As Lauren sat with her hands behind her back in handcuffs, weapon confiscated and a reeling mind trying to process what happened in the last few hours, the beleaguered dolphin Faunus hung her head, trying to formulate any way out of her predicament. In the span of a few hours she went from swimming cheerfully in the ocean to captured by the humans she reviled and with the rest of her team presumably dead. At that thought, she shuddered and after some of the adrenaline wore off she finally sobbed, not only at the fact that team members were killed but the fact she had been perilously close to taking a life. Even as she glared in anger to no one with tears in her eyes, her hatred for humans could not overcome the barriers that the otherwise cheerful and energetic faunus that prevented her from killing a life. As she continued to roil helplessly as a prisoner to the humans, a figure peered into a tent, presumably to question her.
"Hey!" Dad said with a comfortable grin, holding a hot thermos of coffee as well as two cups. He sat down across from the girl and set the cups and thermos down, placing on in front of her and himself, pouring both some coffee, "I'm not sure how you like your coffee, but if you'd like creamer or sugar, let me know." He said kindly, taking a sip of the scalding coffee. "We could bring you something else like tea if you'd rather that."
Lauren merely glared at him, neither accepting nor refusing the offer of coffee. Immediately, she was quite suspicious about why he was being so kind. She felt that it all had to be some sick act, like when she surrendered and Archer captured her. She didn't dare speak a word to the loathsome humans that had her captured, letting her cold, angry expression tell all that she wanted to express: contempt.
Dad shrugged, and called back, "Hey, bring some Capri-Suns in here." He said, and in a few moments, a woman came in with a twelve pack, "Thank you." He said to the serious woman, he then looked at the prisoner, "I'm glad you don't enjoy coffee, I'm not a fan either." He put the Capri-Suns on the table and took one out, "Take one whenever, I brought a lot of boxes with me." He poked the straw in and began to drink it, "My name is Dad by the way, I assume you're going to omit yours?"
Not particularly inclined to return the niceties, she bluntly asked, "What do you want from me?" She emphasized it with an acidic tone, intending to convey her disdain for having been captured
Dad finished his cool drink and got a new one, speaking as he tried to puncture the pouch with a blunt straw, "Well, we just need to know why you were trying to kill our students, and then I'd need to know if there are more Faunus here, and if they will endanger anyone." He handed her the pouch, "Could you also open that maybe?"
Ignoring the request to open the pouch, being quite unable to do so because of her cuffed hands, she replied defiantly, "And what makes you think I'd tell anything to the likes of you?"
Dad walked around and uncuffed her, "Totally forgot that you were cuffed." He laughed, "And I don't know what you mean by 'the likes of me' I'm simply a teacher asked to try and get information out of you. I wasn't even at the beach when the whole circumstance was going down. I'm really sorry about what happened to your friends." He said honestly, looking at her with sincerity.
After being uncuffed, she reluctantly took the pouch and listlessly began drinking out of it before downing the entire pouch instantly. As much as Lauren wanted to remain cold and angry in defiance, it was quite apparent that those emotions was wearing on her as an unnatural fit, on top of previous 'exhaustion. The mention of her teammates death stung more as she looked back down. Still, she was reluctant to trust them, after the perceived wrongdoing of the circumstances involving her aunt. She let out a grunt.
"These are the consequences of your actions." Dad said, "I don't know why you intended to kill my son and his team, but did you think you'd kill him and get out the same as you were before you tried?" He grabbed another pouch and began to drink it.
Meekly, she replied, voice still cold but strained, "I thought I could do it, thought that he deserved it. He was responsible for the murder of my aunt…" She trailed off, lost in thought.
"Think about that, who knows that happened? You kill him, and make Faunus look more savage, and you justify all the bigots. Your actions could make things worse for all Faunus, all for revenge."
Lauren winced at the accusations. This was not a person that Lauren thought she was, not the person her mom would be tucking in bed or the cheery, talkative girl that always was happy to read, exercise and make friends. She struggled to grapple just how much she loathed humans to have it lash out so violently and to take her down such a dark path. She couldn't meet Dad in the eyes, the guilt overwhelming and painful. She could only stutter, "I-I...wha..."
