Moss crawled over the Green One as he slept. The bleeding had stopped as the mass of spongy plants soaked up the blood and sealed over the wound.

What was once a rusty red rifle had grown into a massive bladed weapon in her hands. Even with its edge dulled by rust, the curved blade had still sunken into the Green One's shoulder with ease.

The Warrior must be dead if the bladed rifle was her weapon. Why else would she leave it behind in this land of death?

Wasn't this what she was trying to avoid by staying in Argus? Her problems were her own and no one else's.

Time and time again she'd dragged those she loved into danger by involving them in her personal turmoils. Weiss, Sun, Yang-

What part of her was so incapable of leaving them out of it? Why did she always run to them at the first sign of trouble? Who was she to think herself so important that others should have to involve themselves in solving her problems? Where would she draw the line? How can she know whether asking for help would simply inconvenience or kill those she went to?

These mental gymnastics had gone on for years to the point that the bruises they left behind had become unnoticeable to Blake. But then maybe that was the problem at the end of the day. Had she become so numb to her self-hate that her body and mind carried her past the point of no return before she even had time to convince herself not to do it.

Reason had not won this day for Blake, as she stood in front of the door to the Cotta-Arc household with a bag slung over her shoulder. Her finger hovered by the doorbell, shaking as she tried one last time to convince herself this was a bad idea.

The sound of the door opening in front of her almost sent her running. She might have dropped her things there on the doorstep and left to never come back, if not for the wide-eyed stare of the woman in the doorway.

"Blake?"

Messy raven hair draped over her face as she hung her head in shame. Well, shame and the desire to avoid looking Weiss in the eye. Though those were not exclusive emotions at that moment.

"What are you doing here?" Weiss asked, bending forward so as to see past the black veil of hair Blake was hiding behind.

"Can I…" Blake choked on the words soaked in shame. "The butcher kicked me out."

"Why?!" Weiss' voice did nothing to hide the anger that quickly welled up in her. "I thought he said you could stay there?"

Blake felt a hand grip her chin and pull her gaze up forcefully. Icy blue eyes looked into her as Weiss searched her for understanding. When she found none, she invited Blake inside instead.

It was of some relief, at least, that Saphron and Terra weren't home as Blake sat alone on the stairs while Weiss 'tidied' up her room. And so she sat there, past the line she'd drawn in the sand herself to keep from ending up in this very situation. With her ass on a hard stair while the hardwood floor creaking under the weight of an heiress' hurried cleaning behind a closed door. The frenzied pace of those inside while she sits outside, inconvenienced by her presence at all.

What was she doing here?

This is how it always went. An ask followed by an answer and a shoulder to cry on. But her tears must burn for how everyone she ever leaned on would always end up hurt after. The panic she saw in Weiss' eyes just as she neared her room was evidence enough that they all were thinking it: Blake was bad news.

Her nightmares would come to pass like those before and her dreams would sit discarded like the foolish fantasies they were. Weiss would be bloodied and asleep by the end of this. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened. Precedent dictated that this would be the same as always.

The stairs under her grew cold and the walls around her grew tall as the gap between them narrowed. She had to run.

And she did run. Just… not very far.

Blake's feet held strong to the floor, like they'd grown so heavy in instant that she couldn't even lift them to walk any further. It could have been the panic that kept her there. A sense of guilt perhaps, to have worried Weiss without explanation before leaving. There were so many reasons Blake could think of as to why she didn't run out of the house with no intent to ever come back.

Though she suspected that the glowing black glyph at her feet was a pretty likely candidate too.

"I won't let you run too," Weiss' voice said from up the stairs behind her.

Blake turned (as much as she could with her feet glued to the floor) and looked up at Weiss. The heiress was one step down from the top with Myrtenaster in hand and pointed right at Blake. She seemed out of breath as she slowly descended the stairs toward Blake, all while keeping the glyph going strong.

An apology had nearly left her lips when she felt the cold touch of the blade on her neck. Myrtenaster delicately slid around the back of her neck and to her throat as Weiss circled around her.

