He took his time walking to the headmaster's office. He really needed to think. Sure, Blake's situation was sketchy, but, well, if she was a threat, she had had plenty of time to complete whatever her objective was.

"Let's be frank," he thought, "if she was White Fang, she'd already have killed Weiss." Not to be mean or anything, but, well, the positive things he could say about Weiss were dwindling day by day. Sure, she was pretty. It was the reason he had tried so hard to date her, or rather, one of the reasons... the main one, actually. Gods, he hated thinking about it. Thing is, the more he got to know her, the more disappointed he got.

Okay, that was unnecessarily harsh. It wasn't that she had an ugly inside, per se. She just had bad experiences and was born in an environment that fomented a type of... unfortunate behavior. It was unfair of him to judge her based on whatever mental image he had built inside his mind. It didn't help that she was constantly undermining his best friend.

He took a moment to think about his fellow team leader. Ruby was, in one word, great. She was strong, she was honest, she was a little idealistic perhaps, but even if her whole team believed it (which he doubted), she was not naive. Perhaps a little immature, but who wasn't? She had a good head on her shoulders and was good enough to use her teammates' talents effectively.

He had talked with her after Professor Port's morality class. He... he had been worried about her. Not out of a condescending need to make sure the "child" was okay or whatever, but as a fellow team leader. Because, as much as Weiss (he swears he doesn't hate her) liked to chastise her, Jaune saw her as a good leader and perhaps even more important, as a good person. He couldn't stress it enough—Ruby always, and he meant always, made time to look out for people. She was, in his opinion, what every Huntsman should aspire to be. He had also noticed that she was prone to being unnecessarily hard on herself, especially with themes like this when she couldn't get a concrete answer to something she believed she should know. So he talked to her. He had been surprised at the depth of her thought process. They had talked about individual morality and how it could change when they were in charge of their respective teams. He had learned that Ruby was a staunch believer in categorical morality. She thought quite firmly that killing someone was a bad thing independently of the good that might come out of it. Yet she recognized that in the future, when she acted as a team leader, she'd have to surrender her morality for the good of the people in her care, both team members and civilians. It was a really long and hard talk to have, but they had helped each other through it.

He got sidetracked.

He'd have to talk to her about Blake. Perhaps about Weiss too. She was giving her way too much leeway. It was okay for her to think she would make a better leader, even if said belief had no basis in reality. It was another thing to not respect or even undermine her authority.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he arrived at the headmaster's elevator without noticing. It was a voice he had gotten quite familiar with that took him out of his reverie.

"Everything okay, Mr. Arc?" the deputy headmistress asked.

He shook his head. "Not really. I, ah... I need to talk to the headmaster," he said, "up there, I mean," gesturing to the headmaster's office.

"I see. I'm afraid Professor Ozpin is currently in a council meeting. However, I'm more than willing to assist you. Is there something I can help you with?" Miss Goodwitch asked.

He thought for a bit. He was pretty sure that if the headmaster knew about Blake, Ms. Goodwitch would know too, so he decided to go ahead and talk to her.

"I think so, yes. It is a rather private matter, though. Is there somewhere we can talk?"

She nodded. "Come along."

They walked for a bit, and she took him to what he guessed was the teachers' lounge. It was, of course, empty. He didn't know if it was because no other professors stayed at Beacon over the weekend or if it just so happened to be that way. Not that it mattered to him.

"Have a seat, Mr. Arc," she said. They had absconded to one of the tables situated at the corner of the lounge, their backs to the wall allowing them a clear view of the whole room, in case someone else entered, he assumed. "May I offer you a beverage?"

He was about to say no when the better part of him thought better. "Sure, it might do me some good. Tea is just fine," he said.

She took her time preparing some for both of them and, once finished, sat down. "So, how may I help you today, Mr. Arc?" she asked.

