Chapter 39 – a past you Kan't outrun

"I'm curious about the price it took to convince you to betray your own species, Sister. I'm also curious to know how you thought you could just walk away without having to face the consequences of your actions. I suppose I'm curious about a lot of things, and I suppose I shall never have those answers. Pity."

"Corrrrrssssacccccc?" Ilia slurred. "H – H – H –"

Even moving her lips to form the syllables was a draining ordeal. Ilia was ready to go to sleep. Corsac could wait until she woke up. Actually, scratch that. She never wanted to wake up.

"The entire White Fang, gone in a night. I would have been impressed if I wasn't enraged beyond belief over watching my brothers and sisters incarcerated or outright murdered while I barely managed to escape with my life. You sold us out to Atlas. All three of you."

Three? There can't be more than one of me.

Ilia looked up and saw that Adam and Blake were laying down in front of her. Oh, right. I forgot about them. Remembering is so…tiring. I'm tired. Let me just rest my eyes for a second…

Then, the ground beneath her moved. Ilia tried to complain, but she could barely move her lips. "Wwwwwwuh?"

"Fighting all three of you head on would have been impossible, but to outsmart you and plant the killing blade when you least suspect it? To best you the same way you bested your own kin? It is truly an enriching experience."

It was a tarp, or something? But the ground was…not supposed to be a tarp. It was supposed to be the ground.

"It was an absolute nightmare to wrangle them up. I nearly lost myself to the despair that you currently feel many times, but then I found out a neat little trick. You see, my friends, the cries of an Apathy have no effect on you if you lack ears to hear them." Corsac tapped a finger to the side of his head. Blood trickled out of where his two pairs of ears had once been. "Regrettably, that means I won't be able to hear your lamentations. Such a shame; I was so looking forward to you three turncoats groveling for your lives before I take everything away from you, just like how you took everything away from me. My home, my cause…my brother."

Ilia's head was heavy, so let it fall forward. Now that she could see it, the ground made more sense. She and the others were standing on top of a massive pit, held up by a wooden latticework made of criss-crossed planks at the top. There had been a tarp there with some dirt and leaves on top before, but Corsac must have pulled it away.

In the pit were…

"Oh shit!"

Ilia's sense of self-preservation caused her to lift herself off the ground at the sight of the horrifying skeletal Grimm monstrosities. She made it as far as three inches above the grating before the monster wailed. The strength was sapped from her body, and she fell. No, not the strength. The will…to keep…going…

Why would she keep going? She was exhausted. It was time for bed. The wood wasn't comfy, but Ilia was too worn out to care.

Ilia's scroll rang.

"A true lusus naturae. The Apathy sucks away your drive, leaving you the hollow shell of the Faunus you once were. And while I would love nothing more than to watch you decay into nothingness, I'm afraid we have not the time. Days of pain and suffering is all you mongrels deserve for your sins, but death, plain and simple, shall have to suffice."

"Corsaccccc," Ilia moaned. "Don't…"

"If you are addressing me, I'm afraid I still cannot hear you." Corsac let loose a manic cackle. "But rest easy, Sister. Rest forever."

The scroll kept ringing, keeping Ilia from falling asleep. Corsac kicked one of the planks, and Adam's arm slid down into the pit. The Grimm within reached for it, but they could only just brush his fingertips. These Grimm moved slowly, as though they were sliding their arms through a thick sea of molasses. Ilia could have pulverized them in a fair fight, but right now it was too exhausting to even think about reaching for Lash. The only thing that kept her eyes open was the intermittent ringing of her scroll.

The last of the vertical planks of wood dropped into the hungry mouths of the Apathy. Ilia could barely stand to look at them. Most Grimm were animal based, but these ones were distinctly humanoid, and horrifyingly so. Their skull-shaped heads lacked bone on the jaw, save for a single row of plain white teeth. A faint red glow hummed within their eyes in place of a pupil, watching intently as Corsac continued to remove the barrier that held Ilia above them, piece by piece.

No. I have to stop this. I'm going to fall in when he...

The Apathies screamed again, and Ilia stopped feeling…feeling the…

She just stopped.

Why care? Why do anything? Why not just let it go?

