Chapter 5. Leadership and Other Troublesome Things.
The morning came quicker than it should have, sun shined on Ash's face. He opened one eye carefully, it seemed to be the only ray of light that could make it through the window. He turned his head slowly, a face blocked his view.
"Gah!" Ash shouted, throwing himself off the bed and onto the hardwood floor. He let out a deep sigh, a thick dust cloud followed. "Billy, we need to talk about personal space."
"I'm sorry I startled you, the mean lady wanted me to wake you up." He said with an ever so slight wince. He leaned forward to whisper. "She's really mean, can we maybe switch partners?"
"I don't think it works like that Billy." Ash groaned. He pulled himself to his feet and wiped his eyes violently. He collapsed back onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling, even after all their efforts to clean the place, dust hung from the ceiling like moss. "Where are the others?"
"The bathroom, they kept saying they couldn't trust me not to look." Billy said with his usual smile, he had a slightly quizzical look. "I don't know what I was supposed to be looking at."
"Of course you don't." Ash said. He smiled as he grabbed his clothes and quickly changed. He took a glance at the clock, it took him a moment to realize it was broken. Figures. He wouldn't be surprised if Glynda broke it herself. "When is our class?"
"Nine, or nine thirty, or ten." Billy stammered. He scratched his head. "I know this, give me a minute."
The door swung open, Morgana and Lyra stomped in. By the way they refused to look anywhere near each other it would be a safe bet they just had a fight. This team is perfect.
"Morning ladies, did I miss anything fun?" Ash asked, a sly grin drew across his face, it was met by matching death glares. He recoiled slightly.
"Can you tell this little rat I don't want to speak to her, nor do I want to hear another word out of her mouth." Morgana roared. Ash recoiled even more.
"Can you tell this harpy to stay away from me?" Lyra shrieked back. Ash recoiled to the point he couldn't find his neck. He was leaning so far back he was on the verge of tipping over.
"Alright, what happened?" Ash asked. He swallowed hard, they both opened their mouths.
"She won't leave me alone!" Morgana shrieked. The room felt as if it was getting colder.
"She's an insufferable hag!" Lyra spat. Billy looked back and forth. He stepped quietly to his bed and hid behind it.
"Can I just add..." Ash began, he had no idea where he was going. He could feel sweat dripping down his face as the two continued to give him looks that he was sure would haunt him for the rest of his life. "...how absolutely lovely you two look this morning?"
"Ugh!" They both shouted in unison, throwing their arms up and stomping to the door. They fought over it for a minute before throwing their heads up and storming out quietly.
"Is it safe to come out?" Billy asked quietly. Ash couldn't even see him anymore.
"Yeah Billy, it's time to go." Ash replied. He wiped the sweat off his brow and took a deep breath. His neck was sore. There was a loud bang, Billy's bed shot into the air. It landed with a thud.
"Ow." Billy muttered, he pulled himself out from under the bed and dusted himself off.
"Let's get to class." Ash shrugged. This day was off to a wonderful start.
Class wasn't much better, the uncomfortable silence was deafening. Billy and Ash sat between the two angry ladies and shifted uneasy glances. When Professor Port stepped in, they couldn't help but sigh in relief. Then he opened his mouth and proved that this class was going to be a boring. It was a no win situation. Ash buried his face in his arms.
The class drew on for several minutes, Port rambled on about his glory days, putting too much emphasis on how much of a ladies man he was. Half the class was sleeping, nobody seemed to notice nor care. Ash felt it was a great idea. He woke up a few minutes later, something was happening. Stepping up in front of the class was Weiss Schee. Ash heard himself groan, his morning just couldn't get any worse now could it. Rude awakening, check, a not in the fun way catfight, check, boring class, check, hated adversary showing off, check. Where's Cardin when you need him.
Ash thought about how things used to be, back at his manor. It was a different time. His father would take him out to for sparring practice on saturday mornings when the weather permitted, he would read to him at night and would help him with his homework whenever he came home. Ash remembered sundays were his favorite of days, going out on the yacht, sailing aimlessly for hours. The Gray Dawn, how he missed that boat. He remembered it being repossessed, he remembered watching his father lose everything. The manor lost it's staff. It fell so horribly into disrepair, they were forced to live in the guesthouse. The Schnee Dust Company didn't seem to care, they didn't care that they just ruined a family, ruined a childhood. They just wanted more profit. Weiss Schnee, by the looks of it she got everything she ever wanted. Ash, he got prison.
