Silver Rose

Chapter XXV - Pressed, Not Crushed

Ingrid spent some time with Xanthus, giving him all of the information he needed about the attack. Although she and Yuan had made a positive ID on the perpetrators, the ones in actual pursuit in the woods did not have any badges or nametags to associate them with anyone. The sniper had also fought to the death and the authorities failed to get any information from him. The cave that they found was also empty, cleaned out of any identifying marks, though it was clear that it was recently used.

"What do the higher ups think?" Ingrid asked.

"Don't worry about it," Xanthus said. "Just rest."

"I'm fucking tired of resting. I've been here for four days now, damn it."

"Seven if you include when you were out," Perseus said.

"I'm not some goddamned kid. I don't need babysitting."

"Don't be stubborn, Ingrid," Athena said, standing over her bed with her arms across her chest. "You almost died. What good are you gonna be to your team if you don't recover fully?"

Ingrid threw her head back, staring at the ceiling. What team? There were no three-person teams at Beacon Academy.

"Where's Lilly?" Ingrid asked, noticing her team leader missing.

"Said she had something to do," Leon said.

"That's not like her."

"Yeah, well, I guess we all deal with this kind of shit in our own ways."

She sighed, laying her forearm over her eyes.

"You want a smoothie?" Athena said. "I'm gonna go grab some smoothies for everybody."

"I'll help," Echo said.

"Text me your guys' orders."

A minute of silence went by.

"If that really was my family's company," Perseus began.

"Don't start," Ingrid said. "That wasn't your doing."

"Maybe not, but it's my fucking family. I always thought they'd pull something completely fucking stupid eventually, but this? Are they trying to start a war?"

"Let's pray that's not the case," Xanthus said. "I spoke with Penny and the professors about all this and they're pushing for a diplomatic solution, of course."

"The problem is we don't even know what they're after," Perseus said. "Fuck, I don't know what they're after. As far as I know, Jupiter Enterprises' beef is with the Schnee Dust Company. Vale has nothing to do with any of this."

"They might be attempting to establish a staging point. This is typical in early pre-war preparations."

They watched as Leon scooted his chair closer to Ingrid's bed. Her eyes were closed, but they all knew she wasn't sleeping. Her childhood friend reached for her hand, holding it in his. A tear rolled down the side of her head and Leon wiped it away.

"I know this isn't what you wanna hear right now," he said quietly as he kissed her fingers. "But things will end up okay. He's gonna wake up tomorrow and make you pancakes and sushi like he always does."

She took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out slowly.

"Just you wait, Ingrid. Yuan's a tough motherfucker. He'll pull through just fine."

Even though he was correct that this wasn't what she wanted to hear right now, hearing it from him made it feel like things really would be okay. But in spite of all that, she couldn't get out of her mind the blank look on Yuan's face just before she lost consciousness that day.