Servant's in Remnant Chapter 17 - part 2

Blake and Chiron

A loud thud echoed through the backyard of the orphanage, a chorus of groans and cheers following from the sidelines.

Blake didn’t allow herself any time to register the ache before she flipped herself onto her feet, instantly assuming a fighting position -

Just in time to roll to the side as a large mass rammed the spot where she used to be. Coming out of her roll, she quickly lashed out and landed several blows before she backed away, cheers resounding from the sidelines.

“Your reflexes are excellent as usual,” Chiron complimented her with a smile as he spun around on his hooves, “precise, but still you need to put more force into them.”

She gave a light shrug, taking the small break for what it was and struggled to breath normally and got into a ready stance.

He hadn’t called the fight yet. She wasn’t going to fall for that one again…

“Only the strong or the foolish speak during a fight, and a depressing amount are the latter as opposed to the former.”

He looked pleased at her readiness, “Your endurance at least is to be commended.” He mused, probably to see if she would say anything. “Though I think Heracles and Theseus would be confused at the acrobatics you’ve incorporated into their style.”

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that. He was the one that had been insisting she mix various moves he knew into her usual style.

Giving a small smile of approval he launched himself at her once more. She leaped up and grabbed onto an arm, attempting to leverage him off balance, only to be thrown off.

She let out a small curse even as she landed on her feet, and in a flash she was exchanging blows with the horse Faunus once more, to the cheers of the children.

It wasn’t like she had been bad at hand-to-hand before, but it was mostly the basics. Apparently it wasn’t up to Chiron’s standards.

The horse Faunus was a brutal taskmaster. More so than the White Fang instructors she’d trained with. Even with Aura healing her she knew she was going to be sore all over.

The main thing that kept her from being severely disappointed in herself was that she was doing much better than she expected for somebody that hadn’t sparred in over a month.

Ever since the day I ran away.

She shuddered at the memory, only to barely dodge a strike from her opponent as he attempted to take advantage of her distracted state.

Looking back on it, it had been idiotic of her to come to the orphanage after she ran away. Adam wasn’t stupid, surely he would make the connection. But after everything that had happened that night it had been the only place she could think of.

Chiron might have (somehow) convinced her to stay, but she still did what she could to minimize any risk. That meant no giving any indication her Aura was unlocked, avoiding anywhere that people might expect her to go, and wearing a disguise at all times.

Now, after a month and a half, she was finally comfortable with pushing some of those boundaries.

She dodged another grapple, grimacing as she felt the unfamiliar sensation of wind on the back of her neck.

Her hair, formerly jet black, was now a dull brown, its once proud length now cut at her shoulders. Throw in some civilian clothes, keeping away from the white and black ensemble that she was known for, and nobody would give her a second glance.

She had always been rather proud of her hair. To cut it so short was a necessary precaution, but she regretted the necessity.

She was torn out of her thoughts as the next hit sent her sprawling onto the ground, the force enough to feel through her Aura.

Chiron clapped just as she was about to get up and she collapsed on the ground. “That’s enough for today.” He declared, giving her a faint smile before looking at the surrounding children, “And that’s it for all of you as well. Sierra will have lunch ready soon, so go ahead and clean up. If any of you show up dirty again then you might be my next sparring partner.”

The groans of disappointment swiftly turned to brief shrieks of panic, and in a flash they were the only ones in the yard.

Chiron let out a small chuckle and reached out to her, “I must admit, for being out of practice I’m quite impressed with your endurance.”

She huffed, accepting his hand when he offered it. “That is what Aura is for,” she replied absently, hissing a bit as she stretched. “Did you expect me to be too tired to move?”

She didn’t want to bring up that with the way Chiron taught it was a distinct possibility. At this point, it was mostly her pride that was pushing her.

He hummed a bit, “I’m merely pointing out that it’s a good sign,” he replied. “Incorporating grappling and boxing moves into your hand to hand combat exercises different muscles than what you are used to. Everybody needs time to get used to different styles of combat.”

She felt her ears flatten against her head as her eyes narrowed, “I don’t want to hear that from you.” She replied flatly.

The day before she had shown him her weapon, Gambol Shroud. The horse Faunus had looked at it with interest for all of five minutes before he was using the kusarigama/katana hybrid like he had been training with it for years.

He didn’t use it like her - his body prevented him from using acrobatics and spins to accelerate the blades to dangerous speeds as she did - but he was competent enough. Just the fact that he was able to use her personal weapon so easily was more than a little aggravating in her opinion.

