Here we go

Cover Art: Terakali

Chapter 38

"I should be up there helping people!"

"There's no time." The headmaster snapped back at her, his voice unnaturally tense and sharper than she'd ever heard it before. Yang had to assume it wasn't her fault. "There is never enough time, Miss Xiao-Long. Not for you, not for I nor for those fighting. You will understand soon enough, but for now I will have to ask you to trust me."

Never before had that felt like such a big ask. Students were meant to trust their teachers and she'd never had issue with Ozpin before. Even Adam spoke well of the guy. That was before the headmaster dragged her out the fight, into the main school building and told her they would be defending what the White Fang really wanted.

That implied they were here for more than just bloodshed.

It also implied Ozpin knew that, and he'd kept whatever they were after on the school grounds regardless. Her dad would have things to say about that if he found out. Yang had half a mind to say a few herself, especially if Ruby and her team were being placed in danger because of this.

Trust. Damn, trust was hard right now.

"This thing is going down," she said in reference to the elevator. "I wasn't aware it had a down."

"The vaults of Beacon are not public knowledge."

"Vaults? Plural?"

"They were initially designed as a shelter in the event of a Grimm attack. Grand halls capable of fitting hundreds, if not thousands, of people safely. All the while, brave huntsmen and huntresses would fight above."

Grimm shelters weren't a new thing, and she didn't need their purpose explained. "Bit useless with them being all the way over here. You think people in Vale are going to travel through the Emerald Forest to reach them?"

"It wasn't always this way," Ozpin said. "Once upon a time, Beacon stood at the centre of its own Kingdom. History forgets, but it was not Vale that came first. Beacon was once the King's palace."

Okay. Kinda cool for a history lesson, she guessed. It would have been a lot more interesting if there wasn't an invasion going on upstairs that she should be having a hand in stopping. Adam was up there, too. Injured. She couldn't believe she'd let Ozpin drag her away from him.

"You told me there was a way to stop this whole mess. That better have been true."

"It is. They are searching for something, for someone, and they will not stop until they find her."

"Don't tell me you have a hostage."

Ozpin harrumphed. "Their goal is not to save anyone. Quite the opposite." The elevator slowed to a soft stop, pinged and slid the doors open. Outside lay gloomy green architecture, with walls dotted with moss and weathered by time. "Come. Hurry now."

The vaults were gargantuan. Too big in her opinion. The roof was some twenty metres up for crying out loud. Not even the classrooms had that much wasted space. You could have fit a second floor down here comfortably, maybe even a third or fourth. Imagining such a cavernous space beneath Beacon was incredible, partly because it had stayed hidden at all and partly because it stayed up at all! If it weren't for the huge pillars, she couldn't help but think the roof would have collapsed already.

Stranger than anything was how bare it was. Empty. All this space and there wasn't so much as a crate or cabinet for storage. Surely Beacon had crap they could have shunted down here to save space, but there was nothing. The teachers had chosen to completely cut it off. Heck, they could have done combat training down here. There was room enough for it.

This place is a secret, she realised. The elevator doesn't have a button for it, and no one ever mentions it. Not even to say it's forbidden to come down here. They just keep it secret.

"Getting real hard to keep hold of that blind trust thing, old man…"

"All will be explained." Ozpin said, walking briskly ahead.

It better well be! Yang jogged after him and then slowed to a fast walk, scanning the dark edges of the halls and imagining the shadows hidden within. Lights flickered on as they went, sensing movement and pulsing to life. Some failed to do so, blinking and dying, casting whole sections of the vaults into pitch black. Sunlight did not penetrate, and the air was cold and stagnant. Yang shivered and clutched at her arms.

"Long ago, these halls would be filled with refugees." Ozpin said. His voice bounced off the walls, his final words echoing. "Long before the first walls were constructed, it was safer for people to sleep here than it was in their own homes. Large, cooking pits were dug out, bedrolls laid and even stalls set up. It was as its own, small community. A thriving underground commune lit by firelight. Back then, of course, there were no elevators. The shaft allowed for smoke to escape, and a great staircase existed at both ends, leading up to two fortified buildings. One of those is now the cafeteria, the other repurposed into a storage shed by the training fields."

Yang had seen it. Squat and ugly thing. She hadn't realised it was some ancient ruin, but then it had probably been fixed up numerous times. "That's cool and all, but can we get to the point?"

"The point, Miss Xiao-Long, is that there are things few people know about Beacon. There are things people do not know about the world itself. Remnant has its fair share of secrets. Grimm, aura, semblances and the origins of such. Why, ask yourself what those things might have seemed like to people thousands of years ago, before the advent of technology and when men still travelled by horse and carriage."

