Star Wars: Remnant Wars

EVE

Blake narrowed her gaze on her partner's back suspiciously. She didn't miss the tremble from Ruby when she knocked her out of her daze. The awkward rambling, they were all signs of a secret, a weariness. She grew ever more curious of what Ruby's backstory was. She had mentioned she was some soldier of a kind. Was she a Faunus hunter? A bandit hiding on the surface of a huntress job? The possibilities frightened her.

One thing she applauded Weiss and Yang for, despite her disdain for them, was that they were open books. But Ruby…..

Now, she once more realized she had a partner she couldn't get a read on. She knew she shouldn't pry, but she had to keep her guard up. She remembered painfully the last partner she had she misjudged.

3 Weeks ago…

On a train ride in Vale, two Grimm-masked bandits stood triumphantly over some shattered droids from Atlas bearing the Schnee dust logo on their burned chest-plates. One would think these two thieves would be proud of their handiwork. But one, a black cat Faunus, was filled to the brim with disappointment. They had all they needed before them, food and medicine for their brethren in the White Fang needed. To her, it was always fine. She prided herself and her group in not taking lives. They fought back against oppression, they changed minds through fear and made them respect Faunus. They did the right thing.

And Adam, the red-haired bull Faunus leading the charge, always stood by her side and urged her to see it this way. He trained her, helped her gain the skills needed to survive in the wilds and fight the Grimm and Human security guards she faced, having never before experienced, having grown up sheltered and spoiled by her parents till she grew sick of it. He unlocked her aura, instilled in her the thoughts of pride for their people beyond humanities foul mockery. She wanted more, the thrill of justice and violence for what she felt was right to fuel her. It usually brought a smile to her face.

But behind her mask, Blake's face winced in utter terror as she saw Adam soon raise Wilt the red sword and head toward the front of the train they were on, towards a cart filled with civilians.

"WHOA! Hold on a minute Adam. You use that now and the power will slash their heads off along with the brake." She protested.

Adam just uttered the words that frightened her to the core, emptying any righteousness she felt for their cause.

"Who cares?" He coldly said.

"A-Adam. You can't be serious? We just need supplies, it's not worth killing people over." She weakly protested.

Adam merely scoffed. "People? You actually think there on the same level as us? Don't you remember what I told you!?"

"I remember. We fight for what's right, to bring greatness to Faunus kind."

"And to do that, we need to snuff out the blights to our kind." Adam countered.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing from him. Her mentor, her friend had just callously disregarded those peoples lives, her eyes even caught a glimpse through the window of a girl with a teddy bear in her hands smiling innocently. He was gonna kill a kid?!

"But….But Adam. We can't-"

He grabbed her shirt and yanked her hard, her face wincing as she saw his seething gaze bare down on her, snarling as he grabbed Gambrol Shroud from her waist and placed it in her hand.

"If you don't want to betray me, betray our people, then SLIT THEIR THROATS COWARD!" He roared before shoving her back a bit.

Blake felt her hands tremble as she held her katanna, and saw his back turned. She felt it, the same temptation to kill as him.

"No….no I can't I…..could I?" She thought.

Her aura flashed all over her body as she felt all warmth leave her, as if trying to heal her now broken heart as she contemplated that dark thought.

All went black in her eyes as her ears soon rang. She felt her legs ache and grow weak, realizing she had jumped.

When she opened her eyes she gasped in terror, glancing down, hoping not to see blood, to not see what she now feared.

She sighed in relief as she saw no blood, just a now severed railing.

"Blake?"

She recoiled as she darted her head up, now seeing the source, a shocked Adam quickly drifting apart from her on the train cart before her, now separated from hers and the passengers.

She realized she had cut it, she had gotten herself and these people away from this man, who soon grinded his teeth and once more gave that hateful, hurtful gaze to her.

"I'll find you!" He roared as her train went into the mountain and she disappeared into the dark tunnel.

Despite the roar of the wind pressing against her cat ears, Blake could her him perfectly. She saw nothing in that dark tunnel but his image through her eyes. As she felt the cold chill of his words envelop her, the Cat Faunus felt something she never did before….Fear of Adam.

It wasn't his rage she felt, nor his screams of vengeance, or even the teeth she saw him bare before she escaped, it was the realization she believed Adam. She felt the sheer truth radiating off his words.

Her childhood friend, her former crush, the man she once believed she could follow to even death loyally would want her dead as well as the people she saved from his wrath, and would hunt her down.

