Lumi used her sleeve to wipe at her eyes as she sulked on the bench. While her tears had long since dried up, the evidence of her crying was in plain sight. The sclera of her eyes were hued an ugly red, and the skin around her eyes was raw and puffy from the excessive rubbing she'd subjected herself to in order to try and stop her tears. She didn't know why she was crying, was it because she didn't like that her friend had turned against her? Because she'd created an unfixable mess? Because she couldn't handle the consequences of her actions? It was pathetic, and not at all how someone of her standing should have handled the situation. She thought about her Mother and Father, to her Aunts and Uncle, to Grandma Willow and even her Grandfather Qrow. All of them, without a doubt, would have handled that better. Logically, she knew this, she knew she should have owned up to her actions, but for some reason she couldn't, there was too much hurt to just suck it up and ignore. She glanced down at Crocea Mors, the family blade had proved to be a source of comfort before, but now all she felt was her failures staring back at her along with her reflection, along with the reflection of another unfamiliar pair of eyes, ones that were bright, wild, and yellow. Lumi jumped back at the sudden intrusion of her personal space, or at least as much as the metal seat would allow her to. The strange girl was unfamiliar to her, which was concerning. While it was true she wouldn't know all the students by name only a month into her tutelage at Beacon, the chitinous tail wrapped around her waist was a very noticeable trait for a Faunus to have, and one she was certain she'd have recognised. Was this girl a visitor, perhaps an apprentice to some Huntsman doing business at the academy?
"Can I help you?" Lumi decided not to beat around the bush, instead coming right out and not even attempting to hide her unamused tone with the sudden invasion of her privacy. She didn't want to be seen now, let alone by some nosey girl with no care for personal space.
"This is Crocea Mors, right?" the girl asked, looking up and meeting her eyes, giving her a clear view of her dilated pupils. There was something wrong with this girl, she could tell that much with just a glance, which made the fact that she knew the Arc family blade by name all the more concerning. "My Father wrote about it, did you know that he and Jaune met?"
The interaction was quickly getting out of hand, she just couldn't keep up with the Faunus's questions, not only did she know about her weapon by name, but also that their fathers had met at some point? Getting to her feet, she tried to put some distance between her and the bizarre girl, keeping an eye on the bladed gauntlets she wore. Lavender tilted her head at her actions, not understanding why the slightly taller girl was acting as she did before she came somewhat closer back to reality. The faunus was fixing her hunched posture but either unable or simply not thinking to fix the crazed look in her eyes, as Lumi's concern grew.
"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting to find you too. I'm actually here looking for someone else, but you're almost as good a find!" Lumi had so many questions at this point, but unfortunately she wouldn't receive any answers as Lavender moved to close the distance, her tail flying out from underneath her coat and moving to stab at Lumi. The duelist, not having time to respond properly, dove to the side to dodge the sudden attack. As her tail passed through the air, Lavender gracefully spun on her heel, facing the blonde with a giggle. "Don't worry, my venom won't kill you unless I pump a whole lot into you, and the best part is, you'll be conscious the whole time!"
Recovering from her dive and drawing her dagger, Lumi took her stance with Crocea Mors pointed towards her opponent, the tip of her blade doing nothing to dissuade the intoxicated girl who ran in before she could properly think. Lumi tried to thrust her blade into her attacker's chest but at the last second, she found it locked in place with the pincer blades of The Queen's Servants. Lumi tried to pry her sword free, but found her opponent was simply too strong, the ancient steel and bronze alloy not moving an inch within its clawed prison. But she couldn't worry about that as she found the scorpion's stinger once again coming at her, this time aimed for her vulnerable throat. With no way to escape without losing her primary weapon, Lumi quickly formed a glyph with the back of her left hand, holding onto her pairing dagger with a vice grip as the glyph shattered underneath the force of her attacker's tail, but she was able to deflect the blow away from her throat. Lavender was far from deterred however and barreled forward, knocking them both to the floor where she pinned the Arc-Schnee girl down by her wrists, then having her Semblance make a pair of Aura construct arms that sprouted from her shoulders, the phantom limbs reaching down and wrapping their arms around her throat, cutting off her air supply. Soon after she did the same with her wrists, freeing up her real hands and, more worryingly, the blades on the end of them.
"You… you're insane…" she choked out, struggling against the girl now straddling her as she giggled to herself, gently tracing Lumi's face with the blade of one of her gauntlets.
"Don't worry, I won't break you, it'll just be like opening up a clock to see how it ticks, then I'll put you back together and let your Aura fix you up!" What little breath Lumi had been able to hang onto was knocked out of her as the idea of being vivisected by this psychopath filled her with the purest dread imaginable. She struggled, straining against the phantom limbs so hard her wrists started to bruise and bucking her hips to try and throw the Faunus off her perch, but she was losing strength fast as the lack of oxygen got to her. As much as her Aura helped against wounds, it couldn't save her from suffocating under the girl. The fight in her weakened as her vision grew fuzzy, just barely able to make out the stinger delicately being brought down towards her once more.
