She'd needed to run, as far from her teammates and as far from her secrets as was physically possible. That had been all that Blake had been able to think about up until the second that she was reacting, pulling away, and setting off in a sprint in another direction. They were asking too many questions, and Blake…

Well, she was keeping too many secrets. An uncomfortable number of them. That confrontation with her team, it had pushed too close to things that she didn't want to talk about. It had pushed too close to things that she hadn't even wanted to think about.

She'd almost let something slip. Blake couldn't have that.

Blake knew what her position on it all was. She'd heard something out in the woods and she hadn't known how to react to it. Now she was there, alone, and unable to concentrate on anything else. The number of threats that could be out there was too high. It could have been grimm, or bandits, or The White Fang, or something else entirely.

Blake didn't know what, and she didn't even want to figure out where she was supposed to start with it all.

Among the arcing bows of the trees over her, out in the dark of the forest and far from the commonly walked paths, she could at least breathe for a moment. There was the possibility of grimm being out there, but Blake didn't think that she would see any. Not alone, at least.

Safety her first real priority, and that's how she found herself in a tree like she'd been not too long before. Blake crouched there, kept her eyes on the clearing below. She was glad that she had Gambol Shroud on her back, because otherwise she would have been much less comfortable about being there for the time being.

Whether or not she'd go back to her team was hard for her to think about. A strong part of Blake told her that to do that would be a bad idea.

But she had the same things that she'd come into Vale with. The clothes on her back and a weapon, and that was all she'd needed before. If she wanted to, she knew that she could have run away and kept on trying to make a new life for herself.

It would have been like any other time- her cutting a new existence from nothing out of lies, then running when she couldn't handle it anymore.

She took a deep breath, steeling herself for something that she couldn't quite identify. Blake knew that she was going to have to move on from the trees sometime. She'd have to go down and make a choice about what she was going to do, but that wasn't easy when she didn't have even the slightest idea as to what she would do.

Running was an option.

So was going back to her team.

She'd already run. Running was in her blood, something that she had nearly sculpted her life on. She'd gotten to the White Fang because she'd needed to run from home, from what her new life was. Blake had gotten from Beacon because she'd needed to run from the White Fang.

Now if she ran from her team, Blake didn't know where it would take her. Perhaps she'd find herself with bandits, or perhaps-

There was a rustling sound down in the brushes that made Blake freeze, stock still and barely breathing. She shifted her body, allowing herself to peer down into the clearing down below.

It was a creature, pure black aside from some white highlights and the occasional splash of red. Blake felt her heart begin to beat harder and harder in her chest as she thought back on the lessons that she'd gotten about grimm in the past.

Drawn to negative emotions. Dangerous. The best places to strike were the ones with no plating.

The odds are that she had just set off a beacon for any of the smaller monsters the moment that she'd run. It was possible that there was going to be something after her team too.

Blake's mind almost immediately rushed with worry because she didn't know that she could actually face a grimm on her own. The things that she was capable of when she had a team at her back was one thing, but alone...

She didn't like the prospect of what could go wrong either way. She didn't like the possibility that things could only turn to disaster at that point. Blake didn't like any of it.

She reached back for her sword where it rested on her back and watched as the grimm moved in the clearing down below. Her mind rushed as she tried to get an idea of what she was looking at, so Blake started at the top to figure it out before the grimm noticed that she was there.

It was smaller than anything that Blake had seen in person previously. The sort of creature that someone would have been placed in combat against in a situation where they would have a better chance of winning than they would against something else. It was hunched over, almost reptilian looking, with only two legs and a wide jaw and fangs.

If the classes that she'd been to previously were correct, then Blake knew that this beast was something called a creep. That wasn't going to be sufficient though, because Blake didn't know if she could fight a grimm alone. Or whether trying was a good idea when she was already tired.
She needed to gather what she had, and she needed to be able to get back to her team sooner than later. Leaving them alone when they didn't have anyone else to help them along.

Blake knew that she could trust them, but...

If any of them got hurt because of something that she had done, Blake didn't know how she was supposed to be able to deal with it.

The girl closed her eyes, letting out a slow breath in an attempt to relax as much as she could. She reached back over her shoulder and removed her weapon from her back. It made a little bit more noise than Blake personally liked, so she ducked further into the leaves of the tree that she was in with the hopes of being able to stay secure.

The grimm down in the clearing stopped. It lifted its head up, sniffing the air for something that Blake couldn't name. When she got back to the others, she was going to need to be able to remember it.

