Chapter 29: The Bull's in Your Court

I'm excited for the upcoming volume of RWBY.


BEDLAM

Monday Evening

The snow was deep, but his ties to Blake ran deeper. The tire tracks he'd been following had disappeared when Blake's ride had gone through a snowless stretch of land. He was moving on instinct alone now, and he trusted his instincts. He'd spent most of his post-SDC life running operations in Mistral's vast territory; he'd seen maps of the place often enough to know where Argus was, he had been out in woods like these well enough to know which stars directed him northwards. He knew how to find what food the land could offer him, even as the snow blanketed everything around him: autumn nuts, edible roots. Tough to chew when raw, but they were rich in Vitamin F – that stands for Freedom – so they were still more satisfying to his palate than any rations ever served to his people in the SDC's mining camps. He still had one of Dee's granola bars, too, in case foraging failed.

Most of the time he just focused on moving, relying on his blindfold to keep his eye from being overwhelmed by albedo. The sun seemed brighter, the land a stark white that was painful to look at longer than necessary to forage and track his quarry.

A moan behind him reminded him of the Apathy grimm that were still under his control. "Follow," he had instructed them, and, without complaint or question, they had.

He could still feel their ability sapping away at his will, but his was a strong will. A great reservoir of will. Insurmountable, by either the monster or nature in his path. Alternatively, his magical multiplicity may be bolstering his mind, or perhaps the ring's power protected him from grimm it allowed him to control.

He wasn't sure. He didn't particularly care. It didn't matter – all that mattered was taking care of Blake.


Tuesday Morning

His aura shattered, and he worried that the Apathy would turn on him. Afterall, without his aura, was he connected to the Relic of Choice?

The grimm did not attack. They calmly kept following in his steps, as they had all night.

It made him wonder again how this control over them worked. Maybe they were compelled to follow his last order, even after he lost authority over them. Maybe they had just started to enjoy his company. Brazen would have cared enough to figure it out.

Dark, spiteful thoughts trickled into his mind.

"He should have come with me. He should have come, and then he could have... I don't know. He could have used Blake's relic to lure out Cinder. It seems like that's what the goal of attacking Haven was for her. Right?" He looked at the Apathy. They didn't respond. They weren't any help for figuring these problems out. All they were really good for, it seemed to him, was being utterly depressing company that would hopefully be useful in a fight.

A fight with Blake.

This time, he'd be ready. This time, he'd be...

Tired.

Sleep-deprived.

Cold, shivering, and weak.

The snow was deep, and despite his long strides, Argus was still far away.

When his aura shattered, the cold hit him even harder. Pain laced through his extremities, and there was a dull numbness from his chest.

Thinking of Brazen, of how his brother had forsaken his chance to come help take care of Blake, made Bedlam finally give in and pull out his weapon. Precious Wilt, infused with a blessing of fire dust. He popped the scroll out of the handle and checked his aura meter. Again, his aura regenerated quicker than it had before his division. A few minutes after it had shattered, he had enough power regained to send a jolt into his blade, making it warm as his aura activated the red crystalline edge to stave off frostbite and hypothermia.

"Ah, that's better." He couldn't rely too much on Wilt, though. He had to be prepared for the worst – fights or getting caught in a blizzard. He needed to ration his dust. That included the dust in his scroll, too. He went to shut it off; he hadn't had it on since he'd written that rather lengthy journal entry detailing his latest encounter with RWBY and discovery of Choice's power over the creatures of grimm.

He exited out of his aura meter, but then noticed he had an unread message. It immediately struck him as odd, since he was well outside scroll range – wasn't he? He looked around for signs of civilization: was he already that close to Argus?

No smoke from chimneys on the horizon. He climbed up a nearby tree just to be sure. No sounds of humans. Nothing. He was still in the middle of nowhere.

He leapt back down and read the message. It was from Lichen?

~Bedlam, read other journal entries and your read inbox messages.~

A quick check informed him that he had messages that he'd read… that he'd not actually read. He remembered Dominic's request for him to keep a journal, but he didn't know his scroll was somehow connected outside of network range. Well, it's not like I understand scroll technology…

The latest message before Lichen's was from Sun Wukong. I never read a message from him! Reading it filled him with anger – stupid Dominic, letting the monkey live after he clearly became my rival! At least the emotion kept him warm without further need of clinging to Wilt's blade. Reading further, he found a succinct explanation for why his aura had shattered. It sounded like his brothers were up to their horns in trouble without him.

How would Blake react to learning that her peace had already been broken?

"I told her. I warned them all. Did they listen to me?" Bedlam laughed. He laughed at how pathetic his people were, now that they had ousted him. Discarded him. Disowned him. They may as well be rolling over like mutts for the humans, begging for slaughter and bondage. "Idiots." At least with Dominic and Brazen still in the city, strong, capable Adams, there was hope that the faunus would not be doomed.

The next 'read' unread message was from Neopolitan's scroll. It was something about someone spying on Hazel, and had some more information about Cinder. Bedlam didn't really care much about the contents of the message, so he kept going back through the archive. The next one was much shorter, and much more interesting to him.

~Neo has her scroll back. Grimm in your pocket.~

Of course they'd given the human her scroll back, Bedlam thought angrily. That other message about Hazel and Cinder must have been made by Neo, not Brazen. For some reason, they were giving their prisoner privileges. He felt the scar on his finger. He touched the blindfold around his neck. He'd felt the tingles of his clones using Moonbright. As odd as it was to feel himselves using his semblance – charging it up, releasing it – it felt even stranger to think about how they were using it. Who they were using it on. At least when they used Moonslice he was confident a human was dying, but Moonbright...

Why were they using Moonbright?

He growled loudly. The Apathy didn't shrink back from his display. They just kept standing there. "Well, you're all certainly in my pocket, so to speak, aren't you? My corner, my side. At least I've got all of you to help me. Somehow. I need to figure out how I'm going to make that happen, but at least I have the option." It sure beat having to fight the things.

There were other messages on his scroll that he hadn't read, but none of them were of much interest. A meeting with Hazel? Nothing to do with Blake. He checked the journal app, and there were a few in there from Dominic and Brazen. In short order he caught himself up on how his brothers had experimented and deduced to what extent their scrolls were synchronized. Just like that, it felt like Brazen and Dominic hadn't made him go off on his own so much. He felt a bit relieved – so long as he had his scroll in the handle of Wilt, he'd have his brothers close by.

I love this sword sometimes! He gave it another hug, and this time not just for the residual warmth of its fire dust. This time, it was an affectionate embrace. Maybe he was a bit strange to feel so strongly about his weapon. Some might go so far as to call him a weapon nut. He didn't care. Through everything he'd gone through, his sword had been with him, reliable and loyal.

He made a quick journal entry, telling his brothers that he'd gotten their messages and that he was still on his way to Argus. Hopefully both of them were still alive after that aura-shatter. He felt his middle-finger through his glove. No ring. "Well, at least one of them is alive."

He turned off his scroll and tucked it back into the hilt. He'd rested his legs long enough; he had to keep moving.


BRAZEN

Thursday Morning

He wasn't sure what time it was. Shelly and Eileen had taken off to go to sleep some time earlier, leaving him in the custody of three members of the Menagerie Militia. He called it custody rather than company for good reason: they didn't talk to him, and mostly just stood at attention or used their scrolls. He could have bored himself by keeping track of the rocking motions of the ship, like some sort of metronome, but time didn't really matter. Instead, he reviewed the past week or so in his mind, analysing what he'd discovered in Mistral. Sadly, he couldn't think of anything he'd missed that might give some clue as to where Cinder was hidden. Hazel hadn't known. She hadn't been at the school, and she hadn't attacked RWBY. As he sat there in his bandages, the idea that Cinder was, like him, recovering, sprung into his mind. The thought didn't help him. She could be recovering anywhere in the city, and without a magic ring to triple her aura, she'd be slower at it than he was. He felt like he had recovered enough to be mobile, should his bandages and bindings be removed or broken; the critical factor in his return to his task wasn't him, but rather his hosts. They weren't willing to just let him leave. He didn't want to stay with them to see the destination of their voyage.

So it was almost a welcome reprieve when Ilia arrived, for she shared the latter half of his view on the issue. She wanted him around even less than he wanted to be around.

She glared at him as she addressed his guards, unwilling to let her wariness subside in his presence. More than most, she knew how dangerous he could be. "Did he sleep at all?"

