/ | \

\ | /

Act II

Scene 27

It's a New Life, for Me

A/n: I told all of you I was doing a rewrite. I don't want to see any bitching.

Now, some of you might still feel a little betrayed or confused.

"But Metal, I already read this scene? Why would you do the stupid complicated and long way to edit and change it?"

Well it's because of what I did.

I took out the 2K segment at the beginning with Kokkinos, changed it a bit put it towards the end of 26, and then added a 4k segment to the end of this thing.

And you'll want to read that segment.

So, if you've already read Scene 27 MK I, then just skip to the first time you see Kokkinos pov. That'll sort of denote where the addition begins.

Now, I said I wouldn't be changing anything, and I didn't, not really. I just moved them around. That segment was going to heppen next chapter, but I decieded to shift it aound so I oculd give it more room to breath, so to speak.

I also have to thank Red for her help with this, it was much appreciated.

Oh, and Nik with his russian

Also, as a bookmark of sorts, getting over 160 reviews, 220 favorites, and 280 follows is a real big drive to get me to keep wriitng.

Well, that and the nagging voice in my head screaming at me to post.

And this is officially my 2nd longest chapter at 14K words of actual content.

Enjoy you sick bastards


Blake pov

I really hope this was actually a good idea I thought as I looked up from my book for a moment.

I had sent messages to Lilith and Pyrrha telling them my plan, or, well, that we were going to go on a team shopping trip to the city. I considered asking if they could come, but then I thought that it was about time I started acting more like a leader and being more assertive.

Pyrrha had agreed. Well, she grunted and nodded in what I assume was agreement.

Lilith had yet to actually respond, but considering it was Lilith, I couldn't actually tell if that was a yes or no.

And I already knew Jaune was coming, just like I knew he was probably going to be late.

So here I found myself in the transit station waiting for both the rest of my team and the next airship to get here. I had decided on two times. One for if everyone was on time and it all went great, and another for if everyone was late.

So far it looked like we were going with plan B.

Still, I'm glad I had the foresight to plan for that, and as such I had brought a book.

Psychology was quickly becoming my favorite class, much to my surprise. The first assignment we were given was to read Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, a book I had already started reading on my free time. It was a relatively recent book, only coming out a few years ago, but it had become something of an instant classic, and it was easy to see why. Dr. Enyo had planned in the syllabus for us to finish the book in 3 weeks and talk about it.

I had finished it in one.

In fact, I was still so enthralled by the book I read it again, before actually going ahead and writing the little reflection on it Dr. Enyo wanted us to do. Unfortunately that left me with little to read.

Until I went to the rest of the list of books she wanted us to read.

And now I was on the 3rd book on the list, Frankenstien, or the Modern Prometheus. It was written by the same mysterious author who wrote Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, and they took place in the same general fictional world called "Earth", specifically in the region known as "Europe". In my opinion, it was even better than the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I was torn from my thoughts when a particular scent crossed my node.

It's her I thought, recognizing it.

It was...overpowering, perhaps, was the right word. Though honestly, it didn't feel like that did it justice. At this point, I was actually starting to consider that the smell might not be entirely...physical. She just had a...presence...now that was practically unprecedented. An ambient field of tightly contained bloodlust and fury. Something I had really only felt from one other person.

Adam.

But even then, it was never directed at me, it was never like this. It was there, but there was never any danger of him hurting his comrades, it was always focused on one thing.

Humans.

This, however, was different. It was like it was ready and waiting to strike out at anything and everything that gave her the slightest reason.

And I had to find out how to bond with that.

Great.

So, resisting my own instincts desire to take a knife and plunge it in other her eye, I simply glanced up at her.

And wow she's closer than I thought I realized.

She was right next to me, in fact. Her overpowering scent and presence must have overloaded my senses, and essentially jammed them from telling me where she actually was.

A distressing realization

Still, she did nothing beyond stand next to me and wait, so I decided to let her, and returned to my book.

So Jaune arrived, followed by, to my surprise, Lilith, who just wanted to get on the plane. Jaune suggested walking but took it back when the three of us glared at him for it.


Later

The ride was short and filled with the sound of Jaune holding it in. Well, that and the uncomfortable silence born from seeing Pyrrha staring daggers into Jaune the entire time he did it.

But fortunately we arrived soon enough, and we didn't have to deal with it anymore. And now that we were here, it was actually time to begin.

"So then, where to first?" I asked, trying to get them all involved.

Before anyone else could answer, Pyrrha spoke up for the first time in a week.

"Clothes."

I don't think I've ever felt such dread from the word "clothes" ever before. Nor do I think I will again. Her voice was no longer th4 soft melodic tone it was before. Now it was harsh, rough, and deeper. Not male, not really, and it didn't seem to mismatch with her appearance.

But that didn't make it any less jarring to hear the sound of rockslide come from this girl's mouth.

"…What?" I finally said, breaking out of my thoughts.

"Clothes." She repeated with that blank frown on her face.

I blinked again as I thought about it, before realizing what she was talking about. Her clothes had been shredded during initiation, and everything she had left had been stolen from her locker. The only clothes she had were her school uniform along with a few other school provided …necessities. All of which I doubted she found very comfortable. Especially with her unusual physique.

"…Right." I slowly said in agreement. Now that I thought of it, I could go for some clothes shopping myself.

"Sounds god to me." Jaune cheerfully agreed.

Right, his clothes didn't exactly come out of initiation unmolested either. I realized.

In fact, the only person who really probably didn't need to go clothes shopping, who was currently giving me an expression that said, "I could not possibly give less of a shit."

"Alright, clothes shopping it is then." I said, leading the way to a nearby clothes store I knew of that would suite our needs.

It was a simple store with nothing really fancy, but it was well within our price range. Or, well, my price range. I couldn't exactly speak for the others.

But I doubt they're rolling lien. I thought.

"Alright, this is the place." I announced.

Sarah's Mercy it read.

"uh…Blake?" Jaune questioned.

"Hmm?" I responded, turning to him with a quizzical look.

"This…is a, uh, woman's store." He slowly and very uncomfortable said.

"…oh." I blinked, turning back to the store in question.

Right…forgot about that

Sarah's Mercy was actually something of a religious store with direct connections to the church. Not being a terribly religious person myself, I didn't care too much or keep too much track of that. What I did appreciate, however, was the store's efforts to help women in need, the lack of discrimination against Faunus, and the affordable prices of the store. It was a very welcoming place that I found a measure of comfort in, and often frequented when I was in need of clothes.

And I totally forgot it was just for women.

Or maybe it was that I forgot Jaune was with us?

Or a man?

"Well…shit." I cursed under my breath, still surprised about my massive oversight.

"….Ok, Jaune, how about this, you wait here, and me and Pyrrha will go in. When we finish, we can go somewhere else." I said after a moment of thought, silently hoping he just agreed to it.

"Well….ok-" Jaune began to agree.

"No."

What I blinked.

Turning to the source of the voice, I saw Pyrrha doing her best attempt at making the store explode just by glaring at it. Her hands clenched and unclenched, her jaw tensing tightly as I could practically hear the teeth within being ground to dust, and I could swear I saw her dark emerald eyes glowing ever so slightly.

"Uh…" I said dumbly, still getting over her denial.

"Is there a…Murcielago's in this city?" She asked through clenched teeth after a moment of thought.

Murcielago's? I wondered.

"Huh?" Jaune asked, equally confused.

I…I know that name I thought, finding it vaguely familiar.

Then it hit me.

"You want to go there?!" I questioned, bewildered by her suggestion.

Pyrrha simply turned to stare at me with a frown. It wasn't as…murderous as the one she had directed at the store, but it didn't seem to kind either.

"Wait, what's wrong with Murcielago's?" Jaune asked

"It's full name is actually Orgullo Del Murciélago, but everyone usually just calls it Murcielago's, and it's basically the highest class clothing store in the city. There's another one store that's equally expensive, The Golden Butterfly, but Murcielago's is more…classy…I suppose you could say. The Golden Butterfly, on the other hand, has lots of flash and is filled with all sorts of absurd high fashion styles." I explained to him.

"Oh, cool," Jaune said, nodding positively at the new information.

"Take me there," Pyrrha said. It was…too open to be an order, but to resolute to be a request.

"Did I mention that it's one of the most high-profile clothing stores in the city?" I asked, not sure why on earth she would want to go there.

In response, she gave me a flat stare that told me that she did not care in the slightest what I thought about it. So, instead of fighting her on it, I just decided to go there to show her myself.

"Fine." I acquiesced


Later

"Here we are. Happy?" I said, slightly annoyed because we had to walk all the way from the southern tip to the central western portion of the city, a not un-noteworthy distance.

But now here we were, standing in front of the double obsidian doors of the black marble building with white highlights. There were no windows to look inside, nothing to really hint what lay within, only its reputation. In fact, if I wasn't so familiar with the city, not to mention my former activities, I probably wouldn't have known about it. The only real identifying mark of the place was the mark of the store etched into the stone above the doors.

The vague silhouette of some sort of man-bat with only its solid white eyes standing out of the darkness it was cloaked in.

