Neo sat next to an unconscious Cole for the second time in that month to admire her crush, but this time was different, instead of just sitting there she was cuddling up to Cole while typing a message to Roman, "he ran off before I could tell him and since Adam has some respect for you, he's letting me stay until you arrive, we're a few miles southwest of you".
It had been a few days since Cole was discovered by the last people cinder wanted to deal with, and because they mildly respected Roman and because he was one of the few humans that could walk onto the camp without hesitation meant she was screwed if she showed up.
'i think maybe cinder and the others should be fine without us' she thought as she put her head on Cole's chest and fell asleep listening to his heartbeat.
In his sleep he brought his right hand up to her waist and pulled her close to him lightly smelling her which brought out a rarely seen smile on his face, but unfortunately for her someone walked in, so instinctively she rushed out of the tent being careful not to wake him, using her semblance to disappear neo looked back and saw his smile remained making her blush.
Checking Cole's health Adam noticed that even though he was rid of the mangled flesh that was once a hand and forearm, Cole still had a blood infection to worry about and a high fever as well as not being able to keep anything down, when he would wake after an hour or so he'd drink water and puke.
Adam came back in he saw Cole's condition getting worse, so he used a syringe to inject antibiotics in Cole's good arm and had Ilia cook a vegetable soup with garlic and a side of bread for him, so Cole could get better.
Even though the white fang no longer attacked people like they used to they still protected the Faunas population from people, this change was because when Cole met him in the mountains relaxing next to a fire at the age of sixteen Adam and Cole talked the entire time and from their long hours of talking -if raging out were conversing- Adam looked deep within himself and saw that while he'd not meant to kill the man halfway through their cargo transfer he still took innocent blood and one after another he slowly knew that while the white fang were terrorists he was still making strides to kill less and less but still fought with the brutality of a beast, thanks to the odd encounter of a certain white haired boy he saw that he didn't need Blake and yes, she may have abandoned him, it's not like he loved her in that context.
Blake made her choice and she'll pay that price in time, but right now, someone needed his aid and he'd be damned if he didn't help this idiot one last time. (and because he secretly saw Cole as a Platonic brother). 'a kid like him made me change my mind, but not my aim... I wonder if he'll be strong enough to kill her' he smirked mischievously and went back to taking his bowl of soup and ordered two extras sent to his tent five minutes later.
"Ilia, take this to Adam's tent; he's been rather picky about his meals lately, so don't say anything stupid again"
Silently taking the tray she nodded and walked into the tent, looked around for Adam and scowled at Cole's resting form just before she set the bowl down on a table and for a few seconds of spite and anger contemplated spitting in the soup before leaving but changed her mind when she heard him whimpering in his sleep, his tears flowed like a pair of rivers as he flinched and grunted begging someone for something, but she couldn't entirely make it out.
'I know Adam's White Fang cell is reformed and all, but why is this disgusting human here, or...why save one if our war is against them?' she thought as she sat down watching over him since no one was.
His heart pounding in his chest, he was desperately trying to escape an unknown enemy and clawed at the ground before falling to the ground he felt the sharp fingers of a rotten hand latched into his calf pulling him towards an unmarked grave by a decomposing human vaguely resembling rayla or at the very least what was left of her. Falling apart and dragging him towards her with every yank and pull at his leg and worked up his body the closer he got to the hole.
"You could've saved us!" she had blood streaming down her face and almost begged him.
"Why didn't you save mom"
She shoved her finger bones into his thighs and pulled him down the hole, falling six feet onto her body.
"It was raven's fault!" opening his eyes her body was missing, but the wounds were still there and just as he stood up to look around a pair of liquefying flesh falling off the fingers had grabbed him, and before he could struggle out of its grasp heard a bloodcurdling scream that created a long forgotten fear that gripped his heart and felt like a hand had been squeezing it causing his voice to vanish from in his throat, his terror was amplified by an unknown creature, "you should have saved me, why didn't you save me!" the creature said before choking him. "You ran from us like a coward!"
"I was just a kid, not a fighter, not a strong man, not even mom could've beat them"
"YOU USED THAT STORM TO KILL ALL OF US!" it roared as its arm pulled back to hit him a bolt of lightning struck them both creating large holes in their backs, and just before he died he muttered "I'm so sorry, I never wanted this" he choked on his blood hoping to find blood but froze seeing a Grimm hand with white plating and black blood coated the hand in anguish he screamed in the sky; his voice warped and garbled from a human cry to what sounded like a deep and nuckelavee.
Cole he shot up from the bed gasping and frantically looked around the tent in anguish and panic, Ilia flinched at his sudden movement, and crying out for someone named rayla definitely caught her attention.
Cole wanted the room for threats when he spotted her and stared at her, and it was solely because he swore he saw rayla only to realize it was a girl with freckles on her brown face, a tight bodysuit stopping shy of her shoulders and midway down her thighs, on her belt he spotted a metal whip and a few small pouches, possibly for dust crystals.
