Setting: Night Club

The trio, consisting of Silver, Lily, and Azura, were currently suppressed by the owner of the night club and kingpin of Zorin who also happened to be Silver's father. Silver sat up on the ground, staring at his father who looked down on his son. The gunman seemed to be set in place. He was barely responding to anything or anyone around him because he couldn't believe his dad was alive or that he was looking at him right now. It felt surreal.

"Do you want us to fire, Mr. Argent?" one of the bodyguards aiming their assault rifle at the trio.

"Hold on," Argent said as he kept his eyes on Silver.

He lifted his left foot and swung it at Silver, kicking his son in the jaw and knocking on his backside.

"He's my son. Let me handle this," Argent finished. "Now, what the hell are you doing here? And more importantly, why are you alive?"

Silver got up and was snapped out of his dreamlike state. Azura and Lily were shocked by this action. They knew nothing about Argent, but neither of them ever thought a father would strike his child like that. It angered Azura and she was ready to tear the man apart. Lily felt the same way and thought Argent needed to be taken down. The two of them were ready to fight, but Silver held his hand up to stop them from doing what they were thinking.

"Stop!" he shouted to them then turned to his father. "You're the one running Zorin? How? I thought you and mom died."

"What can I say? Life in Atlas is great for the rich, but it's the shit for people like us. Scraping at the bottom of the barrel with the rest of the scum was not what I had in mind and having you complicated things for us. Listen, I don't want to get in a whole backstory episode, so I'll keep this nice and short. Your mom and I lived in the gutter, I wanted out, I sold everything we had to get out of here, including you. Greyhound pays well for new recruits. With the Lien they gave me, I was able to buy a ticket out of Atlas and settle down here. I only had the one ticket so your mom couldn't come, not like I wanted her to. I needed a clean slate for my new life. No baggage, you understand, right?"

Argent's explanation surprised all three of them, especially Silver. It shook him to his core. His father was a horrible person for selling his son and leaving his wife. Silver looked back on his childhood. How he lived on the streets before Greyhound made their move to bring him into their ranks. It was all planned and Silver didn't know about it. He was at a loss. Silver never knew his father, but he always thought he was a decent person, but his fantasy was destroyed by reality. It was crushing, but Silver knew that his family ties aren't what to focus right now. Getting out of Zorin was the main objective. The goal was to negotiate with the kingpin to get a transport out of Zorin and that hasn't changed.

"It doesn't matter. None of it matters to me. You don't matter to me!" Silver said though he yelled that last part. "We just came here to ask for a way out of Zorin."

Argent eyed his son with suspicion. Azura and Lily stayed quiet and let Silver do the talking though Azura held a fuming expression while looking at the man. She heard what he did to Silver and immediately hated him. She sympathized greatly with Silver because he was dealt a horrible hand when it comes to family. Lily was keeping calm even though it was harder than she anticipated because Argent was a truly despicable person.

"Hmph. You want out of here, huh? And why should I help you do that?"

"You said it yourself; you want a clean slate with your past life behind you. All my friends and I want is to get out and if we can't, I'll be stuck here, a constant reminder of your pathetic old life and I'll make sure you never forget. Have a transport take us to the next settlement or even straight to the kingdom and we'll never see each other again," Silver explained.

"…" Argent looked at his son with several emotional faces. First was ambivalence, then the smallest hint of anger, contemplation, and finally a disgusting look of satisfaction.

"Looks like you get it. You're right about one thing: having you out of my life will be a blessing. I still don't want you around messing with my-" Argent started, but was attacked with a kick to the face.

Silver was shocked to see the person starting the fight wasn't Azura, who was also shocked, but Tigress. She glared at Argent intensely while in the air. Everything he said about not wanting his own son around pushed her past her tipping point. She attacked the man in charge of Zorin and the team had to deal with the consequences. The bodyguards aimed their guns at Tigress and Azura reacted by shooting out bolts of lightning at all of them, hitting them faster than they could respond. Argent grabbed Tigress's leg after she kicked him then slammed her down into the floor. He brought his fist up to punch her in the face, but Azura intervened by landing a punch against Argent to get him off of Tigress. Argent was knocked to the ground, but the man drew a gun and aimed it at Azura who cloaked her arms and shoulders in flames.

