The big chapter 80. Just twenty more chapters to go until we hit the triple digits! Man, I can't believe this story has turned out just about 3 times longer than I originally planned. But meh, I am having a blast with this story! Now let us move on to this next well-awaited part. Here we go!

Beta: CrowSkull

CoverArt: Nova

The Blind Huntsman

Chapter 80

Volume 2, Episode 21

Ozpin rubbed his fingers into his temples and wondered what he should do. And not for the first time. Countless times throughout his very long life span has a deciding moment been brought to his attention, a moment in which he had to make a difficult choice. This matter was no different. Kai Matsuoka was the wanted criminal-vigilante that the council and Atlesian military were looking for. It just had to be him, didn't it? He had his own suspicions after looking at the saved data of his whereabouts tracked by his scroll, but those suspicions were just that. How the boy was somehow about to- No, not somehow. As he thought about it now it made sense that Raven would help the boy. For reasons, he still cannot find it within himself to figure out why his old student and last remaining female member of Team STRQ would align herself with a young man like him, but her semblance was the only way he could be able to get in Vale and back to Beacon so impossibly quickly.

And that Qrow Branwen, one of his most trusted allies, to have known about this beforehand? That was another surprise in itself. He knew he should have been paying more attention. Qrow becoming enamored with Marron Matsuoka was bound to cause loyalty issues. He always sided with family over anything else, even when it considered Raven at certain times. He wasn't in any criminal trouble - he saw to that himself - but Qrow now had an even bigger target on his back. To make things worse, Kai's partner Blake was also taken to Ironwood's flagship, and he had the mind to believe that she had gotten lucky with how she was asked to come to the shop rather than being forced too by being arrested. If that soldier were like the ones that he had heard all those terrible news about, then a problem was bound to arise. James certainly picked his commanders wisely.

Now came the immediate issue that he had to drop everything in order to attend. Glynda would be overwhelmed with work again, but he knew that she could manage it if she allowed herself to ask Doctor Oobleck or even Professor Port to help. But again even with that in mind, Ozpin couldn't help but sigh again.

Truly, the Matsuokas have been both his bane and his blessing. Every generation of them had their own complications. In truth, Kai's "sins" couldn't be compared to those of his ancestors. He supposed that he should be grateful that he was doing it for purely selfless reasons, or at least that was what he hoped beyond hope for.

"I have made sure that every soldier has been sworn to secrecy on the matter at hand," Ironwood told him as he stood before his desk. Tired bags underneath his eyes telling him that he has had very little rest throughout the night. "And the memory units of the Atlesian Knights have been wiped as of last night. Consider it a mandatory factory reset. Although I cannot guarantee that my soldiers won't gossip amongst themselves, I can guarantee that the knowledge of the identity of the man behind the mask of Stone Face is not revealed to the public. We don't know what the knowledge may do to the standing of Beacon and yourself if it became known among the masses."

"Thank you, James, truly," Ozpin said as he took his hands away from his head and set them on the desk. "What has happened last night cannot be revealed to the public. Kai Matsuoka as ill as he is is still practically a celebrity in the eyes of Remnant all across the world. His status is on par with Pyrrha Niko's. If word got out that he was Stone Face the entire time, it will bring unneeded negativity. We've already delayed the Vytal Festival once, we will not be able to delay it again."

"I may be able to eke out another a day or two," Ironwood proposed. "I have been appointed the head of security, after all. I could make the excuse that my men need more time to secure Amity and bolster security. But days is all I'd be able to muster up for you, perhaps even less considering what the council may think of that."

"After the tragic event of the breach, you'd think that the council would be more willing, at least for the sake of safety for the people," Ozpin said in a low groan. "They say that in this time of great peril, we must bring more positivity to the world. As such, the festival cannot be delayed any longer. It will start in just under a month's time. That is how long you have to secure Amity and search for Cinder and her commanders that are hiding somewhere in Vale."

"Understood," Ironwood accepted the near-impossible task with a grateful nod. "What of the fall maiden? Amber does not have much time left, I suspect that she will die before the festival begins, if not in the first round of the tournament perhaps. We will need to transfer her power to another by then."

