7 AS.7
Vale wilderness
82 AFGR
Azrael/Exceturioner POV:
Inhuman.
That was the one word he would describe him if someone asked and if he had the will to say it aloud.
Aegis Schnee was inhuman; he wasn't faunus, he was human, and yet he wasn't.
Azrael's instincts screamed at him every time he was near the being that was played to by humans; his mind tried numerous words and definitions when he met him for the first time.
Monster, Grimm, Abomanation, Chaos, Eldrich, and yet, these were just the negative ones, as another part of him found other's ways to describe him, Law, Order, Responsibility, Protector, Guardian...
And so many more, and yet, all of them palled to the final verdict his mind made up on him.
Inhuman.
Azreal wasn't a good man; as a faunus that grew up in Mantle, his growing life could be summarized in one word, miserable.
The cities, great and all, could play on being enlightened, on the image of fairies, but it was all lie. Underneath it was a rot, a world where the law of the jungle was the sole law anybody needed to know.
He learned it quickly; with the death of his mother, who was previously raped by some minor human gang, he learned the darkness she tried to shield him from and let it devour him.
He became the thing his mother would detest, but when his body was showered in the blood of that gang, who took the sole spark in his life, he didn't care for the woman's words, as revenge, revenge against humans, revenge against faunus that stood around and didn't help, and revenge against world thrived in him, he let the darkness devour him, mold him.
Until he was born anew.
That was the first time he was reborn, reborn into a being of darkness, one that enjoyed carnage, the joy of taking lives, he used the excuse of human racism to kill them, gaining the approvals of those more radical faunuses, but even they after some time, shied away from him, his tactics, and actions growing more and more deranged, just as his lust for blood grew.
It went on for years, decades like that, and he earned many titles, names, and infamous nicknames, but one he held close to himself was that of Executioner; he didn't know why, just that he felt most fitting.
And then...
And then he was reborn yet once again.
It started with a few simple jobs from an anonymous guy who called himself Niveus, that these jobs were about killing human racists. Made it all sweater, or were it the bucks of lien?
At that time, he didn't care.
But then, then he demanded to meet Niveus in person; after all, he wanted to see the man who sent him to do his dirty work; that and ideas of killing him played in his mind, not that he would do it without good reason, as he and Nivues had a very good business partnership.
So imagine his surprise followed up by rage and ending up in dread when he realized who the boyo before him was.
Aegis Schnee, the fucking Niveus was Aegis Schnee.
But when his mind realized who before him was, it was already too late, his body betrayed him, and his instincts joined with his mind not a while later, screamed at him.
What stood before him was not a mere mortal.
He saw the body of a boy, no, a man, but behind it.
Behind it...
Behind... IT...
Azrael shuddered; even memories of the presence he witnessed shook his entire core, and yet.
The eyes of both Aegis Schnee and the being he hid inside that human body weren't one of cruelty.
Azreal, through his life, learned to see meaning in the eyes and in the way people looked at him, and he learned to differentiate the emotions hidden in the eyes.
What he saw in these ice blue eyes that shone with the light of the stars themselves was indifference, an apathy.
It was the same eyes of those that accepted life, and thus death, those who lived through the moments.
There was no judgment in those eyes, no enjoyment of the dread Azreal felt as his body trembled, no cruelty.
Just apathy mixed with acceptance and understanding.
From then on, Azreal understood where he stood; he understood what the world truly was.
It was a playground of monsters that hid in the skins of mortals, not those who enjoyed cruelty to others but those truly of the alien kind, those who didn't belong.
In truth, Azreal was glad that his eyes were opened by his master, the one whose mere presence shattered his understanding of reality, and not some alien monster that was like Azreal himself and enjoyed the pain of others.
"Your orders were fulfilled, sir." Azrael nodded, pleased but not showing it outside; it wouldn't do if he overpriced his...
Apreatince? Student?
He looked at the red-haired bull faunus boy, one that asked him to teach him how to fight and kill when he and his band attacked one of SDC mines that were on his master's black list.
After watching what he had done to the guards, the boy begged him to let him deal with the overseer, and Azrael let him, willing to see what the boy was capable of; it was nothing but a primal and brutal scrabble where the boy used his muscles borne from the life of hard work in mines, against an obese man who never lifted a finger outside of his raping of bounded faunus women who worked under him.
Punch, kick, scratch, bite, headbutt, there and there, and the boy did all he could to make the most of the short fight, as the overseer was not accustomed to pain, it made short of work, the overseer just became a wrenching thing on the ground, trying to protect his vital parts with his body while screaming in pain, it didn't stop the boy, nor the women who shortly joined the lynching.
Azreal and his men just stood aside, some uncaring of it all, others nodding their heads; after all, they all were dregs of society that their new master put together, most of them following orders out of fear than any sense of loyalty.
"Good. Did you learn something out of this, Adam?" He looked at the boy who looked down, his eyes hidden from his.
"Follow the rules."
"Good, remember that, and you will survive." There wasn't any need for codling. The boy would just reject any sympathy or kindness, to set in his brutish ways, not that Azrael would show him any leniency, as he himself lacked any of that weak shit.
"Did you visit the camp?" Once again, the red-haired boy looked away, but Azrael could see his lips pursuing.
"I will not order you to go there, and it isn't any of my business... But your sister survived, something not all your mining fellows could say about their families. Who knows what happens tomorrow or the day after? So you should make sure that there wouldn't be any lingering words left unsaid."
Azrael stood up as he walked out of the door, leaving the boy mulling over his words.
"After all, our line of work is one where men die young."
He hated dealing with kids, but...
Then again, not long ago, he couldn't even think of the possibility of working for someone, especially when this someone had Schnee blood in him, and look where he is now.
