Chapter 7: Smelly Jelly


BEDLAM

The door slammed shut in Bedlam's face.

"Nope!" yelled the voice from the other side. "I'm not even going to tell her that you're here! You're lucky that I won't tell anyone you came here!"

"Come on, Salt. She will be angrier at you for turning me away than I am for you not opening this door immediately."

Silence from the other side.

"Open the door, Salt!" He turned around and looked at the other two where they hid and shrugged; not like they would have done any better securing lodging for himselves in the city. The trio had gotten into the city easily enough. For some reason the military seemed somewhat preoccupied, and the guards left at the city gates were more interested in what was happening out in the woods than keeping an eye on the sewer grates. Hmmm. On that point, maybe I am going about this incorrectly. Negotiations would be easier if a barrier remained between my host and these excrement encrusted clothes.

"Fine, keep the door closed. At least tell Lichen I'm outside waiting." Adam stated.

Silence continued from Salt, but the boards of the house creaked imperceptibly. At least someone was moving inside. Either she was going back to whatever she did at home before he had come upon the safehouse doorstep, she was going to tell her mother that Adam Taurus was there, or Lichen herself was coming to the door to see what the commotion was.

"Mom!" the faunus girl shouted, "you oughtta come to the door! You have a visitor!" The last word dripped with venom. Adam was not really worried that Lichen might hesitate to pay back the favours she owed him by letting him hide out at her place, but Salt's attitude was unwelcome. What did I do to get her tail in a knot?

"Well, she has visitors," Brazen said. Dominic chuckled.

[You two get up onto the roof] Bedlam signalled to his copies, [watch window]. His brothers took the hint and vanished up the side of the building. It just wouldn't do to let anyone know about his current body surplus, right? He had trusted his lieutenants at HQ like he had trusted Blake, and he was not going to make the same mistake here even if they were non-combatants.

The door opened, revealing the short and pudgy body of the arctic fox-faunus Lichen wearing pyjamas. She blinked at him through her thick spectacles that sat comfortably on her snout. "It has been many years since my saviour Adam Taurus came to see me. One could think that he had forgotten about little old Lichen after he got her out of that bandit camp that intended to sell me to the SDC!"

"I don't forget my people, Lichen. I just had more of our kin to save from the human's clutches." Bedlam responded, his tone cold to match his reception, "you were provided with this house and helped to get work in the city by the Fang. If you ever thought you should have been aided more, you knew well enough to ask your local representatives."

"Dearie, you know I love you but those words reek of bullshit almost as much as you do." Lichen threw open the door, illuminating him fully, "it smells like you have been staying in the city's sewers..."

"The sewer may have been instrumental to our entry into the city, Lichen." Bedlam said. "I am coming into your house now. I just need a place to clean up and rest for a couple nights while I catch my breath and get my bearings. It's been a strange week for me."

Salt stood a few meters behind her mother. "I don't trust this, mom. You've seen the reports on the television. We saw the footage from Haven. He tried to have Ghira killed! He fought Ghira's girl! They're saying he's a rabid animal."

Ah, Bedlam surmised, she's been watching the news.

Bedlam eyes were concealed by his shades, so she could not see how he glared at her for her impudence. Despite that, she balked at his attention and stumbled backwards a foot.

"Now now, children, if there's one thing Lichen knows its how to treat kin. Adam Taurus is always welcome here, as are any who fight for the faunus. You can use the spare bedroom, third door on the left. I'll stock the bathroom and find the hardest soaps in the place to get whatever you crawled through off of you." Lichen waved him inside, and Salt covered her nose while her tail curled around her waist.

"Oh gods its awful!" She cried out, "how can you stand to smell that bad?" He ignored the fox-faunus child and proceeded upstairs.

"Well if you had gone to bed on time like I had told you maybe you could have slept through his arrival, dear."

It had been years since his band had rescued the bandits' prisoners and set them up in the city, but he still remembered the layout: Lichen saw no need to show him to the room she offered him, since he had been the one to give her the tour when she had moved in. The bedroom Lichen had told him to use was one of several in the house, meant to fit a couple faunus comfortably to keep them hidden from the human oppressors who sought to recapture their lost merchandise, now empty after those who occupied it found more permanent lodgings elsewhere on Remnant: either with the Fang, in Menagerie, or away from their erstwhile oppressors. Access to the bedroom was through a hidden door, covered by a sliding bookcase. Ah, the classics.

Lichen had stayed. Lichen was loyal, Solitas-born, willing to give up more than most for the cause but never one to do so by fighting. She did her part by operating the safehouse and passing information along to local cells and operatives. She had never found herself positioned well enough in society to be overly useful to the operations of the Fang, and many had forgotten about her.

Which worked well for Adam's needs: the less people thought about this tiny safehouse the more secure he would be.

She hadn't been wrong, though, calling him (and by extension, the White Fang) out for neglecting the dismal situation she lived in. Telling her to contact her local representatives was a bit of an inside joke, really: funding had gone towards construction efforts at headquarters, weapons, bribes, and other such sundry things necessary for the revolution to continue. Adam had never asked how much that throne room had cost. Certainly more than it would have cost to repair the drywall and floorboards at Lichen's house.

Bedlam entered the room, closed the door behind him, and unlocked the window to let in the fresh night air. To his disappointment, what blew into the room smelled exactly as revolting as he did. Bedlam faced his choice-clones. The trio hung their soggy shoes from the windowsill to air out, then closed the window.

"The bathroom is ready, clean yourself up! It's late so I'm going back to bed now," their host hollered from the adjacent bathroom.

The trio entered after Bedlam sent the other two the 'all-clear' and saw the large bathtub and shower. Steam quickly filled the air, and Bedlam's muscles instantly eased up as he slid into the water of the bathtub. Lichen had put a towel, a brush and a few bottles of shampoos and lotions beside the basin.

Dominic shook his head as he saw Bedlam hogging the space in the bathtub for himself, then went under the shower to clean his hair. Around his feet expanded a blot of black, soiled water that circled the drain.

[Hair not water-proof] Brazen motioned, pointing and silently laughing at where his twin stood. Bedlam had a chuckle too, and watched the water stain the tile. Bedlam grabbed a bottle of soap and began lathering himself up.

[I thought that this would be weird] indicated Brazen, [you two changed together at house, but I changed alone] He shrugged and relaxed against the wall of the shower, waiting for Dom to finish cleaning himself off and just enjoying the steam [seeing my own dicks like this is less awkward than I had feared]

Bedlam rolled his eyes, then took off his sunglasses and put them on the lip of the tub. As he did so, he rolled his eyes again for better effect.

"Oh, don't be like that. This is a golden opportunity to bond," Brazen whispered just loud enough to be heard by those outside the shower.

Dominic came out for air, wiping the water out of his good eye and then looking around at the liquid miasma splattered around him.

"I was covered in filth," he deadpanned.

[Your own fault], Brazen scolded him.

"Should ask Salt if she can run out to get some proper hair colourant for us." Dominic replied.

[Black not my preference]

[Staying red] Bedlam added. He got out of the tub after a couple more minutes of hard scrubbing. Dom and Brazen were now mock-swordfighting with a brush and a plunger, their footwork light as to not wake their host. This is what happens when I stop caring about what Blake would think. They've reverted into children. [I am done here. Going to sleep now] Bedlam communicated after getting their attention by squirting them with a bottle of skin lotion. He dried himself off with the towel, then left it behind for the other two to use. He put his sunglasses back on and went through the door to the bedroom.

He was two steps into the room before a loud gasp alerted him to his lack of privacy. Sunglasses at night: good for covering his brand, not so good at letting him notice non-threatening, no-aura kids in the dark.

