Change Of Heart, Change of Plans


"Oh, Blake! Yep, she was actually with us, sorry! I didn't know she hadn't told her team," Ruby rattled on, completely oblivious to the hateful gaze of the man behind her or the tension that should have been burning away the very oxygen in the air.

Adam clenched his hand into a fist tight enough for his fingers to dig into his palm through his gloves. They were here. Cinder and her two cronies. They were here and they had somehow pulled Blake into their plans.

"It's fine, don't worry. I never knew her brother was attending Beacon, though," the minty one said with a smile all too sweet.

"Why don't you show my teammates around: it has been ages since Adam and I last saw each other..." Cinder calmly strolled past Ruby, amber eyes all but glowing as she stopped in front of him and ignored the glare trying to set her ablaze.

Ruby followed Cinder with her eyes and paused, subtly cocking her head to one side.

"Are you okay, Adam? You look a little... uh, upset," she asked with a hint of worry in her voice. His irises were crimson, and his hair was so vivid it was on the brink of emitting a light of its own. One deep breath, however, and the red drained from Adam's eyes, leaving them emerald and restrained in their hate.

"I'm fine. Take Blake with you: she needs to be shown around as well. Yang should know some of the more casual locations in Beacon, so take her as well. Even Weiss, if you wish," Adam urged without emotion, putting all of his resistance into avoiding not just the desire to strike down the witch in front of him right then and there, but even just showing his anger. He did not know why Cinder was here just yet, but he was beginning to get theories. None of them left it a good idea to give Cinder even a sense that RWAY knew what she was planning. It was all Adam could do to stack the odds even that much: four versus two would give them a good chance of victory.

"Come along, Adam; we have so much to catch up on..." Cinder dragged her fingers across his shoulder as she passed him like she was hers to own, taking great pleasure in how his eyes flickered red for just a moment before he followed behind her.

Ruby was left watching after the two with suspicion rising in her eyes, but was snapped out of it by the gray one tapping her shoulder.

"So, are we leaving, or what? Name's Mercury, by the way."

"Emerald," said his partner.

"I'm Ruby! Let me just grab my team, first! Oh, uh, quick question: 'you like the arcade?" Ruby chirped with a sunny grin, her worries swept into the back of her mind, for now.

Mercury smirked. "And just like that, I already like you more than the rest of my team."


"You must be rather sure of yourself, meeting with me alone like this," Adam hissed as they arrived in one of the very classrooms he and Yang had just left. Rather than the heat of the sun, only the pale rays of the moon tried to cool the tense fires. Cinder made a show of sitting back on one of the desks and slowly folding one leg over the other. Funny. Even the situation was similar.

"Oh, Adam, there's no need for this hostility—"

"There is when you are holding Blake hostage," he interrupted her with a growl. Already, his eyes had burned away their emerald to a deadly crimson just upon seeing Cinder dare to show her face.

Her confident, sly smirk did not so much as twitch. "I brought her here so that you had no reason to worry: she'll be safe with us, no matter what happens." Cinder's purr made it difficult to tell if she was being genuine or threatening him, and Adam did not like that one bit.

"Enough beating around the bush. What do you want?"

"Aah, still cutting right to the point, the same as ever." Cinder stood and crept closer to Adam, eye glowing with power and intrigue, standing out so clear in the darkness. "What I want is to give you another chance."

"For your human cause?"

She tutted and shook her head. "It's so much more than that, Adam. I had hoped that you would join me in the first phase of our plan, but you would be just as welcome in the second." Cinder placed a hand on his shoulder, but Adam refused to give her any satisfaction in seeing his reaction this time. "We'll be lighting the fires of revolution and tearing down all the structures keeping you down, brick by brick. You could be right there beside us."

Adam narrowed his eyes. "What you and I want are two entirely different things, Cinder. Especially now. There is no chance of you shaking me from my path."

"Adam." Her offended tone almost sounded genuine. "Do you really believe I wouldn't make sure your team would be safe? I would treat them just as well as I'd treat you..." Cinder brought the tips of her fingers to Adam's chin, and his eyes flashed brighter with restrained anger. Though he'd refused her scheming in the past, there were no doubts in Adam's mind that she was intelligent. To walk into the enemy's center of power and openly mock the one you did not even dare threaten before meant that she knew something he did not. The stakes were far too high for bluffing.

"Leave them out of this," he bit back.

"I'm afraid that's impossible, and you know it. The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, and the daughter of Raven Branwen?"

He tensed, and Cinder smiled more.

