Chapter 12- Salt in the Wounds

May sighed as a wave of sadness washed over her body while she still laid silently on the warm sand of the desert arena, mourning her teams very recent defeat. It hadn't even been close, all four members of team MOON had been picked off and they'd only managed to eliminate Gwen from NDGO, not a fantastic first outing for the cow faunus' team.

Before Maybelle could dwell any longer, Nebula reappeared above her, looking down on her with a sorrowful expression and offering her friend a hand, "Sorry, didn't feel right knocking you out like that, but... y'know..."

May accepted her friends hand with a groan, "It's fine, I get it, it was a good match," she lied, the ease of her teams loss still stinging. As if to add insult to injury, it soon became apparent that Nebula alone wasn't going to be able to lift May from her position on the ground, despite the purple haired girls efforts. When it rains, it pours, the muscular blonde thought to herself as she briefly considered the idea of just laying there and wallowing for the rest of her-

"May!" a familiar voice called out to Maybelle as the cow faunus saw Oreonna jogging over to her with a concerned look on her face.

The tall faunus offered a halfhearted smile to her partner, "Hey, Oreo," she said barely lifting her head off the sand, "you okay?"

Oreonna seemed relieved at Maybelle's alertness, but she still looked worried, "Me? What about you? Can you stand?" the cat girl asked while using one hand to massage her still throbbing headache. May let out a short laugh, who knew her partner was such a worry wart? But she had to admit, it was sweet that she cared.

Nebula smiled at Oreonna, "Don't worry, she's just moping is all, right May?" The cow girl sighed again before letting her head fall back to the ground, "That's what I thought. C'mon, let's try together," Nebula and Oreonna both offered the bulky faunus their hands, which Maybelle eagerly accepted. The cat girl and Nebula lifted the bovine faunus out of the pity party she was having and back to her feet. "Hey! You're that girl from that night!" Nebula said to Oreonna, "The one with the violin, right?"

"Oh... I guess? Um... you're... Nebula, was it?" the cat girl said awkwardly as she looked to her partner for confirmation.

May smacked the side of her own head as she realized she'd never formally introduced her two friends to each other, "Right! Nebula Violette, this is my bad ass. violin playing, giant Grimm slaying partner, Oreonna Delsole,"

The black and white haired cat girl looked away, pretending to be interested in shaking loose the grains of sand from her dress as her face tinted red at May's rather boastful description of her, "That Grimm wasn't THAT big..." she muttered under her breath, referring to the Drakodo team MOON had taken down during initiation. Maybelle just smiled, the cat girl was too damn cute when she got all flustered like that, and it made her waaaay to fun to tease, even if May did mean every word she'd said.

Nebula reached out, eagerly and energetically shaking Oreonna's hand, before pulling the cat girl in close, "So your the one stuck with this big ol' heart breaker, huh?" she whispered loud enough to be sure Maybelle heard.

The cow faunus winced at the cheap shot taken at her, "Hey, c'mon, Neb..."

The purple haired crossbow wielder waved her friend off as she rested her weapon on her shoulder, "Sorry, I'm only joking, May. You know that, right?"

Yeah. Maybelle knew that. It was just the way Nebula was, her friend always believed that the best way to get over something was to confront it, but still, it was a low blow, and Neb knew that.

"In all seriousness," Nebula said turning back to Oreonna, "you be good to Maybelle, okay? She's been through a lot." With that rather cryptic remark, the purple haired girl started walking away, back over towards her team, who were excitedly congratulating each other on their win.

Oreonna looked at May in confusion, "What did she mean by that?"

The cow faunus rubbed her sore shoulder as nonchalantly as she could, "It's... do you mind if we don't get into that right now?" she said dismissively.

The cat girl gave her friend a sad look, "Um... okay? Does it have anything to do with what you told me in the Catacombs?" Oreonna said, remembering how Maybelle had mentioned rumors being spread about her by someone during the blonde's time at Vast Academy.

