"The only way to remove your lies is to make them come true."

- Suzaku Kururugi


A loud, high pitched tone rang in Percy's ears, and it took him a few moments to realize he wasn't dreaming. Even still, he was only truly stirred to motion when a flailing wrist hit him in the nose.

"Get the fucking thing," Raven muttered, making no effort to retract her arm.

Clumsily, Percy pushed it off his face for her and rolled off of damp sheets in search of the noise. His hands flailed over the ground until he realized that it was coming from the nightstand.

The same nightstand within arm's reach of where he'd been laying a moment before.

Grumbling angrily, Percy grabbed the scroll and took a moment to consider making himself a bit more presentable before accepting what was definitely a work call.

In the end, he really just wanted to get back to the bed and pass out as soon as reasonably possible.

He hit the accept button, causing him to be greeted by Roman Torchwick's smug face.

"What?" Percy tried to snap, but it came out closer to an angry mumble.

Roman shot him a cheeky grin. "Fun night?"

"What do you want?" Percy repeated. He couldn't afford to ignore a call, even while plastered at two in the morning, but he'd be damned if he was going to spend any more time standing with his eyes open than absolutely necessary.

"Hey, hey, don't get snappy with me. While you've been getting your rocks off I've been over here cleaning up a mess for you."

Rolling his eyes, Percy gestured for the man to continue. Either he needed to deal with it right this moment or he didn't (and it was sounding more like the latter) anything else didn't really matter right now.

"Some of those kids you asked us to look after are being a real pain in my ass. They've got all of Vale in an uproar, and Neo had to pull their ass out of the fire."

That sent a jolt of clarity through Percy's otherwise hazy thoughts.

"Which kids?"

In answer, Roman panned his scroll to look through a window. Inside, Neo stood with her arms crossed, scowl fixed in place, glaring daggers at four teenage girls sat on a long couch, three of them sitting nervously while the last slumped into her chair, unconscious.

Team RWBY.

Percy was sober in an instant.

"What happe-" Percy cut himself off, pinching his nose. "You know what, forget it, I'd barely be able to understand you in this state. Are they safe?"

The scroll panned back to Roman. "Yeah, I've got em'."

"Good. I'm on my way."

Percy snapped his scroll shut, massaging his eyes.

For a moment he started cursing himself for being so stupid, getting distracted out here and leaving RWBY unprotected, but he had protected them. Neo and Roman had come through. Anything more than that might've been too heavy handed.

Was that the right phrase? Heavy handed? Unsubtle? Or was it something else…

He was not sober enough for this.

"Winter," he called blearily. "Bullhead."

When he received no response, he crawled back onto the bed and bodily leaned over Raven — whose lidded eyes tracked him lazily — to jostle Winter awake.

"Gnh?"

"Gotta go," Percy answered her unintelligible question.

"Guh?"

"Get up." Percy jostled her some more, prompting her to slowly stir with a yawn.

"What's up?" Winter finally formed a coherent thought, stretching.

"Tell you on the way," he told her.

"On the way where?" she asked him blearily.

Percy frowned. He needed to get to Vale. Did that mean he needed to go to Mistral, and then back to Vale? Or was it Windpath then Vale? Or was there a place to refuel between here and Vale, now? He couldn't remember, and every time he tried it slipped away.

"Can you get a bullhead?" he asked, forgetting her question entirely. While Winter was well past what most would consider drunk, she was still the soberest of them by far.

Soberest? Most sober? Least intoxicated?

Winter sighed but didn't question further, just pulled out her scroll and began tapping away at it.

Percy went to look for the shower before remembering that they were in the middle of the wilderness and there was no shower in Raven's tent. His senses immediately told him there was a large stream a few hundred feet away, but he didn't trust himself enough to call it here with his powers. He could hardly walk under his own power — the chances of him mentally stumbling and flooding half of Raven's camp were too high.

With an over-exaggerated frown, Percy went about getting dressed. He could go get cleaned up with Winter when she was done.

