Nightraze: thank you, good to know that I did write the last chapter realistically. I had actually planned on writing the Velvet soldier scene beforehand, but the fact that it was so well received played a big part in the size of the scene. So partially, yeah.
Weiss is an interesting character for sure. Let's just hope that she can remain professional with Fauna in the future, right?
You are most certainly helpful regarding the White Rose moments: now that I have concrete feedback to work with, I can improve. Thank you for that :)
Tuutje07: so many questions and thingies…so many more thingies and questions I can supply. But I want to thank you for those kind words at the end; I might be able to write about those things now –years after they happened- but I can remember that I used to have…difficulty in portraying my thoughts like that.
"Beacon Academy has several points of interest in the city. Some of them are shops that sell valuable equipment and Dust supplies, others are museums that possess items which might grant us an insight in the past, or simply beautiful items of art. And that second-to-last one is the most important. Because right there, the museums are experiencing a breakthrough.
"A breakthrough? What sort of breakthrough?"
"They have installed new soda-machines."
"Professor Adamant, please. There are inscriptions all across ruins and buildings in the wild, Professor Port. And we are getting close to translating some of the more enigmatic ones. Doing so might grant us valuable insight in the events that transpired in the Great War, all those years ago. We might find out who found Dust, or who the first warrior with Aura was. We have multiple organizations and independent teams working on this, but they need to be protected. This is why we will send the students to these locations during the practice-courses on Thursdays. "
"Are we expecting trouble?"
- Professor-conference, Beacon Academy.
Day 31, Professor Adamant's office, 8:07.
"Come on Ruby. What will you say? What does that mean?"
"I…she looks like she wants to hide a…hidden fear of hers…like she is afraid of something, but doesn't want to admit it. If I had to tell her…I would ask her what she was afraid of."
"Good enough I suppose…now then. How would you use this as a weapon against her? Where she an enemy, how would you deal with her?"
"I can't just bash her with my scythe?"
"Unfortunately, no. Don't test that again."
"Fine…" Ruby sighed and thought it over once more. The image that the Professor had showed her on his scroll was realistic…but it wasn't the real deal. If she could only work with real people this would be way easier. But still, this was what she had and this was what she would do. "If I had to talk her down, I would ask her kindly what her fear was."
"Good! Tell me, how would that go?"
He sounded excited; she must have said something good. The extra accent he put on his 'good' was kind of scary though. "I would tell her that she didn't have to be afraid…that we could protect her. That we could make sure that she didn't have to be scared again."
"But….but and here is the major but: what makes you think that she will truly listen to you? You know what I told you, some people-"
"-some people will only get angry when faced with their truth, yes I know." Ruby was growing tired. They had been doing this for almost half an hour now; she had sneaked out of her bed even earlier than the usual eight o'clock to see the Professor and have her private tutoring –for the fifth time since he had told her that this was needed.
The first session with Professor Adamant had been him trying to determine the "scale of her gift" as he put it. Then, three times in a row, he had spent the thirty minutes that they had in the earliness of the morning by letting her gaze at faces and then telling him what the faces meant to her.
It was exciting at first…the first two times, that is. But they had rapidly worked through ten images in two sessions and the third session she had started to see familiar faces; faces of people she had once met in the city.
"So why would you go for this approach then?"
"Because her face has something in it…a certain softness that makes me think that she might want to be helped…"
"I see." The Professor put the picture away. "Next one."
And then he showed her a picture of Yang.
"I took this one during the last physical exercise, tell me: what do you think she is thinking of?"
She swallowed and looked away. That picture had been taken it a moment that she and Yang had talked about sensitive things…things that nobody else needed to know.
They had talked about her mother.
The Professor didn't need to know that –that was personal and nobody else had to know about this. What was he thinking? Was he just curious about what they had been talking about and decided to have her spill it for him? What a jerk!
"I am not going to tell you that!" Ruby snapped, angry with the Professor for even thinking that she would spill her sister's secrets. "Who do you think you are! You…you…" her voice died away when she realized what he had done.
He was grinning widely at her. Not the 'I-am-so-awesome' grin that she had seen on his face once, but a real and warm smile.
"Ruby Rose!" He beamed. "Proper-minded little student! Excellent. The most important thing I wanted to teach you has been stuck right in your young little head! Amazing."
"Excuse me?" She asked.
"You see…reading people to find out more about them is just fine when you do it to your enemies, or people you don't know, to gather important information. But…you can't just do it to the people dear to you. It is like reading their diary –their most personal and intimate diary."
"Was this just a test?"
"Of course it was just a test!" He told her and stood up from his chair. "To see if you realize how important it is to watch out for what you say…and what you see."
He had tested her with a picture of Yang to see if she would say what she saw on the picture? Wait a minute…"I was with her that day; I didn't need to read her face at all, I could have just remembered what the topic was!"
"Yes…and that is a little bit less amazing. I had expected you to see right through this little test, to be honest. But…can't have anything at once yet can we?"
He walked to the window to look outside, while she felt her cheeks grow as red as her hair was. Professor Matt had taken that picture…while the both of them had been talking. Of course he wouldn't just ask her what Yang was thinking by looking at her picture: he knew that she could have just remembered the topic that they had been discussing.
"Embarrassing…" Ruby muttered and lowered her head to her arms, hoping that the table would eat her.
"Oh cheer up." He threw her a cookie –which her left hand promptly snatched out of the air without her brain even realizing it. Such was the might of her cookie-reflexes. "You proved to be trustworthy and possess integrity. The very obvious test was tailored especially to you."
"You knew that I wouldn't know?" She asked.
"Oh I knew that you wouldn't know. And I knew that you didn't know that I knew you knew."
"And I knew that…you knew…I knew...what?"
"Habit of mine, never mind. It's all meta-physical. You did well. Now rung along Rose, off to your teammates." He opened the door, preparing to release her again.
"Professor? Can I ask you a few things?"
"It is eight ten. If you want to risk missing the class…"
"I do."
He stared at her for a few seconds before he grinned again and shut the door. "You remind me of me when I was younger. That is not necessarily a good thing, mind you. Shoot."
Ruby thought about the many questions she had regarding…well, everything. Why it was necessary for five soldiers to stay at Beacon Academy, for example. Or why it is possible for Will to function without a team. There were many things she wanted to know…and rare was the opportunity to actually get that information. "Can you tell me why those soldiers are at Beacon?"
The Professor's smile faltered somewhat. "Headmaster Ozpin made a deal with someone, concerning the protection of students. I can't tell you more."
