"Truth is the first casualty of war"

- John Price


"How can we help?"

Blake smothered a sigh as Ruby and Yang unwittingly parroted Weiss' words from the previous night. Said heiress was sending her a smug grin, and Blake was forced to admit — internally, she'd never do so out loud — that Weiss was right. Blake had been stupid to think otherwise for even a moment. Of course Ruby and Yang would want to help her with whatever she was doing the moment they had the sparsest of details.

"You can't," Blake told them, like she'd told Weiss.

Like Weiss, she knew the odds of them dropping it there were nonexistent.

The four of them stood in their dorm the morning after Weiss had followed her — Blake took the time to mentally berate herself for getting caught for the fifteenth time — and quite honestly, Blake was too tired to have this conversation. She'd caught about twenty minutes of sleep before their alarm went off and she was forced to confront her team, courtesy of Weiss.

Weiss wasn't happy about it, but had surprisingly let Blake go on her outing last night without any complaints once she had explained that if she suddenly didn't show up when she was scheduled for duty, her supervisor at the local cell would grow suspicious.

That had… reassured her, Blake supposed, though the word didn't feel like it fit. Weiss had said she wanted to help, but how much she'd actually wanted to help rather than just get in the way to keep Blake 'safe' remained to be seen — that she was fine with Blake losing some sleep to keep her cover was a good sign.

"You're trying to find information on when the White Fang's gonna try something next so you can catch them in the act and prove they're the ones behind all the violence, right?" Yang dismissed her dismissal with whimsical ease. "I know some information brokers in Vale I can-"

"No!" Blake cut her off.

The three stepped back with widened eyes, and Blake flushed. Clearing her throat and shoving down the heat in her cheeks, she elaborated, "Perseus is almost certainly working with them, and he wouldn't approve of me — us — doing something like this."

Yang hummed, seeing her point, though Blake took careful note of how Weiss frowned. She could imagine Weiss was wondering if this was something they should really be doing if Perseus wouldn't approve.

Blake had to trust that even if Weiss wasn't comfortable continuing to help her — she could only pray — that she wouldn't tell him about it. Her team had lied to him for her before, for all the good it had done. Only time would tell if Weiss decided this was one step too far, but there wasn't much Blake could do about it.

"You're probably right," Yang granted, running a brush through her damp hair. "But it's not like Percy would automatically know if I went to them. He's gotta work with a lotta people, right? There's no way he can keep track of every information broker in Vale, much less with everything else he's got going on."

That was… fair. Blake wouldn't put it past him to have his spiders report back on anything she did, because he was almost certainly still suspicious of her, but Yang? He didn't have a reason to be suspicious of her, and like Yang had said, he was a busy guy.

"It's still risky," Blake decided. "You'd be surrounded by people associated with him, all it'd take is one of them mentioning your name with the wrong audience and he'd know."

Ruby nodded, speaking around her toothbrush. "No point rusching. We shud tache it schlow."

Blake winced. "Actually, we have a time limit until Perseus comes back. He won't want you guys putting yourselves in danger, and he probably won't approve of me going off either."

She was very careful not to mention how involved he was with the White Fang. It was public knowledge Mistral was on friendly terms with them, being a haven for the organization when every other kingdom declared them criminals, but to her knowledge only her and Adam truly knew how involved he was, and even then Blake herself didn't have the full picture — mostly what Adam told her.

Point being, Blake was not going to give away his secrets. He might have been far more lenient with her than she'd expected so far, but she would not be pushing that envelope by outing him to the Schnee heiress.

"We could just go to Percy," Weiss pointed out. "If you have knowledge about the White Fang inciting violence, he could help."

Blake paled, shaking her head rapidly. "No, no, bad idea!"

Yeah, like Perseus would help them against the White Fang. As far as she knew Adam was doing this of his own volition, but what Blake knew was precious little. Plus, it was a bit too convenient that the cities experiencing violence were all the ones Perseus didn't control.

