Chapter 7: Black and White
Yang fell hard on the mat after several grueling rounds on the punching bag. The strength setting was at its max, so Yang had to hit it with the force of a speeding car with every strike. But after failing to capture the girl from their last mission, she needed to let off some steam, and with every hit she felt a little bit less angry.
The stern voice of Goodwitch echoed over the intercom "Will everyone please report to the mission briefing room ASAP."
Yang groaned as she rolled to her feet, stretching her arms out, not bothering to change from her orange tang top and black shorts as she left the gym. She strolled into the central briefing room to find the rest of her team gathered, surrounding an unknown figure. As Yang got closer, she got a better look at the mystery visitor.
It was her!
The girl from the warehouse was there, this time without a mask on. Yang felt her temperature rising she stepped aggressively towards the girl, who swiveled around as soon as Yang's foot hit the ground.
"Easy there firecracker" Her uncle said, seemingly appearing from nowhere with a hand on her shoulder "She's on our side."
Yang raised an eyebrow as she looked at the rest of their group. Ruby cocked her head, unsure of what to make of the situation, but was smiling as usual. Pyrrha was standing with her hands behind her back, in her usual formal manner, but appeared friendly. Jaune was sitting down on the coach, tapping his feet nervously on the ground, as his eyes went back and forth between Yang and the raven-haired girl. Weiss was the only one who looked openly displeased with this, arms crossed and giving the girl a cold stare.
The girl on the other hand was just staring at Yang with a neutral, almost emotionless expression. Their eyes locked and despite Yang's aggressive glare she didn't blink, just tilted her head, as if studying the Blond.
Her uncle's hand squeezing her shoulder brought her out of her fiery trance, and with that she stomped off to the couch where Jaune was sitting and plopped herself down.
"Now that it looks like everyone is here" Glynda said, eyes giving Yang a stern warning look, she turned to face the monitor, where Ozpin had just appeared.
"Hello everyone." Ozpin announced "I imagine you have met Blake Belladonna, or have been reintroduced to after the events of last night, which she was conducting a synchronous investigation into, and both parties were just unaware. She is a protegee of a huntsman and when he heard about our experiment here, he figured this would be a good experience for her. As I'm sure you were made well aware of last night, she is highly capable, and as you have some time before your mission tonight, so I sincerely hope you make her feel welcome here. She will be staying here with Jaune, Pyrrha, and Weiss. Harbringer will brief you before you depart tonight."
Everyone in the room paused, before as expected Ruby walked up to Blake to say hi, with Jaune and Pyrrha soon following. Weiss, well was being Weiss and like Yang, wasn't overly pleased with how she embarrassed them last night. Not that either one would admit that.
Yang simply gave an uncharacteristically Yang like welcome and nodded, before stalking back to the gym to finish her workout, finding that her anger had returned.
Yang got under the bench press, gripping the bar and ready to pump some iron. While she had maxed out what normal bench presses were capable of a long time ago, these ones that were installed for the team were designed for enhanced strength aura users, making the weights several times heavier than they appeared to be. She was going to be doing her usual set, 3 sets of 10 tons for 7 reps.
As she started lifting an unseen stranger snuck into the room and was able to mount the gymnastic rings undetected. Yang finished her last set and racked her weights, getting up and stretching before she noticed the intruder.
Blake was performing a series of complicated looking maneuvers on the rings, with perfect form and control, before launching herself off, landing on a small platform, which was nearly the length of a swimming pool away with ease. She landed on the balls of her feet, in a cat like crouch, ready to strike.
Despite being known for her hot temper, Yang cooled off faster than most gave her credit for, especially after working off the stress. Last night was just a misunderstanding, she should welcome Blake to the team properly. After all she was super friendly to both Jaune and Pyrrha, and the way Blake looked in her athletic wear certainly didn't hurt her chances.
Blake was still crouching, focused with deadly concentration as Yang walked up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey sorry about the misunder…."
Blake wiped around, wild eyes looking straight through Yang, hands up in a fighting stance.
Yang stumbled back in response to the reaction, nearly pulling a Jaune and tripping over her own feet. Blakes expression softened, realizing her overreaction.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you there…" Yang begun, but Blake interrupted her.
