Hey guys, it is currently midnight, and I'm back to doing fanfic stuff. Eh, whatever. It's totally worth it.
A loud, purposefully so, yawn broke Terram from his thoughts, his best friend finding their current activity extremely boring. Said activity was... Que the scary music, paperwork! Simple forms asking for their name and their birth-date, as well as all the basic info that those who had been admitted the normal way would have already had out of the way, but Kye thought it was slightly worth it, having had fun in their duel with team CFVY. The Coco girl did seem kind of angry at them though, probably because of the singling out, and the fact that Terram basically took her out in a few seconds. The rest of team CFVY were actually very sportsmanlike, giving them the congratulations and promising that they'll win the second time, y'know, after they got over the whole intimidation act. After they had passed the entry exam, and beaten team CFVY in the process, the two had been led to an auditorium, where they were now doing paperwork and waiting for the rest of the first years to arrive.
Terram was getting slightly annoyed, not only because Kye was starting to get bored, which meant he was starting to mess with Terram more, but also because he had already done this paperwork, and having to do it twice was aggravating. He'd rather be sleeping! He wouldn't admit it out loud to anybody but Kye, but that fight actually took alot out of him, and ooo boy was he tired. Suddenly, an idea struck him, a smile appearing on his face as he turned to Kye, who was still in the process of counting to 4 thousand while poking Terram. Terram's smile strained a bit at him still counting, but recovered as he grabbed hold of Kye's poking hand, twisting it to the side and somewhat gently kicking him across the auditorium. Kye, realizing what was about to go down, reached for his weapons, but stopped when he noticed Terram taking off his weapons belt and shield, placing them to the side. Following suite, Kye placed his machetes to the side and slid off his gauntlets. Flashing Terram a cocky smile as he got into position.
Terram too got into position, narrowly avoiding a quick forward jab from Kye, who followed it up with a cross that was easily parried by Terram. Despite having gauntlets as a weapon, Kye wasn't as good at unarmed combat as Terram, their record being 192-184 with Terram leading. Terram took advantage of his parry by building up aura in his leg and kicking Kye in the chest with the force of a cannon. Kye tumbled for a second, before regaining himself and sliding to a stop with his hand pressed against the floor. There was a second of peace before Terram rushed Kye, who in turn sent a flurry of thorns at him, Terram responded by blocking it with a small stone that he had pulled from the ground, after blocking he threw the block as hard as possible at him, the rock narrowly missing the agile fighter, whom was now pressing his hand to the ground, cherry blossoms blooming and falling from his antlers, a side effect of his semblance being activated.
Noticing the cherry blossoms, Terram suddenly brought a rock barrier up in front of him, due to instinct mostly, blocking a little bit of the flurry of plant spikes that now rained from the ceiling, Kye having made his vines slither up the walls and give him an advantage. Taking a few of the spikes with much displeasure, Terram rushed ahead, dropping the barrier just in time to find his face in contact with Kye's fist, his momentum suddenly stopped, using this to his advantage, a huge wall of rock suddenly burst from the floor, coming up with such force that it flung him half way across the auditorium, taking out a considerable amount of his aura. Their fight was suddenly stopped when the doors to the auditorium opened and many, many teenagers walked through the doors, only to stop when they realized that a fight was in full blow.
The two looked over at the new crowd of people, Kye giving a wink to a girl with purplish hair, while Terram simply gave a wave to the crowd at whole, turning back to the fight just in time to block a kick that was aimed at his face. Kye flung himself pack, using Terram as propellant, Terram stumbling just slightly, but regaining his balance quickly. Kye spoke in an extremely cocky voice, which he knew got on Terram's nerves.
"Well, looks like we gotta put on another show, and this time I'll totally win! CAUSE I'M AWESOME!" Kye said, the last bit yelled as vines suddenly gripped at Terram's legs, keeping him in place
"Oh fuck..." Terram said, realizing his current predicament, forming small spikes of rock on his arms and stabbing them directly into the vines, the spikes piercing through the other side with ease.
