A Righteous Cause

"Good evening, I'm Lisa Lavender with a breaking update on today's top news story: The terrorist organisation known as the White Fang has claimed responsibility for a day of chaos on the streets of Vale that has left the Kingdom in shock. Earlier today a police convoy escorting twelve White Fang terrorists to their trial at the Central Criminal Court was ambushed and all suspects freed. At least six police officers are reported dead and four more are in critical condition. Also this morning a truck loaded with dust was driven into the Central Criminal Court and detonated. Authorities have not yet confirmed the death toll.

"Meanwhile, concern has grown over the whereabouts of Weiss Schnee and Pyrrha Nikos, key witnesses at the trial who have not been seen since they departed Beacon Academy under police escort."

"Weiss? Pyrrha?" Yang demanded futilely of the woman on her scroll. "What about my sister?"

"Weiss Schnee is the daughter and sole heir of Jacques Schnee, president and proprietor of the Schnee Dust Company," Lisa Lavender continued, as an old picture of Weiss was displayed beside her head. "Pyrrha Nikos is the great grand-daughter of the last Emperor of Mistral, and is the four times winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament; a popular favourite amongst tournament enthusiasts, her decision to attend Beacon Academy rather than Haven was widely reported.

"We have just received a video claiming to be from the White Fang, claiming credit for the attack, the bombing and the kidnapping of Miss Schnee, Miss Nikos and three other witnesses in the case against the terrorists. We have watched this video to confirm it did not contain any shocking content, and we now broadcast it in full."

Weiss's face took up the whole of the screen; barely any background was visible behind her, just a wall and one small window. She didn't look hurt, but she did look a little unnerved by something that Yang couldn't see, something at the edge of the screen, or on the other side of the camera.

There was a rustle of paper, and someone said something indistinct.

"My name is Weiss Schnee," Weiss said. "I am the daughter of Jacques Schnee, and I am..."

There was another indistinct sound from off camera. Weiss scowled. "And I am an oppressor of the faunus. I am being held captive by the White Fang, the army of...The army of liberation for the faunus across the Four Kingdoms. Today..." Weiss stopped again, and when she resumed each word was forced through gritted teeth. "Today the White Fang has struck a great blow against one of the four great oppressors, a reminder that the desire of the faunus for liberty will not be denied. Despite my crimes I and my companions have been treated well, and will continue to be treated well so long as no attempts are made to rescue us. I will be released upon payment of one hundred million lien from the Schnee Dust Company. Pyrrha Nikos will be released upon payment of ten million lien from the Nikos family or the Mistralian government. Sunset Shimmer, Jaune Arc and Ruby Rose will be released upon payment of a hundred thousand lien each from any interested party-"

"Dammit!" Yang yelled, throwing her scroll down upon the table hard enough that it bounced onto the floor.

Blake watched from a short distance, helpless, as Yang's entire body was wracked by a shudder. Smoke rose from the blonde's body and her hair, but as she put her head in her hands it looked to Blake almost as though Yang Xiao-Long was sobbing.

Did she know that her sister was as good as dead already, Blake wondered as her stomach churned with a sickening mixture of fury, fear and complicity; or was it simply her helplessness to do anything that led her to despair?

They were in the dining hall. The First Year teams were all sat close together - though YRDN and WSTW were closer, with BLBL more on the fringe of things - being given a wide berth by the other years.

Team WSTW looked stunned by what had happened to their team leader; Flash sat with dazed and empty eyes, staring at nothing. Of Blake's own team, Sky's look was dark, while Lyra and Bon Bon were clutching one another's hands for comfort.

"Poor Yang," Lyra murmured.

"Poor Ruby," Bon Bon replied.

Blake scowled. She hadn't known Ruby Rose very well - she hadn't known any of them very well - but she remembered the way she smiled, how bright-eyes she was, how full of energy.

Blake's sickened feeling only got worse when she realised that she slipped into thinking about Ruby as though she were already dead.

Because she might as well have been.

Blake felt as guilty as any of the faunus who had done this because she had been there when this started. She had been there when they kidnapped the SDC Vice-president in charge of labour management and she hadn't protested because the man had been making a fortune out of the oppression of their people. She had kept on not protesting as the targets of their kidnappings got less and less deserving, until they were snatching Atlesian princesses on their way to prom so they could extort money from the girls' rich fathers.

And they rarely returned the hostage alive. And it had only gotten rarer as time went on.

Blake had been there when it started, and even if she couldn't have stopped it she could at least have stood up and said that this was wrong, immoral, unconscionable.

But she hadn't, and that made her as guilty of this as anyone.

Ruby's death, all their deaths, were on her.

