A combat match between Jaune and the leader of Team CRDL, Cardin Winchester ended in the widely expected result of Jaune's humiliating defeat and his berating by Goodwitch about not checking his Aura. Following this was lunch, at which Nora began an intriguing story.
So, there we were", her eyes narrowing, "in the middle of the night".
"It was day", Ren corrected. I took the advantage to look around and saw Blake looking thoroughly disinterested reading a book and Yang enamoured by the story, Weiss filing her nails and Ruby sitting watching Jaune, who looked to be mentally beating himself up, while Pyrrha looked overly concerned about Jaune.
"We were surrounded by Ursai".
"They were Beowolves."
Nora stood up to, "Dozens of them!" she stated loudly.
"Two of 'em."
"But they were no match, and in the end Ren and I took them down and made a butt-load of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs." She sat down with her arms folded and a smile on her face while Ren sighed.
"She's been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now."
This prompted me to think about my reoccurring dreams, deviating slightly each time, sometimes seeing more sometimes seeing less. My thinking was cut short as a female voice came from another table; I left my thoughts and looked to see a rabbit earned Faunus having one ear held by Cardin. "Ow, that hurts!" Cardin and his team were laughing as the girl struggled to get out of his grip, "Please, stop".
"I told you it was real".
One of his team stopped laughing long enough to comment, "What a freak", before resuming his chuckling. My eyes narrowed at Cardin and his teammates before a growl, louder than the night before, arose. I glanced at both teams and found them staring.
"If you would excuse me, I need to leave before I break Cardin's legs". I stated through gritted teeth, hands clenched tightly, nails drawing blood.
I made my way out of the cafeteria, "One reason, one good reason and I swear to all the gods out there I will destroy Cardin Winchester". I came to an abrupt halt in front of Ozpin, holding his ever present coffee cup, "Professor, I was-"
"I know. I don't condone his behaviour, nor yours if you follow through, however I have a question for you, do you trust your team?"
"I-Yes, I have to, we need to work together."
"You trust them, yet they don't know you."
"I don't-".
"The real you."
"Professor, I don't see why that matters."
"If they get to know you for who you are, they can have a better understanding of why you act the way you do." With that he ended the conversation and turned to walk away.
I backtracked to the cafeteria, thinking of how I could reveal the truth before settling for simplicity, I raised my ears and opened the double doors, proceeding to the table in time to hear Yang, "It must be hard to be a Faunus".
"Only if you let it get to you". I spoke up with a forced smile. I was met with shocked stares, partly due to my return, but mainly at the two new additions to my head. Making a show of it I raised my hands, "What, is there something on my face?"
Unfortunately, our next class started shortly after this so I held a form of Q&A while Jaune, Team RWBY and I were walking to class and immediately regretted doing so as everyone's voices began to blend together in an onslaught of questions, Blake was the only exception to this meaning she either didn't care, wasn't surprised or had nothing to say.
"Guys, calm down, one at a time, Weiss you first."
"Are you, in any way, affiliated with the White Fang?" The question brought memories of Grimm masks and murder; I forced myself to slow my breathing before responding.
"The only connection I have to the White Fang is one of pure hatred and anger; if I find a member I will kill them, painfully."
"Well," Weiss' response echoed the looks I was receiving, an especially distasteful one from Blake "that's good to hear…I think."
"Why do you hate the White Fang? I mean they're fighting for Faunus rights, aren't they?" Yang's voice came from my left.
"My reasons are my own." I replied, the tone of my voice and the glare I shot her way was enough to send a clear message; 'don't bring it up again'.
"Uh, does it have anything to do with you screaming last night?" Jaune's voice arose this time.
"Yeah it-Wait, I was what?" My head shot around to my teammates, all with sheepish looks on their faces, "You should have woken me up earlier if I was too loud."
"I tried to tell them." Weiss spoke up again.
"We thought that you should never wake a person having a nightmare." Ruby's voice got defensive, then wavered with uncertainty, "Or was it sleepwalking people, I can never remember those two."
