Chapter 9: Hang Together

Lord Charles of Fort Castle

"We're on the road, singing along!" Murray sang with a roar matched by a million more of his tribe. "Singing a soldier's song" The chorus was matched in force, all who knew it sang with him, plenty that didn't tried. The wedding fire bright despite the rains as was everyone's spirit. It was smoky for sure, but there was red to it, reflecting on Murray's bronze chest plate. It made everyone aglow, and soaking in the rain Charles enjoyed himself.

The wedding had passed proper, the formal vows and procedure done indoors in one of the human churches akin to Maledetta's faith. In this way Charles became Charles Cid, taking the name of his wife as was custom for their station, well enough, Charles had no last name to give up. In a church filled with people pretending to be happy with a beautiful wife dressed in all black white and purple, apparently Charles' colors. Still looking on her pale little form, valed and with false-sheepishness in her movements, he was the unhappiest man in the world. Once the ceremony was over though the party began. Not the stuffy one indoors with fine tables and silverware that should be sold for lien, not with guests to be entertained by stuffy jokes about others less stylish dresses. Maledetta could enjoy all that by herself. Charles snuck out to where he belonged, out with his people.

Here on in the camp beyond the Castle gates his band of brigands, bastards and bandits partied playfully. Many sung songs of solidarity, others lit lances of flames in the bonfires. The drinks flowed free and no one was dressed appropriately. All that mattered was the songs they sung, the beat that pounded their tables and that the fires kept out in the light sprinkle, a little fire dust proving just enough. A waste maybe, but looking on friends smiling Charles could not stop them. Even Azura whom stood next to him a bloody serious woman seemed to sincerely and sinfully smile at the slightest mention of 'Lord Charles of Fort Castle'. She never seemed the type to enjoy titles before. Perhaps it was just nice to know the boss was recognized.

"Things looking up," Azura dared to whisper watching Murray down his drink and roar another tune. He was a fount of soldier's hymns, apparently a pass time of his people. It was endearing for sure and got Charles in the spirit, sipping his own drink, or was it the third in celebration. Was so busy celebrating in fact that sitting by the fires he nearly forgot that he hated this marriage. Perhaps that was a sign that he had too many drinks.

"Nothing's really changed," Charles answered. Fort Castle was a Faunus keep for nearly a month now the marriage was just another ceremony to save some bruised bride and make the transfer a little more legal. Still weddings were supposed to be happy times, people were accustomed to celebration. Maybe Charles had it wrong looking into the discolored ale they had so lovingly liberated from the cellar.

"Everything's changed." Azura had a way with things, least Charles thought she did. Must have to speak so assure of everything. There was an idealist in that six and a half foot armored beast of a woman that he was sure of even in this slightly inebriated state.

"Want to be a knight? I can do that now apparently. Thought about making every man woman and child here a knight. Think it would be funny?" Charles did. Thought it might be the funniest thing in the world. The other knights wouldn't hear it, but three months prior they wouldn't hear of this wedding neither. Not that knight meant anything anymore. Any idiot with a lien to rub between them could buy a gun, couple more lien and you had some armor. Nothing separated them but a bunch of laws and pieces of paper that meant something long ago. Didn't matter now, not when Hunters and Huntresses made for twice the warriors. Maybe he just wanted to see the look on Amarilla's face when he did it. Little pleasures.

"They would kill you. Then I would have to kill them. All in all it's a pretty pissy joke." Azura shrugged and seemed pretty relaxed despite talking about his sudden and untimely demise. For a bodyguard she seemed fairly disinterested. If it wasn't for her winning personality Charles might have work more suited for her elsewhere. No, no Azura's place was there, he could ask for no better in life than a friend and protector like her.

"I thought it was funny," Charles replied with a giggle, taking a sip and gazing over the active flashes of light from the bonfire. The rare drops from the drizzle above making a popping sound in the flame, dimming it slowly. If the rain really picked up again it would put even their fire dust powered pyres out. Even end this celebration.

