A/N: I am so happy this semester is over.
Chapter 36: through love that
A few days later...
~Sam
I think Soap, Sarah, and Blake were gone for a total of a week. While they were gone, Drake and I started training DUSC.
Overall, they were a fairly capable team; however their communication would need some work.
Dusk had a tendency to overuse his semblance which would drain his aura, Umbra was the least confident in her fighting abilities and had a nearly useless semblance unless given the right circumstances, Shade had to wait for his semblance before he could make a move, and Crimson, well, Crimson was Crimson. He wanted to solve all his problems by burning them and swearing at them.
The first thing Drake and I did was teach them how to manifest their semblances into a key for the church.
"Alright, any question?" I asked.
Umbra spoke, "Why do you guys use physical keys?"
"I have no idea. You will have to ask Soap when he gets back." I responded. "We should probably wrap this up for the day. See you guys at dinner."
A unanimous "ok" could be heard in response as they one by one exited the gym.
"Hey Drake, who do you want to get to know first?" I asked him in my head.
"Shade. He supposedly knew Sarah in the past."
I nodded my head in agreement as we moved to catch him on the way out.
"Hey Shade. Do you mind if we talk to you for a bit?" I asked when we caught up to him.
When he turned to face me, I almost missed his eyes quickly changing to gray.
"Sure, but why the sudden friendliness?" He asked suspiciously.
"Well, we've been living under the same roof for a bit now and we still don't know anything about you or your team." I responded.
"True, but keep in mind that we don't know anything about you guys either." He said, his eyes slowly fading back to their normal royal blue color.
"Then why don't we fix that?" I said.
"Ok, but I do have a question first. About something my analysis didn't reveal about you."
"Ok. Shoot."
"Why me out of the others? You could have just as easily picked Crimson or Dusk."
"Because you apparently knew Sarah in the past."
"Is that all? Surely that can't be the entire reason."
"While you did know her then, we didn't. We nothing about her except what we have experienced ourselves and what we have been told, which isn't a lot; so while we are curious about you, Shade, we are just as curious about Sarah and you are our way to learn more about her."
Shade was silent for a while.
"While Drake's not exactly wrong, before we get into that we should talk about you." I said, breaking the silence.
"Do mind if I ask you a question?" I asked.
We decided to gather in the kitchen since Drake was hungry.
"Not at all, go right ahead." He said calmly.
"Why did you get into the mercenary line of work?" I asked.
"My sister and I were experimented on since we were born. When we were finally found by the military, I joined their forces to learn how to be a solider and stayed with them for almost 6 months. After that I left and started taking jobs to get a higher pay. I did that for about two years until I was forced to take a job where I was supposed to kill Sarah; something that I refused to do."
"Well, I thank you for that. Had you killed her, I would either dead or with the White Fang; I for sure never would have met Drake." I said, giving my boyfriend a quick kiss on the cheek. "What happened after that?"
"After I abandoned that job, I left with Umbra for Vacuo and stayed there for a year and a half until I saw one of my old employers there 'tying up loose ends'. Then we headed here to Vale and for the last six months we have been living on the streets."
"Till Blake found you right?"
"Yeah. Blake found us digging through some trash cans behind a bookstore. I though she was Sarah actually." Shade said, slightly embarrassed.
"I can see that, if Sarah grew a few inches and dyed her hair maybe." I said.
Shade's face was bright red now. It was honestly a little cute to see a usually disciplined, stoic, and monotone man suddenly become so flustered.
"You do know that I can read your thoughts right?" I heard Drake's voice ring through my head.
"You can? Since when?" I replied, a little freaked out.
"Just now. Soap did say that our bond might get here someday."
"True, I just didn't imagine that that would be so soon. Just please do me a favor as my boyfriend and don't go looking through my memories quite yet, alright?"
"Finne."
I turned my attention back to Shade who was now sipping on his drink and trying to get the color of his face under control.
"So now I want to know about your sister." I said leaning on the table a little bit.
"Then you really aren't going to learn much." He said.
"Why's that?"
"Umbra and I don't exactly have the best relationship right now."
"I'm guessing that she's a major reason as to why you left being a mercenary?"
"Yep. She followed me with her semblance one day when I headed out on a job. She followed me into a room at just the wrong moment."
"She saw something that you didn't want her to see?" I asked.
He took a deep breath and let out a sigh before responding, "Yep."
"How long ago was that?"
"A little over 3 years ago. She still won't talk to me about what exactly she saw."
"But you guys still stayed with each other?" I asked.
"Where else was she going to go? Not back to the orphanage where we were living at the time, that's for sure."
"What was wrong with that place?" I asked.
"We were the only two faunus there, so race crimes against us were a daily occurrence. Plus it was so poor that we had to pay for our dinner that they were supposed to give us for free every night."
