Here's chapter 87, everyone.
"Ruby… I was thinking about what we promised to help Ren and Nora with, and honestly, it's still a little risky. So have you thought about maybe asking your Mother to possibly help us?" Weiss asked as she and Ruby were in the dorm room at the time.
"Oh! Yeah that might be a good idea… Huh, why didn't I think of that before?" Ruby asked herself while she got her scroll out to ask her mom to come over. "Here's hoping she doesn't try to get us to not go." Before she could send the message, Yang jumped over and snatched the scroll from her sister's hands. "W-What… Yang?! Why did you-."
"Think about what you just said, sis." Yang said while holding the scroll above her. "Mom will probably make us not go, and then Team JNPR won't have us there for backup. Can't risk that."
Weiss sighed in response. "I'm not sure going behind her back would be right, Yang. I was honestly thinking of telling my Mother about it too."
"Trust me, I don't like not telling mom about this, but I don't really like the idea of JNPR going out there by themselves either, so we gotta be able to help without getting anyone else involved." Yang remarked.
Ruby crossed her arms, taking a moment to think of something. "Hmm, well we definitely can't ask Ozpin, cause he'll just deny us access to the airships… Wait, will we be able to have someone fly us?"
Weiss bit her lip, sighing to herself. "I may have someone that can help, but it would be going behind my Mother's back if we aren't telling anyone about this." She felt like a hypocrite, since her Mother just literally told her something she's kept from her for over seventeen years.
"It's not like we're doing anything illegal, and besides, this is to help out our friends, Ice Wolf, so whoever it is that could help-." Yang was stopped not a moment later.
"Klein. He's more than just my family's butler…" Weiss knew that getting Klein involved meant he'd also have to keep her Mother from knowing, and that itself could be problematic. "Without even being asked, Klein learned how to pilot an airship, in case Mother ever really needed him for it."
"Huh, I had no idea, but how come he hasn't flown our parents in before?" Yang asked.
"My Father. While Klein can pilot an airship, his job would be on the line if my Father learned that he wasn't working in our home." Weiss explained.
"Damn, well what makes this any different to get him to come over?" Yang questioned.
Weiss pulled her scroll out and remembered that her Mother would be returning to Atlas in a few hours. "I knew we'd need an airship the moment we promised to help, so I asked Klein about when my Father would be going on one of his business trips. Luckily for us, that will be during the weekend, so the best time will be then if we don't want anyone from the school to know we're using an airship."
Ruby spoke up at that point. "That's good, but where is he going to get an airship from?"
The white haired teen chuckled a little. "Ruby, you forget that my family is very wealthy. Father makes sure to have several airships ready for anything, so all Klein will need to do is use one of those."
"Won't your mom know he's gone?" Yang asked.
Weiss sighed. "That's the biggest problem to be honest. Convincing Klein to not tell Mother about why he'll be gone for a day or two."
Ruby felt bad about that, since she was the one to first speak up on helping Ren and Nora. "M-Maybe we can find another way to get an airship and a pilot. I don't want you doing something you don't want to do for this, Weiss."
That got Weiss to chuckle lightly. "It's okay, Ruby. Klein is honestly the best person for this, and as long as we're safe, then hopefully our parents won't be too angry with us for doing this."
"Ice Wolf is right, and remember what I said, if anyone stops us from going, then JNPR will have to figure out how to get there themselves, and they won't have us there for backup." Yang reminded.
Hearing both Weiss and Yang's reasons, Ruby figured it was best not to stress it too much, so she nodded and Yang handed her scroll back. "Right, well I'll let Jaune know that we can go on the weekend once you ask Klein for help."
"Okay, I'll give him a call now outside. I'd rather not have my Mother or your mom to be around in case they hear me, so I'll be outside." Weiss said as she got up with her scroll in hand.
After leaving the dorm, she began to make her way outside, but when she turned a corner in the hallway, she noticed Blake was walking over. "Blake, I thought you'd still be outside."
