Once a Shadow Without Light
Pt. III
Mornings are a strange time for Blake, ever since the agreement between Neo, Yang and herself had been settled. The fact of the matter was that there was only one bed in the room that Ozpin had given them. While Blake would have been more than happy with finding somewhere else to sleep, Yang insisted on keeping the three of them together.
Their first night was filled with awkward shifting and changing positions until everyone was comfortable. Then it was filled with awkward silence where everyone just tried to get as much sleep as they could before whatever the next day would throw at them. By the third night, they had fallen into a decent pattern.
First, Yang would get into bed, then Neo would get on top of her and rest her head on Yang's chest. Then, Blake would come to her side and cling to Yang. Their fingers entwining and their legs brushing together. Blake's head sitting comfortably on Yang's shoulder. Once, Blake had woken up with Neo sliding off of Yang and settling between them. For a little while, things were going quite smoothly.
Until Ruby woke up from her coma yesterday.
Blake stood next to Yang and watched as Ruby struggled against her bed for a few minutes before Yang opened the door to approach, only for the young woman to scream more, shouting about betrayal and death. Blake had to pull Yang from the room and hold her close as the tears began. Throughout the day, Yang was barely managing anything. Completely quiet and withdrawn, but Blake did not know what she could do to help her.
When night came around, the three were all laying together, but no one could sleep. Yang had broken down during the night, and not even being held by both Blake and Neo could calm her down. When she finally fell asleep, the two other women gave each other a look, trying to silently figure something out.
When the morning eventually came, Yang was first out of bed and into the shower silently. Blake and Neo sat there, just staring at the door to the tiny bathroom attached to their room. "What are we going to do?" Blake finally asked, running her hands over her face, trying to gather the energy to face the day ahead of them. From the corner of her eye, she saw Neo shrug before pushing herself off the bed and get dressed for the day.
Of course, getting dressed for Neo was as simple as snapping her fingers, a little light show, and she was good to go. Blake did not have that semblance, so she started the task of pulling her pants on and getting her clothes together. "I know we talked about it. Well, I talked about it, but you really should talk to Yang about you," Neo just glared at her before typing out on her scroll.
"No, Before you, only one other person knew what I looked like; I made sure of that." Blake did not like the implications of that statement but continued to read Neo's message to her. "The only reason I don't correct that is that Yang would be devastated if anything happened to you. Who you saw doesn't exist anymore. She was weak, scared and broken. I am not." Blake could see the resolve in her mismatched eyes and took a breath.
"Completely cutting off a part of you doesn't just erase the pain you've felt. It's what makes us whole. Being stronger than you were is important, but completely throwing it away isn't healthy." Neo shook her head and folded her arms. Apparently, the conversation was over for now. Blake just sighed as she pulled her hair out of her jacket and picked up her specialist chest plate. Normally, she would like to leave it on the floor, but it does make things easier when she's actually doing her job.
That was when Yang stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around her neck. Blake could see the bags under her eyes from what little sleep she did get. Walking up to her, Blake was quick to wrap her arms around her and held her close. Yang was quick to squeeze Blake before they separated for a small kiss. "How you feeling?" She asked, gently pushing some of Yang's damp golden mane out of her face.
Yang was silent for a moment before shrugging. "I'll be okay. Just trying to think of something to get through to Ruby,"
"I'm sure we'll think of something, but for now, I've got duties in the hanger bay today. Hopefully, I can smooth over some Faunus-Human relations," Blake said as she reluctantly pulled away from Yang and clipped her chest plate into place. "I'll meet you guys for lunch, okay?" Yang only nodded before shuffling to Neo and wrapped her arms around her. With Yang's back turned to Blake, she and Neo locked eyes again, and Blake mouthing the words "stay with her." Neo nodded, and Blake took her leave.
No matter how many times she walked down the cramped hallways of the Mantle of Responsibility, she is reminded how much she hated ships in general. A passing chill went down her spine at the memory of her time fleeing Atlas with Yang's arm on a ship smuggling Dust out of the kingdom. Something that felt like a lifetime ago.
The hanger bay was still filled with people, but at least some have been sent off via Bullheads since she had last looked. People were still self separating into their factions, including the Faunus, in two distinct camps; The White Fang and the Black Fang. Both groups were giving each other the cold shoulder, but Blake could see that the White Fang had diminished greatly in size, nearly half the size of the other one. Either defection or arrests were the probable cause. But the fact that Atlas was willing to substantially reduce any and all jail time for information on the organization or turning in more high profile and dangerous agents was still a little surprising.
Blake made sure to make herself as seen by as many people as possible. Faunus, a little combative, became a little more agreeable to the questions while she managed to talk down Atleisans, who seemed a little too 'up their own ass with authority' as Yang would put it. But she heard a few of the interrogators mention that things tend to go a lot smoother when a Faunus helped them out.
Walking up to a table with a Faunus wearing a bloody White Fang uniform, Blake saw how he fidgeted with his fingers as the interrogator asked their questions. "What was your role during the Battle in Mistral?" The woman asked as she wrote down his statement.
