A/N: Why? Because I felt like teasing a bit more.

Chapter 40: for others, peace

I don't know when it started or how long it had, but it was raining in Valhalla. It was raining in my home.

I slammed back another drink; how many had it been at this point? 6,7? I couldn't remember.

I sat myself in one of the more intact buildings left in my home; figures that it was a fully stocked bar.

Ahead of me, across the bar, was a giant hole in the wall where the wall behind the stocked liquor shelves would have been; through it I had been watching the rain fall for hours now. It was a very pretty sight to see, the rain falling through all that colored glass. Though it could have just been me being drunk.

"You ever gonna stop drinking and get back to training Soap?" I heard a female voice ask behind me.

"Once it's done raining, sure thing Blake." I said as stood and motioned for her to take my seat.

I moved to the other side of the bar.

"Drink?" I asked her.

"Sure, why the hell not? Give me whatever your favorite is." Blake responded, rolling her golden eyes at me.

"You sure? I drink a mighty strong drink and isn't this your first time drinking?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes on both accounts." She replied with a smile.

"Alright. One triple lemon vodka and strawberry soda on the rocks coming right up." I said as I watched another figure sauntere in to the canteen.

"Make that two." The figure said.

"Anything for you Sarah." I said as she sat down next to Blake.

I slid their two drinks to them. The three of us slammed our drinks back in unison.

Blake's eyes went to the celling while Sarah's and mine both went to the inexperienced drinker.

In our heads, we both counted down.

"Three, two, one."

On one, the greenhorn drinker in front of us spit the drink out as Sarah and I both laughed at her expense.

"Soap?"

"Yes Blake?"

"Why is your favorite drink so damn strong?" She asked.

"You know, that's pretty tame for some of the drinks that I drink."

"Is being a bounty hunter really that stressful?"

"It is when you are 12, without an aura or semblance, and the only weapon you wield is a high caliber gun."

Blake let out a loud sigh, "I suppose that's fair."

"Hey Soap?"

"Yeah Blake?"

I was back between the two girls on the opposite side of the bar, each had their head resting on one of my shoulders.

"Why is it that you and Sarah hate the rain?"

"Well, Sarah's reason should be obvious. She's a cat faunus and her semblance is electricity." I told her.

"Ok, but what about you? Why do you hate the rain?" She asked.

"I can't say that I do. If anything, I dislike what it does to my semblance and my sense of hearing, but I don't outright hate the rain."

"Then what exactly do you hate about it?"

"Let's put it this way, my friends and family here, in Valhalla, are not the only friends I have lost. The rain just brings up some bad memories."

"I'll leave it alone then." Blake said moving back to her drink.

~Blake

I was fairly tipsy at this point despite only being one drink in, but there was something on my mind that I wanted to ask Soap.

"Hey Sooooap? Whyyyy is it that u haaaavveee to tie your sleal to wa extended unsheafing uf ur katanas?" I asked, my words slurring quite a bit.

Soap and Sarah laughed at bit.

"What was that?" Sarah asked me, still laughing.

"I think she asked why I have to tie my seal to me drawing my swords." Soap answered a bit more serious than Sarah.

I drunkenly shook my head in agreement, "wah."

"I'll tell you, but first let's get you a bit more sober." Soap said as he very quickly got up and moved to the other side of the bar in a blur.

He reached beneath the bar and pulled out a large vial of what looked like White liquified Dust and three shot glasses. After pouring out a shot for each of us, he motioned us to drink it.

"White Dust, when taken orally, has the apparent affect of getting rid of drunkeness when in reality all it does is bring us to the same level of drunk effectively allowing us to understand each other more clearly." He said after we each drank our shot.

"Better?" Sarah asked me.

"Ugh!" I said licking my lips trying to get rid of the taste. "Why did that taste like cucumber?"

I heard Sarah and Soap laugh again.

"You don't like cucumbers?" Sarah asked me.

"Oh remnant no. I detest the damn things and to be honest, they kinda scare the shit out of me." I admitted.

Soap started laughing even harder. "I can't breathe. She's a cat faunus...That's scared of cucumbers! Like a cat!"

Sarah smacked him on the head. "Not funny Chris."

Soap suddenly stopped laughing and reganed his composure. "Yes Sarah."

"Back to the topic at hand Chris." She said shifting the conversation.

