Sit and Stay
Mirror and Image
Marrow's earliest memory was from the Crater. He was small, perhaps four, and he remembered being hungry.
He was sitting on his mother's lap, curled in a blanket but still shivering. Supper had been stale bread, and he was playing with a tiny leftover fleck of fire dust. Marrow rolled it between his tiny thumb and forefinger, wondering if he ate it if he would both be warm and full. His mother held him fast, just as cold and hungry as he. "Sit and stay," she would say. "Come on, Marrow, just sit and stay."
"But I'm cold…"
"I know, pup," she said, her voice a low alto, soft on his ears. "Just a little longer, then your Da and your brothers will be home."
He rolled the tiny fire dust. It fell from one finger to his palm, and he clapped it together before it fell completely away. It felt warm in his palm, and he wondered about eating it again. He was so hungry…
The flap of the tent opened and his oldest brother entered, followed by his three brothers and a sister, covered in dirt and pulling off scarfs and gloves. They smelled of sweat and stale air, all of them looked dark and gloomy, but with all the extra bodies the tent began to warm, and wrapped in his blanket Marrow was able to drift off to sleep.
(That morning he realized his Da was never there. He died in the mines.)
"Come on, dog-bone!"
"Yeah, mutt! Come here and play fetch!"
At eight years old Marrow was running for his life. Once he was old enough for school the whole pack moved up to Mantle. Ma got a job now that she didn't have to mind her "pup" at home, and he had better do his lessons or there would be "pain like you'll never know, pup. So you get your tail to school, and you sit, and you stay. Get all that learning in your head so someone in this family can have a chance at a life."
And it wasn't that he didn't understand. None of his other siblings got to go to school - they all had to work in the mines to get food on the table. Marrow had thought he was going to do the same, until someone figured out he knew his letters. He was automatically the star of the family, the one with a chance to make it, but knowing his letters and knowing his mind were two different things, "So you get to schooling and you learn every little thing they can teach you."
The school was in Mantle, and with Ma working they were able to rent a one room apartment. It was the fourth floor, butt up against the city wall, but if Marrow stood on top of their narrow window sill he could just make out the cables that led up to Atlas. He would stare up at the city's underbelly and wonder if rubbing it would make Atlas feel good. In the summer he would sit up on the roof and reach up and pretend to rub it, hand stroking up and down in the air, thinking he could hear the humming pleasure of the perfect city above them.
(Usually it was the waste pipe, in high summer you could smell it as it traveled down the cables.)
"Come on, dog-boy! Stay!"
School had been the first time he had ever seen humans before. They came in all sizes and shapes, just like the Faunus down in the crater, and Marrow didn't understand why his Ma kept telling him to always mind them.
"Never turn your back on a human," she told him on his first day. "They'll like as beat you as blame you, and then expect you to thank them for it. Ignore all of them, you just focus on your learning."
He was confused but said his yes' and did as she said. There were only three Faunus at school, and at lunch he asked why that was so. The two other Faunus didn't know, and neither did the other kids. One of them went up to ask the teacher, and the human said, "Aoko, it's because learning is very hard for Faunus. Their brains are very small because they take after animals, and they have to work harder to keep it all in their head."
Marrow asked his Ma about that when she got home from the mines with his older siblings, and she rolled her eyes as her nose twitched. "He don't know what he's talking about," was the only thing she said. "You're there, ain't ya? That means you belong there, and don't let no one tell you otherwise."
"Get him, Claret! Get him to roll over!"
The other kids didn't believe him when he said his Ma said that the teacher didn't know what he was talking about. He was a teacher, and teachers knew everything. "I guess that's why learning is so hard for Faunus," one of the kids said. "You don't trust your teachers."
But Marrow was a good boy - he minded his mother and he learned everything he could in class. It was easy for him, and he didn't understand why the teacher was always checking for his understanding, making him repeat what he learned in a new way - and why it always disappointed the teacher when he answered correctly. The other two Faunus weren't picked at like he was - they were summarily ignored and barely acknowledged.
It was at the end of the year when he realized the truth: he had scrounged around the back alleys by the city wall to find a gift for his teacher - he was weird but Marrow learned a lot and he wanted to say thank you. It took three days but he found a white flower growing between the sidewalk cracks, and it reminded Marrow of his teachers hair. He kept an eye on it until the last day of school before plucking it and bringing it in.
"I don't get it," he heard his teacher say through the door. "Every time I think I catch him cheating...!"
"You know he very well might not be cheating," a woman said.
"He's a Faunus! I've been teaching his kind for forty years, I know how they think. They all think they're owed something, that they can be lazy and things will just come to them. They don't want to work, don't want to get a job, don't want anything but get a free education and live off of all our hard work! That mutt has been cheating all year, but I can't prove it and now he's going to just get promoted in the system like he's earned it!"
"Honestly, do you even hear yourself?"
"Don't go soft on me now, Liv, not when you know I'm right."
"But you don't know. You just said you could never prove it."
"Doesn't mean it's not true. That Marrow mutt is a cheater!"
His teacher opened the door, Marrow looking up and up. His vision was blurry, and he didn't know why until two fat tears slid down his cheeks. "I… I brought you a thank you present, sir," he said, but his voice was shaky and watery.
"And that's very thoughtful of you," the lady said, crouching down to his level. "A white flower? Where did you get it?"
"It's tundra snowdrop," Marrow's teacher said, and his voice was dark in a way that Marrow didn't have a word for yet. "They only grow on Atlas. Where did you get it?"
Marrow didn't want to answer, he didn't think his teacher would believe him. "A street by my house," he mumbled, looking down. "It was growing through the sidewalk."
"A likely story."
That hurt, too, and the lady put a hand on his shoulder. "It was very generous of you," she said, her voice soft. "And I'm sure Mr. Neige is very happy with the gift."
