Watched the final How to Train Your Dragon film recently with my brothers and mom. Have to say, the ending was honestly very touching, even got me to tear up just a little – I'm sensitive like that, ha ha ha.

That said, the rest of the movie was pretty… well, wouldn't say rehashed, but it certainly did a lot of similar things to the first two, to the point where it felt like I wasn't really watching the Hidden World. Not necessarily a bad thing, per say, but not exactly good at least from my perspective. And I was also reminded yet again of how much I disliked a few of Hiccup's comrades, who really just irritated me simply by existing.

Also, the villain wasn't anyone too complex, though maybe my standards are just a little too high nowadays for well-written villains. If nothing else, he was semi-effective at what he did.

Ah well, that aside, I'm just counting down the days until DMC5 comes out! Barely a week left, people, and the anticipation is really getting to me now, ha! Plan to get a PS4 Slim and the game itself together when they come out and when that happens, well, I may or may not find myself with less time to write for a while, depends on other life circumstances. I don't' think that it'll impact my writing time that much, but as we all well know, life has a way of surprising us.

So, yeah, just wanted to let you all know in advance in case something does happen.

Whelp, other than that, not too much else needs to be said. Well, no that's technically wrong – a part of me really wants to discuss all the specifics of what I have planned for this, but of course doing so would be spoiling, so I'm left with no choice but to ruthlessly suppress said part of me, much to my own consternation. Ah, times like this where it almost sucks having to take things slow and steady with writing, heh.

Now then, onto the chapter!

Chapter 7

A few more weeks pass by in relative peace. By now, all the first years have adjusted to student life at Beacon, their sense of wonder and awe now pretty much gone. The grand size of the campus and its state-of-the-art facilities can only wow them so much before losing their sense of grandeur.

However, just because the academy itself had lost its grand appeal to the students didn't mean they couldn't find other things to amaze themselves with.

Such as what was currently going on within the various training rooms Beacon had to offer.

It was currently the weekend, meaning it was time for the students to go about their daily lives when not bothered by schoolwork (provided they didn't procrastinate that much in the first place). This meant numerous students of all years heading out into Vale for a day out on the massive city or simply resting in their rooms or the large rec room that the dorms had where students could kick back and relax.

Others, however, which is to say the more studious and committed ones, took to using their free time more proactively, heading to either the training rooms or somewhere open on campus to either train or spar with their friends.

Team JNPR was no exception in this regard, having found a nice large open area within one of the training rooms to conduct their spars.

Said training room was large enough to allow multiple teams to head in there and use it simultaneously and they were hardly the only team there, with primarily other first year teams there to brush up on their own moves and the like.

However, most had forgone their own training in favor of watching what was going on in team JNPR's chosen area.

Namely, they were watching the spar between the leader of team JNPR and his own partner, the Invincible Girl – Pyrrha Nikos.

Both of them were considered something akin to legends amongst their age group, the latter due to her fame gained from Mistral's regional championship and various sponsorship deals that had resulted in her name and face being plastered everywhere whereas the former's shocking display against one Cardin Winchester as well as his behavior in everyday life having earned him much intrigue.

And right now, the two were demonstrating their prowess for all to see.

They stuck primarily to close combat, Jaune utilizing both of his blades against Pyrrha's multi-function weapon and shield.

As the two ducked and weaved and advanced and retreated between their attacks, their onlookers could only describe what they were seeing as something akin to a dance, only somehow far more beautiful despite being so much more deadly of course.

That the two have yet to actually strike one another only seemed to raise the stakes and tension that much more, several quietly betting amongst themselves on who would be the first to land the first direct hit.

Meanwhile, off to the side of the sparring ring was Nora and Ren, who watched closely and also with some sense of awe about them but at the same time far more clinically, studying their teammate's moves closely. Even the normally bubbly and almost truly crazy Nora was quiet and analytical in how she observed her friends fight.

To her, Ren, and everyone else there, the two seemed to be perfectly matched, neither side gaining or giving an inch.

The truth, however, was much different, a truth that Pyrrha realized early on in the spar.

Her partner was truly exceptional and in more ways than one.

"Ha!" she cried out as she swung Milo, expertly shifting it into its javelin form in mid-swing. She intended to use the sudden extension of her weapon to try and force Jaune back, but the blond merely deflected the attack with the side of the blade in his left hand and simultaneously swung forward with his right. Pyrrha was left with no choice but to block with Akouo to avoid being struck.

