Author's Notes: So far so good on my chapter-a-week plan, and considering the week I had, let's say it was a miracle I got the next chapter done. Tuesday had me staying at work past one in the morning because of an identified allergen risk in a shift's worth of product that had to be put on hold. Meetings on Wednesday and Thursday also cut into my spare time, but I managed.
I appreciate all the reviews, follows and favorites – I think this is the most I've received in a story's first week. Each week, I'll respond to the bigger ones in these notes, but I'll be avoiding all specific spoilers for this story. In the event that I do say some general plans that I have for this story, be advised that they can change at the drop of the hat. I've already written two scenes that weren't even part of my plan when I was forming the outline, as tends to happen when I find myself between intended plot points.
To Hellbreaker, I can certainly understand the desire for more grounded and realistic characters, and I hope to deliver. It's hard to do so for Russell, Dove, and Sky, as they don't really have a personality in the show, so I'm obliged to overhaul their characters without straying from what little they do. Say what you will of the character development, but one thing that's nice about the core RWBY characters is that they practically write their own dialogue – each has a distinctive voice and personality that seamlessly bounces off one-another. I won't lie, Blake will be a major part of the story, and I'm entertaining the idea of an occasional chapter from her perspective for narrative reasons, but the story's focus will be on Cardin.
To everyone else, thanks for the interest. I appreciate all comments on things you like/don't like, as it allows me to better adjust and plan out the story. Still looking for a casual beta-reader if anyone's interested.
With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Chapter Two: Confrontation
Metal clanged and grunts echoed through the amphitheater as two students Cardin didn't recognize battled each other. With a flash of fire, one student swung their axe in a low sweep, but the other student leapt over it, landed on their opponent's shoulders, and kicked him hard in the neck. An Aura meter overhead on the hard-light display flashed red as the student collapsed.
Applause filled the room with a muted rumble as the two students walked off the stage. Professor Goodwitch ran back a recording of the battle, pointing out the strategies employed, the flaws in their movements, and suggestions on how to improve their combat. After she finished her lecture, Professor Goodwitch scanned the audience. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Cardin.
"You, Cardin, shall battle next." She scanned the rest of the crowd. She frowned, and pointed at a scraggly, blond-haired boy.
"Jaune, you too."
Jaune groaned and unsheathed his sword. The redhead next to him, Pyrrha, gave him a comforting pat on the back and wished him luck. Cardin scowled at them.
Jaune started the battle with a wild swing. Cardin drew his mace and swiped each blow away, falling back, circling around Jaune, and letting him wear himself out. After a few minutes, Jaune fell back and leaned forward, gasping for breath. Sweat matted down his unruly blonde hair. The sword in his right hand trembled, and his shield was touching the floor.
Cardin watched his opponent in sparring practice with an open stance, his mace held slack in one hand. With a roar, Jaune charged forward, swinging his blade wildly in front of him. Cardin stepped aside and swung his mace. The shield flew from Jaune's fingers. He staggered back, hissing in pain and rubbing his numb fingers on his hip.
Irritation and scorn burned inside Cardin. As Jaune roared and swung his sword in a wild arc, Cardin blocked it with the hilt of his mace. Jaune pushed hard against him, but Cardin held the smaller student back without giving an inch.
Cardin sneered down at him. Jaune's arms were shaking and his knuckles went white from pushing his sword. His stance was wide-open and uneven, he leaned too far back, as if afraid of the next blow, and Jaune's eyes were locked on his sword. All Cardin had to do was step back and let Jaune stumble out of the arena, but after considering all the ways he could counter, he happened upon a fun idea.
Cardin leaned in and said loud enough for the class to hear, "This is the part where you lose."
"Over my dead-"
Cardin brought a knee up into Jaune's groin. He groaned and sank to the floor. His sword clattered on the ground as it fell from his fingers. Cardin raised his mace for another blow.
"That's enough." Professor Glynda held out her riding whip in front of Cardin. "Jaune's Aura is now in the red. You may take your seat."
Russell laughed as Cardin sat next to him. "Damn, that was perfect!"
Cardin tuned out the professor as she lectured Jaune on watching his Aura reserves and planning out his attacks. How someone so clumsy and incompetent managed to enter Beacon eluded him until he saw Pyrrha Nikos hovering over Jaune, giving him covetous glances when she thought no one was looking. With a world-renowned fighter coddling him every step of the way, even an idiot like Jaune could get into a prestigious academy.