Maybelle's face fell further, she closed her eyes as Oreonna's questioning was starting to bring some painful memories up in her mind, "Oreonna... just... not now, okay? I'm sorry," The small cat faunus gave her leader a sympathetic expression, but at the same time, the look made it clear that the matter was shelved, not dropped. Still, Maybelle was grateful for the reprieve.

"Oh hey! Look, everyone! It's Oran!" the hyena boy said dejectedly as he approached May and Oreo, "Boy, I'm sure glad he didn't get killed by that huge, frickin' tornado he was caught in," the orange haired faunus was rolling one of his robotic wrist in a circle as a small stream of sand spilled out of it's inner workings.

"I'm pretty sure that tornado was 80% your fault, Oran," Oreonna said with a smirk, "but I don't suppose many people would be brave enough to fight a force of nature on their own."

The hyena boy huffed as he clasped his mechanical fingers behind his head, "Totally almost beat it too, another round or two and I'd have knocked the wind right out of it," Oran winkled with a lazy grin on his face, eliciting a halfhearted laugh from Maybelle and an eye roll from Oreonna.

Team MOON's leaders gaze drifted over to where the final member of their troupe was leaning on her weapon for support as she ran a hand through her short, silver hair, like the rest of her team, she was trying to shake loose any sand that had gotten stuck in it during the fight. Maybelle thought back to the final moments of the match, Nichol could have easily freed her with a wave of her dust wand, but instead she'd practically cost their team the contest. Even from this distance, the cow girl could easily make out a look of disappointment and frustration on her loner teammates face that was similar to her own, and the blonde wondered whether or not she should say anything to her.

"Hey!" Unfortunately, Oreonna took the decision out of May's hands as she shouted over to Nichol in aggravation.

"Oreo, wait..." May said, trying in vain to stop her partner. It was no secret there was a lot of tension between Oreonna and Nichol ever since initiation, and it looked like the silver haired girls actions today had caused the situation to reach it's boiling point.

The spear wielder seemed content to ignore the violinist's call and began to walk away, "HEY! I'm talking to you, Nicky!" Oreonna yelled and Nichol stopped dead in her tracks.

Maybelle winced at the name Oreonna had used, this was going to end terribly. Even Oran seemed aware of the change in the mood, "Uhh... hey, Oreonna? Only I'm allowed to call her Nic-"

"DO NOT call me that," Nichol said through clenched teeth interrupting Oran as she looked back over her shoulder at the cat faunus.

"Oh, I'm sooooo sorry," Oreonna said sarcastically, "but now that I have your attention maybe you can answer me this; Why would someone want to come to a school that's foundation is built on teamwork, but then, not only refuse to work with anyone, but also actively work against their teammates?" Maybelle watched her partner with a surprised expression, she had never seen the cat faunus this riled up before. Oreonna was usually calm and timid, maybe even a little too shy for her own good, but as Oreonna continued to sass Nichol, the cow girl found herself seeing a completely different side of her teammate here, and she wasn't sure exactly how she felt about it. "Seriously, what is your plan here?" the cat girl continued, "Is it to make sure you alienate every person you meet? Because you are nailing it so far."

Nichol turned all the way around to face the faunus and took a threatening step forward, "You don't know a thing about what I want," the silver haired girl spat, her fists clenched tightly around her weapon as she approached Oreonna, "and it's none of your business why I'm here."

"Uhh... guys?" Oran tried to quietly interject, but was instantly ignored.

"Fine! But that doesn't mean you can just freeze your teammates to the floor because you're too stuck up to accept our help!" Oreonna was practically shouting at this point as Maybelle was realizing just how badly she'd underestimated how poorly this was going to go.

"I'll tell you what I told your bovine friend there; I don't NEED anyone's help. Perhaps if your partner had exhibited a bit more tactical awareness, she might have been able to avoid my attack," Nichol's calm tone was betrayed by the look of aggravation on the teenagers face, "it's not my fault she'd so dimwitted and clumsy."

