Edited by: Priapus, Marethyu, Old man of the mountain, Immortal Spank.

"Good work on the announcement today, Reid," Weiss says with a gentle smile in the same outfit she wore on our date, standing next to me on the balcony overlooking the dimly lit city.

"Please, you did way more than me." I snort.

"Yes, but I don't think anything I did would've gone as smoothly without you around." She argues. "None of this would've been possible in the first place."

"Not impressive when they cheer for everything I do, let's be honest." I deflect her praise. "I'm this close to proclaiming to be God himself just to see how they'd react, and frankly? I'm pretty sure they'd believe me."

I won't do that. I'm not divine yet, so that'd be lying. And I won't lie if it's not necessary. Very new for a politician, I know.

She pauses for a moment before adding.

"You know, I'll admit, your inability to take compliments can be a little grating sometimes."

"I'm just being careful so my ego doesn't get too big." I joke. "Because that would get me killed otherwise."

"As if someone capable of doing such a thing exists." Weiss snorts. "You're practically untouchable. I've seen it firsthand."

"You'd be surprised," I say.

She doesn't know anything about the scary shit in the dungeons. Honestly, Remnant compared to the other world is child's play. I've only had to go through Epic Tier dungeons and below, and I still struggled in some of those. God knows just how fucked up Legendary and above are going to be. Would probably give a lot of rewards, though.

The conversation quickly dies off there as I stare into the vacant city, multiple thoughts going through my head at once. The announcement was a success; everyone was excited and we still managed to meet the demand due to early preparations.

Tomorrow is going to be all about the Golem demonstration. Actual demonstration, not the silly dancing I had them do, even though that's kind of cool too. I'll lead a few of them, as well as Weiss, Sienna, and some soldiers. We still don't know a lot of details, only that they have a big Grimm problem, but we're currently waiting for Sienna to arrive here in the Belladonna villa to explain things. She's gone to her office for some private business after the announcement, but she'll be here very soon.

I spent some time with the civilians, talking with some, signing a 'few' autographs, and playing around with kids. You know, the cool hero stuff. It was fun teaching them how to play soccer. And I'm surprised that the sport doesn't even exist in Remnant.

I should recreate some of the entertaining things I knew from my past life here, like sports and whatnot. Maybe even share the glory and unadulterated awesomeness of Dragonball Z with the public. Keeping positivity going is very helpful in a world where monsters are attracted to negativity.

Speaking of negativity, she's lucky we're far away from Grimm. She's a damned beacon from the sheer paranoia and fear I can sense in her from a distance.

I already explained how Observation Haki works. She should know that I know she's in the same city as me, but she still refuses to try to approach and either ask for help or explain what the fuck she's doing here when she should be in Vale.

Idiot. Dumbass. I told you that I can feel other people's emotions. I know you're there, moron.

I sigh deeply and rub my temples. It's not her fault– I can't expect her to know about Yang's abandonment issues, but for fuck's sake, Blake. She keeps making things harder in her attempt to do the opposite.

Goddamn it.

"You're worried about Blake, aren't you?" Weiss suddenly says, catching me by surprise. Before I can say anything, she continues. "It's written all over your face."

"Yeah…" I say, rubbing my eyes. "She's making things way too complicated for no reason."

"You seemed very convinced that she'll come here."

"She is here," I confirm. "I can feel her presence."

"Right…" Weiss pauses for a moment, thinking to herself, before asking me something. "Do you… perhaps know something about her that me and my team don't?"

"Why are you asking?" I give her a sideways glance.

"It's just that– well, to put it simply, with how concerned you look instead of confused, I'm getting the impression that you know why she's here." She explains. "You can ignore that if I'm mistaken. But it's simply how I feel about this."

I take a moment to process what she says and snort.

"You're sharp." I praise her with a nod. "Yes, I do. But I can't tell you anything."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not my place to tell you, or anyone else for that matter," I answer. "Her secrets are for her to share."

Weiss blinks, and while I pick up on the small spike of annoyance, she quickly relents and nods.

"I understand." She says curtly. "But what about her mother? What will we tell her?"

Right, there's that hot mess. Christ, this is getting waaaay too fucking annoying to handle. Do I tell Kali or not? I would've told her everything if Blake hadn't decided to come here; said her daughter is doing fine in Beacon and all that, but now I'm not sure.

