Chapter 4: Bullies
Alexei shook his head as he watched Jaune once again lose a match, this time to Cardin Winchester. It was obvious what everyone thought as they saw it end. Just how the hell had Jaune even made it into Beacon? There was nothing wrong with losing a match, but Jaune had yet to win a single one he had been in. He hadn't even put up much of a fight in any one of them.
Goodwitch gave Jaune a lecture as Alexei noticed that the redhead from JNPR, Pyrrha, looked at Jaune with sad and concerned eyes. After Goodwitch was finished she turned back to Cardin.
"Do you think you can fight another match Mister Winchester?"
Cardin shrugged his massive shoulders, "Sure."
"Then what about you, Mister Gray?" she turned to Alexei. "You haven't fought in a single match. Your grade in this class is still a zero."
The room turned silent. Alexei knew that Goodwitch disliked him. She believed that Ozpin should have left him in his cell. She had been treating him this way ever since the year started. She would ask him to fight a match and he would always refuse. It had become a common thing, but the students always quieted down when it happened due to the high tension in the room.
"Nah," said Alexei. "I think I sprained my ankle getting out of bed."
"What's wrong with you?" asked Cardin. "Afraid I'll beat you?"
"No." said Alexei. "I'm just afraid that if I fight an asshole like you I might just lose control and snap your damn neck."
Cardin's face scrunched up in fury as he stepped toward Alexei. Glynda stood in front of Cardin and stopped him.
"Mister Gray, please keep a hold of your profanity or I will be forced to discipline you."
The bell rang and Alexei rose from his seat and followed the crowd to lunch. He could hear one boy comment on how much he would love to have Goodwitch discipline him.
"Why don't you ever fight?"
Alexei continued to walk as Ruby ran up to him. He had managed to keep his identity secret, but she still kept on trying to talk to him.
"You don't spar, you don't answer questions, you still haven't brought out your weapon, and you still haven't taken off the cloak or mask. Why are you like this?"
"For a lot of reasons."
"Then why don't you tell anyone? Why don't you let anyone close enough to be your friend?"
He spun on his heel so quick that she ran into him. She quickly took a long step back, causing rose petals to fly outwards.
"Why do you even care? Why is everyone so keen on getting to know the real Alexis? I don't want any friends, and I don't have to tell you why, so why don't you just try focusing on your own team instead of random strangers who want nothing to do with you?!"
It had come out a bit harsher than he had meant, but she had been annoying him. She looked up into his eyes, which were practically covered up by the darkness of his hood. She must have not seen what she was looking for, because she looked away. He turned back around and walked away, to the cafeteria, where he would eat his lunch.
He grabbed a sandwich, along with some fruit. He sat in his usual spot, a table in the far corner of the cafeteria. Due to his general antisocial behaviour, and tendency to tell anyone who came near him to go away, he always sat alone. Ruby and a few others had tried, but failed to get him to sit with others. Most of them just wanted to figure him out. To his annoyance, his behaviour and the fact that he was a complete mystery to everyone had actually earned him a small following of a few girls who just wanted to figure out who Alexis really was. Their heads were filled with the notion that underneath the gray cloak was a boy who had been hurt and just needed some love. He hadn't thought that his idea for a cover could backfire so easily. They weren't too big of a problem though. They would mostly just sit and stare and talk about him. None of them had really worked up any courage to make any kind of move. He looked over at the girls who started whispering more when they saw that they had gained his attention. He rolled his eyes and lifted up his cloth half mask for another bite of his sandwich.
He took a look around the cafeteria. Teams RWBY and JNPR always sat together. Their table was usually the loudest. With both Valkyrie and Yang that was no surprise. A few tables away from them was team CRDL in all its glory. Cardin was currently trying to yank out the rabbit ears of some poor faunus girl. He thought her last name was Scarlat or something along those lines. Poor girl reminded him of a faunus girl he had known as a child, but that felt like a century ago, probably because his time in that metal box of a containment cell had felt like century.
