Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

Three Days Before The Events of 3D Land

"I don't understand this…" Esdeath mused, rubbing her chin in thought. "Her health is declining, yet she's in high spirits."

"Could it be because she took part of the Phazon War? She seemed rather chipper during that." Kurome pointed out.

"Come to think of it, we brought her with us so she wouldn't fall to the Phazon… yet she was active during the war, something that surprised the people of Atlas, including us."

"Who was she with?"

"If I recall correctly, Futaba Sakura came to aid her when she saw that she was in trouble." She explained. "Because of her, she's still alive. I should be grateful, yet her health is still deteriorating, yet she's in high spirits."

"Why does this concern you?"

"Because I'm afraid that because she caught her second wind, she's going to be making a lot of friendships with everyone and they're all going to be crushed when she dies."

"Is this because General Ironwood wants to make sure you become the Winter Maiden when she passes?"

"Yes. It'd be my burden to bear… I don't want anyone else to bear that burden, it might prove too much for them, and if they become the Winter Maiden instead… well, I'll support them, but the stress might be too much."

"I've heard a rumor that an Outworlder has become the Summer Maiden." Kurome explained. "I believe her name is… Faedelgourd? No, that can't be it…"

"Edelgard von Hresvelg. She had come to Atlas recently just so she could get directions for Vacuo." Esdeath corrected. "I do not mind if an Outworlder bears the maiden powers, as long as they are on the side of good. Besides, we had a pleasant chat… although I am a bit wary of her retainer. Between you and me, Hubert makes me… uncomfortable."

"Is he that emo guy?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, apparently he gives Bols the chills too."

"I do not blame him." Kurome nodded. "Still, we should be cautious… Friya is actively wandering around the Atlesian base. There's no telling what will happen if she wanders around Atlas, or… worse, outside of the Atlesian walls."

"General Esdeath!" A soldier approached her.

"Hmm? What is it?"

"It's Friya, she's wandered off into the city!"

"What?!" Esdeath said in shock. "I thought I entrusted the security guards to keep an eye on her!"

"That's the problem… she gave us all the slip. She's a crafty one."

Esdeath sighed. "Alright, I suppose I will have to wrangle her up. Come on, Kurome. Let's go find her."

"Right."

Later…

"Friya? Friya, where are you!" Kurome called out to her.

"Friya's gone?" A voice asked as they turned to see Sheele and Seryu approaching.

"Oh, hey you two. Yeah, Friya fled the coop. We don't know where she is." Kurome said.

"Did she have anything on her? Maybe I can track her scent." Seryu said.

"Well… she does tend to drop a hair pin every so often." Kurome pulled it out. "You might get a scent, but I dunno." She said, handing it to Seryu.

"I've got a strong nose. I'm sure I can figure it out." Seryu smiled, taking it and sniffing it.

"We've tried the city, but we don't know where she's at." Esdeath said. "She might be hiding in a building, or-"

"Got it!" Seryu took off running.

"That fast?" Kurome asked in surprise as they took off after her, where they would soon find Friya at the outer edges of Atlas, where she was looking out toward the horizon.

"Friya!" Esdeath exclaimed.

"Hmm? Oh, hello dears!" Friya smiled warmly. "Nice day for some snow, wouldn't you agree?"

"Friya… you're not suppose to be out here. You're supposed to be in-"

"Oh, everyone falls victim to Cabin Fever, why shouldn't I get some fresh air?" She smiled.

"How did you get past the guards?" Kurome asked.

"Well…"

Earlier…

"Hmhmhm~" Friya hummed as she walked around with some guards behind her. She stopped abruptly and turned her head. "Good heavens! Isn't that Sorndo Gloom? The man who played that elf in Lord of the Baskets?"

"Friya, we are not falling for that a second time."

"Oh good heavens, he's taking off his shirt! Ooooh my, look at those abs~! Those pecs~!"

The guards started to sweat nervously.

"Oh my heavens, he's flexing them! He's flexing his chest!"

More sweat started to form.

"And… oooh, look at those fine legs."

"SORNDO GLOOM, WE ARE YOUR BIGGEST FANS!"

"Heheheh…" Friya took off running.

In the present…

Esdeath sweatdropped. "Of course, we had to hire the biggest Sorndo Gloom fans on the planet." She sighed with a facepalm.

"Hey, he is pretty hot, especially with his pirate gig in Pirates of the Menagerian Sea." Kurome said.

"It's true, he's pretty hunky." Sheele nodded.

"Meh, I'm more of a Christopher Seamsworth kind of gal myself." Seryu said.

Esdeath chuckled. "Regardless, you need to go back to your bed."

"I will not stand to be in that infernal bed for a moment longer." Friya protested. "It is true that my health is deteriorating, but life is short. Why spend it in bed when you can go out and smell the roses, Grimm and bandits be darned."

