A/N: I started typing out an R P section here for the A/N here but after getting halfway through it, I decided to turn it into actual plot.
Chapter 19: without it. It
"My friends, it was for you that I gave my life. One day, someday, I will welcome you to your places among the stars where we will shine down among the generations to come, together. Until then, remember me, as I shall remember you, always."
~General Chris Gunnel
A month later...
"You know, trying to steal my wallet isn't the best way to say hi to an old friend." I said to the wannabe pickpocket.
The thief I nabbed just looked at me with a confused expression. "What the hell are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life."
"Oh really?" I challenged.
My captive just shook his head, "Nope."
I sighed, "Eight years ago..."
Eariler that day...
Not much had happened since I found that video log, I had exhausted nearly all of my options trying to find Regal, but nothing was working. I was frustrated to say the least.
"I need a break." I said to no one in particular as I rubbed my tired eyes.
I heard a voice speak behind me, "Then let's go do something."
"Oh hey Sarah." I said as she walked into the room.
"You've been working yourself into the ground lately trying to find this guy, Regal. Take a break and let's do something." Sarah said in a suggestive tone.
"Sarah Hearts, are you asking me out on a date?" I said back playfully.
She smiled, "Absolutely. How about you take me out to dinner, nothing fancy, and then we'll find a secluded spot or come back here and do our thing." She took a step forward and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
"Why not? However, let's change into something a little more causal. I'll meet you in the garage." I said before teleporting to my room to change.
I never took long to change, just wasn't me. I stripped out of my rather over-used combat attire and slipped into something a little more comfortable.
I decided to leave my cloak behind. I put on a white t-shirt, a pair of black cargo shorts, and a red, sleeveless jacket which sported a hood. The back of my jacket bore my insignia; on my right shoulder was the same shoulder armor that I usually wore. Finishing off my outfit, I put on a custom pair of white combat shoes; they're custom because I made and personalized them myself.
Since Sarah and I would be going out in public, using my semblance, I formed a pair of smoke finger-less gloves over my hands. I could, if I really wanted to, just use my semblance to make the gloves appear on my hands all night without materializing them. To be honest though, I really didn't want to do that. So I activated the General's semblance, that was stored in my necklace, and made the gloves solid.
This was the first time I had ever used the General's semblance to materialized something, and his semblance combined with mine had an interesting effect. I had the gloves, that wasn't the problem. The gloves were covered in white, runic letters.
I studied the gloves. To be honest, they actually looked pretty cool, so I didn't question the design.
Now finished changing, I couldn't decide if I should bring my katanas or not. My deagle was coming with me, that wasn't debatable.
After debating it in my head for a while, I decided just to bring them with me.
I teleported to the garage and waited on Sarah.
I didn't have to wait long.
Sarah appeared in front of me not long after I, myself, appeared in the garage. She was wearing long, white pants with a black belt around her waist. She also had on a white and light red, long-sleeved t-shirt. On top of that she wore a light pink, short-sleeved jacket sporting a hood. Her jacket reminded me of her cloak, literally being just that, but as a jacket instead of a cloak. To finish off her outfit, she had on a pair of bright pink shoes.
I wonder where she hid her weapons in that, I thought after giving her a good look over.
"You made a bit of a change in your outfit." I paused, "I like it." I said.
"Thanks, same for you." She replied.
"Ready to go?" I said, starting towards one of my cars. I didn't hear a response, I just saw Sarah teleport herself into the passenger seat. "Well, I guess that answers my question." I said as I got in the car.
All I got in response was Sarah's childish laugh.
Rolling my eyes, I put the keys in the ignition and started toward downtown Vale.
A few hours later...
Dinner went smoothly and uneventful, which was a first for me. Ever since I became a rather successful bounty hunter, people that I am a threat to have tried to get rid of me. And every time, their carefully thought out plans failed. To be quite honest though, I found it rather comical to see their attempts fail.
After our successful dinner outing, we made our way to the park and went to go for a walk. We we're actually having quite a bit of fun, talking about whatever came to our minds. We were having fun until I noticed a shadow, not our own, following us.
Seeing this, I decided to bring this to Sarah's attention; but since I also didn't want to let our shadow know that we had spotted him, I spoke Sarah telepathically. "Hey Sarah, don't react outwardly to this, but it looks like someone's following us."
Sarah's face showed a hint of concern before returning to it's usual cheerfulness. "What do you think they want?"
"My wallet." I responded immediately.
"Soap. I'm being serious."
"As am I. Though I haven't seen him in eight years, I know who this person is and I know that he honestly just wants my wallet. I also know that he doesn't recognize me, and because of that, I say that we should go along with it and catch him in the act. You alright with that?"
