It was a quaint morning. Birds chirped. A soft breeze drove fresh sea air across the city of Vale and up the cliffs of Beacon Academy. For the average person, it would have been a beautiful start to the day… had it not been for the earth trembling roar of an explosion from within the campus. Smoke intermingled with the salty sea air above Beacon's spires. The source? Well, that was the splintered wall of the ballroom, where Team ARTS had been thrown out and scattered across the pavement.
The students that were gathering around the exterior courtyard began to crowd around in amusement at the team of four now lying smoldering on the pavement.
"Bloody HELL, Umba!" A shrill cry rang out as a girl with bright red hair and a red flower dress stepped through the hole in the wall leading outside. She was fuming, her fists balled up and shaking. "Are you tryin' ta ruin everythin'?!"
Burne "Arty" Umber raised his head, strands of his blond and orange hair singed dark black, "Uh… not intentionally?"
"To be fair, you're the one who stepped on the Magma Dust paint…" Roland Wells peeled himself off of the cement. He looked at the charred bran muffin in his hand, "We kind of exploded before I could pass this off." He tossed it over to Alice.
Without breaking her glare at her enemy-turned-friendly rivals, Alice caught the muffin and promptly crushed it to crumbs in her fist. "It wasn't supposed ta be Dust paint, Roland…"
A whistle broke the tension. Sepia Hughes held up a bright orange banner painted with non-elemental paint and grinned. She mouthed the words, "I thought it would be fun to switch out the paints! It was!"
"Well, at least you made one before your little prank…" Timbre leaned up to get a better view of her partner. Given Sepia's condition, she, along with the rest of Team ARTS, had gotten pretty adept at reading lips.
Arty grinned, showing off the odd gap in the top row of his teeth, "See, Alice? Things are fine! We were just having a bit of fun."
Alice's face just turned redder and redder. She shouted in rage and began to stomp towards him.
"Uh oh…" Arty mumbled as he found himself being raised by his neck. He was promptly pulled sideways and thrown a clear twenty feet into the building through the hole that Alice had stepped through. Turf and Navy stepped out of the way just in time to avoid the flying painter. Ebon, however, wasn't so lucky, and soon found himself sliding across the floor of the ballroom from the impact.
"Owwww…" Arty and Ebon both groaned.
"Fun? Fun?! What's fun about the gapin' 'ole ya left in tha wall?!" Alice jumped back into the ballroom. Her arms spread out to show off the massive chuck that was missing from the building. Even Everest wouldn't have a problem stepping through, and even he wouldn't even had to duck his head.
"You know, the janitorial squad seems to be top notch around here. Yamuna broke some massive windows during that whole… Lunacy incident, and they already had new panes up the next day. They got every shard of glass cleaned up. While we were sleeping..." Roland dusted sheetrock off of his hat. His tail wiggled, leaving a cloud of white dust behind him. "You weren't there for that, huh?"
Alice's brow furrowed, "Don't remind me…"
"Oh yeah…" Roland stepped up to examine the hole from the outside. Splintered two-by-fours, powdered sheetrock, chunks of concrete, and pink insulation dotted the crater left in the wall. "You know, at least it wasn't the Nova Dust. There wouldn't be a wall left if Sepia replaced the paint with that."
"More like there wouldn't have a ballroom left…" Timbre winced as a block of concrete fell from the wall and shattered on the tile floor.
Sepia bounded up with her bustle bouncing behind her. Singed feathers dotted her path, each making their own soft descent. Her hands were held out for all to see, 'I won't lie, I did consider it. I thought Magma would be more subtle. You know, I nearly used that new combo the boys came up with. What was it… Steam and Ice Dust? What did they call it?'
"Rime Dust…" Arty groaned from his spot on the floor next to Ebon, who was making his own groggy attempt to get up. "Got the idea from… well… Rime… obviously…"
"Too deadly right now. Also working on a Gravity and Nova Dust combo! I'm calling it Galactic Dust. It sort of just detonates when it's exposed to… well, anything." Roland kept his eyes on the hole. The thought of what might have happened had a more… violent form of Dust been used instead crossed his mind, "The Galactic Dust name is subject to change, of course. I almost think that Anti-Matter Dust would be a cool name ever since Xannie and Lurida explained the concept to me. Turf! Navy! Ebon! Any input?"
Navy just sneered as he leaned against the back wall.
"I'll get back to you on that one," Turf jotted down a reminder in his scroll.
"Please… no…" Ebon winced as he gripped his chest with a mittened hand, "Do you guys always have to go for the 'maximum damage' route?..."
"That seems to be the case. At least for Tuscan's boy that is." An almost obnoxiously nasally voice said from the direction of the main doors on the south end.
'I haven't looked, but I know I already hate this man.' Sepia signed without looking to see who was speaking. Upon poking her head in through the hole, she was presented with the unwelcome sight of an Atlesian soldier in full uniform. The amount of pins and stripes on his uniform stated he was pretty high in ranking. Instead of a wave, she presented her favorite finger to him from the safety of her hole. Growing up in the freedom of Vacuo made her pretty sour towards the authoritarian practices of Atlas.
The soldier turned his attention to her. Greasy green eyes peered out from razor-thin spectacles. His blinding white uniform clashed with his oily emerald hair. "Sepia Hughes of Team ARTS. You are just as… distasteful as your records indicate. Of course, what else am I to expect when your team is lead by the grown equivalent of a toddler with a stick of dynamite?"
