Hello everybody!
So... this is actually a little story that I thought of doing for Halloween and since I write faster than the speed of smell I'm actually gonna post this during the October season!
Get ready for our favorite kitten to get the surprise of her life as she wants to figure out the mystery of 'blond beast'.
Though I think she's gonna be in for a shock.
But enough of my prattle, It's go time!
I don't own RWBY, as it is now in the hands of VIZ Media.
Italics are thoughts and flashbacks in the story.
Bold sentences are usually transitions, song titles, or Chapter titles and Outros.
Chapter 1: A Dark Night
The broken moon hung over the night sky of Beacon Academy. The institution for these special Huntsmen and Huntresses were always vigilant when it came to teaching the next generation of protectors.
The sound of light yawn was let out of the lips of one Blake Belladonna. Her yellow eyes laser focused on the task in front of her as she was in her natural habitat for peace and quite, the wonderful Beacon library.
Large mahogany colored shelves holding literature, sturdy oak like tables and chairs, and the most important factor to the faunus girl...
Complete and utter silence.
All of these the perfect ingredients for a nice and relaxing area to read, a sort of safe getaway when dealing with snooty Schnee's, overly Bombastic Xiao Long's, and hyperactive Ruby's.
Unfortunately for Blake it was one of those days that she just needed a little 'alone' time, especially after today's rough classes today before the weekend.
Don't get her wrong, the hidden cat faunus didn't mind her teammates that much now that they had bonded a bit more when at the academy. They have had their ups and downs in the months they first formed Team RWBY at Beacon,
Contrary to popular belief, but Blake had to admit that her teammates were slowly becoming some of her best friends that she had met in her life. Ruby was starting to grow on her and becoming more like the leader she needs to be despite being the youngest out of the four. Yang, her partner while being very bombastic and positive, somethings that Blake wasn't the best at showing like at all, really gave the faunus girl some positive vibes with all of her infectious energy.
And yes... even the so called 'enemy to the faunus', Weiss Schnee was starting to become a friend in the ex-terrorists mind as they continue to settle their differences as teammates.
'Still a tight ass though.' Blake flipped to another page in the novel she was reading. 'Could also do without Yang's puns.' The feline couldn't help but shiver at the rather corny comedy her partner had. Plus some of Weiss's critsims could be seen as overdramatic and nitpicky.
That was just a Schnee for you... at least in Blake's opinion mind you...
But things here at Beacon were working out for her, becoming one of the protectors of Remnant by taking care of Grimm around the areas of Vale.
Also with some... concerning old grievances coming back to bite her.
Unfortunately for Blake, some of that comradery and bonding was more forced thanks to the involvement of her past with the White Fang, something that she really wanted to leave behind in her tainted history and not have her team stick their noses in.
Blake was definitely nervous about how she would be looked from her new friends, being found out that she was part of an organization that had changed radically into a more dark, and definitely more violent shell of what it used to stand for.
That day she was expecting the worst... she was expecting her new friends to loathe her presence from now on, newly built friendships and bond being broken just because of her twisted deeds that she didn't realize were hurting humans and to extent the faunus that had no alliance to the White Fang.
However things didn't plan out as expected when facing her teammates on the docks that night.
In facing the music and expecting a sour tune, the feline faunus heard the soft sounds of acceptance and small bit of forgiveness. Definitely not what she was expecting from running away from her teammates after the huge argument that they all had.
The good news of it all was the team survived the turmoil and they were all on the same page of sticking together as a team.
Bad news was that the White Fang are still at there in Vale, and they definitely are up to trouble in the city working with the notorious criminal Roman Torchwick. So they could be hiding out anywhere in the city of Vale, whether they be in the streets, abandoned warehouses were everywhere in this city as potential hideouts for them and the bowler hatted man. Planning their next heist of Dust to steal, or something even worse is probably in the books for them.
That 'something' was unacceptable in Blake's eyes, her families organization has morphed into something evil...
It felt perverse... so much so that she couldn't stand to see it like this anymore, and this motion was made even worse since she had a hand in guiding this fang into the darkness of violence and death, harming humans and faunus alike.
With that said, after the dock incident and a stern lecture with an added harsh punishment of detention thanks to Ms. Goodwitch. The B of team RWBY went to work on trying to locate the faunus group by any means necessary.
