Author's Note: Hello readers. Sorry for the late part, but life decided to bitch slap me in the face and I couldn't do anything in terms of writing over the last weekend. Life, I hate you... Anyways, this part is a bit (quite a lot) longer than I think is ideal, but there wasn't really anything I wanted to cut out, and there wasn't enough to split them into two parts. For some of you this will be hell, for others it will be heaven. I'm sorry and you're welcome. Oh, and apparently I've spelled Miss Goodwitch wrong all this time, whoops (thanks for that Foxy).

P.S: Two words, head-bangs and face-palms.

Chapter VIII: Road to Recovery

'Nope.'

Despite the events of the previous day, I woke up to a red haze. My blood boiled as the hate from my dreams had built up over night. It was a force of habit for me to punch the wall every morning, more so than breakfast in fact. But as I span around to do so, I realised that it was on this wall that I had gathered any and all knowledge of my current ailment. It was now littered with pieces of paper, connected via different coloured lengths of string. It was basically a big mind map come to think of it.

Seeing as my usual spot had been rudely covered up by my calmer self, I resorted to kicking the leg of one of the beds that was still left standing. With every kick came a scream of rage and another crack in its once seamless woodwork. By the time I had finished, the leg was practically hanging off. I gave it one last poke with my boot and it fell to the floor with a wooden cluck, making the bed lean down on its broken corner. Satisfied, I moved to the door and went out for the day's errands.

Breaking into the library wasn't the way I would prefer do things, even on my bad days. Nevertheless, I knew how important this was to me. I wasn't going to let the opening hours get in my way. And besides, it wasn't the first time I had done this, so it was almost routine for me by now.

I had found the desk that I had grown accustomed to due to my regular visits here. It was dark, the towering bookshelves forming ominous shapes in the gloom. The only light was the one at my desk, the one I used to browse an endless collection of tomes, hoping to find the knowledge that will shed light on the answers that I craved to discover. These could be about the history of Remnant from all sides and opinions. They could be nothing more than a collection of children's stories and myths. Either way, they could be hiding the font of information I was after. Nothing could be overlooked…

Suddenly, something moved in the dark. I snapped my head to the disturbance, but saw nothing but darkness.

"Bookshelves don't move…" I thought, waiting for the opportune time before calling out.

Then there was a noise that sounded like toppling books, followed by a hushed curse.

I sighed. "I know you're there."

Any signs of scuffling stopped abruptly and things became too quiet, like when someone is purposely trying to conceal themselves, but was trying too hard.

"My helmet has limited night vision," I added, "Just as I have limited patience right now, so for your sake, don't push your luck."

That seemed to do the trick, as my new follower stepped out of the darkness and into the circle of light before me.

"Uh, hi, Spectre…" Weiss said, her voice faltering.

"Is this what I've become?" I asked myself mentally, "Now even the Ice Queen fears me…"

When I didn't answer her, she continued. "Isn't it a nice night tonight?"

"Yep," I replied, "It's almost as lovely as this book."

She didn't get the message.

"That I will continue to read…"

She still didn't get the message.

"As soon as you leave," I put bluntly.

It was obvious by the look on her face that she was plucking at straws. Finally, she asked: "What's it about?"

"Hm?"

"Your book. Does it have a name?"

I looked for any sign of humour or trickery. That said, this was Weiss I was talking about…

"It's about Grimm species, old and new," I said, "Supposedly every Grimm that has existed from the dawn of humanity has been recorded in this book."

"So… you're looking for up the 'Arch Grimm' then?" she asked hearteningly.

"Yes…" I said placing my finger on the page and muttering the words to myself. When I finished the frustratingly short passage, I slammed my clenched fist onto the table top, making Weiss jump. "Dammit!"

"Nothing?" she asked nervously.

"Oh no, there was loads," I said sarcastically, "You wanna read what it says Weiss? It says: 'The Daemon species of Grimm has been a centre for storytellers' imagination for centuries and most likely doesn't exist'. What a load of bull-crap!" As a result, I flipped the front cover over and threw the book down onto the ever growing pile next to me. Then finally, my head hit the desk, all my energy sapped from me.

Weiss probably didn't know what to say, bless her. So I gave her some help.

"Why are you here, Weiss?" I asked without raising my head.

