It's been such a long time you might've thought I gave up on this. I did not. Unfortunately, this is more difficult for me to write than Fumetsu. Writing a tactician/strategist dog Faunus getting along with a Dust magnate's daughter is just hard.

Luckily, it is by definition fluffier.

I wish.

Delta: Eyes and Ears

"Learn the routes of the guards, as well as their habits. Remember the room and where they point."

Weiss nodded, leaning against Skoll's chest as she examined the small map Skoll kept within his jacket. When she had asked about it, he quickly explained: the smell.

"It's too much Dust, metal, and chemicals," he said. "It burns if I inhale for too long, so I can't retrace my steps in here. So I had to memorize it all, including some shortcuts."

He sat behind her, supporting her with his own body. Thankfully, he was clothed.

Skoll's regalia was a worn gray trench coat, with a White Fang mark poorly sewn in coarse red on its left arm. Half of its buttons were missing, either popped off or broken off by the relentless abuse Skoll put himself through. It flowed down just below his knees, billowing out slightly for mobility. A cut allowed the two legs to comfortably move side to side.

Weiss noted stitched-up sections upon the once pristine article, along with the thicker sections of it. Experimentally, she flicked it.

"Metal? Is this... armor?" she asked cautiously.

He rolled his eyes. "Of course. I ended up modifying the original jacket. Helps me reduce my Aura usage, and when I'm all depleted it'll take some shots. Plus, it has extra storage."

A smirk told her she wasn't going to know anytime soon. She pouted before grasping his coat and folding it out a bit.

Underneath his coat was a white undershirt. Simple: nothing to be said about it. It was there to be taken off when ripped and useless.

Finally, he wore a pair of trackpants that tightly fit around his ankle. Like his trenchcoat, it was modified with even more pockets.

"Yes, I know I should've gotten cargo pants," Skoll said. "These were the only ones that fit me well at... well, you know where."

She nodded. "I understand, it is your legs."

Weiss heard a sigh of relief. Her sky-blue eyes turned towards him, staring.

Skoll just cupped a hands over his groin. "Glad you got it. Now then... Guard A, show me his path."

Weiss looked back to the map, settling herself back into the unknown place.

The abandoned factory was neatly organized around a central node- at least, the original build was until the White Fang got ahold of it.

It would be fair to say that it was now a underground bunker, complete with an above-ground fort and a fleet of aircraft. Underneath earth was a wild cavern system that looked rather like a labyrinth, with the only two exits at a central area for easy ambush and defense, and in the wall at a corner for a secret escape. It was stocked with everything for survival to construction.

It was, as Skoll put it: "A White Fang haven, armed with as much weapons and booze to your hearts content."

"Why would White Fang members need alcohol, though?" Weiss asked politely.

He sighed. "You didn't know? Faunus have a worse standard of health than humans, in general. They have a higher incarceration rate in everywhere but Vacuo, have higher rates of drug abuse on average, and especially have a higher rate of alcoholism. Unfortunately, there's no way better to forget abuse and racism than hitting the pubs."

The heiress sadly looked at him. "Is there anything that the Faunus have better than humans?" she said.

"Besides additional appendages or enhanced senses or improved traits, nope," Skoll replied. "I could give you more depressing statistics, if you like."

Weiss smiled. "I think I can handle it, mongrel."

"Hey!"

"Hmm? Is the little pup's feelings hurt?"

He bared his sharp canines before growling in mock anger. "Very. Apologize, or I'll slobber you with drool and get dirty."

"Eeeew, puppy drool. If only you were cuter," the heiress dismissed. "Then I would take you seriously and do whatever-"

Almost instantaneously he gave her a kiss on the cheek, his head over her left shoulder before he sat back and smirked. There was the look of utter satisfaction as he cradled her body.

"What- WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Weiss demanded as she dropped her map and turned to face his smug face. Her hands made their way to his cheeks as they pinched them, tightly. "YOU LITTLE MUTT!"

