This was the chapter that made me seriously consider making the entire story longer and more carefully planned. Alas, I can't dedicate any more time than I already have to this story so editing the last half of this small project is gonna be an interesting challenge ;;
I might slow the upload schedule down as life has gotten significantly more busy for me (but it'll also depend on the importance of the chapter).
It's hard to find time to work on my own things right now so please be patient with my chaotic schedule.
Hope you enjoy this massive chapter and thank you all so much for the support patience! 3
WARNING
This chapter contains content that MAY be disturbing to some viewers. I've included a CHAPTER SUMMARY AT THE END for anyone who has difficulty with some of the content.
Roses.
It was the first thing she smelled when she woke up again.
When Weiss opened her eyes she found herself laying in a small bedroom with a vase of red and white roses blooming on the windowsill. Sunlight streamed through the open windows, letting in a refreshing breeze.
She gingerly helped herself up, happy that she didn't want to hurl the instant she wasn't on her back. Her throat still felt sore and the bed was still too warm for her liking, but she was leagues better than when she woke up alone in that dark cave.
Weiss had no memories of how she ended up in the strange room, but judging by the peaceful atmosphere she assumed she was far from any danger.
The door squeaked open just as she was testing her legs' strength. An older woman, with a full head of silver hair, gasped and hurried to her side.
"You shouldn't be walking, young lady!"
Weiss was practically pushed back into bed by the tiny woman before she could get a single word out. The woman placed her wrinkled hand on top of Weiss' forehead and nodded.
"Still a bit warm, but you're doing much better."
"Erm…"
"You're going to catch another cold sitting up like that. Young people these days! Always so reckless!" The older woman waddled out of the room for a few minutes before returning with a pink-knitted blanket that perfectly matched Weiss' new nightgown and a glass of water.
"Wear this whenever you want to sit up. I'll be damned if you get sick again!" The woman hastily threw the blanket over Weiss' shoulders.
"W-where am I?"
"My house! Now drink!" The woman shoved the glass of water into her hands.
Weiss quietly obeyed the woman's strict instruction. She had a feeling rejecting the offer was not an option.
"You know how to listen to at least." The woman nodded in approval. "Can't say the same about some idiotic fools your age!"
"Thank you?" Weiss wasn't quite sure what to make of the lady.
"Sapphire." The woman introduced herself with a toothy grin. "You're Weiss, correct? Your handsome friend told me all about you."
She nearly choked on her water. "H-handsome friend?"
"Yes! The red-headed Faunus! He gave me quite a fright when I first bumped into him, this old lady isn't built for random Faunus men jumping out at her in the forest!"
"I-I'm sorry, who are you exactly?"
"The best doctor in this town! Well, technically the only doctor, but patients don't die under my care if that's what you're worried about. Your friend seems to trust me!"
Weiss was less surprised by Adam's dramatic entrance into Sapphire's life than the fact that he willingly went to a human doctor to ask for help. She searched the woman for any signs of Faunus heritage, but everything pointed to her being a regular human.
She leaned back against her pillow in utter disbelief.
'I must've woken up in the wrong dimension.' She thought of the only possible explanation for the current series of events.
"Now, enough chit-chat. You should be resting like a good patient! I'll prepare your medicine in the meantime." She pushed Weiss back beneath the covers with an impressive amount of strength.
"Wait! Where's Adam?" Weiss asked before Sapphire could leave the room.
"Oh, he's helping me run some errands! My assistants are off today, so I need to take advantage of all the extra muscle I can get." Sapphire beamed. "Don't worry, he'll return in a bit!"
Somehow Sapphire's response left her with more questions than answers, but one thing was for certain.
Adam was back and he wasn't going to leave her—at least not yet.
She anxiously counted down the minutes for him to return. Weiss wasn't sure what she wanted to say to him when he confronted her again, but right now she just wanted to see that he was here.
Her heart leapt up to her throat when she heard Sapphire squeal with delight as someone entered her house.
Weiss quickly helped herself up and raked her fingers through her loose hair. She was suddenly self-conscious that he'd be seeing her with her hair completely down. Even when they were travelling together, she always put in the effort to make sure her hair was tied up.
