Author Notes: Once again, sorry I took so long to post this chapter, next few should be uploaded quicker this time. (hopefully). Anyway, please enjoy this chapter!
What It Takes
Chapter 16: Trust
"Hey Basil! Wait up!"
Basil turned and saw Re running up to him in a tank top and gym shorts.
"Hey Re," Basil said as Re caught up to him, "What's going on?"
"Not much," He said running a hand through his short blond hair, "just finished some boxing lessons with Wai, not sure if they'll be any use to me but you never know."
Basil nodded in agreement, "It's always good to learn new things, especially for combat."
Re smiled as they continued to walk through the hallway, "So where did you just come from?"
"Professor Port's class," Basil replied, "told us another intriguing hunting story from his childhood."
Re laughed, "Of course he did! Was there a moral to the story?"
"Actually he didn't get to the end," Basil explained, "the bell rang before he could finish."
"Ah well, I'm sure you'll find out next class," Re reassured him, clapping his shoulder.
"Yea probably."
"So, did you hear about the dance coming up for the Vytal Festival?" Re asked exuberantly.
"Yea I did," Basil answered, "what about it?"
"Well, who ya gonna ask?"
"What?" Basil questioned, confused.
"Who are you going to ask to the dance?" Re inquired again, "I'm sure there are several ladies out there that would love to go to the dance with you."
"Why can't I just go and be with my friends?" Basil wondered, remembering the dances that he and his friends had attended at Signal.
"I guess you could do that," Re replied, "but I'm sure there is some huntress in this school that you'd like to take to the dance, am I right?"
Basil blushed at the thought, "Well…I mean…I don't know…"
"I knew it!" Re exclaimed, "Now all you gotta do is muster up the courage to ask her!"
Basil rolled his eyes at Re, "Yea 'cause it's just as easy as that," he said sarcastically.
"Never said it was easy," Re stated, "but it's not the most complicated thing in the world."
"Who are you gonna ask?" Basil questioned Re.
"That's easy, I'm gonna ask Daisy."
Basil looked puzzled, "The blonde girl from Atlas? The one you met a few days ago?"
"That's the one!" Re responded with a smile.
"But, you pretty much just met her. Don't you think it's kinda out of the blue to ask her to a dance?"
"Well, I'm not gonna ask her now," Re retorted, slightly offended that his friend would think him so bold, "I'm gonna talk to her more first, get to know her better, let her know me better, and then I'll ask her."
Basil looked at him skeptically and Re rolled his eyes.
"Trust me Basil," reassured Re, "I've gotten this down to a science, you should be more concerned about yourself and how you're gonna ask your lady."
Basil blushed again, but thankfully the conversation ended as Sylvia came up behind them and started talking to Re about study times.
Glad that conversation is over, thought Basil as they continued to walk down the corridor, however he's right, I gotta start thinking about how to ask her to the dance.
Wai stood at the edge of a vast forest. Across from him, amongst the dark trees, stood a figure with a black cloak, staring intently at Wai. The figure turned and ran into the forest. Wai followed it, angry about something he had forgotten about. He heard a voice calling out to him, but he ignored it as he was engulfed by the woods. The trees thickened around him as he pursued the mysterious figure. Eventually he emerged into a small clearing, standing across from the hooded figure who, once again began staring intently at Wai, his long blue hair flowing in the light breeze. The figure spoke, and although Wai could not hear what it said, it made him angry. Wai lunged forward, extending the blades from his gauntlets and striking the figure. However, the figure dodged the attack easily, as if it were gliding along with the wind. The figure continued to taunt him as it dodged each attack, making no attempt to strike back. Furious, Wai struck with increased ferocity at the figure, losing focus as the anger slowly consumed him. Red began to seep into his vision and something in the back of his mind begged him to snap out of it, but even that was lost to the anger that flowed through him. His eyes burned like a bonfire while his entire body was surrounded by a brilliant red aura. The figure laughed as it continued to dodge Wai's attacks with complete ease. He heard more voices call out to him as he fought with the figure. The figure backed away from Wai's recent swipe as he followed up with a stab at the figures stomach. The figure jumped out of the way, as Wai's blade buried itself into the thing behind it. His vision came back to normal and he saw, to his horror, his blade buried into the chest of a young boy with black hair and eyes. His face was shocked as he looked into Wai's face, his eyes distant and unfocused.