"Enough!" Silver shouted.

Everyone looked back at him. They realized Silver hasn't moved from his spot since Tigress's attack. As they stopped, more of Argent's men entered the night club with guns aimed at the team, waiting to hear the order from their boss, but he remained silent to hear what his son had to say.

"Azura! Lily! Stand down!"

"What?!" Azura shouted in disbelief.

"We didn't come here for a fight! All we want is to get out of here as soon as possible and I doubt you'll let us after all this, so there's only one thing to say. What do I have to give in order for you to give us what we want?" Silver asked.

"…Maybe you're not as dumb as you look. Alright there is something I want and we can discuss how I can get it, in private," Argent said in a low tone.

"You're kidding, right?" Azura exclaimed in defiance.

"We can't leave you by yourself," Lily agreed.

"Guys, it's okay. Remember what I said? The main objective was to get a transport and get out of Zorin and that hasn't changed. I got this. Trust me," Silver said with a smirk. "Just leave and I'll catch up to you later."

Azura and Lily said nothing. They had their eyes on Silver then on Argent who smirked smugly at them. Neither of them wanted to go, but Silver told them he had this covered. After a few moments of silence, the two of them reluctantly left the partially damaged night club, leaving Silver and his father to talk things out.

Setting: Zorin Inn

There was nothing left for Lily and Azura to do but return to their hotel and tell the others what happened. Remus and Zelts were greatly shocked about Silver's father being alive, in Zorin, and the crime boss running the place, though Zelts was more concerned about Silver being alone with his father. After hearing about his father's actions, he was very worried about what was going to happen. He even tried to go to the night club and back Silver up, but Lily and Azura stopped him. They reasoned that interfering would ruin any kind of negotiations they were going down and they'd lose their only chance to move forward and find Violet. Remus agreed with them so they could continue their journey to Violet. With a three to one vote against him, Zelts stayed and waited for Silver to return.

Two hours passed and there was no sign of Silver. The others were getting worried and Zelts was surprisingly impatient. He wanted to know what Silver was doing and if his father was planning anything dirty, but Zelts kept reminding himself what Silver told him. Silver was the best person on the team to negotiate deals. That was true and Zelts had faith in his teammate and friend. Azura was in a foul mood because of Argent's disposition to Silver and the fact he's a horrible father as well as a horrible human being. Knowing the man sold his son and left his wife to get away from them made her furious. Even when her family was banished from the Cobalt family her father was still kind and loving to her and it made Azura feel awful for Silver. She realized he had just as a bad a childhood.

While everyone did their own thing in the hotel room, there was a loud thud outside their door. It was followed by the sound of something clawing at the door then someone trying to turn the doorknob only to fail. Lily got up to open the door and see what the commotion was. She was shocked to see the source of the noise was Silver, laying on the ground in a severely beaten state. He had bruises all over, his clothes were ripped and bloodied, and he seemed to be beaten with an inch of his life.

"Silver!" lily shouted as she crouched down to help him up.

The others rushed over to assist immediately after Lily called out his name. Zelts carried him to the bed and placed the pillows against his back to help prop him up. Lily left the room to find someone who can give Silver first aid while the others asked him what happened. Silver was able to talk though his voice sounded very worn out.

"It's done...We got our ride and...we'll be able to leave first thing tomorrow," was all Silver said.

"What?" Zelts responded.

"My fath- I mean Argent said we can take one of the expedition vehicles and use it to travel to the next settlement. Told you I'd get it done," Silver tried to smirk at Zelts, but it proved to hurt to move around, let alone attempt a smile.

"What kind of deal leaves you like this?" Zelts persisted.

"…He hated that Azura and Lily attacked him in front of his men, so their needed to be consequences, and this is what we agreed on," Silver admitted, but it didn't satisfy anyone.

"Your dad beat you up as part of the deal?" Remus asked.

"...Yeah. Once that was over, he said we could leave," Silver answered.

