Chapter 4
Sienna had warned them before they'd left Anima that the Vale branch wasn't doing well. Of the various kingdom-specific parts of the White Fang, the faunus in Vale had been the most committed to the message of peaceful resistance that Ghira had preached. Which made some degree of sense, given that the racism in Vale was far less overt and far less prevalent than in Atlas or Mistral.
Not to say that there wasn't any, but Vale wasn't quite as bad as those other two kingdoms, and the faunus there knew it. The racism was less systematic and more individual, giving most faunus a degree of hope that couldn't be found in those other kingdoms. It had made recruiting for peaceful protest fairly easy during Ghira's age. During his time in power, the Vale branch had been the largest and the best performing. Laws had been passed, tolerance enforced, the one bright spot that Ghira could point at to show that his methods worked even as things had only gotten worse elsewhere.
When Ghira had stepped down, letting Sienna and her targeted-violence approach rise to prominence, the Vale branch had begun to decline. The older, more affluent members had quit as orders to move from pickets and boycotts to vandalism and raids had begun to reach them. They had mortgages and families that they didn't want to put at risk by being caught in a white mask. Since they had made a up a great deal of the group's leadership, many of their followers had lost their direction in the aftermath. More than a few had taken stupid chances as a result, their subsequent arrests paving the way for even more faunus to drop out rather than risk following them to prison.
Now all that were left were the desperate and the homeless. Willing to fight, willing to die for the cause, but few of them had useful contacts, disposable money, or even relevant skills.
When Adam had sent word ahead of their sailing for the eastern coast of the kingdom, asking to meet with the group's leadership at a secure location... he'd gotten a message back that a single representative was all that could be spared, and that he'd meet them in a human-dominated village on the coast. To say that he'd had been left stunned and fuming would be a massive understatement.
Which was why Blake had convinced him to send Ilia instead, in the hope that she'd be more diplomatic.
Probably for the best, She sighed as she strolled down the village's main street, the only faunus in sight even if none of the humans around her knew that. He wouldn't have been able to stay calm. Still... I really hate these assignments.
Memories of her last day in school were never far behind when she went incognito, which forced her to make an almost constant effort to prevent her skin from changing to a more depressed coloration. That effort, plus the painful nature of the memories in question, tended to leave her more than a little irritable. It wasn't exactly the best kind of attitude for a low-key spy to have. But... what choice did she have really? The nature of her faunus traits made her ideal for this kind of work, even if she personally would have rather been doing almost anything else.
At least this is a fast and easy job. Get in, talk to him, get back to where we landed before some fisherman sees everyone parked on the beach.
Ilia slipped into the small cafe and had no problems finding her contact. He was entirely by himself, had two canine ears poking up through his hair, was wearing a beat up old jacket above equally worn jeans, and all of the adjacent tables were empty despite the place being fairly busy.
He looked at her through his glasses when she walked over, frowning as she took the seat across from him. She knew exactly what he was seeing; a teenage human girl wearing clothing only a little better maintained than his own. Jeans, a dark shirt, and a black jacket left open against the summer heat. Not even close to what he was probably expecting to see.
He's not a professional. No other faunus in here means two of us meeting would draw attention that we'd rather avoid. He should have said to meet him outside of town, or at least in a better location.
"Are you lost or something?" He asked politely, his notched left ear twitching once. "I'd be happy to help but I'm waiting for someone."
"I know." She replied, willing her eyes to turn a sullen red, then a sad blue, then red again for several seconds. His own widened in surprise, then he nodded once as she quickly let them return to their natural gray. "Full moon over home."
He brought a ceramic cup to his lips, murmuring the counter-sign as he did. "Broken moon over Atlas. Well met, sister."
"Well met, brother." She leaned back in her chair. "Go ahead and ask, everyone does."
That made him smile a little, "Just the eyes?"
Ilia shook her head, using the motion to check the area around them, making sure no one had approached. "Eyes, spots, skin, hair... everything. Do you have a name I may use?"
"Pear." His smile turned a little self-deprecating. "Not the best alias I know, but it's close enough that I don't screw it up. Yours?"
"Lash." She glanced up and down him. He was nervous and jumpy, though he was doing his best to hide that by sipping his coffee frequently. The kind of person who drew people's attention by so blatantly trying not to draw their attention. Gods but you're not the kind of person they needed to send.
"You're not usually in this kind of role, are you?" She asked.
"Not even close." Pear admitted, reaching up to adjust his glasses in an unconscious manner. "Ah, where are my manners. Welcome to the Kingdom of Vale. It's better than Mistral, and it's a paradise compared to Atlas, but it's not exactly kind to us either. Things have gotten worse this past year, without us pressing them constantly a few of the anti-discrimination laws have been repealed. They say they're 'not necessary' anymore."
