Hero
Adam put his hands against the worn wood of the ship, took a deep breath, exhaling only after a few seconds, and thought of a better place than here.
Ghira had finally arrived four days ago. He was met with looks of relief and worry from everyone. Injured, women and children were put onboard first. Once all the huts were broken down and supplies gathered up for the long haul, the men and soldiers were the last to board.
Four days they sailed with clear skies, calm waters, and only a slight tinge of winters' bite. It gave Adam much needed time to think about what he was doing with Nickel. The Gunslinger had yet to awaken after his collapse by the fire. With no fever, no illness to note, and no other injuries to report, the healers were left baffled as to why he'd not awoken yet.
Sienna believed it was just him coming to terms with his new life. That the old and the new were struggling for domanince. She told this in confidence to Adam, who had begun to wonder if his sudden turn for the worse was in relation to their argument. Lost faith could do that to people, as Adam had come to know from his time in the mines.
"We're eight days out." Adam didn't look at the speaker. "We already had people wanting to go back home. We've agreed to take them, and we need some guards for this. You down?"
Adam stared out over the ocean for a long time in silence, just ignoring the speaker. His presence never left. Messenger? Adam finally turned to acknowledge the speaker, a young man with bat-like wings dropping down. He didn't remember his name.
"What are they going back to?"
The Bat-Faunus shrugged. "Not sure. They just told me to find people. My money is on Argos. Could be wrong though."
"Probably." Adam gave him a sly smile. The young man chuckled nervously before raising a pen and paper. "I'll go. Write me down. Adam Taurus."
The young man nodded and flew to the next ship to get names. Adam watched him go and shook his head. They really needed to get Scrolls for everyone. Fat chance of that happening any time soon.
He pushed himself off the lip of the ship and started walking deeper into the ship towards the rooms. It took him a few minutes to get to the right room. The door was slightly ajar and inside he could hear someone whisper to the occupants.
Adam knocked twice and then pushed the door open gently. He was surprised to find Sienna and the little Faunus girl they had rescued in the room. The girl was drawing and Sienna was reading a book on silence. Their eyes went from him to Nickel as he lay motionless in the bed, his eyes still shut.
"Is he going to be okay?" The little girl asked quietly, looking up from her drawing.
Adam spied part of it. The image of Nickel with his gun drawn on a black monster was crudely drawn. Behind the image of Nickel was a small set of figures huddled behind in a tent. It was the drawing of their valiant stand against the approaching darkness. Other figures were being drawn above, indicating beside him, and armed with incomplete weapons.
"...Yeah." Adam finally told her. Her expression told him she didn't believe him. He smiled and knelt down to her level. "Do you really think your Gunslinger will leave you now? He's your hero, right? Heroes don't just leave. They stick around to make sure the ones they protect are protected."
"Pepper," Sienna gently put her book down and stepped around the bed to be at her side, "we should be getting you back to your parents, don't you think? You've been out longer than what was agreed upon."
Pepper huffed and grabbed up her crayons and paper. Sienna led her out and shut the door, leaving Adam with Nickel.
Adam moved to the side Sienna had been sitting at and sat down, releasing a sigh of content as he did.
Many things were on his mind. Nickel was obviously one of the things, but it had shifted to the meaning of his final words to him. What did it all mean? Where could he stay once this was all over? With him? Adam didn't have good dwellings. That was even being nice about it. Menagerie was a crowded place. His little hut was smaller than his prison back in the mines.
Then there was the fact that everyone would want to return home. Most of those places were reduced to ruins and ash. The Grimm, Bandits, and constant fighting had seen well to that. What would they return to? Why return there at all?
He knew that if they had more land under their control on the island, things would be different. Problem was being able to actually do that and keep hold of it. Ghira had, on a few occasions, made attempts at reclaiming some of the land held by the Grimm. They'd hold the land for a few months before it was suddenly overrun again. They would need more men to hold down the new location and builders to ensure that it was built quickly enough to hold people.
After a few failed attempts, Ghira fell off on the idea and scrapped it altogether. It wasn't worth the lives lost and manpower wasted on something that wasn't going to last. They had to find a way to make it last. And without support from the other Kingdoms, not that anyone really wanted it, there just wouldn't be enough resources to get the job done.
