"You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible."

-Anton Chekhov

Chapter Nine: Fallout, Part 1

Razz adjusted his beret one last time before stepping into the briefing room.

A table with a map laid out on it filled the room, along with a scroll projection taking up the back of the room, displaying a wall of digitized documents. The rest of the platoon command staff stood gathered around the table, Alabaster standing next to a broad chested fair haired man. Razz's eye twitched when he saw the crown epaulet on the front of the fair haired man's chest. Major Valeron was their Company Commander, a Captain the last time Razz had seen him, which was before the contract, Valeron was out on a special assignment of sorts. He found himself wondering just what Valeron had done in such a short time to earn a promotion.

"Finally here Sergeant?" Valeron said in his Mistralian lilt, looking up from the map. "Took you long enough."

Razz froze in the doorway, clutching his clipboard in his hand and a slightly mortified expression on his face. Sheer terror washed over him as the Master Warrant Officer of the company gave him a pointed glance. Oh he would get in so much shit for this, mind as well go for gold if he was going to get beasted later. Taking off his beret, he straightened his face and stared the Major right back in the eyes.

"Sorry sir, I was checking in with my guys. They aren't exactly taking the failure so well," Razz casually strolled over to the table, stepping alongside his fellow section leaders without breaking eye contact. Moss glared at him from across the table with his signature grumpy face that meant he was about to attack a poor recruit, or Sergeant in this case. He would most definitely get in shit after from just about everyone.

The Major stared at him for a moment, before letting a small chuckle out, "Suppose that's good enough reason to be late. Tell me Sergeant, how good are your section's capabilities? I'm just curious."

"The very best I believe. One of my guys fought off a Huntsman on the contract," the other section leaders stiffened up beside him, and Razz had to suppress a smirk.

"We'll see in the debrief Sergeant," Valeron laughed harshly, lightly tapping his Master Warrant in the shoulder. "I know we already went through a short one immediately after, but I wanted one after everyone was refreshed and ready. Had some time to clear their minds, to say. So Captain, will you start?"

Alabaster stepped forward to the table, "Alright sir, here's the rundown. After inserting forty kilometres from the target, we encountered a small Grimm horde. After eliminating them, we drove at travelling speed in a column to the target. Switched to bounding overwatch ten kilometres out. After getting close to the target, we surveyed it with a drone, then observed it a bit from an overwatch position here." Alabaster pointed to a hill on the map laid out on the table. "We didn't see anything but dead bodies from both the drone or the hill."

Alabaster traced a line along the treeline into the village, "We set up an overwatch position here, and pushed the rest of the platoon into the village. After searching through the buildings, we couldn't find anything so we declared it clear and set up a small perimeter. Sergeant Razz's section went straight for the main building to recover any survivors. They did recover some, I assume you debriefed them already?"

Valeron nodded curtly, "Intel's been grilling the last Contractor that got out for a while now. Got all they could from him and the survivors."

"Alright," Alabaster sucked in a breath. "Then suddenly, all of our forces came under fire from unknown forces. My guys say they appeared out of nowhere like ghosts. I assume they had some sort of cloaking capabilities because none of our ISR even picked them up before. ELINT might have been a possibility but we didn't have any equipment on us." Razz stepped back a little, switching his gaze between the two officers. ELINT was electronic intelligence, it meant a variety of different things, moreso intercepting radios in this context.

"Alright, continue on Captain," Valeron motioned, crossing his arms casually. "Don't leave anything out."

Alabaster gritted his teeth, which went unnoticed by the Major, "The forces, which we know as Sabyr Brigade now, had some sort of jamming technology. Our short-range radio would barely work within talking distance, and our LAV radios could barely reach each other. I ordered everyone to pull back to the designated rally point, and managed to get my platoon there with some casualties."

He placed a finger in the middle of the town, "Unfortunately, one of our guys got stranded out in the middle of the town with an injured comrade. He managed to fight his way towards us and made contact with a new Person of Interest."

"I already know Captain, no need to pussyfoot around that," Valeron said, putting his hand on his hips. Razz stiffened up in his place as the Major's eyes roved over him. "Contractor Jaune Arc was your 2iC, Sergeant, am I right?"

"Yessir," Razz nodded stiffly. Would his next words be Arc's doom? His arms tensed up as he braced against the table.

Valeron stroked his chin, running his fingers through the scraggly beard, "He did make a questionable call on placing the marksman on the bell tower. Though I'd say that's more misinformed than anything. A lot of young leaders tend to think of their marksmen as snipers, which they're not. I trust you'll correct that Sergeant?"

