So here is the follow up to Frost's little blackout after fighting the Grimm. I'm not quite as pleased with this chapter as I'd like to be,but for the purposes of the story as well as some character development, it is a necessary part of things at this point. Either way I appreciate the comments I've gotten so far and the number of people that have chosen to follow me work as things move along. It really helps me to know that people are genuinely interested in what I'm doing here.

Darkness.

This was all that was visible to Frost as he managed to open his eyes, his body oddly lacking in any bruises or soreness after his fight with the waves of Grimm in the arena. What was also weird however were the odd sounds, almost like whispers, that seemed to be poking at his hearing from every possible angle, a dull ache beginning to form in his mind as his senses were slowly overloaded. Frost immediately ran forward in his efforts to get away from whatever was plaguing him.

The more Frost moved forward, the quieter the whispers seemed to get, and thus Frost continued his sprint through the darkness, some buildings and figures beginning to appear in the distance the further he travelled. As the buildings began to take on a clearer shape, Frost began to recognize a few buildings, the area before him becoming strikingly similar to the area of Vale that the orphanage he and Neo had grown up was located. The area became even more similar as Frost walked by what appeared to be an exact replica of the orphanage itself. There was one problem with the places that he was coming across, however.

There were no people.

Not even the sound of vehicles, of airships and trains, or even the sounds of people walking along the streets or of animals barking or screeching at one another. It was almost as though everyone had gotten up and left Vale at once, leaving everything untouched as they left. Frost's eyes darted left and right, up and down, as he tried to process what exactly was going on at the moment. His thoughts were interrupted suddenly when the sharp sound of metal sliding against metal came from just down the street, Frost's ears perking immediately at the sudden noise, his body quickly turning to face whatever the sound had been. His eyes widened and face paled as he witnessed what had made the sharp sound.

It was the warehouse that had started everything that had happened in his life recently, once again in shambles and on fire.

Frost's body was a blur as he flew down the streets, his legs glowing brightly and his expression determined as he crashed through a few pieces of debris scattered near an opening to the building. The rubble moved aside easily as he plowed through it, his strong will and determination fueling his body as he leapt into the blaze. His head turned back and forth sharply as he sought any signs of life in the building, his breath quick and his heart beating rapidly amidst the chaos. A few moments later Frost heard a chuckle coming from beyond a pile of rubble, his body immediately moving to find out what the sound was.

As he climbed the large pile of debris in front of him, his hands were prodded and scraped by jagged pieces of wood, metal, even by fire. Frost did not relent in his climb however, his mind set on whatever was making the laughing sound beyond the pile, the sound of someone whimpering also beginning to sound in the distance as well. As he reached the top, his expression went from determination to that of sheer rage and murderous intent.

Directly beneath him, his weapon raised and pointed at a helpless girl, was Roman Torchwick, a mad gleam in his eyes and a wicked grin on his face as he cocked the gun built into his cane. Frost screamed in frustration as a powerful pulse of energy flew from his hands and jettisoned towards Torchwick's weapon. As the blast impacted the cane the force ignited the Dust lying dormant inside the pole, the ensuing fireball launching Torchwick in one direction and the girl in the opposite direction. As Frost leapt down and started stalking towards Torchwick's body, his left hand clenched into a fist as he picked up Torchwick by the scruff of his coat with the other. Torchwick smirked as Frost glared at the man, his eyes slowly moving to look past Frost, and at the girl that has also been caught in the explosion. Frost turned to look at the girl as well, his expression more confused than anything as to why Torchwick would so interested. His expression paled as he saw the girl's body shimmer slightly before dissolving away and reveal Neo breathing weakly on the ground, her chest barely moving and her limbs twitching slightly as she attempted to move.

Frost's arms went slack, causing Torchwick to fall to his knees on the ground, as he slowly walked towards Neo's body. Frost carefully knelt beside her, his eyes beginning to mist as she gave him a weak smile. Frost's hands clenched tightly once more as tears began to streak down his face as Neo slowly lifted a hand to his cheek, stroking it softly as the light left her eyes and her arm fell to the ground beside her limp body, her breathing having stopped due to her injuries.