The cat Faunus was glad she ran into her teammate, and she simply shrugged. "I got enough time to myself. Honestly I'm glad I ran into you, since I need to talk to you."
"Oh, well I was actually about to go outside myself. You wouldn't mind going back out would you?" Weiss asked while Blake just nodded, so both girls started heading outside.
"Exactly what is it you'd want to do in the first place around here?" Raven asked Lazuria as she was walking with her through the town, while Tai was keeping his distance, while also keeping watch for anything strange.
"Honestly? I would like to buy clothes… It's not that I like shopping, but the feeling of getting something to wear that could last longer than a month would be nice." Lazuria sadly answered.
Raven shrugged. "Fine, but don't expect me to buy anything here."
"I wasn't. Besides, I already told you I don't care much for shopping. I just want anything at this point." Lazuria and Raven eventually found a place for her to buy clothes, and the Shifter was sighing to herself. "There is… A lot."
"It's a clothes store. Of course there's going to be a lot of clothes here." Raven said in a deadpanned tone.
Lazuria rolled her eyes and didn't even come up with a retort as she started looking for something she could wear. Raven groaned a little, since she didn't care to shop that long, while Lazuria could only hope to find one piece of clothing she could actually enjoy wearing.
All the while, Tai was continuing to keep an eye out for anyone who might look suspicious. And as he kept on looking around, he noticed he received a message on his scroll. The blonde huntsman read the message from his wife and was glad to know she'd arrive back in Atlas in a day.
"Now all we need is to just wait then." Tai said to himself, as he hoped their mission would end up not taking as long as he thought, mostly for Lazuria to be able to live a normal life again, as well as possibly seeing Weiss.
Inside the clothes store, Raven was leaning up against a wall, wishing Lazuria would hurry up and pick something. "How long are you going to take in this place?"
"Shut it. I'm just trying to find something tasteful too, so if you don't want to wait in here, then go outside and leave me be." Lazuria suggested, as she actually let out a smile, since she was enjoying the fact that she could feel how a 'normal' day was.
Raven shook her head, not caring much about it, and with Tai outside, she felt it was best to stay inside. "Just don't make me wait an hour…"
"Uh huh." Lazuria hummed and continued pulling out dresses from the clothes racks, while Raven observed her, feeling like she shouldn't complain too much, since the woman really did need to live again.
"I'll have to tolerate this for a bit longer…"
Weiss wondered why Blake wanted to talk to her about, and as they got out in the courtyard, Blake felt it was a good enough spot to talk at. "Sorry to bother you about this, but I just wanted to say thank you."
"Huh?" Weiss wasn't sure exactly what the cat Faunus was thanking her for.
"That day you talked to me. About my parents. I called them." Blake admitted, and Weiss was pleasantly surprised, smiling for her friend.
"That's great, Blake. So how were they?" Weiss asked.
Blake's ears flattened against her head. "My mom was crying… And my dad asked me a lot about why I left, but I told them as much as I could."
Weiss figured one of Blake's parents would cry after not seeing her for a long time. "It makes sense, but now they know you're okay."
"Yeah… But… There's a lot with what I told them that you should know too." Blake said, and Weiss simply waited on her to continue. "Weiss, back when we met, I wasn't the kindest to you, and I'm still sorry for how I reacted."
Before she could continue, Weiss spoke up. "Why are you bringing this up now? You know we already talked a lot about that already, Blake. I've forgiven you, so-."
"You still don't know the real reason why I acted the way I did, and it has a lot to do with why I ran away from home in the first place." Blake said in a somber tone, hating what she was about to tell her.
"What exactly do you mean? What would I have to do with you running away?" Weiss inquired.