Police reports, news outlets, hell even from word of mouth on the street from her fellow brothers and sisters against the organization. Any kind of information on their whereabouts would be useful to her trying to track down the White Fang.
Her team was starting to notice that she getting to be a bit... obsessive with finding out the White Fang's next move. Her time at the Academy had been spent being in the library to finding information on the radical faunus group. Mornings, afternoons, and most of her evenings were starting to blend together as she continue to search the whereabouts of any findings of the organization.
However the Vale Police Department was coming up with nothing in their search, not a trace of them anywhere in the past couple of days. That definitely didn't sit well with Blake as she just had a feeling that they were planning something huge against the city.
With no information and with how late the hour had been, the girl had passing the time slightly by resting her eyes off of a old report of some markings in the city that could be signals to the White Fang's location. Unfortunately she didn't recognize the markings, as they looked more like chicken scratch and nothing like the Fang's work.
Probably some punk kids or something that would be cool to graffiti or vandalize some property.
Blake decided that her eyes were starting to burn and wanted to see some kind of other literature in the meantime to take a short break from the dead end research.
So with that she was reading a book in the semi dark lighting of the library, being the only one in the library currently felt relaxing to her as the dimmed lights and darker atmosphere calmed her nerves. Blake knew that during this time at night that her teammates were most likely getting ready for bed.
She would have done the same.
That is... if she could right now.
Despite being a bit paranoid from the danger the White Fang holds, the times that she had been trying to sleep or even rest her eyes had her waking up with nightmares being on the forefront of her mind. Sometimes the nightmares would have be captured by fang and having to meet... Him.
He would say hateful, disgusting words to her. The betrayal in his tone as she was called a traitor to her kind, his deadly sounding threats that she constantly heard making her tear up as he would always whisper the symphony of blood and death, most likely referencing her parents or anyone she loved and cared about that would be taken by his haunting melody.
Blake's mind couldn't help but picture the sight of something that wasn't human or faunus anymore...
The sight and color of red and black, horns of obsidian and crimson blood colored hair was now something of a monster in her eyes.
Sometimes she mistakes those malicious colors as a Grimm that could walk on two feet.
Because someone with no soul or compassion would say these words of death.
The faunus girl tried to calm down her shaking hands, taking deep breaths as she shook her head.
'He's not here now... remain in control...' Inhaling and exhaling, her chest rising now in a normal rhythm. She needed a distraction now, the pages of her newest novel that she started getting into recently was the perfect way to get her mind off of old wounds.
This new novel was a supernatural romance, with a twist of... steamy goodness that her usual Ninja's of Love sometimes had.
The novel was called 'Lycanthropy Love'. The title was in a neat cursive on the dark blue colored book with wolf's head sketched into the front. Blake had to admit at first she didn't think she was going to like the book as it might of sounded cliche or just a one dimensional and predictable book.
But of course you always can't judge a book by its cover.
After giving it a fair shake and reading the first couple of chapters, Blake was knee deep in the story, hooked by its plot of a tragic backstory for the main protagonist Victor, as his father had disappeared before he was born and his mother was ill for most of his childhood before she passed on during his teenage years. With that shake in life he was alone to face the struggles that cursed him.
But he did have some kind of light in his life, his best friend and budding love interest, Christine had been there for him during his childhood, and as they grew up together during their teenage years, affection started to bloom like a spring flower for both of them as they felt their relationship change from friendship into something more...
However Victor had a huge problem, something that had been passed down his bloodline thanks to his heritage from either of his parents. Usually when something is passed down to one's family it is supposed to be met with nostalgia or pride in what is given to the next generation, a good sign for things to come in the future.
To act as a sign of good fortune.
However what Blake had found out later on the story was that Victor was not met with good fortune or luck for that matter.
No. This was a curse...
A curse to turn him into a beast of the night. A hairy, violent, razor sharp clawed and fanged Werewolf.
Her heart was out for Victor as the story showed that when both of the childhood friends finally became a couple, that this curse of Lycanthropy decided to rear its ugly head to cause strife in their relationship. The man that was turned into the monster always fighting over control of his own body, having to keep the secret of his condition from his girlfriend as the fear of her finding out would be too much for him to bear.
Blake could definitely feel a tear slipping out of her eye from the whole emotional part. What would happen if Christine did find out? What she leave him because of what he is? Will she be disgusted by his werewolf form? Or will she accept the man that she has bonded with over the years?
