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youtuberswithalex · 7 years ago

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PRVL, Vol. 1, Ch. 12: Fight or Flight

Summary: It’s time for a rescue mission.

Author’s Note: This is it for Volume One! Thank you all so, so much for reading this and staying with it for this long. I hope you’ve all enjoyed. Volume Two is going to start on April 29, so let me know if you still want to be on the tag list, because I’m going to reset it!

Also! The Volume One theme song has been posted, and you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF9a56s6oIE

Word count: 10,944 (I am so sorry)

Warnings: mild swearing, fighting, minor injuries

Tag List: @vigilantvirgil @what-even-is-thiss @lovelylogans @nose-to-meet-you @faithfulcat111 @haikyuupaladin @virge-of-death @storytellerofuntoldlegends @themysteriousinternetentity @monikastec

Behind the Scenes Table of Contents: Mobile/Desktop

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“Get in there!”

Roman’s face skidded across the carpeted floor as he was tossed into the unfamiliar room. Pain blossomed across his cheek; he groaned when he tried to push himself up, only to remember that his wrists were bound behind his webbed wings. Hissing, he rolled onto his back just in time to watch the door slam shut.

The room had no lights. Roman would be thankful for his night vision if it wasn’t for the fact that the only reason he had it was the same reason he was in this situation to begin with.

Slowly, he forced himself into a sitting position and looked around. The room itself wasn’t very big; he could maybe fit his body length across it twice. There were no windows, and nothing but bare walls to decorate. A little slip of light came out from the crack at the bottom of the door. Roman could see the silhouettes of two sets of feet outside.

He couldn’t escape. Roman tried not to let his heart thunder at the thought.

A third person stormed up to the door, and even through the door, heavy breathing could be heard. “You only got one of them? Are you kidding me?!”

“We tried, sir, but they-”

“Obviously, you didn’t try hard enough! You think Torius is going to come after just one? And the youngest?! You really think he’s going to come after him?!”

Roman’s jaw set. Gods, even when he was being held hostage…

“Trix said something about coming after him. All is not lost.”

“Yeah, you’d better hope so, for your sakes! I should send you back to Adam for screwing up the mission like this!”

“Please forgive us.”

The third person growled. “Whatever. Just let me in so I can do what I can with as little as you gave me to work with.”

The door swung open, and Roman flinched at the sudden light in his eyes; as soon as the door was shut, he heard footsteps creep over to him.

“Roman! It’s so good to finally meet you,” the man sweetly greeted.

Slowly, Roman looked up, swallowing thickly as his eyes widened. For a split second, his brain produced the mental image of being impaled by the terrifyingly large ram horns sticking out of his head, which only made his heard beat faster. A cube dangled on his belt, the swaying momentarily distracting him. The man crouched and looked at Roman with the one eye that wasn’t hastily covered by a stained, white cloth.

“I’ve heard lots of good things about you. This is your first year at Beacon, isn’t it? My, how exciting that must be! How’s your semester going?”

Roman glared, forcing back any fear shaking his body. “Who are you?” he spat.

The man kneeled and smiled, sending shivers down Roman’s back. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, buddy. My name’s Sullivan; I’m a friend of your big brother’s.”

It clicked in his mind who this man was. He’d heard all about their “friendship” over the past few years. Roman felt his blood boiling. “Oh, I’m sure you two get along swell if you have to resort to kidnapping me in order to see him.”

Sullivan’s smile faltered a bit, but wasn’t swiped away. “Oh, come now, I’m sure you know how hard it is to reach him. I just want to have a little chat with him, is all.”

“What, are you going to try to convince him to join the White Fang again? Try to get him to join back up with you scoundrels and help you terrify and manipulate humans into doing whatever you want?” Roman stuck his chin out, allowing his fear and anger fuel this psuedo-confidence. “Torius will never choose to speak to a such a villain as you!”

The smile was gone, and in its place a piercing glare. He snatched Roman’s collar and roughly yanked him off of his feet, standing at his full height. “I am not the villain here,” he growled. “You think your brother is a hero? Think he’s so brave and awe-inspiring for running and betraying us?! You think hero would do this?!”

Sullivan reached up and jerked the cloth up and away from his left eye, revealing… well, nothing. His eyelid cracked open to a gaping hole where his eyeball should have been. Roman had to swallow back bile. He tried to look away, but Sullivan grabbed his chin and forced him to see.

“Your brother is not as innocent as you think he is. I’m not letting him get away with this, and you’re going to help me.”

Baring his teeth, Roman swung his leg back and jabbed his knee towards Sullivan’s crotch; the stronger man jerked back just in time for the attack to miss. He dropped Roman to the floor, where his head collided with the hard concrete under the carpet with a loud crack. A yelp slipped out of his throat before he could stop it.

He opened his eyes to a foot racing towards his face, and then everything went black.

Virgil had always known his first trip to Vale would be exciting, but he’d always imagined it the curiosity-and-wonder type, not the someone-going-to-die-if-we-don’t-find-them type.

Even though they were the only three on the streets at this hour, he, Patton, and Logan were all scrunched together as they walked down the sidewalk. Their leader was in the middle, cloak wrapped tightly around him; his shield bumped against the sheath to Roman’s sword, smacking it against Logan’s pants, who tried to steady it with the hand that wasn’t clutching his own book. It was the only sound outside of their footsteps.

Gripping his pole tighter, Virgil looked at his teammates. “I don’t think there’s anything outside of shops around here,” he whispered. “D’you think we should head back to the square and try a different direction?”

“Perhaps. Have we heard anything from the other teams yet?” Logan asked.

Patton shook his head. “Maybe that guy didn’t know anything and they’re trying to find someone else to give them information. The shady side of town and the docks aren’t that far for them to take this long…”

“Well, it’s not like we’ve been updating them, either,” Virgil pointed out, turning and heading down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

As the other two joined him, Logan let out a soft hum. “True, and that’s because we have nothing to update. It’s possible that they also haven’t found anything.”

“Yeah, and maybe it’s possible that they were—”

Virgil’s reply was cut off by heavy vibrating and loud music erupting from Patton’s pocket, echoing through the empty streets; yelping, Patton scrambled to pull his scroll out.

“T-O-P! T-O-P! Bow down to the tower of pimps! T-O-P! T-O-P! Bow down to th--”

“Hello?”

Virgil could just make out Trix’s voice from the speaker pressed against Patton’s ear. “We found something. Where are you guys?”

“Uh…” Patton paused, looking around for a street sign. “Cherry Blossom Road. The same one where Tukson’s Book Trade is.”

“Awesome, alright— Junior let it slip that there’s something going on with the White Fang near that bakery on the square, the one that sells that sweet bread you said your family always gets. Stella wants you guys to check out the area.”

