~ Somewhere in Vale ~

Crystal POV:

It's been a few weeks since that night, for the first few days, it was quiet, no member of team RWBY tried talking with me, probably to let me 'cool' off, that, however, was broken by their captain.

Ruby tried to get me to talk with them again, none of her attempts were effective so far. At first, I didn't 'run' away from her when she approached me, even if I didn't speak and just listened. But I eventually started avoiding her, she is hard to ignore when she tries so hard, after all.

She tried to be funny, be serious, be herself... And also say that Weiss was 'sorry', how very believable that is... A person who's sorry can't come and say it herself... Even I am not that stupid. And even more, a captain shouldn't be speaking for somebody else... A person should talk for themselves, otherwise, none of what they presumably have to say, counts.

Yang also tried, I don't think she was all that serious about it, I think she's just tired of listening about it all and wants this to just get fixed... I can't even imagine what goes on in their room due to me and Weiss.

The only one I 'secretly' speak with... Well it's just greetings and goodbyes, is Blake, I mean, I don't really have anything against anybody from their team except for the Schnee... But I was too angry and said something that didn't need to be said.

Team JNPR on the other hand is all okay with me, we speak, we spend some time together, it's pretty fun... But I can tell that it's not that easy for them, since, they are somewhat stiff around me. Except for Nora... I don't know if she's faking it... Or if she's just that amazing, it's like nothing ever happened.

Anyways... Why am I contemplating life choices, as one does? Simple. I am lost, Sitting here on a bench in the middle of nowhere, eating candy, looking down at the ground, I have no idea where I am right now. I really need a guide... A friend would be great.

I see a shadow that's not moving, that's standing still in place. I raise my head and look at the one that the shadow belongs to. A kid? He's just staring at me, I follow his eyes and it's my tails that he's looking at...

"What are you looking at?" I say less friendly than I wanted to, making him tear up and run away... Great, I can't even speak normally with kids.

Should I call somebody to help me out? I guess I could just continue to walk aimlessly, but what if I get lost even more?

I look around the buildings that I can see and I spot a sign for a bookshop... They might have a map for me to use.

I stand up and walk closer to the shop. And read the sign.

"Tukson's Book Trade?"

Why have I heard that name before?

"Wait... That's... Oh"

I walk inside the building. Seeing a lot of books everywhere.

Nobody at the counter... Isn't this an easy place to steal from? I guess if you really like books, you could do something like that.

I walk up to the counter, seeing a bell for ringing and I do it... three times in quick succession, for fun.

"Be right there! And only once is enough" 

I see a big man with short, black hair walk out of the backroom.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun"

Every book?... That's amazing.

"How may I help you?"

"Yes, do you have a map of Vale?"

"Indeed, we do. Do you want a city map for it? Or the map of it and surrounding kingdoms?"

"Just a city map, I would like to know where I am going around this place"

"Oh? Are you new around here?"

I... If I say that I am from Beacon that will be embarrassing...

"Ah, yes, yes, a tourist from... Vacuo"

The man nods and pulls out a map from inside the counter, guess if it's so close, it's common enough to be a problem that needs to be solved.

"There you go. That'll be 500 Lien"

I hand him the lien and take the map. Thanking him and turning around to leave the store.

As I walk to the door and get ready to leave, I turn around and say my last words to him.

"Thank you, Mr. Tukson?"

"Yes, I am Tukson"

"Good luck... And I am sorry"

As I finish those words, I leave the store. my last glimpse at him tells me that he's beyond confused at my cryptic words.

I go back to the bench I was previously sitting on and lay open the map... I look at it from every angle...

"I forgot that I can't read a map..."

I guess calling somebody, it is. I hear my scroll buzz, ah, speak of the devil. Who's calling me? I take my scroll and pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Crystal"

Pyrrha? This is new. She hasn't called me before. Nora sometimes does, but she just says something randomly for a while and stops the call without me being able to say a word... It puts me in a good mood when she does that and I don't know why.

"Yes, Hi, Pyrrha, is something wrong?"

