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I shook each of Team RYPP's hands in turn at the graduation banquet.
"You all did well. I'm very proud of you," I said without shame.
"Thanks prof, we couldn't have done it without you," Peach informed me. And I could call her Peach with a straight face now that she had graduated.
"You girls are very talented. You would have found a way regardless of me and my presence," I disagreed. "You all studied hard and worked on yourselves every day at Beacon. That isn't easy. The only question is what will you do now?"
"Do now?" Yuma asked from below. She was so small still. She'd grown up very little.
"Well you have the choice of staying as a team or going your own ways. You could split up and travel the globe separately or you could stick together and do it. The choice is yours. But your time forced into teams and partnerships is over. You could go solo. I went solo."
"Yeah but that wasn't really your choice," Rosé pointed out. "You went solo because - well, your team died on you. That's not the same as opting to go independent."
"It worked out," I mumbled. I took a drink of scotch on the rocks. I was in a suit and tie and the girls were all in fine dresses for the occasion. They'd gotten their diplomas. Now was the party before the real after party. I wasn't invited. No teachers allowed at that shindig.
"I think… I'd like to remain as a team," Pine decided. "If you're all with me."
"I am!" Yuma chimed in.
"Me too," Peach agreed.
"I can't imagine going any other way," Rosé announced. "I'd miss you all too much."
"D'aww," Peach meant in for the noogie but Rosé dodged expertly. "Anyways we did it. I guess. Not much more to say other than that."
"It's more than I can say. I never graduated myself," I informed them all.
"Yeah but you had the whole mantle of responsibility thing going on," Rosé cut in.
"Not back then. I was just a schmuck. I was the weakest person at Beacon and I had no power," I disagreed. "I followed Ruby to Mistral because I'm a dog and she owns my soul but that's about all the responsibility I had. I still had half my team back then so I suppose that they were looking up to me to make decisions but I wasn't really half qualified to be doing anything like that. Then they died and I got split up from the others. Weiss and Ruby and their team. That was hard on me. I didn't have this gig of trying to end Merlot and stop serial killers until around that time. That's about when I met you, Yuma."
"How could I forget?" Yuma wondered.
"Anyways it was only after they died I started to taste real power and the things I could do with it. By now you ladies must know what it's like."
"I still don't have my semblance," Rosé denied.
"You don't need your semblance to think about ripping a civilian in half."
"You actually think like that?" Pine wondered.
"Only when there's a long line at the supermarket," I joked. They ain't laugh. I rolled my eyes. "It comes up sometimes. I get frustrated. I never lash out. Not much of a temper. But still I get tried. And the kids. They're so frustrating but violence is literally never the answer when it comes to children and that's a problem if you have a hunter's mindset. They try my patience in other ways."
"How many kids you up to prof?" Peach asked.
"Six now. I think that's the last one. Carnel. Ruby always wanted four and Weiss settled on two. That makes six."
"And your wives are both huntresses?" Pine inclined.
"They are good at also being people," I informed them. "They run circles around me and make me look foolish. They're more normal than I am. Not that that would be difficult. But they amaze me."
"I'd like to still be good at being a person while being a hunter," Peach decided.
"It's hard. I never pull it off. Well, maybe I do. But not very well. And I have a lot of earthly tethers. It's easy to let go and be all angelic. To forget what it means to be Cetra. And I'm very bad at that."
"Because of your upbringing?" Rosé interpreted.
"Yeah. That and some other stuff. I lose track of my humanity amongst all the bullshit I can do. It gets fuzzy. What is a person really?"
"You wrestle some pretty big questions prof," Peach sipped on her drink.
"It comes and goes. It's something I in particular have to deal with because of my whole… prognosis."
"Your upbringing again?" Yuma wondered.
"And some ongoing stuff. I have psychosis from my trauma. I battle with it. I'm mostly stable but if there was such a thing as being completely stable on meds and therapy I would know by now. It's on going. And then I have power behind me and I have a willingness to use it. I'm a big problem. I took this job because if I flew off the handle bars there would be people around who could stop me. Of course in a real fight I don't think I'd really be slowed by much around here but it's the thought that counts. Now you four a full team. You could butcher your way across Vale if you wanted to."
"But we still aren't good enough to beat you," Pine murmured.
"And let's hope you never have to be. Am I right? Where will you four go now?"
"We were thinking… Vacuo maybe?" Rosé answered. "We hadn't really thought about it or discussed it but maybe there. Have you ever been?"
"On my honeymoon once so not really," I answered. "Vacuo has been peaceful and hasn't needed my long arm."
"Maybe we could give Merlot the business for you," Rosé suggested.
"Unless you have dramatically changed I don't think you'll be bringing him the kind of justice I had in mind."
