On one of Menagerie's quieter mornings, as the gentle breeze passed against the leaves of the nearby jungle forest, one building stood out starkly against the rest in the seaside village:
A rehabilitation center, built by the White Fang two years prior to house Faunus displaced and rescued from overseas, unable to care for themselves in their current states of body and mind. They were former slaves, liberated on that fateful day.
As years passed, the organization's rapid efforts and continued care for the people helped them slowly but surely recover, but the amount of work to fully restore the livelihoods of every person who had been stripped of their homes, families, and lives, would take years upon years more to accomplish.
But as for now, one thing was certain: many in this particular building had regained their ability to eat well. At the beginning, the only thing that wouldn't choke them was stew. Now, on this particular quiet morning, members of the White Fang were going around the many wards of the center serving… bagels. Bagels for breakfast.
And amongst them, a young man with black horns, and red hair.
"Here."
The words slightly faltered as they left his lips, and he carefully handed the older man the final plate in his shaky hands. Adam wore the same fitted, sharp-shouldered black uniform he almost always wore around outside, but now, it was adorned with the emblem of a rose on the back. Similarly, the mask that hid his eyes had been painted with symmetrical red patterning.
The man he was serving, an older, thinner fellow with a monkey's tail, set the plate down in his lap. "Is this my breakfast?"
The question slipped one ear out the other, and Adam blinked. "…I'm sorry?"
"Is this what I'm having for breakfast."
"Oh. Yes, sir, it is…" the young man replied quickly, scratching his head. A habit. "Is that alright? It's what we're serving everyone else, but I could see if…"
The man gave Adam a great smirk. "It's more than alright. Bagels in the morning make one happy camper out of me," he chuckled, picking the bagel up in his bony hand. He closed his eyes, only to open one and look up. "Did you make these?"
"Huh?" At such an obviously harmless question, Adam instantly felt flustered. Beneath the mask, his eyes narrowed.
"I mean, they're very fresh," the man took a bite, "so—"
"…I—I did."
One could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed, before Adam interjected with a sudden crack in his voice.
"I meant , I didn't make… all of them! I helped a lot of people, helped… make these," he stuttered, habitually scratching his head again. He didn't notice, but Adam's cheeks were slightly redder than they'd been seconds ago. "yeah. I… I don't cook well on my own…"
"Oh?"
"I nearly burnt the kitchen one time, because I thought I could make bread."
The older man gave a loud laugh. Adam didn't think it was all that funny.
"Well! I'm sure you'll be able to cook that bread some day. In the meantime," he took a bite from the bagel, "thank you for… 'helping' make this, er…"
"…Adam." The bull faunus' voice came out monotone. "That's my name."
Suddenly, the man's eyes shot open. "…Oh!" He muttered, pointing up at the significantly taller young man. "Ha ha, it is you!" the man shook his head, a smile stretching across his face. "I thought those horns looked familiar! I remember you! "
Adam looked petrified, like a small animal ensnared with fence wire. "Do you?"
"Yes! We talked together that day," the man went on, sounding almost fond of the memory. "You told us all about the things you wanted to be when you grew up… how you wanted to come here. You thought your m
"That wasn't me, sir." Adam stated. "I… don't think I said that."
You could hear a pin drop in that ward.
"I'm sorry."
In that silence, both men stared at nothing.
The blue sky was brighter than usual.
Tap.
Startled out of his delirium Adam spun around, only to come face to face with… a grinning Sienna. He jerked his arm and stepped back, to which the tiger faunus snorted.
"Are you alright?" Sienna inquired with a tilt of her head, her arms crossed over her chest. "You looked kind of dazed right there…"
"Quit always scaring me like that!" Adam cried— frankly squeaked , looking back at the older man sat on the cot behind him. "…Sorry."
"No need! Thank you for the care, and by the way," the man leaned to the side, grabbing Sienna's eye contact. "Lady Khan, be sure to let me know when your boy finally makes that bread!"
'Your boy'? "B-bread? I don't, know what he's talking about…" His face grew hot.
'My boy'? "Oh, did you tell him?" Sienna asked, a snicker escaping as she covered her mouth. She put her other hand on Adam's shoulder, the two beginning to slowly move forward. "I certainly will, sir! And I hope he's been good for you!"
"He's been nothing less! A peaceful day to you!"
"A peaceful day to you, as well!" She cried, giving the older man one final smile before turning back. "And, Adam, sorry for startling you… again. Just, we had a little… oh, wow ! Look at you!" The tiger faunus exclaimed with a broad grin, giving his shoulder a hard squeeze. "You're getting muscle there. Good for you!"
