Blue Flames

Fire had arrived at his destination after a few hours of flying (and falling asleep). He had made it to the White Fang's temporary base, now all he had to do now was find their lab. He peeked out of the crate he was hiding in, trying to shake off his grogginess and saw that he was being carried downwards by a huge crane into a pit that seemed to go on forever. He climbed on top of it to try and find a way out and saw somebody sitting on the edge of the crate. He sighed and lit a cigarette this better be quick, he needed to find the lab before more White Fang cronies showed up. "You do know that we knew you were here the whole time, right?" Cinder said without turning around. "Our goons may be dumb, but they could hear you coming from a mile away."

"So why are you the only one here?"

"Because we're the same you and I, so I wanted to destroy you personally."

"The... same?"

"We both lost everything in a second, we both have fire powers, and we both have a deep pain that we need to hide. We also let that pain fuel our anger and hate, which fuels our fire." Fire responded by blowing out a puff of smoke . "Before I kill you I might as well get this off my chest... my true name is Summer Rose. I'm Ruby and Yang's mother. I left Yang's father when Yang was still very young, and I had to leave Ruby by the time she was two. Yang inherited my flames, and Ruby inherited my looks. To tell the truth though, their both just... disappointments. Yang abuses her flames and doesn't now how to control them and Ruby is innocent, weak." Fire didn't respond, he was still trying to figure out why she was telling him this. "But you, your different. You can control your flames and are anything but weak, you showed that with Adam's duplicate. Unlike the others you're hardened, you realize that this isn't a fairy tale and that you aren't a hero. You also know when is the time to be you, and when you need to be the monster that's deep inside you. In a way, I see a little of me in you and that results in me seeing you as my student, or a son." That last sentence had made his heart ache even more than it already did. He always wanted to know what it was like to have a mom. "Wow, that was really heart warming. Thanks for sharing."

Cinder chuckled. "Still trying to hide your pain, hm?" Cinder's eye caught on fire and she shot a fireball at him. He jumped to the side and barely managed to dodge it. He might not get burned or feel pain from the fire, but he could get hurt from the sheer force of it hitting him. There wasn't much room to doge on top of the crate, he would have to go on the offensive. He created a fire sword and ran towards Cinder and he swung at her in every direction but she blocked every swing easily with only one hand. She put her palm against Fire's stomach and shot out a huge burst of fire, sending him flying back. He landed on another crate and looked up to see that another fireball was coming straight for him. He jumped to the side to dodge it, but when it hit the crate it exploded and he went flying again. His head hit the edge on the bottom of another create and he fell into the pit. Cinder gave a crooked smile and began to walk away until she noticed the room she was in became extremely hot. She looked down and saw a faint light that was slowly growing in size. She rolled to the side as a huge column of fire just barely missed her head and nearly melted through the entire crate she was on. She looked up to see Fire standing on top of the column. "Okay "mom", let's see what ya got." Fire shot flames out of his mouth and Cinder put up a glyph to block them. Fire was a mystery. He could weaponize himself, control fire, survive falling down a nearly bottomless pit, and could use his flames in very creative ways, not to mention how monstrously strong he was. Cinder raised her free hand and shot a stream of fire. Fire jumped off the column of flames and it disappeared as he jumped towards the glyph and punched through it. "Impossible! Not even Shnee Co.'s strongest weapons and robots can put even a dent in the glyph let alone break it!" Fire spun and kicked Cinder in the mouth. She staggered to the side and spit out some blood. "Play times over brat!" Cinder shot out another stream of flames that wrapped around Fire's neck and slowly covered his body. Cinder's flames slowly carried him to the edge as Fire was gagging and was trying to get free. "The force of me throwing you downwards with my flames is enough to turn you into a pancake and if you hit a crate the Dust inside will explode, destroying what's left. Any last words?" Fire's mind was racing. He couldn't use his flames because they became entangled with Cinder's and their hold on him was too great. He was going to have to use his white flames. Hopefully he could finish her off before he becomes badly burned. His body exploded into light and sent Cinder flying back as he stepped onto the crate and ran towards her. Cinder made claws of fire on her hand and started to attack Fire. She slashed him across the face and blue flames exploded from the wounds. He had to finish this. He let out a barrage of punches, each hit moving Cinder silently backwards until she was at the edge of the crates. Fire delivered one last kick to her stomach and she flew into the wall behind her. Fire's flames died out and he fell to his knees. His adrenaline slowly ran out as his injuries caught up with him. He was going to have scars from that last cut and Cinder had managed to stab and cut him on his legs and stomach. He had just gotten up until he heard Cinder laughing. He prepared to fight again as Cinder stepped onto a floating glyph as she yanked her limbs out of the wall behind her. She looked up and had a look of pure insanity on her face. "DIE!" She lifted up her hand and shot a ton of fire at him. He did the same, but noticed his flames were blue instead of orange. The flames slowly wrapped around Cinder's fire and made it's way to her. Right when they were about to finish her off, Fire kept seeing flashes of Ruby's face. He tried to ignore it, but the moment of her saying she hate him kept playing over and over inside his head. Fire gave in and yanked his hand to the side, causing the flames to just barely miss Cinder's face. They both fell to their knees. Fire used to much of his energy and fire, and Cinder used to much of her aura. "You're... lucky." Cinder collapsed onto her glyph and Fire fell back. He rolled over and picked himself up. Cinder was right, he was lucky. Fire had barely survived that fight and it was a miracle he could still move, luckily he had managed to make Cinder use up too much aura, casing her to pass out.. A crate was rising towards the one Fire was on, so he stepped onto it and climbed inside. He fell over and was bleeding badly. "Just... my... luck." And with that, Fire went unconscious.

