As the light from shattered moon glows across the dimly lit dorm room, Pyrrha, clad in her red shirt and green indoor trouser, sat in her bed deep in thought as everyone within Team JNPR were about to rest for the night.
Or at least attempted given the aftermath of everyone learning from Jaune back in Ozpin's office over the reason why he came to Beacon Academy in the first place, especially just to escape the trauma of a broken relationship with named Scarlett Fairbairn.
It didn't help that the blonde leader had gone on several adventures with redheaded Noctis Walker and the UIG alongside possibly starting a relationship with her, making the breakup even more painful than before.
Once the discovery was made clear about Jaune's past, the mood felt somber for the rest of the team; even Nora didn't even want to pull out her shenanigans when her team leader had to recall the painful memories he didn't want to remember.
Even Pyrrha herself, who had encountered the redheaded Noctis Walker earlier near the Emerald Forest, couldn't help but feel sorry that the blonde had his heart shattered over something like this, especially since the young man had thought of UIG as a place to have genuine friends.
The Spartan began to look at the blond knight, who was lying on his bed, wearing a yellow shirt with black short sleeves, dark brown lounge pants, and black socks, his face feeling almost dead inside.
Turning towards her two teammates, Pyrrha noticed that Ren was hugging Nora as they were lying in bed, the two tilted their heads down to comfort each other in their moment of silence as they were still clad in their outfits as they went to Ozpin's office.
But despite this being adorable and silly to witness, the redhead couldn't help but feel the two were concerned if their relationship remained strong after hearing all this; she wouldn't blame them if they decide to tone down their affectionate behavior with each other given the information earlier back in Ozpin's office.
And that's not getting into detail over how things are going for Teams RWBY, CRDL, and CFVY, especially Ruby Rose herself, feeling concerned that she may not take the news about why Jaune really came to Beacon Academy too easily, but felt grateful her teammates might help ease the situation.
However, Pyrrha felt she needed to tell her team leader something to help ease his mind, but it might require having to relive memories of her past as well.
Memories that include painful ones she herself wanted to forget.
"Jaune," the Mistralian redhead broke the silence, drawing his attention as the blonde sat on his bed to look at her. "I'm sorry that Scarlett cheated on behind your back; you didn't deserve to deal with something painful like this."
"It's fine, Pyrrha," Jaune nodded as he looked at the Mistralian, his tone appearing neutral.
"Actually, we're all sorry that your relationship with her ended on a sour note," Ren added as he and the orangenette sat on their bed.
"Renny's right," Nora nodded. "You deserved someone better than that cheating Noctis Walker."
"Yeah, I know," Jaune nodded as he starts to consider lying down on his bed.
"Look, if it makes you feel better, maybe I should tell you my reason why I came to Beacon Academy," Pyrrha offered, drawing her team leader's attention.
"Why for?"
"You had a troubled past that brought you here." The Mistralian explained. "I wanted to tell you why I came here in the first place, especially if it helps you feel better."
"Okay," Jaune felt unsure about Pyrrha's suggestion but simply nodded his head. ". . . just tell me all about it."
"Thanks, Jaune," The redhead replied. "While I did go to Beacon Academy not only get away from the fame and publicity back in my hometown of Logos, aside from wanting to refine my skills as a Huntress, I also did this just to help inspire people to become strong in a world infested with Grimm while meeting new people. But my life wasn't always like this.
"When I was younger, I was just an ordinary girl who lived a peacefull life with my parents despite my dad being a veteran Hunter named Leonidas Nikos who also helped awakened my Aura aside from being a combat instructor. However, back in elementary school, I became friends with a girl called Pamela Pumpkinton, the daughter of Peter Pumpkinton, aka, Pumpkin Pete, who, at that time, was a simple businessman.
"At that time, I did struggle in my classes when Pamela offered to help me learn better in my classes in exchange for providing her protection from bullies that want to pick on us.
"After a while, what started as a simple agreement slowly became a friendship by the end of the school year, and by that point, we became inseparable even to our teenage years.
"During that time, we both hanged out with each other, we get to know each other's parents, and we did go on a few misadventures along the way," Pyrrha couldn't help but smile at those childhood memories when a frown came to her. "But unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst, unfortunately."
"What happened?" Jaune couldn't help but feel things the story won't end well, something that's shared with Nora and Ren.
"When both of us were thirteen years old, Pamela and I were helping students with tutoring sessions around the school when one of the kids we're helping named Lloyd Graystone told us he was afraid of going to an elevator around an apartment complex he and his dad moved there recently, since there was a creepy older woman that keeps staring at him whenever he goes there named Annis Blackroot, or Black Annis as we called her.