An obedient dog that is what he is.
The strangest thing is that he couldn't find himself to care.
---///---
Schnee mansion
82 AFGR
Aegis POV:
Darkness.
"Ae..."
He didn't know how that happened, nor where he was. His eyes traveled through the empty westland, finally settling on the sole thing that didn't belong to such a dreary place.
There in the emptiness stood a woman with purple hair tied into a ponytail in a purple suit that hid none of her(s womanly proportions.
"Master." Aegis bent his head down, a sense of longing flaring in his chest.
How right the saying went, nobody knew what they lost until it's gone.
From the moment Aegis was born, he always wished to see his master once again, he wouldn't ever leave his family, but he saw his master as part of that family, and her not being close to him made his heart heavy.
"Stupid." There was a sense of pain as Aegis put a hand on his head, his eyes going up as he watched his master lose her customary indifference, a change of a slight smile that beautifully adored her face.
"I taught you how to control yourself, so use that knowledge I gifted you."
What? Aegis wanted to open his mouth and say something, but a sense of lethargy hit him hard as everything blurred.
"It is not time, not yet, my cute disciple." These were the last words Aegis heard until his eyes closed fully.
...
"Aegis!"
"Big brother?!" He felt small arms, bigger arms, multiple arms on himself as he returned to his senses.
When Aegis finally opened his eyes, the sight that greeted him was one of chaos.
Ren was holding Nora as her teary aqua-colored eyes watched him with a mix of fear and acknowledgment. Ren's pink eyes were filled with acceptance.
Around the servants swarmed a body that lay on the ground as Klein closed the doors and, with Ilia's, stopped anybody from taking out their scrolls.
Finally, Aegis looked down; there near him stood Winter, with one of her hands on his shoulder, her face full of worry, similar to his mother's, whose hand's held his own, and finally to his Weiss, whose hands were around his torso.
But what awakened Aegis most was the face of his little sister.
There on her pristine face, her almost doll-like face ran down blood, and memory finally seemed to come to Aegis.
He remembered that today was Weiss and Nora's tenth birthday. Aegis came a little late because of the gift he was making for them.
But as Aegis was making his way to the hall where the birthday party was in commence, he felt something wrong; his heart stopped as he released his hold over his senses, letting everything that happened in the vicinity, in the entire Atlas, flow his head, every sound, and sense assaulted Aegis mind, but one was the most important.
Weiss.
Aegis appeared in the hall as the wall blistered behind him, a miniature sonic boom following in his wake, but his eyes were just on one scene.
There on the floor sat Weiss, who held her face, and just right above her stood his father.
Jacques Schnee.
Whose hand just came down from the striking position.
The rest was just darkness, as Aegis came to his senses just now.
"Weiss..."
"Im alright, im alright, im alright." Weiss kept whispering as she held Aegis even more strongly, her tiny body trembling.
Aegis's eyes just caught his mother looking at the body that lay on the ground, just in time to see the maid shaking her head at Klein after inspecting the body. He saw her face flick through multiple emotions until just one stayed.
A determination, her hold on his hands tightened even more.
...
Aegis's hand slowly ran through the silky white hair of his little sister, who had her head on his lap, and her wound had already been taken care of by the family's doctor.
They were in their living room, the one that just the family members had access to, but as Winter and mother kept whispering about what to do, Aegis looked down at Weiss.
The new scar that ran vertically down her left eye and face made Aegis's mind troubled.
Some of the voices snickered, and others shot him worried emotions, as Aegis himself wasn't sure what to say.
Weiss had an activated aura.
Father Jacques Schnee, even if older, wasn't strong enough to overpower her aura. Aegis trained Weiss; even without aura, she should be able to evade a normal human his father was, even in shock or if he took her by surprise; Weiss shouldn't be hurt.
And yet, there she had, a clear sign of injury.
Aegis debated if he should ask her, but as he listened to her peaceful breathing, he ultimately chose to let the question go for now.
Now, there were other problems, and Aegis wanted to avoid making Weiss the center of attention she would become if he let him speak his query loudly.
"What done is done... I killed father." Aegis's words quieted his older sister and mother, both of who looked at him with a mix of negative emotions playing through their faces, but none of them were anger or hate.
"No!." Winter frostily said as she straightened herself, mother following suit.
"Your father, my loving husband, had an unfortunate medical heart failure. That is what our family doctor said and what everyone in the room saw, and that is what the world will know." Mother came close to him, kneeling down to Aegis level, bending over as to connect their foreheads.
"You did not kill him. Do you understand me, Aegis? You didn't do it."
"Mother..."
"No... I will not let them take you from me... No, just no." Mother whispered. Winter slowly came behind mother as she put her hands on her shoulder, but her clear blue eyes were on Aegis.
"You, you heard mother, heart failure. That's what happened."
In the end, Aegis just nodded, his eyes closing, but the warmth he felt from both of them filled his chest with warmth.
Aegis had no regrets about what he had done in his short period of rage, in which he lost control of himself and almost let the souls overtake him, almost releasing them into the world.
Just the afterthought of his master awakened Aegis in time before any whisp of the soul could leave its imprisonment inside his head.
But it was long enough for killing his father by his mere unrestricted presence, and one Aegis always made sure to suppress. Thankfully, it was just directed at Jacques, for it would kill everybody in the room, or even in Atlas, if Aegis fully lost his control.
It was his master who made sure that nothing serious could happen.
Master... Aegis's mind wandered to a woman who loved the purple color maybe too much. Even now, she watched over him.
And from the looks of it, not even the death of the Schnee patriarch burdened his family more than worry about what to do from now on...
Aegis just enjoyed the short-lived affection, knowing that soon the outside world would know of Jacques's ultimate demise.
