A few weeks later, Lapis was facing a bat eared Faunus named Sangria in Hazel's sparring class. Sangria's weapons were twin Sai daggers that could turn into semiautomatic pistols. The match ended after Lapis swept Sangria's legs and the lights turned on.

"That's the match. You fought well, Miss Lazuli." Hazel said.

"I'm not the only one, Professor. Sangria is a strong fighter herself." Lapis said as she went to offer the Faunus a hand up.

Sangria growled and swatted her hand away. "You got lucky this time...'hero'." She said then went to her teammates, twin sisters Melanie and Miltia Malachite, and Opal Green. These girls made up Team SMMO (Salmon), a second year team that were known for bullying other students.

The bell rang after that. "Remember, students, the Vytal Festival is a few months away, so train hard to be ready for the tournament." Hazel said then the students left.

Once in the cafeteria with their food, Lapis looked at Team LEMO and Team CMSN. "You guys wanna hear about the time I helped clear out a Lancer hive?" She asked, signing to Magenta.

"I though you didn't like to talk about Commander Xiao Long and the Burning Suns." Neo said via her Scroll with Cinder translating for Magenta.

"Doesn't mean I'm not above talking about my travels. Besides, you seemed like you wanted to hear about that story when we met, Neo."

"Yeah, let's hear it." Mercury said as seven pairs of eyes turned to the helmet clad hero.

"Okay. So, I was driving away from a village on Anima after dealing with a Pantera and Beowolf problem they'd been having for weeks. A good ten miles from the village is when I heard gunfire and shouting from a nearby cave. I drove on my bike, Blue Moon, to investigate and saw the Burning Suns fight off lower Lancers and the Queen. I drive full speed towards the Queen and start firing at it to distract it. Thanks to that, Lieutenant Valkyrie was able to kill the Queen. Once she was dead, the rest were easy to kill. I kept driving once the Lancers were dead." Lapis said, translating for the deaf Faunus.

All seven stared at her in awe.

Onyx fidgeted for a few seconds then tapped Magenta's shoulder. "Guys, I need to tell you something about me." She said, signing to Magenta. Cinder and Lapis were teaching their teammates to sign so Magenta could understand whenever they wanted to talk to her.

"What is it, Nyx?" Mercury asked.

"I'm... not a typical Faunus. A madman experimented on me when I was a baby and somehow made me...a Faunus-Grimm hybrid. But I'm not always dangerous like they are."

Everyone was stunned silent...until Neo placed a hand on her friend's. "You were brave to tell us, Onyx." She said with her Scroll.

"Yeah. I can't imagine it's always easy to keep that a secret." Emerald said.

"It isn't. And it bites me in the ass a lot." Onyx said.

"What all can you do?" Cinder asked.

"I can sense emotions from other people, communicate with Grimm, and change into two different forms: a large humanoid shark and a Selachi. But with the Selachi, that's only when negative emotions become more than I can handle. I can control my hybrid form and remember what happens. But as a Selachi, I'm entirely unpredictable and willing to kill."

Magenta hugged Onyx, who hugged back. "We won't let anything happen to you. Count on it." The winged Faunus said as she pulled from the hug.

"Magenta's right. You're our friend." Ember said.

Onyx smiled and nodded at her friends. "Thanks, guys." She said/signed.

They all nodded back then resumed eating.

As they left the cafeteria when they finished, they were intercepted by Team SMMO.

"What, ladies?" Cinder asked.

"Sometimes, bat ears come in handy. I heard what you guys were talking about." Sangria said.

"Branwen being what she is makes her the biggest freak at this school." Melanie said.

Lapis stepped forward. "Walk away. Now."

"Now, where's the fun in that?" Miltia smirked.

"I think a trip to Professor Selene is in order here." Opal said.

Lapis' eyes began changing from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to indigo to purple and the bullies fell silent as they stared into her eyes blankly.

"Forget eavesdropping on the secret Onyx shared with us. You never heard anything about it." She said in a commanding tone and the four girls nodded their heads. Lapis' eyes returned to their normal silver and Team SMMO collectively shook their heads then looked at the first years before walking away.

"How...did you...?" Emerald asked.

"Well, Ember has her clones, you have your hallucinations. My Semblance is Dominance." Lapis said.

"You can take control of people?" Cinder asked.

"So long as they look me in the eyes when mine change colors. Handy for quite a bit, including keeping secrets." Lapis smirked.

Onyx hugged her and she hugged back.

Later in the day, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang received a mass text from their informant about Lapis' Semblance.

Ruby turned to her sister-in-law. "Did you know that?"

Blake nodded. "Yes. She was trained to use it, and it partially inspired a technique I use to keep my more...useful traitors in line." The Faunus said.

"Think you could let me use that technique? I have a few thugs in need of some conditioning as well."

"I'll have my scientists send you the plans of the machine and the chemicals that you'll need for it."

"Is it possible to redirect her Semblance to her?" Weiss asked.

"Sadly, no. One thing I noticed is that she has an indomitable will so unfortunately, her Semblance has no effect on her."

"Too bad. We could've made her stay out of our business." Yang said.

"It's of little concern. Back on topic, Jaune told me that he and Coco were successful in talking to Sun and Velvet. The White Fang and the Black Rose are a go for talks about joint operations." Ruby said.

Blake smirked. "Sun and Velvet confirmed the same. Now, we just have to make it official ourselves."

"I've released a statement saying that the SDC will be hiring the Burning Suns as protection. Once the contract is ready, Yang and I will sign it at a press conference." Weiss said.

"If only our thugs outside of our inner circle knew how close relations really were." Yang said.

"Still, we need to make our move soon. Let's meet tomorrow night at a fancy restaurant whose owner is in my pocket, Blake. Dress to impress." Ruby said.

Blake nodded.

"Then with that, we're adjourned for the day."

The four women left at separate times but all met at the penthouse they shared.

That's chapter six

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