Chapter 7: The Warriors' Tears
We all stared at our headmaster, who was holding our classmate's arm in the air.
"Let me go, professor," Emmi growled. "I've almost slain her-"
"Indeed you have," Ozpin replied. "Along with several of your classmates who merely wanted to live amidst these dark times. Did you never consider the amount of damage you would be causing, the number of people you'd be killing?"
"A necessary evil," she said. "They were-"
"Willing to die to uncover the truth," continued the gray-haired headmaster. "Well, miss Wynn, you've continued to overlook so much in your pursuit of revenge. For one, Velvet may be a Nosferatu... but she isn't the only one. You, of all people, should have realized this. You have made yourself guilty of mass murder, larceny, and vandalization within the last thirty minutes. Were I any other man, I would have you killed. But I have not."
He looked away. "I had seen your potential as a Huntress. But the most I can do for you now is to tell you to seek training elsewhere. Perhaps Leonardo has a scolarship open at Haven Academy. Or maybe General Ironwood at Atlas Academy. I am showing you mercy by not turning you over to the authorities. But one thing is for certain- Beacon will no longer be teaching you. Your soul has been twisted by dreams of relentless revenge. The last I met who held to such beliefs nearly destroyed the world."
"I'm not gonna destroy the world," Emmi roared. "I'm trying to save it!"
"She said that, too," Ozpin finished. "Listen, Wynn. I have told several of my students that the amount of mistakes I have made far outnumbers that of any man, woman, or child on Remnant. Perhaps one of the biggest was not arriving sooner so I could calm your spirit. All I can offer you now is safe transit out of Vale."
Port and Oobleck soon arrived, and were quick to restrain Emmi. They dragged her off, the stake in her hands rolling to Ozpin's feet. As they pulled her away, Adam winced. "I get it, universe," he groaned. "Stop being a vengeful craphead..."
"And as for the rest of you," he said, referring to the last six of us. "I'm sure none of you expected this. In fact, one of you isn't even one of my students. But the fact of the matter is, we've suffered a great loss today. The death of a hundred was sure to cause a spike in negativity. Sure enough, there are now Grimm surrounding the academy. But I fear it must now spike once more, not because of the murder of a hundred." He looked to face Cardin, Coco, and Velvet. "The death of one can be just as saddening."
He picked the stake up from the ground, and handed it to Coco. "I'm afraid that you have little choice in the matter. Were it possible, I would have looked for a way to save her. But this Nosferatu is old enough to have poisoned her very soul. I'm so sorry."
Coco looked to her Grimm teammate, who was tearfully smiling. "It's..." spoke Velvet, "It's gonna be okay, Coco. You're going to be okay..."
Her team leader didn't look okay. She was crying. Her signature shades must have fallen off, but even they would have been unable to betray the flood of tears pouring from her eyes.
"I can't kill you, Velvet," she said. "I can't..."
"You at least have to try." The former faunus was firm in her words. "If you don't... I'll hurt more people... I could hurt you. I don't want to..."
Cardin grasped Coco's wrist with his own. "I don't want to do it either. But we have to. She's going to be just another one of them if we don't do it. I think she'd rather die as herself."
Both of them nodded. They allowed Blake and I to say our goodbyes to Velvet. Then, Ozpin spoke with her for a bit. Finally, they spoke to her themselves. I had never expected to attend a premature funeral, but here we were, giving our goodbyes.
"Just get it over with," Velvet cried, even though there was a smile on her face. "At least... I get to die with my friends nearby."
There was a silent, mournful pause. The hands of both Coco Adel and Cardin Winchester gripped the wooden stake.
Then, in one glorious, tragic motion, they brought a tearful end to the life of Velvet Scarlatina.
Ozpin gathered all that was left of us in the courtyard later that evening.
"Friends, students, faculty," he began. "I have witnessed many a tragedy in my life. But as huntsmen and huntresses, it is our duty to prevent such tragedy. As of tonight, over twenty-five percent of the student body of Beacon has perished. No doubt, the Wynn family will be given immense lawsuits for their daughter's actions. But the true mark of a huntsman isn't being able to slay hundreds in order to find the truth. It's having the strength to persevere through tragedy." To this, he faced Neptune and Orson. "It's being able to make difficult decisions despite the dangers if those decisions are wrong." He eyed Yang and Ren now. "And it's the ability to do the right thing, even when you must hurt those you love most to do it." Cardin and Coco recieved his gaze.
