The Schnee Black Sheep
A/N
So i completed this chapter early and after some major alteration i have decided to upload it slightly earlier. Unfortunately due to some Family stuff i may not be uploading till later next week so i do apologise for that but please understand that this is rather personal and i would really appreciate some time to handle it.
Thank you guys so much for all the reviews and praise you are giving this story i mean seriously guys thank you so much. it makes me want to write this more and more and i want to make this as interesting as possible for you so i have included a lot more detail into Coals past in this one. Yes to all your theories, He is flipping mental.
Poll is still up for Coal's pairing so if you haven't voted then get to it already. i did promise to do it on the poll.
oh one last thing, i swear this is the last thing. Who should i pair Jaune with? ive actually already drafted many different scenarios and ideas about who and how he could end up with but i want your guys opinion on it. dont worry though, all the romance-y type crap will be fore purely story development... although i may dedicate a single chapter to a date scene between Coal and is Poll winner. but thats a draft for another day.
I still dont own RWBY, i only own Coal and i guess now Ebony.
Chapter 12: Operation Hide and Seek – Part 3
"GO, GO, GO!" Coal shouted to the party as they ran down the mountain trail that lead to their airship. He spun on his heel and drew Forgotten Sins and unloaded a full chamber of fire enhanced explosive rounds into the army of Grimm that was chasing them down the mountain side at great speed. There were too many for the explosions to do a great deal of damage to the mass of Grimm so he turned again to run for the air ship that should be ready for a quick getaway.
"Where the hell did these guys come from?" he shouted as he fired behind him as he ran, more explosions erupted around the mountain but did nothing to slow down the army of darkness.
(10 Minutes earlier – Mountain trail)
"Red!" Ebony said atop Coal's shoulders.
"Nope." Coal answered.
"Waffles!"
"Seriously kid you have an addiction" Coal chuckled
"what's a dicks-shin?"
"how does she turn your words around like that?" Blake said from Coal's left as she looked up to them both.
"I don't know where she gets it from, but it's going to be the death of me for sure."
"What is dick-shin?" Ebony asked once more slightly louder as she tapped her mount on the head like it was a drum.
The three walked at the front of the group and behind them followed a very confused Ruby, Pyrrha with very well hidden jealousy and the still limping survivor.
Ruby couldn't understand what she was seeing. Yesterday the guy had asked her to basically kill him and here he was joking on with the girl who was actively trying to avoid him at all times and a child that probably had a higher mental age than him most of the time. She was happy that he and Blake were finally getting along but the sight was just too weird. What had happened between the two to have such a comfortable understanding between one another.?
Pyrrha just glared at the back of Blake's head. She had no idea why she was so jealous of the girl but she had given up trying to deny to herself that she was feeling this way. Because of the way they were acting, any passers-by, not that there would be any, would probably think that they were a family of some sorts. It didn't help that the child did kind of look like them both with the black hair and eyes. The sight made her think about what would happen if she and Coal had an offspring and how they would look like, until she realised that that was a stupid thought and would never happen and that she shouldn't be thinking about those kind of this andthathewasn'tthattypeofguyandthat… Well the list was endless.
"Hey Coal, what you listening to?" Ebony asked. Coal removed the headset from around his neck and let the girl put it over her own head so that she could listen to the current song being played: 3 Doors Down – Here Without You. "Oh I love this song!" She announced as she began to sing along to the lyrics.
"Well that should keep her occupied till we get back down." Coal chucked at his distraction.
"I didn't think you had any music taste." Pyrrha quipped from behind having recognised the song from the singing girl. Coal looked over his shoulder to face the Spartan with a playful grin.
"I'm surprised you realised what song this is Pyrrha. Didn't you tell me you went through a bit of a goth stage when you were younger and had a lot of heavy metal albums."
Pyrrha's cheeks matched the colour of her hair. "You promised not to tell anyone about that!" She shouted.
"I can't help it if people are eavesdropping on our conversation. It's not like I'm showing them the pictures of you during that stage." He said shrugging. He sent a quick wink to Blake who rolled her eyes at him for his antics.
"You were a Goth?" Ruby questioned from the girls side.
"COAL I SWEAR THAT I WILL-"
The group stopped at the noise of continuous rolling thunder echoing around them. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky so they had no idea what could be causing it until Ruby had the incentive to turn around.
"Hey guys… we should run. Like right now!" she said as she began to back way.
The rest of the group turned around and instantly regretted doing so considering what they saw… Hundreds of black specs racing down the mountainside heading straight for them...
