Merendinoemiliano –In my version of Remnant Blake is 15/16 at this time and was 18/19 during the first term at Beacon. Adam is four or five years older. It may be that some of my attitudes are impacted by coming from Europe as the age of consent is 16 in the UK and in terms of social attitudes and the likelihood of prosecution some leeway was given if the other person was between 16 and 22. Her and Adam's is not a relationship people are meant to feel comfortable with, but my head canon is that they waited until she was fifteen before intensifying the relationship. Julie is at this time an outlier among Blake's friends in finding the relationship abusive. The rest are still pretending that all is fine or making allowances for his past and the stress of leadership. Thinking too closely about the situation in the original series is not recommended.

It was two months after the raid on the Rising Sun mine. Winter was in her office at the base and was preparing a first draft of her hand-over notes. She was returning to Atlas in a month's time to serve as General Ironwood's senior aide and special representative. It had been made clear to her that this was an effective promotion. She would be involved in the most crucial decisions for Atlas and would frequently be representing the Atlas military in discussions with Vale and Mistral. Immediately after her appointment she would be going to Vale with the General for an in depth briefing from Professor Ozpin.

The political fallout in Atlas of the events in vacuo since she had arrived there nearly a year ago had been huge and had resulted in General Ironwood's position being secured. The multi-kingdoms had eventually struck a deal whereby they effectively gave up their council seat and accepted a significant increase in the level of funding they provided to the military in exchange for loans on favourable terms to fund the increase in security costs in their mines and factories. There had also been an increase in business taxation. There would be no more direct payments by the multi-kingdoms to officers, but salaries had been increased to reflect the additional danger of working in Vacuo.

The council seat given up by the multi-kingdoms was reallocated to Mantle and that decision had been popular there. Campion kept his seat on the council, but the electorate for his seat had been extended to include the multi-kingdoms. However, voting was weighted so that the old aristocracy had a significant majority of the votes. She supposed the aim was to ensure that the aristocrats always proposed a consensus candidate

There had been a clear out of the local heads of the multi-kingdoms. In general, this involved replacing long established risk taking Mistralian nationals with cautious company men from Atlas. Umber Raddock had survived and even prospered although he was avoiding meeting the other local heads for the time being. His role in the recent changes was resented by the others. It was strongly rumoured that for keeping the SDC out of the assassination attempt he would be promoted to the main board at the next AGM and be relocated to Atlas. This had even survived the White Fang drip feeding the contents of Beige's lap scroll to the Vale press. The SDC had shrugged it off by saying that their practices were in accordance with the law at the time. Arnold Beige was still alive, and she suspected would be used as a bargaining piece for a prisoner swap down the line.

The relationship with her father was strained, but she was permitted to meet with Weiss when she was on leave. It had been made clear that when she returned the meetings would be monthly only. Winter had decided that she would make the most of the meetings in instructing Weiss to be the best she could be.

There had been a few concessions to the multi-kingdoms. The fines for previous breaches of the rules in Vacuo had been suspended and in due course waived provided that the rules were complied with in the future. The inspectorate had been brought under military control although this had resulted in another trade-off. Major Magenta was today being promoted to full colonel but would remain as second in command in Vacuo. Colonel White would be replaced by a colonel from Atlas who was known to be more sympathetic to the multi-kingdoms.

Colonel Noir was an irascible officer who was sensitive to being slighted but had ability. It was clear that he was seen as a damage limitation appointment by the multi-kingdoms who were betting on the pressure on them would relax in a year's or so time and that he would be more open to arguments that the rules needed to be interpreted more flexibly. Still Magenta claimed to be optimistic that he could work with Noir and besides which he and Colonel White had been busy making the changes he wanted to make in advance of Noir's arrival.

Noir, General Ironwood, and the Ace-Ops had flown in today for the signing of a revised agreement with Shade Academy and what passed for a government in Vacuo. This dealt with the increased number of troops and bases which Atlas would be allowed to have in Vacuo. In addition, Noir was to be briefed by Magenta and to be introduced to the officers and the embassy people. He had brought with him the four officers he had been allowed to choose for himself who would start their service in Vacuo immediately. The Colonel would then have three days at the embassy being briefed by the ambassador and his staff. He would then return to Atlas for a week and a half for the induction process which was given to all officers taking over an independent command and then return to Vacuo to fully get up to speed before he started. This evening there would be a dance reception at the embassy to celebrate the new treaty and to welcome Colonel Noir.

