Ruby sighed as she trudged out of yet another shop. "Thanks anyway!" she called back inside, waving to the owner as she rejoined Jaune, Ren and Nora. "Still no sign of her," she informed them unhappily.
"It's a big city, we just need to keep looking," Jaune said, trying to reassure her.
"But what if we can't find her?" Ruby asked, a tinge of hopelessness entering her voice.
"I'm sure she'll turn up eventually," Ren said, eyes scanning the crowd of people milling around in downtown Vale.
"I mean, all her stuff is still at Beacon, right?" Nora pointed out. "I doubt she'd just leave all that there."
"Maybe," Ruby acknowledged. "Alright, let's keep going then."
At a rooftop cafe somewhere else in Vale, Blake sipped unhappily at her tea before considering the man sat across from her. The blonde-haired monkey faunus from the docks the day before beamed back at her, lifting his own cup with his tail as he rocked back in his chair.
"So, you wanted to know more about me?" she asked quietly. The act of her speaking startled him enough to make him almost topple over, but he caught the table in time to avoid spilling backwards.
"Ah, so she does have a voice!" he declared jokingly, and in that moment Blake was strongly reminded of Yang. "Well, knowing a little bit more about the person I've been sheltering for a couple of days would be good, yeah," he said, grinning. "So, what's your story, if you're finally going to share?" Blake rolled her eyes.
"How familiar are you with the White Fang?" she asked, keeping her voice low.
"Holier-than-thou creeps who resort to public executions to get what they want? Yeah, I'm familiar. Never been involved with 'em, though. Why?" he asked, taking another sip of his drink.
"I used to be a member," she admitted. Sun's reaction could have appeared in a textbook as the perfect example of 'shock'. His eyes crossed as he choked on his drink, reduced to coughing and spluttering for a few seconds, waving his free hand through the air.
"Woah, woah, woah," he said when he finally cleared his throat, staring at Blake with wide eyes. "You were in the Fang?" he asked.
"That's right. I was… Pretty much born into it, actually. After the revolution, the White Fang were meant to help keep the peace between humans and faunus. Of course, it didn't take long for the humans to go back to treating us like second-class citizens. So the White Fang instead became the voice of our people, and I was there at every rally I could possibly attend, right at the front."
"I really thought we were making a difference, but asking nicely was never going to work." She sighed, lowering her teacup again sadly. "Things had already started to turn before the Fang 'officially' changed tactics. Like the execution of two of the Schnees by a renegade faction. And then the leader of the White Fang stood down, replaced by a woman called Sienna Khan, and she endorsed violent acts like that."
"I think I've heard that name. She's like public enemy number one in Mistral," Sun said, eyes widening a little.
"I'm not surprised. Under her leadership, everything changed. Instead of peaceful protests, we firebombed businesses that refused to serve faunus. We raided the supplies of companies that abused faunus labour. And it was actually working. In a year we made more progress than we had in a decade of protesting and asking nicely. But it was out of fear of reprisal, not actual respect and understanding."
"And then it started getting worse. Every time there was another flare up against the faunus, the White Fang issued more severe reprisals. Kidnappings, assassinations, public executions… It went too far, and so I left. I didn't want to help the thing the White Fang became, so I ran to Beacon to become a huntress. Hiding in plain sight, all thanks to a little black bow." She picked up her teacup to take another sip, closing her eyes and controlling her breathing.
"And I'm guessing you let that slip, and that's why you ran away from your team?" Sun asked. Blake nodded.
"We… Got into a fight and I just sort of came out," she said.
"They all racist or something? I'm just trying to figure out why you ran unless it was just panic," Sun asked. Blake winced at that, shrinking into her chair a little.
"Well… You know the Schnee Dust Company?" she asked.
"Yeah, what about 'em?" Sun asked, tilting his head.
"The Schnee Dust Company has been the White Fang's favourite target since… Well, since the beginning really. One of my teammates is Weiss Schnee, the heiress to the company. The White Fang almost killed her shortly before her thirteenth birthday. And not in the 'narrow escape' way, but in the 'it's a miracle she's still alive' way. I wasn't involved with the branch responsible for the attack, but still…" Sun nodded after a moment.
