Chapter 8

"Let me get this straight." Adam's voice was perfectly flat, never a good sign. "You were identified by some human thief who believes that Vale is his own personal playground. He called you an animal and threatened to reveal you to the authorities. Then instead of dealing with him, or even attempting to retaliate, you instead ran away with your tail tucked between your legs."

Ilia kept her breathing even and her skin normal as she did her best to maintain her own forced calm. "After evaluating the situation I decided that removing myself from Vale was the right decision for the White Fang."

"The right decision was to make us look like weak willed cowards?" Adam's jaw clenched, "Are you even listening to yourself? You backed down to some peacock of a human without even making an effort to fight back!"

A hot reply lept to her lips, and it took a massive amount of willpower to keep them shut. If this had been a private argument she wouldn't have hesitated to ask what the hell his problem was... but it wasn't.

Blake was standing awkwardly behind Adam, her ears flat against her skull as her eyes flicked between the two as each spoke. Still, if she'd been the only one Illia wouldn't have held back though she may have tried to refrain from going too far... but Perry and the dozen or so faunus who'd departed Vale with them were also present.

Which is the only reason I'm putting up with this.

It hadn't taken their small party very long to reach Mountain Glenn, where they'd found Adam and a few people from the western cells already present and gearing up for an operation of their own. Which had struck her as fairly ideal timing, since that would give Adam the options of taking a few recruits with while leaving others to help defend the camp, breaking them in slowly.

Those forward thinking thoughts hadn't lasted long. Tukson had apparently been able to get a message out after tall, detailing what had happened in Vale, because Adam had confronted her before they'd even had a chance to set their packs aside.

She'd expected a bit of disappointment, maybe a little show of Adam's temper, but a public berating in front of the people she'd help recruit hadn't even been on her list of possibilities. Especially since, by any standard she knew of, they'd accomplished a lot since she'd arrived in Vale. To hear him belittling everything they'd done over the last few months because she'd decided that picking a fight with Vale's criminal underground, on top of their ongoing fight with the authorities, wasn't a good idea... it was infuriating.

"This coming after you failed to complete tasks that I assigned to you, tasks that should have been more than simple given your experience and skills." He continued, his anger not abating even as her own steadily grew. "You disappointed me, Ilia. Such a promising start and yet you let our advantage slip through your fingers."

"I believe I did the best I could given the constantly changing objectives." Her voice stayed flat even as her words lashed out. "In three months of work we saw exponential growth in our recruiting efforts, constant media attention on the plight of the faunus, and-"

"You managed one attack a week." A hand slashed the air between them, "One heist a week. And that was after two months were you were lucky to get a mission completed every two weeks! That was not nearly good enough!"

"That's-"

He interrupted her again, "Such standards may have been acceptable in your first month given the state of the Vale cells, but your rate of progress was glacial. Embarrassing. And what's this I hear about you trying to start up some charity? A charity that would even serve humans?"

Ilia's self control slipped for a few seconds, her spots and eyes shifting to a blazing red. Everyone nearby, save for Blake, took a few subtle steps back as if they expected her to throw herself at him. She managed to avoid doing that even as the heat crept into her tones. "That was the original plan I was given."

"The plan was never to cater to humans." He spat back at her, "You're not even denying it."

"Operating support and charity groups was part of the plan." She clenched her fists as she spoke, "If we didn't at least pretend to serve both species we would have only invited a backlash."

"A backlash that we could have used to our advantage!" Adam almost snarled, "You, of all people, saying that! Here I thought that you understood that a different direction was required. That you are my subordinate, that it is your duty to follow my orders. That is something I expect you to do far better moving forwards. Is that understood?"

She started to snarl back, but a bit of motion drew her eyes to Blake. Their friend's expression was terrified, her eyes pleading with her to back down. Ilia half closed her eyes and tightened her fists, but she managed to force an affirmative out. "...yes, Leader Taurus."