Maybelle was a little put off by the silver haired girls comment, but she didn't let it get to her, she knew she wasn't exactly a genius, nor was she a graceful ballerina on the battlefield. It wasn't the first time someone had called her out on these flaws, and she'd been called far worse by people whose opinions she'd valued much more than Nichol's right now. You could say that Maybelle had just developed a thicker skin when it came to such insults, however Oreonna was completely unaware of this fact.

"How- how dare you! May did her best to save your ungrateful hide, and for the record, you aren't exactly perfect either!" the cat faunus shouted back.

This argument was reaching critical mass, even team NDGO had stopped talking and was listening in. Maybelle decided it was time to to step in, "Oreonna, you don't-"

"It sounds to me like you're calling into question my fighting skills," the cow girl was immediately cut off by Nichol as she stepped even closer to May's partner.

"Well," Oreonna said, a taunting smile on her face, "You did get beaten, just like the rest of us,"

The revolving dust dispenser on Nichol's weapon started whirring to life, "In that case," the spear wielder growled, "Why don't I give you a quick demonstration of my proficiency."

In response, Oreonna unsheathed her blade, her pink eyes locking onto Nichol's orange ones, "Sounds good to me... Nicky."

"Ho boy..." Oran said taking a step back cautiously at the sight of the look on the silver haired girls face. May's eyes went wide as her teammates reared back to attack one another. The cow girl was about to physically leap in between the two, but even at this distance, she knew she'd never make it in time.

Then everything went black. Not so much like the sun suddenly died, or she'd lost consciousness, but more like a creeping fog of darkness crept up behind Maybelle and then overtook all four members of team MOON. Maybelle could hear the sounds of confusion from her teammates in the now thick blackness and while this was most certainly concerning for all parties involved, at least it did seem to postpone Oreonna and Nichol's imminent clash. Then everything went quiet, the cow girl waved a hand in front of her face but saw nothing, this darkness was unnaturally strong, the tall blonde felt a chill travel up her spine as she began to panic slightly at this bizarre occurrence.

"You know, there are very few things in this world that I find completely intolerable," a voice cut through the darkness and when Maybelle turned to the source she saw a pair of glowing red eyes, the only light in the sudden night. The blonde berserker felt somehow paralyzed by those eyes as the voice spoke to her team and herself, "one of those things is fighting among teammates." Suddenly the sun's light shot through the dark as the inky blackness surrounding the teenagers swirled away from them and into the outstretched hand of Professor Neight, the combat class's instructor. The bat faunus continued glaring at the members of team MOON, the eerie light in his eyes fading as his look changed from murderous contempt to mild disappointment. His gaze settled onto Nichol and Oreonna, "Miss Cuillere, Miss Delsole," the cat faunus flinched at her name being called and the silver haired human merely looked off to the side, "need I remind the two of you that this class is about working as a team? If you wish to spar one on one, I believe we have another class for that," Neight said with a condescending tone to his voice. Neither one of the students seemed too keen to answer their instructor as they both stood in silence.

It may have seemed to most students when classes started at Shade that the bat professor's mannerisms were purely theatrical and perhaps overly polite, but that all changed once he walked into his classroom. He was relentless with his teaching, his classes were exclusively for first year students, and focused on reinforcing the lessons of teamwork learned in the Blighted Catacombs to ensure they stuck. In the syllabus on the first day, Neight had told all his students they'd work on form and technique during the week, and then every Friday he'd have the teams spar against one another while he evaluated their performance. This was only the first combat exam of the school year and it was clear that team MOON had not impressed their teacher.

"Miss Daffidys," Maybelle's head shot up when the professor addressed her, "as a leader you should strive to ensure that your teammates are able to coexist, altercations such as the one that almost just occurred are frankly unacceptable."

