It's been rough lately, but I finally think I've gotten over the hurdle and I can work on this again. I won't go into details, but to those who have expressed interest in my story, I am nonetheless sorry for taking... what, two months to update? Anyway, I hope the chapter is worth the wait! I've been working on it on and off for quite a long time.

In Vale, autumn came through the night carrying blessings from the future. A promise of an inevitable winter. A storm began to roll in despite the lack of warnings given over the course of the day prior. A chill sank into her bones as the sun set and gave way to a shattered moon, but the cold was no stranger - nor was the night, in fact.

It was the rooftops first as she made her way deeper into Vale, but this was a fruitless attempt. Huntsmen and Huntresses used the rooftops as much as she, if not more. She could see them as she moved, given away by gunfire and muzzle flash, brightly colored weapons and unusual attire. The alleys were secondary routes, along with the old fire escapes and balconies along the way. She knew her feet would have to hit the ground eventually. When that time came, she had to be ready. The Grimm wouldn't simply ignore her.

The streets were exposed when the time came to traverse them. Between the buildings there was great cover, both to avoid being seen, and to avoid crossfire or the actions of Grimm. Those were the good things.

It still felt like bad idea. How many Grimm were infesting the streets of Vale couldn't be overstated.
She was on the edge of a permanent danger zone. When she'd heard about activity in Vale she knew only a bit of what to expect. Danger zones sounded bad, but…

The street was choked with black, white, and red shapes packed so thick it was hard to tell the Creeps from the Beowolves. They were smaller Grimm - no Ursai or Death Stalkers. These ones could be handled if engaged in manageable numbers. The problem was that getting caught in the street meant dealing with far more than that. At least this far in, being chased around for being in a danger zone was a non-issue. Law enforcement never came out this far. Huntsmen and Huntresses wouldn't either without very good reason. There was no incentive for them to try something crazy and risky at night. It wouldn't make a difference to the Grimm.

They had to know she was there. She was a bundle of negativity, after all. That wasn't news to her. It didn't matter. She didn't wait to hear their roars or see their movement before she rushed as quickly as she could. Such encounters with the Grimm were becoming routine. This said nothing good about her decision making processes, she realized.

"As if I haven't figured that out by now," a bitter voice in her mind spoke.

As she made her way out of the alleyways, her eyes scanned the buildings briefly before Gambol Shroud switched into pistol form and she hurled the blade upward and forward, a gunshot propelling its blade upward to the ledge. The hook sank deep into the bricks beyond - enough to swing across between the alleyways. Her aura screamed dozens of Grimm all around her, but they were distractions. She had no time for them. She wasn't sure how many close calls she had, nor did she care.

As she reached the next rooftop, she didn't slow to see how many more she'd attracted the attention of. She had things to tend to here. Important things.

Important matters like…

Blake reached up to brush a stray lock of ebon hair from her face. She'd had a plan. It wasn't coming to her. Her mind rebelled against her - what was she going to do? With Grimm on her tail, the only thing she was going to do was…

Run.

She was glad the rooftops were clear of Huntsmen. The streets were clogged with Ursai and a variety of other larger Grimm she had no name for - they didn't cover those ones in Port's classes yet. The presence of even a single other person here would be too much trouble. She made no effort to be stealthy about much of anything. The Grimm wouldn't care if she wasn't perfectly silent. They would find her if she remained in any place long enough for them to sense her despair. Her confusion. Her regret. Most of all, her guilt.

She had a reason for what she was doing, yet she didn't. It was instinct that led her this way. Reason would never drive her into such a dangerous place as this. The dragon loomed, less far away now than it had been since before it was frozen. The CCT tower was a macabre landmark now. The body of the dragon attracted Grimm seemingly by the hundreds, and the flow of them hadn't slowed even slightly since the battle.

She was close. Being close to the CCT tower meant being closer to Beacon. She wasn't aware of where she was until a moment of lucidity came and she found herself looking at the familiar buildings of the school. The Grimm flooded the walkways between. She'd dealt with a few pockets of Grimm thus far as she'd left the safe zone, but this was a different matter altogether.

