Yo!

Another chapter of Mirror Mirror! This one's funky. I hope you enjoy it!

Start Chapter 8

A few hours out from the City of Mistral, camped out in the woods deep enough that the smoke from their small fires would not be seen, two dozen members of the White Fang laid in wait.

It was cold, given how late it was in the evening. The sun would crest the horizon in but a few hours. The faunus, of course, cared not for the lack of light, and operated best when in the dark, where their human adversaries could not.

And on this night, Adam Taurus was rather deep in thought.

He was not thinking in specifics, to be clear. All around him, the men and women of the White Fang bustled about in quiet preparation. They were making ready for the assault on Haven that their… sponsor had planned for them. Adam wasn't particularly keen about the optics of attacking a second Hunter Academy, but if he wanted to bring about a revolution for faunus-kind, then some sacrifices had to be made.

It was the same as with Sienna Khan. She had been a valuable ally to Adam for years, but in the end, she had lacked the stomach for the path they needed to tread. She would not have allowed him to steer the White Fang away from her ideals.

And so, he'd had no choice but to eliminate her entirely.

She had been buried with full honors, treated as the revered hero she truly was. Adam had seen to it personally.

He'd owed the woman that much, at least.

Officially, she had been killed by spies from Atlas and abroad within the White Fang. Adam wasn't sure how many among the White Fang actually bought such a story, but the people of Menagerie did, and it had them in an uproar, one which Adam's men were doing their best to stoke the flames of.

From what he'd heard, their efforts back on Menagerie were progressing well. Ilia was heading up things, with the Albain Brothers around to act as both support, and a set of eyes and ears for Adam while he was away.

He had… not necessarily doubts about Ilia, but he certainly wasn't sure she was as on board with his mission as she claimed to be.

He shook his head, looking up from sharpening Wilt to see the others about their camp relaxing, preparing for the mission ahead. He only had a few serious soldiers among his retinue. Mostly, they were fresh recruits from in and around Mistral, those who saw the glory of their cause and wanted to be a part of it.

They would be nothing but liabilities in the mission to come, but then, Adam didn't plan on them actually doing much of anything in terms of fighting.

That would be handled by Cinder's people – or, he supposed, the people of whomever it was that commanded her. If everything went well, the fresh-faced soldiers with him wouldn't even need to act, let alone engage in combat.

Still, he'd not brought only newbies. Such would have been foolhardy. One of the people he'd brought along with him was a trusted scout, someone who'd been serving alongside Adam for as long as he himself had been in the White Fang. Intelligence was one of those things one couldn't do without.

So it was with some surprise that Adam regarded the man as he barreled into camp, panting drastically. Adam rose, sheathing drawing Blush from off of his hip along with Wilt, assuming that they'd been found.

He had rather notably not been expecting…

"There's a Schnee!"

Adam wasn't the only one among their number entirely caught off guard by that, it seemed. The camp rocketed to their feet. More than a few of them stopped what they'd been doing and abandoned everything else, seeing a far more important task on the horizon.

"Explain." Adam stepped forward.

"I… I don't know how or why, but–" His scout was evidently flabbergasted. "It's just… Weiss Schnee, walking down the path to Mistral. No guards; nothing!"

Adam couldn't quite believe that they were that lucky. "You must have seen someone else. A Schnee would not–"

"That's the thing, sir," His scout interrupted. "I didn't believe my eyes at first, either. So, I did a cursory search through some of our news reports for the past week, and apparently Weiss Schnee fled Atlas a few weeks back. She's missing, and was apparently headed for Mistral City."

Adam still didn't believe it, but he was… perhaps a bit more willing to entertain the possibility. He signaled to a few of his more serious men and women, and they nodded their heads. They were professionals, and weren't going to jump at the first white-haired human who passed them just because they vaguely resembled a Schnee.

They didn't need some random civilian from Mistral disappearing, and starting a manhunt that would put Mistral itself on lockdown. Adam refused to be the reason this plan went wrong.