I can still tell her, and nothing would change much, but then I'd have to tell her that Blake is here for some fucking reason because I don't want to lie to a lady as kind as her, which would probably worry her more. I'm not even sure if she's aware of Blake doing what she's doing right now. Being a Beacon student– my student, I mean.

Things are too different from canon, so I don't even know if Blake's backstory is still the same. Her dad's fucking dead, for god's sake. That must've caused too many changes for my canon knowledge to be reliable.

I take a moment before giving Weiss my decision.

"We're not going to say anything."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, because I'm going to confront Blake directly later tonight," I add, looking at Weiss. "And I'll drag her here kicking and screaming if I have to."

"I… see," Weiss mutters. "I suppose being a bit forceful would end up saving us a lot of trouble."

"Trust me, I'm not happy about it," I say with a frown. "But this secretive shit can get very annoying."

Hypocrite.

Different circumstances, but you probably don't care to hear my reasoning.

Yes, very different circumstances.

Hypocrite.

Thought as much.

"Reid, I was wondering something." Weiss started again after a moment of amiable silence. "Why did you give me the credit for the Golems? We both know I had zero involvement in that."

"Weiss, come on now." I roll my eyes, but in a good-natured way, as I give her a grin. "You're more than smart enough to figure that out."

"Yes, but it just…" She pauses, phrasing her next sentence carefully. "...makes me feel terrible."

"Too bad." I wink.

She opens her mouth to say something, but decides against it and smiles softly instead. She approaches me and quickly gives me a peck on the cheek, her own colored pink in embarrassment. It's then that Kali walks in on us, inviting us back inside.

And I was just about to return the favor a hundredfold. Shame.

"We're sorry to have kept you waiting for so long." She says. "Sienna is here, so we can begin our discussion for tomorrow. Please come in."

"Great." I smile.

Before we follow her inside, Weiss tries to hide her tired yawn from me, making me think how cute she is. We did a lot today, and we woke up early for our flight here, so I understand. Probably should go straight to bed after this.

Well, for her. I had Gwyn investigate and search for dungeons, and he found a couple. Nothing too high tier, mostly commons, uncommons, and a few rares, but I don't need them to be. I just want more magical materials.

I'll jump in a few soon after I deal with Blake.

Kali leads us to her study room. Hundreds of books on shelves surround a table between two couches, where Sienna sits. It's a nice and cozy room, less professional than someone would think, but I like it. I prefer it even.

As for the High Leader, she was still wearing her armor for some reason. I guess it's what she finds comfortable, but even I'd had to change into something a bit more casual. The suit was great and all—Coco outdid herself with that one—but it was getting a bit stuffy. I think they fucked up the size a little. Either that, or I grew.

And that is starting to get very concerning. The book about Leviathans said the males grow twice as fast as the females and reach their 'adulthood' at twelve, halting their physical growth to a glacial pace. That doesn't seem to apply to me, and it's scaring me.

Eugh, whatever. I'll worry about it later. I can always reframe doorways and shit.

Weiss and I sit next to each other on the comfy green couch opposite Sienna, with Kali kindly pouring us some tea with a sweet-smelling aroma.

"Before we begin, I'd like to… personally thank you for those 'Golems'," Sienna says, looking directly at Weiss. I do feel gratitude from her, but it's also mixed with embarrassment and a small amount of shame. "We don't have many capable hunters around, so we need all the helping hands we can get."

"Of course, it's my pleasure to be of help," Weiss answers professionally. "It's why we're here, after all."

"Right, well, this brings us to the main issue." The High Leader glances at me. "To make a long story short, our biggest and most resourceful mine is inhabited by a very powerful and ancient Grimm. Arachnid type, capable of using some elemental powers. 'Dreadnought' is what my men called it."

"A Titan?" My gaze sharpens. "In your mines?"

"We don't know. We've never encountered a Titan before, so we're not sure if it qualifies." She shakes her head. "What I can say is that some of the workers accidentally interrupted it when it was in a metamorphosis state within a cocoon."

Jesus…

"A… cocoon?" Weiss frowns in confusion. "That's unheard of. Why would a Grimm bother with that?"

"Question of the century." Sienna sighs. "We don't know the answer to that either. Grimm develop with age. I've never seen anything like that."