"Charles don't bother, I was always the funny one." Azura was a sarcastic woman for sure. Whether that made her sour or funny Charles thought might be more an argument in semantics. Still as the world enjoyed themselves, whether it was the Leo setting up a fight ring in the mud, the Simians playing rather heated poker matches, Taurus clans out causing havoc the way they were accustomed or Charles' own tribe dancing away near the heat of the fires, only the Canis as a whole, Azura's people, opted to stand guard. It was such a criminal arrangement for sure.

"Everyone, drink to the fullest and eat your fill! No one's to be left out, Canis included!" Charles stumbled, only a little as he stood and announced. His own people laughed and cheered aloud, many pulling the scattered armed Canis into dance. Some refused taking their service too seriously, others took to it, perhaps a little more cautiously with the drink, but not so spartan in their manners. All perhaps, but Azura who grimaced at the request. "That means you too Azura."

"Leave me alone you fat drunk." She laughed at least chiding Charles. He was about to retort that while drunk Charles was still rather skinny, but before he could utter the words a horn was sounded and over the castle intercom word came ringing of a rather unpleasant group of interlopers.

"Taurus at the Gates!" and they came. Though the rebellion had few trucks to move supplies or trains, Horses were plentiful. Falling out of use compared to airships and motorized carriages the rebellion found it easy to liberate them from the knightly class and purchase them from now impoverished ranchers. The Taurus took to them most affectionately. Riding in through the rain on black and white striped steeds common in the region like it was there natural state, these Taurus found no time to clean themselves many still caked lightly in mud and blood, surprising that the rain had not washed it off. Their armor was a mixture of wood and steel plates, vertical rectangle banners of a wilting flower on almost every soldier. The wilting flower was a familiar symbol to Charles now, the symbol of The Taurus. Akagura Taurus, the Taurus or the White-Bull some called. She rode ahead of them all in her white foreign looking dress encrusted with blood splotches and flowers. Over it she wore red and black armor of her people and their curved swords on her hip. The main weapon, known to Charles men as "The bull's horn" was a half sword half collapsible spear. A 'Naginata' Charles had heard one of the Taurus' warrior women call it. The blade was clean of any blood, but the wooden pole was stained with it. The horn's blade it had a bluish glow of electric dust runes in it, a weapon more suited to grimm hunting in better days. The Taurus rode up to Charles with no great hurry, many of the others making way for her and crates of some sort being brought with the Taurus.

"Lord Charles, I have a wedding gift for you." Akagura stomped the pole of her weapon on the ground as an announcement. In front of everyone these crates were sashed, filled to the brim with Lien and dust, far more than Charles had ever expected her to actually manage to gather. "More than enough to pay off our local debts and perhaps pay for tonight's festivities." It was surprising she didn't claim much herself, though Charles guessed she and her followers had to have pocketed some of the profit. That sort of looting was to be expected when you didn't pay the army you had.

"Not bad little bull, now get off yer horse and have a drink with us eh?" Murray started, the bronze beast pouring out a nice glass of some substance to drink. Despite the invitation no one dismounted, the soldiers seeming to take some offense to it, perhaps Murrays "little bull" nickname was not the most beloved sort for this lot.

"Relax the both of you, have the money brought into the castle, we'll figure it out in the morning after we've enjoyed an evening. As for whatever prisoners you've captured, set them up in the Castle dungeon, nothing too poor though, the merchants I doubt gave you trouble." They had to have given some, blood marks proved that. Some of the other Taurus smiled at that, though if Akagura did he would not know, the white grimm bone mask a fortress between them. She did love to hide herself didn't she?

"We have very few prisoners Lord Charles, aside from two or three knights of Castle White worth interrogating. We thought it an inconvenience." Akagura's followers found this the most pleasing, though Charles felt a bit of red in anger combined with white in fear. Knights of Castle White meant nothing, but trouble. Kill a merchant and you're a bandit, kill a knight and you've started a war.

"Knights? Why do we have Knights? Castle White is neutral." Charles could feel Azura grow tense, her hand reaching for the blade. There was no way he would let it get that bad, but she always did that when faced with something like that. Sort of a Huntress' natural defensive state. Still Charles was just as uncomfortable, made even more so when the line of Taurus cavalry laughed at the question. Clearly this was all the butt of a rather pissy joke.

