Chapter 2: All the Single Losers


Adam sat uncomfortably in the crook of a tree's branches. The forest reminded him of the Emerald Forest that bordered Vale: lush, verdant and a perfect place to operate unnoticed by the eyes of humans. This was not the Emerald Forest, though. This forest lay outside the city of Mistral, where Adam had been decisively defeated by Blake and the mutinous Menagerie militia she had led there to foil his designs.

Just when it seemed things were finally coming together for him...


Despite his victory at Beacon, the High Leader of the White Fang, Sienna Khan, had immediately and publicly denounced Adam and the Vale Brotherhood for their participation in the conflict. She claimed that destroying the communications network that let the humans coordinate their subjugation of the faunus was a mistake, that human-faunus relations were at an all-time low. As if Adam or any other faunus should care what the humans thought of them! The human species was barely worth keeping alive, but Adam would keep them alive. As slaves. Out of spite for what they had done to his people, not out of any form of charity or love. Sienna refused to support him in Cinder's plan to attack their next target: Haven Academy in the Kingdom of Mistral. Her responses had screamed of acceptance, of weakness, when the White Fang was meant to embody the strength of the faunus. Even Cinder's ally, Hazel Rainart, had failed to sway Khan.

Sienna had not believed they could win a straight fight against humanity.

Fortunately, Adam had spent his days waiting for Hazel to arrive in Mistral by solidifying his support base in the city's White Fang upper echelons. When Hazel came before Khan with Adam, her elite guards were already loyal to Adam. His message that faunus are superior to humans, that the humans should not simply fear the faunus but serve the faunus was... well-received by the most physically powerful White Fang members who had earned the prestigious position at Sienna's side. They had become disillusioned with the ongoing strategy she called for them to follow: one of hit-and-run tactics, of being concerned about human civilian casualties and the morality of their struggle. Certainly her non-pacifist approach appealed to them more than Ghira's had, but she still worked towards negotiating with humans for social equality using violence as a bargaining tool rather than a true means to their goals being fulfilled. The White Fang was dissatisfied with dialogues that went nowhere after Adam had set the bar for change so high with his success at Beacon. While Sienna had called Adam and the Vale branch villains, the rest of his people had seen that Adam was their saviour.

Sienna selfishly tried to hold onto power. By doing so, she was hurting their people. Their struggle was one where no compromise was justifiable. Every moment they held back their strength was another faunus family torn apart. Another child thrown into mines to be worked to death, used for chemical testing, abused and sacrificed as bait for the creatures of grimm. Another victim of humanity.

Sienna may have forgotten the challenges of their early years in the Fang, when Ghira led them from town to town only to be driven away by angry mobs. She may never have understood how terrified a young faunus felt when he found himself alone in a cave miles underground teeming with creeper-type grimm, forced to choose between getting to safety or trying to haul his bounty of dust crystals to the surface to fulfill his daily quota so that he could avoid the lash and eat cold gruel that week. Her life had been worse than that of humans, but she had still been treated better than an animal in her Mistral childhood.

She might not have been treated equally, but she'd certainly been treated better than Adam had been. She'd had a family, she'd had an education, she'd had opportunity handed to her. Sienna may have never experienced humanity's true nature, but Adam had. It had forced him to become stronger, lest he perish with like so many of his crews.

Her death on his sword had pained him: even arguing against and chastising him, she had been an ally; but both of them had silently known that she would never serve him or his vision of a faunus-ruled Remnant. She became another necessary sacrifice to further the cause of freedom for their people. He had used her one last time by blaming her death on the humans, turning her into a martyr to bring the remainder of the Mistral faunus to his banner. The moderates who had listened to Sienna were enraged by her death and readily joined his mission of vengeance. For a gleaming moment he had been hailed as the hero the faunus had been waiting for.

The gift from the goddess. Saviour.

He had relished his victories, hopeful for the realization of the future he had dreamed of for so long; yet even as he at last controlled the White Fang and had the support of Hazel's mysterious backer, the traitor Blake tirelessly strove to undermine all that he had built. His operatives had reported that Blake had unsurprisingly survived the fall of Beacon Academy and managed to get herself safely to the faunus-owned continent of Menagerie: a land notably devoid of resources or natural defences that the human governments had ceded to the species after the humans had lost too many battles during the war. In Menagerie her father Ghira acted as the elected leadership, banking his impressive diplomatic skills and history as a civil rights leader to maintain the position for nearly a decade without any substantial opposition. A dictator in all but name. Adam would respect the man, but for his ceaseless mewling for peace between species despite all the suffering they had witnessed together while operating the White Fang.

