Cleo, a snake Faunus, slowly walked in the Forever Fall and gazed at the leaves falling down. It was the middle of the night. Cleo was wearing a black halter crop top and a matching harem pants with lace up patterns on each side of her ankles. In addition to her attire, she wore a golden armlet of a snake on her left bicep and a gold yellow silk sash around her waist. On her bare back, there was a tattoo of a golden cobra with crimson red eyes. She didn't wear shoes as she was barefooted at all times.
The shoulder-length black-haired female snake Faunus knew that she had to find food, otherwise she would starve to death. Until she noticed a small campsite nearby. Cleo hid herself in the bushes and eavesdropped. There were some figures wearing masks. She couldn't tell if they're human, but she didn't care who they are as she needed to steal food from them.
But taking them down all by herself wasn't that simple. All she had to do was to depend on her power once more when she noticed a masked person holding a weapon as he walked by. She got out from bushes and confronted him.
He noticed Cleo walking towards him and aimed his gun at her, beginning to ask her questions. But she didn't bother answering his questions, she took his mask off from his face. When she did, she began to entice her victim as her golden eyes began to glow.
Cleo seduced him as she said, "Please, I need you to do something for me."
Then, he fell under Cleo's spell when he stared at her golden eyes. After taking control of her victim, she put his mask back on his face and commanded him to guide her to one of the tents that stored food. While Cleo followed him to the food storage, a figure noticed her, watching her being escorted by one of his underlings. He even recognized Cleo as a Faunus because of the snake scales on her He took his chokuto with him and left his tent to go after the black-haired Faunus intruder and her hypnotic victim.
As he guided the snake Faunus, they both arrived the food storage tent.
"Is this where you keep the food?" Cleo asked, making sure he didn't choose the wrong tent. He responsed by nodding to her. She smiled and said, "Perfect. Now, bring them to me."
He nodded again before he entered inside the tent. As Cleo waited outside, she then looked down at her right palm.
"It's been a while since I first used that kind of power." she thought to herself.
Cleo was already awared that she was remembering her first time using an ability to hypnotize her victims. She clenched her hand, shutting her eyes completely. It was as if she didn't want to remember something.
Because of that, Cleo didn't notice that someone was behind her and knocked her out unconscious with a knife-hand strike to her neck. She fell down to the ground and went out cold.
Later, Cleo was now lying on a sleeping mat, still unconscious. The snake Faunus slowly began to open her golden eyes. The first thing she sees was her wrists in front of her all tied up. She slowly sat up and looked at her surroundings. She was inside one of the tents.
Cleo didn't know how did she end up here nor how long had she been out. She thought everyone in this very camp were fast asleep. Could it be that someone else found out that she was manipulating her victim to bring her food?
"You're awake."
She heard someone and turned her eyes at the entrance. Someone emerged inside. A tall boy with red and brown hair that spikes backward in a windswept way appeared before Cleo, wearing a mask which obscures his eyes and upper face. She quickly recognized him as a Faunus because of two horns on each side of his head.
He wore a long-sleeved black trench coat with slit sleeves and more red designs and a white symbol on the left side, long matching pants, and black shoes with red soles. His trench coat was red on the inside with red flame-like accents at the bottom and an emblem of a wilting rose on the back over a white floral design. It was also half-buttoned, exposing a red shirt with a black line running parallel to his collar under it. In addition to his attire, he had gloves in the same color with more red emblems on his forehands, appearing to be a variant of the Greek letter Ω.
He confronted Cleo and knelt down before her.
"Who are you?" she asked, coldy glaring at him.
"Adam Taurus," he introduced himself. "One of my underlings told me that you took advantage of him with your Semblance."
She realized that Adam was talking about her recent victim. He must had regained his senses after she was unconscious.
Adam stared at Cleo and recalled what happened back then. He was the one who first saw Cleo being escorted to the food storage. He noticed something wasn't right and decided to follow her. Not only he followed her, but Adam also noticed snake scales on her upper arms. After finding out about Cleo, he decided not to kill her and instead rendered her unconscious.
Back then, the bull Faunus was standing before the unconscious Cleo and a White Fang member emerged out from the tent. Adam then asked him about what happened.
The White Fang member explained to his leader about the encounter with you and said, "I don't know what happened. The last thing I remembered was staring at her eyes glowing."
Adam realized that Cleo had a Semblance to hypnotize on those who stare at her eyes. He needed to find out. He raised his hand and moved it towards Cleo's face. Cleo suddenly noticed this as she recalled something. In place of Adam, there was a human man moving his hand towards her face.
