Black (1)

Faunus.

A type of people, separate from your average human.

They look the same, talk the same, breathe the same, everything about them is the same. That is, apart from certain animal traits they were born with, a constant reminder that nowhere they went, they were always 'different'.

To some they were thieves, savages, murderers, animals. And to the worst, they were Grimm spawn.

But to Blake, they had always been family. Everything she'd ever known.

And she would fight for their dignity. To have a place in the world. Though it didn't take long to realize that peaceful methods weren't working, her family and friends disappearing until she finally pulled up the courage to fight.

It was this drive to fight that brought her together with 'him'. She had only met him once before, many years back.

She was terrified of him but meeting him again led her to understand the man more. A tortured soul walking the path of revenge.

She tried to change his path, to make him understand. She thought she was close.

But looking back on it, Blake could never tell whether meeting Adam Taurus was the best or worst luck of her life.

----------

A girl stood on the roof of a building, a fair skinned young woman with shoulder length black wavy hair and amber eyes. Though the first thing most people would notice would be the pair of cat ears perched on her head that twitched at the smallest sound.

She looked over a makeshift campsite, it took use of some buildings that were abandoned here long ago. It had a cobbled together perimeter fence that had guards periodically stationed around it with half a dozen tents or so pitched up inside, the tents had an insignia imprinted on them, a stylized profile shot of some large cat or wolfs head.

Most people that walked around wore an intimidating white mask that covered their eyes and the standard issue uniform, the others were skinny, malnourished and afraid but hopeful mainly wearing rags or whatever clothing anyone could spare. Though a consistent theme with every person present was some sort of animal trait, be it a tail, horns, ears, fur just to count a few.

She tightened her grip on the bar she was leaning on while looking at the poor few. There were so many of her kind forced into a position they were in before she and her group arrived, and it maddened her to know she could only do so much.

Hearing someone arrive on the roof behind her she turned with a scowl.

The man was tall, around six foot three with auburn hair that spiked backwards looking quite windswept. He had small bull horns that curved back across his head, and across his eyes he wore a white mask with red horn-like symbols decorating the front around two horizonal slits on each side to allow for vision, though you couldn't make out his eyes behind it.

He looked at her with a sigh and went to talk.

"Blake, you have to understand that-"

"Understand what Adam!" She shouted back, anger getting the better of her. "People died! Normal. People." Separating the words to let them sink in.

"So what, you think we should let our kind get killed instead of the humans!" He snapped back, staring her right in the eyes.

Blakes ears flattened, and her gaze faltered. "You know that's not what I mean."

Adam walked up closer to her. "Then what exactly do you mean? I thought you joined us so you can make a difference."

"Of course I did!" She frowned back at Adam.

"And that's what we're doing!" He slammed his fist down on the side of the building, pointing down at the people in rags. "Without us, without what we're willing to do, these people would still be in hell!"

Her gaze landed back on the people, most huddling together. They were eating a meal and by the looks of things, the first one in a while.

The guilt almost turned her inside out, she knew what they were doing was saving their peoples lives. But did it have to mean taking others in return?

She couldn't help but wonder whether there was another way.

As if hearing her thoughts Adam continued on. "While Sienna has been getting results, we both know how many people her methods have left to fend for themselves. With how high up her position has gotten now its gotten even worse, in time she'll probably end up with thoughts like your parents."

Blake recoiled slightly at that one. She loved her parents, more than anything. But their last conversation hadn't been… civil. They were so enraptured in the thought of peace that they would sacrifice the few for the betterment of the many. She could tell they hated it, but they did it nonetheless.

Her parents made her think peace was a solution, something they could realistically work towards. But history had proven otherwise, and it just seemed to repeat itself…

Adam just watched Blake as she thought things through, eventually opening up again.

"What happened last year opened my eyes, at what we ha-"

"That wasn't your fault!" Her eyes snapped back onto him. "You can't keep blaming yourself for that!"

Adam opened his mouth to speak but slowly turned away. "It doesn't matter. What does matter is that nothing like that ever happens again…"

He started to walk away, Blake watching his fleeting back.

"I'm sorry for raising my voice." He stopped partway back. "It just… hurts when I feel like you don't believe in me anymore."

After a few seconds of agonizing silence Blake finally replied meekly. "… I do."

Adam then continued off the roof, leaving a message behind. "Make sure you're ready for the mission tomorrow." Before leaving down the stairs.

Blake let out an uneasy sigh, leaning back on the railing to overlook the camp.

It was getting more and more obvious that Adam had been acting different recently. She didn't know whether it was the accident last year, how many missions he'd been going on or something else entirely.

When she first met him, he was just using his rage to push himself forwards. It scared her, but she understood.

She tried to help, and it seemed like she did at first. All until the accident.

Sometime after that he'd been pushing himself forward with something else, something deeper than rage.

But she couldn't understand what it was anymore. And That terrified her.

Watching Adam walk out of the building and head into camp, she shivered. She truly did love him, and she knew he loved her back. But why did that make her feel so uncomfortable. She didn't want to admit it, but she really couldn't stay here, with him, for much longer.