Currently Noir was meeting with Ironwood and Magenta to iron out some off the chain of command issues and the objectives which Ironwood wanted to prioritise. Colonel White would then introduce him to the officers who would be serving under him and then everyone would prepare for the reception. Security would be tight, but there was not expected to be any trouble. The invitees to the receptions included the new heads of the multi-kingdoms, local dignitaries and their families as well as the ambassadors and senior diplomats from the embassies and consulates. Umber Raddock had been invited, but had declined although his expected successor would be attending. To her irritation Qrow Branwen would be there representing Beacon. Irritatingly he had been the only person who seemed to have been able to track down how the White Fang had made their escape. He had confirmed that Adam Taurus had reported to the main base in Mistral. He had reported that the White Fang had some sort of understanding with the Branwen tribe which was led by his sister. Certainly, she had warned him off and told him to leave. She supposed that it made sense. Mutual tolerance was better than doing the work of the Mistral government and fighting each other.

There was a knock on her door which she recognised. "Come in, Colonel,"

The newly promoted Colonel walked in and smiled at her. "General Ironwood is finishing off with Colonel Noir. He asked me to tell you that he would join you when he has finished. It is possible that this will take some time."

Winter raised an eyebrow, "Sir?"

"The General is taking a rather closer and detailed interest in Vacuo than either me or Colonel Noir were expecting and was making his priorities clear."

Winter nodded. When she had arrived in Vacuo, White and Magenta had both been used to being left to their own devices. "Colonel, I am right in assuming that these priorities largely reflect your recommendations last month."

"That is fair to say. By the way, it appears that our new Lieutenant has got on the wrong side of Colonel Noir already."

"I am sorry to hear that. What did Lieutenant Corkran do?"

"The colonel feels he was duped into treating him as a social equal. He refused to believe that the accent is for real and was very reluctant to take my word for it. I do not think it helped when General Ironwood referred him to his briefing notes and pointed out that the cap covering his ears was official uniform."

She said "Perhaps it will not be a problem. I understand that Lieutenant Corkran is confident that his plan to persuade the White Fang to recruit him will have borne fruit by the time Colonel White retires."

"Do you know what the plan is?"

"No. All he will say is that is that General Ironwood has approved it and that it is best for no one else to know about it."

/-/

General Ironwood was talking to Theodore and Rumpole while keeping an eye on Colonel Noir. The man was not happy. Ironwood did not blame him for that. He was no doubt feeling that he would be commanding officer in name only. His predecessor and his new subordinate had implemented changes in the last two months and had negotiated the new agreement with Vacuo without any input from Noir. It also been made clear to him that he was expected to follow a strategy devised by his second in command and blessed by the Atlas Council and Ironwood. Ironwood had deliberately upped the stress by spelling out that the reports from specialist Ebi and Captain Schnee had led him to realise that he had underestimated Magenta. Noir was a believer in a smart turnout and having an army consisting wholly of citizens. He had not appreciated been told that guides would now be recruited from the Mohawk tribe without them being required to shave their hair. It had then been spelt out to him that the agreement with Vacuo required that 50% of the increase in troops in Vacuo should be made up of local auxiliaries. The fact that it was made clear to him that Ironwood expected him and Magenta to be seen to be doing their best to make such initiatives work merely darkened his mood and telling them that Magenta had already appointed one Mohawk guide to replace a local who had been given a commission threatened to induce apoplexy.

In a few days' time Noir would calm down and work out a strategy to improve his position, but for the moment he was feeling bereft of power. If he lasted out the first six months he would have more control over the officers assigned to Vacuo and establish ties of loyalty to him. He would also be able to work out that the way forward with the multi-kingdoms would be to encourage them to identify plausible issues with the rules and start amending them.

In a world without Salem, Ironwood would have agreed with Noir on most things. However, in order to combat the Grimm, Atlas (including Mantle) needed to be united. The Faunus needed to feel that if their children worked hard they had a god chance of being better off than their parents and the humans had to feel that the system was not prejudiced against them. This also meant clamping down on those who would exaggerate problems for their own political ends.

For the moment there was plenty of low hanging fruit to pick. Lieutenant Amin had already passed on a recommendation for two youngsters from Mantle who fought as a team. One was a roller blading Cat Faunus and the other was a human who had an unusual semblance. The scout he had sent to report on them said that they both had the talent to be compete at the Vytal Festival but queried how good a fit they were at Atlas. He had decided that the symbolism of having non-traditional students was worth a little hassle. Certainly, the investment in Marrow Amin had been worthwhile as applications to Atlas from Faunus were up 25% since he first appeared at the Vytal Festival and among Faunus with highly visible animal features up 50%.

