Welcome dear reader, to the 14th chapter of 'The Darkling Thrush'! Fun fact, I tried uploading this the other day and for some reason the chapter wouldn't show. I've been having a lot of tech issues with FF lately, such as not being able to directly upload my chapters and having to copy them over. I hope this doesn't continue.
I also took he time to go back and edit the Author X articles. I think the bold format was causing people to skip them, thinking they were Authors Notes.
I'd like to say thank you to those who left a review, noon297, jin0uga, Bagration, Baoh joestar and ShroudViper. Thanks for the reviews guys, I'm glad to see that chapter went over well with yous.
This is the first chapter, besides the Interludes to not include Russel. And for the most part, I think it turned out ok. It's a Cardin chapter. He's integral to this story, his name's on it too.
Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
But enough of me rambling, you can skip to the bottom of the page if you wanted to read that. On with the chapter!
XIV
The Tyger and the Lamb: Part 4
From The Desk of Author X
Shining Beacon Contributor Colum
Why doesn't Tuesday have a feeling?
After a lengthy discussion with my editor, we both felt it would be best if I discussed something less political, for a while anyways.
Monday has a feeling, because we acknowledge it. We dread its arrival, because whenever it's Monday it's when we're most comfortable laying in our beds. It's the start of the week, no matter what your calendar says. Monday is the beginning of the work week.
Wednesday has a feeling. It's like the middle child of the week. You know it's there, you feel its presence. As if its hovering over you. It's your best buddy checking on you to let you know there's something great coming around the corner. You're halfway there bud.
Thursday has a feeling. Right after that pep talk Wednesday gave you the other day, in comes Thursday like a swift kick in the balls. You're on the ground unprepared. You've been tricked, you've been had. Thursday goes on laughing at you in a mocking tone.
Friday has a feeling. A universal sigh of relief leaves our lips the moment the clock strikes midnight and Friday arrives. The past four days are behind you now. You've probably got plans with friends, you're giddy with glee. Go out on a night of the town with your partner or friends.
Saturday has a feeling. You feel lethargic, the fiver prior days having exhausted you. But you somehow find it in yourself to keep going. Some other guys got plans, you've been invited to some gathering, or you'd like to check out that.
Sunday definitely has a feeling. You wake up with your head pounding and you decide to go out and get breakfast, but everywhere you go there's a line out the door. Looks like you're going to starve for a while kid.
Every day but Tuesday has a feeling. Because nothing significant ever happens on Tuesday.
Over the past semester, Cardin hadn't exactly been at the top of his game. There'd been a massive chip on his shoulder that he could never share with anyone. Any chance to build any meaningful relationships with our Huntsmen were poisoned by his inability to cope. Surprisingly enough, he managed to get along fine with his team, though he believed that to speak volumes about them than himself.
Cardin had made mistakes. From blackmail to heated bigotry, he'd hurt a lot of people. But now he was ready to make amends. For the first time in a while he was seeing clearly. And now Cardin was willing to make things right.
And let him tell you, it was easier said than done. The first part was easy. It was a moment of self-reflection and a realization of how much of a jerk he'd actually been. Like, what kind of person blackmails someone into hurting those he cared about? An asshole that's who. Admitting his mistakes has been the easiest part of his quest to make amends.
Getting everyone to accept his apologies, however, is another story. At first he'd tried to apologize to a certain bunny eared second year student named Velvet. She'd come to him in the dining hall having spotted him in a moment of weakness. He'd faltered, that chip on his shoulder just been too much for him. Velvet had tried to be helpful, but he lashed out, that was then end of that.
He'd tried to apologize earlier this morning, but when he did, Cardin was rebuffed by her teammates. He slinked off to the campus grounds after that, formulating a plan of action. Maybe he had to work up to apologizing to Velvet. Start off with the latest victim of his actions, then Velvet.
So that brought Cardin to the present, where the Team CRDL leader was now standing in front of the Team JNPR dorm. He knocked on the door, hoping someone would answer, more specifically, Jaune Arc, so he could get it over with.
