AN:
Little peak behind the curtain, this is the second version of this chapter, and it goes without saying: It's far... Far... Far more tame than what I'd initially thought of doing. Ended up not using it because we've already had a few paradigm shifts and plot twists in the last few, and this kind of ballsy move on Aldric's end is the kind that would make his job infinitely easier and more difficult.
I won't spoil the initial idea, because I'm about %99 sure I'll end up using it anyways, just a bit later.

I will say that I've been hinting at it, though.

Chapter 33

For the Record

I wonder what it is about Los Angeles specifically that makes it easier for Salem and her subservient Masters (isn't that an oxymoron?) to open wormholes there, than on other places on Earth.

I think I know the answer, actually, and it will be proven as fact if we learn that the place the nuke dropped was on top of an untapped Dust mine, and the place the jets came through was on something similar.

The long and short of it is: I think there's Roman Dust under LA, and the Legion, on some level, knows this, and is using it and the Masters' connection to it as a means of far more easily opening wormholes; and as much as this may seem good at first glance, this could be very bad for... Everyone, really.

Because Salem (SOMEHOW) got her claws on a military airship (I'm thinking it was a Master who figured out how to do it) and sent it through to Earth as part of her gambit to pit Earth and Remnant against eachother, that means Earth now has Remnant Dust to examine and experiment on. They do that, I guarantee that they'll be able to create a way to detect Dust, and then what do you know: There's a shit ton of it underneath Los Angeles.

So, absolute perfect-world best case scenario:
The terrans won't find that Dust, or won't try to mine it for fear of what nuclear radiation would do to it; and are at 'war' with Remnant as a means of making Salem think we're playing to her tune, when in reality we've got space shuttles and satellites filling up Remnant's orbit as they try to locate her and find a way to stabilize the path between Remnant and Earth.
That means in addition to my Watchmen and all of those connections, I've got a planet of pissed off terrans ready to help out... And that could also arguably only be good because, if and when we win, the terrans could then also help take Remnant back for the humans/faunus, but that's way out there.

And that's best case.

Worst case scenario:
I'm absolutely wrong, they want Remnant blood, they'll find the Roman Dust, it will give everyone on Earth magical superpowers, they'll open a stable Einstein-Rosen Bridge to Remnant, nuke the shit out of the whole goddamn planet, find Salem, nuke the shit out of her, and then within a decade all of the superpowered terrans will do as people do, fight eachother, and it'll be World War Superman, and everyone will die.

And we haven't even addressed the fact that it's a done and done fact that, even if one or two of them may have died because of the bomb, Salem still has one or two more Masters, not including me. She could very well be escalating her plans wildly out of proportion and getting ready to destroy three of the four academies in one major stroke. The only way that doesn't happen is if she doesn't know where the other Maidens are... But even then, that might not stop her, because she doesn't need the Maidens to conquer and destroy the cities, only to access and retrieve the Deity Brothers' relics.

And that is the basic problem with my plan, from the very beginning, even. It relies on two things I simply could not control: My being the only terran on Remnant, and my having the time to execute it.

I thought I was the only terran on Remnant, but it is clear to me now that Salem scouted the Emerald Forest for any survivors that may have been separated from the plane, and sent her allies after them. I got the luck of the draw by being the only one who made it back to the plane and stayed there, and as such Cinder picked me up. So either Cinder has been lying to me the whole time (likely), or Salem compartmentalized the entire thing, and even Cinder doesn't know that there are more Masters running around (more likely.)

And because I thought I was the only terran on Remnant, I thought I'd have the year I'd need to build up Cinder's loyalty, and be brought to Salem's domain after Beacon fell. That way I could be able to locate it again, in reference to where on Remnant it was, and then bring the cavalry in and end Salem and the war. All I needed was the eighteen-odd months to do it, but that was operating under the assumption that the only entity on Remnant capable of butterfly effect-ing the planet was me, and that is clearly not the case anymore. It's only been six months, and my plan is already fucked six ways from Sunday. I'd be lucky if I recognize the next month, let alone the next year, or survive the both of them.

