AN: I'll be honest when I finished V6 I had a good rant about the complete mishandeling of Blake and Adam's fight online. Now, a few weeks later, I feel like I've gotten it mostly well down. As I wrote to the editor for this piece, "Fuck Canon I'm a ff writer I do what I want" (please don't crucify me I'm sorry)

The two clashed, blades swinging with intense ferocity; neither was willing to concede any point. Adam's sword glowed softly, a sure sign that his semblance was absorbing Blake's blows. Yet her own weapon, Gambol Shroud, dripped red. She had taken first blood, as she always did.

Shadow clones whipped forward and back, but never dipped too low or too high, painful experience reminding her of Adam's own dexterity. She danced between his strikes, he answered with more. The duo were evenly matched, trading blow for blow.

The forest filled with the sounds of battle, until Adam poured his semblance in a particularly vicious swing that seemed to be aimed directly for Blake's neck but only cut down a short succession of trees. Using the distraction Blake jumped into the treetops, shadow masking her movements. Angry, Adam ripped off his visor, and unveiled a sight which had caused many a faunus and human alike to recoil. His face, cruelly branded with the SDC's logo, one eye permanently blood red, turned to stare up into the trees. "Blake! Look what the Schnees did to me! Do you think this was the only cruel act they ever committed? Did you forget the suffering we," he stressed, "saw at the work camps?"

Blake tried not to look, but after years of learning from him, working with him, even loving him, she had never grown accustomed to his appearance. She had mused many times that in some ways, it made him perfect to lead the White Fang. In others, however, it crippled him. She suddenly threw herself down as Adam leapt towards her and swung. They both fell to the forest ground, but Blake didn't get up as she shook from the incredible pain emanating from her ear. She grasped at it, but felt only blood. Her hand stilled.

Adam stalked closer. She never thought that them being so close over such a long period of time would lead to them picking up traits from each other, but that was exactly what happened. To describe him as a cat playing with a trapped mouse would be an apt description, if not for the fact that Blake refused to accept her fate. She still had her team, her mission, a reason to get out of this forest alive. Prowling near, Adam sneered "I've always told your eyes glow in the dark, haven't I?"

Blake's hands shook with fury as she spat. "You cut off my ear!"

Adam simply laughed, and said "Just letting you know what it's like to be one of us. You've never been branded, have you?"

He began to swing his sword in wide arcs in front of him, challenging her to attack. But Blake had seen this tactic far too many times to be baited. He had always been best at a head-on confrontation. That was what made his semblance so deadly. She had, in turn, found more success in exploiting or creating weaknesses to do maximum damage. That was why they had been partnered so many times, complementing each other well. Blake turned to run. Seeing this, Adam sighed loudly and followed. He knew that he was being led into a trap, but was confident he could fight her off.

As he chased her, Blake began her assault. From all directions, shadow clone after shadow clone took her place as she slowly chipped away at his defence. It was strange, that. For all his vaunted strength Adam's aura reserves were actually lesser than the average huntsmen's.

Adam was not totally defensive, however. He could accurately guess at where Blake's next attack would come from, and would turn to greet it. Whether or not he was fast enough, that was a different matter entirely, but he had seen her attack the exact same weaknesses on enemies over the years, or even on him when they sparred. Slowly his semblance grew stronger, but he refused to waste it on a shadow clone. The fighting slowing to a lull, Adam paced and goaded Blake. "Do you have any idea how many hearts you broke when you left? Not just mine, but hundreds of other faunus that you were a role model for. You were our paragon, the axel on which the mission hinged on, our Belladonna."

"Shut up!" Dozens of shadow clones leapt at Adam, but not one was Blake. "You know nothing about how the White Fang changed. How you changed, Adam."

He swung back, but clucked at the mass of disappearing clones. "The only way the White Fang and I changed, was that we stopped letting the humans get away with committing atrocities against us while ignoring our protests. Please, Blake, you were with us all the way. Cheering just as loud as the next faunus"

Blake sucked in a breath, and replied "That was different. That wasn't killing a train full of civilians."

Adam answered quickly, anger coloring his eyes. "And how do you think that train was made, Blake? A group of well paid workers with individual rights and freedoms? Or just another bunch of corporate faunus slaves who couldn't even feed themselves? Every single one of them are complicit. And they will pay in blood."