"As of tomorrow," he said, "I am giving every one of you the authority to investigate each other's living quarters. For clarity's sake, none of you will be allowed to deny another entry. This invasion of privacy, however, has merit. I believe that this will be the easiest way for us to find the truth."
As we all (mostly) agreed, Cinder and her team approached me. They had with them a dark-haired girl who I can only assume was their Neo. She didn't look anything like Torchwick's henchwoman. I shugged off my suspicions, and allowed my icy blue eyes to make contact with Cinder's golden ones.
"This is certainly more... interesting... than I had thought," she said. "I suppose your team has had few complications, though. It still seems to be unified."
"Absolutely," I lied. I wasn't going to tell her the truth. As I scanned the crowd, I recognized that RWBY and CMSN were the last two teams fully standing, at least that I knew of. It was sad seeing how much things had fallen apart.
"You... wouldn't be interested in helping me search?" I asked. "I feel like your team is going to be on the lookout for anything suspicious."
"Why not?" she said. "I'm sure these three can care for themselves. Assumimg they can tolerate Mercury's flirting."
"For the record," Merc added, "I think they're falling for my charms."
To which Neo whacked him on the head with her parasol. and Emerald kicked him in the balls.
Our team returned home early that night. Ozpin had spoken. By dawn tomorrow, we'd likely all be digging through someone else's room. Blake stared out the window as she finished the "tea" I'd prepared for her.
"How long?" she asked. "How long is this monster going to plague our academy?"
"Until we stop them," I stated. "Everyone, tomorrow we're officially allowed to investigate our fellow teams' rooms. And I say this: We should use a pattern of searching where one of us pairs with a member of another team and searches the room of a third."
"Why?" Yang asked.
"Well," I began, "it's simple logic. With this method, we're keeping in pairs, pairs that we can question, while checking on a room that our culprit cannot defend."
"I wholeheartedly agree with Weiss' plan," Ruby announced. "And also, I call Penny."
I rolled my eyes. "You would. Cinder agreed with me earlier to team up, and if that ends up being a dud, there's always Pyrrha."
"I could work with anyone," Blake suggested. "But we need answers, and there's only one person at this school who can reliably get them..." She winced for a moment. "I'll ask Adam."
"Then I'll try to hold up with Coco, assuming she agrees," Yang finished. "Just a couple of girls like us, staying cool and-"
A loud blasting noise caused us to put our plans on hold for a moment. The four of us rushed outside to face the bloodied hallway before us. A Nosferatu's corpse- one I recognized as Cardin's teammate Sky- lay before us, a stake in his chest. But that wasn't what made us quake. No, that was what was at the end of the hall- another body with a stake in its chest. The corpse had bite marks on his head, and seemed to be holding a stake cannon pointed toward himself. A pair of glasses lay on the floor nearby, fractured.
And as we stared at what was left of Dr. Oobleck, Yang said the one thing that was on everyone's mind.
"What and how?"
Adam Taurus - Living
Bartholomew Oobleck - Slain (C7)
Blake Belladonna - Converted (C4)
Cardin Winchester - Living
Cinder Fall - Living
Coco Adel - Living
Emerald Sustrai - Living
Emmi Wynn - Expelled (C7)
Fox Alistair - Living
Jaune Arc - Living
Liam Pryce - Converted, Slain (C1)
Lie Ren - Living
Mercury Black - Living
Neo Politan - Living
Neptune Vasalias - Living
Nora Valkyrie - Converted (C3), Escaped (C4)
Orson Drew - Living
Ozpin - Living
Penny Polendina - Living
Peter Port - Living
Pyrrha Nikos - Living
Qrow Branwen - Living
Ruby Rose - Living
Sun Wukong - Murdered (C5)
Velvet Scarlatina - Converted (C6), Slain (C7)
Weiss Schnee - Living
Yang Xiao Long - Living
Yatsuhashi Daichi - Murdered (C2)
Yin Kasumi - Living
A\N: I kid you not, I cried during the writing of this chapter- especially during Velvet's death scene. I swear I only made it worse by having Cardin and Coco being the ones to seal the deal.