But nobody answered. After spending a half hour waiting by the door for someone to show back up, Cardin was beginning to call it quits. He'd try again some other day. But out of the corner of his eye, Cardin spotted a familiar redhead walking down the hall.
"Cardin?" Pyrrha asked aloud in surprise as she reached her dorm room, finding the leader of Team CRDL slumped against the door. "What're you doing here?" She said in a polite manner. But there was something off with her, Cardin could tell.
"Uh, I'm waiting for Jaune." Cardin answered. "Any chance you know where he is?"
"He went out into the city with Team RWBY." Pyrrha said as she stared down at Cardin. "Would you mind if I asked why you need to see Jaune?"
"Just trying to apologize for being a jerk for the past couple of weeks." He said honestly. It was at that moment that Cardin had another realization, that he owed the young woman standing before him just as much an apology as he did Jaune.
Cardin's machinations had put the Mistral Champion in his crosshairs numerous times. He even pushed things as far as almost covering her in sap and setting a nest of wasps after her. Thank goodness Jaune had developed a backbone, or Pyrrha would probably be in the infirmary at this very moment, getting wasp stingers removed.
"Oh." Pyrrha mouthed, actually surprised at the notion of someone such as Cardin wanting to apologize.
"Shocker right?" Cardin chuckled lightly. "I guess I should also apologize to you too. I've been such a jerk to you and Jaune in particular. I'm really sorry."
Pyrrha couldn't help but smile hearing those words. "It must've taken a lot for you to come to terms with your mistake." She said, her voice clear. "That's rather mature of you, Cardin. Apology accepted."
"If you see Jaune, would you mind passing it along?" Cardin asked as he got back on his feet.
"Of course, if you wouldn't mind doing me a favor." Pyrrha smiled.
"Name it."
"I asked your partner Russel if he wouldn't mind coaching me in a sensitive matter." Pyrrha rubbed her arm, hiding how embarrassed she felt. "He seemed a little distracted, I'm not quite sure if he was paying attention to me. Would you mind asking him for me if he'd be able to see me soon?"
"Mind if I ask what for?" Cardin asked, slightly curious about what Pyrrha could need coaching in. She was the Invincible Girl after all, what could she possibly need from Russel that she herself didn't already possess.
"It's a sensitive matter. I hope you understand the secrecy."
"Alright, sure." Cardin shrugged. It was nothing after all, Cardin lived with Russel. Passing along a message was no skin off his back. "Thanks Pyrrha, I mean it."
"I'm just glad we don't have to be enemies." Pyrrha said as she waved goodbye.
So the leader of Team CRDL set off, having scratched one name from his list. For the most part, he couldn't think of anyone else he had to apologize to. Jaune and Pyrrha were the only others besides Velvet really.
That left Carin with the near impossible task of finding a way to get close enough to Velvet to apologize without her team running interference. So Cardin made his way up another floor, making his way to his own dorm room in order to think up a way to accomplish his goal. Maybe if he consulted with his team, they might be able to come up with a bullet proof plan.
But when Cardin returned to his dorm room, instead of finding his teammates engaged in some aimless squabble without his leadership capabilities. Cardin found Dove sitting in nothing but boxers on his bed watching a telenovela.
"Uh…hi." Dove mumbled as he waved at Cardin. There was a spoon in Dove's mouth and a cup of yogurt in his hands.
"Hi yourself." Cardin leered at Dove. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Watching Jane the Virgin." The youngest member of Team CRDL replied meekly.
Cardin just stared at Dove, a judging look on his face. He then looked around the room, finding no sign of Russel or Sky. "Where're the others?"
"They went to the library." Dove said, removing the spoon from his mouth.
"Get dressed, we're going to the library."
"B-But my show!" Dove protested.
"Now Dove." Cardin said with a sense of finality, leaving no further room for discussion.
