Chapter 30: Seeing Black

"What's black and white and red all over?" - Common joke setup, placed here to maintain the humour tag.


BEDLAM

Thursday Morning

It occurred to Bedlam that using the grimm in conjunction with his plans increased his chances of success significantly. The Breach? Used a train to blast a hole in Vale's defenses to let in the grimm. Result? Immediate higher recruitment rates for the Vale Brotherhood. The Battle of Beacon? Dropped a bunch of grimm into the city and worked with Cinder. Result? Much lower than expected White Fang casualties, destruction of a human Kingdom, and global communications shutdown. If it hadn't been for the unknown quantity that had vaporized the rest of the Apathy pack, Bedlam was certain that the attack at the farm would have gone smoothly, too.

Yeah, Adam Taurus had a new modus operandi. A genuine recipe for success: use the grimm.

As he strode into the relay tower's command center, he was again troubled by the recent confusion about exactly how he was controlling the Apathy that lurched into the command center behind him.

If the Relic of Knowledge had allowed Blake's human leader to blast grimm, then it stood to reason that it was the Relic of Choice that was letting him control them. It would explain why the grimm's mistress Salem would thus desire to acquire the relics: to safeguard her creatures and her monopoly over their subjugation. If it was instead the semi-hydrated Seer in his pocket that had granted him control, then it called into question how the huntresses had escaped at the farm, as well as why Salem sought the relics. Maybe she's not after them at all? Maybe Cinder was sent to Beacon for some other purpose? Maybe Blake's team is fleeing with Knowledge to Atlas for some other reason? Bedlam didn't know, and he didn't like not knowing, but thankfully he was much more concerned with taking care of Blake's ongoing insolence, confident in the thought that Brazen was doing his best to figure all these mysteries out.

He walked up to the nearest human, who, even though he looked like he was about to fall asleep, was conscious enough to recognize the threat of the grimm and the faunus terrorist.

"H-h-how?" The man faintly stammered. "The defenses…"

"Ah, yes. Almost impressive. They would have protected you well against a grimm attack or a bandit raid, but I'm a bit more nuanced than those. Hard to prepare for." Bedlam gloated. By commanding the Apathy to not engage, to let their dreadful aura sap the guards' attention as dawn approached, it had given Bedlam a large opening to break into the tower, incapacitate their watchmen, disable their alarm systems, and claim an easy victory. As it turned out, the easiest enemies to defeat started the fight already laying down.

That's another point in favour of my ring giving me control over the Apathy: unlike these humans and Blake's team, I don't seem to be debilitated by the presence of the grimm. Bedlam knew they were having some effect on him, but he wasn't slumping over, sleeping himself to death. That seems to have been what had happened to the original inhabitants of the farm, if the few pages of that journal he'd found and skimmed through (the pictures had been so helpful) were any indication. Bedlam protip for reading: just skip to the last few pages; it'll tell you how the story ends and the moral.

If it was the Seer controlling the Apathy on his behalf, then Bedlam doubted its control extended so far as to somehow tell them to exclude him from their area-of-effect motivational drain. Unless the ring protected him from that, and the Seer controlled the Apathy? It was a lot to think about, but he didn't have the time. He drew Wilt.

"Okay. Who's in charge here?"

The man beneath him stirred. "I'm in charge."

Stab!

"Wrong answer." He went to the next nearest living human. "Who's in charge here?"

"You are?" The much more helpful and cooperative fellow responded, albeit drowsily.

"Right answer." Bedlam moved to the operations console. "The three of you get over into that corner, away from the computers." The humans crawled on all fours, dragging their legs like they were on the verge of falling asleep despite the tense hostage crisis they were in. Bedlam initiated a local security system reset to turn the security feed of the perimeter back on, then began looking for a way to call the Argus military base with an audio distress call. "One of you is going to ask Argus to send a single patrolcraft out here, to investigate a grimm sighting. If you try anything else, everyone dies. It'll take some time for Argus to react, so those won't be slow deaths. If you cooperate, you get to live. Do I make myself clear?"

One of the technicians struggled to her feet. "Can't do it." She said, as if she thought volunteering to die for her stubbornness on her feet would be less painful.

Bedlam pointed Wilt at her, but her glazed gaze was unfazed by the threat. "And why would that be?"

The woman pointed at a nearby computer, as if it explained something. Bedlam looked at it and shrugged.

"Network is malfunctioning again. It's been doing a lot of that for a couple weeks now." The technician slowly explained, "Terra from the day-crew is in charge of trying to fix it, but it keeps coming back. No pattern to it. She says it is almost like having another station broadcasting a radio channel on the same frequency, but that's not how the CCT works."

Bedlam frowned. "When does the day-crew arrive?"

"Usually start at ten."

Bedlam pulled out his scroll out of his handle and turned it on to check the time.

As he did so, all of the screens around him flared with a sudden static, and the room was filled with a high-pitched whine that rivalled the Apathy for how bad it sounded.

"That was odd." Bedlam said. The screens had all returned to normal, but several yellow lights were blinking on the consoles nearby. "So it's seven in the morning now, you say that this day-crew technician will be here in a few hours?"

The hostage nodded meekly. "Mrs Terra Cotta-Arc is our leading expert on frequency variance and network analysis… she studied in Atlas…"

"Arc?" Bedlam asked. That had been the last name of Blake's human friend, the other blonde - the human blonde boy that had had the shield with the scroll in it. Jaune. Bedlam's mind connected the dots; if Blake's team made it to Argus, they'd need a place to stay. If their friend had family in the city, it was likely that they'd all just crash at this Terra Cotta-Arc's residence. It's what the Adams had done at Lichen's place.

He wondered if he should rethink his plan to go to Solitas, to lay a trap for Blake in Mantle. Sure, he had some contacts in the faunus pits there, but if Blake was in Argus, what guarantee did he have that she'd make it north anytime soon? Even with the Schnee vouching for her, the humans would be loath to admit a faunus through their border.

Stroking his horn pensively, he found himself losing impetus to continue on his present course. I could just sit down here and wait, let this human Arc relation tell me what is happening in the city, and use that information to attack Blake here instead.

It was much less work on his part, and he was feeling rather tired after that long, brisk hike through the wilderness. It was nice and warm in the relay tower.

