"Hello Zeffre."

"Hold that thought." Zeffre turned around to look at Ruby, her racing heart calming down seeing her friend's confused expression. Confused was fine. She was fine. "Are you okay?"

"Uh… yeah? Oh!" Ruby shouted after getting a look at her. "Oh my gosh! I love your dress, it's really cute."

Zeffre grinned. "I know right? Weiss picked it out for me. I even got some new shoes, and then Weiss said—"

"Ahem."

Oh. Right. Zeffre focus. Everything was fine – Ruby was fine, people were only giving them strange looks (probably because Zeffre just teleported onto a city street in the middle of the day). It was fine.

"We'll talk later. First off," Zeffre turned back around to the Hunter, "Hey there, tall, dark, and brooding! Fancy meeting you here."
Ruby blinked, confused. "Wait, you two know each other?"

"Oh, we go way back," Zeffre said, casually waving her hand. "He's like that one coworker who you sort of know in passing but will sometimes forget their names and would never speak to outside of work." She looked over her shoulder at Ruby. "You know what I'm talking about right?"

Ruby shook her head. "Not really no."

Ruby totally understood what she was talking about.

The Hunter crossed his arms. "Are you wearing makeup?"

Now it was Zeffre's turn to look confused. "Uhhh, yeah? I was out having a really nice day in Vale with my friends and one of them, her name is Weiss, wanted to show me makeup. Did you know that makeup and perfume is actually an incredibly complicated piece of chemistry?"

The Hunter just stared at Zeffre, silent and unmoving.

"Heheh… heh…" He probably wasn't interested in makeup.

"Um, Zeffre?" Ruby interjected. "What's going on?"

Zeffre back around to Ruby, her smile still firmly plastered on her face. "Just a little bit of catchup. I actually need to talk to Hunter about something," she said, gesturing at the Hunter, "It shouldn't take too long. Oh! And do me a favor and find Weiss. I might've kinda sorta left her alone a few blocks away and she might be mad at me. Also, here," she handed over the wooden box of parts to Ruby, "I may need you to hold this for me. Just in case."
She needed to deal with this by herself.

"Uh—" Ruby took the box.

"Thanks Ruby! You really are the best," Zeffre said, leaning over to give Ruby a quick hug before spinning her to walk down the sidewalk. "Weiss is down this road and hang a left at the intersection, we can meet up at the airship landing. I'll send the details after this, 'kay?"

Ruby began walking backwards into the crowd. "And we can stop by that ice cream place before heading back to Beacon."

Zeffre winced but covered it up with a smile. "Great idea! See ya then!" she shouted, waving at Ruby until she finally turned around.

"What are you doing?" Hunter asked, slowly refocusing on Zeffre as she waved at Ruby.

"Waving goodbye to my friend," Zeffre said, turning back to look at him. "Friend… heh…," she said, smiling at the warmth she felt when she said the word. "What a weird word."

"That's not what I meant."

Around them life carried on. The streets were crowded more than usual as people went on their lunch breaks, a low din of conversation filling the street with a background noise that made the city feel alive. Cars drove by, someone pulled out into traffic without signaling, normal everyday events.

Zeffre's shoulders dropped. "I know," she all but whispered, her voice barely audible over the sounds surrounding the two Starborn.

She really didn't know what to say. How to answer Hunter's question. It was itself an impossible question to answer. Where would she even start in distilling the past few months into an answer? She knew how it made her feel, how her time on Remnant had easily been the best moments in her life ever since she became Starborn, how she finally had actual people she would call friends in the truest sense of the word, but putting that all into words?

"…Well?"

Zeffre's right hand gently stroked the Sanctum Universum symbol on her scarf.

When she had conversations with Aquilus before, she never really knew what to say then either, she would just… speak. She could try that.

"I'm… trying something new," she said hesitantly. "Something different."

"Hm… I gathered as much," Hunter said staring down at her. He was a fair bit taller than she was. He turned his head, looking in the direction Ruby had gone. "You do know how this story is going to end, right?"

Zeffre focused on her scarf. On how soft the fabric was, how the golden thread of the Sanctum symbol was slightly raised. She knew what he meant, and, if she were being completely honest with herself, it was a reality she was content with not acknowledging. At least, not until she had to.

The Hunter sighed. "In case you've forgotten, this ends with you losing them."

Zeffre clenched her scarf.

"Which is why I am so curious as to what you think you're doing," The Hunter said, turning back to look down on Zeffre. "The Zeffre I know already knows this, and yet here you are, living in a fantasy. Do you really think what you are doing here really matters?"

"Are you happy?" The question abruptly spilling from Zeffre's lips. She needed to say something.

"Answering my question with a question?" Hunter chuckled, the sound of his distorted voice drawing a few curious glances from the passerbys. "I'd say deflection is beneath you, but we both know it really isn't."

Zeffre twitched. It was an honest observation.

