Boop. Here's chapter 63 after quite a slow writing process, mainly due to IRL stuff. Nothing special to say here, really.

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 63: Dawn of Silence

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October 18th

Friday (Same night)

Clear

The drive back was in utter silence, escaping what would be labeled as a crime scene. Azura felt as though his head would split open from the incessant ringing in his ear, if the throbbing bruises didn't make him topple over first. If this is what it felt like to get hit with a bag of bricks without aura, he didn't want to imagine what could have happened if he was jumped by more than Shade and his bodyguard.

How had that bodyguard even known to be there? Or had there been some way for them to know that he was springing the trap?

The questions certainly didn't help the headache.

A hand touched him and shook him out of his head, turning to see Avis looking at him cautiously.

"I called your name three times. We'll have to check that out before I can clear you to return." She said, shaking her head. "Though, I don't doubt that Croc will be waiting to see that your health is prioritized."

"Huh?"

"She doesn't like seeing people under her guidance get hurt, much less a kid." Avis explained, muttering something under her breath that Azura had to strain to hear. "Doesn't help that she's taken a liking to you…reminds me of when she first met me."

A moment of silence, ringing aside, falls upon them before Avis shakes her head and looks at him again.

"Come on, let's get you inside. You'll need a medical check-up."

A cold, slick, yet also warm feeling touched his own hand, causing him to grow more alert and finally speak.

"You're hurt too."

The words were simple, the tone he spoke with being rather matter-of-fact. For whatever reason, the older woman before him laughs lightly.

"Never said I didn't need one as well. The wound is superficial, so there shouldn't be any problem, but I appreciate the concern."

She pauses, falling silent as they exit the vehicle. Shade was already being carried inside, unable to do much of anything while tied up, gagged, and also unconscious. Hood was also nowhere to be seen, meaning that he was likely leading them all inside to put Shade in a secure place, for the safety of all. Luna floated by slowly, inspecting Azura carefully before slowly pulling ahead.

The last two to go through the gate, the Faunus man at the door nodded seriously before closing it behind them. His hand was on his weapon, a veil of tension within the air, but it was not drawn. After passing through the gate, they entered the building proper, where someone was moving out and past them to the man outside while Croc could easily be seen rocking on her feet before finally seeing Azura and Avis.

She broke into a breakneck walking speed right up to them, eyeing both of them and turning to Avis first to speak to her.

"You're hurt."

"A very intuitive answer." Avis replies, a wry smile coming on her face. "Trust me, it looks worse than it is."

"And you…" Croc continued turning to Azura with a pointed finger. "You're safe?"

He nodded, though words failed to come to his mouth, forcing Avis to speak in his stead.

"Pretty sure he had a gun fired next to his head. Probably going to suffer from some form of hearing loss, depending on how much his aura protected his ear drums."

Croc frowns at the news, looking him up and down again before gripping his arms with her hands. She remained like that for some seconds, her swampy yellow-green eyes looking into his own.

"Did…no, I'll talk to you about it later. Not here." She stepped back, taking a moment to compose herself. "I'm glad you're both okay. That everyone is okay."

And yet, a spark of guilt laid within her eyes. For the stunned and exhausted state that Azura was in, even he could see it. But, before it could even be mentioned, Avis nodded and nudged him in a direction to follow him.

"We'll discuss how it went after Azura and I get checked out. He'll probably be here for the night."

"Of course. Is he…"

"Secure and in the process of being contained. We'll make him talk. We have to, no matter how dirty it feels."

Croc nods again, her posture shifting to a stiffer hunch of her shoulders. "You know where to find me."

"Right." Avis replies, then turns to Azura. "Come on, let's make sure you aren't in worse condition than it seems."

Though he walked with his own two feet, Azura could feel Luna lightly guiding his steps while gripping one of his shoulders while Summer remained alert in his mind. The familiar, if still drab and rundown, basement that the medical area of this place ran out of came into view as they took the steps down.

