Chapter 19

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William got back to the dorms near one in the morning. He'd stopped checking his scroll once he got on the transport, focusing on stretching his legs and closing his eyes.

Damn. He was tired.

It wasn't as bad as the lab mission. But it was close. Long hours. High stress. Hell, he'd murdered a crime boss six hours ago. Another name in his ledger, another tally for his sins.

But he didn't drag himself to bed just yet.

Instead he hauled his feet up one step at a time to the roof. And he found her waiting on him, guitar in hand, slowly strumming a solemn sobering tune.

"Took longer than I thought it would." Victoria remarked as he made his way across the gravel roofing and plopped down like a sack of potatoes.

"They usually do." William agreed with a long sigh. He leaned back, closing his eyes until something dropped into his lap. He grunted, taking one hand off the ground and picking it up, recognizing the feel of the pack.

"You remembered." William mused softly as he flipped the top off the pack, extracting one cigarette. He slipped it between his lips, leaning over and setting his elbows on his knees.

"And the lighter too." Victoria said, producing it from a pocket. She handed it to him, and in the artificial light of the lamps and the Tower, Roman's emblem seemed to mock him.

"Thank you." William took it, lighting his cigarette and setting it down beside the pack.

She let him smoke in silence for a bit, idly plucking strings. William had a feeling she would let him start the topic, too unsure of where to begin herself.

"It's a different mask when he has me do something like this." William finally muttered, taking the cigarette from his lips and letting it smolder, trailing ashes into the open air.

"Mmhmm." Victoria agreed softly, her fingers coming to a halt on the strings.

So, William kept going. "I have my masks. They're not as easy to keep up around you, getting harder around the others. You tend to draw genuine reactions and feelings and it's hard to stop those. Most of the time I can act, or fake, or force reactions well enough no one cares to notice, or notices at all." William elaborated. "Killing someone… that's another mask. Cruel, emotionless. Careless perhaps. Serious."

"You're adding it. Like a penalty against yourself." Victoria said more than suggested. He could feel her eyes shift to him, weight against his head as she stared.

"Maybe." William admitted. "But I think it's just… Isolating the feeling. Taking me out of it so that it doesn't drag me down as much. So, it's not as connected to me if that makes sense."

"Like how you isolate pain."

He nodded, then stretched. "Yeah. I tend to bottle up a lot of things. Guilt, shame, rage." William shrugged, then looked over at her. "It gets harder. After everyone. But the worse was the first." He shook his head.

He could tell her now. Open up to her why that first one ruined him so much. Her father's expression of shock. The sincere surprise in his eyes, and the pain in his voice when he said her name for the final time.

"It was really hard when I lost my dad." Victoria muttered, setting the guitar aside and pulling her knees to her chest. "Emotionally hard. There were a lot of people from his work giving us flowers and checking in on us. Asking if we needed anything. But after his funeral, it trailed off, and that's when it really set in. He was gone. And I didn't have him anymore." She smiled a little. "I mean. I still miss him, but it was that shock for a kid when you realize he's never coming home again. And the habits you take, like sitting in front of the door for when he gets off work, just before school, or waiting on him outside on the porch for him to walk out, that really hurt. You still do them, but then you realize why you want to, and that you don't need to anymore."

"I'm sorry." The words come out hoarse, but William squeezed them out anyway, forced them past a lump in his throat that was the size of a soccer ball. "I'm sure he was a good man." And he's sincere.

"What hurts the most is thinking that he won't be there for moments when I need him now." Victoria murmured, either not noticing it as William turned towards her, or not caring as he watched her eyes pool, tears on the brink of lavender irises. "Like school dances, or prom, or my first car, or my huntress license." Oh, she was going to kill him with- "or giving me away at my wedding."

Oh.

William slowly covered his mouth with his hand. That most certainly was not a thought that had crossed his mind.

"It's fine." Victoria replied softly, wiping her eyes and shaking her head. "It's fine."

William nodded, another wave of guilt and shame pooling in his stomach. He flicked the cigarette over the edge, watching it smolder on its journey to the ground.

"Guess that took a bit too much of a somber twist." Victoria muttered.

"Not really smoking conversation at least." William managed to whisper, giving her a half-hearted smile. "But…" He shrugged. "Thank you for sharing."

She returned his smile, but both it was simply courtesy. Then she got up, collecting her guitar. "Feel better?" She asked.

William collected himself, shoving the emotions back down his throat. He swallowed, cleared his throat and stretched his neck.

