Thursday, 10th April, 79AGW.

Cliff’s Edge, Beacon.

8:03 pm.

Lima leaned back against the railing with his legs dangling off the edge of the landing zone. He looked out over the mass of water below and out towards the distant city of Vale.

He’d been lucky enough that his other rounds during practical hadn’t pitted him against Blake in any meaningful way—but the laser intensity had followed him through dinner, from across the room—clearly, something he had said was unforgivable—he just didn’t know what.

The exact words he had used had been Low-class-human and Beautiful-Faunus—The roles obviously flipped to take the sting out of the joke—it was supposed to be both an acknowledgment of how the Faunus were mistreated by society and a statement that he disagreed with it—hence his own role as the ‘low-class-human.’

Blake clearly had the context that he was on a team with two Faunus and that he got along fine with them. So whatever the problem was, it wasn’t a surface level thing because he highly doubted that Blake thought he was saying something discriminatory. If that did turn out to be the case, he would apologize, obviously.

Honestly, she was a bit intimidating, albeit in a different way from most of the others here. Every hunter or huntress was dangerous, and to think otherwise would be folly, but Blake had the air of someone who was both dangerous and experienced—and the dangers of the classroom, no matter how Grimm, didn’t quite stand up it—Ren carried himself in a similar way, although not identical.

There was an almost indistinct noise of booted feet on damp grass—a wet noise.

Lima spun to his feet in a practiced maneuver and stilled as the yellow eyes of the exact person he was thinking about stared at him from ten meters away. They stared at each other for a long moment—Lima was considering going for that base jumping session sooner than planned.

It sounded a hell of a lot more fun than defending himself from someone he had accidentally pissed off.

“Did you tell anyone?” Blake said quietly.

Did he tell anyone what? About his shitty joke? About her reaction?

“No,” Lima said carefully, trying to catch up as fast as possible. “Have you?”

“Of course not.” Blake gritted out. “How long have you known about me? Before Beacon?”

‘If you are lost at sea, and far from home—may as well keep on swimming, you’re bound to hit land eventually, right?’ Something he’d heard from Sage in his youth.

“I’ve known all along, idiot.” Lima said confidently, “I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out—kind of cringe, to be honest.”

Blake turned her face away in an involuntary movement, of shock or unease, he wasn’t sure, but Lima kept his confident posture.

“Are you an Informant, a sympathizer?—or did Adam send you?” Blake said darkly, watching him closely. “Here, I thought I’d gotten away.”

Who the fuck was Adam? Lima wasn’t going to kowtow to some random guy named adam, though—he had some pride.

“I’ve grown beyond Adam; he never understood my greatness.” Lima said confidently, “I hold my own leash, Blake—but who holds yours?”

Blake looked struck by the absolute bullshit that was coming out of his mouth—maybe Sage had been onto something after all?

“Nobody holds my leash anymore,” Blake said carefully, eyes narrowed. “Why are you here then, if you’ve broken away from the White Fang?”

Excuse me, what the fuck? The white fang?

That terrorist group that Teak and he had spoken about—the one where he’d literally told his teammate that the likelihood of running into one was practically zero, in a city filled with tens of millions of Faunus?

Blake was a Faunus terrorist—or used to be?

“We aren’t here to talk about me, Blake,” Lima said gently, before turning it back on her—as if he’d called her out for a chat and she hadn’t hunted him down in the dark. “Why did you break away from them?”

Blake reached up and pulled the ribbon that was holding her hair flat, and Lima took note of the Faunus characteristics found there.

“Adam wasn’t always like he is now,” Blake said quietly, “He’s done with peaceful methods; all he knows now is force—Our ideals don’t align anymore.”

Lima nodded slowly.

So whoever the heck this Adam guy was, he wanted to force the world to treat Faunus better, and Blake wanted to go a more peaceful route—he was missing far too much context to be sure of that, but he seemed to have the gist.

“So you’re done with all of that terrorist nonsense now, fine—why are you here at Beacon?” Lima asked what he was most interested in. “You going to become a big shot huntress and change the world that way?”

Blake flushed ever so slightly in the dark, but he noticed.

