Boy: I
"You, go!"
The rumbling of tracks was all he could remember as he slowly awoke from a seemingly eternal slumber; his breaths were heavy, rasping and painful. His eyes glued shut as the sound of the tracks began to subside, making way for the grating of tyres on dirt. The noise was larger-than-life as it bounced around his head, lighting fires in his brain and he could only sit there, rubbing his temples in the faint hope that it would subside. It seemed to take hours; the firestorm in his body left him helpless to anything, rivets of sweat making their way down his body. They only added to his discomfort in the sweltering conditions, the heat around made him feel dizzy even with his eyes fused shut, the inferno in his mind matched the intensity of his surroundings.
After a lifetime had passed he opened his eyes to manacles, his two restrained hands resting on either side of his bald head giving him a good view of the metallic bindings. One of his hands felt clammy and warm on his temple whilst another just felt cold, turning to see the reason made him yelp in surprise.
What the fuck? He thought, because whilst his left arm was tan skin, where his right arm should be there was a thin black metallic appendage, running all the way to his shoulder, as he poked it tentatively he could feel nothing but the cold touch of metal where the shoulder blade meets steel framework. This revelation woke him up enough to notice the only other person in the vehicle.
"Ah, it seems that the Snore Maiden is awake...finally." Came a deep baritone voice from in-front of him, he whipped his head up up to see a burly boy at least foot larger than himself, two small ears poking out above his red-brown hair. Noticing his panic, the large faunus attempted to settle him down.
"Yo, no need to worry okay? I'm not one of them, we're in this together." But the boy shook his head, no, this wasn't right, where was he? Who are 'them'? What happened?
What had happened to him?
When he searched his brain for recent events, he found nothing, he thought of the latest memory he could recall- only to find the sound of traintracks. His search led to more questions: What was his name? Where did he come from? What did he do to end up in this van? His mind went wild in search of an answer; the fire that had just cooled itself in his brain had flared back up in a furious inferno. This isn't right, everyone has a name, everyone was born somewhere and everyone had reasons to be where they were!
His ragged breathing picked up to the point of hyperventilation as he looked around the enclosed space he was being held in: a small room, holding only him and the large faunus with a small slat in the sides to let in fresh air plus a modicum of light and lastly was a double door, trapping him in here with this faunus! The faunus in question continued to try to calm him to no avail, only another noise to accompany the sound of a train on tracks.
"Hey! Listen to me!" This got the boy's attention, dispelling the train, he was met with chestnut-brown eyes which were sincere and sympathetic.
"Calm yourself, the name's Copper and as I see it we are gonna be stuck together for a while, so we might as well make the most of it." The faunus motioned to show that his hands were, indeed, also manacled; the boy could only close his eyes again, this was too much for him to handle, so he rested his head back against the side of the vehicle and took in deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself, eventually he managed to bury his panic and look towards his companion.
Copper was a tall, well-built wall of a man and seemed older than the boy; his aptly copper hair seemed dull, as his two ears – seemingly that of a bear's- were slightly lowered on his head, his chin adorned with small bristles of the beginnings of an auburn beard. After calming the boy down, Copper seemed to go into a state of melancholy his two chestnut eyes darkened as the turned towards the floor, but when he saw the boy looking towards him he lifted his head and didn't hide his disheartenment.
"You know what this place is?" His dejected tone seemingly out of place for the person for the faunus who he had only known for a very short amount of time.
"I... I cannot say I have." The boy spoke softly in reply, his throat was dry, leading his voice to be hoarse, but clipped and refined.
"You don't eh? I do, and I'd rather be going anywhere else," He bowed his head.
"The end of the world, that's where we're going." He muttered offhandedly and fell into a deep silence and once again the sound of tyres on dirt was dominant, its only companions the heavy and soft breathing of the boy and the faunus. It stayed that way until Copper spoke up.
"You have any family?" The faunus asked abruptly and it took a few seconds for the boy to reply.
"Not that I know of." He had no memory of a family, or anything for that matter. The notion of a family appealed to him.
"Thought so," He struggled to wrap his head around that, what did he mean?
"You should be happy though, if you're going to this place it's last thing you want." Copper continued hastily, seemingly trying to make him feel better; he failed, the boy now realised he felt on top of everything else - the fear, the uncertainty and the panic- lonely, so terribly lonely; that must have been what the faunus was getting at.
"So, what about yourself? Do you have any family to speak of?" He asked in an attempt to drive away the emotions that were welling up in him.
"Yeah..." Copper looked away and nervously scratched his chin, the bristles sounded rough like sandpaper. His offhand comment effectively ended the conversation and the boy understood that this must be a sore spot for the faunus.
Five minutes of uncomfortable silence went by until the vehicle suddenly stopped, jostling them both from their seats. The sound of the engine disappeared, a door opened and now the sound of footsteps was making its way towards the double door to his right. Whipping his head to Copper, he found no solidarity, as only acceptance adorned the faunus' face as he looked towards the double doors. With the almost rhythmic sound of boots on gravel, the panic once again began to snake its way back into his mind, every footfall a death sentence. The two doors were swung open unceremoniously and light viciously rushed into the darkened space, its sudden intrusion only adding to the ascension of his fear.