The faunus' cow ears titled down, she hated getting reprimanded, even more so when it was completely justified, "Yes, sir," she said solemnly, "I'll do my best to... work things out," Maybelle glanced over to Nichol and Oreonna. The two had backed away from each other, and re-holstered their weapons, the fight had stopped, but the way they were looking at each other made it clear the animosity between them remained.

"Hm. See that you do, my dear," Neight replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a silver pocket watch, the elder faunus turned to face the crowd of his pupils, "Well, it appears that is all we have time for today, students. You have my notes on your performances, review them this weekend, that will be all." Neight turned to the four teenagers still on the battlefield, "You four, wait a moment, I wish to have a word."

The crowd of huntsmen and huntresses in training filed out of the coliseum, leaving only team MOON, Neight, and one other in attendance. The huntsman professor approached the unknown sixth figure and offered them one of his trademark bows, "Ah, Miss Coarsola, as usual my classes would be lost without your assistance." The elderly woman seemed to barely acknowledge Neight as she stared at him with her wrinkled face in a bored/annoyed expression, the stout woman disinterestedly reached up and scratched the brown scales on her darkly tanned face, hidden under her wide brimmed sun hat. The bat faunus seemed a bit unnerved by this non-reaction to his mannerisms and tugged his collar nervously, "Yes... well... ahem... now then, if you'd be so kind, my dear groundskeeper, as to clear the terrain for our next class?"

Miss Coarsola trudged forward a few steps before crouching down on one knee and placing one of her dirt covered gloves on the warm desert sand. All the sandstone structures in the arena began to shake then crumbled back down into the sand seemingly at the old faunus' command and soon the coliseum was just a bare empty space with nothing but the dunes of the desert in it. The old woman placed a hand on her back to support herself as she stood with a grunt, dusting her gloved hands off on her dark colored overalls.

"Thank you again, Terraine," Nieght said as the groundskeeper turned and started walking away before he'd even started talking. The round woman made a noise somewhere between a grunt and an "you're welcome" as she moved towards a nearby rock in the sand with a beach towel on it. Miss Coarsola scrambled up the side of the rock before sprawling herself out on the towel and laying still, basking in the morning sun. All of Team MOON was transfixed on the bizarre scene, even Nichol had raised an eyebrow at the odd woman.

"Team MOON," Professor Neight finally said, addressing his students from under a black parasol he had produced from seemingly nowhere to shield himself from the sun, the pale faunus clearly wasn't a fan of harsh light, "I'll save you all the suspense of how you did in my evaluation today and let you know you did poorly, though I imagine that comes as little surprise," Maybelle huffed in exasperation, it was kind of obvious, "I understand this is only the first week of your time at Shade, but still as of today I can see you're all in danger of falling behind your classmates in terms of teamwork."

May looked to her team to gauge their reactions to this news, Oreonna shuffled in place, clearly not used to be scolded in such a way, Oran scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he looked off to the side, lastly Nichol was trying to appear disinterested by the bat faunus' words, but Maybelle could see her brow was slightly more furrowed than usual, so clearly she was feeling something in regards to the lecture.

"Like everyone else attending this school, the four of you made it this far on your own skills and strength," Neight continued as he paced in front of the group, one hand holding his parasol, the other tucked behind his back as he marched, "but without learning to rely on others, on your teammates, I'm afraid you'll find you can only carry yourselves so far on your own." The bat faunus adjusted his glasses on his face and sighed, "I will expect far better on your exam next week, do not disappoint me. That will be all, I'd hate to make any of you late to your next class."

