Chapter 28: Past
They continued on doing this routine: they would eat breakfast together and then both meditate, her going off sometimes to hunt while he continued. Afterwards, they would eat lunch, then meditate again, then eat dinner. He would take a shower and she would already be asleep when he got back. Most people would think that it was boring, doing the same thing every day, but Serena noticed that the meditation seemed to help since she could feel the aura around him lighten up, even if only a little.
After five days, she knew that something had to be still bothering him, keeping him from completely letting go. She had always been good when it had come to reading people and what kind of emotional state they were in, so she thought that she should ask him about it in hope it would help him. So she chose that evening, when they were both sitting at the fire, eating their dinner in the usual silence, to finally attack the matter at hand.
"You're making good progress," she started off, not wanting to overrun him with her sudden question. It always worked best if you first said something positive to make people open up to you a little more. "But I can sense that there's still something bothering you." At this he tensed, eyes fixing on hers with a certain hardness that made it hard to guess what was on his mind.
"I don't know what you mean," he said defensively, not liking that she was trying to dig into something that she was not supposed to know. At least not in his opinion.
"Don't hold me for a fool. I notice that there's something that still makes you harbor negative emotions. You can try to lie and deny it, but I'm not blind."
"It has nothing to do with you," he seethed, growing irritated at the girl's persistence.
"It very much has something to do with me. I told you before that, if you don't get rid of your negative emotions, then Grimm won't hesitate to attack and kill you." She felt like she was a mother talking to her child, scolding it for something. "The only way, apparently, is for you to talk to me. You can try and overcome it, whatever it may be, yourself, but it won't get you far."
"I don't have to tell you anything, human," he spat, his eyes now a lighter red, indicating his growing irritation and the oncoming anger that was building up inside him.
"I thought I made it clear that I don't care if you're a Faunus. Call me what you want but I won't let this matter go so easily. You need to talk about it, otherwise it will eat you up from the inside," she argued, her tone growing stronger and a little louder, highlighting the fact that she wouldn't give up on this no matter what.
It seemed to help since she could see something flicker in his eyes and the next thing she knew he was speaking very loudly at her, not quite shouting but still too loud for it to be considered a normal volume of speaking.
"You wanna know what's bugging me? Fine, I'll tell you. It's the fact that my entire family died and I am the one responsible for it."
This piece of information took her by surprise and it took her a few moments before she registered what he had said and she asked him what he meant by it.
"I mean that my mom, dad and younger sister are all dead and it's my fault. And the damn human who messed up died too, so I can't even get revenge," he finished off, panting slightly from the sudden outburst. Lowering his head, he could still feel her eyes on him before her soft voice spoke.
"Tell me what happened."
And he did.
9 Years Ago
"Mom, dad, look; I got an A in my math test," the younger version of Adam Taurus said excitedly while running up to his mother and father. The older woman grabbed the piece of paper and immediately smiled upon seeing the A scribbled in the right corner of the page. She showed it to her husband who ruffled his son's head, proud of him.
"Show me, show me," a younger girl of about seven years said, running up behind her older brother and jumping onto a stool to look at the piece of paper that was still in possession of the brown-haired woman. "Wah, big brother is so smart!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands and smiling brightly at the youngest male.
"Nah, it's nothing. It wasn't even difficult, but I guess I am pretty smart, getting first place in the test," Adam declared with a smirk. His father mussed up his hair a little more, igniting a sound of protest from the boy who leapt away and tried fixing his hair again.
"Don't be so over-confident Adam. You may be smart but that's not a reason to get cocky," the red-haired male reprimanded him.
"Your father's right. Not everyone can be smart. There are people who are better at other things, things that you might not be so good at," his mother cut in, her red eyes fixing on her son's while a gentle smile was still on her face.
"Sorry," the boy said, scratching the back of his head.
"It's okay, just don't forget it. You-"
His father was cut off by the blaring sound of sirens, the sound so loud that they had to hold their hands to their ears to block out the sound a little. Both children looked around confused, not knowing what the sirens meant. Mother and father immediately got up, grabbed their kids and went outside, running in the direction most people were running: to the air field.
"What's going on?!" Lucy, Adam's younger sister, asked her mother, looking around fearfully and almost tripping.
