AUTHOR'S NOTES: Somewhat short "talky" chapter this time, but we need to catch up with Menagerie. We'll get back to Yang and Weiss next time.

Also, Neo talks more in this chapter than she ever has in "On RWBY Wings." I try to keep her dialogue to a minimum (since in this story she sort of

has to talk), but I liked the interaction between her and Ilia.

Lossiemouth

Upper Scotland, Menagerie

16 June 2001

Ilia Amitola hesitantly walked into the old hangar on the grounds of the former RAF Lossiemouth. The base had been closed in the 1980s, and officially abandoned, except for a local flying club. What few were aware of was that the "flying club" was actually the White Fang's air operation. The US Navy and Royal Navy covered the Greenland-Iceland-UK Barrier from the rare GRIMM attack, and the former air defense radars along the northern Scottish coast were either shut down or converted to air traffic control centers—all of which were manned by Faunus either sympathetic to the White Fang or willing to look the other way when strange contacts took off from Lossiemouth. Ilia herself had not flown to Lossiemouth; she'd driven up to it. The Lake Michigan Massacre and Mountain Glenn had cost the White Fang a great deal of its airpower, and there was no longer a Torchwick Gang to provide easy replacements.

What was there was still impressive, though. In the center was Moonslice, Adam Taurus' forward-swept wing fighter, along with a handful of the ubiquitous F-5 Tiger IIs and a few MiG-21s, the latter provided by Salem. To Ilia's surprise, she saw a British Aerospace Hawk 2000 parked in the corner of the huge hangar, and recognized Neo Politan going over it.

The Albain Brothers were conversing by the door, and both turned and smiled at Ilia as she came in. "Sister Ilia, thank you for meeting with us," Fennec greeted her.

"I didn't have a lot of choice," Ilia smiled, "since I was ordered up here." She bowed her head respectfully. "Speaking of which, what are my orders?" She didn't want to linger longer than she had to. Not if Adam was here.

"You did well at Glasgow the other day," Corsac told her instead.

Ilia sighed. "Not as well as I'd like. I think Ghira Belladonna still commands the loyalty of most Faunus. And High Leader Khan not being elected to the Menagerie Council is a blow to our cause."

"Indeed so, indeed so," Fennec sympathized. "That has put a change in our plans. We may not be attacking Haven after all."

"That makes sense, since they know we're coming," Ilia observed.

"Instead we will be launching a coup right here," Corsac said. "Sienna will seize power directly."

Ilia's eyes rounded in surprise. "If I may speak frankly…"

"Of course."

"It sounds like a bad idea. If Sienna seizes power, what's to stop the British from simply invading Menagerie and putting down the coup?"

Fennec smiled. "The British will do nothing if it's a popular revolution, and in any case, London is quite distracted right now by the embargo crisis and General Ironwood's unilateral activation of Operation Reforger. There will be no opposition. The British will accept the status quo, after the High Leader assures them her intentions are peaceful."

Ilia doubted that, but it didn't show on her face. "Very well. What do you want me to do?"

"For the coup to succeed," Fennec said, "the Belladonnas must be silenced."

While Ilia had been able to conceal her doubt, there was no concealing her shock. "Silenced?"

"They stand in the way of progress for our people," Corsac pointed out. "A coup cannot succeed as long as Ghira and Kali live."

"The Belladonnas are still popular!" Ilia argued. "This could backfire—"

"The Faunus will accept the death of the Belladonnas…as long as it's put at the feet of a rogue faction of the White Fang," Fennec told her. "We would never put such a burden on you alone, of course. Your brothers and sisters will be at your side—including myself and my brother." That impressed Ilia; the Albains were experienced fighters, but they rarely took part in actual attacks, preferring to be the public face of the White Fang to the media. "But your relationship with Blake Belladonna makes you an intrical part of the operation."

Icy fear grabbed Ilia's stomach. "Blake?" she asked softly.

"We know how close you are to her," Corsac said. "Rest assured, Commander Taurus has convinced the High Leader to take Miss Belladonna alive. Nonetheless, we cannot risk having her present to defend her family. She is an American Marine, and her knowledge of weaponry and small unit tactics will be…problematic. It will be a difficult assault as it is due to the presence of the Gurkhas."

Ilia thought quickly. It made no sense to kidnap Blake…unless Adam wanted her for himself. That piece clicked into place for her. Sienna Khan was throwing Blake to Adam to pacify him. She might even turn Blake over to Salem to mollify the latter, once Salem learned that the attack on Haven would be cancelled. "I don't know," she said. "The people of Menagerie—"

"—will come to understand what happens to those who speak out against the White Fang," Corsac finished, his eyes blazing with fanaticism. "They will follow Sienna either out of love or fear. Either is acceptable."

