A Leaf Turned
Chapter 13
Skirting the Truth
"No." Adam deadpanned.
"But, Adam, this is big! You said it yourself that if the White Fang is gathering this much dust and following someone like Torchwick then it has be something big coming! And as Huntresses and Hunter-"
"In training." Adam interrupted her with just a touch of fierceness in his voice. "You three are Huntresses in training, because you're part of Beacon Academy doesn't mean you're ready to fight against the White Fang."
The bull looked over their expressions, Yang was scowling, probably she didn't like being underestimated. Ruby just looked crestfallen and Weiss seemed particularly agreeable to his words.
"You are students, if the White Fang is anyone's problem it is mine. And I do not intend to go looking for trouble if I can help it." It also meant that they wouldn't throw themselves into danger if he himself didn't, it grated on him to not do anything...But to ensure their safety he would reign himself in and allow the Fang to run unchecked.
Two objectives. Protect RWY and not cause a scene.
"That's bullshit."
"What?" Adam and Weiss chorused, staring at their blonde teammate in a mixture of displeasure and surprise.
"I said that's bullshit, Belladonna. You're saying we shouldn't do anything at all because we're not full huntresses? I don't know if you noticed but you could have died because of your lone wolf thing," The blonde's eyes narrowed and they flashed crimson. "If the proper authorities could handle this, the they would have, But these robberies are still going and now we know who. You know how they operate! We could track them down, find their hideout and-"
"And what?!" Adam snarled so viciously his teammates reared back. He bared his teeth, "Do you three not get what I am saying?" Weiss tried to point she was agreeing previously, but a glare from his shushed her. "Those mutts I fought on the docks? They were green recruits, no better than some random bum off the street given basic arms trainimg, but if we find their hideout, you know what we'll find? Officers. We will find White Fang officers who are more or less as deadly as myself. Not run of the mill grunts!"
He stepped forward, and only Yang stood her ground against the advance of the bull who's aura was flaring. "You know what a White Fang officer does to become an officer? Have a high kill count, be powerful. They're like Hunters without all the knightly lies. They're-"
"Like you?" Yang challenged, stepping forward.
"I'm one of the worst," Adam admitted, lowering his voice as he ran his memory over with some of the Officers he knew. "But there are worse than me. I may be a monster, but a monster can exist physically, be tracked and killed...Some are simply nightmares." He looked back at her, eyes narrowing. "And they fight to kill, not wound, not maim...They will kill you."
"And I didn't become part of this team to let my teammates go on a suicide mission."
Weiss took this time to clear her throat. "You say you were an officer, and there are worse than you?" He nodded. "And that this is way out our league?" Another nod. "I agree! We're students, and so we should focus on our studies and let the proper authorities handle this themselves!"
"They. Can't!" Yang shouted then, stomping her foot and this time her eyes were red. "Weiss, Adam. I get it, you both want to protect us, have some fear of the White Fang, I get it, I do. But we have to do something, that's why we're here, right? To make this world better?"
"Yang's right!" Ruby finally piped up, crossing her arms. "We need to start doing what we're training for! Fighting Grimm, terrorists and protecting the people of Remnant!" She grinned widely, sharing a fist bump with her sister.
Adam glared at them, as did Weiss. "This isn't a game, Don't you get that? You can, and if you pursue this idea, will! Die!" He palmed his face. "Yang, Ruby and Weiss. Just...Please," He changed his angle of attack, his voice dripping with strained patience. "Just, give the authorities a month. If they can't turn up anything in that time then for better or worse then we'll begin our own...Misguided investigation."
The pair of do-gooder sisters looked dubious, and he tried to soften his expression. "One month. It's all I ask." It would give him time to find a more permanent solution to keep them away, or maybe the fang would really be caught? He doubted it, but he had to hope if he wanted to complete his goals.
"Alright," Ruby huffed, looking a little put out, Yang just looked annoyed. "A month, but then! If nothing is done then team RWBY will take this upon themselves to be the first team of students to successfully bring down a criminal organization in Vale!"
Fist raised, Yang grinned and threw her fist up. Adam rolled his eyes, as did Weiss. "Right, well...We'd better get to our classes." Weiss said, much to Adam's relief. He wasn't sure how long he could handle this argument that he just wanted to shut down.
And so, team RWBY dressed for today's success and headed off to their classes with an air of sombre reservation. Each plagued by troubled thoughts concerning the White Fang and their own teammates.
Adam couldn't allow them to face the White Fang, not at their current levels of experience...They would be slaughtered. They could beat the grunts down, no doubt there...But against the veterans like Adam? He didn't doubt for a second they would have far greater difficulty.
They were, afterall, still only students.