Pyrrha gave a shallow nod in affirmation, before walking through the front door.

"Wait! Pyrrha!" I cried, running after her, "You can't just waltz in!"

But when I entered the lobby for the store, I found I was too late.

Pyrrha was standing toward the entrance, giving a flat unamused stare to an attendant dressed in a red suit as she towered over him. The man, on his part, seemed to be equal parts nervous and annoyed as he tried to get her to leave.

"Young lady, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Stare

"This is a very high-profile establishment, perhaps it would be best if you found someplace more…suitable…for someone of your standing." He said again, subtly insulting her.

Stare.

"You are wasting the time of many other valued customers." He frowned darkly, obviously tiring of this.

Stare.

"Young lady, I will ask you one more time to leave on your own accord before I will be forced to have you thrown out of-" He began to fume, barley holding his rage intact, before he was interrupted.

"Robert, what hell are you doing?!" A woman in a matching red maid outfit seethed, briskly walking up to him.

"Jessica?" He recoiled, surprised by her appearance.

"I was just trying to get this…rabble…out of the way." He explained, giving her a disdainful look. One that got him nothing but another blank stare from the girl in question.

Then he noticed me, his eyes flitting to me, then to something behind me, likely Jaune and Lilith.

"Oh great, and she brought more." He frowned.

The woman named as Jessica blinked.

"You what." she said with wide eyes, as if she was trying to wrap her head around the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

"I mean, just look at them. Students from Beacon no doubt. They all look like delinquents. Especially that one." He said, gesturing to Pyrrha.

Inside, I bristled with rage at the things this man was saying about me, my team, and Pyrrha in particular.

This is exactly why I didn't want to come here! I frowned, the only external sign of my rage.

Murcielago's was very, very, exclusive with its clientele. They were very discriminatory, and it wasn't uncommon for them to turn away people they found to be…disreputable. Faunus especially.

In fact, you couldn't actually see what was inside the store from the lobby as another pair of double doors blocked the way.

"And I don't even know where to begin with that one." He added, gesturing to me.

Oh, that is it. I thought, finally having enough of this shit.

"Come on Pyrrha, let's go." I began, grabbing Pyrrha's arm and about to leave.

Then I heard it.

"Robert, you idiot!" Jessica quietly seethed again, absolutely furious.

"What?" Robert said, taken aback.

"Do you have any idea who that is?" She asked, gesturing to Pyrrha.

"Uh…" Robert responded, dumbfounded.

"That's Pyrrha Nikos, a rising star huntress from Mistral. Also known as the 'Invincible Girl'" She explained.

Robert blinked, "I don't see how-"

"Also known as the very famous daughter of the very rich Sahib Nikos." She pointed out to him.

"I…" He began again, trying to recover from Jessica's onslaught.

"Robert, one more word out of you, and you're fired. Go work in the back." She ordered in no uncertain terms.

Robert nodded fearfully before all but fleeing through the double doors into the store proper.

Jessica sighed, straightening out her uniform, before turning to us with an inviting smile.

"Hello, my name is Jessica. Sorry for that, Robert is new. I assure you that it will not happen again." She greeted.

Pyrrha nodded, seemingly satisfied by the action.

"Are these people friends with you, Ms. Nikos?" The woman asked.

Pyrrha turned to us and seemed to consider the word for a minute.

"…Yes." She finally said.

"Well, any friend of a valued customer such as yourself is welcomed in this fine establishment," Jessica smiled.

Pyrrha nodded again.

I, on the other hand, was still stunned by what was happening. While I myself held no dreams of entering the prestigious store, it was something of a strange marker for where I was now. Murcielago's was about as anti-Faunus as you could get without being the SDC, and even that was debatable. They also had ridiculously good security to ensure that they White Fang, or any other Faunus supporters, would be able to sabotage them. But now I was going in there just because Pyrrha was on my team and vouched for me. Not to mention the fact the turnaround from being almost thrown out to being welcomed with open arms.

It was all just…surreal.

We left the black and gold lobby, passed through the double doors, and entered a world of wonder and luxury. The main floor was massive and spacious. There also weren't many people moving around in it, making it surprisingly uncrowded. In fact, it looked like most of them were just staff. There was liberal use of dark wood, black marble, with red highlights and what resembled glowing crystals for light sources

There was a grand staircase in the middle of the room, leading both up and down. In addition, there were three more double doors in the room. One on each side. Above each door was a symbol. A symbol I quickly realized matched the ones of the four kingdoms, minus vale. All in all, the store was far bigger than I had expected.

"As you can see, we cater to every customer's needs and tastes by having different sections containing styles from each of the four kingdoms. Currently, we are in the Vale section, seeing as this is the "home" of this branch." Jessica explained

"Branch?" I questioned, "there's more than just this one?"

"Oh yes," She said with a pleased smile that said she loved correcting people and making them know how ignorant they were.

"There is one Murcielago's branch in each kingdom. This is simply the Vale branch. Each branch saves and shares the list of customers and clientele it receives so that each store knows who is a vied customer. This allows our customers to go to other kingdoms while remaining firm in their knowledge that they will always have a Murcielago's ready to greet them with open arms and cater to their discerning needs." She explained

"That's what I thought." Pyrrha venomously muttered, making the attendant gulp nervously.

"I assure you, Ms. Nikos, it will not happen again." The attendant assured.

"We shall see." Pyrrha neutrally responded.

The attendant gulped again, feeling the pressure of Pyrrha's new imposing presence.

"So, W-what can I help you with?" She asked, trying to gather her courage.

"Clothes. For me and my...companions." Pyrrha answered, gesturing towards us.

"Yes! Of course, I can see why you came, your school uniform looks absolutely dreadful." The attendant perked up, glad to be in familiar territory as she looked us all over critically.

"Especially that ratty hat of yours. Why, it looks like it would better suit a common street urchin." She added as she locked onto my hat.

Then, before I could even react, and with the speed of a coiled viper, she snatched the hat right off my head.

"I mean, look at all the tears and holes in. Where did you find this thing…." She trailed of as she looked up from the hat she had taken from my head and noted the two very noticeable black cat ears on my head.

"Young...lady?" She paused, freezing like a deer in the headlights at them.

So did I. I knew what would happen next. She would freak out, call the cops and call me a white fang murderer or something. Probably the worst part was that she wasn't terribly off the mark either. Even if she didn't, this was the end of my little trip here. That much I knew.

Or so I thought

"Is there a problem?" Pyrrha challenged, looming over the woman with a stern and displeased frown.

"s-she's a….a….a" the attendant stuttered, still shaken by the revelation of my heritage. But it seemed the overwhelming pressure of impending doom that Pyrrha was excluding right now was overcoming that

"I said: is. There. A problem?" Pyrrha asked dangerously, her frown morphing into a lethal glare promising pain.

"N-no. No problem mam." The attendant stuttered, giving into Pyrrha's terrifying will.

And with those words, Pyrrha leaned back, away from the woman.

"Good."

The woman breathed a sigh of relief as the pressure disappeared.

But only for a moment.

"I would have you keep something in mind, however." Pyrrha began again, giving the woman a sharp look from the corner of her eye.

And just like that, the pressure, the impending sense of pain, the incredible presence of her displeasure, it all returned.

"Where I come from, insolence such as that which I have been shown deserves...punishment." She intoned as her aura flared darkly

With that, she pulled back the side of her dress coat, revealing the presence of a very large, bent, obsidian knife.

"Do you wish to be punished?" She glowered as she rested her left hand on the sheathed knife, her lips pulled back into a snarl, revealing her oh so sharp teeth to all, the threat left hanging in the air.

"N-no mam!" The woman all but cried.

Had she been thinking logically, hell, had we all been thing logically, we probably would have realized that Pyrrha really wouldn't hurt the attendant.

Well, probably wouldn't.

First, it would be very illegal. Then there was all the witnesses. Plus, I wouldn't have let her do anything if I could help it.

But none of us were thinking logically. Pyrrha's presence of force pushed all sense from our minds beyond one thing.

Fear.

Pain wasn't just implied, it was assured. There was no doubt here. If Pyrrha was displeased again by their sub-par performance, heads would roll.

Possibly even literally.

And then it was gone again. Just like that, the presence was gone. Pyrrha removed her hand from her blade, going back into a more relaxed stance. We all let out a breath we didn't know we had been holding. Despite that, the threat still hung in the air in the back of our minds as a reminder.

Then, she turned to me, locking her dark emerald eyes with my own, and nodded, silently gesturing for me to take charge.

She's insane I thought as I slowly turned back to the attendant.

"May I have my hat back?" I asked carefully, wary of how to respond to the woman who just reacted so negatively to my race.

"Uh, yes yes, here go. Sorry for the trouble." She said with wide, nervous, smile as she returned the hat to me.

After securing the hat on my head again, I glanced back at Pyrrha to see if she was really ok with me taking charge here. When she held her frown, I got the distinct impression she was annoyed at how things were turning out, and just wanted this to be over and done with.

A sentiment I could agree with.

