Welcome Home

A Tough Request

We watched as Adam left the bar. Before he left, he handed me Blood and Rust, his knives, saying, "Hold these for me." I placed the knives on the bar and decided that one drink would not be enough, so I opened another tab and ordered another drink.

"You want anything?" I asked Yang.

"I'm good," she replied.

Before we sat down, I pulled her into a hug. "I know that was hard for you."

She hugged back. "You have no idea."

—-

I quietly entered the warehouse, praying my team would be asleep. They were not. Mercury was the first to confront me. "It's five o'clock in the morning! Where the hell were you?!" He shouted.

Ilia elbowed him in the side. "What he meant to say is 'where the hell were you?'"

"I was out. Look, I know this is a huge ask, but I met up with Adam Taurus on this job. He was my partner. We talked over a drink and I really think he wants to change. He has nothing and no one." I looked over at Wilt and Blush, which Viper had mounted on the wall of the warehouse. "He needs a place to stay where he can be surrounded by people who'll support him. I know he went back on what he said at Beacon, but he tried. I don't want to turn my back on him. Can he stay here?"

Ilia was the first to speak up. "I can't turn away another Faunus, even if it is Adam Taurus."

"I don't mind. He's a pretty alright guy. A little delusional when we last met, but I think that can change," said Mercury.

"Emerald?" I asked.

"If he really changes... fine," she replied.

"Kane, Viper? You guys good?"

"I'm fine with it. I don't think Adam'll be happy to see Viper, though. Viper kicked his ass on that night when Ash..." Kane trailed off.

"Smart move, Kane. Smart move." I revealed the Lien from the job. "Adam turned himself in and I'm gonna pay his bail tomorrow so his name will be clear. He gave me his half. I'll go after classes tomorrow. Or, I guess after classes today."

—-

After getting a solid two hours of sleep (and even that was interrupted by the repeated night terror), my team and I got up and put on our school uniforms. We grabbed breakfast and made our way to Port's classroom. He began lecturing on the Nevermore, but he didn't have one for me to fight.

Oobleck's class was interesting, as it usually was. He began lecturing about the Schnee Dust Company's questionable labor practices when concerning the Faunus. I thought back to the brand over Adam's eye when he revealed it last night. I almost brought it up, but quickly decided against it. I looked over at Weiss, who was clearly uncomfortable. After the lecture, Oobleck dismissed the class and implied a test next week.

Raven's class was, as usual, super boring. I was once again used as an example of using electric dust as ammunition. I just waited for class to be over.

After lunch, my team and I went to the warehouse to change out of our uniforms. We all grabbed our weapons, eager to see if the randomizer would pick our names for sparring. We hurried over to Glynda's classroom and took our seats in the rows that surrounded the arena. When the randomizer stopped, Mercury was chosen to fight Jaune. Even though Jaune's improved a lot since I first met him, his defense was no match against Mercury's relentless attacks.

Glynda activated that randomizer again, this time pitting Blake against Cardin. Like there was ever a question of who would win that. I'm sure Blake secretly enjoyed taking her revenge on Cardin for his endless prejudice against Faunus.

The randomizer was activated one last time, and I was chosen to fight Weiss. I jumped from my seat to the arena, entering before Blake or Cardin were able to exit. I congratulated Blake on her victory as she left the arena. Weiss entered the arena soon after I did. "Wonderful. It's the Ice Queen," I taunted.

Weiss tried to ignore me, but the subtle twitch in her eyes told me she couldn't. Glynda called the beginning of the match, and Weiss and I lunged at each other. With the ice dust in Myrtenaster's chamber, she created a wall to stop my forward momentum. I fired my grappling hook at the top of the wall and scaled it. The I noticed Myrtenaster's chamber rotate to fire dust. Weiss shattered the wall with the dust, forcing me to jump off. As I landed, I grabbed Myrtenaster's blade with my robotic hand and activated my Aura. The fire dust crawled down the blade and directly into my Aura. The flames being held in my Aura were painful, but not too bad. I released the flames in a shockwave at Weiss, who took the brunt of it. Noticing that I was matching her attacks well, Weiss summoned a glyph in the form of a clock under her, speeding up her movements. "Let's level the playing field," I said. I injected myself with 40 CCs of Stim and felt myself get faster. I continued to match her strikes, and luckily, my Stim lasted longer than her Time Dilation. I struck the final blow in the form of the Curb Check technique in a similar fashion to how I ended my fight with Ruby on the first day of school. I helped Weiss up and Glynda declared me the victor. I took off my helmet and looked Weiss in the eyes. "Your form was off."

"You got lucky," she said.

"Luck has nothing to do with skill, Ice Queen." I shook her hand.

Glynda dismissed the class and we walked to Qrow's classroom. Ilia and I breezed through the self-defense techniques and returned to the warehouse when class was over. I sat on the couches in the warehouse with my team and relaxed for now, deciding it would be better to bail Adam out under the cover of night. Using the spare time, I (finally) synced my scroll with my helmet, allowing me to take calls through it and view my Aura level on my HUD. My Aura was in the yellow zone, still regenerating after my fight with Weiss. I turned on the news and Lisa Lavender was reporting on Adam turning himself in. After a few hours of TV and small talk, I exited the warehouse and grabbed the train to the kingdom. When I got off the train, I entered the police station.

"Can I help you?" Asked the receptionist.

"Yes, I need to bail someone out, name of Adam Taurus." I slid a large stack of Lien over the counter.

"He's at an off-site facility. You can pick him up here tomorrow."

"Great, thank you."