Ilia's back hit the wall of the bedroom in the lake house as Vin drove her back, his arm wrapped around her and hand supporting her back as he kissed her deeply, both of them lost in each other's embrace for the moment as Ilia's mind tried to wrap around how she'd gotten to the situation at hand. They'd been bowling as they often did on their nights off but at some point, Vin suggested that the two of them head back without Ivory or Rowan, or Yvonne who wasn't actually with them as she never was. After admiring the ocean for quite some time the two of them began kissing which had escalated quickly, stumbling through the house as Ilia's body rejected the turn of events. She attempted to welcome his touch, but as his lips graced her neck, the memories of her time in Mistral flashed back to her.

"You look amazing tonight," the voice hissed. The lake house had been replaced with a small sand hut, a large drunken man pressed against her, his breath suffocating her as he kept her pinned to the wall and she writhed in his grip. "Strakh said that I could have you all to myself." Ilia shoved him back, winding up and socking him in the jaw as he came back in. The scene blinked away from Ilia and she found herself out of breath with Vin standing several feet from her doctoring his nose which was bleeding. She looked down at her hands before staring back at him, his eyes glossed over with a glint of confusion as she trembled.

"Vin… I'm sorry…" She apologized, her voice catching. He chuckled under his breath, shaking his head as he wiped away the crimson stream flowing from his nose and rubbed his neck.

"Wanna try again?" Vin asked. Ilia watched him for a long moment with her eyes dancing in frantic panic, shaking her head as she made her way towards the kitchen. He grabbed her arm to stop her but her mind recalled yet another memory and she snatched her arm away in fear. She shook her head, rushing past him and out the door, slamming into Ivory who attempted to stop her and ask what happened but Ilia quickly grabbed her body, leaping out behind her as she ran down the beach towards the docks. Vin stepped out the door and watched her leave with the twins before Ivory marched over and strong-armed him.

"What did you do?" Ivory asked. Vin struggled against her grip before giving up and sighing.

"Nothing," he replied. "We were making out and she just attacked me in a fit of PTSD."

"Why don't I believe you?" she asked.

Why did it have to come back to her then? She wanted desperately to trust him, but the memories never left her and she wasn't sure that they ever would. The things that Strakh did to her, the things that he let them do to her, they stuck with her no matter what she did. She wiped the tears from her eyes, being embarrassed at what she'd done through the years was a rarity. She'd killed men for less, she'd been through worse, why were the memories causing her more pain than the actual experiences? She stumbled out towards the market district, deciding against going back to the dorm outright and instead pricing Dust that she was in need of that seemed to still be on the rise. News of an attack on the Dust mines in Atlas a few nights ago had reached them quickly and the vendors had once again jacked the value of Dust.

"Are they not expecting another shipment at the port later this week?" Ilia asked. The vendor rubbed his chin and then moved to the bridge of his nose.

"This week sure, but they expect that the SDC is going to shut down for a few days until the military can establish some kind of security at the mines," he replied. "I'll let you in on the fact that I've got the best prices in Vale, so take them or leave them, but this is the greatest deal that you'll get." Ilia scowled. Back in Mistral she would have just taken it and ran, but she couldn't revert back to her old criminal habits here. She had to be responsible.

"I'll take three canisters of the gravity Dust," Ilia groaned as she handed over the lien and took her items, shoving them into her satchel as she left the shop and took in a deep breath of the spring air. She should go back and apologize, her reaction was uncalled for and she was sure that he was probably confused about what exactly had gone down. Her scroll began ringing and she pulled it out, not recognizing the number as she brought it up to her ear and answered. "Hello?"

"Can I start by telling you that I am more than impressed with how easy it was for you to evade my men?" the voice asked before both ends of the line were filled with silence. A chill ran down Ilia's spine, the breath stolen from her lungs as she watched people pass by, but none of it had meaning. This was the voice of the man that had caused her years of pain. A man who she'd been running from for as long as she could remember, a man that she'd wanted to hide from for the rest of time since the incident. Strakh. "Normally, I'd say that they were really just some stupid thugs, make up some excuse that I let you get away because it would benefit both of us, but I sent a Hercules after you. Two, actually, and you took them down like you'd been training your entire life to do so."

