Author's note: Hello everyone! I know it's a bit weird posting on a Monday, but my goal is to get two chapters out a week. Anyway, I should mention the next chapter will be posted the day earlier. Due to being busy starting this Saturday, however, I should be back the next Saturday with another chapter. Without any more delay, there is the next chapter of Run on Caffeine volume 2!

Run on Caffeine Chapter 13:
A Light Rekindled

Two days later, after classes in the afternoon, Pepper was down at the docks helping out the cleanup crew. Since he was, in fact, responsible for a good chunk of the docks being in such a state. Figured he would do his part, and help restore this place the best he could. Pepper, sweeped the floor, picked up and threw away debris, and helped with filling up holes. The cleanup crew were very surprised but grateful for Pepper's help. Although, they were pretty sure, legally speaking, Pepper shouldn't be helping, however, they didn't care mostly because no one was going to ask him to leave. Saved them some trouble. Anyway, Pepper was sweeping up and picking up debris around the warehouses used to be. Meanwhile, a few cleanup crew members nearby were talking among themselves.

"Dude, Junior's club is gonna be lit! Can't wait to see all the hot babes!" One cleanup member energetically cheered. He pretended to dance with the broom by spinning in a circle.

"Calm your ass down! Can't you keep in your pants?" The other cleanup member said, before he smacked the other one upside the head.

"OW! Damn it man! I'm just excited, that's all! Something wrong with that?" The excited member asked as he rubbed his head.

"I mean, rumor has it, Junior is not the kind of person to be messing with. Apparently, the guy knows a hell of a lot of things. He's the kind of person, if you need to find someone or need to know some dirty laundry, you go to him," explained the calm cleanup member.

"What? And why do you know about that? Seems like a lot of bullshit. Can you back it up with a source?" asked the first guy.

"My source is I made it the hell up, I'm not revealing anything to you blabbermouth," the second guy sassily remarked.

"Oh, screw you too buddy," the first dude goes back cleaning, as he shakes his head. Blissfully unaware of the both of them, Pepper had stopped listening.

"Junior's club huh? Hmm, might be worth checking out, although it could be for naught. My mother isn't exactly easy to get information on, let alone finding her." Pepper thought to himself. He then sighed and shook his head. "Nevermind, I don't think it's worth it." Pepper said to himself. He went back sweeping and put Junior's club on the backburner.

Pepper continued helping the cleanup crew for a few more hours. He left a bit earlier than he normally would. Although that doesn't matter, because the cleanup crew doesn't pay much attention. Anywho, Pepper went back to Beacon and headed into the library. He

specifically wanted to read up the gods of those statues, the ones that people get blessed by. Ever since the history class with Professor Oobleck, he's noticed a lot of strange things have been occurring. First, when that one student, who made a commotion, simply disappeared after class and was never seen again and no one seemed to have noticed, second, that mysterious woman's voice Pepper heard when heading to the mess hall, third, and more importantly, that flash of blue light that has appeared a few times. Despite how bizarre said events are, he didn't think too hard about it until now. Especially after the fight with Strawberry, he was convinced that Strawberry had some truth in what she said back in downtown Vale. When she mentioned that his mother unknowingly signed some sort of contract with a god from one of the statues. The question is, which one? If Pepper had to make a guess, probably the one he got a blessing from. Unfortunately, his mother never told him which one. So now it's kind of a wild goose chase. Now his goal is to possibly find any information about any of these gods known for making contracts.

Regardless of how little he was actually going off of, Pepper pressed on and decided to grab several books about the gods in question and sat down. However, there wasn't a whole lot of information about said gods. Most of the books were fairy tales or fables, nothing actually concrete. On the other hand, this was all he had to go off of, so he had to make it count. Since there were quite a number of books, he decided to start small by reading the god of animals, Boreas Noir. He surprisingly had the smallest amount of books or any information on him. The only thing he could gather is that he is able to call animals of all kinds to aid him, for whatever task needed done at hand. The rest of the books were just wholesome stories about Boreas Noir saving animals and forests from fires and other threats.

