Weiss: The Foil

by writersblock159

RWBY has finally beaten Salem, but the cost was far too high. Weiss fell in the final battle, and her loss has been felt keenly by her team. Sun has reached out to Yang to find out how Blake is doing. And as for Ruby? Well no one has heard from her in quite some time... Part two of the Four Corners, Four Keystones cycle.

If you're curious about the faunus language, check my other fics. There's a translation document.

Standard Disclaimer:

A loud 'thunk' emanated from behind a large curtain that took up most of the space on the stage. Jeneralissima sighed as she entered from house right. "Do I even want to know?"

A muttered curse was heard as the unmistakable sound of someone hitting their head on something solid came from behind the curtain. A second later, Writersblock came out, tugging an extension cord behind them.

"Hold this." They dove back behind the curtain. Several birds flew out from the break in the fabric, still screeching. An animal (she thought it was a lion) roared, and a moment later Block reappeared holding…something and looking like they had stuck their finger into an electrical outlet.

"Seriously, what is this?" Jeneralissima asked, concern warring with curiosity in her tone.

"Spring cleaning," Block replied, punting the…thing into the front row, where it immediately began to eat through the seats it landed on. "You would not believe the kind of cobwebs I had to dust off this."

"This is why no one sits in the front any more." Jeneralissima pointed out, watching as the audience collectively decided to relocate back one more row as the thing began to chew through the cement below the chairs.

"They'll be back." Block waved their hand dismissively. "The exterminators should be here by the next chapter, and we'll get all new chairs for free." Their eyes zeroed in on the power cord. "Why didn't you plug in the story?"

"I think you have to tell them that we don't own RWBY before I do," she replied drily.

"Fair enough." Writersblock turned to the audience as Jerneralissima began yanking the cord offstage. "A little bit of spring cleaning, ladies and gentlemen, another massive undertaking, brought to you through the patience of a very tired beta and my undaunted work ethic-"

"-In other words," Jeneralissima yelled from offstage, "this is what you were doing instead of your chemistry homework!"

"As if." Writersblock rolled their eyes. "It was calculus." An annoyed scream could be heard offstage, as well as the lion's roar. "Hope you enjoy the first chapter, folks. It's Weiss' turn to sit it out."

---

Sun stared out over the little village that had just come into view across the water.

Manajorie's capitol hadn't changed a bit from the last time he'd set eyes on it. It still looked like an unassuming tropical fishing village that you'd never imagine held the chief of a nation and his famous daughter.

A heavy sigh escaped the monkey faunus and he stretched a bit, trying to shake the morose thoughts from his head. He knew why he was coming back here; his instincts weren't wrong about these kinds of things. Something was wrong with one of his friends, and he had a pretty good idea who it was.

Yang's scroll call had let him know that something was up with Blake, and he had immediately started packing, knowing that he needed to get to the island nation as fast as possible-even before the brawler had asked him if he could stop by. Apparently Yang had decided to start looking for Ruby, and her decision was a strange one in Sun's opinion. At least it seemed to be at first, but the more he thought about it, he couldn't figure out why it would be. After all, Ruby was a good friend to pretty much everyone she met, and he considered her a good friend of his as well. For some reason however, his feelings about the red-clad girl seemed to be the same as his feelings about Pyrrha, which boiled down to "the dead don't need to be found," and that feeling had transferred to her as well.

Something for him to figure out on his own later.

Right now it had been made apparent that Blake was in a bad way, and it would snow in the Vacuo desert before Sun willingly abandoned a friend in need-Blake Belladonna especially. He had stood by her through the entire White Fang ordeal, and he'd helped her get back where she belonged: next to her partner. He wasn't bitter about Yang either. He understood that he hadn't really had much of a chance with the cat-eared faunus, and he was, first and foremost, a friend to people. Romance, real or hoped for, wasn't something that he would use as an excuse to dislike someone.

