Things were changing in the White Fang, for better or worse. Do you remember the Grimm masks that are worn by the White Fang? Adam Taurus was the one who started it. According to what I was told, two weeks before the encounter with the human supremacists in Mistral where my dad had nearly been killed, he and four other faunus in Atlas stole a shipment of dust from the Schnee Dust Company. That is when Adam started to wear his mask. Although the masks helped to conceal our identities, it probably didn't help humanity see us in a better light. But I didn't question it at the time. I believed that I was doing the right thing. A few months after the duel in Zephyros where I unlocked my semblance, I designed my own weapon and got it made for me by a man named David Wycliffe. He was a nice man, and he was loyal to the Fang. I never would have thought that I'd have to fight him to learn of Adam's whereabouts.
An image of David was shown giving Blake her weapon as she smiled with Adam by her side. Still showing the past, Sun presently asked, "Wait. You actually fought him?"
Yeah, I did. Anyway, moving on... By this time, Adam had chosen to wear his mask permanently. Although he had been alternating between his sunglasses and his mask for a while, I had not actually seen his face. I had always been a little curious about his eyes, and why he always concealed that part of his face, but I never had the courage to ask him... That is, until that day.
With Gambol Shroud on her back, Blake walked alongside Adam on the beach, the wind blowing her ponytail around.
"Hey, um, Adam? Can I ask you something?"
"Of course. What is it?"
"I want to know... Why are you always covering your eyes?"
He sighed. "I was always scarred you would ask that. I'm also a bit surprised that it took you this long to ask that question."
"I've been wondering for years. So... are you going to tell me?"
"I don't believe you want to know. You know the old saying, 'Curiosity killed the cat.' If you want answers, I'll give them to you if you take off the mask. But do be forewarned, you won't like what you see."
Adam laid his arms at his side. Blake extended her hand out, but hesitated and pulled it back. She took a step forward and did this same motion, clinching her right hand into a loose fist. Taking another step forward, the catgirl extended her hands towards him, felt the edge of his mask with the tips of her fingers and breathed in, closing her eyes as she lifted the mask from his face. She opened her eyes and gasped.
Once she lifted the mask off his face, she saw a scar in red markings with the letters SDC across his left eye, which was bloodied with a gray iris and a singed eyebrow. His other eye was blue and his right eyebrow was brown. She waited for him to say something, but he was silent.
"Adam..." She repressed a sob. "What happened to you?"
He sighed deeper. "I knew you would ask that. It happened nearly eight years ago, roughly a year before I met you. I was ten and you would have been around five years old. My parents were part of the Schnee Dust Company faunus labor force. Born into poverty, they were both willing to take whatever job they could get their hands on, even if it meant dangerous working conditions, mistreatment and unequal pay. However, when I came into the picture, they were so poor and they had no way to take care of me. Jacques Schnee, the head of the Schnee Dust Company, made them a deal that he would loan them money, but they didn't read the fine print when signing the contract. What they failed to realize was that if they failed to pay off the debt within five years, or if both of them died, I would have to work one year for every one thousand dollars they borrowed.
"Unfortunately, my parents got pay cuts every six months. With that, and with my father dying from mercury poisoning from mining when I was four, it was impossible to pay up the debt within such little time. So I was, in a cruel and ironic way, born into subjugation. My mother was in debt and I was enslaved. They borrowed 75,000 Lien. Not only that, they added extra debt, to keep me enslaved for life. I didn't learn about this, or the contract until much later. I was miserable growing up, and most of my happy memories from childhood are long gone. Forced to work in the mines for dust, I was counseled only by the elder faunus who did their best to help me. But if I be honest, I had the desire to hurt my superiors ever since my first day as a dust gathering slave. On my tenth birthday, however, I snapped."
Blake sniffed. "What happened?"