"Hey!" Timbre stepped through the hole, looking over the scrawny soldier, "Who do you think you are talking about Arty that way?" She turned to her leader to ask him if he was going to let this man speak to him that way after everything Arty had done, but the painter just sat there on his knees, his face pale of color and his eyes wide with what seemed to be fear. "Arty?..."
"Ts-ts-... Tsuga Kauri?..." Arty stammered quietly.
Roland poked his head up next to Sepia's, "That's a douchey name! Is this some Atlas jerk-off, or what?"
Sepia silently giggled and gave him a peck on the cheek. Took the words right out of my hands.
"Guys!" Timbre hissed, "Stop it."
Tsuga seemed taken aback by the attitudes of these children. "Excuse me?! I will not be spoken to that way by the likes of little sh-."
"Tsuga, please." A flat female voice came from behind him. "Calm yourself. There's no need to waste your time with Burne's… team…"
If Arty was scared before, he was petrified now.
A woman in a blinding white pantsuit with noticeably long coattails stepped up in front of Tsuga. Her icy amber eyes peered over the soot covered tiles of the ballroom, then up the cracked columns that divided up the space on either side of the ballroom. The disgust that she held was evident even under the stone-cold wall that served as her permanent scowl. Her black hair was slicked back into a bun and a lion tail swung back and forth with each of her thundering steps. "Burne, I see that I still have reason to keep you out of Atlas."
While the rest of Teams ARTS and ANTE found the unfamiliar woman intimidating, they weren't as frightened by her as Arty was. Timbre noticed that his eyes were wide and his face was pale. Based on his reaction, she decided that she would be safest on the outside of the hole. If only she hadn't ran away from her group again, then she might have had the sanctuary of the two members of her team that didn't care much about other's opinions.
She began helping her leader onto his feet, "Arty? You okay?"
"G… General Léon?..." Arty stuttered.
"Yes, Mr. Umber," Professor Alabaster, dressed in a black and white striped suit vest and black slacks, came in behind General Léon and Lieutenant General Kauri, "I was just walking the general and her lieutenant around campus when-"
"Lieutenant General…" Tsuga spat.
"Anyway... We heard the... explosion." He looked at Arty quizzically, "I'm glad that you've all found a way to entertain yourselves while setting up for the arrival of the other students, but I would advise that you all try and avoid doing anything that you think that Team ASHS would approve of."
"Oh!" Alice said as she stepped up to her headmaster, "Professor Alabasta!" she curtsied, "Burne here ruined the finishing touches on the welcoming ceremony. He's set us back hours, if not days… and we don't exactly have days," she crossed her arms and humphed, "I'd appreciate it if there was something you could suggest to make up for it."
Arty was still mortified, "Professor… I… I…" he couldn't get any words out.
"It is fine, Mr. Umber. I've hired on a few extra repairmen since the library incident." Professor Alabaster tapped his cane next to Arty's boots. The end of his cane delivered a firm tap to Arty's toes, as if to remind him to compose himself. "You can't expect there to be no damages in a school where we train students to cause as much damage as possible."
"You can if they have any sense of discipline." General Léon glared at her former student. She clenched her jaw and narrowed her gaze, "I have been told that Onyx has you... leading a team."
Timbre smiled and waved with Arty hanging on her side, "Um, hi! Hello! That'd… that'd be us…"
"You're General Léon?" Roland adjusted his hat. He examined the woman for a moment, "Based on what Arty said about you, I expected you to be more… I don't know, psycho?"
"Excuse me?!" General Léon snapped her head over to the pair of approaching students. Her scowl contorted into a full snarl when she saw Sepia holding onto Roland's hand.
'Roland, I'd back off. Don't you know that lions eat otters?' Sepia signed to her boyfriend. She stuck her tongue out at the general and popped a few finger guns at her.
"Those are sea lions, not lion lions. I think I'm safe." Roland smiled wide at Arty's former headmaster.
"What about sea lio-. Nevermind." General Léon tried to compose herself, "Your team is as I expected them to be, Burne." She briskly made her way across the room, past the group of first-years, and out the open door to the courtyard outside, "I expect that your… new hires will have this fixed before the opening ceremony?" she asked Beacon's headmaster while being half dragged away by him with Tsuga close behind.
"I'll take that as a compliment!" Arty called after her. He quickly fell back onto the floor and held his face in his palms. "Oh my god she's actually here…"
Roland knelt beside his friend, "If it's any consolation, I'm not looking forwards to seeing the headmaster of Haven Academy, either," he pat him on the back, "I've got your back on General Léon if you got my back on… her."
Timbre looked towards the door to make sure the two headmasters had left completely, "Who's worse, the headmaster at Haven or Atlas?"
"To you guys, Atlas. To me, Haven." Roland bit his knuckle for a moment, "You'll get it later. I honestly don't really want to talk about it, if it's cool by you guys."
Timbre nodded, "'Kay then…" she pulled Arty back up with her and brushed off some of the remaining dirt that was on her clothes from the initial explosion. "Hey. Alice? If it's any consolation, we'd be glad to help you fix up what we can while the wall… gets fixed."
Sepia held out the banner to Alice. She stifled her silent laughter, not that it really mattered too much with her.
Alice was still mad, but she knew she wouldn't get everything done in time without any help from outside her own team. She sighed, "Fine… whateva…" she took one end of the banner and led Sepia across the room, away from the blast site. "You pull anythin' like that eva again, I will not hesitate ta beat you to a pulp…"
As Sepia began signing a list of profanities, Roland began to give the translation that Alice wanted to hear, "She says that she won't do it again. Also that we owe Team ANTE lunch after this. Sound fair?"