"I guess it would have looked like magic," she said, humouring him.

"Magic. Yes. That is an apt term. When lightbulbs have not been invented, a person able to summon light into their palm must have seemed a great sorcerer. Science has a way of taking the mystery out of things. It is one of the greatest of humanity's achievements, to understand the world on a more intimate level. Nowadays, the list of what is impossible is much smaller. Back then, flight would have been impossible, as would travel at any speed. Guns, TV screens and instantaneous communication over distance would have been seen as incredible feats of magic."

Yang sighed. "Sir, the White Fang-"

"The reason I am telling you this is to prepare you for one such phenomenon. There are things even now that science cannot explain, that may seem… impossible. Magical. We do not have time for questions."

"But we have time for grand philosophical speeches?"

"No." Ozpin said. He held his cane to a sealed door. Lights flashed along it even though she couldn't see any mechanism for it. Stone rumbled as it slid open. "Not anymore."

/-/

Adam cut through the stomach of a masked faunus, brought Wilt out the other side and into the path of an axe. Sparks flashed as the much larger man fought to use his strength against him. Grunting, Adam dropped to one knee and tilted his shoulder to the side. The man was unprepared for it and his own force worked against him, tipping him forwards as his axe sailed harmlessly by. Wilt was already angled to that side and swept sideways across the man's midriff, opening his bowels before he could blink. The man groaned, dropped his axe and gripped his stomach, toppling with a meaty thud.

"W-Why are you doing this?" another masked faunus asked. "You're one of us! You're wearing the mask. Why are you siding with them?"

Because faunuskind would not be aided by this; because the world would hate them for harming an academy; because these people deserved a chance to be better; because he had seen first-hand how far mindless violence got them; because he had a team to protect. There were many answers he could give but few they would accept.

"I am sorry," Adam said instead.

The faunus he directed that to shivered, realising he was dead. Panic took over and he screamed, charging forward with his sword held high above him. It was a reckless assault, one born of terror and a wild need to kill Adam before he in turn died.

Wilt slid into Blush with a whisper, then shot back out with a hiss. One, clean draw, one slice, and he hoped the man's death was as swift and painless as it looked. The head toppled from its place, taking with it a piece of the neck and shoulder.

This man was dead because of him.

Literally, yes, but also figuratively. He may not have been the one to ordain the mission, nor to select the target, but he had been the one to push Sienna for further violence. More aggression. He had been the leading voice against her moderate approach.

Faunus had been inspired by his passion and his words, by his anger and hate. The Albain brothers had used it, but even their machinations would have failed without a suitable figurehead. Adam had become that, whipping the White Fang into a mad frenzy.

Adam's heart was heavy as he approached the next battle. Several students, a mix of Beacon and the other academies, were holding bravely against the White Fang supported by Atlas' death machines. He recognised Blake's teammates Nora and Ren among them, but also Winchester, his side bleeding, his arm wrapped about an injured student he was shielding. In the heat of battle, Adam doubted the boy realised nor cared that he shielded a faunus.

The boy was racist, not evil. That distinction was a hard one to make because he had seen them as one and the same for so long. That it might be a scale had never occurred to him. That people might change… No, he'd known that. He'd simply ignored it because he hadn't wanted people to change.

He'd wanted people to suffer.

Did I even want equality for the faunus? Or did I just want to make humans feel the same pain I did? In the end, I became no better than the one who branded me.

The battle paused as he entered, walking slowly from the side with Wilt drawn. He could hardly blame them. Where they were covered in grease and soot and dust, he was soaked with blood. The students were still young, idealistic, and aside from cases of accident, they were trying not to kill their opponents. He held no such qualms.

"I-Is that…?" a faunus asked.

"Adam Taurus…"

"Taurus…" Winchester snarled. He moved his body to shield the faunus student he was protecting. It must have been the mask, Adam decided. They were all watching and waiting, not knowing which side he would fight for.

He couldn't blame them. Any of them. He'd killed for both now, and that did not make him a good man. It made him a monster. A good man would have carefully chosen which was right, an average man might have made the wrong choice and learned from it, leaving to redeem himself. A man such as he, who only left to prove Blake wrong, was neither.

"I have stood knee deep in blood and death." Adam said. His voice carried. "I have cut down those who surrendered. I have ordered the slaughter of prisoners and left their bodies to rot in the sun. I have goaded the hungry and desperate into violence; I have watched children pick up weapons and wield them against their neighbours. I have turned good people into killers, hopeful children into orphans and a peaceful movement into an army."