The militia guards shrugged. One of them muttered that the prisoner had just sat there silently looking at the ceiling.

"Covering his brand with bandages is a good idea, but can we take the bandages off yet - or cover them with regular clothes so he looks more menacing? Or at least, convictable on all charges?" Ilia moved forward and peeled back the layer of bandage wrapped around his ankle and made a humming sound. "Do you sleep with your one eye open now, Adam, or are you just trying to be more of a monster by not sleeping?"

"Hello, Ilia." Brazen greeted the traitor politely, dropping his eye from the ceiling to look at her. It made him a little happy to see Ilia struggle to not squirm at his attention. He wondered why. Was it guilt or shame? She'd always had to act fierce to cast off the stink of Atlas' elite that clung to her, desperate as she was to fit in and be accepted after humanity had found her living amongst them. "So you're actually going to waste time trying me?" Brazen seethed. "Release me."

Ilia rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. "Not a chance, Adam. The moment you get out, you'll start causing more problems. I'm looking forward to you getting the justice you've so often called for."

"This is about justice, now?" Brazen gave a short, wry laugh that made an ache in his chest tingle painfully. "I don't think they could come up with anything worse than what they sentenced you to." The humour, of course, in that Ilia had not been punished at all for her part in his White Fang plans. Neither his overnight guards nor Ilia shared his sense of humour, so he kept on. "You're not honestly going to drag me all the way to Menagerie for a trial, are you? Will you be happy once they throw me in whatever passes for a prison in Kuo Kuana? Will that make mommy and daddy proud?"

Ilia's face spasmed a little at the last words he'd sneered at her, but she otherwise kept her composure. It was enough to let Brazen know his barbs had sunk in deep. She shook her head, a vindictive grin starting on her face as she did. "Nope. Gonna try you aboard the ship. Justice of the sea. I'm going to go below decks, see if there are any good planks for you to walk." She let her eyes draw up and down his bandaged body, smirked, and continued, "or pushed off of. This time, nobody is going to be pulling you out of the water."

Ilia, it seemed, was a bit upset that he hadn't drowned after saving her life. Brazen had had nothing but time to consider the utter lack of appreciation being given to him for his selfless heroics. After all the trouble, risk, and effort he'd gone through, they should have been applauding him, not accosting him. "So who is going to be in charge of the trial? Ghira?" It struck Brazen as a tad odd that he had barely even heard - much less seen - his successor/predecessor High Leader after coming aboard. Kali had, to his chagrin, been around another few times to wheedle him for his non-existent secret contacts in Menagerie and aboard the ships. She seemed to really have it out for Corsac Albain. Thankfully his real secrets were safe from their concerns - so long as they concerned themself with trying to get him to say something about the Menagerie branch of the White Fang.

"That wouldn't seem fair, would it?" Ilia mused. "The man who raised a force to come put a stop to you, also being in charge of an impartial trial. Bad optics."

In other words, their biggest problem would be the politics of the situation. "Hmmm. You're afraid to make a martyr of me. How kind."

"More kind than you were when you ordered the attack on Menagerie." Ilia snapped back.

Damn right. I wasn't afraid of doing what was necessary when I was in charge. Brazen wondered how things would have turned out if Cinder hadn't made those stupid last-minute changes to the plan. What if Cinder and Hazel hadn't been busy inside fighting RWBY? What if they had been able to come outside and help me defeat the Menagerie Militia and the Mistral city police? Would Adam Taurus have been merciful? I had told Ilia to bring Blake to me… which she technically did. My original personality probably wouldn't have liked it if Cinder or Hazel wanted to punish my people. I might have spared them for the sake of faunus solidarity in front of my friends. Brazen sighed and rested indolently in bed as best as his bindings would allow. Or maybe I would have punished them myself to make sure that my commitment to our mutual goals wasn't questioned. He had sacrificed Sienna for the cause, so punishing Ilia would be easy in comparison. Knowing Ilia, the best punishment I could have given her was thanking her, in front of Blake, for bringing Blake to me as I'd ordered. Regardless, those were all what-might-have-beens; here he was, split in three, a prisoner of his rivals.

"You wouldn't spare me if I was your prisoner, even after everything you've done. All the lives you've hurt." Ilia continued, trying to goad him into a heated exchange. He silently declined. Arguing about blame with Ilia was a pointless expenditure of effort. The fact that she had been leading the attack on Menagerie didn't seem to matter to anyone - except, perhaps, Ilia herself. She was obviously feeling guilty about her former devotion to the cause, now that Blake had given her amnesty and attention. The rest of their people had quickly forgiven her, glossing over her past acts. Brazen knew better than anyone - save himselves - that Ilia's hands were far from clean. Her moral posturing was almost funny, except that she seemed to believe it. And that everyone else seemed to believe it.

Life hadn't been hard for Ilia for some time. She'd been sequestered out in Menagerie for too long. When was the last time she had caught a human looking at her spots? How long ago had it been since she'd felt excluded?

As Brazen schemed ways to test Ilia's loyalty without alerting the guards, the guards raised their shields - as they had when Ilia had first approached. Brazen strained to turn his bound head to see who was coming now.

An unknown woman. Her trait was a set of thick pronounced whiskers. "My name is Stela Day. I have been chosen to be your defense counsel."

Ilia made a show of dolefully patting Stela on her back after hearing the pronouncement. "Sorry you drew the short straw," she said sympathetically.

Stela shrugged Ilia's hand off with a long sigh, and Brazen didn't feel confident in the justice of the sea. He closed his eye and tried to focus on the positives. An immediate trial meant he had a chance of getting back to Mistral sooner. A better chance to track down Cinder. Sure, he might have had a better variety of impartial legalists in Menagerie to defend him, but righteousness was on his side. Everything he had done had been in pursuit of faunus empowerment.

"It'll suck to have a loss on my record before I even become a lawyer."

Brazen sputtered. "Wait, you're not a lawyer?"

Ilia mouthed 'justice of the sea' with a smirk.

"Paralegal. Wanted to become a lawyer, but it was… difficult in Mistral." Stela replied.

Brazen's mood brightened a little. His not-a-lawyer might hate him, but at least she could appreciate the cause. He'd rallied many in Mistral to his banner when he'd shown how he'd shattered the glass ceiling that kept faunus from being promoted in Vale businesses and official offices. Shattered, burned, and destroyed!

"You could save us some time and just plead guilty now," Ilia said with a snarl, "but it'll still take some time for me to get that plank." With that, Ilia left him alone in the company of the watchful militia guards and Stela.

Brazen waited a few moments until he couldn't hear Ilia's soft footsteps on the deck. "So what are they charging me with?"

"Conspiracy. Murder. Kidnapping. Actual murder. For some sort of attack you did on Menagerie, and that Khan woman who used to run the White Fang. Everything else you've done is out of Menagerie's jurisdiction, and the court doesn't represent Mistral despite most of us being ex-citizens. They're trying to figure out how to get a jury set up, but the selection process is proving difficult. It's getting political up there."

Brazen snorted with derision. Politics. "A jury? Can't I just not have a jury? Don't think it'd do me any favours having a group of people judging me rather than just whoever is running the trial. Who do they have running this mess, anyhow?"

"Well, he is an actual lawyer." Stela said slowly. "It was either him or the ship captain, as per the law of the sea and such, but since the captain's a Mistralian human everyone agreed to avoid that. Your trial is going to be a wholly faunus effort. If you don't want a jury, that could save some time."

Brazen didn't see any point to having a jury, and would welcome disembarking from the ship sooner. "Yeah, no jury sounds like the better option. Alternatively, can't I just request trial by combat? I'm feeling a lot better now." He wiggled his arm to demonstrate his fitness for a duel with the prosecution's champion. Hopefully Ilia. It would feel good to rough her up a little bit; worse case scenario, she'd get in trouble if she killed him.

Stela looked at him in a way that suggested she thought he deserved to be bound in even more chains. "Trial by combat? What sort of drivel have you been reading? Ninjas of Love or something equally torrid?"

Dammit, Blake!

"Trials by combat haven't been used for hundreds of years!"

He decided to just keep the conversation moving along, ignoring his completely misguided understanding of how trials worked. "So are you actually going to try to help me win this trial, or are you just here more as a show of good faith?"

