-Chapter 4: Ahead of Schedule-

The ship was full steam ahead to Mistral, beckoning the waves to follow its leadership. Weiss, Blake, and Sun coerced Ilia into an interrogation in her room.

"What are you doing on this boat, Ilia?" Blake started. Weiss caught onto Blake and Ilia's history by now, so she knew Blake could steer it right. Sun, in fulfilling his promise to Blake to get even with Ilia a week ago, tried to start a fight above deck as they pulled Ilia into conversation. Blake put him in place for it.

Ilia was ordered to sit on her bed, and Blake stood directly in front of her. Sun leaned against the wall off to the side, opposite where Weiss turned a desk chair around. Ilia faced three very different people, and the ship isn't designed for space, meaning the three of them intruded in what very little space Ilia had.

"You already know the answer to that, Blake. And now they gave me a new scroll and put big brother software on it."

"You're going to Mistral for the… events," Blake said, "and the earliest meeting is three nights from now. You're not supposed to be on this boat. Your schedule has you leaving Menagerie tomorrow morning. So, I'll ask again: What are you doing on this boat?"

"I..." Ilia paused as she choked up, tears beginning to form as her skin turns green with blue spots. Weiss was taken aback by the rare Faunus trait, but she kept quiet. "I don't know. I saw you, but I didn't see you harboring the heiress to the worst company in existence." Her skin shifted to red and yellow quickly before returning to normal.

Ilia shot Weiss a look, and Weiss turned to Blake before asking, "Do you want to say it, or should I?"

"Go ahead," Blake approved.

Weiss addressed Ilia slowly and with as smooth of words as she could, saying, "I know the CCT system is down, so you have no way of knowing, but the other day, my father revoked my status as heiress to the SDC. I came to Menagerie because I saw a path to redeem the Schnee name other than by being heiress and inheriting his power."

"She was going to bring a lot of change to the company," Blake continued. "But once her father realized she would harm his legacy, he locked her away and gave her brother the company's future." Blake retraced her thought, "You saw me, so you boarded early. I'm certain you know the White Fang knows you're here."

"The Albain brothers must be reporting it by now. I'll be in hot water for this," Ilia fleshed out. "But I had to see you. I just… I don't know… I just had to." Ilia struggled with herself. She truly did not know.

"You don't mean to tell me you want to help me."

Ilia tried out a few thoughts in her head, and said, "I do mean so… I guess. I've only seen Adam once recently, and he's… changed since you were gone." Sun tried to hold his disgust in on that, settling on turning around for a short moment. Blake's ears dropped at the understatement. Ilia clarified, "Since the last few months, I mean. After Beacon. His denial has only led to higher ambitions. But… I don't want to 'help you' help you."

"What does that even mean?" Sun uttered as if to himself.

"It means," Blake answered, "that Ilia is finding herself where I was a year ago." She faced Ilia as she spoke. "She wants to fight for a noble cause, but she doesn't like where the White Fang is going."

"That's not true," Ilia said. After knowing glares, Ilia walked back on her statement, saying, "That's not entirely true."

"Whatever it is," Blake said, "you want to help, and I have a place for you to do so." Ilia gave a questioned look. "You know we're headed to Mistral. I'm prepared to finish Adam's rule in the organization once and for all. If that means lethal force, I don't care. Since he's already planning on removing Khan, we just have to plan carefully. Adam can finally stop harming Faunus' images. We can both be done with him. After the meeting, I hope we can work together."

"You don't think I'll let him know you'll be there?" Ilia challenged.

"I don't think it's in your best interest. He hasn't changed one bit. I've known him since we were kids. First it was 'We shouldn't buy from this shop,' and then it was 'We should burn this shop down,' and then 'We should burn any shop that charitied for that shop.' He's escalated for the past ten years. You know you'd fear him if he reaches power."

"Can't we just fear him now?" Sun said. "He gashed your side, disarmed your teammate, and even you, the girl worried about him from within the group, pierced my shoulder. This isn't a debate. The guy's way past his sanity. You won't tell to him because you know you can't stay with him any longer."

"You should fear him now. I shouldn't worry," Ilia said. "At least I won't get physical punishment for being on this boat. If they find you at the docks, Blake, you and your ice princess are dead whether heiress or not."

"They can track your scroll to the ocean, so they'll expect you here," Blake said. "If you get us off this boat unnoticed, we'll pay it forward at the meeting. I promise."

