Yang and Neptune put out most of the fire and evicted most of the Grimm in their sections of town.
When they finally rendezvoused with the others, Cinder was still hanging back.
The fighter, who finally introduced himself as Fred, was sullenly telling the others what happened.
"It was a normal day, and they just appeared out of the trees like phantoms," he said. "Didn't warn us, didn't offer us a chance to give them what they wanted without a struggle, just swooped in, broke whatever they could and took whatever they wanted. Those who fought back were cut down. Some who didn't fight back were still assaulted. In more ways than one."
Emerald looked at him strangely, and then looked at the town townspeople.
Some of them gave her bitter, hollow looks before turning away.
"What does that mean--" Royal began before Mercury kicked him in the shin.
"Ow, what...?" Royal trailed off. "Oh."
Apparently he was sheltered enough not to get it right off, but off course, the bandit tribe had bad reputations for a reason.
Yang made a face.
"One of the creeps from my Mom's tribe hit on me once," she said to Neptune, aside. "He was nothing I couldn't handle--all of them. But I guess she had more standards."
"Your mom has issues, Yang, but I can't see her allowing that kind of thing in her camp." Neptune looked green. "Didn't she say as much...? I forget that other bandits aren't...well...scrupulous about it."
Yang shook her head somberly.
Fred seemed insulted that they even interrupted his story to figure this out, and went on in a miffed tone. "Anyway, after they had their fun, they left. The Grimm followed them more quickly than I've ever seen before. Like they were waiting just in the woods for them to leave. I don't understand why they'd hesitate to attack those scoundrels."
"They weren't the ones scared," Mercury noted. "But yeah, it's not very fair, is it? That proves the monsters are evil intentionally. Balance my a--."
He meant that the god of darkness clearly had a bias, whatever the story had been. Why else would Grimm prey on the weak more often than just the bad people who had negative emotions of other kinds?
His team understood this, but the townspeople didn't and thought he was being stupid. Some of them made sounds of derision.
"There's no way they could plan that." Cinder had approached finally, almost unnoticed. "Grimm don't just hold back unless someone tells them to."
"Oh, is that so, Miss Expert?" Fred was bitterly sarcastic. He didn't know who she was and thought she was just being pompous and patronizing. "Well, if you know a Grimm-whispering technique, it's nothing we want near us."
"It is near you." Cinder ignored his tone, surprisingly--or it just went under her radar. "That was my point, you fool. Someone must have called the Grimm in. But they didn't follow the bandits, they stayed here. That implies the person never left--or whatever they used is still here."
That was actually a pretty good deduction.
"What makes you so sure?" someone said warily.
Cinder started to say that it was what she would have done in the past--and stopped short of outing herself. "It's my business to know," she said instead.
"I think she's right," Royal spoke up. "I've seen her proven right before. It makes sense."
"And who would do something that insane?" Fred said crossly. "Are you accusing us of it? The b-----d is probably dead already if there was such a person."
"Not necessarily. I'm sure they'd have precautions against that," Cinder said coldly.
She was eyeing everyone in the town crowd like she was sizing them up.
Emerald frowned at them all also.
"This is ludicrous," one woman spoke up. "Who would do something like that? We all know each other. We need each other."
Cinder didn't answer her at all, she just walked slowly around the group of people, who all leaned away from her.
"Who is this woman?" one of them asked Yang sourly. "Is she off her nut?"
"Usually, but this time I think she's got a point." Yang was frowning too. "Why else does this happen as fast as it does? I knew of a bandit who used to scout ahead to make attacks this fast and effective. I think it tracks that some other tribe would have to do the same to move the way they do and then escape every time."
"But in our own village?" someone protested.
Before anyone else could say anything, Cinder suddenly ducked into the knot of townspeople and shoved one of them out of it--a man who was somewhere between Mercury and Royal's age and a lean, mean looking person with beady eyes.
He didn't look really threatening, just unpleasant.
