Chapter 11: Lending a Hand... or three.

Through choice, we become both heroes and monsters. Most choose poorly.

With every step Ruby took towards a large rectangular building behind the amphitheater she slowly came to the realization that foresight never was her strongest suit and that hindsight, as it tends to be, was twenty-twenty. Dressed in her combat attire and carrying Crescent Rose on her back, the usually lightweight alloys of the scythe now weighed her down almost as much as the thoughts in her head, echoing in slips of her dialogue with Ozpin and all of them subtly hinting that she made a grand mistake when she hastily accepted his proposal to join the academy two years early. I just had to wait for two years and none of these problems would exist.

But then I wouldn't be in the same team with Yang…

And how exactly is Yang going to help you with a stuck-up jerk and having to lead four people? And what four people…

She slowed her step, grabbing her head in exasperation and releasing a weary sigh. The burden of command placed upon her by the headmaster certainly didn't wait to remind her; it was demanding as ever. First day of classes was turning out less than stellar, revealing... several imperfections about her unwilling choice of teammates, and something told her she was only scrubbing at the surface of the many rabbit holes of her comrades' personal insanities. Having to prevent a mutiny on the team, being read morals by Ozpin and then witnessing one of her teammates go mad in the ring was about enough bullshit for one day. What Ruby desperately needed right now was to ease her mind with a simple and enjoyable activity. Tinkering with Crescent Rose in the armory seemed like just the right thing to do.

She stopped a few steps before the entrance and took a closer look at the building that was supposed to be the armory. Almost completely overshadowed by the towering form of the amphitheater, it served a much more functional purpose than a decorative one, and was thus far less remarkable in terms of exterior design, lacking, for instance, the intricate marble sculptures that the arena was sporting. On the outside, it really was no different than a large barrack. In this case, however, it was not the outside that mattered.

As she opened the door and entered the building, she was left standing in a massive hall that appeared to be a copy of the arena that Glynda had them fighting in before, with several students that Ruby has not yet seen clashing swords in a large ring. She looked around, trying to locate her destination. In the far left corner she saw a sign pointing to the shooting range, in the far right an identical sign showing the way to the weapon shop. That should be it.

The weapon shop was a slightly smaller hall with several workbenches, with its sides furnished by racks with all sorts of equipment, ranging from simple hammers to lens correcting sets. In other words: everything a gun nut could dream of.

The room was mostly empty, with less than ten people overall scattered around the place on their respective benches. Searching for familiar faces, Ruby spotted a Faunus girl with big rabbit ears sitting in the far end of the room tinkering with what looked like some sort of a strongbox and, to her great surprise, Darius, who sat somewhere around the middle of the weapon shop, holding something strangely reminiscent of a blowtorch.

Coming closer to her friend revealed that it was, in fact, a blowtorch, one that Darius used to apparently fuse his vest that he had spread in front of him together. Ruby took place on the opposite side of his workbench and directed her gaze at him, curious of the process. Flipping the switch on the instrument and sending a short stream of flame out of it, Darius held the utensil slightly above the large tear located at the shoulder, watching it change its color from traditional grey to bright orange, even nearing white. He then began to slowly shift the blowtorch along the length of the tear going downwards. Eventually, the hole was gone, instead replaced by a bright glowing spot that was emanating heat even Ruby could feel. The boy spent another minute repeating the procedure with a smaller tear on the opposite shoulder and turned to Ruby, his face only slightly less red than the material of the vest.

"Hi Ruby. Sorry for not greeting you earlier, had to be really careful when using this thing."

"Hi. Don't you have to wear protective gear for this kind of thing?" Ruby asked, still perplexed in her attempts to determine what was redder: Darius' face or her cape.

"There isn't really a point. It's not metal, it's fibers, so it doesn't produce sparks, only glows really brightly."

Having noticed that Ruby was paying more attention to his reddened face than to the words the aforementioned face was making, Darius raised his left hand up, blanketing it in smoke, and covered his face with his palm, remaining so for about five seconds. Upon taking his hand off and dispersing the mist on it, the girl saw Darius return to his normal self, the most notable features being a disturbing lack of redness and a small grin across his face, immediately replaced by a pained wince.

"I really… really should stop abusing my Semblance for domestic matters, especially when I'm empty," he muttered.

"Are you… alright?" she quietly asked, glancing at his left shoulder.

