A shrill shriek pierced the freezing night.
It belonged to a woman, one elderly Orphanage Matron who had just opened the door so she could begin her daily morning rituals when she was suddenly greeted with a sight she had been long taught by her mentors to be nothing more than an exaggeration and fabrication. Seen only on movies whose bread and butter was their over-dramatization of every aspect of normal everyday life.
As world-shaking as it was to believe it, they seemed to be entirely false in their assumption. For laying just on the threshold of the door of her orphanage was a hefty basket, carrying an honest-to-goodness baby. Its only protection against the freezing cold was how tightly it was swaddled inside some blankets, and still sleeping despite her previous scream and the freezing cold that affected the old woman even through her numerous layers.
The old woman thanked the Gods for that, she didn't know if her poor heart could handle it if it had started crying.
To her credit, she managed to not only keel over from the shock, but recover from it in a relatively quick manner. She quickly grabbed the basket and carried it inside, shutting the door behind them now that her entire schedule was thrown off by this bizarre turn of events. Believing that it was only a matter of time before the rest of her charges who had likely woken up because of her scream investigated the source of all this commotion, she veered herself and her passenger to a room she had forbidden to them.
She loved them all, really she did. She just couldn't deal with their incessant questioning...
She quickly deposited the basket on the only desk on her study, fretting over the baby for only a minute before scurrying over to the kitchen. She quickly sorted through some cabinets before finding a slip of paper that had the instructions on how to work the fancy machinery that would heat up a fresh batch of milk, which she would need once the baby woke up and inevitably started crying.
That done, she once again hurried off of the kitchen to an adjacent room that served as a dormitory for the only other staff member that worked at the small orphanage. The old Matron sent a prayer to the heavens that the young girl who had been helping her for the duration of her holiday had elected to stay the night once the snow had started to fall, she didn't know just what she would do otherwise if she weren't here.
With no small amount of urgency, she shook the girl awake and explained her the situation and hesitantly asked her to go to the authorities to ask for help in finding the child's parents. She hated to burden the girl so, especially she was there to look out for the beloved children of this poor orphanage just out of the goodness of her heart, but a poor orphanage was one that could not afford such luxuries as scrolls, and hers had apparently been left at home.
Bless her heart, she'd agreed regardless. The Matron had quickly returned to check on the baby after sending her off and bidding her to return quickly, though the fates were not kind enough to spare her another shock.
Because the child had awoken, without making even a slight sound that could alert her, while also managing to break free of the tightly binding blankets and had managed to get free.
That was not the surprise however, as her eyes which had been fixated atop the child's head could attest.
Because it was impossible to miss the second pair of ears jutting out it, this pair being significantly more fluffier than the usual ones that all humans would have...
The old woman did not know whether to laugh or cry that a Faunus baby had been dropped on her doorstep...
The Old Matron had a bad feeling about this.
It didn't help that the still unnamed child was still watching them with those eerily focused eyes of his...
She didn't let them show though, it wouldn't be appropriate to show it in front of the girl, it would make her worry as well and she'd already had far too much to deal with, with having the Matron as her taskmaster and all. "What did they say about him?" The pair of Policeman that had stopped by to take a look at the child had been so kind when they had come through the door, it had been jarring to see them leaving in such a huff after she'd ducked in to smooth over a little scuffle with her other kids.
The girl looked shaken, which did nothing to ease the Matron's worry about what had happened. "Nothing..." Her voice was shaky, it was impossible to miss. "They just took a look at him and left, told me not to bother them 'with thi-'. Um... 'With this' again." Ah... She quickly gave the girl a warm hug, not letting go until she'd stopped shaking and only leaving to get her a cup of warm water before returning.
"Don't mind them darling... People like that are dime a dozen, no use in getting caught up in what they say."
She took the cup of water and gratefully drank from it, setting the cup down before sending a hesitant look at the little child before looking back at the Old Matron like she wanted to say something but couldn't bring herself to do it. Her parents' influence no doubt! Oh how she would love to have a few words with them! Did anyone learn nothing from the story of that imbecile Lagune?!
The Matron would settle for encouraging her to speak up. "Do speak up dear, I know you won't let a couple of oafish brutes like that get your tongue!" There, that should do it! That girl could not resist a challenge and it showed.
"Um... A- are you going to send him away?"
That was the easiest option, sending the child off to another orphanage that were specifically for Faunus, always notorious for being rundown places who received paltry amounts of government funding in return for the service they did... She had no doubts that there would be numerous legal hoops she needed to jump through if she was to take in this child, and a whole a lot of previously absent inspections to boot!
Such was the way in Atlas.
