A/N: So, I lied, I saw how much cliffhanger bait was being put in front of me as I typed the last portion of the last chapter, and I couldn't refuse.

Sarah: So you ended a chapter halfway to do so?

Soap: yeah...looking back on it, it wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had.

Sarah: kind of like the time when you tried to teleport into the gi-

Soap: *places hand over Sarah's mouth* NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THAT! *turns to readers* Enjoy the chapter guys.

Chapter 5: whom we love,

(anytime Drake is talking through his mind, it will be in italics. anytime he is typing, which will be rarely other than this chapter, it will be in " ")

"I want you to try something Drake. Try talking to me through your mind." I said.

Drake raised an eyebrow and stared at me. "Seriously?"

"Just try it."

"Fine."

Even though he couldn't physically speak, I could feel the obscenities being shouted at me through Drake's mind.

"Did it work?" He asked on his scroll after a while.

"Were you cussing me out, saying how stupid the idea was?"

"Yeah, how did you-" He started to type on his scroll.

"Your facial expression gave it away." I said, grinning.

"Oh"

"The reason why I told you to try is because in the event that someone with an aura is no longer able to speak to communicate, a second semblance manifests in order to do so."

"My aura's locked though." Drake said.

I stared at him for a moment before speaking again, "Well, that would have been useful information about 5 minutes ago."

"Would it make a difference if my aura WAS, at one point, unlocked?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly confused.

"While I was prisoner, the White Fang did some sort of spell that re-locked my aura and semblance."

"OK~." I said. "Well, what was your semblance?"

"Ice." Drake typed.

"Hmm," I pondered, "The fact that the White Fang locked your aura, and the fact that you can't speak, is going to be a slight problem. Archaic methods won't work." I said. If I was completely honest, I really didn't like where this was going.

"How is it going to be a slight problem?" Drake typed.

"Archaic methods involve chanting a spell to unlock it, along with a lot of physical effort. The spell also has to be said by the person whose aura is being unlocked." I sighed. "That only leaves one option..." I said, trailing off.

Which means that someone else will have to unlock your aura for you. I thought to myself.

"Is there no way to unlock my aura?" Drake typed.

"No. There is. It's just that someone else will have to unlock it for you." I said, somewhat scared for what was to come.

"OK...can you not unlock mine?"

"No. I, personally, cannot. The process involved is literally sharing aura with you in order to unlock it. I, however, will not be able to." I took a breath. "The problem is not in finding someone, that I have...It's just..." I sighed heavily.

"Just what?"

"Tell me Drake, after what the White Fang did to you, do you think that you will be able to trust faunus ever again?"

He thought for a moment before responding. "More than likely; but not soon though. Why?"

"Because the only person with an unlocked aura, is a faunus." I said.

"Why is that a problem?"

"Because having your aura unlocked by someone else bonds you to them. Bonds are the ultimate form of trust."

Drake looked surprised at first. "If I go through with this, will I be able to speak again?"

"Vocally? No, you will never be able to speak again. Telepathically though, yes."

He thought for a moment and then asked, "Would I be able to break the bond at a later date?"

"No, this person would be bonded to you till the day you die." I said.

"You know what? Do it. I want to be able to communicate again."

"Alright." I said, nodding.

"Hey Sarah?" I called out through our bond.

"Yeah?"

"Drake agreed to let Sam unlock his aura. Do you mind bringing her in?"

"Sure, we're on our way." She said.

"Oh. Also tell Bucky to prepare a meal of sorts for Drake. I can tell he's hungry." I added.

"Done. Coming in." Sarah said after a second.

In a flash of bright blue light, Sarah and Sam teleported into the room, blinding Drake in the process.

Once Drake was able to see again, I told Sam to grab Drake's shoulder and to recite the same spell that she used to unlock her own aura.

"Wait for us to leave the room to start." I said, turning to leave. "Oh, and make sure that you position yourself so that you'll collapse onto the soft bed instead of the hard ground." I said, as Sarah and I were about to leave the room.

"Wait!" She exclaimed. "What's this about collapsing?" She asked, clearly concerned.

I chuckled before explaining, "Unlocking Drake's aura will leave you with very little aura of your own which will cause you to collapse. When you do, I would prefer that you did onto something soft."

"I'm guessing that's what happened to Sarah when she unlocked yours?" Sam asked.

"Yep. Scared the living hell out of me." I said, confirming her suspicions. "Time to begin." I said, finally teleporting Sarah and I out of the room.

"Are you sure that he'll be able to communicate after this?" Sarah asked over the sound of Sam chanting from the other room.

"Absolutely not, but we can only hope at this point." I said.

After a few minutes, the chanting stopped signaling that Sam was finished.

