As Yang helplessly watches as her partner runs off into the night, she quickly clenches her fist as her lavender eyes turn a burning dark red. The blonde quickly whips around and grabs Weiss by her top of her dress before lifting the rich girl off her feet into the air with both hands, the heiress' legs dangling helplessly in the air as she does so and her eyes filling with disbelief. "What the hell's wrong with you!?", Yang shouts as she violently slams the girl into the nearby wall, trying to knock some sense into her, but her light blue aura protects her from the drywall.
"Yang! Calm down! You're going to hurt her!", Sapphire exclaims as she and Ruby try to pry Weiss free from Yang's steel grip as she holds the heiress against the cracked wall.
Weiss, though in a disadvantageous situation, fires back, "What's wrong with me!? Are you really going to defend her after what she just admitted to!? She's a member of the WHITE FANG! She's the enemy!"
"She's our team-mate! Stop treating her like she's a criminal!", Yang growls as her grip only tightens on the girl.
Furious at the blonde for her ignorance, Weiss bites back, shouting, "Are you really that ignorant or are you just stupid!? She admitted to everyone in this room she's a member of the White Fang! They're a terrorist organization, Yang! TERRORISTS! They ARE criminals!"
"If she was really in the White Fang, she would've killed your ass a long time ago, Princess! She wouldn't have been dumb enough to say something like that if she was trying to assassinate you!", Yang fires back, her eyes still burning with rage.
Reginald puts a finger to his chin and mutters to himself, "Maybe she was trying to get closer to the Schnee family? Maybe eliminate them all at once?"
Ash only shakes his head no at this however, countering the silver boy's claim as he says, "Doubtful, such an attempt on a high profile person would more than likely fail. Especially if they have as much security as the Schnee family is said to have."
Weiss quickly adds, "What do you mean 'doubtful?' It already happened! One of my uncles was assassinated by his wife's favorite servant."
"You mean slaves.", Persi quickly corrects her, with a slight glare aimed at the heiress.
The ice queen only glares back at the Faunus before replying with, "No, servants, they're paid a healthy, livable wage. In my opinion, they're paid far more than they should, considering our past relations with their kind."
"Their kind? You see, this is why people hate you! This is why you piss so many people off! You're such a fucking thick headed, ignorant little bitch!", Yang exclaims as she goes to slam Weiss back into the wall, but Sapphire and Ruby finally manage to pry the girl free from Yang's grip just in time to save her.
As Ruby pulls Weiss away from the rampaging blonde, Yang lunges for the Schnee again, but Sapphire manages to hold her back, holding her friend by her waist as she tugs with all her might to keep her from going any further.
"I knew you were a filthy Faunus lover, but I didn't take you for a criminal too, Yang. Sympathizing with her is just as good as letting her escape and return to her little friends in the White Fang to plot my death. We have to tell the Headmaster about this!", Weiss retorts as she moves for the door.
As Sapphire struggles to hold the enraged Yang back, Yang fires back, "Oh, you'd love that, wouldn't you? For everyone to just get down on their knees and praise you for finding one of those 'filthy Faunus' you go on about! In the end people only see them like that because people like you forced them into this life!"
"I didn't force them to do anything! They chose to be criminals! They chose to steal! They chose to kill people! I didn't do any of that!", Weiss fires back as she grabs her Myrtenaster.
Persi glares at her blade before asking, "And what do you plan on doing with that? Just gonna report her to the Headmaster then hunt her down like a dog?"
"You just stay out of this! I don't need one of your kind messing with my affairs.", Weiss coldly replies as she heads for the door. She's stopped however as Ruby grabs her hand and pulls her back into the middle of the room. Weiss quickly slaps the little red girl's hand away before exclaiming, "Unhand me, you dunce!"
"Weiss, we need to at least hear Blake's side of the story.", Ruby begs, but Weiss isn't having any of that.
The icy girl quickly turns away and heads for the door, but Reginald stops her as he says, "How exactly are you planning on getting a meeting with the Headmaster?"
"Excuse me?", the heiress growls, taking offense from his comment.
The boy simply chuckles to himself before opening his scroll to reveal how late it is. "It's past eleven, so the Headmaster already left his office for the night. So there's no possible way for you to go meet him without breaking curfew and knocking on his front door.", Reginald mockingly notes as he closes his scroll and returns it to his pocket, causing the girl to growl in frustration.
Weiss turns her back to him with a huff before saying, "I didn't expect you of all people to be a Faunus lover too, Reginald, considering your position."