Though when was she one for picking the easier option? "Goodness gracious girl! Of course not." She could tell that her tone startled the girl, but a little shock was appropriate when one was learning a lesson. "I have never turned away a child who has entered my home and I don't plan on doing so now." She couldn't even fathom the idea... "Faunus or not, he is my and thus this building's responsibility now."
"But! What about the other kids? And- and he is never going to get adopted!"
She realized that, as grim as it was. "I've taught my kids well, they know not to judge others for things they cannot control, and this wouldn't be the first time I've taken care of a child until he learned to walk out of this building standing on his own feet." Those were always bittersweet moments, but the emotion she felt whenever they told the Old Matron that they had always considered her to be the parent they never had was something she would treasure forever.
"Now... Go along girl, your parents must be missing you." She'd kept the girl long enough, one of the other children could help around the place in her absence. "I'll introduce him to the other children and see you tomorrow, since I'll need to get the kid registered." It was probably going to take her a whole day, but she wasn't one to shy away from hard work, especially when this was one the line.
The girl didn't say anything but a low: "Yes, M'am." before getting up and leaving, the Old Matron waited to turn her attention to the baby still laying on a basket placed on her desk until she'd heard the girl say the last of her goodbyes and leave.
He was still watching her with his eerie gray eyes...
"We have a long road ahead of us little one..." She hummed for a moment, realizing that there hadn't been anything there that would indicate to a name, she was likely going to name him herself. "How about..." Her eyes strayed to the extra pair of floppy, charcoal black ears on his head that likely indicated to the boy being a dog faunus, "...Cole?" Heh... he had actually scrunched up his face, "Too bad... You're keeping it until you're old enough to change it!"
Now to introduce him to the other children...
Experience had taught her that this was going to be the hard part.
'Cole' regretted making that deal...
Waking up as a baby on the steps of an orphanage was traumatic enough, actually having to live through the life of one was even more hellish. It had been no wonder that he'd been considered the fastest developing child in the orphanage with how hard he threw himself at relearning doing everything himself, life as a baby was the worst humiliation his soul had suffered through.
It couldn't have ended fast enough for him, though he wouldn't say life had gotten easier after that, considering his new... Additions, and the nature of this world called Remnant that he'd found himself in.
He was reborn as, to put it simply, a 'faunus'. Distinguishable from the members of the regular human race by having the trait of a random animal, like possessing a tail or having an extra set of ears. It happened to be the latter in 'Cole's' case, a pair of dog ears situated right on top of his head that operated as the normal pair he still was in possession of would, though in this case it heightened his ability to hear by being another pair to help with that function, aside from them being dog ears, which were better than human ones.
They were also pretty sensitive, which was just... degrading.
Those weren't the only things that came with being a faunus however, aside from giving one some... weird cravings he meant, because 'Cole' also had night-vision, like... Supernaturally so.
But these also happened to be far more trouble than they were worth.
Because the far more numerous humans happened to be racist against something that was different from them.
What a fucking shocker am I right..?
That wasn't all, because he had just so happened to fall into the second most racist place in this goddamn hellhole!
It was impossible for him to not have noticed it, even with it being inadvisable to go outside of the orphanage alone without at least hiding his ears. Which was hey, fine by him... 'Cole' wouldn't want make the lives of the kids he lived with harder than they already were by letting them be seen making friends with an 'animal', there was enough of a stigma against orphans already, and they were innocent kids who treated him well despite the world telling him 'Cole' was garbage.
But his attempts to hide were intolerable for Gwen the Old Matron, who as kind as she was, happened to be too naive to understand how this world seem to work. The simple cap he hid his ears in seemed to disappear whenever she was around, and his tendency to be pulled around increased significantly despite his futile struggles, normal people in the street were always so quick to interrupt their little procession behind the Matron whenever she took them on a trip to tell her that she had a stray that got 'caught up in the mix'
It had eventually gotten so infuriating having to watch the kindly woman he'd gotten so fond of get degraded by bigoted assholes whenever she had to explain to them that he was one of hers, he had forsworn going on those trips altogether until the Matron let him wear his cap, she hadn't accepted, but he hadn't been able to keep his promise also. Bless their hearts, the kids in his orphanage were growing up to be good people and had always helped him hide away and stood up for him whenever someone made to push him around, despite him acting as their bigger brother most of the time.
The ears also seemed to be a deal-breaker for people looking to adopt, though he'd gotten over that quickly.
Though it was always hard seeing the little brothers and sisters he'd made in disappear one by one...
Remnant...
The world he had been sent to by the God of Darkness, to foil the plans made by his brother the God of Light. 'Cole' hadn't managed to make heads or tails about the task he'd been given, and he was uncertain if he should ever try to do what that... Thing had asked of him, and Mythology always seemed to paint a clear picture when it came to gods, especially ones with such self-explanatory names.