"Weiss the Heiress of Castle White sent a patrol of knights to investigate your merchants, so we investigated them as well. Didn't expect us and striking at night gave us the advantage. No one escaped I promise. No word of this will ever reach the Heiress I promise." Charles wanted to reprimand her, but they were in no position to. The Taurus made up a nearly a third of their total strength matching the combined force of all Canis and Simians here. Whatever the cost he couldn't have them leave. Murray didn't share that fear.

"You insane woman? Don't tell me you road into Schnee territory just to chase some boys around!?" The same drink he poured for her fell to the ground shattering as it struck. Murray stood in opposition a massive man nearly as tall as she was on the Horse, but for all that Akagura didn't even twitch, just stared back from behind the mask cold and dead,

"What does it matter? It'll be our land soon enough. Do not act so meek." That sentence nearly took Murray over the edge, a quick step towards the horse, claymore in hand he seemed pose to see if he could take out both, aura flaring. Charles stood to shout and Azura, seeming to read his mind, stepped between them both

"No fighting, gods the world is trying to kill us and now you two are going to do it for them?" Charles might have been drunk, but even he had more sense than either of these two at the moment. Pickering had already riled the Leo up ready to brawl despite most being unarmed. The Taurus had no desire to look weak either, and they were much more prepared for a fight. This was like a mob of very deadly children. "Taurus, you promised to listen to me as long as you are in my lands, well then let me be clear, we can't risk more fighting. Don't cross the border into neutral territory. I understand you want to get a fight, but trust me we have some coming." The army had to cross up through Forever Falls, home to the bulk of the Simian and Leo tribes. No army would stop them, but plenty of scattered fighters would bleed it and slow it down. Still what would come on the other side had to be big.

"You will be grateful for thinning the knights one day Charles. For now I'll respect it. We are your guests after all." She didn't seem appeased or upset; just spoke with a matter of fact dry tone. Still her words made it clear she did not think of anyone outside the faunus as anything but the enemy. She wasn't completely off, but if that was the case how would they ever win. faunus were the minority, and numbers decided wars. Charles couldn't count in the state he was in, but when the difference is big as this, counting wasn't needed to tell who had the numbers.

"Thank you." If the night could turn sour quicker it would. Soon as the Taurus were settled Charles saw his wife step out into the rain, a flock of old and young knights with her. It was late and Charles had a sickening twist in him thinking about what came next. He didn't know what in him was repulsed by the woman, but it was. The Taurus rode to her, likely saying words of congratulations, but Charles was just happy to have a moment to brace himself.

"Charlie, I do think it's time you desert us for finer things. Her breed isn't quite my taste me boy, but you can do worse than her, I know it." Murray joked, mood turning a more pleasant brand. Charles was about to offer it to him instead, seeing how positive he was toward her, but Murray's preference for things other than woman was common knowledge to a most of Fort Castle by now. Plus Azura might take the joke too seriously and berate Charles for being a poor husband. Of all the bad things he had been called, a bad husband was yet to be on the list and he didn't want to add it just yet, though getting mildly intoxicated on the wedding night was perhaps not the best way to a positive trend.

"Charles, my dear. I apologize for being so busy with the formal party; I understand your people are more accustomed to open air weddings." The apology left Charles feeling a bit guilty about it. Though she was responsible for a lot of the cruelty in Fort Castle her frailness made it difficult to blame her. It made Charles view her advisers as the guilty ones, all his hate directed towards them; instead she just made him feel guilty and awkward. "In more pleasant news, we've repaired the radio tower."

"Sorry, I'm not used to the formal parties...Wonderful news though," Charles replied with an ever light sip of his drink, trying his best to not offend the girl despite being an unfortunately undesired component to this party. Still having radio transmission was good, even if it wasn't really that meaningful. After all who did they have to chat with? Instead it was a spying tool to gather the local news, something Charles was grateful that he had not sabotaged too well during the early days.

