Context for the story: Adam is around 45-50 years old, never before in his life formally met any of the Belladonnas, Ghira is not the chief of the faunus or founder of WF and never was. Blake still is a huntress-in-training at Beacon and a faunus, she was a member of WF, but not a high enough rank to meet, talk or work with Adam. Adam fought in the faunus revolution, this is a fact that is said in this short so I'm just repeating myself here for gods know why.
Location: Vale, Beacon Academy.
The crunching of shattered glass beneath black boots could be heard as a red-haired man walked through a damaged building distant sounds of grimm snarls and human, probably faunus included, shouts screams for help protection, bullet sounds and metal against grimm flesh carving sounds could be faintly heard before they were drowned out by the sound of fires burning inside this building. The man seemed to be unaffected by all that as he continued to walk.
The man walking wore a weathered maroon long coat, beneath it was a black shirt with red metal buttons that had small black roses painted on them, this man's choice of pants was black jeans, at his side attached to his belt hung a blade in its sheet one akin to a Japanese katana. But the most prominent feature of this man was the white mask that was worn over the eyes of his, hiding them and most of the upper part of his face.
His lips were tightened into a thin line and most of his being portrayed the emotions of anger, but today should have been a joyous occasion for him and for the White fang that he led, after today no kingdom would dare or have the power to stand in the way of theirs if the witch did not lie about what today would lead to for the future of all the kingdoms. Even if to accomplish all of this he had to serve the machinations of a red hag with her posse and who ever she served, he would make their plans serve to his purposes and help him accomplish the wish he and all that fallow him share.
A soldier belonging to Atlas Military stumbled into the same building as the masked man, the moment this soldier saw the other man he raised his rifle at him. The though that went through the red-hairs head were finally a good distraction from his other thoughts. As he sprinted the soldier opened fire, unsheathing his sword, which had a red single edged blade. Each bullet fired by the soldier was blocked with ease and precision as the distance between the two men got smaller and smaller.
In a half a second the dark dressed man was in the face of the soldier delivering a slash that knocked out the rifle out of his hands. This was fallowed up by a leg sweep that sent the Atlessian falling onto the ruble. Hitting the ground hard, it appeared he was quite disorientated. Not in a hurry the red blade wielding man walked over to the soldier and loomed over the fallen man raising his blade to stab down upon the fallen foe.
This was interrupted by the fact that the masked man needing to block bullets fired at him by a black-haired girl that had amber eyes, on her hair she wore a bow, and the main colors of her wardrobe was black and white.
Switching targets from the soldier the man closed in onto the girl. To his surprise she was fast enough to shift her weapon to sword form, to meet his incoming blade. Her eyes looked at his mask with anger and a question arose from the girl mouth, while their swords clashed.
"Adam Taurus, answer me how does this attack help the faunus? How can you allow such an atroci-"
A kick to the stomach by the man she called Adam sent her sliding back.
Adam was not surprised that his name was spoken many knew of him as he was the leader of the White fang. He had been in it from the day it had been formed two years after the faunus revolution, till this day.
"That doesn't conserve you human. I do not need to justify my actions to the likes of you." This was said by Adam in a harsh and gruff voice.
The girl and Adam now where walking in a circle facing each other.
"I am not human. I am a faunus and my name is Blake." The girl said as the bow she wore twitched. The girl could tell that with the slight raise of his head Adam looked at her bow for a few seconds the girl wanted to take advantage of this distraction, but the instinct at the back of her head told her that would only lead to death, so she understood that all she could do is wait be defensive and prolong the fight. That was the only way for her to win, live and to save that soldier.
"Do forgive me for presuming you of being the same filth that the humans are." He spoke in a genuinely apologetic tone. "But my statement still stands child, I do not need to explain myself to some nobody." He slashed at the young huntress. Rather than hitting her, as his sword should have hit her, she turned into a shadow that disappeared into nothingness and bullets rained down upon him from his right side. Two shots to Adam surprise actually hit him, annoyance filled his mind as he blocked the rest, he was going to easy one the young one before him just because she was a faunus.
