Blake Belladonna ran. She ran faster than she ever had in her life. This little experiment with Beacon was over. Time to move on.

But where? Where could she possibly go now?

As she wondered the streets of Vale, she ran into the faunus she met earlier.

"Hi there. Why are you out here so late?"

"Just walking around," she answered, trying to look normal. "I needed some time away from everything."

"Well, would you be interested in coming over to my place to spend the night? It's a little messy, but it'll be better than wandering the streets until morning."

He was nice.

Too nice.

"That's okay."

"Do you have a place to stay?" Why was he asking that? Did her team get to him already? Or maybe it wasn't her team. Maybe it was the authorities.

"I'll be fine." She should have just lied. Now he had a reason to not leave her alone.

"I doubt that's true. Besides, I can't just leave you like this."

She started backing away from him. "Why not?"

"Because you look like you might get in trouble. I don't want that on my conscience."

Could this be genuine concern? Or was he trying to earn her trust so that he could betray her?

"I would prefer to be left alone," she said.

"Really? Let me tell you, you do not look like you can handle being alone right now. Just look at yourself. You're shaking, you're backing away from me, and you won't look up from the ground. You need someone to look out for you while you get a hold of yourself."

Blake looked up and met his eyes. Was he lying? Or was he trying to help? Did it matter? She was stronger than him. She could just take anything she wanted.

"I could use a place to stay, as long as I can keep an eye on you." She decided.

"What, you don't trust me?"

"Would you if you were in my shoes?"

"That would be a lot easier to answer if I had any idea what the hell is going on."

Blake didn't know what to say to that, so she remained silent.

"Anyway, let's go to my place. Then you can tell me all about yourself, including why you were hiding your true nature and what the hell is going on."

Blake touched her upper ears and realized that she must have taken off her bow somewhere in between Beacon and wherever she was.

She quickly tied it on and followed Sun. On the way, she remembered to look out for anyone following them. She was very careful to hide her face from anyone they passed on the street.

"I can't believe it," Weiss said, still looking at the open door her teammate had disappeared out of.

"That's understandable when you don't know what to believe," Ruby said.

"I know what to believe, I don't want to. What are we supposed to do now?"

"We go out and look for her. What do you mean what are we supposed to do?" Yang put her gauntlets on and headed for the door.

"Wait," Ruby said.

"What? Do you expect me to just stand around while Blake might be in trouble? You do realize she's my partner, right? I'm the one that's supposed to have her back."

"We can't go out blindly. We need to form a strategy, think up a plan. Wandering aimlessly isn't going to get us anywhere."

"While you're thinking, she's getting further away from us. We need to move, you can think on the way."

"Yang," Ruby said a little louder than she was used to. "Do you really think you can find her? Even if you go right now, do you think you could track her down? This is Blake we're talking about. Stealth is pretty much her thing."

"Not to mention that even if it wasn't, she's still a White Fang operative. What do you think is going to happen if you do find her?"

"Weiss, one more word and I'm going to punch you into the next room." Yang's eyes were already red. Great.

"We don't know what "we" meant. Until we have all the facts it would be better if we didn't make things worse by speculating." Ruby wondered if she was really going to be able to calm them down.

"Worse? I don't think there's such a thing as worse than this. Anyone with half a brain knows that "we" meant the White Fang and from there it's pretty clear that she was here as nothing more than a spy and possible assassin. Or maybe she was here to kidnap me and use me as a bargaining chip against my father."

"News flash, the world doesn't revolve around you, princess." Yang cocked her gauntlets.

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP."

Yang and Weiss exchanged a look, before both looking at Ruby.

"Will you two stop looking at me like I'm an alien?"

"Sorry sis, I just never thought I'd be the one to make you finally snap."

"It was a joint effort," Weiss said.

"Anyway, Yang – out, Weiss – stay."

"What am I, a dog," Yang muttered as she stormed out of the room.

"I'll be right back," Ruby told Weiss and left after her sister.

The moment she was out of the door, Yang took off one of her gauntlets and punched the wall with all of her strength. Surprisingly, the wall held.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know. What am I supposed to do? You're right, if she doesn't want to be found there's no way I can get to her. And she doesn't want to be found because she thinks all of us just assumed the same thing Weiss did."

"For all we know Weiss may be right. I'm not saying I think he is, but it is possible. As is her being completely wrong. We shouldn't make any assumptions before actually knowing anything."

Yang sighed before sitting down on the floor. "You think a lot more than you used to."

"What does that even mean?"

"That your first reaction isn't to act, it's to think. That's impressive."

"It is one of the qualities required of leadership."

"I guess so." Yang sighed and slid down the wall. She knocked on it lightly as if to apologize about punching it. "How are you doing, sis? That must have hit you as hard as it hit the rest of us, but you're holding up surprisingly well."

