Beta-ed by xenosaiyan

"Blake, set the charges."

Weiss had no idea she'd been called 'Blake', but she was too busy shaking in terror because of who had called her that.

A Grimm mask over a head of fiery red hair and a pair of short, sharp bull horns. A long black coat embellished with an elegant rose emblem. A pair of warriors with curved katana and the armor of ancient Mistralian samurai flanking him as if he was their shogun. Adam Taurus, The Blood-Soaked Bull of the White Fang, cut a distinctive and haunting image.

News reports. Wanted posters. Incident reports on his break-ins to SDC facilities where he slaughtered all personnel onsite. Weiss had lost track of the stories she'd heard of the bull faunus's bloodlust, but they'd also always been accompanied by adequate mentions of his dueling skill. She did not believe for a second that she could defeat him as he was, which was a problem when she was one of the people he wanted most in the world to kill and he was standing right in front of her–

"What about the crew?" Weiss asked, though her voice wasn't her own and her lips didn't move by her own will.

More than that though, feelings welled within her that were not her own either, a tangled mess whenever she looked upon the Blood-Soaked Bull. Not just fear, but trepidation, care, love, and… just a fraction of hope. A small, desperate thing.

Adam turned back at her and sneered. "What about them?"

The fraction of hope flickered away.

Suddenly, Weiss smacked Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon onto her Gambol Shroud and her dragon whisked her away to another train car. Adam chased after her, summoning two samurai to his side, but Odd-Eyes slashed the connection between the train cars before he could get close, the normally friendly dragon snarling at the bull faunus.

Weiss could only look down on her mentor with forlorn grief. "Goodbye Adam."

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Blake panted hard as she observed the smoldering wreckage of a giant duel robot, the hated image of Jacques Schnee sneering down at her from a balcony above her current arena.

"Disgraceful," he snorted. "You could have won four turns ago if you'd Xyz Summoned that unsightly beast of yours–"

"But I did win, father. Which means I go where I choose," Blake shot back, even though she knew for a fact that this wretched monster was not her beloved dad. She pulled herself up and elegantly glared up at the balcony. "I'll begin packing for Beacon."

She whirled around and defiantly strode out of the arena. One day, when she was strong enough, she would return. She would return, and tear him down from his imperious throne. Her family's throne.

Her throne.

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"It was an accident, Blake," Adam argued, marching after Weiss as she stomped back towards their camp.

"An accident?!" Weiss shrieked. "You killed him, Adam! You promised me, no more accidents! They may be our enemies, but they're still people–"

"They're human," Adam growled. The bull faunus snaked out and suddenly grabbed Weiss's arm, wrenching her back towards him as he got in her face.

"Adam," Weiss squeaked, struggling to pull out of his grip. "You're hurting me."

Adam ignored her, instead pointing an accusing finger at his own face, at the left eye covered by his mask. "They're SDC. Have you forgotten what they've done to our people? What they did to me?! Because I can't! Even if your parents did. I thought you were different, that you understood–"

"I do!" Weiss frantically pleaded, even though she had no idea what the bull faunus was referring to under his mask. "I do. I'm not like them, I just… is that smoke? From camp?"

Adam's gaze whipped up to where she was looking. They both immediately dashed off towards the giant pillar of smog rising from their destination.

They found a ramshackle camp in ruins, dozens of faunus in Grimm masks lying about unconscious as their tents burned and smoked around them.

"What in the world?" Adam muttered, even the Blood-Soaked Bull utterly shocked as he overlooked the carnage. "What could have done this?"

"Ilia!" Weiss shouted, finding herself dashing towards a slim chameleon faunus girl laid out on the ground. She knelt down at the brown-haired girl's side when–

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

A blade screeched for Weiss's head, the young hunting duelist only escaping as she and her friend were replaced by shadow clones, shoved back as their replacements were torn apart by a scorpion faunus's tail.

Adam immediately had his red Wilt duel disk deployed, a loyal samurai's card on the red dust surface. "Kizan!"

A samurai with black armor materialized into existence and ran for the scorpion faunus, its nodachi screaming for the lanking man's head. Alas, the wiry attacker leapt back and deftly dodged the samurai's swift slashes, pulling out a chrome suitcase from his back and using it to parry the only strike that even came close to touching him.

Eventually, the scorpion faunus hopped even further back from Adam, Blake, and their samurai defender… and clapped.

"Good. Good, very good, Mr. Taurus," the assailant praised, a manic undertone even to his lightest words. "After your men's poor display, I was getting worried that this entire trip might be for nothing."

"You did this?" Weiss demanded, clutching her chameleon friend closer. "You attacked Ilia and the others!?"

"Why?" Adam coldly inquired.

"Call me an 'investment scout'. My goddess keeps an eye out for promising ne'er-do-wells and you've caught her eye. The Blood-Soaked Bull and the Odd-Eyed Bandit! Such a lovely regular act on the nightly news," the scorpion said, though he sneered at the surrounding unconscious White Fang members. "Though I'd hoped you'd have had a better support crew. Ms. Amitola there was the only one to even put up a fight."

