Roman II – Scars

Roman saw the cat-faunus stagger before she started to fall. He barely managed to catch her with his remaining arm and slowly lowered her down to the ground. He was expecting her to claw his eyes out, but she seemed completely out of it. Roman placed his ear on her chest and two fingers on her pulse. Her breathing and heartbeat were slow and steady. After a minute of making sure nothing changed, Roman looked up to see Neo in her true form furiously signing at him. Ignoring all of her questions, he stood up, walked over, and wrapped his remaining arm around her. As she furiously flailed her arms, he placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I am so happy your safe, Vanille." She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a good squeeze before pushing him away. Neo's fingers were flexing as she stared up at him, looking very conflicted before she kicked him in the shin. "Ow! What was that for?"

That was not fair! Don't choose the moment I am angry at you to act like my big brother! She huffed and placed her hand on her hips.

Roman rubbed his shin but couldn't stop his smile. Despite the dozen years that had passed since they met, the fact she could still act like an adorable little sister still brought a smile to his face. "You're right. I'm sorry, Vanille."

Neo rolled her eyes dramatically. It's fine. Why are you calling me Vanille now? Shouldn't you be worried about the cat hearing us? More importantly, what is she doing her?

Roman blinked and looked down at the unconscious cat-faunus. "Truthfully, I don't know what compelled me to bring her here, but now I know what we need to do. She needs some Aura therapy and to have her wounds seen too."

Neo just stared at him for a long moment. Okay, I know you picked us up back when you were just a teenager, but isn't it a little early for a midlife crisis? Please don't tell me you're going to start collecting wounded faunus again.

Roman couldn't stop his laugh, waving off Neo's concern and confusion. "No, nothing like that, but we are certainly partially to blame for her predicament."

If this is about Cinder, it's not your fault. She was threatening-

Roman put up his hand to stop her. "Nah this was caused by an older failure." Neo cocked her head to the side. "Ms. Belladonna and her partner got in the middle of Ether and Adam's fight"

Neo's eyes widened. Her eyes darted to the cat-faunus and back to him for a few moments while she gathered her thoughts. Adam is back? Didn't you say he went to Mistral?

"The last time I heard from him, he said his partner ran from him and he was returning to Mistral to sort himself out. Looks like he came back to track down Ether."

Is she dead?

Roman nodded and moved to nearby cabinet, looking for clothes. "That's what the kitty said. Apparently, Adam did something bad to her partner afterwards. I am not sure what he did or why he did it, but it didn't seem like she was dead."

Neo thought for a moment before nodding and signing. Branwen's daughter, right?

"Yeah, that's the one. Now we both know I am not a magnanimous man, but I feel we owe the kitty a hand." Neo sighed and waved him off before going to pick Blake up and take her to the shower. "I'll set some clothes out." Neo looked back at him to nod before shutting the door. After placing the clothes within easy reach, Roman scrounged in his desk for his cigars and spare lighter, wondering why he didn't keep them in the same place. Once his cigar was lit, he took a deep breath through his nose and let the smoke fill his mouth. As he breathed out, Roman peered through the cloud of smoke and saw the picture frame on the floor.

The crime boss understood where Blake's outburst had come from now. He smiled warmly at the gathering. He remembered when they took that picture. Adam had decided to go make the world a better place for his people by joining the White Fang and they had gathered to have one last family photo before he went on his adventure. Neo jumping into his lap to fluster him hadn't been in the plans but, made the photo all that more special. Roman moved over to his desk and laid the picture frame on it. He slowly ran his thumb over Sherry's picture. He could almost hear her giggle in the back of his mind. The same giggle she gave when he would brush her long hair out of her face.

He closed his eyes and took a steadying breath before he cycled to the next picture. There stood Neo's old team, Team VHTE. Roman let out a small chuckle at the usual sight of Neo being at least a head shorter than the rest of them. She had her rapier resting on her shoulder and smirked at the camera. Roman couldn't stop himself from staring at her pale, unblemished neck. His mind unhelpfully supplied him with the image of her tearing the knife from her neck, so Roman turned his attention to the other members of the team.

The one that stood out the most was Teal Rime, the massive bear-faunus with his hand resting on an equally massive longaxe he was leaning on like a staff. Teal was the epitome of a gentle giant, always wanting to help Sherry with basic chores whenever he visited on a weekend. Neo always joked that he never liked fighting other people and always ended up losing sparing matches because of it.

Next to Teal was his partner, Holly Sherwin. Holly was a hyena-faunus with spotted brown and blond hair and ears who wielded a pair of cutlasses with pistols in the cross guards. Her weapons are similar to Blake's now that I think about it. Holly was a loud and funny girl who towered over the rest of the girls in her class. She was only slightly taller than Roman, though she still only came up to Teal's shoulder.