But Cinder, who had her keen eyes for seeing Grimm now, had finally spied the thing she'd been sure she sensed this whole time: the dark, claw-like thing she'd seen on Teach.
She pushed the man forward more so everyone could see.
"I've seen this before," she said, taking an arrow while they all watched her in astonishment, and she hooked it right through the claw, though she was loath to touch the thing, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from killing it, not her.
Aura shimmered over her arrow, and the claws became visible to everyone, and they all gasped.
Cinder cut the arrow through it like it was a knife--in fact hers were sharp enough to be so, being glass.
The claws came off, to her great disgust, and didn't vanish right away. They just sat for a moment before they finally evaporated.
"Ew!" Emerald saw it clear as day. "Is that what was on those other guys?"
"The Avarice type?" Mercury said. "But smaller? That's messed up."
Some people gasped again.
The man himself became just as furious as Teach had when threatened, and Cinder, more focused on the Grimm, didn't anticipate his reaction.
"You b---h!" he hurled at her in fury, whirling around and hitting her before she had time to duck.
Cinder, unprepared for that, fell to the side, surprised.
"Hey!" Emerald cried, rushing forward.
"Tyrone, what are you doing?" some of the others who must have known the man, cried.
Tyrone, apparently, grabbed Emerald's knife off her belt before she could do it herself and caught her hands before she could strike. Emerald saw the claw come over his arms and towards her. She yeeped in disgust and tried to back up. Tyrone shove her hard, and she fell back also.
He was much stronger than he looked.
Cinder, recovered from her shock, leapt to her feet.
The Grimm seemed to grow till it wasn't hiding anymore. It had become a gross shape with many arms, like a Seer, but it looked more like a tree. A living tree.
Like the Pride and Avarice Grimm combined, just like it had been before when it was on the wall of the ship.
It wasn't really on Tyrone now, more like it was shadowing him.
He didn't seem to see it at first, but when he turned toward Cinder, he paused and gaped at it.
"What is that?" Royal spoke for everyone.
The monster made a grating sound between a hiss and a screech that made people cover their ears.
Tyrone even flinched.
Emerald used her other knife to hook him around his feet and pull him away from the Grimm.
Cinder was staring at the Grimm, and it grabbed at her. Royal pulled her back before it actually made contact.
"Why are you just staring at it?" he demanded. "Do something!"
Cinder snapped out of it.
She looked at Mercury.
Mercury was already glaring.
"Stop it!" he said. Light flashed out of his eyes.
The monster howled and writhed but couldn't withstand the blast, and it burned up.
The smoke from it was more than you'd expect from the size and hovered in the air for several seconds before vanishing.
The people were cowering.
Tyrone, gasping, looked up.
"You did this!" People suddenly look at him.
"Did you bring them here?!"
"Traitor!"
"Kill him!"
They would have rushed him right then, but Yang got in their path and fired into the air, and they all stopped.
"That is enough!" she said, sounding strained. "Believe me, I get where you're all coming from, but we're the people who are supposed to mete out justice here. Besides, we need to question him. You can't just kill him--he's too valuable."
She sounded just like her mom there, but that was just as well, because it was effective. The townspeople stopped.
Neptune shuddered.
"Why didn't you do something?" Royal, who seemed spooked now and was terse, demanded of him.
"Yang and I had never seen one of those mutated Grimm like that," Neptune said. "We heard the stories, but it was just something else to see it.... I guess I froze. That was really what you saw before?"
"It was more...consolidated, but it was the same clawed thing," Cinder said, realizing that Royal hadn't let go of her shoulder yet.
Royal seemed to notice that at the same moment and stepped back. "All of you need to stop gawking at these things when they pop up and just kill them."
"You didn't either," Neptune said.
"I don't have your special powers," Royal objected. "Nothing else seemed to work."
Tyrone was shaking.
"I didn't know that was...on me," he said to Emerald, as she was the only one listening to him. "I swear. I wanted to make a profit, that's all, and not get killed. They never said the Grimm would attach to me."