"No, no, it isn't, where are you?"

"Somewhere in Vale," I say mysteriously.

"Somewhere? Where's somewhere?"

"Oh, you know... Just somewhere"

There's a moment of silence...

"May you perhaps be... Lost?"

"Noooo..."

"Where are you right now?"

"I am not lost"

"Right... So if I told you to come back to Beacon so me, Jaune, Nora, Ren, and you could spend time together, would you make it in 30 minutes?"

"Definitely..."

Another silence, I gulp before finally answering the truth.

"Okay, I am lost"

"Why would you try and lie about it?"

"It's embarrassing... I've been in Vale for several months and I still get lost"

"Hmm, is there some building that could tell me where you are?"

"What? Are you going to come and find me like a child who got lost and their parents have to find them?"

"Yes"

Uhm...

"You aren't supposed to agree to that... At least not so fast"

There's a brief silence and I hear 'fake' thinking sounds.

"...Yes"

How is that any different?... Ah, whatever. I do need the help after all, but this is kinda humiliating.

"I just came out of a Tukson's Book Trade, wanted to buy a map... It wasn't all that helpful"

"Ah, yes I know where that is, wait for me, I should make it in 20 minutes"

"Okay, mom," I say child-like.

"Good," Pyrrha says "Bye"

And just like that, the call has ended and now I have to wait for Pyrrha.

I sit back on the bench and I guess I might as well try and learn how to read the map that I spent money on, otherwise that'd be a waste.

Okay, so... I should be in the commercial district, right? I did just come out of a shop after all. Now Beacon is either close to me or far since I don't know how far I've walked along the district.

Pyrrha said 20 minutes, so that'd tell me it's a shorter way... But it's Pyrrha, she walks faster than I run most of the time. So 20 minutes to her could mean an hour for me...

So by those standards, I'd say I am middle way through the district... Now, which way does the map mean for me to go? Okay, so as my mom taught me. North is up... South is down, West and East are respectively to the left/right... Uhm...

How do I know which way is east as the map shows when I myself stand up from the bench? If I walk the wrong way to the north, I might end up in Forever Fall, if I do the same with west and south, I will either get lost even more or go to the residential district.

I could've just asked the book shop owner... Pretty sure he'd know where to point. But, noo, I had to get a map, that I can't even use, at least not without racking my brain to its maximum function.

Okay, okay, don't worry, you got this, this is easy, you've beaten tougher things than some images on a paper. Let's try it in practice.

I stand up from the bench yet again. Take the map in front of me, look at the direction star, and see the east pointing to my right as it should, but when I look where my right is, it's an alleyway, definitely not there.

Let's rotate to my right, so now I am facing the alleyway and now my right is... right into a building... Also not there.

Another attempt, two left after all.

As I face the building and go to check my right side again, I hear passing people talking about me... again... making me stop.

"What is it doing? It's just rotating in place..."

"Ha, of course, an animal wouldn't be able to understand a map..."

"Listen, Belle, don't grow up to be weird like her..."

I look at the map in my hands... damn it... I crumple up the paper into a messed up-looking ball and throw it in the trash can and sit down on the bench again...

"Ah, it gave up, boring... It was pretty entertaining to look at"

Well, sorry for not being so, oh so smart... Pretty sure when the Grimm would attack you'd cry for help instead of being so full of yourselves... (And you'd get no help, even if you were to beg, in fact, I'd help the Grimm to get you faster)

I should've just waited for Pyrrha, she said she will come, so why did I even try to learn something by myself when even teachers can't do that...

I haven't even noticed my tails wrapping around me defensively, subconsciously... Well at least I still have them, I take a tighter hold of them in comfort and just wait.

And so I that I wouldn't look at the people walking from place to place, I look down at the ground again...

Why did I avoid Ruby... I wouldn't be lost right now, nor would I be here... Waiting for Pyrrha in humiliation like an animal would be waiting for its owner... At least I'd be able to hear her voice even if it'd be all about trying to make amends with Weiss.

