RWBY's allergy to moral complexity irks me.


Chapter 1: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt


She threw them both over the side of the relay tower. For an instant, Adam was too surprised to act. Then gravity took hold, he lost his grip on her throat, and they were falling.

Branches and needles broke against his aura and he couldn't brace himself before he hit the ground. His lip tore against his teeth and his aura briefly flickered from the force of it. The shock, taste of blood, and dull pain broke his thoughts from their single-minded track, and for a second, he just stayed on his stomach, stunned.

But Blake was moving. He could hear her groaning as she climbed back to her feet. He forced himself up too and gritted his teeth when he stumbled.

Blake was looking down at him, eyes hard, fear shoved to the side. "Let go of the past, Adam. Do it for yourself."

Disbelief rose from his core. His scar burned. "Just forget it all?" Like it weighed nothing? Like it didn't matter? Like he'd never mattered? "Is that what you did to me?"

"Adam," Blake said helplessly. She'd already missed her window at the relay tower; maybe her friends were already getting surrounded by Atlas fighters. She had to get back to them, and a full fight with Adam would slow her down, or worse, stop her completely. "Of course it's not," she tried, "but if I focus on it now, everyone is going to die. Human, faunus, it won't matter." Her ears went even flatter against her head, her voice breaking. "I'm not strong enough to carry my past and the fate of the world at the same time. But I didn't," her voice steadied, grew louder as she took a single step forward, "won't, forget it."

His frown deepened. "Then why?" He took a step to match hers, and she resisted the urge to step back. "Why did you abandon me?" His lip curled. "Was I not good enough for you, Blake?"

"Because you were going too far." She drew on every bit of courage she had to stay where she was and keep her voice level. Adam had always pounced on any sign of weakness, so she wouldn't give him a single one. "Killing people who didn't need to die, staining the White Fang's purpose with blood. There are lines, Adam, and you never listened when I asked you to stop crossing them. How can you blame me for leaving when you're the one who drove me away?"

His frown shifted to a scowl. "Is that how you justified it to yourself? You were just too much of a coward to face me."

"You aren't listening to me! Just like back then." Her grip on Gambol Shroud tightened, but she didn't shift her finger to the trigger. "What do you even want, Adam? Why are you here? Why me?"

Why her? He almost laughed. "You can't be serious."

She didn't react besides a slight narrowing of her eyes. "I am. What do you think is going to happen? I'm not going to go anywhere with you. And if you kill me, what then? The White Fang doesn't trust you anymore after Haven and Cinder abandoned you, so what are you even doing here?"

He drew Wilt and lunged in an instant. Gambol Shroud intercepted the blow, but his foot rammed into her stomach. A shadow took the worst of the hit in her place but she was still forced back, coughing. When she lifted her gaze, Adam was slowly sheathing his sword. Mocking her.

"If you really think you can act like none of this is your fault, you're the delusional one."

"Why?" Blake demanded, straightening. "Why was it my fault? What did I do?"

He attacked again. She parried his first three slashes and then caught his last on a crossed guard with her blade and sheath. He leaned in close over their shaking weapons and hissed, "You ruined everything."

"I was trying to save lives!" She pushed back harder and then dropped, kicking out his legs. They both landed hard on their backs, giving her a chance to slide away and get a little distance. "Our brothers and sisters, Adam. Our people. You were going to kill all of them, and you expected me to just stand aside?"

"I was sending a message," he snarled.

"What message? That you're insane?"

He lunged to shut her up, but she just caught him in a deadlock again. Though physically weaker, she could still hold him off for a moment. She leaned closer just as he had, seeking his eyes behind the cloth that covered them. "You wore that mask for so long that you forgot there was supposed to be a person behind it."

Like at the tower, he tried to throw her, but she rolled with the motion and yanked him down instead. He broke out of her attempted hold before she could complete it and slammed his elbow into her gut as payment.

Ribs aching from the blow, she brought her gun around and fired three shots into the side of his head. He was knocked off her and she rolled away. Dazed, he was a bit slower to recover. Blake didn't wait for him to try again. She was running on borrowed time already.

"Did you come here just to die?" she demanded.

"I came here for you."

"Why can't you see that there are bigger things at play here than your pride?"

After one last shake of his head to clear it, he raised Wilt with deadly, focused calm. "Bigger things. You keep saying that, but all I see is you running around with a bunch of humans. Is escorting the Schnee home really that important to you? How far you've fallen."

