Adam's eyes snapped awake as he felt eyes on him, it was the nurse from the night before she was staring at him and looking at her scroll occasionally. Groaning he slowly sat up and found several wires attached to various points on his body. "What... how?"
"I needed to run the tests so you can participate in the Initiation, failure to do so would mean you are unable to join Beacon this year." The nurse said, her voice flat as she continued to run her tests that he had no idea what was going on. "So far so good, no heart issues, you waking up on your own is a good sign, now stand up, I need you to do a few exercises for me."
Adam stood, stifling a groan of pain as the aches throughout his body reminded him of their existence, he felt as if he had done multiple hours of a full body exercise the day before. It wouldn't be enough to put him down, or even affect his abilities once he stretched and prepared to compete in whatever the Initiation was for the new students, he believed he'd excel, years of practical experience put him, in his own opinion, above those children he would compete with. Following the instructions of the nurse he went through a vigorous exam, then was told after the Initiation he would need to come back to her office for a follow up. If everything checked out he would need to come by the next week, if not he would have to stay again for observation.
A thin sheen of sweat coated his body, without using Aura he felt his body was not at the same condition it had been before his defeat at the hands of Blake and her teammate. Or perhaps it was just that it was younger and less trained than he had been originally, a possible explanation. The nurse dismissed him but gave him a pointed look, as if telling him not to overdo it today. The nurse also sent him a student map to his scroll that way he could find his way around the Academy.
Adam made his way to the cafeteria, following the map on his scroll to find it extremely busy, and there was a very loud girl with red hair hovering over a boy from Mistral who seemed tired. The girl was blabbering about being on the same team as him. Teams? They were decided by the Initiation? This might be a problem, how did they decide them?
"Damn, I need to team up with three of those on the list those bastards sent me... how?' Adam thought to himself, unsure of what he could possibly do to join up with three people, three of them he had wanted to kill, and even now he doubted that he could get along with them easily. The rage was less but it still existed deep within him. The voice before must have been his subconscious telling him what he really wanted to do, the old bloodthirsty Adam who got killed so easily. No he couldn't make the same mistakes he had in his first life, especially with those strange watchers. How had they known he was in the infirmary before? Or even about the injury he sustained... was it an injury? They seemed to think it was of very little note... and they were mostly right, his body ached but he felt fine otherwise.
After getting in line and grabbing his food he went to look for a place to sit when a voice called out to him. "Hey, Adam! Over here!" It was the blonde girl from the waterfall... She was sitting next to Capri, Aries, and the little girl from before, he believed her name was Ruby. For a moment he thought about ignoring her, but doing so would just draw the ire of Aries and Capri, now and later. Taking a breath to calm himself, he was Adam Szarvak now, with some sort of deities or a close enough group watching his every action, Adam Taurus was out there, leading the White Fang. In less than half a year he would be in Vale to coordinate the attack on the Vytal Festival and Beacon Academy. This was a horrible failure and decision that he would have changed if he was still in charge, working with that woman Cinder got so many of his brothers and sisters killed and even though they destroyed Beacon it barely had any effect. Humanity barely seemed to care across the whole of the Kingdoms besides separating their students to the other three major Academies.
Placing his tray down he sat beside Capri who leaned into him for a hug but he just grunted and tried to eat around her arms. "You okay Adam?"
Yang gave an awkward chuckle, "That's your brother right? He's not super friendly."
Capri nodded and regretted it, her horns clacked into Adam's, making him spill his mouthful of oatmeal onto his shirt. "Oh no! I'm sorry." She grabbed a napkin and tried to clean up the mess, just smearing it around. "Sorry, sorry..."
Adam sighed and stopped trying to eat and shook his head, putting down the spoon and putting his hand on hers. "It is alright Capri, I'll clean up before the Initiation starts." Capri nodded, tears in her eyes, she was just making a mess again, making things harder on Adam. "Don't... don't cry... it's alright. I'm fine." He said delicately as he could, gently pushing her off of him so that she wouldn't crack him with her horns again. "Let's eat, then we can go get ready."
Yang spoke up at this point. "So... this is my little sister Ruby, and my name's Yang, nice to meet you finally Adam." She held her hand out across Capri's seat to try and shake his head. Hesitating he shook his head and kept eating. "So Mister Grumpypants doesn't do handshakes, that's cool."
"Don't call me that." He growled between two bites of oatmeal.
"Oooo-kay." Yang looked at Capri who gave a small apologetic smile. "So... what do you guys think we will be doing for the Initiation, they've been keeping it secret, even the older students haven't told anyone about it."