Oh gods, it was so cold out.

He changed his mind, tonight sucked.

Splashing his face with a pale of water Raven kept in her tent, Percy was left with time to stew on how shitty the night had become. It had been so nice, too.

Stupid kids causing trouble. He couldn't wait to see what he had to fly half way across the world at two in the morning drunk off his ass to deal with. Worse than that, he had to leave such a warm, nice, bed and the company it entailed.

"Leaving?" Raven grunted softly, unmoved.

"Yes," Percy answered simply while Winter was on the scroll. "Have to go- have to go." he coughed suddenly, cutting himself off. He'd almost said 'have to go deal with your daughter'.

That would… not have been a fun conversation. Gods, he really needed to sober up.

"C'mon." Winter grabbed him suddenly, guiding him by the shoulder out of the tent. "We need to get cleaned up."

"I was waiting for you!" he protested, letting her lead him outside regardless.

"Why thank you." Winter rolled her eyes. "Now, do you want to tell me why we're leaving so suddenly?"

Percy's brain stuttered to a halt.

Where did he begin? And more importantly, how did he know how much he wanted to tell Winter? He was well aware he wasn't sober enough to think clearly, much less enough to deal with stuff like this.

Quickly, he decided to explain as little as possible, and then decide what else to tell her when he could walk more than a few feet without stumbling.

"You remember Weiss?"

Winter stared at him.

Percy took a moment to process how dumb that question was before continuing.

"Well, there's been some trouble with her team in Vale."

Percy couldn't read her more subtle expressions at the moment, but the way she straightened up, just that much more attentive, was obvious. "What kind of trouble?"

Percy shrugged. "Guess we're gonna find out."


Weiss thought that the plan had gone pretty well up until now, all things considered.

Blake had brandished a weapon at the police from the crowd, and Ruby just so happened to be a huntress in training spectating the rally, who tackled her before the police could shoot.

And as Ruby tackled Blake, she fell right through a shadow clone left in her place.

The assumption would be made, of course, that if the police would've shot at the clone, it would've gone straight through her and into the innocent bystanders, leaving no evidence of the armed protestor.

Just like every other time.

There were some differences, of course, but it was similar enough that connections would be drawn, and the police would know to look out for illusions. More importantly, the White Fang would be caught red-handed in staging the violence.

All of that had gone perfectly to plan.

The problems started when it was time to escape.

The disguised Blake had to make a rather obvious getaway to make sure there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the White Fang was behind it. Unfortunately, escaping the VPD had been a harder task than anticipated. Only when what seemed like every officer in the city was chasing Blake down and Weiss thought they might have to step in and ruin the plan, someone else had stepped in for them.

Their mystery ally had appeared suddenly, grabbing Blake and disappearing just as quickly.

The rest of RWBY, having no idea who the apparent teleporter was, had thought that maybe the real White Fang had gotten to her before the police. One thing led to another, and Blake's kidnapper/savior had shown up to lead them to Roman Torchwick of all people, who claimed to be working for Percy. They'd all been a bit dubious, but decided to play along in order to find Blake and get her out.

And that's where things went truly wrong.

Because Torchwick hadn't been lying.

Weiss stared a hole into the lush carpeted floor, echoing the rest of her team and doing anything to avoid the gazes of either of the adults in the room.

Adults which included her sister.

Weiss had known there was a risk — albeit a presumably tiny one — that Percy would get wind of what they'd done and come to tell them off for it. She had not known there was a risk that Winter would be with him.

If she had, she might have paused to reconsider how much she really wanted to help Blake after all.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

The clock on the left wall ticked on, the only noise to fill the deafening silence that had encapsulated the room since shortly after the pair had walked in and Torchwick's silent companion had walked out.

"Okay," Winter snapped, breaking the silence. "I'll ask. What could have possibly possessed you to incite violence at a Faunus riot?"

