Ch.14 The Calm Before the Storm

After an hour of convincing the police he had no idea or part of what just happened he finally found himself outside of the station. He walked over to a nearby coffee shop to grab something to drink before heading back to Beacon. As he sat there he remembered his old family and wondered if he would ever see them in Vale again. He knew the White Fang was in every kingdom and had figured they were all somewhere else causing havoc. Just thinking of them back in Vale brought a shiver down his back and a small pang of fear in his chest. He instinctively brought his hand to the scar under his bandana and remembered that terrible night.

"How am I going to get myself out of this mess without hurting anyone?" he said to himself as he looked into the steaming black coffee in his hand.

"Perhaps you don't have to do anything yourself now." Came a familiar voice behind him

He jumped back to find himself looking at his principle Professor Ozpin.

"Professor Ozpin? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question but for right now I'm more interested in your first question."

"I don't know how this is all going to turn out and I don't want to go through losing someone again."

"Richard you are a very capable warrior who is on one of the most talented teams I have seen at Beacon. You can't doubt the decisions you make because the second you do you'll never make the right one again. You can never know what will happen until after you make that first step and trying to achieve that will only bring your demise."

"But what if I'm not strong enough to protect them? How can I be sure I'm doing what's best when I can't even win one fight against Cinder Fall?"

"You're asking yourself to be perfect but imperfection is what makes you human. Sometimes failure can teach you if you are willing to learn from it. Don't push yourself to be perfect because all you can expect from that expectation is a failure to live up to it."

"Your team really cares for you Richard. They wouldn't have sided with you if they didn't think they could handle anything the White Fang threw at them with you."

After that he calmly walked away leaving Richard to ponder the new insight he had been given. After a few minutes he left the café and realized that it had gotten pretty dark quickly, the sun had already set and the moon was just peeking over the buildings. After a quick look to his tablet he realized that it was almost 9:30 at night. He quickly walked back to the shuttle to Beacon and grabbed the first one he saw and jogged back to his dorm. When he opened the door to his dorm he was greeted by four angry huntresses standing impatiently around him.

"Do you have any idea how long you've been gone Richard you complete dolt?"

"I got out of there late and wanted to take a walk around Vale to clear my head afterwards."

"Haven't you seen the news? Adam escaped from prison and we were worried something happened to you." Blake asked.

"I know that Blake. I was there when he escaped."

"Does that mean you didn't get to talk with him and try that idea of yours." Yang asked.

"No what happened was they let me go in there and talk with him but they didn't want me to bring my weapons in there so I sat there with him for about twenty minutes. We went back and forth on what we were both trying to accomplish here. Just when I was about to make a breakthrough with him the back wall of the prison exploded and a team of White Fang guards took him into a gunship and flew off."

"Wait you were weaponless in a jail cell with Adam and a group of White Fang guards. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" Blake replied angrily.

"There was a barrier separating us and even if there wasn't I could handle a group of White Fang without my swords. You guys don't have to worry about me."

"We don't have to worry about you because we know how capable you are but we still do because you've been like a cornerstone for us this year. I couldn't imagine how we'd cope if you were gone." Blake said looking down at the floor sadly.

"I'm sorry Blake. I just don't want to let you all down. I can't go through that again and I don't want to put any of you in danger because of my actions." Richard said voice breaking as he sat down on his bed staring forward.

They all stood there quietly stunned at the fact that Richard was actually talking about something so personal. Finally Blake walked over and sat next to him. She calmly put her and on his shoulder and said

"You don't have to go through this alone Richard. We all care about you and just don't want you to feel like you have to do everything."

"I know I don't Blake but it's just hard sometimes to remember that I'm not alone anymore. Thanks guys and I'm sorry for not telling you this earlier."

"We understand Richard. It's tough having to be a model for others. You can't fail or seem any less than perfect or else you feel like they'll never see you the same way again but we don't hold you to perfection Richard and you shouldn't either."

