Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. It belongs to Rooster Teeth.

Blake felt her eyes slowly pry themselves open.

The first thing she noticed was the over-abundance of white. Where am I?

...Am I dead?

Then she caught sight of the light attached to the bland, white ceiling, and felt more than a little silly. Ah.

"Oh, my," her eyes widened as a familiar voice hit her ears, "I didn't expect you to wake up when I was here. I must be a good luck charm. I'm glad to see you're all right, Blake."

"Velvet?" Blake muttered in confusion, before her memories seemed to rush back and she sat up sharply, "Wait, where am I? Where's Adam? What happened?"

"Easy," her fellow Faunus reassured her from her chair beside Blake's bed, "You don't want to move around too much, you're still recovering. To answer your question, you're in the emergency medical ward at Beacon, and I only know the basics, but from what I can gather, the rest of your team made it to the docks in time to stop the White Fang and the criminals from killing you or taking the Dust."

Blake looked at her, confused. "How did you know I was fighting the White Fang?"

"Well," Velvet smiled, before turning up the television in the room, where a news report was playing.

"In other news, the City of Vale is still in an uproar over what many are now calling 'The Battle at the Docks', where local criminal groups and the White Fang seemingly clashed over a shipment of Dust... with deadly results. The potential damage would have been far worse, if not for the intervention of a group of first-year students from Beacon to both limit the damage and take the battling criminals into custody. Weiss Schnee, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and one of the students responsible for stopping the criminals had this to say at the scene:"

"My team-mate Blake was the one who informed us of what was happening," Blake gasped as Weiss appeared on the screen, reluctantly answering a reporter to the backdrop of a scene of what could only be described as absolute carnage. Wrecked cargo containers, broken ground and fallen airships littered the area, none of which Blake remembered seeing before she passed out. "And she was the one who engaged them, on her own, to buy time for us to arrive, at great cost to her own health. If not for her heroic actions, these criminals almost certainly would have gotten away with that vital shipment of Dust and almost certainly would have gone on to ruin many lives. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find out if my team-mate is going to recover."

The screen cut back to the news studio, where the anchor-woman was still speaking. "Officials say that dozens of White Fang members and known criminals have been taken into custody. Notorious criminal Hei Xiong was found dead at the scene, currently believed to be a casualty of the White Fang. Officials also indicated that a high-ranking member of the White Fang was taken into custody and is undergoing emergency medical treatment."

Blake felt numb. Did that mean they'd brought Adam into custody?

"Miss Blake Belladonna, the young huntress-in-training who heroically engaged the criminal groups on her own, was taken to Beacon Academy's emergency treatment facility with severe injuries. We do not have an update on her condition yet, but already, cards and well-wishes are pouring in from the public, thanking this young heroine for protecting our city, and wishing her a speedy recovery, a gesture that we all share. This is Lisa Lavender -"

The television was switched off again. Blake looked back at Velvet, who silently bade her to look around.

That was when she finally noticed the cards. How she had missed them at all was beyond her. Dozens, no, hundreds of them, every possible variation of 'get well soon' and 'thank you', lining the walls, covering every flat surface. Then there were the balloons, with similar messages, and she was sure she spotted a pile of boxed chocolates in the corner.

"I..." she couldn't find the words. What had happened? Did her team beat Adam? Where were her team? Why was Weiss praising her so much on the news? And why on Remnant was she, of all people, getting so much positive attention when all she had accomplished was getting beaten senseless by Adam?

"It must be quite a lot to take in," Velvet said sympathetically.

"It is," Blake agreed faintly, "Where are the others? Are they all right?"

"Oh, don't worry," Velvet gave a small laugh, "They're all fine. Ruby apparently had a bad case of aura exhaustion, but she certainly got over it quickly enough to sit in here for hours on end, waiting for you to wake up. I offered to keep you company for a short while after Professor Goodwitch managed to convince them that you aren't going anywhere, and they also need to sleep," her smile then turned into a stern frown, "I have to say, though, I'm quite annoyed at you. I didn't think you'd do something as silly as to run off and try to get yourself killed after I gave you that advice. You had us all very worried."

"Sorry," Blake said ashamedly, "I wasn't trying to get killed. I promise. I just wanted to prove that we aren't all like them."

"And you've done so," Velvet agreed, "Magnificently. But now, it's my turn to apologise."

"For what?" Blake asked in confusion.

"For sending your team leader a message to let her know you're awake. I assume you're in for quite the telling off," Velvet replied, putting away her scroll.