Now that they were also returning people, the very idea of expanding was out of the question. Menagerie was doomed to remain as a small island of misfits and freaks to the other Kingdoms unless something was done about it.
Knowing that Nickel wasn't going to wake up any time soon, he reached up and removed his mask, rubbing the burn mark and wincing as phantom pains raced through his body, and sat it down on the nightstand where Sienna's book lay.
Ninja's of Love? He reached to grab the book when he heard the door open, and pulled his hand back while putting his mask back on and stared at the body that entered. A large man that barely fit through the door entered, his hard eyes fixated on the two. Not a moment later a familiar pair of women entered.
"So this is him?" The giant Faunus spoke.
Kali nodded with an exasperated sigh. "Yes, Ghira. Adam, how are your injuries?"
Adam gave her a quick smile while adjusting his mask. "Good. Though, I'm not sure I'm better off right now. Nickel still hasn't woken up yet."
"I'm told his injuries were quite severe. How bad were they?" Ghira moved further into the room until he was towering over the two males. Adam felt small before the man, even if he wasn't meant to be. "And your injuries, Adam? I'm told they were also rather bad. Why aren't you receiving any healing right now?"
"I'm almost fully healed, sir." Adam turned his sights to Nickel. "And I couldn't leave him. Not right now. Not when he needs me."
"Adam has taken a liking to him," Sienna informed their leader. Ghira blinked in a rare show of surprise. "I know." Sienna exclaimed in fake shock. "I can't believe a loner like Adam would look after a now famous Gunslinger."
Ghira coughed in his massive hand, getting the jokes to stop right then. "But his injuries are healed, right?"
"For the most part. The remaining injuries might be psychological." Kali confessed. She moved a strand of Nickel's hair from his face. He was rather peaceful looking. "He lost everything. Felt betrayed by his father in the end. And from what little I've come to learn, he hasn't yet processed the loss just yet. He had been running since we found him."
"Yes. Saber gave me his report on the battles. Said he fought valiantly against the Grimm. What survivors I have spoken to, give thanks to him and you, Adam. You have a small following. Both of you."
Adam eyed Sienna and then Ghira strangely. "Why are you here to see us, sir?" He blurted out. Ghira huffed, but knew what he was asking. "I'm sorry. It's just… I'm not sure why you'd come to visit us. We've done nothing of a note really."
"Nothing of note? Surely you jest? An entire family praises the both of you for your actions and quick thinking. We gained more members that are willing to speak out against the Humans for their mistreatment of them. All because you two give them courage to do so. Your strength illuminated a path of them. And let's not forget your battle against that Unknown Grimm. Onlookers claimed it was a battle wills and you both proved your will was greater."
"The Gunslinger and the Swordsman, I believe they call you." Kali added. "People need hope to get them through these tough times. You give them hope. People will stay beside the people who give them that."
"As for your earlier question; I'm visiting everyone to ensure that they are well treated for the trip. It's just taken me a bit to get to this ship. A lot of injured people saw me first on the other ships, some voicing their complaint against my actions while others were curious about what kind of future they'd have on the island." Ghira ran a hand through his hair, feeling old and believing it to be graying already as he did. "With such an influx of people, reality is that we have no other locations for them. Homes are being built as quickly as possible and the soldiers are making every attempt to expand as much as well, but with the Grimm things aren't looking too good right now."
Adam felt small again. Not because of his size, but the realization on just how dire their actions made their lives now. They had to do something.
"Well, I have more people to see. Adam, thank you for protecting these people, and my wife. And when our Gunslinger awakens, give him my thanks as well." Ghira turned and exited the room with Kali following after him.
Sienna shut the door and moved to grab her book. Adam smirked. "Pervert," he accused.
"Like you don't have something to relieve your stress." She opened the book and sat down where Pepper had once been residing. "I hear waterworks work best with you." Adam had the decency to blush and turn his attention to the sleeping gunman.
(-)
Nickel rested against a thick oak tree under a star-field sky with the fractured moon hanging overhead. His eyes were closed, yet all around him he knew the landscape. The rolling hills, the tall mountain, and the four walls that blocked the village bellow from harm.
