'Hey' -is the voices of the swords
"Hey" -is dialogue (unless otherwise stated)
Hey -is thoughts
"The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too."
I grumbled as I threw my cloak over my shoulders and moved to answer the door. I had wanted to catch up on sleep today, but it seems like fate decided to give me a wake-up call.
The knocking on the door continued for what seemed like the 100th time, slowly growing in frequency and volume.
I threw the door open and regarded the person standing in front of me with bleary eyes. My eyes lit up as I recognised her, and I shook the sleep out of my face.
"Good Morning Professor Goodwitch," I greeted her. "How can I help you?" I shuffled in the doorway, curious as to what brought her here.
Instead of answering, all she did was continue staring at the top of my head. Was something in my hair? I ran my hand through my hair, confused at Professor Goodwitch's speechlessness when I felt it.
I had forgotten to hide my ears. "Fuck" I muttered under my breath, before pulling her in to the room and closing the door behind me, hoping to whatever gods there were that nobody noticed them.
I glanced back at Professor Goodwitch, who was still staring at my ears in shock. Sighing, I waved my hand in front of her face, trying to catch her attention.
"Hello, Remnant to Glynda, are you alright?" She broke out of her stupor, fixing me with a glare at my casual use of her name, before her gaze softened
I chuckled at this, casually remarking, "With how long you were staring, it's almost as if you've never seen a Faunus' ears." I sat down on my bed.
"It's not that," She said. "I've just never expected them to be so…white," She finished. I shrugged my shoulders at her statement. I was fully aware that my ears would stand out no matter where I was, which was why I had resorted to wearing my fedora anywhere that wasn't fang controlled.
I brought my attention back to Glynda and noticed her glancing around the room. "I see you still haven't cleared their belongings." She noted.
So we're going straight into the hard hitting questions. Great.
"You know I don't have the heart to move them." I sighed, shaking my head, before continuing. "To make it worse, with the nightmares coming back…" I trailed off.
She looked at me with concern evident in her eyes. After all, Glynda was the one who came looking for me to schedule counselling sessions after the incident.
"You know you can always talk about it to me Rayes," She supplied. "My door is always open." I smiled, shaking my head. She always was the over-protective type of person.
I clapped my hands together abruptly. "Well enough of the gloomy stuff, what brings you here Glynda?" I asked.
She hesitated before answering. "The field trip has been postponed to a later date, due to a certain team's… injuries."
I stared at her incredulously. "You're kidding right?" I asked. "I hardly did anything that couldn't be fixed by a few hours of bed rest."
"Well after you were finished with them," She paused before continuing, "Ms Scarlatina's team decided that they hadn't learnt their lesson." She drew a chair over from the lone desk in the room, before sitting down.
I groaned, leaning back to lie flat on the bed. So I'm stuck here until further notice, all because of one team's lust for vengeance. 'Can you blame them? You got pretty mad too,' Alpha whispered in my head.
I half-heartedly agreed, before sitting back up. "So do we have any idea of when the trip will be held then?" I asked her.
"Actually yes, we do" I perked up at this. At least there was some good news. "The trip has been rescheduled for a week from now."
And just like that, my hopes had been dashed. One week. I was stuck here for one week, where Ozpin could keep an eye on me.
"Alright, so I'm stuck here for a week. Is there anything I could do that can pass the time, and fulfil the weird curriculum you gave me?" I asked Glynda
"Well as of right now, there's nothing really urgent for you to do," She said, before continuing with a frown. "Although in my opinion, you should sit in on some classes with your juniors, try and make some friends."
'She's right you know,' Omega added. 'Talking to voices in your head ain't exactly good for you.' Oh great. Even the voices in my head question my sanity.
I waved her concerns off nonchalantly. I heard a sigh from her. "I'll make it fulfil your curriculum if you attend the classes." I raised my eyebrows at that. Usually I would have to be sent out on missions for the teachers to fulfil the required amount of hours, but now? All I had to do was attend lessons.
"You're that worried about me huh," I muttered, before standing up. "Fine, I'll attend the lessons." I grabbed my hat, making sure it sat snugly on my head, without hurting my ears too much, and buckled my combat belt on.
Glynda stood up, and we walked over to the door. I opened the door after grabbing my scroll from my bedside table, ushering Glynda out into the hallway, before closing the door behind me, hearing the familiar click of the lock.