His teacher scoffed and left the classroom, and the lady put a hand on his head, patting it. "You're a good boy," she said. "Why don't you sit and stay for a while?"
He cried for forever.
That night the lady showed up at the apartment to say that Marrow had had a bad day, but he had handled it very well and was a good boy.
"He is," his Ma said, covered in dust. "He's a good pup, and we want what's best for him."
The lady smiled and pulled off her hat, revealing a pair of lynx ears.
She was his teacher the next year, and he soaked up even more information. She always wore a hat or a scarf, anything to hide her extra ears, and she was soft and gentle. She taught the students to snap their fingers, she could snap every pair of fingers she had, making her amazing, and she would snap her fingers to get a student's attention, so crisp was her sound. Marrow practiced over and over until he could snap, too.
He showed her where he had found the tundra snowdrop, and she showed him how to make numbers do what he wanted. "The two things that will get you the farthest," she said, "Is knowing your letters and knowing your numbers. There's more to it than that, but if you can do as much of this in your head as you can the better off the other things will be."
"Grab his tail! That'll get him to stop!"
He found reasons to stay after school with her, to learn even more than what he learned in class. She said he was reading two grade levels above where the other kids were, and she called on him often in class to answer questions. He was proud of feeling smart, his tail would wag in pleasure, and it never occurred to him that the students would be resentful that he was a favorite.
"Teacher's pet," one of them muttered at the close of school. Marrow didn't understand what it meant. Maybe it was a compliment? But he was called a pet, and after moving up to Mantle he understood that it might not mean something good. His lady teacher patted his head and told him to never mind.
"Kids don't know what to do with feeling jealous," she said, "the emotion is too complicated for them to understand, and it makes them do bad things. If they have good parents, they'll learn as they grow. For now let them be. Just stay a good boy."
The next year Marrow was put in a class with older kids to match where he was in his learning. The older kids glared at him, and that made him nervous, his tail low and curled slightly under him. More than a few snickered as he walked to his desk, but he was a good boy and ignored them, focusing on his learning - but it was different. The kids laughed or snorted when he answered questions, even when he knew he was right. The teacher didn't seem to notice, barely looked up from his teacher book, and Marrow was rarely called on. He raised his hand like he'd been taught to give an answer, but it never seemed to work, even when he stood up from his seat.
He tried to call out, "Sir, I know the answer!"
"I didn't call on you, little Marrow. Wait your turn."
Marrow wondered… but the teacher was like this with everyone. None of the other students were allowed to volunteer information, so maybe it was just the teacher. But that didn't explain the kids snickering when he did answer, and it didn't explain the dark looks until at lunch one of the older kids walked right up to him.
"What's a Faunus mutt like you doing in our class?" the human demanded.
Marrow was confused. "This is where I am in my learning," he said. "Miss Liv said so last year."
"Miss Liv?" the boy said, freckled face splitting into a dark sneer. "That explains it. Typical that a Faunus would help another Faunus cheat the system."
Marrow blinked, uncertain what to do. His lady teacher never showed her lynx ears at school, how did anyone know…?
The older boy slammed his tray on Marrow's desk, making him jump, his tail sticking straight up in the air. Someone behind him grabbed it and yanked, and Marrow cried out, telling them to let go. Instead they pulled harder, enough that his seat dragged back, enough that tears were in his eyes. His shoulders were grabbed and he was shoved face-first onto the lunch tray on his desk, inches away from a fork, pointy edges so close his eyes couldn't focus on it. The room was full of noise, now, laughing and shouting. He tried to get up but with his tail being pulled and his shoulders being held he couldn't budge. He was really crying now, begging them to stop.
"Listen to that, he's whining like a real dog!"
"Come on, mutt! Sit and stay!"
"Yeah, be a good boy, dog-boy."
"Bad dog!"
"What is the meaning of this?"
And just like that all the hands disappeared, and Marrow fumbled to stand up, tail between his legs and shaking, sobbing. His teacher pulled him outside and made him stand there while the teacher went inside to talk to the class. Marrow sat by the door, running his fingers through the fur of his tail, trying to straighten it out, heat flooding his face and unable to stop the tears.
After what felt like forever, the teacher asked that he come back in. Marrow kept his eyes down, he didn't want to look at anyone. The teacher guided him back to his seat, and after he sat the teacher patted his head. That felt… almost good.
But, after school, that was when the chasing started. The older kids would run after him as soon as the bell rang, and Marrow had to run full tilt through the streets, all the way home. He was smaller, younger, but he was faster, and once he made it to his apartment he ignored the door, leaping up the seven steps and then jumping through the open window next to the door, rolling onto the floor of the first floor neighbors and scrambling under the window, curled into a ball and panting.
He heard yelling over the hammering of his heartbeat, and when he could finally control his breathing he saw Granna Millet, her monkey paws reaching out slowly, hand curled down, waiting for him to calm down enough to recognize her. Marrow crawled to her, and she picked him up as Granpa Beouf stomped in, ox horns forcing his head to turn sideways to move through the door.
"Chased the brats away," he said brightly, his booming voice unusually gentle. "They'll know better than to come here."
"Easy, easy Marrow," Granna Millet said. "Come on, let's sit and stay a while."
"I want my ma," he said, sobbing and curling into the old lady. She smelled of age and dust.
"I know, pup. Her shift won't be over til after dark."
The boys chased him home often, and Marrow barely said two words in school, even when the teacher called on him. The snickering and the looks kept him quiet, and he reminded himself of what his Ma said: mind the humans, and get all the learning you can.
That didn't make running from them any easier. Mostly he could dodge them and keep ahead - but sometimes they would jump him right out of school and he would have to trudge home, tail curled between his legs and rubbing the tears out of his eyes so Ma wouldn't see when she got home. He didn't understand why they did it - he couldn't help being at their grade level of learning, he couldn't help knowing the answers, and he couldn't help being a Faunus. He tried to apologize for all of it, and one of the boys just grabbed his tail and yanked.