Even then, the force behind the strike nearly knocked her back. If she hadn't planted her feet so firmly, she really would've been sent flying.

Jaune truly was a force to be reckoned with. In the short time they've bene exchanging blows so far, he's moved with speed so great and struck with strength so great that if not for the subtle use of her semblance upon his blades, she would've already been hit plenty of times. Even then, there's been some truly close calls.

Her semblance of polarity was truly an amazing one, but unless she was willing to really cut loose with it, using it to slow down Jaune in any significant fashion was impossible. That he could still strike so accurately and with such strength and speed even when she attempted to alter the course of his blows was mindboggling.

What's more, she could tell Jaune now knew about her semblance and how she was using it – the small shifts in his expression early on had indicated he'd noticed the first time his blades had started to deviate slightly off course. In response, he'd simply started to swing even harder, making it much more difficult for her to affect his weapons when so much strength was being put into them. It was just ridiculous.

Realizing that if this continued, it'd only be a matter of time until Jaune struck her, Pyrrha was left with no choice but to change things up a bit.

Her competitive spirit awakened within her, she opted to do as much as she could afford to do to try and win this.

She threw Akouo at Jaune as she leapt back, shifting Milo into its rifle form in the process. Jaune had slowed down just a tad bit when he'd ducked under Akouo and was finally forced to slow down just a bit more when she used her semblance to alter her shield's course a bit, making it shift ever closer to the side of Jaune's head.

He smacked it aside with an elbow, however, and sped up once more but by then she'd already started firing multiple shots at her partner.

Jaune's expression, ever so intense, didn't shift in the slightest as the bullets whizzed his way. He merely lashed out with his swords and deflected them all before leaping at her with a shocking burst of speed, much greater than what he's demonstrated in initiation or against Cardin.

The distance she'd opened up now quickly being closed, Pyrrha was forced to gracefully roll to the right to avoid the right swing Jaune unleashed, shifting Milo into its blade form and slashing at Jaune, who countered the swing with his left blade.

Pyrrha could practically hear her own bones rattle as their blades clashed, the force of it causing her to nearly lock up in place. That was when Jaune got a little closer and shifted his grip on his left sword, flipping it so that he held it in a reverse grip and thrust the pommel at Pyrrha's face.

The redhead tilted her head to the side to dodge then proceeded to disengage, moving to the side yet again as Jaune had also reversed his grip on his right blade and did an upwards slice. It would've caught her on her side if she hadn't used the flat side of Milo to guard against it.

Once more, Jaune's strength amazed her, for even though it was but a graze, one that she'd defended against, it still nearly sent her off balance but she managed to correct her footing with just a little extra skip to her steps.

Jaune gave her no chance to retreat this time and followed right after her. It seemed he was already getting used to how she fought and was already predicting ahead a bit.

But could he predict this, she wondered?

Using her semblance for small things was something she could do with ease, with nary a physical move on her part. And having trained with Milo and Akouo for so long in her life has made it especially easy for her to manipulate them without any real effort on her part.

So, with but a thought, she lifted Akouo off the floor and made it rocket back towards her at the speed of a bullet – a path that Jaune happened to be in the way of.

Her shield gained more and more speed, so much so for that just a single millisecond, Pyrrha (along with her audience) genuinely thought it was going to crash right into Jaune's exposed back.

But he must have heard it now whizzing behind him, for with only a mild hum, he suddenly turned in mid-dash and kicked the shield hard enough to send it flying into a wall several yards away, embedding itself in it.

At the same time he'd kicked it, he'd also swung his left blade at an angle. Pyrrha was able to parry it though and promptly slice at Jaune's side. However, he was already turning fully back around to focus on her and twisted to his right to deftly dodge her attack by an inch at best.

His new position put him closer to her, much closer than she'd have preferred (for various reasons) especially since his head was now rather close to her chest.

Whatever embarrassing thoughts suddenly popped into her mind were ignored though when she saw him tense up, ready to deliver what would truly be a massive attack as he raised his arms back.

Acting on instinct, she held out a hand towards him, palm outwards.

