The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Bar Games

I let Adam into my house and then collected Autumn from Gou to spend a little time with her. I still had the clothes Adam had picked out for me back during the White Whale stuff and I changed into them slowly—well, 'slowly,' at least. I Accelerated myself, after all, burning thousands of MP in seconds to give Autumn a good meal, but I kept my movements as slow as I could despite that, being careful not to tear or break anything around me. In a few seconds, I was dressed and nearly out of MP, but could feel it returning swiftly. While my MP regeneration wasn't enough to keep up with me during a truly intense fight, it was just fine outside of battle, where I could regain the totality of my power in less than a minute and a half. As such, I decided to wait idly for a few seconds, considering myself in the bathroom mirror, making sure everything was in place before letting my gaze trail upwards.

Above my head floated the title of the White Rider, something that had remained even after woke from my sleep. I frowned at it for a minute, simply pondering it for a minute before opening my status screen and tapping it.

This title has no effect while 'On A White Horse He Rides' is below MAX.

I clicked my tongue once. So it and the skill of the same name required each other to function? That made it rather useless to me, at least right now. Later, I might continue to experiment with the Grimm skills I'd obtained during battle, but not today. There were safety concerns to consider, such as the fact that I'd never confirmed whether I could serve as a vector for the disease or not, and I sure as fucking hell wasn't going to test that without some serious precautions. Besides, as soon as I inflicted 'On A White Horse He Rides' on myself, the only way I could get rid of it would be to sleep again and I didn't have the time right now. It'd have to wait. But then, which title should I use?

Taping my new one, I considered the resulting window speculatively.

Grimm Reaper

Obtained by killing a Knight of Grimm. You have faced down and slain a true warrior of anonymity! As a true Hunter, walk fearlessly into the night and slay the enemies of Mankind!

120% increase in damage against Grimm.

120% increase in defense against Grimm.

+20 to beneficial status effects while fighting Grimm.

Not bad. Even if all the effects were limited to Grimm opponents, it was undoubtedly a very powerful title, giving me enormous benefits to both attack and defense while also increasing my Affinities. Ignoring the cost decrease, which was steadily becoming less and less of an issue, it was undoubtedly stronger than White Tiger of the West, within its focus. I didn't plan to fight Grimm tonight, but it was still a good thing to have on my side—especially with the opponents I knew I was going to face eventually. But for now…

"Hey, Adam," I asked, carrying the words with Levant instead of lifting my voice. "Are we going back to the club or what?"

"I guess we might as well," He said after a moment's pause. "Junior's not really one to volunteer information and even if he was, he wouldn't want the trouble turning against the White Fang would bring down on him. He's sure as hell not going to say anything while we're in his club. I mean, can you imagine? I doubt either of us has anything to fear from the police force, so he'd need to call in Hunters at the very least—and no matter who wins that fight, he'd definitely lose."

I thought of the air catching fire, of buildings being wrecked by proximity, and then thought of what would happen if such a battle took place inside Junior's club.

"Fair point." I said, bobbing my head once. "The White Fang is still on good terms with the Xiong family, then?"

"More or less," He answered, sounding distracted. "The Xiong don't usually take sides unless something big is happening, but the White Fang has been gaining power recently and they're happy to take advantage of having a working relationship with us. So yeah, good terms, I guess."

"Should I go as Jian Bing, then?" I mused. "We were both on TV when we hit the White Whale and we went to Junior's not too long before that. He wouldn't have gotten a good look at me what with Lenore on, but it's not a hard connection to make, is it?"

"Probably not," Adam considered.

"I can't really be seen with you as Jaune Arc," I continued. "No offense, but if something happens or we get recognized, that would cause all sorts of problems. I could put on another disguise, instead, but it's hard to get much more convincing that Jian—I mean, I change species, then. And a grow a tail. And nothing keeps me from putting a disguise over that, too."

"Guess not."

"I could tuck the tail away," I said. "Or just use a lower level title, though that doesn't make my face look as different. I'm wearing the same thing as last time, though, which is pretty different from my usual Jian Bing outfit. With my chest covered and my tail away, it's just the eyes and hair, really. I could tame the latter a bit, make myself look a little more civil, and done. Not a lot of people have actually seen Jian Bing, anyway, especially without one of my masks…"

"Uhuh," Adam agreed.

I changed my titles and wrapped my tail around my waist before tucking my shirt in. Just changing my titles didn't seem to improve my Disguise skill, despite how different it could make me look, but getting my hair under control seemed to count as part of it. Since most of my MP was back, I Accelerated again, got everything in order in about two seconds, and finished feeding Autumn.