The four students turned and left without a word, Maybelle noticed Nichol not even bothering to head to the locker room to freshen up after their sparring under Vacuo's harsh sun, she just stormed off out of the coliseum and back towards the academy. The rest of team MOON was quiet as they headed to their respective genders locker rooms, even Oran seemed a little glum after the events that had just taken place, especially considering how excited he'd been before the exam. May wiped the remaining sweat from her forehead as Oreonna and herself entered the girls room. After storing her weapon, the taller faunus walked over to the sink and untied the red handkerchief from around her head and placed it off to the side before splashing a bit of cold water on her face. The cow faunus reveled in the feeling as the dirt and sweat that had collected on her was washed away, unfortunately it did little to help Maybelle's mood.

Team MOON's first official outing since being formed hadn't been the resounding success she'd hoped it would be. When May had been named leader of the team, she figured it'd be no sweat, hell, she'd grown up taking care of six brothers and sisters, Maybelle figured she could handle three (almost) adults, but now she was starting to have doubts. The cow girl stared blankly into the mirror above the sink, her face still soaked with water, she never imagined it would be this hard leading others.

"Hey," Oreonna called out from behind her leader, when Maybelle turned, she just barely managed to catch the white towel her partner had flung at her, "you okay?" the cat girl asked.

"As okay as can be, considering," Maybelle replied as she wiped the excess water off her face, "I guess I haven't exactly been the best leader so far, huh?" the cow faunus picked up her handkerchief and stared at it for a moment before starting to tie it back in place over her hair.

"It... wasn't all your fault," Oreonna said, leaning a shoulder against the wall, "there were four of us out there, after all," she tried offering her friend a supportive smile, "plenty of blame to go around." The cat faunus frowned as she crossed her arms, "and... me getting Nichol all worked up probably didn't help... sorry."

Maybelle finished tying the knot to hold her accessory in place, "It's okay, I know you guys had a... rough start," the cow girl leaned back onto the sink as she spoke. Oreonna had told May about what their silver haired acquaintance had called the cat girl on the morning of initiation. Grimmspawn, just thinking about the slur made a gross feeling swell up inside the blondes stomach. She'd heard that word a couple times in her life, never directed at herself, fortunately, but the instances it was used were never particularly spiritually uplifting. What would make a person want to call someone like Oreonna something so... terrible like that? Maybelle just couldn't understand, but even she could tell that Nichol had some kind of issue with faunus, and the fact that she now shared a team with three of them was not improving her feelings on their race.

"I... don't know what to do about her..." Maybelle admitted, it was a problem the cow faunus had never faced before, a person that was both unwilling to cooperate or communicate with others, "I thought that maybe if we just gave her time she'd eventually come around, but if anything it seems like things are just getting worse. Now it's gotten so bad, even Neight's starting to notice and..." the blonde berserker pinched the bridge of her nose with her finger and sighed, "I just don't know..."

Oreonna's face was full of sympathy for her friends plight, "I wish I could be more help with that," she said dejectedly, "but I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to getting people to open up, but if anyone can get that... girl to listen to reason, it's you, May," the cat girl broke eye contact and rubbed her forearm in that shy, awkward way that Maybelle couldn't help but find unbelievably cute. "You're... I think you're a good leader by the way, and I'm willing to do whatever I can to help with Nichol, and I'm sure Oran feels the same, or at least I think he would..." Oreonna started to trail off a bit as she mumbled.

May smiled at her partner, she wasn't sure if she agreed with Oreonna about her own effectiveness as a leader, but even if the cat girl had said it just to make her feel better, it meant a lot to Maybelle. Feeling her resolve strengthen slightly, May pushed away from the sink, "Thanks, Oreo," the blonde said as the faunus pair left the locker room together. They had one week before their next exam as a team, one week to get Nichol out of her self imposed isolation from her team. Maybelle still had no idea what she was going to do, but at least now she knew she wasn't in this alone.

Once outside, the two of them immediately ran into Oran who appeared to be deep in thought about something, that is, until his company arrived and the thoughtful expression on his face was replaced by his trademark grin, "Sup, lady dudes," Oran said cheerfully, "So, listen I was out here wracking my brain about-"

"Nichol?" Oreonna said flatly, "or more accurately, how to get her to be less... Nichol-y?"