So tired…

With the Apathy under his command, things were secure here. He could afford to take some time to rest, to plan, to scheme.

I'm almost curious about this network thing. It might have just been a coincidence, but my own scroll has been acting strangely of late. Could it be that duplicating my scroll has had some ripple-effect on the networks? It made sense that the networks wouldn't really be designed to accept three scrolls each claiming to be a single one. It warranted investigation, too.

Arc. Sit down and rest.

Network. Take a moment to think.

Relic. Duplication. There's a way to use this better; I'm sure if I relax a bit it would come to me.

Through his thin blindfold, his aura-sense warned him that he was surrounded by danger; the Apathy. Their gangly arms swaying, his command over them barely keeping them from grasping the hostages with their clawed fingers.

Even controlled, they were dangerous. His will was being sapped away. Even if it was happening to him more slowly than to the humans, it was not something he could afford to ignore. He'd have to ignore all the growing questions. He didn't have time for them presently. He could deal with it later, after he took care of-

Blake.

Extending his aura-sense made him acutely aware of her presence. Like a proximity alert ringing in his soul. Peeking at the newly restarted surveillance screen, he saw Blake stealthily creeping her way up the tower.

All thoughts of resting evaporated. His mind sharpened, and his body began to move again.

"Guard the hostages."

Did she know he was here? What was she doing? It didn't matter. He sprinted up the nearby roof-access stairwell to run up the tower to confront the object of his obsession.

Blake was alone.

Blake was here.

He wasn't perfectly prepared for a confrontation with her, but would he ever have a more perfect opportunity?

Blake was here.

Why did she come?

How could she have known he was here? No alarm had been raised by his intrusion and, even if it had been, how had she gotten here so fast? She was sneaking in, or looked like she was from what he'd seen of her briefly on the monitor. So she wasn't here with Jaune's relative on human-sanctioned business.

Blake was doing something shady.

Maybe she decided to run away from her friends again? Bedlam considered. If she were running away, why would she have come here?

Bedlam had known Blake for more than a decade, but he'd be damned if he understood how her brain worked sometimes.

What was here that Blake would be interested in, if it wasn't him?

The Relic?

Had she found some way to detect his relic? Where was the rest of her team? He hadn't spotted any of them and, credit where credit was due, Blake was by far the stealthiest of that lot. Ruby buzzed around like a hummingbird, Weiss was constantly hmphing about things she disapproved of or being a general spoiled brat, Yang may as well be wearing a cowbell around her neck, and their friends were always accompanied by Nora - who made a cowbell seem demure by comparison.

Well, there's no use fretting about it. Time to be direct. I'll just ask her myself.

Blake climbed up onto the platform walkway, hoisting her lithe body over the railing before furtively looking around to make sure she hadn't tipped off any guards. She crouched low, using cover. She was putting her White Fang infiltration training to good use; if Bedlam hadn't already taken the tower and reset the surveillance cameras, she probably would have avoided getting spotted. She must have been briefed on the structure's security, implying that Jaune's relative had informed her, but wasn't willing to come along for the job. Bedlam doubted Blake and her goody-goody friends had tortured the security information out of their host. So… she's doing Jaune's relative a favour by doing something at the relative's place of employment? It seemed to be the most likely explanation so far. Humans, Bedlam understood, were inherently lazy. They'd do anything to get time off from their duties, no matter how necessary or vital for their civilization those duties were. Whether it was as mundane as calling in sick so that they could just lounge about at home, or exemplified their cruelty as the enslaving of an entire species - the faunus - to do their most dangerous, physical tasks, human laziness was the worst trait they possessed. Which was saying something, because Bedlam had a long list of reprehensible traits he ascribed to the general human populace.

Bad luck for Blake, though, her plan hadn't accounted for him taking the tower first; of his knowing she was climbing the tower. Bedlam was thankful it had been faster for him to run up the stairs than it had been for Blake to sneakily ascend the tower's support tethers that anchored it against strong winds.

"So which blonde do you think will come to fight for you this time?" He asked her sarcastically. "I haven't tried the Arc boy yet."

Her eyes widened. Surprise and fear. The cold winter wind blew against them as they regarded each other, letting the moment stretch.

"A pity you left Sun behind. After I saw how you bid him farewell, it's in his best interests to stay as far away from me as he can. That's not going to keep him safe for long. I did make a promise, my love."

She drew Gambol Shroud and aimed it at him, but he already had his sword ready to parry any shot she took.

"But the promise can wait. I need to show you how much seeing the two of you hurt me, Blake. I need you to understand that pain. That loss." He hurled himself forwards to slam into her, Wilt absorbing the shot of her pistol. Blake was knocked back into the railing, grunting as the air was forcibly ejected from her lungs, but managed to throw her weapon upwards to hook onto the next platform's railing. She soared upwards on her ribbon, putting distance between them.

He looked upwards, knowing that so long as she fled upwards there was only so much tower she could climb. Like a cat in a tree, eventually she'd simply run out of places to climb and be forced to face him one-on-one.

But then there was another voice. From behind him. For a moment Bedlam worried that her team had gotten the drop on him somehow.

"Blake, you're..." The sound ended in a static hiss.

Ruby Rose. Blake's human leader.

The voice came from Blake's scroll, laying on the grated metal platform surface.

"Blake?" Ruby's voice repeated, though the sound was heavily distorted.

"I'm sorry, darling. Were you in the middle of something?" Bedlam mocked. "Are your humans… depending on you? Don't they know yet that you're only good at letting people down?"

"Yang, what's going on?" Ruby asked.

"I…" Whatever Yang's response was, it became garbled static. The fact that both Ruby and Yang were talking to and about Blake over their scrolls told Bedlam enough. Neither were here with Blake.

Blake looked upwards.

"Why is the radar… up?" Weiss Schnee's voice cracked, haughty and demanding.

Bedlam followed Blake's gaze upwards. His target wasn't here for his relic, or for him, or to get some human out of work for a couple of days. She was here to sabotage vital human infrastructure. He hadn't realized that the relay tower also was the source of the local radar system; it suddenly made a bit of sense that they would have the tower outside of the low-lying coastal city. Up here on the hill, the tower would give the Atlas military much better tactical range. Not to mention, keeping the tower away from the civilian, non-Atlas, population demonstrated how little trust exists between humans.

