Yang caught Cardin's swing with her metal hand and punched him into one of the pool tables.
One of Jeff's friends grabbed a pool cue and swung it, but Sun caught it with his own pole and began almost fencing him.
Blake jumped in front of Dove and blocked his weapon, then her shadow clone turned to ice and froze it in place.
Two more guys ran at Mercury, and he ducked them and kicked at them.
Emerald dodged another and shoved him towards the bar counter, where he hit a stool.
Cinder didn't actually hit one of them, but she casually tripped one as he tried to run past her, and he fell into one of team DAPA, who were trying to break it up--and then ended up just joining the fight.
Even so, with so many more skilled huntsmen, it would have been the work of minutes to stop the punks--if the rest of the club hadn't seen what was going on.
Not all of the people in the club were Atlas or Mistral. There were Vacutians and Valeans there too. There might even have been some Menagerie Faunus, and when they saw their own fighting with punks from Vale, they rushed to join in.
Others rushed to join Jeff and his friends. Or just rushed to fight, period. After all, in plenty of backwater towns, this was just good Friday Fun.
The establishment, which was used to military personnel who never got into more than a light fisticuff even when drunk, was quite horrifed to see the all out brawl that was breaking out.
Jeff went at Royal, perhaps thinking he now had the advantage.
Royal just dodged all his hits with ease. Of course, his Semblance helped.
"Stand still and let me hit you, you b-----d!" Jeff griped.
"Yeah, that'll happen." Royal moved. "Watch your step."
Jeff painfully hit the corner of a booth.
"Just stay back," Emerald was telling Cinder, over the din. "Technically you haven't actually fought yet. We can get you out of this if you don't do anything to them."
"You expect me to just stand here while they take free shots?" Cinder asked.
"No, just run," Emerald said. "We'll take care of this. I'll hide you." She put a hand to her head.
"Witch." Sky Lark saw her do it, and suddenly he hit her in the head with one of the cues.
Emerald lost focus and was stunned enough to fall on her knees.
"You--beast!" Cinder was disgusted. "She wasn't even trying to attack you!"
"Now she knows how it feels," Sky Lark said meanly.
"Why, you..." Cinder's expression darkened.
He swung his pole at her, and she caught it in one hand.
Cinder wasn't rusty. She knew exactly how to use leverage to yank him forward and then kick him onto his backside, yanking the pole out of his hand.
Then she snapped it.
"Whoa..." Some of the guys saw her do it.
Emerald rubbed her head. "I'm okay," she said. "My Aura will fix it." She turned it on and tried to stand, but then she swayed. "Or maybe I should have activated it before he hit me..."
"Yeah, suck on that, b---h!" Sky Lark said.
Cinder stomped on him, making him gasp.
"And I was the one who needed to run?" she said to Emerald.
Emerald rubbed her head and winced. "I didn't really hear that, but I am a little dizzy..."
Mercury kicked another guy and then flipped him over his head and into a chair.
"Why are you still here?" he said to them. "Get out!"
"Is that all you got?" Yang was yelling at Cardin, who had a black eye now and was wincing in pain when he tried to move.
Some other guys who were not pro-team RWBY/SSSN+, shoved Neptune into the bar counter.
The bartender girl screamed from where she was hiding behind it.
"You guys are making a real scene!" Neptune said.
"Oh, and what are you going to do about it?" they jeered. "Come on, you like criminals so much--show us some illegal moves."
Yang glanced at him.
Neptune winked at her to show he was fine.
"You guys are really all steamed up," he said, glancing behind him. "I think you need to cool off."
Water bottles that were on the shelves behind him suddenly flew off the shelf and then burst open, drenching the punks and going in their eyes.
"Ah! Magic!" they yelped, letting him go and stumbling back.
Neptune slid around them and then hit them with his trident so that they fell into the fray.
"Sorry about that," he said to the barmaid, pulling out some lien and tossing them over the counter. "Things just got way out of hand."
She took it. "That was awesome," she said. "Are you single?"
"Uh...no," Neptune said. "Sorry."
