In the morning, everyone went down for breakfast. However, Nina and Gran took their time, so Vivian decided to go up to their rooms to get them. Nina's lodging was closer, and the leader knocked there first. Just as she did, a sound of hastened footsteps could be heard behind the door. She was very surprised when a half-naked Gran opened the door.
"Oh, Vivian," he acted confused, seeing the leader of their team. "Is it already breakfast time?" He was scratching the back of his head.
"Isn't this Nina's room?" Vivian looked at him with a smug expression.
Gran's face quickly turned red, and he started stuttering, not knowing how to explain the situation. Suddenly Nina herself poke her head from behind him. "We will be right down!" She said with a flustered smile.
Vivian crossed her arms on her chest. "Just be quick about it. Now you're really a big boy," she added, winking towards Gran, whose face got even more scarlet.
She joined the rest of the group downstairs. Raymond was first to ask why the Faunus duo isn't with her.
"Well, they are just busy," she answered.
"Busy with what?" Merlot was surprised.
Vivian put her hands on her hips and, with a smug smile, said: "Getting busy."
Raymond looked disgusted while Neil cracked a gentle smile. Amethyst looked at them with a somewhat confused expression. After a short while, the pair joined them, and they all finished breakfast. They all prepared for the boat to Scath; the destination was now so close.
The boat they embarked on was a relatively small fishing ship that planned a quick excursion and then sell whatever they caught to Scath's people. The crew hired two professional Huntsmen for their protection. However, during the entire journey, nothing exciting happened. They caught quite a lot of fish during hunting and were very pleased with themselves.
When the boat finally arrived at their destination, the crew said farewell and prepared their fish to be sold. Vivian quickly took charge as she had the most knowledge about the place. The whole team fell in line as they knew they would get lost without her.
The town of Scath was far different than anything they've seen in both Anima or Eastern Sanus. It was almost entirely built from easy to replace materials. If there ever came to that, the houses could be moved from place to place and work perfectly fine. There were singular buildings with more permanent architecture. Still, they were there mostly to provide shade and protection from wind and sand. The docks were the coolest place in the entire town with the breeze from the ocean, and the moment they all set foot on the desert, most of them regretted ever coming to Vacuo.
The sun hit them like a preheated oven. They did prepare for the scorching heat of Western Sanus, but actually experiencing it for themselves was an entirely different matter. They all had relatively lightweight clothing that protected them from the sun and provided enough air circulation to not feel discomfort. However, the lack of shade on a longer trip was starting to get unbearable.
"Why not take a break and continue the journey at night?" Raymond proposed.
"If you want to travel in nearly freezing temperature, then be my guest," Vivian answered.
"I wouldn't mind," Gran interjected, wiping sweat from his forehead. During the trip, his hair got really long and started to stick to his face.
"How a place this hot can get nearly freezing during the night?" Raymond was annoyed.
"Desert air is low in moisture," Nina said. "Dry air cools down much quicker, making the temperature difference much more apparent than in more humid places."
"What she said," Vivian agreed, not really knowing the exact science behind this fact herself.
"I still think it's worth a shot," Neil added. "Just to not take this heat anymore."
Black considered the possibility and finally cracked. "Fine, we can rest now and move during the night."
She took out a large blanket, slid some sand from the nearest dune on one of its ends. She then took Gran's and Raymond's weapons and used them as makeshift support beams for the other end. With this, they had shade to hide for the time being.
"This does not protect us from the sand," she added after ending the construction. "But it's all we have for now."
"Don't really like how my sword is used," Raymond said, looking at the makeshift tent. "But I despise the heat much more."
They all were able to fit under the blanket and rest from the sun. The sand they layed on was still pretty hot, but it got to a comfortable temperature after some time. Amethyst even was able to fall asleep. Neil noticed that she was holding her tail, which she never did before.
"How do you feel," Nina surprised Vivian with a sudden question.