Wilt pierced down into the ground. It stuck there, and he rested his hands atop the pommel, suddenly feeling every ache and pain, all the years of exhaustion weighing down on him.

"I am everything that is wrong with the White Fang today. I am anger and rage and starvation and blood and death. It is my fault that we are here today, my fault that you were left without any to lead you, my fault that you were brought here, angry and afraid and hopeless."

Adam reached up, touched fingers to his mask and removed it. His eyes, one heavily scarred and branded, were rimmed with red. The mask clattered to the floor, bounced once and lay still.

The faunus did were shaken.

He doubted the students were any better.

Adam did not have eyes for them.

"I am sorry," he said to the faunus before him. "I am sorry for what I have done to you. For what I have made you." He raised his hands off the weapon, releasing it. "If you must kill someone today, let it be me." He stepped forward. They stepped back. "Kill me, avenge the mistakes I have made on you, and leave. Leave and take off your masks, forget the monsters you became and work toward a better future."

/-/

"What is he doing!?"

It was Cardin who asked it, but Nora couldn't help but echo the question in her head. She didn't know Adam – who did apart from his team and Blake? He was unapproachable at the best of times, one moment seeming like a hero against bullying of faunus and the next a barely restrained serial killer plotting his next murder. And that was just what she thought. Nora knew she was considered a little crazy by most people, so what others thought of Taurus was probably a whole lot worse.

What she was sure of, or had been before now, was that you didn't want to piss him off. He was violent. Violent with a capital V. He did not `let things go`, he did not `forgive and forget`. He attacked. He brutalised. By the looks of all the blood on him, he killed as well. She wasn't surprised to discover that at all, and even less surprised at the things he'd just admitted to.

Adam Taurus was not a man to be crossed. And yet here he was, offering the White Fang a chance to kill him. No one dared move, least of all them. They were already low on dust and aura from the waves that had come before. Ren held a hand out, telling her to stay still. He must have thought she would run in and make things worse, but that was the last thing on her mind. If Taurus could end this fight peacefully and send the White Fang into retreat, that was fine by her.

And for a moment, it looked like the White Fang might take it. They hesitated. Several looked between themselves. One even looked down and took off his mask. He looked young, not even sixteen.

The one in charge pointed a cleaver at him. "He's just one man!" he yelled. "One traitor. Kill him and then the rest. For the White Fang! For the White Fang!"

The others roared, "For the White Fang!"

Crap. So much for talking them down. Nora gripped her weapon.

Adam Taurus reached out one hand and did the same with his. "So be it," he said sadly. Quietly. Nora wasn't sure how many other people heard it. "I am sorry for pushing you to this. And sorry for what I must do now."

The sword was drawn from rock. It cut so fast it was a blur of red, from bottom left to top right, through the faunus who had shouted and begun the charge. The man's feet kept running as Adam stepped aside, but his upper half toppled back, cut diagonally from hip to shoulder.

Nora froze.

The White Fang did the same.

Adam Taurus did not.

He was among them, running his sword across the throat of one before they could recover, then turning and stabbing backwards, piercing through the stomach and out the back of another. He did not draw the weapon free so much as step forward with it. His hand yanked once and it slid out, parrying an attack from the front and knocking the weapon high, then reversing as his second hand came up to grip the hilt. One slash down. One more body hitting the floor.

Nora wasn't weak. No one had ever called her weak. And yet this… this was too much. Too fast. Too bloody. They were students. They were first years. They were strong, sure, but watching Adam move among the faunus made her realise he was not a student. He never had been. This man was a killer.

He was nothing like them.

Their defeated enemies lay about with broken bones, bruises and concussions. His were cut in two. Dead before they touched the ground. He caught a sword in his left hand, pulled it away and stabbed his own into the stomach of a woman. She screamed, then again as he yanked it higher, viciously tearing an already fatal wound wider before kicking her away.

Without looking, he turned and sliced both through a metal staff and the neck of the man wielding it. He didn't even stop to check that his foe was dead. Adam stepped over the still twitching body and into three more opponents, side-stepped one slash, blocked another and directed the third into the first, all in one swift motion. He then rested his bloodstained weapon against the chest of one and wrenched it left, spinning on his heel as he did. In one motion, one slash, the three of them were killed or left dying. The one that dared to groan on the ground was silenced by his sword stabbing down into their chest to end it.

"The fuck…" Cardin whispered. "The fuck is this? This isn't a fight!"

"It's a slaughter." Ren said. "It's a one-sided massacre."

"He's on our side." Ciel Soleil said. "Isn't he…?"