"D---, they never are," she muttered. "Oh, by the way, I already called the base."
"Sorry, I'm not sure I got that over the noise." Neptune leaned over. "Did you say you called the base or the police?"
"Should I have called the police?" she said. "Most of these people are soldiers or huntmen, but maybe that would have been better--"
"Oh, no, tell me you didn't actually call the base!" Neptune blanched.
He glanced up. "Honey!"
"What?" Yang said, grabbing a different guy and tossing him aside.
"We need to stop this now! We're so dead," Neptune called.
"We can't stop now," Yang said.
"No, seriously, Yang, because your mom--" Neptune was cut off by suddenly all the lights in the room turning off.
Everyone stopped at the same time.
Then the lights came back on, and they all looked towards the light switch.
Raven was standing there, where a portal had just brought her that no one had seen in the fray. She wasn't too far from Yang so it had probably been to her.
Hazel was behind her.
The people in team CRDL and DAPA who were still standing dropped their pool table objects and lowered their weapons abruptly, and other people let go of whoever they still had a grip on.
One pair of people, who'd taken advantage of the chaos to make out in a corner, also stopped and ran out the door.
The best part, in the minds of the people who'd wanted to stop this, was that Raven wasn't even speaking. She was just looking at them all in utter disdain.
Then she slowly stepped forward and jumped onto the counter itself, kicking off a broken bottle.
"Who started this?" she said.
A bunch of people pointed at the RWBY, CRDL, and SSSN members.
"No, it wasn't us!" Sun cried. "It was him." He pointed at Jeff. "And his team."
"He swung first!" Yang pointed at Cardin.
"We tried to tell them not to." Neptune held up his hands.
"They left us no choice," someone else said.
"Enough!" Raven thundered over all of them. "I want all of you huntsmen back at the base flagpole in less than 20 minutes! We're going to have a little assembly. And those of you who work for me better be first in line!"
Hazel frowned at them.
No one, even team CRDL, argued. They all rushed out of the club.
"Make sure none of them sneak off," Raven said to Hazel, who nodded and went after them faster than you'd think a guy his size would move.
The main 6 team had not left yet. They were just standing there in the midst of the mess.
Raven eyed it.
"Well, it looks like you didn't break that much big stuff," she said tightly. "I'm going to hash this out with the others for the better part of an hour, no doubt, but I'll give you all one chance to tell me, succinctly, what just happened."
"It wasn't their fault!" Royal spoke up at once.
"Mom, we didn't have a choice!" Yang burst out. "We told them to back off."
"But they wouldn't," Sun broke in.
"They attacked Yang and Cinder first," Blake cut in.
"We tried to be reasonable, but they wouldn't back down," Neptune added.
"I didn't ask for any of them to help," Cinder spoke.
"I think I might be going to pass out," Emerald said weakly, sinking into a chair.
"Enough!" Raven cut them all off loudly, hitting her sword into the counter.
Then she hopped off of it.
"I'm calling Schnee in. Maybe you Atlesians will listen to her," she said tightly. "And the rest of you will tell me the full story after we get Sustrai medical attention. Anyone else hurt?"
"Nothing major," Sun said.
They shook their heads.
"Then you all can go wait with everyone else." Raven rubbed her face. "I thought this job would involve less brawling than the bandit camp. Stupid me."
"It really was them," Yang spoke again. "You know I wouldn't lie to you."
"And you know that I can't be biased," Raven said. "Go." She pointed.
They all left sullenly, while Raven took Emerald promptly to the medical area on the base.
After she was looked over and told to just take it easy and not strain herself for a few days till the swelling went down, Raven said she could just go home.
"The others will tell me what happened."
"I guess," Emerald said. "Don't be too rough on them. I swear, Cinder wasn't even trying to fight them. She only kicked the one guy because he hit me while I wasn't even trying to fight him. It was totally self defense--or defense of someone else. Doesn't that count?"
