Chapter 6: Born Guilty of the Crime
Blake wasn't sure if she'd been the High Leader of the White Fang for one hour or two, but she was already overwhelmed. She desperately wanted to be back at her cabin with Yang, her garden, and seemingly no care in the world. But most of all she wanted to go to bed. She didn't know if it was very late or very early, but unfortunately, that didn't matter. There was too much she needed to do.
Blake was standing in front of a table in what had once been the manager's office in the very same warehouse where she'd defeated Sienna. It turned out that the warehouse was not only a convenient gathering place for the White Fang but also Sienna's headquarters here in Atlas.
Yang was in the office with Blake as well, albeit still in bird form. Fortunately, she seemed to have figured out on her own that there would be disastrous consequences if Blake was caught with a human in a White Fang stronghold. She was perched up high on the opposite wall from Blake, on top of an old, rusty speaker that had likely once been part of a PA system.
A huge collection of file folders was strewn out in front of Blake on the table, all of which she'd dug out of various filing cabinets in the office. The files had been Sienna's. But much like everything else that belonged to the White Fang's High Leader, they were now Blake's.
Blake still had her mask on, and underneath it her eyes were flicking back and forth as she read yet another document. When she came to the end of the page, she slammed the folder it was in shut and slid it away in disgust. It would take months for her to untangle all the details, but one thing was abundantly clear. Sienna had not been bluffing. She had been preparing for an attack, several in fact. As much as Blake was furious with Ilia for putting her through this ordeal, Ilia had probably saved a lot of human and faunus lives. But Blake knew that her being in charge of the White Fang now wouldn't magically undo everything Sienna had done. A plan as big as Sienna's would require a lot of preparation. Things must have already been in motion, and Blake didn't fully know yet what they were. That was why she was obsessively pouring over Sienna's files. She only hoped she wasn't too late.
Blake stood up straight, but her shoulders sagged under the weight of the responsibility she felt. She glanced up at Yang and said, "This is a nightmare."
Yang looked like she was about to hop down from her perch when a loud knock came from the office's door. Blake practically jumped out of her skin in alarm, but she quickly composed herself. She turned toward the door and curtly asked, "What is it?"
The door opened, and a guard dressed in ceremonial armor partially stepped into the room. He said, "Apologies, High Leader. But there's someone here who insists on speaking with you."
Behind her mask, Blake scowled. She said, "If it's Ilia, tell her—"
A man's head suddenly popped into view from around the side of the door frame. He said, "It's not, actually. Just me."
The guard glared, clearly annoyed by the man, but then he looked at Blake.
Blake realized she was being asked what she wanted. She sighed and said, "Let him in."
The guard thumped his chest with his fist to salute Blake. Then he stepped aside.
The man strolled into the room, closing the door behind him. He didn't seem to care that he had practically shut it in the guard's face. The man was tall and lean, and he had dark scales covering his arms and face. Several of the scales on his chin and brow even protruded like spines. He was obviously a faunus, but he wasn't wearing a grimm mask or anything resembling a White Fang uniform, just a green-colored tunic and dark slacks.
The man said, "I guess I should introduce myself. My name's—"
"I know who you are, Ryn," Blake said. And it was true, although only just. She knew Ryn's name and that he was an informant who Ilia had used at least once, but beyond that he was a mystery to her. Still, there was no reason he needed to know that.
"Okay then," Ryn said with a shrug. "No time for small talk I see."
"Not at this hour," Blake said impatiently. "What do you want?"
"I'm just here to make a good first impression on the new boss," Ryn said.
"And you decided that couldn't wait until tomorrow?" Blake asked.
"Hey. Early bird and all that," Ryn said. "Once everyone else gets over the shock of what happened, they'll be lining up to schmooze with you. So do you want to hear my pitch?"
"Your pitch for what?" Blake asked.
"For what I can do for you, Boss," Ryn said with a smarmy grin.
Blake responded by crossing her arms.
"Ooh. Tough crowd. Well here it goes anyway," Ryn said. He started pacing around the table, and his eyes slithered over to all the folders lying about as if he could somehow siphon the information they contained out of them. "I'm what you'd call a professional listener. You see, the only thing people love more than to gossip, is to have someone to gossip to. That's me. I'm easy to talk to. And I soak up all that juicy gossip like a sponge."
"And you're willing to share everything with me, just like that?" Blake asked.
"Hey. You made it very clear tonight who's in charge around here," Ryn said. He stopped pacing, and he glanced up at Yang. Yang's eyes were locked onto him like he was her prey, and Ryn had clearly noticed. He swayed back and forth a few times like someone at an art gallery testing to see if one of the paintings' eyes were following them. Yang's gaze did not waver.
Blake asked, "What do you really want for all this free gossip?"
Ryn turned away from Yang and back to Blake. He asked, "Why would I want anything? Us White Fang brothers and sisters are all in this together, right? Although I wouldn't say no to some cushy job. The arrangement works best if I've got some 'official' reason to be reporting to you anyway. Has the, ahem, position of High Leader's Consort been filled yet? Or did Ilia call dibs?"
Yang let out a loud screech. The sound was especially piercing in the relatively small space.
Ryn's head turned back toward Yang. He stared at her for a few seconds. Yang stared back.
Ryn asked Blake, "Why do I feel like your bird is judging me?"
"Because she is," Blake said.
"Creepy…" Ryn said. But then he looked away from Yang again. "So what do you say? To the gossip thing. Not the consort thing."