Cleo then gave him a snake-like hiss, her eyes suddenly began to glow. Adam quickly move his hand away from her.
"Don't touch me!" She glared at Adam with her glowing orbs.
Adam stared at her eyes as he stood still.
Cleo closed her eyes and then opened them again, now back to normal.
"I don't hypnotize on those who have something to conceal their eyes. Especially someone like you," she explained her manipulating semblance. "If you're asking about my previous victim, I only seduced with my appearance."
Adam silently understood her hypnotic Semblance and Cleo backed away from him. When she did, she then forbid herself not to look at him. He then noticed her recent attitude. It was as if she didn't want him to touch her.
"Do you not trust me because of what I did? There's no need to be afraid." he reassured the serpentine Faunus.
Hearing him to say that, she then looked back at him. Cleo began to wonder. After she was caught red-handed, why did Adam spare her life? Why didn't he kill her?
She then asked, "Then tell me. You saw me trying to steal food, so why did you not kill me?"
"I would never kill a Faunus who tried to simply steal our food supply." he answered, bluntly.
Cleo stared at him, after listening to his reason. Although she received Adam's answer, she couldn't trust him completely.
"I will say it one last time. There's no need to be afraid," he said once more.
Cleo began to hesitate. She bit her lower lip, but she knew she had no any other choice. She took a sigh and said, "My name is Cleo... and of course I'm a Faunus just like you."
After introducing herself to Adam, she continued, "Not only I'm just a Faunus, but I was once a slave to a human man."
Adam was taken aback when Cleo told him her life as a slave.
"There were other slaves and of course, they're also Faunus."
She then recalled her slave life as she once again closed her eyes.
Cleo first witnessed the abuse from her human master. One of the slaves made a mess when she was delivering his wine to him. He was angry when his suit received a stain, leading him to give a harsh slap.
"My human master was ruthless. He never dared not to hit a woman with abuse," she explained. "The slaves were afraid of him. Day by day, we tried not to make simple mistakes to anger him. But sometimes, he still physically mistreated us."
"Did he abuse you as well?" Adam asked.
Cleo shook her head and answered, "No, I was the only one who wasn't abused physcially. But... what he did to me was far worse than that."
When she mentioned that, she remembered that very night.
She was finishing drying the dishes in the kitchen and heard the door open. She turned around to see her master's bodyguard.
"When I first became a slave, he took interest in me because of my appearance. Even though I'm a Faunus, he only saw me as his 'pet.'"
Cleo realized that her master wanted her to come to his bedroom, much to her discomfort and dismay.
"Every night, he made me stay by his side. I hated it, the way he took control of me. I wanted to forget how he touched me. It was so much worse than seeing him giving others so much pain and suffering."
She stood still, refusing to join him. She couldn't take it anymore. It's been too many nights since her abused yet lecherous master chose her to be his 'pet'.
The bodyguard saw her doing nothing and decided to take her by force.
"Come on. You don't want him to be impatient." he said as he grabbed Cleo's arm.
Cleo clenched her teeth in anger, getting tired of this. She then glared at him and shouted, "You have no right to take control of me!"
Her eyes began to glow all of the sudden and the bodyguard stared at them, suddenly letting go of her arm. She was first confused when he unhanded her and noticed his eyes were blank. He was as if he was under a trance of sorts. Cleo noticed his reaction was different and found out that she first awakened her power to take control of her first victim.
"That very night I first awoke my Semblance, I made someone killed that unforgivable man. The former slaves decided to go to Menagerie. But as for me, I went on my own to survive."
Cleo arrived in the city of Vale and noticed human people wandering around. She realized that her hypnosis semblance would help her.
"I used those humans as my puppets to help me to steal food and money for me, but I was forced to escape from my former victim told the authorities about myself and my Semblance."
As she finally finished telling her story, Cleo opened her eyes.
"And that's how I ended up here, trying to take control on one of your subordinates in order to steal your food supply." she looked at him and asked, "If you're not really going to kill me like you said before, then what are you going to do with me instead, Adam?"
Adam, after finishing listening to Cleo's painful life as a slave, unsheathed his crimson red sword. He then took her bound hands and cut the ropes completely. She was slightly bewildered and stared back at the red-haired boy.
"I understand your suffering by the hands of humanity, but there's no need to take revenge on the humans all by yourself. I can help you," he said as he sheathed his sword back.
"How?"
Adam held out his hand to Cleo and answered, "By joining the White Fang."
"The White Fang?" Cleo replied.