"Why can't you tell me more?"
"Because it is a secret."
"Why is it a secret?"
"Because knowing the truth can cause dismemberment, mental disorders and constipation."
Alrightie then, different topic. "What do you know about Onyx Academy?"
Professor Adamant's smile fell off his face and hit the ground, where it writhed in pain for a few seconds before completely disappearing. "How do you know that name?" He softly asked her, growing pale. It was strange that he would react as badly to a simple combat school.
He was just that sort of man.
"I…a student told me."
"Which student?" He demanded and got to his feet…and turned a bit scary. "Who told you?"
Ruby ducked in her chair and attempted to blend into it; Professor Matt was serious. Seriously serious and it was quite frightening. What was so bad about that name?" "We asked Will what combat school he attended and he said that it wasn't important and then we pressed the issue and then he told us that he attended Onyx Academy and then we were satisfied-" She told him in one breath, her brain having released full control over her mouth. That seemed to occur everytime she got exited or scared. "-but he told us that the school was at the very border of Vale but he had to mean the Kingdom and not the city because there isn't any other combat school besides Beacon and Signal in Vale and it was all really weird and please don't eat me!"
His right hand slowly crept up to his bowtie and he straightened it, flexing his neck while doing so. "I see…alright Ruby. Just this once…"
\"P-Professor?"
"Onyx Academy…right. Now then…Professor Ozpin has allies outside of Beacon, Ruby. Allies that came to our aid when we needed it the most. Allies that we call Fireteam Lima."
"What!" Ruby exclaimed, not believing what the Professor had just told her. "They came from a Combat school? But they murdered people!"
"And our exchange student 'Will' is also from Onyx…" Matt continued. "But…that can't be right. I have only heard that name once before…Onyx. A long time ago…but that is impossible. This is impossible…that was in a whole different continent…"
"Professor? How can a combat school send both soldiers and a student? Did they pay for those five? Is Will a soldier too? Wait, can students be soldiers?"
"It isn't Lima that I am worried about…" Professor Adamant muttered and then looked at her, raising an eyebrow as if he saw her for the first time. "Ruby! Look at the time, you should be going. Going and forgetting everything that I just told you."
Why would he tell her that if he didn't want her to know it? He seemed to flap about with his mouth everytime she saw him, but he wouldn't have been accepted as a teacher if he couldn't keep a secret, right?
"And whatever you do, do not and I repeat with urgency NOT tell any of this to your teammates. Definitely do not tell them to watch out for the name and most important of all, do NOT tell them to be careful! You hear me Rose?"
She quickly nodded, feeling extremely confused with everything that had been happening. Mind games, tests and secrets and she seemed to be stuck in the middle of them. It would be the best for all two of them if she moved now. "Sir."
So she left. She made her way back to the dormitories where the rest of her team were preparing themselves for the coming lecture. It would be the perfect place to discuss everything that had been going on –because there had been a LOT going on lately. Team RWBY had been sent to the southern districts of Vale on Thursday to patrol the border, watching for any and all creatures of Grimm that might be seeking to infiltrate their city.
They had not encountered any.
Ruby was curious as to why Professor Matt –who never lost his cool- would get so jumpy at the mere mention of Will's combat school. Did he have bad experiences with it? And had this 'Onyx' truly sent the five soldiers that had assisted them or was that a clever lie? This was so confusing…and rather frightening, really. The look in Matt's face when she had uttered that name…it had been one of intense fear. And not fear for himself, that was certain. He had feared for someone else when he had jumped up like that. Hunters never got afraid, right? She needed to find her team right away.
That didn't take too long, fortunately. She reached the door to her room in less than two minutes and as she nearly kicked the door in in an attempt to get inside, she noticed that they were all ready and waiting for her.
"Hey sis! Back from the Professor again?" Yang chirped.
"What-never mind that, I need to tell you something very important!" Ruby said, louder than she had intended. Blake opened her scroll and checked the time.
"We still have five minutes before we need to leave. Will that suffice?"
It had to.
"Listen up!" Ruby sat down, mentioning for her team to do the same. "During Professor Adamant's private lessons, I asked him what he knew of Onyx Academy."
"The Combat school that Will came from?" Weiss asked, looking annoyed. "Why is that still important? It was probably a lie."
"Listen!" She impatiently and nearly yelled. "When I said the name 'Onyx', he got really pale and jumped to his feet. And then he almost yelled at me, demanding where I learned that name."
Blake sighed and crossed her arms. "That has me thinking…but continue."
"And then he said that those five people that showed up during the battle for Beacon also came from Onyx…or were at least affiliated with them!" She continued. "He said that Onyx was an ally of Beacon's, but his reaction was definitely NOT positive!"
Yang crossed her arms. "But…that means that either Will is lying through his teeth…or that those five don't truly belong to this Onyx Academy. They can't both belong to that school, right? I mean…he is a student and they are soldiers. Simple as that."
"Some time ago," Blake interrupted them, "I encountered two persons wearing armour that resembled the armour of both Will and those men from Lima. They were NOT friendly."
"When was that?" Weiss asked.
"Two and a half years ago." Blake replied. "You have to admit…Fireteam Lima…as they are called…they wear the same sort of armour that Will does. If neither of them is lying about their origin, they could be coming from the same place."
"Which would be Onyx!" Ruby exclaimed, glad that her team didn't dismiss her troubles just like that.
"One problem," Blake told her. "I also saw Lisa's weapon before and where she comes from is rather obvious. This could all just be a big coincidence, right?"
"Don't be ready to assume all that," Weiss reacted, "For all we know, this Fireteam Lima is still friendly to Beacon in their own way. I mean…they DID save all us during the fight and they only shot the criminals who were attempting to kill us."
"That doesn't make their executions right though." Yang sighed and shook her head. "I think we should have a talk with one of them 'soldier-boys'. But if we don't hurry up now, we're going to miss Grimm studies."
"I am curious to see how Professor Adamant prepared his lesson this time," Blake mused. "Strange how he and Lisa are related, right?"
"Right…" Weiss angrily snapped. "I don't know why she didn't tell us! If I had a famous brother I would be telling everyone!"
And that was a shot in the rose. Not literarily of course; she didn't want to get shot. Not even by Weiss. "I think that's the point, Weiss. You should know how annoying it can be as a well-known person; you are the Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."
"Exactly!" Said Heiress then yelled. "And she should know that I would know!"
Again with the 'I know that you know' business…wait a brain-cracking minute! Weird abstract thinking? Sentences that didn't make sense? She had seen this all before.