Looking up at Hunter Zeffre dropped all pretenses. All attempts at shielding her emotions we're gone, replaced with nothing but her absolute earnest expression as she asked him again. "I'm serious, are you happy?"

Staring into her own reflection in his helmet, Zeffre could almost feel the raised eyebrow under that mask.

Hunter shook his head side to side as if considering her question, a contemplative "hmm" slipping out telling Zeffre that he was actually considering it.

"I'd say more accurately I'm content. Why?"

"Because I'm not."

Zeffre stared down at the concrete sidewalk beneath her feet as if the words she was looking for were there, the pristine new shoes Wiess bought her shuffling slightly. "My entire time being Starborn I've never once felt happy until now. I always felt as if everything was just a haze. That I was just… existing. Every fight, every "victory", Zeffre practically spat out the word, "was hollow. Meaningless—"

"Zeffre, I'm not your therapist."

"THEN PRETEND!" Zeffre shouted, her head shooting back up at Hunter. In the visor she could see her own expression was bordering on furious. "For lifetimes I've listened to versions of YOU tell ME about how you see the world, the least you can do is shut up and fucking listen for once!"

A flash of blue light flickered off The Hunter's visor, vanishing as quickly as it appeared.

Zeffre continued, oblivious to the fact that they were still standing in the middle of a crowded city sidewalk and the growing number of onlookers. "I have tried to do things your way, and do you know what it's gotten me?! Nothing! Zilch! Nada! You say nothing matters? Well, so what?! Who cares what you think! I don't care if you think me caring about these people, this universe, is absurd because they matter to ME, and it will be a cold day in hell before I let anyone let alone you take that away from me!" she finished, her voice hoarse from her scream-rant.

Zeffre took a deep breath, stepping back to adjust her hair after… that. It was also in this moment that she realized that she had drawn a crowd. 'Oh, right… We're in Vale.' There was a girl with platinum blond hair, a man with deep indigo, a Faunus with gray hair and horns (nice), white hair, deep red hair, bro-

'Uhhhhh…..'

"He-," ahem "Hey guys… uh," Zeffre waved at Ruby and Weiss. "Uh… heh, how long have you been standing there?"

Weiss was the first to step out from the crowd. "Right before you started yelling." Weiss said, eyes flickering back between Zeffre and The Hunter before settling on him, eyes narrowing.

"Heheh… yeah," Zeffre said, trying to play it cool.

Her laugh was less than convincing.

Weiss's glare never left The Hunter. "Are you okay?"

There were a lot of emotions going through Zeffre's mind at the moment, and Weiss's question just added another to the pile.

"I… Uh… Well…" Zeffre sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, decided to smile at the question. It was a nice question to hear because she knew that her friend was really concerned about her.

Now if only her friends hadn't decided to show up when Zeffre was dealing with The Hunter!

"Hm… I wonder," The Hunter muttered to himself, staring off into space.

"Ruby, didn't we agree on meeting at the Airship landing later?" Zeffre asked, her voice the slightest bit tense. Just a bit. A teensy-weensy litt—

"Something was wrong, and I wanted to make sure you were okay," Ruby told her, silver eyes conveying enough concern that it was impossible for Zeffre to even feel annoyed at her.

Then again, Zeffre was pretty sure it was physically impossible for her to ever feel annoyed at Ruby.

"Huh, I guess that could work."

"Ugh, what are you muttering ab—"

Zeffre only had a millisecond to encase herself in gray rock before The Hunter's caelumite blade slammed into her torso, the force rocketing her into a brick wall.

"Zeffre!"

"Wha—"

Before she could even think Zeffre was already moving to dodge a bolt of white plasma that narrowly missed her head, boring straight through the brick leaving behind a glowing red-hot hole.
A nearby car drove through a puddle, kicking up a splash of water. As the water flew through the air it began traveling slower, ripples and voids in the surface coming more into focus. All around Zeffre the world shifted into a pale blue, motes of white light appearing and disappearing, time itself phasing and slowing.

Clambering to her feet Zeffre rubbed the back of head. "What the hell…" she muttered mostly to herself, watching carefully as The Hunter's movements quickly equalized with her own in phased time. "Care to explain what you're doing, or did you just happen to let the intrusive thoughts win?"

He shrugged. "You could say that."

Holding out his sword between them The Hunter let go of his sword, the silver blade almost frozen in midair.

Zeffre's eyes narrowed as Unmitigated Violence began to transform, the silver blade slowly widening into a doubled barrel. Even with time slowed she still didn't have much time.
She needed a weapon.

Erupting in golden lightning Zeffre could feel the building pain in her skull evaporate, any lingering lethargy from holding three duplicates all day being replaced with nothing but pure energy.
White light coalesced in Zeffre's right hand.

Summoning an object from another universe was… unreliable, to say the least. She normally avoided doing so, but considering the circumstances she had to just roll the dice and hope for the best. Then again, at this point Zeffre would be happy with even a pen.

