Seeing Red

Chapter 1

For Jaune, it started as most things in his life did – with him not listening to someone who told him he couldn't do something. In this case, it was something relatively simple – the old man in the village had told him that he had been a fool for taking the route there that he had, and that he should have stuck to the main roads, because didn't he know that Grimm roamed the side roads, and there was no way someone like him could ever hope to take on a Grimm. Naturally, Jaune had taken that personally, and after swearing up and down to the rest of the people in the village that he was merely going for a walk to clear his head, he had strapped on his family sword and shield and immediately set off for one of the side roads, because he wanted to prove them wrong.

And not just the old man or the people in the village, either – he wanted to prove them all wrong,. All those people who said he had no hope of making it into Beacon and becoming a Huntsman, or even that he'd surely die if he ever tried to run away from home… he wanted to prove them wrong, the same way he'd already proven them wrong by actually making the trip here. A lesser man would have been content with simply making the journey and surviving, but not Jaune – not when he was chasing a dream.

And so, he had set off, sword in hand, looking for a Grimm to kill.

"Come on, come on… there's gotta be one around here somewhere…"

Of course, this was a tall order for him, untrained as he was – he didn't even know how to track a Grimm, let alone kill one. But he had to try, because he had to prove to everyone that he had what it took to realize his dream, himself included. So he marched through the forest for hours, growing increasingly frustrated as he trudged through the undergrowth in the summer heat and continued to come up empty.

He let out a heavy exhale, then pulled out his scroll. With no small amount of dismay, he noted that he'd been going in a circle this entire time, which he supposed served him right for simply wandering off without any real direction in mind aside from the one that led to the nearest Grimm, whichever direction that was.

"Let's see… there should be a river around here somewhere…"

At least, that was what the map said. Jaune didn't know much about navigating the wilderness, but over the past few days, he'd at least learned that a river meant water, and water often led to people or other living things. Did Grimm need to drink water? He had no idea, but given how much he was sweating, he certainly needed to.

Jaune wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, silently cursing his desire to wear his hoodie and jeans even in this summer heat. Sure, they kept ticks and mosquitoes away, but they were so hot, and he was so dehydrated.

So he set off, looking for the river. Thankfully, he found it fairly quickly, though he supposed it helped that he was still relatively close to the village and all he'd really had to do was walk a few minutes in the right direction and listen for the sound of rushing water.

Jaune knelt down at the river's edge and cupped his hands together, then filled them with water and drank greedily. He did this several times before deciding he'd had enough, but he wasn't quite done yet – instead, he scooped up more water and went to splash it onto his face, only to pause when he noticed something.

He saw red.

Jaune was confused for a moment, wondering if maybe some fruit had fallen out of a nearby tree and stained the river crimson or something, but even to him, that didn't make much sense. So he looked around, and immediately had his question answered when he looked upstream and saw someone floating in the river face-up, a pool of red leaking out of them and into the water around them.

Jaune didn't think twice – he shrugged off his sword and shield and dove into the river, because that was what heroes did.

And in so doing, he changed everything.

For Eve Taurus, it started as most pivotal things in her life did – with her bloodied and beaten, and being held captive by a human. Or at least, she thought she was being held captive; the pressure around her torso told her as much. Then she realized she could still move her arms and legs, and things got a lot more complicated.

"You're awake."

She just about jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice. Certainly, she moved enough to aggravate the gunshot wounds to her stomach. Instantly, she recoiled, letting out a wince as she did so. The visitor was at her side in an instant, but she held him back with one hand, and then pushed him away.

"Don't touch me," she hissed. "I can take care of myself."

"Really?" he asked. "Because that wound to your abdomen says otherwise. Here, let me help you."

He forced himself towards her again, and her hand drifted to her waist, but it grasped nothing but empty air; Wilt and Blush were nowhere to be found. Her brow furrowed at the knowledge she'd been separated from her weapons. The man approached her yet again, and she rounded on him, baring her teeth in a feral snarl.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "What do you want?"

That took him by surprise. He stood there, blinking for a moment in confusion, before clearing his throat. "I'm Jaune Arc," he said. "And what I want is to give you this."

He opened his hands up, revealing a bottle of painkillers in them. Eve eyed them for just a moment, then looked back to him, her eyes narrowing. "I don't need those."

The man – the human, she amended – let out a heavy sigh. "Of course you don't… But then again, maybe Huntresses are just built that tough."

