What's up, everyone? Took a little doing, but I have brought a new chapter for you all! So go forth and frolic to your heart's content. Or skip. Whichever you find most fabulous.

What Jay remembered most was the heat. Sometimes she'd remember smell of burning wood or the sound of other houses being torn to pieces, but the heat was always first thing.

Though she was native Valish, she'd never actually been to Vale City. Her whole life she had lived in Rue Village, running and playing like any child her age would do, attending classes in the small schoolhouse in the center of town. Her life was simple. She liked it that way.

Then it all came down in the span of one night. Grimm attacked from nowhere. The village was caught completely off-guard. Jay woke up to their vicious snarls and the villagers' cries for help.

Jay remembered that there was nothing she could do to help them. Her mother always told her to hide under her bed if the Grimm ever attacked. She never thought she'd have to. But there she was, lying down with her hands over her ears to block out the sounds of Grimm attacking the other people in the village.

She stayed there for what felt like hours. Her heart pounded in her chest. A sick feeling rose in her throat and she had to swallow to keep it down. Her mother had to come save her. She was a huntress. An amazing one. She would save her.

Jay remembered thinking that thought, right before her bedroom door was torn open. A Beowolf crawled inside, its sharp teeth gnashing twice. The monster sniffed the air. It could smell her. She knew it. But there was nothing she could do to help herself. Her body refused to move. Her eyes, filled with paralyzing fear, couldn't tear away from the Grimm slowly stalking towards her bed with a deep growl.

Jay remembered all of those things. But the biggest thing she remembered, the memory that still lingered on her mind years later, was the worst one of them all. Teeth sinking into her arm. And her own agonizing screams.

A loud bang pierced her ears and Jay acted on pure reflex. She shot straight up in her chair. Professor Pine was standing in front of her.

Her senses came back to her. She was sitting in class near the front of the amphitheater style rows. Her team was sitting to her right, staring at her with wide eyes.

Jay quickly became aware of the other students. All of them were gawking at her with shocked faces. The whole class was dead silent until Professor Pine cleared his throat.

"Ms. Atlantis, I sincerely hope you're not implying that my lecture is boring by sleeping in front of the entire class. Please try to refrain from being a bad role model," he said. A few students snickered. Jay could feel the heat rising to her cheeks, "Also, try to make more of an effort to stay awake. If you like, I could have Professor Oobleck share his coffee with you."

Jay's entire face turned red, her ears burning like a furnace. She frantically shook her head and wiped a thin line of drool from her mouth, "N-No, Professor Pine. That's okay. I'll try to stay awake, promise."

Her words came out as a mumbled mess. She couldn't deny that she was tired. It was already dawn by the time her team returned to Beacon. Jay tried to get some sleep, but any attempt at resting was shot down when the morning bell rang to signal the beginning of classes.

The entire day had been a game of taking stealth naps behind textbooks and pinching herself to stay awake during lectures. She managed to make it to the last class of the day, but her fatigue finally caught up to her.

Pine gave her a skeptical look but said nothing. With a simple shrug, he returned to his desk in the front of the class.

Jay bowed her head, rubbing her cheeks to try and compose herself. She could feel the eyes of the other students on her. Shaking her head, she focused on her notebook as Pine continued with his lesson, poking herself with her pencil every so often to make sure she didn't fall asleep again.

She unconsciously rubbed her prosthetic. The pain she felt so long ago was gone, but the damage still remained. A part of her was gone forever, like a bird with a clipped wing. She was reminded of that every time she took off her metal cast. Every time she woke up, the first thing she saw was glinting black metal instead of warm, soft skin.

She remembered the white walls of the hospital room, the powerful stench of antiseptic that stung her nostrils. Doctors told her what happened, but none of it made sense to her. It wasn't until she saw for herself did she realize.

Then came the anguish, the pain, the despair-filled shouts and crying. She remembered shaking her head over and over, hoping it was a sick joke. But all she had to do was look down to see that it wasn't.

Jay didn't remember much of what happened after that. Her consciousness faded in and out, reducing entire weeks to a giant blur in her mind. The earliest memory she could recall was her parents seeing her after she was taken out of Intensive Care. She'd never forget how grief-stricken her mother looked when she saw her. The regret in her eyes never fully went away after nine years.

Jay huffed, tapping the eraser of her pencil against a blank piece of paper. Her eyes darted towards the clock on the wall over and over. The urge to sleep gnawed at the edges of her mind, a yawn escaping her lips.