"I wonder why she had him fight you," Sky said. "It's not like he had any chance."
Cardin shrugged. "Probably to goad him into working harder." With a chuckle, he added, "Or to convince him it's time to leave."
Russell and Sky laughed with him while Dove looked at the stage with a frown and said, "You could've just gone for the ring-out."
"Yeah, but what's the fun in that?" Cardin asked. "I'm not going to take it easy on someone just because they're so pathetic."
Dove hid his frown and shrugged. "Just seems like a waste of effort."
Two more battles came and went before Goodwitch dismissed them. Cardin's stomach rumbled as he led his team to the cafeteria. Row after row of wooden tables lined the hall. A set of doors led into the kitchens, where piles of food sat in heated trenchers and on giant plates. Cardin loaded up his plate with spoonfuls of meatballs, a tangle of pasta, mounds of sautéed spinach, and two brownie bars.
They took the table nearest the cafeteria. Other students veered around them to find their own seats.
"Hey, look," Russell said, pointing at a bench in the corner. "Bunny ears is all alone today."
Cardin turned his head just enough to catch her in his peripheral vision. Velvet hunched over her lunch tray, her ears drooping as she pushed green beans and potatoes around on her plate. He looked around the room, hunting for any sign of sunglasses and beret. Velvet was alone. Goodwitch hadn't yet arrived from the auditorium either.
"Perfect," Cardin said. "Time to strike the last filthy Faunus off the list."
"She's a third year," Sky hissed. "She could probably kick our asses."
"And if she does, we'll call her a White Fang bitch," Cardin answered, pushing his tray aside. "We better do this now."
Cardin slipped between the tables. Russell was right on his heels, Sky went around the press of people, and Dove lingered over a couple more bites before joining in. Velvet, so preoccupied with her food, noticed neither the sudden hush in the room nor the approach of Team CRDL.
As Cardin hovered behind her, sudden revulsion churned and frothed in his gut. In his eyes, her ears had all the filth and ugliness of dead rats. Suppressing a shudder, Cardin reached forwards, grabbed them, and pulled her up out of her seat. She cried for them to let go, but Cardin tightened his grip.
"See Russell? I told you they were real."
Russell leaned forward and grinned. "Damn, guess I lost that bet. I thought she was going for some messed up fashion trend."
Cardin laughed. Sky and Dove joined in. "Nobody would actually want ears like these."
Out of the corner of his eye, Cardin saw Yang half-rise out of her seat, eyes blazing red. Her younger sister, Ruby, put a hand on her shoulder. Yang's hands trembled as she took a deep breath and sat back down.
His hands itched to let go, but Cardin squeezed harder and whispered into a human ear, "Enjoy the rest of your lunch, freak."
After he left, Velvet dumped her food in the nearest garbage bin and ran from the cafeteria.
Cardin felt Yang's eyes on him for the rest of the lunch period, and hers wasn't the only attention he had. Her yellow-eyed partner stared with equal rage, while emerald-eyed Pyrrha could have been marble carved to embody scorn. The other Faunus in the room either glared at him or kept their eyes on their food.
"Well, we got every single one," Russell said. "Which one was your favorite?"
"Velvet was kinda fun," Cardin said, "But she's too hard to catch alone, and I don't think her teammates will let her out of sight after this." With a sigh, he leaned back in his chair. "None of them make good material. Figures, since everyone has to be tough to get in here." He let a smile touch his lips. "Well, almost everyone."
Russell beamed. "Jauney boy?"
"You bet. I don't know how a dipshit like that got into Beacon, but I'll make sure he leaves in tears."
"You'd be doing him a favor," Sky said. "Jaune wouldn't last five seconds against a Beowolf."
Cardin had just enough time to finish off his vegetables when the bell rang. He slipped out ahead of the crowds of students, leaving his team to clear up his plate. A lone set of footsteps echoed from behind as he strode through the empty halls. He glanced into the doors on each side. A lecture hall to the right had a light coating of dust over the seats, and its board was bare. He closed the door behind him, took a seat in the far corner, and waited.
Yang's partner strode into the room. Cardin felt his eyes widen and forced himself to casually lean forward.
"Well, not who I was expecting. Did Yang send you?"
The girl's yellow eyes narrowed. "Why are you doing such horrible things?"
Cardin looked around him and shrugged. "Horrible things? What do you mean?"