"Well, I guess we could start with getting a new hat." I began.

The attendant's eyes flickered to Pyrrha, who gave her a look that told her all she needed to know.

"Of course, of course, follow me!" She said with that nervous cheer again, desperately trying to regain her composure after being shaken by Pyrrha.

As she turned around and began to lead us off, Jaune had something to say.

"Uh, Pyrrha, are you okay?" He asked, concern filling his eyes as the edges of his lips turned downwards ever so slightly.

Pyrrha's response was simply to raise a brow while looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Cause, I mean, you were a bit...intense...back there," Jaune explained, nervously twitching under her gaze.

Pyrrha remained silent for several moments, and soon I thought she was simply going to ignore him.

"...I suppose you could say...I was channeling my mother…" Pyrrha explained distantly.

"Your mother?" Jaune questioned, confused by the unexpected response. "I thought you didn't know who your mother was?"

"Her adoptive mother, Jaune." Lilith pointed out.

"Oh."

"What is she like?" I inquired, trying to find out more about this strange girl while the door was open.

"She was strong, ruthless, hard, cold, unforgiving, ambitious, cunning, and doubt she truly cared about anyone beyond how they could affect her." She emotionlessly listed off.

"Wow, she sounds like a b-" Jaune began carelessly with a scowl.

"...I miss her." She added with the slightest hint of loss in her voice

"…Beautiful and wonderful woman." Jaune hastily corrected with a plastered on smile.

Pyrrha just looked at him quizzically with a raised brow again, which prompted a nervous laugh from the boy.

She's going to kill him one of these days. I thought flatly.

But then, something Pyrrha said stuck out to me.

"You said you miss her...is she...dead?" I asked carefully, not wanting to step on any landmines.

"No, just….out of reach." She replied, her voice barely a whisper.

"Oh…" I said, not sure how to respond to that.

"Well, thank you for what you did for me." I graciously thanked her, trying to change the subject.

"Not many people would have helped...someone like me…" I said, explaining how much it meant to me, while being careful not to toss around the word "Faunus" in here.

Pyrrha simply nodded in way of acknowledgment, but strangely, that was enough for me.

While she did, I spotted something that caught my eye. Something...unusual.

"Why is that attendant carrying a whip?" I asked as I pointed to the attendant in question.

The attendant was walking up the stairs from the lower level carrying a bundle of assorted objects in his arms. Including a whip, what looked like several leather straps, and...

Is that a corset? I wondered, looking at it all.

"Oh, yes. Mr. Nelson is just coming up from the specialty section." She explained, gaining more confidence as she returned to familiar territory

"Specialty section?" I questioned.

"Indeed. As I said before, at Orgullo Del Murciélago, we cater to all our customer's desires. Even the ones held behind locked doors." She replied, her grin containing an edge that wasn't there before

Oh, god, Pyrrha where have you taken us


Later

"So you're sure you don't want anything here?" I asked.

"I can't really think of anything I would want, I have all the clothes I really need," Lilith responded thoughtfully, looking up at me as we headed to the lounge area.

Jessica had explained how Murcielago's usually worked for most customers. Usually, they could take the measurements of the client, the client would give them an idea of what they wanted, then the client would wait in the lounge area for the attendant to return with options for them to sift through and try out in the changing rooms connected to the lounge.

This is how it worked for most customers, but it wasn't uncommon for the clients to actually do the shopping themselves while the attendant's waited on them.

This is what Pyrrha was doing.

Meanwhile, the rest of us decided to wait in the lounge.

And it was there, we got a surprise.

As I brushed past the dark satin cloth that hung behind the ebony double doors, I collided with something. There was a flash of white, a high pitched grunt of surprise, then…

"Blake?" A familiar voice asked, surprised.

I blinked, still getting my bearings from the collision, before looking to who I had accidentally crashed into.

"Weiss?" I questioned, surprised to see her here.

In hindsight, it made perfect sense that she would be here. The real surprise was that she would be here now of all times.

"How did you get in here?" She asked on reflex.

Wow I thought dryly

Doesn't even know how right she is to question that.

Then she seemed to realize what she had just said.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean it like that!" She backpedaled, holding her hands up in apology.

"It's just…this is a very exclusive place, I didn't think you would be able to get in." She explained.

That made sense. Hell, I almost didn't

"Pyrrha got us in." I answered.

"She shops here?" Weiss inquired, surprised and interested.

"I guess." I shrugged. "She got us in here, and she seems to know her way around here pretty well."

"Wow." Weiss said, stars in her eyes.

"Weiss?" I asked, trying to snap her out of her weird daze.

"Oh, right, sorry, got distracted." She said as she shook her head.

"Uh…Blake?" Jaune began uncertainly, looking very uncomfortable. "Who is this?"

Oh. Right. I forgot to tell my team about Weiss and her offer. Well, maybe less "forgot" and more "Pointedly tried not to think about".

"Jaune, Lilith, this is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the SDC." I introduced. "Weiss, these are my teammates, Lilith Totenrot, and Jaune Arc."

"Lilith's gone." Jaune flatly pointed out.

"What!" I exclaimed as I spun around.

And so she was

How? I thought as my eye twitched.

I had literally been talking to her seconds ago, she had been standing right next to me, and now she was gone.

That semblance of hers is getting really annoying I thought.

I didn't actually know what her semblance was, but me and Jaune agreed that it was probably what allowed her to "teleport" as it were. She had done it several times after initiation, disappearing and reappearing in an instant. Normally my instincts and Faunus sense would be able to give me some advanced warning, but apparently not in Lilith's case

I sighed, gathering myself up again before turning back to a confused Weiss.

"Lilith was with you?" She asked.

"Literally seconds ago. I was just talking with her." I replied as a pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Does she do this often?"

"Yes"

"I see…"

"I don't think you do."

"Oh no, I have a teammate just like that," She commiserated.

"You have a creepy little girl that is about as emotional as a rock that randomly disappears at will?" I dryly responded.

"No, I have a hyperactive spontaneous girl with a sugar addiction and inhuman strength who randomly disappears at will." She shot back just as dryly

"Oh" I said simply, stunned by her quick response.

"Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you Jaune." Weiss greeted, extending a hand to him.

"Uh...thanks?" He responded nervously, a blush forming on his face as he slowly took the hand.

"Why don't you sit with us?" Weiss invited.

"Are you sure?" I questioned, mostly because I myself wasn't sure I wanted to do this.

"Of course." Weiss dismissed with a wave of her hand.

And with that she made her way over to a booth in the lounge, beckoning us to follow. I glanced at Jaune, who shrugged, before following.

The lounge honestly looked like it would be more at home in some fancy 5 star restaurant. The lights were dimmed and everything was either made of a dark wood, or covered in dark red leather. There were 6 "booths". Each booth was isolated by a privacy curtain. In the middle of the room, however, were several tables and chairs for others to sit in a less private setting. There was a full wine bar to the side of the room, as well a several people eating at the tables. The scent of perfectly prepared and seasoned meat mixed with that of smoke and perfume, making both my mouth water and my nose burn.

"I thought this was a clothing store," I commented.

"Murcielago's is actually less of a store and more of a...club, I suppose you could say." Weiss began to explain as we headed to the booth.

"Clothing is simply what it is best known for. In fact, it's more of a luxury club for the rich and famous. You still have to pay to buy most things, but some simply come as perks of being a client."

"And how do you join this club?" I asked curiously

"By being sponsored by someone else in the club." She explained before turning to me.

"Congratulations, Blake, you're now a valued customer of Murcielago's." she added with a smirk

What

Well...I knew I was turning my back on the White Fang. I didn't expect that it would end up with me sitting with the Schnee heiress while sitting in an extremely discriminatory club for the rich and famous.

Or that I would become part of said club.

If Adam found out, he would kill me.

Or he'd turn into a demented and homicidal Stalker yandere and try to kill all my friends as punishment for abandoning his love.

Like that would ever happen I scoffed internally

I was shaken from my thoughts when Weiss got my attention again.

"Are you hungry by any chance?" She asked, genuinely interested and concerned.

"Uh…" I was about to say no, when the scent of Bluefin tuna wafted to my nose.

My brain shut down, and instinct took over as my eyes locked onto the source. A plate of Bluefin tuna sushi being carried by a female attendant to another booth.

"Blake." A voice said as they snapped their fingers in front of my face.

"Hm?" I responded, turning around dumbly

"I'll take that as a yes." Weiss laughed with a smirk.

"I, um...yes." I answered helplessly, embarrassed by what I had done.

Weiss turned around and entered the booth, grin still present on her face. I turned to Jaune to seem him giving me a knowing grin of his own.

And I knew exactly why.

"Shut up" I pouted, still embarrassed by my actions.

Without another word, I entered the booth to see Weiss and another boy in green with long black hair and a pink highlight sitting on one side of the table. Across from us was another privacy curtain, one that separated us from the booth's changing room. Weiss appeared to have some sort of large scroll in her hands that was connected to the table, an interactive menu if I had to guess.

I sat down opposite of them, with Jaune joining me shortly thereafter.

