This fic isn't dead, I just didn't anticipate getting as much overtime as I have been getting at work these past few weeks. So much for wanting to get this done before RWBY 5 came out, but that's alright. I think with the latest episode I want to add an extra chapter at the end anyways.

Moving on, file this under scenes I wish were actually in the show.


"It all begins, a chance to win, a dream that's been a lifetime, an endless vast uphill climb. The day I've waited for is drawing near."

It was late, and the fluorescent lights of the girls' bathroom were hurting her tired eyes. The rest of her team, Blake included finally, were back in their room already asleep. Everyone was exhausted from the excitement of everything and she felt no different. Yet, even as she got ready for bed her mind kept replaying the events that took place over the last three days.

Blake Belladonna, a Faunus and former member of the White Fang. Looking back on it, it did kind of make sense. The bow, the tuna, her defense of the Faunus and her hatred of her grandfather's company…

"Because of people like Cardin…people like you!"

Weiss grimaced as the memory of her day-long argument with her black-haired teammate popped back into her head. Blake had called her discriminatory, said that was why the White Fang took the actions that they did. It shocked her to be called out like that, and in the back of her mind she knew it wasn't 100% wrong. She hated her father for what he did to the company and knew that many of the business practices he implemented, especially towards the Faunus, were wrong. But that didn't mean those were always there, Blake couldn't blame the whole of the SDC for one man's cruelty…and she certainly couldn't blame Weiss.

In her defense, Weiss claimed victimhood, and in the moment she believed it. The White Fang were the ones who tormented her family and company for so long. They were the ones who killed and stole from her family. Acting against the whole, against innocent people who had nothing to do with her father or even encouraged him to change was not a proper reaction. And more often than not, they were the reason why her father was always in such a foul mood. And when he was in a foul mood, she got the brunt of it, so by extension it was their fault she was treated as she was. She had every right to feel this way towards the White Fang.

Everything made sense, it made perfect sense…until it didn't. It came as a shock when Blake admitted it. Weiss didn't want to believe it. The quiet bookworm whom she befriended, built bunkbeds with, and was part of her team was a part of the terrorists at war with her family. It didn't make sense, Blake was nothing like them, Blake defended people…saved people. There was no way even if she was a Faunus she would be a part of that filthy organization.

Except she was.

Weiss drew her eyes back up to the mirror hanging over the sink. She grimaced at the icy blue eyes staring back at her, hating the cold, knowing stare piercing into her soul. The cruel pride that seemed to shine in them.

After Blake sped off, everyone agreed to give her time and space. Ruby and Yang also gave Weiss some space, though after a while she really did want their opinion too. Maybe someone with an outside view could tell who was right and who was wrong in this situation. Clearly they felt some form of sympathy for her, Ruby had even tried to comfort her during the argument, but nothing more was said on the topic for the night.

And with the night to digest the information, there were only two answers Weiss could conceivably come to about the whole thing. Either one, her perceptions of the White Fang and the Faunus as a whole were wrong, or two, her and the sisters' perceptions of Blake were wrong. She so desperately wanted it to be the latter, even as they went out searching for the missing girl after the weekend. She wanted to be wrong about Blake, but more importantly she didn't want the girl to be right about her.

The thought of being properly lumped together with a guy like Cardin was distressing. The boy was an oaf, and a cruel bully too. Surely she was better than that…right? She might hold some preconceived notions, but those were justified given her experiences and she would never act on them to hurt another individual. Not anyone who wasn't a threat to her, anyways. That didn't put her at the same level of Cardin or her father…and it certainly didn't warrant the White Fang's actions, right?

So if that was correct, then it was Blake who had to be wrong. And if it was Blake who was wrong, then it was her perceptions of Blake that had to be wrong, not her perceptions on the White Fang and the Faunus. And that made sense, it was Blake who lied to everyone about who and what she was. It was Blake who hadn't trusted her teammates enough to share with them this information. Blake was the liar, just like the White Fang were liars.

Yet even as she had and held that thought, it unsettled her stomach.