The next god he looked at was King Aurther Sobert, the god of the elements. There was a bit more about him than Boreas Noir for sure, but it wasn't by that much. Aside from the fact he commanded all of the elements with such authority, nothing about any contracts either. Just a bunch of stories of him conquering other lands and ruling his kingdom with an iron fist. Nothing about any sort of contract or something equivalent to it. Pepper thought he might make some sort of treaties. Guess he was wrong.

"Oh, lovely, a king not making any kind of promise or anything to the lands he conquered. FUUUN!" Pepper groaned and tossed the book onto the table. He let out a sigh out of frustration. He leaned back on the chair and rubbed his face a bit, before he sat back up straight again. "Okay then, the goddess of reality herself!...Wait a second, didn't that voice mention something about making my reality come true?" He then smacked his forehead using his hand. "Ya know ya think I start with the obvious, but no, gonna make it even harder for myself!" He rolled his eyes at himself. He kicked up a book related to the goddess of reality and caught it.

"Let's see here…" He would start reading said book to himself. As he read through it, everything seemed to be normal. The book explained her history with helping people and giving gifts. Making said people prosper for seemingly years on end! Most of the stories were about people desiring a material of some kind and getting said object. Never something like wanting a lover and her making a person nor making someone have a certain emotion. After reading for about 10 minutes he felt some sort of familiarity with it. As if he felt like he was actually there. He held his head and tried to brush the feeling aside, unfortunately, the feeling only grew stronger as time went on. The feeling reached its peak, when he reached a part of the book where the book suggested that the goddess of reality unleashed her wrath on the greedy and ungrateful people and killed them all.

Pepper attempted to turn the page, for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He just stared at the page almost like he was in a trace of some kind. As he stared, more words seemed to have added itself to the pages. Phrases like, "They all died, they abused my power, they took away my friend! I refuse to be their genie, their souls are mine! You and I share this reality! They will take advantage of you! Just like they did me!" Those particular words kept flashing all over the pages rapidly for about a few seconds. Pepper slammed the book close and started hyperventilating. He took a moment to calm himself down before he took a deep breath.

"What the crap, did…did I see that correctly? W-was that the goddess showing me something? I-I thought they…what is even going on? I share a reality with her? What does that even mean? She also lost someone?" Pepper placed his hand on his head. He pulled out a Dr. Pepper and drank some of it as he thought about it. Although, he didn't think for too long until Fanta jumped up from behind his chair.

"Whatcha doing, partner?" Fanta curiously asked while her tail swayed. Pepper jumped and screamed.

"What the?! Fanta! Nearly gave me a heart attack!" Pepper moved his hand to his chest. He felt his heart beating out of it.

"I mean, I'm sure all that soda would do that before I do. But seriously though, you read books?" Fanta rested her upper body against the top of the chair, all with a smirk on her face.

"Yes, yes I do! Just not very often, on this particular occasion it was necessary." Pepper tossed the book he was reading onto the table. "What are you doing here?"

"Wanted to talk with my partner, ya know, one of the people I'm gonna be spending the next four years with," Fanta explained. She then hopped to the side of the chair and sat in a different chair next to Pepper. "I think that's probably a good idea, don't you agree?"

"...I suppose it is," said Pepper, with some hesitancy in his voice. "Is there a certain topic you like to talk about?"

"Your mom, you seem so fond of her for whatever reason. I figure if she's that important to you, I should know as well. I'm sorry if it's a sensitive topic for you," Fanta answered. She then got on her knees in her chair and laid her head on her arms. She eagerly waited for his answer.

Pepper, meanwhile, instantly tensed up and was not in a rush to dive into that can of worms. He took a deep breath to try and relax his body. "It's alright… I can't keep dodging the topic forever, now can I?" Pepper rubbed the back of his head. "My mother is quite the superhero in a way. She was so sweet, loving, and very very kind. Her smile is quite contagious, you can't help but just smile when she does." He smiled a little, picturing his mother's warm smile. "Always helping people in need, giving a hand etc."

