Team CFVY hurried through the corridors of Beacon, racing against the clock. Time was not on their side as they had a test with Professor Peach that began in less than two minutes, and she was not a teacher that forgave lateness on tests. As they neared the doors to the lecture hall, they slowed their speed to a brisk walk so as not to appear out of breath. Right as they were about to turn the final corner to the lecture hall, the almost collided with another student, apparently extremely deep in his thoughts. The student took a reactionary step back, mumbling an apology to the group. The voice caught Velvet's attention. She had only seen him a handful of times, but the times she had were moments one wouldn't forget. It was after all, difficult to forget being strapped down in preparation for a vivisection.
"Daniel?" she asked in surprise, "is that you?"
"What, oh hey Velvet," Daniel said in equal surprise. "I haven't seen you since, well," he trailed off not wanting to relive that particular memory.
"I was wondering, how were you doing?" Velvet asked. "You didn't look to good when they pulled you out, and then I heard about-"
"Velvet we need to go!" Coco called out. "We're going to be late!"
"But,"
"Leave him, come on!"
Velvet looked at Daniel awkwardly. "I, have to get going," she said with a hint of regret. She opened her mouth to say she'd talk to him later, but the tolling of the clock bells signaled the beginning of class. With a squeak, she took off running after the rest of her team.
Poor Daniel, she thought. She had overheard his teammate and the other boy talking while in Professor Glas' compound, and had put two and two together. Looking back, it made sense why Professor Glas had attempted to do what he did. Now that his secret had gotten out, she'd seen how the rest of Vale and even the school had treated him. She hoped that he wouldn't take her sudden departure the wrong way.
Daniel felt like his heart was being ripped out. He hadn't seen Velvet since they'd been kidnapped, but she had been the first student at Beacon to actually talk to him, and one of the few people outside of DDLN and LSTR that didn't outright scorn him. Now he watched her running after her teammates, after seeming to want to say something. The past few weeks had some terrible things happen to him, but this one somehow seemed to cut him straight to the core. He took a deep sigh and continued trudging his way back towards the dormitories.
Daniel hardly noticed the walk back. He was pretty sure he passed by some students. He thought one of them might've tried something on him. He couldn't tell; he was too deep in his own thoughts to tell. All he knew was that one moment he was standing in a corridor having just met Velvet, the next he was turning the handle to his dorm room. The rest of his team was there, having met up after classes were dismissed to work on homework.
"Hey Daniel, how'd your meeting with Ozpin go?" Dakota asked.
"Fine," Daniel muttered as he sat down at a desk and pulled out his homework.
"Yeesh, that bad huh?" Dakota said, eyeing the team leader. "He didn't say you had to leave, did he?"
"No, it's just," Daniel took a deep breath. "It's nothing. I don't really want to talk about it."
"You sure?" Dakota asked. "You don't look real-"
"I said I was fine okay!" Daniel snapped.
Nick stood up and stepped towards Daniel, his hand outstretched to place it on Daniel's shoulder. Sensing the motion, Daniel's hand shot up and slapped Nick's arm away. "I don't need to be calmed down Nick, just please leave me alone."
Nick took a step back, now very concerned for his friend. He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to change his mind. "If you say so," he said as he turned around and returned to his own homework.
Nick and Lewis exchanged glances as both Daniel and Nick clicked open pens and began writing their answers. Like Nick however, they didn't pursue the matter, instead returning to their own respective homework. Soon the only noises were that of scratching pens and the occasional inquiry about a problem.
The rest of the day passed in a blur, soon becoming nighttime. Daniel wearily put down the pen, rubbed his eyes, and looked at what he had accomplished. It wasn't pretty. With his mind on recent events, he had only managed to complete two problems and half a paragraph on Oobleck's essay. Groaning, he resigned himself to completing the problems in the morning before class and got ready for bed. His teammates followed suit, and soon the lights were turned off and they began to nod off.
