46

Chapter 46Notes:

Hey so fair warning this and tomorrow's chapter have got a fairly graphic depiction of violence that's been heretofore unseen in this fic and it involves Adam doing some shitty stuff so uh, like... be warned about that. I don't know exactly HOW graphic or unsettling it is for some people because it's not like, super duper graphic but it's a bit of a tonal shift. If you're squeamish about violence, just scroll to the end notes for a short summary of what happened in the chapter. There's also two pretty dramatic (but not gory or super visceral or anything) images in the chapter.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"No… no no no no no! You can't be here… you can't! This can't be happening, it can't be you!" Blake whispered, eyes wide and full of panic as she continued to take steps back- retreating behind Weiss and Yang as they all but closed ranks around her, with Penny stepping forward as well once she got a good look at the man before her. "You're- I left you behind!"

"Blake- what's going on? Who is this guy and why is he calling you his- his love?" Yang asked, glaring at Adam as she prepared her gauntlets, Ember Celica whirring as she swapped from her nearly depleted high impact shells to incendiary rounds, the napalm filled 4 gauge shells almost audibly whining as she clicked the secondary magazine into place with the comforting sounds of mechashift around her forearms. 

"He- he's Adam… my… my ex-boyfriend from the Fang," Blake admitted, drawing her weapons and trembling even as she took a combat stance- trying to stand resolute even with the sheer terror and trauma making her stance weak, her grip too tight, her muscles too tense.

"Whoever he is, if he's on the side of these criminals and that Torchwick rapscallion, he's going down," Weiss spoke, leveling Myrtenaster at the man and spinning the chamber as she prepared herself for what was sure to be a hard fight- if only because the man apparently named Adam was far more intimidating than the rest of his cronies.

"Adam Taurus, wanted criminal in all four Kingdoms, commander of the White Fang! Wanted for one hundred and thirteen counts of arson, two hundred and thirty six counts of murder, seventy nine counts of manslaughter, one hundred and eighty nine counts of aggravated assault, three hundred counts of armed robbery, and one hundred and twelve counts of interspecies terrorism among many other crimes!" Penny announced, her eyes shifting from their usual friendly appearance to something much colder and angry , the swords of Floating Array manifesting around her as she prepared to fight- all with the sounds of Ruby pinning down Roman Torchwick in the background. "You will not escape here, murderer! Now lay down your weapon and surrender quietly or we will use force!"

"Tch. Always relying on others to take the fall for you, Blake. Typical. You're a coward and a traitor to the cause- cozying up with humans, a SCHNEE no less!" Adam roared, doing the exact opposite of surrendering as he charged forward and entered combat without an ounce of hesitation. Instantly, he seemed to vanish from sight in a streak of bloody red and headed towards Weiss, the heiress gasping in surprise at how fast he was- only for an exploding blast of napalm to slam into his side out of nowhere and throw him off course with a cut off scream. 

"Leave her alone you fucking monster!" Yang shot back, cocking Ember Celica for another punch as she tracked Adam's movements- the White Fang terrorist leaping away as his Aura and sudden burst of speed put out the flames- with how fast Huntsmen and Huntresses could move and how Aura prevented the napalm from sticking, she knew he wouldn't have been overly inconvenienced by the hit. Too bad, that meant she'd have to hit him more . "Blake left the Fang! She's not a traitor because she wants to do the right thing! If anything, you're the asshole here!"

"You don't know anything!" Adam roared in response, throwing himself at Yang with a scream of primal fury, his sword glinting brilliant red even in the low light of the shipping yard, gleaming with Aura and active Dust as he slashed right at Yang's open right side-

Only for a gauntleted fist to smash into the side of the blade and knock him up and over the fiery blonde in an instant- sending him flying until he managed to right himself and skid to a halt against the asphalt with an enraged growl.

"Gonna have to try harder than that, bastard. My sister's fast enough to break the sound barrier," Yang snorted, thumbing her nose as she took on her standard combat stance, bringing her center of gravity lower as she kept a careful eye on everything she could see- not that there was much . In the light of the shipping yard, with so few active lights turned on, the man was black on black on gray, the only detailed parts of him being his flaming red hair and equally red sword. Still- she'd trained with a literal whirling dervish of black and red and howling teeth and fangs and claws. The man before her wasn't much of anything, even if he was a little fast and fought with a much more agile weapon than a nearly hundred pound scythe. Or two of them, even, considering what Ruby was doing to Torchwick- having disarmed the thief and locked both of her scythes around his now defenseless neck in a scissor motion, easily able to lop his head off if he made any stupid moves.