Adam stomped forward with a growl, Wilt raised and ready. "Would you like to see what happens when you try that on me?"

"Well, yes. Were you not listening?" the scorpion faunus said, sliding a black duel disk down to the end of his tail. "That's why I'm here."

?: 4000 Life Points

Adam Taurus: 4000 Life Points

…

?: 3500 Life Points

Adam Taurus: 0 Life Points

Winner: ?

Weiss had blinked and suddenly the duel was over, yet she didn't feel like she'd watched anything at all. She couldn't recall what moves were made or how the scorpion faunus had taken the bit of damage he had, or how The Blood-Soaked Bull had been so devastated as to fall to his knees, the right side of his mask broken off.

All she could vaguely recall was a dome of pure darkness that had projected out from the enemy's hand and covered the duelists in shadows.

"H… how?" Adam mumbled. "Those monsters… those nightmares…"

"Fusion monsters. Techniques from long past. My mistress specializes in such power. Real power," the scorpion faunus said. He set his chrome suitcase down on the ground and kicked it across the camp to Adam. "Real power that could be yours, Mr. Taurus. You might not have won, but… you have promise. Promise that these cards will help you nurture. In yourself, and your men."

"In exchange for what?" Adam demanded. "What does your 'mistress' want from me?"

"At the moment, only to keep doing what you're doing. Just better and more effectively," the scorpion smirked, a touch of smooth snake oil seeping into his expression. "You who have been wronged by the world should be permitted to have your justice, get everything you deserve."

Weiss prayed she was imagining it, but she could have sworn she saw Adam smile.

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"What? You can't be serious!" Blake exclaimed, watching Winter Schnee place three cards on Blake's nightstand in the Schnee Manor. "You come home for the first time since you enlisted and you… you're giving up your Blue-Eyes? You can't do that! They're a part of you, a part of the Schnee legacy!"

"A legacy I no longer have any desire to be a part of. From now on, I will forge my own path and my own cards," Winter vehemently declared, glaring up at the snowflake emblem embedded in the wall. However, when her eyes found Blake, her icy gaze softened. She strode up to the younger girl and gently stroked her face where a fresh scar was ingrained in her skin. "Just look at what that monster has done to you."

"It… it was my fault," Blake muttered, glancing down in shame. "I should have Xyz Summoned like he ordered me to–"

"You did nothing wrong. Never let him make you think otherwise," Winter insisted. "If you do not wish to Xyz Summon, that is your choice to make. This family does not get a say."

"But… you Xyz Summon," Blake said, gazing up at the elder Schnee woman. "If I can be like you–"

"Your path may not be the same as mine, Weiss," Winter cautioned, though she could not hide a tiny smile of affection. "I am honored that you wish to be like me, but the most important thing is to find out who you are."

Blake curled inward, her arms crossing over her chest. "But who I am is disgusting. The cards a duelist forges show who they are, and the one I made was unsightly."

"Who told you that?"

"Mother and father."

Winter frowned. "Mother is a drunk and father is a wretch. Show me the monster you made."

Blake gulped, but she couldn't deny this woman (her sister?). She reached into her dress and pulled out the first monster she'd ever forged. She'd researched and toiled for weeks to create the finest dust vessel a duel spirit could ask for, a card fit for a new evolution of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon or a great paladin to fight alongside them. Instead, her own aura, her very soul, had polluted it into…

"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon," Winter observed, cocking an eyebrow at the image. "Well, I certainly wouldn't have imagined it for you."

"It IS unsightly," Blake panicked. "It's unsightly, and uncouth, and un-Schnee-like–"

"And it is yours. Which makes it beautiful," Winter earnestly proclaimed, a smile of such warmth that it had no place in the season she was named for. "All anyone expects from a Schnee nowadays is cruelty and arrogance. A black beast of rebellion may be new for our bloodline… but that makes it no less true to your noble spirit nor the good you can do as a hunting duelist."

Blake looked up at the white-haired woman, and for the first time in a long time, a spark of hope lit the fuel of defiance that had languished in her soul.

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Weiss hurriedly passed a tub of bandages and life-boosting spell cards to Ilia, the chameleon faunus, in turn, handing them to a swarm of volunteers, some even wearing half-decent nurse outfits. "This was all I could find."

"Thanks," Ilia replied, only for the young chameleon faunus to look over their current environment with a nauseous, terrified face. "But we need more."

Weiss followed the other girl's gaze and though her stomach did not churn, too used to carnage, the heiress found her spirit's insides nearly puked out entirely.

They were inside a barn, but it was far too small, over a hundred beaten and bloody faunus lying back on scattered hay and blankets, the worst few even lucky enough to be laid atop cots. A few dozen scattered volunteers, barely any humans among them, dashed about the broken patients, trying to staunch the bleeding from cut-off horns and tails and bleeding skulls, casting spells that they barely had the aura or training to maintain long enough for them to do anything more than relieve the pain a bit.

Weiss nearly jumped when one of the bedridden faunus, a man with ram's horns, one with its top half missing, sticking out his head.