She tensed when the door squeaked open again. It was Sapphire again, but this time she was followed by Adam. One side of his face was covered by a black cloth, perfectly hiding that horrible brand from the world.
She blushed and looked down at her lap when their eyes met.
"Good, you're still looking alive!" Sapphire noted, seemingly oblivious to the tension between them. "Before you two catch up, Weiss needs medicine."
Once again she shoved something else into Weiss' hands. It was a cup filled with black liquid. Weiss grimaced, it looked and smelled like poison.
"Go on!" Sapphire beckoned impatiently. "The medicine isn't going to drink itself!"
After forcing down the most disgusting thing she'd ever tasted, Sapphire left Adam with strict instructions to call her if Weiss' condition took a turn for the worse before leaving them alone. Weiss almost wished the older woman stayed behind as the room felt 10 times smaller with just the two of them together.
Adam awkwardly pulled up a chair beside her bed while Weiss took a keen interest in twirling a strand of her hair around her fingers.
"Sapphire's uh…interesting." Weiss was the first to break the tense silence.
"She's strange, but she's good," Adam said quietly. "She saved your life."
"And she's human."
"Yeah." He folded his arms. "But she doesn't mind me. I didn't expect—" he looked like he wanted to say more but he cut himself short.
A strong breeze blew a pink flower petal onto her bed covers.
"Was it…really that bad?" She asked him.
He didn't answer right away, instead choosing to study the roses blooming on the windowsill.
"I didn't think you would make it." He finally answered her.
The fact that she couldn't remember a single thing after he picked her up only left her feeling more unnerved. She never expected to be so close to death's door without at least being aware of it.
"Schnee—W-Weiss, I'm sorry."
She looked over at him in surprise. Adam, however, couldn't meet her eyes.
"I didn't mean to attack you after the whole Sienna mess. I was just so…" he scratched his head irritatedly.
"Scared?" She hesitantly finishes for him.
He frowned but nodded. Suddenly Ruby's theory about what happened was beginning to sound more and more plausible.
"Adam, can we talk? About everything?"
"Yeah." He hesitated for a moment before untying the black cloth hiding his scar. "Let's talk."
Even after knowing what was waiting for her beneath the fabric, she found herself sick to her stomach at the sight of her family brand burned onto his face.
"Can...can you see...?" She swallowed the bile rising in her throat.
"No."
She hugged the knitted blanket closer to herself, but it did little to ward off the chill in the room.
"Who did it?" She was surprised by how steady her voice came out.
"Your uncle. On the night we were caught."
She tightened her hands into fists. Though the man had long died, Weiss wanted more than anything than to drag him out of hell and kill him herself.
"Was that all he did?" She pressed on.
It was a stupid question. She knew there had to be more.
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"I need to know." She proclaimed angrily. "He hurt you—he hurt my friend. I need to know how it happened."
"Fine. Just...tell me to stop if it gets too much-"
"It's your story, Adam. You should be the one who decides how much to share. Not me." She told him firmly. "I'll listen to whatever you have to say. I promise."
He didn't say anything at first, adamant to stare at the roses.
"Okay." When he finally answered his voice was tense. He sheepishly looked back at her and took a deep breath before beginning his tale.
He was thrown into a familiar room lined with metal on all four walls. Adam had only been in the cell once, and he'd hoped he would never have to enter the horrible chambers again.
"Stay here, brat!" Weiss' uncle ordered him before slamming the metal door shut behind him.
Adam couldn't stop trembling. The room was somehow colder than the deepest levels of the mines, he didn't notice it the last time he was here but maybe it was because he was too little to know.
He winced, cradling his bruising cheek from where that awful man punched him.
'I wonder if her cheek feels as sore as this.'
Though her words cut him deeper than a chipped crystal, he was worried sick about her. The moment Jacques' fist met her face, whatever anger Adam held towards Weiss was pushed down by his hatred for the man.
Jacques Schnee was notorious for inflicting the most abuse on sick and injured workers, accusing them of being lazy. Adam couldn't imagine what sort of punishment he would unleash on his daughter for befriending a Faunus.
'Maybe he'll go easy on his own family.' He thought.
But if he'd gone easy with his family, then Weiss wouldn't have broken down crying the way she did when she spoke of the abuse he inflicted on her.