"I have my plans," Ozpin said with a gentle nod. "The Nikos girl is a prime young woman to inherit the power, for instance, as are many others that I have been thinking of. But there is one I want to speak to more on the matter before that."

Ironwood seemed to know who this mystery woman was, and even while exhausted from a lack of sleep, he still had the strength scowl at Beacon's ancient headmaster. "I still reserve my right to veto that idiotic choice of yours, Ozpin. We can't trust her, and she is nearly at the age where she cannot become the maiden anyway. I may have been more forthcoming to try it with Glynda… but her? Ozpin, I know you're desperate - I am too - but we can't trust a woman like her with power like this."

"In desperate times two sides of a three-sided war could find each other in a very unlikely alliance, despite tense past happenings and previous wars," Ozpin said cryptically. "I promise you that I will allow you to be present in our next talk, but my decision will be final once I make it. Now, however, we have a bigger matter on our hands. Our silver-eyed warrior has seemed to have gotten himself in a bit of trouble, notify his team, family, and Glynda and Albedo about what happened. I expect that they will all need to know this, and what will happen next as well."

Ironwood nodded his head tiredly. It was going to be regretable, surely. But the young man had brought this upon himself and forced their hand. The time for choice has long past.

"Very well, I will prepare my private Bullhead to bring us there. Shall we leave now?"

"Yes," Ozpin said as he stood up from his seat, bringing nothing but his cane with him, he moved toward Ironwood. "Let's go."

Kai winced as the thick metallic cuffs that weighed down his hand's bit into the skin on his wrists. The chains attached to the end of them didn't make it any easier to move around. He supposed that it was a security precaution just in case he tried to escape, but he thought that it was mostly because his semblance was so powerful and deadly when used with the intent to kill. It didn't make the pain go away, however. It still hurt like a bitch. He didn't have room to complain, however, and he's been desperately trying to keep quiet as Blake was in the cell beside his. She wasn't locked up, and the cell on her end wasn't even closed, but he could still sense her in that adjacent cell. Shifting uncomfortably as her mind darting all over the place thinking about how this could have happened. It made him feel bad, even worse than before, as he thought about what he had done. He didn't really do it before, think about the people that he has hurt and the things that he has done with the goal of thwarting the White Fang. He only really thought about it the first time he killed a person, which now felt like forever ago. Had he really changed that much? Before he could hardly stand the thought of killing a person and was destroyed by being forced to do so on his first-ever night out as Stone Face. But the pain lasted a very short amount of time. Maybe he was ill in some way or another, or maybe everyone had the potential to do what he did, they just needed to be put in that kind of situation first.

That didn't make the guilt go away. Blake got involved, and now she knew. Qrow got involved, and he was arrested right alongside him. He wanted to call Raven so she could get him out of there and probably would bring him to the tribe if he asked for it, but he didn't want her to get into any trouble by helping him either. She was already on Ozpin's blacklist because of her leaving Team STRQ and abandoning Yang, even if her reasons were still unknown and potentially valid. If she helped him escape with her to Mistral, there was no way Ozpin was just going to stand by and let him live with bandits. Not to mention that his family and all of his friends, including his fellow silver-eyed warrior, Ruby, were all living in Beacon. He wouldn't be able to sleep comfortably knowing that he left them all there alone.

No, no, he had to stop himself from thinking about that. The more he thought about it the more he wanted to get out of that cell so that he could go back out and stop Cinder and the White Fang. That way of thinking was what got him and two people he cared about caught and sent to a flying maximum-security prison run by the most advanced military on the planet.

With a grimace, Kai stopped struggling and hung his head, just waiting for the headmaster and General to come to speak to him along with Ozpin. Was this it? Was everything he ever worked for since he came to Beacon just lost now? What was next for him after this? What was going to happen to Qrow and Blake? He didn't know and that horrified him. The thought of Blake getting into trouble because of him didn't make him feel like this was something that he could get himself out of.

"Kai…?" Blake called to him from the adjacent cell. Kai flinched just by hearing her voice. "Are you there?"

"Y-yes…" He stammered, already not liking the tone that she was speaking to him in. "I'm here… what is it?"