"You liar…" Sepia mouthed back at him.
"So…" Timbre pat Arty on the back, "what do you want us to do?"
Turf walked right past Alice and Sepia on his way to the rest of Team ARTS, "Uh… me, Navy, and Ebon could work on cleaning up the soot and debris while you five take care of the organized and artsy stuff. It wasn't like we three were doing much more than following you guys…"
"Right," Timbre led Arty away to the pile of tablecloths that, luckily, hadn't gotten ruined in the blast. Away from the others, Timbre was able to ask Arty about the events that had just transpired. "So… General Léon…"
"Yep…"
Timbre unfolded a tablecloth, "I was wondering… why did that other guy scare you so much… if you don't mind me asking?"
"Tsuga?... Yeah, well," they flipped the cloth to lay it down on one of the tables, "after the incident, my dad had to report to General Léon on what happened. She wanted to do much more than just ban me from Atlas Academy."
"Like what?"
"Like prison."
Timbre stopped in her tracks as Arty went to get another cloth. "Oh… but obviously that didn't happen, since you're standing here now. So what actually went down?"
"They struck a deal. I get kicked out of the Academy, I don't go to jail, and the media doesn't blow up the story… no pun intended, I swear." Arty sighed, "All my dad had to do was take a demotion."
Timbre helped flatten out another tablecloth, "Wait… your dad was…"
"Second in command of the largest military power in all of Remnant? Yeah, he was, until I screwed up and he had to let Tsuga take his place. Now my dad's stuck back in Atlas continuing boot camp instead of helping General Léon bring the Atlas students that are participating in the tourna-..." Arty's eyes widened, "Oh crap…" He immediately dashed for the door, "Don't tell me…!"
"Arty!" Timbre chased after him, "Where the heck are you going?!" She didn't get a response.
Come on. Come on. Come on. Arty's mind had emptied itself of the events that had just transpired. All that was in his mind now was the fact that, if General Léon was already in Vale, then his friends might be as well. Right as his boot hit the stoop of the main doorway, somebody blocked his path.
He found himself on the receiving end of a bearhug from a boy adorned with gold, gold, and more gold. "Arty! My main man! The rebel that took it to the next level! The bomber like no other! How's it goin'?!"
Arty was grinning ear from ear as he greeted his childhood friend, "Midas! Please, don't call me that!" He said not breaking his excited tone. "So you came in with General Léon?"
"Not just him, Umber." A girl in a simple green hoodie and grey sweatpants walked up next to Midas. She held her hand out to him, barely letting her smile show, "Good to see you again, Burne."
Normally, Arty would just shake her hand back, but he couldn't contain his excitement. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up off the ground. "Curie!"
"Yes… it's me. Can you put me down now?" After her demand wasn't complied with the second she finished her sentence, she kneed Arty in the ribs, forcing him to drop her. Upon returning to the ground, she cleared her throat and pushed her glasses back into place.
Arty's grin wouldn't fade, even through the pain in his side, "Good to see you too, Cure..."
"Dude, it's been such a drag without you around! No one does Dust like you, man, and now General Pissy is cautious of all of the heavy Dust users back at Atlas. Now that we're at Beacon, maybe we'll have the pleasure of seeing you spice things up!" Midas clapped his hands together. He looked around for the rest of Arty's team, "From what I heard, that's kind of your team's specialty!"
"Please don't say 'spice'... It's a bad omen." Roland waved from behind his leader, "I think we've already met over the CCT. Midas and Curie, right?"
Curie eyed the cowboy Faunus cautiously, "Yes. Roland, is it?"
"Yeah, nice to meet you," he held out a hand to his side. Sepia stood with a massive grin spread across her face. He watched carefully as she made a few motions with her hands, "Oh, and you know Sepia. She's the mute and really talkative one."
"Dude, I totally forgot you had a Faunus and a chick without a voice on your team! Beacon's got some kind of diversity, huh? That's great! Maybe I should have blown a hole in the school too!" Midas laughed and shook Roland and Sepia's hands.
"You think we're cool? There's a girl that can make weapons out of thin air using Ice Dust and some dudes that can turn into wolves." Arty shook his head, "I'm telling you Midas, this school is nuts."
"Don't forget about me!" Timbre rushed out of the ballroom, despite Alice's protests. Timbre shook Midas and Curie's hands. "Hi! I'm Timbre. It's so great to finally meet you two in person."
Curie's eyes widened and her jaw fell open. She looked as if she were going to pass out. "T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T…"
"Timbre Forté," Midas slid in between his teammate and the singer, "you look even better in person. The name that you're never gonna forget is Midas, Midas Ankara. Maybe we could ditch this place and grab some dinner later. I'm buying! Let me just give you my contact info-"
A broom clattered to the floor on the other side of the ballroom. Turf scrambled to snatch it back up and return to his duties. He raised his hand to grab Midas' attention, "Hey, sorry! She… she, uh… has plans helping out… with the… um…"
"Welcoming ceremony!" Timbre smiled nervously and took a step back. "Yeah. You see, I'm kinda… helping set up this whole thing and I… gotta…" She suddenly turned on her heel and speed-walked back inside. "Hey, Alice! Need help with those streamers!?"
"That's fine! I'll catch up with you later!" Midas waved goodbye. He ran a few fingers through his hair and flipped it back up into place. "Gods, that's one heck of a woman. Think you could get her number for me, Bomber?"