"Emerald," Raven said, "I know well enough what Cinder is capable of--and that she's behaved herself. But if this gets back to the Mistral council, and any of those idiots press charges, we'll have to defend our action of even allowing her to be here without guards. That could get my permit for her to even help us revoked and her arrested or put on worse probation. Even if I could prove that she didn't start it, enough people there are pissed off enough to probably make a protest to the council about her. She never should have been part of the altercation at all."
"It's not fair!" Emerald burst out. "People just walked up to her and tried to start a fight so she'd get in trouble. She's been helping us--I don't care how sullen she is about it, that doesn't make her deserving of this kind of treatment when she's finally doing something to help mankind. It's not an excuse."
"Maybe they'd say the same about what you did," Raven said. "Did any of us have an excuse? It's worse when the injustice happens to you, isn't it?"
Emerald went silent.
"Not that that makes it okay." Raven folded her arms. "But what do you expect me to tell them? Life is not fair. It wasn't fair to them. We all got off easy for what we did, and they know it. We might have done things to make up for it, but we didn't reverse the damage. If that's not enough for some people, I think we've all held enough grudges to understand why."
Emerald shook her head and then winced.
"Please tell me this is not about her destroying your tribe?" she said. "You would defend me, Mercury, or Hazel, I'm sure of it. I know she hurt you--but you tried to kill her. You know how she was back then. And you hurt a lot of people for even less. Heck, you were one of the bandit tribes who left villages the way we just saw today!"
She hadn't meant to get that worked up, but she was already off balance from the concussion and the whole experience of the day. She then bit her tongue.
But surprisingly Raven didn't smack her or do anything else to retaliate.
"That tribe was like my family," she said tightly. "But I knew what they were. I know also, that after the many towns I left in shambles, it was no more than justice to do the same to me. Maybe that's why I decided not to go back to that life later. I knew what it felt like then. That doesn't make it okay...but I see how I can't say I didn't bring it on myself. I have a very flat view of Cinder, neither good nor bad. She's just as she is. But that doesn't mean I have it out for her. We're similar people in some ways. But if I have to make do with the hand I'm dealt in this new world, then so will she, or she will suffer for it. That is all there is to it. And she is the one who took herself out of this team and hid in Eurus so that people would not see her work with the top leaders, like me and you. No one believes she really changed because they haven't seen it. All that work we did to integrate you and me into the teams started to pay off finally, but she's only been on the one mission with you. I don't have a lot of leverage here. I think only if you busted the pirate ring and the tribe would that impress the council enough to totally switch her over to being a hero instead of a scapegoat. And we don't even know if that will actually work. But only something huge like that--and her stopping a problem that people actually are still threatened by enough to put aside their grievances against her if she could help. Until then, she's going to be in limbo--at best."
This speech made Emerald sad, but she knew it was true.
"I shouldn't have said that," she said.
"No, it was a fair question," Raven waved it off. "But it won't matter. If I can't get those fools to back off."
She left straightaway.
* * *
The flagpole was in the center of the base's open grounds between buildings, which is why it was a big enough space for them all to stand in comfortably without crowding each other.
Also, at this hour of the night, only the guards would be on duty at the base, and the people monitoring night flights, so it was pretty empty of any audience.
They all waited, muttering to themselves.
"I knew this would happen," Cinder said. "Why did I ever agree to go there?"
"Because Mercury asked you to," Neptune said.
"Shut up." She folded her arms.
"Oh, why are you so pissed?" Yang said. "We literally just got in trouble for defending you."
"You were defending each other," Cinder said. "I'm an unpleasant sidebar."
"You would know," Sun said. "But you're not helping yourself by talking that way."
"I think they would have found some time to start that fight," Royal said grimly. "Maybe we should be glad it was in a public place where everyone could step in, and not in a dark alley somewhere."
"No one says they can't do that also." Blake was, as usual, all sunshine and rainbows.
"I just can't believe Cardin tried to hit you," Neptune said to Yang. "The other guys didn't know us that well, but we went to the same classes. I thought he was over the bullying thing."
"I guess not." She was glaring at him.
"If only Pyrrha was here to break his legs," Sun joked.
No one laughed.