"Miss Peach looked at my right shoulder, saw how quickly it healed up, stitched up my left one and kicked me out of the medbay with an energy bar, if that's what you mean."

"Does it hurt?"

"Been worse, but thanks for caring. Something tells me you're not here to question my health, though, what with your ridiculously oversized scythe on your back."

"Yours is bigger!"

"So am I."

"Well… That's fair. Hey, what's so funny?!" after getting outmatched in the fine art of exchanging trash-talk, Ruby was left with no other option but to attack the opponent directly, shifting focus of the discussion on Darius' quiet snickering.

"Oh, nothing, nothing… ahem. Point still stands, though: what're you doing here?"

"I just… I just wanted to get away from people and do some stuff with Crescent Rose," she sighed and grabbed the scythe from the workbench, clutching the metal tightly. "There's… There's just been so much going on today: first Weiss freaked out on me and I don't know why, then Ozpin showed up from nowhere and read me a bunch of morals that didn't explain anything, and then you freaked out on Pyrrha and u-u-u-urgh!.."

She pressed her fingers against her temples, trying to calm the racing mind. It helped… a little. With another sigh, she continued in a quieter tone. "So I just wanted to do something that doesn't require me talking or dealing with people. All I need is my baby, nuts, bolts, and a couple of screws. And maybe a blowtorch."

Ruby raised her head, looking at Darius to gauge his reaction. His smile, while still present, almost disappeared from his face, leaving a much more somber expression, and in his eyes she could read empathy. After a moment of silence, he spoke:

"I can see how it would be difficult to tackle in the first day of school. I suppose I will leave you to your own devices and go hit some dummies in the training hall, since I still haven't had a decent workout today aside from slapping and/or getting slapped around by Pyrrha. If for whatever reasons you fancy a talk, I'll be nearby."

He looked at her, expecting another nod of affirmation. This time, however, something prevented Ruby from agreeing and dismissing her teammate, finally achieving peace she oh so desperately wanted.

"Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. If you are not constantly performing at your best, what reasons do you give others to follow you?"

She glanced at the scythe in her hands, still collapsed into a perpendicular box, then at the workbench, still filled with tools that Darius didn't have the time to clean up, and shook her head a little with her eyes shut.

"Wait."

Darius looked at her, slightly raising his eyebrow, waiting for Ruby to gather her thoughts. Ozpin did say that at some point I'll have to sort all of this out. Now is as good a time as ever.

"I have a question. What was this all about in the ring today? Why'd you have to go so hard on her? And why did you apologize?"

She saw Darius' gaze harden, momentarily regaining the sharpness she noticed in yesterday's initiation or in that brief encounter at "Elysium". He blinked and said:

"Those were two separate questions, both of them will require a rather lengthy explanation…" he paused, considering his next words, then continued with a sigh. "… And neither are the kind to answer freely. But, you are our leader and I'm little more than an unwelcome tagalong, so I owe you that. Which one do you want answered?"

Blindsided by such a turn of events, Ruby's eyes flung open as she realized she was about to hear about one of the skeletons in Darius' closet, and who knew what kind of old bones and sinew were buried there. Suddenly it was her turn to pause, having to carefully consider what dirty secrets she'd have Darius share with her. For all I know, he could've just been taught to fight that way, like how uncle Qrow taught me to fight with Crescent Rose. So…

"The 'sorry' part. If anything, I expected Pyrrha to start apologizing after, you know… impaling you with her spear."

He nodded and circled around the workbench, sitting down and extending a hand, beckoning Ruby to do the same.

"Take a seat. I'll probably be monologuing for a minute or two. It's becoming a recurring trend, don't you think? For the two days I've been in this school, on each one I had to hold a speech on personal topics. Wonder how long until I'm out of secrets."

She shrugged, agreeing with the notion but not really having to say anything about the topic. She sat down in front of Darius, putting her weapon aside and stared at him. For about five seconds both sat in silence, with the boy propping his head on his thumbs.

"Alright. The answers are plentiful and all are right in their own way," he started. "First and foremost: I did almost kill her. I did not measure my strikes nor go easy on her; if anything, I've been going for the weak spots: the eyes and the unprotected back. 'Why' is a separate question entirely. Were it not for her shield or if I had just a bit more control over my Semblance, things… would get bloody. So, there's one reason to be sorry."

