Chapter 25

Paranoia

Clara, History class

Is it just me or does Oobleck talk faster the longer the lesson goes on? Maybe it's just because I'm tired, last night was tiring and I got to bed really late after all. Between my weariness and inability to match Oobleck's pace, I was starting to consider emulating Erik's system of 'note taking'. A minute later the lead on my pencil snapped as well as my conviction to properly take notes. I setup my scroll and started recording, but for little good as the class period ended almost immediately after I pressed record. Life has a cruel sense of humor doesn't it? I walked out of the room to head to lunch, on my way to the hall I saw a group of Atlas kids making a hasty exit from the hall. Confused, I headed in to figure out what had happened. Inside I saw that whatever happened must've gone down at our table seeing as Glynda was over there talking to Carter and three people that I presumed were his teammates. I hadn't ever seen them before, they looked interesting to say the least. One was a guy wearing a kilt and a rogart shirt with a leather cover, he had a large claymore strapped to his back with a keen edge. He had a mess of black hair with a grey streak visible in it and a build looked like he could casually kick a door in. Another guy was wearing a set of knights armour that seemed to be condensing itself into a metal backpack, he had a long sword sheathed on his left and a kite shield hung on his right. As the helmet disassembled his blonde hair tied into a warrior braid became visible and he seemed to have a durable build. Last was a girl with dark brown hair braided down her back and was wearing dark leather armour, two daggers were seamlessly sheathed into the armour at her sides and a recurve bow was slung over her back. Her eyes looked like a green snake eye more than a human eye, snake Faunus I guess.

I walked up just as Glynda left and Carter greeted me, handing me a small box along with it.

"Hey Clara, I'm a bit late about this." He started. "I'm usually a few days late when it comes to gift giving, so here's yours." I opened up the canister and found a few small canisters attached to an iron ring, I was confused for a moment before I realised it was just like the revolver style canisters on my gauntlets. The canisters seemed reinforced and capable of storing more dust, I spent a few seconds replacing the old one for this one.

"Thanks, saves me from having to reload a canister in the midst of battle as often." I said. "Two questions, why was Glynda here and who are your teammates?"

"Some Atlas kids were being rather offensive to some Faunus and…" Carter explained.

"And offense breeds offense." The girl sighed.

"What they're trying to say is we got defensive and they picked a fight with us." The kilt guy said.

"We weren't punished since they started the altercation." The other guy said.

"So that's why they were running off." I said to myself. "Well I won't criticise you guys on that decision."

"Thanks for that." The girl said.

"As for names; Argus is the sword and shield guy from Vacuo, the man rocking the kilt over there is Liath from outside the wall, and she's Ivory from Mistral." Carter rattled off. "We're team LIAC, lilac." They all shook my hand in greeting and took a seat, I sat down too and realised my left gauntlet was missing. I looked up and saw Ivory examining it, I reached over and took it back.

"Sorry, can't help it." She said with a shrug. "I have kleptomania."

"How did you even take that off without me noticing?" I asked, more impressed than upset about her feat. She responded with a shrug as though she herself didn't know, I decided it would be a lost cause to pursue the answer.

Elith, lunchroom

I walked over to our table and found that Carter was visiting again, this time with his whole team. I walked up and introductions were made, after which Carter handed me a box.

"Here's a late present, hope you enjoy." He said. I opened up the box and folded into its dimensions was a small blue dress, I gave him a long, cold stare. In the meantime he and everyone else except his own confused team were laughing.

"Hilarious." I responded.

"Unfold it." Carter requested, I did so and four uncut chunks of dust rolled out of the dress.

"Clever, I appreciate the wit." I said, taking the chunks and sorting them into my pouches for dust.

"No problem." Carter replied, small talk went on for a time before I noticed something odd. In the wall nearby there were dents shaped like a human face on multiple points. The guy who was introduced as Liath noticed me looking over there and spoke up.

"That may have been me, got carried away earlier." He said. I was tempted to ask what had happened and how he was able to hit with that much force, but something more pertinent entered my thought process.

"Has anyone seen Erik today?" I asked. "I haven't seen him in any of our classes and he wasn't in the dorm when I woke up."

"Maybe he was hit in the back of the head by a Grimm again." Isaac suggested, most people at the table laughed at the inside joke.

"He better not have, he's got an obligation tomorrow." Ruby said.

"I think I have a guess as to where he is right now." Isaac said.

Isaac, library

There he was, sitting at one of the computers and pulling up large files and pouring through them with intense focus. I walked up behind him and read what he was reading; the files were contact lists, purchase histories, search histories, downloads, and a date was plastered next to each of them.

"What are you doing?" I asked, tapping his shoulder. He tensed up very suddenly and jerked around to face me, a look of alarm and panic etched across his face. There were bags under his eyes, seemed like he hadn't actually slept last night.

"Nothing." He said drowsily

"Erik, you're not a good liar when you're not tired." I said. "What's this all about?"

"That symbol that pulled up on my scroll, it's signifies a virus that can discover every detail of what a device has done or is doing and sends it to someone." Erik explained. "And this certain someone is a person I would rather not have all my information."

"So you're checking what files of yours were checked before you could destroy the phone." I guessed.