Her thoughts went to Scarlet and Yangochi. They were no longer here, and she felt responsible for that. However, she didn't want to lower the mood even further with how she really felt about that. She sighed before giving her the answer. "I feel quite well. I knew I would return here someday, but never suspected it would be so soon."
"You really grew up in this place?" Raymond was curious. "It's tough to believe someone could grow up in the desert."
"Well, I'm not from a nomadic tribe. I lived in a settlement not so far from here. We needed to travel from time to time for supplies, but most of the time, we had enough shade and water to go by." She looked in the direction of their destination – the city of Vacuo.
"Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?" Gran asked suddenly. "All the sand makes everything look the same."
Vivian chuckled. "Of course I do. The sun always rises and sets the same, which provides stable information for navigation."
"But we will be traveling by night, aren't we?"
"At night, we'll have the stars to guide us. Whenever the temperature during the day got too high, we do travel when the sun sets."
"So during days like this," Nina stated.
"Oh, this is actually a pretty timid day," Vivian looked at her friend, amused.
"This is a timid day?" The Faunus girl looked shocked.
"Oh, the temperatures here can get much higher than this." She looked once again into the distance. The mirage of the dunes slowly waving in the heat. "The sun will soon set, so get some rest before we continue."
Looking into the horizon, she was reminiscing about her time in Mistral. The lushes forests, brimming with wildlife and sounds of nature. The gentle wind carrying the smell of flowers, unlike anything she could experience here… Here there was only sand and blinding sunlight as far as the eye could see. She was finally back to Vacuo. Her home.
The journey during the night was as exhausting as during the day. Everyone trembled from the cold that was even more unpleasant because of the wind. The only one who seemed fine with their decision was Amethyst, who didn't mind the chill that much and was only less energetic than before. However, they covered a lot of ground and were even closer to the city of Vacuo.
When the sun started to rise, Neil suddenly felt a strange trembling of the sand. It was very subtle, but after a short while, everyone could feel it as well. Vivian shortly stopped, realizing what that meant. The sand started to shift beneath them in consistent patterns like something was circling them from underground. Raymond noticed that Vivian was shaking and put a hand on her shoulder.
"What's going on?"
She opened her mouth slightly, and the sound of chattering teeth was echoing when she said: "It's a Blind Worm."
All of a sudden, the sand bursted, and before them rose a large Grimm towering at about 30′. It roared, exposing its maw with rows of sharp fangs rotating around inside its jaw. Anything caught in the tornado of blades in that thing would get torn to shreds. The beast looked at its prey with one giant red-eye.
Raymond reacted, quickly dashing towards the monster, which now focused its attention on the boy. Right after him, Amethyst and Gran jumped into the fray.
"What's the plan?" Neil asked, looking at Vivian for guidance.
She was frozen in place, not even acknowledging that the redhead asked any kind of question. Nina was scared, but when she noticed the beast trying to eat Gran, she immediately reacted by activating her semblance. The Grimm crashed into the aura wall, and her teammate used the opportunity to slash at it from the side. The monstrosity's plating was too tough to go through with the weapons they had. Amethyst tried to punch her way through, but that seemed to just annoy the creature.
"Vivian!" Nina was getting anxious. "Does this thing have any weaknesses we can exploit?"
Still silence. The leader of team VNGR was just looking at the Grimm with utmost terror, unable to even move her legs.
"Tsk. Everyone! We need to find a way to get rid of that thing!" Neil took charge and dashed towards the enemy.
"And what do you think we are doing?" Raymond shouted, dashing around and slashing at the fiend. All of their attacks proved fruitless as they could not penetrate the Grimm's plating.
"Ame! Try to focus on one spot and see if it can be weakened enough for Gran to pierce through it!" The redhead commanded, himself trying to force the attention of the beast on himself.
Nina observed the fight, from time to time using her semblance to redirect the worm's attacks to protect her teammates. Occasionally, she glanced at Vivian in hopes of her getting herself together. But she was just standing there like a statue.