Cardin put on an even wider grin when he noticed Alexei was looking at him and his group. Cardin Winchester. His father was the head of a very powerful firearms manufacturer and distributor. His family was essentially the same as the Schnee family except for the fact that one family dealt in dust, and the other in gunpowder weapons. Seeing as how closely those two fields tended to work together the two families had held dealings in the past to work on special weapons and ammunition, but neither had sought to seal the deal. A part of Alexei wondered if the reason Weiss worked so hard to be a huntress was because she feared that if she didn't prove herself to her father then she would get married off to a Winchester boy or any other nobleman's son in order to make a strong business relationship.
Cardin himself was the picture perfect example of what money and power could do to a child. He was filled with ego to point of narcissism, and he always acted like he was the one in control. No doubt he had parental issues, just like any other rich kid. His hatred for faunus probably came from the fact that his father's business was high up on the White Fang's shit list just like the Schnee's. In other words, Alexei had no doubt that Cardin Winchester was a product of his environment, but that didn't mean he didn't hate the prick.
People like him were the reason society would never move forward. With unaccepting bigots such as him and the rest of the upper class and even the White Fang who would much rather generalize and discriminate, everyone would have to focus on the inside of the cities instead of the outside, where the hordes of Grimm sat and happily waited to destroy all that remained of humanity.
He hated that. The war with the Grimm was easy for him to understand. It was Hunters against monsters, simple as that. But when you actually applied morals, things became hard to understand or even choose between. The White Fang had legitimate reasons for being hateful, but did the people they used terrorist actions against really deserve what they got? He didn't like thinking about it. He knew that he definitely disliked those humans who decided to treat others differently based on something as simple as animal traits, but he also hated the White Fang for bringing harm to innocents.
He watched as the rest of the student body filed through the doors to head to their next class. He himself got up as well and put his tray on a rack. He walked through the halls and came across something he knew he had to avoid. Cardin and his gang had the Scarlat girl cornered and were taunting her as well as giving more tugs on her ears. One brought up the fact that they could strip search her for a tail. He tried to walk past as quickly and quietly as possible, but he was noticed and surrounded before he could really do anything.
"You're the asshole who talked a big game in combat training." said Cardin. "So why do you wear all that stuff to hide yourself? Are you just one ugly bastard?"
"I bet he's a freak just like her." said the one with the mohawk as he pointed at bunny girl. She was against a wall, staring at what was happening in front of her.
Alexei silently cursed whatever god had just shit on his day. He was surrounded, and for some reason the hall was completely empty except for the six of them. There was nothing he could do.
"How about we take it off." said the one with his eyes closed. "I bet he's a doggy."
"My money's on fox." said the fourth one with the long hair.
"Take my cloak off and I take your head off." said Alexei.
"There's that mouth again." said Cardin. "Sky, Dove, grab him."
The two on his right and left tried to grab him. He punched closed-eyes in the stomach without realizing that they were all still wearing armor. His fist crunched against the metal and flared in pain. The four laughed harder as the one with the long hair grabbed his left arm. He kicked that one in the knee, and actually succeeded in doing some damage. Long-hair fell the to the ground and let go of Alexei's arm. Alexei brought around his unhurt fist and connected it with closed-eyes' face. He felt his legs go out from under him as mohawk kicked him in the back of the knees. Alexei fell to the ground where Cardin pinned him down.
Alexei felt something build up inside him. Cardin pulled up his hood as mohawk pulled off the cloth mask. The four gasped. Alexei had lost control. They didn't see a faunus like they had expected.
"What the fuck is wrong with his teeth?" asked long-hair
"And his eyes." added mohawk.
"What the hell kind of faunus is he?" asked Cardin.
Alexei answered Cardin's question by pulling him closer to deliver a head butt that left him dazed. Alexei kicked the stunned brute off of him and looked at the other three. They looked down at him and slowly got into fighting stances. Alexei jumped to his feet and brought around a punch hard enough to dent closed-eyes' armor and send him backwards into a trophy display. Long-hair tried to charge him but Alexei grabbed the boy by his legs and threw him at mohawk. Mohawk managed to dodge but didn't manage to dodge Alexei, who dashed forward and gave him a punch to the stomach.
