Daniel knew the backlash against him was going to be bad. He knew that when his secret inevitably was revealed, that there would be people that were scared of him and hated what he was.
He just had no idea it could be this bad.
"We're live in Beacon's main courtyard, where hundreds of Vale's citizens have flocked in response to the recent reveal of a student residing within these very walls who is very different from you and I," Lisa Lavender reported as she stood in front of a horde of both humans and Faunus chanting slogans and waving signs. "Daniel Grigio, age seventeen, is does not generate an Aura, making him the first known human not to do so. A public that once held sympathy for the Huntsman in training after he and two other classmates were kidnapped by former Beacon professor Arthur Glas, has now turned against a boy they once saw as a victim of an insane man. As revealed by his father last week in an exclusive interview with VNN, Daniel is also a runaway, having stolen supplies from his own father and gone against his wishes to become a Huntsman. Public perception further worsened for Mr. Grigio when a video surfaced, showing him and several other Beacon students engaging other Huntsmen after a high speed chase. After the Atlas personnel retreated, Mr. Grigio seemed to suddenly lose control and attack his own teammates. It is unclear why he attacked them, but several Grimm experts believe it to range from residual Grimm traits to-"
Daniel shut off the Scroll and slid it in the pocket of his jacket hanging over a chair. He didn't need to listen to the news to know what was going on. All he needed to do was open the blinds to reveal the horde in the courtyard. Their angry shouts bounced off of the windowpanes as they waved their signs, the nicest of which told him to go back to his filthy Grimm kind.
"Well, you certainly got your name out there," Dakota said sarcastically as he entered the room. Daniel turned around to see him holding a stack of newspapers under his arm. He dropped them on the bed beside Daniel and crouched down next to his dresser, searching for a pair of earplugs. "I don't think the news has ever printed the same story this much. You've become really popular from this."
"That bad, huh?" Daniel said. He could sense the sarcasm dripping from Dakota's voice.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Dakota confirmed. "VNN and all the major news channels from the other kingdoms are all playing the same not biased yet totally favoring one side BS. Newspapers are picking it up as well. VNN, The Daily Mantle; hell, Eris from The Beacon Post got off of whatever she's usually on and wrote a coherent article."
Daniel twisted around and reached for the topmost newspaper from the stack, titled "Crazy Psycho Ginger Gives Backing to Derogatory Jokes". As he did so, he hissed in pain as the stitches holding his chest wound together were strained.
"You alright man?" Lewis called from the floor next to his bed. He was reorganizing his stuff on top of the refrigerator disguised as a mattress. Lunare's business was beginning to pick up, and he was needing to come into their room more and more to make deposits and withdrawals; forcing Lewis to reorganize his stuff so Lunare could more easily get to the Rage cans.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Daniel replied. "I keep forgetting about these stupid stitches."
Still not assured, Lewis stood up from his mess and walked over to where Daniel sat, motioning for him to take his shirt off. Daniel groaned, but complied with the unofficial team medic, removing his white t-shirt to display a line of stitches holding his chest together. Lewis' initial assessment hadn't taken into account for the flap of skin that held back most of the blood and concealed the massive damage. Yarrow's blow had hit him diagonally across the chest, creating a nine inch long cut. It had taken nearly a dozen stitches to close the deep wound, and he felt them every time he stretched his body.
Lewis kneeled down in front of Daniel's chest and lightly prodded the stitches. "You fine man," he commented. "Just don't pull one out, or else we'll have to put you in a cone."
Any other day, the team probably would've laughed out loud at Lewis' joke. Unfortunately this was not any other day. With the incessant roar of the crowd outside his window, they were all finding it hard to concentrate on their studies, or even get any homework done. To make matters worse, Daniel found very little sympathy among the other huntsmen in training. Whether it was because they themselves couldn't get any sleep, or that they sided with the crowd, Daniel and team DDLN by association were almost completely ostracized by their classmates. The once safe haven of Beacon had turned into another prison for Daniel, just like his old town. At least with his father, he always had the option of running away. Now he couldn't even walk outside without being recognized and instantly set upon.
Seeing that his joke didn't go over well with the sleep deprived group, Lewis moved back to his junk pile and continued to reorganize. With his chest still smarting slightly, Daniel pulled his shirt back over his head and picked the newspaper up. He breezed over the front page's content before angrily crumpling it and tossing it at the trashcan next to the door. It hit the wall next to the trashcan, and fell to the carpet below. Even more furious that he had missed, Daniel furiously stood up and marched over to the insulting newspaper, ignoring the whispering voices in his head as they rose above the noise of the crowd.. He grabbed the balled up paper and with a grunt, threw it point blank range at the trashcan. His anger caused him to miss, and he bent down to pick it up again.
"Chill out Daniel." Dakota said as he screwed his earbuds back in, "It's just a newspaper."