"Is Emerald okay?" Darren asked them, interrupting their thoughts.
"I don't know," Blake said. "She was getting checked out. But she's tough. I'm sure a little concussion won't slow her down for long."
"I can't believe the first hit you landed was over that," Mercury said to Cinder. "Since when are you the protective type?"
"I'm not, but he pissed me off," Cinder said. "It's one thing to fight someone who's trying to, but she was just standing there. And he was going to hit me anyway." She smiled kind of scarily. "I'm not even sorry I did it."
"You will be sorry if you get arrested over it," Neptune said. "You should have let us handle it and just left."
"Did it seem like I had a choice?" she said sharply.
"They would have gone after her," Royal spoke. "Get real. They weren't going to let her go, or us. I think I've actually sunk my reputation. Who knew that was all it would take?"
"It's cool," Sun said. "I have a terrible reputation anyway."
"You wouldn't be the first of us to have a record," Blake said. "I wish 'brawling' was the worst thing that would go on mine."
Raven finally appeared--she had Winter and Qrow with her.
"So this really happened?" Winter surveyed the motley assortment of fighters and huntsmen. "I was hoping this was one of your terrible attempts at humor."
"Oh, I don't joke about this," Raven said. "See for yourself. If you sister was here, she'd have been in it too."
"What's the use of saying that?" Winter said.
"Because I don't want to hear any cracks about my mothering skills being the reason for this," Raven said.
"How would that be it? You don't have those," Qrow said.
Raven smacked him in the back of the head.
"Line up, all of you!" Winter barked at the troops who were all looking at her apprehensively.
They rushed to do so.
She walked down the line purposefully.
"Who started this altercation?" she said.
"And don't make us wake Robyn up to get the truth out of you," Qrow added. "She's cranky this time of night."
They all looked at each other.
"I'm waiting," Winter said.
Finally Cardin said, "I guess technically I struck first. It was a group effort."
"You?" Winter peered at him. "You don't even work in Argus."
"He's Vale," Qrow said. "I know him. He had a rep for being a bully even before he graduated. But not on this scale. You all let this happen?" He looked at the others.
"Let it?" Yang said. "We told them to back off."
People began to protest loudly.
"Quiet." Winter held up her hand. "We will get to the bottom of this in an orderly manner. Or I will make sure all your superior officers assign you a month of the worst chores, and I'll suspend the perpetrators right now, with no further questions."
They all clammed up.
* * *
It did take almost a full hour to get the whole story straight. Some of the guys tried to slant it their way, to protests from the others.
Winter was disgusted by the whole thing, and Raven was annoyed.
Qrow was...actually kind of amused.
"So you actually kept fighting after that?" he said, when they told him that Yang had one shotted some of them across the room. "Didn't cross your minds that was maybe a bad idea?"
"Qrow, take this seriously," Winter hissed.
"I'm just asking them what they were thinking?" Qrow was trying not to laugh. "I mean, you actually started a fight with people who've been known to beat much older fighters? World heroes? That's a good idea in your minds?"
"While I can't approve of his tone, his point is fair enough," Raven spoke. "What were all of you thinking?! I can't believe you would do something so stupid. We've worked hard to enforce the rules of conduct in this place, and you all should know that they do not go out the window when you're off duty!"
"Hey, we don't work for you, Lady," Dove said.
"Yes, I'll be contacting Glynda about this," Raven said coldly. "Did you forget that she's now a council member as well as your former headmistress?"
They all blanched.
"Well, Ma'am," Jeff spoke, "it's hard on us to not do anything when you let such disreputable people roam freely around the city and the base. It's not like we get any say in it, but when you see someone who's done that much damage, you get a little crazy."
Some of them muttered agreement.
"Why, you little weasel." Qrow got mad. "That's the most pathetic, miserable excuse for a brawl like that I've ever heard."
"It sounds oddly familiar actually," Winter said dryly.
"That was different," Qrow said.
"How?" Raven said.
"You're undermining our authority," Qrow said in a lower voice.
Winter face-palmed, then looked up.
