Team SRDS (Stardust)

Chapter 22: Pressing Matters

(A few minutes later)

Steele, Diamond and Ross barely had any time to ponder on their conversation with Sigbjorn when they received a request on their scrolls to come to visit Ozpin's Office.

"Oooooh, somebody's in trouble!" Diamond cooed while looking at Steele. He was not going to miss this chance to tease the most stuck-up and proper teammate. Then the realisation dawned on him: "I don't know why I said that. I'm also in trouble. Shit."

"Well, if he's using the high priority tag, it must be important. I'd rather not keep him waiting."

"I still don't trust him. He seems too... schemey," scowled Ross. He was an easygoing and carefree lad. He disliked the secrets and games that Ozpin was so fond of. Everything was a riddle or a lesson. Sometimes, simple words seemed like they had strategic connotations. It drove him nuts.

"He's always schemey," Diamond said with a sigh. "But you gotta see where he's coming from. Headmaster of Beacon is a pretty influential position; he's essentially fostering the next generation of Hunters and heroes, and he's got authority over the current ones. That gives him some influence."

"Heroes or not, his real influence is his networks," Steele said. "Every other Headmaster seems to listen to him and act upon his advice. The man's a confidant of Ironwood. The General probably keeps secrets from his own mother and yet, he just agreed to hand over our training to the good Headmaster."

"Point is, we can't just ignore him," chimed Diamond's scroll.

"AAAAAAAAH! Scrolley has gained sentience!" Diamond yelped. He realised what was happening and cleared his throat."Nice to see the hospital let you use a computer, Sigbjorn."

"They gave me back my Scroll because I told them I wanted to play video games."

They all then heard the starting chimes of Pac-Man emanating from the Scroll.

"Of course," Steele muttered. 

The camera ahead of them swayed from side to side as if shaking its head.

"It's a ruse. I'm going to use your microphone and camera to listen in on the meeting; they won't discharge me until 15 minutes from now."

"Got it, Chief," Diamond responded.

"Don't go snooping around his browser history though," Ross said with a smirk.

"Oh, don't worry, Ross. We all know whose browser history contains what," Diamond shot back.

As the doors slid shut, Ross simply grinned and said, "Well, you're not wrong."

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They found themselves once again in the elevator as it climbed steadily to Ozpin's office. Ross stared outside at Beacon. His foot struck the floor and fingers tapped the side of his leg as if he was drumming a solo. It had only been a few minutes since the discussion about Silver and he was already apprehensive. Silver had betrayed them. That made him angry, but beneath that sourness was bitter grief. He knew why Silver was acting like this.

Perhaps worse, he understood.

He blames us.

From his peripheral vision, Ross caught Diamond staring directly at him.

"What?"

Diamond continued staring at him for a few moments.

"It's clear as day that you're worried," he finally said. "It's Silver, isn't it?"