Merry Christmas all! I hope you're having a better one than I cause guess who has two thumbs and tested positive for covid for the first time in two years! This motherfucker!

Anyway, I'm surviving so everything should be fine, but it's also kinda why this chapter came out so late. Regardless, it's out now and I hope you enjoy it!

"I can't believe that worked." Blake complained. It wasn't a true complaint, and she felt as though she shouldn't be complaining in the first place. She and Sun had managed to get quite a few people to sign up. And all it took was showing off her friendship with Crue.

The very thought of people within the White Fang, people who had never even met Crue, being a fan of him. It annoyed her for a multitude of reasons. For one, these people had no idea what Crue was like. He would've hated this.

"Yeah, but at least we've got some numbers." Sun, ever the optimist, held his Scroll up happily. Blake rolled her eyes, but there was no denying the small smile on her face. Returning home after a successful outing with the Menagerie sun setting, it was almost impossible not to smile.

She opened the massive door to her house, and felt the smile slip as she saw an unfamiliar figure sitting beside her Father at the same table she, Sun and Neo had when they first arrived.

"Dad?" She called out, stepping into the room. Her Dad's head spun round at her call, and so did the strangers.

The man wore a floral shirt, blue with burgundy flowers. He appeared to match her Father in stature, with noticeable sideburns and clean cut hair. His eyes were a shade of hazel, and now that she got a better look at him, Blake thought he looked oddly familiar.

"Blake." Ghira smiled, getting to his feet as the man next to him rose as well. "I'm glad you're back, there's someone I want you to meet." He gestured to his side.

"We've actually met before." The man's voice was deep but calm as he nodded to Blake. She tilted her head in confusion, certain she had never met anyone with that kind of fashion sense before.

The man glanced down, seeing where her eyes were going and chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose this is a bit different then what you would've seen me in." He cleared his throat and met Blake's eyes. "My name is Tukson."

The name clicked, and Blake felt her mouth form an 'o' shape as she pointed at the man. "Oh! You ran a book store in Vale. I was upset when you closed down." Her ears folded down slightly. It was always upsetting when a Faunus ran business closed down.

"Yes… there was a specific reason for that." Tukson trailed off, sighing as he spoke. "I heard what was going on, and I felt like I needed to help."

"I used to be part of the White Fang. The… not so clandestine part." His words immediately set Blake on edge as he explained his background. And yet, her Dad was standing next to him, not looking at all worried.

Her eyes narrowed, but she made no move to attack. Sun stilled next to her, his tail freezing before his blue eyes sought Blake to see her reaction. "Uh… I'm guessing cause you're here it means you're not going to try start anything?"

"You'd be right." Tukson nodded. "I left the White Fang after I couldn't stand what we'd become. And, they weren't fond of that."

"Sound familiar?" Sun murmured, causing Blake to whip her head round to glare at him. Sun took a large life-saving step to the side, putting a survivable distance between him and Blake.

"What happened?" Blake turned her attention back on Tukson.

"The White Fang sent two people to kill me, and they probably would've succeeded, if someone didn't come flying in through the window." A small smile spread on his face at the memory, whereas an expression of utter shock erupted across Blake's face.

"W-What?" Her eyes went wide. "You mean… You mean Crue?"

"Can you think of another Faunus who goes flying through shop windows?" Tukson smiled once more, before it faded. "It's thanks to him I'm alive, and I can't even properly thank him for it."

Blake was still too stunned by the revelation that Crue had prevented his death to comment on it. "Tukson here knows quite a few White Fang tactics, the kind they will most likely use on Haven." Ghira explained.

"Nice!" Sun smiled widely. "You're gonna help save my school? Thanks man!" Sun gave Tukson a grateful thumbes up.

The man's hazel eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he leaned towards Ghira. "This the one?"

Ghira simply grunted in the affirmative as he stared at Sun. His thumb and tail both drooped upon receiving the glares. "Wait-wait." Blake suddenly spoke up, amber eyes wide and hands flailing madly.

