Chapter 1: Ch:1 Branded
The young girl whimpered as the sizzling iron came closer to her neck. The hot piece of metal slowly inched closer, promising untold amounts of pain, yet she was unable to fight against the rough hands holding her down, making sure she could not move from the path of the cherry-red metal.
Once the iron hit the girl's skin, the sound of sizzling and blistering flesh would send shivers down the spines of the most battle-hardened soldiers. The smell of cooked flesh slowly spread around the room, making the girl want to gag. But the worst of it all was the blood-curdling scream that the girl released.
The people who had done this to her looked down at her with little to no pity, even as they removed the brand, leaving a permanent mark on the young, not even 12-year-old girl. The brand, now a mark that she was less than human, nothing more than an object to be used, showed the logo of the company that now owned her. The mark had three letters, three oh so very detestable letters, the letters making up the name that so many know the company as: the SDC.
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Growing up as a faunus is hard, especially if you had to work in the SDC's dust mines, hammering away with a pickaxe at the risk of an explosion going off and ending it all.
A young white-haired girl, at the age of 18, was seen carting around a large wheelbarrow filled with all sorts of colorful stones. It would've looked like she was just collecting pretty stones and just hit the jackpot if she weren't in a deep, dark, and narrow tunnel. The only light source was the small dust-powered lamp that was connected to her helmet and the lamps of the other miners around her.
"Hey Maru. You just getting done with your quota?" A young man with green hair and lizard-like scales spread across his upper arms yelled.
The young white-haired girl named Maru turned to face him.
"Hey Virdi. Yeah, I'm just taking it up, but if you stop and talk, you'll never finish. You may even get in trouble for it." The girl smirked.
"You two quit yer yammering and get back to work!" the gruff and weathered voice of the old guard stationed nearby barked out.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Maru mumbled under her breath as she continued her trudge back out of the mines.
Bright light hit Maru's sensitive eyes as she looked up and used her hand to block the sun from directly entering her eyes.
Maru reached up to her head and took off the old and beaten hard hat, the kind the company that owned the mines gave the miners as some shallow form of protection. Not like it would do anything against the crystals they were mining. Two long, white, and sensitive fox ears popped up from underneath the hat. They looked to be glowing in the afternoon sunlight.
Maru's march begrudgingly continued as she made her way to the collection points. In these points, the raw dust that the Faunus spent all day collecting was taken away to be processed and sorted, so that it could then be sold to consumers all over Remnant.
Maru grunted as she lifted the heavy cart to pour the raw dust down a tube.
'Come to think of it, isn't this kind of dangerous? Dust is highly reactive, and the falling dust could cause a chain reaction to blow the whole mine up. Ehh, if it hasn't happened yet, they probably have some sort of mechanism to stop it. But it's not like I'm gonna have to worry about this for much longer. I'm gonna get out of here soon.'
"BOOOOOOOOM!!!"
A loud explosion coming from the front gates shook Maru out of her internal musings. It caused her eyes to drift towards the yelling and screaming of the guards that had guarded the gate.
"What in the Brother Gods was that?" Maru said while staring at the smoke-filled entranceway of the camp.
The distinctive sound of a gunshot going off from the entrance, followed by the meaty thump of something hitting the ground, made the fox Faunus jump.
"White Fang!" a nearby guard yelled. Their voice being drowned out amidst the sound of gunshots and screaming.
'The White Fang? Isn't that the group of Faunus rights protesters? Did they turn to terrorism or something? Damn, when did they start doing that? Just goes to show how little information is given down here.'
Maru heard dozens of heavy feet racing from behind her. She turned and saw multiple SDC guards running, all with their weapons out and ready to defend the camp. Maru stepped to the side to let them pass, she paused, a small smirk appearing on her face while she skulked into the dark alley between two buildings.
Maru wound up in front of a dilapidated building. Well, it was only as dilapidated as every other building in the camp. The sign on the side of the door read "Dormitory 81-100."
Opening the door, Maru stopped and saw a room that had 10 bunk beds, 5 on each side, with a two-drawer metal unit for each. Maru then proceeded to walk to the bed at the far left corner and crouched in front of the drawer. The two-drawer unit had the names of the occupants crudely scratched above the handle. Maru focused on the top drawer and read that the name above it was Virdis Sylvan.
'Wonder if Virdi's alright?' With that thought, Maru moved onto the bottom drawer with the name Maru Arktis crudely engraved just above the handle.
'Hah, guess this is the last time I'm ever going to see this shit hole. Even if that's a good thing, there are still memories of the last couple of years with this lot of idiots that I can still look back on.' The thought made Maru smile fondly and rub a thumb over the name.
'No Maru, stop reminiscing. Not the time for that. Have to focus.' With a light slap to her cheeks, she returned her focus.
Opening the drawer revealed a neat and tidy maroon Atlas military cloak, which Maru grabbed and held up. It revealed a long coat with a high collar with soft white fox fur around the outside edge. The coat had a belt that ran around the midsection to hold it closed just under the chest, making an open V shape over the chest. Under the coat, there was a dark gray long-sleeved shirt that looked like it would be almost skin-tight. Maru grabbed the shirt like she did the coat.
'Dad, it may finally be the time for me to wear your cloak. It's unfortunate that it isn't as an Atlas soldier like you, but what good has that lot done to help us.'
Maru sat on the bed and proceeded to change into the almost skin-tight shirt, stopping at the dark gray cloth wrapped around her neck, then continuing to change and put on the coat. Looking into the communal mirror, Maru thought,
'Damn, I'm looking good. Didn't expect this to fit so well. Oh well, guess I need to get going. Still got one more stop, and it sounds like the fighting is still going on. I didn't expect this to last so long.'
Maru proceeded to leave the old dorm, with one last last nostalgia filled look she quickly headed towards the main barracks where the overseer's office is.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Angel_1860
Angel_1860 Thanks for reading this i hope it give a bit of insight as to what kind of character Maru is and hope it was interesting enough for you to continue reading and supporting this story.
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