Amethyst was trying to focus on one plate of the beast. Still, it was proving difficult as it moved around the battlefield with extreme speed. Every time she thought she had a precise blow, the worm just slid into the ground and bursted out from a different location, blindsiding them. Nina had a lot of work on her hands and was slowly running out of aura.
"This isn't working!" Neil suddenly shouted. "We need to find a way to immobilize this thing!"
"Do you have any ice dust left?" Nina asked, avoiding a dive from the Blind Worm. Sand from the shockwave almost covered her.
"No dust on me, I'm afraid." He responded.
The Grimm bursted out of the sand once again, this time directly from underneath Gran. He used his Bo Staff not to get swallowed and kept the maw open.
"Some help here would be nice!" He shouted, looking at the rows of rotating teeth.
"Ame!" Neil shouted and dashed towards his teammate. She understood his intentions immediately and boosted him into the air. The boy then used his Kusarigama and the momentum from Amethyst to jump onto the monster's head. He stabbed the beast's mouth, which made it release Gran. The Blind Worm wiggled, and both Gran and Neil started to fall. Nina, using her semblance, created a slide for them to fall safely instead of crushing into the sand below.
Raymond used the opportunity to run alongside the monster's back to get to its head. He tried to deliver a stab at the Grimm's eye, but the creature dove into the dunes before he could reach it. The five of them were now together, observing the movement of the sand. The beast was now moving towards…
"Vivian!" Raymond dashed towards her activating his semblance.
Time slowed down for him to see exactly what was going on. The Blind Worm was moving under the sand with inhuman speed, but he was on a direct path towards the girl. The Grimm slithered underneath them as Ray jumped and tugged Vivian aside just as the beast bursted out from below. The rest of the team quickly dashed towards the enemy forcing its attention on them.
"Vivian!" Ray was getting angry, looking as their leader was staring blankly into the distance.
He slapped her, and the look of terror turned into shock. "We fucking need you!"
She glanced at the battlefield, seeing as they all struggled to beat the monstrosity.
"It's… It's…" She was still terrified of confronting the beast. Even Ray could hear her heart pounding in her chest.
"If you'll just stand there, we're all going to die! Do something!" He shouted as he dashed towards the fight himself.
Vivian was in the same exact situation before. The last time she just ran, leaving her tribe, her family, behind to die. Raymond was completely right; if she does nothing again, all of them are going to die. The sight of the 30′ Grimm slithering along the sand and trying to eat anything it could see had her petrified. Her life flashed before her eyes, the first confrontation with a Blind Worm, how she pinned her failure on lack of knowledge. The moment she joined Oscuro and discovered her semblance by accident during one of the training sessions. How she decided to leave Vacuo and enrolled into Heaven Academy, formed team VNGR.
I'm responsible for all of you, and I'll do everything in my power to ensure your survival.
She didn't want to fail anyone ever again. Fear is inconsequential, went through her head; life, however, is not. Her fear started to make way for anger. They relied on her, and there was nothing worse than doing nothing in a situation like that. She may have failed them before, her leadership wasn't enough to ensure their safety. But no one is perfect. Without taking any action, there is no probability of failure. At the same time, there is no room to grow, and stagnation is what really kills. She could no longer hold her emotions inside and activated her semblance. She jumped into the fray to help her companions.
"Blind Worms are weakest at the ridge of their spine. The chitin platings aren't connected there, and a blade can penetrate it."
Everyone smiled when she finally snapped out of her fear. And it seemed her semblance, for some reason, looked bigger than before.
"Ray, Gran, distract it while Ame and Neil help me get on its back," she continued. "Nina, protect Ray and Gran."
"Got it," the whole team agreed, and they commenced the plan.
The male part of team VNGR rushed towards the Grimm, attacking it fiercely protected by Nina's semblance. Amethyst boosted both Neil and Vivian so the redhead could use his Kusarigama again to get them on the Blind Worm's back. The fiend started wiggling, feeling the unexpected guests on its rear. Neil pressed a button on his weapon that shot out Imhullu. He then used it to lodge it between one of the platings to not fall. Vivian, on the other hand, was using her semblance to take hold.