I raise my knees to myself and encircle my hands around them, this is boring... Why did I throw away the map... I should've just not cared about what people say as I used to... But for some reason after that incident with Weiss and falling out with team RWBY, I am prone to really easy mood swings... I should probably talk to somebody about that.

I would do that with Glynda... But I really don't want to see her, because I did something I should've not and used a situational trick I got used to doing when the women I slept with tried to lure me and kill me. After all, they were paid off by the big Schnee, that was attaching a mini microphone to their clothes after sex... So I'd know if they are an enemy or an innocent lady.

I did that with Glynda, the very same night after my fight with Weiss, out of sheer impulse and then overheard her talking with Ozpin about me and how Ozpin requested Glynda to try and get on my 'good' side so that I'd let my guard down, answer her questions when I don't suspect it and he'd take care of me when he wants to. I know I should've not felt betrayed... Because I did blackmail my way to beacon and with a big crime too, so I'm technically their enemy. But I still felt that way and now I sleep outside, I am used to it anyway, it's not like I always had the money to rent a room.

But outside of Glynda, there's nobody I can talk with about this, if I talk with JNPR, they will probably just say to go and talk with RWBY... Other teachers stopped interacting with me when they realized that their teaching methods didn't work with me, leaving me alone...

That is good and bad at the same time. Good because at least I don't have any more embarrassing moments in classes, like when Oobleck asked me a question about why and when the 'White Fang' was formed and I answered that I didn't know... Which made everybody look at me weird, he himself just looked at me, then my tails, hmphed and moved on... I asked Blake about what happened there, after the class and she told me that as a Faunus I should've known about it... Well, I do now... Which is too late, Oobleck hasn't asked me a question since then... And bad because, unfortunately, I learn even less than when they tried... At least listening to Professor Port is still fun, if it's a new story that he chooses for that day.

The fans that Yang mentioned to me? All they see in me is a pretty face and nothing else, they don't care about me otherwise... And most of them are males anyway, so that's a big no.

And I shouldn't contact my wife... Who knows who's listening.

Ah, another shadow... This one's bigger, let's see if they are here to make fun of me... Or if it's a bigger kid that perhaps won't be scared by me.

I raise my head to look at the owner of the shadow, ah it's just Pyrrha... Wait, it's my savior. A red-haired angel clad in armor, that's how a savior looks... right?

"Hi, Crystal, finally I found you"

"Hello, thank you for finding me"

"Where's the map you said you bought, I thought I might help you how to read it, by showing you how to walk from this spot back to Beacon," Pyrrha asks looking slightly around to see if she can spot a paper somewhere.

Great... Another thing I messed up...

"Ah... I threw it away, I was bored while waiting so I played around with it a little, by rolling it up into a ball and then threw it as far as I could into the air, now I don't know where it is"

"Mhm, unfortunate, well next time then, now follow me, my team's waiting"

If Pyrrha didn't believe me, she didn't show any indication of it.

I simply nod and stand up, which prompts Pyrrha to turn back and start walking... And she's walking the direction where my east would've been on my third rotation if I didn't throw my map away... Not only am I stupid, but I am also unlucky, what a combination.

"So... What are we doing? Once we make it to your team"

Pyrrha glances back at me lightly and then continues to walk looking forward.

"Jaune thought he needed more training against more unconventional opponents, I suggested you, I hope you don't mind"

"No, of course not, I am glad to help"

"He also, said if you have to use your semblance, just in case, go ahead, he has plenty of aura, so he'll be fine. Of course, some places of attack will not be allowed"

"Hm... Like what?"

"Nech, throat, eyes and blade thrusts, just slices and cuts, we don't want impalings happening, oh and low-blows"

"That's doable, but, why no low-blows? That's a valid attack strategy, so learning to be ready against them, so you could defend yourself is a good idea"

"Perhaps... But Jaune isn't up to that level yet... I don't think he'd survive a kick to his groin from you... Neither would he'd be able to continue after you'd use your semblance if he'd kick you there"

"Ah, good point... So if I were against you... Would there be any 'places' to not attack?"

