The sun. The moon. The stars. The sky. Every single one had a sort of duality with one another. Every single one relied upon each other, without one, this world wouldn't exist. Without this world, there would be nothing to give these celestial bodies meaning, they would be a meaningless collection of molecules flying through the universe.

Which was exactly how I felt now. I'm sure, if someone could peer into my mind, they would be sick of all the times I had said it up to this point. How many times I've complained. How many times I had thought about it. Pain though, does things to one's mind that just couldn't be fixed with a potion, or a power, or even a conversation.

And the sadness of that simple thought pained me even more as I stared at the setting sun glistening on the water. By my judgement, it was this very moment that my physical body had recovered from the injuries I had sustained during my battle with those...those people but the pain was still there. People said time heals all wounds, but even a month hadn't healed my emotional wounds one bit. Those events were still fresh in my mind.

"Do you enjoy sunsets like this Adam?" A soft voice asked from behind me, a voice I instantly recognized.

"Do you intend on telling me I should be inside, Ria?" I asked coldly, not taking my eyes off of the horizon. I felt her presence get closer to me, and eventually, she stood by my side, staring out into the horizon with me. She was a considerable amount shorter than I, only coming up to my chest.

"Not this time, no, I think I'll watch this sunset with you." She said with a soft smile.

"Why would you do that?" I questioned, glancing at her, but she didn't look at me. I couldn't help but notice how her eyes literally sparkled in the light of the setting sun, and how her hair seemed to flow slowly in the light breeze. Her face was so full of life, something I hadn't felt...since…

"You're going to leave today aren't you?" She asked, still not looking at me, but rather keeping her eyes locked upon the horizon.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well we made a promise Adam, the moment you got better, I wouldn't hold you here any longer." She spoke, her smiling widening as she looked into my eyes. "You have your own answers to find remember? Did you expect me to beg you to stay? That really would be kind of corny to say right now in front of a sunset wouldn't it?"

"Sometimes, you baffle me." I sighed, shaking my head, then turning back to the sunset. The ocean had swallowed half of the sun by this point, and the red, oranges, and yellows that were reflecting were more beautiful than anything I had seen in a very long while.

"Because I'm not predictable like you?" She teased with a small laugh, turning towards me and looking me up and down. "I do hope you've planned all of this crossing the sea business out, it's not like I'm just going to summon some boat tickets to Mantle. Last I checked, they were still blocking everyone and anyone trying to get in."

"Right. I had forgotten about that." I said, looking down at the beach.

"Honestly, sometimes you really are hopeless." She sighed, shaking her head and putting her hands on her hips. "There's really only one option then Adam."

"What's that?"

"A half broken boat my father left me." She said, pointing to a cliff in the distance. "I have it stored over there because...it's half broken. I never thought I would need to fix it, so I never did, but we should be able to get away with sailing there if I finesse it right."

"We? Are you inviting yourself to go to Mantle with me?"

"Last I checked, your semblance doesn't give you the ability to patch giant holes in boats." Ria spoke, shaking her head and sighing loudly.

"And yours does?"

"My semblance is ice, if I use enough ice and we can keep it cold enough, then we shouldn't have any issues at all." She smiled, folding her arms, then turning back to the sunset. There was a moment of silence as the emotion on her face fell into one of pure calm, something that calmed even I.

"Are you sure you want to come along with me? I'm not the most loved person." I said, with genuine concern.

"The fact that you are even considering my interests shows that you are growing. You aren't the same sort of person you were before." She spoke, her voice completely serious.

"If you're implying that I've become what everyone says is a good guy, then you're wrong. I fully intend to take my revenge on those that tried to destroy me, and those that abused me." I asserted, almost challenging her statement.

"A good person is in the eyes of the beholder." She said simply, looking at me once again. "Heroes, as the world sees them, are flawed. They allow truly bad people to roam because of some sense that killing is inherently a bad thing."

"Is it not?"

"As contradictory as it sounds, no. I know that people tend to say that fighting fire with fire is a bad thing but...everyone is fine with the killing of Grimm." She explained, taking a breath. I could feel the meaning behind every word that she was saying, this wasn't something she was just bullshitting. "But when humans, or even faunus, have killed more people that even Grimm have, we have to show them some sort of sympathy when they don't wish to change? What is the sense of that?"

"Then why did you let me live, I've done horrible things. I've killed...so many. Hurt...so many." I said, pain overtaking my heart.

"As I keep telling you Adam, the fact that you are willing to admit that is what makes all the difference. Now I'm finished talking about this. The fact of the matter is, in my eyes, you are a good person, doing what you believe is right." She spoke, looking deeply into my eyes. "And I'm going to make sure that you stay on this path. Even if it means my discomfort."

"You truly are a weird woman."

"As I told you, I'm not like everyone else." She shrugged, beckoning me to follow her. I shook my head and obeyed for some reason I couldn't really figure out. Never before was I in the position of a learner, I had always been the master, and when I wasn't, I learned by my own self. I had risen up and learned how to fight on my own to destroy the Schnee's and anyone else who would dare stand in my way.

