Soo. College happened. Then I saw the premiere of RWBY Vol. 5 in theaters... then this happened. I said screw it, my report is due midnight anyway. thus why this isn't long. I have an outline for what's going to happen, just haven't actually written it out.

Blake being nervous didn't even begin to cover it. She was a mess internally. In the exterior however, Sun thought she seemed to be doing okay.

Blake, Sun, and Van Dyke were about 10 minutes away from reaching Haven Academy. They had been walking for about 5 minutes when Van broke the silence.

"So, how long are we going to pretend we don't notice them?" he asked.

"Huh?" was Sun's response.

"So you noticed them too, I was waiting till we reached a less habited location."

"Wait, what?" Sun asked, completely lost.

Without changing expression or moving her face she responded, "we've been followed for like the past 3 minutes. I really hoped we didn't have to start something so soon."

"What do you suggest we do? They know where you are now and where you're headed."

Blake pondered that for a second and said, "there are three of them –

"How do you kno –

" – I say we split up" she cut Sun off.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I have a feeling I know who one of them is, I want to get her alone."

Sun turned to her and asked, "your chameleon friend?" Blake nods. "Are you sure? Last time she didn't seem to hesitate."

"She didn't hesitate to attack you. She never once aimed her weapon at me. Let me talk to her alone."

Ilia was the closest thing she had to a friend back in the White Fang days, and although they might have drifted apart due to their separate thought of ideals, she had plenty opportunities to rat her out to Adam. Sounds like she brought some company this time, but Blake still hoped she could get through to her.

"Alright, but as soon as I'm done with my guy I'm heading your way," Sun spoke up before making a right turn into an alleyway. After a few second her ears caught movement from above head that way as well. They're going for it. Ilia knows what I'm trying to do.

"You sure you can trust her," Van asked, keeping step beside her.

"Not entirely, but she's had a chance to rat me out back at Menagerie. Nothing's happened yet."

"Maybe her mission is to keep an eye on you, not intervene." He added.

"….," Blake stayed silent. It had crossed her mind. But Ilia was telling Blake to turn back and leave Menagerie, she doubted that was part of her job description.

With that, Van Dyke took a left turn, followed by a second shadow. Blake looked straight ahead and saw that the town started to end, going into a more run down and abandoned section. She kept on walking until she heard her tracker speed up to her right on the roof tops, then hop down in an alley way ahead of the feline. Blake took the bait and turned right.

"You know Blake, when I said leave Menagerie I didn't exactly mean go straight to the wolf's den." Ilia spoke.

"… what are you doing Ilia?"

"Nothing you say will make me give you information, Blake."

"No. I mean, what are you still doing with them. You know what they've done, what they plan to do, yet you're still following them. Why?" Blake needed to hear a straight answer, needed to know if there was hesitation in her voice. Anything that can give her an indication of swaying her.

"There's no other way, Blake. This is the only way that they'll listen to us."

"your wrong, this will just make things worse. You're proving to them that faunus really are savage animals and terrorists. Ilia please, think about this. don't go down this road. Because you know very well what the result will be."

The chameleon faunus still had her mask covering her face, so Blake was unsure if her words were getting through to her.

"Even if I did decide to stop. There is no going back. Your either with the White Fang or against them. And you know very well what happens if you're against them. It's a wonder your still alive, Adam isn't well known for being lenient."

"fight. You can fight against them Ilia! You cant let your fear stop you!

"and what good did that do to you Blake? Huh? Last I heard one of your friends suffered the consequences. Whatever happened to her anyway?"

Silence.

"oh, let me guess. You left, didn't you?" The White Fang member removed her mask with her left hand carefully, making sure to have her weapon ready with her right at any moment's notice. "Do you care for them?" she asked, her light blue eyes staring right through her.

"More than I ever thought I could."

"Yet you're here. You really are a glutton for punishment."

Nothing else was said. Ilia placed her mask back on her face, retreating slowly. "turn back, its not too late yet. Those two were newbies, they didn't know who you were. I wont tell them anything."

Blake's face was determined. Although it wavered slightly at her teams mentioning. "No. your going to have to make me."

Ilia smiled sadly, "I know."

A rumbling of footsteps soon reached Blake's ears, causing them to flicker towards the noise. Appears that the fighting is over.

Ilia seemed to have seen her ears move and realized it was time to leave. Because she turned and leaped into the ledge of a window to reach the roof, pausing before leaving the feline's sight.

