The Belladonnas and Ilia all sat around the coffee table in Ghira's office listening to the recording from earlier, Ilia's eyes and hair a vibrant gold the entire time and her patches dyed a madder red. She clenched her fists in her lap and one look at Ghira told her he was in agreement, his claws digging into the legs of his pants.

"It deeply disappoints us that Brother Reed does not share our ideals and goals within the White Fang," Fennec told them on the recording. "To think that a follower of Adam Taurus would've made it into our branch and framed its representatives for conspiracy is quite alarming. We shall have him swiftly disciplined for his actions."

"It would seem he isn't the only associate of Adam in your ranks," Ghira addressed skeptically. "In fact, there are quite a few names and faces in here that I'm quite certain I've seen a few times walking around in Menagerie. Care to explain that?"

The sound of a cup being set down on the table echoed through the recording as Corsac was next to speak. "Your Grace, it concerns me that your daughter and her... acquaintance... are not joining us this morning. Are they not the ones who apprehended Brother Reed and secured his Scroll for you? Should they not be present for this conversation?"

"You leave them out of this and answer the damned question," Ghira asserted.

Corsac chuckled. "Your Grace, don't you think I know about the arms sale going down at the marketplace today? Don't you think I know that your daughter and her little friend are down there right this very moment aiming to thwart it? Oh, but they're likely not going to get very far in their task, isn't that right, brother?"

"How do you know that?" Ghira growled.

The sound of fabric shuffling could be heard over the recording, presumably the brothers standing up. "I think we're done here," Corsac said cordially. "Come, brother."

The recording ended there. Ghira picked up his Scroll and closed it with an exasperated sigh. "Unbelievable."

"Total garbage," Ilia snarled. "We can't let them get away with this."

"I am in full agreement with you, Miss Amitola," Ghira told her. "For now, I think it's best that you three get ready for dinner. I'll be in here working on a statement for tomorrow."

"What about Napier?" Blake asked, standing up.

Ghira looked down at the boy's Scroll with a heavy sigh. "If that Napier fellow is anything like Miss Amitola says he is, he will be granted a full pardon when this is all over. He's doing the right thing in making sure we know what we're up against. I've already prepared a message for Sienna and will have my swiftest messenger out by first light."

Blake nodded her thanks, then left her father to his work.

Guards had been stationed at every entrance into the Belladonna home after the meeting with Corsac and Fennec. As Blake and Ilia stepped out onto the balcony outside their bedroom, they were addressed by one such guard.

"Good evening, ma'ams," she greeted politely. "Can I get you anything?"

"Just a little time to ourselves, if that's alright," Ilia requested.

The guard offered a nod and a smile. "Sure thing. Just call, if you need me." With that, she went inside and Ilia immediately wrapped her arms around Blake. The two shared a deep breath and took comfort in each other's company, but Blake didn't miss when the shorter girl's patches took on a lapis hue. As their bedroom door shut behind them, they were alerted to a familiar voice from just beneath the balcony.

"You need better security."

Napier leapt up and landed on the railing with an extended Sunshaft in hand, holding out his other one in a peaceful gesture as Blake and Ilia broke their hug to acknowledge him. "Please, I'm just here to talk," he assured them, reaching up to remove his mask.

Ilia sighed, her colours fading back to normal. "We know you are."

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Napier pointed out, earning a glare from his former teammate in response. "Sheesh, okay! Fuck me for trying to start a conversation."

"How could you take the fall for them, Napier?" Ilia asked. "Corsac and Fennec blamed you. While we were out chasing down their associates, Ghira and Kali confronted them this morning. They denied knowing anything you had on your Scroll. They talked about how disappointed they were to hear that you'd sided with Adam."

Napier scoffed, taking a seat on the railing with his legs crossed. "Like I'd ever side with that loser! He hurt two of my best friends! But yeah, I get what you're saying..." He leaned Sunshaft against the railing he was sitting on and lifted up his shirt, revealing a new mess of rope burns and what appeared to be welts. "I got a pretty thorough interrogation from them earlier this evening. Nothing that would've broken me of course. I'm tougher than that!" He chuckled and lowered his shirt back down, but the shocked expressions on Blake and Ilia's faces told him they were not amused. "Right," he sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "My attempt at humour."

"Napier," Blake addressed him, "you and I both know that they're guilty. That Scroll might not be enough to lock them up, but it's enough to sway the Faunus here. When we go public tomorrow, they're not going to stand for any of it."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Napier warned. "There's a lot of White Fang here. That list of associates you found on my Scroll didn't even scratch the surface. It's like I said, it's too dangerous for you two to be here. You should've just gone to Mistral instead."

"Can I ask you something?" Blake inquired, folding her arms.

"Sure."

"Why did you join the White Fang? I mean, originally."