Light fading Zeffre glanced at her hand and froze.

In her hand was something that she though she would never see again.

It was a Colt M1911A1 semi-automatic pistol, but it wasn't just any M1911A1…

Zeffre brought the pistol, the world around her slowly fading away as she stared intently at the weapon. Everything from the polished silver finish to the ivory white grips was just as she remembered it… Even the tiny scratches from when she dropped it after getting too close to a fuel tank during a firefight were still there.

Her thumb gently caressed the symbol inlay on the grip… A stylized field of eight stars on a blue background…

'I hope it keeps you safe.'

She could feel tears welling up in her eyes at the memory of when she first got this pistol lifetimes ago. Back when she was still human…

Click

Head shooting back up Zeffre could see Unmitigated Violence had just about finished its transformation, taking on the form of a double-barreled silver and black rifle.

Rubbing her eyes Zeffre looked back as The Hunter grabbed his rifle from the air.

"Nice antique," he mocked, channels on his rifle flaring a deep crimson as he aimed it at her.

"Thanks," Zeffre smiled. "My dad gave it to me."

—

Sighing, Qrow Branwen sank into the viridian green sofa chair, putting his feet up on the conveniently placed and distanced coffee table. "So you finally got some furniture for your office?"

The Headmaster glanced away from his holographic monitor. "They were a gift from a student," he said before returning back to the monitor.

"Interesting student," Qrow muttered, resting his eyes. He wasn't tired per say, but something about meetings just seemed to drain away all of his energy. Same with writing a report, or answering a call, or filling out paperwork… Any form of bureaucracy really. It was exhausting.

The chair and coffee table looked suspiciously like the one in the lobby now that he thought about it.

"Ahem."

Cracking open a single red eye he found Ozpin staring expectantly at him, a new holographic screen positioned directly in front of him with a something that grabbed Qrow's attention.

It was a full body drawing of a man wearing black armor, face hidden behind a visor, welding a unique double-barreled rifle Qrow had never seen before. "The Hunter" was written above his name in bold text.

"What can you tell me about him?"

Qrow closed his eye again. "It's in my report."

"I know, but the quality of your report," Ozpin paused for a moment, "left a lot to be desired."

Qrow sighed. He really wasn't a 'report' guy.

Sitting up in his chair Qrow opened his eyes and, reluctantly, put his boots back on the ground. "Annoyingly, not much." Reaching into his jacket pocket Qrow took out his Scroll. "Guy seemed to appear out of nowhere a month ago, and he hit the ground running." The drawing minimized, replaced with a map of Remnant specked with red dots. "First evidence we ever had of his existence was in Atlas four weeks ago here."

The screen focused on a dot located in the far north. A video connected to the dot with a line began play. It was security footage of The Hunter walking through a security checkpoint unarmed. "He attacked some Atlesian research facility that, technically from what I've been told, doesn't even officially exist, and took something."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Something?"

Qrow shrugged. "That's all I've been able to get so far. They were keeping it very quiet. Hell, even getting that short snippet of footage took a lot of favors and effort on my part. Whatever it was he went through the front door and took it. Oh, also, uh, James should probably not know that I have that video, by the way."

"Noted. Continue."

"Alright, well, the very next day has our man appearing all the way over here," Qrow tapped his Scroll, the screen zooming back out to show another point this time in Mistral, a window of a report popping up. "Someone matching our mystery man's description showed up at a pawn shop, stole some lump of metal—"

"Lump of metal?"

Qrow shrugged. "Dunno, report from the store owner just said it was a curved piece of metal."

Ozpin tapped on his desk. "Something like this?"

It was another drawing, this time of a curved piece of metal with different profiles, the words 'Artifact Eta' written above it.

Qrow titled his head. "Actually, that sort of does match the description from the owner…" He looked at Ozpin. "Where are these drawings coming from?"

"A reliable source."

Qrow grunted at the typically obtuse answer from Ozpin. "And let me guess, this source will remain unnamed and unknown to me for now."

Ozpin smiled. "Actually, she will be joining us shortly."

Now that was an unexpected answer.

"Well, that's refreshing," Qrow said before tapping his Scroll. "In the meantime, I've got something else to show you." The screen zoomed back out to show all of Remnant, each dot now having a date next to it. "Anything stand out to you?"

Ozpin stared at his screen for a few moments. "The distances."

Qrow snapped. "Exactly. Atlas to Mistral in under twenty-four hours, Mistral to Vacuo in three hours, our man is appearing all over the world in time frames that are just, frankly, impossible. No airship can move that fast."

Qrow watched as Ozpin tapped on his desk, the monitor on his end shifting to what he could only assume was another drawing. A drawing that Qrow couldn't help but notice was not being displayed on the main screen he could see.

"You ever hear that sharing is caring?" Qrow drawled.

"How were you able to meet him?"

'Just going to ignorer my question then?'

