To Lie in the Light

"I spy something that begins with…"

"Ocean!"

Nickel shut his mouth and turned sharply to Adam as the redhead rested his chin in the palm of his hand, lazily gesturing the waves of the ocean as the ship continued its voyage from home as if it were the only source of color he could call upon.

After five days at sea on their voyage home from Anima, resting for only a few days, and then being thrown back on a ship to Anima to deliver people, Adam had become rather perturbed. The lack of any fighting, good books - Sienna was being stingy. - and nothing new to talk about, Adam had become almost unbearably angry. Card games were considered, but it was too windy and the idea of playing card games below deck in their quarters with no air circulation and a thunderstorm hammering away on the deck, were a no go, leaving them with few options for entertainment.

Obviously, I Spy had failed.

"There's more than the ocean."

"You used it twice."

"Because I thought you would think I was joking and not call it."

"It's the only blue thing around here. Also, a third time? Really?"

Nickel sat back down on the bed out of both irritation and to show that the sheets were blue, though Adam failed to notice as he continued to stare up at the dark clouds that mocked him. Sunlight. Clear skies. On the deck! If he could be up there right now, he would. Captain said no one was allowed up there because this was her ship and she wasn't going to allow a single passenger to be struck by lightning or thrown overboard from the waves.

"I thought we left early to avoid this?"

"The storm picked up speed." Nickel motioned to a dark mass of clouds with his finger. "That's an anvil. The bigger the cloud, the bigger the storm. It was already creating high winds, allowing it to move faster. We just happened to be working with bad information."

"Human information."

Nickel sighed. That was the other problem. Their weather advisory came from a Human broadcast. Ghira had received the news from a "non-credible source," as Adam put it, and jumped the gun. They could have stayed back home for the remainder of the week and been fine when it came time to depart.

While Adam fumed about the miss information given to them, Sienna hadn't taken the news well either, opting to spend most of her time contemplating ways to ensure this never happened again and alone in her quarters.

Despite this setback, they were still on course to arrive by dusk.

What few times talks happened between the guards and the citizens, travel and safety had been the main topic. It was clear that proper transportation would not be given and that a quick trip was out of the question. The Argus Limited had been their best hope for a quick trip, but they were doubtful of getting it. This left them with a convoy of trucks and wagons. Worst option was walking, something no one wanted to do. They had the resources for it, but with older Faunus and children, safety would become an issue.

Nickel promised that he knew safe ways to travel. Adam backed him up, but wasn't one for walking.

They had to hope they'd get a few vehicles for this, or this trip would be problematic.

For the first time, Nickel understood just a little about the trouble that his kind suffered through. Stories never painted a full picture and what few times he had ever been to Mistral did nothing to make the image clearer for him. Their talks painted the picture, made it clearer and brought it more into focus. Humans were the problem and insured that their place in life would always be weaker and nothing more than second-rate citizens in the eyes of those with power. This feeling of superiority was passed down to their children, neighbors and friends, ensuring that the cycle would continue.

Despite the new information, Nickel had his doubts.

A knock at the door brought both men out of their thoughts. Adam stood up and answered it, allowing the familiar form of Tukson in. The large Faunus grinned to the two as he motioned to the hall.

"A few of us are going to play cards. You two wanna join us?"

"No thanks." Adam returned to the chair and continued to stare at the small window.

Nickel shook his head. Tukson nodded in understanding and left silently, shutting the door and heading for who only knew where.

Knowing he wouldn't get anything out of Adam, Nickel returned to his bed, shut his eyes, and drifted into a state of rambling thoughts. His mind drifted from one thought and theory to another. Bouncing like a ball kicked between dozens of children until one thought stuck out and burrowed its way into his flesh like a thorn.

His Second-Fathers' last words to him. What did they mean?

Nickel had tried to make sense of it in the past during moments of rest where his mind was left to wander. When the last words came to him, he was stuck on them and they left a bitter and ruined taste in his mouth, like burnt meat.

