Chapter 7

"The debate over faunus rights continues to rage as the elections draw closer." The rather attractive woman smiled from behind the news desk, the VNN logo prominent on its facing. "While all of the candidates have come out against the methods being used and confirm that they consider the White Fang to be a terrorist organizations, all but two have also stated that the faunus of Vale have legitimate grievances with the government's enforcement of the Equality Acts."

Ilia sipped from a bottle of beer, her feet up on an old crate while she leaned back on an equally worn couch. The tiny 'lounge' in the middle of the warehouse was hidden away by various crates, but they'd managed to squeeze in a make-shift bar and plenty of furniture all the same.

"In particular they hold that the rash of attacks on businesses blatantly refusing to serve Faunus customers is reprehensible, but that the lack of police action in enforcing the city's own laws is equally illegal." The reporter, the screen named her as Lisa Lavender, continued, "Chief of Police Waters tended his resignation to the Council this morning, despite calls for him to remain in place until after the election. We go now to Calla Leavens outside of police headquarters, covering their efforts to fight back against the White Fang."

"It's working." Perry smiled from the back-less armchair he was sitting on, his own bottle raising in a silent salute. "They're finally taking us seriously."

There was a rumble of agreement from the dozen or so faunus present, several of them raising their own cheap drinks before downing more alcohol. None of them were in uniform tonight, everyone simply gathering to spend time with their comrades in arms.

It had been a long two months since her actions at the Firefighter's Gala. The initial public reaction to the assassination had been swift and negative, proving Tukson right and giving Ilia doubts, but she had pulled herself together in time to make a counter-play. Among various business letters, the thumb drives she'd stolen had proven to contain various messages between Winchester and others who supported his beliefs. Messages that made his screaming racism and loathing for the faunus blatantly clear.

She'd wanted to release the text as soon as they'd broken the passwords and realized what they had, but it had been Perry who'd come up with a better plan. They'd waited an extra few days, until the morning of the funeral. While the widowed wife gave a tearful speech, they'd dumped everything anonymously to the net and sent additional copies to every major news station in Vale.

The subsequent media frenzy had more or less ruined the funeral's coverage and changed the narrative rather sharply. Not really enough to paint them in a good light, but it had muddied the waters enough that any talk of a crack-down on the faunus as a whole had died. Even better, the constant coverage had inspired many young and energized faunus to take up the mask, to help fight back. Even better, many of them had useful contacts, skills, or even friends who were sympathetic enough to lend a hand.

He's not wrong, Ilia mused as she looked around. Things are starting to look up. We'd still be in the sewers if the news wasn't constantly talking about faunus rights.

Shortly after the gala, Adam had sent a short message on one of the various forums the White Fang used for clandestine communication. He'd congratulated her on a job well done and urged her not to let up on the momentum. Ilia had been all too happy to bury herself in the work, doing her best to get the city's branch back into working order as she tried to forget what she'd done.

There hadn't been any more killings, at least that she knew of. Instead they'd focused on burglary and vandalism. Any shop with a 'No-Faunus' sign became a target, and any wealthy individual who released a statement demonizing them was fair game. In the interest of building up some confidence among the locals she had mostly focused on the latter, letting Perry and Tukson handle the former.

A few times they'd had to engage the police in order to escape into the sewers and forgotten tunnels under Vale, but by some miracle they'd avoided any real wounds on either side. The lack of consequences had done miracles to bolster the confidence of those already involved, and to encourage those on the fence to join up and fight the good fight.

"So," Perry turned to her with a grin, "When do we accelerate? I mean, hitting one or two shops a week had been working so far, but I think we've finally got the people to do more."

Ilia smiled and shook her head, "Easy there, remember that we've got more to do than just breaking into stores with illegal signs in the window."

"Yeah, but none of it brings in people like those raids do." He pushed his glasses up as his smile faded, "It's working. It's really working, we've got to keep the pressure up or they'll start covering celebrity gossip again."

"We will, we will." She held a hand up to try and calm him down, "I'm not saying we're going to slow down, I'm saying that we can't afford to be reckless. You almost got pinned down last week, and the police are ramping things up every day."

He waved a dismissive hand. "You could take any cop in this city."