"Please… tell me the truth when I ask you this question. No lies, no deceit, just the truth. It doesn't matter if I won't like it, I just want to hear it." The way she phrased it made it not sound like a question, but a statement. There really was not more lying out of anything. He was already arrested! Kai gulped nervously and shook his head from within his cell, already knowing what Blake was going to ask before she even said it.

"Yeah… I'll be honest." He said, sealing his fate.

"Why…?" Blake asked. "Why did you become Stone Face? What was your goal? Why did you feel like you needed to do all of that… you were at the docks, right? Were you planning that the entire time!? I-I just need to know, Kai… I need to know what was going through your head every time we asked you why you looked so tired and hurt. I need to know if it is still possible to save you."

"I-I…" Kai wasn't ready to listen to all of that, it just made his heart drop even further down into his chest. He stuttered and stammered at first, but quickly caught himself. Blake deserved to know the truth after being dragged all the way here, she deserved to know everything. She was his partner, and he'd betrayed her trust and lied to her face. "I did it because I wanted to stop Cinder," He began. "I was angry… very angry, because of what she did. She killed my father, she hurt my friends and she was the reason my childhood ended in a very disgusting way. I wanted to hurt her and everyone who was involved with her." Saying it out loud made him feel like he was some kind of vengeful lunatic. Maybe he was. "When you guys told me I couldn't come to the docks to help you… it just made it worse. I didn't want you guys to get hurt - which you did anyway, but I wanted to stop that. So I came as Stone Face… Every time you asked me how I felt, if I was okay, or if you could help me I… I'm sorry I lied to you." Kai practically sobbed. But he caught himself before any tears could come forth. "I just wanted to protect everyone I cared about… I felt like I needed to, I decided that if I put the focus all on myself and Stone Face, that Cinder would be too busy focusing on me that you guys would all be okay. Obviously… that didn't really work out very well."

"Kai," Blake interrupted him before he could continue. "I understand what you mean… in some weird way, I thought similarly when I left the White Fang. But Kai… you do understand that I used to work with Cinder, right?"

"That's different!" Kai proclaimed. "You left the White Fang and it wasn't like you helped kill my dad, you're-"

"You don't know anything, Kai!" Blake screamed suddenly, cutting off Kai violently. "I used to be pretty much the same rank as Adam. And I worked with him directly with Cinder, I helped plan the attack on Mistral. Only I didn't expect how chaotic it would become, I knew that it could very easily escalate. I-I'm… not as good as you believe me to be… does that mean that I am on that list of people you want to hurt?"

"Blake, don't be ridiculous," Kai said with a bitter and angry chuckle. "Despite what you've done, you haven't hurt anyone that I care about. Frankly, I don't care what you've done in the past because you're a much better person now, and you are important to me. Yes, I know that you fought Qrow with some other girl, lost, but then you saved my life. My mother's life and you gave me the time I needed to recover so I could use my eyes again to almost kill Cinder."

"It matters to me, Kai." Blake continued. "I am grateful that you look past what I have done, but I think you are still trapped in yours."

"What do you mean?" Kai asked, beginning to lose his temper. Not at Blake, but with everything that has happened, he was starting to finally snap. "How could you say that?"

"Look at yourself!" Blake shouted, banging on the cell wall between them. "If you could look at your own body, you'd see just how exhausted and tired and marred you are! There's a difference between you and me, Kai, you've become obsessed with what happened in the past and getting back at the ones who hurt you is all you think about, I am not telling you to not hate Cinder for what she did because believe me, I do too - and for plenty of other reasons to go with it. But you've let that hate consume you, change you. I can count the number of times you've spent more than an hour with the people you call your friends on one hand throughout this entire year!"

"W-what?" Kai stammered, suddenly losing that spark of anger he had in his mind.

"Think about it Kai, we have to chase you in order for you to hang out with your own team. You are quiet at the lunch table and you barely talk to us in classes. Everyone is worried about you in some way, and you've haven't talked to Orchid about what happened at the dance! Did you forget that she has a crush on you do you just not care!?"

"W-wait…" Kai tried, but he was so pathetically quiet that Blake didn't even hear his plea.