Lavender was giddy with excitement, deciding she'd take her time with this girl, an Arc was a rare find after all oh she just couldn't wait. If it wasn't for the fact that she was sure it would kill the blonde if she cut her open before the venom dulled her pain, she'd have already gotten started. Her Father had written about how he wanted to test the limits of Arc Aura, so she'd do it for him, writing her findings down in his journal tucked away into her coat, and she'd even use the Arc's own blood to do so! Or that was the plan, until she felt a sharp pain suddenly hitting her in the side, throwing her off of Lumi and sending her sliding along the ground. Rolling to a stop, she looked up to see who had decided to oh so rudely interrupt her play date, only to grit her teeth at the sight of Scarlet.
Lumi coughed as she scrambled to her feet and recovered her breath, her partner's strong hand taking hold of her by the biceps and lifting her up off the ground. The bovine Faunus moved in front of her and drew her blades, hoping to keep the strange girl at bay long enough for Lumi to fully recover, but the unknown attacker flew into a frenzy at the sight of her weapons, kicking off her back foot and lunging at the girl, claws raised. Scarlet did the same, meeting her halfway, her blades meeting the gauntlets with a shower of sparks and the familiar clang of steel, simply trying to keep the other girl busy while her partner recovered, however she couldn't match Lavender's manic ferocity. As Scarlet managed to block the blade aimed at her face, she was left open for a hook from the Aura construct that connected with her jaw soon after. She stumbled back only to find herself on the receiving end of a barrage of three stingers, two just Aura constructs and the other the venomous natural limb. It took everything Scarlet had to deflect the rapid stings from the storm of limbs, focusing on the real stinger as it was the larger threat, leaving herself open from below, causing Lavender to slash at her stomach with both of her gauntlets. Momentarily distracted by the pain, Scarlet left herself completely open as the phantom tails coiled around her wrists, restricting her as Lavender leaned in, the giggling replaced by a mad cackle as she got right into Scarlet's face. The redhead responded by rearing her head back and, using her horns, slammed her skull into Lavender's. The brunette clutched her face, realizing a gash formed in her forehead as blood seeped out of the wound. That was the least of her concerns, however, as Sebastian pounced, pinning the girl down and roaring in her face, to which the girl responded with a wrath filled scream right back into its face.
"The hell took you so long?" Scarlet asked as Lumi took her place beside her.
"Just shut up and fight!" Right, they hadn't actually made up yet. Whatever, their much needed talk could wait, right now they had a crazy scorpion bitch to take care of. Said girl was quickly gaining the upper hand on Sebastian, one tail wrapping around its throat and tightening, causing a loud snap could be heard as the summon went limp. She then sat up and glared at Scarlet, her eyes going to the crimson blade of Wilt to her black horns nestled in a sea of red hair, properly recognizing the new combatant for the first time.
"That sword… it's you, you're his daughter, Scarlet, aren't you!?" Lavender didn't even bother to stand, remaining hunched on all fours as she closed the distance towards her new target. Placing herself in between two opponents didn't seem like a viable strategy to Lumi, in fact her assailant doing so all but cemented in her mind that they were fighting a complete amateur, but somehow this girl made it work, twirling like a ballerina of death. The partners could hardly keep up, one moment she's deflecting a tail, then a pincer blade cut into the opening she left on her thigh, or she'd just narrowly avoid a blind spray of bullets from the gauntlets. Scarlet wasn't faring much better, while Lavender did all she could to overwhelm Lumi, her aggression was still primarily directed towards Scarlet, going as far as to form another tail to throw more attacks at the girl who'd incurred her wrath by simply existing.
"I'm gettin' real tired of this 'sins of the father' bullshit!" Scarlet focused, using her Semblance to coat her swords, striking harder in an attempt to break through the seemingly endless onslaught of attacks sent her way. The boost to her blade's cutting power paid off, Wilt managing to slice through one of the false tails and cut into her shoulder. She recoiled back into Lumi, the duelist immediately forming a Glyph at Lavender's feet, pinning her into place. Scarlet moved in, ready to end the fight then and there with a cross slash from both blades, but Lavender reacted first, opening fire with the machine guns, forcing Scarlet to deflect the shots, stopping in her tracks as one round tore into her thigh. Lumi moved in to impale her through the back, but, not one to be deterred and with her target in range once more, Lavender thrust all three tails into Lumi without even looking, the golden Aura of the eldest Arc-Schnee child shattering on impact and leaving her exposed as the physical stinger plunged into her flesh.
Lumi fell back and grabbed her blade, planning to continue to fight on despite her shattered Aura, but while her rapid heartbeat and the adrenaline coursing through her veins helped to dull the pain, it also sped up the spread of Lavender's venom. The other girls were too engaged in combat to take notice, but Lumi immediately felt woozy. She began stumbling over on to her hands and knees, reaching down and clutching the puncture mark as it flared up in pain as the venom attacked her nerves. It took all of her effort just to reach into her pocket and pull out her scroll as the shapes of Scarlet and Lavender started to blend together into a mess of red and purple.