Ruby seemed to think about it deeply but gave up with a shrug. "A tournament?"
Aries spoke up next, maybe we will have to fight Grimm?"
"How would they capture them?" Ruby asked with a mouth full of cookies.
"Hmmm..." The mystery ate up the rest of their time eating, each person putting forward an idea of what they could be doing for the Initiation. They were going to fight, that much was obvious, but what, how, and for how long can't be determined.
They walked into the locker room as a group, Yang teasing Ruby, Aries chatting quietly with Capri, and Adam wishing he would be left alone by all four of them. Capri was clingy, Aries looked up to him in such a way it was close to worship. Ruby and Yang were his enemies, or they were Adam Taurus' enemies... Was he supposed to just let go of his anger and hatred from his previous life? Could he let it go and live on as Adam Szarvak? Before he was so sure, he was going to lead a revolution, topple the Kingdoms and put Faunus in their rightful place at the top, lording over Humans... now, now he was spending time with them and wasn't feeling the absolute urge to cut them down.
Quietly he clinched his fist, the tendons and knuckles popping softly as his nails dug into his skin. 'What's wrong with me?'
'You've grown weak Adam.' The voice from before seemed to cut into his mind, how could have gotten so weak in just a few days...
'No, I'm still me, I am... am...' Adam couldn't argue, he was a teenager now, his body was weaker than it had once been, it lacked the struggle his original body had gone through. Adam Taurus was still out there in Remnant somewhere, making his plans and plotting his missions to further the goals of the White Fang.
Going to the lockers each of them began to pull out their own equipment, Adam approached his and somehow knew the code, unlocking it and finding something that made his heart jump into his throat. A straight sword sheathed in a short rifle with the trigger near the hilt of the sword with a symbol of three flowers, a blooming golden Spider Lily, a white Camellia, and a red Gladiolus, a sword lily. The rifle sheathe was black trimmed with gold, the sword blade was brilliant gold with thin lines along the blade that connected with a small slot to insert Dust in the hilt. It was Wilt and Blush, with some mild alterations and different colors. The name came into his head. "Blossom's Eclipse." The weapon was designed for him, it would work almost exactly the same, except he could now fill some of the gaps he had in his first life when the entire blade was infused with Fire Dust, this one despite the color didn't seem to be infused with Dust. Somehow he knew that the blade was supposed to be the Blossom with the sheathe-rifle was the Eclipse.
Ruby was suddenly looking over his shoulder. "WOW! It's beautiful, you said it's called Blossom's Eclipse?" Ruby looked very interested in his weapon, one he wasn't interested in letting her investigate, but... her desire and glee at looking at his weapon made him sigh and moved slightly so she could get into his locker. "It is beautiful... did you make it?"
Capri spoke up from her locker where she was getting her equipment out and putting it on. "Our weapons were all made by our parents." She slipped a breastplate on and began to tighten the straps on her right side. "They made all of our equipment actually. They we-are good craftspeople." Adam caught a slip of the tongue and looked over at Capri who looked down, having stopped putting her armor on before she shook her head and reached into the locker again, pulling out vambraces next that she slipped over her forearms and tightened them down.
"Wow... your parents are amazing... the blade is sharper than anything I've ever seen, even the professors at Signal couldn't make something like this." She was oooo'ing and ahhhhh'ing over the weapon, investigating all of the different features of the weapon. While hers could transform, and act as melee, long range support, and even close range suppression she still loved all weapons, almost equally. "What is the metal?"
Again Capri chimed in. "All of our weapons are made from the same meteorite our parents found in the forest. Coming from the same source our parents thought it would keep us close, even if we are far apart."
"Woah, that's so cool..." Ruby put down Blossom's Eclipse and dashed over to look at Capri's sword and pistol, simple weapons, straight forward and utilitarian. A high capacity Dust bullet magazine would feed Claw, her pistol, and much like Adam's Blossom her Tooth had a slot in the hilt of the sword to insert powdered Dust.
Adam looked back to his locker and saw another piece that made him flinch, a mask, black and gold like Eclipse. "You two really want to expose me right away?" He muttered to himself, it was practically his old Grimm Mask but black and gold instead of white and red. He also had several pieces of protective equipment in the locker, a breastplate, greaves, and vambraces, basic equipment one might wear when fighting Grimm, or other people, then there was a long coat to wear over it, on the back was a golden spider lily, apparently it was his emblem in this life while the other two on his sheathe must have been Capri's and Aries'. His armor was colored black and gold like the mask, clearly it was all a matching set, and the part that made him the most annoyed, everything fit him perfectly despite his unfamiliarity with the equipment it didn't even seem to impede him movement as he tried bending, leaning, and twisting while wearing it.
