Ladies and Gentlemen, Lads and Lasses, Beautiful People, I am Kurt the Mortician, and this is the shortest chapter yet at exactly 4000 words of content. You finally get to see some beautiful resolution to the wham line at the end of the last chapter. As far as arc finale's go, this one isn't incredibly exciting, but this arc as a whole is just conflict resolution and a prelude to the next arc. The latin translation for this chapter is Brother. Read, review and enjoy.
Finale time, I guess. Nothing overly grand, but we do get see some good ol' fashioned consolidating. Arc might be over, but the story still has a way to go. Hope you enjoy this one, its got a lot of set up for future stuff in it. AWAY!
Arc 2: Who You Once Were
Chapter 4: Frater
"Celes, Just what happened to your brother?"
The entire room was dead quiet. Rain sat quietly on his couch head cocked to the side in curiosity. Celes' fists were visibly balled, and her teeth were clenched. Citri and Phoenix kept their distance from the two.
It was clear that Rain was standing on a landmine, and that he would have to proceed with intense caution if he was to escape unharmed.
"What do you mean?" Celes said attempting to relax and hold back the wave of emotions that surged at the mention of her younger brother.
"You mention him consistently, and it's clear from how you speak that he's passed on, so what happened?" Rain asked calmly keeping his voice as passive as possible.
"I'd rather not talk about it." Celes answered desperately trying to keep her voice even.
"I told you about the death my sister suffered that plagues me in my nightmares at least once a month. You can tell me this. Sides' it's terrible to hold that kind of thing in." The mouse eared boy replied in turn, tucking a strand of light blue hair behind his human ear.
"I'd rather not talk about it." Celes repeated herself, her voice firmer.
"I felt better after telling all of you. Granted you all believed I was an emotionally damaged psychopath shortly after, but it was still nice to get it off my chest." Rain reasoned, trying to convince the short white haired girl to voice her own problems for once.
"I told all of you about how shitty my dad was. It was indirect, but it felt good to let out everything I'd been holding in." Phoenix said, supporting Rain in trying to work out whatever was bugging Celes about her brother.
Celes let out a huff of resignation. She could tell the two would not budge on this issue.
"Alright. His name was Charlie, he had his throat torn out by a beowolf when he was eight. There was blood everywhere and no one caught the monster." near the end Celes' voice began to waiver, and her eyes watered. It was in this moment that the team saw a new side of Celes. Hurting. Sorrowful. Regretful.
"That's why you hate the grimm. Isn't it?" Rain questioned extending a hand out to the girl as he walked over to her shaking form.
All he was given in reply was a shaky nod, filled with anger and sadness. The girl walked over and buried her head in his shoulder. As if to burrow away from the pain that was consuming her.
"Now Celes, can you do something for me?" Rain said gently, realizing, how dangerous his next move would be.
"What?" Came the muffeled reply, her voice still barely holding back sobs.
"I need you to let go of this." Rain said. His eyes screwed shut in anticipation of a very negative reaction.
These words were met with a violent shove. And Rain could see Celes' eyes burning with tears and anger at his response. "How do you expect me to just let go of my brother's death? It's the reason I'm a hunter. It's the reason I can fight. It's what makes me strong."
"No it's holding you back. No matter how angry my sister's death made me. I didn't go out and slaughter every human I met. I don't believe every human is a thoughtless monster fit only to fill a coffin." Rain fired back. He would not hesitate to fight back if she was going to start a shouting match.
"Really!? What about your 'first kill'? Wasn't it the guy who murdered your sister?" Celes questioned angrily. Citri and Phoenix both kept their distance from the two. This was a fight that neither wanted any part of.
"I genuinely regret the first kill I made. Revenge left me penniless and homeless. And I killed people to make the world a better place every time I killed a foreman, Faunus working conditions improved. Because the new foreman knew that if he tried to pull the same shit, he'd end up as a stain on the street." Rain nearly shouted at the girl. he continued his tirade, "Grimm don't stop being animals if you kill some. They don't change. You reveling in their deaths won't bring your brother back."
"Shut. Up." Celes replied
"No. You need to let go." Rain answered his voice made it clear that he wouldn't back down.
"Shut up." Celes replied.
