Vic sighed deeply, sitting himself down next to his backpack and rubbing his face. "Fuck..." He mumbled, then stood to his feet and tossed his bag aside, sliding his GoPro into his chest rig and walking out of his room. Outside, he met Sam, whom he saluted. She paused, saluted back and was about to ask what had him looking like he woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. He answered before being asked, "My GoPro's memory card's gone..."
"Oh..." Sam blinked. She told him, "I'll help you look for it. It might've fallen out at some point..." to which Vic's shoulders sagged. He shook his head and showed her to just leave it be. She frowned, watching him walk forward, then breathed. That SD Card contained the memories of the Misfits' one-year journey together, not just the whole clusterfuck of Russia. She recalled watching him film them when they were going about their business in KFOR. Every wacky moment, every time a Sergeant and her had to chew'em out, every little camping trip.
All gone if they didn't find the damn thing. She sighed and turned on her radio, stating, "Paul, Paula, Vicky, you folks mind helping with something nearby the rooms?" only for all three of them to file into the hallway moments later, various degrees of confusion etched on their faces. She understood, quickly telling them, "Vic's GoPro SD Card is missing. Gonna need help from everyone to search for it."
"Dushman's out in Vale, Hass and Aleksandr are off somewhere, Alexi is free and Robert's currently running interference between some Students that got in a fight," Paul reported, shifting his rifle onto his back, "Jim is also with Hass and Aleks," and, obviously, Saila was right next to them. The little Finnish woman with an RK-95 sat there, smiling and waiting to see what the order of battle was when searching for this item.
Sam smiled a little, then told them, "Alright... House search. Top down. We do a little Pre-Christmas cleaning, too, since it's nearing Winter on Remnant, apparently, and someone's gotta celebrate that 'Capitalist Bourgeoise Holiday'," before grinning. The others let out short laughs, but Vicky was distraught, looking at her brother as he went about making himself coffee. He seemed relatively calm, though, and even looked at the team and offered a small smile and wave.
Vicky said, "Well, he's fine enough, but let's get to it, aye?"
"Aye," The team replied, then started the search-and-rescue procedures to find the small drive, scouring the house bit by bit while Vic went out on his daily patrol. He was alone this time, though, meaning he had a little more time to be with his thoughts. Ever since the team had returned home with their extra comrades, the young man had found a bit more solace in knowing all of his friends were genuinely coming here. It felt like he'd thought about that every single waking month, week, day and hour they'd been in this place.
Oh, his friends were all coming back from the dead. Oh, they all died. Oh, he died, too. How in God's name did he even wind up on Remnant? Wasn't there some sort of Afterlife waiting for them? Despite nobody else saying it, it was in the backs of their minds, too. And it felt odd. The Romanian scratched the side of his neck, feeling the phantom burns on his lungs, on his very skin, feeling his muscles, heart and even brain momentarily lock up.
He nearly started hyperventilating, trying to breathe again, but he forced himself to be steady on his feet. Breaking down in front of a bunch of kids was not gonna be conducive to his work or workplace. So, he simply 'walked off' the panic attack, bottling up the emotions that had risen up with the acrid taste of bile from the very core of his being, physical and mental.
He saw his Aura flicker for a moment and breathed, chuckling a little and mumbling, "Wonder what would've happened to us if we had you around..." then he sighed, shifted the weight of his MG onto his side and continued walking through the place. He caught up with Robert, watching the young man put away the extending baton he'd bought back in Kosovo, then asked, "Bad day?" with a smirk.
"You have no fucking idea," Sighed Robert, stowing it. He asked, "You with me on patrol?"
"I was supposed to go alone, but I guess I didn't look at the schedule right," He shrugged, then added, "Let's move," and he took up position behind the Military Policeman. They strode through Beacon's courtyard, the Gunner examining the students they passed by, then asking, "Lemme guess. Winchester and his goons got into a fight, right?" Because that just seemed standard at this point.
"Surprisingly enough? No," Robert shot back as they walked, seemingly starting to calm down. He looked at Vic with his usual face filled with impassivity, then said, "Two Second-Years. Same team. Apparently, it's pretty bog-standard for those two to fight..." though he obviously sounded the Robert brand of annoyed. Vic understood that feeling, seeing as breaking up fights was kind of his and his team's job, too. Rob breathed in, then out, settling down, then asked, "Anyways, what is going on back home?"
"Lost my GoPro's memory card. Sammy just rallied everyone to search for it for some reason and we have patrol duty," He replied, to which Rob snorted.
"You always misplace your shit," He joked, shifting his M4 forward onto his chest. He saw the guy wasn't exactly in a mood for jokes like that, going by the slight frown, then told him, "At least, if it's the team searching, they'll find it in no time. It feels like whenever this group of retards puts its two shared braincells together, we somehow manage to find whatever we're looking for."