It wasn't supported by anyone else either. Yang and Ruby both were willing to give Blake the benefit of the doubt, they just wanted to make sure she was alright and maybe get a straight answer about what happened. Maybe it was just because they hadn't been as affected by the White Fang as she had. The sisters didn't know the pain and misery they could inflict. But as the day wore on even she couldn't deny a growing sense of worry over their missing teammate and knew that any perceived ignorance by Ruby and Yang wasn't the answer there.

"You don't even care if we find her, do you?"

The sting of Yang's accusation as their day of searching wore on ran deeper than she would have expected. Of course she cared. She cared a lot. Blake had their backs often enough as a teammate and at least a perceived friend enough to warrant making sure she was safe. But there were still too many unanswered questions, and she meant it when she told the blonde she was afraid to find out what the answers may be. The innocent didn't run.

But more than that, she feared the complexity.

There was obviously more to Blake than any of them initially believed. And there was obviously a darker, worse side to her than they had seen. But that was also true of her, wasn't it? Weiss's home life hadn't been great, and she fought tooth and nail to survive in every way she could think. That and her environment were bound to have side effects too. Maybe…side effects she didn't necessarily want to admit to. Maybe everything wasn't so black and white. Maybe both she and Blake could be both right and wrong.

Maybe she needed to change and apologize as much as Blake did. The reflection she saw in the mirror supported that idea just in its presence alone.

But first, she wanted those answers. Not all of them at once necessarily, but all three of them needed the answers to some questions before any explanations and understandings could be made. And while she feared the complexity and how difficult a conversation that may be, she wanted the resolution. She needed the closure, and she had a sneaking suspicion Blake did too.

So when they finally found Blake, the only answer she immediately needed, that any of them immediately needed, came pouring out of her mouth. She was no longer with the White Fang, and that was all that mattered. Weiss stopped her because then wasn't the time or the place to have that discussion. All that mattered was that Blake was safe and she wasn't part of the White Fang and that maybe, just maybe she understood that she should trust her friends with such information.

At the end of the day, that was all that she wanted when she came to Beacon. Friends. Friends who trusted her and wanted to be with her. And even if it was unexpected, that was what Ruby and Yang and Blake had become to her. They were people whom she trusted and wanted to be with and whom she wanted to believe the feeling was reciprocated.

Yet, staring in the mirror after those long three days, she had to wonder if it was. Those icy blue eyes stared back at her as if they knew her, and yet, they weren't hers. They weren't the familiar stranger's eyes either. No, the reflection staring back at her was of Jacques Schnee, and it was with a sinking heart she had to wonder if that was who everyone saw her as. Was this what Ruby saw when they first met, when she told their leader that she didn't deserve her position? Was this what Port saw when he talked to her about that? Was this what Jaune saw when she turned him down and what Pyrrha saw when she wanted to team up? Was this what Yang saw when she asked if she even cared?

Was…was this what Blake saw the whole time?

It frightened her as much as it pained her. It frightened her that she had been so close to echoing so much of her father's own rhetoric while here, treating many of the people she genuinely grew to care about as he treated much of his own family. Dare she say, she believed he would almost be proud, and that was the one thing she never wanted. She vowed to not be like him. She came to Beacon with the exact intent to make friends and help take the Schnee family name away from his clutches and instead she perpetuated his every action.

Her hands were shaking as she clutched the sink and stared back at her father in the mirror. No. No more of this.

"I will not be you," Weiss whispered to the mirror. The reflection staring back at her seemed amused. Amused that it came to this and amused that she thought she could escape.

But she knew better. Thousands of miles away, she would not be under her father's grip anymore. She had friends, or she had people she considered friends and who could return the feelings if she put forth an actual effort. She would not treat people the way her father did. She would do better, she would be better.

There was a lot that needed repaired, but tomorrow she would start with Blake. They needed to talk, to figure everything out and address that the whole mess wasn't so black and white on either side. From there, hopefully she could start mending their relationship and then move on to everyone else. Much mending was needed, and much change was needed too, but she was ready.

And with that thought solidified, she turned away from the mirror and started back to her room. She could feel her father's eyes watching her as she retreated, but the fear in her heart was melting. He was nothing now but a reminder of all the things she didn't want to be.

No, instead It was finally her turn to finally turn everything around into the life she wanted.