“Trust me, you’ll be surprised by some of the things you can be capable of with more experience.” He replied, but she could definitely see laughter in his eyes. “Most of my students only focused on one or two weapons, but a few mastered as many as they could. Heracles in particular…” he shook his head at some memory.

She raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but let it go for the moment even as she filed the information away.

“Are you still up for going into town later this evening?” He asked suddenly.

Blake nodded. “It’s been long enough that nobody should be looking actively for me anymore. And I’ll need to do it at some point, right?”

“And you trust this man?”

She hesitated this time before giving a slow nod. “He’s one of my friends. A good man.” She said with confidence she didn’t fully feel.

She thought Adam was a good man too, and look where that led her.

Chiron’s expression turned to one of encouragement. “If that is the case, I look forward to meeting with him.” He said warmly. “If he is not…” he trailed off with a shrug.

She rolled her eyes, “Then you can defend your poor helpless student to your heart's content.” She drawled sarcastically, regaining a bit of her good mood.

Chiron’s lip twitched upward, “My student is helpless, is she?” He mused, his eyes sparkling with mischief that instantly made her tense. He shook his head in mock sadness. “I suppose as her teacher I must spend more time correcting that.”

Oook, he’s just joking. Absolutely. But just in case…

“So how are the archery lessons with the younger kids going?” She quickly changed the subject, and she breathed a sigh of relief as their conversation shifted to more lighthearted subjects as they made their way back into the orphanage, where Blake swiftly split off to help the manager Sierra with various chores.

She was gathering laundry up, listening to the shrieks of the children as they fought for a spot in the bathrooms, and managed a smile. Life at the orphanage was… Nice.

Not ‘peaceful’ - the number of kids destroyed any chance of that. She was constantly using her skills to stay away from the louder (aka, the majority) of the children, the constant noise was grating, and it felt like she was busier than ever doing various minor chores… But she found it nice nonetheless.

Blake didn’t like hurting people. She never had. She joined the White Fang to help people, to fight for equality, and if peaceful means wouldn’t work then she had no problem fighting for it.

Except it wasn’t helping bring equality.

It would be one thing if it was actually working, but in the years she’d joined the White Fang Faunus were treated the same as they always had. In many cases, they were actually being treated worse as fear against the White Fang grew.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t done any good - they robbed supplies and gave it to Faunus communities that needed it, they fought back against anti-Faunus groups and protected those that were targeted by them, they helped protect less protected Faunus communities from Grimm -  but for every faunus she had helped she could recall twice as many humans that had been hurt, or had seen hurt. And that wasn’t even accounting for what she suspected went on in the other cells or even behind her own back.

Yet still she continued. Because she wanted to believe that what they were doing would one day succeed. She wanted to believe that everything would be worth it in the end, that she hadn’t wasted years of her life.

She wanted to believe in Adam, the man she had fallen in love with.

Yet for all my belief in him, how much did he have in me?

She couldn’t help the flinch as a wave of fear and disbelief swept through her, and with practiced effort she shoved it down.

That didn’t matter anymore.

For the first time in years there was no moral dilemma. Helping at the orphanage, she was helping both faunus and human children, small though the group may be.

It brought her more relief than she expected.

Having an actual bed, a roof over her head, regular meals, and access to books might have been contributing to that…

Still, she couldn’t do this sort of thing forever. As nice as it was in the short-term, this wasn’t something that she wanted to do for her life, and it felt like a waste of her skills. Chiron was fond of asking what her plans for the future were, what she wanted to do, and she had made her decision.

She had a plan. If all went well, she would be beyond any White Fang repercussions and would still be able to help the Faunus.

A win-win.

She let out a deep breath. This would be the first time she would be testing her disguise in public. She’d gone on infiltration missions before, this would be just like that.

She just needed to blend in, and everything would work out. She could do that.

“This is not blending in.” She hissed furiously to Chiron, who only let out a laughter that was completely inappropriate to the situation in her opinion.

“Part of blending in is acting as if everything is normal.” He replied with a smile, “In that, I think we are doing an admirable job.”

“With me on your back?!”

When they had left the orphanage, she had been caught completely off guard when Chiron decided to lift her up and place her on his back before heading out. Since she was pretending to be a civilian, that meant she couldn’t just jump off without making a scene. Especially with everybody’s eyes on them.

She had no idea why she thought going anywhere with Chiron would be blending in. The horse faunus drew eyes from faunus and humans alike. Vale might be one of the better kingdoms in its treatment of faunus, but Chiron was the only faunus that would walk down the street with confidence like this and get away with it.

