The early morning sun bared down from above, peeking its way through tall buildings and casting long shadows in its wake. The murmuring chorus of hundreds surrounded them, interrupted occasionally by a blaring horn or the piercing cry of a street vendor.

Blake walked hurriedly through the thick mid-afternoon crowds, Ruby hot on her heels. People were out of their homes en masse, either taking part in the current protests or simply going about their day on a bright, sunny weekend. While typically one to avoid crowds, their presence was appreciated as Blake carried out the haphazard plan only she was privy to.

"Are we almost there yet? I feel like we've been going in circles," Ruby complained dramatically. The younger girl was dragging her feet in a slump after traversing the busy crowds for so long.

Blake turned back to look at her, simultaneously glancing over her leader's shoulder to check behind them once more. After getting off the Bullhead, she'd decided to lead them on a random path through the city in the hopes of shaking any possible tail. Now that nearly half an hour had passed, she felt it was safe to assume the illusionist's aura would've run out by now if they'd been following them. With no suspicious or recognizable person in sight, it was about time to move to phase two of her plan.

"That's because we have been going in circles," Blake replied truthfully. She didn't bother explaining further just yet, instead placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder to usher the confused girl across the street. "Well, not circles, exactly. That would've been a bit too obvious."

"Why-?" Ruby's protests were cut off as Blake suddenly increased their pace, dragging her halfway down the block and through an alleyway for good measure.

"We're almost there. Just wait one minute and I'll fill you in on everything," Blake promised. Ruby only had time to send her a confused glance in reply before they exited through the opposite end of the alleyway. Half a dozen steps later, the pair entered through the door of the nearest shop.

An atmosphere much colder than the exterior washed over their bodies. Blake breathed a sigh of relief, her faunus senses filled with the thick, nostalgic aroma of paper and ink. Shelves upon shelves lined the walls, holding books of every size and shape. A quick glance showed the owner himself to be the only other occupant, standing behind the counter and offering up a quiet wave in greeting when the two girls entered.

They had made it to Tukson's Book Trade.

Blake gave a brief wave back before looking out the shop's front windows. With the glass unshaded, she could stand at an angle and keep an eye on the mouth of the alley. Several painstaking moments passed in silence. For a full minute she waited. With no signs of pursuit after all that time, Blake finally allowed herself to relax.

Ruby stood nervously nearby, still confused by the entire ordeal. During the minute of silence, she'd managed to take in the fact that they were indeed where they'd been planning to go. Regardless, her attention remained on Blake, easily understanding that her teammate had been worried about something more important than books.

"I had to make sure we weren't being followed," Blake finally confessed. She stepped away from the windows and gestured for Ruby to accompany her. "Something happened this morning. I was trying to figure out the safest way to tell all of you, so Olivia's suggestion that we head down into Vale was as good an opportunity as any."

"What happened?" Ruby asked in a worried hush.

Blake took one last glance around for good measure while leading Ruby over to the romance section. Thankfully, there were no other patrons within the shop. Only small islands of books and long shelves decorated the interior, each grouped into their own specific genre. Though they stopped at the correct table in order to search for the book Ruby desired, Blake's attention remained fixated on the door, listening intently for any others that might enter the shop. Eyes now idly searching through the books available, she kept her voice low as she began to explain.

"I was on my way to the CCT this morning when… someone's semblance affected me. There was an illusion outside the dorm building, right below the front steps. It was a warning… a threat, to keep me from revealing the White Fang's plans."

Ruby's eyebrows scrunched together, "The illusionist they talked about on the Scroll call? They were at Beacon? But then… that would mean…"

"They're a student, and likely the same illusionist that Widow was talking about," Blake nodded, "I recognized the voice on the scroll. It's someone I've heard speak before. At first, I thought that must mean they were from the White Fang, but…"

"That's not where you recognized them from," Ruby finished with wide eyes.

"And they definitely aren't alone. Widow wasn't talking to the illusionist, but about her. Chances are, the entire team is in on it."