Much shorter than the other two, but still taller than Neo, was Ether Nightshade. Roman's felt his teeth grind as he looked down at Neo's old partner. Ether never liked him, which he didn't really care about. As he and Sherry grew closer, she grew worse. Every time Ether came over, she would talk about all the horrible things humans had done to faunus over the years. Roman was fine hearing the ram-faunus gripe. She was Neo's partner and it wasn't like she was wrong about the atrocities, but Sherry never liked it. About a month before Roman and Neo were attacked in the street, Sherry called Ether on her attitude. Ether replied with several slurs at Sherry and her relationship with Roman. Roman responded by throwing Ether out the living room window. He had let her walk away, which was something he would never forgive himself for. I should have beat her to death and buried her in the backyard.

Roman took a deep, cleansing breath and clicked over to the next picture. This didn't alleviate his rage as much as he would have liked. He had forgotten this picture was next. Staring back at him was the first picture he had taken with his 'family'. Roman and Sherry, both 17 at the time, held the camera and had their arms around three other kids. Adam, 10 years old and recently rescued from his assailant, was closest to Roman. The other two were Sherry's 12-year-old twin siblings, Vanille and Cholat.

Suddenly, all Roman could smell was blood. His cybernetic joint surged pain through his body and his real hand felt like it was shattered. His heart rate and breathing were rapid, and the edges of his vision began to turn black. Then, just as quickly as it began, the attack ended. His scroll was vibrating in his pocket. The call was transferred to the console in front of him showing the picture of a bull. The master criminal's eyebrows rose in interest at the screen. He had been planning on contacting Adam, but this was much earlier than Roman expected. With a small amount of trepidation, Roman clicked the 'answer' button. Suddenly the screen changed to show the familiar masked face of Adam Taurus sitting in the corner of the dark room. He looked haggard and was grasping his weapon tightly across his chest as he stared down at the screen. Roman was concerned but tried not to let it show in his voice. "Adam?"

The bull-faunus' voice shook slightly as he spoke "R-Roman, what happened? How did that happen to you!"

Roman looked at the ruined socket of his prosthetic. "What? Oh this? Don't worry, I have a spare. Are YOU okay?"

Adam looked away from the screen for a moment before speaking. "I…I'll be okay."

Roman saw the hesitation and decided to press his younger friend. Best to start with the act I would praise him for. "I heard you caught Ether."

Adam grit his teeth and nodded; his voice stronger than it was before. "Yes. She was weaker than I thought she would be."

"She always was overconfident. Dismissing Sherry as 'weak' because she hated fighting, is what got her face mangled." He held his breath for a moment, trying to be as calm as possible. "I heard that you ran into an few other acquaintances of mine during the battle. I heard a blond bombshell decided to pick a fight with you."

Adam clutched his weapon closer to his chest. "Yes" His voice was more than calm, it was devoid of any emotion.

Not good. Roman leaned closer to the screen. "What did I tell you about masks Adam?"

Adam's gloves squeaked as his grip tightened on his sword, using it like a lifeline. "That they are useful tools, but I should never let the mask become who I really am." He was repeating it mechanically.

"Adam, take off the mask"

Adam reached up, almost without thinking before putting his hand quickly back to the ground. "…I don't think I can anymore."

Alarm bells rang in Roman's head. He needed to get through to him immediately. "What did you do to her, Adam?"

Adam looked away, his hands shaking. "I was going to confront Blake, but then her partner showed up. She came at me so fast, I just reacted. I-" Adam looked back at the screen and then away from it again. "I dismembered her, Roman. I can't sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see her arm laying on the ground and Blake's eyes boring into my soul. I'm a monster, Roman."

Roman reached out with his remaining hand but dropped it back to the desk after realizing the pointlessness of the gesture. "No, you're not. You made a mistake Adam. A horrible, costly mistake, but a mistake none the less. I know the blond better than you do, and she is strong enough to bounce back from this."

Adam looked down. "She isn't the only one. I have killed people, Roman. I had to protect the weaker members of the Fang, but their faces still haunt me."

"Then you aren't too far gone, Adam. Your mistakes haunt you. You feel guilt and pain for the pain you caused. That makes you a man, not a monster."

Adam was shaking slightly one hand now on his mask, his voice cracking. "I…I don't know what to do."

A wry smile crossed the crime lord's face. "It's not too late to come home."

Adam laughed humorlessly. "Home was gone the mom-"

"You know damn well what I mean. Vanille and I miss you and we have some people we want you to meet."

The was a long pause before Adam spoke again. "Sienna has helped me a lot over the years, but I don't know what is happening to the White Fang I first joined. I need to find out what she is planning. I could never put any of this behind me with the 'what if's looming over my head."