Aries was now the one entertaining Ruby, his weapon was the most complex amongst the three siblings, a halberd that could collapse and become a long rifle, or even further becoming small enough to be considered an SMG that fired high caliber Dust bullets. An axe blade on the front, a spear head at the tip, and a hammerhead on the reverse of the axe, and all of this around a rifle barrel that could be triggered at any time during a fight even when fully extended, though aiming would be difficult. Then on the other end was a simple spear head, razor sharp of course, and strong enough to stab into a steel plate or a stone wall, but Aries decided to reveal to Ruby another hidden trick on Sunlight, a second barrel on the back, just enough for a highly pressurized Dust shotgun round. "In a pinch I can propel Sunlight about a quarter mile to a target, I'm sure I might be able to reach further but then I might miss entirely or hit what I wasn't aiming for..." Reaching into the locker after leaning Sunlight up against a wall nearby he pulled out a pair of gauntlets, white, silver and black he slipped them on. "These are Moonlight." He cracked them together creating a small shockwave to pulse out. "I charge them with Dust and they can greatly enhance my striking power, or I can use them to hit the ground, or one another and release a burst of Dust." He seemingly enjoyed talking about his weapons as much as Ruby liked to learn about them.
Adam scoffed, he was giving away everything. If they ended up fighting one another what was he going to do, he had already given away all his tricks before hand.
As they were talking the red-haired girl and the Mistral boy came in, chattering very loudly. "I know! We'll have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal!" The girl let out a loud gasp "A secret signal so we can find each other in the forest! Can you imitate a sloth?" They went further into the locker room, and their conversation continued while the boy attempted to get his things out of his locker.
"Nora?"
"Yes, Ren?"
The boy, seemingly named Ren slides his weapons into his sleeves, they seemingly disappeared, impossible to notice once they were away. "I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."
Nora pauses for a moment before exclaiming, being heard across the entire locker room. "That's why it's perfect! No one will suspect we're working together!"
"Come on Nora, let's go." Closing his locker with a very slight smile he walked away.
"Not together-together..." Nora muttered as she followed him outside of the locker room, they got ready rather quickly.
Capri looked after them and let out a sigh. "She's in love with him..."
Yang laughed and nodded. "Yeah, obviously... think he knows?"
Thinking about it for a few seconds before nodding. "He has to... right, he can't be that clueless?"
"Absolutely..." Yang said with a bit of a laugh but looked at Ruby getting ready at her own locker, seemingly in love with her own weapon. "Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation. If you wanna grow up, you're gonna have to meet new people and learn to work together."
"You sound like Dad!" Ruby puts the weapon down with a huff. "Okay, first of all: What does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And secondly: I don't need people to help me grow up! I drink milk!"
Adam looks up, the mask in hands. "Fighting is technically meeting people... You'll need to also eat properly too, not just drink milk."
Yang chimed in. "Yeah, not to mention you know we have to make teams with people."
Ruby looked down and tapped the tip of her boot against the floor, her voice little. "Um, I don't know, I... I'll just be on your team or Adam's and his siblings..."
Capri let out a small happy sound to be included in the people Ruby wanted to be on the team with. "I wouldn't mind being on your team Ruby."
Yang nodded and began to play with her long hair, looking a little embarrassed. "Maybe you should try being on someone else's team?"
Adam nodded, it seemed like she was trying to get her sister to grow up a bit. "It would help her expand her abilities to be with unfamiliar people." Catching himself agreeing with the girl who would kill him made him growl to himself and slipped the black and gold mask over his face, trying to reconnect with his old self.
Ruby rounded on Yang with some disappointment clear on her face. "My dear sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me?"
Yang stepped back under the displeasure of her younger sister, a bit embarrassed but tried to deflect. "No, no, I just think it would help you... y'know, break out of your shell... Adam agreed, didn't you hear him say it would be best for you?"
"What the-?! I don't need to 'break out of my shell'!" She made a mocking motion with her hands.
The two of them began to argue about being on the same team... Adam shook his head and finished getting ready before heading towards the exit with Aries and Capri flanking him, each of them wearing their own version of the mask he had put on. Aries' mask was gold and red while Capri wore a white and silver mask, clearly they didn't think there was anything wrong with the masks even though they were very similar to White Fang's Grimm Masks. There were gasps and sounds of shock and surprise at the sight of three moving in unison and with matching outfits that included infamous masks, or at least masks similar to those used by the extremists within the White Fang.