"It's okay" Blake responded softly, embarassed "I just get, kinda locked in sometimes."
"No worries" Yang replied, extending her hand to Blake, chuckling slightly at the situation "I'm Yang, sorry about getting off on the wrong foot last night."
Blake shook her hand, and Yang couldn't help noticing her light grip, as if she would suddenly need to bolt without hesitation. Given Yang's initial welcome, she really couldn't blame her, and was met with more silence after the greeting.
"…um your routine was really good" Yang begun, trying to alleviate the awkwardness, rubbing the back of her head "and you fought really well last night, was that thing you did where you disappeared when I tried to grab you your semblance?"
Blake paused, as if measuring how much information to give away "Yeah, I can create clones of myself."
"Huh, handy" Yang replied, "I just get hit a lot and eventually I blow up!"
Blake surprisingly let out a small laugh at this, stopping quickly "Ah I guess that probably suits you, doesn't it?"
Yang nodded in agreement "Pretty much, I take whatever someone gives me and hit back twice as hard."
Blake raised her eyebrows, as if the information shocked or troubled her, before giving a quick response "Hmmm, interesting."
Again, it was an awkward silence.
"Well, I'll won't gruel you about your weapon, as I'm sure my sister Ruby will ask you a million questions when you next see her" Yang said, breaking the quiet. "I'm done my workout so I'm just gonna hit the showers."
With that she began to head towards the changerooms, before adding "Hey, if you want someone to show you around the place though, just let me know okay?"
She continued when she was met with silence, before pausing at Blake's response.
The Raven-haired girl rubbed her arm, a small blush crossing her face "Yang…, I think I'd like that"
Yang nodded and gave her a smile before she exited into the change rooms.
"…and this is my pride and joy" Yang announced, proudly displaying her bright yellow motor bike to Blake.
Blake couldn't help but chuckle at the blond huntress's choice of transportation, it clearly was designed to get noticed, and certainly matched who she gathered Yang was.
Overall, she was pleasantly surprised with the team, even if they all seemed a bit immature. Three of the four other members had briefly joined Yang and Blakes tour of the Headquarters, and seemed to genuinely want to welcome Blake to the team, despite last nights encounter.
Ruby, Yang's younger sister rambled with Blake whenever Yang wasn't showing her something. Blake was happy to find out that they shared an interest in reading, however she suspected that the books that she read wouldn't be very appealing to Ruby. The young huntress seemed more interested in black and white tales of heroism and adventure, than complex looks into characters and romance, so the conversation was a bit one sided, which in all fairness suited Blake just fine. Plus, Yang would probably kill her if she corrupted her baby sister with her type of literature.
And that's really what Ruby appeared to be to Blake, an idealistic innocent child, who wanted to help people and save the world. Despite this, Blake already had developed some admiration for the red cloaked youth, having an attitude very similar to Blakes when she started her life with the White Fang. She hoped that unlike her own idealism that Ruby's wouldn't be destroyed too soon by the life she chose. Blake had decided that she liked Ruby, like she suspected most did, even if her nonstop talk of weapons was kind of exhausting. Couldn't complain though, she always was more of a listener anyway.
Jaune also seemed similarly naïve, and honestly Blake couldn't really understand why he was here. Granted, he seemed friendly enough, albeit a bit awkward, and frankly kind of useless. From what Blake was told by Yang he had randomly shown up to help them one day and somehow was a key player in killing a giant deathstalker, however Blake really had no idea how he managed that without any training.
Apparently, he was training with the Wizard, who from what Yang gathered, saw something in him with potential, and was acting as support with their missions, until the Huntsmen determined him ready for the field. Well, he must be of some use if the Wizard of all people was interested in him, but Blake really couldn't see a friendship forming between them. Nothing against the guy really, but they appeared to have little, if anything in common.
Pyrrha seemed the most reserved out of the group, and while she was nice, that was all that Blake could really say about her so far, she was nice, putting up what was a façade of nothing but pleasantness, although it didn't appear to be to hide anything nefarious, more so the actions of someone who was taught to express themselves in this manner. Although, if Yang's stories were to be believed she didn't want to cross her, having apparently defeated Yang, Ruby and Weiss in combat when they first met her. Blake was impressed. While she did gain the upper hand over the four girls the previous evening, it was momentarily in a dark lit environment where Blakes goal was escape, a situation that heavily favoured Blakes fighting styles and abilities over the other huntresses. She also suspected that Yang was the competitive type, so she doubted that she would admit an opponent's superiority over herself unless it was absolutely true.