"I hope so…"

Twisting, Adam cut through the second to last faunus, then came to face the final one, the one who had unmasked. His sword came hurtling down for the boy's neck, and the boy clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the end.

Nora made to scream for Adam to stop.

To her relief, he did. The blade halted an inch from the boy's neck. She was too far to hear what was said, too far to hear the words, but she could guess what they were. That the boy had taken off his mask, and that he should run. That he should never try this again.

The boy nodded, tears running down his face. He looked past Adam to them, and she saw real grief on his face. Guilt, too. It made Nora glad the others wore masks, for if she'd seen them like this, she wasn't sure she could have fought as well as she did. The boy turned and ran, arms pumping as he sprinted away.

Nora let out a breath.

The boy jerked and stumbled.

Adam stiffened and Nora shouted "No!"

The boy looked confused for a moment, turning his head back toward Adam as if to ask why, only to look even more confused when Adam had not moved, nor attacked him. The boy looked down and saw the black, feathered shaft piercing his chest. His mouth opened into an "o" shape and he clutched it, toppled sideways and lay still on the grass.

Ren had to hold her back from charging in.

"Why!?" Adam roared, fury and pain in that single word. "He had surrendered!"

"That," a rich and feminine voice replied, "is exactly the problem."

Red dress, black hair, a bow fading into motes of light as she released it. The arrow in the boy did the same, turning to nothingness. She was flanked by two people, one with green hair and the other grey. Nora recognised them – or at least the grey-haired one. Coco's team had fought against them and been defeated.

"I spent a lot of time and effort convincing the White Fang to attack Beacon," the woman said. It felt like she was talking to Adam, and that they were ignored entirely. "Those stubborn fools were a mess after your departure, Adam. It was like herding cats. Without leadership, angry and lashing out, I almost thought they would be worthless. Until I realised you were here."

Adam gripped his weapon tightly. The blade came up to point at her.

"Once they knew where you were, it was all too easy to convince them. All I had to do was whisper about your treachery, about how you were mingling with humans, about how you were undermining the White Fang and needed to be stopped." She chuckled, and Nora felt the incredible urge to punch her in the face. "The rest took care of itself. What else can you expect? You were always their brains, Adam. With you gone, they were no better than angry children needing a little… parental guidance…"

"I will kill you for that." Adam said.

"You will try." The woman looked past him and sighed. "By this point, I'm too late to stop him. I really thought he would wait for Nikos. No matter. I'm aware of who his second choice will be, and I'm also aware of just what will bring her out of hiding. Ozpin may tell her to run and hide, but I doubt she will if you're in danger. Let's have you sing and bring her out, shall we?"

Ren swore and ran forward. Nora swore harder and chased after him, not even sure what he was doing until he'd come forward to stand on Adam's left. That left her to take his right, the two flanking Taurus and facing their three opponents. It was a little hysterically that Nora met the man's eyes, pushed down her fear and offered him a manic grin.

"Three on one looks a little uneven. Mind if we join?"

"You're Blake's teammates."

"More like her handlers," Ren replied. "That girl is entirely too much trouble sometimes."

"Hm." Adam looked back ahead. "That, she is. You had best be prepared to kill. They won't hesitate to do the same."

Was she prepared? No, not really, but Nora had a feeling it was going to happen at some point tonight anyway. Her aura was already at half, her ammo no better, and these guys wouldn't be knocked out by a single hit. They'd been tough enough to beat Team CFVY, all while hiding their semblances. That said a lot about their skill.

"We just need to hold on until reinforcements." Ren said. "Help will come."

Nora hoped he was right.

/-/

Yang had never felt so nervous than when she was left standing in the glass tube, locked in on all sides and hyperventilating a little. Trust. Yep, trust was not easy. Honestly, she figured she'd done pretty well on it to not punch Ozpin in the face and tell him to find someone else. The headmaster was working on the machine, the other woman in the other tube still unconscious, still in a coma from her near-death experience.

"Can you hear me, Miss Xiao-Long?" His voice was muffled by the glass, but she nodded anyway. "Good. This will transfer Amber's aura into you. The process will not be a painless one."

Oh goodie. Funny how he'd forgotten to mention that part.

"I must ask you to stay still. You have the strength to break out of there, we both know it, but doing so could cause the machine to fail. They are coming for the power Amber has within her, the power you soon will hold. Please remember that and weather the storm."

Yang thumped her fist on the glass as hard as she dared without breaking it. "You better have an explanation for all this after!" she shouted through.

"I will." Ozpin promised. "I promise you will have all the answers and more, but not until we are sure this power is out of their reach. We will have time aplenty to talk once this is over." He moved to a lever. "I am beginning now. Brace yourself."