All she knew right now...was that this was definitely book that peaked her storytelling interest!
Her tired eyes scanned the page, a yawn came out of her mouth as she was reading of what she remembered was Chapter 10 of the book. From what she was reading is that Christine is starting to slowly unraveling the truth about Victor's family heritage by investigating info about his father for a photography scoop on what was called 'The Mysterious Beast'. Since the story says that she is a photographer and taking pictures for more mysterious parts of the news outlet she worked for was her job.
However before she could flip another page the main doors to the library caught her attention as she could hear the doors creaking open slightly from far away. The cat faunus quickly looked up to see who in their right mind would come this late at night to the library.
Blake squinted her eyes to focus on who was roaming the empty library, only to notice a familiar mop of blond hair and what looked to be a hoodie with a bunny rabbit on it.
'Jaune? What's he doing up late?' The raven haired girl was quite surprised, she didn't think that Jaune Arc of all people from the academy would be up and about right now. Blake noticed that he was acting quite strange as she saw him looking around constantly, turning his head left and right, watching behind his back and anywhere else he could look to make sure nobody was following him.
Luckily Blake shut down the scroll computer as she would have been a dead give away if that was up considering how bright the screen is. But with that gone that library was pretty dark.
Dark enough for human eyes to have a bit of trouble seeing clearly. However in Blake's case she could see perfectly as she saw the tall teen look behind his back one more time before ducking into a section of bookshelves.
Blake would pay it no mind and went back to her book, but then after a couple of seconds she closed the book and looked to where Jaune ducked into.
Now mind you, the faunus girl knew that this was a horrible idea. Going to observe the blond and see what he was up to at this time at night in the library. Honestly she knew this was either a waste of time or a bad idea as it could be for studying purposes or the knight just wanting to read some comics as she had noticed that the goofy blond and her team leader sometimes indulge in those glorified picture books.
'Calm down Blake... There's no need to judge.' The feline faunus had to admit that she wasn't the biggest fan of comic books, but it doesn't mean she should be going around and criticizing what people like to read.
Even if it was childish...
But to be honest, for once Blake was curious to what the young knight was doing here this late at night. Usually she wouldn't care about this mind you, but for now she needed to take her thoughts off of the White Fang at the moment and right now she wasn't feeling in the reading mood to continue her book.
She knew that there was a stereotypical joke about cats that Yang would of definitely ribbed her about
'Thank Oum she isn't in here tonight to say it' Blake knew she wouldn't here the end of it from her blond partner.
Regardless of cliches, Blake was silently slinking her way toward where Jaune disappeared, her amber eyes seeing his form as he was leaning forward with a book in his hands and his scroll out to give him some kind of light. She also noticed the two or three books next to his leg, probably some that he was planning to read.
Blake made sure to hide on the outside of the shelf outer most shelf to keep herself covered. Thanks to her great hearing, she was able to make out what Jaune's soft spoken voice was saying, regardless of her bow covering her ears.
"Come on.. there's got to be something in here that can reverse this." He sighed in frustration as he kept tuning the pages rapidly, but despite his desperate search there was nothing concrete.
He finally got to the end of the book. "Nothing. Another dead end!" slamming the tome in finality, he threw the book down in anger causing Blake to jump a bit from the noise.
"Damnit!" The blond shouted out. Blake saw Jaune pinch his eyes taking deep breaths. "This is not happening..." His other hand gripping his arm tight as he shook his head.
Blake had to admit this was kind of freaking her out a bit. To see the supposed dorky blond that inspired his team, to being reduced to looking like a hopeless man that had given up on everything.
Not only that but it broke the faunus girl's heart a bit.
"I have to find some way to reverse this... before someone gets hurt." Jaune said desperately. "Before its too late..."
"Too late? Too late for what?"
"Arggghhh!" She heard the blond cry out, seeing him now fall to his knees and about to hit the floor face first if he didn't but his hand out to catch his fall.
The sounds of Jaune's pain were heard well in Blake's ears as she witness his form try to stand once more, his body struggling to get back up.
Blake could hear the faint sounds of feral growling from the teen as he continued to writhe in agony as his hands went over his chest to, rubbing it in comfort as he tried to calm himself. She observed his form looking a little bit more hairy then usual as she saw a little bit more thick blond hair on his arms that looked to be growing out, but the biggest change she saw was his eyes as they started look like glowing cerulean gems, with pupils that were taking on a more slit look, like some kind of cat or wolf.
