Instead of being transported directly back to Beacon, Team CSRD were sent to a hospital in Vale to be treated for the injuries they sustained during their "stay" in Frostfall Prison. They spent two days there, recovering, until finally the four of them were cleared to get out and depart for Beacon.
"Ahhhhh." Sebastian said, stretching out his legs and breathing a sigh of relief. "Man, does it feel good to get up and get moving again!"
"I totally agree," Damien said, stretching his arms and cracking his knuckles. "We all took quite the beating and definitely needed the rest, but it's time we head back."
"Yeah," Axel said, nodding in agreement. "We've been gone long enough, and we really need to catch up on what we missed."
Cyrus got the team together and they headed outside, where an Atlas ship awaited them. They boarded and were soon off to Beacon. The four sat in the back of the ship, each sitting in their own chairs in the corners of the cab. As the ship flew through the clouds, Sebastian rolled Siberia in his hand unconsciously, and Damien and Axel debated which of their girlfriends were going to beat them more senseless for having disappeared without warning. At first they laughed at the thought, then they cringed when they realized that it was a genuine possibility. Damien turned to Cyrus to ask his input, but stopped when he saw his face. He didn't seem in the mood for foolhardy conversation. He sat with his weapon in his lap, fidgeting with the winch controls for the ball and chain. He extended and retracted the chain four or five times before Damien finally decided to intervene.
"What's on your mind, Cyrus?" he asked, reaching over and putting his hand over the buttons. "You seem out of it."
"I–I just can't help thinking it could have ended in a different way. That I could have done something differently."
"I know what you mean, Cyrus." Sebastian spoke up this time. "But this time around, I don't think there was any other way. He was a terrible person and an even worse father. We had to fight him." Sebastian took a moment to think of something else to say so Cyrus didn't feel completely awful. "However, I understand why you feel the way you do. He is still your father."
Axel nodded, flashing a comforting smile.
"What Sebastian said. Good intentions aren't always met by good actions.
Cyrus sat for a moment, as if trying to let the words sink into him. However, try as he might, he just couldn't get them to stick. Frustrated, he shook his head.
"I appreciate the thoughts, guys, but I still need some time to be able to deal with all of it."
"No problem," Sebastian replied. "We have plenty of time before the tournament."
The rest of the way to Beacon was once again silent, each member thinking to themselves on what had happened to them, and what lies ahead.
Sebastian focused hard on trying to psyche himself up and get ready for the tournament. However, something was still lurking in the back of his mind: the visions of his younger self, the reminder that he was alone, trapped, that his only way out was to fight. Is that really all I have? Is there nothing left for me? I'm not running away, am I?
Gemma's definitely worried sick about me. I may as well expect the biggest hug ever from her. I just hope she won't crush me like last time.
Axel's thoughts were primarily about Gemma, but also of is dad and the shop. He wondered how they were doing without him.
I'm sure Axel is thinking about Gemma. Damien laughed to himself at the thought. Then again I'm thinking about Vi so really I shouldn't be one to laugh. Damien thought about a plan for a second date. Where would be the best place to go if I asked her? That coffee place on the main street? Maybe I could take her out someplace nice? He felt his face start to burn. Thank the gods I'm thinking to myself here. If the others heard me now, they'd laugh at me for sure. Especially Sebastian, the sarcastic ass he is. Despite his concerns, he couldn't help but chuckle. Gods, is this how Axel feels?
Cyrus was still thinking about what his father said after his defeat, but he was also a bit concerned about trusting Trucy over his team with the truth of his past.
I wish things could've gone better with Dad, I'm mostly just glad we're finally going back home. It probably wouldn't hurt to fill Trucy in on what happened, especially since I told her everything at the dance. Wait, should I feel bad about the fact that I told her before my own team? ...Eh, I guess it was just a ''in the heat of the moment" thing. They know everything now anyway, but it would probably be smart to not let them know about that.