"And you stayed in after the attack?" he asked. At Blake's nod, he continued. "Why?"
"Sienna publicly disavowed the attack, and everyone around me said the same thing. It was too far, it was a disgrace, we should have gone after her father instead. They told me something like that wouldn't ever happen again, and I believed them. It took me years to finally accept that they'd lied to me." Blake sat in depressed silence for a while after that, morosely sipping at her tea.
"And have you actually told any of your teammates that?" Sun eventually asked. Blake looked up again to meet his eyes. "That might be a good start."
"You make it sound so easy," Blake commented.
"Well, isn't it? 'Hey guys, I know we had a fight last time we spoke. I feel like I owe you an explanation'. Seems easy enough to me," he said.
"Except for…" Blake winced, tailing off.
"Except for what?" Sun asked, open and genuine. Blake closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again.
"Except for the fact that Weiss fucking terrifies me," she said quietly.
At Sun's questioning look, she continued. "She's stronger, faster, taller and more skilled than me. She's one of the best fighters in our entire year, has pretty much every advantage I can think of over me in a fight, and might actually want to kill me right now." Blake looked at her hand, finding that it was trembling badly, shaking her teacup. Sun blinked slowly, leaning back in his chair again.
"... Okay, so maybe it's not as easy as I made it sound," he admitted. "But still, unless you want to run away for good, you're gonna have to talk to them about it sometime. And the longer you leave it, the more assumptions they're gonna make."
"I know, I know," Blake said, letting out a frustrated sigh. "I just… I need to figure out what I want to say before I see them again."
"Fair enough. So what's the plan for now?" he asked.
"Well, everyone seems to think the White Fang are behind all the dust robberies. I don't believe they are. We- They have never needed that much dust all in one go before."
"So how do you prove they aren't? You'd need to catch someone else doing it, right?" Sun asked, thinking. "But then you'd need to find a lot of dust and wait for someone to come along and steal it." Blake blinked, perking up.
"That's it! We were at the docks on Friday, watching them unload a huge shipment of dust for the SDC. We go there, and when we catch the real thieves, we can prove it wasn't the Fang."
"Sounds fun. So, how do we do this?"
Back in team RWBY's dorm, Weiss stirred with a quiet groan, eyes fluttering open. "You awake, Princess?" Yang asked, grinning at her. Weiss blinked, and then blushed, realising she'd fallen asleep on Yang's shoulder.
"O-oh, I'm sorry," she said, suddenly sitting up. "I didn't mean to fall asleep on you," she said, hiding her face behind her hair again.
"Nah, don't worry about it," Yang said, waving her off. "I'm just glad you managed to get some sleep, you looked like you needed it." Weiss said nothing, electing to nod instead.
"Are you feeling any better, Weiss?" Pyrrha asked from her other side. Weiss brushed her hair back to look at her, seeing Pyrrha smiling warmly at her.
"... A little I suppose," she said noncommittally. "I still have no idea how I feel about Blake, or what I'm going to say," she admitted quietly.
"Do you think you're going to attack her?" Yang asked without judgement. Weiss shook her head. "Well, that sounds like an improvement at least. What are you currently thinking?" Weiss frowned a little, looking inward as she tried to puzzle out her own thoughts.
"I don't know. I don't think Blake is still part of the Fang. But maybe she is and she's a spy? I don't know," she huffed, clutching her head in frustration.
"Sounds like we need to talk to her and get more information then?" Yang gently suggested.
"Since when were you allowed to have all the good ideas?" Weiss huffed, a joking note in her tone.
"I'm more than just a pretty face, Snow Angel," Yang teased.
"Good to know," Weiss replied flatly. "I think I'm going to get some food," she declared. "Do either of you want anything?" she asked. Yang and Pyrrha glanced at each other.
"I'm good," Pyrrha said. "But thank you."
"Just a sandwich and some fruit," Yang requested. Weiss nodded, disappearing into the bathroom to first fix her hair. A few minutes later she emerged, retrieved her sword, and then left the dorm room. Yang let out a long sigh after the door closed, slumping back against the wall. "Well, we've made progress," she said to Pyrrha.
