The air was cold and ruthless to her skin and lungs as she sprinted through the jungle jumping over rocks, fallen trees and the occasional grimm in her way. Her hands grasped for a vine to climb but as soon as her hands had they fell with her sending her crashing into a boulder.

"a woman like you shouldn't have come here" Adam said sheathing his sword.

The woman coughed harshly lifting herself up leaning on the rock behind her for support but shook in every inch of her form but it was not because of fear of anything, just from overexertion and the freeze of the night's air.

"I heard you in the camp months ago when cole had left, you pretend he's family to you terrorists but he's not" she rasped out and coughed blood from trying to keep her bloody nose from dripping.

A knee came crashing into the rock creating a few cracks but her chest wasn't, it was almost like he'd passed through her and his doubts about it grew when she threw herself at him trying for his sword when he reverse grip swiped at her behind him and watched her separate and go around him like smoke.

"I know why you're here but not how" in a huff she threw down her blade and held her arms wide at her sides showing she'd stand down, "surrendering already" he said before slashing her through her abdomen but she stood tall and whole. "what? I cut you, I know I did"

she turned and lowered her arms shaking less but still fought to not cough "take a look at your sword genius"

Adam held it up in the moon light and saw no blood anywhere on the blade nor the warm wet feeling of blood he hated on his glove, he grew confused not understanding how this could've been done. "now will you listen to what I have to say, cause im on the clock" he tried to grab her neck only for his hand to pass through.

He couldn't understand it of how she was doing it, maybe it was an illusion, or maybe she wasn't of this world, it couldn't be a semblance...could it?

"judging by how your reaction you think I'm not human, but rest assured that I am" she pushed him aside to step onto the log behind him and sat down. "I'm cole's sister, and im trying to get him back to our house in lanka village. and the how I'm still alive is a mystery to me too but here I am" Adam couldn't believe this, first there are two guys with the same affinity for tossing lightning without dust crystals and now a woman that can turn in to smoke, what the hell was happening to the world? "to be honest, I was under the impression that his sister was dead he told me himself"

Instead of an explanation she just disappeared into the ground and chuckled ad his attacks to her face passing through her harmlessly.

He stared at the spot for a few seconds until he turned away and walked off to get back to camp.

"this world is getting better at creating the impossible" he said sheathing his sword and running in the opposite direction. "I hope cole takes this news better than me cause I don't much believe it myself" he said to himself jumping out of the trees and into a bullhead with the white fang symbol on it "get me to the high leader, I need to talk to her about something important"

The bullhead shot through the air as fast as it could go and the only thing that mattered to him was getting answers. while the ride would take longer he still felt the need to sit down with Ilia ,whom of which trembled with fear not daring to say a word.

"Ilia im not upset with you, you did your job and followed orders to the letter." he said calmly. "that being said" standing up he gritted his teeth after grabbed her by the front of her suit "how did a group of trash cans and ironwood get the better of you!" he bellowed before dropping her in the seat "cole said that he didn't need me protecting him any more and told me to go back to the white fang" slamming his fist into the side of the hull near her face he yelled "then what went wrong!"

"ironwood and his androids were waiting for him at the front door but attacked me by mistake; I got captured cause cole knew me and after they had no use for me they threw me out into the jungle...and well, you know the rest" she looked down at her blue and grey skin trying not to burst into tears "those weeks we traveled together made me realize-" holding up his hand to silence her, he said begrudgingly "save it Ilia, cause as far as I'm concerned you're feelings towards cole are not for me to hear and as much as you disgust me, you're still a capable fighter and white fang member; you still have value."

Her eyes lit up at his words but sat quietly He left her to her thoughts and decided that it was best to take a quick nap while they waited, Ilia soon followed suit but she took a bit longer seeing as she was still in trouble.

After a few hours Ilia woke up to the bullheads doors open up and Kahn's guards escort the pair to the leader's large throne room, in said throne sat the Siena Kahn, who sat waiting attentively for an explanation and hoped it wasn't more bad news.

Bowing on one knee Adam spoke loudly "leader Kahn I have news regarding-"

Sienna stood up and deliberately walked down the steps interrupting him not uttering a word. She gently held his chin to look her in the piercing gold eyes and he decided to stand "cinder and her young pups are dead, Roman and the girl are missing, and your pet human has been captured by Ironwood."

She took a deep breath and walked to Ilia and gave her the "get out" look but she was frozen by her gaze. Adam was terrifying but Siena Kahn? She was on a whole other level, "Ilia, leave" Adam said with warning in his voice. Thankfully he got through to her and out the door she went, "Adam " she breathed out rubbing her temples with a disgruntled groan "I already know why you came here and as much as I would love to help you, our war to fight for equates for all Faunas outweighs your little human friend; if the human general ironwood has him he's already a dead man" she stood up from her seat and descended the red steps as calmly as she could, "if you have anything to say that can prove he's worth rescuing I'm all ears" she stopped next to him and stared into his blue eye, some with the privilege to see it saw ice and cold steel, but sienna Kahn? She saw a man that begged for what everyone deserved in this wretched world: the ability to walk out in public and not be stared at with judgment and distain. "can we talk about this privately?" he asked with hesitation.