As typical of Blake she had made herself a nuisance to his plans as quickly as possible. A combination of Blake's skills, the infuriating incompetence of his loyalists stationed there, and the defection by Ilia, the chameleon faunus infiltrator he had trusted to deal with Blake and her family, to Blake's side had led to the people of Menagerie turning against him, rallying to Ghira's proposal of direct intervention against the plan to destroy Haven. No longer did they view him as a distant hero who did their dirty work, but a savage madman capable of threatening their ideology of subsistence and acceptance.

Adam had been doing what had to be done to get what the faunus deserved. What he deserved. Who were they to take all that he had fought hard to deliver to them, to turn on him when all he needed was for them to allow him to do his duty without their intervention? Was it so hard for people to sit back and let him fix their problems for them?

So, on the eve of what should have been another great milestone triumph for his Fang, Adam's attack on Haven was foiled by the faunus species-traitors from Menagerie. His forces were broken, surrendering like cowards. They had given up almost without a fight, but not him. He had been willing to risk everything for his goal, so he tried to detonate the entire school. He had been willing to finish the job without fear of the consequences.

Maybe it was because his life had taught him a single lesson repeatedly: no matter what he did, the consequence was always pain.

His explosives had been disabled by the infuriating Ilia, his attempt to make a final statement by taking all of them out in a blaze of destructive glory had been reduced to a scene of him being willing to sacrifice his own people that was caught on the Mistral police force's cameras.

That moment would haunt him, heralding the end of his tenure as leader of the White Fang.

Driven from the school's grounds, dashing into the forest. Blake did not follow him, denying him the opportunity to challenge her one-on-one as his wounded pride demanded. She had always been a coward, throwing to the wind stereotypical notions of oxen as docile herd animals and felines as solitary apex predators. She may not have shown it while surrounded by her Menagerie militia and daddy, but deep down she was still afraid of him. She could not bear to face him without an army at her side.

If there was any good news, it was that Cinder's part in the plan had fallen through just as thoroughly. She had gotten trounced by Blake's huntress team and, from the smell of it, a walking brewery. If Cinder hadn't changed the plan so that she had to fight through Blake's teams to get to her objective in the school (which apparently the faunus headmaster had willingly offered to give her), she and her group could have easily turned the tide of the battle with the faunus militia from Menagerie. Instead, what should have been his backup was tied up in its own fight within the school. Which she had lost.

Her quest for revenge had weakened her, similar to how his attempt to keep his promise to hurt Blake had ruined his good publicity in Menagerie. Cinder had a golden opportunity to achieve her objectives but took on extra risk just so that she could have a shot at one of Blake's friends, who his attaché to Cinder had relayed had been the one who reputedly forced her retreat from Beacon.

"Someone that could defeat Cinder? That's a person worth knowing more about..." Adam had whispered to himself.

He would have to rebuild his power base. Refocus himself and prioritize his objectives. To begin, he watched from the crook of the tree as Cinder's two stooges and Hazel moved through the forest. They had been hustling for hours, evading the city's police patrols and military checkpoints with skill approaching Adam's own – impressive, given Hazel's size and the fact that the green-haired one was carried unconscious by the steel-haired lackey.


Adam presently glided through the forest. He had stalked Hazel and the others for an entire day into the woods. They seemed to have a destination in mind. Thanks to his faunus hearing, he had sometimes even managed to overhear snippets of their conversations while remaining at a safely hidden distance.

"Emerald is still out cold. She overexerted herself too much, her own semblance nearly did her in. How's that for irony?" The steel-haired Mercury complained. They had not stopped since fleeing Haven. Adam's physiology had kept him from suffering the ill-effects of hunger and sleep deprivation that Cinder's flunky was demonstrating with his tired pace and weary glances.

"Yes, just further evidence the faunus are the superior species." Adam whispered to himself.

He crept slightly closer to the trio, and as a warm summer zephyr stopped rustling the leaves their words made it clearly to his ears.

"It won't be far, now. The ship, which will take us back to the tower, not far." Hazel said, his words interrupted by his irregular attempts to catch his breath. "If you kids have any desire to run, to get out of this, now is the time. I cannot promise that she will be forgiving of our failure here." Hazel was a large man. He spoke slowly, surely, and strongly despite his exhaustion. Of all the humans, Adam liked him the most – even if he did seem to disagree with Adam on some key points. Hazel's strength was in being strong. Not in the strange semblance of Emerald, nor the technology of Mercury's legs, or the mysterious powers and grimm-augmentations relied on by Cinder to intimidate her allies. On top of that, Hazel knew pain in a way that someone who heard his semblance's description would not understand.