Razz nodded curtly, trying not to let his relief show, "Yessir, I will."

"Good," Valeron placed a hand on the table. "His report stated he went up a bell tower, fought off a Huntsman level threat, and managed to evacuate the area with some useful intelligence. It correlated with his helmet cam, so there's nothing to disprove there. This Sabyr Brigade is quite an interesting group, but I'll get into that after. His report and your mission have essentially sent the intel shop into a frenzy over this. They wanted to send a larger force out there to fully SSE the village." Valeron snorted, "Command said no."

"We're already stretched thin enough sir," piped up Alabaster. "I have a feeling the upcoming op tempo is going to run everyone dry."

"Exactly why we've been doing a recruitment surge Captain," Valeron pulled out a cigarette. Smoking was prohibited within buildings, but nobody present wanted to try and correct the Major. "I'd say Contractor Arc's action merits a commendation. If you put one in I'll make sure to push it to the top."

Alabaster looked up surprised, "Sir?"

Valeron looked at the captain, putting up his arms as to say, so what? "What? You expect me to reprimand him? Well, his decision was questionable, so I expect you personally to be looking after the kid. I've read his course reports, all of them say he's a natural tactician. Would hate to see that potential wasted. I don't want to see anyone shitcanned over this shit."

"You want me to train him, sir?" Alabaster furrowed his eyebrows. Razz shuffled his feet unconsciously, his fellow section leaders all looking away conveniently. All of them were thinking the same thing at once.

"Yeah, exactly. There a problem Captain? Maybe since he's your little pet project, you would train him."

"Nothing, nothing," said Alabaster quickly, waving away his hand. "I'll make sure to train him."

What went unsaid in the room, was that Alabaster was already training Jaune. Razz would definitely need to push the kid in training later. Another fuck up would probably cost both Jaune's and Alabaster's career. He needed to run the kid through scenarios once they started retraining the platoon to ensure combat readiness.

"Great," Valeron pulled out a remote and started clicking through something on the scroll projection. "This wasn't just the only reason I called everyone here, however." an image of a group of men posing for a camera came up. plainclothes, plate carriers, helmets, they looked similar to any PMC. "This used to be Shadow Corps, a subsidiary of Striker Group. As you know, subsidiaries are the companies that Striker Group has bought out or created for the purpose of taxes or some other work that needs to stay below the radar."

Valeron clicked a few buttons on his remote, displaying a shot of a man's face. It was just like any run-of-the-mill mercenary, brown cropped beard and wild hair, "Of course, even Sabyr Group has its limits of what it does, even with subsidiaries. Shadow Corps decided they wanted to take their name a little further. Fifteen years ago, they were found by investigators to be enacting a coup against Atlas. They were quickly disavowed and marked for arrest by Striker Group. Most of them escaped into the Grimmlands and regrouped there."

"This man here was and likely still is the head of the armed branch of Shadow Corp. Colonel Rivers, ex Altesian Special Forces, he apparently managed to erase all records of his employees from the database. To this day, we still don't know how, but we still luckily have pictures of their leadership." Valeron gestured towards the man's face.

Funding a coup? Certainly sounded like a thing Striker Group would try just to see if they could get away with it. It wasn't like they hadn't done more unsavoury things. Still, it must've been a bad regime then, wouldn't it have been?

Everyone was staring straight at him now. Had he done something wrong? Maybe he had accidentally said that out lo- yeah he definitely said that out loud. Moss stared at him, his mouth hung open in unadulterated shock. Alabaster put his head in his hands, and his fellow section leaders shuffled away from him as if it would distance them from the ensuing reprimands.

The Master Warrant lent on the table in front of him, his bulgy muscles rippling under his uniform, "Oh you shouldn't have said that Serg-"

"Relax," laughed Valeron, holding the Master Warrant back with an arm. "It's a good question too. I like my subordinates to think for their own, and to also have a moral compass."

It felt like someone had just sucked all of the air out of him. Razz had to hold back the laughter that threatened to erupt from his mouth. Everyone in the room simultaneously sighed in relief, Razz especially.

"Nobody in Striker Group had authorized the action, it was seen as an element gone rogue. This didn't exactly do much for Striker Group's reputation, but we managed to distance ourselves from it." Valeron puffed out a cloud of smoke from his cigarette. "After they escaped, we only managed to capture a few of them, they were prepared. We managed to track them to Vacuo. Strikeforces were sent, but they always evaded each one. From what we saw, they just turned into another criminal organization in the middle of Vacuo, so we sort of left them rest, since they remained solely in Vacuo. Strike teams were sent every so often, but the enemy always escaped."

