"NO!" Everyone's heads whipped toward Ren at such a cry. Some even became so frightened by the volume that they instinctually reached for their weapons, thinking something was about to come out and attack them. They were startled by the look of horror and familiarity in his eyes. Ren only realized that the shout wasn't in his head when he saw all the eyes staring at him. He was just about to apologize for his outburst when he felt the ironclad grip on his arm. Looking over, Nora was equally as terrified as he was at seeing those same hoof marks.

Ren doesn't think he's ready to face that monster again…the same creature that took his family away from him. He remembers the last episode and the talk with Blake and her father about demons, but that was farther into the future and he's already going to have enough things on his plate. He wouldn't ever be able to bear it if he watched the only family he has left be taken away by the very same Grimm.

He's so wrapped up in his own head that he finally hears his friends calling for him, and Nora. Nora! Ren looks down at his partner to find she's still frozen in fear. He attempts to gently coax her out of her head, but it doesn't seem to work. It takes a few more attempts but she comes back to them. Nora hadn't known she'd been crying until she felt how wet her cheeks were. Ren figured he wasn't looking any better.

Nora looked over at Raider, pleading that they weren't going to see that creature. Nora felt herself begin to tear up when Raider sadly didn't give her any reassurance. But, she did mutter one thing to both of them, "You have to be brave." Ren and Nora quietly gasped and then looked at each other. Even though in a room full of people, it was like they were the only two there.

Nodding at Raider, they were as ready as they would ever be. In their heads, they repeated 'Be brave'.

(Volume 4 intro)

Oscar stood in front of his bed, with a backpack sitting on top.

So I really am going to Have, aren't I? He said in his head like he was expecting a response from Ozpin. That time hasn't come yet, but he knows it might not be long. The others were wondering since he's planning to listen to Ozpin, when and where they officially meet the boy.

He looks around his room one final time then heads off on his journey. He turns back to see his home one last time before trekking forward. Oscar appears to be lost in thought and that's when Ozpin makes his presence known, apologizing to Oscar. "You know, the weirdest part is how it feels."

"How does it feel exactly to have our headmaster inside you?" Ruby innocently asks, completely unaware of the phrasing she just used.

"Ruby!" Weiss shouts, smacking her on the back of the head. Ruby cried out as some of her friends started to laugh. She still has no clue what she said that caused such a reaction. Yang, Sun, and Nora had to be laughing the hardest as Oscar's face a beat red with a mixture of revulsion. It takes a couple of moments to sink in before Ruby's eyes widen. She lets out a shriek, turning around and repeatedly apologizing. This only made people chuckle harder.

Ruby really wanted to move on, but this was something that was much needed for the group. They haven't smiled like this since the Chibi Shorts, so it was a nice breather away from all the despair, and hurt, and trauma they've been put through recently. Ruby was still covering her face, gladly wanting the ground to swallow her whole. When they all go their humor out after 10 minutes of cackling at Ruby's expense, they all decide it is time for the fun factor to be dropped back down into the negatives.

"Leaving home is crazy, going to the city is crazy, everything you've told me is completely crazy, but it doesn't feel crazy anymore, it feels like I'm doing the right thing." Ozpin supposes hearing that is good. "No, it's scary." Oscar looks up upon hearing thunder. He rushes off to find cover and finds the train station. He tries paying for a ticket but it declines as he has insufficient funds.

Well, that's just peachy. Stuck in the rain with no way to pay for a train ticket, that's nice. I wonder how this can get any worse. Oscar rolls his eyes, simply waiting for something terrible to come along as this seems to be where it's going.

"Stupid thing, I'm assuming whatever weird magic this is doesn't come with an infinite supply of money?" Oscar asks sarcastically. Ozpin's afraid this will have to be solved on his own but he swiftly becomes quiet, telling Oscar to be on his guard as if he sensed something dark approaching.

The group is quickly worried, thinking it's a Grimm, hoping that Oscar knows some semblance of combat. They gazed over at him, sad to see him give a slow shake of the head. No, he has no idea how to fight.

Oscar is confused about what he means when Hazel appears to walking towards him from the rain.

How did Ozpin know he was a threat? Does he know Hazel? And how does he know Hazel? More questions were running rampant, but knew they weren't going to get them at the moment so they would just have to wait.

Hazel helps him, slamming his fist on top of the machine, and making a ticket drop out. Oscar picks it up, wary of the man as he walks away. He pauses telling Oscar not to let a small obstacle block his path. He doesn't say anything else as he takes his leave in the rain. Oscar asks Ozpin who he is when he feels a certain emotion about him.

"Someone from my past, someone who should not be taken lightly."

The group planned on heeding that warning, considering he was on the same side as Salem. There was something powerful about Hazel that they didn't want to figure out, but knew they were going to be seeing it soon enough.