"He wanted to be found." Qrow answered, deciding to let it go. He's had this kind of argument with Ozpin too many times to know not to expect anything different. "Stayed in a village in Vale for a week, entering into places that he knew would have security cameras like banks, and always went to the same bar at the same time every day." He shrugged. "He didn't even try to not make it obvious."

"Were you able to learn anything about his motivations?"

"Not really, at least, nothing that he didn't want us to know." Qrow reached into his jacket pocket to retrieve his trusty flask, pretending to ignore the slight disapproving look he got from Ozpin as he took a swig. "He knew exactly who I was before we even started talking, face was hidden behind his visor, and voice distorted by some voice synthesizer. However, I did get two concrete pieces of information from our meeting: He's about my height and is interested in that kid, Zeffre. Didn't use her name initially however, called her "The Servant"".

Across the spacious room a single knock, followed by three rapid knocks, followed by another single knock came from the office door.

"Huh… Thinking about it their titles sort of follow the same theme," Qrow mused to himself. "The Hunter, The Servant… She definitely knows something."

The door to the office opened.

Turning in his seat Qrow could see a familiar mop of blue hair, now with a silver streak, peeking past the doorway looking in. "Psst… Hey. When I knock in that pattern you need to knock back twice."

The two men couldn't hid their either of their bemused expressions.

Zeffre clasped her hands together. "Please?"

"Sure kid, I got you," Qrow said, getting up for the first time since he meeting started to walk over to the door.

"Great! Thank's a million, uh, buddy."

Shaking his head Qrow took his position by the door. This time when she knocked with that same pattern Qrow knocked back twice.

In a flash of white light Zeffre appeared besides Ozpin's desk, grinning. "Heya Oz, what's up? Who's your friend?"

Qrow couldn't help but smile at seeing a Beacon student calling their own Headmaster 'Oz' as he walked back over to the table.

Heck, even Ozpin was smiling.

"Hello Zeffre, thank you for joining us." The smile fell. "We have a situation developing and I thought you might be able to help. What can you tell me about this man?" The monitor popped back up to show a still of the security footage with The Hunter.

"Oh this prick," Zeffre muttered.

Qrow laughed.

"Yeah, I already know that he's somewhere in Vale, probably brooding against a wall scaring children or something," she continued, oblivious to her own comment.

Any humor Qrow was feeling instantly vanished. "What do you mean you know he is somewhere in Vale?"

"Uh, sorry but first who even are you?" She asked.

"Zeffre, do you not recognize Qrow?"

Zeffre shook her head. "Nope. Never met him before in my… ah. Crap." She knocked the side of her head with a fist. "Sorry, I've never met him before, but other me might have. Ugh, it's such a pain when things don't sync up correctly. Makes everything so freaking confusing…"

Qrow was completely lost.

"…How did you know The Hunter was here in Vale," Ozpin said, standing. "And where is Zeffre."

"Uh, last night he torched other me's room. At least, that's what I was told. I, uh, didn't really want to talk about it. To answer your second question, she's in Vale with Ruby and Weiss getting parts for Veiled Night, why?"

An alert appeared on Ozpin's screen.

"But I mean it's fine," she added hastily. "I seriously doubt tha—"

Before she could finish her sentence Zeffre collapsed into motes of light, vanishing in a way that looked nothing like a teleport.

"Team Leader Ruby Rose just authorized three rocket lockers to be launched via emergency override," Ozpin said, sitting back down at his desk.

He was already sprinting towards the door. "Send me the coordinates!"

—

Appearing on an industrial rooftop Zeffre immediately released a wave of starlight around her, searching.

The Hunter, thankfully, seemed only interested in her, so putting some distance between them and her friends had been as straightforward. She'd deal with them being mad at her later.

Through the buildings she could see the outlines of every person in the immediate area in white. What she was looking for was an outline in blue…

'There!'

Jerking around to the right Zeffre raised a cosmic shield tinged with gold just as two lances of red light impacted, the barrier holding.

Standing at the other end was The Hunter— waving?

Zeffre blinked, realization dawning on her face.

A slight scrape from behind.

Another Hunter was already mid-swing by the time she turned around, blade wreathed in a red light, shattering her empowered shield as if it weren't even there.

Gravity pulling her backwards Zeffre fired three rounds into the Hunter, two in the chest, one in the neck.

Zeffre grinned as a spurt of blood told her the shot to the neck was true, The Hunter grasping his neck with a free hand before dissolving into light before vanishing.

She let the almost empty magazine clatter to the floor, summoning a fresh one and reloaded, finding the original Hunter still standing at the edge of the roof watching her, rifle lowered.

"Good to know this version of you also likes duplicates," Zeffre yelled across the rooftop, re-summoning her shield.

"Hm… This isn't working," The Hunter yelled back.

Zeffre sighed.

"You know communication is a two way street right?" She said, subtly trying to aim at another gap in his armor. .45 ACP was a great round, one of her favorites actually, but the only way she was winning this was by avoiding the armor entirely. "One person says something, and the other replies based on what was said."

