Ilia hopped from the small boat and began to stride across the starlit sand with purpose- the journey from Kuo Kuana to the White Fang's hidden encampment on a nearby island had taken most of the day, but she knew the trip would be worth it. Corsac and Fennec were more careful as they left the vessel, and stepped lightly onto the beach as they took up the rear of their little troupe. The two brothers whispered feverishly and exchanged glances, while Ilia picked up her pace into a jog. The chameleon faunus smiled to herself, as she imagined just how pleased Adam would be with her- she had done exactly as had been asked thus far, and managed to secure the scroll of one of their new enemies.

As she made her way across the beach, Ilia pulled her horned grimm mask from a pouch at her side and drew Sun's scroll from an opposite pocket. She had made a day of trawling through the young man's personal information as the two brothers dealt with maneuvering the boat between rocky outcroppings, and she had learned a great deal. Sun's scroll was a veritable treasure trove of information, both about himself and otherwise, and some of it seemed as though it would prove useful in the future.

His photos had been first- naturally, Ilia had checked his recently deleted album, only to find more than a few embarrassing mirror selfies. Most were shirtless, one featured him in boxers, and another was simply a close-up of his abs. Ilia had sent them all straight to Blake, with increasingly more lewd captions as she did so. She prayed that Blake would see them, and that it would cause some tension between the pair.

Back in the rest of his saved photos, Ilia had found several interesting little tidbits- the earliest pictures were of a white building with a pale-blue roof, somewhere in the middle of a run-down town. The white wood was peeling and featured the occasional hole, while a window on the bottom floor was broken. She didn't recognize any of the surroundings, nor did she particularly care. What struck her as odd was the sheer number of children in the series of photos- every single one seemed to feature at least three, mostly faunus, and all doing work to repair the outside of the building. The last in the set was of an illegible sign outside of the structure- a black background with worn, chipped, golden letters that she couldn't make out. Clearly, it had been something from his past, and she would find a way to learn what and where that building was.

It seemed like a good target.

Deeper into the gallery were pictures of a large, steppe-pyramid looking building and the campus surrounding it- Ilia recognized it as Shade Academy, in Vacuo. The location made sense, considering how scruffy she found him to be, and the photos of what she assumed were his team weren't much better. A blue-haired narcissist, a muscular, dark swordsman with an edgy neck tattoo, and someone with some sort of pirate delusion were not her style, at all.

Within his photos, she found nothing else useful but pictures of Blake. So many pictures of Blake, her school, and her team. The sight made Ilia's blood boil, and she worked her way through deleting them all. Watching her disappear over and over was cathartic, but it wasn't enough. She wanted to see him suffer… and she knew who could help her get there.

"Hurry it up, you two," Ilia complained as she stashed the scroll back in her pocket after taking one last look at a selfie of Sun. How she hated that confident, flawless smile. She slid the grimm mask over her eyes with an annoyed huff, and approached the nearby camp.

The two brothers looked at each other once more, before hastening into a faster gait. Ilia led them up to a fence made of wooden poles with two tall torches blazing in the night on either side of the gate. A pair of White Fang guards stood out front, each wielding a simple machine gun and watching with curiosity as Ilia approached through the cover of night. The sentries nodded and let the trio through immediately, and Ilia made a beeline for the temporary tent erected at the center of the encampment. The faunus working around the grounds all turned to look as she walked with a determined stride, and all whispers and conversation around the camp died down as she made her way to the tent flap. Ilia paused just before the entrance, and strained her ears to listen.

Scrape. Click.

Ilia's blood ran cold at the noise- Adam was in, as he was scheduled to be, and the telltale noise was proof enough that he was in a bad mood. She hesitated, one hand on the leather of the flap, and found her fingers trembling. The last time Adam was in a bad mood, she'd nearly ended up injured… or maybe even worse.

"…Miss Amitola," Fennec began. "Surely you did not ask us to take you all this way, only to back down now?" he finished in a singsong tone.

Ilia felt her lip twitch in annoyance as she looked over her shoulder and hissed in a breathy whisper. "Shut up! I'm listening to see if he's busy with someone else!"

