A/N: I own nothing. So today we have some action, and some insight into Steele's attitude and history. As always I hope you enjoy.
"This is our fourth session together Mr. Steele, in our previous sessions we focused on how you were settling into life here at Beacon and Vale. Today I would like to fill in some blanks in your file; I understand that you are a war orphan, I would like to go over your childhood. Let's start with some easy questions, what were their names?"
His therapist was an older lady, perhaps in her late fifties. Soft spoken with a faint accent that Steele couldn't quite place. Just a hint of grey creeping at the edges of her nearly crimson hair. While she wasn't a soldier; Steele had been able to tell from their first meeting that she had been a hardened warrior, she understood in a way that so few in the galaxy could. The best part of her was the massive dog that seemed to be her shadow, a shaggy brown slobber monster that wanted nothing more than to park its head in your lap and collect scratches and rubs.
Steele took his time in answering, he had learned that with Dr. Baycrest there was no point in rushing; if he lied or mislead her, she would drag an honest answer out of him. It was a mix of infuriating and refreshing, he had to really think about how he answered or replied to her or he would be wasting both their time. "I don't remember; I don't remember anything about them, but I remember how they died."
"Is that something you would like to talk about?"
"yeah… I think I would."
Dr. Baycrest simply adjusted herself in her chair as he began to speak.
"I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the mines that day, it was maybe a year before the Militia stormed the facility- I could be wrong, I don't remember those years well. Back then I wasn't doing much in the way of work, but I knew to stay away from the mines, but the place that you had to make sure you never were as a servant; was wherever the Warden happened to be. The Warden had been up in arms all day- something had broken from what I remember- there had been three executions that morning, so I went down to the mines to tell the crews to keep their heads down. I had no idea how to navigate the mines, no idea just how bad it was down at the work site. I ended up running from a group of grunts, I had to break an air pump to get away from them."
He took a deep breath and tried to recall things properly. "this is where things get foggy, I don't know why they sent the work crews back in, but it wasn't over the pump. All I remember was that something was wrong with one of the tunnels, there was cracking in the ceiling. The miners had cleared out so the IMC could plant some charges and collapse it. The IMC viewed slaves as resources-fairly valuable ones at that- and believed in not wasting them, so usually they provided decent worksite safety. This time, the Warden had had enough.
There was no quota that needed filling, no pressure from above; the Warden was just a spiteful asshole. He sent the crews back in without collapsing the shaft; I could hear it from the surface, when the tunnel caved in. I ran to the entrance, I had to fight my way through those who were trying to escape… I don't want to talk about this anymore."
Steele was panicking, the edges of his carefully arranged reality fraying around the void that was formed that day.
Steele's breathing was getting ragged as he spoke, his heart rate increasing, his vision blurring. He didn't want to remember, to see the empty spaces, hear their voices; it had taken him years to remember his proper name, yet when his parents screamed at him to leave he couldn't hear it; only their panic. He needed to focus, remember his breathing, live in the moment. The past was the past, now was now.
Dr. Baycrest waited until he had calmed himself before speaking. "That's fine Mr. Steele, we can move on to less painful subjects if that's what you want. We can revisit this discussion at a later visit." Which was her code for 'we will pull this out of your heart, no matter how painful it was, no matter how much it hurt; it is for your own good. "Perhaps we could discuss your ongoing issues with violence as a means of problem solving? I understand that you had an altercation with Mr. Winchester today in the cafeteria, you had to be restrained as I understand."
That was an understatement. Professor Goodwitch had looked ready to have him expelled; it was understandable that she wouldn't like students discharging firearms in the cafeteria. He had already had his conversation with Ozpin, he was understanding but firm, reinforcing that such behavior would not be tolerated.
"I started it; I own that. Winchester was bullying another student and you know my stance on bullies. I challenged him to a match in the arena, he declined like the coward he is, so I shot him; good thing I forgot Auras existed in the moment, I fully intended for that shot to hurt."