Pyrrha pauses her walking, after a moment resuming the movements, while slightly humming.

"Mhm... Probably just the eyes, if we were training, but in a real battle, there's no 'no-goes', so if that was the case, well everything would be able for an attack"

"Okay... Well, I'll try not to use my semblance, I mostly use it when I either need to, or on my actual enemies, and for Jaune's case? I don't think either applies"

"Perhaps, but he might surprise you, he's not the best fighter, but he's also not the weakest that I've seen, with a lot of training he could be quite capable, besides he didn't become a leader of our team for no reason, Ozpin saw something in him and so do I"

"Are... We talking about the same person?"

I only see Pyrrha shake her head without looking back at me and saying nothing back at that.

Did I seem too overconfident? But come on... It's Jaune... Maybe... a big maybe if he were fighting somebody else, I could see Pyrrha's point... But against me? I don't think he'd ever have a chance, with or without my semblance.

So we continue walking in silence the rest of the way to Beacon and once I finally see it in view, I relax and sigh in joy, let's not go out to Vale for a while (Agreed).

"Well let's go to our dorm room first, to meet the others"

"Sure"

I follow Pyrrha to their room, but for some reason, this doesn't feel right... If we were going to train, why not just make our way to where we could train, while the others could've waited for us there? Well, whatever, maybe she forgot something.

"Here we are, let's go inside"

"Okay..."

Pyrrha opens the door to their room for me, I walk in saying a low thank you.

The first thing I see is Nora in what I presume is her pajamas and with headphones on, while I don't see the two men... Did they not know that I and Pyrrha are coming, so they aren't ready?

I turn back to look at Pyrrha, who seems to be a little bit embarrassed... I guess that's why we came here... We weren't going to go train immediately. Well, that's fine, I don't mind spending some time just hanging out.

"Heya, Crys" I turn back to see Nora having her headphones slid down off of her ears.

"Hiya, Nori," I say back, slightly smiling. Then randomly taking out a wrapped-up candy that I started to carry for Nora, then flick it to her.

She catches it, unwraps it, and pops it into her mouth, throwing me a thumbs-up.

"Where's the boys?" I ask Nora.

"Kitchen"

I blink at that answer...

"I guess you will all eat before we go and train?"

"Aren't we going to eat? When did the topic of training come in? Oh and hi Crystal" I hear a man's voice

I turn towards the door that leads to their kitchen to see Jaune... What is going on? Why is he asking if we're going to train?

"Hi... didn't... did you not invite me here, so we could go for a training session?" I ask him confused.

I see Jaune, opening his mouth, pausing, looking not at me? Behind me... I turn around and see Pyrrha shaking her head, when she sees me turn around, she stops and just smiles at me... Did they not speak about it beforehand?

"Ah, yes, of course, training, we were going to do that... Uh..." That... He's lying, he absolutely has no idea what's going on.

"Hey, Jaune, I need your help back here, the food's almost done" I hear Ren saying loudly from the kitchen.

I, turn around, again, to look at the door where Pyrrha stood, only to see that she isn't there, man, she's quick. I turn to the only other person in the room, who's unusually quiet...

"Nora"

"Yes?"

At this point, she'd be speaking loads... Something is definitely wrong, none of this makes sense.

"Did Pyrrha not talk with her captain about me training him, by sparring with him?"

"No, she hasn't"

"But why?"

"Because we weren't pl- It was a surprise for Jaune, he complained about only sparring with Pyrrha and wanting to fight somebody else, so Pyrrha mentioned you and now you're here, by the way, come here, listen to this new song that I like"

"Ah... Okay?" As I start walking closer to Nora's bed, Ren walks out of the kitchen without Pyrrha and Jaune.

"Hey, Nora, the food's rea- Crystal? What are you doing here?"

"I... was invited?" I blink at him confused.

Ren looks at me, then at Nora.

