Weather rarely changed in Traverse Town. Long-time residents had noticed the wind picking up when newcomers arrived. Flags and whistles on the taller buildings served as alarms, for Heartless often followed those refugees.
A breeze whistled now over 8th District. Feline ears flicked to attention. Their owner, a young huntress, watched Flags atop the tenements rise and flap wildly. She observed the strange city from these rooftops, nameless behind a bone bask, hiding and watching from shadows, living the life she thought she'd left behind.
In Fifth District, Sun Wukong had found a helpful citizen. He asked her for the third time, "Okay, but… Where am I?"
Yuffie squinted at him, then tilted her ear up to the wind-whistles.
In Third District, a lagomorph lifted one rabbitty ear and asked, "Coco? Does that sound like an alarm to you?"
Coco Adel had taken to the city instantly. She was occupied with a hat rack, but noted the shopkeep's worried expression, Then Velvet's.
Coco patted her friend. "Hey. You scared?"
"That sound reminds me of the siren. You know, the breach."
A shadow sped past the storefront.
"Good," Coco nodded. "We won that battle."
She put the new hat atop her head. "I'll pay when I get back," she announced, and sauntered into battle.
The wind carried into Sixth District. There, every dark place shimmered like puddles on moonless nights. Yellow eyes blinked to life. Claws and bodies emerged from the ripples, into the light, and followed their hunger towards hearts. But even beasts like these acknowledged power.
One heart stood out: Driven, angry, and despairing. Instinct bade the shadows slither that way to obey.
A Shadow waddled down the street, to the mouth of an alley, and stared down it. The Shadow did not see crates, nor clothes, nor color. Three hearts beat in the alleyway. Two turned to it, then accelerated in fear.
The third reassured them, "The Grimm won't hurt us. Not while we've got Salem's blessing. Isn't that right, little shadow?"
The Shadow had once spoken and understood words. It had been born and given a name. In death, it only consumed and obeyed and crawled towards the darkest places. And this was not the darkest place. It turned and carried on down the street, towards the heart that stood out.
It turned down another alley, and there found Nora Valkyrie. She knelt with her kit laid out on a blanket, carefully mixing Dust into a 40mm grenade.
On a long gone day, she'd picked a pink and white combat dress. Later, she'd asked a tailor to add a heart-shaped keyhole where cleavage met chest. She'd looked cute then. She hadn't known that her dear friend Pyrrha would immolate and gasp and choke on her own cooked flesh while-
Nora looked up at the Shadow. "Stop that," she ordered.
The Shadow blinked. Nora finished pouring her mixture, then screwed the payload shut and found a hex wrench to secure it with. As she reached across her kit, a burning tear fell from her cheek.
"I don't have time for you," she explained. She hefted Mjolnir, cracked the revolver action, and began loading her custom rounds.
The Shadow waited patiently for its orders. On instinct, it reached out again for her heart, to the day Pyrrha said, "We're friends, right? Can you keep a secret?"
Nora brushed a hair behind her head and blushed. Her first friend at Beacon! This was wild!
"Y-Yeah- YES! OH MY GOSH YES! But not- haha- you know, in an overbearing or creepy way, oh no you've got an expression like it's creepy. Sorry, Pyrrha."
And Pyrrha, Saint Nikos, who loved the world and everyone in it, giggled along with her.
"Oh gosh, you too? I feel so anxious. I mean, I'm away from home- not for the first time or anything- I'm not sheltered. But… I don't know, it's good to have friends. And I feel like… Well, we're teammates!" She beamed.
Nora beamed back. Really smiled the way that she couldn't fake. And to commemorate this moment, she shouted, "YeeeaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHH! BEST BUDDIES!"
Pyrrha laughed and added, "Hurrah!"
"So," Nora remembered, "Why do you ask? You got a secret I have to keep? Is it your crush on Jaune?"
Pyrrha blushed and hid her terror behind a biology textbook. "N-No," she whispered hoarsely.
Nora plowed on. "Well then, what is it?"
"It's, um…" She lowered the textbook. Gone was her mirth and embarrassment. Her face as it was the last time their eyes met: City lights, the night rain, a bleeding scratch, her pain.
"I want you to avenge me, Nora."
Nora lashed out at the Shadow. "I said stop that!"