"Weiss has nothing to do with it."

"Liar."

She had only moments before he grew tired of waiting and attacked again, but she'd run out of things to say. Correcting him about Weiss meant talking about Salem, and she doubted he cared about the fate of the world if he'd gone so far just to chase her. It was all about his twisted idea of revenge for leaving him, for stopping his and Cinder's plans at Haven—

Haven. Cinder.

She couldn't make Adam care about the fate of the world right now, but maybe she could point that single-minded anger of his at someone else. "It's not about Weiss. It's about Cinder."

The name alone had his scowl return. "What?"

"She betrayed you at Haven, right?"

His scowl grew even darker.

Ruby had told her about the whole confrontation after the fact. It didn't take much to put the pieces together and see that Cinder had been using the White Fang again, and that Adam had played right into her hands. "She set you up to take the fall and then abandoned you."

His blade began to glow. "Get to the point."

"Cinder doesn't care about taking down the kingdoms," Blake said quickly. "She wants these magic things called relics that are stored in the four academies. Taking the huntsmen out was just a cover and the White Fang was just a tool. If she gets all of the relics and delivers them to her master, the world ends. It ends, Adam."

He could see in her eyes that she truly believed what she was saying. Maybe she'd read one too many books or the humans had decided to fill her head with nonsense.

But then she kept going. "I can prove it. Show you a relic. Show you magic. Let me do that, at least. And if I'm lying, then—then I'll go with you. Willingly." She searched his face. "We were both pawns in someone else's game, but I can show you the board. Please."

The mere sliver of a chance that he could have Blake by his side again stopped him cold. He stared at her, eyes wide behind his blindfold. She'd been so desperate against him not five minutes ago, but now she was willing to put all of that aside just for some fairy-tale-sounding delusion?

Wilt dipped. "You'll really come with me."

She pressed her lips together and nodded. "I promise."

That urge to laugh came back but he shoved it down. Wilt clicked home and he straightened, letting a wry smile spread over his face. "Well then, let's see this proof."

A faint whistling sound was their only warning before a Dust shell detonated against the side of his face. He was blasted into a nearby tree, back splintering the wood before he dropped to the ground with the wind knocked out of him and his aura flickering once again. Blake spun to see a cloud of dust approaching and hear the growling of Yang's motorcycle growing louder.

Adam had just staggered back to his feet with one hand braced against the tree when Yang skidded to a stop and hopped off her bike, gauntlets deployed. "Blake, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Good." She squared up to Adam, both hands trembling from how hard she had curled her fingers into fists. "I don't care how you got here, but this is the end of the line."

This time, he did laugh. It came out with a hysterical edge and took longer than he intended to get under control. The wicked smile it had brought with it, however, stayed. "Who are you, again?"

Fury flushed her cheeks while she cocked back a fist. In the same instant, Adam grabbed Wilt and prepared to unleash all the energy he'd built up against Blake—only for Blake herself to cut in front of Yang, arms out. Adam froze. Yang's eyes went wide with surprise and then narrowed in frustration.

"What are you doing? I don't need protecting."

"I know." Blake swallowed. "But I already made him a promise."

"What?"

"Please, Yang." She softened her voice and glanced back. "Trust me."

Something about that disgustingly sappy tone must have gotten to the blonde, because after one last look at Adam, she lowered her arms—but her gauntlets stayed out. "What promise?"

"I'm going to tell him everything."

Yang's brows fell low over her eyes. "Are you serious? Why?"

"Because it's that or we waste time fighting him. What's the situation?"

Though clearly displeased, Yang focused entirely on Blake. "The Atlas lady in charge went crazy when the radar picked up the ship circling back. She's got some giant robot thing and is trying to destroy the ship and us before we can get away."

"It's just her?"

"Yeah, Uncle Qrow says the rest of the base is just on standby, but there's no way they'll stay like that forever. Problem is, her robot has a gun that'll blow us out of the sky if we just try to run."

"Ruby still has the lamp, though?"

"Wait, really? You want to use the last question on him?"

"Do we have another option?"

"The lamp itself is enough, isn't it?"

Adam crossed his arms and looked between the two. "You're wasting time. Your friends' and mine."

Yang's eyes flicked to him. "I'm not letting him on my bike. I don't want him behind me."

They all heard the distant boom. A column of activated wind Dust blew over their heads, missing the radio tower by mere yards. Blake shot Yang a pleading look.

