Sun leapt the last few feet to the ground, not even waiting for the transport to fully contact the landing pad. The sun itself was just barely beginning to rise over the skyline of the sprawling city, leaving the alleyways and perpendicular side streets cloaked in shadows. Anything could have been hiding there, watching and waiting as the rest of the faunus' team touched down onto the raised platform. He could only hope that they would beat Salem's forces to the punch, and that General Ironwood's plan would be at least partially successful. Unfortunately for him, there would be no way of knowing whether or not they had arrived in Mantle first until the evacuation itself began.
Everything hinged on the operation going as smoothly as possible, and every proverbial card had been left on the table. Millions of lives were at stake. There would be only one shot at saving any of them. Only one chance to lure Arthur Watts, Scarlet David, or both into a trap. A single question remained for the Relic of Knowledge, which Sun had returned to General Ironwood before their final meeting. The faunus was no longer sure where the lamp had been taken, or whether the question had already been used without his knowledge. Nothing was certain- not even his next breath, or the one after. All of the hundreds of question marks on the road ahead buzzed about in Sun's mind like a swarm of flies, drowning out the world around him with their incessant noise.
"…you good?"
Sun quite nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt a hand rest upon his unarmored shoulder. The voice was incredibly clear despite his addled state, and its somber tone shook him back to reality. It took Sun a moment to realize that the contact was simply Blake checking in and touching him in a way that she so often had before the events that had thrown them half a world away from each other. With a single look into her concerned amber eyes, his hammering heart began to slow and his nervous breathing leveled out. His tail, though, continued to writhe and twist behind him as though it had a mind of its own.
"Uh, yeah," Sun replied with a forced smile that he knew Blake could see right through. "I mean, as good as I can be, given the situation. Just… getting lost in my own head again."
"It is pretty cavernous in there," Ilia quipped as she did a quick check of her electrified whip before snapping it harshly against the ground and converting it back to its rigid form. "Lots of echo, too."
"Leaves me more room for activities," Sun replied without missing a beat. "Really, though, I'll be… able to do this."
Neptune cracked his neck and lowered his combat goggles over his eyes. He moved to walk at Sun's other side as the quartet descended onto the streets of Mantle.
"That is both the worst attempt at reassurance I've ever heard, and extremely relatable. It's probably the best we can all hope for right now- doing well enough to all make it through this and earn ourselves a bit of a break, no matter how not-relaxing it ends up being."
"We haven't fucked things up badly enough not to make it through yet," Ilia added. "That's my singular attempt at optimism for the month. Mark it down in your scrolls, I'll wait."
"Gods, I've missed you two…" Blake mused as the group turned onto a side street and began making their way along the sidewalk. The streets were mostly bare save for a few stragglers keeping largely to themselves and carrying coffee cups and briefcases as they made their way to train stations and office buildings. "Can we please agree never to separate again if at all possible?"
"I figured that was just implied," Sun offered. "We're going to need each other after whatever's about to happen… and I think that message needs to get out to the… the survivors, too."
The others slowed to a stop beside Sun as the faunus transitioned to standing still and staring at the remainder of the alley ahead. Blake was quick to snake a hand around Sun's torso and give his side a squeeze.
"Hey. You're doing it again…"
"What are we doing?" Sun asked her, his breathing once again becoming erratic as he turned his attention her way. "How many of the people we just passed aren't going to make it because we're just sticking to the plan?"
"You need to shut the hell up right now," Ilia warned. "Don't feed my rebellious tendencies unless you're planning on fully committing to going rogue. I just barely made peace with playing along with Ironwood and following your lead on this, Sun. You know I'd burn it all down in a second if I didn't have faith in you and your decision-making…"
"For entirely different reasons, I'm with her," Neptune replied as he moved around to stand in front of Sun with open arms. "Dude, we can't play this game, especially right now. We can't save everyone, and I know you know th-"
"What about her?" Sun asked as he nodded to the end of the alleyway, where a woman wearing a fuzzy brown winter coat and scarf was passing by. "Why aren't we telling her to get topside right now? Doing this the 'right' way might get her killed just because we have orders to wait to say anything. One sentence could guarantee that she lives… and standing here or waiting at the evac zone instead is gambling with her life. How about that guy in green? What makes it okay for us to decide to just… let them keep walking to their jobs, ignorant of what's about to happen? We're supposed to be protectors…"
The sensation of nails digging into his side spurred Sun out of his spiral and brought his attention back to Blake, who was looking at him with a mixture of annoyance and nausea.
"Listen… I hear what you're saying, but the answer is that we aren't the ones responsible for the roll of the dice. You can't ever forget that Salem is forcing our hands, and that who and whatever we lose in all this falls directly onto her shoulders. We're doing the best we can in the moment, Sun. What if telling one of those two to run led to them telling other people and it spiraled into a massive panic? What if he's a priority target and that guy heading for a transport shuttle triggers grimm coming out of hiding early, leading to more lives lost? We could then be causing a dangerous situation if an attack happens, or cause people to miss Ironwood's message entirely. We could second-guess everything we've been told to do all day, but we'd just be spinning our wheels and wallowing in guilt."
Sun nodded along with Blake's explanation, and yet still more people passed by the alleyway in a slow trickle of morning commutes.
"Yeah… but this makes me feel like such shit…"
Neptune was the next to touch Sun, landing a punch on the faunus' arm just below his overly large pauldron.
"You said it yourself- we're just barely able to 'do this' and we've gotta stick together. Support each other when one of us stumbles. That's what we're doing right now, yeah?"
"Yeah…" Sun agreed, though the words suddenly didn't sit right with him coming from another.