"Ruby," I began speaking slowly and clearly, "It was sleepwalking people, never wake them up."
"Ohh, that makes more sense."
"The rest of your questions will have to wait until after Oobleck's class is finished." I said walking in. Everyone chose seats close to the front while I chose a place towards the back of the class. The rabbit Faunus from earlier also came into the class and it didn't take a genius to see she was still upset about Cardin.
"'Sup losers," think of the devil and he shall appear, "freak." It was obvious who he was talking to as the offended party sunk lower into her chair.
'Urge to kill, rising, rising, rising'. In an attempt to distract myself from Cardin's presence in the row in front of me I pulled up the sleeve of my right arm and bit down, hard. Sharpened teeth easily piercing flesh. 'Fading, fading.'
Jaunedice, Pt.2My mind was focused on ignoring Cardin; unfortunately I also began to ignore everything else, that is, until the hyperactive Professor Oobleck asked for Cardin to give his opinion on the Battle of Fort Castle and why it led to a human defeat. "Well," he began, leaning back in his chair, "I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."
I could feel my eye begin to twitch as I stood up behind Cardin, arm and mouth dripping blood, ears raised, "I'm sorry Mr. Winchester, could you repeat that?" I growled through gritted teeth.
He wouldn't have even made the effort to turn around and answer me if he hadn't seen half the class and, most surprisingly, Oobleck making gestures telling him not to. He smirked as he did so, "I said, it's easier to-What the fuck!?" He attempted to move, but my hand met his shoulder and prevented it.
"That's not what you said." I proclaimed in a sing-song voice before laughing crazily.
"Fang I think you-"
"Stay out of this Weiss." I growled at her. "Now, Cardin, what did you say?"
He regained his composure and in a show of bravado knocked my hand away, "You heard me, freak." There was a sharp inhale from the members of Team RWBY and Jaune.
"Now you see Cardin, the thing is, I really don't like that word."
"Why not freak?" he stood up, trying to use his size as a means of intimidation. "Remind you how much of a freak you are, does it?"
I sighed, "Call us a freak, one more time."
His mouth opened, "Fre-AAGGHH!" I cut him off by slamming his head into the desk.
"We. Don't. Like. That. Word." I punctuated each word with another slam, leaving him with a broken nose and blood dripping onto his uniform. "If anyone needs me I'll be outside, venting." I made my way outside, stopping briefly to speak to the rabbit Faunus, "What's your name?" I asked in what I hoped was a friendly voice.
"V-Velvet." Well that failed epically.
"Let us know if Cardin gives you trouble, 'kay?"
"O-okay, I'll do that, t-thanks".
"No problem, some people need to be more open-minded. Literally if they keep doing what they do, isn't that right, Winchester?" I looked back and saw Cardin attempting to slow the blood flow; I gave him one final glare and walked away.
Why I referred to myself as a multiple is beyond me, it just felt right and it was a perfect way to appear slightly unhinged. Roughly five minutes later and I was following Yang's advice, that is to say I was repeatedly hitting a tree, it also wasn't helping that I was thinking of my family and my survival hinging on the fact I was able to blend in naturally. I continued this way for several minutes before I collapsed against the tree, silently letting the tears make their way down my face, it was at this moment Yang made her appearance, her footsteps crushing dead leaves and sticks before coming to an abrupt halt the same time she let out a gasp. I looked at her and she looked at me, broken, split knuckles, partially healed bite mark and dried blood on my arm and mouth and tears streaking down my face, "It didn't work Yang, it didn't work", I managed between sobs.
"Hey, come here," she pulled me towards her, "what didn't work?"
"I-I-I tried to take your advice, but w-whenever I was calmed down, I just, I felt sad, then guilty and right back to angry. I just want them to go away, I try to tell them but they don't listen."
"Who doesn't listen?" Weiss' voice was behind the next shocked gasp.
"…"
"Fang," Blake was right next to me, "who doesn't listen?" her voice was soft, barely audible.
I broke away from Yang's grip and moved towards a new tree, "My family." I said, "I. Am. NOT. WEAK." Each word was punctuated by me slamming my forehead into the tree.
