A/N: I've been excited for this chapter, but I'm not sure how well it's going to turn out. It's another pretty farfetched one, and I know I'm jumping around quite a bit. I'll have more to talk about at the end.

All I want to do is stay like that with her forever.

As my shoulders relax and the tears stops spilling from my eyes, I feel her tighten even more. I can't describe the safety and comfort I feel whenever I'm wrapped up in her arms. It's like laying down in the softest bed you can think of: my heart slows down, any aches work themselves out, and if I'm left on my own with no distractions… I fall asleep.

"Blake… do you remember the day we first met?"

For a moment… I'm puzzled. I pull back to look up at her, my brow furrowing. This isn't the first time Yang has asked a question out of the blue.

But… Yes. Of course I remember that day. It's burned into my brain for both wonderful and terrible reasons at the same time.

I know that Yang can sense my hesitation. "We don't have to talk about it…"

I let out a shaky breath. "The best and worst day of my life."

"I know. But I'm here. Just relax. We'll walk through it together." She tenderly plants a kiss to my forehead, then up higher to each of my cat ears.

…

I was in Adam's apartment with the Lieutenant, reading a magazine with the news on. Me reclining across the leather couch. The news had nothing interesting to offer- just a few bits and pieces about the Grimm war, and a story on the recent city-wide renovations happening in Vale.

The magazine, on the other hand, was about fashion that flaunts Faunus features in a sleek but occasionally discreet way. I was ashamed to admit that I actually preferred going out in public with my bow on. It's not that I don't like my Faunus traits… it's just that humans weren't (and still aren't) ready to completely accept the Faunus into society. I had to admit, though, that the fashion designers I was reading about knew what they were doing. A dapper business cap with slots in it for antlered Faunus. Pants with holes cut for the bushy tails of foxes. Low-cut shirts to accent the feathers that bird Faunus so often grew from the nape of the neck down. Just like Hawk.

Hawk. I had been thinking about her immensely for the past month since she'd been shot and killed in action.

I sighed, looking up from the magazine at the flat screen TV on a glass stand. The LT was sitting on a low granite countertop that doubled as a bar for us. The apartment was pretty basic, since we spent so little time in it. We could've afforded a penthouse in downtown Vale, but that's conspicuous, and very much unneeded.

I stood, throwing the magazine on the stained wood coffee table and crossing the kitchen to a black refrigerator.

Adam burst in at that moment, with the door barely having enough time to shut before he started talking. Commanding.

"Get your gear. Civilian loadouts, but keep your field gear with you." He was making a beeline for his bedroom. Well, our bedroom, but he insisted that it was 'his.' Even though we shared the same bed, closet, and bathroom. It… never really bothered me that much, since I still had a bed to sleep in, and a warm body to lay next to. I guess in my own mind I still viewed it as "our" bed.

I put the glass I had pulled from the plain white cabinets down. "Adam. What's going on?"

"Big things, darling. This is going to be a great day for the Faunus."

I did as he told me, putting on thick black slacks and a sturdy belt that would support my pistol. I tucked the slacks into knee-high boots and attached the black boot knife that I had when I defended Sage. This time, I donned a classy white button-down with the sleeves rolled and pressed to just below my elbows. As always, ribbons wrapped around my wrists to hide my White Fang tattoo, and the bow to hide my cat ears. I looked myself over in the mirror, making sure that nobody would obviously recognize me as Faunus and that my weapons and my tattoo were more than concealed.

My pistol weighed especially heavy on my hip as I followed Adam down to our truck less than an hour later. We each tossed our gearbags into the bed. Each gearbag contained the equipment we would use if we were going out into the field, and expecting Grimm attacks. Armor, plate carriers, more ammunition, trauma kits, you name it.

But that's what you expect from military contractors, right?

…

"There's our target." Adam pointed across the street from the parking lot where the truck was. I saw a silver-haired man talking to a woman in a tan pantsuit. Beside the man was a teenage boy- I'd guess 14 or 15 at the time. He reminded me of Sage, simply by age and build. Only this kid had no interest in what the other two were talking about. He looked like the man's son- similar hair, similar dress. Glancing at other people passing by, offering a wave to another child babbling on beside her parents. Once or twice, I watched him force a smile and a nod to his father, only to turn away with a frown shortly after.

"Target? What do you mean 'target'?" I shot him a suspicious glance. "Adam, what's going on?"

"His name is Jacques Schnee. We have just been paid a hefty sum of money to make sure that he's not home for dinner tonight." He… was smiling. Enjoying the idea of doing this to another human being. "This is the man who owns half of the industry in Atlas, and gets rich on the blood and tears of Faunus." He paused. "Today will be a day that the Faunus remember."