A bell rings outside the tent, "Well, my time with you is up." Dad say sadly, cuffing her again, "You'll probably end up being executed, but you'll be comfortable in knowing that at least one of your team members survived." He said very quietly, "I'd suggest talking to someone at least." and before she could respond, he left.
After he left, Lauren was left to her own lonely devices, angered at herself and at her captors. She tried once more to find a weakness in the cuffs or some way to get out. Before long, she was met with more people from the camp much less friendly than Dad. They grilled her on many perceived weak areas, gauging her psychological resolve and wearing her out to force her guard down. Normally, she would stand a fighting chance if she had the resolve and her wits about her, but the former had been broken and her fatigue was clouding her otherwise sharp wits. They managed to extract some information from the tormented teenager, though not too much more than they already surmised with the presence of Faunus on the island.
As for the motivation for why Lauren was driven to kill Archer's team, that was a different matter. It was also a longer, more arduous process. They tried many tricks in the book, drilling in the severity of her crimes, reminding her of her team and what they would say, and other manipulative tactics. Finally, a several hours later into the late hours of the night, they appeared to be satisfied with the information after she more or less spilled her heart out to why she was motivated to take revenge and left Lauren to her tent restrained. The exhaustion of the day took its toll and she passed out with her head on the table in no time.
Archer meanwhile had been questioned lightly, and he was watched closely by his team, and even some of the teachers. He didn't disclose much, having remained silent throughout the day as he replayed the death of the two faunus over, and over. In his mind, saving one wasn't enough, saving all three wouldn't have been enough. He wanted desperately to go back, and save them. To save the two faunus boys, the faunus woman, and the merchant who had been executed. It was hard for him to hear Nina's attempts at cheering him up, or Gaige's logical reasoning that it wasn't his fault. He wasn't quite into his training with Ilexa, and he didn't care that his dad had found out he was there. Archer was given the time to reflect, and he wasn't sure what he needed to think about.
The teachers that questioned him dismissed his silence as a byproduct of trauma. He was told to rest up and talk when he was ready, and so he just walked. Maybe he hoped to find Lucina, who would talk to him like she did before, or maybe he hoped that someone else would be able to do that for him. He strode past the faunus girl's tent a few times, thinking about how much she hated him now, how justified she'd have been to kill him. He wondered if his death would have been justified, like he had no right to stop her. On his last pass, he overheard one of the people guarding the tent, "They'll probably ship her to some prison, or kill her here." The woman said casually, as if she were talking about an animal that had bit a bystander. A simple statement that Archer knew he had to be against, at least for this one.
With the fuse set off, and the supply tent ablaze, Archer waited a moment before quickly taking action. It was dark, and the crudely made mask didn't help him much, but there was enough light from the moon and stars to help him. He took the leaf with the salve and snuck up behind one of the guards as he was distracted, spreading it across the upper lip and then going to the next guard and doing the same in a quick motion. In seconds they fell silently asleep, and Archer took the cuff key and dragged them both in. He looked at the girl, the mask of a hawk covering his face as he tossed the keys to her.
Deftly maneuvering the keys to unlock herself, Lauren was free of her shackles and exclaimed in a whisper to the stranger, "Thank you so much! I never thought I'd get out of here." She stood up, ducking her head slightly because of her height. Leaving no time to wonder who this person was or what their motivations might be, she hurriedly whispered, "What now?"
Archer checked his watch, just a few minutes to get away. The shortest way was straight through camp, but it would attract a lot of attention, going all the way around would take too much time, and he knew they'd search for her. He tossed her a black cloak from his pack and motioned for her to follow. He peaked out the tent and began to move immediately.
Hastily donning the cloak, Lauren followed in the mystery person's lead. Her instincts were on high alert as the rush of now being free. At any time, they would at the mercy of the superior security forces and the entire thing would go even further south than earlier today. She had no idea where she was being led to, only that it was her path to freedom.