Blake swallowed and made sure to keep balance as she levelled her gun on the grimm. She focused on it, prepared to fire as soon as she needed to. However, the grimm picked its head up like it had just heard something, and Blake went still again.

There was shouting, a couple of people. Not her team, too male, too old. Blake blinked and leaned forward, watching as two men came into her view. Both of them were dressed differently, like nothing Blake had ever seen before as a child. They didn't wear the equipment of the White Fang, and they weren't dressed as civilians.

The first sign that she might have had any idea as to what they were was when she saw the weapon on the taller man's back. It wasn't a folding frame weapon, that much was obvious. It was a blade and gun, hobbled together with tape and rope. A clear imitation of something that they couldn't have gotten otherwise.

Bandits.

The shorter of the two saw the grimm and fell back just out of view, and Blake heard a pair of gunshots go off before the grimm let out a roar, almost bracing itself. There was the sound of more rustling, and Blake watched as a swarm began to arrive from the bushes. She didn't know how she had missed it, and it left her wondering about her team.

She needed to get back to them, and getting caught by some bandits...

She was only going to jeopardize things.

"There's more!" The first man shouted, looking back at his partner as he also fell back out of view. "Call her!"

"Now?" The second man responded, looking surprised. "Are you sure?"

"I am!" The man replied, and Blake leveled her gun on another one of the grimm. Letting these men get killed would be a mistake, and Blake didn't want to deal with what would come from it. Not when it would make things worse. Not when it would put them more at risk.

She waited, and when the grimm that she was aiming at leapt to action in pursuit of the two men, Blake allowed for herself to pull the trigger. The first man jumped, and Blake watched his head whorl around in an attempt to figure out where the shot came from. Blake pulled the trigger a second time, then a third, and watched as the grimm fell.

The second man was mid-combat, and the first was rushing in to help.

Blake aimed for another grimm and was about to leap down when she heard something. The loud flapping of wings, which almost immediately disappeared. Blake blinked, and watched as a tall woman with thick black hair and red clothes stepped into view. Her face was covered in a familiar sort of bone-white mask, painted over in red. She had a weapon at her side, and Blake knew the look of this sort of woman.

A huntress.

Without any hesitation, the woman moved to action and cut through the grimm that were left with too-fast movements. She was moving so efficiently that it wasn't a surprise by any means.

Within moments, the grimm were dead, fallen and dissipating.

The two men relaxed slightly, the woman stood tall, and Blake stayed up in the tree, afraid to come out and reveal herself.

"What happened?" The woman asked the two men. The first one, who was tall with brown skin and thick black hair stepped forward.

"We found the one grimm, then the others followed." He explained, holding his head up high. "We aren't alone though."

"What do you mean, we aren't alone?" The woman asked, her head turning as she looked up to the trees to try and figure out what the two men were talking about. "You didn't eliminate the threat?"

"They only fired from the trees." The shorter man said, stepping forward to stand beside his partner. "Only helped us to get rid of the grimm."

"I see." The woman replied. She turned slowly, her eyes scanning the trees until she stopped dead in her tracks, eyes locked onto where Blake was.

Blake swallowed, her mind rushing with a thousand ways that this could go wrong. Staying up in the tree wouldn't get her anywhere, but going down to talk to them had the possibility of her getting killed.

"Why don't you come down?" The woman said from behind the white and red mask that reminded Blake so much of a grimm. "The forest is no place for a child."

Blake swallowed and leaned forward slightly, pushing the limbs of the tree aside as she got closer. Her head began to peek through the trees.

The woman watched her expectantly and just nodded, almost giving permission. She also made a show of waving an arm at her side to tell the people at her side to stay there and do nothing.

It was perhaps the best thing that Blake could hope for.

Blake stepped forward and allowed for herself to drop down from the tree and into the clearing. She didn't let go of her weapons and landed there at the base of the tree, kneeling forward on one knee before slowly raising back up into a standing position.

"Huntress." The first man said, only to be waved off by the woman.

"No." She said, taking a step or two forward. "She's too young."

"She could be like-" The shorter of the two men started, but was only silenced by a sharp glare from the woman. He swallowed audibly and slipped back just slightly. "You're right."

The woman took another step forward, and she stared down at Blake before asking the question. "What are you doing here?" She asked, her voice cool and stony. "Fighting grimm?"

