Chapter 120:

Amber and Kyo saw Sasame, Ruby, and Natsuki off at the door to Kyo's room, watching the trio head down the hall.

"I'm sorry," said Kyo, turning to bow his head to Amber. "I should have been more open with you from the start."

"I'm..." Amber looked away uncertainly. "I'm used to people keeping secrets from me. But I wasn't expecting that from you."

"You weren't?" asked Kyo. "My life is replete with secrets, Amber-san. This is just the one that is most pertinent to your situation. There is still a great deal I have not told you..." He sighed. "...some of which might well cause you to reconsider your opinion of me."

"And what about this?" asked Amber. "If the Mibu are so afraid of this Jester-person, why would you get involved with me?"

"Well...getting involved with you is the crux of the matter," said Kyo bashfully. "In a sense, that was me leaping without looking. Because it's you, I can't bring myself to stand aside."

"Even if it means facing a person you can't defeat?" asked Amber.

"A person I can't kill," Kyo clarified. "That is the issue. I may defeat him as many times as I please. But he will always return and continue to threaten us." He took Amber's hands in his own. "But that doesn't trouble me. I will defeat him as many times as I have to, if it means keeping you safe." He laced his fingers with hers.

"So you won't let Ruby handle it?" asked Amber.

"That was never my intention," said Kyo. "Letting Ruby-chan make her own enemies and fight her own battles is one thing. I would never stand by and simply dump the responsibilities of our clan onto her shoulders.

"When Jester comes for you, I will stop him. Even if killing him is supposed to be impossible, I will not stop fighting until I find a way to make the impossible possible."

Amber sniffled, looking Kyo in the eyes. On impulse, she leaned in, straining slightly to reach the level of his face, Kyo being a bit taller than her. Kyo, seeing her intent, found himself leaning down to respond in kind. Their lips met, pressing together in a gentle, chaste kiss, which they held for a long moment, before finally pulling away enough to look each other in the eyes.

Kyo was smiling a little wider now. "And, when this is over, we can start traveling together. I can show you all the places I've been, all the people I've met, and all the things I've seen, and you can enjoy them, not needing to worry about Ozpin-dono's war."

"I'd like that," said Amber, leaning in to press her face against his shoulder. Kyo's arms slid around her, holding her close. The two of them found themselves staying like that for quite some time.

Ruby stared out over the the edge of the roof. Following such a heavy conversation with Kyo, Sasame, Natsuki, and Amber, she needed some time to herself to process things. The rooftop where she'd trained her friends in the art of Aura-control was as good a place as any. It wasn't exactly quiet, with the festival grounds extending across the ground beneath her dangling feet. But it was sufficiently out-of-the-way that she didn't need to worry about some random person stumbling upon her...

...Or so she thought. Ruby barely even registered the click of a cane against the concrete rooftop, not even looking up until the wizened voice spoke up from behind her.

"Well well, the festival going on all around you, and here you are, off sulking by yourself."

Ruby yelped, shooting to her feet and whirling around to see none other than the slightly-hunched figure of Maria, ambling towards her, skull-topped walking-stick clicking rhythmically against the rooftop.

"M-Ms. Maria...!" gasped Ruby with wide eyes.

"Oh, don't be so formal with me, young lady," said Maria, flashing her teasing grin. "I'm used to people overlooking me, prefer it even. It makes me proud that an old crone, like myself, can still get the drop on someone, especially a rather alert youngster like yourself."

"You sure can," said Ruby, nodding earnestly. Once again, she was amazed at the flawless nature of Maria's Suppression, even though this old woman might not have ever even heard of the Mibu, much less their particular techniques. Then she glanced around. "Where's Oscar?"

"I told the boy to enjoy himself," said Maria. "I'll meet up with him, when it's time to go back. He's young, but not so young that he needs me looking over his shoulder every minute of the day."

Ruby nodded. However, she also came to a realization. The entire reason she'd picked this spot was because it was out of the way, where no average festival-goers would be coming. After all, reaching this rooftop meant passing through the dormitories, which were off limits to anyone but Academy students and staff. That meant that Maria had essentially snuck through and out-of-bounds area to reach her, which meant that this was no coincidence. Maria had intentionally sought her out.

But how did she even find me? wondered Ruby. Maria's Aura was tempered, and she'd clearly mastered Suppression. However, there had been no sign that she'd learned Projection, much less Extension. Furthermore, Ruby was certain she would have sensed Maria's expanding Aura the very second it brushed against her own.