"Celes he has a point. Me hating Citri doesn't change the fact that my dad's a useless asshole. You hating grim won't change the fact that your brother's dead." Phoenix cut in trying to relate her emotions to Celes to reason with her.
Celes looked between Rain and Phoenix, seeing the determination in each of them. Clearly this was something that the two weren't backing out of. Whereas Rain was still noticeably angry after the shouting match, Phoenix wore the stern expression that she usually reserved for their leader.
Speaking of which, Celes' attention turned to said leader, who had been oddly quiet throughout the conversation. Citri was crouched to the side of the group, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone by reading through work textbooks. For a split second his eyes locked with Celes' and he offered her a faint smile before hurriedly looking away. After a few seconds of looking intently at the textbook that the boy had taken to carrying everywhere, Citri relented at looked back up to find that, as expected, Celes was still looking at him. No doubt wanting some kind of back up.
Once again all he could do was offer a weak smile. Unlike the others, he had no past experiences to provide to either side of the argument, and in honesty he didn't really know where to stand anyway. Rain and Phoenix obviously had a point, but at the same time it was hard to blame Celes for her beliefs and it certainly wasn't easy for someone to just change their way of thinking.
Realising that her leader wasn't going to be of any help, Celes gave a final glare around the room before promptly turning around and walking out the door. Citri rose to his feet, half considering going after her, but decided against it. Rain and Phoenix both just stood there, neither of them sure what to do next.
"Fuck you guys!" was the last thing that the three howling members of Team SAWR heard as their female teammate stormed out of their dorm room.
"Let's all fill Breeze's socks with mustard, fuckin assholes." Breeze muttered to herself as she stormed out.
Today her genius partner had decided that Breeze's socks needed mustard. Every pair in fact. Most students did not realize that Breeze hated stains on clothes, and that mustard stains were completely and totally unremovable.
As she stormed through the hallways she stopped as she heard one thing. The sound of a door slamming and a short, white haired girl, running away tears streaming from her eyes.
Well well well, look who it is. Little miss "The grimm are a bunch of monsters who deserve extinction" not to mention the whole incident in the lunch room, where that bitch had the nerve to tell her to watch her mouth. After all, where the fuck did the rules say you can't swear?
Breeze elected to follow the girl, but only decided to interfere, when she saw the girl about to enter the airship destined for Forever Fall.
"Hey, where the hell are you off to?" Breeze asked, her voice filled with mild concern. Even third years were hesitant to enter Forever Fall alone.
"None of your business." Celes answered snapping at the chestnut haired sniper.
"Hey, hey, hey, no need to be an aggressive bitch about it." Breeze replied, folding her arms over her chest.
Celes wiped her eyes and replied, "Well sorry, but it hasn't been an easy day. My partner and team have turned on me, and expect me to just change at the drop of a hat."
Breeze could tell that her blunt nature had shaken the girl out of whatever emotional storm she'd been in. She opted to try and find common ground.
Guns? No. Hunting? No. Sports? No. Grimm Rights movement? No. Team? Yeah, perfect.
"Yeah I feel ya, my team decided it would be funny to fill every pair of socks I own with mustard. Pricks." Breeze muttered the last word, in frustration remembering their smug faces as they feigned innocence.
"Yeah." Celes answered.
Silence overtook the two, eventually Breeze decided to break the silence, and get to brass tacks.
"So. Uh...what do they want you to change?" Breeze asked tentatively.
"They want-, wait why do you care?" Celes asked her voice filled with genuine curiosity.
"You don't need a reason to help people. At least that's what my partner always says." Breeze aid her tone mixed with anger but at the same time, amusement.
"Well, they think I shouldn't hate the Grimm, even though they're the reason my little brother died." Celes said, surprised at how easily the words flowed from her lips.
"The fuck? That's not a hard change. It's piss easy." Breeze replied her face contorted into a look of confusion and disgust.
"Mind your language, you sound like a sailor." Celes replied, shocked by how casually Breeze let out vulgarities.
"Hey I don't have to be perfect. Make sure your hands are clean before you go pointing them at me. Besides, where in the rules does it say that I can't fuckin swear?" Breeze answered in kind.
"Well, my apologies, but I find that using such language tends to engender animosity." Celes said, calmly trying to be polite.