“Something like that,” Blake mumbled.

There were a few moments where they studied each other in the dark; Blake may have even felt comforted by the somewhat resolution—shame he had to break it.

“Good for you, Blake,” Lima chirped, “Who the fuck is Adam, though? I was just saying a bunch of vague nonsense; I have no idea about any of this or even why you were so mad at me today.”

“What—” Blake said, shocked. “What do you mean you have no idea?!”

“You were being super dramatic about it, so I kind of just went along with it,” Lima said awkwardly, “I thought you were mad at me for the joke earlier.”

Blake was stuck between confusion and anger, unable to articulate her thoughts clearly.

“You said you knew about it all along!” Blake snapped.

“Yeah, I have no idea about the whole White Fang thing; I totally made that bit up—consider my mind-blown though, wow,” Lima said honestly. “How’d you fall into that kind of crowd anyway?”

“Shut up!” Blake hissed, “Explain this properly!”

Lima sighed but held up his hands in surrender.

“Look—I didn’t know before, but I obviously do now,” Lima said placatingly, “Let’s just work from here, alright?”

Blake looked like she wanted to kick him straight off the cliff, but she took a deep breath and let it out slowly—Lima nodded.

“Facts: you were in the White Fang, you left because they suck balls,” Lima summarised, “Did you kill anyone?”

“Of course not!” Blake said, horrified.

“Cool.” Lima said carelessly, “Just don’t be a terrorist again, idiot—who’s this Adam dude anyway—is he the leader or something?”

Blake looked stunned at his sheer lack of care.

“He’s not the leader, but he’s still an important person in the structure,” Blake said uneasily. “Do you really not care?”

“Not even the slightest,” Lima said honestly, “I was more worried about you trying to stab me while I was sleeping or something. Well, this was an entire load of nothing-burger, does Ruby know?”

“Nobody knows,” Blake said quietly, observing him. “Except you.”

“Yikes, you could at least try to sound like you haven’t already decided on where to dump my body.” Lima said bemused, “Ruby doesn’t seem like a person who would really care though—just saying.”

“I can’t,” Blake stressed, “Do you even remember who is on my team?”

Ruby, Yang, and Oh.

“I forgot about the old lady on your squad,” Lima admitted before shrugging. “I’d tell them anyway, get it out of the way now, build some trust between you all rather than spending months worrying about it. It should give them less time to build up that whole feeling of long-term betrayal as well. If they find out somewhere down the line, and they will—I mean, come on, man, you really going to wear a ribbon for the next three years? Lame.”

Blake stared at him with narrow eyes.

“If that was supposed to make me feel better—it didn’t,” Blake said seriously, before sighing. “You suck.”

Lima snorted.

“If you didn’t know about any of it,” Blake said, frowning, “How did you know I was a Faunus?”

“You have bright yellow eyes—exactly like Lux,” Lima said incredulously, “They glow in the dark and everything—how am I even the first person to notice?”

“You’re exaggerating,” Blake said, annoyed, “They don’t glow that much; it’s barely noticeable. So it was just a guess?”

“Totally a guess.” Lima confirmed, “Pretty funny that you went and gave me your entire origin story over a misunderstanding, though—might want to pump the breaks on that one in the future.”

“I hate you,” Blake groaned, pressing her face into her hands. “So much.”

Lima just grinned.

Friday, 11th April, 79AGW.

Training Field A, Beacon.

5:03 pm.

Teak groaned tiredly, lying on his back and breathing heavy. Lux radiated an exhausted kind of happiness, even as she was covered in dirt and grime. Lima just sat back on his hands, watching them.

Claire was pouting.

“That was so unfair,” Claire complained, “The teams weren’t even remotely fair.”

“Random is random—you know. You could always complain to Goodwitch,” Lima snickered.

“It’s not funny,” Teak whined, “Yang, Pyrrha, You all on one team? What kind of bullshit is that?”

“It was fun—come on, Teak!” Lux cheered, dragging the short boy into a hug. “We will totally win next time!”

“Hey, it’s not like you guys were alone,” Lima grumbled, “Fifteen to a side is complete chaos, though—I feel like I was hit by allies more than enemies, honestly.”