"Yes and no." William replied, grunting as he followed suit. "Better for the time, but don't be surprised if I'm difficult in the next few days. I hate crowds, and the Vytal Festival is terrible."

Victoria nodded, "Of course. I'll be prepared."

They headed down the stairs, walking down quietly through the building and back down the hall. They stopped at the doorway, still cracked so they wouldn't have to open it.

"If you need to talk." Victoria muttered, offering her hand.

William took it, squeezing it. "You got it, partner." Then he pushed the door open, easing into the room.

Victoria trailed behind him, watching him as he entered the room, setting Moonlight Sonata on the windowsill and easing into bed. He ran his fingers through his hair, looking out the window for some sort of answers that weren't present.

"Go to bed." She whispered.

William glanced at her, but shook her head, shoving his thumb up at Sandra, who was starting to shift and whimper in bed.

"It's not just me that need council." He replied softly.

Victoria pursed her lips, obviously disapproving, but choosing not to reply as she slid off her boots and eased into her own bed. For a moment William's thoughts dwelled on the curve of her hips, the interesting flex of her spine as she slipped under the covers. How well would he fit beside her?

Then Sandra whined again, her breath coming in sharp gasps, and William forced himself to focus on that instead. Victoria was an attractive woman. But she was also so much more than that. And there wasn't any chance in hell she would be interested in her father's murderer.

Better to deal with the other person whose life he'd ruined. That at least had better hope of turning out right.

He reached up, curling his fingers around Sandra's clenched palm, wriggling his fingers into hers and squeezing repeatedly. First soft and slow, then harder and faster, before it turned into a gentle shake of her arm.

She woke to that, jerking slightly, though her grip on his hand tightened. She blinked, surprised to see him.

William pressed a finger to his lips, then nodded his head towards the door. 'Nightmare?' He mouthed.

She hesitated, then nodded. William shrugged gesturing towards his mouth and then the door. In response she kicked the covers off and eased down to the floor. She was dressed appropriately, or at least clothed, but that was to be expected in a co-ed door. Sofie shorts and a spaghetti strap was normal. Though, William found himself noting several differences between how she wore and how Victoria wore it.

He wasn't sure if he liked knowing Victoria filled it out better in places or not.

She slid on a pair of flip-flops, then crept out of the room. William followed, but glanced back, finding Victoria wriggling tired fingers at him before she shifted again. He shut the door, hoping by the time they returned Victoria would be deep enough in sleep to not wake her up.

They walked down the hall quietly. Well. As quietly as one could in flip-flops. William wasn't going to tell her to take them off though. He had a feeling he knew where she was going.

Down the stairs and out the door, he followed her around the walkways of the school, letting her stew in silence before they reached their final destination. The chain-link fence around the pool, just outside the gym.

"Let me talk first?" Sandra finally spoke, wrapping her fingers around the links. "Or just waiting to get here?"

"Bit of both." William admitted, heading to the gate. He scanned his scroll, and the door unlocked, letting him hold it open for her. "I figured you wanted to talk about one of two things." She walked through, and he closed it behind them.

"Like?"

"The nightmare." William broached, watching as she kicked off the flip-flops and sat down at the edge. "Or the shift."

Sandra dripped her feet in, not even past her ankles, watching the water as she slowly flexed her toes in it. "It's always there." She finally said, drawing them back out and setting them on the edge. "Not like a part of me, but a foreign emotion. Rage and instinct. Raw." She glanced back at him. "And the water calls me too." She reached up, thumb running down her neck, over the gills. At her touch, they flared.

"You're going to fight with it." William assured her. "Everyday. You got to the edge in the process. Just before the real shift. You're lucky."

"Lucky I didn't die?"

"Lucky you didn't explode." William replied, joining her at the poolside. "It's a painful process. The ones that go like that…" he trailed off, reaching down and swiping his hand through the water.

"And I'm better?" Sandra asked. "I shifted William. When you dove into this pool and pulled me out…" She trailed off. "I wasn't there at all. I don't remember it." She shook her head and stared at him. "It's not there William. No feeling, it wasn't like I took a backseat ride in my head! I wasn't there at all! Nothing." She trailed off. "And my nightmare played off that."

William sighed, looking over at her. "What would you like to hear?" He asked. "The truth? What you want to hear? My opinion? I'll tell you either."

"Tell me the tru-…" Sandra hesitated, as if realizing what that could be. She turned back to the water, the not him. "Tell me I'll get a chance to kill the man who did this to me."

"Roman Torchwick headed the research." William replied. "Pioneered a lot out of Grimm experimentation. Fear toxins. Splicing." He looked up, able to spot Ironwood's ships by the lights on the prow of them. "And he's locked up in one of those."

