(July 29, 2017)

Chapter 19. The Edge of Despair

Pearl was reading news on her scroll and scribbling in her notebook. Since she woke up after the attack, she started gathering information regarding the White Fang's movement. Her research, like she noted in the past, told her that the Faunus organization was frequently robbing Dust stores. However, the White Fang stole Dust exclusively in Vale, which was rather strange. She also learned about Blake's encounter with the Dust-stealing White Fang members that strangely took place on the same day that the attack on Four Maidens' Plaza happened. The black-haired girl wasn't willing to talk about it, but Ruby was more keen on it. However the younger girl didn't provide her with much new information, except that the White Fang group from that night was working with Roman Torchwick, a human. Faunus following a human? It was strange. There was definitely something happening.

She decided to organize a strategic meeting between her team and Team BRNZ. The problem was that with Bruin out and Zelony apparently attached to his partner's well-being it seemed to be a bad idea. Still, Nicandra and Rouge would likely help. She texted the two girls and her own teammates asking them to meet together in Team PLTM's dorm at 6 PM.

The time arrived and everyone was chatting. The only person missing was…

"Where's Pearl?" Larimar asked, visibly annoyed. "She calls this meeting saying it's important, and yet she's not here."

"Yeah, there's enough on my plate with that moody idiot."

"Rouge, don't be so harsh on Zelony," Nicandra said. "It's been a really hard few days for all of us, but it is especially hard for him mainly because of your irresponsible behavior."

"Bottling it all up wouldn't do any good for him," the girl shrugged.

Then Pearl entered the room and everyone's eyes looked at her.

"Sorry for being late, was doing some last minute research," she apologized.

"What kind of research?" Larimar asked.

"On the White Fang." Everyone's eyes went wide: why was Pearl researching that? "There's definitely something fishy going on there, and it's happening right here in Vale."

"And what is it that you intend to do?" Nicandra asked.

"I wanna know what's going on. I can't stand that my brethren has sunk so low and I refuse to simply watch it fall."

"But isn't it the thing for the authorities?" Maize pondered. "Besides, haven't we discussed it already a few weeks ago?"

"Yes, we did," sighed Pearl. "But I won't give up. There's no way I'll do that!"

"And how exactly do you plan to get to the bottom of it?" Nicandra asked.

"We could definitely get some police files on Dust robberies in Vale from the last six months or so, that'd be a start," Pearl said.

"That wouldn't be enough," Larimar cut in. "Besides, even if you got your hands on those you wouldn't discover much: it would state that some Faunus extremists are stealing Dust around the kingdom, nothing more."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Pearl asked with a crossed look.

"How about meeting the leader?" Thistle asked.

"Do you think he'll just casually meet you at a café and let you talk with him about how shitty job he's doing? Wake up and smell reality, that's never going to happen," Larimar said, disbelieving his teammate's proposition.

"Actually that's a great idea!" Pearl exclaimed. "We'll just find ourselves to a White Fang meeting and we meet the "Big Bad Wolf" and beat some sense into him!"

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! You're getting waaay ahead of yourself," Maize said. "And why during this whole conversation you're referring to yourself in plural form?"

"I'm not going to do this alone, Maize," came Pearl's reply. "I know I'm a bonehead, but not stupid. This kind of thing requires group operation. Right, Nicandra?" she shot the blue-haired girl a smile.

"Are you referring to that All Hallows' Eve event Bruin put up?"

"Hell yeah! It worked, didn't it?"

"With all due respect, Pearl, but my and Rouge's obligations lie in Team BRNZ. You and your team are free to make the choice, but what you are planning to do is no "fun activity" like what Bruin had."

"Why are humans so hard to work with?!" Pearl sighed. "But I suppose that when you're the dominant species you couldn't care less what happens to those not of you."

"Jeez, we all have problems, Pearl, but what you're doing is just asking us to take a very big one that doesn't concern us," Maize said.

"You're so messed up! I'm done with you!" and Pearl left the room, shutting the door behind her.

"I'm going to return to my dorm," Nicandra announced.

"Me too," yawned Rouge.

Only the men remained in the room. Thistle once again started to feel that his team is growing distant. Larimar and Maize would choose to ignore their leader's plans and ambitions, but Pearl was definitely not one to do nothing and would certainly jump into action, necessary or not.

The next few days saw the final moments of school before the Yuletide. Things were… going. It seemed that the talk about the accident had died, but still there were some people who were restless. Pearl continued her investigation despite Larimar and Maize's instigations and Zelony was so worried about Bruin and mad at his cousin that he had barely any food or sleep. Nicandra tried to encourage him to eat something and rest because it would make Bruin worry when he'd wake up, but that only angered him.

