I'm back and alive. For those who didn't think to check last chapters for an updated message at the top, or my author profile for the note also at the top, I had to be taken into hospital on Saturday morning. Yesterday, Monday, I had a laparoscopy – keep spelling it wrong; a keyhole surgery – that has hopefully dealt with the problem.

I'd rather keep the specifics private. Either way, it went fine yesterday and I am feeling… well, sore today. Sore and a little ginger, but I'm going to try and write a little bit anyway if only so people don't think I've disappeared. Don't expect the longest chapter ever please.

Cover Art: Terakali

Chapter 37

The wailing alarms were the first thing Adam heard. It could not have been anything else for they were loud and obnoxious, undulating up and down in pitch and drowning out anything and everything else. His eyes pinched shut, fighting against bright and intrusive light. Groaning, he tilted his head away, pushed one hand down and tried to sit.

It would have been nice if there were someone there to help him. Under the constant noise and against muscles that ached, Adam Taurus forced himself up and pinched his eyes shut, drawing ragged and scratchy breaths that made his throat sting. He took a few long moments to try and steady himself, to find some degree of common sense and understanding in a world of pain and loud noises.

There was none. As his eyes opened, he took in the well-lit and white-washed room that marked Tsune's infirmary, a place he'd visited numerous times before. The beds were fuller than he was used to, quiet and hardly moving figures curled up under white sheets. The doctor herself was present and holding the wrist of one person. She had not heard his awakening and instead focused on her patient. Her shoulders slumped and she drew the white cloth up over the student's face with visible reluctance. The severity of that simple action was not lost on him. Adam's heart lurched.

"Doc-" His voice cracked and faltered. He hacked and coughed, drawing her attention in a whirl of white robes and her auburn tail. Tsune closed the distance between them, one hand alighting on his back and another pushing a glass of water to his lips. Her face was drawn, pinched tight and lacking its usual amused smile. "W-What's happening…?"

"Drink," she whispered. Or spoke. It came a whisper against the blaring siren piercing continuously through the infirmary. "Your throat is badly burned inside and out."

Adam accepted the water if only to get it out the way. He pushed it aside once he'd had his fill, speaking again in a voice no less raw and scratched. "What's happening? The alarm…"

"We're under attack."

"Who?"

Her eyes closed. "The White Fang."

Adam could not, would not, believe it. "No."

"It's true. I've had to kill two already when they tried to break into here and slaughter my patients. They are attacking Beacon, Adam. Amity, too. Everyone is scrambling to try and hold them back."

Impossible. The White Fang would not dare to attack an academy. There was no point. The people, human and faunus both, would castigate them for such reckless action. Academies trained huntsmen, who protected everyone. To harm them was to harm yourselves, to say nothing of the likelihood of such an attack working in the first place. It didn't make sense, and thus it wasn't possible. Their war with Atlas and the SDC had taught them much about fighting overwhelming odds, but that was in guerrilla attacks, traps and ambushes. Not an all-out attack on the city of Vale.

There has to be some mistake, Adam decided.

The door to the infirmary bent inward. A loud bang sounded on the other side, followed by another as someone slammed their body into the door. Without a word, Tsune set the glass of water down on the side and stepped away from his bed, drawing a strangely large set of surgical scissors from a nearby table. They were the length of his arm and she snapped it in two with a twist, spreading both hands down and to the side, each gripping a rounded handle and an oddly shaped blade.

Groaning, Adam rolled himself off the bed and dropped three feet to the floor, landing on all fours. His hands shook, but he forced himself up, noting Tsune's brief concerned expression before the door buckled inward.

Three intruders burst through. White and grey uniforms, white masks, one with a sword, another an axe and the third with a gun. No. The third fell back, a single large scissor half buried in his chest and coming out his back. He squeezed the trigger reflexively, but the bullets sprayed high as he fell, bouncing off the ceiling and striking out one of the lights in a shower of sparks.

The doctor was among them within a second. The sword faunus swept above her head. The axe slammed down and was quietly diverted to the side, almost cutting her tail clean off. Stepping through, Tsune gripped the wrist holding the axe, pinched her fingers into the man's nerves and forced him to let go. Continuing her pace, she drew the now disarmed man with her, positioning him between her and the swordsman, who hesitated at striking his ally.