"Then that's where I need to go."

"No." William shook his head. "You need to be where he's going to be. A man like Roman, can get out of that." He gestured to the ship. "He's prepared for that. You won't catch him there. You have to corner him somewhere he doesn't have time to prep, or plan, or escape. And then you close in."

Sandra glanced at him, spring green eyes boiling with rage and anger, but it was calculated, controlled for the moment. "Can you really keep your promise to me?" She asked.

William pursed his lips. Normally he would have thought about it, picked some clever words and shrugged it off. But now he couldn't. He was in too deep, and too… attached.

He cared just a bit too much for his ragged twisted team.

So he told her the truth.

"Maybe. I think I'm your best shot at him. I know Roman's moves, his tendencies and hideouts. If there's anyone that can ferret him out and help you kill him. It would be me." William reached down, sliding his fingers gently into the water.

His semblance uncoiled off his body, sloughing off in a neat coil of wires that slid into the pool with barely a ripple. The glowing blue wires spread out, floating different direction under the water.

"And will you kill me if I turn into that thing?" William might have expected her voice to tremble, but it came out strong and hard.

"Yes."

Sandra hummed, her gaze finally turning to the water. "Does that mean I get to kill you if you turn into a monster?"

William snorted. "Missed your chance. I already am one."

It was his turn to be surprised though, because instead of agreeing, Sandra laughed. It wasn't a bitter laugh either, but genuine and amused. He gave her a bewildered look as the tension drained out of her. She gave him a coy look, as if knowing a secret that he didn't.

He had a feeling that she wasn't going to share that secret. "What?"

"Pretend all you want." She winked at him. "But you can't fool me. I've watched too many sitcoms and read too many books to not see right through you."

William cocked an eyebrow at her, but apparently that was all he was going to get out of her before she stood up, feet dropping to the first small step in the pool, water lapping at her toes, before she jumped out, headed towards the gate.

"No midnight swim?" He called, groaning softly as he pulled himself back to a standing position.

She cast a look back at him. "Not a chance." And she slipped through the chain link gate before he could retort, leaving him a bit baffled on how he ended up on the defensive side of this conversation.

No matter what anyone said, Sandra Carmine was quick as a whip, and damn if she wasn't smart.

When William caught up to her, she was walking calmly back, hands clasped behind her back, head cocked up to stare at the stars. She was humming a soft tune, pitch perfect of course, making her way back to the dorms.

"So what had you up?" She asked, "Victoria or a job?"

"Job." He replied, not questioning how she knew, simply trusting.

"Talked with Victoria about it?"

"Smoked and talked. Woke you up after we came back."

She nodded, a few soft syllables trickling out of her lips as the tune became a song, before her next question sprang from her lips. "Did you kill someone?"

Only Sandra could somehow ask that question, the picture of innocent and content, without breaking stride or tone. Then again, only William could answer it with a shrug and a grunt of his own, neither confirming nor denying it.

"Was it your uncle or someone else?" She continued, unphased by his non-committal reply.

"You know I can't tell." William replied. "I…" He trailed off, wondering what Roman would think of all this.

He came here for a mission. What… what was that?

"William?"

He blinked, staring at her for a moment. When had Oz's intentions overturned Roman's orders? When had he stopped looking for opportunities to kill Ruby Rose, and making sure he was protecting his team?

"I…" He paused, mouth still open, tongue uncertainly licking his front teeth. "I…" He shook his head. "I just had a thought. That's all."

Sandra clicked her tongue, examining his expression, then shrugged, returning to her soft humming and singing as she opened the dormitory front door, offering it to him as she stepped through.

He glanced down at his scroll, the black and red design reminding him of who he belonged to, and who it belonged to. Roman always had an eye on him.

"Coming back to bed or not?" Sandra still held the door for him, an impatient expression layered on top of her tired face.

Maybe Roman didn't matter as much.

Maybe… just maybe… some things could be done… without Roman's approval.

"Yeah." William said, stepping through and shoving his scroll back in his pocket. "I'm coming."

_
Took a while. But here's the next chapter. And again, as always. Infrequent updates, because I'm still not super pumped to finish this story. William's story is more or less complete in my head, but I finished this one up because I wanted to have that talk with Sandra, and Victoria.

William and his team are still fun character for me to write. Especially when I'm bouncing between one or the other. I hope that comes across.

Hope you enjoyed. And as always, read and review, tell me what you liked or didn't.

~Shadowed Sword Signing Off~