"So is there a class schedule or anything you can give me or do you want me to start trailing one of the teams around?" I asked her, receiving a bemused look from her, before she took out her scroll.
"There's a class with professor Oobleck that begins at 9:00." Oobleck… It had been a while since I'd seen him. It could be fun.
Her fingers flicked across the screen, barely visible. "I'll have a schedule sent to your scroll before the end of his lecture."
I nodded before making to leave, when she grabbed my arm. I turned towards her to see a conflicted look in her eyes. "Rayes…I just want to warn you," She started, pausing, as if deciding whether or not to continue.
"You're playing a very dangerous game." She paused; looking down the hall to ensure nobody was around, before continuing. "Your participation in the fang is going to draw attention to you and make people question your loyalties, especially General Ironw-
"You think I don't know this Glyn-" I stopped, correcting myself. "Professor Goodwitch," I shot back. "I've only wanted one thing for my people, and I would willingly tear Remnant apart for it." I pulled my arm away from her, turning to leave, before adding.
"The higher-ups could use all the information they could get, and if they question who I would stand with if shit hits the fan…" I took a deep breath to calm myself. "I would stand with whoever is for the Faunus, no questions asked."
I walked away, leaving professor Goodwitch standing in front of the dorm. I walked towards the cafeteria, grabbing a quick breakfast, before heading for the classroom.
When I reached the classroom, I checked the time. 8:50, still early. I sighed, walking into the classroom, to see it almost completely empty. That was odd. You would expect people to be earlier, but who was I to judge.
I looked at the front of the class to see Doctor Oobleck sipping coffee, zipping to the side a few inches every now and then.
I approached him casually, raising my hand up. "What's up Doc? I assume Professor Goodwitch told you I'll be attending your lectures until the trip?"
"Yes, I was actually just informed." He took a sip from his coffee, talking at a normal speed for once. "You can take any seat once class starts, it's the least I can do for one of my best students."
"Well shit sir, you don't need to grant me any special treatment, I'm fine with being a regular student," I said, before frowning. "Speaking of students, where are they? Shouldn't most of them have arrived already?"
"Well not everybody is as punctual as you were, Rayes." He said. I shrugged my shoulders, before going over to his messy desk to look at the lesson he had prepared.
Oobleck appeared by my shoulder and started pointing out parts of the lecture that he thought would interest me. Every so often, I would add in my own comments to the conversation, which was usually received with a nod from the Doctor, and a rush to scribble it down on the paper.
We would have been standing there for hours had it not been for the bell ringing, bringing us back to reality. Both the Doctor and I looked up to see a room full of students staring at us incredulously. I turned to look at him to see him doing the same. I shrugged, before motioning for him to start.
As I made to move to an empty seat, I felt a hand come down on my shoulder. I sighed, knowing what was going to happen next.
"Alright class, joining us for our lessons is one of your seniors." He nudged me, hinting for me to introduce myself.
I forced a smile and raised a hand up. "My name is Rayes Aeron, I'm a third year who is helping the teachers out." I paused, glancing at Oobleck to gauge his reaction. He looked satisfied with my introduction enough.
"Now class, you can ask Mr Aeron any questions you want." My eyes widened at this. Damnit Oobleck.
Immediately after he finished the sentence, multiple hands shot up in the air. I glanced over them, before pointing at one of them at random.
A familiar white haired Heiress stood up. "What is your combat score?" She asked. I tried to think back to duelling lessons to remember my score.
"Let's see… I think right now I'm…" I glanced over at Oobleck before continuing. "63 and 2 in single fights?" My statement brought many exclamations from the room, while Oobleck only nodded at this.
The Heiress sat back down, looking a bit shaken from my answer. I looked over the remaining people, before pointing at random.
A girl with red hair stood up. Her eyes were sparkling as she eyed my belt. Ruby, I think her name was. "What do you use to fight with?" She asked, voice brimming with excitement. I should have expected this question. I pushed back my cloak and unbuckled the sheath that held Alpha and held her out to the class.
"Along with this, I also have a pistol I usually fight with." I supplied, pointing at the holster on my belt. I started to reattach it back to my belt before "But why do you have two sheathes?"
I looked up to see Velvet, who had blurted out her question, looking around in embarrassment when she realised she said it out loud.
"Well, that in itself is a secret to my style of fighting," I calmly stated. Seeing everybody's disappointed look, I decided to throw them a figurative bone. "But I am ambidextrous, so my sword uses both sheathes." Not entirely true, but not exactly a lie, but they didn't need to know that.
