AN:
A short one, compared to some of the monsters as of late, but you know what?
I think we needed it.

Chapter 50

They returned to Vale when the sun had set and the shattered moon was at its height. Aldric and Cinder parted ways, and the spy made his quiet return to the hospital. He found that, with his radar, it was remarkably easy to avoid people and sneak inside, but one woman, he found, he could never pull the rug over on that regard. He hadn't so much as twitched into his room, before the ice cream psychopath's eyes opened. He found it surreal, as he slid inside, that he was looking at himself sitting in a hospital bed, covered in almost the same mummified bandaging he himself wore after his fight with the Master.

Were she tired at all, Neo didn't show it - merely smiling, pulling her scroll out from underneath the hospital bed's blankets, and hitting a button.

"I spent so much time staring at myself naked." Her scroll spat out.

It took all of Aldric's self control not to laugh, instead adopting the kind of smile that one was trying to crush down into a frown, but was unable, as he held up a finger. "Lady..." A chuckle escaped his lips, and he sighed. "You had that ready."

She nodded, and his visage melted off of her body, and replacing it was that of Yuno Magenta, who stretched languidly before standing up from the bed. "So?" Her scroll squawked, as she handed Aldric some hospital scrubs.

Aldric shed his clothes, "we found God's vibrator. Killed another god - with a little 'G' - and then dropped a giant robot on Ozpin and his allies."

Neo nodded, ever-present smile merely widening. "I figured." She wrote, "did you have anything to do with those earthquakes a few days ago?"

He nodded, "probably." He said, standing up, and noting her smile shrink a bit as she saw his new bandages. "I tried magic-ing up something I knew could destroy planets. But it didn't work - just gave me a heart attack for my troubles." He patted his chest, before gathering up his clothes and his weapons and depositing them in the corner, "thanks for fixing my arm, Yuno." He added, with an exaggerated tone, noting, as he stood up, that the Master Sword and the accompanying Hylian Shield were also leaned up in this same corner.

Neo rolled her eyes, and pulled a slip of paper out of her back pocket, causing Aldric to wonder if she hadn't put them there on purpose, because she knew it would prompt the question. Aldric turned and accepted the sheet, unfolding it and seeing that it was the list of names he'd given her, of all the swordsmen and women he knew in Vale, and a few others. From Ruby to Pyrrha, all of the names were crossed out, except for one.

"Hm..." He grunted, nodding his head, crumpling it into a ball, and tossing it into a wastebasket. "I should'a seen that coming, really."

"Do you know something about him I don't?" Neo asked, as she helped Aldric into his bed. "Because he looks like a fool, 'Goud'. From what you told me about that sword, doesn't seem at first glance like it would have picked him."

Aldric nodded, "sure. But also realize that, where it comes from, it historically likes to pick ten to twelve year old boys. You can count on one hand the number of adult, or near-adult aged, people who drew it." He explained, sliding his back against the bed. "Far as I remember, it looks for heroic qualities more than it does competence - evidenced by the fact that, in one timeline, one of its wielders outright failed, even with it... And as buffoonish as Jaune may be, I'd be willing to say the guy's got his heart in the right place. Entire reason he's still laid up here is because he took a missile for a family he didn't even know." He explained, "and if that doesn't float your boat... Look at it this way: The kinds of stories that sword comes from? They like to fuck with the people reading, watching, or playing them... Or even the characters themselves, in them. So it really doesn't surprise me that the universe threw us a curveball and let him draw the evil-sealing magic sword."

Neo nodded to the side, pulling up a chair next to his bed. "Guess that makes sense." She said, shrugging. "So should I see the other guy?" She asked, nodding to Aldric's bandages.

He shook his head, "he's literal ash. I disintegrated him."

"Oh, nice." She gave him one of her silent giggles, "and the vibrator?"

"Safeish." He said, "as well as it can be." He nodded to her, "how about here? I miss anything?"

She shook her head, "nothing too much. Everyone's recovery is nearly complete, even your 'Hero'. One may be here a while yet, though - your bird-faunus friend... Myrtle? She was blinded by the sun-bomb, and her aura isn't fixing it."