Maria chuckled, apparently able to sense Ruby's confusion. "It's a funny thing," she said. "A long time ago, I learned how to...shut my Aura off...I supposed. It makes keeping a low profile a lot easier, something I wish I'd learned when I was younger. Of course, when you close your Aura down, the Auras of others becomes all the brighter, even when you don't have proper eyes to see them with."

"I...I see," said Ruby.

It was true that, when she Suppressed her own Aura, it was easier to sense the Auras of others around her, even without Extension. However, given that it left a person's body completely defenseless, it was the kind of trick no sane person would rely on, especially not in the heat of battle. Of course, if Maria was already hiding, then such a quality would only help, rather than hinder her.

"Why were you looking for me?" asked Ruby.

Maria chuckled. "You know, poor Oscar had it pretty bad for you."

"Y-yeah...I know," said Ruby, looking down, cheeks turning red.

Jaune had told her about Oscar's crush, which everyone except her had been able to see, apparently. He'd also told her that he'd done his best to inform Oscar about their relationship. Ruby was grateful, not liking the idea of having to let down Oscar herself, though she had to imagine it had been even more awkward for Jaune to try and discourage Oscar's efforts, without coming off as some kind of territorial jerk defending his turf. From the sound of things, Jaune had managed it.

Maria chuckled. "Well, that's just the luck of the draw sometimes. He used to talk about you a lot, back when I first met him. He used to go on forever about how pretty you were."

Ruby's face felt like it might catch fire at any moment. She couldn't help but wonder just why Maria was telling her this, save for her own amusement.

Maria laughed at Ruby's reaction. "Yes, the poor boy was smitten something fierce. However, there was one thing he said about you that really caught my attention."

"What?" asked Ruby.

Maria reached up and gently tapped the housing of her prosthetic eyes, prompting them to whir softly, and the shutters quivering from the light stimulus. "These beauties are amazing. They've got some wonderful features that, in their own way, make them even better than my old eyes. However, if there's one tradeoff that saddens me about them...it's that they render me unable to see in color."

"Yeah, that is pretty sad," agreed Ruby, trying to imagine what life would look like, without being able to perceive all the wondrous colors of the world.

Maria huffed. "It's unfortunate all right. Thanks to that, without Oscar's descriptions of you, I would've looked you in the face, and not noticed a thing. So it's a good thing the boy kept yapping."

"Huh?" grunted Ruby, unsure of where Maria was going with this.

"You see, Oscar shared with me a little tidbit that really caught my attention," explained Maria. "Because of that, I knew I had to meet you as well. So, when the boy started begging his aunt for a chance to come to the Vytal Festival, I weighed in and managed to sway her over."

Maria sighed, bowing her head. "I'm not particularly proud of that. Basically, I was using Oscar for my own purposes. I still think this will be a good experience for him. But it doesn't change the fact that I had an ulterior motive this whole time."

"What...?" gasped Ruby. "Why? What could be so important about me that you'd abuse Oscar and Ms. Emalee's trust like that?"

The glowing, blue lenses of Maria's prosthetic eyes flickered as they met Ruby's. "Because Oscar told me that you had Silver Eyes."

Ruby gasped, her hands going up to cover her mouth.

"The first time I heard it, I almost jumped down the boy's throat," said Maria with a rueful laugh. "'Are you sure they were silver...not gray?' I had to make sure the boy wasn't mistaken or exaggerating, as lovestruck youngsters are prone to doing. I even checked with his aunt to make sure. Threw me for quite the loop."

Ruby didn't know how to respond. All of a sudden, her eyes were some kind of super-significant thing. If she remembered correctly, one of the very first things Ozpin had said to her was that she had silver eyes. Ruby hadn't thought too much of it back then. But now...after everything she had been through, they were suddenly significant, and everybody couldn't seem to stop talking about them. It was enough to drive her crazy, especially with people speculating that her eyes were, somehow, the key to defeating a person that her own brother, one of the strongest warriors on the face of the planet, couldn't.

"So it seems you've heard something about this before," observed Maria with a dry cackle.

"Something like that," said Ruby, slumping back down on the edge of the roof. "Everybody keeps making a big deal of it, but I don't know what to think. They say my eyes are important, but nobody seems to know why."

"Well then, it's a good thing for you," said Maria, settling next to her. "I can answer those questions for you."

"How do you know?" asked Ruby, glancing sidelong at Maria, an uneasy quiver in her stomach, feeling as though she might know the answer already.

Reaching up, Maria gently tapped the housing of her prosthetics once again. "I wasn't born with these, you know. Once upon a time...I too had Silver Eyes."