On one hand, it was the ramblings of a man near dead, pushed to the limits until his mind shattered. Possible as it was, Leon had been of sound mind, shoving Nickel off the cliff to save him. There was nowhere else to go.

A warning, perhaps. Of things to come.

The bitter truth of the world. That it had no end to horrible monsters: Faunus, Human, and Grimm. In all the stories his father told, as a child he never thought the evils he gunned down replicated or were replaced with dozens like them. How could a man who sold his own children for a horse be replaced by another? What being might replace a tyrant who slew his own child to keep his beloved offspring from helping those who worshiped the ground he stood upon?

His father had gunned down so many people in his time as a Huntsman, that perhaps he saw no end to the fight against the night. A sad and bitter truth, indeed.

Was it simpler than that? A belief passed down from father to son? Knowledge gifted in the form of a question or statement? What did it mean? Why did he say them in his final moments?

Nickel was jostled from his thoughts, his mind clearing from the thoughts as he looked up at Adam through blurry vision. The redhead stood over him, his mouth moving but the words lost on the Gunslinger.

"What?" Nickel finally asked, yawning. The night had come. He slept and pondered on the final words of his Second-Father all day?

Adam sat down in the chair, his eyes narrowed behind the mask he wore. His mouth hung open, ready to speak, but he stopped and shut it in favor of looking his friend over as concern became evident on his features.

Finally, Adam spoke and when he did, his lips turned into a sly smile. "Is she pretty?"

Nickel rolled his eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You sure?" Nickel nodded, yawning again. "You seemed rather enthralled with her. Called her your Angel. Sure you have no idea what I'm talking about?"

Nickel got up, rolling his eyes for a second time. "No idea what you're talking about, Adam." He moved for the door, stopping and turning his head just enough that a single red eye was fixated on Adam. "I didn't say anything else, did I?"

Adam shook his head and relief washed across Nickel's features as he walked out of the room, leaving his friend behind to his lonesome. When the door shut, Adam leaned back against the chair with his eyes closed.

Nothing ends. What does that mean?

His thoughts were halted by a knock at the door before it was thrown open by Sienna. "We're about to dock. Guards are requesting information. Figured a few extra people might get them on our side for this. Meet me topside."

Adam grabbed his things and followed after her, already seeing Nickel waiting at the end with a glass of water in hand, Tukson standing off to the side with a book that he was trying to pawn off on the Gunslinger and another family, both parties politely refusing his offers.

Sienna talked and walked at the same time, leading the team topside as the ship finished docking into the harbor. Four Mistral guards waited at the dock, their hands behind their backs and a variety of weapons slung over their shoulders for intimidation.

Sienna wasn't afraid, only unimpressed by their lack of a proper welcome. It was almost a slap in the face to them, thinking that four Human guards could tend to them. Adam alone could take them down. They were sloppily dressed and unfocused in their stance. Probably believed that the head guard could speak and force them to comply with their whims.

When the ship finally docked, Sienna walked down with Nickel, Adam, and Tukson behind her.

The guards were met with different expressions from the group. Sienna was a face of false pleasantries and understanding, offering no ground given towards the four. Adam held himself high, as though he were above them in power and class. Tukson was worried, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow, fearful of some foul play by the Humans. Nickel put his hand on the gun, caressing the smooth hammer, his eyes hard as steel as he looked each of the four guards over.

The four guards regarded them with smiles, trying as they were, and gestured to the ship where a few families resided to watch the conversation.

"I understand you're relocating a few families, is that correct?" The taller of the guards stepped forward, his hand going to the staff on his back as he shifted his stance from side to side, eyeing the four Faunus before him.

"Yes." Sienna gestured behind herself towards the ship. "We have nearly twenty families aboard our ship, along with trade supplies for Mistral and Argus."

The guard nodded, dragging a mask that covered the lower half of his face and flashed a smile. "We were briefed on your arrival by Ghira. Man asked us to make sure you get the best… Nickel?" His eyes widened at the sight of the Faunus. For a moment, there was a flash of joy and relief in his eyes, but that quickly faded. "Nickel Lancaster?"