"What now?" Neil asked, looking down at their friends, still fighting with the beast.
"We open it up!" Vivian shouted and pierced the Grimm's back along its spine with a few of her semblance tentacles.
She lodged them deeper until almost all of them were inside the tar-like flesh of the monster. The blood started spewing, sizzling when it contacted with the air.
"Is this thing's blood acid?" Neil shouted, scared.
"Oh yeah," Vivian chuckled. "If not for aura, it could melt you to the bone in a few minutes."
She concentrated, and with all her might, she started to reap the monster open. The skin alongside the back began to tear, revealing its insides. The Grimm wiggled even more rapidly, and Vivian almost fell. Neil quickly secured her by lodging Tsukuyo in a different plate and wrapped her with the chain. The girl strained even more, and the back of the beast was open. The Blind Worm fell to the ground, convulsing rapidly before dissipating into a cloud of smoke. Both Neil and Vivian fell to the ground, tired.
"We did it!" Neil shouted, extending his fist to the sky as he lied on the ground.
Black took a deep breath. She could do it. Looking at it now, she even didn't know why she was so terrified in the first place. After all, it was just another Grimm.
Amethyst helped them both get on their feet. When the sand finally settled from the fight, they noticed that their destination was already visible in the distance. Everyone dusted themselves off, and they continued the final stretch of the journey. The closer they moved towards the city of Vacuo, the more they were horrified by what they saw.
"What happened here?" Nina was looking at the city with widened eyes.
The town walls were collapsed in many places. The streets looked like a battle took place here recently. When they slowly moved inside, the atmosphere was difficult to describe. Many people were looking relieved, but on the other hand, the negative energy could be felt.
However, they finally reached their destination. The Shade Academy stood before them like a giant monument of strength. Many students were stumbling about, clearing the area from rubble.
"What happened?" Vivian asked one of the nearest huntsman-in-training.
"You must've just got here," he concluded. "A revolution. Could you help us out with this mess?" He asked, looking at the group.
"Sure," the girl said slowly, still not sure what she really thinks of this. "But what do you mean by a revolution?"
"Some people got together wanting the Monarchy to get back or something," he was looking annoyed. "Listen, I just wanted to protect the school, so if you don't want to help, you can just leave…"
Neil slowly approached her as the student returned to his work. "Vivian, can we talk?"
Vivian just nodded, and they both walked aside while the rest of the team started to help with clearing the area.
"Can you promise me that no matter what happens next, the six of us will stay a team?"
"I don't know if that's…"
"Promise me." He looked into her eyes.
She exhaled. "I promise." After a while, she chuckled, "what would we be even called?"
Neil smirked, "Team AVNNGR(Avenger)."
She started counting the letters and seeing who corresponds with what letter. "Wouldn't that make Ame the leader?"
Neil chuckled. "Semantics. The leader doesn't have to be necessarily the first letter of the team name."
She raised her hands in defeat. Looking back at the towering Academy, she finally accepted the fact that she is back. Her choice to leave in the first place was negated entirely by a few decisions of people she cared for. Her eyes now lingered on the members of her team. She cracked a smile before joining the rest of the students in the effort of cleaning up the school grounds.
After just a while of work, Gran started noticing many small things that he never suspected he would see. People here did not look at him or Nina with that sting in their eyes. They did not hate them the moment they saw they were Faunus, and for the first time in his life, he didn't know how to feel about that. Was this feeling acceptance? Did they found a place they could live without being hated for who or what they are? His eyes lingered on Nina, who helped a pair of smaller-looking students with their part of the work. He could not help but smile at the sight of her with that gorgeous dirty-blond hair waving in the wind. She noticed that he was looking at her and smiled sincerely. A smile that made his heart race but still made him calmer. Maybe…