A train flies past Oscar.

Kuroyuri is a destroyed, broken, and ruined village with every building crumbling and cracks everywhere that was stepped.

Nora and Ren stare blankly, showing no reaction but sorrow for their home. They wished things could have been different the day the Grimm attacked, but the past can't be rewritten. What's happened, happened and they struggle to move on.

Jaune and Ruby stop at the entrance of the village, Jaune feeling bad for whatever happened to the poor place. "Come on," Ruby urges because they need to keep moving if they were going to help Qrow. As they walk through, Ruby asks if any of the places looked like a pharmacy. Jaune states that it's hard to tell what anything is. "Ren, really didn't want to come here, did he?"

Because it brings back too many memories. Memories that I would have rather forgotten. But now…we're forced to relive them. Ren sighed, sparing another glance at Nora who also looked very uncomfortable. Now, you'll all be forced to watch them as well.

Jaune agreed and Ruby asked if he knew why Ren didn't want to come. Jaune thinks he might have a good idea. Resting in the dirt is a dead lotus, going back to when it was alive.

A young Ren happily observes a lotus as it floats in the water.

His friends wanted to gush about how he was when he was younger, but all that filled them was a painful feeling. He looks so happy, so much more carefree. They didn't know whether that had to do with the childish nature or the before what happened when the village still stood.

"Hehe, why hello little Lie, are we trying to catch a fish?" An Ren giggles as she watches her son.

Mother… Ren didn't realize the episode would be showing something like this. And if that's the case, will she be showing the exact events of what happened that day? Ren felt Nora tense up, recognizing the day as well. Once again, she turned and looked at Raider who nodded sadly to her.

Oh, so we really are going to have to relive this day again.

"Ren, Nora, are you two gonna be alright?" Pyrrha asks worriedly. The two of them didn't have anything to say and that was unfortunately enough of an answer for her. She glanced at her two friends solemnly. She wished her friends didn't have to see all their memories again.

Jaune was about to ask if the two could sit out for the episode if they needed it but Ren cut him off, "No, we'll…we'll be alright."

"I found a flower on the water!" Ren exclaimed excitedly.

The group couldn't even enjoy his cute little voice as they were just waiting for it all to be ruined. That might have been a bad way to look at it but that's normally how moments like these in movies and shows usually went. And they all hated it!

"Oh, I see," His mother responds. Lie Ren bounds toward his mother bouncing while asking if they could take it home and plant it in their garden.

"Aww, you were so cute…" Nora whispered, causing a tiny blush to creep on his cheeks.

"Aw, no, that flower lives here," She tells him, making him look down dejected, so she pets his hair, "But I'll tell you what you can do. Take this lien and go find something for your father's return. He's been hunting for quite some time, I bet the journey's been very tiring, don't you?"

Lie Ren agrees, taking the money, and An Ren asks if he knows what his father will want. "I thiiink he wants a water flower in the garden."

The group couldn't help the small laugh at his wittiness, even when he was young he still had the same tongue.

An Ren chuckles, nudging her son away, "Why did you have to inherit my sass?" Lie Ren rushes off, his mother happily watching him go as he runs off to the market.

Ren missed those days dearly, wishing he could have just one more of them with his family.

Lie Ren stops in front of a weapon, looking at all the swords and asking what he could buy with the lien he has. The guy chuckles, showing him a wooden sword and hammer. Lie Ren isn't satisfied and heads off to try another stand.

"I mean, what did you expect him to give you?" Jaune asks with a smile.

Ren chuckled, "One of those actual swords. But, being a kid and wanting a weapon, those were the realistic options."

Lie Ren tries to hand another man his lien, wanting sake, but he also refuses to give him.

This caused more laughs around the room. "Imagine that guy in the stand. A young kid handing him money and asking for alcohol. Must have been a day," Yang chortled.

Lie Ren longingly looked through the window of a sweet shop when cackling and shouting caught his attention. Rounding the corner he spots three young boys bullying a poor girl.

The light mood went from humorous to angry quickly. Recognizing the girl was Nora they were all surprised. The surprise was swiftly blown away when they heard the kids laughing and making fun of her. Ren remembered how confused he felt when he saw all that unfolding. And knowing now how much Nora means to him only makes him more protective.

One little boy tries to swipe the bread, asking her where she got it. "I didn't see you pay for it thief."

"No, look, it's all moldy!" A second kid yells, pointing at it.

"I think she got it from the trash!" The first kid continued. A third kid wanted to see, going to reach for but he ended up getting bitten. That same kid shoves her to the ground.

Nora avoids the screen, not wanting to say any of this. She felt embarrassed. She was shocked, but certainly not unappreciative, when Ren brought her closer to him. Her blush changed from embarrassment to something else instead.