Archer checked his watch, thirty seconds. He stopped abruptly between two tents as a group of people ran past, he held his hand up to signal the girl to stop as well. He checked his watch again, fifteen seconds.
Sensing some urgency in the way the other person kept checking his watch, Lauren picked up the pace as she realized that in some way that their time to escape was narrowing with each hallowing second. She continued down the path with the burning determination to get out of the damned camp.
Archer waited, counting down the last ten seconds, and then quickly setting off, confident the girl would follow. As soon as he did, the sounds of cracking and explosions were heard, similiar to gunshots. At this point, people were beginning to wake up and panic was brewing, it didn't take long for them to be noticed. Archer checked his watch, a few more minutes before the flames died down, and they had only made it a short way through the camp. He stopped between two tents again, and stopped the girl, looking at her and pointing towards the exit. He knew she needed to know the way out if he were to die. Unfortunately, the two people Archer didn't want to meet, showed up, Nina and Ilexa. Tiredly, the twins looked at them, and then Ilexa spoke up, "Are you two the ones that have been causing all this." She asked, mildly annoyed. Without hesitation, Archer pulled the girl and began to run, dropping two smoke bombs to impede the twins. Archer knew that their time was cut shorter given their arrival.
Nina yawned as they both stretched, "Was that girl the one that tried to kill Archer?" She said tiredly.
Ilexa frowned, clenching her fist, "The faunus are breaking her out." She growled, chasing after him, "Let's go Nina." In seconds they had caught up to the escapees, and blocked them off. "What the hell are you doing? You think we're going to let that murderer get away?" She said looking at the girl.
"Yeah!" Nina said in a tired, yet enthusiastic voice, "Because of her, Archer's been all mopey. She's staying until he can at least feel better."
Archer didn't hesitate, saying his apologies in his head as he tossed a flashbang at them. Covering his and the girl's eyes while running away and thinking of a new route.
Startled by the loud and bright flashbang grenade, Lauren was briefly disoriented before having her eyes uncovered once they were out of range of it. She looked to the other person and asked, "How much farther?"
Archer threw her to the side as an incoming pole pierced the ground where she stood. Ilexa was hot on their trail, angry as ever. "You made Nina cry." She roared, "I'll at least tear your eyes out to compensate." She kicked at Archer, who managed to dodge, but the ground shattered and a crater formed. Archer kept his cool, and grabbed the girl to keep them running. Her roar was hardly drowned out by the sound of the fireworks, and Archer knew that he must have actually hurt Nina. He struggled back tears as he ran, he'd be able to apologize another day.
Remembering her own fury not ten hours or so earlier, Lauren's instincts were further amped by the terrifying human and her close calls with the presumably deadly attacks. She only had the briefest moment of thought about the insanity of the situation before that was pushed out of her mind as it became more apparent they were nearing their goal. So...close...freedom…
Ilexa landed in front of them growling and panting, "I'll break all of your bones and drag you back so you can beg her to forgive you." She sneered, charging at them. Archer rushed in front of Lauren to block her, and opened a canteen of water, hoping she would realize in time.
Lauren took the water from the canteen and smacked it with great force against the enraged twin, knocking her off balance long enough to get a slight edge in rushing ahead with her rescuer. She dragged the masked person along to ensure he would get out of this jam with her.
Archer checked his watch, the last distraction was coming soon, in seconds, the camp was lit in a bright light from a magnesium flare. Archer shielded his and the girl's eyes, having her keep running. They were nearly to the end, but Ilexa caught up, visually disoriented, "You're light tricks aren't going to stop me!" She roared, charging forward. Archer pushed the girl away and pulled out the last of his salve taking the tackle. He could feel his ribs break, but he quickly attempted to spread the salve over her face. Archer was thrown to the ground and she began to make a fist to punch him, though her body began to feel heavy and she quickly collapsed. Archer coughed up blood, the mask catching it all. He pulled out adrenaline and injected it quickly into his thigh, getting up and stumbling forward, past the girl. They were almost done.
After being saved from the blow, Lauren continued to follow the masked figure to safety. The closeness to safety was palpable and as she drew closer to their goal, her resolve to relay her experiences to everyone at camp gave her the courage to continue.