In relation to the human supremacists, the Atlas Bureau of Investigation had discredited some of them by leaking details of their extra-curricular activities to the press. This evidence had arisen in the course of enquiries into criminal activity, but it was surprising what level of criminal activity supporters would tolerate. However, a human supremacist frequenting some of the exotic Faunus bars in Mistral did the trick. Outsourcing the investigations to Little Miss Malachite had been money well spent. The more obviously violent ones were now mostly under arrest. The downplaying of what had happened at the mine had reduce the level of spontaneous fury and the surveillance cameras had allowed the Ace -Ops to arrest the rabble rousers at an early stage. Clearly at some stage they would become more organised, but for the time being he could stop them from making trouble.

The White Fang were more difficult. Not knowing who the members were meant that it was hard to identify whom to target. Too much hassling of the Faunus rights campaigners risked pushing them towards the extremes. Also, the fact that the White Fang had escalated matters meant more attacks were inevitable. For the moment, the line that the Rising Sun attack had been carried out by non Atlesians had held. However, it was only a question of time before a real attack in Atlas or Mantle took place. Security checks on flights from Mantle to Atlas had been accepted, but the numbers were such that it was possible to screen all travellers. In Mantle itself it would not be possible to avoid being self-evidently seen to be profiling Faunus and that risked leading to civil disobedience. As it was, on a more or less daily basis bull Faunus were reported to the police as being Adam Taurus. Unfortunately, Ozpin had not told him about Salem before Ironwood had become headmaster and he had only done so after the Belladonnas had been humiliated. Otherwise, he might have used a slightly different strategy to ensure that he was appointed as headmaster.

Ironwood recognised that he was an extremist himself. He would do anything to defend Atlas and that meant that he ended up sanctioning activities which would be found morally reprehensible by most people and applauded by others for the wrong reasons. He had no fundamental objection to improving the lot of Faunus provided that he could keep Atlas and Mantle peaceful. Eliminating the extremists on both sides and softening the elites' attitudes to making concessions was what he was aiming for.

There was a curious compromise at diplomatic events in Vacuo in light of sensitivities since the Great War. Dress uniforms were not worn, but insignia of rank were worn on dinner jackets. Technically they were all in uniform, even though it was easy to forget the fact. Ironwood felt odd wearing a dinner jacket, but it was also clear that Noir felt the same way. There was a small orchestra and dance music was being played, although as yet no one was dancing. This had the advantage of allowing conversations to have a veneer of privacy. Traditionally garrisons would arrange regular dances for the officers to get to know the locals better and he had hinted to Lieutenant Beamish that dancing with the wives and daughters of the main guests was part of his duties thie evening.

Noir was currently speaking to the local heads of the multi-kingdoms. He was being accompanied by the major he had been allowed to bring with him and by Magenta. The latter was doing his best to be supportive, but oddly enough that was not helping Noir's state of mind. Perhaps he was worried that Magenta was being condescending or would prove to be a more subtle politician than he had anticipated. Accusing a man of undermining you when he shows respect in public and simply obeys orders bears its own risks.

Still, he was no doubt reassuring the local heads that he understood their problems. However, Ironwood noticed that the man was distracted by something. He followed Noir's eyes and saw that Lieutenants Amin, Beamish and Corkran had introduced themselves to Noir's three chosen lieutenants.

The Lynx Faunus was being attentive to a young lieutenant who was known to be a particular protégé of Noir's. The relationship had raised eyebrows but so far he had no reason to suspect Noir of breaching the rules on relationships with junior officers. Still, he was clearly put out by the fact that the young lieutenant was responding with amused interest to the conversation.

The Lynx Faunus went to speak to the band and returned to the group. He spoke to the young lieutenant who laughed and accompanied him on to the dance floor. The band started playing a song and the two started to dance. Both of them were excellent dancers and were clearly enjoying themselves. Without touching each other they were giving an excellent imitation of flirting with each other. Noir downed the drink in his hand and took another one from a passing tray. At the end of the dance, there was a round of applause from the audience while Qrow Branwen whistled appreciatively.

Beamish. Amin and the other two lieutenants invited some of the other guest to dance and joined the paid on the dance floor. At the same time Parsifal Campion invited Winter to dance. Ironwood smiled to himself. The young Faunus had managed to rile Noir while at the same time having a good defence in that they were simply as good hosts breaking the ice and encouraging people to dance. Indeed, he could be said to have obeyed orders.

