Chapter 14) Reaching Out

A/N: September has ended, so it's time to wake up. Jokes aside, sorry about the massive delay on this one. Hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

No answer.

Not that she had expected there to be any at this point. If a simple call on her Scroll would have been enough to get Blake to come back, Yang wouldn't have needed to be out searching all this time. Even so, it had been worth a shot, even if it had taken her far too long to realise it was even an option.

Yang tended to develop a one-track-mind when she was stressed.

And she got stressed a lot lately.

Shoving her Scroll back into her pocket, Yang sighed and resumed her slow walk down the street.

What a mess…

Had Blake really just disappeared on them for good? There was no sign of her anywhere in town, no-one else had seen her, she wasn't answering her Scroll…

Had she really just… ran away?

'The innocent never run, Yang.'

Yang clenched her fist. She refused to believe what Weiss had been suggesting. Blake, a member of the White Fang? It was insane to even consider it a possibility. Blake was nothing like that, she would never do anything like that.

She had looked as horrified as the rest of them when Weiss had told her story. The idea that she would have taken part in something like that… the idea that Blake would be a part of that world…

No. No way in hell. That's not who she is.

Blake, the quiet bookworm with a sarcastic sense of humour, a White Fang terrorist?

Blake, who had been concerned enough about Weiss to fill Yang in on what she had overheard, supporting a cabal of lunatics?

Blake, who was sweet and kind underneath her aloof outward persona, kind enough to offer a helping hand to a boy crying in an alley, kind enough to offer to help Ruby find Yang even when she had just met her…

It was impossible. Weiss was wrong to think that way, wrong to even hint at the possibility.

The streetlights flickered on one by one, casting long shadows across the sidewalk and bathing their surroundings in an orange glow. Yang must have been out searching for twelve hours at least, and all her efforts had turned up nothing but disappointment.

She was exhausted, running on fumes and barely able to keep her focus on where she was walking. Staying up all night a second time in order to keep on wandering aimlessly without any leads wouldn't accomplish anything. So as much as Yang wanted to keep on going, keep on hoping that Blake would be just around the next corner, she knew she had to call it a night here.

Even if she was also slightly dreading having to face the other two upon her return to the dorm.

Especially Weiss…

"Yang?"

Yang tensed upon hearing the familiar voice call her name.

Well, no more putting this off now, I guess.

She took a moment to compose herself slightly, taking a breath and letting it out slowly. She just didn't have the energy to spare for yet another shouting match.

Yang turned around. "I thought you went back to the dorm?"

Weiss shrugged. "I did for a little while."

That much was clearly obvious to Yang, seeing as how Weiss had apparently changed clothes before coming back out. Her usual skirt and jacket had been swapped out for something more suited to the chill night air, replaced by a heavier coat over a longer dress, both of which were more white-and-black than the white-and-blue that Weiss normally went with.

"Why are you here, Weiss?" Yang asked, not entirely able to keep the bite out of her tone. "You made your point already, didn't you?"

Yang had expected Weiss to bristle, or to scoff, or maybe even to roll her eyes at Yang's question.

She did not expect Weiss to fidget with her hands awkwardly while avoiding Yang's gaze. And she certainly did not expect to hear what Weiss said next:

"I'm sorry, Yang."

Yang blinked.

"…huh?"

"Ruby?"

Ruby lifted her head, feeling a mix of elation, relief and no small amount of guilt as she saw Penny standing at the entrance to the alley with concern clear on her face.

Cinder rose to her feet alongside Emerald. "We'll leave her in your care. I suggest you get her back to Beacon as soon as you can."

Penny nodded in Cinder's direction. "Thank-you for calling me. And thank-you for helping my friend. I truly appreciate it."

"No thanks are necessary, Miss Polendina. I wish you both a good night." With that, Cinder and Emerald departed, leaving Ruby and Penny by themselves.

"Ruby, are you hurt?" Penny asked, wasting no time as she made her way towards Ruby. "What happened, exactly? Cinder did not tell me very much, only that you needed my help."

The guilt eating at Ruby only grew further as Penny spoke. She sounded so worried, and for what? Ruby wasn't hurt, or in any real trouble. She had just felt… lonely? Was that really a good enough reason to have called Penny out here so late at night?

"I'm s-sorry, Penny," Ruby mumbled, lowering her head again to avoid meeting Penny's gaze. "I'm just… h-having a bad day. I sh-shouldn't have asked y-you to come."

"Nonsense," Penny said without hesitation. "You are my friend, Ruby. If you are feeling upset, I want to help you."

