THE STEL STORIES Part 2: The Fall of Beacon

Chapter 5 - Old Wounds Healed

The catch-up we had with Gambit and Amber was an amazing night.
The first thing Gambit did was thank Trillium for his new hand, Trillium had handed it over to him in a special case after we ate, allowing him to try it on and test its functions.
"It's like I never lost it," Gambit said in awe as he flexed his new black metallic fingers.
"It's near indestructible and should siphon your semblance like your staff does" Trillium stated, smiling at the small red glow appearing on Gambit's hand as he tested it.
"So Gambit has given me details of your mission with him" Amber suddenly said leaning forward, "But I wanna know more bout you guys and why he likes you so much, tell me your stories!"
We smiled at one another and then each told her our versions of how we became Team STEL.
Amber mostly listened asking a few questions and laughing at the funny parts, she seemed like a lovely kind person, and Gambit watched her closely a satisfied smile on his face the whole time.
"So," I said after the last story was told, "What about you and Gambit, last I heard you had separated paths, and now you are back together, what happened?"
Amber looked at Gambit, a huge smile of love on her face towards him.
"Well I realized I wasn't better off alone", she said gently, as Gambit laid a hand on her own, "I thought my life as a thief was my only path until I met Gambit, he showed me another way to use my skills, and when we split off I realized I did prefer helping him, so I put an application to be a Huntsman in Vacuo and studied for a few years, got to skip some due to experience, then graduated so I went looking for him".
Gambit grinned and said, "She found me after our mission, she beat the crap out of me for having her worried and brutally took care of me while I recovered, the moment I was fully well again I popped the question".
"Naw Congrats guys!" Trillium said smiling, Eclipse to his right had tears in his eyes that he kept tryna hide, a true sucker for a love story.
"Thanks, It was meant to be," Gambit said again with a smile, "The two of us are just so close that we can finish each other's -"
"Sentences!" Amber chimed in.
"Don't interrupt me" Gambit casually continued, "I was going to say thoughts but you ruined it!"
"Tosser!" Amber said shoving him, both now laughing.
We continued chatting bout random stuff after that, classes, missions, and most of all the Vytal Festival.
Gambit promised to swing around in a couple of days to help us with some extra training, and Amber offered to help too.
We bid farewell to them and headed home to our dorms to get some rest before the big day tomorrow.

I woke up at midnight, unable to sleep properly.
Seeing Ying brought up both good memories and painful ones too, they plagued my dreams making me restless and unable to sleep.
I climbed out of my top bunk landing softly on the ground, dorms usually had single beds but Scarlet and Trillium had made a way to get us proper bunk beds, allowing more space in our dorm.
I usually took the top bunk above Scarlet, Eclipse was sound asleep above Trillium.
I made sure not to wake any of them as I grabbed my cloak and a single blade, gently and quietly walking out of the dorm.
I wandered the hallways down to the courtyards, intending to do some personal training to drain my energy and get my mind off things when I saw another person already there.
Blake Belladona of team RWBY was practicing alone, sheath and blade in either hand, going through movements back and forth.
I watched her use her ribbon blade like it was an extension of herself, wide arcs as she swung it around, before retracting back into the blade again and using it as a short sword.
I leaned against the pillar nearby, and suddenly another memory pinged my head, and I now knew why her surname seemed familiar.
I strode towards her, she froze upon seeing me, her weapon in a relaxed but poised ready position.
"Hello Blake, fancy running into you here," I say casually, stopping a couple of meters away from her.
"Lumen" she replies simply, "I was just leaving".
She takes a couple of steps towards the exit when I say "So how long you gonna hide those ears with your bow".
Blake freezes and turns slowly, "What did you say?".
I smile nodding at the bow on her head, it's large and black, perfect for hiding the cat ears I knew were there.
"For someone who worked with the White Fang once, I'm surprised you hide your traits," I say a bit more roughly.
Blake's eyes are filled with pure anger as she stares at me, then she counters "For a member of the Shadow family, you're looking very comfortable around my kind".
We stand silent glaring at one another, the tension thick as mud.
"You mention to anyone bout the ears, I will cut your tongue out" Blake quietly threatens.
I poke said tongue out and then say, "Now why would I keep such a secret".
Blake raises her sword aiming it at me, "What do you want from me, all your family has done is cause my people pain".
Anger fuels me as she mocks my family, and uses them as an excuse, she probably enjoyed the news of their death.
"Does that justify why your White Fang Brothers came and slaughtered them!", I snarled at her "Does it justify how they tortured my innocent mother and killed my father as punishment when he had just started to plan his apology".
Blake seems startled by what I said, lowering her weapon she says "I didn't know, and thats why I left them, they aren't some peaceful group anymore".
I pause and then ask, "The one with red hair, I remember seeing images of you with him"
She flinches at the mention of him. It was true, during my raid on a White Fang camp I had found photos and sheets with him on them, Adam Taurus was one of their leaders.
One photo had her next to him, wearing a mask, and if she knew Adam then maybe she would know the other Red-haired male who looked similar to him.
The one who killed my family.
"I don't associate with them anymore," Blake said more calmly than before, "I left the White Fang cause Ad.. He was brutal and it wasn't a freedom group anymore but a terrorist one".
I assessed her carefully and said, "Your father sent mine a letter a week before he died, he warned my father of the rising tensions and offered to make peace, my father was going to accept his offer but...".
She knew what happened next and softly said: "I'm sorry, I didn't know they were going to do that, I was just a child too".
I knew she was tryna ease that tension between us, open a bridge of understanding, and maybe Scarlet was right, I can't just blame a whole race of people for a group's actions.
"Your secret is safe with me, though I reckon you would look better without the bow" I finally said, lowering my own weapon.
A small smile appeared on her face at the compliment and I saw her bow twitch as if the ears underneath had moved with the emotion.
"We can be better than those before us, at least thats what someone once told me," Blake said, and with that, she twirled around away from me and took off towards the dorms again.
With a sigh I didn't know I had been holding in I made my way to the center of the training ring, took a seat, and started to reflect on what happened, eyes closed.
I would be woken up a few hours later by Scarlet at dawn when he came to do his own training.