I can't even rely on my hope-and-a-prayer that Salem won't try to Coup De Grace the whole world because she doesn't have a single Maiden on her side - because she doesn't need the Maidens to take over and lock down the fucking Academies! So, god forbid she does that, that means in the eyes of Adam Taurus and Roman Torchwick, I'll have lost control of the situation, and they'll sell me out in a heartbeat, and if I haven't located Salem by then, my entire plan - all those people I'll have killed - will have been for nothing.

To wit: There's literally only one thing I can do in this situation. My own nuclear option.
Or... Should I call it the Batman option?
I need contingencies. I need plans.

I need to be prepared, for anything, and everything.

And I don't mean that in a metaphorical 'be ready for X, Y, and Z' way, I mean I actually need to prepare things ahead of time.
Like, Batman having a batcave at Arkham Asylum for when (not if) it got taken over, prepare.
Or Injustice Batman uploading a virus onto Cyborg the very week they met 'just in case', prepare.
Or the CDC having a Zombie Plan, prepare.
Or the god damn US Copyright Office being fully prepared for works submitted by plants, animals and deities - SERIOUSLY! (They won't accept it, by the way. Sorry God!)

Jesus. It's getting harder and harder to look forward to these 'off days', attending classes at Beacon, especially as my nights are getting increasingly long and increasingly dominated by staying up and training or arming myself.

After his impromptu journey to Atlas, Aldric fell further into his routine. During the week, and on saturdays, it was training, networking with his team and others, and on Sundays, he worked with Ozpin, specifically on accessing and using his powers. Ozpin now steadfastly refused to do this training anywhere but the vault, explaining to Aldric that apparently it was 'easier' for him to ensure no unintended side effects if they were in there. Aldric didn't argue, but he did idly wonder if Ozpin wasn't playing his own game, trying to keep Aldric surrounded by both the artifacts from his home, and the physical manifestation of his actions here on Remnant, perhaps as a way to keep him grounded.

Regardless of the why, the how got to him fast. Unlike what he could access at rest, what he called his 'semblance', cracking further into his powers required something else entirely. Using these abilities was akin to an endurance test, it was like clenching each and every single muscle in his body, all at once, and keeping them clenched as tight as he could, for as long as he could. The pain was reminiscent of what Aldric felt every day for that first month he was on Remnant - like something one would feel after a long, harsh, and strenuous workout; a pleasant kind of pain, that let him know he was working, but damn did it hurt to keep it going at the time: Aldric could only stay 'Super Saiyan' for a handful of seconds at a time, but only at rest - in combat conditions, he could barely hold it together for a second.

One would think that was amazing progress, and Ozpin reflected that sentiment, but Aldric remembered how strong he had been - and for how long he'd used the power - after killing Rayne. He'd blasted his way through that village for twenty minutes. Compared to then, the few seconds he could manage on his own felt like backwards progress; though, while he did say that, fuck did those few seconds feel like a rush. If accessing his aura and using his semblance was like letting a pleasant warmth wash over his body and into his cells, then cracking into his magic was like pumping himself full of adrenaline, it felt like he was on top of the world and that there wasn't anything beyond his ability. The things he could do with those few seconds. Just like he'd theorized when he'd only known about his telekinesis, like Ozpin had affirmed that night in his office, and Aldric had confirmed when he'd made his lightsaber, if he could visualize it, he could make it, and if he understood what it was he was making, the results were better, and using his Power Glove as a focus only made the process easier, and allowed him to create complex and larger objects that he wouldn't be able to in those few seconds of power. Without the glove, he'd been able to pull a smartphone out of his mind, and with it, he'd made a quadcopter with a fucking missile loaded onto it, like he was in some bad Call of Duty game.

Ozpin made him get rid of that last one, though Aldric couldn't quite put his finger on the 'why'.