"Already?"
He nodded grimly. "It was a hope-killer for sure, showing us how thin all our old victories actually were. Things are a little better out here than in the western parts of the kingdom, but not much."
Ilia shrugged. "I don't think there's enough of us out here for them to be able to blame us for all of their problems."
"Hn, true." He started to say something else, then straightened and gave her a look that was probably meant to be a subtle warning... and was about as blatant as a rampaging Ursa.
She glanced over her shoulder in time to see a blond waitress walk over to their table. She might have been Ilia's age, or a little older, and filled out the blue uniform rather well. And if she noticed Ilia noticing her, she didn't seem to mind.
"Good morning ma'am!" She said, her voice a bit warmer than the usual bored-professional tones you got from a young server. "Would you like some coffee as well? Maybe just a pot for the two of you?"
"Just one cup for me, please." Ilia replied, "Sugar as well, no cream though."
The girl nodded and then turned to her contact, her tones remaining just as cheerful and improving Ilia's opinion of her. "Did you need a refill, sir?"
"I'm good, thank you ma'am." Pear smiled as well, but was careful to keep his eyes on his cup. Ilia glanced around as she walked away, partly to enjoy watching the way the waitress moved, but far more important was a man in a booth who was looking at their table with obvious disapproval in his features.
"He's been watching me since I came in." He murmured around another sip of his drink, which at least proved he had some situational awareness even if he wasn't scout material. "I think he's sweet on the waitress. I'm trying not to provoke him by looking near her more than I have to, but I don't think he likes you sitting with me either."
Her smile faded and it was a fight not to grimace. Men stepping in to 'protect' women from 'lustful faunus' wasn't uncommon. If anything it was probably one of the most common spark that caused beatings, fights, or worse. Usually when the faunus in question didn't do anything beside glance in the woman's direction, if that.
Dammit. the longer we talk in here the more likely someone is to comment on us sitting together, or to come over to defend my honor or some stupid crap like that. Really needed to pick somewhere else.
"Let's get this done before he decides to come over, I'd rather not have my cover blown on our first day."
Pear let out a quiet snort and nodded. He kept his voice as low as possible when he began to lay it out for her. "I think you already guessed that we're not in good shape so I'll skip to the worst parts. We divided into cells like the High Leader ordered last year, but two of our cell leaders left for Vacuo and we lost contact with the groups they were managing."
Her fingers clenched slightly in frustration. "They didn't give their lists to someone else?"
He shook his head, making her swear under her breath, "They both ran groups in the city. Without them we're down to just one cell in Vale itself, one on Patch that only has four people, but we do have three larger groups in the western villages. Main base is in the ruins of Mountain Glenn, maybe three dozen there. Mostly people who are known and who don't have anywhere else to go."
Ilia pursed her lips and nodded. The numbers more or less matched what Sienna had told them to expect, though Adam wouldn't be happy about the relative lack of assets in Vale itself. "What about out here, out east?"
"Nothing." His head lowered a little, then rose as he threw back the last of his coffee and set the cup aside. "A few families near Pharos Academy that we try to help, and they send us what supplies and information they can, but not much more than that."
Dammit. "Is that it?"
"No. There's a kind of paramilitary group that started up last year when some of our people went... too far after the new leader took her position. Officially they're a citizen's watch who look out for criminals and alert police, but aren't vigilantes."
She could guess where this was going. "But they are."
He nodded grimly but said nothing. A second later she heard the heels clicking across the floor, and a cup of coffee was set before her. The waitress, her name-tag read 'Sable', gave them both another polite smile and reminded them that she'd be happy to bring food if they wanted any.
Ila thanked her again but declined to speak further, simply stirring sugar into her drink. The girl didn't take offense and simply departed, heading back to the more crowded section to take an order from a crowded table.
"They mostly operate out west, which is causing us problems since that's where most of our remaining people are. On a good day they just group together and rant about how we're scum and how we steal their jobs." Pear continued, "On the bad ones they get liquored up and go hunting."
Her upper lipped pulled back from her teeth, and it was a fight not to let her skin flare to angry scarlet. "I'm guessing you mean that literally."
Another nod. "So far they haven't actually killed anyone, but there's been close to a dozen beatings and least one reported rape. Does... that happen in other places too?"
"It's not unheard of." She answered, avoiding stating that what he'd just described was positively low-key compared to what some other groups did. There was at least one bandit tribe in eastern mistral that quite literally hunted faunus, and ripped off their ears or tails to take as trophies after. "But we can talk about how to deal with them later. For now we need a route to your... to our headquarters. We managed to get a full truck with supplies over. Dust, weapons, clothing, medicine, everything on your wish list."
