Chapter 17: Flipping Pages
"Hello, Blake!" Penny said, dropping her broom and waving at Blake as she hurried down the sidewalk.
Blake stopped, her cat ear's flattening to her hair as Penny walked over.
"What are you doing here?" Blake asked, holding her hands to her head.
"I'm helping clean up for the Vytal Festival!" Penny explained. "I loved working with Velvet, and you, and your team so much that I took it up as a temporary job!"
She placed a finger to her cheek, wondering, "I think that's what she meant?"
"Uh, sure," Blake said, scooting away from the ginger.
Penny noticed her unease. "Don't worry Blake!" she said. "I haven't been rude to any other faunus, or anyone here in Vale!" She smiled brightly.
"Good," Blake said curtly.
"Is everything ok, Blake?" Penny asked. "Where is your team? I always have a good time with team RWBY!"
"We're… not a team anymore."
"Oh no!" Penny held a hand to her mouth. "What happened?"
"I have to go," Blake said, sprinting past the strange girl.
"Well, don't be a stranger!" Penny said as she waved her off. She paused, musing, "She doesn't know where I'm staying!"
Blake ran with her hands over her faunus ears until she was around the corner. A few people were meandering through the commercial district this late, but Blake didn't know any of them. Still, she avoided street lamps as much as possible as she made her way to Tukson's Booktrade.
She went for the door handle, but found it locked. Blake knocked on the door rhythmically: two knocks, a pause, three knocks. She repeated this again, then the door swung open, revealing the shopkeeper, Tukson.
"Blake?" he started, "What are you doing here?"
"I-" Blake began, "I messed up."
"Come inside," Tukson said, stepping aside to let Blake through. She did so, quickly turning to the shopkeeper as he shut the door.
"Were you contacted?" Tukson asked. "I know they've got a spy network based at the-."
"No," Blake interrupted. "They shouldn't even know I was at Beacon."
Tukson paused, looking confused. "Then, why did you leave?"
"My team found out," Blake said, lifting her cat ears up again. "I… I snapped, and basically told them that I'm a faunus; a member of the White Fang."
"You used to be," Tukson corrected. "You're not with them anymore."
"That doesn't matter!" Blake said, hanging her head. "One of my teammates was Weiss Schnee. She'll probably get me kicked out of school, or worse…" She trailed off, then turned to leave. "I shouldn't be here; the police could come after me, and if-"
Tukson put his hand on the door, barring her way. "I'll handle that. You'll be safe here for a few days, then we can see what needs to be done."
Blake hesitated.
"I'll hire you on as an assistant," Tukson elaborated. "It's the perfect cover; no one ever suspects it."
"I disagree."
"Well, I can't just send you to another safe house tonight," Tukson said. "I'll need time to contact some people. Logistics and all that."
Blake frowned. "I'm sorry for wasting your time with helping me get into Beacon."
"It's fine," Tukson said, waving her to follow him. "These things happen when you're trying to hide from a group of terrorists."
"You think that too?" Blake asked, wounded.
Tukson paused, stopping by the double doors behind the counter.
"The White Fang used to be good," he said. "Back when folks like us were in charge. There may still be some redeemable people left, but now?" He shook his head. "They're becoming more short-sighted. Train robberies, starting riots, dust heists; and it's only going south from there."
He turned to Blake with a warm smile. "It's good to see Ghirra's girl get out before they dragged her down with them."
Blake held her arm sheepishly, smiling back. "You're sure I can stay?"
"Of course," Tukson said. "You're always welcome at Tukson's Booktrade."
'Have you found her?' Ruby texted her sister. She had just woken up in a hotel room Yang had rented for them. They had decided to stay in Vale overnight to search for their teammate.
'Found this,' Yang sent, followed by a picture of a Beacon rocket locker. The thing lay on its side, open and empty. Ruby brightened at her sister's clue, leaving her bed and then the room.
She had to sleep in her casual combat skirt, and her hair was probably more frazzled than usual, but it was a sacrifice worth making to find Blake. She got another text from Yang as she passed through the hotel lobby.
'Got your weapon?' it read.
'Got my scroll!' Ruby texted back. Yang texted a thumbs up emoji.
Ruby swiped her scroll past a terminal, checking herself and her sister out of the hotel before leaving the building. She was somewhere between the commercial district and a residential district; the dull colors of the former stopped short at a crossroad, contrasting strongly with the more red and brown structures of the latter.
Ruby was about to text Yang again when her scroll received a message from Coco Adel.
'Hey Ruby! I need to meet with you. Where can we meet?'
'I'm in Vale,' Ruby sent back.
'Perfect! See you soon!'
Weiss awoke late from a fitful sleep after yesterday's events, Ozpin's words still haunting her mind.
Letting her into Beacon, a mistake? He couldn't mean that. He wouldn't dare expel her… would he?
She had come to Beacon because her father forbade her from enrolling at Atlas Academy. She'd gone through so many trials already to get here, and now she was going to lose it all to a temperamental old man?
Weiss got up and dressed, preparing to face Ozpin again, demand he-
'"Do you, Weiss Schnee, believe I have made a mistake?"'
