Chapter 15: The Clean Chapter
Bedlam stood apart from the other two, languidly swinging his blade as he continued to acclimate to the new weight added onto the hilt of his familiar sword. Brazen, having entered the warehouse smelling like a dumpster full of skunks, had taken the opportunity after watching the surreptitiously acquired video of the wizard's exposition to go shower himself off in the bathroom with the intention of using the time to think over what he had listened to.
"What does this change for us?" Dominic asked.
"I don't know, yet. I need to think about all this more." Brazen replied as he rejoined the clone congregation.
"Is this other relic that Blake more important to your goal than finding Cinder?"
Brazen put his face into his hands and massaged his temples, running his thumbs up to the base of his horns.
Dominic picked up Neo's scroll. Nothing of note coming through from the huntress' living room. He put it back on the desk and looked back at his clone.
"If you want knowledge, then at least your path would be clear." Bedlam said from where he idly twirled Wilt, "together against Blake, we would be unstoppable. She would have no choice but to crawl meekly back to our side. We promised to take everything from her, and it seems like she cares about this relic more than she cares about her people's plight, more than her family." He sheathed Wilt and smiled. "We'll take it from her together. Force her to realize her only choice is me."
"I have more to tell the two of you." Brazen said, raising his face out of his palms.
Bedlam sauntered over and plopped himself down attentively in front of where Brazen sat. Dominic continued to stay at the desk, his attention split between the spying scroll and Brazen's words.
"I've made progress towards finding Cinder. I detected her today while returning from my meeting with Hazel. Her scent. In the darkness I saw her arm. Grimm, like the monster I saw with Mercury."
"What's she been doing?"
Brazen slouched, ashamed of his failure to actually catch up with his quarry before she disappeared into the city's narrow streets. "I've no idea. She got away."
"But you're certain it was-"
"Yes. It was her."
"So you're going to keep hunting her here instead of following a target we actually have a bead on." Bedlam said, his tone thick with disdain.
"As much as I would enjoy staying in the company of myself, the point of our power is to get as much done as possible, right?" He looked from one Adam to the other, seeking confirmation. "Right?"
Dominic nodded. "Right. We have to split up if we have any chance of doing everything we need to do."
Bedlam lay back onto the floor and growled. "I just feel like you two have vague, undefined goals compared to mine. We could knock my goal out first, get it out of the way, then methodically work through yours as a team."
"Having doubts about your ability to persuade Blake to come back on your own?" Dominic and Brazen asked in tandem.
"Never. I'm just trying to form strategy here." Bedlam replied, then sighed, "fine, it just feels like Sun was right." The memory of the monkey faunus' taunt during their duel at Haven was still relatively fresh. "Where are all my allies in this? I'm out doing this essentially on my own, while Blake has surrounded herself with humans that will put up a fight when I show up..."
"The faunus of Mistral are hopeful," Dominic muttered, "when they should know better."
"Just wait for a moment when she is on her own, or attack her where she isn't expecting it." Brazen said, "you don't have to just charge in at her the first chance you get."
"I know that. I'm not an idiot. I'll get this done... I'm just saying working together would make it easier."
Dominic nodded a little. "For now, we have to pursue diverging paths. Once we've gotten some accounts settled, there'll be plenty of time for us to work together like we all want."
None of them argued against liking their own company.
"Alright well, for the sake of argument and strategy, let's deal with the most pressing bit. If Brazen is still going to be trying to track down Cinder, does he still need Neo now that we have some idea of Cinder's location? Because if she's no longer necessary..." Bedlam brandished Wilt and grew a dark grin on his face.
"Yes." Brazen said automatically.
"Why?"
"I have no idea where Cinder is, I just know she is here and alive."
Bedlam growled with frustration again, "that's soooo useful..."
"So if I'm going to find out more about Cinder, I need someone to meet with a local human information broker named Lil' Miss Malachite. According to Hazel, her bunch of spies are the best in the business, in the city. He also says that she's none too fond of faunus, so I'll be needing Neo to be my face. Also I'm a very wanted person and my bounty is probably worth more to her than the lien I have left."
"Soooo useful," Bedlam repeated. "Your bounty is worth just as much to Neo. What's keeping her from turning you, us, in for the reward, remind me?"
"At least I have a girl that wants me for something." Brazen shot back.
"Yeah, easy money!"
"Or Moonbright," Brazen countered. "You saw for yourself how much she liked that the time she forced it out of you."
Dominic shot them both a withering glower combined with a deep growl to get their attention off each other and onto himself, speaking once he had both of their eyes on him. "Enough bickering! Brazen is going to be here in the morning taking care of the captive. Bedlam's got a train to catch if he wants to keep pace with the deserter."
The last word gave Bedlam a scowl on his face for a moment, which neither of his clones missed.
"I have reason to be at the station anyways, since it deals with outgoing travel from the city."
"You can just check info about your ship from your scroll, though." Bedlam said.
"I could, yes." Dominic stated, "but since Ghira and the authorities are still on high-alert for Adam Taurus, I'm thinking they might have strict security at the travel station..."
"So if you're with me, you could make sure they don't realize that an Adam Taurus is aboard the train! You can run decoy-duty!" Bedlam finished the thought-process, "see, this is what I'm talking about! Working together for a single goal..."
"Don't get too excited, brother. It sounds like Dom's just making sure you get on the train undetected, not coming with."
Bedlam shrugged, "still, proof of concept..."