Blake bit back anger, and focused on depleting Adam's aura. Eventually his aura would shatter. She focused on restricting his movements, encircling him in her ribbon and pulling it taught. Then she heard the purr of an engine. Adam looked up and asked "Is that a puma?"

Blake turned, and saw Yang getting off Bumblebee. "'Sup Blake? Heard the asshole who cut my arm off was in the area. Thanks for wrapping him up so nice for me Blakey. Great present!"

Adam looked up at her voice, and snarled "You. Didn't I put you down already?"

Yang took off her jacket, and replied "Down, but not out for the count. Time for round two."

Adam finally untangled himself from Gambol Shroud's ribbon, and said "I'm going to cut both of you down."

The fight multiplied in intensity, now a two-on-one. Yet, Adam's strikes seemed to gain in strength and speed. Yang raised a questioning eyebrow at Blake, who explained "He's passively using his semblance. Lets him absorb hits on his blade and send it right back. I've seen him cut through a platoon of soldiers single handedly. "

Yang was about to make a pun based around 'single handedly', but Adam crowed "Don't forget, Blake! You were there to take care of the next group of soldiers that came our way!"

The fight continued in such a manner. Ferocious combat, followed by a lull in which Adam would taunt and goad Blake while she grew increasingly silent. She knew his aura had to be on its last legs. Yang served as Adam's main opponent, while Blake circled and looked for openings. But when he knocked Yang down for the umpteenth time Blake desperately called out. "What's your endgame here Adam? I'll never return to the White Fang. And you can't beat the two of us."

Adam calmly caught her swing, and glared back. "I'm finishing what I started at fact that you're even alive is an insult to the White Fang!"

This sparked Yang's anger, igniting her hair as she screamed "Stop talking shit!"

Adam deflected many of her rage-fueled punches, but she quickly became too fast for him to react in time. The metaphorical chink in his metaphorical armor was that his own training never emphasized how to fight in close quarters, instead focusing on catching blades and bullets with uncanny accuracy. Adam still counterattacked when possible, chopping her aura down heavily, but his own was growing tremulous. One last strong punch shattered his aura and sent him skidding across the clearing that had now formed. He fell to his knees, visibly exhausted. He gripped his sword, which he had dug into the ground for stability. He looked up and saw Blake drop down from a tree. He rasped. "God damnit, Blake. What happened to us-"

He was interrupted as he felt a blade enter his back. He tried to turn his head to see who had stabbed him, but in front of him he saw the Blake which had dropped from the tree slowly fade back into the shadows. His eyes widened in surprise, but he felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth when he realised what she had done. His hands were rapidly losing strength, but he managed to let go of his sword and fall against a tree.

He looked up to see Blake crying silently, staring at her bloodstained blade. He began to laugh. He had tried so hard when training her to turn her into the perfect assassin, yet it had always failed. But it was after she left, in her struggle to kill him, that she finally gained the killer instinct needed to finish the job. "Hah... hah... I can't believe you actually went through with it Blake."

He could feel the blood gushing out of him, but pressed on anyways. "Sorry. I never thought of you as a mistake. Not when Sienna got angry, not when Fennec and Corsac suggested 'corrections', never."

Blake choked, unable to calmly say her words. "I'm sorry that this happened, I'm sorry I let it go this far."

Adam felt... serene. For the first time he couldn't summon much anger. But that may be due to the blood loss so he doubted he was achieving some epiphany or revelation. His eyes drooped, but he forced himself to articulate his last thoughts. "What... happened, Blake? What happened to the White Fang? What happened to your vows? What happened to our old promises? What happened to us?"

Then, he drew one last breath before letting his head drop as the rest of his body went limp. After a moment, Blake closed his eyes. As she stood up, Blake felt something inside her rip apart, whilst something else began to soar. She stood for a few seconds to bid the first part farewell, as she embraced the second. She turned away from Adam, and captured the scenery in her memory forever. This was her turning point. The watershed which would let her finally leave White Fang behind. Finally let Adam go. She wanted to turn back one last time, but instead pushed her hand forward to grasp Yang's. And slowly, they walked away.