Aldric blinked, "bird faunus?" Myrtle was a fucking faunus? How had he missed that?!

Neo nodded, "don't you worry your little head about the details, Goud. The genetic lottery bit her on the ass. No outwardly visible animal characteristics, but a nice, hollow skeleton to make her life more difficult."

Aldric grunted, "fuck." He shook his head, "so she's blind. They're keeping her here because they don't have any replacements ready?" Neo nodded, "hm... That'll be fun. Anything else?"

Neo shook her head, running her hand through her blood red hair. "Little Red's been hoping to talk to you when your throat finishes healing. Deer's story is that there was some shrapnel he never saw, nearly got a jugular, what with all the talking you do." She said, with a smirk. "So he bandaged the hell out of you and numbed your vocal cords. But he also let 'slip' that he'd do the surgery at night, so it'll make sense when everyone wakes up tomorrow and you're talking again." She leaned forward, narrowing her eyes, before smirking again and straightening back up. "Your little dalliance will actually help you, in that regard. One of your new scars could pass for a surgical one."

He rolled his eyes, "how about the Watchmen? Hear anything from them?" She shook her head, "any fallout from my... 'Dalliance'?"

"I heard from Adam Taurus, but that was primarily to send a message along to an old friend of his, also staying here. No fallout yet, but that may change. Little Red and the big-tittied blonde looked pretty distraught yesterday, heard them say something about their father being a few floors down."

"Probably the giant robot." Jesus, he just could not stop fucking that family. "How bad?"

"Not very. Just some burns and lacerations. He was in and out of the operating room by the time the two of them even made it down there."

Aldric didn't bother asking if she'd followed - of course she hadn't. "I assume he's still here?"

She nodded, "his little girls are getting out of the hospital in a few days. Of course he is."

Aldric hummed, deciding not to worry too much about it, as Neo appeared to have been doing a good job giving him an alibi. Instead, with a grin, he pointed out, "so why did I have to drag that information out of you, when I'd asked earlier if anything interesting had happened, and you said no?"

When morning rolled around, Aldric wasn't certain what was more startling: How easy it was to just slip back into the Goud routine, or the fact that he wasn't even startled by the first fact. Regardless, Aldric, now Ash, relied on his internal clock to wake him up, which had the benefit of waking him up bright and early, but also the drawback of doing the same thing. He spent the morning dolling himself up, using some shrunken supplies from his belt and his bathroom sink to wash his hair, brush his teeth, and get rid of the scraggle that was trying to grow on his face. When done, he still felt and looked like hammered shit, but at least he was shaven and his hair didn't look like he hadn't washed it in ten months.

Exiting his bathroom, he got swatted on the ass by Neo, and aside from a roll of the eyes, gave her no satisfaction of a reaction. She guided him down to a cafeteria and the two loaded up on food, their breakfast going by in relative silence. Aldric spared a glance to his Venom Snake arm as he ate, entertaining the thought of doubling down on his growing love of vibranium and swapping it out with whatever Black Panther gave Bucky Barnes. Those thoughts were dashed, however, when he saw the pictures and messages the girls had painted onto it, most of them faded slightly, but otherwise still as fresh as the day they'd been painted on. He sighed, shook his head, and decided he'd just have a vibranium puncher as backup, if this arm ever broke.

Considering the fact that his last opponent had been Thor, he was pretty sure that would be sooner than he'd like to think.

Whatever he may have thought next, however, soon fell to the wayside as he sensed Taiyang enter the room. Neo's eyes were on the blonde warrior somehow before Aldric's telekinetic radar had pinged him. The blonde's blue eyes swept over Aldric for a few seconds, and Aldric figured out what would happen just as soon as the dominoes started falling. Taiyang got himself a plate of food, found Aldric's table, and fell into place right in front of him.

Aldric lazily lifted his head, giving Taiyang an arced eyebrow and a dull expression, mouth full of food.