The loud ship's horn shook him from his thoughts, and he began searching the docks for his quarry. Sure enough, only a few people littered the walkway, and at the end there stood the Dragon herself. Her mane of golden hair was glistening in the midday sun, and her sunglasses hid the purple orbs he had no doubt were scanning the ship looking for him. Her trademark jacket was missing, not that Sun could blame her in this heat, and that meant that her bright orange tank top was leaving her ever-famous yellow and black prosthetic on full display. Her arms were crossed, and he wondered how long she had been waiting. Deciding that he'd rather get off before someone asked for his ticket, he grabbed his rucksack and scrambled down the side of the ship, ignoring the yells and threats as the crew noticed what he was doing and guessed who (or what, rather) he was.

Yang stayed where she was, a neutral expression on her face, and watched the drama play out.

As soon as the dock was within jumping distance, Sun dropped to the wooden planks. Shooting the brawler a wink, he gave a merry wave to the crew that were now hurriedly readying the ship for docking. "So how are you doing, blondie?"

"Not bad." Yang replied, still watching the ship in front of her. "Did you skip the ticketing booth again?"

"Nah." He lied, and a slim eyebrow raised on the huntress, though her smile showed she was more amused than accusatory. "Besides, can you really talk? I heard about how you made it to Atlas from Argus."

The huntress finally turned to look at him, the smile on her face dispelling any concerns he had about her anger. "Steal one Atlesian military transport and you never hear the end of it." 'One?' the monkey faunus thought, but before he could put it into words she pulled him into an unexpected hug, and he felt every ounce of air squeezed out of him at her sudden embrace.

"It's good to see you, Sun." Pulling back, she glanced up at the ship as he tried to get air back in his lungs. "I suppose you want to get out of here before the port authority gets here?" He coughed a little bit, which she apparently took for a yes, because she threw an arm over his shoulders and started leading him off the dock. "So, was the trip good?"

He nodded, finally getting enough air into his lungs to answer a moment later. "Uneventful. No Grimm, no pirates, no storms; it's enough to put a Huntsman out of business, I tell you!"

Yang nodded sympathetically, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Yeah, well, we had three sea Grimm attacks, two pirate raids, and a typhoon in the last week, so you missed all the excitement." Sun let out a mock groan, and the blonde Huntress laughed. "You need to start pulling your weight, monkey-boy, otherwise it won't even be a challenge."

Sun rolled his eyes, shoving the brawler playfully. He realized his mistake a moment later as she pushed back, still playfully, but considerably harder. They had nearly made it to the end of the dock, but unfortunately (or fortunately for him, he wasn't sure if the sand would have been better) he landed in the water with a loud splash. It was only about four feet, so he was in no danger of drowning and he stood up immediately, but Yang's uproarious laughter caught in his ears.

He chuckled a bit himself until he heard a loud "There! In the water!" Yang and Sun both stopped laughing, and the huntress reached down to offer him her hand. He took it and tried to help as she picked him up, mostly on her own, and put him on the dock. Glancing behind them, he saw what looked like a gorilla faunus and a large dog faunus hurrying toward him and the brawler. Yang met his eyes with a clear question, and he mentally groaned even as he nodded. It would take almost no time at all to settle his debt and explain his presence as a huntsman, but Yang wasn't thinking of that. She had the look that Blake had often described as her "chaos look" on her face. He'd seen it briefly in Mistral, but now, out of combat, he realized just how dangerous she really was.

Because Yang wanted to outrun the authorities for fun.

And Sun, by the brothers, wanted to as well now that she'd suggested it.

Yang was a bad influence on him.

The two began to walk, shoulder to shoulder, toward the shore, intentionally looking straight ahead.

"Hey!" Sun winced at the yell, but didn't slow down. "Hey, you! Blondie!"

Yang shot him a gleeful look that said "here we go" before flying into action as they hit the shore. Without breaking stride, she leapt off a couple barrels that were standing near the harbormaster's hut. Doing a front flip, she landed on the roof in a crouch.

Sun, refusing to be one-upped, used his semblance to give himself a boost, landing just behind the huntress as she began to run along the peak of the roof; leaping effortlessly from building to building with a manic laugh emanating from her. Not wanting to be left behind, the monkey faunus followed, a laugh escaping him too as he matched her pace, both of them easily leaving their pursuers in the dust.