Class was dismissed, thankfully this school wasn't particularly packed. Students were expected to spend a great deal of their day to day training and getting to know their teams strengths and weaknesses. Rumors were spreading of an upcoming tournament, that students will be selected based on results during combat trials in the upcoming weeks. It's funny how uncredited information can cause some anxiety amongst the young. Ash wasn't entirely sure about the situation, Lyra and Morgana were just as likely to attack each other than an opposing team. Billy doesn't like hurting people, Lyra herself doesn't even know how to fight. Why was he in charge? Ash pondered that as he trudged back to his dorm.
"What are you doing?" The voice came from behind him, he jumped and turned around. Glynda was giving him a fierce look from behind her oval glasses.
"Returning to my dorm?" Ash replied wearily. Between Cardin, Weiss and Glynda, he was wondering how today could get any worse. "Is that against the rules?"
"You have free time?" Glynda asked. Ash felt his heart sinking into his stomach. He knew where this was going.
"Yes, but I was thinking of taking a nap. I woke up pretty early today and it's been pretty hec..." Ash began to explain but judging from the smirk on her face she had something devious planned. He let out a sigh.
"I need somebody to clean Professor Oobleck's classroom, apparently the window was left open and some birds got in." She had the widest of smiles. "It's quite the mess but you look like you can handle it."
"Alright." Ash responded with a shrug.
Professor Oobleck had a smaller classroom than Professor Port. There was a lot more in it, stacks upon stacks of notes and boards covered in charts. Unfortunately, the place was turned into a bird toilet. The smell was horrible. In the class there was one other student, on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor. He was wearing a green long coat with a matching wide brimmed hat, there was a peacock feather tied to it. He was fairly tall and had long blonde hair. He smiled back at Ash.
"So, you here to help me clean?" He smiled back, he looked like he might have been one of the older students. "Sorry, forgot my manners. Gabriel Gwyrdd, team ALGT, second year."
"Ashton Gray, team ALBM, first year." Ashton replied back. "What are you in for?"
"I opened the window." Gabriel said, chuckling quietly. "I was trying to impress a girl by showing how kind and considerate I am. You see, I let this adorable little pigeon into the class and was playing with it and showing how great I am with animals. Next thing I know fifty others swarm in, and the rest truly is history. What about you?"
"Glynda hates me and she caught me with free time." Ash said with a shrug. Gabriel gave a knowing nod.
"I know that all too well." Gabriel said with a slight grunt, the particular floorboard he was working was refusing to cooperate. "She hated me my entire first year here. Still does but is less vocal about it."
"What did you do?" Ash asked. Gabriel seemed to pause for a moment before answering with a big grin.
"I told her I find her librarian look sexy." Gabriel replied, he let out a hearty laugh. "She smacked me with that riding crop she loves so much and I told her I thought that was sexy too. Next thing I know I'm in a storage closet trying to dust with a toothbrush. What about you?"
"Ozpin bailed me out of jail, apparently she thinks I'm going to become just another street thug." Ash said, grabbing a brush and began scrubbing the floorboards.
"One of Ozpin's chaingangs then, I knew one of the last group. His name was Michael, he was a mouthy one." Gabriel said leaning back against a freshly scrubbed stairwell. "I think he might be the sole reason she hates all of Ozpin's prison exchange students."
"What happened?" Ash asked. He scrapped the brush against the floor, the mess was like cement.
"He would scream about everything. I swear the man invented five curse words a day." Gabriel shook his head nostalgically. "He graduated but nobody has heard from him since. Some people say he skipped the kingdom, others say he joined a gang. There's a popular theory he's back in prison."
"What about his team, they have no idea?" Ash asked. He managed to get most of the main floor clean, only to find it was dripping off the desk leaving a dirty trail behind him.
"Come to think of it, I can't recall what happened to his team. Or any of the other chaingangs." Gabriel took a minute to think. He shrugged. "I mean, I've heard about what the other graduate students have been up to, you'd think reformed prisoners would get a little press coverage once in a while. Something to think about I guess."
Ash felt a little uneasy. It wasn't exactly a comforting thought. They continued talking until they finished up. They headed together to get some food, then parted ways to head for their teams.
He sat down next to Lyra, she and Morgana were giving each other death glares from across the table. Billy looked like he was shrinking. He quietly ate his food. The rest of the hall was packed with students. He could make out Cardin and his gang, he also could see Weiss and her group. He noticed that blonde kid who puked on the airship, he had teamed up with the girl who was after his pancakes, her friend and a very familiar looking girl he couldn't place. He turned back to Lyra and Morgana. He needed to do something about this. For his sake at least.