"All of you?" Ilia asked, a more dominant tone in her voice than she was in the position to have.

Weiss knew this was directed to her. "Oh, no I can't be there. There are dangers I've faced before, but ranked Fang members are not one of them."

Ilia was pleased to hear the development. Weiss, Blake, and Sun shared a look.

"So, what do we do with her?" Sun asked to the others, still within earshot of Ilia.

"We," Blake said openly to the room, "do nothing. Ilia and I have been friends before." She turned to the chameleon, "and I hope we can pick something up from here. You have drive, ambition, and will. So do we. So does the White Fang. If you still think being militant and achieving superiority will get you anywhere, so be it. But if you keep picking fights for the sake of your sense of justice, you will only tire yourself out. No matter where I go, it seems you'll know where to find me. If you reconsider, we'll be waiting for you. How are you going to get us off this boat safely?"

Ilia had a few eyerolls, but she said, "I'm not doing anything for you. I'll only say the Mistral docks are on a cliff, so the boat's walkway will extend up a little to a higher dock. There are other docks leveled below, though, so you can find your way underneath the normal exit. If that's not enough, you can make it enough."

Blake looked around in thought. "That's that then." She gestured to her friends, "Let's go. That's all we're getting." They followed her out Ilia's door and closed it.

Now in a new sense of privacy, Sun said, "Okay but we really shouldn't trust her, right?"

"Oh, of course not. We already had the information we needed about the meeting, and she will tell on us. But I wanted to see where she is. She hasn't changed."

"This isn't good for me though," Weiss said. "The White Fang knows about me now."

Blake considered for a second, but she stuck with, "They probably already knew about you but wanted to wait to make a play. Ilia will tell on you, but that can play in our favor." They entered their shared room on the ship and closed the door. "You were genuine about staying away from the meeting… and the inevitable fight it will cause."

"And I meant it," Weiss interjected. "I'm not going to kill myself by going anywhere near the meeting."

Blake tested her, saying, "If you stayed in watch a couple buildings away on the rooftops, you could find a way through guards unnoticed and enter the fight after we do."

"Do we have that plan? Is there even a plan?" Weiss asked.

"We can go into specifics later, but for now, if we already know a fight will happen, which it will, we can maintain stealth for long enough to find an entry point at the right time."

"Stealth is your thing," Weiss said. "You're a ninja. You even have a katana. I wouldn't…"

"That's why I said we'll talk about it later. We still need to get off this boat unseen."

"She was right about the docks," Sun said. "When I stowed away to Vale," the girls rolled their eyes and put hands on hips, and he continued, "that's how the docks were when I left. This ship is big enough to attach to an upper dock. Personal boats get the lower docks, but it's not too much of a drop."

Weiss started thinking. "If she's telling us close to the mark, I wonder what she's thinking," she said.

"She's playing for herself," Blake said. "She's trying to lure us to the meeting with our hopes up. I don't trust her, but everything she said was valid because she knew we'd know if she lied to us. She still managed to play a few too many cards. When we get to your space," she told Sun, "we can figure out how to play this."


"Ladies and gentlemen," the intercom said, "this is your captain speaking. We are now arriving in Mistral twenty minutes ahead of schedule. The coast is only a mile away, so please begin to prepare your belongings as we dock soon. It has been a pleasure to be your captain on this safe, uninterrupted journey to Mistral. Enjoy your stay."

Weiss, Blake, and Sun took advantage of stealth while disembarking from the rear of the ship, leaving through the section where side-cannons would protrude when necessary. They vanished into the crowded, disarranged buildings of Mistral's lower coast as Ilia strolled off the ship's upper-level catwalk.

"Ilia, report," Ilia heard.

She really didn't want to hear that voice, so she gave damage control. "Master Taurus, sir, Blake and Weiss Schnee are here in Mistral."

He sneered at the news, and he reversed to his initial purpose. "Thank you, Ilia. You are a vital asset to the organization. What do the brothers Albain report from the Chieftain?"

Ilia knew he set her up to fail answering this question. He knew she should still be making her voyage to Mistral at this point. "I departed before I could reach them, sir."

"Yes, you did. You are to be in my office setting at sunset. Do you understand?" As was the case when Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald contacted him by force, Adam and the White Fang had a multi-tent campsite in Mistral's dense swampland. Adam's office had become a symbol of trouble for White Fang operatives, but Ilia luckily never got fully acquainted with the space.

"Yes… sir."