Seeing that she was far from convinced, Fennec put a comradely hand on her shoulder. "It's a necessary sacrifice, Ilia."

Ilia paused, then bowed her head once more. "By the High Leader's command. When do we strike?"

"Within the week," Corsac answered. "It will be at night."

The chameleon Faunus nodded, took her leave, and walked away. Unsure of where to go, she wandered over to Moonslice, and jumped when Adam suddenly appeared from under the aircraft. For once, he was wearing neither his black flight suit or his sword, but a pair of overalls stained with oil and hydraulic fluid. "Good afternoon, Ilia."

"Hello, Adam."

He smiled at her and patted the needle nose of his fighter. "Doing some routine maintenance." He nodded towards the Albains, who were leaving the hangar. "They told you?"

"Yes." She needed to talk to someone, and oddly enough, Adam might actually be helpful for once. Blake had always been his weakness, and he might not agree with risking her life in a confused night attack. "I think it's a bad idea, Adam. Attacking the Belladonnas. We could easily make Ghira and Kali martyrs."

"A risk we'll have to take."

She kept trying. "Sienna's risking a lot. The British could intervene. And if we're calling off the attack on Haven, Salem will be very upset." Ilia glanced around for Hazel, but the big human wasn't present.

Adam picked at his fingernails for oil. "Oh, we'll still be attacking Haven," he said lightly. "We have enough troops to do both attacks."

Ilia turned on him. She was getting plenty of shocks this day. "But…Adam, they know we're coming!"

"They think we're coming," he corrected her. "And they believe we're headed for Atsugi. We're not. We will strike somewhere else."

"Where?"

Adam laughed, reached out, and wiped a bit of oil on her nose. "Sorry, Ilia, that's on a need to know basis. If you should get captured attacking the Belladonnas, we can't have you spilling the beans to MI6 or the CIA, can we?"

"I suppose so," Ilia replied, wiping her nose. "But why?"

"We need Salem on our side," Adam said. "Not against us."

Unfortunately, Ilia mused to herself, that made a great deal of sense. "Does Sienna know?"

"She will." He leaned against the nose. "You'll be leading the attack. Make sure you kill everyone but Blake." His smile faded. "I mean it, Ilia. Slaughter them. I have a promise to keep to Blake." His voice was suddenly ice.

"W-What are you going to do to her?" Ilia couldn't keep the fear out of her voice. She would never be used to his sudden mood swings.

Adam's smile returned. "Nothing, Ilia. But after her parents and that moron of a monkey Faunus are dead, and with her friends scattered across the planet—your old adversary Weiss Schnee is dead, by the way, killed by air pirates in California—then Blake will have nowhere left to run." He wiped his hands on the overall. "She'll come around, Ilia. She will."

"Sure." Ilia gave him a brittle smile, wondering if Adam was trying to convince her or himself. "I'll be right back. I have to use the little Faunus girl's room."

"Of course." He ducked back down underneath the nose. "Oh, Ilia…cell phone coverage is terrible up here." She stared at him. "Just saying."

Ilia walked briskly to the ladies' room. Once inside, she headed into one of the stalls and threw up her breakfast. Oh my God, she thought, her mind racing as she heaved, Adam knows. He knows I'm a spy. She shuddered, and tried to get hold of herself, fight down the panic. No, wait. He can't be sure. If he was, he'd kill me. No, Ilia, he suspects. He'll probably tell the Albains to arrange an accident for me in the attack—or Sienna will blame the whole thing on me. I'll be held up as the 'leader' of the rogue faction, acting on Adam's orders. She flushed the toilet, lowered the lid, and sat down. And Adam's right. Cell phone coverage is bad up here, and he'll be watching me. I can't contact Arashikaze. "Shit," she said aloud.

She heard the ladies' bathroom door open and shut, and heard the click of boots across the cracked tile. Ilia got to her feet, flushed the toilet again to cover herself, and opened the stall. To her surprise, it was Neo, touching up her makeup in the mirror. "Uh, hello," Ilia said. Neo gave her an absent nod. Ilia went to the sink and began washing her hands, and nearly jumped when Neo spoke. "I never thanked you for rescuing Roman," she said.

"Sorry he got killed," Ilia said, and didn't have to fake sorrow. Roman Torchwick was a bastard, but despite herself, she'd found him a likeable bastard.

"That Adam guy is batshit," Neo observed. She smacked her lips and checked her lipstick; her lips were bright pink. She glanced at Ilia. "And I know batshit when I see it."

"He carries a tremendous burden," Ilia said diplomatically.