To those watching, it probably looked as though she was going to suddenly beg him to stop, but in reality it was just her using her semblance much more forcefully now.

Unleashing the strength of said semblance much more freely now, she pushed back on the blades – and as she did so, it looked as though Jaune's grip on said swords would result in him being dragged back with them too.

Only for that to not happen.

The very instant he seemed to feel the tug, Jaune immediately let go of both his swords – and swung his fist at her.

This action was so sudden and surprising that it was all Pyrrha could do to try blocking with Milo. But she wasn't quite able to get her blade up fully in time and so Jaune's right fist impacted against the side of her right arm.

The blow knocked well out of the large circle that made up the sparring area and actually sent her tumbling along the floor until she nearly crashed into some of the people in another sparring ring meters away.

"U-Ugh…" Pyrrha groaned out. That had hurt. If not for her aura, who knows how bad that could've been.

Speaking of which…

She looked back at the monitor that was above the area she and Jaune had been in, which tracked their aura levels.

With just that one blow, her aura gauge had gone from full down to nearly halfway. To think she'd even remotely guarded against it too.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune called out, no longer looking so intense and serious, as he all but ran like mad up to her. "S-Sorry about that. Are you alright?"

Pyrrha could only smile. "I'm fine," she said as he offered her a hand up, which she gracefully accepted. "I have to say though, you're much stronger than you look. N-Not that you don't look strong, however…" She stuttered out upon realizing that what she could've said might have been somewhat insulting.

Jaune, however, merely smiled in relief. "As long as you're okay. Ah, here." He held up Milo, which had fallen out of her grip during her tumble just now.

Pyrrha accepted her weapon and used her semblance to retrieve Akouo at the same time, though it took a bit of effort to pull it out of the wall. Just how hard had Jaune struck it?

All the while, everyone around them were practically going nuts, whispering to one another in amazement at what they'd just seen.

She, the Invincible Girl, had just lost a spar.

This was something that clearly amazed and even bothered them all a fair bit, but not Pyrrha. If anything, she was pleasantly surprised.

Earlier, she'd asked Jaune for a spar with the simple intention of learning each other's moves so that they could then formulate how best to synchronize their attacks if or when they'd combat against a threat together, a request and reasoning that her partner/leader had readily accepted.

That said, she'd also had in mind the desire to test her strength against his. And needless to say, being on the receiving end of Jaune's blades had certainly been a whole new experience for her.

In the past, many of her opponents had usually specialized in just the one thing, be it strength or speed or technique or maybe a certain form of fighting. It'd been rare when she'd gone up against people that could be considered jacks of all trades in any respect and even when she had, she'd usually been able to overcome them with varying levels of ease due to herself being even more of a jack of all trades and through liberal yet subtle use of her polarity semblance.

However, Jaune put all her past opponents to shame, combining immense strength with equally immense speed and skill. He was also clearly quite experienced, having not been particularly fazed by any of the few elaborate maneuvers she'd performed in the beginning of their spar.

His only 'weakness,' if it could be called that, was his lack of a ranged option.

Yet even then…

"You were holding back, weren't you?" she suddenly commented, albeit quietly so that no one nearby overheard and fanned the flames of their conversation any more.

Jaune winced ever so slightly. "You noticed…? No, I shouldn't be surprised; after all, you're plenty skilled yourself," he mumbled with a small smile. "And yes, I was… sorry." He looked as though he'd committed a wrong.

But unlike most people, Pyrrha merely shook her head, shrugging off his apology. These past few weeks, she's come to learn more about the kind of person her friends were. "You're not the kind of person to do so for no good reason, Jaune. No need to apologize," she said brightly.

"…Thanks for your understanding." He returned her smile with a more grateful one.

Her smile grew a bit, glad to see how much he already seemed to trust her. That aside, however, she'd be lying if she wasn't curious about why he'd held back or how exactly he was doing so.

But forcing answers out of others would achieve nothing but misery and distrust, so she'll leave it be for later. Besides, she'd technically held back too – if this had been a true battle to the end, she could've unleashed the full might of her semblance to tear apart the whole room and use it as a weapon.

That said, she'd be lying if she wasn't extremely curious about how exactly Jaune had been holding back – he'd been pretty intense earlier.