Taiyang's expression was the opposite of his once-opponent's, one of deadly seriousness. "So I hear you're Ash."

Sorely tempted to speak despite his mouthfull, and shotgun the man who'd punched his ribs and lungs into oblivion with chunks of half-chewed food, Aldric instead nodded, eyebrow still arced, as though silently asking him why he wanted to know this.

"Same Ash that beat my daughter black and blue." Taiyang continued.

Aldric swallowed, coughed, then nodded. "As I remember she gave as good as she got."

Taiyang leaned forward, half over the table. "How'd you do it?!" He breathed, the tension gone from his voice.

Aldric scoffed, and Neo relaxed, removing her hand from one of her many hidden weapons. "Well, like anyone, really. She punched me, I punched her. She punched me, I punched her. Back and forth. In and out. Lasted about... Ten?" He turned to Neo, "fifteen minutes? I forget if you were there." A beat, "no, wait, we had a different voyeur there that night." He turned back to Taiyang, "she's a hellion, that one. Wasn't sure I could handle her until I got her on the ground and started beating her ass."

Taiyang was holding back laughter at this point, shaking his head and picking up a fork. "Exactly how long are you going to keep that up?" He chuckled.

"Dude. Don't tempt me. If you're her Dad, you know her better than I do, and thus you'd know that she'd only associate with someone who could go toe-to-toe, round-for-round, in a fight both physical and verbal."

Taiyang nodded, "don't I know it?" He said, "so: Fear and dead men?"

Neo descended into a fit of silent giggles, as Aldric turned to his food, shamefully. "That's going away."

"Oh hell no." Taiyang nodded to Neo, "whether or not you pick up my kid, I will personally ensure that will never die."

Neo blinked, then gave Taiyang an incredulous grin as she retrieved her scroll. "What makes you so confident he'll pick her up, when he has me?" She asked, the glint of a challenge flashing in her eyes.

"And am I the only one that finds it strange that I spent two minutes making sex jokes about Yang, to her father's face, and he seems perfectly okay with the idea?" Was he supposed to take that, and his comment about Neo, as him shipping him and Yang? Or was he just fucking with him? Considering whose father this guy was, Aldric honestly didn't know which option was more likely. He could be doing both, for all he knew.

Not helping matters was the fact that Neo and Taiyang both ignored him, "well you see, ah..." He frowned, then slowly leaned over in Aldric's direction.

"Yuno." Aldric grunted.

"Yuno!" Taiyang snapped back up, "it's simple: Wasn't saying Jack about him getting rid of you. Only that he might end up adding to the menagerie."

"What the flaming fuck are we talking about, right now?" Aldric asked, mouth agape as he looked between Neo and Taiyang. "Am I dreaming right now? Am I high? " Again, he was ignored, though the feeling was mounting that the two of them kept this going just because they liked getting reactions out of him.

"I wouldn't put it past her to accept such a proposition. Especially as she made the offer herself. And it isn't necessarily unattractive, either. But he's unimaginably lucky enough just to have gotten me. Do you really think he has a chance to get another one?"

Taiyang snorted, pointed at Aldric, and said, "she's got you there." Neo rolled her eyes and slid the scroll back over to her.

"Oh, so we're done, now?"

"Don't pick a fight you can't win, kiddo." Taiyang grinned, "but in all seriousness, you were the one she got abducted with, right? The one Ruby ran out to go find?"

Aldric sighed, nodding. "Not something I'm proud of."

"Wasn't implying you were." Taiyang defended, "I just heard your name thrown around by the two of them before the terrans came around. Kind of wanted to meet you even before today."

Aldric was waiting for it, and from the teasing glint in Taiyang's eyes, he knew the older man was as well.

In the end, Aldric's patience and spite wore out, and Taiyang finally gave in. "Fear and dead men?"

Aldric slapped the table, leaning back and grinning into his frown, annoyance shining underneath it. "Fuckin' knew it." He gave Neo a dead glare, "that's not dying anytime soon." He groaned, not even caring that this was probably the first man to bring it up twice in the same conversation; for all he knew it had been on purpose.