While his confidence in her was flattering, she was a lot less sanguine about the idea of openly fighting the police. The moment she did, the moment the VPD realized that the White Fang had a huntress on staff, they'd start recruiting their own hunters to fight back... and there was a lot more of them than there was of her.

I can probably beat a student, or escape from a professional with my semblance... but a straight fight? No, bad idea.

"I can't be everywhere at once." Ilia reminded him patiently, "And I'm still the only one here with infiltration and serious combat training, which is what we need to focus on now. Or what you will be focusing on."

Perry frowned. "You want me to try and train people?"

She fought down her impatience. Perry was quick to learn but he could be painfully slow on the uptake sometimes. "No, I want you to go with the next group we send to Mountain Glenn. I've mentioned how well you've been picking things up to Adam, and he wants to take you on as a protege, get you ready to take my place when I rotate back out."

The man opened his mouth, closed it, then started to flush when the others began to whistle and clap. A few stepped over and clapped him on the back, making his embarrassment even worse. Ilia waited until the well wishers had mostly quieted down before speaking again, "You'll be going out at the end of the week, if that's enough time for you to handle getting a vacation from your day job."

"I'll f-figure it out." Perry stammered, eyes still a bit glazed. "Gods. Me? A cell leader? I'm... honored but-"

"You're a quick learner, passionate, organized, devoted, and a lot more of a people person than I am." Ilia smiled, "You might not be much of a fighter, but that's what Adam will be helping you with."

That only made his embarrassment worse, his flush rising as he looked at her for a several moments before quickly looking away. For her part, Ilia did her best to avoid shifting uncomfortably at the look. While Perry knew her preferences, that didn't seem to stop him from starting to like her in a way she wasn't entirely comfortable with. Something that probably wasn't helped by the fact that they worked together on an almost daily basis, and there wasn't really a way to avoid that.

Still, he had yet to go beyond covert looks and the occasional enamored expression, so it wasn't anything she couldn't deal with.

"Go ahead and take the night off to celebrate," She said as she got to her feet, "Tukson can handle this week's raid, you just focus on getting ready to head out."

"You're not staying?" He asked, doing only a mediocre job of hiding his disappointment.

She shook her head, "I have a heist to plan. Have fun, make sure someone is sober enough to get you home alive."

There was a general round of laughter, and then various faunus again converged on their future leader. Ilia slipped out while the merriment continued, walking down a slim 'hallway' between two crates before ducking through the tarp that served to hide the lounge's entrance. It wasn't much of a disguise, but a warehouse being used for long-term storage didn't really attract much attention to begin with.

Outside were two figures, one seated on a folding chair, the other leaning against one of the many crates.

"Make sure you get someone sober to relieve you in an hour." She told the young woman standing guard. "I won't be back tonight."

The young woman in a rough facsimile of a security uniform, brought a fist into a hand in a quick salute, her antlers gleaming a little in the dim light. "Yes, Leader."

Ilia nodded and glanced at the seated man, "Mind giving me a ride back to my hotel?"

Tukson simply stood up and pulled keys out of his pocket. The pair walked out of the corner area and down the main run of the warehouse, past crates that claimed to hold canned goods but in reality held what few supplies they'd been able to accumulate so far. In time there'd be more than just a few cases of dust, medical supplies, and preserved food... but for now most of the crates were empty.

Fixing that is still my main job.

"You still don't approve of the new path?" She asked the question only once they were out of earshot of the guards-woman.

"It's working at the moment, I'll admit that much." Came the easy reply, "But we both know we're running out of easy targets, and the backlash is growing."

She sucked in a slow breath and then let it out. "What do you propose we do instead? If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears."

From the way he grimaced she guessed that he wasn't looking forwards to this conversation. But he didn't let that stop him from talking as they slipped out of the warehouse and began heading for his car. "We need to push harder on the charity front, even if we aren't officially the ones doing it. The city's nervous, holding its breath, but if violent action is all we offer eventually they're going to turn against us."

"We're working on it." She reminded him, "Putting the old organization back together is taking time, but we are working that angle as well."

"Slowly. I'm saying that should be our priority." He said as he unlocked the car, continuing to speak as they both climbed in. "It seems like all the lien we're managing to scrape together is going out as fast as it comes in. Thought we were supposed to be keeping at least half of it."