"There are only two places where they can be, Adam: with us, or against us, and I don't need to spell out just what will happen if they choose incorrectly. I won't lie to you, Adam: it will be a dangerous path, but with us, they can survive."

Their eyes bored holes into one another, Adam's crimson fierce and trying to kill her with sight alone, Cinder's amber trying to drown his very willpower. Finally, crimson faded back to emerald and, with a sickly-sweet smile, Cinder stepped back from him.

"You are a wise woman, Cinder... at least, that is what I thought. Alas, it seems that in believing that, I'm almost as foolish as you are." Her smirk slipped as Adam advanced. "You come here before me yet again, and request I leave my life here, threaten my friends, take my dear hostage, and then ask me to make sacrifices for your worthless cause? Your cause is not even human. It is that of vermin." His aura flared and his hair began to glow a bright, bloody red. While Adam only stood a couple inches taller than Cinder, he made every bit of it count as he towered over her.

"Do not say things you will regret, Adam. We care far more for the faunus than Ozpin ever will," Cinder warned him. The air wavered and warped from the pressure of aura and growing temperature alike.

"Leave this place and never return." With a vicious, jeering smirk that bared his teeth, Adam brought his hand just under Cinder's chin, ignoring the blistering heat that leaped across his hand in response. "I would hate to have to cut that pretty head of yours off, myself. I was having such a nice run, here."

Turning Cinder's little act back onto her finally earned him a scowl. The glow of her eye had turned into a flame of its own, warning him from making any other movements. She snatched his wrist and let her flames rise. Adam pursed his lips to avoid letting her see his gritted teeth.

"Don't make the mistake of thinking you're needed just because you are stronger than that fool Almond." His aura flared again, and hers responded in kind.

It all made sense now. Cinder was the missing link: she must have returned and forced the Lieutenant into her schemes after he had left, it was the only way that he would ever agree. If the White Fang and the Torches were working together... was Cinder in control of them both? What was she after?

"This is a kindness and nothing more." Cinder tossed his hand aside. "It would be best if you remembered that." She glared up at him, waiting for him to leave. The room was little more than a silhouette, now, caught between the deadly light of Adam and the aura of his foe.

Adam shoved the questions from his mind. He refused to let Cinder take even that small victory. "The only kindness here is that I do not execute you myself. No, I'd rather see what Ozpin would have in store for scum like you..."

"He is the scum in this kingdom, Adam," she hissed, then took a deep breath and crossed her arms. By the time she'd exhaled, Cinder had regathered herself completely. "And it is so disappointing to see that you've become his slave."

Adam scoffed. "I am no one's slave."

"Then I wonder why, when given the chance to tear Vale down, give your people freedom and even save your team, you would refuse." Cinder sauntered past Adam to the exit. "There's no shame in admitting that you were tricked. He can be a very persuasive man... but remember, Adam, the offer's still open."

"I won't even mind if you told your team," Cinder continued, the door half-open already. "But before you go running back to your master, just remember who has the 'hostage'. I'd suggest not telling her, either." A dark chuckle slipped from Cinder as she stepped into the hall and slammed the door behind her. Adam was left to wallow in his fury as just another shadow in a haze of red.

With a roar of frustration, he spun and slammed his foot into the desk, the crunch of breaking wood quickly lost in the rush and roar of it decaying into wilting petals. He'd lost. There was no way out. She had Blake, she had a way into Beacon, and she had not just his entire organization, but a second at her disposal. Worse, he still hadn't the smallest clue of what she was actually planning. All he had learned was that who the true head was: Cinder. Cinder. Cinder.

As Adam stormed through halls thankfully empty in the night, he made a vow to himself: he would make sure that Cinder perished at his hands. Even if it killed him.


He didn't care that he slammed the door to their dorm. The only thing Adam cared about right now was making sure that his team was still safe and hunting down his former lieutenant as quickly as possible, consequences be damned. He had a location, a name, a face. The 'Ace of Spades' was obsolete now. He needed to get back in contact with Ilia. He needed to get Blake away from Cinder to make his move on her. Damnit, there was so much to be done! Adam whipped out his Scroll and tore Wilt off of his bed, already prepared to call Ilia for further orders when someone cleared their throat behind him.

"And who was she?"

Spinning on his heels, Adam had Wilt half-drawn before he'd realized just who it was. Weiss had her arms crossed, eyes locked onto his without so much as flinching at his near-assault. Standing just next to the door, Adam hadn't even seen her in his focused rage.