Just before crossing into the forest, there was a gunshot, and Archer felt a sharp pain in his back. He felt the blood before his body began to go into shock. He struggled to drop one more smoke bomb to cover them before fainting. He was in the hands of the girl now.
As the shot pierced through the night, taking out the mystery rescuer, Lauren wasted no time in using the smoke bomb as cover and tend to them. She had seen quite enough death with her own team to tolerate a potential third victim on her conscience. Drawing upon some medical knowledge she had observed over the years with her mother, Lauren improvised using a cloak to stop the bleeding, wrapping it around the person's chest and back to slow the bleeding.
Without any of the sophisticated medical equipment found at the hospital in Vale where her mother was employed or even the less impressive, just above adequate equipment at faunus camp, Lauren scooped the person up in her arms, careful to keep the cloak in its position around the wound and hugged the person tightly against herself to maintain the pressure. She sprinted and rushed towards safer territory deeper in the forest. The territory began looking familiar five minutes into the forest and wound her way to the collection of tents marking the Faunus camp.
She immediately went for the medical treatment tents, where the staff had been on an idle standby. Lauren's mother was one of the staff assigned to the island, with her expertise in need in a more beleaguered environment. As soon as Lauren bolted through the tent, given only a few seconds to react to her daughter returning after being missing for the entire day before Dahlia's frantic daughter thrust upon her a masked person covered in a blood soaked cloak. Going a mile a minute and short of breath, "Mom, it was so crazy, I escaped and I-" She paused, panting. "This person…they helped me and they were shot and-"
Bewildered and confused, least of all because of the strange disappearance of Lauren and her returning with a severely injured person, Dahlia immediately got to work tending to the injured person nonetheless, whilst pushing her concerns aside for the sake of treating the patient. She quickly propped them on a stretcher to stabilize their condition. Dahlia asked, concern evident but measured in her voice, "Lauren, where have you been?! I...have been here worried sick. Haven't seen you or your team since this morning!" The only reason she wasn't acting more distraught and generally worried is her collected manner while tending to patients. Other medical staff had gathered around Mrs. Baxiao to begin treating their "mystery" guest.
Lauren gulped as she looked down, unsure on where to even start with the craziness of the day. She said, looking down, "I-this person-we escaped from the human camp after I-" She wasn't sure how to come out and say what she did. Her mother never seemed to have any of the feelings that Lauren had towards the humans that was pushed away in Lauren's mind for the past few years. Those feelings were at the forefront of her mind as the medical staff began peeling off the cloak for proper treatment and the mask. Lauren stood shocked as the identity of the person was revealed to her: Archer. She simply could not comprehend why on earth he of all people would help her. Lauren did not know quite how to feel after the rollercoaster of emotions that had slammed her left and right. She froze as she saw Archer, stammering, "H-h-him?"
At once, Dahlia asked, "Who might he be? I don't see any 'notable features'" Her eyes widened in realization, "Honey, what is a human doing here? I had my suspicions about their presence on the island." She continued, voice strained as she connected the dots, "God, I can only imagine what happened...you mentioned something about an escape…" She took a deep breath, to prevent any anger she might have from interfering with her work. Just as she was going to follow up to get the full story, Dahlia was pulled back into the comprehensive task of treating the wound and patching it up. Even if the victim was human, the medical team were not just gonna leave him to die now that he was here.
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After working throughout the night to ensure that the patient was treated Archer was resting and in stable condition after recuperating the loss of the blood and patching the wound up with stitches. Lauren had fallen asleep outside the medical tent for the opportunity to talk with her mother before she had dozed off and slept. She awoke after she sensed a hand gently shaking her. Lauren looked up to see her mother, offering a tired but warm smile to her fairly ragged looking daughter. They both stepped inside the tent, checking on the progress of Archer so that he may be subject to questions by some of the heads of the camp.