"H-Hey!" Adam gasped, pulling away and clutching his shoulder, a bashful tinge to his voice. Sienna giggled coyly.
"I apologize, I apologize… but, hey." As the two walked down the small set of stairs to the ground floor, Sienna watched Adam's face— rather, the half she could see. "Is something wrong?"
"Hm?" He muttered, not looking at her.
Sienna opened her mouth to speak again, but for a brief moment, no sound followed her thoughts.
She faltered, before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. "…Nevermind. Like I was saying, we had a little… change of plans, and it's why I had to come and grab you from here."
"And what's that?" Adam asked, holding the door for Sienna as they both exited the center. The village town was bustling as always; near them a Faunus teacher with webbed fingers was sitting in the grass, reading to a class of children.
"Remember a while back, where I said me and Ghira were looking into some suspicious activity happening on the island?" Sienna began, grabbing Adam gently by the hand as she led him down a different path, one which would take them over the hill. "Possible human smugglers? Well, just yesterday, one of our Lieutenants was surveying that area and caught sight of something. While we don't know exactly if this "something" is what we're looking for… it's best to just peep in and make sure."
"So it's like an actual mission?"
"Mhm."
Adam went silent at that. He turned away from Sienna, his gaze falling to the path he was now walking with her. That was,
until Sienna held something in front of his eyes. An old, brown notebook. "Yours."
"…Huh?" The bull faunus took the book with shaky hands, a sudden feeling of confusion filtering onto his face. "What's this? Where's this from?"
"That same lieutenant found it in the jungle, too. It was just… laying there. He didn't read it, I didn't either, nobody has— but," Sienna lightly elbowed Adam in the side, beaming. "I think you should. Build up that vocab if there's words in it!"
"Sienna, I can read fine!"
"I'm teasing," she whispered, looking towards the vast, great jungle ahead of them. "I know you're a BRILLIANT reader. How else would you have been able to tell Ilia all that stuff about the Floating Shore Plant?"
Adam's face fell 6 feet under. "Ilia told you about that…?"
"She told me a lot when we finally got to train together," Sienna admitted, folding her hands in her lap as she walked up the path. "but that part was easily my favorite. I didn't even know the leaves could help your mood…"
He sheepishly stroked a hand over his mouth, trying and failing to ease his clear-as-day discomfort. "…I'm really sorry."
"For what? Liking something? You don't need to apologize for any of that," Sienna mused, tapping a finger to her chin, "especially not to the lady who told you all those facts in the first place~"
As they walked up the pathway towards the mighty jungle, Adam took the notebook he'd just been given and opened it to the front page.
There was no text, only signs of just how old the journal was from the condition of its pages.
Then, the second page.
There was text.
Today I received the most wonderful news. I am to birth a child, a son. I never thought I could be this lucky. When we found out we just couldn't stop crying. Who knew, us! Us! Our family, worthy of becoming a true family at last!
I couldn't help but send the news out to my parents, and quicker than I'd expected they rushed here to congratulate us! Even his parents, whom I'd never even met! (They were a lovely people. His sister, as well, who couldn't stop sobbing "I'm gonna be an aunt?! I'm too young!") Of course, still lots of tears. Mainly from him, but they were happy ones! All of our tears were happy.
We celebrated with food and prayers, and finally I was asked if I perhaps knew what I wanted to name the boy.
I hadn't thought of the answer beforehand. But… surprisingly, it came to me quicker than expected.
And when you come into the world, and I see your eyes for the first time… you'll hear it, too.
You'll hear your name.
My sweet little boy.
My
"How come we're already setting up camp?"
Sienna and Ghira Belladonna were standing in the middle of the in-progress campsite forming around them, where behind the ladder's feet a fireplace was being built by two faunus in the White Fang's signature uniform.
Over to the side, Adam had gone off with one of the fifteen on this mission to assist in setting up some of the tents.
"Well," Ghira began, his voice still holding that firm and broad annunciation even in casual conversation, "it was decided that continuing to walk through this jungle until something was stumbled upon was much less safe than we previously imagined."
"And just sitting here and calling it so early isn't?!" Sienna argued, stepping in front of her high leader. "What makes you think someone, something— could see us here and not immediately think…. "AMBUSH!"? Huh?"
Ghira's brows furrowed. "Would you rather us be sitting ducks with protection on hand, or us walk right into a possible trap when all of our means of defending ourselves are held up in flimsy and capacious bags?"