Alexei turned to look at Cardin who was beginning to shake off his daze. Closed-eyes was also pulling himself out of the display. Alexei stood in place as Cardin ran over and punched him. Cardin's huge fist didn't even reach Alexei's face, his pitch black aura was visibly wrapped around Cardin's fist.
"What the hell?!" Cardin tried to pull out his fist. Closed-eyes got behind him and tried pulling as well.
Alexei squeezed the aura around Cardin's fist, slowly crushing it. Cardin started to struggle more as the aura threatened to break his hand. Alexei stumbled forwards as something struck him from behind. He turned to see that mohawk had slammed a chair into his back. He smashed the thing over Alexei's head only to have it break in half due to Alexei's aura taking a sharpened shape above his head.
"Shit." muttered mohawk as he stared at the two pieces of chair in his hands.
Alexei grabbed him by the face and slammed him into the still-struggling Cardin. They both stumbled backwards. Long-hair jumped on Alexei from behind and punched him in the back of the head. Alexei reached up and threw him to the ground. Long-hair looked up at him as he kicked him into the wall next to the still trembling bunny. He slumped over and stopped moving. The other three looked at their unconscious teammate and then back to their enemy. They charged him, all three at once. Alexei stepped to the side and grabbed mohawk by his mohawk and punched him in the chest hard enough for him to lose his breath. He then threw him into closed-eyes. The two hit the ground. Alexei side-stepped Cardin and kicked them both in the head.
Cardin looked at the three members of his team. All were bruised and bloody and unconscious. Cardin pulled out his large mace.
"What the fuck are you?"
Alexei's grin widened.
Cardin lifted the mace over his head with both hands and ran at Alexei, who stood still. Cardin brought the mace down. Alexei had caught it by its massive head with one hand. He yanked it away and thrust its blunt head into Cardin's stomach. Cardin slumped to the ground and stayed there, until Alexei hit him in the side of the head with the mace's handle and knocked him out. Alexei's gaze slipped over to the Scarlatina girl.
She was sat against the wall with her legs brought up and her whole body was trembling. She looked up from Cardin and to Alexei with wide eyes. He slowly walked up to her and dropped the huge mace with a massive thunk. He tried not to, but he had no control. She was going to wind up just like the dog faunus a year ago. He couldn't even close his eyes or look away. He stood over her shaking form and reached down to stroke her hair. The smile on his face somehow grew wider than it already was, and the fangs parted slightly in anticipation of plunging themselves into the girl's flesh.
"Enough!"
The voice had come through some device Alexei couldn't see. He had grown used to hearing Ozpin's voice through radios and intercoms, so he recognized it quickly. Before he could do anything, he felt himself get pulled down and into a hole which closed up before he could do a thing.
"I would have prefered if you would have let me do that sooner, sir."
Even muffled, he could easily recognize Goodwitch's voice. From the sound of high heels hitting the ground he guessed that she must have been right above him.
"The poor Scarlatina girl looks as though she may never recover."
He could hear her helping the rabbit girl to her feet above him.
"I wanted to test something Ms. Goodwitch."
"And what was that?"
"Well he gave team CRDL a massive beating but they appear to still be alive, perhaps he was at least able to stop himself from killing them."
"Maybe, but what are we going to do with him down there?"
"The only way we know how to get him to deactivate the semblance is by having him either use up a great deal of his aura, or getting bored. You do remember what that particular trap he is currently in is capable of, correct?"
"Of course sir, I oversaw the construction of all the traps in this facility years ago."
"Good, and do remember, I only want him to calm down, not have every bone in his body pulverised. Don't crush him to death, only so much that his aura drains radically."
"Yes sir."
The next thing Alexei knew, the darkness around him was squeezing him from two sides. His aura immediately kicked in and tried to push against it. It didn't take long before he felt himself get completely drained and shortly after, he passed out.