"What are you doing?" Ruby and Yang moved as one, Ruby pulled me back and Yang caught me as fell.
"Nothing works", I mumbled, "nothing."
"We should get him to a bed." Weiss stated. Yang nodded as she and Blake made a move to support me as I stumbled.
"NO!" I yelled, "No bed. No bed means no sleep, no sleep means no more nightmares and no nightmares makes me happy." Even as I was saying this I could feel my eyelids get heavy and the world start to spin before I inevitably passed out.
I was then alone in a dark area, "Well," I started out loud, "I'm all alone, in a dark mysterious zone, in my mind. The only way this could possibly be more ominous is of it was written-" My word were cut short as the word ominous suddenly appeared all around me. "Oh, come on!"
"You.", a familiar voice rang out from the darkness, 'No, it can't be, they're dead. Then again, it is my mind therefore I would naturally think of the most traumatic experience in my entire life and capitalize my unconsciousness on it'. "You should be here, with us."
"Yes Mother, I know, I've tried, but I, I just can't do it and because you're just a psychosomatic recreation of my memories you would know this."
"Join us." My father and sister also appeared, stepping away from the blackness, cuts and bruises on all exposed skin, forcing me to look away. "You are ashamed of what we have become."
"I-I couldn't help you, I tried, but they-"
"They thought you were one of them." Their voices melted into one as the harsh words assaulted my ears. "You should have shown who you were, but now look at you. You're broken, suicidal, psychotic, angered and weak."
"I…have to get my revenge for what they did."
"How is killing yourself going to accomplish that?"
"I don't know" the whisper escaped my lips.
"You don't know. You are a Hunter now, use your skills to control yourself and let it go."
"No. I can't let it go, I-I hate the nightmares but they are all I have, without them I wouldn't even remember your faces."
"Do what you need to do, but remember that the mind is a dangerous place, especially for the unwary."
Light flooded my vision as my real body opened its eyes, slowly at first taking the time to adjust to the light being focused through the small gap between the heads of my teammates as they loomed over me. "How do you feel?" Blake's question was one I was expecting, however I was not expecting the look of distress on her face.
"Like my head is a watermelon with a pole shoved through it. Why? Something new happen?"
"Your heart kinda, slowed down for a while". Yang clarified.
"And?" I replied, relishing the looks that appeared on their faces. "Happened a lot of times," my voice lowered, "never long enough to be permanent though." Ruby opened her mouth, "Long story, and don't ask." I got out of the bed they had carried me to, "I need a really long walk."
"If you think we are going to let you go on your own after what you did with the trees," Weiss shook her head, "you have one nasty surprise coming your way."
"Fine, whatever." I sighed. "Is it dark out yet?"
"Look out the window and tell me." She opened the curtain to reveal the broken moon of Remnant "Is it dark?" She added sarcastically.
I changed from my uniform into my combat outfit and we walked around the halls for a few minutes in silence before Yang stopped me, "You've mentioned your family twice, what is so bad that they made you smash your face on a tree."
The others also stopped, waiting for an answer. I sighed loudly before answering, "How do I put this?" I struggled to think of how to start my monologue. "Almost eight years ago I watched as my entire family was slaughtered and defiled in front of me. They-" I took a deep breath attempting to calm myself before continuing. "The humans who did it claimed to have been hired by the White Fang to gain sympathy and support for their cause. The only reason I'm even here is because I-I excel at hiding my heritage, I don't even try, it just happens. I'm alive because I'm weak." I blinked away tears and looked at my team mates and was met with shocked expressions.
"Eight years." I nodded at Ruby. "You've kept this quite for eight years?"
"Yep."
Yang spoke up, "So, feel better now that it's in the open?"
"Nope." I shook my head, "Makes it worse actually."
"How can getting your teams support make thing worse?" Weiss' voice sounded understandably confused.
"It just-It proves the fact I can't handle what comes my way. That I need help."
"We all need a little help sometimes, we all feel the moments of weakness." Ruby voiced.