"I'll kill you! I'll rip your head off and leave it on his doorstep!" With Lumi out of the way there was nothing to distract Lavender from her original target, and she could concentrate all of her aggression onto the horned girl. For her part, Scarlet was weathering the storm as best she could, the bloodlust driving Lavender's attacks surpassing even that of a Grimm, but, more threateningly, with actual intelligence behind it. The girl's strategy of an overwhelming offense was similar to her own, just leagues more ferocious thanks to her bullshit extra limbs, which meant she'd have to rely on finesse if she wanted to walk away from this alive. She did what she could, slipping her swords through the tangle of limbs to try and land small blows, parrying her gauntlets, and bringing down her Semblance enhanced strikes where she could, but each blow just seemed to fuel her rage, either getting right back up or pushing through the pain and striking back like a wild animal. They were locked in a war of attrition and, unlike SJJL's leader, who was starting to feel sluggish and sore from the maelstrom of combat, Lavender showed no signs of slowing down. Scarlet attempted to bind the scorpion's gauntlet with Bleed like she'd briefly seen Lumi attempt, after all she was bigger and stronger, there was a solid chance she'd be able to pull it off. However, as the blades tangled, Lavender twisted about, forming two extra arms which she used along with the real limb to deliver a trio of elbow strikes to Scarlet's ribs, the momentum of the blows knocking her down, and the subsequent pain loosening her grip on her secondary blade. A moment later Bleed was ripped from her grasp and thrown to the floor, leaving her with just Wilt to defend herself with.
Lavender wanted to finish things immediately, but in her motions she saw Lumi's scroll open in the girl's trembling grasp, no doubt calling for help. Glancing over her shoulder, Lavender aimed, and with a single shot she blasted the device in Lumi's hands to pieces. That was bad, as while that might have bought her a minute, there was no doubt in the girl's mind that her prey had already called for help, she had to make this quick, and a battle cry from behind snapping her attention back to the fight. Reaching out, Lavender caught the crimson blade of Wilt in her grasp as it arced towards her torso, the sword managing to break through part of her Aura, cutting open the palm of her hand before being stopped by the now visible barrier, a purple glow shimmering as the wound began to knit itself shut. The pair of Faunus locked eyes, both staring the other down with fury.
"No, I have a better idea. I'll run you through with his sword, use the blade that took my Dad from me to take Adam's daughter from him!" That caused Scarlet to hesitate, she'd been told her father had hurt people, that he was a terrorist, but this girl… did her Dad really take this girl's father away? Was that why she was like this? The split second of hesitation was all Lavender needed as she simultaneously brought down all four of her phantom stingers into Scarlet's chest, shattering her Aura in a crimson flash and sending her crashing to the ground. Without her Aura to keep her going, the fatigue and ache of the fight had left her feeling like she was hit by a truck, she could hardly move, let alone pick up her blade to defend herself.
"You know, my 'family' has a saying." Lavender said, panting and trying to speak with some sort of melody that the defeated redhead was too dazed to make out. "Kill for kill, eye for eye, blood for blood..."
Panic started to set in as Lavender strolled forward, chitin meeting stone as she dragged her stinger along the walkway,not that she'd give this psychopath the satisfaction of seeing it. She stared up defiantly, swallowing the bitter taste of knowing she was about to die having given her Mom and Dad the cold shoulder for the last month of her life. Staying true to her word, Lavender knelt down and picked up Wilt, glaring at the dust-forged blade before turning her gaze to the defenseless girl below her. She raised the weapon overhead, but, before it could be brought down, a shot rang out and struck Lavender in the forearm, causing her to drop the weapon as she clutched the wound. She didn't have time to let her Aura heal it as a cyclone of rose petals slammed into her from the side, throwing her away from Scarlet and Lumi before coalescing into a humanoid shape. Scarlet watched as the cloaked professor rested Crescent Rose over her shoulder, taking her glasses off and carefully tucking them into her breast pocket before looking over at her students, smiling once she saw that, while wounded, neither of them were in critical condition.
"It's alright, Jaune's on his way, you guys are gonna be taken care of." she said in an attempt to reassure her students. Scarlet, despite this, tried her best to get back on her feet but collapsed under her own weight. Meanwhile, Lumi's dilated eyes glanced from Ruby to Scarlet in confusion.
"Is… is that strawberry talking to us Mister Rusted Knight?" The absurdity of the question seemed to give Scarlet the strength to sit up and look her partner in the eye, wincing as she saw the girl's sky blue eyes so unnaturally wide.
"As I live and breathe, The Reaper of Beacon!? I'm honored!'' the maniac before them interrupted, an honest to gods tone of glee in her voice as she gave a small curtsy. Ruby watched carefully, recognising the weapons in an instant, but it was the girl's eerily familiar face that confirmed who she was looking at.
"Lavender?" That took the girl aback, she'd never have guessed that Ruby Rose of all people would know, let alone care, about who she was.
"Miss Rose, I'm flattered! I didn't think you'd know about little ol' me. My father must have left quite the impression!" Ruby watched the girl closely, unsure what to make of her. While she'd heard of the girl, she was a far cry from the girl she'd been told about, it was hard to believe that she was the same person.
"It's because of your mother, actually. You look just like her." Ruby realized the fumble soon after she spoke, Lavender dropping her smile and snarling.
