Hello everyone! Sorry for the week-long delay, but finals are a pain. Unfortunately this chapter is a bit on the short side, but I promise that there is more to come that is much longer than this. Anyways, I hope that you all enjoy, and as always feel free to drop a review of favorite/follow the story if you like it!
-Wrench
"So, Daniel decided to transfer to Atlas then?" General Ironwood inquired. "May I ask what changed his mind?" He winced as Ozpin explained what had transpired. "So that, thing inside of him broke free? I'll instruct the doctors to make preparations in the event it appears during the operation. Tell Daniel he can have a few days to remain at Beacon and give his team a proper goodbye." There was a pause. "He wants to leave immediately?" General Ironwood exclaimed. "Oz, is he certain?" Another pause, and General Ironwood lowered his scroll from his ear and tapped on it several times, bringing up a list of flights scheduled to enter Atlas. "There's a flight from Atlas to Beacon at four thirty this afternoon. Daniel has seat A eighteen. And Oz, be certain Daniel knows we appreciate what he's agreed to do."
General Ironwood ended the call and placed his scroll down on his desk. Now that Daniel had agreed to transfer, there was a lot that needed to be set in motion. The Aural Generator had to be prepared, the doctors had to be informed, not to mention the amount of paperwork involved in transferring a student between academies. But right now, General Ironwood allowed himself a moment of satisfied relief. Daniel was coming to Atlas as a student. His only qualm was how Daniel's team would function without him. Hopefully they would take the news well.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Dakota demanded. "You can't just leave us, you're our leader!"
"Not any more I'm not," Daniel replied. He had arrived several minutes ago to tell his teammates that he was leaving. Needless to say, they weren't taking it well. Dakota was the most outspoken of the three; bombarding Daniel with questions and accusations as he continued to pack.
"I don't know why Professor Ozpin made me leader, but he made a mistake," Daniel said. "Unlike me, Lunare actually has experience fighting. When you guys merge, he'll do way better than I ever did, you'll see."
"You were a fine leader Dan-" Nick tried to say, but was caught up in a fit of coughing, keeping him from finishing the sentence.
Daniel paused his packing and turned to Nick, irritation flashing in his eyes. "Really Nick? Do you seriously believe that? Have you even noticed the shit you've been through because of me?" He held out a hand and began counting off on his fingers. "I got Dakota and Lunare arrested, I nearly got both our teams killed by Glas when you came to rescue me, you can barely speak, and now everyone hates you guys because I'm your leader! So you'll excuse my cynicism, but no Nick, I was not a 'fine leader'."
"Would've. Happened. Anyways." Nick rasped out. "You're our. Teammate."
Daniel paused, his hands poised above his backpack with a folded shirt ready to be put in. The rest of his team watched him intently, praying that maybe, just maybe, he would change his mind. For a moment, it looked like he was teetering on the edge of changing his decision. Then his face lowered, and he let out a long sigh as he placed the shirt into his pack. "Then all the more reason to leave," he said. "They won't care about team Dandelion if I'm not a member."
"This is bullshit!" Dakota exclaimed. He stormed over and grabbed Daniels hand as he went for his spare pair of jeans. "Nick's right Daniel, we went through hell and back to save your sorry ass because that's what teammates do! You're doing a terrific job repaying us!"
Daniel rounded on his friend, anger flashing in his eyes. "You know Dakota, that sounds a lot like what Vlad probably said to you when you left his gang! I bet he'd love to see your hypocritical ass right now!"
Dakota's punch came out of nowhere. The force of the blow sent Daniel tumbling over his bed and slamming into the wall on the other side. As he bounced off and landed on the floor, his feet crashed into the bedside table. There was a sharp cracking noise as something broke underneath his weight and force.
Daniel stood up slowly, clutching his head as he eyed Dakota, trying to gauge his next move. Dakota still had his fists clenched and was breathing hard, but was looking at Daniel's bedside table instead of Daniel himself. Wary of a trick, Daniel shot a quick glance towards the table before properly turning his head to fully view the damage.