"of course, we can grab lunch while we talk" she said evenly with an inviting gesture.

"thank you leader Kahn" he said following her out the door, all Adam cared about was the survival of his race and the rare few humans that proved they were worth his time to keep alive, but sometimes cole had gotten in his way, preventing him from killing innocent people and it slowly taught him to hold off on killing which in turn started to make Siena rethink killing only people who deserved it.

But after cole nearly hospitalized the seven best students in beacon and became just as infamous as the white fang -despite not really committing any real crimes- but now had been captured, everyone was on a razor's edge between life and death. what were the council thinking when they christened him with the aliases: demon of beacon, lightning boy, and when they found out he could drain nero-electric energy from people and temporarily disable someone's aura and disrupt their semblance, or deactivate it all together. (despite not killing anyone that they knew of) which is probably why they kidnapped cole.

'They'll most likely turn him into a living weapon or an assassin since aura suppression technology didn't work' Adam thought as the two of them sat down at a table. "now, let's talk, about that boy" Adam chuckled and said "you do know that he's old enough to be my younger brother right, I am 27 after all"

waving him off she took a bite of her fish sandwich and smirked at him, "on that note...I have to admit, you've changed quite a lot".

This caught his attention and had him reeling with a bit of nervousness and emotionally pulled himself back from comfortable to on guard, but hid it quite well, "what do you mean by that" he asked taking a drink of water, watching her closely he saw a look of knowing in her eyes that had him on edge, "I mean that while you do still fight the humans you hold back from murder now. and you've been actively trying to change" she replied taking another bite of fish. "I don't see how this information is relevant to-"

"Adam stop, I'm happy that you changed for the better as a person but I'm not going to condone what you let that human do to that boy" she interrupted sternly and pulled up a video on her phone and tapped play.

[time,19:44,target:C-103] on screen showed a first person view of a droid filming cole fighting against a few training droids.

Cole dashed across the area towards a bot with large water and air dust crystals in its knuckles.

Lightning erupted out and around him as they both threw a punch and just as their fists connected, Cole's left arm blew off in chunks of black flesh and bone shards that left quite a wet and gory mess.

Dropping to the floor cole howled in agony that seemed almost too inhuman to have been cole screaming. however much to Adam's surprise he quickly sat up and shot bolts of lightning into the torsos of all but one of the droids and rushed the droid filming him and watched him slash its head clean off as his rage took over the bot filmed him continuously bash the droid into pieces, he backed away and sat down in exhaustion with a now missing arm that thankfully didn't have much of the grimm flesh left. but the dust crystal could've been what destroyed his arm in the first place but it was still a theory.

Blood pooled around him from his stub and he passed out hitting the ground splashing water, grimm chunks, and blood all over the floor.

[end of recording]

Adam watched the phone exit the video and shut off. He stared off with bated breath unable to comprehend what he watched. He's seen bodies in all manners of battles fought, and the realization that he'd let this happen drove him to wretch. He soon realized that the large weight of guilt he was now plagued with was his to bear. "leader- Siena, I swear to the gods I didn't know what he did to cole, I was told watts was helping him" he sounded like he was begging for forgiveness and this made a sad smile creep onto her lips. "if my intel is correct then it seems his arm is to be replaced with the best prosthesis Atlas can muster and we found that the boy is in fact human but he's also not" she said grabbing her drink. Adam relaxed a bit and leaned in folding his hands "what do you mean he is and isn't human?" it didn't make any sense, was he a half breed?

"what I mean is that he's human but he possesses the abilities of a Faunas; near perfect eyesight, increased strength, impeccable hearing, the odd part is that the moment he's hurt his body heals almost instantaneously. While its obvious that he can control lightning but his ability can disable aura, disrupt semblances, and to a larger extent he can glide through the air but only as long as he's high enough, but that's all anyone knows...as far as remnant knows, his powers are limited but quickly growing" Adam digested everything that he'd been told and couldn't believe that cole was so young yet so dangerous.

"is he really that much of a problem that he's- actually I can believe that, the white fang is just as infamous now" he said chuckling nervously. Siena sighed and said quietly "no Adam " she looked him in the eyes and said "he's so much worse. If Atlas turns him he could become the most dangerous person in all of remnant" that statement sent chills all through him, though he wouldn't let it show. "im sorry Adam " she stood up with a steel hard expression and looked him over one last time "but in order to protect remnant's future he needs to die, you aren't coming with on this next assault" walking out the doors of the dining hall she heard him rush past her and harshly grabbed her by her arms behind her toned back and pinned her to the wall keeping her off the ground just enough for her to stand on her toes.

Adam's eyes were cold and deadly staring into hers when she looked behind her, "we are far from apologies high leader Kahn; you won't touch him got it?" he seethed with a look of a feral beast; an enraged bull with a target in it's sights. "I would think twice about this taurus, he may be a soft spot in your heart but he's just too dangerous" he slammed her head into the wall and roared "we aren't any better off Siena! Just like cole, the white fang is potentially the most dangerous and infamous thing on remnant but we're all capable of change" he threw her to the ground and threw his sword aside and stood her up practically nose to nose "killing one person wont make the world any better, trust me high leader I would know!" just as the guards came to Siena's side, he let her go and walked away grabbing his weapon.