"I look nothing like that - that- AH!" Her anger had reached a boiling point, she couldn't think, so she did what she always did to calm herself, her tail stabbing into her own shoulder to the shock of everyone who could tell what was happening. She let out more than usual, the smaller doses having been dull in their effects as of late, and like a drug, it worked, she could think calmly once more. She did not look like that woman, she didn't tolerate Henna saying it, and she sure as hell wasn't going to let this wannabe reaper say as much. "You should get your eyes checked. Here, let me take them out so it's easier!"
The girl readied herself to attack, but the woman before her was faster, Ruby closing the distance faster than she could blink. Crescent Rose's sheer size made it nearly impossible for her to move in, the weapon was deadly in just about every direction and the Huntress wielded it as easily as she used her tail. The Faunus thought she saw an opening when she missed an upward swing and swung her blades forwards, only to receive a shot in the shoulder from the rifle that composed the weapon's snath. As Lavender tried to keep her balance from the punch of the shot, the far more experienced woman used the momentum to swing around and reposition into another strike, the great blade of the scythe arcing in from the side. Lavender tried to interrupt the attack with her phantom tails, only for them to be hooked on the scythe as she was picked up by the colossal weapon's momentum and slammed into the ground, her Aura finally showing the tell tale signs of strain, a soft purple glow enveloping her body. Turning back to Ruby, her heart sank as she saw her father's journal right in front of the Headmistress's Assistant who then proceeded to step on it and planted her feet, having no intentions of letting the girl reclaim it. She was prepared to fight tooth and nail to get that book back, but as she did, two more figures came into view, a blond knight and what looked like a dusty old man moving far faster than he should, both carrying swords. Her time was up, she'd failed. She wanted to scream, but there was no time, as she desperately reached down into her coat pocket hoping that her escape route was still secured. Ruby stayed ready to act should she make a move to attack, but instead the girl pulled out a clump of various different dust crystals loosely wrapped together with what looked to be a plastic film and threw it at her feet. Upon hitting the ground, the dust reacted and exploded, the various different dust crystals reacting together into a chain reaction that created a vibrant smoke screen that lasted for maybe a minute, obscuring everyone's vision. Ruby used Petal Burst to fall back, taking a defensive stance in front of Lumi and Scarlet along with her Uncle and Jaune. But when the smoke cleared, Lavender was gone.
"Qrow!" Jaune called on his Stepfather-in-law, the blond knight falling back to his daughter, immediately using his Semblance to boost the girl's Aura and accelerate her recovery.
"On it." the old man said, running off out of sight soon after. Meanwhile, Ruby stood, continuing to guard her students as Jaune got to work, the puncture wound on Lumi's abdomen closing and her Aura strengthening her body enough to fight the venom coursing through her veins.
"That girl, who was she?" Jaune asked, looking back at the scorch marks on the ground where the girl had fled from.
"Her name's Lavender Callows." the red-robed reaper said, finally putting her weapon away and walking over to Scarlet, helping the taller girl to her feet.
"Callows?" Memories flooded Jaune's mind, memories of a lanky and tall maniac attacking them in the ruins of an old Mistrali village, only to be saved by Qrow's timely intervention. That man, that complete and utter psychopath, had a kid? It was an unpleasant thought, he couldn't have possibly been a decent father…
The line of thinking was interrupted when his daughter vomited all over his boots. He grimaced, knowing it wasn't her fault, rubbing his eldest child's back as she wretched up a combination of bile and a thick dark purple liquid. Scarlet stared at the scene, seeming to contemplate whether she should say the joke she just thought of or not, buuuut her intrusive thoughts won out. And besides, the situation needed a bit of levity.
"...Y'know, somehow I knew you were a spitter." Judging by the stares from Jaune and Ruby, her joke wasn't appreciated as much as she'd hoped.
Later that evening, a large pale man named Steele watched as Romeo spun about in his oversized "boss" chair with a pensive expression. It was his job after all, standing there and being the intimidating brick wall that people thought they'd need to get past in order to get at the man in charge of Torchwick's territory. Well, it was part of his job, Romeo didn't look threatening, but neither did Mistral's kingpin, and she was one of the deadliest women in the kingdom even before you took her army of criminals into account. Steele was mostly there to be observant, looking for things that the boss might miss while putting on the charm with clients, especially after he'd gotten bored and decided to pass the time by sipping away at his favorite brand of scotch. That was the first thing that set off the bald man's alarm bells that indicated something was up, he hadn't touched the bottle all day, and he was less than friendly with the people he'd met with so far, even snapping at one of the grunts who'd made an honest mistake and accidentally stepped on his shoe earlier. "Irritable" wasn't usually how he'd describe his boss, but "professional"? Well, that depended on the day, and today, it was almost like he was getting ready for a heist he was expecting to go wrong? No that didn't track, they would have dropped a job like that.