"What we heard once the radio contact with the outside world was established was less wonderful. Charles, the royal army bypassed Forever Falls completely, airships dropped them off at Ice Marsh on the coast, a straight shot to Castle White. They will take no more than two weeks to get here." If the night wasn't bad enough the one advantage they had, control over the only roads to north Vale vanished. All the stalling and all the blooding that could have been done. How they even managed to get enough airships to transport the royal army was enough of a stretch. The air fleet in Vale was big and Ice March had their own, still they would need more from Mistral or the other kingdoms. It dawned on him that it might be an allied army and with the thought he needed another sip. "They know about the wedding and plan on disputing the claim. After hanging us all of course." Charles wondered if they meant to dispute it before or after they hang him. Seemed pointless to have a big court case over a dead man's rights.

"That gives us maybe two weeks to prepare… Well that spoils a wedding. I don't like hanging," Charles admitted with a nervous chuckle. The news would spread tomorrow and everyone would lose all the moral this festival earned them. Bad luck.

"I don't think any of us do," Maledetta replied, her calm attitude matching Charles. For all their problems it was at least nice to know they shared a similar temperament.

"What do we do then?" Charles asked his counsel, a massive hulking huntress, a drunken Leo, and a sickly princess. What a diverse group.

"Strengthen our defenses, and well...further legitimizing your claim and mine," Maledetta had a hitch in her voice when the words 'legitimize your claim' crossed her lips. For once she seemed a little embarrassed, still standing straight and noble chin up as for the first time color touched her cheeks.

"Legitimizing my claim?" Charles asked feeling that irking sensation that he sounded like an idiot. Murray's laugh cemented that and Azura's groan offered no pity to him.

"Consummate the wedding boy!" Murray added to a bout of giggles. Charles took a deep breath hearing his own shout back 'oh yeah that' even after just talking about it a moment ago it seemed still distant. Perhaps that was drink sapping his memory. Clearly Maledetta didn't her expression mortified by Murray's blatant personality. "That and if you can get a pregnancy it'll make her immune to hanging by law for a time and better the claim." No one executes a pregnant woman. A really desperate stall if Charles had ever heard one.

"Shut up the both of you, ruining the mood. Gods Charles don't make the girl beg. Poor thing is trying to help you!" Azura shouted at Charles with her own look of mortification. Only mortified Maledetta even more and did a good bit to mortify Charles as well. Everyone could stand to be a little less mortified to be right honest as far as he saw it. Except perhaps laughing Murray who could just stand to be less mortifying.

"I wasn't begging," Maledetta replied with a deep breath and a very unpleasant shake of her head the thin black ribbons of hair falling in place on her now pink cheeks. "I know I'm not exactly-" Exactly what Charles had expected, a human wife wasn't exactly unheard of for him, but a noble one was very much so. Still, nothing had to be as bad as her, and in a moment of sympathy Charles remembered that this woman had her fate served to her, Charles most certainly wouldn't have been the picture perfect dream she had as a child.

"No, don't say that, if anything I'm not exactly what you dreamed of," Charles admitted never the intentionally cruel man. He played at it as a bandit, but it wasn't his natural state, instead he abhorred it. Maybe out of meekness more than morals, but still it was never his way for long.

"A hero for a husband is not a terrible thing," she spoke smoothly and softly, tossing in a smile with her line. It was a good one for sure a real heart warmer if it didn't make Charles just feel guiltier. He wasn't a hero, luck and doing things out of necessity didn't make heroes. Still it made Charles glow a little; it had been a while since he had time to hear anyone speak affectionately towards him.

"Oh now Maledetta, I never thought you the flirt." Azura laughed and hooted, more the ladies lady than Charles ever was the ladies' man. She seemed to enjoy the flirting a little more than Charles did, or maybe she just got pleasure from watching Charles reduce himself to an awkward sod. Or perhaps, despite everything she had done, Azura was growing more comfortable with Maledetta. She did have such a disarming personality.

"This is all rather embarrassing," Maledetta admitted, her persona a little broken. She laughed and it made everyone else laugh with her. She certainly was more of a people's person than anything else.

