Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.

CHAPTER 7

"Blake?" Pale knocked on her door. It had been two days since their first attempt at raising an army, and they were prepared to go out at night to attempt recruiting the nocturnal section of the city. "Come on Blake, stop moping around your room. We have shit to do." Pale said, before scrunching up his nose. Something was wrong. He got a phantom pain in his leg just before he knocked a second time, and made the executive decision to shoulder ram the door. Breaking the lock off, Pale found that Blake wasn't in her room at all. Though there was a note on the nightstand. Pale glanced at the wording, and instantly he started limp running out of the house. "Damn it Blake." Pale cussed, as he made his way into town. It was the middle of the night, and her old friend the terrorist spy was asking her to meet in an alleyway. Yeah, that was going to go well. Pale hoped she left that note lying around for him to find in case she knew how bad of an idea it was to go out on her own.

After hobbling his way to the location written down, Pale. Rather than simply walking out into the open, found a ladder that would take him up to a roof. Now standing above the alleyway, Pale could see Blake was bound and on the ground, 4 black body-suited Fang members surrounding her. "Ilia, what are you doing?!" Blake asked her old friend. Pale walked slowly along the edge of the roof, his presence going unnoticed as the overcast hid his shadow from the moon's glow. He was only going to have one real shot at this. Four people wasn't the most he'd killed in one draw, but it would be difficult still.

"I tried to warn you Blake, I'm Sorry." Ilia said, before Blake snapped at her.

"Don't tell me you're sorry!" The cat girl shouted.

Pale drew a cigarillo out of his pocket. He'd need the nicotine to steady his hand. "But I am. I'm sorry it has to be this way, but you and your family are holding the faunus back." Ilia spat, as Pale put the cigarillo in his mouth.

"Because we're trying to save people? What world do you live in, where killing innocent people is the right thing to do?" Blake asked. Pale was honestly surprised, of all the faunus they could have picked for a night mission and not one of them had actual night vision? The Bat might have been able to hear him if he was particularly loud, but he doubted it with the two girl's yelling.

"The same world as you, where there is no innocence, there is no right or wrong. There is only what's best for us." Ilia said. Pale pulled out a small cardboard box, and selected the last of his phosphorus tipped matches. "There's the humans who hate the faunus, and others who stand by and let the hate happen!" They weren't very quiet for what was obviously supposed to be a night ops team. "You know what snuffs out hate? Fear…"

Pale struck his match and lit his cigar, as the clouds drifted away with a gust of wind, casting the alleyway in his shadow, the dim light from his cigar illuminating only his mouth and nose. "On that… I agree." Sacrificing his perfect window to kill all four of them, Pale quipped to inspire fear. The four Fang members on the ground began to scramble as Pale drew Guerrilla Warfare, and fanned the hammer, sending four bullets into the group. Cursing his chances, Pale had only managed to strike two of them. The one man closest to him in the chest, and the grey haired girl in the calf. Having been using his semblance, he mortally wounded the first one, likely disabled the second, and having missed the batman and Ilia, reset his damage multiplier. Leaping down from the roof, Pale landed in between Blake and Ilia, and pointed his revolver at the bat faunus as Ilia ran away.

Cussing to himself, Pale pulled out his bayonet and sliced through what looked like thick webbing keeping Blake tied up. That's when something clicked. Turning to the bat, who started flying away, and then the injured woman, Pale took a harder look at her. "Trifa?" He asked, putting his revolver away. "Trifa Argiope?" Pale asked again, taking a step closer to her. She looked up to him, and seemed to recognize who he was.

"Lee's boy… Pale? You're alive?!" Trifa asked.

"I should be asking the same thing to you… Why the fuck are you in the White Fang?!" Pale suddenly shouted, pulling his revolver out again. "Adam Tarus killed your entire family! What reason could you possibly have to join him?!" Pale asked. Trifa held a hand up.

"Easy there Pale… I left Sakkura before the bombings… Before I knew what was going on... I… I wanted to make a difference… A faunus like me… A spider… We aren't very liked, even among other faunus… I gross people out with my veins and my webs… I joined The White Fang's Mistral chapter, figured I could set an example that it's not just the mammal faunus who deserve to be seen as equals." Trifa explained.

"And you're helping stage a coup, why exactly?" Pale asked, as Blake untangled herself from the mess of webbing.

"Because I wanted to be on the winning side. I can't afford to lose what favors I have… The Fang decided I was best suited to kidnappings and hostage taking, so I did as ordered… And that led me to Adam… I hate him… After I heard about Sakkura I wanted to see the life drained out of him… But he's the High Leader now… I can't defeat him… I hardly even have an aura." Trifa said, looking at the ground. Pale lowered his revolver.

"What if I told you, you could have a shot at putting him down… And help bring equality to the faunus?" Pale asked, putting his gun away. Trifa looked up at him, as Blake finally stood up.

"Pale… Are you… Offering to help her?" Blake asked.

"It's a long story… Trif was a friend of mine." Pale said. "More than that actually." He thought, but would never admit. Trifa weighed her options, and Pale held out his hand to her. "Come on Trif, I ain't one for making deals with terrorists. Accept the offer." Pale said. With a grunt Trifa took Pale's hand, and he helped her up.

"Fine… Can't say I'll be of much use right now since you shot me, but you two need to know, Yuma and Ilia are on their way to the Manor to help Fennec and Corsac kill Ghira and Kali." Trifa said.

"What?!" Blake shouted.

"You heard me, go help them." Trifa said, shooing the two away.

"Get that gunshot looked at, I'll find you later." Pale said to Trifa. Grabbing Blake by the wrist, Pale took off, limping as fast as he could. "I hope to god Sun isn't occupied." Pale said through gritted teeth, as he reloaded his revolver.

Author's note. Little bit of a high noon moment, but in the middle of the night. Trifa and Pale obviously go way back to before Pale became what he is today. Mostly I just wanted to give Pale another redeeming portion of backstory to show that he wasn't always a racist, because nobody is born hating anyone, that and I sort of like Trifa as a character with no backstory.