Sarah just rolled her eyes and smiled in response. 'I'll take that as a yes.' I thought to myself.
We continued to walk for a few minutes, all the while we pretended that we hadn't noticed our shadow. After another few minutes I got a message on my scroll. We stopped so that I could check it, "Sarah, make sure that our shadow doesn't take try to take my wallet until after I check my message." I sub-consciously told her.
"Sure thing." I heard in my head in response.
I pulled out my scroll to read the message, from Blake. 'Huh. I wonder what's up.' I thought to myself.
'Hey Soap. I found a pair of faunas, a brother and sister, digging through some trash cans behind a building. After talking to them, I found out that they are currently homeless and are literally about to starve to death. Do you mind if I offer them a place to stay at the church?'
~Blake
I thought about it. The church was, according to official site plans, a one story building and didn't have all that many rooms in it. Officially anyways. I made various expansions underground over the many years that I have lived there. I didn't need to think long to answer, but I still had a question to ask.
'What are their names?'
~Soap
I waited less than a minute for her reply.
'Shade and Umbra Tenebris. Apparently Shade knew Sarah at one point in her life. Said that he worked with her several times as a mercenary. I'll leave the rest of his story for later, too much to type. See you at the church.'
~Blake
'Hmm. His story should be interesting to hear.' I thought to myself. I replied 'Sure.' and gave her directions to some empty rooms inside the church.
Putting away my scroll, I looked around for our shadow only to find that he was nowhere to be seen. Slightly confused, I was about to ask Sarah where he had gone when I heard her yell, "Soap! Behind you!"
Quickly I turned around to see that the shadow had an arm sticking out of it and was reaching for my back pocket. Reacting on instinct, my right hand went to one of the katana's on my back and pulled it. Not thinking in the slightest and acting completely on instinct, my other hand grabbed the guy's jacket and forced him into the nearest wall. Years of training still telling me what to do, I forced the flat side of my blade into his neck and in doing so, the shadow that had been following us turned into a 15-16 year old teenage guy. He was about five foot four and had a rather small build for his size, but it was obvious to me that he was strong. To anyone else, at first glance he appeared like any other human; To anyone else. To me, I saw a Wolf-faunas that cut off his faunas ears in one last, desperate attempt at being accepted among society. His face had a nasty scar running from the left side of his forehead, starting above his short, shaggy, black hair, and stopped above his right saguine eye. He was wearing a multicolored black t-shirt, a black zip-up hoodie, and a lightly worn pair of blue jeans. He had three scars that disappeared beneath the sleeve of his jacket and went from the back of his neck down to his upper right forearm. Tied around his neck was a black bandanna. To finish his outfit off, he had on a pair of black, fingerless gloves. 'Huh, convenient that I got different ones now.' I thought to myself when my instincts calmed down enough where I could form a rational thought without thinking that someone was going to try to kill me. (I had so much typed out here, then word crashed on me before I was able to save. This is what I was able to remember typing.)
"You know, trying to steal my wallet isn't the best way to say hi to an old friend." I said to the wannabe pickpocket.
The thief I nabbed just looked at me with a confused expression. "What the hell are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life."
"Oh really?" I challenged.
My captive just shook his head, "Nope."
I sighed, "Eight years ago, who was it that released you from that gang?" I put away my katanna.
"A dead man." He responded.
"Alright~, did that dead man, say, have a gun that looked like this?" I held out my gun for him to see.
His eyes widened, "No. No. NO. Nonononononono! I killed that guy, that blade went all the way through him. There's no way he could have survived."
When I heard this, I just started smiling. I activated my semblance and burned off my shirt, but left my jacket alone. I then took off my jacket, revealing my rather chiseled physique, and flung it over my shoulder.
Now shirtless, a rather ugly scar could be seen on the right side of my chest, right next to where my heart would be, "You're right. That blade did go right through me, and managed to miss every major organ in my body."
I laughed at the sight before me; the thief just stood still with his mouth agape, staring directly at me. "How about, we introduce ourselves properly this time? My name's Soap."
Sarah waved, "I'm Sarah Hearts."
"Dusk Rogue. Sorry I tried to steal your wallet." Dusk said.
"Yeah...About that. Care to explain?" I asked him.
"I needed money." He replied.
"I figured that part out. Care to explain why you needed money?" I asked again.
He sighed, "Ever since you released me from that gang, I have been living on the streets struggling to survive. I just wanted some food." Dusk said, putting his head down in shame.
I thought for a moment, "Let me ask you something," his head came back up. "If you had the chance to redeem yourself, would you take it?" I asked.