He shrugged, “I’ve walked down here enough times that people know me, and they’ve seen me give rides to the other children.” He said lightly, “Nothing about this is unusual in the least. And you are doing a wonderful job acting as an embarrassed teenager.”

She was a civilian… Civilians don’t attempt to strangle others…

Not in view of others anyways.

She grit her teeth in frustration, “Well, it’s inappropriate, isn't it? I mean, just because you’re a horse faunus doesn’t mean you should be treated as a horse. It gives the wrong image.”

He turned his head and looked at her curiously, “I see men carrying kids on their shoulders all the time.” He noted easily, “Surely nobody would accuse them of being a simple beast of burden.”

“But that’s with children!” She knew she looked embarrassed, but surely he could see the issue, right?! “It’s different for family!” Probably.

He nodded in satisfaction, “Good, then that will help sell the deception, won’t it?”

Nope, he didn’t see the issue. Worse, it reminded her of the other thing she was upset about.

She suppressed a groan, hiding her face against his back. “Did you have to tell those people that I was your daughter?” The whole thing brought to mind her complicated relationship with her actual parents. An issue that she couldn’t afford to untangle right then.

“No,” he admitted, “but it explained who you were and what you were doing with me rather handily I thought.”

She let out a small growl, “It’s a terrible excuse.”

He sighed sadly, “Such an ungrateful daughter I have.” He lamented. “Just for that, I won’t be telling you about your sisters. Endeis would be so disappointed...”

“My what?!”

“Ah, We have arrived,” Chiron declared as he stopped outside a small, quiet looking store, effectively cutting off her own exclamation.

She glared at him briefly, but shakily got off and grimaced.

She might have aura, but with no experience riding horses her muscles were hurting…

Still, she hid it as best as she could and she looked up at ‘Tuckson’s Book Trade’, feeling a spike of nervousness.

Chiron didn’t say anything, but his presence helped calm her. She hoped this wouldn’t turn into a fight… But if it did, the backup would be appreciated.

They walked into the bookstore and she found herself relaxing at the familiar sight of books. Stack upon stack filling the shelves. This place had been a refuge more than once, a place where she could be alone.

She walked up to the counter and rang the bell. Moments later, a large man with dark sideburns came out of the back with a pleasant smile. “Welcome to Tuckson’s Book Trade!” He greeted. “Home to every book under the sun!” He glanced at her, but his eyes widened as he took in Chiron.

“Well, this is a surprise,” he murmured. “What can I do for the Centaur of Vale?”

Blake blinked. The ‘Centaur of Vale’? She shook her head, “He’s with me Tuckson.”

He turned back towards her with a frown, but after a moment his eyes widened in shock. “B-Blake?” He gasped, “Is that you girl?”

She gave a small nod, “It’s good to - ?!” She was cut off as Tuckson came around the counter and gave her a hug.

“Damn, where in Remnant have you been all this time?” He growled out as he released her and gave her a look. “You just vanished without a trace and Adam was left saying you were a traitor. What happened?!”

She looked down, “I’m sorry, but, after some things happened I had to get away, and I wasn’t sure who to trust.” she trailed off and shook her head.

Chiron spoke up, “I’ll give you two some privacy.”

She frowned, “You don’t have to,” she protested, and he smiled at her.

“Reunite with your friend. It’ll make it more comfortable without a third set of ears I’m sure.”

Translation, it would make Tuckson more comfortable. Chiron already knew everything.

The moment he left to peruse the shelves Tuckson waved her to the back room, “I’ve got chairs over here. You can begin explaining what all actually happened.”

She followed him into another room with several stacks of books and sat down in the offered chair. “You know the last job I went on?” She quickly verified. “We were raiding a Schnee warehouse, and the security was better than expected. In the middle of the fight, several kids almost became involved. They’d have died had Chiron hadn’t charged in and helped. And Adam…” she winced at the memory, “Adam didn’t care. Because they were ‘humans’.”

When did that change? Surely Adam hadn’t always been like that. Since when did it become acceptable for children of any race to die?

Steeling herself, she forged on. “We had an argument after that, and I left to talk to Chiron and make sure the kids were alright. During our talk, he recommended I take a break. Give myself some time away from everything.”

Tuckson raised an eyebrow, “oh? Like I’ve been telling you you’ve needed for the past year?”

She smiled without any humor, “I never felt overworked,” she replied honestly. “It was what Adam said that convinced me.”

He winced, “Fair enough.” He allowed.

