Ch 2: Grimms' Arrival

*Pfff Ahahahahahaha* Mocking laughter echoed across the silent field of flesh and blood, waking the limp scarecrow from his pain and humiliation induced coma.

"How long do you two think it will take for all the gore planted in this field to yield a new crop of Faunus?" A young woman with a tight athletic body and a black scorpion tail decorated with red tribal marking swaying dangerously behind her derisively asked her two companions as they walked nonchalantly over the blood-soaked ground.

"Well, scarecrow? When will you make good on your promise of an army!?" *Clang* Her sarcastic words and the impact of her thigh-high black leather boots kicking returned Adam's consciousness to him. He opened his eyes to see blood-red eyes set in a beautiful pale white face twisted in a condescending sneer framed by locks of midnight black hair cut into a short bob except for a long ponytail at the very back that draped over her left shoulder.

As the last of the lingering pain and humiliation faded and his mind cleared, Adam finally processed what this familiar woman had been saying to him. [Crop of Faunus!? Scarecrow!? Are we nothing but produce to you people!?]

"ATHE-!!!" Adam started to scream in rage at the "ally" that had forced themselves on him but was silenced by a high kick that caught him in the chin and sent him sailing off the handle of his blade.

"HAAAAA!" Athena drawled as she stomped down on his prone figure, digging the sharp heel of her boot into the soft flesh at the base of his neck just above his collar bone, giving him the sensation of suffocating while not cutting off his airway, yet. Adam began to involuntary cough from the distressing feeling and grasped ahold of the booted leg pressing down on him, trying desperately to move it. However, no matter how he struggled, that long, slim leg was like an immovable mountain atop him.

"You got a problem, scarecrow." Athena growled, pressing harder. "You give us an army. We give you the bloody revenge you so crave. That was the deal!" Blood began to seep out from beneath Athena's heel as Adam's flesh began to yield beneath her heel. "Now we arrive to find your promised army is nothing more than fertilizer for the forest! Tell us, scarecrow. What use are you to us now?"

"Ah gahn geh mah meg, peehs." Adam opened and closed his mouth beneath her, but all that came out was hacking coughs in response.

*hmph* Athena snorted and leaned forward to get a good look at his face as she tensed up her leg to prepare to penetrate all the way through and crush his throat.

However, before she could finish the floundering Faunus off, "That's enough, sister." A gentle, authoritative voice and a restraining hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Big Sister Syndra~." The murderous scorpion woman's pale red lips pouted cutely as she looked over her shoulder at the woman who was stopping her. If Athena was an athletic tomboy, then her big sister was a graceful lady in a black Y dress that narrowed into a short skirt at the front and flared into two tails behind her. In contrast to Syndra's dress, Athena was decked out in a bone-white chest plate and bracers over a black leotard, and fingerless gloves with a pteruges skirt made up of six strips of black leather with white studs wrapped around her waist.

The two sisters wore similar thigh-high black and had the same striking midnight black hair and pure white skin, but Syndra's hair stretched far down her back, almost sweeping the ground behind her and swaying in a disconcertingly hypnotic way for those not used to it. A mask made of a smooth, curved piece of crystalline material hid the upper half of Syndra's face, so it was impossible to see her eyes. But no one would have any trouble believing that her eyes were an even bright red than her younger sister's with how a faint red glow constantly emanated from it.

Athena's cutesy act did little to dissuade her big sister from stopping her. After a firm tug on her shoulder from her eldest sister, Athena stepped back off the pitiful bull Faunus. Then, in a huff, she stalked off with her arms crossed beneath her perky 32C breasts that her chest plate was molded around towards the only man of their trio. He had been watching the entire show from the shadow of a nearby tree, wrapped in a long cloak that concealed his whole body. Only his pale white face with peach-colored lips curved into an amused smile, slanted ruby eyes that glimmered in the shadow of the tree he stood ramrod straight beneath, and his slicked-back long black hair were visible above the thick feathery black cloak.

"I'm not wrong." Athena pouted to her big brother as she slouched against the tree next to him. "Without his men, that weakling is nothing but a liability to us." Her pout turning even more pronounced as she watched her beloved sister kneel beside the disgusting worm and begin whispering sweet nothings to him.

"Oh, you poor thing. It's so unfair that you should have to suffer like this when you have done nothing to deserve such cruel treatment. How barbaric and callous must this world be to bring you so much pain simply for being born a Faunus. You are merely an innocent victim in this cold, unfeeling world, aren't you? Poor baby." Syndra cooed to the sprawled Adam and stroked his hair caringly. Her gentle words and touch bringing tears to the wounded and disgraced revolutionary's eyes that he quickly struggled to push back down even as the urge to throw himself into this kind woman's arms welled up inside him till it felt like he would burst.

"I'll get more men. There are hundreds, no thousands more, that will rally to m- our cause. Don't worry. I won't let you down." Adam half sobbed as he subconsciously grasped onto one of the tails of the dress of the angel that had descended before him.

*shh* "I know. I believe in you." Syndra continued to run a soothing hand through Adam's hair and gently rub at the base of the small obsidian horns poking through his dense red hair.

"You heard him." The feather cloaked man said with a note of laughter in his voice as he glanced at his pouting younger sister. Athena shot him a look filled with doubt, clearly not understanding what he found so amusing about this whole situation.

"Can't you feel the dense negativity flowing off him?" His amused smile took on a more patient touch as he took on the tone of a teacher.

"Of course," Athena acknowledged with a shrug, "But how is the fact he makes a great meal now a reason to let him live, Swain? He will get over it eventually. Even if he never comes out of his darkness, it will eventually grow stale and stagnant."

"That is where you and Syndra differ, my adorable little warrior princess. You see only how someone can be used to directly achieve our goals. A useful trait in battle as your actions won't be slowed by overthinking things. However, Syndra can see a bigger picture, and not just because she's a natural telepath. This maggot is indeed of little use to us from a military point of view anymore, but he still has great use as a research subject."

[Can't we just pick up any random Human or Faunus if Syndra wants to run experiments on them?] Athena thought as she continued to look at her knowledgeable eldest brother with confusion in her eyes.

See that she still didn't fully understand, Swain continued to explain, "No livestock we pull off the streets would be able to produce such pure negativity, no matter how we condition it. And they certainly wouldn't be as malleable and obedient as that bull will be once Syndra is finished with him. Of course, we might be able to meet similar conditions with mother's followers, but they are useful for the plan and, as you have said, he isn't, so his loss will be of no consequence."

"I see. Thank you, Big Brother." Athena thanked Swain for his explanation as her pouting lips relaxed and curved up into a natural malicious smile. "Perhaps with a bit of luck, he may actually turn into a usable pawn after all."

Swain said nothing in response, but his lips curved into a similar evil smile as they continued to watch the second born of their siblings work her magic on the leaking meat sack laying in the dirt next to her.