Ruby frowned, "Why didn't you just tell us when we were in the dorm?"

"Because if it's an entire team, that means there are three semblances unaccounted for. I didn't want to risk telling all of you if there was a chance we were being spied on. Thankfully, I don't think anyone managed to follow us through Vale. We should be safe to talk about it here."

Ruby bit her lip in thought, "We need to tell Professor Ozpin. Whoever they are, they're more worried about him knowing than us."

Blake hesitated, fingers poised overtop a book. Memories of her teammates' mangled corpses flashed through her mind. "I… I don't know. Can't we just… figure it out as a team?"

Ruby frowned. With her close proximity, she quickly caught on to Blake's current fears. The leader's hand raised, landing comfortingly on the faunus's shoulder. "Blake… What did you see? If you said it was a threat…"

Blake raised her own hand to set it atop Ruby's. Her eyes fell to the floor, struggling to wipe the illusion from her mind's eye. "It was horrible… All of you were… were dead. Torn to shreds by the Grimm…" She shivered, words escaping breathlessly, "...I don't want any of you getting hurt because of me."

Ruby offered her a reassuring smile. "We won't. Aren't you forgetting we're the best team in Beacon? Who would even dare to mess with us?"

"We're second best amongst the first years. And besides… we can't stick together forever. They could attack at any time. Even if we did tell Professor Ozpin, there's no guarantee he would find out who it is and put a stop to them before they got their revenge."

Ruby hummed in thought, sending a brief tingle of vibration that Blake could feel through the hand on her shoulder. "Did you come up with an alternative? You said you recognized their voice… Have you remembered where you heard it before?"

"No," Blake replied in annoyance, more at herself than anything. "I doubt they'll be dumb enough to speak around me again, either. Widow forced me to tell her the truth about it, that I'd heard the woman's voice before. They'll be careful not to give themselves away."

"But then…" Ruby's eyes brightened as she pulled away to look at Blake more clearly, "We just have to talk to people and find someone that's reluctant to speak with you!"

Blake frowned, "That's a lot of people, and there's no guarantee we'll come across them any time soon..."

Ruby shrugged, "It's the best chance we've got. In the meantime, how did you want to tell Olivia and Weiss? They're in just as much danger as we are."

Fears somewhat alleviated now that they had the makings of a plan, Blake's eyes finally fell on the book they'd been searching for. She pulled it from the shelf and handed it to Ruby, mind straying back to the other issue she'd been having that morning.

"I think we should wait a little while. Not too long, since they're obviously in danger as well, but… They were happy this morning, and Weiss already had enough on her plate recently. Even if the illusionist has a teammate that can spy on us, they can't keep it up forever. They'll still have classes, too. Once the heat dies down and Weiss has time to relax… then we'll tell them."

Ruby raised her eyes from the book she'd been given and flashed Blake a worried frown, "I don't like keeping them in the dark, but this is Olivia and Weiss we're talking about. I'm sure they could handle themselves…"

Blake nodded agreement, "I doubt either of them are in much danger while Olivia is there. Which reminds me…" she glanced off to the side, uncertain of how her leader would take the next inquiry. "How… How do you feel about them being together? Are you… worried, at all?"

"Worried?" Ruby repeated curiously. "I don't see anything wrong with it. I'm happy for them more than anything."

Blake sighed, "I wish I could be too. I can't help thinking about something that Widow told me last night, though. And with how much Olivia despised Weiss before… I've always been worried about them being near each other. Sometimes, Olivia just..." She fell into a long silence.

"Olivia just what...?" Ruby urged after a few moments.

Blake was having trouble lending a voice to her concerns, knowing that she may be making a mistake by falling for one of Widow's schemes. Even still, she needed Ruby's help to find out the truth. In the best case scenario, having their teammate's past revealed would only help to assuage Blake's fears.

"...She reminds me of Adam."