"Aw yeah! Our team rocks!" Nora screamed as she and Ren finally approached them. The auburn-haired girl was looking positively pumped despite having not actually fought herself. "You two were like 'whoosh' and 'slash' and 'bam!' Made me wanna join in with Magnhild!"

Pyrrha and her partner smiled wryly. "Not sure that would've been a good idea; you'd have probably started shooting grenades everywhere."

"Well yeah, wouldn't be much fun otherwise," Nora casually admitted.

"Nora, there wouldn't be much of a training room afterwards if you did that," Ren chastised.

"Bah, plenty more rooms to use!"

"Not sure the professors would appreciate that though."

As always, Nora's and Ren's little banter got a laugh out of Pyrrha. Jaune merely smiled.

Then he spoke. "Well, all things considered, this had been a learning experience for me. I hope the feeling is mutual."

Pyrrha nodded. "It certainly was."

Given how experienced he appeared to be, Pyrrha wasn't too sure about how much her blond friend could've really learned from her, but he didn't seem the type to lie for the sake of appeasing someone's feelings, so she'll take his word for it.

The two of them along with Nora and Ren would've continued their post-sparring discussion and small talk right then and there, but the chatter amongst the rest of the students around them was still ongoing and now it was beginning to be just a bit too much for them to not focus on it.

"Uhm, perhaps we should call it a day and head back?" Jaune proposed.

"Aw, you can't do that fearless leader! I haven't had a crack at you yet!" Nora whined.

He chuckled lightly. "Maybe later, Nora. My views on sparring and competition aside, I'll welcome your challenge anytime."

Nora grinned in response, clearly holding him to that indirect promise already.

Pyrrha giggled at this as they all started to take their leave. As they did so, the redhead discreetly took a whiff of herself and silently resolved to take a shower ASAP – that spar really had worked up a sweat.

Hard to believe it had lasted twenty-five solid minutes. No wonder she was so winded.

However, Jaune's scroll went off. He was receiving a call, from Ruby judging by the picture that popped up on it.

Though they had exchanged contact info with team RWBY over the past few weeks, they never exactly got around to using it due to them all being on campus. So, for Ruby to suddenly call like this… something was up, Pyrrha realized.

Evidently, the rest of her friends thought so too for they all quickly exited the room now and rounded the corner as to have some modicum of privacy.

Jaune then answered the call, his expression serious once again. "Ruby, is something wrong?"

If Pyrrha remembered right, team RWBY had gone out into Vale earlier today… had something happened?

Judging by the way Jaune's eyes narrowed, it seems something has.

"…And that's what happened," Ruby explained, her usually bubbly expression nowhere to be seen. In fact, she looked quite down, something that made Jaune want to immediately console her, though he held back.

"I see," he said instead.

About fifteen minutes ago, Ruby had called him out of the blue to inform him that Blake had run off on them and that they needed help looking for her. So quite naturally, he'd immediately rushed to the nearest bullhead to be taken to Vale, his team having come along with him.

As per Ruby's request, however, they'd first met up at a little corner café in order to be given a rundown of the situation that had led to Blake's running away in the first place. That said café had been some little one with not much in the ways of customers and that the young leader had picked a table furthest away from the bustling street had set off red flags in his mind.

And after what he and his team had just been told, he could see exactly why Ruby had done so.

"T-That's…" Surprisingly, it was Ren who'd stuttered out that one word before trailing off.

Jaune couldn't blame him for doing so.

After all, it wasn't everyday one learns one of their classmates/friends had been a part of the White Fang.

Oh, and hiding her Faunus heritage too, though Jaune had already known that much. Kind of hard not to notice once one knew what to look for.

But of course, this revelation was by no means something minor – the R, W, and Y of team RWBY looked positively crushed.

Ruby looked sad and hurt.

Weiss appeared betrayed and angry.

And Yang, while trying to put up a strong front, was simply lost, what she'd learned having clearly struck her the most.

And the longer Blake remained away from them like this, the more it would hurt them. He tried not to clench his fists too tightly.

This would not stand.

"What direction did she run off in?" he asked, the only one to be speaking now while everyone else, even Nora, sat there in a stunned silence, his team more so than RWY due to the shock being so fresh. "Has she also ever mentioned any parts of Vale she seemed to have taken a liking to?"

There was no time to waste. If they were to find Blake within a reasonable time frame, they'd have to start the search as soon as possible.