Not understanding made him mad - he didn't like staying so quiet in school, and he didn't like running - literally running - home as the boys shouted at him to stay, sit, be a good boy. He found himself being short in class, bored and wanting his learning to go faster so he could get home faster. Home, where it was safe.
It was as he was leaving school at the end of the year that the older kids started to chase him again. "Come on, mutt! Stay!" and Marrow had finally had enough.
"No!" he said, turning around. "You stay!"
Something pulsed in his head and he watched in awe as the boy running up to him slowed to a stop. What…?
Marrow stared, shocked that it had happened. The boy's eyes darted, and there was pressure in Marrow's head as the bully was held in place. This was… him? He… did this? Possibility was starting to bloom in Marrow's head, eyes widening at the opportunity before him.
Then someone hit him from behind, and his concentration broke, and he crumpled to the ground.
"Get him!"
"Show him what he gets for that!"
Marrow was beaten so bad it was dark before he could finally limp home. Ma was waiting at the door, and she picked him up and held him close.
The next day Ma didn't go to the mines, she went to the school. She had to carry Marrow, and he could see all the kids pressing their faces to the windows as they entered the school. They went to the person in charge, the principal.
"Marrow, show him what those boys did."
And Marrow slowly pulled off his shirt to show the bruises, lifted his bare feet to show the swollen ankle, and the school nurse examined him.
"Now you tell me," Ma said, "if this is how you teach the kids in this school."
"Shouldn't you be telling me," the Principal said, "why your son provoked this?"
"I didn't know learning provoked children," Ma said, voice cold. "Marrow is a good boy, and I told him over and over to mind his teachers. He'd never start nothing."
"Then what's this report about him using a Semblance on a helpless child?"
Marrow looked up. "Wait," he said, tail lifting. "That was a Semblance?"
Ma's head swiveled to him. "What did you do, pup?" she demanded, and her voice was scary.
"I didn't know it was a Semblance!" he said quickly, lifting his hands up. "They chase me every day, or they beat me if they catch me! They treat me like a real dog! They tell me to sit and stay and fetch and roll over! They grab my tail and pull! I finally told him to stay and he just… stopped! I didn't know it was me!"
Ma turned back to the principal. "You let your kids beat the ones smart enough to skip a grade?" she demanded.
"Of course not," the principal said. "But we're not responsible for what happens after school hours."
"But you'll hold my boy accountable when he defends himself, 'after school hours'?"
"Mrs. Amin-"
"I put my boy here because he knew his letters and numbers. One of your teachers said he was smart enough to skip a grade. This school is his ticket to a real future instead of working in the mines like me and the rest of his family. Explain to me why him doing his best isn't enough."
"Mrs. Amin, if the work he produces is his 'best' that isn't saying much. His first year teacher was convinced he was cheating. We put him with a different teacher and he excelled, yes, but that was before we knew she was a Faunus and - in all likelihood - helping Marrow more than she should have. Now-"
"Marrow. Did Mrs. Liv ever give you answers?"
Marrow shook his head, looking down at the floor. "No," he said softly. "She never gave me an answer once. I had to do it all myself, she said. I had to learn to do it in my head, she said. She was proud I learned so fast."
"Then prove it," she said. She turned back to the principal. "Give him a problem. A math problem. He'll solve it."
The principal sighed. There was a look on his face Marrow didn't have a name for until he was much older: resentment. But he gave Marrow several simple math problems, and he answered them - he gave the answer and he explained how he got it, just like Ms. Liv told him. The principal kept giving problems, but he answered them every time, until they finally started to get hard. "Sir," he said, "I haven't learned division yet, and multiplication I still need a table for."
"And when do they teach that?" Ma said, a smirk on her face.
"This doesn't excuse his using a Semblance."
"We ain't gonna talk about that," Ma said, "cause like you said it was after school hours and you ain't accountable. If those kids are gonna do whatever they want, then Marrow will do whatever he needs to keep himself alive."
When Marrow got into Atlas, he thought he'd finally made it. It had taken an absurd amount of work - starting with realizing that if he had a Semblance, he had the option to be a Hunter. That had left him to find a combat school and stand just outside the fence, mimicking their lessons as he could until someone took notice and asked him what he was doing.
"I want to be a Hunter," he said.
"Then why don't you enroll?"
"Ma doesn't know how."
"Oh. Well then, let's talk to your ma."
There were a lot of Faunus in the combat school, and Marrow learned that a lot of Faunus were Hunters. Hunters weren't tied to specific countries, and had a lot more freedom, and for Faunus it was a breath of fresh air. That was when Marrow knew it was right for him. Students practiced their Semblances on each other, tested limits and pushed passed them. He learned how to fight, how to balance, how to jump, how to build and maintain a weapon. He made a boomerang and named it Fetch, owning the things the bullies would do to him; he practiced at home on the roof; he pushed and pushed and pushed.
He pushed because as Marrow got older, as he started to realize the very rules of Atlas prevented him from being the best he could be. He set a goal for himself:
The Ace Ops.
If he could be good enough to make it there, good enough to be an elite, then he would be safe from the bullies. He could laugh at the bullies. And most important of all, he could take care of his Ma and his siblings.
He only had two siblings left by the time he made it to Atlas. The entrance exams were grueling, and life in the mines had gotten harder and harder. Marrow took a side job in a meat packing plant to make sure they could keep their apartment in Mantle - if he went back to the crater there would be no hope…
But he made it. He made it to Atlas Academy, and that meant he was one step closer. He nearly skipped down the halls, anxious for class to start and see what other Faunus were attending, make friends with them and make a safe space in the school. He thrilled at the idea of having a Faunus on his team, of running through mines not as a worker but as a savior. He imagined the Faunus workers seeing him in his Ace Ops uniform, seeing a Faunus was running through the tunnels to save them, and giving them… giving them… hope.