Well, technically, a regular young Grimm evolves by absorbing the ambient mana left over by its dead brethren or recently used dust, since the former is pure darkness and the latter has little to no light elements that it can safely feed on. People think it's age because mana of such a tiny scale is practically undetectable with current-day technology.

And because they don't see highly ancient, one-step-below-titan Grimm casually walking around, they must've missed them eating small, weak dust crystals. As far as they know, dust is a power source for the people of Remnant, nothing more and nothing less.

But mystical nerd shit aside, a Grimm going to drastic measures to evolve must mean that absorbing mana passively isn't good enough for it anymore. Either the place it's in is barren and lacks any dust; thus, it's trying to put all its focus on doing that, or the dust in there is too potent, making its light properties too strong for the Grimm to feed, so it tries to layer itself with defensive barriers before absorbing the dust.

This means we either have a Primal class Grimm that wants to evolve to a Titan class…

Or, in the worst case, a Titan that wants to go beyond.

"How powerful is it?" I ask.

"Enough to easily wipe out a four-man squad of hunters." Sienna answers. "On top of its high physical power and ability to manipulate fire, it is heavily armored and can burrow through the caverns rather quickly."

"Tough, versatile, intelligent, and now hard to hit," I mutter. "I'll be honest, if we send the Golems there, they will get torn apart. This is vastly beyond their capabilities. They were made to protect civilians against bandits and normal Grimm, not potential Titans."

"I see." She responds, expertly hiding her emotions. I can tell that she feels disappointed, though. "I suppose taking care of it would be asking too much of you. This is not what you came here for. I apologize."

"What? No, I'm still going to help. I'm a hero; handling threats like that is my job." I roll my eyes. "Weiss and I will take care of that 'Dreadnought' problem for you personally. Isn't that right, Weiss?"

"Of course!" She confirms enthusiastically, which does surprise me a bit. I expected her to be at least apprehensive about it. "I've been looking forward to showing you the fruits of my training."

Ah, right. That'd do it.

"You'd do that?" Kali looks at me, surprised and grateful. "But we've never included this in our contract…"

"Like I said, part of the job." I shrug. "They call me 'The Hero of Vale' but I'm a hero for all, not just one place."

Sienna and Kali glance at each other, seemingly not knowing how to respond before the former says something with a quiet tone.

"We don't have anything to offer–"

"Oh, for Christ's sake– I'm not doing this for profit. The 'profit' part was in our business transaction between my company and your territory." I explain in exasperation, Weiss finding this amusing if her giggle was anything to go by. "This is a completely different thing. Unrelated. I'm doing it because I have and want to, not to get something out of it. Capiche?"

I know how this makes me look, but it is the truth. It's my job, and sure, technically, they'd need to pay me afterward since they're the 'council' or government of menagerie, but what the fuck would I do with money? Nothing, because I already have infinite wealth to a degree. Unless I deliberately try to fuck myself over.

And, from a more pragmatic standpoint, they don't have much to offer anyway. I already got what I wanted: permission to explore the deserts beyond the jungles. Because aside from the raw materials I can get there, I'd probably find a lot of dungeons scattered around.

I didn't really need permission for the latter, to be fair, since they don't know of the dungeons' existence, but it's polite to ask for it anyway.

15 Reputation with Sienna Khan [50/100]

20 Reputation with Kali Belladonna [70/100]

I don't need to see the notifications to know that they're grateful. I can feel their emotions, and even their facial expression tells me enough. I think this is the first time I've seen Sienna genuinely smiling.

"We are in your debt, Sir Titan Slayer." Kali bows with the utmost respect, as does Sienna, though not as deeply. "And yours as well, Ms. Schnee."

"Please raise your heads," Weiss says, slightly flustered. "We're only doing what's right."

"S'what hunters do," I add with a shrug. "Killing Grimm, that is."

"The Titan Slayer, I understand; he's proven himself to be deserving of the title on three separate occasions, which is more than any other hero of the past," Sienna responds, glancing at Weiss. "But I did not expect you to be so keen on hunting a beast that could very well be a Titan. No offense."

"Don't you underestimate my student, Ms. Khan." I pat Weiss on the shoulder with that casual reveal. "I bet she could manhandle that Dreadnought by herself."