Cinder didn't precisely scare him, but he had seen what she was capable of, and anyone who could order her around…

Well, Adam wanted to stay on their good side, so to speak.

"The rest of you, stay here." Adam's words were as law, and though it was clear each and every one of them wanted to be present if and when the Schnee went down, they dared not question him. "If we are not back within the hour, send a small scout party to locate us."

The men and women under his command nodded his way, and seeing that, Adam gestured for his scout to lead the way. The man turned around, and practically flew through the thick trunks and branches in the way between them and the more well-trodden paths.

And then, about five minutes later, they made it to the very edge of the tree line, where they were still hidden, but could see out onto the path beyond, and…

"There!" His scout pointed towards the distance, where, sure enough, a white-haired figure walked roughly a hundred meters in front of them. "That's her!"

Adam… he wasn't about to fall for this. It was some manner of trick. It had to be. Life had never once given him anything but sources of grief and pain. For it to suddenly thrust a Schnee into his lap, without a thing standing in his way?

He could not believe such a turnaround. Wouldn't fall for it.

Still, he gave the signal for them to follow him, and together, they caught up with the woman over the course of the next few minutes. They were quiet, and stuck to the high ground they had. Giving themselves away now would give the Schnee – if she was a Schnee – the chance to escape, and if a civilian saw them, then they'd have no choice but to kill them to keep things quiet.

And yet, as they made it past the woman, and took a place on the top of a hill adjacent to the path, Adam got his first good look at the woman's face.

And…

"It's her," His voice came out disbelieving, almost faint.

A moment later, his entire demeanor shifted.

He took a breath, and steadied himself. He looked towards both sides of his formation, and gave his men the signal to surround the target. As they moved back and away to do just that, Adam looked back down at the bastard Schnee walking directly past them.

She wouldn't even know what hit her. Alive one moment and gone the next.

It was too good for her, for a Schnee; to not feel the agony her family had inflicted on his people.

But Adam wasn't going to take any chances.

After all, he'd waited for this for far too long.

/

All in all, Weiss was starting to get a little bit tired of this whole… walking thing.

She'd been doing so for well over a week straight since leaving Woodcreek. At this point, she'd grown aggravated enough that she was moving around even during the nights, just wanting to make progress, eschewing safety to hopefully hit Mistral within this century.

Which, y'know, wasn't smart, but then, she was having a rough few days, so sue her.

That was, if anyone asked, also her explanation for how she reacted so late to the rustling of the trees off to her right. Her mind was numbed by doing the same thing over and over again for multiple days, and nothing at all happening.

When she did notice, her eyes narrowed and her breath caught. She couldn't truly identify the shapes moving about in the trees above her, and yet she had a feeling they were not friendly. If they were, they would have simply come out and introduced themselves. Or, if they were Grimm, they'd have simply attacked her already.

That meant that whomever this was, they were smart enough to stick to the shadows.

And that boded poorly.

"Be on your guard." Jaune suddenly spoke, his voice wary. "Something lurks just beyond that tree line."

"I know." Weiss hissed out. "I don't suppose you have any spells that can make me faster?"

"I do, just not any that I can use past this enchantment." Jaune spoke from her back. "I'm afraid anything that I must directly cast upon you cannot make it past the mirror. It is only those more area-based attacks that can escape from my prison, and affect the outside world."

"Okay, do you have any of those?"

"I just might. Though you'll have to give me a moment."

"How long is a moment?"

"We shall certainly see, shan't we?"

She grumbled out under her breath about that, but broke out into a slow jog. She was being watched, tracked. Likely, stalked.

It had the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, and a chill running down through her spine. Ancient instincts the likes of which the human race had reserved purely for the Grimm came to the forefront, and she placed her hand on her weapon, preparing to draw it.

"I'm going to make an attempt to get away/"

"That's likely a good idea." Jaune responded. "I would advise you be quick about it. I can sense the general emotions of the people up there. They are growing more and more antsy. They wish to strike out at you."