"Girls?" She carefully started. "We're going to be late…again."
It took the rest of her team a few seconds to really understand what she was saying, but when they did they were very fast.
"Let's go then you dunces!" Weiss told them, not unkindly, and took the lead to the very first lecture on of the day. They were supposed to gather outside in the garden for an excursion to the Emerald Forest. There they would…research the Grimm population.
And teams LACG and JNPR were already waiting for them there. That should have been cozy for them.
"Morning!" Grace said and waved at them. LACG was positioned half a dozen meters away from CRDL –if that was an indicator to the current mood of the four boys, this field trip would not be very pleasant.
Ruby looked behind them to confirm that everyone was there –no Will creeping up behind them- but also no determined Jaune leading JNPR gleefully into the sunrise. She could see a depressed-looking Jaune, walking behind the rest of his team as they approached the gardens, but that was it.
Where was happy Jaune? What had happened? Shouldn't he and Pyrrha have had cozy times on top of the rooftop where they had gone after History class? Was he still sad over Cardin bullying him? But that should have been resolved already…perhaps it was because he didn't like his own lack of skill concerning the topics handled at school? That COULD be resolved already. Did he not like Matt? Nonsense, only Lisa disliked the Professor. So what was it? He steadily avoided looking at CRDL, while the four of them did nothing BUT staring at Jaune. So it had something to do with CRDL…meaning Cardin.
If only that could resolve itself.
"Morning students!" A cheerful voice said. Professor Adamant stepped into the clearing with a rucksack on his back. "Today I have planned something special, for those among you that are ambitious enough to undertake it."
That was the way to motivate them.
"Follow me to the Emerald Forest and I will explain,"he explained. Not so much for explaining, was he?
So soon after traveling to the gardens outside of Beacon, they traveled to Beacon Cliffs where the largest section of the lecture would take place. That too didn't take very long; after five minutes of silent and awkward traveling –as there were multiple tensions rising amongst all of them- they eventually arrived at their destination.
Beacon cliffs.
"Oh don't worry you." Professor Adamant spoke as soon as he noticed Jaune noticing the launch-platforms. "I won't be testing your landing-strategy today."
"That's good," Cho muttered. They had all brought their weapons and equipment with them when they had heard of another field-trip, but it seemed that they wouldn't be doing any flying.
"Sir? What are you doing?" Sky Lark asked the Professor after thirty seconds of silence, in which the man was doing nothing but pacing back and forth on the grass.
"Excellent point Sky Lark…and I think…that I found it…yes, right here…"
Ruby looked at Yang –who merely shrugged- and was about to ask the Professor what he was searching for, when the man kicked a seemingly innocent patch of grass-
-causing Sky Lark to fall into a deep hole.
"There you go!" Professor Adamant cheered and watched the member of CRDL disappear into the ground. "Do you honestly think that the only way from Beacon into the Emerald Forest would be getting launched into it? We had an emergency tunnel installed."
"That is an excellent idea," said Weiss, "Sir? What brought the teachers to installing it?"
The man turned to Weiss with an expression that wouldn't be unfit for a man staring at a child for asking what two plus two was. "The tunnel? Because the launch pads were too slow of course. Now it you would all form a neat line in front of the hole in the ground, we could continue this expedition."
Ruby sighed, realizing that this would most likely be a long day.
Hangar Bay, six hours ago.
Night had lost the peaceful, calm traits that were associated with it. Night used to be about relaxing, calming the body and catching enough sleep to function. It usually went coupled with uneasy dreams that faded away, but it had never been as bad as this before. Never mind the dream that he could not remember anymore, or the cold sweat that had somehow appeared on his body. He had woken for a reason and that reason was currently driving him to the borders of insanity. He had no idea how late it was, where in his Hangar bay he was or even if he was in his hangar bay at all.
What Operative Greystone did know, however, was the sickening burning itch that was spreading itself through his body. It was as if his body had recalled how he had felt after his fight with Mantis and then attempted to recreate it –badly. He could feel his body convulsing like mad only because of the occasional scattered item that collided with his limbs every now and then, but they barely managed to distract him. The rest of his body was more important: his head, namely.
What was going on? What had caused this? Why was this happening now? He had had more than two weeks to recover from his ordeal, what had caused this explosion of activity in his system?
A heavy object smashed into the back of his head and his eyes shot open, attempting to take in the situation like they almost naturally did. But eyes were no good when the brain was in no condition to process their impulses and right now, the only thing that was on his brain was regaining control over his body.
He felt something weird and quickly rolled on his stomach, facing the cold hard floor instead of that enormous ceiling. Simple steps first; the less outer signals, the better it was. His abdomen felt like something was going to violently burst out of it and right now, that probability wasn't even that low.
He started coughing and attempted to get back to his feet. There seemed to be something stuck in his throat and he needed to get that out as fast as possible. But simply coughing seemed unable to cut it and as it became more violent and forced, he realized that trying to get back to his feet was a little bit too much to handle.
So he stopped his pitiful attempts to regain control and allowed himself to fall back on fours, barely catching himself with his hands.
If he kept this up he would soon be coughing up bits of his lungs.
He softly groaned and grabbed hold of his stomach, which only served to somehow worsen his situation. Attempting to take a deep breath, he felt his body convulse again and he retched, hoping that that would be enough to clear his head.
It was; partially. His impossibly tense muscles managed to relax a bit and he attempted to crawl a few feet back to get a new idea of what his position was. Had he been captured? Was he being tortured? This was not natural, even he could tell that.
No. Backing up was not possible. His arms and legs collapsed and his body hit the ground again after a few inches of crawling. Now that his head felt a bit clearer, he could feel the other problems. His body felt like it was burning as vividly as his mind was yet he felt so cold, so very cold. Those were symptoms of a heavy fever…but that was not what this was. This couldn't be something as simple as a fever; it had to be something else. Something worse.
Damn why couldn't his mind stop hurting? His body had already managed to retain control-
-or not. As soon as he thought up that particular line, his body started another fit. This was starting to get out of hand and he alone couldn't deal with this. But there was no 'one else; not anymore. He was alone and he would die alone-
Concentrate on the bigger picture. It was almost time. Concentrate on what was important.
You are not important, he told himself, grabbing hold of that mantra. Your own physical discomfort goes behind the mission…sacrifices have to be made.
Inhale. Count to three. Exhale.
The muscles in his back tensed and he felt automatically exhaled in pain as he felt his back arch. Spasms wouldn't get him anywhere. He just had to make it through the night –was it night? Or was it already morning?
