"...you think he's gonna wake any time soon?" Gwen asked Nicolai and Diana, all staring at Roland, who was still heavily sleeping in his bed, despite the several ear piercing alarms they put in his ears.
Roland let out a loud snore, and Nicolai sighed at their sleeping team mate. "I didn't even think it was possible for someone to be this heavy of a sleeper. How much time do we have left until classes?"
Diana looked over at the clock hung on the wall, before answering, "About half-an-hour left, though we didn't eat breakfast yet."
"Can't we just go now and bring him some food back? I'm starving!" Gwen complained.
Diana thought about that for a moment, and replied, "I've got a better idea." She walked over to her nightstand and picked up a hardcover book she was reading. She then walked over to Roland, and promptly smacked him across the face with the book.
"OW! The heck was that for?!"
"For oversleeping! Now hurry up and get ready before we miss breakfast!" Diana yelled at him aggressively.
"Y-Yes ma'am!" Roland quickly complied, jumping out of his bed and running to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Gwen was laughing her butt off at the scene in front of her, and though Nicolai didn't show much expression, Diana could tell her was snickering from under his mask. Soon, Roland came out of the bathroom, changed into his school uniform and sweating a little.
Diana smiled cheerfully at him and said, "Good! Now lets head down to the cafeteria!" She practically skipped out of the room. Roland and the others stood there, shocked for a moment by her sudden change in attitude, before following her out their dorm. 'God, who knew Diana could be so cheerful and scary at the same time?' Roland thought to himself, jogging to keep up with Diana and the others.
-
As they ate their breakfast together in the cafeteria, Diana couldn't help but notice they were getting a few glances and glares from the other students around them, mainly humans. Not that she was surprised, of course. They were an all faunus team, she expected to get some hate from other students around them. She was also certain they were staring at Nicolai's strange attire. He wore the school uniform like everyone else had to, but he kept the mask on, and still wore his hooded cloak, concealing his identity, yet technically not breaking Beacon's uniform code. He also wore other unnecessary things to cover himself up, such as gloves, making it so that they was still no skin revealed. Well, she doubted they'd allow the mask, but surprisingly, no teacher seemed to give them a second glance.
"Hey, what's up with the masked freak?" They heard someone from another table tease, followed by some laughter. Nicolai simply ignored them, slightly tilting his mask so he could put food in his mouth. Four humans started making their way towards them, which happened to be team CRDL. 'Oh great,' Diana thought, 'First day of classes, and someone on our team's probably going to get in a fight.'
"Didn't you hear me?" The leader of team CRDL, Cardin, was about to reach for Nicolai's hood, but boy, did he regret that. A tendril of darkness shot out from under Nicolai's cloak and wrapped itself around Cardin's wrist. Nicolai didn't even bother moving or anything, he simply continued to eat his breakfast. Cardin tried to pull his hand out of the tendril, only to accomplish absolutely nothing. "Let me go!" he shouted, but Nicolai didn't react. He finished the reamins of his food, and took a sip from his coffee. Cardin tried to punch him with his other hand, but another tendril shot out and grabbed Cardin's other wrist.
"You won't accomplish anything by being an idiot." Nicolai casually commented at Cardin's helpless state. Cardin growled at him, struggling to free himself. His team mates stood by him, shocked by Nicolai's powers.
"Oi!" Gwen shouted out at Nicolai. "We gotta get to our class!" Diana, Roland, and Gwen were already near the entrance of the cafeteria.
"Coming," Nicolai snapped his fingers, and his tendrils threw Cardin backwards, crashing him into a random table. Nicolai jogged over to his team mates and followed them to their class, ignoring the whispers and gossips he knew was going on in the cafeteria.
-
Team DRGN entered Professor Port's classroom, and took their seats about ten minutes before class started. There weren't a lot of people there yet, just a few teams and Professor Port doing some paperwork at his desk. He glanced at Nicolai's strange appearance, but quickly looked back down to the papers piled on his desk. Team DRGN talked about random topics while waiting for class to start, such as their semblances and weapons. They learned that Diana could disguise herself as anyone or anything, Roland had inhuman strength, Gwen could assemble or disassemble anything (her semblance is called Assemble) and Nicolai, though they all already saw his semblance, was called 'Grimm'. He also revealed that with his semblance, he could detect negative feelings.