And as time went on, Aldric and Ozpin both kept their fingers on the pulse in regards to the attack on Atlas and if there were any more terran incursions. With what information they had gotten from Aldric's conversation with Evans as a springboard to pry small bits of information from the other pilots, but beyond that, there wasn't anything, and Aldric didn't feel even remotely confident enough in his abilities to pull a space suit out of his ass and go check Remnant's orbit for shuttles and satellites.

Aldric knew the phrase 'no news was good news', but he felt like this situation was the exact fucking opposite, because he didn't know what Salem was planning, what the situation on Earth was looking like, or anything beyond what Cinder gave him when he sent her his updates, and those all revolved around Beacon and the attack plan. It made him wonder again whether or not Cinder and the rest of the Legion were all compartmentalized, but as often, Aldric found there was nothing he could do about it, right or wrong.

Nothing but prepare, and that was where his nights came in.

Every single night he returned to his Rock and experimented. He worked on furthering his telekinesis, on trying to build up his 'magical endurance', and most often, improving the weapons he had and working on getting new ones. By the time his first month at Beacon had passed him by, the Rock bore more than its fair share of scars from his nightlies, be it from weapon strikes, telekinetic experiments, or just him punching it a few times on the days he was particularly tired and had to stay awake.

What he didn't notice, however, was that his nightly routine was being observed, but not quite by who he would expect it to be. It wasn't Ozpin keeping an eye on him, or Cinder being as omnipotent as he liked it to be, nor was it Neo reporting to Torchwick or any of the White Fang reporting to Taurus, but rather a familiar cat faunus, reporting to three specific people who could arguably do as much damage as the others, simply due to how much time he had to spend with them.

It happened after one particularly frustrating night. He'd spent nearly all of it trying to take the next logical step after his little fire trick with his semblance, and create not just a flickering flare of fire, but a full-on sphere of condensed plasma, with higher mass and the whole nine yards, like a miniature sun without the nuclear fusion. Something like this would have immediate benefits in both the short and long range game - he could smack it into someone like a rasengan, or shoot them with it like a bargain-brand kamehameha. But as much effort as he pushed into it, and as hot as he could make the fire, the best he could make without cracking open the magic was a flamethrower, and unless his opponent was willing to sit there for a few minutes so he could melt their weapons and armor, it wasn't remotely enough to do what he wanted it to do.

He was, at least, able to draw the moisture out of the air on his own, so that was nice. He'd more or less never have to worry about water again, and it certainly helped when, after almost setting himself on fire for the dozenth time that night, he hardly had the stamina left to use his ice trick to cool himself down. That was far easier in comparison to creating plasma, instead of having to speed up atomic movement to set things on fire, all he had to do was manhandle the atoms in the air and stop them from moving. He'd hit absolute zero, one night, it took so long for the ambient air to heat it up and melt it that it looked like it was snowing in its immediate vicinity the next morning.

But, after this night of aggravating failures, Aldric returned to his dorm, passing Blake in her tree along the way. Not aware of her observations of him, he didn't register that she followed him with her eyes as he walked by. No, what he noticed was out of the ordinary was that, as he entered the building, he saw his dorm was empty, and there was -

How the fuck did they get my shield? Aldric blinked, seeing his shield resting on his bed and a note pinned to it. I literally chose my locker code at random, how - He cut himself off when he realized he'd made it a habit to leave behind his scroll when he was doing something he wasn't supposed to, and that very scroll was under the shield. Then, what is this, an intervention? He frowned.

Ascending the stairs to the upper floors and entering his dorm, Aldric approached his shield and picked up the note.

Training room 63!
~EMS

"Oh, this is much worse." He drawled, a smile on his tired face as he picked up the shield and slid it onto his arm.

Back out into the chilly Vale night and to the training rings he went, the only thing breaking the white noise being the sound of his cane tapping on the ground, echoing out through the air. When he arrived at the one they had specified, however, he found himself alone. No one in the ring, or in the surrounding ones either. Aldric frowned deeper, wondering if this wasn't some sort of confrontation with his less than scrupulous allies. Neither of them would hesitate to kidnap, but the real question is who would be able to get in to do it? Considering the sheer skill it would take to break into a Huntsman academy, ascend several flights of stairs, steal a team of rookie huntresses, and get out, without alerting anyone, Aldric could only put his money on Torchwick. This was the same man who had pull enough to convince Weiss' father to fund his own robberies, of course he'd have the connections he'd need to find Remnant's Solid Snake, Sam Fisher, Agent 47 dream team.