"I mean, that's true, but-"

"Plus, I would like to visit my pen pal, Futaba."

"What? Why not just write her a letter like you usually do?" Esdeath asked. "Besides, Futaba's very busy fixing Remnant's network."

"Letting an Outworlder do all the work? For shame, Esdeath." Friya chuckled. "I am most impressed that she managed to hack into the network all by herself, with some help from that Doctor Eggs Benedict fellow, but letting a teenager do all the work to rebuild it from scratch while Doctor Eggs Benedict compromised the entire system? For shame, Esdeath. She ought to have at least some help."

Esdeath blushed. "I-I mean… she did get some help recently. A robotic boy named Chihiro and her girlfriend, Jade. I think a girl named Chiaki pitches in sometimes."

"Is it enough, I wonder?" Friya mused. "I would like to go give her a boost."

"What do you know about electronics? You barely know how to write an email." Esdeath said. "Hell, you just learned what an email was just yesterday!"

"I said nothing about helping with this new fangled technology. I meant simply cheering her up. As I said, life is short… and I wish to speak with Futaba as much as I can before I finally croak."

Esdeath sighed in defeat. "Alright, you win. But after you're done, you're heading straight back to your room, alright?"

"Deal."

Meanwhile, at Sojiro's…

Chihiro sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry, Futaba. But the spaghetti code I've been trying to crack for weeks has finally bested me. I don't know if I'm just rusty or Eggman made it impossible for the Ultimate Programmer to figure out. Either that or Remnant's code is just that bad… either way, it's frying my circuitry."

Futaba gave him a soft smile. "You did all you could, Chihiro." She said.

"So, how much progress did you make?" Chihiro asked.

"…I'm at fourteen percent." She admitted.

"You've regressed? How is that possible?"

"Well, I was at twenty percent, but Jade looked some stuff over and found out I've overlooked some coding that was all wrong, so that set me back…" She let out a groan, planting her forehead on the table. "I don't get it… I'm an expert coder, but this spaghetti code is making my head explode…"

"You and me both." Chihiro mumbled.

Jade walked over, holding some coffee cups. "Latte?"

"Thanks dude…" Futaba smiled as she took the cup as Jade sat down next to her. Futaba put her head back after sipping her coffee. "Ugh… I just want to scream. It's no wonder Remnant's network was easy to crack, even if it took me a while to get through some challenging firewalls. The code is all junk… and to think I wanted to see what made this world tick and put up my own firewalls so it wouldn't be easily hacked next time."

"I don't blame you. It's starting to give me a headache too." Jade said.

"Honestly, though… I still need to do something." Futaba said. "This was my mess, so I have to at least figure out how to remake the entire network and make sure Eggman doesn't get his grubby hands on it."

Jade rubbed her back. "You have us helping you too." She said, gently kissing her on the cheek.

Futaba smiled, a small blush appearing on her face. "And I'm grateful for that."

The shop's door opened up as a bell rang, catching Sojiro's attention. "Hey." Sojiro greeted.

"Hopefully it'll go a little more smoothly, but I doubt it." Futaba mumbled.

"Hello Futaba."

"Huh?" Futaba turned her head and saw Friya. "Friya?!" Her frown was immediately replaced with a smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just wanted to say hello to my favorite pen pal." Friya smiled sweetly. "After all, one shouldn't be locked up in a hospital bed just because of deteriorating health. Life is too short for that."

"How did you convince them to get out of Atlas?"

"Simple. I pulled the good ol' Sorndo Gloom trick." She smiled.

…Is that what they call Orlando Bloom here? Chihiro thought.

Futaba snickered. "Nice one."

Friya sat down in front of Futaba as Chihiro moved a bit. "Now tell me, how's the progress on that new fangled technology that you're working on?"

"Well, I thought I made some decent progress, until I found out that there were some bugs put in that I didn't realize I did. I went from twenty to fourteen just like that."

"Bugs? As in… Ladybugs and ants?"

"It's more technological than it. Think of it like a glitch."

"I am not sure what a "glitch" is."

"Error?"

"Oh! An error, now I understand. Well, look at the bright side. At least you found out the problem."

"Yeah, but it set me back by a few points. Aaaagh, now the maintenance is gonna be longer."

"I wouldn't necessarily think of it as a bad thing. It is true that we all make mistakes in life, but that's who we are. It makes us human… er, human-ish by Faunus standards, no offense Seeyou."

"Oh, it's no big dea-… Seeyou?" Seryu sweatdropped, hearing a giggle from Sheele.

"The point is, we all learn from our mistakes. True, this had set you back, but you shouldn't let it define who you are, Futaba. You're a bright young girl and I'll be darned if I saw you moping around over a silly mistake such as being set back over an error. Life is too short to be moping around by making a mistake. Nobody is perfect, and if you put up a new system that seems far from perfect, then don't worry about it. The point is: You did everything the best that you could."