Daniel tried everything he knew to get himself to fall asleep, but nothing was working. His head was too full of thoughts, his body too stressed out about what was going on. He could even hear the faint whispers of the voices in the background. Which of course filled his head with even more thoughts, and stressed him out even more. He spent several hours like this, fighting against his own body and mind to get any bit of sleep he could manage. As the cracked digital readout on his watch turned to 2:00, his body finally began to nod off out of sheer exhaustion. His muscles relaxed, his consciousness started to fade,
Only to violently be brought back to his senses as he found that he suddenly couldn't breathe. Something soft was being pressed into his face, preventing any air from entering. Fear coursed through Daniel's body as he struggled to free himself from whatever cruel prank a student had sunk to. His flailing hands connected with a body kneeling over his own. Daniel screamed and tried to hit his attacker, but his scream was muffled by the pillow and his blow glanced off of his shoulder. His attacker shifted on the bed and pressed down even harder on the pillow. Daniel reached blindly for his pistol lying on the bedside table, but his attacker swatted it off the table and onto the floor where it landed with a thud against the wood.
Daniel's lungs screamed for air as he began to black out. Adrenaline was blasting through his body as his dimming mind desperately dug for answers. As he struggled to get a breath out, the voices broke free of his control and overwhelming his thoughts. Everything went blank as he was filled with an all-encompassing inescapable anger.
Dakota was having a pleasant dream about DDLN being a normal team that didn't get wrapped up in half the situations in Vale, when he was abruptly woken up by loud yelling and struggling. Instincts honed from years in Vlad's gang kicked into gear in an instant. One hand flew underneath the pillow to pull his chain out while the other reached for the lamp on the desk. He flicked it on to reveal Daniel struggling with an unknown assailant. Clad in dark jeans, a black hoodie, and a black sock mask, Dakota couldn't make out who he was. All that he could tell was that his body was that of a teen, and that he had a bit of muscle on him.
Dakota made to jump on the attacker and throw him off of Daniel, but before he could move Daniel hit the man in the eye, making him flinch and loosen his grip on a pillow he held to Daniel's face. Grabbing both of his assailant's arms in a firm grasp, Daniel lifted them and the pillow off of his face. As his face was revealed, Dakota saw the glowing red eyes and knew that the situation had just gone from bad to worse. Now he had to make sure Daniel didn't kill the man on top of making sure Daniel didn't die himself.
Dakota jumped at Daniel to pull the two apart, but Daniel shoved the man's left arm ino him, pushing Dakota back a few feet. Before he could try again, a loud snapping sound rang out through the room, and the man howled in pain as both of his arms were broken by Daniel's grasp. As the pillow fell from now limp fingers, Daniel continued to push the broken arms back to cringe worthy angles. Before he could do any more damage however, Dakota socked Daniel in the face with a powerful hook, trying to stop his friend from doing something he would later regret. Daniel's head snapped to the side, and quickly turned to look at Dakota. He let go of the hands and grabbed Dakota by the dirty white nightshirt he wore, throwing him into the front door of the dorm.
Dakota pushed off of the door, and grabbed his chain by both ends. He was going to wrap them around Daniel and drag him off of the man if he had to. The man in question had taken the brief respite from the attack and tried to put some distance between him and Daniel. Without his arms and on the unstable surface of the bed, he didn't make it far before falling and landing on his broken arms halfway on the floor. His screams of agony were abruptly cut off as Daniel reached down and grasped him firmly by the throat. As the man gasped and spluttered for air, Lewis grabbed his guitar by the neck and prepared to smash it down on Daniel
"Don't!" Dakota yelled. "He doesn't have an Aura!"
"Then what do we do man?" Lewis frantically asked.
"Daniel, listen to me," Dakota shouted at Daniel. Their leader looked up from the choking man at Dakota, a scowl on his face.
Dakota swallowed before continuing. "I know whatever monster that's inside you is controlling you right now, but you've got to get back control." He pointed at Nick, then at Daniel, hoping Nick would get the message. Fortunately Nick was paying attention and pointed his revolver up, slowly stepping around Lewis' bed and moving towards Daniel. Daniel's red eyes glanced over at Nick, and Dakota hurried to grab his attention once more.