Archer woke up within the empty room, light-headed and in pain. The setting was unfamiliar, and he didn't take long to reason that he probably wasn't at the human camp. He sat up, feeling a severe pain in his gut, and looked around the room for a weapon. Seeing a tray with medical tools, he grabbed a scalpel and stood against the furthest wall from the entrance, holding his wound nervously.
Promptly on guard for the possibility that the male wouldn't be cooperative, Dahlia put on her best soothing voice and spoke softly and gently, "We are not here to attack you. We are not armed, and do not wish to harm you. Please put down the scalpel and let's talk." Dahlia held a relaxed, casual stance as she held up her hands to show that she indeed was not armed.
Archer couldn't relax, his instinct correct. He looked at the girl he saved and then at the woman holding her hand out, "N-nobody else, j-just you two." He said, clutching the scalpel with one hand. His muscle tension was beginning to undo the stitches and he gripped his wound.
Noticing Archer gripping his wounds, Dahlia again spoke to him calmly, but more firmly, "Sir, please settle down, you'll hurt yourself like that. I understand that you may want to talk, but I have to ask you to settle down so that you do not injure yourself further. Regardless of who they may be, I do not like seeing my patients getting hurt." Dahlia gave a genuine look of concern, for despite her issues with humans in the past few years, she believed wholeheartedly in treating patients equally and fairly.
"N-nobody else can come in here!" Archer repeated, "Promise that?!"
Reluctantly, and seeing no other way to solve the conflict, Dahlia ordered the others out and was left with just her and Lauren. Directing her attention back to Archer, she stated, "Ok, everyone is out. Now please, ease up and don't make your wound any worse. You're really lucky my daughter was able to get you here when she did. I wouldn't want you to let her efforts go to waste."
Archer dropped to one knee and dropped the scalpel, "If her efforts were any better yesterday, I would've died on a beach instead of in this medical tent." Archer replied, "So forgive me if I don't" He gritted his teeth through a surge of pain. He took a deep breath, "So forgive me for not being very trusting."
Not having a chance to hear much of Lauren's story, Dahlia looked confused and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'you would have died on a beach' because of her? I thought she was captured by your camp…" Lauren noticeably paled, and looked down as if the floor was suddenly very interesting. She took a small, shaky breath.
"It's not like we just found her wandering and kidnapped her." Archer said, sitting down and leaning into a position that didn't hurt him so much, "She decided to go on a little vendetta against my team and me, a choice that…" Archer stopped for a moment, the violent deaths of the two faunus boys making him feel sick, "I appreciate fixing me up, but if you're going to have me executed later, I would just like to know, it isn't likely I'll be able to escape in this condition." Archer himself felt that he should be executed, and his tone while speaking of his own potential death was one of eerie indifference. "It feels like I weigh a thousand pounds, and this wound is very literally, killing me anyways."
Lauren was at a loss for what to do. She froze on the spot, her mother expecting a response to the allegations and facing up to the boy she could have murdered. Lauren also felt like she weighed a thousand pounds with all of the guilt she had. Her mind was spinning rapidly with many thoughts, until she couldn't take it any more and wanting to dash out. Just damn it all, sprint away from everything. Before Dahlia could get a word in, Archer sensed her intent and interjected.
Archer looked directly at Lauren, "If you're going to leave because you feel guilty, then why bother. I did have a direct hand in killing that faunus woman, and I don't feel angry at you for trying to kill me for it." Archer's position was only temporary relief, and he paused to catch his breath, "If you're just going to run away, then you're just going to end up finding some other person or thing to hate to justify leaving."
The words cut deep to both of the dolphin Faunus, especially to Dahlia who had become alarmed at the mention of a dead faunus woman. Voice strained, Dahlia asked, "This woman...is her name Rosa Vidalia?"
Before Archer could answer, Lauren spoke up, defeated and weary and said, "Yes, mom, he had a direct hand in killing Aunt Rosa. And for that...I felt that there needed to be justice. I wanted justice, so that I can sleep easy at night, knowing that--"
"She would be a murderer like me." Archer interrupted cynically, "She wanted to sleep as well as I do every night with the nightmares."