Blake finally let the words out with a quiet breath, feeling a slight weight lifting off her shoulders. She'd suffered her fears in silence until then, always feeling like the sole person forced to keep an eye on their teammate. Releasing even an iota of those pent up suspicions served to put her at ease. Though it was an unpleasant truth, it still needed to be said.

"The first time I really felt it was when she killed the Nevermore in initiation, but even before then… I should have seen the signs. Olivia has a… a violent side. She doesn't show it often, but when she does, I can't shake that feeling. Like deep down, she's just as bad as he is."

Ruby frowned, remaining quiet for a few long seconds. She removed her hand from Blake's shoulder and turned in place, leaning back against the table while crossing her arms to regard the faunus more directly. Her expression was doubtful, deep in thought.

"...I've seen it too, actually. The way her eyes change when she gets angry or frustrated," Ruby shook her head in denial, "I don't think you need to be worried about her, though. You know Adam better than I do, but in that brief time when he was threatening us… I think he enjoyed it. I can't say the same for Olivia."

Blake took a moment to consider Ruby's words, but ultimately, couldn't agree. 'She's less experienced. Ruby hasn't seen the things people like them are capable of… Doesn't know about the people Olivia has already killed since initiation…'

Ruby could still see the doubtful frown that Blake wore. She smiled lightly and shrugged in response, unfazed by her friend's misgivings. "I guess it's my job as the leader to keep up the team's cohesion, right? If you want to look into anything, if you want proof, I'll help you find it." Ruby's eyes grew surprisingly fierce for a moment. "If only to show you that Olivia isn't as bad as you think." Her face relaxed. "Don't be upset when I prove you wrong, okay?"

Blake let out a soft laugh, though it was only truly for Ruby's benefit. Being proven wrong would be the best possible result. Even so, she felt like it was a distant hope. One with far too small a chance of becoming reality.

"I'll be happy if you do," Blake finally agreed. She leaned back against the bookshelf with her leader, thoughts drifting off to the exact wording Widow had used and the tentative connection she'd made. Blake thought in silence, piecing together how best to word her line of questioning.

"Admittedly, it's mostly my recent experience with Widow that's made me as nervous as I am. She told me that Olivia was hiding her true self… that we wouldn't like knowing the truth about her." Blake shifted nervously, flashing a quick glance at Ruby, "The entire time we talked, I don't think she ever called her 'Olivia' a single time. She kept calling her 'my little spider', and… 'little Lotus'."

Blake watched as Ruby frowned in brief recognition, though it didn't seem as if she'd made the full connection as of yet.

"You recognize it too, right? It took me a while to piece it together after recalling Widow's words last night. Funnily enough, it's from a comic book that I recently started reading, and one I believe you and Olivia are already far more acquainted with…?"

Ruby's eyes widened as understanding took hold. "The Black Lotus?" Her expression immediately furrowed once more, "Blake, I don't think Olivia is a comic book character. Ozborne the Great and Powerful isn't real either, just in case you were wondering." Ruby tapped her chin thoughtfully, "He would be able to solve this a lot faster than us, though."

Blake rolled her eyes in vexation, "I don't think she's literally the Black Lotus from the comics, Ruby. I'm suggesting she borrowed the title to use as her own name."

Ruby took a few moments in silent thought before shaking her head, "If I remember correctly, Olivia hadn't read past issue… thirty-something...? Before I let her borrow my collection. That's well before Ozborne goes to Mistral. She couldn't have been using the name if she'd never even heard it before."

Blake's eyebrows knit together in confusion. That did make her next bit of evidence far less damning, though she'd already been incapable of making heads or tails of it to begin with. Blake shrugged minutely and pulled out her scroll regardless, quickly returning to her previous search history. Curiosity had still managed to get the best of her earlier that morning. While waiting to return to the dorm, she'd spent much of her time searching up 'The Black Lotus' on the CCT.

The results hadn't been what she was expecting.