"It sounds as if the people who began it are clear enough," she said loudly. "Everyone else involved, this is going on your record, and any further infractions will result in strong disciplinary actions--but since we can't prove who was acting simply in self defense and who was trying to start trouble, out of most of you, there's not much else to be done. Except that I am thoroughly disappointed in your behavior, and I cannot believe our own huntsmen and militia conducted themselves in such a manner not 5 miles from our headquarters."
She frowned at them. "We are trying to change the world's impression of us as arrogant and entitled pricks who will not tolerate any kind of difference from ourselves. Fighting with the people of other kingdoms over old grudges is not the way to do that."
"It didn't work for Atlas!" someone jeered.
Winter's eyes gleamed with anger.
But she controlled herself.
"Atlas is not coming back," she said, loudly and clearly, startling them. "You all had better come to terms with it. Furthermore, it fell more because of the actions of its own leadership, many of whom are now dead because of it, than for any outside force. I saw the entire thing up close. If my account does not impress you, I conclude you care more about your grudges than you do about facts, and that is not something I can help you with. Nor will I discipline anyone over groundless accusations because of the past."
"Even if that was true of Atlas," Sky Lark spoke, "it wasn't of Beacon."
"It was more that than you know, kid," Qrow spoke. "I was there for the inner workings of it too. We doomed ourselves almost as much as Atlas did. It's nice to talk about blaming it all on the criminals, but they only drove us to do faster what we were willing to do already. The world was left in the hands of very flawed people, and we blew it. Now we're all playing catch up. Trying to make it a better place."
"For that matter," Raven said, "as much as I understand your frustration, do you really think that what you did tonight is going to make one whit of difference to Vale? It's already been done. Will hurting more people over it make it better? Will you rebuild the walls and the shops and the houses by destroying someone else's property?"
"Or will you bring people back to life by killing others?" Winter added.
"Or will you get back what was stolen from you by ruining other people's lives?" Qrow added firmly.
They received cold stares.
"You all don't have to accept it," Winter said, "but we live in reality now. Blame will get us nowhere, and it never has. All of us have seen things that I would deem miraculous, and they never happened because of revenge, violence, or anger being the answer to the pain that was caused. Things change when you rise above your circumstances, and not when you drag other people down into them. That's something you all should think about. Those of you who were not the ringleaders of this are dismissed. The rest of you stay."
A large part of the group cleared out. Many of them didn't even know the full reason the fight had happened until it had been sorted out by the three older adults.
The remaining dozen or so young people looked down at the ground or at the leaders warily.
"I'll leave it up to your superiors what to do about you," Raven said to team CRDL. "But you do not--" And she came closer to them to look them in the eye. "--I repeat, do not lay a hand on anyone working for me, or next time you'll deal with me personally."
She looked just like Yang when she spoke like that. You almost waited for her hair to burst into flames also.
Despite their words against her, she scared team CRDL plenty and they swallowed.
"And you--" Raven turned to Jeff and his team. "--you're a disgrace. To think you would attack people you've actually worked with personally over nothing. What makes it worse is you clearly waited till you had backup because you're too cowardly to do it on your own. You make me sick. I should discharge all of you, but we're too short staffed for that. I'm putting you on the simplest missions for at least a month. Maybe if you learn some humility, you'd think better of stirring up trouble over your little vendettas."
"It takes a criminal to be willing to let another criminal off and punish us law abiding folks," Jeff said.
Raven couldn't believe he'd just said that.
Hazel scowled at him. "Watch your tongue, boy."
Winter grew angry.
"You dare address her that way?" she said hotly. "And how many times have you faced monsters worse than death in order to save a world that spit in your face for it later, you boot! I should throw you in the brig for such insubordination."
"Winter--" Qrow put a hand on her shoulder. "--all that teaches him is that we can use force to do whatever we want."
"He shouldn't work for us if he has a problem with our authority," Winter said.
"That's a good idea actually," Jeff said. "I don't need this s---," he swore. "I'm going to resign."