The hyena faunus pouted slightly, "Okay, maybe you are the brains of this operation," he admitted with an huff, "but yeah, did you guys come up with anything? Because aside from terribly hilarious puns, I got nothing."

"We... look, we'll be late for our next class if we wait much longer," Maybelle said, "let's talk tonight in the dorm,"

The three of them started walking together back towards the entrance of Shade Academy. Once inside, the halls were lightly populated with a few students and teachers also hurrying to their next subject. Oran rested his robotic hands behind his head as he walked and smiled, "Glad to hear we have a plan for Nichol, because team MOO just doesn't invoke the same sense of mystery and elegance as MOON. No offense, May," The orange haired boy seemed especially proud of that one. Maybelle smiled, Oreonna rolled her eyes, and Oran let out a short, genuine laugh, and everything seemed right again. Their earlier defeat was the last thing on their mind now as the three of them prepared to take the lessons they'd learned today and use them to better themselves and their team.

But as May happened to look to her left, she saw Nichol standing in front of a massive faunus boy with shaggy brown hair and a pair of giant bull horns sticking out of his forehead over a face the cow girl found all too familiar, as was the large golden ring piercing in his nose.

Angus... Maybelle thought to herself in disdain, having never gotten along with the bull faunus during their time together at Vast.

The -somehow even taller than May- muscular young man was flanked by the rest of his team; Team ANGS, named after the leader himself, as if the man's ego needed to be inflated any more.

The crowd of boys made a semi circle in front Nichol. Maybelle couldn't quite make out what the horned faunus was saying to her teammate, but it was clear from the silver haired girls body language that she was no less aggravated by the faunus' presence than she was her teammates'. Maybelle watched as the bull faunus raised his hand like he was about to poke Nichol in the sternum, but the orange eyed huntress in training deftly swatted his hand away, making Angus' maroon eyes light up in surprise, before he sneered down at the smaller girl.

Ever undaunted, Nichol stared the muscular faunus dead in his eyes and mumbled something that made Angus' face twist into rage. Maybelle was about to bring the situation Oreonna and Oran's attention, but before she could, Nichol stepped to the side around Angus, only to be stopped by the rest of his team, the four members of ANGS surrounding her.

Considering what had happened earlier during their exam, a more bitter person might have been content to watch as the teammate who'd left them frozen to the ground squirmed under this pressure, but that wasn't remotely how Maybelle operated. The cow faunus wasn't about to let someone be threatened like this, not even Nichol. May might not consider herself a decent leader at the moment, but she did consider herself a decent person, and she'd seen enough. The blonde broke off from Oran and Oreonna and made a beeline towards Angus, her hands already balled into fists.

May only got about three steps closer before Nichol nimbly slipped past the blockade around her and stomped off down the hall and into a nearby classroom. The situation seemingly having resolved itself, the cow girl stopped in her tracks as Angus and his cronies laughed and high-fived each other, no doubt celebrating the latest triumph in their cliche role of living trash.

"May? Is everything okay?" Oreonna asked as she finally caught up with Maybelle's giant steps, Oran not far behind. The cow faunus stared coldly at Angus as he turned to face her, a smug look appearing on his face when he made eye contact with Maybelle, then the four boys turned and walked away. "May?" Oreonna asked again, trying to get her partner's attention.

Maybelle crossed her arms and let a loud breath out through her nose in irritation, "We have a new problem."

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A/N- Aaaaaaaaaand cliffhanger! Also probably the shortest chapter ever. It's necessary though as I only have one more chapter ready to go for y'all (never used y'all before. It felt weird, I promise not to make a habit of it). No action this chapter, unfortunately we're in the character development part of the story, but I promise things will get more intense next chapter.

So yeah, Angus Carne, he will be our generic bully for the time being. Kinda like a Nega-Cardin if you think about it. Originality is hard.