"Our current goals aren't all long-term, we know that, so eventually we'll reach a point where we could reform into a single Adam. Which would be less than ideal: the only reason for doing it would be to grant this power to someone else."
"I'm the only one who should have this power." Bedlam and Brazen responded.
"Agreed. So once we finish getting Cinder to explain all of her secrets and Salem's role, once we retrieve Blake from her human company, once I reform the Vale branch to counter Ghira's new schism, we can all look forward to working together like you want, Bedlam."
"Can't come soon enough!"
Brazen stood up. "I'm going to go check in on Neo. When did you feed her last?"
Dominic waved his hand dismissively. "I gave her lunch."
Brazen checked his scroll for the time, then exclaimed, "it's well past midnight!"
"Not like she needs much energy, lying there on a table," Bedlam noted with scorn for his enemy.
"She's sick and needs her nutrients! I looked it up on the Net! It says sick humans need rest and fluids and nutrients!"
"You're treating this human better than the SDC ever treated us..." Bedlam uttered, "sick faunus need that, too, not that we ever received it. Your loyalties aren't being divided between your brain and your-"
"She's a tool for my goal, nothing more." Brazen cut in hastily, his blush revealing his uncertainty with the answer and leading to a slow shake of the head from Bedlam.
"Last call to join me on the train with Blake." Bedlam offered.
Dominic took out his scroll, checking the local news rather than giving himselves bickering any more attention. It was far different from when he had been running the Vale camp, where such disagreements out in the woods could lead to bloody fights between his men. At least with Brazen and Bedlam, he wasn't worried about them killing each other because of this argument.
"Anyways, I'm going to make sure she's not dead, I guess." Brazen left in a huff, stomping off.
"Sure." Dominic called after him before he got to the door, then, having viewed the train departure schedule, looked at his remaining clone and said, "it wasn't really his last chance to join you on that train; the earliest train that Blake and her humans could hop on to journey north isn't for another day and a half. So I guess we'll just hang out here? You sleep, then I sleep, then we spar for a day?"
Bedlam nodded, then lay down on the floor to nod off.
"Also, my goal is just as clear as yours is," Dominic said, responding at last to Bedlam's comment that their goals were vaguer than his pursuit of Blake, "mine is just about getting to a place rather than to a person, and the Vale branch will be happy to see me, unlike Blake for you."
Bedlam pretended to already be asleep, so Dominic felt like he won the discussion even if he had lost the earlier sparring match.
"My point," he whispered.
His voice, inaudible to human ears, was still loud enough for Bedlam to hear clearly. "It's not a fair point if you two ganged up on me."
"Get to sleep."
NEOPOLITAN
Something poked her in the gut. She forced her eyes open and saw Adam looming over her. Oh, he's finally remembered me. She saw a pudding cup in his hand and was inclined to forgive him: at least he knew something about what a woman wants. She wondered what would happen if Adam went and got himself killed or caught by the cops. Would she starve to death, forgotten in this place? She might be flexible enough to work her shackles with her feet, if it weren't for all the blankets she had been covered in. Her comfy cocoon could easily be her doom if her captor disappeared... like how Torchwick had never come back. She banished the thought to the dark recesses of her brain, resolved to keep a strong face in front of her current adversity. Surely even if Adam died, one of his faunus minions would have enough sense to remember her. Probably the dark-haired one that had the air of a pirate with his hat and eyepatch.
She opened her mouth to accept his offering of pudding on a fork. Chocolate! Yum. Her mood instantly improved.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. She rolled her eyes. How long would it take him to realize she couldn't respond? If only her aura would start recharging, instead of being constantly tasked with helping her body overcome the germs that had overwhelmed her. "You'll want to say something, eventually." Dum-dum! I'd love to say something right now, if I could! If he only had a brain, he might have figured that out by now. Mouthing words seemed to be just as useless with the faunus dope.
Another scoop of pudding, scraped from the bottom of the cup, signalling the end of her paltry meal.
"You're starting to really smell."
Neo's eyes widened in shock, how dare he say such a thing to a lady!
He wasn't wrong, though. He also wasn't staying in the room; he quickly left. Neo found herself alone again, the lingering taste of sweet pudding on her tongue.
Being bedridden for so long had left her personal hygiene in a worse state than even she was comfortable with - and that was considering she had made a month-long solo trip to Mistral from Vale through vast, trackless wilderness without access to soap, deodorant, or any other elements of her beauty regimen to which she had become accustomed in life with her parents, at school, and with... with Roman.
Neo felt her eyes welling up with tears, so she forced herself to focus on her outrage at her captor's comment.
It was his own fault, of course, that she offended his fine faunus nose so. If he would simply release her, she could freshen up a little. A lot. She could freshen up a lot. There were layers of filth on her, and if she wasn't in such a state it would be something she would readily seek to rectify of her own initiative.
After she stewed for a little while about her stench and his comments regarding the same, Adam came back into the room with the bucket. He offered her a drink of water from his cupped hands - apparently he could get a fork but not a cup for her to drink from? She didn't mind, though, drinking from his nice strong hands. He seemed to keep them clean. I guess even idiots know well enough how to wash their hands regularly. Then he removed the blankets and the pillows from her, freeing her from the warm prison - as well as the smell of being wrapped up like that for however long it had been. She was glad she didn't have faunus senses; Adam retched a little, stifling something attempting to flow up his throat in disgust at the veritable cloud, while tossing the blankets aside. Then he shoved his big red sword - the metal one, not the interesting fleshy one she'd rather see him draw (and hopefully involve her in the matter of re-sheathing!) - into the water bucket and got it bubbling by sending his aura into the fire dust.