"I'm-" Blake started only to stop again when she realized that any explanation that she could give would only be woefully inadequate. "No." She explained.

"Beacon?" The woman asked, "or something else?"

"Beacon." Blake admitted, because at the very least if she were transparent she could make sense of things. Or she could avoid getting herself killed. Whichever.

The woman nodded. "Where is your team?"

Blake swallowed. "I left them." She admitted. "I'm alone."

The woman nodded again, unwavering as she sheathed her sword. It should have been a comfort that she was doing that, but Blake didn't feel any of it. Even still, the woman was acting like a threat and Blake didn't know how she was supposed to navigate what was happening at all.

"Alone." The woman repeated as her masked gaze slipped over towards where the bodies of the grimm were still turning to smoke. "Then you must be the one that drew them in."

Blake looked over at the spot where the grimm had died for herself and nodded slowly.

"You should get back to your team." The woman said calmly. She looked to her two companions. "You two, go back to camp. I'll be seeing you soon."

The two men exchanged a look and both gave shallow bows as they began off towards wherever their camp was. The fact that Blake was being left alone with them was a surprise, one that Blake didn't quite know how to handle.

She swallowed.

"What is your name?" The woman asked.

"Blake."

"Blake." The woman repeated her name. "Keep in mind that you have seen nothing here, girl." She ordered calmly, and Blake nodded because she didn't want to risk making things worse for herself. "If word of our presence makes it to anyone at your school, there will be trouble."

There was a long moment where Blake felt like she had no choice but to nod along in the hopes that she could diffuse the situation even more for herself. It wouldn't be that simple, of course.

"I won't say anything." Blake said finally, keeping her voice down. "I just want to get back to my team."

"And you will." The woman replied, but she paused, watching Blake closely. "I should tell you though," She turned, just beginning to walk away from Blake but still watching Blake closely over her shoulder as she walked forward. "You don't want to abandon your team."

And with that, the woman left, and Blake was alone, standing in a clearing, completely unsure of what she was supposed to do with herself. She was going to need to figure out how to explain her absence, that much was clear.

Blake just didn't know where she was supposed to be able to start.

She allowed herself a little bit of extra time to calm herself before she turned and started on her way back to where she had last seen her teammates.

Whether or not she was going to keep a secret as she'd been asked was something that Blake couldn't be so sure of.

It was perhaps better that way.

At the very least, Blake knew that there was one person that she was going to be able to trust.

She'd tell Qrow. Nobody else needed to know.

It had been a few days since the green haired girl had joined with them, and Watts had spent every waking minute of those days feeling very unhappy with the addition. Them gaining an extra hanger on didn't do anything for their group from a practical standpoint, regardless of what the plans were with Cinder. When he'd given her the instructions to find a teammate, he hadn't been expecting that Cinder would have succeeded.

The fact that the girl was weak and starving had only made her more of an annoyance.

Their group was stopped in a town by the name of Higanbana when Watts split off from the others in search of information. He wandered his way into a bar, leaving Hazel to deal with the children (And really, Watts hated the way that thinking of them in those terms felt. There was a certain sort of bitterness to it that he couldn't deny.)

Watts was there in that city for one reason in particular, and it was to make contact and get some useful information. He was fortunate though, in that he had good people tucked across the four kingdoms waiting to give up information to him when they could.

Bars were always good places to gather information, even if they did have many downsides to using them. The lack of privacy being one, but only one among many.

He walked up to the second floor of the inn, and took a seat at one of the tables as he waited for his company.

Watts had needed to go through quite a few pains to get into contact with the esteemed Leonardo Lionheart. The man was one of some importance, and Watts had been fortunate enough to have his assistance in the past. The good thing about Leo was that the man was absolutely spineless, and had failed to fulfill his duties to others in the past because of it.

Having learned how the man ticked years before gave Watts a rather distinct advantage that he was only too glad to use.

The truth of the matter was that Watts had decided to establish contact with Lionheart again about a week before when they'd been stopped in a town. All that he'd needed to do was make a call from a town hall that had an extended range transmitter, and then getting in contact with Lionheart had been easy. While the others had been camping in the woods, Watts had been hard at work finding a relatively useful source of information.

Watts knew that his quarry would be there soon, and once that happened then it would easy enough.

He sat there in the bar, swirling a drink in his hand and waiting calmly for his guest. There was the sound of a door opening, and Watts listened in for voices of any sort.