"My… my son," he gasped in a croaking, parched voice. "Please… where is my son?"

Weiss gulped, her eyes flickering towards the significant pile of unmoving bodies shoved into the far corner of the barn, some of them small enough to be children.

"We'll… we'll find him," she lied, gently patting the man back down to his cot. "Just rest. We'll find him for you."

The man nodded, his strength giving out as he collapsed back into his cot. Weiss stepped back and took a shaky breath, her concerned gaze finding Ilia again. "Are you okay? I mean, this place—"

"Reminds me of my parents? Of the aftermath of the mine collapse?" Ilia cut her off, only to swallow hard and steel her face, her expression growing… cold. "Don't… don't worry about it. Humans took them from me. Maybe if I'm here, I can keep them from taking other people's loved ones away from them."

Weiss blinked, only to smile as a surge of admiration welled in her for her friend. "Right! I'll go see if mom or Mrs. Pine has any more supplies."

"Good idea," Ilia smiled, pulling out a Red Medicine spell and dashing to a groaning patient who'd had one of his floppy dog ears cut off. "Get back soon."

Weiss nodded and rushed out of the barn, running for the Pine family farmhouse. Somehow, she knew that if old widow Emily Pine hadn't been kind enough to allow the White Fang to rest on her property, the bloodbath in the barn would have been much worse.

But when she reached the farmhouse, all she heard from within was shouting.

"You can't be serious, Sienna! You're talking madness!"

"Madness? Have you been paying attention at all the last decade, Ghira? Have you even looked inside that barn?"

"Don't patronize us," a new voice, female, warned. "The humans attacking our rallies does not justify terrorism–"

"You can't fix what's happening out there with a circus act and a smile, Kali!" Sienna roared. "The humans kill us for existing! The SDC and the Spiders work us to death in their mines and that's when they bother to keep them from collapsing on us outright. We should not have to appease them. And we never will so long as they don't respect us."

"And your solution is to make us a threat?" Ghira accused. "You promised me that when you were voted in as High Leader that you wouldn't escalate–"

"I tried it your way and half our people are dead or dying. I shouldn't have expected anything else, it's been failing for over a decade," Sienna hissed. "Now, we do it my way."

"We can't support you in that," Kali regretfully said.

"Then go run away to Menagerie. I know about the chieftain offer," Sienna snarled. "This war must be fought, with or without you. Come, Adam."

Weiss stood outside the farmhouse door, her eyes wide in shock as Sienna Khan herself walked right into her, a younger, still masked Adam marching in step behind her. The tiger faunus's eyes widened momentarily at the sight of the girl before her.

"We… we need more medicine," Weiss said, nervously curling her lip. "Aunt Sienna… how can I help?"

Sienna paused for a second, before gently patting the young girl on the shoulder. "We all do what we must, Blake. To move forward sometimes means to cut ties with the past."

"We will fight," Adam declared, a gleaming smile on his face as his voice pulsed with charisma. "For our people, for all faunus. We will ensure that our people are finally treated as we deserve."

Weiss wasn't sure how given all she knew of the man's monstrous future, but her heart skipped a beat at his stirring speech, her cheeks growing rosy with blush.

"Blake," Kali Belladonna called out, standing in the doorway frowning at her old friend and her bodyguard. "Come."

Weiss skittishly nodded and walked around the tiger and bull faunus, Sienna turning away mournfully while Adam flashed her a roguish grin that just made the young girl even more entranced. At least until Kali shut the door as soon as they left the house.

"We need more medicine," Weiss gulped, picking up on the cat faunus's muffled anger. "For the barn."

"I'll go see if Mrs. Pine has any more spells we can use," Ghira Belladonna, hulking yet so very exhausted, said, rising from a nearby table with a sigh and stomping off into another room of the farmhouse. "Might as well try to be good for something."

Weiss gulped as she watched him leave. "Are dad and Aunt Sienna gonna be okay?"

Kali sighed. "Sienna… I don't know, Blake. Your father at least will hopefully recover a bit when we get to Menagerie."

"When we get to…" Weiss snorted, once more filled with emotion she didn't understand. "You can't be serious."

Kali blinked in surprise. "Blake, being asked to be chieftain is an enormous honor–"

"The people on Menagerie don't need our help. There's an ocean between them and the closest humans," Weiss argued. "The people here need our help. The Mistral Council isn't gonna pay for hunting duelists to come help faunus villages, so the White Fang is the only protection they've got. From Grimm, from bandits, the Spiders. We can't abandon them."

"Blake, I understand why you think that," Kali said. "But Sienna isn't just going to be defending the innocent."

"She's going to be taking the fight to the humans! Standing up for all of us!" Weiss said. "How can you not support that? After what they did to Ilia's parents? After what they did to Adam?"

"Going to war won't stop horrors like that. It will only make more humans think the monsters that do things like that are justified," Kali warned. "Bringing smiles to people's faces isn't just sentiment, Blake. The moral high ground is a crucial tool for our cause. As leaders of Menagerie, we can still work to help our people–"

"From a thousand miles away," Weiss snarled.

