Chapter 32: How Bedlam Learns to Find Peace and Love Bumblebee

Hey, look, a rare double-post!

It's totally all canon, right? IDK


Blake slowly lowered her damaged metal arm. "Leave. Us. Alone." She stepped forward from the edge of the rock that she'd been pushed back to. "This is your last chance."

Bedlam put his hand to the handle of Wilt where it sat dependably in Blush. Then he saw Yang's fingers trembling. The thought of him wielding Wilt reminded her of how close he'd come to killing her at Beacon. Bedlam took his hand off of the hilt of Wilt in Blush. He laughed. "Do you really believe that? Or are you just trying to scare me away so you won't have to die trying to protect her?"

Yang's hand openly shook, but she bared her teeth and stood her ground.

Blake stepped towards her human partner and took her organic hand. "She's not protecting me. And I'm not protecting her." Blake's eyes sent daggers towards Bedlam. "We're protecting each other."

"You knew you couldn't win two-on-one at Haven," Bedlam reminded her. "What makes you so sure you can win now?"

"I don't have a choice. I have people who actually care about me." Blake declared, "and I promised them I'd never leave them again, so I'm not dying now!"

"You know, she made a promise to me once. That she'd always be at my side." He barked out a laugh. "And look how well she's kept it."

"Did she make that promise to you, or to the person you were pretending to be?" Yang asked heatedly.

Bedlam scowled. "So I just wasn't good enough for you."

"You know it's so much more than that." Blake said.

"I know you've made your choice. And I've made mine." Bedlam decided, grabbing the handle of his weapon and compacting his posture, his combative stance transforming into a half-bow.

The pair of girls, hearing that, followed suit and readied themselves for a continuation of the combat.

As Bedlam unclipped his weapon belt from his hips and laid his blade down softly on the rocky ground, both Blake and Yang were taken aback. Yang looked away from her living nightmare towards her partner. "Ummm… Blake? What's he doing?"

"Oh, I've got my scroll in the handle of my sword and I don't want it getting wet." Bedlam said, as if that made sense of everything.

"Wet?" Yang asked.

"Adam, what are you doing?"

"I told you. I made my choice. If we hurry, we can probably get it before the current takes it too far away - before it gets out into the sea. I know Blake won't help, because she likes to pretend she's a cat sometimes and probably would shy away from water, so that just leaves me really since your human body probably can't handle ice-water very well."

"What?" Yang asked, still somehow confused despite Bedlam feeling like his words made perfect sense.

"Your bike?" Bedlam said, turning around and pointing down at the river, "it fell in the river. I couldn't really catch it, so it fell down. We should get it back."

"You're concerned about her bike?" Blake exclaimed, her eyes bulging out at the strange decree. "What about the fight?"

"Fight? What about the fight?" Bedlam responded. "It's over, isn't it?

Blake looked at Yang, then back at him. "What are you trying to do, Adam? Is this some sort of trick?"

"No?" Bedlam said, as he took off his coat. His shirt followed suit. "Sorry, did you want to keep fighting?"

"Why are you taking off your clothes?" Blake demanded.

Yang whispered something not even keen faunus ears could make out.

"So that I don't have all of my clothes wet." Bedlam said matter-of-factly as if he thought the answer was self-evident to everyone, then picked up his sword by bundling it in his shirt and coat and began walking down the side of the waterfall towards the river below. After a moment, Yang and Blake followed him - keeping their distance and wariness.

"Yang, I don't trust this. Adam must have set up some sort of trap."

"Sure, sure…" Yang said back slowly, her eyes not leaving their fix on the horned faunus' exposed backside. "But, I mean, I put a lot of work into that bike over the years. If he's going to get it out of the drink for me, I say why not let him?"

Bedlam got down to the riverbank, where he began hopping about on the rocks, peering intently into the rushing waters.

"He seems… genuine?" Blake admitted.

"How should we feel about this?" Yang asked. When Blake didn't answer, Yang just turned all of her attention to watching him hopping to and fro. "He's got pretty good balance - those wet icy rocks look slippery… the water is splashing all over him… he wasn't kidding about getting… wet."

"Yang. What are you doing." Blake asked, looking away from the redhead boy and now at her blonde partner.

"I think I see it!" Bedlam called out. "It's not that far in!"

Yang gave the guy a thumbs-up. "If we use Gambol Shroud's tether, we could probably reel it in!" She shouted over, then whispered to Blake, "I'm just… considering our options."

"Our options?" Blake retorted. "He chopped off your arm, Yang. He stalked us all the way here from Haven!"

"I mean, I was rushing to punch him… it was a sort-of fair fight. I have a new arm. At some point, I just have to accept that and try to move on." Yang said back, but her eyes stayed on the glistening faunus who was, rather than fighting her and her partner, intent on helping retrieve her yellow motorcycle. "Okay, here's the plan. You go use Gambol Shroud to get an anchor, and Adam and I will attach it to Bumblebee. Then we'll haul it out."

"But, then my weapon would be all tied up." Blake noticed, "what if this is just a ruse to disarm me?"