It was obvious Yang was enjoying the run, the freedom of it all. When she came to a large break in the rooftops where the street separated the blocks, she let loose two shotgun blasts straight down. The resulting momentum blasted her over the street without an issue, and as Sun used his semblance to give him a toss using his avatar, he noticed she had carefully fired into a couple rain barrels, which were only slowly leaking. Obviously she was well aware of where she was shooting and was in no way endangering others.

The two raced around the city; a couple of local police briefly tried to stop them, but they disappeared across the skyline (or as much of a skyline as the village had) and lost the pursuers again. Of course they might have simply recognized one of the Saviors of Remnant and maybe just gave up because of that, but if Yang thought of that she didn't show it. She ran, laughed, joked, did unnecessarily acrobatic moves and had fun. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and Sun found himself taking more risks, jumping farther, and performing just as many crazy stunts as his huntress friend. They had looped the city at least twice when Yang finally dropped off the edge of a small bar.

A monkey faunus like himself, despite having brown hair and being distinctly female, waved to the two hunters as Sun landed. "Well, well, well. Yang Xiao Long herself, come to drink outside my humble little bar. Oh, before I forget," the faunus added, using her tail to throw what looked distinctly like a set of keys. "She's in the back." Yang chuckled, and the faunus focused on Sun. "I...know you. You were here with Blake Belladonna all those years ago. Left and never returned."

The brawler interjected. "Sun, meet Jessica. Jess, this crazy friend of mine is Sun Wukong. Huntsman, bo staff master, and party boy extraordinaire."

"I am so much more than a party boy," Sun countered, a smile on his face. Yang stuck her tongue out at him and Jessica rolled her eyes. Holding out his hand, he crossed to the faunus. "It's good to meet you." They clasped forearms and held gazes. "Mun an tu' alnki."

"Nusit ture kali," Jessica responded. She broke eye contact first, surprising him, but he followed her gaze to see a rather confused Yang watching the proceedings. He moved to let go of the other faunus's arm, but felt her tighten her grip slightly. "Yang, are you going to finish?"

The blonde shrugged. "Um- I did?" Sun saw the female faunus narrow her eyes, and he realized the problem.

"Yang, do you know what you just did?" He dropped the arm and saw Jessica shoot him a surprised glance, but he was more focused on the confused huntress in front of him rather than the social faux pas he had just made.

"I introduced two of my friends..?" The brawler asked, unsure of herself.

The faunus next to him put her brow in her hand. "Yang, have Blake and llia taught you nothing?"

"Blake hasn't exactly been leaping at the chance to interact with anyone, not even me-you know that." Yang's voice was drier than the desert Sun had grown up in. "As for Ilia, I've told you everything about our…relationship." The way the brawler said the last word in that sentence, the huntsman could instantly tell that the chameleon faunus was not high on the list of people she liked.

Sun sighed, gently patting his new acquaintance on her shoulder with his tail. "Yang, you just introduced two faunus, and didn't tell us anything about each other."

"Um- well, Jessica's the owner of this bar." The blonde gestured behind the two. "And Sun's a huntsman who helped us defeat Salem-"

Jessica glanced up. "I'm familiar with Sun, Yang."

"-oh." The brawler looked even more lost. "Then… then I don't really know what else you want to know. He's a good guy, smart, good at fighting, and just fun to be around."

Sun could feel his ears burning, but he ginned anyway. "Aww Yang, I like you too."

Jessica shot him an annoyed look. "And you don't know what else-"

"She doesn't." Sun cut her off, returning her look with a sharp glance of his own. "Obviously." He turned back to his friend, who was looking a mix of confused and upset. "Yang, when you introduce two faunus, it's a good idea to tell them a bit about each other. It'll give them a chance to figure out social standings between the two of them." At her confused look, he mentally sighed. "I promise to explain more about it to you later." She nodded seriously, and he knew that she would hold him to that.

Yang glanced at the faunus next to him. "I'm sorry, Jessica. I…really don't have any idea what I'm supposed to do here."