She pointed a finger at Tukson. "You're saying Crue saved you from being killed by- by Emerald and Mercury?!" She remembered who else was in the bookshop that day.

"Was that their names?" Tukson asked. "I didn't exactly stick around for introductions…" He shrugged off the question. "Green and grey hair?" When Blake nodded, he did as well. "Yeah, that was them. Didn't actually realise something was up until after they had gone."

After they had gone. After Blake and her friends burst in to check on Crue, and then left him with Tukson while the paramedics checked him out. "Crue told you?" She asked, feeling a sudden tightness in her chest.

She stumbled back, and would have fallen had Sun not reached out to grab her by the shoulder, a look of concern on his face that was mirrored by the two older men. "Blake? What's wrong?"

"Crue- He- He knew why Emerald and Mercury were there. We didn't even know Emerald and Mercury at that point!" He explained, her breathing shallow and fast. "And he had only been in Beacon for barely a week!"

Her pupils were pinpricks, eyes darting around wildly as she tried to figure out what was going on. "Wait. Crue told me he had amnesia. Or, someone told me he did anyway." Sun's own eyes were wide as he recalled learning that tidbit of information on the 'guys night out'.

"What?" Tukson's voice cut through the tension, he himself wearing a confused expression. "But, he knew I was a Faunus. And he knew I used to be White Fang too." His words had Blake spiraling further.

She had wondered if Crue knew that Beacon would be attacked back when it was underway, based on the words he had delivered to RWBY in their dorm before everything went to Hell. But now based on what Tukson was saying…

"Crue knew Beacon was going to be attacked." She realised. Her words brought the room to a standstill. Eventually, it was Sun who found his voice first.

"You're, you're kidding, right? Crue would have done something if that was the case." He refused to believe that Crue wouldn't have acted if he knew Beacon would fall.

"He was." Blake said, remembering what Neo had told her. "Crue was acting against Cinder as 'The Wolf'. They fought during the dance. But, with what you said, he's been fighting her for a lot longer." She quickly looked around the room. "Where is Neo? She needs to explain."

Blake ran off, searching for the diminutive girl and leaving Sun in the room with two men who did not have the best opinion of him. "Crue was The Wolf?" He looked shocked, doubly so when he recalled the first time he heard something along those lines.

"Oh man, I told off General Ironwood because of that!" His hands gripped his hair as his blue eyes widened, realising what he had said to one of the most powerful men on the planet.

Both Ghira and Tukson rose an eyebrow each, glancing at each other with a similar expression of being mildly impressed. "You told off the General of the Atlesian Military?" Ghira asked.

"Huh?" Sun was still in a bit of panic about the whole ordeal. "Yeah. It was after me and Crue fought in the Vytal Festival. The General and Ozpin talked to us after our match, and the General said Crue was The Wolf."

"Which, I thought was a load of crap at the time cause they were just calling the Wolf Faunus that the General doesn't like a vigilante with the same name." Sun frowned. He had been standing up for his friend and it turned out that the General had been right.

"Hm." Ghira hummed. "Maybe you aren't all bad, if you were willing to stand up for a friend like that."

Ghira's simple words had Sun's frown vanishing, replaced by a shocked expression, before that two disappeared and a wide and bright smile sprung up on his face.

"Don't let it go to your head." Ghira's amber eyes narrowed immediately, and Sun immediately swallowed his bottom lip to hide any kind of expression.

"Uh, Sun!" Blake's voice suddenly sounded out, as she appeared in the doorway that led to the bedrooms. "Could you come to my room please, quickly!" With that, she disappeared back into the hallway.

Sun could feel his life trickling away as he stared at where Blake had been standing. He did not need to turn to see the glares being sent his way, they bored into his skull and could probably ignite him if they stared any harder.

"One step forward, two hundred steps back." Sun murmured, staring at the ground as he power walked towards the hallway. His shoulder bumped against the doorframe, distracted by the sensation of being watched and wished to be put six feet under.

Even in the hallway and out of line of sight of Ghira and Tukson, he swore their glares were able to penetrate through the walls. Sun made his way to Blake's room, knocking on the door and waiting for a response.