"I'll think about it," Blake said.
"Fair enough. But I'll give you a little freebie," Ryn said. He reached out and flipped open one of the folders on the table. A photo of Weiss was sitting on top of the documents inside.
"You might want to explain why you were hanging out with a Schnee," Ryn said. "Not to me. I don't care. But a lot of people will."
Blake felt her blood run cold. Why did Sienna have a photo of Weiss? Had she been planning another attack since the kidnapping had failed? Blake wanted to scramble over to the folder, but she didn't dare with Ryn in the room.
"Welp. Good night, Boss," Ryn said. And with that, he sauntered over to the door and let himself out.
As soon as Blake heard the door click shut, she rushed over to the folder. She frantically flipped through the documents inside, but to her relief, they were all about the failed kidnapping she herself had masterminded. It was not about some new operation.
With an exhausted sigh, Blake shut the folder. She stood there for a moment, swaying wearily on her feet. But then she straightened up again and walked over to the door. She opened it up. The guard on the other side saluted her again. He asked, "High Leader?"
"No more visitors tonight. I'll be addressing the assembled brothers and sisters tomorrow," Blake said. "In the meantime, get the word out that I want any ongoing operations put on hold."
"Yes, High leader," the guard said.
Blake glanced down at the man's belt where there was an empty loop obviously meant to hold a weapon. She said, "Also tell your fellow guards you can arm yourselves again. I'm not Sienna."
"Yes, High Leader," the guard said, more cautiously this time.
Satisfied she'd done all she could for now, Blake shut the door.
Blake walked back over to the table. She stared at it, but her eyes didn't really take anything in. There was so much more she needed to uncover about what Sienna had been up to, but it was getting difficult for her to stay awake.
Yang finally leaped off her perch. She landed behind Blake and transformed back into a human. Yang placed her hands on Blake's shoulders, and Blake felt a much-needed calm radiate out from them. Then Yang began to kneed and squeeze the tension out of her. Blake practically melted. She leaned back into Yang for support.
Yang said, "Big day, huh?"
"Yeah," Blake absently agreed. "Why did I kill her? I just wanted to talk."
"I saw her, Blake," Yang said. "Talking wasn't going to fix anything."
"We don't know that," Blake said.
"I do," Yang said.
Yang's massaging stopped. She slowly spun Blake around until they were facing each other. She very firmly said, "This is not your fault. This is…. This is Sienna's fault."
If Blake was to guess, she would've said Yang's conspicuous pause had been because she'd been about to blame Ilia instead of Sienna. Blake wasn't sure if she would've agreed with Yang or gotten angry at her for the accusation.
Yang reached for Blake's mask, and suddenly Blake felt all the tension that Yang had chased away grip her again. She flinched and backed up slightly.
"Hey. It's just me," Yang said.
Blake quickly removed her mask herself before Yang could reach for it again and set it down on the table. She hastily thought of an excuse and said, "Sorry. I'm just tired."
"You look tired," Yang said. "My motorcycle's close by. Want me to drive us home?"
As lovely as being back home sounded to Blake, she knew she needed to be here. The cabin was hours away anyway, even given how Yang typically drove. Fortunately, Blake had an alternative. She said, "Sienna would've had some personal quarters here."
Blake glanced around and spotted another door at the back of the office. She pointed and said, "I bet they're through there."
Yang nodded her head in the direction of the second door, signaling that she and Blake should check it out. She walked over to the door, and Blake followed close behind. Once they got there, Yang grabbed the knob and pulled the door open.
Blake might have been exhausted, but she still had the emotional bandwidth to be taken aback by what she saw. The tiny room was dominated by a large bed with a wrought iron frame and red satin sheets. There were dozens of unlit candles lining small shelves that were mounted on the walls. Red drapes hung on the walls too, strategically placed so the candles wouldn't light them on fire. A shaggy carpet that looked like it would be nice and soft on bare feet lay on the floor, completing the décor. Quite frankly, to Blake's eye, the room looked like it belonged in a fancy brothel.
Yang said, "No question how Sienna blew off steam."
"Yeah…" Blake said.
"We'll worry about that later. You look like you're about to collapse," Yang said, walking back over to Blake. She grabbed Blake's hand and led her toward the bed.
Blake sat down on the mattress under Yang's guidance. As soon as she was off her feet, exhaustion really took hold of her. Her eyelids drooped. She felt Yang unbuckling her boots, and once Yang had pulled the boots off, Blake practically collapsed onto the bed and wearily pulled her legs up onto the mattress.
Blake almost fell asleep instantly, but she was startled back awake when Yang started untying the outer tunic of her White Fang robes. As soon as Yang had finished unfastening Blake's tunic, she slipped it off of her and tossed it aside. Then she removed her own jacket, scarf, and boots and crawled into bed with Blake.
Blake let out a quiet sigh as she felt Yang pull her on top. She snuggled in closer, enjoying the comforting warmth radiating from Yang beneath her. But unfortunately, her anxiety refused to let her go completely. She muttered, "Weiss and Ruby."
"What?" Yang asked.
"We've got to tell…Weiss and Ruby…what happened…" Blake said.
"We will," Yang said. "Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow…" Blake mumbled. Then she fell fast asleep.
Author's Note: Ryn is a quasi-canon character that briefly appeared in Blake's Volume 5 character short. I say "quasi-canon" because I've given him everything from a name to a personality. He appeared in one chapter of my original story, never to return again. Or so I thought!
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