The metal chamber suddenly felt ten times colder than it did before.
'Maybe mom was right.'
Maybe he should've cut off ties when he still had the chance, even if it meant being without her hugs and kindness.
He jumped when the metal door swung open again.
That horrible Schnee man walked in again, but this time he was followed by Adam's entire family.
His younger cousins were trembling, whether from fear or the cold he didn't know, but he could tell his parents knew exactly what had happened the moment they met eyes. Mom and dad immediately rushed to his side, hugging him and kissing his head. Their hugs were so warm compared to the icy metal surrounding them.
"I-I'm sorry. I-I–"
"Shh." Mom gently ran her fingers through his hair, something she often did whenever he woke up from a nightmare. "It's going to be okay."
"Don't be scared. We'll be right here." Dad held him so tightly it hurt to breathe, but he didn't mind.
His panic only grew when the Schnee man ordered one of the guards to hold him down. As quickly as his parents' warmth surrounded him, it was ripped away, replaced with a cold iron grip from one of the larger guards. His parents cried out in protest when the guards forcefully separated them from him.
"Leave them alone! They have nothing to do with this!" He pleaded.
"This has everything to do with them! I believe they purposefully raised a deviant to corrupt my pure, innocent niece."
Dad tried to charge at the man when he mockingly patted mom on the face, but the guards tackled him down before he had the chance to protect her.
Adam felt sick to his stomach. The rest of his relatives were completely shocked into silence, some looked at him with pity while others couldn't even meet his eyes. His little cousins immediately ran to their parents' arms, crying.
"It's clear to me now that the Faunus are incompetent at raising respectable children. Pity that the next bloodline has been completely wasted." Weiss' uncle sneered at Adam's cousins.
"They didn't do anything! I chose to go against their orders! I-it was all me! Y-you can do whatever you want with me, but please leave them alone!" He cried, but the man didn't even seem to hear his pleas.
"No! Please don't hurt him!" Mom stepped in immediately. "Y-you're right. I-I should've disciplined him better. I-I'm a failure of a mother! P-punish me alone and spare my child!"
"A-and me." His dad piped in bravely. "The others did not know of this. It was just us."
"So you knew about this atrocity but chose to keep it from us. Interesting." The Schnee man smirked sadistically.
"That's not what they said!" Adam tried to break free from the guard holding him, but the man was as firm as stone.
"I've heard enough." The Schnee man cracked open the door for someone to pass a small knife over to him.
His relatives cried out in fear at the sight of the weapon, parents immediately shielding their children from the sight of the offending blade.
"You can't hurt them! I said it was all my fault!" Adam screamed as loud as his voice would let him, but the Schnee man seemed oblivious to his cries.
"Have you ever wondered how we slaughter cattle, boy?" The Schnee man approached his mom with an evil flicker in his eye.
"Leave her alone! Kill me! I'm the one you want!" His arms were no doubt bruised from the amount of force the guard was using to keep him still. But no matter how hard he fought, it was impossible to break free.
"First, we restrain the animals." With a curt nod from the man, the guards forced Adam's family to their knees.
The younger kids screamed and thrashed when the guards ripped them out of their parents' arms and pulled them to the opposite side of the room. The adults who tried to fight back and take their children back were met with punches and kicks until they surrendered.
"LEAVE THEM ALONE!"
"Normally we stun them, but sadly we're a bit...understaffed at the moment." The cruel man was beaming from ear to ear at this point. "So, let's skip right over that useless step."
"IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT! LET THEM GO, YOU MONSTER!"
'It's my fault! Take me! Punish me alone!'
"Adam." He heard his parents call out to him amid his shouting.
He could barely see her and dad from the tears blurring his vision.
"I love you." Mom smiled, despite the tremors in her body.
"Be brave," Dad told him. "We'll be together again soon, son. Be brave."
Adam cried out angrily when the Schnee man grabbed mom by her horns and forcefully pulled her head back.
"Finally, we bleed the cows out." The man finished.
Adam felt his entire world come crashing down when the man sliced the blade across mom's throat like it was made of paper. She gasped, blood oozing out from beneath her metal collar almost immediately. It kept spilling out with every gurgled breath, quickly staining her clothes red.
