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Chapter Text

   He had always known that the direction they were heading would steer them near the place where his old life had ended.

   “How much farther?” Ruby casted her eyes to her uncle on the stretcher that she and Jaune were carrying.

   Nora looked down to her weapon in hand. “We’ve gotta be close.”

   “Without the map there’s no way of knowing; but I feel like we’re close to something.”

   As soon as he finished speaking, he looked up to see a sign at the end of the fork in the road before them. Sliding his dual weapons back into their places at his side, he jogged forward ahead of his three companions to read it.

   Ren knew where the path from southern Anima to the kingdom of Mistral and Haven would take them. He knew the forest that bordered Shion Village, a gate for travelers headed north. He knew exactly where they were after the fight with Tyrian in Oniyuri. What village they were near, and the demons that stirred inside him at the thought. That didn’t mean he had gotten his feelings in check by the time he saw the word on the sign.

   “Hey! Hey! Mistral! We’re on the right path!” Nora exclaimed as she ran to his side. She wore a dazzling, playful smile on her face; but where the sight of her enthusiasm would normally lift his mood, she did little clear the storm of dread forming in his heart.

   “Ren? …Oh.”

   So she saw it now. He felt his fists clench almost involuntarily.

   “Does it say how close?” Ruby called to them, as she and Jaune set Qrow down.

   “No. And it looks like the path takes us up through the mountains.”

   “Guys,” Jaune spoke up, a grim tone to his voice. “I… dont know if all of us can make that climb.”

   He was probably right, Ren told himself. Ruby’s uncle Qrow was mumbling delusional sentences to himself, fading in and out of consciousness. But Mistral was pointed to the right, the path that they should continue on to without another thought. To the left, crossed out was the name of a village he had hoped he’d never have to see again, the sight of the word made his blood pound in his ears and it was-

   “Okay, well… what about this place? Kuro… Kuroyuri?” she turned around to face her teammates with her face scrunched up in a desperate panic. “Can we get help there?”

   The tension slowly wound up in his body, and he clenched his fists tighter. “That village was destroyed years ago.”

   Jaune walked up to the group huddled around the sign. “But if it takes us around the mountains, it’s the best bet we’ve got.”

   “It will take too long!” He snapped. Venom dripped from his voice. He couldn’t help it.

   “The town would’ve had a doctor right?” Their crimson-hooded leader continued. “Well, maybe we could scavenge for medicine?”

   “Right!”

   Ren was shaking. For someone who normally didn’t show much emotion, the anger in his whole body was very clear. “We’re not going to find anything! We just have to press on!”

   Ruby didn’t know. It wasn’t her fault and he knew she was only concerned for her uncle, who was slowly succumbing to the poison that was wrecking havoc on his body. That didn’t stop him from gritting his teeth and lashing out at her because of her suggestion.

   She stared up at him in disbelief and hurt, clutching her hands tightly together. Ren could see she was trying to understand. He knew she wasn’t trying to torture him. That meant nothing though; just the fact that they were talking about going there was like a knife to the gut.

   Jaune stepped defensively in front of Ruby, his eyebrows furrowed in mild annoyance and frustration. He was met by a venomous glare from the magenta eyes of his teammate.

   “Ren, why are you acting like-“

   “We can split up,” the other female in their group, who had been uncharacteristically silent since noticing the sign, finally stepped forward and placed her hand on Ren’s arm. At the sound of horrified confusion from Ruby, she continued speaking. “Ren and I can cut through the mountains while you and Ruby take Qrow around through the village.”

   Nora knew. He was fairly certain Jaune had somewhat of an idea, as Nora had once explained the story of their trauma in general terms to the knight and their former teammate Pyrrha (for his benefit, he was sure, and Ren was grateful to his lifetime partner and best friend for it). But Nora didn’t know what to say to stop him from becoming angry. He was usually her rock, the eye of calm in the storm around them. She stood frozen, horrified, as he uncharacteristically bared his emotions for all to see. He had never seen her look so scared since they started training as Hunters. Since the last time they had seen Kuroyuri. It made him feel even more guilty.