It started to dawn on her again. The old White Fang hideout that she'd gone to with Sun, back when they were after Torchwick. It might have clues… after all it was…

...it was just a warehouse. There was no significance. A mech bulldozed out of it and a huge crowd of witnesses were there. The White Fang would have cleaned shop. It was just a recruitment meeting. There wouldn't be anything there.

She shook her head. No, the White Fang was deep in Vale. She'd already considered this move. Dozens of splinters of the Fang's presence in Vale had to be around, sure, but she had no way of actually locating any of them with any certainty. There weren't going to be big meetings to listen in on or plans in transit to intercept. She even doubted that any of the splinters were even active in the danger zones. Everything in the here was dead except the Grimm, and…

"Maybe me too," she thought. She wasn't sure yet at any rate.

She heard snarls from the streets below. In the sky she could make out flocks of smaller Nevermore. They'd have been invisible in the night to a human. Even still, she needed to find a safe spot. Night vision wouldn't help her if she got overwhelmed by smaller Grimm.

As though driven by madness, she found herself clearing her way toward the trees at the edge of Vale. From there she'd go forward, deeper into the heart of the danger zone. Toward ground zero. The voice of reason that warned her to find a safe place to rest and let things cool off grew quieter in the back of her mind. It was a mind twisted by emotions she didn't fully understand that screamed loudest.

"If I can get back to the dorms… I'll be safe… long enough to figure out my next move."

What an idea for a safe spot. There was no finer place in all of Vale to torture herself in relative safety.

She would search for years if she had to. As long as secrets were in Vale, she'd find them. When she did, only then would she make the journey to Patch. It wasn't like it was even that far away. She owed it to her whole team to ensure she had an idea of what to do next before risking their lives by daring to associate further with them after his promise.

As she moved, far off she could see the Library - an equally wonderful place to torture herself, if not better than the dorm room of her team. She doubted the Grimm would give her any privacy given how… exposed it was there. Her mind's eye could only picture it in flames, but the fire had died down, leaving behind a charred structure with barely enough left to not collapse entirely. There was something fitting about it. The Library had been her second favorite place to be, and the most common place to find her when she wasn't at class or at the dorm. It was like her sanctuary, and it had burned. She failed to protect it. She failed to protect anyone. She failed to protect…

"Yang."

She corrected her movement through the trees, opting for a different path. Safety was secondary. She would revisit the place where she had lived through her greatest failure, for the sake of penance and...

A force beyond her understanding drew her there - a sense of hope breathed energy and life into her sore muscles. She looked back only a single time as she neared Beacon's grounds. The only company was a stray blackbird in the sky, seemingly headed for the same destination, hovering in her peripheral view.

Small, quiet company was the best company, Blake decided. She could hear the howls of the beowolves around her as they crawled out from the ruins of Beacon Academy, but they were far away. Distant. For now, she was safe.

There was no spelling it any other way, though. For certain, Blake Belladonna had started to lose it. She had never been a stupid girl. She was as logical and methodical in her approaches to most matters as any could be, yet, here she was throwing herself into the proverbial belly of the beast.

All to punish herself?

To find leads?

Her eyes scanned the area around the burned study, desperate to find an errant flicker of gold, as though a single ember would be enough to burn away the nightmare left behind in the wake of the events of the so-called "Battle of Beacon".

"Hey again. Told you I'd be back." Yang said.

It was cooler that day. The sky was painted with softly glowing orange colors and clouds tinted purple in the light of the slowing setting sun. The chill was welcome - the air was cool and crisp, the wind gentle against her skin even as it kissed at the absent, ghostly flesh of her right hand, brushing between the phantom fingers left behind in Vale. For years since she'd discovered her semblance, she had found herself immune to the bite of the cold in all but the most extreme circumstances. Since then the flames had flickered out and the chill was returning, settling into her bones like it'd never left. Now it seemed to permeate her entire being. She might have hated it if not for how alien the sensation was after going so long without it.