The beep of the monitors had been a constant companion to her for the past weeks. Emerald was beginning to wonder if she would ever be free of the infernal sound.

Granted, freedom wasn't in her future, no matter where she looked. After all, if she wasn't a prisoner of the enemy, she was a prisoner of her own body. Ruby Rose... she thought with a silent growl, wishing, as she had countless times before, that she would have the chance to exact vengeance for everything the younger girl had taken for her.

It was bad enough that Ruby's attack had stolen the use of Emerald's legs, ensuring that she would never be able to walk again. It was worse still that she'd enabled Emerald's capture by Ozpin's people. And, worst of all, Ruby had ruthlessly stolen the most important person in Emerald's life away from her. Cinder was dead and gone. She would never be coming back. If there was one bitter consolation that Emerald could take from all this, it would be the fact that Cinder was not around to see what a failure she had become.

Even if she could still be useful to Salem's people in some way, Emerald wasn't sure she'd bother to help them. She didn't care about Salem, or her agenda. The only thing that mattered was Cinder. Without Cinder there, what incentive was there to keep working for Salem? She supposed there was always the fear of death at Salem's hands. But Emerald wasn't sure she even cared about that right now.

"Sulking certainly doesn't become you," observed a light, feminine voice from the door of Emerald's infirmary room, the room she'd been confined to since she'd first regained consciousness.

Emerald slowly turned her head to look at the interloper. She was a diminutive young woman, close to Neo, in terms of height. Emerald's eyes took in the girl's slightly childish features, her rounded cheeks, long tresses of auburn hair, and chocolate-brown eyes. A red fox-tail with a white tip swayed behind her.

"Get lost," snarled Emerald. "I'm not interested in dealing with brats right now."

"Seeing as I'm older than you, that shouldn't be a problem," the unfamiliar girl replied with a sunny smile that only irritated Emerald all the more.

"And what do you want?" demanded Emerald, still in no mood for conversation.

The girl was already moving around the perimeter of the bed, removing the IVs and monitors attached to Emerald's body. Removing them prompted a few alarms, which brought the sound of running feet from down the hall.

"Well, Ruby-chan told me about your situation, and asked me to do something about you," said the girl simply.

"Ruby...?" Emerald recoiled back from the small girl.

"My little sister," agreed the girl, looking up and fixing Emerald with a serious look, one that made Emerald realize that this girl's claim about being older than her was not exaggerated, "whom you and your mistress attempted to murder in cold blood."

Abruptly, Emerald's stomach quivered, and she felt as though she was going to throw up. She had another sister? I thought that blonde bimbo was the only one!

And now said sister was going through the trouble of slowly disconnecting Emerald from all the equipment that supported and monitored her. "My name is Mitarai Sasame, and I have been Ruby-chan's adopted sister for the past six years," she continued.

"What of it?" asked Emerald. "Are you here to kill me?"

"At the moment, no," replied Sasame simply. "You see, Ruby-chan asked something of me, something that underlines what a kind girl she is at heart."

"And what's that?" asked Emerald.

Sasame's smile was terrifying to behold, for all that it seemed so benevolent. "This..."

Abruptly, she pulled the sheets off Emerald's bed, before inserting her hands beneath Emerald's back and hips, and lifting upwards. Emerald shrieked in surprise as she was thrown up and flipped over, landing on the bed again, now laying face-down. Her cheeks immediately turned red with humiliation as her hospital gown left her with her back and behind exposed. But Sasame neither seemed to notice nor care.

"What's going on!?" demanded the doctor on call, skidding to a stop at the door.

"Just taking care of a sulking child," replied Sasame casually. "This won't take but a moment. Feel free to watch. I think you'll find it interesting."

"What are you doing?" demanded Emerald, squirming to turn her head to glare at Sasame, which was difficult, given that the lower half of her body refused to respond to her will.

"Hush," said Sasame gently. "There might be some momentary discomfort."

Sasame pressed her fingers against Emerald's back, low down on her spine, right on the spot where Ruby had struck her. The tips of Sasame's fingers slipped into Emerald's back, phasing right through the skin, muscle, and bone. Emerald gasped, feeling something again to a chill, which shot up her spine, before the sensation was replaced by one of heat.

"Hmm...Fortunately, the severe damage is well-contained," muttered Sasame to herself. "Ruby-chan's control is magnificent. Now then...remove the dead cells...trigger regeneration...connect the severed ends...aaaaaaaaaaaaand done!"