Eventually, the sight of Beacon came into view, and the team breathed a collective sigh of relief. The ship lowered itself onto the landing platform, and the group looked out the window to see Team MGAT on the edge of the platform, waiting for them. As they exited the ship, they looked out toward the city. Something was different.
Is it just me, or does everything look a bit messed up? Damien thought. Just what did we miss while we were away?
Sebastian exited the ship and walked back out into bright daylight. He looked up towards the sky and smiled.
"Man, how I missed the sunshine."
"Sebastian!" Sebastian looked back to Team MGAT and immediately saw Ainsely walking over to him, waving her hand at him. Sebastian met her with a simple high five and then pointed back to the construction going on.
"What the heck happened here?"
"It's a long story. Don't worry though, we can fill you all in when you guys are ready."
Was there always this much construction going on? Axel thought to himself as he stepped out onto the ramp. Nah. I'm probably just seeing things. Axel shook his head before stepping off the ship onto the platform. The millisecond his foot touched pavement, he was tackled by the one and only Gemma Florentine. She hugged him so tight his face turned as blue as his eyes. He winced in pain, still sore from the fight at the prison.
"Gemma…" He wheezed, gasping for air, "You're… Hurting… Me…"
"What?" she said in surprise before loosening her grip. "Oh, sorry."
"It's fine." Axel said with a smile as he got up and hugged her back. "I missed you too." Gemma squealed with excitement and squeezed him one more time. Then she looked up at him with a deadly serious expression.
"Never leave me again." She warned.
He laughed, realizing that this was becoming a pattern.
"Not planning on it."
"Good."
As he stood there and looked at her, Axel thought about how happy he was to see her. Then he thought about what happened in the prison, and his expression faded into a blank thousand-yard stare. Gemma raised an eyebrow, but decided to leave it be. He'd been through a lot. He was allowed to zone out every once and a while.
Damien and Cyrus just looked at one another and shook their heads as they walked down the ramp.
"Geez. Those two always have to be the center of attention, don't they?" Cyrus noted, jutting a thumb over at Axel and Sebastian.
Damien shrugged.
"I mean the girls care about 'em," Damien replied with a shrug, "I mean, Vi's probably worried about me too." At the very least, he thought, she's noticed that I haven't been around.
Cyrus shook his head, befuddled.
"You three and your girls, I swear. Good thing I'm the leader, then. Just means I have one less distraction." Cyrus jabbed, giving Damien a cheap smile.
"Distraction?" Damien smiled back. "You sure you aren't jealous?" Cyrus rolled his eyes and started his walk off the platform.
"HELL no," he said with a laugh. "You guys can deal with that drama. I am going to enjoy my bachelorhood by doing WHAT I want, WHEN I want to." He turned away and folded his arms quite unconvincingly. Damien just stared back before shaking his head and turning back to the platform.
"Whatever you say, fanboy."
"What are you talking abo-" Cyrus inquired before coming to the realization that he could only have meant one thing. "You DICK!" he shouted as Damien skipped away, cackling as he went.
The rest of the group joined up with the two boys, and they all went back to the dorms for some well-deserved rest and relaxation.
Later that night, the two teams were hanging out in Team MGAT's room as they filled in Team CSRD on the events of the past few days.
"So let me get this straight," Sebastian said with a very confused expression, holding his hands up to stop for a moment and collect all the information. "So you're telling me, we're gone for four days, and the entire city gets attacked?"
"Yep," Trucy replied, "Pretty much."
"And the whole school got together and whooped a bunch of Grimm asses?"
"More or less."
"And we MISSED IT?"
"Seems that way."
Sebastian slouched over in his chair, folding his arms in disappointment.
"Honestly, I'm surprised you're upset about that," Gemma noted, "I mean, you guys seem to have had quite the adventure on your own."
"I would have taken a horde of Grimm over what happened back there any day of the week and twice on Sundays," Axel grumbled. The rest of Team CSRD nodded as Team MGAT eyeballed each other in confusion.
"So what exactly happened back there?" Mola chimed in.
"You know what?" Cyrus replied. "I really would prefer not to talk about it if that's ok."