Even still, despite the comfort of the autumn air, she felt herself pull her jacket tighter around her where she sat at the cliffside, the long empty sleeve of the right arm stretched taut around her knees as she held them to her chest. Yang never once brought her violet eyes down to look upon the smooth gray stone of Summer's grave, instead enchanted by the sky ahead. She imagined the ghost of her mother standing behind her as she spoke.

"It's really beautiful today. Can't believe I almost missed it. It's… good that Ruby and dad are keeping me going outside. I think I'd feel a lot worse if I didn't venture out. You know me and… how I get when I've got nothing to do." Yang spoke to the open air.

Far off she could hear the faint echoes of gunfire - a single shot every few seconds with no real distinct pattern. There was nothing alarming about it - Yang wasn't the only one who had to try and stay active and sharp in the days since they'd left Vale. They hadn't seen Grimm since they'd come home, though, so Yang assumed that her sister must have simply wanted to see how much momentum she could rack up out in the forests of Patch with Crescent Rose. She had to stay somewhat sharp, after all. If only Yang could have let Ember Celica guide her through the trees at the speed of gunfire like before. She could have been right beside her younger sister, where she belonged. She wasn't about to fault the girl for going without her, though. Yang was deadweight in her current state. All the comforting in the world wouldn't change that.

"Rain check on the run, yeah? I'm still waiting on the replacement parts for my gun. Well… and me." Yang had said at the time. Ruby had smiled at her words. It seemed like it made her feel a little better.

She wished she was getting better. Maybe she could be a proper big sister again soon. All Yang needed was to get the fire back. The problem was that she didn't know why she couldn't. No one she knew did.

She inhaled a deep breath of the dying autumn air through her nose, and she spoke once more to the specter of her mother. The one that didn't leave her willingly. The one that was there for her until she breathed no more. Until she was taken away from Yang and Ruby alike.

"I'm still working on recovering. I start to feel like... maybe I'll start making some progress soon. I just keep remembering how much of a process it's going to be. How long everything is going to take. I don't like it, but I guess I should be glad anything can be done to help me at all, right? Heh." She trailed off for a moment, her eyes wandering to the trees resting alongside the cliff along with her. They kept a healthy distance from where Summer Rose rested, which was for the best. The woods did not captivate her interest so much as the images that floated before her mind's eye, reminding her of all the things she'd done and said that led up to these moments of recovery.

How excited she'd been, when she passed her entrance exam to Beacon Academy! She felt like she would get to finally be… just Yang. No need to babysit, no need to play substitute mom. No need to look after anyone except herself and whatever team she ended up a part of.

When a special incident in Vale happened and Ruby was selected personally by the Headmaster, Yang's heart dropped but she couldn't bring herself to be angry. Even if a selfish part of her wanted to. Her bitterness faded away as fast as it came, slipping beneath the surface effortlessly. She was too happy for Ruby to be angry. She wanted the best for her. She wanted to see her natural skill blossom in a place where her abilities would be recognized and appreciated. A part of her needed her little sister. She didn't trust her father to…

No, by now, it was time to cut him some slack. He knew a thing or two about loss. He would never see Raven or Summer again. There was always the chance Yang would see Blake again. Hopefully soon if Weiss' master plans worked out.

Months passed in Beacon, and Yang realized that there were some things she couldn't escape about herself. She was the "mom friend" a lot of the time, even if first impressions didn't show that. It would have been that way with or without Ruby. Yang didn't end up missing a thing.

"Dad's still… you know. Dad. He's trying hard. Harder than he ever has, to be… kinda brutally honest. I try not to get mad about that but… nah, enough about him. I wanted to tell you about Ruby." She spoke aloud once more to the open air. No one cared about Ruby as much as Summer. She deserved an update.

Ruby had a whole new part to play after what had happened. Yang didn't expect her younger sister to so quickly and effortlessly step up to the challenge, but Ruby had grown so much in so little time. She was so much more mature. Maybe it was the things she saw at the Battle of Beacon.