Finally, the only absent member of the group, Weiss Schnee. The heiress was the only member of the team that Blake could say that she disliked, and could tell that the "Ice Queen", as Yang apparently called her, was outright unpleasant. Blake went into this situation knowing that she wouldn't get along with the Daughter of the Corrupt and Powerful Schnee Dust Company, and from the brief encounter that they shared, was exactly how she suspected that the heiress would be. A spoiled brat, whose ego could be seen a mile away, molded by her monster of a father. While Blake hoped that perhaps she wasn't as awful as Jacques, and perhaps hadn't been corrupted by the years of enslavement that her family had brought on Blakes people, she suspected that was simply Ruby's contagious idealism seeping into her. No matter, Blake knew she could control her emotions to at least work peacefully with her, for the moment anyway.
"…it's nice" Blake finally responded, having realized that she had been lost in her thoughts for long enough. Yang didn't seem to mind and was still staring lovingly at her bike, swooning over the metal speed machine.
"She certainly is" Yang said, patting her baby, affectionately. Yang had talked the most to Blake throughout their tour, and despite being the kind of person that Blake couldn't normally stand, she couldn't say that she felt that way about the brawler. She was loud and impulsive, but again seemed to really care for people, and despite her earlier encounter, treated Blake and from what she could tell, as a potential friend, easily being the most outwardly social out of the group.
Apparently, she had somehow become friends with Weiss, a feat that genuinely impressed Blake, especially considering the fact that Yang was not a stuck-up bitch like the heiress, and appeared to be almost as different from the white-haired huntress as Blake herself. Granted, from what she could tell, it would be a poor choice to make the blond mad, a very poor choice. It was funny, in a dark sort of way, Yang's more negative qualities almost reminded Blake of…
She was shot back to reality by Yang, who was waving her hand in front of her face.
"Earth to Blake, you all good there?" the brawler asked.
Blake blinked before responding "Yes sorry, I was just thinking about something."
Yang raised her eyebrow, with a goofy smile "Ugh, hate doing that" She joked, wrapping her arm around Blakes shoulders before leading her out of the garage. Typically, Blake would not be comfortable with being touched by most people, especially those who she barely knew, but for some reason she didn't seem to mind at the moment, and let Yang lead her to the kitchen where the rest of the team were grabbing a late lunch, a snack before they would be getting ready for their mission
After settling into her room, Blake got changed into her combat gear and changed her bow, walked downstairs to find the rest of the team in their gear, facing the tall black-haired huntsmen, Harbinger, Ruby and Yang's uncle, Qrow. Blake quickened her pace, and stood besides Yang, who gave her a big grin when Blake pulled up.
"Okay if you brats are ready, we're going to begin with the briefing for this mission" Qrow, said almost uninterestedly, but she could tell that it was mostly in jest, directed towards Ruby and Yang, with Weiss rolling her eyes at the Huntsmen's lack of professionalism.
"I saw that Princess" Qrow growled, clearly trying to get under the heiress's skin "Listen up, or I'll report this insubordination to your sister."
Weiss opened her mouth to say something, but thought better and closed it, and crossed her arms. Well Blake certainly appreciated the raven-haired man's ability to put the princess in her place.
"Alright, so as you know, you five…or six now, I guess" Qrow began, nodding to acknowledge Blake "Have been getting priority call on most dust robbery related crimes, which are at an all time high now, for what reason we don't know. However, this mission will be a bit different, you will be raiding another suspected warehouse, but this time instead of random criminals or that punk Torchwick, the White Fang is suspected to be involved…"
This peaked Blakes, along with quite a few of the other team members' interest.