From the way his jaw clenched again he didn't care for her tone. Blake noticed and took a hesitant step forwards, touching his arm. The simple gesture seemed to settle him somewhat, his shoulders slowly relaxing as he took deep breaths. Blake took another step forwards, reaching up to lightly touch his cheek, and he gave her a small nod before speaking once more.

"Let us hope you do." He stated before turning to Perry, evidently done with her. "Perry. I've heard good things about your potential from everyone in the Vale cell. What's your evaluation of the situation in the capital?"

The canine faunus nervously adjusted his glasses, shifting his weight back and forth in discomfort. "Uhm... our p-progress was a little slower than I'd have liked, but it was very steady. We never had any setbacks or even any serious injuries! After last year that's something like a miracle."

"Wounds are inevitable in war." Adam countered, "It sounds like you're avoiding saying your leader was overcautious."

"She... is." Perry gave her a guilty look, then seemed to rally himself and more words came out in a rush. "But... I understand why she is, sir. When she arrived our cell was in bad shape, morale was at rock bottom. Injuries or arrests, or the gods forbid deaths, might have broken us entirely. We could barely scrounge up ten people for a raid. Maybe it was slow and steady, and maybe that wasn't what I wanted personally, but... I think it might have been what we needed."

Adam regarded the man, then turned his attention back to Ilia and nodded once. "Well, I suppose you excelled at instilling loyalty. Was the situation that bad?"

Ilia pressed her lips into a thin line, eyes and freckles remaining red. It was fight not to ask if he'd even bothered to read her reports, but once more she kept her self control and even managed to not sound like she was snarling when she spoke. "It was."

"I see." Adam said after a few silent moments. A few more tense seconds passed before he shook his head and turned back to Perry and the other transfers from Vale. "Well I suppose you all didn't come out here simply to watch me berate a huntress for not going far enough. Come on, lets get you all sorted out and get you fed. Blake, please finish debriefing Ilia, I'll be there when I'm finished."

Blake didn't waste any time in stepping forwards and taking Ilia by the arm. It definitely wasn't the best look all things considered, to be pulled away like that, but since she was basically holding on to her self control by her fingertips it was probably for the best. The younger woman led her through the underground camp until they reached what had been a ruined storefront the last time Ilia had been there.

It had gotten some work done since then, and was evidently serving as Adam's living quarters-slash-command center. The various broken walls had been patched up, while the shattered windows had been replaced with cloth and tarp. What had been the shopping area was now filled with tables, maps, charts, and there a large desk whose surface was covered in stacks of paperwork.

Her companion led her past those and through a doorway into the backrooms. An employee rest area from the faded signs was now a small kitchen and living space, and Blake quickly ushered to to a seat next to a plywood table before bustling over to start making tea.

"What the hell was that?" Ilia demanded when it became clear that Blake wasn't going to speak first. "Did he not even read any of my fucking reports!? And why did he feel the need to do all of that in front of my recruits!?"

"He's... we've been busy. Very busy. And stressed." Her hands hesitated, then resumed their work. "He's under a lot of pressure, with leading everything. And... well, things didn't go well out west."

She let out a heavy exhalation and tried to get everything back to its normal shades. Listening to Blake make excuses for Adam humiliating her in front of her own people wasn't exactly what she wanted, but she did need at least some kind of an explanation. Otherwise she probably wouldn't be able to control her temper when he showed his face in here.

And while it might be satisfying to break his nose, he'd very definitely kick her ass after and that wouldn't do anyone any good. Least of all herself.

"We didn't hear much besides the news reports, there wasn't much coverage. Something about the trial ending and everything settling down, so I thought you dealt with all of them just fine. What actually happened?"

Blake closed her eyes and bowed her head as she set a kettle to boiling on a small heating coil. "They covered it up is what happened."

That made her grimace and brace herself, temper fading a little as she focused. "That bad?"

There was a tiny nod though Blake didn't actually turn around to face her. "The trials finished right when we got out there. At first it seemed like it would be just like we thought. They were sentenced for vigilante activity, a small fine each, nothing major. We expected that and it didn't really make us angry so much as it focused everyone. We had our plans and were ready for that. Then..."

