A Sparking Night to a Blazing Lifetime: Yang Xiao Long x Male Cowboy Faunus

Desperate Men

I stared down the barrel of Cepheus's gun, and he did the same with mine.

"What are doing here Cepheus?" I asked.

We both holstered our revolvers and shook hands. We sat back down at the bar as the bartender wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"God damn you boys. Thought you were gonna shoot the place up," complained the Bartender.

"Aw hell we ain't gon' do that. I just heard my friend here was back in town so I figured I'd say howdy," assured Cepheus.

The bartender handed him his drink.

"Been quite a while since I seen ya," said Cepheus.

"Yes it has," I said.

"Whatchu been doing lately?" Asked Cepheus. "I noticed your back with the bottle."

"Well I've been out of Vacuo for a while, became a certified Huntsman, and yes, I'm back on the drink," I said.

"Old habits die hard," said Cepheus.

I nodded in agreement, remembering how I swore I'd never go back, but after Yang and Beacon and Damian, I guess I couldn't help myself.

"Speaking of old habits..." said Cepheus.

"I done told you this before, I'm done. Besides, I'm a huntsman now," I told him.

"Come on Isaac, for old times sake!" Exclaimed Cepheus.

Old times, those are some times I wish I could wipe from everyone's memory...

Several years ago...

I was only 14 at the time. I was a thrill seeker. The family farm needed money to keep running, so as a stupid boy I decided crime was the solution. I formed a posse named 'The Desperate Men' but most people just called us 'The Desperados'. We robbed everything from banks, to carriages, to wealthy governors. Our specialty though, was trains. It became our go-to way to make some cash and the reason we were well known. All five of us needed the money for a reason, I needed it for my family's farm, Cepheus's daddy had debts that he need help paying, Jim had a mess of debt for himself, and Henry and Jebidyah(The Twins) wanted to help out their whole rundown community. We were good ole' fashion outlaws, and even though we were criminals, we had gained respect from the people and the law with our strict code. When we robbed a bank, we waited for all the older men and women to leave, we never held any hostages beyond the tellers and let everyone else leave. We also didn't take regular folks money, only money from the wealthy accounts held by shady businessmen and the bank's own reserves. When we held up a carriage, we targeted the wealthier ones and only did so if we hadn't had any good hits in a while. And on a train we took from the wealthy passengers, but tipped our hats to the regular folks. We were a modern day gang of Robin Hood's. But most importantly, we never killed an innocent man, or a lawman. We only ever fired our guns if they fired first. We held this rule as close to ourselves as though it was a religious text...

... until it wasn't.

We were riding out on our horses, chasing after a train owned by a large bank. Our target was the cash car first, and then the wealthy passengers second. We rode in on three horses. I rode with Henry, Cepheus rode with Jebidyah and Jim rode with himself. Cepheus and I sat on our heels on the back of our horses, and jumped onto the rearmost car. The rest of the gang rode to the front to make them slow the train down. Cepheus drew one of his revolvers, and I pulled out a lever action rifle, chambered in .45-60, able to change into a cavalry saber. I had named it Savior's Promise. Cepheus slid the door open and I walked in. Two guards were standing at the opposite end of us as I raised my rifle to them.