Torchwick chuckled slightly, his voice seemingly a bit distorted as he casually got to his feet and picked up his cane- somehow undamaged despite what Frost had just recently done to it. "Oh, so close this time." Torchwick's odd voice sounded from behind Frost as he clicked his tongue almost disapprovingly. "If you had just been a little faster taking a trip down memory lane you might've been able to stop her from getting hurt."

Frost whirled to face Torchwick, his left arm flashing briefly as a bolt of energy was loosed from it, though it did nothing aside from hit Torchwick's body and fizzle out of existence. Frost's expression changed to one of bewilderment as each subsequent burst of energy he threw at the man did nothing more than the last. He eventually stopped firing off the attacks, his arms hanging at his sides as he switched tactics.

"What are you?"

"I've been called a lot of things, by a lot of people." Torchwick began as he casually started to walk a large circle around Frost, everything fading into the same darkness Frost had first witnessed as he walked through piles of debris and fire. "But most people refer to me as guilt. Others refer to me as their self-doubt. Honestly though? I'm just a creation of an overactive imagination, a person's desire to punish themselves for things that they've done or are afraid of."

The shadowy being, since that was what Torchwick had dissolved into as he had made his circle around Frost until everything had faded back into the darkness, stopped as he reached Neo's body, the only thing that had been untouched by the transformation of the area. "You still feel responsible for what happened to your childhood friend, that if you hadn't been so gung-ho about training for something you could never afford, she never would have been hurt and lost her voice in the first place. But you also wonder what might have happened if you weren't fast enough or made the wrong decision- could you have killed her if you hadn't been careful as well?" The shadow looked towards Frost, his mind feeling that same probing feeling as his eyes met the shadowy recesses where the shadow's eyes would have been. "And those thoughts plague you still. Along with thoughts of other events that had happened since then. Like the drug that Torchwick had dosed you and Neo with, only for your own Semblance to fight off the foreign substance and leaving Neo to fend for herself within her own mind as the compulsions took hold."

Frost's eyes widened as Neo's limp body suddenly shifted, her arms and legs moving in a puppet-like fashion as it righted itself. Gone were the innocent silver eyes and polite smile that Frost had more commonly seen, in its place the sadistic smirk and heterochromatic eyes that Neo only had to deal with as a by-product of her own Semblance. Frost's mind blanched as she twirled her umbrella behind her, her feet slowly carrying her towards Frost's frozen body. Frost's pupils shrank as she unsheathed the sharp blade form the umbrella's handle, her hand slowly moving so that the blade was pointed directly at Frost's exposed chest. His attention was almost entirely focused on Neo's approaching figure, the remainder focused on the shadow as it continued to speak.

"You've been wondering for the past few days now about how long it could be before Neo was fully under the effect of the serum. How it would affect her mentally and what it would mean for your mission to save her. And every time you think about it more, you worry about what you would do if you faced her in battle, all traces of your former friend gone with nothing more than a bloodthirsty beast in front of you." The shadow opened its arms wide in invitation as it stood beside Neo's approaching form. "Well here's your choice. Do you fight back and potentially harm the closest thing to a family that you've had all of your life? Or let her kill you as a last act of punishment for the things you've subjected her to?"

Frost's eyes darted back and forth between the shadow and Neo, his hands clenching and unclenching as he attempted to come up with a decision on such short notice, unaware of Neo's arm slowly cocking back in preparation of swinging the blade. Frost clenched his eyes tightly as he awaited the impending blow, his sense suddenly overwhelmed once more as the feeling of wind blew past his face and the sound of a weapon unsheathing sounded from behind him. His mind once again blanched as he turned to face whatever it was, Neo and the shadow suddenly gone as though they were never there.

Blake stood before him, Gambol Shroud drawn just like the time the two had fought in the alleyway near to the bookstore Frost had attempted to talk to Blake in. As Frost looked around, he realized that it was the exact same alleyway that had materialized around him as well, every detail in the exact same place as before with the exception of the black sky above them. Somehow there was still light as though it was the middle of the day despite the dark overhead that they stood beneath. Frost sighed as he drew his own weapons, suddenly at his side, the fight between him and Blake once again.