"You're very good at comforting people," Pyrrha said, smiling at her.
"I've got a lot of practice at it with Ruby," Yang explained, laughing a little. "I'm just grateful I was able to help at all. I mean, fuck. How do I even begin to try and fix this mess?"
"I think what we're doing is probably the best thing we can do. Provide support, give her somewhere safe to vent her thoughts and lower her guard," Pyrrha said, looking at the room's door.
"You're not too bad at this yourself," Yang said, grinning. "You got experience yourself?" she asked.
"Not as such, no," Pyrrha said, shaking her head. "It's just what I wish I had. And I suppose I owe Weiss."
"What do you mean by that?" Yang asked, meeting her eyes again.
"It's… Very lonely being the champion prodigy, Yang," Pyrrha explained. "No one sees you when they look at you. They see a list of titles, a collection of trophies. They see an idea of you, and no one tries to get to know the real you. And of course that means there's no one to lend you a shoulder when you need one." Yang looked at Pyrrha for a few seconds after that, eyes wide.
"... Yeah, that sounds pretty lonely," she said quietly.
"It's why I'm so very glad about my friends here at Beacon," Pyrrha said, smiling brightly. "Of course, many of the students here are star-struck, but you aren't. I was surprised, and grateful, that Weiss wasn't either. Honestly, I was afraid she'd be the worst, with all the bad press the Schnee Dust Company gets," Pyrrha admitted.
"Heh, I'm just happy you're not the 'do you have any idea who you're talking to?' type," Yang said, chuckling. "I never really cared too much about all that celebrity stuff."
"And I thank you for that," Pyrrha said sincerely. "Do you think Weiss is one of those types you mentioned?" she asked curiously.
"Less than I'd have thought, but a little bit yeah," Yang replied honestly. "I mean, it's Weiss. She's always got that slight bitchiness around her," she continued without heat. "But she's actually very generous with her time and very considerate, usually. She's never been like 'my father will hear about this'," Yang said, trying her best to match Weiss' voice. Pyrrha snorted, breaking down into giggles, quickly joined by Yang.
"She does seem to have a habit of defying expectations," Pyrrha observed. Yang nodded.
"Oh yeah. Don't tell her I said this, but when we first met, all I really saw was 'rich kid with an attitude problem'. Until I actually saw her fight, I was wondering if she'd bought her way into the school or something. But, gods, she tries so hard at everything. She puts in more effort than any of us, and she still finds the time to help the rest of the team out when we're struggling."
Pyrrha smiled, nodding along as Yang spoke. Hearing Yang speak so highly of Weiss conjured up the same odd cocktail of emotions in her, and she tried to focus on the positive ones. "It's pretty admirable, unlike the other rich kid in our year. Fucking Winchester," Yang spat out, scowling.
"I think we can count ourselves lucky that Weiss is very different from Cardin," Pyrrha agreed. "But I think the less said about him, the better."
"Agreed."
The 'how' of Blake's plan, to Sun's regret, was a traditional stake-out. Blake had found a sheltered warehouse roof overlooking the containers in question, and Sun had very quickly grown bored. In order to try and alleviate some of the tedium, he'd made regular food and water runs, allowing Blake to keep her attention on the containers. "Did I miss anything this time?" Sun asked, returning to Blake's side.
"Nothing yet," Blake said, shaking her head.
"Shame. Swiped you something sweet this time," he said, offering her a donut.
"Is breaking the law just second nature to you?" Blake asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, weren't you in some weird cult?" Sun countered defensively. Blake glowered at him, narrowing her eyes. "Ok, too soon, got it," he said, raising his hands to placate her. Before Blake could retort, a blast of air washed over them as a bullhead flew low overhead, a searchlight painting the container yard as it searched for a place to set down. Finding one close to the dust containers, it carefully came in to land, dropping its ramp. As soon as it touched down, a trio of figures raced out of the aircraft, each wearing black, hooded jackets and fanged, metallic masks.
"Oh no," Blake said, eyes widening.
"That's them, isn't it?" Sun asked. One turned so the pair could see their back, and across the back of their jacket was a red symbol of a wolf with three claw marks across it.