He continued inside, slowly collapsing his cane and being ready to crack the lightsaber off of it at a moment's notice. There weren't any notes on the ground, and Aldric couldn't find any signs of a previous presence.

But it couldn't have been some stealth team... I don't think they would have left the room as perfectly well made as it was, and wouldn't have armed me either. Thought the frowning terran, as he stepped into the ring. And - whoa. There it was.

The moment he'd stepped into the ring, two new presences entered his zone of awareness. They were wholly invisible and silent, but he could still identify them as Ecru and Srebro, both armed and slowly approaching him.

Did... Did Myrtle make them intangible? Can she do that? That was the only theory Aldric had ever been able to make sense of in regards to how Ozpin avoided his radar pulse, because it relied on physical objects to work, and if something was intangible, it had no physical presence, and thus his radar wouldn't see it, and it was the only way Aldric could understand how they remained invisible, despite regaining their tangibility.

Considering their actions thus far and right now, Aldric was able to predict what happened next. Srebro circled around to his front, as he continued feigning ignorance, and Ecru approached him from behind, Lovely Lady held tight and muscles tensing. Once they were in position, Ecru then charged him, screaming like a banshee and shattering the night's silence like a cannon. Aldric's shield was up in a second, but where he expected her to try and fastball him over to Srebro, instead she rammed her bat into his shield with a loud gong, and then the axe-blade popped out, locking the shield to it. Then Srebro came charging in, dreadlocks bouncing with each step and her blade coming around in a titanic circular swing; Aldric's metal hand snapped up and, with an application of his semblance, he slowed Skye down until it was barely crawling towards him. Its impact with his hand still felt like he'd been hit by a truck, but it was far lesser than what it would have been had he not slowed it down.

Then out of nowhere, from the edge of the ring, a crossbow bolt entered his senses and shot towards him, but this was the easiest to intercept of them all - he just used his semblance to push it off target, and then he tilted his head to the side, it brushing past him. Ecru took this chance to rip her bladed bat from the edge of his shield and strike it again and again, keeping it pinned down as Srebro scraped her titanic sword out of his metal hand with sparks flying through the air. Srebro hefted the sword into the air again and brought it down in a vertical chop, and it was here Aldric figured out what they were trying to get him to do: Abandon his shield. Ecru wasn't letting up and wasn't letting him bring it to bear on anyone else, and Srebro was using her superior range to either force him to intercept it and take damage to his aura shields - clearly not aware that, when the computers were off, he had none - or to dodge it entirely, the only way he physically could: By sliding his good arm out of the shield and rolling out of the way.

Any other situation, Aldric would take a third option, use his semblance to throw Srebro off balance and give the sword some forward momentum as well, to put Ecru at risk and force her to retreat. Then all he would need is a single step backwards to get out of the way, and he'd keep his shield. But Aldric was pretty certain this was a Huntress' - or a team of them's - version of an intervention, and playing hard to get wouldn't get him anywhere, especially not that whatever they were pissed - or concerned - about was keeping them up on a school night.

Unless...Aldric frowned, as Skye grew closer to his head. Is tonight a school night? Oh fuck, it's Friday. He'd been operating the entire day under the assumption it was Tuesday. Explains why Oobleck was talking about the weekend, though. He thought, the sword now less than a foot from his head. Now where was I? Oh, right: Give them what they want. He then lunged backwards, releasing his grip on the shield, sliding his arms out of it, and out of the way of Srebro's sword.

As he skidded to a halt, Ecru slid the shield onto her left arm, her Lucky Lady still grasped in her right, and another previously unseen bolt flying right for his nose. He used his semblance to slow this one down, so he could twist around and appear as though he caught it naturally. Granted, he knew, if anyone, his team would probably be wise to that particular act by now, but he still kept it up for consistency's sake.

