Standard Disclaimer:

"I'm going to kill them." Jeneralissima strode down the center of the theater, the audience scattering before her. "I am going to kill them slowly. I am going to gut them and leave them on-"

"Need some help?" Writersblock materialized over her shoulder.

"You!" Jeneralissima tackled the writer and began to hit them with the file in her hand. Commas immediately began flying everywhere with each blow. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"No?" Block asked, arms flailing over their head as they tried desperately to prevent a concussion. "At least not specifically! I have a few ideas, but nothing solid!"

"Sixty-four pages!" Jeneralissima screamed. "Sixty-four pages of work! Commas where commas shouldn't be! No commas where commas should be! Wiess instead of Weiss! And that's not even counting the grammar…" She had finally stopped hitting them, and Block carefully slid out from under her, as she was lost in her own little world. "...now I have to beta disclaimers? Since when do we do disclaimers? And another thing…"

Block sighed and turned to the audience, bruising off commas as they did so. "I'm sorry, everybody, I think I may have pushed her too far." Sighing, they glanced at their beta, who was still ranting. "She should be okay by the next chapter, but we'd better get the story going."

"...like anyone actually thinks that we might possibly own RWBY! As if! Who would ever think we owned RWBY!? It hasn't changed since the first fic, yet we still have to say we don't own RWBY! And while we're on the topic…"

"Be nice to your betas, guys," Block waved, "and enjoy the next chapter."

Well, well, well. Sun Wu Kong. It's been far too long.

Hey, Gwen. How have you been?

Bored. Nothing ever happens around here, what with Octavia and Neptune always gone.

Shouldn't they have been back by now?

Oh, you know them: they're here for a minute and gone for ten. So what can I do for you?

You know how you said if I ever needed anything to just ask?

No.

Oh, come on!

No such thing as a free lunch, Monkey-boy, you know that. So, what do you need from little old me?

I may possibly be looking for a fast method of travel from Manajorie to Mantle, and your name might have popped up, what with your father and the vast amounts of money he may or may not have.

So in other words, you want me to get you a ride from one side of Remnant to the other?

If you want to put it that way, sure.

Overnight?

Did I ever tell you how much faith I have in you?

Save it, Sun. This is gonna cost you.

I know, but it's for a good cause this time!

And that would be?

True love!

How many times have I told you that your love life is not a good cause?

Every time you demand a day from me in payment.

Whatever. What's the poor girl's name?

Yang.

Xiao Long? Isn't she dating Blake Belladonna? Do you have a deathwish? Grimm, do you think I have a deathwish?

Who do you think I'm taking with me?

….

Hello?

Fine. I'll do it on my dime-mostly. I still get you for two hours after you land, no excuses.

But Blake-

I highly doubt a member of team RWBY will have any trouble making her way around Mantle on her own for two hours. If she gets lost, she can always call.

And you'll let me take a break to answer?

Of course not. I'll answer.

Really?

Probably, assuming I manage not to get distracted by your bumbling idiocy.

So when are we leaving?

Give me fifteen minutes to talk to daddy, and I'll have the info messaged to your scroll.

Thanks, Gwen.

I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for the 'true love' you talked about.

Thanks anyway.

Yeah, whatever. See you tomorrow.

Sun sighed as his scroll beeped, signaling the end of the call. He didn't dislike Gwen, but any Darcy was always best held at extreme distance. It wasn't that he didn't trust her-actually, no, he didn't trust her. But the two of them had an arrangement of convenience. He got transport anywhere in Remnant, and she got…

She got him for a day, to do whatever she wanted. It wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Running a hand through his hair (and trying not to think about what he would be up to later) he stood up from where he'd been sitting at the dining room table. As he made his way to the stairwell, he heard a sniff outside. Curiously, he walked toward the front door and peered through the screen out onto the deck.

The dim light from the stars above outlined a slender female form against the backdrop of the road. She was standing against the porch railing, bent slightly forward, head down.

"Ilia?"

"Done whoring yourself out?" Her venomous voice cut through the warm night. "Or are you here to try to put one more notch in your bedpost before you leave?" She glanced back coldly. "Fuck off now if you are. I don't have time for your melodrama."

"Ilia, chill." He pushed through the screen door, to stand next to her. "I'm here to support Blake. No offense, but seducing you hasn't been on my to-do list."

A soft snort met his declaration, her eyes back on the starry horizon. "Whatever. Look, don't let me stop you from getting ready for your 'big day' tomorrow."

Sun groaned slightly. "Don't remind me. Gwen is a taskmaster when she wants to be."

"Poor Sun." Ilia said mockingly. "Has to fuck a woman to get around the world. Oh, how will he survive?"

"You have the wrong idea," Sun replied seriously, getting another derisive snort. "Gwen is many things, but she isn't about to sleep with me any time soon."

"Could have fooled me," Ilia muttered.

Mentally walking back over their conversation, Sun could see how she had arrived at the conclusion she had. "Okay, first, Gwen is a Kinsey seven. No way she'd sleep with me." A genuine laugh came from Ilia at that. "Second, she's dating Octavia, I'm not that stupid." Ilia's laugh was a bit more choked this time, as though she was trying to keep it in. Sun ignored it. "Finally, she's a Darcy. I don't trust Darcys. You know she was Weiss' cousin?"

"Funny you'd think I'd care."

"Cousin on her father's side, actually." Sun elaborated. "I'd never trust a Darcy."

"Sun Wu-Kong, finally admitting he actually has prejudice, what will happen next?" Ilia asked sarcastically. "Look, I don't care. I'm sorry if you think I care or if I've said something to make you think I care, but I don't. Go to bed and leave in the morning with Blake."

Sun sighed. He wanted to go to bed, he really did, but now he knew he needed to speak with the chameleon faunus. "Ilia, what's on your mind?"

"Guess." She spat out.

"You're mad we're leaving," he said tiredly.