"Aw come on. Don't you have enough to worry about without dusty Merlot?" Peach asked.
"Hey now. I'm dusty. And I'm about ninety nine percent sure I will be involved in his death. You wouldn't know. Only Rosé knows but he was responsible for killing that half of my team."
"Oh of course not," Pine said.
"He did what now?" Peach asked.
"Who is… Merlot?" Yuma finished.
"Damn it Rosé. Was there anything you didn't tell your team?" I demanded.
"My… semblance?" Rosé finished.
"Well at least you four are close. It's better than the alternative. So I should just assume that they all know everything you know?"
"Pretty much yeah. That Merlot is your dad. Your mom is some kind of nightmare lady. Your sisters are all bad. Your whole team died. That stuff."
"That stuff was very personal."
"They're my team. They're my family."
"Better than the alternative," I sighed again. "You're lucky that you're not my student or you would have detention."
"You were never very good at detention," Rosé brutalized me. "It's supposed to be tough. You had none of that."
"One more thing I'm not good at. Add it to the list," I decided. "So you girls know everything? About everything?"
"Everything Rosé knew," Pine informed me.
"Ouch," I shot back. "Well it can't be helped. If you run into Merlot give him some for me. You're right. I have bigger fish to fry. Like my Momma."
"Yeah I never caught her name?" Rosé hazarded.
"And you should hope that you never do," I fired back and shut her down. "My Mom is bad news bears. She's the only one on the planet with the power to make me think twice."
"But you are thinking?" Peach tried.
"Got to. Somebody has to stop her. Should be me. I thought you knew everything? At some point my Mom is going to make major moves. It's on me to get in her way. I don't know if I can actually slow her down but it's on me to try."
"Sounds like your relationship with everyone else. Only the opposite," Yuma decided.
"You know what Yuma? Well? Do you?" I demanded.
"Except with your wives?" Yuma guessed.
"No. They own me. Just like Mama."
"Your kids?" Peach tried.
"No. Come on. They dominate me. Be real."
"So nobody is your equal? Everyone is better than you or worse than you?" Pine wondered.
"It's the former. You don't know how good you have it. No matter how bad you have it. You're still probably better off than me. Except the two wives thing. That's pretty awesome. Except they both wanted kids."
"Yeah sure buddy. You have a rough life," Peach condescended.
"You honestly have no idea. Things look all," I made an 'ok' sign. "But really it's all downhill from here."
"Are you serious or…?" Peach trailed.
"Probably. I can't see the future. Cut me some slack. But I have to face my family at some point so…" I trailed right back.
"Not if we take care of Merlot," Pine cut in.
"Which I doubt. Merlot must die and you girl lack the gonads to kill somebody. Or am I wrong?"
Peach opened and closed her mouth.
"Yeah. I thought so. But that's how my dad has to go down. Prison is too good for the man. He has to die. That cuts a problem for you girls. You're still too… soft."
"We're not soft. We're hard women," Peach disagreed.
"You're all gentle souls. That's not a bad thing. Really. It's not. But it is if you're making my dad your business."
"And you'd be okay with that? Us making Merlot our business," Rosé wondered.
"I have six kids to raise. The fewer big problems I have on my plate the better. If you think you can handle it. I still probably need to be on board."
"Not if I can help it," Rosé sliced.
"You can't. I know you can't kill somebody," I talked down to her.
"I…" she stammered. But I had her in a corner.
"Not unless you changed. So it probably falls on me. I'll cross my fingers if you really are going after Merlot. But otherwise it sounds like my job. Am I wrong?"
"Well we can do something for you," Pine disagreed.
"Nobody can save me from me," I shot back. "Let alone my responsibilities. I owe the world taking down Merlot and I've delayed enough."
"We can take him apart for you. Trust us," Yuma tried.
I shook my head. What else could I do? Merlot was a problem that I and only I could solve. "Can't. Would you? Really trust some other team to get the job done. If it was your family on the line."
"Calling it like that is misleading. You're doing it on purpose," Pine brutalized.
"Maybe. Difficult to prove. Isn't it?" I fired back. "What part of that statement was wrong?"
"The part where you want to kill the guy," Pine fired back.
"Well we're all victims of how we were raised," I returned.
"How were you raised?" Rosé wondered.
"Pretty much right here at Beacon. Not many other places come to mind."
"But you were what? Raised from place to place under Merlot?" Rosé guessed.
"I was pretty much born at seventeen. Before that there was nothing," I confessed.
"Wow? Really?" Yuma exclaimed.
"Pretty much. There are some other memories but they are all empty inside," I informed them. "My life started here at Beacon when I was seventeen. Before that was all fake." They didn't need to know the details.