"So..." He said, twirling the crossbow bolt in his fingers. "This is happening?" He gave Ecru and Srebro a look in turn, before turning his gaze to the space right between them, where he was certain Myrtle stood, no doubt frowning, and nervously pushing her blue hair out of her face.

"I mean..." Srebro said, hefting her sword onto her shoulder, with a meek shrug. "You don't look at home anywhere as much as you do when you're fighting, so..." Another shrug, as she tentatively added, "we thought this was the only way to get you to talk."

Aldric turned his eyes to Ecru, who was nodding. "Something's wrong, Ash. We could tell even before we figured out you were sneaking out at night."

Would the Neo trick work twice? Aldric nodded his head to the side, "jig is up, I guess." He dropped the arrow and opened up his coat with one hand, and held his hand out to the side, "don't worry..." And the lightsaber flew out of the coat and into his waiting hand. "Safety's on."

With a flick and a few loud snaps, he extended the white cane from the light saber's hilt, making an improvised shinai and managing to give everyone pause, as they saw him take up a weapon that, until now, he'd shown zero interest or proficiency in. Even Myrtle seemed surprised, as she briefly flickered back into reality before grabbing control over her semblance again and vanishing from Aldric's non-eye. The truth was, Aldric was whipping this out to extend the fight and buy him a minute or two to come up with a halfway decent lie. As his mind worked in overdrive, Srebro cast Ecru a tentative glance, but Ecru nodded, a determined frown on her face as she adjusted her grip on Aldric's shield. Srebro charged forward, digging her blade into the ground and bellowing out, the meekness vanishing from her eyes and being replaced with a steely resolve. When she reached him, she swung it up in a wide, angular arc, but Aldric hopped up into the air, planting his feet on the flat of the blade and sticking there fast with his semblance, using her momentum to build his and the blade's surface as a springboard to launch himself at Ecru.

Ecru ducked behind his shield and it took his one handed thrust and the two-handed followup slice he hammered it with, each impact resounding with a loud clang, and sending the jolts of impact down his arms, as now, unlike his training with Weiss, his blade had a more physical, solid form to it, which meant the force the shield absorbed and reflected was being sent right back through his cane and into his arms, not an issue he had when he lit the blade up, nor one he had anticipated right now. Ecru rolled to the side and, on the up roll, had the Lovely Lady shouldered in its shotgun mode. Aldric could see a slug in the chamber, and grinned at the opportunity. Ecru pulled the trigger as Aldric forcibly grabbed the slug with his semblance, the result being it flying out of the gun far slower than muzzle velocity - giving him just the time he needed to slam his cane into the slug as it grew close, and deflect it, purposefully evoking the image of him swinging a baseball bat when he did so. Ecru didn't realize what happened until she tried two more times, and Aldric batted both shots away, though he was feeling the strain from having to move so fast and slow down shotgun slugs with his mind.

Srebro used Ecru's distraction as a chance to charge Aldric from behind, but as her blade came dangerously close to his cybernetic arm, he whirled around, his coat spinning with him almost like a cape. His cane collided with the side of Srebro's, and the impact was enough to for him to have to thrust his other hand around, plant it on the flat of his cane, and use it and his semblance as a brace. Aldric skidded back several feet, and Ecru used this chance to hop to her feet, flip the Lovely Lady once in her hands to change it to a bat, and then come charging to Aldric's back. She bent down to one knee and swung the bat at the back of his knees, hoisting the shield up as she did so. The impact knocked Aldric's legs out from under him, and as Srebro's sword swung unimpeded through the air, it caught the top of his shield and bounced off of it, leaving Ecru unharmed - and in perfect position to swing the shield down on Aldric's face.