The next few minutes were a bit of blur, his mind drifting away within the ringing in his ear until it refocused by being shaken by Luna lightly as he sat himself on the makeshift medical bed. Avis was across from him, watching him with those sharp green eyes, as she sat on the bed next to him.

His brain was exhausted, as was his body, but he still had something on his mind. Something about Shade and how he spoke of Croc just didn't quite add up. He rubbed a hand down his face, helping him stay focused and awake just a tad better, trying his best to ignore the noise, then spoke to Avis.

"Hey, Avis…" He began, though he already had her attention. "Do Shade and Croc know each other?"

"Hm." She replies with a hum at first, thinking. "I presume he was saying some rather odd things?"

Azura nods slowly. "He seemed…bitter."

"As I suspected." Avis says, sighing. "I don't think now is the time to be having this discussion, much less with me." She smiles lightly then. "I'd ask Croc about it, but do it gently."

"Okay."

A woman comes up to them, a small set of antlers on her head and medical supplies in her hands. She hands some gauze and two bottles to Avis, who nods in thanks and then stands up. She moves over to Azura while the lady begins to place everything else in her arms on his bed, crouching down to make sure she could see his face.

"You did good today, Azura. Helped to fight off this encroaching problem. Don't forget that."

With those final words, she walked off. Despite the encouragement that she offered, Azura didn't miss how she quickened her pace as she left. Things were far from over, and he could only imagine what the information Shade likely had would unveil for them all.

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Croc was feeling antsy as she stewed away in her own room, running through events up until the earpiece lost all signal and was presumably crushed in her own head. Hood had come out completely untouched and Avis only had her cut, which she didn't seem to be worried about. So why did the one personally under her care in this mission have to be the most hurt?

"I shouldn't have sent him there alone." She muttered, looking through her tablet to sever any connection she had within the area. "Avis is much better equipped for fights. But she's also the more…"

She dared not even say the words, even if they were true. A surge of annoyance with herself bubbled up for even thinking about it. It isn't fair to place the lives of others into a category of importance, nor is it even morally was just as important as Avis.

She hated being logical to a fault. It made her feel cynical and sometimes vile.

Annoyance turned to anxiety with a knock on the door, stuffing her emotions away as she rationalized that it was likely just Avis wanting to debrief.

"Croc, I know you're in there." An amused voice came from the other side.

"Speaking of…" She whispered, wrapping her tail around her leg as she stood up and brought her tablet Scroll with her.

Opening up the door, she was greeted with none other than Avis Nightingale, the one person she expected. The taller woman scanned her, an eyebrow being raised as she spoke.

"You look like you came from an existential crisis."

She sighs in response. "That's not important right now."

"Follow me, then. Let's go to my office."

Croc exited her room, closing the door behind her and began following Avis as she moved down the hall and towards her office. Despite having near perfect walking, impairment aside, Croc saw that she was lagging behind Avis, though it wasn't due to anything she had. The woman seemed anxious to keep the momentum they had going.

Entering through the doors to Avis' office space and hearing the doors close behind her, Croc merely hugged her tablet to her chest in anticipation when she stood by the desk. Avis stepped towards the mirror within the room, shrugging her jacket off to the floor and partially lifted up her top to examine the cut that she received on her side. Letting the shirt drop, she began to deftly handle the supplies that had been given to her.

Their eyes met through the mirror, green to swampy yellow-green, prompting Avis to speak first.

"You seem distraught. We don't have to debrief tonight, I can just talk to Hood when he's done."

Croc licked her lips, swallowing her emotional distress to shake her head. "No, we can debrief. Tell me what happened on your side."

"Hm." She hummed. "As was planned, no one saw Azura move inside, not even me. We laid in wait for the pick-up to show up, but there was a change in plans when more than the expected amount came in. I couldn't risk Azura's safety any more than we were already, so I jumped in early when the noise of a gunshot went off and alerted all of them."

With everything prepared, she began to apply the gauze after placing the medicinal side of the supplies on the nightstand next to her.

"That coincides with when I lost contact with him." She said, her grip on her tablet tightening. "Shade could have potentially killed Azura on the spot, then."