A shiver run up Ruby's spine, followed by a legion of its brethren. The casual attitude with which Darius was talking about murdering one of his fellow students in a fight scared her. And it's not even supposed to be the main reason?!

"However, us Huntsmen are expected to be facing death on a daily basis, even in our training. And I'm pretty sure that Pyrrha is not the one to fear oblivion. So, why don't we talk sociology and theology?"

"The what now?"

"Theology means study of religion, which plays a big part in her attitude, since she's Mistralian. What do you know of the Church of Light?"

"The what now?"

"I see," Darius grinned. "The Church of Light is the dominant religion of Remnant, mostly by the merit of it being the only one ever. Most competing 'religions' have died at the stage of them being heresies. Mistral, being the founding place of said religion, is heavily influenced by its dogmas and is even ruled by the council of the five highest ranking priests. Every Mistralian Huntsman, Huntress or soldier is initiated into the Church from the age of ten, that is to say from their fourth year in a combat school and is raised according to its doctrine. Are you still with me?"

Ruby nodded.

"Good. Now that we have the basics covered, let's see what the religion actually teaches. According to the texts, our entire universe has been created as a result of the eternal conflict between the Light and the Dark. In our particular world, Remnant, the Light manifested itself as our sun, Solaris, while the Dark is represented by… guess who?"

"The Grimm?"

"Yup. The Sol means Light, the Grimm means Dark, and everything else, like plants or animals, are just about in-between. Now humans… are a special case, unsurprisingly. While animals and some of the older forestation do possess a soul, just like us, its complexity seems to be tied to the higher cognitive functions, and, seeing as theirs are clearly simpler compared to ours, their soul mostly slumbers and does not affect their standing on the Light-Dark scale. We, on the other hand, have not been made at a set point, but rather on a ruler. Some are born closer to the Light side, some…" Darius sighed. "Do you know what aura is?"

"It's the physical manifestation of our soul," despite Ruby's less than attentive attitude in Signal's Spiritual Studies classes, the definition of aura had been engraved deep inside her memories. "With certain techniques, we can awaken it and use it to protect or empower ourselves."

"Good. You've got the definition right," a thumbs up from Darius. "However, if our aura is the physical manifestation of our soul, then our Semblance is the force that the aforementioned soul projects into the outside world, warping it in its image. And I'm counting our own bodies as the outside world. Essentially, having witnessed a man's Semblance means having gazed into the deepest corners of his essence. Which begs the question…" as he said that, Darius raised his right arm, letting more smoke materialize from nowhere and envelop his palm, obscuring it, yet solidifying into a clawed, twisted image of it. "…What does my Semblance tell you, Ruby?"

"But that's not fair!" she lashed out. "We don't get to choose our aura or Semblance when we're born!"

"I like your way of thinking," Darius chuckled. "Thankfully, so does the Church. While we may not be equal in how we're born or brought up, for that matter, what does matter is whether or not we strive for the Light, because that choice is granted to all of us in equal measure. 'For it is in our reaching for the Light that we achieve true humanity, and in embracing the Dark that we lose it,'" he said, clearly quoting something. A bitter, one-sided grin etched its way onto his face. "A-a-a-and that's where I come in. As you might have noticed, Light is not something one imagines when seeing me in action. If anything, I've honed and fed the Dark within me oh so well."

"But you need it to fight Grimm!" Ruby was still not buying any of it. "Our Semblances are as much of a weapon as our actual weapons! Doesn't this kind of thing fall under the 'greater good' category?"

"Ah, but that's the matter of attitude. Had I thought of my Semblance as an actual weapon and treated it accordingly, I would probably not be having this talk with you. The problem is…" he looked at his palm, still more resembling a clawed paw than a human hand. "…I'm really, really power hungry. It may or may not run in the family. When I first discovered my Semblance, which was in rather dire circumstances, my warped subconscious had a bright idea of procuring more power, no matter whether through more conventional means or not, and my mind… was not in the right place, let's just put it that way."

It was apparent to Ruby that Darius was having a hard time telling her about that, as the pauses between words had been getting more and more frequent and his voice was getting lower and lower, nevermind his gaze which had long since trailed off, lost in the memories.

"Darius, we don't actually have to talk about this if you don't want to. I was just curious!"