"She's your student?" Kali blinks in surprise. "My, my, I wasn't aware you had one."

"Several, actually," Weiss responds for me. "My team at Beacon Academy are all on a scholarship under Mr. Astera."

She doesn't mention Blake or even allude to it, even though she wants to say something. Hell, I want to, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to do so. Not now, at least.

"Then I'd be interested to see how you handle yourself against such a monster," Sienna says. "You must be able to hold your own in battle if you're a student of his, Princess."

"I'll try not to disappoint." Weiss smiles confidently, managing to elicit a smirk from the High Leader.

Good, good. This is all going very well. If Weiss manages to defeat that Grimm, then her reputation across Menagerie and maybe all of Faunus kind would soar. This is it. This is the perfect opportunity to see just how powerful she has become.

I almost want to go to that mine right now, but she's not at 100% at the moment, if her yawning is to be considered. Her face reddens afterward, but none of us think less of her.

"Ah, my apologies." She says in embarrassment.

"Nothing to apologize for, my dear." Kali smiles softly. "You've been very busy throughout the day. It's only natural to feel exhausted."

"You can head back if you want," I tell her.

"But I…" She trails off, glancing at the two older women, and then back to me.

"We're staying here for a couple of days, so you can take your time." I insist.

Weiss feels and looks a bit conflicted, but then relents. I know she has some excellent propositions for Sienna and Kali that would end up helping Menagerie a lot. Propositions she came up with, by the way, but it's not like she has to rush and say everything she wants to say in one day.

And slowly building trust with them first would end up making her idea and offer go down more smoothly.

"Well, alright. I guess I'll retire for the night." She says, giving the two leaders of Menagerie a respectful bow. "Goodnight to you both. I'll see you tomorrow."

Sienna grunts in acknowledgment while Kali stands up with Weiss, leading her to the front door. Weiss gives me one last warm smile before walking away, her sense of gratitude and adoration for me persisting in the room while she leaves.

I don't know what I did to get her to fall for me this fucking hard—she almost acts nothing like her canon self from what I remember, but I feel like I haven't done close to enough to deserve this type of love from her.

I quickly order some of the golems I have around to keep an eye out for her, just in case. I trust Sienna and Kali not to do anything stupid, but the overwhelming stench of rage from a certain individual hasn't left since we came here.

Weiss can handle herself against morons like him, but it's a lot better to be safe rather than sorry. Especially since she left her weapon back at our place. Now, I don't think he's going to try anything, not now, at the very least, because I can tell that he's trying to rein in that anger of his.

However, a small part of me wants him to try his luck just to have an excuse to beat him senseless. I'm not proud of it; of course, I'd rather he get over his hatred instead of forcing me to resort to violence, but this primal desire is there.

After all, I still haven't settled the score since the last time we fought.

– Blake –

Quietly watching over her teammate safely making it back to what Blake thought was her residence for the next couple of days from the rooftop of another building, she sighed in relief. That was good—nobody with a grudge to make this more complicated than it had any right to be. That was very good.

She'd seen a few people spying on Weiss, which worried her a tad too much, so she might or might not have quickly knocked them out before they could do anything too drastic. She knew this would happen, considering her team leader was a Schnee casually taking a stroll alone in Kuo Kuana in the middle of the night.

The chance of someone jumping her was very high, especially since Weiss didn't have her weapon. Blake didn't understand why she'd do something reckless like this; she had to have known that barely anyone liked her here.

Either she put an obscene amount of trust in the White Fang not taking advantage of her while she was defenseless, or the more likely option was that she was very confident in her training under Reid and her newfound power of ice magic.

Blake dropped off the building and into a dark alleyway, walking away from the guest residence. Her hood was still up, and she made sure that nobody was nearby to see her being all suspicious, walking through the city aimlessly.

Suppose it was the latter, then fair. If Reid wasn't exaggerating, then Weiss wouldn't need her weapon to dismantle entire squads of White Fang agents on her own. Because, on top of her magic, her semblance was highly versatile.

Still, Blake would rather be safe than sorry. If someone did attack her, then it would just further complicate things. It might just piss Reid off enough for him to either demand reparations or, in the worst case, call off this entire thing.

Some morons here still did not get the memo from the looks of it. They'd rather get revenge than see things improving around all of Menagerie. Blake found it hilarious in a morbid sort of way because she was the exact same.