"Why aren't you wearing pants?!" Salt wailed, then slapped her hands over her mouth and looked at the door she came in through, worried that her mother would have heard the damning query from the elder faunus' first-floor bedroom. She needn't have worried: the bedrooms were well sound-proofed, which had been a necessity for the faunus living there through the years.

Some privacy was nice for those who had just gotten out of living crammed together in cages.

Bedlam considered fleeing back into the bathroom, but realized that would just give her more opportunity to witness his multiplicity. So instead, he walked over to the bed and grabbed the pillow that lay beside her and used it to cover himself. While he did so, she shielded her eyes and began shivering from embarrassment. Bedlam moved away and sat on top of the wooden dresser, his legs dangling over the side.

"I should ask you what you're doing in the room."

"Is the shower still running in there?"

"Yes," Bedlam said. Right, those two are still going in there. Hopefully they heard her shout. The walls might be sound-proofed, but the door was ajar. "I was not quite done in there and came in to fetch something."

Salt looked around the empty room, then looked at him and raised her eyebrow questioningly.

"My shoes. I hung them out the window earlier."

Salt looked at the window, then nodded her head. She must have heard me open the window earlier. She went to the window and grabbed for the shoes, bringing in all three pairs with a face that was more confused than before.

"Why do you have three pairs of shoes?" She asked incredulously.

"I spent a lot of time picking up habits from Blake." He answered without delay, "she is a totally shoe hoarder." Blatant lies! Blake knew the sensibility of frugality, despite her upbringing!

"Yeah, but why are they all the same shoes and why are they all filthy?"

"Hey, it is a good style!" Blake picked them out for me two years ago! "And they are all filthy because I literally swam through a sewer an hour ago. So why are you in my room? Came to apologize for earlier?"

Salt snorted and began to do a stilted laugh and got off the bed, approaching him slowly having regained her composure now that the pillow shielded her young eyes from things she should still be several years away from appreciating, "yeah right, no, I'm coming here to tell you..." and she began to whisper as she got near his seated form, "if you do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, to hurt my mom, the police are going to be the fucking LEAST of your worries!"

It would have come off as a threat if said by someone larger than Salt. Instead, Bedlam found the entire scene rather adorable – even relatable. He'd had just as much spirit when he was her age.

Bedlam languidly slid off the dresser so that he could tower over her intimidatingly. Her eyes tried to stay on his face, but kept darting down to note the various scars and blisters all over his torso and arms that were level with her face.

"If we all play nice, Salt, it will be like I was never here, and within a couple days, I won't be. So just pay your dues, put up with me for a bit, and we'll go back to our own lives again." He reassuringly cooed, "but who taught you to swear like that?"

"Yeah, yeah..." Salt's hand came up to poke a particularly wide scar that trailed from his hip to the bottom of his ribcage, "gods, Taurus, what the hell did this to you?"

"SDC taskmaster whip for that one, when I turned around during one of my punishments to beg him to stop. Was a bit younger than you are now, then, I think..."

Salt paled.

"Don't forget that I was the one who pulled your pregnant mother out of a cage so that you didn't have to have a set of your own," he warned, "now if there is nothing else, I have a shower to get back into and a bedroom that I don't need a child hanging around in."

Salt took the hint and walked backwards out of the room, her eyes wide with terror. He locked the door after she retreated, then went into the bathroom where he found Brazen and Dominic standing patiently in the shower stall.

[Little girl playing tough] he informed them, before tossing the three pairs of shoes into the stall with them. [Wash those. I sleep]

He lay back on the bed and thought about what Salt had said. For the moment, she should know well enough to follow her mother's example. If these two know one thing, it is that faunus don't go running to the human police. That didn't mean he was going to test the limits of hospitality. I may have pulled Lichen out of a cage, but Ghira's the one who knew how to deliver a baby in the middle of the woods and cared more about their welfare after the fighting was over.

With Ghira in town, their loyalty to me is conflicted.


BRAZEN

Brazen woke up, sleeping on the floor of the bedroom. Dominic had nestled up beside him and they had used each other as makeshift pillows while Bedlam claimed the comfortable single-bed for himself. The moon shone through the window, and Brazen pulled out his scroll.

The time was three in the morning. He went through his scroll's contact list before realizing that he did not actually have a direct means of contacting Hazel outside of physically tracking the man down: they had always used messengers and Adam's minions to communicate after their meeting in the throne room. When he had killed Sienna and claimed the title of High Leader for himself. When he had firmly allied himself with Cinder's humans and set himself on his current path.

How am I going to find a man who does not want to be found in a city this large, Brazen considered. It is not like I know much about the man outside of his association with Cinder. What business could he have to take care of in the city that demanded he leave Cinder's subordinates out in the woods? Think think think!

He looked at his aura level. 100%. It had been pretty low after the mess on the train, but having the three of them sleep together had gotten it back to nominal conditions within hours.

Sleeping together.

He looked at Dom's head resting on the arm that wasn't holding the scroll.

Not like that! Brazen's face began to blush, this is because we had to!

"Yeah, sure, and you're only naked because the clothes we have are air-drying."

Dom's eyes opened at Bedlam's remark, focused on Brazen's face, then snapped to look up at Bedlam.

"You're just jealous you had to sleep alone," Dom replied, which brought a malicious smile to Brazen's face.

"You want some company up there?" Brazen asked, "I wouldn't mind getting in Bed. Maybe you felt left out of the shower swordfight?"

Bedlam paled at the innuendo being crudely hurled at him, "unless your name is Blake, then no."

Brazen shrugged, pushing Dom off as he did so. "Whatever. Honestly, with that attitude I have to confess you seem to be the most optimistic one of us." He stood up and looked out the window, to the dimly lit streets of the faunus neighbourhood. It was for human police patrols that they had street lights at all. "You've got a hard path, Bedlam."

Dominic came up to the window and stood beside him, throwing his arm around his neck. "He can have Blake. We've got each other's backs, which is more than we can say for Belladonna. Did she ever really trust us?"

"She was just using us from the start, getting us to do the dirty work so that she could feel morally superior." Brazen supplied, "I went through so much trouble to make her happy, to make her want to stay beside me, held off from looking at other girls..."

"Saved everything for Blake," Dom scowled, "so much so that this hug is tantamount to having touched myself intimately!"

"It was out of respect for our dreams for the future," Bedlam whispered angrily, struggling to keep his volume low. The walls were sound-proofed in here as far as they knew, but it was still safer to not shout at one another.

Of course, wouldn't anyone listening just assume I had gone completely crazy? I might be arguing with myself, but that doesn't mean that I'm arguing with myself. I'm not that sort of crazy. Right? [What is plan for day] Brazen asked, changing the subject away from what appeared to be transforming into an awkward argument about why he had never enjoyed his own body. "I could use a sounding board for where my contact is going to be."

[I will find Blake] responded Bedlam, [doubt Hazel will be there]. While Hazel might be opposed to Blake and her teammates from Beacon, Adams doubted that he would try to take them on alone after they had defeated him with Cinder's flunkies backing him up; if he had been a stealthier fighter, maybe. So if Hazel was not in town to fight Blake's group, he would be looking for someone or something else.

Cinder had not left town with them, so maybe his plan was to get information on her whereabouts? They had failed their mission at the school, so there must be something in town that he needed to mitigate the loss. Perhaps his target was Lionheart.

[Lionheart], Brazen signed, [I should go to the school, at least that is a static location to search] Lionheart may be an unknown party to him, but there was a chance of Hazel or Cinder pursuing the headmaster.

