Ch 4: Ouroboros

Cold cell walls surrounded the halls. Her blue eyes looked around, pale lavender hair draped in a mess down her skin and hiding her tired face as she leaned back against a stone wall. On the other side, identical blues stared through their own curtain of slate. A few other cells led people in similar states from human to faunus. Her soft lilac shade ears twitched, "Mauve…"

She heard her brother stirring on the other side of the wall, his own ears twitched, "Amm…"

She plucked at her dirty clothes. Nothing great had happened to them but nothing bad really either. Of course information had been attempted to be beaten from them but as far as she could tell, neither of them or any of the few other captives had said anything so far judging by the way the snake was still trying to squeeze them. After a while, she realized she said nothing and didn't want to worry him, speaking her own concerns out loud, "I hope she stays away… I'm actually worried she could get hurt here…"

Mauve smirked. Mao, his sister's secret girlfriend. Well, not much of a secret but they didn't really want to tell people for reasons he wasn't sure. That cat was strong and Amethyst never worried about her. In their near four years at Beacon Mauve had seen his sister not even give a second glance when that blonde cat rushed into serious danger, confident she would be fine. But this situation was different. They had come into it thinking it was so much smaller than it was until it was too late and they were discovered by that damn wolf with the pale eyes.

The organization was huge, much much larger than any of their intel thought. While the ideals weren't aligned with the old White Fang, many members found the old Adam Taurus an inspiration. A lot of members used to be part of sects inspired by him that managed to get away before those were busted. The siamese cat twins had not seen any signs that this organization was torturing anyone like those sects but that made them more dangerous in their opinion. They were easily swaying faunus in with security.

Mistral was a good place to hide too. Here, many faunus could be found who were products of abandonment or mistreatment from the old ideals, this new organization rising up under a very venomous, very head strong snake who was introducing new ideals to the old ways, rescuing teens from oppressed households with promises of safety. But the truth still remained: they were thieves. They were criminals. They hurt people who didn't agree. Faunus across Anime who were more heavy handed about the old ways were going missing. Humans who hated faunus or agreed with old faunus culture were also showing up injured or robbed. Faunus who had hurt younger faunus with their culture were nowhere to be found inside or outside the organization, the twins no closer to having ever discovered that truth either before getting caught.

If those faunus were ok, they had no idea where. From what they gathered, everyone in the cells were people who stood up against the situation, either agents, Huntsmen or just citizens. The leader was trying to find out who was sending everyone but so far no one had talked. Mauve sighed, eyes roaming across cells. Other than painful beatings, no one was injured with anything severe.

He was beginning to regret always admiring Bao from afar, never telling the cat his own feelings, generally scared off unsure if Bao would even like men or worried there was some bigger reason their sisters stayed secret but now he wished he had said so in case he was stuck here forever, hope already drained from most the prisoners. He felt a bit envious of his sister to have someone coming to save you even if it was a foolish idea, "none of us knew just how bad all of this was. It is so far out of hand and we have no way to tell anyone in time."

It caused Amethyst's teeth to grit, reaching to rub the mate mark in the curve where her neck met her shoulder, a defeated weak smile on her face, "She's totally going to show up isn't she?"

He didn't answer but she didn't need him to in order to know the truth, eyes watering, "dammit Mao…"

It was quiet for a while before her brother spoke again, "Why is it you two hide everything anyway? I know she marked you… have you marked her yet?"

She didn't say anything for a moment but she did growl a warning at him at first, a crass chuckle leaving her, "Do you know how many people look down on faunus alphas who date other alphas? And how many more hate bonded alphas? Look around you Mauve. This entire mess is because of how messed up faunus are. And let's not even start to discuss the mess we can't seem to navigate yet in our heats! We have yet to figure that one out and until we do, being a bonded pair seems a bit of a rush don't you think?"