As much as he enjoyed the thought of letting her do what she'd always been best at while working for the White Fang, for nostalgia's sake, he'd much rather foil her endeavour. How dare Blake not be here for him!

"We don't … know… Blake isn't … responding!"

Bedlam would protect this tower. He wouldn't let Blake disable it.

The irony of the situation wasn't lost on him.

He made sure to crush Blake's scroll with his heavy boot as he ran across the platform to get a clear shot at her. He didn't need her calling her friends to let her know she'd run into unforeseen difficulties (ie. him), and she had a nasty habit of using shadow clones to get around. Better to destroy it now than to risk letting her slip back down to grab it later, even if he was confident wearing the blindfold and relying on his aura-sense would negate her semblance.

Blake saw him get a bead on her with Blush and ran off to take cover behind a thermal regulator. He heard her gasp in alarm. She must have found the watchman I killed earlier. He'd taken the same path as she had taken to get around the tower, and the watchman had been high enough to be slightly less affected by the Apathy as his comrades below. Bedlam hadn't needed a surplus of hostages.

The sight of the body must have terrified Blake, because she jumped away from it. Right into his line of fire.

He nudged his weapon a little bit to the right as he aimed up at her. Blush reminded her that dead humans were the least of her concerns, Blush's shot ricocheting off the support beam beside Blake. He sheathed Wilt into Blush.

Blake must now understand that they were alone. No humans were left at the tower to help her. Her team wasn't with her.

"It's nice to finally have time to ourselves." Bedlam said cheerfully. "Don't ya think?

"Leave me ALONE!" Blake screamed as she hastily fired Gambol Shroud at him.

He easily parried the bullets with his half-drawn blade, which began to glow with the stored kinetic energy. With the pain that she continued to tax him with. He felt the semblance-reservoir of Moonslice begin to fill.

"But I've waited… so long for you to be away from them." Bedlam told her.

Blake must have realized how vulnerable she was, and decided to try to make a break for it. She threw her weapon over the support tether and started to zipline away to the ground. Her mission to disable the tower's radar was forgotten, her cowardice took control.

Pathetic.

Bedlam wasn't going to let her get away that easily. He drew upon Moonslice and released the energy quickly in a red slash, severing the tether and sending her tumbling back down onto his platform. She recovered quickly from the fall, raising her weapon up in its sword-form to meet Wilt as he leapt forward with a follow-up slash. The two of them traded blows, spinning around one another, until Blake's foot sprung up and kicked Bedlam back.

All that he had done for her, over the years. Protecting her, sheltering her, helping make the White Fang her home. She had played him for a chump, using him, stealing away what should have been the best years of his life. All for the promise of a future together that she never intended for him to have.

"Why did you have to come into my life and ruin everything?" He demanded. He'd had plans before he'd met her! I could have left the White Fang, I could have become a Huntsman in Vacuo, but no! She was determined to improve our people's lot, and I stayed with her, as idealistic a fool as she!

The dissolution of the White Fang may have upset Dominic, but Bedlam almost saw it as a blessing in disguise. Excepting Blake, it had been the only thing tying him down to his self-imposed responsibility.

"You stalked me across Anima! I don't want anything to do with your life!" She retorted angrily.

Stalked her across Anima? We were working together for the White Fang, going on missions. We were a team! Bedlam felt cheated and used. Oh, wait, maybe she means how I've followed her here from Mistral? Well, that hardly counts as 'across Anima'. Anima was a large continent. His mission to take care of his ex-girlfriend had only seen him ride a train for a short jaunt along the eastern coastline, then walk through a few days worth of snowy thickets.

Rather than explain that he meant his previous comment as more of a long-term complaint, he raised Wilt and charged back at her, but she deflected his strike, flipped off the platform and catapulted herself up to the higher platform again using her shadow clones as springboards. Bedlam didn't intend to let her have any more breathing room, and so he immediately pumped his aura into his legs and leapt straight up the ladder shaft to stay alongside her. As she turned to look back over the railing to see down to where she'd left him, he used Blush to launch Wilt hilt-first at her. It hit her squarely in the cheek, sending her sprawling while Wilt bounced back into Bedlam's waiting grip. Blake threw her hook into the tower and flew on her ribbon towards Bedlam, but the momentum of her graceful attack was absorbed by Wilt. They traded blows a few more times until Bedlam saw an opening. He grabbed Blake by the hand as they pressed their swords against one another. Blake grabbed onto the handle of Wilt in turn.

Blake wasn't as strong as Bedlam was, though, and he easily tossed her to the side. Bedlam wasn't as graceful as Blake, though, who tumbled to her feet and leapt up to the tower's next platform up.

The move, and perhaps the nearby Apathy, were taking their toll on her endurance, and Bedlam leapt up to follow her. As she tried to catch her breath, he wrapped his hands around her throat.

As he did, he remembered how he'd wrapped his hands around Neo's throat. Neo's throat, which the human had used to defile him. Now his hand was similarly poised around Blake.

Blake had betrayed him. She'd left him, she'd fought him, she'd campaigned against him, and she'd kissed Sun Wukong. Despite that, there was still room in Bedlam's heart for forgiveness. It would have to be hard-won.

Blake struggled in his hold.

It was impossible for him not to imagine how delightful it would be to feel her struggling all the way back to the city.

I wonder if she still has that Beacon schoolgirl outfit that she was wearing in Neo's picture.

He pressed her up against the railing and looked at her face, marred by a flush from the cold rather than a bruise from the hilt bash. Whatever he thought about Beacon Academy, it had strengthened Blake. Her aura was stronger. Not as strong as his, but still worthy of serving his vision. Worthy of serving him.

As he thought about how to subdue her, she kicked his foot, sending them both off-balance over the railing.

It was not a short drop to the ground, and it felt like he hit every branch of the evergreen tree he fell through.

Blake coughed, gasping for breath as she rose back to her feet. "Let go of the past, Adam. Do it for yourself."

Bedlam rose to his feet as well. Blake had recovered first, but fear of him and hesitancy kept her from taking any initiative. "Just forget it all? Is that what you did to me? You just threw our memories away?"

"Adam!" Blake cried.

