Mina stretched out her arms as she walked out the door of the Summer Blossom, letting out a little yawn at the end of a long day's waitressing. It had been a productive day to be sure, pulling in two hundred Lien in tips, from her various patrons – or marks, as some of her co-workers joked. Probably the largest portion of her tips for the day had come from a very… enterprising gentlemen who'd requested that both Lizzie and Mina herself to play hostess for him, and he had indeed paid handsomely for the privilege. It was an interesting experience all told - Mina played the 'good maid' and Lizzie was the 'bad maid' – each acting the flirt and the disgusted feminist respectively – really, the gentleman patronizing the two of them contributed little but his money, but listening to Lizzie gripe her way through the hour had been a most amusing exercise indeed. Now though, the day's work was over, and it was time to return to Beacon for a good night's sleep.

As Mina made her way towards the airship station though, she noticed that something was off. The Summer Blossom was situated in a part of the city that was certainly more… lively at night, and so Mina was accustomed to being accosted by loud music and slurred, drunken oafs propositioning her for this or that, all to be resoundingly ignored or occasionally dissuaded by a quick display of her fangs – that was usually enough. Tonight though, while all of the above were still very much present in the atmosphere of Vale's red light district, there was something else; sober footsteps. Of all the people Mina usually heard on her progress home each evening that she worked, most all of them took confused, shambling steps at this hour, consequent of to much drinking, or whatever other unhealthy habits they'd come here to indulge at such an hour, and even among those who could walk without stumbling usually went about their 'business' boldly and enthusiastically in keeping with the festive atmosphere of the district at night. What Mina was hearing now though, nearly drowned amidst the hustle and bustle of drinking, gambling, and the like from the various venues that crowded the street was the soft sound of a single set of footsteps behind her, at a steady distance of about twenty feet, if her Semblance was to be believed. Mina might have dismissed this happenstance, but she decided to test it first, pausing beside some sort of vendor – cheap, and possibly stolen jewelry, according to a slightly inebriated woman also browsing the wares beside her – and pretended to inspect the goods herself. Neither the vendor, nor anyone else present would know the display to be a sham because nothing about Mina's bearing suggested her blindness, thus she would be able to gauge the intentions of the owner of this anomalous set of footsteps.

Had the mysterious footsteps simply continued on their way, there would have been no cause for concern, and Mina would likely have shrugged it off as an odd coincidence, but they did not. Instead, Mina's pursuer also halted, slipping into hiding in an alley. Taking a deep breath and sliding a hand into the satchel at her hip in which she kept two of her stakes – just in case – before moving on, taking careful note that her pursuer continued behind her at the same time as Mina stepped away from the less-than-reputable stall.

Mina raised her modified scroll and spoke a voice command, "Time,"

"Ten-fourteen" her scroll sounded in response. The next airship for Beacon departed at ten forty-five, and the last one did so an hour later. Plenty of time.

Abruptly, Mina ducked into the next alley on her left and flattened herself against the cold brick wall of the building as the pursuer picked up the pace to avoid losing her. When the pursuer rounded the corner though, and continued several paces into the alley and past her, Mina stepped away from the wall and took her follower by the wrist and, throwing them against the wall, she pinned the pursuer's arms to her back, and pressed the honed edge of her stake to the side of her neck.

"Unless I am very much mistaken, stalking people is considered rather rude," Mina whispered into her pursuer's ear, "Now… why are you following me?"

The pursuer grunted in discomfort, but said nothing.

Mina clicked her tongue impatiently, "Yesterday was my birthday – a rather pleasant occasion all told – and as a result I am yet in a rather magnanimous mood, but my patience is not infinite. Explain yourself, otherwise I may become unfriendly,"

"Why should I tell you anything?" the pursuer – a girl roughly Mina's age finally responded through clenched teeth, "You're a damned traitor!"

Mina smiled smugly, not that her captive could see it, what with her face being pressed to the bricks, "You are with the White Fang then? Ah, but this little encounter isn't sanctioned by the leadership is it? I doubt you would have come alone if it was. Of course, that then leads me to conclude that you have somehow learned of my job, and yet they have not, because if they had, that would bring us back to the question of why you came alone…"

"T-that's… that's not true!" the girl protested weakly, the pitiful lie undone by her stuttering and the sudden increase in her heartbeat, "I was sent for reconnaissance!"