"And that's not even mentioning your savage tendency to over train." Blake went on. "You're already as strong as a huntsman, why do you need to keep going? You're hurting yourself more than you are strengthening your body but you just don't stop! If you could see I wish you would notice the sad looks that Ruby and Orchid give you every time you leave the room to go train. You're barely eighteen years old, and you are living like your twice that age. What do you think would have happened if you got hurt? Or worse, get yourself killed!? We would have been devasted and felt so stupid that we couldn't figure out the pain that you must be going through that enabled you enough to put on that stupid mask. Just… ugh, Kai, what were you thinking!?"

"I just wanted to make a difference!"

"You're young, strong, and desperate to protect anything and everything you care about. Strong sense of justice and of right and wrong, and actually willing to go out there and make a change unlike ninety-nine percent of all the other huntsmen in training there in Beacon."

The memory of what Roman said made him stop himself before he could continue. Roman was right in what he said, especially when he called him desperate. Kai was desperate, he was willing to do so much if it meant protecting the ones he loved and cared for. Even now, if he had the choice, he would happily surrender himself if it meant that Blake would be able to walk away safely with no trouble.

Blake seemed to have stopped as well, exhausted from her own outburst, she simply sat in her cell, thinking strongly to herself as Kai leaned against the back wall of the cell. Of course, the tense silence didn't last long, for Blake had one more question that had Kai feeling his entire body freeze up.

"How many people of you killed with that in mind?" She asked, sounding almost bored.

Kai gave it some thought. He never kept count. He really only remembers a few. "A few dozen, maybe." He said flatly. "I never kept count, but combined with everyone at that warehouse that we planned to raid with the others, the true number is probably a lot higher."

"I see…" Blake's sigh was akin to that of a choked sob. But Kai didn't point it out in fear of her only getting worse. "That's… unfortunate."

"Yeah…" Neither of them spoke for what felt like an eternity as they both sat in their adjacent cells in silence for the next half-hour. Kai's dulled senses felt everything around him at all times, but at the same time they picked up nothing. All he could do was think, think on everything that he had done. Regret built up within him, if he did things differently, trusted more people, actually pay more attention to his friends and the people around him. Maybe he wouldn't have been in that situation now. Maybe he wouldn't have messed up so badly… he was just so tired. He just wanted to fall asleep and wake up in the past, where things weren't nearly as exhausting as they were now. To be able to wake up and be happy again for no particular reason was a very enticing thought, to a time where he was just a blind kid with a blind dream.

"Are you two done now?" Qrow asked as he stepped in front of their cells. No cuffs or restraints to be seen. "I didn't want to interrupt that well-needed talk you two needed to have, and by the looks on your faces, I am guessing that the two of you are done for now."

"Qrow?" Kai perked up at him, shocked to witness that the man wasn't locked in a cell. "How are you here? Why aren't you in a cell-like I am?"

"Ozpin and Ironwood pulled a few favors for me," Qrow said as he unlocked Kai's cell door, and beckoned Blake to leave hers. "Just like they did for you. As far as the public will know, the explosion was simply another terror attack, and Stone Face is still missing from action, presumably retired."

"What!?" Blake asked, just as shocked as he was to hear the news. "But how!? How is this possible? No man could have that kind of power and pull!"

"That's Ozpin and Ironwood for ya," Qrow shrugged. "Between just the two of them, they hold three seats on the council throughout two of the four kingdoms. But that doesn't particularly mean that you are getting out of anything, Kai. They want to speak with you, and they sent me to pick you two up."

"I… don't understand," Kai said after swallowing nervously. "They are just… ignoring what happened?"

Qrow threw his head back and laughed a very fake laugh. "Fuck no, kid. You're in a world of shit for everything that you've done. Believe me, you and I aren't getting away with anything. I'd be surprised if you're even able to set a foot back into Beacon again without something or someone to keep track of you at all times."

"Oh…" Kai hung his head and shook his head, berating himself for being so stupid. "I see. I should have expected that."

"You should've," Qrow agreed, then turned to Blake. "I said that you are coming with us, but you're not going to be listening to what we say to Kai. More of that secret stuff that your ears shouldn't be hearing. You're gonna stay in another separate room, and Glynda will come out and tell you what's going to be happening, and I'm warning you now, no little dirty tricks, no eavesdropping somehow, and no moving from the spot I take you to. Ironwood wants you to know that while you weren't placed under arrest, that can very easily change."