Their certain deaths. Even if Ruby's family could find a hundred thousand lien, even if Weiss's father paid the astronomical sum, even if Pyrrha's family had ten million lien to hand, there was no way they were getting out alive. Weiss especially. Adam wouldn't pass up the chance to kill a blood Schnee.

There would be an empty chair at the Arc family table. They would look for Pyrrha Nikos from the highest tower in Mistral but she would not return.

They were all dead, even if they yet lived.

Unless...Unless she saved them.

Blake rose unsteadily to her feet. She still felt sick, but she could control the nausea rising from her stomach with a sense of action. She had been lost, mired in purposes, directionless, listless, helpless inaction, decrying the fall of the White Fang but unable to see a way to act upon her feelings. But now, now at last she knew what she had to do.

All her life Blake Belladonna had been a coward. Not a physical coward, perhaps, but a moral one certainly. She had run from Adam rather than confront the fact that the man she loved was becoming a monster before her very eyes; she had run to Beacon rather than confess to her parents how far she had fallen. She had thought to hide away as though her past would never find her here. But it had found her, and most likely Blake would have to run away again when all of this was over.

But before she ran, this time, she would stand up.

And she would save the hostages, not because they were her friends but because it was the right thing to do.

She stalked out of the cafeteria without a word to anyone. What would have been the point in speaking? Nobody wanted to here from her right now, and what would she have said anyway? Goodbye? How would she have explained that?

So she walked away in silence, leaving them all behind. Perhaps, if she brought Ruby and the rest back safe, then they would think well of her, in spite if everything.

Blake left the dining hall and wandered out into the courtyard, which was empty at this time in the evening.

She looked up at the moon, as shattered as the lives of all those touched by the malice of the White Fang.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she remembered the idealism of their early days, before Adam's devotion to the cause of their people had curdled into a desire for any scrap of vengeance he could extract from men.

Slowly, hesitantly, she removed the bow from her hair. She wouldn't need it were she was going.

"I knew you'd look better without the bow."


"So let me get this straight," Sun - he'd insisted on giving her his name, Sun Wukong, even though she hadn't asked for it just as she hadn't asked him to join her - said as he jogged at her side down the streets of Vale. "You used to be in the White Fang-"

"Keep it down!" Blake hissed.

"Sorry, sheesh," Sun said. "But anyway, you left...And now they've kidnapped your friends and we have to save them?"

"They're not my friends."

"So we're rescuing not-friends, got it; I mean, that's cool too."

"We're not doing anything," Blake growled through slightly gritted teeth. "This is something that I have to do."

"I'm right here, aren't I?"

Blake glared at him out of the corner of her eye. Yes, he as right here, whether she wanted him to be or not, with his shirt open and his abs on display as though he was a walking advert for body spray for men. He seemed to have trouble grasping the fact that this was something Blake had to do alone.

"This is going to be dangerous," Blake said. "You don't have to get involved."

"I know," Sun said nonchalantly. "I guess I'm just not capable of ditching a beautiful woman in need."

Blake stared at him. Sun smiled, in a manner that was probably supposed to be charming.

It was actually just infuriating.

"Ugh," Blake groaned. But she didn't try to lose or outpace him because, well, it was good to have someone beside her who knew the truth and didn't judge her for the things that she had done, whose only concern was how he could help her.

It was refreshing. It was...kind of nice.

Blake, with Sun at her side, headed to Tukson's Book Trade. It was closed at this time of night, but Blake banged on the door until a light came on and Tukson cane to the door. His expression of annoyance faded when he saw who it was that had dragged him down here.

"Blake," he said, the word itself conveying his concern. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

Blake walked inside, and Sun quickly followed. "I'm...okay. But you've heard the news?"

Tukson nodded gravely. "A lot of faunus are worried about the blowback from this."

"Those morons only make it harder for us," Sun grumbled.

"Who's this?" Tukson asked.

"A friend, sort of," Blake said. "Tukson, I need to know where they're keeping the hostages."

Tukson's eyebrows rose. "Blake...I'm ex-White Fang, remember? I left, same as you."

"I know you still have contacts in the organisation," Blake said. "Or how do people find you who want out? They helped me get in touch with you. You must know someone who knows something."

Tukson scowled. "Blake...what you're asking for...maybe I do know a guy, but...What are going to do, mount a rescue? Call the cops? If you do that they're going to know there's a rat. My guy could be killed, I could be killed. So could you if you go in there by yourself-"

"Hey," Sun protested. "I'm standing right here."

"No offence kid, but I don't know you and I don't trust people I don't know. Blake...why are you asking me for this? Do you really think these kids, a Schnee, are worth risking what I've built for?"

"I think it's not enough to just walk away from wrong," Blake said. "We have to fight for what's right, too."

Tukson stared down at her. His expression softened, but didn't lose its concern. "What makes you think you can stop it? You and...this guy?"

