(September 18, 2016)

Chapter 18. My Fault

Yuletide was just a few days away, yet Bruin's condition wasn't improving very well. The burns on his neck has largely healed, but a few scars remained. For Zelony it served as a reminder of how bad a Huntsman he is, or so he thought.

He tried to occupy himself with the overdue schoolwork which piled up after the accident. However it was of little help. Even with the help of Nicandra, he struggled with making up. The blue-haired girl was quite patient with her teammate, although her partner was less so.

"Zel, you're awful," Rouge announced.
"W-what do you mean?" he asked surprised, although he felt he knew what she was about.
"You've been a lump since you woke up after the attack. The attack for which you" she grabbed a nearby pencil and pointed it at Zelony, "feel awfully responsible. Awfully too responsible, if you ask me."
"No one asked you about any opinion," he shot back.
"Gosh, you're worse than Goodwitch!" and she stood up and left, snapping the door.
"She is right, you know," Nicandra cut in.
"And now you're on her side?!"
"She spoke the truth, the truth which hurts you very so. Please," the girl took Zelony's hand in hers, "if you feel overwhelmed by something, don't hesitate to share it. It might help you if others share your burden as well."

The boy said nothing. Carmin was his family, whether he liked it or not, it was a family business to him. It was his responsibility to resolve this crisis and dragging others was not his intention. He intended to speak with his team and Team PLTM about himself, Carmin, and what had caused his cousin to take such a drastic route, but he wasn't so sure anymore.

He then left the room, leaving Nicandra alone. The girl sighed, disappointed in his behavior.

"Was I not the same as you, just a few weeks ago?"

Zelony was walking through the corridor at a faster space than usual. He passed Thistle from Team PLTM along with Ace and Matt from Team AZRE. The three boys waved at him, smiles on their faces, but Zelony didn't even turn around.

"Shouldn't we go after him?" Thistle tilted his head.
"Probably," Ace provided. "He looked frustrated. I'll go talk to him."
"Nah," Matt said. "I'll go check on him."
"You? You're not good at that sort of stuff," his leader noted.
"I have a feeling it's something I can handle actually," the boy shot a smile and went after the green-haired man.
"Should we go after them?" Thistle asked.
"No," Ace sighed. "Let's see if Matt is really up to the task."

Initially Matt had a problem with locating Zelony, but after asking a few students he managed to track him into the library. He silently entered the large chamber and cautiously started to look for the boy. He passed a few alleys with no sight of his "target." Then he heard firm tapping of a keyboard accompanied with an angry growl in between. Curious, Matt followed the sounds to find Zelony apparently throwing tantrums at a computer station he was at.

Matt sighed. At first he wasn't sure he could do that: he wasn't gifted with words like Ace who could melt himself into everyone's heart with how caring he was. His confident smile disappeared, but after a moment he decided to just go with the show. After all his pride was kinda at stake and he wouldn't live knowing that Ace would probably be making fun of his poor "high level social skills" or something like that.

He then made a step forward when Zelony unexpectedly spoke.

"Matt, what you're doing here?" The green-haired boy tried to maintain a degree of self-control, but the other boy noticed that he was barely containing himself.
"Erm, I came to study a bit," he replied, too fast for his own taste.
"Alone? Would figure you'd be with Ace or that bowman from your team," he replied.
"Dez."
"What?"
"That bowman's name. It's 'Dez,'" Matt provided. "Are you studying too?" he then added.
"Yeah," he replied, although his eyes spoke differently.
"Actually," he paused, "neither of us came here with studying in mind. I'm right, no?" Matt said. "I saw you with the guys few minutes ago, angry about something."
"Oh? So you're a mind reader now?" Zelony said with a crossed look.
"That's Dez's specialty actually," Matt clarified. "But back to the actual topic: don't you wanna talk about it with someone?"
"That's the problem. Too many people I know are too caught up with my mess. I don't want any more victims."
"Let's fight," the other boy proposed.
"What?"
"If I can't get you talking, I can at least try getting some of that steam out of your system," he said with a smile. "Besides, I could use a bit of training myself. So what do you say?"
"I'm out of fighting til the end of the year, like the rest of my team and Team PLTM, don't you remember?"
"Oh, right," he recalled Goodwitch's announcement when the seven people of the two team returned. "That psycho did a number on you all, didn't he?"