"I'm almost done. Besides, I still haven't answered the question fully," he disagreed and looked back at the girl. "So, in the end, I ended up making some terrible decisions which, ironically, only ended up gimping me as far as my Semblance goes. When I fought Pyrrha, she didn't see a man in control of his power, but a mere vessel for it, which is essentially what I am by now. Because of my greed and my lack of foresight I have made choices that not only represent everything wrong a man can do, but it's also not just me who has to deal with their consequences, but everyone around me. And for that, I am truly sorry, not just before Pyrrha, but all those who have to put up with me, especially you."

For some time, both were silent; Ruby was digesting all the information just spilled on her, while Darius turned around, checking on his vest, which had cooled down by now and was ripe for the taking. Carefully folding it, he stood up and headed for the nearby array of lockers which were assigned to them earlier today. Ruby remained at the workbench.

I should've just carried on with the plan.

You never fail to fuck it up, do you?

With a sharp exhale, Darius drove his fist into the training dummy's temple, sending a thin web of cracks down the wood and a wave of pain through his left shoulder. Swiftly returning his hand back to his chin and following up with an uppercut, the wooden appendage was sent flying away from the dummy's body as he vaulted away, twisting his body and lifting his leg for a kick on the other target. The pain concerned him very little. After all, he and the rest of the school signed up to fight and kill every living day. Pain was an eventuality, rather than a possibility.

I already have to keep more than one secret in check. I see no reasons to add another one to the list.

The kick landed straight into the abdomen, shattering the dummy into pieces with its tremendous force as Darius had to pull out his scythes from his waist in order to block an attack from an incoming opponent, a Beowolf. The training sim Darius decided to try out certainly did not pull any punches, stepping up its game from immobile targets to spawns of Grimm in an instant.

Ever heard of the term "unit integrity"? Granted, as it stands, that team is still an assortment of four people plus you, rather than a coordinated unit, but still. You're supposed to do your hardest to STAY on the team, not to get kicked out within the first week.

Using the wide handles of his scythes as a cross-guard, Darius blocked the swipe from the beast head on, and for a couple of seconds a power struggle took place, soon won by the human as he managed to shift the weight of the Beowolf onto the blades of his weapon, rather than the handles, promptly cutting off the Grimm's paws and severing its head in a scissor-like motion. He didn't quite understand how a virtual simulation made him feel physical strain, but right now it didn't matter, for two more Beowolves took place instead of the slain one, and were already charging the fighter.

Because withholding secrets and letting the problems and unanswered questions pile on each other works out much, much better, right? I've read too much to assume that keeping your teammates in the dark will make them trust me more. Especially if the start is rough enough already…

One of the wolves charged at him, raising its colossal paw to remove Darius' head from the rest of his spine. With a dive and a roll, he managed to evade the blow, coming out behind him and immediately slicing at the other Beowolf with the conjoined scythe, resulting in its head falling on the floor.

This isn't a damn book, you daydreaming dipshit!

So? Honesty works both in fiction and reality, you're not making any sense.

The first Beowolf, only just having realized that his cleave had hit nothing but air, turned around, locking gaze with Darius, only to have a curved blade jammed into its lower jaw and then ripped out, splitting its maw in two. As the boy spun around, swinging his scythe at a random Nevermore the simulation threw at him, he could barely contain a growl. Even now, fighting mere holograms and not living opponents, he could feel a tide of blind wrath rising from deep within him, making breathing harder from the growing fire in his lungs and streamlining his mind to a singular thought: kill.

You're talking to yourself, moron. You're only making as much sense as you do, which still amounts to nil. But you can only blame yourself for that.

So… business as usual?

Part of him wanted to forget the troubles of the day in this battle trance, simply slicing away at the holograms that the sim was throwing at him until it was complete, or until his body gave out, as was customary for the first several months of his training back in the Order. The other part of him, however, one that still maintained a grasp on reality, reminded him that it was a bad idea. As his eardrums were nearly sundered by an Ursa roaring behind his back, he lowered himself on one knee, planted his palm into the floor and said: "Abort". He then stood back up and threw a sweeping glance at the simulation chamber, desyncing his mask with a couple of voice commands. Slowly, the burning faded from his chest, instead returning to his shoulder, reminding him that he still had an impaled arm to worry about and that he just completed a two hour workout despite it.