At least the dream reminded her that she hadn't talked to her parents since she entered Beacon. She made a mental note to call them when she had the chance.

The bell rang, snapping her out of her thoughts. All around her, students gathered their things and filed out of the room. Some of them glanced at her as they walked out, whispering to the others about something she couldn't hear. But it didn't take a genius to figure it out.

Slipping her notebook under her arm, Jay followed the rest of her team out into the halls. She lagged behind the rest of them, her head hung low. Her feet dragged behind her, a silent reminder that she needed rest.

Despite what happened the night before, Jay found herself smiling. They finally had a lead. The chauffer wasn't reliable by any stretch of the imagination, but it was better than going in circles until they were attacked again. Mountain Glenn was their next destination. Professor Oobleck mentioned it during his lectures about the kingdom's attempts at expansion, but he never went into explicit detail. But it didn't matter. There wasn't a single person in Vale that didn't know about Mountain Glenn.

It was meant to be both a test and a promise. To see if Vale was ready to move beyond its borders and into the open world and that they would never give in to their fear of the Grimm.

Mountain Glenn failed on both fronts. With no natural barriers, Grimm attacks were frequent. Their defenses were overwhelmed. People died, Mountain Glenn was abandoned, and Vale hadn't tried to expand since then.

Jay caught up with the rest of her team, tapping Spriggan on the shoulder, "Hey guys, think we can squeeze in some time to go to the library? We need to have a talk about what to do next."

Tephra and Ritch turned to face them. The bags under their eyes were hard to miss. Jay couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for pushing them even further.

"No rest for the weary huh, Chief?" Tephra said.

"I know you guys are tired. Believe me, I am too. But this isn't something that can wait. We've gotten what's probably our biggest break since this whole thing started. We need to capitalize on it before we lose our chance," she said.

"Kind of smart for them to hide out in Mountain Glenn. Close enough to slip into Vale undetected and far enough to avoid prying eyes. And the Grimm serve as a good natural deterrent to keep people away," Ritch said.

"That in itself warrants caution," Spriggan advised. She looked out one of the windows as they passed, seeing a throng of students exiting the lecture building and towards the dormitory wing, "Beacon does sponsor trips to Mountain Glenn, but only to upperclassmen. It's considered too dangerous for first years like us. If we're going to go in there, we need to be cautious and learn as much as we can about the area."

Jay nodded, striding towards the library with a sense of purpose. If they were going into Mountain Glenn, they were going to need as much information as they could get.

…

"As you should all know by now, Aura is central to your lives as Huntsmen. It's both your shield and sword. A little poetic, yes, but it's no less true," Pine said. He circled around his desk, checking his watch for the time. They only had twenty minutes of class left, but everyone looked eager to leave, "But of course, Aura is finite. Once it's gone, you're just as vulnerable as anyone else. So…Mr. Arc!"

At the mention of his name, a boy with scraggly blonde hair jumped in his seat, "Y-Yes, sir?"

Pine approached his desk at the front row. The young man named Jaune Arc sat up straighter under his piercing gaze. Flicking his stare to Jaune's partner he said to him, "Once Aura is depleted, how does one get it back?"

It was a basic question, almost an insulting one to ask anyone in Beacon. While Jaune was making great strides in his combat studies thanks to his partner, Pyrrha Nikos, he was still having trouble with his knowledge of Aura and Semblances. Pine hoped that she didn't neglect teaching him the things every Huntsmen learned their first year of training.

Jaune shifted in his seat, pursing his lips before saying, "U-Um, it recharges over time…right?"

Pine smiled on the inside. Jaune was right, but he wanted him to be more sure of himself, "I'm sorry Mr. Arc but I'm getting old. I'm going to need you to speak up."

"I-It recharges over time, sir," Jaune replied, louder than before. Pine came closer with a devilish smirk, cupping a hand next to his ear.

"More force, Mr. Arc. You're the leader of your team. Puff your chest out, show me some confidence, make me shiver in my boots," he said.

"It recharges over time, sir!" Jaune said, leaning out of his chair. Pine's ear ringed from the volume, but he wanted to push Jaune further. He threw his hands up in the air in a dramatic flourish, his grin growing wider.

"Shout it to the heavens!"

"IT RECHARGES OVER TIME, SIR!"

"That's what I want to hear!" Pine said with a laugh. Jaune sank back into his chair with a sheepish smile, Pyrrha giving him a playful shake of his shoulder. Pine returned to his desk and leaned back in his chair, "In case you didn't catch that, Aura regenerates over time. It's tied into a symbiotic relationship with your physical state. You can think of it like the gas in your tank. If it completely depleted, you're effectiveness on the battlefield will be severely hampered."