"We addressed the situation to Mr. Graystone, but he keeps brushing off our claims, stating that the creepy woman won't hurt Lloyd and he should just man up about it, especially since the apartment they were staying was around the eleventh floor."
"Some dad Lloyd had," Nora grumbled, which the rest of them couldn't help but agree.
"I don't blame you one bit, Nora," the redhead nodded. "Fearing that the woman could kidnap him, or in his words, 'Could eat him alive,' Pamela and I agreed to escort Lloyd to and from the apartment complex for the next few days until we could figure out how to get the creep away from the boy. Alas, things didn't end well one day when we're escorting him away from school.
"As we decided to alert our parents to the recent situation once we got out of school, a van came unexpectedly, revealing to be Black Annis as she kidnaps all three of us inside the vehicle and drove off to an abandoned house far from Logos."
"That's not good," Jaune gulped.
"But it gets worst," Pyrrha barely resisted the urge to gag. "Black Annis not only tied us together with rope and chains aside from destroying our Scrolls, but she also threw us into the kitchen when she decided to beat Lloyd up on the kitchen table nonstop before making us watch as she eats him alive."
All three of her teammates barely resist the urge to lose their dinner, especially after how that depraved woman ate the poor boy without hesitation.
"With Lloyd dead horribly devoured and us becoming next on Black Annis' menu, both Pamela and I agreed that we need to escape the house with our lives, but it came at a bitter cost," Pyrrha continued. "Using my new awakened Semblance, I used one of the rusted knives and a few metal pieces on the table to cut the rope and lock pick our chains until we're successfully freed to escape.
"However, as we quickly yet quietly exit the house, Pamela and I made a dash to find the nearest house to call for help. Unfortunately for us, Black Annis found out what's going on and started chasing us like a deranged animal.
"Though we did get to the nearest house and told the residents there what's going on, they wasted no time to call for help, but Black Annis arrived to wreak havoc, slaughtering the residents and a few police officers that arrived to stop her in horrifying ways while viciously destroying the house.
"With our options becoming limited, both Pamela and I had to make our last stand as we fight to survive, battling Black Annis with the goal of ending her rampage, but during the fight, when I was injured by the older woman's strikes, Pamela grabbed that monster by her hair and distracted her long enough for me to use a metallic pipe and used it as a javelin straight to the older woman's heart and ended Black Annis' life before calling the police for help.
"Sadly, in that battle, Black Annis punched Pamela's face and chest hard enough that she ended up in a coma that lasted to this day alongside Lloyd's remains within that monster's stomach.
"While I returned to my parents injured but alive, Pamela's parents were forced to see her daughter in a comatose state due to her injuries. But after I told them what really happened that day, alongside Lloyd's dad being willfully ignorant to his son's plight, he ended up becoming a major pariah across Mistral for letting his son getting killed and eaten by Black Annis, who was revealed to be a notorious serial killer and cannibalistic monster that eats children.
"But while the suspects that choose not to alert authorities on Black Annis' whereabout in the apartment complex had gone to jail, Mr. Graystone however has his whole life ruined thanks to his negligence and was blacklisted from a huge number of jobs for his terrible actions, making him poor and miserable.
"Unfortunately for Mr. Graystone, he decided that he wanted revenge on everyone for ruining his life by using a large truck full of weapons to start his murderous rampage, forcing my dad to hunt down and end that man's life before Mr. Graystone endangers everybody else.
"That incident, combined with Lloyd's death and Pamela being trapped in a coma, I was depressed for a couple of months until my parents helped me recovered and started training myself further to make sure nobody needed to suffer like I'd experience, aside from improving morale around Logos after the horrific tragedies that occurred the past few weeks.
"To do that, not only I trained from both my parents and some training instructors, I also decided to become the poster child of her dad's new cereal company called Pumpkin Pete out of respect to Pamela who helped me countless times, aside from becoming a Mistralian champion four times in a row to see if my training had served me well, which it always did.
"But given the amount of trauma that still haunted me after everything, combined with me feeling reluctant to make friends after what I'd experienced alongside fears that any of people could do this just to get popularity, I decided to enroll in Beacon Academy to start my new life there, and which I met you guys," Pyrrha concluded her tale.
Everyone stared at the Mistralian in shock, not only for her tale, but what she had gone through in her childhood.
"Pyrrha, I'm sorry that you had to witnessed Pamela and Lloyd suffer like this," Jaune couldn't help but pity his teammate for having to endure something like this."