Meanwhile, Jaune and Blake were worried about Fire. They hadn't seen him in four days. Blake was the most worried out of the two. She had grown quiet fond of Fire's company. It was nice to have someone to talk too and Fire always listened. He even sat through one of the vampire movies he hated with her because Yang wasn't able to go with her. She enjoyed treating him like a little brother, but would never admit it. She would tease him a lot when no one was around and hid his Cherry Cola from him when he wasn't looking, but she was worried about his mental state. The guilt of Garnet's death was tearing him apart and everyone blaming him wasn't helping. He had nightmares about it and some were so bad that he would throw up. He had also become addicted to cigarettes and despite Blake constantly confiscating them or trying to get him to quit, he would continue smoking. He also seemed to be extremely depressed or in pain whenever he wasn't around anyone or if he saw Ruby and Yang. She knew how it felt to lose a close friend and have everyone blame you, it had happened many times when she worked for the White Fang. She was pacing in front of Jaune and he was about to say something until his scroll started to vibrate. "Hello?" Jaune nodded as the person on the other end talked. Jaune hung up. "Who was that?" Jaune looked over at Blake after taking a deep breath."The hospital. Some guys found Fire in front of it. They found my number in his scroll and want me to come get him. They said he's fine. He already paid the bill, but they won't let him leave until his "guardian" picks him up." Blake nodded. "I better get going before he causes trouble. I'll see you later." Jaune walked out the door as calmly as he could and started to run when he got around a corner. He had lied to Blake so she wouldn't freak out. Fire was hurt and he had lost a ton of blood. They had contacted him, thinking that he was his dad. Hopefully he wasn't hurt too bad.

After a ton of running Jaune finally got to Fire's hospital room and burst through the door. Fire looked over at him. "Hey dude, what's up?"

"What's up?! That's all you have to say!? The hospital called me and said you almost died, you have three scars on your face, and I had to lie to Blake or she would've had a heart attack! You have a lot of explaining to do!" Fire sighed and explained what had happened. "When I woke up after falling asleep in the crate the White Fang had cleared out and I did my best to get to the nearest hospital."