He watched Qrow Branwen approach Noir and Magenta. He was quite certain that Qrow would not resist the temptation to pour oil on troubled waters and light a match. The fact that he had asked Qrow not to tease Colonel Noir who was a traditional Atlas officer guaranteed it..

/-/

Marrow had never enjoyed these types of events at Atlas, but he was finding out that going to them with two extroverts was actually fun. Beamish had introduced him and Leslie to the three lieutenants who Noir had brought with him. They seemed happy to be distracted and knew Beamish socially in any event.

Beamish said "The band is rather good. It is a pity that no one is dancing."

Corkran replied, "Surely it is our duty as junior officers to make certain a party is a party."

Beamish said, "The General did tell me that I should encourage my fellow junior officers to fraternise with the Vacuoans. Gallantry is part of our contribution to good relations."

Marrow had said, "When I was at school, it always took about an hour for anyone to get on the dance floor. Although they looked foolish, it did break the ice."

Corkran said, "We have a quandary. As Atlas officers we must not look foolish, but it is our duty to make this party a party."

The Female lieutenant who Beamish had called Uma laughed and said, "I am a good enough dancer not to look foolish, but we also have to worry about decorum. I cannot imagine that the General would be happy to see any of us pawing each other in isolation."

Another Lieutenant called Jim said, "The colonel certainly would not be happy to see anyone pawing you."

Corkran said, "Uma, do you know "Never can tell?" If I ask the band to play it, we can dance t' that without touching, have some fun and encourage others t' join in. The rest of you can then invite the bored ladies t' dance and then we will no longer be conspicuous."

Uma laughed and said, "Sounds good to me, but I doubt you are in my league on the dance floor."

"I accept the challenge."

He watched Corkran talk to the band leader and then return. Corkran gave a thumbs up sign to Uma and the two of them strode onto the dance floor. Corkran nodded to the leader of the band and when the music started to play the two jokingly competed with each other in extravagant dancing.

Jim said to them, "I think they have broken the ice. Time for us to do our duty."

They each invited young ladies who were eager to dance to join them on the dance floor. Some others joined them although the sight of Parsifal Campion and Winter dancing together was odd. The older man was a natural dancer while Winter was technically correct but restrained.

During the next dance Marrow barely heard an angry voice and turned his head to see Colonel Noir talking to Corkran. The Lynx Faunus nodded and walked off the dance floor towards the diplomatic tables followed by Noir. For the moment only he and the cultural attaché from Menagerie had noticed the interaction. Marrow felt anxious. An Atlesian Colonel deliberately choosing to talk to a junior lieutenant who was a Faunus and a Vacuoan citizen was unlikely to be a meeting where mutual admiration would be to the fore. He looked around, but Captain Schnee was still dancing cautiously with Campion. Noir's major was glancing over with a frown on his face, but then Ironwood spoke to him, and the man turned to answer the General.

He heard a cough from behind him and turned to see Uma. "How tactful is your friend? she asked with a worried look on her face.

He started to answer and then stopped. He saw that Corkran's ears had flattened which was not a good sign for feline Faunus of any description. "I suspect we are about to find out. He definitely is not humble."

Uma headed in the direction of the Noir's Major while Marrow tried to listen to the conversation. He instinctively felt that the use of the phrase "with all due respect" with the emphasis on the word "due" was not a good sign. He moved towards Captain Schnee and Ambassador Campion and directed their attention towards the discussion. The ambassador said, "My skillset I think" and started moving towards the pair.

With horribly apt timing the band finished the current tune so that more people than Marrow heard the Colonel announcing, "Lieutenant, if you have been educated in Atlas or come from a decent family you would have known that your conduct was inappropriate for an officer."

"With all due respect sir, myself and Lieutenant Yellow were commended by Ambassador Campion…"

"I do not care what he says, the man has no proper sense of morality." At this point Noir's major excused himself from speaking to Ironwood and rushed towards Noir.

"Sir, I have done nothing inappropriate this evening. If, for example, I had accused two other officers of immoral behaviour, insulted a member of the Atlas diplomatic corps…."

"I will not be condescended to by the bastard son of a prostitute." The major stopped in his tracks as he realised that

"Sir, at least my father was man enough t' acknowledge me."

The colonel slapped Corkran in the face at that point. Ironwood, the major, Captain Schnee all moved quickly at this point but were not in time to prevent the whole room hearing the response.

Corkran shrugged and said, "Are you challenging me t' a duel, sir? Or are you a coward who hides behind his rank when abusing junior officers."