Ruby pulled her knees closer to her chest, burying her head once more. "I'll just be w-w-wasting y-your time…"

She was being so selfish, expecting Penny to come all this way just to make her feel better. She was supposed to be able to look after herself now, but she just kept on being a burden to more and more people…

Ruby felt something nudge her side. She lifted her head to find that Penny had taken a seat beside her in the alley, close enough for their shoulders to touch. Penny was looking right at her, her green eyes almost seeming to glow slightly in the dark.

"I would never think of helping you as being a waste of time, Ruby." Penny spoke in a firm voice, not unlike the tone she had used when speaking with the attacker back in the café where they had spent the day together when they met, but with a bit more warmth to her words. She sounded somewhat frustrated, but not angry. "I may have only known you for a short time, but I truly do consider you to be a friend, and I hope that you can call me a friend as well. So please, do not think that I would rather not be here right now, because I can promise you that that is not true."

Penny smiled, nudged Ruby's shoulder gently with her own once more, and continued to speak in that firm yet warm voice.

"I want to help you, Ruby. So tell me what is wrong, and let me see what I can do."

Ruby almost told her. She wanted to. She wanted so badly to just tell Penny what was wrong, to ask for help and not have to try and fix this awful mess all by herself.

But she didn't. She couldn't.

"It's n-not your problem, Penny. I n-need to do th-this alone."

I can't keep making life harder for everyone around me…

"Why?" Penny asked. "Why do you need to do this all by yourself? Whatever 'this' is?"

Ruby didn't want to admit to Penny her mistakes. She didn't want Penny to hate her, didn't want her to realise what a bad person she was.

But it was either that, or risk Penny getting dragged into her problems.

"I…" Ruby swallowed hard, the soreness in her throat from her earlier screaming fit making the action quite painful. "I m-m-messed up, Penny. I l-let m-my teammates down, and I h-have to m-make it better. S-s-so I can't ask you to h-help me. Because th-this isn't s-something you sh-should h-have to deal w-with."

Ruby hoped desperately for Penny to not ask her how exactly she had messed up, because she wouldn't be able to lie to her, and Penny would absolutely hate her for it, tell her how much of a terrible sister and friend she had been once she learnt the truth, tell her that she never wanted to see her again…

Penny shook her head. "Ruby, I am sure that whatever you think you may have done wrong, it is not as bad as you feel it is."

"Yes it is," Ruby said, her voice dropping to a whisper as she fought to keep herself composed. "Penny, I… I'm the leader of m-my team. I'm s-supposed to h-help them. But I ignored it all, and n-n-now it's all f-fallen apart."

Penny cocked her head to one side, confused. "Ruby, what exactly happened? I do not understand."

There it was. The question Ruby had been dreading. Now she would have to tell Penny everything, and lose one of the only real friends she had ever managed to make.

Ruby swallowed painfully once more, and began to explain all of her terrible mistakes.

Weiss had had an entire lengthy speech prepared in her head for when she saw Yang again, but it had all flown from her mind when Yang had rounded on her, leaving her with only three words that came out in a mumbled rush of nerves and embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, Yang."

She then shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket to stop fidgeting, while she continued to wait for Yang to say something in response.

After a few moments, the blonde finally spoke.

"Is this a joke?"

Weiss shook her head. "I'm not joking, Yang. This is a sincere apology. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" Yang echoed back. "Is that all you came out here for? To apologise?"

Weiss couldn't help but flinch back slightly at the harshness of Yang's tone, but she couldn't deny that she probably deserved it. After all, what she had said…

"Yang, I know you're probably mad at me-"

"Stop." Yang cut her off. "I don't care anymore. I'm too tired, and I really don't wanna argue with you again, so if you don't mind, I'm heading back to the dorm, and I'd appreciate it if you waited a bit before coming back yourself."

"Yang, please." Weiss took a cautious step forward. "Just hear me out? I didn't just come here to say sorry."

Yang seemed to contemplate what Weiss was saying for a moment, before letting out a huff. "Fine. What else do you have to say?"

Her carefully-crafted speech was gone, and even if she could recall exactly what she had planned to say, it probably wouldn't have worked now. Even so, despite not knowing exactly how to say it, she did know what she wanted to say.

She would just have to improvise the delivery a little.

"I didn't mean to upset you, and I didn't mean to say what I said."

"You still said it," Yang retorted.

"I know. And I know I can't really take it back. But believe me when I say now that I wish I could."