An ice-cold shower later he found himself sitting on one of the benches scattered around the armory, with his things safely locked up and without any concrete idea what to do next. For no particular reason, he decided to follow the sound of gunshots, as he came to the conclusion that it was very likely he would find Ruby there. He didn't really concern himself with why he was doing that, but it was still a better idea than to continue sitting on that bench, chastising himself in another fit of self-loathing that would surely follow.

And yet, to his great surprise and mild dismay, he could not find a speck of red clothing when arriving at the range, for at the moment only two people were present at the range and only one was doing the shooting: a girl dressed like something he'd expect at a Valean fashion show, not a shooting range. Sporting comically large shades she was unloading torrents of lead from an enormous minigun decorated with what looked like brass, albeit he was not certain, while her teammate, a towering giant in green attire and olive skin was busy hauling ammunition back and forth. Making sure that the entire area of the range was clear, including the sniper's perch, Darius just shrugged in confusion and left the couple to their own devices.

So. Now what do we do?

Probably head to the dorms, actually. It's about eight o'clock, curfew's at ten. With my luck, I'll probably end up just about making it in time because something happens. It always does.

Seeing as time was money and potential detention hours, Darius quickly returned to the weapon shop and packed whatever little equipment he brought to Vale from Atlas, which, incidentally, included the blowtorch he used to fuse his vest together. Not in the mood to haul it back to the room, he decided to just deposit it all in the locker, along with his weapons and armor.

As he exited the armory, something caught his eye; a glimmer of red to his left. A turn of the head confirmed that Darius wasn't hallucinating… or at least reduced the possibility thereof. Sitting on the bench was Ruby, her mouth agape and her eyes closed shut, clearly not present in the waking world. That's what information overload will do to ya. Guess I should wake her up.

He came closer and crouched in front of the girl. A random onlooker would get a very, very wrong impression from the scene. Heh. He then extended his arm and shook Ruby's shoulder a bit:

"Ru-u-u-uby…"

"GIVE ME MY COOKIES BACK!" was her answer as the girl spazzed out with her entire body, throwing off his arm. With her eyes open in a blink of… well, an eye, Ruby stared at Darius for about a second or two before realizing that he, in fact, did not plan to steal the cookies from her.

"Oh wait… You're not the cookie monster," she said in a drowsy voice, blinking.

A-a-a-and that's what information overload will do to her in particular.

"Nay. Power napping, are we?" He stood up.

"Nah…" she closed her eyes for a second, obviously struggling to form complex sentences. "I… kinda dozed off, I guess. I was messing with Crescent Rose, but I just couldn't get Weiss out of my head and what you said… Mhm. So, I think I just decided to sit here and think about what to do next and…" she shrugged. "That's how I ended up, it seems. How long was I sleeping?"

"No longer than two hours, so you should be alright," he said. "For what it's worth…" he chuckled, reminiscing of the last time he said these words. "I'm sorry that you had to hear all of this on the same day. We should head back to the dorms. Curfew starts soon."

"There's curfew?"

"Yep. You really should read the school's rules."

"I guess I should." Ruby stood up, rubbing her eyes. "Let's g… Wait, what's that over there?"

It always does. Damnit.

He turned around, looking in the direction Ruby was, to see a group of four surrounding the Faunus he saw earlier in the armory, standing in the distance. A closer inspection told him it was the team CRDL, continuing the deed they began earlier, the deed being turning this one Faunus' life into a nightmare. Oh look. Rats found themselves a bunny rabbit to chew on.

"And here we see a group of common bullies present in any and all schools larger than three people," he said, smothering his words in more poison than even a scorpion could handle. "As of right now, we can observe the bullies in their natural habitat: the dark alleys, along with their victim, who is apparently being assaulted on racial grounds."

"We gotta help her!" Ruby exclaimed, immediately darting for the group. Picking up the pace himself, Darius couldn't help but feel a sinister grin crawl across his features, mentally patting himself on the back for the masterful setup. This gonna be fu-u-u-un...

"I wonder if this bunny likes carrots? She should, right?" one of the team quipped, visibly the largest of the group. A look at his russet brown hair told Darius it was Cardin, the team's appointed leader.

