Hey there everyone, welcome back to another chapter of The Darkling Thrush!

This one's coming in a bit later than I wanted. For the most part I want to be able to get a chapter in at least once a week. Given my new schedule, I'm doing my best to make that work. Again, I'm doing my best.

As always I'd like to thank those who left a review last chapter. Thank you Baoh joestar, Ussop, Nordlending, jin0uga, Drake187, noone297 and Nemesis the Asshole (Huh. I'm surprised you got away with that name. Nice job.) Thank you all for taking the time to leave a comment and share with me your thoughts. I can't stress, I mean it, I can't stress enough how much it means to me just to know people give a damn. So thank you, thank you for your support.

With that said, I hope this chapter is entertaining at least. We get into some dark subject matter ahead. So Warning ahead.

XXXIII

Nebula: Part 3

It had suddenly occurred to Nebula that it had taken him longer to see the inside of Shade Tower, the pinnacle center where the Headmistress of the very academy she attended dwelled. The monument of human achievement was a sight to behold, but the view was something else entirely. Of course, she'd expected to grace Headmistress Wytcherly's office under more pleasant circumstances.

High above looking over the rest of campus and the far off capitol of Vacuo, with her back facing her desk, the gray haired Headmistress sat with contemplative look on her face. From where Nebula sat, the Violette could see the Headmistress' reflection in the glass. There was a tug of fear around her heart, causing it to skip a beat at the sight of Wytcherly smirking to herself. She'd attended Shade for over a semester and never once had she nor any of her peers seen the woman so much as smile.

The exact reason behind Nebula's appearance in Wythcerly's office wasn't much of a surprise. Since attending Shade she'd sort of built up a reputation for her actions. They called her a comet these days, a satellite that passed by trouble and would find herself in the middle of it.

Just this morning, that boy Talal Cuvier, the first faunus in history to attend Shade, found himself in the middle of another altercation. It didn't surprise anyone in the slightest how often such things occurred. His very presence caused even the mildest mannered Councilman Vermillion supporter to throw a hissy fit.

Some guys from Team PSYK jumped Talal outside the dormitories when he was alone. It just so happened Nebula was coming back from her morning jog around campus. Despite the cuts and bruises Nebula sustained, it was the other guys who needed to visit the infirmary. They must've been sore losers, because not an hour later after Nebula had showered and prepared to go to breakfast, campus security arrived to escort her to where she sat now.

And so the grandfather clock in the corner ticked and tocked as the hands turned, round and round. Nebula couldn't help but fidget in her seat, feeling slightly intimidated. After all, Wythcerly could just eject her without a second thought. Finally, after minutes of sitting with her back facing Nebula, Wytcherly's chair spun around.

"Ms. Violette, just what am I going to do with you?" The Headmistress asked aloud in a rhetorical manner. "Assaulting your fellow students? Is this some sort of game to you, are you trying to get expelled?"

"They were attacking a fellow student. I acted as I saw fit."

"You aided a faunus in his time of need?"

"I don't like thinking about a person like that, ma'am."

"Your Grandfather would say differently." Headmistress Wytcherly remarked.

"I'm not my Grandfather, Headmistress." Nebula stated firmly.

"Yes, you lack his repulsive ego." Wytcherly quipped. It was on Nebula's second day at Shade when the woman had revealed she'd known her grandfather. The specifics of their association had since remained clouded in mystery, but Nebula had pieced a few things together giving her a general idea. One that she immediately began to repress. "You're a good student, Ms. Violette. I've read your transcripts, viewed recordings of your sparring sessions in Professor Kashmir's combat class. You have a promising career as a Huntress ahead of you. That is, if you keep your head down and quit getting into these pointless squabbles."

"But they're victimizing Talal." The Violette protested.

But the Headmistress of Shade held up a hand, silencing Nebula. "Your concerns are warranted, but I see I must remind you why you're all here. Talal, like the rest of your peers, is just as capable a huntsman as yourself. He can handle himself."

"You're letting this happen, aren't you?" Nebula's eyes narrowed. "You're encouraging it."