Yang took a step forward herself, narrowing the gap between them. They were both now stood underneath the streetlamp, its orange light covering them both and leaving them both with nowhere to hide.

"Do you really think that Blake is with the White Fang?"

Weiss clenched her fists inside her pockets. "Do you want the truth?"

Yang scowled. "Answer my question, Weiss."

Weiss looked down at her feet, not willing to meet Yang's gaze. Afraid of how she would react to what Weiss had to say.

"Honestly? I don't know. And I don't really want to know, because I'm scared of what the truth might be."

"You're wrong, Weiss!" Yang snapped. "Blake isn't White Fang! I know she isn't! How can you think she is?"

"I don't want to think that!" Weiss cried. "I shouldn't think that, but I can't get the thought out of my head, Yang!"

That was the crux of the matter. Despite the clear and apparent disdain Blake had held towards her from the moment they had met, Weiss had begun to feel a connection forming between them. Despite the barbed remarks and sideways glances, Weiss had slowly begun to feel as if they were growing just a little bit closer. They weren't friends by any means, but there was something there. Some small amount of understanding that had been growing as the days went by.

But then they had fought, and Weiss had laid bare to them all her past, and Blake had inadvertently revealed that she had been lying about her identity, and amid all the swirling emotions that that terrible night had stirred up, Weiss had found her mind filling with doubt. Doubt which gave rise to that horrible thought, that suspicion that grew and grew until it was all she could think about.

Never before in her life had Weiss wanted to be wrong about something this much.

And it would be so easy to put her mind at ease. All she had to do was ask Blake, and that would be that. After all, it was just like Yang said. There was no way that Blake was with the White Fang… right?

But the doubt… the doubt was still there. And with it came the fear of what the truth might be. What might happen if Blake told them that Weiss was right…

"Do you hate her?" asked Yang.

Weiss shook her head. "No, I don't hate her. I'll admit, I didn't like her much at first. But I never hated her."

"Are you afraid of her, then?"

Weiss paused for a moment, but then shook her head once more. "It's not her I'm afraid of. It's what I might find out when I ask her."

"When?" Yang echoed.

Weiss lifted her head and met Yang's gaze. "Yes. That's the other reason I came back out here."

Yang frowned again, but she didn't look angry so much as confused. "I thought you didn't want to find her?"

Weiss took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I had a lot of time to myself back at the dorm to think about this. I am still afraid of what I mind find out, but I can't just leave it like this. If I'm wrong… and I do hope that I'm wrong, Yang… I need to apologise to Blake as well, for ever thinking so poorly of her."

Yang's frown faded, and was replaced with a small and shaky, but nonetheless genuine smile.

"Well then, let's head back and get some proper rest, then we'll go out and prove you wrong first thing tomorrow."

Weiss smiled back. "That sounds like a good idea. Is Ruby nearby?"

Yang's smile fell. "She wasn't with you back at the dorm?"

Weiss shook her head. "No. Like I said, I was alone. I though she was still with you?"

"I sent her back after you left…" Yang trailed off. She quickly pulled her Scroll out and tapped at the screen, presumably calling her sister.

Weiss saw Yang's eyes widen and her face pale slightly. "It's not going through. Her Scroll isn't working."

"Maybe it ran out of power?" Weiss suggested.

Yang began to look panicked. "Are you sure she wasn't back at Beacon?"

"I'm certain, she never came back to the dorm."

Yang began to walk quickly. "We need to find her. Come on."

Penny didn't say a word as Ruby spoke. She didn't interrupt her, nor did she comment on anything Ruby said whenever she paused to collect her thoughts. She showed no outward signs of judgement, she just sat beside Ruby as she spoke, listening.

It took a while. Between her hoarse voice, her stammer acting up throughout, and just her general reluctance to open up, Ruby's confession wound up taking quite some time to get through.

She told Penny everything. She explained her autism, and how it had made her so dependent on her sister for so long to help her. She explained how she had utterly failed to realise that her teammates were struggling, how she had been unable to see their troubles beyond her own. She explained how Weiss and Blake had fought, how Blake had run away, how it seemed like the two would never be able to reconcile. She explained how Yang had sent her away, because she had finally realised how useless her little sister was and she was better off without her…

She left out Weiss' story, and the fact that Blake was a Faunus. Those parts weren't hers to share.

When she finally finished, Penny remained silent, seemingly processing everything Ruby had just unloaded onto her. Ruby could only wait silently herself for Penny to give her judgement of Ruby's failures.

"I think I understand now. I think you are right, Ruby. I cannot help you with this. I am sorry I cannot do anything."