I heard her come closer kneel and against the desk, her head level with mine. "I'm worried Spectre…" she said, all her emotion flowing through, "And not just for you either. Ruby, Blake, Yang… even I'm being affected by what happened in your dorm three weeks ago."

I looked at her now. "How so?" I asked, my tone turning soft.

"Ruby has lost nearly all confidence, Blake's even quieter than usual, Yang has started shouting at us now, and…"

She paused to collect herself; she was breathing heavily.

"Stay here," I said, standing and moving off into the gloom. I returned with a chair from another desk and placed it opposite mine. "Sit down." As she did so, I asked her a question: "And what about you?"

She took one deep breath before answering. "I just don't know what to do… I spoke to Professor Port after the class that… you know…"

Sadly I did know, but I tried not to linger on it.

"He said that I should think more as a teammate, and not for myself," she continued, "That's what I'm trying to do, but… I don't know what to do," She sighed. "It's tearing us apart, and I don't want that to happen…"

I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what to do here; people rarely came to me to pour their heart out. I gingerly leaned forward and outstretched my arms. Lord knows how I came to this, but after a moment's hesitation, I was embracing Weiss Schnee, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, in a hug. After reassuringly patting her on the back, and resisting the urge to say 'there, there', I released her.

A sad smile came to her face as she blinked away the tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you."

I nodded to show my understanding. "You've come to the right person," I said returning to the topic, "It's my fault that things are how they are, so it's my job to fix it." I then grabbed the next book to my right and opened it up. "I just need to find the right information…"

I heard Weiss move round in front of my desk and she slammed her palm over where I was reading. "You really thing that's going to help?" she asked sceptically.

I looked up at her. "Well, if I can find the source of my little problem, I can stop it."

"But that won't help us will it?"

"In the long run it will, yes."

She looked at me disapprovingly, her arms folded.

"What?"

"You need to talk to Yang."

My eyes widened. "No."

"Why not?"

"I just… don't think that's a good idea."

"Why? I know you can do it. And so does Pyrrha."

I sat back, deciding to switch the subject to something I was more comfortable with. "So she talked to you then…"

"She talked to all of us," she said leaning forward, "I was the only one who listened – or the only one who's doing something about it anyway…" Then there was a sudden look of realisation on her face. "Hey, you're changing the subject!"

My head hit the desk once more, my cunning plan foiled.

"You really don't want to talk to her, do you?" Weiss asked squatting down in front of me again.

I shook my head in response.

"Are you going to tell me why?"

I considered the question, then nodded. "I'm afraid, Weiss…"

"Afraid of what she'll do to you?"

"Well… kind of," I said, raising my head, "She did say that she'd chop off my balls and force feed them to me…"

"I'm sure any boy would be afraid of that…?" Weiss put in, trying to be helpful.

"But what gets to me more, is what I could do to her. If she makes me angry again, I… I could kill her…"

Weiss grabbed my helmet and turned my head to face her. "You won't kill her."

"And how do you know that? I've done it before. How do you know that this is an exception?"

She could have asked about that, but she didn't. She only focused on what mattered. She placed her finger in my chest. "Because the Spectre that we all know and love, is still in here. I'm talking to him right now, and I don't think he's a cold-blooded killer. Do you?"

I didn't answer. I don't even think I could answer. Were things really what I thought they were? Had I taken the wrong approach all this time? I'd have to reassess everything…

"Look," Weiss said breaking my concentration, "We've got a field trip to Forever Fall tomorrow. We're all going. If you want to fix this, you can come with us. If not… then I wish you good luck."

And with that she was gone, swallowed by the darkness. Just as soon as I thought she was gone, I heard someone trip over another pile of books, then a slight squeal just before they hit the floor. I sighed, rising from my seat to help her.

The weather was nice on the day after. You could say it was the perfect day for a field trip, funnily enough. I'll admit, I always did prefer it here in Forever Fall compared to the Emerald Forest. It was just generally nicer here, the forest itself was much less overgrown compared to the other one. If you came here early enough, you could witness the sun breaking through the deep red of the leaves. That was a thing to see in your lifetime.

I was told that Miss Good-Witch had set us a specific meeting place before we moved deeper into the forest. As I made my way there, I could see Weiss and Pyrrha hanging around just inside the treeline. When Pyrrha saw me, she beckoned me over. "Great, you're here!" she said happily.

"We were worried that you wouldn't come…" Weiss said.