"Vacuo isn't as great a country as we claim it to be." Wytcherly leaned back in her seat and sighed. "As you've no doubt noticed, there's a sense of division amongst its people. Shade Academy is no different. It's time for a shake up in the status quo. Change is in the air. But sadly, a mountain is not carved out in a day, Ms. Violette. We're moving forward one step at a time."

"You're talking about a person, Headmistress."

"I'm talking about the future. Both Vacuo's and your own." "Like I said earlier, you're a good student, one of my better ones in fact. I won't have you put your future here on the line over something stupid. No more of these ridiculous fights, am I understood?"

Nebula reluctantly nodded. "Crystal clear, Headmistress. Are we finished?"

"I've said my piece. You're free to go." Wytchery said before gesturing to the open doorway.

And then Nebula left, down the elevator she went and the off to the dining hall for some long overdue breakfast. What a way to kick off your Sunday. Get into a fight, if you can even call it that. She got to sit down inside of Shade Tower and really got to know the Headmistress of the school. Real exciting stuff, Nebula thought to herself sarcastically.

"You're still here?" A voice called out to her in a condescending tone. Nebula just glanced over her shoulder, spotting the source of such mind-numbing blabber.

Panini Delso the leader of Team PSYK. She had long brown hair tied into a braid, a tan complexion and amber eyes. She was dressed in a form fitting white top, it showed off her curves leaving nothing to imagination. She also wore khaki cargo pants with extra padding, especially around the knees.

Nebula wasn't surprised to find Panini already gunning for her. She did after all put two of her teammates in the infirmary. To think there would be no repercussions for her actions was foolish, this was a combat school, they all practically lived for conflict, even if they wouldn't admit it.

"Was there any doubt?" Nebula questioned haughtily, turning to face the approaching Panini fully. She crossed her arms over her chest and smirked in a victorious manner. "But enough about me, how're you Panini? Still getting down on your hands and knees?" Nebula said before giving a nod at Panini's knee pads. "Scrubbing those floors all the time must be tiresome." Her smirk grew.

"At least I have a sex life." Panini retorted in a dry contentious manner. "Then again, maybe you do too. You seem to be quite fond of that faunus boy, Nebula." She countered.

Nebula shrugged off the PSYK Leader's attempt at belittling her. "If that's how you want to play it, Panini. I must say, the near twenty four seven attention the whole merry lot of you, Team DORK and even Team FECH, must be the most sexually frustrated lot on campus then." She said, hold her smirk even and meeting Panini's chilling glare.

"You think the issue is that we're bullying that goat fucker? Victimizing him? You're so narrow minded Nebula. As were your grandfather and his father before him." Panini shook her head, noticeably becoming angrier as her attempts to pick Nebula apart fell flat against the Violette. "Shade Academy has been human only since its creation nearly a century ago. And then all of a sudden we're letting the mongrels have free reign of anything? You give them an inch then the next thing they'll want is to climb out of their ghettos and shit where we eat."

"You romanticize a misconception." Nebula said disapprovingly as their argument evolved from Talal to faunus as a whole. "Don't you even once think that it's wrong? What you're doing is terrible."

"The moment you give them an inch, they take a mile." Panini uttered angrily intense as she arched forward once more. "You need to remind them of their place."

"You say that as if they're less than human."

"But they are." Panini took a step forward until she was now mere inches away from her. Nebula herself remained calm while the amber eyed girl blood boiled beneath her skin. "Get it through your head, Nebula. We let it stand that this guy can run wild, any other mangy mutt can come along."

"Perhaps like the other students who arrived at initiation, but who did not make it back before dawn?" Nebula remarked calculatedly. There was a fault in Panini's angered expression, reminded of the so called 'mangy mutt's accomplishments over so many other capable humans. "Talal earned his place like you and I. The very same, as you and I, in fact. He is the leader of his team, correct?" Nebula couldn't help but laugh. "Doesn't seem less than human to me."

And so Nebula turned her back to the amber eyed girl and laughed her way into the dining hall as Panini looked on, he eyes daggers aimed at the Violette's back. Stepping inside, Nebula found got herself a spot in line and had her pick. She grabbed a plate and filled it with some French toast with a side of bacon and eggs. With that done, Nebula made her way to the nearby coffee and poured herself a mug before setting off to track down her team.