Her scroll rang once more, then it went to voicemail. Ilia's eyes shot open.

It took everything she had, but she still had some fight left in her. Ilia reached down to her waist.

"And I'm afraid this is where we say goodbye, my old friends. Brother Taurus, you could have been the High Leader one day. I sure hope that whatever piteous solace you discovered in the arms of our enemies was worth it. Sister Belladonna, you–"

Ilia flipped over and hurled Lightning Lash.

Ilia missed.

"You bitch! You filthy reptile whore! You–"

Ilia couldn't hear the rest of it. She had already been precariously perched on just horizontal planks, and the motion of her last ditch attempt to save herself jostled her free. Without any action from Corsac, she rolled over the edge, into the waiting clutches of the Apathies.

Someone was shouting.

Then, there was a loud thud.

Blake opened her eyes.

Right. Corsac is here. Why was he…I thought the White Fang was…never mind. It's okay. I can go back to sleep now.

Something screamed. Blake ignored it and closed her eyes again. Rest was good.

No. She knew that voice. It had been Ilia. Blake cracked her eyes open and pushed herself up as best she could. Ilia was in trouble. Ilia was…

…okay. Some Grimm were pawing at her, but her aura was taking their light scratched. Based on the force with which they dug their claws into her protective force field, they weren't going to be harming her in this decade. There was time for Blake to take a little catnap.

"A valiant effort from less than valiant scoundrels, but, like your lives, it was all in vain. There shall be no stopping my revenge."

Blake looked at Corsac, hoping that he would shut up so she could sleep already. Noisy bastard. And who's that with him?

"It fills me–"

Silence came as Corsac abruptly stopped speaking.

Finally, Blake thought, we can have some peace and quiet.

"Holy fuck!" said someone new. "What are those things!"

Oh, come on!

"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

The ground beneath her felt warm. Blake opened her eyes and saw–

"Ilia!"

"Blake!" her short teammate screamed. "Help me!"

Ilia and what had to be two dozen squirming Grimm were all on fire. The chameleon Faunus was a bright shade of orange, and she was frantically trying to climb her way out of the dug out hole in the ground while also pushing off the hands that calmly wrapped themselves all over her body. Memories rushed back to Blake – Corsac Albain, a trap, Adam coming to rescue her, him taking Adam's scroll.

Without a thought for her own safety, Blake jumped down into the pit and grabbed Ilia. Leaving behind a shadow clone, she leapt in desperation and threw Ilia out of the pit onto the forest floor outside. Blake landed on the edge and scrambled her way out, though she could barely find purchase on the dirty, pine needle covered floor of the forest. A hand gripped hers and pulled her up.

"Thanks, Ada–"

It wasn't Adam.

It was Sky Lark.

"You! What are you doing here?"

"Geez, that's one heckuva way to thank someone for saving your butts."

Blake looked around. Ilia was crawling away from the pit and patting out the fires on her jumpsuit, a horror-stricken look on her face. Adam was bent over, catching his breath.

"T-Thank you, then."

"No prob, Bob. That was a close one."

Blake's sense returned to her. "Shit, Corsac! Where–"

"I got him. He didn't hear me coming from behind until I'd already removed his head from his shoulders with Feather's Edge. Weird – I was making one noisy racket with all those crunchy leaves underfoot."

He was right. Corsac's decapitated corpse lay on the ground. Sky placed a boot on his head, then kicked it into the pit. The Grimm eagerly descended upon their new toy, even as most of them were halfway incinerated away to nothingness.

"Disgusting Faunus freak." He spat on the ground. "Anyway, you guys okay?"

"I-I'm fine. Ilia, are you burned?"

Ilia checked her skin for damage. "No. My aura held," she said shakily. Her entire body was twitching.

Sky offered her a hand, which she cautiously accepted. He hoisted her to her feet and handed her Lightning Lash.

"I probably used up your Fire Dust, but I figure you'd rather be alive. What in the Brother's name were those squealing things?"

"A-Apathy," answered Blake. "Grimm. They drain your willpower until you're too worn down to fight, then they kill you."

"Creepy. Was that Faunus dude gonna kill you?"

"I think so," said Adam. "He wasn't exactly the friendliest fellow."