Adam nodded.
"If you join me, we will make the humanity pay together."
Cleo stared at his gloved hand before moving her sight to Adam. True, she wouldn't take her revenge on the humans on her own. All she needed was help from her kind. In order to do that, she had to join the White Fang, a Faunus terrorist organization in Remnant.
As she made up her mind, she gave a determined look on her face and placed her hand to Adam's, thus joining the White Fang.
Time had passed since then. Cleo was praticing the art of tessenjutsu. She was taught how to fight by Adam when she first joined him.
After her training, she then heard someone calling to her, "Cleo."
She turned around to see Adam. He was now wearing a different attire. He had a form-fitting black, gray and red tunic with two-layers of flares that cause it to fall beyond his thigh, and matching gray pants. Adam's top layer at the base of the torso was solid red and extended over his hips. Below it, his second one had two solid black pieces of fabric with red piping that cover the sides of this thighs. His sleeves of his tunic had a zipper on the upper arm and wide black cuffs. He now wore plain black gloves and he had his signature wilting rose emblem over a white floral design on the back.
Cleo began to bow before Adam with respect, "High Leader Taurus."
Then Adam placed his hand on Cleo's shoulder and said, "No need to address me formally, Cleo. I told you to call me by my name after I became High Leader."
"Forgive me, Adam," she replied. "Is there something you need from me?"
"Get prepared. We'll be leaving for Haven Academy."
She took her sheathed tessen fan with her and joined Adam.
The White Fang finally arrived and the members began to prepare, setting up explosives on Haven's CCT Tower.
"Once the charges are set, move back to perimeter watch. Tonight, Haven falls." Adam instructed his underlings.
Cleo was standing by Adam's side as she watched them setting the explosives.
As they finally finished putting the explosives on Haven, they waited for Hazel Rainart and his associates to finish dealing with their enemies. However, their attempt to destroy Haven Academy was foiled by Blake Belladonna, her parents, Sun Wukong, and the people of Menagerie with the help of the authorities. The White Fang members surrendered.
Adam was enraged as he fought Blake and Sun, but he decided to run away. Cleo joined him as well. She knew that he wanted Blake and Sun to go after him, so they both can pick the two enemies off.
However, despite that, Blake and Sun didn't go after Adam and Cleo.
After the escape, Adam and Cleo were standing on the trees in a nearby forest, watching Hazel carrying an unconscious green-haired girl over his shoulder while running with the gray-haired boy. After watching them escape, they both left their own way.
Still in the forest of Mistral, they took a rest.
The silence appeared between Cleo and Adam. She began to recall the black-haired girl with cat ears. She first met her back at Haven Academy. But she also recalled Adam's words back then. It happened after Adam killed Sienna Khan and took over as the new High Leader of the White Fang.
"I will not allow them to ruin this! The Belladonna name has brought me nothing but grief!" Adam then composed himself after angrily stating the Belladonna gave him only grief. "You've done well in finding the deserter. Bring her to me, alive. But not before you've slaughtered her family. I have a promise to keep."
Adam was sending the message to the Albain brothers, who were on the continent of Menagerie. Cleo wondered about her Adam was talking about.
Cleo broke the silence as she said while sitting against the tree, "So what now? The White Fang won't help us anymore because of what happened back then."
Adam stood still, showing his back at Cleo.
"Nothing. For now." he answered.
Cleo was unsure if it's okay to ask Adam about Blake Belladonna. She took a deep breath and became determined.
"Adam. Can I ask you something?"
Adam glanced at Cleo and replied, "Go ahead."
"That girl, Blake Belladonna. What's your relationship with her? What did she do to you?" she asked.
Adam then clenched his hand.
"She was my partner and I was her mentor. Blake and I were going to change the world. But she left the White Fang. All I wanted was for her to suffer for betraying me and I promised her that I would destroy everything she loved." he explained.
Cleo never knew that Blake gave Adam so much grief. She stood up and walked towards him. As she did standing behind him, Cleo then wrapped her arms around him.
"If you want to change the world, then... let me help you."
Adam was shocked to hear Cleo like that.
"I want to help you just like you helped me. We have the same hatred toward humanity and we were suffered by the likes of them."
He paused after listening to Cleo's reason to help him. He turned around and stared at Cleo's eyes. In her eyes was serious determination. No hesitation.
Adam gave a small smile and chuckled.
"Then I'm counting on you, Cleo."
And so, Adam Taurus and Cleo began to leave with their important purpose to make humanity pay for what they've done and suffer.