"Maybe they didn't know," Emerald said tightly. "Those things have a way of sneaking up on you when you make bad choices. They aren't like normal Grimm. Haven't you heard of them out here? The news has been talking about it."
"We don't really get cable out here," one person said, "or papers.... What are they?"
"She'll tell you." Yang nodded at Cinder to let her know she'd just gotten the job of Grimm expert. "We're taking this guy in for questioning. Argus custody."
"You'll kill him afterward, right?" Fred said angrily. "After what he did?"
"That's a matter for the higher ups to figure out, not me." Yang was non-committal.
To Neptune, Royal, and Mercury aside, she said, "We should take this guy back to Argus and ask Robyn to question him. There's no other way to know if he'd tell us the truth. He might actually have a lead on the tribe."
"It's worth a shot," Royal said.
"If the bandits don't figure it out," Neptune said. "Would they do anything to the town if they did?"
"Maybe, but he's caught already. We can't just let him go!" Yang threw up her hands. "What else is there to do?"
"Fine, you're right," Neptune said. "I just hate to think of causing them more trouble after what they already went through.... Are we sure Cinder is the one to tell them about the Grimm?"
"Trust me," Royal said, "she'll make sure they don't want to harbor those things again."
He was right. Cinder's description of them scared everyone enough to make them want to check their own homes...but of course, the device for controlling Grimm was to be found in Tyrone's home. A quick search from the team found one of the Kanap inspired devices hidden in a chest.
"Is this her original or a copy?" Neptune asked Yang.
Yang eyed it like it was a snake. "I don't know. It looks like her work, but it might be a little clunky. Victoria's machines are sharper and sleeker, usually. I hate to say it, but she's good at what she does, and it doesn't seem quite up to her grade. Some hack scientist might have figured out how to replicate her work and sell it. She should have seen that coming."
"Vic was nothing if not short-sighted about the dark side of everything she did," Neptune reflected. "This could be everywhere on the black market soon, if we don't find who's making them."
"Even if we found it, who knows who has the blueprints?" Yang sounded pretty depressed for her. "It's too late.... These are going to be in demand."
"If it helps," Mercury said, "that kind of junk is gonna be really high priced. Only the most successful criminals would be able to afford it."
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better," Yang said sardonically.
"Victoria is the mad scientist who works with Watts, right?" Royal said. "She did some messed up stuff to some of you."M
"She kidnapped me," Yang said. "And my mother and every other Maiden. She almost killed Cinder--she tortured her."
"Cinder never mentioned that." Royal glanced her way.
"She doesn't like to talk about it," Neptune said. "She's hardly brought it up since. Shine was the one who told us most about it. It was hard to feel sorry for Cinder, but what Victoria did was just inhumane. Shine said that she saved Cinder from it because, even if she deserved to die, she'd never leave anyone to that kind of fate."
"That's why Cinder joined us," Yang said. "She owed Shine for that. I guess she realized that some people have more honor, even if they can't stand you, and those are the ones you should work for."
"I know that Likstar didn't like her at first," Royal said. "But yeah, that kind of thing...it's like a movie. I didn't think anyone was that sick..."
"Imagine how I feel knowing that she's still free," Yang said. "Theo watches her, and I guess she's behaving herself, but I hate visiting Vacuo because of it. I swear, if she hadn't destroyed her health with that dust serum, I couldn't even sleep at night being anywhere near that place...but she's too weak now to do much damage to anyone.... Still, her hellish inventions were out there. I can't believe she didn't think that would happen."
"Maybe she thought she'd be strong enough to stop it once she got the magic," Neptune said. "But...do you think she could make a counter device for the Grimm summoner? One that could nullify it?"
"I don't want to ask her for help. Who knows what it would do?" Yang said.
"But who else would know how to stop her devices but her?" Neptune said. "It's worth a shot. If we had countermoves against those things, at least we might have a fighting chance. Some people could put it up in their towns."
"There's dozens of towns out here," Yang said. "I'm sure it would be expensive. Argus couldn't afford to pay her for all that, let alone these people."