[Returning to the scene of defeat?] Dominic frowned. He clearly did not like the idea.

Brazen eyed him warily for a few moments, waiting for more. Waiting for a suggestion for a better route to the goal.

"I am going to get some coffee. Need something until I get a new hat." Dominic left the room and headed downstairs. Brazen quietly moved to the door and leaned against it, listening through the material for their brother's return. He returned several minutes later with a bag of coffee grounds and a black marker.

I am a master of disguise, Brazen tried to convince himself.

[I have an idea of where to find Blake, if she is hiding at the place her team was at], Bedlam signed. He got up and started testing the dryness of their clothes before beginning to don his outfit. [Going to head out now. Plan to meet back here?]

[Use scrolls to stay in contact] Dominic ordered, [if we suspect one of the scrolls of being compromised...]

[Meet back here at sunset] Brazen suggested, [if one of us goes dark, the others should find them after two days]

[Come in through window] Bedlam added, [first one back can go back out and enter normal way]. He looked at Brazen and Dom for a little bit, then crawled out the window into the night.

Brazen helped Dominic darken his hair in the bathroom, ensuring that the access door from the hallway was locked while they did so. Afterwards they went back into the bedroom and stared each other down.

"I guess I'd better get to work, too," the remaining faunus said together. "That is still strange."

Dominic went over to where his clothes were hung, tossing Brazen's into his brother's hands. Brazen donned his outfit, replete with white robe, and unlocked the door.

"Good luck," they chimed. Dominic slid out the window in a strange deja-vu of Bedlam's departure while Brazen went through the house to leave through the front door, making enough sound to make anyone awake aware of his movement without being brusque enough to wake anyone or make it too obvious he wanted his exit to be noted.

Brazen headed to a local cheap tavern; thanks to it being the faunus district it was open for business in the early morning. He had them bring him a salad and a parfait, which he hoped was not made with bat-faunus milk. The aging counter-clerk paid him little attention, swaying gently after serving the order, barely registering what went on in the building after a long overnight shift.

While he ate he hid his face in a local tabloid that he took from a newspaper stand, choosing the glossy magazine because its cover had more pictures and less words.

It had headlines like "Government Saves Haven Academy" and "Menagerie Militia Makes its Mark". Adam's face was on the eighteenth page, after a solid seven pages of advertisements for local theatre and feminine make-up products (many of which were tested on unwilling faunus, no doubt). The photo had been altered, adding froth on his mouth and giving him bloodshot eyes that peered through his mask.

He threw the trash-rag out with the rest of his breakfast's disposables and wandered back out onto the streets. Haven was a fair distance from the faunus district and remaining inconspicuous retarded his speed considerably.

As he wandered through the back-alleys and side streets, he saw a few posters with his face on them. Some were older ones put up by the Fang, rallying the faunus to join their ranks. Many of those were now defaced, faded, or partially torn down.

I guess the media is having an easy time demonizing me. Out of all of those responsible for the attacks on Haven and Beacon, he was the face that people had feared beforehand. Cinder, Hazel, these names meant nothing to common humans prior to the attack in Vale. Adam Taurus was the face of evil chosen by the media, the man who'd been responsible for the bulk of the White Fang's dirtiest work in Mistral. It didn't bother him, though. Before the split he would have been enraged at the slandering of his reputation. In his present condition he viewed it as merely background noise. What humans or faunus thought of him did not matter anymore. I have a mission. I will free my people. I will reveal the means to destroy my enemies and bring humanity to its knees. When I am done, they shall revere me for my sacrifices on their behalf. They'd have to!

At busier intersections and outside more upscale businesses were military posters bearing his likeness, as well as images of Cinder, Hazel, Mercury and Emerald. None had been seen since the battle, which was good and bad. Good in that they were still at large, bad in that he had no more to go on to find his allies. I mean, if I can't find Hazel or Cinder in Mistral today I can always run back out to the airship where Hazel left Cinder's kids.

Lionheart's face was not there. A good sign? Either his involvement with Cinder had remained a secret from Blake, he was in prison, or he was dead. Or maybe he had struck some sort of plea deal, argued that his participation had been coerced.

If I am going to get into Haven to track down Lionheart, I am going to need a better disguise. Something that does not rely on me just wearing a large hooded cloak.

Keeping his eye out for ideas, Brazen came upon two teenage boys as he walked through a neighbourhood park.

"So there was nothing at that store, does that mean we can go back to the dorms now? I heard the others saying something about doing something today, so we should get back for whatever that is."

"Oh, that, um, that was just them talking about doing some training one-on-one. Getting back in shape, since they haven't had much opportunity for teamwork since leaving Vale," the red-haired human responded, his voice cracking initially as he attempted to cover an obvious lie. Brazen sat down on a park bench, hoping the two would pass by and pay him no notice.

He needed an invisibility cloak. A magic ring that concealed him rather than split him into three people. He had nine other fingers, right? An illusion semblance. A stealth bullhead!

A sign that said 'FAUNUS NEED Ⱡ plz HELP'.

Anything to make them ignore him and go on about their business.

Instead of passing him by, the pair stopped at the dilapidated children's play structure.

"Oh, so they're training and getting ready for going to Shade Academy while we're both out here looking for sports gear?" complained the spiky blue-haired guy.

"No, no no! We're looking for something to protect what is most valuable, what is most vulnerable! We are on a quest to find the key to our future victories! Never again shall any of our team find itself shamefully unprepared for the rigours of combat!"

"Is this because you took a coconut to the groin during Vytal?"

"We shall find jockstraps so that none of you will never have to suffer my agony!" Red-head pulled his counterpart into a close hug with one arm while holding his other hand outstretched in front of them, "I am a trailblazer, a knower of that which much not be known, a feeler of what must not be felt by any man!"

"If the other two are training, we should, too." With that, the blue haired boy pulled out a weapon that expanded into a long trident, escaping from red-hair's grapple like a slippery eel. "Plus after that spiel, I REALLY want to hit you a few times."

Red-haired sighed and muttered lightly "this is what I get for following orders from Sun...", low enough that Brazen barely heard it. The blue-haired boy didn't seem to have heard it at all, being too distracted with twirling his pronged weapon around in an attempt to dazzle his compatriot with his prowess.

Great, a couple of try-hard huntsmen in training, Brazen complained to himself, but then looked around the area. Nobody else in the isolated area, and the pair did seem to be focused on each other to the point of having not looked over to where the wanted terrorist sat humbly on the park bench.

That redheaded guy has a nice scarf. And those yellow goggles on the blue-haired boy would be a decent cover for my eyes... Brazen felt the metal of Blush against his back as it was caught between him and the back of the bench.

"I'm still not convinced we should be going to Vacuo, with the state of Mistral as it is." Blue said while jabbing at Red underneath the playground's slide. "The city is stable and safe right now, but with the academy's year being delayed indefinitely, maybe we should just stay here. You have to admit, there'd be a lot of lien to be made, and nobody else to steal credit for your heroism."

Red leapt up atop the playstructure and took a shot at Blue with his flintlock. After the ringing retort of that died down, he laughed. "Come on, did you forget the most important thing we learned from the Vytal Festival?"

Blue took a step back and let go of his weapon so that he had a hand free. He stuck up a finger. "Beer before liquor, never been sicker?" He stuck up a second finger. "Don't trust anything from Atlas that looks like a child?" He kept raising fingers as he made points. "Always have an escape plan and an airship? Don't split the party during a grimm attack? Don't keep dangerous felons in the same place where you control your robot army from?"