Vic snorted, "Remember that time you lost your razor and we all sort of went batshit looking for it?"
"Or that time the Lieutenant misplaced her glasses and one of us nearly stepped on them," Robert nodded, a small grin on his face, "I'll be honest, Vic, for all it's worth? It's good to see all of you fuckers again... Makes my life a lot more interesting, that's for sure."
"Hopefully it'll be the kids giving you headaches this time instead of us," The MG Gunner joked as they walked. Robert snorted, already clearly annoyed by the kids. He hummed, checked his backpack, then called out, "Catch!" as he threw a red can of soda to the man. Robert turned about and caught it mid-flight, his reflexes still unsurprisingly good. He looked at the can, eyes a little wide, then looked at Vic. The Romanian spoke, "Was planning on giving you your fave brand of Coke when we met again, but..."
"... Holy shit," He looked at the drink, noting the can was a little scuffed, but unopened. He checked the expiration date and saw it was unsurprisingly still good, then asked semi-humorously, "Hope none of the gas entered this thing. God only knows if Coca Cola didn't loosen some of their safety features like the airtight sealing some times. Hit one soda that was completely fuckin' flat despite the can being closed."
Vic shrugged and nodded, "Wait 'till we get back home so you can pour it in a glass, dawg. We'll see if there's a little green in the standard Coke 'burnt caramel' black of the liquid," and he smirked. Robert rolled his eyes and slid the drink into his own backpack, then took a sip through the straw of the camelback water pouch. He looked around while the Romanian started awkwardly, "So... Krakow..."
"... Yeah..." The MP sighed, "Hope nobody told Paul yet..."
"No. I learned it from Diana. Told her not to tell him," He stated, "Bro's pissed off enough as it is at the Russians. No need to add fuel to the fire..."
Rob nodded back at that, then continued, "At least, it was fast. Flash-fried by a nuke ain't an awful way to go..." before mumbling, "Damn fucking shame the blast imprinted the last few moments of that town square on my eyelids, so, now, every fucking time I close my eyes, I have to deal with seeing people who were vaporized at the same time as me..." as a shiver ran up his spine.
Vic walked up to the man and gave him a pat on the shoulder, which the rifleman took with calm. The Romanian then commented, "Hopefully, there's better times ahead for us... We're starting up work to gather the Vale Military again, y'know, train'em up and everything. That village you guys were found in apparently agreed to also be part of the training process and volunteered to be one of the first battalions."
The American MP let out a snort, then said, "God, what an uncoordinated fuckup of a military that's gonna be. Better than nothing, though, considering the fact these people were stupid enough to disband it in the first place," only to laugh a little with Vic at that. The two paused, however, when both of them saw team RWBY approaching, looking particularly scared. Or, well, apologetic, really.
A combination of the two, maybe, Vic figured as he saw them approach. He showed Rob to wait, then took a step forward and said, "Hey, girls, what's-" only to blink as Ruby suddenly lifted the SD Card he'd been looking for and began a series of apologies that went by so fast, Vic has barely had time to process everything. Though he swallowed, realizing what this meant.
"... You saw it all?" He asked, his voice a little lower. Not angry to the degree the girls expected, though, going by the surprise they looked at him with. Yang wordlessly nodded and Vic let out a deep, looooong, annoyed sigh. He took the Card from Ruby's hand, turned about and walked away, much to Robert's surprise. Ruby gasped, took a step forward and wanted to apologize, but Robert put a hand in front of her, surprising her.
"Dude, we wanna-" Yang started, but Robert's glare cut her off.
He told them, "You stole one of my friends' belongings. Something very important to him, the memories he made with the lot of us," and he saw them suddenly turn a little pale, afraid, sad, surprised, basically a mix of the events. He told them, "You're lucky I'm only enough to give you a warning, you four," before he stepped in front of them, stopping them from watching Vic walk away. He asked them, "What parts did you see?" and shifted his rifle over onto his back, barrel pointed at the floor.
"... Mostly his and his team's outing to Russia," Weiss admitted, "That is all. We didn't even know there was more..."
Robert winced, "... You could have just asked us all about how bad that shithole was. Hell, ask him directly."
"He didn't wanna tell us," Yang spoke, frustration audible in her voice as she pointed roughly in the direction the Romanian had taken off toward. She told Rob, "He's kept a lot to himself even with us trying to..." then she sighed and rubbed her eyes, "I dunno, man, we just wanna help somehow, but we can't unless we understand what the heck's going on."