Another notable difference from usual was the amount of Malachites stopping in. Miltiades, along with her older son Maverick, had stopped by, speaking about some sort of plan they'd already agreed on. Steele knew better than to question things he was out of the loop on, but he hoped the cooperation would be limited to the heads of the Xiong-Malachite crime family, as while the bosses all had good heads on their shoulders, they were far less selective with their crews than Romeo, and the overinflated egos of the street gangs they'd assimilated generally made things… messy. He was even getting the younger of the two Malachite twins, Melodias, involved, despite his attempts to distance himself from his family business. He was pulling strings for something important, something big, he just didn't know what. As the man mused on just what sort of trouble his boss was probably getting into, the door to the office opened up. The men were greeted by a distinct lack of fanfare or even a basic hello from the woman who walked in and took a seat at the chair in front of Romeo's desk.
"Verde, what a pleasant surprise." the shorter man greeted dryly as his tech support walked in like she owned the place. Well that wasn't entirely fair, Verde could throw down just as well as everyone else currently in the room with her, but it was her talent with computers that made her indispensable to the boss.
"You thought I'd let you down?" she asked as if genuinely insulted, taking a moment to adjust her hair as she pulled out the hair tie that kept up her utilitarian ponytail.
"I didn't think you'd get results so quickly. So, what do you have for me?" Just like Steele, she noticed the complete lack of any banter from the man across from her, but, unlike him, she didn't dwell on it for more than a second.
"Not what we'd hoped." the woman said, pulling her scroll from the pocket of her dark green suit and tapping the screen. A moment later, Romeo's own scroll had beeped to life and he opened it to see that a folder simply labeled "Attack" had been sent to him from an encrypted number. He raised an orange eyebrow at the name, looking up at his trusted henchwoman.
"What is this?"
"Security footage, it involves a couple of the girls you're having me cyber-stalk." Verde said, blunt as ever. Mismatching eyes fell back down to the device and opened up the folder, resulting in several files popping up organized by size in decreasing order. The first, and largest, was a fuzzy but legible video spliced together from the feed of multiple security cameras, showing a fight between two girls, one of which was one of the girls Romeo was tracking, which then shifted to a 2v1 as another, equally familiar girl arrived, then back to a 1v1 as the original girl fell, struck by what appeared to be a tail. The video came to a close as the unknown assailant fled in a puff of multicolored smoke thanks to the arrival of some teachers, obscuring the cameras with a layer of Dust. Next in line was a series of pictures where defining traits of the unknown assailant were clearly in frame at different angles, pincer-like blades attached to a set of gauntlets, a Semblance that allowed for the creation of multiple phantom limbs using Aura, and a long, powerful looking scorpion tail. At the very end of the collection were a handful of pictures showing the face of the attacker, a young woman with long brown hair and wild yellow eyes.
"Who's that?" Steele asked, looking over and staring at the picture Romeo opened, the girl's face contorted in anger and rage at Scarlet in a state of purest bloodlust that surpassed anything he'd seen in the field.
"No clue, but whoever she is she set your plans back a good bit, there's no way Beacon's taking their eyes off of team SJJL anytime soon." Verde responded, her words unacknowledged as the boss clearly wasn't paying much attention to the world around him, instead just cycling through the pictures, his brow furrowing.
"Rework your surveillance." The sudden order caught the both of them off guard.
"What?" Verde asked incredulously. She'd just told him that SJJL was off limits, so what was the plan now? BGEL? They weren't exactly that much more available.
"This one." Romeo said as he almost slammed his scroll down, the clearest picture of the girl's face open towards Verde. "How fast can you find her?"
"Well, this only happened a few hours ago, so there's no way she's in the city proper just yet."
"Just give me a timeframe!" he snapped as she tried to explain, causing both of them to jump at his sudden aggression. Sharing a glance, the goons both decided that it was better to just fall in line with this one.
"A day, at most 48 hours. Vale's CCT isn't anything close to Atlas's, but it's thorough enough to catch someone not being careful, and whoever this chick is, she's definitely got a few screws loose." At her explanation he nodded, taking a moment to think before leaning back into his chair with a tired sigh.
"Leave."
"Huh?" Steele looked confused as Verde stood and left without question. Shouldn't they sit down and figure out a plan? This girl was a wrench in their plans, a complete unknown, the sort of thing Romeo absolutely would not stand for on the job. So unless he already knew what his plans were for the sudden disruption, this was a strange course of action. It seemed he wouldn't be getting an explanation either, as Romeo just waved him off a few moments later.
"I'm turning in for the night, if anyone needs something, tell them to come back tomorrow." Reluctantly, Steele left, leaving Romeo alone as he rubbed his temples, looking down at the scroll with a scowl. Wordlessly, he reached down and hit play on the security footage again, he needed to see exactly what he was getting into.