The slide changed to show a picture taken of a man walking down a busy street, likely without his knowledge, as it looked like it was taken covertly from a second floor window, "We sent intelligence operatives to try and track them down, but they never went anywhere. They always kept their operations limited to Vacuo however, the fact that they struck a village near Vale? Extremely worrying. That they apparently have an unknown benefactor? Also very worrying. We put them at around eight hundred highly trained Contractors at their betrayal, no thinking how many guns they have now."

"Apparently, at some point, they changed their name to Sabyr Brigade, which I think all of you are familiar with," the next slide displayed a torn patch, reading Sabyr Brigade, and a snarling Sabyr Grimm on it.

Razz raised his hand timidly, wincing under the stares of his peers, "With all due respect sir, why exactly are you sharing this with us? This all seems very classified and hush hush."

"That's because it is Sergeant," The Major laid a hand on the table and moved his head to look each of them directly in the eye. "None of this will leave this room, except under the condition of telling your own platoon, understood?"

"Crystal."

"Clear as day sir."

"Understood."

"Good," Valeron leaned back to look at them. The Master Warrant stood just behind, crossing his arms. "I'm telling you all this because those higher than me have decided to put you guys as the primary scout force for tracking down Sabyr Brigade." Valeron put up a hand quickly, interrupting Alabaster's immediate protests, "You'll be used as a more armoured reconnaissance force than the tracker teams. You'll be used to fix the enemy, then call in other units to finish them. Are you good with that?"

"Is it just going to be us fixing?" said Moss, looking up from the map. "We were being pressed pretty hard by those guys back there."

"Maybe I should have phrased that better, but the entire company is being tasked for this stuff," Valeron pulled a small sheet of paper from his breast pocket. "Hereby from order of Colonel Havers, Raider Company is to be retasked with assisting with the destruction of Sabyr Brigade and all associated enemies." Valeron cleared his throat and put the paper back in his breast pocket. "It continues to say that our company has been cherry picked to be upgraded to special unit status. Congrats, we're now technically a Special Forces unit."

Razz looked up suddenly, his mouth agape, "What?" he quickly slapped a hand over his mouth, but the damage was already done.

"Yes Sergeant, we're being retrained up to be a special missions unit," Valeron gritted his teeth. "That also means our unit will be out of commission for at least two weeks while training. We're not becoming any Black Beret SOG operator, just a shock force from my understanding. We'll be training as a unit and together. Everyone's okay with that?"

The section leaders looked between themselves, exchanging looks of concern, or confusion.

Valeron leaned back taking his time to look between them all, "I don't know why they did this, but we'll just have to go with it. That's about the extent of our meeting here, so I'll let you leave to go tell the guys about it. I'll have to tell the rest of the company soon about it anyways."

Razz snatched up his clipboard, turning sharply to make his way out the door.

"Oh and one more thing," said Valeron, shuffling through his notes. "Contractor Arc reported some Sabyr Brigade bandits talking about a defecting LT. Intel looked through the ranks to see if it did correlate with anyone, and we found one that just about matches the profile. Lieutenant Arberwood if that rings a bell for anyone here. I just wanted to let you guys know, I'll be off now."

The Major and the Master Warrant filed out the back entrance quickly, while Alabaster snapped back to look at the Major with astonishment. Moss jolted Alabaster roughly, pulling him back to wherever he was.

"Sorry, was just thinking. Let's go," Alabaster led the procession out the door, putting his beret back on.

The moment they stepped out into the busy walkway Moss spoke up, "Sir, do you know who Lieutenant Arberwood is? You certainly looked like you recognized him."

Alabaster kept walking forward, forcing the rest of them to catch up, "Yeah, me and him worked together in Intel for a bit, then we went our separate ways. I always knew him as the sort to do what he thought was right. Pretty rash and would make decisions pretty quick, but I wouldn't think he would just go join a bandit group like that."

Razz snorted, swinging his arms leisurely as he walked past a group of men surrounding a truck, "Never would think Intel has a moral compass at all."

"Just a very skewed one," said Rouge from next to him. "And aren't you in deep shit right now Razz?"

Moss turned to him, "Sergeant Razz, see me in two hours in my office."

"Yes Warrant," gulped Razz. This wouldn't be too fun for him.

"He was more of a case officer guy," Alabaster waved his hand around back at him, ignoring what they said. "Ran sources and stuff within terror networks or criminal stuff. Still wouldn't exactly explain why he would just up and leave though. Bet the Major would know, since he's still pretty deep within the Intel community, came out just for a major command opportunity, excuse the pun."

