A Blood Red Sword

Warning, this chapter is very violent.

Adam Taurus lifted a crate of Electric Dust, the yellow crystals gleaming up at him. He could feel the imprint of the SDC logo under his fingertips. Keeping his head down, the bull Faunus stepped into line with the other Faunus slaves, each carrying a crate of Dust. "Move you animals!" a voice snapped, the author of Adam's rage. "This is gonna be late unless you filthy beasts move!" Fury burned in Adam's blood, pounding with his heart. His knuckles white, Adam forced himself to continue walking, keeping his head down so the armed guards surrounding him couldn't see the anger burning in his blue eyes.

Unlike most of the Faunus here, Adam was born a slave. Both his parents worked until they died of exhaustion. He had watched his father die, seen his mother's body thrown to the side like an animal. New slaves simply replaced them, no one had cared. Adam remembered the first time he had been beat. It had destroyed his hope, leaving nothing but a boy incapable of feeling anything other than rage. All other emotions were destroyed. The rage never stopped, never ended. Leaving him burning, as if his heart was on fire.

"Move!" the slave master shouted again. Adam forced his aching legs to move faster, better than being whipped again.

Suddenly, the Faunas in front of him tripped dropping the crate of Fire Dust she had been carrying. She landed on her knees, her fox tail matted and filthy.

"Hey!" the slave lord shouted, "what is wrong with you filth!" Storming over he kicked the fox to the ground, causing her to cry out in pain.

"This is Fire Dust you idiot!" kick "If it goes off the whole mine with be up in flames in seconds!" kick.

Adam stared at the woman being beat, knowing he should be feeling something.

"I'm sorry," the woman sobbed, crying out in pain. "Please, help me!" she called to the Faunus around her. Adam's throat clenched.

"Help!" the man laughed. "You hear that boys! The Faunus wants help! Why don't give her some!" The guards laughed, a few running over. Reaching down one grabbed her hand and began pulling her to her feet, then slammed his gun to her face. The fox cried out, dropping to the floor.

The red haired bull watched at the guards kicked her over and over again - the rage pounding in his head like their boots on her skin.

The fox screamed in pain.

Her scream cut Adam and he flinched. Memories flashed in his head, a boy, boots, a whip, a red sword, and his blood, dripping red.

Another scream cut through his memories, a fading scream. Death was common in the slave mine, and almost always caused by humans. Too common.

The bull tried to shut it out. But the screams cut through his armored heart, strait to the dark memories inside. Her screams blending with his own.

A boy with bright red hair screamed as a whip hit his back, he could smell his own blood in the air.

He had heard scream after scream, seen death after death. But the cup was filled to the brim with blood, a single drop, and it overfilled.

Something snapped in his mind, the rage exploding. He dropped the Dust crate, heart pounding as it never had before. Blood flashed in his mind, hot and red. A new emotion exploded into light, as red as blood.

Hate.

Hate towards these humans.

These monsters that killed and destroyed everything they touched.

A boy with bright blue eyes cradled his cut arm as pain shot through it, flakes of Dust gleaming in the wound. The crevice he had pulled his arm from dripped red.

The slave lord turned and stared at Adam. "It seems another animal needs a beating." He grinned. The guards that had kicked the fox turned with cold smiles towards him.

"On your knees filth," the slave master snarled, slowly drawing his sword he kept at his belt. A sword with a deep red blade, as if the blood it had shed stained its surface.

Memories flashed through Adam's head. Rage flamed in his blood. Hate beat with his heart. And his sharp blue eyes stared into the eyes of the man who had killed hundreds.

"I said kneel," the sword pressed to the bull's chest.

A boy, a bull, stared up at the dipping red sword. The cat it had impaled fell to the side, dead.

"No."

The word seemed to reverberate across the mine.

The slave master blinked in surprise. "No?" he asked. With a smirk he looked back at the guards. "Seems we have a fighter. You know what to do boys."

The guards rushed towards Adam. As they neared, something snapped in his mind.

A boy with a shattered heart held his father's dying hand in his own. "I love you…Adam," he whispered. "You're stronger than anyone here, these Faunus, all Faunus need that strength. You must help them, help them understand…"

Suddenly his body moved.

Adam ran towards the humans holding guns, his heart pounding.

He ducked under a fist, side stepped a bullet, dodged a kick. He didn't think – he didn't need to; his body seemed to move on its own.

With a scream of rage he kicked a human in the stomach, and grabbed his gun. Spinning around he fired. The bullet slammed into a human's chest, he stumbled back, blood staining his chest.

"Help them understand."

The rage had transformed Adam, and he fired again and again. The red of the blood satisfying the hate. Filling him with strange emotions.

Suddenly a gun slammed into his head and the bull Faunus fell to the floor, black filling his mind.

Adam woke, his head pounding. He heard muffled voices. Hand cuffs around his wrists keeping him from moving his arms. Suddenly a fist slammed into his face. Pain flashed across his cheek and his eyes snapped open, all drowsiness fading. Blue eyes of a bull met the gold of a monster. A killer. Filth. The slave lord.