"I've got a plan," Blake said, although she didn't disclose what the plan was because he wouldn't like it and neither would Sun. But it was the only way. She couldn't take on Adam and all his men single handed. She was good, but she wasn't that good. "I just need to get inside."

Tukson shook his head. "Okay, let me make a call."

He disappeared into the back room. Blake didn't follow, she trusted Tukson not to betray her and she wasn't about to force her presence on his contact within the White Fang.

Besides, waiting no longer felt so intolerable now that she had something she was waiting for.

Sun swung his arms back and forth, and whistled a few bars to fill the silence. "A lot of books in here."

"Bookshops tend to have those," Blake said. She smiled. "Is this your first time in one/"

Sun snorted. "No. I went in one...last year. And I'll have you know that Haven has an excellent library!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Neptune spends...uh, I mean I spend all day in there sometimes...reading, you know, books and stuff."

Blake made a sound that committed to nothing and admitted nothing.

Tukson returned. "Okay, I know where you need to go."


Even the busiest parts of the Warehouse District had shut up shop by nightfall, and the place where Blake and Sun had been directed was one of the busiest. It had once housed the warehouses of a Valish dust conglomerate, but the SDC had driven them under years ago and the warehouses had been vacant ever since.

A good place to hide the dust that you were stealing.

A good place for a hideout.

Since this whole area was officially derelict, and there was little call for it at the best of times in this part of the city, the streets were unlit and it was only due to Blake and Sun's night-vision that they were able to find their way so easily to their objective.

They met Tukson's contact, a mouse-tailed faunus with salt and pepper hair, on the roof of the next warehouse over, looking down and across at the place where the Beacon students were being held.

It was a dark, unlit place with the forbidding air of a fortress about it. Blake could see guards on the roof, and she had no doubt that there were many more inside.

"Blake?" the mouse faunus said as they crept closer to him. "And...Sun, right?"

"That's us," Blake replied, speaking in a low voice. "This is the place, isn't it?"

He nodded. "They're all inside."

"Adam hasn't killed them yet?"

The mouse faunus shook his head. "He can't. Somebody wants to see them first."

"Sienna?"

"No, someone else, some big secret. Nobody knows who she is, but everybody knows she's got Adam's nuts in a vice and the White Fang in her pocket. It ain't like the good old days Blake; this ain't the White Fang we joined."

"It was never the good old days, except in our excuses," Blake replied quietly. "How do we get inside?"

"There's a door on the right side. I'm supposed to be guarding it, but I'm not. You go in that door, there's a corridor that leads straight to where they're keeping the faunus."

"Sunset?"

"If that's her name. Pony. Ears and tail."

"What about the others?"

"Somewhere else, I don't know for sure."

"We'll find them," Blake said. She glanced up into the eyes of the Fang member. "Thank you, for taking this risk for me. And for them."

"If Tukson's willing, I can't do less," he said. "Good luck, both of you. You might need these." He pressed a pair of masks into Blake's hands, and skulked off into the shadows.

Blake put on one mask, immediately restricting her vision to the two slits set in the White. The other mask she handed to Sun, as best she could see him.

He plucked it from her hand. "Why the grimm masks anyway?"

"To make our enemies fear us as they feared the grimm themselves," Blake murmured. "But, in fighting against being seen as monsters, we became the monsters everyone was so terrified of."

Sun said. "You know, I'm sorry things had to end up like this, for you."

"I'm fine," Blake lied, and kept her purpose at the forefront of her mind and soul. Tomorrow she could run, if she were granted a tomorrow. Tomorrow she could turn coward again if she survived. Tomorrow...Tomorrow she would have choices, but tonight she had only the task that she had given herself of taking a stand against the White Fang and the wickedness that had consumed them.

And him. Always him.

"Do we have a plan?" Sun asked. "Cause you know it's cool if we don't. I love improv."

Blake gave him serious side-eye. "The plan is we sneak in free everyone, and we do it without starting a fight. That's the plan."

"Good plan," Sun said. "Short and snappy."

"Let's just go," Blake said sharply.

Blake led the way down to the street level, and to the side door that their conscientious contact had left unlocked and unguarded for them.

Blake paused, her back pressed up against the wall.

"What's up?" Sun asked.

Blake didn't reply. Instead, she pulled out her scroll and turned it on. Dozens of missed messages: from Bon Bon, from Lyra and from Sky. All of them asking some variation on the same question: where are you?

Blake replied to all three of them at once: Have confirmed Ruby, SAPR and Weiss being held at old Standard Dust warehouse on ninety-second. Am going in, call cops.

Then she turned off her scroll again. If something happened, and it probably would, then at least someone else would rescue the hostages.

"Let's go," she said, and led Sun inside through the unguarded doorway.