"You know what? Be our guest!" Raven pointed to the office. "Good riddance. We don't need cowards like you anyway."
They shot looks of hatred toward her and then Cinder, Royal, and Mercury, before they walked to the office.
"Unbelievable!" Raven muttered.
"Wow, talk about self foiling," Yang said.
"We're not finished with you yet," Winter said. "While I understand why you did it, you all should have known to just call us in as soon as it looked like trouble was starting. How could you let it get so out of hand?!"
"We tried to defuse the situation," Neptune said.
"It didn't work," Sun agreed.
"I just want to know--" Winter looked at Cinder. "--did you do anything to incite it?"
Cinder glared at her.
"That's not a fair question," Blake said. "Why are you asking only her that? Any of us could have."
Cinder was stunned by that.
"What?" Blake said. "It's true. We don't have the best track record."
Qrow chuckled. "True.... Hey, the others looked worse, that's the main thing."
"Really, Qrow?" Winter said.
"Oh, tell me you're not secretly a little bit proud?" Qrow said. "They take after us, beating up loud-mouthed punks in bars or clubs and getting busted."
Raven smothered a smirk.
"If I'm going to cover this to the council, somehow, all of you need to be on record as saying she didn't do anything to start it," Winter explained flatly.
"She didn't," Neptune said. "She only defended herself and us when they started using weapons. I mean, they hit Emerald in the head with a pole. They knocked us around. She barely did anything."
"She barely even spoke," Blake said. "Not that what she did say helped," with a frown. But then she shrugged. "But it was just words. We should know better."
"Did she threaten them?" Winter pressed.
"No, she was just insensitive," Mercury said. "None of us threatened them, even me."
Winter sighed. "For the record--" She lowered her voice. "--I don't actually blame you for this. It's pretty clear that it wasn't your idea. But I have to seem unbiased to the council...and even if it's plain who was at fault, there's still prejudice against some of you. Mistral is not the most forgiving kingdom."
"Yeah, you should have done this in Vacuo," Qrow said. "They'd laugh this off. There'd be nothing to it."
"Unfortunately, it makes it worse that some of them were from Vale," Winter added. "Cinder's harshest restrictions are in Vale, for obvious reasons. Even if they attacked her, it stirs up the whole narrative again. We can see if Glynda can keep it quiet with threatening them. If we can settle the matter between ourselves without bringing the council into it, it might blow over...but if they appeal to them to get out of punishment, there's nothing we can do about it. They'll investigate us for weeks..." She sighed. "And I'm not even really on duty right now..."
"I'll get the flack for it," Raven said. "They'll say someone with my background can't be expected to keep things running smoothly and teach respect to these new recruits."
"That's not true," Hazel said. "You instilled plenty of discipline in them. They discarded it."
"Tell that to the Council," Raven said.
"Yeah." Qrow rolled his eyes. "I hate politics."
"Ahem," Cinder cleared her throat in a strained way. "Am I going to jail?"
They all looked at her uncertainly.
Cinder raised her eyebrows.
"I think that's an abrupt conclusion to jump to--" Winter began carefully.
Cinder had no patience for people speaking like that.
"I knew it!" she said with anger and bitterness. "I never should have helped you people!"
She turned and rushed out of the courtyard.
"Did she mean that?" Sun asked.
"Can you blame her?" Blake said. "Maybe it was wrong to make her come with us."
"You mean with us. You had nothing to do with it." Yang did look kind of guilty. "I never thought anyone would start a real fight like that. It's so stupid."
"You used to pick fights with us," Mercury said. "I remember. Maybe these other people just aren't as enlightened as you are, Blondie."
"Hey!" Yang snapped. But then she sighed. "No...but that is true."
"Is she going to be okay?" Royal asked. "Does she do anything when she's really upset?"
"Her? It's anywhere from killing someone to having a breakdown," Raven said.
"I don't think she would kill anyone, not now. That would only make it worse, even if she had no better feelings," Winter said. "But Shine thinks she really is sorry."