Futaba chuckled. "You always have a way to cheer me up, even if I do come hang out every now and then."

"Indeed." Friya smiled. "So tell me, what have you done aside from working your hardest?"

"Oh! Well, a few weeks ago, I went to another world to help some of my friends out. You see, there was this group called Those Who Slither in the Dark-"

"Those Who Slither in the Dark?" Friya chuckled. "Where do you come up with these silly names in this active imagination of yours?" She smiled sweetly, letting Futaba continue on

Nearby, Esdeath shook her head while drank some coffee of her own. "So, she seems to be a handful." Sojiro said.

"You don't know the half of it. After that war we had, she's been a lot active lately and she has been writing to Futaba, practically becoming a pen pal. I do find this cute, but-"

"Oh, let her live her life, ice queen." Sojiro said. "After all, as she said, life is short."

"I get that, but she-"

"-Is the Winter Maiden. I'm aware." Sojiro nodded. "True, the Salem lady poses a problem, but I would not worry about it. After all, Ruby seems to have united everyone after that broadcast, so I'm sure that had set Salem back by tenfold."

"Well, yeah-"

"So don't worry about it. I understand that Friya is making a connection with everyone, and you're afraid that she will pass the torch on to someone else rather than you."

"Where did you-"

"Futaba has told me."

Esdeath sweatdropped. "I can imagine Friya told her."

"Indeed she has." Sojiro chuckled. "While I do understand your problem, there has to come a point where you can't lock someone up forever just for their safety. She has bodyguards, yes, but letting her walk around your HQ and not letting her outside? Personally, I think that's rather limiting. Let her explore and enjoy her life and of course, have a few bodyguards with her as she is the most vulnerable compared to the other Maidens."

"Not all the Maidens are from Remnant. Edelgard is from Fodlan and she doesn't have aura or a semblance."

"Is that a fact? Let her worry about that on her own terms." Sojiro chuckled. "Same goes for Friya. If I were in a nursing home, I'd be going crazy myself and demand that I walk around and enjoy the time that I have left instead of being mucked up in some apartment with crazy old folk."

"…Are you suggesting that we let her walk around freely?"

"Why not? After all, Atlas is pretty much the safest place in Remnant, correct? It's not like it'll fall anytime soon. Plus, it's militarily protected, and I've heard that under your guidance, the city below is thriving more. It used to be a dump, but now it's a thriving city with more protection against the Grimm. Let her go down and smell the roses in the city, make new friends, let her enjoy the time she had left."

"But-"

"Look at her. She's smiling and enjoying Futaba's company. Compare her mood the previous day. Was she happy?"

"She was pretty… sad." Her eyes widened. "Have I been going about this all wrong?"

"You've got too much on your plate, especially considering your own father is on leave for a while." Sojiro said. "You're practically running Atlas and running yourself ragged. Enjoy some peace and quiet, I say."

"That's not true. I'm… I'm…" Esdeath looked down. "I have been a lot busier lately, considering dad's getting help to take better control of his semblance with Ryu helping him out. I haven't had time for myself in a while. Hell, I was relieved when he came to help out when Jacques was murdered."

"Life is short, Esdeath… take some time to let down your hair." Sojiro smiled.

Esdeath looked over at Friya and then looked at her own reflection at a window. "…Maybe you're right." She said.

Friya chuckled. "My, that is such a wonderful tale."

"Yup." Futaba smiled.

Friya nodded. "It was nice talking to you, Futaba. Perhaps we should do this again next week."

Futaba grinned. "I'd love that!" She said as Jade got up and moved so Futaba could get out as she and Friya hugged.

"Take care…" Friya smiled and looked at Chihiro and Jade. "Cheero, Jaiden, take care of Futaba while I'm gone."

Cheero/Jaiden? They both thought before noddinng.

Friya turned around to Esdeath. "Alright, take me back to my solitary confinement."

"Actually… how about we take the long way home? I can show you around Toad Town and we can take a walk around the park."

Friya's eyes widened before smiling. "Esdeath, you finally see the bigger picture in life. I would love a grand tour of Toad Town." She turned to Futaba. "How about you come along yourself?"

"Oh! Sure!" Futaba smiled.

"Oh what the heck, I'll join ya." Jade said.

"Count me in!" Chihiro nodded as they all walked out together, leaving the three Atlesians in the coffee shop.

"…What just happened?" Kurome asked.

"I think Sojiro said something that made her stop and think." Sheele said.

"It definitely worked." Seryu nodded.

Sojiro chuckled. "Perhaps I did." He said, casually cleaning a glass. "You kiddos want anything?"

"Sure, why not." Kurome nodded as the trio walked to their seats after giving their orders, and as for Esdeath, she casually walked around town while giving Friya the grand tour of the Mushroom Kingdom.

*looks at Ibuki's eyes sparkling* Cute enough for ya?

Ibuki: Oh, absolutely!