   “No, we’re supposed to stick together,” Jaune narrowed his eyes more, pointing his gloved finger at the two. “We keep each other safe!”

   Ren glared at him again, and immediately the tension that Nora had shattered between them was back. Her cerulean eyes filled with panic, Nora rushed to remedy the situation once more before the two of them started to fight.

   “We don’t have time for safe! If we make it to Mistral, we’ll bring back help. If we don’t, we’ll at least have a better view of the land! Up there, we can see if there’s somewhere else we can go!”

   He turned from Jaune to look down at Nora. With her hand still placed on his bicep, Ren could sense how concerned she was for him. The flush on her cheeks grew brighter as he gave her a gratuitous expression, closing his eyes for a moment as he tried to let the tension of the situation leave his body. Jaune and Ruby, he couldn’t be angry with them. Their line of thinking was logical, all in an effort to keep Qrow from dying. He understood that; Ren didn’t want anyone else to die either. But Nora’s idea contributed to their effort, it gave Ren a better role than he would play if he were forced to go through Kuroyuri.

   The tender look in Nora’s eyes took him back. It reminded him of so much. It had always been there to keep him from drowning in his despair, as it was now. As long as he had his queen of the castle by his side, he still felt strong.

   Qrow started coughing again, throwing the whole team back into reality.

   Jaune and Ruby shared a glance as Ren and Nora’s unspoken moment and lingering eye contact subsided, before the blonde nodded.

   “Okay,” he said softly, walking over to Ren and pulling him into a hug, which Ren reciprocated. Again, he felt guilty for nearly yelling at Jaune, and for having to have been held back and calmed by Nora.

   As they separated, as Jaune stepped back, his gaze fell to the ground. “Just.. just take care of each other.”

   Ren looked down to Nora, and they shared a glance once more. Nora smiled sheepishly, squeezing his arm a bit before letting go. “We always have.”

   He and Nora waited as Jaune and Ruby gathered up their things, picking up Qrow once more, and started to head down the path to Kuroyuri. Both gave a wave, before Ren turned and started running up the path, Nora hot on his heels. It was the first time the three remaining members of Team JNPR had split up since Pyrrha’s death.

   Thanks to his Semblance, and because the other three were not completely out of range of his abilities yet, he could hear them speaking.

   “They’re going to be fine, Jaune.” Came Ruby’s melodic voice, attempting to assure him.

   “You don’t know that.”

   Ren closed his eyes for a moment as he ran up the path. ‘Jaune… Ruby… I am so sorry. I am not a strong enough man yet to face what I know I will find there.’

Chapter Text

   The wind had picked up considerably since they had started climbing the path up the mountain, Ren noticed as he stopped to catch his breath. Though still very pained by the events that had transpired down in the forest valley, and filled with worry over Jaune and Ruby’s wellbeing, he was feeling content. He knew that if he had gone to Kuroyuri with them he would have folded into himself, given into his demons, and been of very little help. He would have been severely distracted, and that could have not only cost Qrow his life, but also any of his teammates’ lives if they were to be attacked by Grimm.

   Ren looked out at the path through the mountain range that stretched out before him, however, and sighed inwardly. This would not be an easy route, and it would be even more perilous if he and Nora were attacked by the creatures. He supposed that if he saw or sensed any, he could take her hand and mask their emotional presence with his Semblance, just as he had done when he had first met her. Just as he had done so many times after that as well. He would always protect his queen of the castle.

   He glanced over as she appeared by his side, attempting to wear a smile, probably to assure herself. Ren’s smile at her was genuine, though. He would always protect her, but she didn’t always need it.

   “We never get the easy path, do we?” he spoke over the whipping breeze.

