All I Wanted
RWBY is owned by RT. Believe me, it would be a dream come true if I worked there.
I wanted to see Adam as more than that stereotypical jackass, among other things. I wanted to emphasize that one sympathetic line he had about things being impossible. And to provide perspective from this sad, yet creepy badass. Enjoy this Valentine's Day gift, Tauradonna shippers! -AceTriad
In the Kingdom of Vale, all was not well.
The Kingdom was in a state of crisis after a biennial tournament ended in disaster.
A four-time regional champion in her local Kingdom of Mistral, Pyrrha Nikos, managed to tear apart her opponent, Penny Polendina from Atlas, now revealed to be a humanlike android to the entire world.
A mysterious voice took over the broadcast and showed everyone present why Beacon and Atlas Academies were not to be trusted - the Huntsman Academies, once established as institutions of peace and justice, once designed to defend the world from the forces of darkness, now wielding more power than local police and militaries.
The Atlesian Headmaster was chewed out for controlling his Kingdom's military and Huntsman Academies, not to mention creating a virtual invasion of Vale with the armed force he brought over, while Beacon Academy's headmaster was on the hook for a poor response time during a previous Grimm invasion,
and lacklustre teaching quality due to the violent and unsportsmanlike conduct displayed in the Vytal Festival Tournament. Mistral, the voice claimed, was equally as bad, leaving Vacuo in the very unusual position of being the remaining Kingdom that was not mentioned in the speech as being untrustworthy.
When the civilians began to panic, many ran for the nearest Air Bus, in the typical doomsday fashion. And while Atlas deployed their armies, things took a turn for the worse when two of their massive supercarriers were destroyed, and the remaining airship was hijacked by a "vagabond."
The situation was no better on the ground. The Atlesian Knight-200s, the androids that were believed to adequately protect the public, had turned on their masters and gone rogue. And the Atlesian Paladin-290 assault mechs had suffered the same fate, having switched to AI controls after rumors that the prototypes were stolen.
The lights in Beacon's dining hall dimmed as the entire room was ransacked.
And Adam Taurus, a senior member of the White Fang, was having a field day.
After years of being treated like dirt, treated like garbage, treated like monsters, treated as the untermensch (subhumans) by the racist, corporatist Schnees, and human society as a whole, he and many of his comrades would turn the tables and have these dirty humans at their mercy.
"Bring them to their knees!"
He had instructed his men to capture the shadowy, beastlike Grimm on their Bullheads and drop them in the Kingdom before deploying in Vale. It was no small task, given their behavior when in captivity, but it was still manageable.
He had slaughtered his way to Beacon, killing many innocents and soldiers alike.
And he didn't care anymore.
As an Atlesian soldier, now on his back and disarmed, pleaded for mercy, the bull Faunus simply kicked him aside.
"Human scum," he muttered. But then he noticed something.
A familiar shape revealed itself, with a black bow, wearing a signature black and white outfit, with the rectangular shape of a cleaver, hung diagonally.
It was Blake Belladonna, his protege. One of the people he cared about. The one who left him behind and turned his back on him after fighting together for so long.
The one who had foresaken him.
"Hello ... my darling."
Yang Xiao Long was panicking.
After taking care of the nearby Grimm, she needed to find everyone else.
And standing in her way was the horde of White Fang goons. Some were unarmed, some had guns, and some had swords and axes.
But it didn't matter. Within seconds, the melee fighters were knocked out cold with consecutive punches and the occaisional kick.
A barrage of bullets flew towards her, but it didn't matter-
Because she finished them off with a fist to the ground, sending a shockwave to the nearby area.
Blake was scared of Adam, and with good reason.
He had slowly been slipping into a deep madness. No, years of rage, built up in her former mentor, the one she cared about, reared its ugly head once more.
He was callous when they last worked together, willing to blow up an entire train, mostly innocent crewmembers included, instead of merely stealing the Schnee merchandise like they always had before.
His power was devastating, and in the hands of someone willing to destroy in order to gain what he wanted, it would endanger countless lives.
Yet, she never expected him to sink to the deepest lows of immorality, to become the monstrous nightmare she always feared.