“We’ll get right on it.”

“Just— be careful, alright? Don’t engage in any fights if you do find them. We’re on our way, so don’t do anything stupid until we get there. We don’t need to lose any more of you tonight. Is that clear?”

Swallowing thickly, Patton nodded. “Crystal.”

“I’m hanging up to call Anole now. Stay safe.”

A buzzing rang over the line, and Patton jerked away, using his other hand to rub his ear while he ended the call. He shoved his scroll back into his pocket and started to jog down the street. “Come on!”

“That’s odd,” Logan muttered. “Why would they choose to indulge in criminal activities in such a populated area?”

Virgil snapped his pole in half and sprinted after Patton. “Dude, focus on that later!”

“Apologies.”

As soon as he got to the corner of the square, Patton skidded to a stop, holding out his hands for balance. His eyes darted around to search for any movement as the other two came up behind him.

“Do you see anything?” he softly asked.

Virgil huffed. “Of course not, Pat, it’s too dark…”

“Unless you’re a faunus,” Logan corrected. “The retinas in their eyes are much more receptive than human’s. This is possibly due to the…”

A shadow shifted on the far corner, drawing Patton’s attention away and blocking Logan’s voice out completely. Focusing his vision, he leaned just a tad bit forward. Someone was standing at the corner, and they…

Patton gasped, throwing his arms back and dragging himself and his teammates back around the corner. They both let out yelps, but Patton frantically shushed them.

“There’s a White Fang guy over there!” he hissed.

Their jaws snapped shut. Patton pressed himself against the wall, peering just enough around the corner to get the faunus back in his sights; they paused at the end of the road and shifted their gun before turning and pacing back to where they’d come from. Patton glanced at Logan and Virgil and gave them a nod, and then crept into the square as quickly and quietly as he physically could.

Once they were at the corner, Patton looked down the street. A sigh of relief danced on his lips when he saw one single street light illuminating the area, but the calm was destroyed as soon as he realized there was not one, but four members of the White Fang slowly making their way up and down the road. He bit his lip and looked to the others.

“Trix said they were on their way to the square,” he breathed. “We have to wait for them to do anything. Right now, we just need to lay low and not get into trouble, alright?”

Virgil and Logan nodded, each gripping their weapons tighter than before. Patton gently pulled his shield against himself and looked back down the road. By the looks of it, they still had a couple more minutes before they would have to hide to avoid the next—

Blam!

Patton whipped around just in time to watch Logan rip his hand away from the handle of Roman’s sword, hissing a yelp as quietly as he could.

“Gods!”

“What the hell was that?!” Virgil hissed.

“I don’t understand! Why is Roman’s weapon so sensitive?! I hardly touched it!”

Footsteps started to echo through the streets. “The hell was that…?”

“Looks like stealth is out of the window…”

Jumping past Patton and around the corner, Virgil lifted his pole and started shooting at the members of the White Fang running towards them. Three of the four stopped and raised their arms to cover themselves, but one lifted his gun and fired back. Sprinting towards them, Virgil flicked Sangria Salvia to its full length and slammed it into their side. They crashed into the wall and got back to their feet surprisingly quick.

Patton whimpered. “Oh, Trix is gonna be mad…”

“Even more so if we don’t assist him,” Logan pointed out, drawing Roman’s sword. “Come on!”

The two ran to the street just as Virgil launched himself at the member against the wall; the other three members came rushing towards them, drawing their swords and their guns, and Logan and Patton crouched in preparation.

When the second member with a gun lifted his weapon, Patton launched himself forward, using his shield to knock them back before they could fire. Logan raised Roman’s sword to block both of the remaining members’ own, and swung his book around to knock them away. As soon as they regained balance, they charged again.

Virgil swung his pole, but the member ducked and thrust his head up, colliding with Virgil’s mouth; he yelped and stumbled back a few steps, allowing the member to slam one fist into his stomach and the butt of their gun against his chest armor. They swung their fist at his face again, but this time, he launched himself down and back, leaping off of the ground with one hand while he used the other to smash his pole into the side of their head. They kartwheeled and landed on one knee to raise their gun and fire.

Leaping over one of the members’ swords, Logan threw Malgre Myosotis into its pistol form and shot at the one to the left. They snapped their sword to cover their face, and Logan slammed Roman’s blade against it to leap over them, accidentally firing a few shots as he pushed against it. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he heard the whirring of another blade, and he ducked and rolled just before the second member made contact. Logan flipped his gun to grab the strap and flung it towards the sword above it; it wrapped around smoothly, and he yanked it out of their hands. They reached for it, but Logan kicked them back, only for the first member to come flying at him with their sword above their head. Flinging the two swords he had now in front of his face in an X, he winced at the clanging that echoed through the street and pressed as hard as he could.

Bullets pelted Patton’s shield as he ran forward. The second he heard the firing stop, he reared back and frisbeed Dave as hard as he could towards the member. It slammed into their chest, and their arms flung forward, grabbing the weapon on accident. They stared down at it, mouth hung open, until Patton leapt and kicked them in the stomach, sending them to the ground and the shield flipping out of their grip and into Patton’s hands. Quickly, the member rolled to their feet and fired, but Patton blocked the shots and fired back. Just as he was gearing to throw his shield again, they sprinted forward and tackled him to the ground.

Virgil leapt off of the wall with Sangria Salvia held in front of him, aiming for the member’s chest, but they shot a hand up and grabbed it before it could hit them. As his eyes widened, the member swung the pole up and over and slammed Virgil into the asphalt. He groaned and rolled over, rubbing the back of his head; when he looked up, he saw the White Fang member grinning and aiming their gun at his head.

An arrow wedged itself in their back, and they yelled. Virgil watched as they dropped to the ground and revealed Anole, bow raised in one hand while the other gripped the wall where he hung about ten feet in the air. He dropped down, and Virgil released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“Are you alright?” Anole called as he ran over.

Virgil nodded and opened his mouth to respond, but movement caught the corner of his eye as the rest of Team AMBR ran around the corner to join the fight. Bora and Marjani leapt at the members attacking Logan, Riad sprinted to kick the member pinning Patton away, and Anole slammed his foot onto the back of the member who had been fighting Virgil. Anole pointed to the door of the only building on the street that had its light on.

“Go find Roman! We’ll take care of these guys.”

The three nodded and scrambled away from the gunfire and clanging of metal. Patton yanked on the door handle, but it didn’t budge. Virgil let out a growl.

“Of course,” he huffed. “That would have been too easy.”

“There has to be another entrance around here somewhere,” Logan pointed out, putting Roman’s sword back in its sheath.

Stepping back, Patton looked around; his eyes fell on an open window the next story up. He pointed to it and looked at Virgil.