Her fist knocked it onto its back. The Shadow stood again, and offered out its clawed hand. Offered, she realized, its claws. Another shadow entered the alley. Then two more. They each stopped before her, repeating the gesture.
She waved them off. "Go stand over there!"
They all hustled to where she pointed.
Nora wiped the tears from her eyes. She had to focus. To remember her plan. If she made any mistakes against Mercury Black, she would die.
She had to win. This was her duty as a Huntsman. To save lives, sometimes you had to take lives. If she didn't kill everyone in Mercury Black's gang, and everyone in the White Fang, and everyone in Torchwick's Gang, and everyone with Cinder Fall, then they would go on to hurt more people. They would kill Pyrrha all over again. Someone else's Pyrrha. Someone else's mother or father or whole city.
Nora looked at the Shadows again. Their little troop had bunched up where she'd ordered. They'd obeyed her.
She pointed across the alleyway. "Move there."
They did, all hustling, then stopping and waiting.
The Grimm... Obeyed her. She'd heard rumors about Cinder Fall. She'd heard fables from the distant past. In all of these stories, such power belonged only to the evilest of intents. Vengeful spirits and obsessed evildoers. And every one of them had had their way.
Nora smiled. Really smiled the way you can't around your friends, lips curling and twitching. She was going to lead an army of Grimm and attack a city and get her revenge.
She shook her head. This sounded familiar. This sounded way too familiar. But she was the good guy. She had to remember that she was in the right, here. Mercury Black was the bad guy and if she didn't stop him, then was she ever really Pyrrha's friend?
She didn't know. She couldn't tell where her anger stopped and pure darkness began. Where was the limit of her righteous fury, the ledge past which she dare not stray?
Boots hit cobble down the street. Someone was coming, but not from Mercury's direction. And here Nora was, commanding Grimm and looking like a bad guy.
She hissed at the monsters, "Hide," and marveled at their speed. They flattened into proper shadows, and slithered into natural darkness. They'd left no footprints, no scratches from their claws on the cobblestones. Only that sick feeling squirming in her chest proved they remained.
Nora sighed her adrenaline free just as Cloud Strife rounded the corner. A casual pace carrying him to the head of the alleyway. He turned in and murmured, "There you are."
He carried his sword over shoulder like a tree trunk, and wore a scarf to hide all but his eyes. Nora noted the glow behind them.
"You again." She tried not to sneer.
Cloud stopped at a distance and crouched to her level. Examining her kit, he mumbled, "Let me guess: That alley over there with the three tough guys. One of them is Mercury?"
Nora didn't answer. She arranged her tools and started rolling them up.
"Aerith sent me," Cloud explained. "Not to stop you."
"Good." She tied her bundle and stuffed it into her pack.
"She told me about your team. Your world. You've got friends, right?"
If Ruby and Jaune were here, would they stop her? No. Of course not. Ren might hesitate and caution, but he always did that. But then she imagined… What if She were advising Them? If Jaune were in this alleyway, planning his assault one street over, what would his face look like? Would she worry that he was on a path to self-destruction?
Nora glared at Cloud, but nodded.
Cloud jerked his thumb down the street. "And you're going to fight this guy without them?"
Could she even kill Mercury Black?
And if she looked in a mirror right now, what would she see through her tears?
She hadn't thought any of this decision through. Maybe Mercury needed to be killed, but she couldn't do that alone. She was here because she wanted revenge.
At Beacon, The elevator from the ground floor to Ozpin's office was about a one minute ride. She wondered what Pyrrha thought on the way up. What she felt. Knowing Pyrrha, there was probably not a single second of doubt.
And even she had fallen.
Nora's tears finally boiled over her cheeks and streamed from her eyes. She cried quietly, sniffling in front of this stranger, and still mourning her months dead friend.
Cloud had a certain generosity in his tone. Warmth. He offered, "I can tell you've never killed a person before. That kind of innocence is worth something, Nora."
She whispered, to not scream. "But they killed her. They took Pyrrha from us. And we're never going to see her again."
The truth, finally, had penetrated hope's last citadel in her heart.
Cloud nodded. He lowered his scarf, to reveal his frown, then offered, "There's a café in 1st district. Come on. Let me tell you about a guy named Zack Fair."