Blake promised, but somehow, she felt as if she was signing a devil's contract. Wilson assured her, this was for the best.

"Weiss doesn't have a strong constitution. When it comes to the abuse of your kind, she falters." He had replied slowly, when Blake had asked why. "Think back, and not long ago, she was in tears over a meager little mining shaft. It was a business venture, and she still wept. Think of that, and then ask me again if you believe she would be able to hear of her grandfather's atrocities."

Maybe Blake was rougher around the edges. Hardened, more than Weiss would ever be, but her question was valid. "Isn't that her choice to make?"

"A choice she doesn't know enough about. Besides, at best, she would deny them as lies…at worst?" Wilson shook his head. "The man's been dead for years. I will not allow her to suffer over the deeds of a corpse."

"I won't tell her, but maybe you should."

"You are too idealistic for your own good."

"Maybe so, but, at least I stick to them."

"Indeed, there is that at least. Let me pose to you this question then." He detailed the occurrences then. "Speak what you will of Faunus rights, but when you spread your legs to your keeper, isn't that the one thing you relinquish?"

"That had better be rhetorical..." Blake said quietly.

"Historical only." Wilson said coolly. "Take the Faunus in the picture. That is what her mother did. Submitting to a man who continued to sleep with her...then he allowed her to die in childbirth. Leaving that woman in the picture to be raised in this home as a maid, a servant."

"That's barbaric!"

"Normal, for the time." He shook his head. "You need to understand your position. As I've told you before, you live in a privileged age."

"What happened to her?"

"She was taken in, but, never told the truth of who her parents were. Telling her was punishable by death, or so my father demanded at the time. For all she knew, she was just a lowly maid. With no name or claim to the household fortune." He shrugged, it was of no true consequence, not any more. It happened so long ago now. "I am sure you have never once seen this picture before…that you haven't the slightest clue who this woman is, do you?"

Blake had the feeling that she should have known. That for some reason, this person had, in some capacity, meant something to Wilson at one point. "Not at all."

"I thought not." He produced another picture, this one from his wallet. "She was, before her death, both the nanny and the governess of this household."

Which meant, that as a servant she held some rather high authority in the household. Higher, in fact, than Blake would assume ever allowed of a Faunus, half-sister or not. "And you allowed that?"

"Schnee blood is still Schnee blood…" Wilson told her. "Tainted or otherwise."

"…Weiss didn't know any of this…of who this woman was?"

"The Faunus was killed, their grandfather soon after. I let the story of her origin die out with them. Winter and Weiss, they never need to know what their grandfather did. To them, he will always be the kind and loving founder of SDC. The man who built it up from the ground up, and not the racist who used and abused his conquests."

"That's awful liberal, coming from you…"

Wilson lifted a brow at that. "It's true that to me you are an animal. You look it, you act it, and you thrive because of it…so that is what you are. To a man like my father, you'd be lower still, and I think it best you remember that."

The tension in the air was thick, and Blake put her arms around her midriff as if to protect it. This didn't go unnoticed by Wilson, who regarded her with the same sort of ire that he always did. Watching her ears flatten back, though if it was in aggression or fear, he couldn't be sure.

"Faunus are not animals…"

"Bear your teeth at me, I dare you."

She wanted to. She wanted to have a true go at him, but, kept herself still. "Why are we even doing this?"

"Because Weiss wishes it." That was, in fact, Wilson's only reason for anything. Weiss was upset, and that simply wouldn't do. She didn't understand his motivations any more than he understood hers. Weiss was as honest as ever a Schnee could be, as compassionate as what would ever be afforded to her station. "You think me capable of murder, or worse. It doesn't suit my goals, and it doesn't soothe Weiss for you to think that way."

"You'd want to." Blake murmured. She felt that way. Felt like Wilson did want to kill her, even if he never voiced that outright.

"You aren't worth the time, effort, or leading animosity I'd earn from the act. Murder is still murder." Wilson laughed. "Such actions are beneath me." And though he felt that bedding a Faunus was beneath Weiss, she clearly didn't think that way. His grandchildren were going to be Faunus. He was not blind to this. "I'm by no means a stupid man, Blake. I know when I've lost the struggle, but if this continues, Weiss will lose the war. She cannot force the changes she seeks to make, and like it or not, she will not be able to change the way the SDC views Faunus during her reign."