"I'm here to do my job. I don't really know you or have any personal connection to you other than having heard snippets of reports about what you've done. Knowing what you've been charged with won't prejudice me against you. If I can't defend you, I could hardly be a criminal defense lawyer for anyone… but right now I think the best I'm going to get out of this is some accolades for doing the best with what I'm given. I'm fine with defending people accused of crimes, but I don't want to give you any false expectations of what we'll accomplish in court. A lot of people here really don't like you." With that, Stela stood up and went off to inform whoever was in charge of the choice to not have a jury involved.

Brazen was left alone with the guards again. He contemplated ways to coerce or convince them to help him, but such ideas stumbled against the fact that they had gone all the way from the safety of their homes in Menagerie to stop him in Mistral. When they did look at him, and they seemed to avoid doing so as much as possible, their countenances might well be mistaken for ones that had inadvertently gazed upon some sort of disgusting slime found at the back of a fridge, forgotten there and left to fester by some slovenly sibling.

Speaking of siblings… Dominic would be better in this situation, I think. If anyone cared about the reputation and legal standing of Adam Taurus, it should be him. I'm just the brains and curiosity Adam. I just want to be back in Mistral, forcing answers out of humans and magical creatures. He contemplated taking Kali up on her offer. He could unlock his scroll for her, she could find relatively little of value for her investigation of saboteurs in Menagerie, and then he could send a message to Dominic and Bedlam. One of them might be able to come rescue him. Dominic would love the chance to defend Adam Taurus' deeds in a public forum. Bedlam owed him a rescue, and a pizza. Kali wouldn't expect his scroll to be capable of communicating with anyone not aboard the ship, since, without magic, such a thing was impossible.

Though if she read some of his recent texts or journal entries, or if either of his brothers made any new additions to those categories, Kali might figure out something was up. The woman was no fool. On the other hand, if he was really determined to be fighting the good fight on behalf of the faunus, his people, why not tell them the truth about his magical split?

Because I don't think they'd believe me.

Because I don't think it would change anything.

Mostly, though, it was because he was pissed off at them. He wondered when he had lost that much faith in his own kind. Was he so predisposed to getting answers that he wasn't willing to share those answers with his kin?

No, I'll tell them the truth. Eventually. Once I've used the power Cinder and the relics hold to fulfill my vision for Remnant. Once I've used those eldritch secrets to make this world safe for faunus at last. Ghira's fumbling attempt to make peace with Mistral had proven that the man could not be trusted with power. He had squandered the opportunity and nearly gotten all of these people wiped out.

I'll save the faunus, then have a ball gloating to my people about how I did it. Me! Adam Taurus! He smiled. Or, I suppose, us! Adam Tauruses!

What's the point of working so long to save the world, if you don't get credit for doing it?


Stela returned some time later to discuss his case, until the guards were instructed to wheel his bed out of the makeshift infirmary, up to the deck of the ship. Once there, his bed was placed inside a solid metal cage that the ship had on hand for containing captured grimm specimens. If his mask was anywhere in sight, he'd fit the part better.

The rest of the court had already gathered, a mass of faunus illuminated by flickering torches in the night. A gavel gripped tightly in the judge's faunus trait - a kangaroo tail - smacked down on the quickly-built judicial bench several times, commencing the trial. "Adam Taurus, for crimes against the populace of Menagerie, you have been called to stand trial. On the charges of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and murder: how do you plead?"

From behind his cage, the faunus assembly murmured and mumbled. Brazen imagined Lichen and Salt could be in that mass somewhere, but his bindings did not allow him to turn enough to find them. There were so many voices his ears couldn't make out any of what the audience was saying, but he felt the gist of it all was that he wasn't Mr Popular aboard the ship.

Stela whispered advice to him in his ear, which he had no difficulty making out. "Historically, pleading guilty typically results in more lenient sentences."

He earnestly considered pleading guilty in the hopes of getting the sham of a trial over with even more quickly, but his pride refused to submit so easily. What he had done, he had done for the protection of faunus. Did they expect him to apologize for, over the years, keeping their hands clean and their people safe? For making humans cautious whenever they thought to mistreat a person for having a tail, or extra ears, or any other noble faunus trait? If anything could justify his quest, a just trial was just the thing he needed to have.

Plus, Ilia was loudly arguing with a sailor about her desire to nail a large wooden plank to the side of the ship.

In a calm, measured voice, Brazen replied. "Not guilty to all, on account of-"

"The prosecution may make its opening statements."

Sitting in chairs to his right were both Belladonnas and several White Fang warriors that had surrendered at Haven. Cowardly lieutenants. The man chosen to act as prosecutor stood in front of them, and Brazen was certain that he had more training and experience than Stela. If nothing else, he exuded the air of confidence and competence of a seasoned professional. Entirely different in appearance from the swagger of a champion pit fighter, but drawing from the same sense of proven worth - the court was this man's arena. "Adam Taurus has long represented one of the most difficult hurdles we have to peaceful relations with humanity. Adam Taurus represents an unwillingness to let go of the hurt inflicted on us in the past, an unwillingness to move forward. As leader of the Vale Brotherhood of the White Fang, he encouraged its membership to violent means, killing indiscriminately, leading to the destruction of global communications and the deaths of many faunus, including many civilians as well as huntsmen and huntresses." The prosecutor had a slow, melodic tone and his hands moved to emphasize his statements. "To sate his personal ambition, Adam Taurus conspired with human criminals to seize control of the White Fang - a plan which included the murder of his rivals for that throne. Sienna Khan, a faunus and legal citizen of Menagerie, died directly by the hand of Adam Taurus."

The muttering from the audience behind him grew louder.

"Order! Order aboard the ship!" Shouted the judge until the waves and the hum of the ship were the only sounds audible. "Prosecution may continue."

"Thank you, your honour." The prosecutor said while bowing. "Once he had taken control of the White Fang as High Leader, Adam abused his authority to pursue a personal vendetta against Blake Belladonna of Menagerie, mobilizing his followers to attack the legitimate authority of Menagerie and attempt a coup. As evidence for these claims, we intend to present a recording of his orders to kidnap and murder inhabitants of Menagerie, and witnesses to his murder of Sienna Khan. We will also present video footage of his execution of several humans his terrorist cell took hostage five years ago, to show the court the defendant's complete contempt for law and order." The man then began listing off a series of names, witnesses that would be called upon to "shed light on the criminal mind of Adam Taurus."

Brazen's entire body was itching and sweaty under the bandages. To say he was uncomfortable would be an understatement. He had done some things that, out of context in hindsight, could be construed as unhinged. Actions perpetrated in the heat of passionate emotions. But it was not as if he could mount a solid legal defense on the basis that the part of him that was obsessed with Blake had been magically expelled from his body.

Of all of the evidence and points the prosecutor had made, Brazen barely even registered the last point about his recorded slaughter of a group of SDC executives years prior. He was more emotionally affected by the rest of the evidence - evidence that shouldn't have ever been able to have been brought against him. He had only his treacherous and incompetent underlings to blame for those. If it hadn't been the last point, Brazen probably wouldn't have even thought about the old video at all. Since he was thinking about it, though, he found that he was almost looking forward to seeing a recording of his old work. At least he didn't feel any regret about killing human trash. His attack on Menagerie and fight with Sienna - those brought him closer to regret. If only she hadn't been so short-sighted. If only there had been more time to make her understand. If only she hadn't decided to condemn me for my victory at Beacon, but had recognized that I am what is best for the faunus. In a way, what Sienna had done was a lot like what was happening now. The only difference now was that he hadn't managed to destroy Haven. Destroying Beacon had convinced the Mistral and Menagerie Brotherhoods to support him; failing to destroy Haven had cost him that support. His popular momentum.

He ground his teeth a little as frustration coursed through him. If I'd won at Haven, I'd still be in charge!

Why had Sienna scolded him? He'd only done what she'd taught him to do. Praised him for doing, albeit on a smaller scale. Why was he on trial? He weighed his options, wondering if he was essentially choosing to submit to what, in his opinion, was a waste of his time. While he knew that Dominic would appreciate the chance to get more support from their people, Brazen didn't care about their support. Only their welfare, which he would see to with or without their confidence in him. He would be just as well to cut and run. He might presently be tied up in a full-body cast, chained, and caged, but those could be broken out of. Bedlam had done so when captured by Neo.

He couldn't see the shore - it was dark in the pre-dawn, so they might be too far out at sea or there might just not be any lights from habitations to gauge the distance with, but either way it might be a long swim.