"Tripping Faunus, knocking books out of their hands, shoving them into lockers." She strode up to his seat and placed both hands on the table. "Pulling on their ears."
With a laugh, Cardin said, "Oh, that's what you mean. Sorry, I got confused."
"Confused? How could you be confused about that?"
Cardin grinned. "They're only Faunus, so why would any of those things be horrible? Honestly, they're lucky I'm not doing worse to them."
With equal parts mirth and annoyance, Cardin watched as her face reddened. She grabbed him by the tie and yanked him forward.
"You think this is funny?"
"Yes. Why else would I be doing it?"
"It's disgusting!"
"I know. I feel filthy every time I touch a Faunus, but how else am I supposed to properly harass them?"
Her grip tightened on his tie as rage and disgust contorted her face. Cardin laughed, and her knuckles went white.
"People like you are the reason there's so much suffering in the world."
Cardin shrugged. "Can't argue with that. So, how about I cut you a deal?"
Her eyes narrowed, and she let his tie fall. "What kind of deal?"
"Find a good reason for me to stop picking on Faunus, and I will," Cardin said. He took on a mocking tone. "After all, big bigoted idiots like me don't think good. We need help figuring out what to do."
"You should stop because it's wrong."
"And what makes it wrong?"
She straightened up, towering over Cardin in his seat. "The Faunus are people just like you. They deserve to be treated just like anyone else."
"How is that my problem?"
"Excuse me?"
Cardin stood up and leaned over her. "Why the hell should I care how the Faunus feel? That's the one thing people like you can't wrap their heads around. You only see the one side – the side of the 'wronged'. You only care about how that one side feels. Yet, what really matters is how I feel, and I feel that the Faunus have done nothing to deserve being coddled."
"Coddled?" The girl stood up on her tip-toes, trying to shorten Cardin's height advantage. "They fought for your country in the Color Wars, and in return, you shipped them all to a barren island. How is that fair?"
Cardin crossed his arms. "They should be thankful they got anything at all. It's not as though we had to reward them."
Her mouth worked, but no words came out. She glanced nervously at the door.
"How about I help you out?" Cardin asked.
Her eyes snapped back on him. "What do you mean?"
"If you really want a good reason for me to stop, I'll give you one." He paused to study her expression – guarded, wary, but curious. He had, at first, meant to suggest bribery, but perhaps a show of intellect would unbalance her. "Inequal and harsh treatment generates resentment in the oppressed population. Extended periods of such treatment can lead to organized rebellion, and even terrorism, which can hurt the economy and force countries to increase spending on their military. Just look at the White Fang."
The girl paled and looked down at the floor.
"Nothing to add? How about I give you a better one. While it may appear beneficial to have a low-cost labor force to keep the price of goods down, it ultimately hinders the economy, as said labor force would not have the means to purchase the goods these companies make. Intentionally suppressing the education of a lower-class also inhibits technological and industrial development, as it reduces the skilled labor pool that companies can draw upon." He stopped and gave her a level stare. "How's that for a sophisticated reason for racial equality?"
The girl's eyes went wider through each word of his explanation. After a moment, she asked, "If you see the benefit of helping the Faunus, why don't you?"
Cardin leaned forward until his face was almost touching hers and whispered, "Because I don't care. If you want me to care, some lien, dust vials, or favors are a better way to start."
Since his face was pressed so close to hers, and since his height brought his eye level squarely at the bow she wore, he saw with perfect clarity that the bow flattened itself as her jaw tightened and her hands trembled with anger. Cardin brought a hand up to his chin, stroking it while smiling at her. Before she could react, the hand shot forward, grabbing her by the bow.
He felt a slender, cat-like ear stiffen beneath the ribbon.
"Your bow is twitching a lot," he said in a casual tone. "Must be the draft from the open window."
Her eyes went to the windowless walls. "What do you-"
"I would love to continue this debate," Cardin said over her, "But I'm afraid that the next class will be starting soon, and I don't want my teammates wondering where I went. Why don't we continue this discussion some other time, say, on the dorm's roof at ten o' clock?" He let go of the ribbon and walked past her. At the door, he turned back and said, "I wouldn't tell your teammates if I were you. You wouldn't want them to overreact and force me to explain the situation, would you?"
Cardin's left hand went into his pocket. From memory, he brought up the camera and readied a picture. In one motion, he yanked off the ribbon and brought up his scroll.