Emerald spasmed, abruptly feeling something akin to an electric jolt that ran down to the tip of her toes. It took an extra second for her to realize that she'd actually felt her toes...and everything above, and continued to feel them. A gasp escaped her as she realized that the empty void where her lower body had once been was now once more fully available to her.

"I...I..." Emerald couldn't stop the tears from running down her face.

"Now then, there isn't much I can do about the atrophy," said Sasame. "It will take some therapy for you to get up and walking again. But this is a start. And hup!"

Emerald yelped, finding herself tossed and flipped again, landing back on her back, Sasame pulling the sheets back up over her.

"Why...?" gasped Emerald, staring at Sasame, unable to comprehend why this girl, who'd claimed to be Ruby's sister, would help her.

"First, it is my responsibility as a healer to treat the injured," said Sasame. "As I am not a doctor, I have a bit more leeway than them, when it comes to deciding who to treat and not to treat. But I feel it better to do my utmost for those who are injured, even if they have done something reprehensible."

"I could try and kill you," Emerald pointed out. "If you're Ruby's sister, then that makes you an enemy."

"If you tried, then I would be free to kill you myself," said Sasame with such simple confidence and assurance that she made it a matter of cause and effect. "If you choose to throw the wellbeing I've granted you away in such a hopeless endeavor, so be it. Your life is now your own once again."

She paused, then shrugged. "The second reason I helped you is because Ruby-chan asked me to."

Emerald's jaw dropped. "What?"

Sasame tittered.

"I must say, I've never seen anything of the sort," said the doctor, stepping farther into the room, drawing Sasame's attention. "You reconnected a severed spinal cord like it was nothing."

"It's a rather simple, if delicate, operation," replied Sasame, turning to address the man. "It's one that I have performed many times."

"If you have time in the future, I would love to learn more about this," said the doctor. "I simply must learn how such a thing is possible, and how to perform such myself."

"I am sure we can talk over tea sometime," suggested Sasame cheerfully. "In the meantime, I believe that I am about to have a frank and private conversation with my patient. So, if you would..."

The doctor sighed. "I'm getting far too used to getting pushed out of my own infirmary," he complained softly, taking his leave, along with the nurses.

Sasame giggled at that, before turning back to Emerald, who was still staring at her like she'd grown a second head.

"Why...?" gasped Emerald. "Why would she want to help me...? After she...?"

"After she crippled you, you mean," guessed Sasame. "Ruby-chan is a wonderfully compassionate girl. I find it a marvel that she can seek to help people, even after they have wronged her terribly. She asked me to help you because she knew I could help you."

"For what?" asked Emerald. "What does she want?"

"Nothing really," said Sasame. "Even though there's no real reason for her to, she still felt bad about crippling you. Because I came, she saw an opportunity to do something about that, and so took the opportunity to assuage her own conscience. She fully admits that it was more about making herself feel better than anything else. But it's the kind of motive that I can understand and accept."

"That little brat..." growled Emerald, eyes narrowing fingers bunching the fabric of her sheets. "Does she think she can fix me, that she can just make me forget what she did?"

"And just what did she do?" prodded Sasame, before canting her head slightly. "Besides the obvious, I mean."

"She killed Cinder," answered Emerald coldly. "She was the one person in this world I actually cared about, and your sister took her from me. I'll never forgive her."

"Yet, from the sound of things, this Cinder-san's fate was well-earned," said Sasame. "She threatened Jaune-kun in order to lure Ruby-chan to her. You and she attacked Ruby-chan for the sake of stealing a power you thought she carried. Going further back, she also attacked Amber-san, inflicting harm that she is still working to recover from, even now.

"And beyond that, just how many other people has Cinder-san hurt, killed, and tormented over the course of her life? That one of her intended victims would kill her, particularly in self-defense, is not so strange at all. In fact, one might say that such a fate was karmic."

"And what the hell do you know!?" Emerald shouted, pushing against the bed, wanting desperately to lunge for Sasame, so that she could strangle her. "I don't give a damn about anyone else! Cinder is the only one who matters to me!"

"Truly a disappointing view to hold," said Sasame sadly.

"Why should I care about anyone else?" asked Emerald. "No one else gave a damn about me, except when they thought their garbage was too good for me to rifle through, so that I wouldn't have to starve. No one gave me a second thought, until I did what I needed to survive. Then they decided that I shouldn't have that right-"

"Because you had no one to stand up for you," guessed Sasame, "no family to support you, no means of supporting yourself legitimately. You stole and scavenged for whatever you could, doing whatever you could to live another day.

