Chapter Eight: Testing Bonds

A week had gone by since the sparring match, yet the team as a whole was still shaken. Any time that Zane wasn't in class, he was stalking the halls in search of Roland in order to settle the score. Ella spent all her time on her side of the room or in the library, researching everything she could on Dust and how to harness it perfectly, much to Orion's disappointment. In his mind, Eos' warning kept chiding him.

"Your team has yet to learn to work together", her words echoed in his head.

Rizu was still just Rizu. He kept to himself in any free time he had, just listening to his music or his audio textbooks for studying. Orion was surprised that he wasn't training, especially after Sirena beat him in the match. However, through all of his cold indifference, even Rizu worried about Ella. With a sigh of frustration, he stood up from his bed, tapped his blade and walked over to Ella, closing her book...much to her annoyance.

"Rizu?! What was that for?! Now I have to find my place again", she groaned, reaching for her book, only to be stopped.

"You have to rest is what you have to do. You have been reading these damn books day in and day out for the past week! All I hear when I'm here is the constant turning of pages and books dropping on the floor. I can feel the heat from your reading lamp at night too, so don't tell me you aren't tired!", he barked.

"Since when do you care?! You just sit around and sulk all day! You don't even go to the training room to better yourself!"

"Because I don't need to!"

"Why? You think you're better than us?"

"No I-"

"You think you're the best one here?"

"No!"

"Because if you were the best you wouldn't have lost to Sirena!"

"I LET HER WIN!"

The teens at this point were face to face, exhausted from the yelling, yet Ella was shocked. After what he said about being ruthless before the match, he had let his opponent win. Rizu just sat down on his bed, shaking his head.

"I let her beat me", he sighed shamefully.

"Why? I thought you said-"

"I know what I said!", he snapped, before correcting his tone,"I know...but I owed her. She believed that I had abandoned her. I believed she was dead. Just...I felt like I owed her"

Ella and Orion just looked at their solemn teammate, staring at him pitifully. He could feel their eyes fixated on him. The lion was the first to speak.

"Look guys. We need to learn to work together. Eos told me that in the arena. Not just on the battlefield but in the real world we need to work together. Ella...you can't expect to become stronger by yourself. We all want to be better, but we can't just be loners. If we keep doing that then nobody will get stronger", he explained.

Ella sighed frustratedly,"What about Zane? He won't stop until he beats Roland's head in"

"Then we have to stop him. But we have to stop him together", Rizu piped up.

With a unified agreement, the trio headed off into the halls in order to find their leader. They wandered around the dorms, calling out to him, only for silence to answer. After an hour, the teens saw him from a window. Zane was sitting in a tree, looking at what appeared to be a photo. From this distance the others couldn't make out what it was, so they filed outside to meet him. Ella walked cautiously over to the tree and spoke.

"Zane? Are you alright?", Ella called.

"Unless you know where Roland is, I don't wanna talk", he said flatly, his eyes fixed on his photo.

Rizu sighed,"Look we can do this the easy way, or we can have Orion chop the tree down. Your call"

Zane groaned and jumped down and faced his team, who were shocked at what he saw. His eyes were worn and weary, showing his lack of rest. Ella walked over to him.

"Zane. We...we understand you hate the Grimm Blades and what they did to your family, but killing Roland won't fix anything. He might be a legitimately nice person", she explained.

"You're just saying that because you think he's attractive", he snapped.

"N-No I'm not! I mean yes I think he's attractive but that doesn't mean he is a bad person", she defended.

"You don't get it! The Grimm Blades took my only family away from me! Do you have any idea what it's like to see them die right in front of you?!", he shouted, getting in her face.

Orion stepped forward,"Hey man, don't take it out on her we ju-"

"Orion", Ella cut him off,"Let him"

"They were ripped from existence by those monsters! The Grimm Blades took everything from me! Do you have any idea what the hell that is like Ella?! DO YOU?!", he cried to the high heavens.

His breaking voice echoed throughout the yard, catching the attention of some passers by. Zane's eyes began to water as the memories returned to him, causing him to cover his face shamefully, hating others to see him so weak. It was silence, save for his slight sobbing...until Ella took a deep breath and spoke.

"Yes. Yes I do Zane. We all do. Though I was hidden...I saw my stepmother kill my father in cold blood. She shot him because he had nothing left to give her. There was nothing more but life that she could take, so I had to watch my only family beg in a futile attempt to keep his life. I'm not the only one to go through this. Orion? He never even knew his mother, and Rizu lost his arm and his eyesight. We all have been through pain...maybe that's why Ozpin put us together", she said, her voice soothing and soft.

Zane looked up at her,"But what if he is just like his dad? What if he's a monster?!"

"Killing him will not make you feel better. It won't fill the space that my father left when he was murdered. When I burned my home and my stepmother, the void in my heart didn't go away. If anything it got bigger", she continued.

Rizu stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder,"Revenge is like a forest. The deeper you go, the faster you will get lost"

Orion smiled,"We may not be the best fighters, or the best of friends, but we are a team, for better or worse. And we need to learn to trust each other just like we did in the forest. You even said that yourself Zane"

Zane wiped his face and looked to all of his teammates. Deep inside, he knew they were right. He sighed and just nodded to them, accepting his folly.

"For what it's worth...thanks guys. So...what now?", he asked.

"Well I think we should visit Team ARES and make peace with them", the lion Faunus replied.

As a team, the four made their way to the dorm of ARES, with Zane knocking on it awkwardly. Areana opened the door with an irritated expression on her face.

"What do you want Noctis?", she growled.

"Look, we just all want to make peace okay? Don't worry I'm not gonna go all cuckoo for Choco Spheres okay?", he assured.

Her eyes looked over the team once more before letting them in. Sirena was on her bed lost in music, lip-synching to whatever song she had blasting through her headphones. Roland was swinging his sword around, honing his strikes while Eos was watching him, her eyes fixed on his blade. Zane walked over to Roland and extended his hand for a handshake without a word. Roland just sat down and sheathed his sword.

With a sigh, he spoke,"Zane...I apologize for ze horrible monstrosities that my father and his companions caused you, but I assure you I am not like them. I am merely a victim of my lineage. The mark I bear was forced upon me as a child by my father. But now that I am on my own, I walk my own path, the path of a true Chevalier"

Zane just patted his shoulder,"I'm sorry for trying to kill you. Friends?"

"Oui", the Faunus replied.

Before long, the two teams were at peace and just talking amongst themselves, getting to know one another. Zane had started to hit on Eos, much to Areana's annoyance. Orion tried catching up with Areana whilst trying to keep her from killing Zane in the process. Ella and Roland were talking, with the Faunus throwing in some flirts into the conversation. Rizu was just sitting with Sirena, looking down at the floor, pondering his situation.

"Why did you let me win?", Sirena cut in, interrupting the blind boy's thoughts.

"Pardon?", he asked, feigning innocence.

"You heard me no-eyes. You let me win. Why?"

"I felt like I owed you for leaving you behind", he sighed, sounding defeated.

"Look, you didn't really leave me behind. So...how about next time...you give it your all okay?", she asked, faint traces of a blush on her cheeks.

He simply turned his head in her direction and stared towards her, nodding. Although it wasn't ideal, and his team had yet to fit in with each other, Team ZERO and ARES alike felt that this was the start of something good.

A/N: There we go! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I can't wait for this to turn into an actual series. Thanks to all that have supported us so far!