"Yes, it's them. Fuck, I didn't want to believe it was them," Blake cursed as more White Fang members emerged from the aircraft.
"Alright, these are the containers. You and you, grab the ropes and hitch the first one up. The rest of you, secure the area," one of them ordered. Blake continued to watch, despair in her eyes as the two nominated faunus fumbled with the ropes, trying to get the container hooked up as quickly as they could. As they worked, another figure stepped down the ramp.
They were a tall, lanky figure dressed in black dress trousers with matching shoes and a close-fitting, white dress jacket with a red lining and tall collar highlighted their figure well. Black gloves with buckled sleeves covered their hands and half of their forearm, whilst a small grey scarf and a black bowler hat with a red band and feather completed the outfit. Long, bright orange hair tumbled down to the small of their back, and a dark green eye peered out at the work being carried out by the White Fang, their right eye covered by their hair.
"What's the hold up?" Rowan Torchwick asked loudly. "We're not exactly the most discrete collection of thieves at the moment, so let's pick up the pace," she said, gesturing around with her cane.
"That's… That's not right. The White Fang would never work with a human like that," Blake said, shaking her head, eyes wide. She then stood quietly, unsheathing Gambol Shroud and hopping down from the roof.
"Hey, wait! Where are you going?!" Sun hissed at her, watching her leave in surprise. Blake didn't respond, clambering down the side of the building and weaving her way between the containers, keeping low to the ground, moving silently. She carefully approached the scene of the White Fang activity, catching scant glimpses of what was going on. When she finally got another good look, Rowan had marched up to one of the White Fang members using the ropes.
"No you idiot," she scolded them. "Have you never had to tie a knot before?" As she was distracted, Blake darted up behind her, grabbing her arm and putting the edge of Gambol Shroud to her throat. "What the- Oh for fu-" She was cut off mid-curse and mid-eye roll by Blake.
"Nobody move!" she ordered loudly, drawing the attention of the rest of them. They each readied their weapons, but didn't move any closer.
"Woah, easy there," Rowan said calmly, apparently unconcerned at being held hostage. "Let's not do anything we're gonna regret." Blake didn't respond, releasing Rowan's arm to lift a hand to her bow, pulling it off to reveal her ears.
"Soldiers of the White Fang, why are you helping human scum?" she asked. The faunus all shared a glance, some of them lowering their weapons slightly, confused at the display. Rowan simply laughed quietly.
"You didn't get the memo? Sorry about that, truly I am, I'll make sure to hire a new secretary," she joked.
"What are you talking about?" Blake asked, confused.
"The White Fang and I have been invited on a joint business venture that promises to be greatly profitable to both parties!" Rowan declared, bombastic despite the sword at her throat. Blake growled a little.
"Tell me what it is before I put an end to this little scheme of yours." As if prompted, the air around them was filled with the sound of more engines, wind whipped up as a pair of bullheads swept in overhead. Rowan chuckled.
"I think 'little operation' does us a disservice," she said as Blake looked up. Seeing that she was distracted, Rowan shifted her cane, the cap flipping up before she pulled the trigger. A screaming shell fired from the end of her cane, detonating point-blank between Rowan and Blake. Surprised by the attack, Blake was sent flying back. Rowan meanwhile landed nimbly on her feet, turning back to Blake and firing off a volley of shots, tearing up the concrete and sending her running for cover. Letting a shadow from her semblance take a hit, she vanished into the piled up containers.
Rowan lowered her cane, narrowing her eyes as she scanned around her surroundings. She was interrupted by a sudden shout from above, making her look up. "Woohoo!" cheered Sun as he descended, kicking her in the face with both feet before flipping away, landing on his feet and grinning. Rowan grumbled as she staggered back to her feet, shaking her head and looking at Sun. Behind her, more White Fang emerged from the bullheads, surrounding Sun.
"You're not very bright, are you?" Rowan asked, before gesturing the White Fang forward. They rushed him, swinging with bats and swords, only for Sun to dodge all of their attacks, lashing out with kicks and punches which sent them staggering back. As he evaded another sword swipe, he pulled a red cylinder from under his shirt, folding it out into a quarterstaff.