"You called ahead," Corsac replied. "He said he would be waiting."

Ilia let out a frustrated growl and pushed her way through the flap and into the tent. Unlike the one at his main headquarters, this version of Adam's tent was smaller- there was no table, no map, and nowhere to hide from the tall, annoyed-looking bull faunus who stared down at Ilia as she sank to one knee.

"…sir. I bring news."

Corsac and Fennec followed Ilia in, and dropped into similar poses behind her. Wilt scraped back into its sheath one final time, before Adam let his dominant hand fall to his side.

"Then speak, sister Ilia. What is the situation in Kuo Kuana?"

Ilia looked up to her boss from her kneeling position, and found something unusual- on the right lapel of his black jacket, thick, red stains splashed their way across the fabric.

They looked fresh.

The sight caused Ilia's words to catch in her throat. She kept her body very still as she used the cover of her mask to let her eyes wander the small space of the tent. There, hidden behind one of Adam's legs, was a black boot and pant leg trailing out under the back of the tent, a pool of blood seeping into the dirt around it. The soil around the limb had shallow track marks, and the fabric around it was ruffled, suggesting the presence of a body on the other side. Given the style of footwear and what she could see of the pants, it seemed to be the body of another member of the White Fang.

"I said, speak!"

Ilia flinched, her eyes wide as she stared down into the ground beneath her knee. Her heart began to race and she found her hands shaking again as myriad scenarios of what may have happened in the tent only minutes before played out in her mind. With great effort, she closed her eyes and began to report.

"She's back, sir." Ilia paused, before daring to look back up at Adam. "Blake Belladonna has returned home to Kuo Kuana."

The tent fell silent. Corsac and Fennec rose, while Ilia remained knelt into the dirt. Adam's free hand twitched, as the other continued to hold his scabbard, Blush.

"You are certain?" he stated, in an unreadable monotone.

"I saw her, personally. She didn't see me," Ilia added quickly. "I've been watching the Belladonna manor as ordered, and she arrived yesterday afternoon with another faunus. A monkey-tailed boy named Sun Wukong. They're staying with Ghira and Kali. It looks to be long-term."

Adam drew in a deep breath, his chest rising significantly and then flattening as he made the motion last longer than needed. His thumb flicked, and the razor edge of Wilt peeked over the tip of its casing. Ilia's own breath hitched as she wondered what exactly he intended to do with the blade.

"Your orders stand, Amitola. Keep watch on their home… and keep Blake there, through any means necessary. If she gets word of our assault on Haven, it's going to complicate things."

"Yes, sir. What of her companion?"

Adam bared his teeth as his sword scraped back into its sheath. "I don't care… but keep him alive. Keep them both alive. Blake is mine to deal with, once all of this is over. Maim him, if you can, but I want to be the one to remove him from her life."

"Understood."

"If I may," Corsac cut in, "Blake and this… Sun character made mention of the White Fang's activities at Beacon Academy to the Belladonna family. Ghira is now aware of a fragment of the truth of our society."

Adam paused, and drew another labored breath. "So long as their family makes no move against us, continue to observe and report. We will deal with them when the time is right."

Ilia let her eyes wander to the corpse mere feet away. She found herself unable to draw her gaze from the body, and her mind rested on what exactly would happen to the Belladonna family when Adam ascended to lead the White Fang. For a moment, the black pants turned to deep purple knee-high boots in her mind, and she felt her blood freeze. Throughout all of her time in the organization, she knew that her continued commitment to Adam would end with someone dead, but this was the first time that the thought became real, in her mind. The next body she found could easily turn out to be Blake's.

She balled her fist in the dirt, before beginning to move her hand toward Sun's scroll, in her pocket. Halfway through the motion, she let her hand drop down onto the ground, instead. Perhaps seeing the device would be the thing to push the situation over the edge, and Ilia found that she was no longer sure which side she wanted to fall toward.

The Belladonnas were her responsibility to watch, until they were dealt with. How far was too far?

