The Creed of a Huntsman

Marcus, Oobleck's classroom

Marcus was surprised that he was able to keep up with the Oobleck at this point.

The hyperactive teacher was zipping around the classroom, going on about the Faunus Rights Revolution, aka the Faunus War, particularly the population at Menagerie, preaching about the effect that it left. It somewhat reminded him of the American Civil War, but until he actually delved further into this week's chapter, he wouldn't compare the two. Oh, segregation. No matter where you go, it seemed like that controversial practice seemed to have history… except for maybe the Asari in Mass Effect.

"Now!" Oobleck interrupted Marcus's train of thought, "How any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" Several students raised their hands, among them, Velvet, although reluctantly.

"Dreadful! Simply dreadful!" he continued to ramble about the subject, mentioning the controversial White Fang. "Which one of you young scallions can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" Marcus barely managed to surpass Weiss. "Yes?"

'Saratoga? Midway? Gettysburg?' to himself he referenced.

"Fort Castle" he coolly replied.

"Precisely! And who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" Marcus saw a small paper football flying through the air and hit Jaune and he yelped.

"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?" Oobleck asked a stunned Jaune. Marcus had to help a brother in need.

"Uhhhh… the answer… the advantage… that the Faunus" he peeked behind Oobleck to see Pyrrha mouthing the words, and Marcus, sitting in between Blake and Yang, cupped his mouth and did the noise the night vision goggles make when activated in the first Modern Warfare, " had over that guy's stuff…" and in another attempt to give the answers Pyrrha cupped her hands around her eyes, try to give Jaune a sense of what she is trying to convey. Marcus pretended to pull night vision goggles down his face, and he finally got some notion as to what the answer may be.

"BINOCULARS!" While Jaune looked pleased, the entire class laughed at him while Oobleck sipped his coffee. Pyrrha face palmed, and Marcus simply snuggled up like Nova when Kootra said 'fuck you' and laid his head on Yang's shoulder and muttered, "I don't wanna do this" repeatedly. Cardin simply laughed hard and pounded his desk.

"Very funny, Mr. Arc!" he turned to Cardin's smug ass, his feet on the desk, "Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject?"

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier" he arrogantly claimed. Marcus swore he saw Blake's bow twitch. Marcus wasn't gonna stand for that.

"No wonder they let your ass into the school then" Marcus blurted out. The entire class let out an 'Oooooh' and Cardin shot out of his seat.

"What?! You got a problem?!" Cardin seethed with anger, his face almost red. Marcus simply smirked.

"Nah. But Pyrrha has the answer" he turned to Pyrrha and winked, she smiled back and turned to Oobleck.

"Indeed" she began, "it's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark. Blake smiled and continued for her.

"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." and she turned to Cardin, "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." Cardin clenched his fist like the outdated Arthur meme, about to slap a bitch(namely his team mates) until Oobleck told him to take his seat. And Marcus had the biggest grin on his face when Jaune began to chuckle at Cardin's torment, until Oobleck came face to face with Jaune.

"You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings!" he exclaimed and sipped his beverage. Jaune groaned and slumped his shoulders.

(Line break)

As soon as the class was dismissed, Marcus immediately noticed Blake's departure from the group. Blake had seemed sketchy since the day they met. Time to find out her secret. Marcus was about to trail her(a god damn annoying task, but he wanted answers) when he heard Ruby's squeaky, yet cute voice.

"Marcus, where are you going?" she piqued.

"I gonna see where Blake is. I'll catch up with you guys in a bit."

"Are you sure?" Weiss asked. She was about to open her mouth again when Marcus responded.

"No no no. I can handle her" he softly replied." Imma change and track down Blake." He waved them off. The girls raised their eyebrows and simply told him later. Blake most likely changed into her normal attire as well, so he could catch up.

Marcus beat the girls to the room with a couple of minutes to spare, so when he was sure they weren't there, he opened the window in their dorm and closed it while grappling the ledge. He began to parkour his way down the building and once he landed, he activated Eagle Vision to find the faint golden footsteps of Blake's boots. He began to free run, tracking her foot steps into Beacon's garden. He crouched down and began to take cover, moving from flower bed to flower bed, and climbed up one of the trees. He located Blake in the center of the garden, and Marcus stood in awe as he saw something spectacular.

Blake had cat ears.

…

…

Holy shit, Blake is a Faunus!

Marcus, with his mouth agape took a step forward, when he realized he was in a tree, and almost fell out. He silently swore up a storm for acting without thinking, when he found Blake's blade being thrown his way. With his feet planted firmly plated, he caught the blade with both his hands, feeling the blade slicing his hands, and blood flowing freely. He groaned in pain, swearing once again and jumped on the ground, but botched his landing due to the pain in his hands. He found Blake pointing her blade at his throat.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she exclaimed, her hands shaking. Hell, if she twitched, she could do some damage to him. He raised his injured hands.

"Relax chica!" he quickly tried to defuse the situation, "I came to see where the hell you went. You've been doing this routine ever since we became a team!" He placed his hands on the ground to push himself up, and groaned as the pain surged through his hands, blood leaving its mark on the floor. He stood up and stared Blake in the eye, "Why didn't you tell us you were a Faunus?"

Blake turned her back on him, as Marcus sighed, preparing for a flashback. "Because… I was afraid of what you guys might be ashamed of me. Of the things I've done in the name of equality." She turned to Marcus, tears welling in her eyes. "I thought you might see me differently, as a monster."

"Blake, no of us would look at you differently for things you've done in the past. That's why we're here, to forgive ourselves for our mistakes and forge a better future."

"You clearly don't Weiss. She would be outraged if she found out I was a faunus…" she hesitated "… A member of the White Fang."