"Merlot really did a number on you. Huh?" Peach said. "It sounds like you've been through the meat grinder."
"It hasn't been the easiest. But I have two wives now. That's almost twice as many as one."
"Almost?" Peach wondered.
"Almost," I confirmed. "It's in the ballpark."
"Do you know where Merlot is?" Rosé asked.
"Vacuo. Probably. It's out of his play book to set up his laboratory there next. Or to return to an old one. I don't know. I never hunted him in that part of the world. He could already be established in that corner of the planet. Dug in like a tick. Think you're up for the challenge? The hunt is on ladies."
"We can track him," Yuma murmured. "We can find him and I don't know if we'll kill him but we'll definitely put a stop to him."
"You find him and I'll plug him," I decided. "Finding him is the hard part. He's all squishy compared to a hunter."
"You can't just kill a prisoner," Pine folded her arms.
"Nobody can really stop me," I disagreed. "Can you?"
"Well…" Peach stammered into nothing.
"Well you shouldn't," Yuma pointed out.
"But I have to anyways. Maybe you'd understand if you'd been through the things I've been through but there's no way Merlot needs to get out of this thing alive. He deserves to die."
"Don't you think you deserve peace more than he deserves to die?" Rosé wondered.
"I deserve to be rotting in some crater somewhere too," I disagreed. "Peace wasn't in the books for me. I have got to kill Merlot. If you girls find him then I'll finish the job and we'll call that square. In fact, we'll even call it in your favor if that's what you want. But there won't be peace for me while Merlot breathes."
"We'll find him. Mark our words," Yuma emphasized.
"Yeah. It's like you said, the hunt is on," Peach agreed. "And who knows we might have to kill him and spare you the trouble."
"That's so much more than I can really ask of you. Any of you. Merlot isn't exactly worth the stain on your soul. But my soul is already a tattered mess. I'd barely notice the blood."
"Holy shit we get it dude, your soul is a dark place," Peach rolled her eyes.
"You're the ones engaging me," I pointed out. "And my soul is a dark place thank you very much. Despite what you and my wives might believe. I brokeback killed people for getting in my way before. I've killed people because I was in a bad mood as well. I'm about as bad as they come. And just you wait. I'm going to get what I deserve. But don't let me spoil you ladies' fun. Shouldn't you be out there chasing boys or whatever young people do? You graduated. Live a little."
"You're better conversation than most boys our age and you always have been. You're not dusty at all," Rosé commented. "Besides, where else would we get little shreds of parting wisdom. Like don't fall into the trap of your own power. And your ego gets in the way as well. So you're an example of bad things too."
"My ego?" I demanded.
"Yeah. That you're the only one capable of resolving all these issues," Pine pointed out. "You think nobody else is up for these challenges that while pushing it aren't exactly impossible for anybody else. You don't trust anybody else to get it done. Your ego is actually getting in the way despite how much you hate your pretty sweet life."
"Yeah you think? So I should let you girls handle Merlot and wash my hands of the whole thing? Maybe I should let you handle my Mom too. Let her drop a meteor on you or some such bullshit because she's crazy powerful and a massive dick."
"Okay. So maybe not her if you're so sure that she's a problem you can solve. But Merlot? Come on. He's just a guy. A bad guy is just a guy," Peach decided.
"Your ego is actually massive," Pine rolled her eyes. "We can handle the mad scientist. Let you deal with the real problems like raising your kids."
"Yeah? You really think so?" I sounded half hearted to my own ears because I didn't really believe it. I was sort of stuck in a loop.
"Yeah. Let us deal with your big bad dad," Rosé reaffirmed.
"Fine, fine. I'll leave it to you for now." Vacuo was a big place. What were the odds that they actually found him? It probably fell on me. But who knows maybe that was my ego. Maybe I had a real ego problem like Pine pointed out.
"For now?" Pine demanded.
"For now. We'll see if you find him," I challenged. "I taught you girls a lot but I didn't teach you how to hunt down and kill my father. And they say you only become a real man once you kill your dad."
"Who the fuck says that?" Peach demanded.
"I-" I started.
"Seriously what the fresh shit?" Pine wondered. "Do you really think you have to kill your dad to become a man? Am I only a woman if I murder my mom?"
"It's only murder if they didn't hurt you. And I don't know. It depends on how bad they hurt you. I guess." I rolled my eyes.
"What if they didn't hurt me?" Pine shot back.
"It's not that I don't believe you," I raised my hands in surrender.
"Oh come on. Not everybody's family was as bad as yours," Pine pressed.
"Yeah well…"
Rosé rubbed my arm gently. "We'll take it from here against your dad. You just sit back and raise your damn kids."
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-WG