see Keres using one of her arms to possess it, swinging at Poe. The Nevermore fly higher, but Keres' had opted to keep the majority of herself in Geist form, and caught up in no time, frantically slashing at the other Grimm.

"STOP IT!" I shout, as the two were about to strike each other. Keres stopped immediately, and flew back towards me, where Poe descended, but remained far. "Poe, what the hell is going on with you? I thought we were friends? Friends don't go around throwing razor blades at each other, that's fucked up!"

The Nevermore's response was to puff up his feathers again and flap his wings at me. He cawed a few times, and despite not knowing exactly what he said, I somehow felt the meaning behind his frustration. Keres also whispered to me, a vague sound of regret, and I suddenly realized what I was doing.

"Poe… I know you're looking out for me, and this all might seem like a waste of time to you, but I can't get to Vale overnight. Our mission is still my top priority, and you're right… I've been letting my human bullshit get in the way of that. But I still need money to book a flight, and I still need May and her team to get better at fighting. We'll be facing the four of them again, but they'll have their professors, and their other classmates to back them up. I don't have to be as smart as you to know I can't take on a freaking school of Huntsmen and Huntresses, and I refuse to allow either of you to die. We need to be prepared, and if that means we have to take it slow, then that's what we'll do, alright?"

Poe locked eyes with me and began hopping forward. Keres stepped in front of me defensively, but I waved her off. She floated behind me, as Poe finally stood in front of me. To my surprise, the bastard kept growing. A few weeks ago, he stood a little above my waist, but now he stood near my chin.

"Poe why is that you're growing all of the sudden?" I ask. "You've been the size of a seagull for ten years, but you've started getting really big these last few months."

He cawed and lifted a wing. In it was a broken arrowhead, which he gently took out. I haven't seen anything like it, but I haven't been around a lot of Huntsmen, so I wasn't sure what to think. I raise an eyebrow to him, and he flies over a few meters away. Hesitantly, I follow him, and catch him kicking the sand off a large wooden container that was buried in the sand. I open it for him, and I'm almost startled by what I see.

"P-Poe," I asked quietly. "Where did all of this come from?"

He caws lowly at me. I turned to Keres, who looks away, as if in shame.

"Both of you?" I asked, unsure how to feel. "Why? Where?"

As expected, I didn't get an answer, and I watched as the Nevermore placed the arrowhead into the chest and pecked the lid to shut.

"Poe, that chest —you can't keep doing this." I take a step away from him and try to wrap my head around what I saw. "That basket…"

He caws to confirm my thoughts. I feel a strange knot in my stomach, but it vanishes almost immediately. Poe stands on the buried chest and cocks his head at me.

"You're right," I agree. "There was no way we could be sure that the boy would have stayed silent. This was the only way to ensure our safety." The image of his green eyes begging for mercy flash in my head, and to my surprise, I find myself grinning. "What a beautiful expression…" I found the boy's face melting away into the likeness of Ruby, Wiess, Blake and finally Yang. Each one brought a wave of euphoria, and my knees buckled. I trembled as I allowed myself to fantasize a little longer. "You've been putting in a lot of work while I've been gone, and it's only fair I meet you two half way."

I give Poe an affectionate scratch, and Keres a peck as I made my way to May and Nolan. I felt a fiery passion filling me, one I hadn't realized had been extinguished. I grin evilly, as I try to contain my excitement for this spar.

"Astrid, over here!" I hear Nolan shout. He is standing in a relatively flat sandy area, and May is atop a tall dune, her rifle focused on the battlefield. I don't say anything, as I quickly close the distance. Nolan grins at me, and gives May a thumbs up, but his expression shifts as he realized I wasn't slowing down, and I had drawn my sword. "Whoa, no countdown?! The hell, Astrid?!"

"There's no countdown in the real world," I growl, as I swung high. "Out there, if you hesitate, you die."

Nolan raised his cattle prod to block my attack, but I expected as such, and already twisted my hips to deliver a kick to his midsection. I hear him let out a breath, and I jump back as I hear a bullet whiz past my ear.

"Don't go easy on me," I scold May. "I know you could have made that shot!"

Immediately after I finished shouting, I began wildly evading her suddenly much more accurate shots. In my head I begin counting, as I keep Nolan in my periphery. When she shot her fifteenth shot, she began to reload, and Nolan began pushing the offensive. They definitely work well together. This is exactly the kind of thing I need to be used to when I face off against those colorful bitches.

Nolan tries jabbing me with his weapon, and I roll my body to his left, and bring my sword down as hard as I can to his exposed back, but before I made contact, my sword goes flying out of my grip. I look up to May, who is giving me what I assume she thinks is an apologetic smile. This momentary distraction proved to be too much, as Nolan already recovered, and I felt electricity course through me as he struck me in the side of the head. While the initial force wasn't extraordinary, my lack of footing made it possible for him to knock me down and roll in the sand.

"Alright, I think that's enough for round one," Nolan said with a pant. He offered his hand out to me, and I accepted it. "Damn, you came here with some aggression, everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I say, waving it off. I didn't expect to win on my first try, but the constant taste of defeat was getting on my nerves. First it was on the island, then it was against Roy and Brawnz, and now it's against May and Nolan. "Maybe I should stop giving myself a handicap…"

"What are you talking about?" asked Nolan. "May said you wanted to fight multiple people."