"Oh no, I'm not out yet. Cinder may have fucked us up by luring Qrow, Ruby and the rest to the heist, and the White Fang may have screwed the literal pooch regarding the demolition, but I played my part perfectly. As always. She'll see that." Mercury gently laid Emerald on the ground. Night was falling, the two men started preparing a humble campsite. "With what she's promised us for success, and given my lack of alternative options in my wreck of a life, you'll find me following this road to wherever it leads."

Hazel seemed to shrug, then muttered something that was not loud enough for Adam to overhear, unless he moved closer. He did feel confident in such a move, now that his faunus night-vision was providing him the advantage. He decided to wait for a while yet, despite the tantalizing hint of their discussion about who they feared not being merciful to them for their failure – if they did not work for Cinder, who did they serve? Cinder herself wore a leash held by someone more powerful still. Hazel had mentioned his master when he had come with Adam to Mistral to address Sienna regarding the proposal to have the White Fang attack Haven. Other than mentioning that they had the cooperation of the headmaster there and vague references to their master's power being great, Adam knew little about them.

The last light faded from the sky, and the humans began sleeping in shifts.

Adam needed time to think about his defeat. The bitter taste of it had been unknown to him for so long, it stung all the more. He was supposed to have been invincible, the chosen deliverer of vengeance. The reputation of the White Fang was ruined. The reputation of Adam Taurus was ruined.

Or was it?

He removed his mask and looked upon it. It had been a symbol of victory, of change. What was it now? He would have to find out. He put the mask back on. It covered the brand.

Blake was still out there. His wayward apprentice, his love, his agony. He had promised to deliver her pain in turn, in time, for her abandonment of both their cause and of him. Now he owed her twice as much.

Adam deliberated over what to do next as he put some distance between himself and Hazel's camp.

"I could find Blake. Make her suffer. Like she deserves. Make her see that she is wrong, that she was wrong to turn her back on me. To turn her back on us. She is surrounded by friends and her father's people, though." Adam muttered for himself. Tracking down Blake and getting her when she was weak would be a full-time job, which he had previously thought proper to delegate to his minions. Where were his best followers now? Where were his loyalists? Prison or traitors. Going after Blake seemed like a less-than-constructive use of his time for the time being, but he couldn't trust the job to delegation again.

"Hazel seems to have a plan. Cinder's master might still have use for me, even without my followers. If Mercury thinks that she'll accept his failure, then my odds are just as good. They might be able to help me get to Blake. I could convince them that she is a threat to whatever plans they have. She probably is a threat to whatever plans they have." He continued to himself. "But they are all human. It is hard to trust them, no matter what their goals appear to be. No matter what tantalizing promises they make." Were their goals good for the faunus? So far they had only targeted humanity's greatest defences. Maybe that was good enough for him, but he couldn't pretend that satisfying the spite he felt would be enough for his people.

The forest was quiet. He saw the dim glow of Hazel's camp in the distance and saw the shadows of their figures dancing through the trees as they readied themselves to rest. Adam's own eyelids felt like lead. He could probably use some sleep, too. Here he was talking to himself, after all.

"Or I could return to my throne." He could still mobilize the remnants of the Mistral branch of the White Fang to overthrow humanity, bring them to their knees and force them to serve the faunus as nature had intended. Mistral was in a panic, defences probably in shambles, so even the remaining reseve forces of the Fang might be able to hold their own. Especially if Hazel's master saw that they were still a force and provided aid. He had worked so hard to get to that throne, too. Sacrificed so much. So many. I can't throw that all away, can I? The thought of Sienna's lifeless eyes came to him. Mocking him. Would he reduce her sacrifice further, by not following the path he had killed her to pursue? As much as there was trepidation about facing his people after failing them, he knew he'd have to.

Each option required commitment. To choose one meant to forgo any hope of pursuing the others simultaneously. If he rebuilt his forces, he would have no time to pursue Blake or be involved with human revolutionaries. If he kept on with Hazel's non-faunus group, he could not very well regain, retain and maintain the loyalty of his anti-human followers. If he chose to hunt Blake, that would require complete dedication as well to execute his designs for her to perfection – the exquisite torment she had earned from him would not be an easy feat to dole out.

Adam tried and failed to sleep in a tree branch, well outside the area of Hazel's dimly lit camp, his weary mind inundated with possibilities that refused to let him find any peace.