The name was spit with a venom, feeling a mixture of emotions boiling up for it, which Avis ignored for the time being.

"You don't give the kid enough credit, Croc. I'm confident his aura was up the entire time, but aura only protects yourself, not anything on you beyond clothing. And that's just because it's on your body." Avis says, her tone conveying a message to be calm. "You were right to trust him."

"You trusted him first." She muttered, shaking her head a moment later. "But that's besides the point!"

"Croc." Avis replied sternly, though it wasn't in annoyance.

She froze, shutting her mouth. She beat herself up internally, not knowing why it was eating her up that she could have gotten Azura killed. It certainly wasn't the first time she sent people into danger.

Avis finished and tightened the bandages around herself, turning to face her as her shirt fell down. "You see yourself in him, don't you?"

Croc wanted to retort, but she knew there was some truth to it. So, she sighed instead and deflated slightly.

"It's not that I see myself in him exactly. But, I'm…" She pauses, feeling a hint of embarrassment crawl up her face. "I'm the only one around his age, and he seems so naive to the world around him."

"He's hopeful." Avis corrected. "We need hope nowadays." A tired smile crosses her face then. "But, I do otherwise agree. He seemed very willing to work under you, though. Perhaps…you'd like to have him under your wing?"

Croc was surprised to have the proposition given to her in the first place, and it clearly showed on her face as Avis continued speaking a moment later.

"There are some things that these old wings just can't teach anymore, but I can oversee it and guide him down a path he might find to be his own."

"I'll do it." She said confidently, shifting her shoulders and straightening herself out. "Thank you."

"The two of you could simply teach each other things. You're also a much better influence than his other companion ever could be." Avis says, coughing into her hand as she switches topics. "Back to the topic at hand, though. Hood, you can enter my room without eavesdropping, you know."

The door creaks open as Hood let himself in, nodding to Croc without any form of shame as he turns to Avis.

"We both know that I am not the most suited for such moments. I handed the work to my own allies in securing Shade and we'll begin as soon as he wakes up." He explains. "I believed that you would rather all three of us be here for the debriefing."

"Of course. I had just begun explaining what happened on the outside."

"I see. We had very little issue dispatching them, despite you jumping in so early into a group far out matching you in numbers."

"I will not regret my action. It bought him some very valuable time, and that led to us capturing our target in the first place."

Hood hummed in response, though the rather uncaring tone he did it with did flare Croc's temper temporarily. She wanted to say something, but stopped when Avis subtly raised her hand towards her to wordlessly say that she should stay calm.

"We aren't discussing this again, Hood. The generation after us will inherit the world, we should be preserving that young blood." Avis says, sighing. "Neither of you two are in the right mindset for this, we'll discuss it in the morning. You are both dismissed."

Hood, as always, was quick to merely bow and take his leave. That was one thing that, no matter how she felt, Croc respected him for. The ability to not place disagreements and arguments over leadership and fighting for the same cause was something that she wasn't sure she could replicate so readily.

"Something you wish to talk about…privately, Croc?"

"Uh…" She voiced, stuttering over herself momentarily before looking to the ground sheepishly. "No, it's nothing. Just…nothing."

"Just nothing?"

She feels the tip of her tail flick against her ankle in anticipation. "It's in regards to Shade…"

"Azura was certainly fed some breadcrumbs of information, lies or not. He asked if you knew Shade earlier."

A sickening taste sat at the bottom of her throat just at the idea.

"I know you two have…history. You both came to me together."

Their eyes meet once more as she raises her head. A silent conversation occurred, one where Croc found that she had to build her resolve.

"I'll talk to him about it." She swallowed hard, licking her lips as she felt her tail grip tighten. "When the time is right."

"It's best that you do, yes. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?"

Plenty, as always.

"No, ma'am."

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Mild hearing loss that'll heal down to whatever was less severe before remaining permanent, ringing in the ear that'll last for days or weeks, and headaches that would be born of that.

For all that aura did, Azura still wished it could do more as he looked at the sharp five AM on his scroll.