"Not bad," Cardin said as he studied the picture. He turned his scroll and showed her. "The lighting really brings out the color of your hair."
She grabbed at his scroll, but Cardin wagged one finger in front of her while he tucked it into his pocket. He dropped the ribbon and left her standing there with a horrified expression on her face.
The halls were nearly empty, but Cardin made it just before the bell. He took a back seat nearest the door. Russell whispered to Dove and Sky before collecting his books and sitting next to Cardin.
"What took ya?" he asked.
"One of Yang's teammates," Cardin said, just as Blake walked in. Professor Port scolded her for tardiness, but she didn't seem to hear any of it. "A social justice warrior to the bone, that one. Worse than Yang."
Russell winced. "She doesn't hit as hard as her, right?"
"Not even close," Cardin said with a grin.
With a glance to make sure that Professor Port was thoroughly entrenched in his rambling lecture, Cardin opened up his scroll. Accessing his "School Projects" folder required a password inputted three times to get past the encryption. It wasn't the only encrypted file on his scroll, but it was the only one that purged the contents if it detected forced entry.
Inside was a collection of student records, organized by team. Going into the RWBY folder, he pulled out the file labeled "Blake Belladonna." Same face, same dour, yellow-eyed expression, same bow-tie, and identified as human.
"Blake, huh?" Russell asked. "Worth keeping an eye on."
Cardin nodded and went through her training records. No academies, no prep schools, only the certification exam, taken at Beacon a week ago. A closer look at the certification revealed near-perfect scores in ballistics accuracy, agility, and stealth tests, notes about the use of her form-shifting weapon and her cloning Semblance, and the instructor being listed as Bartholomew Oobleck, the exact sort of person to "overlook" the regulation against headwear in legal identification.
Russell, meanwhile, was still going through her background. "Didn't think anyone in Atlas was a Faunus-hugger."
"Every country has its whackos," Cardin said, as his brain compiled that nugget of information. With Atlas as harsh as it is people like her, one must wonder how she had stayed off the records as a Faunus. Her weapon, a rare duel-wielded variant on the grapple gun, posed its own contradictions, as such a weapon would cost at least ninety-thousand lien and fired Mistraltan 9mm rounds.
As he read on, his eyes kept drifting away from his scroll, and his legs itched with the urge to run.
"Find anything good on her?"
With a muted growl, Cardin closed his scroll. "Not enough info on the record. I doubt she'll be a problem anyways, she was quick enough to back off when I hinted that her teammate might take offense to her love for Faunus.
Russell chuckled. "Yeah, that Weiss chick, can't wait to see what happens between her and Yang. Think we could add a little fuel to that fire?"
"Perhaps." Cardin turned his attention to Professor Port just long enough to hear him bragging about how much gel it takes to keep his mustache curled. "Does he ever actually teach anything?"
Russell pulled out his own scroll. "At least he doesn't care if we get our reading done while he talks."
Cardin groaned and sank his face into his arms. "Come on, I can barely pay attention to a text message. Couldn't you, just, read to yourself in our room or something, and I'll pretend I'm not listening?"
"Nice try, but we both know that's not going to work."
"Ugh, worth a shot."
Cardin tuned back into the professor's lecture only to hear him going on about how half a dozen women swooned over him when he returned triumphant from a hunt. The number went up to eight before his long-winded sentence had ended. With a curse for his dad, Cardin opened up his Grimm Studies textbook on his scroll. Taking the assigned reading in five-sentence bursts, with sour reflections on Port's incoherent lessons to alleviate his restlessness, turned the two hour-long lecture into a thousand years of purgatory.
Cardin wasn't the only one breathing a sigh of relief when the bell rang, but he was the first one out the door. With his legs all but trembling from the energy bottled up in them, Cardin sprinted through the halls, raced down a flight of steps, and burst through the doors of a large gymnasium.
In the giant domed room, a track made its oblong circuit next to the walls. Hurdles of varying height, stretches of broken ground, and scattered stones littered a smaller, linear track squeezed up against the inside of the larger. Next to it were racks of weights and benches, pull-up bars and mats, and stretches of open space. An adjoining room, split off with an enormous glass panel, held padded dummies, rows of targets perforated with bullet holes, and an obstacle course. Two closed-off locker rooms held their changes into athletic clothes.
