Back in Vale

Celica stepped out of the portal arriving at her home in Vale, she sat on the couch and began to cry, she really loved Sylvia, she wanted to be with her but she thought she was the one to truly mess things up to a point of no return and how she screwed up so much she pushed Sylvia into the arms of Ilia. She cried for a while but finally got up, she sighed and went to the kitchen to get started on dinner but something in her mind was tugging at her.

Celica stopped and found herself following the little voice tugging away in her head as it told her to go into her parents room, she hadn't been in there for so long, she tried once but couldn't get a hand near the door handle, she stared at the very door handle and this time she grabbed onto it and turned, the door gave way as it gently released and opened inward revealing her parents old bedroom.

She stepped in finding it quite dusty and quiet, the essence of her parents was still there as she looked around the room, she saw her Mother's mirror with all her make up neatly stacked, she remembered how her Mum would teach her how to apply make up and when she was five she made a mess on her face with lipstick and her Mum laughing as her Dad came in when her Mum called out and how he picked her up and said how beautiful she was even without make up and then fell onto the bed with her laughing.

Celica teared up at the memory, as she looked at the make up, she stopped when she picked up a present and card, it was addressed to her and she sat on the dusty bed not caring she was getting dirty as she started crying once again, her birthday was two days after the Fall of Beacon, obviously her parents had gotten her gift already. She opened up the present seeing two necklaces that make one whole heart obviously knowing it was her parents way of saying to give Sylvia something special.

She opened up the card and read the message.

Dear Celica,

Happy Birthday to our beautiful girl, Your Father and I couldn't be more proud of you

studying at Beacon to become a Huntress to help protect the world.

We've watched you these past 18 years and you had us concerned when you were

super shy, we feared you wouldn't find friends or love but were so glad you proved

us wrong.

You have found amazing friends and one amazing girl that we can see you're crazy

about.

Even though it's your birthday I hope you use our gift well, your Father and I fell in

love at first sight and we see it's the same between you and Sylvia, so do us a favour.

On your birthday, make your gift from us to you and Sylvia.

We love you so much and will always be here for you.

Happy 18th Birthday!

From your Mother and Father XOXOXO

Tears flowed down Celica's cheeks once more, her parents knew her so well, she clutched the card to her heart and looked at the Silver heart necklace that had a C and S also etched into heart's design, both letters could only be read when the heart was joined together. She cried apologizing to her parents laying on their dusty bed, the dust shot up into her nose which had her sneezing and coughing standing up.

She stopped crying after she saw the sight of herself in the mirror and let out a little chuckle as she sat at her Mum's makeup mirror as she began to to tell her parents what had happened since Sylvia had found her, instead of the memorial she could now talk to them in their bedroom and perhaps start thinking of ways to move on for good this time but couldn't come up with anything.

Over the next week Celica cleaned up her parent's room, she then decided to rearrange some of the furniture in the lounge and her own room, marking a new change in her life she put the necklaces on her parent's bed once again apologizing to her parents for not being able to hold onto Sylvia and giving up on her. The jobs she picked from the board were all helping defend the border of Vale and Team CFVY had decided to go to Vacuo to do more training at Shade Academy.

Celica saw her four friends off and promised she'd behave, they were a little worried about Celica as she would be left by herself but Celica was much more brighter now, she still loved Sylvia but hid the feelings away and being much more positive and having only selected Kingdom defence missions eased Team CFVY's decision, Celica also promised to come visit them in Vacuo at least one a fortnight.

Instead of Team CFVY having to waste time travelling Celica opened up a portal for them straight away making a joke and charging for use of the portal. Velvet laughed and Coco smirked reminding Celica they saved her life which got Celica giving up and telling her no problem as she would cover the fee. Fox and Yatsuhashi waved as they entered first and Velvet gave Celica a huge hug before entering herself along with Coco, they all knew this wasn't goodbye.

After Coco left Celica made the portal disappear and now she was alone, she walked to the job board and had a look at what was available and ran into her old Teacher from Signal, Taiyang Xiao Long, he asked how she was doing and said she was a bit down but things were looking up, he also had Zwei with him and Celica just loved Zwei as she knelt down patting him as she asked him how he was doing.