I opened my mouth to ask him what exactly he meant by that, but he cut me off before I could speak.

"Here's the plan. LT, you've got the grab. Blake, you're in the truck for the pickup.. I'll make a distraction and double back after it plans out."

Nausea rolled in my stomach. Saying that we were being paid to make sure he "doesn't come home for dinner tonight" sounded like a kidnapping job. Sure… a part of me thought he might've meant more, but at the time, I didn't put a stop to it or voice my opinion.

At the same time… the uneasiness faded when I remembered that this man had gotten rich off of extorting Faunus workers… I'd seen the vids, read the articles, stayed in touch with friends back in Menagerie. Call it anger. Blind anger.

…

"Blake, you're blaming yourself for that." I hear Yang whisper. Her arms are still wrapped tightly around me, as I lay my head on her shoulder.

My eyes are closed, and my mind keeps running through those events no matter how hard I try to stop it. "I could've put a stop to it. Nobody would've gotten hurt…"

"You hadn't known anything else but him. You followed him, but you did get away, Blake. That takes a lot of strength…" She pulls away enough to look at me, nudging my chin up so that our eyes lock.

I can't look into those eyes of hers. Those loving, caring, trusting, 'I won't ever let anything ever happen to you' seas of lilac…. "You don't understand… I didn't just run, Yang. You know what happened…"

"I do… but you were so much stronger than you think, sweetheart… Believe me when I tell you that. Please…"

…

I don't remember all the details of how things started to go south. My body was there, but my mind wandered somewhere else. Zero focus. People get killed when you lose focus.

The next thing I remember concretely was Adam jumping back into the truck with a fresh red stain on his sleeve. The LT throwing the kid that was with Jacques into the back seat, and wrestling him down to tie his hands and feet. The flash of malice that bolted through me, remembering Jacques and what his company did to my race.

The truck was already running. I slammed it into gear and drove away, taking turns and backroads to lose any tail that might've followed us. Adam told me to go to "the warehouse," a small shipping center that we had bought specifically to store our equipment. It was our base of operations, but we didn't live there. Just used it when we needed it.

I took a roundabout way to get there, and ended up driving through a curvy, wooded area with newly fallen leaves down on the road. I heard the scuffing of clothes followed by a sharp breath in the backseat. When I looked in the rearview mirror, I saw the boy's ice-blue eyes, nervously glancing between me and Adam.

"W-where are you taking me?" He was stuttering. Frightened.

Adam barely turned his head to respond to him. "Shut it."

"Are… y-you going to kill me?"

Adam turned in his seat. He was already irritated, and the boy's whine only made it worse. "Whitley, I will not hesitate to if you don't keep that privileged trap of yours shut."

"B-but… my fath-"

His next sentence is interrupted by the LT's elbow connecting with his temple.

He… Whitley didn't say much, even after we pulled up to the loading bay door of the warehouse and hauled him out of the back seat of the truck. I noticed that he was sobbing, whimpering… tears soaking his face even as the LT dragged him in and I shut the door. We put him in a cold metal chair near one of the walls of the warehouse, between a side door and a shipping container, speckled with rust. The warehouse was dark, and we kept it that way. No need for lots of light when you have Faunus night vision. Whitley could probably only see shadows moving around, and could only hear the echoing voices connected with them.

My Faunus hearing also let me listen in on Adam and the LT talking on the complete opposite side of the warehouse. I doubt Whitley could've heard it. They were in one corner, distanced by faded shipping crates and pallets. I was in the far opposite corner, watching Whitley fidget against handcuffs that only started to rub his skin raw.

"This is bad, Adam."

"Yeah. I know." Adam's words were rushed. Like he was stressed. Letting emotions show through.. "I just don't know what we do with him now."

"You know what I want to do."

"I know. I want to as well. But this wasn't exactly covert or anything."

"Nobody saw us when we came here."

"You don't know that, LT."

"I say we kill him, and leave. Let the body rot. Make it a warning."

There was a long pause. The silence of the warehouse was deafening. I could hear mice in the rafters, scurrying across the girders.

"Fine. We'll do it. Send a sort of... message."

"Good."

Whitley spoke to me just then. "What do you want from me?"

I… didn't respond. I didn't know what I'd say.

"Is it about my father's company? What it does to Faunus workers?"

Bile in my throat. "What do you know about the Faunus?"

"I…" He gasped, pulling at the restraints as they only cut deeper into his skin. "I hate the violence between Faunus and the Schnees, but I only want to run the company some day!"