"I let you go once, Blake." Bedlam said resolutely. The fight at the farm didn't count. Haven didn't count. Beacon didn't count. He'd only let her go once, when she quit the White Fang, stranding him on the SDC transport train. He'd given her space, let her go her own way, and hadn't chased after her. He had assumed that she would have gone home, scuttling back to her father, not to Beacon. She would have been safe in Menagerie. But despite that generosity, she still chose to stand against us when we struck back at the human oppressors sitting in their great tower. She'd chosen to join his enemies. "I'm never going to make that mistake again." He half-drew Wilt, showing her that he wasn't willing to just let her have her way this time. He wasn't going to trust her to take care of herself.

Blake, true to form, ran away. She made a fighting retreat through the woods, alternating between pathetic attempts at fending him off and swinging through the branches on Gambol Shroud.

"Can you do anything besides run?" He taunted. His preference would have been to stay near the relay tower, within distance of the Apathy that he'd need to keep Blake subdued after he defeated her, but he was fine with chasing her out into the wilderness. She was running the wrong way to be heading back to Argus; either she was fleeing blindly or she lacked his sense of direction. Away from Argus he could always find more grimm to control. Remnant had no shortage of the monsters roaming the hinterlands, and with his relic and negative emotions of his fight with Blake luring them in they'd probably find him soon enough. If her human friends came looking for her, the relay tower was probably the first place they'd think to look. This way he could keep their reunion personal.

Blake didn't deign to respond to his verbal jab, instead choosing to continue jumping through the canopy, going from branch to branch, branch to ground, ground to branch, each time using her springy ribbon like a monkey on a vine to swing forward.

She must have learned that from Sun.

Bedlam let out a short laugh. He'd give her a taste of what he had planned for that guy. He shot Wilt out of Blush, hitting Gambol Shroud mid-flight and preventing her from making her latest jump. Her lead on him faltered, so she swung back around to launch herself at him as Wilt returned to his hand.

Wilt tore through Blake's heavy coat, while her aura kept her body from being grazed by his blade. She kicked him off of her and he landed hard on the frozen soil. She pressed her attack with a few shots from her pistol, one of which hit his shoulder. He was able to deflect and absorb the rest of the barrage.

He breathed deeply, snorting a little in frustration, as Blake gauged his strength.

She ran away again.

Why does she have to make this - make everything! - so difficult?

Her escape route brought her to a natural rock bridge in front of a massive waterfall. Her ability to keep ahead of him in the woods by springing around with her ribbon would do her no good here; there were no trees to swing to or hide behind.

Blake must have realized that, too, and immediately turned about to face Bedlam.

Has she finally decided to stand her ground, now that there is nowhere she can run?

He came at her even more fiercely than before. Wilt and Blush were accompanied by his own brutal kicks, reminding Blake who taught her her combat skills before she'd run away to Beacon.

She used her semblance to shift to his flank, then rushed at him to shove Wilt into her own sheath. A move I used on her years ago… and on Dominic last week. Standard nonlethal fighting maneuver. She flipped away from him, leaving him armed only with Blush and the roiling energy of Moonslice.

She charged back at him, perhaps thinking him incapable of defending himself when deprived of half of his weaponry. He showed her that such thoughts were folly. He was more than capable of parrying her slashing strikes with Blush while keeping on the offensive against her.

Whatever they had taught her at Beacon, it hadn't been enough to bridge the gap between their martial skill. Blake would lose this fight.

Confident of the inevitability of his victory, he grabbed hold of her wrist again while parrying her sword with Blush. "I wouldn't have to be doing this if you'd just behave!" He shouted at her. As she stared into his face, he let go of her wrist to instead grab the handle of Wilt, then used his raw strength to wrench it out of her grasp. In one fluid motion, he took back his sword and slung her sheath off into the distance. Blake watched it soar off, but his attention was focused only on her. He slammed his hilt into her face, which she was barely able to raise her aura to protect against. Even with her defensive aura, the impact sent her rolling backwards along the ground, leaving her prone.

"But you're selfish!" Bedlam accused. She never cared about what I wanted! She never cared about anyone except herself! At least when I took power, when I fought, it was for her! It was for US! He rushed at her and slashed at her. He would break her aura, make her defenseless, then drag her away to teach her what her selfishness had done to the faunus of Mistral. She would see how her desire for peace, rather than resolution of problems, had led to their human foes yet again taking advantage of their people.

Blake struggled to get to her feet, but Bedlam wasn't going to let her.

"You're a coward!" I don't run from my problems! I don't give up! I'm stubborn!

"You're delusional." Blake spat, hunched over on the ground and glaring at him. Her ears folded down against her head. She might still be speaking defiantly, but her body was starting to realize what was happening. Her body was conceding to his strength and determination. Exhaustion was visible in her every motion. She wasn't able to hurt him physically, so she was resorting to insulting him.

I'm delusional? Bedlam tensed up with fury. Sure, I've been hanging out with a pack of soul-crushing grimm for a while, calling them by name and planning to make them into a jazz quintet, but you're the one who thinks you can keep fighting like this! He aimed Wilt at the scar he'd given her at Beacon, then drew his blade up and charged it with Moonslice. Until her aura is depleted, she's going to keep running her mouth.

He shifted his aim to target her weapon, and Moonslice shattered it in half. The pieces of it scattered, clanging as they bounced across the rock. A shame; he had always liked Gambol Shroud, but it had outlived his appreciation for it. A captive with a weapon was little captive at all.

He reached up and tugged his blindfold off of his face. He wanted her to see what her precious humans did to faunus like him; he wanted to see her face, not with his aura-sense, but with his eye, as she submitted to him. Submitted to the victor of their year-long contest. Maybe she was insulting him in the hopes that he'd just kill her quickly, her fearful nature and imagination conjuring an assortment of ways he could make her life awful while dragging her back to the city in triumph.

She looked away as she saw the SDC's brand over his face.

"People hurt me long before we met." He thought of every SDC boss he'd suffered under. Then he thought of his fellow faunus. His coworkers in the mines of Mantle. Sienna. "All sorts of people, in all sorts of ways, but no one hurt me quite like you. You didn't leave scars. You just left me alone." He told her. Now was the time to finally bring his wayward pupil to heel, or kill her for her inability to fall back in line. "So, tell me Blake: how does it feel to be alone?"

All she had to do was accept him. To say something like 'I'm not alone, Adam. I have you', or even a basic, simple apology for having done him wrong.

