The calming sea breeze played through Blake's hair, gently pulling the locks off to the side as she walked along the coastline. The tide rushed in to meet her uncovered toes once again, and she shivered in response as a wash of foam and chilled water coated her feet before retreating into the ocean.
"So… we're making slow and steady progress," Kali offered as she looked over to her daughter. "I know it isn't exactly pleasant digging through our old home, but we're just about done clearing it out. We'll be able to actively start rebuilding efforts in full tomorrow."
"Thank the gods," Blake remarked with a sigh. "Maybe I'll feel better about it once it's rebuilt, but right now… the house just feels like one big reminder of what's at stake. Adam ruled over my life for years, and he was nothing compared to what we're dealing with now."
"Don't say that," Kali discouraged. "He was everything to you in both a positive and negative way, for a long time. With the Fang coming here and integrating with our citizens, his shadow is still going to play a part in things moving forward."
"I know," Blake acknowledged as she idly flicked one of her feline ears. "But now, Sun is everything to me. I miss him so much, and it hasn't even been that long…"
"You'll see him again soon," Kali replied cryptically. "Sooner than you might think."
"Mom…?" Blake questioned, only to watch her mother bristle as she stared down the length of the beach. The younger faunus followed her mother's eyes to see a massive vessel pulling into the docks, its black sails painted with the familiar crimson emblem of three slash marks and a beast's head.
"They're here," Kali said coldly as another set of sails cut through the fog behind the first vessel. "This is going to be… interesting…"
"Very," Blake agreed as she picked up into a run through the sand in tandem with her mother. "I hope that Cinnamon was being genuine when she said they're here to help…"
"Oh, that isn't what interests me," Kali explained with a mischievous smirk. "I'm looking forward to seeing just what kind of man would maintain a long-term relationship with her, especially through her little charade with Adam. Cinnamon may be our ally, now, but she's insufferable."
"Mom," Blake griped as she rolled her eyes. "This is serious! We need to be careful about how we approach this…"
"Sure, sure," Kali agreed. "But you and I have gotten pretty good at handling those sorts of things as they come. I'm allowed to have my fun."
"Why do I feel like I'm the parent, in this scenario…" Blake mumbled to herself as she shook her head. "Just… behave."
"I'll try. On that note, why don't you take the lead on this one?" Kali asked as the pair reached the beginning of the docks.
"…I'm sorry?" Blake asked as her pointed ears stood straight up through her hair. "You want me to negotiate with him, and lay down the law?"
"Why not?" Kali countered. "I'm handling Kuo Kuana at large, so why not be our go-between for the Fang? Daisuke's closer to your age than mine, and I have a funny feeling he might respond more favorably to you than me. You two have a connection that you might not see just yet… but it's a powerful one."
Blake slowed her run down to a walk as the first and largest ship pulled up to a pier still about two hundred feet off in the distance. Gradually, she stopped walking entirely and looked over her mother, whose expression had lost all semblance of playfulness as she turned to stand across from her daughter.
"…you do have a point, as much as I hate to admit it," Blake said with a sigh. "But what if I make a mess of things?"
"At this point? You'd more or less just be smearing around spilled paint. It won't really make it any worse- it'll just change the colors for a bit," Kali lamented. "But don't think along those lines- think about everything you've accomplished, and what we're here to do. I trust you, Blake… and you can understand where these people are coming from and how they must feel right now far better than I can. You can do this."
Blake paused and took a deep breath, the salty air stinging her lungs as she breathed deeply. She let the trapped breath out in a long, shuddering exhale before shaking out her hands and giving the black sails a sidelong look of apprehension.
"…alright. I can do this."
"You can," Kali reassured as she scooped her daughter into a hug. "Stick to what we've already decided upon, and if you get lost… just ask yourself what Sun would say and do. You'll be fine."
Blake balked as Kali patted her on the shoulder and turned away to begin walking down the pier and toward the town.
"Wh-… you're leaving me?" Blake called incredulously.
"I said I trust you!" Kali replied with a backward wave. "And I meant it! You'll be fine! Meet me back at The Notched Blade with Daisuke once you get everything in order!"
Blake breathed out a noise of frustration as she looked back over to the ship, where several members of the White Fang were working to anchor the massive vessel at the docks.
"Right. Act natural, and be pleasant toward strangers who were your enemies until a few days ago," Blake muttered as she walked along the raised wooden platform. "Because you're so good with people, especially when they aren't already friends. Not like it takes you a while to warm up to others or anything. What could go wrong?"