She let out a deep breath, “I went back to base. Adam had been waiting for me. We talked, and I brought up the idea of taking a small break. He… didn’t approve. When I still pushed for it, he asked if I was thinking of leaving.”

She hadn’t ever truly pushed back on his decisions. Not seriously anyways.

‘After everything we’ve been through together, you’re going to throw it away because some humans might have gotten hurt?!’

“I told him no. He didn’t believe me.” She said flatly. “When I continued to push, he grabbed me. I resisted.” She let out a hollow laugh, “He struck me. I ran. Other members saw me running away, tried to stop me, and I got away.”

Tuckson growled, “That… Adam said you were planning on betraying the White Fang. That that was why he attacked you.”

She shook her head tiredly, “I was just planning on taking a break. I would have returned.”

He nodded slowly, “And now?” He asked cautiously, “Had you come to me after it happened we could have countered Adam’s story. Sienna Khan knows you, and I would have stood with you. Plenty of other members would have as well. We could have gotten Adam punished. Demoted and relocated at the very least.”

She sighed, “I know.” She admitted. “At the time, I couldn’t really process it. And when I could… I wasn’t sure I wanted to come back.”

He raised his eyebrow in silent urging, and she complied after a moment's hesitation. This is the moment she was dreading.

“What Adam said… He’s hardly the only one with those thoughts. And it’s becoming more prevalent. If things continue to get worse, I might have even left on my own. As it stands, it feels like I should use this to just cut ties.”

Sure, she could have gone back. Adam would be replaced. But people would remember his claims, and Adam had his share of supporters. He’d always been very passionate and charismatic. She’d be watched, and if she did decide to leave, who knew if she’d be able to.

Tuckson breathed in sharply at her words, and she watched him carefully. Surprised, understanding, resignation.

After a while, he gave a nod. “Ok. What do you need from me?”

Startled, she looked at him in confusion, and he chuckled. “What? I’m not in the habit of keeping members against their will. If you want to leave, that’s your choice, and you aren’t wrong by any stretch of the word. But you came here for more than to tell me that, which means you want something from me.”

Relief flooded her mind, and it was all she could do to collapse at his words. “Thank you,” she breathed out, “and, uhm, even if I’m not coming back, I’d appreciate it if you could spread what really happened. Without me coming in I don’t know if it will actually do anything,  but I’d rather people knew the truth.”

“Done.” He said instantly, “Is that it?”

She bit her lip, “I need an ID and papers.”

He folded his arms and thought about it, “That’ll take a bit longer, but I can do it. What sort of information do you need on it? Going to another Kingdom? Vacuo?”

She smirked, “Not at all. Actually, this needs to be completely legal.” She took a deep breath, “I want to go to Beacon and become a Huntress.”

Chiron spent many evenings talking about choices and options with her. In the end, she couldn’t ignore the reasons she joined the White Fang to begin with. She was already well trained, and as a Huntress she’d have the authority and ability to help.

Tuckson’s eyes shot open in surprise, “A Huntress?!” He exclaimed before looking contemplative. “Actually, I suppose I can see it. But you want everything to be legal? Your actual name?”

She nodded, “Entrance exams are in seven months.” She explained, “I didn’t go to a combat school, so I’ll need to score high enough on the exam. Beacon is the best of the Huntsman Academy’s, and I really don’t want to test their security. Everything needs to be legal.”

Once she was a student she wouldn’t need to worry about revenge from the White Fang. If they were to attack her then, then the entire school would come down on them. She’d be safe.

… Relatively speaking.

Tuckson thought about it before giving a heavy nod, “That will take a bit longer, and I’ll need you here to fill some stuff out, but I can definitely help.” He answered. “I assume you’ve never had an ID?”

She shook her head, “I’ve been in the wilderness for the most part. Never needed one.”

“Alright, that’s a good place to start then. I’ll get the process started. Just come by in a couple days and we can go over everything.”

She smiled, “Thank you Tuckson. I really appreciate it.”

He let out a chuckle, “Did you think I’d turn you away at the door? I’m honestly surprised that you didn’t come to my place for shelter right away.”

She shrugged, “I found someplace.”

He smirked, “Like an orphanage perhaps?” He chuckled when she tensed up. “Relax, I connected the dots when I saw who you came in with.”

Her ears perked with interest, “So you know Chiron?” She asked.

“I know ‘of’ him.” He corrected her. “The guy suddenly appeared a couple months ago and started helping out that failing orphanage. Local gangs learned real fast not to mess with him, and other people in the area are looking up to him. Nobody has ever heard of a faunus with that large of a trait, so it’s marked him as unique. Most people just call him the Centaur.”

