A/N: Hope everyone's doing well. I wanted to explore the politics of Faunus issues a bit in a setting closer to our own in this chapter, as well as start up a few significant issues within team RWBY, so enjoy an actionless, but hopefully still enjoyable, chapter!

"Qrow said the docks. This is the docks," Sun insists, turning to glare at his team, who are in various stages of mutiny.

"Yeah, but the heroes here don't just stay at the docks all night. We should be actively searching for them, dumbass!"

"Neptune, bro, you're the best, but you literally can't find your way out of a paper bag. Getting lost in Vale isn't going to help us."

"I agree with Neptune," Scarlet comments, sitting down primly on a crate. "Sitting here at the docks won't help us."

"Sage, come on. You agree with me that this is dumb, right?"

Sage nods slowly, which earns him a look of disgust and a swat from Scarlet.

"Since when do you agree with Sun?" he groans.

"Okay, guys, chill. We'll just commit a few crimes to find a hero."

Upon seeing the looks of horror on his teammates' faces, Sun backpedals hastily.

"That was a joke, obviously! For now, we'll just get some food and head to the roofs."

…

"Another spate of White Fang attacks," Taiyang says, tossing a newspaper onto the team's improvised meeting table. "And Ruby, I really don't think it's going to be possible to control metal biomechanically with that level of finesse, sweetheart. But I do encourage you to try."

"Thanks, Dad," Ruby says. "Do you need anything?"

"Am I not allowed to come down here just to see my girls?"

"Dad, you never come down here," Yang says, dodging Weiss's next flailing punch. "If it's to coach the newbies, that's great, but we can probably handle this."

Taiyang ignores her and wheels closer to the practice floor, then addresses Weiss.

"Yang's got you throwing punches, relying on brute strength, which just isn't going to work for your body type. Try elegance; pretend you're a dancer, then fight."

Weiss nods, then does an experimental twirl. Yang blocks a flailing sword with one gauntlet, then throws a punch that Weiss blocks, for once. It's a deliberately slow punch, telegraphed from a mile away, but Weiss did manage to block it, which is a step in the right direction.

"You're doing great!" Ruby shouts.

Weiss turns to give Ruby a glare, casually blocking another punch with one hand, then turns back to Yang and begins to fight. The third punch knocks her flat, but that's two more punches than Weiss has managed to handle so far.

"Not bad," Yang says, helping Weiss to her feet. "Take a minute to grab some water."

She heads to the table and scans through the newspaper, then scowls and tosses it back down.

"Great, more crackdowns in Atlas. The only thing that does is push criminals into Mantle, where we have to deal with them, and then they expect us to show up and deal with serious threats anyway. Unbelievable."

"While the methods of Atlas may be extreme, they work," Weiss says curtly. "White Fang activity is at a three-year low."

"Atlas didn't solve anything by throwing half its Faunus population in prison," Blake says, looking up from her weapon as she finishes reassembling it. "They're causing more unrest; there are protests already."

Weiss gives a snort of disbelief.

"The White Fang are not genuine advocates for change to the Faunus condition. They're petty criminals coopting a cause for their own selfish gain."

Blake's hand slams into the table hard enough to make Weiss jump and give a little squeak of shock.

"You think we aren't fighting for our rights?" Blake snarls.

We?

Come to think of it, Ruby's never seen Blake without her hood up.

Blake pushes the hood back now, revealing two black-furred ears. Kind of adorable, although that's not really the point here. She walks out onto the roof, Ruby hastily standing up to follow her, and jumps off into the darkness, landing as a faint blur on the ground and rushing away.

Following Blake is pointless and pretty much impossible now, so Ruby heads back in to break up whatever fight Yang and Weiss get into.

"How utterly irresponsible could you be, to allow a White Fang operative onto the team?" Weiss shouts, turning to wave her hands in Ruby's face for good measure. "She's probably heading back to her gang, to tell them about your location, and now we're all going to die!"

"Weiss, breathe," Ruby says, taking her hands and pushing her into a chair. "Blake might be a White Fang operative, but it's unlikely. She helped against Torchwick before joining the team, and we know Torchwick is working with the White Fang. Plus, she couldn't have been specifically planted as an operative, since we just recruited her randomly."

Ruby and the heroes might not have much on their side, but they can count on each other, and Blake would never betray them like that.

"Since Torchwick's working with the White Fang, the entire recruitment could have been a setup," Weiss says stubbornly. "And I refuse to trust White Fang operatives, 'former' or not."