"Mmm. Well, I won't be around to see any of it." Neo shut her lipstick case. "Leaving in a couple of minutes."

"You won't be joining us?" Ilia was actually quite relieved; Neo apparently was as good as her reputation said she was.

"Nope. I did my bit. And I have my own promise to keep." She put her makeup case in her purse; Ilia decided on not telling her that it was a bad idea to wear makeup in the cockpit of a fighter. If there was ever a fire, the makeup would burn like jet fuel.

Ilia shut off the tap. "May I ask what it is?"

Neo smiled, and Ilia thought it was just as frightening as Adam's. Her heterochromatic eyes sparkled. "Sure. I'm going to kill Cinder Fall, and then I'm going to kill Ruby Rose." She shrugged. "Or the other way around. I'm not picky." She slapped Ilia on the butt as she left the bathroom, eliciting a squeak from the surprised Faunus. "Have fun storming the castle!"

The Belladonna Lodge

Paisley, Lower Scotland, Menagerie

16 June 2001

Sun Wukong was pulling off his boots when there was a knock on the door of the guest room. "Yeah?" he called out.

Blake opened the door and stuck her head in. "You decent?"

"Yeah. I've even got my shirt still on."

"Aww." She walked in and shut the door behind her with her foot, because her hands were full with four bottles of Guiness beer. "Nightcap?"

"Don't mind if I do." She handed him two of the beers and threw him a bottle opener, while she sat on the floor with the other two. "Long day, huh?" Sun said.

"Very," Blake sighed. She leaned against the wall. "All that work, and all we got is twenty names."

Sun took an angry pull at his beer. "I don't get it! How can they just sit around and do nothing with the White Fang getting ready to attack? They were cheering your dad like a rock star yesterday!"

"Because not everyone is like you and me," Blake answered tiredly. "The Faunus here in Menagerie—the ones that weren't born here—a lot of them came here because they were tired of fighting, and having to constantly struggle against bigotry. Menagerie is filled with people who just want to be left alone." She took a drink. "And here we are, asking them to fly halfway across the world and put their lives on the line for humans that they don't know and don't care about. And don't know or care about them."

Sun stared into his beer. "I guess I never really thought about it like that."

"The problem is, Sun…they're wrong. Whatever happens in Japan is going to affect them whether they care or not. We know we can't stick our head in the sand and pretend that we're safe anywhere. They don't, or don't want to believe it." Blake thumped her head against the wall. "And they're scared. They're scared if they sign up, the White Fang will kill them. And they're not wrong about that." She remembered a few White Fang missions she had gone on, where Adam would "convince" recalcitrant Faunus to support the White Fang. Usually people wound up missing parts of their body. It was one of the reasons she had left. "Marie Mata's son really wants to come with us, but his mother sits on the Council. She's afraid."

"So how do we convince them?" Sun asked.

"Tell them if Adam succeeds in attacking Japan, the world won't just blame the White Fang. They'll blame the Faunus as a race." Her hand tightened around the beer bottle. "He creates more anti-Faunus racism than he's ever solved."

"Adam," Sun mused. "He's the guy you went up against over Beacon? The one who got Yang? Didn't you used to be…" His voice trailed off at the glare in her eyes. Sun covered his eyes. "Shit, Blake, I'm sorry. Forget I brought that up."

"No, it's okay." Blake took a breath. She couldn't keep running from that, either. Both Adam and Yang were not going to remain quiet in her memories. And Sun would understand—about Yang, anyway. She took another drink. "Have you ever met one person and thought to yourself that they are the personification of a certain word?'

"Not really." He laughed. "Blake, I went to college at Florida State, where I majored in business administration and partying."

"But you're Chinese."

"Lot of Chinese folks go to American schools. Besides, Beijing University isn't known for its partying." He tipped his beer to her. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt."

"Okay. So…like Ruby. I got to know her and I thought that she embodies purity. Well, aside from the time she got drunk off her ass at Beacon." They both shared a laugh at that. "Weiss? When we learned to be friends and not kill each other, she was the personification of defiance. She was a Schnee, but she was her own person, not her father's."

"What about Yang?" Sun knew he was opening up a wound, but he was curious.

"Yang?" Blake smiled wistfully. "Strength. Yang is the strongest person I know. She'll come back from losing her arm stronger and more ornery than she was before. That's who she is." That's who I hope you are, Yang, Blake thought. She realized just how much she missed the blonde's exuberance, and finished off her beer, then cracked open the other one.

Sun finished his first as well. "What am I?"

"A pain in the ass." She giggled at the shocked look on his face. "I'm kidding, Sun. I'm not sure, really, but I'm leaning towards earnest." She tossed him the bottle opener.