"You don't want to do this Daniel!" Dakota called out, wishing for once he had someone like Ryler who could talk for hours unless he was shut up. "You've stopped the guy who wanted to hurt you, and that's good. A for effort, although you loose points for breaking his arms. But that's the monster's doing, so I'll give the points back if you let him go and let us take it from-"
There was a mechanical cocking sound as Nick pulled the hammer back on his revolver. Daniel noticed it and threw the attacker at Dakota before turning to face Nick. The man collided with Dakota, and the two of them ripped the door off of the hinges, sending them both into the hallway beyond. Woken by the screams and struggling, the hallway was already full of students in various states of undress, all of them with weapons at the ready to combat whatever was going on. Dakota shoved the screaming man off of him as sounds of struggling came from their room. Squinting from the light in the hallway, he tried to make out what was going on in the room as the other students began voicing questions.
"What's going on?"
"Are we under attack?"
"Oh gods! His arms!?"
Before Dakota could do or explain anything, Nick stumbled into the hallway, dragging Daniel along in a full nelson "Can't, get through to him," Nick grunted. "He ain't wantin' to calm down."
Daniel snapped his head back, hitting Nick in the nose. Nick stumbled backwards, and Daniel slipped through his grasp, diving to his attacker. He landed on the man's chest and began pummeling him into the ground. Fists swinging wildly, any bit of him was a target. The surrounding students had their weapons raised in an instant and were pointing them at Daniel, yelling at him to stop. Lewis stepped through the hole as well, and jumped on Daniel's back, trying to pull him off of the man, but took an elbow to the face and was thrown off instead.
"Nick, get him!" Dakota shouted. Nick however was shaking his head, still getting over the hit to his nose. It was then that Dakota started to worry. If Daniel wasn't calmed down, the attacker was a dead man. So was Daniel if the crowd got any more antsy. Quickly, he scanned the crowd for Lunare's face. His Corabellum armor had been able to subdue Daniel once before, it might be able to do so again. Unfortunately unbeknownst to Dakota, Lunare was still at his garage, unmounting the Atlesian cannon to try and disguise it without having to return it to Atlas. Even if he were to leave right away to return to Beacon, he would arrive long after the battle was concluded.
Dakota's scan of the faces was ended by the sound of Lewis getting the wind knocked out of him. He had wrapped his arms around Daniel to pull him off, only for the monster controlling their friend to turn and redirect a quartet of blows on to Lewis. His aura held off the worst of the attacks, but he had to retreat under their intensity. The noise of the bystanders rose as more and more arrived on the scene. A metallic clicking sound was heard as an upperclassman next to Dakota flipped the safety off of a large pistol and leveled it at Daniel's head, clearly intending to end this once and for all. Without even thinking about it Dakota flicked his chain around his arm and pulled to the side. There was a loud report, and the bullet went wide, ricocheting off of the ground and disappearing into the crowd where someone yelled in pain and surprise as it found its mark. Daniel seemed to ignore the sound and returned to pummeling the man.
Dakota could see how quickly the situation was degenerating, and searched for a solution. An idea popped into his head, one that was risky to both him and Daniel, but could end the battle then and there. He considered it for a second, then made a snap decision as the attacker let out a weak cough, blood spurting from his mouth. Everyone saw it, and Dakota knew that many of the students were thinking that it was now or never to stop the monster before it killed the stranger. Dakota committed himself to the move, and jumped on Daniel's back, much like what Nick had attempted. Unlike his beaten friend however, Dakota grabbed the back of Daniel's head, keeping it from snapping back and hitting him in the nose. He wrapped his free arm around Daniel's neck and squeezed.