"Weiss believes she can." Though Blake knew, now Weiss was fighting for those things blindly. She might not get much further, but still, Weiss was going to try. Blake would always support that. "That she will."

"Indeed…" Wilson agreed, Weiss did have boiling blood when it came to changing the company. A single minded focus that was not without admiration. Freighting displays of authority being what they were. Still, every figurehead had to make a concession somewhere. Weiss was reaching her current limit, impressive as it was. "Yet, the question on everyone's mind is, to what degree?"

"She's already made amazing advancements." Blake told him sharply. "Though you tried to thwart every single one."

"Thwart or press? Challenge, or encourage?" He lifted some brandy to his lips. "Oh, come now. You do have some measure of intellect, rattling around in that head of yours. You should know the game just as well as I do. Playing devil's advocate is just how it goes."

"That doesn't change the fact that you're a racist."

"Speciesism is different than racism." Wilson replied.

"A distinction without a difference!"

"If you're going to accuse me of being something, at least have the right term." In this he was unrepentant, but, he had always carried such a view. "You have cat ears atop your head, you go into heat, you snarl and hiss like an animal…you are, in some capacity, inhuman. You are not called a human female, Blake Belladonna. You are a Faunus, the name derivative from the fauna of old…you are what you are."

"Faunus are still people…no matter what we originate from."

"You fail to see my point…"

"Then make it clear!" Blake shouted. "Enough with the hedging, it's annoying."

Wilson rolled his eyes. "Weiss might have been able to usurp a few company policies. She is still young though, and this is where the buck stops. There is a point, I'm sure you understand, where boundaries can be pushed too far. Her grandfather was not the first to keep such dalliances to himself, and he will not be the last. Weiss, knowing nothing of this subdivide of our culture, cannot begin to understand. The two of you do not understand just how below mankind Faunus truly are."

Blake knew, he didn't need to spell it out more than that. Weiss would attract dangerous attention if she pushed too far. Liberal views could be just as dangerous as the conservative ones. Blake had said this many times herself. "They're planning a coup…"

"As of right now, no." Wilson said slowly.

"They've got one in their back pocket…"

Wilson nodded. "As of right now, a human still holds the company. As of right now, the founders remain happy. Imagine what power this company gives Faunus the moment one of your ilk steps into the leadership role…imagine the kind of avoidance that would stem from it. Atlas is, and has always been a very human population..."

"And bigoted…and corrupt...and..." Blake eyed Wilson up and down…if what he was saying about keeping Faunus as mistresses happened to be as true as he claimed… "Very perverse…"

In that at least, Wilson knew Blake agreed wholeheartedly, the disgusted look on her face said so. "The largest demographic of Faunus moved southward to the other territories. I do not wish to see this family undergo another set of strategic terrorist activities. Weiss is too pigheaded to understand that she shares a minority view here in Atlas."

"I will eventually start to show even with baggy clothes." Blake told him. "It'll be more than obvious soon enough."

"As I told you before…humans fancy you creatures. While publicly they may cringe, on the sidelines, they'll only smile and see to their own concubines once more." He leaned forward then. "Keep that brood of yours out of the SDC limelight, and you should be fine…but, understand this…a human must overtake the company. Even your good friend, Coco Adel, knew enough to birth a human child to groom as an heir. You and Weiss should heavily consider doing the same."

"I'm not a human…I never will be human…"

"Then consider future adoption, or, perhaps a donor…the head of this company must remain human. I think you know that just as well as I do…"

"No…" Blake shook her head. "I can't do that to Weiss…I…" Teeth gently gritted, she looked away.

"You, what?" Wilson demanded to know. "If you intend to speak, at least do so concisely."

"When I started fighting for Faunus rights as a little girl, I did so as a Faunus. Things have changed since then. Now, I do so as person. My crusade is over. My family comes first. It's in the very nature of what I am...of who I am. If that makes me an animal, so be it. My priority is Weiss, my children, my social group." In this, Blake could not, would not budge.