Napier raised a brow, looking between Blake and Ilia. "Huh?"

"Well, Ilia joined after her parents died in a mining accident," Blake elaborated. "My father was High Leader at one point, so I might as well have been born into it. But what was your reasoning to join? Surely you must have one."

Napier looked down solemnly, uncrossing his legs. "They gave me a home," he explained. "A family." He looked up at them and began to tell his story. "I grew up in Mistral. A nice place if you're high-class and can afford the upper levels. Food on the table, little worry about gang violence, pretty decent place to raise a family. I didn't have that. I was a street rat at the very bottom levels of the city. Rarely saw sunlight, never had a proper meal, stole from clothes lines so I would at least have something to wear. It wasn't a happy childhood. My parents were taken from me before I was old enough to remember them. I lived every day in fear of the gangs that patrolled the lower levels, and was forced to rely on my Semblance to survive. Then, when I was twelve, I had been caught stealing food from a human store owner. I had used my Semblance to escape punishment, and apparently it caught the interest of some White Fang recruiters. They found me in the sewers under the city not long after and offered to take me in. 'We can help you,' they said. 'We can teach you to master your Semblance; you can fight for us. You'll never go hungry again.' You know, being twelve, being homeless, and not knowing anything of the White Fang and what they do, I thought they must've been some sort of saviours. So I took their offer. They nurtured me, trained me, taught me everything I know. In exchange, I fought for them, alongside them, under the command and leadership of Sienna Khan. And for a while, I thought what I was doing was right. I didn't question it."

"Why did you leave?" Ilia inquired.

Napier let out a sigh. "It was around seven months before I enrolled at Beacon. We were on a mission in the middle levels of Mistral, supposedly about to send a message to humanity that the Faunus would not be kept down. I had my Scroll on me, loaded with information of names and faces and locations we would be setting up in. Where our guns would be coming from, the works. And then some of the gangs already present decided to stage an attack. I was again caught in the crossfire, as was a child who had been playing in the streets beforehand. It was a human child, but I didn't care. I knew I needed to get to him before the bullets did. So I took him and brought him to somewhere safe. Unfortunately, it seemed he knew something about the White Fang that I didn't, as he seemed scared of me. Asked me if I was one of the 'bad guys' and pointed to one of the nearby screens showing news coverage of White Fang activity in the region. The masks they were wearing, the one I was wearing. I connected the dots. I realized then and there that I was a member of a terrorist organization. So I removed my mask. I crouched down in front of the boy and told him I wasn't like those Faunus on the TV. I gave him my Scroll and told him to take it to the police, that he'd be saving hundereds of lives by doing so. The next day, the day our assault was scheduled to happen, the police were waiting for us. Our warehouses were raided and our weapons were destroyed, and my brothers and sisters who I would've fought alongside were arrested. Me? I fled. Went straight to Vale."

"And that's how you met us seven months later," Ilia concluded.

Napier nodded, bringing a knee up to his chest. "Yup. Now it's my turn to ask you something." He looked over at Ilia with a mix of seriousness and concern. "Whose funeral did you attend?"

Ilia paled, taken aback. "What?"

Groaning, he dismounted the railing and stood on the balcony in front of the two girls, folding his arms across his chest. "I mean, during your encounter with the White Fang this morning, you froze. You looked like you just witnessed someone rising up from the dead. And just earlier when I greeted you, you looked like you were in grief. So, who was it?"

Ilia took a deep breath. "I thought I saw Reina. Or at least, somebody that looked like Reina. But it wasn't Reina. She was a Faunus. She shot webbing out of her hand like a spider. That comment you made earlier, about me having seen a ghost. She said the same exact thing."

Napier's eyes widened. He looked between Blake and Iila. "So Reina's dead?"

"Yeah," Blake told him. "You didn't know?"

"I was in Mistral," Napier admitted. "I was in the woods for several weeks, and when you're away from civilization for that long and trying to survive, information isn't that readily available. So no, I didn't know that Reina had died. I thought she might've fled to Mistral with the rest of the students at Beacon. What happened?"

"They found her body under the school," Ilia explained. "She had been stabbed through the heart. The autopsy report stated she had been electrocuted at the same time."

"So it was a suicide?" Napier raised his brow.

Ilia nodded. "And to make matters worse, they were saying Ozpin was nowhere to be found after the Fall of Beacon. It doesn't make a bit of sense."

"It doesn't," Napier pondered. "This is all deeply concerning. But as for that girl you saw, no, that wasn't Reina. Her name is Trifa, and she's very dangerous. Expect more encounters with her in the near future." He reached for Sunshaft and collapsed it, putting it away before Kali's voice called out from across the house.

"Blake! Ilia! Dinner's ready! Go get Ghira and bring him down here so we can eat!"

When Blake and Ilia turned back to address Napier, he was gone. Only his mask was left.