"Wai…" the boy spoke faintly.
Then the boy's face warped into Namra's face.
"How could you do this…?" she spoke, and then she changed into Sylvia.
"We trusted you!" She yelled angrily, and then she became Re.
"And you betrayed us!"
The body then dissolved into a black mist, and an unbearable scream filled the forest, echoing around, and forcing Wai to cover his ears, but it continued, even louder than before.
Wai opened his eyes and gasped loudly. He was sitting cross legged on the floor of the library in his usual leather jacket and jeans. He was covered in a cold sweat from the nightmare he had just had.
"You alright?"
Wai jumped at the sound of the girl's voice. He turned and saw Namra sitting next to him in the same position in her brown cloak and baggy black pants. Wai stared into her blindfolded face as he tried to calm down from what he just saw, not wanting to worry his friend.
"You're shivering," Namra pointed out, concerned, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," Wai stated quickly, "just a little chilly in here is all."
Namra frowned, not truly believing him considering it was fairly warm in the building.
"Why didn't you come out of the meditation when I called your name?" Namra asked, deciding to press a bit, hoping to find the reason why Wai was lying to her.
"I guess I was too deep in the trance," Wai lied again, "Couldn't hear your voice."
"And I'm assuming that's why you're covered in sweat and shivering as well right?" Namra questioned, raising her eyebrow.
"Had a bit of a bad dream while in the trance," Wai responded, deciding to tell her part of the truth so she would stop asking questions, "It's nothing to worry about."
"Uh huh…" Namra replied, still unconvinced, but she decided to drop the issue for now, "Well I think that's enough for today. We should head back to the dorm, it's getting late."
"Y-yea," Wai replied, still shaken from his nightmare.
They began to walk out of the library and back towards the dorm.
Why now? Wai thought to himself as they walked, Ever since my team agreed to help me with my semblance I've been free of that nightmare, so why is it coming back now?
Because you're afraid, a voice in his head replied, you're afraid you'll hurt one of them like you did before.
But that's why I'm training, so I won't hurt anyone with my semblance again.
Do you really think that'll work? No, you can't control it. You're doomed to hurt everyone you care about, whether you want to or not.
No, that's not true. I'm going to learn to control it. I won't hurt my friends.
Tell that to Lonan…
Wai's eyes teared up, but he wiped them away swiftly.
No, Wai steeled himself; I won't let that happen again.
Wai entered his dorm with Namra and was greeted happily by Re and Sylvia.
Wai smiled at his friends.
I'm around some of the best friends I've ever had, Wai thought, and I refuse to let my semblance break them away from me.
Basil ducked underneath the blade of Aurelia's ax. Porphyrios charged at him as Basil parried Celestia's katana away. Seeing Porphyrios charge, Basil swung his trident, intercepting both of his sickles. He couldn't stay in that position long as Aurelia and Celestia both swung at him. Quickly, Basil pushed Porphyrios away and back-rolled underneath both of the incoming attacks. Taking this opportunity, Celestia followed up by striking at Porphyrios, sending him into the ground. Getting up quickly, Porphyrios blocked the next swing of Celestia's sword, while Aurelia and Basil exchanged blows between their weapons. They had been doing this kind of training for a while now, pitting themselves against one another all at once. Porphyrios decided it would be a good idea to prepare for free-for-all battles considering they could have to compete in matches like this in the tournament.
This is certainly working well, Basil noted as he blocked another strong blow from Aurelia's ax, not only are we exposing ourselves to different types of battles, but we are also learning to keep aware of our surroundings.
Another series of strikes came from Aurelia and Basil blocked each one of them with difficulty.
Man she hits like a truck, Basil thought as he blocked another jarring hit from her ax.