His right hand clashed with something solid and he tried to see what it was. The heavy item that he had backed into seemed to be his assault rifle. It had probably fallen when he had fallen.
He grabbed hold of his head with both of his head and groaned again, unable to contain the raging fires in his nerves. This was impossible! There was no way that he could do this all on his own!
A name escaped his lips as he tried to think of anything that might offer him a solid memory to grab a hold of in the violent waves of his mind. And as he did, he felt the tremors grow weaker. The pain dulled and he was able to see clearly to a limited degree.
No, nothing like that had actually happened. It was all still very present, but his head was banishing it all out. Every form of pain and discomfort had to be gone in order for him to concentrate on his mission: more important than himself. Finally.
The madness that his mind had cooked up in an attempt to fix him was absurd, as was his response to that. It was all in his head and if he was that unable to contain himself that he was thinking of memories of all things, he was not nearly as disciplined as he needed to be. He should have prepared for this…he should have known that this was going to happen.
His weakness disgusted him. Giving on to bodily weaknesses like that, in the middle of the night? He needed to do better than that. He would do better than that. He would start his operation without further ado. The next day that approached was a Friday and that would be the day he had been waiting for. His superiors had told him to grab the nearest possible date and that date had come.
He ignored his trembling legs and his spinning vision and grabbed his scroll. It read 3:45, but without an indicator as to how late he had woken up it would be impossible to calculate the exact duration of his fit. He had woken up at night before but…nothing like this before.
Was it getting worse? Or was it just getting started?
He sighed and checked if his sidearm was still present. It was a wonder that it was still attached to his thigh after all that rolling around. If he was truly successful…this mess in Vale would be over soon. No more clashes with Beacon, no more fooling around with eager students and no more withholding his fire.
He would get to his target. And no student would stop him.
Beacon Cliffs
"Alright, now that we are here we can cut to the interesting things. Do you all remember the temple?"
"Yes sir." Ren and Weiss stated, confirming his request.
"Good! Because there is a large amount of knowledge just waiting for us at the very bottom of that cliff. Team RWBY?"
"Sir!" Ruby snapped to attention.
"And team JNPR?"
"Yes," Pyrrha stated, looking at Jaune when the latter did not reply to the teacher.
"The eight of you have experienced action there. Why don't you take team CRDL and LACG down there for a scientific expedition?"
"Excuse me?" Cardin asked. "All the way down there? How are we ever going to do that?!"
"How nice of you to ask me that, Cardin. And if you would give me a bit of a hush you would probably hear an answer too. Now then-"
Yang grinned widely as she saw him getting shot down by Matt like that. The four teams and the one Professor had all managed to make their way to the temple without getting jumped by Grimm –an impressive feat, considering the quantity of monsters that resided in the forest. It probably had something to do with the silvery device that the Professor kept waving around.
"-JNPR and CRDL will make a little expedition to gather the dismembered head of a giant Nevermore. That thing got shot down in a nice overkill, but it's the head that we are really interested in. Find it, cut it loose if necessary and bring it back. RWBY and LACG will have a different assignment: There is a severed stinger, roughly the size of a young Boarbatusk, lying all alone on the ground somewhere down there. I want it, you want it, so bring it to me. Any questions?"
CRDL kept quiet. Yang did not. "How are we supposed to go get down there? And how are we going to get back up from the deep pit filled with mist?"
"A boring yet practical question. I would ask of you all to use your imagination on this one, but that would be mean of me. I have yet to see how you all work together with other teams so we cannot do that yet. What we ARE going to do –and by me I really mean you- is finding and then activating a hidden switch. It will lead to an intact service elevator grafted into the rocks. It SHOULD be big enough for the stinger and the head to fit in one go. So! Who wants to formulate the goals for today's trip?"
"Well…" Blake spoke after she stuck her hand in the air. "We need to find the switch, activate the elevator and descend into the ravine. Then we split up, find the Grimm parts and bring them back up."
"Excellent summary of what we are going to do Blake. Now then, one more thing."
"Here we go…" Lisa sighed and rolled with her eyes –something that attracted the necessary attention from Weiss, it seemed. Weird.
"What's up with Weiss and Lisa?" Yang asked her younger sister.
"Oh, Weiss can't stand the thought of Lisa not standing her brother," Ruby quickly summed up. "And Lisa is annoyed by the fact that Weiss can't just let it go…it's all a big famous family issue. Weiss has no siblings and feels like Lisa should care for what she has, while Lisa has her older brother and doesn't seem to really like him. It's actually pretty simple."
"Did Lisa tell you that she didn't like Weiss being nosy?"
"Nope!" Ruby then cheerfully chirped and turned her attention back to the Professor.
"The thing is that I don't really know what lives down there. And replace 'not really' with 'really not' and you have a clue as to my knowledge of that place. But don't worry; I will follow you down as soon as I am done up here. Should be with you in three minutes tops. Good luck then!" The man quickly said and clapped his hands together.
"Whoopdie doo…" Lisa growled and crossed her arms. "Fetching for Matt…"
"Look at it from the bright side!" Grace told her. "We could be worse off! We could be JNPR, stuck with CRDL!"
That demolitions expert had an excellent point.
'We can hear you, you know that?" Ren asked the brunette.
"I know!" Grace grabbed a handful of Alessa's outfit. "Come on then! We have a button to find!"
And as LACG already moved ahead, Blake escorted them with her eyes before speaking up. "We might want to follow them…before Grace turns that switch into a detonator."
Yang imagined the demolitions expert tinkering with Professor Adamant's elevator design and turning it into a thermonuclear bomb. Such a thing would be very bad. Blake had a point; time to move!
"Let's go team RWBY!" Ruby gleefully yelled and gestured to the recently repaired bridge where LACG was already crossing the large abyss. "Stop that madwoman!"
"Referring to Lisa or Grace?" Weiss sneered.
Enough was enough already. "Weiss!" Yang snapped at the Heiress. "Respect someone else's opinion for once would you?"
"I do that all the time! Might I indulge myself this one time?"
"Nope." Ruby walked past her. "Now move it, we really need to hurry."
Weiss threw her leader a frustrated glance and then decided to follow her. It didn't take long for team LACG to find the button, fortunately enough. While Grace was working with Alessa and Cho to get it to work –under Lisa's watchful eye, who prevented the three from interfering with each other too much- Cardin seemed to get a bit too close to Jaune.