"Where's the rest of your team?" I asked, curious.

The boy in green glanced at Weiss, before answering for her. "Yang decided to browse through the clothes personally, while Nora...disappeared."

I blinked, before frowning, muttering, "Gee, doesn't that sound familiar."

Sighing, I looked back to him and said, "Blake Belladonna"

"Lie Ren, though you can call me Ren." He introduced.

"Uh, Jaune Arc." Jaune said, a bit unsure.

As I looked at the four of us, I resisted the urge to snort at the ironic parallels between us.

"So Blake…" Weiss began, putting the scroll down.

"What is Pyrrha like? I mean, for such a famous star, not much about her is actually known." She explained.

"I don't know if I'm really qualified to say." I said cautiously.

"Nonsense. You've lived with her for over 2 weeks, that's far more than anyone else can say." Weiss counter

I sighed, deciding to relent.

"She's…" I began, looking for the words.

"Kind? Strong? Beautiful? Arrogant?" Weiss supplied

I gave her a flat look to tell her how much I appreciated it.

"Sorry." She apologized sheepishly, "continue"

"She's...weird." I finally said

"Weird?" Weiss questioned

"Yeah. She's nice at times, just like you said, but other times she can be cold, sadistic…" I listed off.

"...intimidating" I shivered

"Intimidating because she's so high profile?" Weiss suggested

"Oh no." I shook my head "intimidating in the sense she's about five seconds from tearing someone's throat out."

Weiss and Ren looked at me skeptically, not believing or not understanding what I was saying.

"Ok, here's what I mean. When Pyrrha took us here, there were several...complications...because the attendants didn't like the way we looked." I began

"I think one of them even said we looked like delinquents," I added, something that caused Weiss to recoil and grimace in disgust.

"Pyrrha...didn't take that we'll. After multiple delays, as well as having the attendants question her multiple times, she threatened one."

"She said, "Where I come from, insolence such as that which I have been shown deserves...punishment. Do you wish to be punished?'" I quoted in my best impression of Pyrrha's voice at the time.

"And while she did it, she was fingering this giant kukri knife she had on her," I added.

Ren was looking at email wide-eyed and surprised. Weiss was looking at, or rather, past me with a wide-eyed glassy stare.

"Weiss-" I was about to say, trying to pull the girl from whatever she was thinking of, when there was an interruption.

The crimson privacy curtain was pulled away from the entrance of the booth, and the intruder stepped inside without another. But this wasn't just any intruder, this was someone very familiar.

Pyrrha.

And it seemed she had picked her change of clothes.

She stood there, at the entrance of the booth, like a statue, dressed in the finest threads of the store. Instead, something relatively casual like I expected, or even a dress at the extreme, she had gone for something much different. She wore an exquisite deep ebony and ivory three-piece suit with golden cufflinks, matching pants, and Oxfords.

I looked at her with wide eyes as my mouth suddenly felt dry. Despite how…unexpected…it was, it…looked good on her. It was a surprisingly apt fit for her, or, at least, how she was now. Perhaps, for the first time, we were seeing the real Pyrrha? The one not hidden behind a fake smile for the cameras and fans. Then, I noticed something else about the suit. Something…odd.

It was glowing.

Sort of, at least. There was an ethereal and somewhat grainy glow over the ebony jacket, trousers, vest, and shoes of the suit, while the ivory shirt underneath seemed to gleam more brightly in contrast.

Is that supposed to happen?

I turned to see if Weiss had any insight into that, and instead found her giving Pyrrha thousand yard glossed over stare. Her jaw had dropped open, and I swear there was the tiniest trickle of drool falling from her mouth. Then there was the…scent…I got from her.

"…you can punish me, mistress…" She muttered under breath in a voice so quiet, so faintly, that I couldn't be sure that she had even said anything at all, even with my Faunus hearing.

I blinked.

Nope

Nope nope nope

Not thinking about it, she didn't say that, I didn't hear that, it didn't happen. Nope. I denied firmly, doing my best to clamp down on that line of thought before it even began.

It didn't work.

That, combined with all I had seen and heard today, was more than enough food for my subconscious imagination to run wild.

Traitor I thought as unsolicited images formed in my mind.

Shaking my head, trying to push the thoughts from my mind, I turned back to Weiss.

"Weiss. Weiss. WEISS!" I yelled, trying to snap her out of it.

"Hmm? What?" She said, dazed and confused.

"You ok?" I asked, trying, and failing, to fight the smirk coming on from the role reversal from a few minutes ago.

"I, uh…" She stammered, looking around as a blush grew on her face.

When she turned to Pyrrha, who was just looking at her with a curiously raised brow, her face erupted in a scarlet red that almost put Pyrrha's hair to shame as she ducked her head down and hid her face.

"I'm fine." She murmured.

"Sure…" I smirked.

I turned to Jaune, who seemed to practically have stars in his eyes as he had a trip of his own to match Weiss. Ren seemed to be the only one who retained his sanity with me, as he just looked at her in surprised approval.

"So then," I began, turning back to Pyrrha, "Why's it glowing?"

"Oh! You got it?" Weiss chirped up

Pyrrha simple turned back to her and nodded stoically.

"Got what?" I asked, getting annoyed that people were dancing around the question.

"Dragon Weave," Weiss explained.

"Dragon Weave?" I questioned dubiously.

"Yes."

"Which is…?"

"Well…" She began. "It's both an old and new design."

I raised a brow, curious of what she meant.

"Its predecessor was known as Soul Weave, and it was an old hunter technique for making clothes. It involved making clothes from an aura conductive material. The material was rare and hard to get, and making the clothes was even more time consuming, but the benefits outweighed the risks." Weiss explained.

"Because it was made from an aura conductive material, it made using aura much easier, and allowed people to do more things with it. It also made their clothes stronger as they themselves eventually stored an aural charged of their own."

"But that was just the old Soul Weave, Dragon Weave takes it a step farther using some of the latest technologies and techniques." She elaborated, fulling immersing herself in lecture mode.

"Dragon Weave not only conducts Aura, but it can store it as well, far more than Soul Weave ever could. Not only that, but it is made from an extremely strong carbon-based polymer that makes it extremely resistant to cuts or tears."

"The end result is that your clothes can act as a secondary source of aura, like a battery. Like a battery, however, you have to charge them first. All you really have to do to that, though, is wear it and let your passive aura fill it. Or, you could do what Pyrrha's doing, and actively radiate your aura and push it into the clothing to make it go faster."

"So, what, it double how much aura you have?" I asked

"Well, it can, but it isn't really based on how much aura you have, but instead how much cloth is available to store the aura," Weiss answered.

"So someone like Pyrrha…" I trailed off

"…Would get a fairly large boost, yes." She finished with a nod.

"And someone like Lilith…"

"…Would get relatively little."

I nodded, getting my head around this whole "Dragon Weave" thing.

"Sounds useful," I commented

"Oh, you don't even know the half of it, that's not even including the effects in can have on your semblance, or how dust can be used with it." Weiss said with a smug grin.

"It's actually the reason I came here, so my whole team could get fitted for their own set." She added. "They should be done by the time for the camping trip to Mountain Glen."

"Wait, what do you mean?" I asked, now confused, "Done in time?"

"Well of course," Weiss said, taken aback

"Bespoke clothes such as these take time to make. They're custom made for each person. Being both specially attuned to their aura, and perfectly fitted." She explained/

"Wait, then how do you have one, Pyrrha?" I asked, now very confused.

"Sample." She answered.

"Sample?" I repeated.

"It's probably just a kind of test version for display purposes," Weiss explained.

"Actually, come to think of it, how did you get that?" Weiss wondered, tapping her chin quizzically.

"Compensation," Pyrrha answered.

"For the complications?" Weiss guessed.

Pyrrha just nodded.

"Makes sense." Weiss acquiesced

"So then that's just a stand-in until they finish your order?" I guessed.

She nodded again.

At that, I saw Weiss look almost disappointed from the corner of my eye.

"So maybe we should all get them too…" I mused out loud ass the gears in my mind turned.

This dragon weave sounds like it could be a serious tactical advantage. Plus, I do need some new clothes.

Then something else crossed my mind.

"Wait, Pyrrha, did you see Lilith by any chance?" I asked, desperately hoping at least someone knew where she was.

And to my surprise, she nodded.

"You do?" I questioned.

"She's the one who lead me to you." She answered.

"Do you know where she is right now?" I asked frantically, desperately wanting to know where she was.

Ms. Goodwitch would kill me if she knew I lost her niece in the city.

"Right here."

"AH!"We all shouted in surprise at hearing Lilith's voice in our ears.

Well, everyone save Pyrrha and Ren.

I spun around to the source, and saw Lilith standing there at the doorway to the changing room connected to the booth.

How did she get there?

"Lilith! Where were you?!" I shouted

"I was getting fitted for my own set of Dragon Weave clothes." She intoned plainly.

"How did you get past Pyrrha?" Jaune asked

"Oh, there's a route from downstairs to upstairs through the changing rooms too." She explained flippantly.