Red sighed. "Well, yes, we learned all of that, too, I guess. I meant about why we should go to Vacuo." He leapt down, sword-first, to take a swing at his teammate.

"What did we learn at Vytal about why we need to leave Mistral – our home, in its time of need – to go to Vacuo?" Blue asked while parrying Red's thrust, using the shaft of his weapon to toss Red aside. "Is this something about Sun?"

Red rolled across the gravel of the playground area. "Sort of."

"He's only one quarter of the team. The rest of us call Mistral home."

"No, I meant the Sun. Up in the sky." Red pointed upwards, even though between the mountain and the overcast weather the gesture didn't track as well. "What I meant is that we learned in the arena that Vacuo is hot."

"So? Mistral can be warm."

"Yeah, but in Vacuo the girls dress accordingly. Everyone here dresses expecting it to rain all the time."

"Let me be clear: you want to go to Vacuo because-"

"Because the girls have totally shorter skirts, yes." Red finished as he flung himself back into melee. "Besides, they have a working school, a functional society..."

"What's not functional about Mistral?" Blue retorted. "Mistral's magnificent! Best place on Remnant, or can you honestly say you like what we ate in Beacon's cafeteria more than what Haven serves?"

Red began bashing at Blue with a series of powerful strikes of his sword, forcing Blue's feet to dig into the gravel. "I mean, it used to be functional, but that was when the huntsmen working out of the Academy, representing the common people and giving teeth to our democratically elected representatives, were alive to balance out the aristocratically-managed military and the criminal underworld." Red explained during his attack. Then, as if an afterthought, added after his final swing, "and I think you meant 'served'. Haven's cafeteria won't be serving much for a while without a headmaster or teachers. At least Shade Academy has teachers. A safe environment to hone our skills before we're sent out to fight again. Is that so much to ask?"

Blue looked at his scroll. "Weren't you supposed to be heading for an interview for a gig at some point? Do you want to show up looking like I just beat you up?"

Red looked at his own scroll. "You're just upset I've got your aura at twenty. 'Less you forget, that means I win by standard sparring etiquette." He pocketed the scroll, "but yeah, if I don't go sign up for this gig for Sage and I to go deal with a grimm nest up north, the only decent paying one left is an escort run out to that town that the grimm just attacked – security for a camera crew or something."

"That sounds boring. What sort of grimm are in the nest?" Blue put his weapon back on his belt and pocketed his own scroll. "Boarbatusk?" He sided up to his teammate and poked him in the ribs playfully. "Don't tell me you and Sage think you're anywhere near capable of taking on anything bigger than a lancer larvae."

Red sputtered with mock-indignance. "The way you just fought, you'd not even manage against the larvae!"

Brazen had started creeping towards the pair, appearing as innocuous as he could manage, the moment he'd heard them say how low their auras were and they'd put their scrolls away. With both of them side-by-side, turned away from him, neither of them saw his approach. Neither one seemed to hear the sound of his sword popping up out of his back-bound sheath, and if they did, neither one turned around to investigate it before the flat of Wilt came crashing into the side of Red's head. Unexpecting the blow, he was immediately knocked out. Blue had just enough time to see Red get hit and gasp in alarm before Brazen's leg came up between his, sending the second boy wheezing down into the peace of unconsciousness.

"Huh. Bet you wish you'd heeded Red's advice and gotten a cup now, don't you?" Brazen gave an uneasy laugh, making a mental note to follow that advice himself. His own body twinged in sympathy for the human's experience of distinctly male pain. Moving past his unease at his own methods, Brazen focused on the results: with Blue's goggles and Red's scarf, his disguise was much stronger. Now he wouldn't have to walk around with his white robe drawn so far down his face that he struggled to see out of his one good eye, and the goggles would cover his brand nicely in case any faunus got a glimpse of him.

He looked at his now dashing image in his own scroll, admiring his appearance. "Yeah, this'll do. Thanks, guys. See you never."


DOMINIC

He leapt from rooftop to rooftop, wrapped in the shadows of the undercity as much as he was his trenchcoat. He had to be on top. Of the Fang. Of his people. He had to be the one in the light.

The docks were close to the faunus district: neither was far removed from the sewage of the mountain city. He would be there well before the sun rose. He would not be there before the earliest dockworker started his shift. Small fishing ships and local ferries were already floating away from the harbour.

He found a wharfside food stand and ordered a meal. The man served him a bowl of noodles, which seemed appropriate albeit frugal. Typical labourer fare this early in the morning... or this late in the shift for those who worked overnight.

"I'm looking for passage on a ship to Vale," he said to the shopkeeper, "any recommendations?"

The wrinkled old human frowned (and Dom had thought his original expression had been a frown), made a grunt, and shook his head.

Dom finished the bowl of noodles.

"Thank you for your service," Dom said as he left the noodle stand.

Alright, he thought, mission objectives: obtain passage to Vale as quickly as possible. Get a new fashion accessory to conceal faunus heritage from observers.

The primary objective was going to be impossible for a few hours. The second would either require him to rob some random person, endangering his ability to pass undetected by local law enforcement, or await for a clothing store to open.

Well, he would have to find the place that sold spots on the ship anyways, right? May as well keep half an eye out for a clothing shop, too.

I should have been more careful with my hat before getting onto that moving train! He scolded himself as he slunk along the docks, getting the layout of the area for a few hours while the sun hesitated to lurch over the horizon.

Since the docks were at the base of the mountain city, the actual waterfront area was so vast he could not hope to cover it in a single day. Perhaps not even in a week. This was not only to his detriment, however: anyone reporting spotting a man matching Adam Taurus' description 'in the docks' would not hamper his attempt at flight from the continent.

As noon approached he walked out of a local millinery with a fine new hat. He had great optimism that with it covering his horns he would attract less suspicion from the local dregs, now that the sun was high enough to make his faunus features visible to humans. Suitably disguised, the sprawling docks would be his hunting grounds for his floating quarry.

It did not irritate him much that so far most ships he had inspected were local fishing ships.

It did not concern him much that the ferries he had seen were bound for Mistral's coastal settlements.

It did bother him that Belladonna's blonde companion who had arrived with her at Haven was also on the docks. Dom quickly ruffled his clothes up and checked on his disguise in a nearby reflective windowpane. I can barely recognize myself! This will be fine.

In a burst of fraternal empathy for Bedlam, and because he doubted Brazen would care, Dominic thought to inform his Blake-targetting self about where her current beau was loafing about. He pulled out his scroll and created a quick text.

~Blake's blonde boy at docks.~

Pleased with the succinctness of the message, he moved to send it. Then, he furrowed his brow. Wait a second, how would this work? How could he send a text to his clone's scroll? Wouldn't that just send it to himself? Did Brazen and Bedlam have different scroll contact information than he did? How could he be sender and receiver? Dominic clenched his teeth to ward off the growing headache.

He came up with a different method. He simply saved the message as a low-priority note in his scroll's shared network account, so that it would be noticeable by either of his brothers if they looked at their network account. It wasn't as elegant as a direct message, but so long as they were connected on the local Mistral scroll network it would let them avoid the fact that their scrolls, like their swords, bodies and minds, were identical.

It doesn't really matter if Bedlam sees the message now or not, it's not like I'm planning to pounce on our enemy here at the docks. That would create a scene he would prefer to avoid, and the simian faunus was not alone: some green-haired fellow followed him like a bodyguard, his stern expression and wary stance betraying his attempt to seem relaxed.

"Come on, Sun. We can wait for the airships to get back from that town they all flew off to. You know he's going to flip if we get passage on a boat."

