Adam and Capri entered the Auditorium and moved to the side to try and find some space away from anyone who might want to cause problems with the two of them. Adam didn't mind wherever she wanted to stand, he was still trying to wrap his head around everything that was happening. Blake, the Schnee girl, his new 'family', and the fact that he was literally younger and less scarred than he had been ever in his previous life. However the dossier did claim all three of them were branded in essentially the same location, over the heart. Pulling his shirt forwards slightly he could see the horrible scar, red and mean, but it barely hurt, the wound seemed old but he knew he hadn't had it just days ago... Was it just days? How long had those people kept him wherever he had been held?
"What are you doing?" Capri asked, tilting her head slightly to the right, as if she was trying to see inside of his shirt as well... "Oh... is it bothering you? Do you need some lotion for it? Or maybe a bandage so your shirt doesn't rub on it." Her hands went to the small backpack she had been carrying with her since the Bullhead around her shoulders.
Adam let go of his shirt and reached over, placing his hand on hers so she didn't start going through her bag. "I'm fine." He grunted, the scar was like his but different, for some reason it... didn't seem right. Clearly those people had branded them on purpose, probably for their cover story, but they branded him again, the anger he felt for the one who had originally branded him found a new target, those strangers... Artemis and Apollo, they healed his scar just to give him a new one? What kind of sick freaks were they? Revenge flashed through his mind for a moment, but then seemingly passed leaving him feeling hollow. What had they done to him? The anger that drove him, that kept him alive when he should have died, that kept him moving when he had no one left... it was gone, he couldn't draw from it anymore. There were traces of the feeling left behind but he didn't have the obsessive anger he had felt before.
Even the confrontation with Blake earlier, it should have ended with a fight and yet Capri was able to end it with nothing more than a staredown between the two of them. Even that wasn't charged with the same raw rage he felt it should have had. Blake had killed him just a few days ago, or at least it was from his point of view. This Blake, she was terrified, she wasn't the fighter he knew, that he fought, that he lost to. Making matters worse, looking back at the fight in his memories, he should have been the victor, he was stronger, faster, and better than them both at fighting, but he had let his rage consume his mind and he kept trying ineffective strategies that ended with his defeat. This caused him let out a frustrated sigh, he should have at least dragged one of them to the afterlife with him, but he went alone, weak...
"Adam..." Capri could see his face going through different emotions, something was bothering him, but he didn't wanted to let her know what it was. For the last few days it seemed like he had been so distant when the three of them only had one another in Vale. They didn't know anyone else, no relatives, or even family friends here, if they didn't rely on one another or someone they can confide in they would drown in their own emotions. "If you want to talk... I'm always here, you know that right...?" Her voice trailed off, worried she was just making things worse.
Adam grunted and realized he was worrying her, she was too sensitive, just because he was dealing with his own issues didn't mean she was directly involved. "I'm fine, just thinking about things from the past..." A cover, a rather lame one maybe. "That Schnee girl brought up some bad memories." Not exactly wrong, the Schnees were who he blamed in his first life for the horrific treatment that he and other Faunus had suffered working for the SDC. He had been branded and blinded by one of their employees and they had done nothing, no medical treatment was offered for an 'accident', then when they protested and his scar was on display they disparaged him, claiming that the young boy had branded himself or his caretakers had in an attempt to smear the 'good name of the SDC'. This time heat boiled up from deep within, the anger was still there, just distant, harder to reach... perhaps he shouldn't, it cost him his life before.
"I didn't want you going over there... I know how you and Aries get when you guys see or talk about the SDC..."
Adam grunted again, she clearly had a programed version of him she 'knew'... or maybe he had actually existed here before and somehow possessed the body of a young man who looked a lot like him. That wasn't possible was it? Those two had indicated they were sending him back physically... hadn't they? "Gah! This isn't right!" He ran his hands through his hair and around his horns, the situation was impossible, right? This was just a dream of a dying brain wasn't it. Adam was about to let out a scream of frustration before he felt soft arms wrap around him.