"Wow, quite the super mom indeed," Fanta giggled. "You looked up to her a lot huh?"

"She's my role model, my own hero, someone I wanna be when I become a huntsman," Pepper explained as a tear formed in his eye. "That's why it hurt so much when I watched her go…She was always there for me when I needed her the most.." Pepper sniffed as tears slowly ran down his face. "I wasn't ready to let her go…"

"Hey Hey, it's okay," Fanta patted Pepper's back. "Life sometimes moves faster than we expect. Even if we aren't ready to move on, we have to adapt the best we can."

Pepper wiped the tears from his eyes. "Guess you're right about that, it's so hard though… To just, move on," he admitted. He leaned back into the chair and sighed deeply. "But to move on, like that? Without a second thought?"

"No one is asking you to move on immediately, I'm only asking you to..start opening up a little," Fanta clarified. "And I thank you for even trying with me," she then gave Pepper a soft hug.

Pepper locked up and didn't know how to react right away. It took him a second before he returned the hug. "Y-You're welcome, Fanta." They held the hug for a bit until Fanta let go slowly.

"So, whatcha reading?" Fanta glanced over at the table and saw all the books. "Gods huh?"

"I was doing research, based on what I learned over the last few days." Explained Pepper. "So far, nothing solid."

"What exactly are you trying to figure out?" Fanta's tail swayed with curiosity.

"Apparently, my mother, without her knowing, signed a contract with a god. Trying to find out if any of these gods make contracts, and no luck so far," Pepper then pulled out a Dr. Pepper and drank some of it.

"You know what kind of contract? Its contents? Or anything that might be possibly related?" Fanta asked.

"It seems to be related to my own family or something like that. Strawberry claims I have some sort of power I don't know anything about. Not sure what though, she wasn't exactly, straight forward." Pepper admitted, expressing frustration.

"Could it be a blessing? A blessing that you and your family share?" Fanta suggested.

"Don't know, all of it is all over the place. Feels like I'm finding a needle in a haystack." Pepper exhaled deeply. He stretched out his arms and legs as he exhaled.

"Mind if I help you? A fresh point of view might help you see something that you didn't," Fanta offered with a smile.

Pepper was genuinely shocked by Fanta's offer before he looked at her. "Really? That would be helpful!" He smiled back at her.

"Course! I think it's only fair, so what do you need me to do?" Fanta asked.

"Could you re-read some of the books I've read? Maybe you can find something I didn't. I'll tell you which ones." Pepper asked. Fanta nodded and the two spent the rest of the afternoon into the evening, researching and reading books about gods. Even though they found nothing, it was a great bonding moment for the both of them. Pepper returned the books back to the shelf and he and Fanta left together.

"You know, for something that was taught in class, there's very little known about these bastards." Fanta remarked as her and Pepper opened the double doors.

"Yeah, it's crazy. Ya think there is more information, and yet, there isn't. What's even more odd, Beacon is the only place I have even heard of gods ever being taught." Pepper noted while he scratched his head. "At least that actively and not just passively."

"Me too, wonder why Beacon is so open about it? Then again, Oobleck said Vale was the least religious generally speaking." Fanta pointed out.

"Don't know, anyway, thanks for your help," Pepper gave Fanta headpats.

Fanta's tail waggled happily and she smiled brightly. "You're welcome! See ya at dinner!" Then she ran off.

"Bye!" Pepper waved at Fanta. After he saw Fanta fully out of sight, he thought about what happened just before she popped up. "...Take advantage of you and me..They all died.." He mumbled to himself repeating the words from earlier. "What does that even mean? Is a god really trying to talk to me? Why me though?" Pepper shook his head and smacked his face. "You're just seeing things, Pepper. It's just all in your head." He kept telling himself as he left the opposite direction of Fanta.