"I did, but I realize now I've never fought anybody in an even fight. I'm always outnumbered." May came skidding down the dune, and I'm glad to see she hadn't put on her jacket since I saw her last. "Hey, May, nice shooting. I'd never dream of being able to hit those shots."

"It's just practice," she says with a shy grin. "I can teach you some of the basics sometime."

"That'd be a great idea," Nolan answers for me. I look at him questioningly. "Think about it, you'd be able to wither down people's Aura from a distance, then finish them off with… that thing."

"It's called a sword," I say, rolling my eyes.

"I'm aware," he grinned. "It's just kind of basic. If my weapon was a simple as yours, I'd be fighting with a club. Even May modified her rifle to have this little axe thing on the back."

"I use that to get to get high ground," May corrected.

"Not around here you won't. You can't exactly stab a dune with that thing and expect to get up very far. That thing is more suited for trees or rocks. Why don't you learn to smack some people with that when they get in your face?"

"If I did that, who would cover you or the rest of the team? Without me watching your backs, you'd all get taken down way faster."

"Yo, can you guys argue some other time?" I asked, annoyed. "A distance weapon sounds nice, but Poe has that covered for me."

"Then bring him along," Nolan said with a wider grin. "He and May can have a sniper fight while we engage in the art of beating the living crap out of each other."

"Poe doesn't like meeting new people," May interjected before I could answer. Nolan appeared to want to ask more, but a pointed stare from May was all it took to shut him up. I vaguely wonder if Poe learned that technique from somebody, as I recall a few times he's done that to me.

"Right, he doesn't," I agree. May smiles at me, and I feel a strange fluttering in my chest again, and I've decided I could no longer keep it to myself. "Can I ask you guys something?" Nolan shrugged, which I assumed was his way of saying yes, and May nodded. I walk over and grab both of their hands and put them on my chest. "Do you guys feel this?"

"Oh yeah," Nolan said, with a strange grin.

"W-what exactly are you talking about?" May asked.

"I think the desert is affecting my heart," I admit a bit quietly. I didn't like to admit my weaknesses, but this was getting out of hand. "Like since getting here, it's been doing this weird thing where I feel like there are beetles buzzing around in there." I remove their hands, and sigh.

"Are you sure it's the desert?" asked Nolan, wiping something from his nose. I narrow my eyes at him, as his tone indicated he knew more. He laughed and continued. "I mean, it could be someone that causes you to feel this way, you know?"

"Don't be ridiculous," May interjected, "she already told us about those girls in Vale."

"The heart wants what the heart wants," Nolan grinned. "It could be that she's moving on from her old flames."

I feel my eye twitch as I try to figure out what they meant by 'old flame'. Although the hatred I felt for them was indeed rooted in my heart, they weren't wrong about that. But the fluttering I feel when I look at May is pleasant… I think? The confusion irritates me further, and I shake it off. "Why don't we start another round?" I suggest, still feeling the residual anger inside. "May, get to you position. Nolan is going to need you."

The two give me strange looks, but May complies, and climbs the dune. I notice that Nolan was right, in that her rifle didn't help her much in navigating the sands but kept my thoughts to myself. I allowed Nolan to make the first move, as I tried to control my trembling hands. I was too eager to hurt somebody.

"Now!" shouted Nolan, as he rushed towards me. I jumped to the side as May's bullets began to rain down on me. Nolan quickly closed the distance, and just in time for May to reload, I noticed. He swipes his weapon at me, and duck underneath it, and thrust my shoulder into his stomach. As I felt him lean over me, I lifted up, and slammed him into the ground, and straddled on top of him. "Nice!" he compliments. He looks over to May for a moment, then back to me. "Hey, I don't know if you know this, but May has this huge—"

I brought both of my fists down on his face with as much force as I could. His words didn't register to my ears at first, and I could only think about hurting him. I can't explain what came over me in that moment. Maybe it was the combination of the frustration of being stuck in a freaking desert and not making enough money to leave anytime soon. Or perhaps the fact that Poe and Keres were out risking their lives while I spent most of my time in a rundown store that nobody goes to. Whatever it was, I just felt unbridled rage, and I saw red.

The next thing I remember is an intense pain in my shoulder as May shot me off Nolan. I winced in pain, but otherwise lied in the sand. What came over me? I wondered. I heard pained groaning a few feet away, and I figure Nolan was still dazed. May once again came skidding down the side of the Dune and checked on the two of us.

"Are you two okay?" she asked, inspecting her teammate first. She then walked over to me, as I looked up to the sky blankly. "Astrid? You did a number on Nolan, I'll give you that —oh my god, are you okay!?"

"I'm fine," I say with a wince. I look to my shoulder and see there is blood gushing out steadily. "That's a strong rifle you got there. You got anything to…" I felt lightheaded, and my vision began to swim. "Anything… to stop… the…"

A/N

So... Here's an update. I know it's been a long time since I've updated this story, but I hope somebody likes it.