Team ALLY

Chapter 19: The Fight

Me and Amelia go to the library and relax for a few minutes. Can't really do much on the account she can't interact with much. "Aries you seem bothered."

"Amelia, what was your semblance?" She thinks for a moment. "I never really had one. Guess I didn't have time to develop one before, well, bleh" She makes a dead face and it makes me chuckle. Me and her have developed a bit of a friendship, on the notion I'm the only one who can interact with her without assistance. She sees me smile and smiles back. "Now that's the Aries I like to see. Why can't I see him more recently?"

"Because I fucked up on my mission. Nearly got my whole team killed. Worse is no one will tell me what happened."

"That's it? I can tell you what happened."

"What? How?"

"Well, I was worried you guys were gonna get hurt. You guys are the only friends I've had for a long time. Who knows how long until someone else with your abilities shows up." I nod, understanding how lonely it must feel. "Well, what happened?"

"Well you were sliced by some guy in red hair. He starts talking about the celestians. You seem to change as a spirit places her hand on your back. The man with red hair charges and she steps inside you. You transform into the woman."

"The woman, what did she look like?"

"Kinda like you. But her hair was lighter with a silver streak through it." My jaw drops. "That's my mom."

"Well, that's bizarre. Anyway she seems to take possession of your body and it changes into her. She forms a sword out of whatever energy you normally use and charges it with wind. She defeats the guy with red hair before collapsing and turning back into you."

"That's it? Why couldn't anyone tell me that? Sure it's odd and definitely something I didn't know I could do but that's not secret worthy. Now I'm just irritated they didn't think they could talk to me about it."

"Maybe it's because they didn't know how to tell you."

"They could have said anything and it would have been better than nothing." I stand up and start to look for my team. I run into Leo and stop him. "Leo!" Leo turns to face me. "I need to talk to the team. Start rounding everyone up."

"Aries, what's up?"

"Amelia told me what happened. I'm disappointed that you thought you had to lie to me about it."

"Aries we-"

"We nothing. Round them up." We all meet in the dorm. "Guys, I messed up. The mission went down the shitter, I made a bad call. After the mission I asked to know how we made it out, what happened after I lost consciousness. I asked for two reasons. 1, to know how I need to do better in the future; and 2, to know if I lost control. We all see what happens when I lose control. I asked as a leader, a friend, and Leo, as a brother. None of you talked. Thank god Amelia was there. She told me and now, now I'm irritated that you thought you had to keep it from me."

"You're one to lecture about secrets." Lilac snaps.

"I'm not proud of doing it. But you have to understand what I've lost. I did what I have to in order to preserve what I had left."

"Yeah hide behind that-"

"I watched my parents get slaughtered right in front of me by a man we took in! One my parents loved as a son and I trusted as a brother. I'm not proud of helping them, or lying to you. But I was trying to keep you out of it. And you called me out, as you should. Now this is me asking you why you didn't think I could handle this."

"To be honest, Aries, you nearly lost control when you were having issues with your memories of your parents. We weren't sure how you would handle the fact we met her." Yema says candidly.

"I handled it pretty good. Especially considering I had already feared the worst. Finding out about that was pretty minor compared to what I thought happened."

"What were you so scared of?" Yema asks. I lean against my desk. "During my time of memory recovery, I remembered something I did, something terrible. Tyrian had just killed my-"

"Aries don't." Leo says, trying to stop me. "Leo. They need to know." Leo looks at the ground. "Tyrian had just killed my parents. I was so angry. I was angry, depressed, confused, hurt. Tyrian was just laughing, and laughing, and laughing. He started to taunt us. Calling us weak, useless. So I used my budding powers to reach inside his mind and gave him a flood of visions, torturous visions, I wanted him to suffer. His laughing turned to screaming. The more he screamed the worse I made them. Eventually his screams stopped and this woman picked me up and whisked me away. As we ran off he started laughing again, but his laughter was much darker, more maniacal. I created Tyrian, the same Tyrian that came for me and my family, that nearly killed Yema, and threatened all of you. I was fearful I hurt you, or set off a chain of events that would cause you to be hurt." The whole room is silent. "I suspected that's how you would react."

"You really are screwed you know that?" Lilac says.

"Yeah I have problems but at least I learn to be better. Instead of grandstanding about communication and honesty yet you keep secrets from me. I expected more from you."

"Why me?!" Lilac snaps back.

"One , you're the one that wanted to put my head through a wall for keeping secrets; two, I trust you to be able to tell me the hard shit even if it hurts. Because that's the kind of relationship we have. We bear our souls to each other."

"Yet you kept your involvement with Tyrian now you drop that gem in my lap!"

"You could at least understand why that's hard to share. "Hey guys I may have completely twisted and snapped an already unstable person's psyche." Yeah, that's just something we can discuss over whatever mocha-frappa-whatchamacallit you like to take two hours ordering at the fucking holier than thou cafe with the fucking barista that can't ever spell my damn name right!" By now we're in full blown fight. Yema and Leo just sitting uncomfortably on their beds. "Y'know what Aries. It's a good thing you chose Leo because at this rate I'd take Jaune into the arena with me over you."

"Oh yeah? The shit who doesn't know how to wield his damn weapon right and has no semblance and little miss "look out for passing clouds, I might run out of steam." Yeah, that would be real fucking smart. I chose Leo because we have the most experience fighting together and I know he can hold his own. Unlike the person who couldn't even last two seconds against a commander without being thrown off a truck." Lilac grabs her staff. "You wanna go?" I pull my scythe to my hand and I follow her to the sparring arena. Leo and Yema in close tailing. "Guys do you think this is a good idea?" Leo asks.

"He compared me to Jaune!" She yells out. We take our positions and Yema tells us to begin. I charge forward, full speed and hold my scythe to her neck. "Oz made me leader because he knows who I am, my history, my strength, and my restraint."

"You need to restrain your mouth!" She blasts me with solar energy from her staff. I go tumbling back I stand up and see her leaping at me. I catch her staff and rip it from her hand. "This is how you fling energy!" I charge a pulse of psychic energy and fling it at her, sending her flying back. She charges me and I toss my scythe to the side. We go hand-to-hand and we're matched blow-for-blow. We've trained together so much we know each other's fighting style. I catch her fist and she catches mine, we're locked in place. "Lilac, what are we doing?"

"Obviously, I'm kicking your ass."

"No, we're fighting for the wrong reasons." I release a wave of energy from myself knocking her back.I kneel down and hold my hand out. "C'mon. let's save our strength for the tournament." She shoves it away and grabs her staff before walking offstage.