That may have been because Adam didn't want to upset him, to be fair, but it could have just as easily been at Perseus' direction. The last they'd spoken Perseus hadn't asked them to do anything, but that was months ago, and Blake only saw what she was allowed to.

Like she'd said, the full truth of Perseus' relationship with the White Fang was something kept strictly between him and Adam.

"Even if he believes us," Blake rushed to explain, "He doesn't have jurisdiction in Vale. He couldn't do anything, and then he'd just make sure we didn't get involved."

"She's got a point," Yang came to her defense, and Blake withheld a relieved sigh. Ruby nodded along as well, apparently agreeing with her assessment.

Weiss frowned, but reluctantly nodded.

"We should go chu tha polische," Ruby said, spitting out her toothpaste and running her toothbrush under the tap.

Weiss explained why that was a bad idea before Blake could. "Even if the police could storm some random Faunus' homes with no proof, it would only make more people angry."

"As it should," Blake bit instinctually.

Weiss just rolled her eyes, but didn't respond verbally. "We could try to capture a member of the White Fang that will confess," she suggested instead.

"I don't think any of us have any idea what we'd do with a member of the White Fang, Weiss cream." Yang snorted, stepping into her skirt. "Not like we can put em' up in Beacon 'till they talk."

"And we don't have a way of making them confess in the first place," Ruby pointed out, haphazardly shoving a notebook into her backpack.

Blake decided not to mention that she could make their captive confess. That was not a skillset she wanted to demonstrate in front of her team.

"You're right," Weiss relented, pulling a sock up her calf. "Even if we did capture one, the police wouldn't be able to act on the information with no proof. That really just leaves getting hard proof — we need to catch them in the act, right? Before we can do that, we need to know when they're going to strike."

Blake frowned, that's what she'd been trying by infiltrating the White Fang. But her alter ego was still a recruit — she wasn't trusted with that kind of information.

"I think I should talk to my contact," Yang volunteered, bending over to slip on her shoes. "It's the best lead we have."

Weiss nodded before Blake could shoot her down. "Agreed. I'll speak to some of the union leaders in the area and try to find anyone acting suspicious in their organization — my name should get me a meeting, if nothing else. Ruby, you can try to talk to some of the charged officers, see if we can find anything in common between all their different cases. Blake can continue infiltrating their ranks, and we can cover for her while she catches up on sleep. Everyone know what they're doing?"

Blake's objections died on her tongue as Ruby and Yang straightened, nodding confidently.

She'd have preferred they stay out of it, but…

Maybe she could use the help.


Seventeen hours.

It took less than a day for the person Percy had put Pyrrha in contact with to get back to her.

Percy hadn't even asked what she needed help with or why, once she said she wanted someone who wasn't biased to look into something he'd told her someone would be in contact, and two minutes later Pyrrha was explaining the situation to a voice on her scroll.

She'd prepared to have to wait another couple weeks, and had started keeping an eye out for Coco to let her know what had happened so far — even if she didn't have any solid news, she could make sure the girl knew it was being looked into.

But the next morning during breakfast she received a message on her scroll and pulled it up quickly, setting down her fork. Her assumption had been that the person she'd spoken to needed some more information, or her permission to access something.

Instead it was his full report, not in a document and pages long like the prosecutor's, but texted to her in a short list.

Stated allegations confirmed. Council members are paying below market rent, business offering loans to council-affiliated businesses is controlled by accused property owner. There is frequent contact between senior members of the council and said property owner.

Below the message, several files were attached. Pyrrha opened them one at a time, and her eyes widened.

The rental agreement for each of the council members, the transaction details and invoices for rent payments as well as the listing price for similar units, scroll logs of a number where several lines were highlighted, tiny notes in the margin labeling them as specific council member's scrolls, and meeting minutes from businesses that had loaned councilors money which made it clear the property owner had arranged the loans.

Pyrrha struggled to contain her excitement as she flipped through her scroll, shooting back a quick Thank you! before pulling up Percy and sending him a message.