"It's easy enough, just follow the roads west towards Vale." He shrugged, the notion of supplies seeming to cheer him slightly. "A lot of the old signs for Mountain Glenn are still up. Follow them to highway two, then turn southwest. Once you're in the ruins head for the subway stations. Be careful, the place is crawling with Grimm even now, but we secured a lot of the underground when we had more people. Our base is smaller these days, but it's still mostly barricaded."
Ilia repeated it back to him to ensure she had it right, "West, highway two, southwest. Base is underground and secured. We'll find it."
Pear smiled at his empty cup again. "Our new high leader... do you think she can help fix things? Is our new leader is right for Vale? I mean, I've heard of him. He's a fighter, a warrior, but... I guess I still don't know if that's what we need. Beacon, Signal, and Pharos all take faunus students. I don't want to risk them changing that even if everything else isn't... exactly great. Seeing faunus hunters saving people is one of the few things that gives us any hope these days."
"I know what you mean. I... worry sometimes too, but we're on the right path." She nodded slowly, paraphrasing the same words Sienna had given her. "It won't be easy. It will be hard work, dirty work at times. Not glorious in the moment, but our children will know that we were the heroes who gave them a better world. We won't jeopardize what you've already won, we only want to make even bigger strides forwards. I promise."
"I want to believe that." His words came as a whisper, his eyes staring at nothing for a few long seconds before he shook himself a little. "Is that everything? We're starting to draw more attention from the other customers."
Ilia gave him a slight nod and tapped a finger on the table, "Leave some lien for the coffee, and then go. I'll stay behind for a minute to make sure no one follows you. If they do, just keep walking and get out of here. I'll deal with them."
"I understand. I'll see you at work, sister." He said as he rose, pulling a few lien from a pocket and placing it next to his cup. His shoulders hunched a little as she walked past the man who'd been watching him, the far larger human following him with his eyes before sneering and returning to his breakfast.
She started to relax and lift her cup to her lips, then froze when two younger men, practically boys really, got up from a booth nearer to the door and followed Pear outside.
"Crap."
Hoping that he'd left enough cash for the drinks, she slid out of her chair and made for the door. She thought she heard the waitress call out as she pushed it open, but that mattered a lot less than making sure her contact got out of here alive. And without talking to any authority figures who didn't need to know why he was here.
It wasn't hard to spot them, the boys were snickering to one another to the left as they followed Pear down the brick covered street. He'd noticed them from the way he hunched in even more, but he wasn't panicking yet. Wasn't running away or turning to confront them. Just ignoring them and hoping his lack of reaction would make them bored.
It wouldn't. It would just inspire them to try harder... but that was also what she'd told him to do if followed. She hadn't exactly meant to say she'd save him from being bullied by a couple of fourteen year old boys, but she could hardly call herself a member of the White Fang if she didn't put a stop to it.
"Hey! Mutt!" One of them called out, "What's wrong? She wasn't into bestiality?"
Her fists clenched as the other one burst out laughing. A few other humans on the street gave the boys dark looks but otherwise did nothing... and few smothered smirks of their own.
...definitely a good thing that Adam isn't here.
Ilia slowed down to a more natural stride a few paces behind them, disguising a check behind her by pretending to let her gaze linger on swimsuit in a shop window as she walked past. No one was following, good. It meant these two idiots were just bored and not part of some larger scheme.
Which meant she'd have more freedom in regards to how she dealt with them.
"Where you going? There a nice warm bone waiting for you at home?"
She limited her reaction to clenching her jaw. Ahead of them, Pear had reached the outskirts of the large village. Several cars were parked in a public lot just off of the road leading into town. On seeing his, the faunus accelerated to a faster clip, clearly ready to get on the road before things got worse.
Worse came when one of the two boys stooped as he walked, grabbing a loose bit of brick that had probably been broken off a nearby building by a storm or collision. From the way he brought his arm all the way back, he was either hoping to seriously hurt Pear, or he wanted to put it into the car's windshield.
Ilia's fingers snapped tightly around his wrist before he could bring his arm forwards, muscles flexing as she easily stopped his effort to throw it. "Excuse me."
"What gives!?" The boy, black hair, clean cut, but otherwise like any other early teenager, gave her his best glare. "Hey! Let go of me!"
"Drop the brick." She stated in reply, not hiding the fact that her left hand was in her pocket. A threat that the two oblivious idiots completed missed.
"Hey, hey!" The other one, brown haired and blue eyed, gave her a smile he probably thought was charming. She mostly noticed how much food he had stuck in his teeth. "We're not hurtin' anyone. Just making sure the mutt knows to leave pretty girls like you alone."
Ilia felt a muscle in her cheek twitch as the one she'd caught again tried to jerk his arm free. "Drop the brick."
