Chapter 2

Nora made them cookies.

JNPR visited the next morning, bringing food and regrets. Jaune comforted Weiss, for once not trying to hit on her. Yang and Nora cried together. Ruby and Pyrrha recounted memories of Blake, at Pyrrha's suggestion; she'd dealt with the loss of her mother in the same way.

It helped, a little, but Ruby still felt cold and hollow inside, and Yang's eyes still burned red at the thought of a Nevermore, and Weiss still cried whenever she looked at anything that reminded her of Blake, which was just about everything.

"I just… I just can't believe we couldn't do anything to save her!" Ruby exclaimed suddenly, while they were all lying on the beds, two or three to a bed (no one touched Blake's). "One moment, we were all fighting together – it was just like team practise, or the Emerald Forest or the ruins… and then we all went to save her, and it wasn't enough! Why wasn't everything we did enough to save one person's life?"

Pyrrha rubbed her arm comfortingly. "We can't always be perfect. Sometimes we don't have to pay too much for our mistakes, and sometimes a giant Nevermore happens. All we can do is keep fighting, keep trying…"

"Luck favours the prepared, but in the end, it's only luck," Ren said quietly.

"I hope Ozpin's investigation turned up something," Weiss spoke up. "I hope they at least got Gambol Shroud. I'd like to see her weapon again… she killed so many Grimm with it." She sniffled.

"Who knew the Ice Queen could be such a crybaby?" Yang muttered from a different bed. "Didn't you hear what Pyrrha said? We need to be strong. We need to find purpose again. It's what Blake would want us to do."

"I agree," Nora piped up from beside her. "She'd want us to move on, and keep fighting her battle. Remember how she didn't even want to go to the dance because she was so caught up in researching the White Fang? We have to continue her mission."

Ruby found herself nodding. It was exactly what Blake would want them to do – even if the White Fang wasn't responsible for her death.

A thought suddenly struck her. The team had been in faunus territory on their mission, looking for clues to the recent bouts of Dust theft. Then they'd been attacked by Beowolves and a Nevermore. What if the White Fang had sent the monster? What if they'd somehow set up Blake's mistake, so that she lost her weapon at a crucial moment?

A chill ran down her back. "We have to know what happened at the investigation," she said to the room at large. "What if they found clues that we hadn't seen? What if – what if the White Fang was somehow connected? I wouldn't put it past them to somehow release a Nevermore on us…"

"That's rubbish," Yang said instantly. "They don't have any Hunters or Huntresses – they'd never be able to subdue such a giant thing, even if they have their Atlesian robot things. We can't make up conspiracies out of nothing."

"I think her theory might have some merit," Weiss said slowly, her voice no longer quavering like it had for most of the day. She seemed to have pulled herself together a little, considering Ruby's thought.

Jaune was quick to agree. "I think so too. Why don't we go downstairs and see if Ozpin and the elite team have come back yet? It'll be good to do something."

Instead of lying around moping on our beds all day, Ruby added silently. It was time to be more productive in their grief. She knew she'd always hold Blake close against her heart, but she couldn't let memories get in the way of her goal in life, a goal Blake had shared: saving people.

-x-

Ozpin and the elite team of Hunters and Huntresses he'd taken with him returned just as JNPR and RWY descended to the ground floor of Beacon. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang hurried forward to talk to Ozpin, JNPR trailing not far behind.

"Did you find anything?" Yang demanded.

"Gambol Shroud?" Weiss added.

"Signs of the White Fang?" Ruby asked.

The elite team looked at her strangely at that question. They were two tall, olive-skinned women with identical narrow faces and snow-white hair; a short, pale, dark-haired woman; and a lanky teenager with long black hair that hid his face, who twirled a rapier in his left hand. Ruby immediately wondered why the guy had joined a team of much older women. A replacement, perhaps, for a lost member? Her throat tightened.

Ozpin shook his head slightly. "Not right now. ROZE, thank you very much for your help," he added to the team. "I won't keep you any longer."

They nodded at RWY and JNPR politely, and the dark-haired woman took the lead as ROZE departed.