Ever since initiation, it had taken the four girls some time to get used to the other. Before friendship could be established, they quartet had to meet each other at some sort of common ground. It seemed impossible at first, with Octavia's hot headed nature and Dew's passive aggressive comments, but they made it work. It was either make friends or start tearing each other's heads off.

It was Gwen who managed to smooth things over. She'd come up with the idea of the four of them taking the day off and heading into town. The day out had been spent at the local air conditioned mall, just hanging out, window shopping and grabbing a bite to eat. It was simple yet effective as whatever tension was there between them was gone when they came back.

Nebula crossed through a sea of colorfully dressed students. It was Sunday, not a lot of people had classes. No one wore uniforms, it was a day they all could just lighten up, and you could wear whatever you wanted. Eventually, the NDGO leader caught sight of her team seated at their usual spot at the very heart of the dining hall.

The Violette was welcomed with a round of 'good mornings' and sighs of reliefs. It was only natural, after she'd been hauled away by campus security, her team was left in the dark about her fate. Seeing her casually walk up to she did had the questions piling up before Nebula could even sit down.

"What happened? What happened?" Gwen blurted out like an excited child. "One moment you're getting back from your jog next the feds are kicking down the door and dragging you away!"

"I never took you for a rule breaker, Neb." Octavia smirked wickedly.

"How's the inside of Shade Tower by the way? Does Wytcherly decorate her office with the heads of rowdy students or with animals?" Dew inquired.

"Nothing too serious, just a slap on the wrist, nothing major." Nebula said, in effect, downplaying the seriousness of her conversation with the Headmistress. "Got into another scrape. Wytcherly just doesn't want me wasting my talents is all." She shrugged before getting to work cutting up her plate of French toast. "We got any syrup?" Nebula looked to her teammates, having forgotten to grab a packet while she was up getting food.

The trio looked around to their own half-finished plates thinking maybe one of them would've brought an extra packet along with them. But sadly, their search proved fruitless. With a sigh, Nebula resigned herself to the long walk back through the sea of students back to the counter for a measly packet of syrup. But before she could, Dew raised a hand and gently placed it on Nebula's shoulder and silently told her partner she'd handle it.

Nebula sat in silence as she waited for Dew to get up and retrieve her the final ingredient to her breakfast, but her partner remained in her seat beside her, making no attempt to get up. The Violette raised a brow and was about to simply walk up on her own, not in the mood for one of Dew's games, but then her partner shot to her feet, having caught the eye of a passerby.

The NDGO leader frowned at Dew's actions, as did Octavia and so did Gwen. To say the least, Dew was a people person. Call it her semblance, call it magic, but there was a siren quality to her voice whenever she wanted. Often she'd use this ability of hers to catch the attention of the occasional peer and somehow she'd talk them into doing

"Hey Roy, you got any syrup on you?" Dew asked as she flagged down Roy Stallion of Team BRNZ.

"Uh…no?" Roy glanced at his plate and then back to Dew. "Would you like me to get you one, Dew?" He asked a little anxiously.

"If you could, please." Dew said sweetly before Roy ran off to fulfil her request. Nebula found Roy to be a nice enough boy, he never caused trouble, seemed a little too into his programs, but overall she found had nothing against the man. So least to say, Nebula had some issue with Dew's usage of him. But it had only been recent since they'd actually gotten along, so Nebula made nothing of it, nor did she intend to.

Nebula remained silent as Roy returned from the front of the dining hall and handed Dew the syrup as if to earn her favor. Dew simply patted the boy on the top of his head before shooing him away. The siren girl with an affinity for wind styled dust turned to her partner and gingerly placed the packet beside her. Nebula accepted it, knowing the great deal of effort that had gone towards acquiring it and thanked Dew, and in part also thanked Roy. She then sprinkled the contents of the packet over her plate and dug in.