Coal was able to shake the group from their stunned stance when he let out a quick. "well shit. Run for it!" no one argued with him.
Coal shifted the girl from his shoulders and into his arms and carried her bridle style to make it easier to run. As the group descended he looked back to see the limping man falling behind, he grabbed Blake's attention and they both stopped. He handed her the girl in his arms and drew his gun and face the oncoming army. "get down the mountain and tell the pilot to be ready for a quick getaway I'll do what I can to hold them off."
"don't be stupid what can you do against that many Grimm!" Blake shouted at him.
"Buy you enough time to get to the airship." He pointed to the headset on the girls head. "I'll be back for that." He pointed his gun at the army as Blake turned to leave.
"GO, GO, GO!" Coal shouted to the party as they ran down the mountain trail that lead to their airship. He spun on his heel and drew Forgotten Sins and unloaded a full chamber of fire enhanced explosive rounds into the army of Grimm that was chasing them down the mountain side at great speed. There were too many for the explosions to do a great deal of damage to the mass of Grimm so he turned again to run for the air ship that should be ready for a quick getaway.
"Where the hell did these guys come from?" he shouted as he fired behind him as he ran, more explosions erupted around the mountain but did nothing to slow down the army of darkness.
'shit, shit, shit! I need to slow them down.' He thought to himself as he ran. He didn't have enough ammo to take on a whole army of Grimm and he doubted he would survive even if he tried. 'Damn it! I'm gonna have to use you aren't I?'
Kill them all
"AHH… FUCK IT!" he shouted as he skidded to a halt, closing his eyes and focusing all his energy into one of his fathers "gifts" he had left on the boy's back, he reared his right hand back before slamming it into the ground, creating a large frost white glyph which glowed under the boy's feet roughly 20ft in diameter. From the ground rose a large white snake, it continued to grow in size as more of its body rose out of the glyph and cut off the direct path to the rest of the group. It was almost double the size of the a normal King Taijitu.
Coal stood on top of his summoned ancient King Taijitu's head with his eyes still closed, his summoned creature had glowing cobalt blue eyes which scanned the oncoming army with a ravenous hunger. It had been a while since it was last summoned. Coal had only used this beast once before and that was to save his squad on one of the mission he had been on last year with the general. He hated having to use this power, it made him feel like a monster.
Coal's eyes shot open to reveal a pair of glowing cobalt blue eyes with the same hunger as his summoned monster. He created a new glyph under his feet, a one used for time dilation. Once activated he felt time slow down slightly and scanned the oncoming army of Grimm briefly before raising his gun and unloading it into the mass of blackness. The bullets flew in slow motion giving him time to reload before they had even reached the Grimm and he unloaded the gun once more before time caught up with itself.
Pyrrha turned as she reached the ship to see a mass of fiery red explosions and a massive white snake in front of it with her rival standing on top of his head. She could have sworn that she saw a faint blue glow under the back of the boys shirt. He turned as slid down the back of the snake and made a break for the airship at the base of the mountain while the summoned creature blocked as many Grimm as it could. However despite its size it didn't last for more than a few minutes.
It was enough though as when Coal reached the airship its was powered up and ready to take off he ran up the ramp and quickly pressed the button to raise the ramp and shut to door. His eyes reverting to their normal colour before anyone got a chance to see them. " Get this bucket in the air now!" was all he was able to say before a major pain rushed through his head causing him to pass out in front of the rest of his team and the two survivors.
"Father please!"
"It's for your own good son."
"Please I don't want this!"
"You are a failure! I need you to be powerful!"
"You belong here. With the rest of the psychos."
"It's your fault I'm here you bastard!"
"No… it's your own."
"you did this to me! You and your damned experiments!"
"You always were a failure and now you're no more than a monster."
Coal woke with a start and instantly sat up from his position coming out of the memories. His eyes darted around to ensure that he wasn't back in the white room of the mental hospital that his father had left him in. He gripped his head as he tried to force the pain to die down but knew it wouldn't be enough to get rid of it. He would kill for a drink right now…
How long do you think you can keep ignoring me?
"Shut up." Coal whispered to himself.
I've missed our long chats, Coal
"I said shut up!"
"You okay?" a voice next to him asked. He turned to see Ruby sitting in a chair beside his bed, she must have been waiting for him to wake up. 'Damn it, did she hear me?' He inwardly panicked as he tried to wipe away the cold sweat from his forehead. Looking around once more, actually taking the time to learn where he was, he seemed to be in some sort of medical tent. "You collapsed when you got on the airship. You've been out for almost 3 hours." She must not have heard him.
