Azure's heart was racing.
The longer he spent searching, the harder it was getting to get a good breath of air in.
His eyes watered, and he was covered in soot.
"Ken! Ken, where are you?!"
But he couldn't stop now.
Finally he found the bear kid cowering in his bed, while flames crept menacingly across the floorboards towards him. Azure didn't really think, he just ran over and grabbed Ken while barely escaping the flames with a burn on his arm.
"Boss! Where are the others?"
"I think everyone's safe, the only ones that should still be in here are us, the director…"
And that new girl. Did she do this? She couldn't have...could she…?
Azure wasn't going to dwell on it, not while he and Ken were still at risk of burning alive.
"Ken, hold on to me. We're gonna find the director."
He felt the kid's nod of agreement as he ran out of the room with Ken on his back. Sprinting down the hallway while attempting to avoid the fire around them, Azure was able to get out unharmed and proceeded down the stairs. The supports were much weaker than he figured, as the left side collapsed on him and the two children were sent plummeting towards the ground floor.
Thinking quickly, Azure pulled Ken to his chest and maneuvered such that he fell to the floor back-first, sparring Ken the fall damage.
Coming to his senses, Azure scanned the room around him. The front door was completely blocked off by flames; exit strategy one, out of the question. Only one other place to go.
Azure picked Ken back up and ran to the kitchen/dining room. If they were lucky, the back door would still be safe and they could run around the building to the front.
What they found, however, was much more unfortunate than a blocked exit.
At Azure's feet was the director, clutching his arm in a pool of blood. Azure instinctively forced Ken to look away.
"D-director? What happened?"
Azure looked up for his answer. There were three figures before him, two large with a smaller one in the middle. He couldn't make out the larger ones, all he could see was one lining the floor with a liquid from a tank, while the second lit a match and threw it to the floor.
Even through the gasoline flames, Azure knew who the third was.
"Blake! What's going on?! Don't tell me you…"
Blake only looked at him with what he assumed was sorrow. The three figures turned and left through the back door, now painfully out of Azure's reach.
Why did she leave?
Did she do all this?
Was he gonna die?
…
"Az...ure…"
…
"Mr. director, I'm gonna get you out of here! Both of you, even if I have to stay-"
"Come here."
...
Azure complied and moved towards the director. He didn't even care his pants were covered in blood now.
"Hold out your hand."
He did. The director placed something there.
"This...was your mother's. The night she died, she gave it to your father to give to you. I know he never did, but just a week ago...your father told me where he'd left it and that he'd wanted you to have it. Take Ken and run...live, Azure...for your mother, and for all your brothers and sisters."
Azure could feel the tears streaming down his face.
"Live, and grow strong."
"Let me go, Micah! We have to go back in!"
"Don't, Rachel! Everyone's gonna be fine, Azure and the director will come out with Ken, Thomas, Jonah and Blake any minute now!"
From the sidewalk across the street, Micah stood with Rachel, Mika and Yo as they watched their home burn down. They'd all been woken up by the smell of smoke and the heat, and before anyone could ask what happened, he and Azure were getting everyone out.
Once they'd all escaped, Azure didn't give any warning before he'd run back in to find the others. Micah swore he saw the figures of Thomas and Jonah in one of the second floor windows as it exploded into a vicious blaze that broke the windows, but he didn't want to think about that. He put more effort into not thinking about Blake's absence altogether.
As much as it was probably wishful thinking, he wanted to believe that everyone would come out okay.
Rachel was uneasy, though. As much as Micah tried to hold her back, she still wanted to head back into the burning building and help Azure get people out. He wasn't gonna risk it.
He was even more unnerved that Mika and Yo barely made a sound, even though their friend and leader Ken was still inside.
Crash.
Something flew out of the kitchen window. The figure stood up and staggered over towards the group of orphans.
"Azure!"
"Azure, are you okay?!"
"Boss! Ken!"
Azure didn't respond, only looking up with tears in his eyes. A crackling was heard, and all eyes laid back on the orphanage.
…
The building collapsed before them.
…
Their home was gone.
…
The kids all erupted into sobs. Rachel fell into Azure as she clutched his chest and shed her own tears.
…
Micah fell to his knees, in a state of shock and disbelief.
…
Azure only opened his hand to look at his mother's necklace. Her keepsake. His memento.
He clenched it in his fist again and embraced the crying fox girl.
His home was gone again, but he hadn't lost his family.