"Not you. It's… Your family. Weiss, you know I'm a Faunus, and… Because of that I never liked what your Father does with his company, and how he treats Faunus." Weiss had a saddened expression, since it was true. "A lot of people never treated my kind the way they should, so… I left home to be apart of a group that could make a difference. At least that's what I thought they'd do…"
"W-What group?" The stutter in Weiss' voice was a clear sign that she had an idea of who Blake was talking about.
"T-The White Fang…" When the cat Faunus said that, Weiss tensed up a bit and took a step back. "I know… I know you hate that I kept this from you, but you need to understand that my things weren't as bad as-."
"Stop… I don't want to hear this." Weiss turned around and started walking away.
Blake's eyes widened as she tried to run over. "W-Weiss, I know you're upset, but-."
Weiss spun around on her heels and glared at Blake. "My Mother just told me something she's kept from me for years, now here you are, telling me you used to be…" She stopped herself, since she didn't want to yell that out, and basically out Blake as an ex-White Fang member. "I can't believe you'd keep this from us!"
The cat Faunus' ears drooped. "I-I told Yang already, but telling you or Ruby, I just never found a good time to."
"So now? Now that I've just had to learn that my life isn't what I thought it was, now you feel it's best to tell me?" Weiss growled, and while she'd usually try to calm herself down, but in that moment she couldn't.
Blake remained quiet for a few moments as she hung her head, feeling ashamed. "I didn't tell you so that this wouldn't happen… After we settled things, I didn't want either of us to end up fighting again."
"Hmph! Well clearly you weren't trying to keep that from happening hard enough." Weiss crossed her arms and turned away from Blake, but in the back of her head, she too knew that she was about to keep something from her mom.
"I guess not…" Blake said in a somber tone. "I'm sorry."
"Everyone is always sorry…" Weiss said in the same tone, as she felt like crying, but she held it in, feeling like others in her life would continue to keep things from her. "I hoped that after what my Mother told me… That I could just move on and keep doing what I'm doing, but now you drop this on me… How am I supposed to feel?"
Blake thought about what to say and sighed. "I can't tell you how to feel, Weiss. If you're angry with me, then I understand why, but… You should still know that I never wanted the White Fang to become what they are today."
Weiss took in what she said, and as she thought more about Blake, she realized that the cat Faunus did in fact leave the White Fang, so she turned around and had a hurt expression on her face. "You left, but you still had to take part in what they did."
"Yes, I was, but that doesn't mean I don't want things to change in this world, Weiss." Blake's ears twitched and Weiss noticed the bow twitching with them. "If anyone like Cardin saw my ears, then he'd treat me just like your Father treats my kind. I couldn't sit at home doing nothing about that."
"But why with those monsters… Why with the people who resort to fear and violence? There are better ways." Weiss countered.
Blake shook her head. "Weiss, you've lived on the other side. Watching the world through the eyes of a human. My Father was the one in charge of the old White Fang," Weiss' eyes widened at that. "Yes, he really was, and back then, we never got anywhere in the world. Just a small island to shut us up…"
Weiss was silent, not knowing how to respond.
"I don't regret what I fight for, but I do regret leaving home and being apart of them. They make things worse, and I wish there was something I could say to prove to you that I'd never go back to them." Blake said, while Weiss looked down.
"I-I just… I wish you would have told me, told all of us sooner." Weiss bit her lip and lifted her head up. "Keeping secrets, we all tend to do that… I'm even doing that now."
"What do you mean?" Blake inquired.
Weiss sighed. "It's about Kuroyuri."
Update time. I'll be going to RTX this year, so this story may go on a bit of a break till I get back home. If it does get updated, it's because I'll try to use my phone while I'm over there to post chapters.
As for the story, sorry if some things are repeated, like Blake telling them about her past with the White Fang, but since it's pretty important information to know, I want to actually write how they'll react to knowing.
To JJ- Well then I'm glad for how I wrote out that scene. They're both characters who I wanted to have in since as you said, not many use them that much. Besides that, I'm also enjoying the Raven and Qrow moments, since they're both easily able to annoy each other.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 87. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 88.