"Fucking animal. I'm just glad I could hear your scroll ringing when Yang called you."

Blake regarded the human boy with uncertainty. The danger had passed, so she decided to ask the question that was on her mind. "Sky, do you…hate Faunus?"

Sky looked at Blake in confusion, then glanced at her cat ears. "Oh! Nah, not you guys. You guys are on our side."

"We're some of 'the good ones,' I take it?" asked Adam, still barely able to stand.

"Exactly. Your team is friends with my team. You guys are on the right side. That fucking guy–" Sky prodded Corsac's headless body with his shoe. "–he tried to off y'all. He's on the wrong side, just like the White Fang. Or Cardin."

"Or Cardin," Blake repeated in stunned confusion. "But Cardin's a human."

"Yeah, but he's one of the bad guys. He's not a…you know, he's always…just, he's on the other side. Not our side – their side."

Our side vs. their side? Is that really how he sees the world – all in relation to himself and his team?

Sky scowled. "Cardin and the jackasses on Team Sword keep screwing with me 'n' the girls, and it's really starting to get to with Pyrrha. The way I see it, all the scummy Faunus in the White Fang are no different than those dipshits, and they can all share the same grave for all I care." Sky's eyes widened. "Speaking of my team, we gotta get back before they start worrying. Yang is with Ruby, but we cannot tell them what happened here under any circumstances."

Odd. Secrecy regarding Corsac was about to be the next topic Blake broached, but Sky was practically doing her job for her. "We can't?"

"No way. Look, Team Yellowjacket-P's teetering on the brink since Jaune left. Even the smallest disturbance could do us in. Thank the Brothers you guys are okay. If you'd died or something, that would've been the end. Period. Yang would abandon the team in a rush to go to her sister, Pyrrha would lose ever more friends and clam up again, and we'd disintegrate." Sky rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not even sure that we're going to make it, even if nothing goes wrong. I'm just trying to keep the team from slipping any further. We're a team. We have to stay together. You get me?"

Blake looked at Adam and Ilia, then thought of Ruby.

K…Team Rabies…

"Yeah. I think I do."

"We'll come back later."

This conversation was one Ilia and Adam had no place being involved in, nor did they desire to. Ruby was back to normal, or at least as normal as a girl like Ruby could ever be. Blake, on the other hand…

Their encounter with the elder Albain brother had been completely swept under the rug, never to be mentioned again. Sky didn't question who the elder Faunus was or why he was there; it actually seemed like the thought of it hadn't even crossed his mind. It worked well in K's favor, but the close call had severely impacted them. Plus, the additional visit by Qrow was probably going to place some strain on Blake and Ruby's relationship. K now not only needed Blake to exceed, but for Ruby to actively be diminished as a prospect for the maiden powers.

Ilia and Adam didn't really have much to do by themselves. The flight to Vale would take too long, the tournament wasn't running any fights at the moment, and the festival left a sour taste in Ilia's mouth after her last attempt to enjoy the booths had ended in multiple consecutive near disasters, the last of which had not yet been fully fixed.

Thus, they went to a training room and worked off some energy. Adam and Blake's double round was coming up soon, so Ilia had the rare advantage of being able to spar with an Adam Taurus who wasn't going all out, lest he tire himself. She, on the other hand, had no such restrictions and was free to wail on him.

"C'mon, cowboy! Fight me like you mean it!"

Fighting him sword to sword was suicide, all out or not, but as long as she kept Lash in whip form and didn't let up at all, she could actually push him towards the edge of the ring. Adam was charging up Moonslice from her hits, but she knew it was coming, so avoiding it would be a breeze.

Adam planted his feet into the ground, and a red circle appeared beneath him. "You mess with the bull, you–"

Ilia didn't let him finish his one liner, choosing instead to wrap Lash around the grate of a vent and pull herself up to the ceiling. Adam couldn't attack her when the roof was right behind her without bringing down the entire building, meaning that as long as she stayed up here, his semblance was effectively useless.

"You mess with the chameleon, you get the horns, biatch!"

"Chameleons don't have horns!"

"Some do!"