Sienna thought a moment, her eyes blinking rapidly. Then, slowly crossing her hands, she stepped to the side. "Who knew you were in favor of defense." She smiled.
"These jungles are dangerous, Sienna. And I will do anything to ensure the safety of my men."
Silence.
"So did you finally get yourself a weapon?"
A sigh left the Belladonna's lips. "…No."
Sienna groaned exasperatedly, throwing her arms forward. "Ghira!"
"I have other means of protecting myself!" Ghira fought back, to which Sienna rolled her eyes with an indignant huff.
"Big muscles aren't going to protect you from a bullet, Ghira, or— whatever the hell some person could throw at you!" The tiger faunus retorted, casting her head to the left. "One day you're gonna get yourself killed, and you're gonna leave your wife widowed and your daughter without a father!"
Ghira's cold glare intensified as Sienna smirked smugly.
"…I might even have to swoop in there to help them out when you're gone. Hook it up with the lovely mistress—"
"Sienna Khan!"
"—and get your daughter into something that's not… what does she do, again?" Sienna looked back up, one eyebrow raised. "What does your kid-"
The annoyance in Ghira's voice as he spoke nearly matched the same emotion held in his eyes, "she makes… beaded bracelets."
"And last time I saw her she looked like she hadn't felt the grace of sunlight since birth! Get her into some action, like… ~outdoor making-bracelet-ing~ or a sport, or—" Sienna cried, before halting in her agitated pacing and calming down. "…I do not know why I brought your daughter up."
The high leader scowled. "Neither do I."
"Forgive me for the last comment, and… you won't tell them, right…? Especially not your wife?" Sienna asked, almost pleadingly. But like the snap of a finger, her persona switched to smug confidence, "by the way, how's Kali been? Does she still talk about me? I mean, I thought the last time she had me over for dinner it was very memorable… although, Ghira, I will not lie… I do not like her food. Your wife's cooking is pretty mediocre… if she ever asks, I could—"
"She considers you not only a danger to our cause," spoke Ghira, "but to all of Menagerie as we know it."
Sienna's jaw clenched with her uncomfortably large smile. "She does…"
"Quite insistently, though I don't exactly…" The man's gaze was snagged by something behind her. "…agree with her."
Sienna watched as Ghira strode past her and over to one of the tents. Specifically, the one Adam was at.
The younger man instantly froze the moment he could feel that tall, broad shadow pass over him, but whereas he expected something much different to occur…
All Ghira did was hold the pole that stood the tent up steadier.
Adam stared up blankly at the high leader, his hands frozen in the middle of his prior action: tightening a rope.
"This would've fallen otherwise," Ghira mumbled, putting on a calm smile. "so I'd rather lend a helping hand."
That calmness didn't exactly pass over, and Adam silently looked back down and resumed his work, just as all the other diligent faunus around him.
Our neighbor is missing.
Yesterday morning, she came over to our porch to congratulate me on the news. She told me she'd heard everything from all the cheering we'd done the night prior…
I was very grateful for it all, and she wished me a great blessing. I was initially embarrassed, as well, at how loud we'd been— as I didn't want to be a disturbance to her, but she reassured me.
That was the only time I saw her, all of yesterday. Not even at the time she'd usually come out to water her plants, or when she'd take a small walk in the afternoon did I ever meet her face.
Eventually, there was a search party for her. It began today, and even Jael went out to help.
That surprised me, as it was the White Fang themselves who were hosting the search. I never knew my husband to trust them enough, not with how many times he's criticized their methods…
or maybe it was only because I said I'd wanted to go, but he feared the stress it would put on me.
It was very late when he came home… Jael told me they found nothing. And apparently, her husband and two daughters had vanished as well.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I asked about the neighbor's cat. I knew him very well… he was a young one, one who always loved scratches from any hand. A friendly little thing, and Jael said he was being kept by the sister of our neighbor's husband until further notice.
That night, I slept with worry heavy in my heart. And I prayed, that all of that wonderful family would be found safe and alright…
"…And if none of 'em listen, you know what to do."
It was the faintest sound ever known in the world, but in the middle of the night, it woke an already restless Adam completely.
He sat up in his tent, his eyes wide and alert beneath the mask he hadn't taken off. None of his clothing had been taken off, likely the result of an…
underlying thought.
But the world outside the tent was dead silent, and the only thing Adam could hear now was the sound of his own breathing.
Slow. In and out.
He crawled out of the tent. When he stood up his eyes adjusted to the dark, his mask assisting majorly with his otherwise complete lack of nocturnal vision.
Even with the broken moon high in the sky, vision was difficult.