The female monkey faunus nodded, crossing her arms. "I know. You've told me before that Blake has had her mind on other things, but I didn't realize that nobody has been filling you in." She sighed. "Nonetheless, if your friend fails to inform you properly,'' She gave Sun a reproachful look, to which he responded with a 'who, me?' gesture. "then come find me. I'll help you-actually," she corrected herself, "come find me anyway, even if he does. I want to make sure that he instructs you in everything."

The huntsman mentally thanked the other faunus. There were plenty of things he didn't want to fill the brawler in on. Things that were better left to better, closer friends.

Yang looked down for a moment. "I…Thanks guys." Glancing up, she started toward the two of them. Grabbing Sun's arm as she passed, she slid some lien into Jessica's hand. "Thanks for watching Bumblebee, Jess. I appreciate it."

"No problem." The faunus replied, pocketing the money, and giving her a wink. "Now go home!" She reached out and squeezed Sun's bicep, making him jump. "And enjoy what you got there, girlie. I know faunus who would kill for a piece of meat like that."

Sun prided himself on always having a response for everything, and he tried to play off her comment by shooting the other faunus a wink-only to have her blow him a kiss in return. He was about to continue the charade when Yang pulled him around the corner and strode purposefully to her ever famous bike.

"Here." She held out a black helmet, and he took it, carefully fastening it to his head as he got on behind the blonde. Yang herself jammed a bright yellow helmet of her own on her head, thumping it twice, and pulling her hair off to one side.

"Test, test. Can you hear me, Sun?" The brawler's voice crackled through speakers in the helmet, and the monkey faunus tried to play off the slight jump he'd made as just shifting his weight. The smile in Yang's voice told him that he'd failed. "Well, try not to do that when we're driving. I don't think you'll want to fall off."

With that, the brawler peeled out of the alley. Leaning into the turn with the huntress, he felt, despite her breakneck departure, they were actually slowing down to a much less death-defying speed. "Old age catching up to you Yang? What happened to the girl who used to regularly come back from the weekends with a packet of speeding tickets?" He chuckled into the mic, but her silence worried him. "Yang?"

"Sorry." The blonde shook her head. "I was just thinking. I guess that I just figured that my team has lost enough members recently- they don't need to lose another."

Sun lost his smile at that, his tail gently coming to rest on her shoulder, while his arms, which had been loosely draped around her before, gave a bit of squeeze. "I'm sorry. I didn't think of it that way."

Yang shrugged, knocking his tail off. "I know. I suppose I just hadn't noticed it before you mentioned it." He started to respond, but she continued as he tried to speak. "Let's put off that conversation until later, huh? Maybe you can tell me what the whole social status thing you and Jess sprang on me earlier was about instead."

The huntsman nodded, and began to explain, "So you know how we have a hierarchy-to a degree-in our culture?"

"No."

"No-!? Yang, how long have you been living in Manajorie?"

"I've had other things on my mind!" the brawler retorted sharply. "I haven't exactly paused to investigate local culture- I've been busy."

Sun sighed. "I didn't mean it that way, Yang, I just thought that you might have seen how people here interact a little differently."

"That's an understatement." Yang agreed. "I mean, I knew that cultures could vary from land to land-my trip with RWBY taught me that much-but this is… incredibly confusing." She stopped at an intersection, and gesticulated. "For example, I have to be careful how I say things. 'Man' and 'Woman' can be seen as insults. I need to watch my language around certain people. I'm never sure of who, but they always seem to be present when I do want to swear." Yang put her hands back on the handlebars, and they were underway again, "Worst of all, there's a whole language, a whole culture, that I can't even be part of because the only person who is interested in teaching me about it is so depressed that I'm scared some days I'm going to wake up to a corpse." He could hear that the Dragon of Team RWBY was on the edge of tears. "I'm… Blake's not getting better, Sun. She visits with a therapist every week, and her friend Ilia talks with her all the time, but she's still dangerously depressed." They took a turn onto a road that was obviously heading out of town. "I just don't know what to do, Sun. I try to help and seem to make it worse. I try to back off and seem to make it worse." She took a couple deep breaths that he could see from the way her posture shifted. "I-I need to find Ruby."