"Reconnaissance?' Mina raised a disbelieving eyebrow, "Unless the White Fang has taken a recent interest in maid cafes or gentlemen's clubs, I am the only worthwhile target in this whole district," She relaxed pressure on the girl's throat though, "Still, what perplexes me most is why you came alone?"

"I don't know anything! You might as well just kill me!" the girl spat the words.

"Yes, the thought had crossed my mind, but my Dearest frowns upon that sort of thing. And besides, I can learn a great deal of useful information from you, despite your insistence that 'you know nothing' – as statement which, in itself tells me that you aren't very important, are you? And thus that this little episode is either a personal vendetta of some kind or simply a case of you not being able to get any face-time with anyone who matters," the girl tensed, "We have a winner, yes?"

"They have more important things to do than swat a pest like you,"

An amused chuckle precede Mina's reply, "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"Mina Carfax," the girl tried to refute, "Former sister-in-arms, you betrayed us all for another backstabbing bitch-,"

Like that, the stake was pressed back to the girl's throat harder than ever, "There are very few ways that you can anger me. That is one of them. You will speak of Blake with respect or not at all. Do I make myself clear?"

"What are you gonna do? Kill me?" she spat, "You betrayed your brother Faunus and-,"

"My brother Faunus?" Mina scoffed, "I have no brothers. I have no blood-relatives of any kind. Your crusade is nothing to me."

"You owe it to our people-!"

"Your people," Mina cut her off calmly, "I have chosen my friends. They matter to me, no one else. I am a Faunus, yes, but what of it? Your pathetic argument of solidarity holds no power over anyone but that which you can persuade your victim to grant you, and I give you nothing. Now…" Mina removed the stake, but persisted in pinning the girl's rather thin wrists with her other hand as she did a cursory pat-down search, finding a knife tucked into the waistband of the girls pants, "Ah… so it seems that you thought to fight me… cute…"

"I could take you!"

"If that were the case, I would not be the one holding you up against this wall, would I?" Mina remarked dryly, pulling the weapon and discarding it by tossing it to the ground on the far end of the alley, "But setting aside the logic of your scheme, the question remains: why?"

"I've already-!"

"No, no, spare me the betrayal spiel," Mina rolled her eyes, abruptly turning the girl around and pressing her back to the wall now, "I followed my Dearest into the White Fang, and followed her out again after some unpleasantness… But why do you take up arms? And why this private little crusade?"

While Mina couldn't observe the girl's eyes darting this way and that, but her Semblance did allow her to note the way that the girl glanced down and to the left, "I… I want justice for my people-!"

"That is a slogan, not an answer," Mina cut her off, "Now why did you come after me alone? I can hardly believe that you didn't know I was dangerous, so unless you are simply an idiot…"

"I was going to prove that I could be useful…" The girl admitted, defeated.

To the girl's surprise though, Mina let her go now, "You have bit off more than you can chew, girl,"

"I have a name!" the girl angrily retorted, "And I won't be talked down to by some blood-sucking whore!"

"If you are going to insult me, at least be original about it," Mina laughed in response, putting away her stake, "And as for your name… Well, it seems a little backwards for you to demand that sort of acknowledgement from me without telling me what it is."

As Mina made to leave though, the disbelieving girl demanded, "Y-your… You're just gonna let me go?"

Mina halted in her progress back out onto the street, a little smile springing up on her face again, "I did say that I was feeling magnanimous today…"

"Nadia Undine…"

"Hmm?" Mina cocked her head, turning back to the girl.

"My name," the girl said, clearly still angry, but knowing better than to attack on impulse, "My name is Nadia Undine… Use it… we're not done,"

"Oh really Miss Undine? I could have sworn that we were done here… Unless of course you still mean to make an attempt on my life with your bare hands?"