"UGH! NO! Not here!" Gasping in agony as his breathing turning into rapid pants. "Not while you're near everyone you care about!" His loud talk not even close to waking up anyone as their were no dorms near the library, the only occupant could only watch in shock and horror as her fellow student was struggling with something she didn't understand.
Questions ran through her head of the cause of this... episode that Jaune was having. Was he having some kind of medical issue? A heart attack? Stroke? Whatever it was, it definitely was worrying the feline faunus greatly of his painful condition.
The raven haired faunus teen was going to say screw the spying and go over to help the ailing knight of JNPR, but soon enough she heard him speak again to himself.
"Calm yourself Jaune... Your better than this!" He told himself as Blake saw his body slowly start to even out. "Control...Control..."
His breathing started to go back to normal as his as his chest was slowly drawing breath in and out at a normal pace instead of the frantic supposed panic attack that Blake just witnessed seconds ago. His changing features were reverting back to their normal length in terms of hair and luster in terms of his eyes.
Though it definitely left her with one, big question that she wanted answered.
'What... in the hell...was that?' Blake couldn't help but be stunned into silence from whatever in Oum's name just happened in front of her.
"No...Not until you get into the forest Jaune... Then you can cut loose..." Reaching on the ground to pick up the book he picked out of the shelf, he put it back where they came from and quickly walked back towards the middle study area. "Just... be patient." She heard him say, hearing his footsteps getting louder towards where she was.
Despite spying on Jaune, Blake at least wanted to make sure he was ok, and decided to show herself and walked toward the blond in deep thought as he didn't pan his neck up to see her.
"Jaune?" His attention was now on the black haired bow girl, his blue eyes widening in surprise and jumped a little from the new visitor that just arrived.
"Blake!? Um... hi there!" The knight said.
"Hey..." Blake said lamely as her black bow twitched atop her head.
To say he was taken off guard was an understatement, Jaune was surprised to see someone in the library at this time of night, especially during the weekend!
But he had to admit if there was anyone that treated Beacon's sanctuary of literature as their second home, it was definitely RWBY's resident bookworm and novel enjoyer Blake Belladonna. The girl practically always had some kind of reading material on her person, so maybe it wouldn't be a surprise to see her hanging out here in the middle of sleeping hour.
"So... what are you do here?" Jaune said awkwardly.
"Oh you know... just... things..." Blake quick to answer his question.
"Smooth Blake... real smooth." She couldn't help but mentally facepalm from the failure of acting unsuspicious. "He'll surely buy that crappy excuse."
The silence that followed was as awkward as Ruby trying to give a motivational speech while half asleep. But the two couldn't really help it, they had barely interacted with each other, besides being with their teams respectively hanging out with each other. That was another change when Blake had returned from the Dock's incident during the semester.
Team JNPR was definitely more involved with Team RWBY, offering to play games with each other in each other's dorms, movie nights switching between different genres, board game nights that were fun at best and boring at worst, and other activities to become closer to their sister team.
While Ruby, Weiss, and Yang definitely bonded with one part of the team and interacted with the others.
Blake couldn't really say the same...
The one she talked to the most was Ren out of team JNPR, though it was mostly just small talk about how both of them destress when they have chaos in their daily lives, and their different hobbies like how the martial artist has a fascination of gardening.
With Pyrrha she had only a few words with her and that's about it.
And Nora... she was a little more inclined to give her a big berth of space, otherwise she could be victim of getting broken by one of her bone crushing hugs and her constant chatter of nonsense.
Yeah she was ok with keeping her distance thank you very much.
That just left Jaune. In her opinion she thought that he would just be a somewhat nerdy blond guy that just had a thing for comics like Ruby, with an unhealthy affection of her teammate Weiss and one of the worst fighters here in Beacon.
Blake just thought the knight of the team would just be another face in the crowd, a person that would fade into the background.
Well... she that about him at the start of the semester, but now he was a bit more grounded in his abilities, a bit more confident in his surprising combat skills thanks to his partner Pyrrha training him up, and Blake seemed to notice the decline of flirting with Weiss as time went on during the school year.