"…which could make these people are more dangerous than most criminals you would face, as the Vale Sect of the White Fang has been shown to have had a rise in unprovoked violent responses in the last few years…"
Right, if you call systemic racism and discrimination unprovoked. While Vale was probably the best place to be a Faunus, outside of Menagerie and some parts of Vacou, and certainly leagues better than both Mistrel and Atlas, anti-faunus attitudes were still prevalent in the kingdom, with corruption in both the government and police forces, and many business' refusing to provide service to Faunus customers. Granted, she suspected that the average Vale citizen didn't think lesser of the Faunus, or at the very least didn't express that view outwardly.
While Blake didn't condone the often-extreme forms of violence that the White Fang used, at least not anymore, she could certainly still understand why some choose that method to try to combat discrimination, even if it was wrong to go as far as some members went. She really hoped that they weren't behind this incident, sinking to the level of common criminals and giving humans for fuel for the Faunus hate fire.
"…so, make sure you are extra careful tonight, especially since your stealth might be compromised with some of the targets potentially having enhanced senses. I'll be tagging along this time, but I'll be waiting at the bullhead, just in case things go south. Same thing as last time just secure the warehouses one at a time, nice and easy."
Qrow, then pointed out Jaune "Fresh meat over here will have Dr. Caffeine Head…" indicating to Dr. Inferno, who raised his eyebrow but said nothing "…as his handler for this mission. Try to go easy on him, alright Oobleck."
"That's Dr. Oobleck …" The green haired man responded, giving Jaune a friendly smile as the blond walked up nervously "…I didn't spend eight years in university for nothing."
"Whatever egghead" Qrow teased back, which didn't really seem to phase the huntsman who was already chattering away to Jaune at hyperspeed, with the poor boy being barely able to keep up with what the doctor was saying. Blake suspected that Jaune would be more tired than they were after this mission, despite his mere support role.
"Alright everybody be on the Bullhead in ten minutes or we're leaving without you" Qrow yelled with his back turned, strolled to the hanger lazily.
After Jaune wished them luck and they all got their weapons ready, they met Qrow on the bullhead, and flew off to Vale, where the suspected stolen dust was located.
Blake snuck through the rafters, initiating the plan that they had discussed on the Bullhead. The team was impressed with how she managed to take down all the criminals during the previous nights mission, so Ruby suggested to let her to take point on this infiltration and stealth mission, and scout out each individual warehouse before they struck. They had already silently taken down two of the warehouses, all filled to the brim with dust, and thankfully having no white fang members involved, just regular thugs. This third was the last on their list.
She heard voices in the corner, and slipped over the metal beams, careful to not make a sound. Once she was able to see the sources of the conversation over the last shelf of dust, her fears were confirmed.
While there were a few normal criminals in a heated discussion, there were over a dozen men in white uniforms with grimm masks covering in their faces, with some having visible animal attributes clearly displayed.
"Blake, what's your status" Jaune inquired through her earpiece "What's going on in there?"
Instead of answering verbally, and potentially alerting their targets to her presence she used her scroll to type out her situation, letting them know to be prepared to strike in the next minute.
Once the team had confirmed that Blake would be launching the first attack, Blake narrowed her eyes under her mask and unsheathed Gamble Shroud.
She prepared to pounce, but as she was about to, one of the white fang grunts turned and saw her through the darkness, eyes meeting. Blake froze, with the realization that this might have been one of her former comrades keeping her in place. However, before the Grunt could alert the others, the rest of the team burst through the windows, and Blake was out of her trance, and pounced on the Grunt, knocking him out as she landed, with the other two dozen other members barely even noticing, as they were all quickly incapacitated by the Huntress's.
Ruby fired off dust rounds at the White Fang, either sending the white fang members to the ground twitching from the electrical shock, freezing them in place, or blasting them into the walls of the warehouse unconscious. Yang threw herself into the fray, knocking one grunt into another with a heavy straight, before blocking a barrel of a gun with her forearm, and incapacitating the unfortunate goon with a knee to the groin. Pyrrha, leapt into the middle of the circle of white fang grunts with Blake, sweeping the leg of one of them, and knocking him out with a shield strike, before leaping into the air, blocking the bullets with her shield, and then throwing it, taking out three grunts with one toss. Blake was on the defensive, blocking bullets with her sword, and allowing her teammates to finish the fight rather than act offensively herself.