Arty cringed, "Yeah… no. I may be your best friend, but I'm gonna have to draw the line at playing wingman with you and my own teammate…"
"Aw… Roland, how about you?"
"Midas… she left because she was creeped out…" Roland rubbed his arm and glanced at Arty. "This is your best friend…?" he whispered in his ear.
Arty nodded.
Curie tapped her foot impatiently, "Midas… cut it out. Knowing you, you'll be swooning over some other girl in about five minutes. It's not a big loss…"
"I will no- hey!" Midas snapped his head back to the open door. He began waving and jogging towards a group of girls taking a tour of the campus. "Hey! The name's Midas, Midas Ankara!"
"He hasn't changed a bit, has he?" Arty asked Curie as he reminisced on the many times he'd gotten a good slap just from being associated with Midas on his past romantic escapades.
"Not in the slightest. Even though he's the leader of Team MTLC now, he still has to be the lone wolf rebel of Atlas Academy."
There was that name again. Team MTLC. The team that should have been Team MLBC. "So, Curie. Where's the rest of your team?"
"Titian and Ledning decided to go down to check out the city before the welcoming ceremony tonight, so… they won't be around until later." She patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry, you'll get to meet her soon enough."
Arty couldn't believe she'd seen through his line of questioning. "What do you?... I wasn't…"
"Burne, I get it. You want to know about the person who replaced you on our team. You don't need to sit here and try some backwards-ass method to get information out of me." She wagged a finger at him, "You should know me better by now. Just… let it go for the time being, okay? Let's go find Midas before he gets us kicked out of the tournament…"
"Actually, do you think I could take Arty on a little walk? There are some things I want to talk about with my partner." Roland clasped Arty's shoulder and pointed to the doors.
Arty looked to Curie, "I was gonna go walk Curie aro-"
"Go, Burne."
Arty looked to her confused, "But I-"
"Go play leader. We'll catch up after I go find the Great Gold Womanizer before he gets in trouble." She waved as she turned to head the direction Midas went, "See you later. It was nice to meet your team, Umber."
And with that, Curie disappeared into the crowd milling around in the courtyard.
"Wanna talk about what keeps happening when they get brought up?" Roland led Arty out into the courtyard. By the shoulder, he dragged Arty in the direction of the library. A lot of memories were made there between them, but the important thing at that moment was that the flood of transfer students thinned out around the building.
"Nothing keeps happening, Roland."
"Right, because you don't get all awkward as soon as Team MLBC," Roland paused for a moment. He wanted Arty to take notice of his 'mistake', "excuse me, Team MTLC gets brought up. Same goes for when your old headmaster gets brought up too."
"Well, I mean…" Arty pushed the door open to the library, which was eerily quieter than usual, "Stupid question but… wouldn't you feel the same way? I had a team before ARTS and because of me, that team never even got the chance to exist…"
"Arty, I wish the team that I might've been in got disbanded because of a stupid mistake that I made." Roland pulled up a chair at the table where Arty had previously been given the task of redoing every illustration in the Beacon library. "Regardless of what happened to bring me here, I wouldn't trade this team for the world. We've got a solid leader, a celebrity, and... Sepia. That's the best team that I could ask for."
"Don't get me wrong… I think the same way. I never would've met you guys had I not accidentally grabbed the wrong spray paint that day, but… I sometimes think about how my life would be if I was still back home. Yeah, I'd be with Midas and Curie, but I'd still be under my dad's iron fist and General Léon's iron boot." Arty let out a deep sigh, "Do you ever wonder what would've happened had you not left Mistral?... The good and the bad, and compare it to what you have now?"
Silence fell over them.
"I'm sorry, I have no place to ask that considering… everything…"
"No, no, it's fine. It's really fine." Roland rubbed his forehead as he recounted what life would have been like, "You want to know what would have happened if mom hadn't passed away, right?"
"I didn't mean that specifically, but..."
"I'd probably have moved out of the estate to live with Mom by now. I wouldn't become a Huntsman. I'd probably try to make a living writing. I have a few stories in my head that I would love to get on paper. If I'm being honest, I would be a heck of a lot happier than I am now, Arty." Roland placed his hat on the table and leaned back in his seat. "The thing is, I don't want to be happier. If I was happier, then I wouldn't be fighting to make the world that took her from me a better place. It's because I'm not happy that I want to do better."
Arty leaned forward in his seat and stared at the hardwood floor of the library. After everything they did to get Roland to open up, he was still unsure about how to respond to half the things he said when talking about home. After a moment of thought, Arty decided to ask a very general question. "Is that just the way the world works, then?"
"How many people do you know that have both parents still around, Arty?" Roland looked around the library, his gaze settling on the rows marked off for romantic fiction. His mother could have named every last one there. "Remnant is dangerous, and that makes for a dangerous and volatile society. We're… well, you're here to make it just a little less dangerous in every way that you can. It doesn't matter what team you're on or which academy you go to. The end goal is the same, right?"
"That's easy to say when you're not the one responsible for the team at large, Roland. After what happened with Oro and that Trex… yeah, we came out in one piece, but how can we better the world with things like the Grimm Brotherhood out there?"
"We do what we're trained to do. We fight them until we can't," Roland watched Arty's downtrodden gaze carefully. "Listen… I made the decision to charge in and get hit by Oro, man. That's not on you. I almost died because of my stupid mistake, not yours. Quit kicking yourself over that. It was me who made that situation even more dangerous, not you."