The edge of the shield hit his nose and he heard a horrendous 'crunch', and that stopped all the fighting on a dime. Ecru gasped and stumbled back a step, dropping the Lovely lady and almost beaning herself in the face with Aldric's shield, as she brought up both hands to cover her mouth. Srebro nearly lost control of Skye when she saw the blood from Aldric's nose rush up to paint the surface of his shield, and Myrtle even dropped her disguise - and her crossbow - to dash over to Aldric.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Ecru cried out, as she tossed the shield from her arm and she and Srebro both lent Aldric a hand to get him back to his feet.

The improvised shinai dropped to the ground as Aldric accepted the helping hands. Having broken his nose and so many other bones so many times in the last six months, he recognized the feeling and the pain, and knew that Srebro had gone and practically turned it sideways, she'd hit it so hard. He was lucky she'd hit him with a cross and not a straight - that could have driven his nose into his brain and killed him.

Stupid, stupid. He'd neglected his TK barriers, thinking - not incorrectly - that this was a friendly fight, and they weren't trying to kill him.

"Are you okay?" Myrtle asked, the usual harshness in her voice wiped away, replaced only with concern, as Srebro dropped her blade with a loud 'twang' and dashed over.

Aldric nodded, grunting in the affirmative as he collapsed the white cane and stowed it and the lightsaber in his coat, and grabbed his horrifically deformed nose. "This ain't gonna be pretty." He said with a nasally tone, before he wrenched his nose around with a sickening snap and a crunch. He felt air flow through his nostrils again.

Ecru, practically in tears, tried to haul Aldric to his feet, saying, "we need to get that set! We have to go to the nurse!"

While Aldric let her take him to his feet, he slid his arm out of her grasp, waving her concern away. "I'll be fine, I'll be fine." He said, blocking each nostril and blowing some air - and some blood - out of each, in turn, before wiping them both with the back of his coat. "Probably still be red in the morning, but it won't be broken." He'd never figured out how or why his bones never looked deformed six ways from Sunday, despite never being properly set; strictly speaking they should have healed as they were - oftentimes poking against his lungs or not in their natural position - but they never did, instead reaching their natural position and fixing themselves there.

"But -" Ecru whirled around, concern leaking through her wide brown eyes. "But your -"

"Lady -" Aldric sniffed, "see? I'll be fine." Though he didn't mention how that one act gave him a killer headache, "it's not the worst to have happened to me." True to point: Seven months ago, he'd be in the hospital for this, but now it was more of an annoyance than anything else; the Lovely Lady's axe digging into his chest would only be slightly more worrying.

"Ash..." Srebro rested a hand on his shoulder, attracting his gaze. "She broke your nose."

He grinned, "really?" He blew some air out of his nose, and wiped some more blood from the split bridge. "Couldn't tell." He flicked his hand back and forth, and called his shield back to him, standing it on his edge and sitting down on it like an improvised stool. "Again - it's not the worst that's happened to me." He revolved his robotic hand around to demonstrate this. "Don't worry about it."

It was moments like this that reminded him, despite being in a combat academy, everything here was done with safety in mind - fights were called before they could be turned into bloodsports; breaking a nose and losing blood was a daily occurrence to him, but was a serious outlier to them. They still had four years to come to terms with the fact that they may draw blood, but where he was long since desensitized to it and at this point was ready for, and expecting to, draw it as soon as tomorrow, the girls around him - and most everyone in this school - thought something that serious was years away at the least, with some like Ruby preferring to reserve bloodshed for the Grimm entirely, and never have to kill a human.

Despite his protests, Ecru wasn't convinced she was off the hook, she dropped down to her knees and embraced Aldric, apologizing profusely and dropping every excuse in the book. She had misjudged her strength, she hadn't ever used his weapon before, she should have used hers, she shouldn't have gone for the face, she should have held back, and on and on it went. Aldric didn't have the heart to try anything drastic to get her to quiet down and listen, especially since seeing Ecru like this was a one-eighty from the fighter he was used to. But he didn't get the chance to let her peter out or pry her from her chest - because she was joined almost instantly by Myrtle and Srebro, making Aldric the bewildered recipient of a group hug.

He'd admit: He actually felt a bit of warmth in his chest, at this. It felt nice.