"I'm surprised that you're the one that actually called me," Ilia replied with bite in her words. She gritted her teeth.

"You think that just because you're hiding at that school that I couldn't find you?" Strakh asked her. Her hands trembled, her mind silencing everything around her until someone bumped into her and she jumped, nearly attacking the young woman who threw her hands up in defense.

"Hey!" She yelled. Ilia looked into her eyes, seeing fear before running quickly towards the docks.

"You can't touch me at Beacon!" Ilia shouted.

"Do I need to?" Strakh asked her. "We're both in a kind of mutual agreement where neither of us outs the other, but now that I know where you are…" She stopped short of the docks as she spotted several members of the Vacuo Military force escorting a shipment of Dust. "How long will it be before you run away again? Can you run forever, or can you come back and accept your fate?"

"Fuck you," Ilia told him sternly as she weighed her options. What if they were with Strakh? She opted to watch them for a moment, steering clear as she prepared to sprint directly for the closest airship.

"I can have someone bring you back and then none of your friends will have to suffer," Strakh warned her. "You're only one girl, and I've acquired some more weapons while you were away."

"Shut up!" Ilia screamed as she threw her scroll against the pavement and took off running. She couldn't stop, he'd come for her now, he did every time. She reached the ship in a matter of seconds, controlling the body of the pilot and flying as quickly as the vehicle could for the school, ensuring that the airship was safely landed on the dock before tearing out of it for the dorms. She needed to leave as quickly as she could, and she knew that the rest of her team was finishing up a late evening training. She'd be able to get into the dorm and leave without being spotted, she couldn't linger any longer. She stopped as she threw the door open, looking the room over as she thought about what she'd have to do next.

It was for the best this way, that maniac wouldn't come in here and try to hurt them, he couldn't threaten her friends if she left… The word stopped her. Friends. Before coming to Beacon there wasn't a person in the entirety of Remnant who she could say with any confidence held that title, but now… Now she had to keep her teammates safe by taking the burden with her. She finished packing her bags, leaving the Dust on the bed with a note saying for them to split it evenly before she began her walk to the administrative office. She'd leave a note in Glynda's mailbox thanking her for the opportunity, but explaining that something personal came up and that she needed to leave before matters escalated any further.

Titus stood leaning against the main entrance to the building, arms folded as he watched her for a long moment before she noticed him, the two of them exchanging glances for a long moment until Titus smirked and she turned away flustered.

"You heading somewhere for a while?" Titus asked. "I know how lightly you pack Ilia, you've got a backpack there, you're probably set for months." Ilia stared at him, swallowing hard as she pushed forward and tried to move him out of the way. He refused to move, matching her movements and pushing her away. "Ilia, what's going on. I think we've been teammates for long enough that I know when something is going on."

"Why don't you go worry about yourself like you always do and stay out of my business," she exclaimed to him. Titus scooped her up, throwing her over his shoulder for a moment before she managed to jack his body, exiting behind him long enough to open the door but he grabbed her by the arm and tossed her away from the door. She stumbled, managing to stay on her feet, her face red and hot as she held back her tears.

"Where are you going, Ilia?" He demanded. "I was just finishing a call with Winter at the CCT when I saw you headed back from the cliff in quite the rush."

"Let me worry about it, it isn't your problem!" Ilia yelled at him.

"Time to swallow your own medicine!" He shouted back getting up in her face. "You're part of a team now, you don't get to have your own problems!"

"Only a hypocrite when it's convenient, huh?" Ilia asked with her arms folded.

"I could say the same about you with all that bull about sharing our feelings and whatnot," Titus complained. "Don't think I don't know what running away looks like."

"Why should I stay?" She asked Titus pushing him away.