Weiss certainly made up for this by attacking the group with a surprising ferocity, using her glyphs to knock around goons, before sending them flying into the walls, and shelves. Thankfully, she was using nonlethal force, with the usual orders still in place, but the White Fang grunts that she dispatched were likely going to have more severe injuries than the others.
As quickly as it started the fight was over, and as Qrow told them, sirens could be heard in the distance, as the police were called to take in the incapacitated criminals.
"The White Fang, what an awful bunch of degenerates" Weiss muttered as she stepped over an unconscious opponent, or rather on him as she passed by.
"What's your problem?" Blake challenged, careful to avoid too much harshness with her words, and unfortunately didn't work as well as she thought, as the rest of her team seemed very surprised with her tone.
Weiss turned to her and for the first time spoke to Blake "What's my problem, I simply don't care for the criminally insane."
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths" Blake responded, "They are a collection of misguided Faunus."
Weiss rolled her eyes "Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity from the face of the planet!"
"So, they're VERY misguided!" Blake retorted, voice rising "Either way it still doesn't explain why they would rob a dust shop in the middle of Downtown Vale."
"Which is why the Huntsmen Society of Remnant, and the Vale Police will be investigating this matter" Qrow interjected "Now head back to the Bullhead, as we did not clear you to talk to the police on this mission."
Weiss and Blake halted their argument and the team listened to Qrow, rushing to the Bullhead to sneak inside as he discussed the matter with the police.
Thankfully, Weiss seemed to have enough self control to wait to reengage, until they were in the air.
"It doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are scum" Weiss argued, arms crossed
"Maybe, but you can hardly blame Faunus for using force to combat injustice" Blake fired back "Especially when certain governments and COMPANIES treat them like criminals and slaves, simply because of how they were born."
Weiss clearly wasn't stupid and understood the insinuation as soon as the comment came out of Blake's mouth, and stood up in anger.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Weiss responded, with the rest of the team being apprehensive as to if they should intervene "IF YOU ARE INSINUIATING THAT MY FAMILIES COMPANY…"
"That is exactly what I am insinuating" Blake responded coldly "and it's not hard to see that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, with your monster of a father and the arrogant little brat that he produced!"
Weiss's pale face filled with red, as she took a step towards Blake, but was stopped by Yang who forced her to sit down.
"If you two want to throw down when we are on the ground fine!" Yang growled, with all the usual cheer lost in her voice. "Fine. But we are not having brawl here when we are thousands of feet in the air. So, knock it off until we land. Both of you!" Giving a death glare to both Weiss and Blake.
Weiss looked like she wanted to respond, but again she shut her mouth and turned to her side, arms cross seething in rage. Blake simply glared one more time at the Heiress before turning to look out the window, as the flew to their island HQ.
Once they landed Weiss stormed off to her room, completely ignoring the debrief. Blake stuck around, but right after Ozpin disappeared, she headed off to bed without a word.
"That could have gone better" Yang sighed, as she walked with a disheartened Pyrrha and Ruby to the showers, with Jaune catching up to them, wondering what they hell happened.
The next few days sucked to say the least. While both Weiss and Blake were talking to the other members of the team, after a day of cooling off, they refused to speak to each other for the rest of the week, with training going horribly as a result. Not only did the rest of the team have to ensure that neither huntress spared each other, in order to avoid any inter-team maiming, but any teambuilding exercises went rather horribly as the two women refused to even look at each other.
While Ozpin and the rest of Huntsmen and Huntress's left the team to sort out their own issues, the team's failed attempts to get either one to cooperate left all members stressed and exhausted.
Finally, Yang had enough, and for once, actually gave an order to the others. Pyrrha and herself would talk to Weiss, and Ruby and Jaune would talk to Blake. Maybe they could get their teammates to see each other's perspectives, or at least behave professionally enough to work together.
The general consensus was that while Blake did have a point about the Schnee Dust Company, as Pyrrha, with her impressive knowledge of pretty much everything, alerted them to the numerous accusations against Weiss's family's business, they agreed that it was a poor choice on Blake's part to launch personal attacks against Weiss's family, and Weiss herself.