Over the course of their breakfast, Team NDGO engaged in conversation relating to current events. They discussed the upcoming school dance in honor of the eighty years spent in relative peace with the rest of the other kingdoms. There was talk of companionship to said dances, with Dew mentioning the number of suitors she herself was fending off. Octavia scoffed at the idea and rebelled at the idea of conforming to such interpretations of social courting. If she were going to be going with anyone, she'd be the one asking, not a boy.

Gwen was a different story. More or less the kid of the team, in terms of how she acted and her naïve view of the world, all the dancer could do was gush and stare whenever a halfway decent looking guy walked by. So, unless some guy had the balls to ask her, everyone knew she'd be going alone. Then the conversation drifted towards Nebula, but the Violette shrugged, not really finding anything or anyone to get excited over.

A little after, their discussion turned to more adventurous horizons. They'd be going out on their first official mission as Huntresses in training. It was no secret that first year students got the equivalent of a milk run, shadowing a more experienced Huntsman. But still, it was their first step towards the real deal, being huntresses. What there not to be excited for?

There was talk about them fighting Grimm while patrolling the border between Vacuo and Vale. All sorts of nasties were prone to wander out of their forests and into Vacuo's dunes. It would be their pleasure, showing Vale how to properly handle the enemy of humanity. But then again, maybe they'd get something cozier, near the highlands or possibly something in an urban setting. All Nebula and the others could really do was speculate, there would be no official notice until the day of. All they really could do was dream.

After their first mission, they'd be put on notice, given a month to prepare for the main event of the year. Nebula couldn't help but smile to herself as they began to talk about the upcoming Vytal Festival. It was only a week ago when Nebula had submitted her team's entry form. In less than two months they'd be in Vale, showing the world what Team NDGO and Vacuo as a whole was capable of.

And most importantly, Nebula would be showing the world what she was made of. It went unsaid at this point, as it had become too repetitive of a topic, about Nebula's name and the burden that came with it. How it was her great grandfather who essentially let the Great War end in stalemate. Taking home a victory for Vacuo wasn't her only goal for this year's Vytal Tournament, but also to remove the stain on her family's name.

So Nebula turned to her teammates, fires in her eyes. She looked to them as they'd lost themselves to conversation about all the new faces they'd see, the people they'd fight and the welcome change of scenery. They'd be traveling to Vale of all places, the country that had halted a Vacuo victory. And it would be in their very own capitol where Nebula intended to reclaim her family's honor. Just adding more reason for her to want to win.

After breakfast, Nebula and her team went their separate ways. They all had private matters to attend to. Dew was heading down to the science lab, working on a new dust crystal isotope. Octavia was heading into town, something to do with some guy named 'Kevin' specializing in fake I.D.s. And Gwen had run off to the gym.

Nebula herself had nothing really major to do. It was Sunday, classes were pretty much cancelled for firs years due to preparations for the upcoming dance and missions, and she had nothing better to do. So, Nebula resigned herself to what she always did on her off hours and headed down to the shooting range.

She headed down to the locker room and fetched her crossbow and made her way down to the range. It was quieter than you'd expect down there. Not from the lack of students practicing and tuning their aim, but it was quiet in the sense of the weapons they all used. Nebula used a crossbow, not a lot of bang. The other regulars whom Nebula waved at as she entered the range also didn't have the loudest of weapons. May Zedong of Team BRNZ was really the only one who made any real noise. And with reason too. She went through forty of those self-rebuilding dummies a day. Because they could never rebuild themselves fast enough so she had to go down range and physically replace them.

May herself was quiet. Nebula had rarely heard the beanie wearing girl utter any long winded sentences, just the occasional comment about her sights and the once in a while acknowledgement when Nebula would take the time to aid her in replacing those heavy dummies.

Nebula stood in silence, tuning her aim and sending a plethora of arrows down range. She liked the crossbow, not because of the aesthetic, but because she could always reuse ammunition. Dust shells were nice, they had the right amount of kick to them as did dust coated knives and blades, but the darn things always blew up and you couldn't recycle.