When he finally opened his eyes, a flash of something streaked across his vision, darting between the shadows and light like a dancer. He followed the flash through the forest and down into the village like a spirit being led by an elusive reaper.
His feet found gravely purchase in the center of town and the whispers of a thousand voices called out behind him. He whipped around and was staring at a home engulfed in flames.
Nickel reached for his gun and found nothing. He swore inwardly and moved to the burning home only to fall to his knees, rooted in place by dark tendrils of oily smoke. He would be forced to watch.
Cries sound within the home and flames roared like thunder in his ears. Gunshots, grunting, and dying roars called back the flames. A pair of Grimm run around another home to the left and Nickel watched them take a defensive position when a gunshot sang against the night, lighting up the world with an aura of white.
Another gunshot sang against the darkness and out stepped Leon, the Noble Man, his famous gun in hand, and his eyes hard on the darkness that was racing towards him.
Leon ran to the house and kicked in the door. He turned and fired on an approaching set of horrors and then reached inside the house. A tiny hand grasped at his large hand and a younger Nickel was dragged out of the burning house.
The world shifted and he was back on the mountain. His heart sank. He knew the spot. He'd had nightmares of it.
"Nothing ends…"
Nickel watched his near present self get shoved off the cliffs' edge and down into the rapids. The heroic last stand he pictured for his father played out before his eyes. Leon fired the gun once, twice, and a third and final time. Three Grimm lay at his feet, dead on the spot. The horde had reached him with gnashing teeth and claws. They pinned him to the ground, tore his flesh from his bone, ripped limb from limb, and when he was near death, the monster that had lead the army walked up, its head jerking left to right as it looked for the other Nickel.
Leon spat at the thing and gave it a bloodied smile.
It tilted its head and raised a single hoof. With little effort it brought it down and crushed his head into mush.
Nickel felt his world go cold before he was spirited away to a field of wheat on a small hill. He collapsed onto his backside and looked up at the fractured moon and cried for the first time since the adventure had started. Time was lost to him. It felt like he cried for hours, days, weeks even. But he knew better.
When he stopped crying, he returned to laying in the wheat field and stared up at the indifferent fractured moon. Endless questions were asked to the moon from him and not a single one was answered. How cold could it be to deny him one answer? He knew it would not answer, yet he wished it so.
"You never answer it, in return." A woman spoke.
Nickel turned his head slowly and saw a faceless woman of untold beauty. Formless as she was, she wore white silk cloth draped over skin as dark as oak, rich hair as dark as freshly tilled soil, and smelling of cedar and ash. Unnatural wind came in with the scent of ruin in its wake and tugged at the white silk she wore, revealing faint scars that lined her beautiful flesh.
"It never speaks."
"You never listen." Her voice was like listening to the ocean and rushing rapids; crashing yet soothing. "How can a speaker answer if all he does is speak? You ask, but never listen."
"What does it say? What does it ask?"
"Nothing." She faded away, leaving Nickel alone in the wheat field.
Coldness crept around him and he felt his life begin to fade. The stars began to dim and fade from existence, and the Gunslinger was okay with it. He protected his people, got them safely to Haven. Adam was alive. Sienna was alive. He was okay with dying. The world didn't need him.
"I thought you were stronger than this."
Nickel jerked up and saw Adam, the man who proclaimed himself as Nickels' Light, with a hand outstretched. He was illuminated in a red and white aura that touched the very heavens above, igniting the night sky in a brilliant blaze of red and white as stars were rekindled with his Light.
Warmth returned to Nickel as he took the hand of his Light and was pulled to his feet, tears still in his eyes.
"I have no Light left."
"Then I will be your Light. I promised you that. Did I not?"
Nickel nodded, remembering the promise. He awoke in the real world a moment later. The moon hung through the window of his room, illuminating his room and revealing Adam asleep in the chair by him.
Slowly he climbed out of bed and exited his room, making sure to not disturb his friend as he did. The scent of the ocean was strange and the air was less cold, touched with a tinge of something sweet.