In lieu of an answer, Jaune handed her the pictures he had taken with him. The pictures Ren and Nora had downloaded and printed in Beacon's library. The very accessible pictures that could turn a small yet significant part of the school against one of his friends. He had elected not to dwell on that side of the consequences of his team finding them when he had devised his plan, more in an effort not to worry his friends than anything else. He had been the target of one of Beacon's bullies, and he happened to know exactly how said bully felt about faunus. Jaune was confident in his ability to predict what would happen if more like-minded individuals got their hands on said pictures.

"I see..." the deputy headmistress said, her face carefully blank, suspiciously blank even.

"Miss Goodwitch... Did you know? Does the headmaster know?"

She nodded. "Of course."

Okay, that is one worry less. At least the higher-ups were not as in the dark as them. He followed up with the next obvious question, "Is she a part of the organization?"

"I'm afraid, Mr. Arc, that is something I am not at liberty to divulge, especially to someone not on her team," she said. "What I can tell you is that due to their actions over the past couple of years, the White Fang has been marked as a quasi-terrorist organization. We cannot enroll anyone currently under their banner."

Uff, okay. He didn't want to waste time doing the mental gymnastics necessary to reconcile the fact that she could not tell him, even when she did, in fact, tell him. There were far more important things to ask. "Was her team leader informed?" If the faculty knew, it would make sense that the higher-ranked person on the team knew, right?

"No. She was not." Her expression remained the same, but her tone did not. She was no more a fan of this than he was.

"What? Why?"

"The controversial nature of Miss Belladonna's parents' alliances made it so only authorized personnel were kept abreast. Furthermore, it was decided that Miss Belladonna's past affiliations were hers to share. Her team leader did not need to be read-in to form a cohesive unit."

Setting aside the fact that she had disposed of all pretenses about Blake's White Fang past, he was honestly flabbergasted. Not only by the willingness with which the information was handed to him, but also by the shortsightedness of the decision. He had no doubt about his best friend's capabilities as a team leader, so yes, he could see her forming a 'cohesive unit.' But surely they could see the consequences of this getting out. It was not a problem right now, but it would be in the future, no ifs, ands, or buts.

He had the information he needed, and he could easily say his thanks and walk away. There was something that kept nagging at the back of his head, though.

"What would happen should this information be made public? Team RWBY is so far the strongest of the first-year teams, maybe even beyond that. Surely contingencies have been made to prevent harassment. The less said about possible disbandment, the better." They both knew exactly who was part of Team RWBY. In-fighting was a known cause of team fracture.

She took a calm sip of her tea, looking at him in consideration. "The headmaster has complete confidence in the abilities of young Ms. Rose to keep her team together."

He waited a couple of seconds, expecting some type of further explanation. When nothing was offered, he thanked her for her time and left, walking slowly back to Team RWBY's room.

That was exactly what he did not want to hear. He didn't like this, at all. Things weren't adding up. There were too many eyes on Team RWBY, too many coincidences to ignore. Even if he dismissed the Faunus v Schnee side. Was it a coincidence that both girls were born into the most influential families, both Faunus and humans alike? The Schnees were obvious to non-Faunus, but he had read about the Belladonnas. Ghira had not only founded the W.F., he was the current chieftain of Kuo Kuana. They had the youngest team leader of the last couple of decades who had the complete confidence of one of the most powerful men on the planet, a man she had only met once a couple of months ago. What was Yang's place in all this? She had a different mother than Ruby. Was that the loose end?

This was the exact reason he did not like letting his mind go wild. He was probably imagining things. He still had to talk to Ruby, though, so once he made his way to the room, he wasted little time. He knocked and, once he received the okay, popped his head in.

"Hey, guys," he said, receiving the usual chorus of 'heys' and 'hi's'. His team did put a lot more intensity on the looks aimed at him, though, so he moved along with the plan. "Everything went fine," he said to let them relax.

"Hey, Vb! Heard you had to talk with the headmaster. Everything alright? The guys were really tight-lipped about it," Yang asked. Normally, he'd find it strange, but well, Yang was a special case. She worried. He attributed it to the fact that he was Ruby's friend and whatever happened to him would affect her little sister. She was endearingly protective, bordering on obsessive at times.