"She's been looking out for me lately. She's trying this… thing where she treats me like nothing happened to me. She puts all this… faith in me. Like I can do all these things that I used to do without any extra effort. I didn't know how to handle that at first… but I start to realize that I think I need that. I needed someone to just believe in me, no conditions or anything. I really kinda didn't believe in me when I got here. Still wrestling with the reality. Every day I'd go to use my right arm to do something and get another reminder. It's like, 'Whups, wrong arm! Try again! Just not with that arm.' Anyway… point is, she's like you, mom. She's really more and more like you every day. I can't help but wonder how much that messes with dad. I mean it's starting to even mess with me a little bit… but in a good way, I think."

She exhaled another long breath - with every series of sentences she uttered, it was like a weight was easing in her chest. She exhaled all the pressure that threatened to push her to the edge of deep depression once more.

"It's still a little hard to listen to her treat me like nothing's changed though, at times… because, you know… things have changed. I can't do what I used to do. I'm off balance and awkward and I'm just… my head's not in the game, and I'm having serious trouble even just… manifesting my aura…"

She shook her head.

"It's not… it's not all bad though. I'm making really good progress, so I'm told. I thought it'd take longer for me to start feeling functional, but I'm getting to a point where I think maybe I could still live my life like this, replacement incoming or no. Not that I'd want to, I mean…" She shook her head, taking a moment to collect her thoughts.

"Dad says synchronizing my nervous system to a cybernetic doesn't guarantee perfect control right away… so I'm going to have to get used to that. I'm trying to work on my footwork again - kicks and movement alike. Dad's idea. I figure he's probably right. I mean, it's not like my footwork or my kicks sucked, they just weren't as good as the rest of my combat routine. My footwork was actually pretty solid I thought, I just, you know… there's always room for improvement. It's been good to be doing combat practice again. I half thought dad wouldn't be up for it at all but he seems to think it's good for me too. Except now he won't go all out because like I said, my aura has been a no-show since I ended up back here." She groaned. No aura, no semblance. No semblance, no fire. No fire, no drive to overcome adversity.

She remembered her fight with Mercury, and how close she'd cut that particular encounter. He'd had her in check in the footwork department, hands down. If not for her semblance, she'd have lost for that reason alone.

"...I was thinking about my fight in the singles bracket. That punk, Mercury. I keep wondering if I really earned that win or if he threw it." She spoke with a soft sigh, her eyes closing. She could feel her heart sink a little bit at the thought.

She wasn't stupid. She knew that her winning that match had to play into the bad guy's hands somehow, now that it was all over. He hit the threshold perfectly. He played havoc with her aura just enough to push it as far to the breaking point as he could without sounding the alarm that would call the match in his favor. He didn't look legitimately surprised when he whirled around in mock surprise when she came at him, but at the time she didn't think much about it. She was used to dumbfounded looks, and inexpressive ones from people who just didn't quite understand what was about to happen to them.

"I mean, he looked like he was trying to look surprised when I went in to show him what for. Even if I'd won for reals, I'd have probably still gotten tricked in whatever way they did to make me think he was attacking me with a depleted aura. I still just… yeah. I need to work on it. I agree with dad. I'm doing as much as I can. It's still hard, I mean… I wouldn't think losing an arm would affect my footwork and kicks, but it does. Big time. Still... getting better." She felt her whole body seem to slow, her lips sealing shut for a long moment, her eyes finally trailing down to gaze upon the stone.

Thus kindly I scatter.

"I still worry. Most of all about Blake. The fact that I haven't been able to contact her, say anything to assure her or anything… that drives me up the wall almost as bad as my stump does. I've replayed the scene so many times in my head that it's just maddening sometimes…" She felt herself grind her teeth together. She fought the urge to thrust her fingers into her hair and pull at the roots. "I just expected her to be there when I came to. I don't know why. She wasn't though. She couldn't have been. She was too hurt. He stabbed her. It was like her aura wasn't even... there. It was like she was… like me." She hated the thought of Blake's aura abandoning her when she needed it most… but it seemed like it had.

"I don't know how he - much less anyone - could fight with someone like Blake and be totally unscathed. It just doesn't make sense… sure there's always someone better, we've all lost sparring matches so it happens. Blake, though, she didn't learn from a school. She didn't read tactics from a textbook or participate in regular school crap like we had to. She learned to fight all on her own and she's turned out damn good at it. He should have at least had to put some effort into it…"

"You're looking into it too much."

For a moment, her conscience took on the sound of Summer's soft voice, calming and gentle.

"Maybe I am looking into it too much. I just… maybe I am. It's hard not to. He took me out in one blow. He stabbed Blake, and he…" Her eyes rose from the grave and rose to a clear spot in the sky, focusing on nothing as realization crept in.

"...he looked familiar. Blake had sketches in her notebook of a guy like him… I never asked what or who he was. I just… assumed it was a character from one of her books or something..."

She remembered the few tales Blake had shared with her about the White Fang, as well as the person she trusted who went bad. Her old partner. The one that took her along for a downward spiral, and gave her trust issues… and Blake had compared him to…"

Yang felt tears coming, but the anger that suppressed them didn't rise enough to reach her eyes. It was more than anger. It was betrayal. It was sorrow. It was a feeling like she had done something terrible along the way to hurt Blake's trust in her, and she had no way of knowing what it was.

"...mom? Do I really seem like the kind of person that would end up like that guy? Using a… cause with pure intentions plastered on to justify murder, crime…" She couldn't be. She never imagined herself as that person in all her life. She couldn't even do it now. It didn't fit.

"No."

"How, then? How could she…?" Yang felt muscles in her neck strain, her head tilting upward in a vain attempt to thwart gravity's drive to bring down tears from watery eyes. Anger was too quickly giving way to misery. She was tired of feeling sorry for herself, yet it was easy to lose herself in her own head.

"You'll find out soon."

She sniffled, and the tears seemed to slowly drain away again - all but a single tiny tear that rolled down her cheek in defiance. She quickly moved to wipe it away, determined not to allow it to linger...

With the wrong arm.

First, there was a brief moment of confusion. Then her remaining fist pummeled into the earth next to her as a scream of frustration escaped her lips, echoing from the high cliff where she sat. She didn't like how quickly her optimism could shatter. All she had to do was think about the past a bit. Particularly Blake, and the loss of her own abilities. Her eyes, however, remained violet, only darkening slightly to a deeper, almost blue shade. No matter what emotion she felt, no matter how intense, she could not burn.

When she found it, it was like the tips of her fingers went numb, and there was a violent tug in the center of her chest where her heart lied. The rest of the dark, ruined hall of the library became background colors - shades of black and white in the near pitch-darkness. It alone shined amidst the dark like it held all of the fire Blake's partner carried with her everywhere she went.

The limb it once belonged to lied not far away. It was only a dark shape to her. In the light of Ember Celica, it was impossible to be distracted by something so macabre. She didn't want to know what force pulled the bracelet away from the arm.

The weight of the weapons in her hands suddenly felt unendurable, and she resisted the urge to drop them and let them fall to her feet. She unconscious rested Gambol Shroud on her back before she knelt to pick up the single missing bracelet. Not a speck of dust marred the pristine golden surface. It was as unblemished as the first day Blake had first seen it. It was a lot heavier than it looked. She didn't know precisely how to work the mechanism that changed the bracer from its innocuous passive shape into the gauntlet of mass destruction Yang used in battle, though at this point it didn't matter. It wasn't like she intended to -use- the thing. She wouldn't have known the first thing about operating it in a fight.

She rose to her feet, though she could not tear her eyes away from the bracelet in her palm. Her fingers pressed along the metal and she felt a sharp, overwhelming urge to slip it over her wrist.

"You don't deserve it," she told herself. "You have no right."

There was a moment of dizziness as she shook her head and forced herself to look away from the bracelet. The only reason that gauntlet wasn't on the hand it belonged to was because…

"...Yang." Blake exhaled her name like a strained cry for mercy.