I just got everything from the person you sent to me, thank you! Can I make what he sent me public, or should I not?

She tinkered with the wording for a few minutes before eventually hitting send. She waited anxiously when the response wasn't immediate, setting aside her scroll and distracting herself by shoveling eggs into her mouth.

If anyone noticed Pyrrha was a bit quiet that morning they didn't mention it, and as the group was beginning to clean up and move on to class Pyrrha felt her scroll vibrate. It was in her hands a moment later, tray rested on an empty table nearby.

Go for it

. . .

Pyrrha bit her lip as Percy continued to type.

I can have someone redact any sensitive information if youd like. Keep everything relevant but throw out the rest. You can do it either way but might be a good idea.

Her response was immediate.

I'd appreciate that very much. Thank you for everything!

She went to put her scroll away when she saw him typing, and kept it out for another moment.

Anytime. Proud of you :)

Pyrrha flushed to her roots, shoving her scroll into her skirt pocket — thank the gods for those — and picking her tray back up, throwing it in the dirty tray pile and rushing over to where her team was waiting for her with curiosity.

Pyrrha sent them a nervous smile. "I'll tell you later. Promise."

Right now, she was too busy worrying over what would happen during her meeting tonight.


"Percy!"

Percy looked up from his scroll long enough to shoot Junior a quick smile, offering the man a seat with a wave of his hand. "Enjoying Mistral?"

Though Percy hadn't made a joke, Junior laughed as he took a seat identical to the one Percy himself sat in. "I am! I've never been to the old country," he admitted, setting down a bottle of red wine with a ribbon tied around its neck on the coffee table arranged between the four cushioned chairs occupying the room.

Another few less cushioned chairs were pulled around it, the aftermath of a meeting with Shiro and some people he'd brought that had ended just a few minutes ago. International bank directors, meeting to unofficially decide monetary policy. Turns out, having controlling interest over a majority of Remnant meant he more or less controlled lien as a currency.

It was strange how he'd never needed money more and yet it had simultaneously never meant less.

Finishing typing out a text to Pyrrha on his scroll, Percy collapsed it and put it in his pocket.

"You know you're welcome to come by any time," Percy began with a sincere smile, "But I'm assuming there's a reason you came all the way out here?"

"Well, not really," Junior scratched his cheek, straightening a bit. "Not to say that I didn't have a reason to request to meet you!" he rushed to correct, eyes widening briefly, though Percy hadn't budged an inch. "You know I'm not one to waste your time, I just happened to be in Mistral already on a bit of a vacation. As I said, I've not been to the old country before, and, well, I've lived by its culture my entire life — I wanted to see what it was like."

Percy nodded patiently.

Junior coughed, his face reddening. "Anyway, I wanted to come pay my respects in person while I was here." he gestured to the bottle on the table. "And pass on news I got from back in Vale."

Percy raised an eyebrow, gesturing for him to continue.

Junior reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll, sliding it open and turning it to Percy to show him a holographic image that had his eyebrows shooting into his hairline.

"One of the Beacon kids you asked us to help came by asking for information. Since you asked us to help them personally, I thought you might want to know."

The image on Junior's scroll was blurry, but it was clearly Yang at Junior's club, speaking to the bartender. Her long, strikingly blonde hair gave her away.

"Information? What on?"

"She asked about two things, actually," Junior told him as Percy handed him his scroll back. "Firstly, she wanted to know about any word on White Fang operations in Vale coming up over the next couple months."

Percy hummed curiously. "Did you tell her?"

"Of course." Junior nodded. "You asked us to help her if she came by, after all. It was nothing too sensitive, anyway. The only things they have planned are some routine patrols around Faunus neighborhoods and running protection for some Faunus unions. With the violence recently…" Junior trailed off, but Percy got his point. It was far from out of the ordinary.