Weiss tried to run through a list of people in her head that might fit that description, and one stuck out to her as the most obvious.

The White Fang.

She conjured a set of glyphs in front of her, and started running. She heard shouting from off to her right, and knew that if she did not get away, combat was in her future. She was on her own, however, without her team. She might have been able to, but today, on her own, she didn't want to find out if she was capable of doing so alone the hard way.

She leapt atop the first glyph, and commanded it to sail forward. It did so at an alarming speed, rocketing her to the next glyph, atop which she repeated the earlier process. She was actually fairly certain she was going to get away, up until she felt a sharp pain strike against her right leg, and the sound of a shot rang out through the small valley she was sailing over.

She hissed out below her breath as she looked down to see the wound. Her aura had been up, but unfocused, and it had allowed the bullet to sink in much deeper than it would have normally. It hadn't pierced further than an inch, but that was enough to strike against muscle, and to severely hamper her maneuverability.

She channeled her aura as best she could on the wound, even as she allowed her glyphs to continue carrying her forward. In her head, she was weighing her options.

The simple truth was that her glyphs were going to rapidly drain her aura. If she were to use her aura purely on her glyphs, then she would be banking on the idea that she could get far enough away that her assailants couldn't catch her.

Before her leg had been injured, that might have been a viable strategy. But once her aura was exhausted, she wasn't going to be able to run. It didn't help that she'd not slept for nearly fourteen hours at this point. She couldn't manage a few hours of running at speed.

As terrible an idea as it seemed, she very well might need to just stand her ground, and fight.

"Jaune, you'd better be quick about whatever it is you're doing!" She pushed out between clenched teeth, the pain radiating up her leg and her general anger at her situation combining to make her rather irritable.

"I'm working on it. Buy me as much time as you can."

She groaned, but acquiesced. At the very least, she could buy as much distance with the glyphs that she had already summoned as possible. After that, she could use her summons to try and keep them away from her.

Unfortunately, past that, she was fresh out of options.

Still, she had to work with what she had. So, once she was out of glyphs, she jumped down to the dirt road below her, and took a battle stance, allowing her Arma Gigas to come into being behind her, both shielding her from attacks from behind and acting as an intimidating threat towards those in front of them, its massive blade poised to strike at those in front of her.

And yet the figure who ended up stepping in front of Weiss then was not at all one she'd anticipated seeing. She had only heard his description from the news multiple times as a child, or whispered words from those who worked in the manor.

But his appearance, that of red hair, twin horns, and a white mask…

This was Adam Taurus.

"Well, well, well," Adam spoke, his voice surprisingly nasally for a man of his stature and position. "You seem lost, Schnee. Don't worry, we'll soon be sending you back home to hell."

She gritted her teeth together, trying to come up with a plan. As odd as it was, her best bet was likely to keep Adam talking. Let him rant at her, let him give some grand speech about all of her sins. Anything to buy Jaune more time.

"You imply that I'm some demon," Weiss spoke out under her breath. "As if I had any choice in the matters that my father got up to while I was just a child."

"Perhaps not. Perhaps what you are saying is completely true. Perhaps you are innocent. But even so, you must understand that you stand for something simply by existing; the Schnee name rests around your shoulders like a poisonous laurel. And expunging one bearer of that name from this world will serve as ammunition for our cause; as fuel for the fires of faunuskind, allowing us to push through the ice and snows of this world where we would otherwise freeze."

He was, unsurprisingly, a rather good talker. Weiss had known he would be, of course, but he had a certain air to his words that made them sound so very grand. He spoke with an elegant prose, and if Weiss didn't know he was a mass murderer, she'd have said he might make for a good poet.

"My father would likely pay a steep sum to have me returned to him. I am a runaway, after all. Name your price, and he'd pay it."

"I do not want your money, Schnee; tainted as it is with the blood of my people." Adam shook his head. "I want only your life. Make no mistake, nothing you can offer has any meaning to me but that."