Weiss flinched. Facing Percy's ire — wrath? disappointment? scorn? — was one thing. She'd had the night to mentally prepare for that confrontation while he flew from Mistral, and had points and counterpoints ready for the argument that would inevitably arise.

She had not prepared to have that same confrontation with her sister.

"Who," Percy spoke for the first time, his voice low and coarse.

Though her eyes were still firmly fixed on the floor, Weiss heard Winter turn to regard him. "What?"

"It's a who that convinced them to go through with… whatever this was, not a what," he corrected.

It took every ounce of willpower Weiss possessed not to look up when the words registered, too terrified she'd meet his eyes.

"Oh?" Winter seethed. "And who would that be?"

"It was my idea! I convinced them to!"

Weiss couldn't stop her head from snapping up that time, gaping at Yang as she stood and stepped forward, breaking from the rest of the team.

Blake and Ruby's heads similarly snapped up in surprise, watching blankly as Yang jumped on the grenade that was Winter Schnee.

"Is that so?" Winter's eyes narrowed as she turned to Yang, taking a single stride forward so that she towered over the nervous teen.

Before Weiss could bite the bullet and reveal that no, Yang had not been responsible and it was actually her plan, she was interrupted by a sarcastic bark of laughter from behind her sister.

It was then that her eyes were drawn to Percy for the first time that night, rather than staring into the carpet.

He had that part covered, it seemed. He was leaning over the couch that was facing away from them a few feet away, head hanging so that he was looking straight down. Through his hair, Weiss got a glimpse of his sunken, closed eyes and otherwise exhausted features.

"Yang, shut the fuck up."

Yang recoiled, Weiss gaped, Blake blinked, and Ruby stared.

"Wha-"

Percy's head snapped up, and Yang's jaw clicked shut.

"Ruby is the team leader and ultimately responsible for what the team does. The plan was Weiss' idea, and targeting the White Fang in the first place was Blake's. You, Yang, are the only one here who can't be held singlehandedly responsible for this clusterfuck, so don't for a moment pretend like this was all your idea."

Weiss continued to stare along with the others in the room. How much did he know? She supposed it made sense he could figure out that she was the one who had planned the whole thing out given their conversation over the scroll a few days ago, but how did he know it had been Blake's idea to target the White Fang? Something to do with her parents? It could've just as easily — in fact, far easier — been Weiss herself, considering her family's history, but he spoke with complete confidence.

Just what did he know that they didn't?

He deflated a moment later, lowering his head once more. When he next spoke, his voice was just as low and much softer, but with a dangerous edge of calm.

"Winter, do you mind taking your sister and Qrow's nieces to the other room for a minute?"

Her sister's scowl didn't waver. "It would be my pleasure."

Weiss didn't fail to notice the one missing from the group being taken aside, and neither did her other two teammates, it seemed.

Despite looking about as cowed as Weiss felt, Yang took a bold step forward — dangerously close to Winter, she looked past her to Percy. "Whatever you want to say to Blake, you can say to us, too. We made our own decision to go along with this."

There was a single, drawn out moment of motionless silence before Weiss' eyes widened slightly. A deep rumble crawled through the room, starting slowly but quickly gaining momentum until it was deafening. The roaring in her ears told her it was an incredibly powerful wave of thunder, but the way that the very floor beneath her shook and tilted with the furniture told her it was an earthquake.

And then as soon as it had come it was gone, tapering away in seconds.

Percy didn't so much as move a muscle, but Yang stepped back as if she'd been struck.

Weiss swallowed.

Was that… something he had done? Was that even possible? His semblance was hydrokinesis, and while he'd shown he could use that to encourage the formation of small localized storms with a few gallons of water it certainly wouldn't let him create thunder, and it had nothing to do with shaking buildings.

And seeing as how he hadn't moved or spoken to signal someone else to do something, that meant he couldn't have been responsible. So, it was just some odd phenomena, then — unrelated.

So then why was Yang suddenly so pale?

"Winter?"