“There!” he said. “I can help you jump up there, and then Logan can throw his book at you, and you pull the two of us up.”

Virgil blinked. “M-Me?”

“Yes! Use your pole!”

Nodding, Virgil headed back a few feet while Patton crouched with his shield in front of him. Virgil charged forward with Sangria Salvia extended, and as soon as it made contact with Dave, he kicked off of the ground. Patton lifted his shield above his head and jumped as Virgil fired his weapon. The sound of shattering glass echoed over the fight a second later.

“He missed,” Logan muttered.

“I’m okay!”

Patton reached over and looped his arm around Logan’s. “Throw your book!”

As soon as Virgil appeared in the window, Logan gripped his strap and launched Malgre Myosotis. Virgil leaned over the edge and just caught it before using both hands to hold it as tightly as he could. Logan jiggled the strap, and it retracted, bringing Patton and Logan with it. They tumbled over the windowsill and to the floor, taking Virgil down with them.

“And this is the part where Roman would make fun of us,” Virgil groaned.

Patton scrambled to his feet and looked around at the empty room they’d landed in, heading for the door as soon as he found it. “Come on!”

The hall, as it turned out, was much more dangerous than it was outside. The second Patton flung the door open, two members of the White Fang whipped around and started firing their guns; he threw up his shield and tried not to flinch at the clangs of bullets against it. Footsteps rushed up behind him, and he ducked as Virgil rolled over him and into the hall. Sangria Salvia whirled around and knocked the guns out of their hands. As Virgil kicked one in the chest, Patton threw his shield into the other’s stomach.

When those two hit the ground, they heard a handful more rushing down the hall to the left. Logan ran out, and Patton pointed to the right.

“We need to get out of here.”

They sprinted, and just as they were turning the corner, Logan saw the members of the White Fang rushing into the area they’d just left. He let out a growl and stopped, turning to look at Patton and Virgil.

“Search for Roman,” he called. “I’ll attempt to distract these people!”

Patton nodded, furrowing his brow. “Stay safe.”

As they ran off, Logan turned back to the six people in white masks that were surrounding him. They held up their guns; he slowly looked around at each one individually. His eyes narrowed.

Logan grabbed the strap of his book and swung, the binding slamming into one and knocking them into the next two people over. Gunshots rang through the hall, but he ducked and ran, sliding and scooping up one of the discarded guns. He got on one knee and shot two more down. The last one screamed and charged, but Logan drew Autumn Amaryllis and spun, blade connecting with the member’s side and throwing them into the wall.

With everyone around him down, Logan allowed himself to take a deep breath. He slid Roman’s sword back in its sheath and hurried after his teammates.

He was just rounding his third corner when he nearly smashed face first into Patton; they both let out a yelp and stumbled back a step or two before regaining their composure. Virgil caught Patton when he slipped on the small sheet of ice he’d left under his feet.

“Have you found anything?” he asked.

“No, I was trying to find you,” Logan replied. “Did you?”

Patton shook his head, biting down on his lip. “We checked every room. There’s a staircase in the next hall. We were just coming to find you.”

Nodding, Logan readjusted his grip on his book. “Let’s start downstairs.”

Riad slammed the White Fang member into the asphalt, breathing heavily as he got to his feet. “Gods, these guys were tanks! I didn’t know the White Fang had guys this strong!”

“They have stronger,” Anole lowly pointed out. “They usually put more experienced guys like this on guard duty, but they’re not their most powerful.”

“Explains why there were only four out here to begin with,” Bora said.

Anole’s pocket began to vibrate, and he whipped out his scroll, answering the call as soon as he saw his sister’s face on the screen. “Trix!”

“Anole! Patton’s not picking up; where are you? Are you with them?!”

He cursed under his breath. “Gods, no- I mean, we were, but there were guards outside of the building, and they were already here, so we took over the fight and I sent them inside-”

“You WHAT?!”

“They were holding their own with the guards, I thought they could handle it!”

Trix swore loudly. “Anole, you get your stupid scales inside and find them, or I swear to the gods—”

The doors slammed open, and Marjani yelled, holding her two swords out. “Anole, get off of your scroll!”

“Shoot— listen, I can try, but we’ve got a new wave of guards coming at us,” Anole yelped. “I can probably—”

“Ugh, don’t even bother! Listen, we’re almost there— We’ll send Eve and Rakesh to help you guys out. Stella and I will go in and look for PRVL. Just— stay safe, don’t do anything stupid, and keep your scroll on, understand? I don’t need to lose any other stupid brothers tonight!”

A smile tugged on the edge of his lip, but he bit it down. “Got it. Be careful.”

Just as he shoved his scroll back in his pocket, a bullet whizzed past his ear; he shot an arrow and charged into the fight.

As they ran into yet another empty room, Virgil let out a low growl. “Where the hell could they have put him?”

Patton chewed on his lip, shaking his head as he turned to head back into the hall. “We just have to keep looking. We’ll find him eventually.”

“The longer we look, the higher the chances are that he’ll be in the next room,” Logan pointed out. “That means that, should we keep searching, there will come a time where that percentage should be one hundred percent. There’s no need to fret.”

“I think there’s plenty of reason for that.”

They skidded around a corner to find another group of white masks shifting to look at them; Logan grabbed Malgre Myosotis, and Virgil let out a loud groan.

“We’re never going to find him if we keep having to stop and fight!” he yelled.

Patton pulled him back around the corner as Logan leapt into the fight. Gunshots echoed through the hall, followed by the thuds of bodies hitting the floor. As Logan reappeared, groans filled the air. They ran in the opposite direction.

A door opened at the end of the hall, and the three skidded to a stop, readying their weapons for a fight. Two figures stepped out and looked around; one made eye contact with them, and she let out a yell and ran to them.

“There you are!” Trix exclaimed.

She scooped Patton into a tight hug, reaching out to grip Virgil’s free hand and smiling at Logan. Patton squeezed her back before he pulled away and looked up at her.

“You scared us!”

“Are you three alright?” she asked. “None of you are hurt?”

Logan shook his head. “We’re all safe. Any members of the White Fang that we’ve come across have been taken care of.”

Rushing over, Stella laid a hand on Trix’s shoulder and turned to the boys. “Have you found anything?”

“No. He’s not on the second floor, and we’ve looked through almost every room on this floor,” Virgil said. “We can’t find him anywhere!”

Trix growled and looked at the floor. “They probably took him to the basement,” she huffed. “That’s always been his schtick.”

“Whose?” Patton asked.

“Sullivan. I’ll explain some other time; right now, we need to get to the basement. Where are the stairs?”

“They’re just a couple of halls down,” Patton replied. “Follow us.”