"Do you have any idea what you've done!" he shouted, his fist slamming into Adam's face again.

"I have enough trouble keeping you filths inline! But this…" The slave lord walked towards his guards positioned at the door, rubbing a hand over his face.

Adam only smirked.

A human was dead by his hands.

He had killed someone.

And he only felt satisfaction.

"If word gets out I let a Faunus kill one of my men I could be ruined! But the other Faunus who saw, they could rise up!" The man swore under his breath.

Adam watched as he paced back and forth, muttering. The smirk never leaving his face.

Suddenly the man paused, a cold smile passing his face.

"I'll have to make an example of you." He whispered to one of his guards, who nodded and ran off.

A few minutes later, he returned with something in his hands. The slave master blocking Adam's view.

"Did you know, we used to mark the slaves we kept? That way if one ran off, we could simply find it again. But the marks often became infected. Nasty business, so we stopped. But I think for your case, we can make an exception."

Suddenly a bullet slammed into Adam chest, knocking him to the ground. The guards rushed forward. Pain exploded through his body as they landed kick after kick. Finally, after his aura had vanished, the slave master commanded them to stop.

"I want him to feel this," he snarled. "Pull him up."

One guard per arm, they forced him up. Blood dripped from the corner of Adam's mouth. Hate pounding like a drum.

His heart froze.

In the slave master's hand sat a branding rod. Its end reading SDC backwards.

A vile of Fire Dust slowly emerged from the human's pocket. The red flakes fell on the iron, its cold silver surface transforming into glowing red.

As the brand neared his face Adam could feel the heat. He struggled, trying to run. But there was no escape.

The brand touched Adam's face and a scream rent the air.

Months later, Adam sat. Feeling nothing. Gently touching the scar on his face, he felt the hardened skin. He could no longer see from his left eye.

SDC

Marked. Forever.

A crate of Dust was pushed towards him. Numb, Adam grabbed it and began to push.

Suddenly he heard a cry. "No! P…please don't hurt her! She can get better! I promise!" Turning his head Adam saw a boy sobbing over a woman, both had fish fins behind their ears.

"Mama please get up!" The slave master walked into Adam sight.

"Your 'mama' is sick." He spat. "For her to live would mean all my other slaves would get sick. Now move." The boy cried out and put his body over his mother's, desperate to protect her. A guard yanked him off as the slave master drew his sword. Its thin, red blade seemed to cut the air.

"Please! She's fine! I can work her shifts!" a boy with bull horns said. "Don't hurt her!" A red sword, hot blood, a shattered heart.

No.

Not again.

Adam ran, anger fueling him.

He grabbed the sword, wrenching it from the slave master's hand.

His fingers curled around the blade, feeling surging through him. The sword seemed to have been made for his hands. Blood rushed through his veins as he tightened his grip. "Leave them alone," he growled. The slave master's eyes widened in surprise.

A bullet slammed into Adam's shoulder, but he felt no pain. Another gun rang, this time Adam cut the air with the sword, the bullet bouncing off the surface. Energy seemed to pulse in the sword. An energy fueled by his hate.

"Help them understand."

Adam unleashed his hate.

Rushing forward, he cut and ran, leaping and dogging the guns. Blood splattered on his face. Bullet after bullet, hit after hit ricocheted off the blade, each hit fueling the energy.

The guards all lay dead. Fear shone in the slave master's face. Backing him into a wall, Adam grabbed his neck, dragging him towards the line of Faunus slaves. With a growl he threw him on the floor at the feel of the startled Faunus. "Is this what you want!" he shouted, "This life where you mean nothing! Slaves! Animals! Filth! These humans think they have the right to tell us who we are! Look what they did to me! Look around! How many have they killed! This is no life! And I am sick of hiding in the shadows! Today we will fight back! Today we will restore our freedom!"

His swords hummed with energy from his fight with the guards, he could feel it brimming under his hand. Gripping the handle tighter he let the energy rise in him. The air crackled and the light seemed to fade, only Adam shone. Energy shooting through him, through his blade. Faunus stepped back in fear, leaving their master.

With a scream of rage powered by death, hate, fear, and pain, Adam flung the sword forward, releasing the energy. It shot forward in an arc of crackling red energy. It slammed into the slave lord and he flew backwards across the mine. His body hit the stone with a thud, blood staining where he had landed.

Adam raised his sword into the air and shouted, his cry echoing across the mine. "For the Faunus!"

Hours later Adam stood in the sun, the mine behind him, Faunus surrounding him, and freedom ahead.

Voices whispered around him, overlapping with sobs of joy.

"W…where do we go now?" a voice whispered. "What do we do?"

Adam could feel eyes on him, feel the burden of leadership. Turning he stared at the Faunus around him, the ones who had been willing to leave the mines.

"Help them understand"

"Now," he said, "we fight."