Suddenly, Kye stopped, wincing greatly, being able to feel the same things the vines felt wasn't very fun at times. Terram, as mean as it may seem, used this as a benifit, throwing the spikes at the still recovering Kye, the spikes hitting him in the chest and ending the fight as his seafoam green aura shattered. Terram stepped next the the faunus, who was still lying on the ground, grumbling about how "T used unfair tactics", before a hand was outstretched to him, which he eagerly accepted, using it to get himself up and lightly punch Terram in the face. Light hearted fun, the two laughing about how Terram won again, and Terram briefly apologizing for stabbing the vines, knowing that it hurt him, but he honestly didn't mean to pierce through it so easily. Kye did say that he didn't reinforce that one much, and that there wasn't much plant life nearby.
Gradually, the crowd of people went back to talking in groups and waiting for the headmaster to arrive and begin his speech.
Terram turned to Kye, both of them sharing the same look. The two were equally un-nerved by crowds, huge gatherings of people wasn't really their thing, Kye shrugged and began to make his way to the large doors, exiting them with Terram right behind them. The two making their way away from the small groups of students walking towards the auditorium, trying to make their way to the landing dock. Terram was honestly just following Kye at this point, guessing that he wanted to talk or just have a little bit of quiet, the auditorium was pretty loud. The two made their way to a small docking port, the space not occupied by a transport ship, looking out over the city of vale. Kye let out a small, content sigh, moving to sit down and dangle his legs off the side of the dock. Terram followed him, instead just leaning back with his legs swaying lightly, as calm and warm as Terram was, he had a lot of energy.
Kye suddenly turned to look over at him, vibrant emerald eyes showing his true emotion, filled with what looked to be anxiety.
"Hey... Do you think we'll be okay?" Kye suddenly asked, referencing something that the two had made a pact to never tell anybody about
"Kye, they won't find us, I'm sure of it. And besides, even if they do, we're the battle-boy's we'll fuck em up!" Was Terram's response, being the more mature of the two, he often had to assure Kye that their past wouldn't catch up to them.
"Y-yeah, but there's White Fang everywhere now! Sienna sent out so many search parties!" Kye said, his eyes changing to a deeper green color, a light sheen over them showing how nervous he really was.
"Come on little bro, we're The Wild Hunters! If the White Fang won't let us move on, then we'll make them let us." Terram said, taking a moment to undo his grieves and pull his sleeves up, thick brown scales covering his forearms.
"Terram, we k-killed him! They don't just let people like us go!" Kye said suddenly, Terram's eyes widening and his fists balling up.
"Kye! We said we wouldn't talk about it anymore! It's in the past, and we were defending ourselves!" Terram said, his calm revere broken by the topic.
"I-I... Y-you're right, we'll be fine! We'll be perfectly fine. We have each other." Kye said after taking a few deep breaths.
The two then sat there, waiting for the sun to set, even as an intercom spoke about how all first years were meant to be at the auditorium. The two Faunus had been in the white fang when they had turned 14, Terram behind his dad's back, and Kye didn't really care. Their 3rd year in the White Fang... Was when they left, the two having been attacked by an atlas official when they were on a scouting mission. The two didn't mean to kill him, the man didn't have aura, but they didn't know that...
3 years before Beacon, 9:53 PM, Emerald Forest
The two had been stationed at Vale for a few days, as punishment for fighting in the middle of a White Fang camp and crashing into Adam's tent, sending the three of them tumbling, Adam was a good sport about it, having been somewhat friends with them, but had to come up with a punishment, as to not encourage the act to other members.
The serene atmosphere in the forest was suddenly broken by a transport truck driving slowly down the path, the car driving slowly due to the smoking engine. Terram checked his scroll once again, already having checked 5 times already, this was their first scouting mission, and Adam did say that if they were spotted that they should fight back. Terram didn't agree with some of Adam's tactics, but he was a higher rank than him, so he had to deal with it. Kye flashed him a small smile, that quickly vanished at the sound of an atlas trooper shouting "YOU! What are you doing up there!". The shouting trooper was silenced by a wall of rock bashing him to the side, knocking him unconscious against a tree. Kye laughed lightly, dropping from the tree and dealing with another trooper with ease. The two had graduated from combat school about a month ago, having great partner work and even doing well in solo matches.