Ilia felt herself grimace. She'd said as much to Adam and hadn't gotten anywhere. "...orders change sometimes. The other cells need it more."

"Do they?" Tukson asked as he started the engine, spent a moment to turn the lights on, then got them moving. "Vale's the heart the kingdom but it feels like all Taurus wants from us is notice in the press, zealots who want to fight, and lien to fund his own attacks."

Her spots darkened. "Too far, Tukson."

The man let out a frustrated huff as they pulled out onto the streets, heading away from the harbor. "Call it like I see it. Sure, they took down most of those damned vigilantes last week, but did they really have to kill most of them?"

"They died fighting."

"Did they?" His voice was flat. "Look in me in the eye and tell me you believe that."

Ilia... looked out her window. As much as she wanted to deny it, she could still see Adam holding his sword above a surrendered guard, ready to bring it down. He hadn't then, but... without Sienna's direct supervision, it was only her and Blake. She was obviously busy, and Adam wouldn't bring Blake into a fight with living opponents if he could help it.

It... seemed all too likely that at least a few of the humans had died after the fighting was over.

Still...

Admit it yourself Ilia... you're having doubts, and you can't afford those.

She inhaled slowly and then let it out, keeping herself calm. Focused. Convicted. "They were murderers and rapists who escaped justice. If they died then it's not exactly a loss."

"Maybe not." Tukson admitted, "But like I said, how long until we run out of obvious targets like that? We're already getting close to the point where we'll be attacking shops just because some random faunus thought a clerk was judging them. How well is that going to play on the news? On our recruitment fliers?"

"I get it." She replied, irritation coloring her voice as her spots flared. "But again, what do you want me to do about it? I'm a temporary cell leader, a scout huntress, and a burglar. I'm following my orders and doing the best I can."

If he was upset or annoyed by her tone he didn't show it. "Your new orders which are worse than your old ones and you know it. You've already ignored another assassination assignment, don't tell me that you haven't."

Her heart skipped a beat and her spots flipped from red to blue. "...how did you find out about that?"

"Perry." He said simply. "He thought you should have gone through with it."

Of course he did...

"I killed his father, he's got the right to hate me and make badly written speeches about it." She murmured. "But he's still fifteen years old. I'm not assassinating a fifteen year old boy who's got no real power."

Trying to find the right way to tell that to Adam after she'd gotten the order by message hadn't gone anywhere. In the end she'd simply given up and given him a white lie about Cardin Winchester being too heavily protected given that he and his mother were now living in Signal Academy, surrounded by student level hunters and professional level teachers.

Perry had still thought she could do it, in his boundless confidence in her skills. And she probably could have... not at the school, exactly, but the boy wasn't always at school. He went out to give speeches with his mother, trying to keep their personal tragedy in the limelight despite the public loathing of his deceased father.

But the key word in all of that was 'boy'. Ilia had crossed a line, she knew that. She'd done it so that future faunus wouldn't have to.

But there were some lines she wouldn't cross. Couldn't cross.

Tukson gave her an approving look then returned his eyes to the road, "Yeah, and that gives me hope. You're not bloodthirsty or just out for revenge, you want to make a difference. We all do. I don't know what's going on with the rest of the White Fang, but I think we've still got a chance of pulling off the balanced approach you were preaching when you first got here. We just have to do it before you rotate out."

Her head fell back against her seat as she sighed. Tukson might have been competent, devoted, and intelligent... but he was terrible for her morale.

Probably a good thing to have someone like him around, but that doesn't make it any less exhausting.

"...what are you thinking?"

"We start by keeping most of the lien we're bringing in." He said at once, "We use it to start up the old charity drives again, start showing the carrot instead of just the stick. We make sure to serve poor faunus and humans alike. Make it clear to everyone that we're not racist extremists."

Ilia twisted her lips. "Can't say I like that idea much, and I know a lot of the others will hate it."

"If we don't, we're violating the same equality laws the humans are." Tukson nodded as they stopped at a light, a police vehicle crossing ahead of them. "The cops will have every reason to crack down on that. Hell, they'd probably say they're shutting down White Fang recruiting operations to make themselves look better."

