The Tale of Zai (Abused Zacian! Faunus x RWBY)

Prologue

Family are those who stay by your side. They help you combat the darkness that reaches you and spreads a warm light to keep it at bay.

This is not the case for Zai Schnee, a faunus.

"HOLD STILL, SCUM!!"

An eight year old Weiss was currently training with Zai, but it wasn't training. It was torture. A hunt.  She avoided a stab but only barely as it slashed her leg. She cries out in pain and falls to her knee.

"YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN FOUND BY MOTHER!!"

She used a glyph that shot large icicles at her as they cut across her body, howling in pain. She laid on the floor with many wounds on her body, her ears and tail twitching and flickering. Weiss left in a huff, satisfied with her work for now, and left Zai to bleed in the training room.

How could this have happened? Why did it happen?

Because of her heritage.

Zai was a rare species of wolf Faunus; an Oberon Wolf. They were bigger, stronger, and much faster than any other wolf on Remnant. It was what made her so different from the other Faunus, who would get nervous whenever they were around her.

"Zai!!"

She looked up and found her mother, Willow Schnee, the only person who ever showed her kindness, staring at her with a look of horror and guilt. She ran to the injured wolf Faunus and picked her up. Zai held herself from letting out a small, pained whine as she felt her injuries begin to flare up.

"M-mother." She rasped. "Please, don't cry, it was an-"

"Do not lie to me." Willow said brokenly. "You do not need to keep defending that wretch my husband calls my daughter!"

"I'm sorry."

"You can't keep this up, Zai." Willow said somberly. "At this rate, you could get even worse injuries than this. You need to stand up for yourself."

"But...if I fight back..." she slowly lifted her hand up to cup her mother's face.

"I won't be able...to protect you anymore." She smiled sadly.

Willow gasped at her daughter's words. They only made her cry harder as she cradled her closer to her body. Her clothes would stain with her daughter's blood, but she didn't care.

"I shall have Klein come to tend to your wounds." She whispered. "Then I will bring you to my room for you to recover."

Zai nodded as she began to feel dizzy from blood loss. Soon enough, she fell unconscious as her mother carried her back.

Willow found her as a small pup in a terrible blizzard and took her in with loving arms. She treated her as her own, even when she had Weiss and Whitely. Winter left when Weiss and Zai were five years old to go into Atlas Academy to become a military officer.

That's when all hell broke loose.

First came Jacques' punishments for things she didn't do.

She remembered the first time he ever hurt her, and in front of Willow no less.

Flashback

SLAP!

Zai's face stung as her "Father" slapped her again. No one came to her aid as her father beat down on her because she was a faunus.

But she was defiant to the end, even as Jacques beat her to death in his private office, while she herself screamed in all the pain and suffering Zai would not give him the satisfaction of seeing or hearing.