Blake clutched her arms as she shivered beyond the cold win. Even as the train emerged from the dark tunnel and bathed her in warm sunlight, she did not feel any ease. She may as well be frozen stiff, unable to move as she let her fear of his truth bind her to the metal floor. Eventually, the only thing that snapped her out of her trance was the realization she needed to breath stabbing her chest.

She let out a frightful gasp for air.

After hacking a bit, the Cat Faunus gagged onto the roof of the train before clenching her aching head.

"Get a grip…." She tried to whisper to herself, trying to deny her fear. "Just get a grip Blake. Y-You're a B-Belladonna…Your."

As she uttered those words, she nearly vomited as she soon saw an image even more frightening image then Adam in her mind,

She saw her Mother and Father. But as opposed to the warm smile and loving gazes she was accustomed to from them, she felt sickened as she instead saw scornful gazes.

"Blake please! Don't go dragging yourself into a fight that doesn't have to be yours." She heard them plead the day she left them.

"This is my fight! I'm not a coward like you two scaredy cats!" Blake had roared.

She remembered all too well the recoil they had from that slur, those hurtful words radiating off her before she ran out the house to join Adams cause blindly.

"No…p-please. Don't look at me like that…I only wanted-"

Her feeble please died almost as soon as she dared to mutter them. She knew she made her choice, to diss them and throw mud on all their love and efforts.

Her father made the White Fang out of love and peace for his people, whom she knew was both Faunus and Human. He viewed all as equal unlike Adam, unlike her.

Then her Mother, who always cradled her when sad, when people teased her as a spoiled princess of Menagerie. She said she'd love her always.

But she kept seeing their sadness, then anger at her.

She felt her guilt swell, her heartache tremendously as she allowed her fear of them overload her. In that moment, she knew she was no longer worthy of being a Belladonna, or even being their Daughter.

"I'm nothing…I'm just a traitor." She whispered to herself.

A few hours later….

The cat faunus felt her burning eyes open, realizing she had cried herself to sleep. Her back ached from having laid on hard metal so she dared not sit up right away, preferring to continue to lay back on the roof of the train, gazing sadly on the nearby city of Vale. It was such a beautiful white oasis she knew was filled with countless people, people she envied. They likely knew nothing of the struggles people like her went through and not just in terms of prejudices.

Outside the city walls filled with weapons to spare people threats from the threats of it, you had to fight hard for a meal and a warm place to sleep. Then there were bandits, Grimm hunting you to make you their meal, or to take everything you cared about.

She now had to swallow the hard truth she had everything she cared for lost, by her own hand no worse. She didn't even have the will to say her last name now.

"Guess I should choose a new one." She muttered to herself. It wasn't like people wouldn't eye her suspiciously for not saying her full name, and she sure as hell didn't want anyone to know her old last name. The former leader of the White Fang was surely well known.

She was here to make a new start, to get away from Adam.

It was then her ears fought the urge to rise as a name then came to her when remembering his. This wasn't a good idea despite fitting to her. In the olden days of humanity, legends spoke of a man and woman, at one point devoid of anger, fear, and lust. They were Adam and Eve, the first humans. They worshipped a deity of light, one who urged them to trust only him and his words as he blessed them with gifts.

Then, they were visited by the deity's brother, a dark being who ruled the shadows that would soon become the Grimm.

Now normally these beasts would leave emotionless beings and items alone, hence why they never ate food like fruit.

That all changed when the dark brother offered a gift to them, it was a something new, something the light brother couldn't give them.

The two humans soon felt something beyond the peace and love the light brother gave them, temptation. She remembered how when they gave into the temptation of knowledge, the gift the dark one gave them was the emotion: FEAR.

That's when the Grimm finally reacted to the couple around them, and devoured them.

The light brother watched in sadness and disgraced, cursing his brother for his cruel trick of jealousy. Then the two, after much debate, restored the life of the two, but cursed them with both their powers and emotions that would pass to their descendants. In some, they would gain traits of animals and become known as the Faunus, in all though, aside from magic like powers that would become semblances, they all felt the same emotion, fear.

This curse was the strongest; she felt it herself. So as Blake remembered fervently the tale, and realized she too had played a hand as a traitor to those around her, having turned her back on her family for her ideals, she chose the name that she felt embodied both her and Adam like the first two sinners. Looking down upon her mask, the last reminder of her old identity, she settled upon a new name…..

"Eve, Eve the treacherous"

It was a cold whisper when she uttered firmly those words. With that, she dropped her White Fang Mask into the ocean below the bridge, watching it sunk into the dark blue waters never to be seen again. It brought her no satisfaction, in fact, she no longer felt anything, she just felt numb as she laid back down, letting sleep take her at last to drown her worries for a new life ahead.