   Nora stretched her arms over her head, catching the hem of her skirt between her thighs to keep it from being blown up from the wind. “Easy’s no fun, anyway.” she sang softly.

   Ren looked down to his feet before back over to her. She’d put her arms back down, and was already looking to him as though she knew there was a dangerous storm brewing inside him. “You okay?” she asked with a silent hesitance to her voice.

   What a dumb thought, he mentally reprimanded himself. Nora had known him for years; of course she could tell that something was very wrong with him.

   He grunted his assurance, and nodded once. “And you?”

   Her smile brightened just a bit and she held both arms behind her back. “I’ve got you here, don’t I?”

   Ren took a moment to consider this statement. So Nora felt a similar sense of strength and security as he did just by being near him as well. If she was his queen of the castle, he wondered what he was to her. Nora always called him a ninja, so perhaps it was something like that. Nevertheless, they shared a moment of unspoken trust once more, before Nora walked forward and waved her arm for him to follow.

   “Come on, there’s more than one way up a mountain!”

   His eyes followed her for a moment before he did, admiring the bounce to her step that had returned. She was humming to herself as she walked, and it was a comforting noise to him. He remembered when he had first met her, how his father had used their meeting to express to Ren the importance of standing up to protect others. His words ‘The worst thing you can do is not act.’ had stayed with Ren, and were the reason he had been able to save Nora all those years ago. They were the reason he and Nora had grown up together, the reason they trusted and relied on each other so much, the reason he had gotten to hear her laugh and watch her blossom and hold her tight when she tackled him in a hug. He had changed so much since meeting her. She was the catalyst for his bravery, and for his unwavering dream to become a Huntsman just like his father. But Nora had changed so much too since they were little, and Ren cared about that much more than himself.

   Another rush of wind caused her to tame her skirt again, and Ren brushed his own hair of his face as he gave another soft smile. At that moment though, a loud clap of thunder echoed through the valley, prompting his affectionate expression to disappear as he looked up to consider the sky. Was a storm coming in? That wouldn’t be good for them, he and Nora would be slowed down even further if they had to seek shelter from the rain.

   “HEY!” Nora shouted from up ahead, drawing his attention to her once again. She waved at him before pointing toward the mountain. “There’s wind blowing out of this cave!”

   Ren jogged to her side, mildly concerned but not too worried because he did not sense any danger nearing them. He looked down into the opening and did indeed feel an even cooler breeze rushing at him.

   “Think it might lead to the peak?” Nora chirped.

   He looked to her, turning his attention from the cave. “I suppose there’s only one to find ou- gah!”

   He gasped as some sort of cloth blew out from the cavern and whipped him in the face, covering his eyes. Ren heard Nora giggling at him. When he finally found the edges and pulled it off of him, he saw Nora with her gloved hands over her mouth, as if she were trying to hide or suppress the sweet, bubbly sound.

   “Yes, yes, very funny,” he regarded her with a sarcastically exhausted expression, before looking down at the cloth. It was shaped like a banner, and had a purple flower emblem painted on to it. Ren paled at the recognition, his face suddenly set grim.

   “Hey,” Nora spoke up gently. “What’s wrong?”

   “This is the symbol for Shion Village,” he said in disbelief.

   “Shion?” she echoed. “But that’s… that’s the village where we found the Huntsman. It’s weeks away from here!”

   Ren stared at the cloth in his hands for a moment longer before a deadly thought crossed his mind. Dropping the cloth, he sprinted into the cave, gracefully leaping down the rocks that led further inside.

   “Ren? Wait!” Nora called after him.

   He slowed to a jog as he entered a deeper part of the cavern, a wide opening where the wind was softer. Spread out before him amongst the cave was a horrific sight. Nora appeared by his side again, letting out a gasp and raising one hand over her mouth again in shock as they both looked around for any sort of living - or soulless - being with them.

   “Oh my gosh!” Nora exclaimed softly.