No one moved the stop them from leaving the building, Adam wondered if perhaps it would have been best to leave the Masks in their lockers, but it was too late. They weren't the White Fang, but others may attempt to paint them as such, especially since they were Faunus wearing masks. Not to mention Aries had broken the noses of two boys the afternoon before, then there was Adam antagonizing Weiss Schnee in front of the entire year. Rumors must have already spread about the three siblings, Capri was involved simply because she was with them Adam was certain of that at the very least. They were already painted by the brush of distrust and disgust by their fellow students, should they take on the role of a villain he would have it on his terms and not theirs.
Adam gave a small smile as he pushed through the doors, he had heard a very clear clack-clack of extreme heels and there weren't likely more than a few students who wore such large heels in the whole academy. The door pushed open and he found himself towering over a shocked and surprised Weiss Schnee. As clear and polite as he could be considering who he was addressing he spoke. "Good morning Schnee." And he was shocked by the initial reaction, her face turned red, not an angry shade but more an embarrassed one... 'What the hell?'
The embarrassment quickly transformed to confusion and fear as her eyes traveled upwards and caught sight of his face, concealed by the black and gold Grimm Mask, followed by her rapidly jumping back and reaching for her rapier, which was actually in one of the lockers in the building they had just exited. "White Fang... here?!" Her voice became shrill, clearly she was terrified of them, not the expected anger Adam had expected, she spoke out in anger against them the day before, but now faced with the potential confrontation she looked ready to run. Perhaps this would work just as well...
Or it would have had Capri not come out and removed her mask holding out her hand in a calming gesture. "Miss Schnee, it's okay, it's just us... We aren't part of White Fang." Capri tried to approach but Weiss stepped back again. "It's okay... we're just going to the cliff, okay?" She changed the tone of her voice, speaking as if she was trying to calm down a child or an animal. "Adam, Aries, Masks off... now." This command, and it was indeed a command, brooked no dissent from the brothers who reached up and removed their Masks without hesitation. The instant reaction caught Adam off guard, why should he listen to this girl... Why did he do it?
"I'm sorry..." The words came unbidden from Adam's mouth. 'What the fuck did I just say? Did I just apologize to a filthy SCHNEE?!' Adam grappled with the unexpected reaction, why had he apologized, he should be gloating, this was perfect, but... the fear on her face was clear as day and caused his heart to ache when it should be soaring. His hand tightened around the mask gripped within, knuckles popping and the glove whining as the material slid over the Mask's surface. Why, what was wrong with him? There was no reason for him to care about the discomfort of this girl, a Human, and a Schnee on top of that. But the look of fear on her eyes made his smirk vanish and his chest feel as if had been hollowed out. "Let's go..." He tried to walk away but Capri's hand grabbed his arm... "What?"
"Maybe we leave the Masks in the lockers for now?"
Adam shook his head, looking down at the mask in his hand. "No... but we won't wear them for now." He tied the mask to his belt on his right side so it wouldn't be in the way of Blossom's Eclipse. Running a hand through his hair behind his horns he shook his head, this had not escalated in the way he had anticipated, in fact it went quite horribly. Not only had she been absolutely terrified by them, he had apologized for scaring her, she should be thanking him for not attempting to gut her where she stood.
There was an embarrassing amount of clanking and suddenly a boy seemingly tripping over himself rolled out, landing in between the trio and Weiss. Standing up as if nothing happened and dusting himself off he gave a goofy smile. "Hey guys... uhhh... what's going on?"
Weiss looked at him, the confusion mirrored across the siblings' faces as well. "I... um... nothing... a misunderstanding."
The boy nodded and looked over at Adam and his siblings. "Name's Jaune Arc... smooth, short, and the ladies love it."
Capri laughed, blatantly and without reserve at the weird flirting, doubling over at the absurdity of it all. One moment they are basically intimidating Weiss Schnee, next this weird blonde boy shows up, tripping and then trying to flirt. "Nice to... meet you... Jaune. I'm... I'm Capri." She gasped out between laughs, the tension gone due to her explosion of laughter. Pointing her fingers at Adam and Aries she tried to introduce them as well. "A... A... Dam... Air... ar... Aries." After another few seconds she finally calmed down, wiping tears from her eyes.