"Maybe we could make her do it for free as part of her amnesty," Neptune said.
"How would we know she'd do it well then?" Yang said. "I don't trust her."
"Yang, I know she...well, she did a lot to you, but she's got a son who does these missions. I think she'd want him to be safe." Neptune tried to be more reasonable. "For him, she might cooperate."
"Well, I'm not talking to her. If you want to take it up with Theo, do whatever." Yang folded her arms.
"She must have done horrible things." Royal shook his head. "I've never heard any of you talk about anyone, even Salem, like that."
"Salem was cursed and not even human anymore," Mercury said. "You expect a snake to bite you. Vic is a human who acts like she's not as bad as she is--that made her worse to deal with. Salem knew what she was. It's just freaky when someone thinks they're helping humanity by committing atrocities against it."
"Like Ironwood?" Royal said.
"But way, way more unsettling," Neptune said. "But...I don't think Yang wants to talk about it."
"Whatever." Yang turned and walked away.
"I guess I don't really want to know," Royal said. "She seemed less creepy when I met her."
"She's simmered down now," Neptune said. "The dust probably made her worse too, but.... Yang wasn't experimented on by her, but she's told me that Vic treated people like they were toys, Grimm, too. She didn't have any pity on them for hurting them while she was pursuing her research. She used the Maidens like magic batteries, even. They were all terrified of her later, even Cinder. I didn't see much of it, but I don't think I wanted to."
"Your wife is a tough cookie," Royal said. "If someone scares her that badly, I think I know what I think already."
Neptune nodded. "I don't want to make her upset by getting Vic involved--I just thought it could help."
"Blondie would know better than to shoot it down if it would work," Mercury said flatly. "She might be pissed, but she's not gonna stop you."
"I don't know much about women, but I think she might just think you're writing off what she went through by being so quick to suggest it," Royal said. "Probably would have been better coming from one of your superiors instead of you. You're her husband."
"That's a good point," Neptune said. "I'll talk to her about it later."
"Doesn't it piss you off?" Mercury asked him. "You can't really be neutral about Victoria."
"Of course it does," Neptune said. "I try not to let anger control me, but yeah, I think any guy -or girl probably--would be mad about it. I'd like to tell Victory off...but she's the kind of person you just don't provoke. It's bad for your health and for your friends' too. She's like my mom.... She doesn't back down. That's why I wouldn't stir her up by blaming all this on her to her face. I'm a little worried Yang would do that--she's not exactly afraid to confront people. But confronting them isn't always the best answer."
"I get the impression you'd never confront anyone if you could help it, and Xiao Long would rather that than talk it out," Royal said.
Neptune shrugged, not denying it.
"You really are like fire and water," Royal noted.
"That's why together we sizzle," Neptune said. "Sorry, she likes to say that."
"Together you're freaking weird, more like it," Mercury said.
"Oh, don't be jealous," Neptune said roundly, before walking away.
"Hmpf," Mercury said. "Sometimes I miss when he was a total pushover."
"What, did you used to pick on him too?" Royal said.
Mercury glared at him, but then shrugged. "I ragged on him for being such a wuss, but I guess his girlfriend convinced him to push back, because he stopped taking it. Yang is very protective of her people. Even I wouldn't want to be on her bad side."
"Like mother, like daughter," Royal said. "Raven scares the crap out of me."
"Don't call Blondie that to her face though," Mercury winced. "Unless you want broken teeth."
* * *
They couldn't do much more for the town of Dolor after that.
All that was left was for them to try to rebuild.
Emerald did take stock of the kids who had no family now.
She tried to ask the townspeople to take them in, but everyone said they would have a hard enough time feeding themselves now, let alone someone else's kids.
Their lack of generosity nettled the team a little, but there was nothing to do.
"Well, I guess you're all coming with us," Emerald told the group of about 6 kids. "Don't worry, I have a place you all can stay till someone else can take you in."