As Blake finally reached the perpendicular dock that acted as a runway to the White Fang's leading boat, she caught sight of two figures engaged in what appeared to be an incredibly awkward conversation at the connecting portion of the pier. The first of the participants was a deer-horned woman wearing brightly colored textiles, who was clearly a dock worker and native of Kuo Kuana. The second faunus was something else entirely.
Daisuke Aki stood opposite the woman, towering over her by almost a foot. His bright red hair was messy, wild, and streaked with sea salt, giving him the appearance of a displaced band member who had spent the day at the beach. He wore a sleeveless black vest with burgundy fur lined around the collar, as well as ripped long pants of a similar dark color. Beneath his vest was a mesh shirt, which gave a partially obscured view of what appeared to be smoky swirls of darkly colored ink upon his pecs. The tattoos continued beneath the vest and extended the entire length of his arms, interrupted only by the occasional inked artwork of a spider lily. The lower half of his face was covered by a jet black mask, and a pair of sleek goggles were pulled up to nest within his wild hair. The man's final defining feature was a long, incredibly thick lizard's tail of a primarily sandy color, with bands of muddy scales peppered along its length.
"…you must be Daisuke," Blake offered with an amused tone as she approached. The native woman offered Blake a thankful and anxious smile before backing away and leaving her to look up toward the lizard faunus.
"…because White Fang higher-ups tend to dress like they're rebelling against their parents?" the man asked in a rich, tired-sounding voice. Blake merely quirked a brow in surprise, to which Daisuke offered her a shrug. "What? Some of us are self-aware, at least."
Blake snorted lightly and offered the man a hand, which he accepted with a gentle grasp of his own. Though his shake was firm, Blake could feel an unexpected tension within the man's movements that matched the odd, formerly undecipherable quality to his deep green eyes. Suddenly, the combination of Daisuke's behaviors and attitude clicked, and Blake came to an important revelation- he was nervous.
"…is it just a phase?" she joked as she let her hand slip from his with a subtle smirk.
"…if it is, it's a very long one," Daisuke answered as he scratched at the back of his neck. "Thank you for agreeing to take us in, Miss Belladonna…"
"We don't really have a choice, at this point," Blake explained as she folded her arms. "No decent set of people would in this situation, anyway. Some things are more important than old grudges and political stances."
"I'd argue that most things are," the man replied as he cast a sort of longing glance back for his ship. "Would you like to come aboard? It may be easier to fill in each vessel independently than try to gather everyone on the shore…"
Blake tensed slightly at the notion, before offering the man a shrug of her own.
"…sure. Just don't try anything. I'm armed, and I will be missed if something goes wrong."
"Well, I'm exhausted, unarmed, and hardly in any mental state to fight right now, anyway," Daisuke reassured as he began to lead the way along the docks, his tail dragging lazily behind him. "My men arguably more so."
"…why's that?" Blake asked as she moved to walk beside him.
"Because they know about Salem, and for most people, that's not the kind of threat they thought they would ever be dealing with," Daisuke said simply, causing Blake to come to a sudden stop. He turned to face her and stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking curious. "…what?"
"You told them?" Blake said incredulously. "All of them?"
"Not all of them, no," the lizard faunus denied as he shook his head. "Cin and I gave everyone in the main camp a vague explanation as to why we needed to disband and reform under your banner. Those who outright refused were let go, and those who chose to come along were fully informed. Everyone here knows about Salem. The remnants and splinter groups that chose to remain behind and form their own little parties… they have no idea."
"Splinter groups," Blake repeated as her ears flattened. "Great. Just what we need."
"…what did you expect me to do? Kill them?" Daisuke asked. Blake merely stared for a moment before the man let out a long, shuddering sigh and shook his head. "The White Fang you see before you isn't the same as it once was, Blake. To be honest with you, it isn't even the same as the one that was under Cin's leadership for the few short weeks she had control. We're trying to be reasonable, here. We're trying to be better."
"Then I hope you are," Blake said icily as she began to walk once again with Daisuke in tow. "There is so much that needs to change before our people can start to heal the divide."
"I know," Daisuke reassured. "And on that note… I'd like to apologize for Cin's attitude toward all of you, over the past few months. She's… been through a lot. Her shell is a hard one to crack, but she has every reason to keep it in place. I know that's likely of little comfort, but I can assure you, she means well."