Adam was completely frozen in place. As if his bones were made of ice. It almost felt like a dream, watching his mom collapsing into a pool of red. By now the younger kids were all screaming at the top of their lungs, and the adults were begging for mercy.
But all Adam could hear was his dad's anguished cries and mom's desperate gasps for air.
'It's my fault.'
"Oh dear, looks like that pesky collar got in the way." The horrible man smirked at him. "Better try it again, don't you think, little cattle?"
He couldn't keep his eyes open when the man plunged the knife into her neck again.
The slaughter was a conglomerate of horrified screams morphing into alien howls as each of his family member's vocal cords were severed.
His little cousins' anguished cries were the worse as they continued screaming for help even after the blade severed their voices—or tried to at least.
Even after the man was finished with them, their dying gasps for air echoed off the icy walls like ghosts.
Adam couldn't stop wailing throughout the ordeal, couldn't ignore the gut-wrenching stench of metal overwhelming the room. The warm liquid trickling over to where he was kneeling made his skin crawl.
'It's just a bad dream.' He kept chanting to himself. 'It's all just one big dream.'
But no matter how hard he tried to wake up, the nightmare continued.
By the time the final member of his family fell silent, Adam's throat was destroyed by his anguished cries. A chill crawled down his spine when he heard the man's shoes click towards him.
He braced himself to suffer the same fate as the rest of his family.
'Be brave.' His dad's voice whispered to him.
"Look at me, boy."
When he made no move to respond, someone forcefully pulled his head back. The surprise jolt made Adam open his eyes, coming face to face with the most disgusting man he'd ever seen.
The man's once white collared shirt was completely stained with blood—his family's blood. Out of the corner of his eyes he caught glimpses of his family, their eyes and mouths left open in terror and their necks ripped like torn fabric.
The only warmth he felt was the burning tears in his eyes.
"Your mother made a good point, little cattle. You aren't entirely to blame, you're just a child. As an honour to your mother, I'll respect her wishes and spare you."
"You bastard." He croaked.
The rage consuming him was just as violent as the man standing in front of him. If only he were bigger to fight back. If only he could drag the man's own blade through his throat.
"But children must be punished when they do bad things. And you, my boy, have sullied my poor niece." The man said coldly.
The chamber door opened, letting in an armed soldier with a heated branding iron. The letters SDC glowed in angry amber light.
Adam's back flared in pain at the phantom memory of when they branded him at 5. He could barely move without crying out in pain afterwards. It was his mom who helped soothe the worst of the symptoms with ice while his dad helped pick up the slack in his work.
The old memories felt like a punch to the gut.
'I shouldn't have kept seeing her.' He thought furiously. 'I should've listened to mom.
'It's all my fault.'
"Since you love fraternizing with our family, why not show your support with pride?" The man took the heated metal from the guard.
"You've already branded me." He snapped.
"Oh, you misunderstand me, little cattle. I want everyone to know just how much you love my dear niece." The man's grin made Adam feel as small as a bug. "Who knows, maybe she'll accept you as one of her…dolls when she's older."
Then, one side of his face lit on fire.
Weiss' heart was hammering so aggressively in her chest she wondered if Adam could hear it. His tale left her completely nauseous.
She remembered seeing that same uncle a year later at a family gathering. He was well-loved by her relatives, cracked jokes at every given possible chance, and even gifted her a new dress. Though she was still in a rocky place with her family, she recalled his presence had cheered up a bit. He was the only one that night who seemed to forget who she befriended.
Knowing what she knew now, those once somewhat cheerful memories left her trembling in disgust.
"I was sent away to work at some other mine right after." He continued grimly, no longer meeting her eyes. "It was a little while later that the White Fang freed us. Sienna was the one who took me in and convinced me to join her. She had a similar experience when her family tried to rebel against the mines.
She was the only person who knew what it was like to lose your entire family like that. It just...I didn't feel alone around her."
"Oh gods, Adam." She felt too ashamed to even look at him, let alone talk to him.
"Sienna was the one who pushed the idea that you were in on it. There was a rumour at the time that I was friendly with you, and she sincerely thought was a scheme to make me your personal slave."
Weiss recalled the way she spoke to him. She glared down at her lap.
"You believed her?" She breathed.