He crossed his arms to his chest and berated, "He didn't want you to know because you kids don't need to fucking see what war does to people. You all have enough shit you're probably worried about outside of trying to help a bunch of short-fused morons," only to cast a glance back at the Romanian. He asked them, "... I'm guessing he filmed the... Mass grave?" a little worried.
Weiss nodded, turning a little more pale, "... So many bodies..."
"He wanted the world to see what happened. Said so himself," Ruby rubbed her arm, a little sad.
Blake hugged herself, then mumbled, "And... The girl under the tarp..." and Yang frowned, too.
Robert sighed deeply, then mumbled, "Of course you fucking did," while looking at Vic again as his heart sank a little. He told them, "Get back to your dorm. Written citation's coming in the moment I talk to the Headmaster," only to see surprise on their faces. He asked, a little shocked at the audacity, "Oh, what, just because you did it out of the kindness of your hearts, you think stealing's okay? Especially stealing the belongings of one of the Security Staff? Get your asses outta my sight before that citation gets upgraded to an actual written warning...!"
Yang, eyes momentarily shifting to a burning red, wanted to protest, but under the whittling gaze of the MP and with her own friends' hands on her shoulder, she sighed, calmed down and nodded. Team RWBY then walked away, with Robert waiting for them to get out of earshot before radioing, "Sam, Vic's found the SD Card... Team RWBY stole it to 'better understand' what he went through. Kids are idealistic as shit, I'll tell you what."
Sam's sigh rang in his ears, "Copy your last, Rob. Damn kids," before she turned and yelled at everyone else about what'd happened. She told him, "Is he coming home now?"
"Yeah. Just left the moment he got the Card," He answered, then said, "Send me another partner and let the poor bastard rest. I think he has enough swimming in that head for the moment," before turning to continue his patrol. He got an affirmative reply from Sam in the form of a hum, before Sam audibly switched channels to contact someone else along the road.
... Back at the Misfits household, Vic walked back in, lifting the SD Card to show it to the group while maintaining an impassive face. He walked back into his room before anyone could stop him and shut the door behind him, much to Sam and Paul's surprise and chagrin. The two looked at one-another, then Paul sighed and said, "I'll talk to him..."
The Hungarian approached the door while the girls watched, then knocked, asking, "Mind if I come in, Vic?" only to get a negative hum. He sighed, pushed the door open and then closed it behind him, noting that the Romanian was sat by the side of his bed, looking at the SD Card and seemingly processing stuff. The Hungarian quipped, "Not gonna yell at me?"
"Dumb kids..." Vic replied, his voice low, a little softer, as he turned the card, "... They saw the vids from Russia."
"... Fuck," Paul mumbled as he sat himself down next to him, "So, you upset with them, or...?"
"I'm angry, yeah," Vic replied with a slight scoff and a wrinkled smile, "Angry that they had the balls to steal directly from our home, steal from me," but his expression softened, "But I'm angrier I left this stuff out in the open, pretty much... And those four poor girls saw the kind of hell man can bring upon the Earth with nothing worse to deal with..."
"They can thank the Grimm for that much. There'd have been a lot more shit going on on Remnant without them," Paul mumbled, then sighed, "And it's not your fault..."
"I should've told them ahead of time about it," Vic replied, slightly berating himself in his own mind, "Been open from the start... Shit, Paul, I nearly started screaming at them on the spot. Had to walk away with the Card before I got a chance to snap," and he looked at his friend. He gripped the card tightly in a balled fist now, telling him, "They're kids. Road to hell and good intentions, basically..."
"Yeah," Paul shrugged, "No need to tell me, man. I'm well aware..." then he shrugged, "Doesn't mean you can't be mad they stole from you. Though, considering you were with Rob, I'm pretty sure the guy's already written them up," then the two started laughing. Paul quipped, "Man's never gonna miss the chance to bust someone's balls for something they've done wrong."
"He kept us out of enough trouble back in Kosovo for me not to care about how abrasive he is," Vic joked, "Plus, he's there when we need him."
"Feel like that sums up this entire outfit," Paul nodded. He clapped a hand on Vic's shoulder and shook him a little, stating, "Don't be too rough on the girls if they come by to apologize again. I'm gonna go deal with helping Paula cook dinner. Get some rest," to which Vic let out a light snort and nodded. Both men stood up and went about their business without another word...
Vic himself decided to sleep immediately after dinner, too. As night fell fully over Beacon, the young man had crawled into his bed, feeling a little off, mostly due to the main event of today. He sighed and closed his eyes, letting himself drift off to a restless sleep. IT was a silent sleep, weirdly patched together for him for a few moments of the night...