She had wronged her whole team, but none so much as her own partner. Yang Xiao Long. Her closest friend. The first human she heard outright validate the struggle of being a faunus. Probably the strongest, kindest soul she'd met. She who tried so hard to know her and understand her despite all the chaos of the months they shared as partners. She who woke her from her self-torture. Yang was everything a great glowing flame could be. Warm, constant, and dangerous if mistreated.

Beautiful, too. So beautiful the rest of the school didn't seem to know how to react to her.

Yet despite all those things, she had doubted Yang. She had let her pain become hers. She saw Yang shed tears for the first time ever when she did it, and that was a crime that she would never forgive of herself now that she'd ruined any hope of making things right.

She might never see Yang again. All she had was this bracelet that was never hers, that shouldn't be hers, yet she felt so selfish that she wanted to keep it. It was the only thing she had to remember Yang by other than memories tinted in an unpleasant shade by the chaos that came to ruin everything. A dark part of her mind whispered that it wasn't like Yang would ever need it, but Blake dug her nails into her palms and bit her tongue until she tasted metal to punish herself for it. What a horrible thing to even think.

Why was she even here right now? She'd run. It was already done, and she knew why she had to do it from the beginning. If Adam was forced to choose between hunting her or her team, she knew who he'd pick. So long as both targets weren't conveniently in the same place, they were safe. Everyone else was safe. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang most of all. Yet here she was agonizing over days gone by. It was a childish exercise, not to mention a risky one. Negative emotion would bring Grimm. More than she could probably fight by herself.

"...you've paid enough for all of this," she murmured, and the moment the words left her lips, she regretted them. Her fingers gripped tight at her sides, one gripping the bracelet like a stray gust of wind would blow it away from her fingertips.

The words left as a quiet, pitiful sob. "...no. No, you didn't… you shouldn't have had to pay anything. This was never supposed to be… your…"

It wasn't supposed to be Yang's battle. It was supposed to be…

"...it wasn't my fight either. Not yet. I wasn't strong enough. If I'd run…"

If she'd run when her instincts first told her to, Yang would be okay. Yang would have never come running for her. Instead she ignored the impulse and remained like a fool that had read one too many fictional tales of heroism. She had expected to win until the moment she crossed blades with him…

Impulse and fantasy got her here. It nearly got Yang killed. It was horrible to say that Yang was lucky to leave with only a missing arm, yet the thought repeated in her mind as it always did.

She strode away from the site, navigating the toppled bookcases and shelves and climbing toward the windows high on the walls. More Grimm would be coming soon. She was sure of it… and she only had so much ammunition now that she didn't have a stockpile at the school to fall back on. The crippling aura of the building she had just been in faded away, and urgency returned. She could hear the footsteps of the Grimm, their growls as they sought the source of despair in their midst. Her aura rippled and gave her goosebumps at the hostile presences coming ever closer.

She maneuvered her way back towards the walkways that led into Vale, and she felt her aura calm, bringing her brisk walk to a slow pace before she stopped to stand and steel herself for the sprint she'd likely have to make to get to the dorm. Somehow, this stop made it feel easier. There was one thing left to do before she could let herself disappear entirely. That meant getting back to Weiss… without waking her. What a feat that'd be.

She glanced back down at Ember Celica.

Maybe she could just leave it somewhere convenient. Maybe Weiss would find it and bring it to…

She shook her head. Anyone who happened upon it could take it. It was valuable. It was the weapon of a huntress. It was priceless.

A flawlessly gorgeous, yet unapologetically cocky smirk accompanied by glowing golden locks and lilac-colored eyes popped into her mind, and yet another wave of despair crashed over her. Life was full of priceless things it seemed, most of which were moments. She couldn't carry those with her. They would have to be left behind.

She'd never have any practical use for Ember Celica. Yang very well could someday, even if it was a longshot. Yet her mind punished her for even thinking of doing anything other than keeping it. It was all she had to take with her and...

