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"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing."

"I…" She hesitated for a moment, gathering herself with a deep breath before continuing, "Tukson is dead." She said with a solemn kind of finality. It was, well, kind of expected. But still, to hear it said like that, it still hit me hard. I let out a small breath, deflating as the air left me.

"I want to, no. I need to find out what happened to him." She said, her voice picking up, though I could tell that it was a façade. "Tukson was my friend. He… he helped me when I was in a tough spot, he's one of the reasons that I'm at Beacon at all. I can't just let whoever did this get away with it." She finished, the determined face she was putting on cracking slightly when she said Tukson's name.

"Okay." I responded, "How can I help?" The widening of her eyes would have been comical in any other situation, but I couldn't laugh. Not here, not now.


Blake POV

Jaune Arc was a strange one. Our first meeting had… not been my best moment. After the turmoil of leaving the White Fang, of leaving Adam behind, I hadn't been thinking straight. I'd been running on autopilot, fighting any Grimm that got in the way while I walked to Vale in a daze.

When the blond had jumped in to help, I hadn't seen a huntsman in training fighting a Grimm. I had seen a human with a sword and shield, a possible enemy combatant. The automatic response had been to gain leverage, assess and then either escape or remove the threat.

I hadn't even thought about the encounter again until the field trip to Forever Fall. Sure, Jaune had been distant and hesitant to engage me when we'd been slotted into the same team at the school, but I had assumed his dislike came from my nature. That he had somehow figured out that I was a Faunus. And so, assuming him to be a racist, I had avoided him just as he avoided me.

That only made the encounter in the cafeteria more confusing. He had gone out of his way to confront Cardin, a racist bully, in defense of a Faunus student. Not only that, but he had also gotten in trouble over it, and he had been more than happy to take the detention if it meant helping that girl. It was so at odds with my image of him, that I hadn't known what to do.

When he missed his next class because of it, though, I'd made my mind up and tracked him down to give him my notes. That, it seemed, confused the boy more than he did me. Afterwards, he had become more amicable, but it was clear that something about me had still been bothering him.

Seeing him fight those Ursa in Forever Fall, though, it brought everything back. Jaune didn't avoid me because I was a Faunus, hell, he probably didn't even know. No, he had been avoiding me because I had threatened him.

I'd jumped in to help him in the Forest, just as he had helped me. And even if I hadn't needed help then, he would have probably been fine too, even if I hadn't stepped in. And yet, it felt… nice. To do something good like that, to help someone. I had come to Beacon to turn my life around. To get away from the thing the White Fang had turned into and to finally do some good, to change things.

That field trip genuinely felt like the first time in a long time that I'd been proud of something I did.

And then, BASN had come together. We'd become a team, friends, even. Never in a million years would I have thought that I'd get along with a Schnee, but the heiress had grown on me. As snarky and rude as she could be, she was caring too, that had become more than clear when she had done nothing but fuss over me after I had jumped in to help Jaune fight off those Ursa.

But all good things must come to an end.

The fight with Weiss had been bad enough, but Jaune had stepped up as team leader and separated us to calm us down. The blond had then spent all day trying not only to cheer me up, but to actually understand why I felt the way I did, instead of just condemning the White Fang as criminals and murderers.

It was… it felt good to have someone who just listened when I talked. Once, that had been Adam. Towards the end, though, I'd come to realize that the redhead might have been listening, but that it just went in one ear and out the other with him. When I raised concerns about a mission, he would hum and nod along, only to do the mission anyways. Jaune though, he wasn't just listening, though, he was trying to understand too.

Weiss' revelation in the dorms that night had actually helped, as strange as that sounded. Somewhere in the back of my mind I'd always known that the Schnee probably didn't just hate the Faunus because they thought it was funny, that there had to be some kind of reasoning behind it, flawed as it may be. But to hear the actual reason why Weiss felt the way she did, it was like a punch in the gut, and a reminder or why I had left the White Fang in the first place.

