Chapter 3: Vapor

Blake's heart felt like it was going to pop right out of her chest. Her form was curled up in a ball, leaning against the wall right next to her open bedroom door. She felt her hands begin to tremble as her liquid-gold eyes widened in fear, staring blankly in front of her. Her Faunus cat ears twisted sideways, but only slightly due to the restriction of her black bow. She gulped down hard, her uneven breath escaping her throat.

A-Adam… How did he find me… after all these years…? Why now? Why couldn't he have just left me alone-?

Another screech of a chair being scraped against the floor echoed, as light thumps of barefoot feet patted a couple of steps. They stopped after a couple of strides. "Who's asking?" Weiss' voice questioned in a little too demanding tone. The three men at the door did look quite intimidating, though apparently their appearance wasn't frightening enough to make the ice princess hold back her tongue. Blake's hand was clasped over her heart, as she breathed steadily in her nose and out her mouth. She poked her head out of her doorway gingerly, not daring to make a sound. Weiss and Ruby's backs faced the noirette, the ice princess' hands on her hips and form now standing next to the youngest girl. Adam's lips twisted into a mischievous grin as he looked down at the two, slightly tilting his fedora with a red-gloved hand.

"So she is here then, that's great. Mind getting her for me?" Adam asked in a fake sweet-sounding voice, the two men accompanying him looking downwards as well at the two girls. "You didn't answer my question, sir," Weiss snapped, the white-haired girl was never used to anyone ignoring her demands. Fuck… Weiss, you don't know who you're talking to, damnit, Blake thought, biting her lips to stop herself from calling out to her, you have to stay hidden, Blake, don't do anything you'll regret… Ruby stood in silence, watching her friend and the man in the middle stare at each other for a moment.

"Watch your tone, sweetheart. I just want to have a little chat with my dear sister, that's all," Adam snarled, his expression twisting in growing annoyance. Blake gasped sharply but quickly muffled her mouth with her palm, her citrine eyes widened. N-no, he wants to take me away n-not talk- Ruby then spoke up and titled her head with curiosity, "Sister? So your Blake's brother? She never told us she had a brother…" Adam let a fleeting laugh escape his lips before they turned back into a smirk, "and she's a smart girl for not telling you. Now step aside, darling." He quirked his head towards his men and nodded for them to search the dorm room. In fear, Blake ducked her head back into her bedroom, only to slowly peer out again when she saw the snow queen hold out a palm for the three men to stop dead in their tracks, as they only had one step inside the room.

"Excuse me, sir. I'm pretty sure if Blake had a brother, she would tell us, we've all been roommates and friends for more than a year now. I'm sorry, but I don't let strangers into my home." Weiss bit back as Adam's face became more irritated. W-Weiss, you need to stop- The red-haired man calmed himself down, his lips curling into a tight smirk. He let out another dry chuckle, "Oh, I may be a stranger to you, but I sure do know about you, princess, way more than you think." Weiss crossed her arms and looked away for a moment, then stared into the man's aviators, almost like she was daring him to go on.

"Weiss Schnee: 20 years old, second daughter of Alaric Schnee, who is the president and founder of the SDC, making you the heiress to the one of the biggest and most influential mining companies in all of Remnant. Your older sister is named Winter, who is a military specialist for the Atlas kingdom, which is where you grew up. Your semblance is using Glyphs and also Summoning, which runs in the family, though you never use it because you have no need to physically fight. This is your second year at Beacon Academy, and you major in Business Administration and Management and minor in Music Theory; you are the top of your class for both courses."

Weiss' form stepped back in shock, her arms now tucked close to her torso as if she was defending herself from the man. Blake's mouth gapped open against her palm. The white-haired girl's body shook a bit and before she was giving the chance to even think about replying to Adam, he turned his head to face Ruby with the same stern expression.

"And you. You're Ruby Rose: 18 years old, daughter of Taiyang Xiao Long, who is a teacher at Signal Academy on the quaint island of Patch, where you grew up. Your mother, Summer Rose, died when you were six years old due to… unconfirmed reasoning, but it was classified as man slaughter. Your semblance is swiftness, you use it quite often to get to and from places like to your classes. You're a first year at Beacon taking Criminology as your major and Robotics and Mechatronics as your minor; you're slightly above average in both courses."

Ruby hands began to visually shake. She stepped backwards like Weiss, who was still standing stiff as a board. Both girls seemed fearful to the stranger's expansive knowledge on them, with Adam just smiling down at the two wickedly. He tapped his finger on his chin facetiously in thought, looking up at the ceiling then back at the girls. "I feel like I'm forgetting something…" Ruby seemed to know what he forgot to mention, her arms panicking and stretching out towards the man to stop. "N-no, please don't…" Ruby's shaky and quiet voice spilled out, but that only made Adam grin even more evilly.