"Right. Well, do you know what Black Dust is?" He asked me leaning on the bar.

24 Years Later

"That was the night that I found out about Black Dust and what it does to your body." I said as I stared out the window of the humvee.

"What's Black Dust?" Athens asked me as we sped down the remains of the highway. "All I know is that it's that ultra rare Dust that immensely increases your strength and aura."

I nodded my head. "Yes, but it's also very, very unstable. Not one person that has fused with it has come back the same person."

"Is that what happened to Soap?"

"Yeah. He mind was already in a fragile state after he was forced to mentally mature 10 years so, when he thought he heard a voice call his name, he followed. He followed all the way to a cave where he found the Black Dust. He fused it into his hands and went on a rampage through the nearest city, Cado Angelus." I took a breath before continuing.

"You see, Black Dust literally rewires how your body works. From blood vessels all the way down to the atoms in your cells; it also has a large chance to kill you in the process." I finished.

"Why does it have such a large chance to kill you?" Athens asked me.

"Cause it is literally rewiring your body. In failed attempts at fusing with it, the main causes of death are the heart being moved to a location that blood vessels are not present and the brain being moved to a location that it just wasn't meant to be. Soap was largely unscathed, but his heart and hands did not remain the same."

"How do you mean?"

"His heart was broken into four pieces and his hands were mangled beyond recognition; that's why he wears those gloves. In addition to the physical changes are the mental changes. Soap's mind was already broken before he fused with the Dust, but after…well, let's just say that he was no longer in control of his actions."

"Black Dust can take control of your body?" Athens asked.

"Extremely easily."

"Let me guess, because of that, Soap decided to place a seal on the aura and strength that he gained from the Dust and tied it to his weapons being drawn for an extended period of time."

"Spot on." I sighed before speaking again. "In the end, it's what made his kiss so sinister."

"I don't see how that relates."

"The seal that he placed would only keep back so much. With every step and touch a little bit would seep out; Sarah, perhaps because she was bonded in the way she was to Soap, didn't ever feel the effects of this overflow and actually used it to fuel her own strength."

"But you did?" Athens asked, giving me a questioning look.

"Yes, very much so. In fact, I felt it's influence grow over time into something that almost made me snap. Actually I did snap; I snapped at Soap after it fed me feelings that weren't actually there and it wasn't until after he and Sarah were captured that I realized it." I said, taking a breath. "That's when I snapped out of my daze and Soap fell into his."

"I assume that when he went on his second rampage?"

"Yep. That night is also the very one that I decided being a little less human would benefit me." I said, causing Athens to nearly swerve off the road.

"So you mean to tell me that you also have Black Dust in your system? Why?"

"Because to me, the benefits outweighed the cons." I said.

"Ok. So what happened when you fused with it?"

"It was injected straight into my bloodstream as opposed to me fusing with it so, theoretically, I have control over it; though I have noticed that I don't have control over my emotions sometimes. Regardless, it shouldn't be an issue as Soap did invent a drug to help me control it." I said as I pulled a pill bottle out of my bag and popped one of the pills into my mouth.

"Say that you do lose control though; what should I do?" He asked me seriously.

"Just make sure that I don't."

24 Years Earlier

I laid back into the medical gurney as Sarah cleaned a patch of skin on my arm.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I can do a lot of things, but I can't undo the effects of Black Dust."

"You said it yourself. Since we are injecting it straight into my vein the outcome should be stable. Or at least more so." I responded.

"Yes, but that's all based on theoretical calculations and methods. It hasn't actually been done before." Soap said trying to dissuade me.

"I'm not changing my mind Soap." I said as he flicked the needle to get rid of the air.

"Fine, but the second we get back, I am going to start work on a drug that should help you control it."

"I said do it Soap." I said, more determined than before.

"Fine. Just don't hold us responsible for the pain and everything else that comes after." Sarah said, sticking the I.V. into my arm.

"Deal."

I felt the pain of the needle enter and leave my body, however it wasn't until after the bandage was on my arm that the real pain began.

And Sarah was right once again; it was physically the most painful experience I have ever lived through.

A/N: After a year of living since the last update has led to a raise, the achievement of Full-Time, and my firstplace of my own.

This chapter was fun, I was able tease a few things that I have been sitting on since chapter 8 and was also able to use one of my Tumblr teasers.

Hopefully I'll be able to update again sometime soon. Cya next time.