"I-I understand," Blake said, already intimidated by Qrows angered glare. "I won't try anything. I swear."

"You better honor that swear, then." Qrow placed a hand on Kai's shoulder and gripped him tightly. "C'mon kids, the faster we get this done the faster I can get to sleep. This day just never ends, I swear."

The walk through the ship was another tense one. It has been a long time since Kai was on a ship like this, the last one being on the way to Mistral for the previous Vytal Festival three years ago. His senses were going haywire all over the place, sensing every bit of machinery, person, and activities happening all at the same time. If Qrow didn't have his hand on his shoulder, he feared that he would have gotten easily lost on the way to where Ozpin and Ironwood wanted to meet him. His nervousness made it even harder for him to keep his cool, he suddenly felt so young and small in a world that was meant for just adults. He felt the stares that he got from the soldiers and Specialists that they passed by, all glaring at him. Still being dressed in his Stone Face guise didn't make it any easier either. He started to sweat because of how intense the atmosphere was, and that wasn't even the start of it. When Qrow escorted him into the room and left Blake in one down the hall, he felt several pairs of eyes stare at him. All ranging from various degrees of disappointment.

"Little Kai," Albedo, his old headmaster from Signal, sighed upon seeing him. "You certainly are full of surprises, and not all of them pleasing to the ear."

"What were you thinking!?" Goodwitch immediately berated him. "What you have been doing and done is beyond reckless and not befitting of a huntsman in training such as yourself! You are-"

"Glynda, please," Ozpin held a hand up, stopping the woman from going any further with her aberrations as he kept his gaze locked onto Kai's form. "And get those cuffs off of him, I trust that Kai Matsuoka will not even attempt to harm us. Isn't that right?"

"Y-yes." Kai nodded his head.

"Good," Ozpin looked to the General, who nodded back and proceeded to move forward and unlock Kai's handcuffs with a swipe of his scroll. The bulky piece of metal hand restraints fell to the ground with a metallic clang, and Kai immediately rubbed his wrists. Easing the circulation of blood back into them as no constraints constricted his veins.

"Take a seat, Matsuoka," The General gestured to an open seat, conveniently placed near the farthest wall away from the exit.

Kai listened without a hitch. Moving toward the seat and falling into it, his nervousness skyrocketed even further as he realized just how alone he was in reality when faced against so many powerful figures. James Ironwood, General of the Atlesian Military and headmaster of Atlas academy. Albedo, the headmaster of Signal, and with just one look into his eyes he could invade your every privacy. Glynda Goodwitch esteemed huntress and deputy headmistress of Beacon Academy, and then there was, of course, Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon, and with presumably dozens of other titles to go to his name as well.

And there he was, just a single young man who went in a little too far into his head. Sitting down feeling each of their glares on his body. Qrow was in the room as well, but he leaned against the far wall silently. He would offer him no help here.

"I'm curious, Mister Matsuoka," Ozpin began after a few tense moments of silence. "Curious as to why such an intelligent and adaptable young man such as yourself would waste all your work and training into such an unlawful, reckless, and dangerous endeavor. However, I won't ask why you did this. I already know the answer to that question. You are much like your father when he was your age, except much more aggressive with your tactics."

"However, that will not save you from what needs to happen. I am telling you this right now if you weren't a silver-eyed warrior and someone of great importance to me and this war, I would have you expelled from Beacon effective immediately and hand you off to James here to undergo a criminal trial. Luckily for you, however, that will not be happening."

"We have spoken about many possible punishments we can dish out against you," Albedo said, not sounding nearly as excitable as he usually was. "We can place a tracking bracelet on you, in your scroll, or in your body. Along with official eyes, you wouldn't be able to go anywhere without all of us knowing. In the end, however, instead of punishing you in ways we know won't probably work to actually get you to stop anything, we've elected for a far more brutal punishment. One that even you will pale at the thought of."

"Your family and teammates have been notified about what happened," Glynda went on from there.