"'Twas fine. I just wanted to ask about inscribing a long-range weapon. Figured I had to fill up some paperwork. The headmaster was busy actually. Ms. Goodwitch was able to help me, though." It wasn't that far-fetched a lie. He had been thinking about adding a firearm to his arsenal.

That got the attention of most of the room, especially from Ruby, so he took the opportunity he had created as a convenient excuse. "Actually, Rubs, care to help me a bit? I'm having a bit of trouble choosing. I was at the IronShield Armory headquarters today, and they practically shoved their magazines at me. Figured it was a nice place to start," he said.

"Of course! Let's go, LET'S GO!" she said, practically dragging him out of the room.

Once inside his room, Jaune collected the magazines and handed them to her. She had sat herself on his bed; they usually used it whenever a new issue of X-Ray and Vav came out. She surprised him by not perusing through them right away.

"So, what is this about?" she asked.

"...what?" eloquent as ever.

"Come on, Jaune, give me at least some credit. We both know that you would have researched the topic enough to pick a gun on your own. The only reason to get me here would be to show me the specific shotgun you chose." She smiled, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He wasn't going to lie, it was nice to be thought so highly of. Ruby knew her weapons, and her trust in him to choose the most effective weapon for his current team gave him the weirdest sense of pride. And he had indeed chosen a shotgun, more for the additional control it gave him on the field thanks to the sheer variety of Dust shells available. "That or to get me away from the rest of the guys. Besides, your team was acting weird. No one talks that much with Weiss willingly. Gotta give it to her, though. Pyrrha was actually trying to listen. As a side note, you should really talk to Nora. I don't know what this is about, but she was staring at Blake pretty hard. I'm pretty sure she noticed too, probably chalked it up to Nora being Nora." She shrugged. "So, what is this about?"

"Darn it, Nora," he thought with a sigh, sitting himself on the ground, his back leaning firmly against Pyrrha's bed.

"Ok, so earlier today, Nora and Ren found this," he said, handing her the pictures. "I'm sure you can more or less get where this is going," he added.

"Blake is a Faunus?" she asked. It took her a frighteningly short amount of time to get there. She was far more familiar with Blake than he was, though. She sounded a little hurt at her teammate's unwillingness to come clean, if he had to guess.

"Yes," he answered. "It goes a little further than that, though," he added. "Her father," he pointed at the big guy, "is the founder of the White Fang," he said, better to rip the band-aid off as fast as possible.

"...oh," she said, hugging her knees to her chest. He decided to walk up and sit next to her, offering a modicum of support.

"Yeah," he could practically see her brain going into overdrive. "Look, I talked to Miss Goodwitch. She assured me that Blake isn't currently part of the White Fang," he tried to reassure her.

She groaned. "So she was part of it," she said. "Any idea why?"

"It looks like it. And not a clue, her parents maybe, you should ask her," anything else he could say would be pure speculation.

"They should have told me," she protested. "Weiss is going to blow a gasket."

"My thoughts exactly."

"I'm assuming you haven't confronted her," she said.

"Wouldn't dream of it. This is your team, after all. No need to poke my nose in, more than I already have in any case."

"Good." She sighed. "What... what do you think I should do?" she looked so small.

"I have no idea," he shrugged. He didn't actually want to tell her what he'd do, this was the type of situation where he was supposed to help her come to a plan of action of her own, or at least that was what his sisters always said. "What do you want to do?"

"Does falling asleep and waking up with this being a bad dream count?"

He laughed. "Wouldn't that be nice, but no."

"Then I want to fix this," she said. "Actually, I want to know what the heck was going through her head joining the White Fang in the first place." She sighed. "I... I guess I should talk to her first, huh? To understand, I mean."

"Yeah, you should," he nodded. "Hopefully away from Weiss. I don't think this would go great with both of them in the same room."

She snorted. "Well, duh. I don't think Yang would like that either."

"Yang has problems with the White Fang?" he asked, a little surprised.