"You fucking think?" she growled. "Maybe I'm mad because you're leaving without telling me, or maybe I'm upset that you couldn't even be bothered to leave me a note. Maybe I'm pissed that my so-called best-fucking-friend wants to just disappear without telling me again!" Her shoulders heaved as she pushed away from the railing. "Maybe I'm tired of playing second fiddle to some human who's never known Blake like I do!" She whirled on him, eyes cold. "Maybe I finally, finally had a chance to get Blake back in my life, only for you to come along and ruin it!" She shoved past him.

"Ilia-" he began, but she cut him off.

"I'm done, Sun. I'm done talking, I'm done listening, I'm done fucking trying, okay? It's obvious that Blake doesn't even see me as a friend, no matter what I do."

"What are you going to do?" he asked seriously. The finality of the way she'd said that made his skin prickle. Ilia froze, her hand on the screen door handle.

Silence reigned for a few moments; the crickets, which had stopped during Ilia's rant, picked up their uncoordinated symphony where they had left off. The breeze rushed through the grass, and the leaves rustled.

"Why do you care?" Ilia's voice was thick but hard. "You're only here for Blake, you've made that pretty clear."

Sun sighed, folding his arms as he sat on the porch railing. "Because we were friends once, Ilia. All we had in common was a dream and Blake, but we were best friends. What happened to us?"

Her hand dropped from the door. "You left." Her voice was clearer, but much more brittle. "When we needed your help, you left."

Sun shook his head sadly. "I didn't want to be part of a terrorist organization-"

Ilia let out a bitter laugh, turning to look at him. "You really don't get it, do you? You were the only person who could change Blake's mind; why do you think Adam wanted you dead?"

Sun was on his feet instantly. "Excuse me?"

"The bomb?" Ilia gave him a curious look. "Didn't you think it was a little strange that two of the three people who were known to have some sort of emotional relationship with Blake just happened to get sent on a suicide mission together? That there was a waiting ambush that for some reason seemed unsure about what to do? As though there was someone there that wasn't supposed to be?"

Sun felt the air leave his lungs. "A setup? It was all a setup?" Ilia gave him a 'duh' look, but just nodded. "How long?"

"After we got back," the chameleon faunus murmured, the look in her eyes betraying her thoughts millions of miles away. "Adam was…furious. At first Blake and I thought it was because the mission was a complete wash, we'd failed in securing the dust, failed to get you invested, and…yeah, it wasn't good." She shuddered slightly. "Blake was exhausted from helping me across the desert alone, since you had fucked off to brothers-knew-where. As soon as he sent her to bed Adam grabbed me, dragged me to his tent and…" She swallowed hard, turning slightly and lifting her tank top, revealing her lower two ribs. "He gave me this."

Sun cursed as he saw the brand burned into her side. "He didn't."

"He did," the chameleon faunus said, her voice soft. "He explained that he hadn't wanted to, that he'd just wanted me out of the way, but with you on the loose I was far more useful to him like this. After that, my options were limited."

"You should be dead. This should have activated when you stopped trying to kill us here on Manajorie."

"Technicalities are a bitch, and fire is a cleanser." Ilia pointed to a scar across the brand, much fresher than the destroyed flesh around it. Pulling her tank top back down, she gave him a feral smile, and he took an inadvertent step back. "The brand enforces obedience; it doesn't do jack shit for loyalty. He's just lucky that Blake got him first. I had to get very…creative to ensure that I wouldn't directly kill him." Sun felt a shiver run up his spine at the giddy way she said that. "He got off easy."

"No kidding." Sun had no doubt that Ilia meant every word of it.

"You left." Ilia repeated, as though she hadn't just dropped a massive, world-changing emotional bomb on him. "You left me a slave, you left Blake at the mercy of an abuser, and you left the White Fang to a madman."

Sun crossed his arms. "Don't you think you're being a little unfair to me?"

"No," Ilia replied simply. "I think that Adam recognized how dangerous you really were and tried to kill you before you realized you could kill him."

"I never would have," Sun pointed out incredulously, uncrossing his arms. "I kill Grimm, not faunus, not humans. That's why I left."

Ilia stared at him a long time before finally asking, "Would you have really let him slowly destroy one of your best friends and heroes?" Sun felt his jaw clench slightly, turning away without saying anything.

"That's what I thought."

Sun looked out over the yard, the starlight barely illuminating the grass with anything more than the slightest tinge of silver. He glanced up at the sky. The moon was hidden, with only a few small fragments shining through the new phase. "I'm sorry."

"What?"

Turning back to her, he met her surprised eyes. "I didn't know-couldn't know, really, that Adam would do that. If I had…" He took a deep breath. "I wouldn't have left. I'm sorry."

Silence fell again, but this time Ilia was looking at him, staring at his face as though she was searching for any hint of untruth. There was fluttering that was probably from bats, but he didn't dare glance away. The crickets fell into and out of harmony as they continued their singing. His scroll buzzed, but he ignored it. Finally her face fell into a blank mask. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay. Good for you. You're sorry. What does that change?"

"Not a damn thing." Sun agreed. He saw a flash of annoyance in her eyes before it was hidden behind indifference again. "But you have my apology, for whatever it's worth."

Ilia rested the bridge of her nose on her fingertips for a moment. "Okay, you're sorry for this, but you're still leaving with Blake tomorrow, aren't you?"

Sun shrugged helplessly. "She wants to see her girlfriend. I wasn't really on board for the whole 'disappear into the night' thing-"

"Why not. It's right up your alley," Ilia muttered unkindly, before adding, "Whatever. Do whatever you want. Like I said before, I'm done trying to be her friend. It always ends with her getting as far away from me as possible, usually when you're involved too." She squinted at him. He opened his mouth to apologize again, but she waved it away. "I don't care any more, Sun. First you, then her, now both of you together. It's obvious when I'm not wanted-"

"Ilia, that's not-!"

"Don't patronize me, Sun." Ilia's voice was low and dangerous. "Once is chance, twice is happenstance, three times…" she trailed off, but he knew the end.