"So does Emerald," Neptune said. "They know her better than we do. Maybe she is past that... but I'm worried that she could get pushed back into it.... Cinder doesn't handle difficulties very well."
"She never has, from what I hear," Mercury said. "Some of us never really learn how to deal with stuff any other way than fighting."
That was astoundingly honest from him, and empathetic. They were astonished.
"That's appropriate," Raven noted. "Because that's all she ever does. Fight. Even when she's helping us or trying to get along, she approaches it that way. I understand it, because I've done that my whole life."
"True," Qrow said.
"And was it always wise?" Raven said to him.
"I can't say I've always nailed the communication thing either," Qrow admitted. "You and I were both rough and tough kids because of what we went through. I kind of understand the ex-criminals better because of that. We all have to fight the odds, and I know all about that."
Winter put a hand on his shoulder. "But you have not had to alone. Even when you were young, you and Raven had each other--you have a strange bond, but nonetheless it's there. I had Weiss.... But when people are alone, it twists them."
"Not being able to rely on anyone messes with your head," Mercury agreed. "After a while, it's like you can't anymore."
"Wow..." Blake said strangely. "I've never heard you explain it like that.... I'm sorry, Mercury."
"For what? It's not your fault." Mercury folded his arms. "It's how it is. Maybe we can't help it."
"I think you saying it is helping it, in a way," Neptune said. "I feel a little bad for messing with you earlier now. I thought it was all in good fun and fair play, but, maybe it's not funny."
"Oh, don't give me that eggshell treatment, Water Boy," Mercury balked at it. "I'm not made of glass."
"Maybe you aren't," Winter said. "But Cinder is a very brittle person. Shine told us that a long time ago. Easy to shatter. Someone like her, I now realize, has to be treated delicately if they're going to develop correctly...and I'm afraid we did not help with that when she joined us. I regret not being able to see past my grudges more. In the end, what do they accomplish? Just as we told those young recruits. We should practice what we preach."
"Merc, if you were Cinder," Blake spoke, "is there anything you'd want us to do right now?"
"It's hard for me to think like her," Mercury said. "You might think we're alike, but we approach people differently. She's way more aggressive than me...but, that said..." He tilted his head. "She doesn't want your pity, I know that. She probably just feels like a fool for ever getting involved with us again. Let's be real, she knows none of you like her. Her only value to you is as someone who can help you stop Grimm and bandits, and if she can't do that because she's in trouble again, she's basically useless. Cinder gets crazy when she's useless or weak, and, thanks to that, she's basically both. So if I were her, which I'm not, the only thing that would probably stop me from spiraling right now is someone proving that's not true. But that's a joke--you all can't fake that if you don't think that way. And I don't even blame you. I would too. Cinder is just not someone you can just forgive easily, I get that."
"Why do we have such a problem forgiving her?" Winter said. "Granted, she was terrible, but we've established that all of us were not much better."
"Some of you were about the same," Royal muttered, making her give him an odd look.
"So why her?" Winter said. "I wonder if we're scapegoating her the same way the Councils did."
"So you knew that too," Raven said.
"It didn't take so much to figure it out, Raven," Winter said. "She took the fall, no pun intended, for the other criminals. They had to have someone to blame."
"Which isn't fair," Blake said. "All of them are responsible for their own actions. And, Hazel, uh, no offense, but she didn't even influence you."
"Not at all, but few people really knew the difference," Hazel shrugged.
"It's her manner," Qrow said. "She's just so abrasive. Maybe that's no excuse for us, but she's never made it easy to like her. Or to think she gives a d--- about any of us. I didn't even think till recently that she had feelings."
"But she does," Blake said. "They're stilted, but they're there. We could have helped her with that instead of ignoring them. You can say we had our reasons, but isn't that just an excuse? Are we that much different from the others? We still live in the past."
"We haven't had much chance not to. She's avoided us," Yang said.
"And why was that?" Neptune said, pointedly, though not meanly.
They all went quiet.
"This is nice to hear," Royal finally said. "You all can be real about it. Not many people can be...but that won't fix it."
"No, it won't," Raven agreed somberly.