"I honestly don't know. I wanted to believe her—I wanted to so badly, it would've made my life so much easier."
She understood what it was like. She took the time to train me and gave me a home to go back to. Sienna...she promised me revenge and gave me a reason to live again. If I couldn't trust her then who could I trust?
"But I also never forgot what you did for me, you were the kindest human I've ever met. You contradicted everything she preached. I couldn't accept what she was saying about you—not completely anyway.
You weren't the one who did it. You were the one who showed me kindness when no one else did, but it's also because I befriended you that it happened." He ran his hands frustratingly through his hair. "I-I don't know if this makes any sense."
"You wanted to hate me." Weiss empathized.
"I did. I really did."
'But you couldn't.' It was something she had the misfortune to understand as well.
No matter how hard she tried, she could never forget the sense of safety and joy she experienced when he was by her side. She could never see him as just a crime statistic Father force-fed her. He was always Adam, her beloved friend.
"Adam, I'm so sorry."
"I don't need your pity."
"It's not that. It's-" she could barely finish from the number of tears overwhelming her.
"Get a hold of yourself. You're a mess."
She looked at him, really looked at him. Once upon a time, she saw the grown version of him as a ruthless killer, a man without a soul, but today she saw him for exactly what he was.
A product of all the abuse her family inflicted on him.
'And he's not the only one.'
"Adam?" She whispered so quietly she was surprised he acknowledged it with a small nod. "Can I give you a hug?"
That seemed to catch him completely off guard. He finally looked back at her, she noticed him flinching for a second before looking away.
"What kind of question is that?" He asked quietly.
"C-can I?"
He scratched the back of his neck. She didn't dare make a sound until he was ready to give her a response.
"Yeah. That's fine."
Kicking her covers off, she hung her legs over the edge of the bed, their knees just barely touching. She was hesitant at first, they hadn't hugged since they were little and still ignorant to the world, it felt like she was about to cross a boundary that was never meant to be crossed.
She finally gathered her courage and closed the distance between them. Weiss wrapped her arms tightly around him as if that alone could ease some of the pain he'd endured.
"It's not your fault." She whispered, failing to hold back her tears. "Their deaths weren't your fault."
"Weiss, I know."
"You need to understand, it's not your fault." She insisted. "You must have been so lonely."
That seemed to make him tense. She waited for him to push her away, but when he didn't, she continued to speak.
"I'm so sorry, Adam. If I'd known this would happen I would've stopped seeing you. But please don't blame yourself for what happened to them. It's not your fault. It was never your fault."
She felt his arms wrap lightly around her. He was trembling.
"I'm sorry for the horrible things I said to you back then. I-I had no right. The Faunus aren't all criminals, they're not evil like I insisted they were, they're just people pushed into crime because of us. Because we keep taking away everything from them.
"That's what happened to you, isn't it?"
He tightened his hold on her and buried his face into the crook of her neck.
"I'm so sorry." She heard him whisper to her. "For hurting you."
It wasn't something she ever expected to hear from him. All she could manage was nod and held him tighter.
"I-I'm sorry I never believed you." She stammered weakly.
That was the first time she'd ever seen him cry.
For the first time since they met again, she felt like she was holding her Adam again—not the vengeful man who set out to hunt humans.
And she never wanted to let go of him.
She wasn't sure how long they were holding each other until they were both completely out of tears. Still, they continued to embrace each other like they had in the past. The nostalgia left her feeling cold, despite the warmth in her chest.
"I never saw you as property, Adam." She whispered. "You were always my friend. It didn't matter what you looked like, you were still one of the only people who cared about me. You meant—you mean a lot to me."
"I know."
"You still deserve to hear it. I'm sorry if you ever felt otherwise."
She wished she could go back in time to tell his younger self this. If she'd done things a bit differently, she wondered if the same fractures in their relationship would still exist.
"You need to get back into bed. Sapphire's going to kill me if she finds us like this." He reminded her tiredly.
"We wouldn't want to anger her." She added with a soft laugh.
After securing her beneath the warm covers again, he returned to his seat beside her bed. On a whim, she reached a hand towards him and was surprised when he took her hand into his.
"I'm sorry for what I did to your school…and your friend." He added softly.