She merely tilted her head, grinned, and raised an eyebrow, as though to say nothing more than Aldric had brought it on himself. Taiyang leaned back, laughing uproariously, and clapping his hands together. He leaned back forward and wiped a tear from his eye, "ah man, that's humility, kiddo. Do something stupid and realize it." His head bobbed up and down, "nice."

Aldric rolled his eyes, "at least she ain't stabbing me." He mumbled, "how much says he's literally here just for that?" He asked, leaning over to Neo.

Neo slapped twenty lien on the table, and now Taiyang looked torn. "Ah, hell... I want to leave, but I learned a long time ago it's a bad idea to prove the woman in a relationship wrong." He said, a toothy grin spreading across one side of his face as his eyes briefly glazed over in memory. "I might as well ask, then, ah - what happened when you and -"

"Dad!" They heard a shrill voice call out, just as a certain crimson-haired speedster entered Aldric's radar, and then vanished again - zooming through the cafeteria in a trail of rose petals, before flying over the table and wrapping her hands around her father's chest, the both of them soon laughing as the blonde of the two enveloped her in a tight embrace. "How long have you been here?" She asked, voice muffled by his chest. "What's with these bandages?" She asked, zooming back and examining him, before her head popped up, eyes locking to his. "Were you fighting terrans? But I thought the war was over!"

"Whoa - slow down, kiddo! And be careful with your foot, you're about to kick Etiolate's meal off the table." Taiyang nodded to Aldric's plate, mere inches from Ruby's boot.

"Oh!" Ruby scrambled away, over to her father's side. "Sorry, Ash!" Then a beat passed, and she gasped. "Your voice is back! And your arm! And your Yuno!" She fired off in rapid succession, pointing to each in turn.

Aldric gawked at her for a moment, then, "well damn, lady. You don't let anything as little as the fucking sun exploding over Vale bring you down, huh?"

Ruby giggled, though Aldric, through his radar, did notice how she had to put more effort to keep the smile up. "Yup!"

"Thatta girl." Taiyang tousled her hair, "I heard you kicked some ass, too, kiddo. Did what all of the VAF couldn't, yeah?"

She hummed, closing her eyes and nodding. "I had to go help Ash and Yang!" Then she paused, her eyes shot open, and, "oh! How'd you surf in on that gun-boat-thing?" She asked, leaning forward. "It was so cool!"

Aldric shook his head, "oh hell no, it was stupid as fuck." He chuckled, "and I was... You know, pretty much dead." Self-inflicting wounds enough to make it look like he'd killed his way through a Naval Destroyer hadn't been any fucking fun.

"Yeah, but then you were, like - whoosh!" She threw herself to the side, "and then Pyrrha was all like, 'the shield!', and then you caught it! And then - oh!" She straightened up, "Blake! Have you seen her yet?"

Aldric noticed a barely perceptible nod from Neo, so he held his hand up and shook it back and fort in a 'so-so' fashion. "I mean, kind of? I was mute at the time."

Ruby shrugged, "well, okay, fine... But she helped too! Knew when to throw her gun and everything!"

"Blake being the girl with a worst-kept secret, right?" Taiyang quipped.

"Dad!" Ruby gasped, "shush!" But her father rolled his eyes.

Aldric, however, couldn't resist a chance to push Ruby's buttons, and said, "but yes." Causing her head to snap over to him, eyes wide, and her father to start laughing. "Lady, I have radar vision. I can see her ears twitch whenever you say her name."

Ruby deflated at this, but, as it dawned on her that Aldric hadn't said anything about it before now, he seemed to be okay to handle the secret. She turned to her father, a crusious tilt to her head, and his response was, "I saw her putting her ears up while I came in this morning. She was talking to Yang. Not many but those who'd want a secret kept would try and hide that, but that's not the best way to hide it."