"Come," Ozpin addressed RWY. "JNPR, while I appreciate your help very much, I'm afraid this information is only given to the team members of the deceased first…"

"We understand," Jaune said quickly, showing an unusual presence of tact. "We'll go. Bye, guys." JNPR and RWY waved to each other, and the former departed.

Ruby turned to Ozpin. "Did you find anything?" she asked, echoing Yang's question.

"I'm afraid not," the headmaster said sadly, as they began walking upstairs. "We examined the battle scene, but apart from rose petals and Beowolf remains, we found nothing relevant."

"So you didn't find Gambol Shroud, either. Maybe the White Fang took it to remove evidence," Weiss said darkly. "They could've sabotaged her weapon somehow so it fell apart or something, and then taken it away so we couldn't trace them!"

"What makes you think the White Fang were involved?" Ozpin asked, frowning.

Yang rolled her eyes. "It was some stupid idea Ruby had, that because we were in faunus territory, the White Fang could've released the Nevermore intentionally on us, or something. Didn't you learn anything from Blake?" she added angrily, turning to Ruby and Weiss. "Just because some faunus want to be violent for peace doesn't mean all of them are like that! It sounds like you're jumping to some really bad generalizations!"

Ruby felt a wash of shame. She had been jumping to generalizations. "You could be right," she murmured. "What do you think, Professor Ozpin?"

He shook his head. "As curious as the theory is, I don't believe the White Fang were related to this tragic accident. May I ask what you know about these people, anyway?"

"Er…" Ruby looked away.

"We just know they're a group of malignant faunus," Weiss offered, her voice confident with the lie-by-omission. "We thought maybe the faunus in the area belonged to them, or helped them. It was a silly suggestion, though." She gave a fake laugh, though Ruby knew that she hadn't given up on the idea yet at all.

Ozpin wasn't fooled; his eyes narrowed, but he offered them a friendly smile. "Alright, girls. Well, if that's all, I have to head up to my office. I will call a school meeting shortly to notify them of what occurred yesterday. You may make your way into the auditorium now, if you like."

They nodded; they knew it was not an offer, but a request. Ozpin walked away, and as the crippled team headed in the opposite direction, Ruby realised with a jolt that Ozpin had been holding his cane when he'd walked into the school. There was no sign of it now.

The auditorium was empty, and their steps made empty echoes when they walked in. The stage was dark, and stacks of chairs were scattered around the perimeter.

"Should we… erm… get the chairs out, or something?" Ruby suggested hesitantly.

Yang snorted. "People can stand. I'm not going to make them comfortable before they find out our best friend died." Anger hardened her voice, giving it an edge that hadn't been there before their conversation with Ozpin. It seemed she had made a commitment to funneling all of her grief into their new purpose: taking the White Fang down.

"Besides, I don't remember ever sitting during an assembly," Weiss added. "The only time we needed chairs was for the dance."

"Sun," Ruby remembered suddenly. "How are we supposed to tell him?"

"He'll find out himself from Ozpin," Weiss said, a little coolly.

"That's cruel," Yang commented, beginning to walk around the perimeter. "Then again, when are we going to find time to tell him privately? Right before Ozpin opens his mouth?"

Ruby trailed behind her sister, not finding anything else to occupy herself. "He probably already knows," she murmured. "I mean, JNPR knew already, didn't they?"

"I think Ozpin told them, so they could comfort us," Weiss remarked. She began pacing in the opposite direction, so that her and Yang's paths would intersect at the stage itself. "I'm not sure he knows how close Sun and Blake were."

"Ozpin knows everything, though."

"Does he?" Yang wondered.

Ruby nodded firmly. "He has to. Look at the way he always seems to know what we did, even if we try to lie – like the White Fang, or that time we fought in the city –"

"Yeah, but you left rose petals there. That made it pretty obvious." Yang stopped and turned back to look at her sister, rolling her eyes. "I know he seems all powerful and mysterious, but he can't know everything-everything. Maybe a lot of things, but not everything. Nobody can know everything even if it seems like they know anything you talk about."