"Ruby?"

"Yeah. She always knows what to do."

"Yang, Ruby's-" he cut himself off before he finished the sentence. "I mean-I don't think anyone knows where Ruby is."

"My dad knows." The brawler grumbled, her words slightly muffled through the speaker. "I mentioned it to him a couple weeks ago, and he immediately got cagey."

"Yang-"

"I'm not choosing." The blonde countered. "No one is forcing me to choose." The way she repeated that, Sun immediately wondered who had suggested it. Obviously it hit close to home if Yang was repeating it like a mantra.

"So why did you contact me?"

"Because I don't want to wake up to a corpse, but I really don't want to come back to find a corpse either," Yang snarked.

"Whoa! Yang, chill!"

"I'm sorry Sun. That was uncalled for."

"And a bit morbid. Is Blake that bad?"

"Worse." Came the grim response. "How much did you follow the story?"

"Not much." Sun admitted. "I briefly touched base with JNPR, then my team contacted me and-well."

"I heard about SNNN leading a charge back into the land of darkness." Yang gave a nod from in front of him. It looked kind of strange with the helmet on. "Never found out what for."

"We were supposed to set up a perimeter. Us, FNKI, NDGO, and several other teams as well as a couple ACE teams were sent in." The monkey faunus replied easily, not caring that he was betraying Atlas state secrets. "Atlas wanted to set up automated defenses within the Grimm's birthing area so they could kill the nightmares before they could truly form."

"Let me guess." The blonde huntress replied, her voice surprisingly calm and steady. "The god of darkness stopped you."

"He was…terrifying." Sun shuddered slightly, even as his driver nodded in agreement.

"He's certainly not human-mortal, whatever."

The monkey faunus made a noise of agreement. "Yeah, not an experience I want to repeat. Anyway, he…politely 'asked' us to leave and, well, you've met Neptune."

Yang pulled to a stop outside of a small cottage. "Isn't he the one who's afraid of all things water?"

"The very same." Sun agreed.

Slipping out of her helmet, Yang motioned for Sun to do so as well. He opened the faceplate to hear her better. "Okay, so isn't he a bit of a coward?"

"When dealing with water, yes." The groan from the brawler suggested that she had a pretty good idea what that meant, but Sun continued anyway. "If he's on dry land, however, it's a different matter. He tends to get brave."

"Brave or foolish?"

"Both," Sun corrected himself with a grimace.

"So he's…"

"On probation." The huntsman reassured her. "He spoke down to the god, like he was in charge of the entire mission-and it was only because of Octavia from NDGO that he walked out of there." Yang raised an eyebrow, but the monkey faunus just waved his hand. "It's not as exciting as it sounds. I'll tell you the story later, but there's no small amount of context and it'll take a lot more time than what we have right now; not to mention I think Blake would like to hear it too." He pulled off his helmet as the blonde in front of him leaned up against her bike.

"Yeah, I guess. But I'm guessing that you didn't have a lot of time to hear about what had happened between us and Salem."

He shrugged. "Not really. I saw you guys on the news when you left the land of darkness. I wasn't able to stay around long enough to hear everything that happened, but I know enough."

"You know who died. Do you know how?" Yang's voice was soft.

"Oh." Sun didn't. "I haven't heard anything specifically about it. I only know the official story, that she gave her life for one of her teammates."

"Guess which one." She looked away.

"Ruby?"

"No. It was the least likely one as far as her father was concerned. The one that no one ever thought the Schnee princess, who had learned to hate at her father's knee, would ever defend with her life." Yang turned to look at him, her eyes determined, even as they glistened with tears.

"She took the hit for Blake." Sun let out a heavy breath. "Oh."

"Blake...hasn't taken it well."

Sighing heavily, the monkey faunus motioned for Yang to follow him to a nearby tree. "I think it's time we had a chat about Blake."

The brawler glanced at the house she had pulled up in front of. "Now?"

"Now." Sun replied.