Marjani leapt and landed on the shoulders of the two White Fang members rushing up behind her; with a flip, she shoved them to the ground and turned to the gunman racing towards her. She stuck her arms out and twirled, letting the two swords in her hands smash the gun to the ground. A yell sounded overhead as Bora flipped over her and slammed them into the asphalt.

Another member charged at them, but a curved pistol on a string wrapped around them and yanked them back. As they fell to the ground, Anole pulled his weapon off of them with a flick of the curved pistol on the other end of the string. He connected the two at the barrels and grabbed and arrow, firing it at a member that was gearing up to attack Riad.

Riad sent a thankful nod at Anole before pressing a button on the handle of his mace. As soon as the chain and spikes on the ball began to glow a dark red, he whipped it at one of the other members near him, and he leapt back to avoid the explosion upon its impact. He pressed another button that made his weapon glow blue; he slammed it on the ground and jumped to avoid the sheet of ice that froze a few members to the ground.

A metal arm shot through the fight and grabbed one of the trapped faunus. They yelled as it ripped them out of the ice and dragged them away, knocking over multiple other members in their path. Eventually, Riad watched as a shirtless man with teal hair used his other metal fist to punch the member into the air with a poof of black dust. They flew high into the sky, and Riad knew they weren’t coming back down for a while. He grinned at the man as he walked over.

“Rakesh, right?” he said.

Rakesh nodded and looked behind him. “Eve should be somewhere around here. They said they wanted to take the guards on the other side of the building by themself. Shouldn’t take them long.”

Running backwards, Anole shot another arrow and glanced at the two. “Are Trix and Stella inside?”

“Yes. You should join them.”

Anole’s eyes widened, and he whipped around. “Huh?!”

“You and Riad should go in and help,” Rakesh repeated. “The more people searching, the sooner you’ll find your brother. Eve and I can help your other two team members to clear out these guards.”

A White Fang member ran forward with their sword raised, and Rakesh swung his left arm back, slapping them out of the way. When he looked back, Anole and Riad were having a silent conversation; Riad shrugged with a smile, and Anole let out a huff before he shot another arrow.

“…Fine,” he said. He then turned to face where the girls fought and yelled, “Bora, Marjani! Listen to Eve and Rakesh, got it?”

“Aye aye, sir!”

“You’re the boss!”

The crevices in Rakesh’s metal right hand began to glow white. He turned and punched the air in the direction of the doors, and a gust of wind blasted through the members in between. Riad and Anole said a brief word of thanks before sprinting into the building.

The doors burst open, and footsteps echoed through the large, white room the five had just run into. On the opposite side, the bat and spider faunus from earlier stood on either side of a door; the grabbed their weapons and jumped into a fighting stance.

“Brother Sullivan!” the girl yelled.

Patton gasped, and Virgil lunged for his hand, grabbing it just before Patton’s semblance kicked in. The temperature dropped going up his forearm. When he glanced down, he saw a large chunk of ice frozen around their hands. Cursing under his breath, Virgil sternly looked at their leader.

“Do not freeze us to the floor again.”

The two faunus began to charge at them; while Patton let out a whimper, Trix launched herself forward and spun, the large ninja stars on her hands bouncing off of the bat’s arms as he threw them up. Stella calmly walked forward and lifted her hand, and the lights in the room immediately dimmed until the moonlight streaming through the windows near the ceiling was visible.

“We’ll take care of the bat,” she said, turning back to the boys. “You two take care of her.”

As she ran into the fight, whip flying at the bat, Virgil let out a low growl. “What a fantastic idea.”

There was the sound of scraping metal behind them, and then Logan was at Virgil’s side with Roman’s sword in his hand. “With three of us against one, theoretically, we should be able to take her down in little time,” he said. “There’s nothing to fear.”

Just as the words were out of his mouth, a web shot out and wrapped around Logan’s wrist, jerking him forward and directly into the woman’s fist. He stumbled back a step, but she pulled him back and twirled him; the web wrapped around him and set his arm at an odd angle. Logan let out a yelp, but managed to swing the sword up and slice the web apart anyway. She fired another at him, but he ducked back and did a flip, throwing his book at her and wrapping the strap around her leg as he was in the air. With a swift tug, she fell to the ground, and his book came spiraling back. She leapt to her feet and shot one last web at him that hit the target directly. His arms pinned to his side, and he tumbled to the ground.

Virgil gripped his pole and ran forward, tugging Patton along with him as best as he could while the spider faunus charged at them. She whipped out a knife and stabbed at him, but Virgil slammed her arm away with Sangria Salvia before it could make contact. Patton pulled forward and thrust his shield towards her head; she jumped back and swung her leg, heel connecting with Virgil’s jaw and causing him to stumble. Contorting them to twist around, Virgil slammed the block of ice into the back of her head and shoved her behind them. As soon as she hit the floor, she rolled over and shot a web; Virgil yanked them sideways so it hit the block of ice instead of them.

“Are you serious?!” a voice boomed over the fight. “You can’t even keep a couple of kids out of here?!”

Virgil whipped around to see who was speaking, but the flash of orange disappeared before he could get a good look. The next thing he knew, a foot was smashing through the ice block connecting him and Patton. They tumbled to the ground and let out yelps before reaching to grasp their wrists.

“Forgive us, Brother Sullivan,” the spider faunus pleaded, “They have us outnumbered!”

“They’re kids, Trifa! You should have knocked them out ages ago!”

Virgil peeled his face off of the ground to look at the owner of the voice. The horns sticking out of his orange hair sent a wave of cold fear through his bones, but not nearly as much as the fact that it seemed he was turning his attention to look at Logan. Panic clawed at his throat as he turned to look at Patton, but their leader’s eyes were fluttering open and shut, dazed and unaware of their surroundings. Virgil swallowed thickly and looked towards his other teammate.

Logan finally managed to wrangle an arm out of the web, yanking it off of him the moment he had the ability to; he lunged for his book, but the man grabbed his collar and pulled him back. A choking noise made its way out of his throat. He squirmed to get away as the man lifted him into the air and turned him around to look at his face.

There was a beat where the man stood as still as the night. Virgil grabbed his pole and charged.

Just as suddenly as he was there, the man was gone, leaving Logan toppling towards the ground while Sangria Salvia crashed into his chest. Logan flew into the wall. His head hit the plaster with a dull thud, and then he crumpled to the floor. Virgil stood in shock for a moment before a foot smashed into his spine and thrust him forward, into the wall next to Logan.

He was unconscious before he even hit the tile.

Once the boy in dark clothes was out, Sullivan shot a glare back at Trifa.

“See? Was that so hard?” he sneered.

She hung her head. “No, sir. I’ll get better.”

Huffing out a laugh, he turned and walked towards the fight Yuma was handling. “You’d better. I don’t think Adam would appreciate it if you were sent back with a note on how poorly you fought tonight, now would he?”