"Sir, we need to take action on this matter."
Goodwitch stood in front of Ozpin's desk in his clocktower office. She refused to sit, which partially annoyed him. It had been a few hours since Alexei's incident in the hallway with team CRDL and Velvet Scarlatina. CRDL was put into the infirmary. None had been given any injuries that would put them out for longer than a day or two. Their auras had sustained the majority of the damage and the Beacon infirmary was more like a small hospital with its own doctors and nurses on twenty-four hour duty. Alexei himself was back in the basement cell he had resided in for the year before. The only doctor that Ozpin let watch over Alexei was Pete S. Ascle, one of the best at Beacon.
"Go on." said Ozpin. He leaned back in his chair while Glynda spoke.
"You know that fighting is an expellable offense."
"And while nothing would make me happier than to kick out Cardin and his team of bullies, but his father is a very generous benefactor. He donates weapons, supplies, ammunition, and money to the school. While Cardin is the youngest of his sons, I am sure that his expulsion would influence Mr. Winchester's opinion of this school. That's why I've allowed them to get away with all the trouble they've caused."
"We have no choice other than to accept any harm he brings." It was more of a statement than a question, nevertheless, Ozpin answered.
"There is always a choice, however, I will choose to let my students become subject to Cardin's bullying. In the end, they'll grow stronger because of it, and we are going to desperately need those supplies for the coming war."
"Then what about Mr. Seryy?"
Ozpin gave sigh and leaned forward in his chair to rest his arms on his desk.
"We've had this conversation before Glynda."
"But hasn't this most recent incident proven that he has no control over himself? The poor Scarlatina girl was a complete mess. He almost treated her the same as Ms. Perra before I stepped in." Glynda's composure became less professional as she continued.
"And yet he was able to stop himself from killing the members of team CRDL."
"Maybe this time, but what about next time?"
"We need to hope that he gains control before next time."
"We can't just let him wander freely without control."
"You saw what he was like in that cell." said Ozpin. He pushed his spectacles further up the bridge of his nose. "Nine months the semblance would take control at completely unexpected times. The last three months when we allowed him to be outside with supervision, he hardly ever let it take control. In any case, I've called on someone to help. An old student, I believe you still remember them."
"You can't be speaking of team HRSE."
"I am."
"What deal did you make with them?"
"They will spend some time here, after a particular mission they took on recently, and Eren will try to assist Alexei in controlling his semblance while the others teach here."
"If there's anyone I'd be more uncomfortable to have in this school than Mr. Seryy, it'd be Mr. Muerte."
Ozpin smirked as he finished off the contents of his mug.
"Don't worry Glynda, Hana tells me that Eren has mellowed out, apparently he's even taken to shaving his horns."
Ozpin's scroll lit up and vibrated. He picked up the device and pressed the green button to receive the voice message. On the other end was Dr. Ascle.
"He's waking up."
Ozpin closed the scroll and rose from his chair. He picked up his cane and motioned for Glynda to follow him. As they passed the threshold of the door, Glynda turned to look back into the office and up at the turning gears that filled up the upper half of the office. Ozpin gave her a glance with a raised eyebrow. Glynda only shrugged and continued with Ozpin before closing the door.
After they had left, a figure moved from its hiding spot on top of one of the gears and dropped to the floor below.
Blake looked around the office out of habit to make sure that she truly was alone. She moved quickly and quietly over to a filing cabinet in one corner of the room. Inside she dug through all folders marked with A. When she didn't find anything she looked under the G's. Again she found nothing, she thought for a moment and then looked through all the folders underneath S.
She found the file she was looking for and placed every piece of paper on the floor and took pictures of them with personal scroll she had smuggled into the school. Some pictures were disgusting even to her. Humans that had been killed and maimed, and a faunus girl who had a nasty, mouth-shaped tear on her neck. Once she had taken clear pictures of every item inside, she put every paper back into the file in the exact order she had found them in and placed the file into the place she had taken it out of. She gave one last look around the office before using Gambol Shroud as a grappling hook to get back onto the moving gears and move out of the skylight she had gotten in through.
