Sunlight shined through his room's window. Leaden's eyes opened slowly. This was the first sleep he had gotten since he came back, and it still wasn't perfect.

However, he appreciated how comfortable the bed was. He got up and stretched his body. While doing so, his eyes landed on the shelves and widened.

The White Fang mask and the family picture were both on the shelves. An image of him on his knees, crying and hugging the picture crossed his mind. "Right. That happened," he sighed, his hand on his forehead.

He picked up the mask and the picture, trying to remember if he had actually picked them up after his whole out-of-nowhere breakdown.

But he shrugged it off. "Eh, whatever. I must have unconsciously taken them."

He put down the mask and, with the picture only in his hand, he used his semblance. Things that weren't supposed to be there were there, and things that were supposed to be there weren't there. Leaden touched his bed, and it was hard as a rock.

He put the picture in its rightful place, and then everything that wasn't supposed to be there vanished, while everything that was supposed to be there reappeared.

He then checked if there was anything new using his scroll, and to his surprise, there was. Adam texted him. That rarely happened.

Adam: What will you do about your eyes? Black hair and red eyes aren't exactly common. Someone with a brain could put two and two together.

Leaden smiled. That must have slipped Adam's mind. He was too hopeful for a way out of the dark tunnel that such a detail wasn't realized until now.

Leaden: No worries! I got that covered

Adam: If you say so.

Leaden's solution was basically contact lenses, which was something uncommon for your average person.

He had the chance to buy them in Mistral. Atlas tech, and anything Atlas-related in general, was cheap in Mistral compared to the other kingdoms. Leaden bet that in Vale, the lenses would cost double the price if not more.

He put away his scroll, and after taking a shower, he went to the kitchen, only to find Tai preparing breakfast.

"Good morning," he greeted his father.

But to his surprise, his father didn't respond. "Father?" But still no answer. He approached his father, and his eyes widened when he saw the intense look on his father's face.

"Father?" This time, Leaden touched his shoulder. Tai almost jumped, he panicked as if he was asleep.

Once he saw Leaden, he relaxed. "Oh Leaden, you surprised me."

Leaden raised his eyebrows at that. He surprised him? To him, that was wrong on so many levels. Someone like Taiyang was surprised by someone like him. Leaden immediately knew something was wrong with his father.

"Are you okay?" He said with concern visible on his face. "It's not like you to be out of focus."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said, smiling. "It's just that Yang's and Ruby's initiation is today."

Leaden didn't believe him. There was something else that made his face intense like that. But for now, "Okay, if you say so," he went with it.

Leaden sat at the table, waiting for breakfast. He skipped breakfast yesterday, so that was his first breakfast with his father.

He smiled, but the way his father acted still lingered on his mind.

# # # #

Junior's was a nightclub located in the industrial district of Vale, and it wasn't a short walk. Of course, Leaden could have taken a taxi or a bus, but he liked to walk.

It was noon when Leaden arrived at his destination. There was something wrong with the place, but he couldn't put his fingers on it. Nevertheless, it was definitely the place.

The inside of the place was what he expected, but he was surprised when he found a lot of people there. He figured a nightclub would work only at night.

When he took another glance, however, he realized that the people there weren't enjoying their time, but actually working. 'Are they updating or rebuilding the place?'

He looked around, trying to find someone. Leaden's face brightened when he found the person he was looking for was already looking at him.

Miltia motioned for him to come. She then whispered something to a man who Leaden guessed was Junior. The man nodded towards him, and took his place behind the bar.

"Thank you," Leaden muttered when he passed Miltia. The girl didn't respond or give a reaction, but merely shrugged.

Leaden took his seat at one of the bar stools. Two men were beside him talking with each other. "How can I help you?" Junior asked.

"I don't drink alcohol, so orange juice, please," Leaden said with a smile.

"Very well." Junior proceeded to prepare the orange juice. Leaden wanted to take this chance and speak, but someone did first.

"Hey, right, Junior. What happened to the boy with the fake transcripts? Beacon's exam should be over by now, right? Did he die?"

Leaden was glad he didn't speak sooner, he was interested to hear what that was all about.

Junior put the orange juice in front of Leaden, and looked at the man asking the question. "Apparently, he passed."

"What?! Impossible! I can't even begin to imagine how lucky he must have been?!"

That was a shock to Leaden as well, even though he didn't show it. For Leaden, there was no way Professor Ozpin didn't know he was a fake.

'Ruby, and now this guy.' It wasn't a coincidence. Beacon was the most dangerous academy for a reason. The only academy where you could die at the initiation was Beacon.

It wasn't like that before. The Grimm weren't part of the exam. How did the students feel when, suddenly, they were taken off guard by the Grimm back then. Another thing was that no teacher no longer intervened, and it was up to the students how they were going to succeed in their task. Those two when changed resulted in death. A Grimm or student's own mistake, it didn't matter.

And the cause of that change was one person. Professor Ozpin. Leaden didn't know what to think of him. His mother mostly insulted the man, and he seemed absurd to him, but he felt something was missing. He didn't have the full picture.