The large male was currently standing in the zone that was usually reserved for friends and people without a sense of personal space. That was strange. Had they made nice or something? But that was impossible; CRDL had been sent to a museum the past Thursday, while JNPR had been sent to patrol an old warehouse. They could not have spoken since Wednesday evening.
"Got it!" Grace then yelled and pulled at a wire, causing Cho to hastily pull his hand back after a quick exclamation of pain. "Whoops...sorry, wrong 'got it'."
The almost-smoking male didn't reply in any other way but crossing his arms and looking at the ground with a sigh, obviously used to such abuse.
"Got it!" Grace then yelled again, causing everyone across her to take a quick step backwards.
But nothing bad happened. A nearby rock-wall faded into the background and revealed a large elevator, but that was it. No falling Grimm or attacking rocks.
"I love elevators," Ruby whispered and made her way into the large structure, closely followed by LACG and the rest of her team. JNPR and CRDL were the last teams to enter and when they did, Alessa pushed another button, causing the elevator to go down.
"Ehm…Ruby?" Lisa asked. "How big was that Nevermore's head?"
Ruby held her arms apart.
"That is not as big." Cho remarked.
"My arms are too small." The little Rose then replied. "I can't get them farther apart than this…the thing was really big."
They shut up after that. The ride down was really awkward, as none of them really had a topic to talk about in the presence of CRDL. That didn't stop people from trying, of course.
"What do you suppose Professor Adamant wants with the Nevermore's head?" Jason Cho asked them.
"Probably stuffing it with hay and hanging it on his door to out-badass Port.," Yang replied. And then it was quiet again.
Cho tried again. "And why would he want the stinger of a Death-Stalker?"
"Probably for new bowties," Grace replied. And then it was quiet again –and that silence stayed until the elevator had reached the bottom of the abyss. The metal cage that was their lift down had no windows or anything, so nobody was prepared for the sight that awaited them.
"Wow…" Weiss and Lisa simultaneously muttered and then angrily looked at each other, before looking away again.
The abyss was completely filled with a strange mist; the most that she could see was five to six meters in front of her and then her sight simply stopped. So this was where the giant Nevermore had landed when it had violently died? And also where the luminous stinger of the Death-Stalker had rolled into? It looked cozy. Not. "What now?" Yang asked.
"Now we split up." Ruby stated. "Lisa? Got your team ready?"
"Sure do."
"Good. Jaune...Jaune?"
"Y-yes!"
"Ready?"
"Guess so."
"Good! Let's bring Professor Adamant his nasty Grimm parts!" She then said and waved at team LACG. Come on guys!"
Ruby seemed…rather cheerful. It was almost as if she had some sort of evil little plan cooked up in her redheaded mind. Or was this just her being overly suspicious?
Grace winked at Ruby.
She was so not being overly suspicious; Ruby had planned something.
Teams JNRP and CRDL walked off together. That was going to be a pretty interesting day those eight were going to have. But grabbing the big, feathered head of a Nevermore was bound to me more interesting than gathering the boring sack of a Death-Stalker, so that was also had to be a factor.
"I still don't get why you didn't tell us about Professor Adamant being your brother! Why didn't you tell us?"
Oh Weiss…don't start that again. Tensions had been high for days now, but Yang had thought that those two could have simply accepted their differences. But it appeared that things weren't as simple as that; Ruby had told her what the reason for those two behaving so stupidly was, but couldn't they just keep it between themselves?
Or…had Ruby planned on this happening, wanting to make sure that it would be dealt with here and now without it interfering with their future missions?
Oh that was smart. Really smart. Picking off the problems with their teams one by one without giving them a chance to possibly ruin friendships now, was she? And by the looks of it, Grace was in her little plan too. When had they even talked this over? How had she missed that?
"I had no reason to! Nobody asked me to do that and quite frankly, I am not too keen spouting about how important I might or not be!"
Ouch.
Weiss kept her temper to reasonable levels though: "I just don't get why you are not simply happy with him as your brother? You don't even seem to like him!"
"Yeah well…you wouldn't be too happy with him as a brother either…" Lisa grumbled and crossed her arms.
"Lisa…" Grace softly warned her, but the girl paid her no heed.
"I don't get it…if you have siblings –even if it is only one- shouldn't you simply be happy with them?" Weiss asked her.
"That's not the case here. You are supposed to be happy with normal siblings, like Ruby or Yang are! Not…not like him." Lisa growled back.
"I see that he is a bit…off…but that doesn't mean that you can't be brother and sister?" Blake continued.
"No!" Lisa said and jabbed her finger in the air for emphasis. "There is 'off' and there is 'batshit-crazy!"
For once, Yang didn't correct her on her language. It was obvious that there bad some bad blood in that Adamant family; even after having been together for more than two weeks, the girl never seemed to want to talk about her family. Was she ashamed about them or something?
"And you don't even know what he is like! How he was at home…how frustrating it was to have lived with him!"
"You should just be happy that you have siblings in the first place!" Weiss angrily snapped at her. Grace and Cho were staring at her just like Ruby and Blake were staring at their teammate. "Not everyone has the luxury of a brother or sister you know!"
"I would rather be all alone than stuck with him!" Lisa heatedly snapped back.
"How can you say such a thing?" The Heiress softly said, her voice full of venom, "It is obvious that you don't deserve the privilege of not being alone…of being together with a brother or sister."
"Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed with a shocked tone. "Don't say that!"
"Whatever!" Lisa replied, "If you don't have siblings you can't understand the need to be without them, or the pressure that they can put on you and your family!"
Both girls were slowly unraveling their own individual grievances. Weiss was always alone in her family and hated every moment of that, whereas Lisa did have someone in her life, but was not happy with that person. Both of them seemed to be unhappy with their home-situation; why couldn't they simply understand each other?
"Ladies…" Cho carefully said, "Don't attack each other.
"Fine!" The two arguing girls simultaneously yelled and then walked off in opposite directions. Mauve sighed and dropped his head.
"I'm going to find that stinger." Lisa declared as the mist swallowed her, while Weiss didn't give any indication as to what she was going to do.
That was…a thing.
"Oh dear…" Grace muttered and looked at Ruby. "It seems like things are heating up…"
"Yeah…why don't you go talk to Weiss while I go to Lisa?"
"A sublime idea, Miss Rose."
"Alright," Ruby then said as she turned to the rest of them, "Can you start looking for that Death-Stalker part that the Professor wants?"
Now they were just being obvious; the two of them had planned on allowing the argument to escalate and in doing so, they had paved the way for a solution to quickly and very closely follow. Yang watched her sister leave the foggy clearing in pursuit of Lisa and hoped that this would be over soon, as teams RWBY and LACG weren't the only ones having problems.