"Well… here I am," I replied bluntly, "Why are you guys here and not with the others?"

"We figured that if we all walked in together, it wouldn't be so awkward," Pyrrha put in.

I nodded to myself. "That's a pretty good plan actually…"

"Good," Weiss said, "And I'd hate to rush you, but they're kind of waiting for us…"

"Right," I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, "Let's go then…"

It took me a few seconds to realise that my feet wouldn't listen. Had my body really locked up over this?

Pyrrha placed her hand on my shoulder. "We're right behind you."

Weiss did the same. "Now, and forever."

I glanced at them both, and they smiled back at me; the combined vigour they gave me built my confidence to the point where I could move again. That was a start at least. After a nod, they both removed their hands and followed me into the clearing.

Just as Weiss said, everyone else was present and waiting impatiently for us. Miss Goodwitch was the only one facing our direction, so she was the first to speak. "Spectre, so good of you to join us," she said to advertise my presence.

The whole class fell silent and span round in our direction. Nobody knew what to say; I suppose they didn't want me to rip their heads off or something. Yang looked at me blankly then ignored me entirely. Just as I was going to say something, Weiss butted in:

"Yeah, that's right! Spectre's back, and he isn't going to take any messing around from anyone!"

Pyrrha and I face-palmed as one and Team CRDL howled with laughter.

Weiss turned to us, frustrated by our reactions. "What? What did I do?"

"Thanks for trying Weiss…" I replied, deciding to leave the rest unsaid.

"Quiet students!" Miss Goodwitch commanded, "Time is ticking and remember, we have a job to do here." And with that, she led the way further into the forest.

I'm surprised that Weiss and Pyrrha were so relaxed about their 'friendship fixing duties'. We had been walking for some time now and they hadn't so much as uttered a word to push me closer to Yang. There was some unwanted conversation though…

"Hey Specie-boy!" Cardin said as he walked in step beside me, "From what I hear you've been having some girl problems, I hope things are going well for you."

"Shut up Cardin," I said without looking at him.

"Oh c'mon, Spec. You know I'm just trying to help. Were buddies, remember?"

"Right…"

He put his arm around me, rather tightly I might add. "Look, I know you're mad that you screwed things up with Yang, but hey, Weiss clearly likes you…"

We both span around and looked at him. "WHAT?" we said in unison.

"See?" he said confidently, "You two are clearly made for each other. I'm such a great matchmaker, aren't I?"

Before I could lop his head from his shoulders, Weiss pulled me back and spoke to me in a hushed tone. "I hate him!"

"Then why did you pull me back?" I asked, "I would have given him a world of hurt…"

"Oh no! We're going to go it – together."

"Aw, how sweet…" I said, slipping in the joke. You see, ever since I tried to joke around with anyone, I had had the least success with Weiss. Actually, make that no success whatsoever. So, I've made it my personal goal to try and make her laugh at one of my witty remarks, quite the challenge I know. This occasion was not my lucky day however.

She glared at me, and I felt a foreshadowing pain in my balls.

"Relax Weiss! I'm just kidding!" I said quickly, "So how do you suppose we do it?"

"Nora said we should break his legs…" she said with her evil plot expression suddenly brewing upon her face.

"Funny that," I replied, smiling evilly, "I was thinking the exact same thing…"

"It's a plan then…"

"I call dibs on the right leg."

She looked at me like a child who'd just gotten their toy nicked off of them.

"But I wanted to break his right leg…" she said suddenly upset.

"Come. Keep moving students," came Miss Goodwitch's voice from further down the path. That was when we realised just how far we'd fallen behind.

I turned to Weiss. "We'll settle this later."

"Yes, we will settle this later," she said.

"Cool beans."

"Yes…"

"Like, cool as KitKats?" I said attempting to humour her again.

She looked at me in oddity. "No…" She then ran off after the rest of the group.

I Jumped to her side. "Take a break?"

"No…"

"Sharing is caring?"

"No!"

"How about a chunky?"

"DEFINATLY NOT!"

When Weiss spoke to me next, she still wasn't happy with me. We were at the area where we supposed to collect the sap from these special trees, or something. I wasn't really listening at the time, which is really unlike me come to think of it… Anyway, there I was and:

"What are you doing?"

"Collecting sap, like I'm supposed to," I replied, not looking up from my work.

