Saying Goodbye

Sometimes you know something isn't a good idea. Yet, you do it anyway. Blake was in that situation. She stood looking out at the school. Beacon Academy. This was the school she wanted to go to. This was where she would change the world for the better. She wasn't able to do that in the White Fang. At least, not peacefully. She hoped to get in the school, but didn't know the school's stand on faunus. She would have to hide her ears.

"Quite the sight isn't it?" A voice startled her out of her thoughts. She knew that voice. It was the voice that haunted her dreams. After all, nightmares were dreams too. He stepped up next to her overlooking Beacon. He looked at her for a moment and once he realized that she wasn't going to answer he continued. "So this was your big plan? Or did you make it up as went? Enroll at Beacon, that'll do the trick! Then they'll finally see me as an equal! Really, Blake?"

She spun to look at him, forgetting about how she had left him on that train. "Just because you don't think it will work doesn't mean I won't try it! Stop trying to control me, Adam!"

He gently, as if handling a bird with a broken wing, picked up her hand. "You really think I'm controlling you? I'm not dragging you back to the White Fang am I? And last I checked, you volunteered to join the White Fang. I never controlled you. Unless you count me forcing you to train without a weapon, that is." He smiled before letting her hand go. "Come back, Blake. We can say that the train got too far before the explosives went off and the return journey took more time."

"Why did you follow me?" Blake's ears pushed up in a sign of aggression. "Why? I'm not that important to the White Fang. You can operate fine on missions without me. I don't need to go back."

Adam sat down on the edge of the precipice they were on. "Every last member is important to the White Fang, you are a great asset on missions, and I never said that you needed to go back. I just strongly encourage it." He patted the rock next to him. "Why don't you sit?"

Blake shook her head. She didn't want to socialize with him. She had to run from him. He was a monster who killed people. She didn't want to be with someone like that. "I don't think I will."

"Sit." Adam said in the "you better do what I tell you or I will make you do fifty push-ups" voice.

"No. I won't sit and have a nice little chat with a monster!" Blake only took two steps back before he was up on his feet.

"That's what you think I am, a monster?" His voice turned deadly. Adam reached up, slowly removing his mask. Blake involuntarily winced. "Monsters are the people who do this to others, monsters are the ones who create slaves, and monsters are the people that I am trying to stop!"

"Monsters also are the ones who kill people." Blake slowly pronounced each word with clarity and caution.

"Wouldn't that make you a monster too?" Adam placed two fingers under her chin which forced her to look at him. "Blake, there are two sides in a battle and you can't sit on the fence. You'll get twice the amount of bullets in your body that way. I need you to choose. Which side? The one that fights for equality or the one that fights for power? For you the choice should be easy."

"Adam, there has to be a better way. Violence isn't the only answer, we should try peacefully. Reacting with violence makes us the monsters they think we are."

"We already tried that and it got us nowhere." Adam growled. "Please, Blake. Don't become my enemy too."

Blake shook her head. "You have far too many enemies, Adam. I don't want to be one of them, but I'm not coming back to the White Fang. I'm going to try reasoning with the humans."

Adam pulled away in what seemed like disgust. "I don't want you to leave. Do the memories mean nothing to you? Does our cause mean nothing to you? Do I mean nothing to you?"

"That's not it! Of course I care about the memories, faunus equality, and… and…" Blake stared at the ground, unwilling to look Adam in the eye. "Of course I care about you, Adam. I'm sorry. I have to do this. The White Fang is changing and you don't care. I won't stand by that."

"Blake… I won't stop you." Adam was gone, just like that. He left Blake standing there. Alone. Blake slowly sunk to her knees. Tears pooled and overflowed. Sobs wracked her body. Who knew that saying goodbye could hurt this much? Adam's words echoed in her head.

"Wouldn't that make you a monster too?"