From downstairs he was able to hear the sound of someone asking about him, a familiar voice that was very assuredly not his travel partner's.

Watts just waited, and soon enough Leonardo was making his appearance, his head poking up over the railing of the stairs. With that, Watts wasn't able to help the smile that split over his expression.

"Leonardo." Watts said, still grinning. "I'm sure that the trip wasn't so terrible for you?"

"It was a rather... difficult journey." Leonardo responded as he approached Watts' table. He took the seat directly across from Arthur, and the first thing that Watts noticed about him was that the man looked nervous. Almost like he was shaking, and that left Watts with a great many questions. All ones that Watts was certain he'd be able to get answers to in his own time. "How are you?"

"Me?" Watts asked, still grinning as he brought his glass up to his face so that he could take a drink. "Why, I am quite well I must say. I'm sure that you can understand things like how travel can take a toll. And going from village to village on foot is unfavorable at best."

"Of course." Leonardo responded. His eyes were wide and almost scared. Watts had no problem preying on that. "Is there some reason that you wanted me?"

"There was." Watts replied, swirling his drink slowly in his hands. He just needed to piece together the best way for him to move forward and explain it all. "Although I will say that I'm not the greatest fan of this particular venue."

The way that Leonardo's mouth dropped open in surprise at that said everything that Watts needed to know. Things that he would be able to work out for himself.

"The... venue?" Leonardo asked, blinking. "Is there something wrong?"

"I would prefer that you and I speak somewhere more..." Watts grinned. "Private."

Leo stared across the table at him, and Watts could feel the control that he had over the man only getting stronger. Anything that he said, he was sure Leo would ultimately do. It was just a matter of making it happen. Instead of saying anything else to the headmaster, whose mouth had dropped open, Watts leaned back in his seat.

He crossed on leg over the other and allowed for himself to drape an arm over the back of his seat.

Finally, Leo sputtered to attention. "Of course." He said, leaning forward and bracing himself against the table with open palms. Clearly, he was prepared to move as soon as Watts gave a sign that he was ready to. "If that is what you wish."

Watts grinned and finished the rest of his drink before standing up. He stretched for just a moment before turning and nodding his head in the direction of one of the rooms. Wordlessly, Leo followed after him, hunched in on himself the entire way.

The two of them reached the room, and once Leo was inside Watts pulled the door shut behind them a little more roughly than it should have.

Leo jumped and stared at him. This was the man that they called a headmaster, Watts thought. Once upon a time, Leonardo Lionheart had been renowned. A strong fighter with a good reputation for being able to leap to the front of every battle.

It left Watts with a lot of questions as to what had happened to make Leo the way that he was. The man that he'd heard about was nothing like the coward that he came to know.

But, that was a matter for another time. First he needed to extract some information from the headmaster.

"Oniyuri." Watts started, seating himself in the room with his back to the door. It boxed Leo in, since the only other way to get out would be for the man to use the window. It was a shame that the two of them were on the second floor of the building, and Lionheart...

Well, Watts had his doubts that the man would take such an action himself.

"Yes," Leonardo responded, reaching into his coat to remove a small package. He set it down on the small table that the two of them were sharing, and Watts watched as Leonardo unpacked it. First to come out was the man's scroll, then a copy of a map of Anima, and after that a collection of notes. "You said that you were looking for someone there?"

"I am." Watts responded. "Although you don't need to know the details of my search."

Leonardo stared at him with wide eyes, and closed them before letting out a sigh and continuing. "Oniyuri is one of the more remote villages." He explained as calmly as he could. "It's known for having been all but stomped years ago by a grimm. Nobody has lived there in ages."

"So then why would anyone be there?" Watts asked, rolling his eyes. "I know the city's reputation, I need to know what anyone would be doing there."

Leonardo hesitated and sighed. "It's an incomplete settlement. Nobody ever managed to move in there. I suppose that bandits may pass through from time to time, but..."

"But?" Watts asked, because that was clarification that he wanted so badly. "But what, Lionheart?"

Lionheart reached for his scroll and opened it. "I suppose that you aren't looking for my opinion, are you?" The man asked, his eyes flicking up to Watts for just a moment. "You want something else?"

Watts nodded and reached out, letting his hand rest with his flat palm up. Lionheart understood and set the scroll there before Watts snatched it right away and began to go through it.