"I must say Mr. Steele, its good to have a patient who takes responsibility for their actions. You have spent far to long in a life where violence was your only choice; how could you possibly use peace to stop an invasion. You must remember that these people have never seen war; your fellows are training to be warriors, but they are still young. Not just in age, but experience. Too much has happened in your life, yet not enough. You had the chance to leave the situation at Mr. Winchester making a coward of himself, but you escalated past all reasonable measures. You need to start making the choice to deescalate, to be peaceful. I'm not telling you to not stand up for yourself or others, but to be willing to fight without violence."
Steele scoffed at that. "De-escalation doesn't work with people like Winchester, they don't believe in words. And then you have the kind of people who sit around when something they disagree with is happening right in front of them; they all just sat there, denouncing him and his actions while letting it happen, not a movement made to stop it."
This got Dr. Baycrest's attention. She made a few quick notes before digging into the meat of it. "And why does this bother you?"
"because its bullshit! They all talk big game, how they want to save the world, or redeem the family name, or bring equality to Faunus and Humans. Yet they sit there, all bark no bite. Right in front of them, A human supremacist was doing harm to a Faunus student, and all of them just sat there. If you believe in something, you have to fight for it, not just sit there and go 'its people like Cardin' or 'it must be hard to be a Faunus. No! its people like you, its hard for them because you don't do anything when you have the chance. You have to be the change you want to see. We didn't kick the IMC into broken and scattered fleets by sitting there an wishing it was different, we grabbed our guns and went to work."
"you think your teammates and friends are cowards?"
"no, quite the opposite, they are brave-exceptionally. I think they're soft, too much time inside the walls. They've never had to stand for anything in their lives except themselves. Look at Phyrra; one of the best junior combatants on Remnant, an absolutely wonderful person, keeps her head in a crisis and can charge down any Grimm in existence. All that stops when it needs a different kind of courage, to stand up and be counted for what you believe in, especially when lives aren't in danger. They'll find it, all of them, but it should have happened sooner."
The Dr. took a few more notes as he spoke. "You don't blame them?"
"of course not, I can't blame someone for not being able to do something they've never had to. I blame their parents, the schools, that let them go this long with out. Blaming the victim doesn't work, it solves nothing."
"Well Mr. Steele, I think that's enough for today. We have a good direction for our next session, and I believe that we have a good baseline established for some tests I would like to have you run in the near future. To get a better understanding of your thought processes."
It was a beautiful day in the Forever fall, though the sight picture didn't do the view any favors. Vibrant red leaves casting a broken blanket of shadows over the ground, it felt wrong to keep grounded while on a mission; but this was no mission, it was something called a 'field trip' to gather sap from the trees in the area. Steele was the only one who seemed to be taking the whole thing seriously, he and XR had their weapons up and ready at all times; the whole goddamned forest was crawling with Grimm and everyone had their weapons sheathed or holsters like a bunch of idiots.
Steele and XR were at the back of the group, Steele watching the flanks, XR walking backwards covering the rear. With Goodwitch leading them, they had every approach covered. Steele was feeling it, the addiction; the AWS was sitting back in the hangar like a good little Stalker, but he could still feel it through his implants. He was counting Grimm tracks to help keep his mind off of it, 30 different tracks so far, almost all Beowolves and a pair of Ursa. That they hadn't run across any was near miraculous. But they weren't the only tracks he had found; they were old, weeks old marks from where a Northstar had passed through.
He was keyed up, barely able to hold back from sprinting and bouncing off the trees. On the other hand, the rest of the group seemed intent on enjoying the day out; happily gazing around and idly chatting. The exception to this was Juane, who seemed to be carrying the entire supply of jars for the group and was looking distinctly miserable; he had good reason to feel that way, more than just the jars should be weighing him down. He had all but abandoned his team for the company of Cardin Winchester; something more than wanting to make friends with your tormenters was happening there, but Steele wasn't a detective. What ever was happening there was none of his business.