Yang seemed to reach a decision. Nodding, she followed the huntsman slightly off and sat opposite him when he sat down. "So we're having this talk now."

"Yeah, I figured it was time."

The huntress fidgeted slightly with a blade of grass, before picking it. "I guess. You and I both knew we were going to have to talk about it eventually."

He looked away. "I mean, we were going to need to talk to each other eventually, yes. Especially since Blake and I had…our past."

Yang looked back sharply. "I thought it was only Adam."

"Nah." Sun sighed. "I knew her for a short period of time. She was…she was the one who recruited me."

"Wait." The brawler put her hands out, the blade of grass falling to the ground. "You mean to tell me that Blake Belladonna was a recruiter?"

"Blake Belladonna has been, and still is, a massive inspiration for faunus of all ages." Sun replied quietly.

"So you weren't her boyfriend?" Yang asked, a bit of relief coloring her features. "This isn't a conversation about how you want me to step aside?"

"By the brothers, no! Why would I ask you to do that? I'm just her friend." The faunus looked at the huntress curiously.

"I guess, I just thought… when you said you had a history…" The brawler shook her head, embarrassment coloring her cheeks. "Nevermind, so Blake recruited you for what, the White Fang?"

"Back before it was a paramilitary force." Sun clarified. "We were like twelve. She was there with her parents at a rally, I thought she was nice, she explained what her parents did, and why they were there." He sighed. "The thing is, she contacted me shortly after they reorganized, a few years later, and convinced me to go on one single mission with her." At the brawler's curious look, he shrugged. "I could tell that the entire White Fang was going in a direction that I really didn't agree with, but this was Blake. I figured it would be okay." Yang didn't say anything. Just pulled her knees up by her chin and listened.

Sun sighed. "Anyway. It was me, her, and Ilia. Nobody else. The first of what I think was meant to be one of many jobs with the three of us, ultimately to build a cell out of Vacuo."

"What was it?" Yang asked curiously.

"It doesn't really matter." Sun replied, wincing at how dismissive he sounded. "What you need to know is that it went bad...really bad. The plans were leaked, they were waiting for us, and it turned into a giant trap."

Yang nodded; she was familiar with some of the White Fang's earlier days. Blake and even Ilia had been generous at how terrible they had done when they'd first started out. They had never mentioned Sun, though.

"So...all three of you?"

"Yes."

"Any reason why they might never have mentioned you?"

The huntsman shrugged. "Any number of reasons. I disagreed with the reasoning behind the attacks. I told them to leave my name out of the White Fang after it militarized. I blamed Ilia for everything going wrong, and Blake supported her." He sighed. "In retrospect, it was a bad idea from the start, and I apologized to Blake when I finally met her again in Beacon. I would have apologized to Ilia when I met her later, if she hadn't been trying to kill us both."

"There's a reason you told me this." Yang tried to nudge him back on track.

"Blake nearly got shot, and I took the bullet," Sun replied softly. "Ilia took the next one. She had to carry both of us out."

The brawler shook her head, horrified. "And it just happened again."

"And it just happened again." Sun agreed. "Only this time the other person didn't survive." The two sat in silence for a moment, before he continued. "But we can help her now, and, well, if anyone can help her it's you."

"I need to find Ruby."

"I disagree," the monkey faunus replied, standing up. "But I'm not sure if that's because I'm having second thoughts about Ruby or because you'd genuinely benefit from being here, with your girlfriend, more."

Yang rose as well. "Second thoughts about Ruby?" He sighed and told her his feelings about the younger girl. The blonde frowned. "But she's still alive."

"I know that." He shook his head. "I just… it feels like she isn't, and I don't know why."

"You're not alone." The brawler consoled him. "Blake said the exact same thing earlier when I bemoaned Ruby not being around to help."

Sun narrowed his eyes at that. There were very few things that could cause someone like Blake Belladonna to have conflicting instincts and thoughts. Him, sure, he was just an average faunus who happened to have a useful semblance and was fairly good with a bo staff. Blake, though…"You're sure?"