When his feet hit the table, they had landed perfectly on the picture of his mother Lunare had given him when he gave Dakota and Daniel a ride to Daniel's old house for his father's fingerprints. The frame and glass had been shattered, and the picture itself had been folded and crumpled up. When Daniel gingerly pulled it from the shattered remains of the frame and unfolded it, there was an ugly crease right over his mother's face.
No one in the dorm dared to move. All eyes were on Daniel as they tried to gauge how he'd react. Nick had been about to jump on Dakota to prevent him from attacking again before seeing the damage and was frozen in a crouching position. Lewis was covering his mouth in shock of what Daniel had said to Dakota. Dakota's mask of pure rage was quickly being replaced by one of regret as he desperately searched for some way to apologize to his friend. That picture was literally the only thing he had of his mom.
Daniel didn't say anything else. All he did was fold the picture neatly and carefully put it in his pocket. He then strode over to his backpack and roughly shoved the spare pair of jeans into the bag and crudely zipped it up. The last two things he grabbed before leaving were his saber and pistol, which he clutched in one hand and shoved into his belt respectively. As he grabbed the outside doorknob, Nick called out to him.
"Daniel, don't do this. Don't. Leave." Nick struggled to say more, but he fell into a violent coughing fit as his voice couldn't take any more.
Daniel's hand rested on the door and sighed one last time. "Just so you know, this isn't easy for me either." He closed the door behind him with a resounding click, leaving the room bare of any noise.
As the airship gracefully docked with the landing platform and began discharging passengers, Daniel stood up and slung his stuffed backpack over his shoulder. His weapons had been taken hours ago and were sitting in a box ready to be stowed with the rest of the luggage in the cargo hold. A few minutes passed, and a woman's voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing that his flight could be boarded. He shoved his backpack into the carry on compartment and sat down, waiting for the airship to take off. It did so several minutes later, having been quickly restocked and refueled while the passengers boarded. It detached from the landing pad with a quiet hiss, and slowly picked up speed as it ascended into the air.
As the airship neared the cloud layer, Daniel glanced out of his window. He could see all of Vale through his tiny view, including a small sliver of his home town near the edge of the bordering mountains. Up until he had been invited by General Ironwood to tour Atlas, that had been the only part of the world he'd ever known. And now he was leaving it, possibly until he graduated. He was overcome by sudden emotion, and had to glance away, tears threatening to spill out over his eyes. Very slowly, he reached up and slid the plastic shutter down over the window. It was only then that he managed to open his eyes and get his emotions under control.
Had Daniel continued to look however, he might've seen an unexpected sight. A four legged vehicle was tearing through the streets of Vale, headed straight towards the landing pads. It skidded to a halt in front of the loading area, and team LSTR leapt from the craft.
"I don't see any airships; I think we missed him." Schatten said.
"It could be running late; maybe he's still here!" Ryler said hopefully. He began scanning the crowd, searching for Daniel's familiar spot of red hair.
Lunare however had pulled a pair of binoculars from his coat and was scanning the sky to the north of the landing pads. "I'm afraid not Ryler. There's an outgoing craft entering the cloud layer north of us. It appears to be the model of intercontinental airships Atlas Air uses."
"Dammit, we were so close!" Schatten snarled. "I told you we should have checked in on them earlier."
Lunare lowered the binoculars from his eyes. "There is another flight that we could catch on the weekend. If we were to acquire tickets, we could meet him in Atlas and attempt to make him reconsider then. At the very least, we would be able to give him a proper goodbye."
"I say we don't." Tiberius countered. "Daniel clearly wants to be left alone, otherwise he would have stopped by to say goodbye himself."
Ryler turned to face his teammate, outrage sparking in his eyes. "How could you say that?" he demanded. "Daniel is our friend and we can't lose him like this!"
