"So what happened after?"asks Vicious as a continuation of their previous conversation. He presses the cigarette stub against the ashtray, before taking another one from the cartoon, quickly lighting it with the lighter and taking another long drag.

"I woke up in Salem's castle strapped to a metal table, then her men began to experiment and torture me", the faunus says the last part in a whisper looking at the ground once more, hugging himself with his prosthetic arm. "They did everything they could to make me hate humanity"

"For a while it worked. I helped them into luring silver eyed warriors for them to kill, playing the part of an injured and lost child, but I grew sick of it, I didn't want to anymore… even if I got hurt for refusing. So they sent me to another hell…", he shudders at the memories.

"The dust mines is it?", asks Xiang.

"Yes, any mistake I made, I paid dearly, the overseers made sure that no matter how small or big the mistake was, the punishment would be harsher that it would be for anyone else", he sighs, looking at the duo in front of him, the king's eyes were still a strong pink color almost red.

"Tell me something, why the brand in the eye?, Xiang asks looking back straight at him.

Adam sighs again looking at the floor for several long seconds before answering her question. "Stupidity on my part I thought I could run away that I was strong enough to do so".

Xiang got up from her seat and began pacing across the room to control her temper.

"Eventually after several years in that hell, I managed to escape after I killed some of the guards, I accidentally discovered my semblance while holding a pickaxe", then he lets out a bitter laugh before he continues. "An illusion of freedom no matter how much I ran or tried to hide I was found, I was dragged back into her lair to be tortured and trained".

Xiang walks to the kitchenette and grabs a pitcher of water from the fridge along with some empty glasses. She offers one glass of water to Adam, he takes it and downs the glass quickly. He is somewhat startled when Vicious speaks not expecting him to do so.

"The ones that hurt you mostly were always humans, with the exception of Callows?", thankfully the king's eyes were not focussed on him but on the third cigarette that he is currently igniting. Xiang's eyes despite being red and having blond hair looking like an enraged Yang didn't trigger his memories so much, because Xiang didn't so much project her rage or bloodlust with her aura like Vicious did.

"Yes, as I stated before she wanted me to hurt humanity… but also the faunus".

"How did she manage to make you hurt the faunus too"?Xiang sits down once again.

"She did something to me but I am still unsure what it was exactly, my thoughts and actions weren't my own. When I was "released" and saved by the White Fang after being left for death by my human owners, I slowly climbed up the ranks, befriended important people…. And I met Blake and her parents Ghira and Khali Belladonna as well as Sienna Khan and Banesaw. ".

He serves himself more water and drinks it wishing that it would be some kind of liquor instead.

"I climbed through the ranks slowly pushing to more violent means to deal with human oppression and they were accepted by most of the members. The mentality of the group changed, human casualties weren't that frowned upon, not when so many faunus were suffered or perished because of humans".

"However Sienna Khan stood in the way to take down Haven's Academy which failed thanks to Blake and her friends, after Mountain Glenn and The Fall of Beacon the White Fang suffered heavy losses, but the grudge against humanity grew in those two instances. I assassinated Sienna and blamed it on a human assassin".

"She used you to create a further division within faunus, those that wanted to obtain equality through peaceful means and others using violence and between human and faunus, they would be more hesitation and distrust to work together to face the threat of Grimm and eventually Salem", he nods in response to her observations.

"Who were they to you, the people you mentioned by name?"

Adam smiles bitterly. "They were my everything. Khali was like my mother, Ghira and Banesaw like my fathers, Sienna was like an older sister… and Blake was and is the person that I love the most…but all that is over".

And the admission hurts terribly, how much he had lost, all that could never be. A lump forms in his throat and moisture begins to gather at the corner of his unbranded eye, he had lost the ability to form tears on his left eye, the tear ducts burned and cauterized. He furious blink willing the tears away before they could shed.

"Do you wish to stop Adam?"asks Vicious, avoiding looking at the faunus directly.

Adam shakes his head. "No I will be alright", he takes several deep breaths to steel his resolve. "After Haven's Academy failure I went back to the White Fang HQ and murdered several soldiers and some high ranking officers to throw the organization in chaos. Then Salem ordered me to follow Blake and her friends to murder as much of them as I could, especially one with Silver Eyes called Ruby Rose".

"They used my feelings for Blake and twisted them into a sick obsession, if she wasn't going to be mine, nobody else would have her. I made sure that she was alone to hunt her down, in the process I murdered some guards atop the Radio Tower in Argus. We fought and almost ended her life but by luck Yang had arrived. She threw her motorcycle at me, the hit made me jolt into awareness of what I was doing, however I couldn't control my body nor my words. I struggled against myself and managed to hold back avoiding causing fatal injury to them".

He takes a deep breath looking up at the ceiling, his voice weary. "When Yang managed to disarm me and later when she and Blake managed to stab me, I was incredibly grateful, I could finally let go and be free, I would never be someone else's puppet or weapon, I wouldn't cause any more pain nor misery".

"Now it's more clear to us why you tried taking your life so many times. But now you have a second chance at life Adam, it can be different now", says Xiang trying to cheer Adam up.

Adam looks at her and then down into his fake hand. "I still don't feel sure if I deserve a second chance, all the terrible things I did…".

Xiang sets up and walks to him, placing a hand under his chin. "Yes you do, you aren't a monster Adam, you can't undo the things you did in the past, but you can make them better, it won't be easy. Beloved is doing very well with his second chance, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to".

"The guilt will never go away… it just gets easier to breathe", offers the king as insight on his current situation.

Xiang gives her husband a huge smile. "Everything will be alright!".

Adam nods at their words, when he then remembers something Xiang told him previously. "You mentioned magic, you don't need to use dust at all?"

"Dust is still used here, but we don't have to fall back to it, like the rest of Remnant does". Looking at him she smirks before taking a deep breath, releasing it and causing a small stream of fire to come out of her mouth, startling Adam, he wasn't expecting the light show.

Vicious follows suit placing another cigarette on his lips and a small electrical discharge exits from his finger lighting it.

Adam grimaces "I remember you electrocuted me. But then what about your bones?".

"From my father", he clarifies.

Adam lets out a yawn, feeling exhausted with the whirlwind of emotions he was subjected to today. He still has some questions but that will be for another day.

/

Next chapter might take a bit, currently writing it and deciding what should happen next