"Ah," Blake winced, "Yes, I probably am. And we still need to clear the air over... what happened when I left."

"Somehow," Velvet sounded amused, "I can't imagine there will be too many problems there."

Blake was silent for a moment. "Velvet, did you ever have any problems with your team?"

"Over my heritage, you mean?" Velvet asked in return, getting a nod. "Hmm... well, I suppose I got lucky, really. None of them are really the kind of people who would care."

"How so?" Blake was curious.

"Well, for starters, there's Yatsuhashi," Velvet began, "He's something of a social outcast himself, as his size often made him... well, scary, to the people around him. He's a gentle giant, really, though – I don't think he's ever had a problem with anything, aside from the door to Professor Goodwitch's classroom," Velvet looked abashed, "It's set rather low. He keeps bumping his head on it. Coco thinks it's hilarious," she couldn't quite suppress her smile, "It is a bit funny. But don't tell him I said that."

Blake's lips twitched upwards slightly. "My lips are sealed."

"Well, then we have Fox," Velvet continued, "I read once that discrimination is a very tribal thing. 'Us', against 'Them'. And main thing people tend to use to decide whether you are 'us' or 'them', is your appearance. If you look different, as we do, well," she gave a sad smile.

"Fox doesn't have that, with his blindness. He didn't even realise I was a Faunus until three days after we formed a team. I thought he'd be mad that I didn't tell him. He just shrugged it off like it didn't matter to him at all, and I really don't think it did," she mused, "To someone like Fox, discrimination is quite silly. After all, he can get to know someone and grow to like them without ever finding out what race they are."

"And what about the last member? Coco?" Blake leaned forward in interest.

"Coco? No," Velvet shook her head, amused, "Something as lazy as racism doesn't fit into Coco's world-view. As far as she's concerned, if someone wants to be deserving enough of her attention to warrant active dislike, they need to really work for it, not get it handed out for free merely because of an accident of birth."

"She... sounds like quite the character," Blake offered.

"She's not really a character as much as she is a force of nature," Velvet chuckled lightly, "But we couldn't ask for a better team leader. Yes, she's direct, cares little for what other people think, and can seem rather arrogant to people who don't know her, but she'll do anything for those people who she thinks are worth her time in the right way, and she brings out courage and worth in the people around her that they never really knew they had, myself included."

Velvet then stood up. "Now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop taking your time for the afternoon, Blake," she gave a sly smile, "I think I hear your team-mates. Best of luck, and you know where to find me if you need anything."

She turned to open the door, and squeaked in surprise as she was nearly barrelled over by a red, white and yellow blur.

"BLAKE!"

Blake felt a strong pair of arms constrict tightly around her, shaking her back and forth as Velvet slipped out of the room.

"Don't – you – ever – do – that - again!"

"Yang," Ruby spoke up worriedly, "Don't we need to be careful with her?"

"Gah!" Yang let go swiftly, and leapt back as though Blake was a live grenade, "I'm sorry! But I'm not sorry! Argh, and now I'm confused as well!"

"I get it," Blake reassured her, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run off like that. I've seen the news, and, well, all this," she waved around at the cards.

"Oh! Did you see our cards?" Ruby asked eagerly.

"Your cards? No, I only woke up a few minutes ago, and spent most of that taking everything – in..." she eyed her bed-side table. Sitting at the forefront of it were three cards, sitting in a row. A deep red one, with the word 'GET' on the front in black lettering, a pale white one with 'WELL' written on in silver, and a bright yellow one sporting 'SOON' in brown lettering.

"We made them ourselves," Ruby said proudly, "Not that I had anything better to do waiting in that stupid bed..."

"They're wonderful," Blake gave a watery smile, "Thank you. But... what happened?"

"Well," Ruby said thoughtfully, "I got there in time to see that Adam guy standing over you with his sword. I kind of flipped out, and fought him. I knocked him around the docks, but overdid my semblance while I was at it – I thought I'd taken him down, but he got up again, and I couldn't move a muscle.

"I'd been followed to the docks by this girl I met in the town centre, Penny," Ruby continued, "She was strange, but nice, and when that guy was about to get us, she went to fight him. These super-cool swords came out of her bag and started flying around, and then she shot a giant laser beam at him! It was so cool! Apart from the fact that it didn't work," Ruby said regretfully, "He did some weird thing with his sword where he absorbed the laser beam and then he started glowing."

Blake thought back to the last fight she had alongside him, on the train. "That old trick."

"Huh?"

"Nothing," Blake shook her head, "Go on."

