LGHT and Archer: Betrayal
After splitting with her team about a kilometer back towards a clearing in the forest, Lauren begun to hone in on where Archer was purported to be. He was reported to have gone into the forest on the far outskirts of Vale alone. The dolphin faunus searched the foliage for where he might be. Just as she was considering checking back down a path she only skimmed, Lauren spied the figure of a shorter boy decked in a winter coat and scarf. Not intending to enter quietly for seeing what was essentially a good friend, Lauren called out, "Archer!"
Archer turned to look towards where the voice was coming from, "Give it up Nilya, I'm not going to stop." He said, continuing to walk. "Stop using her image."
Confused, Lauren replied, "What? No, Archer, it's me! Look."
Archer continued on, feeling slightly aggravated at what he believed were Nilya's attempts at convincing him to stop. Lauren jogged to catch up with Archer, and she got in front of him. "See? No Nilya images here. Just plain ol' me."
Archer sighed, "Sorry Lauren." He looked around, "What are you doing here?"
"I came here...to ask you a favor." Her eyes darted around, unsure of how to broach the subject of what she learned with her mission. "Ok, so I was asked by the school to take you into custody. They have some business to discuss with you."
Archer thought for a moment, "I refuse, sorry. I'm not interested in going to your school right now."
"It's not a choice. It's my mission. If you won't cooperate, I'm gonna need to forcefully take you to the ship. But...before we go, we have something else to talk about. Something...secret." She looked directly into Archer's eyes, looking fairly serious in her countenance.
"You can tell me your secret, but I'm not going to go easily with you right now." Archer put his hands in his pockets, not wanting to fight, but willing.
Lauren tensed ever so slightly, right arm reaching for a keychain with her trident in portable form. "Well, it's more about your secret than mine. Your plan to become a scapegoat for us all."
"Where did you hear about this plan?" Archer asked curiously.
"She told Nara over the phone. And I just so happened to hear." From Lauren's bitter tone, it was obvious that she didn't in fact 'just happen to hear it.'
"I suppose it would be expected that she would tell her sister." Archer sighed, "Sorry Lauren, but I have a feeling I know what you're going to say. I'm not going to stop." He began to shift the bow slung over his back, "Please, call the rest of your team."
Resolute, Lauren fully extended her trident and held it out to point at Archer. "I'm not giving up that easy. Maybe you were able to push aside Nilya, but I won't let you do this. Not after all we've been through."
Archer pulled out his bow, "Are you alone here?" He asked, judging his situation, "Did the school really just send you out here to get me?"
"No, I'm not alone. I have my team nearby. And yes, the school did just send me to get you. And it so happens that I need to stop you from this plan. You are just gonna make things worse for us, whether or not I get involved."
"You were never supposed to be involved." Archer replied, calculating his chance of escape, "I'm sorry." Archer replied, taking a step forward and imposing twice Lauren's weight upon her, "That shouldn't be enough to hurt you, but, you aren't used to it, so it will certainly slow you down." Archer said as he turned to walk away.
Indeed, Lauren was weighed down significantly by the use of the semblance. She was, however, well within range to impede his own progress with a pillars of ice that sprung up, forming a ring around him like a cage. Her feelings of tension and anger were subdued, both by the physical burden inflicted on her and her friendship with Archer. "Look, I know that you want to do things because you have good intentions. Really, I get that. The world sucks, humans are fighting faunus, faunus are fighting humans, bloodshed all over the place. Bloodshed that I hate seeing. You are not gonna stop it, or even slow it down with the way things are going. Hell, I had to try and bust some other faunus from stealing an airship headed for the mainland, trying to do something that I would have sympathized with over three months ago." She paused, her throat becoming tight as the emotions piled on.
"But things are different. Looking through the history, the books, the attitude of the populace, this was a long time coming. Trust me, I know where faunus stand on this. Try and see things from our point of view." Her expression hardened to emphasize her point, only to soften when another wave of emotions took over.
"I don't need you to become a monster from the history books. Especially not you. I ask you, from the bottom of my heart, as a friend--no, as a
dear friend--please, don't do this. Please." The tall faunus kneeled down on her right knee and looked down, tears forming in her eyes.
Archer grit his teeth, "I'm not going to stop it." He replied, "But maybe I don't want to." He walked up to one of the ice pillars and placed his hand on it, forcing it to crumble under its own weight. He began to walk, but stopped for a moment, "People don't save monsters, Lauren, they capture or kill them. If you were sent here to capture me, what does your school think of me?"