Lauren replied, voice strained, "I...you...do you have any goddamned idea how much pain I have been through? Even now...there have been many times where I could have killed you, but I haven't. Certainly wasn't a lack of trying. It's a matter of--"
"You didn't save me because you were a better person." Archer injected, "You don't get that moral high ground. You saved me because you were confused as to why I'd waste my time saving you. Or maybe you saved me so that you could pass the kill torch off to someone else and keep your conscious clean."
Becoming more heated, with her voice rising in anger, "And you have moral high ground, you loathsome creature? Your kind has anything but, especially when it comes to matter concerning us. Tell me why I shouldn't hate you and your barbaric kind."
"It's not my job to get you to stop hating me, or anyone for that matter." Archer said, getting angry, "I don't care if I have the moral high ground or if you have some prejudice for humans. I don't make my decisions based on whether you think I should or not."
"I think that's your way of saying that you have no answer to why I loathe you so much, loathe everything that humans have done. If I'd have known it would be you that rescued me from the get go, I may have just left you to die at that forest." Her gaze was steeled as was her posture, belying her own insecurities with dealing with killing and death.
Archer looked around, not seeing his mask, and reasoning that she had taken it off in the forest. He sighed, "It doesn't matter if you had left me to die or not. I saved you because I didn't want to be responsible for even one more death. It had nothing to do with you, or morals. You're free to hate me, I won't take that from you." Archer began to painfully struggle up, "I-I'm going to go lay in that bed, this hurts... a lot." He got up slowly, picking up the scalpel and trying to carry it back to its tray, but he ended up dropping it before reaching the counter. Without asking for help, he painfully tried to bend over to pick it up.
Dahlia took the opportunity to confiscate the scalpel and keep it away from his hands. Now facing her own struggle to maintain composure at the realization she had treated a murderer to her own best friend, especially in front of her hate filled daughter, the older dolphin Faunus maintained a less natural, more forceful facial expression. She closed her eyes before allowing Archer to return to his bed, silently caught in her own thoughts.
Meanwhile, Lauren wasn't as collected and struggled to comprehend his situation. He could have just as easily been filled with hate on the other side and have his own grudges. It was incomprehensible that she could ever forgive. The events of the past few weeks on top of her festered grudges for the events that lead to the deportation of her family. Those events in particular were quite damning, since Lauren saw it as all her fault her family was stuck on the island. Sticking on the tangent of hate, she again glared at Archer, all sorts of toxic thoughts circulating through her head.
Archer laughed cynically, "If looks could kill."
On a short fuse, Lauren snarled, "The hell are you laughing at? I don't quite find our situation all that funny."
"You looking angry at me like that, all safe and sound with your mommy. I'm sorry, but it's just a little funny to me." Archer sighed, trying to relax, "You're done now, I'll be killed by your superiors, or maybe worse, and you get your justice." Archer teared up a bit, thinking about how he had hurt Nina, "It's not like I'm a good person."
At this point, after spending time silently roiling over her own problems, the scales tipped towards a more sane approach with trying to talk Lauren down from her hatred. Dahlia could see that this hatred was volatile but fragile. As wracked as she was with it in the recesses of her mind, she'd hate to have it take over Lauren like this, keeping Dahlia in touch with her own sense of self. First addressing Lauren, with a sober expression on her face, she spoke, "Lauren, I ask you to please reconsider your actions. Kiddo, it just isn't you to be like this. I know that you know this. My little girl shouldn't be mixed up in all this--"
"Mom. You know what happened to us. Kinda hard not to get mixed when I…" She paused, remembering that Archer was there listening to all this.
"Go on, I'd love to hear the story of the moral hero." Archer said when attention was drawn to him.
Dahlia turned to Lauren, brushing away Archer's cynical comment while beginning to say, "Lauren--"
Unable to stand the tension building mainly from within herself to just up and let everything out, Lauren huffed before raising her voice at Archer, "To hell with your judgment of who you think is moral! You people took everything from us, end of story." It appeared that pressing of what Lauren was going to say hit a raw nerve, with her preferred method to push it away, get it out of the conversation.