"Corsac. Fennec. Your disposal services are needed." Adam gestured toward the fallen member of their organization, and the two brothers moved to get to work. "Ilia. Return to Kuo Kuana, and contact me if… when Ghira becomes a problem."

Ilia nodded and rose, turning away as she left the tent in a hurry. Her steps quickly picked up into a run, her heart pounding as she worked to put as much distance between herself and the body as she could. With one wrong move, it could have been her.

It would be Blake, in time, unless something changed, and her blood would be on Ilia's hands.

She reached up and removed her mask as she made her way back toward the gates and gestured for the guards to open them for her. They obliged, and Ilia kept up her run onto the beach. The compact, pristine sand seemed to hiss as she kicked up sprays of it into the night air, and Ilia focused on the noise to try to draw her mind from the sudden uncertain thoughts that plagued her. Once out of sight of the rest of the White Fang, she took out Sun's scroll once again, and began to work her way through the pictures.

Ilia's thumb worked quickly as she flicked through the album- selfies, food, the Belladonna manor- she bit her lip as she continued her search, looking for anything of Blake that she may have missed, and forgotten to delete. She found nothing in her search, and resorted to opening the chain of fake texts that she'd sent to her former friend using Sun's name. Much to her surprise, she found that Blake had finally replied.

8:39pm

I know it's you, Ilia. Stay away from Sun, and my family. If I see you, there's going to be hell to pay. I thought we were friends, but it looks like you chose the White Fang over me. I know that I left without warning and you probably feel like I slighted you, but I also know that if you're willing to throw in your lot with murderers and terrorists that leaving you was the right decision after all. YOU leave Kuo Kuana, or you're going to start seeing things you won't like.

The message ended with another black, cat-eared heart, followed by a banana.

Ilia's heart sank to the depths of her stomach as she read the accusatory words, and she hovered her thumbs over the digital keyboard with intent to reply. A sickening swirl of anger, heartbreak, and nausea pulsated through her stomach, and she found her vision of the words blurring as a droplet from her eye fell onto the screen, obscuring the words. After several minutes of consideration, she found that she was at a loss, and snapped the scroll closed. She turned and made her way back to the boat to await Corsac and Fennec, while wiping her eyes against the skin of her arm. Ilia resolved that she had a lot of thinking to do on the ride back.

"So, this Ilia girl," Sun said, breaking the silence. He and Blake had been searching their assigned quadrant of the mansion for over an hour in tense silence, and come up with nothing. Blake looked over her shoulder to him, their backs pressed against each other as they walked, slowly, with weapons drawn.

"…she was one of my closest friends. You met her at the market, and it's pretty clear that she has your scroll. What else do you need to know?" Blake's tone had an edge to it as she replied, and Sun chose his next words carefully. He knew that making small talk would only upset her further, and so, he decided to make the conversation meaningful.

"Well, you know her a lot better than I do. Do you think there's any chance we can get through to her? Do you want to get through to her?"

Sun nearly fell over as he no longer felt the sensation of Blake's back against his. He stumbled a bit and caught himself as she stopped abruptly and fixed him with uncertain eyes. Sun turned to face her fully as the two stood together in the center of the dining room that he had passed through earlier that morning. "Blake…?"

"…we grew up together. Here. In Kuo Kuana." Blake sheathed Gambol Shroud and folded her arms beneath her chest. Sun slung his staff up and over his right shoulder, figuring that the search was essentially over. "We've known each other since I was six. We used to play together, Sun. We used to run through the woods, play hide and seek, and exchange secrets while staying up too late until my parents yelled at us. We were closer than I've ever been with another friend, and it lasted until the beginning of our teenage years. She signed on to the White Fang alongside me, after an incident with her parents, and it looks like she took my departure personally."

"That makes some measure of sense, at least. Did you tell her, before you left?" Sun approached Blake, and stopped within arm's reach.

"I… no," Blake confessed. "I wasn't planning to leave, it just… happened. Adam and I were in the middle of a mission, and things just got to be too much. He wanted to kill a train full of humans just to steal some dust. He never asked me how I felt about it, and he expected me to cover it up, afterward. After months of watching him get more and more extreme, I'd had enough. I escaped, and Ilia was left behind."