"Starvation was a close companion, wasn't it? Exposure too, I suppose...the nights of Vacuo are very cold, even in the summer. You scrambled for whatever you could, and those who saw you offered nothing but scorn, where they should have offered compassion.

"And then you met her...She saw something of value in you, something more than just a street thief. She offered you something beyond the privation you've always known. You jumped at the chance, willing to do whatever it took to keep from returning to that life. As a consequence, you began to see her as a savior, whom you would do anything for."

Emerald stared, her throat bone dry. "How...?"

Sasame giggled softly. "I am very good at the art of diagnosis," she said. "And you did give me quite a bit to work with." Her smile faded, her expression becoming serious, yet also sad. "That considered...your past is not all that different from Ruby-chan's, at least initially."

"What?" gasped Emerald.

"I found Ruby-chan on the streets too," said Sasame. "Six years ago, I saw a little girl about to commit her first real criminal act. I stopped her, fed her, learned about her, and resolved to do what I could to help her."

"Then why?" gasped Emerald, tears coming to her eyes. "Why is she so different? Why is she some stupid goody-two-shoes, while I'm sitting here in a bed, about to be shipped off to prison? What makes her so special?"

"Nothing really," said Sasame. "I suppose the real difference is that I found Ruby-chan...and Cinder-san found you. That is the true point of divergence, where the two of you were resolved to different paths."

Emerald found herself unable to make a sound.

"My interest in Ruby-chan was curiosity, at first," explained Sasame. "After I learned more about her, I decided to do what I could to help her achieve her aims, so Kyo and I brought her home with us. We raised her as our own sister, and helped guide her to become the Huntress she wanted to be.

"In contrast, it appears that Cinder-san had very little concern for your actual wellbeing, didn't she?" asked Sasame rhetorically. "No...she saw someone she thought would be useful to her. Because she saw that, she reached out to you, and turned your gratitude and adoration into an instrument of control. She never truly cared how you felt about her, save for how it made you easier to control."

"I don't care!" snapped Emerald. "I owe Cinder everything! It doesn't matter what she did, or how she felt. If the best way to repay her for that was to be her pawn, then it doesn't matter."

"That's a sad outlook to take," said Sasame disappointedly.

"It's better than being some stupid brat who thinks she can save the world," spat Emerald contemptuously.

"I figured you might say something like that," said Sasame, smiling wryly. "I imagine you view such idealism as something worthy only of scorn."

"Of course I do," scoffed Emerald.

Sasame's smile widened. "Oh...And I wonder if you see the contradiction."

"Huh?"

"You profess scorn for ideals, yet you swore yourself in service to a woman whom you knew did not care for you, beyond your immediate use to her, valuing her above all else in your life.

"If you were truly as pragmatic as you believe yourself to be, Cinder-san should have meant just as little to you as you did to her; a simple meal ticket, someone to be valued only for her ability to support your needs, and abandoned the moment she ceased to be of use to you, the way you are fully aware she would have abandoned you, were the situation ever reversed.

"A true pragmatist would be, at most, frustrated that Cinder-san is dead, because she is no longer there to provide for your needs. A true pragmatist would likely feel some sense of relief that they are out from under the heel of one who repeatedly debased them. Yet your sense of loss at Cinder-san's death is truly profound. She held a value to you that went far beyond the material comfort she could provide. And, in that sense...you are actually quite the idealist, Emerald-san."

Emerald's jaw hung slack yet again, the girl unable to muster a response to Sasame.

"If you truly hold to such beliefs and ideals, then you are a far better person than Cinder-san was," said Sasame, turning around to head towards the door. "I hope that you find someone in the future, someone infinitely more worthy of your loyalty than she was...and I hope you realize just how better off you are, now that she is no longer an influence on your life.

"I won't ever ask you to thank Ruby-chan for what she did, or even what she asked me to do. But you may wish to reconsider your grudge. I can tell that, however much you might claim otherwise, you are a person capable of tremendous love, and the fact that the object of said love was not worthy of it does not devalue that love in the slightest."

Sasame paused at the door. "Rest for now, Emerald-san, and try to genuinely consider what a life after Cinder-san might be like."

With that, Sasame left, shutting the door behind her, and leaving Emerald to her very confused thoughts.

"What are the Silver Eyes?" asked Ruby.

"They are the ultimate weapon against the darkness," replied Maria, staring out over the festival grounds below them. "The Silver Eyes, once mastered, have the power to obliterate the Grimm completely. You could become capable of slaying them with nothing more than a glance."