The next day, Hazel and company reached a bullhead nicely camouflaged in a dense thicket. A man with a pilot helmet and full black body armour was there waiting for them. Hazel and the pilot exchanged words, then instructed Mercury to stay behind to tend to the green haired one that seemed to be waking up after being injected with something by the pilot. Adam overheard Hazel mention "business to take care of in the city alone before returning to the tower", instructing them to "wait five days for my return".

Adam decided that the best course of action for him was to let them pursue their goals alone for the time being. The White Fang needed him, needed him on the throne once again to lead them through this crisis. He was their High Leader. Surely by the time he arrived there he would have figured out his next move; he didn't need to rely on Hazel for a goal when he had had only ever needed a single one. Blake and Cinder would have to wait for him to be at his peak again before he ceded attention to them again.

Adam had worked too hard for too long to abandon his White Fang now; the sooner he addressed them on what had happened at Haven, the easier it would be.

He stole a car from a nearby cottage and drove. Eventually the roads could take him no further, so he ditched the car at the side of the road and began the hike into the familiar hills. He spotted the cave entrance – one of many natural entrances to the secret headquarters of the faunus revolutionaries - and made his way trip to the inner sanctum of the White Fang was not arduous, although a human would have a difficult time making it through the twisting tunnels without a source of light and an idea of where they were going. The natural caverns had been inhabited long ago by some long-lost society, but when Sienna's White Fang had discovered the location whatever primitive people had lived there had long since died out or moved away.

His path began connecting with others, and he began to walk past the occasional group of masked faunus. Making his way through the barracks, he was filled with a sense of unease.

They seemed to be wary of him. He strode past them, intending to ignore their whispers but his keen ears betrayed him and carried their words to him. The words echoed in the cavernous space.

"He's back...why did he come back?"

"Sienna would have done better. How could we let a human kill her?"

"The creatures of grimm are everywhere now... supplies are nearly exhausted. We're just as destitute as before this all started. What am I supposed to do now, crawl back and beg for my job back?"

"I hear that the Menagerie Militia made a good impression with their arrival... maybe your boss could forgive what you did to his desk? Or at least you might have better luck finding a new job. I wouldn't use the dock job as a reference. Or this place."

"The Belladonnas are making a new movement in Menagerie... we should throw our lot in with them now, as a show of solidarity and support."

"Support for them? Or trying to get them to support us when the humans come for our hides?"

"Adam Taurus is a coward. How dare he show himself here."

"I can't believe he turned his back on us. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it on television, but he tried to kill all our brethren just to help his humans' plan."

Really? It was not the return he had envisioned. Had all he had done for them, all his past victories in the name of attaining their people's justice, been in vain? To be so quickly forgotten and worse, demonized? He was their High Leader. Their saviour. He was their HERO! Before he had come to guide them, they had been mere outcasts consisting on the scraps of human society, slaves to the will of hornless humans, weaklings! Through his force of will and charisma alone had they been able to even conceive of the attack on Haven as a means to cripple the human threat. They had access to Cinder's resources only because she had valued him as an ally – without him as the leader of the Fang, the entire organization was worthless to her.

Adam did not break his quick stride and went straight to the throne room, although he noticed that the lair was less populated than it had any right to be. How many have already fled at the first sign of hardship?

Entering the throne room, he saw his seven remaining chamber guards who also served as his war-council. He pushed the door shut after he entered. Better that the dissent outside his sanctum be left to fester for now. Before him stood those who would be most loyal to him, the ones he had turned against Sienna, at least those who had not already surrendered to the authorities at Haven after the battle. The one he trusted to keep the throne safe while he was away: his favourite, a stag-horned faunus named Petrac who had worked as a Mistral police officer before the Fang had convinced him that his lack of promotion was a sign of systemic oppression. The ones who believed his message, who believed that strength and unwavering conviction were the only path to ones whose skill sets had not included the stealth or diligence required by the mission. If he could rally these, he could bring the rest of his forces to heel and get back to work. Whatever that work may be.

Hunting down Blake? Dealing with this new schism created by Ghira Belladonna? Continuing their fight against humanity by whatever means they could construct? He was only a single powerful faunus. Even he could not do it all by himself. He needed them almost as much as they needed him.

Petrac was touching his throne, though. That just wouldn't do now that their leader was back. Time to re-assert his authority.

"Step away from my throne." Adam's deep voice demanded respect and obedience. "We have work to do."

They exchanged looks between themselves and did not move.

