The Burning Rose

Chapter 22: Gathering clouds

TRIGGER WARNING!

IF YOU ARE EASILY TRIGGERED BY THE TOPIC OF RACISM, PROCESSED WITH CATION! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING!

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The sun rose over Beacon academy. At this time, normally students would be preparing for their first day of the semester, but due to an unforeseen event that took placing during yesterday's entries exam, the first day had been pushed back until tomorrow. As such the students had a day off to do whatever they wanted, even going down into Vale.

The newly appointed team AACE was one such team. They were seated at a pizza place, one set of them on either side. Two large pizzas were laid out before them as well as some bread sticks.

"Well, here's to becoming a new team!" Amber said, raising her glass along with the rest of her teammates. "I should probably know how to give a proper toast, but I've never been good at that kind of stuff. So let's just dig in!"

"Cheers!"

Cinder rolled her eyes as Eric matched Amber's enthusiasm, but didn't complain as she took a piece of her pizza and bit into it.

They had discussed the best thing to do and it had been decided each person would get to choose half the pizza's topping. This had seemed like a good idea right up until Cinder had decided on Pineapple for theirs.

After a little argument, Amber and Cinder's pizza had been split in half, with Cinder getting the Pineapple on her half.

Despite the cheery atmosphere, Cinder kept glancing over to Adam. She had heard about his skill and abilities, she was surprised how normal he was. Back in Atlas, if someone was a prodigy, they would be treated very differently, almost like royalty. Yet Adam had seemed pretty down to earth, if not a little ambitious.

But it's not like she could talk.

"So, I've been wondering." Amber said between bites of her pizza. "What happened to you guys? Ozpin said something about a political scandal or something? What was that all about?"

Eric and Adam stopped mid bite. They exchanged a look, a somewhat odd expression on their faces.

Cinder leaned forward in her seat, her attention peaked. What were they hiding?

"It's not all that complicated." Adam said, rubbing the back of his head. "Some dimwits thought that a member of the White Fang shouldn't be allowed to attend Beacon. So they enacted an elaborate scheme to try and get me discredited and kicked out."

"I don't see how that's political." Cinder said, resting her arms on the table. "Just sounds like standard racism to me."

Eric shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, this wasn't some group of racist idiots. They confessed something interesting after Adam roughed them up a bit." He glanced around the store, then leaned forward to ensure nobody else could hear him.

"Ever heard of Councilman Anodeser?"

Now it was Cinder's turn to exchange looks with her partner. Both were equally shocked at the name.

"Councilman Anodeser?" Cinder asked, trying to keep her voice down. "You mean the fat ass who demanded Atlas demilitarized after the war? The one who gets more money than any other member and makes it go missing every time? That Anodeser?"

Adam gave a solemn nod. "And that's not all he's doing. After the Faunus were given Menagerie, he demanded the White Fang disband and surrender all means of travel between the mainland and the island."

"So basically, he wanted to have complete control over the Faunus and their resources." Amber said. "Why? I can't imagine what he'd need something like that for."