Weiss walked out of the kitchen more composed but actively avoided Ruby's stares. Ruby frowns as Weiss sits and has the same urge to ask her partner what she's done wrong. Ruby opens her mouth to talk to her friend when Nora cuts her off, "You were in there for quite a bit just to get a snack, what was holding you? Did you decide to have a whole meal instead?"
Weiss simply huffs, "No, it just took a while to figure out what I was in the mood for." The lie came so easily, but Ruby saw right past it. Ruby tries a second time but is once again interrupted by her friends. Ruby could feel her frustration growing as it just seemed like the universe didn't want her to talk to Weiss yet, so Ruby came to the decision that she would discuss whatever was going on with Weiss and her after the episode.
Weiss wasn't unaware of Ruby's efforts and she just knew a conversation about her behavior would be coming sooner or later. She was just afraid it was more so the former than the latter.
(Volume 5 Intro)
Blake and Sun walked down the steps of her home and she stopped to look over her shoulder, asking Sun if he was ready. "I beat up on giant monsters and robots more than once, I think I can handle getting a few signatures."
Ah, so Sun and Blake were going out to ask any citizens if they would be up to help protect Haven Academy. "Judging by the reactions at your father's hearing, I don't think there would be many who would be that thrilled," Yang stated. Blake gave her a look and Yang got the message.
Blake stands atop a box and holds up her scroll, "Your Chieftan needs you, your people need you, please, join the fight and help us save Haven Academy!" No one stepped forward though.
Blake couldn't help the flattening of her ears. Yang and Sun noticed, each putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I'm sure there might be some who'd like to help. It's probably only been your first try." Yang attempts to comfort as Blake's shoulders sag. Yang was right, but she also didn't really blame any of the Faunus, what reason did they have to help a race that has been nothing but cruel to them?
"Are you kidding me? We'd love to have someone with your skills on our side!" Sun exclaims to a Faunus with horns. Behind them, a woman opens the doors, calls his name, and drags him inside.
The group sighs, that might have been the first and only person that seemed to have considered the option.
Blake holds out her scroll to two women, but they politely decline. Sun hangs upside down a tree, pointing to his scroll at two people. They give each other a look but Sun is startled by a man with an axe, getting his attention.
When they first started it seemed to have been morning, and with how the sky looked now it might have been the middle of the day. They hoped maybe at least one person might have wanted to help. Blake tried her best not to lose hope though, it was only the first day and there were still many other chances.
At the piers, Blake asked another man who turned down the offer. Two Faunus in the water were watching and when Blake noticed she perked up, thinking that maybe she found some participants. They swam away without a word and that left Blake deflated.
Sun slams his coconut drink on the table, "I don't get it! How can they just sit around and do nothing with the White Fang are getting ready to attack?!"
"Exactly! Why are so many people just wanting to be complacent!" Sun agrees. Blake goes to answer but senses her counterpart is about to do that herself.
"Because not everyone is like you and me. The Faunus here on Menagerie, the ones that weren't born on the island, moved here because they were tired of fighting, of having to struggle constantly. Menagerie is filled with people who just want to be left alone and here we are asking them to put the rest of the world before themselves."
Blake gestures a hand, showing Sun that that's how she was going to respond. "Some people don't want to get involved in any of the fighting because they already had to deal with so much of it. Menagerie is a place where any Faunus can come to escape that fight," Blake explains.
Sun comments that he never thought about it like that. "The problem is, whatever happens at Haven is going to affect them whether they like it or. If Adam gets his way and Haven falls, it's only going to make things worse for the Faunus, everywhere." Sun takes the straw of his drink and begins to stir it, asking that Adam was the guy she used to work with.
Blake braced herself as this was about to turn into one of those conversations. The kind that contained a touchy subject. She always felt uncomfortable when the topic steered toward Adam.
Blake released a sigh, answering yes. Sun apologized for bringing it up when he saw how she responded. "No, it's okay. Have you ever met someone and thought to yourself, 'They are the personification of this word'?"
Blake didn't have to look around the room to know that all her friends were looking at the screen confused. She supposed that answered her question.
Sun scratched the back of his head, not following. "Okay, well, I remember getting to know Ruby and thinking 'This girl is the embodiment of purity'."
Nods rolled across the room as they could all see that and thought it fit Ruby very well. Ruby became intrigued, wanting to hear the more in-depth properties of this thinking.
"After a while, I saw Weiss was defiance."
Ruby couldn't help the small pout. She was really hoping that Blake would go into more detail. Weiss smiled, feeling proud of herself. She really liked that she seemed to be that embodiment of that word specifically.
"And Yang was strength."
Yang smiled, not able to stop the small blush that came to her cheeks. That last part confused her though.
Sun asked what he was and Blake told him the jury was still out on that one, but she was leaning more towards earnest.
"Ha! I'll take that as a compliment!" Sun laughed.
"At first I thought Adam was justice, then I thought he was passion. But over time I realized I was wrong, he wasn't any of those things, he was spite. Not hatred, not rage, spite. He won't accept equality, only suffering for what he feels the world did to him and his way of thinking is dangerously contagious."
I would know, because once upon a time, there was a period that I began to agree with him. "That's what worries me about Ilia, she's not like Adam, not yet at least, but I don't know how long that will last." Sun says that Ilia was her friend. "She was, her chameleon traits meant she could pass as human, she could have lived a normal life if she wanted. I always admired that, she lost her family in a mining accident when she was young, and then she joined the White Fang."
It was nice to know they were capable of getting more backstory to Ilia. Here they vaguely mention that incident that led her to the road of the White Fang, but it doesn't go that much more into detail.
"Like me, she was more or less trained on the road alongside other Faunus. She learned to survive, to defend herself, but as people like Sienna and Adam started to gain a following she became more dangerous, I guess I did too. My parents tried to get me to leave with them, but I refused, I had Adam and Ilia after all."
Now they're learning that part of the reason she stayed with the White Fang was because of Ilia. She didn't want to leave her friend behind. Before getting to know more about Blake and her story, the deeper parts, it was just thought that the only reasons she stayed behind was because of Adam and his influence and dedication to fight for Faunus' rights.
Now, coming into Volumes 4 and 5, there's so much more that they're getting to learn.
Sun tells her that she's aware they'll both have to face her eventually.
Blake lets out a sigh. She knows, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.
Blake says she knows. When Sun asks her what she plans to do, she responds that she's going to try and help her the Sun helped did.
Sun was just as confused as his counterpart. Did she mean like having her back thing or helping her try and find Faunus who wouldn't mind helping the fight to protect Haven Academy?
"You showed me that sometimes you need to be there for a friend, even if they don't want you to be. I was drowning in guilt and fear, I tried to push you away but you didn't give up on me, and I can't give up on Ilia. It's about time I saved my friends for once," Blake punctuates by banging her fist on the table. Sun nods in determination.
Blake takes a moment to think over those words herself. She knows that in the world there are friends worth fighting for and her friends…they deserve that battle till her final breath. Blake looks over at all her friends and finds them smiling at the screen. She joins them. She doesn't plan to run away again, she'll stay by their sides and they'll do the same.
Oscar cries out as he brings down his cane. From the side, Ruby comments that he's getting really good and asks him if he's hungry. "Uh, yeah, that sounds good. I was about to call it a night anyway." Ruby changes the subject to his fighting, wondering if he's ever fought before. "Just the occasional small Grimm, nothing like this though."
"Yeah, seems like a bit of a rough transition. Going from small packs on the farm to training to be a huntsman to help take down a Grimm queen," Oscar says, rubbing the back of his head. When it was worded like that, rough transition doesn't even begin to cut it. Oscar definitely has it more tiresome than the rest of them, they're all used to the gruesome training while he only has a couple of months to prepare.
Ruby is impressed, saying he looks like a natural. "It's strange, I've only had this cane for a few weeks but I feel like I've had it for a lifetime, longer even," Oscar shakes his head, "I sound like a crazy person."
"I mean, uh, yeah, just a little, but at this pace, you'll be combat-ready in no time." Ruby realizes what she's and her mood instantly shifts.
The room washes over in sadness. They know back in their own timeline she's still alive, but what if the same chain of events happens a second time? There will be no way to reverse the damage. They're all forcibly being brought back to that same moment where they witness Penny being ripped apart. Pyrrha remembers it horrifically and she had a part to play in it. If Penny's death does come to pass in the same way, Pyrrha knows she'll suffer that burden for as long as she lives, knowing she could have done something to stop it, especially now.
Oscar sees her mood change, and when Ruby tells him she'll see him upstairs he exclaims, "How do you handle all this?" She turns around, asking what he meant.
"Which part? The fact I'll become a part of a war against the ruler of all Grimm? Handling everything that I've seen so far? Or coming to terms that everything I see could become my future?"
"I'm scared…I'm more scared than I've ever been in my life, than I ever thought was possible," Oscar sets down his cane, "I always knew I wanted to be more than a farmhand, but this? Who would ask for this?"
No one ever asks for these kinds of things to happen, but they always come up, whether you're prepared or not. But, in the times they do, it's always better to face them head-on, not shy away because where would that get you? No one can remain hiding forever.
Oscar looks down at the floor, a tear dropping. He kneels and reaches for his bag, sniffling. "We all went to Beacon because we wanted to help people," Ruby says as he puts his cane away. "But, you're right, none of us asked for this either. We just have to press on and–" Ruby goes to put a hand on him when he interrupts her.
"How can you be so confident? People have tried to kill you, the world's about to go to war all over again, how are you okay with any of this?!"
"Whoever said I was okay with this… Do you think I'm gonna be okay with the fact that our world is going to have a war? Do you think just because I act calm around others doesn't mean I'm scared?! I am! I'm terrified! Terrified that when we all get back, everything is just going to happen all over again, scared that I'm going to lose everyone I love!" Ruby was standing, facing Oscar with tears running down her cheeks. Her eyes were full of pain and terror. "I am scared…Oscar, but…" She trailed off. But I need to be the person that people can be reassured that we'll make it out of this alive.
Oscar's eyes widened while Ruby slowly sat back down. Yang brought her into a large hug and she let the girl silently cry as all the pressure that had been building as they watched this began to come crashing down.
Ruby smiles sadly, "When Beacon fell, I lost two of my friends: Penny Polendina and Pyrrha Nikos. I didn't know them very long, but that doesn't change the fact that they were two of the most kindhearted people I've ever met. But that didn't save them…Pyrrha thought that if there was the smallest chance of helping someone, then it was a chance worth taking, and because of that…she died fighting a battle she knew she couldn't win. And Penny was killed just to make a statement."
They hated that this all needed to be resurfaced, but if it was just left all inside what good would it have done? As much as it hurt, especially then, sometimes it just needed to be let out.
Oscar apologizes. "I am scared, but not just for me. What happened at Beacon just shows that Salem doesn't care if you're standing against her or not, she'll kill anybody. And that scares me most of all. Pyrrha, Penny, I'd be lying if I said that it didn't hurt, that I didn't think about them every day since I lost them, that I didn't wish I'd spent more time with them! If it had been me instead, I know they would have kept fighting too, no matter how dangerous it was. So that's what I choose to do, to keep moving forward."
Yang smiles, more than she's ever been. She knows she continues to refer to Ruby as her little sister, but she's not little anymore. She's going to have grown up and matured, they all will. Yang chuckles under her breath, she guessed life-or-death situations will do that to a person, won't it? Yang looks down at her sister who silently watches, her tears seeming to have dried on her cheeks.
Yang promises to always be there for her sister, no matter what. Come Hell or high water, she's going to be there.
Oscar stands next to Ruby. The girl wipes away her tears with her sleeve, gesturing that she and Oscar should head upstairs or else Nora will eat everything.
"Hey, I'm sure I would have saved you some!" Nora attempts to defend herself, but all her friends share a look that seems to think otherwise.
"It wouldn't be the first time. Hey, Oscar, this isn't going to be easy but the fact you're even trying says a lot about you. You're braver than you think." With those final words, Ruby heads upstairs and Oscar watches her go.
"She really is remarkable, isn't she?" Ozpin comments and Oscar agrees.
"Damn right she is," Yang exclaims, "That's an example of why she was chosen to be our leader!" Both Weiss and Blade nod in agreement. No room was held for argument as Ruby blushed in her seat.
Oscar asked that she must have been one of the best huntresses at Beacon. " Hehe, in some ways, yes, but in many others, no."
"Dang, and here I thought I was about to receive high praise from the headmaster," Ruby joked.
" She has her quirks, her faults, just like everyone else, but she also possesses something unquantifiable: a spark that can inspire others even in the darkest of times."
The group remembers something along the lines of those words being said back in the first episode. Was this some kind of callback to it?
Oscar sighs that it must be hard on her too. Ozpin responds that it most assuredly is.
Everyone else was very aware of how she was feeling about all of this, her outburst earlier was proof of that.
In a room lit by candles, a message ends and Fennec asks about Corsac's thoughts. "Are of no significance. If this is how high leader Tarus wishes to proceed, then we shall make it so." Fennec agrees, but he still has some reservations.
What plan, but also man were they beginning to get tired of seeing the two. They knew it was important as they could use the information when they returned home, but they were still annoying.
They both hear a knock on the door. They allow the person to come in and welcome Ilia. The girl kneels and asks how she can be of assistance. Corcas tells her to stand and that they both have wonderful news. Ilia is curious as to what it is. "We've finally received a message from the Mistral Brotherhood. The operation was a success, Adam Taurus has claimed his place as the high leader of the White Fang." Ilia gives them a positive answer, but she doesn't seem all too pleased to hear this.
As much as you like to follow the White Fang, you don't like that someone as ruthless and controlling as Adam is now the leader, Blake thinks to herself. "Those guys are definitely going to question her reaction to the 'good news'," Sun predicts.
"Duh!" Nora shouts.
Ilia asks about Sienna and Corsac tells her she was buried with honor and the other branches were fed the story that was agreed upon.
After hearing this, only a few branches are aware that Sienna was truly murdered by Adam so he could take her place as high leader.
Ilia calls it a necessary sacrifice.
That explains the name of the episode.
The brothers concur. "Your maturity and understanding in regards to this matter is appreciated and it is why we summoned you here this evening," Corsac compliments.
"The White Fang is experiencing a transitional period," Fennec adds.
"Growth requires change."
"And change can be painful." The two continue to add on, finishing their sentences.
"If it's for the betterment of the Faunus it's a pain we can endure," Ilia says.
That's the thing though, it isn't for the betterment of Faunus, or anyone for that matter. Adam only seeks revenge and bloodshed and this is only giving him easier access to do it. "Ilia, you need to understand that this isn't going to help anyone!" Blake begs, wishing for her friend to see what this all really means.
No one is going to be treated better, it will only make it worse, and it will only make the people more terrified and distrusting!
Ilia asks what their next mission is and Corsac tells her containment. "With the CCT Tower still inoperable, we have the luxury of control over information."
"News of Adam's ascension has yet to reach Menagerie but when it does, the citizens of Kuo Kuana will undoubtedly react poorly now that the Chieftan has spoken out against us," Fennec continues. Ilia blames herself for the Belladonna's having any ground to stand on. Corcas tells her not to concern herself with past failures.
Blake's ear flicked angrily. She hated having to witness Ilia being stuck in this situation. She just wished they'd show them a way that could help her leave the White Fang, or better yet, heal. They're only using Ilia's emotions to help them meet their end goal and that's what pisses Blake off the most. Blake flinched when she felt Yang place her hand on her arm, sensing her conflictions.
"I just want to help free her from that horrible place," Blake muttered.
"And we will, but you and I both know that it's going to take some effort to convince her, she seems to be in pretty deep." Blake nodded, and Yang's comfort put her at slightly more ease.
"Focus on the future, we have an opportunity for redemption," Corsac ensures. Ilia asks what they need her to do. Fennec explains that the Belladonna's are the only remaining threat to Adam's assault on Haven Academy.
"Yeah, that's what you think, you bastards! But now they've got us!" Yang shouts.
"Yeah!"
"They must be silenced," Corsac concludes.
"S-silenced…?" Blake stutters, fear wracking her body.
"Ilia, no! You can't go through with that! We understand you're currently in a rough spot at the moment in the White Fang, but we know one thing for sure, you don't want to kill Blake! No matter how much you disagree with each other at the moment!" Ruby yells.
"Ilia if there's ever been a line you thought to never cross, this is that line!" Nora cries out. The room burst into an uproar, but while Blake's friends were shouting reasons why she shouldn't, she sat quietly shaking her head at the screen.
Ilia, please…don't do this…
Ilia is stunned, a little confused as well as apprehensive. "Like Sienna, they stand in the way of true progress for our people," Corsac states.
"We would never put such a burden on you alone, of course. Your brothers and sisters will be at your side," Fennec comforts, "But your relationship with their daughter makes you an integral part of this operation." Ilia whispers Blake's name, her mannerisms proving that she's very hesitant to agree with this.
"Yes, think about the fun times you shared," Nora started, "All those memories together. They don't deserve you to throw all that away for them!"
Ilia, please… Blake is aware when they watch that happen, whether Ilia agrees or not, it's about Ilia's option to choose that Blake is pleading for. For once to disobey them.
"We know how close you were with young Blake, rest assured, High Leader Taurus has requested she be taken alive," Corsac says.
"That is nowhere near comforting!" Sun yells. Well, yes, it was, but it wasn't comforting that her family should be left dead.
The White Fang couldn't risk having her present to defend her family. Ilia tries to reason, wondering about the people of Menagerie.
Blake's ear perked, there was still some of her friend in there. If her friend were truly gone she would have agreed with no questions asked, but she's hesitating, stalling her answer.
"Will come to understand what happens to those who speak out against the White Fang," Corsac retorts. Fennec included that they'll be left without a leader until their victory is complete. Corsac rests his hand on her shoulder, reminding her, "A necessary sacrifice, sister Ilia." Ilia looks down at his hand and a few moments later, she leaves the room.
"Ilia, no…" Blake murmurs.
"Don't worry Blake, we're going to save her," Yang promises.
"She's right to worry about the citizens, it's possible they may come to see Ghira as a martyr," Fennec thinks over. Corsac tells his brother that it's a risk they must take for their high leader.
"Screw your high leader!" Yang screams.
Corsac presses a button in front of him and a hologram of Adam's message replays. " I will not allow them to ruin this!"
"Pssh, whiny child much," Yang mutters. Blake gave her a quick glance but said nothing.
" The Belladonna name has brought me nothing but grief!" Adam rubs a hand over his face, " You've done well finding the deserter, bring her to me alive, but not before you've slaughtered her family. I have a promise to keep." The message ends and Fennec comments that he seems unwell.
His promise that he made to her back at Beacon.
I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love…
Blake!
No, please…
AHHHHHHH!
…
Blake recalls Yang's scream vividly. Since they watched it, there were times that it never seemed to go away.
"He carries with him a tremendous burden…" Fennec asks his brother if they're sure he should be the one to lead them. "For now, we must do what's best for the Faunus." Fennec sighs when a knock is heard. Another Faunus walks in and Corsac welcomes him, "Brother Yuma, did you see to Ghira's messenger."
"He rests beneath the waves, along with his warning," Yuma responds.
A few of the students gasped, and that meant there would be no one coming to warn Mistral or the academy of the attack!
"Then all is well," Corsac replies.
The screen goes black and the group is left with the knowledge that the people in Mistral are going to have no idea of the attack coming to their academy. Blake is desperate to know the answer that Ilia gave to the idea of attempting to kill her family.
"Hey, Weiss, do think you have a minute?" Ruby asks. Weiss tenses up, having a pretty strong feeling as to what this is about.
"U-um, sure…"