"Bath time for the stinky human."
Neopolitan had never been so insulted. Neopolitan had never had so much anticipation for a bath, either.
He pulled off her shoes, unbuttoning them one at a time. She wiggled her toes, noting that she'd need a pedicure at some point on top of everything else. Her nail polish was flaking off and patchy. Honestly it was a miracle it was even still there at all.
Then he peeled down her pants, the fabric cracking when he pulled as if it was made of clay instead of cotton. Great, now I definitely need new pants, she thought ruefully as she watched him dangle her broken pants from one hand with disdain. There were actual holes in the legs of the pants, now, not even at the knees, making them look like the terrible pre-torn jeans angsty teens loved to wear thinking it made them look enticing. If Neo had to wear those, it would only make her appear destitute. Although maybe if I wore those in front of Cinder, it would save having to explain how bad my life has become since she got Torchwick killed.
"Why is everyone around me wrecking their clothes? I've never seen so many people need new clothes like I have this week. Honestly I wore the same outfit for an entire year..."
And he has the gall to be complaining about my hygiene?
Then he leaned in, close enough for her to see the fine scratches marring the white of his iconic grimm-style mask. His strong, hairless jawline. If only she had the strength she could press forward to steal a kiss... she felt his hands wrap underneath her, where they deftly unhooked her bra and freed her chest. He pulled away, and she stretched out to enjoy what little new freedom she had. Now that the bra was off, she realized how annoying the clip had been, pressing into her back constantly. She closed her eyes and smiled happily, until she felt his fingers hook into her panties.
Suddenly, pain. After standing motionless as if he was thinking about something, Adam tried to pull off her panties, but the various fluids had congealed and stuck to her in many sensitive places, particularly the stubble that was coming in. It was like pulling a bandaid off her eyeball, except it hurt more over a larger surface. Her eyes shot open and she let out a wheeze, then began kicking at him with her liberated feet.
"Hey! Stop that!" Adam retreated from her, relinquishing his grip on her remaining delicates, "enough of this nonsense. It's not like it's anything you haven't shown... me... already." For a long moment he seemed to consider his own words; probably thinking about his lingering virginity. That was his own fault, too. If he had simply let her have her way with him when she had him tied down, he wouldn't have that anymore.
Adam rallied and sat himself down on her legs, keeping her immobile with his own body weight, before once again grabbing the hem of her panties. She shook her head, vehemently opposed to such treatment. If only I could tell him to do it a bit more slowly, gently, she wished. He yanked the hem down, bringing tears to her eyes and making her entire body contort from the expected torment. He got off her legs and pulled the panties off the rest of the way, though she scarcely noticed as her mind swirled in torment.
Adam collected the clothing he had removed from her, making a pile by the door adjacent to a pile of blankets that were also filthy. The pillows lay scattered around her table.
"See, that wasn't so bad." Neopolitan would disagree, which she could only manage with the shaking of her head as lines of pain-fuelled tears streaked down the sides of her face. "Now let's get you cleaned up. If I'm going to keep feeding you, I don't want to have to keep smelling your rancid fear."
Well, at least it is only the fear he doesn't like, Neo thought distractedly, the pain slowly starting to fade. Maybe that meant he would be amenable to ensuring that she endured less of that emotion in the future. A tropical island beach was certainly less likely to make her afraid, fruity drink in hand...
He brought out the cloth, dunking it into the steamy water. Then he brought it out and drew it across the flat of her stomach, wiping away the sweat and grime and such, replacing it all with a new warmth. He produced a bar of soap, and rubbed that into her belly to make a rich lather. He continued to wipe firmly along the sides of her torso with the cloth while his other hand created a froth of thick white bubbles spreading out from her midriff. He continued up to her arms, scrubbing at each one alternatively with cloth, then soap, then cloth again until the grime she had ignored for weeks sloshed away to the floor drain. As he had been with the removal of her panties, his motions were not gentle nor subtle, but the even firmness of his motions didn't cause her pain. Instead, she found her mind relaxing as the powerful horned-faunus rubbed along her stomach and sides.
Was he going to clean her completely like this? Would he clean her back? If he tries to clean my back, he would have to loosen my bindings. Maybe even release me, attempt to rebind me so that I lay flat on my stomach with butt sticking up into the air? She did like sleeping on her stomach more than on her back; maybe that would help her recharge her aura (and semblance) more quickly.
Or she could use the flip to escape!
Sure, Neo. Let's see you escape while sick and without aura while Adam's on top of you and who-knows-how-many of his animal goons are outside. He could have dozens of heavily armed faunus terrorists on the other side of that door by now; for all she knew the only thing keeping them from coming in to brutally ravage her was Adam; he saw some value in her and was probably protecting his latest hostage from his people's natural instinct to lash out at the helpless human. Even if I do get out of this room, it could be the middle of the night, pitch black out there. I would be surrounded by the animals without even knowing it, before I knew it.
She had no idea how long it had been since she had found herself in his clutch. It could have been a week! The only consolations? The eye-candy – Adam only wore his mask and boxer shorts in here, to the restrained illusionist's ongoing delight and frustration – and the fact that he seemed intent on finding Cinder, too. If he was here then at least there was as good a chance as before that the object of her eventual vengeance was still in the city. So yes: Neo had substantive reasons for doubting in her ability and need to escape from Adam, even if he did see fit to unleash her momentarily.