Lauren could only shake her head. "Please, don't be this way. This isn't you."
"You're wrong." Archer stated coldly, surprising his own emotions to hold his semblance back, "This is me now, and I finally have the power to accomplish my goals. The old me endangered everyone haphazardly, but not anymore." Archer continued walking away.
Having no knowledge or many clues that Archer had this in mind, Lauren stubbornly persevered, starting to walk back towards Archer. "But you're gonna endanger people now! What happened to you? What possible goals could you have that'd make you do this?"
"I told you. My goal is power." Archer increased the force in an attempt to stop Lauren.
"P-power? After all this time, after saving me, after I stood up for you...it's been power? Have I just been a tool to you?! Have I really just been a means to these goals? Some excuse to think you are righteous by siding with us?!" She began to get angry, and in her fury struggled more against the new weight.
"Don't confuse me helping you, with siding with the faunus. As far as I'm concerned, Faunus as a whole are no better to side with than humans. As for you being a tool, no, you're not a tool, you were a catalyst."
Looking down, she bitterly replied, "I really was a damn fool. Thinking you were anymore than a coward looking after his own skin. I guess you were right all those months ago about you. But I was too dumb to listen. And I guess I pay the price." She struggled to her her had in the pocket of her pants, pressing a button in a little remote to signal her team. Lauren paused to take a breath to keep struggling against her weight, before continuing on. "Nice to know our friendship was a lie, huh? You using me to speed things up, me naively believing in you. That is something I cannot let go!"
"Good." Archer said, hand shaking, "Would've saved you a lot of pain, to realize that earlier."
"I guess so. Now, into my custody, human." At that time, her team arrived and saw that Lauren was in a predicament, seemingly unable to convince Archer based on their positions and body language.
Archer frowned and looked at the new arrivals. "I already told you. I refuse." Archer pulled his bow out and reached into his pocket to pull out a box of needles. "Do you know what I did the last three months?" He asked Lauren, "After I got so out of control that I couldn't even stand up."
Lauren growled, "Tell us on the ship." Tilki went towards Archer, prepping his blade from his flute and formulating the perfect illusion to have him fall in. He decided to make the trees seem as if they were blocking out his light
"The first thing I did was have my eyes removed and replaced." Archer said in a serious tone, "To atone for what I did to Nina to save you. The second thing I did was learn to control myself." Around Archer, the snow became compact in a clear circle, and suddenly Tilki felt so much pressure it made him collapse, while Lauren returned to feeling normal. "I forced myself to endure enough weight to crush my body."
Nara ran up at this point her hands glowing with light as she glanced over at Archer then Lauren with a look of concern. Raising the strange weapon she had just received, the blade folded back revealing a weapon barrel and pointed at Archer while yelling, "Stop!"
Gareth slowly approached from Archer's blind spot. His face decorated with a sadistic smile as power surged to his hands. His palms tore open as jagged bones appeared in the opening giving the appearance of teeth. Theses new "mouths" began to vomit thick blue flames that Gareth carefully began to mold into an orb of twisted energy. Smiling he continued to watch his team try to subdue the human. Gareth would allow the other faunus to weaken the human so his defenses would be too weak to resist Gareth's terrible magic.
While the weight was lifted from Lauren, she wasted no time in thrusting her trident forward sending a barrage of superheated water towards Archer, looking at him with a hurt and angered look. She addressed her team. "Don't be afraid to hold back. He's in no mood for cooperation. Nor will he ever be."
Archer released Tilki and forced the area around him to undergo several times more weight than usual. The snow around him turned to ice, and the water was forced violently into the ground. "It took a lot in order to get my body to stop being so weak." Archer took an effortless step forward, but the snow and earth beneath him cracked. He pulled out what looked like an epipen, and injected it into his leg. His body tensed up and then relaxed eerily, and he reduced the gravity on him back to normal, and then dashed towards Nara at an unreasonable speed, jumping above her and coming down with a semblance-empowered drop kick.