"... No one. Just a friend from my time in the White Fang." He couldn't afford to get anyone else involved before he had everything prepared, so just as he wielded Blake's parents as a weapon to have her back off of subjects he didn't wish to speak of, Adam spat out the name of the White Fang, knowing it would push Weiss away.

Her gaze hardened and her lips drew to a fine line. "Don't lie to me, Adam. I heard how you were speaking before you two left. Who is she?"

"I said no one—"

"We fought far too much when we started here for me not to know the tone of voice you have when you are angry!" Weiss stomped towards him, unfazed by the practically corporeal field of stress and bottled-up rage surrounding Adam. "And I heard you in those halls: you were positively livid! So, Adam 'Belladonna', I shall ask you again: who is Cinder Fall!" she demanded to know, jabbing a finger at his chest and glaring at him from eye-level. Adam blinked. Eye-level?

As his gaze slowly fell from hers to a glyph Weiss was standing on to match him in height, just a little of that tension managed to escape him. A broken chuckle escaped Adam as he collapsed onto his bed. To lose his anger was the last thing he needed, but even that small crack was all it needed to slip away.

"Cinder Fall... is someone holding Blake hostage." The words left his mouth tasting of ashes. All that was left now was the gravity of the situation, and with it, the suffocating loss. There was no way to hide the finality of his words and, through that, no way to prevent his team from inquiring further.

Silence.

"Are Ruby and Yang still with them?" He turned his head to find Weiss staring at him in shock, mouth slightly agape and barely-hidden fear lurking behind her gaze. To have someone taken hostage was not an alien experience for a Schnee: Weiss knew just how Adam must be feeling. She searched her mind for answers, questions, memories of what Winter would say to assuage her worries, only realizing a question had been asked when Adam asked it again.

"They left for ice cream after showing her teammates around. I'll retrieve them immediately!"

"Good. I'll explain the situation when we're all here."


"... Oh." It was all Weiss could even think of after Adam explained the situation to her. By now, she'd slumped down next to him, leaving the two of them to stare off into nothing. Ruby watched silently with a hand over her mouth, sitting next to Yang on the opposite side. The rising moon broke through their curtains, leaving them in shadow, yet filling the center of the room with moonlight.

"So we're gonna go beat them down, right? They can't just get away with that!" Yang, however, was not so quiet on the issue, jumping right up to her feet into the light and slamming her fists together.

"As far as we're concerned, they already have. We can't afford to get Ozpin involved," Adam countered.

Ruby hopped up next to Yang with determination burning in her silver eyes. "We just won't tell him, then! We can stop this, ourselves!"

"Ruby, she's at the head of all of this," Adam responded. "Both the Torches and the White Fang's leaders are bowing to her for one reason or another, and the White Fang alone is too dangerous for all of you. The only reason I have told you this much is just in case Cinder tries to get too close."

"And you want to take them down all by yourself, right?" Yang prodded at Adam; he knew full well that victory against odds like this would be unlikely, to say the least. Even so, he snorted and met Yang's gaze.

"I will find a way. I've fought against the odds my entire life, and this is no different. It's bad enough that Blake is her hostage, I refuse to have you three put at even greater risk than before. We have already had this conversation: the situation changes nothing."

"It changes everything," Weiss protested, turning to stand with her team. "Surely, you do not expect us to stand by and let this happen!"

"Were you not the one refusing to fight Torchwick and the White Fang, in the first place?"

"That was before it was personal, Adam! Students should not be jumping into the business of police and proper authorities, but as your friends and teammates it is our responsibility to help one another in their time of need!"

"Sounds like an 'aye' to me!" Ruby joined in. "No more excuses, Mister! We're in this whether you like it or not!"

"Besides, it sounds like even if we weren't involved she'd try to pick a fight with us!" Yang declared. "I don't know about you, but even if she has us beat, I'd rather go down swinging!"

Adam stared at the three from his bed in the shadows: each of them determined to not leave a friend of theirs behind—or be left behind themselves, for that matter. This was an argument they'd had before, and every time, he'd ended up on the losing end of it. He had a team now, and it was their job to help one another no matter what it was. Had Yang stormed in saying someone had kidnapped Ruby, he wouldn't have let Ozpin himself stop him from fighting alongside her. Even—an errant thought fluttered through his mind—if the White Fang had targeted one of the few Schnees left.

"So, then, you wish to fight Cinder, the White Fang and Torchwick alike from the lowest of goons to the most vicious of officers, so matter how dangerous they may be?" Adam spoke softly, and slowly pushed himself to his feet.