Mottled brown ears only perked up even more as he removed her pale hands from his cheeks. He couldn't help but laugh at her reaction.

"What? You're that flustered from a little puppy smooch?" Skoll said, grinning. "Is that adorable enough for you?"

"No! Not at all!" the heiress said, refusing to even comment on his appearance. "Your face is above average, and that's it! You have absolutely nothing else going for you! Even my suitors are better than you!"

The White Fang second-in-command raised an eyebrow. "Suitors? You mean rich, sheltered dimwits who can't even clean between their toes but think they're entitled to a pretty wife or husband?"

Weiss was shocked by his succinct explanation.

The dog Faunus rolled his eyes. "Worst type of recruits. They expect an officer position right from the bat without having basic training. They want to be warriors without all the hard work. They are idiots. Most of the poor people I train do significantly better."

Ice-blue eyes glared at him. "Are you implying that I'm somehow... inferior to you?"

"No, I'm saying at this rate, I'll leave you behind. You'll have to catch up to me-" Skoll taunted.

The younger Schnee proceeded to form a fist and punch him in the face, turning his head to the right. Her hand didn't hurt this time- Skoll taught her how to lead with the first two knuckles and punch properly.

"Better," he said, rubbing his left cheek. The bruise from yesterday was still there, and her punch made it slightly worse. It was a light purplish tint on his face now. "At least you have some fight in you."

"I have some more, if you want," Weiss growled. She raised her other fist, only for Skoll to cup his palm around her hand. He gently squeezed it, before directing her attention to the temporarily discarded map.

"At this point," Skoll began, "I think you know the backup plan and the schedule thoroughly so in case some factors are changed, we can use it. You know the bunker's layout, and as a result the best hiding places as well. That's still not enough."

Weiss's eyes closed. "Then what is enough?" she asked.

He sighed. "We need enough time to make our escape. Therefore the escape itself needs to be quiet or early enough so that we have a head start. The schedule calls for a role call underground, making sure everyone is accounted for. This means you have to be there, or else our whole plan is out the window. It also can't be the night before the execution day."

"But why not then? At that time, we'll have the cover of night. The attention of White Fang members will be at its lowest. They'll probably be too drunk to notice our escape," Weiss logically explained. "Shouldn't that work?"

Skoll sighed. "If White Fang recruits were humans, that'd be true. Unfortunately, everybody here is Faunus. That means everyone can see in the night to a limited extent. In addition, it's the day before your execution. That means everyone is expecting you to stage an escape, so security will be tighter than usual. Even the alcohol works against us here, because then the paths of the guards are extremely unpredictable. In that case, the guard rotations aren't useful. Thus, there's only time we can escape: torture."

"Wait, what!?" Weiss practically burst before she closed her mouth. "Why? That's literally the worst time possible!"

The dog Faunus sighed. "I know, but it's also our best chance. Adam has given control of that part to me, which means I can dictate how to 'torture' you for around 15 minutes. This means I can control access to you."

"... Well, go on. You obviously have some kind of ace in the hole here," the heiress said.

"I can select the weakest to 'humiliate' you. That allows me to reliably eliminate them. In addition, I'll have one of them bring your weapon, under the guise of 'having them break it in front of you'. Finally, I can set the place of the 'torture'. If I'm lucky, I can set it near the secret exit."

He clenched his left hand. "Once there, we can board a Bullhead and escape. Hopefully, we can lose them in the sky. But if not... well, that's my job."

"So we have to escape in 15 minutes, without triggering the alarms at all, and then somehow lose White Fang Bullheads?" Weiss clarified. "If that doesn't work, then let's assume that we can even get to the Bullheads. How are we going to deal with the other ones?"

Skoll shook your head. "That's my job. Honestly... it's better if I don't tell you about it-"

"I need to know everything, Skoll," the heiress said. "Please?"

A chain of pure white between the two materialized between her wrist and his neck. It was his Semblance, affecting the real world. It represented his temporary oath to her.