"I don't think I can accept Yang's apology for her." She told him bluntly, still recalling the scorching fire that surrounded them that night. "I-I don't know if I can ever forgive you for that. It was cruel."
"I understand. I wouldn't either."
"Why did you attack us? You had nothing to gain from that."
"I didn't have a choice. Cinder was going to kill all my men if we didn't comply, and I wasn't going to let another human claim more Faunus lives-even if it meant giving in to her wishes." He explained heavily. "I don't think they're safe from her even now."
"Do you think Sienna will have to listen to Cinder as well?"
"I don't doubt it. That woman...her powers aren't to be challenged." He glared down at the floor. "I hate that she's just using us as her pawns. The bitch."
"You're worried about the White Fang." She said pointedly.
"You might not understand, but they're like family. We have to look after each other because no one else will."
Strangely, she did understand. It reminded her a bit of her team. They all come from broken families, but they compensated by looking after each other. They became their own little family.
'But is that something only I feel?' She couldn't help but wonder, recalling the uncomfortable revelation she had about Blake with a shiver.
"We'll give her what she deserves one day." She assured him. "It's why I left home in the first place."
White Fang or not, Weiss couldn't stand by and let Cinder's gang cause more unnecessary pain. There was enough of that in the world already.
"You said you were the one who killed my uncle, correct?" She addressed the next question brewing in her head.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can be remorseful about that. He–"
"I know." She squeezed his hand. "I don't blame you for it. He had it coming."
"But we shouldn't have done anything to his wife and kid." He voiced the angry thought burning at the back of her mind.
"Why did you?" A mournful rage ignited at the memory of her cousin's closed casket. She couldn't even see Lavendar one last time before she was buried.
"Revenge. Your family hurt our families for generations. We thought it was only fair."
An eye for an eye.
It was a twisted logic that couldn't ever excuse what they did, but somehow Weiss was able to empathize with it. It left her skin crawling.
"Are you going to keep hurting humans in the future?"
"I don't know."
She appreciated his honesty at least, but the answer left a heavy tension between the two of them. She wasn't sure if she could fully welcome him back into her life if he continued hunting down every human for the crime of simply existing.
"Can I ask you something?" She decided to approach this from another angle.
"Anything."
"Blake…did she really commit similar crimes as you did?"
"Our fighting styles complemented each other so Sienna partnered us up. Blake went on whatever missions I was given and vice versa."
Weiss had a feeling she would hear something along the lines of that, but it didn't make it any easier for her to process.
"That night when you invaded my uncle's home…was it really Blake who killed my aunt?"
"I walked in on her final moments. It was a single shot to the head."
"Was she…was she unarmed?" Weiss knew it was pointless to ask. Her aunt always hated fighting—hated the idea so much she refused to ever pick up a gun despite the fame that came with marrying a Schnee.
"You need to ask Blake for the specifics. I'm not sure how it completely went down. Sorry."
'They really are similar.' She thought somberly.
He cut Yang's arm off without hesitation and Blake killed her aunt in cold blood. The only big difference was that Blake tried her best to atone for her sins—tried being the keyword.
"I can't ask you to forgive humanity as a whole, I know it isn't fair after what you've been through, but can you stop this crusade for revenge? Not every human is out to hurt the Faunus.
"I want to forgive you, Adam, but I can't if you're just going to keep hurting innocent people in the future."
"It's not that easy, Weiss. Humans will never treat us as equals unless we take back our power with force." He argued. "I don't agree with all the decisions Sienna makes, but it's her efforts that gave us access to basic resources that's been denied to us for centuries."
"It's not equality, it's blackmail." She looked him straight in the eyes. "I remember what I saw in that mining town. Is that the world you want to live in? A world where people fear you?"
"I don't mean to be blunt, but being nice to someone isn't going to change anything. Not everyone is going to respond well like the people you met on your journey." He shot back.
"But attacking innocent humans for just being human is just causing more pain. Yes, we should actively retaliate against people who are horrible like my father, but what good will it do by destroying innocent human lives? You're only giving them more excuses to hate and fear the Faunus as a whole.
"Think about how you felt about Cinder when she blackmailed you into helping her. The only reason you collaborated with a human is out of fear for your people, not because you wanted to fight as equals or because you respected humans. That's the kind of world Sienna is going to create at this rate."