Nara froze in place as Lauren told them to attack Archer. Then Archer dashed at her, and she finally pulled the trigger. From the barrel of the pistol erupted a burst of brilliant light. Volatile energy lept from the weapon threatening to burn Archer with a burst of superheated gasses. Nara's lack of combat skills and reluctance to fight showed as her instincts caused her to leap to the side to avoid Archer's attack. She was not quick enough to completely dodge the attack and Archer crushed her beautiful tail under his foot causing her to scream in pain. Archer quickly pulled out another syringe similar to the one he used, and injected Nara with it, causing her a searing pain around her tail.
Gareth walked up next to Lauren and asked in a sinister tone, "Will you allow me to experiment with his human to help my research? I promise not to kill him." The ball of morphing energy was growing in strength as the palms of his hands fed the flames. Then Lauren could hear it, the mouths on his palms were whispering some form of strange chant as they spat the odd flames. The words were from a language foreign to every beast on this world.
Freaked out by his combat, even after three months, Lauren replied somewhat meekly, "Just...try not to go overboard, we need him in good condition by the time we get there."
Archer discarded the syringe and looked to the stranger near Lauren, Archer looked to two trees next to them and began to impose his semblance on them, causing them to crack loudly and begin to fall towards the two people. Archer then ran deeper into the woods as the trees fell.
Gareth stepped out of the way of the tree and said in his normal tone of voice, "I will not do anything too permanent to him. You might want to look after the fox… she looks like she is in pain."
After also dodging the tree, Lauren gave her reluctant approval to Gareth. What was but a few wounds after what he would be getting into anyways and after what he did to use her? She said to Gareth, "I know she's in a lot of pain, but she'll be able to heal herself in no time, remember? But uh...I'll make sure nothing gets her while she's healing." She stepped aside to Nara's side, on the defense while the fox faunus prepped her semblance.
Gareth started after Archer in a surprisingly quick pace. The raven faunus' keen eyes easily tracked Archer as Gareth pursued his prey. "I am glad you decided to run like you did. I prefer to conduct my research alone," said the man's sleek voice as he followed after the human. The orb of energy was being held in his right hand as he sprinted after the human.
Archer collapsed another tree between them and sharply turned as the tree sprayed snow everywhere. Archer then began forcing all of the snow from the leaves to fall, lowering visibility. Archer pulled out his sword and struck out at the raven faunus from a tree.
Gareth smiled as he held out his left hand, allowing the sword to cut into the changing flesh. Gareth's hand was filled with pain as its flesh wrapped around the blade, but the faunus' twisted mind enjoyed the sensation of his flesh's painful transformation. The human's momentum carried him toward Gareth allowing the faunus to easily shove the orb of energy into the human's chest. The orb absorbed into Archer's chest causing his skin to change color, and giving Archer a strange sensation as the energy moved to his spine. Gareth looked into Archer's eyes and just smiled.
Archer grit his teeth through the pain, but began to lose focus on his semblance, causing the area to rapidly become heavier and heavier. Archer quivered as he pulled out a pill. Slowly he struggled to take it before they were both crushed. As soon as he took the pill, the area rapidly returned to normal as he passed out.
Gareth smiled as Archer struggled under his own semblance. Gareth's changing magic had run through Archer's spine, transforming the bones to brittle mockeries of their former self. As Archer added weight his own body gave way long before Gareth's. "Knowledge is power," said Gareth as he looked down at the human's limp body. The faunus had allowed the human to waste his strength on Lauren and the others while he created this specific "curse" to target the man's spine. At point blank range Gareth had precision control of his powers.
Pulling the sword out of his palm he pressed a button on his belt to summon the others to his location. He did not want to waste any energy in case Archer woke up.
After ensuring that Nara had her tail patched up and good as new away from danger, the two were summoned to his location. Tilki was summoned by Gareth's mere presence, since he was close enough to witness their little exchange. After they had gathered around, Lauren examined Archer before cringing, before attempting to harden her expression. "Come now, let's take him on board. This fool has a lot to answer for, broken bones or no." Her words were delivered uncharacteristically icily.
"His bones are metal… it was quite disappointing I may add, and almost cost me the battle. Too bad for him, I had plenty of time to fuel the flames to an excess of what I thought I needed, " replied a once again stoic Gareth.
Nara stood behind Lauren, frozen tears still on her cheek as she protectively held her tail close to her body. "Why did he do this? How did he become this way?" whimpered Nara as she stared down at Archer. Nara sounded pathetic, but deep inside she felt a burning hatred for Archer and his kind growing.