Alexei had decided that if some divine being did indeed exist, then he was its plaything. All he had wanted to do was lie low, and get through Beacon and become a huntsman without anyone from his past learning about the horrible monster that he was, but that was apparently far too much to ask. His second day Yang had discovered him, mostly due to Ozpin's sabotaging his plan with a completely obvious alias. Then Ruby had decided she was going to get Alexis to be a more friendly person, and Yang had been relentlessly trying to get him to open up. And now he dealt with the repercussions of this team CRDL fiasco.
It had been two days and the entire school knew what had happened. The story changed every time he heard it. He was either a white knight who had come to the rescue of the poor, defenseless Velvet and honorably fought all four members of team CRDL, or he was a deceitful faunus who had schemed with Velvet to lure CRDL into a trap and mercilessly beat them into the ground. Now it seemed that the faunus and faunus-loving students regarded him with some respect and increased interest, the faunus-hating students gave him hateful or fearful looks, and the students who didn't give a fuck still didn't give a fuck. He wasn't even able to say that Velvet was better off. She was still picked on and ignored. Worse yet, every time she saw Alexei she usually bolted off. Team CRDL had a similar reaction.
He was seated in the library, it was a Saturday, a day when the library was entirely empty. Almost the entire student population had gotten rides to Vale. The rest were inside playing video games. Alexei was only in the library because he had to pick up a book on the human-faunus war for a paper in Bartholomew's class. He was one of a few other students inside the bookroom. The history section was at the very back of the room, and when he found a book that would be useful he felt something press up against his back. It was definitely the end of a blade.
"Alexei Seryy, current alias, Alexis Gray. One of two living people to have the Semblance of Death."
The voice was obviously feminine, but that didn't at all affect how threatened Alexei felt with the sharp point to his back, he was no sexist, after all.
"What do you want?"
"We're going to sit in those chairs over there, and talk like we just met in the library and are having a nice chat."
A pale hand came into his vision and pointed to a set of lounge chairs with a table in between the two. He began walking to the chairs with the blade still at his back. When he reached the chair on the right, he sat in it and turned to watch as his captor sat in the chair beside him. He recognized her immediately.
"You're on Yang's team, Blake something."
She had holstered the weapon and seemed to be scanning him for any suspicious behaviour. The way she sat could be seen as relaxed, but she was in a position to easily react to any hostile actions.
"Belladonna." She said.
She pulled out a scroll and placed it in front of him. He looked at her and then at the scroll before picking it up. When he opened it he almost grew sick. The scroll had pictures of several pieces of paper from a folder, including several photographs. All of them were of the students that he had hurt over a year ago, including the members of his own team.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"What are your motives?"
Alexei looked away from the scroll and to Blake, who was still watching him.
"My motives?"
"I studied over those documents for the past two days. Either you really believe that you can do something to control that semblance, or you actually think that you can do some good with the destruction that you can cause."
"Why should I tell you anything? You just gave me all of your evidence."
Blake rolled her eyes.
"Do you really think that's the only scroll that I have those pictures on?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"You seem to be close to Yang, and your semblance is uncontrollable according to everything in those documents. I want to know whether or not you're a threat to my team and everyone else here."
"I am."
She seemed surprised that he gave such a quick and honest answer. She moved her hand around to her back and grasped the hilt of her weapon.
"Then why shouldn't I just kill you right here and now?"
"Because you can't."
"What do you mean?"
Alexei sighed and put down the scroll. He leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling.
"No one can, not even me. I've tried, but the semblance wouldn't let me. Not only do I not have control over it, it's like it has control over me."
She was silent. Alexei continued.
"I killed five people, no, I slaughtered them. Each was just as good as you. What makes you think that you could kill me alone, if I was able to beat two teams in seconds."
She gave no response. Instead she picked up the scroll and put it away. She rose from her chair and looked down at Alexei.
"Maybe I should have trusted Yang. She's right. You look like the semblance has destroyed you more than anyone else."