Last time he'd hit the water he'd been knocked unconscious for a while, which meant there was a substantial gap in his memory; for all he knew Bedlam and Dominic were dead (a thought that made him even more upset at being put on trial by the people his sacrifice had saved). He knew for sure that there was no ring on his finger, but what if it had materialized and been confiscated while he had been unconsciously hauled onto the boat? Kali and the swimmers wouldn't have mentioned that they'd taken it; it was just another thing to strip me of if they had.

With so many uncertainties fighting to monopolize his thoughts, he decided that the only course of action would be to suffer through the trial. He had no idea where he was, an unsettling and atypical sense of disorientation. If his present captors had the Relic of Choice, it would do them no good - without knowing how to use it, it would do little more than lure grimm to Menagerie. For the sake of his people, he should bear it himself; like always, keeping danger far from their home by fighting on their behalf far away.

Lure the grimm.

He silently cursed. Every moment he stayed aboard the ship he put the fleet in danger. Nearby grimm would sense the Relic and come for it. He hoped that the trial wouldn't create a feast of negative emotions to add to the draw already created by the Relic. If it was a fair, honest trial, then certainly people would be happy in having justice - whatever the verdict would be. Despite his reservations about how impartial the trial would be, he had faith at least that Ghira would want it to appear fair. Otherwise Taurus would become a living martyr for faunus to continue to rally to. No, if Ghira is planning to remake the White Fang into an organization of goodly pacifists, he can't start off by summarily condemning me.

Though it is hard to make a martyr out of a living man - Kali did say they don't seek to execute me.

Brazen did not want to waste time languishing in some dank jail cell. His mission was too important to postpone. Looking around at the next-best hope for the future of the faunus, he wasn't impressed. These people were weak! They hesitated! When humans attacked them, they were defenseless! Only by working alone, climbing his way into Salem's confidence, could he glean enough powerful secrets and make alliances that would balance the scales in the struggle between the plentiful humans and his stubborn people.

If he had been considering the option of breaking free earlier, he wasn't now. Iif he were to somehow manage to make good his escape, the anger and frustration, combined with the fear he expected his people to have after being bombed by airships, would mean he was leaving them with giant targets on their backs. If the humans don't get them, the grimm would. By seeing this thing through, he could at least mitigate the risk of the grimm being a threat before their ships could make it to the safety of fortified Kuo Kuana.

He hadn't come all the way out here to save them only to feed them to the grimm.

The prosecutor finished listing off the names of all of the witnesses he intended to call to testify; it hadn't been a short list of names. It hurt to hear that so many of those who had gone with him to destroy Haven would now testify against him. All I did was try to blow us all up a little bit with some bombs. They had all gone into the mission expecting glory, but apparently only Adam had been prepared to die to strike a blow for the faunus. All of them just wanted to hop on the bandwagon after I made Beacon seem so easy.

The judge pointed at Brazen. "Opening statement for the defense?"

Stela stood up. "My client, as the legitimately installed director of the White Fang military organization, was well within the scope of his duty in pursuing a deserter from the organization to prevent further dissemination of secrets, plans, and membership information. The attack on Menagerie was not a coup ordered by my client, but the apprehension of a rogue with the understanding that those sheltering her were guilty by informed association. My client only cared about recovering confidential organizational details; it was the local branch of the organization, led by the Albain brothers, that took the operation as an opportunity to progress their own political goals in Menagerie."

Brazen did his best to ignore the growing sounds of 'boos' and hisses from the audience. He heard Ilia growl. "Lies!" She whispered loudly enough for every faunus ear to hear.

It's not a lie! Brazen thought quickly. He had told the Albains to bring Blake to him alive. They had, on their own, decided that the void in Menagerie's government created by Ghira's death would be best filled by them. It's just not saying that I specifically ordered Ghira and Kali to be killed as a punishment for Blake's desertion, is all…

Stela continued her defense, unaware or unconcerned by the growing rumblings of discontentment in the crowd. "Sienna Khan's ouster as High Leader became a tragedy - though there was no need for it to be. In the pursuit of further military gains against the human Kingdoms, the White Fang's leading body withdrew their support for Sienna as High Leader in favour of installing Adam in her place. Her refusal to abide by the regulations of the organization and vow to impede the White Fang's future endeavours under her replacement led to an impasse. The people were told that Sienna Khan died at the hands of a human huntsman, but that was a ruse designed to rally the indecisive to support the new leader through the transitional period. The truth of the matter is that Sienna chose to fight, chose to try to cling to power, and in a last-ditch effort to avoid relinquishing her authority, Sienna resorted to violence. This court is attempting to punish Adam Taurus for his martial skill and ability to defeat Sienna Khan in a combat she initiated. My client was acting in self-defense and in compliance with the regulations of the organization to which he had belonged since he was a pre-teen escaped slave; the White Fang's rules were akin to the law, insofar as he knew."

Stela lacked the prosecutor's confidence. Brazen would have to rely on his own charisma, backed by a record of victories that demonstrated his capabilities for success against hard odds and dedication to faunus rights. He might not have a victory like Beacon to buoy him up in front of his people, Brazen thought, but he at least had one solid piece of evidence they couldn't ignore. Once Stela sat down, he decided it was time for him to speak for himself. "I would also like to remind the court that the only reason we've got the luxury of holding these 'proceedings' today is because of my choice to swoop in to save you."

The murmuring behind him changed, ever so slightly, in tone. Adam Taurus might be a monster, but he's your monster.

He thought of Salem. How long would her patience last? How long did he have to find Cinder before his window of opportunity to win back his standing - tarnished by failure at Haven - was closed for good? Eventually, Cinder would find her own way back to Salem, and then what would he have to show his worth? He thought of Salem and of himself; he thought of monsters.

I'm your monster, Menagerie, so let me free so I can go rally some more monsters to the cause.

Soon they would remember that they needed him even while they despised him. Nobody likes a weapon, since it implies a threat of violence, but everyone craves one when violence breaks out.


BEDLAM

Thursday Morning

"Welcome to Argus, my friendly fiends!" He gestured down the slope of the large hill, to the human city nestled on the shoreline below. Streetlights illuminated the city as it waited for dawn's arrival. The Apathy followed his gaze, but their expressions didn't change. Maybe that was just their resting want-to-kill-humans face? He could appreciate that. He'd given the five of them names: Twittle Jr., Twiggy, Mr Skull, Gangle Jim, and Frank. Frankly, they were a solid group.

With the city in sight, a lot of his worries were eased. He could steal into the city and gather some intel on Blake and her friends, he could figure out if they'd managed to get through the Atlesian blockade or not. With the heiress, they'd have a good chance of talking their way through. From his vantage point on the hill, he wasn't sure how he'd go about continuing the pursuit. He was the most wanted faunus in Mistral. People would notice him, and it wasn't like his disguise had hidden him from Dee. The man's dead face came to him, and reminded Bedlam that he still had that granola bar. He ate it, to celebrate his arrival at Argus. Food wouldn't be a problem anymore.

He crouched down. "We have to assume Blake is on her way to Atlas. Even if she is stuck in the city now, it is still best for us to find our own way there. Maybe I could get to Atlas first, prepare an ambush." The thought of Blake walking into a trap was a nice thought – this time, he would spring it on her himself. He wouldn't have to rely on Ilia or any other weaklings to do (or fail to do) the deed for him.

Gangle Jim moaned in agreement.

"True. A good point. If I leave you here to obtain some sort of means of travel over the sea, would you stay under control, or would you go wild the moment I get too far away?" He gave his posse a long, meaningful look. "After all we've been through together, would you disobey me so easily?"

Twittle reached towards the city, probably sensing the myriad wafting scents of negative emotions from behind the walls.

"Would you betray me like Blake?" Bedlam said, angrily. The grimm turned towards him, sensing a stronger emotion from a source nearer than the distant city as Bedlam's mind fell into a rage-spiral.

Blake.

Betrayal!

The Belladonna girl.

Blake!

The dulling aura of the apathy helped him calm down. Helped him get back to thinking. Bedlam looked back at the city. "No way I could lead you into the city, not even while it's still dark. I'd have to either leave you here..." Not the worst option, since being around these guys is depressing, he thought to himself before continuing, a better idea occurring to him: "...or I would have to draw something that flies out from the city. Bring what we need to us, rather than going in to get it."