Weiss pursed her lips, her hand tightening on the hilt of Myrtenaster. Her leg was still aching, but then, she was also buying time for her aura to patch up the wound. Surely, the White Fang with Adam were working to surround her on all sides, make her escape impossible, but she'd abandoned escape as a means of avoiding death already.

They were simply playing into her hands.

"Very well…" She murmured once her leg felt suitable enough for battle, and realizing that Adam wasn't going to say anything else. "Then come and take it."

Adam, seemingly amused at her resolve, just shrugged. "As you say."

He was in her guard in the next moment.

Weiss reacted far slower than she would have liked, narrowly evading the strike that would have taken a chunk from out of her aura, and striking out with her Arma Gigas' blade all in one motion. Adam dodged that, and she was briefly taken aback by his speed. At a glance, she would have said he was a match for Winter in that alone, closing great gaps with what seemed like single bounds.

Of course, things were not that simple.

From behind her, two White Fang grunts raised their weapons; automatic rifles, it seemed. A single flick of Her Arma Gigas' blade sent the both of them careening into a nearby hill, and neither of them moved again after that, their auras broken.

There were still many others, however, and Adam of course as the centerpiece of their attack. The man was being cautious now, his initial plan on ending the battle quickly having failed. That was good for Weiss. If they saw her defeat as a surefire thing, they might drag this whole affair out in order to minimize their own risk.

And that played rather nicely into Weiss' – and Jaune's – hands.

"How much longer!?" She hissed out below her breath as she dodged backwards.

"Not long now!" Jaune called back, and Weiss sighed, but settled in for the long haul.

She wasn't quite sure what 'not long' would mean to Jaune, and she had a bad feeling that it was going to be about as inconvenient as possible for her in terms of timing, if she managed to survive that long at all.

It was funny; she'd been faced with the possibility of her death more in the past few months than she had in her entire life. She'd grown almost used to the feeling, as harrowing as that was to think.

Back at Beacon, her hands had shaken, and her decisions had been slow. If she had taken any longer, Velvet might very well have died back then before she could have done a thing.

But she'd acted just in time. She'd made a choice.

Here she was again, doing just that.

Adam backed away this time, allowing the others to take point. She wasn't stupid enough to not recognize that as some kind of ploy. Based on what reports often said about Adam's semblance, it was some manner of charged attack, one which he could focus on, then unleash to utterly annihilate a target, even through armor-plating or aura.

It was a powerful ability, but one that came with the drawback of requiring set up time.

And if Weiss was going to have any hopes of emerging victorious from this battle, then she would need to abuse that window.

As Adam retreated, Weiss pushed forward. It was rather clearly a move that the White Fang grunts had not expected. One yelped, another raised his weapon and fired poorly. Weiss didn't give them a moment to gather themselves. If she did, she might not get another.

She batted them aside with her summoned blade, and then swung hard enough to send another flying into the nearby trees. For their sake, she hoped they had aura enough for a landing strategy.

And then–

The world went red.

It was hard to describe. It was as if all color entirely faded from the world. All but a crimson strikingly similar to blood. Weiss felt something deep in her gut, something that told her that this was both unnatural and dangerous.

She was inclined to agree.

She turned towards Adam, because who else would this be, and saw–

Weiss barely had a moment to think. The man was charging up a blow that was certain to hit her. She couldn't avoid the strike. She had to block it.

But with what? What did she have that could possibly tank the hit? Yang's aura, far more potent than her own, had been entirely bypassed by the cut.

And then…

Well…

She remembered what she was carrying around on her back.

She let herself fall to her knees, turned her back to Adam, and waited.

She was not left to wait long.

It felt like a blade-like shape had struck her back with the force of a freight train. It was enough to launch her a few meters, rolling to a stop a ways away in the dirt.

She looked up, and saw Adam Taurus wearing a rather confused expression on his face. Clearly, he'd expected that to slice Weiss in two.

But that was the thing.

Jaune's mirror was entirely unbreakable; cursed to be by the very gods.

She'd highly doubted a particularly deadly semblance was going to be any exception, and she'd been right.