"Why didn't you bring someone with you?! Why were you even there anyways?" Fire was lucky he was in the hospital or Jaune would've given him a beat down that would make Yang's look like a slap on the wrist. "Because if Adam were there you would have tried to fight him and he would kill you, same for the others! Plus, none of you are ready. You all need to realize this isn't a f***ing fairy tale! This is real, we could end up just like Garnet and I can't live with myself if that happens again! I can't be responsible for another one of my friends dying!" Fire's eyes were starting to fill with tears and the room was strangely rising in temperature. "As for me being there, it's none of your business! Your not my brother, my dad, or my parole officer! So quit acting like it!" Jaune turned around, hiding the pain in his expression. "Fine! Why should I even care if you die or how it will hurt the others! You obviously don't you selfish a**hole!" Jaune slammed the door and left. Fire took out a cigarette and was about to light it until he saw the no smoking sign. "Shit." Fire put the cigarette away and fell back, staring up at the ceiling.

Jaune nearly kicked the door down when he walked back into his room. He was so angry, how could Fire be so... Jaune held back a scream of anger. "Were's Fire?" Jaune turned to see Blake sitting on his bed, reading a book. "He's at the hospital."

"I thought you went to pick him up."

Jaune face palmed. "I... Fire and I got into a fight and I completely forgot." That was half true at least. "I got angry at him for going to a White Fang base and fighting Cinder alone and he has three new scars to show for it."

"What?! Why would he go alone?!"

"He said we weren't ready, he didn't want us to run after Adam and die. He said he couldn't live with himself if another friend died because of him and that we need to realize this isn't a fairy tale, that we need to realize we could end up like Garnet."

Blake nodded. "Can you blame him for being over protective? His best friend died right in front of him and everyone blames him for it. He has enough issues without everyone calling him a freak."

Jaune sighed. "Your right, as usual." Meanwhile, Fire was outside the hospital and was heading towards Beacon. He had snuck out after the bleeding had stopped. He stuck a cigarette in his mouth and it lit itself with a blue flame just as Fire was thinking about lighting it... cool. As he continued to walk towards Beacon his blue flames started to become capable of doing more complex things until they were forming pictures that revealed what he was thinking. This was okay for now, but he didn't want random people learning what he was thinking. He would have to do something about this when he gets back to Beacon. As Fire passed a window he saw his reflection for the first time with his scars. Fire examined his face a little and decided the scars made him look really cool. He sighed and kept walking until a girl ran up to him. "Hey, aren't you Firestarter?!"

"Um... yeah. Why does it matter?"

"Are you kidding me!? You're THE Firestarter! Nevermore slayer, owner of Shnee Co., heck you even took down Roman Torchwick and Cinder! You're so cool!"

Fire's mood lightened and he showed off his famous grin. "Yeah, you're right! I am pretty awesome!"

"Oh my god! Firestarter just did his famous grin!" Fire was puzzled by that last sentence... famous grin? "Can I have your autograph?"

"Hell yeah! Anything for a fan!"

He drew a flame on a piece a paper and the girl squealed in delight as Fire handed her the paper and pen she gave him. "I wanna be just like you when I grow up, you're so cool!"

"No you don't, trust me. I have an evil twin, my best friend died, I have a smoking problem, I'm always in the infirmary, everyone pretty much hates me right now, and I'm insane." The girl frowned and looked at the ground. "Although, you could be an amazing huntress if you put the time and effort into it or at least a million times better than me." The girl started to smile. "Really?"

"Hey, if a clown like me can become a hunter you can for sure, but remember, being a hunter isn't a game. You have to work hard and always do your best or else you could get really hurt... or worse."

"I won't let you down!"

"Well, if you ever make it into Beacon I'll be sure to say hi." Fire waved good bye as he walked away. That was awesome! He was famous! Now that the girl mentioned it, a lot of people were pointing and staring at him like he was a celebrity or something. Fire felt a lot better, but needed to get back to Beacon, he was starving and needed to apologize to Jaune... plus he needed to get Blake back for hiding his Cherry Cola.