He looked at the Argus military base, a 'gift' from their allies in Atlas.

"If I can get one of those bullheads to come out of the city, I can load you up onto it. It'll be even easier than when I loaded all those monsters into bullheads for Beacon, since I won't have to wrangle you into cages." He drew lines in the snow with the toe of his boot. "Now, what could we do to lure a bullhead out here? It's not like I can call one out here like some sort of taxi service."

Twiggy looked like he was too uncertain to speak up, and if he wasn't going to offer any ideas, the rest of them certainly wouldn't. Adam had decided that Twiggy was the most extroverted of the five, based on absolutely nothing but his own boredom, frostbite, and a fleeting daydream of turning them into a famous pop music sensation. 'Gangle Jim and the Apathy'. Concert ticket revenue: that's what he'd make his living on after humanity was defeated. All he needed to do was teach these monsters to turn their hideous moaning and groaning into a five-part harmony.

Or, if that failed, at least how to play some instruments. Yeah, jazz is pretty popular – there was a jazz guy fighting in the Vytal Tournament. A smile came to his lips as he remembered watching the Schnee heiress get scorched on the small White Fang camp screen. For a human, the trumpet-wielding fighter had been popular among the faunus rebels.

"Obviously Frank would play the trumpet, but I'm not sure about the rest of you. Bagpipes wouldn't be much of an improvement over your current sound, but maybe a tuba? After that bit at the farm, we all know you've got good pipes for wind or brass."

Brass.

He remembered the legend of the brass bull, and his clone named after it. Brazen Bull.

He checked his scroll, but there were no new messages. No new journal entries. No new anythings. His aura was hovering at 99% thanks to the nipping cold he had been enduring. His semblance had been quiet, too. Nobody had been playing with Moonbright, nobody had killed anything with Moonslice. His finger was still unadorned; at least he wasn't the last Adam standing.

He had a faint network connection.

The nearby relay tower would be responsible for that. He looked at the grimm. "It always struck me as odd that Argus decided to put its most important possession, its link to global communications, outside their city walls. Not far, but far enough for it to matter. I think it had something to do with the people being worried that the tower emitted some sort of invisible field that gave people diseases? Do people even know how scrolls work? Why would destroying a single tower in Vale disable global communications, but not destroy local communications networks broadcast from a city's relay tower or Haven's tower?"

None of the grimm had studied network communications at Grimm Academy, or, if they had, they didn't want to give him the answer without tenure. For grimm with Communications degrees, they were awfully bad at communicating their insightful intelligence. Even Neopolitan had been better at it than these jazz-band wannabees.

"I told you, I'll offer you a full-time gig with three weeks vacation and health benefits, but I can't just give you tenure right away when you join Team Taurus." He tsk'ed, disappointed with what these prospective employees were (not) demanding.

A small part of him worried that the cold was making him delirious.

Nah. I'm fine.

He continued drawing in the snow with his boot, but now he began to do so with some structure. "Okay, this circle here is the city. Over here... is the relay tower. If the tower comes under attack, they'll alert the city and send a defense force. If I went in like that, I'd probably be overwhelmed by Atlas soldiers. Not much chance of getting a lone stealable ship with a plan like that. But I'm not alone. If I drag you guys over to the tower, the guards and technicians would – if you guys can do your thing – be too drowsy and sluggish to react in time to stop me from taking the tower. Then we just take them all hostage, squeeze them for information, then force them to send a call to Argus for a single ship to come investigate a possible grimm sighting. Bullhead comes out to see what's going on at the tower, we ambush the soldiers aboard with the same tactic we used to take the tower, then fly off to Solitas." He nodded, satisfied that the plan was good. "Honestly, despite falling behind Blake for a bit there, things have been going well lately. Ever since I took control of you guys."

The grimm seemed to agree, and were totally on-board with it and ready to do their part. Despite that, there was something about their obedience that still troubled him. Bedlam frowned. Something was wrong. Something he'd forgotten.

Grimm in your pocket? He hadn't thought much about the second part of the message, but now it bothered him. He pulled out his scroll and checked the messages. "That's odd." Brazen had told him that Neo was free on Friday. "But we fought Blake at the farm on the following Monday."

How did Brazen know we could use the Relic of Choice to control grimm before I did? It frustrated him to think that his great discovery had been pre-empted by himself. How would Brazen even have figured it out so soon? Had he read it in a book at Haven or something? Had Neo told him? Or Cinder or Hazel or…

Or…

Other people would say things like 'Grimm in your pocket'. Adam had grown used to it. But when texting himself, he'd always been direct. He wouldn't use euphemisms when writing - it was already painful enough as it was to waste effort to be coy in his communications on a secure line. FlamingOS made their scrolls secure, so they could communicate freely.

Precisely.

Bedlam gulped, and nervous sweat beaded on his neck.

He slowly began patting himself. His pants. His sleeves. He had so many of them. Why does this outfit have so many of them?

And then, there, in his chest, he felt it.

He swallowed, steeling his resolve, and unzipped the pocket.

Staring back at him, withered and slimy and smelling like sewage... was Brazen's Seer grimm.

Grimm in your pocket.

Bedlam fell to his knees and heaved the partially-digested granola bar up onto the nearest small snowbank.

"Oh fuck!" He hoarsely coughed after regaining his composure.

As far as he could tell, the creature wasn't fully active. It still looked like a gross black raisin, which was how Brazen had described it when it went dormant. But his coat was wet from blizzard snowflakes melted on scarce body heat.

More concerningly, the creature was a direct conduit to Salem. He quickly zipped his pocket back up. He racked his mind – he hadn't said anything too revealing; after all, he'd not been alone. If Salem had been spying on him, he hadn't given anything away. He was pretty sure his secrets were still safe.

Salem controls the grimm. Did Salem want the Relic of Choice because it was a rival to her control of the monsters of Remnant, or had Bedlam's apparent control over the Apathy simply been an extension of her will keeping him – her minion – unmolested?

Well, I need the Apathy to attack the relay tower. Otherwise I've half a mind to just toss this pocket monster into the air and slice it in half here-and-now. His options were rather limited by his pressing need. He needed the Apathy to secure transport to Solitas. He needed to control them in order to complete his objective. Bedlam scoffed. I've got half a mind? My clones must have split their brain in half when they duplicated! Why would he put this thing in his pocket and bring it back to the warehouse?

If the Seer was responsible for controlling the grimm, though, the error of judgement on his clone's part may just have kept Bedlam alive in those aqueduct tunnels.

Well, one way or the other, he had his plan and had to stick to it. Dawn was quickly approaching, and if he wanted to take the tower he'd have to do it quickly.

His stomach rumbled. He'd just lost his breakfast. He looked at the pile of puke-covered snow on the ground.

If he was going to take the tower under cover of darkness, he'd have to do it now – and with as many nutrients as he could.

SDC mining camp rations were worse... but he was thankful that the Apathy watching him couldn't make pointed comments about the optics of a cow-faunus chewing his cud.

He wiped the clean snow off his face. These little insults didn't matter. He distracted his pride by thinking about how much pleasure he would feel, springing a trap on Blake once she arrived in Atlas. Unlike her, he had old friends in Atlas. Contacts from his time spent living there, people who should feel guilty about how they had treated him - how they had abandoned him in a dark mine shaft to fend for himself.

He unzipped his pocket again. "Unless you can summon me a flying grimm to get me to Atlas, instead?" Showing back up to Mantle on the back of a luxurious wyvern, like the one that had attacked Vale, would make him the most successful alumni of his class for sure!

The creature's slightly-glowing head regarded him without any perceivable change.

"Do grimm have boats? Something big that could ferry me over the sea to Solitas?"

No change. He zipped it back up. Worth a try, at least, but even getting to Atlas by riding on a grimm like those beasts that attacked the train would have been cool.

"Come on, Gangle Jim. We've got a tower to take over."

The Apathy followed, for whatever reason they had for being controlled. All that mattered is that they were on his side. All that mattered was his mission.

"First we take the tower, then we take the bullhead, then we take the bullhead to Solitas, and then we'll finally take care of Blake." He could worry about everything else afterwards at his leisure.

After this mission was complete, he'd take time to enjoy life for a change.


BRAZEN

The glowing blue hologram of himself was hard to watch, much less listen to. He'd been under a great deal of stress at the time! Hazel had been giving him the silent treatment, still sore about how Adam had killed Sienna. Hazel had never relented in his contention that Sienna could have been brought into the fold. He hadn't known Sienna like Adam had.