Aldric was trying to convince himself that this was completely innocent, and that Taiyang wasn't saying that to try and hint that he knew Aldric had been there when they'd taken the Relic. "Yeah, like me hiding how I cheat on her." He nodded to Yuno, who had a knife in her hand in the time it took to blink, an smirk growing on her face as he turned to look at him, blinking innocently.

These innocent conversations continued like this, until well after all those present with food had finished consuming it. Taiyang excused himself, promising to meet up with Ruby once the last of the doctor's tests on him were done, and Neo slipped away to throw out everyone's trash, planting a knife inches from Aldric's thigh when he made a testy joke about it.

Now alone, Aldric and Ruby began their trek back to their respective rooms, "so, now that the peanut gallery's gone." He grunted, "how're you holding up?"

Ruby's ever-present smile dropped a little, before she perked herself back up. "I'm doing good!" She said, putting a spring in her step. "You know - I just had to get healed up." She held her hands behind her back, "you ever wonder why terran bullets can break our aura so fast?" She wondered, "I mean, Yang punches harder than those bullets hit, but they break our aura faster than even she can!"

Aldric regarded Ruby a moment, pretty damn sure she was avoiding whatever was bringing her down. He decided to play along, "I mean, take it from the guy who probably got shot more than should be physically possible... I think it has something to do with how their bullets have no dust. It's just all explosive." It was the only way he could reconcile that, and how he could get punched in the face by a terran and not feel any damage to his aura - it had to do with a distinct lack of dust.

Ruby frowned, not having thought of that. "Maybe?" She tilted her head in thought. "But didn't..." A beat, "I thought that back before we had guns, and we used bows and arrows, they still got deflected by aura?"

"Could they measure aura back then like we can now?" Aldric countered.

Ruby nodded, "oh, yeah. Fair point." She said, "but then, why would they go out and risk digging up so many explosives when they could just use dust?"

"Probably for that exact reason, lady." He shot back, "they figured out the trick, how to..." He bit his tongue, "how to fight better." He nodded, "and are you about to tell me blowing shit up isn't fun?"

She nodded to the side, "well... Okay." She giggled. "So... Do you think its true?"

"Yes." Was Aldric's instant response, with a confident nod.

"You don't even know what I'm talking about!" Ruby pouted.

"Lady, I'm a mind-reader, how do you think I can do half the stuff I can?"

Ruby blinked, "wait, really?" She looked up at him, awe dawning in her eyes.

Aldric snorted, "no."

Her pout returned, "so... I keep hearing that the terrans are from another world - and that's where their name came from - and that this world doesn't have Grimm! What do you think?"

Aldric hummed, "I suppose that'd make sense. Isn't that how the movies usually go?" He grinned, "aliens show up, blitz through the military, kick fucking ass... If they start wanting arbitrary resources that they could get on literally any other planet, but only want from here because there's life, then you'll know." The two shared a grin. Aldric again noticed a forced quality to hers, however, and decided to go for the kill. "Seems like you're doing a lot of thinking about them."

Ruby paused, "well, we were just at war with them..." She said, slowly trailing off into mumbles. "And now that they won, shouldn't we try to understand them?"

Aldric nodded, as the two entered an elevator. "Perhaps... But..." He hummed, turning to look at her, noting how her expression was falling. "Was that the first time you'd killed someone, Ruby?"

She blinked, opened her mouth to protest, but it died before it could pass her lips. Her shoulders slacked and her head fell, and she wordlessly nodded. The elevator was silent for a few moments, save only for the sound of the cables grinding as they lowered them down to the ground.

"I... Can relate, Ruby." He nodded, "I hadn't killed before Fear and Dead Men, either." He lied, "how're you holding up?"

She shook her head, "I can't stop thinking about it." She admitted, before letting her head hang. "All of it." She turned to him.

Predicting her question, Aldric nodded. "That's normal, Ruby. It's the same for me." If he actually spent all the time he'd lost sleep over, actually doing something, he'd probably have killed Salem by now. "Shows you you're human." He dropped his hand on Ruby's shoulder, gripping it tightly. "Look." She looked up, "I won't lie to you... It absolutely will not get better... But, that's why you have friends, Ruby. That's why you fight to protect them. 'Cause what goes around comes around, Red. You fought to help me and Yang, and without hesitation all those others came around to help you do it. But now that the fighting's over, we have to live with the things we've done - and you can be damn sure none of us are going to make you go through that stuff alone. So you need help, you need folks to talk to, we'll all be there, yeah?"