"Uh, I was just, uh, a grunt. They, um, they handed me a gun and told me to go…" Blake saw how his tale on his back kept swaying back and forth nervously. Standing next to the woman asking the questions, Blake saw the man's eyes widen, flick to the ears at the top of her head and seemed to relax just a little bit.
"What did you do before the White Fang?"
"I was, uh, a-uh, a farmer." The wringing of his hands intensified as he took a quick glance behind himself and quickly turned back to the table. Looking past the man, she saw a group of White Fang people waiting in line to talk to interrogators, and each of them was staring intently at the man in front of her. Looking a little more closely at the person being questioned, Blake noticed a few cuts that did not seem like he got from any battle. Most notably, there was a rather deep discolouration around his neck, and he seemed very thin for a soldier of the White Fang.
"Where were you recruited?" Blake interrupted the interrogator as she began to look through the statements he had already said.
"Uh, near the coast of Mistral about, three years ago?" He stammered out. "I needed to keep my family safe, so I joined to protect them from the Humans in the area." Blake took a more careful look at him. Her eyes staring him down as he began to look everywhere but at her. His breathing was coming in quickly now, and he was beginning to sway.
"Sir?" Blake called out and quickly rushed to him as his knees buckled and stopped him from hitting the floor. "You're okay, I got you; let's get you to the infirmary," Blake said as she slung his arm around her shoulders and began to help him walk down the halls. This close to him, she could feel how thin he really was under his clothing. Something was very wrong with him.
A medic standing by helped Blake by taking some of his weight, and the two of them brought him to the infirmary, where they sat him down in a chair and began to get to work. Giving the man a glass of water, he sucked it down almost instantly, causing a coughing fit. "I need to get back," He said as he began to try and force himself from the chair, only for the medic to push him back down with ease.
"No, you're not, you nearly fainted, and we're here to he-oly shit…" The medic's train of thought quickly changed when he lifted his sleeve to inspect something and saw that his limb was nearly skin and bone. Blake watched his horror as the Faunus looked away while the medic ran his hand up his arm and pulled his collar away from his neck, revealing even more sickly thin skin. "What the hell happened to you?" The medic asked as he quickly got up and pulled the curtain around the three of them, cutting them off from the rest of the patients in the room.
The Faunus remained silent as he looked at the ground. Blake crouched down and placed a hand on his knee; she could feel how baggy the clothing was under his thin legs. "You can talk to us; you're safe here," Blake told him.
"But my sister isn't," He said, tears forming in his eyes.
"Where is she?" Blake asked.
The man was silent for a stretch before his lips trembled and the tears slipped from his eyes. "Kuo Kuana. There's a camp there the White Fang keep us in, the ones that wanted nothing to do with the war or fights. We're given almost no food, little water and beaten to an inch of our lives if we speak out. A lot of us were taken from the camp a while ago to be used as workers or meatshields in Mistral. I was taken, but my sister remained."
Blake could feel her heart drop into her stomach from his story. The medic listened as well as he began to prepare for his treatment. "Why would they do that to you? You're all Faunus; why would they enslave their own kind?" He asked.
"They're extremists," Blake replied. "They don't care who gets hurt on their crusade. Equality isn't what they want anymore…" Blake stood and checked to make sure her weapon was in place before asking one last question to the Faunus. "Those guys who kept staring at you, were they the ones who kept you in line?" The Faunus nodded, and Blake started to walk off back to the hanger.
"Weiss, I need your help,"
"What's wrong?" Weiss's voice came directly into her ear through the coms system they were using.
"I don't exactly know how much authority I have as a Specialist, but I need to arrest some assholes before they get into the system." Blake turned the corner and walked back into the hanger bay to look for her targets.
"I'm on my way," Weiss quickly closed the channel, and Blake stood nearby and waited for her to arrive. The people in question were still in the lineup but began to whisper after seeing Blake come back without their guy. Blake did not have to wait long for Weiss to approach her with three soldiers in tow; each had black stripes on their armour, marking them military police members onboard the dreadnaught.
"What's going on?" Weiss asked her quietly.
"White Fang have been putting any Faunus that don't agree with their ideals into camps, starved, beaten and conscripted them to fight for them. There's a guy in the infirmary that looks like a walking skeleton because of them. He's pointed out a few that were here, and I think I've located them," Blake kept her gaze on the three White Fang members that were beginning to act more nervous after seeing Weiss and more soldiers stroll up.
"Monsters," Weiss said as she saw the woman's hand shake from the side. "Are there any boundaries they don't dare to cross?"
"Come on, let's get them," Before Blake could take two steps, Weiss had grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Slow down for a second; they're just going to deny any allegation. We need to get more evidence and check on the other White Fang we've cleared already. They could have more camps, hostages; there's simply too much we don't know yet." Blake sighed angrily as she stepped back and scratched her head. Weiss was right, and picking a fight here was a sure-fire way of jumpy soldiers with guns overreacting to anything. It was a miracle there have not been any shootings yet.