Fire finally arrived at Beacon and walked into his dorm. He saw Ruby and Yang talking and turned around to run, but Yang had already grabbed him. Fire sighed and tried to look as bada** as possible. He lit another cigarette with his blue flames and looked Yang in the eyes. "What do you want, I don't have time for this."

"Then make time! We heard about your little "adventure"."

Fire blew out a puff of smoke. "Why do you care? You hate me and so does most of the others. If you want to punch me then get it over with so I can leave."

"What do you mean, "why do I care"!? You're still my teammate!"

"You sure don't act like I am." Yang flinched. He was right. Everyone but Blake and most of team JNPR gave him crap and guilt tripped him. "Are we done here or do I need to fight you or something? If so I'm in a very bad mood and I will most likely kick your a** into next week because if you haven't noticed, you haven't given me a lot of reasons to be nice to you."

Yang stared at him for a minute, then let go. "What happened to you Fire? You used to be the class clown, now you're practically Grim." Fire blew out another puff of smoke and walked away. He couldn't be around them right now... it still hurt. Fire eventually managed to apologize to Jaune and Jaune was about to say something until Blake walked in and saw Fire's new scars. Fire saw that she was staring at him and smiled. "I know, I'm sexy. If you want I'll give you a picture."

"This isn't funny Fire, you could've gotten hurt."

"Um..." Fire looked over at Jaune and saw the pleading look in his eyes. "Yeah... I'm sorry I guess." Then Fire remembered his revenge on Blake for hiding his Cola... She. Will. Pay... later. "So, were where you these last couple of days?" Fire was contemplating if he should tell her the truth or not. "I went to this party and this guy gave me these weird pills and told me to take them and the rest is all a blur. When I came to I was in a bed filled with hot chicks." Blake was not amused "Fine. I was learning to control this." Fire opened the palm of his hand as a small dragon made of blue flames formed. "The blue flames aren't as strong as my normal ones, but it's easier to manipulate them and I can make more complex and detailed things." Fire was still lying, but it was better than telling her the truth, who knew what she would do to him. Fire saw that Blake was staring at a paragraph written in blue flames that was above him. He flailed his arms to disperse the flames. "Um, what was that?" Jaune knew Fire could do some pretty weird stuff, but this took the cake. "Whenever I use my blue flames they show what I'm thinking above my head. Usually it's a picture though." The flames created a man painting on a canvas. "They show what ever pops into your head?" Blake was curious now. "Yeah?" The flames created a question mark above his head. "Okay, what are you doing when you disappear for days at a time?" The images of a party hat, cigarette, beer bottle, tombstone, and a man meditating appeared above is head. Blake got angry at the sight of the party hat and beer bottle. "You go to parties and drink?!"

"Not all the time!" Flaming pants appeared above Fire's head.

"My turn!" Jaune couldn't wait to embarrass him. He simply said one word, "Ruby." A heart appeared and fireworks were exploding as Fire's face turned red. "You're a d***!" Jaune was laughing at him and Blake was angry at him. Fire replaced his blue flames with his regular ones so they wouldn't find out anything else about his personal life. "I hate both of you." Fire was fuming and was glaring at Jaune from a chair in the corner of the room. Fire had to admit though, he did feel a lot better when he was around Blake and Jaune. It was like they were siblings and it made Fire forget about his pain, even if it was for only a short while. Blake decided to let him lying to her slide. He had seen how Yang reacted to him and thought he had gone through enough today. She sighed and opened her book as Jaune got Fire in a head lock and gave him a noogie.

I forgot to write a message at the end of the last chapter because I was in a hurry to write the last paragraph. I had to finish it on the way to a movie (I would say the name but I'm afraid I'll get yelled at D:) I hope you enjoyed it despite me rushing the last part a bit (I didn't want to forget what I was going to write). Anyways, Camp Fire out.