Besides, Sienna had no right to call Adam out on his methods after she'd been the one to encourage those methods. When Adam had gotten his first taste of killing humans, killing a human that had drawn a gun on Ghira, she'd been the one to say it was righteous. She'd stood up against Ghira, convinced everyone that what Adam had done had been the only thing that could have been done. Ghira had been in danger! Violence was a proper recourse to violence.

The news that Blake had turned up in Menagerie had been unwelcome; the reports that she was stirring public opinion against him and the White Fang local there hadn't eased the tension in his nerves.

Brazen thought to himself: I was in a very different headspace when I sent this message!

"I will not allow them to ruin this. The Belladonna name has brought me nothing but grief. You've done well in finding the deserter. Bring her to me alive… but not before you've slaughtered her family. I have a promise to keep." The speakers replayed the message he'd sent to the incompetently ambitious brothers in Menagerie. For foxes, they hadn't been very cunning. Ilia, holding up her scroll for the court, had been a foolish risk they'd invested in. Had neither Albain known about Ilia's long-standing friendship with Blake? Of her jealousy of Adam? To say nothing of her debt to Ghira and Sienna for getting her out of Solitas so many years ago.

Well, it's not like my own debt to Ghira and Sienna for the same service stopped me from doing what needed to be done. Maybe the Albains had just thought Ilia mature enough to see the bigger picture, the long-term goals. Instead of throwing it all away for a shot at Blake in her presumably scant tropical attire.

The prosecutor stood up and started dissecting the message, emphasising the word 'slaughter' for several minutes before moving on to explaining how it was clear evidence of conspiracy to abduct Blake and have her family murdered.

Stela leaned close to him and asked him if he had anything he'd like to try to lessen the impact of the evidence, hissing that it was pretty damning.

Of course it's damning! Idiots clearly kept the message as blackmail material against me for some later date. If it wasn't so far away from where he wanted to be, Brazen would almost enjoy being put in a cell with the Albains.

One day.
One day, I'll punish those two for how they handled things in Menagerie. Maybe once I get into Salem's confidence, she could lend me some particularly nasty grimm to sic on the idiots.

He considered his options. Nothing he could say was something he wanted to reveal. His dealings with Hazel, Cinder, and Salem were good reserve secrets. Until he could convince his people to ally with Salem and the grimm against humanity - the winning solution to their long war with humanity - he had to treat them as hostiles.

I have to treat my own people as if they are… human. Disgusting. But necessary for the sake of his mission to save them. He couldn't trust them to save themselves, even when he handed them solutions that required them to do nothing but sit back in their enclaves, safe. Even when he handed them victories on a silver platter. For fuck's sake, the moment I got ousted from being in charge, they made a treaty with humans and were immediately stabbed in the back! He gazed at the crowd of fools that had come to gawk at his heroics being raked across the coals.

Why couldn't they see that his plan, to form an alliance with the grimm, was so much more stable an idea than putting faith in wretched humanity? Hadn't they learned the lesson, yet, that humanity will always - ALWAYS - hurt them? Dominic's goal was the only way to coexist with the lesser species. Only by ruling over them, by having power over them, would the faunus be safe. I just have to get that power for him to use.

"I won't contest it." He finally said back to Stela. She nodded, understanding, but she slumped a little at the hard task she'd been assigned. "I certainly said those things."

"But we can say that you gave those orders as a matter of military discipline. You clearly said 'deserter' in relation to Blake. Your personal feelings towards her notwithstanding, you at least presented it as an order in keeping with the organization's rules. Really, the only really bad part was your insistence that her parents die. Forcing her to be aware of that could be construed as… an excessive punishment."

Brazen nodded. She sounded like she sort of knew what she was doing, which was more than he could say in the web of legal terms being tossed around him.

Stela stood up and took to the centre of the court, where she began listing historical precedents for military organizations punishing desertion, arguing that Blake had abandoned her duties and comrades, without notice, before fleeing to an opposing militant organization with valuable intelligence regarding the White Fang's systems of command, organization, recruitment, and tactics.

Overall, Brazen was beginning to be impressed by Stela. She might not care much for him, but she did seem to be trying her best to present him in a good light. He'd never really considered the White Fang to be a military organization. It wasn't really tied to a Kingdom or state, like Mistral's army or the militia that Ghira had raised in Menagerie to oppose the attack on Haven. If anything it had been more akin to a trade union or a religious movement. Members referred to one another as siblings, and then there was the cult of personality that Ghira, Sienna, and finally he himself had cultivated as High Leader. It had been a strange evolution for what was, at heart, a social rights reform group. He'd never noticed, having been inside it for so long, but now from the outside, in hindsight, it struck him as an odd group. What is the White Fang?

Brazen took the opportunity to glance over at the prosecution's desk. Kali was watching Stela, but Ghira was whispering to a nearby aide. Brazen wasn't surprised, but was a touch disappointed that Kali hadn't been lying to him about Ghira not being much concerned with the fate of Taurus whilst Mistral was sending attack squadrons to sink him.

Brazen wondered what Ghira was thinking. He couldn't think that fleeing to Menagerie would let the situation blow over. Humans had died - mostly because of Adams - but the intent to kill faunus in massive numbers had been there, too. Was Ghira's plan to just get the civilians to Menagerie, then rally his forces again? Would he invade the southern tip of Mistral, perhaps at the cliffs of Fort Castle, or would he turtle up and be content to defend his paltry little realm while Mistral had free reign to round up any faunus in Remant's geographically largest kingdom?

Was Ghira content to let the beginning of his return to power in the White Fang be marred by the deaths of so many rural faunus?

The prosecutor took back the stage. "The defense posits that her client espouses military virtues, but, forgive me if I'm wrong, until this week the faunus have been at peace with humanity for several decades. Despite that, Taurus has acted as if the Rights Revolution wasn't concluded with a peace treaty. If Adam Taurus was acting in a military capacity, then we have ample evidence that he should instead be tried for war crimes." He gestured to Ilia, who stepped forward with her horrid scroll yet again to play another damning hologram.

This time, it was the video he'd made while leading a hostage crisis two years prior. His squad had captured some high-ranking SDC corporate-types: the Mistral Regional Director, his wife, several aides and two surviving bodyguards. They'd made some demands, which were almost immediately rejected by the human negotiators - the humans didn't think they'd up and kill their bargaining chips.

What the humans hadn't counted on was how much the deaths of a dozen White Fang brothers to complete the mission had pained Adam. The VIP's security had been top-rate.

What they hadn't counted on was how much Adam grew to detest the Director and his wife. They were - even by human standards - awful people. They were so entitled, so racist, and so grating on his nerves that when the word came that their demands would not be met, Adam had decided to end the situation and move on to something more prosperous. Robbing trains was a more reliable way of hurting the SDC than extorting ransom lien. He'd done the mission like Sienna had ordered: he'd captured the humans and communicated the White Fang's terms for their release, and received the response from the SDC liaisons.

Mission successful, as far as he cared.

So he'd executed them and sent the video to the SDC. It had made its way onto the scroll networks, and overnight Adam Taurus went from a nobody-knows-me rebel to the Terror of Anima. Only Sienna had been more hated by the human government.

"Please! PLEASE!" The holographic image of the Director pleaded as he watched his last aide get decapitated. "Don't kill me! I have a family!"

"Not for much longer, you won't." Hologram-Adam aimed hologram-Wilt at the man's wife's neck.

"We have a child!" She begged. "Think of that! An innocent victim! … … Kill her first! Just spare me!"

That gave holo-Adam pause. "Oh?" He looked around. "I don't see any kids here. Where is the rest of your family? I'd hate to leave orphans."

"How should I know?" The wife replied. "Wasn't giving birth to the little nuisance enough of an impediment? I couldn't fit into any of my finest dresses for months!"

"Dear, I don't think-" The director tried to interrupt his wife.

"At least he's seen some sense and decided to spare us. He's a filthy animal, all he cares about is sating his blood-lust. He can do that with children instead of me! First time I've ever had any benefit from the baby you put in me, what a surprise it is."

"Dear, I don't think he intends to spare us. Or the child." The director cut in. "He certainly would have spared Jenkins. I believe he has four children by three women. If that's not a family man, I don't know what is."