'Maybe he got the hint...' Blake thought, which was actually a shame because he seemed be a nice kind of guy as he had stood up for people that were being bullied whether they were humans or faunus as shown in the cafeteria one day, sticking up for Velvet when Cardin was picking on her.
This Jaune was definitely different from the one she had met in initiation, as she couldn't help but look at his broad shoulders and his developing arm muscles for a second.
"Lake..." She finally heard him say, shaking her head from the sudden fatigue.
"Wha..."
"Blake!" She suddenly focused back to the suddenly concerned looking blond.
"Huh..."
"Are you ok?" The blond questioned. "You zoned out there for a little bit."
"Yeah... Yeah I'm fine, just a little tired." Another small yawn came out of her mouth, her eyelids felt very heavy and couldn't help but rapidly blink just to stay awake right now.
Yeah she was definitely really tired right now, and while she wanted to continue searching for more leads for on the White Fang, there just wasn't any leads right now and she was at a dead end.
Unfortunately another problem reared its ugly head.
The awkwardness between the two huntsmen in training was back in full force, luckily Jaune was quicker on the ball this time.
"So...What are you doing here this late at night in the library?" He couldn't help but ask a second time.
She heard the nervousness in his tone, his eyes looking left and right instead of straight at her for a few seconds before coming back to her yellow eyes for his full attention on her.
But this time Blake had an excuse that didn't involve telling one of her distant friends that she was spying on his little... spasm episode that he had a few seconds ago.
"Oh... I was just reading this new book I've gotten into." In her usual monotone voice. She didn't need to tip him off and have the blond figure out that she was listening in on him. The dialogue he had with himself seemed to be personal and definitely private from how the way sounded it sounded to her.
Its similar what she's also going through with the White Fang. Blake definitely didn't want him sticking his nose in her personal business with the terrorist organization. Hell, she didn't want to get anyone involved that had nothing to do with her past.
Especially her new friends and teammates, none of them had any personal business with the White Fang and frankly Blake wanted to keep it that way as it felt that the responsibility fell on her shoulders since she had been with them ever since she was born.
"I gotten so into the story that I lost track of time. Sometimes that happens when I quite enjoy a new book series." She technically wasn't wrong about that statement.
In fact she remembered when she finally got her hands on the second volume of Ninja's of Love when she younger.
The first day she had it, she already more than half way through the wonderful book and only gotten two hours of sleep that day.
'Definitely one of the better memories of my childhood.' She thought, but now it was her turn to ask the dreaded question.
"So... why are you up so late?" Blake countered.
"Well... you know..." Jaune chuckled out awkwardly.
"Uh... no I don't, but please enlighten me." Saying with hint of teasing, which mad Jaune's cheeks a little red from embarrassment.
"Heh... fell right into that one." He chuckled out, scratching
"Alright, so the truth is that I'm trying to get ahead of the game with Oobleck's pop quizzes. They always catch me by surprise, but this time I want to prepared so I am trying to look ahead into future material that we are gonna cover so I can be ready for the surprise quiz on Monday." The blond explained to the B of RWBY.
The raven haired girl couldn't help but let out an explosive sigh. "Please don't remind me..." Blake said with exasperation. While she didn't mind the class as it talked about history of Remnant, especially when they talked about Faunus history. The way he teaches and the work he gives to the class left much to be desired in Blake's opinion.
While he was no Goodwitch, he was definitely a stickler for class work, and those came into play with those dreaded beginning of the week pop quizzes.
"So right now I'm looking for books that could help me get an edge up right now, but unfortunately I've been having no luck so far finding the right material to study with."
She couldn't help but let out a groan, while she knew that he was lying somewhat about studying. Blake couldn't help the frown that marred her face, Oobleck was definitely a strict teacher and he really needed to chill out.
Because while she did excel at his class, thanks to her knowledge and knowhow of the Faunus Revolution and other history related topics that involved her people, she was one of the better students in Oobleck's class. While others struggled to keep up thanks to the ridiculous workload he put on their plates as first years, but also because of some of the bizarre assignments that he required to be done.
Not to mention his unorthodox teaching style can definitely led students astray thanks to his rapid motormouth.
"Do you need any help finding the study material? We are learning about Faunus Battlegrounds during the Faunus Revolution next week." She wanted to at least be nice for a change instead of causing some strife or arguments, might as well try and help someone out for a change. "I could point out what books could help you in the subject."