Nickel stepped forward, pushing past a concerned Adam, taking a single sniff of the air before his eyes were sunken with sadness. "Yone?"

The guard put his hands on his shoulders, his eyes still sullen with realization. "Did you get them?" Yone asked quietly. He nodded. "And the others? Did they…?"

Nickel removed his hand, his head down as he shook it. "No. They died in the fight against them."

"And Leon?"

There was a long pause. Nickel could still hear the last crack of the gun as he fell. "Grimm…"

Yone stepped back, his eyes tightly shut. The other three guards were confused, one removed their cloth mask and looked around as he leaned closer to Yone to whisper something. The man pushed him aside and looked to Sienna. "He with you? Relocation or working with you?"

"Working. Is that a problem?"

Yone pulled his mask up. "No, ma'am. Just curious." He cleared his throat. "Our shops are closed for the day. I'll see to it that you can get some transports for your people and the goods you're carrying in the morning. You have my word."

"And a place to stay?"

"There's a Inn down the street. If you need the help, I'll ensure your safe arrival there." His eyes slowly turned to Nickel as he regained some semblance of his normal self. "Nickel can vouch for me. Get those that wish to sleep in a warm bed off the ship. We have room."

Sienna turned slowly, fearful of taking her eyes off the man, and gave the order to Tukson and Nickel. Both returned to the ship without question.

The three guards stayed with Yone until he turned and shooed them away. When pressed, he reached for his weapon, his eyes alive with electricity, and turned his back on them, his staff reacting to the power of his Semblance.

"If it's all the same to you," Yone looked back to the ship and then to them, "I'd like a chance to speak with you when we have the time. I doubt you're of the nocturnal kind, but I feel it must be done before you leave. I know not when our paths may cross."

"Why?" Adam touched his sword as a show of force. A gentle caress had scared lesser men, but this one was different. Adam saw no ill intent within the man before him.

"It concerns Nickel. I think it's clear I'm from his village. I knew him. There are things you need to know. Take the offer or leave it. The Inn has a bar. You can meet me there once everyone is settled. I'll stick around for ten minutes."

"Why should we believe you?" Sienna crossed his arms, her false demoner gone, replaced with a woman of ice. If she could kill him now with a glance alone, Yone knew he'd be dead ten times over. She wished it, but knew better and could already hear the families returning with sleepy children. "No tricks."

"None."

The families exited the ship as crews went to work gathering the supplies. They were led to an unkept Inn. True to Yone's word, the beds were warm and welcoming with a bar behind the front desk. A few families got dinner there, sitting in silence and hoping to not make a scene.

Sienna and Adam came to the table where Yone was waiting, his Mistral headdress removed, showing salt and pepper hair from age or stressful work, already working over a beer of some kind.

Two minutes they waited as Yone sat there sipping his beer, contemplating something. Adam swore the man wasn't sitting in front of them. His eyes flashed with emotion, as if he were jumping from one memory to another. He'd work his jaw with his eyes closed and snort when joy was reflected in them. When he finally spoke, Adam felt the words more than he heard them.

"Nothing ends…"

Adam leaned back in his chair. Sienna arched a thin brow.

Yone put the beer down, his eyes turning to Adam. "He said that to you, didn't he?" Adam nodded slowly, fearful of what it meant. "I was worried about that. His father, good man as he was, had more problems and questionable logic than Lionheart."

Yone reached into his vest, pulling out a brown leather book and put it on the table. It bore no name or title. He slid it directly into the center of the table, his eyes staring at it like some foul thing spat up by a creature of evil.

Sienna reached out, slowly pulling the book back, her curious nature getting the better of her. She flipped it to the first page, her eyes scrutinizing each word written. "For he was a beacon. Hope given form, yet still, only a man. From that truth there was a great promise; if one man could stand against the night, then so too could anyone - everyone." She read outloud, loud enough that only they heard her before her eyes returned to Yone, the book now closed. "What is this?"