Arty shook his head back and forth. "That's just it. That's the big difference between MLBC and ARTS. On MLBC, I would've just been a member following orders. Midas's orders, yeah, but someone else's orders nonetheless. In ARTS… I'm the one that's supposed to give them. If I could have just given the right ones in the first place, then none of that would have happened!"
"Would you rather me be the leader?"
"That's not what I'm saying, Roland." Arty began drumming his fingers against the wood of the table. The stacks of books began to feel too close as he tried to word his thoughts. "Do you remember when we first became Team ARTS? You told me that I was the only one of us that was qualified to be leader."
"Yeah, so?"
"After that whole mess, I honestly think I should be added to the 'not qualified' list. You, Alice, Turf. You were all stuck in the infirmary after that. Then the whole thing with the Trex… There were twelve of us out there that night, and all of us could have died. I mean, I just don't think I handled things as well as I could have. I was stuck. I couldn't move when Oro showed up with all her friends. I knew the Grimm Brotherhood was bad, but what did they want with us?" he held his head in his hands, "I just don't think I'd be able to protect you guys if they ever came back."
"Arty, you used our Nova Dust to save my life. You, Timbre, and Sepia took out a Grimm that we don't even know how to fight." Roland stood up from his seat. He slammed his palms on the table, "Do you have any idea how much that meant to me, Arty? I was down and out. I was sure that I was going to die. I have never had anyone to have my back like that other than Mom, but there you were. You care about me, Arty. You care about Sepia. You care about Timbre. That makes you a good team leader," he clenched his fists against the table, "You're the reason that we lived through that. Everyone sees that but you."
Arty mulled over Roland's words and, as much as he wished he could believe them, something just didn't feel right. Yeah, he cared, but did that really make him a good leader? Does one good make up for all the bad?
"You're always stuck in the past," Roland eased himself back into his seat. Even though his blood was already boiling, he stopped himself from exploding. He shoved his hat towards his leader and crossed his arms, "Do you know what that is?"
Arty looked to the headwear, "Your hat that you've tackled everyone on our team at least five times a piece over?"
"It's a woman's hat, Arty."
Normally, he would've said something to mock Roland, but considering what he knew about him, Arty decided against it as logic put things together. "It was your mom's, wasn't it?"
"Like everything else I have, yeah," Roland placed the hat back onto his head. That felt safe. That felt right, "My mother grew up in Vacuo. There's a lot of sand and dust, so a wide brim hat will do wonders for you. She stopped wearing it when she came to Mistral, then I picked it up out of some of her old things when I was a kid. I haven't stopped wearing it since," he leaned his head back to look at the ceiling, "I lost her, and that made me lose myself. That's why I came here. I've told you on multiple occasions that I am here to find whoever it was that... well, that's not the point. I've been stuck in the past because I lost everything that I cared about, but you seem to be stuck in the past because you gained things that you don't think you deserve. That… that really just pisses me off, if I'm being honest with you. Here you are, the would-be leader that actually became a leader, talking about how you're upset about the mistakes that you've made. Your mistakes made you better, but my mistakes got my mother and a slew of other Faunus killed. Just, why? Why are you so damn upset that you turned the title you were given into your actual identity?"
"It's easy to sit here and say I was successful looking back, but do you know how many times I counted where if I made one little misstep, one little misstep, and somebody would've died?"
"That's irrelev-"
"Do you know how many?!" Arty could feel his collar soaking through with sweat. He didn't like having this conversation at all.
"Not near as many as you think," Roland leaned back up to face his leader.
Arty nodded and gazed out the window to the students, both native and foreign, passing by the window, all cheerful and enjoying the nice day outside, partially to take a break, partially to avoid eye contact with Roland, "87."
"What?"
"I counted, Roland. Every single one stuck in my mind. There were 87 individual times where I was either an inch or a second or a paintball away from getting killed or getting somebody else killed."
Not being convinced, Roland pressed further, "What was the first?"
"Allowing us to get talked into going out there in the first place," before Roland could speak again, he continued, "Do you want more examples?"
"No I-"
"When I first used the Nova Dust, I had no idea what it was going to do. It could have gone completely wrong and blown one of us to bits."
"Arty..."
"When Sepia disarmed Oro, I could've taken her out somehow, but I didn't."
"Arty."
"I left you alone and almost got drowned, giving Oro the chance to use you as a hostage until the Trex got to us."
"Arty!"
"And then when it all came to it, I waited until the last possible second to kill it! There wasn't any time left, Roland! If I had waited a second longer, or missed the one shot I had… all four of us would've-"
He couldn't take it anymore. Roland shot across the table and hoisted Arty up by the collar, "Why are you hellbent on ending up like me, Arty?!" he shouted with tears streaming down his cheeks. The grip tightened when he brought Arty closer, "Why do you want to put that much suffering, baggage, and incomprehensible responsibility on your shoulders and yours alone?! Why are you shutting me out, Arty?! Why won't you get your head out of the Emerald Forest?!"
Arty's panicked shouting became a sad and quiet mumble, "Because that's where I found out that there are things out there that I can't study for. Oro wasn't something that we've ever seen in our textbooks or in McGouran's class. She wasn't like my Camolurker, or Timbre's Raach, or Sepia's Scuttlepod, or your Wendigo... I've gotten so used to knowing what we're up against out there in the real world. Maybe I've gotten… too used to it…"
"You're-!" yelling wasn't going to do anything, "You're preaching to the choir…" Roland loosened his hold. Arty was finally allowed to slip out of his grip, "Remnant is ruthless. It will take everything and everyone from you. This school is probably the safest place on this planet, so I get why you'd feel so… slapped down," his words didn't seem to do much, though. He cursed himself, but tried to think of at least something, "Arty, what was the purpose of the first lesson that Professor Maple taught us?"