Daniel instantly ignored the man that had now become his victim, and reached up at Daniel, clawing at his hair and sputtering as his airflow was severely restricted. Dakota took note of this and cautiously increased the amount of force he was exerting. He had to be careful how much pressure he applied. Daniel didn't have an Aura, and could end up with a crushed windpipe if Dakota wasn't careful. Not to mention, Daniel could easily shift his weight and cause them both to fall backwards. Which he proceeded to do, slamming Dakota into the ground and throwing his weight on top of him. Had this not happened to Dakota many times before, it would've knocked him loose from Daniel. As it was, he still felt the blow and was slightly winded. As Daniel squirmed to get free, Dakota timed his struggles before throwing his weight with one of the twists, rolling Daniel onto his stomach. Dakota tightened his arm around Daniel's neck even further, and began counting. If he didn't hold the choke for enough time, Daniel might get a second wind and break free. Too long, and he risked harming or even killing his friend. It was a dangerous balance, that Dakota prayed he could get right.
Daniel's struggles abruptly went slack, and Dakota immediately released the tension, letting his friend fall limp, gasping for air. He stayed on top of him however, and kept his hand on the back of his head. He'd held the choke hold for way too short of a duration to have had any effect. Whatever controlled Daniel while he had an episode could be faking to get the upper hand. His suspicions were assuaged however, by the raspy voice behind him. "You can let him go," Nick said painfully. Dakota turned around to see Nick on the floor with a hand lying on Daniel's leg. He knelt down and grabbed on to Daniel just as Dakota began to choke Daniel into unconsciousness. This time, he was successful in calming Daniel down.
"Sorry about that Daniel," Dakota said as he unwrapped his arm from around Daniel's neck and stepped off of his friend.
Daniel violently coughed and rubbed the bruises on his throat. He tried to get up, but was restrained by Dakota and Nick who merely rolled him onto his back. "I mean it, don't get up," Dakota warned.
Daniel let out a weak cough and glanced at his friend. "Dakota, what, what happened here?" he rasped in a voice not unlike Nick's.
"It wasn't your fault. Some punk tried to kill you in your sleep, and you reacted. The broken arms were a bit much, but that wasn't you either."
"Broken arms, what are you," Daniel's eyes went wide as he realized what Dakota was saying. He pushed his friends off and sat up, viewing the carnage around him. "Oh no. no no no no no no. Please, gods no," Daniel desperately scanned the faces around him, seeking anything that would tell him he hadn't lost control of the voices again. Their expressions and the moaning of his attacker told all the story he needed to know.
"No! I didn't mean, I would never do this!"
"Bullshit!"
Daniel turned to see an older female student who despite the late hour, was wearing a pair of designer sunglasses. She was kneeling down next to another student. No, not another student.
"V-Velvet?" Dakota asked with a cough, horrified of what he was seeing.
"She got shot because of you," the older student seethed. "This is all your fault Grigio."
"Coco, I'm fine," Velvet panted, clutching her sternum. "I just, got the wind knocked out of me, that's all. It wasn't Daniel's fault."
Velvet's words fell on deaf ears for Daniel. Horror and fear coursed through his system. Frantically, he backpedaled on his hands and feet over the broken door and into their dormroom. Nick approached him cautiously, but Daniel kicked him away and flipped around. He threw himself at the closed window above their beds and shoved it open before hauling himself through. The hallway fell silent, save for the continued sounds of pain from the attacker.
"I should have shot sooner," the student who fired the shot said. "Then we wouldn't have a lousy Grimm loose on campus.
Dakota stood up and turned to face the student. Lewis and Nick mimicked his action, all three of them glaring daggers at him. Dakota let his chain slip out of his fingers and onto the ground already estimating how many detentions he was about to rack up.
"That," he said in a voice boiling with anger, "was a mistake."
Daniel's world was one massive blur as he sprinted across campus. Nothing registered as he put as much distance between himself and the student dormitories. For all he knew, he could've succumbed to the voices and lost control over his body. At least outside at this hour no one could get hurt. So he continued to run; down the roads of Vale, around trees, over bushes, he was almost positive he passed by the same points several times. It wasn't like he had anywhere else to go; everyone would hate him after tonight.
Never had Daniel felt so trapped in such a large kingdom.
It was many hours later that Daniel began to register his surroundings once more. Somehow during his black-out period, he had managed to make it all the way up to the top of Beacon Tower, and was sitting on a ledge right above Professor Ozpin's office. A quick glance behind him showed that the clockwork desk and chair were currently unoccupied. For now, he was alone.