   Ren felt himself filling with dread again, just as he had upon seeing the sign for Kuroyuri at the fork in the road earlier. Scattered about were weapons of all kinds; arrows, swords, scythes, spears, even a battle hammer like Nora’s. Accompanied by those were dried blood smeared on the ground and the walls, and a horrendous, rotting smell that he did not want to investigate. Fearful his rising panic would attract a Grimm, Ren swallowed his emotions down as he took in the cavern some more. And then his magenta eyes fell on something, something he never thought he would see again.

   Leaving Nora’s side, he walked forward and crouched over the object for a moment. He scanned it to see if it truly was what he thought it was, before slowly picking the discarded arrow up and examining it once again in both hands. It was old, weathered by the years but it was undeniably recognizable.

   An arrow from his father’s quiver.

   He glanced up at Nora who had followed him just a few steps behind, and saw her face twisted in despair. She looked at the arrow in his hands, before looking over to the ground. A small, fearful sound left her, and it caught his attention from the relic weapon in his hands immediately. Anything that made her tremble, he would eliminate.

   But his blood, too, ran cold at what she had found. An imprint in the dirt, one that he remembered seeing back at Shion Village too, but had chalked it off as being years old. Not the source of the creature that had destroyed the village; it had been more than a decade since the horrific Grimm had attacked Kuroyuri. He assumed a Hunter would have killed the beast by now.

   Ren’s eyes followed the giant hoof prints in the dirt and the trail of something being dragged alongside them out of the cave. Panic and bile rose in his throat as he got to his feet, and moved back to the entrance. Looking out at the forest beneath the mountain, he spotted shaking trees in the distance. Through his Semblance, he sensed the gargantuan creature, heard its heavy footsteps that sounded like a horse’s. His worse nightmare had come back to haunt him, and even worse, it was heading back in the direction of Kuroyuri. Toward two Hunters in training and a poisoned, dying man.

   “No,” Ren mumbled under his breath, as if that one word would make it all go away. This couldn’t be real. He couldn’t be about to relive the worst night of his life.

   He felt a warmth beside him, and Nora’s fingers brushed his palm before closing around his hand. So much emotion was radiating off her - pain, sorrow, fear, horror, panic - that he suddenly imagined the creature turning around and sensing her. Perhaps that was why she reached for his hand; she knew he needed to suppress her emotions, else their lives would be put in danger. No, that wasn’t it. She needed to be sure this was real as much as he did, needed his presence to know he was safe just as he needed hers. His queen of the castle was about to relive that night too.

   Ren closed his fingers around her delicate hand. The moment he did so, a nightmarish cry rang out in the distance, one that he and Nora both knew so well. One that haunted both of their dreams, that had led the both of them so many times to wake the other up in the middle of the night just to be sure they were still safe. And Ren was so glad he had her hand in his, because without the strength from Nora's touch, he would have spiraled inside himself at the memories that cry brought to the surface. He wouldn’t have realized that they had to go find Jaune and Ruby and Qrow before the Grimm did.

Chapter Text

   “Not again… not again…”

   Ren had never ran faster in his life. There was no time to mourn and regret when he and Nora entered Kuroyuri. They rushed down the cobblestone road through the city, toward where he could sense Jaune, Ruby, and Qrow at the center of the city. It was all coming back to him, the nightmare, the burning buildings, his mother’s face before she had been crushed by their home caving in, his father’s yell as he tried to fight the Grimm off before he too, was slain. But Ren pushed it all away, if only to focus through the tears that threatened to blind him. He needed to know that Jaune and Ruby were okay.

   And he slowed to a jog when he saw the tree in the city courtyard, long dead but still standing ominously. Ren placed his hands to his legs as he tried to catch his breath, his low stamina finally catching up with him for running for so long. Nora appeared beside him, and he looked up to see Jaune and Ruby faced away from them, looking around, but no Grimm in sight. Qrow was propped up against the tree. And for a moment, Ren smiled with a sigh, relaxing his shoulders in relief.