"My mother couldn't take the cruel treatment of her supervisor. She jumped from the edge and fell down thirty feet, breaking her bones and dying from bleeding. By the time she was found, it was too late. The current supervisor had told me that it was an accident that happened on the job. But the elders told me the truth, and I couldn't take it. It was already hard enough knowing that my mother was dead, especially after my father died, but having to explain that she killed herself and why she could have done it... something snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. I took a chunk of rock that I had gathered from the mine and threw it at his head. He was immediately knocked unconscious. Truth be told, I might have killed him actually, but I screamed at him, telling him how it was his fault my mother died, not even realizing what happened and not realizing how much trouble I was in. Until it was too late..."
"Oh no..."
"Jacques Schnee, as well two other highly powerful businessmen within the Schnee Dust Company, found me and punished me severely. According to what the elders told me, every faunus worker in the mines was stamped with a red SDC mar somewhere on their body. Usually it was on the arm, or on the knuckle of their hand. For reasons unknown, possibly because I was just a child, they never branded me... That is, until I attacked the supervisor. As a result, they branded me on the face, which was not only extremely painful, but also nearly blinded me in my left eye. They did this so that I could never hide from them and to remind me of my place. That I would always be beneath them. Unable to fight against all of them without suffering worse punishment, I ran away in fear and anger, fleeing the city of Atlas. For one year, I was homeless, traveling around to avoid being found by Jacques Schnee and any of his loyal minions."
Blake sobbed. "Adam..." She threw her arms around him. "I wish there was something I could do..." She sniffed and sobbed. "To make the pain go away."
"The physical pain disappeared a long time ago, but the emotional scars won't heal." Adam looked at her. "This is why I want to change the world for the better. So that no faunus should ever have to experience this."
She blinked her eyes in realization before they looked down sadly. "No wonder you were so eager to join the White Fang."
"The White Fang can change things for the better." He looked at her as she looked up at him. "We can change things for the better. We'll start the fires of revolution and change the world. Will you join me in my mission?"
The catgirl wiped her tears away and answered sincerely, "Of course I will."
The bull-horned faunus got out something from his coat pocket. "Then I want you to wear this." He handed out a plain White Fang Grimm mask to her.
She took the mask from him as he put his own mask back on. "Why would I wear this? I have nothing to hide."
"To help conceal yourself. That way they won't be able to identify you if they ever catch you on camera."
She took the mask from his hand and donned it on her face. "How do I look?"
He didn't speak for a few moments, as if he was thinking about his answer. "You look like you're a loyal member of the White Fang, willing to fight until the end."
Blake smiled in response to his answer.
I happily wore the Grimm mask on missions. I believed that the White Fang was only doing wrong in the eyes of its opponents. It was the two of us against the world, and while youth kept me from seeing kept me from seeing what the White Fang truly was in my preteen years, my feelings for Adam is what continued to keep me blind. Of course, I didn't realize it at first. I will admit that I probably had a crush on him ever since I was thirteen, but I didn't realize it until much later.
Thirteen year old Blake stood in the hallway of Schnee Dust Company facility, fighting off against human soldiers as Adam, Sienna and Ilia fought against Atlesian Knight-130 androids. As Blake fired her gun at the soldiers, her full outfit was seen. She wore black tight fitting pants with a white tank top and black vest with the current red logo of the White Fang. Additionally, she wore ankle high black boots and her White Fang mask, only this time, three vertical claw marks were present on the right side.
As she finished fighting off the soldiers with a kick to the rear, she climbed through the ventilation system and kicked down the door below, landing in the dust storage unit. With her night vision, she saw several crates of dust piled on top of each other. While waiting in the room, she heard the voice of Sienna Khan say, "Adam. Let's move."
The three ran forward into the dark room, their figures outlined in shadow. Blake gave them a smirk. "It's about time you got here."
Sienna blinked. "You're wearing a Grimm mask?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
The High Leader remained silent for a moment. "Never mind that. Let's just get the dust and get out of here."
Ilia got out a box and pressed a red button before tossing it on the ground as it transformed into a large six by six grid dolly. The other members loaded the dust crates onto the dolly and ran off with them. Blake jumped on the dolly, standing on the free space remaining and kept back the human soldiers by firing her gun as the others ran.