He gestured to the thing in her hand, his eyes lost, yet focused, on the book. "It's Leon Lancasters' diary, journal. Whatever you wanna call it. By all accounts, it's Nickels. Leon's last words to me were to give that to him should anything happen to him. Shame to say it, but something did happen. Leon isn't with us anymore, which means I give that to Nickel. No questions asked. But the sad truth is that I can't just give it to him."

Adam snorted. "And why not?"

"Did he confide those two words to you?" Silence. Yone nodding, knowing the answer. "I thought not. It was Leon's biggest haunt. That man did a lot of good. But he also did a lot of bad. The biggest bad he did was stay in one place and infect others with his Semblance. That damn thing was a drug. Good in small doses, but bad for anyone he stuck with. Nickel was his adopted son, so it stands to reason that he never got to experience it himself without something else interfering."

"And that is?"

"Hope." Yone turned and flagged a waitress down, raising his cup and offering a smile to her. She was quick to refill his drink and leave after offering to Adam and Sienna. "I have no doubt you know the different types of Semblances that are out there. I ain't gonna bore you with it. But Leon's Semblance was Hope. He couldn't turn the damn off if he wanted to, not that he did. Made his job a lot easier."

Sienna blinked, the book now forgotten. "He had an active Semblance that gave Hope to people?"

"The greatest lie ever told was done by a man who earned the title of Noble Man for his noble deeds. The world would be a lot darker if he didn't do what he did, but what he did was make it darker with his death. That man was a beacon. No one will dispute that fact. He spread hope wherever he went, but that hope was a lie. It was infectious to anyone around him."

"I fail to see a problem here." Adam confessed.

Yone chuckled. "Many people would. But let me ask you this: Do you have someone who sits on a pedestal that you think should never be taken down?" The redhead was slow to nod, begrudgingly. "Most people do. Be it their best friend, lover, or child. Leon was Nickel's hero. That man had done more good than any seasoned Hunter did in a lifetime. He saved villages, gunned down bandits, and pushed back the Grimm on all fronts. He was the first Gunslinger I ever laid eyes on, and the best. Nickel is the second-best."

"I'd dispute that." Sienna commented coldly.

"Dispute it all you want. At the end of the day, even you would take Leon over Nickel. He never missed. And I know Nickel is good, great even, but he is not on Leon's level. But that's not the point. Leon's Semblance had an issue that only a few people knew about. I was one of the lucky ones to learn about it. He confided in me the issue of his Semblance, the choices he had made that lead to Nickel's adoption, and the haunts he dealt with. Those words, they weren't just Leon's. His master said those words to him when she died."

"So what? Nickel now has a haunt?"

"Basically. It's a curse, or that's how Leon saw it. They haunted him because he wondered what it meant. Spent years on the road believing that it was something he could disprove. Kill a bandit and two more take their place. He thought he could kill them and the Grimm. Prove the haunt wrong. But the longer he stayed on the road, the longer he fought, more corrupt and evil people replaced the ones he gunned down, the more he believed the words she cursed him with."

"What do you think it means?" Adam asked. He'd had limited time to think on it and he wanted to prove he could be the Light Nickel needed to find salvation and clear himself of the guilt he carried.

Yone lowered his head, smacking his lips and banging his fist lightly on the table, careful to not to rock it and spill the drinks. "I have no idea. When the village was formed and I showed up, Leon had already realized his error. Two years he spent trying to figure out how to make right what he did wrong. And one night, he came to me, drunk and crying."

Sienna glanced down at the book in her hand. The first passage made her see this man as some mighty warrior with a gun on his hip. Yone made him sound impressive and formidable, but now he seemed more real, less untouchable. He was, as he put it, only a man.