She scowled at his traveling gaze and said "eyes to yourself you filthy human, i don't swing that way" Cole sighed and looked her in the eyes as he stood up shakily and said "sorry, thought you were someone else"
"Who'd you think I was?" she asked angrily sneering at him as Cole took the bowl of soup sitting near his bed with his name on it, he went to hold it with both hands but when his left side wasn't responsive he looked over and saw half of his arm was gone and wrapped in gauze and tied off with brown silk of some kind.
The both of them sipped on the soup in relative silence when ilia looked over at him with mild curiosity; she was a bit surprised he didn't look her way when he said, "it doesn't matter either way" putting the bowl down and went for the second bowl when ilia pushed a plate of bread near his lap and said nothing.
After a minute or so he decided to look up at her to meet her gaze and heard her angrily say "that's what I was going to ask but it's not something I can give an answer to" she said putting a spoon in front of him "all i can say is that Adam told me you've been out for a few hours; I'm guessing by the red face, cold sweats and slow pace you ate the soup I'd say that you have a high fever and a blood infection- oh and your arm is missing too" Cole knew that the last part was emphasized with a bit of humor and mockery towards him, but he chose to ignore her jab.
"I'd ask for a hand but...well, you know why..." he said gesturing to his left before gently grabbing the spoon and dipped it in the bowl but paused and looked up at her in the eye with a suspicious look and asked "you didn't...spit in this one or anything worse did you?"
Rubbing her face in annoyance she grumbled out "I was going to, but Adam was apparent that I don't taint your meal, so enjoy it while you can human" she said that last word almost as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he bit his tongue and ignored her.
Cautiously, he put his pinky into the bowl to test how hot it was and when he noticed how not-so-hot it was he opted to just drank it all and let out a sigh and spoke with a glare of his own "my name does exist miss, it's not scum, or human, and sure as hell not any other slur for my species you have tucked away inside that-" he paused to rethink his explanation "...unique head of yours" wiping his mouth as respectfully as possible "I'm Cole, what's yours?" he held out his hand for her to shake only for her to lightly smack it aside. "Name's ilia, not miss."
"it's a pleasure to meet you ilia, but may I ask why your cheeks are turning pink?" her skin quickly changed to red and yellow as she grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and asked angrily, "you got a problem with my skin ? huh, human? Got any jokes for a chameleon?"
"Far from it ilia, I actually didn't know that you were Faunas" he said pushing her away just as she let him go and gasped backing away from him, but he kept his eyes on hers when he continued his explanation.
"i think it's beautiful how your skin changes color" he stood up making sure to give her space "the red that surrounds the yellow on you reminds me of the sunsets in Mistral during...the spring festival." his gaze dropped when he said festival and sat back down fighting his emotions from the memories of him and rayla playing games, dancing to music, swimming in the creek, and watching the sunset just before falling asleep together smiling in the flower fields.
"Hey...remnant to Cole...are you there?" she asked snapping her fingers in his face making him jolt and looked in her direction.
"Oh, sorry, uhm what'd you say?" he said faking a smile with eyes full of pain being fought to contain it. 'I wish I didn't have emotions' he thought to himself, hating how sick the happiest moments made him feel these days.
"I asked you why you said that to me" she said sitting down with her bowl of food. "Kinda odd for a human to complement the enemy of their looks"
"and who says I see you as my enemy?" he asked, raising a brow at her. Taking her time to form a proper answer and eat her meal, she gave it a few seconds to ponder and said, "because humans slaughter my kind ever since the dawn of time, and most humans these days are still repulsed by us"
"Well considering Faunas have enhanced senses, can travel longer in distance, hit harder, and are smarter in most scenarios. While humans aren't as impressive, both of our species still have the drive to achieve our goals" Cole looked at her and froze when he saw pride in her eyes when he basically admitted to being inferior to her and smirked at him.
"That being said I don't completely support the philosophy of what the white fang are trying to do" just as she was about to tell him off Adam walked in with a big box, three guards, and a few who appeared to be some kind of doctors.
"Good, you're awake; your surgery starts in a few hours. Follow me while these people prepare this tent" Adam looked back mid-stride, turned to Ilia and said "take his armor to the blacksmith and have him repair the damage".
She nodded and saluted him by pounding her fist over her heart "yes sir" grabbing the box that stored his armor with a bit of difficulty, as she walked away she tripped over the wool in the tent and fell onto Cole.
Ilia shoved him away and walked off muttering about him being beneath her for touching any part of her before leaving Adam with Cole and two white fang members, both of whom sneered at him and one went to say something to him, but Adam spoke first. "So, how many times am I going to have to bail you out of trouble, little lightning?"
Cole kept a straight face and replied, "to be fair I wasn't expecting the great Adam Taurus to come running to my aid, and taking my arm isn't something I would even consider in terms of helping me"
"I was talking about rescuing you from cinder and her idiots" Adam said, motioning for Cole to follow him. "But if I'm being honest I found you that way against a tree" he lied, not wanting to bring up the ashen haired duo he ran into.