Frost panted slightly as he stood with a slight hunch, both of Blake's hands pinned to the wall this time. Frost sheathed his sword as he reached into his coat, finding the broken journal once again intact. Just as he reached into his coat pocket to show it to Blake however, he was interrupted by a shout coming from the other end of the alleyway- the same direction Yang had shown up from last time when he had dashed over Blake after their fight. She had arrived sooner this time, her eyes glowing red as she had witnessed Frost pin Blake to the wall and slowly approach her while reaching into his coat. Fearing the worst she released a series of powerful bursts from Ember Celica, the inferno quickly rushing towards Frost and Blake. Frost once again poured his Semblance into the gauntlet, the icy shield once again forming to block the attack. Too late however, Frost realized that this attack was much stronger than the last time, and he couldn't call on enough energy to block the full force of the attack.

So he instead pushed the energy out of the gauntlet in a large burst, with the intent of lessening the damage of the fireball and hopefully redirect its path. His plan worked, the fireball lessening in size and veering off just to Frost's right, the blast still knocking him off his feet as it collided with the wall behind him. His vision swam as he started to get up, noticing that Yang had not moved from her spot at the end of the alley but had lowered her arms limply to her side. What was even more bizarre was the far-off expression on Yang's face, as though she were looking at something for the first time. As Frost turned to follow her line of sight, he stopped as his vision came upon Blake. Or where Blake had previously been at least.

Blake's body had been completely buried in rubble, the only signs of her being the frozen patches where Frost had pinned her hands to the wall so that he could take a respite and talk. His face immediately bore an expression of fear and worry as he began to claw through the debris, his hands somehow once again unharmed despite the sharp edges of rubble and broken glass that lay atop Blake's body. He eventually exposed enough of Blake that he could place two fingers on her neck to check for a pulse…

…There was nothing but a cold, empty feeling.

Frost stumbled backwards, away from the debris as the terrain around him once again dissolved into darkness, the Shadow once again back as it stood next to Blake's buried body this time. It's head turned and Frost had to fight the urge to vomit as he beheld a dark and wispy version of his own face smiling evilly back at him.

"You did always wonder if things could have happened differently in the alley that day. What if Yang had shown up sooner? What if you had used any number of different tactics when trying to escape? Would you accidentally hurt someone again trying to be the good guy in the situation?" The shadow began to slowly pace toward Frost, his arms and legs shuffling as he fought to crawl backwards away from his dark half. This only caused the shadow to walk faster as a mad glint began in his eyes. "Even now your fear and guilt empower me! Keep digging this hole of depression and blame you've dug around yourself! Eventually you have to snap, and when you do-"

Frost looked around confused as the Shadow suddenly melded into the darkness around them, once again leaving Frost on his own. He slowly started to get to his feet as he looked around, an expression of confusion on his face. His body suddenly froze as though it were being gripped by a gigantic hand, the Shadow's voice suddenly right in his ear.

"i'Ll bE THerE!"

And then his ears screamed at him with a violent ringing.

Frost's body jerked upwards with a silent gasp, his forehead ddrenched with sweat and his heart beating a mile a minute. His eyes scanned the room he was in, his body sitting on what appeared to be a rather nice cot, with a few beds haphazardly strewn about the room. Both appeared to be variation of bunk beds, with one set put together with stacks of books for support and the other being a sort of hammock bed hung dangerously above another bed sitting on the floor. Upon closer inspection Frost noticed that Blake and Weiss appeared to be the ones sleeping soundly in the bottom beds, leaving him to assume that Yang and Ruby resided in the suicide beds that were above their teammates.

He shook his head slightly as he slowly got up from the cot, noticing that his battle-damaged coat was hung on a hook just next to the door leading out of the room. Frost took one last look around as he quietly slipped on his coat and opened the door into a dimly lit hallway, his scroll already out as he began to bring up a map for the dorms to find his way around.

What he failed to notice were the amber eyes that had darted open upon him opening the door, their gaze unblinkingly attached to him as he silently closed the door to the hallway as he left.

Frost groaned slightly as he felt his legs protest from his ascent to the large area that sat atop the dorms, his eyes flitting around the open space as he approached one end of the railed off edge. His gaze came upon the courtyard of the campus once again as he placed both hands tightly on the rails, his muscles tensing as he clenched the metal tightly without using his Semblance. His eyes screwed shut as a few tears escaped his eyes, a weak sob escaping his throat as memories of his nightmare, as well as of the actual events came back to him in a rush.