Carefully Adam treaded out of the camp and towards where he'd heard the sound, occasionally tripping over a rock or vine on the ground. Even still, he kept as quiet as he could, until…
Through the darkness, a shape. Not a humanoid shape.
Not any living shape.
A caravan, a semi trailer. One typically attached to some larger vehicle to be wheeled around, but… it wasn't.
It was just there. Motionless.
And sealed shut.
Adam squinted. He couldn't hear anyone else— no whispering, footsteps, breathing… he was alone.
Before anything else, he headed back to the camp. Adam might have just stumbled upon what they were searching for.
Firstly he went back into his own tent to grab his weapon, a red-bladed chokutō snapped into a thin, black sheath.
Next.
"…Sienna?"
He whispered it as quietly as possible, and it was enough to garner a reply. "What…? Adam, is that…"
"It's me, it's Adam… there's something nearby."
Moments later, the other tent opened. Sienna carefully slipped out through the flaps and stood up.
"Wake everyone else," she ordered sharply, her voice low, "as silently as possible."
Slowly, the two faunus woke everyone sleeping in the camp, and weapons had quietly been gathered.
And after Ghira had been woken as well, he took lead at the head of the reformed group, which steadily crept from the camp and through the jungle trees.
Sienna watched the space between each tree grow farther and farther, allowing more of the skyline to peek in. She noticed the moon was starting to fall as well… how far into the night was this?
And finally, the clearing. No trees, only the trailer.
It seemed quieter out there. As some circled around the trailer, others studied its sealed rear door, locked by two thick metal pieces.
"What in the world could be in here…?" Sienna muttered, stroking her jaw as she thought. Her eyes were drawn to a vent door at the very top corner, one still pumping out and drawing in air.
"You and I have investigated smugglers like this before, haven't we?" Ghira inquired gently, leaning towards her from the side. "If… this is something akin to that."
"Oh, it definitely is... but look up there." She pointed up at the vent, and continued in a much lower voice, "Whatever is inside of this trailer is being kept cool, which means whatever's inside is likely something living."
"Humans have their eyes on our island for many reasons, Sienna. Our food, medicine, clothing…"
Sienna looked up at him with a wry expression on her face. "We've never encountered a group of humans smuggling goods during the night. "
Silence, deader than the dead of the night.
"There's an opening!" One member suddenly rasped, and Ghira approached them from behind. Sure enough, the door hadn't been sealed all the way, as a chipped off piece from the hatch exposed a sliver of interior darkness.
"…Sienna. Look at this."
And she obeyed, but it only took one good look for her to get an idea.
She ran back to where Adam was currently standing, monitoring the area for any unexpected company. "We need you to break this thing open."
"How am I supposed to do that?" He asked, the words coming out louder than intended.
Upon shushing him, Sienna whispered an explanation, "There's a piece of door that's chipped off. All you're going to need to do is insert that blade of yours in there and bust it open…" she hesitated. "…gently as you can."
Adam and Sienna stared at each other in complete silence, as if bidding some silent, meaningless farewell to one another, before he gave a firm nod. He unsheathed his weapon as he approached the trailer, and all those standing around it backed away.
Without a word Adam slipped the blade through the hole, and… he felt something.
And he swore he heard something.
But he proceeded. Gritting his teeth, he began pulling, grinding the sword against the flimsy material of the trailer's door before he heard one snap.
One of the metal hinges holding it shut had popped clean off. Adam proceeded.
There was a sudden harmony of quiet gasps— not from the group, but somewhere entirely different. He proceeded.
Distant footsteps could be heard, crunching through the jungle grass. He proceeded.
A second snap, and all at once,
Adam proceeded to draw his weapon out and slide the door open.
He saw
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Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah. Yonah.
bodies. Bodies on top of bodies on top of bodies. Bodies until they squished against the sides of the walls, and pressed on the trailer's indoor ceiling.
And every one of them breathed.
Almost.
Everyone fell dead silent. No breath of air, no cold breeze, no humming in the night.
Dead. Dead as the night.
They were faunus. Men. Women. Children. Infants. Some still wore their everyday clothes, others wore the same pair of disgusting rags.
Their bodies were thin. Some were bony… most looked like corpses.
Most were corpses. Corpses of faunus. Men. Women…
No thoughts could be thought, no words could be said.
What whole group saw, what their eyes bore into, was the first circle of hell.
And only one amongst them had been scorched by the rest.
There was a gunshot.
Adam shoved Sienna out of the way as he spun around and jerked the blade of "Wilt" forward, deflecting a bullet shot by one of five humans in a group now surrounding them.