KNOCK KNOCK! Yang rapped her fist against Weiss's door, with Pyrrha standing nervously by her side. Yang had only known Pyrrha for a month or two, but it was painfully obvious that she was absolutely terrible at any sort of confrontation. The girl was just too nice and eager to please, which was why Yang had decided it was best for them to pair up for this. Sort of get a good cop, bad cop thing going. Also, there is no way that Weiss would be listening to Jaune "Vomit Boy" Arc any time soon, and figured her fellow blond would work better with Ruby anyway.
"Yang, if this is to get me to apologize and make up with the White Fang apologist, you're wasting your time. I'm not interested!" Weiss yelled from inside her room "So, go away!"
Yang turned to Pyrrha and nodded "Plan B then?"
"Yang, I'm not sure that's a good idea" Pyrrha tried to stop her but it was too late.
WHAM! Weiss's door was kicked off the hinges by Yang, with the Heiress screaming as Yang and Pyrrha walked over the fallen door and into her room.
"IT WAS UNLOCKED!" Weiss yelled "YOU DIDN'T NEED TO DO THAT YOU DUNCE!"
Yang shrugged "I'll fix it later."
Weiss rolled her eyes, exhausted by her friend's idiocy, before sitting up from her bed.
"What do you want?" Weiss asked, eyes narrowing on the pair as Pyrrha sat politely on Weiss's desk chair and Yang lounged back next to Weiss on her bed.
"We just want to talk" Pyrrha explained softly "We think it might be better if this team was a united front."
"So, we're gonna need you to make some sort of positive contact with Miss Tall, Dark and Handsome over there" Yang finished, far more bluntly.
"She insulted me and my family!" Weiss argued "You just expect me to take that lying down."
"No" Yang responded "Which is why we asked Jaune and Ruby to go over there and talk to her as well. We just need you guys to try to see it from the other person's perspective. I mean you have told me that you disagree with your dad a lot, hell I've heard you complain about him with Ruby on the phone for hours. Do you think that there's any truth in what she's saying?"
Weiss paused, clearly considering this before responding. She simply looked down at her knees, a glassy expression in her eyes. "I'm not blind to what kind of person my father is. His business practices are shady at best, and all my life he's been nothing but a manipulative poison to everyone around him. I became a huntress, to get away from him, like Winter did. I want to help restore the dignity of my family's company. But I won't have anything to do with a person who defends the White Fang, a group that has hurt and killed people that I know, and are part of the reason my father is the monster that he is today."
"I'm not sure that's true." Pyrrha interjected.
"Excuse me?" Weiss responded, more curious than angry, to what her crimson headed teammate meant by that.
"I don't think that Blake supports the White Fang" Pyrrha repeated "She did say that they were misguided, Weiss, it was probably more so that she thinks that the White Fang comes from a place of righteous anger, even if they have gone too extreme in recent years."
"It does seem hard to be a Faunus" Yang considered "I mean, I know that some Faunus that I go to school with are bullied, just for showing their traits, and that some businesses won't even let them in. I'd be upset if I had to put up with that. Blake probably has a Faunus friend, who told her some of that stuff."
"Maybe" Weiss quietly responded, thinking this through. "She still didn't have a right to attack me like that. I didn't do anything to her."
Huh this is the first time I've seen a room other than my own, Jaune thought to himself randomly, as he was seated on a chair next to Ruby, facing Blake, trying to convince her to try to mend the fence with Weiss.
Jaune did agree that Blake had gone to far with her comment about Weiss and her family. In all fairness he really didn't know much about the White Fang, other than that they were a Group, that said they fought for Faunus rights, with really violent rallies. He thought to the Faunus that he knew growing up.
His parents had always told him to treat others how would like to be treated, regardless of who they were, including Faunus. That's what he always did, and granted while there weren't too many he grew up with, there were a few that he was friends with, until high school. He also remembered the bullying they went through. He always thought that maybe they got bullied for the same reason that he did, that the bully just wanted someone to pick on. But maybe the bullies really did think lesser of them, just because they had an extra tail or pair of ears. By the time high school hit, the Faunus kids' kind of just kept to themselves. I mean there were a few that Jaune would say hi to in the halls and talk to in class, but that was about it, it's not like they were really friends. Maybe the way that they were treated was why.