Less concerned about politeness than about not being punished for her behaviour, she kept her mouth shut to contain a coughing fit, intent on not coughing up into his face. He finished off wiping her fingers, regularly dunking the cloth into the bucket to rinse it and soak it with fresher, warm water again. He'd washed her stomach and her arms, and her sides in betwixt. She stared wide-eyed up at him, curious as to what was next.
His mouth was a thin, inexpressive line as he draped the cloth over her right breast. She smiled with excitement as the warmth spread down to her ribs, opening her mouth to release a slight sigh. With the same sturdy grip he had used on her so far, he fondled her breast with a hand easily large enough to fully encompass it despite her proud bust: squeezing and rubbing along it while soapy bubble-laden water ran in rivulets down to the metal table surface. She closed her eyes and tried to enjoy the moment as best she could while his motions and the coarseness of the cloth created a fantastic friction against her tender nipple.
Warm summer sand, the sunlight gleaming off the beach and the waves while gulls chatter in the air. My toned faunus-pet servant at my beck and call, bringing me pineapple punch mixed with soda pop, some tasty cheese on a tray...
Neo moaned involuntarily, and tried to convince herself that it was caused by her illness while the cloth moved around in strong circles over the surface area of her breast before moving over to give the left one similar treatment. He put the cloth in the bucket, gave it a rinse, then brought a fresh dose of warmth to her heart. Neo stifled the moan this time, hoping that Adam wouldn't notice her blush through her fever. He had to be teasing her like this on purpose! Her mind wandered again.
Palm trees swaying in a warm breeze that catches my long locks and splays it out into the air as I revel in the serenity of an equatorial paradise...
Before she knew it, the bliss ended and her tits were evidently clean enough for Adam to move his ministrations lower to her legs; she hoped that he had spent longer than necessary exploring her, though she had sort of zoned out for a bit of it. He began at her toes, where he took a moment to assess her toenails. He nodded, then began scrubbing away at her flaking polish paint until they had returned to their natural hue, all the while running his fingers in between her toes. His digits and hers entwined, twisting around each other in a sea of cleaning froth, sending lovely tingles up her body.
"A single word could do wonders for you," Adam said. Neo wondered what he meant: she was relatively pleased with how this was turning out. Adam bent down and picked up one of the small pillows he must have, at some point, gone out and bought to make her imprisonment here more comfortable. With remarkable dexterity and precision, he drew a single feather from the object. He used the pillow to dry her foot before tossing the light object towards the doorframe, then brought the feather to her sole. "Have you made a decision about my offer, yet? Will you help me find Cinder?"
Neo nodded, yes.
"Well, that's something, anyways." Adam said smugly. "It doesn't do much to resolve the underlying trust issues or make up for your silent treatment, though."
Trust issues? Neo thought irately, you're running your strong hands all over my naked body and we both have the same goal, what's not to trust? Oh, right, the capturing you and minor beating I gave you. Bygones, bygones!
"How about you fix all that: tell me how you got here and who knows you're in town? Maybe why you attacked me?"
Answers to those questions would require more than a shrug or a nod. Without her semblance or a free hand to write with, Neo had little else in her arsenal for communication. So she used what she had left and gave him a sultry wink.
"Well, if you're still not willing to chat, maybe I can... convince you with more physical efforts?"
Torture? Neo feared, gulping as she envisioned needles and knives being bared against her unmarred skin.
Sex? Neo hoped, blushing as she envisioned his member being brought out on display before letting her taste him again.
The feather wiggled against her foot.
"Tell me, Neo: are your feet ticklish?"
Neo had no voice, yet she longed to scream. Somehow, against all odds, this faunus had stumbled upon her secret vulnerability. Somehow he had found the one thing that had previously only been known to her delinquency-denouncing dad, the thing that would make her do anything in her power to stop it were she not powerless on the table. Realizing his advantage, he used it immediately and without regard to Neo's dignity. Without regard for her feelings! Roman had been right all along about the faunus, and her present captor demonstrated that he was no exception.
Adam Taurus was a monster.
Neo's wide eyes sought out her boots. Lying forgotten on the floor by the closed door, what protection did they offer her now? When she escaped this living nightmarish hell, they would be brutally punished for their failure. She kicked and struggled, but he was too strong - so in control and dominant; he held her foot still as the feather was set against her. She bucked against the cord around her waist, she pulled at those keeping her arms restrained but to no avail. In ragged bursts, her soundless laughter and wheezing escaped her lips and contorted her face into one of nonconsensual mirth.
Adam hummed, "it seems you are a bit ticklish there, maybe. Not enough to get a real laugh out of you yet, though." The feather moved away, giving her a blessed moment of reprieve. "How about your stomach?" He let the feather flicker over her freshly-cleaned belly, but she bit down on her lip and looked away from his glare because she was ashamed of her weakness. "No, nothing there." The feather moved away again, and suddenly she realized her mistake: she wished she had pretended that the stomach had been ticklish. Now the feather approached under her armpit, involuntarily completely exposed because of how she had been restrained on the table.
She shook her head, opened her mouth, strained to point at her mouth with her shackled hand, anything to get it across to the dum-dum looming over her that she. Could. Not. Speak.
Please, no! Anything but that!
She mouthed 'No' over and over again, hoping against reason that the masked imbecile would understand. Maybe her nudity distracted him from paying attention to the message she attempted to communicate with her hands and lips, or maybe he saw and was just now living up to his reputation for cruelty. In any case, the feather lighted down on the skin of her underarm and began, ever so slightly, to wiggle.