Pine took a quick drink from his mug, relishing the warm, bitter taste of his coffee. He observed the other students diligently taking notes until his eyes fell at the near front of the class where Team Jetbead was seated. His eyes narrowed at what he saw.

Jay had her head down and was snoring loud enough to wake an Ursa. The other members of her team weren't trying to wake her up. In fact, they all looked equally exhausted. Even the more studious members of the team were having trouble staying awake.

Tephra was resting her chin against the desk, facing in his direction. She always had her eyes closed, but Pine could tell that she was fast asleep. Ritch was trying his best to write his notes with a pen wrapped in a weak grip, but his eyes were clouded and his posture was slouched. Spriggan sat straight up with her arms crossed into a tight knot. Despite her rigid pose, her eyelids kept drooping and she nearly nodded off before jolting herself awake.

"In fact, if you take a quick look at page eighty-five in your textbook, you'll find Alabaster's Theorem for Aura Consumption," Pine rose from his chair, walking towards Team Jetbead as he went on with his lesson. Spriggan quickly noticed him. All the exhaustion disappeared from her face as she tried to give an excuse, but Pine silenced her with a finger against his lips, "Alabaster's Theorem describes how Aura activates in regards to force and area of effect. For example…"

Pine flicked Tephra on the forehead, startling her as she nearly fell out of her chair. The entire class erupted in laughter. Pine cracked a small grin, gesturing to the girl rubbing her forehead, "Ms. Nether's Aura didn't protect her because the force and area of effect was not sufficient enough to reach her Aura's activation point. Now if I had hit her with my mace, her Aura would have reacted and protected her. And I'd be out of a job."

Tephra scowled at him, but quickly hid it when he turned back to her.

"Sorry about making you part of the lesson, Ms. Nether. But try not to fall asleep in class again, hm?" Pine walked over to Jay's seat. Her brazen snoring was even louder up close. Pine grabbed Spriggan's Aura textbook, testing its weight by tossing it a few inches into the air. Then he raised it high over his head and brought it down.

A loud bang pierced his ears. Jay nearly jumped out of her chair. His eyes met hers. For a brief moment, he saw something he didn't expect. Fear.

A flicker of realization passed her face. The eyes that were focused on him darted in every direction. The fear was gone, replaced with the usual youthful energy she always had.

Pine cleared his throat, drawing her attention back to him, "Ms. Atlantis, while I'm sure that Professor Goodwitch would be impressed with your reaction time, please refrain from demonstrating on your instructors."

The thin blush grew on her face. Pine squeezed her hand just enough to keep her focused on him, "Also, try to make more of an effort to stay awake. If you like, I could have Professor Oobleck share his coffee with you."

Jay pulled her hand away and wiped her face clean. The terror in her eyes was gone, replaced with the usual youthful light that radiated from them, "N-No, Professor Pine. That's okay. I'll try to stay awake, promise."

Pine narrowed his eyes. She sounded worn out like the rest of her team, but he didn't want to make a scene in front of the other students. He nodded in understanding and continued with the rest of class while watching Team Jetbead out of the corner of his eye.

The bell rang sooner than he expected. Team Jetbead filed out with the rest of the students. Pine almost gave into the urge to go after them but thought better of it. It was better to leave them alone, at least for the time being.

He entered his private office at the back of the lecture hall. Turning his computer on, he grabbed his scroll activated a program hidden amongst the files and databases. He inserted the scroll into a port on his computer and the screen went blank.

Several lines of data flickered across the screen. His monitor flashed again, an image fizzling itself into existence. The figure slowly took shape: black hood, cracked white mask, and a single orange eye.

"Pine, we have a problem," Hecate said through the computer's speakers. Pine took one look at her damaged mask and nodded.

"I can tell. Not only have you seen better days but your targets are still attending class," he replied. Scorn flashed in her one visible eye, but her tone stayed calm.

"I need another opportunity. I wasn't prepared the first time, I'll admit that. But I won't make the same mistake twice," Hecate said. Pine pinched the bridge of his nose. For all her skill, Hecate had a terrible lack of patience. There was no doubt in his mind that Team Jetbead was on their guard now. Striking them when they're expecting it could only lead to disaster. And that was only if they ever decided to leave the safety of the academy.