The Colonel started to move his hand to his gun but at that point General Ironwood intervened.

/-/

The next day Winter interviewed Corkran before he was sent to Vale.

She said, "I am told I have to formally reprimand you for insolence to a superior officer. You can appeal this, and I and Colonel Magenta will back you."

"Am I really that good an actor? Actually, it would help if you complained publicly about being forced to discipline me."

"Was that all planned yesterday." Winter was annoyed that as soon as she had asked the question she knew what the answer was. She was then even more irritated to find that it was more complicated.

"Never underestimate General Ironwood's ruthlessness. He set things up so that Colonel Noir had a desperate need t' kick down. Neither of us expected him t' hit me until a few minutes before it happened. It was only then that I realised that Lieutenant Yellow could be his daughter and he believes that she is."

"How much had you pre-planned?"

"I had worked out that a Vacuoan bastard Faunus dancing with his protégé would make him do something stupid. I was expecting it t' be confined t' insulting my mother and I had been working that calling him a coward hiding behind his rank would cause him t' say something unforgiveable. I had expected him t' forget that despite wearing dinner jackets we were both technically in uniform. We had not planned on Qrow Branwen suggesting t' him that me and Lieutenant Yellow would shortly be tripping the light fantastic. It was only when I was dancing with her that I clocked the eyes and forehead resemblance. By the way, she and the other two lieutenants seem good people and I would suggest you recommend t' Colonel Magenta that he keeps them on."

Winter looked at the Lynx Faunus and wondered what had made him so matter of fact.

He continued, "For the record only you, General Ironwood, Colonel Magenta and Lieutenant Amin know that I am going undercover. I anticipate that you will be my primary contact and then when it is time t' roll up the Atlas wing of the White Fang you will be the person I will inform."

She stared at him and said, "I know for myself that I am on the right side. Why are you fighting on my side?"

"I am fighting for a complicated mixture of what I believe t' be right and my own self-interest. It happens for the moment t' coincide with your side. This is part of the reason why the White Fang will accept me."

"Did your father acknowledge you?"

"It matters t' no one alive but me. It was the line best designed t' make Colonel Noir feel ashamed and punch me. That and the side glance towards her."

/-/

A week later In Vale, Julie had been called in to talk with her control in the Vale White Fang. She said "Tukson, could this not have waited until book club night?"

The Puma Faunus said, "Sorry, but head office thinks this man is of interest and that you are the best person to recruit him."

"I do hate euphemisms. I assume they are assuming that if I grab him where they expect, his heart and mind will follow. Sorry, not your fault or call."

"Apart from noting that you are not bad at euphemisms yourself, he is apparently someone you have met before."

He passed over a photograph which she looked at. "Well, hello salty hotness. Politically however, I would not touch him. He is an admittedly atypical Vacuoan who does not think there is a difference worth arguing about between human and Faunus and has happily worked for Atlas for years."

"Last week an Atlas colonel punched him in the face and called him a bastard son of a whore. It was in public and in Vacuo, so the Colonel was allowed to resign on the grounds of ill-health on a full pension and the Faunus was given a disciplinary reprimand for insolence. As far as our people in Vacuo could work out, his only offence was to dance with a human."

"They think it was his one day?"

"Precisely. Have a look at the transcript."

Julie read it and said "OK, I can see that insulting his mother and his honour may mean that he has been forced to think about the world. However, I have met him, and he did not come over as a person who was easily upset."

"Head Office think that the fact he has been transferred out of Vacuo into a place where his skills are not needed suggests that he can be persuaded that he has been disavowed. Basically, the report you and Ilia made about him suggests he would be a useful recruit and the fact that he can carry off an aristocratic Atlas accent means that we must sound him out."

"I assume from what you are saying that he has been assigned to Vale. Still Vale is a big city, and I can hardly hang round the Atlas embassy waiting for him to appear."

"Apparently the man reads books but does not have a library. He reads a book and part exchanges it for a new book. Eventually, he will turn up at my place and I will recommend the Kit Kat Club to him."

Julie left for the club. In some ways she was enjoying having her cover story being the most important part of her life, On the other hand she worried about Blake not having her and Ilia around to support her.

Three days later she saw the man walk into the club. She had prewarned the manager that this might occur and wandered over into his eyeline. He looked at her and said, "Is that Alison? The weather here is certainly cooler than in Vacuo. Would you like t' share my wine? I am glad this is a place which stings you on the entrance fee but is reasonable on the wine mark ups. Which one do you think is the best value?"