"Call it whatever you need. Animalize me anyway way you see fit." She looked him square in the face. "You want my sense of self-worth, fine, you can have it...but you can't have Weiss. You can't force her to squander her own ideals. I won't let you do that to her, protecting her or not...I know you care...but I do too. She'd rather die standing by her ideals, than to give them up to anyone. As her mate, I have to support that. A Faunus will be leading the SDC..."

Kisses and teeth, passion murmured between the all too familiar phrases. Bitten back gasps, and tiny utterances of what it felt like to lay with another. These were all feelings Ruby was learning to appreciate all too well. Unfortunately, they seemed to coincide with another emotion. Another feeling that was entirely alien, and completely out of her element. A very strange sense of fear.

A clam, yet inwardly panicked state. She schooled her features outwardly, while on the inside, her brain ran amok.

She sighed, shaking her head as she picked up the small child left in her care. Wondering when Sun would come back to her, if he would at all. A deadly mission in the north demanded his attention, and as a working hunter, he couldn't decline. Hordes of Grimm were migrating in from a break in the northern mountains. They were traveling through the crevices southward.

They were heading towards Atlas, and Sun left Zhu with her. At first it was fine, but about a week later, the young monkey Faunus began to act strange.

Feeling anxious, and with no way to contact Sun, Ruby bit her lip worriedly. Squeezing out the wet cloth, she continued to wipe down Zhu's body, trying desperately to break his fever. Zhu fussed at the cool contact on his overheated skin, small noises that Ruby didn't understand falling from the back of his throat. It came again, and again.

"There's gotta be something we can give him." Yang said, pacing back and forth.

"I'm afraid not." Blake murmured. "His body will break the fever up on its own. He just needs to muscle through it."

"It's so high though." Ruby said desperately. She didn't know how to do this. She wanted to be up north as well, but her position at Blake's side still stood. Ruby could fight Grimm tooth and nail, but she didn't know how to do this….how to comfort the inconsolable little boy. "Too high."

"Kids run higher than adults Ruby, it happens." Yang tried to keep positive, but the fever was higher than she thought normal, and so she looked to Blake. "So medicine's out, but what about an ice bath, or rubbing alcohol? Those'll bring his temperature down…"

"This isn't that kind of sickness, Yang." It was stress, plain and simple. Blake had done all she could, but it wasn't enough to appease Zhu. She picked Zhu up and passed him over to Yang. "You're in charge…" She then looked at Ruby. "You…" She inclined her head to the door, indicating she wanted to discuss this well away from little ears. They no sooner closed the door that Blake sighed. "He's not actually sick, Ruby…not like a cold or the flu. This is different…"

"Then, what is wrong with him?"

"Sun isn't here." Blake scratched her head. "Those sounds he's making, he's calling for Sun, Ruby…and he just isn't here."

"I don't understand, why would that cause such a high fever?"

"Remember when I might have mauled you, looking for Weiss? How upset I was, when she couldn't be around?" The Faunus asked. Ruby nodded, and Blake sighed. "It's like that for him right now. He's little though, he doesn't understand. Those are abandonment cries. The best thing we can do is keep him on the hip, and let him work through it…he will eventually, Ruby…but you've got to keep yourself calm. If he smells that you're worried, he'll only be more upset."

"Then what do I do about this?"

"If it were me…" Blake bit her lip. If it were her, what would she do? She shook her head. "I'd stay as relaxed as possible, and ask Yang."

"What?"

"Ruby, you were about his age when you lost your mom. I'm sure you eventually got upset when you couldn't find her…what did your dad do?"

"I don't remember…"

"Then ask Yang…" Blake said.

"What if he really is gone, Blake..." Ruby asked softly. "I should be up there with him! I should have gone with him..."

"We knew this expedition could take weeks, Ruby. He's too far for his scroll to have any reception...but he's fine. you just have to believe that...and you need to get Zhu to believe that too. It'll be fine, Sun will be back soon enough. Trust him, and be here...Zhu needs you."