The repetition didn't seem to please either of them. Black hair scowled and tugged some more, while brown hair narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to try and loom like most angry men liked to do. Of course he wasn't exactly Adam, or Gray, or... intimidating at all really. He wasn't nearly close enough to use his height against her, and she was pretty sure she had more muscle as he did.
"You're defending that animal?" Brown hair tried to make his voice into a growl and mostly just sounded like he was trying to gargle a drink in his throat. "You spreading your legs for him or something?"
In response she let her eyes shift to show her anger, both of them blinking as they turned an angry red. At the same time she drew a small bar of metal from her coat pocket. A single flick of her finger saw it begin to fold outwards, and within a moment she had a slim saber in her grip. It wasn't Lightning Lash, but her preferred weapon was far too distinctive to use unless her life was actively threatened.
So for today it was the cheap back-up... and the sight of the cold steel made both boys start sweating.
"Drop," She paused dramatically, "The damned. Brick."
It finally tumbled to the ground as the tip of her little sword came into line with his chin. Black hair's voice came out in a rushed babble. "Wh-what the fuck lady! We didn't mean anythin'!"
"Yes, you did, and you were about to do worse." Ilia stated flatly, finally letting go of him. She made a point to make a disgusted face and wipe her hand on her pants, as if she'd just touched something foul. That was enough to make both of them angry once more, brown hair stepping a little closer then flinching back when she turned the blade in his direction. "Get out of here. The both of you."
"Th-this is our town!" Brown hair must have been the brains, or what passed for them, because he again took the lead. "You don't get to tell us what to do!"
"Look at her eyes man." Black hair muttered in agreement, rubbing his wrist. "Maybe she's one of those freaks too."
Ilia flicked said eyes beyond them, her rising anger shifting them to a blazing yellow, and met Pear's eyes through the window of his car. She twitched in her chin in a slight motion that he seemed to catch because he gave her a deeper nod of thanks, then put his beat up old car into motion and pulled out of the lot.
"She's threatening us with a sword." Brown spoke, completely missing the reason she'd fallen silent. "We should call the cops on her. Maybe get a huntsman."
A shift of her hand saw the rapier collapse once more, and she gave them both a dismissive shrug. "Go for it. I could use a sparring partner."
"What?" Brown sneered, his eyes flicking over her shoulder as his grin widened. "That supposed to convince me you're a huntress or somethin'?"
"Did you miss my semblance changing my eye color as I got angry?" She flicked a hand in their direction and turned away... and nearly ran into a man in the dark brown of a Valean Outland Sheriff.
He was an older man, pale of skin but dark of eye, and he obviously took notice of her placing her weapon back into her jacket pocket from the way his own hand was resting on the holstered pistol on his belt. Despite that, his voice was calm and level when she spoke. "Evening ma'am. I don't suppose you had a good reason to be holding these two at sword point?"
"They didn't care for my choice in business associates and were about to throw a brick into his car." Ilia paused, "Assuming they weren't aiming for his head, but I didn't really care enough to ask."
The man let out a low grunt, frowning at her, then at the two boys behind her. "Normally I wouldn't believe a stranger who says she's a huntress, but we've had more than a few calls about these two in the past. You mind showing me some ID before I let you on your way?"
"She threatened to kill us!" Black hair shouted, teenage outrage making his voice crack. "And she's probably one of those fur covered freaks! You gotta arrest her!"
Ilia felt a muscle in her cheek twitch as her cooling eyes once again began to move through a sullen red and back to an angry yellow. "I also didn't care for the racial insults they were giving him."
"It's a free nation." The officer shook his head, "Boys can say what they want... but it takes a special kind of stupid to piss off a huntress by insulting her friend. Guessing your eyes are part of your semblance, and that they wouldn't like what would happen if they kept getting brighter?"
It was almost sad how easy it was to pretend to be human, just by letting their own expectations work against them. "Yes, they are, and no, they wouldn't."
He let out another grunt. "You two are coming with me, maybe this time your parents will actually do something. You staying in town, ma'am?"
She shook her head, "I only met him here as a way-point from Mistral. I have a protection contract down south, then I'm off to Vale."
"Well I suppose I don't have to ask you to call us the next time instead of handling it yourself, but all the same... if you're ever back in Ansel, try to remember." His lips pressed into a thin line, "Huntsman around here prefer to let us handle things. Easier on everyone that way. Consider this your warning, and we'll be keeping an eye on you if you come back to town."
"I'll do my best to remember." Ilia replied dryly, tipping her head to him once before turning away. Both of the teens gave her sullen, angry glares as she walked past them.
No one followed her as she left the little coastal town, back to where the others were waiting for her report.
Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
Thanks, Kat