"He told me about his Semblance, and said that it wasn't a good one. I saw the value in it. But then he asked me what would happen if he died or I left? Got me thinking. You have someone giving you hope. False hope. Now think about that. Nickel, who was around him since he was just a baby, lived with that man. Had his Hope inside him. Nickel has no hope. He has no imagination, no drive, no fear. This is something Leon did to him. Nickel's hope died with Leon. He knew this day would come and feared for Nickel. He spent years trying to get him to leave, to join the Academies. Atlas took an interest in him, same as Beacon. But at the end of the day, Nickel was afraid to leave because he lacked those things. Some might say that Leon trained him well. Well enough to be the perfect soldier. I argue differently. He made him what he is by teaching him to do good because it's good. He has a great concept of right and wrong. And at the end of the day, Nickel is a broken man with dying hope in his system. Maybe it's already happened, but one day he will find his hope gone and unable to replace it. When that happens, he will fall."

"Does that have anything to do with the Light?" Adam was fearful now. Nickel never voiced these issues, but the more he looked back on it, it made sense. He didn't want to jump into the fight because he wanted information. But what if it wasn't just because he wanted information and instead saw no chance for survival fighting against unknown odds? When fighting happened, he rushed forward without hesitation, throwing himself into dangerous situations because he was okay to die.

Yone released a sad sigh while setting the beer down. He stared into the dark liquid, his eyes unfocused once more. The silence was suffocating. Sienna felt fear in her gut as Yone opened his eyes with sympathy floating behind his now tired eyes.

"The Light is a misunderstanding." He was quiet, his young voice now sounding old and worn. "The Light is Hope, but the Hope is the Lie. Leon used that word as a way to hide his Semblance. People wrote about him. Some called him the "Beacon of Hope" or the "Light in the Dark."

Adam fell back against his chair, his mouth agape and his eyes - though hidden - closed tightly. How? How could this man Nickel spoke of with such pride be such a horrible person?

"It hurts being the one he confided in. Years I spent looking at Nickel wishing a better life for him. That's what I'm doing now." He tapped the diary that Sienna had put back on the table. "I saw him and I wished to take him. Give him a chance to spread his wings, be something more than what he was. But I know that'd make me no better than Leon. I can't do that to him. I won't do that to him. Nickel deserves to be happy. I think he can have that with your group."

An alarm sounded and Yone turned slowly as a pair of guards rushed in. "Sir! We have Grimm at the walls." One of them shouted.

Yone snorted and got to his feet. "Idiot! Keep your voice down. Not all these people are drunk or light sleepers." He grabbed up the speaker after making the short jog to him and lifted him in the air. "Get a team together to defend the wall. Don't need me to explain that, now do you?"

Stammering, the guard shook his head. "N-no, sir. But Lionheart wants all teams to investigate. Said to grab everyone, sir."

Yone dropped the guard, rolling his eyes as he did and turned to the two Faunus. "We can finish this meeting later. I need to clean up a mess. Let's go." He turned his back to them, mumbling choice words against Haven's Headmaster.

Sienna and Adam returned to their rooms to ponder the information they had been told.

They'd never meet Yone again. It would be the next morning that Sienna would receive news of his death at the hands of Grimm. She did not share the news with Nickel, believing that it might devastate him and send him further into a spiral of depression, the likes of which he may not recover from.

She didn't sleep that night, favoring to learn the legacy of the man who raised Nickel. This was not to prove Yone right or wrong. To see if his raising of Nickel was one she could stand behind. No. This was to understand the philosophy of a man who harbored more demons than she could count.

Cracking the book open, she felt something cold run over her hand and wondered, if only for a small moment, this was the ghost of Leon Lancaster standing beside her to bear witness to her reading of his life.

I never thought I'd make something like this. Putting a pen to paper has always been difficult for me. I'm a man of action, not words or writing. But, I feel this needs to be done. To set the record straight. To make amends for past failures.

My biggest failure, no matter what you might think, was you, Nickel. You had a right to your own life, and I took that from you. You remain my biggest regret, despite the fact you became my greatest source of joy.

This won't make things right, but it'll put them into account. These are my words, not someone else's. Not the words of a dying man. My words in the here and now.

So, I'll start off by saying that this won't be a complete set of events. Just key points you need to know.

My name is Leon Lancaster, the world appointed Noble Man. This is my story.