"It's fine, Jaune," the redhead nodded calmly. "Though the memories still haunted me from time to time, at least I can do whatever I can to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."
Though the blonde could see his redheaded teammate within the nighttime setting inside the dorm room, he somehow wanted to keep looking at the Spartan nonstop.
"Well, if it makes you two feels better, I can tell you my backstory as well," Nora offered as she turned towards her two teammates, her tone feeling soft yet nervous at the same time until Ren started to hug the orangenette from behind.
"I can also tell my backstory since there was a reason why Nora and I met each other as well," the young raven-haired man suggested, gently patting his girlfriend and fiancée's head a few times. "It's something to help ease your nerves once we tell you this."
"Alright, let's hear it," Jaune replied.
"Of course," the pink-theme young woman nodded. "To start out, I was the only daughter of my parents who were both experienced hunters that originally hailed from Atlas but wanted to travel around Remnant to explore new places, especially when they work guarding merchant caravans travelling supplies across the globe.
"So, when I was born, my parents decided to invite me on several occasions for their escorting missions, especially since they wanted to spend lots of time with me. And while I'm still mischievous even growing up, I did love my parents deeply, especially since we travelled together as a family, constantly seeing lots of new things throughout our journeys. One day, however, was when things had gone wrong.
"During a routine trip towards Mistral with a group of merchants, my parents and I were camping near the woods to enjoy the scenery before we head to sleep for the night near one of the tents set up by the hunters, with dad taking guard with a few others in case of unwanted surprises.
"Unfortunately, my parents woke me up unexpectedly, warning me that a large Grimm swarm are overwhelming the caravans and are on the rampage, all of them led by the monster known as the Nuckelavee.
The rest of Team JNPR couldn't help but notice the orangenette unconsciously tightening up her fist.
"The Nuckelavee was a brutal and merciless Grimm, slaughtering hunters, drivers, and merchants in its path with sadistic and outright deprave enjoyment in so many horrible ways. Even worse, I was eight years old at that time when I was forced to watch the brutality unfold.
"My dad, knowing we won't be able to survive the Nuckelavee's brutal assault alongside the major swarm of Grimm, told mom to get me away from this slaughterhouse at all costs as he prepares himself to hold the line for us. All I did know was that I screamed and cried for my dad as my tearful mom dragged me away from the battlefield to keep us safe, taking with us a book of runes my family have passed down from a few generations.
Nora got out of the bed and reached for her drawer, pulling out an aged book full of notes and odd runes around it before showing her whole team what it looked like.
"Unfortunately for us, the Grimm noticed we'd escape and decide to hunt us down like we're sport to them, using whatever projectile weapons at their disposal to either kill or main us to prevent our escape, until that monster charged towards, it's horse mouth ready to bite us at any moment.
"Mom, knowing that the monster could reach close enough to kill us both, decided to sacrifice herself by becoming bait to buy me time to escape before giving me the book, telling me to keep the book safe at all costs, and telling me to run and never look back before fighting off the swarm with her own life.
"Though I did manage to escape the horde of Grimm, I unfortunately lost everyone, including my parents, in the process." Nora tilted her head down, putting the book of runes back into her drawer before returning herself into Ren's arms. "I eventually travelled to Kuroyuri, someplace near enough for me to hide and take shelter. Until Ren showed up."
The mood became quite once more as both the Knight and Spartan processed what they heard from their orange-haired teammate.
"And what happened after Ren found you, by the way?"
"Before that could happen, I might explain my reasoning why I became a hunter in the first place," the raven-haired man suggested, which his two teammates simply nod without a response. "That can give you a better idea of what happened when I met Nora in the first place."
"To start, I lived a normal life around the village around Kuroyuri, living a quiet life with my parents. Not only that, but my original dream was also to become a gardener, planting various plants and flowers to help lighten the mood within the village," Ren began his story. "However, when I first saw Nora one day when walking around the village, my friend appeared malnourished and alone as she looked for the garbage bins to look for food.
"In order to help Nora due to her poor health alongside not knowing where her parents are located, I offered her some food I bought from a nearby store before taking my friend to the police station for help.
"Around the police station, as Nora continued to munch on some food to help regain her strength, my parents arrived after being told what was going on by the police officers.
"Though Nora told us that she lost her parents alongside the rest of the merchants, my parents offered to take her in, as my friend doesn't have any known relatives within her family. In response, Nora accepted the offer, and she moved in with us.
"During her time with my parents, we both . . . pretty much done everything together," Ren admitted. "We played, we sparred, we had gone on a couple of misadventures, and a lot more along the way.