Then, to Adam's shock, the swordsman turned and ran. Not away, not in retreat, but toward the nearby medical beds. He screamed angrily, wrenching his sword up in two hands above the bed of an innocent and injured student.

"FOR THE WHITE FANG!" the swordsman screamed.

"No!" Tsune screamed, throwing her victim aside.

Adam was closer. His entire body protested as he lunged forward. His shoulders hit the faunus' thighs and wrapped his arms around the man's legs. The tackle threw them both to the side, crashing into a display cabinet and shattering numerous vials and bottles around them. Pills and medicine scattered over the floor. Body in agony, Adam still had the sense of mind to grip the man's hands and prevent the sword coming into play.

That did not mean he was at his best, however. The faunus caught his jaw with a headbutt, then kicked his knees into Adam's back. He was able to roll Adam over, though he refused to let go of the man's wrists even as it happened. Back crunching down onto glass and tablets, he gritted his teeth and glared hatefully up at the faunus, the man's curled goat horns catching the light above him.

"Traitor!" the man hissed. "You're a faunus. You should understand!"

"I do understand." Adam growled. "I understand you've become nothing more than a rabid animal!"

"Race trait-or!?"

The man gasped in surprised as Tsune's hand fisted into the back of his hair and yanked him up. It was testament to how dire the situation was that the doctor gave no option for surrender. No sooner had the man's throat been bared then was her blade slicing clinically across it. Blood sprayed out over Adam's chest. The man gurgled and dropped his sword, toppling sideways once she gave him a rough shove.

Tsune did not help him up. The last remained and she turned on him quickly, placing herself between Adam and the now nervous looking faunus gripping an axe with both hands.

"Y-You're supposed to just be a nurse…"

Tsune tutted angrily. Her fox tail swished back and forth behind her in sharp flicks. "I am Beacon's chief of medical staff. For all that I'm the only medical staff," she added under her breath. "That alone should tell you enough of my credentials. As for knowing how to fight, that is not something you need concern yourself with any longer."

"I surrender!" the faunus threw his axe down. "I-I give up."

There was a long, pregnant pause from Tsune.

"Why?" Adam asked, forcing himself up again. He gripped the railing of the nearby bed, spared a quick glance for the student he'd saved. Winchester. Cardin Winchester. The fact it was a racist didn't bother him as much as he thought it would have. Whatever his feelings, he was a boy. A child. That nonsense could be beat out of him, but not if he died here. Shaking his head, Adam steadied himself and turned back to the faunus. "Who ordered this? Why are you attacking Beacon? Why are you here attacking an infirmary?" His eyes narrowed. "Is this because of me?"

"Adam," Tsune warned. "Now is not the time-"

"I-It was just orders. T-They said to hit the infirmary, s-stop the huntsmen being able to heal a-and kill anyone here. T-They said it would send the biggest message. Show the world we're serious."

They hadn't been sent to kill him. Adam did not feel relieved about that, not if it meant someone knowingly ordered the slaughter of injured combatants. "Who?" he demanded. "Who said this?"

"I-It was the boss. It came from the lady, I'm sure."

"What lady?"

"I don't know!" the faunus cried out. "Tall. Black hair. Human." He sneered the last. "I don't know why we're working with a filthy human like her, but it's worth it to do this."

"To do what? Attack Beacon?" If Adam had the strength, he would have backhanded the man. "Do you have any idea what you have done? Vale was marginally prejudiced against out kind before, but now they have reason to hate us even more. Good reason!" he snapped. "No one would blame them collaring all faunus or driving them out of Vale entirely. You've made the situation worse!"

"That's what a coward would say!"

"Says the man on his knees."

The faunus bristled, flushed red and punched the ground beside him. "If they force us out then we'll band together!" he snarled. "If Vale turns on them then it's all the more reason to join the cause! Our ranks will swell, and we'll make the humans pay!"

Recruitment through misery. They sought to make the White Fang the last choice of all free faunus, then sweep them up when they had no choice but to join. Disgusting. "Our kind are hurt enough by what the humans do," Adam said. "They do not need other faunus treating them worse."

"As if you'd understand. You're one of those tame faunus. Domesticated."

Adam couldn't handle the idiocy any longer. The fact he hadn't been recognised only went to show this had been an attack on the student body. He turned to Tsune, breath coming out in a sharp hiss. "I can't deal with this right now. He's yours."