A small smile curled up the corner of her mouth, and she nodded. "Yeah." She said, as the elevator dinged and they reached the ground floor. "Now, I might not be the best advice giver, but I've got a good idea to keep that smile going." He leaned down, giving her a conspiratorial look. "You wanna go fuck with Jaune?" He whispered, as the elevator doors opened.

She giggled, and nodded, her smile widening.

"Good!" Aldric snapped up, "we just gotta grab some stuff, real fast." Aldric made it all of two feet out of the elevator, before something clicked for him. "Oh holy fuck, the power's back!"

"Wait... Say that again?" Said the meek voice of the blonde Arc, as he stared at Aldric and Ruby.

"It's a magic fucking sword, Jaune! Get with the program!" And Aldric pitched the Hylian Shield at Jaune's face, prompting the latter to shriek as he held up his hands, and Ruby to start laughing as the shield bounced off of them with a bang.

"How else do you explain why no one else can pull it out?" Ruby asked, giving a tug on the purple hilt of the blade, and unable to rip it out of its sheath.

Examining the shield, Jaune gave the two an incredulous look. "You're kidding."

"Actually, only kind of." Aldric responded, "where I came from, this sword was sacred. Many believed it was magic because only a chosen warrior could ever pull it out." He said, as Ruby rounded on Jaune's bed and plopped the sword down on his legs.

"Are you two just here to throw things at me?" Jaune leaned forward and grabbed the sword, pulling it back up to him.

"Uh, yeah." Aldric grunted, "if that missile wasn't any indication, you're just fucking horrible at dodging things. So we've got to get you better at it!"

Jaune sputtered, "but - but there was -"

"No excuses!" Ruby barked, picking up a cup from the counter and throwing it at Jaune, who ducked behind his new shield until it bounced off of it with a plastic 'ping!'.

"Ah, c'mon!" He said, half-whining, half-laughing, as he peered over the edge of the shield. "Really?"

"REALLY!" Suddenly came the ear-shattering sound of an orange-haired firecracker, as she swung into the room, hand locked onto the doorframe, and an -

"Nora where the fuck did you get an axe in a hospital?!" Aldric shouted, as said axe was now spinning through the air, eliciting another shriek from the Arc, who cowered behind the shield again. "Holy fuck, lady!" Aldric laughed, after the hatchet banged off of the shield and fell off of the bed.

Ruby's shoulders were twitching as she held in laughter, and Nora came marching in, as though she hadn't just tried to murder her teammate. Ren, as was his custom, followed her, he being among the few present actually dressed in his normal garb, the rest covered in hospital scrubs. Aldric noticed this, and gave Ren a nod. "Hey sexy, they're letting you wear people clothes?"

Ren rolled his eyes, and nodded. "My injuries were forgivably light. I have been out of hospital for two days, now, assisting in the rebuilding."

Nora materialized right next to him, hanging off of his arm. "He abandoned us for days!" Now rubbing her face into his ribs, she cried, "he hates us! He hates us all!"

Ren pushed her off of him, she fell to her rump, and was back at Jaune's side, repeatedly beating his new arm with a rubber mallet with a demonic smile on her face. Ren found a chair to sit down, nodding to Ruby, who reciprocated, before joining Nora, one beating Jaune, the other throwing things at him. Aldric slid over towards Ren and leaned against the wall, folding his arms and grinning at his chaos.

"So, you gave the blade to Jaune?" Ren asked.

Aldric nodded, "he could pull it out, and he needed a new weapon pair anyways." He said, before nodding to the duo torturing the man. "And to explain this... Well, we needed some more smiles around."