Three times is enemy action.

"Go to bed, Sun. I'll have some food prepped for you two in the morning so you don't wake me up."

"What about your work?" he asked curiously.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm calling in sick tomorrow," Ilia snapped. "I don't want the two of you trying to figure out how to work a stupid pan and egg tomorrow morning, because I want to just stay in bed. Good night."

With those words, she slipped into the house and disappeared into the darkness. Sun didn't want to call it 'fleeing the scene,' but those words stuck with him the whole way upstairs and followed him into his dreams.

Ruby sighed. "I don't think so, no. This was always your time."

Maria smirked. "Well then, it's a damn good thing I did what I did, then." She smiled softly as Ruby started. "Look, young lady, I should have died a dozen times throughout my youth and a good amount during my adulthood-by the brothers, I should have died after Salem went after all us silver-eyed hunters! But I didn't."

"But-" Ruby took a deep breath. "I have to kill you now."

Maria rolled her eyes-electronics, whatever. "Of course you don't. I will die, no matter what, today. Correct?" At Ruby's nod, the old woman scoffed. "Well, since I assume you're here for my soul, then I imagine you can simply wait for my heart to stop all on its own."

Ruby looked away. "It won't, you know."

"I highly doubt it," Maria responded, pounding lightly on her chest. "This thing has been going by sheer willpower for the last few years. You telling me I'm done is more than enough to convince it to clock out."

Ruby glanced at her watch. "You have to die within the next ten minutes. I don't think any amount of self-control is going to help you with that."

"Watch me." Maria chuckled. "Now, seeing as I have to get my heart rate down, would you mind getting something from the kitchen?"

Ruby stood. "Of course."

"On the stove, there are two trays of cookies-" Maria started, only to see a few falling rose petals replace the spot where the young woman had been sitting a moment before. A breath later and Ruby was back, now holding the two trays, though three of the cookies were noticeably missing, and she was chewing on one of them.

"Delicious!" Ruby smiled, offering the tray to Maria, who just laughed.

"Oh, I can see it now!" she got out between guffaws. "Little old lady dies from a sugar overdose! No, no!" she put her hands up. "I knew you'd be by today, and that's why I seem to have more cookies than a bakery. Or I did-" she said, glancing at the bowl she had brought in. Where the cookies she had stacked within had been, now only crumbs remained, and Ruby seemed to be savoring the trays. "-I seem to have underestimated your voracious appetite again."

Ruby paused for a moment. "Not-not exactly, Maria."

Maria looked at the girl in front of her curiously. "There's quite a bit of chocolate on your face that suggests otherwise, young lady."

Ruby blushed. "I-I just…always liked your cooking."

"You can't taste it anymore? Of course you can't." Maria waved her hand. "So, one Grim Reaper to another, what's it like?"

Ruby gaped, and Maria made a 'go on' motion. "How-how did you know?"

"You didn't think the nickname came out of nowhere did you?" Maria asked incredulously.

"But your eyes!" Ruby pointed to her mechanics. "There's no way-."

"Pah! Of course there was! But I was competing! Why do you think they caught me in the Dark Brother's land in the first place?" Ruby gaped, and Maria shook her head. "The Brothers may have left, but they still had duties and jobs to perform. Death continues at the same time life does, of course." She sighed at the young woman's incredulous look. "I was young and foolish, very foolish. I had taken a moniker that I thought I deserved, and I was offered immortality. After I lost these," she pointed to her eyes, "I was no longer useful to the god of Darkness, though. He refused to grant my request and, well…" she shrugged. "I missed a chance. For better or worse, I remained human." She glanced cannily at the dark-haired girl in front of her. "Somehow, I feel you did a bit better."

"He accepted me immediately," Ruby said, sounding a bit bitter as she did so.

"Well, of course he did!" Maria smirked. "You had just fought your way into a fortress to save the world. Resourcefulness in spades, I daresay."

Ruby gave a bitter laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I suppose so. I just wanted…" she trailed off, looking away.

Maria sighed. She knew that tone; gods knew she had used it enough over her years. That was the tone of someone who had made a snap decision and had to live with the consequences of their actions. "And you did whatever it took to get what you wanted," she finished for the girl after a moment of silence. "Was it worth it?"

"You better believe it," Ruby replied darkly.

Maria nodded. "Good. I wish you'd mentioned this to me before you did it, because I imagine there was another way to get what you wanted…" she trailed off as Ruby began shaking her head. "Yes, yes. I'm old and could never understand the difficulties of this generation." She waved her hand. "I was young once too. There are other ways to power, immortality, the perfect cookie, whatever." She frowned as Ruby didn't laugh.

"Maria, I love you like a grandmother, and I know you know more than probably the entire team put together, and I include Ozpin in that-" Maria snorted at that, but didn't interrupt. "-but this was a choice I had to make. There was no other option for me."

"I hope so." Maria sighed. "So what is it like?"

"Stressful." Ruby replied bluntly. "Tiring work, long hours, no real pay, a promise to be kept in the future for a job that spans an eternity. It…it's draining work. I don't recognize myself any more. There are days I wake up and I swear that I can see Salem in the mirror looking back at me, mocking me for my decision. I hardly taste, I don't touch, I barely feel." She blinked back tears. "Maria, one Grim Reaper to another, you have no idea how lucky you are that you lost your eyes instead of being trapped into this misery."

"Oh, Ruby." Maria opened her arms. "Hug?"

Ruby shook her head. "I-I can't."

"Why not?" She tried to ignore the hurt that came from the young girl's declaration.

Ruby glanced at her watch. "You still have a bit of time before you can die."

"Wha-Oh, he didn't!" she growled. Ruby just nodded, and Maria tightened her hand around her cane. "Why?"

"To make my job easier," Ruby said quietly. "No blood, no injuries, just a quick, clean, painless death."

"And he didn't think you might want to spend time with people?!" Maria shouted, furious. "He didn't think you would want to be around your family, maybe have one of your own? To see your sister? Is he daft?!"