Then I walked back to the front hall and saw Adam holding up Gou and looking into his open mouth.

"Now say words that start with 'b,'" Adam said.

"Bikes," Gou replied, doggy mouth forming the words just fine. "Bananas. Beauty. Birds—"

"How do you work?" Adam demanded before turning to look at me. "How does he work, Jaune? Hell, how did he even learn these words?"

"Are you still on that?" I asked, sighing before glancing at them both. "Put him down; he's at a higher level than you, anyway."

It was true. Looking about my friend's head, I saw that he'd gotten quite a bit stronger since the last time I'd seen him, but…

The Beast

LV44

Adam Taurus

"Oh, what," Adam sounded disgusted, but he did put Gou down, though the talking dog just panted happily at him. "But really, how the hell does he talk, Jaune? Did you know he can whistle?"

Gou whistled obediently when Adam glanced down him, my friend splaying a hand at me as he did.

"I did not," I admitted. "Nor do I currently know how he talks. I suspect it's either because he is my Familiar and gains experience when I do, or because of his rise in level. I thought we were going to go drink, though?"

"I—" Adam paused before frowning down at Gou again for a moment before continuing. "Yes. Yes, we are."

I chucked and moved to place Autumn back on Gou, which made the dog's tail wag even faster.

"Take care of her, okay?" I asked.

"Of course," Gou answered seriously. "I'll protect her no matter what?"

I scratched him once behind the ears and then stood, jerking my heads towards the door and then leading the way out back. I'd checked the entire area around my house thoroughly and the camera's Ozpin had once put nearby on my father's orders were long gone, nor was there anyone in a position to see us nearby—but just in case, I didn't want anyone to peak out a window and see two terrorists leaving the Arc residents. As such, I led Adam into the forest instead, walking easily through it despite the cloudy, moonless night, and taking a winding route to emerge a few streets down. Adam had come in the back, too, so it was best to keep things simple and continue to stay out of sight.

Adam caught up in just a minute and fell into place beside me, shaking his head a little.

"I just don't get it," He said. "He seems like a normal dog, physically, but he shouldn't be able to generate such a human sounding voice in that case."

"You're choosing a pretty odd hill to die on in terms of what you'll accept," I noted, smiling. "I know for a fact this isn't the weirdest thing you've seen around me."

"I accept it just fine," Adam shrugged. "I just want to know how it works, is all. It's not telepathy or anything; he's definitely making sound. Is it like that voice thing you do, then?"

"Maybe," I considered. "I'll check it out latter. I'm with you on wanting to know how it works, but…I just can't be bothered to, right now."

"Right," Adam shook his head again and looked up at the sky for a moment. After a moment, he sighed. "How are doing?"

It wasn't hard to figure out what he was referring to. If anything, I was pretty sure that the entire Gou thing was Adam's awkward attempt to cheer me up a bit. It explained why Gou had been listening to him without question, and how timed the 'b' sound and whistling thing had been. I appreciated that, so I smiled at him.

"Not great," I said honestly. "But I'm okay. I'm alive and I'll keep going until I get better."

Adam nodded, looking solemn and serious.

"My mother died," He said, surprising me a bit. "Before the Revolution. When things were bad…she gave her life to save mine. I blamed a lot of people for that—others, myself, Humans, Faunus, the world—and for the longest time, I thought…I knew I owed her more than I could ever pay back. But I lived my life, trying to anyway. It took me a long time to realize that she didn't because of me, that debts didn't factor into it. She gave her life to save mine because she loved me, simple as that. She did it, because she believed that giving me a chance to live was worth losing her own. That…that wasn't an easy lesson for me to learn, but…but I managed to figure it out eventually. And I tried to…well, you know how my story went."

I nodded, my expression as serious as his own.

"My father," I began after a moment before cutting off as he lifted a hand.

"Drinks first," He said, making me smile. "Have to do this right, you know? Tradition and all."

"Oh?"

"I don't make the rules," He shrugged. "I just get plastered because of them."

"Far be it from me to break the laws of alcohol, then," I chuckled. Then I looked at him for a moment. "Blake came to say goodbye to me."

He nodded once, staring straight ahead.

"I figured."

"I asked her if there was anything she wanted me to tell you," I continued. "But she said you knew everything important."

He looked down at that and took a deep breath.

