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The flap of the tent fluttered, and Adam turned his head. Someone stepped into the shadowed enclosure. The part of Adam's expression not covered by the mask remained a smooth line. The shifts going in him were all internal, and all easily hidden from view. "I always said you would come back to me." Adam smiled. His teeth were bright in the darkness. "I just didn't think it would be so soon." Did she come to kill him? The fire gleaming in her eyes said she did.
Adam drew Wilt. A red gleam shifted along the length of the blade. She sprang at him. Adam parried Blake's strike with ease. Blake pushed hard against Wilt, and her muscles tightened under the strain. But he didn't give an inch. Blake fled backward and landed with grace in a corner. Adam lowered his blade a fraction before sliding his sword into its sheath.
"Bastard," Blake said. Her eyes were full of glow even in the shadowed tent. "What you did to Yang was unforgivable." The accusation glanced off Adam. He didn't dignify it with a response. Blake pursed her lips, was barely managing to control her temper. He knew her expressions inside and out. "Was this our dream? To hurt other people like it doesn't matter? To bring good people down?"
Adam strode toward her, standing above her in a few fluid strides. "Why did you come back?" he asked. He crouched beside her and grasped his knees.
Blake glared at him. The bare skin on her abdomen was like a bright strip of moonlight. "I didn't want anyone else to get hurt because of me," Blake said and moisture collected in the corner of her eyes. "Too many people have gotten hurt."
The girl with yellow hair.
"They weren't really your friends. Hunters and Huntresses only care about enforcing the law, however outdated it may be. They wouldn't protect any of us. Our people," Adam said. He reached toward her. Adam grabbed a lock of midnight hair and let the strands fall little by little through his fingers. "Blake... We belong together, and that's why you came back." The words were more satisfying than the truth, better. It could be true if they let it.
Blake turned her head, pulling out of his reach. "I love my friends," she said, and her voice was like iron. "I will protect them."
He slapped her across the face. The harsh blunt sound of his open palm against her white cheek.
Blake's eyes widened. She sucked in air until her chest fully contracted. "I'm here. I came back! You won. Stop treating me like a traitor. You were the one who betrayed me." Her gaze was glinting amber stone. Their resolute gold depths fixed him with a glare. It reminded Adam why he fell in love with her in the first place. She was strong and stubborn; she was lethal and lovely.
"I'll never stop fighting," Adam said and stood. Blake followed him with her gaze.
"Hurting people wasn't ever my dream."
"We aren't children anymore. If you want to get the world's attention, someone has to bleed." Adam crossed his arms as he paced, tight lines against his chest. Maps were tacked on every wall of the tent. Newspaper clippings with battles. Every triumph, every victory, looked back at him in black-and-white print. "There are no bloodless revolutions. Not for us."
Blake exhaled, the sound lodging in her throat.
She disagreed, he knew. There was no persuading her. It was an argument without a winner. All the could-have-beens and should-have-beens between them were festering, infected wounds. Adam didn't think he would ever be done nursing the scars left by Blake Belladona. Once, he would have done anything to keep her from looking at him that way. As if she were more alone in a room with him than in a room by herself.
"That girl," Adam said, tone cool, flippant. "You care about her."
All the fight drained from Blake. Her hands curled into desperate clumps on the tent floor. On her knees, she looked broken. "Don't," she said. "I'll stay here. We can work together to get equality for the Faunus. Please."
The more she insisted, the more Adam's hatred cemented for the girl with the yellow hair. "Of course you'll be staying, my dear. I'm not letting you leave," he said. Adam paused at the entrance of the tent. The stars burned brightly outside, thousands of them twinkling down at him. "Get some rest. We move out at daybreak. The White Fang are in high demand these days."
"Wait," Blake said and stood. She approached him. Her heels surprisingly light against the nylon fabric of the tent.
"About those humans you've grown so fond of," Adam began, and paused. He reached out to brush his thumb against Blake's cheek, and she neither grimaced or leaned away. She stood, frozen, breathless. "I won't let them come between us. But if you're good...maybe I'll let them be." But they would attack Adam, and he would have no choice but to cut them down starting with the yellow-haired girl.
Blake shivered. She huddled her shoulders and she looked away. The spot on her cheek where he slapped her would be swollen tomorrow. The purple of a bruise was just starting to emerge.
"Get some rest," Adam said. He turned and walked into the starry, bright night. Not glancing back to see the moment when Blade collapsed onto her knees. The soldiers outside of his tent fluttered to attention. They glanced from Adam to Blake to each other. Nevermind the guards had failed so spectacularly at their job. Blake would have been a skilled assassin if she wanted to be.
"Escort her out of here. She's my prisoner," Adam said.
Adam turned on his Scroll, and there were dozens of messages. Cinder sent him coordinates to an ammunition warehouse. Adam smiled, it dashed across his face before disappearing totally. He would deal with Blake later. She couldn't be trusted yet. At least now he could begin to build the world he promised her a lifetime ago. Peace was a nice judicious word, easy to say. What he was doing, ushering a revolution, was so much harder.
But he would do it, for her.