"So anyway," Ruby made a horizontal chop with her hand, "He slashed with his sword, and cut Penny clean in half at the middle! I thought she was... you know," she stumbled over the word, "For sure, but she was okay!"

"Okay?" Blake asked in disbelief, "How can you be 'okay' from being cut in half?"

"Well, you see," Ruby leaned in conspiratorially, "She's a robot."

Blake opened her mouth, then closed it again. "What. I – no, forget about that. What happened after? Who took down Adam?"

"That guy in the hat," Ruby supplied, "He hit him with a cheap shot, said something about how you two were 'even', and took off after this girl in a cool outfit popped up with two other girls that Yang knows."

"Knows is a bit of a stretch," Yang admitted, "They work, or, well, worked," she amended awkwardly, "For Junior, that 'notorious criminal' guy who they found dead. I got into a fight with them once. I won," she then quickly clarified.

Blake nodded. "And what about the Airships?"

"I punched one of them to the ground," Yang grinned proudly, "Weiss decided to be mean and hog the rest of them."

"I... may have commandeered one of the school's Bullheads," Weiss admitted, looking embarrassed, "I shot down the other three White Fang ships by freezing over their engines."

"And then we brought you, Ruby and that Penny girl here," Yang supplied, still grinning.

"Then some people from the Atlas Military and some kind of scientist showed up to pick up that Penny girl," Weiss added, "Which was strange, but we were more focused on you at the time."

Blake stared at the ceiling, trying to take it all in. "I can't believe all of that happened."

"No, me neither," Weiss sounded solemn, "Blake... I'm sorry."

Blake looked at her in shock. "What?"

"I was out of line in how I spoke to you the other night," Weiss said regretfully, "It was my fault you ran away and this all happened. I said all of those things about how much I hate the White Fang, and look how things turned out? You ended up nearly dying from trying to stop them, and after all my talk about hating the White Fang, where was I?" She asked bitterly, "Nowhere to be seen, until the very last minute."

"That wasn't any fault of yours, though," Ruby pointed out, "I put you there, remember? And you bringing the ship was a great help."

"I know," Weiss bit her lip, "But I still have my share of the blame. I made a promise to Ruby to be the best team-mate I could be. Apparently, I made that promise to the wrong person," She sighed miserably, "Look, I do hate the White Fang. But I want to be sure you know, I don't hate Faunus. I don't think I made that clear when... tempers had risen," she said in embarrassment, "I don't hate you."

Blake looked down. "Maybe you should."

Ruby frowned. "Blake?"

"No more secrets," Blake said quietly, "I... I used to be a member of the White Fang."

The other two instantly turned to Weiss, looking worried.

She looked impassive. "The fact that you're lying here, having been seriously injured from fighting against them, has at least earned you the right to be heard out, I think."

"Thank you," Blake said appreciatively. She took a deep breath, and began to speak. "I was a member of the White Fang for most of my life. I was practically born into it. But you have to understand, the White Fang back then was not the same organisation. It was a symbol of peace, and unity, between Humans and Faunus after the war."

"Kind of hard to believe it was ever like that, with how they act now," Yang commented.

"Believe me, I know," Blake agreed sadly, "But they were. Even though we were promised fair treatment and equal rights, it never came. We were still discriminated against. So the White Fang rose up as the voice of our people. We would hold rallies and peaceful protests, and through all of it, I was there, at the forefront of every march, helping make the signs and placards, singing with the other protesters... I honestly thought we were making a difference."

"So something must have changed, between then and now," Weiss noted.

"It did," Blake nodded, "The leadership. A new leader stepped took over, with different ideas. Violent ones. Marches turned to riots, peaceful protest became organised attacks on businesses that wouldn't serve us. All I could do was watch, growing more and more horrified as their methods became more and more brutal, as everything we'd once stood for was washed away, in a river of blood. So then, I left," she sighed, "And came here. To dedicate my skills to being a Huntress. A criminal, hiding under everyone's nose, all with the help of this little black bow," she twitched her top pair of ears.

"Did you ever commit any murders? Did you kill anyone?" Weiss asked calmly.

"Weiss!" Yang hissed.

"No," Blake said, aghast, "I swear, I would never!"

Weiss leaned back. "I believe you. About that, about why you left, that you left at all. You've offered me quite convincing proof, after all."

Blake sighed in relief. "So... are we..."

"Yes," Weiss nodded with a small smile, "If you will forgive me for my part in this, I certainly forgive you for yours. We are fine. Let's not ever do this again, shall we?"