Wielding it in both hands, he continued disassembling the group that had attacked him, knocking them back with fiery blasts from each impact. Dropping to a knee to avoid a swing from a bat, he brought the staff up in an upwards blow to the faunus' gut, sending them flying over Rowan's head, forcing her to duck.
"Why is it so hard to find good quality help around here?" she asked, levelling her cane at Sun and firing another brightly glowing shell at him. Sun twirled his staff in front of him to block the shot, and Blake suddenly leapt past him, lunging for Rowan.
"She's mine!" she growled, closing in and slashing at her rapidly with her sword and the sharpened scabbard of Gambol Shroud. Rowan backed up, blocking every one of her attacks with her cane. Blake was relentless in her assault, nimbly darting around her flanks, trying to find an opening. She finally found one, using her semblance to evade a counter-strike from Rowan and slashing at her ribs.
Rowan snarled, recovering quickly and deflecting the next flurry of blows before swinging a fist at her head. It collided with nothing, another shadow disappearing. Operating on instinct, Rowan spun around and blocked both of Blake's weapons, jerking her head forwards as she headbutted Blake in the nose before kneeing her in the gut.
Blake staggered back, but Rowan kept up the assault, bludgeoning her several more times with her cane before cracking her across the side of the head, causing her to drop. Sun came to her rescue, using his staff to vault over the prone Blake, kicking Rowan in the chest before his staff split in two, and then each half split again, leaving him with a pair of nunchucks bearing obvious signs of also being firearms.
Sun spun his weapons rapidly, unleashing a constant barrage of shots and strikes at Rowan who, incredibly, managed to maintain her defence, blocking and deflecting every attack. That is, until Blake recovered, slipping in past Sun's own attacks to hit Rowan in the head with her scabbard, sending her sprawling onto her back.
Looking up, Rowan grinned and lifted her cane, firing it past the two trainee-hunters, blowing apart a chain holding up a container. The two followed the path of the shell, eyes widening as the container suddenly hurtled towards them. Blake dodged backwards, but Sun was forced to leap forwards, falling over as he barely avoided being crushed. Groaning and looking up, he came face-to-barrel with Rowan's cane as she glowered down at him.
"Stay. Down," she firmly instructed him. Her head suddenly snapped to the side as if punched, a spray of sparks erupting across the side of her face as something slammed into her. An instant later, the retort of a high-calibre sniper rang out, echoing across the container yard. "Son of a fucking bitch," Rowan hissed in pain, her free hand going to the side of her face that got shot. She staggered back, quickly finding the source of the shot, a red-cloaked figure aiming a gigantic scythe at her from the top of a building.
"Leave him alone!" Ruby shouted down at her.
"Ah, Little Red, hello again!" Rowan called back, waving at her. "Isn't it past your bedtime?" she asked. Ruby growled and fired again, Rowan barely managing to evade the shot. "Oh for- Can any of you fuckers help?!" she shouted angrily. Prompted by her shout, one of the bullheads quickly took off again, the side door opening to reveal a mounted machine gun in the passenger bay.
Cocking the weapon, the faunus manning it swivelled the gun around to aim at Ruby before pulling the trigger. Ruby yelped, disappearing in a cloud of petals as the high-calibre rounds chewed through the concrete she just vacated. Below her, Jaune and Nora rushed into the open.
"Nora, nail it!" Jaune called, turning and dropping to a knee, holding his shield over his head. Nora grinned, leaping onto it and, replicating her and Pyrrha's trick during initiation, fired her hammer into his shield as he leapt up, firing her high into the air. She quickly came back down, spinning through the air and driving the head of her weapon into the bullhead's cockpit. The glass broke and crumpled under the blow, and another detonation from her weapon completed the destruction, launching her clear as the bullhead immediately slewed off to the left, spiralling back down to the ground.
From the other flank, Ren broke cover and rushed towards another bullhead as it lifted into the air, this one hooked up with ropes to a dust container. A trio of White Fang tried to block his path, but all three were dispatched in a blink, lightning-fast strikes from StormFlower quickly depleting their aura and scattering them. Free of any obstructions, he leapt onto the container as it started to lift, and rapidly cut the lines.