"Adam, he defeated armies of grimm, took down half of the white fang, defeated at least a dozen of beacon's best students. not to mention he can possibly bring down lightning storms at will, he can't be allowed to live" from fifty feet away Adam shot a pot behind her missing her by an inch and yelled "you sound like all those we fought against when you talk like they do. that human is the reason you and I are still free, I chose to trust one human and we as an organization hadn't been attacked; touch a single hair on his head and I will not hesitate to kill any and all who get in my way" walking out the doors he hadn't noticed that his aura had engulfed him like an inferno, it flared about with a deep crimson. In spite of how respectful other faunas were toward him they all kept out of his way out of fear of getting caught in his path so they all saluted him as he passed by regardless of what they'd been doing.

"Adam, you had better pray we don't meet on the battle field tomorrow"

Adam said nothing walking down towards Ilia -whom immediately followed close behind- and walked onto the helipad where his personal bullhead was and took off as fast as it could and flew off to get cole and hide him somewhere safe, taking out his phone he sent out a mass text to every member of his branch in the white fang that read:

'Meet me at these coordinates' and in the folder attached to the message was cole's last known location 'p.s. no harm must come to him; wound as many humans as you want

But nothing fatal no questions asked' he pocketed it and set the craft to autopilot to watch the world pass by with a heavy sigh "Adam?" Ilia called out grabbing the bull's attention, "is it true?"

He looked at her with disinterest "be more specific Ilia " his voice had an unintended edge with a look just as sharp.

"about you having a soft spot for cole- I mean the human"

Waving her off he stood up and looked out the window towards the floating islands, after a few moments he looked at her "yes, it is. you deserve an explanation after all that you've done to help him and thankfully kept the white fang safe by not talking." He took a seat and motioned for her to sit. And did so with some hesitance.

"I found him in the wilds near our outpost holding a beowolf's jaws open four years ago and on impulse I killed it and unintentionally helped him out," he looked away to watch the world speed past them and sighed "at first I hated him based on his race when he said he was human at the time; finding out he might be both human and have all the advantages of a faunas was a shock; tolerating him was a pain, but when we talked we learned more about each other, the more I saw just how wrong I was and how far I went with my actions in the past" he clenched his fists and punched the hull. "I grew to care for him like a brother- a human no less. a few months after he saved a fox Faunas named Alison from a death stalker; she punched him for checking her for injuries and I had to separate her from him so she didn't do anything worse, but after he told her: 'it didn't matter if you were a Faunas or human you deserve help regardless' a chuckle escaped his lips "he even added that, life is a gift to all that share a heartbeat and killing one person was like killing everyone in remnant but helping one person was like saving everyone in remnant' I never understood it before now but I see what he'd meant" he strolled over to sit in the cockpit and left Ilia to think over what he'd said, for the first time she was at a loss for words, how could the most ruthless group become so fragmented merely through one person's actions and words of wisdom? Was the world really capable of changing solely because one souls choice to fight because it's the right thing to do so outweighed the need to have equity? Whatever it was that cole had it wasn't easy to attain.

from inside the cargo hold two figures sat back to back together, one sharpened their sword while the other just fiddled with a hilt of a weapon project they were still unsure would work.

"I thought technology was too confusing for you" a woman's voice cut through the quiet darkness.

"We both know building something without a power source is not complicated when you have the right teacher, materials and tools" a deep male voice said in reply with a bit of sarcasm.

"stealing my words and my specialty, and here I was worried you could catch on with these scrolls" she said holding up her phone device.

"Weep at the sight of my masterpiece cause it's our best yet; I still don't get the name scroll if it's mostly for calls"

The man chortled when the girl behind him playfully hit him in the arm.

"seriously though" she turned to look him in the eyes and tugged on his arm. green cat eyes looked into sunset amber gold ones "we both need to rest for tomorrow if we're going to help him tomorrow"

he smirked and stretched out popping his arms, shoulders, back and neck then sighed into a deep yawn with her doing the same and fell asleep under a tarp of bear and deer pelts since it was cold in the altitude so in order to get warmer they had to sleep closer than usual.

"hehehe, it's like that time you cuddled behind me when I was having nightmares at thirteen" she said

"I can't believe you still remember that...but yeah you do have a point, its pretty familiar"

"Well, minus the crying and begging to hold me tighter" she mused as his hold indeed got tighter.

"its because you have a bad habit of sneaking off at night and cause trouble, like when you set our kitchens aflame testing out your cooking skills" he chuckled at the memory.

"feels like a lifetime ago that's for sure" she said pocketing her scroll and went to sleep almost instantly.

Thanks for reading I hope to improve the next chapter.

I'm limiting each chapter to 4000 words or less from here on.

Comment anything you think could be worked on at:

H6pp1n355_in_misery.

Criticism is appreciated