Brazen would say that 'Jenkins' had been no worse a family man than the director or his wife.

Holo-Adam snarled at them, brandishing his blade at them. "Tell me where your children are and I'll promise you deaths swift and painless - like Jenkins. Keep silent and I'll take my time."

"We don't know where our child is. We gave them away to some orphanage. I'm a busy man, and I've no love for children. I'm devoted to my business and making lien, which I feel can be something we can talk about. Now, let's think about how I can pay you to not use that sword on me like you did on Jenkins or the rest, hmmm?"

"At least spare me!" The wife insisted.

Holo-Adam didn't even waste any more time on considering the repugnant humans' offers. Wilt moved too quickly for the eye to see, and the heads fell to the ground. Turning to the camera, Holo-Adam spoke to the SDC officials he intended to receive the video. "Faunus lives won't go unavenged. If you keep killing our people in your mines, I'll keep killing yours. Next time, agree to our demands."

Brazen, watching his work, was a bit proud. Those had been the days - spilling blood for Sienna. Back before she'd lost her taste for it. Good times.

The prosecutor had a different take. "As you can see, Adam Taurus paid no heed to the rules of warfare. Executing prisoners, without trial? These are acts that were banned in the accords signed after the Great War; accords that Menagerie and every civilized person on Remnant abides by. Your honour, Adam Taurus is either a treacherous murderer or a war criminal. His conspiring to bring deadly force to deal with the resignation from the White Fang of Blake Belladonna, his inclusion of this punishment onto her family, demonstrates his criminal nature and intentions." The prosecutor strode back over to his desk and picked up a ream of papers. "To further illustrate how these tendencies led to him abusing his authority as High Leader of the White Fang, I'd like to begin calling witnesses - members of the White Fang who can provide first-hand accounts of his murder of Sienna Khan, and his attack of Haven Academy."

The judge nodded. "I will call for a brief recess to allow for the court to take breakfast and organize your order of witness testimony, seeing how this court was convened with so little notice."

The crowd dispersed, hurrying off to get something to eat while gossiping about the proceedings thus far. Brazen was wheeled back down to the infirmary, where he could be fed and consult Stela about his options in relative privacy.

Relative privacy. Shelly and Eeleen were in the infirmary, too, ostensibly to act as nurses to him.

For his breakfast, Brazen was provided with a plate of seaweed salad under roasted fish. He poked the fish to one side of his plate as best as he was able, and managed to stomach the slimy goo that had been freshly harvested from the sea floor.

"Thanks." He said to the finned girl who had watched him eat. "Do you eat this a lot?" He could only imagine that they were trying to torture him, but she had saved him from drowning. Maybe she could be an ally? The way the trial was going so far, he was beginning to think he would have to fight his way to freedom.

"No!" Shelly giggled and looked at Eeleen. "Oh gods, he only ate the seaweed!"

Eeleen laughed, too. "That stuff was just there to make the fish look fancy. It was just a visual garnish! Haven't you ever eaten Mistral cuisine? I didn't even think it was edible!"

"I'm pretty sure it isn't poisonous, but he might get some bad indigestion." Shelly said, "maybe he's got a cow's digestive tract, just like how aquatic faunus have gills and flippers and underwater palaces!"

"Oh gods he is such an idiot."

Brazen shrunk into himself angrily. He thought his murder-spree and general ethics were on trial here, not his eating habits and education! "No, I never ate Mistral cuisine. I ate White Fang rations on missions and at the base, and SDC faunus-grade kibble before that. I don't know where the lien from the White Fang went, but it didn't go into providing us with nutritious vegetarian menus." He retorted, but then remembered two brief, golden periods of his life when he hadn't eaten terribly. "When I travelled across Anima in the early days Kali used to cook some nice things for us to eat, and while I was hiding in Mistral I had a couple good parfaits and fresh breads."

As he enjoyed the introspection and memories of better meals and nicer treatment, he felt something stir within him. Without needing his scroll, he knew: one of himselves was charging up Moonslice. That meant that the Relic of Choice was still on him. One less thing I need to worry about collecting, if this trial's outcome doesn't go my way. He looked at the plate of fish. He could channel Moonslice through that, break his way out of his bonds, and flee. Having Moonslice charged gave him that opportunity.

Shelly looked sad, like she might cry as he told her about how poor the food situation had been living as a roaming freedom fighter. "Wait, you're a-"

"Now if you don't mind, I'd like some privacy to consult my lawyer about the case." Brazen told the girls.

Shelly looked like she wanted to say something, but Eileen grabbed her and, with the pair of them looking suitably reproved for their assumptions, dragged her away over to where Stela was reading a stack of papers. Before he could enjoy some relative solitude, Kali and Ghira entered the room and approached him. Kali reached over his bed, grabbed the unwanted fish off of his plate, and took a bite out of it. Brazen wasn't quite sure if she did it because she remembered he was vegetarian, or because, like Blake, she had an undeniable love of seafood (not to mention a callous disregard for him).

"Yeah, go ahead, have the fish. Enjoying your circus so far, Ghira?" Brazen scowled. "Finally come to talk to me, have you?"

"Take no offense, Adam. I've had a lot of work. Repairing the ships, tending to the wounded, the logistics of keeping people fed and bunked after losing an entire ship."

"You would have lost all of your ships if I hadn't shown up when I did."

"You're not wrong. What you did showed that, despite your past behaviours, you might still care more about the welfare of our people than you do for yourself." Ghira struck an imposing figure, as always, which was ironic given his pacifism. "I did come to see you when you were first brought on board. Your injuries were… severe."

Brazen nodded. Of course, he was a warrior fighting for faunus rights. That was all he ever had been! He would protect his people at any cost, but he couldn't do that if he was kept tied up by his people. That means not getting thrown in jail or executed, so I can harness whatever power Cinder and Salem have and use it to our advantage!

"If you care about our people, if you care about the future of the faunus, I ask that you change your plea to guilty, so that our people will understand that your methods are wrong and that, moving forward, the faunus should seek equality through peaceful dialogue and cooperation with the humans."

The taste of the seaweed threatened to return to his mouth as Brazen tried his best not to puke. The very notion of faunus and their oppressors cooperating was more sickening than the algae-covered goop he'd just stomached. He tried instead to focus on the underlying issue Ghira's trial was attempting to address: there were faunus aboard that agreed with his more violent-themed approach to dealing with human society.

"Such an action wouldn't be purely motivated by some manner of charity or blame, of course. If you plead guilty, it would show contrition on your part and do a lot to support a more lenient sentence." Ghira said. "Which would let us focus on what comes next for us, rather than stewing about like this in the past."

His words had kindness to them that his face lacked. Brazen felt like Ghira had been avoiding coming to talk to his prisoner before now. Maybe Ghira was afraid of him, or perhaps he was concerned that he would lose control and break his devotion to non-violence against his restrained captive. Brazen was sure that Ghira wouldn't be saying this to him if he didn't have something to gain from it.

He probably fears that I'll win the court to my side once I get a chance to ask questions, once I remind them how nice being alive is and which horned faunus is responsible for letting them enjoy being alive still. Or perhaps the ex-Fang witnesses are getting cold feet and don't want to testify against me, now that they've seen what Mistral is capable of.

"Lenient sentence?"

"Yes, Adam." Kali said, letting Ghira take a step back. Her breath smelled strongly of the unwanted fish that she'd gobbled up while her husband had been talking. "If you're found guilty, you could be in prison for the rest of your life! You don't want that. If you show some remorse, you could still be a productive part of faunus society."

Remorse? The only thing he'd done wrong was lose after being betrayed! He'd trusted Blake, he'd trusted his followers… those things he regretted, but he wasn't on trial for that. He was on trial for taking control, for trying to unify his people under his banner. Would they try the shepherd for bringing the sheep in out of the storm? "I think I'll not do that, thanks. The unsolicited legal advice from the prosecution has been nice and all, but I think I'll see how it plays out. Given the fact that we are at war with humans again, I don't think cooperation and dialogue are what we should be encouraging."

"Oh, Adam. You think you have a chance of winning this trial?" Kali cooed softly. "No, no, no. No, dear, you won't win the trial. It's just a question of what your punishment will be."

Kali's words assured him what the kangaroo-eared judge's verdict would be. It didn't even surprise him to think that they'd put him on trial if the judge wasn't on their payroll. Or at least, on their ships en route to their country.