Ruby's mouth opened, heart thudding against her ribs. The idea excited her...and confused her. Sure, being able to kill Grimm just by looking at them seemed like an amazing ability, but she failed to see how it could help her against Jester, not that Maria would know anything about that. But why does everybody back home seem to think that?

It also irked her. She had spent years training, working to hone her abilities. She had traversed entire continents as part of that training. She had worked herself to the bone, pushed herself to the limit. And she'd thought that all that work had paid off, that she'd managed to become strong enough that Professor Ozpin himself acknowledged her skill, and had offered her a place at Beacon, two years before she should even have gone there.

"You...have silver eyes." Those four words...just like that, and suddenly everything that had happened to Ruby since suddenly had a radically different context.

Had Ozpin truly seen her for her skills, and the products of her work, or had she been invited on the basis of some inborn ability she'd never known about before? Part of her wanted to track down the secretive Headmaster and find out the answer for herself. But her own irritation would have to be assuaged later. There were bigger things at stake.

If her family thought that her Silver Eyes were the key to defeating Jester, then what she needed right now was to figure out how to use them.

Beside her, Maria continued on, apparently oblivious to Ruby's train of thought. "There weren't many of us to begin with. And our numbers have only been dwindling." She turned, blue lenses fixing on Ruby's face. "Until I heard about you, I thought I was the last."

"So there aren't any others left?" asked Ruby, momentarily distracted from her internal confusion.

"None that I've heard of," clarified Maria. "I'm well-traveled, but even someone my age can't visit everywhere. If there are any others, it's quite likely that they are well-hidden, which is understandable. My own father told me to be discreet, to rely on my power as little as possible, and to avoid using it when others might see it. He believed that someone out there was hunting us down, trying to bring about our extinction."

Salem, thought Ruby silently, nearly blurting the word out loud. Given the circumstances, it was getting dangerously easy to forget that Maria wasn't one of the members of Ozpin's inner circle, and privy to the nature of their real enemy.

"And is that what happened to you?" asked Ruby instead. "I doubt you're the kind of person to loose your eyes in an accident."

"And if I told you that I lost them to a Red Ryder BB Gun?" asked Maria. "My parents always did tell me I'd shoot my eye out after all."

"Huh...?" Ruby stared at Maria cluelessly.

"Don't get the reference, huh?" mused Maria. "Kids these days...no appreciation for the classics."

I don't think appreciation has anything to do with it, thought Ruby, realizing that Maria was probably referencing another piece of pop-culture that Ruby herself had missed during her time with the Mibu, not that there was any way Maria would know about that, nor did Ruby see any reason to correct her.

Maria sighed. "Oh well...Yes, you're right." She tapped her prosthetic eyes again. "This was no accident. Back in my glory days, I had something of a reputation. Back then, I was known as the Grimm Reaper."

Ruby gasped loudly, eyes going wide in excitement. "Oh my gosh! You're her? Uncle Qrow used to tell stories to Yang and I about you, when we were little!"

It had been a long time ago, of course. And Qrow hadn't been allowed to tell those stories anymore, after Taiyang had tried to crush Ruby's dream of becoming a Huntress. But Ruby would always remember the super-cool Huntress the super-cool Huntsman she idolized professed to admire, to the point that he had based his weapon off her own.

Maria chuckled. "You'll give me a big head, Little Missy. Those days are long past. I'm not someone so worth idolizing anymore, let me tell you."

"What happened?" asked Ruby.

"I let my reputation go to my head," said Maria. "I never went to an Academy, but I passed the licensing exam with the highest score seen in years. After that, I racked up a substantial record of bounties. I did keep my father's words in mind. But I didn't heed him well enough. One way or another, I suppose, if people were talking about me, it was only a matter of time before the people he worried about would also hear about me.

"One day, I was jumped by a group of attackers. They knew who I was, and they were determined to kill me. I gave them quite the fight, of course. But...in the end...their leader took my eyes." Maria frowned darkly, before perking up slightly. "I took her head in return, so it worked out...sort of."

They must have been working for Salem, thought Ruby, frowning. It was pretty much the only logical explanation she could think of.

"After that, I laid low," said Maria. "It shames me to say it, but I was scared that whoever they worked for would find out I was still alive, and send someone else to finish the job."

"Is that why you were hiding on Oscar's farm?" asked Ruby, now bristling at the idea of Maria putting her friend's life at risk like that.