"I don't want to leave," one girl said, piteously.
"I want my mom!" said another.
"When are our parents going to come get us?" said a third.
They were too little to really understand what had happened.
The boy Mercury had found, whose name, someone had finally told them, was Cliff (like a literal Cliff, not like Clifford), wasn't saying anything. He was old enough to understand, but he wasn't happy about it.
"Would you all like to fly in the air ship?" Royal tried to distract them. "You can see Argus. It's huge."
They looked dubious.
"It'll be cool," Yang said. "The base has all kinds of huge mechs and huntsmen at it."
"The world heroes live there, some of them," Royal added.
One kid brightened. "The world heroes? Like...Jaune Arc? Winter Schnee? Pyrrha Nikos?"
"Ruby Rose?" someone else said. "Oscar Pine?"
"The Faunus guy?" one kid who was a faunus said. "Sun Wu--something?"
"Not all of them live there, but sure, they visit," Neptune said.
"Maybe it'd be okay for a visit." The kids began to soften a little.
The team decided not to stress that it wouldn't be just a visit. They needed them to be calm while they flew them back so that the Grimm didn't follow them.
It was still a somber ride back. Cinder was awfully quiet, even for her.
"Are you all right?" Royal finally asked.
She shrugged.
"That was the freakiest thing," Emerald said in a lower voice to the other four, hoping none of the passengers would hear her. "We've seen stuff like that, but it was...just hiding on him? In him? I couldn't tell."
"I don't think I want to know," Neptune said.
"He seems okay now." Yang looked at Tyrone, who was tied up well away from the children.
"I don't like it," Mercury said darkly.
When they landed back in Argus, they told Raven all of what had happened.
She called Robyn in immediately to help. Robyn was in Argus already, fortunately, on other business.
"She really should just have two houses," Neptune remarked.
No one else felt much like joking about it.
"Oh, come on, at least we succeeded," he said. "You guys aren't going to let that creepy incident ruin that for you?"
"I'm just thinking about all those kids," Emerald said. "Not just the Grimm. I could handle that part, but I wish we could have gotten there sooner."
"You got there as soon as you could," Royal said.
Raven looked at all of them soberly.
"It is what it is," she said. "All we can do is try to stop it from happening again. I don't think the tribe would dare strike again after you all removed the rat. They'll move on to their next target.... Now we know what to look for. I can send word to some of the towns likely to be hit next, and the caravans and ships, if they see anything like that device.... Of course, spreading the word about it is also a risk. I'm going to tell them it's a weapon and hope that no one looks into it... but we can't be sure. It's just more risky to leave it alone."
They all nodded.
"You all can have a few days off before you'll need to move on this again, enough time for us to get whatever info we can out of Tyrone what's-his-name." Raven shuffled papers. "Don't tell her I said this, but I actually miss having my co-commander around. This case has been a mess."
"I'll so telling her you said that," Yang said.
"Just go," Raven said. "All but you, Zapato."
"Me?" Royal paused. "I'm sorry?"
"Relax, you're not in trouble," Raven said wryly. "But I need to discuss something else with you."
"Oh, sure," Royal said.
Everyone else left her office.
"I wonder what that was about," Mercury said.
"Who knows? But I'm sure he's fine. Raven likes him." Emerald put her hands behind her head. "I almost wish we could just get right back out there. Thinking about those a--h---s moving on another village just makes me so pissed off I could spit."
"I think we should take our minds off of it," Neptune said. "Can't do anything more for a few days anyway. We should go out." He looked at Yang. "Come on, it'll help clear our heads."
"I guess." Yang didn't sound as enthusiastic as usual.
"You'll feel better after a strawberry sunrise and upbeat tracks," Neptune said.
"Maybe..." Yang allowed.
"Ugh." Mercury rolled his eyes. "Get a room already."
"We have a house." Yang stuck out her tongue at him. "You two want to join us--if that wouldn't be awkward?"
It might not have been if she hadn't said that.
