Chapter 9

Magic of planets

Ceres cleaned Planetaria with a wet cloth. She used magic to carve her emblem in place of the emblem of high priestess. She never really put it on anything and the owner of the staff was nowhere to be found so she thought the priestess won't be angry.

She was probably dead.

Ceres took one of Adam's belts and used it to carry her new weapon around. He seemed not to really notice that piece of his clothing was missing.

Not to her surprise, Adam was missing too.

He told her he's going to Edom to grab some groceries, but it's been almost four hours and Ceres started to worry, though she would never admit it.

She went outside of the house and looked at the horizon. The blue car was nowhere to be seen. And in a blink of an eye, she got hit by something very heavy and lost her consciousness.

"Adam fucking Taurus doing groceries."

Men in the basement burst out laughing. Adam's face was covered in blood and he thanked gods he thought of putting his blindfold on. He was really not comfortable showing off his scar to anyone besides Ceres.

"Adam fucking Taurus minding his own business." - Adam replied - "I would very much appreciate if you could just let me go."

Suddenly the door to the basement opened and three men came in. One of them was holding unconscious, dark-pink haired girl.

"This is the bitch that was helping him." - said the man and threw her on the floor. Ceres groaned in pain and started to open her eyes.

"We're taking both to Menagerie."

Adam hissed. They took him by surprise, and now they had both him and Ceres.

"Why bother with taking them to Ghira if we can just chop off their heads and report mission completed?" - asked the young boy with the White Fang emblem on his shirt - "We can take his sword as a proof we killed him."

Adam sat in silence. The ropes were restricting his moves and they've taken his weapon.

"Adam!" - Ceres finally woke up completely - "What is going on here?!"

He cackled.

"These are White Fang members and they're going to kill us for peace of all world." - he said. The girl blinked.

"And how exactly did you let them capture you, you useless goat?"

"I'm a bull Faunus. Bull. Not goat. Not at all."

"Silence!" - the man looking the oldest kicked Adam in the chest. Adam lost his breath for a moment.

"Adam!"

"I'm fine." - Adam replied, spitting blood.

"No, you're not!"

The men came to Ceres and the youngest boy kicked her in the stomach.

"The leader told you to shut up." - he said.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." - Adam said and the boy looked at him furiously. He kicked Ceres a couple of times again.

"There she goes." - murmured Adam and when the boy tried to kick her body again, she looked at him with flames of anger in her eyes and her pupils disappeared.

The boy screamed in pain. Ceres spat blood out of her mouth, and the rope on her hands started to undo itself.

"Everybody ready for a one way trip to their personal hell?" - she asked with fury.

"I can't believe you did that. You're way more cruel than me."

"Shut up and let me patch you up."

Adam looked over catatonic bodies of members of White Fang.

"How long they are going to stay like this?" - he asked, rubbing the blood on his cheek.

"Probably forever." - she shrugged her arms - "How did you know my semblance was going to unlock itself?"

"You don't take physical pain very good." - he replied, taking a step over the body of the young boy.

"We need to get out of here. If they found my house, gods know what they know." - she said angrily - "And I liked that house very much."

Adam looked at her.

"Where are we going now?"

"I don't know." - she shrugged her arms again - "And I'm not going to wait until more of them come for us."

"You've become a wanted criminal, miss Vesta." - Adam laughed - "How do you feel about it?"

"I'm not very familiar with the feeling." - she answered - "But I know someone who can help us."

"Absolutely very not, thank you, go away." - said Raven Branwen putting down the cup of tea - "I'm not going to help you, Ceres, and I can't believe you took him with you."

"But Raven, please. They can't sniff us out if we stick to you." - said the girl - "And they have no idea we know each other."

"I would like very much to not know you."

Adam sat in silence just as Ceres told him to. He was supposed not to say a word and he managed to do it pretty good.

"But you do and you're gonna help us." - Ceres said. Raven stood up.

"And why would I do that?"

"Because we're your best chances against Salem." - Adam broke his promise and spoke - "If you help us, we will help you protect your people from her."

Raven sat down again and took her cup of tea.

"You know my people wouldn't like to hang around him." - she pointed her finger at Adam.

"I take Adam as my responsibility. Give us a tent and we won't trouble you." - Ceres replied.

Raven sighed.

"You may stay."

Raven was watching them and they both knew that, but none of them mentioned it. They clashed their weapons and Ceres blocked another one of Adam's attacks.

"How long do you know her?" - he asked, blocking her staff. Ceres jumped over him and attacked again.

"I dunno, a couple of years. I have stolen from her and she kicked my ass." - Ceres admitted - "Then I saved her ass and here we are now."

"Are you two friends?" - Adam pushed his sword against Planetaria. Ceres caught his hand and jumped again, landing behind him and pressing the staff's blade against his neck.

"More like acquaintances. I like her brother Qrow more." - Ceres took her weapon away from Adam's neck - "But they're not getting along well."

Ceres sat on the ground and accepted a bottle of water Adam gave her.

"Can I have a request for you?" - she asked him suddenly.

"I don't know; can you?"

Ceres sighed.

"There are a couple of drug dealers here. I want you to not let me interact with tribe members. The scent of Dust alone makes me crazy."

"Now you're asking me to be abusive boyfriend again." - he cackled - "But the next time I see you snorting or shooting up Dust I'm going to beat the shit out of you."

"Fair enough." - she sighed - "Thank you, Adam."

And she could swear Adam blushed a little.

Raven was not sleeping well that night. She came out of her tent and inhaled the cold air of the night. She could not admit it to herself, but she missed Vernal a lot.

"You know she was happy to die for you."

Raven turned back and saw Ceres with that bagged eyes of hers.

"I told you never to mess with my mind again."

"I'm not. I just sense it."

Raven sat down on the ground. Ceres did the same thing next to her.

"What is exactly your relationship with Adam Taurus?" - Raven asked.

The younger girl sat in thoughtfulness. That was a very good question to ask.

"We hang around together." - she answered - "There isn't much more to it, really."

"I noticed you're sober. It's weird."

"It's weird to me too; I haven't been sober for this long for years. " - Ceres admitted, sighing - "Adam would kill me if I tried to do drugs again."

"What do you mean by that? Do you want to tell me that Adam fucking Taurus cares about you?" - Raven chuckled - "You are crazy."

"I am. And I'm not saying he cares about me. But he thinks of me enough to care about my addiction."

Raven averted her eyes to the sky.

"You and your creepy semblance."