Pyrrha and Jaune were training on the school rooftops. The girl was a great and patient teacher and the boy was slowly making progress. They started practicing after their excursion assignment for Professor Peach where a great deal of things happened that resulted in the two's training.

Just when Pyrrha was about to slash at Jaune, the door to the rooftop they were training on was flung open and from them emerged…

"Zelony?" Pyrrha noted surprised.

"O-oh, you're training," the boy said equally surprised. "Don't stop."

Just when he was about to leave, the redhead called out:

"N-No, it's fine!" Then she looked at her partner, "Right, Jaune?"

"Yeah, whatever," he replied, although he preferred if Zelony just continued with his exit and let him and Pyrrha go on with their training.

"What's wrong? Want to talk about it?" she asked.

"My whole life's wrong, and no, spare me your pretty words," he spat.

"Maybe you want to join us?" she continued.

"Thanks, but no thanks. Just train the poor guy, beside, he needs it more than me."

"Are you sure? Maybe you want to go out later and unwind?" she proposed.

"Pyrrha, I think Zelony has enough problems on his own," Jaune noted irritated.

"I—"

"Save it," Zelony said and left.

Pyrrha just stood there dumbfounded. Zelony has completely shut down not only himself, but started shutting down others as well. True, she didn't knew Bruin well, despite them being in the same academy before coming to Beacon, but from what she's seen of him here was enough to tell her he meant a lot to Zelony. It was paining her she couldn't help him relieve even a bit of that pain. Still, she had other duties.

"Erm, Pyrrha?" Jaune's voice brought her to reality. "Can we continue?"

"Erm, of course, Jaune," she replied.

They continued the training although following the conversation with Zelony has decreased Pyrrha's overall performance.

Serah was visiting Bruin once again. Her friend was still to wake up, at least she chose to believe he would: she wouldn't have it any other way. She saw him grow before her very eyes, and despite constant struggles he kept moving forward. It would be heartbreaking to see him go this way, despite his brave fight with the terrorist from just few weeks ago.

A nurse came, doing the standard checkup.

"You visit him very often, Serah. I admire your dedication," she commented.

"He's a dear friend to me," she smiled not looking up at her. "We've been through a lot. He'd do the same for me."

"A mark of a true Huntsman," the nurse replied and left the room to continue with her busy schedule.

She continued to watch Bruin when suddenly his left hand slightly moved. Serah was surprised by this and before she could decide on what to do, the man's lips slightly opened by quickly closed. The woman leaned, closing the distance between her ear and his mouth.

"Is... there something you want to say?" she asked.

"Z-Zel..." he started, but his voice has quickly died.

"Nurse!" Serah yelled quickly.

After nurse and doctor have examined Bruin, Serah decided to let his teammates know about what happened. However, a difficult thing has come: choosing who to call. First, there was Rouge, but she didn't appear to be tied very much with her friend. Second was Nicandra. She seemed far more concerned about Bruin from what she had told her about what they were doing since the flight to Beacon. But something told Serah that Nicandra also wasn't the best option to choose. One final person has remained: Zelony. The two being partners already marked a strong bond, but her heart also said that Zelony should be the one to hear the news that doctors have relayed to her.

So she took her Scroll and opened Contacts. With the help of the Search function she quickly found Zelony's number and pressed the Call button. Now, it was a wait game.

Then the ring sound stopped: the Scroll has been picked up.

"Serah? You haven't called me since I gave you my number." It was Zelony. She sighed in relief, although she could hear anger in his voice.

"Yes, but well… we do meet occasionally in the hospital," she said nervously. "About that actually." Now would be the big moment.

"Something with Bruin!?" she could hear something hopeful in his voice.

"Yes. He has woken up—"

"W-WHAT!?"

"Calm down!" she quickly cooled him. "It was very brief though. The doctor said he will soon fully wake up."

"I-I'm coming right away! Wait for me if you can!"

"W-Wait—" but before she was able to finish he had ended the call. "I suppose Bruin will tell him," she said with a smile.

Author's Notes

So I finally update, even though this chapter is horribly half-assed. I'm not even gonna bother with formating the dialogues to be in single paragraphs, prolly gonna not do it anymore, not really worthy.

You can see that Pearl is already taking action in regards to White Fang's activities, despite her friends not being supportive of it, in comparison to what Blake had in Volume 2.

And then there's Pyrrha. I should really write at least a bit of interaction between her and Bruin, considering they both graduated Sanctum, but somehow they end up pretty much never interacting with each other.

Plus more on Serah, but not really anything new.

Well, the next chapter is a big one: I hope to evoke a lot of positive feelings with it.