Yang frowned a little.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Blake realized she'd said the bad no-no word right to Yang's face. Blake's face went pink with embarrassment. "I just… I don't trust him! I don't trust this!"

"If you don't trust me, then you can hold Wilt and Blush." Bedlam said, easily overhearing what Blake was saying as he made his way back to the shore. "Besides, it'll be the two of you on shore and me wet. I'd be at a significant disadvantage if I did want to try anything nefarious."

"Why, though? Why stalk me - us - all the way north, only to have a sudden change of heart?" Blake asked, gripping her weapon tightly.

"How about I tell you after we get the bike back." Bedlam said.

"Why are you so concerned about the bike?" Blake asked, her grip unabated.

Bedlam looked confused. He stared at each of them in turn. "Sorry… do you not want the bike back? I mean, hardware like that - something that can fly down off a cliff and survive an impact like that - can't be cheap. Also, while being trampled by it, I had a chance to admire the custom paint-job you put on it. Even with the colour change, I can still recognize a SDC Model M. Did you even remember that the Model M design was spearheaded by the first - and only - faunus to be given a development head position in the company, by the previous CEO Nicholas Schnee? He was notably much more egalitarian than Jacques. Gotta give my respect to the design."

"Wait, you know motorcycles?" Yang asked.

"He knows motorcycles?" Blake asked faintly to herself. It struck her as odd that there was this mechanic-side of Adam she'd never really seen before. Was this what he spent his time on when she'd been reading through her (not erotic) fiction tomes? "Of course he does…"

"Well, yeah. When I became a teenager, they started training me to use some heavy machinery. Before I… left… their employ, they'd started training me on some simple aircraft operations, but I'd also had a run on smaller equipment. The Model M always was a favourite of the crews because Jacques shut down their production. He said it was because it wasn't profitable, but we had debates about whether it was because he had a bad accident on a bicycle as a boy, or because he just didn't like the fact that it had been designed by a faunus."

Blake sighed and shook her head. "Fine. Fine. I don't even care anymore. I'll use Gambol Shroud like a tether, I guess, if it means not having to listen about bikes anymore."

"I can't promise that. I mean, once we get it out of the water, we'll have to make sure it didn't suffer any…." Bedlam started to reply, then stopped talking altogether as Yang took off her jacket.

Yang blushed a little, realizing why he'd stopped talking mid-sentence.

"Okay!" Yang said, now removing her boots. "Let's get in there and pull out… pull out my bike, that is!"

Bedlam nodded quickly, turning his gaze back out into the river, and began wading out towards where he had seen the shimmer of yellow under the frothing current. Yang took the other end of Gambol Shroud from Blake, who was busily tying the ribbon around a sturdy pine tree, and began after him.

"Be careful out there!" Blake cautioned, her worry not decreasing as Adam and Yang slowly navigated through the choppy water. She had a bad feeling about all of this. Her instincts were warning her that the situation was wrong. "Don't slip!"

Her advice was well-warranted: Yang lost her balance and nearly slid sideways. Bedlam's hand snapped out, showcasing his quick reflexes, grasping onto her flailing metal wrist and pulling her back upright.

"Don't… slip…" Blake muttered, relegated to watching. As the two got out towards the middle of the river, a thought occurred. "Hey, Yang, did you call Ruby? Adam totally destroyed my scroll!" She watched Yang holding onto Adam's hand as he bent into the river, certainly to attach the hook of Gambol Shroud, but from Blake's perspective it looked like he was suddenly gone. The tall, spiky mane of red hair and black horns disappeared in front of her partner.

Blake pouted. What the heck was going on? The two of them were out in the river, getting along? Here she was, being the responsible one, remembering their morning mission. A mission Adam had interrupted! Ruined! Like he did everything. Always butting in, like some sort of demented bull. She recalled telling Adam to 'let go of the past' and move on, but this was ridiculous. Her pout turned into a little smirk. Yang would come to her senses when reminded that the guy helping her with her bike was simultaneously responsible for endangering Ruby, her beloved sister!

Blake let out a little chuckle. Yes… Yang loves her sister more than she loves her motorcycle. Certainly lots more than she cares about what Adam is doing! Once Yang had her stupid bike back, Blake would remedy these problems.

"Alright, it should be secure!" Bedlam's voice carried out over the waves. Yang used the taut tether to return to the shore, whilst he stayed to make sure nothing came loose.

"Pulling!" Yang shouted out, and she began tugging on the line. Out in the water, Adam scrambled around, prying the bike out of where it had latched into the rocks, liberating it and helping roll it towards the shore.

Blake came up behind Yang and began helping her pull. After a minute of laboured tugging and mild expletives being muttered underbreath, Bumblebee was safe back on land, Bedlam panting against it after having shaken himself dry like a dog. Yang patted the wheels happily and lay down on the front of the chassis.

"Okay… (huff) (huff) … Adam, why the sudden change of… mind?" Blake asked. "You said you'd tell me after we got the bike out."