"He can't have found anything bad enough to make him leave, Striker Group has a skewed moral compass, but even we have a moral compass," pulling out his scroll, Alabaster turned back to them. "Better than a lot of people, why I left the Specialists. Fuckers left me to dry after I tried to do good."

"Revealing your life story sir?" said Razz, waving hello to someone he knew walking by on the sidewalk.

Alabaster let out a small laugh, "Not yet Sergeant. You guys go see to your sections, I got stuff to look at. Moss, with me."

The Warrant stared Razz right in the eyes, mouthing the words, Later. Razz shivered. Even working with him forever, Moss hadn't lost his penchant for intimidating anyone. The Captain and Warrant made off into the crowd of passing Contractors, blending into the mass of green uniforms.

"So, we just go talk to our guys now?" said Russ, looking at the two others.

"Guess so," said Razz, punching one lightly in the shoulder. "I'm going to go track down my section now."

"Seeya guys."

"Seeya."

Razz turned around, making his way towards the barracks. He definitely needed time to process the information bomb that had just been dropped on him. Shady sub-companies? Coups? Bandit groups? Defectors that had no reason to leave? It all made him really wish for a beer. His mind wandered to crashing in a bar, and drinking all of the alcohol within. Unfortunately, there was no beer on base, though he was fifty percent sure Thistle had some hidden in his room. Fat chance of getting it from him though.

His mind whizzing, he disappeared into a never ending crowd of fellow green clad Contractors.

/ - /

Jaune looked out on the Grimmlands for what must have been the twentieth time this watch.

The flat plains right outside the wall weren't natural. Trees razed to a twenty kilometres outside the walls, they provided nice line of sight on any incoming Grimm horde. From there they would just pound it with artillery or air assets until all was left was the disappearing Grimm particles. Even with the automated systems, the wall just nearby, they liked to have a human eye in the watchtowers for extra assurance.

Nobody wanted to volunteer for sentry duty. It was a lonely, boring job, the low drone of the bustling base the only accompaniment. So it was a surprise for the duty NCO when Jaune volunteered for it. Usually, people only did it to get out of duty on the weekends, but their platoon was on non-combat status, so they all they did was sit on base for the workday then went home.

Still, the solitary job was just what Jaune needed.

Vi's cold shoulder had been the first thing. His small little world started to feel like it was collapsing piece by piece. Then the niggling sense of doubt at the back of his head, the way Jay avoided him, walked away whenever he came, or even just avoided looking at him. Jaune just needed time to think, time alone.

"What the hell have I done?" he whispered to himself, putting his hands on the railing of the watchtower, rifle pulling taut on the sling as it dropped from his hands. "I fucked up. Fucked up real back haven't I?"

Staring out to the Grimmlands, his mind was a mess. He had tried talking to Vi a few times, only to be met with one-word answers and a quick retreat by her. How the hell would he fix this? If Vi kept on like this, it would fracture the section beyond repair within no time. Wincing at the thought of his other section mates, the ever-present thought of them thinking he wasn't enough, that he should've been replaced.

Calm down Jaune, work the problem. How would the Captain see you in this state?

Regripping his rifle again, he continued casually scanning the perimeter, just thinking. What was the problem? Vi hated him because he had put Lavender in unnecessary danger. Maybe that wasn't exactly the best call, to put her up there with no backup. Then again, they hadn't really thought their radios could be jammed, could they? They didn't, but that didn't excuse his poor judgement. He would need to talk to Alabaster or Razz for help later. His mind hit a brick wall when it came to the next question, what could he do to solve the problem?

Vi hated his guts right now, and wouldn't let him talk to her under any circumstance. How could he solve the problem, when the person who was mad at him wouldn't even talk to him in the first place?

"Fuck!" Jaune kicked the side of the watchtower, clenching his grip around his rifle, watching the horizon idly. It was impossible, what could he even do? There was no training he got that covered how to deal with irate teammates that wouldn't even let him talk to them. There sure wasn't a course on what to do if someone lost confidence in you. "This is such bullshit."

"What's such bullshit?"

Jaune spun around to face Captain Alabaster, leaning on the railings with a bemused smile, his beret and clean, pressed, uniform contrasted with his own heavy combat gear. He had to wipe away the scowl that was forming on his face when he realized just who he would be scowling at, "Nothing sir, just thinking."

"Hah!" laughed Alabaster, walking up beside him, "I've been around the block enough at the bottom of the totem pole to know that was a lie, but we'll get to that later, I got some stuff to tell you about."

