Blake Belladonna didn't look at the events of the past week as anything but an irritation. It's not that she was indifferent to this new presence in her life or to the unnecessary violence he had caused, but more than anything else she just thought of him as a new thing to distract her and her teammates from their real goals. Blake didn't like to belittle the struggles of her companions or think of them as petty, but she was a fugitive terrorist in a desperate struggle for the rights of her people, while everyone that surrounded her on a daily basis were pretty much just… high schoolers. When all hell had broken loose at the beginning of the week, she had immediately resigned herself to being the one who would keep the team on course and ready to fight the real fight. But that had been… frustrating, to say the least.

It was Sunday, and Blake was holed up in her usual spot in the library for when she wanted to be left alone to study. She found that no matter what hidden, dark corner of the place she sat in, there would always be someone that would find her and want to start up a conversation. So she switched tactics and began sitting in the one table that was directly in front of the librarian's desk. The librarian was a well known horror on campus and would brutally destroy anyone she caught talking the library, so sitting directly in front of her dissuaded anyone who might want to come and have a chat with Blake while she was trying to work.

She was sitting in this spot, absorbed in a book when someone rang the librarian's desk bell rather loudly. She found it irritating but didn't look up until she heard the voice…

"Um, excuse me?"

Blake didn't believe her furry ears. She looked up and low and behold, standing in front of the desk was none other than him.

…

Cobin figured he must have hit the bell a little to hard because when the little old librarian looked up at him she did so with a well-practiced scowl. "Um, excuse me?" he said after a few seconds.

"Yes, what can I help you with today?" the librarian said with a very obviously forced smile.

"Um, can I check out books as a staff member here at the Academy?" he asked, now hesitant.

"Yes of course," she said, "is this your first time here?"

"Yes," he said.

"No problem, let me see your work scroll," she said, extending a hand. Cobin reached inside of his pocket and removed the little device, handing it to her across the desk. She scanned it and said, "You now have unlimited access to the library's resources, Mister Cobin. It has always been very important to Professor Ozpin that anyone he purveys over has the necessary tools to educate themselves, and he takes great pride in that. Like everyone else though, you will be limited to checking out three books at a time." She said as she handed him back his scroll.

"Shouldn't be a problem," he said. He put his scroll back in his pocket and then just stood silently there, in front of the counter, unsure of what to do now that he had gotten this far.

A few seconds went by before the librarian said "... and is there something else I can help you with today?"

"Oh, um, yes," he said, stumbling, "I'm looking for history books."

"Okay, history of what?" she asked.

"Just like, uh, everything," he blurted out, "history in general." The librarian just looked at him like a very tired mother might look at a baby that had just spit up on itself for the fifth time that day. He had to think fast to get out of this one. "It's for my daughter," he said, "she's very interested in history but she's still young. So if you could help me find something that she could understand I would appreciate it."

The librarian seemed to smile genuinely for the first time, "No problem, mister Cobin." The librarian stood and walked out from behind the desk. "Follow me," she said.

He followed her down near the end of the shelves where finally there was a giant row marked as "History." The shelves of books were stacked so high that they created a shadow over the space between them, and Cobin almost felt as though the librarian was leading him into a cave or something. She stopped near the end of the row and reached up, standing on her toes to grab a book off the third shelf. She blew the dust off of the cover and handed it to him. "This should be a good start." she said.

"Thank you," he said, taking the book. It was old, the cover was devoid of pictures but was very nicely decorated, with the words "WORLD OF REMNANT" proudly displayed across the front. "Yes, this will be perfect," he said.

"You're a very good father," the librarian said, "for encouraging your daughter to learn."

This caught Cobin off guard, and he suddenly found himself unable to speak. It took him a couple of seconds, but he finally looked up at the librarian and smiled "Thank you," he said.

"Alright, lets go get that checked out for you." the librarian said, as she walked past him back toward the light.

…

Blake watched this whole interaction take place, unnoticed. She was a bit upset with herself for allowing herself to become distracted by it, but at the same time it was very curious to her why he would be there. After she had watched him check out and exit the library she found herself with more questions than answers, and they were poking at her brain a little too forcefully for her to simply go back to her book. She waited a minute or so, and then followed him out the door. She didn't exactly know what she wanted from him, but she was going to damn well find out.

…

Cobin had made himself a nice little set up for reading in the shop. He had opened the big garage door, allowing the fresh air to flow in, and then pulled his sitting crate up against the door frame, half way and half way out of the shop, and then sat with his back against the frame, quietly reading and sipping a beer as he enjoyed the breeze and general quiet of Sunday, plus a nice chill soundtrack over the shop's PA…

"You know I've made things with clay and been covered in mud,

I've seen men do miracles, hands covered with blood,

I've coveted much and been subjected to flood,

I've been forged in fired and rejected as a dud…"

The book the librarian had given was definitely for someone in the age range of 7-10 years old, but when you're trying to consume the entire history and culture of a planet you had never been to before, it was a good place to start. He was maybe halfway through his first beer when a voice came from behind him.