The sound of the Atlas vehicle locking its doors was music to Terram's ears, as nervous as he was, the Atlas snob was the reason many Faunus were suffering. Kye boot slammed harshly against the snob's car door, his mask blocking the feral look in his eyes. When Kye was angry, his eyes changed, they turned an extremely light green, tiny dots of pupils tracking every little movement, and threatening to strike. Terram joined him, pressing a small stone against the lock on the car door, tendrils of earth flowing into the slot and unlocking it with a small click. Kye gently pulled Terram back, which he allowed, and pulled the door open with a growl. A frightened yelp met their ears as the balding Atlas official turned to look at them, firing off a shot from a very small handgun in his hand. Which simply bounced off Kye's aura. Kye ripped the man from his seat and slammed him into the dirt. The action sending his small handgun flying into the forest.
Terram quickly typed a message to Adam, stating that they had found an Atlas official who seemed to be related to the SDC. Adam responding with "Bring him in, if he tries to resist take whatever actions you need." Terram nodded before lodging the tip of his boot in the officials side, yelling at him to stand up and get walking, much to Kye's ire. Kye was usually the one to send SDC officials walking, particularly how they would try to keep their cool and taunt him. After about 7 minutes of walking, the Atlas official suddenly turned around, striking poorly at Kye, responding naturally Kye went to fire his machete at the man, but because of his charge, Kye holding up his machete resulted in the mans face being impaled by the blade, the end piercing from the back of his skull. Unable to stop his action, Kye's finger thrummed against the trigger, the shotgun pellets eviscerating the poor man's face, the fare pale skin suddenly changed to bloody red viscera.
Time stood still for a few seconds, the reality of what just happened dawning on the two boys as the pained groans of the man pierced the silent air, trying to pull his own head off of the thick machete blade. Kye was in shock, his eyes wide and tears brimming at the edge of them, his hand shook as it held tightly onto the machete, suddenly turning around to empty the contents of his stomach, the action pulling the blade from the mans skull with a stomach churning crunchy squelch. The man then fell to the ground, haunting screams doomed to forever haunt Kye's dreams. Terram was instantly in action, ending the man's life with a shot from his revolver, not wanting to hear his frantic, pained screeching any longer, he rushed over to his friend, who was now crawling away from the body, eyes locked onto the man's bloody, broken face. Terram's face blocked his line of sight on the body, his friends golden brown eyes filled with small orange and black flakes, filled with worry for him.
They had run that day, fleeing as soon as they could. Search parties were sent out for them, as the two were probably the White Fang's second best warriors, behind Belladona and Adam.
Terram returned to the present, the memory being pushed to the back of his mind, the same phrase repeating in his head, over and over again. Something he uses to keep himself together and calm.
"What would dad do, what would dad do, what would dad do."
After the boy had steadied their breathing, he turned to his best friend, pretty much brother at this point, and turned his head to look over at Terram. His golden eyes gentle and calming, the boy's own eyes shifted from a very dark green, to a lighter viridian.
"That's in the past, we're here now, we made it to Beacon. We're safe."
Kye's tiny frown shifted to a pleased smirk, returning the calming words with his own.
"Yeah... You're right, bro... but we should probably get to the amphitheater or whatever it was called, its almost dark out..."
Terram's smile turned to a slightly nervous frown, instantly on his feet and pulling his best friend up with him, already beginning to lead him to the ballroom, his pace increasing by the second.
Suddenly, he stopped, Kye bumping into his back, but when he turned to see what was wrong, he instantly reached for his weapon, amber eyes staring him down with sadness and nervousness. Terram's hand pushing back woke in from his staring contest from a piece of their past, pushing him behind him and pulling his hands away from his weapons. Kye could tell when he was on edge, his stance and posture portrayed his emotion clear to all, back straight and rigid, arms held tightly at his sides, one twitching nervously against his weapon belt. Even Terram was surprised how much malice and venom was portrayed in his words as he spoke, words absolutely dripping with aggression.
"What are you doing here, Belladona?"
The girl winced, bow flattening against her head as her cat like pupils shrinked further showing her nervousness and how on edge she was.
"I-I... I ran..."
Terram's posture stiffened, his eyes changing colors to a bright lava-like orange, the black flecks usually in his eyes spreading across his iris and the white of his eyes, almost consuming all the white in his eyes, as Kye stepped out from behind him further. Terram's hand retreated to his weapon, a growl rising in his throat as he once again spoke, this time with so much aggression, even Kye winced.