But, as was increasingly common, Marrow was disappointed.
There were only two other Faunus. In the entire academy.
Everyone looked down their noses at them, sniffed as he walked by, made snide comments about him wagging his tail until he grabbed it himself to stop, realizing that things up here weren't going to be any different than down there.
Then he was called into the headmaster's office. He blinked to see the other two Faunus, and the general himself was standing at his desk, three chairs artfully placed in front of him. "Please," he said, gesturing, "sit and stay a while."
Marrow looked at the other two, and the three of them nodded and sat down, General Ironwood following suit.
"I wanted you to know," the general said, "that you three are the first Faunus to get into Atlas Academy in eight years, meaning you're the first Faunus students under me."
"Is that supposed to make us feel better?"
Ironwood shook his head. "No," he said, leaning back in his chair. "But they are the facts of the matter. Since you're the first Faunus students under me, I wanted you three to know what to expect: when I first became headmaster I had a long conversation with Headmaster Ozpin of Vale, and he had a lot to say about Faunus students."
"... we can imagine…" Marrow said, looking down. He was about to be disappointed. Again.
"Quite the contrary," the general said, a smirk on his face. "He told me that his Faunus students were his hardest working, because they still thought they had something to prove. Here's what I want you to understand: you don't have to prove yourselves to anyone. You made it in, that's all the proof anyone here should need, and if that's not enough, then don't bother with them. I can't help what the students will say and do when teachers aren't looking, but I've had a long conversation with the instructors here, and you won't have any problems from them. I want you three, instead, to focus on being your best selves. I want you three to develop your skills as Hunters, develop your skills at interacting with humans, develop your ability to make difficult decisions and follow orders.
"Many students join the military after their training here. Do you three have similar goals?"
Marrow and the other two were silent, the question scraping against a lot of things: being allowed into the military had only been passed three years ago, and it didn't take much to imagine what their chances were in such an environment. Marrow glanced at the others, but he took a chance and puffed up his chest. "I'm going to join the Ace Operatives," he said, before quickly adding: "Sir."
General Ironwood smiled, leaning forward. "That's a pretty high goal, cadet."
"Yes, sir," Marrow said nodding. This was a test - if he had already proven himself, then he wouldn't need to justify why he planned on making it to the Ace Ops.
The headmaster nodded, still smiling. "Good. I like your confidence. Hold on to that, it will take you places."
That was a lie, of course. Atlas taking only the best of the best meant that Marrow had to work harder than he ever thought before just to keep his head above water. The coursework was more than just Grimm anatomy, military structures and landing strategies - there was history, philosophy, advanced mathematics, geography, things combat school never trained him for, and he learned the hard way that students in Atlas attended both combat school and public education, something he didn't even know was possible, let alone that he was supposed to.
It meant that the students looked down on him for not knowing the obvious, wondering how he really got into the school - but Marrow reminded himself that he didn't have to prove himself. He just needed to finish, to make it. He stayed up late reading whatever he could, writing and rewriting his notes, underlining everything, highlighting his books until one of the teachers took pity on him and gave him a pad. Once he found the speech-to-text feature his hands started to cramp less.
He graduated solidly in the middle of the pack, but he graduated, and he took his degree and diploma straight to the military to enlist.
That was not as simple as he thought, either. Like everything else things were harder than they had any right to be.
"We've already got a Faunus in our unit," his captain said, "we don't need another one."
Like there was some kind of limit on how many Faunus were allowed. Like he was just a token.
Marrow shuffled from unit to unit for two years. By then he had almost stopped smiling - he didn't know how he was going to advance and make a name for himself for the Ace Ops to notice him. No matter how positive he tried to be, how supportive he was to his teammates, how competent he was on the field, it was never enough. The people around him didn't care - didn't care that he was a Faunus, didn't care how hard he worked, didn't care how much he wanted all of it to matter.
But, then, fate had a funny way of things.
Amity Colosseum was being aired out for the next Vytal Festival that was going to be held in Vacuo. Atlas was in charge of the maintenance in intervening years - gravity dust, generators, minor improvements, etc. Marrow's unit was on perimeter detail: keep the Grimm away from the landing zone - a do-nothing assignment for a do-nothing unit that wouldn't let Marrow look good to anyone. He paced with his squad around the edge of the LZ, Fetch in its assault rifle form, when the ground under everyone's boots shuddered.
Everyone looked at each other, frowning, before the rumble came again. And again.
They fanned out, weapons at the ready, not sure what to expect. A crack shifted through the ice, and then ripped open: two dozen centipedes twisting into the air and screeching.
"Open fire!"
They moved in formation, Marrow keeping an ear out for orders as the squad leader radioed for back up. Marrow as the one with huntsman training took the front, shifting Fetch into a boomerang and dodging to the side to get as many of the Grimm in his eyesight as possible. "Stay!" he shouted, freezing about half of the herd - was herd the right word? - and throwing his weapon. Some scattered to dust but others shrugged off the hits, even with the bullets of the squad, meaning they were older and stronger. Marrow grunted as he realized that and caught Fetch. He shifted again and laid down a scattering of fire, eyes everywhere, looking for a pack that looked smarter than the others.
"Private Armin, what are you doing? Freeze the Grimm!"
"I need to get a bead on the leaders of the group!" Marrow shouted, "I need cover fire!"
"Armin, do your job!"
He growled, low in his throat, and straightened. "Stay!" he shouted, getting another group of the centipedes. His squad opened fire with dust, fire dust. Brothers were they trying to make it harder for him? He lowered his weapon and started running to be upwind, alternating Fetch and throwing again, this time a wide arc to cut through the smoke of the dust, trying to get a bead on any of the centipedes, any of the undulating, wobbling shapes. "Stay!"