Cardin waited outside the dorm. As soon as Dove walked out fully dressed, they were off. It was a little bit passed four. On their way down the dorm they passed by Team RWBY, but oddly enough there was no sign of Jaune. Cardin mate a mental note of checking in with Pyrrha later to make sure the young Arc got his apology.
So Cardin led Dove across the school, eventually reaching the library. Down into the quiet depths the duo trekked until they happened upon a mountain of stacked history books.
"Sky? Russel?" Cardin called out quietly in search of his teammates.
"Present." A cool quiet voice answered in reply as a hand shot up out of the stacked books. Sky stood tall out from behind his research and waved to his teammates. "Howdy."
"Where's Russel?" Cardin asked as he and Dove hopped over the stacks of books.
"I haven't a clue." Sky shrugged. "What do you guys need him for?"
"Yeah I'm still a little confused about why we're gathering myself." Dove spoke freely.
"I need your guy's help." Cardin said a tad dramatically. I also didn't help that they were being forced to be silent by the all-seeing eyes of the librarian. The trio gave a look see over their shoulders, spotting a woman clearly in her late eighties scowling at Sky and the mess he'd made. It was going to take her forever to put those books back.
"I'm going to try apologizing to Velvet again and I was hoping all of us could come up with a sure fire way for me to do so." Cardin explained, causing both of his teammates to sigh. "What?"
"Dude, why are you so hung up over this?" Dove asked, doing his best not sound so irritated. "I can't believe you pulled me away for this."
"I'm not a bad person, I'm trying to clean the slate." Cardin said simply. "So you guys going to help me not or what?"
Dove and Sky exchanged a glance, as if having a conversation amongst themselves. Both sighed and resigned their reservations. "Sure, we'll help Cardin." Dove stated.
"Great." Cardin smiled victoriously.
"I think she works at the school newspaper." Sky said as he rummaged through the stacks of books and pulling out his morning paper. He flipped through The Shining Beacon, eventually coming upon a page with Velvet's name labeled under an editor's position. "If anything she might be there at the newspaper right now working. We could ambush her there, you apologize, then we go back to our business as usual."
"Alright, seems straightforward enough." Cardin nodded in agreement, liking the sound of the plan.
"Any of you know where the newspaper's at?" Dove asked.
And then it was at that moment, both Cardin and Sky realized they didn't know either. Both Team CRDL members cursed. "No, it's okay we'll just ask someone." Sky suggested. The halberd sporting member of Team CRDL turned to the Librarian, about to ask her a question, only for her to flip him the bird and run off.
After that, the trio made their way around the library, asking everyone they could about the whereabouts of the Shining Beacon's base of operations. With no luck, the three young men began their search outwards, they were bound to run into someone who knew eventually.
"Hey, Danny!" Cardin called out to the leader of Team DNCE.
Danny Matchstick was an odd fellow whom Cardin was for the most part on good terms with. While it was another story on its own when it came to his team, there seemed to be some sort of built in animosity between them and Russel. But Danny didn't seem like he was one to hold a grudge.
The Leader of Team DNCE turned to face Cardin, his baggy eyes taking in his appearance. "Hello Cardin. Pleasant day isn't it?" Danny asked in a calm neutral tone. Cardin wouldn't discount the possibility of Danny being an addict, nobody could be that Zen unless they had some help.
"I'm looking for the newspaper's office. Any chance you can point me in the right direction?" Cardin asked as he caught up to Danny.
"Last I checked, the newspaper operates out of one of the offices in the Arcady Building." Danny said, struggling slightly to recall the location of the newspaper. "I think its Room 106. But I could be mistaken."
"But it's in the Arcady Building, though, right?"
"That it is." Danny nodded.
"Thanks Danny." Cardin waved goodbye before running off to the other side of campus where the Arcady Building was located.
"Stay cool, you guys." Danny tucked his hands into his pockets and just watched Cardin and the rest of Team CRDL minus Russel ran off.