“Doesn’t that sound familiar, Teak?” Claire huffed.

Lux let the boy go after a moment.

“I didn’t mean to!” Teak cried, “You were invisible!”

Claire turned her nose up, and Teak rushed to defend himself, but she was feigning disinterest.

“What happened there?” Lima smiled, “Sounds like a story.”

“Nah,” Lux said easily, “Teak just tackled her by accident. Hey—the first week at Beacon, all finished; what a ride.”

“You’re telling me,” Lima agreed. “Tomorrow is going to be amazing—I feel like I haven’t seen a Grimm in years.”

“You see one every morning in Port’s class,” Teak smiled from his place on the ground. “Or did you mean you haven’t got to fight one yet?”

“It’s bullshit!” Lima complained, “He always picks someone else—hell, he picked Yang twice; when is it going to be my turn?”

He had a feeling Port just enjoyed watching somebody beat the living shit out of the Grimm with their hands—Lima had to admit that it was certainly therapeutic.

“Lux, what happened to convincing him to come to the duels? You give up on that?” Claire smirked.

Lux looked outraged that she had revealed her plan to the enemy.

“Claire!” Lux tackled the laughing girl, and the two wrestled.

“Maybe I’ll drop by after midday if you guys are still there,” Lima offered.

Teak clapped his hands together in thanks, bowing his head, and Lux paused in the process of getting Claire into a headlock.

“Deal,” Lux said quickly, “You better not forget.”

“Now you’re just rewarding bad behavior,” Claire said smugly, still trapped. “Idiot.”

“Lux pin her arms, I’ll hold her legs,” Lima cried, diving onto the girl’s feet. “Teak ready the tit-punches!”

“You better not, Teak!” Claire said quickly, still laughing.

“I wasn’t going to!” Teak squeaked out, embarrassed.

The Beacon tower was an interesting feat of construction—absurdly tall, cylindrical, and massive in scale, the top of the building housed the Headmaster’s office, and somewhere beneath that room lay one of the CCT centers—Lima’s currently destination. Luckily for him, the elevator had a floor map inside, so he was able to find it without much issue.

The room was as wide as the tower, with an ample amount of glass panels lining the walls, interposed with a hyper durable metal that made up the frame of the structure of the building.

“How can I help you?” The woman at the desk said pleasantly.

“Hi,” Lima said, smiling, “I just wanted to make a call to my guardian—he’s at Haven. Can we reach that from here?”

The woman’s smile widened slightly.

“Of course,” She said happily, “This center is capable of intercontinental calls; please take a card—thank you—once you’ve made your call; fill that out, and drop it back in the slot there on your way out.”

“Thanks, miss,” Lima said pleasantly.

He took the card and moved to one of the many consoles that were on the opposite side of the room, there weren’t many people inside, but he didn’t want to get in any trouble for bad language—this was Sage, and he was well aware that the man was capable of bringing out the absolute worst in him.

The best—if you took Sage’s word.

The card was a simple check sheet for analytic purposes, destination, signal quality, duration, any artifacts on the monitors, and the like. He jacked his scroll into the console and hit Sage’s number—Lima couldn’t remember what the time difference was, but it shouldn’t be too late.

Sage’s grinning face appeared on the monitor, in all its wrinkled glory, and Lima couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re covered in shit, Lima.” Sage said happily, “Ever heard of a shower?”

Lima felt his eye twitch.

“Hello to you as well, you old bastard,” Lima said, annoyed, before rolling his eyes, “I just finished practical combat.”

“What did they have you doing?” Sage said curiously, “That looks like a dust burn on your sleeve.”

“An exercise called ‘Warzone,’ fifteen to a side,” Lima summarised, “Pretty good training honestly, tracking so many things at once.”

“Mm.” Sage nodded in agreement. “We have something similar here, three groups of eight—two full squads per team—‘Elimination.’”

Lima just nodded.

“Hey, I heard one of those fancy limited trains got swarmed on the way over,” Sage said suddenly, “One of yours?”

“Yeah,” Lima grinned, “Giant Nevermore, the hunters assigned to the train got most of them, I picked off a couple as well—oh! Pyrrha Nikos was there too, remember her?”