"Alright, that's enough you two." Ash said calmly, placing his fork down. "This fight has gone on long enough."
"She started it!" Lyra blurted out. Billy buried himself in his arms uncomfortably.
"I am really getting sick of the little mouse, she never stops squeaking." Morgana replied. She let out a long sigh.
"Alright, I want to make sure you understand." Ash said sternly. He took a sip from his glass of water. "I don't care, about any of this. I don't care what your fight is about or if your feelings are hurt. If you don't get your act in gear then we are all going to be back in jail. How does that sound?"
"When she apologizes." Morgana stubbornly responded. He could swear she stamped her foot under the table.
"Apologize?" Lyra squeaked. "You started the fight."
"You started it!" Morgana shouted back.
"Shut up!" Ash shouted at them, he could tell he was drawing an audience. "I don't care, you two need to come to an agreement not to talk about whatever it is that's bothering the two of you ever again or so help me, I will personally give Ozpin a reason to throw all of us out."
"That's not fair!" Lyra and Morgana shouted in unison.
"Exactly, that's not fair to me. That's not fair to Billy here." Ash said slamming his fist into the table, he didn't need to but he figured it would help sell a point. "Look at poor Billy here, he's been listening to you fight all day and it bothers him. You don't want to send him back, he doesn't belong there."
"But..." Lyra squeaked but Ash cut her off.
"No buts, you two don't put a cork in it then you'll be sitting in a cell." Ash said, he stared right into Lyra's eyes and they sunk down to the floor.
"S-sorry M-Morgana." She stuttered. She shifted quietly and buried her head in her hands. Ash turned towards Morgana who defiantly stared him back.
"Apology accepted." She muttered with as much attitude as she could. She let out a sigh. "Sorry Lyra, you happy Ash?"
"Yes, now eat your food and get some sleep." He said climbing to his feet. People were turning away uncomfortably. "I'm going to get some rest, I had a long day."
He left the cafeteria and found his dusty dorm, he slumped into his bed and a massive cloud burst from it. He rolled over and closed his eyes. None of the previous convicts Ozpin collected have ever been seen since. He was starting to doubt Ozpin's sincerity. He needed to think of an alternate way out. Just in case.
Professor Oobleck zoomed around the classroom rambling about the faunus war. Ash was slumped in his seat half asleep. His team has been pretty quiet. The truce between Lyra and Morgana came at a cost. Instead of fighting, they stayed out of each others way. The group was dead silent at this point, the most communication seemed to be a few vague shrugs. Oobleck continued to his coffee infused ramblings. It was like the opposite of Port's class yet still dull. He woke with a jolt, Billy was motioning to the door. He must have fallen asleep. He grabbed his books.
"Our group isn't working." Billy said quietly. Ash turned to him, he didn't look like his usual happy self. "Our group is broken."
"We aren't broken, we just don't mesh well." Ash reassured him. He was fine with the current situation, the rest of the group don't bother him now and they seem to be fulfilling the bare minimum to survive in this school. He had a bit of a soft spot for Billy though, who had been nothing but good to him since he arrived here.
"Why not? We're all criminals? We're all bad people." Billy said, his voice quivered slightly. "None of us matter, isn't that enough? We don't work anywhere else, why can't we at least work here?"
"I..." Ash felt like he was kicked in the chest. It was way to poignant for something Billy would say. They were criminals, they might very well be terrible people, they didn't matter. They were going to vanish as soon as they graduated, never to become known for anything worthwhile. Their lives were over. The thought sank into Ash's stomach, he felt sick. His whole life he was taught to believe in himself, believe in his destiny, his legacy. The idea of having none pained him. Maybe that was it, maybe he just needed to make a new legacy. If that was at all possible. He smiled. "No Billy. We matter, we exist, we have a destiny."
"What destiny could we possibly have?" Billy asked. It was like a knot in his stomach, Ash struggled to find the words.
"Ozpin is giving us a chance, the warden couldn't stop him from taking us. Nobody can now. Not Glynda, not Cardin, not an army of Grimm. We don't work anywhere else, we aren't accepted anywhere else. All we have for the next four years is each other." Ash paused, the words came to his mouth with less thought than he'd anticipated. He felt confident in them, though he wasn't quite sure where they came from. "The whole school is underestimating us. I think it's time we show them what four misfits can do."