"Uh-huh!" Yang and Ruby agreed at once. Weiss was quieter, only nodding. These were both his allies and friends. Going alone wouldn't just put himself at risk, now, but Blake and them as well.

He stepped forward into the light, the embers of rebellion in his emerald eyes rising to a fire. "You want to halt an entire conspiracy burning away at the very supports of the entire Kingdom of Vale and go from reading history to being a part of it?"

"Yeah!" All three called, now, determined. He wouldn't be alone in this. Cinder would fall, and it would be at their hands.

"To save Blake from dark forces that not even she knows of, and rise up through the flames as the strongest students Beacon has ever known?"

"YEAH!" It was a smaller chorus than Adam was used to, but he could manage.

"Again!" A little theatrics never hurt.

"YEAH!"

With a proud smirk, he crossed his arms. "Good!" A soft chuckle escaped Adam before he let himself grow serious.

"You're still not ready."

He was met with a trio of confused cries, and he held a hand up to stop any inevitable complaints. Yes, they were certainly determined, but Adam still stuck to his guns: they would not be ready to fight the core of the criminal underworld, let alone Cinder, in their current condition. To allow them to do so would be irresponsible.

"Tomorrow at nightfall, we meet in weapons training room 301-B. Ruby, bring as many of your plans and team exercises as you can." Adam took a deep breath and hardened his gaze. This was the crossing of the Rubicon. There was no turning back, now: they were and would be his team likely not just for four years but for decades.

"You may not be ready to face the upper echelons yet, but I will make you ready."


The next night, the three girls of RWAY entered 301-B to find Adam sitting at it's far end, already waiting for them. Training dummies were pushed to the edges of the rooms and tables were set aside as barriers, leaving only a vast, empty space in the center. Adam looked like he was asleep: his legs were crossed, eyes closed, head tilted down, and whereas they were so used to him perpetually carrying an aura of tension around him, he seemed... at peace.

"Ah, good, you're early," Adam spoke without moving an inch.

Yang stifled a chuckle as the three strode towards the center. "Are you going to keep being this dramatic through all of our 'new' training?"

Adam masked his sigh as a deep breath and opened his eyes. How Raven's child somehow managed to end up her polar opposite, he'd never know.

Well, he could hazard a guess, but that wouldn't explain everything.

"I suppose not, but do not expect me to be entirely friendly during my lessons. Make no mistake, these lessons are not how to slay Grimm, but on how to slay man. It is a different fight, with different rules and boundaries, and very few, if any, will be cleaner than those followed during the war against Grimm."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, Adam." Yang casually waved off Adam's warnings and leaned over him.

With a more obvious sigh, he finally stood up and grabbed his blade.

Ruby looked around the room and couldn't help but notice all their dummies being put aside. "Uh, how're we going to do our team attacks without any targets?"

"We'll be doing my lesson first, today. A show of what will be needed to continue." Adam slowly unsheathed his blade and waved Yang back with a lazy sweep of it. He spun it once in his hand, then pointed it to the three. "What are the four uses of aura?"

Ruby rose to the challenge. "Oh! Um, let's see... defend yourself from lethal wounds, manifest your Semblance, enhance yourself and your weapon, um..." She trailed off as Adam looked at her expectantly.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Dust, you dolt! Processed Dust requires an awakened aura to be wielded at all in its pure form, whereas raw Dust's true potential can only be accessed safely by active aura use," she recited.

Adam looked between the three and motioned towards them with Wilt before sheathing his blade.

"What about the fifth?"

The three glanced to one another with various looks of confusion.

"I'd heard some rumors about some Huntsmen being able to project their aura?" Ruby offered.

"Correct. An advanced tactic that is kept out of the public eye, and for good reason: the fifth art, the projection of one's aura is considered to be highly dangerous for a student or anyone with less than an expert knowledge. If you aren't careful in combat, you could easily cast aside half of it with a single mistake. Outside of combat, anything short of absolute dedication can still leave you not just exhausted, but unable to use aura for long periods of time. A death wish, were you in the field." He turned and with a flicker of red, slashed at the air and had sheathed his blade once more in the blink of an eye. One of the training dummies collapsed, cut in half.

"Advanced?" Yang questioned. "Ren can do stuff like that and—no offense to the guy—his solo combat record's kinda meh."

Adam nodded. "It only means he's spent a lot of time honing his aura. It's not a direct evolution of anything, only a more complicated way of using it."

Ruby gasped. "That's how you do your clone-thing!"