It was too much, far too much, and as she began, with more vigour than before, to buck and kick and lash out at her captor by any means available to her, she realized with dread that the water she had drank from his large hands had run right through her. Coupled with the tickling, it was certainly inevitable that-
If she just held onto her dignity for a bit longer-
Certainly she could-
Failure.
Relief, coupled with further shame.
How will I ever live this down? Neo thought as she clamped her eyes shut. Perhaps if she could not see, the world would simply disappear. Maybe if she held her breath, she could just die on the spot.
"Ah, that's always sort of gross." Adam said with disgust as he backed away from his new fountain, "guess you can hold in your chuckles but not that. Glad I didn't wash that yet and hey! Don't piss all over your feet. I did clean those!" He clucked his tongue with disapproval and muttered "you're liable to dehydrate yourself at this rate..."
Neo couldn't tell if the tears running down her cheeks were from the shame of turning her body into an impromptu water feature, or from the tickling session. Her entire body was numbed from the sensory overload Adam had subjected her to already. She silently pleaded to whatever gods might be listening to make it stop, but, just like every other time, she received no succor from her prayer.
"People always see prisoners in media making a break for it after persuading their captor to let them use the bathroom. I guess this is why some people would fall for that line." Adam said, tipping the table up so that her mess ran off to drip down into the floor drain. "Well, if you're still not going to talk then don't expect to be let out to use the bathroom anytime soon." He watched the drain dispassionately, "maybe I should give you more to drink?"
A monster, worse than the news had ever been able to describe. Here he was, lording over her with all his undeserved freedom, plotting to force her to humiliate herself for his own amusement. She wished she could speak. It would make her life so much easier.
Cinder had used her pretty words and threats to cajole Roman into working for her. It was so easy to get things your way when you had a voice. How I want to stab her, Neo seethed.
"I think I got most of the stink off..." Adam said, "except for one notable exception."
My back? Neo wondered, poised to make her escape, despite the odds against her, so as not to be forced to endure another callous tickle session. Even without aura, at this point whatever scraps of honour remain to me demand that I try. To stay here willingly, to be forced to undergo anymore such horrors, would be unbearable. So what if there was an army of faunus on the other side of that door, in utter darkness? She would risk it all for the chance of freedom, of not being humiliated again!
Adam slapped the wet cloth down onto her, eliciting a deep moan from her before she could stifle it - not that she had any dignity left now to protect.
Oh right, my sticky snatch, she realized. Still wet with urine, viscid from her experiences and lewd fantasies, surrounded by wisps of unsightly hair from a month of neglect, it was definitely filthier than her back in every sense. Adam used the freshly rinsed cloth and the hand within it to begin stroking down from her clit until he came to the epicentre of the musty smell and fluids. Peering down the length of her torso apprehensively, Neo watched as he slowly dipped his index finger, wrapped in the cloth, to slide down and up repeatedly at the moist fleshy crevice he found there. The other hand brought the soap to bear on her, and she couldn't stifle the gasp, or the moans that followed it, as he began a thorough job cleaning her crotch.
Neo had never been particularly religious, though she did foster hope that there was some sort of afterlife whereupon she would see Torchwick again. Beyond that meeting, though, she had never given much thought. As Adam inserted his finger up to the first joint into her sex, she hoped that if there was a heaven it would feel like this moment. All negative opinions and fancies of flight she had were suddenly forgotten as he touched her most sensitive area warmly, gently. Her mind seemed to transform into a useless jelly, content to let the beastly demihuman treat her like an object while she imagined detailed scenarios where she would sate her growing lust with his body.
Taking a restaurant hostage at gunpoint with his faunus mooks, then having him fuck me while I'm bent over the maître d's podium. His hand pressed against her from both sides, squeezing her labia tight around his middle finger, making it puff out between his long digits.
Jumping off a bullhead at max altitude and making out with him at terminal velocity until we drop out of the clouds. Warm water streamed from the cloth down her thighs while his attentive fingers swirled around her clit, sending her eyes rolling back into her head in bliss.
Invading some rich snob's house, tying up the snooty occupants and having dirty sex in the master bedroom while trying on all the lady's pretty necklaces to find a new one for my collection. The finger gave her much-desired stimulation as it cautiously entered into her, warm and soft in the cloth. Deeper, she wished she could beg. To her dismay, the finger quickly retreated out; by the end of his full exploration of her folds with the cloth and soap, she was humming a toneless tune of giddy joy and feeling slightly dizzy.
Despite his valiant efforts made towards cleaning her up, the liquids running down to pool between her legs weren't entirely soap and water, nor urine; instead they represented a fresh mess.
She was so zoned out she scarcely noticed as Adam grabbed a handful of her hair and squeezed it, making it crackle and bend. He looked down at her pensively, then took the bucket out of the room. As he opened the door, she heard metal rapidly striking against metal. What are they doing out there? Building something? Is someone fighting? It was too dark to see and the door closed before she could garner any further clues about what was happening in the outside world.
The world beyond her on this table and Adam doing what he willed to her body. Beyond the sound-dampening walls and the floor drain guzzling her shame and letting it flow away into the sea.