One of these men on the far side had a faunus man, a much younger man, bound in a headlock.
"Everyone move!" The bull faunus yelled, as bulletfire began to light the darkness.
Everyone else followed suite, with Ghira quickly shutting the door to the trailer to protect its occupants.
On the other side of the trailer, concealed in a dying shade as sunlight began to peak over the horizon, Sienna crouched down. Her ears were folded over, and her eyes were wide and dark.
And the longer she sat still, listening to metal against metal, things began to click.
"Come on, boys," one of the men barked, "free game for us!"
Adam's main objective was the man with the hostage. Swiftly he sped through the shadows of the trees and slammed the head of his sheath into the back of the man's head. The instant his grip on the faunus man fell completely Adam grabbed him and ran him over to the others, all the while reflecting and deflecting oncoming bullet fire.
The first man he'd attacked rose back to his feet, and he shot a bullet which just barely grazed one of Adam's horns.
He needed all that training to pay off. Immediately he ran back, grabbing the man by the arm just before he slammed him against a nearby tree, the collision rendering the man unconscious.
Adam then turned at the sound of much louder gunfire, as one of the men had pulled out a much larger, stronger rifle. But without much thought he ran straight for it, grabbing the rifle at its front and then jerking to the side, throwing the man holding it with him. Quickly Adam jerked the rifle back, causing the rear of it to slam straight into the man's nose.
Once he'd kicked him down, he had three more to go.
Meanwhile, Ghira and Sienna had already begun to frenzy.
"All this time this has been happening, and we knew of none of it!" Sienna cried, glaring daggers into the high leader's eyes. "You knew none of it!"
"These men kept their act in secrecy!" Ghira snapped back, "Had I known about any of this, I would have—"
"Would you have done anything, Ghira? Would you?!" The tiger faunus wailed, a sudden zip through the air silencing the space around her, "Because the man I've known for the last twelve years sure as hell—"
A shroud of black was cast across the surrounding area, and then… a sharp, slashing red.
The sun carefully returned to the sky, and a bright, warm-colored light began to shine over the land.
A silence followed.
"…Clear."
At the sound of his voice, the group hidden behind the trailer began to re-emerge. Adam had managed to take care of every one of the attackers, with not a drop of blood shed.
Even after, as Sienna assumed it had, his semblance had been activated.
It was a dangerous one.
An uncontrollable one.
But all it had done was chop an entire tree down, where it now laid over an unconscious man's body.
And just as Ghira was about to speak, Sienna won that race. "Cuff them," she ordered, stepping away back towards the trailer. "we'll bring them back for interrogation. I want to know who they work for… everyone else, start getting those people out of there."
As other Faunus began to handcuff the unconscious humans, Ghira stepped in front of her.
"If we brought these men back, out of this jungle, that will only further endanger us. It is us they want!"
"Not us, them ." She gestured back to the trailer, to the younger man spared from misery incarnate. "The people with no power, no voice… the very things you said you'd given them. The very people you swore to protect. "
"I have protected them, Sienna. To th—"
"Not so fast, prettyboy!"
One of the men was still awake . He sat up from the ground and fired his gun, and before anyone else could react, the bullet hit Ghira straight in the back of his shoulder.
The high leader crumbled forward, his hand gingerly grabbing the damaged tissue as Sienna pushed him away for cover.
But it wasn't Sienna the man was after. It wasn't even Ghira.
The big game was on Adam.
Adam swung his blade at the man as everyone ran back for protection, but the man bashed it out of his hands instantly. He was able to punch the man in the gut, but it was returned with an even harder punch to the face.
Adam spat blood. He dodged to the side of the man's next attack and lunged his fist into his shoulder, but the momentary drawback left him open to be kicked in the leg and knocked down.
No one else could see. The man turned Adam over on the ground with his foot, before then resting his heel straight down over his throat.
"Look at those horns…" the man cooed, depravity lacing his voice as he ripped away the bull faunus's mask. "I could make a fortune out of—"
Adam didn't even hear the sudden cut off in the man's words. His eyes were bare. His face was exposed.
The brand seen. Seen by a human. Seen by someone, anyone. Exposed to the world.
Adam's eyes bulged, and he grit his teeth. He couldn't move, and he barely breathed. All he could move were his hands, so shaky as they grabbed onto the man's ankle that they were all but weightless.
He was powerless. He was being held down. Being held down by a human. A human was holding him down. Under his foot.
He was under a human again He couldn't do anything. Anger built in him, he couldn't use it. All he could do was feel the man's horrible gaze peel across his skin, and r
"I remember you!"