Before he could hear her answer, Sullivan grabbed the cube dangling on his belt and pressed a button; the sounds of clanking metal almost buried the sounds of the fight until an axe was firmly in his grip. He tried to focus his vision on where Yuma and the girls were, but without depth perception, it was nearly impossible to figure out where to land an attack without hurting his ally. Instead, he figured out where the redhead might land next and attempted to place all of his energy in that one spot.

His aura jostled as he teleported, and Trix skidded in front of him, back towards him as she faced Yuma. With a grin, Sullivan raised the axe and swung.

A cord wrapped around the handle just as it was about to hit; he whipped around to see the unfamiliar blonde woman gripping the whip and straining as hard as she could to keep the axe from making contact. Trix leapt at Yuma, blades spinning, and Sullivan growled. He yanked his weapon to his side, causing the blonde to gasp and stumble in front of him. As she tried to regain her footing, he lifted his arm and jabbed his elbow into her spine. She fell to the ground as a yellow light crackled across her body.

The room lit up; the remaining four squinted.

Trifa walked up to Sullivan’s side, dagger tightly in her grip; she lifted it, but he put a hand on her chest and shook his head.

“Leave it,” he said. “If we kill anyone tonight, it’s a Reptilia. No one else deserves to suffer for Torius’s betrayal.”

As if on cue, Trix slid to a halt, glaring Yuma down as she lifted her blades and shot bullets. Sullivan pressed a button on his axe, and it illuminated yellow; he thrust it through the air in her direction, and a bolt of lightning shot out and struck her in the side. She screamed and collapsed. Red light crackled over her body.

Grinning, Sullivan kicked the blonde’s unconscious form out of the way. “This is my kill.”

He stalked forward, lifting the axe above his head as a sense of satisfaction crept through his veins. If he couldn’t kill that betraying reptile tonight, then, well… maybe one of the prized sisters could be just as sweet a victory.

The temperature at his feet dropped, and he suddenly couldn’t take another step.

Sullivan’s gaze snapped down to see a thick sheet of ice surrounding the tiles around him, with a little trail of excess leading to the left. He turned in that direction, jaw clenching as a roar built up in his throat.

The cloaked faunus boy’s hand dropped to the tile as his eyes fluttered shut.

Sullivan growled and swung his axe to the floor, shattering the ice around his left foot. Just as he was swinging to free his right, the window crashed open, and a foot smashed into his chest. The force of the attack sent Sullivan flying, freeing him from the ice. He rolled across the floor and only regained his balance when he shoved the blade of his axe through the tile.

He moved to glare at the attacker, but froze upon seeing his face. The other man stood to his full height with his fists clenched and a fire in his eyes. A shiver went down Sullivan’s spine.

Slowly, the man lifted his blue hands and calculatedly swooshed them in front of him.

MY BROTHER WHERE

Sullivan laughed, trying to force back any more shivers from making themselves obvious. “Torius. It’s been a while.”

His expression didn’t falter. WANT BROTHER

“I’m surprised. I didn’t think you would come for that one,” he retorted.

Torius bared his teeth; Sullivan knew that if he had ever developed a voice, a loud growl would be echoing through the room. He began to storm forward, causing Trifa and Yuma to scurry towards the exit.

Cowards, Sullivan thought.

If it were anyone else, he knew that they would be nose to nose. Torius was as close to him as he could possibly get without ruining his ability to sign.

GIVE ME MY BROTHER

Sullivan hummed. “Even that pretty blond hair of yours can’t keep you from being intimidating, can it?” He reached up to push Torius’s bangs away from his eyes. “Listen, Roman’s all yours if you just hear me—”

His hand gripped his arm, and the next thing he knew, he was crashing into the wall on the other side of the room. As he groaned and rubbed his head, he raised his gaze to laugh at him.

“Okay, okay—poor choice of words.”

YOU SPEAK I DON’T CARE. WANT MY FAMILY

Smile falling into a glare, Sullivan climbed to his feet. “Always about your family, isn’t it?” he hissed. “Never care about what impact this is going to have on humanity’s views of faunus. Yeah, that sounds like you.”

Torius glared. WHITE FANG HURT VIEWS

“Hurts? Are you kidding? You haven’t seen the progress we’ve made since Khan became the High Leader, have you?” he yelled. Eyes widening, he leaned back and raised his hands in faux shock. “Oh, that’s right! You haven’t, because your cowardly ass left the second things got a little scary!”

PROTECTING FAMILY, he firmly signed.

“The White Fang is family!”

FAMILY DOESN’T HURT BECAUSE DISAGREE

Sullivan stormed up to him until they were nose to nose. “Family doesn’t pluck his brother’s eye out over a stupid argument!”

The echoes of his screams died in the long silence after the words came out of his mouth. Sullivan glared at Torius, lungs heaving as he attempted to regain control over his emotions. Torius simply stared back, stoic as ever.

Finally, Torius gently pushed him back a step. He lifted his hands and slowly signed.

YOU ME NOT BROTHERS

There was a pause as the words sunk in. Sullivan stayed still.

Torius drew back and slapped the back of his hand across Sullivan’s face, skin secreting a sticky, searing slime; Sullivan made no attempt to dodge it. Pins and needles covered his body as Torius walked out of view and the weak poison took effect. The world slowly grew darker and darker.

When Patton came to, the first thing he realized was that he was in unfamiliar arms.

Voices gradually came into focus, but none of them were from whoever was holding him. He could hear Logan and Virgil, and relief coursed through his veins; Trix and Stella’s voices carried through, and he felt safe. But the hands gently pressing his limbs and abdomen sent his curious mind reeling. He cracked his eyes open, squinting in the lights.

Patton saw blond hair, blue patches of skin, a face that was kind of familiar, like he’d seen it in a picture or something…

Oh.

His tongue was heavy in his mouth, and words wouldn’t form, but Torius saw him anyway; he gently smiled at him and snapped his fingers towards where Trix’s voice was coming from. Her face came into view in an instant, and her hand cradled the back of his head.

“You’re awake,” she breathed. “Gods, I’m so sorry—I should have made you three stay in your dorm, I shouldn’t have let Virgil talk me into letting you come—”

Torius waved his hand to cut her off, and then Patton was being shifted into her arms; he put his fists on top of each other and pulled them in opposite directions. She let out a shuddering breath and nodded, looking away towards where Virgil and Logan sat nearby, watching worriedly. Her eyes flickered down to meet Patton’s. He tried to muster as best a smile as he could in return.

“You’re right,” she said. “None of you three were hurt, and that’s all I should be thankful for.”

Virgil crawled forward and put a hand on Patton’s leg. “Riad and Anole are looking for Roman. Trix wants us to stay put for now since none of us have any aura left, but I figured you would want to know.”