"Why are you doing this?"
Adam was furious at how Blake could ask such a question. She should have known what he intended to do all along - to make the humans pay for their discrimination and abuse against all Faunuskind in their new revolution.
"You and I were going to change the world, remember? We were destined to light the fires of revolution!"
He saw an student of Atlas, home of the Schnees, benefactors of the Atlesian military, crawling backwards, tears streaming down his cheeks in a face that screamed terror.
It wouldn't matter to him anyways. The humans, ''especially'' the civilization of Atlas, will fall for discriminating them based on their animalistic traits, considered to be an ugly and primitive appearance by the bigots who proceeded to ruthlessly enslave them for so long. He raised his sword, and prepared to impale the defenceless man with the razor-sharp tip.
''"Consider this ... a spark"''.
Blake immediately grabbed her weapon, Gambol Shroud, now taking the form of a katana, and rushed to the man's defence. As much she loathed the ringleaders of the Schnee Dust Company, and bigoted humans, she pitied the student, seeing as what Adam was about to do was worse.
Besides, she was tired of running from the memories of her past - especially when she ran from him in the train all those months ago.
"I'm ... not ... running."
However, the response from him was terrifying, and cold.
"You ... will."
He kicked her away, before noticing a Creep headed towards her. He promptly aimed and fired a shot from his rifle-sheath, Blush.
"But not before you suffer for your betrayal, ''my love''."
Yang continued her assault, punching through and blasting whatever White Fang rank-and-file in her way.
''I have to find Blake! She's my friend, and I have to make sure she's alright!''
She wiped away tears of concern as she remembered the joyous times that the two of them shared as she made her way to the dining hall...
With Blake helpless on the floor, still defiant to whatever goal he stood for, Adam was again exasperated with each passing second. The thought of his protege, denying what he thought was the right path for him and the White Fang to take, absolutely sickened him.
"This could've been our day! Can't you see that!?"'
Blake knew exactly how he felt. She could, in a sense, understand why he was so angry at the world - he, like many of their brethren, was treated like an abused an abandoned puppy, for so long. What probably set him apart from the others was that when she left him, he lost his connection to whatever happiness he had, exacberating his descent into a monster, making the entire situation all the more terrifying.
But she knew that deep down ... it was not the just thing to do. There had to be another way.
"I never wanted this! I wanted equality! I wanted peace!"
Adam became frustrated once more as he absorbed the bullets' energy with his sword, briefly glowing red. as he kicked the weapon away. To think that she still believed in a dream that could not be attained, a dream that he and many of his brethren shared; one that was of peaceful, coexistence with humanity,
a scenario where they could be treated with dignity, was laughable.
He frowned at her naive optimism, even though the two of them once believed in that dream. To him and many other Faunus, it was dashed after the bigoted humans still continued to discriminate and treat them poorly after they had won the Faunus Rights Revolution, where they could live in an area of their choosing, and not be packed like a can of sardines in that ghetto called Menagerie.
Still, he could comprehend where she stood. Being treated like a regular human in this day and age was something deep down, each Faunus truly wanted. But it was the real world - cold and cruel, as it always had been. It also wasn't the only dream Adam had.
"What you want, is impossible!"
Blake was shocked Adam would succumb to such a nihilistic mindset.
"But I understand ... because all I want, is you, Blake."
Adam had treasured the memories he and Blake had long ago. Being one of the few friends Adam once had, he wished to succeed in his goal of armed revolution, with his former protege by his side, for he grew dependent on her - to him, she meant the entire world to him. To him, she had shaped the joyful memories of his existence. To him, her being around him was like a promise to him - a promise of loyalty that would lead to happiness.
If he could, he could hold her tight in his arms like a stuffed teddy bear and never let go by any means necessary. Without her, he felt that he had little else to strive for.
But this was the real world. He had realized that it was too late for him to sway her back. So, he had given up on her, and decided to cast away whatever hope there was of rekindling their relationship. He decided that it would be worth his time to discard her, just as she had wronged and discarded him.
"And as I set out to deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love."