"You have twelve jars already," she pointed out. She wasn't lying either.

"Spares?" I replied looking at her hopefully. She wasn't amused, her hands on her hips and her face looking down at me disapprovingly.

My head hit the tree trunk. "I don't know what to say to her Weiss…"

"What have you been doing all this time?" she asked, expecting the wrong answer.

"Thinking of what to say to her."

"Wait, so you mean to tell me, that all this time, you've been thinking of what to say to Yang, and you still haven't come up with something?"

I nodded. I could hear the slapping sound of Weiss's face-palm and prepared myself for a lecture.

"You could just be straight with her…"

We both turned to find that Pyrrha had now joined the conversation.

"You really think so?" I asked doubtfully.

"Yeah. I know that's what I'd want if I were in her position," she finished.

We both looked to Weiss for her input.

"I guess it could work?" she said unhelpfully. We took it anyway, and Pyrrha gave me one last look.

I sighed, looking at Yang. "Here goes..." She was alone, focusing on tapping one of the trees. Whatever driving force kept me going was doing a good job, I was only metres away from her now. And finally, the last hurdle…

Yang heard my presence and spoke without looking up. "Hey, you couldn't pass me that jar over there could you?"

I hesitated, surprised by the sudden turn of events. After a moment though, I played the game, passing her the empty jar.

"Thanks, I really suck at this tapping thing…" she said, completely unawares.

It was then that I upped the ante.

"I've got a few spares if you want them," I said as calmly as I could. She froze, then turned her head to me, that same blank face from before staring back at me. She didn't reply.

"Can I… have a word with you?" I asked unevenly.

She stood in response, turning to face me with her arms crossed, expecting a speech. A speech wasn't what I'd use to describe what she got though.

"Look, I know I was a bit of a dick back when… y'know. And I know that you were just trying to help and…" I sighed, "I'm sorry…"

She stared at me still, her gaze slowly killing me from the inside out. It was a painfully long moment before she spoke again.

"Do you like scrambled eggs?" she asked bluntly.

"Wha…?" Before I could even finish, she punched me in the balls. I collapsed into a ball on the floor in perhaps the most pain I had ever felt in my life. When I tried to speak, I could only curse. I didn't think that my voice could go so high either.

"That's for what you did that night," Yang said accusingly, "Now get up."

It took me a while, but I got there, struggling to stand straight. She scowled at me now and bared down on me until she was as close as she could get without touching me. I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst.

I felt a tight feeling, as if she was trying to crush me with her incredible strength. I opened my eyes and found she was hugging me.

"And this is for saying sorry," she finished.

I released my breath in relief, but sucked it straight back in again as her hug tightened.

"Why would I ever want to hurt such a delicate little flower?" I managed to get out between breaths. Then Yang's breathing became unsteady; I could feel it against my body. I quickly became concerned and managed to push her off. To my relief, she had burst out with laughter. It was a nice sound to hear and I'll admit that it was very reassuring.

"A delicate little flower, huh?" she said as she calmed down.

"Yeah… Ironic isn't it?"

She didn't answer; she was looking at something over my shoulder. I turned and found Ruby standing there, watching us closely with Weiss behind her.

"She probably had something to do with that," I thought.

Ruby hesitated, and only came to us when Yang said it was OK. I stepped forward to her and said: "Hey."

"Hey…" she said back, rubbing her arm and not making eye contact.

"I owe you some answers too, don't I?" I stated.

She hesitated, then nodded. "Yup…"

"Well, I think I'm better now," I said reassuringly, "Now that I've fixed things with Yang at least…"

She didn't answer, and still wasn't looking at me.

I thought a little about what I said to her next, then stooped down to her level. "How scared were you that night?"

"Really scared…"

It was something I didn't want to hear, but I shoved it back and continued.

"And how scared are you now? Honestly?"

"A little scared…"

I shrugged. "I guess that's an improvement then, isn't it?"

"Yup…" she nodded.

"There we go, we're fixing things up already. Isn't that great?"

"I guess…"

I noticed that Weiss was now quickly making her way to us. She grabbed our shoulders.

"Look Ruby, what he's trying to say is that he's really sorry for what happened back then and he's trying to improve. Isn't that right Spectre?"

"What are you, my personal translator or something?" I asked defensively.

"Well you certainly need one, you dunce!" she snapped back. I could hear the spluttering of muffled laughter now, and I realised that we had amassed a small audience.