"Come in!" Blake sounded panicked, or at the very least concerned. Sun entered, immediately clocking Neo standing before Blake's bed, arms crossed as she stared at the bed with a scowl. Blake was on the opposite side, holding her fist against her mouth.

"So, your Dad definitely wants to kill me now. Thanks." Sun sighed, closing the door behind him.

"What else is new?" Neo signed, looking to Sun with a smirk. Sun gave a whiney impression of her own words, before noticing a piece of paper on Blake's bed.

"What's this?" He asked, picking it up and reading it. It was short, with fairly nice handwriting. 'B, Things going too far. Not sure what to do. Find a quiet spot, I'll find out. Come alone. Please -I' Sun read over the letter once more, before looking up to Blake with a raised eyebrow.

She said nothing, instead appearing to be deep in thought. Sun turned his attention to Neo. The shorter woman blinked once, pink and brown eyes switching colours, as she took both of her hands and spread out her fingers before pressing her hands against one another.

"Yeah, sounds like a trap." Sun agreed. His words snapped Blake out of her silence.

"It… it might be." Blake gnawed on her lower lip as she looked over the letter once more. "But, if I don't give her a chance, how am I any better than the rest of the White Fang?" She sighed, closing her eyes as her brow furrowed.

Sun let out a breath, blustering through his lips. "You're gonna go, aren't you." It wasn't a question, more a statement of fact. Blake looked up at Sun with what could only be described as 'sorrowful determination'.

Sun sighed. "Yeah, I figured. But you're not going alone." He jabbed a thumb at his chest and smiled. "You've got me and Neo to watch your back."

"Well, actually I was hoping Neo would stay here." Blake looked to the girl in question, who looked positively offended at the idea of being left out of something that might lead to a fight.

She made a few signs that Blake couldn't fully understand, but given by the whistle Sun let out he certainly could. Blake looked to him for a translation. "Uh…" Sun glanced between Neo and Blake.

"She disagrees." Blake gathered Sun didn't want to give a word for word interpretation.

"It's not because I don't want you there." Blake explained, meeting Neo's eyes. One was white and the other pink. "But, because I want you here. In case something happens." That, Neo deemed acceptable. She nodded with a smile, clapping her hands together.

"Hopefully it won't come to anything." Blake said, grabbing her weapon. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen?

…

Settled around on various sofas and chairs, JNPR and RWY were in the midst of an important discussion. "But he turned them into birds, Ruby!"

"I know! I know! But it-it just seems exclusively beneficial!" Ruby didn't like what she had learned about her Uncle and Raven, she would never call that woman her Aunt, but still it didn't seem like too big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

"Look we can discuss that later, there's something else you should know." Yang looked to her younger sister, waving her down. Ruby relented, instead leaning against Weiss and crossing her arms. The ex-Heiress didn't have too much objection, having missed her leader dearly during her time in Atlas.

Ruby, Weiss and Yang were all on one sofa, whereas JNPR were on another. Jaune and Pyrrha were joined at the hip, and Ruby wouldn't be surprised if they had more than two feet of distance between them at all for the next while.

"Yang is right, Ruby." Pyrrha nodded, though there was no hiding the smile on her face from being in such close proximity to her leader.

Ruby let out a small sigh, but nodded, gesturing for one of them to speak. The three who had escaped from the Branwren tribe all looked at each other, trying to figure out who should be the one to start.

Eventually, Yang sighed. "We think Crue knew Beacon would Fall." The band aid ripped off, Yang waited for someone to say something. Anything.

"W-What?" Ruby's silver eyes were wide as she stared at Yang. The older sister nearly folded under her gaze, but thankfully Weiss came to her rescue.

"When we were in the Branwren camp, Raven told us she had an encounter with Crue before." Ruby's head whipped round to stare at her partner instead.

"Yes, she was the 'White Fang' woman who attacked us." Pyrrha explained, her emerald eyes glancing across her team.

"Wait- you mean that woman who attacked us when we were at the cafe?" Jaune asked, frowning as he recalled the day in question.