"I suppose I do." He mused before going quiet. We traveled in silence for a minute or two before he spoke again. "After she left…Blake and I had been heading for a mission. When she didn't come back, I went and did it alone. There was a train heading into Vale—Schnee Company, Dust, you know. The plan was to set charges and blow it up."

"Oh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"There were people onboard," He continued. "It didn't matter. But…for some reason, I didn't feel like killing anyone that day."

I closed my eyes and smiled again.

"That's good," I said. "What did you do, then?"

"Broke some robots," He answered. "Cut the line and stole a train car."

I snorted.

"Well, it's no White Whale, but I guess it's something," I drawled and he gave me the finger absently. "The White Fang say anything about it."

"A little bit," Adam shrugged. "But I told them you had different orders for me and they shut up. After the mining town and all, figured you wouldn't mind. Came into town to tell you and a friend told me that something big must have happened, because a few Hunters died in action. The name Arc came up and…you know the rest."

"Yeah," I said. "Thanks."

He nodded once.

"But seriously," He spoke after another moment of silence. "Tell me you have some use for a train car full of Dust."

I smiled a little wider and bumped his shoulder, chuckling slightly.

"You have good timing," I said, turning to look at him. "Really. Thank you, Adam. I'm glad you're here."

"Yeah, well," He smirked. "I guess I didn't have anything better to do."

Perhaps half an hour later, we'd reached our destination. We could have gotten there a lot faster, but neither of us were in a rush and it was a nice night, so we traveled at a sedate pace. At night, moving through Vale was easy, even for a pair of wanted terrorists, so neither of us encountered any issues. When we got to the club, no one but Junior even cast us a glance over the lights and the music, and the owner himself merely watched us for a long moment before sighing deeply and then leaving us be.

He'd probably chalked us both up as way too much trouble. In his shoes, I'd probably have done the same.

When we were sure there wouldn't be any issues caused by our presence, the two of us sat down at the bar and ordered our drinks. Well, Adam ordered our drinks; I didn't really know much about alcohol, honestly. He got us both something called Nectar, a golden colored liquid in a tall glass, and we drank together. As for the taste, honestly, I found it neither pleasant nor unpleasant, but there was a certain bitter-sweetness to the drink. I'd say that if nothing else, it matched my mood. I had barely taken four swallows of it before a window appeared before me, though.

A skill has been created through a special action! Through the endurance of dangerous substances, the skill 'Poison Resistance' has been created!

I immediately stopped drinking and Observed the drink carefully, alarmed by the message. For a moment, I wondered if someone was taking this chance to kill me, if I had been betrayed—but no. It was just a normal, if alcoholic, drink. I guess that was enough to make it count to my power. Because alcohol was something that could harm the body, I guess my ability had responded, though that kind of made me wonder how it measured the distinction of 'poisonous.'

Either way, I guess it didn't make much difference now, did it? With my power…with the skill I'd just gained and the increase to experience my new Wisdom skills gave me…I'd probably improve this ability in no time. Without even glancing at the skill's window, I could tell this was another passive ability, so…

I sighed quietly, swirling the contents of my glass. I'd seen this coming a long time ago, hadn't I? Back then, I'd told Adam I was saving my first time drinking for something special for this very reason, so I really couldn't say I was surprised, could I? And I guess that the defense this power offered was worth it if it'd protect me in the future, so…this was okay. But…

Ii didn't seem like Adam's plan to have me drink my troubles away was going to see much in the way of success, but I didn't have it in me to ruin the mood. Even if it didn't work out in practice, I truly appreciated the thought, so I wouldn't say anything about it now. For that reason, I finished off the rest of the glass and put the drink down.

"My father," I began again after he'd finished his as well. Just in case anyone was listening over the music, I made sure that our words wouldn't carry far, as well as that our own words would carry over the background noise. "He took me with him on a mission, once he decided I was ready. We'd trained, fought each other, and he figured I'd be okay. I was just going to be support, anyway—the healer. Pretty much like I was going to be on the White Whale mission, which in hindsight should have set off some alarm bells, but…"

I shrugged, lifted a hand to wave down the bartender. If I wasn't going to get drunk tonight, I might as well make sure I was pretty damn hard to poison. Out of the corner of my eye, I was Adam turn his face towards me, but he didn't say anything, even when I paid the bartender to top us both off.