Daniel stood up and whipped around to glare at Dakota. "Or what Harding?" he said in almost a growl. "I'm angry, and I'm tired of holding it back. I'm angry this stupid mob outside our room. I'm tired of being treated like an outcast because of my condition. I'm angry at this whole stupid situation! And I'm pissed off because it's cold as hell in here and my stupid jacket is RUINED!" He yelled as he pointed at the jacket laying over his chair. Yarrow's cut had sliced through both sides of the front, leaving a large cut that no one had even bothered to repair.
"Daniel, you need to calm down now," Dakota said, his voice abruptly taking on a hard edge. "Your eyes are starting to change again."
Dakota's words cut through Daniel's anger, confusing him greatly. He turned to look at a mirror and saw through his reflection that his eyes had indeed changed from a hazel brown to a dark red with pitch black irises and pupils. They were the eyes of the Grimm.
Daniel's anger was replaced instantly by fear as he recognized the voices now. In his rampage, he had not noticed they were getting steadily louder and louder, telling him to kill everyone in the room as well as anyone else in the school. His right hand slid across his body towards where his sword normally sat, had it not been unhooked from his belt currently.
"No, not again! Please not again!" Daniel cried in terror as he clutched his head with his free hand, trying to will the voices away. As if to spite him, the voices only grew louder as his panic rose. And the louder they got, the greater his panic. The greater his panic, the louder they-
A firm hand grasped Daniel's shoulder from behind. Daniel instantly loosened up, becoming as limp as a wet noodle. All the anger, all the fear, all of the everything disappeared from his mind. All that remained was a burning wish to obey the every command of whoever was holding onto his shoulder. The grip was maintained for several moments as Daniel felt his heartbeat slowly decrease before finally coming to rest at its normal tempo. The hand released his shoulder, and Nick stepped out from behind him. He set a paper bag on a table and began pulling out Dust cartridges and vials of powdered Dust, separating them into several piles.
Dakota let loose a breath he didn't know he had been holding and slid out of the defensive stance he had automatically slid into. "Thanks for the save Nick," he said. "I didn't know that worked on Humans."
Nick shrugged as he collected several vials of Dust and slid them into his jacket for safe keeping until he could get down to Lunare's garage and create his special reduced shot. "Works on critters 'n Grimm without Aura," he rasped out. "Guess it works on Daniel."
"Yeah, guess it does," Daniel muttered bitterly, hiding his disappointment behind a stone exterior. He was grateful for Nick's save, but he would've rather not known if Nick's Semblance worked on him. Now he had another reminder of how he was different from everyone else.
Not noticing Daniel's misery, Nick moved over next to Dakota and peered out the window. He frowned and tried to say something, but it came out as a dry rasp. He tried again to no avail before pulling out a pad of paper and writing something down and handing it to Dakota.
"Yeah, I can't believe it either," Dakota said after briefly glancing at the note. "You'd think they had jobs to go do or something, instead of protest out there. And seriously, how the hell do they keep this up overnight? You'd think that they'd at least give us the night to-"
Dakota stopped mid-sentence as he and Nick ducked and dove for cover as a brick crashed through the window, throwing glass everywhere. It bounced off Dakota's bed and skidded to a halt on the carpet. The sound of the protesters roared the now open window, twice the intensity it was before.
"Oh for the love of, what was that for?" Dakota yelled over the clamor. He scooped up the brick and tossed it out the broken window. "I can't believe this!" he yelled to his teammates. "We've gotten no sleep for the past five nights! How are we supposed to get any now?"
There was a knock on the door, which Daniel ignored. It was probably someone coming by to congratulate him for finding a way to make the protesters even louder. When the knock was repeated, Daniel turned around to address it. "We get it, they're loud!" he shouted at the door. "You don't need to tell us that!"
To Daniel's mild surprise and extreme annoyance, there was a third knock on the door. Lewis stood up and reached for the knob.
"Forget it Lewis," Daniel called out. "I don't care who it is, because they're probably here to be grade A assholes and that's the last thing I-"
"Mr. Grigio," a voice interrupted that made Daniel's blood run ice cold. Slowly he turned to see the frowning bespectacled face of Glynda Goodwitch.
Daniel dry swallowed. "Good afternoon Professor Goodwitch," he whispered, "How can we help you?"
Professor Goodwitch frowned, then raised her riding crop to a stance not unlike the one Daniel himself took when he used his sword. Daniel cringed back, expecting the crop to strike him across the face or somewhere else. Instead, Professor Goodwitch waved it at the shattered window between Daniel and Dakota's beds. Pieces of glass rose from the floor and bed, piecing themselves back together in the windowsill. In seconds the window was whole again, and the din of the crowd was reduced to its original dull roar.
"Professor Ozpin would like to have a word with you Mr. Grigio," Professor Goodwitch said. "If you will follow me, I can show you to his office."