Nodding, Patton slowly pushed against Trix to sit himself up; two hands rested on his back to help. He looked back to Torius and smiled, sending him a small wave. Torius mirrored the greeting.

Footsteps echoed through the area, and they all turned to see Anole come skidding around the corner of the hall at the end of the room. With wide eyes, he pointed down the hall and beamed with relief.

“We found him.”

When they got to the carpeted room at the end of the hall, Riad was cradling a just-slightly-conscious Roman in his arms; his wings drooped wearily, and his wrists and left side of his face were raw and bright red. A mangled spiderweb and piece of rope lay nearby.

Torius slowly approached, kneeling in front of them with a gentle smile. He lifted his hands and very slowly began to sign.

YOU OKAY?

Blearily, Roman blinked. He swallowed thickly and opened his mouth.

“I’m fine…,” he croaked, “But your shirt sure isn’t.”

Torius glanced down at the shredded croptop covering his chest; after shooting Roman a dirty look, he stood and faced where the others stood at the door. His next signs were swift and blunt.

HE’S FINE.

Softly chuckling, Riad looked down at Roman to find him staring right back up at him. He sent him a soft smile and raised his eyebrows.

“Nice to finally meet you,” he muttered.

A weak smirk pulled at Roman’s lips. “…’Nole never said you were cute…”

“Oh, he’s definitely fine,” Anole deadpanned.

The next thing anyone knew, Patton was rushing forward and tackling Roman in a tight embrace; Roman let out a groan, but weakly gripped him in return. Riad pulled back as soon as he was sure Patton had a secure hold on him.

“Patton, ‘m fine, promise,” he mumbled.

The leader shook his head, gripping him tighter.

Logan walked over and mustered up the courage to make eye contact with Roman. He unhooked the sheath of the sword from his belt and showed it to him. “Brought this,” he said, voice soft and strained. “For if we found you and still needed to fight. So you could fight with us.”

Roman smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”

Patton finally pulled away and scrubbed at his eyes; he and Roman looked at each other for a moment before he burst into flustered laughter. Logan gently reached down and tugged Patton away. Roman was about to question it when two more bodies plowed into him, gripping him way tighter than Patton had.

“You stupid, idiotic, dumb, dragon-faced, egg-laying…”

“Safe, you’re safe, you’re safe…”

A third, muscular pair of arms joined the hold. Roman let himself be swallowed by the embrace. He carefully unfurled his wings and wrapped them around his siblings.

They were safe.

“Roman, please, just two more bites…”

“No. I’m done.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it! You hardly touched it!”

“I do not like cream of broccoli, Patton. I’m sorry.”

Sighing, Patton placed the spoon back into the plastic cup and shifted so that he was sitting cross-legged on top of the book shelf. His shoulders fell as he frowned. “You won’t get any better if you don’t eat…”

“I won’t get any better if I get sick from drinking sludge from the dining hall,” Roman shot back, shifting under his blankets. His wings fluttered instinctively, and he winced. “Besides, I’m not ill. I don’t believe a strict diet of soup and toast will help my injuries heal any faster.”

Logan let out a hum from where he sat at Roman’s desk, fairy lights covering the shelves turned off. “Perhaps not the toast, but the Vitamin C in the broccoli does promote the healing of skin and help prevent scar tissue… Also, Roman, are you aware that this assignment for Dr. Picani was due over a week ago?”

“It was only thirty points.”

“Only?!”

The two began to bicker, and Virgil shifted awkwardly on his own bed. He made sure to keep his eyes glued to his scroll even though his mind was far elsewhere. It seemed that his brain was intent on repeating every awful thing he’d said to Roman in the past fourteen weeks; guilt pooled in his lungs as the impact of those statements really hit him.

A part of him wanted to fight back against it, to preserve how he viewed himself as a noble villain just trying to protect himself and those he loved—but another, louder section pointed out that that couldn’t be the truth anymore. He angered Logan. He scared Patton. He hurt Roman. A voice in the back of his head whispered that there wasn’t anything noble about him at all. He was just a villain, plain and simple.

He still didn’t fully trust Roman. True, he did deserve a lot of what he was given—the insults, the fighting, the punch last night –it wasn’t as if Virgil was completely innocent. But the King Taijitu squeezing his lungs reminded him of every cruel word and action the bullies at Sanctum had done, the taunting and names so similar to the things Roman had said and done this past semester, and the alarm bells were screaming at him despite his best efforts to shut them off. Trusting him was going to take a lot of time and effort. One night wasn’t going to change that.

Seeing Trix and Anole do everything they could to protect Virgil, however, even after he’d treated their brother like he had, and how Torius had risked his own safety to save Roman, well… maybe there was a chance that not all faunus were like the ones he’d come to know in Mistral. And knowing everything Patton had been through, what Virgil himself had put him through, and how he had still come out of it all with a smile on his face…

He glanced up at Patton, who was playing with the ends of his cloak as Roman and Logan continued to argue. Virgil had to swallow the lump in his throat when Patton looked back and smiled.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try to be better.

A frown etched on Patton’s face just as Virgil turned his burning eyes back to his scroll. He’d done so many wrong things this semester; he knew he shouldn’t get any of the sympathy their leader was bound to give him if he saw he was upset. This was how he deserved to feel: guilt eating a hole in his stomach, fear of the future causing his heart to thunder so fiercely he was afraid it would alert the rest of the room to his presence, and that irritability that had developed with the change this semester that made his blood boil and a growl lying in wait in the back of his throat.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Patton swiveled to let his feet dangle over the edge of the bookshelf. “Hey, Logan?”

“Yes?”

“Can you come with me to see what other kinds of soup they have at the dining hall? You can help me find another one with lots of Vitamin C that Roman would like, right?”

“Um. I suppose I could.”

“Great!” Patton leapt off of his seat and headed towards the door, grabbing Logan by the hand and dragging him into the hall. “Take care of Roman, Virgil! Don’t get into any trouble!”

The door shut behind them; Roman scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I’m not a child…”

They fell into an awkward silence. Virgil’s heart rattled in his chest.

Letting out a soft sigh, Roman’s hand patted the blanket; again, it felt around, and then his other hand began to do the same. He eventually looked around his mattress before turning to look at his desk. Virgil watched out of the corner of his eye as he started to get up, only to wince and settle back down.

“Um… Virgil?”

He swallowed thickly and looked up.

Roman rubbed the back of his neck and gestured to his books. “Logan must have needed my scroll for something, and they left in such a hurry... Would it… be a problem…?”

Without a word, Virgil stood and got the scroll, head starting to spin as he walked it over to Roman. The faunus’s grateful smile, while normally a grand and dramatic expression, was significantly less impactful with a bandage preventing half of it from appearing. Guilt twisted in his stomach; he lifted his thumbnail to his mouth and looked to the floor.