Blake hadn't moved, she was letting her leave without a fight. Again. But something told her that this would probably be the last.

_BACK AT HAVEN ACADEMY_

Yang was leaning against the wall opposite of the door, next to a large window that depicted a beautiful view of the Haven Academy school yard. She had her arms crossed and one leg up on the wall. Ruby, Weiss, team SSSN (minus their leader), and the remnants of team JNPR were sitting and standing idly on the wall adjacent to her, opposite of the large wooden desk where General Ironwood sat, Winter at his right side with an uptight posture while Qrow was to his left, leaning his weight on the desk in an very non-professional manner, nearly sitting on it.

"Yang, put your foot down! Have some manners." Weiss exclaimed. "Why don't you sit down?"

"Sorry princess, but unlike you guys I've been traveling on a bike for weeks. I love Bumblebee but my ass hurts, give me a break." She defended.

"Yaaaaang! Language!" Ruby nearly whined in exasperation.

"Honestly," Weiss huffed. "Show some decency, you're in the presence of the General of the Atlesian army and his second in command. Use proper language."

"Hey, I'm here too kid," Qrow added with feigned annoyance.

"Uncle Qrow, be nice. It took me a whole year to get her to warm up to me, she's not ready for your jokes… or stories." Ruby spoke up.

Yang chuckled at that. "You got that right. We finally melted the ice queen's heart, turns out she's a snowflake on the inside."

"Ugh, Yang. Please, don't start." Weiss implored.

"Yeah," Qrow drawled, "because I hate to break it to you, but the ice queen bit is used. And I don't know about her being a snowflake yet, maybe deep, deep, deep inside. If you squint and turn your head sideways… and blink fast a few times."

Ruby and Yang chuckled at that, while Weiss covered her mouth with her hand, coughing to cover it up. And while Qrow had an indifferent expression, Ironwood only sighed, rubbing his temples with his flesh hand. Winter remained still as a statue, though Weiss could swear that her sister's left eye twitched ever so slightly.

"So, we're here for what exactly?" Jaune spoke up for the first time. "Shouldn't we be, I don't know, heading to the headmaster or something?"

"Old James here says he's got something to say along with the Ice Queen 1.0. Something we should know about before heading to Leo. And what I tell you about stressing me out? Quit making tracks on the floor and sit-down kid."

Jaune, who had been pacing back and forth, stopped in his tracks and gave him a hard stare, but did as he asked.

"…and," Ruby added. "we're waiting for Sun. Says he's actually got information about what's going on too."

"Sun? How? Shouldn't he be getting ready to attend classes? They start soon don't they?" Yang asked.

"He actually just got back to Mistral, said he had something to do like a few months back." Neptune spoke up.

"Oh. Without you guys? Where'd he go?"

"I don't know, but it seemed important. We can't really stop him either way."

A few moments later a knock sounded on the door. Jaune stood up almost instantly, aching to get moving again. Opening the door revealed a misshapen looking monkey faunus.

Upon entering he greeted everyone, then looked up and saw Yang, who nodded in greeting. He however seemed slightly concerned, but nodded back in response.

"Sorry I'm late, we ran into some trouble on our way here." He spoke, raking his hand through his hair. He had sweat on his brow and seemed slightly out of breath. And under closer inspection his clothes seemed worn, battle worn to be precise.

"Did you seriously start a fight in a single day that you're back?" Neptune asked with exasperation in his voice.

"Yeah. Well no. I didn't but someone else did, but I kinda got involved too. So… I guess it's a yes." he rambled.

"We?" Yang asked.

"Huh?"

"You said 'we' ran into some trouble, your team is here, who're you referring to?"

"Uuuhh…. Well, I guess now is a better time than any. I ran into someone" cough "on my, umm, little road trip. Met quite the group of people too, but she'll explain that better than I can. You guys coming in?"

Yang, along with the rest of the young students, looked at him with confusion and turned their heads toward the open door. Soon, their confusion was replaced with gasps and other sounds of surprise at the newcomers. The first person to walk in was a huge man that made Ironwood look small, he had scales on his face with the sternest expression you could imagine. His eyes scanned the room, as if to look for potential danger, resting his eyes on the Schnee's a little longer than necessary. The sounds of surprise weren't towards him however, but towards the smaller woman at his side.

Blake Belladonna had entered.

So yeah. College is kicking my ass. I even put off my other fic to do this one. The hype is real. I'll try uploading every weekend, but they wont be long if I do. We'll see.