Leaden began drinking the juice in silence until they finished talking. It wasn't long when Junior focused his attention on him "How can I help you?" The question this time didn't mean 'What do you want to drink?' but to ask him the reason why he was there.

Leaden took the final sip of his Orange juice, and looked at Junior. "Simple, I want to talk with Roman Torchwick."

"I can only inform him. It's up to him if he wants to," Junior answered. It was easy and fast thanks for Miltia explaining that he had a relation with Lil' Miss Malachite. He didn't waste his time explaining it himself.

"I can work with that," Leaden nodded, standing up, and left some money. He started to leave, but stopped when he saw Miltia. Not only her, but her sister as well. Melanie.

"Won't you introduce us?" Leaden said, approaching them.

Miltia kept silent.

"Who is this, Miltia? You know him?" Melanie asked with a bored expression.

'They are the same.'

"Just some creep associated with our mother."

"Mom?" Melanie turned to Leaden then with a smile, "Why is she calling you a creep?"

Leaden laughed, "Nothing at all. I just tried to dance with her. She didn't like it, apparently."

Melanie laughed, but her laugh was soft and elegant. "She is always like that." Miltia wasn't bothered the slightest, she continued to mind her own business. "So, what is your relation to mom?"

"We are doing each other a favor. She gave me info, and asked me to check if you two were okay in return," he said, smiling.

"How nice of her," Miltia commented.

But Melanie's response was a little different, "How nice of her! I miss her too," her face lightened up.

"How about giving me your scroll numbers? Just in case."

"Of course!"

"Whatever."

Leaden passed his scroll under theirs, and just like that, they exchanged scroll numbers.

"If you need anything from me, I'd be glad to help," he said, chuckling. "See you later, girls," he waved goodbye to them.

The twins waved back, well, Melanie did. Miltia just rolled her eyes.

# # # #

Leaden walked among the streets of Vale again. He kept his eyes open for a certain cat girl he might stumble upon.

You might ask, why didn't he ask Junior about Blake? Well, he had multiple reasons. First, he was sure that Junior didn't know anyway. Second, it was for the best to not tell him that the daughter of the former White Fang's leader abandoned the organization and was here in Vale.

That would put a lot of eyes on Blake, and might cause her to run if she found out her place was known. And that led to the third reason, Adam only entrusted him for this task, so Adam didn't want to make a fuss out of it. He probably didn't care much about this, and wanted to resolve it quietly if he could.

Leaden's walking came to a halt when he noticed a certain bookstore.

Tukson's Book Trade. 'Wasn't that the bookstore the worker mentioned?' Indeed, when Leaden asked the clothes store worker, he mentioned Tukson's.

"Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun," he read the store's sign. "Neat." He was impressed, and entered the bookstore.

The place was big for a bookstore, and was filled with all kinds of books. This made Leaden happy. Seeing all this books clean, and everything seemed to be in its supposed place.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun," a big man said behind the counter.

"How may I help you?" he said with a smile.

"I heard this place to be the best bookstore in Vale, and for a bookworm like myself, I had to check it out," Leaden said, not able to hide his enthusiasm.

"I'm sure whoever made that claim was exaggerating," Tukson laughed. "But I will be happy if you find what you are looking for."

Leaden smiled, "I'm not looking for anything in particular. Mind if I take a look around?"

"Sure, take your time," Tukson said. "I always appreciate people who have a taste in literature."

"Indeed." Leaden felt like he was at home.

He began checking out every corner of the store. The magazines were all up to date. For example, he found an Atlas magazine about weapons and new tech. It listed the new, and upcoming products of Atlas. He reminded himself to go shopping in Mistral some time.

He was mostly interested in Atlas' technology. Politics and public figures weren't a topic of interest to him, especially in Atlas.

Mistral's fashion and literature magazines were what Leaden read most. He was interested to know what books, movies, plays had the most talk and hype behind them.

Mistral even had a magazine about the infamous figures in the underworld. Criminals, Mafia bosses, thieves, and serial killers. Mistral maybe didn't profit from the crime like Vale did, but they surely did use them to a degree. That was what Leaden was interested in.

Vacuo wasn't open to the outside world. What happened in Vacuo literally stayed in Vacuo. The only thing known about them was chaos and wildness, and part of it was thanks to Atlas and Mistral. They were more civilized than today, but it was mostly because of the nature in Vacuo.

As for Vale, well, Beacon was the most talked-about and associated topic when it came to Vale. They had nothing else that may have interested Leaden.

The books were a different matter. The creative minds could be from all over Remnant. It was true that most of them came from Mistral, but it wasn't something exclusive to them. Anyone anywhere could write a good book. Fantasy, History, Adventure, and more were what made books entertaining for Leaden. He didn't prefer a specific genre. If he liked a book, it didn't matter what genre it was.

Leaden didn't feel the time pass as he took his time reading, and choosing what books to take.

It was nearly four pm when he was finished. 'I spent hours there!' He wasted his time, but he didn't regret any second of it. "Time to get back to work, I guess." He had business to do.