"Not only that, but we also protected each other from the neighborhood kids that want to pick a fight with us even after we both awakened our Aura by my parents. But as we grew up together, I slowly start to develop feeling towards my friend, though it can be due to having her as my only friend.
"Things changed one day during a simple sunny day when we're outside playing ball when we saw the Grimm invading Kuroyuri, all lead by the same Nuckelavee that killed Nora's parents.
"Fear and panic swept the village as everyone did whatever they can to stop the swarming army of Grimm led by the Nuckelavee. My parents decide to help the villagers out before telling us to hide within the house for safety as they help fight off the monster. However, that's when the Nuckelavee, seeing that the fight wasn't going in its favor, decide to cannibalize its own forces to become more stronger than before, not caring if the villagers do whatever they can to stop the monster's mad feeding frenzy."
"Can Grimm do that?" Jaune felt shocked by the imagery that his friend had imaged.
"We're not sure about that, but the result was a newly empowered Grimm capable to overwhelm and slaughter the villagers with ease, which tragically includes my parents.
"Hugging an equally terrified Nora that noticed the monster that slaughtered both our parents becoming more stronger than before," Ren added while hugging his shaken fiancée. "Not wanting the Grimm to kill both of us, I subconsciously managed to awaken my Semblance I later call Emotion Mirager, that can make us invisible to Grimm detection,"
"We waited until the Grimm leave the village, but not before they continue slaughtering anyone in their way, much to our fear and hatred that they can callously hurt others without remorse or hesitation whatsoever.
"As the day ends and the Grimm left the village, both of us go outside to see the damage, but all we saw was most of Kuroyuri destroyed without hesitation, combined with survivors that barely survived the encounter.
"Though we're taken into a nearby orphanage alongside the surviving children, the massacre still haunts us to this day. But, we both decide to become Hunters so that way, nobody can witnessed the horrible deaths like we witnessed, alongside hunting down the Nuckelavee that killed both our parents." The raven-haired man concluded. "That ends our story, Jaune."
The mood became silent once again, everyone taking in what they had to witnessed in the past.
"I guess, in a way, that's our list of stories to you, Jaune," Pyrrha replied, though a bit sheepish due to Nora and Ren being willing to tell their backstories alongside hers.
But for their team leader, he heard everything that his teammates told him, finally learning why they chose their profession to become Hunters in response to the tragic and pain events in their past.
And their desire to make sure nobody had to go through these tragedies like they'd experience.
"Honestly, when I first met you guys, I thought all of you might have better lives than I did, especially since I was just an ordinary kid within the UIG," Jaune admitted. "But after you guys told me why you became Hunters in the first place despite the tragedies that occurred, I'd realize that we all have our fair share of good and bad experiences in our personal lives.
"And even still," a smile began to emerge on the blonde's face. "I'm just glad to be in a team with you guys, even with your quirky traits."
"Thanks, Jaune," Pyrrha replied, Nora and Ren nodding in approval. "We just want to help you out, that's all. Plus, if you have something in mind to talk about, feel free to let us know, okay?"
"Sure." Jaune nodded, before something else came to mind. "But even still, I felt that we need to help each other out become better Hunters and a better team, because while I'm still in the ropes to become a good fighter, I do compensate by being a good strategist."
"So basically?" The orangenette wondered.
"We may to learn from each other in order to strengthen our skills while covering our weaknesses," Her raven-haired fiancé pointed it out.
"Of course," the blonde nodded. "Plus, this could help us make refinements in our skills to better combat the Grimm and other hostile threats."
"He's right," the Mistralian gave her team leader a knowing smile. "While were more talented fighters than Jaune, we may have weak spots that needed to be addressed so that way they won't be our undoing, alongside boosting our confidence in ourselves and each other."
"Of course," Jaune never felt this content before in his life. "Are you two with us?"
Nora gave a triumphant smirk. "I'm with you, Fearless Leader."
"Of course," Ren nodded. "Whenever you and Pyrrha go, Nora and I will follow."
"Glad to hear," A genuine smile emerged on the team leader's face. "Remember the team motto that we gave to Ozpin after the Initiation to solidify our team when we collected the Relic with Team RWBY."
"Let's hear it once more, Jaune," the Mistralian gave a simple nod.
"Alright," the blonde replied "Team JNPR: . . . "
". . . NEVER GIVE UP!" All of them shouted, raising their fists in the air.
And a sudden knock at the wall. "Give us some sleep, please!?"
Everyone gave a nervous chuckle.
"And not shout whenever everyone is trying to sleep." Jaune added.
"That too," Nora nodded.