"Does it matter?" asked Gareth unemotionally. "He is clearly our enemy so let us treat him as such. We should tear out some of those mechanical parts so others could reverse engineer them to be of use to the faunus. I believe I could extract most of them without killing him… his eyes would be easy. He does not need those to live and being blind would make him easier to control," added the raven faunus passively. Gareth's words were a test for his team. How far would they go now with this human? Or rather how far would they let him go?
Struggling with wanting some form of comeuppance and staying away from the grisly, frightening experimentation, Lauren firmly addressed Gareth. "I don't want to risk getting in trouble if we torture him. Even if this welp is getting under my nerves, I say we find another way to deal with it back at the academy. Certainly after we tell them all that happened they can see he is no ally to us. Or anyone." She gave one last sad glance at Archer, and sighed. "I can't believe it Nara, but you were kind of right about him."
Nara frowned and said, "He was so caring before… He just wanted to protect everyone, and now he is this. I had a bad feeling about his deal with the faunus as did Nilya. Did that change him? Or is this what we can expect from humans?"
Gareth nodded at Lauren as he summoned up more of his flames. "For our safety I will insure his back stays brittle as we transport him. He will not be harmed as long as we treat him like he is made of glass." Kneeling down Gareth pushed the energy into Archer's back as he worked to make the change longer lasting. "Irony is his body will likely be unable to repair the damage I am doing easily due to his bones no longer being natural. Flesh is much more intriguing than metal," added the raven faunus as he continued to weave his semblance into Archer's body.
Lauren nodded and gingerly picked up Archer, taking care to ensure that he would not have a broken spine. After walking back the way they came, she lead her entire team to where the ship was docked. After getting aboard and getting situated, Lauren positioned Archer in the storage room, making sure he was secured and locked in. Lauren looked at the door one last time, and returned to talk with her team. "Well guys, our mission was a success…" Her tone, however, was quite drained and a bit hollow.
"We need to get him home before we can call it complete," said Gareth as he wrote some notes about Archer in his tome.
"The assigned mission… not our mission," muttered Nara sadly.
"Indeed. Our mission failed terribly. And y'know what? I thought he really was better than that...creature he was today. How stupid, huh? I guess at heart, I'm still a naive little girl. Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She was fuming and had tears in her eyes. "Thinking that humans were anything more than selfish bastards who couldn't give a damn about anything other than themselves." In her rage, she wasn't thinking of Nilya and Varik, only the scorn she had for her ex-friend.
Gareth looked at Lauren for a second before asking in his stoic tone, "Are you the stupid one or is he? An interesting question to ponder, and one time will reveal." The raven faunus then walked off toward the cell. He would not waste this opportunity to talk to this Archer character alone.
Nara shook her head at Gareth then hugged Lauren while saying, "I am sorry… it's terrible what he did to you. He had us all fooled."
Appreciating the hug, Lauren sighed heavily and proceeded to ask Nara, "Yup." After a pause, the dolphin faunus asked Nara, "You wanna come in my room? I really need to get my mind off of this. It didn't do me well to just bottle everything up, but I think for now I could use some fun. What do you say?"
Nara nodded and said, "Of course Lauren, lead the way."
Taking one last look towards the makeshift cell, Lauren led Nara into her quarters and proceeded to ask, "You don't mind board games, right?"
"No, but you will likely need to teach me how to play. What game are we going to play?" asked Nara trying her best to sound cheerful.
"Ok. So, how about we play go? It's a pretty...swell...game…" Despite her best efforts, her words came out hollow and disjointed and her voice shaky, and an awkward silence befell them before she sighed and put her head in her hands. "I can't do this. I just...can't...stop thinking about it. I'm a wreck!" She started to sob.
Nara threw her arms around Lauren once again as tears formed in her own eyes. "You can… I know this is hard but you cannot let him beat you down like this. You are stronger, smarter, and better than him. Lauren his betrayal was horrible, and we will show him he is a worthless idiot for what he did," whispered Nara as she held her friend.
Lauren replied, "And look at the one who fell for it hook line and sinker."
"Lauren you were following your heart… We wanted to believe there were good humans out there. We wanted Archer to be a good man. I guess we just ignored the warning signs. It is not wrong to have hope, but I guess we need to also be careful," replied Nara pulling away so she could face Lauren. "You cannot turn cold like him… but perhaps we should be more careful with who we trust."