"And she has us," Weiss stated authoritatively, stepping up again and focusing on Adam- no longer surprised by his speed but eyeing the black clad White Fang commander with cold, calculating eyes. In an instant, she focused her Aura and formed a glyph- just in time too, as Adam surged forward with a cry of hate that carried him over the first glyph as it formed, but threw him into the second glyph just a hair too late to dodge.

A wave of force erupted from the spinning glyph, Wind Dust infused into the glyph blowing upwards in a tornado that took Adam off of his feet and into the air- followed shortly after by Yang and Blake, both of whom yelled out a cry of "Bumblebee!" at the same time- Blake's sounding almost desperate, Yang's full of confidence she caught Blake's thrown Gambol Shroud on the way up.

The wind died down moments later, and the scene was set, highlighted by the moon and a cage of glyphs that formed around the three combatants- Blake flipping in midair and flinging Yang higher with every ounce of her strength as the ribbon connecting the two grew taught and stretched and the dust infused silk snapped like a released rubber band and threw Yang up even as Blake pushed herself back down on the feet of a shadow clone, both of them glaring with grim determination as they prepared the team attack they'd only managed to perfect in the last week. 

The wind screamed, the glyphs shone, Ember Celica clacked into place with threatening fervor while Gambol Shroud found itself back in Blake's hands and unfolded into its katana form, her free hand grasping her sheath as a cleaver in reverse grip as she landed below with frightening speed and began to rebound off of the color changing glyphs.

In the midst of his disorientation, Adam barely managed to prevent Yang's fist from crashing into his torso as she rose like a flaming meteor into the sky, catching the punch on the flat of his blade and getting knocked to the side while Yang hit the roof of the glyph cage and Weiss began activating them in sequence- eyes darting about as the yellow and black pair turned into streaks of Dust and Aura and light, smashing into Adam again and again and again and knocking him about until one final hit knocked him clear out of range. Adam flew with a defeated sounding rush of air from his lungs, sword dropping from a half limp hand as he flew out of the cage and Blake and Yang landed heavily. Penny simply watched, Floating Array sheathing itself a moment later- having stood by and observed as the three Huntresses in training utterly decimated Adam Taurus with what seemed to be utter ease. Even if she should have stepped in, to insert herself into another team's attack would have only thrown off all of their combat prowess.

In the next few seconds, Adam's sword slammed into the ground, embedding itself tip first with a loud clang, and Adam himself… tucked and rolled through the air, having absorbed most of the damage into his blade even if he'd dropped it, all of the absorbed damage building and building and building into his Aura as he prepared to unleash his stored power. Even with his Aura low, even without his sword…

He glowed , and the energy of Moonslice surged through him as he instead channeled it through the sheath of his sword- the short-barreled rifle forming in his hand as he aimed himself on a trajectory that left him flying directly towards Ruby, who turned, distracted, towards the flying terrorist almost too late to even see him coming- the moment of distraction making her drop her weapons on some terrible instinct as she leaned ever so slightly back in surprise, eyes widening as the man rapidly neared her position. 

Adam slid to a halt, the tails of his coat fluttering in the wind as he wound up tucking the barrel of Blush below Ruby's chin- moving just fast enough that no one could really react in time. Ruby almost yelped and tried to move back, only for her previous closeness to Roman to backfire as the thief tangled his legs around hers and kept her from moving- not without ripping his legs off from the force- and made her stumble just enough to move her head a few inches back.

"Traitors to the cause must die. It's not personal," Adam hissed out, his voice low and dripping with menace as Blush burned with hellish crimson light, like veins of blood cracking through blackest night as the bullets within were supercharged with the sheer force of Adam's Semblance.

Moonslice activated, Blush fired, the bullet ignited and surged with reflected damage, and in a thunderous report…

Ruby Rose's head erupted into a shower of crimson petals that spread into the air like a grotesque mockery of a blood splatter.

[Boom.]

Silence. 

Pure, utter silence.

The world seemed to slow like molasses as the red Huntress toppled backwards slowly- tilting and falling as her legs went limp and the force of the shot carried her headless corpse backwards to the cold, hard, unforgiving ground.

"RUBY!"

[Pain.]

Notes:

Summary for those who skipped the chapter and don't want to scroll up (which, honestly fair. Triggers are triggers):

Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Penny fight Adam. Adam gets beat up quite a lot. Adam channels Moonslice into his gun instead of his sword. Adam uses Moonslice on Ruby. Yang thinks Ruby is dead. Chapter ends on cliffhanger.