"Hey!"

Cobin spit out his beer and turned around, startled, to see the taller black haired girl with amber eyes that he recognized as being one of Ruby's groupies. "Jesus why can't you people knock?" he coughed, "The front door is wide open, is it really necessary to put in the extra effort to descend upon me from the sky and make me piss myself?"

The girl's face remained unchanged. "I still can't be sure of what you would have done if you had seen me coming," she said, "I will always take the precaution of ensuring I have the upper hand."

"Okay. Terrifying, but okay." He said, shaking his head, "So is there something I can help you with?"

"Why are you reading that book?" she asked him

Cobin shrugged, "I've been on this planet for less than a week, gotta start somewhere."

"That's a children's book," she said.

"Yeah, well, in order to make it through this I'm going to have to be able to understand it while I'm drunk, so it works out." Cobin said, taking a swig from his beer.

The girl frowned at him, "I thought this was a dry campus." she said.

"That may be," Cobin said, smiling and wagging his finger at her, "But Manny, who works the counter at the staff cafeteria has the hook-up."

"Do you really find it necessary to break the rules?" She said, crossing her arms.

"I'd like to think of it as simply exercising my resourcefulness," he said. As Cobin took another sip of his beer he more closely observed the girl's face and quickly realized that if he wanted to avoid making an unnecessary enemy he would have to stop being an asshole for at least five minutes. He sighed, "Look, go grab that crate from over there," he said, pointing toward the front corner of the shop, "have a seat and lets talk." She didn't protest, and silently did as he instructed. She brought the crate over and set it down in front of where he sat before taking a seat herself. "So, remind me what your name is," he said.

She hesitated, but then said "Blake. Blake Belladonna. And you're Rocco, right?"

Oh, Goddamnit he thought, "Yeah, I guess so," he said, continuing to sip his beer, "So what's up?"

Blake paused, taking a second to look him in the eyes, "I don't know why you're here, or where you came from, but what I do know is that it's interrupting what's important to me, and I'm going to be very upset if there isn't a good reason for it."

"You and me both," Cobin said, "You might be disappointed though, because I know just about as much as you do. I've got no idea how I got here or why, but I'm trying to figure it out," he said, holding up the book.

"You really don't have anything, not even a guess?" she asked, reaching for any explanation.

He shook his head, "It's as inconceivable a thing to me as it is to you."

Blake nodded, "So what did you do before you came here?"

"As I've said before, I was a soldier," He said "We were at war. That's what I was doing."

"But you're not a normal soldier," Blake said, "I know a bit about soldiers, and I've never seen one fight like you."

"Maybe I just got lucky," Cobin said.

"Maybe that had something to do with it," she said, "but I know that there's more to it than that."

Cobin sighed, it was a good a time as any to give up the details, he figured. At this point he was pretty much convinced that no matter what was going on, it was definitely not an advanced interrogation technique. "I was Firth Group, U.S. Army Special Forces," he said, "I was part of an ODA, or Operational Detachment Alpha."

"That might be impressive where you're from, but it means nothing to me," Blake said, "What did you do in the Army?"

Cobin laughed, "Well, when you're in the military there's usually a pretty big difference between what they train you to do and what you actually end up doing while deployed. Technically, as Special Forces our mission directive involved direct action, unconventional warfare, counter terrorism, covert reconnaissance, and force multiplication, which basically means we were supposed to go out and train other people to fight for us."

"And what did you actually do?" Blake asked.

"Killed people and broke their shit." Cobin said without missing a beat.

Blake was a little bit taken aback by how blunt this response was, "You seem very nonchalant about that," she said, her normally stoic complexion breaking down.

"Well, there's not a whole lot of point in lying about it," Cobin said, "that's what we did. Everyday on deployment for months at a time we'd wake up, and be like 'Okay, is there someone we have to kill? Someone's shit we have to break? Awesome, lets go do it' and then we'd go hit the target. Repeat. Sometimes we'd hit the target and get intel on another target in the process and go immediately hit that one. After a while, like everything else, it just gets normalized. I put as much thought into it as you put into getting dressed and going to school everyday."

"But there had to be a reason for it, right?" Blake said.

Cobin shrugged, "When we started there was, someone gave us a reason to fight. But eventually whatever that reason was just sort of broke down and all we were left with was the fact that we were already there and there were people who were trying to kill us, so we might as well kill them back."

Blake's facial expression became angry, "But that's ridiculous, you can't just wage a war without a reason for it! Why didn't you quit?"

Cobin took a moment to finish off his beer before answering, "Why did you?" He said, looking Blake in the eyes.

Blake's eyes got wide "Wha… what…"

"Oh come on," Cobin said, "You've got eyes in the back of your head, at least half of your attention is always directed behind you like you're looking for something. Maybe a security team, or someone tailing you?" He laughed, "A counterintelligence officer, possibly?"