Bedlam didn't respond immediately. He just lay atop the bike, back down, his wet abs gleaming as the thin layer of liquid crystalized in the cold, his chest letting out a regular cracking sound as his expanding lungs broke the ice as it formed. "Sure… sure… but my sword… it's fire dust. Been using it to keep warm. Could use a touch of that right now."

"No." Blake refused. He might look winded, but for all she knew this had all been a setup to even the odds in his favour. Yang was exhausted from the effort - maybe less than Adam, but more than Blake was. "Start talking."

Bedlam sighed. "You're not gonna like it."

Blake waited, her irritation at seeing her partner and stalker both sprawled out on the recovered prize, wet and mussed, growing steadily as every moment of denied explanations passed.

"So, it turns out - and this is kind of funny when you think about it - your dad hypnotized me with his semblance a few years back, when he stepped down as High Leader, to convince me to 'take care of Blake'." Bedlam explained. "Not sure why, but it broke today."

"He hypnotized you? That's your explanation? You did this because you were hypnotized? That's the stupidest-" Blake shouted in disbelief. Her father would never do such a thing! Well, maybe for her… "Even if that's true, you call hunting and stabbing me 'taking care of Blake?'"

"I mean, it sort of made sense at the time?" Bedlam shrugged. "Anyways, with that off my mind, fighting you really just doesn't make sense. Sorry to say, but without that, you just don't really matter all that much to me. I mean, seriously, without the command, you're pretty much just some random recruit I trained that happens to have a living father. I guess that last part makes you a bit of a rarity in our society."

Blake's face contorted with fury.

"If I'm being honest? I think I got along better with Ilia. We have all those Atlesian in-jokes; she hated - but needed - to hear what life in the mines was like for her parents. I liked training her in swordplay. I think she was a better student, too."

"Hey, okay, say we believe all this. Why would the hypnotism suddenly stop?" Yang asked.

Bedlam shrugged. "I don't know. I do know that Mistral's government declared war on Menagerie or something a couple days ago. Maybe they killed Ghira? That would stop it. Or even just his aura shattering would do it. He might still be alive. His hypnotism on me probably lasted so long because he had a safe life down in Menagerie all these years while I was throwing my life in front of yours all the time to keep you safe. Take care of you and all."

Yang looked up at Blake. "Blake, just so you know, your father didn't hypnotize me so that I'd be your partner. I really do enjoy your company."

"As far as you know." Bedlam added. "I only knew once it wore off."

Yang looked scared at that. "I met Blake before I met her dad, though. I only met him a few times, and even then only in the past few weeks."

Bedlam took Yang's head in his hands and stared deeply into her eyes. "Were you ever alone with that terrible man? Did he get in your head?"

Yang shuddered. For a moment, Blake thought it was from fear, but then Yang started laughing.

"He did!" Yang proclaimed. "He's controlling me right now! He commanded me… he commanded me…"

"What did he make you do for Blake?"

Yang took her dry jacket and handed it to Blake. "He told me to make sure she wore enough to cover herself! He said that it's colder than Vale in Argus!"

"I told you that in confidence!" Blake hissed at her partner as she considered drowning the both of them as they broke out in wild guffaws at her expense. "My father could be dead!?"

Bedlam shrugged. "Maybe. I have… people who were trying to protect him. Hopefully they succeeded. I don't have a more recent update. I just found out that the war was declared."

"Why'd they declare war?" Blake asked, "and how would you even know? We were in Argus, and nobody there said anything about a war."

Bedlam smirked. "I have my ways. I have my secrets."

"More like you have your lies." Blake retorted. "Yang, get away from him. If he's not going to keep stalking us, he can go off and do whatever he likes. We still have a mission."

Yang stopped laughing.

"Oh shit!" Yang exclaimed. "The tower! Is it still?"

"Yes. He interrupted me before I could shut down the radar."

Yang pulled out her scroll. "Ruby? Ruby?!"

There was no response.

"Sounds like Ruby might be in trouble…" Bedlam said, his voice full of concern that Blake didn't expect to find in him.

Yang gave Bumblebee a solid kick to loose the rime from its chassis, then hopped on. Blake leapt on behind her and wrapped her arms around Yang's middle.

"Does it work?" Blake and Bedlam asked together.

Yang pushed the ignition, and Bumblebee roared back to life. "Listen to that baby purr!" Yang smiled, then looked to Bedlam. "What are you going to do now?"

Bedlam looked around the area. "I'm… not sure. I don't really know what to do right now."

Blake squeezed Yang around her gut. No no no no no.

"Knowing my sister, she's probably in a mess by now. You know the old saying: if you're not against us, you may as well be with us. Want to keep being helpful?"

Blake squeezed tighter, but the blonde's muscular core was too strong for her crushing warning to be noted.

Yang reached around and patted the rear wheel cover-seat of the bike. "Well, hop on. Maybe you can help us out to make up for screwing up Blake's mission."

"Fat chance of that." Blake muttered, fuming as Bedlam hesitantly slid on behind her. She tensed up as his hands slid up along hers, to join her in wrapping around Yang's abdomen with his stupidly long-ass arms.

"Alright - all on? Let's go save my sister!"


