Epilogue – One Year Later
"Sister Belladonna?"
Blake closed her eyes and took a deep breath, fighting down the urge to snarl at the person who'd dragged her out of her book and back into reality.
Cold, depressing, disappointing reality.
"Yes?" Setting aside The Man with Two Souls, she turned to look at the man who'd cautiously poked his head into her tent. "What is it?"
"May I come in, sister?"
Another urge to sigh was ruthlessly suppressed. No matter how tiring she found it, she was Adam's partner, his second in command. She had to appear cool and collected at all times. He harped on it constantly.
Her left hand rose in a single motion, "Of course."
The man slipped inside, bowing his head and bringing a fist into his open palm. Blake merely waved again, dismissing the salute. "What is it, brother? Has Adam returned from Mountain Glenn?"
"Not yet, sister. He sent a message indicating he will return tomorrow." He held out a folded envelope. "He orders you to be ready for an operation that day. A mixed train will be carrying a significant SDC shipment."
Joy.
She'd been enjoying Adam's absence more than she should have for a young woman separated from her lover. Then again, she wasn't sure how much love she had left to give anymore. Or how much Adam's spiteful heart had to give. Things had... gone so wrong over the last year. Few years really, even if she'd been slow to realize what was happening.
One of his words made her frown, shaking her head a little as she focused. "A mixed train? You mean differing cargoes?"
He hesitated, "Passengers and freight. Our contact on the coast thinks it's to dissuade us from attacking, that we won't risk civilian casualties."
They clearly don't know Adam then...
"I see."
The envelop was extended towards her, "Orders, ma'am."
"Set it on the table." She said tiredly, leaning back in her seat. "Did he indicate what teams will be accompanying us."
"No ma'am." More hesitation. "Ma'am, I was ordered to make sure that you personally took the envelope."
That made her blink and then frown, taking a closer look at the operative in front of her. He was very tense for a messenger. Sweating even. He'd yet to meet her eyes either. A glance at his head and another at his body didn't reveal his faunus trait, and she didn't recognize his voice.
A hand slid under the table, her fingers wrapping around Gambol Shroud's hilt. "Name yourself, brother."
"Brother White, ma'am. Recently transferred from the Vale City Cell."
Even the mention of the city made her heart clench unpleasantly. "...why were you transferred, Brother?"
His throat worked as he swallowed, the mask not hiding his pale features. "I was... part of Leader Tukson's support cell. I decided to remain with the White Fang when he vanished last month, and Leader Perry thought my logistical skills would be of more use out here."
Ah. That certainly explained the nerves. Adam and Perry were both insisting that Tukson had been killed, that he'd finally gotten caught by the police while organizing charities. But... she didn't buy that. Tukson had been good. Very, very good.
But he'd also been very, very disliked within the White Fang. He'd never made a secret of the fact that he didn't like Adam, or that he positively loathed Perry. Anyone who worked for him would be tainted by association even if they'd shown loyalty by remaining with the White Fang.
"When was the last time you saw Tukson?"
If it was possible his nerves got worse. "I was already debriefed by Huntsman Banesaw, ma'am."
That gave his nerves even more of a reason to exist. Banesaw was a terrific warrior, and completely useless when it came to anything else. He was the kind of man that thought that fear and anger were the only motivations that mattered.
It made him useless at interrogating people. So long as they acted like they were scared of him Banesaw would walk away convinced they were too cowardly to lie.
Her voice lowered, "When was the last time you saw Tukson?"
The man didn't quite whimper but it was close. The envelope shook in his hand as he raised it a bit higher, "Please, Sister Belladonna."
She frowned at him. Why was the envelope with Adam's orders so important? For that matter, why were they even in an envelope? They should have just been printed out... and the verbal ones he'd relayed were already enough for her.
Unless...
"Open it."
"I'm not-" He made a strangled sound when her hand emerged with her weapon, not quite aiming it at him. Trembling fingers promptly started ripping at the paper, tilting it so that she could see inside.
The aura she'd begun to call up in case it was an explosive faded as she saw a routine letter...
...and a small data drive.
"I was to give it you, and to ensure you alone knew of it." He whispered. "It... it's about Leader Amitola."
Her heart clenched again. "Don't ever say her name again."
White flinched. "Please, ma'am. I'm just doing as I was told. My... last orders from a man I respected on behalf of our last true leader."
Blake's mouth was dry and she struggled not to point her weapon at him. Ilia...
She'd done everything she could to push Ilia out of her mind. Out of her memories. To stop waking up from nightmares of screaming at Ilia for being jealous, then turning to see her corpse laying before her. Of waking up with the crippling guilt of knowing that her best friend was dead. That the last time they'd talked she had... she had...
"You..." Gambol Shroud came to rest on the table as she set it beside her book. "...you knew her?"
"...yes ma'am." His voice remained low, almost inaudible. "She... turned our cell around. She made sure our priority was always on the faunus of the city. Since she vanished... it's all gone wrong."
"Since she died." Blake corrected harshly. "Since a Huntsman killed her and dumped her body in the river."
White swallowed and took a half-step forwards, holding the envelope out. "I know what I said, ma'am. Please. The drive will explain it."
