Hope this is okay

Mason Armali sat at his desk, watching the video tapes of the night his family business was broken into. Again. He sighed as he leaned back in his desk and ran his fingers through his hair. The only thing new that had come up was information that team AIZS had discovered of two figures falling from the top of the building; Akita had said that the weird shapes on one of the falling people's head were ram horns but Mason didn't want to believe it. Ram Faunas weren't the most common in the area; in fact he only had seen a few including one of his fellow classmates Sable Rhodes.

He went to go replay the video again when he heard a knock at the door then the door creak open.

"Mason," his black haired teammate Jade was leaning in, "It's Nessa." Mason sighed as he got up from his desk to follow Jade.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nessa lay in a stark white bed in the school's infirmary, IV flowing into her veins and oxygen into her nose. August was sitting next to her, staring off into space while he waited for the rest of his team. When Mason and Jade arrived August looked up to Mason and explained what had happened; he and Nessa had been training when she passed out. The doctors and nurses on staff attributed this to her lack of eating and her lack of sleep.

"This pattern needs to stop, this is her third time in here, her grades are slipping and if she's like this she won't be any good in a fight." Jade spoke after a pause. Mason nodded and stared at Nessa deep in thought, realizing he had spent so much time trying to find the intruders that he had completely neglected his team.

Nessa's eyes fluttered open then after a moment she tried to sit up while simultaneously adjusting her gloves. She failed in her attempt then with a little help from August she sat up and looked over her friends faces.

"Nessa, we need to talk." Jade said after a moment, shocking Nessa with the solemn tone of his voice. Mason and his two worried compatriots brought up wooden chairs up to Nessas prestin white medical bed with concerned looks on their faces. Once they settled down the atmosphere became much more thicker like tar, they can feel it drowning them with worry,guilt, regret.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself." August broke the silence, his eyebrows furrowed, "You barely eat and you barely sleep, you need to take better care of yourself."

"You won't be able to fight, you'll bring the team down at this rate." Mason added, quickly receiving a slap on his thigh from Jade and a sharp glare from August.

"Nessa, please. We are all worried about you." Jade got up and hugged Nessa tightly. After Jade got done hugging the life out of nessa, august ask the question everyone was wondering about "Why... did you do this to yourself"

Nessa looked around to make sure no one was in earshot then began to speak very softly, "When I was a kid, my dad wasn't….the best of people…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Dad, stop!" Nessa screamed, trying to scratch and ungrip her father's hand from holding her up by her hair. A scale from her wrist and her reptilian like claws cut the tightly gripped hands.

"You bitch!" He screamed, releasing his grip from her hair. Nessa took the opportunity to try and scramble away. Her father, Gregory, helped her by kicking her across the room. The faunas child lay on the floor, not finding the will to move as her father walked over closer to her then threw a pair of gloves, long enough to cover up her arms.

"Wear these. You are making a mess of my life, it's the least you could do." He snarled then left, slapping a servant into a door. When the servant regained her composer, she walked over to Nessa and helped her sit up, immediately being embraced by the now crying girl.

"What's wrong, miss?" the servant asked, holding the girl close.

"It's not right what he's doing. It's not right!" Nessa cried into the servant's chest. The servant was speechless and held the girl who started to speak again, "I'll make it stop. I'll keep you and everyone safe. You guy's don't deserve it."

The next day Nessa woke up at dawn to go to beg all the security to help teach her how to fight. None of them took her seriously until the week had passed and she broke her nose by testing her strength by punching her own face. From day to night every day she trained, fighting security or robots that her father had bought from Atlas. Every time her muscles begged her to stop for a short break or to sleep she remembered all the times she had seen her father punch, kick and all around abuse everyone who he laid eyes on; she remembered how all the people he had wronged were too scared to talk out and protect themselves. There were times she found herself waking up on the floor next to a training dummy, her father in the doorway, shaking his head in disappointment and calling her derogatory names. She grew to hate the scales that covered her arms, they caused everyone around her pain.

Then came the day she first stood up for someone else.

She was in a training room when she heard her father yelling at an employee for some small mistake; for some reason that set her off and she ran to the room that her father was in. When she got in the doorway, out of breath from sprinting she saw her father raise a hand to strike the man in front of him, so she ran in front of the man and took the blow to the face. Nessa put a hand to her face and looked at it to see if there was any blood, luckily there wasn't any. After the momentary shock Gregory had from not hitting the employee he had meant to hit. He tried again but Nessa blocked once more. Deciding this wasn't worth it, he told them both to leave his office. When they had left the room the employee turned around and thanked Nessa over and over but she was speechless.

She had done it. She had finally done it. She finally helped someone, all the sleepless nights and days of starvation had payed off. It was all worth it. So she continued, every day to try and get in the way of Gregory abusing those around him, and trying to defend herself from his abuse.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nessa stared at her lap, trying to fight back tears forming in her ears. Jade leaned over and grabbed her hand.

"Nessa, you aren't alone anymore. We are here also to help you help people. You aren't alone." Jade whispered softly. Nessa looked up at him and pulled him into a tight hug.

Mason stood up and walked out of the room and back to his room. Staring at the clip again he stared at it blankly, thinking about Nessa and all she had been through. He was so focused on his own things he completely forgot to take care of his team and make sure they were okay.

"I'm a failure of a leader.." Mason said under his breath. He felt hands go onto his shoulder then slide down to his chest.

"You're not that bad." A voice purred in his ear. Mason smirked and turned, grabbing the girl behind him and pulling her into a kiss.