"Well… That makes it one of the shorter ones I guess." Coal muttered as he averted his gaze from the younger girl. Ruby gave him a confused look before asking him something that had been playing her mind since she saw it.
"I thought you said that you couldn't summon. How did you do that and how was it so big?"
Coal let out a sigh and neglected to twist the younger girls words into an innuendo, she wouldn't understand the joke anyway. He turned his gaze away from the girl and looked down at his hands. His left remained perfectly steady while his right twitched and shook nervously. He knew it wasn't because of the wound on his right side, it was purely a match between fear and restraint... Something that he developed during Ironwoods therapy sessions.
"I never said I couldn't… I just don't like to. Remember, I said that to summon monsters wont I have to become one?" When Ruby nodded in understanding he continued. "I can only summon monsters I defeat… I got that one about a year ago, on a mission with the Atlas Military… General Ironwood commanded the hunt himself but we ended up losing a lot more people for it to be called a successful mission. I got the killing blow, giving me access to the things summon."
The air was filled with a long uneasy silence after that. For what felt like hours to Coal, he wondered if the girl beside him would now truly see him as a monster. Pyrrha probably told her about the number of lives he had taken which had only increased since.
Eventually Ruby started digging around her own bag looking for something. She produced the can of beer that Coal had given her at the start of the mission and the one he kept for himself and handed him one. "I hope you don't mind but I got this from your bag… You have a tradition to keep up remember." Coal looked at the girl with hopeful eyes. Did she really not care about any of that? Or was she just looking past that. She had just sent a quick message on her scroll, Presumably to let Blake and Pyrrha know that he was awake, and looked back into his obsidian eyes. "Your living with the choices you've made, aren't you?"
Coal smile softly to the girl, she had understood his message. "Yeah." Was all he was able to get out as the other two girls came into the medical tent and stood at the other side of his bed, each had a can of beer in their hand. Coal pulled the tab on his beer as did the rest of his first team and held it up to make a quick toast. "Well done team VOID."
Pyrrha giggled as she knocked her can against his own. "Short and sweet."
Blake instantly saw the change in the boy's smile at the girl's words, she could tell that he was about to make a sly comment about her words however she noticed that his eyes still seemed rather distant and lacked their usual playfulness in moments like these. She knocked her own can against the two, interrupting the boy before he could make some sort of comment. "Don't give him any ammo. He's bad enough as it is."
Ruby jumped up the stand with the rest of the girls and clanged her can against the groups with a huge smile. She hadn't expected to find out that the childish teen in front of her had taken so many lives at such a young age but the memory of her journey here kept replaying in her mind. She realised that in a way he was right, that if she ever did chose to kill that she would have to live with that choice. Or if she chose to spare the life of an adversary would she be able to live knowing that she let someone go who would possibly kill innocents. She had been given a lot to think about.
Each member of the team took a gulp of the liquid and the three girls each retched at the taste.
"Bitter!" they all said at the same time, while Coal just continued to drink.
"If you're not going to finish those I'll take 'em."
Blake raise an eyebrow at the boys obvious drinking problem. "Are you at least going to put a shirt on first?" Coal looked down at his bare chest. Yep he was topless, thankfully he was covered quite modestly with a new set of bandages, presumably he shoulder had opened up again during his time unconscious. Yet he didn't blush or show any signs of embarrassment.
"You know your all enjoying the view." He teased with his usual grin, though the girls noticed that it didn't reach his eyes.
Ruby hid under her hood.
Pyrrha's cheeks turned crimson as she tried to make some sort of excuse for starting at his chest.
Blake just rolled her eyes and averted her gaze.
"COAL!" A small, energetic bundle of black hair jumped onto his bed crushing the boy under the weight of it. Ebony had jumped up and hugged herself into her saviour with tears in her eyes. Coal was wondering if she had actually been worried about him considering her actions.
"Sup bonny lass." He said softly as he stroked the girl's hair softly, letting her cry into his chest. He had gotten used to this kind of situation with his twin sister Wiess so he just sat and let her do what she needed to do in order for her to feel better. Only letting his presence be enough to ensure her that he was still here and very much alive.
"Mr. Coal?" A deep gruff voice spoke from the tents entrance. Coal looked up to see a middle aged man with jet black hair much like the girls and dull almost lifeless black eyes. This man was the girl's father, the mayor of now deserted Frostpoint. The man walked over to stand at the boy's bed beside Ruby who had shifted over slightly to make room for him and extended a fat hand to the boy. "You have my thanks for saving my daughter."