"If you won't show remorse for your actions, you could at least gain the court's favour by cooperating with other investigations. If you'd unlock your scroll for us so that we can get any evidence it holds against your remaining agents in Kuo Kuana, that could give you leniency as well - plus we'd not use anything on your scroll to further incriminate you. The faunus are all uniting for a peaceful future, and your help could assist us with converting any hold-outs. An important part of that is learning more about what resources Corsac Albain had or has access to, and ensuring that he stays imprisoned."

Brazen doubted that what they might find on his scroll wouldn't be used to screw up his plans. He was up to all sorts of things that Ghira would not like at all. All three of himselves were! It amused him to hear them say that they thought he still had sleeper agents in Menagerie, though. They don't know that I've only got myselves and Neo on my side these days! It wouldn't hurt to let them keep thinking that, and, just as importantly, he wasn't about to sell out the Albains for a chance of his own freedom. Even if he did trust the offer, Adam Tauruses had a strict no-betrayal policy. Unlike everyone else in the world, he didn't betray people!

I just fight them head-on!

Speaking of fighting: he felt Moonslice get discharged; whoever was going through the trouble of charging it up needed it. He was in no position to help them charge it up, but at least he could bide his time a bit longer. He could restrain himself to court proceedings as his arena, rather than resorting to violence. With that view of his situation in mind, Brazen was tired of being on the defensive in the verbal spar with his captors, and decided to strike back. "I can't help but notice that Blake isn't with you. Guess she got tired of living in Menagerie that quickly, hmmm?"

"Is that the real reason you stopped the air raid? Are you only here for Blake?" Ghira roared, his anger drawing wary glances and perked ears from Stela and the nurses on the other side of the infirmary.

"Oh, no. I could care less about Blake these days. Bigger things than that going on in my life to worry about whatever little things she's busying herself with." Brazen said confidently.

Kali moved to the other side of the room and seemed to shoo the other three ladies out of the room. She had seen the fire in her husband's eyes as well as Brazen had.

"You can't hide the truth from me, Adam. I'm sure that, deep down, your motivation for stopping the raid wasn't saving faunus lives or a paramilitary act against Mistral's armed forces!" Ghira accused, his hand clenching up into a fist.

"Pretty sure I saved you from the first battle of a new war…"

"No, you just came here to control Blake and make her life terrible." Ghira's other hand clasped onto the headboard of the bed, and the man's face was contorted in a protective-father grimace as he glared at his daughter's ex-stalker.

"Believe what you want. If I wanted to have anything more to do with Blake, I think I'd be wearing something warmer right now."

Ghira paled and took a step back.

That's right, Ghira. I might not care about Blake right now, but that doesn't mean I've let her slip away. She's still a variable in my plans, even if I don't care for her as much on a personal level any longer. Blake, or at least, team RWBY, is in possession of the second relic (assuming Bedlam is still in pursuit), and the relics are something I want to figure out.

"Like I said, she must have gotten tired of living in Menagerie. I can relate. I've no desire to join you in your triumphant return to your desert, warm and sunny though it be."

He wondered which one of himselves was charging and discharging Moonslice. Was Dominic still fighting in the city? Was Bedlam fighting RWBY? A grimm attack? Or maybe Dominic was just showing off his semblance to impress Sun. He'd never realized how distracting it was, feeling it charge up while trying to hold a conversation at the same time.

"Ghira, this is getting us nowhere." Kali said as she returned to Brazen's bedside, not heeding how her husband had reacted to Brazen's implied knowledge of their daughter's whereabouts. "He knows where Blake is, but that's not what we need to care about right now. All that we need to worry about right now is getting him to cooperate. He's clearly intransigent on that front, so… I know we agreed that you should never use it again, but I think right now we can make an exception." Kali paused, hesitant to put her scheme into spoken words. With her hands balled up into tight fists, she managed. "Adam needs some Purrsuasion."

The mention of his semblance made Ghira's mood swing about. Ghira had always hated his semblance, seeing it as a reminder of his mistreatment by humans in his youth when he'd been used as a weapon by his masters.

Brazen reaction to Kali's statement was just as sour. If there was one thing that could ruin his plans, it was Ghira's hypnotic semblance. He'd overheard a description of it a long, long time ago around a White Fang campfire, back in the good old days. Purrsuasion, which let Ghira implant a single suggestion into someone, impeding their free will. He'd never seen it in action, but people talked. There was always gossip about dangerous semblances in a world like Remnant. There was always fear.

But underneath all of that was the ongoing distraction of his semblance, Moonslice, being charged and discharged. The concern that that meant one of himselves was fighting, was in more peril than he was.

"We can at least have him plead guilty, or get access to his scroll and all of its secrets: like the name of whoever he has tailing Blake. Whatever you're able to manage. I know you'll be a bit rusty at using it like you used to… Ghira?"

Ghira didn't respond. He was grinding his teeth so hard that Brazen could hear it.

Kali finally noticed how tensely rigid her husband had become. "Ghira, what's wrong?" Kali asked. "I know it's a big ask of you - we agreed that using it was unconscionable, that it was akin to slavery, but this is an outlier situation. It will only be for a little bit, a moment or two. We can make an exception for this... He's a criminal, Ghira, so it is not slavery but punishment that will help others. It could help Blake."

Ghira looked down at his feet and sighed, long and deep. "I can't."

"I know it'll be hard for you, love, but you have to try. For our people, for our daughter."

Ghira closed his eyes and shook his head fiercely from side to side. "No, I didn't say I won't. I can't use it on Adam."

"Why would you not be able to…" Kali narrowed her eyes. "Ghira, tell me what you mean." Her words had the tone reserved for a wife who wanted the truth immediately.

"Purrsuasion can only put a single suggestion on someone." Ghira said.

"That's okay - if we can't suggest that he plead guilty because we'd be suggesting he plead guilty to multiple things, we can still at least suggest he unlock his scroll."

"Purrsuasion can only put a single suggestion on someone. When I try to put a new suggestion on them, they remember the previous prompt - they remember everything. It makes them more resistant to its effect."

His words hung in the air for a moment as the three of them digested their meaning.

"Ghira." Kali said, a hint of anger now in her voice. "What did you do."

"Blake was leaving, Kali! She was so young. She was so innocent. I couldn't stay with the Fang. Neither of us could, with what Sienna was doing, but Blake planned to sneak off to stay with the movement. I couldn't tell Blake to stay with us, it would have just made her resent us all the more; it would have just made her want to leave all the more and never come back. She'd called us cowards, and she'd meant it. She was ashamed of us. She wanted nothing to do with us! I couldn't bring myself to use my semblance on her, even to make her stay! …But she respected Adam. She would stay near Adam. He was strong and had already suffered so much, what was a little bit more? He had conviction, he wouldn't leave the cause. I thought… I thought…"

Ghira moved forward and laid his hand on Brazen's forehead. The larger man began to rumble, to purr. Brazen was too confused to struggle, not that he had much option in that regard. He was shackled and swaddled in bandages, completely at the man's mercy.

Despite the power dynamics of the situation, it was Ghira whose face was streaked with tears.

The purring began to fill Brazen, resonating with his aura. He felt his soul vibrate. It felt nice. He felt calm, and relaxed. The purring continued until it was the only thing he could hear.

Then the purring stopped, and Brazen remembered. Take care of Blake.

Take.

Care.

Of.

Blake.

He remembered, and then remembered more. Memories, forgotten, unlocked. He remembered.

His aura shattered, but he barely even noticed. Kali and Ghira kept talking, looked upset and confused, too, but he couldn't hear anything even as they started shouting. The world was fading away, as he remembered. As Brazen realized the scope of what had been done to him, how completely he'd been betrayed - used - by someone he'd trusted, the weeping chieftain of Menagerie slumped down beside the bed; words failed.

He wanted to be angry. He wanted to lash out and attack. But he couldn't move. Without his aura, wrapped in bandages, he was weak and immobile. All Brazen could do was stare vacantly ahead and mutter a single word in disbelief.

"...oh."

Brazen didn't long leave Ghira to shed tears alone; misery, they say, loves company. Stela, Shelly, and Eeleen came back into the room, but Brazen didn't care. He didn't pay them any heed. He barely registered that Kali led Ghira from the room in a hurry, dragging him by the scruff of his neck like an overgrown kitten.


AN: Until next time, whenever that is. Hope you're all looking forward to an entire chapter of Bedlam.