He sighed. He had watched the two tip toe around each other for years and listened to her feelings but when the women finally grew closer a little over a year ago he thought maybe things got easier, though she wasn't wrong. He was sure his own feelings would be ignored as another alpha and another male when it came to Bao so he had chosen to ignore them and hide them and he had hid them well, "So then why be marked at all?"

He heard her take a deep breath and let it out, hearing it shake, "Because… I love her. Why else?"

A chuckle came from down the hall as the snake came into view, Amethyst frowning with a hiss as those light eyes watched her, "it really is a shame you refuse to see things our way. You and your mate would be so openly welcome here you know. I am curious though, for someone so concerned about her, to not be a bonded pair…tut tut. How can you be sure she really even is as dedicated to you as you are to her?"

Amethyst shot to her feet, ears folded back aggressively as her inner beast growled out through her, her intense energy swelling out, especially when she felt the snake flinch for even a second, gripping the bars tightly and baring her teeth, "don't you dare speak of her! We would never become foul like the likes of you!"

The snake just grinned darkly, "You know… it's so interesting how all you alphas always think you can just command everyone around you just because you exist. I used to cave too once. But you know what I learned?"

She leaned closer, eyes gleaming with a taunt, her own teeth showing in her grin, fangs expanding fully, dripping venom, "Put an alpha in a cage and suddenly they are as intimidating as a mouse."

Amethyst lashed out but the snake stepped back smoothly out of her reach with a dark laugh, the silver eared wolf coming down the hall with a large muscular woman, the snake never looking away from the caged Amethyst as she spoke, "Ah Rena, take that one. He'll do nicely. It's time we try something new. One of these people will tell me what I want to know even if I have to take more….drastic measures…"

Lux's ears seemed to lower as he listened, the gorilla faunus opening a cell across the hall from Amethyst's and yanking out a protesting pleading man, human and tired with more bruises and wounds than either of the Siam twins. Amethyst's hands were gaining a white knuckled grip on the bars watching the large faunus dragging him kicking and screaming as the snake followed, turning back to Lux who was staring blankly in the cat's direction oddly, ears flicking at her deep growl, "Come now Lux dear, I'll need you to be sure he doesn't lie."

His head turned her way a moment with a nod before giving Amethyst one last glance, voice flat and quiet, "You shouldn't challenge her… she hates when alphas do that…"

The snake called him again and he turned, hurrying along. When he moved quickly past Amethyst's cell and the air pushed a scent off him, she blinked, stunned a bit with her eyes widening, her ears falling as a familiar enough though faint scent of Azure stoked off him briefly, "… oh no…"

—-

In a room with only a single light above a metal chair covered in chains, Rena strapped the man into the chair tight, punching him in the jaw hard when he wouldn't stop shouting for mercy. The snake followed into the room with Lux close behind though he was a bit confused. The leader usually was around for the questioning but there was rarely ever a cart of odd instruments in the room. His eyes shimmered pale blue, his semblance using his sense of hearing to allow him to see as the gray scaled three dimensional shapes formed like echos around every little noise in the room.

The snake walked over to the cart, grabbing for a tube before holding it up for the man to see, twisting it slowly in her fingers not looking at him, "Do you know what kind of venom the black mamba has?"

It wasn't a real question, the man squirming as she raised the tube closer to her face, not really waiting for an answer, her cold voice so calm it was frightening, "It's different then most snakes really. It's more of a neurotoxin. In one bite, more than a lethal dose can be administered and symptoms can begin as soon as ten minutes. Sometimes, you won't even know you have been injected until it's far too late as it creeps into your neurological functions, making you tingle all over, you struggle to swallow or breathe as your respiratory system shuts down, your body gets tired and your voluntary movement stops responding and in time, you suffer vertigo, vomiting, dizziness, all until you collapse to respiratory failure and stop breathing, than your heart fails and you die. No necrosis, no enzymes, just your brain failing you as it betrays you."