“Um… I, uh…”

His voice cracked. Virgil attempted to cover it with a cough. He turned and leaned to half-sit on the bookshelf, keeping his eyes far away from his teammate.

“Virgil?”

“I’m sorry.”

The statement had come out so soft that Virgil was half convinced that Roman didn’t even hear it; the silence that followed afterwards gave no answers. Slowly, he turned his eyes to look at him, getting a shocked and confused stare in return.

“You… You’re apologizing,” he said.

Embarrassment crept up his neck. Before he could stop himself, Virgil glared and snapped his gaze away. “Yeah, I’ve been a huge dick this semester, why wouldn’t I?!” he exclaimed. “Look, just—if you’re gonna make fun of me, don’t, just forget I said anything—”

“No, no! I wouldn’t—I’m just surprised, Virgil, I didn’t think you were going to apologize,” Roman hastily explained. “I would never make fun of you for something like this. I swear it on Bellona Desmond’s life!”

Virgil’s muscles gradually relaxed as he swallowed thickly; his face reddened further, and he wrapped his arms around himself. “W-Whatever,” he huffed. “My point still stands.”

There was a beat of silence. Roman shifted in his bed.

“Were you going to say something else?” he softly asked.

Trying to will the frightened lump in his throat away, Virgil sucked in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. “Uh… Just…”

He cleared his throat and sniffled before putting a hand over his eyes. He was the one who had been a jerk this whole semester; why was he crying?! He knew he deserved anything Roman would have to say to him! Gods, even when he was apologizing, he couldn’t get anything right anymore! What was wrong with him?

“Virgil…?”

“S-Sorry, I…” He sucked in a shuddering breath and balled his fist, resting his forehead on it. “Look, I… I’ve been a real dick this semester,” he repeated. “Especially these last few weeks. And it was awful of me, and I’m sorry. I don’t have a good excuse. I just… proved myself the villain. Again. I’m sorry.”

Virgil held his breath, waiting for the laughter or the yelling or… something. But Roman was completely silent. He mustered up the courage to unscrew his eyes and look over, and Roman was staring off into space, deep in thought. His throat started to close up again.

Finally, Roman let out a sigh. He shifted to the edge of his bed, wincing a little before he patted the sheets. “Come here.”

He froze, staring dumbly until Roman raised his eyebrows and gestured again.

“I’m serious. I want to say something.”

Taking his thumb nail into his mouth again, Virgil slowly made his way to Roman’s bed; he awkwardly placed himself in the small space between his teammate and the bookshelf, his legs twisted so that his feet stayed off of the blankets. Roman placed his hand on his thigh and rubbed a couple of circles with his thumb before gently taking Virgil’s free hand.

“I’m not going to yell at you or anything silly like that,” he gently stated. “Relax.”

“Sorry.”

Roman let out a sigh. “You are fine.” He squeezed Virgil’s hand and turned to him. “Look, I… can’t say that it’s going to be easy to forgive you,” he admitted. “You did say and do a lot that hurt. Not just me, but my siblings, and… Well, any other faunus that might have been around to hear. I know I wasn’t exactly a great person in return, and I apologize, but I am not the only person you need to apologize to. You understand that, right?”

Virgil nodded, swallowing thickly.

“However…” Roman laced their fingers together. “Logan told me what you said to him in the sparring gym the other day. About your sister. I don’t blame you for disliking us after that. Virgil, I am so, so sorry you had to go through that. I can’t imagine… I mean, losing any of my siblings for any reason, let alone having someone to blame… I—”

His voice broke, and he lifted his free hand to cover his mouth. As his eyes screwed shut, Virgil hesitantly squeezed his hand.

Finally, Roman sniffled and took a deep breath. “I… I can’t say I would feel much different if I was in your position. It’s not an excuse to be discriminatory, but it is an understandable cause.”

He looked back at Virgil, holding up his head and raising his eyebrows.

“As long as you are willing to work at bettering yourself, to learn that we aren’t all like Nere or the White Fang, and you try to understand that faunus, too, are people just as vulnerable and similar and different from each other as you are… I think… that I can find it in me to forgive you.”

Virgil’s lip trembled, and he bit down on it, slowly nodding at Roman. “Okay,” he breathed.

A gentle smile formed on Roman’s lips. “Okay?”

Virgil nodded again; Roman moved his other hand to join the first, and they squeezed Virgil’s tightly.

“I will help you,” he declared. “And so will Anole, and Trix—Torius, too, if he ever comes around again –and I’m sure Patton and Logan will be more than happy to, as well. I know this might be hard for you, but we can do it. I will do whatever it takes to help you.”

A flustered laugh burst out of Virgil before he could stop it; he turned away, scrubbing tears away from his eyes. “Deal,” he choked out.

Roman’s wing carefully wrapped around him and pulled him closer, and they sat in silence for a few minutes, shoulder to shoulder.

Another low laugh escaped Virgil, head tipping to face his lap. “Suppose this’ll have to happen more often, if we don’t want to disappoint Thomas.”

Roman frowned and blinked. “Who?”

“You know, the guy our middle names form?” Virgil said. “We talked about it at the beginning of the semester. Four of us, stacked in a trench coat?”

“Oh, right. You remembered that for this long?”

He shrugged. “What can I say, I thought it was funny.”

Letting out a laugh, Roman leaned back, the back of his head hitting against the wall with a gentle thud as he shut his eyes. “Well, we’ll have to be sure not to lose any fights in the future. We can’t let him down, after all. And with the four of us being in charge? He must be quite unstable.”

“Mm, careful, Thamir’s gonna find you and make you put some Lien in their Mental Illness Joke Jar.”

“Maybe we should get a Faunus Insult Jar for our team—Ow! Hey!”

“It’s a pillow. Relax.”

“How dare you; I’m already injured!”

Virgil opened his mouth to shoot a retort back, but Roman burst into laughter before any noise could make it out. His cackling encouraged Virgil to start giggling, and they stayed like this for a minute longer until the door swung open and a gasp echoed through the room. Roman and Virgil turned to see Patton with his hands over his mouth and Logan with raised eyebrows, gripping a foam cup.

Holding up his hands, Roman sat up. “Now, Patton, don’t—”

“You two are cuddling!”

He ran forward and threw himself on top of the two, arms wrapping around their torsos as he ignored the wind being knocked out of them. Something began to worm its way between them, but a huff from Logan drew their attention away before they could question it.

“While this is quite the pleasant surprise, Patton, I don’t believe it’s healthy to be throwing yourself on top of Roman when he’s still healing,” he pointed out.

Patton shifted, turning to look back at him. “Wanna join the hug?”