Sebastian turned away. "Let's not."
"Agreed," Axel added with a nod as he turned and looked off out the window.
"A lot of things went down that were rough for all of us." Damien agreed. "But in all seriousness, though, if anyone deserves to know where the hell we've been, it's you guys." he gestured to MGAT.
"Fine. You tell them. I'm going to get some fresh air," Axel grunted as he rose up and stormed out of the room.
"I'll do the same." Sebastian stepped out after Axel.
The rest of the room was left speechless and staring at Gemma and Ainsley. Gemma shrugged and shook her head.
"Don't look at me. He hasn't told me anything either."
Damien continued. "So, basically, we got word that Cyrus's dad was in town, so we went to meet him and see what he wanted."
"Yeah, and what was that?" Mola inquired.
"Well apparently, Cyrus here wasn't exactly honest with his father about coming here. Looks like he left without telling him."
Trucy had a brief look of realization before turning to Cyrus with a look that said "You didn't tell them?" Cyrus mouthed "later" and hoped she would go along with it for now, which she thankfully did.
"Anyway," Damien went on, "we got to the docks to meet this guy, and he tried to get Cyrus to come home with him. Then, when Cyrus refused, he grabbed Axel and held him hostage."
"HOSTAGE?" Gemma squealed with a gasp, scooching to the edge of her seat.
Damien nodded.
"Yep, Gun to head and everything." he put his finger to his temple, mimicking the situation, and Gemma did not appreciate that. She began to shake nervously, wondering if that was why Axel was acting so strangely. She pushed away the thought and recomposed herself, allowing Damien to continue. "Yeah, but if he was smart, he wouldn't have picked Axel for a hostage, because he zapped the crap out of him."
Gemma took a deep breath, relieved.
"Oh. ok."
"Yeah, and then we fought him, but he put on a new version of the suit Noir was wearing when we fought him back at the construction site, and he absolutely wiped the floor with us."
"Ouch." Trucy and Mola said at the same time.
"You're telling me," Damien continued, "Because then he placed us under arrest for assaulting an Atlas military officer, and threw us in some maximum-security hell hole."
"But he started it!" Ainsley chimed in, frustrated.
"Yep. But y'know, he had to be an asshat and abuse his power." Cyrus interjected.
"Definitely a sleazebag," Damien remarked. "And it was his word against ours, so to prison we went. This place was huge, heavily guarded, and there was a dampener thing that kept us from using our semblances. It was horrible. And I'll tell you what, I was feeling a little defeated." He paused for a moment, thinking back to Noir's predicament. "So, after we got thrown into cells for some stuff that we didn't do, the guy pulled us out and interrogated us, asking about our semblances, our weaknesses, and stuff like that." Damien flashed a quick glance at Cyrus. "At least, I think that was what he did for all of us. Who knows what happened to Sebastian."
Ainsley remembered how Sebastian looked after they all got back. I just hope it wasn't
anything terrible. There was a distance between him and everyone else, just the same as Axel.
"Gods." Mola whispered to himself with a gasp.
"Yeah," Damien pressed on, trying to get his audience to keep the ooh's and aah's for the end. "And he brought this other guy in to pull the information out of us. Guy had the ability to make us tell the truth, whatever he asked. Luckily, he didn't ask too many important questions. But regardless, Cyrus here did something to piss off his dad, so they took me off to solitary as some sort of punishment. What they didn't expect, however, was that the cell they shoved me in would be right next to my old 'friend' Jackson Noir,"
"Noir was there too?" Mola said, his interest peaked.
"Yeah, and he actually helped us escape."
"He… Helped you?"
"Yeah, he got a bunch of prisoners together and started a massive riot. Just the distraction we needed to get our stuff and try and get out of there. Unfortunately, Dear Ol' Almus Platin was there waiting for us as soon as we set foot outside."
"Was he still wearing the suit?" Ainsley asked.
"Yep. But we got it to short out when we had Axel get himself struck by lightning and punch him in the face."