The voice came out cruel. The man leaned forward, and for a brief moment, his foot came off Adam's neck. The smirk on his face was as empty as decaying rot.
"You look just like your
Adam grabbed the man by the shoulder and ripped him to the ground, snapping his leg directly from the knee down.
The man shouted in pain just as Adam got to his feet and retrieved his weapon.
He stood over this man, his nose and mouth bleeding, his chest still struggling to gather air, with his eyes so wide and his teeth so tightly grit it was painful.
And with the rising sun casting a brilliant light across the rose emblem on Adam's back his arms too rose into the sky,
where Adam brought wilt down directly onto the man's throat.
There was a squelch, followed by a muffled squeal. A disgusting moan, and Adam stabbed again.
Blood began to pool. Adam stabbed again.
It started to spray onto him. Adam stabbed again.
He began puncturing the chest. Adam stabbed again.
He impaled everywhere on the man's body he could. Adam stabbed again.
Adam stabbed again.
Adam stabbed again.
Adam stabbed again.
Adam stabbed again.
Adam stabbed again.
Adam stabbed again.
Adam stabbed again. And stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and
red.
Red covered Adam, head to toe. Whether it was his, or the body now rendered a pile of flesh and mush beneath him, strands of skin squelching as gravity snapped the wounds remaining apart.
And as Adam silently stepped away, to grab his mask from the ground…
he painted it with a darker shade. And the reality hit in.
"What the hell have you done?!" Ghira stormed out from behind the trailer, grabbing Adam by his shoulders and forcing him to meet his gaze.
The younger man didn't. He couldn't. He didn't speak, either. Maybe it was from shock… stress. It physically hurt for him to try and talk, more than anything else.
He trembled all over, even more than just his hands.
Still, Ghira's voice only grew louder. "No one needed to die today. No blood had to be shed today, and yet now you stand here before me coated in it!"
"Get your hands off of him!" Sienna yelled, grabbing Ghira's wrist and yanking it away. "Adam just saved your life, and this is how you repay him?!"
"I would have been fine and you know that damn well, Sienna. We would have been fine had your boy not slaughtered that man without hesitation!"
Your boy. A little boy.
"Fine? Fine?! You say we would have been fine?! FINE!?" Sienna cried, bursting into an almost manic fit of laughter. At that, others began to filter out from behind. "We would have never been fine! Not had Adam killed one man, not had he killed every single one! Not had any of us done the exact same thing, because this— would still happen."
Again, she gestured to the trailer. Members of the group were beginning to unload its occupants.
"Do you remember what I did two years ago?" Sienna asked, standing right before Ghira and staring him dead in the eyes. "What I caused? The blood I shed that day that spelled out a message not only to us, but to all of humanity, to all of Remnant?"
Ghira did not respond.
"That the White Fang was nothing. The war that had been fought for our very rights was nothing. All that had been done was for nothing, because as we grew peacefully ignorant humanity grew smarter. They still use us as slaves, just not publicly . They still kidnap our people to be sold into labor, they just gave the job to the desperate . They pay off desperate men and women like those men to do their bidding because they know just as well as I do the White Fang wouldn't do a thing to stop them.
I became the bearer of a truth scribed in blood, sent to Menagerie, to Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, Vale, every hideous, horrible and uncaring piece of land Remnant bears on its back, of what was being kept secret. I remember the news that broadcasted it, what I'd done. The lady there didn't refer to the slaves as slaves , she called them workers . And back then I… hah, I believed she was just being stupid! A stupid human, attempting to make things better for her own mind in the midst of our suffering. But I stand before you now, I see your eyes and I realize… what else could she have known? She is another pawn, another pawn in a system of depravity and greed and pride and all forms of sin, she only reads off a paper. She reads what she is told to say. That facility was hidden, it was full of not only faunus plucked from our roots in secret but ones who had been bred there. I found that place in a field of nowhere. That news reporter was only a pawn, a pawn like these five men, a pawn like the humans I killed that day years ago, a pawn like you and like me and like everyone here.
You've bred our people into submission while they breed theirs into hatred. You tell them it is their right to be peaceful in the face of cruelty, lest we become what they fear.
Are we not that already? Is even the smallest faunus child not what humanity fears at its deepest core?"
Ghira drew a breath.
"…They only fear the monsters you've branded us as. The monster you've branded him to become."
Sienna's eyes went wide. She hadn't realized everyone else was staring at her now.
Everyone but Adam, who had backed away towards the rest.