"Ah, that's right. Your older sister."

Blake's Faunus ears twitched suddenly at her brother's words as her head snapped back in surprise. Sister? Ruby has a sister? But she's never told us about her… She always said she was an only child… What… Why would-

"20 years old. Occupation unknown. Location unknown. Whereabouts," Adam paused, his smirk growing, "… unknown. She might as well be dead, if you ask me."

Ruby's hands balled into fists, as her entire body appeared to be in down-cast. She looked away, sniffling lightly. Weiss snapped out of her taken aback state, and furrowed her eyebrows at Adam. She opened her mouth to address the man but was cut off before she could even draw out a breath. Adam looked away from the girls, not seeming to care about their current states, and pushed the two aside while scanning the dorm room. "I've talked for way too long, I'm running out of time. You two," Adam's gloved hand motioned at the men beside him then around the living quarters, "Search the area. A Faunus shouldn't be hard to find. Just know I am not leaving without my sister or else I'll have your heads."

With that said, Blake fell back into her dorm room, her heart pumping blood madly throughout her tense body. N-no, I have to- I have to get out of here-! Weiss' voice was heard, yelling and protesting the men's trespassing, but they seemed to ignore her. Ruby was quietly fazed as she questioned the man's use of 'Faunus' to describe Blake.

The noirette secretly knew this would happen. She knew her once-loving now-corrupt brother would find her and force her go back to her old ways. Even until now, Adam's final words he had said to her on that night three years ago echoed in her head: "This isn't goodbye, sister." She knew her brother well and she knew that he never lies, always truthful with his intentions and words. That's probably what scared her the most about him.

She sprinted from one side to her room to another, looking for certain items with clammy, finicky hands. She felt a bead of sweat form on her brow as she paid close attention to the footsteps that now covered the dorm room. "Hey!" Weiss' voice yelled angrily. There was the muffled sound of hands grabbing fabric, but it was quickly replaced with a loud slap onto flesh and a shriek. "W-Weiss!" Ruby shouted in concern, as the heavy footsteps started up again. Blake gasped and widened her golden eyes, subconsciously poking her head out once more to see what had happened.

Ruby's petite form held up Weiss' shocked and slightly folded body, as the snow-haired girl's right hand rubbed at her now painfully red cheek. Adam sternly peered at the two, a pistol now in his hand pointing straight at them. "We either do this the easy way," he then flicked the gun towards the terrified girls, "or the hard way. So if you don't want the latter, I suggest staying back since you're no help." His henchmen then resumed their search as Adam shifted away, replacing the gun back into the hidden beast pocket of his suit.

Blake didn't have much time. She had to leave, had to leave Weiss and Ruby, who had nothing to do with this yet they still got involved. I'm… I'm so sorry, I'm-

Then the thing she begged not to happen, happened.

"Sir, she's over there, down the hall!" One of Adam's side men called out, hand already into his suit to grab his gun. "Go then! Shoot her legs if you have to but do not kill her!" Adam barked out his orders, the two men bolting down the small hallway towards the noirette's bedroom.

Blake needed to go, she needed to leave as fast as possible. Cursing out loud, she channeled her semblance and managed to create a very undetailed and noticeably fake form of herself, but it was the best she could do in her terrified state. She fell onto the floor, reaching under her bed for her black sling over knapsack. It was packed with items in case of an emergency, if she ever needed to run again. At that moment, it seemed like the best time to take it. Blake quickly slipped it on her back, tugging on a pair of leather-black combat boots. Now standing, she ran and leaped onto the ledge of still open window, clumsily knocking over her ash-tray outside.

Two gunshots rang out as the sound pieced her ears, the bullets shattering pieces of the wall at the end of the hallway. The two grunts finally made it to Blake's bedroom's doorway. One of them shot up the fake dummy that the noirette created, the stray bullets piecing the wooden floor and wall beside Blake. With that as her queue, she turned her body to face the window and dropped out. The two men both sprinted towards Blake only to stop abruptly at the window, as they were too big to crawl though the fully opened window. Blake landed safely on two feet, glancing up at the men who scrambled away from view, running back into the dorm room. Adam could be heard from inside, yelling madly, presumably at his two men, but his voice was soon drained out by the deafening sounds of more gunshots.

Blake didn't have the heart to look back again. So she ran and looked forward. She ran as fast as her body allowed her to. She ran away from her nefarious brother. She ran away from her once peaceful and content life. She ran away from the only two people she could call friends. Who was she kidding? They wouldn't be her friends after this. Who would? I lied about everything. From Adam's existence to me being a Faunus… Now they know everything. It's all my fault and pathetic me is running away from it all. They'll never forgive me.

I am so sorry, so sorry... but this is what I must do.