At her sides, Weiss clenched her fist, as the girl who'd lived this memory had years ago.

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"You sang beautifully tonight, my lady," the stout butler Klein complemented Blake, the friendly, balding man leading her through the dark halls of the Schnee Manor. "You truly have the voice of a snow angel."

"Thank you, Klein," Blake cheerily replied, her smile weary but warm. "It was a long night, but at least those poor miners' families will get the proceeds."

For some reason, as the pair arrived at a pair of doors even more austere than the average entrance in the mansion, Klein winced. "That's… a good thought to have, snowflake."

"Oh, don't lie to the girl, Klein," a slurred voice taunted from behind the grand doors. "Let the puppet see her strings. The nightingale, her cage. Better than letting her believe she's truly a dragon."

Once more, the butler flinched, looking worriedly at Blake. "If you need anything, my lady, anything… just shout."

Blake nodded, the kind man standing off to the side. She then took a deep breath and entered the bedroom.

It was grand, glass fountains of Blue-Eyes White Dragons spouting steady streams of trickling water on either side of the room. The furniture, from the king-sized bed to lounging couches and chairs, were all of the finest make from all over the world, each one carved with the Schnee Family's signature monster. And draped over the pillows on the fluffiest couch with a half-empty glass of Mistralian Red in her hand, was that family's eldest member.

"You wished to see me, mother," Blake said, keeping her head bowed and her eyes low.

Willow Schnee faced away from her spawn, nonchalantly taking a long sip of her wine. Blake was forced to awkwardly wait in silence as she drank, standing perfectly still like a doll. In some ways, it was worse than her father. He was cruel from self-interest and could be weathered by navigating it. Mother had the potential to be genuinely kind but she was at best… unpredictable.

After several long moments of drinking, Willow finally finished her glass and began refilling it from one of several bottles on her nightstand. Still, she did not turn around to actually face her daughter when she addressed her.

"I hear Winter has finally enlisted outright. Run off to James's banner to escape your father's," Willow remarked. "Good for her. Though I suppose she's saddled you with her former curse in the process. How callous."

"Winter is not callous. She's only doing what she must to become a true hunting duelist," Blake fervently argued. "And being heir is not a curse. Tonight, I helped with a charity gala for the families of the miners killed in last week's collapse. We must have raised millions of lien for them–"

"And they'll be lucky to see a hundred thousand."

Blake blinked. "What… what do you mean?"

"Like I said, you're not a dragon, little nightingale. Just a songbird in a cage," Willow mocked, rubbing the Blue-Eyes carving of her couch arm. "The SDC is putting on the entirety of that gala. They've received the money, they'll be counting it. And your father is well-versed in the numerous 'miscellaneous fees' that can arise in such an event. Even if tens of millions were raised tonight, the miners' families will likely only get perhaps a few hundred thousand to split between them all."

Blake's face fell. "He… he's embezzling it?"

"Indeed. But chin up, snowflake! Your singing got those starving faunus a few days of meals!" Willow taunted, drowning another gulp of wine.

"But… why?" Blake desperately asked. "The SDC makes billions a day. Why stoop to robbing a charity–"

"Because there's more to be made, along with the good publicity of putting on the whole farce," Willow sneered, though at her husband's greed or her daughter's naivete, Blake could not tell. "His greed saved the company back when father was around, the two of them balancing each other with avarice and charity. But with father gone, it's as if that unsightly beast of yours has been given free rein."

Blake sniffled, a tear falling down her cheek. "Dark Rebellion isn't unsightly."

A crash of glass and red liquid against the wall made Blake flinch forward. Willow began drinking from her bottle directly.

"It is. As is 'The Schnee Name' now, tainted with his avarice and his Xyz Summoning," Willow scoffed. "My father was the last true dragon of this family. Perhaps Winter will be the first of a new kind. But you and I… well, songbirds in cages, gilded or otherwise."

At her sides, Blake clenched her fist, as the girl who'd lived this memory had years ago.

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"No," Weiss snarled.

"Pardon?" Kali said, turning to face her daughter.

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"What did you say to me?" Willow sharply spoke.

"I said no," Blake growled, iron in her voice.

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As one they shouted, Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna, in dream and in memory.

"I won't stand by in some ivory tower and watch people get hurt!"

And together, the roars of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon echoed their cry.

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"Is everything alright with those?" Sun gently inquired. "I mean, the other day they couldn't stop snapping at each other, but now…"

Sitting on her bed back in the Team RWBY dorm, Ruby could only sigh as she followed the monkey faunus's gaze to where Weiss and Blake sat at desks on opposite sides of the room. They were all catching up on the work they'd missed while they were out in the infirmary, so it wasn't out of character for either of them to focus on their studies. But, given that whenever they so much as glanced at each other they suddenly averted their eyes big time… yeah. Turned out the aftermath of being possessed by your dragons and finding out that your teammate was secretly an infamous terrorist was a bit awkward. Who knew?