Things had been going well, all things considered. Team RWBY had collected their sap with a minimum of difficulty, spending their time doing nothing more than goofing off, telling jokes. Steele had sat down against the base of a tree to watch Nora drink jars of the ultra-sweet sap as quickly as Ren could fill them. There was an air of melancholy around team JNPR without their leader, but they seemed to soldier through it. speaking of… Steele hadn't seen CRDL or Juane since the teams split up, they had left the main group for their own grounds.
Two things happened in short order. CRDL minus Cardin came running screaming about an Ursa; Ruby took charge right away. "Yang, Blake, Forrest. Get professor Goodwitch." Steele was gone in an instant, Yang and Blake right on his heels.
"Pilot, I recommend you duck."
There were a few words that bypassed Steele's conscious mind, words that had actions linked to them, that his body no longer asked permission to carry out. A few of those words were things like 'Take cover', 'Incoming', 'Brace', and 'Duck'. He acted on instinct, shouting out a repetition. "DUCK" Dropping into a slide and pushing off at a right angle to his original course. It came in less than an inch above his head, burning hot, faster than an air strike, and louder than thunder. The railgun round landed exactly where he would have been if it wasn't for XR's warning.
"GO! Get Goodwitch, Ruby's relying on us. This is my fight! Neither of you are ready for this! GO!" he traced the shot from memory, hunting down the location of the shooter. That Northstar didn't go very far, did it. A quick weapons check, Justice, R-301, R-99, Softball, P-2020, Mk7 SP, MGL, and his now modified Intruder; a pair of wonderfully crafted blades that he had needed to sacrifice his spare Data-knifes to forge.
The smaller was a nothing more than a 45cm Data-knife with a Pulse-blade core wired into it, it was supposed to be a close in stabby dealy; fuck that shit, more throwing weapons was always good and with his semblance it would always come back to him. Mobile high lethality all in one intel package, as good for killing as intel gathering. The larger was a 100cm curved blade while in its sheath, while drawn it would extend out to its 150cm full size. The artificial mass was fully integrated, as was the AWS targeting assist; combined with the training the Luna had been giving him, the blade could provide him with weak points and tactical analysis that he now had the training to exploit.
"XR, move! Lay down some covering fire and get ready to bring that thing down." XR was fast, but Steele was faster and XR had the firepower.
"XO-19 active, Northstar class titan engaged. Defensive systems online, offensive fire effective." Yeah effective was a word for it, XR was laying down a stream of bullets, missiles, and grenades as he marched towards their target. He couldn't see it clearly, but the Northstar was there, he could see the effect of XR's fire. The Northstar had diverted its fire at XR, forcing XR to engage in evasive maneuvers to buy it some time. "Pilot, Hostile Titan is returning fire. Combat effectiveness at 95%. Shields taking non-critical damage. Engaging defensive movement protocols."
The Northstar had made itself a little clearing in the woods, a large circle of fallen trees acted as something of a perimeter wall that looked like it had seen some Grimm action. A cluster missile hit a tree a little bit in front of Steele that forced him to change course once again, using his grapple and jump kit to aero strafe around the outside of the clearing. It took him a few moments to get a good angle to properly engage, firing off short bursts from the MGL.
Steele jumped into the clearing as XR smashed his way through the trees, letting XR take the attention while he went in for the rodeo. Steele landed on the Northstar's arm and scrambled his way up but was forced off by the activation of electric smoke countermeasures. He chucked an arc star at where he thought the cockpit was, hoping to blind the Pilot for even a moment as he repositioned. The moment the smoke started to fade, Steele threw a pair of satchels and a Firestar as he leaped on to the top of the chassis. It was far harder to get the battery than it should have been, the Infiltrator-his smaller blade- was pinned into the hull as a grip point as he dodged around the newly sprouting bursts of fire and arcing electricity that were progressive multiplying as the Northstar fell apart under XR's assault.