"I've prepared my room for company," Weiss said as she dropped the hilt of Myrtenaster low and left the tip pressed gently to Blake's throat. "Would you be so kind, Blake Belladonna?"

Weiss was careful to steer Blake's attention away from the places she hadn't been able to clean. Dusty corners draped in cobweb and drawers left slightly ajar as they caught on the dirty laundry stuffed inside. She could only hope that Blake hadn't snooped while she fetched tea for them both.

Blake sat perched on the edge of the hastily made bed, pulling wrinkled sheets to the edge with her every time she would inch further from Weiss. Her tea grew cold faster than the contents of the mug were drunk. Weiss wondered occasionally as they sat in silence if Blake was aware that her cat ears had been flat to her head ever since she entered her room.

The heat in the house didn't come on during the day while Saphron and Terra were out. Even still, Weiss didn't dare unmake her bed to slip under covers nor did she move to grab another sweater, lest she scare Blake off again by moving. Well, that and her closet was a makeshift storage space for everything that had been on the floor just before Blake arrived.

She grew tired of the silence and wanted answers from Blake. "Why did the butcher kick you out? Didn't he allow you to stay there?"

Blake jumped when Weiss spoke, but she calmed herself enough to answer. "I don't know. He just came in this morning and freaked out. He said he never remembered saying I could stay there."

"That's absurd!" Weiss said. "How could he forget? Was this agreement not on paper?"

Blake sipped her tea.

"You got the agreement on paper, right?"

Blake had begun to chug her tea.

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed. Why were all of her teammates apparently so incapable of planning more than a few minutes ahead?

Blake ran out of tea and said, "I didn't want to ask for more than he offered to give. I can't blame him. He had been more than generous and I offered little in return."

"You offered little?" Weiss scoffed. "You worked for him, first of all. Second of all- you are an actual vigilante for the docks. Even up this way, people talk about the Shadow down at the docks. You really are so effective and ruthless that you've scared people who aren't even in the same part of the city as you."

"Vigilantes aren't exactly legal, Weiss."

"Don't forget that we're technically fugitives too," Weiss said. "Having the law turn a blind eye to us is nothing new."

"Exactly," Blake said. "I won't push my luck any further. It's for the best that I just step away and be grateful for what I'd been given."

"Idiot."

Blake finally looked up at Weiss. Her amber eyes looked at her with a look that was somewhere between offense and confusion.

"You are an idiot, Blake," Weiss said again. "It's no wonder you end up like you do all the time. Why are you so afraid of asking for help? There are so many people in your life that would die to protect you, and yet you push them away."

That look of confused offense quickly turned to anger as Blake closed the distance between them. Weiss pressed up against the headboard of the bed as Blake crawled up over her, teeth bared.

"People in my life have died to protect me," Blake said quietly, but with a voice filled with venom that grew louder as she spoke. "I never asked them to. You've risked your life for me. Yang had risked her life for me! But you two have so much to fight for! Why would you risk the lives of all those you promised to defend as Huntresses just to save me?! How could I ask you to?!"

Weiss stared at Blake a moment. The faunus' teeth remained bared as her eyes stared into hers. Her chest moved heavily as her breathing came ragged and angry. She'd crept closer and closer to Weiss as she spoke, until their faces were close enough to feel each other's breath on their lips.

Weiss spoke slowly, "Because you are who we promised to defend. A world without you in it isn't one I want to live in. A Huntress doesn't defend without preference or prejudice, despite what the academies might want you to believe. Those we love are always at the forefront of our minds. I feel that way. Yang feels that way. You feel that way."

Blake said nothing, but she did not move away from Weiss.

"How dare you?" Weiss asked. "How dare you ask that we not be prepared to die for you when you seem to look for any excuse to do so for us? Are you so selfish to make us be ready to live in a world without you just to ease your own guilt?"

"That's not-"

"It is."

Blake pulled away from Weiss and sank into the bed beside her.

"You're not alone," Weiss said. "I know you don't feel… okay. I don't feel okay either."