"They're… alright. I think," Ruby said, even as she watched Blake nearly look at Weiss, only to grab her notebooks and scuttle off into the dorm's in-built bathroom before her head could fully rise. Weiss gulped and pressed herself deeper into her work as the bathroom door listing open and closed, the cat faunus having improperly sealed it in her haste.

At the very least, Weiss hadn't gone marching down to the police station to have Blake arrested. When Headmaster Ozpin had revealed to them all that he'd known about Blake's identity since the beginning and asked for them to take her at her word that she wanted a new start as a genuine hunting duelist, the Schnee Heiress hadn't protested at all. Which considering the Odd-Eyed Bandit was known as the partner of The Blood-Soaked Bull and one of Sienna Khan's most reliable agents was… surprising.

"Let's just focus on school stuff, okay?" Ruby asked. "Anything else for Goodwitch's class?"

"Other than the review of Nora and Skye's duel? Not really," Sun shrugged. "If you're ready to discuss it in her next class, you've got everything."

"Which means we can move on to Dr. Oobleck's class," a peppy third voice announced from under Ruby's bunk bed, technically Weiss's bed. "Sensational!"

Since Headmaster Ozpin was especially invested in making sure that the consequences of Weiss and Blake's duel were forgotten as soon as possible, he'd asked some of the Cultural Exchange Program's student teachers to help Team RWBY catch up with the material they'd missed. For Ms. Goodwitch's class, that meant they got to spend more time with Sun, who proved to be just as much a cool guy teaching one-on-one as he had back in Forever Fall. And for Professor Oobleck's class…

Ruby leaned over the side of her bed to spy the cheery Obelisk Blue Atlas girl with bright curly orange hair sitting on Weiss's bed below. Penny Polendina was a bit of a weird one, actually able to easily keep up with her assigned teacher's rapid-fire lectures that even Weiss struggled to follow, but she was a good sort, even helping to point out a few mistakes in Nora and Sky's duel that Ruby and Sun had both missed while going over the recording (though Ruby would eternally argue that she'd only missed those errors because she'd been distracted wondering why Sky didn't have a mohawk).

"Right," Ruby groaned. "So, what do we have to cover, Penny?"

"Nothing much," the cheery girl assured her. "Just the transition of Mistral's most popular summoning mechanic from Ritual to Synchro in the aftermath of the Great War."

"Oh," Ruby remarked. "Well that doesn't sound too bad."

Penny grinned and pulled out a pile of notes stacked higher than two decks. "Here's the first half of notes."

"Wah!" Ruby cried, falling to the floor in shock, very grateful for her aura.

"Doctor Oobleck's lectures are very thorough," Penny nodded. "I hear he was once an archeologist who investigated the most daring ruins of all four kingdoms."

"Yes, I believe Arc mentioned something about his sister being part of a few of his expeditions. Though I never would have guessed that someone like him was related to Saphron Cotta-Arc," Weiss said, a bit of her old haughtiness finally back in her voice as she came over to the bed. Only for her eyes to nearly bug out of her head at the sight of Penny's papers. "These notes… you made these?"

"Affirmative!" Penny nodded.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "What is it, Ice Queen? Are they not up to your stand… ards?"

The Slifer Red's voice trailed off, her face paling as she watched her partner tear up at the sight of Penny's notes.

"They're… they're… beautiful!" Weiss sobbed, turning on Penny with sobbing blue eyes of wonder. "How did you make these? They're better than mine! They're perfect! They're like a machine made them!"

"Hehehe, a what? A machine? That's just crazy!" Penny nervously chuckled, her eyes flicking away. "I am a normal meat person, just like anyone else. Hiccup!"

"Bless you," Sun called down.

"Thank you," Penny smiled up.

Weiss ignored Penny's hiccup and continued reverently searching through the notes. "It even has different sections for the Silfer Red, Ra Yellow, and Obelisk Blue track lessons. Even Arc couldn't possibly fail if he had these notes."

"I am pleased you like them. Because I have to go now and… perform maintenance on my duel runner while eating food," Penny stiltedly exited the room before briefly poking her head back in. "Like a completely normal meat person."

The Atlas girl dashed down the hall just as Yang arrived at the doorway with her riding outfit on and her helmet under her arm. "Did the Ice Queen scare off another one?"

"The goddess of notetaking has abandoned us!" Weiss wailed, tears smearing her makeup and splashing all over her school uniform.

Yang cocked an eyebrow and glanced at Ruby and Sun, who could only shrug. Then, the blonde Obelisk Blue glanced into the half-open bathroom and grew a catlike smirk.

"There, there, Ice Queen. There, there," Yang comforted just as she always had Ruby when she teared up at the card shop kicking them out just because it was 'closing time', gently guiding a sniffling Weiss to her feet and around the room as the heiress clutched Penny's notes like a security blanket. "How about you go get yourself cleaned up? We have company after all."

Weiss gulped, dabbing salty liquid from her ruined makeup with a handkerchief. "I suppose even Sun should not be subjected to such poor manners on my part–wait! Blake is in–"

"I know," Yang grinned, tossing Weiss into the bathroom and slamming the door behind her, the blonde's iron grip keeping the doorknob immovable no matter how much it frantically jiggled from the inside.