She passed on an honest recommendation and chatted with him for some time. He asked after Ilia (or on the basis of the name given to him, Elinor) saying, "It was mischievous of me t' make Elinor sing in Vacuo. I do suspect you would have enjoyed it a lot more."

She laughed and said "You are probably right. Still, what are you doing here?"

"I have not drunk enough t' discuss that in public. Let us say for the time being that I am open t' a change in career."

They talked, danced, and arranged to meet in two days' time for lunch. Julie sent off a request for instructions from Mistral. She wondered whether every agent always felt that their coded messages seemed designed to attract suspicion, but no one came to kick down her door and she was instructed to offer Corkran a deal.

They met for lunch, but when she started to broach the subject he said, "Let's go for a walk in the botanical gardens after lunch" and then proceeded to flirt with her.

They walked into the botanical gardens. She could not see that anyone was following them apart from the local and incompetent White Fang members. They sat down on a bench and the Lynx Faunus put an arm over her and whispered into her ear, "If you are just interested in me then I am happy t' oblige although I will not let your three friends watch. If you want to discuss other things then do so. The two offers are not mutually exclusive."

She laughed, "Where are these followers?" The laughter was slightly forced as she only had two people protecting her and so was worried by the thought of a third.

"One fifty yards behind me reading a paper on the bench, a second seventy yards in front of us admiring the roses and a third thirty yards away hiding in the bushes. He may just be an opportunistic peeping tom."

She laughed at this and said, "I think you may be right about him." She moved so that their shoulders were touching and held his hand. "What are you doing out of Vacuo?"

"Currently I am on holiday. In a few days I will be told where I am to be posted next."

"You said that you were looking for a new job. Why is that?"

"Various things. I am questioning whether working for Atlas is the right thing for me."

"It is not as though you are working for the multi-kingdoms. From what I have been told the military at least try to be fair."

"I have been lucky enough t' have decent commanding officers so far. However, about a third of the people I work with think that I am inferior t' them and another third are congratulating themselves on how enlightened they are for treating me as almost an equal, it gets a little wearing. Besides which it has been brought home t' me recently that the Atlas military's main mission in Vacuo is t' protect the multi-kingdoms."

He paused, "I always knew that, but had not thought through the full implications. Recent events have brought it home to me how badly most multi-kingdoms treat the Faunus, and the reaction of Atlas was t' smack their wrists and say do not do it again. A few people have been sacked, but the game continues. Besides which last week a senior officer punched me in public just because I danced with a human. The incident was hushed up and he was told t' retire on the grounds of ill-health. Still, he has gone on a full pension and faced no charges for hitting a fellow officer. He was not even required to apologise to me and I was blamed for provoking him." He squeezed her hand and said, "I doubt that he would have been asked t' retire if it had not been for the fact that it suited one faction in the military to have an excuse t' get rid of him. Actually, insulting the Atlesian ambassador and expressing contempt for Vacuoans would probably have been enough."

There was another pause. "Look, you know that I know you belong t' a certain organisation and you know that I work for the Atlas military. You may not know that I was with the squad that was first on the scene at the Rising Sun, and I know the full extent of the cover up. Like many Vacuoans, I had heard the rumours, but actually seeing the conditions brought it home to me. Besides which while I have no proof, I believe that the SDC deliberately killed fifty Faunus that day to avoid embarrassment. I also know that the workers who stayed behind were scared that we would kill them because they were Faunus surrounded by dead humans. I should tell you that some friends of mine died that day who were members of the local security team. They died at the hands of the White Fang, but they died t' honour a contract with a company which has no honour. I want t' revenge my friends and the Faunus who died at that mine."

They talked long into the evening and to her surprise he did not insist on going back to her place. He suggested that they meet again in three days to discuss whether the White Fang was interested in him.

Julie was not certain herself about the lynx Faunus. He felt a little semi-detached to her. Still, he reminded her of Ronald Rouge and she knew that it was possible to be a member of the White Fang without hating humans. Certainly, it was unusual for a member of the White Fang to express the view that Winter Schnee was a decent person. On the other hand, perhaps that meant he was for real. Surely an infiltrator would have been more vehement. Anyway, she knew he outlined the form of the revenge that he proposed to carry out to prove his bona fides that Sienna Khan and Adam Taurus would take the bait. There was no need for her to express a view herself.

Only one more chapter to go, two at most. It has ended up being twice the length I expected and went into some darker themes then I had originally planned. The dance scene is of course taken from Pulp Fiction.