"That's not the same situation. Humans and Faunus can't get along without force on our part. We don't have a choice."
"We made it work." She reminded him. "And I've gotten along fine with most of the Faunus I've met. It's not easy but it's possible, Adam."
"You're different from the others." He countered.
Weiss laughed a little at his weak argument. It brought her back to that lonely Dust Mine.
"Weren't you the one who yelled at me for using the same argument?" She challenged gently.
Weiss was sure he'd lose his temper. His jaw tightened and she felt his hand go rigid.
"How the hell did you remember that?" He looked at her, exasperated.
"It wasn't an easy night to forget, Adam." She tried to ignore the prickling pain in her own scar. "But you were right, it's stupid to generalize.
"Not all humans want to hurt the Faunus, but you'll never know that if you condemn every human without giving them a chance. You're just tearing apart families at this point, and no one wants to help a bully."
When he didn't look convinced she tried to tackle it from a different approach.
"Think of it this way, if you managed to kill me at Beacon or even when we first fought in the forest, you would've never known my new position on this situation. And I doubt you would've met a human like Sapphire who's willing to help you. Think of all the humans who could help you if you gave them a chance to prove their hearts to you-if you gave them a chance to change.
"So can you please stop with this senseless violence and save it for someone who deserves it?"
She wasn't expecting him to agree with her terms. Weiss knew it was a lot to ask of him, but she also couldn't wholeheartedly forgive him if he showed no signs of change.
"Do you honestly think it's possible? To help us without force?" His tentative question made her heart leap with excitement.
"I do. I think it's always possible to change minds." She was a living example of this.
"You're impossibly optimistic." He shook his head in disbelief. "If it means so much to you...I'll try to think about it."
That was as good of an answer as she'd get from him. It wasn't perfect, but she was still happy to see him willing to critically examine his current path in life.
"But I'm not going to be civil to assholes who out of their way to hurt my people. It's why I joined the White Fang in the first place."
"Just try to dish out appropriate justice. Not everything can be solved by killing someone."
"Weiss-"
"Please?" She cut him off lightly. "It's important to me."
'I want to forgive you so badly.'
He looked thoroughly annoyed. "Only because you care so much." He finally relented.
"Thank you. I know it can't be easy." She smiled.
Her heart quickened when he suddenly moved his hand over to her cheek, fingers brushing against the white scar his sword left.
"That was from me. Wasn't it?" He asked.
She nodded.
"I'm sorry."
"We were in an intense fight. Stuff like this happens."
"Still, I promise I won't ever do that again. You'll never see me draw my sword against you. Ever."
"I'll hold you to it." She promised.
"What about your other one?" He asked, referring to the slender mark running down her eye. "You didn't have it as a kid."
Weiss was afraid he'd ask her that, but it was only fair she told him after he bared his soul to her. So she delved into the story of what Father did that night.
Though her memories were still spotty and fragmented, she still remembered that raw fear from all those years ago-the fragments of glass digging into her back, his closed fists colliding into her torso so hard she vomited all over the floor, and his suffocating weight pinning her down when disfigured her face with that cold shard of glass.
The memories left her colder than the darkest layers of ice buried deep within Atlas.
At some point, his warm hand found its way back to hers. She appreciated the gesture; it helped to anchor herself to the present rather than the horrifying past threatening to drown her once again.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the feel of his hand around hers. It was bigger than hers, and his grip was strong.
'Father can't hurt you here.' She reminded herself, turning her head to look at her and Adam's joined hands. 'I'm safe now. I'm not alone anymore.'
"I want to kill that man." Adam seethed after what felt like hours had gone by.
"Don't. It'll cause more trouble than it's worth." She breathed, still shivering from the awful memories lingering in her head. "He'll get what he deserves, I'll make sure of it."
"If you need him roughed up let me know. I'd be happy to lend a hand."
"Thanks." She smiled half-heartedly. "Adam, I'm sorry that I ended up believing everything he told me about the Faunus. Even though I should've known it was all false I still fell for it! I-!"
Shattered glass. Ribs cracking. Red staining her clothes.
For a terrifying moment, she forgot how to breathe.