Really, he was setting the bar exceptionally low for her. He would have already killed anyone else who'd done him wrong as she'd done.

She didn't, though. She just sat there, refusing to respond. Refusing to even look at him. She just kept looking around. As if she was memorizing the - admittedly beautiful - area they'd found themselves at. Bedlam felt like it was suitably romantic, but all Blake seemed to be doing was accepting it as a fine place to die.

Well, if that's what she wants. One way or another, he was determined to take care of Blake, either by bringing her home to be pampered and protected, or by killing her. He was equally committed to either course of action.

He screamed and raised Wilt.

You made me do this!

Wilt shuddered as it dug into the ground underneath Blake. He panted from the exhaustive marathon his mission had put him through, staring at Blake with his sword piercing through her stomach. He was nearly certain that, with aura, she'd survive the wound. She'd survived it last time. The pain would make her easier to get back to the Apathy. And if she dies, that's fine, too.

Then she disappeared.

Fucking shadow-clones! Blake had the absolute worst semblance on the planet. People said semblances and personalities were based on one another, though they disagreed on which one influenced the other. In any case, Blake's semblance and personality were that of a wretched tease. Was she stabbed through the gut? No! Fake-out! Did she love Adam Taurus? No! Fake-out!

His aura-sense alerted him to her reappearance next to her shattered weapon. This. This is why I had to break her scroll earlier. Because she always ninja's her way around like this. He considered putting back on the blindfold, to prevent her from confusing his sight. No. He was better than that. He'd become effective at using his aura-sense after a week of blindness training. He could use it to detect her trickery, even while still using his eye.

He wanted her to die seeing his face, all of his face.

He willed more of his aura into his situational awareness, focusing it all on Blake to make sure she could not escape him.

"I'm not alone." Blake stated, rising up with her still-intact razor sheath.

For a moment, Bedlam earnestly thought she was apologizing to him like he had wanted her to. The tension in his body ebbed slightly. For a moment, he had hope that he had actually won her back.

Then a yellow motorcycle flew off the cliff above them and crashed directly into him. Its driver, Blake's human partner Yang, landed next to Blake while the wheels rolled over him and continued on to propel the bike off the cliff into the water. If he hadn't been actively focusing all of his attention on Blake, he might have heard it coming.

"You." Bedlam said after he recovered from the massive impact. Well, it isn't the Arc boy, but it looks like a blond has shown up to die for Blake yet again.

Yang didn't say a word to Bedlam, instead firing a single, powerful shot out of her prosthetic arm. He absorbed it with Wilt. The impact didn't surprise Bedlam; Atlesian technology was the best in the world. It was used all the time to oppress his people. If anything, Yang should be thanking him for the opportunity to have her worthless human body upgraded.

She didn't appear to be grateful.

"...Yang!" Blake stammered before kneeling down in pain.

"It's okay. Catch your breath for a second. I can hold him off." Yang replied cooly to her panting partner, not looking away from Bedlam.

"She's right, Blake. 'It's okay'. We have unfinished business." Bedlam said as he regarded his new opponent, brandishing his glowing blade for emphasis in case his hostility towards the new arrival was not clear enough. Against Blake he'd held back. He'd worn his blindfold to try to guard against her tricks. He'd show no such mercy to the human who'd helped keep Blake away from him. He grabbed Wilt and rushed towards her, his movements a blur as he hacked and slashed at her defense. The energy of Moonslice flowed into his body, enhancing his strength and speed even further. Fighting Blake he'd not been able to make proper use of it; Yang was different. Yang was his kind of opponent: no tricks, no whining, no running. Just combat.

Yang blasted away with him, using her gauntlet to blast off. He showed her that distance was not a weakness for him; he threw Wilt at her in a spinning whirl, chewing up her aura like a blender. He retrieved Wilt and kept up the pressure on her.

She may not be winded from fighting like he was after the chase through the woods, but his blood was full of adrenaline and hatred. Moonslice was seething through him. Being away from the Apathy helped, too.

Bedlam was in rare form.

He extended his aura into Wilt, unleashing several fiery blasts at Yang, covering her in steam from the heat. She used her gauntlet to rocket backwards again to clear the cloud he'd made around her, seemed to gather herself, then shot herself towards him to try her own offensive. Her series of quick punches and kicks caught him off-guard since she'd only used her projectile attacks so far for offense. When he tried to strike at her with Wilt, she deflected his swing with her mechanical arm's canon, caught his wrist, and used her biological arm to deliver a painful elbow into his side. Bedlam grunted in surprise, which cost him the chance to avoid her follow-up kick to his gut.

She was definitely physically stronger than Blake.

In melee he had a reach advantage with the length of his sword, but when she got in close like that she could do some real damage. He'd have to keep her at arm's length.

He considered saying the pun out loud, but decided against it. She was probably the humourless type; Adam had put up with Blake's constant depressing ethics because they were both faunus - what excuse other than being a dour person could Yang have for being Blake's partner? Even if she got the joke about her being one-armed, she probably wouldn't laugh at it. Brazen and Dominic would have laughed. He wished they had chosen to come with him, rather than staying in the city to play with Neopolitan.

He used Wilt to absorb a flurry of punches Yang sent at him. He would have to use Moonslice soon lest his aura overflow with the excess energy he was storing.

Yang knocked him back again, then fired a volley of rounds at him. With Moonslice super-charging his movements, he was able to angle Wilt to absorb every shot.

Dominic and Brazen might not be with him in body, but their spirit was still with him. Whichever one of them was still alive, if not both, helped him regenerate his aura at an amazing speed. Helped him expand his semblance reserves over the past few weeks so that he could hold more energy than ever before. Their bodies were separate, but their soul was still one. He felt their presence, fighting alongside him, as he rounded back to Yang. He ran around her in a circle, disorienting her, moving so fast his blurred afterimage reminded him of his brothers.

Once Yang was confused, he jumped up, rapidly activating a portion of Moonslice, and sent a tremor of glowing red reflected energy along the ground at her. She managed to shield her vitals from the attack, her gauntlet and aura letting her survive.

"His semblance is like yours!" Blake shouted out from the sidelines, where she seemed happy enough to watch and regather her tattered, cowardly nerves. "He absorbs energy through his sword, stores it up, and then sends it back when he's ready!"