I could sense truth in what he was saying. Nobody gets that strung out and emotional…

"Please… just let me go, and I'll make this right…"

I heard the footsteps, one by one. Adam and the LT reappearing behind me, and all of us staring at Whitley with crossed arms as he shakes beneath us.

I don't know what finally got to me about it… Seeing the color drain from Whitley's face, or watching Adam slowly draw the knife.

"Wait… Adam. This is wrong."

"What?" Adam turned to me with a look of disbelief.

"We… We protect people. Like Sage and Penny. We watch out for fellow Faunus… but we don't kill children for them." My throat constricted, stifling the words as Adam stepped up to me, as if every passing word was dragging me deeper into some kind of pit.

"So. You're sympathizing with a human. This is what you've become, dear. Tell me something… what does his life matter to you?" He points to Whitley, who jumps backwards in the chair when Adam's arm comes up. "Are you telling me that he means something to you now? A human whose family persecutes and extorts your race?"

I looked away. I couldn't bring myself to look into Adam's eyes.

"That's what I thought." He turns the knife in his hands so that he's gripping it gingerly by the blade, offering the handle to me. "Prove to me that you're strong for the Faunus. Take this knife, and cut his throat. Stab him through the heart. Carve his baby blues out. His life is yours to take."

I stared at it, the polymer handle connected to a serrated red and black blade..

"I... "

Just like Hawk… It's all there. The memories. Like they're playing out right in front of me, right here, right now….

"Don't you hesitate on me now, darling." He stepped closer. The knife got closer.

I… I froze. Couldn't move a muscle even though every single one is all of a sudden telling me to get away. To run.

I saw Adam's eyes flare, silently looking me over, judging me. I wondered where he would hit me next. It's… it's a look I was all too familiar with.

It came across my cheek, high by my jawbone. The back of his knuckles stinging my skin and forcing my head to the side. In an instant, I knew it was going to leave a black eye.

"He's just a kid!" I shouted when I clutched my cheek and reeled back from the strike. "Who he is or what his family has done doesn't matter!"

The LT shoved me out of the way and grabbed Adam's knife. Even though Adam just hit me, I lunged at the LT. I couldn't let him do it.

Adam snatched up my wrists and held me back. I was screaming… telling… begging the LT to stop. "If you kill him… you're no better than they are!"

Whitley was shaking his head. Muttering something that sounded like "No" over and over again. He called for his mother. His father. Somebody named "Winter." And someone else named "Weiss."

I tried to surge forward one final time to stop the LT as he raises the knife, as if about to bring an icepick down on a block of frozen tuna. If I were just three feet closer… I could've stopped him.

"Stop! Please, stop… Don't do this…" I hoped and prayed that my eyes were deceiving me… even when I specifically remember the sound of the blade sinking cleanly and gently into the crook of Whitley's neck.

I was crying. Shouting. Cursing Adam and the White Fang and the LT and every single moral I'd ever thought I possessed.

…

Yang squeezes me again. "Blake. Come back to me. I'm right here…"

I'm shaking. Starting to sweat at the memory. I don't respond to Yang.

She's seen this before, when I first opened up to her about my past. I feel her gently pick me up and carry me in to the king-sized master bedroom- the only bedroom in the apartment. She nudges me to sit down, and then she kneels in front of me, gathering my hands in hers. I feel her lace our fingers together.

I look down at our hands, my hair falling down like a black veil covering my face. Yang reaches up with a free hand and parts it, sweeping it back over my shoulder and caressing my cheek on the way back down.

"Adam… he hurt me, Yang."

"I know, kitten."

"He... told me how much of a coward I was and how I was a disgrace to all the Faunus…"

"But you and I both know that he was wrong. Lying. Clean through his teeth." Yang shifts forward and leans her forehead against mine.

I take in a breath and let it out in a shaky sigh. "Then… you found me, Yang."

…

My body was trying to shut down. Grief, maybe? Hopelessness? I collapsed to the ground when Adam finally let go of me. After Whitley stopped crying. I was crushed by feelings of regret, of failure. Everything I wanted the White Fang to stand for was gone in an instant. Adam kicked me when I was down like that, and I felt my ribs cave in. A shriek escaped my lips, then they were gone. They just left me there on the floor.

But before he left, he told me words that still haunt me today. "You disappoint me, Blake. To think you ever cared about the Faunus…" One more kick, the air forcibly leaving my lungs.

In one foggy instant, it was the last I hoped to see of Adam….

… but there was Whitley. Still breathing, a desperate gasp with blood running out of the side of his mouth.

I got on my hands and knees, and crawled over to him, pulling him down from the chair and to the ground. Everything was still so foggy that I couldn't be sure of what I was doing.

"Pl-please…. I…" He could barely speak… his high tenor voice now pleading and only coming in short waves. I didn't want to think about why.