Then flashes came. He felt like he was choking in one moment and drowning in the next, felt the stinging pain of the gas, of bullets ripping through what little was left of his body, what the gas hadn't ripped apart. It hurt a lot, but... It wasn't the worst part of the dream. What came next was an indescribable series of moment-to-moment changes that terrified him all the more. From the Chechen SOBR unit that wiped his team out morphing into terrifying monsters, to worse matters...
"Vic... Help me..."
He jumped awake, breathing heavily as the image of Vesna remained burned into his retinas for a few seconds, tears welling in the corners of his eyes as he recalled her, dead, and then the strange nightmare version. Moments later, all seemed to fade away, replaced by momentary emptiness. He breathed a sigh, rubbing his eyes, then stood up from his bed, feeling the cold hardwood floor below his feet.
Walking into the kitchen, the young man pulled out his mug and poured himself some water before sitting down at the island. He breathed slowly to calm himself down, rubbing his face and eyes, before sipping from the water and leaning on the counter. Christ, that was awful, he thought to himself. Whatever had happened to her, he hoped it had been quick.
No, no need to... He scoffed. Today really just hadn't been his day.
"Vic...?" He heard a wary female voice ask. Straightening up, he looked over into the darkness to see a familiar, petite silhouette. She walked out of the darkness, showing herself as she put her glasses on. In a tank top and baggy pajama pants, Samantha Lee stood before Vic with messy hair and bags under her eyes. She asked partially jokingly, "Couldn't sleep either, huh...?"
"No," He replied, sighing, "Nightmare, too?"
"Yep," Sam replied. She walked to a drawer and retrieved some snacks, then sat down in front of Vic, telling him, "I don't think I wanna know what kinda nightmares you have, honestly..." before turning on the lamp above the Island so they could see each-other. For a moment, Victor saw the face of the young woman that had 'led' them during their outing at KFOR.
She smiled at him in the same way, too. The only additions were the wolf ears on top of her head, which twitched, and the wagging tail. It made him chuckle a little, with the girl tilting her head, confused. He told her, "I'm still not used to seeing you with the animal traits, Sam, that's all..." but, hey... It lifted his mood a little, so that was nice. She seemed to blush, a bit awkward as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"I'm not used to them myself. I sleep on my back," She mumbled, then grabbed her tail and glared at it, before looking at Vic again and noticing the smile. She blushed a little harder, then said to him, "Staring doesn't help either, Vic..." as her ears drooped. He chuckled awkwardly, then nodded, waving it off and looking away for a moment. Sam shook her head, trying to clear the embarrassment and suppress the blush, "It's annoying."
"I bet," He chuckled, "Wonder how Alex took the fact he has cat ears."
"He mopes any time I bring it up," Sam joked, scratching her cheek. She ate another chip, then leaned back, before mumbling, "Whatever's bringing us back sure has a sense of humor. Next thing you're gonna tell me is one of us is a foxgirl or foxguy," only for Vic to pause. She looked at him, realized what she said, then mumbled, "I just jinxed us, didn't I?"
He told her, "Hey, for all it's worth, maybe it'll be Lita. You know how much Jim loves Foxgirls," only to get a laugh out of Sam. He smiled a little, too, then said, "Thanks, by the way... Was feeling a bit down after today, so I guess I needed a mood boost," which caused the Lieutenant to double over for a sec, a bit surprised by how earnest he was being. Vic remained oblivious to her real feelings, even as she composed herself. Damned if he wasn't a bit too nice for his own good some times, Sam thought.
"And what better boost than shooting the shit, right?" She smiled back. The man nodded in approval, to which she said, "Look, Vic. It's gonna be fine. I know one of your key worries is Vesna right now, which is understandable enough," though she tried to avoid showing the pain of her own unrequited love, "But let's just let time go by, alright? They'll show up eventually, if we dropped in."
"I know," He replied, obviously unsure, "You guys keep saying it. I'm waiting, but she still hasn't shown up..."
"Yeah, waiting's a pain," Sam affirmed, then shrugged, "But we all know the same truth. It's gonna be fine, just give it time..." before she stretched and yawned, then stood up. Patting Vic on the shoulder, she told him, "We're all here for one reason or t he other, so let's let said reason show itself. Get back to bed. We got a long day of patrols and planning for that op and we need to all be rested for that."
"Yes, ma'am," Vic replied with a snort, watching the girl walk away. He finished his water, turned off the light, then stood to his feet and walked back to his room, while poor Sam had gone back to hers and curled up next to the closed door. There was one thing most Misfits had in common:Being incredibly dense when it came to other people's advances. It'd taken the gang basically spelling it out for both Vic and Ves to get they liked each-other before they left Kosovo for their respective homelands. Sam herself had partially given up trying to get to Vic, too, considering her crush on him was obviously not reciprocated...
She was the team Lieutenant, though, so it probably wouldn't have worked out anyhow...