"We need to get moving," Ilia reminded. "The other groups are probably arriving at their destinations by now, maybe even getting set up for Ironwood's big announcement…"
"Just gimme a minute," Sun pleaded as he rubbed at his forehead. "I get what you're all saying, but I need to just… I need to stop thinking and start doing. That isn't easy for me when it feels like we still have other options. I need to drill it through my skull that we really don't."
"What do you think Dad would've done in this situation?"
The question from Blake hit like a second punch straight to Sun's gut, though much harder than the one Neptune had offered playfully upon his shoulder.
"Ghira…?"
Blake merely nodded, her patience contrasting Ilia's decision to walk to the end of the alleyway and begin to survey the surrounding area. Neptune gave the couple an uneasy look and moved to follow Ilia, giving Sun and Blake some space.
"I…" Sun started, beginning to seriously consider the question.
Sun paused, thinking back to all that time spent in the Belladonna Manor back in Kuo Kuana and everything he had seen within and around it. He remembered his initial meeting with Ghira and then running into the man in his office late at night while stealthily looking for Blake. Sun had been absolutely terrified of the massive man and his stern expression, but over time, he had come to realize that Ghira's judgmental and disapproving gaze was born of concern for his family. That concern manifested as a fierce, protective love for Blake that Sun could most certainly relate to, and one that eventually forged a close bond between the two men that neither had seen coming.
Several memories flickered through Sun's mind like grainy slides rotating through an old projector. Learning to cut down trees for firewood in the forest behind the mansion. Explaining to Ghira that Blake needed him to help her through a rough night after Ilia's return, and somehow earning the man's trust despite offering no concrete explanation. Ganging up on Ghira with Kali and watching him willingly fold under the pressure of his wife's teasing admonishment over tea. They were all moments that Sun cherished in his mind, until one in particular that he had tried to lock away surfaced for the first time in ages.
It was a scene as clear as day in his mind- there they all were, Sun and the Belladonna family, gathered around a small table with a teapot atop it as always. The topic of conversation had been Ilia, and what to do about her reappearance and that of the larger overall problem within the White Fang. Though Sun couldn't remember most of the specific words that had been said, he did remember Blake declaring her intent to take back the White Fang, and Kali telling her that she didn't fully understand what that meant. It was around then that Blake threatened to take to the streets and take matters into her own hands if her parents wouldn't, and then Ghira had said something Sun would never forget.
"As much as I loathe to do so, I will step back into the larger political arena if lives are at stake."
Kali's facial expression had changed immediately, and her demeanor had turned cold. Sun didn't fully understand the implication at the time, but things became clearer and clearer as the situation in Kuo Kuana escalated. Eventually, Ghira's ironclad promise had led to his death. It wasn't until that moment, standing in an alleyway in Mantle, that Sun fully understood why Ghira was so quick to step in despite knowing the risks. It was only then that he saw that Ghira's steely determination and resolute attitude had nothing to do with an absence of fear- it was simply a mature and humble acceptance.
"…he would make sure that those important to him were safe first, and then step right into the firing line to save as many more as he could," Sun answered. "Not because he didn't care what happened to himself- because he knew that he could save lives, when other people wouldn't be able to. When neither of us were ready to, yet."
"We both had to be saved," Blake added as she gently traced her hand along Sun's waist and around it to settle into his open palm. "We weren't strong enough then… but seeing everything we've seen and knowing what we know about our enemy… we have to step up. Just like he did when…"
"…you said you wanted to take back the Fang," Sun finished as he gave Blake's hand a squeeze. "Do you remember what happened right after that?"
"Mom got really, really angry with him," Blake answered with a grimace.
"After that."
Blake wrinkled her nose and shook her head, her tresses of hair dancing around her cheeks.
"I'm sorry, I don't. So much of that time is a blur…"
"…he told me I was part of the Belladonna family," Sun reminded in a low voice. "And that almost broke me. It was all I ever wanted… and it happened right after he made the decision to sacrifice himself for us. I think… I think he knew."
Blake nodded once, refusing to meet Sun's eyes.
"I think he did. But… I also think that if he had listened to Mom, and if we hadn't left the house that night, or if…" Blake paused, once again shaking her head before she looked up at Sun. "Mom trusted you to carry on his legacy with that armor. I think it's also important that we learn from his… his actions."
Sun knew immediately that Blake had almost said mistakes, and he knew that she knew, as well. Her conflicted and guilty expression said as much, and the hug he pulled her into was an admission that he felt exactly the same way about the idea.
"…Ghira always wanted us to do better," Sun reminded. "So… we will. Family first. That means you, that means me… that means Ilia and Neptune. Weiss. Jaune. All of our friends. We make sure we all get out of this, and we fight like hell to drag as many people upward with us as we can. None of us are going to stand alone anymore, and none of us are going to get caught out by our enemies. That's what Ghira would want, if we could ask him for advice."
"Yeah," Blake agreed as she tightened the squeeze. "Now you're talking sense again."
"But if you weren't here… I might've just had a complete breakdown instead," Sun admitted.
"We can't think about what could be," Blake warned. "We have to just live in the moment and step up when we're needed as best we can."
"Squad Two in position at the evac site," Jaune's voice called over their earpieces, causing both of the faunus to jump in surprise.
"Shit," Sun cursed. "We need to move."
"You guys hear that!?" Ilia called back into the alley. "Hurry it up, you two!"
"Coming!" Blake called back as she broke the hug and kept a firm grip on Sun's hand. "We're good, now!"
"Better than we've ever been…" Sun said to himself as he hurried to follow her.
Author's Note:
That moment happened almost literally 200 chapters ago, #19.
-RD