Tsune stepped forward. "There can only be one punishment for daring to wish harm on my patients."

The faunus paled, then sneered and leaned forward. "You can't hurt me! I've surrend-"

His head snapped to the left. Bright arterial spray coated the white tiles. His body toppled to the floor with a wet thump, twitched once and lay still. Tsune flicked her blade downward, clearing it of blood.

"He left me no choice," she said tonelessly.

"He was armed and a threat," Adam agreed. "You had no choice."

That would be the official story at any rate. Adam sighed as Tsune dragged the bodies outside and left them dead in the corridor, closing the door back behind her. She hurried over to Winchester's bed, checked him over and carefully applied his IV again. It had been dragged out in the melee.

"The battle has been going on for half an hour now," she said. "That's the second attack here. There are Grimm up top as well, killing our people and the White Fang alike. As if that wasn't enough, Atlas' robots have gone insane and started shooting indiscriminately."

"Why don't they deactivate them?"

"They can't. The machines are killing Atlas soldiers as well."

The irony would have pleased Adam a year ago. Now, it only annoyed him. "Where are the faculty?"

"I've no idea. Fighting, I assume. Half of them are stuck on Amity along with tens of thousands of civilians. The priority has to be there, which means we are on our own." Without looking, she jerked her head to the side. "Your equipment was brought down with you. It's in the locker. Code is 2-1-7-6."

Adam staggered over and typed it in, reaching in to touch Wilt and Blush once the door slid open. His black jacket was inside as well. Running his hands down it, he felt an odd nostalgia. It was so often that he was in school uniform now that donning it made him feel more like the Adam of old than it ever had before. Perhaps it was the bloodshed, the death, the attack. This was the White Fang – his White Fang, despite what he might have wished. This was the White Fang he helped make, the White Fang he abandoned. The White Fang he had left to be manipulated and led astray.

If I had stayed, I could have prevented this. I could have led them against Atlas and the SDC. No less bloody a campaign, but at least there it would not involve innocent people.

In a way, despite what his teammates might say, this was his fault.

He had recruited many of the faces attacking Beacon. He had trained them. He had convinced them that violence was the path. He had stood with them, indoctrinated them and then abandoned them in pursuit of a girl. He had cut them adrift in a hateful world all because he let his obsession for Blake cloud his judgment.

The White Fang were his responsibility.

Adam's fingers curled around the discarded mask on the floor, picking it up. He stood and removed the bandage wrapped around his scarred face, settling the mask in its place instead. His eyes, one darker than the other, peered out from the thin slits.

And he would make it right.

/-/

The corridors were dark and abandoned. Red light pulsed every two seconds, briefly illuminating the interiors as the sirens continued to howl. The fighting took place outside as the huntsmen and soldiers of Atlas fought to prevent entry to the academy buildings. Fought their hardest. Beacon was no unassailable fortress, however. It was a school. Four masked faunus barrelled down the corridor in pursuit of their allies, whooping victoriously and madly, their eyes glowing behind pale masks.

A door ahead of them swung open and a figure stepped out. The faunus skidded to a halt, gripping their weapons for a moment before the red light reflected off a porcelain mask. They relaxed, jeered and lowered their weapons.

"Is it done?" one of them called out. "You finish off the wounded?"

The figure turned to them. Black clothing. Crimson blade. Red hair. The light shone again, reflecting off narrowed eyes through the mask's slits. Below them, thin lips drawing down into an angry frown.

"No." the faunus said. "I did not."

"Wha-?"

The speaker couldn't finish. He gurgled out his shock, looking down in horror at the redheaded figure now flush up against his chest. Hot metal had pierced through and out his back. He hacked blood.

"TRAITOR!" another shouted.

The blade was withdrawn and whipped free. The first had not even struck the floor before the redheaded faunus ducked under a mighty swing and lunged forward. His sword, down and to the left, did not slash. It was instead drawn with the lunge, impacting the stomach of one without the force to cut through. That was fixed when the faunus took his sword's hilt in both hands and swept it back across his body, slicing the man's stomach open from right to left, disembowelling him where he stood.