"What? No. She has problems with Weiss," she explained.

"Aah, yeah, I can see that," he nodded. It made sense. Yang would crush anyone else speaking to Ruby like he had heard Weiss doing.

"Don't be like that. She isn't that bad. She's just... very prickly."

"I'll take your word for it." He was not going to hold his breath waiting for Weiss to turn into a nicer human being.

"Just trust me, okay? She's good. It's just hard for her to trust in, well, anyone but herself really. I think... I think she's been alone for so long she forgets she can rely on us now," she said pensively.

"You planning to expand on that?" his contact with Weiss had been kept to a minimum out of pure shame on his part.

"Not really, you'll see eventually. I'm sure of it!"

"Back on topic, you need backup? To talk to Blake, I mean. I get why asking the rest of your team could be... volatile, but JNPR can help."

"You think she is a flight risk?" Ruby asked.

"I wouldn't discount the possibility, no," she always seemed a little skittish. "Might be a good idea to talk to her somewhere she won't become one."

"...no, I don't think that would be a good idea. If she feels even a little trapped, she'll bolt. Trust me."

"Hey, it's your teammate, you know her best," he said, shrugging.

She seemed to slump even harder. Really, putting that much weight on such small shoulders didn't sit well with him, even if he knew she could take it.

"For what it's worth, Team JNPR is behind you guys. Come what may," he said. He was pretty sure they could be considered a big eight-man team by now.

"Thanks... gods, this is going to get ugly." He could imagine. He had heard Weiss talking about the White Fang; it wasn't pretty, even less now, knowing that all this time Blake was quietly listening. "If you guys could get a hang of these photos..."

"Everyone can," he confirmed.

"Team Cardinal is going to be a pain in the butt when they get wind of this."

"Yeah... don't worry though, if they get too out of line, I can run interference. You worry about Weiss and Blake, okay? It's the least I can do."

"Are... are you sure? I know you and Cardin don't get along, but... I don't want you guys to be at each other's throats because of... well, this," she said, moving the photos around.

He gave her a side hug. "That's what we're here for, Craterface." He stood up. "We better get back. Yang's gotta be getting ready to burst in."

She snorted. "You are probably right." She said, standing up too.

They opened RWBY's dorm room to total pandemonium. Sadly, it wasn't of the fun kind.

There, standing by the window, was Yang, looking totally dumbfounded at her hand, or more precisely, at the ribbon in her grasp. Nora and Ren were looking out the window to the forest, while Pyrrha... well, Yang wasn't the only one looking in stupor at her hand. Judging by the red imprint on Weiss's face, he would hazard a guess about what happened. It didn't detract from his surprise.

"What the f-"

"Blake!" Yang exclaimed. "Ruby, she..." It was the first time he had seen her out of sorts.

Ruby was struggling with the situation too. She looked petrified, and so incredibly sad he had to turn his face elsewhere. To his surprise, he could see some sort of panic in Yang's face too. She did a far better job masking it, though. He didn't know why, and he didn't have the time to ask either. More than anything in this moment, he felt that Ruby needed someone to rely on. So he did what he could. He took charge.

"Ren, Nora, what's the situation?" he practically barked.

"She pulled a runner, boss." What was she, a thug?

"She's heading to the forest," Ren added. He sounded troubled.

"Bullheads should be done for the day," he said, doing his best to come up with a course of action. "Still, I need you both to head to the hangar. If she knows how to pilot one, she'll head there," he ordered. "The objective remains the same," he added, almost like an afterthought.

They both left the room. He could hear them run right after closing the door.

He put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "You good?" he asked.

"Not really." She sounded like she wasn't even there, if that was in any way possible.

"Want to call Miss Goodwitch? I'm sure the faculty has some sort of monitoring device in the forest." He was pulling that information right from his ass. Sure, the faculty monitored the Emerald Forest, but Blake was running in the opposite direction.

"I... I don't..."

She hesitated. He couldn't blame her. They had just been talking about how to avoid something like this from happening. Calling Ms. Goodwitch now would only worsen the situation. They could still salvage it if they got their hands on Blake somehow.