"You're making an effort to help us now, right?" Adam's voice fixed her back to the present.
"I-I'll never stop." She stammered weakly. "Even if it kills me."
"Then that's all that matters." He squeezed her hand firmly. "I forgive you."
Weiss couldn't stop the waterworks at his response. A fire that'd been burning for years finally fizzled out, leaving her chest feeling lighter than ever before.
"Uh...do you want..." He looked nervously at her before averting his eyes to the side. "You want...a hug?"
"T-that sounds nice." She whimpered.
The moment he sat on her bedside, she tackled him into another tight embrace. His touch melted the fractured memories like ice, leaving her in a safe blanket of warmth.
"I'm so sorry for what I said about your father that night." He said when her tears finally relented. "It was out of line. I never should've said it when I knew what kind of scumbag your old man is."
"We were both saying stupid things that night. I'm sorry I compared you to people like my father and uncle, it was cold." She consoled gently, resting her head tiredly on his shoulder. "I was wrong. You aren't a heartless monster like them. You're just...misguided."
"And I think you're too soft, Weiss." He replied just as lightly. "You should hate me after everything."
"I know, but I'm sick of continuing this stupid cycle." She confessed. "I don't want to keep fighting fire with fire anymore. It hurts.
"A friend once told me she was tired of all this fighting, and I finally understand what she means. I want to forgive and heal, if not for us then for kids who are just like us. I don't want anyone else to go through what we did."
One fractured friendship was too much.
"And what if you run into someone who wants to keep this war going? People like Sienna would do anything to get even."
"Then I have no choice but to fight. This needs to stop now." She vowed. "I'm not fighting for just myself anymore. I can't lose."
"My point still stands, you're far too soft for this world." He rested his head against hers. "But if you'll let me, I'd like to help you fight."
It took her a second to fully register what he just said to her.
"Even if it means working with humans other than me?" She couldn't hold back a smile at this point.
"I said I'd think about the whole revenge thing, right? I want to see what your vision for the future has to offer before I make up my mind."
'It really isn't too late.' She wished Violet were here to see the progress they both made.
"We're never going to be able to go back to the way things were…are we?" She thought out loud. "To when we were kids I mean."
"No. We're not." He confirmed it heavily.
She nodded. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but their innocent friendship ended the night her uncle destroyed Adam's family. Still, she didn't have the strength to let him go after years of worrying about where he was and what he was doing. Maybe she was selfish, but she couldn't accept the prospect of losing him after finally having him between her arms again.
"Adam?" She was grateful their hug hid the embarrassed flush on her cheeks."I-I know things can never be the same as back then, but do you think we could still…I don't know…be friends again?"
She held him tighter as if this would be the last time she could ever do it again.
"I understand if you don't want to, though. Whatever you want I'll go with it." She added.
Another gentle breeze danced into the room, raising goosebumps down her arms. As if sensing her chill, he held her closer.
"I want to try."
A different kind of warmth ignited in her chest, making his already snug embrace feel that much more comfortable.
"We'll take it one step at a time then." She promised.
"Yeah. I'd like that."
"I missed you so much." She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him. Though she hadn't felt his arms around her for years, it was so familiar.
"I miss you too."
Had Sapphire not interrupted their moment with a loud proclamation that she finished making apple pie for the three of them, Weiss would've undoubtedly burst out crying again.
Chapter summary
Weiss wakes up in an old doctor's house. After getting over her initial shock that Adam went to a human doctor for help, the two of them sit down to address the baggage between them.
Adam tells her about the senseless slaughter of his family and the painful scar left at the hands of her uncle. Later, Weiss tells him what her father did to her the night their secret was found out.
During this exchange, Weiss learns that Cinder blackmailed the White Fang into helping them on the night Beacon fell and Adam confirms Blake's involvement in her aunt's murder.
Weiss also learns Sienna genuinely believes Weiss was in on the murder of Adam's family, but everything she's done for him kept him from accepting Sienna's word.
After a brief back and forth about the morality of "getting even", Weiss manages to convince Adam to rethink his stance on taking revenge by reminding him of what he's learned about her by sparing her life.
While they acknowledge that their friendship can never return to what it once was, the two agree to try and become friends once more despite everything that tried to tear them apart.