"Where would you go?" Titus asked. Ilia hesitated. "You don't have anywhere to go, do you? You're an only child, aren't you? Not to mention you've told us before that your parents are dead." Ilia began walking away, throwing the note on the ground.

"I'm not staying!" Ilia told him. "You give it to Glynda for all I care!"

"You'll be safer here!" Neela called out causing Ilia to stop again as the girls joined Titus.

"You can't leave, you're our friend!" Eliana shouted. Ilia's fists balled up, turning back at them with tears streaming down her face.

"Dammit, just leave me alone!" Ilia yelled. Eliana moved to Ilia with Neela, wrapping her arms around the girl and her eyes grew wide.

"You don't have to be alone," Eliana told her. "I said the same thing to Titus. I understand where you're coming from, but whatever problems you're having, we can help you get through them." Ilia invited Eliana's embrace, albeit reluctantly.

"You guys are the worst, you know that?" Ilia asked. Neela laughed as Titus joined them.

"She gets that more often than you'd think," Neela replied.

"Come on, let's get back to the room," Eliana told her. "We can watch a movie or something."

"You don't want me to explain…" Ilia began.

"There's a movie that I've been wanting to watch with this ninja in it and let me tell you, it might just be the best movie of the year," Eliana explained.

"If this is a Ninjas of Love movie, we're gonna have issues, Elli," Neela informed her.

"Is that not something we'd all enjoy?" Eliana inquired. Ilia chuckled and Titus rubbed the back of his neck.

"It is, but maybe just not all together," Titus mumbled. Neela's jaw dropped and she looked at him.

"What did you say?" Neela pried.

"You heard me," he replied with a grin.

"I'm not sure that I did," she harassed him slightly as she nudged him.

"I'm not repeating it," he offered.

"This is easily my greatest prank yet and if you think that I am wrong, you should probably get out now," Cobalt said as he glanced back at Rowan and Tawney behind him. "Wait, where the hell did he come from?" Rowan folded his arms as he kicked his feet up on the library table before him and cracked his neck to both sides.

"Does it really matter where I came from?" Rowan asked. "If there's hell to raise, I'm always game. The better question is why is your teammate here?"

"We were beaten by NITE, any chance to get back is Neela is always something that I want to be included in on," Tawney told Rowan. "You mind actually going over the plan, Cobalt, or are we just in here killing time?"

"I'm still a little surprised that either of you are here, but anyway, continuing with our plan!" Cobalt exclaimed as he sat back down at the table. "We are going on a panty raid and once we are done we're going to have a pair from each of the girls on Team NITE!" Rowan glanced at Tawney.

"This sounds a bit suicidal," Rowan noted.

"Most things with Cobalt are," Tawney stated, brushing him off.

"Alright, whatever, what's the plan?" Rowan inquired as he leaned forward.

"Tawney goes with us to the dorm and we act as her entourage as she challenges Neela to a one on one duel because that is a pretty normal thing for her to do," Cobalt explained to both of them. "When she refuses to do it right away that's when we have Rowan tell her that the second years want to see her in action. Then when she still refuses, Eliana will egg her on by default. The team will leave and I will have the perfect window of opportunity to get into the room and go ham."

"What if they don't all leave?" Tawney asked.

"I have a backup plan," Cobalt stated with a smile on his face.

"I really hope the first plan works," Tawney said as she slid her seat out and stood.

"What makes you say that?" Cobalt asked.

"Your backup plans usually suck and let's face it, your initial plans are usually a shot in the dark as it is," Tawney mentioned as she left before them. Rowan looked at Cobalt, shrugging before chasing after her, reaching Tawney just as she was leaving the building. "Just let me do the talking and we might actually be able to pull this off."

"Be my guest," Cobalt replied. "I'll be down the stairwell if you need me."

"I won't," Tawney informed him. They entered the dorms, Tawney wasted no time getting to NITE's room and knocking roughly on the door, not stopping her pounding for a single moment until Eliana finally answered the door and she nearly stumbled into the room. Rowan shook his head, looking around the room before spotting Neela, tapping Tawney on the shoulder and pointing. Tawney puffed out her chest, marching over and grabbing Neela's shoulder. "Neela!"