Roman sighed heavily. He's making excuses. I have to be firm. "Fine. Then TALK to her and then come home."

Adam sighed, his voice gaining more confidence but Roman could see it was false and it did nothing but stoke his ire. "I can't just abandon the Fang and go home. I would have to lay low and there are people I need to make peace with."

"You have six months."

"Roman, listen I am just trying to protec-"

Roman was having none of it. "No! You WILL be standing on my doorstep within six months, Adam."

Adam turned back to the screen, his hands coming up in a placating gesture "Roman, they would never let me step foot-"

Roman slammed his fist onto the desk, shaking the console screen "Don't underestimate me, Adam. I will take care of the issues here and at home. I will make sure that you have a safe home to come back to. You worry about getting your information, lying low, and then hopping a ship before your deadline. If some of your buddies don't like your decision and decide to come looking for you, you are well aware of what I will do to protect my family."

Adam ducked his head under Roman's tirade. "Family?" His voice was soft and slightly hopeful.

Roman smiled at his younger friend as his heart filled with warmth. Oh Adam, must you always see yourself as separate. "Yes Adam, family. You are my family, same as Vanille. You always have been and always will be. Now please, just take off the mask." Roman hated the crack in his voice. He needed to be the strong one right now.

"Thank you." Then the call ended.

Roman let out a sigh, trying to sort through all the information he had just received. Before he could figure out any plan, Neo burst out of the bathroom stark naked and all but tackled him. His partner wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into his chest. She must have heard the call. Roman wrapped his arm around her and looked up to check on Blake. He got a good look at a lot more of her than he anticipated. His eyes widened before he spun himself and Neo around, focusing back on his shorter partner in crime. He rubbed small circles on her back as he tried to organize his thoughts. After a few moments, Neo looked up at him and he smiled down to her. "Feeling better?"

She nodded and let go, taking a few steps back. So, what are we going to do?

Roman ran his hand through his sludge covered hair. "Right now, I am thinking I need a bath." He looked toward the ceiling while calling over his shoulder to Blake. "You find the clothes I left out for you?"

The stumbling around seemed to indicate that she was looking for the clothes. Out of the corner of his eyes, Roman saw Neo roll her eyes before moving to assist Blake. Being careful not to look back at the two getting changed, Roman moved back to the bookcase and began removing books to reveal the hidden safe. "You two decent?"

Blake sighed behind him. "Yes Torchwick, we're dressed." Roman turned around and moved the box to his desk. "What's in the box?"

He turned to look at Blake giving her a grin. "My spare limb." He laughed at the confused look on her face. "First rule of the Atlesian Military, Kitty Cat. 'If you need something, bring two." He gave the cat-faunus a once-over. She was wearing his shirt and jacket, the pants he left out still sitting on the counter, the jacket ending just past her knees. "You know, if you cut the front of it, that jacket fits your style pretty well."

Blake looked down and seemed to contemplate it for a minute before remembering where she was and glaring at him. "You were in the Atlesian Military?"

Roman thinks back to when he was a kid, standing in front of a mirror pretending to be accepting a metal from his father. Ah, the ignorance of youth. He shook his head as he gestured Neo over. "My dad was. He beat those snippets of wisdom into me when I was growing up." Turning to his partner, Roman opened the case to reveal the cybernetic. He had smuggled it from Atlas the previous year to replace his out of date prosthetic, but decided to keep it for an emergency. Over the past year, he had painted the armor plating orange and the joints black. Neo was giving him a very unimpressed look, which earned her a chuckle. "What? I think it looks nice. Anyway, I am gonna take a shower and sort out this socket. If you could run a diagnostic on it and check the backdoor for information on Ms. Belladonna, I would appreciate it."

Neo rolled her eyes but nodded. Blake turned toward him as he walked past. "I still have some questions for you, Torchwick."

"Sure thing, Kitty Cat." He waved her off, not even looking her way as he grabbed a towel and moved into the shower. Roman had some issue removing his soiled clothes due to his missing limb, but he eventually stripped himself bare. Moving to fill the bowl with hot water, Roman gazed into the mirror fixed above the spicket. How do you expect to help Adam when you're already a monster?

Suddenly he was looking back at a younger version of himself, his hospital gown splattered with blood. Roman wasn't sure if the blood-soaked limbs of his illusionary self were shaking along with his current one. His skin turned to ice before he dumped the contents of the bowl over his head, banishing his delusion and leaving just his soaked, present self staring back at him. With a heavy sigh, he began filling the bowl again, his father's voice ringing in his head.