"I thought you said there was a dampener in the facility?" Mola asked. "How did Axel use his semblance?"
"There was, but I took Axel to help shut it down", Cyrus said. "Apparently the dampener just kept Axel from releasing energy over distances. He could still absorb it and release it through direct contact. So I hooked him up to that torture chair and charged him full of electricity."
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Gemma cried, rushing over and grabbing Cyrus by the collar.
"He was fine." Cyrus assured her, putting his hands up in surrender, "We just made our way over to the battery and he poked it. It blew up, he passed out for a while. Then he woke up later to go fight my father."
Gemma let go and sat back, though still giving Cyrus an unsettling side-eye.
"Either way, we got our semblances back, we fought Cyrus's dad, and we won."
"Then how did you get back here?" Ainsley asked.
"General Ironwood showed up." Cyrus answered. "Said something about my dad being a crooked Atlas Officer, then placed him under arrest. After that, he sent us to the hospital for a few days, and now here we are."
Team MGAT leaned back in their seats, speechless. They took a moment to let all this new information sink in. Finally, Trucy snapped out of it and broke the silence.
"You really weren't kidding," she said, "That is pretty rough."
"Yeah," Mola agreed, "It almost makes what happened here seem normal."
The group laughed at the joke, all except Gemma. She just kept her eyes on the door, waiting for Axel to get back. He'd been gone for quite some time, and she was worried about him. Something was off, and she needed to figure out what it was. She debated going to find him, but decided against it. He'll tell me when he's ready.
"Oh shoot!" Damien suddenly exclaimed.
Mola immediately reacted to the sudden outburst. "What is it?"
"There's something I still wanna do tonight!" Damien replied. "I'll be right back. If Axel gets back before I do, tell him I'm just going to catch up with someone." Damien said as he closed the window.
"What is he talking about?" MGAT's team leader inquired.
"Oh. Right," Cyrus said, just now figuring it out.
"What?" Mola asked again.
"Violet. He's going to talk to her," he replied.
"The girl he went to the dance with?" Gemma replied. "Oooh. That was her name." she slapped her forehead. "I can't believe I forgot about her."
"Hmmm." Mola murmured to himself. "Well, we'll leave him be for now."
"Oh hey, that reminds me. I gotta grab something from the room real quick," Cyrus said as he made his way towards the door, giving Trucy a brief glance on his way out.
"Wait up, I'll help you out." she said, following Cyrus. The others thought this was a bit suspicious, but no one said anything.
The two entered CSRD's room and closed the door. Immediately, Trucy began questioning Cyrus.
"Let me get this straight. You told me the entire truth about your past, yet you didn't tell your own teammates beforehand? Don't you think that's a little messed up?"
"Yeah, I know," Cyrus responded sheepishly, "I was going to tell them eventually, but when we were at the dance I didn't see any reason to lie to you about anything."
"So why did you lie to them about it?"
"Because I didn't immediately trust them, okay? We kinda first met via me having to prevent Sebastian and Damien from beating the shit of each other and then making our way to Axel's place. Since I didn't really know them at all, I spared them the details because I didn't think they needed to know any of the deeper stuff. I know I should've told them about it after forming CSRD, but I never got around to it."
"Well, while I appreciate that you trusted me enough with your past, they're your team. They're the people you gotta trust to have your back 24/7. They managed to find out anyway and thankfully they were willing to let it slide. From now on, though, you should go to them about these things first, not me."
Cyrus nodded in understanding. "Don't worry, I will. You know, I didn't expect you to give out this kind of advice."
Trucy gave him a mock glare. "Hey, give me some credit. I may not care about a lot of things, but that doesn't mean I'm always empty-headed. Especially when it comes to my friends."
The two stood around for a few seconds before Cyrus remembered something. "Oh right, I actually was going to grab something and could use your help carrying everything back to your room."
"And what's that?"
Cyrus went over to the TV and unplugged a game console.
"Y'all wanna watch Sebastian and I beat up streetshitters online?"
