LJNT

Whiplash

Nico couldn't get her partner's torment out of her head.

The rest of the team were out on the streets of Vale, trying to enjoy their weekend. Tanya was blabbing on about something while Janelle listened patiently. Nico was too focused on Lyra to try and listen to Tanya.

It had taken Nico awhile to figure out what was wrong, but she eventually realized that the people Lyra were talking about, the ones forcing her to kill the Grimm, were inside of Lyra's head. The hands over Lyra's ears and her incessant murmuring at all times just made it clear. It didn't seem as if the Professor's were aware. Now that Nico thought about it, she had never done any sort of movement like that while an adult was around...

"Since when is this place non-Faunus!" Tanya exclaimed loudly, breaking Nico's focus. Nico peered inside. Sure enough, there was a sign claiming what Tanya had just said.

"W-We should b-be okay," Nico said timidly. Her ears were concealed underneath her hood and her tail beneath her cape. No one would know. Still, Tanya shook her head no.

"I'm not going to a place where they don't allow equality," Tanya said firmly. "I may know that the White Fang are terrorists now, but they're fighting for the right cause. They're just misguided."

"It is not our place to decide that Faunus are not allowed here. If the owners do not feel comfortable, it is not our problem," Janelle replied flatly. "Besides. It is not as if the Faunus follow the law, anyway. People like Sienna, Ghira, Lysandre, Adam..." Nico tensed up and growled upon hearing the last two names. Those monsters had done terrible things to her... "This place is not right for closing their bar, but it is understandable."

"No one should ever close anything because of that! That's just...inequality! We can't ever condone that!" Tanya frowned. As the two bickered, Nico felt her thoughts drift back to her partner once more.

Was Lyra alright on her mission? Or had the voices goaded her into doing something rash?

Nico really wished she could have done more yesterday. She wished she had been able to console her partner, but she didn't have any luck with that. Nico really hoped her partner would be okay, but...

The guilt of failure was too much to deal with.

"Clearly you're blind to the truth," Tanya sighed before turning to Nico. "Right?"

"U-Um, sure," Nico mumbled distantly. While Janelle looked on, Tanya frowned.

"Is everything okay, Nico?"

"I-I-I'm j-just w-worried a-about Lyra," Nico muttered quietly. Immediately, Janelle quit her distance, a frown on her face, while Tanya was just confused.

"Why? What happened?"

As Janelle and Nico explained the situation to Tanya, the blue haired girl immediately became just as solemn as the other two. The subject of their leader's mental condition was quite serious among all of them. It wasn't something any of them were exactly comfortable about.

"Well...Um...At least she relented, right?" Tanya tried to think on the positive, which only really earned her a certain look. While they were glad Lyra had backed down, that wasn't really the problem. The problem was that their leader was having some serious issues. That much was obvious to all three of them, even though Nico hadn't told the other two about who the voices actually were.

"I-I-I tried t-talking to h-her after t-that. S-She still seemed shaken up, s-so I tried to h-help but..." Nico paused. The voices inside of Lyra's head was a touchy topic, Nico assumed. It wasn't her business to reveal. "I-It didn't go w-well."