"Hardly," replied Maria. "When I stopped over, I was just appealing to their kindness to shelter me for a night or two, before I moved on. When I learned about the boy and his ambitions...well..." She sighed. "Suddenly, I felt so ashamed. I'd let fear rule me for so long that I'd spent more time hiding away from the world than doing something for it, the very opposite of what I'd aspired to. At that point, I thought the very least I could do was help the boy along. So I offered to stay and train him. And then I learned about you..."

"Oh..." said Ruby. "And you came here to teach me about them?"

"And warn you," added Maria. "Whoever is seeking to exterminate the Silver-Eyed Warriors, once and for all, is still out there, and considering how prominent you've become lately, they'll probably find out about you soon enough."

Oh they already have, thought Ruby, thinking back to Tyrian and his statement that he and his allies were supposed to capture her. Given that Salem appeared to control the Grimm, it made sense that she saw a power like the Silver Eyes as a threat.

She took a deep breath, deciding to focus on the main point of this conversation. "So...How do I laser-beam monsters with my eyeballs?"

Her answer was a sharp rap on the head, courtesy of Maria's cane, prompting her to yelp and wince. She hadn't even sensed the hit coming.

"First, you stop thinking of it like that," declared Maria firmly. "Listen, the power of the Silver Eyes to destroy the Grimm is secondary to its true purpose."

"What purpose is that?" asked Ruby, rubbing the top of her head.

"To protect," said Maria. "Life is beautiful. It is precious. It must be protected. That is what the Silver Eyes are for. They exist to preserve life by banishing the darkness."

"That's..." Ruby's mouth worked silently. That's so awesome! It's all I've ever wanted to do.

"Tricky isn't it?" asked Maria.

"N-not really," said Ruby, trying to get her head back in the game. "I mean...it's all I've ever wanted to do, to protect people, to save them, just like Mom."

"Hmm..." Maria smiled approvingly. "I think you won't have much trouble with this then. However, for people like us, the greatest difficulty comes from a tendency to put the cart before the horse. It's easy to get wrapped up in seeing this power as a weapon to strike down the enemy, the Grimm, that you forget that its true purpose is to protect the ones the Grimm threaten. If you lose sight of that, the power won't come.

"The other issue is rather Huntress-specific. If you become too reliant on this power then it can cause your skills to degrade." She sighed in disappointment. "That may have been my downfall. Even with me knowing the need for secrecy, I always fought with the knowledge that this power was an out, that, if I was ever in a situation where my combat skills couldn't carry the day, I would always have my Eyes to fall back on. That might well have led to me slacking a little, which left me open to a situation where my power wouldn't do any good, against enemies it would have no effect on."

I don't think that'll be a problem for me, thought Ruby, keeping the thought to herself, not wanting another smack on the head for being presumptuous, something she figured Maria would probably do.

It might have seemed arrogant, but Ruby was confident she wouldn't get carried away with her reliance on the Silver Eyes. Part of it was a side-effect of learning about it so late in life (Okay, it wasn't really that late in her life. But, compared to someone like Maria, who'd apparently known about her powers from childhood, Ruby was much more tardy in learning this information.). Ruby had spent much of her life training, refining her Aura and technique, building a repertoire of skills that she could use to fight the Grimm, completely ignorant of the inborn ability she apparently possessed. She'd been taught to have confidence in her training first, rather than putting faith into some kind of mysterious, unique ability.

If anything, Ruby figured she was really in danger of forgetting about this power, because she was so used to seeing her training as the be-all and end-all that it might cause her to forget to use it in a situation where the outcome might be better if she did.

I'll just need to treat it like another skill to master, she resolved, including when to use and not use it. If nothing else, I don't really need to worry about the secrecy so much. I'm on Salem's radar already.

"Now...as for training...that's a little trickier," confided Maria. "Without Grimm, it's hard to train. But I can at least teach you how to cultivate a mindset and focus that, with control, will allow you to activate your power at will."

I wonder... thought Ruby. Does the power only work if there's Grimm around? If not, then why would anyone think it could be the key to killing Jester? He may be crazy and evil...and crazy evil...but he's not a Grimm.

She doubted that was a question Maria could answer, as the context would be completely foreign to her. Furthermore, even if she could tell Maria the truth about what she was up against, Ruby figured that Maria would be just as dubious as she was about how useful the eyes would be against an opponent who wasn't even a Grimm.

Still, she resolved to learn what she could, and hope that there was a way she could bring this training to fruition. So Ruby settled in to listen and learn from Maria as best she could.