"…we all have our demons," Blake said cryptically as she climbed the gangplank and began to make her way aboard the ship. "All I care about right now is that she's on our side, and so are you."
"I've yet to find a cause I care more about, the White Fang included," Daisuke added as he followed Blake onto the vessel.
Blake paused as she looked about the deck, where members of the White Fang were busy working. One by one, they noticed her presence and stopped their tasks of carrying boxes, hauling ropes and cleaning. Most of the crew simply stared, though a few moved to head below deck and out of her line of sight. As Blake looked around from person to person, she noticed that none of them were wearing masks, and they all looked just as or more exhausted than their leader.
"…allow me," Daisuke said softly as he gently laid a hand upon Blake's shoulder and moved to stand in front of her. Suddenly, his otherwise laid back and smooth voice gained an authoritative edge, and his volume reached a level enough to make Blake jump slightly at the unexpected transition.
"Men! Gather those still below deck and bring the entire crew topside. Miss Belladonna has instructions for us, and I expect you all to afford her the same respect you would give me. I know you're all tired, displaced, and displeased, but this is just another one of those things we have to do. At the very least, we can trust that she and her allies are responsible and have our best interests in mind."
Blake offered Daisuke a nod as several more men went below deck.
"…we do. I swear we do. I want nothing more than for all of this to resolve peacefully, and to stand against Salem and show the world what the faunus are capable of," she said softly as Daisuke moved to stand at her side once again.
"…spoken like someone who remembers what the White Fang used to be," he replied without looking at her.
Blake nodded slowly as she watched more people arrive on deck, until the surface became packed to the rails.
"Is this everyone?"
"I forgot my attendance sheet and gradebook down in the captain's cabin," Daisuke answered with a shrug. "It looks like it, though. If anyone gets out of line, I can threaten to call their parents for you."
Blake merely rolled her eyes as she stepped forward and took a deep breath while looking over the crowd at large. Their expressions ranged from curiosity to annoyance, though she found the majority far more subdued than she expected.
"…men and women of the White Fang," Blake began in a firm voice. She took another deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, before beginning to imagine herself as Sun. Gradually, her shoulders straightened and she stood taller, trying her best to channel her lover's confidence.
"You have my thanks, and the thanks of all members of Kuo Kuana, for coming here today. Our work is important and carries with it the beginnings of a foundation for a fifth kingdom of Remnant. I want to make one thing perfectly clear, before you disembark- we are all equals. Residents of Kuo Kuana and the White Fang may have started on different paths, but now, we all walk together. Your concerns will become our concerns, and our leaders will do the best we can to work with yours and find solutions. Keep in mind, no matter whether this is a homecoming, new land, or something else entirely for you- we are all faunus, and that makes us brothers and sisters in arms."
Nods of assent began within the crowd, though a few of the men and women began to whisper amongst themselves. Blake did her best to ignore them as she continued, feeling more confident.
"…we have land set aside for those who wish to set up housing on the island. We also have several families who have offered to open their homes to anyone willing to live among the islanders. First and foremost, though, I ask that you check in at the stations set up just beyond the docks. Once that's taken care of, take the remainder of the week to familiarize yourselves, and then your leader and I will work to divide everyone into designated work crews to begin fortifying our home. Are there any questions?"
Blake paused and looked out over the people, only to receive total silence.
"…don't worry- it isn't you. The questions will come soon enough," Daisuke reassured as he took a step forward. The man raised his voice once again and made a circular motion in the air with a finger. "Alright! You heard her! Get to work, and then stop working for a few days! I'll see you all on the ground!"
The members of the White Fang began to mill about the ship once again as a slew of louder conversations started. Blake heaved a massive sigh, deflating as she did so while trying to let go of her tension.
"…I feel like I'm going to throw up. Leadership is… not my strong suit."
"Oh, good. Only two more ships to go," Daisuke replied before stepping onto the gangplank and making his way back down to the pier. "Once we're done, I'll buy you a drink. Then you can really get some impressive vomit going."
"Thanks," Blake snarked as she followed the man down onto the wooden pier once again. "I know just the place… but the drinks are free and come with awkward conversation with the rest of my friends. We're likely to end up there after this, anyway."
"…this truly is an island paradise…" Daisuke mumbled as he led the way toward the second ship.
"Oh, you have no idea…"
Author's Note:
Next chapter is probably going to be a long one and will mark the end of 'Act 1' of 3 for Volume 7. Daisuke's design is included in the AO3 version of this chapter, so head over there if you want his artwork!
-RD