"We're under attack," her father replied.
"Under attack by whom?!"
"Grimm."
This one word made both kids gulp, shivers going down their backs and eyes widening. They knew exactly what Grimm were, had learned enough about them at school to know that they were monsters that killed humans. Lucy began crying while Adam tried not to panic. He didn't know what to do; never before had they been under attack. Mountain Glenn was supposed to be a new beacon of hope, a new place for humans to live in peace, safe from those creatures.
And now it was under attack.
The abrupt halting of his father made Adam come back to reality, head whipping up and eyes widening further at the image he was greeted with: they were surrounded by Grimm. At least six Beowolves were around them, blocking off any way of escape, licking their maws in anticipation of the meal that they would soon have.
It was when one Grimm sprung in the air that Adam realized that they were all going to die, only for the Grimm to be cut down by someone. The person landed in front of him and his father, a white cloak hugging her form while a black scythe was firmly held in her right hand. The cloak hid the figure's face from them, but he could see that it was a woman. She quickly proceeded to cutting down the other Grimm, but only more and more followed suit.
Soon enough, there were tons of them and the woman was no longer able to hold them off and guard the family, she knew this. Quickly turning around, she looked at the four people, before walking up to the father and talking to him.
"I can only take one of you at a time to the air field. I won't be able to kill them all, so the only way left is to run. While I get one of you away, I will leave a clone of myself here to protect the remaining people until each of you is save," she explained, her silver eyes hard but her voice calm. Adam's father nodded once before handing her his son, telling her to get him to safety.
"Dad, no!" he protested, not wanting to leave his family. Lucy should go first; she was the youngest, so why him? His father only shook his head sadly and off they were and he could only look back, seeing them become more and more surrounded by Grimm.
He was set down at the air field and led inside a Bullhead by soldiers, the woman disappearing again. They took off moments later and he was brought to the city of Vale where he waited like the other citizens of Mountain Glenn, hoping his family would be okay. He could still see smoke arising in the distance, indicating that the attack was still not over. It was night by now and his family had not been brought in yet, neither had he heard anything of them.
"Are you Adam Taurus?" a man dressed in a military uniform asked as he stopped in front of the thirteen-year-old boy. Adam lifted his head and nodded. "I'm afraid to tell you that your parents and sister have died, as well as the Huntress, Summer Rose, who was trying to protect them. I'm sorry."
He walked away afterwards, leaving a shocked boy behind. Adam's entire body turned numb and he started crying, soon shouting out in pain and grief, yelling so loud that his cries must have been audible for a ver far distance.
"I lived on the streets from then on, pickpocketing people to buy some food. It was a year later, when I was fourteen, that Spike, the current leader of the White Fang, found and recruited me. He taught me all that I now know and since I was a Faunus and had no one else, I joined him and the organization. I went on missions, gained a position and so on. After three years a cat Faunus named Blake joined and Spike made her my apprentice. She was a smart girl and learned fast, but with time she became soft and she finally betrayed me and the White Fang one year ago," Adam finished off, not lifting his head once. He scoffed at the mention of Blake. "Doesn't matter, she has always been too soft, caring for humans and all that shit. I knew that she didn't really have it in her."
"I'm sorry for what happened. I know how it is to lose your family-"
"You know nothing!"
Serena was a patient person, she really was. But that comment… With that one comment he had crossed the line and she couldn't take it anymore.
She snapped.
A/N: I do not own RWBY or its characters. I do, however, own my OC Serena and any other OCs that appear in this story.
Yes, I know that some might think why did you stop there?!, but I had to. I know that some of you might hate me now for the cliffhanger, but that way you guys will want to read on, so…
Oh, an important thing: The idea of Adam and his family living on Mountain Glenn and Summer Rose being the one who rescued them is NOT from me! I saw it on JAC OneManBand's channel on YouTube where he introduced this idea in the video RWBY Mini-Look: Adam/Summer Theory. I found it logical and decided to take it as the past of Adam, so the credit on that one goes to the one who actually mentioned the theory.
Btw: you should really watch his RWBY videos; they're quite interesting and have a lot of good theories about pretty much anyone and what could happen in the future. So check 'em out. Plus, they're funny, too.