Oscar sighed, wrestling with a melancholy feeling, even as all the color and fanfare of the Vytal Festival stirred around him. He'd casually meandered between booths and stalls, checking out things he might buy as a souvenir for his aunt, treats he might want to sample, and activities and games he might want to try. However, at the moment, he didn't feel much like doing or buying anything.

Part of it was pure pragmatism. Coming over from Mistral had been plenty expensive. Buying accommodations during the absolute busiest tourism boom Vale would see for the next eight years was even more-so. And there was still the return trip to keep in mind for his budget. He'd only gotten this far by investing the majority of his meager savings, along with a healthy "loan" from his aunt (upon his promise to "pay her back" through doing all his chores, and then some, without complaint until it was time for him to apply to an Academy). As such, he didn't want to return to his home in Mistral completely broke or, worse, winding up spending too frivolously without leaving enough to pay for his trip back. That would have been humiliating.

But those were only minor excuses. The truth of the matter was that Oscar simply didn't feel like doing much. Perhaps it was stupid of him, maybe obsessive, probably unhealthy; but he still couldn't get over the disappointment that he wasn't doing any of this with Ruby.

Oscar had played through this scenario in his head over and over again; him and Ruby partnering up to tackle the festival together. They'd skip between booths. He'd buy her gifts, win her prizes at the games (his fantasies momentarily forgetting the fact that, with skills cultivated over the course of several more years of training than he had, Ruby was likely the one to be winning prizes for him, not that he would've minded). In his mind, it had been the perfect way to bond with Ruby for their first meeting in over two years, and maybe turn that bond into something more.

But those fantasies had been dashed, along with his hopes, upon arrival, upon learning that Ruby already had a boyfriend, upon learning that she hadn't kept him in her mind the way he'd kept her all this time. Oh sure, Ruby remembered him, and with surprising ease. But Oscar had been thinking about her near constantly. She had triggered a change in the way he'd viewed the world, completely altered the course of his life, and transformed the future he'd always thought of for himself. But, to her, he'd probably been just another person she'd saved. Maybe he was a bit more special than most, for her to remember him so easily. But meeting him clearly hadn't been the life-changing experience it had been for Oscar.

After all, why would Ruby crush on a nobody from the sticks, like him? Jaune had tried to discourage that sentiment the day before, but Oscar still felt it keenly, the sense of him not stacking up against all the other people in Ruby's life. He felt inadequate, and like a complete idiot for doing something so stupid, going so far for something that had so little chance of succeeding.

I should've just stayed in Mistral, he thought despondently. Scratch that, I should've known better than to waste my time training to be a Huntsman. I should've realized it was stupid from the beginning and just stayed a farmer.

That was another point of regret for him. He'd completely changed his expectations, now hoping to become a Huntsman. Those expectations had been fueled by his fantasy of someday getting into an Academy and, through that, meeting Ruby again. Coming to the Vytal Festival had been something of a shortcut in that respect.

Of course, now that he knew a relationship with Ruby wasn't in the cards, Oscar felt like an idiot. He'd sought to become a Huntsman, all for the sake of girl who was already taken. Now, all of a sudden, that aspiration looked and felt hollow to him. What have I been doing with my life? Why should I even keep trying?

In part, Oscar figured that respect for Maria, and all the work she'd put into his training, would be one motivator. But would that be enough? He wasn't sure. The course of his life had suddenly become just as aimless as his course through the festival. Part of him just wanted to call it a day, right then and there. Only the knowledge that he and Maria had planned to meet up before heading back kept him from just heading right for the airships, knowing he'd get another rap on the shin for neglecting to meet with her.

Oscar let out another heavy sigh, wondering just what to do next, maybe find a nice quiet place to sulk.

"Are you okay?"

Oscar yelped, jumping and turning around. As he did, he found himself looking into a pair of violet eyes, the same pair he'd found himself staring into the previous day, after that embarrassing collision. The feelings that memory dredged up had his cheeks reddening already, and the girl had only spoken three words to him so far.

"You're Ruby-chan's friend, right?" asked Natsuki.

"I...I wouldn't go so far as to say that," said Oscar, averting his eyes. "I mean...we hardly spent any time together."

"Nah, you're Ruby-chan's friend," said Natsuki dismissively. "She was really happy to see you, yesterday."

But not happy enough, the traitor voice in Oscar's head whispered. He quickly told said voice to shut up.

"It's Oscar, right?" asked Natsuki, to which Oscar nodded dumbly. "Cool! Wanna hang out, Oscar-kun?"

"Huh?" grunted Oscar.

"Come on," said Natsuki, already latching onto his wrist with a vice-grip. "It'll be fun!"

And they were off.