He looked at me with a confused expression. "I don't understand. What are you asking?" Dusk asked.
"I'm asking you to give up the way of life that you've called home to for so long and start down the path that will ultimately lead to the betterment of mankind's existence here on Remnant." I said.
He looked even more confused, "What?"
Sarah spoke up, "He's asking you to stop stealing things from people and to start working to improve our way of life."
"Oh."
"So, what do you say?" I asked. "You want to have a little adventure?"
"What would I be doing?" Dusk asked.
"We - Sarah and I, along with the rest of our team - are bounty hunters, just one step down from being actual Hunters. We are also Instructors at Beacon Academy. With that said, I'm sure that we would be able pull a few strings with the Headmaster and get you a place in Beacon. If not, then I could always use another person on my team to help out with bounties."
Dusk looked at me, "Seriously?"
"I don't see why not." I replied. "Hey, this offer also comes with, for a limited time, a bed to call your very own, a shower, annnndddd free food. (To be honest, I have no idea where that came from. Don't judge me, I'm sleep deprived.) So, what do you say? You in?" I asked one last time.
"I'm in." Dusk replied.
Back at the church...
"So let me get this straight, you met and then proceeded to fall in love with Soap, after literally running into him?" Dusk asked as we pulled into the garage.
Sarah laughed before responding, "Yep. Sucker got me to unlock his aura in the process too."
"Hey now. You said that you did that of your own accord." I said as we exited the garage and entered the lobby.
"Whatever." She said, rolling her eyes. "Hey Soap. You mentioned that Blake found two people while she was out?"
"Yeah." I replied.
"You also mentioned that one of them, apparently, knew me during my time as mercenary." She said.
"Yeah."
"Do you know the name of the guy?" She asked.
I rolled my eyes, "Sarah Hearts, are you thinking about leaving me?" I said, sarcasm laced in my voice.
"Pfft, please. You know I would never do that. However, I don't know very many people from my time as a mercenary that are still around. If this guy actually knew me back then, and is still alive, I would very much like to become reacquainted with him."
"I know." I said as I pulled up the message that I got from Blake earlier today. "Uhhhh, a Shade Tenebris." I said.
As soon as those words left my mouth, I knew something was wrong. I watched as Sarah clutched her head and her knees hit the floor. Just as I started to move to see what was wrong, the pain hit me like a ton of bricks. Pain. A pain that I hadn't felt in a long, long time. I mirrored Sarah as the pain steadily increased; as it did, I could see images - no, memories, Sarah's memories - flashing through my head at lightspeed. Before the pain became too much to bear, I sent Dusk instructions to find RWBY's room and what they needed to do. (A/N) After what seemed like an eternity, the pain suddenly stopped. I assumed that Sarah passed out from all the pain that she had experienced.
As I struggled to get up, I felt a pair of hands grab my shoulders. I looked up to see the concerned face of Blake. "Are you alright?" She asked as she helped me up.
"I'll be fine, I've been through worse." I said as Blake led me to one of the chairs that lined the sides of the room. "That's more than I can say for Sarah though."
"I see. Any idea what happened?" She asked, letting go of me as I finally got to a chair.
"Actually, yeah. I have a pretty good idea. It involves that guy that you found today, Shade." I said.
"What about him?"
"Something in his and Sarah's past that - I think - led to Sarah ending her career as a mercenary. Something that she had locked away within her own mind to keep from feeling the pain." I said. "Where's Shade? I need to talk to him."
"Sanctuary. Do you need help getting there?" Blake asked.
"No, I'll just teleport there. Get Sarah to our room and set her down on our bed." I said.
"Sure thing." She said as she picked Sarah up and started down the hallway towards my room.
"And Blake," She stopped to turn around, "There are a lot of things in our room that you won't understand. I don't care if you go through the documents, however, I do ask that you refrain from touching anything else."
Blake nodded and resumed heading towards my room.
With Blake gone, I teleported to one of the pews at the front of the sanctuary.
Now inside, I could see two individuals on the stage looking over the guitars, drums, and pianos that I had put there.
At this point, I felt like I had enough strength to stand again, so I did. Standing up, I got their attention, "Which one of you is Shade Tenebris?" I asked with an authoritative voice.
One raised his hand, "Aye sir."
I sat back down, turns out I wasn't ready to stand yet. I motioned for him to sit next to me, "Come here, I wish to talk to you for few minutes."
A/N: Welp, there ya go. 7 mins till 1 am, I need to get to sleep. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
A/N above: Remember the feature in Drake's arms that allows him to send messages just by thinking them? Well Soap, Sarah, and Blake, has that same piece of tech.
See you guys next time.
SoapiestAuto780 out.
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