A familiar rage, a grudge , fled into her eyes. And as Ghira turned to begin walking away,
"…For the love of all things, Ghira Belladonna, would you come the FUCK ON!? "
Sienna stormed over to him, forcing Ghira to turn around as she held her arms out to her sides, her voice rising into a breathless, enraged roar.
"Adam not only saved your life, but he might have just saved countless more. Countless faunus whom that man would have gladly swept away from their homes and smuggled across the sea, to be thrown out into mining camps had they not died along the voyage! All of which you would have never known, just like you never knew any of this was going on right beneath your very nose."
"He murdered that man. Murdering the other as senselessly as that will not get us anywhere, Sienna." Ghira snapped back, standing his ground. "It will only make humanity fear us."
"As though they don't already fear us enough?" An angry chuckle left her lips. "Why do you believe humanity ever stopped?"
"And why do you believe humanity ever did?"
"You do not get to try and pinpoint the stem of which their prejudice takes root. Of which there must be some possible reason our people are still despised by the world!" Sienna spat, her voice laced with anguish and hate in equal parts. She paced back and forth, her eyes wide as she moved her arms with her voice and snarled, "Not when no answer can ever be given, no explanation ever exist. Not when so long have you lived in your own hand-built palace, eating up the foolish beliefs those before you serve upon a silver platter! And you know what? For years, a whole decade, I believed in you. I too drank from that fountain of idiocy. You offered me lies and I took them and ran, because I knew no else! I'd been thrown to this island only with clothes on my body and blood on my hands, and yet from the moment you looked at me in the rain that night… did you ever ponder why? Why I, a faunus who you did not know and never, ever will, was thrown to the sands of Menagerie off a boat from Mistral?! Ever in those ten years, did the question form in your head as to why Sienna Khan is?
Because you look away. Just as every high leader of the White Fang has before you, you turn away from the prospect before its even reached infancy. You blink out the sight of our peril, our oppression and destruction! Your ignorance is what will damn us all !
A man sits in a cave for years at the will of the ones who held him there. But shall he not break his shackles? If his heart is true and the hands free him, he will step out into the sun where the light will melt his eyes and scorch his body alive ! And even then, if his heart is wrong? If his captors never free him and he starves alone in the dark, not a soul to ever know his story!
Thousands of those stories will never be put to words because of people like you . People so comfortable in their privilege, their ignorant bliss, they could never fathom the idea of doing anything to help us but to lick the bloodied boots of rich bastards and pray they enjoy it.
I still pray, Ghira. Do you know why I pray? I pray that somewhere, some how, a higher being may still rescue us. A messenger, of something kind, may still liberate us, all of us, and salvage the parts that humanity shattered and that you neglected to ever put back together! I pray that something, anything, may still save the faunus, for your methods of absolute subservience will only save nothing!
But do you know what else I pray for?! I pray for all you've turned away from, all I've had to see. All the cruelty, the bigotry. The horrifying things our people are forced to endure. I have seen them all, seen all you never will. All that man is capable of. I have seen them deny us hospitality. I have seen them laugh at our misfortune. I have seen them treat us like lapdogs, I have seen them treat us like livestock. I have seen them rob from our culture. I have seen them shoot all that moves. I have seen them stomp on our necks. I have seen them burn our bodies in pits. I have seen thousands, millions of faunus; starving, weak, diseased— packed into miles upon miles of fence-lined land until they barely moved— I have seen my family die in my arms! I have seen the cruel hands of man— seen them force themselves onto us, into every orifice, where I have watched them beat, and beat, and beat, and beat, and break, and crush, and stab and steal and bind and abuse and ravish and slaughter all lives they can!
I have seen the eyes of the White Fang, held his face in my hands and pressed his forehead to mine, and where I found them was not in you, but in the dying child you failed to protect, the dying child YOU TURNED AWAY FROM THE MOMENT I BROUGHT HIM HERE, THE DYING CHILD YOU NOW STAND BEFORE ME TO SAY SHALL DOOM OUR CAUSE BECAUSE I RAISED HIM, AND I AM OUR CAUSE! "
A final silence.
"Then lead them."
It took Sienna a moment to register Ghira's words, and when she looked up, he'd walked off.
She stood in that clearing, her hands dropped back to her sides. Her eyes wide with a hollow, unseen life within.
The people around her began to unload the trailer.
Faunus that could walk were aided along through the grass,
those that could not had to be carried.
Faunus who were dead had to be carried.
Adam, still coated in two sets of blood, went to help pull the trailer back with them.
Ghira carried a little boy in his arms.
And Sienna Khan clenched her fist.