"Agreed, and it shouldn't have been Mala. You two take the evening off and Charles," Azura started the Canis woman pulling Charles subtlety to his feet. A clear charge of duty. For the next words she whispered into Charles ears, a giggle attached to them. "I don't care who she is, if you don't treat your wife well on her wedding night, I'll break your damn fingers."


When Azura threatens you, you do it and to the best of his abilities Charles did. There was no way in his inebriated state could he have lifted her bridal style to her bed up the Lady's Tower, their new estate. Instead he settled to pull her by the hand, half for his own stability and at least some effort to seem romantic. Many faunus whistled and roared as they passed, the party still going even as the guest of honor customarily left for the night. Eventually as they entered the Castle the more Stoic knights gave either unpleasant grimaces or subtle winks depending on which particular political leaning they had on the faunus issue. If anything the grimaces would make this more enjoyable, Charles did take a sweet pleasure from knowing that what he was about to do would haunt them for a while to go.

Whatever gusto that might had embedded in him began to leave as they climbed the staircase together, the maze of clockwork inside the tower making uneasy clicks as they came to the top floor. The room had one guard, who nodded and agreed to watch the staircase from the floor below. The room itself was more personalized than Charles had thought Maledetta would have. Where yellow would have been the design to mark Cid colors, Maledetta chose black and purple curtains and bed sheets, the dim light illuminating the purple walls. The sides were covered in tables and desks, a bookcase wrapping around a fourth of the circular room, some alchemic dust research on the end of it, something Charles was unaware Maledetta dabbled in. Other tables were for food, or radio or writing. The biggest though was a map with chess pieces on it, black and white. Charles ignored the looming bed that was placed in the center, a mass of purple and black that could sleep half an army. Instead he took to the map, arranging his chess pieces by location. Black Knights would be the Taurus, the bishops Canis, rooks made for Leo and the pawns his own along with the Simians and scattered others who shared much of the same talents. The white were everyone else, though Charles could only guess what would be in the ranks.

"Don't worry about that for now. You've had a bit to drink to think of a plan now," Maledetta whispered from behind, though Charles had a difficult time making her voice out, the drinks starting to take hold. Though it blurred his vision, he began to set these pieces up, forming different lines and positions on the flat map of Vale.

"I just...need to figure it out. It's right here in the map, the answer is always on the map." It was Charles' primary martial philosophy. Numbers, what type of soldiers and the terrain was all you needed to know; from there it was just about setting it up. Wasn't genius or particularly clever. The answer was right there you just had to find it. Helped a little when you could read the altitude marks on the map however.

"Not always, Sir Guido use to obsess over maps just like you and I hear you beat him. Is it like a staring contest?" she joked though Charles grimaced. He didn't want to hear that name right now, in this state at night staring on a map, not the name and not the memories. Dead men should rot.

"Please don't compare us." Charles didn't mean to sound so rough, but he did the pain of old wounds on his lips. This was why he didn't drink, emotions became hyper sensitive and harder to push down. "I'm sorry I just need a moment to think."

"It's alright, are you nervous? Is this the first time y-" Charles didn't need her to finish.

"No it's just." Just what Charles didn't really know. Still he lined up his players and pieces along the board just as he had done a million times before and looked for the answer. It wasn't coming to him and now his eyes were blurred beyond focus. "Are you okay with this? You barely know me."

"Whether we like it or not, we are married. Our enemies see us as one. We will live together or hang together. Our choices are together...our fates are stuck together what hurts one hurts the other. For that reason we can trust each other," she said it plainly, grasping it even if Charles struggled with it. "but I wouldn't mind learning about you. Why did you hate sir Guido so much? Why fight? What makes you the Black Cat?" The question was a trigger and old gears that had not turned in half a year started again, the music of unpleasant memory to play alone in Charles' head again. Taking up another glass of wine he drank it down hole, the last bit of dulling he needed to say the words.