"You mean watch you two die over and over again? Hell yeah, I do!" Trucy helped grab some of the wires and controllers before the two headed back to MGAT's room.
Ainsley and Gemma sat in their room, pondering about the past events.
"Man it's been a rough week." Gemma breathed a sigh of relief knowing most of the trouble was over. "On top of all that happened, we still have the tournament coming up soon."
"Yeah," Ainsley said, sounding troubled.
Gemma knew something was eating up at Ainsley, so she smirked and began to pry.
"You seem to have something on your mind, don't you? Is it the tournament? Sebastian? Maybe a bit of both?"
"Both. How'd you know?"
"A girl's intuition, you could say," Gemma replied, smiling smugly.
"It's just with how our team has been doing lately, I can't help but feel like we've taken a back seat with everything. It's even worse because those guys get all the thunder."
"Feeling like you aren't good enough?"
"Pretty much." Ainsley looked down, frustrated and sad at the same time. "What makes things hurt more is him."
Gemma knew where this was headed.
"You mean Sebastian, right?"
"Yep. I just feel like I'm always trying to catch up to him, you know?"
"He's got a heavy weight on his shoulders, so he's probably thinking of other things."
"I get that but still…" Ainsley trailed off, trying to collect her thoughts. "I want to be able to carry some of it for him. The only time I can really connect with him is when he's really feeling down. I just wish I could get through to him without that one specific condition."
"So, what you're telling me is that you want to be on equal ground with him, so you don't look like you're just in the background?" Gemma gave Ainsley that look of questioning.
"That's how it is, unfortunately. I just can't stop thinking about it."
The two took a brief period to think on what to do, until Gemma had a bright idea.
"You, me, Trucy, and Damien's girl Violet."
"Huh?" Ainsley had no idea what she was on about.
"Girls night out, dummy! That way we can get all of our feelings out and get mentally prepped for the big festival tournament."
"I guess that works." Ainsley said, giving Gemma a big smile.
Damien made his way to Violet's room. Recalling back to the night of the dance as he walked the rooms.
"Thank you for asking me out, Vi. It's been," Damien thought to himself. "Never, really, since I've had that much fun."
Violet gave a genuine smile at the sound of that. "Glad to be of help, Damien. I never would have taken your teammates for such... Athletic dancers."
"As if I was any better!" Damien replied before the two gave a chuckle. "So, what happens now?" Vi gave another chuckle at the sound of that question. "Sorry, I haven't really done this before."
"It's okay, neither have I. So I guess we'll just wait until the time is right to see if we want to continue this. And whenever you think it's time, well…" Violet started as she took Damien's scroll and punched in a series of characters that matched a room number. "I don't get out much, so odds are I'll be around."
Snapping back to reality, Damien arrived at the room that Violet had given her. "I'm gonna hold you to that right now." Damien thought to himself as he knocked.
A few seconds passed and Violet had opened the door. There was a bit of an awkward silence before being broken by Damien.
"Hi."
"Hey. Where have you been? I was beginning to think something had happened to you, but then I thought that just me being clingy so I decided not to check up on you and-" As Violet went on, Damien chuckled a bit, which caused her to stop. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing, it's just that yeah, in any other circumstance, you would have been right. Except that something did happen to us. That's why I haven't been at school for the past week."
"Oh my gods. Really?" Violet said, almost in disbelief.
"Yeah. Cyrus's father showed up out of the blue to bring him back to Mantle, Cyrus said no, and well, it got ugly and ended with us in an illegal supermax prison."
"Prison?!" Violet exclaimed. "How did you escape?"
"An unlikely partnership with an old rival of mine. We escaped, had Cyrus's father arrested, and spent the past few days recovering."
"That sounds horrible! Is Cyrus okay?"
"He's taking his time to process everything, but I think he'll be fine. Listen, I wanted to talk to you because, well, the past week has been… trying. It was undoubtedly the most challenging fights I've ever been in, any one of us could've been killed at any given moment. Which is why I think that the time is perfect for that second date." Damien stated.