"I still remember as a child all the tales back in at the dust mines the faunus spoke about you. They spoke of you as hero-" she dodged another slash of his with the help of her semblance. "-not some murder hungry lunatic…"
The girl continued to speak, but all her words went unheard by him while they fought as memories of what lead him to the choices made flooded back to him. Before the war the time from birth that he spent in the mines as a slave, the beatings, the pain, the deaths, the brand, his survival and freedom when he with all the other slaves freed themselves.
Then by his own kind at the age of 15 he was thrown as a soldier into a revolution, to war, drafted as no one would care for the death of an orphan from the mines that had no family and again the cycle of his life repeated battles, injuries, pain, death, scars fallowed him, 10 years of this. He rose in rank in the faunus army by the end becoming the acting commander of the whole faunus force, the only ones with higher authority than his where the tribal chiefs that led the free faunus since before the war, all faunus knew his name, all human soldiers feared his name.
But the five years of war came to and end, the tribal chiefs brokered a peace between them and humans, he still could vividly remember the meal he was forced to attend after peace was achieved to sit at the same table as the ones that killed his friends, men and woman he led. Oh the detest the humans held towards them and the fake smiles they hid behind, all the pretending and how the chiefs made him do the same as the hero of the faunus they told him that was what he had to do smile, shake their hands eat food at the same table, it disgusted him. He voiced his anger to the chiefs who told him to shut up, not to ruin this.
He was forced to be something he wasn't and he tried to be that, he tried to pretend the humans now where their friend all was well that there were no hidden daggers, he thought that was what he had to do for the faunus. After all this his reward was engagement to one of the ten chiefs daughter, as he was of unknown origin and not born into any of the chieftains bloodlines, he was engaged to the chieftains that held the least power daughter, one that was never expected to ascend to any power.
From the peace agreement we got an island all free faunus that could, including him moved to there. One chieftain out of the ten was elected to rule, life should have been good after that. But to keep appearances of humans holding faunus as equals he as the hero of the war and his soon to be wife, were paraded across the kingdoms, dinners with leaders of the kingdoms, important politicians all he had to do was smile, shake their hands, pretend to be happy. The assassination attempts that fallowed the travels of his, how he was forced to not kill his assailants so not to cause an incident.
Finally, one day when his hand slipped and he failed to stop himself from accidentally killing one of the attackers that aimed to kill his fiancé, the judging eyes that fallowed not by the humans, but by his own kind and how she called him a monster for doing that, he still could vividly hear his own laughter after she said that, the question is his head 'what then was he suppose to do? Let them kill her?'. That was the day he left the emissaries and was soon excommunicated by the then elected and ruling faunus chieftain.
Not having a place to return only having his weapon and the clothes he wore he did the only thing he knew how to do, it did help that the humans failed to fulfill their promises in making all faunus free and equal citizens. As one man he started freeing faunus all around Remnant, as this continued soon some started to fallow him, and he started teaching them how to fight, a name was decided by the group and a symbol what to identify them as was chosen. They again tried not to kill, but still anger at their actions in the general public arose, slip ups would happen someone would die, Adam would be dammed if he allowed that to be those that fallowed him, soon even those that they freed would begin to look at them as monsters and call them such things as terrorist's, even when he took bullets for them, when he saved them from the humans, from death. He tried to appease them all, he did what they told him to do to be better than the humans to be peaceful, but still they were beasts to other, nothing would satisfy those people, they would always find problems in what he does. He was tired of it all.
"-you still can do better you don't need to be a monster, so please stop this al-" The girl speech was cut off by Adam as he finally spoke after keeping quiet for so long.
"You know I am tired of people telling me what to do, who to be. I'm sick of it, all my life I tried to be what they told me to be, but it was never enough. I tried to listen, I fallowed the laws they put out, but there was always a fault they found with me, no matter what I do, the bullets I take for all of them, the life I save no one will ever be grateful for it, to them I will always by a criminal, a murderer, an insane person. But I want to thank all those people for helping me understand, even if it took me way too long to understand it, that none of the ungrateful masses deserve my mercy, my compassion."
Blake stumbled back as Adam attacks went from being passive, too fast and aggressive.
"So, you do all this just for revenge for the fact people did not revere you as a hero!" Blake went in for a stab, but Adam completely forsaking his defense allowed the attack to hit, while he backhanded her this shattering her aura, she fell to the ground her weapon falling out her hands, landing somewhere in the rubble.