Yang scrubbed a hand through her hair, then grabbed Bumblebee and righted it. "Fine. He goes on the back. Facing behind us. If he falls, that's his problem."

Three people on a one-person bike was uncomfortable at best. Adam found himself having to grip the protruding wheel cover with both hands to keep his balance, since his feet would either grind against the ground or the tire. It didn't help that Yang drove aggressively, missing trees by inches and powering through deep ruts and rolls in the ground.

Behind him, between him and Yang, Blake had kept Gambol Shroud ready. Though tempted to point out that he had at least agreed to see her proof, he refrained.

When they broke through the tree line, Yang cried out and Blake stiffened. Adam took that as his cue to drop off the bike, his boots skidding in the dirt while he spun to get a look at whatever situation had them so concerned.

Big robot. Manta. And a massive group of people near the cliff's edge.

Allies. All of Blake's allies. An ambush? She wouldn't—

No, she would. He snarled, then saw the robot's arm cannon charging. The pilot was yelling something about a failed attempt to trick her, but Adam was far more focused on the energy building up in its cylinder. Electricity Dust? It put what an Atlesian spider droid could produce to shame.

He channeled his aura to his legs and moved, blowing by the bike, its passengers, and then all of the gawking morons watching the cannon fire at the manta and, by proxy, them.

Wilt came up. The beam crashed into his blade and instantly shoved him back several feet before he dug his heels in and leaned into the raging energy. His world was white and gold and painfully hot for three seconds before he absorbed the last of it and slammed Wilt back into its sheath before any could escape.

He turned. Already, even with Wilt sheathed, bits of black and red were arcing off of him. His teeth ached and spots danced in his eyes while a debilitating headache began to crawl forward from the back of his skull. His chest was tight as though he'd taken a deep breath that he couldn't let go. He was far exceeding his limits on how much energy he could safely store, but he only had to do it for a moment.

Everyone else was staring at him in shocked confusion, some of them on the ground from trying to dive out of the way. He ignored all of them. His eyes fell on Blake, who was at the back of the group with Yang, the both of them having just jumped off the bike.

"Proof," he snarled while the manta flew overhead for a crash landing. "Now."

It was as clear of a threat as he could make. The blond boy looked back at Blake, but before he could speak, movement behind Adam drew all of their attention. A short girl in a red cape flew out of a flurry of rose petals, just barely making it to solid ground. She skidded over the dirt with a groan, bits of electricity still crackling over her skin while she clutched her weapon.

Adam gripped Wilt even tighter. The headache was spreading, the spots in his eyes growing. He was running out of time. A few strands of hair hanging in front of his face were nearly white with energy.

Blake sensed it too. "Ruby! The last question!"

The cloaked girl, Ruby, looked up. She had one hand on her head, clearly dazed from being tossed from the ship when it was struck and her subsequent flight back to safety. "What?"

All around them, the world was starting to darken. More and more energy was leaping off him, digging into the dirt and leaving burn marks before those areas wilted away.

Seeing him losing control, Blake threw her hesitations aside. She'd apologize to everyone later. "Jinn!"

Her cry echoed in a world abruptly silenced.

Adam blinked as the pressure of his own power receded like the tide. It was still there, but it was distant. Even his aura was distant. Still undeniably there, but muffled. He stood straight and watched as the strange gold and blue lamp on Ruby's hip floated away from her to a clear spot in the air and more than doubled in size. It began to glow, its central piece spinning.

It exploded. He stumbled back a step to avoid the cloud of blue smoke that billowed up around the lamp. From it emerged a large naked woman with blue skin, flowing hair, and pointed ears bedecked in gold chains. Gold smoke from her chains mingled with the smoke falling continuously from her skin.

She brought a hand to her chin and peered down at him, then over at Blake.

"Faunus this time? How interesting. And we have a new face."

Not human. Not faunus. He had no idea what he was looking at, nor could he argue that this was beyond the power of a semblance. A simple glance at the world around him showed that it had been slowed more or less to a stop, including every one of Blake's allies and even the robot several hundred yards away. No individual had that kind of power on that scale and at that kind of range.

Magic. Genuine magic.

"Well," Jinn continued, "as you heard, I have one question remaining after the last one asked of me." Her eyes almost seemed to sparkle. "What would you like to know?"


There is no update schedule; I just couldn't get this idea out of my head until I wrote it down.

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