Weiss could see the tears welling up in Blake's eyes as she spoke.

"I shouldn't have stayed," Blake said in barely a whisper. "I stayed to protect them, but what if I put them in even more danger by not being there at all?"

Blake looked as if she would say more, but Weiss leaned forward and placed a finger on her lips to silence her.

"You don't have to defend yourself," Weiss said. "I meant no attack on you or your reasons. Not one among us is in any position to judge the other two for what we've done."

Blake nodded when Weiss moved her hand away. She spoke quietly, "do you ever wonder why Yang didn't stay too?"

Weiss had wondered that. Early on she settled on a reason, but she wondered if it was her place to say.

Blake continued, "Yang left us here. I can't help but think-"

"Ah, I'll stop you there," Weiss said. "If you're about to blame yourself again, I'm going to stab you."

Blake smiled and looked away.

"I wouldn't put words in Yang's mouth," Weiss said, "but I do think I can make a guess as to what her thoughts were. You recall I spent some time with her before we all met up again, right?"

Blake nodded.

"Yes, well I met her mother under rather unique circumstances. Raven is a bad person, there is no doubt about that, but even still I can see the inescapable similarity of a parent and child. Two women, so powerful and strong, yet so inundated and controlled by fear. They feared different things only in specificity. Loss and the threat of it controls them, for better or worse. Yang would be loath to admit, but she is still her mother's daughter. I suspect they share the same flame that won't allow either to put their own selfishness over their greater good.

"I can't speak for what she went through after Beacon, but I know that the girl I saw there in Raven's camp was one that had found a new determination. She went through hell in her mind before finally deciding she would keep moving forward. Losing the three most important people in life in an instant probably only made her path clearer even if darker. She and I never saw eye to eye before, but-"

Blake looked up at Weiss when she stopped and the red in her cheeks only grew darker as Blake stared in confusion.

"But?" Blake asked.

"Nothing," Weiss said. "I really shouldn't speak for Yang."

Blake raised an eyebrow, seeing directly through Weiss' deflection.

"You don't get to avoid questions if I don't," Blake said.

Weiss stared out the window behind Blake, avoiding looking her in the eyes. She was cold before, but now the heat in her cheeks made her sweat despite the chill.

"Weiss?"

She looked at Blake and saw the concern in her eyes. Her embarrassment faded and was replaced by guilt. She sighed and sat up straighter before speaking.

"When Yang and I were reunited in Raven's camp," she said, "we were both so happy to finally see each other again. I'd spent so much time just stewing in my loneliness until then, that just being able to hug her made me feel safe and loved like never before. I felt like I could take on the whole world in that moment, you know?"

Blake said nothing.

"I, uh…I guess Yang felt the same way. It was nice, just being with her. We…"

Weiss struggled to find the words as Blake sat expecting them. By this point, she thought Blake must already know.

Blake did know what Weiss would say by that point.

"Well..." Weiss said slowly, "I suppose, Yang was just as lonely as I. Lonely and finding a familiar face in the middle of nowhere. And when lonely people find each other, they tend to find comfort in each other too."

Hot jealousy stabbed her heart like a hot blade as her mind started to fill in the blanks in Weiss' story. Images of Weiss and Yang together, alone, and comforting each other flashed through her mind. Yearning turned to envy when she thought that Weiss had taken the kiss she so longed for, but would never experience. Envy turned to anger when thought that Weiss had even more so than just that kiss.

Weiss moved to speak, but Blake stopped her by closing the distance between them and pressing her lips firmly to Weiss'. She felt Weiss melt under her as she kissed her the way she dreamed of kissing Yang every night.

The heiress put up no resistance as Blake too lost herself in the embrace. Whatever intention she'd had initially when she kissed Weiss, she'd already forgotten. Neither of them made to stop the kiss at any point, letting their tongue twist and explore each other freely for what felt like hours.

Blake pulled away first. Her breath came heavy as she stared down at Weiss' half-lidded eyes staring right back up at her. The heiress lips remained ever so slightly parted, like waiting for more.

"I get it now," Blake said.