"Don't patronize me," she shot back, "We get enough of that from the humans – you should know, working in that disgusting café…"

"You sound just like Lizzie," Mina remarked absently, "But frankly, I don't care-,"

"Why?" Demanded the puzzled and frustrated Faunus, her back still to the wall despite having been released, "How can you not care?"

"Why should I? My life is just fine, Miss Undine; I have everything I could want,"

Miss Undine slammed her fist against the wall, "But what about us? Our people? All the other Faunus-,"

"Let me tell you a story…" Mina spoke with a low, almost threatening voice now as she approached the girl again, not laying a hand on her this time, but the White Fang girl pressed herself back to the wall again and seemed to shrink. "It is about a little Faunus girl, about seven years old, and her mother. You see, one day, the little girl, who could not see, got separated from her mother on the playground, and began to cry. As luck would have it though, a little Human boy came to her rescue, inviting her to come and play, and for a time, the little girl forgot that she was lost. Then though, a group of big, strong, grown-up Faunus came to tell the girl that she shouldn't play with this little boy, and that it was his fault that she was sad…"

Nadia Undine was silent.

"The little girl did not want to leave her new friend though… Well, the grown-up Faunus did not like this very much," Mina continued telling her story, a deadly serious look on her face, "So, when the little human boy stood up to protect the scared little Faunus girl from these strangers, do you know what they did? It seemed that they had been drinking that day, and in their inebriated state did not much care for this 'insolent human brat' defying them, so they hit him with a glass bottle…" Mina paused just long enough to listen to the horrified shallow breathing, "As luck would have it though, it was then that the little girl's mother found her and her friend, and stepped up to protect them from these misguided individuals…"

"A-and?"

Mina slammed her palm into the bricks beside the shorter girl's head, "They hit her too… So hard that the bottle broke; the little girl could feel the shattered bits of glass strike her cheek as the bottle was smashed and the words 'Damned collaborating bitch' as the as the big, strong, grown-ups left. The little boy never got up, but the little girl's mother… Even though she did not feel well, she rose, and took the girl home, and the little girl thought that she would be okay, and for a few days, it seemed like she would be – even if her hands were too shaky to knit as was her habit – but then, a few days later…" Mina sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head, "The little girl's mother simply did not wake up…"

"Oh my God…"

"I have no 'brother Faunus'" Mina repeated, stepping back and turning to leave once more, "My friends and loved ones are of my own choosing – I have no others. Not that it matters though; it is just a story after all…"

"But…" the girl grasped at straws for an argument, "You can't pass judgment on your whole species because of-,"

"Of course not," Mina shot her a sightless look, shaking her head, "But a sad little girl has precious little sympathy to spare…" Mina raised her scroll as if to conclude the discussion, "Time,"

"Ten-thirty,"

Mina nodded, "Now if you would be so kind as to excuse me, I must needs catch an airship in fifteen minutes, so I shall take my leave…"

"But then…" Nadia asked, genuinely confused, "Why did you ever fight for us?"

"It was what I thought Blake wanted," She answered, "But she found that terrorism became… distasteful..."

"So you abandoned us just like that? You drop everything and walked out on your new home just because she told you to?"

"Once I knew that it was truly what she wanted, yes," Mina nodded, "But what do you care? I'm just a bloodsucking whore…"

The girl gritted her teeth, staring down at her feet, "Fine… walk away… but like I said, we're not done – C-consider yourself on notice!"

"You know where to find me," Mina shrugged, "Just remember that it is polite to tip fifteen percent,"

Author's note: Hello all and welcome back to the plot! Now I know what you're thinking: who is this new OC chick and where the hell is he going with this? Well, I figured that it was time that somebody on the other side (who might be motivated to do something about it, unlike Roman) should pick up on Mina's whereabouts, but at the same time, I wanted to take the opportunity to remind everyone that Mina can be a little… unsociable from time to time. We will be seeing more of Nadia, but not in every chapter, so don't panic – I just thought it might be interesting to introduce someone to debate Mina's worldview rather than shrug it off or accept it so long as she behaves. Anyway, I am indeed starting a new arc with this one, so hopefully you'll enjoy it.