You shoot an arrow into a guy and the damn things sticking out of them. You kill a Grimm it fades away, leaving the arrows sitting there to be reclaimed for later use. It all worked out in Nebula's opinion, she thought as she took the head off a dummy with a well-aimed shot. She could help but smirk to herself. If her aim was always that good, then winning the Vytal Tournament seemed that much more plausible.

Hours of honing her skills passed before Nebula decided to call it quits. She was honestly surprised to find the hour was half past four. Time flies when you're giving it your all, she mused as she departed the firing range. Nebula shouldered her crossbow as well as the arrows she'd been too lazy to place back into their respective magazines. She made her way back to the locker room and dropped them off before heading back to the dormitory.

By then Nebula was making lists in her head, deciding what else she'd do. If she found any of her team lounging around in their dorm she'd be sure to drag them off in search of dinner or at least a late lunch. If not, she could always go by herself.

But on the way back to the dormitory, something caught Nebula's eye. There number of uniformed men standing guard outside, keeping a number of students from entering the building. They weren't campus security, but in fact honest to god police, no doubt from the capitol.

Finding the sight strange, Nebula joined the crowd, eventually pushing her way to the front. Seeking answers, Nebula caught a policeman's attention and questioned him about his presence here on campus.

The policeman, who wasn't old but not young either, frowned at Nebula's queries. "Incident, ma'am. It'll be handled shortly." He said in a tired tone. The guy probably answered the very same questions earlier once or twice, probably more.

"Yeah, but what's the incident?" Nebula asked, not really wanting to bother the policeman, but just to get some answers.

"It's a rather complicated matter, miss." The policeman said before glancing over to the dormitory opening. As if to answer Nebula's question, a pair of EMTs came walking out of the building with a stretcher and a covered body on it. The policeman turned back around to face Nebula and met her eyes. "Some poor faunus killed himself."

Nebula's eyes opened wide at the policeman's words. Her first instinct was to blurt out something obnoxious like exclaim the word 'what' loudly and in the policeman's ear. But she didn't, rather, Nebula quickly ran off to follow up on the policeman's claims. There was no way Talal had killed himself, she'd just seen him earlier and he was fine. Just a couple of bruises, but nothing major.

It seems that Nebula was not the only one to have such thoughts, as Nolan found himself drawn out of the crowd seeking answers as well. The pink eyed boy quickly ran up to the EMTs and before they could react, Nolan pulled off the sheet covering the body, revealing the antler headed face of Talal.

"Holy shit." Nebula gasped at the sight. Talal's eyes were still open and staring up at Nolan, who stood stunned unable to stop himself from staring back.

"God damn. The fucker offed himself." Nolan muttered wide eyed before some officer ran up and grabbed him by the arm before pulling him away. The EMTs then quickly threw the cover back over Talal and then made continued on their way.

Shade Academy was built on a plateau, you were not getting a car let alone an ambulance up onto campus. The only way to transport anything in or out was via airship. And it was a long walk from the dormitory to the tarmac. So essentially, the EMTs, even if they weren't aware of it, were parading Talal's body all across the school for everyone to see.

And Nebula could only look on in horror. She could hear Panini's contentious hate filled laughter in the background. She could hear them all talking about the faunus boy and how he just couldn't handle the pressure, not like them humans could.

Slowly, Nebula regained some of her senses and she spared a glance towards Shade Tower. She wasn't at all surprised to find Headmistress Wytcherly standing by the window looking down at the display, a deep moarningful frown on her face.

All Nebula wanted to do was grab Panini or Nolan or any of Talal's attackers and she wanted to throttle them for what their actions had led to. But the Violette just stood there in silence, turning her attention back to the EMTs, watching as they carted his body away.

Yeah, so...that happened.

I actually had three different drafts for the ending. I think, in a way, this is the darkest of the four. Not because its overt but because of how quiet it is. Fun fact, Talal Cuvier, his last name alongside those of his team are based on Pre-Evolutionists, such as Georges Cuvier who came up with Catastrophism.

You know, I find it a little odd, writing a character named Nolan who's an absolute fucker of a person. I've written a character named that for just about five years. And it's just weird.

Next chapter should be out in the next seven days. I'm hoping to get it out quicker this time around. 'Til then, later days!