Ruby walked across the rocky grounds, hoping that she wouldn't encounter a new form of Grimm down in this nasty abyss. Sending four teams down there with one Professor was one thing, but a lone girl looking for another lone girl was a whole different thing. She could get ambushed, or attacked, or jumped, or all three of them at once. That would be a mess. Thankfully she had Crescent Rose with her.
"Lisa?" She tentatively called, hoping that her target was close.
"Ruby? What are you doing here?"
Huh? That sounded close; shouldn't there be some sort of echo down here? "Lisa? I am looking for you! Where are you?"
"Over here!"
"Where is here?"
"Here for me and there for you."
"But I need the there for me and not the here for you!"
"Then go to the there and I shall be here!"
"My head hurts…" Ruby whispered and grabbed her scythe. "Can you just tell me where you are?"
"Like I said! Over here!"
"Where is-"
"Oh for crying out loud!" A voice behind her snapped and then she felt something solid hit her back. She immediately cried in distress and swirled around, her scythe bearing down on whatever monster was trying to eat her.
The blade of her weapon was blocked by the blade of another weapon and she heard a surprised exclamation that didn't sound unlike her query. "Ruby?"
"Lisa?"
Then a gap in the thick fog appeared and she was able to see who she had been looking for. It appeared that Lisa had been looking for her as she had been looking for Lisa -causing the two of them to bump into each other without realizing it.
And nearly cut each other in half without realizing it, that also happened.
"Ruby!" Lisa happily said and put her own weapon away. "You're so small. What are you doing here?"
"Coming to fix this mess."
'You will need a really large fan then."
"The mess with the teams, not the fog."
"Fan-blades then?"
"Look, I want to talk to you about Weiss," She started, but before she could continue that line of thought she got interrupted. The fog, namely, chose that exact moment to become solid again.
"I know that I shouldn't have gotten angry, but this is something that has been an issue for a long time. I don't think you will be able to fix this."
Just watch me, she thought and smiled. No fog would stop her. "You see…Weiss is the Heir to the Schnee Dust Company."
"I know that," Lisa replied. While the girl hadn't seemed like the most patient person in Beacon, she was being very patient right now. She too had some excellent leader-qualities that just needed a little push to finally emerge.
"She is also the sole heir."
"So Weiss really has no brothers or sisters?"
"Not that I know. She has been without siblings for her entire life…and I don't think that her parents compensated for that."
"Is that why she is so obsessed with Matt?"
"Not with him, but with the painful relation that you have with him. She can't stand the thought of someone not appreciating something that she never even had in the first place."
"Then why doesn't she simply say so!"
Ruby raised her hand, hoping that Lisa could see her through the thick fog. "Weiss has a…peculiar way of formulating her thoughts. You never explained why you disliked your brother and she has been yearning for a brother or sister for years now. I can imagine her being angry at that…can you?"
"Yes…I can. It doesn't mean that we have become friends though!" Lisa stated. "But she truly is better off without the complications that come with him."
Curious. "Why?"
~0~
All right…searching for Weiss Schnee at the bottom of a deep abyss to tell her a few secrets about the Adamant family, as part of a plan cooked up by Ruby Rose. No way that that was going to fail, right?
Well, as it turned out there were plenty of ways for all of this to go wrong. She could accidentally find someone who was not Weiss but a big Grimm just waiting to trip her bombs, or she could not find anyone at all and keep hopelessly wandering through the bottom of the abyss without ever finding her team again. There were so many ways for this to go wrong that she could not possibly find the girl she was looking for within half an hour of searching. This complicated pattern of searching would take at least an hour or more. If she found Weiss within thirty minutes she would-
"Hello? Who is there?"
Hey! It was Weiss!
"It's me, Grace!" She looked around, hoping to actually see Weiss instead of simply talking to the air like she was currently doing. "Where are you?"
"I am here," a voice said, sounding very close to her. "What do you want?"
"To give you some context," Grace replied as she picked a direction that she felt comfortable with, hoping to not get lost too violently. "I was thinking of telling you some things to make this fight go away?"
"Good luck with that…"
Gotcha! Weiss was located to her right! No, wait, that was a very big rock. To her left then?
She turned to her left side and noticed a cave etched in the side of a wall; a small one, but a cave nonetheless. "Weiss?"
"Why don't you just go away?" The girl snapped, her voice originating from the direction of the cave.
"Ehm," Grace started, "Because it was time that you and Lisa got along? And because the rest of our teams still need to find a big part of Death-Stalker? And because we can't choose one of these reasons above the other?"
That had to be reason enough.
"Fine," The Heiress eventually decided, officially inviting her into her cave. Cozy.
She sighed and made her way to the opening in the wall where Weiss was sitting, occasionally tripping over the rocks. "So…" She started once she had scaled enough rock. "I think that I might understand why this is causing so much trouble with you. You don't have siblings, right?"
"No comment."
"So Lisa and Matt not getting along is bothering you because…"
"Because she doesn't realize just how good she has it!"
"I think that she does not realize how good she has it," Grace corrected the girl. "But I can see where this causes the problems…well, you know…I think that you and Lisa still need to talk personally with each other, but this should fix most of the problems."
Damn, she talking like she was rewiring a mine instead of creating empathy in two clashing teenagers. Why couldn't it have been mines? Those were way easier to fix…
She positioned herself next to Weiss and promptly placed her legs on a stone in front of her, taking as much of a relaxed gesture as she could muster in that place. "Well…where to start? I guess we should start with Professor Adamant himself. He was very eager to follow into the footsteps of his father as a hunter; family Adamant saw it as their duty to take care of those that could not…to act as a doctor to the people that were in need of one. I do not know specifically how it came to be, but anyhow…Matt entered combat school at a very young age. It was around the time that Lisa and I became friends, I believe it was…at his age of twelve that he had already raced halfway through the first part of his education. Sometime during that education, he met the person who would soon become his best friend for the years that were to come."
"That is very young." Weiss stated. "How old was his friend then?"
"Correct, Professor Matt graduated from his Combat School way sooner than usual. His best friend was three years older than he was and equally brilliant. He quickly became a good friend of Matt and by extent, the Adamant Clan."
"What does have to do with our problems?" Weiss then muttered, not sounding really convincing.
Her guess? Little Miss Schnee realized that she was interested in the Professor's backstory as much as she was interested in Lisa's problems with him, but didn't want that to show. But what did she know? She wasn't Ruby. She couldn't read people like they were erotic books.