"What!?" Just as Albedo said, the idea of his friends and family finding out about what he did made him sick to his stomach. He felt the blood drain away from his face.

"And, they will be brought here on the morrow so that they may speak to you themselves." The deputy added, uncaring for his terrified expression. "That should be a sufficient enough punishment, one that will have even you kept in line for a conceivable amount of time. Of course, that will not be all. Every day and night you will report into either myself or Ozpin as a sort of check-up routine. That is so we know where you are and what could possibly be going through your head. Because obviously, we cannot simply pretend that you are not mentally ill."

"I'm not crazy!" Kai proclaimed desperately. "I'm not insane! I knew what I was doing the entire time!"

"We didn't say you were," Ozpin continued. "However, there is no denying that you have a case of PTSD at the very least. Furthermore, although I will not be expelling you from Beacon, you will not be returning as the leader of Team KRBR anytime soon."

"Allow me to explain," Ironwood interjected. "Luckily for you, your strength, skills, and raw power of your semblance and silver eyes enable us to still have use for you. Instead of being a student of Beacon, you will be confidentially registered as a huntsman of Beacon. That way, we will have more freedom legally when it comes to sending you on missions. Do not mistake my words, Matsuoka, you are only achieving your title of huntsman as a title. Not out of merit or graduation, but out of necessity."

"You can't!" Kai exclaimed. "My friends, my family, they are all in Beacon! I have to-"

"You will see them again," Ozpin said. "And you will continue to many times over. However, as of right now you are on a training mission. And as such, I will not be returning to Beacon officially anytime soon, and when you do, it will be under tight supervision. Your teammates have also been ordered to secrecy so that this will not get out, and they will receive punishment if they break their promise. What punishment it will be, however, is completely up to them and if they wish to keep their word."

Kai clicked his mouth shut and dropped his head into his hands. He wanted to cry, but he bit the ugly tears back. Everything was falling apart… Would he even still have friends after this? What would his teammates think? What are they thinking right now? And his family, his mother, and his sister must be devastated! Oh, Gods…

"Pick your head up, young man," Ironwood snapped. "You are lucky you aren't in prison after all those stunts you pulled. We all had to make sacrifices in order to ensure that you remained free! Believe me, you should consider this as a reward-"

"Hey!" Qrow barked, pushing Ironwood away from Kai as he pushed his metal finger into his hair. "That's enough James, back off! The kid knows he fucked up alright? Just look at him and tell me that this is someone who doesn't know that."

"And you," Ironwood growled. "You're lucky you're such good friends with Ozpin or else you would be in prison. I warned you from the beginning Qrow, the moment you fell for Marron that was the moment you became compromised!"

"It's not like I planned that James!" Qrow snapped back.

"It doesn't matter if you planned it or not, your loyalties are now split - Even more so than before! On one side you have Taiyangs girls, on another, you have Marron's kids, and on the bottom of that list, you have us!"

"STOP ARGUING!" Ozpin screamed, silencing the two men with his glare as he stamped his cane into the ground. Qrow and Ironwood spared one last glare to each other and let each other go. They hadn't even noticed that they nearly came to blows, only that they were just about to. Glynda and Albedo looked like they were ready to intervene, but now that they stopped, they relaxed. "Qrow, James, both of you need to stay away from each other until you two simmered down. We are all tired here, including Mister Matsuoka." The attention all turned back to the wide-eyed blind boy as he sat there, shaking and afraid. Just like them, his eyes were shadowed by dark colors, indicating that he was beyond tired and worn out. Fatigued from all of the fighting, and recovering from injuries done to him by Neo. "Mister Matsuoka, we will continue this conversation in our own time. Privately, when we've all had time to rest. Understand?"

"Y-yes…" Kai nodded his head slowly. "I understand."

"Good." Ozpin stamped his cane down again. "All of you are dismissed. Rest for the remainder of this night, I will remain here and escort Mister Matsuoka back to his cell. Glynda, tomorrow be sure to escort his teammates and family here so that they make have a chance to speak with him before I do."