"I used to have this friend, wonderful girl named Lucia, like me with the ears and all. We grew up very close, Lucia, Azura, and I. She was a miner girl, pretty, but strong enough for it." He choked on every word as he spoke, the night coming to him as if it was just the last night. It never really left him, just gave him a respite till now. "One evening when we were walking home, Guido, drunk and armed came up demanding service. Lucia tried to explain she wasn't a working girl, but Guido didn't care, or wasn't listening. He just added another couple of Lien to his offer when she said it. Eventually he got tired of it, said 'it's the law' and dragged her into some back alley. There were plenty people there, everyone saw. Easily twenty of us Faunus, enough to kill a man like that." Twenty Faunus made twenty one guilty and one innocent.

"And that was the day you lead the miner's revolt," Maledetta guessed, taking to the fairy tale version of what happened, but she was right. Life wasn't a fairy tale; it was filled with failure and regret, filled with cowardice. With complacency and turning your head down whenever something bad happened around you.

"No that was the thing, it wasn't that day, Guido wasn't at the miner's revolt." Charles shook as he spoke, the desk now holding him up. The young man wished he could say retelling him didn't make him cry, but it did. "No it was six months later, three months after Lucia hung herself, two months after we had finally convinced ourselves it wasn't anyone's fault. Revolt happened when I was caught for, listen to this, poaching!" The tears dropped freely now, though he laughed at it, idiot caught with a freshly tackled deer from a forest he was never allowed. "It wasn't 'cause I was a hero, I just didn't want to die. The guards beat me right in the town street where I tried selling my kill. They beat me so bad I thought I was going to die so I stabbed one in the throat and fought the others." It was easy once it happened, once it was his life on the line. Where was that courage when it meant something, where was it?

"I'm supposed to tell myself I was powerless to stop Guido when I had a bow and twenty arrows, but here I am stabbing a guard in the throat with a god damn skinning knife. A coward who couldn't be the only faunus killed for a crime he actually committed. Worst of all was the old man, faunus chap like me. He must have been a miner, he had a pickaxe. Caved in the other guard's skull, saved my life and got shot for it. Never forgave him for that, this damn old man with more courage than me who died for me, proving I wasn't just like everyone else, some powerless bystander, that I was a coward. More pathetic than this grey haired faunus man with one god damned ear." Charles forgot all about who was in the room, the carnival of emotions started and it wasn't going to stop, never going to stop. Charles felt his legs buckle and give out finding himself collapsed in the desk's wooden chair. He reached for a drink, but it escaped him, the glass falling to the floor, a red pool forming in its shattered remains. "It should have been me, me who fired an arrow into Guido's fucking neck! I should have hanged in the gallows with Lucia! Where was I? Where the fuck was I?!"

"Shush Charles, my dear shush." The daze of tears and alcohol twisted his perspective, but the rooms glow seemed to come from Maledetta's form, the outline a bright almost irritable white, his eyes already hypersensitive to light. She was naked, had she been before or did she change? Charles couldn't tell. She looked beautiful, frail form and pale skin complemented by rich black ribbons of her raven locks. It wasn't her form that made the tears pause, but her voice, sweet. Almost like Lucia's. "It's just us, no more maps, no more of the past. It's just us here." She stepped closer resting her form on Charles' laps, her thin hands reaching out to wipe the tears away thin fingers scratching the backs of his ears.

"Maledetta I-" Charles would have protested, but lips met his and silenced him. Perhaps her, the drink, the regrets, everything, but his resistances melted away like the leaves of autumn.

"No more tears. You have a chance to live for something. We have to live together Charles, and one day we might have to hang together like I said, but until then-"

**So how do you like the not lemon lemon part that is actually really really sad? Kind of wanted to cement Charles as not Gary Stew at all, instead have him deal with issues of cowardice, complete and utter failure and a story about something like that that actually had long term emotional destructive effects to everyone, you know like the real thing? Tell me how you think it came out and if it had a bit of feels and funny like I hoped?

Also 2 chapters left before the battle of Fort Castle. It's almost time for this to get bloody. (Though I think I'll include a fight in the next chapter to please the action starved readers :D) Please review and tell me what you think and see you next time.

As always thanks to TCR for edits!