During his travels, he hasn't simply fought off Grimm and bandits nor just helped villages and towns with any repairs or construction they'd needed. He'd also gone in search of people that had been missing, albeit on rare occasion.

Nonetheless, he had some measure of experience there. While labeling Blake as 'missing' in the same way as the people he's looked for before would be a stretch, the basics still applied.

First, figure out the direction she took off, determine where if any good locations lied in said direction could serve as hiding spots. And of course, if the person in question also had shown any inclinations towards anywhere in Vale. Personal experience had taught him that people tended to head towards places they were familiar with, places that brought them some sense of comfort.

But even if he knew all this, it wouldn't be easy – Blake, precisely because she was once a member of the White Fang, would likely have had some training and real experience in stealth and espionage and so would try to avoid any locations that may seem too obvious.

Not only that, but Vale was a very big place to search even if they could narrow down the search area. And with Blake's speed and agility, she could easily traverse a fair distance within short periods of time, especially if she was that determined in running off.

That she even ran off in the first place rather than even try to explain herself to them also said something too about her.

But that was for later.

They had to find her first.

Alas, it appeared someone didn't quite share his opinion.

"Why should we know where that traitor went?" Weiss said bitterly, arms folded across her chest. Her entire form, petite as it was, radiated with great anger.

His time out in the frontier had naturally left him out of the loop on recent events regarding the kingdoms and so over the past several weeks, he's tried to catch up, reading online articles dating back days, weeks, months, even years at a steady pace.

Though his grasp of the situation was far from clear just yet, he'd also read up on the animosity between the White Fang and the Schnees, born from anger over Faunus workers' working conditions in the Dust mines and the personal attacks on members of the Schnee family.

That Weiss and Blake ended up on the same team was truly a one-in-a-million kind of chance – a Schnee and a former White Fang member being anywhere near each other on peaceful terms would've truly boggled the minds of anyone who could ever learn of this.

He could only imagine how Weiss must be taking this.

Alas, now was not a time for this.

"Weiss," he began. "I can barely imagine what you must be feeling right now… but now is not the time for this."

The serious, even strict, tone of his voice was enough to make her head snap in his direction, the heiress shocked by his words.

This wasn't something exclusive to just her; the others looked just as taken aback by him too.

He ignored their gazes and continued. "Right now, your teammate and friend is out there, on the run – not just from you, but from herself too. The longer she continues to run, the further away she continues to get, the more harm she's doing to not just you but to herself." He made sure to look Ruby, Weiss, and Yang in the eyes as he said this. "You all want closure on this mess of a situation, but that's not going to happen if you all don't try."

There was a tense silence right after he finished speaking. Not even his own teammates seemed willing to say anything else.

No matter. He was willing to wait this out for now.

He didn't have to wait long.

"From herself, eh?" Yang muttered, the blonde looking confused by that. "What do you mean by that?"

"…Blake, regardless of whatever secrets she has, simply isn't the kind of person to so eagerly run off," he started to explain. "Not without any regret, that is. I highly doubt the White Fang would've let her leave so simply, meaning she must have run away from them. But rather than run back to wherever she may have come from or to somewhere where she could live in solitude, she chose to come to Beacon instead. She wouldn't have done that without some kind of reason."

Indeed. He'd known not her circumstances when he first saw her the night before initiation, but she'd struck him as someone with a goal beyond simply becoming a huntress, a goal that he'd practically felt the determination to achieve radiating off her. Just because she evidently didn't have much of a clue on how to achieve said goal didn't diminish that drive of hers.

This was something he could sympathize with, for he was the same in that regard. It was because of this that he found himself rather unphased by the fact she'd once been a White Fang member.

She may have committed criminal acts during her time with the group, but her current actions indicated to him now in hindsight that she clearly regretted it all. Why else would she seem to have come to Beacon for a clean slate?

Whatever she may have done had likely been truly horrible, but it was also in the past now, forever set in stone therefore unchangeable. What mattered now was the present and the future.

If she sought some form of redemption, then he'd no reason to be so wary and doubtful of her like the others currently were. Certainly, such a path would long and arduous, but the sins of the past shouldn't forever brand her as 'evil.'

It was more than just actions – past, present, and future – that mattered to him. Intent, also past, present and future, held great significance to him too.