It was a rather simple model of scroll, the sort of thing that Watts would have used several times over throughout the course of his life. Most men would be able to get a somewhat similar model off of the shelves in most stores, and so Watts was sure that if he truly needed to he could take advantage of that technology.

"I am." Watts confirmed though, scrolling through Lionheart's files. "Would I be correct to suspect that you have copies of all of Mistral's hunter dossiers?"

Lionheart paused, and Watts saw him draw back out of the corner of his eye as he realized that Watts was looking for someone rather than something. Watts couldn't help but smile as he reached for his own scroll and began to copy information from one device to the other as quickly as he could.

"I'm guessing that you've already found them?" Leonardo asked as he looked on as Watts did his work, almost helplessly. "Seeing as-"

"Yes, I have, no thanks to you." Watts muttered as he transferred name after name from one scroll to the other. Shields, Heather. Bowie, Reyn. Vix, Champagne. Name after name after name, all the names of huntresses that were local to Mistral. If they were truly searching for a Maiden, then the likelihood that she was a licensed hunter was surely in their favor. In that case, Watts didn't want to give up that possibility. "I can't say that I was expecting to see so many of your hunters on assignment."

Lionheart blinked, sighed, and nodded. "Things have been rather difficult in all of the kingdoms lately." He explained calmly, ducking his head like he thought that the two of them were still being watched for some reason. "I am officially absent from Mistral for work purposes, but should truly be back at the Academy."

"Is that so?"

"Yes." Lionheart replied. "There have been reports out of Vale of grimm arising in the forest near the city." Lionheart began to explain. Watts paused because that was something that he hadn't heard anything about personally. Himself and the others had been spending so much time in the wilderness camping that information from the other kingdoms had been rare.

"Grimm you say?" Watts asked, schooling his expression into one of the most absolute calm that he could possibly manage. "Near Vale?"

Lionheart nodded. "Mistral's remaining hunters are on near constant patrol to ensure that our kingdom is safe." He said as calmly as he could manage. "I can also say that there may be other specialists aside from yourself, Arthur. Ironwood hasn't exactly been forthcoming on what he's doing with his men these days."

For the first time in the conversation, Watts was taken aback. His history in Atlas was no secret, and it did make sense that one of the headmasters would know of his past as a Specialist. However, Watts had taken comfort in the lack of requirement for uniform that had been there for field work long before.

It was entirely possible that he was being mistaken for a current specialist. Even when that couldn't have been further from the truth.

"Other specialists?" Watts asked. "You mean to tell me that I haven't been sent on assignment from Atlas all alone?"

"I would suppose that you are." Lionheart said as Watts scrolled to a stop, eyebrow raising into his hairline as his gaze slipped onto one name in particular. Watts hesitated, because it left a lot of questions with him that he would have to ask later. Instead of looking for elaboration, he copied it into his scroll and continued with what he was doing.

"A pity." Watts mumbled as he finally copied the last of the names onto his scroll. Satisfied, he tucked it back away and tossed Leonardo's scroll back onto the table between the two of them where it landed with a clatter. "Although I suspect that the general would have good reason for it."

Leonardo nodded, and Watts smiled. "You don't need to tell anyone that the two of us have met here, you know that, Lionheart." He said as calmly as he could mange. "After all, wherever I am is sure to be confidential. If the general found out that classified information slipped out-" He smiled. "Well, you know how my old teammate is. It would surely go poorly for everyone involved."

There was a moment of quiet before Lionheart said anything else. "Should I suspect to see you again soon?" he asked. "Seeing as you're mostly here to get information it seems."

"That-" Watts explained. "Will depend on whether or not I find my bounty or not, Professor Lionheart. If I don't find your help or your information to be of any use, then I won't be back looking for more. I'm sure that this is something that you can understand?"

"Yes," Lionheart sighed. "Of course."

And that, that was all that Watts wanted. He got up and stretched, standing over Lionheart and looking down at the other man. "I believe that I may have to hurry along." He said with the same sort of stony resolve that he'd been using previously during their meeting. "Thank you for your help."

"Yes," Lionheart said, reaching out for his scroll and packing it back into his things the same way that Watts had done so. "Of course. I hope to hear from you again. "

"As I have said," Arthur replied with a roll of his eyes as he approached the door to the room that the two of them were meeting in. "I am making absolutely no promises."

"Yes." Lionheart replied. "Of course."

Watts ignored it and let the door slam behind him before going off to find out where his teammates had gotten off to. After all, they were going to need to have a very serious talk as a team all too soon.