"Yes." Pyrrha nodded with a similar frown. "It seems she met with Crue later that night."

"What?! Why didn't you guys tell us you had a run in with the White Fang? Even if it turned out to be wrong…" Ruby asked, trailing off slightly.

"Well…" Pyrrha sucked in a breath, trying to think of how to put something gently.

"Blake." Nora stated.

"Yes that would be it." Pyrrha smiled apologetically. It probably said something that no one on the other sofa could dispute their reasoning, but there was a slight screeching of metal as Yang's fist clenched.

"He told me the morning after he stabbed my mother in the eye." Yang spoke up, banishing thoughts of her teammate from her mind. "But, I never told him anything about Raven. So, I just thought he got into a fight with a bird."

A second bit of reasoning that no one could immediately disagree with. "B-But that still doesn't mean he knew what would happen to Beacon!" Ruby tried to get the situation back on track.

"Crue did seem particularly… trouble after we rescued him from that woman." Ren spoke up, a faint scowl on his face.

"Raven said that Crue told her Beacon would Fall." Yang whispered, her fists clenching as she spoke. "That it was because of Cinder, and that she had half the powers of a Maiden, and Ozpin wanted to give the other half to Pyrrha."

"What?" Jaune suddenly sat up straighter, looking to Pyrrha for confirmation. When she nodded, his blue eyes widened as he turned to Yang. "But, we fought with her way before the Vytal festival even happened."

"I know." Yang's eyes flashed red, but they returned to their normal purple fairly quickly.

"Obviously, we took anything Raven said with a grain of Dust." Weiss assured. "But, based on what Ozpin told us, it seems more than likely she was telling the truth." She looked as though the words had to be forced out of her, obviously not having a very high opinion of Raven.

"Crue tried to warn us." Ruby suddenly said. Each set of eyes landed on her as she continued. "When we were in our dorm after Ironwood talked to us. He-He told us something bad was going to happen! And he told us that it was Emerald who made Yang hallucinate!"

"But if he knew all that, why didn't he tell us?" Nora asked quietly. It was that simple question that brought everyone else to silence. Crue was their friend, and he died trying to save Pyrrha. If he knew something would happen, why wouldn't he have told anyone.

"Perhaps he told Ozpin?" Ren suggested. A communal agreement of 'probably not' was reached in the form of similar facial expressions that made it look like everyone was sucking on a lemon.

"I don't think so." Pyrrha spoke up first. "When I tried to ask him for some advice about the Maiden powers, he got unusually angry. And I know, it's Crue, so that probably doesn't mean much, but I don't think he approved of Ozpin's decision."

"Oh, good to know he's not the only one." Jaune quipped, a mixed expression on his face. Pyrrha looked at him worriedly, placing a hand on his leg as she did so. Jaune immediately went rigid from the touch, before his shoulders slumped and he let out a barely perceptible sigh.

"Sorry. I'm just glad you're alive." Jaune looked up at Pyrrha with a soft smile. It would be a lie if didn't make everyone else in the room feel a little warm inside.

"We could ask Ozpin about it." Weiss suggested. They had stated that there were to be no more lies or half-truths, so hopefully they would get a straight answer.

"Ask Oz about what?" Came a gravelly voice. The group turned, seeing Qrow entering the room, drinking from his hipflask.

There was moment of quiet as everyone glanced at each other, communicating silently as to what they should do. "We wanted to ask what he knew about Crue." Eventually Ruby spoke up, meeting her Uncle's eyes as she spoke.

Qrow froze in the process of tightening the lid on his hipflask, eyes widening in surprise. However, it seemed to be more from the fact that, to Qrow, Ruby had brought up Crue out of nowhere. His expression softened and he put his flask away.

"I think Oscar is resting, but I'm not sure what you're looking for that Oz could help you with." Qrow explained as he pulled up a chair, leaning back into the plush cushions.

"You don't think Ozpin knew anything about Crue that maybe he didn't tell us?" Yang asked bluntly.