Ruby stopped. "I'm confused."

"So am I." Yang resumed walking.

The doors opened again, interrupting Ruby's next comment. All three of them stopped pacing and turned to see who had entered. It turned out to be CRDL.

"Hello," Weiss said coldly. "What do you want?"

"We were told to come here," Cardin snapped. "Mind your own business!"

Yang stepped forward, but Ruby pulled her back. "Ignore them," she whispered. "Ozpin probably started telling the school to gather. Let's go sit in the back."

Yang seethed, but reluctantly followed Ruby towards CRDL. The boys sneered at them and Weiss, but didn't make any threatening gestures as they made their way to the very front.

"I hate those idiots," Weiss said as soon as they were out of earshot. "Especially after they bullied Velvet and Jaune! I wish they were expelled."

"So you like Jaune?" Yang tried to tease her, but her smile was weak and forced.

"No." Weiss's response lacked its usual venom. Ruby sighed and turned away from the feeble banter, knowing it was Blake's absence that made it feel so fake, even though Blake had only rarely participated with her dry humour.

They loitered in the back as the rest of the school trickled into the auditorium. Pale grey Mistral uniforms mingled with the darker Atlesian and colourful Vacuo; the students filtered into sharply defined sections as usual, even after weeks of coexisting together in the same school. Ruby felt a spark of sadness at the divisions between the countries. Why couldn't they just take a risk and try intermingling, for once? The kingdoms weren't enemies, or the foreigners wouldn't even be standing in the same school.

A thought suddenly occurred to her. Without telling Yang and Weiss what she was planning, she slipped into the crowd and went to stand among the Mistral students.

"Hey!" Yang's startled shout followed her as she awkwardly jostled her way into the students. A few of them turned around, looking confused; a few even glared, but no one tried to stop her as she inserted herself into the group. A tall, freckled girl gave Ruby an imperious glance.

"Hi, I'm Ruby," she said, not letting herself feel intimidated.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "I'm Susan," she replied, a little guardedly. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just… wanted to stand here," Ruby said, laughing nervously. She looked back, and saw with relief that Yang and Weiss had followed her. "And these are my team members, Weiss and Yang. Yang's my sister."

Susan gave them an appraising glance. "You don't look like sisters," she noted.

Ruby could tell Yang wanted to roll her eyes. "We're half sisters," she interjected hastily, before Yang could make a rude comment.

"Hang on," another voice said. Ruby and Susan turned to see a sandy-haired boy walk up to their cluster. "Where's your fourth team member?"

"Um…" Ruby didn't know how to reply.

To her surprise, Weiss answered, her voice strained. "I think you're about to find out from the headmaster."

The boy looked confused, but Susan gave a soft "ah" of understanding. Her face was stricken, as if she could feel their loss personally.

"Good evening, everyone." Everyone except Weiss jumped, and turned to look at the stage where Ozpin stood with his cup of coffee. Glinda stood behind him with her tablet, her green eyes glowing from the shadows next to the dark curtains. "I apologise for summoning you here on such short notice, but I have lamentable news to share.

"Yesterday, we lost a student Huntress. Her name was Blake Belladonna."

There was a collective gasp; many heads bowed in grief or respect, and a large number of native Beacon students turned to look for Ruby, Weiss, and Yang. Some looked confused when they found the girls among the Mistrals.

Ozpin allowed a few moments for the school to react, then continued. "We will honour her tonight with a vigil on the tallest tower of Beacon, where we will send off the white candles of mourning into the sky. Any student wishing to join in saying goodbye to the departed is welcome." His eyes lingered on RWY for a moment. "Blake's fellow team members are excused from lessons for the rest of the week. Before you leave, please join me in a moment of silence for Blake Belladonna."

Ruby closed her eyes, not stopping the tears from leaking out through her eyelashes. Beside her, Weiss gave a stifled sob, and even Yang sniffed a little.

Then the moment was over, and Ozpin dismissed the school. Footsteps shuffled around them, but Ruby didn't move.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Susan murmured in her ear.

When the tears stopped and Ruby opened her eyes, the room was deserted again.