“Yeah, the invincible girl,” Sage barked out a laugh before rubbing his stubble, “I was wondering why she wasn’t with the rest of the first years here; we lost two of the best ones to Beacon, huh? Goddammit, Lima.”

“She must have heard you were going to be the teacher, jumped on the first train out of there,” Lima smirked. “I can relate.”

“Heh,” Sage grinned. “Did you hear about the Vytal Festival? It’s being held here this year—”

“You lying liar—I already checked!” Lima cried out triumphantly. “Nice try, idiot!”

“Damn,” Sage laughed, “Did you get volunteered to participate or something? I honestly expected to get you with that one.”

“One of my teammates is completely fight-obsessed; all she thinks about, and she wants to do it,” Lima grinned, “I checked online the second I remembered it.

“Your participating?” Sage said, surprised before nodded approvingly, “You just doing it for your teammate? Or are you actually going to put in some work for once?”

“I promised ‘The Invincible Girl’ that I would meet her in the finals—she caught me at an energetic moment,” Lima sighed. “Who are they sending to mind the Haven students that are entering the tournament? You coming to Beacon?”

“Nah,” Sage said honestly, “First-year instructor remember? Barely any of them are going to go on an away tournament, Vytal festival or not—already polled them all about it, lazy little shits—reminds me of you honestly.”

“Fuck off!” Lima laughed.

Sage turned away from the scroll.

“Sure you want to talk to this little shit? Yeah? Alright—Midori wants to chat.” Sage smiled for a moment, “Stay safe, Lima; if you need anything, you know where I am.”

“Yeah, I do—Thanks, Sage.” Lima smiled, “I’ll be seeing you.”

Sage winked at him before moving out of frame.

“Lima?” Midori said happily, sitting down in front of Sage’s scroll and scooting forward a bit. “How have you been? What’s Beacon like?”

“I’m doing pretty good, couple of mishaps here and there, but I’m still going strong. Are you still looking to enroll here?” Lima smiled, “I’ve got basically zero pull with the teachers, but if I tell them about the old bastard, they might make an exception.”

“No, no!” Midori laughed, “It’s nice seeing dad again; he’s mostly up at the academy anyway—Little mishaps or the big kind?”

“It’s manageable—hey! Don’t look at me like that; I’m telling the truth.” Lima argued; Midori placed her hand over the scroll for a moment, perhaps in an attempt to muffle the scroll.

“Dad!” Midori giggled, “I’m not saying that—Lima’s right, you have gotten mean!”

“What’d he say?” Lima said curiously.

Midori just shook her head smiling, and refused to tell him.

“What’s your team like?” Midori prompted, “What are their names?”

Lima let it slide—he’d get the old bastard back next time he saw him.

“Three teammates, two girls, and a boy.” Lima rattled off, “Claire, Lux, and Teak respectively, the last two are Faunus—if you care about that stuff.”

“What are they like?” Midori asked curiously. “—and what’s the rooming situation like at Beacon?”

“It’s pretty much just non-stop drugs with the occasional break for sex,” Lima said happily. “Or was it the other way around? Hmm.”

“Lima!” Midori laughed, “Be serious.”

Lima grinned.

“Four beds to a room, shared facilities, rooms big enough for a bit of space, Teak was thinking of putting up some dividers too,” Lima said thoughtfully, “Honestly, we are all pretty tired right after dinner—everyone’s just been going straight to bed.”

With a few exceptions, Lima thought, he did get the occasional urge to roam about at night.

“Oh!” Lima said suddenly, “They don’t even sell my shampoo here—can you believe this crap? I’ll send you some money for it, but I’m going to need like a year’s supply because I’ve apparently converted my heathen teammate to the wonders of proper haircare.”

“It’s the same one I used to buy for you?” Midori giggled, glancing off-screen and laughing harder.

“Yeah!” Lima said, pouting. “Tell the old bastard that maybe if he showered at all, he might still have some hair left!”

He heard the muffled reply from Sage in the background, but it was too far away to hear properly.

“Stop it, you two!” Midori laughed.