"I think I'll wait for Roy first," Emerald said, hastily. "I feel like we should include him. Of course..." She glanced at Cinder.
"I guess you can come too, if you want," Yang said reluctantly.
"No need to ask me just to feel better about yourself," Cinder said. "I don't party."
"It's not a party. We're just going to hang out," Neptune said. "And, just saying, it might do you some good not to mope around your little apartment sewing stuff for one night."
"You don't know my life," Cinder objected.
"Cinder doesn't even know how to have fun if she's not killing something," Yang said kind of meanly.
Cinder folded her arms.
"Actually, if you want to tag along," Mercury said, "there is something I think we should talk about."
He was thinking of the Grimm. He hadn't wanted more details before, but after today he did, and Cinder seemed to perceive them the most easily.
No one else could understand what he meant, and thought it was weird he'd want to talk to Cinder at all.
Cinder immediately knew that it had to be mission related.
"I guess," she said. She was just as anxious to get a leg up on the enemy as he was.
Emerald couldn't believe she'd just agreed because of Mercury asking her, but shrugged.
"Well, I'm going to go home and change first, we'll meet you there," Yang said. "Come on, babe."
"Yeah, I could use a shower after all that fighting too." Neptune followed her.
"Wait, what place?" Mercury called.
"Oh, the usual," Yang said. "You know, the one a few blocks from the base. Everyone goes there."
"I've been there plenty of times," Emerald said. "Merc, you haven't? Royal has, I know."
"I'm not really Mr. Congeniality," Mercury said.
"Really, your new team never invited you there to celebrate? That's mostly what people use it for," Emerald said. "Me, DAPA, and Penny and Kip have gone there a ton of times. They do have pretty good food."
Mercury didn't look appeased.
"I guess I can just text the address..." Emerald decided to drop it.
Mercury left after that, and so did Cinder, after hesitating for whatever reason.
* * *
"So what is this about?" Royal asked Raven.
"Don't you mean 'ma'am'?" Ravne said dryly.
"Oh, yes, Ma'am. Sorry." Royal saluted.
"All right, don't over do it," Raven waved. "At ease or whatever. I've looked through your files. You've been doing well on all our special operative missions. I was a little worried our pilots wouldn't be able to keep up with the...off-book methods I use. A lot of your colleagues get very jumpy when they have to go off protocol. They don't handle change well."
"The flight academy didn't stress flexibility," Royal said. "To our detriment, I believe."
"Mmm." Raven didn't disagree. "You know, we're still looking to make our remaining military stronger here. We're never going to have the order of Atlas again, not for decades, but we want to make what we have left as well trained and well run as possible. It's better than nothing."
"I'm aware of your new goals, ma'am," Royal said.
"I know," Raven said. "But I wanted to preface what I'm about to say by reminding you of what we have to accomplish here to remain relevant. Mistral's own forces aren't always so happy that Atlas hasn't completely died out in the last 4, nearly 5 now, years. Vacuo would like to be the primary military power in the world. I'm not one to care normally, but you and I both know that if Atlas doesn't retain some of its engineers and military identity, the people left of it will all become second-class citizens. That will only make our poverty issues worse in the Atlesian sector.... The problem is, aside from what's left of the Ace Ops and the Mantle Huntresses, there's not many of you Atlesians in leadership positions here. There's more Vale than Atlas, and they have their own kingdom and navy, so that says a lot right there."
"I know that all this is important, but what does it have to do with me?" Royal said. "I'm only a pilot."
"That's what I thought," Raven said. "That is, I thought it was odd that someone who's been in service as long as Winter Schnee has is still only a captain. Everyone else gets promoted fast enough in the Atlas forces. Now, your Semblance is nothing special, but it does give you plenty of skill with most weapons, especially long range ones. Your intelligence tests were all more than satisfactory, and I've been watching your ability to problem solve and adapt. Another part of this--most people seem to like you, and when we ask for team reviews, you are never the member who gets complained about. Some, even the opposite. You have an honest track record with the deliveries also, which has recently become a plus, as you know."