"THIS IS YOUR FAULT! DO YOU HEAR ME?"

The booming voice of Cordovin echoed through the woods from the disabled Colossus. In contrast, Bumblebee's engine was running quiet as the trio rolled up to the cliff where the rest of the students, Qrow, and Maria were standing around exhausted before the spasming metal hulk.

"Ruby!" Yang called out to her sister.

"Yang! Blake!" Ruby replied, relief evident on her features until she saw the third passenger. "Adam Taurus?"

The rest of the kids spun about with their weapons.

"What's he doing here?" Weiss demanded, pointing the business-end of her rapier at the faunus her family's company had enslaved as a child.

Yang brought Bumblebee to a skidding halt and leapt off to embrace her sister. "It's okay, he's not fighting us anymore."

"Anymore?" Nora said with concern, "what do you mean, 'anymore'? Was he fighting you before?"

"He cut off Yang's arm!" Jaune recalled, clearly not the smartest tack in the box.

Qrow, Yang's uncle, swiftly moved to position himself - and his massive scythesword - between his beloved niece and the cause of her dismemberment.

"I'm not sure what to make of it, but he's here and he's had a… change of mind about me." Blake explained, inching past Qrow's weapon to follow after Yang to rejoin her teammates. The rest of the party regarded Blake with confusion. Her words didn't make sense, but her tone almost made them wonder if she was feeling dejected. She sounded almost sad.

"Are you two okay?" Lie Ren inquired. "Have you suffered head trauma?"

"No. Apparently Adam had. He was brainwashed by Blake's dad to obsess over her or something, but now it's off. What's going on here?" Yang pointed at the writhing Colossus.

"Did you take down an Atlas mech like that on your own?" Bedlam asked Ruby and her companions, then noticed Maria being led over to the group from a crashed bullhead by the reborn Headmaster Ozpin. "Maria!"

"Mister Bedlam?"

"Bedlam?"

"Maria, you know him?"

"What is going on?"

"How do you know Adam?"

"Adam Taurus? No, his name is Bedlam."

Yang was about to shout out for everyone to shut up, but a resonating roar tore through the air. It sounded like it was coming from Argus. So instead she asked, "was that a giant grimm?"

Weiss answered first. "Yes. And we just ruined the only thing capable of stopping it."

Bedlam doubted that. Typical of the Schnee to think that only something made in Atlas by faunus slave-labour could solve a problem. In the interests of being polite in his new company, however, he minded his manners and held his tongue to silence.

"How's the Manta?" Ruby asked Maria and Oscar. "Can it fly?"

"It's pretty banged up but it should get in the air if we can get it out of the rut in the ground it made when it crashed." Oscar replied, wringing his hands nervously. "I'm not sure how we'll do that."

Yang smashed her fist into her mechanical palm. "Not a problem. I can get it out." She did a quick flex to show off her muscles.

Nora gave a cheer, joining in on the display of strength and brawn.

Ren sighed, muttering that perhaps his question of head trauma should have been asked more generally, as he joined the group in moving over to the downed airship. Qrow kept his weapon trained on Bedlam, while the latter was left to roll Bumblebee after everyone. Nora and Yang were true to their boasts, and managed to push the airship up and around so that it faced the cliff rather than the forest. Once that was done, Yang came and loaded Bumblebee aboard with the team. While Maria was alone at the controls, everyone else was cramped in the back. Qrow's extended weapon, Bedlam, and Bumblebee's bulk made for tight quarters.

"I'm so sorry." Blake said as the ship took off.

"Don't be. This isn't on you." Yang said, comforting Blake for her failure to complete her mission.

"You're right. It's Adam's fault!" Blake accused, glowering at Bedlam. "I know he helped get your bike back from the river and that's fine-"

"The river?" Nora began to ask, but a look from Ren quieted her.

"-but even if he was under hypnosis, the things he did were still him. He had a lot of leeway in how he interpreted Purrsuasion's commands - he chose how to act on it. He never had to kill people. He didn't have to help Cinder."

"He did get the White Fang to help Cinder. Twice." Oscar said. "He attacked Haven and Beacon."

"If he hadn't joined his forces to Cinder's cause, Pyrrha would still…" Jaune started to say but stopped. His hand went to the handle of his own blade.

Bedlam, feeling a bit put on the spot, felt it necessary to explain a bit of his motivations from back then. "Hey, that woman showed up and took out all of my camp guards, told me to join her or perish, and offered us everything we were looking to get. Sorry it took the fall of your kingdom to make humans realize that the faunus were upset about their treatment all these years."

Jaune drew his sword. "Pyrrha never mistreated the faunus! She only wanted to protect people! Her death didn't help your cause!"

Bedlam looked at the gleaming blade pointed in his face for a moment, appreciating its fine craftsmanship, then looked Jaune in the eye. "Is that so? You think she never mistreated the faunus? She certainly protected the humans that did. She certainly promoted products that did. I know who Pyrrha Nikos was. Pumpkin Pete's cereal - for which she was the athlete mascot - is made from pumpkins harvested by faunus serfs in Mistral's southern province. All the good parts of the pumpkin get put into the cereal, and the leftovers were sold to companies like TorchQuik. They'd take the stumps and roots and vines, grind them up, salt them, and sell them to the human overlords to be fed to the faunus workforce as 'barely adequate ruminant feed', or BARF bars."

Blake sighed. "He's telling the truth about that. Even their charitable faunus outreach program was just a cover for a tax-break for the rich and powerful in Mistral." Blake quickly resumed her glare at Bedlam, though. "That's not on Pyrrha, though!"

Jaune put his sword away, looking less sure about things.

"I'm willing to accept that my actions have hurt humans that never did faunus any harm - but I'm not so willing to say I've ever harmed a human that did the faunus any help." Bedlam said.

"Everyone, please - the important thing right now is that we're all here. We're all safe. That's all that matters." Ruby pleaded, moving in between Yang and Blake and wrapping her arms around her teammates to ease the tension a micron.

Maria interrupted the emotional scene. "I suppose I have to be the bad guy and say it: getting the lamp to Atlas is still our top priority. And right now we have the perfect opportunity to head straight for it. We may not get another chance like this."

"No way." Yang stated without hesitation.

"We can't leave - not like this." Weiss said, probably upset at the thought of abandoning a major SDC shipping port to the grimm.

"It's like you said: a huntress is supposed to protect others 'til the bitter end." Blake added, while mentally adding onto Weiss' statement, 'not with him'.

Maria huffed, rolling her mechanical eyes with a show of scorn that didn't match her little smile.

"We need to head for that Leviathan. Jaune, can you and Ren be ready to mask our ship?"

"I think we can manage." Ren replied.

"Got a few ideas?" Jaune asked.

"I've got one." Ruby said confidently.

Bedlam read the room and understood that they all seemed confident that Ruby's one idea would work. He wasn't so confident. "Just one? Don't you have a backup plan?"

"Nobody asked you, terrorist." Qrow retorted. "Ruby's been right all day so far."

Ruby shrugged awkwardly. "I mean, I was right a couple of times."

"We're safe because of it. That's all that matters, right?" Weiss said as she tried to squeeze next to Blake on the bench.

"What about the relic, though? Isn't that more important than saving a few thousand human lives?" Bedlam asked, pointing at the glowing object on Ruby's waist.

"He knows about the lamp?" Weiss stammered, "why does he know about the lamp?"

"You just told me about it." Bedlam feigned, trying to keep a straight face despite his little slip-up. He gestured at Maria and imitated her voice, "oh, we have to run to Atlas, the nicest, happiest place in all of Remnant, to secure our precious treasure."

"Mmmhmmm. I did say that." Maria admitted sagely while pulling a big ol' bag of cashews out of her robes to munch on.

"Yeah, you said lamp. Not relic." Weiss said, showcasing her sharp memory. She stood up, joined by Blake. "I think I might have an idea as to what his real plan here is."

Yang's eyes went red. "He lied about being hypnotized? He was after the lamp the whole time?"

Bedlam gave a hollow little laugh at that. "If I wanted the elegant, stylish lamp, possibly the finest lamp in all of Remant that could house the most beautiful and refined creature to ever exist, then I would have kept it when Ruby dropped it down the well on me. No, I don't really care about the lamp. I only care about faunus equality and hurting those who oppress us. Despite its obvious superiority, I would say I value this motorcycle more than the lamp."

"That checks out I guess." Ruby said. "If he was in the sewer under the farm, it would have been a perfect time to take it."

"Makes sense to me." Jaune agreed.

"Why was he in a sewer?" Nora asked.

"Because he's a faunus, I guess?" Ren answered, shrugging, "just go with it, this entire bit is distracting us from planning how we'll defend Argus."

"But how does he know about the relics?" Weiss whined.

Ren bonked her on the head. "Cinder must have told her cronies about it. The matter is resolved and makes sense. Let's move on."

Weiss rubbed her head sorely, muttering about plot holes and poor writing. "What is this, a shit post?" She hid as Ren threatened her head with another sound bonking.

"So… what is the plan for stopping that Leviathan? This ship's weapons aren't any better than any of the few dozen other Atlesian mantas flying around over it fighting the flying grimm, and you guys - sorry if this is harsh - look like that fight against that mech back there took all you had." Bedlam said. "Honestly, what was even your plan with all of this? Fight the mech, take a manta, attack a radar tower?"

"They wouldn't have had to have fought Cordovin if you hadn't stopped me from disabling her radar - all we wanted to do was steal a manta with current codes to get past the embargo into Atlas." Blake hissed at him. "All of this is YOUR FAULT Adam!"

"So when I attack a communications tower, I'm the bad guy. When I protect a communications tower, I'm the bad guy. I'm starting to think there's just no winning with you, Belladonna." Bedlam replied sarcastically before turning away from the only other faunus in the vehicle to regard Ruby instead. "Anyways, what is the plan?"

"Belladonna?" Blake muttered, still not used to being addressed as such by him.

"Eyes up everybody. It's back." Qrow announced. The group watched as the Leviathan surfaced in the shallows of Argus' harbour. Chatter came through the radio - still on the Argus military frequency, demanding that the harbour shields be brought online. For a moment, it seemed like the city might actually stand a chance of putting its plump military budget to good use.

The monster was stopped by the hard-light shield that circled the port, clumsily knocking its head into the immovable barrier while human ships bombarded it. Why they needed a massive target like the leviathan to stop before shooting it, Bedlam wasn't sure. It's so big, how could you possibly miss?

The bombardments weren't even enough to tickle the creature, though - evidently the colossus was the only local resource meant for dealing with creatures this big. Then the leviathan analysed the city's defenses with its big-brain IQ, and blasted the shield with a terrifying blast of fire. The blast destroyed one of the shield generators, clearing a path for it deeper into the harbour.

"It… tore straight through." Oscar muttered. All of the other humans just gawked in fear at the sight of their vaunted technology failing to withstand the power of the massive monster.

The radio cracked. "All squadrons, fall back to evacuation procedures. Disengage leviathan! I repeat, disengage! Over!"

Bedlam laughed, causing everyone to look at him. "They're ditching all the people of Argus. They're gonna run, lack-of-tails between their legs, crying home to Atlas. What a bunch of cowards. And you accuse me of harming innocents…"

"No! Wait!" Ruby's eyes widened as his words illuminated the meaning of the military's command for her; she rushed forward and grabbed the ship's microphone. "We can stop it!"

"Who is this?" Asked the military base's radio operator. "Identify yourself!"

"I'm a huntress." Ruby said with a surge of sudden confidence. "My team and I are heading to the leviathan and can weaken it for you to attack."

"We can?" Jaune whispered.

Bedlam shook his head slowly. He appreciated what Ruby was trying to do - get the human military to stay, do their job, and maybe give some of the human civilians time to flee out into the woods. The woods weren't so bad. There were plenty of tasty roots and pinecones, like the ones he'd foraged on during his pleasant walk up north. The humans would be fine out in the woods, until they were killed by bandits or grimm. Which they undoubtedly would be. He began to consider what all this meant for him, Bedlam. He wasn't really ready to die trying to protect Argus, but with Purrsuasion broken and his mind free, he was struggling to determine what he should be doing. He stole a look at Blake, who was clinging tightly to her blonde partner.

Yang.

That's what he should be doing.

He should be cool like her, riding around on a motorcycle. He wondered if, in the ruins of Argus, he could find a decent motorcycle in a burnt-out shell of a human store. Yes, stepping over the charred body of a dead store proprietor, he'd find a kick-ass bike and ride it back to Mistral City. There, he'd rejoin Brazen and Dominic and they'd be all like 'wow, Bedlam, sweet bike, way to get back in such style!'

"I can." Ruby said.

Maria seemed to be the one with the most reservations, though everyone seemed to harbour some doubts about Ruby's ability to save the harbour. "Ruby, when I said 'trial by fire'..."

"I did it at Beacon. And at the farm."

"Do you really think you can do it now?" Weiss asked.

"I don't have a choice."

"A choice?" Bedlam asked, completely out of the loop. "A choice to do what? Die for a bunch of strangers?" For some reason, the thought of Ruby getting herself killed for the sake of Argus made him upset. It was almost odd - he felt nothing for the loss of Argus, perhaps even a little bit of happiness, but the loss of Ruby, the girl who snuck downstairs at night to raid the cookie jar, would make him angry.

The radio operator broke back into the conversation. "Manta 5-1, your ship is currently flagged as hostile. You will receive no support, over."

"Well, that settles that." Bedlam said with a relieved sigh. "See, they don't even want your help."

Ruby picked the ship's microphone back up, gripping it tightly in frustration. "Fine! We'll do it alone if I have to!" She pointed at Ren and Jaune. "We can hit it when it stops at the next barrier. Ren, you're up."

Ren and Jaune combined their semblances, answering a nagging question Bedlam had had since the trainride. So, that's what made everything grey and calm. He was a bit used to the feeling, now, so even as his emotions were leveled out by Ren's semblance he managed to better keep his wits about him. He watched in idle concern as their ship dove straight into what was akin to a hornet's nest of angry grimm and human ships, making a beeline for the leviathan.

They arrived too late, and the beast blasted the final barrier between itself and the city with another shot of its fire breath, piercing through another shield generator before hitting into the town. Ren and Jaune's auras broke, tapped of juice thanks to the long fight against the colossus earlier, leaving them vulnerable and visible to the grimm.

They all looked at Ruby, as Yang asked "what do we do?"

Ruby looked at the Schnee. "I need a lift." She looked at the rest of them. "Can you all keep its attention while I get closer?"

"I'm sorry, it feels like I'm the only one who doesn't understand what is going on here." Bedlam said.

"Fine by me." Blake and Qrow retorted. Qrow hadn't lowered his weapon aimed at Bedlam the entire time, and at this point it was starting to become tiresome.

"Weiss will summon a white grimm lancer with her semblance to fly me down in front of it - then I'll zap it with my eyes!" Ruby said, punctuating the absurdity with a confident fist-in-palm pound.