But the smoke obscured his vision, and he could sense that he didn't get nearly enough of the Grimm. "Somebody clear them from the smoke! If I can't see them I can't freeze them!"
"You don't give me orders, Private! Now pull back and freeze those Grimm!"
"And be downwind of the smoke?! Do you want my Semblance to fail?"
"Follow orders, Private!"
Marrow grunted and complied, but the crack unearthed more and more centipedes, they were bursting up from the ground. Where were they all coming from? Marrow rejoined the unit and pointed. "Stay!" he shouted, concentrating. The pressure in his head was enormous, a sign that he'd managed to catch a lot of Grimm, and his unit opened fire on command. Marrow squinted, knowing he couldn't blink, and grunted as the pressure of holding so many bodies at once started to pull on his aura.
Someone shouldered him by accident and his concentration broke, the centipedes moving in one massive wave, forcing the unit to retreat. Marrow was sweating, and he saw only one other unit moving towards them. Only one? Where were the others?
"Armin! Now!"
Marrow skid to a halt and turned around, "Stay!" and held up both hands, trying to grab as many Grimm in his sight as he could. It was the worst pressure yet, and it wasn't even a third of the horde that had spewed from the ground. The noise was terrible, all that shrieking from the Grimm, shouting of orders, weapon fire, a hundred ways to break his concentration but he was going to be an Ace Op and he couldn't fail here.
He finally blinked and nearly fell forward at the release of pressure. He held up Fetch to fire, needing a minute before he could try and pull that off again. He took aim and fired, better analyzing the older, smarter Grimm now and concentrating his fire.
"Private Armin! Why have you stopped freezing the Grimm?"
"Sir! I'm down to fifty percent aura! I need to-"
"You need to keep that wave frozen so the real soldiers can do their job, Private! Why do you think we keep you around?"
Marrow turned to his CO. "But Sir!"
"That's an order, private!"
"Sir! I can't hold that many Grimm back! My aura will break before reinforcements can come!"
"Then break your aura, Private! You are disobeying a direct order and I will personally see that you never see the Ace Ops if you don't follow it!"
And that was when Marrow knew:
He was never going to make it.
Everyone knew about his dream, he always told his CO his goals so they could place him accordingly. Now he knew: he hadn't given them his hopes, he'd given them a weapon to use against him, a threat to hold over his head to make him do whatever they wanted him to do. They didn't think he belonged in the Ace Ops, and so they would never recommend him. He had wasted everything for a system that was too broken to help a Faunus who had a dream.
The realization was devastating, for several seconds he just stared at his CO as his world shattered around him.
Despair.
This was despair.
Ma was going to be so disappointed…
Grunting, Marrow forced himself to compartmentalize, to put it all away. If they wanted him to break his aura, then fine. At least he'd be helping keep people safe. Even if they didn't believe in him. He holstered Fetch and moved forward, holding up both hands, gathering his concentration as if it were a thing that could be physically manifest, and planted his feet, tail lifting straight up into the air.
"Stay!"
He'd never held so many bodies before, the pressure greyed out his vision and for a second he was terrified that if he couldn't see them he couldn't hold them, but he refused to let go, refused to blink, refused to do anything other than hold the line. Sweat gathered everywhere, his aura was flickering dangerously, and his entire body was shaking. Something, blood, trickled down his nose, he wasn't going to make it but he was going to do what he was told, because he was a good boy, and he was going… to… be… a… hero…!
His aura broke, and the release of pressure made him fall to his knees, hands automatically bracing in the snow. Through watery eyes he looked up and saw the Grimm were almost upon him, and when he looked back he saw both units had retreated. They were going to leave him to die…
Two centipedes twisted together, moving to attack, and Marrow was auraless and nigh on defenseless. He tried to lift up Fetch but his body had no strength, and there was no way he could react fast enough.
And that was when fate stepped in.
Yellow bands of… something… swooped in on either side of him and pushed the Grimm aside as a massive mountain of a woman landed in front of him, lifting some kind of hammer and transforming it into - was that a rocket launcher? - and firing at the twisting, attacking Grimm. This was followed by some kind of wire with a hook spinning around the centipedes and yanking, a well-muscled man attached at the other end leaping up and thwacking it with his weapon before spinning it around and tossing it to a blur of motion.
The muscled man made a series of hand gestures and the other three moved as one, well oiled unit. Marrow, still shaking in the snow, watched in awe as the other three just… breezed through the Grimm as the major calmly walked over to him.
"We made it in time," he said brightly. Green eyes. Easy smile. A wink. "Lucky you."
"... Major Ebi," Marrow muttered, star-struck. He tried to get to his feet, but his legs wouldn't hold him, and he fumbled back into the snow. Ebi knelt down, a concerned look on his face.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.
Marrow tried to puff his chest out. "It's nothing," he said, but his voice was too shaky, his body was too shaky, and his vision was starting to grey out again. Strong hands gripped a shoulder before he completely fell over.
"Hare, help with a quick evac, his aura's broken and he can't move."
"On it," he could hear faintly.
That was the last thing he remembered.
In the medical wing of the Colosseum, Marrow woke to the deep ache that came with a broken aura and the intense shame that he had fainted in front of the Ace Ops. His one chance to see them in action - even impress them - and he had botched it. He groaned as he sat up, rubbing at his temples as his tail curled to his side.
"Hey, Clover! He's up."
Marrow snapped straight, turned to see Harriet Bree standing and walking away.
Major Ebi came up from somewhere, and Marrow immediately tried to get on his feet - he was going to do it right this time…!
"Easy, Private," Ebi said with an easy grin. "This isn't a debrief, no need to be so formal."
Marrow paused, one foot on the floor, but Ebi touched his shoulder and pushed him back to the bed before hitting a button to increase the incline.