Zelony growled at the mention of his cousin, even though his name was not explicitly said. With each passing moment his hatred for Carmin grew and it was maddening for him. If only Bruin…

"Well, serves you right," came an unexpected voice a man.

The two boys turned around and saw Cardin with a wicked smile on his face. Next to him was Russel, seemingly really happy about something.

"Shut it, Vulture," Zelony said.
"Oh, I haven't finished yet. You see, you and your little pack act like your kings of the jungle, and well… It was about time some sane person showed you how pathetic you really are."
"Sane? Do you even understand that word?" came a female voice.

A girl with long black hair and a bow on the top of her head appeared, her amber eyes piercing Cardin's head.

"Belladonna," Team CRDL's leader scoffed. "To what curse I owe your visit?"

"The one talking to me," Blake replied, a crossed look on her face. "The victims of that horrible man were both humans and Faunus alike. Do you not feel sorry even for humans that died?"
"It's what they got for hanging out with those filthy Faunus," the boy shrugged.
"What if someone from your family was among the killed? Would you still be in that psycho's twisted fanclub?" Matt asked.
"Wouldn't happen to my family. We keep hell away from those dirty grubs."
"Why you—" Blake growled, but Zelony stilled her.
"Could you take your teenage drama somewhere else? You're bothering others," the librarian came and reprimanded the group.

Cardin growled, but his partner covered his mouth.

The group left the library. Just as they left the room Cardin turned to Zelony, Matt, and Blake.

"See you on the arena in five minutes. I'm gonna crush your guts with my team."
"For someone who talks so high, you sure need a backup," Zelony quipped. "Such a vulturous technique."
"I wanna see you bleed, Bushman," Cardin growled.
"Haven't you heard? He's out of fighting til the year's end," Matt defended.
"I. Don't. Care."

And he left. The remaining three just looked at themselves.

"I'll ask my partner to sub for you," Matt proposed.
"There's no need, I could handle those four pricks alone."
"Zelony, he's right, you know," Blake spoke. "Even though you might feel good, such attack leaves strain on your Aura than a usual battle."
"Really, guys, there's no need."

Matt quickly called to Dez who has accepted the offer. In fact, he was quite excited. Strangely, Blake also called her partner, Yang, who, to no one's surprise, welcomed the offer.

"Seriously, you're all giving me a headache today," the green-haired boy complained.
"I don't know you very well, actually not really," Blake admitted, "but I can sense you have a great connection to the attack on the plaza and you really care for all those that were lost."
"And what's your point?" Zel asked.
"I want to help you."
"Guys, we really need to get going," Matt reminded and they started to run for the arena.

On their way there, they quickly visited the armory and took their equipment. When they arrived to the arena, they noticed many students in the stands. Dez, Yang, and Team CRDL were already on the battleground. The archer and the martial artist were crossing daggers with the other team, awaiting arrival of the remaining participants.

"You're using a replacement now, Treeboy?" Cardin said to Zelony.
"Only because I am still recovering. But I can assure you that when I'll return to my full strength I'll kick asses of your whole team, Vulture," Zelony replied. "Give me a good show," he turned to Matt, Dez, Blake, and Yang as he walked to the stands.

Zelony then took a place next to Nicandra, who was strangely there. He wanted to ask her what she's doing her, but her single look resulted in restraining from asking.

The fight hasn't even started yet, but the stands were rooting for both sides, although the "not Team CRDL" was somewhat louder. Zelony smiled, realizing that many young people like him were not that bad like Cardin and his team. Still, he knew that there were people who no matter what wouldn't change at all.

Zelony looked around once more. Even more strangely, he didn't notice Rouge anywhere in the stands. He thought that such a fun-loving girl would certainly attend such an event and see their friends kick vultures' asses. Well, they did argue earlier. She was probably letting some steam out of her system.

Ace then came to the arena and stood in the middle of the battleground.

"I will act as a referee of sorts in this match, mainly to keep you in line, you four," he turned to Cardin and his team.
"What? You don't trust me?" he spat.
"You are an unpredictable person, Cardin. Someone needs to watch you. Besides, there are witnesses if anything out of rules will happen."
"I'm as clean as a snow," Cardin replied with a sickly grin. "Now let's do it."