"No," Neela replied without even looking up.

"You didn't even wait to hear what I was going to say!" Tawney shouted.

"'Fight me! I'm the best at this school even if no one else believes it! I was the Maniac of Mistral!'" Neela exclaimed before looking up at her with a smirk on her lips. "Sound familiar."

"First off, smart ass, it's present tense," Tawney stated. "I am the Maniac of Mistral. Second off…" Tawney hesitated for a moment. "The rest was spot on, I'm glad you finally recognize that."

"Your rankings say otherwise," Ilia mumbled texting on her scroll.

"Nobody asked you, sweet ass!" Tawney shouted.

"Did you just call her…" Titus began.

"Listen, small talk is great and everything, but I want to see this with my own eyes," Rowan told them.

"Why do I care?" Neela asked.

"What are you even doing here?" Ilia asked.

"Vin said that he wanted me to get a feel for how you top tier first years are actually doing," Rowan told her. "The second years get paired up with third-year teams for training, you might be doing a lot of training with us next year." Ilia's eyes lit up slightly.

"Really?" Ilia inquired moving to the edge of her bed.

"It's true, but the students have no say in the matter," Titus noted. He knew that manual inside and out, sometimes Ilia almost found it annoying, but it was probably best to not get her hopes up anyway.

"Come on, Neela!" Eliana pleaded. "What's a quick ass whooping on Tawney anyways?"

"It'll take five minutes tops for you to beat her," Titus stated.

"Come on now, give me some credit!" Tawney shouted.

"What? The average spar between the two of you is just around three minutes," Titus informed her."It's just the facts."

"Yeah? Well, this time, she's the one who's going to lose," Tawney told them.

"Can we get on with it?" Rowan asked. Neela glanced at Eliana who smiled wildly, a gleam in her eye. The hawk Faunus sighed, shaking her head and laughing as she stood up from her chair and left the room.

"Come on then," Neela offered unenthusiastically. "I've got a homework assignment due tomorrow morning, let's not waste too much time." Tawney stormed out after her with Eliana close behind.

"Waste of time?!" Tawney shouted.

"You two coming?" Rowan asked. Titus glanced over at Ilia who shrugged.

"Yeah sure, why not?" Titus replied. He stood slowly, waiting for Ilia to join him before they left the room together, Rowan following them out and leaving the door cracked as they headed down the hallway and descended the staircase. Cobalt's head popped out from around the corner, glancing about before deploying his drone which swiftly moved down the hall and checked the room for him, revealing it to be empty. Cobalt rubbed his hands together, giddy as he pranced down the corridor and entered the room. He'd been here plenty of times, but he'd never been here alone. What glorious things might he find in the dressers before him? He threw open the first, finding only boxers and briefs, and quickly reaching the conclusion that it was Titus' dresser.

He had his own motive, this wasn't a plan of revenge on NITE. This was simply to finally have an answer to the question that Titus had denied him of so many times without hesitation. What kind of panties did Ilia wear? The process of elimination would help him determine which pair to steal, and he was aided in an unexpected way as he opened the next dresser and discovered that half of the top drawer was filled with Ninjas of Love books, while the other half was layered in bright pink high cut briefs. Fairly vanilla, he expected that much of the girl on the team who didn't have personal experience with things of the sexual nature. He stared long and hard for a moment before shaking his head and closing it. He needed to stay focused on the task at hand.

The next was harder to figure out, but after searching through the rest of the dresser and finding a picture of Neela and Eliana in the back corner of the sock drawer, Cobalt was more than assured that this was Neela's clothes and he opened the top drawer. There was nothing to be found there and as he double-checked the entire storage over again, he didn't find a single pair of panties, noting the full laundry basket of clothes beside Neela's desk. He didn't have time to rummage, this left only one more dresser, he'd grab a pair and then he'd be home free. The plan was going almost too smoothly. His hands shook as he pulled it open and soaked in the view of the treasures before him. All of them seemed to match in style and color, nothing but black, lace boyshort underwear as far as his eyes could tell without digging around. He pulled them out, looking them over between his hands before shoving them into his pocket and slamming the dresser close, looking over his shoulder back at the door.