"Don't tell anyone about this next part, yet," I said, organizing my own thoughts and deciding what to say. "I'll talk to Raven about it soon, but everything is sort of…messed up, at the moment. There's a lot she'll want to hear and a lot more that's just not going to be believable unless it comes from me, but these are the basics. What should have been routine turned out to be something a lot bigger. The villagers thought a few Grimm had broken in but there was an entire army right beneath their feet, moving through underground caverns. Reinforcements were called—my mom's team—but there were…thousands of them and they all came pouring out as soon as my mom arrived. They'd been waiting for more hunters specifically."

I drank the entire second glass like it was water and shrugged at him with a half-smile.

"Things got worse from there," I said. "Crom Cruach attacked us, shattering all the barriers I'd put in place. More and more Grimm followed after it, enough to wipe the town from the map. But the biggest thing, what made everything go wrong was…there were Pandora Shells. A Deathstalker carried them up and Crom Cruach broke them himself."

Adam followed my example with his own glass, chugging it with a little more difficulty, and then exhaling hard. For a moment, he was silent—speechless, even—but after a few seconds, he put his glass down and shook his head slightly.

"Well, fuck," He said.

"Mm," I agreed. "I guess you can imagine the rest. I…well, I was immune to the infection, but the others weren't. My mom nearly died several times and came out of it missing three limbs. Most of the others just got infected. Including…including my father. And I…I killed them. A guy on my mom's team that she used to date, a married couple on my dad's, and my own father. I tried to save them, did everything I could, but in the end I failed. I tried so hard and it still wasn't enough, so I ended it myself."

"Shit, Jaune," Adam whispered.

"There's other stuff," I continued. "I learned a lot, really. About the Grimm, about my own power, about…other stuff. I'll speak to Raven about it as soon as I can, but…that stuff, it's bad but…it's not why, you know."

"I know," He answered, seeming to understand. After a moment of silence, he continued as well. "I told you my mother was killed before the Revolution. What I didn't say was that it wasn't by humans."

I raised an eyebrow at that, looking at him in surprise as the pieces fell into place. He smiled grimly at my expression but nodded.

"Yeah," He confirmed. "I guess you wouldn't expect it from me, huh? Given what I am now. But in the early days, Menagerie was…Menagerie was a hellhole. Faunus from all around the world, abruptly shoved into the same room. I guess a lot of people don't think about it, but when you take that many people from that many walks of life and put them together like that, the results…"

He shook his head again.

"Even back then, Faunus were a mixed bag," He mused, as if to himself. "Most of us had been treated horribly by humans, but not all. My father…I don't even remember him, but he wasn't…he was a human. My mother spoke of him, sometimes, said he loved her. I guess some people from our town remembered him, too, because word got out eventually and…you know. It was like that for a lot of people, too, even those that weren't like me. We didn't have a government, didn't even have anything like a civilization in Menagerie. People were scared and angry and had no one to take it out on but each other. Even if we're Faunus, we came from all walks of life and all across the world, and for a good while, I thought we hated each other more than we hated humans. At the very least, I hated us more than humans."

He touched his drink but paused when he realized he'd emptied it. I waved down the somewhat concerned looking bartender again, but he topped us off again and we drank again, this time more leisurely.

"After my mother, I was nothing," Adam continued. "A nobody in a world of nobodies—but I hated the people who'd taken her from me and that kept me going. I got a weapon somewhere, some knife I stole, and practiced every day until I was good with it. I still remember when I caught up with the bastard who held down my mother…but there were others. They called us animals, in those days, and if you'd seen Menagerie, you'd have believed it. Now, I understand why. Now, I know what poverty and starvation and terror can do, what having no defense from the Grimm can drive a man to, what needing to provide from a family in a world out to murder us all can mean. But back then I didn't know and I didn't care. I traveled Menagerie for…a year? And I killed people that I didn't think deserved to be called such. I got a reputation, was hated and feared. I was still a nobody, but most of us had been civilians at the time and I was strong enough to be a nightmare for people. And sometimes, that's all I was. I didn't give a shit why we were in Menagerie or whose fault it was; I was just an angry punk, lashing out. Until I met Raven."

"What happened?" I asked.

He took a deep swallow and then a deeper breath.