Weiss blinked, "Yes…there is. But it's electronically locked so people can't just walk into any changing room they want to peep on the clients. Only the people who've signed into a booth are given the passcard to get in."

"How did you get in?" She asked with a perplexed and slightly concerned look.

"I have my ways," Lilith said cryptically.

I resisted the urge to groan and bury my face in a hand at her classic evasive explanation.

I still don't know what any of these "ways" are.

Pyrrha left before the food arrived, saying she still had business downstairs, she simply wanted to give me an update. Lilith, however, stayed for the food. It didn't take long for it to arrive, and it was quite the pleasant surprise when it did. Weiss had ordered a massive party sized pallet of seafood, including lobster, crab, and best of all, Bluefin tuna sushi.

Not only was the food good, but so was the company, surprisingly enough. I was actually able to get along with Weiss surprisingly well. Something that was probably helped by the fact that we could commiserate together over having two excessively strange teammates. In fact, there were as many similarities as there were differences. We were both female leaders, we both took Beacon seriously, and we both felt like we were the only sane ones on the team. Save, of course, for the surprisingly sane male on the team.

At one point, however, I remembered that Lilith was sitting next to us, and so I was worried I had offended her. Her pleased and condescending smirk dissuaded me of those notions.

So all in all, it was good food, good company, and a good time. It was nice.

And of course, it didn't last.

"I think I'm going to head back down and finish what I was doing," Lilith said, getting up from the table.

"You weren't done?" Jaune questioned.

"Nope."

"Then why did you come up here?"

"Because I was hungry."

"How did you know we were getting something to eat?"

"I-" She began

"You have your ways." I sighed.

Instead of looking annoyed, or even sheepish, she grinned, as if she was pleased that we were catching on.

Then, the curtains to the changing room were thrust apart as someone stood in the doorway

"Surprise~" Sung the orange headed girl

I looked at her with wide-eyed surprise, This must be one of Weiss's other teammates.

Jaune was similarly surprised, while Weiss, for her part, looked like she just wanted to bury her face in her hands again. Ren, on the other hand, looked like he wasn't surprised in the slightest. Lilith, though, looked more perplexed than anything.

"It's Nora~!" She continued, looking over the room.

And that's when her eyes locked onto Lilith's small form.

"Oh, you are so cute!" She squealed.

Then, before any of us could so much as blink, she had snatched Lilith up and held her in her hands like a small child.

And Lilith…Lilith froze. She didn't kick and scream, she didn't struggle, and she didn't so much as whimper. She locked up, wide-eyed and petrified.

Oh, this is bad I thought, having a very bad feeling about this.

"Nora, put her down!" Weiss yelled, looking horrified by what Nora was doing to Lilith.

"But she's adorable! Look at her." Nora continued. Swinging Lilith around like a doll.

"And her titty boppers are so tiny!"

Oh no

"Honk honk." She said as she squeezed Lilith's practically non-existent breasts

I'm not really sure what it was about it that caused it. Lilith wasn't really one to be too vain about her body. She never really seemed to care that me and Pyrrha looked more mature and had more…prominent assets. At the same time, though, it wasn't really something we ever brought up. We also didn't really didn't see Lilith that much, so it's possible she raged about it all the time to her aunt.

Either way, one thing is for sure. Nora groping her seemed to be the last straw.

Her face began to contort into a rictus of rage as her eyes blinked, and were replaced by twin silver orbs. She opened her mouth and let out a shriek. Then…something…happened, and Nora was sent flying back away from her, while she fell to the ground.

"Nora!"

"Lilith!" We all cried.

Jaune and I ran to Lilith while Weiss and Ren ran to the changing room Nora had been flung into.

"Lilith! Are you okay?" Jaune cried, getting to her first.

She lay crouched down on the ground, her body swathed in her crimson cloak, shaking fiercely.

"She touched me." She trembled.

"What?" Jaune wondered out loud.

I crouched down to get a better look at her face, to see if she was ok.

"She touched me." She said again.

I had never seen Lilith like this, so…emotional. Before, she was always about as emotional as a rock. Sure, there were highs and lows, but usually, that was just a wry grin or frown. But this…

She was scared. Of what, I didn't know, but there was real fear in her wide silver eyes. Her face was filled with shock, horror, and fear. So much fear.

Then, that look twisted into something else. Something in those silver eyes grew from the darkness, and took hold inside her.

"She touched me!" She sneered.

"Lilith?" I said, worried about her.

She spun around, looking back toward where she had sent Nora flying. The curtain was pulled back, revealing Nora backed up against a wall, her own face filled with terror.

"Don't Touch Me!" She growled in an inhuman voice.

Nora shivered fiercely under Lilith's terrible gaze, whimper as tears streaked down her face. Her body sporadically twitching and spasming, as if it wasn't entirely under her control anymore. All the while whimpering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over again.

Ren stood over her, trying to talk to her, to comfort her, but she seemed completely unresponsive to him. Weiss was looking between Lilith and Nora, horrified and concerned.

"Lilith, what did you do?" I asked in a stern voice, trying to be the leader in was supposed to be.

"Less than she deserves." She sneered

"Lilith!" I raised my voice at her, disgusted and angry by what she was saying.

Too late, I realized my mistake.

"No! Stay away!" She yelled as my hand brushed against her, recoiling in fear and anger.

Then...she was gone.

Not even a poof, just gone without a trace.

I curled my hand in the space she had previously occupied.

"Shit." I cursed at this cluster fuck of a situation.

Note to self, personal space is very important to Lilith.


Later

The next several minutes were spent clearing things up with Weiss. As much as she was angry at Lilith for doing whatever she did to Nora, she was even angrier for molesting and thus instigating Lilith into doing it. Since Nora didn't seem to actually be physically hurt, Weiss was willing to at least see if Lilith was ok. She didn't blame me, thankfully, because, as she put it, this whole mess was more her fault for being unable to properly control her team.

So it turned out that I didn't make another Schnee my enemy.

Small victories.

Still...I'm worried about Lilith I thought

Once I had calmed down a bit, and saw more to the situation than Lilith using excessive force against Nora, I actually realized how much I had probably fucked up. I already knew the signs, my time on the streets and with the white fang saw to that, so it's inexcusable that I would miss them. Reclusive, emotionally stunted, violently reacting to violations of her personal space, they were all pretty good signs of a few things. I couldn't really be too sure without learning more, but of all the potential why's, the what pointed heavily to PTSD of some sort.

And, of course, shouting at her and trying to touch when she's had an attack like that was quite possibly the dumbest thing I could have done. I thought

I'm such a fucking idiot I sighed.

So here I was, wondering the shop, looking for her.

I don't even know for sure she's even still in her I considered. She could have gone back to her aunt at Beacon

Then I smelled it. It was a salty scent with hints of ozone, roses, blood, and something I can't really even begin to truly describe beyond calling it wrongness.

There she is. I thought with relief

It was Lilith. I had figured out a while ago that the blood, roses, and ozone I always smelled on her mainly came from her cloak in particular, but the wrongness...that seemed intrinsic to the girl herself. But the salt...well, it wasn't hard to guess where that was coming from.

After only few moments, I was able to finally track down the source of the scent.

Up against the well, hidden behind several racks of clothes some people would kill for, she sat there, curled up with her chin resting on her knees.

"Lilith?" I said carefully in a whisper, trying not to upset her again.

"Go away." She spoke through her knees.

"Lilith, it's me, I'm just trying to help you." I continued, moving closer.

At that, Lilith looked up from her knees, showing me her face. Tears streaked down her pale face, and her cheeks were wet and puffy, but most notable of all were her eyes.

They were still solid silver.

"You're not Lucifer." She said with a quizzical tilt of her head

I blinked

Lucifer?

"Are you….Sascha?" She guessed.

"Sascha?" I repeated, thrown off by the guess.

"No, it's me, Blake." I said, looking at her with greater concern.

Could she have had some sort of.. relapse? I considered

"Right, catwoman," She said, understanding dawning on her.

I twitched in irritation at her impromptu nickname for me.

"Yeah, that's me." I said with a tense smile.

"Are you alright?" I asked, drawing closer.

"No." She said, directing her gaze toward the floor again.

"You know, Nora's not feeling so great either…" I began, hoping I would find some form of sympathy or regret.

"She deserves worse." She growled lowly.

"I think that might be an overstatement-" I tried to argue

"She violated me!" She snarled again. "She's lucky I left her sane."

Sensing where this was headed, I decided to back off.

"Ok, ok, Nora won't come near you again." I said, trying to calm her down.

"Good." She sniffled.

As I looked at her like this, I can see she was really and truly shaken deeply by what Nora did. This was not the emotionless rock of a girl I had known, this was someone who acted more in line with their appearance, which is to say, a little girl. One who had just been taken to a very dark place.

"Are you going to be ok?" I asked.

"Eventually" She sniffled again.

"Can…can you tell me why you called me Sacha?" I asked, trying to get answers while dancing some very thin ice.

Lilith didn't respond for minute, before finally opening her mouth.