"How could I take anything from people who I've never met." Archer muttered, turning his head pointlessly. "I saved you and I still don't know your name
"Well, ya sure did take a life from us, didn't you?!"
"Yeah, and I bet she'd be rolling in her grave knowing how you've been acting!" Archer snapped.
That certainly struck a blow with Lauren. Almost as if she was physically punched, she groaned and doubled over at the accusations. At the end of her wits, Lauren stammered out, "Sh-shut the hell up! How dare you…" She struggled to hold back tears until finally, she began to cry. slowly It was coming from a deep, visceral place, ensuring that Lauren was frozen to the spot doubled over with the emotional pain that had been the last few weeks.
At this point, Dahlia lost her cool and slapped Archer across the face hard, not caring at that moment whether he was alright with his stitches. She immediately regretted it with an apologetic look and a mumbled, "Sorry."
Archer didn't stop, "She never once talked so about hating humans, even when we broke her out of jail. She was willing to put her life on the line to save my team and she didn't even hesitate to do it. All you are is a child who can't express herself or make a rational decision." Archer spoke from frustration and pain, and was panting.
All Lauren could do was remain there and take it, the words striking profoundly. As she was in the throes of her grief, not only at Rosa but at herself, Lauren crouched down on the floor in a ball and let everything rush out at once. It was the single worst sensation Lauren thinks she's ever felt, and she felt a lot of it was her fault. With vengeance at the forefront of her mind, her inexperience due to age and relatively sheltered childhood, the otherwise witty and smart dolphin faunus was reduced to a wreck consumed by the powerful emotions. At this point, she couldn't even muster an insult or expletive to lob at Archer, merely resigning herself to sob on the floor of the tent.
Archer watched, trying to remain angry but only feeling guilty. He meant to come off strong, but he began to wonder if they even knew the full story. "I cried a lot too you know." He said quietly, looking down, "Nina says I still do in my sleep."
Looking up at Archer's, Lauren only tilted her head in confusion, red eyed from the tears. expecting a different reaction given his previous cynicism and anger regarding her less than stellar behavior. "G-guilt, huh? I...had no idea. I-I can relate."
"I already know that there's a lot of problems going on for faunus." Archer said, "But there's people who don't agree with it. We aren't all a bunch of monsters, just like you all aren't a bunch of monsters. She understood that."
Having been quite shaken in her assessment of humans, and the words of her aunt from beyond the grave serving to tear down her hatred to the root cause, she stammered out, "I-I'm so sorry, Aunt Rosa, I-I have b-been so vengeful and ugly. M-maybe if I never kissed that boy, we'd all be much happier and t-together. I…" She stopped in a fit of tears, the self-hatred serving to tear her down further.
Dahlia went down to comfort her grief stricken daughter and said, "Enough with blaming yourself for what happened to us. You couldn't have known that he would have discovered your fin and humiliated you. I never blamed you for what happened to us, and you shouldn't blame all humans or yourself for what happened either. I didn't blame you two years ago, and I don't blame you now. Please, my little calf, let it go." She softly stroked her daughter in a comforting gesture. Had Lauren not been in her current state, she would have been embarrassed at being comforted by her mother at age eighteen.
Lauren expressed in a strained and tear filled voice, "So...hard...to let go." The work of releasing two years of bottled up emotions, some that were so deep she didn't realize that she had them bottled up had made its mark here. The comforting presence of her mother at least made Lauren feel slightly better. She felt she would be nowhere without her.
Taking a deep breath, she spoke once more to Archer, sitting up and looking directly at him, voice still a bit shaky, "Archer, maybe it's because I have been wracked in a cloud of emotions the entire time, but looking at you, I can't help but notice that you seem bothered by her death almost as much as I have. And yet...here you are, not flipping out like I did, or going on vengeful streaks with those that wronged me. How do you cope?"
"I usually have my team around." Archer replied, "And I talk with someone who lost her father that night as well. I'm not over it, but I won't say that I don't have help. I have my share of breakdowns for sure though, I can't go a few days without having to change my sheets or without having one of the twins shaking me awake."