Seconds before class started, team RWBY came rushing in and they quickly took their seats, all panting from their lack of air. Gwen, Diana, and Roland noticed Nicolai stare at Blake for a few seconds as she got into her seat, before diverting his attention elsewhere. 'Seriously, what's up with him and Blake?' Gwen thought as she directed her attention towards Professor Port, who was beginning to address the class.
Unfortunately, everyone on team DRGN got quickly bored of Professor Port's lesson. Diana tried her best to pay attention, but felt her mind slowly drifting off. Roland already looked like he was about to go back to sleep. Gwen looked around the room, trying to find something worth paying attention to, but the most interesting thing she could find was a blunderbuss sitting on the wall. Nicolai seemed to stare at the grimm trophies laid across the wall, but his team mates could see him occasionally glance at Blake before looking back at the trophies. 'Nicolai must rather have a crush on her, or really hates her.' Roland thought as he watched his team mate take another quick look at Blake. Diana was surprised that Blake didn't even notice Nicolai creepily watching her.
Another thing team DRGN noticed about Nicolai is that he seemed to be annoyed by the way Professor Port talked about grimm. For an example, when Port joked about the grimm being his "prey", they noticed Nicolai's hand twitch a little, Diana even thought she saw his glove glow a little, as if he was about to use his semblance to attack someone.
Anyways, the rest of the class continued to be quite boring (Port's story telling didn't help at all; if anything, it made the class even more boring). However, as Port was going over what a huntsman should be like, Nicolai all the suddenly whispered out loud, "Jealousy."
Diana narrowed her eyebrows, and whispered to him, "What?"
"Weiss." He replied. "I can feel her envy towards Ruby. She obviously doesn't approve of Ruby being the team leader. I bet that she feels better fit for Ruby's position." Diana and her other team mates looked over to Weiss, and saw that she was glaring angrily at Ruby, who was picking her nose and quite oblivious to what was going on. She made her jealousy even more obvious when she volunteered to battle the Boarbatusk.
"Wow," Roland commented on Nicolai's ability. "The more I hang out with you, the more I'm certain that you're a grimm yourself."
Nicolai chuckled a little, and answered back, "Who ever told you I wasn't one?" Roland was silent for a few seconds, trying to decide if Nicolai was really cool or really creepy. His thought process was interrupted, when the battle between Weiss and the Boarbatusk began.
At first, Weiss was doing fine against the Boarbatusk. Unfortunately, Ruby seemed to be a distraction to Weiss. She was trying to encourage Weiss, but she ended up just annoying her, which led to her losing her weapon against the grimm. Weiss dove out of the way as the Boarbatusk charged at her, and it crashed into a wall. Weiss took the opportunity to rush over to her weapon and reclaim it. "Weiss!" They heard Ruby shout. "Go for it's belly! There's no armor undernea-"
"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss interrupted her, clearly showing how annoyed she was. Ruby sunk into her seat with a sorrow expression on her face. The Boarbastusk started spinning into a ball, and charged at Weiss at full speed. She quickly put up a protection rune to block the attack, and the Boarbatusk was knocked backwards, with it's belly exposed. Weiss used a leap rune to boost herself towards it, and stabbed it with her sword, finishing it off.
"Bravo, Bravo!" Professor Port praised Weiss. "It seems that we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training!" He looked at his watch, and said, "It appears that we have some more time left, perhaps enough time for one more match! Anyone else wish to prove them self as a true hunter or huntress?" Weiss took her seat with her team, ignoring Ruby's sad look on her face. Several students raised their hand, wanting to show off that they were just as strong as Weiss was. Port scanned the classroom, and he noticed a certain silver tailed student in team DRGN's row, paying little attention. "You there!" he shouted, taking Roland by surprise. "Are you a true hunter like Ms. Schnee here?"