"My hands are tied. There's nothing I can do that won't catch the attention of the other professors," Pine said. It was a lie. There was plenty he could do, but it all fell well below his moral standards. Even if he swore allegiance to the Macabre, he was still a Huntsman. He still wanted to help people, not kill them, but the other council members weren't so keen on his ideals

Hecate looked down at something off-screen, her frown growing wider. The calm in her voice wavered, "Do you know how Pepper is doing?"

Pine expected her to ask. She still cared about Pepper. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for her, knowing what was done to her and that she was sole reason for it. The Macabre were nothing short of brutal when it came to punishing traitors. Pepper didn't do herself any favors by betraying them to the Huntsmen. After Hecate captured her and brought her back, they all knew what would happen to her.

He read the reports. Pepper was re-educated according to the council. Whatever they did to her brought her to the brink of death. Hecate had been blaming herself since then, focusing on her training and her missions to distract her from what she saw as her own personal failure.

Pine didn't blame her. She did what she was told. He doubted she saw it the same way, though.

"Her condition is improving…slightly. Whether or not she'll make a full recovery is still up in the air. At best, we can hope that she does. At worst…" Pine trailed off.

"All that matters now is getting the Huntress she was working with," Hecate said. Her words were hollow like she didn't believe what she was saying, "Those Huntsmen, all of them, they need to go. They don't deserve the people's respect.

A long period of silence fell between them. Pine fixed her with a measured gaze. The confident, hard expression she usually wore underneath her mask rebuilt itself. Her fragile voice was replaced with a cold tone full of hatred, "If you can't help me, I'll do it myself. I won't rest until I see that Huntress dead."

With that the monitor shut off, darkness filling the room. Pine pulled the scroll from his computer and set it aside. Hecate was operating independently now. He didn't have a hand in whatever happened to Team Jetbead now. He should have felt relief, but instead he felt a heavy ball of dread grow in his chest. Targets or not, they were still his students.

"What a mess I've gotten myself in."

…

Jay sat at the end of a long table, resting her cheek in her hand and looking out a tall, arched window. The sun hung just above the horizon, bathing the area in a warm orange glow. The clamor of students in the halls was long gone, replaced with soft murmurs and the rustling of pages turning.

The library was massive, easily the largest one Jay had ever seen. The high ceiling and towering bookshelves made her seem tiny by comparison. Sitting near the balcony that overlooked the first floor, Jay spotted a few other students below her studying or quietly reading in rows of similar tables.

Stretching her arms, Jay yawned. Her spine cracked with a few satisfying pops. She undid the buttons of her uniform jacket and bunched it into a ball before collapsing in the soft pile, sighing contently.

"I don't think sleeping is allowed in the library, Jay," Ritch said across from her without looking up from his book. Jay glared at him over the folds of her vest.

"We just broke like twenty laws last night. One more won't kill us," she replied. Ritch prepared to reply, but Jay buried her face back into her jacket, covering her ears with her hands. Ritch tapped her on the shoulder. She didn't move an inch. He reached out and shook her, but was met with the same result.

"Man, she's being stubborn," he said. Next to him, Tephra sighed. She snapped her own book shut and leaned back into her chair. The table suddenly jostled and Jay shot up, rubbing her shin with a pained look on her face.

"Ow, what was that for?" she shouted. Tephra shrugged and another bang came from underneath the table. Jay hissed, pulling her other shin away and glaring daggers at Tephra, "You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"Love you too, Chief," Tephra quipped. She picked up her book and continued running her fingers along the braille writing as if nothing ever happened. Jay rolled her eyes and returned to watching the trees outside sway against the wind. Ritch looked between them, his brow knit tight.

"Umm…Jay?" he said. She perked up, looking at him from the corners of her eyes.

"Yeah, what's up?" she asked. Ritch played with his feet, muttering something under his breath. Whatever he was trying to say was doing a good job of eluding him, "Are you…okay? I mean, in class, you were pretty shaken up. That's not even counting how you almost hit Professor Pine."

Jay's lips curled into a small frown. Her gaze fell to the wooden table as she drew patterns on it with her finger. It was only a matter of time until they asked. The incident in Pine's class had become the latest gossip for Beacon's students.

It wasn't long before the rumor mill started pumping out insane explanations for what happened. Jay didn't pay much attention to it and she certainly didn't want to entertain the other students with an excuse they wouldn't believe. But at the very least, her team deserved an explanation.

She closed her eyes. When she opened them, she gave Ritch a small, crestfallen smile, "I'm okay. Pine just kind of startled me. I wasn't having the most comforting dream so I guess I got a little jumpy."