He resisted the urge to massage his temples. He had been concentrating on culling that violence quite a bit recently — more in Mantle than in Vale, because it was more or less the same situation but he'd soon be spending as much time as he could in Vale. He wanted to be hands on with Mantle while he could.

For all the good it had done him.

There was no fixing it. Every time he put out one fire and assuaged one group of Faunus, there was a shooting at another rally. Then when he went and dealt with the police to make sure they were squared away, some rogue Faunus who had lost a friend decided that wasn't good enough and the cycle continued — and that wasn't even mentioning the balancing act of publicly appeasing both the Faunus and humans. It was made easier by the fact he wasn't dealing with it as a public figure but through backroom conversations, but it was a headache and a half regardless.

He'd been running around putting out fires from half a world away and it had gotten old after about a week.

But regardless, that wasn't his primary concern. His primary concern was that Yang was getting involved somehow, and Percy knew exactly who he wanted to blame.

Looks like Blake had gone ahead and told her team the truth. If only she could've refrained from giving Percy another headache.

He opened his mouth to tell Junior to order Roman to have his sidekick make sure they didn't get in any trouble until Percy could deal with it, but thought better of it. He could tell Roman personally. The fewer people who know what was going on where team RWBY was involved, the better.

"And the second thing she asked?" Percy asked, pulling out his scroll to text Roman.

"This one, I think you'll get a kick out of," Junior told him, and a quick glance up told Percy the man was grinning faintly. "If the rumor mill in Windpath is anything to go by, you two seem to have a lot in common."

Percy paused in typing out his text to shoot the man a curious look.

"She was asking after Raven Branwen."


Weiss watched Blake impatiently pace in the middle of their dorm at a truly astounding pace. Weiss herself was no stranger to a good stress-pace, but Blake was going for an Olympic stride.

The reason for her nerves was obvious to everyone in the room; they were running out of time, and they all knew it. Percy had sent word ahead to Pyrrha that he was set to return early for the Vytal festival in just over a week, after less than two months out of Vale.

In the month or so since Weiss had caught Blake sneaking out and they'd agreed to help her with the White Fang, they'd gotten nowhere.

Well, that wasn't quite true. Ruby had compiled a pretty compelling list of similarities between the cases that might hint at a semblance — if anyone believed the testimony of the officers.

The officers that had shot into an unarmed crowd.

And even then it wasn't enough to prove anything. Weiss herself had at least been able to put together some pretty convincing evidence that the unions were involved with the White Fang somehow, but it had become clear as the violence escalated that that was a bit of an open secret anyways. The White Fang showed up at almost every rally and protest now, and even though Weiss had enough to prove they were working together, it didn't even begin to prove the White Fang were responsible for provoking the violence in the first place.

Yang had come in as the most helpful by far. Whoever her informant in Vale was, they were good. The four of them knew about every time the White Fang would be at a rally or protest weeks in advance. It made the information Blake gained from her infiltration all but useless — something that Weiss was sure irked her to no end.

But while they could show up at the rallies they knew the White Fang would be at, it wasn't as simple as proving there were White Fang and saving the day. They needed to prove the White Fang were the ones provoking the violence, which meant they needed to catch them mid-act.

They had yet to.

Most of the rallies ended without anything more violent than a bit of shoving, and of those that didn't there was no single 'turning point' moment like in some of the earlier protests where an officer fired into the crowd. It was just a progressive climb towards violence, as much caused by the rioters getting worked up as the police presence — if not more so.

Weiss watched as Blake continued to storm around their dorm with morbid curiosity. Weiss was downright impressed she'd managed to keep up such a pace for…

She checked her scroll.

Thirteen minutes.

"Any ideas?" Yang asked the air from her bunk. She lay on her bed staring at the ceiling, while Ruby did the same above Weiss. Weiss herself was only sitting on her own bed, but difference in posture aside they were all in the same boat. All three of them knew time was almost up, and were trying to think of ways to finally expose the White Fang's involvement.