Arty thought back to that first day of class. He winced when he remembered how Everest had batted him so easily into the wall when they first started their fight. He slowly began to recount the speeches given by Professor Maple and Professor Alabaster, "Be able to adapt to anything."
"That means that we adapt to Oro. That means that we adapt to the Trex. That means that we adapt to this unmerciful world," Roland held out a hand to Arty. Neither of them had to keep suffering so much. They didn't just have to be open. They needed to rely on one another, "Arty, you need to adapt to the burden that you've been carrying since we left the Emerald Forest for the second time."
Arty didn't nod, but he didn't refuse either. "Right… I will, but I need some time first. It's not going to be a full semester or anything, but I just need to figure out how and why and… all that. As much as I need my team, I need my little link from back home too, you know? I need something to… disconnect myself from all of that."
"I know…" Roland's fingers curled back up. He lowered his hand, "I get it, really. Just… time alone doesn't heal all wounds. Just please come to me-" he caught himself, "us. Please, come to us when you're ready. Some things are too big to bear alone."
"Right… will do."
'Hey, have you heard from Arty or Roland?' Sepia's hands flew in front of Timbre's face. She stomped back and continued pacing up and down the freshly scrubbed floor of the ballroom. She flicked through her scroll for any missed messages, 'It's been awhile since they left.'
Timbre shrugged, "Maybe they're just really into giving Midas and Curie the grand tour? That doesn't really explain why Roland's taking so long, though."
"Can you two… one… whateva… stop blatherin'?! We're so close to being done here, and the rest of the students should be showin' up any time now!" Alice yelled from the top of her ladder, where she was leaning a bit too far to hang the last streamer on the stone framing of the front door, and only a little way down from the two repairmen who were already smoothing out plaster. As she stretched her arm out further to pin it into place, the ladder began to wobble. With a high-pitched shriek, the ladder fell out from under her and she began to tumble to the ground. Fortunately, her landing was softened by something beneath her. Unfortunately, that something was another teen.
"Owwww…." a groan came from beneath her.
"Oh no! Oh bollocks!" She jumped up, flustered by her own clumsiness. "I'm so bloody sorry… I didn't… I..."
"No, no, it's fine. I'm good…" said the boy from below Alice. He reached out for a pair of reading glasses that had clattered away, just out of reach, "My depth perception is gone without those. Could you help a guy out?"
Turf, walking over due to the commotion, picked up the spectacles and handed them to the boy before helping Alice up.
"Thanks," he placed them back over his eyes. Finally, he was able to see the people giving him at least a... friendly welcome. The redhead in the dress still had the apologetic look in her eyes and the guy in the beanie next to her just looked oblivious to all that was happening around him. That was when he noticed the hole in the wall and the black scorch marks two other guys were trying to clean up. "Woah! Hey, Cai, you sure you've never been to Vale before?" he asked over his shoulder towards the door.
High-heeled boots clicked against tile as the dancer strode in. The unnatural smile that she gave the scorched remains of the explosion sent chills down her audience's spines. Her flowing dress gave off a faint glow like fresh embers, but it appeared to be scorched and ripped around the hem. "Nope, but it sure looks like it, huh?"
Once inside, the woman twirled and kicked the ground, "I like this ballroom a lot. The soot, the smell of ash, the rhythm I get from it! Please tell me prom's gonna be in here," she turned her head to Alice. A bright orange flower was stuck in her chocolate curls bouncing around her head. A red streak in her bangs fell back into place. She held out her hand to the newcomer in green and grey, "Epa, dance with me!"
He was about to protest when he was suddenly yanked to his feet and led around the open room.
"Um…" Alice watched on in mild confusion, "it's not… exactly supposed ta look like this… We're still cleaning and setting up. I honestly didn't want any of tha foreign students seein' tha ballroom like... this." Inside, she was screaming. She wanted to pout and yell at these two to leave, but she tried to save face for the sake of proving she could do something right to the rest of Beacon, maybe even herself.
"Um… may I ask who you are? What school are you from? Shade? Haven? Oh, the Atlas students are here, I know that much! Are you perhaps with them?" She asked, even though she highly doubted that the shy nerdy kid with a hiking backpack and what looked like a salsa dancer that had recently survived a house fire were from such a place of high standing in Remnant, but then again, Umber was from that same place. He certainly didn't play the part.
The dancer yanked her partner around, watching his feet carefully, "Come on, Epa! You've got to lead! You're the man!" she laughed while turning in quick circles with him. Deciding that he wasn't going to lead, she grabbed his thigh, held his back, and dipped him in Alice's general direction, "We're from Haven! Come on, you didn't think we were stuffy enough to be from Atlas, did you? I've only heard of one person from Atlas that could really light a place up! What did Rol say his name was, Epa?"
"Uhhh…" he looked up to the ceiling, wracking his brain for a name, "I'm so bad with names… Brick? Burke? Burt? Something like that?"
The dancer burst out laughing and pulled her partner back up, "Epa! We're idiots, or at least I am! Burne! How could I forget that name?!" she spun Epa in a circle and pulled him in close so that he still faced Alice, "But Rol said to call him Arty. I like Burne a lot better, though. It has more flair to it!"