I just… put pressure on the wound. It hurt him, but… if he had any chance of survival, that's what I had to do. I pressed. And I pressed. And I pressed. I never even realized that he wasn't bleeding anymore. Not because the blood clotted. Because his heart stopped.

My senses came back to me when the side door burst open, and my Faunus night vision was suddenly struck by sunlight.

Shouts. Orders to get on the ground. Orders to show them my hands. Three figures in combat gear with military markings.

I don't know why, but I drew my pistol. Pointed it at the first person I saw. A blonde, tall, with long and wild locks that extended very low on her back. Lilac eyes. Both of them open as she looked through a rifle sight.

To my left… a younger girl sporting black hair with red tips. Her rifle was longer… some kind of sniper rifle that looked similar to the one that Hawk used, just with red accents. Silver eyes, unlike anything I'd ever seen before. She had a patch on her sleeve with a red and black rose emblem.

"Whitley!" The third one… she just made a beeline to the lifeless body next to me. Checking for a pulse. White hair pulled back into a ponytail. On her vest was a nametape that read 'Captain Weiss Schnee.'

This was Whitley's sister….

My gun stayed trained on the blonde… but I wasn't going to pull the trigger. At that point, I was scared. My gun was the only protection I could think of and I held it in a death grip. The sights that I had trained on the center of her chest started shaking.

At that point... The blonde pulled away from her sights, and cocked her head at me. I saw her eyes dance over me… the black eye from a few days before. Maybe my labored breathing or the tears streaming down my face. She lowered her gun, slinging it over her back and coming down to kneel in front of me.

"Yang… Yang. She's got a gun. What are you doing?" The girl with the black and red hair. Her voice was a soprano, but also soft. Genuine care and concern for this Yang echoed through her voice.

"It's alright. Just trust me, Ruby," the blonde replied.

Ruby started to lower her weapon, but Weiss didn't move from Whitley's side. I think she was sobbing. Gun laid forgotten to the side. She reached up and closed Whitley's blue eyes- a blue that mirrored her own. Ruby was standing by her side, her lips pressed into one straight line as she laid a hand on Weiss's shoulder.

"Hey. Easy. I'm not going to hurt you if you don't hurt me. I'm Yang. Yang Xiao Long with Vale Special Forces." She paused, starting to reach out towards the pistol that I still have leveled at her. "What's your name?"

I was extremely leery of giving out names, but… I don't know. I was vulnerable, and hurt. She seemed to be the only anchor in the world at that very moment. "Blake Belladonna…"

"Blake…" Her hand closed over the top of my pistol, gently easing it down to the ground, even as I still had a death grip on it. "What happened to this poor boy? Did you kill him?"

I shook my head. "Adam… Adam and his Lieutenant…"

The gun was touching the cold concrete floor. I started to relax, thinking that maybe these girls weren't such a threat…

"And.. you tried to save him?" Her voice got even softer, her gaze straying to the blood on my hands…

I just nodded.

The Schnee spoke up, her voice harsh and accusing, still looking down at her brother. "I bet she killed him. That's her knife right there. She's lying."

Yang turned to her, that soft voice a moment ago dropping half an octave. "Weiss. Cool it."

"She's a Faunus. She killed my brother. She pointed a gun at you!" I saw Weiss's hand snatch her sidearm out of her holster and point it straight at me. Ruby drew back, as if Weiss's body had suddenly become a raging fire.

I tense, waiting to hear the sound of the shot and feeling the searing heat of the bullet at any moment.

Yang stood and stepped between her and I. "This is up to Ozpin. Not you."

"Get out of the way, Yang."

"No."

…

I come up to meet Yang's lilac gaze. She's smiling, gently running her thumb over the top of my hand. I'm not shaking anymore.

"You were prepared to take a bullet for a girl you didn't even know…"

"But I wanted to. I wanted to get to know the girl who was just betrayed, broken and crying with blood on her hands…" She doesn't stop with the gentle caress.

"I'm so, so lucky to have you in my life, Yang…"

"Shhh…."

I squeeze her hands, hard. Her thumb stops moving over the back of my palm. "Yang. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Yang blinks once, twice, three times… then glances down at our hands, gently turning them over before looking back up at me with a smile. "And I'm so, so lucky to be a part of your life, Blake."

A/N: So... Yeah. Whitley's dead and gone (sorry, Weiss). I know a lot of people hate his guts and are happy to see him gone, but I would caution you to remember that he's still innocent in this fight. And even though in canon he screwed Weiss over... He's still her little brother. Even if you have bad blood with your brother, you'd still be distraught at losing a family member. Aside from that little tidbit... I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!