Scarlet lay in the stiff infirmary bed, scowling at the ceiling as she waited to be dismissed. On paper, she was completely fine, the counselor's Semblance had patched up the cuts, bruises, and apparently a fractured rib with ease. With the exception of the dirt on her from getting thrown to the ground, it was like the fight never happened, but it was still mandatory that they get looked at by the school's medical team after, so she and Lumi were stuck laying there until their paperwork came back. Lumi hadn't moved or even said a word since they'd been admitted, the blonde having remained completely silent, with an IV drip in her arm making sure that she was maintaining her fluids as she'd puked out a fair bit along with their attacker's venom as her boosted Aura forced it out. How exactly that process worked, Scarlet didn't know, but she was certainly glad flushing her partner's system of the toxin hadn't been her job, moving blood was complicated enough without trying to filter out venom. Now that her mind was on said partner, Scarlet glanced over, catching Lumi doing the same. As soon as their eyes met, Lumi looked away and pretended that she wasn't just staring at the horned girl in the bed adjacent to her own. Scarlet understood, gods above, she didn't know how to start talking either. She'd hoped that fighting for her life alongside Lumi would have made things feel less… weird, but there was no such luck in that department. She just couldn't force herself to open her mouth and get the simple words "I'm sorry" to come out. Part of the reason was because she felt like she was owed an apology from Lumi, but another part was just because it didn't feel right. Ugh, why was this so complicated!? Letting her head fall back onto the pillow, Scarlet huffed as she joined Lumi in staring off into space.
"Scarlet?" Looking back over to her partner, Scarlet saw those big blue eyes looking right at her, thankfully no longer expanded to the extent they had been before.
"Yep?" Scarlet was trying to just be casual in the moment, but it ended up sounding far more awkward than she'd have liked. Thankfully, it went unnoticed by Lumi.
"I'm getting very tired of seeing the inside of this room." she said, sitting up and dangling her legs off of the bed, her feet just barely above the floor by an inch or two. Scarlet did the same, planting her feet down to face her estranged partner.
"Pfft, if you didn't want to get hurt, you chose the wrong job sister." Scarlet joked, hoping to get rid of a bit of the tension currently suffocating any chance at conversation between them. Unfortunately, the teasing tone she said it in seemed to fly right over the other girl's head.
"Yeah, I guess you have a point..." Lumi said, mumbling low enough that if Scarlet wasn't a Faunus, she wouldn't have heard the girl speak at all. Crap, was she making things worse again? She wanted to just pick the small girl up and shake her while telling her to stop being moody and to just talk to her like a normal person. And while such a tactic might have worked on Jet like sixty percent of the time, Lumi was way more irritable than he could ever hope to be.
"Uh, sorry…" The Bovine Faunus said, rubbing her arm awkwardly as she tried to think of a solution, of something to say. Oh, screw it, they weren't going to get anywhere this way. She was going to put her cards on the table. Just talk, don't think, and open your mouth. She was good at that, and that's exactly what she was going to do. "Jet told me that you wanted to apologize."
Lumi nodded, her face still visibly unsure and her movements stiff as she hesitated over her words, lips pursed in silent contemplation. This was the seco- no, third chance she'd been hoping for, the one she'd thought she'd never get after the argument they'd had. She needed to do this right, to make sure she didn't screw this up again.
"Do you mind if I tell you why I reacted the way I did?" she asked carefully, bracing herself to be rejected by Scarlet, the redhead raising her eyebrow in response. Honestly, she didn't really care why, but the girl was genuinely remorseful as far as she could tell, so she supposed she could humor her.
"Shoot." relief was clear on her face, the tension seeming to float off of her.
"Thank you. The truth is, my family and the Faunus have bad blood. That's not an excuse mind you, it's simply a fact. Honestly, it wouldn't be too far of an exaggeration to say that my grandfather's practices are the reason the extremist White Fang came to be." Lumi explained, far less eager to speak on this than she usually was about her family, she'd always been willing to tell others loudly and with pride about the Arc-Schnee legacy. Scarlet knew why, after all, the last month had given her a rather intimate perspective about what a stain on your family name could result in.
"And that's where my Dad comes in?" It was more an assumption than anything else, but considering Lumi was bringing it up at all, she could assume it had something to do with her heritage. Scarlet was mostly ignorant on the topic of race relations, it just never really seemed important to her. Sure she'd heard of the Faunus being mistreated because of their animal traits, everyone had, but it had never happened to her on Patch. Well okay, there were asshole humans that called her various names, but she never felt it was a case of racism, just jerks being jerks.
"Yes. I didn't like you, I know, that's probably not a shock, so when I found out your father was the poster boy of a terrorist organization that wanted my family's heads… I lost all trust in you in an instant. I'm sorry, that was wrong of me." Scarlet nodded, she didn't like it of course, especially not the part about Lumi already not liking her. She thought they'd put that behind them after initiation, but apparently Lumi felt differently, but keeping the peace was her current goal and a part of her did understand it, if someone was coming after her or her parents, she'd try to do something about it. Then again, Lumi's words raised another question.
"The White Fang… I thought they were a political party or something, or activists?" At Scarlet's words, Lumi went slack-jawed. If she hadn't been convinced before that the other girl was clueless about what her father had done, that painted a pretty clear picture on just how ignorant the Faunus really was.
"Scarlet, if you really believe that's all they've ever been, then you are possibly one of the single most sheltered girls I've ever met, and that is an incredibly high bar to clear."
Before Scarlet could ask just what exactly that was supposed to mean, the doors flew open, and a figure rushed in. Before either of the pair could react, it threw itself at Lumi, knocking her back onto the bed. Scarlet immediately jumped up and grabbed for Wilt, only to stop as she saw the mix of long black and white hair that cascaded down the newcomer's shoulders.