And more than that…

"In the end, she needs help, just as you do," he muttered. "It's only natural for me to provide it to the best of my ability."

Though he'd uttered those words quietly, more to himself than anyone else, it seemed the others heard him nonetheless, for they were struck truly speechless.

But only for a moment.

"U-Uhm!" Ruby started, standing up as tall as she could. Which wasn't to say very much, but there was no denying the sudden resolve in her silver eyes. "Blake ran off in that direction – deeper into Vale's shopping district. And about your other question, uh, well… Blake likes fish a lot?"

Jaune locked eyes with his fellow leader and nodded in thanks. "…Alright," he said after a second.

Like he'd expected, it really wasn't much to work with, but it was better than absolutely nothing. He and his team at least had an area with which to look in and since it didn't seem as if any member of team RWBY were very familiar with Vale, that likely ruled out Blake heading to any specific places.

But fish, hmm? If by that, Ruby meant that Blake loved eating fish – definitely a possibility; Faunus, though some try to deny it, tend to have taste buds associated with the animal traits they have for some reason – then it was possible that Blake may head to some seafood place for comfort food if nothing else.

Jaune stood up. Though he himself was scarcely aware of it, he had a small smile on his face. "In that case, we should get started already. Come on, guys, let's go. We'll do a sweep of the west side of the shopping district. The north side too."

He was already turning to leave, his teammates sitting there with looks of surprise and fluster about them.

"A-Ah, w-wait just a moment, Jaune!" Pyrrha called out as she hastily got out of her seat, with Nora and Ren swiftly following.

He obliged his friend by doing just that – waiting a moment, that is. This also gave him the time to look back at team RWY to see them still seated there, looking more than a little shocked by how sudden hos actions must have been.

He quirked an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to get started on looking too?"

His words jolted them into standing up, though not into leaving just yet.

"I…" Weiss began, only to stop, the heiress at a loss for words.

Yang, however, wasn't. "Just how can you roll with this so well?" she asked, not hiding her disbelief one bit. "Hell, you already have a plan!"

"Like I said," he replied. "You'll never have answers and closure if you don't try. Your feelings about her are clearly conflicted right now… and that'll never change unless you find her and sort this all out."

Yet another moment of silence passes by as they seem to digest his words.

Then…

"Come on, Weiss, Yang," Ruby said, the girl now sporting a softly determined expression. But the small yet hopeful smile on her face served to highlight said resolve even more. "We got a runaway to find."

"…Heh, you got that right, sis," Yang said, her normally large grin returning.

Weiss huffed. "Fine. It wouldn't do to let her get away without a stern talking-to anyways."

Ruby's smile grew with each word. "Go on ahead, guys," she said to Jaune and his team. "We'll take the south and east sides of the district. After that, we should call and figure out what to do afterwards. Unless one of us find her first."

Jaune nodded. "Got it."

He then glanced towards his own friends and saw similar expressions of resolve now on their faces. Though not quite as close to Blake as the runaway's own team was to her, they still considered the Faunus a good friend.

They may have been just as shocked and hurt to learn of Blake's prior time as part of the White Fang, but now they looked just as determined to get answers from the girl herself about all this.

With all of them now on the same page, team JNPR strode out to begin their search.

It's been a few hours since she'd gone into Vale with her team, meaning it's been a few hours since, in a moment of thoughtless anger, she'd revealed one of her greatest secrets.

And that in turn meant it's been a few hours since she's run off from her own team… the shame and regret gnawed at Blake like crazy.

To think the day had started off so well too.

It'd just been like any other day so far, waking up and having a little fun trying to see who can get into the bathroom to freshen up first, followed then by yet another light-hearted breakfast before heading out into Vale.

It'd been meant to be just like any other outing, though with the added 'benefit' of checking out the students that were to already be arriving in long preparation for getting used to Beacon before the Vytal Festival began. This was, of course, Weiss' idea, the girl always looking for a leg up on someone if it meant getting the best possible result.

But then, it all had taken a sudden turn when they'd come across the police sectioning off the outside of a Dust shop… that had apparently been raided by the White Fang.