"It makes sense now that I think about it," Hunter continued ignoring her. "You don't really care about yourself. Makes it difficult in drawing out a strong emotional response when only you're in danger…"

Something was beeping.

Zeffre narrowed her eyes. "That you?"

"No, I think that's you."

It was coming from a pouch on Zeffre's hip. An alert from her Scroll.

'Duplicate, teleport, point-blank plasma bolt, if he—'

"Are you going to answer it?"

"I'm a little bit busy at the moment," Zeffre snapped back. As if she would look at her Scroll in the middle of a fight. Like, who does th—

"It might be important."

Zeffre's eye twitched.

Teleporting Zeffre appeared behind The Hunter, time slowing to a crawl as she reengaged in Phased Time.

The two Starborn fought in the space of seconds, but to them it was minutes. Each time Zeffre thought she had the advantage The Hunter would slip away, drawing out the fight. She needed to be close for her pistol to be effective, any distance making it trivial to dodge. The Hunter transformed his weapon back into its sword form, recognizing the obvious disadvantage of close quarters combat with a large rifle, but Zeffre could tell something was off. The earlier aggression in his attacks was gone, replaced with persistent patience as if he was waiting for something.

The golden lighting around Zeffre was growing more and more erratic the further she pushed her abilities, a growing heat in her center that was slowly becoming unbearable to maintain as she struggled to hold onto the power coursing through her.

Every moment spent in Phased Time was draining her rapidly, each new clip of ammunition harder to summon, each dash of gravity slower than the last.

And yet The Hunter fought on as if none of this was draining, using a roiling deep crimson energy at times that Zeffre had never seen before.

Blocking a slash from Hunter with her pistol Zeffre only had a moment to feel his palm against her chest before she was pulled backwards by a concentrated wave of gravity that slammed her against a stone wall, her tenuous grasp on time shattering as the golden light that surrounded her abruptly vanished.

Her dress was all but ruined, cuts from near-misses and bloodstains from not-so-near-misses marring the once pristine pale blue dress. The dress Weiss said she had looked great in…

"Well, that seems to be it then."

Struggling to lift her head Zeffre found The Hunter standing a few steps before her, weapon back in it's rifle state aimed directly at her head.

"Now that I've got your attention let me ask again: Serve me and continue existing in this universe, or die."

'Serve… heh.'

She tried to stand, but her legs refused to listen to her. She only managed to clamber her way up before collapsing back down to the roof.

"Let me guess," she said, voice tight from the pain. "You're also offering to tell me how you've gotten even more powerful than me?"

"Why of course." He answered as if he was hiring her for a job. "Can't have you dragging me down now, can I?"

Smiling Zeffre tried again to stand, pistol scrapping along the ground as she used it to help herself up.

Fighting through the pain Zeffre managed to stand on shaky legs. Once she was certain that she wouldn't fall back down again she took tentative steps forwards to stand directly before The Hunter.

Smile still firmly on her face Zeffre leaned forwards and rested her forehead against the barrel of Unmitigated Violence. "Never."

Pair of royal blue eyes looked pass the barrel as The Hunter laughed, finger moving to rest on the trigger. "Well, look at who's finally rediscovered their persistence."

She refused to close her eyes. Instead she stared past that reflective visor to lock eyes with whoever was underneath that helmet. If she was going to die then it would be with a smile on her face and a determined look in her eye.

'Sorry guys…'

Zeffre felt more than saw the barrel scrape across her forehead as a .50 caliber round slammed into the side of The Hunter's rifle, tearing the black and silver weapon from his grasp.

A moment later she heard the shot… a shot that sounded nothing like The Hunter's weapon.

Reacting, Zeffre pulled up her pistol and fired six shots into his less protected abdomen.

The Hunter grunted but before he could react a white glyph formed beneath him, abruptly pulling him off his feet away from his rifle.

Zeffre blinked.

"Uh…"

A large piece of metal slammed into the ground directly in front of Zeffre, rocket engines still spewing fire as the door to the rocket locker blasted off to the side, revealing Zeffre's own Staborn armor and, refurbished but still damaged, Veiled Night.

"Uhhhhh…."

"Zeffre!"

Still trying to figure out what was happening Zeffre could only blink, again, as Ruby appeared in a swirl of rose petals, Crescent Rose held in her hands.

Before she could form a coherent though Weiss then appeared, landing with a crouch on top of a white glyph.

"Uh, hey gu—" Zeffre began before being interrupted as Ruby hugged her. Tightly.

"Zeffre are you okay!" Ruby yelled, in her ear by the way, as she continued to hug her.

"Too tight… can't breathe," Zeffre wheezed, the burning sensation she was feeling earlier dampening slightly.

"Oh," Ruby let go of her, allowing Zeffre to gulp in some precious oxygen. "Sorrybutwe weresoworriedaboutyouImeanthatguyattackedyoujustvanished!"