"It's not like he gets along with his own sibling," Ruby mumbled, looking away but clearly happy that someone understood.

"This will not do. We will go talk to him as soon as I'm dead!"

Ruby blinked. "Well, yeah."

"And I have half a mind to drag the god of light into this as-"

"Don't!" Ruby interrupted desperately. Maria turned a furious glare on her, and she swallowed. "Please. Don't. There's...there's more going on. He can't know."

"Oh no." Maria whispered. She rose and shoved past a pile of books. Grabbing her friend, protegee, and practically adopted granddaughter by her hood, she ignored the clatter of whatever had fallen behind her. "What did you promise him?" Ruby stared at her in horror, and she shook the huntress slightly. "What deal did you make, girl? Tell me!"

"I'm sorry," Ruby cried, enveloping her in a sudden hug. She could feel the girl sobbing. "I didn't want you to die! I'm so, so sorry, Maria!"

"Die? Girl, we are-!" Maria felt the fight leave her as her eyebrows narrowed.

Eyebrows she hadn't had for the better part of the century.

"Oh, oh Ruby. Don't cry." She hugged the huntress back, the two now resting on their knees. "I chose this. I did this, not you, never you."

"It doesn't feel like that, though," Ruby hiccuped, still sobbing. "It never feels like that. I always feel the pain, the loss, the hurt I'm causing others-"

Maria rubbed the girl's back. "Look, I'm here now. I can help."

"I can't ask that of you-"

"Too bad!" Maria smiled. "I haven't felt this good in years! I feel young, vivacious! By the gods, I almost feel alive!" She laughed as Ruby snorted into her shoulder.

"But there's more, further on-"

"Well, what a shame: they don't get the privilege of meeting the most amazing old lady to grace Remnant!" She pulled back. "I helped you once, Ruby Rose, and I'll be damned if I let you fall apart when I can help."

"That may be arranged," a cold voice said behind her.

There, standing next to her vacated mortal coil, was the god of destruction.

Yang wasn't sure what had drawn her to Mantle.

Well, that wasn't a hundred percent true, she supposed: her girlfriend had drawn her to Mantle. It was the largest city in the area that Yang had known would have a travelport large enough to field incoming traffic from as far as Manajorie. Still, Mantle had been her destination well before the knowledge that her girlfriend would be there accompanied her decision to travel to the industrial city.

It just felt…right.

"Hey." She jolted out of her thoughts suddenly as someone stopped by the little table she'd taken over while she waited for the next incoming flight. "Yang?"

"Yeah?" she asked, turning to see Jaune looking as though he'd just seen a ghost. "Jaune?"

"Waiting for someone?" he asked, motioning to the chair across from her.

"Don't practice your lines on me, you know I'm spoken for." Yang smirked as her friend blushed at the insinuation.

"I-that wasn't-I mean, it isn't like you don't-er, don't hurt me?" Jaune's face was redder than a tomato, and she couldn't help laughing.

"Relax, vomit-boy, you know that I'm just messing with you." She waved her hand. "Have a seat, I am actually waiting for someone: Blake, believe it or not. But I'm not sure when she's gonna be getting in, so I could use the company."

Jaune took the offered seat, shaking his head as he did so. "Are you ever going to let that go?"

"Nope!" she replied cheerfully, laughing again as he dropped his head and groaned.

"It was, what, almost four years ago?" He asked the table. "Can't we find a better nickname?"

Yang shrugged. Truth be told, she wasn't exactly adverse to the idea of getting rid of the nickname. Jaune was her friend, after all, and nobody wanted to be reminded of themselves when they were younger, but she wasn't sure she wanted to let it go. It was, after all, only a day before she'd met her teammates and best friends. It was a happier time. A freer time.

Deciding quickly that reminiscing about 'better days' was a good way to get her depression to act up again, she changed topics. "What brings you here?"

Jaune winced. "Publicity. Again." He sighed. "The Atlesian Council is going the whole 'hometown son' angle on me, which means I'm just short of being a massive hero whose only success story was getting the entirety of a city destroyed."

Yang grinned, sensing a topic that was just begging to be exploited for teasing. "Not so keen on the whole hero thing any more?"

He scowled. "I don't know. On one hand, I'm glad I can finally set myself apart; on the other…" He trailed off, looking across the street. "On the other, I just wish that she was here to see it."

Yang looked away. It didn't matter which 'she' he meant. Jaune had given his heart to two women, both of whom had died shortly before a relationship could really spring up. She reached across with her prosthetic and squeezed his arm gently. "We all do."

"Yeah." He sighed. "So, when's Blake getting here?"

She accepted the topic change for what it was. "About fifteen minutes ago. I-" she cut herself off for a moment, before starting again. "I don't know how well it's gonna go."

Jaune tilted his head slightly. "Huh?"

"You can be as clueless as Ruby sometimes, you know that?" She chuckled a moment, before it morphed into a sigh. "Blake has been…struggling since the fall of Salem."

Jaune sighed as well, rubbing his eyes as he did so. "I'm not surprised. Ren was pretty mad when he heard Weiss died. I don't know everything that was said and done, but I guess Nora had to beat some sense into him." He ended the sentence with a lopsided grin. "Kinda glad she hasn't done the same to me."

Even though she was kind of curious about how Ren fit in with Weiss, Yang didn't acknowledge the joke. 'I've been trying to help her, but," she shrugged, "she didn't seem to want my help. Between that, and Ilia, I just wanted to leave."

Jaune's eyes narrowed, and suddenly Yang was reminded that, despite her image of him being a clumsy kid, he was a Huntsman who had fought in a war against a monstrous deity. "Ilia?"

"An old friend of Blake's," Yang hedged slightly. "Not really a fan of humans, but she…tolerated me."

His face was carved in its stern expression. "I see."

"It's nothing," Yang waved her hand. "Anyway, Sun agreed to come out and hang out with Blake while I went to find Ruby."