"You don't understand, I can't comprehend my own weakness, I killed that Death Stalker in the Emerald Forest, alone, how can I be weak? I just don't, cant, understand why I feel this way."
"You killed that thing on your own." Pyrrha suddenly spoke up from behind us, "You must have a strong Aura and even stronger Semblance to accomplish such a thing." We all wheeled around to find her casually standing there.
I again shook my head. "My Semblance had nothing to do with it, I don't like to use it during if I can help it, it is normally used for survival."
"Our Semblance defines us, helps shape us into who we will be."
I looked at the floor and spoke quietly, "I guess that means I'm destined to become a monster, a heartless, soulless creature of darkness and hatred hell bent on killing everyone."
"That's a tad dramatic wouldn't you say?" Blake said.
"Honestly no, no it's not, I could prove it, but." I gestured towards Pyrrha, "I'd like to keep this as little known as possible."
"Oh, of course, I didn't mean to intrude. I shall see you tomorrow. Farewell." She walked away as if this was a natural occurrence.
"Well, we're outside" Ruby pointed out, "and it's dark, so no-one is going to see."
"I-uh-well- don't we have classes in the morning, we should probably go." I turned and came face to face with Yang.
"It was your idea to come out here." Hands resting on her hips, she cocked her head.
"No-one asked you to follow me."
"We had to make sure you weren't going to do something stupid enough to kill yourself."
"Of course I'm not. Every time I try my nights become worse, I've learned that the longer I'm happier, the better my nights tend to be."
"What about just then, didn't look that bad from where I was standing."
"Me either."
"Nor I."
"You seemed fine."
"I know, sometimes-I don't know, they just end with me talking to a psychological reconstruction of my family in such a way that ends with me giving myself a pep talk or a suicide talk."
"That was unexpected." Weiss stated.
"So, you want to see my Semblance. Promise me that you will not treat me any differently than normal because of any of this."
They looked at each other before Ruby nodded and spoke, "Of course we won't."
"Yeah," Blake piped up, "Not like you can summon Grimm or anything."
I grasped a smoke bomb in my hand, focusing on the form of a Beowolf, "Not that far off actually." I dropped it and a cloud of smoke hid my form as I changed into a slightly larger than average Beowolf.
"Where did he go?"
"I can't see him."
"If that Faunus riff-raff ran off I swear-" Weiss' voice stopped as she noticed my standing in her peripheral vision.
"Did he run off and leave us with a Beowolf to fight?" Yang stated more than asked.
Blake approached my taller form, "I don't think he would do that." Her hand reached up, palm flat, judging my reaction. "Besides, have you ever seen any kind of Grimm behave like this?" I moved my head forward so it nudged her hand, which was immediately yanked back. Giving as best a wave I could in this form I did a small spin and rose up a cloud of dust. I regained my normal form and took the distraction to yet again sneak behind them all.
"What are we looking at?" I inquired. There were varying degrees of surprise to my reappearance ranging from Weiss' small stiffening to Ruby jumping and being caught bridal-style by Yang.
"So, Weiss, 'Faunus riff-raff' huh," she averted her gaze and looked at the ground, "I have been called worse today, so I'ma let that slide." I smiled.
"Hey freak." My smile dropped as Cardin's voice resounded across the empty courtyard. "I owe you an ass-kicking."
"Is he being serious?" I whispered to my team. "Did he not just see me do that?"
"Uh-huh." They nodded in synchronicity. I turned and found Cardin in full combat gear, mace resting on his shoulder.
"What, no bravery? Don't have the element of surprise now do ya, weirdo?"
I drew my weapons, "Girls, could you be kind enough to find Ozpin, and probably a doctor, definitely a doctor." I threw MaV on the ground and walked towards Cardin. They exchanged looks before deciding to avoid any reasoning and ran in two different directions.
I held my hands up, "I don't want to hurt you Cardin. Well, actually that's a lie, I do want to hurt you, badly, but I don't want to kill you. Okay that's a lie too." Always give them one chance to back down, be the better man, that way its self-defence.