Zeffre caught the words "worried" and "vanished".

Rushing over to the locker Zeffre removed Veiled Night from its mount, pistol now secured in her scarf/cinch. Now wasn't the time for her to wonder about where this new feeling of energy was coming from. A glance over her shoulder let her know The Hunter was still doubled over, recovering from her shots.

There wasn't time for her to fully put on her armor, so she opted instead to detach the jetpack and put that on instead. Armor is all well and good, but not being hit in the first place was even better.

Ready, Zeffre took position besides Weiss and Ruby just as The Hunter moved to stand, a small pool of blood having formed beneath him on the rooftop.

"I can't really say that I'm thrilled to see you guys here, but," Zeffre cycled the bolt on Veiled Night, "I can't really worry about it now. Just… please be careful. He's a lot more powerful than I'm used to."

Weiss never took her eyes off The Hunter, rapier ready in her stance.

"Uh… Weiss, you're not mad at me, are you?" Zeffre nervously laughed, glancing at her friend.

"Oh, I'm not mad—"

'Well that's good'

"I'm beyond furious."

'That's bad.'

"But we'll talk about that later."

"Aheheh… Fair enough."

—

Myrtenaster at the ready loaded with Fire Dust Weiss watched as that man, The Hunter, stood to his full height, puddle of blood the only hint that he was recently injured.

Whoever he was, he didn't have an Aura. Normally that would make her believe this fight would be easy, but the state she and Ruby found Zeffre in told her that wouldn't be the case.

She really wanted to scream at Zeffre for being so stupid as to run off and fight him alone, especially considering how if they had been even a few seconds slower…

'Neither the time nor place.'

Taking a breath Weiss continued to watch. To wait.

"I didn't know you also knew the Schnee girl," the man said entirely casual, posture relaxed. "How very… Interesting."

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "You know me?" It came out more like an accusation.

"Oh yes, I know you quite well actually." His laugh making Weiss want to lunge. "You could even say I know you more than you know yourself, actually."

"What does that mean?" Zeffre yelled back, rifle at the ready.

The Hunter shrugged. "I have faith you'll figure it out… eventually."

Zeffre fired her massive cannon, and Weiss sprang into action.

As The Hunter dodged Weiss summoned a glyph beneath her, covering the distance between them in a single lunge.

He was out of position from dodging Zeffre's shot, and that was exactly what Weiss needed.

Leaning into the lunge Weiss's rapier was blocked by a thin barrier of red light, The Hunter already reaching out towards her, red ball of energy in hand.

Before he could even get to her Ruby appeared behind him, scythe wrapping around his torso and throwing him into the air.

Readjusting, Weiss fired a lance of Fire Dust from the end of her rapier, the roar of an explosion telling her she struck true.

"Tch."

The Hunter appeared out of the cloud of smoke seemingly completely unharmed, dodging Zeffre and Ruby's shots with burst from his jetpack heading for the other end of the rooftop.

Weiss conjured another glyph beneath The Hunter's weapon. She smiled as the blade flew over the side of the building.

Her smile faded as The Hunter moved impossible fast once he landed, fast enough to where she only saw a black blur, and caught the weapon before it went over the side.

Turning to face the three of them he then was surrounded by a pale crimson barrier, spiderweb fractures spreading out from where Veiled Night's shots landed. "Hm…"

As the cracks grew larger Weiss dashed besides Zeffre, waiting for the moment, the roar from Veiled Night nearly painful to her even with her Aura up.

"You can't burn through that armor."

Weiss nodded. "Exactly what I was thinking," she said, spinning Myrtenaster's Dust vials to load in Ice Dust.

The cracks overlapped, and Weiss felt the heat of Veiled Night fire once more.

Propelling herself forwards using a glyph Weiss passed right when the shield shattered.

The Hunter was swinging towards her.

Smirking, Weiss abruptly stopped just outside the reach of his sword and fired, the loaded Ice Dust forming a thick layer of ice adhering The Hunter's feet to the ground.

Ruby appeared immediately after, rose petals gently stroking her rifle as she fired a point-blank shot directly into his chest, the force tearing his feet from the ice.

Weiss lunged, stabbing her rapier clean through a gap in his armor around the abdomen, The Hunter grunting as she held the blade there.

"Heh… Not bad." The Hunter chuckled, taking a step back as Weiss tore her rapier out before he could retaliate. "How will you handle this!"

His body was glowing blue.

"Weiss! Ruby!"

Zeffre teleported directly in front of Weiss, and she suddenly felt herself being pulled backwards as if gravity had just shifted 90 degrees.

Landing in a heap Weiss could only watch as the light exploded out from the Hunter, engulfing both him and Zeffre. Even at this distance she could feel the extreme heat from that light against her face.

"Zeffre!"

When the light faded Weiss could see Zeffre locking blades with Hunter, her sword groaning from the strain. All around them the roof was a scorched black except for the area behind Zeffre, a few spots molten from the intense heat of that attack.