"It's okay... we'll be here for you... always." Capri, her face buried in his shoulder, through his shirt he could feel that she was crying, clearly he had upset her greatly with his outburst. Looking up he had noticed several pairs of eyes were focused on the two of them, some human, but most of them seemed to be the few other Faunus students in the Academy, clearly he hadn't been as quiet as he thought he had been.
Slowly he wrapped his arm closest to her around her shoulders and patted her on the back awkwardly. "It's alright Capri... it's alright... no need to cry all over me." Continuing to pat her on the back he scanned the crowd, he didn't see Aries, who should have been here first since he had been escorted directly by Professor Goodwitch.
"But you suffered so much because of us, and now you have to be reminded of it all... I'm sorry... I..." She whispered into his chest while continuing to cry, mostly quiet. Adam quietly cursed her creators in his head, nothing escaped his lips this time, that would only make things worse.
At that point Adam finally saw the reappearance of Aries, coming through the back main entrance with two humans, the small girl who had a tiff with the Schnee and a scrawny blonde boy. The girl seemed to have seen someone she knew and dashed away while Aries spotted the two of them, Adam even raised his free hand to give a small wave to his 'younger brother' over to them, maybe he could help calm down Capri. Aries clapped the blonde boy on the arm before he came over to them, abandoning the boy, he looked around confused for a moment then his head dropped in defeat. Not far behind him Adam saw another face he recognized but had never had direct conflict with, Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl... shame her title failed to hold during the Fall of Beacon, she fought against Cinder and died in battle. A true warrior, she wasn't a hypocrite or a coward, she fought against an opponent she had no chance to defeat.
Aries came up behind Capri and leaned over, resting his head against her back. "What's up Pri? Adam say something dumb again?"
Adam glared at the younger boy who didn't so much as flinch as he made a strange cooing noise that made Capri's sobs slow before they transformed into a giggles. "What is that supposed to be?"
"Dunno, just thought it would make you feel better. Worked didn't it?" Aries laughed as he sat up, no longer resting against her back. "Now, what'd you do bro?"
"Nothing." Adam and Capri said basically overlapping their voices perfectly. Adam went to continue but Capri sat up suddenly and he had to lean his head back to avoid catching her horn on his chin.
Capri looked at Aries and shook her head, not wanting to tell him about the argument with Weiss Schnee, he'd want to find her and argue too. "I was just so happy we made it here, all of us together." Again, Adam felt like there was something being implied by what she was saying, did their 'hometown' get destroyed and he wasn't aware? She kept referring to their parents as alive, but at the same time she kept talking like they'd never see them again. Capri leaned over and hugged Aries before her face suddenly darkened, she slammed her head into his, knocking him off of his feet. "No fighting, you want to bash heads and you'll find my head is still harder than yours." Her tone shifted from the weak sheltered girl to the tone Adam had heard older siblings use against their much younger siblings back in Menagerie. So far he hadn't been able to determine how far apart they all were in age, but he had to guess that Aries was significantly younger than the two of them, at least a year.
Aries sat on the floor for a few moments before he got up quietly and sat back down looking a bit embarrassed. So Capri acted different between the two of them, to Adam she was sensitive, cried a lot, and easily swayed emotionally, while towards Aries she was the tough older sister who would correct his behavior. Were normal teenagers like this? They could easily flip their emotions in an instant?
"YOU!" They all snapped their attention towards another section of the Auditorium, Weiss was berating the other girl again. Adam and Aries tensed to walk over but Aries stopped during Capri's glare.
They could hear parts of the conversation, Weiss was saying they could have gotten hurt, or knocked all the way off the cliff... Though Adam knew from their position if the blast was strong enough to blow them off the cliff they'd have further issues, such as being dead unless they walked around with their Aura active at all times. Then all three were left in a bit of confused stupor.
"Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, ginger, and psycho over there!" Weiss pointed over her shoulder at the three of them, as if she knew they were listening to her conversation, not exactly a different thing to guess as she wasn't exactly being quiet.
"Wow, really?!" Ruby seemed excited at the prospect.
"No." Came the deadpan response, but at the same time Adam couldn't help but reply himself.