Blake handed her scroll to Ruby, allowing her leader to see the search term used and the myriad results that had come of it. Out of all of them, three distinct results stood out. The first and most popular were online store pages attempting to sell copies of "Ozborne, the Great and Powerful" along with message boards talking about the comic book and characters therein. Blake had little use for those, and so had skipped over them to view the other webpages.

Another set of results centered around a dangerous flower, known by the same name. It could easily be distinguished by its black petals and vibrant purple nectar. Regarded with caution for its use in creating one of the deadliest poisons known to man, it's signifying trait was the way in which it's own nectar served as the antidote to itself and many other poisons.

Blake saw Ruby lingering on those results and reached over to scroll down yet further. Eventually, the message boards and informational pages gave way to the third type of result. The ones that Blake had been the most interested in, and the most frustrated to discover herself barred from viewing.

"Error 404: This page could not be found," Ruby read aloud, tilting the scroll towards Blake for good measure. Instead of being greeted by the contents of the page, only the error message itself graced the otherwise blank site. The young leader backed out and tried again with another, only to be met with the same result. She looked to Blake in confusion.

"From what I could gather off just the headlines, the Black Lotus is a real person in Mistral. One known as an extremely capable criminal, and… and a murderer. I don't know why none of the webpages will load, but I've tried all the ones I could find. They each ended up the same way... with that error message being the only thing displayed."

Blake leaned forward, speaking quietly despite the relative seclusion their current abode offered. "Even if Olivia said she hadn't read that far into the comics, I can't shake the feeling that… that these might be about her…"

Ruby's eyes were downcast. Several long moments went by before she finally spoke. "Well… this is hardly enough evidence to prove… anything…" Her finger hovered tentatively over the results, seeming almost... afraid to try and access any others.

Blake's eyes narrowed slightly in worry. Part of her had been hoping for Ruby to remain resolute, adamant that she was wrong, that Olivia couldn't possibly be the same person mentioned in those headlines. Instead, her leader's voice had taken on a shaky tone, an audible uncertainty dripping from every syllable.

"Ruby? Are you…?"

Ruby closed her eyes for a moment before letting out an elongated sigh. She returned the scroll to Blake before pulling out her own and opening up the search bar.

"My uncle is from Mistral. I could ask him and see what he knows. Aside from that…" Ruby held up her own scroll for Blake to see. She immediately recognized the name Ruby had looked up, along with the agency attached to it.

"I only know because I've been to a few of his comic signings… The author for the Ozborne comics lives here, in Vale. Maybe if we talk to him… we can find out which came first? If he based the character off this… person... in Mistral, then he should be able to tell us more about them."

Blake nodded in agreement, "That's a good idea. We certainly aren't getting anywhere using more traditional methods."

Ruby spoke up quietly, "And if he didn't, then that clears Olivia's name, right?"

Blake frowned. There was that same uncertain tone again.

"It… would certainly go a long way."

Ruby nodded, avoiding eye contact with her teammate while hefting the book they'd gone there for in the first place. "Good. I don't know how long it might take to meet him, but I'll see what I can do."

Blake raised a hand as Ruby turned to leave, but was too slow in her attempt to set it on the younger girl's shoulder. Her heart dropped slightly in her chest, seeing the slump that had overcome her usually cheerful demeanor. Blake couldn't help but be confused by Ruby's reaction. Of all the things she'd been expecting… this hadn't been one of them.

Seeing the younger girl marching up to the counter, Blake followed. Either way, they would eventually get to the bottom of this.

For Ruby's sake, Blake was desperately beginning to hope she was wrong.

Ruby's feet dragged as she slowly followed Blake through the throng and back towards Beacon. She was unperturbed by the people that brushed past, and refused to acknowledge the worried glances her teammate continuously sent her way. The book she'd purchased rested in her hands, forgotten despite her glossy eyes not leaving the cover.

After it was brought up, Ruby had remembered another place she'd heard the name 'Black Lotus' used before.

During an abrupt flight out of Forever Fall...

When a deliriously sick faunus had spoken to her brother about what to call herself...