He'd done it! It'd gone off without a hitch and he was going to get away with it! Cobalt casually meandered out of the room, heading down the stairs as Team NITE laughed from the floor below, traipsing up past him, Titus bumping into him as they went separate ways.

"Sorry," Cobalt stated.

"It's fine," Titus assured him. "Alright, but did anyone think that she was going to go down that quickly?" Ilia and Eliana laughed again.

"No," Eliana chuckled.

"That was easily the quickest Neela has ever beaten her," Ilia told them.

"I'm not sure why she thought that trying to catch a flashbang arrow was in her best interest," Neela recounted.

"And then she just stared at it confused!" Titus exclaimed. Cobalt reached the bottom of the stairs, a grin stretched from ear to ear as he leaned against the wall and watched Rowan help Tawney over to him.

"Rough time?" Cobalt asked.

"Let's skip the small talk and just show me what you got," Tawney demanded. He removed them, holding them up and peering through the lace in the light.

"Ilia's boyshort panties," Cobalt stated. He took a whiff which caused Rowan to cringe and take a step back. "They might be clean, but there's a slight musk. I can probably get enough lien from these to buy a few months worth of Dust." Tawney rubbed her eyes and snatched them away.

"Where are the rest?" Tawney asked. Cobalt rubbed his neck and looked away.

"I only had time to grab these," he lied. "It's a shame, but it was the best that I could do." His teammate stared hard at them and peered at the tag inside, her face turning bright red as darkness covered her face.

"Where did you get these?" She asked.

"Ilia's dresser," he replied. Before Cobalt or Rowan could react she swung around and nailed Cobalt in the jaw, throwing him off of his feet and slamming him to the floor with a follow-up blow.

"Is this a sick joke?!" Tawney asked. "You just wake up today and think, 'I'll harass Tawney, that sounds like fun!'"

"What are you talking about," Cobalt gasped.

"These are mine!" She shouted at him. "I cut all of the tags at an angle so that nobody else tries to take them while I'm in the shower!"

"I swear I got these in Team NITE's room!" Cobalt yelled waving his arms in defense. "Maybe Ilia grabbed them on accident, she had ten or so pairs that all looked the exact same." She picked him up by the collar and slammed him against the wall.

"Rowan, you want to help me beat this shit out of this creep," Tawney asked.

"That won't be necessary," Titus stated standing in the doorway for the stairwell. He handed over a small box that was filled with Tawney's underwear, giving a nod before trying to leave.

"How the hell did you get these?" She asked.

"Lykos told us that Cobalt was talking about doing this all morning, so when he and Bái left for breakfast this morning they told us what was going on," Titus informed them. "He told us to replace Ilia's top drawer with these. We weren't completely sure that you'd only go for Ilia's, so we hid Neela's at the bottom of her laundry basket and Eliana ran into town and bought an entire pack of those pink decoys you saw."

"Heh," Rowan grunted. "We never do crazy shit like this on my team."

"That damn Lykos!" Cobalt yelled. Tawney nailed him in the gut and dropped him to his knees.

"That doesn't change the fact that you smelled them!" Tawney screamed at him. Titus's face crinkled in disgust and he shook his head as he walked away.

"This is hardly fair, you wouldn't have cared if they were Ilia's or Neela's!" Cobalt shouted at her. Rowan shook his head as he left the two of them.

"But they weren't, and you didn't even grab Neela's!" Tawney stated.

"Oh come on! Her ass might be nicer than Eliana's, but we all know that Ilia's the bombshell on that team!" Cobalt exclaimed finding his feet.

"That's a matter of opinion," Tawney told him as they walked together back towards their room.

"Matter of opinion?" Cobalt asked. "Nothing is hotter than a tramp stamp."

"Have you seen it?" Tawney inquired. He glanced away.