A montage began with Adam and Blake attempting to target Schnee Dust Company executive board members, with one getting murdered by Adam stabbing him in the gut while the others got away, then the two of them, plus Ilia, Sienna, Yuma, Trifa and Tukson setting fire to a store by throwing torches through the windows, shattering them. The building had a sign on the outside reading, No faunus allowed and another one reading, Faunus are the worst! The store was soon ablaze and the others ran away. As they all ran, through the street, it transitioned to Adam, Blake, and Ilia running to the docks, finding the White Fang Lieutenant bound in rope by a group of four human supremacists. Adam killed three of them by unleashing the energy from his sword while Ilia took down the last one. Blake untied the lieutenant and gave him his mask back. His custom Grimm mask covered his whole face and had red eyes with thin red streaks streaming to the bottom of the mask. With his back to the audience, he put his mask back on before looking to Adam and Ilia.
Many of Adam's missions, both with and without the aid of High Leader Khan, were highly successful. Within two years, he was promoted to leader of Vale's White Fang branch. As a result, many of his missions, as well as mine since I asked to join him, were centralized there.
The two stood in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of a city somewhere in Vale. By this point, Blake wore her black buttoned vest with coattails and a single silver button on the front. Underneath it a white, sleeveless, high necked, crop undershirt and white shorts with a zipper on the front of each leg. She also donned her black low-heeled boots and full stockings with a color gradation of black to purple at her ankles. Her emblem was visible on the outside of both thighs just below her shorts in white. On her left arm was a detached sleeve with a silver cuff around her bicep and black ribbons wrapped around both forearms. A small, loose scarf was wrapped around her neck and a gray magnetic backpack is strapped to her back, hidden by her hair.
Her mask was half-black and half-white with the same vertical claw marks on the right side. As Adam and Blake stood there surrounded by other White Fang members, including Tukson and Ilia, they all looked at the board of the city, with various red dots in different locations, scattered around the city.
She, as well as Ilia, knew what Adam's plan was; they were going to burn down the entire city.
'Is this really a good idea?' is what I thought to myself. This was the first time I started to question the methods of the White Fang, but I didn't think much at the time. I just did what I was told.
Before Blake could internally question Adam's methods any further, Ilia gingerly set down a large grate with the words, Danger and Fragile written on each side on black font. She opened the box, revealing glass looking spheres filled with red and bright orange dust, neatly stacked on top of each other.
"A reminder to those unaware;" Ilia began. "These 'super fire' dust bombs are very dangerous. They are fragile and if they are dropped, they will explode on contact. Now then, we have twenty different bombs to set around the city. There's currently sixteen of us here, which means four of us are going to have carry two bombs. Me, Blake and Adam have volunteered to carry two bombs on us, so we need one more to carry two bombs."
"I'll do it." Tukson said.
"Thanks for volunteering." Blake applauded.
"We will set these bombs all over the city." Adam further instructed. "Once you have placed your bombs in the assigned place, inform me via text and get back to the warehouse immediately." He got out a small black box with a red button on the top, currently covered by a small glass box. "Once they are all in place, I will press this button, igniting all of the bombs at once. The city will burn quickly, and with the fire department crew already assassinated, it will burn to the ground. You know which bomb goes where, so get going!"
The White Fang took the bombs and began to set them in different locations. In the dark of night, Blake set the first one down nearby a jail and the second one placed in the mulch of a children's playground nearby a school.
Bombs F and G set and secured. Blake texted.
Blake was on her way back to the warehouse, jumping on the rooftops but then she stopped and thought to herself, 'Is this really right? I mean, there may be a bunch of human supremacists that live here, but there's innocent humans here too. Not to mention little children who...'
Her thoughts were disrupted as everything began to go wrong. The bombs exploded without warning. As the buildings nearby caught on fire, she tried calling Adam, only to get no response. After three times with no answer, she feared he was in trouble.
Running through the streets as the buildings went down in flames, she called out his name, desperately trying to find him. "Adam?! ADAM?!"