As the wind whipped around his body and through the clanking gears of the clock above him, he went over everything that had happened that night and found there was little that could have gone worse. Not only had someone broken into his dorm and tried to kill him, provoking the voices into taking over, but he'd attacked his own teammates again and even managed to injure Velvet. He doubted even the most hard core Faunus haters would condone what he did. When he already felt like he had hit rock bottom, Remnant had somehow found a way to make things even worse. For a moment, Daniel considered a messy but permanent solution to everyone's problems. Just a quick slip off of the ledge, and gravity would ensure this didn't ever happen again. He shook the notion quickly however, feeling that he was missing something else. Some big part of his current predicament that could solve this without resorting to suicide.
The sun had just started to peek up above the horizon when the answer finally came to Daniel. He was so shocked he'd forgotten about it, he almost fell off of his precarious perch. He had forgotten something important; he had another option!
It was at that moment, that the window to his side slid open with a loud clicking of gears. Professor Ozpin stepped out onto the ledge and looked over at Daniel. "Good morning Mr. Grigio. Do you mind if I ask you to come in? The winds tend to pick up at this hour."
"Hm? Oh, yes sir," Daniel said, standing up. He followed Professor Ozpin in through the opening in the glass and down to the main floor of his office.
"Can I interest you in some coffee?" Professor Ozpin asked, as he poured himself a cup.
Daniel shook his head. "No thank you sir."
"Very well," Professor Ozpin said as he took a long sip before setting the mug back down. "The Police picked up your attacker shortly after you left. He's in hospital, with broken arms and internal bleeding, but is expected to survive." He took another sip and looked Daniel in the eyes. "This was not your fault Daniel. Your teammates states so multiple times, and I have to agree with them. Humans and Faunus both have a fight or flight response when faced with a dangerous situation. It can often blind one to whom is friend or foe."
"It, it's not that sir," Daniel said. "I think you know that yourself. It's not like it wasn't obvious when we fought the team from Atlas."
Professor Ozpin pushed his mug to the side and sighed. "I will admit your behavior was curious that day. Your actions went on longer than what a fight of flight response might allow for. Would you care to expand on this?"
Daniel took a moment to compose his thoughts before taking a deep breath and telling Professor Ozpin everything. About the voices, the lack of pain, everything. Professor Ozpin stayed silent for most of it, only interjecting at times to have Daniel clarify a point. When Daniel was done, he took a long sip of a now cold mug of coffee, and stared at his table. "Even the greatest of burdens we ourselves carry can for a moment seem insignificant next to those of others." He looked up at Daniel with eyes full of compassion. "Daniel, why didn't you tell anyone about this?"
"I was scared sir," Daniel said. "I don't know what this is, and it scares me. The voices, the anger, it's like I turn into a Grimm when it takes over! I don't want to hurt anyone else!"
"Your teammates are fine," Professor Ozpin assured him. "A few bruises, but nothing of consequence. Ms. Scarlatina especially wants for you to know that she is unharmed, and wants you to know she doesn't blame you, nor does the rest of her team. Their reaction was born out of worry, not actual malice."
Daniel shook his head. "That's not the point! What about the next time this happens? Or the time after that? I could be away from my teammates, or they aren't fast enough. Sooner or later someone is going to die from this, unless I do something!"
Professor Ozpin said nothing, merely watching Daniel, who was now hyperventilating, struggle to control himself. Daniel's eyes darted back and forth, and for a moment he was certain he could hear the voices again. But they died down, and he was able to regain control of his breathing. It was only then that Professor Ozpin spoke. "There are some steps we can take to prevent this, but I fear that you are the only one who can decide if it comes out or not.
Daniel shook his head. "That's not good enough sir, this thing, this, abomination inside me, it needs to go away. And I think I know how to do it."
Professor Ozpin locked his fingers and peered over them in his smoky glasses. "And how would you do that?"
Daniel took a deep breath and uttered one of the hardest phrases in his life. "By getting an Aura. Sir, I would like to transfer from Beacon to Atlas and continue my Huntsman training there."
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