"No," Blake agreed, "Let's not."

"On that note," Ruby cut in, "I've got something to say."

The other three turned to their team leader. "From now on, we all make a promise," Ruby said sternly, "If there's a problem? We don't let it stew, or run away, we talk to each other about it, and we deal with it, together. This all could have been avoided, and I'm not going to let it happen again. So," she stared at them seriously, "Promise."

"I promise," Blake said quickly, "I'm sorry for running. I won't do it again."

"I promise as well," Weiss agreed, "You're right."

"I promise," Yang said, throwing an arm around Ruby's shoulder with a grin, "Look at you, acting like a real leader! Sometimes I wonder who the little sister really is."

"And I promise too," Ruby said promptly, "I'll even start now. Shut up, Yang, and stop embarrassing me."

They all broke out laughing – even Blake was quietly giggling along. Once the merriment had subsided, Weiss spoke up. "Now, Blake... I've had an idea."

"An idea?" Blake asked curiously.

"It has occurred to me that you have an... opportunity," Weiss began, "Whether you take it or not is entirely up to you, of course, but at least hear me out, please."

"An opportunity to do what?" Blake asked cautiously.

"To advance the cause of Faunus rights significantly, and deal the White Fang a serious blow, all without even having to raise your sword."

Blake stared. "I'm sorry. What?"

"Imagine what the public's opinion would be," Weiss began painting the mental picture for them, "If local heroine, Blake Belladonna, the one who selflessly stopped the White Fang, almost at the cost of her own life," she said with dramatic flair, "Were to go out in a public press conference... looking very worn down, still barely recovered from her injury, of course," she added quickly, "And tell her story... revealing that not only is she a Faunus, but a former member of the White Fang, too!"

"You want me to go public?" Blake gaped, "Have you lost your mind?"

"Think about it," Weiss told her, "I want you to really think. How would they react?"

"I don't know," Blake shook her head, "Maybe they'd string me up!"

"As someone who knows her way around public relations, I'll tell you," Weiss said bluntly, "They'd eat it up. A young girl, defecting from the violent and cruel White Fang, and nearly sacrificing herself-"

"But I didn't intend to do that," Blake pointed out, embarrassed.

"They don't need to know that," Weiss waved away her objections, "Anyway, so she nearly sacrificed herself to stop the evil White Fang from committing a terrible crime, despite being a former member? They'd love it. If we spin it correctly? You can put the cause of Faunus rights forward by years, decades, even."

"We?" Blake queried.

"I've done some thinking myself after what you said that night," Weiss said evenly, "And I think it's long past time the Schnee family actually began to address some of the distasteful actions my father has committed in our name."

"Hold on," Yang spoke up in dawning realisation, "That's why you were hamming it up for that reporter, getting everyone going crazy about Blake? You were setting this up?!"

"I merely stated a convenient truth. Admittedly, that was before I knew Blake was a former member of the White Fang," Weiss agreed shamelessly, "Now I know that, the opportunity we have is even better. Not only can you make people re-examine what they think they know about the Faunus, but you can inspire other members like you, who feel similarly about their methods, to follow your example and leave them as well."

"And you couldn't have waited to ask me before you made me into some kind of martyred hero?" Blake hissed.

"I didn't do that," Weiss shook her head, "As I said, all I did was state the truth. You are a hero, Blake, through your own actions. What you do with it is up to you... but this is a very good chance to make things better for the Faunus – and worse for the White Fang."

"Proving them wrong," Blake whispered, looking conflicted, "I... I don't know if I can. They'll come after me. With everything they have."

"They can try," Ruby declared confidently.

"Yeah," Yang put a hand on her shoulder, "Whatever you decide to do, we've got your back, and so do all your friends. And so will all of Beacon, if we go to Professor Ozpin!"

"Aside from perhaps that oafish fool Winchester," Weiss added disdainfully, "But if he starts anything, we will finish it. So what do you say, Blake? This is entirely your decision, of course. You will lose nothing from it if you decide not to go ahead - you will, of course be famous for a few weeks, but it will die down eventually."

"Are you sure doing this will have the effect you say it will?" Blake pressed her.

"Nobody can be sure of anything, Blake," Weiss shook her head, "But I've been in the public eye for a long time. I know how they think. I am as sure as I can be, or believe me, I would never be suggesting this to you now."

Blake's mind raced. Can I do this? It's what I always wanted, she thought, A chance to make a difference, without violence. But can I really tell the whole world what I am? What I've done?

Finally, she made her decision.

"I want to speak to Professor Ozpin."