Once Cardin was in his white t-shirt and blue gym-shorts, he hit the larger track and sprinted until his arms trembled. Other students trickled in, some joining him, others practicing on the rougher track, starting with stretches, or going straight to the other room. Russell, Sky, and Dove joined him on the track, but they ran out of wind before he and went to cool off on weights. Yang went straight to punching a dummy, while her sister spent the whole afternoon firing round after round down the range. Blake vanished into the room with them, taking to the obstacle course like a drop of oil skimming over a roiling ocean, weaving in and out as the room's pendulums and springs thrashed the air around her.
Cardin glanced at the clock mounted on the far wall. With an hour left, Cardin went to the other room and took a dummy as far from Yang as possible. He heard the pounding from Yang's dummy reach a slapping, groaning crescendo, and Yang growled each time her fists slammed into the dummy's chest. Cardin smiled and focused on his own fist-work, spreading his blows across the dummy in a series of uppercuts, kicks, jabs, feints, knees, and elbows.
Halfway through, he took out his mace. Though he held back, he made sure to make a touch more noise than Yang. Crimson eyes glared at him from under a tangle of sweaty yellow hair, and she pounded all the harder at her dummy, making the blows echo off the walls. With a roar, she threw a punch accompanied by a shotgun blast from her gauntlets and blew the dummy's head off.
Professor Goodwitch ran in and glared at the smoking remains of Yang's practice dummy. After scolding her and giving her a detention, the professor waved her baton. The dummy's head drifted on top of the stump, and with a crackling sound, the two pieces fused themselves together.
Once Goodwitch was gone, Cardin shrugged at Yang. She scowled and stormed off to the track. Her sister packed up her sniper-scythe and joined her.
Five minutes into his work-out, he heard a loud crash and muttered curses behind him. He turned and saw Blake entangled in the obstacles, with one leg pinned by a falling log, an arm caught by a length of rope, and a piston rammed into her chest. The obstacles had stopped moving once they detected her pinned leg, but Blake's thrashing had tangled her other leg in a second rope.
Cardin glanced around the room. All of his teammates were outside, and the few students in the room were engrossed at the firing range.
"Can't concentrate?" he asked.
Blake scowled at him and pulled at the cords. She got the arm free, but she fell forward and dangled by the one leg, with the other twisted beneath the pendulum. Blake hissed and gritted her teeth.
Cardin adopted a friendly smile and tone. "Need some help with that?"
"Don't you dare," she said with a scowl.
"What? Why would I do anything?" He brought his voice lower. "It's not like you're some filthy Faunus."
Her eyes widened, and her face went pale and stiff. She gazed at the other students, but none of them were looking their way. "Are you trying to get me caught?"
"No, I'm just trying to help out a dear friend of mine," Cardin said. "Although, now that I'm looking at this control panel, I just realized that I've never used this thing. I don't remember which is the neutral mode, or," he added, moving his finger over a green button, "the start button."
Blake shut her eyes and grit her teeth. Cardin let his finger wander over that green button, and for a moment, he toyed with the idea of turning it on. But no, not with Goodwitch standing right outside of the room. Instead, he rapped on the glass. The professor turned towards him, and she rushed inside when she saw Blake. With a wave of her baton, the cord unwound itself and Blake's legs were freed.
"Thank you for letting me know," Goodwitch said as she helped Blake out of the obstacle course. She stared up at Cardin, frowned, and added, "It would be nice to see more of this cooperative attitude from you in the future."
Cardin shrugged. "I just wanted to give the obstacle course a shot. Couldn't do that with someone stuck in there, could I?"
The professor sighed and turned back to Blake. After examining the bruised leg, she instructed her to have her partner escort her to the nurse's office. Goodwitch left the room to get Yang. Taking advantage of the professor's absence, Cardin leaned over and whispered to Blake, "Remember our little plan for tonight."
To lend some truth to his claim, Cardin turned on the obstacle course and got in. He started on the easier end, where twisting bars swung at chest level around him. He blocked some with his forearms and backed away from others, but even so, he found himself hit by the occasional blow to his side or back. With a wary glance at the shifting, gyrating labyrinth that marked the hard mode, Cardin waited for a gap and leapt inside. Almost immediately, he found himself pummeled back and forth by a series of pendulums, entangled, and trapped by a criss-cross of twirling bars.
Professor Goodwitch freed him with growls and mutters, and rounded it out with a lecture on not pushing himself and a recommendation to stick with the basics. As he went back to the punching dummy, he found himself wondering how the hell she had managed to stay in there for over an hour.