"Thanks for your concern Blake, but I think I'll be ok on my own." Jaune said with a small smile toward the faunus girl.
"You sure?"
"Positive." Jaune reaffirmed.
Blake was still skeptical about his answer. She knows that he isn't looking for study books for Oobleck, but the faunus girl at least wanted to help him or figure what was wrong without prying into his issue.
"Alright, the offer for help is still open if you want some help."
"And again I thank you for offering, but I think I'm going to keep looking in a different set of shelves to find those history books." Jaune said. "As a leader I gotta set an example for team JNPR you know?" He said proudly.
Honestly she didn't understand the whole pride thing with him, but she definitely could respect his work ethic and will to be better for his team.
"Well... I'll leave you to it then." Blake said, after that she couldn't help but stretch her arms above her head and let out a third, big yawn. Her eyes starting to feel heavy once again as she tried to look at the knight, this time her eyes becoming half lidded and trying to stay awake.
"You should probably get some rest. You look absolutely exhausted." The knight chuckled out.
"Yeah... yeah your right." The raven haired faunus girl agreed. "I think I will head back to the dorms for some sleep." She went to turn around to head out of the library doors, but now before turning around to look at the blond with a small smile on her face.
"Goodnight Blake."
"Goodnight Jaune. Don't stay up too late now otherwise Pyrrha will be worrying up a storm." Blake said with some mirth.
"Don't I know it." He chuckled out as Blake was starting to leave, however as she was leaving through the double doors she couldn't help but hear Jaune's final words before she heard the doors close.
"I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me... especially my friends."
Blake couldn't believe this was happening right now. She wanted to believe that this was some cruel prank, like the gods were playing tricks on her.
But right now... she didn't feel like this was joke at all.
It felt real.
She could hear the sound of her own breath. Panting as she continued to run into the dark forest, the pounding of her feet made audible as she continued her desperate sprint to escape.
Blake couldn't stop... not when she felt his presence all around her, eyes frantic in search of her target.
The girl was constantly on the move. Trying to save her own skin from the desperate situation she found herself in.
Dilated yellow pupils was looking all around the forest, seeing nothing but a sea of wooden trees following her everywhere she ran, no matter how far. The sky at the moment was light red and the broken moon a dark crimson shade if she decided to look up. Like an oozing wound filled with fresh blood.
But she had no time for any sightseeing, stopping and looking around would be fatal to her at this current time.
Especially... with who was after at the moment.
"Beloved... You cannot run forever." Blake stopped for a second as she felt her walls closing in, her spine freezing in terror as she heard the voice echo all around her.
"Your betrayal will cost you dearly... A price that you will pay soon..."
She couldn't believe that he already found her, Blake convinced herself that she was safe from him for now, that going to Beacon would protect her from the nightmare that sought to take everything away from her.
She thought she'd have more time. More time to stay hidden away from her past mistakes.
But in reality... it was only a matter of time before they caught up with her.
Before He...caught up with her.
This forest... it was like an endless prison. Keeping her here until her worst fear caught up with her to deliver her divine punishment, something that the White Fang had been doing all along...
Now that she was no longer with them, a traitor in fact. Her end will be twice as painful as their leader had no tolerance for betrayers like her.
"You know what the punishment is for betraying us for those filthy humans are don't you? You are aware of what we do to traitors don't you beloved?"
All she could think to do was to run as she saw the image of her demise show itself behind her in the distance.
The image of a man that had a white colored mask with two slitted openings and red accents across the accessory, dark red hair with black horns adorning the top of his head, and his weapon of choice was a blood red katana sword firmly gripped in their hand, but the rest of his form was shrouded in shadows.
But Blake didn't need to know the rest, as she is familiar with the horrible monster that takes this shape.
The shape of Adam Taurus.
"Your penance shall be paid in blood Blake." The implication made her own blood in her body freeze. "Judgement will be cast on you and all that you care about for your betrayal."
She knew of this nightmare plenty of times, she couldn't help the scream that left her throat, her body feeling that was the natural reaction to her fear made manifest before her very eyes.
Blake has been having this nightmare for so long, and she couldn't help but do one thing when this fear came to her, something that she has been familiar with ever since she was a little girl.
She needed to run...