Neo lay on the table, damp and exposed. She coughed, then began to shiver nervously. Dammit, I can't get sick again! She slid her body to the side of the table, letting her leg dangle over so that her toes could blindly grasp around for something to cover herself with. A pillow, a blanket, anything. Nothing. She slid to the other side and tried there, where fortune was kinder to her and rewarded her efforts with a dry pillow. Clasping it between her toes, she raised it up and relied on her flexibility to get the small round piece onto her body. Just as she got it over her chest the door opened again and Adam ponderously stepped through, the sounds of what was definitely melee combat following him in before he shut the door behind his entrance. She spent a brief second marvelling at how good a job the TorchQuik people had done at making this room soundproof; a bomb could go off on the street and she'd probably only feel the vibration through the ground.
As a finale Adam had gotten a fresh bucket of water, bereft of the grime that had come to fill the previous one, and held it under where her head lay on the table so that he could wet her hair and let it soak in the lukewarm bath-bucket, running his fingers through her locks and firmly rubbing her scalp with his palms. She didn't even try to hold back her satisfied moans as he rubbed the sweet spot behind her ears, soap lubricating his grip on her sensitive earlobes.
As he washed her hair and patted her head, he whispered to her the three words she longed to hear.
Three words that made everything she had suffered through seem worthwhile. Three words that sealed her faith in her faunus ally.
"I spotted Cinder."
Adam Taurus might be a beast, but Neo could see the value in taming him. Soon, her semblance would be good-to-go and she would be able to quickly remedy her present plight. Soon she would be free again to wreak her special brand of havoc and together she and Adam would bring Cinder's precious world crumbling down around her ugly smug face before retiring to a tropical vacation forever. While she smiled dreamily, still a bit dizzy from his ministrations, he told her what he needed her to do for him, inquiring if she was up to the task.
Not like she could give a verbal answer.
It must be fate that he wanted to meet with the leader of the Spyders. Neopolitan could help him with that! The run-ins with them she and Roman had shared were ancient history by now, certainly forgiven by Miltia and Melanie's mother. Honestly, they were all just one big happy crime community now. The twins and her were tight – best friends, even! So what if she'd forced a union between the Vale and Mistral criminal gangs, rather than a takeover by the Spyders? It had all worked out fine.
Malachite would love to see Neo again and to hear that her daughters had survived the attack on Vale.
DOMINIC
They watched Brazen scurry back into Neo's padded cell and shared a quick laugh.
"What do you think he's doing to her?"
Dominic rolled his head back and stared up at the ceiling. "I can't even think of why he needs that much water in there."
"Maybe he's waterboarding her?" Bedlam posited hopefully.
"Nah," Dominic responded, "he's trying to get her on board team Adam."
"Why doesn't he just go to that human information broker and chop off some fingers until she tells him what he wants to know?"
"Because unless she already has the intel, it severely limits the formation of an ongoing relationship with the broker that would supply him with the info at a later time." Dominic surmised from his own reasoning, then added "but once Cinder's on our side I'd probably tie up that loose end."
"Ah," Bedlam realized, "at which point having an extra minion on hand might come in handy." Both imagined the Mistral human information broker's eyes wide with surprise as an Adam gleefully chopped off a few excess limbs to make a point. At which point... "so once he's dealt with the broker, what of Neo then?"
"Have to rebuild our forces somehow, with something. Probably keep her around; she has a useful semblance, among other... features." Bedlam didn't want to spend too much time considering the meaning of that. Dominic noticed. "Just because you're all on about Blake doesn't mean either of us are. In fact, it means we aren't, I think."
"But, that ass. Her hair! Perfection." Bedlam said, stowing his weapon while taking out his own scroll.
Dominic threw a wary glance his twin's way, "are you stalking her on social media again?"
"It's not stalking..." Bedlam argued defensively, "I'm just keeping myself informed. Besides, you're the one watching her on video." Bedlam wasn't wrong; after the spar, Dominic had gone to the desk and taken watch over Neo's spy-scroll.
"Yeah, I'm watching it because we have no way of recording this to skip to anything relevant."
Luckily, there were enough of him to take turns keeping watch on it.
Blake and her Schnee teammate were quietly sitting on a couch, side-by-side, probably waiting for someone to arrive by the look of it. Weiss was fixing up her abundant hair while Blake was checking her scroll - more than likely updating her social media account. Come on, Blake, Dominic thought angrily as he watched the scene, she's right beside you. One unexpected strike from Gambol Shroud and you would have struck a great blow for all of my comrades who died in her family's mines...
No, for fuck's sake, don't lean against her comfortably! She's our enemy!
Dominic wished he could just storm up through the city there and then; alas, he had to keep Bedlam company or some such excuse. As he thought about it further, and continued to watch Blake sit so casually next to Weiss, he began to consider that maybe he should go for a stroll...
"She just posted 'so proud of my father for his work with the Mistral government'," Bedlam reported, the message being intended for the members of the faunus traitor-militia but accessible by anyone with a fake account. "I think she's meeting with her father today?" He grumbled that it was as good a time as ever to blindfold himself again. "You know, to train my aura-sight…"
"Then this might be interesting. She's there with the Schnee, so maybe they'll say something about the SDC's operations in Mistral or beyond."
Of course, if Ghira was going to see his daughter then that meant his armed entourage would be nearby. Guess going for a walk is out of the question after all, Dominic pouted, which is fine I guess; I didn't really think about how such brash action would affect my goals to re-mobilize my forces in Vale...
Blake asked Weiss if she smelled something different in the house, asking if her human companion was using some new Atlesian perfume. The pale human shook her head. Blake looked around perplexed for a moment sniffing the air, but returned to playing with her scroll after the human shot her a deprecating look and Blake saying that 'it was probably nothing'. Dominic shook his head at the sight of Blake being sense-shamed by her 'friend'.
