Ch 64: From Shadows (2)
"But I won't." with those calm, reluctant words from Ray, Blake's thoughts ground to an abrupt halt. She could only stare back at him in confusion, indignation, but mostly relief as he pulled away. Ray lowered his knee and released her wrists to cradle both her cheeks in his hands.
"You aren't ready yet. You are still bleeding from the last person who you let into your heart." Ray began to rub his thumbs across her cheeks just beneath her eyes as just his vague mention of the matter had brought tears to her eyes.
"I want you, Blake, but I won't hurt you. Once you are able to love yourself again and are ready to love me, I will sweep you off your feet and make you mine. But not yet. You need a friend more than you need a lover, so that you can learn to believe in yourself again. A new lover now would just trap you more." Ray gently pulled her head slightly forward so that he could kiss her forehead before turning around and leaving her in the shadows of the arch to give her time alone to think and sort herself out.
Without Ray's support to hold her up, Blake slumped to the ground in a daze.
[What… just… happened…?] Blake wondered to herself as she tried to sort out what they had just done. As she went over the last few minutes in her mind, her emotions shifted from embarrassment, to anticipation, to bewilderment, to fear, to relief, to shame, to joy, to confusion.
[How could I do that!? Is he going to think I'm some sort of slut now!? No, no, he said he wanted to do those things to me. Does that mean he loves me!? But we have only known each other for a few weeks!! But he said he wants me! Is that love? Lust? Possession!?]
Blake furiously shook her head, [No! Ray isn't Him! If he just wanted to possess me, he would have taken me here and now. I was practically begging him for it. AHHHH!!! I don't know what came over me!! How could I act like that?! Deep breaths, Blake. Deep breaths.]
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Though he hadn't let it show, since that would have ruined the mood, even Ray had been surprised at how she had responded to his advances. Now that he had put some distance between them, however, Ray's rage boiled over inside, and his hands slowly curled into tight fists as he walked. Blake's responses hadn't been natural. If Blake had been that submissive by nature, she wouldn't have had such externally directed fear in her eyes when he had been seducing her or relief after he had released her. Instead, her anxiety would have been directed inward, afraid about how she was reacting, and her relief at being released would have been directed inwards as well, relief that she hadn't embarrassed herself too much or it would have been shame if she had. Instead, she had shown fear towards him and what he might do even as her body seemed to invite him in. That told Ray that her actions weren't instinctual. They were trained responses.
The implication of that made Ray's blood roil inside. Ray's side bangs began to flutter unnaturally beside his face, ignoring the flow of the wind and unaffected by his gait as Ray stalked along. There was only one person who could have trained Blake. As he thought about what that bastard must have put Blake through to teach her to fearfully submit like that and mused darkly over what he would like to do to him, thunder cracked overhead. The sound brought Ray to an abrupt halt. He looked up and found that the previously clear night sky now had a nasty-looking cell of dark clouds hovering low and spiraling over Beacon Academy. His annoyance at his own lack of control further riling him up, Ray clenched his grip even tighter as another crack of thunder sounded.
Closing his eyes, Ray took in a deep breath through his nose, concentrating all his frustration, anger, and other emotions into his chest as the physical pressure grew to match the emotional pressure he felt. Holding it for a second, Ray then let it all out in one long slow breath through his barely parted lips as he slowly opened his eyes again and forced his hands to relax. Letting everything out to disappear into the night. With that breath, the storm clouds in the sky were blown away, along with the storm clouds in his heart. Ray stayed standing like that for a minute, his head tilted back, eyes partially open, and hands hanging lax at his side, enjoying the release and letting his soul fly free for a moment.
*Acha* Ray gasped in surprise as a sharp pain in his palms drew him back down to earth. Ray lowered his head and raised his hands to observe the haphazard line of four horizontal wounds that had appeared across the center of his palms. Ray couldn't help but smile mockingly to himself as he observed the signs of self-mutilation.
[Maybe I should pay him a visit during the summer break after all.] Ray contemplated as he flexed his fingers a few times to remove the lingering stiffness. Mulling the idea over in his mind, Ray dropped his hands and continued his walk as a faint azure glow crossed briefly over his palms. Sparkling faintly in the light of the rising moon, a few drops of blood hiding in the grass were all that remained to mark what had just transpired.
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"Haaaaa… Hoooooo… Haaaaaa… Hoooooo…" after several deep breaths, Blake regained some semblance of control.
[He likes me. He really likes me.] Blake thought as she remembered the infinitely gentle, endlessly patient, boundlessly loving smile that Ray had looked at her with as he cradled her face in the palms of his hands like a priceless treasure. She remembered the sympathetic pain shining in the depths of his eyes beneath the faith and encouragement just before he left. The memory brought a sloppy smile to the usually cool cat's blushing face as she drew up her knees to hug them against her chest.
