Nothing much to say here. Same as last time, thanks for reading, look at my notes on chapter 1 if you haven't already. Oh, and I forgot to mention: the reason I chose the picture I did is because this is for the Monty Oum Project.

Keep Moving Forward

Published Feb. 4 2017

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The girl hears herself groan again, the noise apparently enough to cause her to open her eyes. Surprisingly, she sees an unfamiliar white ceiling instead of the blue sky she had been staring at for however long she was floating on the waves.

"Oh? Awake already?" a male voice asks her from nearby.

She tries sitting up to see him, quickly realizing that her muscles feel like they're on fire every time she tries to move. The next thing she notices was an even greater pain searing through her arm, but she doesn't know the cause. "Maybe… poison?"

"Before you start thinking that you're in any danger..." the man interrupts calmly. She hears a chair dragging across the floor before he continues, as if he read her mind. "Yes, the bullets we extracted from you were laced with poison, but that's not the cause of the pain. What you should be feeling right now is an IV drip. For most people, it heals major injuries, but unfortunately… well, you noticed it by now, I assume. In addition, the drug has a tendency to cloud one's judgement, similar to alcohol. Extremely temporary, of course: that aspect wears off within about an hour or so of removing the drip. To counter all of this, we put the patient in a medically induced coma, but apparently you woke up early. "

"Is that all…" the girl hears herself say in a coarse voice.

"Yes, it is. Now, if it's not too much trouble for rescuing you from an almost certain death… who are you? You seem at least partially immune to both forms of medication, as you woke up within two days of what would normally last a week or longer."

She hears herself laugh a bit, and asks "So, the guy who drugged me and left me in some place I don't know about is asking me for my identity before I know anything about my quote-unquote 'savior'? Sketchy much?"

"Ah, yes, I see your point. Very well. I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. I presume you've heard of me before."

"Yeah, I remember reading your name in a few places."

"I see. Now then, since I've offered a bit about myself, may I offer my previous question again?"

She stays silent for a moment or so, simply answering "I go by 'Jade'."

"'Jade', you say? That's quite lovely."

"Thanks, Doc."

"And another question, if I may, why did I find you washed ashore? You could have died, were I not nearby."

"I heard you the first time…" Jade continues to stare at the ceiling, trying to move her focus from place to place; it seems that at the very least, aside from talking, her eyes were still able to move without any pain. "Long story short, I fell off a cliff. Diamondsprings, specifically."

"Diamondsprings… in Vacuo?"

"Yeah… what about it?"

"You were alone out in the ocean, floating along since Vacuo? That… explains the extent of your condition, at least."

"Why? What do you mean?"

"Vacuo… we're currently in Vale. You floated all the way across that much water without any support."

"VALE? YOU SA-OW… SON OF A FU-"

"Yes, yes, you probably shouldn't try to move, lest the IV affect you any more than it already has."

"Nah… I'll be fine… ugh… you said we're in Vale? Perfect… I was actually hoping to find my way here soon enough."

"Really? Why, pray tell?"

"There's… I… I have some things that I need to do here in Vale."

"Ah."

"So, you said you're the Headmaster?"

"Correct."

"By any chance, can you tell me about anywhere decent I can stay while I'm here? Cheap, preferably: I don't have any cash, but I can get some. Although, doing odd jobs Huntress-ing every so often doesn't exactly pay well."

"You… you're a Huntress?"

"Yeah. What, you couldn't feel my aura?"

"No, I couldn't. Not when I found you, at least. And after that, the medications would have nullified it, but least this explains why they wore off so quickly."

"And now you also know why I got myself shot at, eh?"

He stays silent, causing Jade to chuckle a bit at his exasperation. "What's up, Doc? Why'd you shut up?"

"I… it's nothing."

"Come on. I'm lying here, spilling my guts out,"

"Terrible choice of words to use in a hospital, by the way."

"And you have a little bitty secret you can't talk about?" she finishes somewhat playfully.

"Well… you see… first of all, before I mention it, I'd like to know what school you graduated from. It affects the question at hand."

"Huh… well… I never went to school. I'm self trained."

"Self trained? You mean you don't have a Hunter's License?"

"Nah, but nobody ever bothers to check on that anyways. So, what's the issue?"

He sighs deeply and simply says "Our academy doesn't have the right number of freshmen, this time around. No matter how I dealt with it, in our current situation, we're one student short. You actually seem perfect for the opening, since you not only haven't had a formal education, but you also seem to be around the same age as the students. At least, it's not too big of an age gap. In addition, you need a place to live for the time that you're here. However, seeing as you're here in the hospital wing, it doesn't seem like we have that option."

"Oh, I see…" "Beacon Academy, huh? Good place to keep an eye out, and it gives me an excuse to train. Plus, all around access to Bullheads." "What the hell. I'll sign up."

"What? Absolutely not. I just said that you're much too injured."

"Who gives a flying fuck? I'll get better, so ju-"

"There's no time for you to get better. I suppose Glynda could streamline an application for you, of course, but you couldn't get up in time to begin the initiation, much less participate."

"Well, when does it start?"