"I never said anything of the sort.", Reginald coldly replies, earning a confused look from everyone in the room as Weiss' eyes are left with confusion clouding them.
Reginald crosses his arms and in a surprisingly serious tone tells them all, "If there's a chance that the White Fang are here in Vale and they've infiltrated Beacon's defenses, the school could be in serious danger. Not to mention the possibility of her having allies disguised as other students. This could be very dangerous. We'll have to report this to the Headmaster in the morning as soon as his office opens up."
A smile comes across the white-haired girl's face as her confidence returns and she fixes her posture to be more dominate. "Finally, someone with a little common sense. With your position in the STG and my family name, I'm certain that even Headmaster Ozpin will have to listen to us.", Weiss confidently notes before placing her rapier on her bed. Tired and ready for bed, Weiss undoes her ponytail as she heads into the bathroom and says, "I think I'll take a shower now, don't bug me." As her long hair falls down the length of her back, she slams the door behind her, only causing Yang to growl even more.
Sapphire finally lets go of Yang as her eyes finally turn back to their natural lilac and she seems to calm down. "Morning huh?", Yang mutters to herself as she catches her breath, earning a raised eyebrow from the other girls.
"Yang, what are you-", Ruby begins to ask before Yang starts marching to the front door as she says, "If that's all the time I have, then I have to start looking for her right now!"
As she goes for the door, much to her surprise, Ash blocks her path with his sheathed Dragoon. "Ash, move! I have to-", she begins to say as she reaches out to grab him, but he quickly knocks her hand away with his sheath as he draws his sword on her. She suddenly finds herself pinned against the wall with the boy's blade to her throat as everyone moves to stop him.
"Your movements are sluggish, your eyes are hazy, and overall...you're useless as you are now. For all the time we've practiced together, you should've been able to react on instinct to that slower draw and easily parried it, but you barely even saw it coming in time to put up your aura. If you go out now looking for her, you'll only be wasting your time.", Ash bluntly explains to the blonde as he holds his blade against her throat. The swordsman quickly pulls his blade back before sheathing it away, causing the blonde to only growl in both rage and frustration.
"Then what would you do!? Just sit here and meditate!?", Yang growls back at the boy, but Ash isn't phased in the slightest.
"Based on her fighting style and how she moves, Blake is a well trained individual, White Fang or not. She likely knows exactly how to hide her trail if she needs to, so going in such a poor condition when your visibility is already limited is only foolish. Besides, I doubt growing up on Patch helped you learn how to track prey too well.", Ash continues as he walks away from the girl, only infuriating her further. He opens the door to the kitchen and says, "For now, get some rest. We'll move out in the morning. Tomorrow should be Saturday, so we won't have to deal with classes, and we'll be able to leave immediately before Weiss can meet with the Headmaster."
"We?", Yang mutters as she looks up at the boy with a confused glance, to which Ash looks back at her and replies with, "Of course, I have plenty of training with tracking prey from my training back home. I couldn't just let you go out there wandering endlessly until you found her, could I?"
Yang's rage quickly changes to a slight smile as she hears this and as he goes to take his leave, she says, "Thanks Ash.", to which he replies, "Don't worry, that's what friends do, correct? Or at least, that's what I've been told."
"Yeah, I'll contact team CFVY in the morning too! We'll go out and find her one way or another!", Persi quickly replies as they begin to formulate a plan.
Yang quickly nods in response before jumping up to her feet and adding, "Yeah, with Fox's heightened senses and Velvet's adorableness, there's no way we can miss any information on where Blake went."
Sapphire lets out a slight chuckle before noting, "Well, that was a thing." She turns her attention over to Ruby, who seems to be drowning in worry. "Ruby, are you...alright?", Sapphire quietly asks her, to which the child nods.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm just worried, but we'll deal with that tomorrow, right? We need to rest up so we can go bring Blake back.", Ruby quickly replies as she walks over to her dresser to get her night clothes. Sapphire nods and mutters to herself, "I just hope she's okay."
As the final airship of the night lands at the Vale docking station and its doors open, Blake and Sun walk out into the empty city. Blake, with her bow back on her head, starts walking off without Sun at first, to which the boy rushes to catch up to her, desperately shouting, "Hey! Wait up!"
When the monkey boy finally catches up to her, Blake only tells him, "I don't know who you are, but I'd like it if you stopped following me."
"Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. Guess I got a little caught up in the fact that you're a-", the boy begins to say before a stern glare from Blake shuts him up. He nervously smiles to her and finishes, correcting his path and saying, "-you're such a fun loving person! My name's Sun, Sun Wukong."