The girl continued her frantic escape, her legs felt numb as her body was on high alert, the hair on her skin raised in caution as she felt like she was on borrowed time. Whispers of the words 'traitor', 'liar', and 'coward' were sung by the now dark blue trees as they warped into something sinister. Faces of old comrades from the White Fang appeared to them, expressions of anger, agony, and sadness were upon them.
"You cannot run forever my sweet Belladonna, soon you will find your end."
"Stop!" Blake cried out, tears forming her eyes as she was frightened beyond all belief, her past coming back to haunt her as she knew would happen eventually.
She just thought she had more time...
"You were always on borrowed time Blake. Why continue this old song and dance when we know how this will end."
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" She shouted in desperation. Her yellow eyes full of fear and panic as she was starting to hyperventilate, running until she could see no trace of the shadowy form of Adam, his laughing voice echoing all around her to taunt the feline faunus.
Finally, after what felt like forever and now that she couldn't see the shadow of death stalking her. Blake finally stopped as she came to a clearing with a circle of trees around her.
She finally had a chance to catch her breath for a second, after running what felt like running marathon in her mind. Blake was didn't see a trace of her once former mentor, and she was feeling better by not seeing his vile form.
It finally felt like she was at peace...
However... she noticed something that started to put the fear of the Brothers right back into her stomach.
She couldn't help but notice something felt wrong to her as she looked around the supposed safe forest clearing.
The sea of trees cut off anywhere she could run or escape to, like the forest closed around her, entrapping her like a caged rat. The only way to leave was the path that she used to escape her tormenter.
If finally clicked to the raven haired girl and conclusion terrified her.
Blake had nowhere to go.
"I...I have to..." She tried say, but her form couldn't get the words out as panic started to set in as she looked around the forest.
Her yellow eyes shrunk as she saw the vestiges of her friends on the faces of the oaken trees as well.
"No..." She said in a hopeless tone. Faces of her teammates Ruby, Weiss, and Yang were in front of her. Along with team JNPR as all of her friends faces of pain and agony were shown in front of her. She quickly went towards the trees of her teammates, her friends.
"Ruby..." Blake quickly touched the wooden face of her team leader.
"BLAKE HELP ME!" Her young leader pleaded with desperation as the cat faunus couldn't help but flinch back like she was burnt.
"No!" She went to touch the face again only for the tree to alight in flames.
"AHHHHHHH!" The girl screamed in painful agony as Blake could only watch with tears streaking down her guilty face, as she watched helplessly and listen to her team leaders fate.
"RUBY! NOOOOOO!" Blake now hearing the voice of Yang as she now wailed in agony, her tree now aflame as she couldn't help her sounds of sorrow.
"No! Stay away from me!" The raven haired girl couldn't believe that she heard Weiss beg for her life. "NO! Don't touch me, get your hands off of me! STOP!" The desperation of her voice broke Blake's heart as she was now screaming in pain.
Blake started to back away frantically, wanting to get away as she started to hear the screams and shouts of pain coming from the accursed evergreen bushes, the mixing voices of her friends pleading out for help, hoping that Blake would come and save them only for their own trees start lighting aflame as well.
But in doing so her back ran into another tree, she turned around to look only to look on horror on who she found staring back at her in a wooden silence.
The large oak had the faces of both her mother and father, Kali and Ghira Belladonna, faces of different expressions that shook her to the core. Her father's looked to be full of suffering like he was being harmed, her mother's had the look of anguish and almost looked to be crying out in desperation.
Tears started to fall down her face in droves as she shook her head rapidly. "No...NO!" She couldn't help the cry that escaped her lips as she started sobbing, repeating the dreaded word like a mantra as the girl watched everyone that she knew and love burn into ashes.
All because of her...
"You see what happens when you betray your own Blake." The girl gasped out as she heard the voice of Adam right behind her. "When you betray me... The one's you know and love suffer the consequences the most." Her head quickly snapped to look behind her to see the shadowy figure of the bull faunus near her.
"Stay the hell away from me!" Blake yelled in fear as she quickly tried to back away from Adam.
No... this wasn't Adam anymore.
The Adam she used to know was long gone now, the Adam that used to inspire her of a better world for Faunus, a better tomorrow for all parties involved was long dead.
This...monster took the form of his skin, acting like him, stringing him along like a puppeteer in some sick, twisted play.
To him violence and death was his answer, hatred and spite towards humans was his motivation, the blood and body of humans was his foundation for Faunus kind, using them as building blocks to create a new Remnant.