Jaune continued staring out into the Grimmlands, "What? I'm being thrown out?" he said in a dreary, monotone.

Alabaster chuckled, at least until he noticed Jaune was being completely serious, "No you aren't Arc. In fact, I would think the opposite. You're being put in for a commendation for saving Marron's life."

"What?" Jaune spun his head around to look at Alabaster incredulously.

"Believe it or not Arc, your actions that day do merit a commendation. You charged through enemy lines carrying a wounded teammate, and made it out. Whether it's for valour or not, that's still up for review. However, you'll still probably get a mention in dispatches at the very least."

"But I was the one who sent her up there! No way I should get this thing," replied Jaune, staring right at Alabaster, tossing his arms up in the air. Guilt bit at the back of his head, a constant niggling piece of his mind that was always there since they came back.

"Which was duly noted," replied Alabaster, grabbing his shoulder and pulling Jaune to face him. "You gotta realize most of this platoon is fresh and green. We didn't have enough experienced people wanting to transfer, so that's part of the reason you happened to end up in a command position. Look," Alabaster paused, sighing dramatically, "The higher ups will be more lenient with you because you're new. This isn't their first rodeo with essentially green platoons and fresh leaders. You're expected to make at least one fuck up. You show promise Jaune, and command knows that."

"A bunch of promise I showed over there," snorted Jaune.

Alabaster punched him lightly in the shoulder, "Don't worry about it Arc, they personally tasked me with training you and getting you up to speed."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, "Wasn't that what you already were doing?"

"If anyone asks, I wasn't and only started recently. Gotta cover my ass to an extent Arc," Alabaster stretched his arms up casually, chuckling lightly. "Not the only reason I came down here. We got some new intel on our new adversary."

"Oh?" He glanced at the Captain out of the corner of his eye, still watching the Grimmlands. It still was his job to keep watch, even if he was talking to the Captain.

"So they're called Sabyr Brigade as you know, and they used to be a subsidiary of Striker Group," said Alabaster, crossing his arms. "One day, the whole company went rogue and funded a coup against Atlas. Needless to say, they were all marked for arrest and chased down. Unfortunately, most of their Armed Wing made it out to the Grimmlands, where they regrouped and became what we now know as Sabyr Brigade. This was all about fifteen years ago."

"And they're still active and alive fifteen years later. Why?" if there was one thing Jaune knew the Striker Group could do, it was track down obscure terrorists and kill them. It was almost their specialty, after just about every other job known to mankind.

Alabaster took out a cigarette. Just about everyone over the age of thirty in Striker Group smoked, was it a requirement for making it past Corporal or something? "Because they hid in Vacuo, and that sandpit is just about as lawless as it gets. Very easy to hide among the criminals. They also happened to be very good at counter intel work. Eventually Striker Group just let them be, with an active manhunt going on in the background. That they're back in the Vale area however, is more than worrying for us. The hell they're doing here? Everyone is asking."

"I found it a bit more worrying that they laid in an ambush, waiting for us for what? Three days? They probably had to fight off hordes of Grimm for that entire time," said Jaune, glancing over to the Captain.

"Exactly why Intel is going crazy over this," Alabaster sighed, taking his cigarette out of his mouth. "Also why we're apparently being selected for two weeks of extra shock training. Congrats Arc, we're now technically Shock Troops for command to throw around."

"Wonderful," his voice was short and clipped, eyes staring out at the Grimmlands aimlessly.

"You okay Jaune?" Alabaster said, looking at him with worried eyes. "Something going on at home? Your section?"

"Yeah," he said wistfully, wringing his wrists as he looked up at the ceiling. "Vi's been giving me the cold shoulder since we came back."

"Care to explain in full?"

So Jaune did. Starting from the beginning, to even his paltry attempts to talk to Vi again. His voice level and monotone throughout, the best objective recollection Jaune could muster.

"Well I'll say that yours is a difficult situation at best," said Alabaster. Jaune snorted in return, that certainly was an understatement. "But I'll try and offer some advice. From my little interaction with her, I've sort of gathered she's the type of person to place actions before words. My best bet to solving your little problem would be to show her that you're improving as a leader. Or hell, just sit her down and talk to her."

"Tried the last one already sir, I just told you."

"Noone ever accused me of having a good memory, have they?" Alabaster chuckled a little.

"I would've thought so, considering you're a Captain."

"Don't tell anyone, will ya?" smiled Alabaster, punching him in the shoulder. "I meant after she has had time to calm down a bit. Her sister is still in the hospital, and knowing her, emotions are still running high. Some things only time can fix, but you can certainly help time along. Show to her that you can be a leader. Jaune, beating yourself up over this won't help anyone, least of all you. Your position is supposed to be so you can learn, so learn. I'll be leaving now, gotta sort out some paperwork with Warrant Moss."