Ace counted to three and when he said "Start!" the two groups charged to clash with each other. Russel charged at Blake, slashing wildly with his daggers, but the girl leaped over him and charged at him midair, crashing the man into the ground. As he stood up up, Blake followed with a flurry of rising slashes from her weapon in twin daggers form and finished with a horizontal kick, throwing her opponent out of the ring.

Next was Matt's encounter with Dove. The gunblade wielder slashed his opponents a few times, the hammer wielder blocking the strikes with his mighty weapon. Dove then leaped back and shot a few times, but Matt just ignored that and charged at him and swung his hammer upward, his opponent barely dodging the attack. However, he quickly followed it with a staggering kick and brought his hammer down, the aftershock knocking his opponent out.

Another duo was Dez against Sky. At first they exchanged flurry of sword and halberd, but quickly leaped back seeing as it was ineffective. Dez switched his weapon into bow mode and started to shoot arrows, which his opponent was deflecting with his skillful rotation of his weapon. Sky then leaped into the air and descended onto Dez, pointing his halberd at him. The archer then quickly changed his weapon into a sword and assumed a defensive position. The steel clashed and Sky's halberd was temporarily impaled into the ground. As his opponent was to draw his weapon, Dez spin-kicked him throwing him a few meters away from him, while changing his weapon into a bow and shooting a salvo of explosive arrows at him that reduced his opponent's Aura to critical level.

The final duet was between Yang and Cardin. First the girl charged at him, a salvo of punches aimed straight at his face, but the man was evading her attacks. He then followed with a wide horizontal swing from his mace, but Yang simply braced herself with her gauntlets and was pushed back a bit. Cardin quickly followed with a diagonal strike paired with a punch, but the girl dodged both attack and shot-punch him across the battleground.

"Why you little—!" he cursed as he was standing up.

Cardin smashed his mace into the ground, sending a fiery wave at Yang. She simply leaped over it and brought her right gauntlet at Cardin's feet, shooting a bullet from it bursting in a pillar of flame. She then followed with a back-flip kick, launching him into the air and shoot bullet at him from her other gauntlet which hit him and burst, sending him crashing at a wall, way out of the battleground.

"You talk too much, Cardin," she said, finishing the match.

A bit more of a half of the stands was cheering the victory of Yang, Blake, Dez, and Matt, while the rest booed it. Must be those Faunus haters like Cardin, Zelony thought. The people in the arena slowly dispersed, with Cardin and his teammate having to be carried into infirmary.

"That was nice and cool actually, but what exactly happened?" Yang asked Zelony when only some members of Teams RWBY, AZRE, and BRNZ remained.

And so Matt explained her seeing frustrated Zelony and following him to the library. He was asking him to tell him what was on his mind and when the conversation started to be about the attack on plaza it was then when Cardin "joined."

"Still Zel hasn't told you what's eating him?" Yang asked.
"He has kind of a martyr syndrome," came Nicandra's reply.
"Is this connected with the attack on the Maidens' Plaza?" Blake inquired.
"Yeah. Blames himself for not being able to stop—" Rouge appeared out of nowhere and started to explain, but was quickly cut off by her partner who covered her mouth.
"Rouge."
"—to stop his cousin from killing people back then," she finished after she managed break out from being silenced.

Zelony, filled with anger, slapped her across her face.

"You bitch!" and he run away.

Rouge's cheek was burning red and she grumbled a bit, but she summoned Undine who soothed the hit spot.

"Yeowch," she said. "Such a grown guy, but such crybaby."
"Will he be alright?" Ace asked.
"I would like to say 'yes,' but I'm afraid that's might not be happening soon," Nicandra said.
"Why is that?" Team AZRE's leader inquired.
"It's because of Bruin. Zelony feels responsible for his current predicament."
"We can't do much for him right now," Blake said, who was silent til now.
"So what do we do? I'd hate to leave him alone," Matt said.
"We wait, wait for Bruin to wake up. That's the best solution I can think of," Ace replied.
"Well, it doesn't help him even a bit when we're standing around like some trees in a forest," Rouge said. "Let's get going. We all have our own things to do."
"That's… cold," said Nicandra. "But you are right. Everyone, let's return to our duties then."

Everyone agreed and each went their own way.

"Zelony, I know that feeling," Matt said and joined his teammates.

Author's Notes

Nothing really interesting here: just more drama in Team BRNZ and Cardin's ass getting trashed yet again.

I think I'll post two more chapters and will be done with Volume 1.