"She kicked my fucking ass," He said. "She was a Hunter, even back then, and a certified badass. I didn't even have an awakened Aura at the time and I fought her with a rusty knife. I think it was over in less than a second, but I don't actually remember how long it took her to knock me out. I remember being surprised I ever woke up, though. But Raven…she spared me and then she did more than that. She saved me, took me in. I don't know if she pitied me or saw something in me, but I was just an animal before her, and she taught me everything. Raven…she made order from that chaos and I followed her for years, helping people instead of hurting them, saving people instead of killing them. Things got better and I began to see in others what she must have seen in me. I never forgave the people who took my mother, but I stopped letting it turn me against others, and I began to see what had been done to innocent people. When the time for the Revolution came, I fought for them, not because they were my people but because I believed I should—and I never turned back."

I nodded to him once and we both took another drink. As I removed my glass from my lips, though, I had to sigh.

"Fuck," I said. "And there's my bad luck, acting up again. I hate to do this, but…"

"What?" Adam asked, the beginnings of a slur finally touching his voice. "What's wrong?"

"Don't look now, but it's that one asshole," I said, tilting my head slightly to the side. I didn't look his way and I didn't have to, instead watching him in the dozens of reflective surfaces around the club. I wasn't one to forget faces and I recognized this one even though I'd only seen him once, months ago. Red hair, white suit, grey scarf, and a black bowler hat, he stood out, if only to me. Adam had mentioned his name once, called him 'Torchwick.'

Despite my words, Adam did in fact look, eyes sharp behind red sunglasses.

"Ignore him," He said, sounding annoyed.

"You sure?" I asked. "Last time we met, he kind of screwed us over. You especially."

"I know," Adam said with a grunt. "But the White Fang has business with him, supposedly. For now, we're to leave him be and there's talk of more than that."

I considered that, frowning slightly. Even if nothing came from it, even if it may have actually save me in the end, I couldn't really say I was fond of a guy who'd program robots to attack randomly as a distraction.

But then, Adam had been the one to stand between those robots and innocent people, even at risk to himself. And I didn't really want to start a fight right now, especially not in a crowded and relatively confined space.

I sighed and nodded.

"Very well, then," I said, shrugging even as I listened into him hiring men from Junior. I settled for not looking at his reflection, at least, though I did track him with Levant. "Another round?"

"Please."

I waved down an increasingly worried-looking bartender and watched him for a moment. He made to open his mouth, probably to say something about 'drinking in moderation' and 'alcohol poisoning' but seemed to think better off it. Adam and I continued to enjoy our drinks and in a minute I felt Torchwick moving away and tried to remove him from my thoughts as well.

It turned out to be pretty easy, as something else drew my attention mere moments later.

"Hey, Adam," I said conversationally even I focused back on the reflections around me. I absently rolled the half-full glass in my fingers, feeling contemplative. "Someone appears to have our host by the literal balls."

Adam looked again, focusing on the flash of blonde that stood out in the bar's mirrors. From the current angle, I couldn't see her face and I was trying to decide if I cared enough to do anything. I saw a bunch of men in black suits that I recognized as Junior's lackeys approach the scene, but…

My friend blinked once behind his glasses and closed his eyes for several seconds, as if trying to focus his way back to sobriety.

"Seems like," He said at last, actually sounding pretty focused. "Does she seem familiar to you?"

The girl let Junior go and the two began to move away. As they did, I turned towards them, catching sight of the girl's profile from the side and from several dozen gleaming surfaces. Looking at her, it was easy to make the connection, even before I saw the words above her head.

The Sun That Chases the Night

LV 42

Yang Xiaolong

I recognized the name, though I'd only heard it once. Taiyang Xiaolong, a man who'd been on the same team as Raven Branwen. My grandmother had mentioned something about them before but I hadn't really considered it beyond that—to be completely honest, I just hadn't had any interest in who Raven had been with in the past, since it hadn't done much to make her less terrifyingly dangerous in the present.

Still, she looked just like her mother.

"Come on, let's kiss and make up, okay?" I heard her say, smiling brightly at Junior. The older man seemed surprised at the suggestion but also seemed to accept it. A moment later, both of them were leaning towards each other.

Well, if it was good enough for him, I guess that was that. Shrugging slightly to myself and resolving to leave Raven's business be, I turned back to my drink and lifted it to my lips.

Behind me a glass pillar shattered as Junior was punched straight through it, the people on the dancefloor abruptly starting to scream and run away. I finished my drink, put the glass down, and looked at it quietly, while Adam watched the scene with a frown. I waited for the rest of the civilians to run out of the building and then sighed deeply.

Then I rose from my seat.

"I guess we should go do something," I told my friend. "Are you sober enough to give a shit right now?"

"Sadly, yes," Adam said and tilted his head slightly. "And there goes the bartender. Wonderful."