"Sage, my dear and earnest companion: you have nothing to fret over!" Replied the blonde, whose name was apparently Sun. "You see, we are not getting passage on a boat. We are merely exploring local alternative travel opportunities, necessitated by the sudden departure of all local air transports and the state of our financial reserves. Neptune will be told by Scarlet that you and I are just getting back in shape, a worthy lie since the four of us have spent quite some time apart."

"While I hesitate to place blame upon that circumstance, I would remind you that you are the one who disappeared after the Battle of Beacon to... how did you say it?"

"I was helping a friend!"

"Right, chasing some tail."

"Don't quote Neptune! He knows not of what he speaks."

"He says you know not of what you seek, seeing as how she kicked you to the proverbial curb the moment her teammates came back into the scene."

"We spent nearly two seasons together, nonstop!"

"Stuck on an island with a girl for the spring and summer, but now she can't wait to get away from you." Sage's mocking tone visibly deflating Sun, who now looked crestfallen. "Anyways, you are deflecting again. The point I was trying to make is not that you could not get a girl's scroll digits if you worked for the CCTS, but that you are to blame for our team's lack of practice of late."

Sun rose up to make a comeback to that, deliberated, opened his mouth to speak, then gave a defeated nod.

"Furthermore, your... withdrawal from Beacon immediately following a faunus terrorist organization's largest attack on a civilian target was ill-timed." Sun looked confused at that. "Some of us had to reassure one another of your loyalties. To our current society."

"Sage, I'm really sorry. I didn't know. But you know me. I'm not with the White Fang. Those guys are seriously messed up. I should know! I spent all my time in Menagerie helping Blake fight them off!"

Sun began doing martial arts kicks and punches at the air, drawing concerned glances from the nearby civilians who began to give him a wider berth. Dominic had to get further away, lest he stand out from the crowd.

"So why are we here, Sun?" Sage asked after standing at a distance for a minute to watch his team's leader demonstrate how he had 'fought off Ilia and the Albain brothers', which Dom for his part thoroughly enjoyed. It was nice to hear a first-hand account of how his followers had botched such a straightforward plan, rather than having to hear reports from messengers who barely beat the Menagerie Militia to Mistral in time for the attack on Haven; it was no wonder his forces had been routed... only his Vale forces had ever met his expectations for competence.

Not to mention loyalty. First Blake, then Ilia, then his remaining followers in the throne room. Petrac, Luro, Jacen, Coloco.

"I know you try to keep up the facade, but you are smarter than that. Despite your myriad flaws, you're somehow considered Neptune's best friend, and know he won't get on a boat." The pair had begun walking along the pier after Sun's display concluded, and Dom tried to appear innocuous as he tailed them, eager to overhear more tidbits of information.

"Ah, that is where your understanding of Neptune's psyche fails you, my boon companion. You see, he won't get on a boat willingly."

"Dare I ask?"

"Have you ever watched a scrollnet series called 'The J-Team'? About four soldiers-of-fortune hunted by the Vale military after the conclusion of the Great War for a crime they didn't commit, having adventures and helping people with stuff for lien? Among other things it provides a useful method of ensuring compliance from those who resist certain means of transit."

"I am familiar with the show...is this why we're also looking for an apothecary? Are we going to have to drug Neptune's milk?"

"I mean, if that doesn't work we can always knock him out some other way."

Devious, Dominic thought.

"So that's settled?" Sun asked.

Sage nodded, "I suppose so, if that is our real intention for being here..."

Sun gave a huge, closed-eyed grin. "Excellent!" Sun spun about, doing a quick 180-degree turn, "which brings us to the next order of business!" Sun's eyes trained on Dominic, who stood beside a pile of wooden crates while a pair of sailors argued about who was going to move them onto a nearby dinghy. "You've been following us for a while now, is there something you want?"

Dominic's coat collar was up, his hat was tilted down, his eyepatch in place, his hair darkened from a mixture of black ink and coffee grounds... had Sun seen through it all?

He kept his voice high and smooth, avoiding the gravely intimidating tone he had practiced for many hours, the tone he had used at Haven when Sun had stood beside Blake, "I overheard the two of you fellows were on the hunt for a ship, and since I was thinking of heading out of the city that way myself I thought I would follow you. I'm a carpenter by trade, learned my craft out in Ilhari. Figured I could put my skills to better work in the effort to rebuild Vale." Rebuild it into a new faunus territory!

"Oh, that makes sense I guess. It was just sort of shady having you tailing me. I've already got enough of that with this thing!" Sun gestured to his furry yellow tail. "My name is Sun Wukong, and this is my teammate Sage."

"Dominic," he responded, suddenly thankful that he had a quick alias to give them. "Didn't know my parents so I just go by that. In a small hamlet like where I grew up, it was never a problem."

Sun's posture seemed relaxed at a glance, but his stance would grant him easy access to his weapon. Suspicious. "Yeah, it is tough to find yourself all alone for the first time in a messy city like this after living your life in a different sort of place. That's okay, Sage and I would be happy to have you along on our search for a ship that is not heading to Menagerie. There are a lot of faunus who want to get back home, now that the fight at Haven is over."

"I've no interest in heading to Menagerie. I'd prefer a direct route to Vale, rather than having to suffer a stop-over in every other port in the world."

"Well, we're hoping to find a way to Vacuo. We're aspiring huntsmen, but with Haven out for the semester my team decided to head to Shade."

Sage laughed, "more like you decided, suddenly acting like a team leader again."

Dom's eye narrowed. Team leader? A faunus from a Mistral huntsman team, leading humans. Interesting. Blake's friends were intriguing.

Sun cocked his head to the side. "You okay?"

"Oh, yeah, just thinking." Dom recovered quickly, realizing that his hat's shadow was little protection against a fellow-faunus' vision. "If there is a ship heading to Vale after Vacuo, that would probably be safer than the seas between Menagerie and Vale. Quicker, too."

Sage was paying attention as a courtesy, but Sun's demeanour told of his energy for this encounter. Or perhaps just his energetic nature.

"If you don't mind, I'll follow along for a bit."

"No problem, Dominic," he shrugged in a forced way that tried to appear nonchalant and began walking along the pier again, "ah, we all need help sometimes. Right?"

Dominic didn't trust Sun at all. Who could possibly act so sincerely kind for no motive? If their roles were reversed, Dom would lure his target away from civilians who could interfere, then attack once their guard was lowered. Sun didn't lead the three of them away from the populated areas, though.

Is he scared of me? Getting a feel for me? Trying to make me break my disguise?

After a couple travel kiosks, Dom began to suspect his guide of complete obliviousness. He was going around, looking for tickets for a ship. He even turned his back to Dominic several times.

This guy had fought Dominic at Haven. Some people would hold a grudge for that. Dominic was surprised at himself, though. He got over Sun's role in his defeat – the guy's not Blake – and instead tried to get an idea of who he was. Dominic didn't relax his guard, and over the course of the hour they spent searching the docks he contributed little direction to their conversation. That wasn't for lack of wanting to, but instead because of Sun's inability to stop talking. He just loved to run his mouth. It was hard to believe Blake could stand him, much less his human teammates, but Sage gave no indications of any irritation at the constant chatter.

The three of them learned that a ship from Vacuo was due to arrive in a week and was scheduled to head back that way with no intention of picking up Menagerie-bound faunus who had come with the Belladonnas. Dominic bought a ticket, and the SSSN teammates requested that four tickets be put on hold (paying a small deposit for the service) since they were still hoping to get an airship.