His explanation of what transpired made things worse. Zelts looked traumatized after hearing this. His friend's father assaulted his son in exchange for getting rid of them. It made him sick and infuriated at the same time as well as regret for not going with Silver to prevent this from happening. This event along with being unable to protect Remus from the Grimm only made Zelts feel even worse. Azura was even more enraged than Zelts because this was partially her fault for getting into the fight. Remus wasn't angry like the others. He was sad, sad for Silver that his father was a horrible person and not a good parent. He wished a reunion like this were a happy one.

No one said anything for a while until Zelts spoke up. He repressed his desire to speak out about Argent and talked about something else.

"Okay. Remus is pretty much back on his feet, so now we just have to wait for you to do the same. A few days later we'll be able to leave."

"Actually, the agreement was that we have to leave first thing tomorrow. If we don't Argent will just run us out of Zorin," Silver explained.

"Are you kidding me?" Zelts said with an annoyed tone. "You're in no condition to go out there, Silver. You might die!"

"We needed a ride and I got one as promised. Just go with it Zelts. All I need is rest and I'll be fine, so let me… get some… sleep…" Silver passed out after finishing his sentence. He was too worn to stay conscious.

Zelts rearranged the pillows so his friend was laying down in the bed and get comfortable. There was nothing left to say. Lily returned with a first aid kit and started treating his body as he slept. Zelts and everyone else watched her work with worry and sadness. Silver had one of the worst days of his life and all any of them could do was watch. While the team was getting ready for bed, Zelts had other plans in mind. He wasn't going to let this slide. He refused to allow Argent to get away with this and planned to make him pay.

Setting: Zorin

The day may have ended, but it wasn't the end of the night for someone on the team. After going to their rooms to sleep, Zelts left his bed and the inn to go outside. He walked through the cold streets of Zorin to reach his destination; Argent's night club. The young man was going there with the sole desire to beat Silver's father into oblivion. He knew Silver would never allow it because it could ruin their chances of leaving and the same could be said about Lily disagreeing with this, but Zelts felt that the man shouldn't get away from this without any repercussions. Zelts didn't even bring the half of Heart of Gold with him. He planned on fighting with his bare hands. He was making it his mission to pulverize Argent regardless of the consequences.

Setting: Night Club

Zelts finally reached the building that Argent was housed in and he was surprised by what he saw. Outside of the night club and leaning against its door was Azura. She looked at Zelts with a serious expression. Unlike Zelts, she brought her weapon, keeping her elemental staff in her right hand. Neither of them had to say a word. A shared glance said everything. These two were here with the same goal in mind; Argent. Zelts did so for the sake of his friend and Azura did so out of rage, wishing to inflict harm to a horrible person as well as doing so on Silver's behalf. She won't hide the fact that their relationship was just starting and it was rocky, but she felt obligated to do this for him.

The two entered the empty club to see that no one was guarding main floor of the building. With the night club previously being a factory, the two of them assumed there were more floors and rooms. Azura pointed to a set of stairs leading to the second floor and they walked up to see it lead to a floor with hallways and rooms. The two of them carefully walked down the hall and slowly opened the door to each room to see if Argent was in any of them. They passed four rooms so far. Two had nothing important in them, one had a few of his bodyguards and Azura quickly froze them all, incapacitating them the quickest and quietest way possible, and the fourth room was a bedroom. It was possible that this was where Argent slept and he's probably walking around somewhere in the factory. Zelts and Azura continued to explore the remaining rooms on the second floor.

The next two rooms had more bodyguards and Zelts dealt with them. He fought them all hand to hand, fighting six of them at a time, and he bested them all much to Azura's surprise though it really wasn't. She has seen the man battle Alexandrite and rival her in physical strength.

"All those muscles aren't just for show," she thought before going to the last room.

The final room was an office. A desk in the middle with a chair, laptop, a few files, but no Argent.

"Dammit. He's not here," Azura told Zelts who groaned as a response.

The only thing they could guess was that Argent wasn't inside the building. Zelts went to one of the previous rooms where the defeated bodyguards were and he asked one of them where Argent was. He and Azura were confused by the man's answer because he said he's in the building, meaning he's somewhere they haven't checked or somewhere they overlooked.