"Gotta say," Ebi said, sitting on a stool, "We saw what you did while we were flying in. That's a pretty impressive Semblance."
"Sir, yes, sir."
Ebi smiled again. "Just Clover is fine."
"Yes, sir."
Ebi chuckled. "What's your Semblance called?"
"Freeze Command, sir," he said. "If I can point to it and see it, it will stay."
"Interesting. Useful, too. I'm surprised you're not a Hunter with a Semblance like that."
Marrow had about a dozen ways he could reply to that comment, and he was literally terrified of picking one that made him look bad. He tried to be professional instead. "Do we know why all those Grimm bubbled up?" he asked.
Ebi nodded, and his easy smile disappeared, turning to something darker. "Mining explosion," he said, "one of the Schnee sites. We don't have numbers yet but everyone knows hundreds are dead."
Mining… Schee… dead…!
"Ma!" Marrow shouted, scrambling to his pockets - scroll, scroll, where was his scroll? He spun around, finding it on the nightstand and grabbed it. He was shaking again, but this time not from broken aura as he found the number. "Come on come on, pick up," he muttered, listening to the ringing, his world shrinking. Then: voicemail. "Ma!" he nearly shouted into the scroll. "Ma, what's this I hear about a mining explosion? Are you okay? You're not still working for Schnee, right? You're okay, right? Call me back - and don't wait for break! Call me as soon as you get this!"
He hung up, texting about the same thing - both to his Ma and his brother and sister, the only ones who were still alive after so many years working in the mines. They had to be okay, they had to be okay.
"Come on," he muttered, eyes watering, "you have to hear about me meeting the Ace Ops. You have to hear about…"
A pale hand reached out and touched his wrist, and he looked up to see Ebi was still there.
"Sir," he said, but his voice was watery. "Sir, I'm sorry, sir. It's just-"
"It's okay, Private," Major Ebi said, his voice gentle. "It's okay."
Schnee Dust Company didn't notify the families of their Faunus employees.
Marrow saw his family's names on a released report on everyone lost in the mining explosion, in the middle of the mess, after three days of desperately praying that he was wrong. He wasn't. They were gone. One hundred twenty-six dead: eighty-nine Faunus, and none of them were notified. There was a public memorial for the fallen, but Faunus weren't allowed to attend.
Marrow took bereavement leave and went down to Mantle, walking his old neighborhood, visiting his combat school, sitting on a roof and reaching up to rub the belly of Atlas. The gesture was hollow now, he knew the city would never feel good if he was the one doing the rubbing. The unfairness of it all burned, and he didn't know what to do with himself. He was so angry and sad at the same time. He wanted to start a fight but didn't have the energy, he wanted to scream at the system but didn't see the point - the humans weren't going to change, and he had been a fool to think he could work inside the system to start.
He would never get into the Ace Ops. Every CO he ever had would see to that. And even if by some miracle he did… Ma would never know.
She'd never know…
She'd nev…
He spent two nights too drunk to remember anything. He was hungover and haggard when he reported back to duty, but he didn't care. The hope that had been in him was crushed now, all he had left was the drudgery of military life with no promotion, no Ace Ops, and no change.
It wasn't until he reported back that he learned he'd never submitted his report for the Amity Colosseum defense, and his CO had written him up for insubordination. He sighed in resignation and filled out his report, explaining every decision he made, knowing it was going to be fruitless.
He was called in to HQ, and he figured it was probably for disciplinary action. He reported with a heavy heart, expecting the worst: dishonorable discharge.
"Good to see you again, Private!"
Marrow looked up. Major Ebi…?
The Ace Op clapped his shoulder. "Come with me," he said brightly. "I'll take you to see the General."
"Wait… what? Why? Are they going to turn me into an example? Is this a tribunal?"
"Ha! That's funny!" the major said brightly. "Come on, this way."
Marrow was escorted through the compound and to Ironwood's office. Less decorated than the headmaster's suite at the academy, more utilitarian, but General Ironwood's presence filled it with the warmth of Marrow's one visit to the office. Ironwood was tapping at a scroll but put it down quickly, standing. Marrow saluted automatically, and he saw a woman the same age as him, white hair in a tight bun, standing at his shoulder. Major Ebi stood at the general's other shoulder, and Marrow was at a loss as to what was about to happen.
"Marrow," the general said, strong jaw filled with a warm smile. "Please, sit and stay a while."
Marrow followed the order, and Ebi and the woman stayed at military rest.
"I've read your report," the general said, holding up his scroll. "And I've seen your CO's report. I thought we'd have a talk."
Dishonorable discharge then. Marrow's heart sank. "Sir," he said, "before you write me off I want-"
"Write you off?" General Ironwood asked, tilting his head to the side. "What on Remnant gave you that idea? Marrow, I also read Major Ebi's reports: he explained that both units retreated and left you to hold back the Grimm alone. That's not how a team works, that's not how the military works, but you followed the order regardless. I've also learned you lost people that day, is that correct?"
Marrow starred, cut to the quick and uncertain… what was happening? "My… my family," he answered. "My ma - my mother, sir, and my brother and sister. They were all I had left. I found out when they released the names of all the victims."
The woman stiffened. "You weren't told prior?" she demanded, her voice a rich alto.
"No ma'am," Marrow said. "Notifications don't apply to Faunus."
All three faces tightened on hearing that, and Major Ebi and the woman shared a look. "Of course he would do that," the woman muttered, looking down.
General Ironwood, however, seemed to nod. "This is why you're here, Winter," he said. "Contact all surviving family members and corroborate Private Armin's story. Then write a report for the Council. I'm sure Councilman Sleet and especially Councilwoman Camilla will have something to say about it."
"Sir, yes, sir," she said, saluting. She turned smartly to one side and left the office.