"Not interested, not for all your money Schnee!" He called out, his voice dripping with venom and distaste, loud enough it could be heard by almost all of the students in the Auditorium. This caused a large number of groups to begin gossiping together. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company was interested in an unknown and aggressive Faunus who clearly wasn't interested in her in return. A huge scandal! He noticed the girl beside them was the golden haired girl that had been helping Blake when he was killed. A flare of anger surged up from deep within but rapidly faded away.
This time Weiss actually turned around and went to say something but there was the sound of someone tapping on the microphone on the stage. It seemed Professor Ozpin had arrived and was ready to give his speech cutting off whatever Weiss was about to yell back at Adam. A small victory that gave him a petty satisfaction...
'Why am I happy about just making her angry? I should want to bury my sword in her heart, laughing as we finally got one of the main Schnees.' Adam thought to himself, his own emotions didn't make sense, he... hated her and all humans right? 'What's wrong with me?'
"Ahem, I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With that he simply turned and walked off the stage.
Professor Goodwitch stepped up and her voice made everyone focus in a different way than Professor Ozpin's, but not a single person spoke while she gave instructions. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."
Adam and his siblings went to follow the group out of the Auditorium to spend time exploring the school before they'd make their way to the Ballroom to camp out for the night. At least that was his plan before he felt a tiny hand grab his arm and try to spin him around, the pettiness in him made him ignore the tug and kept walking, dragging the assailant with him. "Wait! AH!" Weiss' voice came from behind him and she stumbled and fell on the floor, clearly she hadn't expected him to not turn around when she grabbed him, it caught her flatfooted.
Adam stopped and turned around looking at Weiss who looked more embarrassed than hurt by her fall. "What?"
"I want to talk to you! Why are you picking a fight with me?! Do you know..." She paused, of course he knew who she was, that's why he had picked a fight with her earlier in the day and just now. It was because of who she was that he was antagonizing her. "Help me up first!" Even if she was indignant she refused to talk to someone standing over her, and much to her surprise Adam reached a hand down as if to help her get up, but when she reached for it he flipped her off instead and dropped it. "Asshole!"
"There we go, come on... I know you have more than that to say..." Adam taunted, taking satisfaction in making her angry. "I have no interest in talking to you, so why would I care if you want to talk to me." Turning to walk away Capri was actually blocking him and Aries gave a small shrug of surrender, apparently Capri was not happy with his actions.
She stepped around him and held out a hand to Weiss. "I'm sorry, my brothers are both brutes... but... well... he has his reasons, okay?" Weiss made an indignant sound but reached out again and was pleasantly surprised that Capri didn't pull a trick on her, instead she yanked her, very easily, to her feet. Capri then began to dust off Weiss. "Now... Adam will talk with you, but how's about we go somewhere more private? Your spill has everyone's attention now." Capri offered with an apologetic smile.
Adam couldn't understand Capri's actions, personality, or ability to swing from crying to angry, to domineering, and then to polite, how many faces did she have? "I don't want to."
"Please Adam... maybe it'll help you feel better..." Her face softened a lot, she was pleaded thing time, not trying to push him around like how the conversation started.
Adam's anger dissipated under her gaze, she looked like a wounded cub. "Fine, fine... come along Schnee, let's find somewhere quiet to listen to your confession!" He said the latter half louder than he needed to, again to cause her embarrassment and agitation. "You two run along, go make some friends." Dismissing them like an elder brother trying to do his own thing, which he was basically at this point. Capri nodded, quietly mouthing 'thank you for trying' as she grabbed Aries and dragged him away, saying something about talking with that girl closer to his own age.
"Let's go." Adam turned and began to take long strides, knowing that Weiss would have trouble keeping up with him due to the height difference. Weaving between students and taking several blind turns until he was sure they were alone in a courtyard. For a moment the thought flashed in his mind, the voice silky but venomous... 'She's weak, even unarmed you can kill her.' It... sounded like he was talking to himself, but something was wrong with the voice, he mentally pushed it aside and turned around to face Weiss, his arms crossed while she looked slightly out of breath, she had practically had to jog to keep up with him. "Well?"