That one little thing had been all that was needed to spark an argument between her and Weiss. The latter, as expected of a Schnee, had labelled the White Fang a bunch of criminal degenerates and had even hinted at all Faunus being the same. Blake, naturally, had opposed this – the White Fang, though misguided, were not criminals like Weiss, the spoiled heiress, proclaimed them to be.

Blake stopped her thoughts right there and sighed.

"I… I need to stop thinking like that," she murmured.

Just because she was a Schnee didn't necessarily make Weiss a bad person like she'd once naively believed. The white-haired girl may be uppity, spoiled, and stuck-up in general, but she had a handful of genuinely positive traits to her too as she's come to learn during these past few weeks. And she was clearly getting better at a steady pace, her partnership with Ruby doing wonders for her.

However, Blake simply couldn't stand the way the W of the team had so quickly and vehemently condemned the White Fang, so much so that it had been during that argument that she'd made the truly horrible mistake of revealing she'd once been a part of the group.

And what did she do in that moment of horrified silence thereafter? Did she steel herself and explain things? No, she ran, just as she'd done before from the White Fang… and from Adam.

Now here she was, having wandered a fair distance away from where her team – if she could even call them that anymore – had been, scroll turned off and slinking amongst the shadows in the back alleys.

Said alleys were quite dirty but considering all the missions she'd been on for the White Fang, she was used to it.

Just what was she to do now? To think too that she'd found herself growing genuinely fond of team RWBY since their formation. Her friendship with Yang had grown close especially since that time in Forever Falls. And now here she is repaying that kindness with just dashing off.

She sighed yet again. "Now what?"

"Mmmmaaayyyybe hang out with me?"

She nearly leapt out of her skin when she heard that voice, then spun around, shifting into a combat stance. It wasn't until her hand started going to her waist that she realized she'd left Gambol Shroud back in her rocket locker.

A rookie mistake, being without a weapon like that.

But a forgivable one, considering who the person now hopping off the roof of the nearby building was.

"You're that guy…" Blake said with narrowed eyes.

There, now standing before her, was the monkey Faunus that she and her team and encountered earlier when checking out the ships docking – a stowaway.

And she could see the tanned blond hadn't bothered buttoning up his shirt since then.

"Yep! That's me!" he said chipperly.

"Are you following me?" Blake asked aggressively.

The blond didn't immediately respond, which was pretty damning for him. "…Kinda?" Blake prepared to attack him with her bare hands if need be. Seeing this, he held up his hands placatingly. "Whoa, easy there! I just – uh, well… okay yeah, don't have much of good excuse for that."

"Try anyways," she growled out. If need be, she could switch on her scroll just long enough to summon her weapons. She'd just have to hold out long enough to do so.

"W-Well, you just seemed like an interesting person is all. Plus, we Faunus got to look out for another from time to time, right?"

"You could tell?"

"Uh, yeah? I mean, did you really think your bow was gonna completely cover your ears and their twitching?"

Blake's eyes twitched at that. Had it really been that obvious?

If this guy noticed her annoyance, he ignored it and continued. "Well, anyways, I'd still been in the area avoiding the cops when I saw you run off, so-!"

"So you stalked after me." Blake's finishing of his sentence had been markedly flat.

The guy clearly couldn't come up with a good comeback to that, so his shoulders sagged. "Okay, you got me there. I just thought you looked like a cool, interesting girl. And again, sometimes we sort of have to stick together and – w-wait, hey!"

Blake had simply huffed and turned around, already walking away from this stalker of hers. "I'd much prefer to be alone."

"Aw come one, don't be that way! Holding it all inside isn't gonna help!" he said as he lightly jogged after her.

He had a point, but she wasn't going to admit to it that easily. "I'll be the judge of that."

The guy caught up with her, his monkey tail swishing behind him lightly. "Then at least let me just hang out with you. I, uh, kind of came here to Vale ahead of my team so I don't really have anywhere to go or do on my own until then…"

Blake glanced his way without slowing her stride. Peering into his eyes, she deduced that he didn't seem to have any malicious intention.

Thus, all she could do was sigh yet again. "Do what you want, just don't pester me so much."

The guy smiled brightly. "Alright! By the way, name's Sun, Sun Wukong! And you're…?"

"…Blake," she said.

"Blake… that's an awesome name," the guy – Sun – commented, with that same dopey smile. Was this guy going to try flirting with her now? She hoped not; she really wasn't in the mood.