Her stall tactic had one big drawback. Adam carried a shotgun sword sheath to use, but her whip was indisposed while she hung upside down from the ceiling. His built-up Moonslice was still winding down, but as soon as he was cooled off, he would open fire, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Thus, Ilia took a risk. Adam was an excellent hand to hand fighter, and Ilia knew that. Adam knew Ilia knew, which may not have sounded important, but it actually was. He would never expect her to let go of her whip and drop right down into his personal space, which made it all the more a surprise when she did just that.

The only drawback was that there was a reason he didn't expect that – it was stupid. She landed a single kick to his face before he pinned her hands down to the floor and headbutted her neck. Ilia struggled as his horns tore against her aura, but eventually gave up.

"I yield."

"You see, Ilia, the power of actually having horns?"

"I already yielded, just let me go."

"Let go of her!" a voice cried out from the door. Ilia recognized it instantly and blanched. "Get your hands off of her, you rapist!"

Adam let go of Ilia and raised his hands in mock surrender, showing Weiss that he had released his hold. He left to grab a towel from his bag. Weiss rushed between them and immediately began to fawn over Ilia.

"Are you okay? Did that brute harm you? I don't see any bruises on your wrists, but we should probably–"

"I'm fine," snapped Ilia, pulling her hands out of Weiss' grasp. "Just take a hint and leave me alone."

"I – I'm trying to repair our friendship." Weiss nearly growled it out, but then exhaled and placed her hands together in front of her, palms together and fingers facing up. "While I know not what affront I made to offend you and incite this excommunication, I am prepared to apologize for it regardless."

"Are you? Are you really?"

"Yes. You mean that much to me."

"Alright. Here's what you can apologize for. One, for constantly going on and on nonstop about how much you despise the Faunus. Two, for getting Jaune kicked out of Beacon just because you felt like it. Three, for throwing yourself at Ruby every time you see her."

"I–"

Weiss paused, then frowned. Her brow creased, and she looked down in thought. Adam, having finished wiping the sweat off his forehead, watched from the bleachers, curious to see how Weiss conducted herself. Ilia too was interested to see how this was going to go, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't be pleasant. Nothing with Weiss ever was.

Finally, the white haired human finished collecting herself and answered.

"On the first charge, I plead–"

Adam snickered with glee uncharacteristic of the normally moody Faunus.

Weiss glared at him and balled up her fists. "Can we talk somewhere more private, Ilia?"

"No."

"He's not–"

"He's my teammate and my friend."

"I thought you hated him."

Ilia was about to ask how Weiss could have possibly come to that conclusion when she realized that that was the narrative K had tried to use. She was K's 'human,' and she'd only made friends with Team Sword by playing on their chauvinism and pretending to be on their sides during the bullying of her team.

Ilia knew that Weiss shouldn't be blamed for believing what Ilia wanted her to believe.

She blamed her anyways.

"Go on. You were apologizing?"

"Ahem. In regards to the Faunus, I am not sure what lies they have filled your head with, but I do not believe these…people are good influences on you. However, if that is what it takes to regain your trust, I shall formally apologize for any antagonism I may have intentionally or unintentionally been at fault for. While I cannot say my opinions on the Faunus have changed, I shall avoid disparaging them in your presence. For the time being, I shall set aside my stated goal of seeing them prosecuted for their…for any crimes that may or may not have been committed. A-And…I will try to…be more o-open minded, in regards to…them. Is that satisfactory?"

"There were two other things." Ilia planted her feet. "Go on."

"Jaune Arc. He repeatedly sexually harassed me and refused to respect my personal boundaries. I rebuffed his advances in no uncertain terms ever time, making clear that I was in no way playing hard to get or any other silly excuse he could have deluded himself into believing." Ilia wonder if Weiss appreciated the irony of accusing Jaune of falling victim to self-delusions. "I cannot accept the blame for his actions."

"He was kind of stupid about her," Adam called over to Ilia from the sidelines. "As much as I liked the man, he did go too far in asking her out. Though, personally, I think politely asking a Schnee out once is too far."

Ilia wasn't going to let it end at that. "You got him kicked out of Beacon. That's overkill, no matter what he did."

"I merely exposed the truth. If the boy was doing nothing wrong, then he should not have anything to fear by his records coming to light. Besides, I was not wrong – he did steal a spot from someone more deserving."