"You know how I mentioned my memory?" She asked.

"Yes?" I said, puzzled

Where is she going with this?

Lilith had mentioned before that she had perfect memory, and that could remember everything with perfect retention. A neat skill, but I'm not really sure why it would matter here.

"Well…it's not as great as it sounds. It's not as simple as remembering everything clearly, it's more like nothing deteriorates. It doesn't matter how long ago or how recently it happened, everything feels the same." She explained.

I frowned in thought, Wait…does that mean?

"Sometimes, it can get hard to tell the difference between what happened five seconds ago, and five years ago." She mumbled.

"So…you're saying that while you can remember what happened perfectly, it's hard to get a proper timeline for when it happened," I suggested, trying to wrap my head around the concept.

"I guess." She agreed with a soft voice.

"That sounds…really confusing." I said, not really able to think of anything else to say.

"It is. Usually I kind of…organize my memories around so it makes sense. Internally filling them away and storing them so I have a better grasp on when everything's happening. Sometimes I actually have to kind of seal some memories away, lest they interfere with my present self." She explained.

"What do you mean?" I asked with a frown.

"Well, your memories make you who you are. Depending on which ones I remember, and in what order, or how recently I feel some happened, my personality can change." She explained.

"Like…multiple personality disorder?" I suggested.

She shook her head, "No, that would involve a complete dichotomy between different personalities. A complete mental split that differentiated me and a hypothetical her. This…is more like different states of me." She attempted to explain.

I slowly nodded my head, not sure I understood all of that, but getting the general idea.

"When Nora…violated me," She shivered, "she kind of forcibly made me remember something very…intimately. The memory ended up of sort of bulldozing its way through my mind, tearing all the order apart, and leaving my memories scrambled."

"So…are you ok?" I asked again, still fuzzy on all of it.

"I will be, eventually, right now though I'm still trying to get over what happened and re-organizing my mind." She answered, looking up at me.

"Something a little hard to do when I keep remembering one of the most traumatic events of my life." She said sadly, looking down again.

"Is…there anything I can do to help?" I asked hesitantly

"Well, there is one thing…" She began, looking to the side suspiciously.

"…What?" I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer, but committed to getting involved now.

"Can we go to a weapon store?" She asked, suddenly spinning around with wide hope-filled silver eyes and her lip jutted out just so.

She was giving me a puppy dog look.

And it was working.

And I hate dogs.

Unable to resist how ungodly adorable and pathetic she looked, even when I turned my head from her, I sighed.

"Fine."

"Really?" She asked, not quite able to believe it.

"Yes, really." I sighed again, relenting to this girl's demands.

"Yea." She cheered quietly, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

This is…unreal I thought as I stared at the once emotionless creepy girl, turned adorable, cute, scared, little girl.

"What's wrong?" She asked, staring up at me again with those solid silver eyes again.

"Just…you're a lot different from the creepy emotionless rock you were an hour ago." I said honestly.

Then I realized what I said.

"Er, um, what I meant to say was…" I stammered, trying to recover.

"No need, I know what you meant." She said with a giggle.

"And I'll remember you said that." She added with a smirk that could only be described as sinister.

What have I done I thought with wide eyes.

Pushing those thoughts form my head, I gave Lilith a hand up so we could get out of here. Just before we were about to leave this little enclosure here, I decided to ask her one last question.

"So Lilith, why do your eyes turn solid silver when you use your powers?" I asked, looking down at her.

She looked up with a tilted head, and asked a question that threw my perception of her upside down once more.

"What do you mean?" She began innocently.

"My eyes are always like this."


Kokkinos pov

We had finally left Orgullo Del Murciélago after Mistress Blake found Ms. Totenrot, though upon her return, Mistress Blake seemed...shaken. After learning of what transpired between Ms. Totenrot and Ms. Valkyrie, I wondered if they were now considered out enemies, and if I could offer my services.

Mistress Blake was not amused by my suggestion to break Ms. Valkyrie's back.

She also didn't seem to want to be at odds with team WYVR and actually talked with Ms. Schnee, working things out with her. As confused as I was, it wasn't my place to judge my Mistress's will, even if she is low on the chain of authority. This thought brought me to the moment when I questioned my better's will and demanded to go to Murcielago's.

These rebellious thoughts are getting worse I thought with a frown as we walked to our next destination.

I feel...punishment is in order. I decided.

Self-flagellation? I considered.

No, I shook my head, too loud.

Pausing to think some more, I finally decided on fasting.

Two days without food seems sufficient. I thought with a nod.

Still, it was fortunate that Mistress Blake agreed with my demand, Murcielago had everything I wanted, even if there were...delays. I managed to order some Dragon Weave armor to replace the armor that was lost in the storm, as well as several clothes for more...casual...situations. As much as I might wish it otherwise, armor wasn't seen as acceptable attire everywhere.

Fortunately, they saw fit to give me the trial three-piece suit of dragon weave as compensation. While it wasn't an absolutely perfect fit, seeing as it was made for a male frame, making it rather tight in the chest and hips, it fit well enough for my needs. Plus, I found that I liked the way it looked on me, surprisingly enough considering I never really was a vain person. I got a few other clothes in the store as well, enough to have a selection instead of just one set I wore all the time. But, right as I was about to say I was done, a thought occurred to me.

I'm not the only one in this body.

While I doubt that she would find any of the clothes I got her truly uncomfortable, I felt I knew her well enough to know she wouldn't like her options either. So in deference to the I hoped would wake once more, I got her a couple dresses. Hopefully they'd please her.

"Here we are" Mistress Blake said, standing in front of the store.

"Dr. Hazard's House of Harm" Mr. Arc read.

"Blake, I'm not going to lie, this place sounds sketchy as hell," Mr. Arc said with a flat stare directed at her.

"Its actually not that bad." Blake defended.

"Not that bad?" Mr. Arc questioned

"I'm actually with Jacque here, I wanted to find quality weapons and parts, not rusty scrap," Ms. Totenrot commented.

"Its Jaune" He whined

Ms. Totenrot simply gave him a dismissive wave.

I had to confess, I agreed with them. At first glance, this place did not look it would be able to supply our needs

"Well first off, we're not going anywhere racist again." She began, giving me a pointed, unamused look.

One I returned with a shrug.

"Second, I actually trust this place. Unlike some of the higher price stores that cater to people that want to show off, this place actually has quality weapons and parts made to work under pressure. This is actually the store I use myself" She explained

I raised a brow questioningly on silence

"What?" Mistress Blake sighed, noticing the action

"I have had different experiences in this matter," I said simply

"Ok, maybe I just wanted to go someplace I felt comfortable, instead of awkward, out of place, and unwanted like in Murcielago's," Mistress Blake admitted with another tired sigh.

"Yeah, but-" Mr. Arcbegan to argue

"No buts!" Mistress Blake exclaimed

"We're going here, and that's final." She ordered.

I nodded in acquiescence.

And without another word of protest, we entered the store.

It was pleasant enough I suppose. A simple grey rug on the floor, dark grey walls, and a network of pipes and wires on the ceiling. The sound of industrial level machinery hard out work sounded in the background while the scent of oil and iron wafted into my nose.

"Alright, I'm going to go talk to a guy I know here. You guys browse around, see what you might want, while I do, got it?" She instructed.

Yes mistress I thought as I bowed my head

"You got it, Blake!" Mr. Arc said with a cheery smile

Ms. Totenrot, on the other hand, just gave her a flippant noncommittal wave.

"Alright, keep your scrolls on you, Ill contact you when I need you." She said before walking off.

Mr. Arc and Ms. Totenrotleft together, heading in the direction of the gun section. Likely to see about purchasing Mr. Arc a much needed ranged option.

I, instead, turned my head to the repair section.

Let's see if I can fix this


"Sorry, lass, but I can't do it."

"What?" I growled

The man at the station flinched back, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Look, you basically did the worst possible thing you could do to this thing. I don't know how you did it, but you managed to crush and twist it while it was in its most compact form. That's the problem with hunter weapons, all sorts of tiny moving parts. You managed to completely destroy or mangle almost all of them" He explained in his strange accent.

God dammit I sighed.

"Honestly, it would be easier to just make it from scratch." He added

"How long would that take?" I inquired

"Two months." He answered.

My eyes went wide.

"At least." He added.

"That is unacceptable," I answered, narrowing my eyes in restrained annoyance.

"Look, I'm an engineer, not a miracle worker. You have a triple changer weapon, do you have any idea how complicated that is?" He asked

I slowly shook my head.

"It's absurd. Especially considering how high quality it is. Getting the materials to make all this, not to mention putting it together, is going to take a lot of time and resources. Then, of course, there's the fact you aren't the only person on my list. I have a lot of orders. This is going to take some time, lass, there's no getting around that." He said.

This...this is a problem. I thought, my jaw tensing tightly

"Frankly, if I were you, I would get another weapon. Maybe one less complicated. It'd be a bit more practical if this is going to happen a lot." He added.