"Good observation. It's a more advanced use of it, and one I don't expect any of you to grasp until you're upperclassmen at least." He ignored Ruby deflating, settled into a combat stance once more, placed his hand on Wilt's hilt, and took a deep breath. With a swipe of his blade, a shadowy afterimage slid forth already mid-swing into a follow-up, a third forming ahead in a roundhouse kick. Defying his instinct, Adam sheathed his blade and allowed the shadows to remain, already beginning to fade.

"Check my aura."

Ruby drew out her Scroll and gasped when she looked at the status. "You're already at seventy percent!"

Adam allowed his soul to draw him forward, darting through the images and leaving only wisps of black in their place. "Now."

"A little over ninety..."

"And that brief moment taking over a tenth of my aura is why techniques like that are closely watched. If I perform that in the field and couldn't regain contact with my projections, I could cripple myself, and manipulation of aura is one of my specialties. The consequences of attempting to use it without at least three months' worth of training can be catastrophic. We will be doing so in three weeks," Adam bluntly informed them.

Whereas Yang looked more curious than anything and Ruby was bouncing up and down at the opportunity to learn a new way of fighting, Weiss looked like she'd swallowed a brick of ice.

"Why can't we just shoot them? I mean, that's why we got bullets, right?" Yang questioned.

"For the same reason we need such heavy weaponry in the first place: anti-materiel rifles, heavy Dust shotgun shells, and Dust-based spells are required because maintaining the same aura empowerment on a single bullet—let alone multiple—across long distances as you do behind a swing is almost impossible. At closer ranges, I'm sure you will agree to how useful this tool is."

"Are we just going to ignore the 'catastrophic consequences' of trying to achieve this level in a scant quarter of the time we should be learning for?" Weiss cried out.

"I've always wanted to punch a guy in the face from across the room, but I'm gonna have to agree with Weiss: how are you going to teach us all of that in such a short time, anyway?"

"The same way I was taught." A slim, devious smirk slipped across Adam's face. He popped Wilt an inch free from its sheath. "Necessity."

Upon seeing Yang actually thinking over this and Ruby drawing out Crescent Rose, unable to wait already, Weiss once again tried to be the voice of reason: "I am perfectly fine with risking my life to stop Torchwick and the White Fang, but I certainly am not okay with doing so before we even step out of the school's boundaries!"

"If you wish to stand a chance against the upper echelons of even the Torches, you will need these techniques. If Cinder is here already, then that means time is short. I know that as a team, we must fight as one, but, I won't let you continue without being as prepared as possible. You could always return to the life of a student like I wanted, of course, but—"

"Fine, fine! I better not get a scratch from this..." Weiss grumbled under her breath.

"There will be no promises on that matter, because there is a sixth use for aura. One not just kept from the public eye, but forbidden for all Huntsmen and Huntresses." Adam once more drew his blade, yet this time, it glimmered with the same crimson as his aura. It gathered around its edge with an unnerving resemblance to blood. "Yang, is your aura active?"

"Oh! Uh, didn't know we'd be jumping into it this fast, yeah, I can start it up." Gold flickered around Yang as she stepped closer and dropped into a fighting stance. Adam's lips twitched upwards into a smile.

"Good. It will be the last time I will ask. Allow me to demonstrate—" He was already on Yang, swinging his blade out in a wide arc right for her.

She raised her arms up to deflect it with her aura, only to let out a startled grunt. With a brief flash of yellow, Adam's blade had slipped clean through her aura and left a slight gash on her arm, just deep enough to begin trickling blood.

"Ow, shit! Time out: what was that!" Yang let out a little hiss as she checked her arm over: that wasn't just pain, that was an actual wound, even if it was stitching itself back together, already. She tentatively touched around it just to make sure she wasn't dreaming: her aura was up, wasn't it?

"The sixth use of aura: focusing your willpower to a point where it bypasses your opponent's very soul: aura penetration."

Weiss frowned in disdain at the mere thought. "The 'art' of a murderer."


A/N: Let me tell you, it was extraordinarily hard not to make Adam come off as too... OC-y in this chapter. Knowledge of the plot, powers clearly beyond the main crew, loner attitude, etc. all sort of came to a head, here, and it made for a difficult chapter to write.

The good news is that Adam probably won't be casting such a huge shadow from here on in, since Blake's lead role in V2 begins to die down, RWAY grows more steadily in power and focus begins changing to Ruby as a leader yet again.

That being said, comment and criticism are especially welcome for this chapter.