"You know, it's cute that you think you stand a chance after throwing away your weapons."
"Cardin, you don't seem to know a lot so I'll let you in on a secret. I don't need my weapons because I am a weapon."
He came in with a swing, ducking under this I swept his legs out from under him and, as he fell back, slammed a fist into his chest plate, slightly denting it. He laid there in stunned silence for a few seconds before his hand shot up and slammed into my face, I brought my hands up to my face as the reaction caused my eyes to water. He took advantage of this and swung his mace into my ribs.
Regaining composure I stood up, "Good hit, strong, not as strong as a Death Stalker but, you know, good."
"Like you could do any better."
"Actually, we can." I gave a wide smile, blood from my nose flowing freely. "Tell me Cardin, do you fear the Grimm?"
"The Grimm are nothing."
"Hypothetically, which one would you have the most trouble with?"
"I don't see-"
"Let's put this in the open shall we, you only have a mace, specially designed for close quarters combat so what would happen if you came face to face with…I dunno, a Nevermore."
His face contorted into confusion, "Is this supposed to be going somewhere?"
"Not really, no. Just making small talk before I kill you, well, I could kill you, but I won't, I'll just nearly kill you." My form blurred as I reinforced my abilities with those of the creatures of Grimm. I launched a trio of punches at Cardin's face before dropping and slamming a powerful fist into his groin, causing him to double over; I then took a few steps back and watched as he struggled to stand, taking an odd joy in watching his pained movements.
"This one may be different Cardin, but it is definitely not a freak."
He looked up and fearful blue eyes met deranged crimson, grimace met wild grin. "You-You're right."
"What?" I asked with genuine confusion.
"You're not a freak. What you are is worse. You're a monster."
"Monster? You want to see a monster? I'll show you a monster." Smoke began to rise around me as I stared into Cardin's eyes.
"That's enough, Mr. Nightshade." Ozpin finally made his presence known, no doubt watching for several minutes prior. I shot a glance in his direction and saw Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang standing behind him, almost hiding.
"Listen to the Headmaster, freakazoid."
"That's. Not. Even. A. Real. Word." I lunged towards Cardin and took him to the ground using fists and palms, at one stage I slammed my head into his and ignored the stars that flashed in my vision. A dark figure slammed into me and knocked me away from Cardin, this figure then sat on my back, preventing me from getting up. I struggled to remove the weight from my back, snarling and growling while doing so, before giving up and lying flat on the ground.
"You finished?" Blake's voice said from above me. I remained silent as she got off and my breathing ability was restored. "You really did a number on Cardin."
I ignored her and made my way straight to Yang. I stared at her for a moment before breaking into a smile, "That actually works."
"Uh-what?"
"Releasing anger via physical combat. Genius."
All eyes fell on Yang as she attempted to free herself from the metaphorical pit I dug for her. "What-No-I didn't-I never said to do that."
"I take it you feel better?" Ozpin directed at me.
"Yep, I definitely do."
"Girls please escort your team member back to his dorm; you all have a big day tomorrow. I'll help the good doctor carry Cardin back."
The walk back was mostly quiet with the exception of my humming. I was stopped by Ruby before I could open the door, "What was that about?" She demanded, voice uncharacteristically commanding.
"Please clarify as to what we are talking about?"
"You could've killed him!"
"He's fine." I shrugged.
"He was barely breathing!"
Realisation dawned on me 'Maybe I took it to far.'
'He deserved it.'
'No-one deserves to die.'
'Then why are you here?' I began to panic a little, "They can fix him right, he'll be okay?"
"He will be, eventually. Although it might take a few days before he is 100% again."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "So…shall we?" Gesturing towards the closed door. Weiss opened the door and we were all surprised to see a fifth bed in the corner opposite the hanging one. "I guess this one's mine?"
"I suppose."
"It definitely appears that way."
"Maybe."
"Every other bed is taken so it looks like it is."
Everyone had their input as we proceeded, in unison, to fall into bed and fall asleep.