   Then their teammates turned around, Jaune placing a hand on the sword sheathed at his hip. Both wore expressions of confusion and concern.

   “What are you guys doing here?” Ruby asked with a furrowed brow.

   “Did you hear that noise? What was that?” Jaune gasped.

   Ren’s eyes suddenly grew wide as his Semblance alerted him to a menacing presence, one that knew the four of them were there and was thus approaching. All relief that he had felt only a moment ago rushed from his body, and he dropped to his knees onto the hard cobblestone.

   “No!”

   “Ren!” Ruby exclaimed. “What is it?!”

   A slight sound echoed through the courtyard, first very soft but growing in volume to announce the creature’s approach. It rattled through Ren’s skull, the worst sound he could imagine hearing in that moment. He felt a cold creeping through his skin as he tried desperately to assure himself he was just tricking his own mind, that it was his memories of that night that were doing this to him. He still couldn’t accept that the creature was still alive. But then Jaune spoke up.

   “Wait, do you guys hear that?”

   The demonic horse Grimm drew closer still, and Jaune’s words confirmed that this was not, in fact, some fantasy that he was torturing himself with just because he had set foot in Kuroyuri. It was real, and the monster that had ruined his life was approaching them.

   “No…” he mumbled again, and he hung his head in despair and failure. As if accepting his death before it had even come. He looked to the cobblestone at his feet, tears once again burning at his eyes.

   And then, a sound appeared through the chaos in his mind.

   “Ren?”

   Nora’s very voice shook, he hadn’t heard her sound so since he had first found her hiding under the wooden staircase that night he had saved her, first from a Nevermore and then from being noticed by the very creature that threatened them now.

   He didn’t look up when he heard the sound pounding in his ears stop, or even at Nora’s voice. But when he heard the horse’s snort, when he felt that presence on top of him. His mouth dropped open and he raised his to see for himself that all these years later the Grimm still lived.

   And across the courtyard it stood, demonic horse and conjoined rider, with several arrows sticking of his back alongside its bony spines. Some of the arrows were his father’s, some were not. Its glowing red eyes and mouth seemed to focus on Ren first, like it knew it had a worse effect on him than the others around him.

   His friends drew their weapons - a sword and shield, a scythe, and a battle hammer - in preparation for the inevitable. Ren too, got to his feet and drew his dual Stormflower, a deadly need to defeat the monster suddenly rising within him. Without a word, all four Hunters present ran toward the beast together, attacking with everything they had. But they were all pressed back, whipped by the creature and knocked off their feet.

   Jaune and Ruby fell back first, followed by Ren who was the only one to catch himself before he could be hurt by the fall. He gracefully pushed his hands and weapons into the ground and flipped back to land crouched on his feet. Nora came flying a second after him, unfortunate enough to fall hard on her stomach.

   His teammates were shaking as they got to their feet as the Grimm monster circled back around to them. Ren’s blood boiled at the sight of it inspecting the damage it had done, his magenta eyes once more burned with hatred and anger. They grew wider, angrier, his teeth clenched so much harder with every second he spent looking at it.

   The top half, which was more humanoid in appearance than Grimm tended to be, reared back and unleashed a sonic scream that had the other three cringing to protect their eardrums from the painful noise. It wasn’t that it didn’t affect Ren; it was that the blood was already pounding in his ears, cushioning the sound just enough that he could bare it and ensure it would not get the jump on them.

   With the sickening sound of bones breaking that it created every time it moved, the creature looked first to the group of four young Hunters with weapons in their hands at the ready, and then at the helpless, dying man propped against the tree. Jaune realized that the creature intended to kill Qrow almost immediately, and sheathed his swords so he could run to Ruby’s uncle’s side. It attacked, but Jaune was able to dodge in time and slipped his arm under Qrow, supporting all of his weight to move him. The Grimm wasted no time in charging them at a full gallop.

