Adam Taurus is sitting next to the small pond in the middle of the night, a couple of hours before the dawn and several hours after the Fall of Beacon.
"Did I..." Adam draws out his sword and looks at the reflection of himself through the blade "Went too far?" then he put his sword back into the shotgun sheath. "Yes, I can't use the White Fang for my agenda. I can't focus on Blake and her love ones. I need to make the world a better place for Faunus. They come first, not me" Adam talk to himself and took off his Grimm Mask.
Adam stands up and about to leave before he saw a glowing figure across the pond. Adam put on his Grimm Mask and ready to draw. "Who's there!?" Adam yelled out.
"Don't worry there young Adam" a tall beautiful woman, fair skin, long silver hair that reaches to her waist and silver fox ears. She walked up to Adam.
"A fox Faunus?" Adam looks at her everlasting beauty and lowers his katana, "So who are you, my dear?" Adam asked.
"My name is Eve, and yes I am a fox Faunus" Eve sat next to a standing Adam. "So what's wrong Adam?" she asked with a worrisome tone.
"How do you know my name?" Adam questions
"It's not that after seeing the news reports on you" Eve explains "So what's wrong?"
"Well..." Adam sat down, "I was thinking about what will happen once I'll encounter my old apprentice," Adam said with a regretful tone. "I've given her my word that I'll destroy everything that she loves and to whomever she loves, but maybe I've been thinking about it. I was bitter over her betrayal from the train heist. I was putting my agenda against the White Fang. I just don't know what to do though. I'm conflicted over her betrayal".
"Just don't worry about it Adam, I'm here to make you see things clearly" Eve comforts Adam. "So what brought you here?" she asked.
"I like to come here whenever I face a problem" Adam answered.
"And why the mask?" Eve then asked about Adam's mask.
"Oh, this?" Adam points his mask, "Well it symbolizes what every human sees us, monsters".
"But where did it all started? The mask I mean" Eve asked more about the mask.
"I started it, but at first..." Adam slowly takes off his mask to reveal a branding of the Schnee Dust Company that's above his nose and covers his left bloodshot eye, "it was meant to cover my shame of what the Schnee Dust Company did to me" Adam looks down and in sorrow.
"Adam, you don't need to feel sorry about what happened. All you need to do is to follow your heart and do what's right for our kind" Eve smiles at Adam while comforting him.
"I know but I can't stop thinking about Blake and what I said to her. Attacking her and threaten to destroy everything she loves is out of line from me, because she's a Faunus and I have sworn to make things better but every time I take the lead..." Adam stands and argues himself over his cause and his word, "I tend to kill more and more humans, becoming everything that they believe in what a Faunus is a beast". Adam sat next to Eve and put his hands over his head and horns while looking down in confusion.
Eve looks at the pond and looks around, then finally turns to Adam who's in sorrows and conflicted over his actions "Have you ever heard the tale of the Nine-Tailed Faunus?" she asked.
"I heard about it but it's just a Faunus fairy tale that Faunus believes to be a Faunus Goddess, or to the humans' view, the Faunus She-Devil" Adam answered. "She's told to be the first Faunus in the world, a Faunus to be born with nine tails but revisions told that each time she gave birth to a Faunus, she grows a tail. She had nine children, thus nine tails of the Faunus Goddess. But to the humans' view, she's the first Faunus but only after she gain that power by devouring nine human children, because she, herself was human before she did the horrible deed"
"Ah, I see, well I've been told a different version, but some say that it's the oldest version," she said to Adam.
"The oldest version? The oldest version is her giving birth to nine children" Adam replies.
"No" Eve softly shakes her head. "Wanna hear it?" She asks.
"Sure, if it helps me to think things clearly" Adam replies again.
Eve tells the tale of the Nine-Tailed Faunus
The story goes that long ago, a woman named, Willow Wisp, who loves creating and carrying a staff, she married a man Jack Lantern, who is the strongest huntsman who's been swinging his sword that can create destruction. The two married and together they have nine children, each named after each color of the rainbow.
But misfortune came upon the family. They have lost all nine of their children each with more horrible faith than the last.