"The fuck did you eat for breakfast? A thesaurus? You sound like Ozpin." Breeze replied.
"Okay look, how about I use less...advanced vocabulary, and you tone down your swearing?" Celes asked trying to broker a compromise.
"You callin me stupid?" Breeze said her hand drifting to the pistol she kept on her hip.
"No! No, no, no. I just meant, I stop being all fancy, and you stop all the cursing." Celes said apologetically, her arms flailing around as she desperately tried to apologize.
"Oh. Well sure. What constitutes swearing in your book? Can I still say piss, balls, shit, hell, damn, ass? Ya know the basics?" Breeze asked politely, well as politely as a profane sniper could be.
Celes took a deep breath and replied, "Sure." baby steps, Celes, baby steps.
"So uh, back to the original thing then. Your team doesn't want you to hate grimm?" Breeze asked, wanting to understand more about what led to such a normally nice, if uptight, girl to be such a sadist in combat.
"Yeah, load of rubbish about how I should 'let it go'." Celes replied, trying not to make herself angry in remembering the conversation with her team. "They don't think it's healthy."
"Have you seen you in battle?" Breeze came off maybe a touch more sarcastic than she had intended.
"Why are we in this school? To rid the world of Grimm! Why is it such a big deal that I enjoy doing it?" Celes honest didn't understand why her disliking the things they were being trained to kill was an issue. It made no sense.
"How bout the fact that you look like a dominatrix?" Breeze replied, briefly remembering how much Celes seemed to enjoy choking beowolves with her whip.
"As opposed to you getting off on pyrotechnics?" Celes bit back, a little too quickly.
"Hey, at least I don't enjoy torturing animals." Breeze snapped back at the comment, her roots as a hunter gatherer briefly rearing their head.
"Animals? They're monsters!" Celes roared in response.
"No, monsters specifically target human beings, and focus only on killing. Grimm are animals. They hunt, mate, display territoriality, and will actually kill each other in the wild. Nevermores are known to attack boarbatusk herds." Breeze nearly shouted back. How could this girl not understand something so simple?
"They kill people!" Celes roared back, she refused to believe that something that would attack her brother in such a way could be considered an 'animal'.
"It's called instincts, dumbass. When you see cooked meat you want to eat it right? They view us as prey. Food. Of course they'd try to take a bite." Breeze yelled in response.
"Animals eat. Monsters butcher!" Celes couldn't help but be reminded of the image of her brother now, and tears were freely running down her face.
"Then you're just as much of a monster! You giggle when you tear them limb from limb, and blast them to bits! Like some kind of psycho!" Breeze yelled in reply equally angry at the prospect of someone so obsessed with their preconceptions.
At this point Celes was quivering with rage. How DARE she be compared to those monsters! How DARE this girl liken her to the beasts that slaughtered her brother. How DARE she...how dare she… how dare she...make sense.
Out of nowhere, Celes' flashbacks of her brother changed. Suddenly, it wasn't a young boy lying bloodied and shredded below a beowolf. What was once her brother now had black fur all over his body, barring a bone white plate on his head. And it wasn't a grimm standing above him reveling in the massacre. It was her.
Suddenly Celes found herself unable to move, and any words of retort were caught in her throat. Once again tears tore their way down her face. Eventually her legs fell out from under her, and Celes ended up slumped on the floor, crying into her knees with increasing aggression.
"It's not too late to change." Breeze said extending a hand out to the form of the girl now sobbing before her.
"I don't think I can." Celes answered in between snivels.
"Of course you can. Look when I was growing up, my dad and I hunted. Not just grimm, but deer and rabbits, and geese." Breeze said, pausing to make sure that Celes was done with her tears. "When I went to the city for the first time, people talked about grimm like they were serial killers. I tried to explain how I viewed them, but they wouldn't listen."
"So what did you do." Celes asked, her eyes red from the tears shed.
"I took action." Breeze replied, somewhat glad that the weeping was finally over. "I figured that if everyone else was going to demonise the grimm, I'd have to compensate on their behalf."
Celes furrowed her brow at this, not quite understanding what is was the other girl was talking about.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Breeze picked up on this and clarified, "Put it this way, you know back around the time of our...third outing in Forever Fall, last year? Professor Port's captured grimm disappeared, right?"