So, that night, instead of reading a book, as I'd normally do, I had spent the hours reading the news. If the White Fang was behind the robberies, I had to do something, I couldn't just sit there and let them fall further. And if they were behind it, I'd be able to find out, even from news reports and articles in the papers. I was familiar enough with the tactics employed by the Faunus group that I'd be able to piece together the truth given enough time, after all, I had invented some of those tactics.

And then, I found it. 'Book store owner found dead' The article had read.

Tukson was like me. The man had joined the Fang years ago, before the organization had grown violent. He had happily used his ties to Faunus-friendly publishing houses to print out pamphlets and flyers for us. And much like me, when things went too far, when it grew out of control, he had been trying to leave. He had even helped me get out.

And now he was dead.

I couldn't discount the possibility that it had been the Fang. If they knew that he'd not only helped me get away from Adam, but that he was looking to escape himself. It was a horrible thought, one that I didn't want to dwell on, but it just didn't work that way. Ever since I'd read the article, it had been all I could think about in a grief-filled haze.

I needed to find out, to know for sure if it had been the White Fang, or if he had just been unlucky enough to get caught in a robbery gone wrong. Even if I knew that it was unlikely, I couldn't leave it.

And so, I found myself standing in the empty crime scene that was Tukson's Book Trade. Apparently with my team leader hot on my heels. How he'd managed to follow me all the way here from Beacon without me noticing, I didn't know. I must have been more out of it than I'd thought. Then again, the boy was full of surprises.

When I explained what had happened, I expected many things. Apprehension at being at a crime scene, a crime in and of itself. Fear at being faced with a potential murderer. Anything, really.

Instead, I got a steady blue-eyed gaze, the boy's eyes glinting like sapphires in what little moonlight streamed through the frosted glass windows, and a single question. "How can I help."

Full of surprises indeed.


Jaune POV

Sitting in the Beacon library, I couldn't help but wince at the stack of newspapers Blake slammed down onto the table. Was it too late to back out? No, I shook my head. Tukson had asked me to help Blake out, and I'd promised I would. At the time, I hadn't really known what he'd meant by Blake getting in over her head, but chasing after a murderer seemed like a pretty dangerous endeavor, even for a Huntress in training.

So, I grabbed a newspaper off the top of the stack with a sigh and grabbed a pen to take some notes with if I found anything useful. According to the black-haired girl, I was looking for any criminal activity in the area around Tukson's. She, apparently, hadn't known of anyone who might want Tukson dead, and somehow, I wasn't surprised. What kind of enemies would a bookstore owner have anyways.

So, our most plausible theory was a robbery gone wrong.

I was most of the way through my second newspaper, reading a small article about a spree of vandalism near the River, when a voice broke my concentration.

"Heya Jaune!"

Looking up, I was met by Ruby's silver-eyed stare as she walked up to our little table with a smile on her face. The little red reaper was, for once, walking around without the rest of her team. The times I had been able to talk to my first friend at the school alone had been few and far between in the last couple of weeks. And I honestly felt kind of bad about it.

Sure, we all sat together at meals and even in some classes, but it wasn't the same as just hanging out together. Ever since I'd actually begun getting along with my own team, I hadn't made nearly as much of an effort with the younger girl.

"Oh, hey Blake." She added, finally noticing the black-haired girl behind the stack of newspapers that still sat upon the table. In lieu of an actual greeting, Blake just waved at Ruby, but that seemed like more than enough for the younger girl.

"Hey Ruby, how's it going." I said, a small smile creeping up on my own face. As much as I wanted to help Blake out, I was more than glad to have a little distraction from the dull walls of text I'd been sifting through for the past… half an hour, I realized as I checked the time on my scroll.

"Good, great!" She said, though I could see the way her smile dimmed just the slightest bit as she continued. "Uh, I was uh, wondering if we could talk. You know. Uh, yeah." Ruby said, stumbling over her words as she shot a look at Blake that neither of us missed.

"Oh, uh sure." I said, standing up and stretching lightly. "I'll be back in a bit, alright." I said to my teammate, who simply nodded before going back to the newspaper she was checking.