Cole smirked and said looking at him "I'll give you a hand when I can repay your kindness but I assume it wasn't worth keeping was it?" the guards behind them burst into laughter for a few seconds but froze when they saw Adam give them a hard
glare "go help Ilia while I talk with him" Cole stared at Adam and noticed how upset he was with the guards he'd just sent away.
"I was only trying to lighten the mood, but obviously, it was a bad idea" he said with a hint of uneasiness and quickly noticed Adam was looking at him like his mother and sister did when he was in the same condition (minus the missing arm)
"Cole, I'm pretty sure your arm was beyond saving because it may have been infected and was definitely had been killing you, so making jokes about it around white fang Faunas; the ones that hate your kind only gives them ammunition to belittle you."
"We both know that lions don't care about the opinions of sheep Adam "
Adam looked at Cole and frowned knowing full well Cole hated being criticized for something he had no control of which made his mutual respect decrease a bit. "Just pretend this didn't happen, and I won't fuss over it."
"By the way Cole" he stopped in front of him placing a hand on his shoulder, "even though you were out for a few hours i noticed a short woman following us, any idea who she was?"
Cole whipped around looking Adam in the face horrified, ruby found him? How? When did she start looking? Was it her doing when that bullhead crashed two weeks ago?
"H-how did she-"
Cole was about to ask Adam but froze when both heard packs of Grimm in the distance roaring and honing in on Cole's dread and yelled coming out of the tent "everyone, stop everything you're doing; we've got Grimm incoming, get your weapons and fast!"
Adam quickly grabbed Cole and ushered him into a tent and took off his mask revealing one soft blue eye and an SDC brand staring back at deep blue and green mismatched orbs, with all the time he had spent traveling in the mountains and forest Adam had hoped he'd never see this much fear in Cole, but it wasn't really possible since Cole bottled everything up and let no one in to help him through his troubles.
Before Cole knew it Adam was speaking to him, and he knew he was since he clearly saw his lips moving but heard none of it, a few seconds later a beautiful voice spoke to him, "oh my dearest Cole, remnant hasn't been good to you...has it?" an older yet familiar feminine voice asked cooing to him as Adam left him in the tent after putting his jacket over his shoulders and sat him down. "I want to avoid dealing with this" he said gripping his throbbing head, his heart pounding in his ears and made him freak out more.
"Listen to me Cole, I don't know who's hunting you, but I'm pretty sure you're safe from them, so just trust us and calm down"
"You aren't real, this isn't happening, I'm just dreaming" Cole said struggling to keep calm, took a try at breathing deeply but shook like he had gone hypothermic.
Just as he grabbed his head thinking about anything else, a beautiful woman rose from the shadows, cloaked and under the dark she wore a silver dress with wilted roses running along the left thigh angled toward the bottom, exposing her pale yet creamy white skin was a cut on the right side of her dress, a small silver locket hung from her neck by a delicately thin gold chain that was obliviously stronger than it looked, her hair was as silky as it was black and shined in the minimal lighting the tent offered.
She had a gentle smile that made his skin crawl. Her slender fingers gently gripped his chin as she kept smirking "if you are so sure I'm not real then how come you can feel this?" she asked as she let his chin go and hugged him tight for a few seconds then said in his ear with a soft whisper "rejoin our family in Lanka, y'know the place right?" she backed off toward the exit before she stopped and said "oh, and make sure to come alone, or we kill them all...including your little rose, wouldn't want to dirty my hands with even more blood" with that all spelled out clearly to him, she disappeared leaving him alone and lost for words almost more terrified that she was most likely allied cinder in some way.
"Why did she feel so familiar? And why did she hug me?" he thought before spitting out some blood on the floor and put Adam's jacket on as he left the tent to look for him, "why was I so terrified, I never felt fear like that since..." Cole so deep in thought that he didn't notice the bright red bolt of lightning shot out at him from the edge of the camp and moved so fast that only Cole noticed it.
Holding up his arm he shot his own bolt at the oncoming one and hit it ten feet off and caused it to explode in a thunderous blast, showering the area in bright red, blue, and orange-gold electricity. Immediately wiping his fear away with anger, seeing that he knew only one person who could have shot the bolt at him. "You can't scare me anymore, whoever you are" he bellowed at the sudden appearance of another cloaked figure.
"come on out so I can kill you, I promise to make it slow" everyone came outside to see what all the commotion was about just after Cole began angrily pulsing his lightning over his entire body showing how prepared he was to fight regardless of not having a weapon he could still shoot lightning out of his hand and knew hand-to-hand combat could work if he was smart enough even though he had only one arm.
I apoligize for publishing late again but I'm trying to think my story through and write a great story for those still reading.
Any criticism is appreciated as long as you have something that could improve the story
Comment anything you think could be worked on at:
H6pp1n355_in_misery.
Criticism is appreciated