“Huh,” she hadn’t realized that Chiron had been making that many waves… Not that it surprised her.

“Is there anything about him that you could share?” He asked curiously. “Nobody seems to know anything about him, and he came from nowhere.”

She hesitated for a second, but nodded after a moment. The entire time that she’d known Chiron he’d never seemed like he was hiding anything, and he gave pieces away in his stories to the children all the time.

… And if Tuckson could use his sources to uncover more about her mysterious teacher, then she wasn’t going to say no.

Chiron hid a smile with practiced ease as they left the bookstore, with Blake carefully kept out of reach during their walk back, constantly keeping an eye on him.

He could have grabbed her if he truly wanted, but didn’t bother. It was serving its purpose of keeping her distracted.

After everything that she’d been through, he wasn’t surprised to find that she was prone to brooding. Unfortunately for her (or fortunately, in his opinion) he had been dealing with teenagers and their angst for decades.

Everybody had their faults, but the teen years seemed to exemplify those problems.

Teenage Aeneas and Asclepius had been dark and broody, much worse than Blake. Heracles’ had had a vicious temper that he hadn’t tempered till his later years, and as a teenager Achilles had often been unmotivated and lazy. (Chiron blamed the prophecy for that one. He knew he was to die young and a hero, so why bother putting in effort when he could be enjoying life in other ways?)

Comparatively, Blake was easy to help. A breath of fresh air even.

Distracting her with lessons and sparring were natural distractions, but those could only occupy her attention for so long. Instead, he had noted that his student loved mysteries. Intelligent and curious, he found that the best distraction he could give was to present her with the mystery of himself.

Chiron was well aware that a full centaur like himself was unusual in this world, perhaps even unique. Not just by the shape of his body, but with as capable as he was, the experiences he mentioned. If the stories he told were truth, then why wasn’t he more well known?

It was rather amusing to drop bits and pieces of his life in front of her, to watch as she tried to figure him out.

The mystique should keep her attention for a while. At least until she got into Beacon, and by then everything she went through with the White Fang should be a more distant memory, and easier for her to process without dwelling on bad memories.

He found himself frowning at that line of thought.

Blake had run away and joined a military organization at the age of twelve. What kind of childhood did that give her? More importantly, what did that take away? He didn’t pry into that portion of her life beyond what she was willing to share, but it had given him a fair idea.

She was raised to follow orders, to do what was told of her.

Now that she was his student, that needed to change.

With power came choice.

It’s easy to follow a cause. To do what you're told in the belief it will mean something, some nebulous ‘greater good’. It’s harder when you’re on your own, when you have to make your own decisions.

Chiron didn’t solely train fighters, and none of them could be called normal. Politicians, healers, fighters, alchemists… Those he trained became heroes, kings, legends.

Whether history remembered them or not, he did, and he knew they proved their strength time and time again. He taught them how to become strong, but he also taught them how to use that strength.

Just because one was strong didn’t mean they had to devote themselves to constant battle. Strength simply gave options, along with the means to defend those options. If Blake had decided to settle down as a civilian and run a bookstore, that would be her choice, and he would support it so long as she chose it.

She would hardly be the first.

His student, Actaeon, had been happy with being a hunter, his love being in the hounds he raised.

Asclepius had been focused on the art of healing, eventually surpassing Chiron even, and only grudgingly learning how to fight.

Aristaeus was a philosopher. A creator, not a destroyer. A delight while being taught, but getting him out of his books to spar had been a trial in and of itself.

If Blake desired to be a bookstore owner, he would help her become the best store owner she could be. He could teach finances and business management just as easily as he could how to fight.

She would just happen to be the most dangerous store owner in addition to the best.

But in the end, it was all about choices. Her choices. Blake desired to be a Huntress.

She might not have the body of a demigod, but he was pleased to see that Aura helped bridge that gap rather nicely. He had been testing her strength and ability the last couple spars with her, and he was confident he had a grasp on how strong she was, and had created a lesson plan based off of that. They might only have seven months before the Entrance Exam, but she was already better than most. And it wasn’t like that was the only time he’d have to train her. She’d go to Beacon and train there, and in between semesters he’d be able to spend more time with her.

When the orphanage was in sight he couldn’t help but let out a smile of contentment.

Everybody desired happiness. The goals and aspirations they created merely helped one achieve that. As a teacher, his goals were to help others reach the goals they set for themselves.

He would help Blake become the best Huntress this world had ever seen. And he would make sure she would live to experience the happiness of reaching that goal.