Celes nodded her head hesitantly, before the penny dropped and she figured out what Breeze was getting at, "So you…"
"Got about a month of detention. Figured it was going to be worse, honestly." Breeze replied with a shrug. "Look the point is, if you care about it then you can do anything."
That warranted a small giggle from Celes, "Kind of cliché, don't you think?"
"Oh fuck off, I'm trying to help." Breeze responded with a chuckle of her own.
"If we're still going to talk about you, why do you swear so much?" Celes asked with a small hint of curiosity in her voice.
"I grew up with just my dad and the local boys and hunters, every other word is cursing something." Breeze answered shrugging again. She then pushed forward, "So, Dominatrix, ready to renounce your ways?"
"Oh piss off!" Celes responded laughing before covering her mouth in surprise.
"Well, well, well looks like you can swear. So what's your name anyway?" Breeze said only now realizing how little she knew about the girl she was speaking to.
"Celes, you're Breeze Aspen right?" Celes answered, simultaneously questioning the girl.
"Yeah. Hey,you know my leader right?" Breeze asked, undertaking a bit of personal investigation.
"Mhm. Reid right?" Celes answered.
"What do you think of him?" Breeze asked.
"He's just a bit misunderstood." Celes answered standing up and dusting herself off.
"Where are you off to?" Breeze asked Celes.
"Back to my team. I'll let them know about my change of heart. Oh best of luck to you." Celes said as she walked off briefly waving goodbye before sprinting off to her dorm.
"I'm not apologizing." Rain said hands behind his head, stretched out across the couch.
"You have to." Citri replied trying to convince his stubborn partner that what he had done might not have been the best thing for Celes.
"Not happening." Rain said again, smiling to himself as he reclined.
"Leader's orders! Apologize the minute she gets here, or you have to forfeit first shower." Citri said smiling mischievously.
"Will both of you quit it. She looked pretty upset when she left. Maybe one of us should go find her?" Phoenix interjected, trying to refocus the team.
"I'm back." A voice politely chirped from the now opening door of their dorm.
Celes strode in, her eyes red, but a smile now gracing her face.
"Um...Rain, do you have something you want to say?" Citri prompted.
"Um, piss off?" Rain questioned.
"Bitch, don't give me no sass." Citri replied, his usual goofy smile the only thing hinting that he was joking.
"Citri, watch your mouth." Celes interjected, waving her finger in a manner not too dissimilar to a teacher. Upon seeing Rain wearing a smug grin, she hastily added, "The same goes to you mouse boy."
"Good to have you back. Sorry. For being so...me about stuff." Rain said, pausing and trying to gauge the white haired girls response.
"It's alright. You guys had a point. It wasn't healthy for me to be like that." Celes said waving her hand dismissively.
"What made you change your mind?" Phoenix asked her partner.
"Oh had a conversation with that girl from SAWR." Celes answered.
"The pyro?" Citri questioned, shoehorning his way into the conversation.
"Her name is Breeze, and she's actually quite nice. A little vulgar, but nice." Celes answered smiling.
"You think everyone's nice." Rain argued, trying to provoke further discussion.
"Not true! I don't think that Team JACK is nice." Celes said, trying to reason.
"I'm sure they're not ALL bad." Citri mumbled, half heartedly
"Miss Nose is a bully. The leader's a racist. The secretary's an uptight snob, and actually only the guy with the violin's pretty cool." Rain countered.
"Nose?" Celes questioned.
"The gray haired chick. Big nose. Always torturing some girl in one of her classes." Rain answered.
"Oh her. Yeah, She's a real piece of work." Celes said, coming from her, that was a rather extreme insult.
"We're off topic. You went to SAWR though?" Phoenix questioned.
"Well, just the Aspen girl. The guys on her team thought it would be funny to pull a little prank on her." Celes answered giggling inwardly as she remembered how Breeze grumbled about her socks being filled with condiments.
"Sounds like them. Aren't they always in detention for one thing or another?" Rain commented and asked.
"Yeah. I hear that one of the guys put another student in the hospital." Phoenix added.