She couldn't carry Yang's bullheaded determination with her, even if it might come in handy someday. She couldn't carry Yang's quiet, understanding support in the face of Blake's own learned tendencies to keep secrets from the people she cared for most. She couldn't carry Yang's lopsided grins or frustratingly inappropriately timed puns.

She had to leave her behind, along with everything else. Yet it was that thought that hit her so hard. Yang had trusted her. Yang had believed in her. Yang had gone out of her way to uplift her.

Was it so selfish to take this one thing? She didn't get much chance to think on it further. Her aura jolted alert, and then everything swayed violently to the side in a blur of motion, and suddenly angled downward. A fleeting second of confusion passed before reality set in and Blake felt lucid enough to process what was happening.

She was on the ground, half on the pavement of a walkway leading to the dorms. The bracelet lied in the grass. Between she and the remaining part of Ember Celica stood a tall and fierce beowolf, its gaze seemingly directed at its own raised claw seemingly in pride of the cheap shot it'd landed on the girl in front of it.

Blake's aura had turned what could have easily been a sudden, instant, lethal strike into a momentary stunning action - her aura was too well developed, honed, and trained to be phased in any meaningful way by the single attack alone. Gambol Shroud was once again in her hands in an instinctual motion and she quickly rolled to regain her footing.

This single Grimm was barely a threat. Anything short of an alpha would only annoy her at best. One wouldn't call the resolution of the conflict anything resembling a "fight". In a flash of motion, the creature of Grimm was felled, standing stupidly and motionlessly before it seemed to realize it had been cleaved in two. The bracelet was back in Blake's hands by the time the creature could fade to dust.

Her aura once again bristled. Grimm were starting to notice. As she whirled to take an approximate count, could see many of them at fair distances away, but they would close the gap fast. Grimm were deceptively fast, not to mention that she did not have names for all the Grimm she saw. They were completely unknown to her, and she preferred to not discover their unique quirks like this.

Too many were coming to comfortably count, and the longer she stayed, the more there would be. The only option was obvious. She started to dash along the walkway, desperate to cover the distance to the dorm even though she couldn't even see them behind the buildings ahead. She noticed a lone bird perched - black feathers and red eyes - perched on an abandoned bench. A crow awaiting what looked to be a fast approaching feast, by the looks of it. Maybe it was the same one she saw chasing her to the library. It was yet another grim reminder of how bad her odds were…

...yet… another… Grimm… reminder.

Yang would have been proud, not only for the pun, but for the horrendous timing. Blake couldn't even sigh or groan at herself for even thinking it.

Eventually the dorms were in sight, though she realized soon after that she wouldn't make it. More Grimm were ahead to intercept her, and if she stopped to fight them or let them delay her even for a moment, those behind her would gain enough on her to be a threat. She skidded to a halt and embraced her fate. Either she would cut a path through, or she would die here, clutching the other half of Ember Celica. Either route would have been fitting, she imagined.

As the Grimm moved in to strike in brutish, animalistic fashion, she moved in a practiced manner, twisting her body and sidestepping attacks in a familiar dance as she maneuvered to maintain distance and keep track of the Grimm and their tendencies to telegraph their attacks thanks to their inherently predictable and basic natures. Unfortunately, she found herself losing the strength to fight far faster than she imagined she would. The number she cut down before she felt the need to retreat was far less impressive than she hoped.
After securing a little space for herself via her semblance, she dashed full-tilt to the dormitory building, hoping in vain that the narrow corridors would at least give her a little more control over how many she fought at once while she figured her next move. Her aura was going strong still, but she had been running for over an hour with minimal pauses to slow down or stop.

Her aura jolted once more and she felt a sense of panic as it hinted at the action that would occur only a fraction of a second later. Her semblance kicked in instinctively at the reflexive reaction to unforeseen danger. It propelled her backward as sharp rocks ripped upward from the pavement, and she barely avoided being knocked precariously into the flock behind her. She turned sharply to try and find the culprit. The roars were deafening. There were so many.

There was an enormous ursa, adorned in what looked like armor of white bone to go with the usual Grimm mask.

It was an alpha. Basically the most inconvenient thing that could happen.