"Oh, of course, sorry, I forgot, didn't think it'd be today"

Ren... forgot? That... No, no, none of this makes sense, I am getting a bad feeling. I know that neither Pyrrha, Nora nor Ren will speak, but Jaune with enough pressure will...

"Jaune!!" I shout loud enough for him to hear, he comes out of the kitchen followed by Pyrrha, who's looking apprehensive, I can feel him faking his confidence in front of me, for some reason he seems wary of me...

"Yes?"

"What is going on here?" I ask determined.

"What do you mean? Nothing's going on"

"What do I mean? Right... First Pyrrha calling me for the first time? Leading me here, because she suggested to you that I should train you, I thought we will just go straight to the location where we'd train, instead, we came here to your room, only for me to see Nora not being ready for an outing in any way, but okay, I am not here to spar with her, so that's fine, but then when I mentioned 'training' you didn't know anything about it, so I asked Nora, saying that it was a surprise for you and that you all were waiting for me, but then Ren 'forgot' that I was supposed to be here? Something's wrong here"

"Well as Nora said this was a surprise for me from Pyrrha because I needed help in handling my footwork better, so I wouldn't get used to hers and Ren just mixed up the days, because it was supposed to be tomorrow"

Yes... And I like men...

"I know that I am not the smartest... But do all of you really take me for such a big fool?"

I look around the four, who are silent.

"Right... Definitely, this is about training... definitely. Pyrrha says that you needed experience in fighting unconventional fighters, Nora saying that you complained about fighting Pyrrha, wanting to go up against a different opponent and now you're telling me you need to learn better footwork? Want to know what I am thinking? None of this spiel about training is true, the only similar point in your stories is 'different' training, but all of them are three separate truths"

Now they are silent, but also seem a little bit guilty, except for Ren... He doesn't seem to know what's going on at all, probably wasn't listening to their plan... Not that it seems there was one at all.

I look at Pyrrha.

"What is actually going on?" I say without leaving room for her to evade answering me.

She stares at me and sighs in defeat, but doesn't answer me, instead, turning to her team.

"What happened? I sent you all a message about this"

All three of them go for their scrolls. Opening them up and after a minute of reading, all just let out a single sound of 'Oh'

"Hehe, I was listening to music, didn't pay attention," Nora says laughing lightly. Making me internally swoon... Even I couldn't be mad at her even if she messed up one of my plans.

"And I and Ren were in the kitchen, working on food, we didn't even know that you left..." Jaune answers for him and Ren.

Pyrrha just sighs in exasperation and shakes her head. Then finally looks at me. Turns down to look at her own scroll and calling somebody.

"Yeah, hi, yeah, she's here, you can come in"

I turn back to look at the opening door, only to see Ruby looking at me sheepishly.

Wait... So all of this... was Ruby's plan... She used JPNR to get to me... And Pyrrha agreed? Why... do I feel my heart hurting as if I was betrayed, as if I was being used... (Because you were)

I chuckle in mock defeat.

"Of course..."

"Hey, Cry-"

I turn around to look at Pyrrha furious, ignoring Ruby for now... Pyrrha seems to be surprised by my move... Yeah and I definitely wasn't surprised when you used my 'trust' in wanting to spend time with you and your team, only to be used as some chess piece for Ruby, so she could talk to me.

I clap slowly at Pyrrha.

"Well done, you played me, what... Want a medal? a prize? an award? The famous Pyrrha Nikos using her credibility to squander the trust given to her... Here I stand naive to your schemes, only happily thinking that I still have somebody to hang out in this school, only for that to come out as false, because you didn't even want that, you were only a messenger for Ruby, fantastic, good job Pyrrha, you really outdid yourself this time"

"Hey, hey, you're taking this way too harshly" Jaune starts defending his teammate.

"Harshly? None of what I am saying is whatsoever harsh"

"All I wanted to do is help you, Crystal, what you're doing with team RWBY, it isn't good for anybody, I get it, you're mad at Weiss and that's fine, but shutting away the other three for no reason? That isn't something you should do" Pyrrha speaks for herself instead of letting Jaune speak for her.