The battle kept up like this until Basil finally was able to push away Aurelia's ax. Taking advantage of this, Basil stabbed at her stomach, knocking her off balance and causing her to hit the ground. Stepping back, Basil looked over at Celestia and Porphyrios fighting it out on the other side of the sparring room. Celestia was gracefully dodging Porphyrios' brute strikes as she attacked with her own weapon as well. Porphyrios tried to accustom himself to Celestia's attack pattern, but was unable to as Celestia kept switching up her pattern without skipping a beat. Her dark pink hair flowed beautifully as she continued to rain down blow after blow against Porphyrios. Basil smiled as he admired his friends' fighting style.
WHAM!
Not paying attention to his surroundings, Basil had not seen Aurelia get up and deftly swing her ax straight into his stomach. Not expecting the blow, Basil fell onto the mat, the wind knocked out of him. Porphyrios and Celestia, hearing the noise, looked up from their fight to see Basil on the ground with Aurelia standing over him.
"I'm so sorry Basil!" she exclaimed, "I didn't realize you weren't paying attention!"
"Basil come on!" Porphyrios scolded, "You have to always be paying attention during combat, no matter what!"
"Sorry," Basil apologized sheepishly, "I'll make sure to pay more attention."
Porphyrios grunted and returned to fighting Celestia.
Aurelia offered him her hand and helped Basil to his feet.
"Not your fault," Basil stated, "I should've payed attention."
"What happened to make you lose focus?" asked Aurelia curiously.
Basil blushed slightly, "Nothing just spaced out for a bit is all."
He readied a combat stance.
"Come on," Basil urged, "Let's continue."
Aurelia smiled and readied a stance of her own as they continued to spar.
After about half an hour, they decided to break for the night. So, they gathered up their stuff and walked back to the dorm. On the way there they began to talk about the upcoming Vytal Festival and what they thought it would be like. Porphyrios did not partake in the conversation, choosing instead to lag behind in silence, lost in his own thoughts.
"Do you think they'll have some sort of fairground where people can hang out in between the tournament matches?" asked Celestia curiously.
"Probably," replied Basil with a smile, "I can't imagine the only form of entertainment being the tournament, it would get boring."
"Maybe there'll be games where you can play for prizes," Aurelia pointed out, "What do you think Porph?"
Porphyrios remained silent, still lost in thought.
"Porph? You in there?"
"Hmm?" Porphyrios grunted as he was snapped out of his thoughts.
"You alright?" Aurelia asked, "You haven't said anything since we left the sparring room."
"I'm fine," Porphyrios reassured her, "just thinking, is all."
"About your investigation?" inquired Basil.
"Perhaps," Porphyrios growled.
"You know you really don't need to investigate," Basil stated, "If Ozpin said there wasn't much to go on then it must not be too important, besides I'm sure the police can handle it."
"That may be fine for you," Porphyrios answered, steel in his voice, "but unlike you I care enough to keep my team safe."
"Hey all I'm saying is that you should take a break every now and again," Basil replied defensively, "you certainly deserve it with all the effort you're putting in."
"I'll take a break when my research is finished," Porphyrios grunted, "Now stop butting into my business."
Porphyrios stormed off in front of them towards the dorm, followed by Aurelia after a few seconds. Basil felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Celestia smiling at him.
"Don't worry," she reassured as she smiled, "I'm sure it's just stress from everything that's going on."
Basil sighed, but then smiled back, "Yea you're probably right, Thanks Celeste."
Celestia's grin widened, happy she was able to cheer Basil up.
They walked together down the hall and back to the dorm. On the way, Basil couldn't help but worry about Porphyrios and how the investigation was affecting him.
Wai rushed forward and stabbed at the floating figure amongst the trees. The figure jumped as Wai's blade impaled itself into the body behind it. Namra's blindfolded face looked up at Wai.
"Why Wai…Why?"
Wai jolted out of bed, covered in a cold sweat. He looked around for the figure but realized he was in his dorm room at Beacon. Wai took in deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. His heart was thumping painfully in his chest as his mind's eye continued to play back the horrible image of him impaling his friend. Wai put his head in his hands as he continued to take deep breaths to calm himself. His whole body shook and sweat continued to trickle down across his skin. Unable to calm himself, Wai got out of bed and walked out of the room in just his tank top and shorts. It was late, so nobody was walking through the halls at this time. He walked through the hallway and toward the gym. When he got there he placed his scroll to the scanner and the door unlocked.