When they reached the Arcady Building, the trio of Team CRDL members looked the building bottom to top in search of where the newspaper was operating out of. When their search appeared to be fruitless, the members of Team CRDL set their sights on the last room in the building. And wouldn't you know it, there was a tiny sign with the words 'Shining Beacon' on the door.
The trio of huntsmen in training were about to enter the room, just a mere step through the doorway away. Until they found Yatsushi's hulking frame in the way. The trio backed up away from the door as the members of Team CFVY minus Velvet stepped out of the room, acting like bouncers.
"We knew you'd try to pull something else today." Yatsushi's low voice boomed.
"You're going to stop harassing Velvet if you know what's good for you." Fox directed at Cardin, but those around him found the blind Team CFVY member pointing off to the side in nowhere in particular.
"Fox, forty degrees to the left." Yatsushi whispered to his teammate.
The blind Fox did as he was told, thanking his friend as he readjusted his stance to point directly at Cardin. "Like I said. You're going to stop harassing Velvet or else."
"Look, guys, I just want to apologize." Cardin pleaded his case.
"A jackass like you would never apologize." Coco tilted her sunglasses, looking at Cardin disbelievingly.
"Is it really that difficult for any of you to believe that I'm just trying to do something nice?" Cardin said.
"Yes." The members of Team CFVY and even Sky and Dove said in unison.
Cardin just glared at his teammates. "You guys aren't helping."
"I'm supposed to be doing research." Sky sighed.
"You interrupted my binge watching." Dove remarked, folding his arms over his chest.
"Look, I'm going in there and I'm going to apologize." Cardin said before taking a step forward. In response, Coco whipped out her minigun and shot the floor in front of him, causing Cardin to stop in his tracks.
"No, you're not." Coco insisted as Fox and Yatsushi drew their own weapons.
"You guys got my back?" Cardin asked addressed his teammates as he remained locked in a stare down with Coco.
"We didn't bring our weapons Cardin." An irritated Sky grumbled.
"Do you guys trust me?" Cardin glanced at his teammates out of the corner of his eyes.
Before either Sky or Dove could respond, Cardin reached out and grabbed them by the collar of their shirts. Raising his subordinates in the air, outstretched in front of himself, Cardin began to run forward.
Coco and Yatsushi just watched wide eyed as Cardin came barreling at them, intent on pushing through them. Fox was left wondering at what kind of crazy idea Cardin had pulled to shut up his teammates. Activating his aura seeing semblance, Fox was shocked to discover a large amount of it rushing towards him.
"What the hell is that?" Fox asked aloud before getting trampled by Cardin.
"Take him down!" Coco shouted before laying into Team CRDL with her minigun.
A wave of bullet fire struck Dove and Sky, whom Cardin used as human shields. Their auras were doing a great job a keeping them, well, not dead, but Cardin could see Coco's actions would eventually break them.
So Cardin shifted positions, lifting Sky over his head and having Dove take the brunt of the oncoming hail of bullets.
"What hell man?!" Dove shouted in agony. It felt lake falling face first through concrete flooring.
"Sky get ready!" Cardin shouted as he kept charging Coco's position.
"Wait what?!" Sky exclaimed before Cardin lobbed him over the stream of bullets. Sky yelled for help as he found himself flying at Coco.
The Tam CFVY leader's eyes widened behind her sunglasses at the sight of a flailing Sky came flying at her. Sky connected, slamming into Coco, sending her and himself skidding across the tiled floors of the hallway.
"Coco!" Yatsushi shouted, reaching out for his fallen leader. But Yatsushi had much more pressing matters to deal with than his leader's health. Cardin was rushing him and he was the only thing standing between himself and Velvet. Yatsushi raised his blade, ready for anything.
"Ready Dove?" Cardin shouted as he began to man handle Dove like a sword.
"Ugh…" Dove cried.
As Cardin and Dove ran into striking distance, Yatsushi reeled back his mighty sword and swung. Before making contact, Cardin drew back Dove and took the full brunt of the strike. But despite this, Cardin kept on going and threw Dove at Yatsushi.