Shows what you know, Blake. My semblance is much more complicated than that now! I've grown so much beyond what I was when I had you.

"He gets to dish out damage without having to feel it?" Yang sighed with exasperation as she realized that she had only been making Bedlam stronger with each parried attack. "That's just cheap." She fired off both hands to fly back towards Bedlam.

He deflected her punch with Wilt, but she used another round from her gauntlet to send herself into a tight spin before delivering a kick to his head. He rolled with the hit and swung Wilt at her as she landed, but she expended another round from her gauntlet to dodge away. As he moved after her with Wilt, she shot again. He realized what she was doing - now that she knew how his semblance worked, she was being careful. She didn't want to charge Moonslice.

She used her gauntlets to launch herself towards him, relying only on her punches and kicks to try to damage him. A sensible tactic, since she could always pull her punches when he tried to block them with Wilt. Yang scored several sound hits on him like that, but pulling punches wasn't a technique she had trained with. Adam Taurus had trained for years to absorb energy with Wilt and considered himself extremely proficient with his semblance. Since his magical division, Bedlam had only become stronger. Yang slipped up and blasted her robotic fist at him with such force that she couldn't stop the prosthetic when Bedlam raised Wilt.

Wilt shone a deep crimson as the power of Atlas' finest arms technology - pun intended - was absorbed. Combined with the energy he'd been keeping in reserve, he felt like it was enough to demonstrate to Blake just how devoted he was to keeping his promise to her.

Yang bounced backwards, the recoil from her gauntlet blast sending her back to land beside where Blake was still kneeling at the edge in front of the waterfall. They were both on their knees, weak and pathetic, but Moonslice was fully-charged. Moonslice was strength.

So what if he was winded? He was angry and determined, and that counted for more. He saw how Blake looked at Yang and remembered how it used to be him that Blake looked at like that. Like they were in sync - a pair. Bonded. He remembered every time Blake had promised to stay by him, and promised not to leave.

Everything went red, he screamed with rage, and all of Moonslice surged towards the human Blake had replaced him with.

As the dust settled, Bedlam frowned. He'd underestimated just how advanced a prosthetic Atlas was willing to give to someone for surviving an encounter with him. Yang's arm was deeply scored, but it had taken the full strength of a Moonslice blast.

Bedlam understood that, so long as Yang was so well-armed, he was in danger.

Blake slowly lowered her damaged metal arm. "Leave. Us. Alone." She stepped forward from the edge of the rock that she'd been pushed back to. "This is your last chance."

Even if he was willing to just leave, what did she even expect that to result in? Did she just expect him to find some hole to die in? Become a farmer in Vacuo or something? Why would she even think for a second that, after everything that's happened, I'd leave? Bedlam put his hand to the handle of Wilt where it sat dependably in Blush.

Then he saw Yang's fingers trembling. The thought of him wielding Wilt reminded her of how close he'd come to killing her at Beacon. I terrify her, too. Time to switch tactics. If strength won't win me this battle, then let's try to intimidate them.

Bedlam took his hand off of the hilt of Wilt in Blush. He laughed. "Do you really believe that? Or are you just trying to scare me away so you won't have to die trying to protect her?"

Yang's hand openly shook, but she bared her teeth and stood her ground.

Blake stepped towards her human partner and took her organic hand. "She's not protecting me. And I'm not protecting her." Blake's eyes sent daggers towards Bedlam. "We're protecting each other."

It was starting to feel like the only person Blake wasn't emotionally close with was the man who'd spent his life trying to make the world safe enough to be intimate with Blake. I bet that's how she made Ilia change her colours, so to speak!

Where were Brazen and Dominic? He could understand having to fight Yang and Blake alone - that was fine - but he needed an audience that could at least understand humour without being all 'Adam that's cruel', 'Adam, what about the crew?' or 'Oh gods you chopped off my arm and ruined my ability to hold hands!'

Handholding? Bedlam seethed as he looked at the two of them standing there full of defiance. The two of them weren't even married! What would her father think? Then again, what would Ghira think of Blake kissing Sun?

Speaking of Sun… "You knew you couldn't win two-on-one at Haven," Bedlam reminded her. When he'd moved into the forest to try to bait her into following him, away from the prying eyes of military airships and her father, she hadn't chased him. She'd been afraid of him without all of her father's militia to back her up. "What makes you so sure you can win now?"

"I don't have a choice. I have people who actually care about me." Blake declared, like he had never actually cared about her during their time together.

He wouldn't be here if he didn't, at several levels, actually care about Blake! Bedlam would show her. He would show her what it meant to make a choice. She doesn't have a choice, she says? There is always a choice! I should know!

Blake continued, "and I promised them I'd never leave them again, so I'm not dying now!"

Blake? Making promises to people? Blake, telling people that she wouldn't run away when things got real? He knew what her promises were worth! "You know, she made a promise to me once. That she'd always be at my side." He barked out a laugh. "And look how well she's kept it."

"Did she make that promise to you, or to the person you were pretending to be?" Yang asked heatedly.

Bedlam took a little bit of offense at that. He'd never pretended to be anything other than who he was. It was Blake who had ignored the brutal truth of their situation, it was Blake who idealistically thought that she could fight for her people but see her father's vision of peace realized, too. Blake, like her father, believed that everyone could be good if they tried. She hadn't seen the horrors that Adam Taurus had lived through. All she saw were the scars, the haunting reminders he carried every day of his life, showing him what happened when you relied on the mercy and goodness of others. Blake pretended that the world was good.

He had been so young when he had been branded, he didn't even remember a time when he didn't have the brand. His SDC captors had mutilated him as an infant, or perhaps as an innocent toddler. If Blake wanted to find the good in him, she'd have to travel back in time to before that happened. Before his goodness was seared out of him.

What good was there in humanity?

Dai had told him that even gods couldn't travel through time, so the world was stuck with Taurus as he had become.

"So I just wasn't good enough for you."

"You know it's so much more than that." Blake said.

You didn't give me half the chance you've already given Sun! He railed. Well, so be it. If she wouldn't choose him, then he could at least kill her friends and make her regret every moment of her life, knowing that her refusal to accept his feelings for her had brought calamity to her doorstep. "I know you've made your choice. And I've made mine."

Do what has to be done.