His face looked slightly anxious. "I'll place detonated bombs on every Bullhead except for the one I'm commandeering. That'll cripple the White Fang's ability to initiate and make our escape so much easier," he whispered.

She nodded before she realized where the chain between the two connected... like a BSDM porno. Instinctively, she smirked as she tilted his head towards her by pulling on the chain.

"Say woof," Weiss ordered.

The White Fang captain frowned. "What did you say?"

"This is your chance to be cute. Say woof," the heiress said again. "Prove to me that you're absolutely loyal to me."

"Then please choose something less embarrassing," Skoll replied. "I don't see how this is going to help us escape."

She smiled. "Okay. A belly rub then."

The dog Faunus opened his mouth, but the chain around his neck silenced him by tightening. He reluctantly took his coat and shrugged it off his shoulders, before his hands began to slip his shirt off... only for Weiss to slap his abs.

"How'd you like my rub?" the heiress asked, before watching as Skoll breathed in and out at a fast but steady pace. "What happened?"

Skoll took her body towards his, her own against his own as he exhaled more deeply. "Side effect of my Semblance," he moaned before placing his forehead against hers. "I could handle the face slap, but then this..."

His eyes closed tightly as Weiss's sky-blue eyes remained open. Her eyes could only become more and more dilated as the reality of their situation dawned on her...

Her lips were an inch or two away from his.

But she didn't understand what happened. This time, her delicate hands began rubbing his abs, brushing over tense, dense muscle. She had to remind herself to take her hands off of them- until Skoll's hand placed them back on his abs.

The White Fang commander sighed in... bliss? His muscles loosened under her soft hand.

"Thanks for the assist," he said as he opened his honey-brown eyes. "I guess you found it."

"Found what!?" Weiss replied as she glared at him. "You were in pain from a light tap on the abs!"

He nodded. "Like I said, side-effect of my Semblance. As a result of the oath, I am now loyal to you. This means that any punishment from you will hurt more, any reward will help me more, and... and- Okay, I can't say them."

Sky-blue eyes chillingly interrogated him. "Tell me more, or..."

Honey-brown eyes looked back at her. "Any pain you feel, any overwhelmingly negative emotions you feel, I will feel as well. For example, your strained relationship with you father is touchy..."

Weiss bared her white teeth at him until Skoll lifted her onto his lap. She touched foreheads with him, again, as his hands gently touched the sides of her neck. They were warm.

"I'm sorry about that..." he said. "But... well, like this..."

The heiress silenced him with a nuzzle that sent tingles down his body. "You are mine, and at my mercy... aren't you?" she quietly replied. "No matter how much you protest, you have to do what I say... right?"

"No." he said. "This oath means I want to help you. I protest because I want to fulfill my promise to you, even if I'd enjoy it. My oath is to get you back to Winter safely, and I don't think that what you want will help with that. In that sense, that's one of the weaknesses of my Semblance: the strength I get depends on how my actions pertain to my promise. In addition, the oath has to be specific enough so that it cannot be twisted around by either party."

Weiss carefully regarded him with appraising eyes. "And what else?"

Skoll sighed. "Fervor is the best way to put it. I have to believe in the oath as well to gather strength from it."

"But didn't you overpower my sister? If your oath to the White Fang was so weak, how did you beat her so easily?" the younger Schnee asked.

The dog Faunus sighed. "I am loyal to my hope that humans and Faunus can live peacefully together, not to Adam. As long as I have that, I can get power from it. Of course, there's a limit I can handle. For example..."

He gestured towards his forearms. "Feel them. You'll notice something."

The heiress complied. She immediately grasped them tightly before beginning to squeeze them and trying to massage them. "They feel tight. What did you do to yourself?"

Skoll sighed. "Using my Semblance increases all positive aspects of me. Speed. Strength. Intelligence. Perception. Even reaction time. But at the same time, it places stress on my body. Increasing strength in my arms can cause them to break. In fact, as you can tell, that's why my muscles are sore. So my Semblance has to be regulated just to make sure I won't kill myself by using it."