Ren nodded, "on that we can agree. I must ask, however, why can only Jaune wield the blade?" He asked, voice barely raising over the noise in front of them.

Aldric hummed, "you believe the legends, it's a holy sword. Magic. Legend is that it has the power to repel evil, so the belief is that it might be able to smite Grimm. Only a true hero can use it, blah blah blah." He said, waving his hand back and forth. "Not much survived my village's destruction, but that did, so I brought it with me before the semester started. Had it stashed away, and since Jaune needs one." He shrugged. "Figured... Why not?"

Ren frowned, "there must be some truth to those legends, if none of us could wield it." He pointed out.

"Dude, no one was more surprised about that than I was. I've had people tugging on that sword ever since I picked it up. He's the first one to actually whip it out." It was only after specifically making a few penile jokes in reference to this sword, that he remembered he was talking to Ren - a man who wouldn't react even if Aldric whipped his dick out right in front of him. Of course, considering the company he keeps, and his semblance, it only made sense that he had an indomitable poker face.

"In case no one else has, I must thank you for rearming our leader." Ren said, with a respectful nod.

"Dude, you're freaking me out. You've spoken more often in the last five minutes than I've ever heard you speak ever."

"Call it foreplay."

Aldric burst out laughing, it growing so loud and uproarious that after awhile, he couldn't breathe, and began coughing so hard that he felt some of his injuries rearing their ugly heads. This laughter ended up attracting the curious glances from Jaune and his two torturers, and after them a few new arrivals, in the form of Yang, and Ecru. Ecru instantly locked onto Aldric, doubled up on the floor, then she raised her gaze to the still stoic Ren, who returned her gaze blankly.

Then a wide, predatory grin appeared on her face, "get him, get him, get him, get him!" She called out, leaping onto the spy.

Nora, who had hoisted her leader over her head, instantly dropped him back on his bed and dropped on top of Ecru. Yang joined in next, digging her fist into Aldric's head, and Ruby pulled Jaune onto the pile, fully aware of the futility of trying to get Ren in on it. Aldric, never one to be defeated, and still laughing, snaked his arms out to his sides and used his semblance to both hoist himself to his feet, and balance the pile on his shoulders and his hunched back, giving him the appearance of having scooped up five full-sized people and hauled them all up into the air. He then unceremoniously dropped all of them at his feet, though that didn't stop any of the laughter that had sprouted up, and as everyone got back to their feet, he stretched his back, feeling his spine and a few of his less stable ribs pop.

"Glad to see you're fixing yourself up, Ash." Ecru hummed, hanging an arm around Aldric's shoulders. "How're you doing?"

"My motherfucking friends are using me as a couch, Ecru. I'm great." Aldric rolled his eyes, hanging his own arm around Ecru's shoulders, "see you, guys!"

"Bye Ash!" Ruby, now fully smiling, waved them out, as he and Ecru retreated, the latter twisting one of her legs around one of Aldric's and forcing them to walk out three-legged.

"C'mon, we're gonna see Myrtle. Srebro's already up there!" Said the toothily grinning Ecru.

"Explain to me why we're walking like this."

"Celebrating, fool!" Ecru's grin was infections, as they hobbled from side to side, each step forward taking just a moment longer than they would if they let go. "Pretty much everyone's getting discharged today, and I nabbed Myrtle's medical reports - they said apart from her being blind, she's perfectly healthy! So we're going to break her out, and only bring her back when it's time for her new eyes to come in." She giggled.

Aldric raised an eyebrow, "there's something else in there, too."

"I've been trying to convince Srebro to let us drag her to a strip club, but she won't let me! I'm hoping you'll be the tiebreaker!"

"Lady, that's awful!" Aldric guffawed, as the darker skinned of the two kicked the button for the elevator, and they backed up.

"But it would be so funny! Even Myrtle would think so!" Ecru argued, "and before you think it, really think about it - it'd make total sense for places where guys and girls to to shake their asses for money would be fixed first!" Aldric laughed even harder.

"You almost have me convinced, chick." He shook his head, and the rest of their trip was left in relative silence.