I stood up and extended a hand to Sarah, "Together?"

"Together, but we're using your semblance. It's not as blinding." Sarah said.

"True. Let's go." I said, activating my semblance.

When we reappeared next to Drake's bed, neither Sarah nor myself was expecting what we saw.

Drake was rubbing the back of a passed out Sam, who was on his lap, while trying to reach for his scroll.

"Want us to move her off of you?" I asked, after watching him struggle to grab his scroll for a few moments.

Drake's reply was a nonchalant wave of his hand and a shake of his head.

After managing to retrieve the scroll, he typed with one hand, "What exactly did you mean by a bond will be formed'?"

I thought for a moment before answering. "Our bond," I motioned Sarah and I, "allows us to share our thoughts and semblances. However, as far as we're aware, this was only due to the special circumstance that was Sarah's aura being unlocked from before she could remember which allowed plenty of time for her aura to develop." I said.

"But to answer your question, a bond is a union of two or more things. In this case, by sharing aura with one another you now have a piece of Sam's aura and Sam has a piece of your aura. This is what forms a bond. This way of unlocking someone's aura is the ultimate demonstration of trust between two people." I took a breath.

"With you being so willing to do so with Sam after just meeting her says a lot about you Drake. Mainly two things, although the second is more evident than the first. One, it says that the trust wound that the White Fang caused wasn't as deep as I originally thought." I stopped to breath and let Drake process all that he had just been told.

"What is the second thing, and how is it more evident than the other?" He typed into his scroll.

"Well, judging from how you don't mind Sam collapsing on top of you, how affectionately you were rubbing her back when we came in, and how you didn't cease rubbing her back to type on your scroll; it would be my best guess that you are somewhat attracted to Sam." I reasoned.

"You got all of that from me rubbing her back?" Drake asked.

"Yes he did. It seems that he's a better student than I thought." Sarah said proudly.

"Well, I had an excellent teacher." I said, smiling at her.

"Well, am I wrong?" I asked shifting my attention back to Drake.

"I guess you could say that I'm a little attracted to her."

"Now that you two are bonded together, your feelings for her will only grow deeper as time passes; be sure that you treat her right." Sarah said, giving Drake a look that sent chills down his spine.

Drake vigorously shook his head in confirmation.

"Alright. First things first, let's see if you can use your previous semblance." I said.

"I have a question first." Drake typed.

"What would that be?" Sarah said.

"The last time I was able to use my semblance, was only after I had infused my arms with Ice Dust."

"That explains how you were able to endure so much torture from the White Fang." Sarah said.

"Indeed it does." I confirmed.

"How am I going to use my semblance if there is no dust in my arms for it to use?" Drake asked.

Since I was the one who designed and built his new arms, I spoke up.

"I designed those arms with a couple of built-in features. One of them being that both of the arms were built with a special type of metal alloy made by combining hardened steel with every type of dust currently known." I explained.

Drake looked like he just barely understood my explanation. To be honest though, I didn't blame him; unless you are familiar with working with Dust, you aren't going to grasp new concepts very easily.

"You should be able to use your previous semblance as you were before with no problems. However, since it has been a little while, let's start with something simple. You see that glass of water next to you?" I asked.

Drake nodded.

"Grab it with your right hand and using your semblance, freeze it."

Drake did what he was told, grabbing the glass, and without much thought, froze the water inside.

"Good. Now for the hard part, using your second semblance. Try to talk to me." I told him.

"How?" Drake typed.

"Look at me and imagine that you're in a room with only me, now within your mind think whatever you want to say." I instructed.

"I don't think it will work, but whatever. Here goes nothing." He typed before setting the scroll down on the table beside his bed. As Drake did as he was told, a question entered his mind, "How the hell would you know how to do this?"

How do you know how to do this?" I heard a voice say within my head. The voice was much deeper than Sarah's and a little deeper than my own.

"I already told you Drake. The special circumstances that my bond was formed with Sarah allows us to share thoughts, and I do the same thing to talk to her through our bond." I replied, surprising both Drake and Sarah.

"It worked?" Sarah asked, in a state of disbelief.

"Yup." I said as I shifted my attention back to Drake, "Now instead of just me, open up your mind to everyone in the room except to Sam. I don't want to wake her yet."

"OK. Sarah, Soap, can you both hear me?" Drake asked after a moment.

Sarah and I both nodded confirming that we had.

"I thought your voice would be higher than Soap's since you're younger than him." Sarah said somewhat surprised.

"Is that a bad thing?" Drake asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not at all, just thought I'd point it out." Sarah replied.

It was at this point that Sam woke up, surprised that she was in the same position that she collapsed into.