Listen son, in this world, the Grimm are not the worst monsters. There will be people that hurt you and those you care about simply because they can. Someday you might need to use what I have taught you to kill someone. Look straight at the people you kill. Never look away and don't ever forget them, because I guarantee they won't forget you. Roman even remembered the pause, the image of his father whipping the blood from his cane clear in his mind. If you ever reach a point where you can't remember them, hang up your weapons before you grow into a monster! His father had never spoken to him with as much emotion as he did during that speech. Roman sat down and took a deep breath. "Okay" He let the breath go and tried to follow his father's advice.

He would never forget his first. Rose Liudao was a less than reputable huntress. One of the few independent operators in Atlas. Which is likely why she was paid to kill a young faunus. She would have succeeded too, had Roman not caught her attention. He could never remember how he survived that fight. Maybe she was slow due to lack of fighting people who could fight back. Maybe his father had just trained him that well. Maybe she underestimated him because he wasn't even old enough to get into Atlas Academy. Whatever the reason or fluke was, Roman had come out with a cut on his side and Rose had ended up with his backup knife in her temple. He could feel the raised skin of the scar as he ran the cloth over his body. It seemed like every scar was connected to a body.

The scar on his ankle and his missing limb were courtesy of Alabaster and Nyte, the 'A' and 'N' of Team CIAN. Ether had conspired with CIAN to Roman and his family. The duo had almost succeeded in killing Neo and Roman had Neo not killed Alabaster outright. By boosting each other's Auras, Roman and Neo managed to survive while Nyte bled out next to his partner's corpse.

Moving the cloth to his chest, Roman ran his hand down the large scar that traveled from his left hip to right shoulder. A memoir of the third time he had almost died and of the last member of CIAN he and Neo had tracked down. Ion was one of the trio that had killed Sherry while Nyte and Alabaster went after Neo and Roman. Ion was the lucky one, in that she wasn't maimed by Sherry's last stand. It took him two years to track her down and Neo had taken her time getting every scrap of information of why they had been attacked out of the CIAN team member before killing her. Capturing Ion hadn't been the hard part. Ion had been riding high on her success as a member of the Branwen tribe and had grown sloppy. The hard part was surviving the retribution that came after they had killed her. Roman could still feel the phantom current of the yellow, lightning-dust blade that had cut him. It had been like being attacked by a thundercloud. Just a curtain of black hair before a sudden strike. Without Roman's intense Aura training throughout his life and Neo's quick thinking to get them away, he would have been dead.

Overlapping the massive slash on his right shoulder were a pair of bullet scars. Two years ago, after he escaped from his self-imposed imprisonment by the VPD, Junior decided that he didn't want the independent criminal back on his streets. At first, the attacks were a minor inconvenience and an excuse for a workout. Then the incompetent fools nearly took out an apartment building full of people to kill him. After that incident, Roman slipped a letter to one of the Malachite twins for Junior. A warning that the next group sent after Roman wouldn't be coming back. Junior decided to double down and sent four gunmen to finish off Roman. Roman didn't particularly want to kill them, but he had made a threat and needed to see it through if he wanted to keep working in Vale. Dad would have crippled you if he heard you say something like that.

Roman pressed the warm cloth to his face instinctively to silence the voice in his head but chose to breath in just as the water flowed down his face. He doubled over off the stool, coughing violently. When he got his breathing under control, he looked up to see Neo giving him a concerned look from the open door. He gave her a shaky smile and waved her off. She rolled her eyes and closed the door again. Roman shook his head. "Probably should quit smoking" he mumbled as he lifted the cloth up again. As he brought the cloth up, he noticed the scars on his remaining hand.

Suddenly, he was staring at his mangled hand from 6 years ago. A hand with broken knuckles sticking through the skin. A hand covered in blood, gore, and skull fragments. He was shaking slightly as he looked away from his hand, terrified of what he might find.

It wasn't what he expected. Roman wasn't in some twisted version of his past but remembering a true memory. Cholat Calico, leader of team CIAN, was dead on the ground, head so mangled it was all but unrecognizable. The criminal almost smiled at the sight, before he blinked and found himself looking at Sherry's body.

Roman jumped back, pressing his back against the wall and covered his eyes with the cloth. Her death wasn't his fault. Are you sure? Weren't you planning on moving them to Vale so Neo could go to Beacon? You could have saved Sherry. Roman turned and slammed his forehead into the wall. When he blinked away the blurriness, he was back in the thankfully bloodless bathroom.

Taking a few minutes to relax and let his Aura mend the gash he had put in it, Roman cleaned himself while humming an old lullaby Sherry used to sing. He felt that familiar melancholy and tightness in his chest as he dried himself of. Sherry would be disappointed in him for wallowing in his misery. He had made himself quite a list of things to do after all. Roman took a few deep breaths before exiting the room.