"Wow," Ruby remarked. "It is surreal to see you 'big sister betray' someone else for a change."

"It's a talent I've honed over many years," Yang sagely nodded, completely ignoring Weiss's frantic pleading to be let out from within the bathroom.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sun queried. "I mean, Schnee heiress and secret cat faunus doesn't sound like the best combo, especially if half the rumors about what went down when you all got knocked out are right."

"Those two wanted each others' heads on spikes before they dueled. Since they woke up, they've been dancing around each other. They've got to talk about it before things blow up–" Yang paused, her eyes blinking in surprise. "Wait, you know Blake's a cat faunus?"

"Well, yeah. I saw her ears twitching under her bow back at Forever Fall. She isn't the first faunus I've seen try to pass– oh crud!" Sun exclaimed, the easy-going guy suddenly panicked. "She already told you guys, right? Outting her was not what I wanted to do!"

Ruby looked away with a guilty frown. "We… we knew."

No matter how her friends had reassured her otherwise, she couldn't help but blame herself at least partially for the tension between Weiss and Blake since their duel. She'd been relieved when they'd finally woken up after their duel (at the same time even!) and even more relieved when Ozpin had reassured them that Blake (probably) wasn't on some secret White Fang mission to assassinate Weiss in her sleep. But between being the person who'd made them duel in the first place, then knocked them out with some weird eye lasers when their dragons had taken control of them, plus just being responsible for them as their team leader in the first place, and the guilt overshadowed even finding out that she was Signer like mom and dad. Heck, even finding out that her beloved, kick-butt Black Rose Dragon was actually a Signer Dragon. Ruby had a feeling that having to watch her little sister's sadness over the matter the last few weeks was a big part of Yang putting her foot down now and forcing their teammates to talk it out.

Ruby couldn't help feeling a bit ashamed at even that. Put her in a duel and she could trade blows with the best of them, a smile on her face whether she won or lost. But off the duel field, she still needed her big sis to swoop in and pull her butt out of the fire.

She'd never wanted to be team leader. But shouldn't she have been better at it than this?

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"Yang! Yang! YAAANNNNGGGG!" Weiss screeched, frantically pounding on the bathroom door. "Let me out right this instant!"

"Somehow, I don't think that's going to work," Blake sighed, setting her notes down on the sink counter and staring into the vanity's mirror.

Weiss glanced back at her teammate, only to immediately turn her head back to the door, ceasing her useless banging on the wood. It did seem that unless they wanted to summon monsters to cause immense property damage to the school, they could no longer dance around each other.

And yet, what could they say? Neither of them even truly understood what had happened during their duel, what had come over them when their dragons had taken the field. Much less what they'd experienced while they were unconscious.

"I'm sorry. For what I said during the duel," Blake started out. "You're not your father."

"Maybe. But it's clear that I've absorbed more from him and the rest of my… peers, back in Atlas than I would have liked to think," Weiss mumbled, recalling the unpleasantness that had raced through her mind back when she'd first seen Sun, even before she'd been able to remember who he was from rumors. "I'm sorry I didn't take that into account before I lambasted you about the White Fang. All your people have suffered, what's been done to you…"

"There were six innocent people in the General Lagune Center when Sienna and Adam bombed it," Blake countered. "I doubt they were responsible for decades of systematic oppression."

"Maybe, but Sienna Khan only bombed the center after the first peaceful protest under her leadership was openly attacked by humans! People attacked them in the streets and when the police arrived, they just beat the protesters instead of defending them from the humans. And the public didn't care!" Weiss protested. "Dozens of faunus died that day alone, and it would have been more if Mrs. Pine hadn't opened up her home to let you rest–"

"Mrs. Pine?" Blake interceded, whirling towards Weiss and blinking in shock. "How do you know about her?"

Weiss blinked. "I… when I was knocked out… I dreamed… or I remembered… I was you? God, I sound insane."

Blake's eyes widened. "If you are… then so am I."

Weiss gulped. "You saw my memories? Which ones?"

"Mostly your family being terrible to you. Well, your sister was alright, I guess," Blake admitted. "What did you see of mine? Other than… that day at the farmhouse."

"The day you left the White Fang. When you left the Blood-Soaked Bull–"

"Adam."

Recalling the whirlwind of complicated emotions that were most certainly not her own when she'd seen the bull faunus in her teammate's memories, Weiss decided to dip her head in response. "When you left Adam to save that train's crew. That was incredibly brave of you."

Blake looked down, her amber eyes flickering with shame. "Was that the only other one? I saw three of yours, so I thought..."

"No, there was one more," Weiss confirmed, her brow furrowing as she worked to recall the images. "You and Adam were returning from… somewhere. Your camp had been attacked by some psychotic scorpion faunus. He and Adam dueled… and Adam lost… but… I didn't see any of it?"