So he let it go on for a while, until they felt comfortable breaking it, and soon enough they were all sitting in a circle.

Aldric killed the partially guilty silence with, "so, aside from testing the durability of my skeleton..." He said, taking an offered rag and wiping the blood off of the shield, idly realizing that, aside from a few passes with a hose, he hadn't ever cleaned any of his weapons; them being made and remade from hardlight tended to do the job for him, but now, at Beacon? With the Power Glove more or less a secret, and the shield a permanent presence? He guessed he'd have to start cleaning and polishing it for real, especially now that he knew it was the real shield, and not just a facsimile. "What's the occasion?"

"Well... We noticed you sneak out each night." Ecru began, not making eye contact with him. "And we know that you can see better than you let on to everyone else..."

Myrtle picked up, "I took what you said about your radar thing to heart, and thought that you couldn't see what couldn't be felt. I always had a little intangibility, but it took me some time to work it on my whole body." Aldric felt the kind of satisfaction someone would have when they completely guessed an answer and got it dead-on. "So, I followed you one night and saw what you did next to that rock."

I sincerely hope she didn't follow me the night I made a lightsaber to break. The test was a success, but Aldric still felt sore from it. "Alright."

"Why do you push yourself so hard, Ash?" Srebro pushed, leaning forward, her tightly bound hair falling over her shoulders like strings.

So it was one of the TK nights. Aldric let out a long yawn. Best way to lie, best way to lie... He'd just have to try and ignore the rot he'd feel settling in on his soul.

"World's about..." He frowned, "four thousand? Ish? Miles in radius?" He said, "anywhere from ten to sixteen billion acres of habitable land all across it. Human kind has a grand total of... Four, defensible establishments... Hardly even measuring out to half of what I just described." He explained, "we are the same people who crawled out of caves and, through ingenuity and tenacity, have gotten to the point where we can fly across the planet, and yet we don't even control a quarter of its landmass. Our people, cower behind walls, scared of the day the monsters in the dark wise up and try to attack, either in general or, for the wiser folks out there, all at once, because despite thousands of years of advancement and fighting, we still can't beat them.

"Compare our..." He hummed, "what even is the world's population? Does anyone know?" He asked, "we're scared of the monsters at our door, and are terrified of our neighbors, so much so that we won't share even the barest iota of information with eachother, lest the other guy figure out how to kill us with it." He said, "make no mistake about it. We live in a dark, nasty, cruel, and inhospitable world... And people know." It made him feel lucky to not have drawn the cosmic short straw and to have had as much time on Earth as he did. "But you want to know what keeps them from losing hope?" He kicked the shield out from under him, caught it, and lowered himself to the ground.

"It's huntsmen and huntresses, yes... But I'd put more faith in this." He said, bringing the shield around, the star on display, front and center. "Our weapons. You look at any Huntsman's ID, and you'll see their name, and their weapon, because they're our symbols. Symbols of what we fight for, of what we represent. What we are, what we do. We fight for hope, to keep that one, single ember burning to stave off the darkness, and oftentimes we'll do whatever we need to to make sure that ember stays aglow, even if it means spending our lives on it." He explained. "I believe in that... I believe that there is hope in a hopeless world, and I believe in fighting for something bigger than me, even at my own cost.

"Most of all, I believe in the idea that the people who can't fight, believe in us who can. We give them hope, even if the enemy is literally at their door, a Huntsman's presence can... Inspire them." He said, "give them the strength to hold on a second longer." He leaned back, "that's what I want this to be." He said, knocking on the edge, a light ringing noise filling the air. "That kind of symbol. One of hope even in the hopeless times. The ideal." He let out a long breath, "so... I push myself. I help as many as I can as much as I can.

"Even..." The image of his claws dragging across Amber's face, bursting open her eyes, entered his head. "If it means I have to be steady..." Then came Rayne, thrashing against an unseen killer in her bed. "And give up the things I love the most." Finally, Earth, its innumerable people gearing up for a false war against a friendly foe.