The dolphin faunus nodded. "Yeah. Hanging out with Archer reminded me of the good times I had in my hometown, before they all turned on me. Maybe a part of me wanted that back...But that sure isn't happening, is it? Not with people like
him at the helm." She clenched her fist, tempted to punch something in sight.
"Perhaps dwelling and hoping for the past to return is wrong… most of us had to hide, or were forced to live in designated areas away from the humans. We should focus on creating a better future for the faunus.
Do not worry about Archer. He will never be an important leader. He lacks empathy for others, charisma to inspire, and even when he was acting good he was difficult for many. He lives in an ego fueled fantasy that makes him feel important. You have more qualities that would inspire followers and will create true change, " replied Nara.
Having been quelled for the moment being, she unclenched her fist and sighed, "Thanks you for your faith in me. I'm just...quite emotional right now. It's like two years ago all over again."
"I am sorry. I know it took a lot for you to put faith in him just for him to betray you. He also betrayed his own team as well. Let us just be glad he did not get any of us killed with his betrayal. Unlike you Lauren he will die alone and unwanted," replied Nara, her voice showing her anger.
"I hope so. The bastard used me like I'm some goddamn pawn in a game of chess! A 'catalyst'!" Lauren stood up and rocketed a nearby mug into the wall, shattering it to pieces. Breathing heavily, she could only grunt and cry out in anger.
Nara wrapped her arms around Lauren as she suppressed her own anger to help Lauren. "Let us unload the burden to complete the mission and focus on our future after that," whispered Nara. She then tried to distract Lauren's focus off of Archer, "I was thinking if this war kicks off the humans will attack our only city. Perhaps we should find a safe place for our friends and families. What do you think?"
Lauren merely shrugged listlessly. Her mind was racing, and for the life of her she could not think straight. Her anger was clouding her thoughts, and she could only fume while Nara stood by her side, trying her best to assuage her friend.
Archer sat in quiet contemplation, outwardly relaxed as he ran through his plan. He was suppressing his innate worry for his teammates, who were off doing their part. He knew they were capable, moreso perhaps than him, but it was hard to shake that feeling. For himself, he wasn't afraid though, his plan was coming to fruition, and he was glad that his prediction that they would send Lauren's team to get him was correct. His almost prayer like thoughts were interrupted by the faunus who had bested him, and Archer grinned to welcome him, "If I knew I'd have a guest, I would've cleaned up a little." Archer said, referring to the dusty cleaning closet he was locked in, "Forgive me for my poor host etiquette."
Gareth looked at Archer passively not responding at first as he took the massive tome from his reinforced belt and opened it. Sitting down across from Archer the raven faunus flipped through the pages for a second before finally talking, "Do not worry I am not big on formalities, do not let the suit fool you." Gareth reached back and casually plucked a feather from his own wing and started writing in the strange book.
"I must say your fake skeleton was disappointing, but at the same time does peak some interest. I would love to see how your body reacts to my reimagining of your spinal column. That is not why I am here however, I am more curious at the moment on how you have afforded to anger my allies so greatly," said Gareth in his stoic voice as his eyes slowly drifted back up toward Archer.
"Afforded? For me it costs more to keep your team as allies." Archer responded kindly, "It's much more useful for us to be enemies." Archer thought for a moment, "Please don't take that statement personally, I have no malice towards you, and I would even like to extend an apology for harming your teammate."
Gareth wrote in his tome as Archer spoke before asking, "How is it more useful to you to have enemies?"
"If you didn't want someone to fight, but they were going to anyways, wouldn't you want them to fight someone who would pull their punches?" Archer asked.
"You want to be our enemy so you can pull your punches?" asked Gareth looking at Archer as his right eyebrow raised a little.
"No, I'd just prefer that certain people stay out of the way of those who won't." Archer looked at the book, "Such a cute little diary, you should write in big, bold letters 'Protect my team' and not worry so much about what I'm doing."
"Do not mock what you do not understand," replied Gareth unphased by Archer's words. The raven faunus then continued his questioning after a short pause, "I am guessing you have already told others the answer to this question, but indulge me. What are you striving to achieve?"
Archer laughed softly, "People keep asking me what I'm trying to achieve, but maybe I'm just trying to make others fail." Archer looked the faunus in the eyes, with a wide grin "I wasn't mocking you, it was more of a threat, if anyone on your team gets hurt, I'll be sure to return the favor."
