A/N: I hate this chapter with a fiery passion, so I just am publishing it to get it out there. I apologize if you dislike this exposition chapter, but it needed to happen. Please, review!

Sun quickly got over the shock of seeing Blake and started talking before she could. "If you're here to yell at me, just know that you can't say anything I haven't already said to myself."

Blake stepped past him anyway, entering the room with her head down. "That's not what I'm here for, I swear. I just need to talk to you alone."

She gave Neptune a glance, one that he immediately understood. Against his better judgement, he decided to take Blake at her word and assume she just wanted to talk. He got up. "Yeah, sure. I'll just be outside."

Before he made it all the way outside, though, Blake gently grabbed his arm to stop him. "I'm sorry about how things went with Weiss."

Neptune simply took a drink from his glass and said, "It was bound to happen eventually. Truth be told I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did." He sighed, looking at the ceiling. "I'll always wish her the best. She made me a better person, and I can't thank her enough for that. But if she can't trust this version of me I don't know why she trusted the old me."

With nothing more to say, Neptune left the room and shut the door behind him.

If they'd been paying more attention, their enhanced hearing would've picked out Neptune keeping his back to the door to eavesdrop.

"What do you want, Blake?"

Blake turned to Sun, getting straight to the point. "I came to apologize." Sun raised an eyebrow, so she continued. "I was so focused on what I was feeling that I didn't even think about what you're feeling. I can't imagine what it's like to have someone threatening your team."

He scoffed, but it clearly wasn't her he was angry at. "I can tell you for sure that it sucks. The worst part is when people judge you for having to make the tough decisions to keep them alive." Blake winced but otherwise didn't react. "But yeah, I messed up too. Telling them to their face that they should die probably wasn't the best way to go about this."

Blake gave an exhausted glare. "Now is not the time to joke around."

Sun gave a humorless chuckle so out of character that Blake was almost stunned. "If I don't joke about it I'm gonna lose my mind. I'm not exactly used to having someone of this caliber trying to kill me and my friends."

Blake sighed one more time, and Sun took the opportunity to speak up before she could say anything. "What do you want Blake? I doubt you'd come here just to apologize."

Blake steeled up her courage before she spoke again. "I need your help. The White Fang are about to hold a rally and I want to investigate it."

Silence. Silence. Then, a scream.

"WHAT?!"

Ozpin took off his glasses and gave James a look.

James had clearly seen better days, to say the least. His prosthetic arm was missing all the way to the socket, although it was bandaged to stop the bleeding. He had another bandage on his head to nurse his concussion, and although it wasn't visible Ozpin could imagine the bandages around his chest to heal his ribs.

In short, James had gotten in a fight and lost horribly.

Ozpin sighed before he started talking. "Let me get this straight, James. You were making a routine check on one of your bases when you were attacked by Roman Torchwick and the Arkham Knight."

James nodded.

"Your escort was annihilated, which left you and Ms. Schnee to fight the two on your own."

He nodded again.

"The fights were fairly even, but when a third person appeared, having damaged a project that you won't tell me about, you were distracted just long enough for the thieves to overpower you and knock you out."

James sighed. When it was put like that, he seemed more incompetent than he already felt. "That just about summarizes what happened. That's all I saw anyway. I don't know what they did to Winter or either of the projects they managed to steal."

Glynda scoffed from beside him. "So there is a second secret you're keeping from us?"

Ozpin put up his hand to silence her. As much as it annoyed him as well, he knew that if James was going to tell them he already would have. Instead, he got to a different point. "Why are you here, James? You had no reason to personally come to Vale unless you were already planning on it. How many times have I told you that we are not welcoming your army?"

James shook his head. "I'm not here with my army. I still believe they're needed, but today is not the day to debate that. The thieves seem to be based in Vale. We know for a fact that Torchwick is, at least, and since the Knight is working with him it's safe to say that he is too. They took Winter, and I will not rest until they are found."