Said woman snapped into action, stepping forward and firmly guiding Yang towards the door while Ruby and Weiss followed behind, Ruby hesitating only a moment before Blake encouraged her with a nod. With her own nod to her faunus teammate, Weiss followed them out the door.

Winter remained silent until they had walked through several different rooms in what looked like some sort of penthouse.

As they finally reached a sitting room and her sister silently, firmly gestured for them all to sit, Weiss knew that Ruby and Yang were worrying about Blake, but, well…

Weiss glanced to her sister, just in time to meet her glare head-on.

"Would you care to elaborate what it was I heard back there about you being the one to come up with this ill-fated plan?"

Weiss couldn't help but to feel that they had gotten the shorter end of the stick.


Blake swallowed as the door shut with a click, sealing the only exit — sealing her in with Perseus. The sounds of her teammate's footsteps retreated behind it, and soon enough the only sound in the room was the clock to her left ticking away.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Ti- CRASH!

Blake flinched as the wall behind the clock exploded suddenly, water bursting forth and shattering it into pieces that scattered across the room.

Silence.

It was interrupted yet again, this time by the creaking and cracking of wood. It took Blake a moment to find where it was coming from — only realizing once Perseus stopped leaning on the back of the couch with an annoyed scowl. The wooden frame had snapped where his hands had been, the couch collapsing entirely.

Blake swallowed again, her mouth suddenly dry.

"Do you know why I wanted to speak with you alone?" he suddenly asked, his voice soft and calm. Too calm. Dangerously calm.

Slowly, he made his way around the crumpled crouch. Once again, his pace was too sedate. Too relaxed.

The hairs on the back of Blake's neck stood on end.

"Because I dragged them into it?" she offered immediately, if quietly. She didn't dare try to get out of this; not now. Every nerve in her wanted her out of the room with him as soon as conceivably possible.

He hummed a response Blake couldn't decipher, continuing on his way towards her.

Blake bit her tongue as she suddenly placed her finger on what was so wrong about the way he walked. There was a tension to his smooth movements — a forced grace. More than being tense, his movements were mechanical. Every bit of his calm mannerism was consciously forced into place.

"A little bit," he confirmed, coming to a stop less than a foot before her.

Now that she knew what to listen for, she could hear how his tone was constructed. Artificial.

Blake shivered, and her eyes searched desperately for anywhere to look that weren't his own. "But I wasn't lying when I said that Weiss and Ruby can both be blamed just as much — you were all being morons. I'm talking to you, Blake, because they're allowed to be idiots."

They… what?

"They're naïve," he continued, "Inexperienced. They jumped headlong into your mess because they don't know any better."

He paused for a moment, just long enough for Blake to decide she wasn't sure what he was talking about and that she didn't like the surprise.

"If you were the same, I'd be willing to give you a slap on the wrist same as them. But you, Blake, know better. You are not naïve, you have experience. You've experienced the consequences of a war firsthand."

"This wasn't a war," she bit back without thinking, though her tone came across quite a bit… weaker than she'd intended. She wasn't sure if she should be thankful for that or not. "They were never in danger," she defended, biting her lip.

"It is a war!" he shouted, his voice rising sharply as his hand slammed against the wall next to her. She winced just as sharply, her ears flattening against her head. "It's a war you started! They might not have been on the other end of a barrel this time, but do you think that nobody noticed?! That you didn't just paint a target on them?!"

Blake had no response.

It's not like their involvement was known. They were all on the peripheries, she was the only one seen actually doing anything to frame the White Fang, and in disguise at that. Ruby couldn't be accused of anything other than trying to capture a terrorist alive — something which was so incredibly like her that it wasn't suspicious in the slightest. — and the others hadn't even been seen.

Except, Adam would only need to do the slightest bit of surface-level digging to find out that Ruby was a student at Beacon, and it wouldn't take long to jump to piece it together from there.

"Tell me right now that you haven't lost someone you care about in battle, and I'll let you join the rest of your team, no questions asked."

