A/N: Good news: plot kicks up starting now. Bad news: I fully admit that it still starts off kind of slow and close to the original V2, but I assure you that all of these small changes will finally culminate into a rapid departure from the rails.
Best Day Ever
This was precisely what Adam feared.
["Murder at Tukson's Book Trade, One Dead."]
The White Fang wanted to clean up loose ends. Bar special occasions—such as being an officer like himself or Blake—so long as you did not rat out your fellow faunus or aim to anger the White Fang, those who left would be allowed to without trouble. They were traitors and cowards, but they could leave, so long as they were willing to bear that on their conscience.
But that was clearly no longer the case. The two had metaphorically dusted their footprints, but how long would it be before they found out exactly where he and Blake were? He might've potentially been recognized on the street, but he was surrounded by Huntsmen both trained and in-training; he was safe. Blake, on the other hand, was surrounded by the White Fang: he once had eyes and ears everywhere in Menagerie, and if they were to get the idea that Blake was the only thing keeping their leader away... Adam knew most of all just how dangerous the White Fang could be, even if they were led by his lieutenant rather than him. More importantly, he knew how desperate they could get for publicity and recognition: he had taught them that the more daunting a task was, the more dangerous they would be if they actually succeeded.
This meant that it was not just Blake who was in danger: all of RWAY—all of Beacon—was at risk.
Something needed to be done, but what? Who was even the culprit? Signs of a brief struggle and blunt trauma combined with a close-range, shotgun-style weapon being used signified a Huntsman-style weapon, but it was unfamiliar: was this Sienna Khan attempting to force the Vale branch back into the fold? Torchwick? There were too many variables—
"What'cha doin'?" Yang called in a sing-song voice and snapped him back to reality. Scanning through his Scroll during lunch proved to be a mistake.
"Nothing." Adam closed it before any questions could arise. "Just looking through the news." He'd spent so much time setting up his lunch, only to wind up staring at his Scroll the entire time. He needed to be more careful: arousing suspicion would only increase the chances of sticking out.
"A whole feast and you choose to go surfing on the web?" Yang leaned over just in time to catch a grape flung over from JNPR's table in her mouth. "Lame!" She wasn't wrong, at least: the last day before school began heralded a grand feast of any food one desired or requested. As one who had spent years surviving off of military-grade rations either out of necessity or fairness towards the troops that still did, Adam had taken advantage of this to construct the greatest submarine sandwich he'd ever crafted. One that had, unfortunately, stayed untouched.
One that would continue to stay untouched as Ruby hobbled over and dropped onto the table a binder bigger than most encyclopedias. She cleared her throat and sprung into a speech that she had clearly practiced way too much:
"Four-score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream! A dream that, one day, the four of us would finally come together as a team and have the most fun that anyone has ever had... ever!"
Weiss was too busy staring at the binder to listen. "Did you steal my binder?!"
"I am not a crook."
"Cut to the chase," Adam grumbled.
"Sis is saying that we should start off our next semester with a Yang!" Yang declared with a dumb grin. "Eh, eh, guys? Get it?" Adam cracked a smile when, rather than grapes, an apple promptly bounced off of Yang's head, instead. Well-deserved.
"I happened to notice our team's been a little too far apart, and with the second semester coming up, exchange students coming in and the festival at the end of the year, now is the perfect time to change that! Bu~ut, we only have one day left before classes, so I came up with a wonderful series of events for us today!" Ruby explained, bouncing in place with her giddy smile never fading.
Adam just couldn't match that happiness: he needed to contact Blake, find connections, make sure everyone would be safe...
"I'm going to have to sit this one out. Besides, Weiss and I had two entire weeks to become friends."
"And as your new friend, I say that whatever Ruby has planned, we should do so as a team!" Even while 'friendly', Weiss just couldn't help but contradict him. Adam couldn't blame her, of course, he would've done the exact same thing for the exact same reason, but this was important! Taking Adam's frown and furrowed brow as playful rather than genuine annoyance, Weiss stood up, turned to her team with a smile and continued:
"In fact, I for one believe that—" With her eyes on them, however, Weiss never noticed the pie heading towards her until it was too late.
And then, all hell broke loose.