Zeffre's blue blade was shaking as she gritted her teeth holding back his blade.

Standing Weiss tried to take a step but was overcome by a sudden sense of vertigo.

She could only watch as The Hunter delivered a viscous punch to Zeffre's stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Only watch as he took a step back, grasped his sword in two hands, and swung at her. At how when Zeffre tried to block Veiled Night shattered in her hands, parts flying backwards along with Zeffre onto the ground, bleeding from her right arm.

'GET UP!'

Snarling Weiss forced herself to stand, shoving down the overwhelming nausea she felt as she dashed off to the side away from Zeffre. "Hey!" she yelled; rapier still stained with The Hunters blood.

—

Zeffre couldn't feel her right arm…

Laying flat on her back she could make out the blade of Veiled Night lying against the floor next to her, the once beautiful weapon now lying shattered in a heap of parts scattered along the rooftop.

She needed to get up.

"Hey!"

That was Weiss.

Slowly Zeffre sat up, a warm trail flowing down her chest as blood soaked into her dress by her right shoulder.

The Hunter was staring at Zeffre, sword held off to the side.

"I said hey!"

A trail of Fire Dust appeared between the two Starborn, neither of them flinching.

'Weiss please be quiet.'

"I think I've figured it out," The Hunter said, helmet never moving away from Zeffre.

"Figure what out," Zeffre grunted, struggling to her feet.

"Why you're so determined to keep fighting for this," he said, gesturing around at everything. "In hindsight it's actually pretty obvious… funny how that works."

"Please, educate me then," Zeffre said, intent to keep his focus solely on her.

"You've simply forgotten what it's like to lose somebody."

As The Hunter turned towards Weiss she didn't have time to think, so instead she acted.

Teleporting herself between The Hunter and Weiss Zeffre caught the blade in her left hand.

It was strange how little it hurt.

Forgotten?

How dare he. The idea that she's forgotten about her friends, her family was beyond insulting. When she allowed herself to think back to her time in Constellation the pain of never being able to see them again was just as fresh as when she first entered the Unity. Of never being able to see her parents again, of the moment when she knew she couldn't save Sarah… All of it was still with her and she would never, ever, let that feeling go.

She could feel her right arm again.

He was right, she didn't really care what happens to herself. Any physical pain was just a repeat of a past experience, but threatening to kill one of her friends?

Gripping the blade tighter Zeffre conjured a bolt of deep blue plasma in her right hand, staring up at The Hunter's visor, seeing herself wreathed in a royal blue light flecked with gold. "I haven't."

And she drove the ball of plasma directly into The Hunter's chest.

Her right arm felt a lot better now.

Turning Zeffre found Weiss, eyes wide in shock, staring at her, rapier lowered.

"Are you okay?" It was her turn to ask that question.

Weiss shook her head, expression shifting to being more relived. "A little nauseas, but I'll live."

"Awesome!"

The Hunter was busy tearing off his melting chest piece before it burned right through his undersuit.

Looking around Zeffre found Ruby leaning heavily against Crescent Rose looking as if she was about to be sick.

Jogging over she could hear The Hunter's chest place clatter down onto the rooftop.

"Hey Ruby, are you good?"

"I feel like I'm about to throw up…"

'Why are they nauseous? I mean, a gravity wave can be a little jarring, but usually people get used to it from being on different planets…'

Realization dawned on Zeffre's face.

'I'm an idiot.'

"Uh, yeah, sorry about that. Can you still hit a target?"

"Absolutely!" Ruby chirped, managing to not stumble as she stood up straighter.

"Aces. Alright, on my signal shoot at that antenna," Zeffre smiled, pointing off towards the right side of the rooftop.

"Got it."

'Pfft… not even going to ask why.'

She really did have great friends.

Walking back up to The Hunter, under suit now exposed, Zeffre drew her pistol. The slide wasn't retracted, and that's all she needed to know that there was at least one shot left in the chamber. "Hey! Assbutt!"

He stopped patting down his chest to look up at her. "What?!"

Smiling, Zeffre conjured a singularity just off to the side of the antenna, noting to herself that it was blue now. 'That's new.'

Ruby fired, the round being pulled in by the intense gravity of the singularity and curved.

Directly into the side of The Hunter's helmet.

Falling off to the side The Hunter dropped his blade, fragments of helmet flying through the air. As he struggled to sit up Zeffre placed a single, now fairly worn and smudged, pump onto his chest, a single pale red eye visible through the now shattered helmet looking up along a barrel of her M1911A1.

"Now, I made a promise to someone that I would try to be a better person. Meaning I'm making it a point to not kill anybody. So far I've been pretty successful at doing that, but," Zeffre cocked the hammer, "I'm not above making exceptions. Now it's my turn to give you an ultimatum: Never, and I mean NEVER threaten me or my friends EVER again, and I'll let you live."

"We—"

"I'm looking for a yes or no answer."