A Remnant could never accept or want to bear witness to...
'Adam' continued to come towards her, his shadowy form growing more monstrous as his form started changing to that of a beastly Beowolf.
"Now... You must pay your own price beloved..." She had no weapon to defend herself and couldn't activate her Semblance to protect herself. With nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, the creature corned her into the large oaken tree of her parents.
The monster barred its sharp, jagged fangs towards the defenseless faunus girl, the screams and shouts of pain all around her as she curled up into a ball to try and protect herself.
"For the good of Faunus kind and your betrayal... I now carry out your punishment!" The monster roared out, the shadowy wolf of Adam pouncing towards her prone form.
Blake could only let out a final scream of terror.
Blake Belladonna sat up gasping out as she woke up from the horrible nightmare that plagued her dreams.
Her panting form looked around the dorm, noticing that none of her teammates stirred from her waking up from her outburst. Blake looked up to see Ruby was tucked in normally from the bunk beds that they had created when they first moved in the dorms. Weiss was wrapped up like a comfortable cocoon, almost looking like a human burrito.
Then Blake saw the foot of her partner hanging off, the light snoring of Yang sounding quite loud to the cat faunus.
Seems like all of her teammates were heavy sleepers.
She looked outside the window noticing that night was still shrouded across Beacon. She wiped some sweat off of her face as she felt really hot in the chilly confines of her team's room. Her nervous sweat starting to make her yukata feel a bit uncomfortable.
Well... that and the thick blanket covering her probably wasn't helping her sweating issue.
With that in mind she quickly kicked off the offending blanket and checked her scroll that was in her bed to see what time it was.
"3:00 AM." She only got two hours of sleep before the her mind filled with thoughts of her past, thoughts that wouldn't let go. Blake curled her legs toward her body and hugged tightly.
It didn't matter what she did those nightmares would continue no matter how many times she tried to sleep. There would be a few times she would have a dreamless sleep.
But most of the time, the night terrors would haunt her dreams, situations similar to the one she just experience would come to her when she tried to enter the land of dreams.
And every time the nightmares happened... Adam was there.
While this time it was different as his form changed, it always ended the same way.
A horrifying end for her.
She couldn't help the light shuddering her form had, small sobbing had by the cat faunus as she tried to reassure herself, trying to find comfort in that kind of situation.
"He's... He's not here..." Shaking her head, whispering it like a mantra or prayer to keep a demon away from her. "He can't hurt you now..."
Blake would not find anymore sleep this night as she tried to stay awake and away from the nightmares that plagued her.
However... while wallowing in her own sorrow, the cat faunus couldn't help to hear the loud sound of a wolf's howl, the sound echoing through the night of the grounds of Beacon.
She shrugged it off as a Beowolf finding something to chew on or call its pack.
Little did she know that was far from the truth.
AND SCENE!
So how was that? I tried to go more into a horror/mystery feeling into this beginning part.
I hope I didn't make Blake into too much a coward here, I just wanted to give a sort of imagery of what she was going through. Thought that the Adam trauma and figure out his true nature would make her mind lead into certain nightmare scenarios. Of course she isn't that big of a coward later on, this is the in between of Volume 1 and 2.
Like I said, I wanted a sort of horror element to this and at first this was just going to feel like a mystery, but I wanted it to feel like having horror elements to it and a bit of Hurt and Comfort and Romance later on.
Basically this going to be a fun mixed bag if you want to continue reading it.
Also bare in mind, this story will probably be only for the month of October as I still have projects I need to update, so that's why I am doing this first chapter now, and will most likely post it now in the preparations of October.
Though I do hope you'll like this, I know it feels a bit corny to make a sort of AU like this, but I think certain alternate universe shenanigans are fun concepts to write out! Especially for what I have coming up later on in this story.
So with that being said... did you enjoy the firs chapter? Was it good? Was it bad? Did it need more substance for a first chapter? You let me know in the comments or by via my DM messages on Fanfiction.
Follow, Favorite, and Comment if you want to leave some feedback, that would be appreciative to me as I try to improve as a writer in general.
If you have any questions for me, comment and PM me and I will try to get back to them as soon as I am available.
But with that, I will leave you off and see y'all in the next chapter.
This is Irongiant9000 and I'm signing off!
Have a good everyone!
Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Insomnia Issues