Coal took accepted the handshake with his free hand that wasn't stroking the crying girls hair. Her father eventually coxed the girl to release the boy and stand next to her father at the side of the bed. She still had a few tears left in her eyes but she was obviously feeling better now that Coal was awake. "She's grown attached to you."
Coal shrugged his shoulders. "She's fun to be around. Might want to take a look into her waffle addiction though."
"Ah." The mayor laughed. "So that's what she meant by dick-shin." This got a laugh from the rest of the group and a confused look from the little girl who still didn't understand what the word meant.
(Airship – Returning to Beacon)
Coal sat alone in the back of the airship. He had been quiet since team VOID has said their goodbyes to the little girl and her father and left the camp. He had pushed both Blake and Ruby away when they tried to cox him into sitting with them and bring him out of his gloomy state. Now it was Pyrrha's turn.
She sat down next time him and placed his coat down next to him, which she had gotten off Blake who had 'conveniently' forgotten to return it. "You okay?" she asked softly. Coal didn't answer her, he just studied the ground under his feet with his arms resting on his knees hunched over. The length of his black hair covering his eyes. She tried again. "Coal?" still nothing. "What's on your mind?" she placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to bring him around. He mustn't have realised she had been sitting next to him considering he jumped when contact was made, he still kept his head down as he spoke in an emotionless tone.
"I'm fine Pyrrha."
"No, you're not!" she almost yelled. "What happened to the fun and laid-back Coal that beat me in the Mistral tournaments? Because I don't see him anywhere."
Coal finally looked up to her, his eyes were tired and only showed pain. "I hate summoning." he whispered after a long moment of silence.
"Care to elaborate."
Coal released a long and almost growl like breath that he had been keeping in. "The first time I summoned was the first time I killed… that was 5 years ago. I killed 2 members of the white fang after they hurt me and then tried to hurt my sister." He took a deep breath before he continued. "Afterwards I was sent to an insane asylum where my father left me to rot alone for 6 months before Ironwood got me out and trained me how to stay calm. Whilst he simultaneously taught me to shoot."
"That happened when you were only a kid?" Pyrrha clarified softly. She got a nod from Coal and immediately tried to take the subject away from the obvious sensitive issue. "I thought summoning was a very complicated technique, so how come you were able to do it at such a young age?" she questioned hoping to brighten the boy's mood by complementing him on his strength.
"On my 10th birthday my father started taking me on hunts for Grimm. He also started training me how to summon, which I never really got the hang of… He got pissed off quickly and decided that, 'he needed me to be powerful', is how he said it." Coal looked her dead in the eyes as he revealed one of his biggest secrets. He knew he could trust Pyrrha with this, she was bound to find out eventually anyway due to how close she was with his sister. "He implanted me with dust in the form of a basic summoning glyph into my back in an attempt to enhance my ability to summon, to make me as powerful as he desired... Not that it didn't work right away. It still took me nearly 2 years later to be able to make my first summon. By that point he had already tried numerus other experiments to 'improve' me." He turned away and lifted the back of his shirt so that Pyrrha could see the scars that covered it. She almost that they looked like claw marks, they were wild and random and she was confused as to what he meant by them. If those were surgical scars shouldn't they me more precise and a lot smaller? After a moment, his back started to glow a faint blue, a glyph like symbol appeared underneath the scared layer of skin. It died down almost instantly as Coal replaced the shirt over his back and turned back to her. "Because of it I'm constantly connected to the creatures I can summon. When they are out it's like I'm seeing though their eyes at the same time as I am mine. I feel their hate, fury and bloodlust… I may as well be one of them."
"I don't like the idea of it. In my mind, to summon a monster I would have to become one first."
"That's what you meant…" Pyrrha said softly as she remembered what he had said during their first day as students. She had no words to say that would make him feel better. He had been experimented on from such a young age, all because he wasn't able to do something that he was most likely too young to learn. What kind of parent would do that to their child for the simple reason of power. Pyrrha slid her arms around the boy, embracing him in a tight hug which he slowly returned. "Who else knows about it?"
Coal buried he face into her shoulder. "Other than my farther, only General Ironwood and now you. This curse gave me the power to protect my sister, but it hurts so much… I'm terrified of it... Of the monster." He managed to choke out. Pyrrha felt him shaking as he buried his head into her shoulder. She figured that he had kept it bottled up for so long that the pain had eventually drove him crazy enough to be put into the hands of psychiatrists. All because of a man who desired power. Yet it was that power that allowed him to protect his twin, he hated to power he had been given yet had used it to protect her and kill those that would dare hurt her.