"I've had to kill more assassins than you could even think, if you think that you're going to take us down as soon as we get to freedom, you're sorely mistaken!"
His voice was hollow and cold, heat flaring off of his body, making Kye take a step back, catching Terram's eye, much to Terram's surprise. He turned to his friend, a strange look in the boy's eyes, something he'd never seen before in his eyes. Terram's eyes drifted down to his hands, magma oozing from his palms and seeping through the concrete in the courtyard, Belladona's eyes widened as she took in what he just said, before they narrowed, showing nothing but sadness and pity. Kye's eyes were wide with shock at the realization of what his brother just said, his mind trying to find excuses for him to lie about that, before settling on it being a scare tactic, his eyes narrowing before he too turned to the Belladona girl, trying his hardest to stay intimidating after what his brother just said.
"Oh Terram... I'm so sorry... I... I know what... Adam is doing... I know how many he sent to you, and I'm sorry... I tried to stop him, I really did, but... I ran... I couldn't keep pretending what he was doing was ok... He changed..."
Her voice cracked in the middle of her sentence, tears brimming the corners of her eyes, before she blinked twice and they were gone. She took a step forward, her hands raised away from her weapons, initially making Terram let out a growl, but after looking her in the eyes, he lowered his hand from his weapon. Blake and him were... Friends. Pretty good friends actually, their personalities mixing well, his warm inviting personality encouraging her to be more open, though the week before Terram and Kye ran she talked to him a lot more, telling him personal things about her. His eyes too were brimming with small tears, threatening to spill over, but he kept them from falling, trying to maintain his intimidating front. As she approached his aggressive stance shifted, his back hunching slightly as she pulled him into a hug, Terram letting out a small gasp, before hiccuping and hugging back, letting the tears silently fall from his eyes.
The White Fang was like family to Terram, and to have to leave it was heart crushing. They helped him through everything, all the times he would get sad about his heritage, a member would be there to cheer him up and tell him about how he was right where he belonged and perfect the way he was. The two who had truly helped him were two high ranking members: Blake Belladona and Kyros Taurus. The two had helped him through his years of being a lower ranked member and helped him train with his daggers, even sparring with him when he asked them nice enough. Kyros Taurus, Adam Taurus's little brother, was basically the polar opposite of his brother, constantly wanting to start fights with Terram, all of them being friendly of course, the way they met was when he challenged a low ranked Terram to a duel, he obviously won, but just by a small difference in aura. He was kind, adventure seeking, always had a smile on his face, always trying to help any faunus in need.
Blake was another story, she met him in an alley way, after getting beaten by a group of faunus haters, she helped him up, cleaned his wounds and bandaged them. She invited him into the White Fang, she introduced him to Kyros and Adam, she was the connecting factor for the most influential parts of Terram's life. His arms wrapped around Blakes back, the boy's taller figure towering over the girl, the two were soon joined by a smiling Kye, hugging them both from the side, he two being friends of the two, and watching them fight was slightly heart breaking. The three of them silently letting loose tears, weeks of pent up emotions spilling out of the two, as they were used to being the stoic ones, the ones who never showed emotions other than joy or calmness. Kye crying because of seeing his two friends make up, and pretty easily at that, without any fighting needed.
The click of heels reaching their ears was their excuse to break from the hug, the trio looking over to find a very angry looking lady with a riding crop. Terram recognized her as the one to referee his entrance exam. His slight confusing is broken by the look on her face, suddenly overcome with an unnatural fear, already knowing that he was about to get either rigorously reprimanded, or just told off and escorted to where ever they were supposed to be, honestly he forgot at this point, only wanting to sleep and get on with initiation.
"Students... You should be conserving your energy and resting, now, get to the ballroom or there will be consequences."