-
Roland was equipped with the gear he wore in the Emerald Forest, with Silver Reaver in rifle mode. He stared at the two cages in front of him. Instead of fighting a Boarbatusk like Weiss did, he was to fight two Beowolves. "Now then, let the battle begin!" Port announced, and released the Beowolves. They instantly charged at Roland, who was firing his gun at one of the grimm. The Beowolves here must have been much stronger than the ones he fought in the Emerald Forest, because his bullets did little damage to them. 'Fine then,' Roland thought, shifting his rifle into a sword. 'I'll just have to slice them up!' Both Beowolves lunged at Roland from the sides and attempted to bite him his arms. Roland activated his strength semblance, and punched both the grimm away with no injuries. As they were both fazed by his sudden strength, he ran at the rightmost grimm and slammed his sword down onto it. However, he was too slow, and the Beowolf barely managed to jump away from him to dodge his attack. The other Beowolf attack his back, taking him by surprise. He shook off the beast and tried to slam his sword down onto that one too, but he was ambushed by the other grimm. They seemed to be tag teaming him, as Roland was too slow to be able to hit a single on of them.
The other members of team DRGN watched as their team mate struggled against the two wolves. Diana heard a strange noise to her right, and looked to see Nicolai. Though she couldn't see his mouth, she was able to figure out that Nicolai was whispering to the Beowolves. Though she didn't know what he was saying, she hoped that he was trying to help Roland.
The match slowly went into Roland's favor, as the Beowolves suddenly slowed down, making them much easier for Roland to attack. Roland used his semblance to power up his attack as he slashed at a too-slow Beowolf, cutting it in half and killing it instantly. The other Beowolf attempted to attack from behind again, but Roland spun around with his sword ready, and stabbed through the other grimm. "Impressive!" Port commented on Roland's battle. "I heard that you were quite a powerhouse during the initiation, and I see that they weren't lying!" Roland smiled sheepishly at the professor, and took his seat with his team mates. "Now I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today."
As Professor Port went over their homework, Roland leaned over to Nicolai and whispered to him, "Thanks for the help."
Nicolai smirked a little, and replied "You really need to work on your speed and strategy. I wont be there to save you at every battle."
"I know, guess I never bother working on those things." Roland sighed as he packed up his things along with the others, and got up from his desk. Nicolai glanced over at Weiss as she rushed out of the class, and he sighed.
"Let me guess." Gwen said, noticing Nicolai. "Weiss is still annoyed at Ruby." He simply nodded, and followed his team mates out of the classroom.
-
That night, team DRGN was gathered in their dorm because Diana told them she wanted to discuss something with them. "So, what is it you wanted to talk about?" asked Gwen sitting on her bed.
"Well, since we're a team, I thought we should know each other better." Diana answered. "You know, things about our family, outside life, what we did before Beacon, all that stuff!"
"Uh... yeah, that's a good idea..." Roland tried to act cheerful, but it was obvious he didn't like the idea of talking about his life before Beacon. The others didn't seem any happier than he did.
"Um... if you guys don't want to talk about it, it's fine." Diana nervously said to them, not sure how to respond to the suddenly darkened mood in their dorm.
"No, it's fine." Nicolai replied to her rather quitely. "I told Gwen I'd tell her about myself earlier anyways. Before I got into Beacon, I hunted White Fang members. I appreciated the fact that they wanted to help faunuses, except that their methods were far too extreme for my liking. So I wear all this clothing to conceal my identity, make sure the White Fang never find out who I really am."
"Why does your identity matter?" Roland asked him. "You wear that disguise, they know that a masked, cloaked teenager is hunting them. You don't wear one, they know an unmasked teenager if hunting them. Doesn't really make much of a difference."
"True, but the White Fang think I'm dead." Everyone's eyes widened, shocked by what Nicolai said. "You see, I started fighting them before I started concealing myself. I got in a major freak accident at a Dust factory they were raiding, and they believe I was killed by an explosion in there. My face is a bit scarred up, but I mainly wear it so they still believe I'm dead."
"What about your family?" Diana asked. "Do they know you're still alive?"