Ozpin escorted him back to his cell and Kai sat down silently. He had a feeling that this was small mercy being granted to him by the headmaster. At least this way he had time to think about what he was going to say to his teammates and family when they came to see him in the morning. It wasn't a lot of time - just a handful of hours in reality - but it was better than anything he could have ever asked for. Thankfully, he wasn't cuffed either, and after shutting his cell door Ozpin stepped away silently. Only stopping and stepping back to give him some final parting words.

"For what it is worth, Mister Matsuoka. I do know that you were just doing what you thought was right. It doesn't make it right, but it's not like you had any ill-intent in mind."

Kai didn't reply verbally. He only nodded his head to show Ozpin that he listened and acknowledged what he said. The old man understood what that meant, and left the boy alone. Kai waited for the sound of the sliding mechanical door to slide shut behind him before he finally let himself release an explosive scream of frustration, anger, and disappointment in himself. In his burst of anger, he turned and threw his fist wildly into the wall to his left, flinching violently when he accidentally bent the metal outward into the other cell. Surprised by the accidental use of his semblance, Kai sighed and let his head fall into his hands, rubbing his face and groaning to himself as his emotions finally burst forth. Hot tears edging his eyes as all he could think about was his very long string of mistakes that had landed him in that position.

"I see you have been caught," A woman's voice he recognized all too well said out of the blue, making him freeze up and stop his pre-emptive sobbing before it could all spill out.

"You," Kai growled angrily. "Why would Ozpin put me in the same cell block as you? Aren't you supposed to be alone at all times?"

"Why indeed," Sienna replied cryptically from the other side of the corridor, locked in her own cell. She could see through the small opening that she was allowed to let light in and noticed that Kai was in the cell directly in front of her own. Curious, very curious. Ozpin was certainly being aggressive in his tactics for once. "Perhaps he forgot? I don't know, but I suppose this gives me someone to talk to at least, even if you seem to hate me so much."

"How can I not!?" Kai almost shouted. "You helped kill my father if it weren't for you my dad would still be alive and Cinder would be dead."

"And as I told you before, I am sorry," Sienna said, surprising him with how easily and genuine she was being. "You can tell if I am lying or not, correct? Well, I am sorry. And I wish I hadn't have done that. It is one of the things that I regret."

Frustratingly enough, Kai could tell that she was telling the truth even as she was across the hall. He almost wanted to mark it down as some sort of misconception because of how much was going on in the ship all at the same time, but he knew that he couldn't. Sienna had no reason to lie, if he really wanted to, he could break out of his cell and murder her with his semblance or dark silver-eyed powers. That idea never made it out of the thinking stage, of course. But it didn't make Kai feel better knowing that.

"What do you want from me, Sienna?" Kai asked tiredly, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes and biting back his emotions. He didn't want Sienna to see him like that. "If you really want to know, yes, I was caught. Now many of the people I care about know about what I did as Stone Face, and they're going to come to talk to me tomorrow morning about it."

"I didn't ask, I already knew," Sienna replied carefully.

"How!?"

"Because you're here, in front of me, also locked in a cell." Sienna pointed out. "Unless you were idiotic enough to do something so illegal that even Ozpin was forced to put you in a cell for, it's obvious that you're here because of you being the vigilante."

Kai growled he was just too tired for this. He didn't want to play these games.

"What I do want to know, however, is what they're going to do with you. They're definitely not going to throw away their most powerful piece on the board, are they?"

"What's it to you, Sienna?" Kai replied tiredly. "It's not like you're getting out of here anytime soon. I'd be surprised if you ever saw the sun again."

Sienna let a knowing smile grow upon her face, knowing that Kai couldn't see it. It only grew. "I might… I have been getting convinced of something recently. Your headmaster has been coming to speak to me quite often. You may just see me working alongside you soon enough."

"Ha, ha." Kai sarcastically laughed at what he thought was a very obvious lie. "Funny…"

Sienna let the smile drop and tried to look at Kai, as hard as it was, all the way into his own cell. She couldn't quite see him, but through the small opening, she could tell that he was slumping against the wall. It was a pitying sight, in all honesty. Even she felt bad for the boy. "You know…" Sienna began again after a certain thought came to her. "I've been in your type of situation once before…"

"I didn't ask," Kai said, remaining still.