That definitely piqued Marcus's interest, as he couldn't stop his eyebrows raising.

"Really?" Blake scoffed and turned away from him. Marcus sighed and decided he might as well bond with Blake for now. He would try to stop the situation from escalating between Weiss and Blake.

"Blake… we've all done awful things, some worse than others." He closed his eyes. "You say you were in White Fang?"

"Yes" she responded after a couple of seconds.

"I… I've done some terrible things too, Blake. For the past couple of years I've been on a quest, for clarity. In the beginning, I didn't care what I had to do to get answers. I brutalized a lot of people to get here, left a trail… of broken people behind me," She turned back towards him, her eyes softening, as he paused for a second, before continuing, "A 30 year man, Jospeh Kaine, his wife living on dead end jobs and welfare, and twin 6 year olds… he was the first. I-I crushed both of his legs in search of answers," he let out a dark chuckle, "and that's just the tip of the iceberg."

After a long pause, Blake spoke up.

"You tried defending it, didn't you? Tried to say it was for a noble cause beyond others understanding?"

"…Yes."

Blake awkwardly mulled her feet on the pavement and let out a lengthy sigh.

"I trust you, Marcus, but for now, I'd rather not tell Weiss about," she pointed to her cat ears, "this."

"All in due time, Blake. As for now," he lifted his bloodied hands, "I'm gonna get these fixed" the realization of what Blake did dawned on her, bringing her hand to her face in shock.

"I-I'm so sorry Marcus! I-I-I didn't mean to-" she began, when Marcus cut her off.

"I've dealt with worse injuries. But I think I'm gonna need some stitches. I'll do it in the room."

"With the girls in there, Yang?"

"… I'll improvise." He winked at Blake, as they began to the dorm building.

"How'd you sneak up on me?" Blake inquired casually, trying to make small talk.

"It's a REALLY crazy story, for another day. But, I am pretty damn surprised I snuck up on you out of all people…"

(Line Break)

"Oh my god! What happened?!" Yang squeaked as she saw Marcus enter the dorm room. Yang hopped of the bed and immediately grabbed Marcus's wrist and inspected his injured hands. Ruby, using her super speed, began to ask a million questions and Weiss began to scold him, and rant about how it would affect his studies and their chances in the Vytal festival. But all he could focus on was the look of concern on her face. He felt awful for making Yang worry about him. Time seemed to slow down as their eyes met. Her irises wobbled, and they seemed to have a silent conversation, Marcus calming her down, when they were interrupted by Weiss's signature 'explain yourself' tone.

"What do you have to say for yourself?!" Marcus shook his head and was brought back to reality. He stuttered for a second before responding.

"I was free running, when something flew into my face, I think it was a crow, and I got thrown off balanced. I cut my hands trying to grasp the shed in the garden, and Blake found me there and opened the doors for me on the way here. I didn't mean to startle you all." He concluded. Weiss contemplated his answer for a couple of seconds, and let out a grunt of acceptation. Ruby, being the chipper person, simply told him to be careful and zipped back to the bed. Yang, still gripping his wrist, looked up, and tilted her head.

"Why didn't you use your Aura?"

"Heat of the moment, matchstick. I wasn't thinking straight, and I was just trying to grab something." Yang let out a heavy sigh and shook her head.

"You're very lucky this isn't very deep, Marc. It'll heal quickly, but it'll still need stiches. You don't have Jaune's Aura, so you need to get into the habit of activating your Aura in doubt." She took him to one of the tables and brought out from under it a med kit Marcus left there for precautionary measures. She doused the cuts in hydrogen peroxide and began to stich his wounds.

"Where did you learn to apply stiches dude?"

"Ruby and I were a couple of dick heads as kids. We'd have to suture each other every once in a while." She smiled, the wave of memories flooding her brain.

Marcus just left it at that, knowing what had happened to the Xiao Long family.

"It's a touchy subject for all of us," he faintly heard Qrow's words, during one of their midnight chats when he came back to their house, without the knowledge of Taiyang and his kids, "We all locked ourselves in our crucibles, but it made us even stronger than before, but it's still better not to bring it up."

Yang, after stitching up both his hands, covered it in bandages and patted his knees, "Okay," she smiled, "that'll do. I'd give it an hour or two before taking a shower." She recommend.

After an hour of chatting with the girls, well the ones who weren't in the shower at the time, he went the shower and cleaned himself up. He exited the restroom. The girls were all asleep, except for Yang, who patted the space on the bed next to her, signaling him up. He climbed up on the bed, and let Yang put the blanket on him. Marcus wrapped his hand around Yang's waist, the feeling of the rough bandages against Yang's skin, discomforting both of them. She nuzzled her head, into his shoulder, closed her eyes.

"Marcus?"

"Yes, sun dragon?"

"You think Weiss bought your lie?"

"Yup. I always was good at improv." He felt her chest shake as she let out a soft chuckle. She reached up and pecked his chin, and place her head on his shoulder once more.

"Goodnight love."

"You too, love."

It's been since Doctor Strange's release since I touched this doc. So naturally, some things have happened, namely, RWBY Volume 4 and, more recently, Assassin's Creed Origins. I can't wait for October for the release of both Vol. 5 and Origins(and my birthday). Until now, I got the MCU and all seasons of the Arrow-Verse shows to keep me over.

gamelover41592: thanks man!

Guest and Trollmaster2525: Yup.

Guest 2: Pure laziness. It's a habit I've been trying to fix in terms of writing.

So, thanks for reading viewers, and as always…

*puts on shades crooked and sips on a Cow Chop squiggly cup*

… have a nice day.