Two down in as many seconds, the others panicked. Guns were levelled and triggers squeezed. Hot death spat out with bright light flashing across the corridor. Dust rounds pinged off aura and then a crimson blade that swept up and down. Blood sprayed as a hand was severed at the wrist. The faunus screamed and fell, gripping his stump as the attacker turned on the final one, gripped his gun barrel with one hand and pinned him to the wall with his other, sword across his throat. Rather than cut, he smirked and angled his sheathe at the man. A fierce blast of buckshot and dust roared out, slamming the poor faunus back and killing him instantly.

"M-Monster!" the faunus with the severed hand cried out, pushing back with his feet to escape. "Y-You're a monster!"

"I am," the redheaded demon agreed as he approached the injured faunus. "I am a monster for starting this, and a worse monster for abandoning you all to suffer through it alone. I did not finish what I started." The blade came up before his eyes, dripping blood. "I will rectify that."

The faunus screamed.

Briefly.

/-/

Blake swore as the soldier working beside her was taken down by a stray round. It impacted his helmet and knocked him down, fired from one of those huge death machines. Desperately, she knelt and removed his helmet, only to gag at the ruin that remained of his skull.

"A little help here!" Jaune shouted, struggling under the weight of an Ursa. He pushed its arm off, slashed a line across its chest but was then caught by a burst of gunfire from the left. It raked Jaune's ribs and caused him to stumble in pain.

The Ursa took full advantage. Its mighty paw slammed down and picked Jaune up from the ground, hurtling him through the air and sending him crashing down in front of two White Fang members. His aura crackled and shattered.

"NO!" Blake screamed, rushing forward. Her charge was halted by one of the White Fang pressing a sword to Jaune's neck. The other two spread left and right to flank her. Blake shook with fury. "Why are you doing this? Attacking Beacon won't help you. It won't help anyone."

"It will show the world we're not to be underestimated," the faunus threatening Jaune said.

"Yes. And then they'll bring the full might of every Kingdom on you. Menagerie will burn. It'll be the Great War all over again!"

"We won the Great War."

Idiots! They'd won back in a time where Atlas was Mantle, where the Kingdoms weren't united and where the technological disparity wasn't what it was. There was a reason the faunus didn't simply rebel when conditions got bad. It was because the armies they'd once had were gone, because the advantages they once had were mitigated.

"You're going to get everyone killed," she spat.

"I'm prepared to die for my beliefs." The faunus looked past her. Blake tilted her head back, clenching her eyes shut as she heard the giant Paladin stamp down on the Ursa, killing it on its approach to her. Its twin miniguns aimed themselves at her, spooling angrily. The faunus before her laughed. "Are you?"

The world blinked red.

For a second, Blake thought the alarms had gone off again, or that a battleship had crashed. The next, a great explosion rent the walking death machine behind her, cutting its upper half in two and sending smoke in every direction. The blast startled her but stunned her aggressors. Blake surged forward and drove a foot into the sword above Jaune's neck and Gambol Shroud into the shoulder of the faunus holding it. He screamed and tried to stab downward, but she was already pushing back, and the sword only stabbed into her aura-coated foot. It failed to break through.

While she would have liked to follow through, she couldn't abandon her unconscious teammate. They'd already been fighting since this started and his reserves were critically low. Blake planted a foot on either side of him and held her ground, peering through the smoke for any threat, ears flicking back and forth.

Someone else's feet planted down and a warm back touched against hers. Blake breathed out raggedly, smiling despite her panic. "About time you got here. Jaune is out. We're surrounded on all sides."

"Enemies?"

That was not Ren or Nora's voice. It was familiar, though. Blake's breath caught in her throat. Her stomach dropped. Glancing back, she caught sight of his tall, broad shoulders, his black coat and the stained red rose upon it. Red hair, horns and a long, crimson sword slick with blood.

Blake swallowed her fear. "White Fang. Atlas robots. Both the human-sized ones and the giant things."

"Atlas." Adam snorted. "Even when they're trying to help, they somehow make things worse."

There was no helping her nervous laughter. "Not much has changed there."

"No. It hasn't."

"You're wearing a mask…"

"I am."

"Why?"

Adam answered in one word. "Penance."

Blake's eyes closed briefly. A long sigh escaped her, and she turned her head away, leaning back into him and facing her opponents. "You look better without it."

"Beacon looks better without all of this," he replied.

"It does." Blake's lips quirked. "Cover my back?"