"Lisa was seven when she first met Matt's friend and…well, she didn't initially like him. I believe she tried to stab him with a fork. But as Matt and he grew closer, so did she. Eventually, the good ol' would-be doctor entered his secondary education: the combat school known as Beacon Academy."
"So he too went to Beacon?"
"Yes. And he was…incredibly young to become a hunter, but under pressure of his family and his sheer, extreme need to make his little sister happy, he managed to pull through. His best friend became his partner and together with two other students, they formed a team."
"His extreme need to make his sister happy? What happened that she hates him then?"
"Well, hating isn't really the right word. And even she does not know the full extent of what happened but…it was pretty recent. I'll get to that in a moment. Did you know that Ruby is the youngest student in the Kingdom of Vale since at least eight years, and the very youngest of whole Vale…the city?"
She knew that Matt Adamant seemed like an important person to Ruby and that Ruby was also still wrestling with the fact that she was the youngest girl at Beacon. Knowing that a person she looked up to was also very young would most likely help her.
"I'll make sure to tell her that," Weiss said and despite of the seriousness of the situation, the white-haired girl cracked a smile. "She would like to hear that."
"Indeed. So...Matt became a Hunter between seventeen and eighteen and successfully became the leader of his team. Things went pretty well and even then he found plenty of time to visit his sister, who was enjoying a mixture of training by her father and him himself. It seemed like it would mean that Matt was finally able to heal the world with his newfound skills…but then it happened."
"That sounds dramatic. What happened?" Weiss sounded worried there. It was a good thing that her story-telling skills were so advanced; she might be able to help more people like that.
"No idea. Here is where things go strange. Between age nineteen and twenty, four years ago, something terrible happened. He never told Lisa the specific details, but it resulted in the probable death and at least disappearance of two of his teammates…and it turned his best friend officially to the criminal circuit, making him one of the most wanted thugs in all of the Kingdom"
She paused to let the words sink in again, which was probably a smart move, seeing as Weiss slowly opened her mouth and closed it again.
"What happened to Lisa then?" Weiss said, showing an incredible empathy even though she herself probably cared the least about LACG's teamleader right now. No, that was not correct. Weiss was angry at Lisa and anger always created a unique bond between two people.
"She was devastated when she heard what had happened. She liked Matt's friend very much…and the only girl on his team was like an older sister to her. She still wanted to be his little sister though, actively trying to support him. But he showed so much guilt…so much grief…and he actually disappeared from the kingdom of Vale for a long time. He was…nineteen, I believe…when he left Vale…and only two years ago did he return. Only to keep on leaving for other places, unable to fix the relationship with his sister."
"And Lisa blames him for what happened…" It wasn't a question; it was more of a statement.
"Yes she does." Grace confirmed that thought. "It was because her brother showed so much remorse for what had happened that she formed the conclusion that he had somehow corrupted his friend. Because that is where the problem lies in the Adamant family, or at least in the males of her family. Age teaches them wisdom and discipline and until then, they have a problematic attitude. Matt had that attitude for years…and it might have led to his best friend turning away from being a Hunter."
"But…why did he leave? For two years? Why would he do that to his family?"
"Professor Adamant has lots of secrets. But I think that Lisa does not truly hate her brother. I think that she simply want things to be like they were."
Weiss was silent for a minute or so before she replied again. "By no means does this make her and me friends…but I can understand why she has…issues…with the Professor. And I can accept."
Excellent. "Then my job is done! I guess that we should-"
The rest of her sentence was cut off distanced screams caught her attention, officially bringing the somewhat heartwarming situation to a dramatic end. Weiss threw an urgent look at her and she immediately nodded at the pale girl, before they took off together.
They ran through the thick mist for no more than twenty seconds before the screaming officially made place for loud explosions and the discharging of guns.
"That's Ruby's weapon!" Weiss told her as the two of them narrowly rounded a corner and saw the familiar presence of their team's individual weaponry.
Another explosion rocketed through the walls and caused many pieces of rock and stone to fall down. "That sounds like Lisa having fun." Grace yelled as soon as she recognized those explosions.
Then a voice cut through the violence of a wide open fight: "Get back! Get back!"
A strange humming sound echoed through the walls and did not recognize it as any weapon that she knew of; it had to be the enemy attacking them. Grimm? A new form? An advanced form?
Whatever it was, it needed a fresh dose of damned-many explosives. And soon.
"Lisa!" Grace yelled with Weiss on her heels. "What is going on?"
"Grace?" The voice of her leader bounced right back. "We're getting swarmed by Boarbatusks! JNPR and CRDL were already halfway up the elevator when those came, we need to hold them off!"
"Got it!" She yelled and readied her Dragon's Foliage, preparing to deliver a powerful stream of suppressing fire into the horde of Grimm. But as soon as she and Weiss had reached their respective teams, it became clear that that was not necessary.
Ruby, Blake, Yang, Lisa, Cho and Alessa had all formed a rough wall behind Professor Matt to use their individual weapons at a wave of incoming Grimm –all of which seemed to be Boarbatusks. Why did those things even live down there?
"Professor!" Yang yelled the man as she blasted three attacking Grimm into the air with her gauntlets. "What are you doing?"
"One moment…changing the patterns…fixing the set stages…there we go, should work now!"
And then Professor Adamant waved his silver-coloured spherical device around, causing many of the rocks stuck on the walls around them to shake and then simply break off. The multitude of stones that the man had somehow managed to dislodge was more than enough to crush the attacking waves of Boarbatusks and trap the remainder of them behind a large wall of broken rocks.
"What," Yang exclaimed, "was that?"
"Rigged walls." Professor Adamant explained. "I detonated the explosives…or rocks…and basically ambushed the Grimm that were going to ambush us."
"You ambushed the monsters that were ambushing us for ambushing them in their natural habitat…" Cho stated. "Makes sense in a twisted fashion I guess."
The present students waited a while to see if any of the flattened Boarbatusks would get back up before they eventually decided that nothing would get back up.
"So why did team JNPR leave?" She asked the Professor.
"I asked them to bring the perfectly removed Nevermore head to the temple, where it can remain to be studied during a different lesson." The Professor explained and ran a hand through his hair, obviously looking satisfied. The large, yellow stinger of the Death-Stalker lay right behind the all of students, glowing ominously through the fog.
It was almost…hypnotizing.