The look on Jaune's face told her that he wasn't done with the Ilia topic, but he let it drop. "Any luck with that?"

"Not really?" Yang shrugged helplessly. "I guess my mom found her, and Qrow found her, but nobody has a solid answer for me." She sighed, running her good hand through her hair. "My best lead was a detour to the Land of Darkness, and that was a dead end."

He groaned, and she looked at him funnily. "Dead end? Really, Yang?"

"Really." She didn't change her tone a bit, and he flinched. "Jaune, Ruby is missing. My sister is missing, my girlfriend is coming here to-to see me, and nobody knows where Ruby is."

Jaune scratched his neck in a manner that told Yang he felt a bit sheepish. "I'd like to help, but I haven't heard from her in almost six months."

"Nothing?" Yang pressed dejectedly.

He shook his head. "No. Ren and Nora have been out, and they might know more, but…" He shrugged. "They haven't told me anything if they have."

"It's something," Yang muttered. Silence fell between them, only broken by the sound of the port. Finally, Jaune broke it.

"Are you okay, Yang?" She glared at him, and he put his hands up in surrender. "Look, not to pry, but for someone who hasn't seen her girlfriend in a few weeks, you seem more nervous than excited."

"I'm fine." He opened his mouth to argue, and she glared harder. "I'm fine." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm just…I'm fine, that's all."

Jaune stared at her a long time, and Yang finally looked down at her scroll, idly running through the messages on it in the hopes that Sun or Blake had messaged her. Sighing, he slapped his thighs and stood up. "I have a meeting with the council in forty minutes, and I need to eat before then."

Yang forced a grin. "Better get some food. People who call me a dragon haven't dealt with a jilted politician."

He grinned slightly. "Yeah, I think I'd still deal with them if the alternative is facing you in the ring." His smile dimmed a bit, and he squeezed her shoulder as he started to leave. "You'll find her, Yang." He sighed. "And don't worry so much about Blake; she loves you."

Yang squeezed his hand in thanks, and then he was gone. She didn't question his statement. Everyone with eyes knew that Blake loved her. She just wasn't sure if it would be enough.

"I should have stayed in bed."

Sun rolled his eyes at her sentence. "You've said that every ten minutes since we got on."

"It's still true." Blake held the sandwich that Ilia had made her. The chameleon faunus had looked absolutely terrible as she'd wished them goodbye. Blake felt her stomach clench at how miserable her friend had clearly been. The plan to disappear had been a good one, in her opinion, but Sun had clearly told Ilia, and that meant that Blake had been forced into a long goodbye. Only the suspicion she had about her friend convinced her that leaving the chameleon faunus had to happen quickly.

Ilia had been sad but resigned.

Still, the long goodbye had only served to reinforce all of her insecurities and doubts. She was still sure her friend was up to something, but when weighed against facing her girlfriend she wasn't sure that it was still beneficial for her to see Yang.

Her girlfriend had been so hesitant, so nervous, and even when she'd said she was coming, Yang had seemed almost…disappointed? As though she'd hoped that Blake was just faking? Had her girlfriend found someone else?

Her stomach plummeted as though in response to the sudden drop in altitude on the craft they had 'stowed away' on. (They both had the proper paperwork, but Sun said something about needing to keep his rep up. Stupid faunus.) What other reason could there be?

"I should have stayed in bed."

"You would have been kicking yourself for not leaving," Sun said, with all of his annoying self-assurance.

"Maybe, but at least I wouldn't be this nervous."

"Blake, you'd find something else to be nervous about." The sigh in his voice suggested that he was not pleased.

"Are you okay?"

He winced. "Yeah. Just not looking forward to the next few hours, is all."

"Ah, yes. Sorry about that, by the way."

He waved her off. "No worries. Gwen is a slave driver, but unless she decides to dress me up like a fashion doll again, it won't be anything I can't handle."

She chuckled and shook her head. "Thanks for taking one for the team."

He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. "If I know Yang, she's probably waiting for you right now."

"Yeah." Blake stared out the window, counting the people, all little dots, that she could see. She got up to one hundred and fifty seven, and then she was pretty sure she was double counting. "Yeah," she repeated.

Sun shot her his grin; she ignored it. He poked her. She refused to give him the satisfaction of a reaction. "Ready?"

"If I say no, will you take me home?" she asked without any real heat. Now that she was this close, she had to see Yang, if only to put her own demons to rest.

"No can do," Sun replied. "I have agreed to see an old friend whom I would hate to let down."

She scoffed at that. "If you can lie that easily, you deserve whatever she does to you." It took all of her self-control not to laugh at the betrayed look he shot at her. Tossing the sandwich into her bag, she rose and raised an eyebrow. "You ready to get off?"

He grinned. "I haven't been caught yet, have I?"

Shaking her head, she led him to the cargo door. A quick reprogramming to allow it to open for thirty seconds and then close again (most commonly used for aerial drops) later, she glanced up. "Ready?"

His smile was practically feral in its anticipation. "Ready."

She slapped the button, grabbed her bag, and followed him out the door. The wind blowing her hair and the indescribable euphoria of free fall embraced her, and as she fell, she was already slipping Gambol Shroud free from its sheath. Aiming at a nearby scaffold, she threw the blades, feeling the solid thump as it bit into the wood. As it caught her, she gave an extra-hard tug to pull it free before sliding along one wall, rolling over the roof, and finally landing on the street, blade in one hand, sheath in the other.

In front of her was the best view in the universe: an amazed and surprised Yang Xiao Long.

"Blake?"

Sun's descent through the morning light ended in a similar manner to his friend's, though without someone waiting for him when he finally landed. A quick glance at his scroll showed him that he had a good ten minutes before his flight was supposed to land, which meant that he would be able to surprise Gwen.

A glance at his scroll showed that he had a new message, and he quickly opened it.

'Change of plans. Meet me at 805 baker street.'

