h1 style="text-align: center;" align="center"Chapter 1/h1
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" A young Faunus sits on a rock in a huge forest, blood red leaves falling slowly past his face as he observed his surroundings. He was lost in thought, the events of the past few weeks wearing away at his being. His morals, ideals, beliefs, all of them had been crushed. Peace meetings and children playing outside while adults talked over business had turned to a young man thrust into adulthood far too early. He had been dragged away from a protest as humans readied their weapons and opened fire into the angry crowds. Women screamed and children cried as their fathers, claws brandished and horns rearing, charged into the law officers in fits of rage. Limbs were removed and parents were slaughtered while the two groups fought. It had been the first protest turned violent, and the most bloody./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Son, I want you always to remember. You must stick to your heart, if something feels wrong then you must follow your instincts. We may be closer to animals in resemblance, but man lacks remorse. Their soldiers enslave and attack our kind in the name of the Prosperity of Man. You mustn't resort to their methods. It isn't what your mother would have wanted, wherever she may be."/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""But Daddy, I won't have to worry! We are going to protest here and then go get ice cream, yeah?"/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"The young man remembered that fateful day. His father would be disgusted at where he was now. About to attack a Schnee dust train. No, no it was for the good of the cause. The deaths were justified, they were always justified. All those deaths./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Son, go. Quickly now."/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""No Daddy. I want to stay and protest! We are helping!"/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Son, please go. Quickly!"/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Daddy why are those men pointing guns at us? We aren't hurting them."/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"He remembered being shoved back into the crowd as the gunshots rang out. He stood feet from his father, unable to reach./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Daddy!"/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"The screams still rang throughout his head. A young man watching as a soldier charged his father. His father never raised a weapon. The sword pierced his chest and his father fell to his knees, then the boy screamed. The soldier turned to the young man only to be tackled by a bear faunus, skin torn from flesh as several more soldiers charged the assailant. The young man was unable to move, drawn further back as a hand grasped his wrist, the hand of a young woman he would come to love as family. emHer/em hand./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Gerard, are you ready?" She asked, that same hand resting on his shoulder. His mind returned to the present and he looked up at Blake. Black hair framed her ashen face, amber eyes staring into his own. They were sad eyes, Blake had always been sad since that day. But today she was especially sad. She had grown distant from Gerard and Adam, something tearing constantly at her heart as they slaughtered, destroyed, and stole like common rubbish./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Yeah, let's go." He stood from the rock, sighing long and deep as his ear caught a rumbling approaching. Blake noticed it too, her own ears twitching to the noise./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""It's time." Adam stepped up from behind them both. The duo nodded and stepped over the edge of the cliff, sliding down the rocky surface towards the oncoming train. They were shadows against the moonlight of the broken orb circling the sky./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"Once the group descended onto the roof of the train, Adam slashed at the lock of the hatch. They slid into the darkness of the train, Adam's foot catching on a red light as they stood. All around them, mechanical men awoke from their slumber and their gazes fell on the three faunus./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Looks like we are doing this the hard way." Adam growled, his eyes hidden behind the mask on his face./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Don't be so dramatic." Blake rolled her eyes. The third faunus, the young man just watched as the metal came to life./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Intruders, identify yourselves." One metal man spoke. Adam responded the way he knew best, the blade. His own metal slid through the torso of the metal man, each piece falling with a 'cling'. Before the faunus could blink, they were set upon by the metal men. Blake and Adam danced, like hummingbirds flying around a flower, they seemed to float in air./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"The third young man stood back, green aura solidifying around his fists as he swung at anything that came near. Deafening 'clangs' rang throughout the train car as metal fell the ground and the young man knocked away anything that came too near. /span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"In what seemed like seconds, the fight was over and the trio moved to the next car. Adam kneeled beside a crate and he examined the contents before nodding./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""I'll set the charges." Adam rose to his feet./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""What about the crew?" Blake stepped forward./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""What about them?" /span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"Blake fell silent at Adam's coldness, he had become more focused on the objective than the people he once called family./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"Behind them a large metal spider with the torso of a man crawled from the ceiling, moving towards them. Adam nodded at the youngest boy and Gerard charged, scared. Scared of dying, scared of Adam, scared of the world on all it's horror. He reeled his arm back, eyes closed as his feet ran onward. He swung forward, only to feel metal smash against his chest. The last thing he heard before the darkness was a voice. emHer/em voice. /span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Gerard!"