Renn, of all people, was the one to speak for the group. "Well," he said, "You two do seem to make a good pair." You know its official when he says something like that – and neither of us were amused.

Weiss looked like she was going to explode. Then she did explode. "THAT IS SO NOT TRUE! Yes, Spectre did save my life on the first time we met, and yes, I do think he can be a very dependable person…"

"Can be?" I asked feinting offense.

"But that doesn't have anything to do with any feelings for each other!" she continued, ignoring me.

"Yeah," I said backing her up, "I wasn't exactly going to let her get kidnapped, and then god knows what else…"

She looked at me and smiled warmly. "Yes, he's a real hero."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far…" I replied sheepishly.

"I would." We all swivelled our heads to Ruby. "You put your life on the line for me during initiation," she continued, "and we barely knew each other back then. Face it Spectre, you're a hero."

"Technically it was Weiss that…"

"And if she wasn't there, you would have taken the hit," Yang butted in, "Yeah, I thought about what you said that night, and I did fail Ruby – I'm not denying that anymore…"

"Yang I…" She shushed me and carried on.

"No. When you first said it to me, I refused to listen. I was afraid that you were right, and that I couldn't protect her… But now I know that I'll have to try harder, for her sake."

"But I was mad," I insisted, "If I wasn't in the state I was in, then I wouldn't have said those things…"

"You were grieving Spectre," she said, "and I get that now. The point is, when I tried to cheer you up, I did a pretty bad job. I'm sorry…"

I thought about that for a few moments. Maybe she was right. But that still didn't change anything, whose fault it was didn't matter anymore. I needed to focus around fixing things, and this was the first step.

I signalled for her to hug me. "Apology accepted." As soon as the words left my mouth, she sprang at me and wrapped me in a constriction of arms. Generally, to be offered a hug by me was a privilege that few had the honour of ever experiencing. Right now, she was one of those few.

As I regained my balance, I heard a 'Yay!' and Ruby slammed into me, curling her arms tightly around my waist. Before I knew it, Weiss and Pyrrha had joined in too, making me the centre of a writhing mass of people. I looked around to the others.

"Since we're all here, does anyone else want to join in?" I asked, instantly regretting my decision. The reason was Nora.

"HUGS!" she bellowed as she surged forward with the fury of a small Ursa. When she got to us, her momentum made us all collapse to the floor in a deposit of laughing bodies. That was when I noticed it; I was laughing. For the first time in nearly three months, I was laughing. It was a good feeling, like a secret milestone that I had just uncovered. Life was good. For the first time in years, life felt good.

I laid there for a few moments more, reflecting on the past few minutes. Being called a hero, the group hug, Nora's charge…

"She even did a really good impression as she charged too…" I thought to myself.

There it was again, the sound of an Ursa's roar. It was fairly close, and something told me it wasn't an impression after all…

"Did you guys hear that?" Ruby asked.

Not a moment later, Team CRDL sprinted past us. Neither Cardin nor Jaune were with them. "Ursa! Ursa!" One of them shouted as he bumped into Yang.

She grabbed him by the collar. "What? Where?"

"Back there," he said helplessly, "It's got Cardin!"

Pyrrha's eyes widened. "Jaune!" she thought aloud.

As I got to my feet, Ruby took the command. "Yang. You and Blake go get Professor Goodwitch."

"You two go with them," Pyrrha said to Renn and Nora, "There could be more."

"I'll go with you guys," I said drawing my weapons, but Ruby cut me off.

"No," she exclaimed, "You can find the Professor quicker than everyone else. Help them."

After a moment's hesitation, I nodded. "Good idea." After sheathing my swords and turning to follow the others, I said one last thing to them. "Good luck."

"You too," Pyrrha replied, "Now go!"

After finding Miss Goodwitch, Yang and I ran back to where the noise came from. There we found Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha watching Jaune help Cardin to his feet, a dead Ursa Major slowly evaporating next to them.

"What happened here?" Yang asked.

"Jaune just killed an Ursa," Ruby replied casually.

I was the one to talk this time. "Oh, that's cool… Wait, what?"

"Jaune just killed an Ursa," Ruby repeated, this time turning to us and showing the huge smile on her face.

I stared at him for a few more seconds. "Huh…" I said more to myself, "Guess he's got some Arc in him after all."