He was right. I knew that much. Shape-shifting weapons such as these, while offering more options and being "cool" were, in a way, worse. It's like they say, jack of all trades, master of none. In order to accommodate multiple weapon configurations, normally such weapons have to make compromises. Usually, this is mitigated by using the highest quality parts, making them actually perform better than one made of standard materials.

But there were still problems.

As seen here, if you bent a hunter weapon that shapeshifted, you couldn't just bend it back into place and expect it to work the same. Any damage was usually critical damage that would force it into one mode and keep it there. Not to mention the exhaustive maintenance on the weapon from having so many moving parts.

So on the whole, a weapon made from the same quality of materials as a hunter weapon that had only one form would usually perform better at that one task than the shape-shifting weapon. But it would also give you less options.

Which is something I'm fine with I thought

Still...I doubt she or master Sahib would appreciate it.

Finally, I made my decision.

"Fine," I said, giving Milo to him.

"Alright Lass, I'll just need to scan it all, then you can have it back. We'll let you know when the rebuild is ready." He said with a pleased smile.

"In the meantime, why don't you go shopping for some kind of stand in weapon?" He suggested.

Oh, I plan to do more than that I thought as I turned around.


I browsed through the weapon racks, trying to find the right weapon for me. The problem was...there weretoo many options.

I had been trained in and had experience with basically every type of weapon here. Glaive, halberd, claymore, war hammer, mace, shotgun, SMG, rifle, hell, even a chair leg.

Sword and shield was just one version of the basics I liked, but it was by no means my favorite. If I had to guess, Sahib chose akouo and milo for her because he thought they looked "heroic" or some such shit. And she probably went with it because she liked the idea of being a hero.

I had no such delusions. I knew what I was, what my purpose in life was.

So I wanted the best thing for me. But at the same time, I didn't know what that was now. I was bigger, stronger, my whole balance, leverage, and reach had changed. I could probably use bigger weapons more skillfully now, but I still had more experience with smaller ones.

Choices choices I thought, perusing through them all.

The other thing was, I wasn't sure of the performance of all of them. I don't think any of them were made of hunter grade materials, which would make them relatively fragile. Frankly, I could probably break every single one of them with master Sahib's knife.

Well, I suppose I should prioritize on what I need I thought

And I needed a side arm.

As much as I might wantfull-scaleale primary weapon, I would be fine if I just used Sahib's knife and a reliable sidearm for the time being.

So with that, I walked over to the smaller arms portion of this section, where Lilith and Jaune had been heading.

Then I heard a muffled Bang!, followed by more muffled voices

"ублюдка!" I heard a familiar female voice scream

"Oh my god I'm so sorry!" a boy exclaimed.

"Бог сука Чертов сука Жон!" The girl shouted in a foreign language.

Curious, I decided to make my way to the door the sounds were coming from.

When I opened it, I was blasted by the sound of a foreign tongue being violently directed towards an incompetent buffoon.

"I said I'm sorry!" Mr. Arc pleaded, "Now just hold still so I can get a look at your hand."

Before me stood Ms. Totenrot and Mr. Arc. Ms. Totenrot was cradling her right hand with her left, blood dripping from the injured appendage. Mr. Arc was hovering over her, concern and regret filling his face. A discarded pistol lay on the ground next to them, and the smell of gun smoke filled the room.

She shouted something else as he got closer, before violently kicking him in the shin.

"Owe!" Mr. Arc cried, stumbling from the force of the kick

"How do you kick so hard?" He whined, cradling the leg as he hopped on the other.

I simply looked at all of this with a raised brow, before turning toward Ms. Totenrot.

"Explain." I requested flatly.

"He shot me!" She yelled, pointing at him aggressively with her whole hand.

Now that her right hand was uncovered, I could see that there was a bloody hole blasted in her hand. Seeing there was an entrance and exit wound, it seemed that the bullet had made it's way all the way through.

"It was an accident!" Mr. Arc said in his own defense.

"You still shot me сука!" She yelled again

"I said I'm sorry!"

"TВы сука!" She screamed again.

I tuned out the rest of their...conversation...as I looked around the room they were in. It was an indoor firing range, complete with five lanes, multiple different types of targets, and all the little pieces of equipment need for it. Considering how muffled the sounds I heard coming from here were, I'd say it was also filled with sound dampening equipment.

This...this is perfect I thought

I looked down to the gun Jaune had left on the ground. Continuing to block them out, I picked the weapon up, walked up to a lane, and got myself situated.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The gun reported as I fired a short burst.

Hmm I thought, looking the weapon over.

I ejected the magazine to see more clearly what I was dealing with.

Well, it's not all bad I thought.

It had nice and controllable recoil, which was good. A simple sturdy design, which I approved of. Fairly accurate if the small 5 inch grouping was anythign to go by. But it also fired 9mm rounds. They weren't terrible against people, the rounds still having enough kinetic energy to drain aura a significant amount. Past that, it didn't matter too much usually. Plus, it had a 16 round clip, which was pretty nice.

But...9mm was still lacking power. I would be fighting Grimm now, which meant I needed more stopping power. Plus, if I fought someone with armor then I doubted this would be able to put them down.

All in all, I considered the 9mm round best for soft targets and saturation fire. Something this gun wouldn't do too well at serving me.

So I placed the gun on the counter, finding it wanting, and left it in search of a new tool.

"Uh, Pyrrha, what are you doing?" Mr. Arc asked hesitantly, no longer cradling his leg.

"Testing." I said simply and dismissively, directing my attention to the weapon rack on the back wall.

My hands roamed over all the guns over the rack, my fingers tracing the frames as I inspected each and everyone one of them. Many, I was familiar with, many I was not, but I still knew the basics when I saw them. If I had wanted to, I could have settled. I could make do with probably any of them if I had to. But I didn't want to settle, I wanted it right.

Then I stopped

I had found it.

A Mustang .45 I thought, looking at the gun in question as old feelings welled up inside me

My first gun I thought fondly, the corners of my lips pulling up ever so slightly.

I traced my hand over the cold hard metal case, my fingers dancing on the rougher polymer grip. My mind went back to all the fond memories I had of it. From my first kill, to my last.

Time to make some new memories I thought, picking it up, gripping the gun loosely. Without a word, I made my way to the firing range, and fired shot after shot, emptying it's 8 round magazine in 4 seconds.

"Just like how I remember it." I whispered as I lowered the gun.

"Pyrrha?" Mr. Arc asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

I turned silently, awaiting his inquiry

"You okay?" He asked, looking concerned and out of place

I nodded silently, returning my attention to the gun in my hand.

"Just reliving some old memories." I murmured carelessly

"So are you getting that?" Mr. Arc asked

What do you think? I thought as I frowned at him.

"Er, uh, nevermind." He nervously replied under my gaze.

"Is that all you're getting?" Ms. Totenrot asked this time, looking at the gun curiously.

I was about to answer, when I stopped.

Is this all I'm getting?

I had my sidearm. As I said before, with a sidearm and knife, I didn't really need anything else for the short term. I could make do with this.

But did I have to?

I was thinking about doing some tests, trying out some of these weapons I thought looking over the guns behind Mr. Arc.

And...it's not like I can't afford it I considered, feeling the wallet in my pocket.

Though, I suppose it's more like he can afford it.

And it wasn't like this was some sort of twisted and convoluted way for me to get back at my master for making me go through this living hell by technically following his orders.

No.

Certainly not.

I was a good slave, after all.

"Perhaps not." I murmured, my mind already spinning through all the weapons I had seen that I had an interest in.

"Perhaps not."


Blake pov

"Wait, what?" I asked, giving a blank stare to Lilith, Jaune, and Pyrrha.

We had met again outside the store. I actually had to wait quite a while for them to show up, and now I was finding out why.

"They bought, like, half the store!" Jaune exclaimed.

"That's something of an exaggeration." Lilith countered, giving him a questioning raised brow.

"It was only a 10th of the store, at most." She muttered

"Am I missing something? Because I just see two bags of stuff." I asked, very confused. They weren't even big bags either.

"They got so much-" Jaune began, trying to get across just how much stuff they got, when Lilith interrupted him

"We're having the rest delivered." She explained.

"What all did you get?" I asked, raising a skeptical brow.

"Pyrrha got two semi-automatic pistols, two submachine guns, two pdws, two shotguns, two assault rifles, two sniper rifles, 24 grenades, all accompanying ammunition and various ammunition types, seven knives, a glaive, a battle axe, a halberd, a partisan, a mace, two war axes, four swords, and a total of two pounds of elemental dust." Lilith listed off

"I got about four bags worth of parts and six pounds of elemental dust." She added.

...what I thought, unable to really process what I heard.

"I told you!" Jaune exclaimed, pointing at me, "They bought half the damn store!"

"Why?" I said, exasperated

"Practice." Pyrrha said in that stony monotone that she had started using recently.

Still hadn't gotten used to it.

"Practice?" I repeated dumbly.

She nodded once.

"You bought an armory...for practice." I asked again, unable to wrap my mind around it.

She nodded again.

"I...I don't...how?" I finally asked, trying to come to terms with it all.