"We? Everyone knows what you did. You abandoned your brothers at Haven!" Exclaimed Petrac. Adam was disappointed. He would have to make them see that he had not abandoned his brothers, their cause, and most importantly not them. Clearly they had been misinformed. He was here for them now. He would save them. They could always break those who had laid down their arms out of the human prisons at a later date, though Adam questioned whether their lack of dedication to the fight warranted such action.

"Step. Away." Adam continued calmly, needing to speak to them from a position of authority. Once he was in the throne again, they would listen to him and respect him properly. The throne was a symbol, embodying the spirit of their organization. Once he was in it, they would remember that he was the visionary that would topple the human oppressors. The warrior that would bring vengeance for the weaklings and pathetic faunus too afraid to fight back for themselves. He was so close to it. "From my-"

The quick rabbit-faunus guard, Luro, interrupted him. "We're not taking orders from you anymore." The man stood tall, unafraid to voice his treason. Adam's masked eyes widened at the outburst. If it was not for the man's skill with his weapon and the trust the locals put in him, Adam would have resorted to intimidating him with Blush. Given the circumstance, Adam was leaning towards leniency. Rumours must have travelled quick and been exaggerated since their attack had failed. He would have to spend some time restoring his reputation against the lies the Menagerie Militia and the Mistral news outlets were no-doubt slandering him with.

He moved to continue forward, hopeful to rebuild and reclaim what had been lost to the defeat. He needed to refocus the Fang and strike back against the humans, bring them to their knees before him to make them pay. He needed his Fang to have a solid win again to remind his people what he'd given them already. He had to regain his honour and make a difference again. When he had lost, he had become lost in a way.

Luro kept talking, though. "We heard you folded the moment you got sass from the Belladonna girl."

The Belladonna girl. Blake.

Blake.

Adam's mind felt like it was tearing apart. He desperately needed to go to sleep. He needed to eat something. His previous calm eroded like sand in a torrent. The desertion of Blake had been gnawing at him, his promise to destroy the life she was trying to build for herself, cutting him out, weighed on him. He wanted to hunt her down and make her pay for hurting him. Hurting him differently than the others. Hurting him worse than any other. If he didn't take care of the Blake situation, it would consume him. Blake's face flashed in his mind. Her silken ebony hair. Her piercing amber eyes. The way her ears gave away her feelings.

It was a fresh wound and a deep wound, and the lieutenant had made the mistake of putting the proverbial salt right in.

The part of Adam's psyche that was a calculating leader let go of the steering wheel. The part of Adam that was a fighter, a brutal warrior, took over.

His perception of the room shifted. His trusted allies were not awaiting his return, ready to help him rebuild after he demonstrated his continuing commitment to their cause. They had taken defensive stances, their postures screaming hostility. Jacen's pistol's safety was off, loaded with red dust bullets. Ready to pounce on him the moment he showed weakness. Scavengers seeing him as scraps of his former self.

Luro was taunting him, trying to get him to make a fatal mistake. They were wanting for a fight. They were expecting to overpower him. They had the advantage of numbers, seven to one. They had the advantage of being well-rested. Fully armed. They were prepared for this.

He would not be outclassed by them. He had been responsible for training most of them before being sent to Vale! He had faced worse odds before. Seven to one was not something that made Adam Taurus balk. He was Adam Taurus. He was the man who would bring humanity to its knees. He was the strong faunus dreamed of by the child who slumbered fitfully in a sealed dust mining shaft. Anything that tried to kill him only made him stronger. That was his semblance. That was what made him special.

Adam's vision blurred. It felt like his skull was exploding. Like he was hungover and drunk in the same instant. The room swirled around him. Was one of the traitors using an ability on him here, by his own seat of power, or was he just overcome with rage? None of them had such a semblance that he knew of. Adam wasn't sure. Time was up.

"I guess she has more control over you than-" Luro continued but stopped midway through his gloating. His eyes moved away from staring Adam in the eye, instead dropping down and widening in fear. Adam would not go down without a fight. He would not allow himself to fall here, to these ingrates. He felt the handle of Wilt in his hand. It comforted him, focused him. Adam drew his blade, the slide of its metal voice echoing in the room and halting the leporine man mid-sentence.

Adam was not going to let them get the first shot. He was too quick for that.

Adam dashed forward, and the man would never make any sound again. He fell to the ground behind Adam, clutching at his chest where a wound had appeared faster than the man could react with his protective aura.

"What? No!" Shouted the man's mate, another rabbit-ear. Adam didn't know her name; she was here because of Luro, not because of her own talents or clearance. Nor had Adam ever trained her; the way she held her trembling pistol was proof enough of that.