"This is my test as a leader."

Yang wondered why her sister was going on and on about that leader stuff. "Whatever."

How insensitive. "It's not whatever, this is a big deal. If Blake doesn't show up for classes on Monday, it's going to be on my head."

"It's not your fault she ran away."

"Yes, it is. The actions of my subordinates are my responsibility."

"I've gotten into plenty of trouble and you never said anything."

"It's not like they come to me for every single thing, however something like this..."

"I get it. You're in as much trouble as Blake at this point."

"Well, no... Weiss isn't mad at me, at least."

"Speaking of, go talk to her before she gets all grumpy. I'm going out."

"Nope, you're apologizing and so is she when I'm done with her. Wait here." Saying that, Ruby headed back to the dorm.

"What did I do so wrong with my life that I have to take orders from my baby sister?" Yang muttered under her breath.

"So how does it feel?" Ruby said the moment she came in.

"What are you talking about," Weiss asked.

"Being betrayed by a friend. How does it feel?"

Weiss sat down on her bed. "It doesn't feel good, I'll tell you that. Why did something like this happen?"

"Would you be offended if I said because you're too much of a bitch for your own good?"

It was pretty offensive. "Offended? No. I work pretty hard at being a bitch. It's a great defense mechanism. The best part is, it worked. Better to get this stuff out in the open before it's a real problem."

"It is a real problem. Like it or not, Blake is a part of our team."

"Was."

"Is." Ruby stared at her for about a minute before she broke. "At least give her the benefit of the doubt."

"Maybe, but I'm still going to be a bitch about it."

"I expect nothing less." Ruby smiled like she had just won something before raising her voice. "Yang, get your butt in here."

The door crashed open as the girl being summoned went through it. Not literally. She did open it. With a kick.

"Okay, let's go. Operation find Blake!"

"Could you guys quiet down? We're trying to sleep here," was heard from the room next door.

"I'll go get them," Yang said. Ruby could almost imagine the lightbulb on top of her head going off.

"That would end even worse than me finding her," Weiss said.

"She's right. They have nothing to do with this. Let's not get them involved."

"Great, you're already ganging up on me."

"Yang… We're all on edge and we're all tired. Could you not make this any harder than it has to be?"

"If it wasn't for the ice queen, there wouldn't be a problem to begin with."

"Am I going to have to take you on another timeout? Or are you going to behave?"

"Why are you talking to me like I'm five?"

"Because you're acting like a five-year-old. Now, like I was saying, we're all stressed out and taking it out on each other. We should go to sleep before the two of you tear each other apart. We can discuss this when our heads have cleared."

Ruby climbed up to her bed. "Oh, I almost forgot. Both of you apologize."

Yang sighed dramatically. "I'm sorry for not taking your stupid and unrealistic viewpoint into consideration."

"And I'm sorry for exposing an obvious threat before she stabbed us in the back."

"Weiss."

Weiss did her best to ignore her.

"Weiss." Ruby tried again in an even nicer tone.

"What?"

"You're not going to bed until you apologize properly." She was holding a whistle.

"Fine. I'm sorry for having a realistic vision of the world on the matter and not taking into account your idealistic and sheltered opinions on a subject that is completely incomprehensible to the likes of you."

"I'm going to hit her now." Yang said to Ruby before getting closer to Weiss.

"You're both equally wrong." Ruby hugged her pillow and was snoring softly seconds later. She was totally not sleeping.

"I'm going to sleep too," Weiss said, completely ignoring the fact that Yang was right in front of her face. "And for what it's worth, I truly hope you're right."

"It's an act, isn't it? Your personality." Yang asked, but there was no answer.

She was probably awake.

Maybe it wasn't an act after all.

"This is where you live?" Blake asked looking around the room.

"Hey, there aren't a lot of places with rent this cheap around here."

The "apartment" was about as big as your average garage and a lot messier.

"You pay rent for this?"

"Not really. The people that own this place don't exactly know I'm here. But it is in a killer location, you know?"

Blake looked around. "I really don't."

"Oh come on, it was awesome before I moved in."

"I don't think that's supposed to be a good thing."

"Hey, I'm a guy. Be happy there isn't any porn or whatever lying around."

"Do you even have a bathroom?"

"Sure, it's down the hall. Just make sure no one sees you coming out of here."

Great.

Blake wondered if it wouldn't be better to let herself be caught by the authorities. They say prison is nice this time of the year. Then again, if she was arrested as a member of the White Fang, former or no, she wouldn't make it to prison.

"Hey, listen, there's a nice café across the street and the rest of Vale is all around me. This place is nothing more than a bedroom."

Sun climbed out of the window and extended his hand. "Care to join me to the garden?"

Blake reluctantly took his hand and they went up to the room with the starlit ceiling.

Also known as the roof.