The two of them left the room and the second floor to see if there were any underground floors or secret rooms. As they walked down the stairs and reached the dance floor, the two of them heard the sound of a toilet flushing. They looked to their left to see there was a bathroom and the person exiting it was the man they were searching for, Argent. The man looked to the stairs and saw the two of them and was surprised by their presence.

"Who the hell are you tw-" he stopped talking when he saw Azura. "Oh, it's you. One of my son's lackeys. And who's this?"

Zelts needed no other confirmation. He could tell based on the man's words and appearance that he was Silver's deadbeat dad. He approached the middle-aged man with a pissed off look. Zelts raised his hands and clenched his fists. He reeled his fist back and slugged Argent in the face as hard as he could. The punch hit Argent in the side of the face and the force of caused his whole body to turn in the direction Zelts punched him in. It happened so fast that Argent hardly knew what hit him. He felt like he was hit by a train and it almost felt like his jaw was knocked off. Zelts delivered a second blow to the man's chest without hesitation and the impact actually broke a rib and made Argent double over in tremendous pain then fell to his knees. Unbeknownst to Zelts, he unconsciously activated Conversion and started absorbing a little bit of the dust woven into his shirt, making his punches a little stronger.

Azura cracked her knuckles as she approached the man. The first thing she did was deliver the same kick Argent gave Silver in their first meeting. She kicked Argent hard in the jaw and sent the man flying into the bathroom. When he crashed into the door and landed back in the bathroom, Argent realized her kick dislocated his jaw. As he struggled to back up on his feet, Zelts entered the room and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"So, you're Silver's father?" Zelts said.

He didn't receive a response. He wondered why until he noticed Argent's dislocated jaw.

"Can a person talk with a dislocated jaw?" Zelts asked Azura who walked in after him.

She grabbed Argent by the head with one hand and had her other hand on his jaw. In one quick movement, she readjusted his jaw and Argent screamed in pain, but neither Zelts or Azura cared for his well-being.

"It's not dislocated anymore," Azura said nonchalantly.

After numerous moans of pain, Argent was finally able to speak though he was terrified of the pair. He was dealing with them alone and none of his bodyguards were coming to his aid. Zelts could see the man was shaking in fear, but that wasn't going to dissuade him from doing what he came here to do. He threw the man into the bathroom windows and he landed painfully on some of the sinks.

"What the hell do you want?!" Argent screamed at them.

"Tell me, when you were beating up your own son did you enjoy it? Did you think it was fun? Don't lie to me?" Azura asked in a threatening tone.

"….." Argent didn't answer out of fear.

"Well, you didn't say yes, but you also didn't say no," Azura said then activated the lightning dust in her right wrist.

She electrocuted him as she grabbed his suit then threw him into one of the bathroom stalls. The stall door was destroyed and Argent's backed slammed right into the toilet. His body was hurting all over and he could barely move. He tried to get up, but he only slipped and fell back on the ground. He looked up to see Zelts and Azura standing before him. Zelts knelt down and Argent flinched away in fear until he felt his suit being grabbed again. Zelts pulled him close so the man could see his serious face.

"Now, that deal you made with Silver. I'm not too happy about the terms of the agreement. So, let's talk about revising those terms," Zelts said in a dark tone.

Several minutes later, Zelts stood before Argent with a slightly more satisfied look. He looked at the pathetic heap that Argent was, seeing the man as nothing but a waste of space.

"That settles that," Zelts said to Azura. "Ready to head back and tell everyone the good news?"

Azura eyed Argent with a cold expression then said, "You go ahead without me. I'm not done yet."

Zelts looked at Azura then glanced at Argent. He may have been the known good guy and conscience of Team VRSZ, but Zelts isn't perfect and he knows that better than anyone else. He left the bathroom without saying a word to either Azura or Argent. As he walked out of the night club, Zelts could hear the sounds of Argent's wails as Azura did whatever she did to him. Zelts simply walked back to the inn with no regrets.

Setting: Zorin Inn

It was a new day in Zorin and the team remained in their beds. When Silver woke up he still felt horrible. Though his aura helped heal his body, the wounds were still there and he felt the ones that were throbbing all over his body. It was a struggle just to sit up, but he managed to do it and when he did, Silver opened his eyes and saw everyone at the foot of his bed. Even Remus was on his feet for the first time since their battle with the Wendigo. It was good to see his friend up and walking, but there was something Silver didn't understand.