Finally able to see past his helmet Zeffre watched as that single pale red eye crinkled at the corner. "Yes."

Something landed behind her.

Stepping off The Hunter's chest she found… Qrow?

Zeffre blinked.

He was just… standing there, Harbinger resting behind his head as he surveyed the battle-roof before resting on The Hunter.

"Hey Qrow, uh…"

How could she ask this politely?

"What are you doing here?"

Eh, good enough.

"Uncle Qrow!"

Ruby appeared in a swirl of rose petals besides her uncle, smiling brightly. Zeffre could tell Ruby was debating on if she should hug her uncle or not considering the situation.

Emotionally today had been very confusing for all of them.

"Heh… heheh… Hahahaha!"

Zeffre took a step away from the sprawled-out Hunter as he began to manically laugh, the voice distortion effect cutting in and out as he looked at Qrow.

She carefully walked to stand next to Weiss, uncocking her pistol before placing it back in her sash.

Weiss leaned over to whisper to her. "What's he doing?"

"I think he's finally lost it," Zeffre whispered back.

The Hunter climbed to his feet, laughter calming down to light chuckling as he looked at Qrow. Reaching up he unclasped a latch and removed his helmet, revealing a man with jet black hair, pale red eyes, and a slight stubble on his chin.

He looked exactly like Qrow Branwen.

"Heh… sorry, it's just that well," the other Qrow chuckled, smile still firmly plastered on his face, "You're early. Very early."

"Uh…. Uhhhhh…."

Zeffre could only watch as poor Ruby's brain short circuited, eyes darting between her uncle and The Hunter. "I didn't know you had a twin brother…"

Qrow's eyes never left The Hunter. "I don't. Semblance?"

The Hunter shook his head, still smiling. "No, it's a lot weirder than that." He pointed at Zeffre. "I suggest you direct any and all questions towards her, especially the questions you know Ozpin is holding out on you about. Those tend to be the more interesting ones."

"Hm…"

"Hey! What the hell!" Zeffre walked over to stand with the rest of them with Weiss. "Not even a minute ago you're mister threatening and now you're nothing but laughs and smiles! What gives?"

"Oh that?" The Hunter waved her off. "I just wanted to see if a Starborn could really awaken an Aura." He smiled at her. "Good job, by the way. Very emotional."

Reaching down he then gathered his sword and shattered helmet, affixing the sword before inspecting the helmet. "Heh… Nice shot Ruby."

"Uh… Thanks?"

Qrow held out Harbinger. "I'm a little too sober for whatever this is, but you're not going anywhere."

It was at that moment Zeffre thought that maybe Qrow had a drinking problem.

Looking up from his damaged helmet The Hunter looked over everyone there, giving a sardonic smile. "Oh… I can't wait to see what happens next." And collapsed into light, teleporting away as if he were never there.

"What a prick…" Zeffre muttered mostly to herself. She had much more… colorful words to describe him, but Ruby was there.

The important thing was that he agreed to her terms and left.

Grabbing her pistol Zeffre finally allowed herself to relax, releasing her hold on it. She watched silently as it began to gently glow white before fading away, having somehow managed to stay with her throughout one of the most important fights in her life…

It was at this moment, as Zeffre's legs gave out from under her, that she realized just how exhausted she truly was, the cumulative fatigue of today hitting her all at once.

Someone… Weiss. Weiss caught her.

Zeffre gave her a tired smile. "Hey."

"Hi." Weiss sighed. "You're an idiot."

She tried to shrug, but the energy just wasn't there. "I know."

"Hm…"

"Weiss… your dress," Zeffre muttered, glancing at how her blood was slowly seeping into the pristine white fabric. "Sorry…"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "It's fine."

"'Kay…"

Zeffre really couldn't be falling asleep right now. She still needed to gather up the pieces to Veiled Night (fixing it just became a lot more complicated), answer questions from Qrow and Ruby about Starborn Qrow (that's going to be a long conversation), get (deservedly) berated by Weiss for trying to fight The Hunter alone, figure out wha…"

Actually, you know what?

Zeffre nuzzled into Weiss's chest, closing her eyes.

"Zeffre…" Weiss's voice was flat enough to make a spirit level blush, "don't fall asleep."

"Can't hear you, sleeping," Zeffre said, keeping her eyes firmly shut. She was really cozy being held by Weiss. It was nice.

"I will drop you."

Zeffre cracked open an eye. "Really?"

Weiss let out another, somehow even more, exasperated sigh. "No."

She closed her eye. "Thank you…"

'…for everything.'

Author's Note:

Nice short simple chapter /s.

It's finally done! Ugh, this chapter was so freaking hard to write, but in the end I'm pretty happy at how it turned out.

A long time ago I mentioned that if Zeffre were to ever awaken her Aura I wanted it to mean something. I hope that this chapter accomplishes this.

As always, thank you so much for reading. It really does mean a lot to me.