"In less than half an hour from now."

"Then there's no time to waste. Fuck it, get me out of here!"

"NO. I won't stand for this. Not only is this the drug talking, you're also much too injured to perform the tasks required."

"Gimme five minutes off the damn IV, and I'll be ready to go!"

"Five minutes, eh? Alright… now that you're so insistent, I'll make you a deal. Take out the drip, and get out of bed. If you can do that on your own, then I'll stand aside."

"I… fine." She inhales sharply and tries to sit up, collapsing after a few seconds, her muscles in absolute agony. "AAAGGHHH, DAMN THIS STUPID"

"Like I said, you're much too injured." Ozpin interrupts with the sound of a chair scraping across the floor as Jade continues to scream and curse. "I truly wish you could enroll. You seem like an interesting student, really. But it's better to have three disappointed youngsters than a dead one. Now, I'm off to get another mug of coffee. Shall I bring you one for later?"

Still barely able to breathe, she manages to ask "I… what?"

"Coffee. Would you like some?"

"Uhh… sure, I guess."

"Cream? Sugar?"

"Err… no, I take mine black."

"Marvelous. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Jade hears the sound of a door closing, and waits a few moments before quickly sitting up, and, despite the sudden rush of pain, lifting her arm up to her head. "Ok… it's fine… you can do this…"

"Of course, of course… I just hope you heard him say that the meds have been blocking your aura for the past two days."

"Your point?"

"You're getting pissed, which means extra aura. Something's gotta give. Just… it'll be painful."

"You really think I don't know that?"

The voice makes a noise as if he was shrugging, to say 'I dunno'.

"Fuckin' hell…" she grumbles as she focuses back on the needle inserted in her arm. "Ok… here goes nothing." She closes her eyes and grabs the IV tube with her teeth, trying to pull it out as fast as she can without risking severe damage. The moment that it fully left, she drops it and leans over the side of the bed, unable to hold back the sudden urge to vomit caused by the immense pain. She then throws her face into the pile of pillows under her head, hoping that it would be enough to muffle her screams of agony.

"Oh, bra-fucking-VO. You just officially made it so you're more likely to die."

"Shut up." she groans out loud. "Now… where'd they leave my shit?"

Carefully moving off of the hospital bed, wincing with every step, she realizes that the room was actually pretty decent. "Better than most places, anyway…" After poking around, she finds her satchel shoved in a drawer, its drawstring open. She quickly scans through its contents, pleased to see that in addition to nothing being missing, her clothes were thoroughly cleaned. "Nice to see these guys are hospitable…"

Tearing off the hospital robe, she pulls a roll of bandage tape out of her satchel, wrapping around the IV hole a few times. Sighing, she looks around for a mirror, and checks to see whether the bullet wounds would bleed again: the only remnants of the injuries were white scars, already appearing faded. "Good to go." she mutters to herself as she pulls her outfit from her bag, wishing to whatever deities available that the Headmaster wouldn't show up before she could leave.

"The guy doesn't have a buff body or anything, but that aura… and he's gotta have a crazy semblance… not to mention connections with the council… they could call the police over here, and I'd be on the run… AGAIN."

"So… the usual?"

"Fuck you…"

"We're stuck together, so I dunno how that would work."

As she finishes setting her outfit aside, she takes another moment to look at herself in the mirror. Her once long white hair is now layered with dust, her skin's now grimy, completely caked in dirt and sweat, and her body's thinned to the point where a large portion of her ribs began to show. One might easily call her anorexic: and they wouldn't exactly be wrong.

"Jeez… I look like hell…"

A look back to her face reveals her eyes: blood red, a color symbolic to most. Fear to some, hatred to others. Her Faunus ears stick up above her head and twitch slightly, still painful due to the IV. Those ears always made her easy to identify… easy to target. And her left arm… or at least, what's left of it. She rubs the stump somewhat wistfully, remembering her goal as she looks back up at her face in the mirror.

"Well, you certainly were friendly with that Ozpin fellow. So… you done with 'The Feels' yet?"

"Just because you're a joyless psycho bastard doesn't mean that I have to be like that too."

"Emotionless? Tsk tsk tsk, Little Miss Apathy, you forget that I'm constantly happy! Considering, of course, that there's a nice little body in front of me to carve up…"

Ignoring the last comment, she quickly slips into her outfit and flicks her wrist, testing to see if the aura-blocking aspect of the meds had worn off: nothing happens, and she continues shaking her arm around in rage, desperately hoping that it'll make it wear off faster, only to end up jumping back in shock when her bracelet expands to form her sword's hilt. "No blade yet… but good enough for now."

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"What the…" the Headmaster mutters as he looks around the near-destroyed room. Drawer shelves were lying everywhere, the bed was soaked with blood, the floor was covered in vomit and what appeared to be the remainder of the IV, and to top it off, the window was flung open, the curtains fluttering in the breeze. "Hmm… as Miss Adel would say… 'I fucked up big-time'..."

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Thanks again. And if you're bored of mine already, try Coeur Al'Aran: an excellent RWBY author.

Keep Moving Forward