Knowing Vi, all of that advice fitted her perfectly. Alabaster had described Vi to almost a T. How had he even got all of that from her? Alabaster only had a fraction of the time Jaune had spent with Vi, yet he still got the same traits from her. Jaune stared at Alabaster warily. Just how good was he at reading people? Maybe his background in Intel had something to do with it...

Alabaster turned around on the spot, walking back to the stairs leading downwards. Jaune turned around to look at his retreating form, "Thanks for the advice sir."

"Welcome anytime Arc," Alabaster turned back to him. "One last thing, pushing away your section isn't doing anyone favours."

His eyes darted back to Alabaster, just as he was looking away, "Hm?"

"Your section Arc. Sergeant Razz has been telling me all about you pulling away from your section, barely talking to them and whatnot. That isn't going to do anything to help you Arc, and I rather not have my platoon be a fractured mess the next time we go into combat. Got it?"

"Crystal sir."

"Good, I'll leave now," and so Alabaster disappeared into the stairwell, leaving Jaune to his thoughts.

And so Jaune looked back out, all alone in his watchtower, to the grand expanse of razed forests and dark, desolate plains.

/ - /

Her vision was blurry.

While that certainly wasn't the first thing that popped into her head, mainly "Where am I?" and, "What the hell happened?" but noticing her vision was blurry was curiously one of the first things Lavender noticed when she woke up.

What was happening? She had just been escaping that psycho with Jaune, when all she felt was cold, the cold snow…

Psychopath, cold, Jaune. The pieces slowly clicked together in her head. She nearly screamed out loud, had she not seen all the medical equipment around her. Did she make it out alive? Yeah, she had to have. Vision finally clearing, it revealed her sterile surroundings. Hospital bed, gown, curtains around, blinking monitors showing her vitals, a faint memory of the base tour came to the front of her mind. Wasn't this the Intensive Care Unit? Had she really been hurt that bad? It couldn't have been that bad.

"Hello?" she croaked. Jeez, it really felt like she hadn't drank anything for a week. "Anyone there?"

A man dressed in typical doctor garb walked into view of the curtained off area, clasping a small clipboard in one hand. He looked up to her with wide eyes, "Oh, you're awake. Lavender Marron, correct?"

"Yeah, I'm Lavender," she said, voice barely a whisper. "You got any water?"

"Yeah, just give me a moment," the man stepped away to grab something from a counter. "My name's Rotsen if you want to know."

She took the proffered cup of water from Rotsen's hands greedily, bringing it to her lips, "Thanks, how long was I out?"

Looking up from writing something on a clipboard, he looked back to it the next second, "Just over three days, which was just about expected."

Lavender nearly spat out her water. Instead, she forced it down her throat before she spoke, "What? How?"

"Aura exhaustion is no joke Lavender," he checked something off on his list, before walking back over to her. "The body likes to shut down after its Aura is depleted to help recharge it back up. With training, you can override this, but whenever you're out of danger, as in your adrenaline is out of your system, the body sees this as a prime time to shut down and recharge. However, apparently there was a toxin in you that was slowing down the Aura. You remember why you had this?"

She squinted at the ceiling, "Think the psychopath I was fighting stuck me with a stinger or something. Is that it?"

Rotsen looked down at his clipboard, an antiquated piece of technology in this day and age with the convenience of scrolls, "That about lines up with our analysis. Are you okay with just staying here right now? Anything you need? IVs are exactly the same thing as real food."

Her stomach rumbled, making Lavender wince from the loudness. she smiled sheepishly at him, "Yeah, food would be nice."

"Alright, on it," Rotsen walked over to a cabinet, pulling out a tray. He walked back to her, handing her the tray of food, putting it in her lap. "Here we are. I'm going to go check on the rest of the patients now. Need anything else?"

"No, I'm fine."

Rotsen said bye and moved to tend to the other unconscious patients laid on the bed. Lavender swung her head around to look at the other side of the room. It was surprisingly quiet. Maybe this was for unconscious people? Or was it the less critical wounds that just needed time? Probably, but she didn't know anything about how the hospital worked.

Munching on her energy bar, she tried to recollect the things that had happened before she fell unconscious. After the Sabyr Brigade guys who had passed by them left, her memory became fuzzy and confused. Jaune had carried her somewhere, she assumed it was the platoon like they planned. She was so focussed on trying to remember she nearly didn't notice someone flying towards her hospital bed.