Bedlam stared at her, his mouth slightly open in awe of how stupid that had sounded, then turned to look at the rest of them. They were all nodding, as if anything that Ruby had just said made any sense.

"No, seriously, what's the plan?"

Ruby cocked her head to the side and looked at him quizzically. "That was the plan."

Bedlam, not knowing any silver eyes lore and not realizing it when he had seen it in action, was left to wonder how the group of crazy humans had managed to survive so long. Even Qrow and Maria, older, responsible, perhaps even respectable humans seemed to think that the plan was feasible. It was far too late for any objections he might have to the plan. He was on the manta, they were in the air. Even if he could seize control of the vehicle from the humans - already suspicious of him - he couldn't see himself making it very far through the cloud of enemy human ships and grimm. So he joined Yang and Nora in the manta's side hatchway, firing Blush down at the creature to keep its attention on them while Ruby was ferried down in front of it like an h'orderve by Weiss' shiny white summoned lancer.

"So, what, she just summons grimm?" Bedlam asked Yang, nodding his head backwards at where Weiss was focusing in the middle of the ship to maintain the summon. "Nobody finds that a bit… evil?"

Blake moved over to Weiss and held onto her. "Don't pay attention to him, he's an asshole Weiss."

"Yeah, are we going to talk about that scar on his face, though?" Jaune asked. "I don't want to make you lose focus or anything, but I feel like there is a conversation to be had there."

Ren nodded. "Indeed. What is the SDC doing to faunus?"

Blake hissed at the lot of them. "She needs to focus! Shut up and shoot the leviathan!"

Ren joined Bedlam in the hatch, to shoot at the creature, but Jaune just held up his sword. "What do you want me to do, hurl this at it?"

"Not just the faunus. Weiss has a scar in the same place." Ren noted.

"So the SDC is just scarring everyone's eyes?" Jaune wondered. "Is this… common ground?"

"We're nothing alike!" Weiss and Bedlam retorted immediately, realized they'd both replied in tandem, then refocused their efforts on their roles in the attack.

Yang was the only one who actually kept her focus on Ruby. "Ruby! Ruby, hurry! Something's happening! Get out of there!"

Ruby seemed to throw away her earpiece. Sort of a waste of equipment - didn't it have an off-switch, if that was her intention?

The grimm's attention had snapped away from the tiny ship, with one-third of the Relic of Choice, firing at it, turning back towards the city - towards Ruby's whole Relic of Knowledge and a city full of negative emotions.

"Why didn't she run away?" Yang asked.

"She's not in control of the lancer, is she?" Bedlam said. He pointed at Weiss. "The Schnee is."

"Weiss! Move her out of the way!"

Weiss didn't respond, her brow furrowed in concentration.

The leviathan reared back, preparing to snap at Ruby.

"Fuck it." Bedlam said, diving off the manta. He wasn't sure if he'd make the jump - for all he knew, Weiss could come through and move the summon to safety. He was betting on the Schnee being willing to sacrifice her teammate for a few more seconds of her own safety, though. And if I miss, I can just swim back to shore and look for a motorcycle in the ruins or something I guess.

He heard Ruby shout out. "Gin!" Time stopped for everyone except for Ruby and the best character in the entire show, Jinn, the beautiful guardian of knowledge.

But nobody knew that except for Jinn and Ruby. The part about time stopping, that is. Everyone knew that Jinn was the best character. Why wouldn't they? Find someone who thinks otherwise. Tyrian? Oh, yeah, he's a great example. That guy's a lunatic. Okay, so the only people who would disagree that Jinn is better than Salem are insane.

What? Oh, right… the story…

Well, Bedlam thought, Ruby is related to Qrow. Maybe whatever plan she had brewed up required alcohol to function? All he knew is that he landed on the summon in front of Ruby, then everything went white. Bedlam's chest felt like it vaporized as Ruby's silver eyes tore through him. Meanwhile, the leviathan's head shot forward to chomp them. Bedlam brought out Wilt to parry the snap, which led to him and Ruby being tossed backwards by the force.

"What are you doing?" Ruby exclaimed, "I had it! You blocked my shot!"

"What am I doing?" Bedlam wondered, "what am I doing? What are you doing? You nearly got yourself killed!"

"It would have worked!"

"What would have worked?"

"My eyes! I had it! I had time and everything!"

"So is this like a semblance?" Bedlam was thoroughly confused, but then he heard the rest of Ruby's team screaming a warning at them. "I thought you were a speedster."

The leviathan was charging up to fire its blast again, and it had them in its sights.

Ruby began pummeling Bedlam on the back with her tiny little fists, doing an unsurprisingly small amount of damage. "You chopped off Yang's arm, now this?" She kept hitting him, but he ignored it.

It was a good thing he hadn't wasted all his aura fighting Yang and Blake like an idiot earlier, and that Ruby still had a long way to go before she would be considered competent with her melee attacks. What he was about to try would test the limits of his semblance.