"No Sun, I am not 100% sure that my girlfriend told me that she'd briefly thought that my little sister was dead." Yang replied, sarcasm coloring her voice. "Does that sound like something I would lie about?"

"No," he agreed, beginning to walk back, the huntress falling into step next to him. "I guess it isn't."

"Thank you," Yang snarked, sounding a bit more like Weiss than she meant to, he was sure. He chuckled, and she gave him a strange look.

He shook his head and waved a hand. "Not important. So does Blake know that I'm coming and that it means you're leaving?"

"Yes." The brawler said quietly. "I don't think she wants it, but she knows."

"Well, it's nice to know that I'm wanted."

"Oh." Yang realized what she'd said. "She's glad to hear you're coming, she's just not thrilled that I'm going to look for my sister."

Sun shook his head. "You really shouldn't leave if the two of you aren't in agreement."

"When will I go then?" Yang shot back, clearly frustrated. "I…I need to talk to Ruby, okay? She's my leader, she's my friend, and most importantly she's my sister. I'm kind of stressed right now, and I could really use a sister."

"Did you call her?" Sun asked, wilting under the red-eyed glare she shot him.

"No, Sun. I deliberately didn't do the one thing that would be the easiest thing to do to get in contact with my sister. I also haven't tried calling my friends, or my family. By the way, next week I'm going skinny-dipping in the pools of destruction, and will then be going on a swingers cruise with Ilia." She shook her head. "I think I can say, without a doubt, that has got to be the dumbest question someone has asked me in quite some time."

"Point the sarcasm somewhere else!" he said, putting his hands up in a universal sign of surrender, a half grin on his face to take any sting out of the words. "That stuff's weapons-grade dangerous the way you use it." She chuckled, and he laughed a bit as well. "Seriously, though, I think this is going to be really hard on Blake…and I don't think it's going to be a picnic for you either."

The two were outside the door, and Yang let out a deep breath. "Yeah, well…if Blake went missing, and I was living with Ruby, I would be gone the next day then too."

He wanted to reply that Ruby wasn't exactly missing, but the words froze in his throat as he realized that was exactly what had happened. Ruby Rose was gone, no one had a clue where she was, and, despite her celebrity hero status, no one seemed to care. Putting himself in Yang's shoes, he realized that he would have done the same thing. He ignored the little voice in the back of his mind reminding him that he had had the chance to do exactly that and had come here to talk the brawler out of going on her trip instead.

Swallowing heavily, he nodded.

Yang visibly fortified herself and pushed the door open.

It was cleaner than he expected. He wasn't sure why he had anticipated a huge mess; maybe it was a predisposition to think of Yang as wild and untameable, but looking through the doorway it was obvious that there wasn't any sort of real mess to be seen. As the blonde walked him through the house, he noted the spotless counters, the empty sink, and the way the glass windows seemed crystal clear.

It didn't feel like a home.

And he could tell Yang felt the same way. The brawler was obviously proud of the little building, but it almost felt forced, as though she was trying to make herself find happiness in the sanitized showpiece of a house. He could see that she carefully sidestepped certain areas and didn't even look at some of the decorations that littered the building.

It felt almost scripted.

Finally they finished, and Yang motioned to him to follow her. Herding him upstairs, she showed him a nice room, and he carefully set his sack on the bed before following her out and motioning her to follow him outside. As soon as they were on the porch, he sat down on the steps and the blonde joined him, letting out a deep breath.

"Yang, are you okay here?" He was concerned. Yang seemed almost cowed in the house, and while he'd never thought Blake to be abusive, he remembered just how badly the brawler had said the cat faunus was doing. Stress and hurt could manifest itself in different ways, and now, with Yang leaving...

"I'm fine, Sun." The brawler looked away. Sun felt his stomach sink.

"Yang, why are you leaving?"

"Because Ruby is missing!" Yang shifted her body language, her entire form changing, confidence seeming to flood back into her. "I have to find her, Sun. It's not just a matter of me or my feelings, she's my sister! I'm not…" She trailed off, and the monkey faunus leaned in as she mumbled, "I'm not making a choice."

"A choice?"