He frowned but messaged back that he would be there presently. The next few minutes were spent hunting for a street sign, backtracking when he realized he was already on the street he needed, and finally punctuated with a sigh when he finally found the address in question. It was, of course, across the street from where he'd landed almost fifteen minutes prior.

It was going to be one of those days, wasn't it?

Resigning himself to a long day of irony and schadenfreude, he didn't hesitate to knock on the door. He hadn't expected to see his old teammate answer the door. "Neptune?"

"Hey, Sun." His friend welcomed him with a smile that was more of a grimace. "Gwen said you'd be coming, and…" He sighed. "Well, I'm not going to turn down some support right now. Come on in."

Sun followed the blue haired huntsman through the door, closing it as he did so. "Everything okay?"

"Eeh." Neptune replied, most of his usual cheer strangely absent. "Not really. Gwen lost her grandmother last night."

Sun nodded quietly. "My condolences."

His friend just nodded. "She was old, but…Octavia's taking it pretty hard. So is Gwen, but she's putting on a brave face for Tavi." He paused outside the door to what was probably a living room. "Hey, Sun?"

"Yeah."

"Look I know you and Gwen have your…thing. I know you hate her for who her family is, and I know she hates you right back, but," he took a deep breath, "maybe now isn't the best time to remind her of that, yeah?"

"Yeah." Sun agreed seriously. "We might have our differences, but everyone deserves a chance to mourn."

Neptune seemed to accept that, because he pushed the door open. "Hey, look who I found outside!"

Gwen glanced up from where Octavia had her face buried in her blouse. Judging by the way the chestnut-haired girl's shoulders were shaking, she was crying. "Glad you could make it." She rubbed the still-crying girl's shoulder gently. "Any trouble with the ship?"

Sun raised an eyebrow at the genuine question, but answered honestly. "Nah. We made an early exit to hit the ground running, but nothing bad happened."

Gwen's eyes narrowed. "You didn't tell the pilots you were on board." When he started to argue, she just shook her head. "Whatever, we have other things to do." Shifting slightly so her girlfriend was more comfortable, she explained.

"My grandmother died last night. She was taken to the morgue earlier, and the medical consensus is that she fell and hit her head. It was…quick, at least." The short-haired girl looked away for a moment, burying her face in her girlfriend's hair before looking back up.

Neptune pulled Sun to a chair before sitting down next to Octavia and taking her hand. "It wasn't exactly unexpected, but we liked her. She was feisty and kept insisting that Octavia should hurry up and make honest people out of me and Gwen."

Octavia let out a watery laugh, turning her head slightly. "She was so…driven. So sure that the three of us could work if I just proposed." She closed her eyes, and tears leaked out from under them. "All she ever cared about was that we were happy."

Gwen looked away. "She'd call me once a week to make sure I was 'taking care of her 'granddaughter' and 'grandson'' and then remind me that Octavia would be thrilled if I actually joined them on their hunts." Sighing, she untangled herself from her girlfriend.

Sun scratched the back of his head. He felt like he was intruding, and the slightly accusing look that Gwen was giving him was just reinforcing that. Octavia had moved to clinging to Neptune, obviously drawing comfort from her boyfriend. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Gwen gave a small but fairly well-hidden snort, while Octavia just nodded. Finally, Gwen broke the silence. "Mind if you follow me to the kitchen, Sun? I'll get you started on what I need." Her tone brokered no argument, and he rose. With a quiet nod to Neptune and Octavia, he joined her in the kitchen. It still smelled like cookies, and a brief image of Ruby flashed through his mind. Funny, he hadn't thought about Yang's sister in quite a while.

He jumped right in. "Look, Da-Gwen, I get this isn't the greatest time for me to be here. If you want, I'll take this as a rain check. You can use me for whatever thing you were planning when things are more…normal."

Her fist clenched. "Do you think I'd give you a chance to weasel your way out of this?"

"Do you really think I would do that?" he asked softly.

"With our history? Hells yeah!" she ground out.

He sighed. "Look, Gwen. We have our differences, but Neptune can vouch for me if you need proof. I can tell that you don't want me here, and I get why. If you'd rather I stay, I can, but I'm not going to force my presence on you-and I'm not going to try to 'weasel my way out.'"

"So what, you want to leave your best friend?" she spat. "Look, I get that you didn't know Maria, but Nep did, and all three of us got pretty attached to her. She supported us, and if you know as much as you claim to about my family, then you know that there hasn't been a whole hell of a lot of support from that side of this relationship."

That caught him on the back foot. "Wha-look, no, I don't want to leave him right now, but I get that I'm causing more trouble for him by being here." He grinned slightly. "You know that trouble is practically my middle name."

"More like all three." She snarked. "Whatever, go or stay, but don't even think about trying to get out of our deal."

"Wouldn't dream of it." He grinned. "I'll see you later."

She winced as if she'd bit into a lemon. "Fine."

He shrugged, heading back down the hall and letting himself out the door. No sooner had it latched behind him than his scroll began to hum. Seeing it was Yang, he picked up. "Not gonna lie, with the way that Blake was acting, I figured if I heard from anyone this century, it'd be her, not you."

"Not now." The brawler's tone was deadly serious, and he felt the smile slip off his face. "It's Blake."

Of course it was. "What happened? Tell me she didn't miss her landing."

"Stuck it with precision and beauty," came the matter-of-fact reply. "No, it's whatever she was eating."

His mind raced. "I don't think she ate anything."

"Yeah, well, she was coughing up a lot of blood if she could breathe at all. I'm heading to the local hospital." He mentally raced through all the locations she could be talking about.

"Red or white?"

"The blood?"

"The hospital," he replied, already jogging down the street. "Red or white?"

"How the hell should I know?" came the flustered reply. "It isn't like they look any different, right?"

"Well, the signs at the front…"

"Forgive me if my attention was not on the signage when I was panicking over her coughing blood," came the sardonic reply from the blonde. "I don't know, and I'll message you when I see it, but all I know right now is that it's two blocks away from where I am."