"Probably just rumors. But point is. I've had a change of heart. I'll try and be less...enthusiastic in combat." Celes said testing her teammates response.
"It's a start." Rain replied, shrugging.
Satisfied, the team headed out to unwind and make the most of one of their few remaining days off. With only about a week until the dance, they would soon enough be properly starting their second year at Beacon, and they had to ensure that these last moments of relaxation were not squandered.
By night time, things were mostly back to normal. Team ANCY had decided to call in for an early night after the day's excitement and were currently all laid out in their beds within the darkened dormitory. After a few minutes of silence, Rain whispered from his couch, "Busy week, huh?"
"What do you mean?" Citri whispered back.
"Well, uh, we managed to get past my hitman days, help Phoenix with her daddy issues, and get you past your dominatrix thing." Rain said
"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" Celes muttered.
"Hey no worries, I always thought it was kinda hot at first." Phoenix said trying to cheer her partner up, but failing miserably in the process.
"Same here." Citri said from behind the textbook he'd resumed reading.
"Point is, we seem to be dedicating the break to solving all of our deep dark personal issues. And it looks like it's Citri's turn. So got any troubled past, or dark history stuff?" Rain said, genuinely curious to see what might be haunting his leader.
"Uh well...I almost failed my last history paper." Citri answered.
"Yeah that's totally on par with my sister being burned alive in front of me."
"Bro you know my struggles." Citri answered jokingly as the whole team descended into mild giggling.
Once he'd gotten his breath back, Citri continued, "Seriously though, you guys are messed up. I mean, here you all are with this deep trauma and the worst I've had is girl trouble."
Another round of snickering went around the room before Rain could be heard whispering again, "You wanna talk about it?"
Citri let out a laugh probably a bit too loud for the noise level in the room, "I'm good man. Night."
After a chorus of 'goodnights' was exchanged between the team, the four friends lapsed into silence and one by one drifted off into sleep, each looking back on all that they had learned about one another in the past week, and wondering what was in store for the new, closer than ever team.
"So which of you fuckheads did it?" Breeze asked holding up one of her mustard filled socks.
"Klyde did it." Garren and Reid simultaneously said, pointing their fingers at the brawler, currently sitting on his bed listening to some questionable music.
"Ok, it might have been me, but you can't be mad." Klyde said holding his hands over his head.
"How could I not be mad? And why did you do it? And when? Just tell me the whole story and at the end I'll decide if I'm going to shoot you." Breeze said before calmly sitting on a bed and loading one of her pistols.
"Well. I was minding my own business-"
"Bull shit!"
"I was!"
"And just what happened while you were 'minding your own business.'."
"Well I was sitting here jammin out, when Big Man over there came in the door growling about the airship rates."
Breeze looked to Reid and he nodded in affirmation.
Klyde paused before continuing, "So I thought what could I do to cheer him up?"
"So you filled my fucking socks with mustard!?" Breeze half shrieked
"No, it was originally going to be ketchup, but Garren thought mustard would be funnier."
"Okay I'm shooting both of you."
Garren quickly dashed out the door, desperate to escape any sort of action from Breeze.
"Turns out he was right." Klyde said as he reclined back, lacing his hands behind his head.
"So where do you want it?" Breeze asked,
"How about a deal?"
"What kind of Deal?" Breeze began tapping her foot expectantly.
"The kind where we pull the greatest food based attack ever, of all time."
"Who's the target."
"JACK."
"The leader or-"
"The team."
"The whole team?"
"Oh yes. Gather around kids. Teacher's got a class assignment for all of you." Klyde said as he rubbed his hands together and pulled his teammates together into a huddle.
SO another cliff hanger. I'm not apologizing. You all will just have to wait another week. Also next week the teaser at the end of last chapter will be in effect. Funny story, next arc is a prelude to the finale arc for season one. Yes the story is divided into seasons. And yes we kind of sort of not really have the second season planned. And lots of fun filler bits in between. I am Kurt the Mortician and I hope this laid your worries, fears, and troubles to rest.
One more Arc done and dusted, now onto SAWR and their shenanigans. Coming up next we have drama, action, detention and a dance. What will happen? Tune in next week to find out. Man, I've been brief this time around with these note. Ah well, Lilo out.