   Nora looked to Ren, who understood instantaneously what she wanted him to do before she even had to tell him. With a heavy breath, he placed his hand to the cobblestone and released his Semblance into it. The pink Aura illuminated his arm, and then wrapped itself around the two men who stood several feet away underneath the dead tree. With both of their emotions completely suppressed, the Grimm lost sense of them and stopped just before it would have crushed the both of them under its feet.

   “Just get him to safety!” he yelled to Jaune, once more attracting the attention of the beast in the process.

   Before it could attack him, Nora fired off three grenades from her hammer in its launcher form, giving Jaune the opportunity to safely get away and place Qrow under one of the wooden stairwells.

   As he rejoined the team fighting the monster, both Ruby and Nora were knocked over by the creature’s appendages before they could get close enough to hit it. Ren came in from the side, firing bullets from his weapon’s semi-automatic pistols. The creature sung both arms at him, but instead of simply knocking Ren off his feet it grabbed both his hands and both of his weapons to stop him from firing.

   “Guys!” Jaune screamed. “Keep moving! Go in a circle!”

   Angrily, he fought for control of his weapons back, but the creature kept him in place and was probably about to launch him into the air. Nora fired another grenade at its back, allowing its grip to slip enough that Ren could knock its hands away and do as Jaune instructed him. He fired another hail of bullets, dodging one strike made to crush him.

   It went for Nora, who also fired on it more, but she rolled out of the way. Ruby utilized the high-impact rifle form of her Crescent Rose to the same effect as the two of them. With the three distracting, Jaune moved in close and swiped his sword through the horse’s hind leg. His sword made impact, but did little more than alert the creature of his location, allowing for it to rear up and strike Jaune with a hoof.

   “What are you doing?!” Ruby yelled, and Ren stopped for a moment to see Jaune sheath his sword. He couldn’t help the slight smirk that appeared on his face upon seeing the upgrade Jaune had made with the metal from Pyrrha’s weapons, his shield collapsing around his blade and forming an even stronger broadsword. He ran again, and struck the creature’s leg again, but did very little else than it did the first time.

   Rearing back once more, the creature twisted its body and suddenly its arms were like the blades of an airship, rapidly rotating in a dangerous circumference. Ren ducked and jumped and avoided the attack, but all three of his teammates were struck down in hard blows. He narrowed his eyes in hatred toward it once more. He didn’t care about what happened to himself, only wanting the thing to die.

   As it reeled its arms back in, he leapt into a branch of the courtyard tree and took aim at the Grimm’s top half. Ren saw the attack coming at him, and tried to avoid it by swinging off the branch, but it caught him and pinned him harshly against the side of a building on the edge of the scene of the fight. He slashed the dual blades of his weapon into its arm, but it only squeezed its hold on his chest further into the wall.

   “Ruby!” He heard Nora cry, but knew not what was going on, as the monster that killed his parents wound up its other arm to kill him as well. He heard Ruby’s rifle go off, but what could her opening fire do to save him? And then the arm came at him, quicker than a whip, and Ren threw his blades up in front of his face, hoping that they could cut the creature’s hand and prevent it from crushing him. Something pink flew in front of the hand - one of Nora’s grenades? - and he covered his eyes. He heard concrete being smashed, just as it had when he had been struck.

   Slowly, Ren opened his eyes when he realized he had not been hit, that the creature had not even struck his blades. He looked to find its arms crossed, the location of the one that had been prepared to kill him pinning Nora’s hammer to the same building. Nora dangled off it above him, and he stared in awe of how her quick thinking had saved him.

   The thought that he was looking up her skirt as she kicked her feet to loosen her hammer did not occur to him, too mesmerized at how she had risked herself for him and relieved that she had not been struck. That is, until Nora looked down at him and realized the angle of his vision.

   “Stop looking!” she demanded, her cheeks going red and she crossed her legs into a sitting position, clutching her skirt to cover herself before he saw anything.