Blake… well, Weiss figured she was using all her brain power on convincing herself not to dive out the window and declare a one-woman war on the White Fang.

Yang was met with no answer but the aggressive patter of Blake's shoes on the dorm's floor.

Weiss pursed her lips. She'd promised herself she'd give everyone else a chance to think of some ideas before pitching her own… inspired idea, but it didn't look like that was happening.

"If we can't expose the White Fang for being behind the violence," she began, drawing on all the confidence she could muster. "What if we frame them for it?"

Blake's pacing stopped suddenly, Yang leaned up in her bed to look at Weiss curiously, and Ruby's head poked over the side of her bunk.

"If we know they're actually the ones behind this then it's not exactly framing them, per se," she continued cautiously. "And it's a lot easier to fabricate proof than find real proof."

Silence dominated the room for several long seconds.

"That's what crooked cops do," Ruby piped up hesitantly. "That's not… it's not what good guys do."

"We can all agree that between what Blake saw, your interviews with the cops, and my meetings with the union leadership, we know the White Fang is instigating violence, right?"

Ruby pursed her lips, but nodded.

"Then the only object is proving they have a semblance that can cause hallucinations, which is impossible with our capabilities. The White Fang are framing the police for violence, so the best way to deal with it is by beating them at their own game — we frame them for what they're actually doing," she explained quickly, paraphrasing the advice she'd been given the day before.

"And how are we supposed to frame them, exactly?" Yang asked dubiously, fully sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of her bunk.

"It's simple," Weiss told her. "Blake's already pretending to be White Fang. She makes an attempt to incite violence at the next protest but fails, get caught red-handed, and escapes."

"Someone could see through her disguise," Ruby pointed out. "Or they could force her to use aura to escape and narrow down who to look for. Or any one of another thousand things could go wrong."

Weiss shrugged abashedly, flushing lightly. "I said it would be simple, not easy."

"I don't like it." Blake frowned harshly, prompting Weiss to mentally prepare herself for another episode of team drama on instinct alone. "It'll vilify Faunus; all the backlash from the innocent Faunus being killed won't even be provoked at that point. It'll just be the Faunus stirring things up, and then there will be violence from angry humans."

Weiss sighed exasperatedly. Did Blake even hear herself?

"What exactly was the plan then?" she rolled her eyes. "That was always going to be the case. Our goal is to reveal the White Fang are the ones starting violence so that the Faunus extremists will calm down, right? So unless you have a plan to reveal the White Fang caused the violence without revealing Faunus did…" she drawled, trailing off.

Blake scowled at the floor. "We should stop the White Fang from causing any more violence without making the situation worse…"

"Worse for who?" Weiss countered, unflinching when Blake's narrowed eyes snapped to hers. "Worse for everyone, or just the Faunus? Once we reveal the White Fang is intentionally sparking violence, people will decide not to rise to it."

Yang poorly covered up a snort. "Most people don't work like that, Weiss cream." the blonde rolled her eyes, shoving herself off her bed to land on their floor with a soft thud. "People don't stop to decide their emotions. People have died. You don't just stop being angry about that because you know someone wants you to be angry. Maybe some will, but most won't," she chipped in.

Before Weiss could ask Yang where she'd gotten her doctorate in psychology, Blake added her own two cents.

"Racism isn't logical either," she pointed out. "Yet most humans still are."

Weiss raised an impeccable eyebrow. Most? That was a hefty stretch. What, did she think the world was out to get her? Thinking like that is what led people to joining the White Fang in the first place.

Before Weiss could point that out, she was interrupted yet again.

"Weiss is still right, though."

Weiss blinked and took a moment to process that. Blake's head whipped to her partner so quickly Weiss was genuinely concerned she might get whiplash, and even Ruby silently observing above her let out a confused 'huh?'

"Didn't you just say that my plan wouldn't work?" Weiss vocalized for the three of them.

Yang winked at her in the way that Weiss now knew to mean she was messing with her — or them, in this case — and loving every second of it. "Nope."