Ritch raised a brow, leaning forward and crossing his arms on the dark oak of the table. Tephra seemed to take an interest as well. She lowered her book, her Faunus ears pointing in her direction.

"Well…I never told you guys how this happened, did I?" Jay pulled her glove off, flexing silicone fingers, "It happened nine years ago. Back then, I didn't live in Vale. I lived in some small settlement out in the middle of nowhere called Rue Village, wide open space, friendly people."

Jay clasped her hands together. She never talked much about her home before coming to Vale. Mostly because it wasn't something the people needed to know. Spriggan was the only person Jay told when they became best friends, "My mom was a Huntress, came from a long line of them. She thought the village was a good place to raise a kid. The Grimm didn't attack often and even if they did, she made short work of them. The people there loved her for that. She was the only Huntress who stayed to protect them instead of abandoning them like the kingdoms did."

Ritch had stayed silent, but something Jay said made him furrow his brow, "Wait…your mom was a Huntress? What do you mean?"

Jay gave a slow nod, "One night, she went off to thin out any Grimm wandering too close to the village. But while she was gone, a horde of them attacked. I remember waking up to them destroying everything…and killing people out in the streets."

Jay shuffled in her chair, the dead quiet settling in between them. The apologetic expressions on her friends' faces lingered on for longer than she wanted. It was impossible to tell whether to try to lighten the mood or just sit and power through. So instead, she looked them both in the eye, keep her tone as strong as she could.

"I tried to hide. My mom always told me to hide under my bed if they ever attacked the village. I remember…being scared. It was probably the most terrified I've ever been, "Jay remembered the feeling she had in her gut back then, the sinking pit in her stomach that exploded outward in a rush of adrenaline. It had never gone away since Rue Village was attacked. It was the instinct to survive, a remnant of her past that served her well as a Huntress in training, "I wanted it so bad to be a nightmare. Just something that was only a pinch away from being some nasty thing I'd forget. But all that screaming, all that suffering, I don't think I'll ever be able to erase it."

Her throat tightened as if her vocal chords were being stretched to the breaking point. Jay swallowed and continued on, her heart growing heavy with apprehension, "A Beowolf managed to force itself into my house. Then it came into my room. Then…this."

Jay held her arm out, "It got my scent off the bed and dragged me out. It didn't let go. It just…bit harder and harder. Next thing I know, my mom is standing over me and there was a dead Beowolf on my bed. I passed out from blood loss after that."

The silence that had fallen on her teammates stayed. Ritch's frown remained as he sat forward, "I'm…sorry to hear that."

"It's alright, guys, really. Don't get all mopey on my account. Sure it's hard to think about sometimes, but I shouldn't let it control me, right? I can brood all I want, but it's never going to make a difference. I just got to keep moving forward," Jay said. Ritch offered a small smile, and then he realized Jay never answered why her mother was no longer a Huntress.

A stack of books landed on the table between them. Spriggan sighed and collapsed into a chair next to Jay, wiping her brow, "I didn't realize the library had so many books on Mountain Glenn."

Jay grabbed one of the books and skimmed through it, "Some of this looks outdated. Back when Mountain Glenn wasn't a ghost town."

"I apologize. I just took whatever seemed relevant," Spriggan pulled out her scroll and expanded it to its larger, tablet form, "I did manage to download a current map of Mountain Glenn, however. It might come in handy."

Spriggan set her tablet in the middle of the table. An image of the dilapidated Mountain Glenn was displayed from a bird's eye view, "As you can see, Mountain Glenn served mostly as a commercial and residential district. So there are quite a few high-rises and skyscrapers where our targets can hide out in. Unfortunately, that poses a problem for us. If these people were smart enough to ambush us twice, they're probably smart enough to keep lookouts."

Jay studied the image. Most of Mountain Glenn was easy to navigate, but she could bet that their enemies knew that too, "If they do have lookouts, what are the odds they may have set up camp in one of the taller buildings? Some of these look like you can see all of Mountain Glenn from the top."

"If that turns out to be true, sneaking up on them may prove difficult. They may try to escape or even set up another trap if they spot us," Spriggan said. Ritch stroked his chin, his finger falling on the corner of the screen.

"This is near Vale, right? There's a collection of buildings here that are connected by sky bridges. We make it there, we may be able to scout out potential hideouts. Heck, if we're lucky, we may even see them before they see us," he said.

"Chorus Towers, a five-star hotel that catered to politicians and the upper class. That seems to be our best bet. We can plan out a proper plan of attack once we're situated here," Spriggan left a small yellow dot as she pressed a finger on the buildings Ritch pointed out.