"Oh. I...didn't feel like I wanted to bother anyone about anything. Just keep going, keep on trucking with my usual self, y'know? That's kinda how I did things for the past few years. I felt good for a while not having to worry about it, but in the end...well, you've seen what happens. I didn't want me, as the team leader, to have his teammates worry about me. I mean, aren't I supposed to be the strong one?"
"I'm not really sure about what you're supposed to do, but I know that I wasn't helping my team when I was alone, and I definitely wasn't getting better." Archer said.
Becoming a bit emotional once more, Lauren said, with tears in her eyes, "I have to say...talking to you, I...thought before you were some monster and yet here you are, just a normal guy giving a girl he barely knows some of his experiences. I probably don't deserve your forgiveness after all that happened." She looked away from him, awaiting some harsh words that she was sure she deserved.
Archer looked at her, "If you're going to apologize, don't apologize to the wall." Archer said, "Not that I particularly think I deserve one." He took a breath out, "If I didn't forgive you, I would have let you die at the camp."
She turned back to Archer, looked at him directly in the eyes and said, taking a deep breath, "I am sorry, Archer. I am sorry for my terrible, rash actions and I would like you to know that that is not me. I'm not sure how I can come to terms with you being involved in my aunt's death, but I think I would appreciate hearing what happened straight from you. That...might give me some clarity and help me decide for myself with a clearer conscience what this all means."
Archer just laughed warmly.
Noticing the distinctively different laugh, Lauren asked, "Uh, you alright?"
"You just went full circle, and you're making me sound like I'm a lot more than some guy. I don't even know your name."
Lauren smacked her forehead lightly in realization that she did not tell her name to Archer. "Woops. Eheh, sorry about that. My name is Lauren. Lauren Baxiao." She extended her hand out to Archer.
Archer shook her hand, "Pretty name for a potential murderer."
Dahlia sighed as she went over to Archer and said, "Well, I know that you may take a bit to forgive an attempt on your life, but I, as a close friend of Rosa, would also like to know what happened when she died. I heard the news from a secondary source and would like to hear it from your mouth, see if our judgements were wrong about you." She closed her eyes in thought, having much on her mind as well.
Archer sighed, "It's not really a story I want to tell." He said in a somber tone.
Dahlia raised her eyebrow, "Oh? So there is more to this story than meets the eye then? I suppose that means that that news source may have left something out?"
"I don't know how much you know, but a human was killed as well." Archer stated, "As was our whole team."
Dahlia replied, "No, we were not aware of that. I was only told the news most relevant to me, that of the fact that Rosa was killed with involvement from team GAIN. I had heard that she had helped smuggle faunus or something of that nature."
"Our team was tasked with protecting a cart driven by a human. We were attacked by grimm, and although we tried to hold them off, we had to send the cart away." Archer took a breath, "The cart driver and faunus, along with one of my team were captured by local authorities. In my efforts to save my teammate, I ended up also saving the faunus, but because my teammate was in a bad condition, we couldn't move her. We were just going to wait it out, we made it look like we killed the faunus, but somehow they found us." Archer began to cry, "They found us and didn't hesitate in shooting her right in front of us, she told them she had kidnapped us, and had saved us all…"
Lauren, seeing Archer all torn up and the account that seemed to be more indicative of what actually happened, was dumbfounded on how wrong she was on the framing of the situation. There was no way a cold-blooded killer would have this reaction and say something along the lines of saving the smuggled faunus, even if it was secondary to the concerns of his teammates, which was understandable. All the bad that she still believed humans to be, and here appears to be a decent human. Lauren couldn't let go her judgement of humans as a whole just like that, but she seemed to be wrong about Archer. She spoke to him, again with emotion laden in her voice, "Archer, we really were wrong about you. I had no idea it was like this. God, I feel so stupid…" She too began to tear up, and for the first time in a few years Lauren genuinely believed the words and actions that a human relayed to her. Even at this, it was quite bittersweet to have some answers while angered at the actions that the other humans that he described. It did little to quell her overall hatred of humans, but at least for Archer, she might be able to make an exception.
