[h2][color=421A8C]Sapphire Rode[/color] - Shelter Lab[/h2]
He was a fool, a complete and utter fool. True Sapphire was looking at the worst possible scenario, it was possible that this would spiral out as nothing more than a medical procedure for those who were unable to live with their heritage for whatever reason. However that sort of thinking was naive to the point of idiocy. [color=0054a6]"And you act as if faunus are universally loved. Sure there are humans that are not at odds with faunus. I don't personally have anything against them, there are two on my team in fact, but there are enough people in power that want nothing more than there eradication or at the very least removal from the lives of [i]normal[/i] humans."[color=0054a6]

[color=0054a6]"I will admit that this could be a very good thing if used properly but since when has any invention with the potential to cause damage not been used as such. Don't you remember the dust reactor technology fifty years back?"[/color] It had been a disaster, the reactors had been intended to provide clean efficient power for entire kingdoms but instead had been co'opted by the Atlas military and turned into devastating explosives. [color=0054a6]"Whole sectors whipped out, so saturated with raw volatile dust that the slightest spark could set it ablaze. Places that won't be habitable again for a hundred years. I'm sure the director of that project thought when he started that there was no way he would ever let something like that happen. You're delusion is that if you release this to the world you will retain any semblance of control over it. If someone really wanted to steal your research to be used in defensive measures against faunus you wouldn't be able to stop them. All they'd need is some of the liquid from that vial over there."[/color] Sapphire said nodding at the glowing red liquid they'd been attempting to inject into the coyote girl.

[color=0054a6]"Who knows, depending on the chemical makeup a skilled scientist might even be able to reverse engineer it from the blood of one of your patients. The point is any control you think you have over this project vanishes the moment you tell the world. This procedure could easily do a great amount of good, yet the potential it has to destroy far outweighs the benefits it may produce."[/color]

That was when Pop turned the conversation on its head, examining Sapphire, her demeanor, her views, her life. At the mention that her family may have [i]happened[/i] to her Sapphire's jaw twitched slightly. She'd gotten very adept at lying about her childhood that having someone throw it in her face like that with such certainty was like a bucket of ice water soaking her skin. Despite that Sapphire kept her face impassive. She didn't want it to give anything away.

A little voice in the back of her head began to whisper to her. Was it this obvious to everyone? Did everyone know? Was she telegraphing her past to anyone that spoke to her? No, she silenced the voice, it couldn't be or more people would ask questions, people would ask her father questions and after he'd deflected them he'd come and ask her some of his own. No it must be because this was a medical man. He was accustomed to the way people dealt with different kinds of pain and though not a student of psychology (as far as she was aware) reading people likely came with the territory. Besides he didn't have any definitive answers just a general idea for which no confirmation had been given.

As he spoke Pop had been moving slightly maneuvering Sapphire into a corner. He proclaimed that she would lose this fight and his aura flared softly red. The glow, the words, the fear. It dragged something out of the recesses of Sapphire's mind. [color=Indigo][i]"You will lose but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Everything is a learning experiences, if you don't learn you're doomed to repeat and you can't afford to repeat mistakes, mistakes get you killed if they're the wrong ones. Now tell me Jewel, how do you get out of a corner?"[/i][/color]

It was the red glow of aura that brought the memory to the surface. Still lost in the moment and filled with an unquantifiable fear that did not fit the situation Sapphire grabbed the nearest weapon to her, a scalpel from the operating board and with all the force she could muster plunged it into Pop's shoulder. Without waiting for a reaction she pushed her legs off against one of the operating tables. As she leapt up Sapphire used Pop's shoulder as a springboard to clear the hulk of bear faunus.

She hit the ground on her feet but her forward momentum prevented her from standing. Instead she turned the uncontrolled fall into a roll, spinning as she did so. She came up with one knee on the ground and the barrel of her polearm pointing directly at Pop. "I don't like being backed into a corner." She said, her eyes cold and dark. It was possible that this could have come to a peaceful solution but Pop's altruistic holier than thou attitude and his determination that this should come to blows had quashed that possibility.