She remained silent. Of course she had. She'd been fighting in one form of war or another for five years, she'd lost her first friend to a skirmish with SDC security when she was twelve. Being one of the very few White Fang with Aura, her life expectancy had been far longer than almost anyone else in the White Fang.

So yes, she knew better than almost anyone what it was like to lose people.

"That's what I thought," he continued, taking her silence for the answer it was. "And knowing the risks, you still put them in danger. You decided that their use as tools was more important than their safety."

"I didn't want to involve them!" she objected. "I tried to keep them out of it, but they found out and forced me to let them help?"

"Oh? They forced you? Pray tell, how did they do that exactly?"

Blake flushed. "They refused to let me go alone! I live with them, I couldn't exactly avoid them!"

"If you can't bring yourself to say no, then drop whatever revenge play this is or leave!" he snapped.

He… he had no idea what he was talking about — no idea what she had to deal with. Not just with her team, but the fear, the stress, the running, the constant sleep deprivation she was experiencing even now. He thought it was so simple as saying no? As simple as leaving her team — the only people she'd grown to truly care about outside of the White Fang in as long as she could remember?

The stress that had been building up for months surged, and Blake met his eyes for the first time. They were faintly glowing, and though Blake's instincts wanted nothing more than for her to get out, her anger and frustration overruled her need for survival. Let him kill her. It was preferable to going back to the White Fang, and if she just sat there like a domesticated pet and did whatever he liked then that was what was going to happen.

"Where am I supposed to go, exactly?!" she screamed back. "You and Adam are everywhere else! This was the only place I could go without living the rest of my life on the run. But no, you're right, I should drop everything I've built at Beacon — the only people that I care for — on a whim, because it's so simple!"

She was vaguely conscious of the tears leaking from the corners of her eyes and trailing down her cheeks, but she was too done to care.

"That's not an excuse to endanger your team!" he yelled, a sharp crack from outside echoing his anger. "You don't want to leave your team? You don't want to live on the run? Don't drag them into it. If you can't manage that, you're deciding their lives are less important than your vendetta!"

"They were never in danger!" she shouted back, her voice hoarse.

"Bullshit!" he snarled. "You were in danger, Blake. You couldn't convince your team to let you pull off your little stunt alone in the first place out of some misplaced sense of concern, do you actually think they'd just sit there and let you be arrested or killed?"

She… no, she didn't. Blake opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"No, Blake, they'd have inevitably done something as stupid as going along with your plan in the first place, and at best be left as known terrorists and hunted out of Vale. Far more likely, they'd have failed to fight the hundreds of police surrounding you without hurting anyone, and ended up dead on the pavement. They'd try not to hurt the police because they're young, and naïve, and not ready to be dragged into your mess!" his voice rose to a peak.

"If I hadn't caught wind of this and prepared for the worst, your last moments would have been watching the only people you care for die one by one in a misguided effort to protect you."

Between the scolding and the horrifying mental imagery, the rushing in Blake's ears calmed. Instead, Blake was left with a ball of anxiety and fear in the pit of her stomach.

Seemingly noticing her shit in mood, the equally exhausted-looking Perseus leaned back and pinched his nose.

"I'm going to be getting some sleep. I recommend you do the same." he muttered.

Blake swallowed.

Tomorrow would be a long day.


Sorry for the shorter chapter and slightly abrupt end. It's a late night for me tonight and I'm up n at em at 6 tomorrow for work. Been thinking about how to properly end that scene all day - and weeks before it - and that's just about the best we got.

Speaking of, I was not successful this week in writing chapter 77. Due to my work and relationship situation, I really cannot be sure of my ability to write until September. Hopefully this didn't come out of nowhere and I know it might be a bit abrupt, but this story will likely be on hiatus for the rest of the summer; I'll post if I'm able, but despite my efforts it's not looking like I have the time to consistently write.

Thanks to those of you in the discord for your support and kind words. I've kept Fairytales consistently updated for going on 3 years now, and it's time for a break.

If I don't see you, I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your summer.