Her hand froze on the door knob.
Ozpin was the headmaster of Beacon and a renowned hunter; practically a living legend. His instinct and intellect were known far across Remnant for being of the highest class. He couldn't have made a mistake with her team.
'But he did!' Part of Weiss whispered. 'You're better than them! You deserve to lead a great team!'
'"Perhaps the only mistake I made was allowing a certain heiress to enroll at my academy."'
Weiss' hand fell from the door handle, her head spinning. She turned and faced her painting again, frowning.
"How many times am I going to move this thing," she asked herself as she picked it up to find a better spot to display it.
"There you are!" Coco said as she walked up to Ruby. She sat outside a cafe, sipping on a coffee as the second year approached. It was later in the day, just past noon, when the older girl finally found Ruby.
"Hey, Coco," Ruby said. "Look, I'm really busy. Me and Yang are-"
"Alright, how about we walk and talk then?" Coco interrupted. She waved for Ruby to follow her, strolling past the store's patio.
Ruby blinked, then started after her, guzzling the remainder of her drink as she left.
"Seriously, Coco," Ruby started, "I need to be-"
"I heard Weiss went to Ozpin's office yesterday," Coco cut her off, her voice low. "It looks like your team might actually fall apart."
Ruby stopped, her posture slouching. Coco turned to her with a smile.
"Don't worry, kid," she said. "You guys can come back from this, I know it."
"But, how?" Ruby asked with a defeated tone.
"The same way my team did," Coco answered. She waved for Ruby to walk with her as she elaborated.
"During our initiation, my would-be partner died, and Fox's partner got too injured to become a huntsman. After the dust settled, we got stuck on a team together." They rounded a corner as Ruby listened intently to Coco.
"I started off as a bit of a showboat, and Fox was an absolute loose cannon. We'd regularly butt heads, especially with me being team leader; we'd try to one-up each other at everything.
"Eventually, Velvet and Yatsu had to sit us down and force us through our differences." Ruby nodded at each of Coco's sentences, slowly standing up straighter as they walked. "We'd still get on each other's nerves, but as the year went on- getting more experience and facing deadlier challenges -we started to respect one another.
"By the end of our first year, we were ahead when other teams were starting to falter," Coco finished, stopping and holding Ruby's shoulder. "My point is that it takes time for a team to acclimate to one another. Even with your improvements as a leader, it's not your fault that things aren't going as planned."
"I know that," Ruby said softly.
"But that doesn't mean you can slack off and blame things on everyone else," Coco added. "You should always try to improve yourself."
Ruby smiled at her, then said, "I appreciate the concern, Coco, but none of that really helps me find Blake."
"I'm not worried about Blake," Coco said. "From what Velvet's told me, she has a good head on her shoulders, even if it's misaligned right now. When she straightens that out, she'll come back to the home you and Yang have built."
Ruby's scroll buzzed. She checked it, finding a selfie of Yang with Penny Polendina.
'Found a lead!' Yang sent.
"That's great to hear," Ruby said to Coco. "But it really doesn't help me, like, actually find Blake. As in, her location."
Coco lifted her sunglasses. "Wait, she ran off?"
"It's… complicated."
Coco listened as Ruby explained some of what caused Blake to leave. She was careful not to mention that Blake was a faunus, or a potential terrorist.
Afterward, Coco nodded.
"I guess I can help you find her," she said, putting her shades back on. "I have some spare time. The only reason I came to find you was because Ozpin got on my ass again after Weiss' outburst." She smiled sheepishly.
"Oh," Ruby said.
Their conversation died awkwardly as they split apart to search for Blake.
"I just found out about a yelping ursa." Blake overheard a faunus girl say while she was restocking a shelf in Tukson's Booktrade. "It's a private affair."
Blake's ear twitched under her bow at the words. She'd heard them before; they were a code. 'Yelping ursa' meant a high paying opportunity, and 'private affair' meant it was illegal.
"Will it be dangerous?" another voice asked.
"No, the bird is the White Fang," the faunus girl said. Another code; the 'bird' was the benefactor for the job, or the scapegoat; Blake couldn't remember as it had been a while since she needed to know.
"And use a filter, Brinly," the first girl chided.
"Sorry," the other faunus girl said as the two headed for the door.
Blake watched them leave with mild curiosity. Her mind started to churn with ideas; were the White Fang actually responsible for all the recent dust thefts? Was someone committing crimes and blaming the organization? It couldn't have gotten that bad this quickly; Blake had left during their first train robbery. Maybe those crimes weren't being committed by her former friends after all.
Blake sighed, tidying the shelves the two girls had been by. She wouldn't have any way to figure it out if Weiss had alerted the police already. She just had to hope everything would turn out fine.
Closing time for Tukson's Booktrade was an hour before sunset. Blake watched the sky become tinged with orange as more customers meandered out of the store. She waved them off with a smile, and as the last person left, she took off her bow and turned from the door to fix a display.
A chime rang as another person tried to enter.
"I'm sorry," Blake began offhandedly. "We're closed now; please-"
"I knew you'd look better without the bow."
Blake spun to find an exhausted Yang smiling at her from the entrance way.