Ozpin nodded, conceding both of his points. "You are permitted to participate in the search for Ms. Schnee. I understand that she is important to you. However, if I see as much as a single Atlesian soldier, human or not, we are going to be having a much different conversation. Understand?"

James held out his flesh arm to shake his hand. Ozpin shook it with no hesitation. "As your leader, I have to tell you that you need to find your soldier as soon as possible. As your friend, I have to caution you. These people have already beaten you once. If you run yourself ragged trying to find her, you will not stand a chance against them. We've lost enough people, James. The last thing I want is for you to be one of them."

The soft tone at the end surprised James, but he understood it. "I do not wish for anyone to be added to that list, myself included. At the moment, though, Winter is at danger of being on it, and I have to save her. Failing this mission is one thing that I would never forgive myself for."

Ozpin nodded, then sighed as he realized there was something else he needed to do. "We need to inform Weiss that her sister is missing."

Blake hadn't expected Sun to scream, but she recovered quickly. "I need your help, Sun. I can't stop them on my own, but together we might be able to find out what the Fang is planning."

To her surprise, though, Sun scoffed. "Seriously, Blake? We are basically on house arrest on order from Ozpin himself and your response is to leave? What is it with you constantly making everything be your fight?!"

She tried to keep herself calm, she truly did, but remarks like that from Sun of all people made her angrier than anything else. "Sun, do you really think the authorities can handle them? They're being worthless so far! The docks are proof that we need to take this into our own hands."

"You know what else the docks are proof of? That Roman Torchwick and the Arkham Knight are people that we don't stand a chance against. They were able to kick all of our asses and not break a goddamn sweat. Why do you think we can fight back against them?"

"I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about the Fang! If all goes right, they won't even be there!"

"You don't know that Blake! My answer is no, okay?! So please, just get out of my room."

Blake was stunned. She was counting on his support, seeing as she knew her team would never agree. Now, though, she truly had no allies. She started to leave when Sun whispered under his breath.

"Here I was thinking you actually meant that apology."

Feeling even worse than she already was, but knowing she wouldn't be able to convince Sun otherwise, she left the room.

And if Sun noticed the single tear running down her cheek, he didn't comment on it.

Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren had made up their minds. The Arkham Knight had promised that if they died he would disappear. They had to take that chance.

Unfortunately, their choice was taken away from them. When they got to the docks, there was no bullhead, even though one should've been there according to the schedule.

It didn't take much to figure out what had possibly happened, considering Ruby, Weiss, and Yang were sitting on a bench off to the side waiting for them.

Pyrrha immediately marched over to the three. Nora looked to follow, but Ren held her back and shook his head. This was something she had to deal with on her own.

It took everything in her to not grab one of them and throttle them. "What did you do to the bullhead? Why is it not there?!"

Weiss stood up, unflinching in front of the wall of power that was Pyrrha Nikos. "I bribed the pilot to take off early so that you wouldn't be on it."

With those words, something happened that nobody, not even her team, could have ever anticipated.

Pyrrha snapped.

Sun collapsed back on the bed with his head in his hands, wondering where it all went wrong, as Neptune came back in the room. All it took was a single look between the best friends for Sun to know that he'd heard everything, yet he found himself too exhausted to care.

Neptune sat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him as though to rouse him from a sleep. "Dude, I'm glad you did that, but for your sake I really hope that you and Blake can get past this. I don't want you two to end like this."

Sun just shoved Neptune off his bed and lied down to take a nap. He simply didn't have the capacity to think anymore.

First, her leader, crush, and best friend Jaune Arc died in a battle she could've easily prevented. Nobody would say it, but Jaune's death was her fault no matter how you spun it.

Next, after spending a year trying her best to lead the broken remains of her team, she finds out that someone is angry for what happened in that goddamn village and wants her, her team, and her friends dead.

And when she is finally ready to make the final sacrifice, the people that are supposed to be on her side, the ones she was about to sacrifice herself for, took that choice away from her.

Pyrrha Nikos grabbed Weiss Schnee by the throat with the intent to choke her out.