Looking up they realized it was nearly midnight. All four girls got up at the same time and left for their dorm. Richard fell asleep a short while after only to suddenly find himself in a dark alley somewhere in Vale. Out of nowhere he was attacked by a group of thugs and White Fang He immediately drew his swords and went to work. He went through countless guards but every time he would defeat one some other guard would just appear and take his place. After what seemed like an eternity of fighting his stamina just ran out and caused him to be knocked across the alley by one of the guards. Just when they were closing in for the kill a sharp command to stop came from the shadows. A teenage figure slowly emerged from the dark. He was clad in a pair of white jeans with a small red undershirt under a pale gold jacket. He had a long mane of jet black hair that nearly concealed a pair of dark brown lion ears. He stared at Richard with two piercing cold dark blue eyes full of malice and evil. At his side was a pair of wickedly curved daggers that had a faint glowing red line running from the hilt to the blade on each one.

"Hello my brother it's been so long but I see you're still as pathetic as I remember." He laughed as he calmly picked out a dagger and threw it directly threw Richard's chest shattering the nightmare he was having and causing him to wake up in a cold sweat. He sat there for a few minutes staring out of his window at the pink sun cresting just over the trees outside. He finally got dressed in a casual t shirt and blue jeans seeing as they had the day off from classes and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast. He met the rest of his team there and found a seat towards the back next to a small television absently playing the news.

"So guys I figured that we have a day off today and I can tell we desperately need to do something fun so why don't we all head into town do a little walking and shopping then catch a movie." Yang said genially as she picked apart her breakfast.

"Sure we all could use a nice peaceful day." Richard responded

They took the first ship to town and walked around happily enjoying one of the few breaks they had gotten this year. They went to several stores and grabbed some coffee befor finally making their way to a jewelry store. He looked around the shelves until he saw a small gold necklace of the side view of a lion in mid stride. He was suddenly interrupted by Ruby saying she left her tablet at the coffee shop and asking Richard to get it for her. He walked back to the store and started looking through the tables. After asking several people where it was he realized that it wasn't there anymore and decided to go back and break the news to Ruby. He saw them walking together speaking in hushed voices as he was going back.

"I'm sorry Ruby I couldn't find your tablet. I think you're going to have to order a new one."

"Oh that no that was just a distraction. We just wanted this to be a surprise." Ruby giggled as she held up a box containing the same necklace he had been looking at earlier."

"Wow it's amazing but you shouldn't have spent so much."

"Price isn't a problem with Weiss here and we just wanted to get you something special." Blake said quietly.

"Thanks guys now let's get moving to the theatre. The movie starts in a few minutes." Richard said as he let Blake put the necklace around his neck.

They quickly made their way to the movies and found five tickets to an action movie about the first Faunus War. As they sat there the minutes turned to hours and the sun set under the buildings. They left the movie to walk back to beacon and realized just how dark it had gotten since they started the movie. They walked along talking about the movie going down the sparsely populated streets.

As they walked past an alley Richard noticed a white van parked and two tall menacing men quietly arguing with each other. Suddenly he noticed a figure on a rooftop before hearing the scream of a rocket coming straight at them. He managed to jump away as the shot hit in the middle of the group causing them to go flying away. A group of men suddenly jumped out of the alley and grabbed Weiss. Richard went for his swords before realizing that in his excitement he had left them in his licked. Cursing himself he attacked them unarmed and managed to take out two of the attackers who were obviously trying to kidnap Weiss. He looked around to see Ruby had already gotten up to help while his other two team mates were still on the ground. He immediately took one guy out before hearing the scream of another rocket coming at him. In a split second he took a custom tracker he had always kept on him for emergencies and stuck the adhesive band into Weiss' armpit. He was immediately thrown back by the blast and got up only to see the guards throwing a still dazed Ruby and Weiss into the Van and driving off at full speed.