"What's it been like?" the general asked, leaning back in his seat, "Being a Faunus in the military?"
Marrow gulped, tail squished into the back of his chair. That was a double edged question: Marrow didn't want to assume the best, that the general would take what he had to say and effect positive change. The system was too big, too broken, and he was done getting his hopes ups. He didn't want to assume the worst, that he would be giving another weapon to keep him subjugated, he didn't want to believe that of the man who had told him to be his best self. He looked down at his hands, fisted at his knees, uncertain what to say.
He heard a sigh. "That bad, huh?"
Marrow looked up to see the general rubbing his chin, thrumming his fingers along the desk. Then, a sharp nod. "I have two seats on the council, Private Armin," Ironwood said, leaning forward. "It's not a majority vote, but between what Faunus experiences are at the Academy and what I've seen when I looked through your file, there are going to be some changes in policy in the coming years. I want you to know that you're the inspiration for it. Private Armin," he added, standing.
Marrow hastily stood, snapping to attention as the general walked around his desk and pulled out - no way - the pin was placed on his chest.
"Colonel Armin," General Ironwood said. "Please see Major Ebi for reassignment."
No way… no way…
The general turned and gave a nod to Ebi. "He's all yours, Major."
Major Ebi's office was, perhaps unsurprisingly, only two halls and two doors down from the general. Ebi gestured for Marrow to take a seat and he did, the major pulling out a pad and handing it to him. "Your file," he said without preamble. "You should know what your CO's say."
"Major," Marrow said, holding the pad. "Major, I know that they say, sir."
"Do you?"
Marrow pursed his lips, trying to decide what the best thing to say was. He chose truth: "They'll say I'm insubordinate when I ask a normal question. They'll say I question orders when I'm explaining the normal limits of being a Hunter. They'll say I have a bad attitude for asking for clarification of an order. They'll say I'm not Ace Op material, and deny every request I make for a transfer until they've decided to wash their hands of me."
Ebi didn't contradict him, and his face was hard again before he crossed one leg over another and leaned back in his chair like the general. "Read the last report," he said, jutting his chin.
Marrow… didn't like the sound of that. He could still hear his CO telling him he'd never be an Ace Op. He scrolled through the files before finding the one with the most recent date.
Report: Amity Colosseum Grimm attack; Mj Clover Ebi.
Marrow looked up, incredulous, but the Major met his gaze and didn't blink. "Read it," he said again.
… comms were open during flight for sit-rep. Heard unit CO threaten private's future to follow orders. Heard private - had Hunter training - try to explain...
… saw one soldier still on the field, holding the Grimm back, presumably with a Semblance…
… had broken his aura and had no means to defend himself, still reached for his weapon to try and fight… Unit had retreated with no backup or exit plan for their private… CO tried to say private had been insubordinate… can't find the private's report.
… file review says he's insubordinate and has problems with authority. All reports from Private explain differences between soldiering and being a huntsman. Maybe if someone actually listened to his expertise as an academy graduate there would be less of a problem.
"Sir," Marrow said, looking up. "It's not because I'm an academy graduate."
The major tilted his head, frowning, before his eyes widened. "Oh," he said. "You think it's because you're a Faunus."
Marrow pursed his lips. "I don't think it; sir. I know it."
Major Ebi breathed heavily out his nose and uncrossed his legs, leaning forward. "All the more reason then," he muttered. "You should know," he said, "that the Ace Ops were split into two teams the day of the explosion. Lieutenant Tortuga was sent to the mines for search and rescue because of his Semblance. He didn't make it because of secondary collapses."
"Oh," Marrow said. "I'm sorry to hear that, sir."
"Don't be. He did his duty."
Silence stretched out between them, Marrow uncertain what to do. Reassignment… a colonel… he almost dared to hope…
"Can I call you Marrow?"
He snapped to attention. "Sir?"
"Can I call you Marrow?"
"Yes, sir."
Major Ebi grinned. "Here's the deal, Marrow: with Lieutenant Tortuga gone, the Ace Operatives have a vacancy. I want you on the team."
Marrow blinked, afraid to hope, afraid to believe… "Don't," he said, shaking his head. "Don't put that in front of me. Don't dangle that there and hold it over my head. Don't trick me with the offer into doing something-"
"Woah, woah, woah," Major Ebi said. "There's no trick here, no blackmail, no ulterior motives. It's exactly like the general said - you did amazing work at Amity. You have what it takes and I want you. Nothing else."
Marrow… he didn't know what to say. He sat there and stared, somehow unable to… was this really happening… but Ma… He couldn't figure out how to stop gaping as the slow dawning flush of his dream actually coming true started to descend. "I'm…" He licked his lips, swallowed hard. "I'm an Ace Op?"
Ebi nodded. "You'll have to go through more training, get you and the team acclimated to each other, and that can take upwards of a year, but I think you're a perfect fit. Over eighty percent of Ace Op missions are Grimm-based, so your expertise won't go to waste, you're Semblance slots in perfectly with the team for crowd control. Politically, you'd be the first Faunus Ace Op, and that should help our recruitment numbers." Ebi smiled. "I can tell you're happy," he said.
Marrow grabbed at his tail - damn give away - but he didn't bother hiding his smile.
"Okay team, here's the new blood. This is Colonel Marrow Armin. Everybody has read everybody's file, but reading it and experiencing it are two different things. Elm: you're up." Ebi smiled, slick in everything, "Try not to break him too hard."
"No promises, Clover," Erdene said with a toothy grin, clapping her fists together.
Major Ebi turned to Marrow, his easy smile still on. "Try not to embarrass her too much, Marrow," he said with a wink.
Marrow puffed up his chest, tail wagging. "No promises, Major."
"In that case, begin!"
"Stay!"
Erdene froze immediately, dark eyes wide, and Marrow darted in and clipped her with his weapon.
"Hey! That's not fair!"