Blake ignores his gesture and simply keeps walking, much to his dismay. Sun, however, isn't willing to give up so easily and tries to keep the conversation going, asking, "So, what's your name?"
"None of your business.", Blake sternly replies as she keeps walking away, trying to leave him behind like she did her team.
Sun seems slightly hurt by this as he reels back with a hand over his heart, but keeps trying to break down Blake's walls as he says, "Come on, could you at least tell me why you're running away?"
This causes Blake to stop dead in her tracks, letting the boy catch up before bluntly telling him, "I just need to leave, okay? Now can I just have a moment to think in silence, please?", to which Sun doesn't seem to have a response.
Sun, sensing the severity of the situation, complies and finally shuts up for a few minutes for Blake to get her bearings. This doesn't last long, however, as the two are approached by a figure from the shadows, who quickly grabs a hold of Blake. The person wraps their arms around the girl, enveloping them in their tight grasp as they nearly squeezing the very life out of the cat girl.
"W-who are-", Blake begins to ask in a panic before hearing a familiar voice tell her, "It's a pleasure to meet you again, friend Blake." "P-Penny!? What are you-", Blake begins to ask her as the young ginger continues to squeeze the very life out of her.
"You know her?", Sun asks the redhead, to which Penny nods.
"Blake Belladonna: Age: Seventeen; Gender: Female; Height: Approximately five feet six inches; Three Measureme-", Penny begins to list off before Blake cuts her off by nervously shouting, "Penny, please!"
Penny, not sure what she did wrong at first, quickly realizes what she almost did before releasing her grasp on the hidden Faunus and saying, "My apologies, I just got carried away. I've been wanting to see you all again so badly, but I haven't been able to contact any of you."
"It's alright, but what exactly are you doing out so late at night?", Blake replies with a confused look on her face.
Penny quickly snaps her fingers and explains herself, saying, "Well, after helping your teams clean up the streets of Vale, I realized how good I was at it. I've been helping clean up these streets ever since, it's actually quite relaxing."
"I see, well it was nice seeing you again, Penny.", Blake quickly replies before trying to walk off, but Penny grabs the girl's wrist, stopping her.
"Where are your friends, Blake? It's always more fun when Ruby and the others are involved! We can have another girl's night out.", Penny gleefully tells the cat girl, to which Sun adds, "Hey, I'm right over here." Penny quickly turns to him and shews him away, saying, "Sorry, Girl's Night is only for girls. You'd have to sit this one out."
Blake pulls her hand free of the ginger's cold grasp as she sternly replies, "They're not here. Now I have to go.", before starting to walk off alone with Sun quickly following after her.
As the cat girl walks off, Penny waves her off as she says, "Don't be a stranger! If you ever want to do the hanging out, just call me." With both Blake and Sun far beyond her range of sight, a light-bulb lights up in Penny's head and she says to herself, "Wait a minute, I didn't give them my scroll number! How can they even contact me without that!?"
As Sun desperately tries to follow after Blake, he finally catches her in front of a local store. The sign above the front door says 'Tukson's Book Trades,' but the sign on the door says closed. "Blake, what are we-", the blonde boy begins to ask her before the girl slowly knocks on the door twice, quickly followed by three quick taps to the door's glass window from the back of her knuckles.
There's an awkward pause before someone peeks through the door's blinds to see who's at their door, their yellow eyes seeming to glow as they look at Sun and Blake. The person's eyes widen when they see Blake and they quickly leave the blinds before the two of them start hearing the sound of multiple locks being unlocked from behind the door. The door swings open and a tall looking man with oddly cut sideburns stands before them. "Blake! What are you doing here!? Weren't you attending Beacon? Did something happen? Did Adam-", the man frantically begins to question the girl before Blake wraps her arms around him, burying her face in his chest, trying to hide her pain. The man quickly sticks his head out through the doorway, looking for any sign of the two being followed before grabbing Sun and pulling him inside, locking the door once more after slamming it shut.
"I messed up, Tukson! I really messed up! My team hates me now!", Blake admits as she hides her face from the man.
The man lets out a heavy sigh before saying, "You'll be fine. Stop worrying. It can't be that bad.", with a slight smile on his face.
"They know.", the nervous girl quickly replies, causing the man's smile to shift to shock.
"About your involvement in this!? How much?", Tukson asks as he peels the girl off from around his waist.
Blake wipes away her tears before saying, "T-they don't know everything, but they know I was part of the White Fang."
"You were part of the White Fang!?", Sun frantically shouts, to which Tukson glares at him.
