I figure the team would begin to suspect that ember isnt human after some time (price has highly suspected/known since the roba incident) .
But they wouldn’t find out until the fated mission where soap was supposed to die. Not that they knew that.
Instead of shooting soap with a gun he had taken some kind of vial. It transformed him into a monster. Not a hybrid. A full blown monster. He was able to shoot sharp and deadly spikes at the pair. Some kind of poison on them left soap weakened and unable to transform.
A spike was headed straight for his head. But ember took it instead. The poison should have kicked in already. She had already been grazed once.
But wait…. The wound was gone.
In that moment she proceeded to transform into her manticore body and take on makarov. She had fully intended to kill him. She had him where she wanted and was playing with her food basically.
Until the rational part of her brain remembered that she needed an antidote for soap.
So she made a deal to let him go in exchange for the antidote.
Which she managed to get soap to drink before he passed out.
But her nerves were on fire, the adrenaline still peaking. She couldnt transform back to do first aid. The best she could do was sit with him while they waited for the rest of the team to come.
Which was how they found the pair. Ember in her manticore form curled around soap. When she saw them she got up and started pacing back and forth as they worked. It wasnt until price came over and began soothing her did she managed to turn back into her mostly human form.
With her adrenaline spiking so much and her mind stressed out she couldnt hide all of her features that made her obviously not human. Such as the tail, the wings, and her claws.
Price kept petting her for a moment after she turned back even briefly earning a purr before they had to move out.
Back at base there was a team meeting (minus soap who was in recovery) shortly after arriving. Where ember had to explain why she hid what she was. She would explain it to soap as well once she woke up.
But it was after this that they noticed a change in her behavior. She finally let soap scent her without complaint (He swore he could feel her purring but she denied it), she accepted one of price’s trinkets, she let gaz build her a nest, and last but not least ghost.
She was reading a book when one of his shadowy tendrils appeared. Instead of shooing it away she sighed and just began reading her book out loud for him to hear.
