"Do you really mean it?" Billy's eyes went wide, a smile was starting to etch across his gloomy face.
"I do, I don't know why but I do. We need to make this work, we need to find a way." Ash said, he did feel good about it. That knot disappeared. "Find the girls, get them to the dorm, we need to have a chat."
Billy ran off excitedly, Ash took a deep breath and turned around. He was staring at a man in a green suit with a cup of coffee in his hand. Ozpin had a peculiar smile across his face. He gazed through his round sunglasses.
"That was quite admirable of you." He said. He took a sip from his mug. "Leadership fits you well."
"I wouldn't say it does, my group hasn't exactly been working as a team." Ashton shrugged. Billy was the only one on the team that didn't seem to hate him. "We don't exactly get along."
"Leadership isn't about getting along." Ozpin clarified. He pushed his sunglasses up. "Leadership is about doing what needs to be done. When your team is struggling, it's about taking action when no one else will. It's about making hard calls that your team will resent you for, for the sake of the group."
"So your saying the ability to manage my team efficiently should outweigh my friendship?" Ash asked. It seemed like odd advice coming from him.
"Friendship doesn't win a battle against a creature such as a grimm. Coordination and discipline do." Ozpin stated rather bluntly. He took another sip on his coffee, carefully watching Ash, who simply pondered what he was hearing. "Do you agree?"
"I do, I'm just surprised to hear you say it." Ash replied. He felt like he was being tested. Ozpin simply shrugged.
"I didn't get to the position I'm at by playing favorites and sacrificing an advantage. You always play to win." Ozpin said curtly. He smiled slightly. "I've made many mistakes, plenty of bad calls but I have learned from them. I have high hopes you will learn from yours. You are a born leader, you need only accept it."
Without another word he turned around and strolled casually down the hall. Ash watched him leave, his mind processing what he had just heard. He then realized he should probably head back to his dorm, Billy probably found the girls and they would be waiting on him. He needed to start taking charge, he needed to succeed.
The talk went well, or as well as it could. He explained what he had told Billy. Ozpin's words lingered on his mind. There was something strange about that man, just like the rest of this academy. Ash didn't trust him, then again there were few he did trust. Nobody powerful enough to take prisoners like himself out of prison shouldn't be trusted. Especially when they have a personal army of warriors at their disposal.
Then again his mind shifted to the grimm. He knew little about grimm other than what he had read in stories. Seeing them face to face was a little unnerving. Especially those great beowulves. They were massive, they seemed to be the ones in charge. They weren't like anything he'd read about. They were something else entirely.
"Between organized grimm, Ozpin's suspicious behavior and an academy that seemed out to get us. This team shouldn't be wasting it's time fighting amongst itself. So, is this done?" Ashton finished, Lyra and Morgana shifted uncomfortably. Morgana rolled her eyes for a moment and let out a sigh.
"Yes, it's done." She said, there was a slight huff in her voice but she relented. Ash figured that was as good as he could get.
"Alright, it's done." Lyra shrugged. Billy let out a sigh as if he's been holding his breath since the fight began. "What's the plan then?"
"We need to be cautious from now on. Glynda has been looking for an excuse to throw us out and seems to enjoy dishing out pointless punishment our way." Ash said, sitting down at the foot of his bed. "We need to keep clear of her, we need to work together more as a team. We need to start training."
"Training for what?" Billy asked. His head tilted slightly.
"Combat, teamwork, whatever else we have problem with." Ash said. Morgana scoffed for a moment. Ash simply stared at her. "Billy is pretty tough but he has no coordination. Morgana is a heavy hitter, doesn't work well with the rest of the team. Lyra has no particular combat training, but she has some unique skills that could help us."
"What kind of skills are we talking?" Morgana asked. Lyra shifted quietly.
"I knocked out a group of ursa with music." Lyra squeaked nervously.
"So it's your semblance?" Morgana asked. She pondered for a moment. "That could be useful. I have my glyphs. Billy what do you have?"
"What?" Billy asked, his head was practically horizontal.
"Your semblance?" Morgana asked, she was clearly getting annoyed. He responded with a confused look. She turned to Ash. "I don't know, maybe it's his size. He's pretty big. What about you Ashton?"
"Uh..." Ash blanked. He had no idea. "I don't have one."
"Doesn't everyone have one?" Morgana asked. The confused looks on everyone's faces didn't give her a clear answer.
"Well, we need to start training." Ash said, things might be looking up. That is if they actually learn how to work together.