Adam was certain it had only been two minutes. As to how one half of the tables had gotten scattered and the other half had been stacked up in a precarious fortress with soda machines as towers, or how food covered the floors, walls and windows in such a short period, Adam hadn't the slightest clue. If the so-called Ice Queen of Beacon and someone as intimidating as himself were not still seated at their own table, it probably would've been yanked aside in the war, too. As it stood, however, they were the neutral island of stability in a world war.
And from that war spawned only six final combatants: Ruby, Yang, and the entirety of JNPR, who had conquered the table fortress. Two against three, because Adam would just as quickly consider the raw swordfish on the ground a valid combatant in a fight between these first-year giants before he would Jaune.
"This assault on my teammate shall not stand! We will fight in the cafeteria! We will fight on the tables! But we will never surrender!" Ruby squeaked threateningly and led her sister into the fray. Behind them, she'd left a fuming Weiss and a befuddled Adam.
"Those two will be the death of us," Adam muttered under his breath as watermelons rained down like artillery.
"At this rate, they'll manage to take themselves out before that happens." Weiss tried to brush the mess surrounding them aside enough to actually return to eating. "Ugh, if that pie had gotten into my hair, I'd have done it myself!"
"Do you think this detachment from their antics was what Ruby was talking about in the first place?" Adam leaned out of the way of an entire pizza being flung like a shield.
"There's a distinct difference between not being emotionally close to your teammates and not following them on such an inane battle." A glyph caught Jaune as a single bat from Ruby launched him across the cafeteria. Jaune didn't even have time to thank Weiss before she sent him careening into the fray again.
"So, why are we still here? You aren't thinking of joining, after all, are you?" A swipe of his sheathed blade knocked an incoming plate of salad off-course. Adam finally picked up his sandwich: planning on an empty stomach solved no problems.
"Don't be foolish, Adam: someone is going to have to drag them out of this mess once they're done. I would never partake in something so childi—" Her declaration shot up into an unladylike squeal as Pyrrha and Ren crashed into the table, knocking over drinks and bottles of condiments alike. Weiss had just barely avoided spilling her coffee by having had it in her hand. The two members of JNPR looked around in a brief daze as Yang laughed triumphantly on the other side of the cafeteria.
Just as Weiss set her cup down, Ren reached back and snatched a pair of carrots before jumping back in, striking the cup and sending it splashing across the heiress and her hair. Searching for a weapon, Pyrrha grabbed the first sturdy food she saw and dashed off towards Yang.
The two sat in silence, Weiss covered in coffee, Adam with now-empty hands after Pyrrha stole the sandwich right out of them.
Adam narrowed his eyes.
"Take those two out. I'll handle Nora."
"Where is your queen of the castle? Is she too afraid of the Turkey Lord!" Yang laughed, whole turkeys over her hands like boxing gloves, as Pyrrha and Ren rushed her. She prepared herself for the food fight of her life right when a sheen of ketchup raced under her opponents' feet, sending them slipping and sliding with no control right towards her. Yang caught a glimpse of Weiss with a bottle in her hand just before she swung at the quickest of the two: Ren. The resulting blast sent him flying through the wall and out of the fight.
"It took you long enough, Ice Queen! I've been waiting all day!" she cheered. Little did she know, as Pyrrha got her footing only to wind up in fierce bread-on-bread combat with Ruby, Nora had climbed all the way back up to the top of her table-castle. While the others were busy, she'd constructed a mighty hammer made from a flagpole and watermelon, and Yang's little callout marked her as the first to get it tested out on!
Nora took a step and threw herself high into the air over the war, swung her hammer back and had Yang right in her sights, never noticing the bottle propelled by a jet of mustard until it smacked her in the face. Adam followed behind it in a black blur and swatted Nora from the skies with a loaf of bread. Stunned from the sudden crash into tables, she barely flipped herself up in time for Adam to slam down with the loaf stabbed right where she would have been. Adam jumped back as Nora swung for him and landed upon a table, spinning his bread in one hand and kicking a bottle of ketchup to occupy his other.
Adam was faintly worried that his mind began to treat this as a true battle. Then again, considering how dangerous Nora was managing to make a watermelon on a stick look, it was just that: faint. Nora followed him up onto the table, each swing of her heavy food weapon leading into another that had Adam leaping, leaning and ducking away, returning fire the best he could with bread and shots of ketchup like. As their bout grew more intense, the table wobbled more and more, until no more than two legs were on the ground at a time.
With a final, mighty swing, Nora aimed to send Adam straight to the skies, but Weiss flew in just in time to stab her side with a swordfish. The good news was that Nora's strike didn't hit either of them.