"Did it work?" She asked after waking up. She tried to remove herself from Drake's lap but found that she didn't have enough strength to do so.

After I helped her into a sitting position on the bed, I answered her, "Well...how about we let the man in question answer himself?"

"Sam, are you alright?" Drake asked.

"I'm fine, just a little tir-" She said, realizing that the voice wasn't coming from me. "Who said that?" She asked as she looked around for the voice's source.

I just smiled at her and pointed at the person laying in the bed beside her.

Drake smiled and gave a polite wave, "Hello Sam."

Sam nearly fainted upon hearing his words.

After a couple of minutes, there was knock at the door.

"Bacon wrapped cheeseburger made to order." said a voice on the other side.

"Coming Bucky." I said opening the door.

I stepped out of the way to let him through. When Drake had the plate in his hands, I swear he was drooling.

"Sorry it's not as good as it could be. I rushed making it so you didn't have to wait a while." Bucky said.

Drake, hearing Bucky's comment, apprehensively took a bite. Drake's facial expression changed from one of nervousness to one of extreme delight. "If this isn't as good as what you normally make, I can't wait for you to make something that isn't rushed."

"Is that a complement or an insult?" Bucky asked.

"That is absolutely a complement. I haven't had real food in almost four years and I am very happy that this is the first."

"Sweet! I'll see you guys in a bit, I'm going to get dinner ready." He said as he walked out the door.

In unison, everyone said goodbye.

"Soap."

"Yes?"

"You said that these arms were designed with a couple built-in features, however you only mentioned one."

"That's correct. I assume that you want to know what the others are?"

"Yup."

"Then let's go the gym where there's some decent room to move first." I said as I nodded to Sarah.

Sarah understood exactly what I was doing and helped Sam to her feet and promptly teleported to the gym with Sam in tow.

With the girls now gone, I helped Drake to his feet. His first few steps were a little shaky but after a few minutes he was able to walk on his own. After he was, I teleported us to the gym where Sam and Sarah were waiting.

Once we were there, I started on the details of Drake's new arms. "Your arms were designed with the possibility that you infused yourself with Dust, thus they were both made with a Dust based steel alloy. You should be able to use your semblance with either arm. That's the basic feature of them, but everything beyond that is controlled with your mind.

"Built into the left forearm is a holo-projector that works the same as a scroll being that it responds to touch. It also has the added feature of being able to type on it without the need to physically touch it.

"Since nearly everyone has their lives online - with the exception of myself, Sam, and Sarah - you will be able to profile people. It's also able to hack into anything that is connected to the net. If you want lessons on how to do more advanced things with it, ask either myself or Sarah later and we'll teach you whatever you want to know. That's it for features on the left arm, now for your right arm.

"Since almost all of your right arm is prosthetic, it is much, much stronger allowing for a stronger version of your semblance to be used. Like I said earlier, you can use your semblance with either arm, but your right arm will be a lot stronger. Both can detach the hands and replace them with something else, for instance, this sword." I said tossing Drake a sword. "You can store that inside your right forearm. That should be everything. Any questions?"

"Why did you do this?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Why rescue me? Why help me be able to talk again? Just, why?"

"Sarah, take Sam to the sanctuary. I'll be there with Drake in a second." I told her quietly.

I walked up to Drake, grabbed his shoulder and teleported us to the largest room in the church. "Drake, I want you to look at the wall above me and tell me what you see."

"A large cross. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything." I said.

"What do you mean?"

"That symbol is one of the reasons why I bought this place. Do you know what the cross is symbolic of?"

Drake shook his head

"The cross is the symbol of a second chance. After I nearly died as a kid, I found this on the body of my father." I saidas I pulled out my necklace. "The cross is representative of a religion that has long since died. My parents were the last of it's followers and while I have abandoned that way of life as a religion long ago; it's morals and way of living form the very base of who I am. I believe in second chances, I got mine in the form of Bucky, when his car stopped beside me while I was walking to Vale. It is because of Bucky that I am alive today. It is because of him that I believe in second chances and why I offer others the same chance."

After I finished, silence filled the room. Drake was stunned. Even Sarah was stunned, even she didn't know why I bought the church. After what seemed like an eternity, I spoke again, "So Drake, what do you say?"

"About what?"

"If I could offer you a second chance at life, would you take the offer?"

"Yes."

"Good, let's begin then." I said.

A/N: It took nearly three days to type, but I did it.

Sarah: How many times did you re-think and re-phrase that part about bonds?

Soap: Too many times. But hey, now we get to a character that wasn't made by me.

Sarah: How long do you think that's going to take?

Soap: *sigh* Let's just start typing.

Edit 11-28-2016: Reworded some parts and transitioned from 3rd to 1st person.