Weiss looked at her confused, barely a thought in her eyes.

"I don't blame you," Blake said, "but I won't forgive you. I suppose I am as selfish as you say."

Weiss emerged from her reverie with a laugh. She shoved Blake and Blake crawled off of Weiss and returned to her spot by the window. Blake smiled at the heiress and she saw the relief flood her face as she did.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I should have told you before, because I knew you and Yang were...whatever you are."

"It's alright," Blake said. "Yang could have told me too, but she didn't."

"If it's of any comfort, I can assure you that it was just a matter of comfort. Even then she only had eyes for you."

"Are you sure about that?" Blake asked.

"Okay, so maybe her eyes wandered a little," Weiss admitted, "but her heart never wavered even once. Not even for a catch like me."

Blake and Weiss laughed together, but Blake couldn't help but wonder how true Weiss' words were. If Yang had been able to entertain the idea of Weiss even for a night, what would stop her from thinking only of Weiss or someone else instead of Blake? Weiss and Yang had been able to know each other in a way Blake never did. All Blake ever did was run away from Yang, so why should she expect Yang to ever think of her the same way Blake thought of her?

"Blake."

Weiss pulled Blake from her thoughts as she placed a hand on Blake's leg.

"I promise that even now Yang is thinking about you," she said. "Don't think for one moment that I'd ever be able to take her love away from you. Not now and definitely not then."

"How can you be sure of that?"

"Because I wasn't you."

She didn't believe her, but the thought still made her smile like she hadn't in months. She took Weiss' hand from her leg and held it in hers, running her thumb along her palm. Neither girl said a thing and sat in the silent comfort of each other's presence.

Blake's eyes dropped to Weiss' hand and to the painted red nails at her fingertips. The polish felt smooth and Blake suddenly became aware of the faint scent of polish and acetone in the room. Weiss' newly painted red nails held her attention and didn't let go.

She couldn't place the feeling, but she felt she'd forgotten something important. But in that feeling she remembered something less important and more recent.

"Earlier you said something, Weiss."

"Hmm?"

"Not one of us is fit to judge the other two," Blake said. "But it's just you and me. Who were you talking about?"

Weiss thought for a moment with furrowed brows. After a while she said, "I don't remember."

There was a ringing in the dark. She wasn't sure what it was or where it came from, but it was so loud in the deathly quiet of the moss lands.

Lethargic though she'd become, she pulled herself toward the flashing white tablet that lit up the plants that had grown over it. Her senses were dull, but she was sure it must be the source of the noise.

And then the ringing stopped, replacing a quiet hum.

And then the Warrior heard a voice.

The military base was a flurry of activity following the broadcast. Whatever concern Blake and Weiss had about getting into the base was quickly forgotten. Airships littered the sky as they made a quick egress with supplies and soldiers in tow. Weiss and Blake dodged trucks and running soldiers as they searched for Cordovan.

The broadcast had likely put all of Remnant on edge. In Argus, every scroll and screen in the city had lit up simultaneously with the face of Yang Xiao Long. A worldwide broadcast for help in Atlas and the reveal of the existence of and fight against Salem. A three minute long broadcast that the whole world saw, but not everyone was able to hear every part.

Yang may have mentioned three names at the end of the broadcast, but Blake and Weiss only heard theirs. Her words made the missing piece in their minds all the more evident and brought them to the place they'd been banned from to search for the person that banned them.

They found Cordovan barking orders at frazzled soldiers from the bed of a parked truck. From her elevated position she spotted Weiss and Blake. She shouted something that they couldn't hear as they approached. A tall woman in military dress lifted her from the truck and set her back down on the ground.

"You two!" Cordovan shouted as she stormed over to Weiss and Blake. "I thought that when I turned a blind eye to your second guessing, it would be the last I ever had to think of you brats. Ever since you and your friends came here, all hell has broken loose on a semi-regular basis."

"We can only apologize so much for the incident with the Leviathan-" Weiss said before Cordovan held a hand to silence her.

"We are very far past that particular annoyance, Schnee."

