Chapter 6: Croc and Chameleon
What's Roman going to do to himself for a disguise? Who knows? Well, I do, and your about to find out.
Criminals and Mentors
"You are a disgrace to our kind!" Adam kicked Yuma over onto his back, the Lieutenant watching with no remorse at all. "Trying to run away? Saying we've taken it too far? What a fool."
Trifa and Ilia watched on in horror as Adam drew Wilt out of it's sheath. He walked over, like a predator about to make a kill.
"Please don't do this…" Yuma's begging for mercy was ignored.
"He's actually going to do it…" Ilia whispered.
"Allow this to be a message for anyone who is thinking of leaving the White Fang." Adam's voice was cold, no regret whatsoever. He held Wilt up high…
Trifa couldn't watch, turning herself away as she heard Yuma cry out in pain, his breath coming out in short gasps, before stopping completely.
Trifa felt a small pair of arms wrap around her, as Ilia did her best to comfort her. She turned around and saw Yuma's body, unmoving, his face as pale as a vampire…
"Are you going to come in, or are you going to just stand there?" Roman poked his head out of the barbers.
"Oh right, sorry." She entered. It looked like any old barbers, there were chairs, scissors, razors and the like lying around. The only things absent were the actual barbers, despite it being a Monday. Roman got straight to looking for hair dye, and Trifa just stood around.
Yuma dying had truly been a eye opener for Trifa, not only about Adam, but also about herself. This was a example of a man who had gone too far, who had sacrificed everything just to get revenge. This was who she could potentially become if she continued on with the White Fang. And in that moment, she realised she didn't want to be like that, didn't want to be a cold hearted individual. She wanted to strive for Faunus equality, but in a different way…
"Aha! Found some!"
Roman came out with a bottle of… blonde hair dye?
This is going to be a disaster.
It was, but it would be necessary, for Roman to go unnoticed.
"You are going to look so stupid."
"That's the idea. No one will pay attention. The boats going to be leaving soon, so I'm not going to have time for clothes. I found this bag here. I can put my hat into it."
He headed into the bathroom and began to apply it.
Roman found himself wondering what they would do when they were in Mistral. He had initially planned to just rise up as a crime lord, but he would have to make sure that Trifa was on board with that first.
She could be like Neo. My partner in crime.
No, that was a foolish thought. No one could replace Neo, no matter how sassy, funny, or skilled they were. Neo had had more personality in her pinky finger than most criminals did in their entire bodies. She was irreplaceable.
When he was finished, he took off his hat and gently placed it in the bag. No one touched the hat, if they did, they would find themselves staring down the barrel of Melodic Cugel, right before he blew their head off.
He slung the bag over his shoulder, and walked back out. Trifa raised a eyebrow.
"You don't actually look as stupid as I thought you would."
"Well, that's great. Come on, we need to catch us a boat."
Do what we do best
Ilia was fuming. Trifa had left. She was gone, leaving Ilia all on her own again.
Why? Why did you leave me like Blake did?
Her feelings were all mixed up. One part of her heart was telling her to hate, the other was telling her to love. Having feelings for both Blake and Trifa was the worst thing ever. She couldn't decide who she cared about more, nor could she admit to either of them how she felt.
She would never have the chance too now, because they were both gone. Probably forever. And Adam had sworn to kill both of them…
After seeing what happened to Yuma, she was too scared to run, out of fear the same thing would happen to her. Why had Adam done that? Why had he all of sudden turned away from what he once stood for?
And now she was hearing rumours that he was planning to overthrow Sienna…
If that happened , she didn't know what she would do.
I should warn Sienna.
But who wasn't to say her guards weren't in league with Adam? They were just rumours, they might not be true…
With the way Adam had been acting lately though, she could see it being true.
Ilia put her face in her hands.
I don't know what to do…
"You alright there love?"
Panicking, llia's faunus trait activated, and she found herself blending in with the environment.
Tock rolled her eyes. "Come on now, I'm not that scary, I'm I? I know about your little trick, just come out. Your not fooling me."
Ilia was terrified of Tock. The way she moved, the way she talked….
And those teeth. She had seen her fair share of crocodile Faunus, but none of them scared her quite like Tock did.
She came back out, and faced Tock.
"Your shaking. Are you cold or something?"
"N-no, Miss Tock."
"Miss Tock? Why would you call me that?"
"I-I-"
"What is up with you? Have you seen a ghost or something?"
Whether Tock generally didn't know, or whether she was just playing with llia, wasn't quite clear.
Ilia eyed up her stopwatch, which if what she had heard was correct, Tock would apparently set it to a minute and then her enemy would die in that minute. Just another reason on the list to be scared of her.
"Cat got your tongue?"
"No."
"Ah, there you are! Was thinking I lost you."
"Well, I don't…"
She hadn't a clue what to say.
"Look, I'm just trying to start small talk here, dear. I would like to get to know the people I'll be working with."
"Well, um, there's not a whole lot to say about me. I'm called Iila, I'm a chameleon Faunus, I, um, I'm gay, and…"
No, no, no, no! Why would you tell her that?
"Well, as Adam announced, I'm Tock." Seeing Ilia's startled expression, she laughed. "What, did you think I was going to judge you because your gay? I may be sadistic, but I'm not judgemental love."
Ilia chuckled a bit, and then quickly tried to cover it up. Tock grinned. "See? I'm not so bad, I'm I?"
"I just, um…"
"Look, I can tell your absolutely terrified of me. And, well, I can understand that. I'm not exactly very pleasant to look at, I'm I? But trust me Ilia, I'm not as scary as I seem. I actually consider myself to be quite a lovely person, well, minus all the murder and bounty hunting and stuff."
Tock held out her hand. "Let's shake on it, shall we?"
"Shake on what?"
"My promise that I'm not scary." She smiled, once again revealing those razor sharp teeth of hers.
Ilia thought about it for a moment, and then grasped Tock's hand. Her skin felt awfully, well, scaly.
They shook on it.
"You know, Ilia," Her yellow eyes stared into Ilia's own grey ones, like the sun and the moon, "I think I'm going to like you."
Do what we do best
"Okay, we're here now, we don't have a ticket, what's the plan?" Trifa asked.
"I'm just going to pay for a ticket. I have lien, no need to pull any stealthy moves."
The boat was due to depart in about half a hour. Roman drove up past the ticket booth.
"Hey, can I just pay for one now?"
"Sure you can." Trifa held her breath as the man looked Roman up and down. Luckily, he didn't seem to recognise him.
"What's your name?"
Uh oh.
That was a problem.
"My name is, uhhh, Perry?"
That would do.
"Second name?"
Oh, for the love of…
"Uh, Derry?"
The man filled in a ticket, and handed it to Roman, or Perry as he was now called.
"What about your women there?"
"Trifa Ecluse."
The man handed her a ticket. "There you are."
"Thank you." Roman said, and he drove their stolen ride onto the boat.
A loud voice boomed over the loudspeaker. We will be departing in five minutes. Please leave your vehicle and head onto the deck.
Getting out of the car, both Roman and Trifa headed upstairs to where the restaurant, gift shop and a movie room was located. "So Archane, have you every been to Mistral before?"
"Nope. I've only been in Menagerie and Vale. I lived in Menagerie for most of my life."
"Ah, I see." Roman took out a cigar and smoked thoughtfully. "You'll like Mistral. It doesn't have it's own crime lord, that's where we come in. We'll be causing a bit of chaos to say the least."
"Do we have to cause chaos?" Trifa asked. After a few years of killing humans and working for the White Fang, the idea of living a cosy, relaxing life was very appealing.
But then there's Adam…
He had sworn to come after her. She could only hope that he wouldn't find her.
Roman gave her a perplexed look. "You really think I want to keep this hair dye on, and go into hiding? That's boring! Not to mention, if we were to go into hiding, we would need a job. Working in a fast food place isn't very exciting. Crime isn't just about money anyway. It's all about the thrill, and surviving this harsh world we live in."
"I think the hair dye suits you."
"Really? You must have pretty low standards then."
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking…
Roman suddenly seemed very interested in the small shelf of newspapers that were on offer for people to read during the trip. He pulled out one called Remnant Today, and took a seat. Trifa sat down next to him, with her own copy. The front page had caught her eye, saying White Fang behind the Fall of Beacon?
That wasn't true, Trifa knew that. They had been a part of it, but they weren't the masterminds. That belonged to…
What was her name again?
Cinder, was it? She had never met her, nor did she have any wish to. Apparently, Adam hadn't been too keen to work with her, which wasn't surprising.
The article went on about how the White Fang had let the Grimm into the city, and how they had attacked people.
A nearby TV flicked onto life.
This is Lisa Lavender reporting from…
Roman raised a eyebrow. "So they left newspaper for people to read, but they also have the news playing? And it's about the Fall of Beacon? Shock, horror."
Romans' sarcasm aside, the Fall of Beacon was the number one topic everywhere. And that wasn't shocking. The school had stood for decades, and several legendary huntsmen and huntresses had passed through it's doors.
So to see it just crumble was quite a event…
"And then my car got stolen by Roman Torchwick and some weird girl!"
Both Roman and Trifa went on high alert. The guy who Roman had knocked unconscious was sitting not too far away, chatting to his mate.
"Dude, it couldn't have been Torchwick. He died at Beacon."
It has also been reported that master criminal Roman Torchwick died at Beacon…
"See?"
"No way, I knew who I saw. He was wearing that hat, he had the same orange hair-"
"Are you sure you weren't drunk?"
"No! He then shot me and knocked me out!"
Roman and Trifa shared a look behind their newspapers.
This was going to be a interesting boat ride.
Do what we do best
Dun dun! He's back! Who could forget him, he's a classic character!
Thank you for reading and have a good day!