But this guy clearly didn't seem intent on leaving her side anytime soon. Or shutting up when she really just wanted to keep sulking.

"Man, let me tell you, Blake, it was hard as hell sneaking aboard that ship! Nearly got busted just getting on it and had a lot of close calls while on it too. I dunno if it's because ship security is just getting that much stricter now or if it's because of the Dust shipments that'll be coming in soo- whoa!"

Blake, upon hearing his little story, suddenly stopped and was now almost up in his face, her eyes wide with shock and a little something else.

Sun blushed like crazy at the sudden closeness and sort of stumbled back, but Blake paid this no mind at all.

"Say that again," she demanded.

"Uh…" Sun was looking pretty awkward now. "About nearly getting bus-?

"No, not that! What you just started mentioning at the end!"

"O-Oh, you mean the Dust stuff?" Sun asked, only to balk a bit at Blake's now annoyed expression. "Ah, well it was just something I overheard here and there on the ship. I guess some huge Dust shipment from the SDC is coming in tomorrow or something. I guess all the attacks the White Fang – that you were a part of too, right? Sorry, kind of lied earlier, did follow you and your team and overheard the whole argument and- w-wait, don't hit me!"

"Will you stay on track?!" Blake said, her normally solid grasp on her temper fading rapidly. Today really just wasn't a good day for her. Having a guy that had now evidently been stalking her since the beginning really wasn't helping her.

"Okay, okay!" Sun all but pleaded for mercy before she could even get physical in the first place. "Anyways, I guess with the feud the SDC has going on with the White Fang and the Dust robberies that had been going on here in Vale, the SDC pulled some strings and was able to get security really amped up – docks are to be cleared of people except for authorized personnel to handle the shipment offloading or something. Also, I guess any other ships that were heading to Vale before or near the same time as the shipment were to be thoroughly inspected in case the White Fang tried pulling some totally new stunts to attack SDC property."

As Sun rambled on about this, Blake felt whatever tension and sadness she'd been feeling quickly disappear.

This… this right here could be the answer!

Everyone, especially Weiss, believed the White Fang to be the ones behind the recent string of Dust robberies she's heard about. She believed otherwise, for there was just no way the group would ever sink that low. For all their faults, they still had standards, right? Right?

In which case, all she had to do was get proof that it wasn't the White Fang doing these robberies. And what better way of proving it than to show them not going after such a big target?

Her spirits lifting ever so lightly, Blake felt something akin to a plan forming in her mind. She looked to Sun. "You said the shipment would be coming in tomorrow?"

"More or less, yeah."

Blake stared ahead blankly.

It was roughly half a minute before a small yet hopeful smile blossomed onto her face.

Little did she know, this smile, combined with her own natural beauty, bewitched Sun who could only stand there silently and dumbly.

This may not get her back into RWBY's good graces… but if nothing else, it'll show that the White Fang isn't as bad as Weiss and others like her believe them to be.

That alone would be good enough.

I'm fully aware Blake's train of thought there is horribly naïve and is a good example of insane troll logic to an extent but do keep in mind that she thought along the same lines in the show itself. Granted, in the show, heading to the docks and watching over the shipment was more for her own personal vindication than anything else, but it was to also potentially rub it in Weiss' face back then too, or at least that's how it came across to me when I watched it back then.

Hope it makes sense to you.

Also, you'll notice that things are happening just a bit more quickly than in canon. Again, I fiddled with the timeline just a bit in order to speed things up. As I once stated before, pretty much the entirety of volume 1 was just set-up for them fully blossoming into team RWBY (with debatable results in my opinion), with the dock incident more of a slight indicator of Cinder's plans during volumes 2 and 3.

Since there's no sense in dragging it out any longer than the show did, I just felt it best to bump it up by a day, especially since we've all bore witness to the same general series of events playing out in numerous fics anyways.

What matters to me in situations like this is having a brief but poignant glimpse at how the characters feel and interact before moving onto the figurative meat of the fic, so to speak. Again, hope this makes sense and is to your liking, fellow readers.

Besides, if you'll allow my brutal honesty, I'm much more interested in getting to the original content planned for this fic and not the rehash of events from canon, no matter what sort of spin I put on it, ha ha.

Until next time, everyone. Take care! Hope you'll look forward to what'll happen next!