Despite the risks, Dominic couldn't help but be intrigued at the prospect of being on a boat with Sun, hearing him tell more long-winded stories and exaggerated tales of his exploits and the adventures of his friends. Being stuck on a ship with him for a couple weeks on the way to Vacuo? What could go wrong with that plan? At least the Relic of Choice meant that it was that much harder to ambush Dominic while he was sleeping, now that he needed proportionately less of it.

As far as risks went, it was much less risky staying disguised on a boat than it would be to make it through airport security. It wasn't like he was keen to steal an entire airship in the middle of a human city!

There was always the chance that team SSSN would manage to make air-travel arrangements.

Well, now I need to find a way to bide my time until this boat sails in.


BEDLAM

Having joined her teammates and the other children who had fought Cinder's forces inside Haven, Blake had been surrounded by several people all day. When Ghira had come by, he had been escorted by a mixture of local human military personnel and his own faunus militia. All very attentive to their surroundings, all very well armed.

I could take them, though, Bedlam preened to himself. Ghira was tough, but not one to fight when his mouth was not yet tired from trying his pacifist approach. The Mistralian military entourage seemed to be as wary of their charges as of their surroundings. Still not fond of faunus, are they...typical humans. Even after Ghira had risked his reputation coming to help humans, they still had no faith in him. If he attacked the humans first, they would hesitate while appraising whether or not the other faunus were on their side or not. Ghira, the strongest threat, would try to soothe the situation with his words. In that time, Bedlam could have most of the humans sprawled out on the ground before the traitors even got a shot in.

Today is for reconnaissance only, he reminded himself so he would stop planning out a fight.

Blake looked happy. She fluttered around the room, visible through the large plate glass windows with the help of the binoculars the trio had obtained earlier, introducing her teammates to her father.

"Well hello, my name is Ghira so nice to meet you I hope we can all make faunus and humans live together forever in peace even if that doesn't happen for a few more centuries and despite the abuse my people have suffered at the hands of yours," Bedlam muttered to himself in his worst impersonation of Ghira's tone, watching the scene with disdain.

Look at her in there. So happy. So content.

Without him.

It made him grit his teeth with rage!

He memorized the faces of everyone in the building. Every single one of them undoubtedly precious to her.

Blake's team leader. Short girl, a fashionable colour scheme that appealed to his tastes. She seemed to be the most energetic of the lot, shaking Ghira's hand and talking even more than he did, before blushing and covering her mouth. She's said something foolish, it seems. Ghira took it in stride, laughed and patted her on the back, which made the girl beam with delight.

Blake's new blonde female partner. New cybernetic arm. Clearly Atlesian in origin. She seemed reserved. Troubled. The walking dive bar that cleverly disguised itself as a dark-haried huntsman attempted to engage her in conversation a few times before he gave up to go drink in the corner. Blake introduced her new partner to Ghira. The girl looked like she wished she was a turtle, trying to shrink into her seat. Blake seemed nervous around her partner. Some sort of tension there, possible to exploit it?

The Schnee. Bedlam did not know where to begin with that. For a decade, Blake and Adam had fought against Weiss' family's company, both of them knowing full-well the brand that marred Adam's eye under the mask. Ghira and the Schnee spoke at length: so long that Blake left them alone after half an hour to go to another room.

Bedlam took out his scroll, zoomed in on the scene of Ghira and a Schnee having a nice chat. Dominic will simply love this, as will our followers in Vale. Not to mention in Atlas. He saved the file to their shared drive for posterity – his thought-process eerily similar to Dominic's own as he realized he could not simply send his clone a text. As he saved the picture he'd taken, he saw that there was another new file in there.

~Blake's blonde boy at docks ~

Dominic seemed to be thinking of him – how kind of himself. Bedlam hoped that Dominic could do something with Blake's friend to make her suffer, to see the pain being away from his side would force him to cause her. Anything to make her peaceful recuperation in the luxurious huntsman apartment bittersweet.

A tail in the mail makes the feline wail.

"I'll have to catch up with Dominic tonight about what he learned about the boy who dared look at my darling while I was not around..."

Three other huntsmen-in-training were outside, enjoying the garden. An orange-haired girl in a skirt who seemed to be barely awake, propping her head up with her hands. Bedlam crept closer to the house after assuring himself that the guards were all inside with Ghira or out front at the main entrance, and overheard her complaining about being "cooped up in this house until everyone's injuries from the battle were healed". He learned that their names were Jaune, the girl was Nora, and a second boy who was aggravating the girl by not making any more pancakes. All humans.

"Jaune!" Nora complained, "why can't your semblance work on fixing Oscar like it did on Weiss? Maybe you need to eat more pancakes. We need pancakes!"

"Sorry, Nora. Whatever strain he goes through is deeper than just being used as a rag-doll by that Hazel guy. His body isn't used to projecting a defensive aura that long."

Preferring to watch his target directly again without getting distracted by her companions, Bedlam put some distance between him and the house, claiming a prime vantage perch atop a boutique's roof that had a good line of sight to the large window at the back of their house. The boutique's roof had an ornate eavestrough that concealed him from nearby foot traffic, and the curved street gave it a perception line to his target. A patrol of Mistral police passed right underneath him and had no idea he was there!

He watched Blake. He watched Blake's team. He watched Ghira leave and head back to wherever he was staying.

Bedlam thought about following Ghira, killing him to get Blake angry. It could work. He would check that out the next day.

He scouted the house Blake stayed in. He observed their behaviours, when they ate and that they all stayed in the house.

Stalking was a full-time endeavour, but he was patient now. He had nothing else to worry about. His psyche-slices would deal with his other pressing responsibilities.

So he watched Blake as the sun rolled across the sky and waited for his moment to come.


BRAZEN

Carpenters repaired damage to the interior of Haven where Cinder had fought against Blake's teammates. They paid him no mind. His eccentric appearance and determined gait gave him the likeness of a retired huntsman coming in to visit his teaching office. Outside, in the courtyard, a few reporters had milled about. One young human girl had approached him with a notepad and asked him who he was and what he thought of the school being closed for the semester, and how it would affect the region's stability. He had waved her off, dismissing her without a word.

He came to the headmaster's office door. It was closed.

Brazen gave the hallway a quick check: nobody else was there. Nobody would see his trespass. He listened at the door. He heard no sound of people within.

He opened the door and strode inside, closing the door with his foot after he had passed through.

Books. Books everywhere. He cursed Blake's desertion. If the traitor had only been more diligent in teaching him to read, such a library would be so much less a daunting opponent for him. He cursed the SDC for never giving him proper education as a child, outside of how to crawl through mine shafts and subsist on scraps.

Well, that last bit was somewhat useful through the years.

"Professor Lionheart, where are you?" Brazen muttered before his eyes found a bleached stain on the floor, partially covered by a rug that did not match the age of the rest of the room. He kicked the rug aside and saw a larger stain, softened by cleaning products but still evidence of a bloody end. He looked at the desk and saw a red name plate with golden lettering.

I may be a poor reader, but I am pretty sure that is not how anyone spells Lionheart.

This isn't right.

The person he had thought easiest to find in Mistral suddenly became less so. A new headmaster of Haven Academy. A bloodstain on the floor. It didn't look like Lionheart was around to answer or aid him. Despite that, Brazen hadn't crawled all the way through the streets and alleys of Mistral to the summit of the mountain city to go away empty-handed. He had the office to himself, school was not in session, and despite his preference to avoid heavy reading he could still rifle through the place to see if there was anything useful or valuable. Maybe a clue that the authorities had overlooked but would have some significance to him?

He started with a desk, but there was little there other than the name plate and a quill pen and associated inkwell. No hidden message. The top of the desk was scroll-receptive, but was little more than a touchscreen keyboard when he put his device on the surface.