"What are these little brat's problems?!" Blake demands. How can these kids be so cruel? Where even were their parents? She felt sympathetic as she's dealt with this sort of treatment by many.

Nora lets out a cry, taking the bread and holding it close in her arms.

"Where'd she come from? She's dressed all weird."

"I bet she's abandoned, like a dog or something."

"Does that mean I have rabies?"

Lie Ren inches closer to the group of little boys. Nora sees him and stares at him.

The whole room freezes. Nora was…abandoned? They all looked at her, heartbroken upon hearing this news. Nora avoided looking at any of her friends, she didn't want to talk about this and she hoped this would have never been brought up, but since when has anything ever gone their way since these last couple of volumes started? She was quiet, hoping none of her friends would ask any questions as she didn't want to answer any. They heard what they heard and she wants to leave it at that.

She doesn't want to go further down this trip through memory lane.

The kids turned around and saw Lie Ren. Frightened he began to run away but bumped into some, leading him to fall. He's amazed when it's his father.

Dang, that was his father? The only thing that went through the group's minds was: damn, his father looks like a badass.

The three bullies see the older man and while they are distracted, Nora makes her escape, running away with the bread. "Do you wish to run with the rest of them?" His father asks. Lie Ren looks down, ashamed. Li Ren kneels and places a hand on Ren's shoulder, "Sometimes the worst action to take is taking no action at all. Go home, I need to speak with the mayor." Lie Ren looks behind him as his father walks away.

That was one of the things he regretted, not standing up for her when she needed it.

Jaune has looked and there doesn't appear to be anything. Ruby suggests they get back to Qrow, then.

"Nothing? Not even something to ease his pains?" Ruby asks desperately.

Qrow grunts against a tree trunk and the two hear Grimm wailing. Jaune grabs Crocea Mors but Ruby tells him it's far away. "I know, but Ren and Nora are still out there," Jaune defends.

Ruby looks downcast, apologizing to Jaune, making him confused.

The rest were just as thrown off, where is this coming from? Well, all except one. This might be the future, but Ruby had a good idea of what this was about.

"This is all my fault, I should have never dragged you guys into this."

Is that what she thinks she did? "Ruby, you would have never dragged us into anything. You gave us the courage to follow you, we chose to come with you," Jaune comforts.

Jaune smiles, "You didn't drag us in, we wanted to come."

"But, you didn't know about Tyrian–"

"Neither did you, well, you on screen, but that's not the point. The point is that you shouldn't be putting so much pressure on yourself. None of us and them knew this was going to happen. This is in the future. So stop being so hard on yourself," Jaune leans down, reaching across to put a hand on her shoulder. "This is a bit hard because you're a tad far away."

Ruby giggled, but she thanked him nonetheless.

"Ruby, we lost… we lost Pyrrha, you lost her too, and Penny, and your team, and in a way, your sister. But you're still here, despite everything you've lost, everything you could still lose you chose to come out here because you felt like you could make a difference. You didn't drag us along, you gave us the courage to follow you."

Ruby felt her heart swell, thankful that she found such good friends. She turned in her seat and jumped across the couch to hug Jaune, catching him off-guard. They both fell over in a fit of laughter. "Thank you, Jaune." Yang grabbed her and put her back in her seat, ready to continue.

Lie Ren is abruptly woken up by screams. His mother tries to rush him out and that's when Li Ren busts open the door, asking what they're still doing there.

Depressingly, this was the moment they were all expecting to come. Everything started off so happy and wholesome and then came the bullying, and now this!

An suggests that they can go to the safe house. "No, I saw the beast, we need a huntsman, and you two need to leave," Li demands. Lie Ren is scared, wanting his mom, so An gets to his level and tells him everything is going to be alright. The moment after she says that, the roof comes crashing down.

The students are horrified. Ren had to witness his mom die right in front of him. Speaking of Ren, everything was being let out, his tears coming down in streams as he wept. It was now Nora's turn to bring Ren closer, shushing him as he cried. Ren gestured for them to move on even when they persisted that they wanted to give him a moment. He refused because if they did that for each time he began to cry and calm down they would be watching this episode much longer than they needed to.

Li Ren carried an unconscious Lie Ren as he ran. When he awoke, the poor boy asked where his mother was.

A few let out noises of sadness after hearing that. The first thing he does is ask for his mother. He didn't know then and that only hurt more. They know they might all be crying just as much as Ren, but watching all of this hurt. It really hurt.

Li Ren was struggling to run with his son until he couldn't anymore, falling to the ground and dropping him as other civilians yelled and ran away. "Lie, you have to run," Li ordered. He refused, shouting that he get up with tears in his eyes.