"At least you're not loopy enough to complain about it now. It means that your aura is working to the best of its ability to heal you."

Summer's joking tone did not undermine the serious response, reminding him of where exactly they were as he looked around the basement. It was slightly emptier than the last time he had found himself in there, but that didn't mean he could stay for so long. Not only could his bed possibly be needed by someone else, but he had to return to Beacon before dawn broke.

Standing up, Azura stretched and began to walk towards the stairs that led him to the rest of the building, nodding to the tireless medical people of the group. He appreciated all that they did, not just for him. Seeing his weapons resting against the wall, he picked them up and got them situated on his body before turning towards the stairs to take them up.

He saw Luna pause at the foot of the stairs, turning to him with a slight tilt of her head. As he reached her side, he saw Croc leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs. She looked exhausted, so he gave her a soft smile as he came up to meet her.

"You look exhausted." He started, looking at the tenseness in her body. "And stressed."

"You're alright."

It seemed like she didn't quite believe her own words.

"Of course I am." He says, shrugging. "Well, besides my body aching, that is."

His smile grows more confident, whereas a relieved one slowly crosses her face. She breathes out, looking at him before nodding to herself.

"We need to talk. It's important."

"About what?"

"About…" She pauses momentarily. "Avis gave the okay for me to do something with you. I need to speak with you about it before anything else."

"Now?" Azura asked, not that he minded.

"Yes, but not here. I know a spot, but it's a fair distance from here, for obvious reasons. And before you ask, yes, they'll be opened."

He could certainly carry her there using Summer's semblance, he figured. There was no clear way to explain that, though.

"You did bring Bumblebee here, Azura. It was safely with other vehicles used by the people here." Summer pointed out. "Did you get hit over the head a little too hard last night?"

"Okay. I can drive us there, you'll just have to give directions."

Her tired eyes lit up, pushing off the wall as she spoke. "That'd be perfect."

She already had her jacket on, though, which just told Azura that she had prepared for him to say yes. He was starting to think that she knew him too well for having only met some weeks ago, though he wouldn't tell her that.

Instead, they left in silence. Just as Summer had said, Bumblebee was indeed outside, tucked into a corner against the wall. Running his hand along it as he stepped up to it, he nodded to himself and kicked the stand up to roll it out onto the road, sitting on it and letting his leg carry the weight as he gestured for Croc to get on.

"You coming?"

She nods, sitting behind him and wrapping both arms and tail around his waist. It felt a lot rougher compared to when Luna did such a thing, Azura thought, but he quickly dismissed it in favor of turning Bumblebee on and hearing the engine purr with life before quieting down enough for him to turn back and look at Croc.

"Where's our destination?"

"It's a little tea shop, just outside the central streets. Just head towards the Amity festival stuff for now."

Azura nods, revving the engine before kicking off to start driving. The sound of the wind as it whipped through his hair almost drowned out any ringing he heard, bringing the same sense of peace as it always did, but with the added relief of a far less annoying noise in his ears.

While he couldn't race through the streets in favor of keeping them safe, their progress towards the center of the city was not impeded for several minutes before they began to see the other early risers either driving as well or walking along the sidewalk. Slowing down to a stop at a red light, Azura took a moment to gaze around him. The peace that settled over the street made it seem like he hadn't blown a hole in an abandoned building just some hours before last night.

Then the light turned green and the noise of cars accelerating entered his ears.

Without any directions, Azura continued to drive towards the festivities, though most of them wouldn't be active at all for at least a few more hours. The idea of driving through it when it was busy did not appeal to him, admittedly. After a minute of just peaceful and silent driving, Azura could feel Croc lean on him as they drove.

"Let's hope she doesn't fall asleep on us."

Summer's voice chirped in his head like an early bird in the dewy dawn, her voice full of early morning mirth.

"She's too tireless for that." He responded back.

The mental conversation fell silent, the only noise between them all being the purr of Bumblebee and the wind blowing through. There was a noticeable warmth on his back, keeping the early morning chill at bay as the already prepared festivities lining the streets began to take over. Once they stopped at a crossroads, He felt Croc pull back slightly to speak.