Yang shook her head. "It's nothing, Sun. Just forget about it."

"Yang..."

"Leave it." Her eyes flashed red again, and he backed off.

"I want to help, Yang."

"You really want to help?" Purple eyes looked back at him. "Then take care of Blake for me while I'm gone. Don't let Ilia-just watch out for her, okay?"

Sun blinked. "Is she here often?"

"It's her house." The huntress replied quietly.

A lot of pieces suddenly fell into place for Sun. Yang wasn't aware of faunus customs, she and Blake were living with Ilia, Ilia used to have feelings for Blake…He winced.

He was starting to wish that he had offered to go with Yang.

He briefly wondered what had been said to Yang that had cowed her so much. He was almost sure that it had been something Blake had said, but he felt as though it wasn't abusive like he'd thought. More likely it had been the brawler and Ilia doing something that pushed Blake over the edge.

He wrinkled his brow as he thought about the chameleon faunus. Knowing Ilia the way he did, he suspected she had likely been goading Yang at every opportunity. When the blonde snapped, Blake was probably always around. Was it any wonder that the Dragon of RWBY had become so timid, carefully avoiding places she knew might upset her host?

He sighed. Blake wasn't stupid, but if she was as deep in her own mind as Yang said she was, there was a good chance she hadn't seen everything Ilia was doing; with the blonde huntress too preoccupied looking for her sister, there was a good chance Yang hadn't realized what was going on either.

That, and the blonde huntress wasn't exactly good with politics. 'I'm the Yang, let's fight!' indeed.

"You okay, Sun?" Yang was looking at him curiously, and he realized he had been staring at her in his wool gathering.

"Yeah." He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "I was just thinking. How soon are you going to leave?"

"Tonight," the blonde replied, looking morose as she said it. "I know Blake wants me to put it off, but Ilia helped me out by getting me a ticket, apparently." She held up her scroll, showing a message with an attachment. Sun nodded, a bit sad that she was leaving. "I want to go see Blake before I go." She climbed to her feet. "There's food in the fridge. Leave the greens for Ilia: trust me, you do not want to see her without her Pothos leaves."

As the blond disappeared into the house, Sun let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. Obviously, he was walking into the hornet's nest. Ilia seemed to be trying to push Yang out, and Blake was clearly not in the frame of mind to help support her girlfriend. He wasn't sure why Yang felt like she was making a choice, and he was worried about how quickly she was leaving despite almost seeming against it.

And his gut told him that he was needed here, no matter how much he wanted to help Yang find her sister.

Sighing again, this time out of weariness, he rose to go inside before pausing. Yang hadn't mentioned much about her current home life, and she didn't seem to know much about faunus customs, but she had seemed to make a friend with the pub owner-Jessica, if he recalled correctly. Glancing at his scroll, he found the number to the club and dialed.

It rang a few times before finally being answered.

"Hello?"

"Jessica, it's Sun. We met earlier." He'd already changed languages halfway through, back to his native tongue.

"I-Well, Sun, I can honestly say this call is quite the surprise, what's wrong?" There was a pause, and then she added, "Yang isn't in trouble already, is she? I will have to wreak bloody vengeance on somebody if that is the case."

Sun grinned. He liked Jessica. The faunus had way too much of a hard streak in her to be one of his best friends, but her language suggested that she was joking. Mostly joking. Probably. Maybe.

Hopefully.

"No, Yang's fine. She's getting ready to leave. I called to ask you about how she's been doing since she moved here." There was a long silence over the line, and for a moment the blond thought that he'd lost his signal. Just as he was about to speak again, Jessica finally responded.

"That's not a topic to discuss over open airwaves. Are you at Ilia's?"

Sun nodded, suddenly very aware of his poor planning. "Yes."

"Very well, I'll keep it brief and fill you in tomorrow. For now, just keep your eyes open, and remember: leaves shouldn't fall far from the tree." The line went dead a moment later, and Sun narrowed his eyes. He never should have come back to Manajorie. He'd been here twice, and both times now someone had been in danger.

He never should have come back, but his instincts told him that he was exactly where he needed to be.