"…Mama? Are you awake?"
"Mama… it's me! A—Are you okay?"
"Mama…!"
"…Hm?" Rose Taurus woke up when she felt a small hand nudge her side. She looked about herself from where she was laying— on the ground, shoulder-to-shoulder with other faunus around her— and found her own pale-navy eyes meeting with the brighter, bluer ones of her son, who was huddled beneath the crook of her arm. "Couldn't sleep?"
"No… I just forgot to tell you something!" He squeaked, a little too loudly. Rose quickly placed a finger to his lips to quiet him down. "Sorry!"
"Don't apologize," she admonished, before giving her son a playful smile. "tell me the 'something' you nearly forgot to tell me."
The little boy stared blankly at his mother, before then nodding to himself. "Oh! Um… today… I—I saw a guard," he whispered in her ear, giggling at his own words. "but he was really sad! He was sitting, uh… s-somewhere, and he was crying… so I tried to talk!"
Rose didn't like where this was going. However, she let her son continue talking instead of interjecting.
This was routine for both of them. He got to go on and on about how his day went with his mother, even making sure to explain the tiniest of details; she got to hear the innocent smile in her little boy's voice.
"I asked him what was wrong… he said…" the black-horned boy thought a moment, bowing his head slightly. "…um…"
"You asked him what was wrong, and he said something to you," Rose assisted, her voice just as gentle as her hand soothing the boy's back. It was her only hand, attached to her only arm.
"Oh! Yeah! He said… oh, h-he said one of his parents was really sick… he didn't know how to help them!" The boy explained earnestly, making sure to keep his voice quiet despite his excitement (although Rose could still tell how difficult this was for him.) "so… I… I—I told him a joke!"
Oh? "Oh?"
"Y-Yeah!" He beamed, his joy possibly brighter than the stars itself. A small, quick exhale of laughter escaped Rose's lips, which stretched into a grin across her gaunt face.
"And what was the joke? Could you tell it to me?" Rose inquired softly, moving her hand away as he began squirming uncomfortably.
One he'd stilled, he nodded up at her. "Wh-what did… the one dust, say to the other dust, mama?" He asked meekly, his smile fading slightly as he looked deep into his mother's eyes.
They weren't as bright as they were before all this. But to him, they were like looking into the morning blue sky. That beautiful, forever sky.
"What did it say?" Rose replied, tilting her head to the side.
The little boy giggled. "It said… h—hi…!" His voice had a soft crack to it at the last word, and his mother's expression softened.
"Did it?" She asked him, laughing a little as she bunched him up closer with a single arm. The boy giggled and leaned his head on her shoulder.
"He laughed, too! H-he told me… thanks… and guess what?" He snickered, his eyes going wide with anticipation.
"What?"
"He gave me this!" The little boy pulled a thin… something out of one of his pockets, something wrapped in foil. "I wanted to save it for you, m-mama! You can have it!"
"Me?" Rose asked, her eyes wide. "No, no, no. If it's food or something like that, then you have it…"
"No! Here… I—I'll open it for you, mama!" The little boy tried, but his bony fingers were too thin to possibly make a dent in unwrapping the… "something" in his grasp.
"Here, let me do it," she muttered, taking the bar from his hands and splitting the wrapping open. It was a… granola bar? Something like it. "There. You earned this, kiddo."
"B-but… you need to eat something!" The boy protested, pouting. "I'm worried…"
"Don't," Rose whispered with a small wink, handing the bar back to her son. "you need to eat something, too."
"But—"
"Eat."
"Okay!" Surprisingly, he complied, biting into the granola bar and squeezing his eyes shut. Rose grimaced.
"…Slowly! Slowly, don't want you to choke," she admonished, her voice tinged with unease. The boy swallowed then, looking up. "How's it taste?"
The boy stared a moment, thinking of what words to describe an otherwise simple feeling. "…Good!"
"Good! Well," Rose sighed, leaning her head back. "while you eat that, I'm going back to sleep. And afterwards, you should to."
"Okay…" the boy nodded, taking another bite. He was sat up now, his head lowered to where he was holding the bar.
Rose smiled brightly and pat the boy's head twice. "That was very kind what you did today."
"O—okay!"
And kindness is what makes life just a bit brighter.
"Keep it up."
She ruffled his hair one last time before shifting onto her side, folding her arm back over her chest. "…Goodnight, ."
The young boy beamed. "G-Goodnight, mama! See you tomorrow…"
A pause. After finishing up the granola bar and laying down against her back, the little boy whispered one last thing before drifting off into sleep:
"…and love you…!"