He kneaded out his forearms carefully. "In addition, my Semblance can alter one's frame of mind. In the most extreme cases, I can brainwash someone. At the same time, however, you can do the same to me. In other words..."

"Your Semblance makes you vulnerable to your 'master', has backlash, and makes you more susceptible to mental attacks," Weiss summarised.

Skoll coughed a bit. "It's not just that... There's certain types of agreements where my Semblance comes into play. Contracts. Mutual cooperation. What power I get from any of these depends on the conditions, as well as whether or not I'm the 'superior' or 'inferior' one in the contract."

His honey brown eyes stared into her own sky-blue ones. "If it's fine... can I ask about your Semblance? Unless-"

"It's the same as my sisters. It's hereditary," the heiress quickly said. "I can freeze or burn things, increase speed, dilate time, and create platforms."

He nodded, before sighing. "How much stamina do you have?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Not a lot. I get tired after 20 or so Glyphs."

"Do you need Dust for some of your Glyphs?" Skoll said. "I mean... that would explain a lot of your Semblance's uses."

"But your Semblance is so complicated when it doesn't have to." Weiss stated. "Glyphs are Glyphs. They are multi-use, but not necessarily multi-faceted."

The dog Faunus closed his eyes. "If I know what you can do, I might be able to think of a safer plan," he replied. "If your Semblance is truly hereditary and similar to your sister's, we can escape more easily. We can use a velocity Glyph to arrive at least a minute earlier, while using ice Glyphs to delay White Fang members and fire Glyphs to destroy enemy weapon caches."

Weiss blinked. "The way you put it, I could have escaped a long time ago."

Skoll shook his head. "You don't know how to fly a Bullhead off the island, I doubt you can swim-"

"Hey!"

"- you don't have enough stamina to make it to Mistral's mainland, and you're easily recognizable. Not to mention, you're one person. A whole platoon of White Fang members could capture, while you're exhausted and-"

"Okay, I see your point," the heiress replied glumly.

Skoll shook his head. "I have some non-Fang connections that can help us hide in Mistral once we're there. Assuming we make it out together, of course..."

He gripped his hand. Weiss took it, as if reassuring him it would be fine. It looked like he needed it.

"Get some sleep. We'll need it tomorrow to set up the escape."

And the night became a little more oppressive as Skoll left the cage, quietly closing it and locking it behind him.

One hallway. Then the dog Faunus stopped.

The air blurred as Skoll slammed his hand into the head of an unsuspecting White Fang member. He caught the unconscious lamb Faunus and gently dragged her into a bunk.

Quickly, he found a bottle of alcohol.

"Dammit, she overheard..." he muttered as he bent the cap off the beer bottle. It smelled cheap, so he did the same for five other bottles.

Carefully, he spilled the six-pack all over the Fang members and poured a bit into each of their mouths. He needed them to be drunk to ensure Weiss's and his secret were safe-

"What are you doing!?"

"Blake, I swear I almost had a heart attack," Skoll grumbled as he arranged shards of broken bottles. "What are you doing this late up?"

"I heard 'escape' come out of your mouth," the feline Faunus defended. "I was curious. Is this part of your plan, or...?"

"None of your business," the dog Faunus curtly stated. "I'd like it if you'd get out-"

Blake Belladonna leveled the pistol form of Gambol Shroud at Skoll. "Tell me something- why intoxicate a team of White Fang members then? That's suspicious of you, Beta Tiger."

Without any warning, the dog Faunus sucker-punched her with a low right before twisting his left around her right. As he flipped her onto the stone ground, he drew his weapon.

Blake wasn't an idiot. She exchanged herself for a shadow, reappearing in front of Skoll. She slashed downwards with her cleaver-like sheath.

Instead of a horizontal guard, the Fang captain parried to the right, cutting through the shadow in front of him and deflecting the real blade coming from his side.