"Neither did I," Blake replied, shuddering at the memory. "When the duel started this… dome of shadows covered them. It wasn't some aura construct, at least not any that I've seen. I tried breaking it, but my monsters, even Odd-Eyes, could barely look at it. They were… so afraid. All I knew was that when it came down, Adam had lost. I can count on one hand the number I've times I've seen that happen, and never so drastically."

Weiss couldn't hide a tremble in her body at the thought. It was said that the Blood-Soaked Bull was equal to any Atlas Specialist. What kind of duelist was this scorpion faunus, what kind of power did Fusion Monsters possess, to crush him so easily?

"Adam never told me what he did with that suitcase," Blake said. "But it wasn't long after that he started introducing those cursed monsters to the rest of us, even having us forge some of our own."

"You called them that before. 'Cursed' monsters," Weiss said. "Why do you call them that?"

"Did you see the way that scorpion faunus acted? Have you heard the stories about what Adam's done?" Blake demanded. "When he got those cards, he… he changed. He became a monster."

"Blake…" Weiss whispered. "I experienced the argument you two were having before you got back to camp that day."

"That was… you don't know what that was!"

"I'm familiar with what it's like to have people you care about gaslight you, as you well know," Weiss gently spoke. "The power of those cards may have given Adam the opportunity to become what he has, but I don't think they made him do anything–"

"Odd-Eyes made me play it once your Dark Rebellion was on the field and it was in my hand!" Blake argued. "Our dragons did… whatever they did to us. Can you really say it's impossible for those things to affect him?"

Weiss opened her mouth to respond but decided it was better to hold her tongue. She could argue that whatever happened with their dragons had contained a noticeable amount of pomp that she would have seen if something similar was a factor with Adam, but she knew that throwing off abuse was a delicate matter. She was still affected by her parents' and she and Blake still weren't exactly on 'good' terms. She couldn't just hammer into her teammate like she knew best.

Blake let out a terrified sigh, shaking as she walked back to the sink and leaned over it, both her and Weiss in the mirror's reflection. "What are you going to do about me? Ozpin couldn't stop you if you decided to tell the press that the Odd-Eyed Bandit is at Beacon."

"Heh. If you asked me that before I beat you, I don't know what I'd say," Weiss chuckled. "But… you don't have anything to worry about. If you want to become a hunting duelist, then we're teammates."

Blake nearly collapsed over the sink, a heavy breath hissing out of her lips. "Thank you. I promise I won't let you down. Though… before you beat me? Last I checked, I'd been about to beat you."

Weiss finally broke out a genuine smirk. She pulled out her deck and searched through it for a certain trap card, flipping it over to her teammate. "This was my last facedown."

Blake turned the revealed card, her eyes widening as an impressed whistle left her lips. "Dang."

"There are undoubtedly benefits to being filthy rich and having access to lots of high-quality dust," Weiss joked, replacing her trap in her deck as her cheer faded a tad. "Do you think that's why the White Fang are hitting so many dust shops? To make more Fusion cards–"

"It's not them."

Her teammate's words weren't harsh, or even reproachful, but Weiss still found herself wincing. "Right, I'm sorry, I shouldn't stereotype–"

"No, no, that's not it," Blake assured her, the cat faunus holding up a kind and comforting hand. "It's just… the tactics don't fit. The White Fang doesn't hit mom-and-pop dust shops for supplies. Not just because it'd be bad publicity, but it's just impractical. We're a big organization, even just the Vale cells. Hijack a SDC convoy and you arm us for months, maybe a year, but the haul from the average dust shop would barely last more than a week. Combine that with every heist carrying the risk of being caught and it's just not worth it."

"Not unless they really needed dust," Weiss theorized, scratching her chin in thought. "Father has been slowing down convoys to Vale given all the hijackings. The one arriving at the docks tonight is the first big shipment since the one you appropriated–saved the crew of!"

Blake frowned, her brow furrowing in contemplation. Or annoyance. Weiss would admit, she was still figuring out how to read her stoic, stony-faced teammate.

"Hey! Are you guys done in there?!" Ruby called in from the dorm room. "It's the only little girl's room we got!"

"Depends," Weiss shouted back. "Is your sister willing to let us out?"

"Yang left right after you stopped trying to force the knob!" Ruby revealed. "She had like six turbo duel challenges to get to!"

Weiss grumbled, her teeth gnashing as she realized how she'd been tricked into emotional exploration and healthy communication. Yang had less schoolwork to catch up on due to keeping up with homework while she'd been watching over them all in the infirmary. The blonde had even been wearing her riding gear for goodness' sake! The heiress should have realized the other Obelisk Blue would be heading out soon. She could have just waited her out!

Oh well. At least she and Blake had hashed out a bit of their issues…

The cat faunus girl brushed passed her out of the bathroom, picked up something from under her bed, and glided out of the dorm without a word, the door clicking shut behind her.

… evidently not all of them, but hey! Progress!

"Oh finally!" Ruby shouted, shoving Weiss out of the bathroom and diving in herself, a sigh of relief that the heiress did not want to think about soon echoing out from inside.