Wait, there's something here. His scroll vibrated a little, then opened a folder of hidden files. Some sort of local communications link represented by the form of a stylized W, though that seemed like it was one-way and defunct. The files, in alphabetical order, were student files. Separated from the rest were three: Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai. Brazen copied the three files to his scroll. Perhaps they would be useful.

He moved away from the desk. The windows had a lovely panoramic view of the surrounding region. Brazen noted that there was not a single aircraft in the local airspace. A nice change from the last time he had come here.

The books on the shelves overhead seemed covered in dust, untouched for several months. The bookcases at ground level were more attainable but seemed just as unused as those above. He skimmed through the titles on the spines, though most seemed rather tedious. Histories, grimm anatomy textbooks, math. Useless to him, really. His hand came to rest on a black hardcover book which lacked a title, and the shelf in front of it was bereft of the dust that had accumulated in front of its peers.

Brazen pulled at it, intent on seeing what it was about, but it only came out halfway before refusing to come out further. He released his hold on the tome and it retracted back to its original position on the shelf.

A series of mechanical clicks began and the wall whirred behind the bookcase. Brazen leapt back, pulled down his hood with one hand and triggered Blush with his other, firing Wilt towards the vaulted ceiling. By the time Wilt fell down and was caught in his hand, the bookcase had fully opened to reveal a secret passage-way. It was dark, with candle-holders along the wall containing nothing but ruined sloughs of melted wax. He grabbed his scroll from the desk and set it to flashlight mode and shone it down the new hallway. It curved down out of sight. Brazen took one last glance at the office. Nothing left in here unless he planned to triple his vocabulary. He moved carefully into the hallway, his body on high alert with his ears keen for danger and his defensive aura up.

He came to a circular room with a concentric rings of stone tile at the centre. Dead candles lay forgotten in their holders. It seemed like a deadend, and he wondered what the purpose of such a place could have been. He poked at the stone rings with his foot, wary of a pressure-plate trap, but they were solid.

He stood in the centre and looked around at the curved wall of the room with his scroll. No markings, no strange details. He looked down at the tile upon which he stood, which appeared to be a dark circle held in the centre of a T-shaped intersecting lines that reached it from the outer ring of cobblestone.

Clickle crack clack clack

Without warning, slender fanged tendrils shot down at him from above and ensnared him in their grasp, denying his arm any leverage to use Wilt against his assailant while pulling him upwards to the ceiling. His scroll fell to the floor and landed flashlight down, immersing him in darkness.

His mind fell back to the claustrophobia of the mine, trapped beneath rubble and unable to move.

There was a hissing sound, like gas being pumped into a room, then a dim red glow came from a toothed orb to which the tendrils were attached. Grimm. A kind I've never seen before.

"What have we here?" a feminine voice drawled faintly, "Adam Taurus. You have proven to be quite loyal to my cause. It is a pleasure to finally get to talk to you directly."

The tendril around Adam's neck relaxed and he gasped for air he hadn't realized had been withheld from him during the momentary rush of adrenaline, the claustrophobic panic unconsciously making his body hold his breath.

"My name is Salem."

A tentacle of the creature of grimm caressed his face while another removed his newly-acquire goggles from their position on his face. Yet another brushed his hair and scarf off of his face. Those holding him aloft rotated him so that he was vertical again, before lowering him to the floor. The creature floated down aside him, and while he was still held firmly in its grasp he was at least grounded.

"Humanity has been cruel to you." A tentacle traced the lines of his brand. "You have concerns that working with Cinder makes you a pawn for a human cause. That despite its parallels to your own struggle, it is at its nucleus in opposition to your dream for this world."

The tentacles released him entirely now, and he slowly retrieved Wilt from where it had fallen on the floor. The glowing red orb remained still.

He stowed Wilt carefully back through his hood into where Blush was fastened to his torso underneath the white robe.

"You will find that your concerns are unfounded."

A face appeared from within the red glow of the grimm's body, white and streaked with black veins.

"You'll find no humanity in me. What would I find in you?"

Adam narrowed his eyes as the room filled with light, the candles coming back to life as if they were newly lit. The voice, the face, this must be the master Cinder and Hazel served. A being who held valuable answers and secrets. Revelation.

"Strength. Strength and unwavering conviction." Brazen growled. "I have lost track of your servant, Hazel, after tracking him out of town to an airship. Emerald and Mercury made it out with him. I don't know what has become of Cinder. The attack on the school failed."

"That is... most disappointing" Salem responded, her tone giving away little more than reserved malice. "How would you say that came to pass?"

"A variety of factors. Cinder changed the plan, decided to fight Blake's team and some other huntsmen within the school. My treacherous lieutenants from Menagerie came with Ghira Belladonna and a force of fighters composed of faunus and local police to prevent my destruction of the school from going forward as planned. The school is closed, but still standing. I am trying to determine how to proceed from here. There is so much that I must do..."

"It's important not to lose sight of what drives you, Adam. Everything you want to accomplish is still within our grasp. But the path to your desires is found only through me. Serve me, execute my will as you have done before, and we can remake the world as we see fit. Unburdened by the history written by foolish humans."

"What do you need me to do?"

Salem was silent for a moment, rapping her long fingers against the side of her head as she considered the situation.

"It is of immeasurable importance that I determine the fate of my dear Cinder," she at last whispered, "Adam. I need you to find Cinder and relay to me what condition she is in now. Hazel is competent enough to return to me without your assistance, so focus your efforts on finding out what fate has befallen Cinder."

This all sort of nixes my backup-plan to get to Hazel's airship to regroup... now I have to stay here in Mistral to find Cinder for Salem.

"How will I relay this information to you?" Adam asked, "it is not likely that I will be able to return to this place again."

"No, it is not is it," she said, "you must take this Seer to a place more easily accessible to you. Do you have anywhere that you could use as a sanctum, as this place was for Lionheart?"

"I can find such a place, but how do I get the creature to it?"

"My power extends across the vast gulf of space between us: behold..." her eyes blazed red and the Seer began to shrivel up, leaking a tar-like substance that began to wisp into smoke after hitting the floor. It was a gruesome scene, like watching a grape become a raisin at several hundred times regular speed. "Carry the creature to a place you feel is safe, and when you have done so let it soak in a liquid, whisper my name to it and I shall revitalize it."

"What of the headmaster, Lionheart? Is he still able to be of use to us?" Brazen asked, already suspecting what her answer would be but needing to hear it all the same.

"Leonardo's usefulness to our cause has ended. Do not expect mercy from me, Adam Taurus, for that is a human trait I am devoid of. Continue being useful and loyal to me and you shall never have to fear ending up like the cowardly headmaster of Haven."

The final product of the grimm's transformation was flat, like a beached jellyfish (which was actually a fair approximation of the thing's appearance from the outset). Brazen picked it up and stowed it in the voluminous cloth of the robe's right handed sleeve. He'd never held a grimm like this before. It felt... cold? Now to get out of this place and get back to the safehouse ... or should I get this grimm conduit set up before that? Adam weighed his options. His brothers would not get too worried if he was a bit late, and it would be best to keep the strange creature as far removed from the three of them together as possible. I don't need to keep this a secret from myselves, but I should definitely keep myselves secret from Salem.

Brazen headed out of the school building, walking by the reporters and labourers still milling about. The reporter with the notepad from earlier watched him, approached him eagerly, and asked him "sir! Sir, do you have a statement about the recent attack on Kuchinashi? The people of Mistral want to know what their protectors are doing to safeguard the outlying towns, settlements and outposts!"