Ruby Rose was called many things. Hyper, naive and sometimes even less then academically stable! But she was by no means someone to stand by and let criminals do stuff they wanna do if she could help it! And while she did not like lying, like, at all! She knew if she and Yang told Adam the truth he'd be against it.
So that was why while Adam was out apparently handling Jaune's "lessons" with Pyrrha, she and Yang explained to Weiss that when they head into Vale for the next few days they would be running their own investigation to try and track down the White Fang. And they wanted Weiss to help them by making sure Adam would be none the wiser to their little lie.
She expected a scolding, to be glared at and said what a dumb it would be. She was not wrong.
"That is the single stupidest thing you two have ever come up with," Weiss crossed her arms and frowned at them like they were children who had done something terribly wrong. "And not just because you lied to him when you promised,-And no! I don't care if you had your fingers crossed!" She stopped their "excuses" right there. "You don't see it yet, do you? He is just watching out for you two, because he is right. These White Fang aren't something we can handle by just running in and gunning!"
"Please, Weiss, we're not kids," Yang said, waving a hand while Ruby snorted beside her, as if to hide a small "I kinda still am". "We can handle some average street goons, isn't that what Adam said most of their grunts are?"
"Most. Not all. You heard what he said about officers, didn't you? That they were just as good or better as he is!"
"You almost sound scared, Weiss." Yang said with a frown.
Weiss stepped forward and brought her foot down onto the floor with a thud. "I'm terrified! You think the White Fang are just a bunch of fanatics? They're murderers, killers! My last name has a bulls eye on my back and I've seen uncles, distant relatives who have nothing to do with the company taken, executed or just never found again! It's because of the White Fang my childhood was so-so...So messed up!"
Yang and Ruby both looked surprised at the suddenly fragility in the heiress, who seemed more child than even Ruby at that moment. "My father would always come home angry, and with his two daughters being so rebellious, he would be strict..." Her arms reached up and hugged herself. "He kept telling us we had to be strong, that the White Fang and everyone else would come for them in some way or another and try to hurt us, and our family name. Winter got out because she was in the military. But me? I had to stay! And I had to bear all that hate and disappointment every failure!"
"And now that I am away from the White Fang and my father, you want me to looking for them? As a student?"
The team's leader looked torn between hugging Weiss and just sitting down to collect her own thoughts. Yang was much the same, until Ruby stepped forward and put her hand on Weiss' shoulder."Weiss, I'm sorry you had to go through that, and this. We're asking a lot, and if you don't want to help us, then you don't have to, me and Yang? We can handle this ourselves!"
"You still don't get it!" Weiss smacked her hand away. "You dolt! What about Adam? How do you think he'll feel about this when he finds out you guys lied to him after promising him you would give him this month?"
"Wait," Yang narrowed her lilac eyes and frowned. "What do you mean?"
Weiss blinked, then stepped back as if realizing she had let something slip. She glanced to the side, then back at them. "I...Overheard him talking about us a few nights ago, when he was out later...I think he was talking with that person he mentions, the one he loves?"
"Oh right, Mysterious lover..." Yang tilted her head. "What did he say?"
The heiress sighed, collected herself. "I didn't catch the beginning..."
Flashback!
Weiss stopped at the door to the roof where Jaune and Pyrrha said she could find their Faunus teammate, and before she could open it she heard his muffled voice through the material, faintly, so she leaned over and pressed her ear to the door, damning her curiosity.
"-A long while since I've heard your voice," He sounded amused. "I've missed it."
Were she a lesser woman Weiss would have "awww'd" at the rather simple, if touching statement. But! This was an intimate moment and something that should be kept private from snoopers like her...So she pressed closer and listened all the more closely!
"How are things on your end?" There was a shift in his tone, far more professional than his greeting. "I see, so you're secure then? Good, I don't want you taking unnecessary risks."
Weiss figured this was some sort of report period for the bull and his ally. She was about to leave when he said a name.
"Blake." Something in his voice made Weiss stop and frown, it sounded quieter, like he was ashamed. But why? "Remember what I said about the docks? That I fought our old comrades? I...Didn't just fight them...I killed them." He sounded so deadpan by the end of it that Weiss knew it was the voice of someone who had emotionally detached themselves from the conversation and was simply stating facts with the inflection brought by emotions.
She'd seen it many times on young policemen who just wanted to do their jobs and inform the family of their missing/dead relative during White Fang attacks, they would want to be anywhere else before the inevitable emotional break down of the family who's lives they just irreparably altered.
She couldn't hear the response from this "Blake" person, but Adam was clear. "Don't make excuses for me! I got angry, I...Let myself feel it again, that darkness inside me..." He snorted then, partly in disgust and another part angry at himself. "I told you I was a monster. I didn't even second guess it, I just...They had to die. All of them!"