Good thing we have twenty-four hour access to this room, Wai thought thankfully.
Walking into the room, Wai grabbed some hand wraps and wrapped his hands with them. He then proceeded to the nearest punching bag. He gave it a few jabs before going into his normal routine. He wasn't sure how long he had been at the bag for, when he heard the click of the lock and the door to the gym opened. Hearing the sound, he grabbed the bag and turned to see who it was. He saw Namra standing there in her pajamas with her black blindfold wrapped over her eyes as always.
"Hey…" Wai spoke, voice trailing off as he unwrapped his hands.
"Hey," Namra replied.
Wai put the hand wraps back where he found them and sat on one of the benches near the middle of the room. Namra sat down next to him.
"I figured I'd find you here," Namra commented.
"Yea? Why's that?" asked Wai.
"You've mentioned before how punching the bag helps you to destress, so I figured you'd go here when you left the room."
"How'd you know I'm stressed?"
The edges of Namra's mouth curled as she smirked at the question.
"Well you were acting strangely during training and you didn't talk to anybody when we got back to the dorm. I figured something must be up for you to act like that."
The two of them sat there in silence until Namra spoke.
"So, you gonna tell me what's up?"
Wai sighed, knowing she was gonna ask that.
"It's complicated."
"Well it's not like we're going anywhere right now."
"Fair enough," Wai conceded.
He took in a deep breath as he contemplated how much to tell her.
Well she already knows about my semblance, Wai thought to himself, Might as well tell her the rest of it.
Wai turned towards Namra. She sat still, listening intently to what he was about to say.
"I've been having… nightmares about my past," Wai confessed, "They started at the beginning of the year and have occurred on and off until I revealed the secret about my semblance to you guys."
Namra nodded, remembering the conversation they had all had that day.
"The stopped after that and I thought they were gone forever now that I was taking steps to control my semblance…"
Wai trailed off for a bit as he collected his thoughts, unsure if he should continue.
"But?" Namra inquired, encouraging him to confide in her.
"But it seems that they're coming back, "Wai continued, "During training this evening I had the same nightmare while meditating. That's why I didn't hear you call my name."
Wai gave a defeated smile, "And I just had the same nightmare tonight, which is why you and I are here now."
"I see," Namra replied, "You were plagued by events in your past until you resolved to control the problem. But now that you're actually resolving the problem, your nightmare has come back."
"Yes, as I just said," Wai replied, "But I have no idea why."
"Well," Namra thought, "perhaps the nightmare is the manifestation of your fear."
"What?" Wai asked, disbelievingly.
"I mean," Namra continued timidly, "because you're finally trying to achieve what you couldn't before. You're afraid that your past will repeat itself, which is why you're having nightmares from your past."
Namra moved closer and put her hand on Wai's shoulder.
"You have to learn that while your past may never leave you, it can't control who you are. It happened in the past, you have to let it go."
"I can't let it go," Wai argued, standing up from the bench, "What happened back then was my fault, I can't just forget about it."
"We all make mistakes Wai," Namra reasoned with him, "Sometimes things happen that are out of our control."
Namra stood up and walked towards one of the windows.
"I had something happen to me too," Namra continued, "I used to have a really good friend back home, before Beacon. He and I used to walk home from school every day and talk about our futures as hunters."
A tear began to roll down Namra's cheek as she reminisced about the past. She wiped it away before Wai could see it, for now she had to be the strong one.
"But turns out he wasn't such a good friend. Something bad happened and it changed him. He began participating in shady activity and tried to get me to join. And when I refused, he got angry, accused me of betraying our friendship. I never saw him again."
Namra walked back over to Wai and once again put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"But I realized that sometimes people change. Sometimes things just happen and you can't control them. The things that have happened to you in your past are not always your fault."
Namra smiled at Wai.
"You can't blame yourself for everything."
"But that's just it," Wai retorted, shaking off Namra's hand from his shoulder, "This event from my past, it is my fault Namra."
Wai turned his back towards Namra, not wanting to look at her as he revealed his final secret.
"I killed my friend."