"…I can see what you're trying to do Ruby, but I'm sorry, I'm not talking to her. She's bigoted and her family has done nothing but hurt Faunus kind. Especially her Father, the man that one day is going to give her the company, which she will continue the legacy of. What the White Fang does is wrong, but if you can't understand where they are coming from, I can't help you." Blake said, "I'm sure that neither of you are discriminatory, but you can't get it unless…unless you have listened to someone that has suffered from that kind of discrimination."
"Like how Faunus typically only hang out with other Faunus's?" Jaune asked "Do you have a Faunus friend who suffered cause of the Schnee's?"
"Yeah, you could say that" Blake said darkly, as she stared into the floor "And yes Jaune that is part of why… they do that. To avoid getting hurt like so many of them have, because of people like her."
"But Weiss isn't her father" Ruby countered "and honestly I don't know anyone who's said more bad things about her father than her. A big reason why she became a huntress was to get away from him, and I don't think that she hates Faunus or anything. I just think that she's suffered due to White Fang's actions against her family. I think you just really upset her when you called her a brat."
Blakes expression softened sightly at the first part, and seemed to be considering the second part. "Alright, I'll consider talking to her. I'm not sure I can handle failing team building again anyway."
Jaune laughed at this "Hey at least you're coordinated to begin with. I can barely survive it, even without you two trying to kill each other."
Blake allowed herself a small smile at this, before Ruby and Jaune took that this was their cue to leave. They left, inviting Blake down for lunch. Blake declined, as she wanted a nap before they left for another mission tonight.
"Huh, that went better than expected." Jaune said as they walked down to the kitchen "Whenever my sisters fought like that, they wouldn't talk to each other for two weeks."
Ruby turned to look at her friend "How many sisters did you say that you had again?"
"Seven"
"You know that explains a lot."
"Hey!"
All in all, the mission went well. The White Fang thankfully didn't show up, and Weiss and Blake cooperated better than they had all week, even pulling off an impromptu team attack, where Weiss used her glyphs to give Blake platforms to jump off of, and land a barrage of strikes on their opponents, using her shadow clones to further disorient them. They didn't act like friends afterwards, but at least they were on respectful terms. It would just take one to make the first move for them to fully make up. That's what Yang thought would happen anyway.
Weiss approached Blake, as they were walking back to the Bullhead.
She tried to do what Yang would do, and broke the ice with a joke. "I suppose you might be the one person who dislikes my father more than I do." Well, she was only really joking a bit.
Blake again gave a small smile "Yeah Ruby told me about your relationship with him."
"Of course, that blabber mouth did" Weiss grumbled, which Blake actually gave a small chuckle at.
"No, no, it's a good thing. It helped me understand you a bit better." Blake replied cryptically.
Weiss was quiet for a moment "Ah, that's…good. You don't support the White Fang at all, right?
"No" Blake responded "I don't. They're going too far."
Weiss nodded "Good, I don't think that I could sleep in the same building as someone who supports those monsters."
Blake paused at this "I still wouldn't call them monsters. Extreme violence like theirs's isn't acceptable, but they have legitimate reasons for why they use force."
Weiss narrowed her eyes at this "They're pure evil, they want to destroy humanity, the Faunus hate me and my family!"
Blake responded with exasperation "There's no such thing as pure evil, why do you think some of them feel that way, it's because of people like your father…"
"People, like me" Weiss asked accusatorially.
"Yes!" Blake responded, now yelling "You're being discriminatory!"
"I'm a victim!" Weiss argued, with equal volume. This created a wave of silence throughout the group, who had been trying to intervene with the conversation.
Weiss's tone shifted, hushed, but with venom in every word "Do you want to know why I hate the White Fang, why I don't particularly trust the Faunus. They've been at war with my family since before I was born. War, as in actual bloodshed. Family friend's vanishing, assassination attempts on my family and entire shipments of dust disappearing! I despise the White Fang because they're a bunch of terrorists, thieves and MURDERS!"
"WELL MAYBE WE WERE JUST TIRED OF BEING PUSHED AROUND!" Blake roared.
The entire team froze, all piecing together what Blake had just insinuated. Time stood still as they all stared at Blake, with Weiss backing away with fear in her eyes.
Blake tried to stutter out some explanation but when none came, she vanished into a shadow, using her semblance to give her an opportunity to disappear into the night once again!