When they made it to Myrtle's room, Aldric was faced with more evidence of the slowly returning power - as he saw lightbulbs glowing as they should, and Myrtle's room brightly lit by the sterile white light. The giantess Srebro was seated next to the diminutive huntress' bed, idly chatting with her - and informing her of the rest of their team's arrival.

"Ash, I hear tell that your voice is back." Ecru grunted, pushing her blue hair behind her ear, and looking to Aldric with eyes whose pupils remained as two fixed, dilated points of black.

"Yup, and I hear that the other senses get better when you go blind, so that means you get even more benefits from listening to my sexy-ass voice." He said, realizing now that he'd gone the entire day without seeing Pyrrha, Weiss, or Blake, and, now curious, began probing the hospital for the two, as he deepened his voice and let out a long, "hey there, baby!"

"Oh no - go away. You can't pull it off. You made any sexy you had just go away." Myrtle shuddered.

"Bitch, I'll bring the sexy back!" Aldric laughed, plopping down in a chair. "Just wait until you get your new eyes! First fucking thing you'll see is me, shirtless! Aren't people of your... Gen...Dorial... Persuasion..." He shrugged, "I don't fuckin' know. Aren't girls supposed to like scars?"

"I think that's a question for Yuno." Ecru deadpanned, earning a roll of the eyes from Aldric.

He scoffed, and then let out a sigh. "So how're you all holding up?" He asked, finding Pyrrha and Weiss looking about in the hospital's department store, talking, and appearing to just be killing time and window shopping.

"I'm blind, you asshole!" Myrtle called out, in a tone of faux-anger.

Aldric's response was immediate, "bitch, so am I!" He then unscrewed one of his eyes and threw it at her; despite her current state, she still managed to catch it, roll it around in her hands a bit, and then pitch it at a wall - where it bounced right back at Aldric, who smiled as he screwed it back in.

"Those come out?"

"Yup. Good for freaking folks out, wouldn't you agree?" Aldric grinned at Srebro, who nodded, looking a little more than freaked out by Aldric technically having torn his eyeball out of his very skull.

"So now that you're verbal, what all exactly happened?" Ecru asked, finding her own chair.

Aldric spent the next few hours with a smile permanently etched on his face, as he recounted his version of his and Yang's abduction. Ecru then told him the exact details of what Ruby had done, and how, with Myrtle confirming that she had, indeed, lost her sight by looking at the sun-bomb when it detonated. Aldric felt a small amount of guilt at that, but really, he knew damn well and good that there wasn't much he could do, or could have done about it, and it was a temporary injury to begin with - just as his own maiming of the eyes had been. Something that would irreparably cripple a man back home was treated with minor annoyance, here.

They soon descended into idle chit-chat, talking about whatever the conversation brought them to. Their time at the hospital, what they all thought would happen to their school schedules now that a good chunk of Vale was flattened - with no small amount of ribbing Aldric for being instrumental in that decision. Aldric let the peace wash over him, enjoying it while he could - because, as was soon proven with his radar, this peace would be temporary at best. He found Blake on the hospital's roof, armed but relaxed, pacing, as though waiting for something, which soon revealed itself to be their mutual acquaintance.

Aldric watched their conversation as he continued his own, unable to make out most of it, but at least able to tell that there was an air of hesitance on Blake's end, no doubt from seeing Taurus take up a noble cause, as opposed to his decidedly ignoble one. She was clearly still on the defensive with him, backing away when he approached her, shaking her head many times throughout their conversation, at one point giving him an angry glare and a decisive 'no' to whatever it was he'd said. She ended up being the one to end the conversation, shaking her head again and retreating back inside, descending back to the lower floors and linking up with her team.

Eventually, the day ended, its end heralded by the setting sun and the slowly deactivating lights. Neo found her way back to Aldric and the two retreated back to his room.

"You were gone for a while." Aldric noted, as he fell back into the bed he was rapidly becoming sick of.

"I figured I'd give Goud some time alone with his harem." Neo's phone squawked.

"Not funny."