Revenge for the sake of revenge wouldn't get you anything. A moment of self-gratification alone was not worth destroying whatever happy future you could possibly have. That wasn't to say she didn't understand what they felt, but did she think this was the right decision? No, never in a million years.

She glanced at her family home, her stomach twisting into knots as a mixture of guilt, shame, and a little bit of nostalgia swirled in her heart. Gods, she hadn't seen it in years. It looked the same as when she'd left to fight for the White Fang when she was young and stupid.

Her mother must've hated her, and even merely imagining it nearly brought Blake to tears. Why had she abandoned her own mom like this? Was it really worth it in the end? To ignore her crying and begging for Blake to stay like that…

She was a monster for going against her own mom like this. No, against both of her parents. If her dad was still here, seeing her do the complete opposite of the message and ideals he preached to his followers… well, she couldn't imagine how much he would've been disappointed in her.

Blake was a failure as a friend to her teammates and a failure as a daughter to her parents.

"I'm sorry…" She whispered, fighting back the tears.

"Apologize to them in person."

Blake jumped and gasped in fright, whipping her head to see her teacher looking at her with a stern glare and his arms crossed. Her first thought was to turn tail and go as far away as possible, but his next words made her freeze on the spot.

"Don't bother." He said seriously. "You can't run or hide, Blake, and it's about time you stopped doing that."

Blake didn't know what to do. Her blood froze at the sight of Reid standing beside her. She hadn't seen or heard him even approaching—how did he sneak up on her like this? More importantly, what was she going to do now?

Like a deer caught in headlights, Blake didn't move an inch or say a word, simply looking at Reid with a shocked and fearful expression. Eventually, her teacher sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose in what seemed to be a mix of frustration and exasperation.

"Come with me." He said with an air of authority, and Blake immediately complied.

Slowly, they made their way to the walls surrounding the city, jumping over them and going deep into the jungle of Menagerie. Whatever Grimm attracted by Blake's anxiety was instantly incinerated by Reid, who acted like they didn't even exist.

Eventually, they went to a secluded area next to a pond. Reid swung his arm and chopped off a tree, putting it down and gesturing for her to sit. She took her hood off as she stared down at her feet. Her heart pounded with nervousness as her teacher leaned against another tree, opting to stand as he probably planned to, at best, scold her. At worst?

She'd rather not think about it.

"Could you explain what the hell you're doing here?" He asked, keeping it short and straightforward. "And don't even think about lying. I'll know."

"I–I'm sorry." She said immediately. "I–I just t-thought that–"

Reid said nothing, patiently waiting for her to string together a comprehensible sentence. She knew he was being nice, and it wasn't his fault. However, that only made her more on edge.

Blake tried to say something, anything, but no word other than 'sorry' would come out. She tried and tried, but all she was capable of doing right now was… sobbing.

She broke down under the pressure of having to explain herself to the literal world's strongest man, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her hands trembled as she choked, her aloof and reserved facade evaporating as the weight of her mistakes finally came crashing down on her.

Blake couldn't take this anymore. A pathetic failure like her wasn't strong enough. She didn't even have the right to explain herself. He might as well burn her to ashes, just like he did to those Grimm. It's the fate a worthless faunus like her deserved.

She kept on apologizing as it was the only thing she could do besides bawling her eyes out. She truly was the worst, wasn't she? All of this just to break down at the first confrontation, like a sniveling brat. A crybaby.

Blake didn't see Reid sitting beside her, only feeling him putting a comforting arm over her back, patting it gently. She didn't understand why he'd show any kindness to someone like her, but there's no doubt that, deep down, she appreciated it.

"There's no shame in crying." He said as if he understood how she was feeling. "You can let it all out. I'm here for you."

"I–I'm sorry." She hiccuped, the tears never stopping. "I'm sorry…"

"It's okay." He responded gently, running a soothing hand through her hair.

Reid continued to console her as she cried her heart out, strangely feeling a weight lifting off her shoulders. She was still confused that he'd bother, but she was eternally grateful to him, even if she was undeserving of such warmth.

To have bottled this up for so long was agonizing. From the moment she left the house and abandoned her own mother to follow after the sweet lie of revenge against those who had taken her father away from her, there was always this pang of regret and self-loathing.