"Help me... You wanted to help me? Ha... Ha..." I laugh slowly in sarcasm.

"Yes, I did," Pyrrha says with confidence.

"Right... And how is sneaking and scheming behind my back of any help to me? If you said something straight at me, trying to knock some sense into me, I'd get it, but this? The only reason you even thought of 'spending' time with me was that Ruby asked you for your help... But of course, that makes sense, you and your team were friends with Ruby and her team first and for a longer period of time... So, of course, you'd choose the 'older' and 'better' friends over me... Of course, you'd side with them, instead of trying to understand my point of view, I'll tell you something when I left RWBY's room that night after the questions... I was so happy, I was ecstatic... That was one of the best nights of my life, I finally got to spend time speaking with 'friends'... And then it all went to ruin, with Weiss coming out and calling me an animal, demanding an apology that I didn't owe her and the only thing all of you did? Stand behind her... Listening, not stopping her from speaking such things and when I lost my 'cool' you even got into a fighting stance, because before then I said that I kill people leisurely, so, yes of course you'd be wary of me... No chance of anybody standing up for me eh? Everybody just likes to scheme against me... Everybody just wants to walk all over the stupid and weird two-tailed animal, right? Ruby talking that Weiss is so, so sorry about the whole thing... When the person herself doesn't come and try to apologize sending somebody else, it's always all about Weiss, always about team RWBY, but where do I come in this? What am I supposed to be some punching bag and take it? .. I... I give up... We aren't friends are we, JPNR, I was just an acquaintance that sometimes hung out and talked with you because RWBY roped me into doing something with them..."

My expression probably looks as heartbroken as I sound.

"That's not tru-" Pyrrha starts to speak.

"How... How is that not true? Did I say anything wrong?" I scream at her, with a broken voice and feeling myself starting to tear up.

"I..." Pyrrha is too shocked at my outburst to even continue.

"What? Did you not sneak behind my back? Did you not contact me because Ruby asked you and therefore making this whole plan? Did you stop Weiss from talking to me like that? Did you not draw weapons against me when I was arguing with her? Did you stand up for me at any point? Did any of you even stop anybody in the hallways slandering me because I am too dumb to be even taught in such a school? Did you care when any of you called me weird? Or is it the part... That we aren't friends... Because to me? That's not what a friend is... They are meant to be loyal and help, protect me, not lie to me so blatantly just so you could use them for somebody else... Pyrrha Nikos, I trusted you and I did think of you as a friend... But I guess I thought wrong, doesn't seem like we were on the same page, not even on the same book... Hehehe... I know... I know what I have to do now... I don't need any of you, I will find myself my own friend, a true friend, even as somebody as 'weird' and stupid as I can do that... Right?"

I turn my back on team JPNR, to finally look at Ruby, who's looking at me with an expression that shows that she knows she messed up... and she did... by proving to me that I have no actual friends in this school, that the only other friends that I thought I had in team JPNR were actually her friends and not mine.

I look straight at her silver eyes, which at our first meeting had me mesmerized... Now all I feel is emptiness and with a melancholy and at the same time disappointed expression, I look away, and just shake my head and walk past her through the door to leave.

I pause for a second... Feel up my pocket, finding my last candy that was meant for Nora for another day... I take it out of my pocket and swirl it in my hand.

I turn around and flick it at her... She catches it, heh, even in situations like these, she's amazing, if that were me, I'd probably not even register something thrown at me, but, even she can't do the same thing as always as she doesn't start eating it like before.

"Thank you, Nori, for being the only one that actually spent any of her valuable time to talk with me, without wanting anything in return, checking up on me, maybe you didn't know, but your calls actually were one of the two things that made me smile during these few weeks... But... I don't think that I will be answering any more of your calls... Sorry"

And I leave, closing the door, the last thing I see is Nora's worried face. (You can't make yourself, to even look at the others, good, they don't deserve it)

~ End of Chapter 13 ~