Yet here I was following a member of the exact race that had put me in that position. Sure, she wasn't like those that had put me under slavery, but just from the back, the white hair...it brought pain into my heart.

We walked for a while, until we reached a large cove, with sand as black as the night sky, where the half broken boat sat. The boat was pure white, the complete opposite of the sand, but had two large holes in the front part, as well as a completely snapped mast.

"Ria that isn't half broken, that's definitely fully broken." I said, shaking my head, but she just scoffed at me.

"Fully broken means that I couldn't possibly finesse this thing to float, and I definitely can." She said, walking off towards the cove, and the boat that looked more like a beached whale than anything else.

"I certainly hope so, I'd rather not be stuck in the middle of a Grimm infested ocean with no help and no…" I started to say, then looked down at the only thing I had left, the sheathe I held my sword in, without the sword I so prized. "Ria, I must tell you something, something you must not repeat."

"Of course Adam, we're friends now, I'd never do anything like tell everyone a secret you have." She spoke with a smile, but those words only hurt my heart. She...she had said those words to me.

"My semblance...I don't think I can use it any longer." I said, gripping my sheathe hard. "To use my semblance, I've always needed the sword that went in this sheathe, but...it's gone. Forever gone probably…"

"So? What does that mean to me?" She questioned extremely nonchalantly, which slightly irritated.

"That means if any damn Grimm attack us, I won't be anything more than moral support. Blush, the sheathe, is only good for short range attacks." I said, trying to make her understand the gravity of the situation.

"If any Grimm want to attack us, I'll just take care of them." She shrugged, then turned around and skipped over to the boat. I, however, was just left baffled. This person that I had met was until anyone.

"Ria, do you ever have any weapons? I haven't seen you use a single one." I asked, approaching the hole in the boat, just as she did. She glanced at me with a confused look and shook her head.

"Why would I have needed to use a weapon, I have no reason to attack you." She spoke, then bent down to the bottom of the hole and placed both of her hands on the metal. She closed her eyes, and a strain appeared on her face, and amazingly I watched a thick formation of ice begin to expand from her hands. The temperature around her instantly dropped to almost freezing, and the ice sheet amazingly began to defy gravity and travel directly upward to close the hole.

"How is that even possible?" I questioned as I watched it fill the entire hole, but Ria only laughed it off.

"I told you that already, this is the power of my semblance." She spoke, shaking her head.

"I've never seen one this powerful before, that's why I'm surprised." I explained, putting my hand to the ice. Immediately the cold seared my hand, and I knew had my hand stayed there any longer, I'd be in serious danger.

"It's not that powerful Adam, don't exaggerate. That was probably the entirety of my aura for the next...couple hours?" She shrugged, walking to the front of the boat, and placing her hands on the hull. "Well instead of standing there big guy, do you want to give me a little help here?"

"Right, right." I muttered, joining her at the front, then pushing with all of my might. I felt paint still present in my chest as I began breathing heavily, and it was then that I knew I wasn't ever going to be back to my perfect form every again.

That was the price of being given a second chance at life.

Regardless of that however, we both managed to push the boat onto the pure blue waters of the bay, and the wall of ice actually held it above the surface. Surprising.

"See Adam, what did I tell you? Just a little ingenuity goes a long way." She smiled, putting her hands on her hips as she admired her work.

"Actually I think the word you used was finesse."

"Shut it Bull, I didn't ask for your opinion."

"But you quite literally said the words, 'what did I tell you?'" I pointed out, only to have her sigh loudly, then shake her head.

"I guess my genius just cannot be understood by someone of such a small brain, like yourself. Perhaps I should find someone who really understands me." She said, closing her eyes and doing a fake snivel.

"You are absolutely the most dramatic person I have ever met." I said dryly, looking back towards the boat. It looked to be powered by simple sails, as well as a very small engine below the ship. Honestly, it would have been a miracle if the engine even worked, but knowing how Ria was, there would be a miracle that did happen. While she had told me her semblance was only ice, her ability to always be in the right time at the right place amazed me. I figured there was more to her than met my eye, but there was absolutely no way of knowing any of that.

"Well I'd say my handiwork did fine, though we probably should leave sooner than later Adam, that Ice sheet won't last forever after all." She spoke seriously, glancing at me with her bright white eyes.

"Yes, we probably should leave. I want to get to Mantle as soon as possible."

"Seems like there's something you're searching for besides just the person who saved you." She suggested, folding her arms and looking towards the boat.

"Perhaps there is, perhaps there isn't. I'm not sure it's your business to know." I spoke dryly once again, beginning to wade out to the boat.

"That's understandable, but by saying that, you've just told me there absolutely is something else you're looking for. Don't you know that saying edgy things like that only just confirms that you're hiding something?" She questioned, but I simply rolled my eyes and focused on the task at hand.

I would not only face the person who saved me, but I would also once again face the person who had put me here in this situation in the first place.

I would once again face Blake Belladonna, and no longer would it be an encounter of evil.

Hello reader. I presume you think this is something telling you to follow, fav, etc. No, this is nothing of the sort.

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