The bad news was that she twisted and struck the table, instead, blasting the three off in different directions: Adam to the far wall, Nora right into the soda machines, sending cans flying through the air and pouring onto the ground, and Weiss not across a table full of food, but into and through a pillar.
"Weiss!" Ruby gasped and flipped away from her combat with Pyrrha to skate down the tables on a lunch tray. Adam groaned and forced himself to his feet as Ruby slid beside the heiress, only to need to shove a table onto its side as cans of soda came raining down.
"Avenge me..." Weiss whispered, dazed from the blast, then fell limp.
As Ruby cried out for the fallen, Adam's rationality—or was it his dignity?—briefly attempted to remind him that this was a food fight. That he, former White Fang leader, was seriously engaging in a food fight.
The oft-ignored part of him that actually was having fun quickly silenced it. This was personal, now!
"Ruby, we need a plan!" he called over his shoulder, now having to rise and strike down the cans with swings of bread and well-placed blasts of ketchup. Yang was pinned down by the explosive firepower behind an upturned table. Suddenly, the rain stopped, and both Nora and Pyrrha began to glow with their respective auras. "Now would be fine!"
Ruby's eyes scanned across the floor. Soda cans both thrown by JNPR and those that simply had come flying out from the machines lay scattered across the entire cafeteria. One suddenly burst as another can rolled by and simply tapped it. Of course! The perfect scheme!
"Yang, hit the floor!" Ruby ordered.
"Kinda doin' that right now, sis!"
"No, no, no, I mean literally! Punch the ground as hard as you can!" The hum of electricity brought their attention back to Pyrrha and Nora: the latter had placed her hand on the former's back, charging her magnetism to new heights. Twin snakes of metal and soda coiled up to the very ceiling of the cafeteria, preparing what would surely be the final blow. "Now!"
Just as the snakes uncoiled and lashed out for them, Yang raised her fist, let her anger run loose, and smashed her turkey-clad fist into the ground. A golden shockwave sent everything from soda cans to tables into the air. With Pyrrha knocked off balance by the sudden force, the wave slowed and lost shape, exactly what Ruby was waiting for.
"Adam, catch!" She turned and tossed him his own sandwich—much heavier than mere, bare loaves of bread—and bolted off with Semblance in full effect, little more than a blur as she raced past the floating cans. A whirlwind formed behind her, sweeping plates, cans and tables in a swirling rush of food and metal. Too weak from their little team attack, Pyrrha and Nora were swept up, but Ruby was not done: she abruptly banked around, turning a tunnel of wind into a full-on tornado of rose petals, food and JNPR. Had Adam not grabbed Weiss, she likely would've been yanked into it.
But there was no time to be impressed just yet. With Pyrrha and Nora—and Jaune—trapped in the skies, the three were perfect targets. Chuckling to himself, every bit of red on Adam from his hair to the tomatoes on his meal began to glow brightly. He let himself be dragged into the wind, twisted in midair and swung for the well-shaken cans of soda.
It was only as the world went red that Adam realized he might be in the blast zone.
The sound of fizzing still rang in Adam's ears as he shakily stood up and wiped at his eyes. For the briefest moment, Adam was afraid he'd somehow gone blind, only able to see a myriad of colors for all eternity, until waving his hand in front of his face assured him otherwise. No, instead, the entire cafeteria now looked like one giant abstract art piece. Eight blobs of color pushed themselves up from the debris, some giggling to themselves, others just trying to figure out what just happened.
Adam felt a chuckle building up, as well... right until he remembered that, with Ren knocked out of the hall entirely, there should have only been seven of them.
The eighth multicolored mess cleared her throat and took off her glasses, revealing a cold, livid glare that could kill a Goliath on the spot. Glynda Goodwitch stalked slowly towards the now-silent students.
There were very few times in his life where Adam truly found himself afraid. This was certainly one of them.
"... Well, looks like we're in a pretty... sticky situation, huh?" Yang expectantly looked between her teammates.
Stifled chortles and snickers filled the room as the first lash of Goodwitch's crop washed the hall in a rush of mist. By the second lash that brought the tables and plates back to their rightful place, it was full-on laughter. The third was likely going to be aimed at one of them, until Ozpin's hand fell upon the professor's shoulder.
"Let it go, Glynda. Let them have their fun."