"Lav!" shouted her sister. Vi practically jumped onto her, just missing her food tray and wrapping her into a huge bear hug. "You're finally awake!"

Rotsen shot back to her hospital bed, coming the same way Vi had come, "Hey, I'm going to have to ask for you to get off my patient or I'll have to throw you out."

"Sorry," Vi stepped back unapologetically, weakly smiling at the doctor. She quickly pulled a stool to sit on. "I was just excited to see my little sister."

"Oh?" his eyes softened. "Just don't cause a ruckus." Rotsen quickly moved on to another patient.

Vi turned to her immediately, "Are you okay Lav? How do you feel right now? God, I was worried sick the moment I heard about you." she grabbed Lavender's hands and grasped them in hers.

She let her hold her hand, laughing lightly, "I'm fine Vi. Perfectly well."

"You weren't well a few days ago," scowled Vi, her eyes turning dark. "Thanks to that asshole."

Lavender furrowed her eyebrows, "Who?"

"It's nothing, let's just talk about something else," Vi said quickly, waving her hand as if it would dismiss the subject.

"No, who are you talking about? I haven't exactly been awake the past few days," Vi tried to pull away from her, but she held onto her hand tight.

"It's nothing. I just wanna talk about other stuff right now," Vi's eyes pleaded with her to drop the subject.

"Fine, what about you tell me everything that happened from your perspective?" Lavender bit down again on her energy bar, ripping off a chunk and chewing it up.

Vi's mouth opened halfway in protest, before closing. Vi decided that telling her was better than what the alternative was. She began telling her all about her driving around the town, and her experience being hit with an RPG after pulling back to the rally point.

"Sounds like you got it pretty bad too," Lavender said in between bites of her energy bar. "I really don't think I would have gotten out of that bell tower alive if Jaune wasn't there. He fought one on one with the scorpion psychopath, saved me when I got hit too. Somehow the psychopath, or Tyrian I think his name was, got through my aura." she shook her head, finishing off her energy bar, "Remember to say thanks to Jaune for me next time you see him, though I think you already said that, considering how you always act, heh."

To her surprise, Vi instead glowered and looked away from her, "You wouldn't even have been in that situation if he didn't send you up there."

Lavender glanced up, raising an eyebrow at her sister, "Huh? What do you mean? Jaune saved my life."

"And he sent you up there in the first place!" Vi snapped at her. Lavender recoiled in her bed, drawing a pained grimace from her sister. This was not the sister she knew. "The asshole sent you up with no backup or protection! He shouldn't even have sent you up there in the first place. It was a shitty judgement call, and it nearly got you killed. He has the same experience as us and is ordering us around! Why the hell is he telling people what to do when there must be another person somewhere who can lead so much better than him? I nearly punched his stupid face when I found out!"

"Wait, you did what?" Lavender asked, glaring pointedly at her sister.

Vi crossed his arms, frowning at her, "Don't worry, I didn't punch him, as much as I wanted to."

Rotsen stepped into the hospital cubicle, "Alright, one more damn time and you're out of here. Stop disturbing my patients."

"Sorry," Vi said, wincing under his glare. She turned back to her, talking a bit quieter. "Look, I trust him to be a good contractor just like us, but he definitely shouldn't be commanding anyone!"

"Nope!"

"Nope?"

"Yeah," said Lavender, putting down her food. "He made one mistake Vi. One mistake. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. Sure, he made a tactical mistake. I still trust him to improve himself so he won't make another mistake. Just because you make a mistake that puts your crew in danger doesn't mean you should just be booted from being a driver, should you?"

"No! But this is different! Jaune can order you around and put you in bad places," Vi's voice remained at a barely level tone. She remained sitting in her stool.

"I still think Jaune will get better. Anyways, he went out of his way to save me. Heck, it might've been better if I was up there because that dude might've decided to go after a LAV instead. Because trust me, that psychopath was no pushover, if he went after someone else, we would've had a lot more casualties than we did."

"Well, Jaune is still inexperienced. What if he makes another mistake?" Vi looked at her straight in her eyes.

"He won't. This was a one off thing I bet," Lavender replied, looking straight into her sister's eyes. "Have you seen him do his plans in training? He's something else Vi, it'd be a complete waste to make him a regular Contractor."

"You're just saying that because he's Jaune," Vi grumbled, adjusting her seat.

Lavender blushed a bit, blood rushing to her face, "That's not the reason why Vi, and you know it. Look, just give him a chance, will you? He'll give you a chance in a heartbeat if you screwed up, why not him?"