"And that is?" he prompted.

"How should I know?" Yang's tone was frenetic. "The last time I was in Mantle we were in the process of fleeing for our lives!"

He turned a corner as he made a mental choice to check the hospital closer to himself. "That's like eighty percent of the places team RWBY visited, you'll need to be more specific."

A slightly hysterical laugh came through the speakers. "Yeah, we did tend to leave places in a hurry, didn't we?"

"Probably more than you should have." He admitted. "Got a name for me?"

"White," came the firm answer. He swore as he skidded to a stop just as the Red came into sight at the end of the street. If she heard him, she didn't acknowledge him. "Going in now, I'll see you soon."

"Yeah." He muttered, already mentally trying to figure the fastest way across town. Huh, looked like he'd be traveling by rooftop again.

Shame. It wasn't like it had been a few weeks before when he was going to visit his friend.

Yang was pacing.

Being Blake Belladonna's girlfriend came with ups and downs like any relationship. On one hand, she got to be with the single most gorgeous person on the planet; on the other, she was intimately familiar with her partner's body in ways that no one really should be. Sure, someone might say that they would take a bullet for you, but Yang didn't know any other couple who had needed to remove a bullet from their better half.

Or sew up the wound.

Suffice to say that this wasn't the first time that Blake had needed medical attention, but it was the first time that Yang hadn't been the one helping to administer the treatment, and she tended to get a bit…twitchy when she didn't have something to do with her hands.

After the third time she had almost run into someone coming into the room, she'd let one of the nurses know that she'd be waiting outside until Blake's room was less active and made her way back to the waiting area.

In some ways, it was worse. She had recognized the machine they were bringing into the room as she left, and she knew that her girlfriend would not be having a good time-having your stomach pumped was not a fun experience. Still, although not knowing if Blake was okay was killing her, she was still out here.

Pacing.

Gods, she wanted to go back in.

"Everything okay?" The concerned voice startled her, and she flicked her gauntlets out before she remembered she was safe.

Taking a deep breath, she glanced at the young woman, who was just raising an unimpressed eyebrow. "Sorry. I didn't even realize there was someone else here," she offered by way of explanation. The silver-eyed woman just nodded. "As for everything being okay…"

"Kind of a stupid question." The woman acknowledged, snorting as she did so.

Yang grinned a bit. "I don't exactly come to hospitals for my health." She paused, and then rolled her eyes. "Well, I do-but you know what I mean."

Shaking her head in obvious amusement, the brown-haired woman motioned to a chair next to her. "Call me Mar-y. Mary."

"Yang," Yang replied easily, brushing a lock of her blonde hair out of her face as she took the offered chair. "What brings you here?"

"A friend-I guess you could call her my ride-just stopped by to see someone. I'm staying out of her way to let them chat in private." Mary shrugged in a way that said she didn't really mind. "What about you?"

"My-my girlfriend." Yang ran a hand through her hair. "She ate something and it…well, the vomit was bloody. When she didn't stop, I brought her here."

"I'm sorry." Mary replied sincerely. "Is there a reason you came out here?"

"I was getting in the way," the brawler said bluntly. "They needed both of her hands for one thing or another, and then I wanted to pace, and I was still getting in the way-" She cut herself off before she started ranting. "I just made myself scarce when they started the gastroscopy, and they were bringing in a stomach pump."

"Ouch." The brunette winced. "That's not fun."

"Tell me about it." Yang agreed, wincing as well. "I quit drinking for a month the first time I had it happen to me."

"I'm sorry to hear about your girlfriend, though, Yang. It's never fun worrying about those we love."

The blonde sat down and stared into her lap. "Not really. We've been through a lot, and she'll make it through this too." She didn't even consider an alternative. Blake would live because she was Blake. No other outcome would work for her. "I just…" She sighed. "I thought we were done with the whole 'barely survive the day' thing." At the look from Mary, she forced a smile. "Huntresses, you know; wham, pow, bam! It's not all a one way street. The Grimm can give as good as they get sometimes."

Mary smiled gently. "It's okay. She'll pull through."

Yang nodded in agreement. "We got here soon enough. I'm just worried about what poisoned her." She spotted one of the doctors that had been going in and out of Blake's room and nodded to Mary. "I gotta go talk to the doc. Good luck with your friend."

"Thanks, Yang. Keep your chin up, dear."

"You too," the blonde replied absentmindedly, already walking toward the doctor. "How is she?"

"Blake Belladonna?" The doctor asked, adjusting her glasses. "Doing better. We have her on medicine to help lower the swelling." Yang handed the woman her huntress license. The doctor glanced at it before nodding. "I see. I assume you're her partner?" Yang just nodded. "Well, she won't be ready to fight for about three days-minimum. Most of the raphides are dissolving with the meds she's on, but she had an extremely severe reaction to them. She may be allergic to something in the leaves-"

"Leaves?" Yang interrupted. Raphides came from all manner of things, but there was only one plant she knew of that would be both leafy and easily within range of Blake. "Devil's Ivy leaves, perhaps?"

"You're aware?" The doctor narrowed her eyes slightly. "Did you know she was eating them?"

"Considering that they're poisonous?" Yang countered, bristling at the insinuation. "I don't even know where she got them."

"Well, they were definitely Pothos leaves." The doctor said firmly. "Judging from our conversation you know how dangerous they can be to cats and dogs, and that appears to extend to faunus as well."

Yang clenched her fist as she thought of something. "I happen to know one faunus personally that can and does eat them on a regular basis."

The doctor looked unimpressed. "Be that as it may, she needs rest right now, and she was asking after you. If you want to go see her, then by all means feel free, but she's not getting discharged tonight. We want to keep her overnight for monitoring to make sure she can swallow and breathe without difficulty, as well as make sure that she doesn't have a bad reaction to the dust."

"So best case, she leaves tomorrow morning?" Yang clarified.

"Best case," the doctor agreed. "We'll be monitoring her closely for the next fifteen or so minutes, and if there isn't any poor reaction to the dust mix then we'll move her to a room."