"Damn it all," Blake kept looking over at the Faunus, all waiting for their turn; now that Weiss had shown up, many more had taken an interest in them. Beside her, Weiss pulled out a tablet and began to go through some records, but Blake noticed that her hands were shaking slightly, and Weiss did not seem to notice. Taking a closer look, Blake could see deep bags under Weiss's eyes, something that stood out against her normally pale skin.
"You okay, Weiss?" Blake asked gently, placing a hand on the other woman's shoulder.
"Fine, why?"
"Because your hands are shaking,"
Weiss paused her reading and looked at her hand, sighed before resuming. "That happens from time to time, among other things," Blake heard Weiss whisper under her breath, but before she could say anything about it, there were several shouts, and her attention was pulled to a White Fang rushing towards them with a knife in his hand. He had shoved his way past the one soldier stationed at the table and drove the knife towards Weiss, yelling about the Schnees.
Blake quickly reached for Gambol Shroud over her shoulder to defend her friend when a White Beowolf appeared and tackled him to the ground. Everyone began to scream and start running away from the scene as the Faunus pinned under Weiss's summon began to scream for his life. Atleaisn soldiers began to spread out, weapons at the ready, barking orders for everyone to drop to the ground. Their words being drowned out by the screams from everyone.
Things were about to kick-off, and Blake needed to act quickly. Pulling her weapon free, she threw it and wrapped it around a soldier's rifle before he could use it and dragged it free of their grasp. Fearing the worst, Blake watched as an order was shouted to fire, and she screamed for them to stop.
The air was filled with the clatter of weapons fire and the deafening silence that followed. From it, Blake was expecting the screams of the dying and injured. Instead, the sounds of cracking ice from a huge wall separated the Faunus from the soldiers that opened fire on them. Everyone looked over at Weiss, who stood still, her weapon in her hand and a spinning glyph surrounding her. When it dissipated, Weiss quickly walked across the ranks to the soldier that gave the order and drove a fist into his face.
Blake quickly sprinted towards Weiss as she continued her barehanded assault against the soldier, easily disarming him and throwing him to the ground, his face grating against the steel floor and his arm bent backwards in Weiss's grasp. "ARE YOU INSANE?! THESE ARE UNARMED CIVILIANS!" Weiss shouted down at him.
"He had a knife!" the man cried out.
"ONE! ONE OF THEM HAD A KNIFE! AND I HAD HIM SECURED! ALL OF YOU, STAND DOWN!" All the other soldiers had no idea what to do; they all looked at each other before stepping away and lowered their weapons. Blake released the breath she was holding and hoped her heart could hold on for a little longer with everyone settling down. Picking her weapon up, she walked over to the White Fang who started this whole fiasco, who was still pinned under Weiss's white Beowolf.
He was whimpering as the summon leaned in and growled into his ear. Crouching down, Blake picked up the knife he had tried to use and saw that it was just a piece of bent and sharpened metal wrapped in some cloth. "Why would you do something so stupid?" Blake asked finally. "You could have gotten everyone here killed!"
"I would rather die than live in chains, like a Schnee pet. Traitor!" The man growled out as their eyes connected.
"I'm trying to help the Faunus survive being wiped out from the face of Remnant while you're selfish actions nearly killed all the Faunus here. Who's betraying who?" Blake stood up and walked back to Weiss, who was now putting handcuffs on the soldier she was previously standing on top of while more reinforcements showed up. Several of the soldiers that were there before had their weapons taken from them and were lead out of the hanger.
The ice wall disappeared with a wave of Weiss's hand, and all the Faunus on the other side flinched. Blake knew that relations between Humans and Faunus were not going to get better overnight, but she hoped it would be smoother than this. Catching up to Weiss, she saw someone in an officer uniform nod to whatever Weiss was talking about.
"I'll have my report to you within the hour," Weiss snapped off a salute as the officer replied in kind.
"Thank you," Blake said as she stood next to her friend. Weiss waved her hand, dismissing it instantly.
"Blake, you should know by now that I don't judge the whole group for the actions of a single individual and haven't for a long time," Weiss cut herself off with a sudden yawn and a sigh. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to take my new prisoner to an isolation cell, write a report, and maybe take a nap…" Weiss placed her hand on Blake's shoulder and gave her a tired smile before walking away to take her prisoner away. Blake just watched her go in a worrying shock.
Blake's heart was still beating in her chest, her limbs felt like limp noodles, and her mind was racing from what was about to happen, but Weiss wanted to take a nap! Granted, she looked like she would pass out where she stood, but she did not feel the tremor she saw earlier with the woman when she had touched Blake's shoulder. It felt like she was in the middle of a forest fire with everything that was happening to her friends and only had a cup of water to fight it.
A/N: Hi! Hello!
I'm sure you're used to it by now but, I'm sorry for taking so long between updates for this story, (as well as my other ones) but, like everyone else on the planet, I've been having a rough time... as always, I'm trying to be better but sometimes the creative lake is all dry...
If you enjoyed, leave a Favourite! If you already have, leave a comment! I love reading them and I love replying to them. This story is also posted on AO3 under the same name. So if you read there as well, come show your support! I also have a Tumblr: AngryFaceWritings come say hi!
And as always, thank you for taking time out of your busy days to read my slice of madness!