Meanwhile, Nora and Jaune linked back up, Jaune acting to guard Nora's flanks and rear as she tore through any resistance offered by the White Fang. Faunus were launched like golf balls by Magnhild. Jaune's weeks of training were starting to become evident as he dispatched several opponents himself, guarding himself and his teammate before counter-attacking. Ruby, no longer being targeted by a heavy machine gun, rushed towards the bullhead Ren had liberated of its stolen cargo, using Crescent Rose to fire herself through the air towards it.
Rotating her scythe mid-air the hooked blade caught on the pivot connecting the left engine to the main fuselage. She spun around the joint, her scythe scoring the metal deeply, before she planted both feet on top of the connector and yanked upwards, firing her weapon again. The blade sheared through the weakened metal, the bullhead joining its fellow in crashing back down to the ground, Ruby leaping clear in time to avoid being caught in the crash.
Rowan, having lost track of Sun sometime during the unexpected attack, grimaced, turning and racing towards the last bullhead still on the ground, leaping into the passenger bay as it started to lift off. "Go, go, get us out of here!" she shouted at the pilot. Turning back around, she fired several blasts from her cane, forcing the approaching hunters-in-training to back up and defend themselves.
That bought enough time for the bullhead to get clear of them, but didn't stop Ruby from peppering the hull with shots until her magazine ran dry. The six of them watched the bullhead fly away until it was out of sight, before lowering their eyes to look at one another. Ruby's eyes immediately found Blake.
"Blake!" she called out, overjoyed. Blake flinched a little at the sudden shout, looking at Ruby.
"H-hey Ruby," she said, giving a small wave, ears flattening against her head. Her eyes widened as Ruby rushed her, grunting as she slammed into her in a mix of a hug and a tackle.
"We missed you," she said. She maintained the hug for a while, Blake eventually returning it. At length, she broke away, peering up at her. "Well, I guess it's safe to say you're not in the White Fang anymore?" she asked.
"Oh. No, I left before I came to Beacon," Blake said, one hand grabbing her opposite wrist, both hands held by her waist.
"Well, that's good at least! You're not going to run away again, are you?" Ruby asked carefully. Blake shook her head.
"No, no. I know I need to talk to Weiss," she said, wincing at the idea. Ruby nodded.
"Alright. I'm going to call Yang, okay?" she asked. At Blake's nod, she pulled her scroll out to call her sister. "Hey Yang!"
"Hey Ruby!" Yang greeted her on the other end of the phone. "Everything going alright?"
"Well, there was a fight at the docks. But we found Blake! Good news, she's not in the Fang, and she's ready to speak to Weiss!" Ruby replied.
"You found Blake? That's great! Oh, hang on." Yang's voice became muffled as she spoke to someone else. "Alright, we're on our way down, stay there!" Yang instructed her before hanging up.
"Well, they're on their way!" Ruby informed the others, smiling nervously as Blake tied her bow, hiding her ears again. The group then looked in the direction of the gate as sirens blared, a group of police cars pulling up as another bullhead, this one in police livery, swept overhead, illuminating the group with its spotlight.
"Hands where we can see them!" a voice boomed over a loudspeaker. "No one takes a single step, got it?"
It didn't take long to convince the police that the hunters-in-training weren't complicit in the attempted robbery. The scattered White Fang now in custody and a quick review of CCTV footage cleared them of any wrongdoing, though they did all give statements to one of the officers. By the time that was all taken care of and the six of them had found some crates to sit on, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Yang had arrived.
Weiss was at the head of the trio, marching towards the scene with an expression like ice. "Sorry miss, you can't-" If looks could kill, the one Weiss shot the police officer at the gate trying to stop would have reduced him to ash. Instead, he was simply struck mute, eyes wide as he stepped back, letting them through.
"Sorry, she's just had a very bad couple of days," Pyrrha quietly apologised on Weiss' behalf, hurrying to catch up. The brief commotion at the gate had been spotted, the rest of their teams standing up. Ruby rushed up to meet Weiss halfway.
"Weiss, it's okay! She's not with them anymore," she said. Weiss ignored her, striding right past her and approaching Blake, who looked more apprehensive with every step. She opened her mouth to speak, but only a strangled noise came out as Weiss took her by the arm, leading her away a short distance. She finally stopped, turning to face her fully, her face settled back into an icy look.