As Adam finished his sentence, Blake's eyes widened as she realized the weight behind his words, especially when the familiar call of a teammate rang in her ears.
"Blake! Blake! Where are you!?"
As Blake grimaced in horror, Adam immediately found the connection - he realized that her friend was coming to save his old pupil. For Adam, it would be the perfect opportunity to inflict the suffering, just as she did to him, back on the train long ago.
"Starting with her".
As Yang punched away the last grunt at the dining hall, she noticed Blake and a man with red hair and black suit, wielding a blood-red sword.
"Huh?" she wondered.
To her dismay, she saw said man impale her best friend with the sword. She was now inundated from all sorts of emotions - sadness, fear, and fury.
'''"GET AWAY FROM HER!"''', she screamed. Unlike her past self, willing to immediately charge into combat, she decided to exercise a degree of restraint to avoid wanton impulsive behaviors that would needlessly get her into trouble.
But it seemed that the man instead turned to face Yang, sheathing his sword and preparing to draw it once more.
"Don't ... please ... ", Blake feebly mumbled, attempting to warn her.
But it was too late. She would make the man ''pay dearly'' for attacking the friend that she cherished so much.
With tears from her now crimson eyes, she charged in as fast as she could, ready to land the strongest punch on her new enemy.
However, time seemed to slow down as she felt something loosen. Suddenly, her entire body was in shock and darkness creeped in the corners of her eyes...
Adam calmly faced Blake's friend, furiously charging in to administer her revenge.
He noted the glowing blonde hair, and the bright, crimson eyes, that now shed tears out of sadness, anger, and worry for Blake.
''So that's her friend. Interesting. She reminds me of me, but ...''
What set them apart was experience. The difference was clearly shown when he patiently timed his strike, using the energy he absorbed, to cut through Yang's Aura and dismember her right arm -
- before she fell, crashing down on the floor.
Blake saw the entire scenario unfold, as she saw Yang, the one person she doubted after that disastrous tournament match, fiercely run in to save her, out of a sense of kinship and loyalty, fall to Adam's power, a stump filled with glowing embers - and blood, where an arm once stood.
Damnit! What do I do!?
She saw her world crash down as she realized that her old mentor and friend was now willing to stoop as low as harming her friends, just like what happened with Yang moments ago. Even after her terrible upbringing under Adam's "tutelage". Even after his cruelty, laid bare in the train raid back then.
No! I gotta do something!
Now that her friend was down for the count, Adam slowly walked up to Blake, and with a single stroke, shook off every last drop of blood that landed on the blade.
"Why must you hurt me, Blake?"
He decided that she had seen enough suffering. He had cast away whatever goodness there were in his heart, because he decided that it would be useless, after Blake abandoned him, as if he was cast into the cold.
It was the straw that broke the camel's back, and from that point on, there was no point in attempting to return. If the world, the human hegemony, wished to see a monster so reviled, then he would gladly play the role and be unleashed on them, the wish they should have been careful for.
As he prepared the blade, he attempted a downwards cut that seemingly sliced her neck apart clean, decapitating her head -
- only to find out that it was one of her duplicates, acting as a diversion as she ran off with her wounded friend.
He calmly turned around and sliced apart a Creep that foolishly attempted to sneak up on him. From now on, he would destroy anyone and wreak havoc against those who grievously wronged him - and those who stood in his way.
After all, there was no point now in not becoming a monster.
"Yang ... I'm so sorry."
After she and Yang had been bandaged up, she shed tears for getting into trouble for her actions.
She wanted to run, once more. But what point was fleeing a terror that was determined to hunt you down and destroy you so long as they could draw breath?
No, she thought, she would run for a different reason. She would not run to escape. She would run to confront the danger that was the White Fang and Adam, to stop them before they hurt any more innocents.
And since she was responsible for all this, she deemed it fit that she be responsible to fix it.
As the smoke cleared, and the skies darkened, she ran across the rooftops of Vale to whatever base the White Fang hid in - including Mistral.
Because she had a dream that she can accomplish, a vision that can be achieved, that was still possible.
And she was determined to make it a reality.
Fin