She heard him scream in pain. "Ahh!"
"Adam!"
She ran into the inferno and saw Adam with his arms chained up, being electrocuted. As the center building, the police station burned down, Blake noticed three things; 1. Adam no longer had his mask. 2. Adam's weapon was in the hands of one of the police officers. And 3. There were several dead officers around the remaining five. "What are you doing here?!" Adam asked her. "You're supposed to be back at the hideout!"
"Well, well, another one of your subordinates come to save you, Taurus?" the chief asked. "Well, looks like we get two nasty little animals today!"
"I'd say Noire will be most pleased once she hears about this."
"Blake, run! Save yourself!" Adam pleaded.
"I'm not leaving you!"
Tears fell down her face as she charged towards the police officers.
And it was at that point I realized... I was in love with him.
She struck one of them down with her katana before swiftly dodging the gunfire of various dust bullets from the remaining four with her cat-like reflexes. She punched the officer holding his weapon and took it from her. Backflipping to dodge the gunfire, she took Adam's sword and captured the energy of the bullets with it.
"Aren't cats known for running away from trouble?" one of them taunted.
"Shut up!" Blake yelled, cartwheeling to dodge their fire. "I will never leave my fellow faunus behind!"
"A loyal soldier to the end. I can respect that."
One of them kicked her down. "Too bad neither of you will live to appreciate it."
"No." She clinched her fist as she stood up. "We will survive! You can bet on that!"
Blake growled as she shifted Gambol Shroud from its gun from to her katana. Taking her sword and Adam's, she swung both of them down on each of the officers in a pattern of slashes against a black screen, relentlessly murdering them. Their corpses fell down as she quickly cut Adam loose from his bindings and took him by the hand, running for their lives as the scene transitioned to the two of them walking slowly to the warehouse, holding each other up.
"Blake!" Ilia joyfully exclaimed.
"Adam!" a White Fang member followed.
"We were starting to get worried." another White Fang member said.
"What happened?" Tukson asked.
"It's a long story." Adam stated.
Away from the public eye, he told me what went wrong. As he was setting up the second bomb, the police officers caught him and Adam tried to blackmail them into letting him go by threatening to set the buildings. As he got the message that the last bomb had been set up, he ignited them all and fought the police officers, but he was overwhelmed by their numbers and was captured. I comforted him, and reassured him that I would always be there for him. We saved each other's lives quite a few times while I was in the Fang, and I wanted to tell him how I felt, but I didn't know how. A few weeks later, I was back in Menagerie at my parents house for my 16th birthday. Although they quit the White Fang and I was still in it, I tried to be a good daughter and visit them. I didn't want my relationship with my parents to become strained not overly criticize them for their decision. While staying at home, I asked my mother for advice on how to confess your feelings for someone.
The scene transitioned to Blake in her black nightgown on the upper porch of her family's manor. The moon was shown as well as several twinkling stars in the sky. The catgirl looked up at them.
"Enjoying the night view?"
She turned to her mom and smiled at her before looking back at the stars. "Yeah, I am." Blake turned back to Kali. "Mom, I need your advice on something."
"What is it?"
Blake stammered. "I.. I'm in love with someone and I don't know how to tell him."
"Oh?" She smirked, a grin pursing her lips. "And who is the guy you like?"
"It's... Adam."
Kali touched her right thumb and index finger to her chin. "I see. And do you have any indications that he returns these feelings?"
"None. I know that's probably really helpful." Blake stated sarcastically.
"Hmm. Well, just try to be honest. No schemes, nothing over the top, and be sincere. He may or may not return those feelings, so if he turns you down, try not to take it too harshly. There's plenty of fish in the sea." Kali advised.
Blake smiled. "Thanks mom."
A month later, the two White Fang members stood on the rooftop in the Forever Fall forest. Blake, not wearing her mask, turned to face Adam, who already had his mask replaced with his own redesigned version with whitish-tan with red, Japanese style, horn-like symbols decorating the front and two slits on each side.
"Adam..." Blake began. "I have something to say to you."
"And what might that be?"