Hadn't the God of Darkness created the Grimm? The blight upon this world, an unending tide of monsters that came in all shapes and sizes and wanted to slaughter every living human and faunus in this world? Those which had forced these races down a path of extinction only staved off by warriors trained from the earliest moment of their childhood called Huntsman?
Didn't the God of Light mean well when he wanted to exorcise his brother's influence upon this world, by any means necessary? To make Mankind (a term used loosely to define both Faunus and Humans together) push forth from just the four strongholds it had been forced into during its unending struggle for survival? Why should he aid in the destruction of that seemingly noble goal?
That they had somehow managed to make peace in creating the humans was obviously a falsehood, because the God of Darkness seemed very focused on his brothers' betrayal...
Was he really prepared to end a whole world just because he got to live another life?
No.
Was he sure he wanted to break that deal, a deal made in exchange of his soul, no matter how unwilling?
Yes.
Then all he needed to do was live his new life to the fullest until the God of Darkness and he met again. There really wasn't any point in thinking about this matter further was there?
Maybe he could become a Huntsman..? That would be one way to do it, and he certainly was old enough to start doing so!
Heh... What a way to be alive.
White Fang.
When the anger he felt from dealing with all the things world threw at him became too much to bear, they would always be his escape. A little Beacon of Hope that reminded him how the world could be better if people tried to make it so, that he was witnessing one of those historical moments and it was only starting to happen, but things would get better at the end!
He'd volunteered to help them whenever he could, joined protests whenever he had the free time from his extensive training. There had even been a time where he had to help care for a man who had escaped from one of SDC's mines. It had been those days that had made him feel like he was at his highest, that he was participating in the shaping of the future.
Those were the times where he felt like Cole, instead of 'Cole'.
But then things started worsen right as he neared the age of entering a Huntsman Academy. The once absent Schnee Dust Company boogeyman, whom he had been told worked Faunus to death in a system akin to the slavery from the old days, stuck them in work pens that were nothing more than chattels for them to work and die in, and continued to rake in billions of Lien from their blood money while paying them little more than a pittance, it had finally noticed their rebellion.
And it was displeased...
They cracked down with the help of the law, thoroughly corrupt at the hands of one of the most important man on Remnant, Jacques Schnee. Protests started being forcefully dispersed, strikes were broken through violent means, faunus were arrested for handing out flyers, there were random searches on the road for anyone who happened to be 'involved in suspicious activities'.
He had been forced to cease participating in their events by the retired Huntsman (a non-racist one that was willing to accept all of his live savings and more for his services) that had been mentoring him when things had started to get too hot. He had only done so begrudgingly, all too aware that even a strike on his record could mean the end of his dreams as a Huntsman with how this system was.
Then... It had happened.
The White Fang started to fight back.
Only, they started to go further. Graffiti became vandalism and unexplained arson, Self-defense against strike-breakers quickly became factory sabotage, the 'Underground Railroad' turned into attacking work camps, protests turned into brawls whenever the police got involved. It had gotten so bad that at some point he'd been afraid to go outside for fear of being arrested.
Then... It got worse.
SDC personnel, some of which were nothing more than simple employees started, to end up in the ditches. Politicians ended up getting murdered for racism. Until it eventually spiraled so out of control that these attacks once surely considered 'noble' turned into little more than bloodbaths meant to send a message, to frighten the humans and start another war.
'Cole's' hopes had been shattered along with his respect for what the White Fang used to stand for.
Then he made a decision, a decision that he was sure he could be proud of once he forced it upon himself.
"I am here to enlist."
The Recruiter looked at the extra pair of ears sitting on top of his head, his face carrying that all too familiar expression of suspicion and distrust toward his attentions. For once, he could not blame them, which only made him angrier. The Officer sighed and looked him straight in his eyes, and the Once Dead Man did his best to show how resolute was in his choice.
"Why?"
"To show the world you don't need to be a terrorist to make a difference."
The man seemed impressed with the conviction that was in his tone, because the suspicion in his eyes started to lift a bit as he looked him up and down.
"You are aware that you will have to go through an audit, to be certain of your intentions and your loyalty to the people of Atlas?"
'Cole' nodded, one last time. "Yes,"
The Recruiter actually let out a small bark of laughter at that, before finally getting it under control. "I like your balls kid, you got a name?"
He had one for a couple of hours actually, after seventeen years of using a fake one. "Iskander Cretio."
"Alright..." The man nodded as he jotted his name down, "I'm not supposed to say this until you're done, but I am optimistic about your chances and we might not meet again, so might as well!"
"Welcome to the Atlasian Army, kid. Hope you like your stay..."