"If you have to say the ladies love it... I don't think they do." Adam said drily, though he had to admit the boy was brave, intervening like this... either that or he was stupid. "It was a misunderstanding, one that shouldn't happen in the future now that my-... Miss Schnee is aware of our family's Masks..." Wait... why did he call her Miss... His heart raced and his head felt light. This hadn't ever happened in his past, this rush didn't compare to combat, or even when he died, it was... different.
Aries looked at Jaune and laughed softly to himself. "Hi Jaune, how are things going?"
Jaune recognized Aries after a second, wearing much brighter clothes than the day before threw him off. "Oh! Aries! Y'know... getting pinned to lockers by girls accidentally discharging their spears and not recognizing celebrities..."
Jaws dropped. "Does... does that happen often?"
"Huh... no first time I've met someone famous. Why?" Jaune seemed confused by the question, not like many people got to meet those you saw on TV.
"No... you... fuck... Do girls constantly throw their weapons at you? Did that not seem like the more important event?"
Jaune shrugged. "She said sorry right after, no need to take it personally." Everyone was now staring at Jaune in shock, was he really this dense or naïve?
Aries shook his head and began to walk away. "I'm going to the Cliff... maybe one of the professors will push me off." He couldn't take it, the amount of absurd things that had happened in the last two minutes was too much for him to deal with this early in the morning.
Capri giggled. "You'd survive."
"Shame..."
As the trio departed, Adam alone glanced back over his shoulder, locking eyes with Weiss for a moment. Breaking contact quickly he moved to the front of their group again, berating himself mentally for the absolute failure of that interaction. They didn't look strong, they didn't project confidence... they floundered like children.
"There's still space on Team Jaune if you are interested, I heard the teams are made up of four people."
A brief, ever so strange burning emotion flashed through Adam's mind and body but he kept walking... familiar and yet unknown.
I didn't know much about flowers so I had to look up some that would fit the color schemes and the ones I was giving to the Szarvak siblings, yes, I could have just made their emblems their horns but those don't have the same sort of symbolism.
Adam's Gold Spider Lily is actually a rather sad icon according to the flower information I could find on it; "the yellow Spider Lily adorns itself in warm golden tones akin to the sun's radiance. Surprisingly, it evokes an eternal separation, the inability to see each other, yet deeply harbors the silhouette of the other within the heart." This would be indicative of Adam's loss of not just his life, but his original purpose, timeline and everything else that was lost to him in that life, everything from Blake to the White Fang and the respect and adoration he so craved due to his twisted desires, from his initial goal of freedom and fairness to the plan of domination. Spider Lily are also associated with death, which has already touched this Adam.
Capri's White Camellia has several meanings but the ones that resonate with the type of character she is, and is likely to remain is the Japanese and Chinese interpretations; "Many Camellia varieties are native to China, and so the plant enjoys a symbolic significance in the country. Due to the way that Camellia flowers fall from their branches – all in one, rather than petal by petal – Chinese culture has bestowed the meaning of everlasting love and commitment upon this plant."
"In Japan, the Camellia is called 'tsubaki', and has a significance that dates back to when samurai were the ruling political class in the country. To the samurai, the Camellia symbolized a dignified death. Now, its meaning is more on par with China's interpretation: one of love and devotion."
Capri is a character of love, devoted to her family and her people, but may yet end in tragedy attempting to reach her goals, her feeling are strong and hard hitting when they come, much like the fact that the pedals of the Camellia will all drop together.
Aries' is the Sword Lily, or the Gladiolus, ironic he doesn't wield a sword. What I found on it stated the following information; "Gladiolus, also known as sword lily, is a tall and elegant flower that is often associated with strength and honor. However, in some contexts, the gladiolus can also represent anger.
The tall and imposing stature of the gladiolus can evoke a sense of aggression or dominance, especially when combined with its sharp, sword-like leaves. In fact, the name "gladiolus" comes from the Latin word "gladius," which means sword.
Additionally, the gladiolus has historically been used as a symbol of defiance and resistance, particularly during times of political unrest."
A fitting symbol for a teenage boy who yearns for true equality and freedom for the Faunus of Remnant and is willing to do whatever is necessary to accomplish that goal, even if it must be 'by the sword'. While it denotes strength and honor it may be twisted into simple anger, much like how some interpreted Adam's initial canon fall from the description of Blake, from a hot blooded and charismatic revolutionary to a crazed killer who wanted domination and enslavement of the human race. At least that is how I took her initial few descriptions of Adam in Volumes 1-3.