"You didn't, but it's not like you have the option to stop me." Sienna pointed out. After hearing Kai sigh, she used that as her opportunity to keep going. If he really wanted her to shut up, he would have just gotten angry again. That seemed to be the moment where she should stop talking, anyway. "When I first joined the White Fang, it was just around the time where certain factions and branches started to get violent. When Ghira was still the leader, he forbid any of us from wielding weapons in our protests. Of course, not everyone really listened to him. I had some huntress training from an old mentor of mine, so I thought I could use that to protect my kind during the protests where we didn't quite receive a positive response…"

"I've witnessed that once…" Kai said quietly. If Sienna didn't have four ears, she may have not heard him. She didn't ask him to elaborate since he seemed to be waiting for her to continue.

"Soon enough, more and more factions began to get violent as we realized that peaceful protests weren't going to work. I was one of the first to sign on for that, and quickly after, Adam." Kai perked up at the mention of Adam. "He was just about your age at the time, and he was just as strong, dedicated, and determined to make a difference as I was despite how much younger he was than me. Just like you, however, I had people I didn't quite want to know that I was doing this. A lover, and as you might know, a daughter. They thought I was a huntress," Sienna laughed sadly at the memory. "A huntress going out on missions whenever she went out for weeks or even months at a time. Little did they know I was orchestrating and leading raids on abusive human-faunus towns and mines in Atlas. I hid it from them for a long time, a few years at least. But… it got very hard to hide once I was declared the new Supreme Leader of the White Fang."

"And when they found out, I guess they weren't very happy to hear about it?" Kai asked as if he knew what really happened before Sienna even told him.

"Hah!" Sienna barked out with laughter. "I wish it was that easy. No, my lover left me and threatened to take our daughter with him, only for some of my own men to take it upon themselves to go after them, kill him, and take my daughter back to me."

Kai felt his eyes widen as he listened to that. He sat up straighter, now thinking about the situation if his friends succumbed to a similar fate. It left an ugly feeling in his stomach, one that he hated.

"So yes, I do understand what you are going through," Sienna said as she wiped dry nonexistent tears from her face. It was a force of habit and after so long living with it she has grown to accept what happened, fault and all. "You feel like if you've done something different, things would be better. If you simply listened to reason rather than resort to violence, if you did this, did that. Believe me, I've been around that block more times than I can count."

"I know that I am one of the last people that you'd want to hear a sob story about, but I feel it was necessary. I accepted what happened in my past a long time ago, and I think that you should do the same."

"Why would you try and help me?" Kai asked, confused, emotional, and desperate for advice. "After everything I did… I killed so many White Fang members… so many. Why are you even talking to me?"

Sienna hardened her tone as she replied. "Because even though I despise you for that, you are the only one who can put a stop to Cinder's advances. Because I need you as an ally, and I'd rather put up with you and everything you've done than being obsessed with killing you and be stuck with nothing."

Kai slumped to his side again and silently let the tears fall from his eyes. He sobbed silently, shaking lightly as he finally let his emotions out for once. Sienna heard some of it but said nothing. She never would have guessed that the two of them would have shared any kind of moment like this together, but desperate times called for desperate measures. It was true, what she said. And she meant it. She despised him for what he had done but needed him at the same time. It was frustrating, in all honesty. But this was a much better compared to the alternative of facing Cinder by herself.

She shut her own times and let her own tiredness wave over as she willed herself to fall asleep. Tomorrow was another day, and a decision was made. On the contrary, Kai was beyond tired and tomorrow was going to be a huge day for him in one of the worst ways he could imagine.

For once, he didn't look forward to meeting his teammates again. Not one bit.

Oof, I hope I wrote all that down correctly. Unlikely moments between unlikely friends? Yeah, I guess you could call it that. And don't worry guys, in the next chapter we will get to see how everyone will react to Kai being Stone Face and how he is stuck on a 'training mission' and is basically Ozpin's little lap dog.

I suppose now this is the end of Volume 2? I may put it off one more chapter so that we can end it off after Kai and his friends have that chat. But there isn't going to be much to skip over until the third volume. But hey, at least I got some content to write down and plan for. Woo!

T w itter . com (slash) genatools

T w itter . com (slash) Genatools