Li woke up quickly and sat up straight backed.
The dream he had had had turned dark. The maelstrom was larger now, more black swirled around, and he felt overwhelmed.
Just as he was about to scream in pain he felt a pressure on his hand. Big brown eyes looked up to him.
"You are not alone. I am here for you. Now and forever." Li calmed down, and lay back down next to his bunny girlfriend. Li felt her hand run through his shaggy hair, reaching his ears. His eyes closed as the ecstasy of the moment took over, he let out a small moan.
Li slowly turned to Velvet, "I did something terrible, Velv. It hurts to even think about it…" Li took a deep breath, and forced out his next sentence, "I killed a man. Not a Grimm, some guy, with friends, and a family. He and his gang were going to kill me, but I had no other option. I shot him." Li's eyes glassed over, and he held back tears, forcing his eyes shut to keep them at bay.
A hand brushed against his cheek, causing him to open his eyes; those big beautiful brown eyes were looking at him again.
Li couldn't look her in the eyes for long; he turned his sight away, fearful for how she saw him now, as a murderer.
The hand moved under his chin and brought his sight up to hers. "I will always love you." Li's eyes widened and filled with tears again. "I fell in love with you while you were unconscious for 5 weeks. I had no idea who you were, whether you were nice or not, but something inside me caused me to connect to you. I will never be able to describe what that something is, but it means that I will be yours no matter what you do, what you say or what you become." Li felt lips press against his nose as his eyes blinked, he wiped the tears away from his eyes.
"I will never stop loving you. I still struggle to comprehend just how amazing and perfect you are. Velvet, I am so deeply and madly in love with you. You are my everything." The couple stayed together in an intertwined embrace for hours.
Li opened his eyes slowly, having fallen back to sleep in Velvets arms.
Li was pleased he had the faunus girl, he genuinely wouldn't have made it this far alive if it weren't for her. Li knew about what she had done for him during his coma; the nurse had explained how she had poured her own aura into him, to keep him alive, and had continued far longer than is healthy. She had even spent a few days in her own medical bed because of what she did for Li, and she continued to look after him for 5 weeks while he recovered.
Li knew he would never be able to repay what she had done for him, by not only saving his life, but giving him a life he was happy in. But he knew that he only had one goal for the rest of his life.
Unfortunately Li also knew a lot about the plans of the less than reputable people in Vale, having quickly scrawled a note for Velvet; he left quietly, to find Ozpin.
On his way to Ozpins office Li passed the cafeteria and bumped into Jun. "Hey Li! What have you been up to?"
"Not much, just relaxing," Li lied, "How about you? In school uniform I see, might I assume you are roleplaying?"
Jun punched Li's arm, "You dick! I have joined back to Beacon! I'm sure you know the rest of team PLYM!" Jun motioned over to the three people behind him.
"Hey, Peter, Michelle, Yu! No hard feelings about the fight, I appreciate what you have done for me!" The twins beamed and hugged Li, Peter grumbled some approval or apology, Li couldn't tell. Li saluted them all and continued on to find Ozpin.
Li headed straight to Ozpins office; quickly checking the time, 13:37.
He buzzed at the door, and a moment later heard the familiar voice, "Please come in."
Li pushed the door open and walked silently up to the clockwork desk, saluting as he stopped, "I would firstly like to apologise for my absence this past week, I have been… preoccupied."
At that Ozpin suddenly seemed very curious, "I hope that the faunus Velvet hasn't been your distraction."
Li only just noticed Goodwitch sitting in the chair nearby, he nodded to her, and continued conversing with Ozpin, "Unfortunately not, sir." Li joked, "I have in fact been investigating the incident at the docks last weekend, in fact I have managed to collect a large quantity of information while I was working with the White Fang."
Ozpin cocked an eyebrow; however Goodwitch's response was far more unhindered. She stood quickly and scolded Li about his stupidity and how irresponsible it was. "You could have gotten yourself or others killed!"
Li winced at that; Ozpin noticed that, and focused his eyes on Li.
Li gave in quickly, "I had to do it. To survive, he would have killed me if he had gotten the chance." Li stood straighter, hoping his explanation would convince himself more than the teachers in front of him.
Both seemed to feel the emotion from the statement, and decided to leave the issue alone.
Li continued on to give them all the information about 'Cinder', 'Roman', 'Adam' and the White Fang leadership.
It was a lot of information; however at the end of it, both teachers seemed unimpressed. "We are sorry Li, but this information doesn't help us much. Apart from the name Cinder, nothing helps, but even that is a name and a vague description." Goodwitch continued relaying all the information they had already gotten.
Every word was a dagger in Li' heart. He had failed, what he did was pointless; everything he had done was pointless. Li couldn't take it anymore. He saluted and left silently, kicking himself every step he made. Li decided to go to the bay window, he needed to think.
Li made it to the bay window and checked the time, 15:06.
Li sat, looking at the city covered in golden light.
He thought about everything he had done in the week, all the moving of cargo. "I've been more helpful to those bastards than I have to humanity." He thought.
He heard some steps behind him, and turned to see amber eyes.
He smiled at the eyes, "Hey Blake! It's been a while!"
Blake sat down next to Li, "It has! But what about the bay window rules?"
Li sighed, "I was kinda hoping for someone to talk to, that okay?" Blake nodded; prompting Li to continue, "I spent a week with the white fang, trying to learn more about the attack at the docks, but it turns out the week was spent helping the enemy and not learning anything worthwhile."
Blake's eyes widened, "You were there? What? How did you join them? Why would you join them?" She almost backed away from the bench, until Li reached an arm out, to stop her.
"I stole a suit, and boarded the plane, I spent a week trying to learn what the grand plan was, and I tried to understand why they were working for Roman… the ginger guy." Li let the words pile out, hoping it would somehow make sense to the girl in front of her.
The girl sighed, "I don't think anyone could understand the plight of faunus in just a week, you may be one of us, but the White Fang are so different, they have a deep hate of all humans, and they will do anything to help destroy them."
Li looked quizzically at Blake, "Us? Them? You are talking like a faunus of the White Fang…" Blake quickly realised her mistake, but instead of running, she pointed to her bow.
Li looked up and saw a twitch, "Oooooh! Much more subtle than my way was!" Li joked.
"You don't seem surprised…?"
"I guess I have never thought of anyone being different in a bad way other than myself, I was the only one who was a freak, at least to my mum." Li caught himself, and quickly continued, "I guess I never thought of anyone else being worse or better for any reason, I just never thought about it being an issue."
Blake smiled, happy to have been accepted.
"Lil Jon…" Li whispered.
"Huh?" Blake questioned, barely hearing the fox faunus.
"I left a few seeds to grow back in the White Fang ranks… I hope they grow strong." Blake looked confused, and Li decided to explain to her all about Lil Jon, the meetings, and the manner of his escape. Li's spirits heightened with every word, hoping that what he had done will come to fruition, in some way.
It had been a few hours, and once the sun had set, and some new pictures were taken, Li left Blake to the book she had brought with her.
During Li's ponderings, he realised, that regardless of whether the 'mission' was a success or failure, he had a new mission, and it was to be a long mission.
He went back to his room, and found Velvet as she was getting out of the shower. Li took her in his arms and held her close.
"My mission begins today," he whispered, "What is it you require of me?" He let Velvet down, and stepped back saluting. Velvet smiled and winked; she dropped the towel, "Your first objective is to get me thoroughly rubbed down." The order came as a shock to Li, but he was determined for this mission to succeed.