What child would subject their loving parent to pain like this? Her mother didn't even know if Blake was alive or not anymore. Yet, even with that knowledge, she kept making mistake after mistake, never learning from them. She didn't even have the guts to stick with the White Fang, as horrible as that sounded.

And then, when she had the chance to right her wrongs—when she finally made friends with good people who appreciated her for who she was—she abandoned them out of cowardice. Not once in her life has she tried to confront her sins. Not once.

She was nothing more than a useless, hopeless weakling. She should've turned herself in and rotted in prison for her entire life. No, Adam should've killed her that day. She should've been executed on the spot.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, Blake's sobs ceased. Her quivering relaxed slightly as she took a deep breath to calm her emotions, at least a little bit. However, the silence afterward was tense as she tried to think of something to say.

"You alright now?" Reid beat her to it.

"...Mhm." Blake nodded after a moment. "As alright as I can be anyway."

"Right. Well, I don't wanna sound like a dick right now–" He started. "But you still have a lot to say."

"I know." She replied. "It's the least I can do."

Blake took another deep breath before speaking.

"I… came here because I was scared." She said truthfully. "Scared that you might find out about my affiliation with the White Fang."

Reid said nothing, prompting her to continue.

"I thought that if you learned of it before I told you, you might think I was a spy or something." She held her arm, looking away from him. "...That you might think I lied to you."

"Did you?" He asked.

"Yes, and I realize that now. It wouldn't have mattered if you figured it out alone or if I told you myself." She responded before chuckling mirthlessly. "Not even trying to prevent you from knowing would've worked because you would've known eventually anyway. Can you believe I entertained that idea?"

"Blake…"

"I-it's just the kind of person I am, alright? A terminal coward and a liar." She clenched her fists tightly. "I keep making the same damned mistake over and over, and I can't just learn my lesson, even though it would be easier for me and everyone else. It's almost like I enjoy it."

Blake calmed herself, reining in her emotions because she doubted she had any more tears to shed.

"I don't even know why you bother with me." She scoffed. "By all means, you might as well just arrest me and throw me in prison."

Better yet, get rid of me. She thought to herself.

"Don't say that." He sighed, seemingly picking up on the subtext of what she said.

"It's what I deserve." She muttered with a scathing tone.

For a few moments, Reid remained quiet as if he were thinking of something to say. Blake wanted him to just give up on her at this point; it should be clear that he won't ever change her mind about–

"What I'm about to say might just blow your mind, and there isn't an easy way to say it," He said. "But I knew you were a White Fang agent long before I met you."

Blake's eyes widened as she whipped her head at him in shock.

"What? But how?"

"Blake, I'm the Titan Slayer." He answered. "I know a lot of things. Your connections to the White Fang are frankly nothing in the grand scheme of things."

"Then why didn't you say anything?!" She stood up, not particularly angry. Mostly confused. "You knew all along, but you just pretended it was nothing?! I could've been a threat to you and Beacon!"

"But you aren't." He responded.

"That's not the point. I don't understand why you wouldn't take the safer approach and just…" Blake trailed off, sitting back down as she stared at Reid's piercing yet warm blue eyes pleadingly. "...Why?"

"I'm not going to lie to you. I can be a cruel person, Blake." He suddenly said, not missing a beat. "So cruel you'd be shocked at what I'm willing to do. I'm a monster in every sense of the word."

Blake said nothing; however, she almost felt a sense of vulnerability from him—a sliver of guilt in his eyes.

"But I can tell you one thing." He added. "That I'm not close to cold enough to condemn someone for wanting to be a better person, and no matter how many mistakes you make, that's what you're trying to do, isn't it?"

"I killed innocent people." She argued.

"So have I." He deflected with a reveal, shocking her to her core.

Blake could not say anything. How could she after hearing that? The image of someone as kind and heroic as him doing something like that… she couldn't even imagine it in all honesty. She almost wanted to call him a liar, but she knew it, deep in her bones.

He was telling the truth.

"I see them in my dreams, you know? All the time. Innocent people I could've helped. I could've saved, and what did I do? Kill them all, because it was the easier option." He said. Blake didn't understand the context; there had to be an explanation because Reid would never do something like that. This overwhelming regret and guilt in his tone sounded familiar. "I even started to avoid sleep because of it."