As before, Brazen waved her away. This time, she persisted in her questioning. "Sir, is Kuchinashi still standing? Please... I had family out there!"

He regarded her solemnly, "I am not involved with the matter. Leave me alone." He walked forward again, this time without her prancing along in his wake. He slipped out of the campus and made his way through the city, eventually making his way to the sewer tunnels which had given the three of him access to the city yesterday evening. He took the creature out from his robe and lay it on the filthy ground, which was certainly wet enough to meet its needs. I need to get this done quickly, before I absorb too much of the smell of this place again. He placed his hand upon it and whispered, "Salem". The grimm began reinflating, a process made all the more horrible by the alien pops and snaps that accompanied it.

"This place is safe?"

"It is a sewer. I hope you can't smell it. I will be able to return here easily enough, and if anyone happens upon your minion it will have an easy means of getting rid of the remains," Adam said wickedly and gestured towards the churning sludge flowing beside them. "I will return when I have found word on the Lady Fall."

"Succeed in this task, Adam." He waited for more, for the offer of a reward, before realizing that none was coming. It was an order, and success expected by his new friend.

He evacuated the sewer and made his way back to Lichen's safehouse. Sniffing his robe he sighed.

I hope Lichen has a lot of soap lying around.


"So you didn't kill him?"

"No, I just hung out with him for a bit and I bought tickets for a ship to Vacuo. I'll learn more about Wukong, maybe figure out how to reach previously neutral faunus and turn them to our way of thinking, then head out from Vacuo to get to Vale." Dominic explained his logical reasoning to his present copy while putting a container of black hair dye on the wardrobe, admiring his jet-black hair in his reflection.

"I feel like killing him and sending him piece-by-piece to Blake would be better." Bedlam smiled at the thought, "just imagine her expression. Her despair."

"He's still a faunus."

"He shot us!"

"He did shoot us." Brazen interjected, climbing through the window illuminated by the light of the moon and the dim streetlights. "Sorry I'm late. Good to see I'm the last one back, though."

"Nice of you to join us," Dominic hissed, "what's with the goggles and scarf?"

"I met some nice young men who found it in their hearts to give me pertinent fashion advice."

Dominic and Bedlam shot each other a look. Adam Taurus might be well-versed at lying to others, but he at least knew when he was lying to himself.

"Tell me you didn't blow our cover."

Brazen shook his head, "don't fret, my darlings. They never knew what hit them."

Dominic sighed in exasperation.

"So did you at least kill any of Blake's friends today?" Bedlam asked Brazen.

"Nope." Brazen grinned maliciously, though, "I did make some progress, though. I made contact with Hazel's boss. Learned her name."

He suddenly had the rapt attention of himselves.

"Salem."

After explaining the events that took place at the school, he listened patiently as Dominic recited his day. Then Bedlam started talking about his day and Brazen decided to take a bath rather than listen to a rather meticulous description of the fifth hour of watching Blake through a window while she read a book on a couch. Dominic unfortunately had already used the bath, so while he did not have to suffer through a cold soak in used water he did have to endure Bedlam's attention to details obtained through their stolen set of binoculars.

Between him and Brazen he was easily certain that his twin had lucked out in the trade. Bedlam's manic glee in describing Belladonna shifting from one couch cushion to another was disturbing, obsessive.

Emerging back into their bedroom several minutes later, Brazen looked at his brothers and said "I think this goes without saying, but we have to promise to keep ourselves a secret from Salem, Blake, everyone."

"Of course," Dominic said. "For that reason, maybe it would be best if only you visited the jellyfish in the sewers? The sewer jelly. The smelly jelly."

Brazen and Bedlam laughed. Brazen corrected Dom, "I think she called it a Seer. Probably because she can see through it? Sort of uninspired, if you ask me."

"I hope she calls us Adam, instead of Sword-er."

"So long as she doesn't think of us as horny, it'll be fine."

"The ring is our best trump card, after all," Bedlam agreed while ignoring the direction of his brothers' bantering, "and the less time I have to spend in the sewers, the better."

"One for all, and all for me," the the other two recited.

"As much as I would love to debrief more about what we each did today, I would rather get some sleep first," Bedlam said as he lay back on the bed.

"Did you get back here first just so you could claim the bed a second time in a row?" Brazen asked.

"What? No, I didn't-"

"Yes. Yes he did. He really loves that bed so much and did exactly what you said," interrupted Dominic, leaving Bedlam looking upset for a moment, opening his mouth silently several times trying to craft a retort, then gave up and pulled the covers over his head. He did not like that Dominic was lying about who had gotten back first, but would accept it if it meant he got the bed instead of the floor.

Dominic lay down on the floor and offered his body again to his twin as a makeshift pillow as they had the prior evening. Brazen tossed his clothes aside in a pile and joined Dominic.

They fell into a quick sleep nestled against one another.

Content in his own arms, Dominic smiled.


ADAM TAURUS

Adam watched his clones in the bathroom of the homestead, drawing slowly closer to one another.

"Alright Dai, I really don't want to see where this is going."

I think they're going to kiss. Imagine if they kiss! How much would you say that you love yourself, Adam?

"Can I just focus on Bedlam for a bit? Try out that immersion thing you mentioned?"

You do not wish to observe what is going on with Brazen and Dominic in the bathroom?

Adam gave her a flat stare, which had the side benefit of avoiding watching himselves embrace tightly.

Fine. Get up and touch the ring connected to Bedlam. Beddy. I want to call him Beddy now.

"I'm going to ignore that for the time being," Adam said, suddenly released from the power that kept him seated. He went up to the first ring, presently focused on a tomato. He touched it, and then he was Bedlam.

He stood in the garden and felt the warmth of the sun, the gentle breeze, the smell of the flowers and plants. He rejoiced in the sensations: something other than the prevalent green mist which he had become terrifyingly accustomed. No wonder Dai had hated being locked away beneath Beacon for so long. Of course she was attracted to the idea of living through him vicariously.

The idea stuck with him: she was encouraged to get people to use the Relic of Choice. The only recess from her prison was when she had a bearer, the only time she had company was when it was activated.

Whatever God or gods had devised the Relic had not made it as a gift for the faunus and humanity any more than they had formed it as a torment for Dai. Which begged the question: what had she done to deserve being imprisoned so?

Alright, you have missed some sensual moments in the house but you are moving along now Adams. Time to get back in your chair. With a metaphysically unsettling lurch, Adam was brought back into the green expanse of Between Realms by Dai, who gently brought him back to where a bounty of fresh popcorn awaited them. So did you like the field trip?

She seemed a bit disappointed, her ears bent down like Blake's sometimes did. "What's got you down?"

I thought they would kiss. They did not kiss.

Adam sighed, "I'm not that narcissistic, Dai, that I have to get in my own pants the moment there are two of me."

Whatever. Maybe things will change once you get to that town the girl mentioned. Dai casually mentioned the kill without any change of expression. Either she is very good at concealing her thoughts on that, or she feels as strongly about human life as I do.

Adam relaxed in his seat, while Dai provided a running commentary on the scenery as the trio made their way into Ilhari. She delighted in the scent of the summer flowers along the road, she muttered about the dingy conditions of the tavern. She complained that she liked Brazen's kimono disguise more than the unrevealing white robe.

My eye-candy is being concealed more and more!

Adam paid a minimal amount of attention to the three of him waiting for the train. His thoughts were reflecting upon his time spent in Bedlam's head. Thinking about the nature of Moonslice, of how his life had shaped him into the man he was today, and wondering what he would have been like if he had been born in Blake's position.

More literate?

Wondering what his life without having his aura unlocked, without Moonslice, would have been like.

Happier?