Royal looked uneasy. "And?" he prompted.
"This--" Raven held up a page on her scroll that displayed his rank. "--makes no sense to me. Why haven't you applied for a higher rank? I'm not supposed to say this, but I probably would have pulled strings to make sure you got it as fast as possible. You joined the military of Atlas when you were 18. That's a lot longer than a lot of the new recruits who actually have stuck around. You have all the abilities to be a leader, but you've declined any attempts to make you one."
"Rank isn't always decided just by what we want," Royal pointed out.
"Granted, but outside of war time, we tend to be a little more lenient with it," Raven said. "At least as I understand it. I even asked Commander Schnee about you. She said that you weren't interested."
"That's because I'm not. I like my job," Royal said. "It's a lot of free time, it's fun, and I'm willing to step in and fight when I need to. But I don't really want to be a huntsman or anything else."
"And why not?" Raven said. "It seems like a waste to me."
"I just don't think I'm suited to it," Royal said.
She gave him a nonplussed look. "I'm a former Bandit leader, Zapato. Do you think I'm suited to this?"
"With all respect, ma'am, I think most of us were pleasantly surprised by how well suited you actually are," Royal said.
"So was I," Raven said. "But I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't been willing to try something that sounded like a terrible idea to me the first time I heard it. But I did it because I had nothing else--and turns out, I kinda like it. Maybe the same thing would happen to you."
"I don't really want to be responsible for other people's lives, ma'am," Royal said.
"Good, that's probably a good sign." Raven flexed her fingers. "I'm not sure anyone should want to make that call. I didn't enjoy it myself, on either side of the law...and that's why you'd be a good fit. You can take things seriously. And you have the forbearance to tolerate even Cinder Fall as part of your team, and you're Atlas."
"I don't think that's a quality of leadership," Royal objected.
"Not on its own, but we've had people who weren't so willing to shove aside differences, as you know." Raven gestured blandly. "And in such a mixed assortment of huntsmen and fighters we have now, it's important to be able to work with anyone. I hear only good things in private about you from my personal acquaintances who know you outside of work. I see no reason for this not to happen. But I wanted to hear if you had one."
"Will it change your mind?" Royal said.
"I don't know," Raven said. "I suppose I can't promote someone who will refuse to do the job. If you would turn tail on the field and not give orders or make decisions when it would be your call to do so, then obviously I couldn't promote you unwillingly. I'm not sure anyone who'd be that selfish should even be in this leg of the militia. Better off as a rogue huntsman then." She frowned. "But I'd like to think you're not that petty."
"Of course I couldn't endanger a mission based on personal reasons, but that's not the same as being able to do that job," Royal said. "I'd really rather not."
"And why?" Raven said. "You don't seem the shy type. Why would you have any trouble leading people? Most of them you'd already know."
"That's just why," Royal said. "The job is dangerous enough. I know that any time we fly out there for a real fight, some of us might not come back. I can live with that when I'm not making the calls, but if it was because I did? I just don't know if I could accept that."
"You are aware that you don't have to be a leader to make a choice that could make or break a mission?" Raven said flatly. "Any one of us can do that. I've seen it many times. A leader is supposed to make it easier for the others to make the right decisions and follow their plan...but they do not determine the success of a mission all by themselves. That seems like an excuse to me."
"But it's the truth," Royal said.
Raven studied him.
"I don't think it is," she said finally. "I'm going to let you think about it. I might promote you either way, unless there's a much more compelling reason that you should stay where you are. If it helps, you could still be a pilot--you'd just be more than that also. We can't lose any flyers right now, but within that, that's where we need more leadership. I think you need to consider that it could be a selfish choice to refuse if we're already understaffed. If you want to tell me, honestly, after consideration, that you would do the best you could, I wouldn't hesitate. But if you're going to be a coward about it, I don't know. You better have a better answer than that bulls--- you just spouted if I'm going to be convinced. You're dismissed."
Royal left her in a huff.