Marrow smiled and jumped away from her swing back flipping and throwing Fetch. Erdene swatted it aside with her sledge hammer but it arced back to Marrow's hands easily as he ran to the side, darting up a wall, loading a fire dust cartridge and taking aim. Erdene had planted her feet, planning on tanking the hit and Marrow froze her in mid turn, leaving her back wide open as he fired, the burst of flame filling the training arena with a plume of smoke before landing on his feet.
"Impressive," Bree said, stepping forward. "But Elm is always a little slow on the uptake."
The initiation - as Major Ebi had described it - was brutal on all sides. Marrow fought one one one, then two on one, until he ran out of aura. Everyone was a panting mess at the end as Ebi called it to a close, clapping his hands together. "And that's the rookie, team," he said brightly. "Give him a warm welcome at the next mission brief."
Bree tsked and strode away, the other two saying little as they, too, turned and left. Erdene did give a wave though.
"... I don't think they like me," Marrow confessed.
"Nah," Ebi said, slapping a hand on Marrow's shoulder, voice soft. "They're just picturing Tortuga. It'll take them awhile to get used to a replacement."
Marrow nodded, but he didn't feel good about it. After physical training was protocol training with Major Ebi, team cohesion was important and everyone had to be on the same page, to the point where they could give plans in gestures and looks, and most of that came to trusting the major.
"You can call me Clover, you know."
"Yes sir! I mean, Clover, sir…"
Ebi - Clover - chuckled. "You'll be a good fit," he said before pulling out another pad. "You've got the shorthand and strategies down pat. How are you politically?"
Marrow looked up. "Politically?"
"Only eighty percent of our missions are Grimm related," Clover said. "Being Aces we're also the faces of Atlas. It's not uncommon for us to attend political functions as part of security, or if there's intel on riots down in Mantle."
Marrow frowned. "Mantle wouldn't riot," he said. "They're too busy staying alive."
Clover paused, eying Marrow again like he seemed to do sometimes. "You're from Mantle originally, right?" he asked.
"Technically, I'm from the crater," Marrow said. After two months of working with Clover he knew he could trust his CO with some things. "My earliest memory is sitting under a blanket in a tent and wondering if I ate fire dust if I could be both warm and full."
Clover blinked, green eyes widening. "Is it really that bad down there?" he asked.
Marrow, in turn blinked, before he sighed as he realized the obvious. "Out of sight, out of mind, right?" he asked. "If you segregate us out, keep us out of sight, then we don't bother you. If you only give us the jobs you think we deserve, then we only live up to your stereotypes. And if we're out of sight, then you can forget all about us. That includes paying us enough to eat."
Clover looked down, thoughtful - something else he seemed to do. After a long, long pause, he looked up again. "Why the Ace Ops?" he asked. "Of all the things you could be, why us?"
"Sir," Marrow said, putting his pad back on the desk. "The Ace Ops were the only option I had. I was the only member of my family who could read, and Ma made sure I used that to get myself an education and have a hope of leaving the mines. I don't know about the other kingdoms but the only jobs we're allowed as Faunus are either the mines or service work. When Ma learned I had a Semblance she told me to be a Hunter because I'd have the most freedom. But… that wasn't enough." He looked down, tail drooping behind him as he thought about his ma. A hundred memories filled his vision, hazy with time but warm. And sad, now, too. He missed her…
Marrow looked up. "I wanted to be an Ace to prove myself," he said. "Everybody told me I couldn't do it - Faunus weren't allowed into the military, there was no way I could qualify, no one would want a Faunus as the face of the Ace Ops. I wanted it because they kept telling me no, because if I made it then it meant I was worth something. People would have to listen to me, even if I was a Faunus. People would have to value me, even if I was a Faunus."
Clover was leaning forward again, his eyes open and warm and a little sad. He smiled, softly. "So, politically, you'll be a shoe-in," he said. "Just tell the rich bastards you're here because you earned it and watch them choke. And if they don't, point them to me and I'll set them straight.
"Marrow," he added. "I want to be up front with you. There's a second reason I picked you, aside from all your obvious talent."
"... sir?" Marrow asked, feeling the proverbial weight of the other shoe.
"The Ace Ops are missing something," Clover said, leaning back in his chair. "I haven't put my finger on it yet, but there's something that's holding us back. I want to change the Ace Ops, make us better than what we are. You're going to be a part of that."
"Yes, sir."
Clover chuckled, shaking his head. "You can call me Clover, Marrow."
Marrow blinked. "Oh, sorry sir. Clover. Sir."
"You're a good boy, Colonel," Clover said. "I hope you'll stay a while."
End
Author's Notes: eeeeeeeeh the writing quality is starting to drop. This was written in the middle of the school year when all the hybrid-teaching-exhaustion-Why-Universe? is starting to bleed into everything else. It took forever to write this because we're both very nearly creatively bankrupt. Teaching has sucked this but nobody wants to hear the sob story.
Anyway, all our ideas are here but not all of them are fully formed on how to trace Marrow becoming an Ace Op. While we didn't do a lot of research we did do a lot of thinking about the systems that would hold Marrow back: segregated communities and schools, internalized assumptions and expectations, tokenism and prejudice. We wanted to get into micro aggressions, like everyone wants to touch his tail or something, but again: creatively bankrupt right now.
We finally get to write Ironwood as a legit good guy, but he and Winter and Clover don't realize how broken the system is because they aren't affected by all the breaks. Theoretically Clover will start to realize how bad it is as he tries to take Marrow places and learns how restrictive the No Faunus laws are. That would lead to conversations about what life is like for a Faunus, and Clover seems like a guy who's supportive and would listen and empathize. Or something. God we're tired.
We do have another fic in the works but it's not done yet, so no new posts for a while. Thanks for joining us on the ride everyone, see you when the next fic is done!