Weiss will come around eventually, if Ruby and Yang both take Blake's side in this and try to bring her back to the team. That's how this kind of thing always works.

Yang frowns, sitting across from Weiss.

"Ruby, I want to believe you, I really do, but – what if we can't trust her? What if she really is White Fang, or is willing to sell out to them? What if I –"

Yang buries her face in her hands, and Ruby hurries over to give her a hug.

"Yang, whatever happens, none of it was your fault. Blake's actions are hers, and you can't be blamed for it," she says, smiling reassuringly.

"Ruby, I know you're trying to help, but it's not working," Yang says, sighing. She stands up. "I'll go on patrol. You two have fun."

She walks out, leaving Ruby and Weiss alone. Ruby ignores Weiss to check the computer banks. Blake's earpiece is showing a catastrophic error message, meaning she probably shot it to keep the team from tracking her. Yang is headed into Sector 14, currently territory of a Mafia family, although you can never tell which one with all the power struggles. She'll be fine out there.

"Weiss, we're patrolling. Head to Sector 35, then work east."

Sector 35 is a quiet suburb free of anything resembling crime, so it's a great way to deal with Weiss for the time being. Ruby needs to do a bit of searching, and Weiss is the last person she needs around for that.

One monitor blinks to life, displaying Pyrrha's worried face.

"Blake just lost all connections, but there was no report of an attack. What's going on over there?"

"Blake might possibly be a spy, but she probably isn't, and she'll be back soon, don't worry!" Ruby says hastily. "We're heading out to patrol now, but I'll explain everything later!"

"Wait –"

Ruby ends the connection and begins jogging down to ground level. She needs a head start if she's going to have any chance of finding Torchwick. Tracking rogue aircraft is surprisingly difficult when the Atlesian government is trying to hush up all traces of it.

…

It's been two days, and Sun's team are starting to get mutinous again, and, honestly, Sun would be inclined to agree and head back to Vacuo, but Qrow was pretty insistent that his nieces needed help, so they're still in Vale, poking around the rooftops and trying to find a hero.

Sun hops to the next roof and scans the area. Still nothing. At this rate he is seriously considering committing a crime or two to get the attention of a hero.

Turns out he doesn't need to. There's a faint flicker of black, darker than the shadows, in his peripheral vision, and he turns. The person is dressed head to toe in black, face hooded, and with a suspiciously bulky appendage hanging from their belt, all pretty clear signs of a hero. The fact that they're fifty feet in the air is also a hint.

"Hey," Sun says, leaning against a wall in an attempt to be casual and nonthreatening. "Are you Ruby Rose?"

…

All Blake wanted was a chance to get away from her teammates. A chance to restart her life yet again, in yet another place where no-one knows her name. Live without a cause to fight for, for once in her life.

"Are you Ruby Rose?" the newcomer asks, leaning against the wall in an obvious attempt to show off his abs. Ugh. Bleached blond hair, unbuttoned shirt and board shorts on a fairly chilly night, broad grin. In short, he looks like an asshole.

Blake is debating simply leaving. This guy is Ruby's problem, not hers, and she is under no obligation whatsoever to help him.

His grin shrinks, and a tail she didn't see before twitches. He looks at the ground.

"Sorry to bother you," he says. "I'll leave you alone to brood, or fight crime, or whatever it is you were doing."

"Why are you looking for Ruby?" Blake asks. He brightens instantly.

"You do know her! Qrow sent us, since he said his nieces are in a lot of trouble, and can use all the help they can get, and we kind of volunteered, since Vale seems like a nice place this time of year. So if you could point me in their direction, that would be great."

"Where are you from?" Blake still isn't going to trust him easily, and she might as well get what information she can.

"Vacuo."

That explains the choice of attire.

"I'm Sun Wukong," the blond says, extending one hand. Blake doesn't take it. "My team are here; I can call them and let them know we found a hero."

"I'm not a hero," Blake says, brushing past him and starting to walk away.

"But you know Ruby, and you know Qrow, and, look, I'm just trying to help someone out here –"

Blake ignores him.

She's been an idiot this whole time. Dressing up, playing soldiers, pretending to be a hero. It doesn't matter whether she was fighting for the White Fang or for the superheroes, because she never was fighting for good. She was fighting for a boss who saw her as a means to a selfish end. And she thought she was a hero for it.