"Last time I checked, you've always done this. You use clones to deceive and take the hit so you can run and retreat in case it's needed. That's the perfect Semblance for someone who wants to look humanity in the eye and ask for equality," Skoll stated. "So tell me-"

Gambol Shroud came dangerously close to his neck, the katana screeching against his weapon. He held his estoc steady as the cat Faunus applied more pressure.

"-how exactly are you ensuring world peace here?"

Swiftly, Skoll stepped towards Blake's left side and let his left leg remain behind. He swept his leg to kick out the feline beauty's balance from under her.

Pistol fire burst out, retorting. He sidestepped in a flash, advancing diagonally behind him while turning into a wide slash. Without so much as a step, he cut through a shadow before holding up his sheath behind him.

As he expected, Blake cut downwards with her katana and her cleaver-like sheath. The force made him bend his knees a bit- she had gotten stronger than the last time he'd fought her- but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

"You support a Faunus who wants to exterminate all humans, while you want true equality."

His right elbow shot backwards and pushed Blake away before he turned the right- only to lunge forwards with the sheath rather than slash with his estoc.

That should be the last shadow.

Yet again, Blake became a shadow, this time taking the initiative to attack. Her cleaver sheath blocked his estoc, while her katana thrust forwards to complete the kill.

Skoll simply kneed Blake's jaw, sending her reeling backwards.

"What do you want? Do you want to be abused like this, again and again? Humanity's abuse is enough. So why tolerate Adam's?"

The dog Faunus kept a calm, almost serene voice. He had to so he wouldn't wake up other Fang members and scar them for life. He had to so his anger at the hypocrisy in front of him wouldn't explode. After all...

He'd been stressed out for the past few days trying to plan an escape. All the work that he put into busting Weiss Schnee out of here- well, he didn't want any of it wasted. Even if Belladona was in his way.

Two hands grasped two wrists and twisted them. Cleaver and katana fell to the stone ground with a clang.

It was now just Skoll and Blake. He slammed her into a wall, shaking it behind her before holding her arms above her head.

Harsh, almost mechanical honey-brown met amber eyes.

"What do you want?" Skoll asked.

Blake shook her head. "You know. You've always known."

"Know? I 'knew' Adam was a logical person, but now... that's not Adam anymore," the dog Faunus retorted. "He acts as if he has a personal vendetta against the world."

The cat Faunus sighed. "We all do, Skoll. My family was exiled to Menagerie. Adam's family was killed in the war. And your family left you for dead."

A laugh of bitterness. "Wrong. I left myself for dead. I decided I wanted something different. Because unlike you, I know what's a good cause. And all of this..."

He released her. "All of this means a war. Do you want war or peace, Blake? Because let me tell you something- this vendetta isn't worth it in the end. Revenge demands everything. Your life. Your soul. Your time. In the end, there's only a corpse. What do you want?"

"I want-" Blake began.

"You want Adam to see the light. To stop this madness. Am I wrong?" Skoll asked.

She froze. The dog Faunus promptly sighed.

"Do you think Adam understands what he's doing here?" Skoll said. "No, nevermind, he clearly does. But his ideology..."

Blake slid down the wall and sat on the floor. "I think... ever since he read that book..."

"That's not that important yet," Skoll stated. "At this point, there's no way we could convince him that he's wrong. Humanity has already acknowledged the Faunus through his violent methods. But he knows that staying like this will blow up in his face- a kingdom or two will wipe the White Fang out, and Faunus-human relations will go down the drain. So he'll press the advantage. He'll make sure his work isn't wasted by getting rid of all of his enemies. And unfortunately, his enemies are humans."

"Thank you for the depressing analysis of my boyfriend," the cat Faunus dryly commented. "Shouldn't you apologize?"

Skoll shrugged. "It's my job to be honest. That said, I don't think it's impossible to change Adam's mind. But you're not going to like it at all. How does a defection sound?"