Blake nearly picked up her weapon again, and truthfully she wasn't sure how she managed to snatch the envelope instead. "You will wait outside until I've reviewed it. Don't think about going anywhere until I call for you."
He jerked his head in a terrified nod, gave her another salute, and then fled... revealing a dog tail curled between his legs in fear as he did.
She waited until he was outside before rising, tossing the envelope and Adam's instructions aside as she walked to their working desk. The lap-scroll there was hardly new but it worked well enough, and it didn't take her more than a few seconds to plug in the drive and boot it up.
There were three files inside with instructive labels; Read Me First, Watch Me Second, Read Me Third.
Two taps opened up the first file.
Sit down before you watch the attached video. It is unpleasant. Have a bucket. Do not allow anyone else to see it. Be sure to read the third file. Destroy this disk when you are done and remove the files from your viewing history. B. Tukson.
Blake clenched her jaw, dragged a chair over, and sat. Then she fired up the video file, frowning when security footage began to play. The camera was an stationary one, focused on a broad sidewalk between a warehouse and a river. For a full minute there wasn't anything, and she began to wonder what the point of this even was.
Then a figure in street clothes staggered into view at the bottom of the screen.
Her hand flew to her mouth when she realized that she knew that ponytail. The slim but sturdy body. The same one she'd seen in too many terrible dreams.
Ilia... this...
Ilia was in bad shape. Staggering as she tried to run, clearly wounded on one side. The fact that she was visible at all on camera meant her semblance wasn't up, her aura probably depleted.
Is this... Anger surged up, replacing the horror. This is how she died. That bastard! That son of a bitch sent me-
Her mental train sputtered to a halt and died when Ilia's pursuers came into view.
They weren't huntsman.
They...
...they...
Five figures in White Fang uniforms came running after her, closely followed by... by Adam.
Blake tried to pause the video. Tried to stop it. All she did was slap the side of the machine in a flailing motion, forcing her to watch when Ilia reached the corner and someone drove a thin object into her.
Forced to watch as Ilia staggered back, grainy hands on her stomach as another man lazily stalked after her.
Forced to watch as light glinted off a sword, off glasses.
Forced to watch as Ilia fell into the dark water.
And then... and then it got worse.
One of the figures in uniform turned to Adam, pointing at the water. Their other arm was waving wildly. She could imagine the shouting that must have been happening. The demands to explain what had just happened.
Adam's sword flickered.
The man died.
The others tried to run. They met the other man at the end of the alley. Swords rose and fell. More bodies were pushed into the water.
Then two men walked out of sight, walking beside one another.
The video cut out after that.
Blake was throwing up on the ground a second later, some functional part of her brain noting that she should have grabbed a bucket like the file had said.
It... he couldn't have...
Couldn't it? A treacherous voice whispered in the back of her mind. He was in Vale then. Said he was there to help after she died. Said that several recruits died trying to help him get Ilia's body back.
She heaved some more. Bile and bits of her lunch coming out, splattering onto the dirt.
He's not the same young man you loved. That same voice went on, ruthlessly telling her every fact that she'd spent the last several months hiding from. Everything she'd known but refused to face. Every reason she'd buried herself in trashy books and fake worlds. He hated Ilia. You know he sent Trifa on that mission hoping she'd be injured. Sent home. Unable to spy on him for Sienna. Unable to find out what happened to Ilia.
Blake gasped for breath, trying to get enough saliva to spit out the taste in her mouth.
The worst thing wasn't that she'd just watched her lover help murder her best friend. Watched him kill their own people for witnessing it.
The worst part... was that she didn't doubt the video for a moment. Didn't consider it might be fake for more than a moment before dismissing the idea.
Adam... she'd read some of his plans, his orders. The ones he tried to hide from her, tried to cover up. She knew that he paid Humans to put up anti-faunus propaganda in Vale. That he'd told Banesaw that he wanted no prisoners during a raid on a lumber camp that she'd been kept away from. That Sienna had pulled all support for him, for the Vale Cell. A last effort to reign his increasingly reckless actions in.
Once she'd have defended him. Refused to see it. Refused to accept it.
Once... when she'd thought Adam had loved her.
He doesn't anymore. You're just a possession to him. Something to control. Something to please him when he feels the need. When was the last time he cared about your comfort? The last time he showed you real affection?
She couldn't remember anymore.
And Ilia tried to tell you.
The sound that came out wasn't quite a sob or another heave, but it had elements of both. After a few more shaky breaths she managed to turn back to the machine and select the third file, opening it on her second attempt to do so.
The White Fang is broken beyond repair. I pray that you see this. 1174 West Steel Street, Apartment 476. Day Twelve, Month Four. If you are not there I will be vanishing before I am Vanished. The train seems ideal.
Blake stared at the tiny words... and began planning.
And there's the story. Hopefully everyone enjoyed this unconventional approach to a RWBY story. I'm still debating if I will start Champion in Exile or not, maybe after I finish my next novel. That will technically be a sequel to this story though you shouldn't need to have read SWFM to understand it. If I do it will be written entirely in advance in order to avoid a long hiatus like this story and Student of Vacuo suffered from.
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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