Yang was used to pain.

Her Semblance encouraged her to get hit, to take damage to strengthen her own attacks, and while the literal manifestation of her soul telling her to hurt herself had all sorts of implications as to her mental health, she'd gotten used to pain. Or so she thought.

This… This was new.

It was amazing how calmly she could think even as she was screaming and writhing in the tube. Amazing. It was a level of pain that transcended the body and mind, completely blowing her out the water. She'd figured it might be like electricity from the whole machine aspect, but it really wasn't. The pain wasn't external at all. Her skin was fine.

It was the inside of her that burned. It felt like her own aura, the very thing that ran through her body from the day she was born, had turned against it. It was melting her bones and flesh down around it, or so it felt, cutting a hot stream of lava through every vein and artery.

It was like her blood had been replaced with barbed wire.

"Arghhh!" she screamed. "Stop! Stop! It's ripping me apart!"

Ozpin might have said something. There was no way she could have heard it. Her head slammed back into metal, and she howled like a Beowolf. Her eyes flashed red, her hair gold, and for a moment she wanted to let it out, to blow this machine to pieces and escape.

It was pure grit alone that let her clamp down on it. Or maybe it was masochism. She wasn't enjoying the process at all but putting herself through more had to be some death wish.

So, this is what it means to hurt so much you'd rather die.

Yang was crying. She knew she was, and for once she didn't care. She sobbed and cried and screamed and batted her hands helplessly on the glass. Somewhere in the midst of it all, she felt she might have begged for mercy. Or death. Or the mercy that was death.

And then, with a final crackle and a hiss, it was over.

The glass capsule popped open, and Yang fell out. Arms caught her, turned her and gently lowered her down so that she could sit. Her muscles were shaking, her vision hazy, but she could just about make out Ozpin's concerned face. He looked tortured himself, which was a fucking rub because he hadn't been through that.

"F-Fucking last time I trust you like that…"

The headmaster smiled. "That is fair, Miss Xiao-Long. That is more than fair. The procedure was a success."

Yang's eyes dipped to the side, to the other capsule, to the still woman inside of it who had not once woke up. And now, who never would. Did I kill her? Is it my fault she's dead now…?

"The power of the Fall Maiden now lays within you." Ozpin said. "A grave responsibility, and an even graver destiny."

"I'm about to put you in a grave if you don't give me some answers." Grudgingly, Yang remembered her manners. "Sir."

"If you could, I would consider it a real feat," he replied. "Regardless, you shall have them soon. Can you stand? We must get you out of Beacon quickly. The sooner, the better."

"Leave? What? But you said I'd have power-" And even if she didn't, she had her own. "I can fight. There are people fighting and dying up there right now! I can help them."

"They are fighting and dying because they want you, Miss Xiao-Long!" Ozpin said, pulling her up. "Go up there and fight, and the fight shall continue. Leave, and they will retreat the moment they realise their opportunity is lost. They want you, Yang." He used her name for the first time. "They do not care about Beacon, nor her students. The best thing you can do for everyone is leave."

Yang's eyes clenched shut. Something hot burned behind them, something like fire and wind and lightning. It flooded her whole body and left her weightless. For a moment. A second. It was gone soon after, chasing with it a strange memory of a woman holding her and calling her by another name. Amber. Yang swallowed and forced her eyes open.

"Fine. Let's go."

Turns out our award ceremony (happening 30th September – I'll be off fics for that week) has run into a fresh problem. I asked our IT guy today how many entries we've had for it and he said none.

"None?" I said. "That doesn't sound right."

"Yeah, well, it's none. Sorry."

So I got in touch with someone I was sure said would enter themselves and asked them, and they told me they filled in the form 4 weeks ago. I went back to IT guy and explained, and he's like "They must have not clicked submit. We have no entries."

Tried it myself. Submitted. Didn't appear. Went back to IT guy.

"Huh. That's odd. Let me try." Fifteen minutes later. "Oh, I made a mistake. The form doesn't work."

Fury. I am, like, livid right now. Shouted at him yesterday but he's such a typical IT person. Just shrugs, says nothing can be done and acts like it's your job to pick up the pieces. I might give him a written warning for this because it's his job to test the form, he told me he had, and clearly he hadn't, and now I have an award ceremony with NO ENTRIES happening in about 40-45 days.

I am going to have to get in touch with hundreds of people and ask them to enter themselves again, or fake write out entries for them and just pretend the ones they originally sent worked. Gahhh!

Next Chapter: 31st August

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur