Yo! Back again for more WYAN! Some updates at the end of the chapter, but for now, let's get into it!

Start Chapter 28

Something's gone wrong.

Jaune's not really sure what it is, given that he and Tyrian have been eating dinner for the last hour and a half, but it's obvious in the general murmur of energy as the two of them step outside the restaurant they'd been dining at, and back into the Atlas air.

Things are tense.

"Oh?" Tyrian tilts his head to one side, almost curious. "Well, it seems as if something has happened."

Jaune won't mention the fact that for a moment there, he'd been pretty certain Tyrian had been to blame. It just kind of fits, given he's… well, Tyrian.

"Let's go ask them!" Tyrian declares, happily skipping past Jaune's reach before he can grab him and prevent him from doing that. He steps over towards two Atlesian soldiers, it seems. "Excuse me, could someone tell me what's got everyone in such a tizzy?"

"Huh?" One of them takes a single look at Tyrian, then at his faunus tail, and his eyes narrow. "Shouldn't you know?"

"I'm afraid I was at dinner with my partner here," Great, Jaune's being identified as Tyrian's partner in public. Awesome. "And didn't get to hear the news. What is it that's occurred?"

"One of you people," The man practically spits out, and Jaune's brow furrows. "Killed a human in cold blood because they felt like it, apparently. Fuckin' animals. Now I'd suggest getting the hell out of here, before I find a reason to bring you in, too."

"Ooh, frosty." Tyrian rolls his eyes as they step away, entirely ignoring the obvious racism that had been on display. "Well, doesn't that sound interesting. A human murdered in cold blood?"

Jaune grimaces. "'Interesting' isn't the word I'd use."

"Well, to each their own," Tyrian giggles. "I for one find it absolutely hilarious. What poor timing, right before the Vytal Festival. Why, I'm sure security will be even higher now."

It's the truth, and Jaune finds himself swearing under his breath as he realizes it.

It's better for Ruby, and hell, it's better for Jaune, too…

But for Cinder…

Why do you even care? Some part of him asks for what must be the fiftieth time. She's a criminal already, and she's only going to grow worse. She clings to us purely because we saved her. She would not bother with us had we not.

And isn't it out job to save her because she clings to us? Jaune argues back, and the voice is silent, because he's talking to himself. He… really should see someone about that. He'd been all alone in the Ever After for so very long… he'd started to lose it a bit.

Still, if he fails here, then Cinder will suffer. He already knows that.

Maybe he shouldn't care, but he does.

He can't succeed, but he can't fail.

What a horrible conundrum.

/

Come the end of the rally, Ruby's totally exhausted.

She's spent the better part of three hours talking to everyone who's come up to her, discussing faunus rights and the benefits of working towards a united future. She's handed out fliers, pamphlets, and even directed a few people to others who'd known these things better than her.

She's helping the people who'd set this all up – Blake's parents, it seems, which is weird given that adult Blake is here, and little Blake is apparently somewhere off in Mantle with the others – take stuff down, fold up tables and chairs, package up signs, and do other miscellaneous things.

It's not exactly fun, but it's rewarding to feel like she's a part of something; that she's made a difference.

Of course, things can't stay good. Ruby likes to pretend like they can, but honestly, she knows the truth.

Ghira's scroll rings, and he looks down at it in some confusion.

"Hello?" He picks up. "Sienna, are you–"

The expression on his face pales, and his eyes widen. "Slow down, what happened? …What!?"

Blake and Yang both turn towards the man, and Ruby's walking over, wanting to know what's going on as well. Amber and Roman are just behind her.

"You… that…" Ghira shakes his head. "We'll be right there. Try and stay calm. Stay where you are. Where were you again– 8th, got it. Alright, we'll be there."

Ghira hangs up, shakes his head, breathes out an exasperated breath, and then turns to them.

"There's a situation. Sienna needs us."

Sienna Khan? Ruby supposes it makes sense that she would be there, given she'd been a founding member of the White Fang. But…

"What happened!?" Blake seems particularly disturbed.

"Sienna was too distraught for me to really pick anything out of what she was saying." Ghira shakes his head. "But from what I hear, some people were hurt. Bad. We need to get over there."

Ruby's about ready to do the same thing, looking towards her teammates, only for Ghira to walk right over to them, and shake his head.

"You three are students, correct?"

"Uhm, yes?" Ruby's not really sure why that matters. "Why do you ask?"

"I appreciate that you three came down here, but frankly, you weren't supposed to be here at all, were you?"

Ruby feels oddly caught in that instance, looking down at her feet and being unable to meet Ghira's eyes. The man lets out a haggard breath, before continuing, "Please, go back to wherever it is you were staying. I don't want you to be disqualified from the tournament. We can handle this on our own."

Ruby very much does not want to do that. She looks up, ready to argue with Ghira…

Only for Blake to get in the way.

"Ruby, please." She stresses, and then, in a whisper that only they can make out. "If Weiss and Jaune are out there… then our best bet for reaching them is you getting on that screen at the Vytal Festival. Don't throw that away by getting caught out here. We can handle this."

She wants to argue further; really, she does, but…

…She can't. Blake's right.

"…Okay." She finally lets out, disappointment filtering through her despite knowing she's doing what she needs to. "But… be careful."

Blake smiles as best she can.

"We will be."

/

To say that Blake's panicking a bit as she, Yang, and the others from the White Fang make their way towards Sienna, Eve, and the others is…

Well, it doesn't quite feel like enough.

Something's happened. From the look on her father's face – one which she's seen only a scant few times in her life – she knows it's bad. Worse than he's letting on. He hadn't wanted to worry those few people from Mantle who'd still been sticking around.

She doesn't ask him, though. Already, she can hear the sounds of sirens in the distance, and there are people whispering amongst themselves and looking towards the sight of flashing lights as well, which illuminate the buildings a block or so down in bright colors.

She's starting to hear the beginnings of shouting as well.

She gives one look towards her father and Yang, tells them, "I'm going on ahead." And then blitzes forward.

She rarely has to bust out the true limits of her speed these days. Aura is a helluva drug, and it can make someone do things that would be physically impossible for someone without. Blake can utilize Gambol's ribbon, and her clones, to vault herself forward at dizzying speeds.

She makes it into the square where the lights are originating from only seconds later, and finds…

Her eyes take in the scene below as quickly as they can, doing their best to scan for immediate threats. In all honesty, she'd been expecting there to be some. She'd thought that Hawthorne would've been behind this. That she'd been a fool to stick around at the rally, an event that he'd have been idiotic to try and interrupt, and that his focus had instead been on the civilians he could more easily affect, here on the streets of Mantle.

But… no.

It seems that hasn't been the case.

There are a number of police questioning a few people below. Half of those people are of the ensemble that Sienna and the others belong to, but a good portion seem to be humans or other faunus from off of the street, also giving out information.

Blake had thought she'd be necessary in a combat sense, but it seems that's not the case. She takes off her Black Fang mask that she'd just brought out, and slots it back into the pouch on her thigh, then leaps down to the street below.

A few of the officers turn towards her, but she's already reaching towards her scroll, and pulling up her Huntress license. She doesn't quite have the ability to just walk in and investigate things on her own, but most of the time, Hunters are given… not quite carte blanche, but certain liberties with investigations.

"What happened?" She asks to a nearby officer, and the man lets out an aching breath, shaking his head.

"A murder."

Blake's blood runs cold. Her eyes widen.

"Who!?"

"BLAKE!"

Before she can question the man any further, she turns to see Sienna running right for her. She's got tear-tracks running down her face, her body's shaking, and she's clearly panicking.

Blake's never seen Sienna like this. She had always been the invincible older sister for Blake as a child, and then she'd become the leader of the White Fang. This…

"What happened?" She asks her as she gets Sienna to take her over to the rest of the group.

"I-I…" She almost breaks, then, but she manages to hold herself together. "It was my fault! I… if I had just kept it together, none of this would've–"

"Sienna!" She does her best to snap her student out of it. "What happened?"

Sienna does her best to get herself back into a state where she can talk. Blake can see it. It's hard for her, however. Harder than anything has ever been for her before.

"We were coming down this road from the hotel about an hour or so ago. I was… I was frustrated. I had wanted to be a part of the rally with the rest of you." Blake had known that, yes. Sienna had made that rather clear. "The others were doing their best to cheer me up, but I was irritable, upset, and…"

She takes a harrowing breath.

"There was this guy, I think he might have been drunk, but he bumped into me, and I think he did it on purpose, and–" Sienna is rambling. "He started spouting slurs; called me a filthy animal, said I should be in a cage, things like that, I…"

She shakes her head, biting down on her bottom lip.

"I couldn't help it; I punched him, probably broke his jaw, I… I knew right away that I'd done something wrong, but…"

"He had some buddies, maybe? I don't know, but… they came out of the woodwork, started hurling slurs just like he'd been… I was fuming. I was just about ready to draw my weapon, but Eve… she stopped me, told me to come back with the others, that this didn't need to be a fight… I was still so angry, I wanted… I wanted to make those people pay for what they were saying, but Eve was right, and I…" Her eyes are welling up with tears again. "I couldn't resist yelling out something to them! I don't even remember what I said… but it was bad. Bad enough that one of them took the bottle they were drinking out of and hurled it at me."

"I dodged out of the way. It was a clumsy throw, and I could have dodged it without thinking… no, I did dodge it without thinking. I dodged it, but I didn't think about who it was that was behind me. It was the others, and all of them had no aura and…" She shakes her head. "The bottle hit Adam."

Blake's breath caught.

"It struck him right in the left eye. He went down hard. Started screaming. I think… I think shards of glass might've gotten into his eye, because there was just…" She lets out a shuddering breath. "There was so much blood, and everyone was yelling, and backing away, even the people who threw it, and– but Eve, she…"

There's a look in Sienna's eyes, then, that tells Blake more than she could with words.

She looks haunted.

"I'd never seen her like that. We've… we've sparred together with you watching before, and she's… She usually has so much trouble taking things seriously; hitting others, she's always so afraid to hurt people, but… it was like everything in her expression just snapped when she looked up at that man."

"There was just fury in her eyes, and… I didn't realize she'd brought her weapon with her. She drew it, and she charged at him, and… she took him to the floor, and just stabbed, and stabbed, and stabbed…" Sienna's voice catches. "…She killed him, Blake. Murdered him in the street, in front of a hundred people."

Blake just kind of… stares.

She stares over towards where the others are. Kali and little Blake seem to have gone with Adam, but she can only imagine how they're doing. Likely to be traumatized for the rest of their lives. Many of the people here look traumatized. Blake has to remember that these are not the battle-hardened members of Sienna's White Fang, and that they won't be for quite some time.

These are just people. And they've seen someone get murdered in person.

This… hadn't been something she'd have guessed would happen. Not at all. If the murderer had been Sienna… it hurts her to admit, but she'd almost expected as much when she'd taken Sienna on as her student. She'd been strengthening a woman who'd gone on to lead the violent White Fang for years.

But in the end, it had been the ever-unassuming Eve, once again unable to protect her son…

And finally snapping because of it.

Neither she nor Adam are there anymore. Blake assumes the worst about both. "What happened to Eve? What about Adam? Neither of them are–"

"Adam got taken on an ambulance… he's being treated at a nearby clinic… a few of the guys went with him, but Eve, she… They took her. Arrested her… they got here so fast, I… She didn't even fight them. Just… just let them cuff her and haul her away. She wasn't even really present, I don't think, just… staring off into nothing, like…"

Sienna looks up at her, and there's a sort of desperation in her gaze that Blake doesn't know what to do with.

"They said they're taking her to Atlas."

Oh…

That's very bad.

Because Hawthorne's been looking for an incident just like this one to prove that the faunus are who he says they are.

And he's just been given the perfect scapegoat.

/

They make their way to the hospital that Adam's being treated at with a general air of exhaustion hanging about all of them. Blake, however, is still running hot, adrenaline coursing through her.

…This shouldn't have happened. She should've known the rally would be safe. She should've known that–

"Hey," Yang reaches over and takes her hand, squeezing it in her own. "You alright?"

Obviously, she isn't. She could be crabby about that, but she's doing her best to understand that Yang had likely just been trying to start a conversation in a clumsy manner. She doesn't deserve Blake exploding at her because she's stressed.

"No." She says, but she smiles as best she can for Yang's sake. "You're helping, though."

"I'm glad."

They're not admitted in to where Adam's being given surgery – and the fact that surgery is needed at all is not helping matters – until around an hour after that. Ghira and Blake are the only ones who the doctors let in. The others have to wait outside.

Blake's almost glad that none of the others are there when she sees Adam.

He's out; likely from the effects of some kind of drug. There are bandages all over his left eye, but they're bloody, and it's clear from how sunken in they are that there's nothing underneath them anymore.

Adam had lost his left eye here… just like he had in her time.

She steps over towards him slowly, cautiously, and kneels down beside him. She finds her lower lip quivering, sorrow and rage and a million other things boiling up within her.

Why? Why did things like this always have to happen? Why couldn't people just be good for once in their gods damned lives!?

…

She looks up at Ghira, who's staring down with an almost deadened look in his eyes. It's clear he's thinking much the same.

"They say he's alright, except for the eye." Ghira sighs. "He had a shard of glass go right through the cornea. Nearly severed the–"

"I don't want to hear about it." She grits out.

"Mm." Ghira grunts out. "That's fair. I'll…" He runs a hand down his face. "I'll leave you here as long as you'd like."