Humming, Logan made his way to his own bed, setting the cup on the floor as he sat on his mattress. “I understand the sentiment, but I think I will choose to stay out of touch for this one.”

“Good choice,” Roman groaned. “I think we’re already gonna suffocate.”

Virgil shifted under Patton’s weight, trying to get away from whatever was crawling up his side. “Yeah, c’mon, Dad, you’re gonna kill us!”

There was a beat.

Patton sat up, staring at Virgil with wide eyes.

“Did you just call me Dad?”

Face heating, Virgil blinked. “I— Did I?”

Beaming, Patton started flapping his hands so hard that Roman and Virgil had to lean back to avoid being hit; he let out a laugh and nodded frantically.

“You did! Virgil, you— You called me Dad!”

“How sweet,” Roman cooed.

Virgil scoffed and looked away. “What… ever. S’not like I don’t already have more than one dad. What’s a third, you know?”

Patton launched forward and gripped the two in a tight hug again. He reached his hand out towards Logan, who amusedly rolled his eyes and hesitantly took it. Squeezing it tightly, Patton let out a warming hum.

“You guys are the best family I’ve ever had.”

A vine made its way up between Roman and Virgil, and a wine colored flower bloomed.

The sky was a bright scarlet shade as the sun started to dip below the horizon less than a week later. Winds whipped through the air from the airships taking off from the docks, exhausted students ready for a break filling each one. The jets rumbled the ground each time. Chatter from other students saying their temporary goodbyes sounded in the time between.

Team PRVL sat on a bench away from the chaos, silent.

As another ship took off, Patton screwed his eyes shut, resisting the urge to cover his ears. “I can’t believe the semester is over,” he softly said.

To his left, Logan hummed. “It certainly did seem to go by quickly, didn’t it?”

The four collectively nodded before falling back into a comfortable quiet.

“…Next semester is going to be a lot different,” Roman pointed out. “New exchange students coming in for the Vytal Festival, our first official job shadowing…”

“And we won’t have any time to prepare for it together,” Patton whispered.

“Well, you and Virgil certainly will have plenty of time,” Logan replied.

Wrapping an arm around Patton’s shoulder, Virgil smiled. “Yeah, we can do whatever we want during break,” he said. “Just because you and I are staying at Beacon doesn’t mean we have to study. We can do anything!”

Patton chewed on his lip and looked back at his partner. “Can we bake cookies?”

“Dude, we can bake so many that our entire dorm is filled with them.”

A small laugh made its way out of him, but it was quickly replaced with tears as he turned to look at Logan and Roman. He sniffled and attempted to hold back a grimace.

“I’m going to miss you two so much!” he whimpered.

Cooing, Roman reached over and grabbed his hand. “It’s only for two weeks, Padre! We’ll be back before you know it.”

“Yes, and we can always communicate via our scrolls and video calls,” Logan added. “With today’s technology, we can talk as much as we need, so long as the CCT stands.”

Patton scrubbed at his eyes and nodded. “Can we talk every day?”

“Of course.”

“We will do nothing less,” Roman replied.

Footsteps broke them out of their conversation as two figures approached; with a sigh, Roman gave Patton’s hand a final squeeze before he reached down to grab the bag at his feet.

“Ready to go?” Trix asked.

He stood, hoisting his luggage over his shoulder. “Not really, but I doubt Mom and Dad would be happy with me if I missed the airship.”

Anole glanced over and observed melancholic the state of Team PRVL. After a moment, he took a step back, reaching out to pull Trix with him. “You know… We do still have a few minutes before it takes off,” he stated. “If you guys need to say goodbye.”

Roman turned to look at the other three; they each got to their feet and arranged themselves in a circle.

“Two weeks isn’t very long,” Logan pointed out. “I think after we get some rest, we’ll be ready to study and work even harder and more effeciently than before.”

“Who knows what kind of trouble we’re going to get ourselves into,” Virgil laughed, a crack in his voice.

“Whatever happens, we’ll be able to face it with everything we’re capable of,” Roman firmly stated, “And we will defeat it all!”

Three pairs of eyes turned to the fourth, wet pair; blinking tears down his face, Patton simply held his arms out. All three filed in, and they held each other tightly.

“I love you, guys,” Patton whispered.

After a long moment, they pulled apart, and Roman headed off to the airship with his siblings. It wasn’t long before four became three became two, and by the time the stars were poking their way into the sky, the bench and the loading docks were clear of all students.

Beacon Academy was still.

(Listen to this before you read the final scene: https://youtu.be/8Y2MBpbykPs)

The girl kept her head down, avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone as she made her way down the hall. She pressed the clipboard firmly against her chest to keep any prying eyes away from its contents. Her heels clacked against the tile, and her earrings jingled softly.

When she made it to the door at the end of the hall, she hesitantly looked up at the two women guarding it; after she gave them a nervous smile, they looked at each other and stepped to the side. The girl dropped her gaze again and swallowed thickly before pushing the door open.

The room was silent. Slowly, she looked up at the four figures sitting around the table in the center of the room.

The one at the head of the table narrowed his eyes at her. “Laleh,” he grumbled. “Did I tell you you were allowed to interrupt this meeting?”

“N-No, sir.”

He sighed and stood, placing his hands on the table. “Then can you explain to me, what the hell could you possibly have to say that justifies you being here?”

The girl shifted, glancing down at her clipboard. “Um…”

“She’s just a child,” said one of the women. Tipping her red cowboy hat up just enough to eye the girl, she leaned back in her seat. “You’re frightening her. Calm down and let her speak.”

“If she’s old enough to be here, she’s old enough to handle it,” the other woman snapped. Her dark brown fox tail flicked behind her as she glared.

The boy next to her shifted uncomfortably. “Nere…”

The man in charge lifted his hand, and they all fell silent. Laleh gripped the clipboard tighter as he turned his attention to her.

“Well?”

“W-Well, we, uh… We got a report. From one of our members in the White Fang,” she stated.

He raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“Um… They said that they saw a boy…? They said he’s the one you’re looking for, and they saw him a few nights ago in Vale. I was told that this was really urgent and that I needed to tell you immediately, so…”

She trailed off, eyes falling to the floor. There was silence.

“Perfect.”

Laleh looked up to find a chilling grin resting on the man’s face. She bit down on her lip to hide her shivers.

“Kid, if you’ll excuse us,” he laughed. “We’ve got a plan to form. Too intense for your young ears, Mm-kay?”

She nodded and headed back into the hall. The sound of the man’s laughing followed her, sending shivers down her spine with every step she took.

One last sentence echoed through the building.

“It’s time to get down to business!”

The door slammed shut.

#sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfiction #rwby au #sanders sides #prvl #alex writes

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