"Oh, I've got a carrot for her alright," came from the one sporting a mohawk on his head. Despite the thunderous laughter of the group already starting to boil his veins, Darius reminded himself that restrain is a virtue and decided to prepare a bit of a dramatic entrance, stopping not too far away from the scene and summoning the shadows, obscuring himself in the evening's murky air.

"You can't seriously imply you'd fuck that?"

"Do I look like I'm serious?"

"Hey you! What are you doing here?" Ruby, having finally reached the group, decided to immediately go on the offensive, staring down Cardin with the ire of an Ursa. Darius, meanwhile, kept quietly sneaking up to his teammate, waiting for the right time for maximum effect. For a second, the group stood silent, only exchanging confused glances among each other. Having finally regained their composure, a boy with gray hair stepped out, looking at Ruby with a gaze so condescending Darius barely managed to stifle his laughter as he imagined the speed with which it was about to change. This one departs first.

"We were just playing with the bunny rabbit," he said in a mockingly friendly tone. "Don't you like rabbits? With their big sad eyes and their funny ears?" He raised his hands and put the mover his head in a supposedly funny parody of what the girl's ears looked like, sparking another round of laughter from the bullies, yet making the frown on Ruby's face deeper.

"That's not what it looked like to me. Leave her alone!"

"This one's grumpy!" Lark continued. "Seems like she didn't get to drink her milk today!"

"I got some milk for her alr…"

"Shut up Russel! You just keep reusing the same joke," the semi-bald boy was rudely interrupted by Cardin, who stepped closer to his teammate and joined in on the conversation. "Isn't it a little too late for you to be out there all alone? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Perfect.

"Don't you know that catcalling girls late at night is bad for your reputation?" Having flanked his opponents, Darius stepped out of the shadow, laying a hand on the leader's shoulder in a friendly gesture. The resulting shriek has almost ruptured his eardrums, a second time today. The grey-haired boy, who was the source of the wail, leapt away with such speed it was almost like he himself had vanished, leaving only a small cloud of dust where he previously was. Cardin, on the other hand, managed to keep his voice in check, instead only taking a couple steps away that one could, with a bit of a stretch, call "bouncy". Darius, gracing the company with another grin, continued. "Or, I suppose, it would be rabbitcalling in our case. Point still stands, though: step away from the girl."

"Oh look: the big bad Silva," Cardin said, although the tone in which he said it was more akin to spitting than normal speech. "Didn't you already get your ass kicked by Nikos? Want another one?"

"Big words coming from someone ganging up on a girl where nobody can see them," he chuckled, eagerly coating his words in some more of the venomous substance he used earlier. He had enough for much, much more. "I mean: I may have a punctured arm, but let's be honest: the four of you won't put up even a tenth of the fight that Pyrrha did. Besides," he took a step back, lining himself behind Ruby and pointing at her with both his hands in a dramatic performance. "I'm not even the main dish, I'm just backup. It's her you should worry about. I give it about 2,5 seconds before she plasters you all around the alley."

"Darius, are you so sure about that?" Ruby nervously looked at him, clearly not expecting to suddenly become the center of attention.

"Not with that attitude," he immediately finished his lap around her and turned to the group, no less confused by the show than his teammate. "Now then: who of you punks feels lucky?"

He expected at least one of the team to charge him, at the very least the leader. To his great disappointment, team CRDL instead resorted to exchanging whispers and trying to come to a consensus. From what he managed to overhear, the consensus mostly consisted of trying to persuade Cardin to "leave this crazy motherfucker with his stupid rabbit". On the conscious plane, Darius felt relief that it did not have to come to violence, even with scum like this. Deep inside, he regretted not being able to break at least one of their faces.

Finally, Cardin groaned and spat on the ground, before turning away and waving for the gang to follow:

"Let's go. I suppose some people's zoophilic tendencies can't be helped."

In a single fluid motion Darius charged towards the group, sweeping Cardin's legs with a low kick, adding even more momentum via elbow to the back of the head, sending him crashing on the asphalt. Without wasting a millisecond, he grabbed his legs and spun around, using Cardin's body as an impromptu hammer to clear the area around him of his dumbfounded teammates before slamming him on the ground again. With a flip of a switch, the flame had returned in full force, scorching the frail nets of civility off of him and twisting his mind to serve one purpose: find ways to hurt the man lying before him, weak and defenseless.