After the light had seemingly faded, he saw the man; he was a colossus and wore a mask of the White Fang, though it was different, it covered his entire face, with a deep ridge under the eyes, with deep red lines accentuating them and coming down to his chin, the only thing that was truly visible was the cropped black hair. His mouth twisted into a scowl as he looked the two of them over. After ascertaining that the two of them were still shackled, he made his way into the vehicle, as he moved in he cursed the heat that the two of them had been feeling for the journey. Unshackling their legs from the vehicle, he motioned them to stand up with a grunt and it seemed neither himself nor Copper had the strength to disobey.
"You're both here for a reason." He spoke out as they got out of the sweltering van and into the humidity of what seemed to be a forest, the heat made the boy uncomfortable as sweat continued to cling to him. Walked back to the van's driver seat slowly, no urgency in his pace; when he reached the cockpit he reached in and the boy saw black markings adorning his large tanned arms; eventually he drew a giant weapon, a chainsaw, just seeing the weapon made him shiver. He moved back over to them and they walked seemingly to nowhere.
So this is how he died, a chainsaw, not the nicest way to go and just thinking about death made his skin crawl. He looked the ground. Death was so final, he knew nothing of what it was to truly live, he was petrified of not knowing anything of who he was or what he did to be in this position, he didn't want to die a nobody in a forest. He blinked the tears down as they threatened to well up at the prospect.
"We're here." The deep voice the huge White Fang came from behind them, that's when he raised his head and saw it, camouflaged in the trees was a steel door, the chainsaw wielder made his way to it and knocked: six knocks in the rhythm of a fast heartbeat, complimenting the boy's own. The door opened surprisingly silently; he looked at Copper (who had been completely silent during this whole affair) and walked in.
The first thing he noticed was the cold, a huge contrast to the heat of the outside and whilst it made the sweat cool and clammy he was undeniably less uncomfortable, the cold seemed to suit him better. The roof of the room was low and made of plain concrete and there seemed to be a single occupant of the room, the man who must have let them in, he closed the door behind them, another door was visible a few meters away. The man had short wheat-yellow hair, clad in dark leather that accentuated the darkness of his eyes and he held a Scroll, the device used by seemingly everyone Remnant. He casually leant up against the wall next to the door.
"When I heard you were coming Lieutenant I had to come personally, it's not like Adam to make you to take prisoners here!" He spoke in a slow nonchalant drawl and he seemed to find the situation amusing, whilst the large Lieutenant bristled at the name, it looked to be of some importance to him, the boy made note of this.
"Cygnus... we do not say his name around these people; he just wanted to take all precautions with these two." The large faunus towards them, Cygnus didn't seem fazed by the Lieutenant.
"Whatever...I must ask, what makes these two so special as to warrant you as their handler?" Cygnus slowly looked over the two of them, seemingly taking little interest in the boy and more in Copper.
"You don't usually bring one of your own here, what's up with that?" As he looked at the faunus boy.
"Our business is our own, that was part of our agreement." The Lieutenant's fists clenched, his answers becoming brusquer, Cygnus waved this away.
"Yes, yes my apologies," He didn't seem in anyway apologetic as he looked the two of them over again.
"I'll take them from here, just one more thing- names and ages." With that he tapped on his Scroll a few times and looked at the large faunus expectantly. Pointing at Copper, the Lieutenant began.
"Copper Bois: sixteen years old." He spoke quickly, as if to get this over with, then pointed to the boy and thought for a moment before he spoke.
"...Graue Wolke: fourteen years old." With that he turned away and without another word, exited the bunker, closing the door behind him with a slam. It seemed a terribly informal procedure, the man left after only two names and ages. It took the boy a few seconds to realise that the man had said his name... Graue Wolke. Cygnus rolled his eyes as he finished entering their limited information, then put the Scroll down and clapped his hands together, he looked at the two of them and sighed.
"Well here we are, what a day, well business is business I suppose." He muttered and momentarily closed his eyes, only briefly as an outburst came from the only faunus left in the room.
"Getting teenagers to kill each other is fucking business to you?" This made the boy turn towards Copper; he didn't expect such an outburst from his silent companion. However what surprised him more was what he said. Getting kids to kill each other, what the hell was this place? Cygnus only laughed.
"So you know about this place huh? Well kid, if you were making the money we're making you'd understand." This only made Copper tremble with anger and made towards Cygnus, but before he do anything the man, quick as lightning, whipped out what seemed to be a metal ribbon and slash at the adolescent faunus with it, leaving a small cut on his cheek. The boy noticed Cygnus' eyes were as cold at the metal he wielded.
"You really want to try something kid? I'm the chief of security in this madhouse, you really don't want to test me!" He whispered to the faunus before wiping down his weapon on a dirty trouser leg and sheathing it, his threat hung in the air as the boy saw Copper feeling his cheek to find blood on his hand. Cygnus' attitude seemed to flip on command as he quickly became his usual nonchalant self.
"Now let's get you two set up for however long you are... with us." He spoke the last two words with a sickly sweet tone, making the boy shiver. With all that said, Cygnus signalled both the boy and Copper to follow him. The boy could only think about three things.
His name was Graue Wolke, he was fourteen years of age and he was almost certainly going to die.
A start to a second story that I've been musing about, I think the world of Remnant is such an open canvas that I can't stop thinking up ideas for it, because despite how lighthearted the show was, the last season really touched on how dark the setting really was and made me think about the people in this world, a world were people glorify children becoming killing machines in the name of peace and then get shocked when they find out these kids could potentially kill each other.
This story is pretty much OC only, so if you exclusively like stories with the existing cast you should run whilst you can, because it's only gonna get worse.