She took a deep breath and said with sweet sincerity, "Adam... I.. I love you."
He was surprised, even if she couldn't see his raised eyebrows. "You do?"
"Yes. Adam, you've been my best friend since I was a child. We've always had each others backs, saved each other numerous times. I trust you, and... I love you... I know you probably don't feel the same..."
Before she could say anything else, he cupped his hands around her face and gently kissed her. She gave a moan before surrendering her heart to him. Throwing her arms around his neck, she inched herself to closer to him. Adam snaked his hands around her waist and deepened the kiss. After a few more seconds, Blake broke away, gasping for breath.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"You left me breathless." She answered. She looked at him curiously. "Does this mean that you return these feelings?"
"I do. I've always cared very deeply about you, and you're the only one who doesn't look at me with pity after knowing the truth about my scar. But... don't you think that if everyone knows about us, they'll be questioning our relationship? Because of the age gap?"
The catgirl frowned in response. "Who cares what the world thinks? If they think that it's wrong, then they don't know what this feeling is like."
Blake placed her lips to his and Adam returned the kiss.
From there, our romantic relationship began. Roughly two months later, I took him to see my parents. They had already known him for years, but they had yet to see him in this light.
Blake walked into her family home, with Adam not too far from her. "Hi mom, dad." she greeted.
"Blake?" Kali asked. "I thought you were going to be Vale for at least another year."
"I was, but I decided to come here to introduce you to my boyfriend." Blake took Adam's hand and gently held it in hers.
"I'm so happy for you. I'm happy that you were able to find love." Kali smiled. "Many people search for love their entire life, and some never even find it. I'd say you're fortunate to find a guy like him."
"Hmm..." Ghira mused to himself for a brief moment. "I never liked the idea of Blake dating anyone, especially while she's still young, but I suppose of all the men to choose, Adam is the best choice. He's never done anything wrong to her, he cares about her, he's brave, loyal, and most importantly, he's trustworthy."
"Thank you for the compliments, Mr. Belladonna."
"There's no need for formalities here, Adam. You can just call me Ghira. You've been a trusted friend and ally of ours for years."
Adam smiled. Later that evening, the two sat down on a cliffside on the outskirts of Kuo Kuana, with the full moon shining its rays down on them as Adam had his arm around her. The two were laughing.
"Why would I care about what the world says?" Adam asked. "Society is always the judge and jury. They judge anyone who's strange or acts out of line."
The catgirl chuckled dryly, smiling. "That is true."
"Also you're the one who told me not to worry about the age gap or what the world thought of us. But even then, aside from those in the White Fang, and your parents, who else would know and/or care?"
"No one would."
"Exactly. Those evil humans wouldn't understand love if it hit them like a ton of bricks."
Blake looked at him curiously. "Do you really think that all humans are evil?"
"Some of them are evil, at the very least. And we both know who's the worst..."
"The Schnees." they said in unison.
The catgirl nodded in agreement. "That is true."
"Perhaps one day, the Schnees would be gone."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah, I do."
"A world without the SDC or the Schnees." Blake looked down sadly. "It seems too good to be true."
"Aw, why do you say that? I thought you were the optimistic one." Adam looked at her, his fingers lifting her chin up. "It may be difficult and it may take several years, but it is not impossible."
"That is true." Blake smiled. "I mean, we've weakened the SDC's hold on the world to an extent. There's a lot of local mom and pop dust stores, especially in Atlas."
Adam grinned. "There's my happy little kitten."
The two leaned in and kissed softly.
Okay, brief confession. I will admit, I've had a grudge against the entire Schnee family, including Weiss, for many years. When I first got assigned to be on a team with Weiss, I hid these feelings of animosity from her. She knows that I disliked her, but she still doesn't know the full extent of my former grudge against her.
Anyway, moving back to the story... I never once thought that anything could go wrong. Adam was my best friend, and he returned these feelings, even though I didn't think he would. I wanted him. I trusted him. I loved him. It was a perfect image, and how could a perfect picture break into pieces?