Willow spends her days in sorrow in the woods of her children graves, nine hours, one hour to spend time with each of her children, never leaving their side. She never miss a day to spend her time with her children's graves leaving and piercing her staff through the ground in front of them, creating a fence for the grave sight, wishing the Gods will give her another child, but to Jack, on the other hand, he spends his days worrying about Willow's mental state and he asks Willow to stop visiting her children graves because it becomes her obsession. It's consuming her mind and allowing grief to cause problems at home, forcing Jack to make another child but he said no. He blames himself since the sword he carries bring destruction to anyone who welds it and bring an omen upon them, but that's after the tragedy of his children.
Willow and Jack spend the remaining the day fighting, until he left and took his sword, because he suggested that maybe after having nine children dying is too much and the Gods are punishing them for a reason but don't know why, perhaps having a staff and sword come together maybe too dangerous but both Willow and Jack love another, even though the hardest of times.
Jack wanted to adopt a child instead of them giving birth to another, so he doesn't have to worry about Willow's mental state afterward and he gave away his sword to a local tournament host as the main prize and to see if his sword was the cause of his children died, sacrificing his prized sword for the love of his wife. Willow reluctantly agrees to it, but as long the child will spend their days with the other children. But Jack didn't agree to it at first but he'll join them if it helps her out, mentally. Willow went to her children grave one more time and leave the staff there, praying the Gods one more time that she wants a child different from the rest.
On the day of the adoption of their latest child, she went to visit her children but when she saw her children grave, she found a baby carriage, right in front of their graves and her staff. So Willow slowly walks towards the carriage but once she saw the child in it, it was a baby with what appears to be fox ears. Willow carries the child and when she lifts the baby, it shows that she has a rainbow nine tails. Willow was surprised about the tailed baby but she was thinking to herself that maybe the Gods have given her a chance to be a mother again, and each tail represents to each child that Willow lost. She took the fox girl back home and name her Pomme, the apple of her eye.
Once she came back to her home and she saw that her husband came back with a baby boy who's name is Alma. Jack saw the Alma has been abandoned by his parents and he pick him up since Jack see this a good time for them to be a real family and do one last job as a huntsman, saving an abandoned life to be raised with a family. And Willow surprise her husband with a fox baby girl name Pomme, and that each tail is representing their late child, but the husband had a bad feeling about it at first but he accepted it since he was thinking about Alma and he'll have a sister to be around with.
As years went by, both brother and sister are growing up together happily, till the ninth birthday though. Alma beginning to feel sick but he never tells his parents though as nothing happens but now bad things beginning to happen around Alma. And when the father woke up one morning, he saw the corpse of Alma that he brought home is lying on the backyard dead, and Pomme is crying over her stepbrother's corpse, horrified.
Jack then assumes that Pomme has killed him but it turns out that Willow has murdered Alma. Willow was planning on causing an accident to Alma and that Pomme is the gift of the Gods while he's just an orphan boy, so Willow defends Pomme but Pomme rejected the protection and will accept the punishment.
But Jack then assumes that Pomme is controlling Willow and she made Willow killed Alma, so Jack leaves Willow and Pomme, over the fear that Pomme will do the same with him. Pomme started to cry that the fact it was her fault and she's causing the rift of her family, but Willow still defends her and comforts her but she continues to reject her help.
Pomme then walks into the grave sight, seeing the staff and wishing that everything will be okay but nothing happens. Pomme then holds her rainbow tail, looking sad. So she ends up digging up a new hole but the staff creates one for her and she looks up at the staff, wondering if she can create something. Her brother Alma want to have more animal people around and I won't have to be lonely in this world, so Pomme hold the staff and she asks if new kind of people will appear across Remnant. Pomme then heard her mother's crying, she walk away from the grave sight and went to comfort her mother and apologizes for rejecting her help.
Willow sits there and waits till her husband comes, and day and night, she waited until finally the fifth day he came back, warning her that she must abandon the Faunus, then they'll have another child to replace her. Willow was confused about the word Faunus. Then Jack told her that it means half-human and half-demon, but Willow continues to protect Pomme and still wanted her husband
to come back to the family, she even buried Alma with the rest of their children, but he rejected and walk away again, leaving her and Pomme once again.
And after that night, Jack came back with a sorrow look, with the entire village with pitchforks and fire at the front of the home. Jack lead and they rush in but Willow was the only one who was in there and Pomme was gone. Jack look all over his former home and he went to see if she was at his children's grave, and what he saw was nine tails, placed on each grave and a letter on a stone.