"Pyrrha's rich." Jaune answered

"There's rich, and then there's buying an armory for practice!" I exclaimed, finding myself in a world beyond reason.

"Actually, it was less than the purchasing all of you Dragon Weave." Pyrrha explained.

I paused in my rant

"What?" I squeaked out.

"Purchasing Dragon weave for all of you was less expensive than purchase I just made." She reiterated.

By this point, my rant had lost all its steam. I froze for several moments, just trying to process the obscene amount of money that had been spent today, and the fact that Pyrrha seemed totally unbothered by it

"So….is that it?" I finally sighed, wondering if there was anything else we had to shop for.

Pyrrha had her...interesting choice of clothes, I had my hat and a new bow, we all had dragon weave on order, they apparently got everything they needed. Then I noticed something.

"Wait, Jaune, weren't you supposed to get a gun?" I asked

"He's (I'm) not allowed to get a gun anymore." Jaune and Lilith both said.

I blinked again "Why not?"

"Because he(I) shot me(her on accident)" They both said again, though Lilith didn't refer to it as an accident, and was in fact glaring at Jaune right now while he ducked his head down in shame.

"...Okay" I said slowly, not sure how to feel about this.

So instead, I decided to move on.

"So did you guys get everything you were looking for?" I asked.

"Uh…" Jaune trailed off, looking toward Lilith and Pyrrha for guidance.

When Pyrrha shrugged and Lilith nodded, Jaune turned back to me and said, "I guess so."

"Well then, in that case we can go back to Beacon." I said before pausing to give it some thought, "...Unless you all want to do something else?" '

Pyrrha gave another apathetic shrug, Lilith gave me a blank look that seemed to say, "Why would i want to stay here?", and Jaune appeared to want to say something, but was hesitant in saying it.

"Yes Jaune?" I asked, trying to get him to say it.

"We can go…" he began slowly, "It's just…." He trailed off again.

Then with a shake of his head, he said, "It's nothing."

I wasn't entirely convinced, but it seemed to be a personal problem, meaning I had no business intruding on it.

"Hey, someone stop that Faunus!" A voice shouted from behind me,

I froze, my instincts kicking into overdrive at those five familiar words. It took all I had in me not to react violently, or more likely, bolt and run. Taking a breath to center myself, I turned to look at what was going on behind me.

Two people, both vale city detectives if the badges on them were any indication, were running after a Faunus boy with short blond hair, an unbuttoned white shirt, and a monkey tail. The boy was crouching on a light pole on the side of the walkway to the port holding a large ship, and was casually eating a banana with the aid of his prehensile tail.

"Get over here you no-good stowaway!" one of the officers ordered the boy.

"Hey, I'm a great stowaway." the boy quipped with a smug grin. And with those words, he threw the leftovers of the banana peel at one of the officer's faces. After he saw it hit it's mark, and the obvious anger coming from the two officers, he turned and was about to make his getaway.

Then, suddenly, something attached to a thin cord came flying out from behind me, and hit the boy in the leg, grabbing onto it. Before he could even react, the cord retracted violently, pulling him of the lamp and sending him flying forwards, screaming all the way.

I turned my head to see him fly through the air, too stunned to do anything more than watch as the cord pulled him into the waiting clutches of the person on the other capturer met the boy with a knee to the gut. The boy seemed to crumple around their knee, before collapsing to the ground in a broken and groaning mess.

Once he hit the ground, and time seemed to speed back up to normal, I could take in the person's details more clearly. It was a woman, probably in her late 20's, maybe early 30's, She had reddish brown hair with streaks of blond, like a sunset or a fire, and it was tied up in a low pony tail. She had sapphire blue eyes, and lightly tanned skin. She was wearing a pair of black pants, a white button-up shirt and a brown vest overtop it. In her right hand was the object she used to grab the boy, a white pointed rod made of what looked like many long skeletal fingers, with a black hilt.

As she stood over him, she began to pull something out of her back pocket.

"You are under arrest for stowing away, and resisting arrest.." She began, opening the larger-than-normal handcuffs, ones I recognized as being specially designed for those with aura.

It was here that I noticed the large golden detective badge hanging from a chain around her neck.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.." She continued, turning him over, pulling his arms behind his back, and cuffing them.

"You have the right to an attorney...you're not listening to me, are you.?" She asked, pausing in her reading of his Marica Rights.

In response, the dazed boy merely groaned.

Sighing, she got up, hoisting the boy up with her. Turning to the two detectives who were running up from the pier, she said, "I think I have something that belongs to you?"

""Thanks Aveline." One of them said as he reached her.

"No problem." She said as she handed the boy over to him.

Through the entire scene, I stood there, frozen. If...if this had been back when I was in the White Fang, I probably wouldn't have hesitated. I would have stopped them and freed the boy. He was a Faunus, like me, and these people, the police, they were arresting him, hurting him, they were the enemy. But now…

Now I had to come to terms with the fact that, technically, the police were in the right if he was in fact a stowaway. Even if they were being brutal about it. Then there's the fact that I was trying to turn over a new leaf. Fighting the police would just be me falling back to my old ways.

So, instead, I watched helplessly, an internal struggle going on inside me as a I considered all the ways this tested my values.

Then I was shaken from my thoughts by Jaune's voice.

"A-Aveline?" He said, he voice shaky and unsure. "Aveline!" He repeated, calling out to her.

The woman in question stopped and turned around to look at us with a puzzled face. Then her eyes seemed to lock onto Jaune as they narrowed in focus, before opening wide.

"Jaune?!" She exclaimed, walking up to him, bewildered by his presence.

"Aveline? Is that really you? What are you doing here?" He questioned as she approached him.

Then, she frowned, before slamming a chop right on his head.

"est-ce une façon de parler à votre sœur?" She questioned, frowning at him, eyes filled with disapproval.

"Oh yeah, that's definitely you." He muttered, clutching his head

"Euh ... Désolé, Aveline." He responded sheepishly, looking back up at her.

"Bien. Maintenant, qu'est-ce que tu fais ici, Jaune? Si vous n'êtes pas à l'école? Ou, plus important, à la maison avec la mère et le père?" She asked

"Vous voulez dire qu'ils ne vous ont pas dit?" He responded.

They continued conversing like this, and all the while I had no idea what they were saying. It was clear they were talking in a different language, and while parts of it sounded somewhat familiar, I didn't actually know what they were saying, or what the language itself was. What was obvious to me, was that these two were very familiar with each other.

There were the soft looks of recognition they gave each other, the looks of concern, annoyance. The entire drama of what looked like a long-awaited reunion was taking place before me, and I couldn't understand any of it.

I glanced at Pyrrha and Lilith to see how they were reacting to this. Pyrrha was looking at them with a brow raised in mild confusion, while Lilith looked at them with mild surprise.

Turning back to them, I saw Aveline gesture toward us with her head, matched by what I can only assume was a question, judging by the tone of it. Jaune then looked to us and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Right...okay." He began.

"Aveline, this is my team. That's Blake, Pyrrha, and Lilith." He said, introducing us to the woman.

"Guys...this is Aveline. My-."


A/n:

I told all of you I was doing this rewrite, so I don't want to see any bitching.

But now it's time to do a bit of recap

That cliffhanger of sorts may or may not be a test.

Also, Sun getting a knee to the gut wasn't because I dislike him or anything, he was just more or less doing the wrong thing in the right place at the right time.

Oh, and that french might be shit. I used google translate for it, so, yeah...

Milo is just going to be a Xiphos for a while. That...kind of just happened. I planned on making Pyrrha/Kokkinos use things other than the trust Akuou and Milo combo for a while now, but idea for the why of it is a bit more recent.

And as you can see I added the weapon store scene, which was surprisingly short. I thought it would be longer, not that Im unhappy with it, considering how enormous the clothign store scene was.

Oh, and Jaune's shooting Ruby in the hand and her banning him from getting a gun?

I always had that planned.

We had clothing store stories with Blake, which went on far longer than I originally thought it would. The whole Murcielago's lore and shit sort of just...happened.

And included Wiess and co

and Nora molesting Ruby

and Ruby having a PTSD trigger and fucking Nora up

I've been considering whether or not to do that for a while now, and how. Then inspiration sort of just struck me and I did it now.

The original plan for this chap actually had it ending here, but then I had almost no free time to do this in time, didn't think I would be getting it for a while, and decided to post what I had now since it worked as a chapter.

If it really bugs you that much, you can think of it as me giving you an extended preview

anyway, judging by the fact that this is out just a week afterward, I'm sure you can tell that has changed.

Now, what does this mean for you? It means scene 28 is coming out next week. I already have a sizable chunk of it written and planned out, and all the time I really need.

Also, if you're interested in talking to me or my associates in a discord server, here's the invite code

/0t02Xc0uOJYHYAX0

I've been told I need to advertise

There, done

Not bringing it up again.

(Ungrateful little shits)

And finally, I'm curious to see if this chapter has done anything for your ideas about pairings

has it?

But yeah, that's about it, see you later ya little shitstains.

(Shitsains is a product of my sleep deprived brain, please do not take it seriously.)