"Hey, it's okay," he reassured. "We'll look for her first, keep this as a team exercise or whatever. If she doesn't show, we'll call, yeah?"

She gave a long sigh. "Okay," she said, slapping herself on both cheeks. That seemed to wake her up. She turned into a flurry of movement. "Yang, Weiss, we are combing the forest. Jaune is right, if she doesn't show up at the hangar, that's the only place to go." He was fairly sure they were both working on the premise that she wanted to run away. There was always the slim chance of her hiding in one of the classrooms, waiting for the morning bullhead, but by then Ms. Goodwitch would have been notified. "If she is distressed enough to run, entering the forest can turn dangerous fast. Set your lockers to the border. We are moving," she instructed, giving him a small nod.

"Pyrrha, you are with me," he stated. "Rubs, we'll take the northwest. You guys go southwest. She should be heading to Vale. Keep the comms on your scroll up, yeah?" he said, trying as best as he could to sound like he knew what he was doing.

With that, they ran as fast as they could without exhausting themselves. Entering the forest wasn't the best of ideas during the daytime, let alone now that night was falling. The possibilities of running into Grimm were high enough that it might as well be a certainty. They separated a couple hundred feet within the forest. They had managed to link scrolls and set comm channels, so they should, in theory, be able to relay information without issue.

"So," he started, "want to tell me what all that was about?" he asked his partner. They were advancing through the forest as fast as they could while surveying their surroundings, looking for any sign of recent movement.

She looked uncomfortable. "Weiss was being... herself," she said. "She wasn't being purposely inflammatory, I think. It was more like a continuous anti-White Fang/Faunus diatribe that blew out of proportion."

"It was enough for you to slap her," he pointed out.

"Believe it or not, I've gotten very good at ignoring pointless chattering, especially from someone whose political stance is as biased as it can become when there is no interest in searching for the truth beyond what other people tell you it is." Okay, that was a new record. It was as far as he had heard his partner go without straight up insulting someone.

"Then why..." he led on.

"It's what she said after Blake took off. I... it's hard for me to imagine a situation in which any member of our team would be so dismissive." Now, if he was anyone else, he'd probably not notice how pissed his partner was. But well, even without her more subtle tells, he could practically hear the strain she was putting on Milo's grip.

"Do I want to know what she said?" he asked.

"Good. Riddance." his partner said. There was a bite in her voice he was not used to hearing.

"Uff," that was not good, not good at all.

"Exactly. Now, I recognize that hitting anyone outside of training like that is wrong. I was wrong, and I will apologize," she affirmed. He was completely on the same page as her at this point at least. "It's just, I can sympathize with the fact that sometimes your actions, even when taken with the best of intentions, can bring unwanted consequences. I'd like to think that Blake did not join the WF because she wanted to bomb places or rob dust stores but to help. She did try to defend what the organization was meant to represent, but that and what it currently is are two different things. Nevertheless, she deserves at the very least the benefit of the doubt," she sighed. "I still can't believe I slapped her."

"Oh, believe me, no one can," he chuckled. It was a serious affair to be sure, but he found it humorous nonetheless.

"It happened so fast!" she said. "One second, I was trying to get them to calm down, the next Blake had jumped out and Weiss was touching her red cheek." She slumped a little and still somehow kept pace. "I blame you, by the way. A couple of months ago, I would have never thought about doing anything of the sort."

"Uh uh, nope, no way. I am not taking the fall for that one. I am already looking at whatever hellish punishment Ms. G gives us. I don't need any more punishment, thank you very much."

"You think she'll figure out what happened?"

"Think? Woman, I know she will. She has access to the locker logs. Even if she doesn't get the specifics, she will know that five of us used them and where they went. We better make this quick. The faster we get back, the more time I get to beg for mercy."

She seemed supremely amused. So he had to ask, "You do know you will be punished too, right?"

"Me? I doubt it. I was under my leader's orders, after all," she smiled.