The room erupted into violence. Petrac trained his pistol on Adam, but the bullets were deflected by the whirling spin of his signature red blade. Two lieutenants charged at him with a halfsword and a scimitar, which earned the former a quick trip to the ground as Adam swept his legs out from underneath him with a crouching kick as Wilt flew out and bounced off the scimitar-wielder's neck, protected by a shimmering purple aura field.

"Your fear doesn't control me anymore, Adam! Ghira has opened up a new era of peaceful negotiation with the government of Mistral! He-" the man's thoughts were stopped when his aura fell to three quick consecutive shots from Blush, and his scimitar fell to the red carpet-laden floor. Wilt ricocheted back towards Adam, and he caught the sword to block half of a volley from scale-faced Jacen's pistol. Adam's aura fell further as it absorbed the dust-infused bullets.

As he fought, Adam's mind reduced itself to a primal state. He was a child again, like after his parents must have sold him to the SDC rather than try to raise him herself. He was alone again, like when the SDC had sealed off the mine shaft he was in because of the risk presented to their operations by the grimm incursion swarming the caverns. He was abandoned again. Always abandoned. Always having to fight to get anything.

Adrenaline flooded his body and everything paradoxically seemed to slow down while his thoughts were barraging him all at once.

Hunt down Blake. Visit upon her the grief that she had cursed him with since Forever Fall.

Mistral, a lost cause. Troops in Vale, possibly yet loyal. Vale, still vulnerable, ripe with opportunity and not unreachable.

Being the saviour of the faunus. No compromise, doing anything necessary to change the world. A world that has hurt me my entire life deserves to burn.

The halfsword darted at his flank but his body deflected it with Blush, absorbing the power of the strike and fuelling his semblance. More bullets from Petrac at the top of the stairs, absorbed by Wilt. The pistol ran out of bullets and the stag-antlered figure took a moment to agonize over whether it was a better idea to reload or join the fray at the base of the stairs. Wilt jabbed into the cat-eared faunus with the halfsword, slicing off a chunk of thigh; Coloco screamed in pain. Falling to the ground in torment, the halfsword bouncing far enough away to not be an immediate threat. Adam remembered training Coloco in swordplay, before Sienna had ordered him to go to Vale, and the day that he had given the sword to his compatriot as a gift to recognize competence.

He helped me overthrow Sienna. Now he wants to overthrow me?

Two more guards from the stairs thrust at him with their ceremonial pikes, which were conveniently easy to knock out of the way leaving the pair open; at least they had looked good while standing idly beside the throne. Wilt tore at their auras and then it tore through their throats. Undeserving of any mercy; they had pledged themselves to defend him, to represent the faith in him held by the Fang, yet here they were raising their weapons against him. Conspirators all. They'd leapt at the opportunity to turn on Sienna when he'd offered them power, but they hadn't deserved it like Adam did. None of these Mistralian faunus had suffered like he had, all his life. They were weak.

Blood gushed from open wounds. Screams howled by dying mutineers. The carpet soaked in the former. The banners hung throughout the room absorbing the echo of the latter.

Adam kept moving, Wilt deflecting a few attacks that still shot towards him with only a couple more glancing blows whittling away at his aura. He was not in top form, exhausted and drained from the events of the past few days. It was fine. He should still have plenty of aura left. Adam was not a man with a massive pool of aura, yet between his training-honed speed and ability to absorb elemental and kinetic energy with his sword he had managed thus far – despite everything life had thrown against him.

Adam kept thinking as his body continued to cleave through the enemy.

Loose ends and promises. The fall of humanity for the faunus to rise. Being the hero I'm destined to be. Never being abandoned again.

If he went after his treacherous pupil and her team, he would satisfy himself. Satisfaction in the knowledge that his words were not threats, but promises. He had to do that for himself. He had to do that to her. Yet the need to lead the Fang to victory again was just as important to him. He had to fulfill his vision of the humans brought to their knees before him, their cities alight as the faunus claimed Remnant for their own. It was a world of bloody evolution, and the faunus were the dominant species-they just needed him to remind them of that truth. To show them that truth. Of course, he also desired to see his deal with Cinder and Hazel through. He had been rightfully cautious, reluctant to work with them at first, but the results had been simply delightful. Vale's vaunted human-oriented social systems had collapsed, leaving the strong to survive the chaos that followed.

The faunus were stronger than humanity.

The faunus survived.