Instead of usual small talk he said he was missing his daughters but keeping busy with training people at Signal Academy and that's when Celica had a lightbulb spark remembering how Arthur was teaching self defence classes, Sylvia and Ilia helping the faunus movement she figured in between Huntsman missions she could also teach future Huntsman and asked Taiyang if she could possibly teach.

Taiyang was a little shocked at first, most of the Professors from Beacon had their hands full protecting Vale and trying to rebuild, there was a real shortage of teachers and Taiyang basically welcomed the idea but it'd be best if she got the permission from Professor Goodwitch and the rest of the staff at Signal. Celica was adamant she wanted to teach, thanking Tai she headed off to talk to Professor Goodwitch and with her reputation she was appointed as a Professor at Signal Academy.

Her first day was a little nerve racking, at home eating breakfast she wondered what she had gotten herself into, it wasn't even two years ago she was in her final year at Signal, she had gotten her Huntress License early due to the Fall of Beacon, she was much younger than basically all Huntsman that graduated normally but Professor Goodwitch did approve as Celica did pass her test and had grown throughout the past year.

She walked into the classroom a couple hours later, some students thought she was just another peer and kept talking to their friends until Celica put her belongings down on her desk and wrote her name on the board, she didn't want to addressed as Professor so she told everyone just to call her by her name. The students looked at each other in disbelief and one girl asked if she was actually their new Professor as she was so young.

Celica just nodded and said if anybody had any problems then go complain to the Headmaster of Signal or Professor Goodwitch herself, she introduced herself and told them all the story of how she was at the Fall of Beacon, only being a first year and how she was injured but kept the story brief and she pulled her eyepatch off warning the students what can happen even if you're the best fighter and how she still earned her Graduation as only a handful of students were given their license early.

The students took everything on board, some were on the fence about the idea of Celica teaching them but Celica carried herself with an aura of not to be messed with but approachable at the same time as she began her first lesson which was to keep emotions in check as she told the students how she fell to a horde of Grimm as she let her anger get the best of her and was overwhelmed showing them the schematics of some of her bones in her ribcage were now metal.

Celica then had the class discuss how emotions can grant strength and laid on the warning that you can't let them overpower you, throughout the class discussion the main focus that Celica was picking up was not wanting their family and friends to die. Celica said it was an excellent way to grant some strength, giving an example seeing a friend in a battle, obviously you want to go help them asking the class.

Mostly everyone in the class said yes and that's when Celica said it is also an excellent way to overpower you, half of the class looked confused so Celica gave another example picking two students at random on the other end of the room, every other student were looking to attack both of them, then said to one of the selected students that if you wanted to go help their other classmate what would happen?

Everyone in the class looked at each other and knew there would be no way one person could get to their ally without being attacked, Celica also referred to it as tunnel vision and it is one of the most dangerous things you could do out in the field or even in everyday life. A guy in the class then asked what should you do in that situation, Celica then answered straight away saying you need to trust your ally can hold their own and focus on yourself, only when it's clear would you look to go help.

She kept going saying it may not be an enemy in the way but another ally or even an object, this time she applied the same scenario but there was nobody in the way except the desks and chairs. She then asked the class which way should they go to get to their ally as she suggested going around the desks, over them or under them and it got to a debate in the class before Celica quieted them down providing an answer saying they were all right but their choices were split second decisions that could also backfire.

The students found the information quite interesting, being first year students and all was easy enough for Celica to teach and told the class for the next day they would be learning weaponry which got the class all excited as Celica said they should think of what weapon style would best suit them, also to come up with at least three weapons of their choosing and to figure out all the pros and cons of their selected weapons as she dismissed the class at the end of the day.

When everyone was gone Celica sat down and took a deep breath, she wasn't used to talking so much and teaching was hard work which gave her more respect for the Professors that taught her. Taiyang entered her class and asked how her first day went as Celica said good but was nervous on what everyone thought of her and Tai chuckled knowing exactly what that was like as he invited Celica out with all the other Professors for a drink.

Celica accepted as they headed to the bar, Celica was going to prod her peers for information on teaching.