[What do I do now?] Blake pondered, resting her head against her drawn-up knees. As she considered her future, her mind naturally drifted to the past. Back to the last time she had seen the man that had left such a deep wound on her heart and mind that Ray was afraid to take their relationship further less he accidentally hurt her.
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[Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation…] The line from the book Blake had recently read had resonated strongly with her. Not just for her own situation, but her partner's as well. She had known that she had to make a decision, she couldn't keep putting it off, but that quote had pushed the necessity of changing, of moving forward, upon her. So, she had come out here, away from the rest of the camp. To sit on a rock in the middle of the forest and think as she watched the red leaves of fall drift down one by one from the trees around her to blanket the forest floor in a blanket of red. [Red like all the blood we, …I, have shed in the name of equality.]
"Blake, it's time." a stern male voice called out to Blake from behind, pulling her out of her morbid thoughts. *haa* Blake let out a soft sigh as she turned her head to face the speaker. [Yes, it is time.]
He was a tall faunas man a few years older than her with slicked-back fiery red hair that had reddish-black bull horns poking through and a white Grimm mask with red markings covering his eyes. He wore an asymmetrical black, long-sleeved, double-breasted stylized high-collared blazer with slit sleeves along with a red thorn sigil adorned with a white crest on his left shoulder and his emblem, a wilting rose over an emblazoned white sigil resembling the curved stems and flower of nightshade, on the back over a red shirt and long black dress pants, shoes, and gloves with a red Omega symbol on the backs. He was Adam Taurus. Blake's partner, confidant, idol, and lover.
"Ok," Blake replied weakly with traces of doubt in her voices. Traces that had been growing for a while now as she had started to question what Adam, what they, were doing. But there would be time for doubts later. Now, they had a mission to complete. The two Faunus raced through the scarlet and brown colored forest until they reached a steep cliff overlooking a set of railroad tracks.
*Baa Baaaannn* In the distance, the horn of the approaching train could be heard. Timing the approach of the speeding train carefully, Blake and Adam jumped from the top of the cliff. Sliding down its steep slope, carefully maintaining their balance, the train began to pass under them. They sprung into the air and landed on top of the train, impaling their weapons into the roof of the car to stop themselves from sliding off. Neither of them noticed a black hooded figure that had appeared on top of the cliff where they had just jumped off, looking down at them as they landed.
Leaping over the gap, they reached the next car that had a hatch in its roof. Locked, of course, but Adam's weapon Wilt and Blush made short work of that as he drew his red bladed chokuto, Wilt, from the barrel of his rifle, Blush, cut through the lock and sheathed it again in the blink of an eye. Opening the hatch, Adam dropped down first into the dark boxcar, and Blake followed right after. They landed in a crouch with their backs to each other.
"Looks like we're going to be doing this the hard way." Adam said as red lights began to turn on around them. They had dropped right into a boxcar filled with deactivated Atlas security droids, and the humanoid war machines were lighting up in response to their careless intrusion.
"Don't be so dramatic." Blake joked as they rose to their feet as the Atlesian Knight-130s encircled them with raised fists. While the androids were dangerous with built-in retractable blades and gatling guns, they were little threat to combatants as skilled as Adam and her in such confined spaces where they couldn't get the distance to maximize their numerical advantage and instead just got in each other's way.
"Intruders. Identify yourselves." One of the androids demanded as its hands morphed into two gatling guns pointed threateningly at the two Faunus. Adam smirked at the order and, with a flick of his thumb against Blush and Wilt, gave his response. A pommel to the face that disorientated the robot's sensors, followed by a quick dash and slash that cut the mechanical fool in two. The other droids looked at each other as their first comrade went down, and their programming reached the same conclusion. Hostiles: Terminate with extreme prejudice.
With that conclusion reached, they all extended their retractable wrist blades and advanced. Two attacked Blake from behind but met only her shadow as she dashed backward between them, avoiding their blades and sending hers through both their necks at the same time, decapitating them. Before their metal corpses could hit the ground, Blake dashed between them again to appear by Adam's side.
*Haaa* *hAA* Blake's cleaver sliced through an AK-130 that was about to strike Adam's back as he spun and brought his chokuto down through another that tried to strike Blake as she passed. The two fought together in perfect coordination honed through countless life and death battles together as they covered each other's backs. Constantly swapping positions. Ensuring there was no gap in their defense nor pause in their offense.
With only a handful left, one AK-130 retracted its blades and unleashed a hailstorm of lead from its twin gatling guns. A hailstorm that Adam easily dealt with, deflecting every bullet with his blade while Blake flanked the shooter and cut him down. The remaining few androids were swiftly dismantled as Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud and tore through them with her katana in one hand and her cleaver sheath in the other. She launched the last one into the air for Adam to savagely kick through the sealed door to grant them access to the rest of the train.