Cordovan looked around and motioned for Weiss and Blake to get closer. She grabbed them both the collars of their shirts and pulled them down to eye level.

"Your blonde friend's little message couldn't have come at a worse time," she said. "I can only assume you came here to ask for a ride to Atlas, which I will gladly give you just to be rid of you. But you'll have to do me a favor first."

Weiss and Blake followed Cordovan in silence as she took them to a secluded office deep within the base. Though they'd been nervous about entering the base before, it was clear now that everyone but Cordovan was too busy to even notice their presence at all. Under cover of a full scale mobilization, they were able to move through the base unhindered.

Inside Cordovan's office with the doors shut, the noise of the brouhaha outside faded into an ever present mumble. The small woman grumbled to herself as she dragged several maps that when rolled up were still twice her size. Weiss was quick to help the woman unfurl the maps on the desk.

Blake tilted her head to read the name on the map: Epiphany.

"What I'm showing you now is to be considered classified for the time being," Cordovan said. "If news were to get out about this, we'd never be able to control the chaos that would follow."

"News about what?" Weiss asked.

"A few months ago," Cordovan said, "I sent out several parties of Huntsmen to clear out some small towns that Grimm were flocking to. Our military scouts had discovered while offering our tech to track down the flying Berengils that started appearing. All was well and good at first, until eventually these missions and those Huntsmen were forgotten."

"We forgot someone," Weiss said. "How could we have forgotten someone so close to us?"

"Don't get down about it, Schnee," Cordovan scoffed. "This isn't something they teach you about at Beacon. It's a type of Grimm causing this. A very rare one, at that. We call them Colony Grimm."

Cordovan paused to let that sink in for Weiss and Blake, but neither girl reacted to the reveal.

"Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for… Nevertheless, a Colony Grimm functions like a fungal mass, taking over everything in its path and decomposing it. Like really decomposing things to the point that even the memories associated with them are clouded and hard to recall. I forgot about both of you until your friend's broadcast brought the memories back. Part of the problem with a Colony Grimm is that the actual beast itself is so small it can get carried along on wind and contaminate water supplies. If not for your friend, we might never have noticed it at all. Argus would have turned into a blank slate and we'd never even realize it."

"The butcher!" Weiss said, "Blake, you said the butcher forgot you lived in the shop!"

"That's right…" Blake said. "And the fisherman's brother. He's been sick all week because he couldn't remember things. He called it a brain fog."

"That's how it starts," Cordovan said, "forgetting where you put your keys. A general sense of confusion and disoriented feeling. It only gets exponentially worse from there."

Cordovan pulled a manilla folder from her desk and handed it to Weiss. The heiress flipped through it and her eyes went wide as she read.

"We went back through our records to determine just how many we'd forgotten so far," Cordovan said. "If you didn't come here first, I was going to send for you myself."

Tears streamed from Weiss' eyes as she let the folder drop from her hands. Blake could see her pupils dilate and her chest move at an increasingly rapid pace. What little color there was in the heiress's already pale face disappeared.

Blake rushed over to Weiss' side when collapsed, catching her just before she hit the ground. Weiss' arms wrapped around her and pulled so tightly that she nearly winded Blake. As the heiress pressed her cold body to hers, Blake could feel the girl's heart bashing against her chest so hard it might break ribs in its panic. She held Weiss as still as she could while the heiress shook like a leaf in her arms.

"I'll give you two a minute," Cordovan said as she left the two huntresses alone in the office.

With her face pressed to Blake's shoulder, Weiss' words came out indecipherable. Little more than a stream of whines and cries that only soaked Blake's coat with saliva and mucus where it was already wet with tears.

Blake might have cringed in disgust at the wet mass on her shoulder, if her attention hadn't been taken and held by the page that had fallen from the folder that Weiss had dropped.

Staring back at her from the floor was the image of a brunette in a cape and the words 'Ruby Rose' written underneath.

Weiss was the first to cry, but as the feelings Blake felt but couldn't recall came rushing back to her all at once, she soon joined her.