He was shaking, squirming as her scales shimmered under the light and she opened her mouth, eyes staring him down in a cold gaze unwavering as her fangs unfolded and she released venom into the tube in a copious amount. Her hand reached for a syringe and drew the toxin into it before setting the tube down empty and approaching him with the venom in hand, leaning close as Rena held him still, exposing his neck where a vein was pulsing in his fear, "Since trying regular…persuasions don't seem to work, let's see if you can tell me some answers in the ten minutes it takes before you begin to lose your senses, alright? Maybe, if I get the information I want, I'll give you the antivenom, hm?"

Lux bit his lip. This was intense but he believed in her, she was family when he had no other. She had never harmed him. He was convinced she would give it to him either way as he tried not to be on edge, ears folding tight and eyes squeezing shut at the sound of the man's terrified pleading and shouting as the snake injected the mamba venom into his vein.

The man was clearly in discomfort, trying his best to give her the answers she wanted but he was one of the prisoners who wasn't part of any sort of agency or a Huntsman. He had just been a townsman doing what he had thought was right at the time when he stood against the group, Ouroboros, and was taken captive. Lux could hear the slight fuzziness starting in his voice as his tongue was begging numb and could tell there was desperation in him, "Lyra… he's telling the truth… he doesn't know anything… give him the antivenom and let's move on?"

But when her eyes turned to him, he felt nervous. Something wasn't right. She approached him, ruffling his hair gently, "Thanks so much my dear. I'll get him taken care of. Now why don't you run along? You have to go train so you don't fail again to that rabbit right? We'll get this finished up here."

It wasn't a request. He knew that well. With a final glance at the man, Lux just nodded, willing himself to trust her. Once he left, Lyra turned with dark eyes to Rena and the man who was stressed, "Now… where were we?"

—-

Lux couldn't concentrate on training, and he definitely couldn't keep taking a beating from other scouts and recruiters who were training with him every time his brain wandered. One of his peers stopped after knocking him flat with a whipped swipe of her long iguana tail, clicking her tongue and leaning over him, "Geez Lux, you are awful today what gives?"

A groan left his voice as he laid there, reaching to cover his eyes so the bright lights would stop messing up his sight, his ears flicking to take in all the noises of the other youths in the room as the instructor walked around checking on some of the other newer members and their lessons. His sparring partner was a longer time member that generally was able to keep up with him, though a bit older than him, and was his partnered recruitment officer. Every scout worked with one to keep eyes out for them when they worked and protect the cause so training with your officer was generally essential.

At first he didn't bother to get up. Laying here, with his jacket scrunched close to his face, he coils faintly smell the cat on it and it was zapping any and all of his will power to do anything other than think about her in this moment. The way his chest suddenly sunk and ached hurt so much more than the wind being knocked out of him when he hit the ground earlier. Even with air back in his lungs he still felt a suffocating weight pressing on him that only made him feel a deep misery, but the way her memory reminded him of something so amazing and vivid was helping ease his mind of what he had seen Lyra do to that man today.

With eyes closed he could see her shape perfectly, letting her image calm his mind fully. His hands took in his jacket and lifted it closer to his face a bit, breathing in deeply as subtly as he could. While it hurt deeply to feel the void inside from her scent without her presence, the way it soothed his stress was more than worth it. The calm rolling over him briefly before any sorrow returned was so delectable he could almost taste her lips and tongue again on his own. When River lifted him by a hand to his feet suddenly, startling him a bit from his trance, the fangs that had grown in his teeth scratched his lip, making him whine.

"Woah… Lux… are those… dude are those your mating fangs? What in the world is going on with you?" she asked, noticing the fangs as he was checking the small amount of blood and sting on his lip.

The term was something he had of course heard around the organization lots of times. Many members were faunus with mate marks who had been abandoned or were part of unflattering pairs, cast aside by the culture they resided in, but he had never really understood what having them himself was actually like. When they grew the first time was with the cat recently and he had been too enthralled to notice them, her alpha presence too intoxicatingly drowning his beast in a submissive pull that he had to focus to fight before he made any choices he would regret or drag her into a world she didn't belong in. He knew they had grown out but he just hadn't really consciously thought about it.