Vi just looked away at the other hospital beds, not meeting her eyes.

It suddenly dawned on her that Jaune's mistake might not have been the only reason she was angry at him. Lavender felt sheer anger rise up within her, "This isn't just about Jaune making a mistake, isn't it? It's about me! It's fucking about me!"

Vi's head swung back to her, eyes wide and panicked, "No, no, no, it's not. I swear!"

"Would you have been so angry if someone else got hurt because of Jaune? What if it was just some guy from another crew? If it had been anyone else, would you have been angry at Jaune?" Lavender sat up in her hospital bed, staring straight at Vi. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"No! It's not because of that," she spluttered. Vi looked away at the ground, erratically tapping her knee with her fingers.

"Don't lie to me sis," Lavender growled at her. "I know you well enough to tell when you're lying." Vi just continued looking at the ground, not replying. Lavender decided to keep pressing, "You've protected me my entire life Vi, but things are different now. We knew that our new jobs would be dangerous, and it's just part of the job. You can't just get angry on my behalf every time someone puts me in danger and it doesn't work out! If I'm angry at the person, I'll tell them myself!"

"It's not like that sis!" said Vi, not entirely sounding like she believed herself.

"Not like what? Coddling me all the time, getting angry at the person who saved me, and what? He made a mistake Vi! You're only getting fucking mad because you don't want to ever see me hurt! This shit was nice when I was thirteen and helpless Vi. I'm seventeen down, I think I should be able to take care of myself!" Lavender shouted out the last part, letting out the pent up anger inside her. Vi was her sister, sure, but this was fucking ridiculous! She almost assuredly would not have been half as angry if it was someone else. This shit was getting on her nerves.

Vi's mouth gaped open in shock, "This wasn't supposed to go this way." she mumbled under her breath. Vi continued looking at the ground, avoiding Lavender's angry gaze as she got up from her chair. "You know, I'm gotta go get some stuff done. I'll see you later."

Vi stood up, walking towards the door. She constantly looked back towards Lavender, expectantly waiting for a reply, for anything, but Lavender said nothing. She just glared at Vi all the way until she exited the hospital ward.

Lavender collapsed back on her bed, putting her head in her hands. It definitely wasn't supposed to go this way either.

"Man, I'm almost glad I don't have siblings," commented Rotsen from his desk. He twirled a pen in his hands, laughing softly at his own joke.

Lavender peeked an eye between her hands, "You were listening?"

"Yep, heard just about every second of it," replied the doctor, filing away a stack of paper. "I'd say your response was justified if a bit harsh."

Laying her head back on the pillow behind her, she did not expect her first meeting with Vi since she woke up to go like that. But it felt cathartic, after all the years of Vi protecting her, of coddling her from the world. Maybe she was being a bit harsh, but Vi was just putting all the blame on Jaune! He had saved her life. Sure, maybe he had some blame, but some was also on her for not speaking up. She knew that marksmen weren't supposed to detach from the squad under most circumstances, but she went along with it anyways. Maybe it was just wanting to follow her instructor's footsteps of being a sniper. She sure didn't know.

So Lavender laid there in the hospital bed, thoughts flying through her head, and the soft beeps and sounds of the monitoring machines next to her.

Conflict, mystery, espionage!

Wait, espionage?

Me turning my author notes into mini rants where I start shitposting is sort of interesting for me, but probably not for you.

Some behind the scenes stuff, I initially didn't plan for this conflict between Jaune and Vi, but I just saw an opportunity and took it, which I really like how it turned out. One more chapter of this stuff then we can get back to stuff that drives the plot along. But hey! Character development!

I sort of did this chapter in three days, and rushed through trying to edit this chapter because online school is picking up. and I definitely need to get started with that. Maybe expect a shorter chapter next week.

I also noticed that I got one review on the one chapter I didn't ask for reviews, and got like, six reviews on the next chapter where I did ask for reviews, so…

A man has stormed the school in LEGO City! Give the man reviews in LEGO City or else he'll detonate his S-Vest! Storm the school in LEGO City with the all new Counter Terrorist pack!

Okay I'm done now. Gib reviews or I'll start executing children. (Just kidding FBI, no need to send HRT to my house).

With the Author Note out of the way, carry on. Send me a review or something, I do read them all and I like getting them. Definitely not so I can get self gratification over people writing stuff about my work. Anything is welcome in my reviews, keep it constructive, or whatever.

"2 ex Green Berets, 60 Venezuelans, Strikeforce incursion." -SilverCorps, the supreme legends.

Tophat out.