They were all needing to wipe their eyes as it all became a blur for them as they watched. They hated this, they hated this so much. This had to be one of their least favorite episodes along with the Fall of Beacon.

"Listen to me, son, you have to be brave now. Do you understand?" Lie Ren won't accept his father's last words. Li takes out his dagger, handing it to him and pushing him away, "Yes you can!"

To know that Ren's weapon of choice was based on his dad's dagger made them all cry even harder. They absolutely hated how much this episode was punching them in the heart.

Lie Ren looked down at the blade. "Take action, son," Li says as he strugglingly gets up, "Your mother and I love you."

"Gods damnit!" Yang shouts.

Ren's grip on the dagger is shaky. The nuckaleeve stomps in front of Li Ren. The man shouts for his son to go as he sloppily grabs an arrow to shoot at it. Li Ren lets out a war cry as he fires.

"Father…" Ren speaks, his voice hoarse when he says the name. He wants to stop this, he wants to look away, but he needs to keep going. He needs to be brave, no matter how much it hurts him to.

Lie Ren catches his breath under a bridge, seeing all the nevermore screeching and soaring above. That's when he sees the same girl from before, Nora, crying under one of the houses. One of the nevermores shrieks out, landing on the same house that the girl is under. Lie Ren begins to cry as he sees the nevermore and the nuckaleeve. His color then fades away.

That was when his semblance had been unlocked, during this moment. Better time than any if you ask them. But, none of them would be able to give a coherent response from all their tears.

He's immediately calm and swiftly runs over to her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, "We have to be brave."

If they were in their right minds, it would have occurred to them that these were the same words that Raider had told Ren and Nora.

Nora whimpered before embracing Ren. He held her and used his newly acquired semblance to mask them both. The nevermore squawked confusedly. Letting out a final cry, it flew off. Ren's semblance ran dry just as the nuckaleeve stopped in front of them. When it didn't sense anything it stomped away. Nora whispered to Ren that she was scared and Ren was too. Out from under the house, Ren saw the same wooden hammer from before. He was about to go get it when Nora pulled him back.

Ren looked toward Nora. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere… He brought her closer and the two were basically stuck together.

"It's okay," Ren reassures her, and when she finally lets him go, he crawls over to the hammer and grabs it before coming back.

Raider knew this was an emotional scene, but she couldn't stop the internal squealing when she heard the beginning music for Boop.

"We'll keep each other safe," He says, giving her the hammer, "What's your name?"

Her eyes well up as she looks at the wood before answering, "Nora."

Despite them hating the majority of the episode, they all agreed that this was the best part. And they especially loved the music that they heard in the background, it was soft and sweet.

"My name's Lie Ren."

Nora and Ren made it to the top, stopping when they saw a cave opening. "We never get the easy path, do we?" Ren asks, letting out a breath.

Nora holds her hands behind her head, "Easy's no fun anyway. You okay?" Ren hums before asking her the same thing. "I got you here, don't I? Come on, there's more than one way up the mountain." Ren's gaze follows her when his attention is brought to the thunder above.

"Hey! There's wind blowing out of this cave!" Ren runs over and joins her. "Think it might lead to the peak?" Ren supposes there is only one way to find out, but his sentence is cut by being smacked in the face by a paper.

"Is that a map?" Jaune asks, finally able to get his sniffling under control. It looked like it.

Nora giggles and Ren joins in the fun until he actually takes a look at the piece of paper. He goes quiet as he sees it's a tapestry with a symbol on it. Nora asks what's wrong. Ren answers, "This is the symbol for Shion Village."

Didn't they already go through that village? The first one they were introduced to Team RNJR passing through? Where they found that poor man? They were weeks past that already.

"Shion, but that's–that's the village where we found the huntsman, it's weeks away from here."

So they were right, but that doesn't make any sense, how did that flag…

Ren runs inside the cave, stopping dead in his tracks. Nora follows, doing the same. Swords were strewn all across the cave with splats of black everywhere. Ren walks deeper, picking up an arrow. The two look at the ground and see a giant hoofprint.

Ren and Nora see the other mouth of the cave and walk out. "No…" Ren mumbles, seeing it's on its way to Kuroyuri. Nora grabs hold of Ren's hand and the beast releases a bloodcurdling cry.

The screen goes dark before rolling the credits of the episode. There were mixtures of screams both of Ruby and Jaune's name. There were more terrified feelings when the last thing they were given was that creature's shrieks. Yang held tightly onto her baby sister and Pyrrha forgone her reservations, grabbing onto Jaune's arm.

He looked over to see her horrified. He brought her closer and she visibly relaxed. Everyone was tense as this was another scenario of skipping the small break after as they just couldn't wait to see if their friends were going to be okay. Well, they knew alive, but they wanted to know that they would come out unharmed or scarred.