"No, but Ivory is always going on about it," Cobalt noted. He looked at Tawney and stopped walking, prompting her to follow suit.

"Oh no," Tawney began.

"Ivory's sexy too," Cobalt started.

"Cobalt," Tawney said.

"Her's wouldn't be that hard to get ahold of," Cobalt mentioned aimlessly as his thoughts drifted.

"Cobalt," Tawney repeated slightly more flat this time, her eyes wide as she looked past Cobalt.

"We could probably just ask Rowan to grab a pair, right?" Cobalt asked. He looked up at Tawney before turning around to see Rowan and Ivory behind him. "Well! Rowan! Your sister is here! What a pleasant surprise! What brings you over here to the first-year dorm?!"

"Just stopped in to see if Ilia wanted to hang out for a bit," Ivory mentioned. "Vin says that she just kind of left the other night." Ivory and Rowan moved past him and she glanced at Tawney's box before heading for the stairs. "Cute panties." The two of them stood in silence for a moment after the twins left.

"Still think we shouldn't ask Rowan to help us out again?" Cobalt asked.

"Shut up," Tawney told him blushing.

"Do you think Ivory has seen Ilia's panties?" Cobalt asked Tawney as he chased after her.

"Is that seriously all that you ever think about?" Tawney asked him.

"No. I was thinking the other day during our training challenge against NITE that it had a slightly similar set up to an anime that I've been watching where these kids attend a school for superheroes called…" Cobalt began before she cut him off.

"It was rhetorical!" Tawney told him. Cobalt felt his pockets for a long moment before noting that something was missing. "Now what?"

"Plan B is in motion whether we like it or not," Cobalt stated.

"Is that so?" Tawney asked. Cobalt nodded.

"I left my spider drone back in their room," he told her.

"I feel like I came back at a really bad time, what are you two doing?" Lykos asked as he opened the door to his dorm room, Bái on his arm beside him. Tawney and Cobalt both sat a few feet away from Cobalt's laptop, staring intently as they waited for something to happen. "You know what, it's probably better that you don't… Why is Rowan here too?!" Rowan stopped in the bathroom door and smirked, his arms folded.

"You can calm down Lykos," Cobalt assured him. "I am the leader of this team after all."

"See, that's actually the reason that I feel like I can't calm down," Lykos told him. He set down the bag of groceries he was carrying and moved to a position where he could view the screen over Tawney's shoulder. "Cobalt, explain to me right now why I shouldn't completely destroy your laptop." Cobalt glanced up at him and took a deep breath in.

"This is exactly how it looks, my spider drone is currently inside of Team NITE's shower, but I'd like to debate that fact that voyeurism is the purest form of artistic nudity, and that unless something of an explicit nature happens, this would be no different than going to a museum and looking at all of those naked statues that people hail as artwork," Cobalt explained.

"I'd have to imagine that someone would argue that point with you," Lykos replied.

"So you're going to stop me?" Cobalt asked. Lykos sighed as he walked away.

"I already tried stopping you once today but apparently you aren't that easily deterred," Lykos answered. "Bái and I are going to go on a walk and I'm going to ignore everything you just admitted to for your sake." The two of them left the room, the door hanging open behind them as Vin entered the far end of the hallway, spotting Rowan and marching towards him. Rowan was still viewing the laptop, glancing up at the last moment as Vin pinned him against the wall, fist reared back, ready to attack.

"Are you trying to get us kicked out of here!?" Vin asked. Cobalt glanced back before double-taking, sliding his chair out and moving slowly for the door.

"First of all, I would hardly think that the nonsense we did this afternoon could be considered a reason to expel anyone, let alone a whole team. Second off, it wasn't even my idea, I was just there for the hell of it," Rowan explained. He pointed to Cobalt who immediately froze. "It was Thénard's idea."

"Hold on now just a moment boys," Cobalt replied sheepishly. "I think that we can all just laugh about this, right? It was just harmless fun."

"He tried stealing Ilia's underwear," Tawney reminded Vin.