No longer shackled by the human's rules, by their laws, the faunus of Vale had managed to take power where before they had been scarcely better than slaves. Waitresses became tavern owners. Labourers became valued soldiers against the increased grimm presence and demonstrated their natural skills to humans who had once thought them barely worth paying minimum wage. Across Vale, the social position of faunus improved because of the vacuum he had created. Even the humans who feared the faunus (as they should!) were forced to rely upon them during the time of crisis. He could capitalize on that, rally the faunus of Vale to his message. The scales were balancing, but Adam would not rest until the roles had been completely reversed. His lifetime's worth of suffering demanded the satisfaction of vengeance.

The victory at Beacon had let him participate in momentous change; if Cinder's faction – whether based on forbidden research or something stranger still – was going to be driving that change, it behooved him to ensure that their cabal was not without representation for his people and their interests. Somehow, he had to invert his relationship with Cinder, gain some leverage over her, so that when the new world was created, it would not be borne on the backs of faunus misery like this one was. To do that, he had to be a significant actor in her upcoming plans. He had risen through the ranks of the Fang through skill and determination, he could do the same for Hazel and Cinder's master.

Adam's body never wavered; even as his mind was occupied by myriad distractions, his eyes remained trained, calculating the trajectories of bullets streaming towards him. His corded muscles reacted on instinct his constant training had ingrained upon them. Dust bullets pounded into Wilt but it did not waver.

Slice! A hand flew through the air, severed sinew spraying forth red vitality while gripped firmly to the halfsword Coloco had retrieved. If he had been intelligent rather than competent in a fight, he would have tried to get away. If he was loyal instead of competent, he would never have drawn his sword.

Slash! A red blur of energy sped at Petrac on the stairs, who tried to block Moonslice with his shield. The choice to try to block rather than dodge Adam's semblance earned the man a gaping chest wound, a sundered shield and a sudden trip for his vacant-eyed face to the lavish carpet. Adam had trained him better than that. He should have known he stood no chance at blocking Adam's semblance when it was so fully charged.

Jacen aimed his reloaded pistol at Adam just in time to notice that Adam had closed the distance between them. Adam slammed him to the ground and aimed Blush at the man's chest. He pulled the trigger while holding the man's terrified gaze. Now scales weren't the only thing splattered unevenly over his face.

Zzzap! A noise from behind, a blast of electric dust energy surging towards him; someone had managed to flank him. Adam grasped the end of his chokutō with his free hand and used it to brace his blade as a barrier as he spun to face the lightning bolt, managing to absorb the bulk of it as what had managed to hit him made his hair stand on end and his back itch like he had lain down in a bed of poison ivy. His aura was getting low.

"No! No!" Screamed the last of the turncoats as she finally decided to try to flee the room, dropping a handful of yellow dust as she recognized that her attack had only empowered him further; Blush made short work of her as three rounds found purchase in her aura-less back, but he darted forward and impaled her for good measure. Lura's rabbit-eared mate fell to the ground and slid off his blade as Adam moved to the grand doors and sealed them, barring them closed with a heavy wooden beam before moving back up the stairs to sit in his throne.

What a waste, he thought. We could have accomplished so much. We were all so close.

The strongest or most in-the-know members of the Mistral White Fang lay dead on the ground. Sprawled on the stairs leading to his throne. Crumpled in a heap by a pillar. Drowning in a pool of their own constitution as it soaked into the long crimson rug that led from the door to the throne.

Adam sat in the throne. It was where he had belonged. It didn't feel right anymore. It had been a symbol of his control over his people, of the truth of his message. What use is a symbol if it cannot be communicated? Anyone who would recognize it now was outside the room in the barracks attempting to pack up and leave, and Adam felt like few of them would appreciate his redecorating of the sanctum. Blake had truly taken everything from Adam except his life, the possibility of his future. After struggling so long, against such stacked odds, he found himself little better off than when he had started. Enemies everywhere, nobody to trust or rely on. Hope and hate the only reason he kept on going.

"The Belladonna girl." He said, quietly musing over the last words Luro had uttered. To speak louder would only serve to further aggravate his growing migraine. The Mistral Brotherhood had turned on him, forsaken him, failed him. They had chosen their fate. It wasn't his fault that this happened. They chose this. They chose to abandon the cause they had all sworn themselves to. "Blake." Adam stood up and faced the throne. It meant nothing now, its power hollow.

The faunus here would not follow him... but perhaps the faunus in Vale were more loyal.

Taking care of Blake would restore his honour following his defeat, his sense of self-worth which she had been chipping away at since her desertion.