"Take the right here, then go down to the next intersection and go left. We're nearby, if I remember the maps of this place right."

"If you remember?"

"It's been a while since I could do this, okay?"

"Right, right." He replied, chuckling as the light turned green.

Following her directions, he would have missed their destination, despite driving slower, if Croc had not called for him to go to it.

"There, on the left."

They parked in front of it, right in a spot labeled for the small building before them. It looked like a cafe of sorts to him, a small sign hanging above the door entrance reading 'Heron's Wetlands.'

"Well…that's a unique cafe name. Not the weirdest place I've seen here, though."

His thoughts drifted briefly to that jewelry shop Ruby had shown him for Aurora before snapping back to reality as Croc spoke.

"He says that it attracts the best sort of customers. The owner, that is."

Azura raises an eyebrow as Luna laughs silently behind Croc, then he shakes his head and waves an arm for her to move forward.

"Then I'll leave you to the introductions."

Walking up to the door and knocking on it, Croc stepped back just behind Azura as they waited for the supposed owner to show up and let them in. There was a long moment before anything happened, the door opened wide and a man with long white hair and blue eyes opened the door with a wide smile.

"Why, if it isn't my favorite little data collector!" He said, his voice light and airy.

"I'm the only data collector you know, Peli." Croc replied dryly.

"Nonsense, nonsense. Come in, please." Peli says, laughing. "Ah, who is your friend here?"

"This is…" Croc begins, pausing for the briefest of moments before she quickly decided on her words. "He's called Fox."

"Ah, I see. It's good to see Croc actually come here with someone again."

"Again?" Summer voiced his mental question.

Croc stepped past the man silently, who watched her do so before turning back to him and shaking his head. He moved to the side, waving an arm to tell Azura to come in before moving away.

"I'll make the usual, then, for two this time. In fact, it's ready to go as of a few minutes ago. You know how business works nowadays." Peli says, clearly a man who liked talking. "You came here for privacy, correct?"

"Yes, please." Croc answered, seating herself at one of the raised tables and crossing her legs.

She wasn't particularly short, but there was certainly something about her in the raised chair that made him laugh momentarily as he moved to sit down in the other chair at the table opposite of her.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, I promise." He responds, smirking amusedly before returning to a calmer state. "You…want to talk."

He wasn't sure how else to approach the topic, but it was clear that she wasn't particularly sure how to start it either.

"I do."

She waited as Peli came in and placed down two mugs filled with two mugs of coffee that smelled of freshly roasted coffee beans and lightly toasted bagels with mostly melted butter on them.

"Thank you." Croc said softly, only getting a nod from the talkative man.

He exited the main cafe space again to presumably keep setting up for opening hours, while giving them the privacy that she had asked for. Azura, for his own part, merely moved the mug to be in his hands and ignored it and the food in favor of listening as he glanced at Luna, who had simply taken to sitting in the air cross-legged next to them.

Mimicking his actions, the young woman before him sighed and then looked at him curiously. She tapped her fingers on the mug for several moments before speaking again.

"Avis told me that you were asking about the whole thing behind Shade and I…" She begins, though she seemed more fixated on finding her words than wanting a yes or no. "He probably tried to tell you himself, didn't he?"

It took a few seconds for the memories of last night to kick in for him, but he did recall something of the sort occurring. Or, at the very least, had been about to occur.

"I think so. I remember that…he had been about to end his own life before I could capture him. I think he was about to tell me something before he would shoot himself, but he was stopped from that, obviously."

"I…see."

She sighs quietly, eyes hardening as she looks at Azura. He could see her almost bracing herself, as though whatever her next words were would change everything.

"Whatever he said, it's true. I am…his sister. Blood related and all."

It wasn't the most shocking revelation Azura has ever had happen to him, but it dawned on him what the stakes behind this entire situation were in that moment.

"Then, everything you said…why not tell me that?"