Much to everyone's surprise, Nicolai started laughing at that question. "My family couldn't care less about me. After they found out about my semblance, they feared me. They basically disowned me, leaving me to live off that streets. The only friend I had then was-" He suddenly stopped, before saying to them, "I only had one friend during that time."
"Another thing you said you'd tell me about, what's up with you and Blake?" Gwen questioned. "You were trying to avoid her in the Emerald Forest, and kept looking at her during our classes."
Nicolai was silent for a few seconds, before answering, "Blake... and I... have a bad history together." Nicolai kept hesitating between words, as if he was unsure if he was doing the right thing, telling them the truth. "We knew each other before that accident, the one that led the White Fang to believe I'm dead. We were quite close friends too, a bit too close for some people's comfort..."
"What do you mean 'Too close for some people's comfort'?" Diana asked curiously.
"...Well... us being too close, is what led to the Dust accident. I... I don't want to tell you too much about it, for I'd end up revealing some of Blake's secrets, and I don't want her to get suspicious of me."
"But why are you hiding your identity from her then?" Gwen questioned. "If you guys were friends, then she'd be happy to see you, right?"
"We were friends." Nicolai put a rather large emphasis on the 'were'. "The day of the incident, I lost my faith in her. I stopped trusting people, and hid myself behind this," he pointed at his mask "She's why that Dust accident happened."
"Blake caused the accident?" Roland asked, shocked. "How?"
"She was..." Nicolai drifted off, and remained silent for a few seconds, before continuing. "I've already revealed too much about Blake. I don't want to spread the truth about her, she'd be shunned, feared, and treated horribly. All you guys need to know is that it wasn't entirely her fault for what happened. If you want the full truth, then we simply have to wait for Blake to tell it."
He remained silent and looked down onto the floor, signaling he was done with his storytelling. There was an awkward silence in their dorm, until Roland spoke up. "You know Nicolai, you aren't the only person here against the White Fang." Nicolai picked up his head, and looked towards Roland. "When I was maybe 9 or 10, my family got into conflict with them. Though we were also faunuses, my family hated their way of terrorizing people. They say that they don't accomplish anything except make humans hate us even more."
"Well, they're not wrong..." Diana muttered quietly, listening to Roland.
"Anyways, White Fang members attacked our home, and we had to run away. We've been living all across the country, hiding from them. We'd run into them occasionally, but my family never lost to them once. We knocked out and turned in any White Fang that tried to capture or kill us, but still, it wasn't fun. We were sort of poor, so we lived in tents in the middle of the forest usually. Once in a while, we'd head into the city to buy things or turn in White Fang members, but we were rarely ever out of hiding. I hate to admit it, but I was honestly terrified back than. I was always afraid I'd go to sleep, and wake up to find someone missing, or I'd wake up in a prison cell." Roland stared at the ground, with a weak smile on his face. "On the bright side, my family is still alive, and still hiding from the White Fang."
"Who do you have in your family?" Diana asked, trying to brighten up the dark mood in their room.
"Both my parents, and a younger brother." Roland answered. He seemed a bit depressed, explaining his past to the others.
"Do you have any idea where they are now?" Gwen asked.
Roland shook his head. "I write to them every week, with a special family bird delivering our letters. I don't know how it always finds them, but it does."
Gwen looked down onto her bed, and muttered under her breath, "At least you still have family..."
"...You have bad relations with the White Fang too, don't you?" Nicolai muttered to her, and Gwen nodded.
"Similar to Roland, my family got involved with the White Fang. Difference is, instead of against the White Fang, they were with them." Everyone's head perked up in disbelief. "About five years ago, when I was 13, my family moved to a house in the middle of nowhere. We were secluded, I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone, and my family started training me. They told me I was going to be a hero to faunuses, that I was training to help people, and I blindly believed them. Every now and then, some shady person would come to my house and discuss something with my parents. The room they talked in was soundproof, and I was forbidden from listening to their conversations."
"Let me guess," Roland sighed, "those shady people were White Fang members, and your parents were discussing plans with them."