"Explain," she said, her tone clipped. Blake swallowed loudly, utterly terrified.
"I am no longer in the White Fang, I left it on bad terms before coming to Beacon. I doubt I would be welcomed back. I'd probably be killed, actually," she said, desperately trying to keep from stumbling over her words.
"How long were you with them for?" Weiss asked, tone dangerously even.
"Since I was born, practically. I was part of it before they turned violent, but I stayed in after that."
"Did you know about what they did to me?" Weiss asked, a sharp edge leaking into her voice.
"I only heard about it afterwards, but yes. I was in the Mistral branch of the Fang, not the Atlas branch," Blake explained. Her heart hammered in her chest, and a hard lump had formed in her throat, making it difficult to breathe.
"And you stayed in afterwards?" Blake nodded. "Why?" she asked sharply. Blake winced at her tone. She spotted patches of frost forming on Weiss' hands, and the air felt like it had dropped a few degrees.
"Everyone around me said it shouldn't have happened, that it was a mistake, that they went too far. Everyone promised me that nothing like that would happen again."
"And you believed them?" Weiss asked. Blake nodded again. "And what happened when the violence continued?" Weiss' fists clenched at her side, eyes boring into Blake's skull.
"My partner in the White Fang… Gods, I'm sorry Weiss, but I'm not ready to talk about him yet," Blake said, covering her face with her hands and rubbing her eyes. Her breath came in shuddering gasps.
"He persuaded me to stay, and I felt like I had nowhere to go. I was already alienated from my parents, and I knew absolutely no one outside the Fang. Eventually things got too bad, so I left, right in the middle of a raid on a train, and fled to Beacon to enrol here." Weiss kept her gaze for a long few moments, utterly silent.
"Alright then," she finally said, voice slow and frosty, turning on her heel and marching back to the group. Blake collapsed to her knees, gasping in relief as she crumpled. Yang rushed past Weiss to kneel next to Blake as the heiress approached Sun. "And you? Are you a White Fang member, current or former?" she asked. Sun made a face.
"What, me? No. Ew, no," he said, sounding offended at the accusation.
"Hmm. Okay, you're fine," she said, apparently satisfied by that answer, before looking at Ruby.
"So… Are you and Blake good?" Ruby asked hesitantly, smiling nervously. Weiss scoffed, causing her expression to drop.
"Hardly. That is a long way off, if ever. But I'm not about to kill her. I'm not a terrorist, after all," she said. The comment caused Blake to flinch, sniffling a little as Yang put an arm around her. "I'll see you back at Beacon." With that, she marched past Ruby again. Pyrrha fell into step next to her after a moment, frowning with worry at her.
"I don't think that last remark was necessary," she said gently. Weiss looked at her silently for a second.
"Maybe not. But the group she was part of for years tried to kill me and cost me most of my body and any hope at normality, either growing up or in the future. Forgive me for being short-tempered," she said unapologetically.
"That's fair. Just, remember that Blake wasn't actually responsible for it, okay?" Pyrrha urged her.
"Of course I remember that," Weiss huffed sharply, before rubbing at her face. "I'm sorry, Pyrrha. Go catch up with your team, I'm going to be terrible company for a while and I don't want to snap at you." Pyrrha stood there for a few seconds in unhappy silence, but eventually nodded, making her way back to the group as Weiss walked alone into the distance.
"Are you okay?" Yang asked Blake quietly.
"Holy fuck that was terrifying," Blake whimpered. Yang nodded.
"I'm sure it was. But, that's gotta be the worst over, right? I was expecting her to at least slap you or something." Blake gave a strangled chuckle at that.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I thought she was going to kill me," she said.
"Nah, I don't think that was ever on the table unless you attacked her first," Yang assured her. "Besides, we'd have stopped her," she added. Blake nodded, sniffling again.
"Thank you. Gods, I know I don't deserve it, but still…"
"By the sounds of it, Weiss is giving you a second chance. That's probably the best result, realistically," Yang said. "It's going to be uphill from here I'm sure. Though she's probably going to be in a really bad mood for a while."