"Well, I did consider it, even if it is my own privacy." Croc admits, a rueful smile coming to her face. "But I know how you are with people, even Neo. You got into this situation because you wanted to help a psychopath escape the White Fang's influence, if you don't remember."

"You didn't think I'd risk fighting him if I knew he was your brother?" He asks. "But, were that the case, you seemed to believe in the possibility of him having a set up to get you killed."

"He probably has some twisted reason behind wanting my death, so I simply wouldn't put it past him."

Before Azura could protest any further, she raised an open palm briefly to quell him before talking once more.

"When we were young…just about six or seven, our mother died from being overworked at a SDC facility, not that I could even remember what it was specifically after so many years. Not that it mattered much, I guess…our father was not the nicest man you'd ever meet." She pauses, laughing tiredly. "Bastard of a father, I'll say."

There were several questions that Azura already wanted to ask, but he nodded silently to let her continue with her story.

Her eyes gaze down into her coffee, shaking her head before continuing. "I'm telling you this because…the White Fang changed alongside Shade. We joined them only a few years before everything about them, all the way down to their beliefs, changed. Our father just dropped us off with them, then vanished. Turned out he was killed by some no-name criminal who just wanted a Faunus dead."

"You were…basically orphaned."

"Yes. It made Shade angry ever since. Bitter, even." Croc explains, riding her finger along the edge of the mug. "He started to believe that there was no such thing as a good person…until he met Avis, at least. Saw her as some sort of bastion, though I thought he was crazy for saying such things."

"So…you two were essentially inscripted into the White Fang as orphans, then defected to join Avis. Why?"

"He wanted to follow her once a name was being made for herself, under the title of Mother Bird. So, we did." She answers, a melancholic look overcoming her face. "It wasn't long until he began to see me as some sort of rival once Avis built me into the role of her personal hacker. I was a tinkerer, and Avis wanted me to hone it for them. I became her right hand, so to say, and he very quickly fought to get that sort of attention."

She sighs again, actually drinking from her mug now.

"The closer I grew to her, the further I grew from him. I hadn't expected it to drive him back to the White Fang. Not to the degree of almost spilling vital information and threatening the life of dozens by placing you as bait." She bites her lip. "As though he was using you as a stab towards me, given our similar relationship to Avis."

Something about her words clicked with Azura at that moment, as if every puzzle piece fell together to paint a picture of Avis' desire to pull him to her group. It certainly showed on his face, as Croc waited for him to say the exact words she had been waiting for.

"You think that we're similar? And that he struck at me both for the opportunity it presented and to get back at you?"

"Precisely so." She confirms. "Which is why I, as well as Avis, want to…pair you up with me, so to speak."

"Like, as a duo?"

"Yes. It would be as simple as a team-up." She laughs lightly. "I think Avis just wants me to not do what I would have done after this situation."

Azura quietly drinks the coffee in his mug, watching her curiously. She quickly took it as a silent question, shrugging before speaking.

"I will admit to having been getting close to shutting down somewhat due to it all. The fear of everything I worked for being broken down, the anxiety of possibly losing my livelihood, the guilt of…pushing my brother to this extreme. Even if any love I harbor for him is just longing for the family I did know." She closes her eyes, breathing in and out. "Let this be my first lesson to you, Azura. It doesn't do well to let negativity eat away at you, lest you become nothing more than a shell simply existing."

"You become a juicy meal for a Grimm, at least." Azura muttered, smirking at his own joke.

Croc attempts to not laugh as a smile crosses her still closed eyes before bursting out in a delirious laughter, sounding very tired.

"That was the worst attempt to raise my spirits." She said between laughs. "I can't believe I actually found that funny."

"So it did raise your spirits?"

"Shut up, I'm tired." Was her weak retort.

Azura's bright smile remains, though his words turn to a more serious and soft tone.

"I look forward to working with you, then."

Croc's face raised to look at him, her swampy green hair framing the yellow-green coloration of her eyes as a hint of the morning sun peeks into them, lighting them up golden.

"That makes two of us, then."

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.(Chapter End)

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Don't worry, Neo has not been forgotten…

Have a great day/evening!