He let a beat pass, and then leaned forward, conspiratorially. "Like sleep." A grin ticked up one corner of his mouth, and then he leaned over towards Ecru, "and punching people back."

His attempt at breaking the tension and the atmosphere he himself had created worked, and smiles spread across faces and postures relaxed, and after a few chuckles passed by, Srebro spoke up. "I think... Ash... That is noble." She said, "but... You shouldn't harm yourself like you are, now. We're in school... We have time." She stressed, "we're still kids... Kind of." She said, sincerity glowing in her eyes. "We can enjoy the time we have."

Were it so easy. Aldric shrugged, "it's hard to break that kind of habit, Srebro." He said, "that idea is what got me this." He indicated his arm.

"I think that's her point." Myrtle picked up, "you go like you do... Forgetting to activate your aura is going to be the least of your mistakes."

Oh good, I don't have to explain that. Aldric shrugged, "no harm done."

"And your arm?" Ecru stressed.

"I got a new one."

"Your eyes?" Srebro squeaked.

"Hasn't slowed me down."

"Death will." Myrtle finalized.

She had him there, but he still shook his head. "I've always operated on the belief that, with great power, must also come great responsibility. That means if you're blessed with power, you have a moral obligation to use it, as best you can, for the betterment of everyone, even - to repeat myself - if you have to be steady." He explained, "the stuff I can do, that we all can do." He indicated all of them, "the opportunities we have... We can't let them go away. We have to do our absolute best. Because any less, and the lives that are lost are on our hands. They would have died because you, specifically, did not do everything you could."

"Don't you think that's needlessly shouldering a massive burden?" Ecru asked, her eyes drying up.

Aldric held up his hand, "how many TK's do you know that can move atoms?" He clenched his gut and sparked a white-hot fire in the air above his palm. "Or can stop them from moving?" And it froze, the air around the ice instantly fogging up from the temperature difference. "How many people can get hit by a warhammer -" He indicated the amazonian woman next to him, "and not budge an inch? Can turn invisible to all forms of detection? Have reaction times in the microseconds?" He turned to each of them in turn. "That's why the phrase is must, also, come responsibility. It is a choice, and we already made ours by attending this academy. We already chose to shoulder great burdens simply by tying a symbol to our names. To our ideals." He stifled a yawn, "I stay up and sacrifice my body so others won't have to do the same." He said, "train now, so I don't regret it later." He lowered his head to his shield, letting it rest a moment, and wondering what was worse: That he was lying to them, or that he also wasn't.

"You're literally fighting to not fall asleep right now." Myrtle deadpanned, with a breathy laugh. "Even you have a limit, Ash."

"Can't afford to know what it is." He drawled, lifting his head back up with a thin smile. "I appreciate it." He said, with a genuine nod. "Don't have many friends, these days." That was what a soul rotting sounded like, kids!

Srebro smiled, and reached over, bringing Aldric into a long one-armed hug. "You'll always have us, Ash." She whispered.

No.

That was what a soul rotting sounded like.

The warmth in his chest gradually faded away, replaced with an icy grip, and a feeling of dread, of the inevitable day these three would realize he had spent their entire working relationship lying to them. A few moments were spent like this, in what was, to them, a comfortable silence, and to him, was the drowning dread of inevitability.

Before, as was custom, Ecru broke it, her moxy regained. "So - how long have you been holding out on us!?" She said, clapping her hands. "Using your cane like that? And why do I get the feeling you made it in response to my Lovely Lady?!" A fierce grin stretched across her face.

Myrtle scoffed, "I don't know if you noticed Ecru, but he didn't use his cane on your Lady. He used it on Skye." She said, as Srebro let Aldric go and he straightened up.

"Nuh-uh!" Ecru shook her head, "he deflected her slugs with it!"

"After he parried her sword."

"But -"

"Hate to break up the party ladies... But I've never seen Goodwitch in her pajamas, and I've never seen her angry. She's both, right now, and she's on her way here." Aldric said, a light smile stretching across his face, as he let his radar fall closer to him.

Ecru and Srebro promptly began panicking.