Alexei watched her as she walked away and through the bookshelves. He sighed and lifted himself up. He stopped by the librarian and checked out the book. When he made it to his dorm room, he could already tell that someone was inside, and he had no doubt about who it was.
Yang was on his couch, she was laying on it in her tank top and shorts. She was watching something on the television. It looked like an action movie. Something about the incident in Littletown, some village that had gotten overrun by Grimm and barely got saved by two teams of hunters.
"What excuse do you even give your teammates so that you can hang out here?"
Yang shrugged.
"Ruby and Weiss went out to Vale with JNPR and Blake said she had to do something. Figured I might as well stay over here and hang with my favorite loner."
Alexei put his cloak on the rack and sat in the lounge chair.
"Did Blake ask you about me?"
Yang sat up and looked at him. She tried to put on an innocent face as she answered him.
"I forgot to mention that. She asked me about you last night and well, I told her about who you were."
"Didn't I tell you not to tell anyone?"
"Well Weiss knows too."
"What about it being a secret do you not understand?! Are you going to tell Ruby too?"
Yang dropped the the innocence face and took on an indignant expression.
"Don't be a jerkass! I needed to talk to someone to talk to after I found you and ice queen was the only one there. Blake put me up for interrogation last night. I didn't tell her much. And you know how dense Ruby can be most of the time."
Alexei rested his head on the back of the chair and spoke.
"Whatever."
"Now that we've yelled at each other I think it's time we cuddled and made up." said Yang. She patted the area on the couch next to her for added effect.
"No thanks."
"You think you have a choice."
The next thing Alexei knew, he was pulled onto the couch and wrapped in Yang's arms. He protested and complained before accepting it, but he enjoyed it the entire time.
Eren Muerte awoke when a magazine hit him in face. He blew the thing off his face and looked at the person responsible. It was Hana. She was dressed in her usual combat gear. All white with the crown on her head that he still thought was ridiculous.
"It's 2 pm. We're going out for a mission today, do you plan on getting up sometime?"
Eren's only response was to moan and lift his head up. He was sprawled out on the couch in their team's main area. He yawned and sat up. He looked down at the foot of the couch and picked up a bottle of whiskey that had fallen over. He swallowed the last few drops and threw the thing behind him.
"Have you always been such a bitch, or have I just now noticed?"
Hana looked entirely unimpressed. She walked back and picked up the empty bottle and put it in the garbage before throwing Eren his usual combat outfit.
He yawned again and rubbed at one of the nubs above his eyebrow that were his horns in their shaved state.
"You'll have to start a new sleeping schedule," said Hana. "Ozpin called me last night, he wants us to teach at the academy for a bit."
"Fuck that."
"I'm your leader, and you'll do it."
"I hated that shit school. The only reason I passed was because the headmaster before Ozpin was scared shitless of me. What the hell makes you think that I'd be a teacher?"
"You won't be teaching a class, Ozpin's not that stupid. The other three of us will be teaching. You'll be helping some kid named Alexei."
"Is he 'special needs'?" Eren added air quotes as he got up and changed his pants.
"Apparently he's like you."
Eren stopped and laughed as he pulled on his shirt and long coat. His pants and coat were both a pale yellowish-green and his shirt was black.
"Like me?"
"He has the Death Semblance too."
Eren gave off an open-mouthed smirk and pulled out his weapon in it's compact form.
"Maybe this could be interesting."
And there's chapter 4. I was originally going to introduce all of team HRSE (pronounced 'horse') much later on in one go, but now I've decided to introduce them slowly over the next few chapters. They do each have their own color and the team is a reference to a certain group. Honestly, this chapter felt weak to me. Writing the whole part that involved Blake was incredibly hard to write for some reason, so it got cut short. Hopefully five will be easier.
To both TheNexusEra and Infernape. I responded to both of you in PMs. Hopefully this chapter addresses the issues you two voiced in your reviews and PMs.
Chapter five should be up eventually. I'm hoping to get as far as I can before I have to start college in August.