"I can't use them again so soon…" Ruby gasped, also watching the incoming attack but having no way to stop it. "But how did it work if it didn't work? I can only use it on grimm…"

Bedlam didn't really know what the plan had been or how he'd somehow ruined it, but he did know that he was able to pull Wilt out to block the massive energy blast before it incinerated him, Ruby, and the grotesque glowing-white mockery of a lancer grimm that they sat atop. Even with his semblance absorbing the attack, the air around them was superheated and left them both seared. Bedlam didn't care about that, though, he was used to pain of every sort; Ruby was left cringing, no longer able to continue to mount her fist offensive against his back.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" She cried while continuing to jab his rear ribs.

The energy he'd absorbed into Wilt roiled through him, and he did not hesitate to lash out with it at the monster. The red wave of destruction easily sliced through the creature's carapace and cut deeply into its legs. Bedlam had been aiming for its neck, but the burnt summoned-lancer no longer had functional wings. Gossamer wings did not take heat well, even when they weren't real.

Despite Bedlam's mild frustration with what he viewed as a missed shot, the loss of its knees still sent the leviathan crashing down as it raised its arms out to catch itself.

"Well, at least it won't make it into the city." Bedlam mused.

The creature's snout glowed beneath the water, and a blast of energy laced out and blasted another city block.

"It can still attack the city, though!" Ruby screamed, "it's still a threat! How do we finish it off?"

Bedlam shrugged. "I'm tapped out. Redirecting that one blast was all my aura could manage…" He looked at the thing as it writhed around in the reef, wiggling miniscule increments towards the city on its little arms and muscular tail motions.

Fortunately, their dilemma was solved by the timely arrival of Cordovin in the one-armed colossus. She exclaimed something ridiculous about protecting the people of Argus, as if she hadn't had a whole manic episode of screaming at children and being a glorified border guard. Hardly a redemption for her, but with Atlas so far away and her in charge, who would really question whatever she said at this point? In any case, Cordovin managed to hit the leviathan with the giant mech's remaining drill-arm weapon, showing off how good she was at finishing off a nearly immobile, undefended target. See: Human Skills. Another great victory for a bloated, runaway military budget at work.

The leviathan turned to black smoke, and the remaining grimm seemed to lose their heart for continuing the attack - as if the loss of their commander robbed them of their motivation to kill humans. The fleet of mantas chased them off back into the forests of the hinterlands.

Cordovin and Ruby had a quick exchange of words, the summary of which being Cordovin was willing to let Ruby and her team take the horribly damaged Manta to Atlas - where it could be repaired - so that Cordovin would be spared having to send it up there herself using her own resources. Ruby seemed grateful and apologetic about how the morning had turned out. Maria brought Manta 5-1 down to pick Ruby and Adam up, which led to the next issue.

What now?

"The engine is pretty banged up. The fuel battery lost a bit of capacity." Maria translated from the controls she'd hooked her head into. "We'd almost have enough range to make it to Atlas, but we're a bit overweight."

Bedlam nodded while turning to face the screen, breaking the fourth wall while suddenly speaking in a completely different voice. "I have to go now. My people need me."

"Mister Bedlam isn't that heavy… there's something else on board we could probably dump off if we're going to make it to Atlas." Maria said, her blue lenses fixing themselves on Yang's motorcycle that took up half the cabin.

But her lenses didn't really have pupils, so some misinterpreted her gaze.

"Hey!" Nora shouted. "I'm not that heavy! And even if I am, it's all muscle!" She presented her swole arms and flexed, in case anyone had somehow missed her demonstration of strength while spinning the entire aircraft around on the ground earlier.

"More like it's all pancakes and syrup…" Ren grumbled, as if there is a difference between a belly full of delicious, syrupy pancakes and athleticism.

And so it was that team RWBY and their friends dumped Bedlam down on the streets of Argus with Yang's prized motorcycle, which she had him promise to take good care of (which he promised to do), before they flew away with the lustrous, perfectly proportioned Relic of Knowledge and its wise, all-knowing, beautiful warden. Bedlam only stayed in Argus for a couple of hours so they could make a statue of him in the middle of the city to commemorate how he'd been totally heroic and pretty much defeated the leviathan single-handedly, before riding off on the road back to Mistral City.

And that is how Bedlam got with Bumblebee and was really cool. Jinn narrated to nobody, moving the little clump of blue-stuff that comprised her prison that she'd been playing with, pretending it was Bedlam having alternative adventures with team RWBY and company. And then, for some reason, they would give you the Relic of Knowledge - because why not - and you could drive around on Bumblebee with me having great adventures! Jinn sculpted a mass of blue-stuff into the shape of a bulb, which loosely approximated the general shape of the lamp she was stuck in.

It wasn't like there was much else to do but behave like a lunatic in the confines of the Between Realms for a being that knew everything and could affect nothing.

Oh, Adam, I wish you could carry me around instead of Ruby. I know, I know. She is cute and clever, but you are in a league of your own. Literally. There are three of you. That is enough for a league, right?

Jinn laughed, crazy and alone in a sea of blue mist, patiently waiting for the next time someone would summon her - hoping it would be one of the Adams. Any chance to continue her argument with that green tramp would be appreciated.