"So what she told me was true…" Vin said as he released Rowan and moved for Cobalt.

"We were there for the whole team… except for Titus," Cobalt replied trying to place Tawney between the two of them. "It's just a coincidence that I only grabbed a pair of Ilia's, and they weren't even hers! No harm no foul, right?" Vin cracked his knuckles.

"Alright, I'm going to take a quick shower and then we can head out!" Ilia's voice blared over the computer. Cobalt looked over at the screen which still displayed a live feed of Team NITE's shower.

"Care to explain that one?" Tawney asked with a smile as she cleared a path for Vin.

"Why are you enjoying this?!" Cobalt asked.

"Listen, pal," Vin said as he strong-armed Cobalt to keep him from moving, he twisted his arm back, placing it against his back as the first year struggled in his grip. "This better not be what it actually looks like."

"... Voyeurism is the purest form of artistic nudity?" Cobalt offered but it only resulted in Vin twisting his arm harder. "You can stay and watch with us!"

"Nobody's watching, she's my girlfriend! I haven't even seen her naked yet, why should I let all of you?!" Vin yelled at him. The shower turned on and they all glanced up at the screen for a long moment, none of them moving.

"You're not the slightest bit curious?" Cobalt inquired. "Just a few more seconds and we might bear witness to the most beautiful body known to human and Faunus kind alike!"

"No," Vin told him. "This isn't okay. Maybe you can live with being a scumbag, but I wouldn't be able to keep silent, she'd have to know." Cobalt stared into Vin's eyes for a moment.

"I feel like the scumbag comment was a bit far there," Cobalt mentioned to the sky, appearing to talk to nobody in particular. "Maybe you could rewrite that?"

"Look!" Tawney exclaimed. The curtain parted slowly and someone entered. Cobalt stared for a long moment before struggling hard, Vin throwing him away from the desk and doubling over.

"What the?! That wasn't Ilia!" Cobalt shouted. His mind scrambled, his body doubled over. "That thing was massive."

"He is a rather large man after all," Tawney replied with a smirk, still watching the screen with Rowan. "I guess you won't be stealing panties anymore, huh?" Cobalt looked at Tawney with contempt, rushing her and grabbing her by the shirt.

"You were in on this?!" Cobalt shouted.

"I had to get you back for this morning," Tawney replied. Rowan looked back at Vin.

"I think you guys are overreacting a bit, it's just a penis," Rowan told Vin.

"I wonder about you sometimes," Vin told Rowan dragging him out with him. "Sorry to have bothered you." The door slammed leaving Tawney and Cobalt in silence.

"That was funny," Tawney replied.

"Crushing the hopes and dreams of two men is funny?!" Cobalt asked exasperated.

"Stop being so dramatic," Tawney told him as she closed the laptop and handed his drone over to him. He looked down at it before glancing back at her.

"What?" Cobalt pondered in confusion.

"All pre-recorded, Coco helped us tap the feed," Tawney explained. "And Vin showing up was all by chance, you two were probably the only two in the school not in on it."

"I hate you sometimes," Cobalt replied dejectedly. He sat on his bunk and sighed, rubbing his face and thinking about where everything had gone wrong for the day. He looked back up, Tawney stood above him with her hand extended.

"Come on," Tawney told him. "I'll let you buy me a soda from the cafeteria." He looked at her with a raised eyebrow as she pulled him to his feet.

"You'll let me buy you a soda," he repeated.

"Yeah," she answered with a nod. He shook his head and stifled a chuckle.

"You really need to work on your people skills," Cobalt told her as they left the room.

"Oh really? Says the guy trying to steal lingerie," Tawney chided.

"Hey, that was a bonding exercise that clearly no one else wanted to partake in," Cobalt noted. "Just because the rest of you have yet to recognize my genius, doesn't mean that I'm not one."

It seems Cobalt's shenanigans were all met with failure. Next week, Chapter 97 - Panic and Evolution?

A big thank you to Helihi, Cadhla182, Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. All of their artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.

Until next week, stay classy!