Weiss jumped when there was a powerful crack, almost like concrete met a very unyielding fist. "And my teammates, my friends...If they ever find out what I've done, what I did on that port...To people in my past. They'd see it too..."
A bitter snort from the bull Faunus. "They'd see I'm a monster."
Weiss resisted the urge to slam the door open and tell him off that no matter what he might do they were his team! But Weiss knew a part of her would be lying if she said that she believed in him entirely. A part of he would always see her as the thing he was calling himself.
A murderer. A monster.
So she stayed her rash decision and continued to listen, feeling like she was betraying him in more than a number of ways by just being there...But she needed to know more about him. She needed to know who Adam Belladonna was beneath the mask of snarky cynicism he put on for the team.
"I care about what they think because they're my..." He growled, before muttering. "Friends. I said it, they're my friends. And I'm not sure how I should handle them with their current fixation with the White Fang. They keep probing and I try to deflect but it's only so long until they begin insisting more...What do I tell them?"
She could almost hear the cliché "the truth might help" line, and it seemed she was right because Adam sounded so sarcastic during his next response to this Blake.
"Yeah, that will go over well. Next you'll suggest I go on life altering adventures with each of them, one per week. Blake, this is serious...I will tell them, in time. But now? No, not yet...They're not ready, and they're probably missing me, so I'll talk to later."
"And remain safe," A click. "My love."
Weiss turned and quickly moved down the stairway to head back to the dorm, knowing Adam would arrive in his own time. And his words ran through her head the whole way back to the dorm.
End Flashback!
Weiss finished with a sigh and crossed her arms. "He considers us friends and you two are about to betray that friendship over an issue that isn't our problem? That he is trying to protect us for?"
Yang looked a little guilty when it was said like that, but Ruby looked heartbroken for a reason the heiress couldn't place. "He's not a monster." She whispered, as if steeling herself. "Our teammate and friend is not a monster! No matter what he thinks of himself! He can call himself a monster, or even a murderer or even some terrible-"
"Liar who's legs are knee deep in bodies?"
The three turned to the doorway where Adam stood, his eyes were narrowed, his fists clenched tightly into fists at his sides and his shoulders shook. Crimson lines along his body glowing slightly with anger. "Well?"
"Adam!" Ruby rounded fully, looking just as shocked as the others felt. "We're sorry we were talking about you-"
"Really? Because it sounds like you do more than just talk about me, sounds like you were spying too." The bull Faunus growled softly. "So who was it that decided to be nosy?"
Weiss shifted, and none of them spoke. Adam didn't need them to.
"The Schnee, figures..." He spat, standing fully and exhaling. "You didn't answer my question, Ruby Rose. If I am your teammate, would I stay that if you know what I did on those docks?"
"We do know! You kille-"
"I butchered them!" Adam corrected her ferociously. "I carved them up like slaughtered sheep, spilled their blood in such amounts that the air was thick with the scent of it and not a one escaped my wrath. Because I got angry, I wanted them dead and gone simply because they made me mad."
He stepped forward and then they stepped back, their eyes on him with a mixture of surprise, fear and confusion...He stopped short, staring at their expressions...Then at his hands, which were curled so tightly they were straining his gloves. He relaxed best be could and then looked back to them. He had wanted to hit them...To beat them for not daring to respect the bounds of his friendship...
Adam grit his teeth, whirled around and grabbed Wilt and Blush from his bed, moving for the door. "I'm going out." He said flatly. "I'll be back in time for tomorrow's classes. Do NOT try to find me, I can't guarantee I won't still be angry."
"Adam, wait!" Ruby stepped forward, but he was already opening the door and stepped out, slamming the door shut behind him so quickly the team leader bumped into it with a yelp, she quickly tried to open it and when she did she stepped into the hallway, trying to see where he could have gone.
But she saw or heard nothing. "Adam...?" She hung her shoulders. He was gone again...And despite his words, she felt like he wouldn't be coming back.
Had she lost a friend?
End of chapter 13
And there is chapter thirteen and now we're getting the ball rolling on Volume 2! Which means yet again I will be altering certain events, and removing others. Some changes I will say now is that you might not see much of Sun and Neptune bar some scenes where they would be included outside of having Blake's influence. Like the dance, otherwise, Sun wouldn't be too bother trying to help Adam, y'know... Cause lack of flirting potential...I mean, unless Red Sun is something that exists.
Oh who I am kidding, it the character has a name, it's probably been shipped! But, yeah, so, don't expect much Sun and Neppy this time around! Thank you to everyone for your continued support and patience! Until next chapter, have a nice day and or night!