"Soon?" She panted out, asking the mirror on her back.

"Eh."

"What does 'eh' mean!?" She growled back.

"It means that this is taking longer than I thought it would."

"Why is it– Shit!"

She brought Myrtenaster up just in time, barely deflecting Adam's initial hit off course, and causing his katana to bury itself in the dirt to her right. She leant in, and smacked the guard of Myrtenaster into Adam's nose, forcing the man back.

He shook his head, let out an annoyed huff, and then was back on her in a moment.

Before, he'd been trying to play things slow and patient. Now, he had apparently had enough of that. Adam was deadly and precise, but also strong, brutish, and raging. He struck out at odd angles, and hit with the force of a charging bull.

Weiss was buffeted backwards, and nearly sent spiraling to the floor. She bit down on her bottom lip as she forced herself to ignore the pain in her right leg, righting herself with it before she could fall. Gods, but it hurt.

But then, she felt dying would likely be a lot more painful, so she fixated more in on avoiding that.

Adam's blade came up, as did her own. They collided, and it was clear that Weiss held no chance in a battle of strength. Honestly, her chances in this fight in general were waning as well. Adam had cottoned onto her injury, and was forcing her to block and evade in ways that had her right leg taking the brunt of the impact every time.

Any more of this, and she would collapse.

And then it would be over.

That was exactly what happened just a minute later. Her foot caught a rock on the path just behind her, and she swore even as she fought to get Myrtenaster in Adam's way.

But the man wasn't looking to capitalize on her stumble; at least not immediately. Instead, he backed away, and channeled yet another Moonslice.

She swore, but realized that she wasn't going to be able to turn around in time. Even if she could, Adam wasn't likely to simply unleash his semblance on the mirror once more. Not when he knew it could not be broken.

Weiss saw the end in the man's crimson expanse, which grew to cover the entire world. She closed her eyes, braced for agony, and then–

A void.

For just an instant, there was nothing. Like all energy had been sapped from out of their surroundings.

And then, a moment later, everything returned.

Weiss finished stumbling, falling to her feet on the ground beneath her. She didn't know what had just happened, but she wasn't going to stay down. She couldn't, not with Adam right on her heels.

And yet, when she rose, with her sword held outwards in a battle stance, she found Adam Taurus…

On his knees.

What had…

"What…" Adam simply sat there, seemingly dumbfounded.

Weiss realized in that moment what must've happened; Jaune's attack! He'd done it.

Except…

"What did you do, exactly?" She asked with some hesitance.

"Give it a moment, you'll see." Jaune said, sounding annoyingly pleased with himself. Weiss didn't like that much at all.

She turned to see Adam still knelt there, staring down at his hands, which were resting in his lap.

Weiss wasn't really sure how to broach the topic of the fact that they really should still be fighting. After all, just a moment ago they'd been trying to kill each other. It felt like that had stopped a bit too suddenly.

"What…" Adam said for a second time. "What have I done?"

"Uhm…" Weiss was just confused at this point. "You… tried to attack me?"

"I did." He spoke, and he sounded almost… regretful? "But that is not all. I have done so many things wrong. I have led so many astray. I myself have become a mere shadow of who I once was, or perhaps it is more accurate to say that the person I used to be no longer exists, devoured and replaced by this… this bastardization I've become!"

Weiss couldn't help feeling like this was all a little bit weird.

Adam looked back up at her, and he took his mask away from his face. Weiss's breath caught in her throat as she saw the branded symbol of the SDC over his left eye, but…

Far more relevantly, she saw tears streaking down his face.

"How can I…" He shook his head, a sob choking out of him. "How can I possibly make up for what I've done?"

Weiss' eye twitched.

"Jaune."

"Yes?"

"What did you do?"

"Well, that's simple." The man sounded quite proud. "I sapped the evil from him."

She just stood there, sort of… blankly staring at the now broken-hearted Adam Taurus.

She ripped the mirror off of her back, and stared right into Jaune's smug-ass face.