Brazen came out of the chamber, an unusual spring in his step. Seems like he made some progress. He lay down on the ground and muttered about being tired, going to sleep. Dominic smiled at his self, patted Brazen on the head condescendingly which the clone responded to by swatting at his arm.
Bedlam slowly drew Wilt, letting the screech of the metal linger to garner Dominic's attention, "ready to go another round?"
Dominic nodded. Better than watching his ex cuddle with his foe all morning. He put Neo's scroll beside Brazen; if anything interesting happened he could be in charge of that for a few minutes while the brothers sparred again. He raised his blade, and Bedlam charged at him.
"Welcome back, Mr Belladonna," Weiss greeted with a polite curtsy. Ghira nodded respectfully and entered the house, followed by four militia troops, an equal number of masked Mistral bureaucrats and one of the Crown Prince's elite personal attendants who had been assigned to protect Ghira and his people. Both parties understood that the huntsman-trained fellow was as much there as a spy as a bodyguard, but the concern over the blatant invasion of his privacy was secondary to the good work Ghira was doing for his people in this kingdom.
"A pleasure to see you again, Miss Schnee." Ghira took a seat on a couch. As he did he noted a couple packed bags on the other, between which his long-estranged-but-no-longer beloved daughter sat. "The house is secure, I presume?"
"Of course dad. The guards you've had posted around day and night have done their job wonderfully."
"Excellent." Ghira held up his hand and fanned out his fingers. His people accepted the signal to disperse and went back out the door; the Prince's attendant remained standing near the staircase going up to Blake's team's bedrooms. Once the extra ears were gone, Ghira continued, "seems to me that you're getting packed up. How many berths on the ship back home do I need for you and your friends?"
Weiss took a seat on the chair and looked at her teammate.
"My team has a... mission. Ruby and Yang's uncle, Qrow, is going to be chaperoning us as an experienced huntsman, but it means I can't stay with you and mom again for a little while."
Ghira looked over at the human huntsman in the kitchen, currently unconscious at the table there with an empty flask on the floor under his chair. He looked back at his daughter, the light of his life and hope for the future of his people.
One of his eyebrows rose, thick with concern.
"...and we can take care of each other, too! Don't worry Dad, all four of us are strong now and a good team, we've come so far since we started at Beacon."
"That you have, Blake." Ghira settled back against the couch. "Will you be returning to Mistral, to Menagerie, any time soon?"
"We're not sure. The mission is important, and sort of..." she looked at the Prince's spy.
Weiss spoke up, "The parameters of the mission are subject to change. We intend to oppose Cinder's remaining allies, to stop them from continuing her evil work across Remnant, as best we can, for the benefit of all people."
"Speaking of her allies..." Ghira straightened in his seat, "I'm sorry to say we've had no luck tracking Adam after he left the Fang's cavern headquarters. We know he entered, but found no evidence that he left. Which leads our trackers to conclude that-"
"An army of grimm wouldn't have stopped Adam, dad. That's just what he'd want us to think."
"Some would call that paranoia. But I agree, of course, otherwise I would have ended my search. The Mistral government is also keen to not leave his fate to chance, but they have in their employ a man who has a peculiar semblance that lets him track an individual he is familiar with. We're not sure if he just isn't familiar enough with Taurus or if the trail really did end in that cave, but that is as far as we were able to follow. I worked closely with, trained, Adam for years. If anyone could have survived and evaded our search net, it's him. He'll have gone dark, hiding in the shadows; despite his desire for glory and self-aggrandizement, the shadows will always be his natural element. I'm still concerned he may already be lurking in these city streets. If he kills me, he would just make a martyr and demonstrate that his ideology doesn't safeguard faunus rights and lives. If he comes after you-"
"Dad! Don't talk like that!" Blake admonished. "He promised to take everything I cared about away from me, and he's not one to forget a threat. Make sure you keep yourself and mum, and Ilia and all the others who were brave enough to come from Menagerie, safe. As for the target he's put on my back since I left his side, it won't matter. He has no idea that I'm leaving and by the time he does, we'll already be far from here. He'll have to play keep-up and he'll never get a shot at me or my friends. Just promise me that you'll keep yourself, mom and Ilia safe."
"What about that boy, Sun?"
Blake blushed and waved her hand dismissively, "don't worry about Sun. He's pretty tough and his team competed in the Vytal tournament."
Weiss let out a short giggle.
"You have my word, then. I'll make sure they all stay safe. When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow morning from the travel hub."
"So soon..." Ghira turned and waved over the man by the staircase. "Mister Rufio, tell the Crown Prince that my people will begin our preparations to be leaving your hospitality the day afterwards, assuming my daughter's departure is without incident."
"The less people who know, the better, of course," Weiss insisted, "if any of Cinder's allies are waiting in the wings, the less they know the easier it will be for us." No need to give up the benefits of operating in secrecy when their enemies could be anywhere in Mistral. "We thought about laying a trap for them, but after some discussion we thought it best to just try to outrun them before they get wise to our heading."
"Of course, Miss Schnee. These arrangements will be between you and the Crown Prince." Rufio typed the message into his scroll. After a couple of seconds he read a response. "Though if we schedule a heavier-than-typical military presence at the travel hub, for no particular reason, I doubt you would be concerned?"
Weiss looked at Blake, who shrugged. "That might be best. Just because we don't plan to make it a trap, doesn't mean it shouldn't still be one if they do somehow show up to stop us."
Rufio nodded, and his attention returned to typing into his scroll.