Azure awoke and silently sat up in his bed.
He assured himself that he was still in his room at the Schnee manor.
Scanning the plain yet elegant white room, he silently wiped the stale tears from his face and got up. When he opened the door, he was greeted by a worried Weiss.
"So you do stand outside my door at night." He put on a smile to relax her.
She didn't. "Another bad dream?"
His smile faded. "I'm fine, Weiss. I'm just going to the bathroom."
"You look like you've been crying."
"I'm fine."
Before she could say anything else, he turned and walked down the hall. Something compelled him to stop, though.
"...Weiss?"
He heard her hum in acknowledgement.
"Am...am I strong?"
Silence.
"Coming from a girl who's lived her entire life secluded in a mansion, you're the strongest person I know."
More silence.
"You know that's gonna change, though."
Azure turned to meet her gaze, giving his own questioning look.
"We're heading to Beacon in a month. When we get there, we're going to meet teachers, hunters, probably even students who are leagues stronger than both of us. If you're asking this now, are you sure you're prepared to take on hunter training?"
Azure and Weiss stood in the hall in a sort of staring contest for what felt like minutes. Weiss was legitimately concerned; it wasn't like Azure to doubt himself at any given moment, so for him to ask something like that right before they left…
"I'm not doubting myself. I know I've worked hard, we both have. I just needed to remind myself why I'm doing this."
Now it was Weiss' turn to be confused.
"I know what my purpose is, I wanna protect people. You, Winter, anyone I can reach out to. I know if I want to keep doing that, I need to get stronger."
Weiss smiled at him. "Well, when you put it like that, I think you're plenty strong. But what I said still stands."
"I know. That's why I'm gonna work to keep getting stronger. If I'm not as strong as I can be, I'm not doing my best as a hunter. So, teachers, students, hell, even that pompous headmaster-"
He shot his signature cocky grin. "Bring it on."
Azure woke the next morning and got ready for the day. He had one place to stop before he ate and went to training.
Walking down the hallway to the entrance of the garden, he felt a ball of fluff scurry up his chest and onto his head.
"Hey, Neko. Good to see you're not attacking me for once."
Neko meowed his content as he settled himself on Azure's head.
When he finally reached his destination, Neko lept off his head and settled in the grass nearby. Azure walked to the center of three black, square pillars in a triangle to a single, white memorial.
"Hey mom. Is it cool if I call you mom? I've always felt 'mother' was too, well, formal."
Damn. Damn. Damn damn damn damn!
Why was this happening again?
Azure stood in shock in front of his father's desk. Weiss and Winter were to his left, both weeping as they held each other. The Schnee head looked indifferent as ever.
He was seemingly emotionless as he told the three world-shattering news.
The White Fang had bombed a transport ship heading from Vale to Atlas.
Their mother had been on board.
She had been counted among the dead.
"The only survivor was one of the assailants. He confirmed to officials that the only reason they targeted the ship was because they knew your mother was on board. If you want to blame someone, blame those filthy faunus."
If it wasn't bad enough that their mother had been killed, that bastard of a father was trying to throwing the blame at the faunus in general, not just the White Fang. Azure's blood was reaching a boiling point.
"...I...hate them all…"
He knew that was Weiss' voice, even through the breaks and quivers.
He turned and left the office.
Once he was out of the office, his storming walk picked a brisk pace. Soon enough, that pace turned into a run. He ran down the hall all the way to the garden. Once he was there, he just walked to the fountain and fell to his knees in front of it.
Spring was coming. They'd just turned the water on.
Mother loved when the fountain was running.
Azure's will finally broke as he silently wept, not bothering to wipe away the tears.
For the second time in his life, he'd lost his mother.
And for the second time, he felt like his family was falling apart.
Years ago, he wasn't as oblivious as most adults thought children were. Sure, he was only six, but he'd understood why his real dad turned out the way he did after his mom died.
He'd become a bastard, because he grew to hate the world that took his wife away.
Did he handle it in the best way? No, but Azure understood. The adults didn't think so, the director might've. But the bottom line was, he wasn't blind. He'd seen first-hand what hatred did to people.
Just now, he'd seen his second bastard father breathe more hatred into his children, who were all too ready to accept it.
Damn!
He wasn't sure how long he sat in front of the fountain. He'd been aware that Neko showed up at some point, and had only taken a seat beside him. The only thing that broke him of his trance was Weiss.
"...I'm going to stop the White Fang, Weiss."