"I...I don't know what…" Blake stumbled.

Cobin held up his hand, "Now, I don't expect you to reveal to me all of your deepest, darkest secrets. But when you realized whatever your superiors were asking of you didn't jive with what you believed, you had the chance to just stop, get out and move on, right?"

Blake regained her composure. "Yes," she said.

"That's what I thought," Cobin said, "Now imagine you're legally bound to keep going, keep fighting, and if you don't you'll go to jail for like, the rest of your life. And regardless of your large-scale world view, and what your own ideals are, you're still surrounded by people who hate you, for whatever reason, and are actively trying to kill you. It's not like we were just slaughtering innocent people, they were fighting us for sure, with everything they had. But why were fighting them got a bit blurred after a while."

Blake was silent for a few moments. "There's a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering in this world, brought on by greed and ignorance," she said "I thought I was fighting to end it. I was fighting to end it. But the people I was working with kept being more and more like the people that were supposed to be our enemies. So I left."

Cobin nodded, "But before you did you probably did some fairly deplorable things," he said.

"Yes," She said.

"Well, I've got more than a few of those myself," Cobin said. "When I joined the Army I thought I was doing it to protect my family. That turned out to be bullshit." Then he laughed. "But that's what life is, we all make a mess and then try to project some kind of perfection. Thankfully though, it's never too late to make a change in your own life."

"Rocco?"

"Yes?"

"Now that you're here, what do you want to do?" She asked him.

The question hit him harder than he let show, "I don't know. I'd like to be useful, I guess, but it's hard when I'm so outmatched." He said, forcing a small laugh.

Blake stood, "I don't know about that," She said, "I'll be leaving now." And with that, she walked around him and started to make her way down the short driveway.

"Have a nice day!" he called after her as he opened another beer.

She stopped, and turned to look at him again. "Do you really have a daughter?" she asked him.

He stopped as he was moving the bottle toward his mouth and froze for a second, before setting it back down. "No," he said, after several seconds, "No I don't."

Blake nodded, and without another word walked off down the street.

…

It was the end of the weekend and team RWBY found themselves once again back in their dorm room, laying in bed in their PJ's and silently mentally preparing themselves for the week of hard academics to come. All except for Ruby herself, who was now furiously scribbling away at the homework she had neglected to do on Friday. There was this uncanny silence that hung in the air that had been coming ever since the previous Tuesday when they had first come into contact with Cobin.

"I think that soldier guy is pretty alright," Yang said suddenly.

"Yeah, me too," Blake said, "Or at the very least, it doesn't seem like he has any malintent."

Ruby looked up from her homework, "Yay! No more unnecessary anger!" She said.

"Good, now we can all get back to focusing on school and everything can go back to normal," Weiss said, obviously a bit annoyed by the voices interrupting her own thoughts.

"He's got balls though," Yang interjected, "He was going to let me completely punch his face in. He's got a bit of a mouth on him, but he's alright."

"So do you, Yang." Ruby laughed.

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" The older sister said.

Then Blake spoke again, "He seems a bit sad, actually. Maybe really sad," she said. "I think he left behind a lot more than he's saying that he has."

"What do you mean?" Yang asked.

"I don't know for sure," Blake said, "It's just a feeling."

"We should try and help him!" Ruby beamed.

"Yeah, maybe. But how?" Blake asked.

"Gah!" Weiss said, "Let's just go to bed and worry about this in the morning. I don't want to pass out in class tomorrow."

All heads turned to look at the clock, and they groaned in unison. Weiss had a point, it was getting late and Monday was approaching faster than any of them would really have liked. "We'll figure it out tomorrow." Ruby said, and the others nodded in agreement. When Ruby finally closed her homework, long after her other teammates had gone to bed, she laid in her bunk and stared at the ceiling for a minute. There really was never a dull moment in this place, and as she drifted off to sleep, she thought to herself, what a crazy week.

…

Short one today.

Hey, so first of all, because people keep asking about the music I'm just going to list any songs I reference in a chapter at the ending author's note. The one song featured in this chapter is "Forged" by Josh Martinez.

Secondly, thanks for reading! The story probably seems a bit disjointed, and the last couple chapters have had rather abrupt endings, the reason for this is linked to the reason for me writing this story in the first place. Basically, I haven't written fanfiction in a pretty long time, and my reason for coming back to it now is therapeutic. Writing this story has been helping me relieve some major stressors in my life, and that's why it exists; there isn't really a huge overarching plot that I have all aligned in my head, I just sit down at my computer at the end of the day and start writing, and publish whatever I've finished after I'm too psychologically exhausted to continue. For the time being, that's how I'll continue to update this story. I don't know where it's going to go, but you're welcome to stick around for the ride and find out with me.

Cheers!

-Wahs.