Weiss deadpanned, refusing to ask the question Yang so obviously wanted her to.

Yang huffed when Ruby and Blake joined Weiss in staring at her silently. "You guys are no fun. But no, I didn't say your plan wouldn't work, I said you were wrong about how people would react. I think it'll be ugly, but we need to rip off the band-aid. Until we expose what's going on, relations between Human and Faunus can't even begin to heal. At least afterwards, Faunus might stop listening to the White Fang and the police will start to look in the right places. Things will get worse before they get better, but waiting won't help."

The room fell into silence. None of them had a response. Weiss for one agreed — they needed to do something, or else what was the point of any of this in the first place? Ruby hadn't spoken since they'd started moving forward with framing the White Fang, but seemed resigned to going with the team regardless.

And then there was one.

Blake glared at the ground, lips pursed, but nodded. "Alright, let's do it."

It was time for Weiss' own nerves to come back. The plan had been running through her head all day, but a lot was on the line. It had to be perfect. She wasn't allowed anything less.

"So, here's what I have so far…"


"I believe that's all there is for tonight, Lady Nikos. Enjoy the weekend, and I'll see you next week."

Steeling her nerves, Pyrrha cleared her throat. "…Actually, there was something I wanted to discuss."

"Oh?" Argus' chairman raised an eyebrow. "Of course. Please, go on."

She swallowed. She had all the justification she could possibly have, but she still felt nervous — she had never used her position before. "I've received evidence of corruption among Argus' 11th district council. I'd like you to have them removed from office and placed under arrest, please."

The chairman frowned. "My Lady, I received the report from the prosecutor yesterday the same as you did. There was nothing to implicate any corruption. If there is something going on, we certainly can't prove it."

"I received information from somewhere else," she told him.

"May I ask where?" the chairman asked politely. "We cannot remove a local council on unreliable evidence."

Pyrrha pursed her lips. Dropping Percy's name would silence the chairman's objections, but she wanted to do something without leaning on him for once. Sure she was using his informant, but that was… different. If she couldn't accomplish anything without saying his name, she wasn't deserving of any of the privileges her position afforded.

"No." she said instead. "It's an anonymous source, but one I trust. I'm not asking you to send them to prison without a trial — I can prove it in court, but until then please place them under arrest."

The chairman sighed heavily. "If your evidence is anything but airtight, we'll be unable to convict them and become reviled. It is on record that all of our investigations came up empty, Lady Nikos. The public will simply not accept it."

"They don't have to," She blurted.

Silence reigned for what felt like minutes. The chairman stared back at her blankly.

"They don't have to accept it." Burying her hands in her lap, Pyrrha shakily repeated herself. "I have the ability to do as I wish within Argus, correct? I would like to remove the 11th district council and place them under arrest on charges of corruption."

The chairman rested his face on one hand. "My lady, even you have to answer to Mistral and Perseus — to the rule of law. Please don't be rash."

Pyrrha mustered up her resolve. She knew she was in the right. This was why she was there — to be able to act outside the rules of the system. Percy had told her as much himself.

"I'll worry about that. I've made up my mind."

The chairman slouched. "It will be as you wish, my lady. I will inform the commissioner. However, please understand I will have to inform Minister Wan of this incident."

"That's fine." she said, managing to keep her voice from cracking. "Good night."

"Good night, my lady."

Pyrrha closed her terminal and immediately let out an explosive breath.

She had never done anything like that before — never used her position. That had been her first decision as the baroness of Argus.

She just hoped it was the right one.


Hello everyone! Late night for me tonight - been wanting to respond to reviews and stuff, but it's looking like I'll have to get to that tomorrow. Thanks for all the support to those who did.

The 3 chaps a month thing has been rough already cause i kinda be simpin, but we'll find a way to manage. Or I'll crash and burn in 10 days and I'll let you all know we're back to 2 a month! Win-win!

Hope you all enjoyed, have a great week!

Next chapter June 30