Blake shook her head sharply, took a moment, then seemed to force herself to resume speaking. "Then the local sheriff arrested the wife of the dead farmer, and her children. Said they had been affiliated with terrorists. Were accomplices. He used the planted guns as evidence. The huntsman who caught them protested but the judge allowed it. They cuffed them right in the court room, right after they were told they wouldn't get justice."

Ilia stared at her for a few moments, then lowered her head and closed her eyes as well. "Shit."

"We raided the jail that night, just after sunset." The younger woman shook her head once, "We caught one of the deputies... violating her. Adam killed him. I got the children out of another cell, then we made a run for it. Sheriff got the vigilantes together and they all came after us. They pinned us down near a river, but the local cell came out to help us. They attacked the humans from behind, let me get the family to safety and left Adam free to double-back."

"He killed them all." It was more of a statement than a question.

"They did." Blake said with no emphasis on the correction. "I.. I think a few tried to surrender but... it was too much. Everyone was too angry. Adam and a few others went back into town, help the locals pack up everything they needed to come with us as fast as they could. We thought we'd be pursued but only the huntsman caught up to us. Said he'd reported what the judge and sheriff did, that the Council decided to hush it up. Then he let us go, said he'd reveal everything if the Council sent anyone else after us. Told us to get the family to safety and lay low."

"Probably their only option, with all the negativity running around." Ilia murmured, glancing at Blake's hunched form. "That would have been... what, a week or so after Winchester died?"

Blake's shoulders visibly tightened. "...I wanted to ask you about that."

Fuck! Me and my fucking mouth.

"What about it?" She tried for nonchalance but doubted she managed anything close to it.

"...you killed him, didn't you?"

Ilia pursed her lips and looked away from Blake, trying and failing to come up with anything she could say in response. Blake was young, maybe a little naive, definitely had poor taste in romantic partners, but she wasn't stupid. The media had made it blatantly clear that Winchester had been killed by a faunus, and with the Vale cell being what it was... she was really the only person who could have done it.

"Do you really want to know the answer to that, Blake?" She asked quietly.

"Ilia..."

Ilia sucked in a sharp breath and let it out, trying to force her rolling stomach to settle. "He was the one behind that group you dealt with, or at least the one who got them off. I listened to him literally screaming at the headmaster of Beacon that we were animals who should be rounded up and deported. We found emails he sent to other people like him that we wanted an economic blockade of Menagerie. He wanted to starve our city to death. He was evil."

"You murdered him." The words were a quiet whisper.

There wasn't really much she could say to that. Whatever she may have thought about him, however much he had deserved it, at the end of the day she had murdered him in cold blood. She hadn't even warned him, insulted him, anything. Just bang, thump, one living faunus terrorist, one dead racist human.

The kettle whistling saved her from having to respond immediately, the sound knocking Blake out of whatever dark mental space she'd ended up in. Soon enough they were both seated with lightly steaming cups in their hands, both young women sipping the scalding liquid rather than trying to carry on the uncomfortable conversation.

Adam found them in the same tense silence five minutes later, his mask settling onto the table as he sat, his one good eye flicked between them. His voice was low and still tinged with anger when he spoke, his attention words aimed at Blake while his glare settled on Ilia. "What happened?"

"You lied to me." Blake said quietly.

Their leader's back stiffened as the glare upgraded to a scowl. "You told her?"

Ilia glowered right back at him, "Haven't you already accused me of enough today? She guessed and I couldn't exactly deny it."

"You lied to me," Blake repeated, "And you told her not to tell me what you had her do in Vale."

"What Sienna ordered her to do." Adam spread his hands apart, "Blake, he was the one behind the vigilantes. You know that. He wasn't the kind of person we could talk down. Sometimes we have to go that far if we want to make a better world for the faunus."

"But... killing people in cold blood?" Her head shook, "People who fight us, attack us... I mean, that's self defense. But murdering some old man?"

Adam rose from his chair, moving around so that he could kneel beside Blake's. "Love... this is a war. Your parents refused to see it, but Sienna did, just like you and I did. We have to fight or nothing will ever change. Men like Winchester... He wasn't just some old man. He might not have fought us with a sword or a gun, but he fought us with his money, his influence. He was attacking us."