Jack walk up to the stone and read her letter reads; "Dear father, I'm sorry that I've caused this but please, don't hurt mother. I've loved you both and my brother, but his death was caused by my curse that I was born with. It's like the semblance of my life, I was born to suck the life out of the person's will but I guess I was sucking the life out of my mother's will, so I cause her to kill my dearest brother. I don't know why I was born with nine tails but to prove how sorry I am for being the curse of this family, I've cut tails and place them on my other previous brothers and sisters' graves. A Faunus, that's what you called me, right? Then I'll accept that name and I feared that they're more of me out in this world since I wish for it, and mother told me that I was a gift from God, giving you and mother another chance to be loving parents but I guess this animal form of mine is the reason I've caused this. And once you're finished with this letter, please come visit my corpse on a stone in the middle of the forest, cause only you have the right to see me dead. So please father, buried me and my spirit will help out to those are need in help. Love, Pomme the Nine-Tailed Faunus".
So Jack left the grave sight so he can go find the stone that has his daughter, and then he found her, dead on it. What he sees that her face, showed that she was crying and blood covers the stone and Jack let out a roar of sorrow. Jack then blames himself that he has lead humans to hate the newly found race of Faunus, and so the Jack buried his daughter, not at the stone she requested, but next to the other children that he has lost over the years, alongside with his wife that he cause on that night.
Jack spread the legend of the Nine-Tailed Faunus to be a Faunus Goddess while the rest of humanity has spread it as she's the Faunus She-Devil. On the last day of the father's life, he sat at the rebuilt home of his once family, still looking in sorrow till he saw an angelic woman leading him into the forest of his family, but instead of seeing graves, he saw his entire family, together, waiting for him. He was never seen again after that day.
Eve finished her story about the Nine-Tailed Faunus.
"So...that's the oldest version of the Nine-Tailed Faunus?" Adam questioned, "Why did this story been lost?" Adam asked Eve about the story version.
"It's an old story but it's also a story around the term of Semblance since Semblances were unknown back then, so Pomme was in a way the first person who ever use Semblance, and she's the reason why Faunus were hated, cause they think that every Faunus are sons and daughters of the Devil" Eve looks down over her story.
"But to every Faunus knows her story is that she's the daughter of the Gods" Adam counter back of the Human's version.
"It doesn't matter, Jack spread her legend and if it wasn't for him, she's possibly the reason that Faunus can be view as the Devil and Demons of the world. But there's something else that I believe that Willow wanted to do but she didn't though" Eve talks more about the Nine-Tailed Faunus legend.
"Then again, Pomme was born in the woods and were taken in by humans, the way that the mob at the end called her by our kind species name," Adam said, "But I don't know why this story matters now since it doesn't involve me. I'm still confused over my statement and the cause of the Faunus. I've been looked up by others for being the hero of the Faunus, but when Blake came up to me and she asked me to train her, I never once took myself or my swordsmanship skills seriously but Blake herself wanted to learn in self-defense combat, which I agreed to it. So I train her, then the more I train her, the more hope I've give out but when I started to cause more accidents that result in more deaths. That made her run away from the White Fang and I feel like I've failed her, that I didn't teach her enough and I've become more animalistic" Adam back into his sorrow.
"It seems like you look at this Blake girl like your light, your hope, your future successor. It feels like you're ready to die for what you believe in but this Blake girl is what makes you come back and show her the power of your sword. It seems like there's something in you that wants you to keep coming back, maybe it's...love" Eve pointed out Adam's tenacious nature.
"Love? I never look at it that way!" Adam jumps and shouted, "The reason I call out 'My Dear' or 'My Love' is how I was told to talk to women when I was working with the Schnee Dust Company!" Adam remembers his life before the Fang.
"Why did they want you to talk like that then?" Eve curious about it.
"It's because Mr. Jacques Gele, oh wait I forgot, I mean Mr. Jacques Schnee wants us to call his daughter Winter "my dear" or "my love" since he believes that Winter is the end all be all of women and that she's every man desire. I've seen human women who've lived at the Pound look more desirable than her. That deluded old man, willingly to trick everyone to bend his way and once he's done with them, he sends them to the Pound, even his business partners" Adam shout out his rage over Jacques Schnee.
"I see, so this Jacques Schnee..." but Eve was cut in before she can finish.
"Gele! His name is Gele" Adam said.
"Jacques Gele?" Eve asked for confirmation which Adam nodded, "Is he a man who looks at himself as a king figure? And his daughter Winter, is she that beautiful?" Eve asked.
"Gele is the reason why I'm here! He's the reason why I have this branding!" Adam started to glow and his Semblance is activating, "I want to kill everyone he loves but after hearing why he's at the top of the world, I found out that's impossible, so I hit him where it hurt, his business. And if his small "security" force wanted to get in the way, I'll take them down too!" Adam finally calms down. "But when I became a member of the White Fang. I gave out all the information that I had, and at some construction and radio towers, I've used to work at, or forced to work at since I was a former slave to Gele. And when I show Blake my branding, she then hugged me. I was surprised about it but then she continues to work at her father's side, former High Leader, Ghira Belladonna. Then I put my vengeance at the side and focus more on the Faunus. But why did you have to bring up love?" Adam questions Eve's choice of words.
"Sorry Adam, every time I hear a story about a person who's lost and alone, I want to help out that pour soul. You can use this cause to bring her back and maybe you'll see her in a different light, your light in this life" Eve pointed out.
"Use this...I'm not using the White Fang's cause for my agenda? Blake is an apprentice, not my love..." Adam bark at Eve's choice of words.
"I'm not asking you to abandon your cause Adam, but all I'm asking is that to get everything that you deserve in this life. My goal is to help others to open up, so this Blake is your goal" Eve comes out more.
"No, I can't use..." Adam argues over himself again.
"You know why I told you about Pomme?" Eve asked.
"The story doesn't matter in my..." Adam said but was cut in by Eve.
"Willow let Jack go and didn't follow him and made him see the wonders of Pomme. And it's because of Willow's will wasn't strong enough, so she died and Pomme died from blood loss over the loss of her nine tails to prove out grateful she was to have a family and she died for that. But when Jack learns it was too late and Jack lives out his regrets. I may not know who this Blake girl is, I see her as the Father but you can change her views. Use what you have now, and if there's this high leadership in the White Fang, then take it. You're Willow Wisp, and the White Fang is Pomme. Only you can change her views and make the White Fang greater than it ever was, and you, being the top of all Faunus, a Faunus King with an apprentice that'll serve as a Queen of all Faunus" Eve compares the Nine-Tailed Faunus to the White Fang.
"So...take the High Leadership of the White Fang, under Sienna Khan's nose. I know this old love, I mean a love that I know whom I have conspired with to bring down Beacon, and she did mention someone who's even more powerful than her but she did mention that she'll make her kneel before a Goddess, which I didn't understand. But if I can use her resources, I can be the High Leader, greater than Sienna Khan, greater than Ghira Belladonna, and far greater than the late first leader, London White" Adam smiles at Eve and grab an apple that appears next to Eve, he never questions it but it took it and bite it, "Thank you, Eve. Thank you for telling me the old Nine-Tailed Faunus story".
Adam walks away but before he leaves, he looks at Eve one more time and to his surprise, he noticed that her fox ears aren't the only the Faunus thing about her but he noticed that Eve has a cut tail, nine cut tails. Eve turns to Adam and smiles at him.
"Good luck Adam, and I hope...my mother's will can help you out. I'm always here to guide the lost souls into clarity" Eve waves at Adam one last time.
Adam smiles again, grinning while putting on his mask, memories about his darkest moments of his life before the Fang and focuses more on Blake, the light to his darkness, and Adam left the light of the pond to the darkest fields.
Once Adam left the pond and fog appears out of nowhere to cover the entire field, leaving only Eve the Nine-Tailed Faunus sitting on the stone and looking at her reflection on the pond's water.
"Willow...it's been so, so long since I last talk about you or your story, old friend" Eve skin started to crumble away and her fox ears drop out of her head, alongside the cut nine tails. Eve turns into Salem. "Now that I got Adam swinging in my way, turning his apprentice into his sole goal and manipulating his cause of the White Fang and be focus around this Blake girl. Oh, Adam, your heart is so easily to play around with, and if Sienna won't follow, then I got a trick up in my sleeve from our meeting" Salem looks at her reflection on the pond and it appears to be her Eve form "A little trick I learn from you Eve, but I took some creative liberties over your story" Salem chuckles. "I'll deal with you later, Cinder, cause this Goddess won't bow to a little girl's dreams, cause I'm the reality, but I'll thank you for Adam Taurus"
"He will slowly be a being either my underling" Salem turns around and defog the fields to look at Adam leaving through the fields of Vale, "Or I got rid, of a rival" Salem smiles.