Or, rather, choices. Plural.

He put his hand back to Wilt's handle. The girls tensed. Both sides rushed at each other, and Blake and Yang demonstrated how in-sync their training at Beacon had let them become. They came at him from his flanks, they covered each other's blindspots.

He relinquished control to his aura and his instincts, not willing to let them knock him about like a ragdoll. His aura-sense notified him that Blake had grabbed what was left of Gambol Shroud, which she aimed at him before throwing it in sword-form at him.

He deflected the blade, sending it spiraling away. Yang locked her eyes onto Blake's errant ribbon-bound weapon and launched herself with her gauntlets to catch it. Yang yanked her end of the ribbon, its tensile strength swinging Blake around at an incredible speed, which she converted into another attempt to slash him with her sword.

Engorged with Moonslice's energy as he was, the entire attack came at him languidly. He had plenty of time to react to it, and since they were both connected to the ribbon, Yang could not put any pressure on his flank. He met her sword with his own, then, with the energy of the blow absorbed, enhanced his strength and flung Blake into the waterfall while he backflipped away. As he regained his footing he saw her aura shatter as she crumpled into the stone before landing on a flat outcropping a ways down. She dangled there, struggling to keep herself from falling all the way down into the water at the base of the waterfall.

"Blake!" Yang shouted in alarm as her partner was sent out-of-bounds.

One problem dealt with, one problem left. "Moment of truth, Yang. Do you think you're faster than you were at Beacon?"

Yang gasped, and trembled. Even her mechanical arm showed her full-body shiver as she realized that she was left alone to handle the most dangerous man in Mistral. Blake was still struggling her way back up the waterfall cliff.

Bedlam laughed and smiled at her fear. "Me neither." He charged at her, and this time she shrunk away from him as he landed a couple solid hits on the human. He struck her in the face with his elbow, and she fell to the ground. He gloried in the moment, watching her roll and crawl away from him.

Bedlam couldn't wait for this to be Sun. With her fair hair, it was easy to imagine how similar the scene would eventually play out. Poor Blake. Sun had an entirely extra limb for Bedlam to dismember while she would get to watch.

Yes, if I kill Yang now, or wound her enough, I can still take Blake alive so that she gets to be around to watch Sun die. To watch Ilia perish. Ghira, Kali, the Schnees, everyone she cherishes… because that list doesn't include me!

"Your aura is bound to be running low," Bedlam taunted Yang. He saw her glance behind him, at where his aura-sense pinpointed Blake being. Blake was perfectly positioned now to see what he was about to do to her new partner.

He growled menacingly. "Hit me already!" Hit me, charge up Moonslice, and I'll make the blow that severs your next limb quick. Without his semblance, his sword would probably make a clean cut - but he couldn't make a promise to that effect. It made him angry that Yang's pain would make Blake sad, would make her weep, while his own pain had never bothered the object of his affections. "What does she even see in you?" He continued to press the attack, each parry she made making marginal increases to his semblance. She was too tired to dodge him as much at this stage of the fight, giving his semblance the advantage as she was forced to block his swipes. His aura was brimming with energy again, almost vibrating. Mixed with the adrenaline, it felt good. He felt like he had attained a zen state: a calm fury as his soul seemed to purr with a long-forgotten contentment. Is this what it is to be happy? He hadn't felt like this even at Beacon. He enhanced his sword with a taste of Moonslice's stored energy as he threw it in a spin at Yang, hitting her several times, overwhelming her and knocking her down prone. Bedlam was unstoppable.

Blake has nearly climbed back up.

His aura warned him that Blake was nearly done with her climb. If he timed it perfectly, she could reach the top of the bridge just as he landed the final blow on Yang.

"You're just a coward, like her!" He shouted at Yang as she desperately tried to regain her footing. He unleashed a quick blast of Moonslice's energy at her, the rush of energy making the hard soil billow up into a dust cloud around Yang.

Now was the time to finish this. He rushed forward, both hands on Wilt, and struck down to finish Yang off as Blake got closer to the edge of the bridge.

His blade stopped, meeting resistance he hadn't expected. He frowned as he realized his miscalculation. Yang may be weak, but Atlesian steel was still strong regardless of how much aura was running through it. She had managed to catch the blade of Wilt in her mechanical arm, impervious to the searing heat of the fire dust that made it glow hot. The blade gouged deeply into her palm, but it wasn't her flesh. Yang's yellow hair seemed to not be as lucky as her hand, and seemed to have been set ablaze by his strike. Even her eyes seemed to have been cooked, appearing to have changed to a roasted red hue.

He almost felt bad - he personally had some experience with the difficulties being partially blind put on a person. Well, I guess blinding Yang is as good as dismembering her again?

Yang didn't seem to care. How does Blake find these people so willing to casually suffer for her, to throw their lives away?

Honestly, she would have done well recruiting for the White Fang in Vale. Probably would have been the only thing she'd have been useful for. She was a mewling coward but was good at getting others to fight for her.

Something is wrong.

Why do I even care about Blake?

His mind was focused on the fight, adrenaline and his instincts not letting him get distracted, but he was suddenly concerned that he was forgetting something.

What was he forgetting?

'His semblance is like yours', Blake had said earlier. Yang's semblance? Was that what he had forgotten about?

"Gotcha." Yang growled. Without needing her eyes to see, she pulled him forward by his sword while cocking her gauntlet on her other hand, which she then unloaded into his chest.

Very wrong.

He was taken by surprise at her reaction, and flew across the ground like a bullhead making a crashlanding. So powerful was the blow that he made a gash in the earth.

He had definitely forgotten to take Yang's aura into account, sure, but his mind was still troubled. His body was in tremendous pain, but that wasn't a big deal - he was pretty used to pain at this point in his life.

His aura shattered, depriving him of all of its benefits. Moonslice, his enhanced reflexes, strength, and speed. His aura-sense that let him keep tabs on Blake.

Not that Blake really matters.

It was fine, though. Losing track of Blake wasn't an issue, because she wasn't a threat: without her aura, she would not be using her shadow clones. He got back up to his feet and felt for Wilt at his hip. It wasn't in Blush - it was still in Yang's hand.