"Hey, you did what you had to do. If she knew, or cared what Adam was planning, she would've gotten out, too," Sun replied. "You think she stayed behind out of spite?"

"That does sound like her. I mean, look at all of the messages she's sent me so far. If that doesn't scream spite, I don't know what does." Blake threw her hands up with a heavy sigh. "This is pointless. She's a chameleon, Sun. If we haven't found her by now, she's either not here or not moving. We should find my parents, and call it a night."

Sun slid his staff down and around his shoulder and planted it firmly into the floor, before leaning into it. "Hey, you never answered the question. Sure, she's making our lives harder right now, but do you want to try to fix things? I mean, I can get over the whole scroll thievery ordeal, if you still care about her."

"I didn't answer because I don't know, Sun. I need time… but my instinct says I want to find her, and sort things out. There's no way my childhood friend would stand for the things that the White Fang did at Beacon."

Sun shrugged, and Blake blinked in surprise as he patted her upon the shoulder. "Then it's settled. We work on finding Ilia, and I'll help you get a one-on-one talk with her. Gives us a goal, while we're here," Sun offered with a wink.

"It does, yes," Blake replied. Her cat ears suddenly twitched upward and she whirled in place at a noise that Sun didn't hear. He followed her eyes to the top of the stairs, and found Ghira and Kali arriving at the top seconds later. Ghira appeared unarmed, while Kali was holding a set of twin pistols and looking rather bored.

"Kali and I found nothing, and the house attendants have reported much the same. It seems that Ilia either isn't in the mansion, or she's gotten better at hiding."

The pair of parents began to descend the steps, and Sun moved to meet them at the landing.

"Sorry to bother you guys, but we figured it's better to be safe. Are there cameras?"

Kali nodded. "There are. We'll have the house staff check them overnight, though they only cover a few sections of the manor. I think it may be time for an upgrade to our security system. I'll get on that tomorrow morning."

Ghira folded his arms. "Indeed. For now, though, no one should be alone at night, as a precaution."

The entire room fell silent. Sun and Blake looked at each other with blank expressions, as did Ghira and Kali, before Sun found himself staring up at Ghira with a nervous grin.

"Mr. B, I mean…"

Ghira held up a hand for silence, while closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "…fine. Keep each other company. I still have an assignment for you in the morning, so don't stay up too late… cuddling."

Sun could practically feel Blake's glare boring a hole through his back as he intentionally avoided her eyes while trying to dodge Ghira's. He ended up looking at a particularly interesting table, as he replied.

"…thanks, sir. We'll get straight to bed."

"Good." Ghira turned and began to make his way back up the steps. Kali shot Sun a wink before she followed her husband. He watched them go, and felt a stinging pain in his arm as soon as they slipped out of sight.

"Hey!" Sun whined, as Blake stared him down with a fist raised.

"You told him we cuddled?" she hissed.

"Well, I had to tell him the truth! Gah!" Sun winced as Blake landed another brutal punch into his arm.

"You could have just said we talked, and that would've been fine! Now come on, you dork." Blake rolled her eyes and led the way up the steps, leaving Sun to catch up. He walked after her, collapsing his weapon as he went.

"Where are we going?"

"…to cuddle, of course," Blake replied with a mischievous smirk.

Sun brought his palm to his forehead with a resounding smack, and followed her to his room.

Author's Note:

Most of the chapters have been pre-written and ready to post for a while before they go up thus far, so I haven't been updating the notes as well as I should. Let me take a moment to say thank you all so much for all of the feedback on this story! It's been a bit of an adventure getting back into writing after a 10ish year hiatus, but it's definitely been a fun ride. Based on what some of you hope to see and what reviews have said about certain characters thus far, a few reactions to future chapters are going to be very interesting. Next update will be on Monday, 2/11.

I also went back and fixed a missing word in Chapter 2, as I needed to reread something there before writing 12. You people saw nothing.

Nothing, I tell you.

-RD