A second kick flipped Cardin on his back, while the third connected with his jaw, sending a sickening crack echoing through the air. He saw Russel recuperate from the fall and begin running at him, but before he even managed to process it Ruby appeared in front of him mid-jump, firmly planting her knee into the boy's forehead. Darius himself, with his leg still on Cardin's chest, almost fell down on one knee, emptying the bully's lungs and drove his fist into his face, while simultaneously holding his throat with an iron grip. Another strike. As he raised his fist, he watched a drip of red slide down his finger and plummet down on Cardin's face, disappearing in the stream of blood pouring from his nose. Then, he sunk his fist back in.

"Darius!"

Ruby's voice made him temporarily stop the execution and raise his head, locking eyes with her. With her foot on Lark's neck, she promptly drove it into his side so he'd stop struggling while frantically waving her hands at Darius:

"He's had enough! I'm pretty sure you're beating an unconscious body right now."

The anger slowly faded away, instead leaving an annoying ringing sound in his head. Taking a look at Cardin, he saw a pair of eyes staring at him with powerless hatred, unable to do or say anything about his current disposition. Slightly softening the grip on his windpipe, he stood up and raised the leader of the group by his throat, soon pushing him towards his teammates, who only just managed to catch him before he fell, ogling Darius and Ruby with fear in their eyes.

"You may now drag your pathetic surrogate of a leader to the medbay. Maybe a couple weeks of not being able to speak will teach him that silence is golden," Darius said, his voice just barely recognizable as human speech. Watching the group scurry away, he spent a couple of minutes calming his mind through breathing exercises. They tended to help, if a little late.

"Don't you think you were… too hard on him?"

"Nobody calls me a zoophile and gets away with it. But… thank you for keeping me in line."

"We're gonna get in trouble for that, aren't we?"

"The rules forbid the use of weapons and Semblances. I used neither. I don't think you did, too," he sighed and stepped towards the reason of the fight, extending a hand to help her up. "Are you alright?"

And yet, instead of thanking him or even giving an answer, the girl recoiled away from him, eyes agape and her entire body trembling. She didn't say a word, but it wasn't hard to understand that she was scared of him, maybe even more scared than the ones they just beat up.

"Don't come near me, you fucking monster!"

For a second, Darius wasn't standing in a dark alley at Beacon, receiving a total of zero gratitude from a girl he and Ruby just rescued, but instead back in the Atlesian slums, watching a friend run away from him like he would from a Beowolf. As the memories came flooding in, he himself recoiled from the girl and gripped his chest in an attempt to calm down his heart, which was just about ready to abandon his rib cage. He quietly said:

"Ruby… could you please talk to her? I don't have the greatest reputation amongst Faunus…"

The girl only nodded in agreement before closing the distance herself and helping the girl stand up and apparently starting some small-talk that Darius didn't really pay attention to.

Flashbacks in the middle of nowhere? That's a novelty.

It's not the same, it's not the same, it's not the same…

Is it though? In both cases they saw you handle the situation with hilarious amounts of brutality. If anything, this is by far the worse of the two, because unlike Dusk, all she knows about you is that you're a Silva. What a great way to gain goodwill.

"Did they hurt you?"

"No. They don't hurt me, they just make fun of my ears… for now at least," the Faunus said, throwing a concerned, if a bit timid, look at Darius. "Is your friend alright?"

"Yes, I am," he said, not in the mood for complex responses.

"Your name is Darius, right?" after receiving a nod, she continued. "I'm… sorry for overreacting. Thank you for helping me.

"Anytime," he mustered a weak smile. "Though I hope this is the last time we have to help you like this. The curfew starts very soon. We should get back to our dorms. Do you… need any further help?"

"I'll just get my team, they're in the armory. Thank you again," she turned around and headed for the familiar rectangular building, leaving Darius and Ruby alone in the streets, silent.

"She told me her name," said Ruby after several seconds of silence. "She's called Velvet, and I'm pretty sure she's one of the second-years. Why does she allow them to treat her like this? If we just kicked their asses so hard, she shouldn't have any problems with this, no?"

"Some people… just don't feel like fighting back," Darius let out a weary sigh. He understood it only slightly more than Ruby. Definitely not enough to speak with certainty. "They think that the bullies will never stop unless extreme violence is used, which rapidly becomes not worth it. I never understood them, but I'll be the last person to judge. After all, you just saw the results of the… other method of approaching things." He looked at his fist and wiped the blood off of it, then chuckled. "Maybe they're right. I got to look him in the eyes when you told me to stop beating him. He's not going to rethink his deeds and stop; he's got spine. Which, I suppose, makes sense, because he probably wouldn't become a team leader without it. But… it'll take more than a broken jaw and a couple of bruises to get him to stop."