Blake closed her eyes, scrunching them up as though she was trying to shut out the entire world. "I... that doesn't... it doesn't feel right."

"I know." Adam gently rested both of his hands on one of her knees, "I know it's hard. But it's necessary. I'll never ask you to do anything like that. I swear it."

"I..." Yellow eyes opened, a complicated rush of emotions pulling at them before she glanced to one side. Adam quickly reached up and caught her chin, pulling her face back around to look at him while Ilia found her own eyes narrowing a little. "I.."

"Our next mission," Adam spoke over her, firmly but not severely. "Is in the north. An SDC enclosed village with more than a hundred faunus trapped inside. A good mission. A just mission."

"...ok." Blake said quietly, her eyes seemingly focusing on the brand that had ruined her partner's face. "I'll be ready."

He nodded once, leaned up and kissed her for a moment. Ilia started to look away, but found her eyes narrowing further when Blake clearly began to lean in to the kiss just as Adam pulled back. The disappointed expression she held faded when he gave her an almost proud smile, then he returned to his chair, attention turning back to Ilia.

"You'll be coming with us, resuming your post as lead scout." He informed her, voice turning curt. "You and Blake will be in charge of leading us along the route, then you'll be on watch for the Grimm during the actual raid."

Ilia tapped a single finger on the makeshift table. "Will I be berated for merely doing an 'acceptable' job this time as well?"

Adam's one good eye narrowed sharply, then Blake quickly reached out to take his hand. He seemed to squeeze it once, nod slightly, then spoke, "I... apologize for doing that in front of your men. It was... not a good example to set."

As far as apologies went that one was both unexpected yet utterly lacking. She was more than ready to needle him further, only for Blake's other hand to reach out and grab onto one of hers. A glance saw their eyes meet, and not for the first time Ilia felt her heart skip a beat before she quickly looked away.

"I... apology accepted." She managed to mumble out. "Just do it in private next time, or work it out in a spar between the three of us or something."

While he didn't look terribly thrilled at her words himself, or maybe it was just a bit of possessiveness over how she'd reacted to Blake, he kept his own words conciliatory. "That would probably be better, yes."

Ilia nodded and sipped some tea, Blake giving her hand a final squeeze before letting go. Her hand immediately felt colder, and she self-consciously brought it to cradle her warm cup as well. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning." Adam straightened a little, looking glad for the return to businesses. "We have a few vehicles now, donated or brought with from the western villages. Should only take us a few days to reach the northern coast and the SDC camp. Like I said, you and Blake will be in the front in an open car. Once we get closer you'll go ahead to ensure the path is clear."

"No others with us?" She asked.

"No." His head shook once, "I unlocked a few auras, and we picked up a half-trained recruit last week, but I need them here, training. We'll take one team of your city dwellers with us. Banesaw will be responsible for whipping the rest into shape."

Ilia blinked. "Who?"

"Grey." Blake rolled her eyes, "One of the reports we got from Sienna called him that, apparently it's the SDC's new code-name for him. He liked it so much he's telling everyone to use it instead of his actual name."

"Oh gods." She groaned. "He would."

Adam smirked at her, "It's certainly better than Trix"

She blinked again, "What?"

Color rose up in Blake's cheeks while Adam's grin grew, "Your code-name. You fight with a whip and like to wear leather, but the full title was a bit long so they shortened it down to Trix."

Ilia needed a second before her mouth fell open, "You can't be serious! Blake, tell me this bastard is lying!"

"Well..."

Adam started cackling, and for one afternoon... they were all friends again. Joking, laughing, teasing, eating together. But every time her eyes met Adam's... Ilia knew that things had changed. That something had come between them. That the laughter and jokes were more for Blake's sake than theirs, that Blake was the only reason they'd even attempted to apologize to one another. Tried to put the display of Adam's temper behind them.

But... it wasn't that far behind them, and Ilia felt certain that things would get worse before they got better.

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