   Ren, horrified at entire situation, let out a meek sound of distress and covered his face with the weapon in his hand, though he blushed too. ‘This would only happen to Nora and I.’

   Then the Grimm let out a roar again, and because he was still pinned against the building all he could do was watch in absolute horror as its other arm threw Nora through the air, smashing her once against the ground and then tossing her like a ragdoll. With a cry she landed hard on her back, before rolling over. As he stared in stunned silence at her, a bright pink light surrounded the body of his childhood friend, before crackling out. Nora’s protective Aura had faded.

Chapter Text

   “AHH!”

   Nora’s scream echoed through the pounding in his ears, and the fizzle as her Aura ran out rang in the air around them. He stared at her for a few silent heartbeats, at her body sprawled in its weakened state across the cobblestone.

   And then Ren’s magenta eyes ignited into flames again. He burned with fury as he flew into a chaotic rage, violently slashing and firing bullets at the arm that was caging him in an effort to get it to drop its hold. He had to make it pay. Nora’s body was now unprotected; any hits she took would actually injure her. The Grimm could kill her, and he was going - he had to kill it before it got the chance to do so.

   He wasn’t sure what he would do if this monster took his queen away from him, just as it had stolen his family.

   With another grunt, Jaune slashed his sword through the Grimm’s legs once more. It howled angrily, and Ren stabbed both blades in his hands into the appendage that still held him hostage. Finally, he felt the grip slipping, and the claws released, sending him plummeting to the ground.

   When he finally hit the cobblestone, he landed hard on his back. Though his vision went dark for a split instant and when his sight returned he saw stars spinning around him, Ren pushed all pain down and focused all his adrenaline and fury into one goal; destroying the Grimm before him. He rushed the creature with blind vengeance and a hail of bullets.

   He took one hit. It meant nothing, as he recovered and swept his twin dagger guns at the arms that continued their brutal assault.

   Again, but the fury had not died out.

   Again. He could taste blood in his mouth. It didn’t matter.

   Again. Damn it, something had to change. He needed to kill it. Held a strange bloodlust in his veins that he didn’t previously know existed. He could do it if he just pushed himself a little harder-

   “Ren! Knock it off!” Jaune yelled furiously at him. Ren pretended he didn’t hear it. The look in his eyes made him look like a wild animal. Emotions that could only be drawing more Grimm near; but that didn’t matter. In the moment, his own life didn’t even matter. Nothing else mattered except the death of the beast.

   He roared as he rushed it once more, but it anticipated him better this time and swung its arm in a long arc, striking him and sending him flying. Ren felt the impact, the pain spreading through his body quicker. Something was wrong. His senses screamed out for him, his entire body suddenly trembling with caution and fear. Purple light flashed in front of his eyes before shattering like glass into a million pieces.

   He had been reckless. He too, had lost his protection.

   He faced the beast once more regardless, fully prepared to sacrifice everything to slay the monster. Suddenly, however, a strong, dense force struck him from behind and knocked him underneath a raised stairway that he had been nearby. The Grimm didn’t even notice as Jaune and Ruby leapt back into the fight.

   He glanced out to see them jumping around, to hear Ruby’s rifle go off as she shot at the creature and then propelled herself higher into the air to escape its reach. Ren narrowed his eyes and moved to launch himself into the fight again, when this time, a warm hand wrapped around his. It resisted, and tugged back, holding him in place.

   He looked back to find Nora, her face downcast, and she held him back.

   “Nora, let go!” he snapped, but she didn’t budge.

   More sounds of the fight. Jaune yelling to Ruby as the two of them fought off the creature alone. Ren was assaulted with visions of the nightmare he had lived through already. Really, the Battle of Beacon had already stirred the memories from dormancy, and facing the creature once again was killing him, both literally and figuratively.