The man shifts his gaze back over to Blake and asks, "So where'd you find this guy?"
"I didn't find him, he wouldn't stop following me.", Blake timidly replies, causing Tukson to nod in response.
He turns his attention back to Sun and explains, saying, "Yes, Blake and I both were members of the White Fang, though I got out of the business much sooner than she did. But that was a long time ago, when the White Fang meant something. Now they're more interested in killing humans than helping them see that we are their equals. That's why I'm helping people like her, people like us, who've seen the true darkness in the White Fang escape it and move on to normal lives."
"So you run basically an underground railroad for Faunus trying to leave the White Fang?", Sun asks Tukson, to which the man nods. Sun quickly smiles to this and exclaims, "Hell yeah! That's awesome!"
Tukson smiles back to the boy and happily says, "I'm glad someone thinks so.", before walking over to a nearby couch. He pulls a small box out from under it as he says, "You two are free to stay here for as long as you need to. I have a few guest bedrooms downstairs that I use for Faunus who're traveling between lives, so feel free to use the beds if you need 'em." He tosses the box over to Sun, who catches it and when he opens it, he sees its full of blankets.
Blake smiles at this and tells him, "Thanks, Tukson. You're a life saver.", to which the man replies, "I try to be."
As morning finally arrives, Yang equips her Ember Celica and asks, "Are you ready to go, Ash?", to which the mummy boy nods as he stands in the open doorway. "Good, let's get going.", the blonde replies as she picks up her scroll from Blake's bunk.
"We're already at the docking bay. We'll see you there.", Velvet voice calls out from her scroll.
Yang smiles at the sound of the rabbit girl's voice before replying with, "Thanks Velv. Glad to see someone's willing to help." The blonde takes a moment to glare at Weiss, who only turns her nose up in response. Yang growls under her breath before shouting, "We're leaving, are ya coming or not!?"
"We'll be there, just go on without us. We have to..figure some stuff out first.", Sapphire sternly replies as she looks over at Reginald and Weiss with a concerned, yet annoyed glare.
Yang just rolls her eyes at the azure warrior before walking out with Ash as she says, "Fine, just don't waste too much time, okay? We'll see you at the docking bay!"
As the busty blonde shuts the door behind her, Weiss lets out a huff before saying, "Can you believe the nerve of that ruffian? To treat me so poorly last night and think I'll just go out and help her find that killer, how idiotic."
"Weiss, please! She's our teammate! The least we can do is let her explain herself!", Ruby begs the heiress as she looks over to Weiss, but she doesn't seem to care.
Weiss turns away from the other girls and asks, "What's there to explain? That she's a traitorous, murderous Faunus that was planning on killing me in my sleep!?"
"You can't just assume that she was going to kill you because she's a Faunus, even if she's involved with the White Fang.", Sapphire quickly refutes, but Reginald only shakes his head in disapproval.
"It doesn't matter if she was really planning on killing her or not, she's related some way to the White Fang and infiltrated our ranks. We have no clue what she could be planning, for all we know she could very well be a spy sent by the White Fang to blow up the school or something. We have to report this to the Headmaster. This goes beyond us! This could threaten the lives of countless people, not just us!", Reginald quickly fires back as he heads for the door. As he glances back at Weiss, he tells her, "His office hours say he won't be there until around noon, but we don't know if he has any meetings or not today, so we'll have to camp out the door to his office until he shows up. I'll see you there."
As Reginald leaves the room, heading to the Headmaster's office at the top of the school, Ruby and Sapphire both focus their attentions on Weiss. The girl notices their staring and asks, "What? Do you two really think you can just change my mind on this sort of thing?"
Sapphire only rolls her eyes at the girl's smug attitude, but Ruby walks up to her and extends her hand out to her. "Weiss, please, we can still fix this. If we work together, we can become a really great team, I know it. All we have to-", Ruby begins to say before Weiss interrupts her by saying, "What 'we' are you talking about? I never wanted to be a part of this team, and once Reginald and I are done talking with Headmaster Ozpin, Blake will shipped off to prison where she belongs."
Weiss confidently makes her way over to the exit and as she goes to leave, she turns back to Ruby and says, "By the end of the night there won't be a team RWBY. It'll just be you and your ignorant sister." The heiress takes her leave, closing the door behind her, leaving Ruby and Sapphire alone.
"Hey, Ruby, we have to go too. Yang and the others are waiting on us.", Sapphire tells her as she places a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder.
Ruby lets out a single sniffle before turning to Sapphire and forcing herself to fight through her pain to say, "Yeah, we have to go. Don't wanna keep them waiting."