Qrow's brow wrinkled as he sat up, confusion written all over his face. "You mean Ozpin or Crue?" He asked. There was another round of shared eye contact, and eventually Yang spoke up again.

"Both. Either?" She held up a hand exasperatedly as she sighed. "We've just got a lot of questions right now."

It took a short moment to recap Qrow on what they had recently discovered, and the more they shared the more Qrow's eyebrows were in danger of flying off his forehead. Finally, after they had caught him up Qrow decided to take a long swig of strong alcohol.

"That's… a lot of information to take in kiddos." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as his red eyes looked on in disbelief. "And honestly makes some of the stuff I heard about The Wolf make a lot more sense now."

"Really wish you woulda told me that part a while ago, Ruby." He looked to his niece, not necessarily with anger or annoyance, just a simple request. Ruby laughed awkwardly as she nodded in fairness.

"In my defence, you only really showed up when that weird Huntsman did, and Crue being The Wolf wasn't really on my mind at the time." She shrugged apologetically.

Qrow waved away the apology. "Yeah, yeah. It's fine. But, I hate to break it to you kids but, I don't think Oz knew any more about Crue than you did. Hell, probably no more than he did. The kid had amnesia after all, didn't he?"

"That's certainly what we were all led to believe." Ren spoke up, sending the room into nervous tension.

"Renny?" Nora asked softly, looking to her partner. "You don't mean that Crue lied to us, do you?" Nora's words, gentle as they were, could hardly be considered an accusation. And yet, it certainly felt like one.

"I… do not believe so." He chose his words carefully. "He may have truly had amnesia when we first met him. However, he may have recovered his memories at any point between then and the Vytal Festival."

"But then why didn't he tell anyone?" Ruby's voice nearly cracked, unsure what to believe. The sound immediately made Ren feel terrible, but Qrow came to the boys defence.

"Might've been for the same reasons as Oz. Didn't tell you to stop you from being in danger. You think that any of those bastards that attacked Beacon would think twice about getting rid of you if you found out something you shouldn't have?" Qrow's voice was deadly serious, and might have been slightly biassed given the fact he had been living through similar problems.

The idea of Crue being like Ozpin clearly didn't sit well with any of them, and caused Qrow to sigh. "Look, I don't know how Crue knew the things he did, but there's not a lot of point worrying about something like that now."

"He's gone. So don't think about the Crue you didn't know, keep the memories of the one you did know at the front." He tapped his temple as he spoke. "That's all any of us can do." With a sigh, he pushed himself up off the chair and staggered out of the room, desperate for more alcohol.

He left the room in a state of awkward tension, no one sure how to break the silence. "So, who was Crue?" Jaune asked. No one found themselves able to answer immediately.

"He was our friend." Weiss stated, her brows knitting together. "That's all that matters. Who he was before Beacon doesn't."

"I mean, I think it matters a little." Ruby muttered. "But, I get what you mean." She smiled widely at Weiss. "You've really warmed up since Beacon." She said, wrapping her arms around Weiss and squeezing tight.

Weiss let out a yelp as her face suddenly burned bright red. "That's not an invitation for you to invade my personal space!" She screeched, trying to force Ruby off of her. It was as fruitful an endeavour as one might imagine, but it did manage to put a smile on everyone's face and let them forget about their worries.

For now at least.

…

"How long will it take us to get to Haven?" Crue asked, walking alongside Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune through a forest path. They had left Kuchinasi earlier that morning, after SSN had dealt with their Crue induced hangovers.

"Just a few days, probably." Neptune replied, walking with his hands on the back of his neck. "We're going by the proper roads this time, so it should be faster."

"You didn't when you were going after me?" Crue rose a confused eyebrow.

"No." Sage answered. "My Semblance doesn't exactly tell me the most optimal route to get to someone. Just tells me where they are and what direction." He explained.

"Fair enough I guess." Crue nodded, stretching his arms. "Hey, you think 'Sun' would still work if I put my initial in there somewhere?"

"Like using the C as an S?" Scarlet asked, crinkling his nose. "No way, especially if yours was the first. It'd be CSSN. People would probably think it was 'cousin' or something. And that's not a colour."