/span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" A young Faunus sits on a rock in a huge forest, blood red leaves falling slowly past his face as he observed his surroundings. He was lost in thought, the events of the past few weeks wearing away at his being. His morals, ideals, beliefs, all of them had been crushed. Peace meetings and children playing outside while adults talked over business had turned to a young man thrust into adulthood far too early. He had been dragged away from a protest as humans readied their weapons and opened fire into the angry crowds. Women screamed and children cried as their fathers, claws brandished and horns rearing, charged into the law officers in fits of rage. Limbs were removed and parents were slaughtered while the two groups fought. It had been the first protest turned violent, and the most bloody./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Son, I want you always to remember. You must stick to your heart, if something feels wrong then you must follow your instincts. We may be closer to animals in resemblance, but man lacks remorse. Their soldiers enslave and attack our kind in the name of the Prosperity of Man. You mustn't resort to their methods. It isn't what your mother would have wanted, wherever she may be."/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""But Daddy, I won't have to worry! We are going to protest here and then go get ice cream, yeah?"/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"The young man remembered that fateful day. His father would be disgusted at where he was now. About to attack a Schnee dust train. No, no it was for the good of the cause. The deaths were justified, they were always justified. All those deaths./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Son, go. Quickly now."/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""No Daddy. I want to stay and protest! We are helping!"/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Son, please go. Quickly!"/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Daddy why are those men pointing guns at us? We aren't hurting them."/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"He remembered being shoved back into the crowd as the gunshots rang out. He stood feet from his father, unable to reach./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"emspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Daddy!"/span/em/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"The screams still rang throughout his head. A young man watching as a soldier charged his father. His father never raised a weapon. The sword pierced his chest and his father fell to his knees, then the boy screamed. The soldier turned to the young man only to be tackled by a bear faunus, skin torn from flesh as several more soldiers charged the assailant. The young man was unable to move, drawn further back as a hand grasped his wrist, the hand of a young woman he would come to love as family. emHer/em hand./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Gerard, are you ready?" She asked, that same hand resting on his shoulder. His mind returned to the present and he looked up at Blake. Black hair framed her ashen face, amber eyes staring into his own. They were sad eyes, Blake had always been sad since that day. But today she was especially sad. She had grown distant from Gerard and Adam, something tearing constantly at her heart as they slaughtered, destroyed, and stole like common rubbish./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Yeah, let's go." He stood from the rock, sighing long and deep as his ear caught a rumbling approaching. Blake noticed it too, her own ears twitching to the noise./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""It's time." Adam stepped up from behind them both. The duo nodded and stepped over the edge of the cliff, sliding down the rocky surface towards the oncoming train. They were shadows against the moonlight of the broken orb circling the sky./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"Once the group descended onto the roof of the train, Adam slashed at the lock of the hatch. They slid into the darkness of the train, Adam's foot catching on a red light as they stood. All around them, mechanical men awoke from their slumber and their gazes fell on the three faunus./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Looks like we are doing this the hard way." Adam growled, his eyes hidden behind the mask on his face./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Don't be so dramatic." Blake rolled her eyes. The third faunus, the young man just watched as the metal came to life./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Intruders, identify yourselves." One metal man spoke. Adam responded the way he knew best, the blade. His own metal slid through the torso of the metal man, each piece falling with a 'cling'. Before the faunus could blink, they were set upon by the metal men. Blake and Adam danced, like hummingbirds flying around a flower, they seemed to float in air./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"The third young man stood back, green aura solidifying around his fists as he swung at anything that came near. Deafening 'clangs' rang throughout the train car as metal fell the ground and the young man knocked away anything that came too near. /span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"In what seemed like seconds, the fight was over and the trio moved to the next car. Adam kneeled beside a crate and he examined the contents before nodding./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""I'll set the charges." Adam rose to his feet./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""What about the crew?" Blake stepped forward./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""What about them?" /span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"Blake fell silent at Adam's coldness, he had become more focused on the objective than the people he once called family./span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"Behind them a large metal spider with the torso of a man crawled from the ceiling, moving towards them. Adam nodded at the youngest boy and Gerard charged, scared. Scared of dying, scared of Adam, scared of the world on all it's horror. He reeled his arm back, eyes closed as his feet ran onward. He swung forward, only to feel metal smash against his chest. The last thing he heard before the darkness was a voice. emHer/em voice. /span/p
p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;""Gerard!"/span/p