Blake leaned up against a tree as she took a moment to catch her breath. She ran for what felt like forever, her legs weak and body numb. Despite this, she forced herself to keep walking, to keep moving. After a couple of steps, there was a clearing in the forest she had been sprinting in. Rain soaking her body and face, she squinted at what was in front of her. A hauled train sat on the tracks, with the cart nearest to Blake having its metal, sliding door slightly open. Prefect. The thought of being a stowaway wasn't ideal to her, but for all she knew, Adam could still be on her tail and she needed to get as far away as possible. Blake crouched down behind the tree she was leaning on and attentively listen and looked around for anyone. Her Faunus ears flicked against her bow as a shuffling sound resonated from a bush near the train cart.

A figure appeared out of the bush and was thrown onto the ground in front of the open train cart, her form scrambling on the wet grass. She looked aro und Blake's age, hinted at by her youthful complexion. A gruff, towering beast of a man bent down besides the girl and roughly grabbed and lifted her onto her feet with one hand by her heather-gray sweater. Her messy, long blonde hair was soaked by the rain and grass, but still kept its slight curliness. The bearded man made the girl look at him, his face enraged and the girl slightly curling her bloody lips in return.

"Listen the fuck up, blondie! I've had it up to the rim with you! Just tell me where the fuck it is and maybe I'll let you go unscathed." The grizzly man barked, shaking the weak body of the girl. The young blonde forced out a breathy laugh, smirking.

"It's a little too late for that, dontcha think, dude?"

That earned her a punch square in her gut, which caused more blood to drip out of her mouth.

Blake couldn't watch any longer. She felt sorry for the stranger girl to some degree over the unfair advantage the huge man had on her. She had no idea what they were fighting about but she felt like she had to stop it. But why?

Blake stealth-walked from tree to bush until she was near enough to be able to surprise attack the man in two short strides. She ever so quietly dug her hand into her backpack and grabbed her yellow handkerchief and combo edge pocket knife, wrapping the fabric around the lower part of her face and flicking the blade out of the knife's handle.

"Just shut your fucking mouth and tell me, bitch!"

The blonde lightly chuckled.

"Oh, I seeeee… I'm a bitch now… You know, I was thinking about spilling the beans, but well since I'm a bitch… i guess you can go fuck yourself."

The girl then aimed and spit the blood pooling on her lips at the bearish man. Knowing that that was what was going to set off the man, Blake mustered the last remaining amount of energy she had and shot out of her hiding place behind the bushes. She flipped the knife so that the handle was facing away from her and jumped towards the two, knocking the bearded man out with one blow to his temple with the hilt of the knife. She landed ungracefully as the bear-man crashed to the earth, his heavy body laying unconscious. The noirette's chest heaved, as she knelt on the ground and flicked the blade back into its handle. The blonde girl's face flushed with shock, and took a moment to catch her breath also. Her glistening lilac eyes met with amber, but before words were exchanged, the train's horn honked twice as the train itself was set in motion.

"Oh shit, you boarding this train?" The girl questioned and wiped some blood away from her lips, getting up onto her converse-clad feet shakily. The noirette's mind still dizzy, all she could do was nod. "Alright, we gotta go then!" The purple-eyed girl grabbed the weak Blake by the arm, struggling to keep up with the girl's fast pace. The girl released her grip on Blake when they were close enough to the train and yanked open the metal door just enough for the two girls to shimmy their way inside the desolate cart. The blonde girl first hopped in, but then turned around and extended her arm to help Blake inside. She sloppily grasped her left foreman, the girl letting out a grunt as she pulled the noirette inside. The two girls laid on the undoubtedly dirty wooden floor of the empty cart, wheezing and huffing to catch their breath. Blake was the first to get up, shifting away from the stranger that accompanied her.

The girl wiped her brow then her lips with the back of her sweater sleeve, looking at the newly formed blood stain. "Pheeewww... that was sure was fun. Don't think I'll be invited to his birthday party anytime soon... anyways, thanks for your help back there, I really-"

The blonde's sentence was cut off by the sound of a pocket knife being flicked open. Her wide lilac eyes peered at the handkerchief-covered noirette pointing her blade at her. Blake's hand trembled slightly, as her muffed voice spoke out.

"You… Who are you?"

Gasp, 2 updates in 2 days? Yeah, sorry, don't get used to it. I was just really in the mood to write so that's what I did.

Amazing what you can achieve with motivation... Now only if I could do the same with my physics homework ;A;

So, here we finally have some Blake and Yang interaction, yay! Not off to a good start for the ladies but well, we'll just have to see how they progress.

ANYWAYS!

Thanks for the new favs and follows, y'all are fucking amazeballs.

AND FUCK YEAH REVIEWERS! You guys are special eggs :)

If you're new and you're enjoying the fic shoot me a fav, follow or both. Both's good too.

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...Right?

Okay dokie, with that said, peace out till next chap! B)