"I concur," Lunare said. "I will go right away and purchase the tickets." He began striding towards a ticket counter, but was stopped by a restraining hand on his shoulder.
"You will do no such thing," Tiberius said. "We have to leave Daniel alone."
With one hand, Lunare reached up and pushed on the sides of his glasses. With the other, he grabbed Nieh Mehr's handle and "I know you and Daniel aren't the closest of friends Tiberius, but I highly recommend that you let go immediately, so the rest of us can go see him."
If Tiberius was intimidated by his friend's aggression, he didn't show it. "If you go now you'll only antagonize him further," he continued. "You saw how his team was. I would be very surprised if he was feeling any differently than they are right now. If we give him time, then perhaps cooler heads will prevail."
The two of them stared at each other for several minutes, trying to stare the other one down. When the contest was ended however, it wasn't one of them that broke the spell.
"Lunare, I think Tiberius has a point," Schatten said. "I hate to admit it, but maybe we should give him some time."
Lunare glanced down at the ground, then removed his hand from Nieh Mehr and let it fall to his side. "I really do hate human emotions," he said irritably. "Horribly complex and confusing, not like machines."
"You're going to listen to him Lunare?" Ryler said outraged as Lunare turned back towards Scrapmetal.
"If Daniel wants to be left alone, the least we can do is give him space," Lunare said as he hoisted himself into Scrapmetal with a bit more force than was probably necessary. "Now if you would all please get back into Scrapmetal, we can leave before being arrested for bringing a cannon to the airport."
The moment that Daniel landed in Atlas, he was ushered into the academy and down into the underground aural research facility. The scientists had clearly been waiting for him, and immediately began subjecting him to a multitude of pokes and prods as they began gathering information on his overall physical health. As soon as they were done, they began to take samples of practically every bit of his body they could manage. Blood, urine, skin, one of the scientists even snipped a strand hair from his head. After what felt like several hours and likely was, they had an exhausted Daniel change out of his clothes and into a light green hospital gown. He was then instructed to lay down on a metal examination table, and was finally left alone.
Daniel waited there for several minutes, shivering and sweating not from the cold metal pressing against his back, but from the memories that flooded his mind, followed closely by the voices. His breath came in shallow gasps as his eyes darted around the brightly lit room. He wanted out, needed to get free. He'd kill anyone who tried to-
No! It was different. This wasn't Glas' compound. He wasn't strapped down. The people here were there to help him get an Aura, not to perform a vivisection. They weren't going to leave him alone for days on end. At least, he didn't think so.
He was just managing to get his emotions under control when the door creaked open and he nearly lost it. Daniel shot up and scrambled to get off the examination table as General Ironwood entered the room. The general's eyebrows shot up in surprise as Daniel tumbled to the floor, grabbing at a nearby counter as he fell. Daniel shot up from the ground, eyes wide and darting, looking for a way out, a weapon he could use, anything.
"I'm sorry Daniel, I didn't mean to startle you," General Ironwood said.
"No, it's fine General," Daniel said, taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart. "This just, brings back bad memories. I'll be glad when this is over."
A pained expression came across Ironwood's face. "I'm sorry Daniel. The doctors will be in to begin the sedation in a few minutes, and the procedure can begin then. If you would prefer, they can move you to a more comfortable room for when you wake up."
"Yeah, that would be, nice." Daniel said. "Just have them knock me out before saying procedure again. Glas used that word a lot and I really hate it now."
"I'll see what I can do," General Ironwood said. Now before we begin the procedure, there is something I need to tell you. It's about a doctor we brought on to,"
General Ironwood didn't get to finish his sentence. The door opened once more and let in a man Daniel had prayed he would never have to see again. There were differences to be sure, a change in attire, a greater state of dishevelment. But he would never forget that face.
"Good evening Daniel," Professor Arthur Glas said. "Are you ready to begin?"
ns 15.158.61.20da2