"But anyway, enough about me, you're here to learn about history, not me." A series of groans echoed throughout the classroom as I effectively gave the time back to the Doctor.
"Quite right class, maybe if you study hard enough, you might become like Rayes here. After all, he did top his cohort in history." Another chorus of gasps came from the room as I shrugged my shoulders at this admission.
As Oobleck was about to begin the lecture, he paused before indicating with a wave of his hand to one of the students. As she stood up, I couldn't help but feel nervous when I saw who it was. Blake Belladonna.
I wonder if she recognised my voice yet. I was vaguely aware of a conversation between Oobleck and her before I felt everybody's attention on me.
"I'm sorry, I zoned out for a bit, what was the question?" I asked with an apologetic smile. Blake narrowed her eyes, before she spoke.
"What team are you from?"
My smile dropped from my face as I felt the anticipation in the air. Those who knew about the incident were all tense, while those with no idea of it were probably expecting me to be from one of the more famous teams like CRMN (Carmine) or RCKY (Rocky).
"Maverick" I whispered softly, before steeling myself and looking up to face everybody. "I was from team Maverick, and that's all I'm going to say on that subject."
I walked over to an empty desk and took a seat. Of course it would be her. It would have to be fucking HER to ask that question. I tried not to put a hole in the desk as I calmed myself down enough to notice Oobleck had started his lecture.
I sighed. There goes my plan to actually enjoy this class.
"That is all class. Remember to do your assigned readings and submit them next lesson. Mr Arc, Mr Winchester. Please stay behind." A series of relieved breathes were heard throughout the classroom as the sound of many pens hit the table.
I chuckled in my seat. It seems nobody was used to the speed of Oobleck, which was to be expected. I got up from the desk and waved to Oobleck. He nodded in my direction, before turning to address the two students in front of him.
I walked out of the classroom, stretching my arms in the air, groaning as I popped the soreness out of my shoulders, when I felt a familiar presence approaching from behind me.
I turned around to see Weiss Schnee approaching me with Ruby in tow. Weiss stopped in front of me with Ruby off by her side, her eyes fixating on my belt.
"Can I see your weapons?! Please!" Ruby suddenly blurted out, cutting off whatever Weiss was going to say. I looked over at Weiss, eyebrow raised, as she looked at Ruby with minor annoyance.
Shrugging, I took Alpha out of her sheath and carefully passed her to Ruby. She reverently held the weapon out in front of her, before going on to spout random facts about the make and material used to make the sword almost as fast as Oobleck.
I let out a slight laugh, before turning to Weiss with a question in my eyes. "Did you come here just to see my weapon with Ruby?" I asked her
Weiss quickly stopped glaring at Ruby, looking at the floor for a while before continuing. "I think we started on the wrong foot…"
Before she continued, I raised up my hand to silence her. "Yeah let's stop right there, you obviously want me to do something for you, so get to the point." Seeing her embarrassed look, I added with a wave of my hand. "And besides, that's all in the past. It's not like anyone died or anything."
Weiss looked a bit uncomfortable, before she finally bit the bullet. "Well my team is really bad at history, and since you were the top scorer of your year…"
"You want me to help tutor your team," I finished for her. Her nod confirmed my statement.
I held my hand up to my chin in contemplation. On the one hand, it increases the risk of Blake recognising me. On the other, it would get professor Goodwitch off my back about socialising.
"Firstly, what does your team normally get," I asked her. Weiss was silent for a while, before replying. "Well, I get A's most of the time, Blake and Ruby get B's and Yang…" She paused, hesitant to go on.
"She's barely passing" Ruby piped up, surprising Weiss, while she passed Alpha back to me. I sheathed the sword again, before letting out a breath.
"We would really appreciate your help Rayes!" She said, giving me Puppy Dog eyes. I arched my eyebrows at this, glancing over at Weiss to see her shaking her head in exasperation over Ruby's behaviour.
"Sure I guess," I said uneasily. "I could help".
Well that went better than expected. Dunno why I was having trouble with this chapter.
This is mostly a filler Chapter to avoid too many time skips, although next chapter is likely to be a flashback start.
I've also finalised the events that are going down in Forever Fall, so stay tuned for that.
Merry Christmas/Kwanzaa/hanukkah!