Hazel's master might offer a better solution, a plan or fresh avenue for him to be the faunus warrior the meek oppressed masses deserved. Or at least show him a path to inflict pain back on the world.

Pain.

His semblance flared through him, causing his hair and clothes to glow a deep red, channelling the remaining stored energy into his weapon. A single blow bisected the throne, the blade back in its sheath before the back of the throne crashed down onto the stone floor. Adam screamed. Anguish. Rage. His whirlpool of dark emotions sustained his inner turmoil as the red glow of his semblance's power faded from his hair.

"I can't choose. It's too much. I can't bear to be alone now. There is so much that needs to be done! Do I... can I make a choice?"

Unseen, the bronze ring under his gloved hand glowed green as the tines melted into the band. In his exhausted state Adam stumbled forward, tripping over the remnants of the throne; hearing a sound behind him, he angled his shoulder and transformed the ungainly motion into an awkward roll, tumbling under the banner that hung behind the throne before regaining his footing and drawing his blade. Had he discharged Moonslice too soon? Had one of the lieutenants survived, or had someone managed to sneak into the room undetected via one of the side chambers?

These thoughts vanished from his mind as he saw what lay before him in the centre of the room. A tall, green-skinned feminine creature wearing a heavy chasuble from under which sprouted two pairs of fluttering bat-like wings that connected to her knees, with legs that ended in intimidatingly large crustacean claws. At the end of each stretched wing-arm was a humanoid hand, which were presently facing their palms upwards in a divine gesture. She seemed to have come out of nowhere, growing larger each moment until she was three times the size of Adam; what had been a spacious audience chamber for the leader of the White Fang seemed ridiculously small. Her claws opened wide and snapped shut as they dangled beneath her floating body, and the creature sighed in what may have been relieved pleasure through a gaping maw lined with thousands of interlocking razor fangs. Her eyes were distinctly reptilian, with vertical irises and eyelids she used to blink as she took in her surroundings.

Adam's sword felt heavy. He was tired from the fight, from his defeat, from his retreat. He had no idea what it was in front of him.

Darkness. Light. The will to determine what path you walk is the gift of all your kind. Take this gift and realize the blessing of choice as you never have before. Behold, mortal, for I am Dai. A being entrusted by the God of Darkness to ensure that humanity was always capable of using the gift he granted them. I am the eternal warden and inhabitant of the Relic of Choice and represent its power to those who would deign themselves worthy to wield it. By saying my name and asking for the power, you have summoned me forth.

Adam stared, momentarily awestruck by what he saw. His mind sluggishly struggled to comprehend what was being said.

"What are you?" Whispered Adam while he levelled his rifle at the new arrival. Her long, tapered ears had twitched as he spoke; despite his meek volume she seemed to easily hear what he had said. "The God of Darkness? Relic? Choice? I don't know what you are saying!"

I come without any hostility towards you, Adam Taurus. Fear not your ignorance of what I speak, all you need to understand is that you have awoken a power greater than you were ever taught existed. With this power, your desires can all be brought to fruition.

Adam glanced around the room. A drop of blood hovered in midair as it had begun to fall from Luro's chest. Time had stopped for everything except for him and the creature. The room seemed colourless compared to the luminosity of her towering figure as she hovered in the air, as if her body absorbed the colours from the area. Her wings seemed to be more for show than utility; the laws of physics as he understood them demanded she be flapping like a hummingbird to stay so evenly in the air, but instead they moved with lethargy – if at all; rippling so slowly that her leathery wings made no sound that his faunus hearing could detect. Everything about the creature, from its alien gaze to the languid motions of its limbs, radiated patience and calm. She had no fear of him. Trusting in his instincts, Adam stowed his weapon and walked around his shattered throne to stand face to face with the glowing creature. He was certainly willing to entertain it in parley if that meant not having to fight it after tiring himself with the traitors on the floor.

"Are you a faunus?"

He had never seen a creature like Dai before, so he could not say for certain if she scowled or not, but he felt like his question earned him one from her.

I am not bound to answer irrelevant questions. My divine charge is to empower my wielder with the power when they call my name to embrace choices.

It was not a yes, but it was also not a strict denial.

Adam's mind wandered back to a dimly lit mining shaft, when he had listened to a tale told by an old mole in the perpetual darkness of the mine shafts. A tale of a mythical goddess, of prosperity, of a greater destiny for the faunus. He asked her to repeat what she had first said, when she first appeared. He tried to listen more attentively.

"Very well. So I am the wielder of this relic? You serve me? What is this gift?"

Dai's expression changed to a chesire grin.