"That's okay, I know the way," Daniel remarked. He smoothed a few wrinkles on the front of his shirt and made a move to step past Professor Goodwitch when he was stopped by her riding crop abruptly moving to block his exit.
"My directions were to make sure you went directly to his office," Professor Goodwitch said, her words dripping with her distaste for her assignment. "And while I do not wish to play escort to a student, I will make certain you arrive at Professor Ozpin's office without any deviations."
Daniel looked over at his team, seeing the worry and concern in their eyes. He wasn't planning on making a run for it when Professor Goodwitch arrived, but now he was seriously considering jumping out the window and trying his luck with the crowds. The fact that she hinted that she was there to make sure he didn't make a break for it did not bode well.
"Now Mr. Grigio," Professor Goodwitch firmly insisted. She lightly tapped her riding crop against her leg, and Daniel jumped at the motion. "Yes Mam," he said as he followed her out to the hallway. As they began their trek down the long hallway, Daniel glanced back at the door to his team's dorm. A strange feeling crept over him, one extremely similar to the one he felt the day he was strapped down to a gurney by Professor Glas and wheeled out of the lab where Dakota and Velvet were.
He felt like this was one of the last times he'd be seeing his team.
"Your staff's ability to handle the situation is irrelevant Ozpin," one of the shadowy figures on the wall stated. "The fact of the matter is that allowing this Grimm child to attend Beacon has put your students in unacceptable danger."
"You mean, more danger than they already are?" Ozpin asked, taking a sip out of his mug.
"Precisely. The council has seen footage of the fight, and are very concerned as to whether your students would defend against this attack. It took four other students to subdue this creature, and not without sustaining serious injuries."
Ozpin opened his mouth to counter their claim, but was halted by an alert on his scroll. He opened it to reveal camera footage of Glynda Goodwitch and Daniel Grigio riding the elevator up to his office. Sighing, he closed the scroll and looked back up at the council.
"Councilmen, while I appreciate your concerns over Beacon's Aura-less student Daniel Grigio; I'm afraid I must cut this, impromptu meeting short. I have a time sensitive meeting scheduled that I simply can't put off."
If Ozpin could see the councilmen's faces, he had no doubt that they would be furious at the interruption. "Very well Ozpin," they finally conceded, "but this discussion is not over. The council is very displeased with your lack of communication in this matter." One by one, the video feeds of the council members fizzled out as each individual member ended the call.
Ozpin sighed and took a moment to compose his thoughts. Between reading reports by Huntsmen and Huntresses on Grimm movements, running a combat school, and dealing with complaints involving Daniel Grigio, a meeting with the council was the last thing he wanted to do today. Finally looking up, he called out "Enter," to the occupants of the elevator.
The elevator doors slid open with a quiet hiss, letting Daniel and Professor Goodwitch enter his office.
"Hello Daniel," Ozpin said. "How are your injuries healing up?"
Daniel shrugged, instantly regretting the action as his wounds twinged once more. "Slowly sir," he replied through gritted teeth. "This would be easier if I had an Aura."
"As are many things," Ozpin said. "I trust you remember the warning I gave the day you were accepted, about how this path would not be easy for you."
"I do," Daniel said shortly as he gingerly touched the still throbbing wound through his shirt.
"And despite this handicap, you have thrived here at Beacon," Ozpin offered. "In the months you have been at Beacon, you have become a leader of your own team, killed several Grimm on your own, and managed to defeat two separate members of Beacon's staff in combat."
Daniel fidgeted and looked down at his feet. He hadn't told anyone besides his own team and LSTR about the voices and their effect on him, although he was certain Glas had his suspicions. He'd initially planned to keep the voices in check so teams DDLN and LSTR took the secret to their grave, but with videos now circulating around the Internet of him blindly attacking his classmates, it probably was for the best that he told Professor Ozpin. He opened his mouth to begin confessing, but Professor Ozpin had begun talking once more.
"However, there are those that feel you are not yet meeting your full potential," Ozpin said. "And of those, one has expressed a desire to meet with you."
Professor Ozpin pressed a button underneath his desk, and a hologram blinked to life. In it stood a miniature figure wearing a white overcoat and black sweater. He had black hair that was graying at the temples, and a a peculiar metallic patch over his right eyebrow. He stood stiffly at attention, although he seemed to visibly relax after the hologram was activated.
"Hello Daniel," the figure stated with a hint of warmth creeping into an otherwise wise steely exterior. "I am General Ironwood of the Atlesian military. How would you like to have an Aura?"
Shout out to Ghost Church on Tumblr for letting me mention one of his characters and the Beacon Post, a recap of RWBY episodes with an, interesting twist. Go check him out, it's a great way to pass the hiatus and days in-between new episodes.804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4QTqNEPdgm
Hope you all liked this chapter, sorry about the cliffhanger there. Feel free to drop a like or even a bookmark if you enjoyed what you saw and want to see more. See you next month!804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqOOtrJCxAq
