A/N: Just a heads up for you guys, the actual story will start on what will be titled as "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you are one of those people that don't like to read back story, just skip to that chapter.
Alright, now that that's out of the way, for those of you how are actually going to read the back story, this is probably one of the harder things for me to write of this story. Not because of how dark it is, and believe me it get's dark when it comes to the back stories of my O.C.'s, but because I have a really hard time adding dialog to something that already has a plot of sorts. And I had all of them generally outlined on paper for a couple of weeks now.
And just a little heads up for this and the next two chapters: for the most part they're going to be rather short because when I originally wrote these ideas down, I did so in my "Let's Play, I am currently recording for You Tube, voice," however, I constantly revise myself when I type/write, so we'll see how this turns out. I'll see you guys at the bottom of the chapter!
Edit: 3-17-2015; Currently going through the process of doing a major re-work of what has already been posted to, one, re-familiarize myself with the story, two, switch all third person sections to first person, and three, just make it a little better. Not that it was bad or anything; but it could have been done better, which is what I am attempting to do.
Chapter 2 (back story part 1): the only thing
(this chapter is going to be a little confusing and will swap viewpoints from Soap to Sarah to Soap and so on, but will stay in chronological order. *Also heads up, this is going to be a rather dark chapter. So heads up.*)
"There are parts of our memory that we love to remember; then there are the parts that we can't stand to re-live. The pieces of our past that we forbid ourselves to remember are things that do not define who or what we are; and yet they are what define how we go about the rest of our lives. If we are able to live through them and tell the tale - from the pain to the joy and everything in between - they only prove to make us stronger and able to last longer.
"I had to learn this fact firsthand at a very young age; but because of it, I became the man I am today. I said that phrase once as advice to a friend, though I'm not sure she even remembers it; but once again, I am getting ahead of myself.
"My story, starts rather painfully; thankfully though, somewhere on my journey from then to now, the pain that used to inhabit these memories has all but gone. But alas, I digress for I have delayed it long enough. Let us begin...
~Soap (age 5)
Let me start by saying that I don't know if I ever had a truly "normal" childhood before the first day of my conscious life; all I know is that I woke up to a fucked up world.
The first thing I remember is being held down by a thug and being forced to watch, who I now know to be, my friends and family get brutally executed by either getting their necks slit with a dull razor blade, or, if they were lucky, being shot in the head and being allowed to die a painless and instant death.
At the time, if you were an associate, or maybe even a friend, of one of the thugs and asked what they were doing, they would have probably replied with "Liberating the world of it's last safe haven for the monsters."
By their own definition, the thugs were being very kind "this time" by leaving me for last. They had done this before and survived by destroying entire villages and looting the remains once they were done. For what reason, at the time; I didn't know nor cared.
As I watched my family and friends got murdered, and my home burned down around me; I could feel a fire spark deep within me. It was a fire that burned of hate, rage, and a want of revenge for the family that I barely knew.
Though I was only five at the time, I desperately searched for a way to avenge my family.
I found my answer in the form of my sharp, five year old teeth, and the hot, sweaty, knife-wielding hands that were keeping me held down.
Once the other thugs finished burning down the rest of the village that I had called home and began to work through the ruins; the thug that was holding me went to end me. I saw this and took it as my opportunity.
When the thug's hand got close enough, I buried my teeth into his hand. In turn, this caused the thug to drop his knife in pain and swear loudly under his liquor filled breath as grabbed his now throbbing hand.
When I saw the knife leave my captor's hand, I grabbed it and, without a second thought, sliced his throat. After all the major arteries in the man's neck were thoroughly severed; I slowly and quietly lowered the corpse to the ground and effectively disappeared from sight.
For the first time in my life, I snapped.
I was so full and overflowing with hate and the darkness that came from it, that it ended up having an otherwise permanent effect on my hair. The change: anytime I got angry, my pure white hair turned 100% black.
After 15 minutes of emotionless slaughter; my once filth-free home was, once again, free of filth. Or at least as filth-free as I was capable of making it.
Once it was all said and done, and my hair had returned to it original, pure white state; I realized what I had done. For who knows how long, I sat in the blackened snow that now took the place of my home and grieved over the loss of my family.
After 10 solid minutes of crying, I decided that I was tired of being sad and crying; so, I stopped.
"Looking back on my decisions then, I realize that while I thought that I had a somewhat stable mind; I really didn't. In fact, I might my mental stability for actions that I committed later on. And yet, it's probably that same mental instability that caused my mind to mature to that of a 15 year old. But once again, I'm getting ahead of myself..."
After I calmed myself down to the best of my abilities, I looked around and started to formulate a plan.
Eventually, after I finished mentally outlining and detailing what I was to do, I acted on that plan.
On the way to my objective, I looted the bodies of everyone I passed; specifically for their scrolls.
Before long I had a decent stash of scrolls; in fact, I probably had more than enough for what I intended to do.
Since people put their entire lives onto their scrolls - social life, the company they worked for, where they lived, and bank account information - I was able to gain access to the accounts attached to each one with, to my delight, incredible ease. As it turned out, I had a knack for technology; something I would appreciate greatly later on in life.
Once I was through, I gathered the bodies of my family and friends into the only building left standing in village.
For whatever reason this building, situated at the center of the village, was left completely intact; however, the massive amount of blood dripping from the front doors told me that the building's occupants weren't so lucky.
Silently, I cringed and shuddered at the thought of what probably happened to them.
I silently shed a tear before pushing the thought away and getting to work.
Finished pulling the last body into the building, I got a good look at my father and wondered if I would ever look like him.
I let the thoughts linger in my head for a moment or two longer before I pushed them away.
As I was about to leave the center building, as I noticed something around my father's neck.
A necklace.
I carefully took it off the body and examined it.
It was a simple necklace, a cross in nature being black on the front and silver on the back. As I continued to examine it, I faintly recalled hearing stories about it.
At one point in time, it was supposed to have belonged to a hero. It wasn't a story I knew well, however, I wanted something to be able to remember my family by; so without a second thought, I took it.
After I left the building, I made my way to a pile of rubble that was still burning nearby. Being careful not to burn myself, I made my way back to the center building and placed the piece of burning debris inside.
Once I was, once again, back outside; I turned to the now burning building and said goodbye to my family.
I stood there, watching as the building quickly gave way to flames. After I was satisfied that the fire wouldn't go out, I finally turned to leave. Before I left, I checked I own scroll's bank account. To be honest, those thugs hardly had anything on them, but it would be enough for me to be able to buy my own place to live. After that, I was either going to have to find a job or learn how to get into more lucrative bank accounts.
The decision, however, was made for me as nobody was going to be willing to hire a five year old.
I stopped at the entrance to the village and looked around one last time. Taking in the once beautiful, now destroyed, village.
With nothing left for me to do, I let out a heavy sigh, turned around, and started down the only road out and kept walking.
After a few hours of walking, I eventually came to a fork in the road. At the fork was a sign that stated that the nearest city, Vale, was a three day hike away.
Letting out one last sigh, I started down the road towards Vale.
To be completely honest, I most likely would have died on that three day walk to Vale, but thanks to a kind Samaritan by the name of Bucky, I was able make it to Vale fully alive and well.
Still slightly traumatized from recent events, I retold the events that I had witnessed to Bucky to the best of my abilities.
After hearing my story, he said that he would help out however he could.
Once we were in the city, Bucky took me to a place that he thought I might be able to buy: An old, abandoned church just half an hour outside of Vale city limits.
Once we had arrived and purchased the property, I said goodbye to Bucky.
Just as I was about to turn to leave, Bucky called to me from the window of his cab, "Hey buddy!"
When I turned around, he tossed me a stack of Lien cards.
For a second, I just stared at the cards, confused. Before I could even think of questions to ask, Bucky was already answering them.
"That's a couple thousand Lien. That should be enough to get you on your feet. I got to go." He said, rolling up the cab's window.
"Wait!" I called out.
He stopped and waited, "Yeah?"
"How can I pay you back for your kindness?" I asked.
He stared up at the sky, seemingly thinking, before he answered.
"Tell you what, you can pay me back after you become Remnant's youngest millionaire." He said as he told the driver to start driving.
"See ya next time!" He called out as the taxi drove away.
Standing at the front doors of the old church, I could see that the building had been upgraded to newer technology regarding the electronics and security system.
To be honest, I really didn't like the scroll unlock system. The reason: if I, a five year old, could get into multiple bank accounts easily, then someone else could as well.
This in mind, I changed the security system to a sort of necklace scanner that would only unlock if the right necklace was scanned.
The right necklace being my father's necklace hanging around my neck.
After I finished up with that, I went inside to explore my new home.
~Sarah (age 5) (third person)
Sarah first became conscious of herself at the age of 5. She awoke at an orphanage just over an hours' drive outside the city limit of Vale.
The first thing she noticed when she awoke was that she had an unlocked aura.
(In this AU, in order to have an unlocked aura, someone had to either unlock your aura for you, or you unlocked it yourself by other more physical and archaic methods)
Not really understanding, or caring, why she had an unlocked aura she began to train her body mentally and physically.
She did so by managing to trick the other kids in the orphanage into playing a "game" with her in the orphanage basement, away from the prying eyes of their caretakers.
(I know it sounds weird, but this was the best way to describe the "game" without it sounding very sexual)
Through the competitive nature of both herself and the other kids, her "game" allowed her to make a few friends, human and faunus alike, and learn how to fight.
~Soap (age 6)
Having running out of the money that I scavenged off the thugs; I began teaching myself more advanced techniques for hacking. Which, still to my surprise, I mastered rather quickly.
With this skill handy, at the age of five and a half years old I became Remnant's youngest millionaire.
Now that I was a millionaire, I would be able to pay Bucky back next time I saw him just like I said I would. I just hopped I would see him soon.
Since money was no longer an issue, I started taking an interest in other things. Starting with the much needed renovation of my new home that I had dubbed "the church" for obvious reasons.
(this was not for religious reasons, but rather that I could not think of a better name, and because the church that I go to, if this were real, would have plenty of room for the shenanigans that I have planned)
As I was knocking down the connecting walls between four of the rooms – I planned to turn the area into a state-of-the-art training room – I accidentally knocked into one of the external walls.
Most people would have thought this as a bad thing, however, in my case, this was a good thing.
Knocking into the wall revealed a room that had been priorly unknown to me. At the time though, I wasn't concerned that it was a room that I hadn't explored yet; I was concerned about the damage that I could have possibly done to the structural integrity of the building.
After surveying the damage and repairing what little was done, I found that the secret room held a good number of strangely shaped objects. A majority of them sported a number of metal strings of varying thickness.
At the time, I had no clue that what I had found would, in fact, be a great discovery.
After investigating, I found that my mystery room held some of the last surviving relics of a culture that had long since been forgotten.
What I had found was something called music and musical instruments.
After I finished with the renovations to my home, I took to learning how to play music; in particular the guitar, which I beautifully mastered quickly.
Shortly after, I moved on to learning the skills of reading written music, how to sing, and how to write my own music.
Not long after, I was able to locate an archive not far from the church that withheld every piece of music ever put to paper.
Playing and writing music did eventually become boring for me so on my seventh birthday, I decided that I would become the world's youngest Bounty Hunter.
~Sarah (age 10)
From her "game" – which in all honesty was just an excuse to fight each other – Sarah was able to form, or at least the illusion of, unbreakable friendships with a few other kids in the orphanage.
Among her closest friends were her roommate, a faunus girl Sarah's age named Carrie, and her crush, a human boy a year older than her named Geoff.
Sarah didn't know if she had an actual family, but at the time she didn't care because she was happy.
At least until the day her world got flipped upside-down.
The day started off average enough with Sarah waking up in the same place that she fell asleep, weapons clutched in her hands.
Over the course of her stay at the orphanage, some of her friends had been known to prank her while she was sleeping, thus she got into the habit of being a light sleeper and sleeping armed.
Now awake, she looked around the room to find her roommate Carrie was nowhere to be seen.
'That's odd. Doesn't Carrie usually wake up after me?' She thought to herself.
She wasn't too worried about it though. She dismissed the absence of roommate as her trying to persuade the caretakers into giving Carrie Sarah's share of bacon.
'I hope she knows that I already told them about her prior attempts.' She thought.
Seeing no reason to delay her food from reaching her stomach; she got out of bed, got dressed, grabbed her scroll, and headed downstairs.
Upon exiting her room on the third floor, she found the absence of the smell of bacon rising up to greet her was slightly worrying; but she blew it off as nothing.
'Maybe Carrie actually succeeded in convincing the caretakers into giving her my bacon. If she did, I'll have to congratulate her later; that's not an easy task.' Sarah thought to herself.
After she neared the second floor landing, her faunus sense of smell picked up the overwhelming aroma of blood.
THIS worried her.
She quickened her pace, flew down the remaining flight of stairs, and rounded the corner towards the kitchen.
When she turned the corner, she was greeted with a sight that was befitting of what she was smelling.
She saw the mutilated corpses of the caretakers slumped against the kitchen wall in a bloody mess.
Seeing this she started to panic.
Fearing the worst, she brandished her weapons and searched the house for her friends. Much to her distaste, she only found more corpses; none of which were her friends.
After closing the eyelids on the 20th corpse, she stood up and punched the wall behind her infrustration. "Where the hell are my friends?" She said angularly to no one in particular.
After a second, silence settled around her and out of the silence came a scream of bloody murder from outside.
Being a faunus, Sarah heard the scream tenfold the intensity a normal human which caused her to clutch her head in discomfort, disorienting her.
After Sarah recovered her bearings, she rushed over to the nearest window to see if she could find out who screamed.
When she looked out the window, she regretted it immediately. She quickly turned away from the window as her stomach turned itself inside out.
Once her stomach had nothing left for it to eject, she looked through the window again.
At first, all she saw was bunch of soldier's standing behind a female child. She was about Sarah's height, had brunette, shoulder length hair, and white lioness ears sticking out of the top of her head. The rest of her body was obscured by the soldiers surrounding her.
Further observation revealed that there was the symbol of the new White Fang painted onto all of the soldier's uniforms.
Sarah watched as a human boy was dragged by two soldiers up to the girl with the lioness ears.
The girl turned around and looked at the boy before her.
From this angle, Sarah could plainly see the White Fang uniform that the girl was wearing. She could also see the ornate Grimm mask she was wearing.
While the soldiers that surrounded the girl were wearing plain white Grimm masks, including who Sarah assumed to be the original leader of the group, the girl's mask was decorated on the left side with red swirls and dotted with black accents. From where she was looking, it appeared that the the right side of her mask was completely white.
Unlike the foot soldiers surrounding her, the girl's mask was a full face mask.
Sarah shifted her focus back to what was happening. The girl with the lion ears was talking to the boy in front of her and it looked like the boy wasn't responding. He just sat there, staring at the ground in front of him.
Sarah watched as the lion faunus reached down and pulled the boy's face up to look at her.
Sarah covered her mouth as she gasped. The boy that the girl was holding, it was Geoff.
His face was barely recognizable as the entire right side of his face was caved in and caked with dried blood.
Just then, the girl motioned to the two soldiers that were holding him.
The soldier on Geoff's right nodded his head, raised his rifle to Geoff's head, and squeezed the trigger.
The rifle released a single bullet, killing Geoff instantly and effectively splattering his gray matter all over the faunus girl. The girl just stood there smiling.
Sarah screamed from the other side of the window as her crush was shot and killed.
She watched as more kids were brought before the lion faunus and executed. All the while Sarah was unable to do anything, frozen in , the girl ran out of humans to kill, so she switched to faunus; particularly Sarah's faunus friends.
Sarah desperately wanted to scream out to her friends and tell them to run for their lives, but no matter what she did she couldn't get her voice to work.
She watched as the lion faunus offered a hand to everybody that was brought before her, presumably offering them a place among the White Fang's ranks. Each and every one of Sarah's friends refused the offer.
It was hopeful to Sarah to see her friends refuse the offer; however this didn't phase the lion faunus.
She just motioned for her men to bind those that refused and place them on the ground behind her.
Soon, the young leader was out of faunus to convince to join. Sarah, for a moment, thought that the lion faunus was going to let her friends go; what actually happened made her blood boil.
The lion faunus turned to face the bound faunus behind her. When she did, Sarah could very clearly see that on the right side of the girl's mask was a handwritten name.
It was a name and handwriting that Sarah knew very, very well. She had slept next to the person whose handwriting and name belonged to for the last five years.
Carrie.
When she turned around, she spoke a command that was inaudible to Sarah through the thick glass window that she had been looking through; though she didn't have to wait long to figure out it's meaning.
The soldiers surrounding the young leader each pulled out a Burn Dust container and proceeded to dump it's contents on the pile of faunus before her.
The lion faunus got down on a knee and slid off her mask, confirming Sarah's fears.
It was definitely Carrie.
Her blood boiling, Sarah activated her semblance and teleported to the second story balcony behind cover where she could hear what Carrie was saying without being seen.
"...know what they do to traitors in the White Fang?" Sarah heard Carrie's voice ask.
A bunch of muffled screams could be heard in response.
Carrie laughed, "I'll make it simple for you to find an answer."
Sarah heard the indistinguishable sound of a lighter being struck and tossed on the ground. Seconds later, the muffled screams of agony could be heard from underneath the sound of a raging inferno.
Deep inside her, Sarah felt an emotion that she usually kept in check, start to surface.
Anger.
Anger that was fed by her love for her friends.
In any other circumstance, she might have fought the emotion back into submission. This time though, she let the emotion pour into her aura unchecked.
She couldn't deny that she felt angry, but more than anything she felt betrayed. Betrayed by a friend that she had loved.
No longer willing to stand and watch, Sarah activated her semblance and teleported herself straight into the center of the White Fang troops and stared directly at the ground letting her anger build.
The nearest solder, unaware of what was she was doing, stared at the little girl that appeared out of seemingly nowhere directly in the center of their group.
Sarah, now directly in the center of danger, let the rage and anger consume her as the solder cautiously approached her with his rifle drawn, observing her every move which she made none.
By the time the solder reached her, the only thing that Sarah could see was red.
The hate and anger was too much for her 10 year old body and aura to handle, so the extra energy continued to build until it could be released.
The White Fang soldier that was approaching Sarah was genuinely concerned about the young faunus that appeared out of nowhere and staring at the ground, shaking, and with clenched fists.
When the soldier taped Sarah's shoulder, every emotion that had been bottled inside of her flowed into his body causing him inconceivable pain and agony.
This transfer of energy had such a drastic effect on Sarah that it caused her normally blue eyes to be permanently colored white and pink and the added effect of her eyes turning blood red when she gets angry.
But this was all happened to Sarah internally; externally, the area around the WF solder exploded into a ball of electricity turning him to ash.
Moments after, Sarah walked out of the crater unharmed with her weapons in hand.
Her weapons were two metal pipes, each 4 feet in length and a grip on one end. Such a simple weapon lets her use her semblance in combination with the pipes to make a jury-rigged sort of shotgun and/or a riffle, depending on which pipe she chooses.
One of the pipes has a larger bore than the other allowing it to be used as a shotgun where as the pipe with the smaller bore can be used as a sniper or an assault riffle.
As the White Fang members looked on in awe, Sarah's eyes turned blood red. The solders stood there with their weapons leveled at Sarah until Carrie finally noticed Sarah and the damage she caused.
Carrie, who was blissfully unaware that Sarah saw everything that she had done, started to walk towards her in a futile attempt to try and calm her down.
Sarah could be reasonable if she tried; however, after seeing her friends get executed and burned alive, all she wanted was for the people responsible to die.
Especially Carrie.
As world continued to turn a darker shade of red, she felt her vocal chords vibrate inside her as she apparently spoke to Carrie.
Sarah doesn't actually know what she said to Carrie; the next thing she knew was her pipe connecting to Carrie's cranium and Carrie collapsing to the floor. The last thing the remaining solders heard before their own vision clouded, was the sound of something landing behind them.
Once there was no one left to kill, Sarah did the only thing that she was able to do.
She grabbed whatever money she could find on the bodies, put them all in the house, and overloaded the electrical circuits starting a fire.
Pushing the memories of her friends behind her; she started her journey towards whatever life the future held for her.
~Sarah (age 16)
Over the course of the past six years, Sarah had become the most ruthless and unforgiving mercenary Remnant had ever known.
While she always introduced herself with her full name: Sarah Kirtsov, her victims and employers always addressed her as Kirtsov.
After events that left her running from her home in Mistral and the mercenary lifestyle, she found herself in Vale.
On the day of her 16th birthday, five days after arriving in Vale, she decided to take running one step further. She was going to a place where, hopefully, she could finally start over in peace.
The only thing she kept that might connect her to her past life as a mercenary were her weapons.
That wasn't the only thing that she carried with her though, she also kept with her the memories of her friends.
There were nights that she work up screaming and every time it was the same nightmare.
Her childhood friends in that unstoppable inferno, burning alive and screaming in agony. All the while, Sarah stood in front of them, unable to move or do anything to stop it.
She was tired of the restless peace she had lived till today, so with the money that she had, she bought a one-way air ship ticket to Vacuo.
~Soap (age 16) (the rest of the chapter happened in the time span of less than a day)
There were times when being a bounty hunter without a personal means of transportation, having to rely om public transportation, was really annoying, this was one of those days.
Not being able to drive was one of the things that I, regrettably, never learned to do. However, when it came to this particular day I was glad that I didn't otherwise I wouldn't have had the fortune of making the catch I did.
I was on my way back to the church from nabbing a bounty on a crime lord in Mistral.
The ride back to Vale was, thankfully, uneventful; however, that's never stopped any excitement from happening to me.
My airship docked at the skyport and I was on my way down to street level when I noticed a girl in a pink hood running up towards the airship.
Normally I would have just left the girl to her business; but something about her made me stop for a second and watch.
Captivated by the girl, I subconsciously started to walk forward. Straight into her.
~Sarah
On any other day, Sarah would have been fine with having a cute boy practically land in on top of her, just not today.
In fact, it was because of him that she would end up missing her airship.
The boy, innocently enough, claimed that he didn't see her and helped her up.
'Why is it that any and all things bad happen to me? He made me miss my airship!' She thought to her self as she watched the airship that she was supposed to be on, fly away without her.
Either not noticing or just not truly caring that she wasn't paying all too much attention, he started to introduce himself.
~Soap
'I can't believe I just did that. I probably made her miss her airship. What do I do? What do I do?' I thought to myself quickly.
Seeing no other polite thing to do, I helped her up after knocking her over and politely introduced myself.
She seemed nice enough and introduced herself as Sarah.
'Sarah huh? That's a cute name.'
Finally able to get a good look at the girl I crashed into, I realized something: 'She is really damn attractive.'
I had only thought on my mind after this realization, 'How do I make a girl like this, fall for a guy like me?'
~Sarah
'Soap's an interesting name. I wonder if he chose that name or if that's his actual name.' Sarah thought to herself after he introduced himself.
They stood there for a few awkward seconds, staring at each other; neither one of them knew what to do.
Soap was the first one to move. "Do you want to go grab a drink while I see what I can do about getting you a new ticket?" he asked, for some reason making Sarah's cheeks run hot.
'It was an innocent question, so why am I blushing?' She thought to herself.
After she managed to get her blushing under control, she responded, "Why not?"
They then made their way to the nearest coffee shop.
~Soap
'I can't believe that worked,' I silently cheered in my mind.
While she responded to my question, I managed to get a good look up into her hood. She had light pink and white cat ears.
This wasn't a problem for me, it's not like I hated the faunas or anything. If anything, because the fact that the events that tore my home away from me were committed by humans, I probably trust faunas more readily than I trust humans.
But that brought up a question, 'Why does she hide the fact that she's a faunas. Maybe I should just start with who she is. Speaking of which...'
I pulled out my scroll and began to swipe through the programs.
I already knew that she only said yes to get a free ticket, but I had a plan for that.
Once at the coffee shop, I put away my scroll upon entering.
I then proceeded to buy myself and Sarah a coffee and sat down at the first open table.
"Hey Sarah," I said getting her attention as she sipped her coffee, "we have a bit of time till the next available airship to Vaccuo even enters Vale airspace." I paused and put my scroll and coffee on the table, "and it will be a while before I can actually give you a ticket. In the meantime though, I have a question for you."
"Ask away." She said.
"Why do you hide who you really are?"
~Sarah
"Why do you hide who you really are?" These words made Sarah nearly choke on he coffee, hoping that he wasn't referring to her past, she asked him clarify.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"I mean, why hide that you're a faunas?"
That was an odd question, but it calmed her down a little. She had to think carefully about how to answer his question, though.
She thought about just giving Soap a phony answer when he spoke up.
"Oh, by the way. Don't even think about trying to lie to me. I'm a bounty hunter and have been for many years. As a bounty hunter, I have learned how to tell if some one is trying to lie to me. I also know when a person has something to hide. With that said, just tell the truth. It will be a lot easier for us both. Again though, why do you hide the fact that you're a faunas."
She had to think for a second because Sarah honestly didn't know herself. "I guess you could say that many times in my past, I have been judged for being a faunas; so I started to hide who I really was, to make certain that I wouldn't be judged."
"Alright. What would you say if I told you that I knew about your past?"
She started to panic. "You know about my past?"
He smiled, "Yes, Sarah. I know about your past."
At this she froze, how could anyone know about her past? She was careful to make sure she didn't leave any evidence.
"Now," He said grabbing her attention once more, "I did say I would get you a ticket, and I an always true to my word. I have it right here, actually."
He held up a small piece of silver paper with black printing on it for her to see. "First Class, Priority Express flight to Vaccuo. Leaves in 45 minutes."
He put the piece of paper in the direct center of the table and held up a finger, telling her to wait a moment, "Before I give it to you, I have something else to ask you."
She gave him a confused look, 'What else could you possibly have to ask me? I guess I'll find out.' She thought.
"If I offered you a chance to start your life over, a clean slate if you will, would you take it?"
The question took Sarah by surprise, it's not everyday that someone offers you a chance to start your life over.
"You would, of course, have to stay here in Vale with me. However, you would have no past to run from. Some would dare say that you would be at peace."
As Sarah thought about this she asked, "What would the other option be?"
"You could take the ticket before you and be on your way. I would personally make sure that your life is be paid for. Anything that you could ever dream of wanting could be yours; but you would be running from your past till the day you die."
"Yes." Sarah said, without a second's hesitation, hoping that he knew that she was referring to the first option.
~Soap
"Yes," She said, without specifying the answer, but I knew what she meant.
"Are you ready?" I asked standing up, offering her a hand.
Taking my hand and standing as well, Sarah nodded her head and asked where we were going.
I responded by saying, "I live in an old church outside of town."
Once I said this, Sarah nodded and teleported to the location I just described.
I wasn't the least bit surprised; I knew what her semblance was.
After unlocking the door and showing Sarah to the room where she would be staying; she dropped off her things in her room and followed me out to the lobby.
"Sarah, you have two options. I can give you a tour of my place right now and get to wiping your profile later, or I can start wiping it now, send you a map my place via scroll, and leave you to explore my home on your own."
After thinking for a little bit she decided to go exploring on her own, and left with out another word leaving me to do as I said I would do.
What Sarah didn't know is that it would only take me 5 minutes to do so.
Finishing up, I left my room and left to the sanctuary to grab my guitar and play a few songs to relax at the end of a long day.
I knew very well that Sarah, being a faunas, would eventually come find me.
Grabbing my capo and pick, I sat down and went to play a couple of my favorites.
'But first, let's make sure that the guitar is in tune.'
(cue songs: Brother by NEEDTOBREATH)
~Sarah
Having heard the sounds that were coming from the sanctuary; Sarah made her way to the room and walked in on Soap starting to play Brother.
Not knowing what he was doing, she quietly made her way one of the seats in front of the stage and sat down to listen.
To Sarah, it was like nothing she had ever heard before; it was music to her ears.
(heh heh, I didn't mean to make a pun, but oh well)
Lost to the rhythm of music, he didn't notice Sarah come in.
Finishing his song, he looked up from his guitar and saw Sarah sitting at the front of the stage listening to him.
Sarah, just now realizing that the pretty sounds had stopped, looked up to see Soap looking at her.
Sarah immediately thought that she was intruding on something that was meant to be private. So she quickly got up to leave and repeatedly apologized as she made her way to the door.
Rolling his eyes, Soap began to laugh at the sight that Sarah was becoming.
Realizing that he was laughing at her, she stopped and looked back at him.
"You don't care, do you?" She asked
"Nope."
Sarah began to process what she had just seen and heard when Soap interrupted her thoughts.
"If anything, why do you think that I started to play?" He asked.
"Play? What were you even doing?"
"Do you know what music is?"
In all of her life she had never heard of nor heard music, "Nope."
"It doesn't surprise me that you have never heard music before."
'Great, I've got a smart-ass on my hands.' She thought to herself. "OK then, what's music?" She asked.
"Historically, it's an art that was lost to the Grimm War. This is an old Church Sarah. I found these guitar's sealed in a hidden room behind one of the walls. The fact that they still existed, let alone still intact, is a miracle. However, by definition, music is the expression of the individual through the combination of separate notes, rhythms, melodies, and harmonies to create songs." He paused for second to take a breath, Sarah leaning forward on the edge of the stage, waiting for him to continue. "Judging by the way that you're waiting for me to continue, I take it that you have an interest in music. Would you like to learn?"
Truth be told, it wasn't the main reason she was leaning forward. She was looking over the boy in front of her, realizing just how cute he was.
He spoke, "Sarah?"
She realized that she had be caught and looked away to hide her blush.
She thought about his offer though, after some consideration; she saw a way to spend some time with him. "What would I be learning to do?" She asked.
"For starters, you would learn how to sing."
Finally getting her blush under control, she asked,"Sing? Is that what you were doing with your voice during that...song?"
"Yep. That's what I was doing. So, what do you say? Do you want to learn?"
"Sure."
Moving off the stage and next to Sarah; Soap spent the next 15 minutes teaching Sarah how to match the pitch of whatever note Soap would play for a song.
Once that was done, Soap handed her the words to the song I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, told her to follow along, and started to play.
As it happened to be, Sarah was an amazing singer with little to no experience.
Done with singing for the time being, he finally asked her how she had an unlocked aura and semblance.
"I have no idea. The first thing that I can remember is waking up with it unlocked, and the want to fight."
This made Soap wonder aloud, "I wonder what my semblance would be."
Sarah thought to herself for a moment 'I just met Soap today and yet it feels like I've known him for a lifetime. He's done so much for me already, unlocking his semblance would be the least I could do to return the favor. I like the guy, I can't deny that; but since my aura was unlocked at such a young age, unlocking his aura would permanently link myself to him...You know what; fuck it, I don't care. If he feels anything towards me...'
Interrupting her thoughts, Soap asked, "Sarah, do you know why I ran into you at the airship?"
Sarah shook her head, in fact she didn't know.
"I was starstruck at how beautiful you were and...I just walked into you. Now I don't know if you feel the same way that I do, bu-" He said as a soft pair of lips met his.
Soap was shocked, to say the least, that she felt the same way. He hesitated for a moment but kissed her back.
After the need of air became too much to bear, they broke apart.
"Does that answer your question?" She said, still panting from the lack of air. "Now, about that aura..."
One of the things that Sarah explained to Soap is that the ritual would essentially be taking a piece of her own aura and placing it inside him to unlock his. Once unlocked, to complete the ritual he would have to take a piece of his aura and place it inside of her (why does it have to sound so sexual?) forming a bond between them.
(Just a quick side note for those of you that do not 100% understand bonds. A lot will be explained in detail in an upcoming chapter.)
After explaining what would happen during the ritual to unlock his aura and semblance, she asked him one last time, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Without missing a beat, he nodded his head yes, and she began.
~Soap
With my aura and semblance now unlocked, Sarah said that she would begin training me tomorrow.
But for now, we went back to my. No. Our room.
The events that proceeded after entering our room, would never be known to anyone but ourselves.
And yet, I wouldn't have it any other way.
I thought to myself as I began to drift to sleep, Sarah pulling me tightly into her chest as she slept peacefully:
"What could be better?"
A/N: I honestly did not expect getting to 5K+ words in one chapter, but now you know how Sarah and Soap/me met and are able to use each others semblance.
Sarah: Not to mention the things that we are able to do when we combine them in combat.
Soap: Very, very true. It's been a long day *yawns* ready for some sleep?
Sarah: Yeah, let's get some sleep.
Edit: 3-17-2015; HOLY SHIT! 7.5K+ words after switching Soap's perspectives to first person and making things flow a little better. Added a shit ton of detail to the Soap's traumatic scene and Sarah's Traumatic scene including "Carrie"