It took Ruby a moment herself to realise that Penny had apologised to her.

"W-why are you s-sorry?"

"I wanted to help you," Penny explained. "But I see know that this is something that another person cannot really help with."

Penny stood up, and offered Ruby her hand. "All I can do is help you get back to Beacon, so you can talk with your other friends properly about all of this."

Ruby did not take Penny's hand. She remained sat on the ground, staring up at the green-eyed girl in confusion.

"Y-y-you… think I can f-fix th-this?"

Penny shook her head. "I do not think that this is something that you need to 'fix,' Ruby. I think that this is something that you need to face, and talk about with the people who are a part of it."

"I… I don't understand…"

Penny seemed to ponder for a moment. "I may not be explaining myself very well. I have never been in a situation like yours before. But I have had disagreements with my Dad, and when those happen, we find that the best thing to do is talk about them with each other. Maybe if you tell your team what you have told me about how you feel, and then listen to them when they tell you how they feel, you can all figure this out together?"

Ruby stared up at Penny. She had been expecting any number of bad reactions to result from telling Penny all of this, but instead Penny was offering her advice?

"You… don't think th-that I'm a h-h-horrible person? Even after w-what I told y-you?"

Penny shook her head firmly. "Not at all. You care a lot about your sister and your friends. A horrible person would not feel so bad about this."

No longer waiting for Ruby to take her hand, Penny reached down and pulled Ruby to her feet by herself. "Now come on, we need to get you back to your-"

Penny stopped, her eyes widening before she spun around, her gaze aimed towards the sky.

A low rumble sounded in the distance. To an untrained ear, it would have sounded like thunder.

To the ear of one who knew what an explosion sounded like, there was no mistaking what this rumble was.

Especially when it was followed by another, which itself was accompanied by the distant, tell-tale glow of flames rising into the night sky.

"Ruby, what is in that direction?" Penny asked.

"Th-the docks, I th-think." Ruby strained her hearing, and although it was difficult to make out, she could have sworn that she heard the sound of gunfire echoing through the night.

Ruby reached for her weapon, only to remember that it was back in her locker at Beacon. So she reached for her Scroll to call the locker to her location, only to remember that it was broken.

Luckily, she remembered the code she would need, and so long as she remembered that, any Scroll would do.

"Penny, can I borrow y-your S-Scroll?"

"Ruby!" Yang yelled as loud as she could. "Ruby, where are you!?"

"Yang, let's think about this," chimed in Weiss. "Is there somewhere she might be? Somewhere she would go if she were lost?"

"If she were lost, she would have just called me!" Yang replied, her panic rising. "Ruby! Can you hear me!?"

"Maybe she went back to the dorm after I left?" Weiss pulled her Scroll out. "I'll call Pyrrha and ask her to check-"

Yang's own Scroll buzzed in her pocket, and she felt a wave of relief flood over her. It was most probably Ruby, calling to ask where she was…

BLAKE

Yang's heart stopped. Her finger froze over the 'answer' button as she stared at the name on the screen.

"Are you going to… oh." Weiss looked down at the display on Yang's Scroll. She was apparently just as thrown off by this development as Yang was.

Yang swallowed thickly, and pressed the button, switching on the loudspeaker as she did so.

The voice that came through was panicked, and not Blake, and accompanied by the distinct sound of a lot of gunfire.

"HELP US!"

Hello again to all of you, hello to any newcomers, and sorry once again for the massive delay in getting this rather short chapter done and uploaded for you to read. I'm Not Scot.

September has been insane on my end, and it feels like this one month has lasted forever. I won't bore you with all the details of what's been keeping me so busy this past month, but I've got most of it sorted out now, and have a bit more free time to get back to my writing.

So yeah, this one is a bit on the short side compared to the rest. It's largely a follow-up to the last one, as well as a set-up for next chapter, where we move into the actual climax of Volume One. I have the beat-by-beat plans for it and the following chapter all done and ready, so it shouldn't take me too long to get both of those written up and ready to upload. No promises on an exact time, but I am aiming to have Volume One all wrapped up before the end of October, if not sooner.

I'd like to give a big thanks to all the people who have left Likes on this fic, as well as all the new followers we've picked up over the last month while I've been away. I really hope you like the story so far, and I hope you'll enjoy what comes next as well.

Feel free to leave a review if you wish. I always appreciate any feedback I get. For now though, I shall take my leave.

Until next time,

Not Scot.

P.S: Now that Ice Queendom had all finished airing, I'll be binging it all to see what I missed.