"I would've remembered that if he shared his name with a plant…" the backpacker mumbled as he marched along hand-in-hand with Cai.
Alice was dumbstruck. "Wait… you two… know who Umba and the Fa-" she had to stop herself from continuing her old nasty habit, "who Umba and Roland are?"
"Yeah," Epa said as Cai twirled him, letting him bend backwards towards Alice "he is my best friend after all."
"Wow, sick moves," Ebon said as he walked up to the newcomers, "I always thought that it was a pretty small world when I realized everyone on Team ARTS was from a different kingdom, but I didn't think they'd actually make the world that much smaller! Kinda makes meeting new students easier, eh?" He pulled off a glove and held his hand out to the pair from Mistral. "Name's Ebon. Nice to meetcha!"
"Nice to meet you too! I'm Cayenne and this is Epazote!" the dancer took a hand off of Epazote and shook the skier's hand, "I've heard about you, and Alice, Turf, and Navy too! You're the cool one, Alice is the poker player, Turf is the puppy, and Navy is the soldier, right?" she looked back at Epazote.
Turf rubbed his arm, "Roland called me a puppy…?"
"No, Rol's girlfriend called you a puppy. We know Sep well, don't we Epa? Way better match for him than Saf."
"I'd keep that quiet if I were you…" Epazote shook his head, "you know she has a way of getting info out of people. The less you say about the matter… the better…"
The sound of a small applause echoed through the room as Timbre and Sepia made their way over to the door.
"That was incredible!" Timbre beamed as she greeted Cayenne and Epazote. "I've had to deal with a lot of choreography before but it never felt… right to me. You made it look like you were born to do it!" She went to shake their hands, "I'm Timbre, by the way, but I guess you… already… knew that…"
Turf stifled a chuckle. "Everyone usually does, Timbre."
"Yeah, Rol and Sep told us all about you!" Cayenne let go of Epazote and waltzed over to Timbre and Sepia, "Speaking of which, what's going on, Sep?"
'Chaos as usual!' Sepia held up her scroll. Once her message was read, she hugged Cayenne around the waist as if they had been friends for years. After the dozens of visits to the CCT with Roland, her, Epazote, and Cayenne had become well acquainted.
Again, Epazote tried to place the name with the memory associated to it, "Yeah, uh… Timbre, didn't you play a concert at Haven last spring?"
Timbre nodded. "Yeah, during my final tour before coming here. Were you there?"
Both of them shook their heads.
"I'm not really big on concerts," Epazote shrugged, "I know a few songs, but I couldn't name the person that sings them to save my life."
"That's really cool that you got to play at a big concert! So were you on tour with whoever was playing as the opening act, or what?" Cayenne let go of Sepia. She hadn't the slightest clue who Timbre was. After all, dancing to the beat of music was her thing, not actively listening to it.
For the first time in what felt like forever, somebody honestly had no clue who she was. Even in Mikado Village, a small podunk trading village in the mountains, everyone there knew who she was. It was a shock to say the least, but she found it refreshing. With a big grin, she very enthusiastically shook Cayenne's hand with both of her own, "No, I was! I was the main act!"
Epazote and Cayenne looked to each other with concern.
Team ANTE was also confused by Timbre's reaction.
"You're happy that I don't know who you are…?" Cayenne raised an eyebrow.
"It's just… it's very rare not to be recognized, you know?" She let go of Cayenne and struggled to contain her excitement over her new discovery. "It can get kinda tiring after a while. It's actually part of the reason I was worried about coming here."
Alice spoke up, "Yeah, I didn't exactly keep it a secret that I was a fan when last semesta started."
"Well, I'm glad that I could be… refreshing?" Cayenne ran her fingers through her curls. She tapped the side of her cheek while examining the ballroom even further. Sepia was there without her boyfriend, which was disappointing. She and Epazote hadn't seen their best friend since he left Mistral. "Where is Rol, anyway? We actually came here because we heard that Team ARTS was helping set this place up."
"Roland?" Timbre looked to Sepia, "we're not 100% sure, but my best guess is that he's with Arty and some of his friends from Atlas. We haven't seen either of them in about an hour or so." She turned to the leader of Team ANTE, "If it's not too much trouble for you, Alice, do you mind if we help them find Roland?"
Alice eyed the two Haven students. They seemed nice enough. Why they hung around Roland before, she had no clue, but she did still feel bad about the current condition of the ballroom… and almost breaking Epazote's back. "Okay. That's fine. We should be able to handle the last of it. Really it's just a matta of music choice and lighting. And the repairs, of course."
"Great! Thanks, Alice!" Timbre was full of energy now. It was always fun meeting new people, and she always made an effort to make a good first impression. No longer was she the scared incognito celebrity she was when she flew in on the airship the first day. Today, she was a representative of Beacon Academy, and she was going to be as helpful as possible. She did find it awkward, however, when the idea of pummeling Epazote and Cayenne during sparring, or, with enough luck, during the Vytal Tournament came to mind. "C'mon guys. Knowing Roland, it's not exactly difficult to find him. Even though he's gotten… better, that doesn't mean he doesn't still like getting into the occasional fight!"
Silence fell over Epazote and Cayenne.
"Did… did he tell you…?" Epazote finally asked.
That's when it hit her. Timbre thought Epazote seemed familiar somehow, but now she knew for sure that she'd seen him before.
