The Bloodied Thirty Pieces

17 - And the Dreams That You Dare To

The sliding hiss of the door announced Ozpin's entry into the room. All but one of the occupants looked up from their parchments or clipboards as the headmaster of Beacon, his signature coffee cup in hand, stepped to the center of the room and stared past everyone to the large one-way window dominating the far wall.

"As you were," Ozpin said trying to keep his voice level and calm. The staff went back to what they were doing and the headmaster lifted his drink to his lips, staring at the window.

"How is she?" he asked lowering his drink. A pair of faunus stood up from the desk to Ozpin's right and approached him.

"Her body is 60% covered in scar tissue, 53% of that being burns," said Velvet Scarlatina as she held out her parchment for Ozpin to take. The headmaster didn't take it, instead taking a sip of his drink as he stared the window.

"Can the damage be fixed?"

"Some of the badly healed injuries could be, but she's scared for life. Her right eye is dead, and her arm. We can't fix it, it has to be amputated."

"Then how did she manage to fight with these injuries?"

"Dust sir," answered the second Faunus, a tall blue-grey haired girl with kangaroo ears named Pastel Williams who had come around to Ozpin's left. "A concoction of energiser and healing dust mixed with powerful painkillers, which her body is still dependent on. I'm afraid sir, that she'll most likely be for the rest of her life"

Ozpin said nothing. Taking another sip of his drink Ozpin nodded to the two Faunus and approached the window. Serena already stood there staring through the glass and the headmaster couldn't help wince as he regarded her, a crutch under one arm holding her up, her other in a sling and her head wrapped up like a mummy save for her lower face and one salmon eye.

"I remember ordering you to stay in bed with your team miss Laks-Christensen," Ozpin said to the girl. Serena gave him a flat stare in reply and looked back to the window.

"I'm needed here sir," she said in a weak voice. "I don't have to remind you of my-"

"Yes," Ozpin said, nodding. Looking to the window, feeling the slither of ice in his heart ache the headmaster asked "How is she? Mentally?

"Permission to speak freely?"

"Of course. This isn't Atlas."

"She's a total clusterfuck of a mess, as Walt would say. When she is coherent, and not screaming from the agony, she continues to cling to belief that her friends stabbed her in the back and left her to die rather than accept the truth."

"In this moment I would say this lie she has created is less painful than the truth."

"We are trying to slowly walk her back and to come to terms with everything that has happened. However her body is degrading quicker than the doctors and Velvet believed; Pastel has tried to supplement the dust, but this only seems to speed up the process, and she refuses any surgery, believing we are with them against her."

Ozpin let out a sigh and bowed his head till it was resting on the glass. For the first time in a long time he felt his tired to the bone. Here returned to him was the brightest most innocent student he had ever seen, the niece of a close friend, but also a cold blooded murderer who had taken the lives of two of his students, his children, and almost cost the lives of several more. The headmaster was at war at himself, joy and relief and hope clashing with anger and pain and cold fury; in the corner of his mind Ozpin could only imagine what Jaune was feeling if this was the storm the headmaster felt.

With another sigh Ozpin lifted his head from the glass. "Have the doctors prepare to operate, regardless of her opinion. We will not lose her again."