Blake stayed silent.

"I try not to think about it, honestly. Convincing myself that it was the only choice I had or some stupid bullshit." He continued, sounding tired. "I can't even apologize to them anymore."

She wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that, but the fact that he looked so depressed made her heart tense.

"But this isn't about me. My point is that I understand what you're going through, but this isn't the way to go about it, Blake. And you know that." He added before she could respond. "Running away will never bring you peace. You have to confront your problems; otherwise, you'll never move on."

"...W-what if they hate me?" She whispered. "What if I lose everything again? What will I do then?"

"That will never happen."

Reid gently lifted her chin to look at him.

"I'm here for you." He said. "And so are your friends and family, and I bet you everything I own that they'll always welcome you with open arms."'

"How do you know that?" She asked. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I'm still here." He smiled. "Isn't that enough proof?"

Blake wanted to believe him. She wanted to so badly it hurt her immensely, but was he truly telling the truth? And if yes, did she deserve another chance? She didn't know. She didn't know anything.

She wanted to do what she desired: take his hand and believe him, go back to her house, and give her mother the biggest embrace, but her thoughts were rearing their ugly heads at the worst possible moments, making her feel very hesitant.

Reid noticed, but to her surprise, was very understanding, patting her head.

"Originally, I wanted to drag you to your mom, kicking and screaming." He said. "But now I understand that you need some time for yourself. I'm sure this is all going very fast for you, so I'll leave you be."

Reid stood up.

"I trust you, Blake." He suddenly said, making her heart skip a beat. "And I know that you'll make the right decision."

Before he left, Reid gave her one last smile.

"Goodnight."

Blake watched him walk back to the city, which gave her some much-needed time alone to contemplate what she had just gone through. She looked up at the bright and shattered moon, and strangely enough, her heart felt rather calm.

In fact, it was the calmest it had ever been in so very long.

– ? –

Usually, it stayed away from humans because it knew how dangerous they were in groups. Besides, killing them was useless—a waste of its power and energy. It had gained enough sentience to realize that a century ago.

Its lesser kind was rather stupid for throwing themselves to the slaughter against a species that was practically worthless. Of course, the urge to destroy and kill was always there, but now it had the willpower to resist those dangerous and frankly idiotic tendencies.

In fact, consuming its own kind was somewhat more worthwhile. They were mostly made of darkness, and darkness restored the power it used to fly around the regions, even permanently strengthening it sometimes. Depending on the strength of the prey, of course.

It viewed itself as a superior lifeform compared to those moronic fledglings because it would not throw its own life away listening to its base instincts.

The Harpy Queen scouted the floating islands, spying on the group of humans with keen eyes as all types of weaker Aerial Grimm flew past them. Usually, it would leave the humans alone and do something else because tangling with them wasted time. There were no spoils or rewards for killing them.

But one of these humans had magic. A massive amount of it. In fact, more than most Grimm and crystals it had seen in its long life. More than that, it was pure energy. It was incredibly alluring.

It had felt it from a distance and, at first, thought it was a crystal cargo or something along those lines. Humans pass these islands reasonably often, usually to transport things the Harpy Queen didn't care about. Sometimes, it would even kill the Grimm around here because it knew they were going to cause trouble, and it didn't need some of these idiots to attract even more humans here.

As long as it lets them go about their business, there would be no trouble at all. None of them pesky hunters to investigate and attack it. Still, it decided to investigate anyway since there was usually a certain period of time when no other cargo would pass through.

It had almost regressed to its primal state upon sensing and seeing the strange magical human but had managed to keep some measure of composure. Not for long, though, as it decided that it wanted the human. It needed the human.

It could not let such a delicious dinner go to waste. This was a one-in-a-million opportunity; it had never felt this kind of thing in its life before. Consuming this human would restore so much of its power. It might even evolve into something different. Something far more powerful.

Then, and only then, could it go on to invade other territories of its brethren. Consume them one by one, become more and more powerful, and never have to worry about death ever again.

And perhaps even rebel against the Guardian of Darkness.

The Harpy Queen screeched and spread its massive wings as hurricanes formed around it, carrying it to the magical human it would feast on.

Some of you are too mean to Blake. Let her be stupid; she's a teenager

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