That took her by surprise, enough that she stared at him in open-mouthed shock for an instant before catching herself. Did he really think she was some kind of Huntress? Her name and face had been plastered across the evening news in all four kingdoms for years now. Was he playing a trick on her, or was he really just that out-of-the-loop? Did he even recognize her with her mask-

Suddenly, she realized her mask was gone. Immediately, her hands flew to her left eye, only for her to realize immediately after that there was still a bandage covering it. She breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her hands, then looked back to the human, who was staring at her with confusion.

"Is there something wrong with your eye?" he asked. "I noticed it was already bandaged, but it didn't seem bad enough for me to have to re-dress it, at least not compared to your-"

"It's fine," Eve hurriedly said. "It's… an old injury. Why are you helping me, anyway?"

Again, he stared at her with confusion. "Because you were floating down the river, bleeding and unconscious. The doctor said you'd been shot. What happened? Bandits?"

Eve thought back to the train, and the betrayal she'd been too foolish to foresee. She should have seen it coming when Blake had started asking questions – when she'd begun to doubt the cause. But she never would have expected Blake to actually turn traitor, especially not in the way she'd done it – by waiting for Eve to finish up with the spider droid, then decoupling the train cars and leaving her to fight off the rest of the Atlesians by herself. Naturally, Eve had been shot, and had barely managed to drag herself over the edge of a railroad bridge and fall down into the river in time to avoid being killed. She'd just managed to arrange it so she was floating down the river face-up before she'd passed out from the pain and blood loss.

And then, somehow, someway, this human had found her and saved her life, then brought her here… wherever 'here' was supposed to be.

"Where are we?" Eve suddenly asked.

"I think this place is called Fall Grove," he answered. "It's downstream from the Forever Fall. Vale's a few hours away by foot."

"Why did you bring me here?"

He shrugged. "This was the nearest place. You didn't look like you'd survive the trip to Vale General, so I brought you back here and had the village doctor patch you up. He did what he could, then released you to me. Not sure why; guess he's putting me in charge of you, for whatever reason. I suppose that's in-character for him, though – he's one of those jaded doctors, if you know the type."

Eve did indeed know the type – most of the medics in the White Fang were like that; it was a natural progression of seeing comrades fight and die in your arms for a cause they believed in. Most of the medics she knew took up smoking and drinking for a reason, after all.

"What's your name?" the human suddenly asked.

For a moment, Eve considered giving him a fake name, but if he truly didn't know who she was or was trying to play mind games with her, then it wouldn't matter. Plus, her mask was off; that meant her facade was already broken, anyway.

"Eve Taurus," she answered.

"Eve Taurus…" he repeated. "Well, nice to meet you, Eve. I'm Jaune Arc."

He offered her a hand. She stared at it. After a moment, he lowered it and let out an awkward cough. "So, uh… what got you, anyway?"

"What do you think?" she growled.

"Bandits, huh? I guess I figured right after all. There must've been a lot of them to take down a Huntress like you."

She let out an irritated snort. "Yes, there were tons. Bandits, as far as the eye could see. They blocked out the sun, even."

"Wow…" Jaune breathed. "Sure hope I'm capable of taking them on like that one day… that's downright inspiring."

Eve looked around the room for the first time. It wasn't much – just a small room in a small house; it looked like there was a bed, an end table, and a window, but not much else. Off in the corner, the human had leaned a sword and shield against the wall. They weren't her usual weapons, but as long as Wilt and Blush were still missing, they'd do. All she had to do was get to them, overpower and kill the human, and make her escape, and she'd be free.

She tried to sit up again, but the bullet holes in her stomach screamed at her as she moved. Eve let out a pained gasp and collapsed back onto the bed. The human was at her side in an instant, fussing over her.

"Don't move so much," he urged. "You'll just aggravate your wounds."

"What would you know about it?" she growled. "You treat a lot of wounds like this, human?"

He shook his head. "I know that if you're injured, you ought to move as little as possible. And my name's Jaune, thank you very much."

"Jaune…" she repeated. The name felt like poison on her tongue. She hated every letter of it. "Leave me. I can recover just fine without you."

He stood up, wiping his hands off as he did so. "If you insist. But I'll be back in a bit to check on you."

With that, he left the bottle of painkillers on the table next to her, collected his sword and shield, and left her alone with her thoughts.

Jaune stepped outside the room, closing the door behind him with a sigh. He brought a hand up to run through his hair, a disappointed groan escaping him as he leaned against the nearby wall.