Grace tore her gaze off of the luminous stinger and back to her team. Lisa and Ruby had gone right back to happily conversing with Cho, while Weiss walked up Blake to initiate a conversation. It was kind of strange that the Professor had sent teams JNPR and CRDL back up on their own but…it was also possible that he had been wrong and that the two Grimm parts could not fit in the still enormous elevator. With that in mind, it would make sense for Matt to send JNPR and CRDL up first but…
…the whole thing of them going down there to retrieve body parts of slain Grimm was a bit suspicious. What could Professor Matt possibly want them?
Well…hidden motives or not, they had at least managed to fix that problem between Lisa and Weiss and that was definitely a good thing. Plus, the next time that they had Grimm Studies with Professor Adamant, they would have the possibility of performing an autopsy on big Grimm parts. And while explosives and the like would probably NOT be allowed while doing so, they would still find a way to do it…well, their way.
And Lisa's Type-25 would most likely assist them with that. But for now they were done with a very strange field trip, had fixed problems with their team integrity and even managed to beat an entire wave of Grimm monsters by throwing rocks at them.
And as they waited for the elevator to descend again to pick them up, the various conversations that had arisen in its absence were already tailored to pleasant things. Or at least, as pleasant as a conversation at the bottom of a deep, mist-filled abyss could get.
"So what do you suggest we do about CRDL?" Yang asked Cho in a one-sided discussion.
"We leave them be. They did nothing to hurt us."
"They're bullies! All of them! Even Will got pissed at them!"
"Will ignored the physical harassment and glared at Russel Trush, taking offense at the cuss-word instead of the bullying."
"Same thing!"
"Hey, where is that guy anyway?" Weiss suddenly asked, choosing to take part in their conversation.
"I don't know," Yang replied with a shrug. "He showed up last week at this time when we had Grimm studies. Perhaps he just got lost?"
Cho and Ruby exchanged a meaningful glance with each other and the redheaded girl spoke up. "I don't think he gets lost; what he does do is choosing whether to show up, or not at all. It is kind of annoying really."
"Shouldn't he be kicked off Beacon already if he refuses to go to classes like that?" Lisa asked. "Seriously, if I miss even one lesson the way he does, I'll get murdered by my family."
"Not literally," Cho clarified.
"Maybe he has different schedules, like Velvet does?" Blake added.
Perhaps…but it was a bit weird that he just was not consistent with his appearances. It was a bit suspicious…then again, Professor Adamant and his two new Grimm parts was also a bit suspicious.
And her deal with Ruby to fix the fight between Lisa and Weiss was also a bit suspicious to the people around her.
Beacon Grounds, building ████, 12:43
"Two-One? A moment please."
"Yes captain."
Lima Two-One stepped inside the dark office, ignoring the worried stance of Two-Four as he passed her. The captain seemed a bit troubled by something and if he was correct, it would be his job to fix it. As the squad's second in command, it usually came down to him to take care of problems that did not have a tactical combat repercussion.
Meaning that he had to deal with things that he could not possibly deal with alone.
"Trouble?" Two-Four then asked when he did not reply to her body language.
"No idea…wait it out." He told her, closing the door behind him. Designation Two-Zero, the squad's Captain, was standing in front of him with his helmet under his right arm. A new man come to command their team.
"Sir?"
"Lima Two-One…things are changing rapidly here in Vale. The Kingdom of Atlas has initiated communications with this Kingdom, resulting in a major event known as the Vytal Tournament."
So the rumors were true. "Did we receive new orders?"
"No. I called you here a different reason. With the importance of our mission in hindsight…aren't you getting too close to your surroundings?"
"Sir?"
"The Bunny-Faunus-"
"-Velvet Scarletina, sir. Rabbit-Faunus."
"Yes. Her. You are getting too close to the Faunus; keep your head clear son."
"Sir, I talked to the civilian twice and I-"
"-you will keep your interaction with these people to the bare minimum, understood? Look at Two-Three; what happens when he gets too close?"
"Sir, that has nothing to do with me. Besides; interaction with these…people…is the best way of getting them to trust us. We can't protect those that fear us."
His Captain frowned, seeing the logic in his words. Of course he would watch out with the students here; he couldn't have anyone of his squad growing attached to someone. It would only interfere –but the weird thing was that they all knew that…Two-One included. Why did he see it as necessary to repeat that to him?
"Remember what you are Two-One. They don't have to trust you, they just have to stay alive long enough."
"…yes sir."
"I trust that you are capable enough of making the right decisions, Two-One. I will be leaving town for the coming two weeks…leaving you in charge of Fireteam Lima."
"Sir!" He called and snapped at attention, clicking his heels together and straightening his back.
"Attaboy. Dismissed." The stepped-down captain then walked out of the room, leaving Two-One to ponder the information that he had just been given.
The Captain thought that the limited degree of interaction that he had with the students was too much? That he needed to step it down a notch? The only thing that he had done was assisting a student with problems…and patrolling the area few dozen times. What was wrong with that?
"Two-One?" His teammate asked as soon as he had left the office too, waiting for the captain to be well out of hearing-range. "What was that about?"
"Change of plans." He replied. "The Captain will be gone for two weeks."
"That puts you in charge."
'Affirmative." He didn't want to tell his teammates that they weren't allowed to talk with the students –as the Captain had told him to, in a subtle way. He would follow his orders…but that didn't neccesarily have to extend to the other three. "I'll keep my head down. You will gather information on the primary students from the first-year. Teams CRDL, RWBY, JNPR and LACG. Things will go easier if we know how to act around them."
Two-Four saluted him and then turned around, departing to gather the Intel as he had asked her.
He sighed and reached for his helmet to take it off, but he changed his mind at the last second, remembering to never take a helmet off in a possible hostile environment. People got sniped because of that.
Why did these things happen so quickly? Secrecy…if only that wasn't necessary.
He watched Two-Four round the corner and disappear. The only female on their squad…quite fitting, actually, unlike her designation. She was named Two-Four not because she was the fourth one to join their team, but simply…because. Two-Three was the newest one, while he and Two-Two were the original ones.
And yet it was Two-Four that seemed to work the hardest to keep them all healthy…mentally and physically.
Shaking his head, Two-One grabbed his assault rifle and walked in the opposite direction of his teammate. It didn't do him any good to keep pondering about things. Action was what he was all about…
…or so he liked to think.
"Contrary to some believes, a Faunus can make an excellent soldier. Night-vision and claws are just one small aspect of what such a soldier can do; the animal endocrine system works differently from the human one. Faunus are dictated by their hormones; the flight-or-fight system is more prominent with them. You have to have the right types though: carnivores. Wolves, foxes, hawks. All of them, excellent shock-troopers."