Gareth's emotionless eyes looked back into Archer's as he said calmly, "You seem to assume I care about my team. Do you know why I am here? The better question is do you know what I have done to you?"
"I have a theory about what's going on." Archer said with an unsettling grin, "Not that it matters. I don't know why you're here, and you don't quite know why I'm actually here. It wouldn't kill you to smile, after all, you caught me, and you get to have a little bit of intimate torture with me."
"I seek to know why you are here. I could ask the ones who you have damaged at a deep emotional level, but I find information from the source tends to be best. Capturing you was an assignment that is a means toward an end for me. I could care less if it was you or another being. The only aspect of your capture that truly interested me was how my abilities affected a human body. Sadly the results are tainted by the circumstances surrounding the experiment, " replied Gareth in his normal void of any emotion manner.
"Sorry to disappoint." Archer said in a guilty tone, "Next time I'll try to be a little more human." Archer's tone was suggestive as if he were flirting, "As for information, I'd really like us to be a one time thing, if we keeping opening up to each other, we might catch feelings."
Gareth lacked any physical response to Archer's words. "Do not worry, I lack the capacity for such emotional connections. Sadly out of respect for my team and the wishes of those above me I must limit the extent of my research to mere words," replied the faunus.
"Usually the foreplay comes before." Archer said in a disappointed tone, "What do you want to know? Unfortunately the person who knows my dress size isn't on this ship."
"Your mind: how you think, who you are, and what your goals are," replied Gareth. "Most of this knowledge is useless. However even the most insignificant piece can help solve a greater puzzle. Often you do not realize you have such a piece until you find where to put it. Thus I seek all knowledge I can. Lastly it is a way to pass the time."
"I know a faunus girl exactly like you, though she's much more emotive than you." Archer said, "Aren't you frustrated by the rules set in place that prevent you from doing the research you actually want?"
"Rules are set for a reason, but they can be a barrier for my research at times. I have not minded it too much as I break a few of them in a calculated manner when I see fit. It also creates a unique challenge to overcome, and it makes reaching my goals that much more satisfying," replied Gareth as he flipped through his tome carefully. After a moment of idle silence Gareth asked "Do you wish to change the rules?"
"Well rules are arbitrary." Archer replied, "If I followed my school's rules, I'd do my best to sink this ship, but if I followed faunus rules, I'd have to be a traitorous pawn. No, I don't have a desire to change the rules, I'd rather just remove the people making them." Archer smiled and spoke casually and politely, "I suppose you could say in some ways I support faunus, and in other ways I support humans."
"Yet you turn on faunus that are willing to be allies with humans. Lauren's reputation among many of the faunus has been badly damaged in many circles by her defense of you. You turned her willingness to cooperate with a human into anger and hate toward your kin," Gareth added as he read a page in his book. "If you want to remove people making such rules, perhaps you should try the route of an assassin. I doubt you will be able to replace those in power through other means."
"Assassinations are more of a means to an end." Archer replied, "I wouldn't call it a goal." Archer kept smiling, "I do have my regrets about Lauren. I'd feel better if she had the chance to repair her reputation than to risk her own life trying to help me. It's dangerous to be friends with monsters after all."
Gareth looked up at Archer and asked, "O you are a monster? Do explain your reasoning for this self imposed title."
"Wonderful! I got a reaction from you." Archer said excitedly, "I was obviously pulling your leg, I'm more of a wannabe monster, no matter how much I replace, I can never get rid of my inherent nature."
"Why would you want to be a monster?" asked Gareth as he looked back at his tome. He then added, "What is your definition of a monster?"
Archer laughed softly, "A monster can tear through people and achieve their goals with no remorse. I can assure you, I've committed monstrous acts, and have had to feel human afterwards."
"What monstrous acts have you committed?" asked Gareth.
"I won't divulge that information to you, since as far as the present goes, none of my misdeeds have necessarily happened." Archer yawned, "Though I'm sure Lauren will have plenty of stories about me she'd love to tell you."
"I do not care for emotional based rants or judgements," replied Gareth standing up. "Good bye, Archer," added Gareth as he sealed his tome and started to leave.
Archer smiled, "Bye faunus! Be sure to keep what I said about your team in mind, I may not be a monster, but I certainly do have a fondness for them."
"Good to know you're fond of me," replied Gareth in his neutral tone as he slowly shut the door.