A hand rose to rub tiredly at her temples as she thought about it. What he wanted wasn't really all that extreme... if anything it was basically just the original plan as she'd told them all when she'd arrived. But the past few months had started making it clear that the plan she'd been given had been Sienna's, not Adam's, and what interest he'd had in it had faded quickly. To him Vale was just a place where their enemies conveniently concentrated themselves.

His focus was entirely on the outer regions of the kingdom. On the easy victories to be found in destroying SDC mines or racist vigilante groups.

This way is working... but like Tukson said, all of the recruits were getting are the ones who want to fight. We need them, but what happens when the fighting ends? Who will be there to put everything back together?

They didn't have anyone like the Albain brothers, or the support staff that they trained and shipped out to Mistral and Vacuo. The kinds of people who made sure the organization was just that; an organization. A group that could actually help run a village, a city, a kingdom. Who could involve themselves seriously in local politics and make their voices heard.

We've made the humans take notice of us... but for how long?

Tukson also hadn't been wrong when he'd said they were running low on easy targets. Vale wasn't as stubborn as Mistral, nor nearly as corrupt. They couldn't simply hit one part of town and leave the criminals running the other sections shrugging and jumping in to take advantage. Even the most racist humans here were already starting to pull down their 'No Faunus' signs in favor of more subtle ways to make them unwelcome. Eventually they'd be going after people based on hearsay, and that had the potential to backfire real fast.

"We can try it." She said after a few blocks of thinking it over. "We'll keep whatever donations we get for the next two weeks, and whatever we get for what I steal. That should be enough for at least one charity run if you can find enough recruits to run it. If it goes well we can keep running with it."

He nodded slightly, though more of an acknowledgment that she'd spoken than in agreement. He probably wasn't about to get his hopes up until she did something to earn it.

"So," Tukson said in a tone indicating he was changing the subject, "Where are you going after I drop you off?"

"My room." She waved a vague hand, "That contact of Vi's came through this morning. I've got the complete plans for the mansion of some coffee mogul who donated fifty thousand lien to the Winchester's about a month before the gala."

"When were you going to move? Be nice if we could time our next attack to go along with yours." He might have had more than a few doubts, but Tukson was nothing if not professional. "The more divided the police response the better odds we all have of getting out."

Ilia hummed in thought. "I was actually thinking of a daylight run to avoid any personal encounters."

His fingers drummed as he slowed, pulling over and into a dimly lit parking lot. One of the many hotels in the city catering to Hunters loomed above them as he parked near the entrance, keeping the engine running. "I think I can make that work. I'll get back to you by the end of the week."

She nodded as she opened her door and slipped out, "Thanks for the ride. See you around."

Tukson brought two fingers up to the side of his head in an abbreviated salute, then pulled away. Ilia watched him go, then headed inside.

The lobby was largely empty given the late hour, though the bar attached to the hotel looked to be doing a brisk trade even though it was nearly midnight. She'd spent more than few late evenings there herself, in the immediate aftermath especially, but she still had work to do tonight.

And besides, the last thing she needed was to add alcoholism to her list of problems. A list of problems that grew exponentially when she reached her first floor room, opened the door, and found that she'd had visitors while she'd been out.

They hadn't trashed the room or anything so pointless... they'd made their point in other ways.

The secure safe she'd been storing her various clandestine goods inside of was wide open, the blueprints, documents, and various thieving tools were now neatly laid out one of the two double beds. Lightning Lash was next to them, the weapon completely disassembled with all of her dust cartridges missing. Both of the cheap scrolls she used to keep in touch with Perry and Tuskon were on the end table in a similar state of dismantlement, and the bag she'd been using to store hard currency was missing.

But the most blatant act had been to break her White Fang mask in half, then carefully prop both pieces on top of her pillow.

A small hand written note lay between them, and after closing the door behind her, she cautiously walked over and picked it up.

"I don't appreciate little animals running around my town, who are so ill trained they didn't even have the courtesy to ask my permission before stealing from my marks. I helped myself to your gains as payment for that insult, but I'm afraid that's as far as my mercy goes. You have until tomorrow to be out of Vale or you'll have a cage and collar of your very own in the city prison."

Ilia closed her eyes as her skin rippled to a furious scarlet, her spots blazing yellow. The note crumbled in her fist as her teeth ground together, the only words she could think of saying coming out in a low snarl. "Fucking dammit!"

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