"So what will you do from here, dad?"
"Oh, I have to get the prisoners we took at Haven back to Menagerie, rebuild their optimism and faith that things are going to get better if we strive towards peace working alongside the humans. I will send envoys to Vacuo and Vale to contact the branches of the Fang there; hopefully the transition of leadership will go smoothly. With the borders to the north sealed, I'll just have to wait to make contact with our people there."
"Actually, we might be able to help with that." Weiss said, "our first destination is Argus, with the hope of making contact with General Ironwood by making use of the influence of my family name."
"Dad, if you could give me the name of whoever is in charge of the Atlas brotherhood..."
Ghira narrowed his gaze and focused on Weiss.
"She's my teammate and friend, dad. Just because she isn't a faunus, just because her family has stained human-faunus relations in blood for the past half-century, doesn't mean she doesn't understand us and want to help us towards a better future."
"I assure you, Mr Belladonna, any information about this you give us will be used only to advance human-faunus relations in Atlas for-"
"We have to let the Fang in Atlas know about the achievements we've had here in Mistral." Blake interrupted.
"Fine, fine, I'll tell you girls what I know. Granted, my information might be a bit dated, but-" Ghira paused and turned to regard Rufio. "Would you mind giving us a bit more space?"
Rufio had been slowly drawing nearer to the trio at the mention of White Fang cell leadership. He opened his mouth to make a retort.
Ghira growled, a low, deep, rumbling sound that made the marrow in the bone quiver. Rufio's words caught in his throat, then his mouth closed. His eyes shot to the bottom of the couch Blake and Weiss (whose eyes were wide and her body rigid) occupied, lingered for a moment, then shot to the front door to which he scurried away through with surprising speed.
Once the door slammed shut, Ghira turned around back to Blake and Weiss. "My apologies, Miss Schnee. Seek out a woman named Olanna Thyme. Her method-of-choice was always focused on deep-cover agents, infiltration. Ilia was one of her favourites a decade ago because of the girl's position at a human school, with her well-positioned human friends... shame about her parents' tragic deaths. Such a tragedy. When that happened, Ilia revealed herself and lost... everything. Olanna lost interest in her, so I brought the youngster to train with Sienna, Adam and Blake. Olanna and Sienna always got along well; I see no reason why Sienna wouldn't have rewarded her favour for Thyme with continued support and the continued leadership position in the northern continent."
"We'll make sure your friend Olanna is updated on affairs outside of Atlas, sir." Weiss assured him. "While I may have been disowned by my father and cut out of the family business, I think I might still have some influence with the General and others of high standing in Atlas. I will try to make sure that people there know that peace is possible for all of us."
"Peace has to be our priority with villains like Cinder on the loose," Blake added.
"She's a sheep faunus; fond of the old saying, 'a wolf in sheep's clothing'. Always refused to be treated by her faunus traits, hating the idea that they defined her, so she insisted on a personality that was the complete opposite of what people would expect of her appearance. Maybe that will help you track her down. Maybe it will remind you to stay on your guard around her, too. She's anything but docile, and quick to fight if the situation calls for it." Ghira blushed slightly, "she sure took me down a peg or four when I was up there."
"Don't worry dad, we'll make sure to be on our best behaviour with your old girlfriend," Blake said with a leering smile as her father began a flushed rebuttal, his eternal love for Kali, and so forth.
Miles below their conversation, Bedlam smiled just as wickedly as Blake. "Don't worry, Ghira. Your secret is safe with us." He felt like he had a sneaking suspicion about who the listening device he had destroyed had belonged to after having watched the Mistralian bodyguard. He poked the body of his sleeping clone with the heel of his foot. "Hey Dominic, I'm going to be out of town so I can't deal with it, but there's something I think you might be interested in knowing about..."
Maybe some dirt on the local human authority's corruption would put a smile on Dominic's face since Bedlam had soundly won yet another spar before Dominic had finally succumbed to sleep, keeping Bedlam in the lead of their not-a-competition. He's just sore that my weapon modification gave me an edge. Bedlam also thought that, of the three of them, he had the most combat experience now. He had been the one who carried the team out of the White Fang headquarters through a horde of grimm.
It doesn't matter how strong I am, I just need to be strong enough to do what's necessary.
He looked again at the scroll, watching Ghira and Weiss as they spoke about the SDC's business practices in Mistral. Blake sat quietly beside her friend, sharing Bedlam's disinterest in stock projections and acquisition deployments when they didn't involve faunus, dust, or armaments. Hearing Weiss admit that there was a 'hard-light dust ceiling' in the SDC for faunus employees that kept them from reaching upper management positions wasn't surprising. It wasn't like anyone actually had ever thought otherwise; if what Brazen had learned from Hazel was true, then Lionheart's rise in Mistralian academia had probably been due to Ozma's influence more than society's acceptance of the deceased man's talent for teaching.
Blake just kept quiet and tried to smile along.
"I'm coming for you, my love," he whispered, "and nothing in the world will stop me from getting you."
There's all these things you don't think about when taking hostages that become problematic later on.
Not that I know from experience or anything.
I feel like this story might be solitary in its exploration of a relationship between Neo and Adam as characters in the fanfic-verse. Probably because RT made it pretty clear that Adam was all about Blake. I like Blake as a character (obviously; kinda writing fanfic for a series here, probably wouldn't do that if I disliked the cast), but I'm not writing a Blake-x-Adam bit here. This story is about Adams killing folks, taking names, and trying some new angles out.
~J~