Gwen nodded, tears forming in her eyes. "Whenever they went out to work, they were actually raiding shops, robbing factories, all that stuff. I was too obedient, did everything they told me to do, always being told that I was doing it to help our kind. I never left the house unless to our backyard to train, I was home schooled, though I'm not sure if you can call learning how to blow things up homeschooling. I never saw other kids, never went into the city, never did anything except stay in my house and do whatever I was told to do." Tears started streaming down Gwen's cheeks, and Roland handed her a tissue box. She silently thanked him and wiped her face before continuing. "One day, curiosity took over me. My parents were once again having a discussion with their associate, and I eavesdropped them near the door. They must have been in a rush, because the door was left slightly open, enough to let me hear through it. I... I heard them talking about Dust they robbed, about where they planned on attacking. I even heard their associate mention something about people that they killed.
"The moment I realized what was happening, why we were so secluded, why they were training me in combat, why I was hidden away from everyone else; not only did they join the White Fang, they wanted me to join them as well. That same day, during their meeting, I packed up as much as I could and ran away from home. They must have really thought I was some obedient dog, because they put up no defense whatsoever to prevent me from running away. I didn't even know where I was going, just kept running away until I was certain I was away from them. The next couple of years, I was living on the streets of a town I didn't even know the name of. I still continued training, but so I could fight the White Fang, not help them. Couple years later, Ozpin saw me fighting a bunch of grimm, and he allowed me into Beacon."
Everyone in the room remained silent, not sure how to respond to Gwen's story. "I know this means basically nothing to you, but I'm sorry." Diana said to her, and Gwen just nodded.
"So... Diana, what's your family like?" Roland asked her, and Diana let out a weak smile. She thought that maybe talking about their families would bring up some joy and laughs in the room. She had no idea that everyone in this room had their family affected by the White Fang in some way. She was planning on saying she lived a normal life, that her family lived in a completely normal house in some normal neighborhood. But her true life was far from normal, and after hearing everyone else's stories, she just couldn't lie to them like that.
"I have no idea who my family was. I never knew who they were, I don't have the slightest memory of them."
"Then... who raised you? How'd you survive?" Gwen asked, still using several tissues.
"Well, I... was raised by White Fang." Diana tried to say this as quietly as possible, hoping the others didn't hear her. "All my childhood memories were in the White Fang. My parents could have been terrorists for all I know. They raised me, trained me, and I thought of them as family. I became an actual member when I was only 6, and was already doing missions for them. Of course, I did very minor missions at first, but as I got older, they gave me more... extreme missions."
"But... you didn't actually... LIKE being in there, right?" Roland asked, with a shaky tone. "You just did their missions because you had to, right?"
"O-o-of course I didn't like it!" Diana responded a bit too quick and in a strangely nervous voice. "If I-I didn't do their missions, t-they'd kill me! That's the only reason I d-did their missions!" Her team mates stared at her uneasily. "I-I was afraid that if I d-didn't do as they said, I'd be punished, so I j-just obeyed all their orders." Diana was stuttering so much, it was becoming hard to understand what she was saying.
"Diana, calm down. We don't think you're evil, or a monster." Nicolai assured her. "Like you said, you were forced to do their missions. You would've been killed if you hadn't."
Nicolai's voice was so calm and assuring, it made Diana want to cry. 'But that's just the problem.' She thought to herself. 'I am evil. I am a monster. They didn't force me to do their work...'
"I actually know someone who used to be in the White Fang. She was like you, Diana. She was forced to work for them, but she didn't want to hurt people. She thought she was helping faunus kind at first, and then realized that she was only making life worst for them. I assume that you feel the same way." Nicolai was trying to make her feel better, but this only made Diana feel worst.
"...Yeah... that's how I felt..." Diana lied to them, practically whispering her words. "I... I'm going to sleep now." Diana didn't bother to brush her teeth or say good night to the others, she just fell onto her bed and buried herself into her blanket. 'Jeez, what was I thinking. Why would I suggest talking about family... They think I was forced to work for the White Fang... they think I hated them... please, please let them continue to believe that.'