A clicking of the rooftop door snapped his attention as he whirled to face whoever else had arrived, his arm hastily wiping across his face to hide the tears he had been crying but failing to hide the redness of his eyes that they had left behind. His eyes widened slightly as he saw Blake slowly close the door behind her, the girl still dressed in her sleepwear. Frost blushed slightly as he turned around to look at the courtyard again, trying to find a way out of this situation.

"I know something's bothering you." Blake's voice came from a ways behind Frost as he refused to turn to face her. She waited a few moments before continuing. "I've seen your face when you don't think one of us is looking and I can see the pain you're dealing with. I know what it's like."

Frost whirled on Blake, his expression angry as he glared at her. "How could you know what I've gone through?! With the things I've done, I don't deserve to be here! I don't deserve any of this while the one person I promised I'd protect is still caught up in all of that crap with the White Fang and everyone else that Torchwick used to work with!" Frost snarled as he approached Blake accusingly, her stance and expression unwavering as he approached. "Torchwick was bad enough, but knowing that those so-called activists," Frost practically spat out the word as he continued, "are still able to boss them around and tell them what to do does nothing but make my skin crawl!"

Blake gives Frost a sympathetic look as she tilts her head slightly, Frost's shoulders heaving as his mouth is tightly drawn and a few tears continue to fall down his cheeks without his notice. She reaches forward and brushes one aside gently, shocking Frost out of his rage as he stumbles back a few steps as his expression returns to one of shock and confusion.

"What was that all about?" Frost asked quickly as he wiped away the other tears now that his mind wasn't clouded with anger and frustration. "I just yelled at you, directed all of my anger at you when you didn't deserve, and you do that? Why?"

Blake smiled sadly as she started to walk past Frost towards the same railing that he had been looking over. "You claim that you're the only one forced to work for people that went beyond the law? That you're the only one that's had to deal with choosing between harming innocent people or risking the safety of those you care about? I've been there as well."

"How could you though? You've never had to work for Torchwick and deal with his uncaring attitude for people- faunus or otherwise. Who did you work for that forced you to make those choices?"

"The White Fang."

"…"

"…"

"You're kidding right?" Frost stated as he looked at Blake's back with doubt. "You expect me to believe that you, an ordinary human being, worked for a group of Faunus activists that went rogue? That makes no sense!"

Frost only looked on as Blake remained quiet after his outburst, eventually making the motions of slowly moving her hands towards the bow atop her head. Frost looked on in confusion as she pulled the strings from both sides, his jaw dropping as the bow fell into one of her open palms once it was loose enough. Blake slowly turned to face him, a reluctant look on her face as he continued to stare slack-jawed.

"Wait…I…what?" Frost stuttered out as he attempted to string together coherent thought. It took him a while before he was able to find the proper words. "You're a Faunus?!"

Blake quickly moved forward with a shushing motion at his near screech of an exclamation. "Shh! Not everyone here knows that!"

"But what about your team? What about Weiss?!" Frost exclaimed with a hushed voice. "She's a Schnee! How are you supposed to tell her 'Hey, I'm a Faunus and I used to be with the White Fang! We're also teammates now!'?"

Blake gave Frost an unamused look as he looked at her expectantly. "You really think I would tell you first over my own friends and teammates? Really?"

Frost rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he tried to play off his blunder with a sheepish grin. It didn't work. "Sorry. Not entirely coherent at the moment given how the last few days have been." He grimaced slightly as his arm bent a little too much, still sore from his fight with the Grimm.

"Careful." Blake coaxed as she led the two of them over to the wall next to the door to the stairwell. "You took a few serious hits when you were fighting those Grimm before you passed out."

"Oh, great. I passed out fighting a few Grimm. That'll do well for my chances of being able to stay here and maybe learn a few things about being a Hunter." Frost groaned as his head slumped down between his bent knees in defeat.