"Oh!" Violet exclaimed. She gave it some thought, and finally said, "Sure. I mean, we don't have to work out the details just yet, but yeah, I'd love to."
"Great!" Damien responded. "So talk about it tomorrow?
"Sounds like a plan to me." Violet said. "See you tomorrow!"
"Good night, Vi!" Damien waved as she closed the door. He started to walk back before the biggest, most idiotic grin came across his face.
"Got that second date! Hell yeah!" Damien mentally shouted as he made his way back to the room.
Axel walked the campus grounds, deep in his thoughts. I'm never going to let that happen again. He told himself. No one I love will have to worry about me ever again. He glanced back at the dorms, thinking of Gemma, then turned his gaze over in the direction of his father's store. He had too much to lose. He wasn't about to put that in jeopardy again. He pulled his head up, and walked over to the cliffside, where the Team had originally come together for Initiation. He dropped down on one knee and pulled out his staff, pressing a button to turn it to rifle mode. He sniped a few Grimm that were walking around down in the canyon, then stood up and began practicing his staff combat form. Eventually the sun began to set, and he decided it was time to head back before he was missed too much. He knew how Gemma could get. He smiled to himself at the thought of her, but the smile quickly faded and he walked swiftly back to the dorms.
Axel opened the door to Team MGAT's room to find the group still gathered on the couch, watching Cyrus and Sebastian play Ultimate Bash on the TV.
"Oh come on! That's so cheap!" Cyrus yelled. "He's using the same move over and over again!"
"Right?! Sebastian agreed, frustrated. "It's so annoying, playing people with such little skill."
Gemma looked over, noticing Axel come in, and gave him a warm smile. He gave a soft smile in return. Then, he walked over and sat down next to her, putting his arm around her. She leaned in, and the group collectively laughed the night away watching the dynamic rage duo as they cursed their opponents. Eventually it got late, and the groups said their goodnights and headed back to their respective rooms to get some sleep.
However, Axel wouldn't be so lucky. He lay in his bed, restless. His body felt tense, on edge. In the back of his mind, he felt the cause of this unease eating away at him. The only way he could avoid worrying his loved ones would be to not allow anything to endanger him or them ever again. In order to do that, he needed to train harder, get stronger. However, the past few days had taken a toll, and he was tired. He ended up drifting off, but it was not a restful sleep. Nightmares plagued him, and he woke up repeatedly in a cold sweat, only to try to go back to sleep and repeat the process. He looked over at his clock. It read 3:37 am. That meant 3:30, as he always set his clock seven minutes ahead. He stared at the ceiling for a few more minutes before giving up and getting out of bed. He put on his clothes and grabbed his staff, then slipped out of the dorm silently, so as not to wake up his teammates. He went back to the cliffside, and began practicing his forms. As time went on, he nitpicked every move. Not hard enough, he thought, You're leaving yourself open. He trained and trained, growing more frustrated with each rep.
"Not good enough," He said aloud, "Let's go again."
And so he did. Again and again, he went through his training regimen, growing more and more unsatisfied. He went again, and again, and once more, until growing too tired to continue. He fell to his knees, exhausted.
"No, dammit," He growled to himself. "Get up. You need to keep going." He struggled to get to his feet and tried to take his stance once more, but his legs gave out and he collapsed. He dug his face into the grass and yelled angrily. He rolled over and rested a moment, when he was startled by a loud ding. It was his scroll. He pulled it from his pocket and checked it. It was 7:30. He opened it to find a text from Cyrus:
Where are you?
He thought for a moment before he texted back.
Just went for a walk. Wasn't feeling well, needed some air.
He hit send and put the scroll back in his pocket. He struggled to his feet, and hobbled back to the dorms. When he got there, he made sure to hide his fatigue as he struggled up the stairs. He turned the corner to find Gemma waiting outside their door as she did every morning. She turned, saw him, smiled and waved. He gave a smile and waved back. He went back into his room and took a quick shower before joining the rest of the group as they headed off to start their first day back at school.