Now his mind raced with confusion and a bit of distress with intense longing in the background of every thought, pressing her image into his brain. What he knew about this was that they didn't grow until you made a deep connection with a mate or it was a heat based thing but she hadn't had any pheromones coming off her and other than an old memory and dreams, he didn't know her so how could she affect him so much?

"River… do inner beasts just… feel another beast like it's part of themselves even without a mark?" he was staring at the ground, rubbing those small fangs.

She looked at him with a frown, brows furrowed, "That… isn't how that works Lux. Come one that's crazy talk even a silly lil virgin loner like you should know that. Did you hit your head when I knocked you over or something? Maybe we should call it for today."

Lux just nodded, though what she was saying and what he was feeling were not making sense or adding up, "Yea… maybe you're right…"

He left the room and started for his room almost as if on autopilot and without any conscious awareness, crawling into his hammock when he got there and curling on his side, poking at the sharp fangs and clinging to the ache in his chest with his other hand, nails digging into his shirt over his heart as it pounded painfully, his inner beast practically crying. It was stressful and confusing and emotionally exhausting and miserable, feeling swallowed by blackness as his aura ran low and his semblance took all vision away when it ran out, closing his eyes and whimpering into the fabric around him. The softest whine left his lips, "Azure…"

—-

Mao was pacing in her inn room with Bao watching her, neither twin able to really roam freely in order to stay hidden. She was clearly restless. Bao knew why of course. His sister was stressed about Amethyst and about their sister and cousin being here. When she passed him again, his hand stretched out and stopped her gently, "Mao… you need to stop this. If you don't calm your mind you will end up putting her or us in more danger."

Her snarl was intense though Bao was never phased by any flex of her alpha, having been near any and all of her energies since the womb, not even flinching. When her anger showed tears, the stretched arm wrapped her and pulled her into an embrace quietly, just letting her get the stress out of her system.

She clung into him, whimpering, "Bao… what if we are too late… it's been so long since anyone has heard anything… what if we get there and just like all the others she's nowhere to be found? There's so much I still want to tell her Bao… do with her… give her… I miss her… I messed things up before she left and I need to fix them. I've never been scared about her safety before but I'm terrified…"

He just nodded, and listened. Mao was always more of a talker than he was but right now was more about helping ease her mind so hearing all that was on it first mattered. She went on to spill her worries about Autumn and Azure, getting a bit irritable about their sister before her mind was back on Amethyst again, "Bao I swear if something's happened to her… I don't know if I'll be able to do this…"

He leaned back, staring at her, "She is as capable as Mauve, and you, and myself and very strong, try to believe in her. Maybe if you weren't so stubborn and had her mark like she wanted before she left for this mission… you'd feel a lot more at ease with her abilities like she always does about yours?"

Mao looked away, her face riddled with regret, "I… wasn't ready. It's a big commitment especially if it makes us a bonded pair…"

He leaned on his hand, "And yet you marked her without even asking her fairly early in your relationship and she never really complained. No wonder she was so hurt and upset with you…"

Mao growled and got back up, her beast bristling with irritation and fatigue over the topic, "Yea… I… can't let her… I know she'll want to assert herself to do it and it keeps making me want to fight her."

Bao watched her for a bit before a chuckle left him, "I don't recall her being happy about the reverse but she got over it. You love her right?"

Mao was quiet for a bit, standing by the window and watching people outside, arms around herself, "So much it makes me crazy…"

"Well… then you'll figure it out. Maybe you should just let it happen after we get her home."

Mao needed to change the subject before her inner alpha exploded in its sense of dominant force and pride in refusal to bend, "Oh well what about Mauve huh? I know he likes you. You aren't dumb I know you've seen it."

Bao was quiet, humming in response and flicking his ears but never gave her more than a soft smile of acknowledgement, causing her to snarl and tackle him, "Bao you jerk! You aren't funny!"