"That's not your call to make."

"If you found out someone cheated on a test, would you report them? Or if someone copied homework from a friend? We have rules for a reason, and we cannot simply change them because it is a close companion who broke them. Had it been any other student, I would have done the same. And, to be honest, it wasn't as though the expulsion was unfair. He perpetually lagged behind at the bottom of our class. Grimm, his grand ambition was to shoulder the burden of life and death, and he fell asleep in class! Had he become a huntsman under false pretenses, a botched mission could have resulted in the deaths of innocents, including Arc himself. I was doing what I thought was right."

Ilia hated Weiss now more than ever, not just because of what she'd done to Jaune. She desperately wanted to tell the ex-heiress how wrong she was, how ignorant and infuriating she was being, but she didn't know how. Honestly, she didn't know if she could dispel any of the arguments. He had harassed her, he had cheated, and he was still struggling. Adam's tutelage was helping him, but r̶e̶a̶l̶ formally trained hunters like Ruby or Weiss could run circles around him.

She couldn't win this argument. Her teeth nearly shattered from how hard she was grinding them.

"Go on," Ilia growled.

"The last one. Ruby. Y-Yes, of course. About her…um, Ilia?"

"What?!"

"I think maybe I should apologize at a later date. It would seem that doing this is only angering you further."

"Why quit now?" Ilia's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're winning."

Weiss looked dismayed. "I'm not trying to win! This isn't a debate, it's me explaining myself to you as truthfully as I can. Besides, if it were to 'win,' I think that would only alienate you further. I do not wish to be right. I wish for you to be with me, as friends. Perhaps…as m–"

"Don't."

"Ilia, the truth is, I think I–"

"Don't you dare say it!"

Weiss cringed. "Perhaps I should go."

"You should," said Adam, coming up from behind them. Strangely, he didn't sound as angry as Ilia w̶a̶s̶ ̶felt he should be.

"Get away from me," said Ilia.

"I'll see you around, Ilia," said Weiss.

"Go."

Ilia turned her back on the white haired girl. The clacking of the heiress' heels heralded her departure.

"Never thought I'd see the day," said Adam.

"What?" Ilia challenged.

"Weiss Schnee, genuinely humble and repentant. She gave you a blank check of apology, you cashed it, and it cleared."

"She was being a bitch!"

"She wasn't being a bitch. She is a bitch. It's a part of her, but back there, she was doing her best to rein it in."

"So what?" screamed Ilia. "I was supposed to cozy up to her? Be her little Faunus side piece while she declares war on our species?"

"I didn't say that."

"I don't owe her anything. If I want to cut her off, I can. If I don't feel like she deserves an explanation or a second chance, she doesn't."

"Make no mistake, I agree with you. Had you accepted her apology, I would have intervened."

"Just playing the God of Darkness' advocate?"

"More like trying to prevent you from losing perspective. We can be wrong sometimes, Ilia, and others – including Weiss, though rarely – can be right. The reason Schnee is so despicable is because she's absolutely sure that she's right at all times, even when all logic suggests otherwise, and she tends to assume that she's the only one who's allowed to be right. Don't fall down the same hole as her. If we never question ourselves and just assume we're justified because we're us, we stop being the good guys."

"Wisdom from Daddy Ironwood?"

"From my mother."

"Oh. Uh…oh."

Ilia didn't know what to say. Adam rarely opened up like that, and for him to actually defend a Schnee, or at least convince Ilia to see said Schnee's point of view, meant that this must have been important to him.

"For the record," continued Adam, "don't forgive her. She hasn't changed one bit as a person, even if she has a soft spot for you. Russel's in the hospital."

That got Ilia's attention. "What?"

"Broken arm, split lip, fractured toe, two black eyes, and more bruises on his body than on a prostitute that got between Nikos and her boytoy Jaune. I can confidently say he'll be fine, knowing his semblance as we do, but I doubt that he actually fell down the stairs with his aura down like he and his team are officially claiming."

Ilia didn't even try to hide her incredulity at Weiss' savagery. "Her own teammate…?"