"Before she found out, was your relationship with her better?"
"Absolutely, back then, we would have full conversations together with no one else around. After she found out, she didn't talk to me or speak at all unless I needed her opinion on something. The other day when we were in the sanctuary with Soap was actually the first time in over a year that I had heard her voice." He said somewhat mournfully.
"Can I ask a weird question?"
"Sure."
"How had her voice changed during that year of silence?"
Shade thought for a moment before he responded, "Her voice had gotten a bit deeper and all the more beautiful."
We sat in relative silence for a while, sipping on our drinks.
After a while, he spoke, "Is it alright if I ask you a question now?"
"Yes, but after you stop being so stiff. We are instructors at Beacon, not Drill Sargents. You can relax."
"Ok." He said, seemingly unsure of how to act. After a brief pause, he spoke again, "My question is this: why do you guys do this?"
"Do what?" I asked.
"Find outcasts like me and give them a home? Why give them a purpose that they can fight for other than themselves? I just don't see the logic in it."
I quickly looked at Drake with a small smile before I spoke, "Wellll...There really is no logic to it." I responded.
"Even I find that hard to believe." He said looking at me disbelievingly. "That's like saying that my real name is actually Shade." He said slightly worked up.
"Your name's not really Shade?" I deadpanned.
"Yes my name's not actually Shade. Don't tell me that you actually thought my name was really Shade?" He asked me, his voice half disbelief half pleading.
"Weeellll..." I trailed off.
"She absolutely thought your name was really Shade." I heard the obnoxiously, gleeful voice of my boyfriend ring through my head.
I turned around quickly and punched him in the shoulder. "Says the guy that didn't know that some faunus could have up to three animal traits." I countered.
Drake and I traded blows like this for a minute or two...or five. Fine, it was ten. We spent ten minutes insulting and calling each other out before Shade spoke up again.
"Please don't argue." Shade pleaded with us, his soothing monotone voice changing tone slightly for the first time since we met him.
Drake and I both stopped and starred at him concerned as to why the previously stoic mercenary was so worried about us.
"Dude, you alright?" Drake asked him.
"Yeah I'm...I'm fine. I just really don't like arguments, especially between lovers." He said genuinely. "And close ones at that."
Drake and I looked at each other before smiling and agreeing that we would stop. After he calmed back down, he jumped back into conversation. Jumped is too strong a word but it will have to do for now.
"You still haven't answered my question."
"What I said earlier was true. If you ask Soap why he saved us all those years ago, his answer would probably be something like 'so that, in some small way, I might be able to make up for all the bad I've done and to make sure that I never forget my morals.'." I said doing my best impression of Soap.
"Morals?" Shade asked, slightly amused by my horrible impression of Soap.
"When Soap was a kid, he used to believe in a god and way of life that he's long since abandoned."
"Ok..."
"What he could abandon even if he wanted to were the morals that took hold in him as a child. For myself, Drake, Bucky, and Sarah, there was no bigger signpost that told us that the religion he abandoned was real. When he saved us, he brought us here," I motioned to the building that we were in, "an old church that is filled with texts and documents about the life he left."
"Ok. I think I get it. You think that this religion was the driving force for him to save us?" Shade thought aloud.
"You're getting there. He doesn't know it, but every time he saved someone, he drove our faith a little deeper. For, us, the people that he saved, there is nothing that feels more real."
"So by saving you, and unintentionally showing you this religion, he caused, what?" Shade asked, getting closer.
"He caused us to want to offer to others the very thing he offered to us because he wanted to. To go find others that were suffering, and give them a second chance."
"OK." He said, finally understanding what I was saying.
"Got it now?"I asked glancing out the window in time to witness the Recon Bullhead that Blake took return.
"Kinda."
"We'll let you think on that. More training tomorrow, alright?"
"Alight." He said stiffly as he got up from the table and walked out of the room.
"Oh and don't forget that we still want to know about Sarah." I yelled down the hallway.
"Alright." I heard him say in response.
A/N: I really need to start planning out my chapters again cause that was hell...then again...No. I need to start planning again; it started sounding really preachy at the end.
I want to remind people of something real quick. The reason why it seems like my writing seems a little random sometimes is because this is a story that somebody is telling to someone else. If you remember, this story started with Soap telling the story of his friends and the war they fought to his and Sarah's son, John. It's a story that he and the others know very well.
Also, I do realize how quick the exchanges are in this chapter, but seeing as how long it took to just get this much, we are going to be going back to the plot a little bit so prepare accordingly.
One thing that I quickly want to add is that there is a side story to this that is going up at the same time as this. It's called What Could Be Better: The Exiles. Give it a read and let me know what you think.