Yang sighed, stress she hadn't even realized she was carrying slowly leaking out of her. Blake would be okay. Everything was all right.

Well, except for Ruby, but Yang was starting to get used to disappointment when it came to her younger sister. She walked back to the waiting area to double-check that she wasn't forgetting anything (she had a bad habit of taking things out of her pockets to fidget with, and then leaving them behind by mistake-especially when she was nervous). A quick glance showed that she had left her scroll on the chair she had very briefly taken as her own when she had first come out. Mary was nowhere to be seen.

Grabbing her scroll, she was surprised to see a sticky note flutter to the ground. Curious, she grabbed it and immediately dropped it again when she saw the familiar handwriting.

Sis, we need to talk.

-R.

There were few benefits that came from being a faunus, at least in Blake's opinion. True, there were the enhanced senses. Better sense of smell was almost guaranteed, along with improved hearing (usually), better eyesight (more often than not), good-ish night vision (occasionally), and better taste. (The last meant that flavour profiles for faunus were almost always completely different from humans, and had led to more than a few humorous interactions between herself and her teammates on multiple occasions.) That didn't even consider that the average faunus tended to build strength faster and maintain higher levels of dexterity than the average human.

Now that she thought about it, maybe she should make a list. There were quite a few advantages when she started listing them.

Physical traits aside, though, it wasn't any surprise that the sense that set faunus apart from the rest of the human race wasn't one that could be easily quantified or tested reliably. A sixth sense, if you wanted to call it such.

The ability to sense danger.

More than once it had saved her life (and her teammate's lives) when she had just known something was off. Traps that didn't get set off, ambushes that ended up reversed, Grimm that she shouldn't have been able to tell were there. The list went on, and her teammates had just thanked her. Trusted her with no second thoughts. Even Weiss, who had hated faunus when the four of them had been tossed together by the hand of fate, never mocked or questioned it when Blake said they should listen to her gut.

Instincts.

And it was those instincts that were currently screaming at her.

She could smell the sterile, clean, overpowering scent of the hospital. She didn't need the pain in her arm to tell her that she had an IV embedded in it. She could feel the general ache of what she assumed was the residual pain of some surgical procedure around her throat. Thank the gods she had been unconscious for that. She wouldn't have wanted to be awake for something that needed her throat cut.

While she was on the topic, thank the gods for aura-accelerated healing. She really didn't want to imagine what it would be like to wake up with a stitched-up hole in her neck.

None of these were what raised her concern, though.

What her instincts were telling her was that she needed to leave. Now. To tear the IV out of her arm and flee from whatever it was that was in the room with her. Not fight, not evacuate everybody around to safety. Just run.

She opened her eyes.

"Oh. It's you."

"It's me." The source of her absolute terror gave her a half-hearted smile. "I was a little worried, so I stopped by to make sure you were okay."

Blake just stared for a minute, trying to figure out why Ruby was setting off every 'this-thing-is-going-to-kill-me-quickly' alarm in her body. "Where have you been?" she finally settled on asking, forcing herself to relax into the uncomfortable hospital bed. Ruby wasn't going to kill her (and it was scary that she had to remind herself of that fact), and even if she was, it wasn't like she would make it very far in her current state before her friend succeeded if that was her goal.

Blake had no illusions as to the efficacy of Crescent Rose in either of its forms, and being seated wouldn't slow Ruby down at all.

The red-clad huntress let out a long breath. "Around." Blake raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. "What?" the young woman demanded, crossing her arms. "It's true!"

"Are you avoiding Yang?" Blake asked without preamble. 'Around' was vague enough that both things could be true. Ruby glanced out the window. Blake felt her stomach sink at the non-answer. "Why?"

"It's complicated," her friend replied quietly. "I can't really talk about it; certainly not here."

Blake crossed her arms as well, ignoring the pain of the IV shifting. "Say the word and I'll leave right now, doctors and well-meaning medical personnel be damned."

Ruby shook her head, still not meeting her eyes. "You need to recover."

"I can recover just fine on my feet," Blake lied glibly. "If you're in trouble, I'm a whole lot more helpful to you mobile."

That got Ruby's attention, but not in the way she'd thought. "No, no, I'm not in trouble."

"Of course not." Blake sighed. "And I'm not recovering from being poisoned by my former best friend." Ruby's eyes narrowed.

"She wouldn't!"

Blake shrugged, not really concerned about it. "I'm not going to speculate." Ruby looked mutinous, but she pressed on over her teammate's concern. "I'll deal with it when I'm healthy."

"Fuck that, I'll deal with it." Blake felt her skin crawl at that declaration.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Ruby?" she said, trying to joke in order to cover the uncomfortable way she was feeling. "There was a time you would have threatened Yang with soap if she so much as hinted at cussing."

Ruby's fingers gripped the armrests of her chair tightly, but she still smiled a bit. "Blame W-my partner. She got on me about my language and led me to the realm of linguistic purity."

"Until we got her angry enough." Blake shared a smile with her friend. "Then Yang always looked like she couldn't decide whether she wanted to take notes or build a shrine."

Ruby giggled, a bit of the tension in her hands leaking out at the sound. "Oh, brothers, do you remember the night we got her drunk?"

"Right after midterms?" Blake laughed a bit as Ruby nodded. "Oh yeah. She did not care at all."

Ruby grinned. "I think the only reason Yang didn't build a shrine to her that night was because she passed out."

Blake laughed some more. "I missed you, Ruby."

"I missed you too." Ruby glanced up suddenly, as though hearing a call. "I have to go." Her smile had vanished.

"Wait-"

"Tomorrow. In the old workshop," Ruby interrupted, already on her feet.

"Wait." Her friend hesitated, and Blake held up her arms in a universal 'hug me' gesture.

Ruby took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Blake, but if I do, you'll die."

With those words and a flurry of dark red rose petals, her friend, the girl that was practically her sister, vanished.