"Actually, you did quite well out there." Blake stated plainly. Frost looked over to her with a raised eyebrow. "Fighting off not only as many Beowolves as you did, but also an Ursa and half of a King Taijitu in your first fight against Grimm is actually rather surprising. It was too bad about how the fight with it went though. It looked like you might have had a shot at beating it in one go before."

"Yeah well, panning things out hasn't been one of my strongest suits as you can tell." Frost stated as he rested his head against the wall behind them. "I tend to just jump right into the heat of things and go with what my gut tells me. Sometimes ends with my gut getting hit pretty hard."

"Even so, the fact you were hurt as little as you were after taking that hit was impressive. Not many people can take a full hit from a King Taijitu and walk away from it without some serious injuries." Blake smirked knowingly. "Ruby will probably be hounding you for days about how you did it with how much she was fawning over the fight."

"Seriously?" Frost asked with a look of surprise on his face. He sighed as he put head back on the wall slowly. "That's gonna be fun I bet. Maybe I'll see how long she goes before she gets too excited and explodes into a cloud of roses."

"I…don't think Yang would like that very much." Blake said with a slight grimace to her face.

"Why would that be?"

"Ruby is her younger sister."

Frost turned to look at Blake with an expression of equal parts shock, confusion, and fear. "Are you serious? Those two came from the same parents?!"

"Well it's just Yang, Ruby, and their dad now…but that's not my story to share."

The two were silent after that, both gazing out towards the sky and the sparkling stars as they blinked amidst the dark canvas of the night. Blake seemed calm and peaceful while Frost seemed deep in thought with a slight furrow to his brow.

"Can you answer something for me, Blake?"

"Depends on the question."

"…Why?"

Blake was the one to look at the other with confusion this time around. "What do you mean?"

"Why are you being so patient with me? After everything I've done and how I've acted around all of you, how can you be so willing to talk with me and listen to me vent?"

Blake smiled as she turned to face the sky again. "Because I was in your situation once." At Frost's silence, she continued. "A while back, just after the incident with the White Fang rally and the fight with Torchwick, I got myself all worked up trying to find him and get him taken down after everything he'd done. I had turned into a mess, missing out on sleep and being generally rude to the people I had grown to call my friends as well as my teammates. It took Yang pulling me aside and telling me to take it easy for me to realize what I was doing. I saw the same thing on your face those times I saw it. You were obsessing about the stuff you've been through up to getting here, and you were probably going to boil over soon, if you weren't about to tonight just as I showed up."

"Huh." Frost wondered aloud as he relaxed slightly. "Never would have thought Yang was such a mama bear-type with what I've seen of her so far. She seems too into jokes and fighting for that to make sense."

"I figured after seeing the way you acted the last couple times that the two of you would hit it off pretty well, actually."

Frost scoffed as he blew a small raspberry. "Yeah, probably not happening. I won't likely be around long enough to have this same kind of chat with anyone else. Once they find out where Torchwick is, I'm gonna be the first one going to take him down and rescue N- the person I was forced to leave behind when I managed to get away, then I'm out of here to somewhere people don't know who I am." Frost looked at Blake's expression to see if she had caught his near slip of Neo's name, but with no outward signs of confusion, Frost gave an inward sigh of relief.

"Well, either way we should probably head back before someone notices we're gone. Tomorrow may be a day off from classes, but that won't stop Ruby from being up bright and early." Blake stated as she got up from the ground and moved towards the door to the stairwell, turning to look at Frost's smirking face as she placed her hand on the doorknob. "What?"

"Not much of a morning person I gather then?" Frost asked to which Blake shook her head with a small smile. "I'll have to keep that it mind so that I don't make you a sourpuss then somewhere down the road." Frost's smirk only grew as Blake expression flattened into a disapproving stare.

"No. It's bad enough Yang does that. Don't add to the fire that she's made. Weiss will kill you if it gets bad enough."

"What, is she too much of an Ice Queen?" Frost retorted as Blake only shook her head disappointingly, a faint smile still apparent on her face.

Frost paused a moment as Blake started the walk back, choosing to look out towards the clock tower for a moment. His expression softened for a moment, his mind finally realizing what Ozpin had been getting at when he had mentioned trusting more people and confiding in them. With that thought, he slowly shut the door behind him, intent on finishing the night with a well-earned rest.