I walked alongside Ruby as she wandered out of the library and into the halls of the school. After a couple of moments of silence, she began talking as we walked aimlessly. Clearly, she didn't have any kind of destination planned for this discussion.

"So… you've been getting along better with your team." She said, and I nodded along, but when she didn't continue, I moved to fill the silence.

"Yeah. It's… it's been good. It feels like we're an actual team now." I said, and my smile grew a little when I thought of the good times we'd been having recently. Game nights and sparring sessions or even just the snarky barbs Weiss and I threw at one another.

"I just… How do you get them to listen to you?" She asked after a moment, looking more uncertain than I'd ever seen her. And I had met her when she'd literally just blown up, so that was saying something.

"What do you mean?" I asked, more than a little confused. VLYR always seemed like some kind of well-oiled machine when we saw them together. The complete opposite of my own team, really. As far as I'd heard and seen, VLYR hadn't really had any arguments or fights or anything. And even if they had, why would she be coming to me of all people. BASN got along fine now, but we were probably still the most dysfunctional team among the first years.

"I… I heard about Weiss and Blake fighting." She said with some hesitation, and I nodded along, not really getting what she was talking about and hoping that she'd explain a bit more. Luckily, she did. "And I heard that you separated them, got them to cool down so they could calm down and talk it out later. And it totally worked!" She crowed, the smile that had been curiously absent suddenly reappearing.

I still didn't understand what she was asking me, though. Yes, I'd separated Weiss and Blake when things got a little too heated, but it wasn't like I'd ordered them to stop fighting and they'd just magically listened or anything. I'd just asked Pyrrha to get Weiss out of there while I took Blake away. So, I just nodded along again.

"I just, it just feels like none of my teammates really listen to me like that." Ruby continued, wrapping her signature red cloak tighter around herself. And I couldn't help but frown at how unsure the girl looked.

"I thought you guys got along?" I had to ask, because it really did seem that way, to me at least. But I could have been wrong.

"We do!" Ruby said hurriedly, denying the accusation. "Nora and Ren are great, and Yang's my sister, I love her to death." She said, leaving me even more confused than before. If they got along, then what was the problem? "I just, it feels like they're just humoring me." She said quietly, almost hiding away in her cloak as she came to a stop, shuffling nervously when I looked back at her.

"They don't take you seriously, you mean?" I asked, a little frown curling my lips. That hit a little close to home.

"Yeah…" The younger girl mumbled, looking down at her feet.

"I…" I started, thinking my answer through. "I think, you should talk to them about it." When she went to interrupt, I leaned forward, putting one hand on her shoulder as I did so. She closed her mouth. "Seriously, I mean. Don't let them leave, don't let Yang tease you or anything. If she tries, tell her to stop and tell her what you think." I said, taking a breath before I continued.

"But what if they get mad?"

"Then they get mad. Maybe you'll even argue, or fight. But that's okay. Look at my team, we fight all the time, and we're doing okay-ish now." I told her, grinning as she giggled. "Look, I don't actually know all that much about being a leader yet, but I think it's important that you actually do something, right. If they know how you feel about this, then you can actually change things, but if you don't say anything, it'll only get worse no matter what you do." I told her, before leaning a little closer. "And if they don't shape up, just come to me! Us leaders have to stick together, right?" I said with a grin.

When Ruby's eyes went from despondent to hopeful, and a little smile once again sat comfortably on her lips, I felt like I'd just done something right at least. It was only when I thought of the newspapers that were waiting for me in the library, that I realized that I had a first-hand source right in front of me!

"Ruby, I have a favor to ask!" I said, "I need you to tell me everything you remember about Roman Torchwick."


Wow, this was… something. Writing from Blake's perspective felt a little sloppy, so I might just come back and edit it tomorrow. As for Ruby, it's the first time I've really written a lot of lines for her since initiation, but I think I captured her awkward nature pretty well. Let me know what you think!

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Have a good one!