If it had been anyone else laughing at him, Adam would've executed them, 'starting new' or not. As it stood, however, hearing Blake laughing like this for the first time in what may have been over a year would've been worth getting into a mess like this many times over.
"Wh-what happened to you! It looks like you blew up a paint factory!" Blake spoke between giggles she tried and failed to muffle with her hands. When they had last spoke, they'd decided to have a video call when they both had the time. It'd been too long since he'd seen her face. With the excuse of needing to go dry himself out, he'd made his way back to his little spot high on the dorms' slanted roof away from the world. It was better than getting his bed messed up, anyway.
"As it turns out, a food fight gives the same results." Much like how Blake couldn't hide her giggles, Adam couldn't hold back his smile if he tried.
"A food fight? Just who are you and what have you done with Adam?" she asked with a teasing glint in her eye.
"I should be asking what you've done with Blake: I don't think I've seen you smile for this long in an eternity." Adam waited until just before Blake was going to respond to add: "Well, besides when you were reading that one book of yours... what was it called? Samurai of Love? Ninjas of Romance?"
Her giggles quickly turned to nervous laughter, and her cheeks reddened.
"I-I'm not sure what you're talking about."
"Odd, perhaps I was mistaken. Though, I did hear it had a sequel..."
Her ears twitched beneath her bow.
"It does?"
As the time flew by, Adam found himself regretting more and more speaking of the actual reason he was desperate to contact her, this night. When their conversations had finally begun to taper off, one by one, he decided it was best to get it over with now.
"Blake." His somber tone dissipated the joyous mood in an instant. What was once the subtle, happy smile and gleam in her eye he'd grown to love had become the intense gaze and subtle frown he'd grown used to over the past year. "Before you leave, there's something important I must inform you of: the White Fang are hunting down those who leave. All of them."
Her eyes widened, but she said nothing.
"Be careful. You might be near the former leadership, but there is no telling how far the White Fang will go to send a message."
To Adam's surprise, her lips turned up into the slightest smile.
"I'll be fine, Adam. Trust me."
"Are you certain?"
A light chuckle escaped Blake. "Yes, Adam, I'm certain. You don't need to protect me anymore, like when you used to follow me off-base."
He sat up straight. "Who told you about that?"
"You really weren't as sneaky as you thought you were."
Adam let out a huff. "No matter. Just—"
" 'Stay safe', I know, Adam, it's how you've been saying goodbye for the past month."
"Am I really that predictable?"
"I know you, Adam..." Her smile returned, soft and wistful. "You really do look happier than you used to. Try not to let this affect you: remember, you're there to make friends, not enemies."
"You, giving orders to me? You've grown up so fast." He pretended to wipe at his eye.
"Bye, Adam." With a last smile and roll of her eyes, Blake ended the call.
Adam stared at the blank Scroll for a few moments after, then quietly closed it and slipped it into his pocket. He sighed and turned a deadly glare behind him.
"Do you always spy on your teammates?"
With a surprised squeak, Ruby ducked down on the other side of the roof. She'd been caught red-handed. For a brief moment, Adam had thought that Ruby had fled. He'd just retrieved his weapon and got up to his feet when he caught her peeking out again.
"... She's right, you know! You look a lot happier than you used to! Especially when you're talking to her or were talking to her and the shower's-ready-and-you'renotmadatme!" Ruby tried to force out a smile as Adam stalked closer. She let out a nervous, shy giggle, stared up at him with those silver eyes, and Adam's growing anger fizzled.
The edge of his lips twitched up.
"You might have a point." He really was in a better mood these days, Adam admitted to himself. He slid down the other side of the roof past her, but paused at the edge. "And stop eavesdropping."
The shower was ice-cold, but Adam was used to that. It kept his thoughts straight, and that was what he needed right now: the White Fang was moving, there was an alliance between Torchwick and the White Fang that their underlings knew nothing of, and now his organization was slicing away all of their loose ends. He needed answers. He needed to act.
By the time he'd walked out of the bathroom, Adam had a plan in mind. Unfortunately, immediately tossing his street clothes on and going for the door did not go unnoticed by his teammates. He'd just grabbed the handle when Weiss spoke up.
"And just where are you going this late?" she questioned from the top bunk, having claimed it from Yang during the summer break she was gone. The eyes of RWAY were on him.
"I need to make a call," Adam replied plainly.
Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Is that right? Well, be quick about it! It's almost past curfew, and I won't have you waking us up or getting us in trouble." She wagged her finger at him. Only flashing a smirk in return, he left, not noticing Ruby's suspicious look as the door closed behind him.
"You really do always spy on us, don't you? Or am I a special occasion?" Little more than a silhouette on the same roof watching over Beacon, Adam questioned Ruby.
Slowly, she peeked out from the doorway she was trying to make herself hidden in. "You were planning on leaving without me again, weren't you?"
Adam turned to face her, the black officer's mask of the 'Ace of Spades' obscuring his eyes.
"I distinctly recall never asking you to join me in the first place."
Ruby flinched.
Ignoring it and her gaze falling to the ground both, Adam continued: "This isn't some game. This is not for fun. This is something I need to handle. Alone." With Ruby remaining silent, he turned away and prepared to make his trek to Vale, sure that his point was made.
"Nope."
He paused. "Excuse me?"
"Nope! You've been getting stressed out, and I'm not gonna let you stay that way on your own."
"This is not your business, Ruby—"
"Nope!"
Adam twisted around to face her once more. "I'm fine—"
"N~nope!" Ruby skipped closer, instead, an innocent, cheery—if not rather mischievous—smile on her face.
Adam scowled and closed his eyes. It would be so easy to just leap now, but the only thing it would do now is postpone the inevitable.
"If you would just stop trying to follow me for one night—"
"Nope!" Why did she have to be so stubborn!
"Fine!" Adam surrendered. It was all he could do: frankly, the only way it could have been worse is if she had tried using her 'puppy eyes' on him.
He sighed in defeat, then paused to look over Ruby, who was dancing in victory.
"Do you plan on 'fighting crime' in your pajamas?"
Ruby squeaked and zipped away, leaving a trail of rose petals in her wake.
Taking a deep breath, Adam sat down and stared out over the vast Beacon campus. What would Blake even think, seeing him like this?
In a dark, damp cell, far from civilization and the Grimm alike, a prisoner's eyes shot open. Information flooded his mind, synapses flared, and calculations ran themselves at a breakneck speed in a desperate attempt to make up for lost time. He flung himself from his bed, landing like the very beasts he once controlled, and he looked around. Something was off. Through his bars lay darkness and shifting figures, languid and lost. They were unknowing to even such a massive change in their very bodies: a feeling of being refreshed, of being born anew, of being... alive!
Aura.
Yes, that was it: his soul finally stretching its legs and reaching for its surroundings after being bound for so many years. Those degenerates in the rest of prison may have let hope slip through their fingers, but not him. No, he knew his time would come! And that time was now: his aura would have only returned to him if the suppressing shackles at his ankles were turned off, but they never were. Not unless you were to be executed, but they knew his mind was far too great for that.
So, why? His aura pulsed out, scanning the world around him just as his lone eye did.
A door squealed as it was forced open. The intruder drew something across the bars of the many cells, and the ringing finally woke the devolved masses from their slumber and stupor. Cries of confusion and begs to be let free rung out into the humid air, but the intruder cared not for them. It strode with purpose. Resolve.
And then, he saw him: raking a cane across the bars, a tall man in a white coat with fiery, orange hair strolled into view and stopped, just in front of his cell. The man had a simple, white bowler hat with a red band going across it. Yes, he knew exactly who this was before he leaned forward to peer into his domain. The question, however, was why? Why was Roman Torchwick here?
Even when able to see only one eye, the other covered by his swept hair, the prisoner could tell Torchwick had not slept. He could try to hide it with that garish mascara, but he couldn't hide it from a trained eye. Strange.
Torchwick smirked halfheartedly, took a step back and raised his cane at the door. Two explosions rung out, obliterating not just the lock but most of the door. The noise and lights turned mere cries into a primal frenzy outside: freedom so close pushed the prisoners into their most primitive of states.
But not he. No, he stared at his intruder eye-to-eye even as he nudged the twisted remains of the door down with a casual flick of the wrist.
"Looks like your prayers have been answered, pal," Torchwick called halfheartedly to him.
"What do you want with me?" he hissed.
Torchwick scoffed. "What I want stopped mattering a long time ago," he mumbled under his breath before returning to the question at hand. "Looks like my boss has taken a bit of an interest in hiring you, and well, for your sake I'd agree. But, first!" Torchwick leaned forward on his cane with a slim, bitter smile.
"Doctor Merlot, what's your favorite fairy tale?"