This fight had not gone according to plan, if that could even be said for a fight that he hadn't expected or planned to have this morning. He had so many more important things to do than dealing with Blake's shit. If she was such a big deal, he should have just waited for his brothers to finish their business, or wait for Blake to come to them. It seemed clear that whatever either of his brothers did would eventually bring Blake running to foil them care of Blake on his own had been reckless.

Reckless.

Reckless?

Reckless.

"Adam. Blake is going to do something reckless, and I'm afraid I won't be able to stop her. She plans to leave with you and Ilia to rejoin Sienna in Mistral. She doesn't see the futility of fighting. I know you don't, either, so that's why I trust you'll stay with her. I need you to protect my daughter while she's with you in human lands." Ghira told young Adam Taurus, with whom his daughter had recently been spending a frightening amount of time. He had sworn not to use it, but this was an exceptional circumstance. He began to purr, and Adam's eyes glazed over until his mind and will were fully subsumed by the hypnotic semblance. "Take care of Blake."

Little Adam nodded.

Bedlam remembered. The memories were flooding back now. He looked around wildly. He couldn't be distracted. He was fighting for his life! He couldn't be mired in the past right now!

Do you not understand, Adam Taurus? All you are is stuck in the past. Your entire purpose is to resolve your past, but in so doing you have become its slave.

Bedlam swore he heard Dai talking to him. Was it just a memory, too? He didn't know what was real.

What was real?

He focused his eye on Yang. Yang was real. Yang was trying to kill him, to protect Belladonna. Which is actually a shame, because Yang is actually kind of better-looking than the deserter.

Yang was a literal smoke show. At least she was until her aura shattered, and somehow that made her hair stop burning. "I may not be faster." She warned as she held his oldest companion. "But I'm smarter."

She threw Wilt away, sending it over the edge into the waterfall.

"No!" He screamed as he chased after his prized blade, but could only watch it disappear. He was out of ammunition in Blush; it was little more than an unwieldy metal baton without dust. Worst of all, his scroll was in the hilt of his sword. It's going to be a fucking chore to find that! It'll probably drift away, far away, in the current of the river.

Now how would he keep in contact with Brazen and Dominic? Damn it all, he'd just started making use of their scrolls' sync!

Unfortunately he wasn't going to have any time to think up a solution to that, as Yang's partner leapt up from where his blade had just fallen over the cliff and hit him with a solid punch. "Hi-yaaa!"

Brazen tumbled backwards, slipping on the broken halves of Belladonna's weapon as he landed. The metal pieces skittered away; the piece with the handle forward towards Belladonna, the severed length of blade sliding away behind him. He leapt for the handle of Gambol Shroud - any blade was better than no blade. In a world without aura, the person holding a knife is a murderer.

Right now, he wanted to be holding the knife.

He wasn't fast enough. Ghira's daughter reached it before he could. His own momentum, as he had raced towards it, let her impale him by simply raising it up at the proper angle. He didn't feel so much as he heard the sound of it piercing through his sternum. He felt his throat fill with fluid, like he was about to vomit again - but fading sense told him it was blood. Then the second blade tore through him. Yang, unlike the other two, wasn't concerned about the pain caused by wielding a raw blade with her auraless mechanical hand. Yang had gotten the other half of Gambol Shroud and plunged it through Bedlam's back, so far through that it came out just underneath the zipper of his chest pocket.

Oh dear. It would seem like you did not make the best choice, Adam.

He stared down at his chest as it became soaked with his blood.

With his aura gone, he keenly felt the pain. It was almost comforting to feel the hurt for a change. It was a comfort to feel something, to think about something other than his mission. They weren't happy thoughts, but they were at least his. All he could think about was that he had died for nothing. He had died, still a slave. At least it wasn't his fault. The Relic of Choice at least let two parts of him be free, even if this version of himself had been left as a prisoner to Ghira's will.

At least it was over, now.

À̴̻͍̞́ḏ̸̫̄a̴̲͗͝m̵̳͓̝̃́ (Adam)

Fucking up takes many forms, but somehow he'd outdone himself today.

"Oh."

The girls wrenched their blades out of his chest, letting him stumble away from them. He moved towards the waterfall.

His eyes rolled up into his head as he struggled to hold onto his life. He was thirsty, and knew it wasn't just blood welling up in his throat. He let go and sank into the darkness that was all that was left to him. Wasn't it so that he belonged in the depths? Pain, sorrow, and fear were all he had ever known and could ever expect, but there was a nourishing solace in that certainty.

Á̢ ̧͝fe҉á͠sţ̨ (A feast)

Even in the clutches of death, his lingering thoughts weren't of Blake, or Yang, or the numb sensation of pain lacing through his chest. He thought of Brazen and Dominic instead, proud that his sacrifice had at least protected them, freed them from Ghira's yoke.

He felt the air rushing past his face. An impact on rock. Air rushed past him again. Then it was wet. Then it was nothing.


AN: "What's red and white and black all over?"

Well, I hope the Bedlam chapter didn't disappoint. Let's be honest. We all knew what was going to happen. From the start I was determined for him to see that nice waterfall. What a lovely piece of scenery. It's a bit of a shame that Ghira didn't chat with Brazen sooner, I guess. Bedlam could have saved himself a whole chapter of me having to re-watch his death episode like eighty times. For those wondering, yes: the Adams' souls are one and the same, and Purrsuasion took hold on that. By using the Relic, they merely shifted the onus of the hypnosis onto a single version - Bedlam. Ah, Bedlam. What a trooper. At least he went out like a champ: totally insane from frostbite and apathy exposure, bloody and exhausted.

Wait, what was that going on at the end there?
Where did the ladies happen to stab him?
For fuck's sake, Brazen. Why'd you have to go and put that in there? This is going to be a total mess.

I might do an alternate take of the Bedlam showdown, where he has a... let's say a different interaction with Bumblebee. If ya know what I mean.

(Nobody knows what I mean, but that's fine, I'm going to do it anyways and you'll all hate me for it probably but I live for your hate and your tasty reviews)

Speaking of reviews, one of you mentioned the 'voice in his ear' as a foreshadow, presumably of Purrsuasion. The other voice in his ear is Dai, a reference to the bold and bold/italic text that sometimes pops up as the Daichotomy game goes on between Adam and Dai in the Between whenever one of my chumplings happens to stir up the relic's magic with its activation words while Adam is observing through the ring-window.

Next update sometime this century!