"Cling onto him Dove!" Sky shouted from where he lay onto of Coco. His current position giving the CFVY leader a nice shot of his rear and the form fitting fabric the clung to it.
"I don't want you to take this wrong, Sky, but you have a nice ass." Coco smirked deviously as she continued to stare at his butt. "Thank goodness I have a photographic memory."
With Yatsushi distracted by the youngest member of Team CRDL, who now clung to him like a frightened cat, all of Team CFVY was now out of Cardin's hair. So the tallest member of Team CRDL kept on running until he breached the threshold of office.
Velvet looked up from behind her computer in surprise, finding Cardin standing in front of her, fumbling over his words. "Uh, hi Velvet." He waved.
"Uh, hi Cardin." Velvet waved back as she quickly saved the document she was working on before exiting out of it.
"I just wanted to apologize." Cardin said, speaking from the heart. No games, this was him just being as truthful as anyone could be. "I'm sorry for everything I did. I know I don't deserve forgiveness or anything like that. But I'd just like you to know that I'm sorry. What I did was wrong. And I regret it. I do."
"We're also sorry!" Dove shouted from outside the room as Yatsushi did his best to remove the younger boy from his person. The Team CFVY giant was soon successful and slammed Dove onto the floor. "Ouch…"
"I'm not going to accept you apology." Deep down Velvet managed to find it in herself to speak in the harsh manner she did now. "What you said to me was mean. Everything you did was just a representation of everything wrong with the world right now. All the bigotry, all the xenophobia. And I'm sorry Cardin, I am, but I can't accept your apology."
Cardin frowned, he'd truly been seeking redemption and Velvet had slammed the door in his face. "I think it would be best if you left." Velvet murmured sadly. Never before had she been humiliated the way Cardin had done to her. Maybe this was poetic justice and she should be smiling just like he had. But Velvet wasn't smiling, she was frowning.
Cardin's head hanged low in defeat. He then walked out the way he came in, both his bruised teammates and Team CFVY looking on with looks of sympathy. The CRDL leader then approached his fallen comrades, picking them up off the ground one at a time.
"Sorry about using you guys as human shields." Cardin apologized as he helped Sky and Dove up.
"Eh, don't sweat it." Sky playfully hit his leader's arm.
"Yeah, we deserved it anyways." Dove shrugged as the remnants of his aura got to work nursing his bruises. "Leaving you to the Ursa was a dick move."
"Wanna head back to the dorm? I think I've got some yogurt cups left in the mini fridge." Sky suggested as the trio began to leave Arcady Hall.
Dove just averted his head and whistled guiltily. "I wonder what Russel's up to." He said, hoping to change the topic.
"Yeah, where is Russel?" Sky wondered aloud.
And then the trio walked off into the afternoon, completely unaware that their teammate was currently bound to a chair and gagged, buried under several layers of clothing and locked in a confined space.
"I'm sure he'll turn up eventually." Cardin shrugged.
I hope you all caught the parallels between Cardin and Russel's plights. I've gone to great lengths to make it that way.
The idea of Velvet working for the school newspaper originated after her weapon was revealed in Volume 3. It just seemed like a good fit, and give her a reason to be seen with it walking around, so no one would suspect she's actually taking photos of people's butts. Oh we all know that's what was going on. It may have seemed like she was taking photos of Sun's weapons. But she was taking a photo of his butt. I'm pretty sure she has a scrapbook somewhere.
In this chapter I also tied up that loose end of Cardin getting over Sky and Dove abandoning him. They just carried on like nothing happened, but they're willing to go through hell to make things right. And I hope that speaks volumes of the Team dynamic. Each member has their own thing going on, but they're a team and they'll gladly stick their necks out for the other.
I also just wanted to write a situation where Cardin was forced to use his team as human shields.
Next time, we'll conclude the little adventure Russel has gotten himself into. 'Til then, later days!