He got up on a random rooftop. He loved rooftops. Unlike alleys, Vale didn't monitor rooftops. He put the books down, and made sure the white fang mask was with him.

He used his semblance to bring a change of clothes. A black jeans, and a black hoodie. He wore the contact lenses, the mask, and now he was ready. He hoped for some action, but he knew better. Not like there wouldn't be anything, but the chance he would stumble upon something was low.

It was time to play the hero.

# # # #

It was past six pm, and like Leaden guessed, nothing happened. He was patrolling from the rooftops. He couldn't, of course, walk around with the White Fang mask. He wanted his presence to be known, but at the right time.

He at least enjoyed the city from where he was. The shattered moon too was a sight, but he was used to it. Didn't mean he didn't appreciate it.

It was nearing seven pm, and Leaden considered continuing tomorrow. That was until he heard noise coming from an alley. He went to check it out.

From his position on the rooftop, he could see 2 guys surrounding a woman with a little kid.

"You shouldn't have come here, you fucking animals!" one of the guys shouted.

The woman stood up defensively, hiding her child behind her. "Please, leave us alone," she said, her voice shaking. "We didn't do anything."

"Your kind has done enough."

The guys weren't planning to do anything, they wanted to scare her off. They actually couldn't even if they wanted to. Vale had some form of order to protect the faunus.

But it still wasn't enough. "That's enough," Leaden landed between the guys and the woman. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"White fang?! What a fucking white fang doing here?!"

"Don't know, and don't care. We just have to beat the shit out of this terrorist, and do the people a favor."

It was funny. The guys bullying a helpless woman and a child were trying to act like good people now. But Leaden didn't laugh, he was used to this. People were complex beings, he couldn't judge others when he himself was an example of that.

The two attacked him at the same time, and Leaden caught their fists with ease. The two guys widened their eyes in disbelief.

"Now, do you want me to break your arms or run like the good people you are?" he whispered to them, smiling.

When Leaden released their hands, they stood there dumbfounded for a couple of seconds. When the first guy started to run, the second followed him.

"We are calling the police!"

And they were gone. Leaden turned around to see the woman and the kid, only to notice that her defensive stance didn't drop. They shared dog ears as their trait.

"It's okay now," he said, approaching. "They are gone."

"Stay away from us! It's because of you that this is happening!"

Leaden stopped in his tracks. Not all the faunus supported the White Fang. It was to be expected. "What do you mean because of us, lady? I just saved you."

If the woman was angry before, she was furious now. "Saved me?! They weren't going to do anything! But if you people started showing up here, they might hate us more and be more aggressive!"

Leaden didn't know what to say. He knew the woman had a point, but on the other hand, it shouldn't continue like this. Things needed to change.

"The White Fang's sole purpose is to prevent exactly that. They are trying to bring equality. Why do you have to live like this? You deserve better." Leaden tried to get through to the woman.

"How killing innocent people, women, and kids is going to bring equality?! This hatred will only cause more harm."

The White Fang aimed for anyone related to the SDC and the slave trade, anyone literally. That didn't mean they killed the innocent intentionally, no, for example, the SDC train that they aimed for at the forever fall had important goods that if destroyed, would cause a problem to them. The problem was that the train didn't only contain these goods, but also some people working at the company, and their families.

They wouldn't care, or the correct wording would be, they wouldn't let that stop them. But Leaden still didn't think it was worse than what they were suffering. It was still horrible, but for him, Humans did exactly the same, and the slave trade and the SDC were proof of that. One's action was brought up to the light, and the other wasn't. To Leaden, it was an equal force.

But yet, "That isn't true. The media is lying to you. The White Fang might use violence, but they didn't target or kill innocent people." The task that Adam gave him had priority now.

"My husband died for us to come to Vale, and I won't let anyone ruin this opportunity," the woman scowled, took her kid's hand, and turned to leave. "You are brainwashed," she said, leaving Leaden in the alley.

Faunus escaped Mistral and Atlas to Vale. This daily bullying was nothing for her compared to Atlas and Mistral. The people wouldn't stop at simply bullying there. It was crazy how faunus considered this lifestyle where being harassed was safe, but on the other hand, was completely understandable. That was another reason why Adam hated being in Vale. He hated seeing faunus accepting this kind of treatment, and their excuse was that it was better here.

'Well, Adam said they didn't have to believe me,' he sighed.

# # # #

Leaden changed back to his previous clothes, and was now carrying a bag filled with the books he bought. He was walking back home.

It was a long day, and he wanted nothing more than to relax on his bed and read a book or two.

That's when he heard a beep sound coming from his scroll.

'A message?'

Indeed it was a message, sent by Ruby from all people. He opened the chat group to see it.

Ruby: We passed!

Ruby: And we are on the same team! Can you believe it!!

Ruby: Also! I'm the team leader of TEAM RWBY!!!

Leaden couldn't suppress his smile, he knew they could do it, but still it made him happy.

'Team RWBY? How convenient,' he laughed.

Now, if he could only find the cat girl, his day would be through the roof.