The three faunus shared a look, before all three agreeing that they should heed her advice and rush away to the ballroom. Sharing idle conversation, Blake telling them how she's been and the two in turn sharing their story of the entrance exam. The conversation picked up as if nothing had changed, as if Blake had just been meeting them any other day at the White Fang HQ in Menagerie while going about their daily tasks assigned to them, most of it was just helping Faunus in town or helping with shipments from Menagerie to other continents. A thought crossed Terram's mind as he looked at Blake, whom was having a conversation with Kye as they reached the ballroom, 'Hmm... where did I leave my... Oh shit...' His hand met his forehead at the realization that he left his small bag in the headmaster's office after delivering Kye's papers to him. He shrugged, willing to sleep in his shorts and use his hoodie as a pillow, intending to ask Kye if he could borrow a blanket, as much as he hated to admit, he did not want to sleep shirtless on the ballroom floor, the cold was his mortal enemy!
He was broken from his thoughts by a tap from a certain feline faunus, a small grin on her face as she led him over to the spot Kye had already set up in, turns out he was kinda just standing there for a while... That's great... 'Good first impressions with the rest of the people here Terram...' His walk over to the spot Kye had set up was filled with him grumbling to himself and covering his reddened face, some of the other students chuckled at the sight of an embarrassed looking Terram being dragged off by Blake. He idly mentioned to Kye how he forgot his stuff and Kye offered his second blanket to him, why he carried 2, Terram would never know, but he took it without a second's pause. Quickly stripping his shirt and hoodie from his body, much to the appeal of a few of his future classmates... Or teammates. The numerous scars was probably what drew them in... Girls like scars... Right? Terram didn't know, He was terrible at that kind of stuff, always sticking to himself and unintentionally denying all those who asked him, except for a select 2, which Terram would rather not think about at that point.
His golden eyes suddenly locked onto the sight of golden hair bobbing up and down as the person connected to the hair walked over to the three faunus with confidence in her step, dragging a reluctant looking shorter girl over with her, the girl looking a little young for Beacon, but Terram wasn't gonna judge anybody for having a baby face. What really caught his eye was the blonde, brilliant golden hair cascading down her shoulders and back, lilac eyes staring back at him with what looked to be amusement and a hint of hunger, to which the golden eyed boy swiftly turned his head away as she winked at him, a red tint glossing his face. The blonde went back to introducing herself to Blake, whom simply told them that she wanted to read her book alone in probably the most blunt, but not direct, why possible. Terram moving and closing the book in Blake's hand's before she could ward them off further. Terram whisper quickly to her "We gotta blend in BB, which meeeeaaaans, making friends!" before turning around and locking eyes with the blonde, before shifting his gaze down to the younger of the two and introducing himself to them both.
"Ignore my extremely anti-social friend, my name's Terram, the one who looks like he's in a coma is Kye, and thaaat is Blake!" Terram said, a warm smile on his face, contrasting with his myriad of scars, speaking of which, he was still shirtless, being the cause of a light blush on the shorter girl's face, and a strange look in the blonde's eye. The latter spoke first "Heeey. Yang, its really great to meet you." Initially this put off Terram, but their conversation soon grew more friendly, if a bit too loud for the room filled with sleeping teens, the conversation actually growing quite pleasant. Yang brought up the fact that Terram was checking her out, and he did the same to her, noting how her eyes had been scanning his bare chest the entire conversation, the two of them then choosing to forget about it, much to Ruby's confusion and Blake's amusement. Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a... SNOW DEMON! Just kidding, it's just Weiss.
After being yelled at by the ice cold girl, the three went back to their respective resting spots, settled down for the night, Terram having sat awake with Blake for another hour, the two spending the hour in a calming silence, Blake reading her book, and Terram making small sculptures of rock and gold. Engaging in idle conversation when they felt, which was very little, the two having gotten used to the pleasant silences the two shared when they simply wished for silence.
Soon, Terram's eyelids grew heavy, saying a quick goodnight to Blake, and ruffling Kye's sleeping head lightly, Kye's response being a simple mumble and a swat of the hand. Sleep overtook the gladiators mind, unconsciousness creeping on so suddenly, sleeping a peaceful, dreamless night.
So much for "I'll post it tomorrow", am I RIIIIIGHT...
Yeaaah, sorry about that guy's I'm not very good at keeping a consistent schedule, but whatever, I got it out.
The other two teammates were figured out, so that's cool... Anyway, hope you enjoyed, I have no idea when the next one will be out, but it'll be good... Initiation chapters are always pretty interesting.
See ya guy's!
Aether~