He didn't bother to look at her. He knew what was coming.
"You can't really expect to stop all the faunus-"
"That's not what I mean!"
Only now did Azure stand up and turn to her.
"I'm not buying into what father tells us. I'm not gonna just blindly direct all my anger and frustration at people who did nothing wrong."
Disbelief overtook Weiss. Before she could protest,
"What I am going to do is make sure that the people who did do this can't cause any more suffering."
A bit of his old self had come back. Sure, he picked up a cheery attitude from Micah and decided he'd use it with his new family, but that other, angsty kid never left. He'd just grown up a bit.
"I'm going to stop the White Fang. No more innocent faunus are gonna take the flak for their crimes. And nobody else is gonna die like mother."
'Two years, eh? Been awhile since that little family meeting'
Azure stood up from the headstone and turned to the pillar on his right. He met his reflection in the stone, but what he saw was different from himself.
The heterochrome eyes were replaced with deep, scarlet ones, and the reflection had a smug grin on his face while Azure's actual face remained stern.
"Weird that you're here. You never bother to really talk to me."
'Don't be like that buddy! Sure, we haven't really talked since...well, you know, but that's not the point! Let's get along now, okay?'
"Shut the hell up."
'My goodness, you're a fierce one! Why don't we...ah, hell, you're not gonna listen.'
This smug little shit was trying Azure's patience.
"You came out for a reason, so tell me what you wanna tell me and go away."
Now this guy was satisfied. He really was hitting a nerve.
'First off, we weren't really well-introduced last time. I mean, I already know your name, Azure Schnee. Or do you prefer Brezhnev? Who cares, anyways,'
Crimson eyes flared at green and amber.
'Call me Agony. It's what I make after all, what I feed off.'
Azure didn't give a damn about this asshole's name, he just wanted him to leave.
"You done?"
'Not quite. There's one more thing I need to explain, but first, a question. What's it like being the brave, noble hero?'
Where does this guy get off? "It was either me or her. After a couple years of knowing her, I think you'd be a little stuffed in there, anyways."
'Right. Well, your pride in your decision is misplaced, nonetheless.'
"Excuse me?"
'You've got some special type of bravery, see. Bravery like yours comes with a price. You may think you were being noble, jumping into the fray for a complete stranger, but here's the thing;'
Boy and reflection stood, unfazed.
'You're playing by my rules now.'
…
Not moving.
…
Just staring.
…
"What's the name of the game?"
For once, the reflection's grin flipped.
'Let's call it a game of cards. You humans play lots of games with those.'
Azure smirked. "If that's the case, isn't the only option to play with the hand I'm given?"
Another staredown ensued.
"Go ahead and make your rules. I said it before and I'll say it again. I don't care what you need. I'll play your stupid game, because in the end...well, I play to win."
The reflection started to fade back into Azure's real body..
'Suit yourself, kid. Oh, and rest assured, the game's gonna be lots of fun for both of us.'
With that, Azure was alone again.
"Azure."
Nevermind.
"What's up, Weiss?"
He glanced down at the bundle she was carrying.
"This is for you."
Azure was confused, to say the least. Everything cleared up as it was handed to him.
He unfolded the bundle to find that it was a new jacket. One that…
"Didn't mother make this?"
Weiss nodded. "She hadn't finished it before she passed. When I found it, I knew what it was right away, so I had it finished, with a few of my own touches, that is."
Azure could see what she meant. It was a jacket just like his current green one, reaching down to his thighs. This one, however, was a deep blue and had a hood with fur lining as opposed to his current one, which just had a collar.
He knew the hood was Weiss. The blue, however…
…
It was the same color as his old hoodie. The one he had when he lived on the streets, and the one he wore when the Schnee's took him in.
…
He pulled something out of the pocket of his jacket before stripping it from himself.
…
He placed his first mother's keepsake across his neck, and his second mother's gift on his shoulders.
…
"Weiss, Beacon doesn't stand a chance."
A/N: I'll be honest. This one felt weird past the dream sequence. But, hey, I got through everything I really wanted to cover for this intro arc and I feel like I didn't mince any words.
If I did, though, I would appreciate it if someone left a review. For once. *Passive-aggressiveness intensifies*
But, anyways. That's a wrap. Off to Beacon next chapter! Shenanigans ensue, friendships form, and most importantly, strip-UH-shipteasing skyrockets.
So, yeah.
Later babes~