"For hitting Cardin from behind. The worst part is, Weiss will only see this as a justified retaliation against an unprovoked betrayal. Self-defense, she'll call it. She'll get more and more paranoid, and she'll never even ask why Russel did it. That's why I'm trying to convince you not to get caught up in your own mental echo chamber. You'll never escape it. Weiss certainly can't."

"Fuck! Every time we try to do something with them, it backfires. We leave them alone and they come after us. I befriend Weiss, talk her out of suicide, and she goes and takes my advice as encouragement to be racist. Now, this?" Ilia groaned. "And we told Russel to stand up to them. I encouraged him…"

"His choices are his own, and he expressed to me that he's still proud of how he conducted himself, regardless of the consequences."

"When did you even see him?"

"He messaged me. I held off on telling you guys because Blake's still dealing with the whole Ruby situation, and I don't think they need the extra stress."

"This school, Adam. This damn school. Everything about it is bonkers. We never had to deal with this much bat-Faunus-shit-crazy bull-Faunus-shit on our previous assignment, and that was with an active terrorist cell."

Adam blinked. "Do you regret coming here?"

"No," Ilia said without hesitation.

Adam smiled. "Neither do I."

Author's Notes

Corsac didn't last long, did he?

Do Apathies work based on sound and fail on the deaf? I think they do, or at least they might. In the show, every loud screech they make causes Team RWBY to lose more and more strength. Sure, maybe it's proximity-based, but maybe you should shut the fuck up, eh?

I'm never going to explicitly comment one way or another, so it's up to you to interpret how Weiss feels about Ilia. She said she wasn't interested in women in Ch. 22, but then she was looking through Ilia's scroll for lewd photos when she stumbled onto Jaune's transcripts, so there's that, too.

Ilia wants an illogical, raving, unfair, brute that she can hate, not a set of well-reasoned arguments and (semi)-genuine apologies.

As much as I wanted Weiss to be a clear-cut villain beyond redemption in this, I tried to have her speak the truth at least a few times, just so she wasn't some ranting lunatic strawman. This and her heart-to-heart with Ilia on the night of the dance were among those times. As much as we may dislike bully Weiss, she's not…exactly wrong…

Jaune did canonically harass her with no regard for concepts like consent, and he did cheat his way into Beacon and then slack off. While it may seem like a horrid thing to out him and ruin his life, can you honestly disagree with any of the arguments Weiss has without it being about Jaune being a fluffy cinnamon roll boi? She may be deluded about her own innocence and how she treats the Faunus, but we know from the show that self-reflection and personal growth are not beyond her. Sadly (for her), her pleas fall on deaf ears, as the one time she's willing to grow, Ilia doesn't want to let her.

I'm not trying to say that Weiss' racism is okay or should be forgiven. But one of the two main themes of this fic is actions have consequences, even for the heroes. (The other is to accept your emotions and not bottle up your shit like all of K does). Ilia wanted Weiss to believe that she hated the Faunus as part of her cover to infiltrate their team, and she even egged her racism on a few times. Ruby pointed out correctly that Weiss would see this as vindication of her behavior and would feel emboldened to be even worse. Weiss did, and she was. Ilia had ample opportunity to challenge Weiss' bullying, explain why it was wrong, or discourage it in any other way, but she didn't until it was too late. Weiss genuinely believed that Ilia hated Adam and all other Faunus, and why wouldn't she? Ilia literally said she did for the first two volumes.

Because K chose to lie so thoroughly for their own ends, they are partially responsible for what the former heiress became. It's only compounded by the fact that K steamrolled over Weiss' future in their quest to punish her father and used the White Fang as the tool to do it. It wasn't necessarily wrong of K to do what they did (in terms of the greater good), but she's definitely their responsibility and their fault, even if they don't acknowledge it. Remember, the only difference between canon and this story is the actions of Blake, Adam, and Ilia. Weiss is a monster, but one partially of their own making.

As I said, actions have consequences, and lying even for the best of intentions can backfire. In many, many, MANY fics, characters like ex-White-Fang Blake and sneak-level-100 Jaune will shamelessly lie to their friends about either their canon backstories or whatever's going on in the fic, and they get forgiven scott-free (looking at you, In The Kingdom's Service).

Not here. Not in K.

Sorry for the thesis. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Happy rats, and don't do crime!