"Sure it is. White square with a red x in the middle." Crue joked, before realising it meant nothing to them. "Anyway, I wouldn't want to be the first initial. I'd hate to be the leader."

"The first letter isn't always the leader." Neptune stated, and that fact came as enough of a shock to Crue it caused him to nearly trip.

"You're kidding." He said bluntly. "Every other team I've met that's been the case. You guys. RWBY. JNPR. CFVY. CRDL. BLDD." He counted them off on his fingers.

"Ok, yeah, a lot of them are." Neptune accepted. "But not always. You know ABRN?" He asked. Crue hummed a strange tune, as if recalling something.

"That's the team that fought against RWBY in the first round of the Vytal Festival, right?" He vaguely recalled the chant he made in support of RWBY.

"Yeah, that's the one." Neptune nodded. "The leader of that one is actually Bolin. The guy with the staff." He explained.

"What? No it's not." Scarlet suddenly cut in. "Arslan actually is the leader of that team. Why the Hell did you think it was Bolin?"

"Because he told me?" Neptune replied, a slight frown on his face. "We were talking about… something." His eyes suddenly darted to the side, immediately letting everyone know that the 'something' was probably girls.

"And I said how hard it was to talk to people when my leader was standing right next to me shirtless. They never make eye contact!" No one was making eye contact with Neptune now, either, instead choosing to roll their eyes in exasperation.

"And he said that being a Leader comes with its own set of challenges. So I asked him if he was the leader of his team and he said yeah." Neptune threw his hands up in annoyance.

"Don't you guys learn who the Leader is when all the teams are introduced at the start of the semester?" Crue asked, recalling how it was in Beacon.

"Things work a little differently in Haven." Sage commented. "But, some people were too distracted to pay attention to who else they were going to be studying with for four years."

"Hey!" Neptune complained. "I swear, Reese started that conversation!"

"And you're sure her conversation wasn't with Sun's abs?" Scarlet asked. A small amount of bickering broke out, causing Crue to chuckle. It almost felt like he was back at Beacon.

His smile fell as his wolf ears twitched. "Freeze." He said, halting SSN in their tracks. They looked at him with no small amount of confusion, as Crue concentrated.

The sound of cracking and snapping foliage was rapidly approaching them. His claws shot out, and taking the cue for what it was, the others readied their weapons. Crue turned his head on to where the sound was coming from, and put his fists up.

It didn't sound big enough to be an Ursa or an Alpha Beowulf, but he wasn't taking any chances. The sounds grew closer, and closer still, until eventually even SSN could hear it.

Blood pumping and hearts beating, they waited for whatever Grimm it was to appear.

Only to be shocked when a woman stumbled out of the undergrowth. A woman with a dark complexion and a set of stripes running up her arms, wearing tattered and bloody clothing emerged. Her amber eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily, as a set of tiger ears upon her head twitched erratically.

Her eyes landed on the group before her, and they focused on the only Faunus. For a moment, her eyes seemed to shine. "Crue Cullen." She panted, reaching a hand out. "Help me."

Crue barely had time to blink in confusion, before the woman's eyes rolled upwards and she collapsed to the ground.

Scarlet, Sage and Neptune each turned to stare at the back of Crue's head. The Faunus stared at the collapsed woman.

"What the fuck?"

A review actually gave me the idea to have Sienna run into Crue. Originally I was going to have her stumble into the Belladonna's house, saying 'I didn't know where else to go'. Which, while it would have been good, I don't think I, or any of you, could suspend my disbelief enough to believe that Sienna, injured as shit, somehow got form Mistral to Menagerie without being hunted down.

And also, a lot of people are realising how little Crue ever actually explained, and how little they knew about him in the first place. It's to be expected but still, a lot of people will have a lot of questions for when Crue finally reunites with everyone.

But until then, those questions are just going to have to remain unanswered.

Well, that's the chapter and I hope you enjoyed. Let me know if you did, and a very Merry Christmas from myself and my Beta Reader, Fish Tank.

Until Next Time

-Friday