"You guys are okay!" The elated cry from Goose could be clearly heard through the walls, even with her face buried into Lumi's chest, though Scarlet figured that Lumi's chest wouldn't exactly muffle much in the first place. Soon after the tall girl came in, the rest of her team piled into the small space along with Jet and Jin, all of them looking over the partners with worry.
BGEL's leader rolled her eyes as she saw Goose still clinging to their niece like a security blanket, patting her back and turning to Scarlet with an unamused look.
"She would not stop asking when we could see you two, you'd think we were told you were both dying." she said, complaining as if Goose's insistence was a heavy burden that she'd been forced to endure, and now that she was finally getting what she wanted, she'd been unshackled.
"Aren't you the one who threatened to have the nurse fired if we didn't get let in?" Jin asked, tilting his head as if he was confused, something Lao backed up with a calm nod. Her face lit up a reddish hue at being called out and she stumbled over her words for a moment.
"I- Th-that's irrelevant!" Once it was clear that no one was buying her deflection, she turned her nose up at them and looked away, ignoring them as if she wasn't even a part of the scenery.
"Aunt Goose, my ribs…" Lumi gasped out, causing Goose to realize how tightly she was squeezing, letting go of the poor girl immediately, taking a step back with Belka and smiling sheepishly.
"Sorry!"
"What happened to you guys? Lumi's dad said you were attacked?" Jet butted in, trying to pretend he was trying to figure out what happened rather than just being extremely worried like the others. He did the same thing whenever he and Lupin were both scared but he wanted to act tough for her, and Scarlet couldn't help but think it was sweet, even if she saw right through it. But, that raised the actual question that needed answering about that girl, and well… what could she really say? That yet another person had chosen to take her father's mistakes out on her, this time going so far as to attack her? Thankfully, before she could try to explain it, Lumi spoke up in her stead.
"There was this maniacal Faunus girl with a scorpion tail, she said she wanted to test my Aura… but Scarlet saved me and she got dragged into it." SJJL's leader looked over at her partner, as while that was technically true, there were a few… uncomfortable details left out. She didn't know how much of the girl's rantings Lumi had been able to understand, but she had to have known that the girl definitely wanted a literal piece out of the both of them. But, then she caught Lumi glancing over at her from the corner of her eye, a small, almost unseen nod telling Scarlet what she needed to know. That was something Scarlet could talk about when she was ready, not with everyone in their faces.
"You saved her?" Elizabeth asked as she turned to Scarlet with doubt in her cold blue eyes, clearly skeptical after the last time she saw them interact was the sparring session that had sparked this whole debacle in the first place. But if Lumi was claiming it to be true…
"Well, I did owe her for being such a bitch earlier." Scarlet shrugged as if it were really no big deal, despite nearly dying in the process. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at that, but couldn't really argue with what she saw with her own eyes.
"So, are we a team again?" Jin asked, looking between the girls. While it certainly seemed as though the tension was lessened, it almost seemed too good to be true. Lumi fidgeted for a moment, uncertain herself, although she hoped the answer would be yes.
"If you guys will ha-"
"Oh my gods, drop the humble crap, we know you wanna come back, once we're out I'll help you get your shit out of BGEL's dorm." Scarlet said, cutting her partner off as she finally sat back down, dropping onto the bed next to Lumi.
"Just like that?" The duelist almost couldn't believe what she had heard, her eyes going as wide as dinner plates from the casual acceptance from the redhead, who simply shrugged as though she was getting over someone accidentally stepping on her shoe.
"Believe it or not, after getting played by SLVR like a fiddle and almost getting murdered by a junkie who gets high off her own supply, I'm a lot less pissed at you. So yeah, if you'll give me a chance then I can do the same."
"Thank you." she said, on the verge of tears from happiness. "I promise, I'll do everything in my power to prove you made the right call."
"Aww! Group hug!" Before she knew what was happening, Goose's powerful arms were wrapped around her once more, this time ensnaring Scarlet as well in her tight hug.
"No, Goose!" Lumi cried out to deaf ears, trying to break free but now fully sandwiched between Goose and Scarlet. Jet watched sympathetically, Lumi's pleading eyes begging that someone, anyone, come to her aid.
"Should we-"
"Yup!" Jin said, picking up the gun nut with minimal effort and bringing him in, the monkey man's massive arms big enough to hold them together, even with Lumi and now Jet both squirming around in a futile attempt to get free.
"No, Jin! Help!" he called out to the three free members of BGEL, but alas, they just watched and left him to his fate, Belka and Elizabeth locking eyes for a moment and agreeing for once that it was better to just let this play out, lest they also get crushed by the embrace.
Jaune groaned into his hands as the discussion around him continued to go around in circles. Ruby would tell the members of their little group what she'd been able to put together from the attack, then Koji or Oobleck would jump in before she could finish, Qrow or Touko would come to her aid, and then it resulted in an argument that Jaune and Ruby had to try and quell. Unfortunately, the younger pair simply couldn't match the others in terms of volume, which meant ending things was in the hands of Glynda, who'd inevitably put a stop to everything with a strike from her crop, or the slightly raised voice of Dr. Pine emanating from Goodwitch's scroll prompting Ruby to continue, which would get things back on track for a moment, until the jumpy professors would start the whole process again. He understood, tensions were high, he wanted to scream himself, it was his daughter who'd been attacked for the brothers sake! But, this was getting them nowhere, something that just made him angrier.