It would have been nice to have her team. No, she wouldn't need her whole team. Just one other person. Yang would have made this easy. Reckless and powerful was good against Grimm. They weren't clever enough to take advantage of Yang's usual approaches to fighting.

It was far faster than it looked, and it closed the distance rapidly as she leapt over the sharp rocks it had broken apart. As soon as she got past, it was there, its arm thrust out to maul her. She could evade by mere centimeters at most before the creature followed through.

She could only give ground as the ravenous beast advanced upon her, and very quickly her aura screamed the danger as more caught up behind her. Entirely on the backfoot, she kept seeking the same end as before. An escape. A way out. A means by which to run.

Instinct took over when she found she was out of time. She needed to cut a way out again. She went on the offensive, giving no Grimm in her sight a chance to strike first as she tried to stay out of the Alpha's immediate range. Amidst frantic slashes at nearby creatures, she managed to gain enough altitude with a shadow clone to bring her ribbon to the handle of her Gambol Shroud. With a shot of gunfire and a throw later, Blake Belladonna became a whirlwind of steel as she cut through the weakest Grimm first in an effort to gain space.

Dozens fell from her attacks, and she found the space she wanted. The wild attacks had left a horrendous gash in the Alpha's face that seemed to crack its mask. It rose its paws in what looked like pain over its face, and Blake took advantage. Cutting it down was too much of an investment of time with too little payoff. She ran. That was what she was good at.

The doorway to the dorms was so close, yet it felt so far. More Grimm moved to obstruct her - creeps and boarbatusks had started to come at her, and the difference in tactics these Grimm had made it hard to fight even as she worked her to cut through beast after beast. With each shadow of herself the beasts brought down she felt herself grow more tired, her aura beginning to feel the pressure. Worst of all, she could see the Alpha was still advancing, tall and impossible to overlook even behind the horde of Grimm that were closer. These dozens of others she'd put between it and her gave her a speck of breathing room.

She managed to evade the blows of the offending Grimm at her sides along the walkway, and then a spot of hope flooded her senses as her aura calmed and she felt the roars of the beasts start to get quieter. She didn't dare look back.

Finally, she reached the door to the dorm - broken with the floors by it decorated in shattered glass where the window had been. It seemed there were no Grimm inside, at least. Only when she was behind the door in relative safety did she spare a look back at the horde.

The Grimm lost interest. Something else was more interesting to them. She could immediately see why.

Outside, the Grimm were being cut down in swathes by a giant, glowing entity seemingly composed of icy blue light, wielding a blade large enough to cleave a Death Stalker in half with a single blow. She had never seen anything like it. Blake wasn't sure what this meant. Was it going to be hostile to her? Did it only fight Grimm? What even was it?

Amber eyes widened as the Alpha Ursa that was chasing her before met its end violently, suddenly, and unceremoniously - one of four other Grimm killed in a single swing. Large, sweeping strikes were cutting down swathes of Grimm, and those it didn't kill seemed to have the bizarre sense to flee. This entity was powerful enough to frighten fear personified, it seemed. That was something she couldn't help but find very, very interesting.

It looked like a knight. A giant knight with a greatsword fit for a giant.

And then she heard a sound like someone shouting something. She leaned closer to try and make it out.

"Blake Belladonna!"

Blake paled, and then bolted up the stairs nearby. That voice was none other than the person she'd tried to run from today. Weiss Schnee was here, not far behind, and somehow she had a giant death knight working with or for her.

She wasn't afraid of the knight anymore. She didn't know what she was afraid of. Weiss wouldn't do anything worse than the Grimm.

If anything, she should have been happy. She would get to visit the place she'd throughout the last year in peace and quiet. She would even have company.

She tried to be positive, but she failed. Weiss didn't pull punches, but Blake realized she didn't want her to.

Two chapters to go! Thanks for reading and being interested in this work. Please leave me a review if you like my story :). I will be asking for constructive criticism at the end of the story. For now I need to focus on moving forward or I might not finish this work in time for the Volume 4 announcement... which would be really embarrassing!