"I don't like the idea of it. In my mind, to summon a monster I would have to become one first."
Pyrrha kept replaying the memory in her mind as she spoke to him as calmly as she could in an attempt to reassure the boy. "If you ever need to vent I'll be here. If you ever need to talk, I'll be there to listen. I know you won't burden Wiess with this so whenever you need something, come to me ok? Even if you just need a punching bag." she tried adding the last part as an attempt to bring about is more childlike humour, eventually she felt him nod slowly from her shoulder.
Blake stood at the doorway hidden behind the wall next to it having heard the whole conversation.
(1 hour later)
Coal had calmed down some and was now sitting alone after asking Pyrrha for some space. The only reason she had left was because he was coming back around and was starting to make some stupid jokes again so she knew he would be fine and left him like he asked.
Blake took this opportunity to approach him with only one question of her own. "How did you know?" she asked knowing that there was no one nearby to hear what she had asked.
"Know what?" He looked up at her with a confused look. Blake crossed her arms before giving him a deadly stare daring him to lie to her.
"About me being a Faunus." Coal took out his scroll and motioned for her to sit down next to him. Once she did he handed her the device which was playing the video file of the train robbery with herself and her ex. Blake's eyes widened at the video, sure it was difficult to tell that it was really her in the video but he had made the connection… that means he also knew about the white fang, didn't he also say earlier that he had once killed two of its members.
"Got that from the general the day we got assigned our teams. It also doesn't help that your bow will twitch every now and then and that you eat way too much tuna for it to be deemed healthy. You look good in that by the way." His usually playful tone was back. Something that she never thought she would miss.
"I can explain!" Blake instantly said, having handed him the scroll back and averted her gaze.
Coal softly locked her chin between his finger and thumb and turned her head back so that he could look her in the eyes. "No need lass, I realised that you're not really here on behalf of them. Are you?"
"No. I-"
"Save it." He said before deleting the video of the robbery, making sure that Blake saw him do so. "So long as you're not a part of them, I don't care. Besides I think we are even now that we've both held a gun to one another's heads with intent to kill." He joked.
"But…" Blake started, she stopped herself before revealing that she had listened in on his early conversation with Pyrrha and how the White Fang had tried to hurt his sister resulting in him taking his first two lives. Did he really have to have his face that close?
"I. Don't. Care. You're not a part of them anymore right?" He got a nod and released her chin so that she felt less awkward. "Then what else is there? Yeah, the White Fang are pricks and I may have a few personal issues with them, but we worked well together. All I need to know is that when it comes down to it, will you side with us at Beacon or with them, when we do eventually face off?" His tone was direct and serious, Blake knew she couldn't lie to him now.
"My team in my new family. Beacon is my new home." She said with no hint of a lie.
Coal smiled softly at the girl sitting next to him and extended a hand, much like he did before they set off on the mission. "So, can we start over now?"
Blake smiled back and this time accepted the handshake. "Blake Belladonna." She reintroduced herself much to the boy's amusement.
"Coal Smith."
"Smith?" Blake questioned raising an eyebrow.
"What you don't like it? I need a full name considering I'm not Coal Schnee anymore. I'm open to ideas." He mused to the Faunus.
Blake pretended to ponder for a moment before looking directly into his rekindled playful eyes, silently thanking Pyrrha for being able to bring him out his depression. "I like the sound of Coal Fluffles." She teased remembering Ebony's take on his name if he was to be a Faunus. If she was ever going to get the chance for an open dig into the childish joker she would have to take every chance she would get.
Coals smile turning into a frown, although the amusement never left his eyes as he spoke in a serious yet joking manner. "We will never speak of that name again, Kitten."
He got a slap upside the head for that one.
Deciding that he needed some air he left the girl and was walking through the hallways of the airship when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in one of the windows. Staring back at him was a mirror image of himself with glowing blue eyes much like his summoned Grimm. His reflection was also drenched in crimson blood. Coal had always been told that he did not suit the colour red, but after seeing the cloak of blood on his reflection for the last 5 years, he had come to get used to it.
A/N
what a second A/N?
Basically here im going to give you guys a chance to name Coal. He does need a full name after all and im tired of him not having one so heres your chance. PM or review your option of name and ill select the one i like the most and give its creator a shout out.
SEE YA SOON DOYLEMS