"Why are you guys looking at me like that? And time is…" Silver grabbed his scroll from the nearby dresser and was surprised it was the afternoon and they were supposed to leave in the morning.

Silver jolted up and regretted doing it because he was still in pain. "Wh-Why are we still here?! We were supposed to- ARGH! Arg…" Silver winced from the pain.

"Relax, Silver. We can go whenever we want. Your father had a change of heart. Said we could leave whenever we want," Zelts said with a smile.

"I'm calling bull. What the hell did you do?" Silver asked with an arched eyebrow, seeing through Zelts's fake smile.

"I know you said not to do anything, but come on, Silver. I see my friend get beat up by his own father and I'm going to do something about it. After all, you and Remus are like my brothers to me and if someone messes with you then they gotta deal with me," Zelts explained.

Silver sighed as a response. Deep down he was actually happy that Zelts did this for him. It showed that Team VRSZ was his true family. He really appreciated Zelts doing this on his behalf.

"Thanks, Zelts. This really means a lot," Silver said with a smile.

"Actually, it wasn't just me. Azura got there before I did with the exact same plan in mind," Zelts said, looking over at the female Cobalt.

Azura didn't like the attention shifting to her, but she confronted nonetheless. She looked at Silver who looked back at her with a small smile.

"Don't worry about it. You had a bad dad and I thought he needed to be taught a lesson. Nothing more, nothing less," Azura explained.

"Thank you, Azura. You're a good friend," Silver said gratefully.

Azura's face softened then she walked up to Silver. She pulled a tube out of her pocket and put it in Silver's hands. On closer inspection, he saw that it was hair gel and it confused him why she gave this two him.

"After I… talked to your father, I was walking back here and noticed there was a shop. I went there this morning and found the hair gel. Thought you could use this since we've been making fun of your spiky hair," Azura explained.

Remus was glad his cousin and his friend were on much better terms. Lily was surprised and delighted at Azura's kindness. It showed she was improving greatly character-wise including her relationship with the others.

Silver looked down at the hair gel thinking about how he always had his black hair slicked back. Then he thought about how his father had his hair in the same style. He didn't want to be anything like that man and he didn't want to look like him either. Silver put the hair gel on the dresser.

"Thanks for this, Azura. Really, but I might keep my hair this way," Silver said while painfully raising his right arm to touch his spiky black hair. "I kinda like it and low maintenance."

Azura smiled, saying, "If you say so. But I'm gonna need that hair gel back so I can return it. We're on a budget after all," Azura joked.

Silver laughed a little but groaned in pain. "Sorry. Seems like laughing hurts a little bit. And people say laughter is the best medicine."

"Oh, really?" Zelts said mischievously.

He walked over to the left side of Silver's bed and laid on it, looking a Silver with a silly expression.

"What are you doing?" Silver said before he started laughing. "N-no! Stop making that face! Ahaahaha! Ow ow, ow, ahaha… stoooop! Ahhh! Ow! No! Stop, dammit!" Silver said between laughs and groans of pain.

Everyone else laughed too. The scene was very amusing and heartwarming. After the long days of travelling through the treacherous lands of Atlas, battles against dangerous Grimm, and personal hardships, this moment was greatly needed. The team did something they weren't able to do since coming to Atlas; enjoy the day.


The theme of this volume is family and I've said it would extend beyond the Underlands and the Cobalts.

Silver will be keeping his black hair spiky from now on. He has fully embraced his natural anime hair. He doesn't want to look like his father. This desire is shared with Violet who dyed her hair purple to look like her mother instead of keeping blond like her father's. So far, half of of the members Team VRSZ have a bad relationship with their parents.

Argent is a shade of grey just like Silver.

The settlement of Zorin is free from Argent's control thanks to Azura and Zelts. He won't be seen around the town anymore thanks to Azura. She didn't kill him, but she did enough damage that the man has to move around in a wheelchair and eat food through a straw.

The events between Violet's chapters and the team's chapters aren't very chronological. They are tales of what each side is doing while in Atlas. The next chapter will be about Violet and it'll happen the day the team arrives in Zorin.