"No. I do not care what people see me as, maybe in my youthful days I did, but now I don't. All that is care for now is fixing the world. But you see Blake many people want the same the simple citizens of the kingdoms, the law enforcement, the politician of the kingdoms, their leaders and I guess you already should know the huntsman. All of them want to make the world a better place, but you know what they don't want…" He loomed over her standing quiet for a few seconds, but no answer came from Blake, so he continued. "they don't want the world to change, they believe they brought peace to this world by keeping the status quo. Truth is all they did is stagnate it by not allowing in to continue changing, evolving."
"You are killing people, you brought grimm to Vale, how can you possible be thinking this is helping the world?" Blake still on the ground said as she struggled to get up, while glaring at the terrible mask of his.
"It is." He looked at her eyes and saw the anger of hers, he knew she would never understand him, but he still went on explaining, he did need to do that he could have ended it right here right now with a simple stab, maybe to some part this was done to help convince himself more. "Yes, change more often than not is painful, but you girl should know that, more than others seeing as you are a faunus like myself, the world is cold it does not care and if you want to bring change to such a world you have to become as cold as it is. Change will always be not wanted, why change something when you are already used to the old way, so people will go against it, I understand that. I know for a fact others won't, that is why the people hated me even when I saved them I brought change I was willing to change, they are not. So, I must make the sacrifice and force the world to change." He brought his blade up preparing to stab the Blake. The sound of a shotgun fired was heard, as Adam jumped and blocked another shot.
"Blake!" The new girl called out as she ran into the room. It was apparent those two knew each other. A chuckle left Adams mouth as he shuck his head, he spent too long on this, he thought while looking at his red blade that still had some flames stuck to it, probably from the fire dust the other girl used in her ammunition.
"You had me monologuing." A full-blown laugh escaped his lips. "Clever girl, but do you really think this will be enough to stop me." Was said while he looked at the black-haired girl, rather than she answer the other one spoke as her eyes turned from lilac purple to red.
"Oh I'm more than enough to handle an old timer like you." The girl jumped towards him, which was not a smart move Adam noted.
"Yang, no!" The other smarter girl, Blake, shouted out, but it was to late.
Adam felt his scroll ringing in his pocket, he spent too long on this already if his men were contacting him it was time to end this. He smiled as the red on him glowed and all other colors started getting darker on and around him. He moved forward, at the start his sword was aimed such that it would cut her in half and end the yellow girls, that the other called Yang, life, but he changed it at the last moment, he already showed a lot of mercy in this fight so he thought might as well continue to do so, as his semblance turned the world dark and the brawlers arm was disconnected from her body by the red slash, she fell to the ground. Blake that had finally recovered from having her aura broke, ran to Yangs side running past him. Adam did not stop her, as started to pull out his scroll, he ignored as they ran away Blake carrying the unconscious Yang. He answered the scroll.
"I'm listening, report."
"Sir, in the chaos we managed to get Banesaw and the others captured during the Breach out." A hum of acknowledgement from Adam fallowed this statement. "And it appears that the human witch has gotten to her objective and finished her goal."
"Did any of our men saw or find out what her goal was."
"No sir. What about you?" Adam looked down at the severed hand of the girl slowly turning to black rose petals near him on the ground.
"No. I got my hand tied here and failed to reach the Witch in time to see what she is needing in that basement." He said while kicking the arm.
"What now sir?"
"It doesn't matter. We accomplished our main goal, finding out what those human womans goals are would have been the icing on the cake. From what she spoke our partnership will continued for a while more, we will have time to uncover all their secrets in due time. Get the bullheads to come and gather our men, we are done here." He cut down a creep grimm that attempted to jump on him.
"We are leaving sir?"
"Yes. Send the coordinates of the closest bullhead to me I'll be boarding it too."
"Understood." The call ended as Adam calmly walked out of the building and on his scroll received the cords to the bullhead. He did not meat much resistance on his way to it and all the White fang successfully.
Authors note: Apologies to Yangs arm. Yes this Adam was inspired by Ultron, the Avengers movie version to be precise. I don't have anything more to add so thank you all for reading and hope to have you all again here when the next story related or unrelated to this one drops.