"What else do we need to know?" Jay asked. Spriggan expanded the image to show the entirety of Vale City with Mountain Glenn near its southeast border.

"There's also the matter of how to get to Mountain Glenn. There are no streets or gates on the surface that can lead to it and I doubt that Beacon would allow us to borrow one of their Bullheads," she said. Ritch stroked his chin, appearing lost in thought.

"Our best bet is probably the metro tunnels. I remember a lot of people used them to get to Mountain Glenn to Vale. The only problem is that they were collapsed when everyone was pulled out to stop the Grimm from invading the city," he said.

"There may be a tunnel that wasn't collapsed completely or those guys may have to dug through the rubble. We just have to hope there's a way through for us," Jay said. She nodded to herself and raised her head to address her team, "Okay, so we'll go in through metro, come out near the edge of Mountain Glenn, get to the top of Chorus Towers, and move on from there. I want everyone to check their weapons and get a good night's sleep. We're leaving tomorrow."

"Jay, I don't think that's a good idea. We're still recovering from last night. Jumping back into the fight now would seem…well stupid," Spriggan said. Jay rose from her chair, planting her hands on the table and taking the time to look at each of them.

"I know, but we need to do this as soon as possible. We bag these guys now and we don't have to worry about them ever again," Jay said. Tephra spoke up.

"Chief, you do realize that it's going to take hours to even get to Mountain Glenn, right? Add on the time it takes to find them and the walk back and we're looking at an entire day of being gone. And there's also this weird obligation we all have called school. Have you heard of it? It's pretty important," she said with sarcasm dripping in every word. Ritch gave her a light tap to her arm with the back of his hand

"Tephra has a point, Jay. We should probably wait until the weekend. Gives us enough time to rest and nobody will notice us if we're gone the whole day," he added. Jay looked between them all and tugged on the ribbon of her uniform.

"Alright, alright, we'll wait to the weekend. Geez, there I go getting overruled by the people I'm supposed to be leading again," Jay muttered. Spriggan smiled and patted Jay on the shoulder.

"It's fine. We're just trying to do what we think is right. It's a good thing that we can all balance each other out. I suppose that's what Ozpin was aiming for when he put those relics on the pedestal," Spriggan said. Jay merely shrugged. Even if they had their differences in opinion, she trusted them to get the job done.

Spriggan settled herself back into her chair, producing a sheet of colorful paper from her breast pocket, "Well, with that out of the way, I was hoping we could talk about more lighthearted things."

Unfolding the piece of paper, she set it down for everyone to see. The words at the top of the page were written in a bold, eye-catching font.

Come to Vale Central Gardens for a celebration of the Vytal Festival! Games, Food, and live music! Fun for all ages!

"They're having a festival…to celebrate the Vytal festival?" Jay asked, cocking a brow. Despite the odd occasion, she couldn't deny that she found the idea appealing. Spending an afternoon with her team having fun for once made her bounce in her seat, "This sounds pretty awesome. The last time I ever went to an event for fun was Signal's Ice Cream Social."

"I seem to recall you not enjoying yourself that night. Particularly when the dancing started," Spriggan said. She was right. Jay did have a good time eating ice cream and chatting with friends. It was only when the school's fog machine broke down did the memory sour.

"I think you'd be annoyed too if you were roped into being a backup smoke machine," Jay said. She shuddered when she thought about how the two student organizers asked her nonstop for her help until she caved, "I pretty much kissed my social life goodbye after that. You know how humiliating it feels to have to sit under a stage and shoot smoke out of your fingers for an hour?"

"Wow Chief, good to see you're so into the school spirit," Tephra said.

"I thought it would be a fun idea for us all to go. I heard some of the other students were attending as well. After all the stress from the past few days, it would be good to unwind for a bit," Spriggan said. Jay showed a faint smile then addressed the rest of her team.

"Alright guys, consider this," Jay tapped the flyer with a confident smirk, "your reward for bearing through all this. Once the pre-festival rolls around, the food is on me."

The faces of her team brightened, her own smile growing wider. She couldn't help but feel glad to raise her team's morale. Through all the messes and all the fights they endured thus far, to be able to find some happiness was what they needed.

She looked out the window one more time as the others talked about the festival. The sun barely peeked out of the horizon, bright orange sunlight turning to a veil of violet as night fell. Stars twinkled in the sky, surrounding the bright shattered moon. Even in the darkness, there was light to be found.

They just had to look.