Both were at a loss for words for some time. Then, a small smile spread across Darius' face as he came to slightly more cheery realization.

"Hey Ruby. You know what the one good thing about this entire bedlam was?"

"Huh?"

"That right there…" he twisted his hand in a circular motion, referring to the events of the past ten minutes. "Is how you team leader.. If we got more of that, and maybe a little less... motivational slogans, we probably wouldn't have a Weiss problem."

"You think?!" Ruby asked as her face lit up too.

"Yes," he decided to keep the answer simple, mostly because even he couldn't put a finger on what exactly he thought she did right. In its own right, that's a merit of a leader, too. "You just need to show it to Weiss too. And that requires a little time. Now let's get to the damn dorms before Goodwitch busts us."

Weiss stood before the entrance to their room. She felt… conflicted. What she was about to do was something she had long since forgotten how to do: step on her pride and apologize. It felt very strange: for once, she was at a loss for words, which happened very rarely, if at all. She had no idea what to say or even how to say it, which did constitute for about half of what apologizing was all about. Aside from that, it was plain humiliating to have to take her words back, even if she did realize they were wrong. Sticking to her guns was one of the lessons her father taught her and her sister, and he was a very good teacher when it came to that. In the end, however, Weiss also realized that if this team was ever going to properly function, grains of sands that big simply couldn't be allowed to be stuck in its gears. Now get in there and do what must be done.

Trying her best to open the door silently, she entered the room, seeing her team at its most tranquil. The right bunk was completely blackened, with Yang quietly snoring on top. The right one, however, was lit up above, where Ruby was supposed to sleep. What is she doing there?

Well… only one way to find out.

Taking a step closer and carefully lifting the curtains, her eyes flung open in shock: Ruby's entire bed was riddled with open books and half-finished notes, with the girl herself stuck in the middle of all the learning utensils, fast asleep. Taking a closer look at what exactly she'd been writing, Weiss realized that Ruby just did a week's worth of homework ahead of schedule. She really was intent on making it up to me.

I feel terrible.

She reached for the girl's shoulder and gently shook it, accompanied by an uncertain "Ahem..." A second later, Ruby's quiet breath hastened for a couple of seconds as she opened her eyes and looked at Weiss, clearly taken by surprise.

"Weiss! I… I was studying and then I fell asleep and I'm sorry…" she started muttering in her usual hasty manner, but didn't get to finish the sentence as Weiss' palm quickly covered her mouth while she raised her finger and touched her lips, a signal for Ruby to lower her tone a notch.

She's kind of adorable when she's flustered like this…Where did that thought come from?! Quickly shifting her gaze and her thoughts away from Ruby, Weiss noticed an empty mug lying sideways on her bed.

"How do you take your coffee?" she whispered so as not to wake up the rest of the team, taking her hand off of Ruby's mouth.

"I… I don't…"

"Answer the question!" Weiss hissed. The answer came faster than a burst from an assault rifle.

"Cream and five sugars!"

I don't think even her Semblance will help her handle this amount of sugar. With a sigh, she told Ruby to stay still and dove under the bunk, reaching for the coffee machine nearby. A couple minutes later the beverage was complete, minus one spoon of sugar.

"Here."

"Um… thanks, Weiss," a small, timid smile spread across her face, perhaps for the first time that she talked to Weiss. For a second, both were just staring at each other before the girl standing in front of the bed finally mustered the words and the courage.

"Ruby…" she began. "I think you have what it takes to be a good leader." Watching her teammate's smile grow larger, she continued with slightly more confidence. "Just know that I am going to be the best teammate you'll ever have."

That was pretty good.

"Good luck studying," she said and turned back, before remembering something. Coming back to the bunk, she looked at the books for a couple of seconds, before pointing out one of the mistakes Ruby made in her notes. "That's wrong, by the way."

As she was about to exit the room and head for the showers, she heard Ruby's voice calling her:

"Weiss?"

"Yes?"

"Conciliatory hug?"

…Maybe.

"No."