He caught it with his tail and opened the second beer—with his hand, not his tail. "I was hoping for sexy, but I'll take earnest."

"Well, you're that, too." Blake waggled her eyebrows. She knew she was flirting with Sun, and found that she didn't really care. She liked him. She remembered when she had been sitting on the bed in her room, just down the hall, and Adam had been sitting on the floor while they passed a bottle of Ghira's scotch between them and solved the world's problems-among other things.

The thought of Adam did a nice job of killing the mood, and Blake got to her feet. She began to pace. "Adam…"

"We don't have to talk about that asshole," Sun offered.

Blake took a drink and shook her head. "No, I want to…a little." She looked at the ceiling, as if for guidance. "At first, I thought Adam was justice. Then I thought he represented passion. But over time, I realized I was wrong—Adam wasn't any of those things. He was spite. Not hatred, not rage—spite." She stopped and faced Sun. "He doesn't want equality, Sun, no matter how much he talks a good game about it. He only wants revenge and suffering for what he feels the world did to him." She sat down on the bed next to Sun, cradling her beer. "I'm worried about my friend Ilia, Sun. She's not like Adam—not yet, anyway—but I don't know how long that will last. She's angry too…and she has good reason, mind you. But I'm worried that Adam will turn her into something like himself." She chuckled softly. "God, I'm such a lightweight. One and a half beers and I'm already drunkenly rambling."

"No sweat." Sun took a sip. Guinness was strong beer—he thought it was more like eating beer than drinking it—and he didn't need to get drunk at Blake's house. It might lead to something. "So Little Miss Ball Breaker was your friend, huh?"

Blake almost spit her beer across the room. "Asshole! I wasn't expecting that." She wiped her mouth. "But…yes. She was my friend." She leaned back on the bed. "Ilia was strange. Her chameleon traits meant she could pass as a human. She could've just lived a normal life as a human, but she didn't. I respect her for that. Always have."

"What made her join the White Fang?"

"Both of her parents died in a mining accident—one of the mines owned by the Schnees. As soon as she was old enough, she joined. Both of us joined at the same time…Ilia for revenge, me…" Blake rolled her eyes. "Because I was in love, if you can believe it. In love with that jerk Adam." She finished off the beer. "My parents warned me about him, and tried to get me to leave. I told them to fuck off. I didn't need them. I had Adam and Ilia." She leaned forward and set the beer down. "I was a damn fool, Sun."

It was quiet in the room for a long moment. "You know we might have to fight her eventually," Sun said into the silence. "You heard her at the speech."

"I know."

"What are you going to do?"

Blake sat up and smiled at him. "If she gives me a chance to, I'm going to try and help her the way you helped me."

Sun looked surprised. "Me? What did I do?"

"You smacked some sense into me," she replied. "You showed me that sometimes you've got to be there for a friend even when they don't want you to be. After Beacon, Sun, I was just drowning in guilt for abandoning Ruby Flight, and fear of Adam. I tried to push you away, but you're a contrary asshole, so you didn't give up on me." She stood up. "And I'm not giving up on Ilia. Or Ruby Flight. Once we're done here, I swear I'm going to get back with my friends. Our friends." She reached the door and looked back at him. "I think it's about time I saved my friends for once, don't you?"

"As Yang would say," Sun grinned, "fuckin' A." His grin faded as Blake didn't open the door. Instead, she locked it. "What are you doing?"

Blake was dressed casually in a light blouse and jeans. As Sun watched with an increasingly dry mouth, she reached up and pulled off the blouse. "Thanking you."

"Uh…you sure?"

Blake unbuttoned her pants and shimmied out of them. "Very." Her heart was thudding in her chest. It had been a very long time since Adam, she wanted Sun, and she wasn't running anymore. "Do you have any objections?"

Sun pulled off his T-shirt so fast he tore it. "Hell no." He paused. "But, uh, what about your parents?" He had a mental image of Ghira Belladonna twisting his head off.

"They're asleep. Mom and Dad go to bed early." She stepped over to the bed and pushed him down on it.

"Oh, I see. Marines got to be on top, huh?" Sun expertly unsnapped her bra. Thoughts of Ghira murdering him disappeared at the sight of her breasts.

She licked his chest like an animal. "From the halls of Montezuma…" she began to sing.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hey, a little Black Sun. I'm totally a Bumblebee shipper, but don't mind Black Sun, and honestly, it felt right for this story. Blake is lonely, and Sun's been there for her.

The reason for the aside about Sun's college career is that I had to explain why he uses a lot of American slang. In canon RWBY, everyone does, but in this AU, I felt it needed a bit of explanation.