He departs, and Blake stays. She hears the monitor to her left beeping, beeping. Sees Adam's chest rise and fall.

He's alright. He's going to be alright…

But…

Why?

Just…

Just why?

/

In the end, Kali and young Blake – both of whom have taken to caring about Adam quite a bit – stay with Adam, while the rest of them return to the hotel they'd booked for the week, the same one that had nearly been burned down.

The owner sees them come in and must just be able to tell that something's not right. They tell him what happened, and the man lets out a harrowing breath as he sinks back into his chair.

"What a world…" He mutters.

Blake can't help feeling the same.

The others are talking about leaving early. It makes sense. They'd planned very briefly about potentially holding another rally in a different place, given how well the first had gone, but…

Well, that seems to be out the window, now.

…Blake's not quite so sure about leaving early, however.

"Blake?"

She turns to see Sienna, clearly still broken up about… well, everything, approaching her cautiously.

"Hello, Sienna."

"…What about Eve?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just…" Sienna looks down at the floor. "I know she killed that man, but… she…"

She hadn't been in her right mind, no. It's obvious from what Sienna's said that she'd acted in the heat of the moment, and had been far too angry at the fact that her son had been hurt to think straight.

It might have even been ruled as self-defense – or defense of another. At the very least, she'd receive a reduced sentence.

But that's only true of a case that hadn't involved a human and a faunus.

But the truth… how likely is that to come up?

Hawthorne has just what he wants; the 'proof' that the faunus are dangerous. He's not going to let facts or the truth get in the way of that. He'll bury Eve away in a cell for the rest of her life without a second thought, or worse, for what's happened here today.

The worst part is, for once, he'd likely had nothing to do with this.

This had all just happened to fall into his lap.

…

It's in that moment, despite everything, the Blake makes a decision she's confident she might one day come to regret. It's not going to help the image of the faunus. It's not going to make them seem reasonable, and it's only going to provide more ammunition that Hawthorne can use against them.

…But Evelynn Taurus is her student. She's not going to let Hawthorne use her, and likely abuse her, to prove some sick point.

"Everyone," She calls out, and the conversation at the back of the room dies. They turn towards her. "We're not leaving yet."

"Well, we'll need to wait for Adam to be cleared to fly." Ghira states, before running a hand down his face. "But still, Eve being–"

"Eve is precisely the reason we're not leaving."

The others regard her with some confusion at that. She can't really blame them, not when she knows what she's about to say is as insane as she knows it is.

"Right now, Hawthorne likely has her. She's going to be transported up to Atlas, given a sham trial, and then put away for, likely, the rest of her life. All so that Hawthorne can say that he's in the right."

"She did still kill a man, Blake." Ghira speaks, and he's not wrong, but…

That attitude, that willingness to not go overboard, to never break laws unless absolutely necessary, had been why Sienna had eventually taken the White Fang out from under him. Such would not have happened had the others in the group not silently agreed with what Sienna had been saying aloud, after all.

No. In the end, her father is simply too rigid. Too bright to see the shadows hiding where he cannot see.

She will not blame him that. She only hopes he will not blame her this.

"Yes, she did. And a reasonable court would see what happened, that her son had just lost an eye, and rule not necessarily in her favor, but at the very least fairly. I have the sneaking suspicion that's not going to be the case here."

Ghira doesn't say anything. No one does.

They're all waiting for her to speak.

"Our involvement is done. The people of the White Fang have done all they can in Atlas. For the next few days, we're going to be lying low, and when the time comes for us to leave, we will."

"But you–"

"The rogue faunus agent 'Black Fang', on the other hand," She looks up at all of them, her eyes hard. "Is going to be staging a rescue."

Sienna's eyes widen, and her lips pull into a cautious, fearful, but still present smile. Yang's watching her with a mixture of worry and belief. There's no doubt in her expression that Blake can do this, only fear for what might happen if she does.

Ghira's brow furrows, and his frown deepens.

He might not agree with her. That's fine.

But she's not going to abandon her student.

"I'll act once the Vytal Festival starts, and most of Atlas' security will be focused on Amity Colosseum. When that happens…"

"I'm going to save Eve."

End Chapter 28

Hah! You all thought it was Tyrian, but he was having a nice dinner with Jaune!

Instead, it's Eve getting bloody. And oh, the plot is coming! I'm excited, hope you guys are too!

No chapter next week! I am taking time off for the Holidays! I will probably be back the week after that, but we'll have to see. Once I return, a new story (actually, technically two) will be joining the lineup, including one I've been teasing a long time! Hope you guys look forward to it!

Now, if you wanted to read ahead, and skip the break, then you can!

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