The lights in the corridor were out and there was little moonlight getting in, but that wasn't a problem for the two of them as they crept down the corridor with weapons drawn. Blake had Gambol Shroud in its sword configuration, the black blade reassuring in her grip. If it came to a fight the sword would be more discreet than shooting with the pistol. She held the sharp scabbard in her free hand, and the black ribbon trailed from the hilt of her sword to brush against the floor.

As Blake crept forward, as silent and soft-footed as a cat, she began to hear voices raised in anger: Sunset Shimmer's voice...and Adam's.

Blake quickened her pace. She knew what Adam was capable of in his wrath as few others did, and Sunset was combative and pig-headed enough to set him off.

"Whatever happens next, stay here," Blake told Sun as she pushed open the door leading to the room from which the voices come. "If anything...just find the others and get them out."

She looked through the doorway, staring out of the shadows and into the patch of moonlight in which Sunset Shimmer and Adam faced off against one another. Adam had one hand resting upon the hilt of Wilt, Sunset's hands were raised to deploy the semblance on which she over-relied.

"Now then, Sunset Shimmer, why don't you show me what you're got?" Adam snarled.

"Adam, no!" Blake cried, as she rushed out of the doorway to throw herself between the two of them before they could begin to fight in earnest and Adam could cut down Sunset Shimmer as Blake knew he would do if it came to it. Sunset's mighty semblance would not avail her against Adam's bloody blade.

Adam stared at her in awed amazement. He was stunned briefly into silence, his mouth moving but no words emerging.

Adam never took off his mask, not even when they were alone together and he would lecture her about his plans for their people. As a result, Blake had learnt to read his boy language, which was as shocked by her appearance as his expression made him seem.

"Blake," he whispered, when he was able to talk once more. "My darling?"

Blake lowered her sword to her side. "Let them go, Adam. Let them all go. I'm the one you want."

Adam stared at her. Silently, he took a step towards her. "You left."

"I made a mistake," Blake said. "But I'm here now. I'm back."

"For them."

"For you," Blake insisted. "Don't do this, Adam. There's no need. These people haven't done anything to us."

"Humans and house faunus, our enemies."

"Not all of them," Blake said. "I'm sorry, Adam. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you to see that. I'm sorry that I couldn't save you, or even see how to try."

Adam took another two steps towards. "I don't need saving. I only need you."

"You can have me," Blake said. "All you have to do is let them go."

Adam's chest rose and fell slowly with his breathing. "Beacon. You've been hiding at Beacon Academy."

"I'm not hiding any more."

Adam reached out slowly, tentatively, as if he was afraid she would turn out to be a dream or an illusion. He ran one single finger across Blake's cheek, and she pretended that the tender gesture didn't make her want to shudder.

"You will give yourself to me," he murmured. "Freely, of your own will."

Blake mastered her reflexive disgust to close her eyes, and press Adam's whole palm against her cheek as though she hoped to melt into his touch.

"I choose you," Blake said, choosing to remember the good man he had once been, the hero of his people, the champion of faunus-kind. The man she had fallen in love with before hatred and bitterness devoured him. "I'm sorry, Adam," she whispered, as she stabbed upwards with Gambol Shroud.

Adam caught her wrist in a grip as firm as a vice, and the hand that stroked her cheek descended to embrace her throat.

"How stupid do you think I am, my love?" Adam snarled.

"You want an honest answer, buddy?" Sun yelled as he leapt out of the dark, his bo-staff swinging. He cracked Adam hard across the face and made him cry out, releasing Blake as he retreated.

Sun and Blake both pursued, with staff and Gambol Shroud. Adam drew his crimson sword, frantically parrying first Blake and then Sun, using Blush as a second weapon to block while tried to find an opening to strike with Wilt.

Sunset teleported behind him with bolts of green energy flying from her fingers; Adam deflected them with his sword before sending Sunset flying backwards with a kick to the stomach. Sun's staff split in half becoming a pair of nunchuks which he wielded in fluid, rapid spinning motions, while Blake used her hilt as a weapon just as Adam was doing. Sunset tried to assist, but the dance that Blake, Sun and Adam were engaged with was too fast and whirling and frenetic for her to get a clear shot from range, and when she got up close she was too poor a hand to hand fighter to stand up to Adam.

Sun's gunchuks roared as he emptied them into Adam at point blank range. Adam blocked with his sword, but this left an opening for Blake to land a trio of slashing strokes along his side

Nevertheless, as Adam retreated, he smirked.

When she heard the footsteps approaching Blake understood why he looked so cocky.

The other door into the room burst open as members of the White Fang began to pour in. Sunset brought down the first three with her semblance but missed the fourth who bounded into the room with sword drawn.

He started towards the melee.

There was a gunshot. A high window shattered and the sword-faunus went down.

More windows shattered as a pony faunus with rainbow hair flew in on a pair of mechanical wings.