Unfortunately, that meant she was left alone with the student teacher she once spent an entire class disparaging.

Sun flashed her a cheeky grin and held out the notetaking goddess's massive, thorough, color-coordinated masterpiece to her. "You want me to give you two some alone time?"

"Oh haha," Weiss scoffed, taking care to wipe away the line of drool that'd begun dribbling down her chin at the sight of the notes before he saw it. "You have jokes."

"Not all monkeys can dance, Ice Queen," Sun joked with a warm laugh.

It was odd. Back at Forever Fall, she probably would have found some way to spin his friendly japes into something shifty and derogatory in her mind to justify her immediate view of him as a faunus rapscallion. She still did honestly, but after seeing Blake's memories, after feeling just the tiniest fraction of what it felt like to suffer the indignity humans had inflicted on the faunus, she caught her thoughts before they became her actions… and she did not like them.

"I'm… I'm sorry," Weiss remorsefully said, averting her eyes in shame. "About how I acted towards you back at Forever Fall. It was inexcusable behavior for a student to take towards a student teacher."

"That? Don't worry about it," Sun waved off. "I grew up on Vacuo's streets and I go to school in Mistral. I've been called a lot worse than 'rapscallion' for a lot less reason."

"Even if you had taken one of the Shade students' spots, it wouldn't have been good reason for calling you a faunus rapscallion," Weiss said. "I am truly sorry that such was my focus."

Sun blinked, looking at the heiress in surprise for a second. But, it wasn't long before an earnest grin as bright as the young man's namesake lit his face.

"Thank you, Weiss. Really," he replied, sincerely. "Now then, you sure you don't want these notes, or are you waiting for Yang to get back to share them with her?"

"Ha! Please! Yang wouldn't know how to appreciate notes like these," Weiss laughed, snatching up the paper and lovingly tracing her fingertips over the beautiful documents. "Besides, she'll be out for a while. Ever since she became the person to publicly get Pyrrha's life points below half, people have been challenging her all the time to see how they measure up to the Invincible Girl."

Sun cocked a confused eyebrow. "Why don't they just challenge Pyrrha? She seems nice. She'd totally accept."

Weiss snorted. "As if any of them are worthy to duel Pyrrha. No, they know they need to prove their worth before they take a shot at a queen like her. Yang, Nora, Ren, they're the ones who've unfortunately had to sift through all the rubbish challengers."

"Not Jaune?"

"Arc got a few at the start of the semester. Before people realized that they weren't exactly proving anything by beating him."

"You know, he has been getting better, Weiss," Ruby chimed in, shaking her wet hands dry as she left the bathroom. "Right, Sun?"

"Gave Russel a solid run for his money with that Onomatopeia deck of his in Goodwitch's last class," Sun nodded. "What about Blake? She did take that helmet of hers from her bed when she left the room?"

"That was a helmet?" Ruby queried. "I couldn't see it from the angle I was at."

"You mean the bathroom?" Weiss dryly intoned, before pensive curiosity overtook her face. She'd been in the bathroom at the time too. "Why would Blake leave with a helmet? She doesn't even have a duel runner here, right?"

"She could always sign out one of the school's as long as she has a Turbo Dueling license," Sun pointed out.

"Or just hotwire one," Ruby noted. "Odd-Eyed Bandit and all."

"Ruby!" Weiss protested, pointing at Sun.

"What? You guys were pretty loud in there at times. He heard Blake mention Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and the Blood-Soaked Bull. Yang and I explained," Ruby shrugged. "He's cool with it."

"I'd be a pretty big hypocrite if I got mad about someone having a bit of a criminal past. I mean, the White Fang's worse than being a petty thief, but it's not 'bad' bad like if she used to be a Spider or something," Sun nodded. An excited look took over his face. "Oh! Do you think she's going after the White Fang? You know, going on a one-woman mission to find out if they're really behind the recent robberies or not?"

"That would be so cool!" Ruby squeed, her silver eyes sparkling. "We should back her up!"

"We should put a stop to such vigilantism before it gets her hurt," Weiss countered. "Not that we have anything to worry about. Even if Blake was reckless enough to do something like that, it's not as if she can just go stake out every dust shop in Vale hoping she's watching the one that the real thieves will attack."

"What if she went after the White Fang instead?" Sun hypothesized. "You know, use her Pendulum skills to crack some grunts' skulls and make them tell her if they're the ones doing it."

"So cool!" Ruby grinned.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "A more feasible plan maybe, but she'd still have to know where the White Fang is, unlikely since the bases have undoubtedly been moved to keep her defection from compromising them, or know where they're going… to… be…"

Like the first huge SDC dust shipment in months.

"Oh, that MINX!"

Ruby and Sun tilted their heads. "Huh?"

"To the docks!"

"Huh?"

They didn't get the chance to articulate anything else before Weiss raced out of the room, her team leader and the blonde Haven student stumbling after her in confusion.

Didn't expect there to be a chapter without any sort of dueling action. Oh well. The docks will have plenty of it.

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Go Forth and Conquer!