"You… what?"

"I took the evil from him and his compatriots." Jaune explained like it was absolutely nothing to be concerned about. "I balled it up into a spherical shape, and then I threw it off into the distance."

"What do you mean you threw it!?"

"Well," Jaune gestured towards the hills off to their left. "I flung it in that general direction."

Any further thoughts of questioning what Jaune had done were cut off as Adam Taurus stepped towards her, still crying. Weiss raised Myrtenaster, expecting an attack, but…

"Please," He implored her, and for all that he was a good talker, she couldn't help but think it was genuine. "You have every reason not to believe what I say to be true, but…"

And then, Adam Taurus, enemy of the SDC, a terrorist who'd murdered thousands, prostrated himself in front of her.

"I beg you for your forgiveness!" He sobbed. "The things I've done… the people I've hurt… I cannot ask many of them to forgive me, for they are gone from this world. Removed by my own hand. But I can make it up to you, at the very least!"

"Uhm…"

"Please," Adam looked up at her, and in his eyes – aside from tears – laid a steely expression, filled with naught but determination. "I have naught but this blade in my hands to aid you, but if you would, allow me to accompany you. You shall be safe from harm while I and those who follow me are around."

"Uhm…"

"There exists no reason not to take this man up on his offer." Jaune spoke. "He is devoid of evil; devoid of the potential for wrongdoing."

"That… what!?" Weiss shook her head, utterly flabbergasted. "What is even going on right now!?"

As if to further drive Weiss to insanity, the first of the white fang that she'd knocked out were beginning to rise to their feet, and much like Adam, they too were spilling tears, lamenting their actions.

"How did it all go so wrong?"

"Mother, I've failed you!"

"Jermain… we promised we'd make this world a better place, but I…"

Weiss felt more than a little awkward.

"Men!" Adam called to them, and despite the fact that their evil had been taken from them – apparently – each and every one of them responded to Adam's cry. "I know what it is that lurks now within your hearts. It is the same thing that exists within my own. Regret. Pain. Sadness, and a longing to erase the wrongs we have committed! But the truth is that it is too late for us to undo our past malevolence!"

"What is happening right now!?" Weiss bemoaned.

"I think a rousing speech." Jaune commented.

"But who we were need not define us!" Adam shouted, and the tears still rolling down his cheeks only added to the intensity of his words. "Who we were need not be who we stay! Who we were need not limit our potential! We are who we choose to be! And I choose to be better! What say you all!?"

"YEAH!" They cheered almost in unison.

"How did you…" Weiss was dumbstruck.

"Ah, the spell itself?" Jaune seemed more than happy to explain. "It had originally been developed to strip all hate from the world, you see. But when the testing phases began on using it for such a purpose, we rapidly discovered that such an application would've required an amount of energy akin to the amount of people it was trying to affect. One great and powerful mage might be able to affect two or three people without burning out his life. At most. Thusly, the planned usage for the spell was shelved."

"However, As I am immortal, my magic cannot burn me out entirely. I simply reform, as good as new." Jaune noted. "Unfortunately, the area I can affect is linked to how long I must spend charging it. To affect even this small region of a thirty or so meters took me nearly ten full minutes to charge. But that number grows exponentially larger with bigger areas. To affect an area as large as Woodcreek, it would likely take multiple days. A Kingdom? Hah. Hundreds of years, if not longer. I may be immortal, but I am not so patient I'm afraid."

"That's great and all," Weiss hissed. "But what do I do about this!?"

This, of course, referring to the fifteen or so former White Fang members, all of whom were stood in front of her, some with their hands over their hearts, others kneeling in front of her, but all awaiting her words.

"Oh." Jaune hummed. "On that, I have absolutely no idea."

"Gee, Jaune, thanks for the huge help."

End Chapter 8

Welp, Adam Taurus is now friend! ...Weiss isn't sure what to think about that, rather understandably, but Jaune's vibing!

What will our wacky duo get up to next? Find out next week!

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