   Finally, he grew sick of her refusal to let him go. “Nora!” he exclaimed again, furiously taking out his torrential emotions on her. “They’re going to get hurt if we don’t-“

   The slap rang out, harsh. Sharp. Loud. It stunned Ren into silence as he watched Nora take back her hand. She had always admired him, cheerfully dragged him along in her antics, followed him without hesitation. To feel her resist him so, for her to hit him in an effort to bring him back from his furious high, made Ren realize how far he had gone. The dark places he had almost been. He stayed silent as he turned completely to face her.

   “No,” she said finally.

   He felt sick.

   “No. I won’t let you kill yourself like this,” her voice cracked. He had hurt his queen. Pain and sorrow and fear and worry clouded her face and there was no worse feeling in the world to him than the realization that he had caused this. He had promised himself all those years ago under the staircase that he would always protect Nora. How had he ever forgotten that promise, even for a moment?

   “After everything we’ve been through, I won’t let it end.”

   Ren blinked, and for a moment a shivering, dirty, ginger-haired girl sat in front of him. Her blue eyes pleading, waiting, for the turmoil around them to end. He remembered Nora clearly the first day he had seen her, bullied on the streets. But the young Nora the night that they had become partners, the night that began their life together, when she had become his everything, was burned forever behind his eyelids. He never wanted to see her that afraid again.

   He blinked once more, and the older Nora was back. Beautiful, strong, enthusiastic Nora. The one who had truly become the queen.

   “Not like this!” she pleaded with him, her voice soft and gentle and pained.

   He took in her distraught eyes once more and gathered his bearings. Reaching a hand down to his side, Ren removed the first weapon he had ever learned to use. The predecessor to his Stormflower. The knife his father had given him that fateful night.

   As he stared down at the midnight-black blade, finger peeking out of pink gloves appeared in his vision and closed his palm around the hilt of the blade. Ren looked up to her, who beamed once again through the streaks of tears on her face.

   This time when she spoke, the life had returned to her. “We can do this!”

   Ruby and Jaune were waiting for them when they appeared from their hiding place, the Grimm roaring angrily, as though it thought they were toying with them. He felt his other two friends size him up for a moment, to make sure he was lost to his madness any longer.

   There was a moment of hesitant silence, as though they all needed a second to gather their thoughts. Finally, the petite leader of the former Team RWBY spoke up. “Ren! Jaune and I can take care of its arms!”

   “I’ll take care of the horse.” Nora offered a satisfied grin, gripping her hammer with renewed vigor.

   With all of their eyes on him, Ren nodded in acknowledgement. “And I’ll take care of the rest.”

~~~

   ‘For my mother,’ He drew the knife through the creature’s left arm, and it howled as the severed appendage snapped back toward where Jaune’s sword had pinned it to the ground.

   He grabbed the Grimm’s horn to keep it from writhing. ‘For my father.’ he pivoted on the ball of his foot, pushing his elbow into the creature and slicing up through its right arm in a backhanded knife hold.

   He let it roar its head back, of fury and anger at losing its arms as he wound up, crossing his arm which clutched his father’s knife over his chest. ‘For all the people you have slain,’  The knife was pulled backwards as he opened his arms, severing the top half of the creature’s body from its horse-like lower half.

   “For myself,” Ren reversed the arc of his blade on a dime, slicing back through the neck of the Grimm. As was common technique for killing the creatures of nightmares, it was beheaded. With a final cry the Grimm dissolved into smoke, drifting high above the ruined city of Kuroyuri.

   He was panting by the time it was all over, and Ren let out a loud sigh as his adrenaline began to fade away and his fatigue once more caught up to him. As he heaved loudly and felt his head start to spin, he dropped his father’s knife to the cobblestone. Despite his exhaustion, Ren had only a moment to catch his breath as in the next instant a delighted cry, his only warning, preceded being knocked to the ground once more. Nora giggled gleefully as she tackled him, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly. His relief was quiet, though he did hold her close too.

   ‘For Nora.’