"Bingo, so far I've found none." Erik said.

"You destroyed it before the symbol even left the screen, of course it didn't find anything." I said. "You need to get some sleep, I'll check the remainder of the things if that eases your conscience." He said nothing for a bit, gears clearly working in his sleepy head.

"Fine, if I can trust anyone to be this meticulous it would be either you or Elith." Erik said with a sigh. "Once you're done, delete all of the files completely off the computer." I nodded my answer as Erik shambled away to our dorm.

Erik, Vale

Despite having a good rest, having weapons on me, being in a populated space, and being accompanied by a fifteen year old with a giant scythe/sniper rifle, I didn't feel safe. This should be a calm pleasant occasion, but instead I was looking over my shoulder and scanning the shadows as much as I had back when I was making my way to Beacon the first time. Red didn't seem to mind though, she was just pulling me along to whatever locale she had in mind.

"Where are we going?" I asked in futility.

"Still not telling you~" She said happily, I sighed in defeat and returned to my paranoid searching. After a while we reached a small establishment, three tables were set out front and the smell of freshly baked goods wafted out from from the building. We walked through the doors into a small, well-kept bakery of sorts. All of the people behind the desk had similar features, same hair colour and whatnot, I guessed it was family run. We walked up to the front desk, I was about to ask what kind of baked goods they sold before the lady at the counter spotted Ruby and simply walked off. She returned a minute later carrying a platter with a large number of cookies on it.

"I take it you're a regular Red?" I asked.

"What gave it away?" She said as she handed a few lien to the girl.

"Just a hunch." I said.

We took a seat outside and began eating, by eating I mean that I desperately tried to salvage a spare few from Ruby's monstrous appetite for cookies. Once they had been finished off, in about a minute and a half, we started talking again.

"So Erik, did you make your weapon?" She asked.

"No, it was a gift." I said.

"From who?" She asked.

"The only person I think ever cared about me before I came to Beacon." I said.

"If you could adjust it in any way, how would you?" She asked, I was starting to get flashbacks to Ms. Twenty questions from my train ride to Beacon.

"I'd probably improve its dust cartridge, I feel like it could be more efficient or at least easier to use." I explained. "What about you."

"Crescent Rose is perfect already, why change it?" She said. "What's your favourite colour?"

"Malachite." I answered.

"That's a colour?" She asked.

"To an extent, yeah." I said, small talk of similar calibre went on for thirty minutes. At multiple points I evaded questions about Mistral and why I was frequently checking our surroundings. I checked my scroll, 8:17.

"We should probably head back to Beacon, we don't want anyone giving us crap for being later than we already are." I said, she agreed and we started the trip back. Unfortunately we were more delayed than expected since we had no vehicles and we'd missed the last flight to Beacon, so we had to walk the trail there.

We arrived around 8:52 and went into the dorms, I walked her to her dorm and returned to mine. I heard a beep from my vigilantiam and whirled around to face whoever was behind me. I was relieved to see team CRMS walking about forty feet behind me, I waved at them and waited for my heartbeat to calm.

"Where have you guys been?" I asked. "Haven't seen you around all week."

"Forgetting we had a timetable to stick to." Sage explained simply, a guilty expression etched on his face.

"At least you're honest." I said.

"I will admit that it was mostly my fault, I planned the trip and underestimated how long the itinerary was." Robin said sheepishly.

"Get to your dorms, if Glynda asks you were here all week." I said with a grin, they nodded their thanks and hurried off. I opened the door and entered my dorm to be greeted by a wad of paper hitting my face. I identified my assailant to be Elith, who had a notebook with a page torn from it next to her.

"What was that for?" I asked, annoyed.

"I'm getting really sick and tired of people in this friend group going missing without explanation, I don't think you guys realize that I get really worried when it happens." Elith ranted. "First Blake, then Isaac, and now you!"

"You do care!" I heard Isaac shout from the bathroom, despite ourselves we all started laughing and all tension was released.

"But seriously, Isaac explained where you were but not the why." Elith continued. "I'm sure it has to do with why you smashed your scroll, and I want to know what's wrong so I can be a supportive teammate damnit."

"Fair enough, alright I'll tell you all what I can." I said. "I don't fully understand it myself." I went on to explain the concept of the virus and how it heralded my mother's involvement in the human-White Fang agreement.

"Well, you can stop looking over your shoulders Erik." Clara said.

"Why." I asked, with my mom I could think of few reasons to calm down.

"Because you have a jack of all trades Faunus, an angst-filled teen with cloning powers, and a tinker, all of which are fully armed, at your side as friends and teammates." Clara explained. "So I think you can afford to chill out marginally." Silence passed for a while, I couldn't think of what to say.

"Mandatory team hug!" Isaac said happily, hugging me and Clara and forcing Elith to join in. The hug broke after a bit and we all sat in silence for a moment before going to bed, I think we all felt the same heightened sense of comfort and homeliness. It had been unspoken till now, but now I truly felt like we were a team of friends and that made me feel safe for the first time in a long while.

Author's notes

I had a nice time writing this chapter, one more chapter before missions. And don't even think I'm going to skip the dance, next chapter is going to be fun to write. Feel free to leave a helpfully review.