"... you wouldn't."

"I would. I will."

"The audacity of some people. On that note, Pyrrha, I need you to go all out in this one. We find her, we subdue her, and we get back. There will be time to talk later."

She seemed surprised. "I thought you'd like to convince her first."

"Well... look, it's like this. You are not on board with how Weiss acted, yes?" She nodded. "I am not at all impressed with how Blake acted either."

"You... are angry... at Blake?"

"Incredibly angry. Yes."

"Okay, I think the correct term here is 'I'll bite.' Why are you angry?"

"It's a little hard to explain, actually," he said, trying to find words to explain. "I guess it just kind of clicked in my head, the type of person she is, I mean. Or at least the type of person I think she is? Look, it's weird, okay?"

"Jaune, weren't you the one that said that partners tell each other everything?"

"I... am fairly sure I have never said that."

"You implied it."

"You inferred it."

"You will tell me."

"I guess I will. To put it succinctly, she is a drifter," he shrugged. "She drifts. We get people like that in Ansel every once in a while. I just never put together the 'pieces.' Until now, that is."

"The pieces?"

"The way she carries herself. You know, independent to the point of being antisocial, always making a point of not getting too close to anyone. Never letting anyone get too close to her either, like she is not willing to commit to something she knows she will leave behind eventually. I've been in RWBY's room a good couple of times. Yang has a lot of posters and clothes and magazines, so does Ruby. Weiss practically dragged her walking closet. Blake? Not even a photo. And now? The way she just got up and left? The willingness to leave everything behind is not something just anyone can muster. Believe me, I went through with it. Of course, I can be totally wrong here. I do tend to get too in my head most of the time."

"I see." At least she didn't sound condemning. "How does that translate into you being angry with her? I got a little lost."

"That's easy. I think Ruby deserves better. Simple as that."

"Come on, Jaune, talk to me. I don't live inside your head. You need to use your words." He rolled his eyes. They had indeed talked about it. More along the lines of telling each other stories of their childhoods than anything else, but they had talked about it.

"Simple really. I don't want my best friend—outside the team—having someone like that watching her back. I... Well, I don't trust her to do it. If her first instinct when faced with trouble is to run away, what will happen next time? We are training to be Huntsmen; trouble is always there. What if her running away means leaving the rest of the team to the wolves? Will she care enough to stay with them? It goes further, though. This, all this, is conjecture. It can easily be dismissed as the ramblings of a hyperactive mind. You didn't see them, though. You didn't see Ruby when she realized Blake had left. I don't have a clue what happened in Ruby's life to react like that. She's talked very little about her growing years with me, but the look on her face... She was... the closest I can get to it would be heartbroken. Even if for a little bit. I don't want someone who is prone to run away near someone who suffers like that every time someone leaves. Is it my place to decide? Not at all. It is what I feel, though. So yeah, I am angry at her, not even for leaving, just for, you know, hurting Ruby in the process."

"Not that I side with her, but you have to recognize, she didn't have too many options, did she?"

He snorted. "Of course she had. She was in a room with only one person who is openly against the White Fang. She should have known that, worst comes to worst, no one in that room would have allowed anything bad to happen to her. She didn't, though. She didn't know because she either didn't take the time to get to know the people closer to her or because she always had a backup plan. The idea of leaving was always there. That or it was the easier path, you choose."

"You are being overly critical. We don't know her situation yet. She could be completely justified to act like that."

"I mean, the same could be said about Weiss, couldn't it? We have little experience dealing with the WF. We've never been a target. I'm betting she has plenty of instances to draw judgment from."

"Point."

"I am aware I'm being unreasonable, though. I know. I'm angry. Not an excuse, I just am. Maybe later with a cooler head, I'll think differently. For now, the plan remains: find her and bring her to Beacon."

A/N: I don't own anything from the RWBY franchise.

I've come to realize I feed off of follows and favorites, so if you like, please follow/favorite. Also, I have a Partenon. Here's the link: /user?u=91778064 Give me your money. Pretty please?