It took his full focus to not get burnt to a crisp as he managed to grab hold of the battery and pull, with his Aura enhanced strength he decided to not bother with unlocking the battery from the hull. As he leapt back, he noticed that he wasn't the only person fighting the Titan; Yang was in the process of delivering a punch that removed one of the legs, while Blake was swinging by the end of her ribbon and shooting out the optics. "Get clear! Charges planted; this thing is coming down!"
He wouldn't look reinforcements in the mouth in the middle of a fight, but they would be having words later. As soon as the two of them we clear he detonated the charges, the immediate sprouting of a few more pillars of flame indicating that it had entered a doomed state. XR dashed in, grabbing the Northstar's arm and ripping it off as he kicked it off its last leg, following it down and emptying the drum on the XO-19 into its torso. Steele's hope that that was the end of the fight was ended by what was very clearly an ejection, the lack of visible Pilot indicating a stealth eject.
Steele was just barely able to trace the flare of the jump kit, tossing a pulse-blade at full strength at what he predicted the landing site would be. It took a moment for him to get a return, surprisingly it was coming straight for him instead of retreating. The Pilot came at him fast, moving with enough skill and agility to let Steele know that if it wasn't for his newly enhanced abilities, this Pilot may have been beyond his talents to fight. Steele wasn't able to get a smart rifle lock on this fucker, relying on short bursts to try and control his targets movements.
Steele bounced and slid, trying to avoid the incoming fire from what he thought was an Alternator, the distinct sound of the double barrels gave it away. Steele refused to let this become a joust, pulling into a turn to try to hit his target from the flanks. He came in low to the ground, forcing the Pilot to jump to avoid being killed out right on the hit. Quickly switching to the R-99 and laying down a burst of fire as he followed his target up. Steele forced his target into a second jump before he could touch the ground, staying as close to directly under his opponent as he could; with his opponents mobility options exhausted Steele had the rough landing spot to engage with. Steele readied the Intruder, one hand on the grip as he touched the ground and pushed off towards where he thought his target would land.
The Pilot landed directly in the line of Steeles blade, lacking the time to react to the strike. Steele found himself having overshot, now past his defeated foe; he sheathed his blade and turned to face the permanently grounded Pilot. The poor bastard was still alive, twitching and trying to roll over; probably not realizing that he was in two pieces. He saw his teammates out of the corner of his eye, Drawing his P-2020 and preparing to grant the Pilot mercy. "You could have let it be, you didn't have to take that shot. Any last words?"
The Pilot spoke up, wet coughing interrupting him as he started. "Yeah, I got one. Burn!" For just a second, Steeles world became smoke, fire, and heat as he was blown off his feet into a tree behind him. Another lesson in how game changing Aura was, had to have been a Satchel rigged up to a few incendiaries; it would have killed him outright if it wasn't for his Aura.
Steele rolled over and pushed himself to his feet with a groan. Making his way over to what was left of the body, he waved his teammates off. The corpse was surprisingly intact for the explosion, which was to say in less than a dozen pieces instead of the fine mist he expected. The upper body and head were still attached, which is where he wanted to search anyway. Kneeling down and rolling the body over before going through the pockets, he found what he was looking for in a pouch near the shoulder, an Apex card. The card was all he needed to know who he was dealing with, he dug around looking for anything useful; deciding to take the Alternator and the radio system-which, while damaged could probably be repaired and would have valuable crypto codes in it.
He had been doing jobs for the leader of the Apex team here on Remnant every weekend since he arrived, mostly trying to start a gang war between Torchwick and the other gangs, some times to mess with the SDC, or the Fang. So why was one of hers out here, and why did this Pilot attack him?
He stood up and shot the body a few times, making sure he stayed down. A few horrified gasps behind him made him aware of his now much larger audience. He turned to see Goodwitch with a very stern expression standing in front of the rest of the students on the field trip staring at him in various levels of disgust and horror.
"What? He shot first."