He was the boy consoling Roland in the picture from his mother's funeral.
Timbre's chipper mood faded quickly. "Yeah. He told us." The guilt she had felt when she had found his binder of letters slowly seeped back in, making her chest ache lightly. "We didn't have any idea until just about a month ago."
"She was close to all of us…" Cayenne rubbed the back of her neck. Memories of Professor Oscura came trickling back. Textbooks floating around, pictures seemingly coming to life for a little while, and countless other scenes played out in the back of her mind. "It makes sense that he didn't tell you guys about it for so long. Professor Oscura was everything to him. She used to have him help out on certain lessons by having him use his Semblance to rearrange her scribblings on the whiteboard. Then he'd start cracking jokes when her back was turned. Remember, Epa?"
Epazote nodded and gazed off towards the cliffs as they began to walk down the side of the the main building, "Yeah. When we heard about what happened, Roland wasn't the only one that was crushed. All of Sanctum was, especially the students who'd already graduated, like us. She was usually referred to as the best teacher the school had ever seen."
"I'd say the best teacher in Remnant. She cared so much about us," Cayenne smiled bitterly at the sky, "and she was always just… there. If you needed help, Professor Oscura gave it. If you needed a book, she would write down the passages that you needed from a bunch of different books, make the properly formatted citations, and do it all from memory. One time, I forgot my lunch at home, and she just gave me hers. I don't like clams, but I ate every last bit of that lunch because she had the heart to give it up. I could have gone a day without lunch no problem, but she didn't want that."
With every new story and detail, Timbre felt like she missed Professor Oscura as well.
Epazote pretended to fix his glasses as he wiped away a tear. "Some of the bullies at school were giving my mom a hard time. She's the student counselor at Sanctum, so she has to deal with the bad ones regularly. As Oscura heard, she'd be over in a second. They saw her and gave her the exact same looks that they did my mom, but within about a minute tops, they'll be all apologetic and be on their way. She wasn't just great. She was incredible."
Sepia held up her scroll with a message displayed, 'I wish I could have met her. I can't help but wonder what she would have thought about me.'
"Oh, she would have loved you. If you made her son happy, there was nothing you could do to make her upset with you. While Saffron and Roland were still dating, Professor Oscura would spend her own money just to make sure that they both had fun. She even took them to a concert, Timbre's I'm guessing, over at Haven."
He was at my concert in Mistral? Timbre thought to herself in surprise.
Cayenne bit her lip, "That was a month before… you know. Roland just kind of shut everyone out after that. He put on a face and made everyone think he was okay, but none of us could get very close to him. We could talk about the normal stuff like books and movies, but he shut down if Professor Oscura got brought up… He's doing better now, right? He's not just putting up a front?"
Timbre had never considered Roland's whole personality around them being a front, but, then again, there were two sides to him. There was the angry Roland they met during orientation, and then there was the happier, friendlier, overall more agreeable Roland that they got to know after they confronted him about CiCi Oscura. Was one of these a front? Were both of them a front? "I… honestly don't know."
Epazote picked up his pace, "Well, if he's being generally a nice guy, but doesn't take bull from anybody, then that's the real him."
Timbre looked to Sepia.
'Sounds about right. That's about how he's always been to me.' Sepia signed. Even before they officially began dating, Roland had always shown her a different side to himself. He would always come back to her with a smile, 'He still has a temper, but that's pretty understandable with everything that happened, right?'
"What was that?..." Epazote said as he scrunched his nose in confusion.
"She says yeah, that sounds like how he really is." Timbre shook her head as she recounted her own stories about Roland, "When he first got here, all he did was want to pick fights with anybody and everybody. He was… scarily violent all the time. Yeah, Alice and Navy actually pulled some of that 'bull' you mentioned, but… I don't know. It seemed too real to be a front, you know?"
Cayenne slowly looked over at Timbre. The idea of Roland being violent wasn't totally foreign to her or Epazote, "Actually… I think I do know. See, there have been a few times where Roland has completely flown off the handle. It's when people talk about Faunus in a bad light, and more specifically his mother. That was before she… passed on. I don't know if he told you the things that Shirley did to him, but… well, he should be the one to talk about it if he hasn't."
"I guess not… since I have no clue who Shirley is…" After all the strife that they were put through because of Roland not opening up to them, he still had plenty of secrets to hide it seemed.
Epazote began to bring some light to the situation that was Roland's family, "His step-mom, who just so happens to be-"
"Well, well, well, if it ain't Sepia Hughes!" A cheery, thickly-accented voice erupted from behind them. "Feels like I haven't seen ya in foreva!"
Sepia whipped her head around. As soon as she saw her, her face lit up. It was her. It was Opal! Walking up with her flip-flops clacking underfoot was Opal Uluru, Sepia's best friend and the woman that saved her life.
"Well? I don't get a hug from ya or nothin'?" Opal held out her arms in her approach.
Before Opal could get even ten feet closer, Sepia shot towards the poor woman as if she'd been shot out of a cannon.
Timbre let out a soft chuckle, "There's only one person Sepia would have that reaction to seeing," she walked up to the girl Sepia had attached herself to and held her hand out, "You must be Opal, right? I'm Timbre. I've heard plenty about you."
"Oh, I know ya very well, Timba," Opal said over Sepia's shoulders. The hug that she was on the receiving end of didn't seem like it was ending anytime soon. She reached around and took the singer's hand with a smile plastered across her face, "Ya might even say I'm a fan. It's truly a pleasure to meet ya!"