Treating Eve was not going to be easy at all, that was for sure. But he'd already chosen to accept that burden when he'd brought her back to town – nobody else was willing to take her in. It was pure dumb luck that he'd even been able to do so in the first place – he'd drained his bank account to rent a house for the next few weeks before heading off to Vale, and apparently, he was the only one with both the space and the willingness to take in a random stranger in need of help.

"Jaune, what have you gotten yourself into this time…?" he muttered. After a moment, he shook his head. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter – I'm in it now, that much is certain. Hopefully, Eve isn't nearly as difficult to treat as she seems like she might be."

"I just need to kill that blonde idiot, and then I'll be able to get out of here."

Eve tried to push herself up so she was leaning against the headboard again, but once more, her wound stopped her. She collapsed against the bedspread, a gasp of pain escaping from her.

She'd been shot before, obviously, but it had never hurt like this. Perhaps it was just the additional sting of betrayal, courtesy of Blake.

Blake… the mere thought of her made Eve's fingers curl into her palms and her expression tighten. She'd given Blake everything – her time, her loyalty… all of it. And then Blake had gone and thrown it all away, and for what? To save the lives of some humans? And SDC workers at that.

Eve didn't know where Blake was now. If she was smart, she'd go underground – change her name, maybe, and try to stay incognito. She'd always been good at hiding in plain sight; Eve didn't doubt for a moment that she'd do exactly that to avoid reprisal. Of course, she'd have a head start, too – Eve couldn't exactly report what had happened to the rest of the White Fang while she was here. Blake being as good as she was, she'd take that brief head start and run wild with it. Wherever she ended up, she'd be impossible for any of them to get to, let alone find.

Eve slammed her fist against the bedspread out of rage, uncaring of how the movement made pain blossom across her torso. She grit her teeth as she thought about everything Blake had done – everything she'd turned her back on. She'd abandoned their cause, their people… Eve herself.

It was unforgivable, and it demanded correction. And it burned Eve to her core to know that Blake was out of her reach.

"Damn it…" she breathed, as she stared up at the ceiling. "The hell have I gotten myself into now…?"

That was the question, wasn't it? Somehow, she'd gone and gotten herself… not quite captured by a human, she supposed. He didn't seem to know who she was, and neither did anyone else in this village. Perhaps she'd overestimated her notoriety, or maybe they were just that far off-the-grid, but it didn't matter – she wasn't about to talk down on her good fortune.

Right now, she needed a plan, but unfortunately, from where she was laying, it wasn't exactly easy to think of one. For as long as her abdomen was still healing, she was basically immobilized. Even for someone with Aura, being gut-shot was a bad injury. Just from what she could feel, one of the rounds had penetrated her liver; it was a miracle she hadn't bled to death purely from that. Still, it complicated things – even once her Aura came back, an internal organ injury as severe as that was going to take time to heal. She'd be immobilized for at least a few days, and recovery in general would last for at least an additional week past that.

So, she was stuck. Great. The thought earned a sharp exhale of annoyance from her.

Then there was a knock at the door, and her annoyance grew.

"Eve? I'm back with some food. Can I come in?"

She didn't dignify his stupid question with a response, because she knew he was just going to come in anyway. And that's exactly what he did – he pushed his way in barely a second later, holding a plate of something that admittedly did smell good, but that she wasn't about to partake in while he was around.

He entered the room and set the plate down on the table next to her, allowing her to get a good look at it. Admittedly, it did look appetizing – some kind of grilled red fish with vegetables. She wasn't about to turn her nose up at food, especially when she was injured, but she also wasn't about to let him see her partake.

Predictably, he stared at her expectantly. She stared back with a scowl.

"Why are you helping me?" she said bluntly.

"Because it's the right thing to do."

She kept staring at him, unsatisfied with his answer. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," she growled.

For the first time, his expression faltered. "What do you mean?"

"Do you really need it explained to you like you're a five-year-old? Look at me. I'm different."

He eyed her up and down, then looked her in the eye again. "How are you different? I don't see it."

Eve grit her teeth. She hated humans, but she especially hated this human. He was obnoxious. "My horns," she emphasized. "I am a Faunus. You are not."

"Oh," he said. "Well… admittedly, I've never met a Faunus personally, but I don't see why that's important. You're just another person to me."

"Am I really supposed to believe that?" Eve growled.

"...Yeah? What else are you supposed to believe?"

Eve averted her gaze out of sheer anger. She was done talking to him. "Leave me," she hissed.

"But-"

"Leave. Now."

The human obliged, rising up and exiting the room without another word, then shutting the door behind him. Eve watched him go and waited a minute to make sure he was gone, then reached for the tray of food and began to eat.