"Once again, nothing we've seen points to this being a planned attack!" Ruby said, her voice squeaking as it raised above the others in the room, surprising even the Headmistress's assistant herself.
"Miss Rose, with all due respect, how can you be so certain?" Koji asked, his voice was similarly strained from the yelling, stress clear on his already wrinkled features. Ruby braced herself for the cacophony of voices to spring back to life at his question, but instead she was greeted by silence and all eyes suddenly being on her. Oh, okay, she was actually being allowed to speak, that was a bit unexpected, but certainly a welcome change. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath before addressing the room.
"Because it was too uncoordinated. The girl seemingly had no clue where her targets were and spent most of the day blindly wandering around the campus. If her attack was properly planned, it would have been far more precise, and far more effective." Jaune shuddered at the thought of what the girl could have done had she managed to get Lumi in a place where they weren't exposed, or if she'd just been luckier with her timing. According to both his daughter and his best friend, the girl was something of an amateur, but made up for it with unorthodox movements, power, and ferocity, or, as Scarlet had so eloquently put it when questioned on the way to the infirmary, "The bitch was built different."
"Jaune, what's your take?" The blond was pulled from his musings by Touko, the Grimm Studies professor having noticed his silence, hoping for the more level-headed input of the knight. If the school counselor was unable to lead a calm discussion, then no one could. Jaune thought his words over carefully, not wanting to cause things to get heated once more, eventually deciding to stick to the facts.
"We've all seen what an attack from Salem looks like, and even on a smaller scale, this doesn't fit. It was too loud, too brazen for her, Callows was acting alone." That should have been comforting, it meant that for the moment at least the threat was manageable. But it was never that simple, things always started like this, one small little problem that would eventually snowball into the Fall of Beacon, or the attack on Atlas. It was never that simple.
"So, an agent of Salem just happens to sneak in with no assistance or plan other than to avenge her father?" Qrow asked bitterly. Maybe it was the years finally catching up with him, but he was getting tired.
"Nothing is truly impossible Qrow, just unlikely." The calm voice of Dr. Pine said from the scroll in front of Glynda.
"Regardless, even if this wasn't a move by her, it confirms that she's planning something at the very least." The Headmistress said, speaking for a reason other than to reprimand her staff for the first time in the meeting, yet her words now instilled more fear than anything the Huntsmen in the room with her had felt before.
"H-how do you figure that?" Touko asked, not sure if she really wanted to know.
"First, dangerous non-native Grimm somehow end up in the Forever Fall Forest right as initiation went underway, then the video of Miss Taurus-Fall's training accident is leaked all over the media, and now a girl affiliated with familial ties to Salem just so happens to find her way into Beacon?" When set out like that… it was hard to deny what sort of picture it was painting: sabotage, assassination, division, all tactics Salem was well known for amongst the few aware of her existence. The air grew cold, no one wanting to speak up. After all, they'd be fools to deny it when it was laid out that plainly.
"Multiple events like that in such a short timeframe… it's rarely a coincidence." Oobleck chimed in, reluctantly, swallowing the truth none of them wanted to face as Dr. Pine spoke up..
"Salem is getting ready to act, and she has her eyes set on Beacon once more for one reason or another, that much is certain. The only lingering question is, are we her immediate target, or are there others?"
"No, damn it, no! " Scarlet cried to herself as sat hunched over her toilet, dry heaving the last remnants of her dinner into the porcelain throne, the half digested meal staring back at her. Through her tears, she could barely make out her discolored and rougher than usual reflection. She looked terrible, although that could have just been from the ugly crying she was doing. She wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand, the foul taste of bile still fresh in her mouth, before she tried to walk over to the sink and drink some water, but as she pushed against the seat, she found herself feeling weak and she collapsed onto the floor. Rolling onto her back, she stared up at the ceiling, trying to keep herself from her inevitable breakdown just a bit longer, but it was no use, and the tears started anew as she couldn't deny the reality of her father's actions any longer.
Her scroll lay dropped by her feet, Scarlet couldn't stomach looking at it any longer. Lumi's words had been eating at her, she didn't want to admit it, not even to herself, but the comment about her being sheltered… she needed to know, or, at least, she thought she did. Now, she'd give anything to go back to the comparatively blissful ignorance she'd lived in, the screen still displaying the looping clip of a white-masked monster cutting down an unarmed SDC security guard as he begged for his life. It almost looked like a demon, basked in a bright red glow, crowned with horns the color of the abyss, and bearing a manic smile as he took the man's life. The monster wielded a crimson chokuto style blade, the same one that sat resting on her bed next to Bleed just a few feet away. The clip repeated once more, showing Adam cut down the man as he raised his arm in a futile attempt to defend himself, cleaving through the limb and decapitating the man in one swing with Wilt. Her father didn't even wince as the man's blood splashed onto his face, and, despite the white and red mask covering his eyes, the satisfaction from the deed was clearly expressed, his sick smile growing just that bit wider.