"One... moment." She took a couple of deep breaths to steady herself before standing up straight and glaring at him, it may have worked on someone shorter but she was more than a foot shorter than him, and that was with her four inch heels on. "You... you've been antagonizing me since we met earlier. Why?!" She demanded from him.
"Oh, no reason, just the horrible treatment of Faunus by your family's company, the torture they suffer at the hands of the SDC, the inhumane working conditions make it little better than slavery, and I'm just supposed to keep quiet when I can make sure you are at least uncomfortable?"
"You watch too much anti-SDC propaganda! My family has worked hard to build our company, and we have standards in place to ensure fair treatment for all employees!"
"Fair treatment? Do you call branding Faunus workers and forcing them into labor camps fair? Your family profits off the suffering of my people!"
"How dare you! My family would never condone such atrocities. You're painting us with the same brush as the criminals who exploit Faunus labor."
"Oh, please. Your family's hands are drenched the blood of innocent Faunus. You're just blind to the truth because it doesn't fit with your perfect little world."
"I am not blind! I refuse to believe that my family is capable of such cruelty. You're just an ignorant Faunus extremist looking for someone to blame!" After the words left her mouth Weiss realized she made a mistake.
Adam's face turned scarlet as he held his anger in, the urge to strike her was strong, it made his hands twitch. "Ignorant?! You have no idea what it's like to be oppressed, to have your rights stripped away by people like your family! You live in your ivory tower, oblivious to the suffering of others!"
"I may not understand your experiences, Adam, but I won't stand here and let you slander my family! We're done talking. I won't waste my breath trying to reason with someone who's obviously blinded by hatred and their own bias!" Weiss turned to leave but felt an iron grip on her shoulder.
"You don't get to just walk away when you want Princess." Adam growled at her, his eyes showing madness, the veins within the sclera clearly visible as several blood vessels had burst. "Don't you dare turn your back on me."
"Let me go!" Weiss' voice became shrill, she hadn't been expecting an attack and he was holding her left arm, she was in a difficult position even though she had Myrtenaster and he was unarmed she needed some space to draw and wield it properly. Her eyes revealed the terror she was trying to hide, in the past it may have made Adam happy, striking terror in the heart of a Schnee but... suddenly to her, and Adam's surprise, he did let her go, releasing her arm he stepped back and stared for a moment at his own hand as if it had betrayed him. Why had he let her go?
"Go... before we both regret it Schnee."
"You... animal!" Turning away she sprinted as fast as she could to get away from him.
Adam's body slumped to the ground, it felt as if he had torn all the muscles in his body just now, it ached everywhere and the worst of it, his head was pounding, there was something wet coming from his eyes and nose as well but he couldn't even lift his hands to see what it was. In fact he couldn't move at all, he was stuck staring after Weiss as she ran away. 'Should have killed her when you had the chance fool.' The voice broke into his thoughts again, it sounded sick, like he would expect a rabid and mangy dog would sound if it could speak.
There were foot steps approaching, but he couldn't turn his head to see the person coming. If they were there to pick a fight with him he was completely helpless.
"Well, you aren't the Adam I know, despite looking like a younger and healthier version... well not healthier considering all the blood..." Blake's voice cut in, and he felt more than saw her helping him up. "Come on, let's take you to the infirmary."
Not sure what I'm planning, honestly going off the seat of my pants with every chapter, I'm writing because I'm currently under a fit of inspiration. Hopefully you guys are enjoying it if you've gotten this far. You might call the voice a specter, or maybe his bloodthirsty self from his first life. As I said, I think death can cause all sorts of changes in a person, maybe it broke his psyche, or maybe he's just talking to himself and blaming it on another, it could just be his subconcious trying to push him to act like he used to. Maybe there's a mind control chip in his head like in Star Wars Clone Troopers (Nah, that'd be lame).
If you guys got any questions feel free to leave comments, I'll do my best to answer them when I got the time and am awake... working night shift means I am unlikely to reply to any during the day though.
-Sen'val