She didn't know what he was trying to do, but it didn't matter. She'd spent enough time around humans to know how they acted, and what they believed. If there was one thing she was sure of after being around them for so long and suffering so much at their hands, it was that they couldn't be trusted. This one was no exception.

The first chance she got, she'd kill him. It didn't matter if it was with a sword, or a gun, or her own bare hands – as far as she was concerned, this human, this man named Jaune Arc, was little more than a walking corpse, same as all the others.

She'd get her revenge – against him, against Blake, against all of humanity. It didn't matter who stood in her way, or what vague platitudes and desperate pleas for mercy they had for her.

She had a score to settle with the entire human race, and as far as she was concerned, Jaune Arc was going to be the next name crossed off her list.

For the second time in as many days, Jaune found himself leaned against the wall just outside of Eve's room, a disappointed sigh escaping him.

"What am I doing wrong…?"

He frowned as he turned the scenario around over and over in his head. But try as he might, he simply couldn't figure out where he'd gone wrong in communicating with her. He wasn't the most socially conscious guy, sure, but he also wasn't a complete antisocial weirdo either. He could read people to a certain degree, and that was enough to tell him that whatever had happened, it might not have involved him directly.

Eve had made a big deal out of her being a Faunus and him being a human. He wasn't sure what that was about, but maybe it would pay to look into it before trying to communicate with her anymore.

"I wonder if there'd be something on that in the town library…"

It certainly wouldn't hurt to check, he figured – the worst thing that happened was that he was left at square one. And besides, maybe it'd pay off at Beacon or something.

"Assuming I still get in, of course."

Sending in the application was the easy part, he knew – the real test would be once he got there, whatever it was. He only had a few weeks to prepare, so he needed to be taking the time to gain as much knowledge as he could. The fact that it could help him understand Eve a bit more wouldn't hurt, either.

And so, Jaune stepped out of his rented home and made his way to the library, intent on finding out just why Eve seemed to dislike him so much.

Hello, friends, and welcome to the story I've been teasing for literal months now.

In all seriousness, this is one that I've really wanted to work on ever since that initial short story featuring this pairing I published a few months ago, but I needed it to be right first. It took a while for all the pieces to start fitting together, but here we are.
Before I go any further, a big thanks to my friend/co-writer/editor/beta reader Ickbard for all his help with this story and everything else I'm working on. I owe him a lot for helping not only this story, but everything I've been working on really come together.

Anyway, if you couldn't tell, I'm going to be putting my love for hero/villain pairings and redemption arcs on full display here. Anyone who's read some of my other stories probably knows what to expect in that department, but this one is going to be different. You'll see how once things pick up some more.

To my knowledge, fem!Adam is something a lot of people in this fandom have an interest in, but outside of pure smut, nobody seems to really do anything with her. I'd like to change that, because fem!Adam Taurus appeals to me personally on a primal level… like I'm a monkey or some shit. Really gets the ol' neurons activating, you know? Anyway, that's part of the impetus behind this fic, along with the fact that I already tried my hand at this pairing and really enjoyed working with it, as did a fair number of readers. So I figured, hell, let's give the people what they want.

As far as update speed is concerned, I'm currently shooting for something similar to Black Sun, so around monthly updates. I might change that depending on the reception this story gets – that is to say, if you all end up really liking it, I'd be open to swapping Darkbloom out for monthly updates and making this one bi-monthly instead. But we'll see – one thing I've learned is that my short fiction tends to get stronger responses than my long-form fiction, so I honestly have no idea what to expect from this story in terms of reception lol. Frankly, I'm happy with whatever reception I get. Everyone's so good to me already and I'd hate to be begging for reviews from you all.

And now we're here, a few months later, working on this thing. I don't have a ton more to say about it, aside from the fact that I'm super excited to be finally working on this. I've wanted to do an Eve Taurus story for ages, ever since that initial chapter in Problems With Dating the RWBY Girls, and now I finally get to do one, so I'm a very happy man at this point in time.

That all being said, I won't keep you guys for much longer. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I looked forward to working more on this story.

Enjoy my work and want to help me out a bit? You can support me, as well as read more of my writing, over on Amazon. My second original story is available for purchase now, you can find it by going on Amazon and searching for 'Dead World' by John Haruspex. The story is available now for three bucks in ebook format (or free with Kindle Unlimited) or twelve bucks in paperback format, if you prefer physical media. (Remove the spaces)

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My first original story is also still available at the following link as well:

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