"When do I not?"

"It's been a while. I'm not sure if you're out of practice."

"Let's find out." Adam said, amusement tinted with anger and something else. "Divide and conquer."

The usual, huh? Blake had almost forgotten their old team plans. Almost. Their backs pressed into one another and then they were gone, sprinting in opposite directions. Jaune would have to stay safe in the centre, because he sure as hell wasn't with them standing over him marking his unprotected body a target. Blake slid under a White Fang swinging a sword at her and came up on his other side, slicing back to hamstring him before turning Gambol Shroud's gun form on another.

Adam cut through two human-sized machines with ease, darted to the left and disarmed a member of the White Fang. Literally. His old brutality was showing through, something that had always frightened her in the past. Strange that it didn't now. Maybe it had never been his methods, but what he was using them for.

"Switch!" he ordered.

Blake charged back and he did the same. They passed inches from one another, blades cutting through new foes. Gambol Shroud swept around and tore down three robots while Adam swept through the White Fang's ranks like an avatar of death.

The huge clang of another Paladin approaching burst through the combat. The smoke cleared to reveal its shiny hull, red lasers piercing the clouds as it scanned for targets.

"Blake!" Adam yelled. "I need power!"

Ducking onto one knee, she slid a fresh and coloured cartridge into her weapon and took aim. Directly at Adam's face. Bright lights flashed as each dust round shot out and struck the sword he brought up before him, half-sheathed in Blush and held with only four or so inches of steel revealed. The slightest deviation in her aim would hit him, and at this range would cause damage with aura or no.

Blake's aim did not waver.

Nor did Adam's focus.

Her gun clicked empty, and Adam's sword clicked back into its sheathe a second later. He turned, leaping up into the air and twisting his body the rest of the way. Blush was already shining with red light before he drew, and that light only intensified as Adam roared and swept his hand to the side. The single, perfect action drew Wilt and unleashed a coruscating wave of crimson light that surged forward, tearing through rock, paving slabs and all the Grimm in its way.

It struck the Paladin centre on, washed over its machinery and shattered its hull. Somewhere along the way, it found the ammunition stores and ignited them. Dust exploded out and the giant machine went up like a firework, detonating with such force that it both cancelled out Adam's attack and killed every faunus, robot and Grimm within eight metres.

Adam landed gracefully on both feet and one hand, then hopped back cutting Wilt before him to ward off any remaining enemies. There were none. Blake prepared herself for an interrogation, but it never came.

"Where is my team?" Adam demanded.

"Yang is at the main building," Blake answered quickly. "The other two are still on Amity, I imagine. Everyone is trying to form a defence around Ozpin's tower. That seems to be the main focus of their attack."

Adam nodded. "Get him to the infirmary and guard it. They've already tried to kill the injured three times now."

Blake swore. "Idiots. What do they hope to achieve?"

"Nothing. They plan to die martyrs."

Avoid the consequences of their own actions, he meant. No wonder they were so willing to face her and Jaune, even when surrounded by Grimm and murderous machines with no concept of who or what an ally was. They'd come here planning to die.

"I'll guard the infirmary," she promised, stooping to draw Jaune's arm up onto his shoulder. "What will you do?"

"I will give them the deaths they so thoroughly crave."

"Adam." Blake's words stopped him as he walked away. He didn't look back, but he paused. He was listening. Swallowing her nerves, she continued, "Don't fall back to how you were before." It was a plea. "Yang doesn't deserve that. None of your team do."

Adam did not respond for the longest time. Wilt, still drawn, wavered a few inches above the ground, still dripping blood and oil. The hand gripping it did so tightly, despite that he had always told her to keep a loose, controlled grip of her weapon.

"Adam…"

"I will make things right," he said gruffly.

Blake bit her lip.

"But…" Adam's head tilted slightly. One eye peeked back at her. "I will do it properly this time…"

For the first time in a long while, Blake believed him.

Okay, only a little shorter. This isn't bad. Honestly, I'm not in any real pain right now. It's more… I don't know. Psychological awareness? Like if I can genuinely not think on it then I don't feel anything, but the second I do remember it, my body is like "oooh, ahhh, stiff, can't concentrate…"

Basically, my body is being a whing baby. It's probably earned itself a break, however.

Next Chapter: 17th August

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur