RWBY
False Love
The Faunus militia of the White Fang stormed through the halls of the dust refinery. The alarms hadn't started going yet but with the two captured doctors they were dragging behind them on cord leashes like dogs it would only be a matter of time. Their objective was in sight. The main processing room. There, all the parcels were sorted. Crates of dust re-distributed to other continents on Remnant. At the helm of the force, Adam Taurus walked ahead like he owned the place. It wasn't misplaced. After all, he would do in a few minutes.
"Blake!" Adam didn't break stride as he walked. "Once we enter, the alarm will be triggered. I need you to take Ilia and ten of our men. Head to the security barracks. Take out the security force there and don't let them reach our position." The young raven-haired Faunus at his side nodded, gesturing to Ilia to follow her as she peeled off from the main group. Like a well-drilled unit, ten others broke off and together they took the adjacent corridor. Blake's right hand began to itch, yearning to grab Gambol Shroud already. For some reason though, she held back.
They reached the end of the corridor and burst into the barracks just as the alarm started wailing. Only then did Blake allow herself to draw her weapon ready to deflect any incoming gunfire. Surprisingly though, none came. The humans were far less organised than she'd imagined. They hadn't even guessed there were intruders until the alarms were sounded and so they were still in various stages of gearing up. Some were pulling on chest armour while others were still barefoot and snapping the straps shut on shin guards. Not a single one of them was anywhere near the weapons rack. And as she surveyed the scene, the click of a gun behind her snapped her back to reality. She drew her weapon and whirled around, aiming her blade with laser-like precision at the neck of the Faunus who'd pulled a gun on someone who was defenceless.
"No one makes a move on them without my say so, got it?" Seeing that she meant it, the others all nodded submissively.
"What are you doing?" Ilia demanded. "They're right there!"
"And they can't fight back!" Blake snapped. "The White Fang was formed to help the defenceless, so we're not about to fight them! Let them finish gearing up. Shoot to wound only when we engage. We don't need to kill them, only make sure they're unable to get in our way." She turned back to the security team and watched carefully as they finished preparing. Eventually, they all moved over to the weapons rack. Clearly they'd decided that the best way was to wait for each other and get their weapons as a unit rather than risk the Faunus opening fire as soon as the first man laid hands on a rifle. They needn't have worried, but Blake had to applaud their teamwork. Some of the White Fang Faunus could learn a thing or two from them.
At that moment, the wall right next to the gun rack collapsed in on itself. Adam strode through, Wilt and Blush at the ready as Blake caught a glimpse behind him of the White Fang soldiers under the High Leader's command carrying some crates of Dust out and rigging charges on others. The workers were all on their knees in a corner.
"That's-" One of the security workers realised at that moment who they were all seeing. It was all he managed to get out. To Blake's horror, Adam looked to his left as though just realising they were there. Quicker than even her eyes could perceive, he swung Wilt horizontally. The blade glowed and hummed with evil red energy as a shockwave spread through the air. The security workers were all standing in a line at the weapons rack having been going for their rifles. They didn't even have a chance to think of making a move. As the wave passed through them, they all became incredibly still. Some of them sank to their knees after what felt like an eternity of heavy silence as their heads toppled from their shoulders. They'd been decapitated so suddenly that it was as though their bodies had forgotten to bleed until a few seconds after they hit the floor. Those who were slightly shorter stayed standing, their heads beginning to horizontally split open in the varying contact points where they'd been hit. As soon as the last one hit the floor, it was as if something snapped inside Blake.
"What have you done?" There was a hollow note to her voice. "I was waiting for them to finish gearing up. They were defenceless..." Blake looked ready to burst into tears. Instantly, Ilia moved to comfort her, wrapping her arms around her tightly.
"It was the best way, Blake. We have no casualties. You ordered us to only wound them. They wouldn't have shown us the same mercy." Blake wasn't listening. She shrugged off Ilia's grip before storming over to Adam with a face like thunder.
"Blake, I'm sorry! I didn't know you wanted a fair fight. It was an accident! I just saw them all there and panicked!" Blake wasn't having it. She shouldered past him and headed for the stairs. She needed air to clear the stench of blood from her nose. She needed to see the sun to burn away the sight of the bodies. She needed to just get the hell away from Adam. At the end of the day, that was all that mattered.
By the time she'd hit the corridor again, she'd broken into a run. She saw a set of emergency stairs and this definitely was an emergency. She climbed the ladder onto the rooftop terrace and gulped in big breaths of air. She knew by now that she should have left the White Fang with her parents. They'd been right about Adam. His mental state was fraying at the edges. Or was it? Had he been wearing a mask that people couldn't see this whole time? Was he truly hiding more than just his eyes?
"Blake!" She turned to see Adam walking timidly across the rooftop. He wasn't the type to do anything timidly. This must be his way of acknowledging how clearly he'd messed up. Despite that, she couldn't stop herself from stepping further towards the edge. She turned away to try and hide her fear. "Blake, I'm sorry. I told you. It was an accident."
"Was it?" she challenged, giving him a venomous side-eye. She whirled to face him, her tone equally unforgiving. "This wasn't the first time humans have died on missions you've led. How many more accidents are there going to be?"
"I don't know!" Adam defended. "I'm out there fighting for us and when you fight, people get hurt." It sounded flimsy to her. Excuses and nothing more. "What, do you want me to just abandon our cause? Like your parents?" In that instant, it was gone. Blake no longer saw the radiant glow that used to surround him. The supposed saviour of the Faunus. She no longer saw the hero that she'd felt safe by. Instead, she saw a monster. That Grimm mask wasn't a mask anymore. It wasn't just there to cover up the damage humans had done. It had become his true face. He was a monster wearing the skin of a Faunus. And that jab at something he knew was a sensitive topic had hurt like a slap to the point where it sent her recoiling.
"No! I'm not saying that! I... I don't know." And the worst part was, she really didn't. She knew this couldn't carry on, but Adam was sinking to new lows. She needed an escape plan and fast? Where could she go? Home was out of the question. No way would her parents take her back after what she did.
"I'm sorry." Adam's voice had taken on a soft note, but that hard edge was still there. "I shouldn't have brought them up. I just get scared when it feels like you don't believe in me anymore." There it was again. Emotional blackmail and manipulation at its finest.
"I never said that." Blake stepped forward and rested a hand on his shoulder. She had to make him believe she still trusted him or he'd never take his eyes off her long enough for her to escape. To her relief, it seemed to work. A smile reappeared on Adam's lips.
"Thank you, Blake. It's good to know I've still got you." She couldn't hide her uncertainty. Her hair was being blown into her face by a mounting breeze, but she shoved it aside. "I'll prove you can still trust me." She looked up at him, a small spark of hope reigniting. "There's an SDC train passing through here one month from today. Now we've got a raid on another Dust plant before then, but after that we'll take a small group to set up camp and then raid the train, just the two of us. Their security is all mechanised. No human casualties. I promise." It was a heartfelt offer, but it felt like false love. But she was a big believer in second chances and he was clearly trying to earn one. Who was she not to at least give him an opportunity?
One Month Later...
He wasn't going to convince her. As she sat meditating on the grass in the Emerald Forest, looking up at the night sky, it was the only thought on her mind. Adam had all but confirmed he was lost to her. Beyond her reach. Nothing could make him see sense.
During the raid on the SDC Dust plant, they'd been spotted early. High Leader Sienna had hit his weapon with an ice Dust Kunai knife and frozen the barrel, but it hadn't stopped him going for the alarm. The fight had started before they'd even got inside, Atlesian Knight drones emerging through the blast doors to engage them. The fighting had been thick and fast, Adam leading the charge and ferociously carving a swathe of decimation through their mechanized ranks. Blake and Sienna had taken the flanks while Ilia brought up the rear for the most part since her weapon wasn't really optimised for bullet deflection. They'd only brought her because they'd placed their bets on a largely covert op and she was the best infiltrator in the entire White Fang militia.
They'd headed through the corridors with Adam and Sienna fighting side-by-side while Blake made sure Ilia didn't take a bullet. Luckily the younger Faunus hadn't pushed herself into taking too many risks. She'd taken out any that strayed too close but never spent too much time trying to take the helm. The four of them had worked as an efficient and deadly unit to take out anything that came their way.
Seeing that a mechanized security package wasn't getting them anywhere, the SDC had decided to up its game, sending in a deputation of five humans armed with assault rifles in to head them off in a central corridor with smoke bombs. That was when Adam had let his true colours show. Sienna had been careful to use non-lethal methods to subdue two of them. Adam had taken on three at once, using Blush's barrel and Wilt's pommel to take their legs from under them and crack them across the heads. But then he'd made his mistake. He'd thought the smoke hadn't cleared. He didn't know Blake could see him as he'd raised his sword blade over the prone body of a defeated human guard. The sick grin on his face as he'd readied himself to bring it down had turned to a snarl as Sienna called him off, reminding him that they needed to keep moving. It had told Blake everything she needed to know.
Reminding herself that it had been two weeks since that day, Blake breathed out a sigh. She watched her breath erupt from her mouth in an icy fog, dancing in patterns on the night air's gentle current. It reminded her of something her mother had once said to her. She'd told her to never forget what it was like to see the world through the eyes of a child. Every fallen leaf was a work of art. Every rolling cloud was a moving picture. She'd thought for a long time it was one of the only useful things Kali Belladonna had ever said to her. Only now did she see how hopelessly optimistic that was. With Adam around, every life was like a wave. It was born, rising above the ocean with great promise, only to return to the sea before it had lived any life at all. It would be gone and forgotten having never seen or done anything special, because as soon as it rose any higher than the rest of the sea Adam would be waiting with Wilt drawn and ready to cleanly decapitate it.
In truth it was nothing more than a sea of corpses, their rotting carcasses concealed by the sparkling surface of the water with the help of Jacques Schnee; the man pulling the media's strings thanks to his supplying them with Dust at prices better than he'd ever offer to the public. In return, he entirely controlled their coverage of matters concerning his company. It made her want to gag just thinking about it.
In the end, she decided she'd been gone too long. She stood up and made her way back to the camp. The voices of the forest sung to her as she walked. Owls hooted in the trees as crickets chirped in the grass. As the other animals joined in, it all came together to form the kind of melody that was appreciated by fewer and fewer people. She'd never planned to have kids but in that moment a part of her wanted to, if for no better reason that to know there was someone in the world besides her who could learn to appreciate this increasingly rare form of beauty.
Her rapture was interrupted by her arrival at the camp. The voices of the animals all died out as three humans stepped from the tent. Blake instantly knew she didn't like them. Especially the one in the middle wearing a dress the colour of fire. Something about their auras told her that these humans were somehow a lot worse than anything in the SDC. They seemed like something much, much darker.
Blake darted to the side, taking cover behind a tree until they were totally gone. She stepped out to see Adam standing to attention with his lieutenant making sure they'd all left. Curiously, she headed over.
"What was that about?" Adam turned to her. His stance was nothing short of unsettling. Even with his mask on, she'd always been able to read his expression and read between the lines. She could anticipate him. She knew him. The Faunus standing in front of her was staring blankly at her like a total stranger. Everything about him in that moment was entirely foreign.
"Nothing. We need to finish preparing. The train will be here at dawn." He walked off without a backwards glance. In that moment her mind was made up. He thought she was giving him another chance, but a chance was something you needed to earn. This was no longer Adam's chance to redeem himself. It was Blake's chance to escape.
Five Hours Later...
Blake sat back and looked up at the sky as the sun finished rising. She'd severed the caboose of the train before Adam could cross the gap onto her carriage. Even if he'd had a speed semblance he wouldn't have been able to catch up. She'd done it. She was finally free. And she felt like a coward for it.
There was now a big problem staring her face. It was one she hadn't accounted for in her desperation and one she had literally no answer to. What the hell was she going to do now? There was no going home. She couldn't go back to the White Fang. She had nothing to go back to and worse to look forward to if she remained alone. For now, she just knew she had to get off the train before it reached its destination. If she didn't, she'd be the one having to answer some very difficult questions about where half of the coaches went and why all the security bots were AWOL. Mercifully, she knew the train's route from the map Adam had shown her. It would be arriving in Vale in just under an hour. Before it hit the station, there was a bridge she could jump from to hit street level. She would be fine provided she timed it right and landed in an alleyway rather than an open street she would avoid the gazes of passers by.
Blake crouched low at the edge of the carriage and bided her time. Sure enough, the train rolled into Vale a few minutes ahead of its predicted time; the gained time probably due to the lost weight of half its carriages. To her dismay, she saw no direct drop into an alleyway as she pulled into Vale. But there were more flat rooftops than she could count. It was certainly riskier in terms of being seen but she knew she could at least make the jump safely.
Sure enough, the jump was easy. She landed on the roof without being seen and then looked around to weigh up her options. After spotting the alleyway she'd been looking for, she jumped from the roof. Sliding down the drainpipe was an effective way to get her safely down to street level. Once there she could rest for a break in the stream of people and merge into the masses. After she'd done a lap of the city, she could maybe plan her next move or look for accommodation.
"You're in the wrong place, girl." Blake whirled on the spot to face the person who'd spoken. Two men in black suits stepped out of the shadows. Each of them had a pair of red-lensed sunglasses on. One carried a submachine gun while the other carried a sword. The SMG was a similar model to the ones the White Fang footsoldiers used. Blake knew it well and knew that it had a high jam ratio. But it was still a threat. The sword was something else, though. It seemed like a mass-production model with no special features, but there was no way to tell how good the man holding it was in a fight. To make it worse, there was no way the man with the gun would miss if it didn't jam. The alleyway was too narrow to dodge to the side and going in most other directions was also futile. If the authorities heard the fight or saw her, they might recognise her Wanted posters and then she'd be in an even worse position than she was before.
"What do you want?" her hand went to the handle of her weapon, her skin prickling with fear. There was going to be no clean way out of this for her.
"Oh, please!" The man with the SMG gave a disgusted scoff. "We've seen you on TV. Once we bag and tag you, I think Junior will be very interested in you. Who knows? This might even get the authorities on our side for once." Blake had expected as much. Criminals using her to soften their own wrongdoings with the cops. They were going to hand her over and probably hope to get one of their friends a pardon or some stuff struck off the record. She couldn't let that happen. Yet she couldn't see a way out. While she'd been standing there running through her options, a shadow had fallen across her from behind as well.
The shadow lunged at that moment. Blake drew Gambol and whirled to face them only for the figure moving at a speed to rival her own to ignore her completely as he vaulted over her. She could tell it was a male from the way he was built, but skinny as a stick insect relying heavily on armour plates to give his figure any substance at all. He carried a sword that was serrated along one edge and moved with a precision similar to Adam's even though the actual type of sword he was using seemed closer to a standard double-edged shortsword than a katana. He ducked under the first man's sword blade and swung for his legs, cutting him at the knees. As the second one raised his gun, the man with the sword darted in and brought his sword across in a flourish. The blade suddenly ignited leaving a trail of fire behind it, forcing the man with the SMG to shy away from the heat. In that split second the sword began to transform, the blade collapsing in on itself. Instantly a shotgun sat in its owner's hands in its place. He pulled the pump back to engage the slam-fire setting and held the trigger down. The shotgun kicked wildly and began to belch blooms of fire-infused dust that sent the thug dropping to the floor in a screaming heap as he rolled around frantically trying to put himself out.
That was it. They were down and weren't going to get back up again. If Blake hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it. She would never have believed that someone could engage two opponents with no kind of plan in place beforehand and defeat them so easily. She and Adam had always thoroughly revised their strategies beforehand to make sure nothing went wrong. But this had been the most efficient and deadly attack she'd ever witnessed from someone outside the White Fang.
"Come on, we have to move!" The man grabbed Blake by the hand and started running. Since he'd just saved her, she decided to trust him until they got somewhere safe before demanding answers. The police were beginning to pull up in their squad cars and about to cut off their escape route. As they moved in, the man pulled out his scroll and held it up for them to see.
"What's going on here?" one of the cops demanded before taking a look at the image on the screen.
"Two of Junior's thugs. They're down that alley." The man jerked his head to indicate behind him and the police rushed in to assess the situation and apprehend the crippled men. In the meantime, the man took off running. Blake was easily able to keep pace with him, but he was definitely faster than she'd thought he'd be. They were running for a good few minutes before they finally stopped by a market stand called A Simple Wok.
"Thank you for saving me back there," Blake hated having to say those words. It made her feel incredibly troubled that she hadn't even lasted five minutes on her own before needing someone else to bail her out. "So who are you?" For the first time, the man turned to her properly as the mouth guard on his combat helmet opened out and his visor slid up to expose his face. That was when the crashing realisation hit her that it wasn't a man at all. It was a boy barely any older than she was. He held up his scroll again, letting her see the same thing he'd shown to the police.
"My name's Nero Veil. I'm a student Huntsman at Beacon academy. And from the look of you, I'd say you're the Faunus who's been attracting all the media attention. So what's with the bow?" Blake flinched. When she'd first put it on, Ilia and Adam had both given her disgusted looks until she'd explained that it kept her cat ears warm in the winter. Once it lapsed into summer, she'd decided to keep it as a cosmetic choice. The fact that it helped her pass for human helped. It allowed her to freely walk among them without attracting any unnecessary attention.
"Not everyone's accepting of what I am." Blake shrugged. "I'm sure you understand."
"Oh, I definitely do." Nero grinned, exposing a needle-like set of fangs. Blake felt a stab of guilt. She'd assumed he was human. Why had she assumed that? She hadn't even given herself time to really see him properly. In truth she knew exactly why. She hadn't assumed anything, she'd hoped he was human. After spending so long being taught to hate them under Adam's guidance, she wanted to believe that they were capable of something more than the behaviour those two thugs had shown in the alleyway.
As she thought on this, Nero walked over to the stall and handed some Lien cards to the Shopkeep. He fixed his sword to a magnetic plate on the back of his armour vest and took off his combat helmet, picking up the menu as the attendant put two tins of soda on the counter. Nero grabbed one without looking and took a long drink before gesturing to the other one.
"Is that for me?" Blake asked confused. "Why?"
"I expect you're thirsty by now." Nero shrugged. "Hey, you like fish, right?" Was that a trick question? Or was his Semblance mind-reading? Or did he just guess because he knew she hid cat ears under her bow?
"I love it." Her voice sounded almost reluctant, but if Nero registered it he didn't let it phase him. He turned to the Shopkeep as he set the menu down.
"I'll have a King Taijitu portion and one for my friend here but could you just hold the noodles for her and fill the bowl entirely with fish?" Blake thought he was joking as she took a seat, but a second later a bowl of fish was slid across to her. Raw fish had never bothered her, so she instantly set to work on it. Damn him for knowing one of the few ways to her heart was with her favourite food! She ate quickly and sat back, finally feeling properly full for the first time in days. The meals at the White Fang camp had been enough to keep her going but they'd never properly satisfied her.
"That was amazing." Blake sighed, leaning back in her seat. Nero hadn't quite finished but swallowed and turned to face her.
"So I was wondering: how come you're here?" he asked. "I'm not going to get jumped by a bunch of other Faunus in Grimm masks, am I?"
"No." Blake felt the heat rising in her cheeks and fought it down. She instantly hated that he'd mentioned it so openly in public and keeping her heart rate under control was a struggle. Nero noticed he'd rattled her and backed off visibly, seeming content to sit back and let her tell her own story. "I left the White Fang because they're beginning to tip over the edge. In fact I think they already have. My mentor was just ready to blow up an entire train without a care for the human crew members." Nero paused with his drink halfway to his lips.
"Was his name Adam Taurus by any chance?" Blake got a sinking feeling in her stomach. There was no way this could be good.
"What have you heard?"
"I've seen footage of him lining humans up and executing them. Not even as part of a raid or in affiliation to the SDC. He just grabbed random humans and killed them for sport." Nero's answer justified her sense of dread. How had he got this past her?
"That's impossible! That's..." Blake couldn't find the words. Unable to think clearly, she buried her face in her hands and tried not to scream with fury. How had she ever trusted such a man? "God, I'm in deep and I don't even have a place to go." At that, Nero perked up and turned to face her properly.
"Well I can help you there." He finished his food and slid the bowl across the counter to the Shopkeep. "Join Beacon." Blake instantly spluttered, choking on nothing more than her breath. She must have misheard!
"I can't do that! I'm a wanted criminal!" She lowered her voice to a sharp hiss so as not to be heard.
"Are you, now?" She was surprised to see Nero pull out his scroll and call up an old news article. It was taken from the security recording at the Dust plant they'd raided two months ago. She leaned in and read the passage under the picture and was stunned by what it said.
'- happened in the early hours of the morning earlier today. In the security barracks, the Faunus identified as Blake Belladonna (pictured above) along with a branch of the attacking militia entered forcefully to intercept response teams. In a rare display of what appeared to be honour, she held off her own forces and was content to wait for the response teams to finish gearing up before engaging them. Moments later, the event was darkened by the arrival of Adam Taurus who proceeded to execute them all in cold blood. It seems that the fight for Faunus equality is one being fought on two fronts, with both sides singing a different hymn sheet.'
"Join us as Beacon." Nero urged her. "Professor Ozpin accepts students from all walks of life. He's seen that article. He'd welcome you with open arms." Blake took a second to think about it. She really had very little left to lose. And since this Faunus was at Beacon and going well, the professor clearly wasn't discriminatory. She'd get a free roof over her head for four years and would be safe from the White Fang. The entrance exams should be nothing compared to what she'd already been a part of. With that thought in her head, she nodded.
Two Years Later...
It had been eighteen months since the fall of Beacon. Blake had only just rejoined the rest of Team RWBY at Haven academy. It was awful. Never in her life had she been faced with the awkward silences she had since she'd shown up during the battle. She liked silence, but the peaceful silences for when she was reading or spending time with her thoughts. These silences where they all knew there were things they needed to say but didn't know how to were nothing short of deafening.
It was a few days after her return that she finally got something of a dialogue. It wasn't even intentional. She just walked in, towelling off after a shower. She was in nothing but a sports bra and a set of tracksuit bottoms she'd found in a student's closet that were her size. She was sure the student wouldn't mind. Especially since Team RWBY and the remnants of Team JNPR were planning to be gone in a few days to board the Argus Limited anyway. By the time their owner returned, Blake would have long gone.
As she walked into the living room, the one person she hadn't expected to see was lying across the sofa. Yang was stretched out and clearly comfy in a yellow tank top and cotton bed shorts. She clearly hadn't even bothered dressing. Blake turned to walk out of the room just as something caught her eye. Yang had her scroll out and had been watching something. As soon as Blake had entered, the look that flashed across the golden dragon's face hadn't been anger or indignation. It looked like a cross between embarrassment and guilt, as though she wanted to put her scroll away but knew it was too late.
"Are you okay?" Blake asked cautiously as she made her way over. As she got closer, she saw the screen of Yang's scroll. It was the news report from before she'd joined Beacon. The same blurry CCTV image from the newspaper article she'd been shown just before enrolling at Beacon. "I remember that raid. It was going fine until Adam butted in." As Blake spoke, she noticed Yang's left hand start to shake. Yang shifted as though she was uncomfortable, but Blake noticed how she hid the hand under her back.
"Yeah, you could say he was quite bullish about it." Yang forced a grin. The pun was bad enough to make Blake want to throw something, but it sounded forced even for Yang. Blake perched on the arm of the sofa and looked across at Yang. She didn't dare try to touch her. She'd given up that right when she ran out on her. "Can I ask you something?" Blake's consciousness had begun to drift and so Yang's voice caught her off guard. She snapped back to reality and it took her a second to realise just what she'd said.
"Of course."
"Do you ever think about that night? At Beacon?" It was a question that blindsided Blake. She hadn't expected Yang to bring it up so readily.
"I..." She didn't know what to say. She wanted to tell the truth. But what was the truth? "I try not to think too much about it. But when I do, I remember when we were on the ship to Vale. I remember waking up next to you and... Oh God..." Blake felt the blood rush out of her face. Yang quickly reached up and pulled her into an embrace, easing her down to lie next to her.
"I'm sorry, Blake. I shouldn't have brought it up." Yang held her close, blissfully unaware of the chaos Blake's mind had become.
The airship stank of blood and sweat as Blake opened her eyes, the pained cries of the wounded and the grieving disorienting her. She wanted nothing more than to close her eyes again, but a sense of urgency compelled her to stay awake. She looked around, spotting Yang unconscious on the mat next to hers. Fresh bandages had been applied to her stump and she'd been hooked up to an industrial painkiller IV. Sun sat on a crate next to them, sound asleep.
Blake stood up and fought the urge to vomit as her sense of balance re-calibrated. She staggered around, trying to clear the fog from her head. She tried to look for something else that was familiar to her. Anything. That was when she spotted it. There was a sword leaning up against the edge of some crates that had been aligned into a makeshift table. The familiar serrated edge was something she would recognise anywhere. Desperately, she ran over. Nothing could have prepared her for the shock of seeing Nero in such a state. His team mates had crowded around him carrying various injuries, one even sporting bandages wrapped around what was left of her jaw. Another was missing his hand while the last one was just focusing on Nero unresponsively. He'd given no indication of hearing Blake approach. He must have been deafened somehow.
Nero had definitely fared the worst, though. Bandages had been wrapped over his eyes and were soaked through with crystallized blood. He also had a gaping hole in his chest, the muscles of which were visibly pulsing. There was so much damage Blake could see his heartbeat and the massive arrhythmia he was suffering. His heart had definitely suffered damage.
"What happened to you?" she muttered.
"It was Adam." Blake looked over at the boy who was missing his hand. She didn't know his name, but the circumstances rendered that irrelevant. "He did this. To all of us." Guilt crashed down on Blake. She was the cause of this. All of it. She'd let Yang into her life and let her defences down. The moment she did, her life was torn away from her again. There was no way she could face Yang after this. She had to leave. She had to lead Adam away.
Blake's gaze drifted back to the wounded Faunus on the crates. His heart rate was slowing, but he wasn't responsive. She knew he'd be dead in moments. It would be unavoidable. He was another one. Just like Yang, if he'd never met her then he would have been fine. This was entirely her fault! This was-!
"Blake!" Yang snapped her fingers in front of Blake's face, jolting her back to reality. Yang noticed she'd come back to her and threw her arms around the Faunus in a bone-crushing hug, burying her face against her neck. "Dammit, don't scare me like that! You were totally out of it there. I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have asked!"
"No." Blake shook her head and cuddled into Yang. "You were right to. I bet you've got a lot of questions and I will answer them one day. But not right now. If we're being honest, neither of us are ready to face that night properly yet." Yang studied her for a second before nodding and pulling her close again. As she did, Blake's own voice registered in her head. The last words she'd said to one of her only true friends replaying uninvited.
"Goodbye, Nero."
Six Days Later...
Blake watched Adam's body topple over the edge of the ravine. He bounced off a the surface of a rock on the way down and she heard the unmistakeable crack of bones breaking as he hit the water, his body twisted at an impossible angle. He was gone. After two years of suffering, he was finally gone.
Yang was by her side in an instant. Blake allowed herself to be drawn into her embrace, enjoying the pleasant warmth of the other girl's aura discharging from recently using her semblance. Yang had been there for her in ways Adam never had. Even when Blake had run away, Yang still took her back. Blake didn't deserve her and she knew it, yet Yang had made her choice anyway. Blake was determined to prove herself worthy of it.
"I'm not going to break my promise. I swear!" Yang took Blake's face in her hands and stared into her eyes. In that moment, Blake saw the love and passion that had been missing since Yang lost her arm. It was like eliminating Adam had torn through that veil that had suppressed her for so long. There was something else, too. Something that Blake had longed to see. Something that she'd hoped to be able to show in return some day.
"I know you won't." The two girls embraced again. For Blake, that was when it was confirmed in her mind. She loved her. She loved Yang Xiao-Long. If there was any doubt before, it was gone now. But there was something about this that Blake knew she would never have found before. She could say she loved Yang and be telling the truth. This was deep and meaningful. It was eternal. But the thing she was most reassured about was the sureness of it all. It was something she'd never experienced before and it scared her. But as frightening as it was, it would never be as terrifying as Adam's false love.