Thirst was the first thing he took care of, helping him navigate the ship and find the mess hall. Several nocturnal Faunus were eating in silence. Yuma was off in the corner munching on something and making hushed small talk with another Faunus. Nickel easily avoided most of the people and grabbed up his water before heading back up top to enjoy the cool night air.
He finished his water and leaned against a pile of crates as he sat down and stared up at the night sky. His dream made him wonder if the moon would speak if he listened, but then figured that the dream had been nothing more than that: A dream.
Sitting in silence, he watched a few people pass him by without a word. Few turned and saw him, offering a silent nod in greeting before carrying about their job for the night. No one spoke to him.
The moon had reached its zenith when someone sat down next to him, holding a cup of water for him.
"You had us worried, you know?" Sienna put her back against the crate and stared up at the night sky. He took the cup and downed it, not realizing just how thirsty he had been. "But then again, you are rather stubborn from the looks of things."
"I'm not that stubborn."
"Stubborn enough not to die or release your weapon." He rolled his eyes. She sounded like his second-father. The bengal Faunus gently punched his shoulder. "Don't roll your eyes at me. I'm second in command of the White Fang."
"Sorry. You were just reminding me of my Second-Father."
"How so?"
"He was rather stubborn as well. Set in ways. I think someone said that about it once. Can't remember who, though."
Sienna eyed him carefully for a moment. Nickel didn't seem to be slipping into any sort of depression. Perhaps he had just needed rest after the long trip and constant fighting. Adam had collapsed from exhaustion after boarding the ship and even slept for the better part of two days.
Still, a better set of questions came to mind for the young woman. "You call him your Second-Father. Who was the first? And you're mother? What of her?"
Nickel was quiet for a long time. There were moments that his eyes hardened and softened. Times were it seemed as though he were lost in another world, another place, another time. When his eyes refocused, there was nothing but regret and longing within them.
"I don't remember them. It was so long ago that the earliest memory I have of anything before Leon was fire, a smiling woman, and the shadow of a man. At times I think I know them, and more often than not, I don't. Leon became my Second-Father after my village was attacked. I don't remember anything of it but the attack. He was there. He stood against the night, his gun in hand, and fought back against them. He made the horrors of the world seem so small in comparison."
"How old?"
"Small enough that I don't remember anything, obviously."
"And he raised you right? Never abused you?"
Nickel shook his head. "Good man 'till the end." He stood up, stretched and moved to the edge of the boat, watching as the sun began to break the horizon. The ocean came alive with color. Birds became visible. They were approaching land. "I think he lost his way, but found it in the end. Or at least the strength needed to keep me from dying. That final fight… He gave up, just like how I gave up next to Adam in our fight. But where Leon drew strength from me, I drew strength from Adam. I willed myself to live again and fight. To fail there would be a dishonour to Leon's actions."
Sienna moved beside him. "I see you as a tamed animal to Human needs and desire. Make no mistake, I see you as an ally. But should a day come when we have to defend ourselves from Humans, I fear you may not have the strength to follow through on your shots."
"Question me all you want. I will shoot down anyone that threatens me or those I protect."
Sienna tilted her head just enough to show her intrigue at such a claim, but hid it well enough that to Nickel it was a look of skepticism. "We shall see." With that, she turned away and made her way below deck. "You should get some rest. We'll be making landfall in a few hours. Going to be very busy."
Nickel snorted. He didn't need sleep. He'd been asleep for… "Hey!" he called out, racing after her, "how long was I out?!" Sienna said nothing, chuckling as she made her way through the hallway with a questioning Gunslinger on her heels.
A/N
Unsung Hero should be out tomorrow. Just doing some final touches at that chapter and then later in the week I should have a chapter on Allies Out There.
This was more of a filler chapter to set up events for later use. Nothing too special. Small interactions here and there for people that never fully interacted with others in the series as much as we might have liked. Ghira and Adam for instance.
Considering how big the organization is, I always wondered why Ghira took Adam and Sienna, along with Illia as guards. If anything, it had to be because they proved themselves strong enough to be at his side and protect him. And given that I was having this done near the time Adam may have joined, getting words of praise from your leader when you've hardly worked around him seemed like a fitting start to their beginnings.