Grey eyes stared forward blankly, their owner's head resting on her fist as she struggled to stay awake as the overweight professor paced back and forth in front of the class, his arms splayed wide open as he regaled them all with a retelling of one of his first solo hunts following his own graduation from the academy nearly three decades ago.
Ilia had always prided herself on her keen eye and adaptability towards the various situations she'd found herself in, this quality had served her well over the years when she'd been tasked with infiltrating SDC camps and processing plants for information on mistreatment.
The fact she could also believably pass as just another random human also helped more than she cared to admit.
She couldn't say how many times she'd been able to walk into a crowded office by being dressed in civilian clothing, wearing a lanyard, and just acting like she belonged there with the rest of them. Most of the other workers never spared her a glance, far too busy with their own jobs to care about the new face around the office.
More often than not, they either assumed she was a new hire or an intern working there on colleague credit.
Passing a fresh cup of coffee or two around and chatting with some of the other office drones definitely didn't hurt with selling the image. While they were distracted by the day-to-day grind, she'd been able to pull files on shipment schedules, falsify progress reports, disable communications, and even disable warehouse security systems in preparation for a coming assault.
But this, this was a different beast altogether.
Stuck in a classroom for most of her day listening and taking notes on lectures, learning basic survival crafts, and participating in combat spars, something that most people in her situation would consider normal, even a dream come true after years of training and preparation, made her feel so out of place, uncomfortable even.
Considering the last time, she'd been anywhere near what could have been considered a normal school environment, had been what she honestly considered the worst day of her life. The day everything fell apart, her family, her life, the carefully crafted lie that let her live out a near-perfect fantasy. Ilia shook her head banishing those thoughts from her mind.
The last thing she wanted was to have to relive that day again.
Turning away from the 'lecture' she looked over the rest of the classroom, most of the other students seemed to be struggling to stay awake, some of the braver ones were even playing on their scrolls, reading or just blatantly sleeping the class away, not that her own teammates were any better. Glancing out the corner of her eye she spotted Neo, or rather 'Mint' as she went in public, tapping away at her scroll a slight jingle playing out as she conquered another level of that game she was always playing back in the dorm.
To her right Mercury had his head in his arms snoring away like half of the class was, much like herself Emerald was still trying to pay attention her face moulded into a look of utter boredom, every once in a while, she'd glance out the corner of her eye towards him and then roll her eyes dismissively at his sleeping form before turning her attention back towards the textbook in front of her, or rather the scroll she had hidden between its pages.
Ilia watched her as she swiped through the interface displaying more of the files that had been sent by that woman earlier this morning, files that she was never privy to without Emerald acting as an intermediary. She'd thought about taking it more than once and finally getting a good look at just what their real objective at the academy was, but her teammate seemed to have thought of that already and took to locking the scroll away whenever it wasn't on her.
Not that she couldn't get to it if she wanted to, but as much as she might like getting a look at just what exactly the real reason those three were here was, it wasn't worth jeopardising her mission in Vale, the progress on that may have been slow going but it was more then she'd expected to accomplish in such a short time to begin with.
Glancing down at her scroll, the number and face of the silver-eyed girl she'd quite literally run into staring back at her. She glanced up over the desk towards the left side of the classroom, towards the same girl displayed on her scroll sitting between the Schnee and -if the files she'd been given were to be believed- her elder sister.
Blake sat to the right of the blond near the very end of the row much like herself.
They'd all arrived at the same time, and she could be certain that Blake saw her when they took their seats. It had been almost five days now since she'd first made contact with her team leader, but so far however she still hadn't heard any word back about a meeting or anything, not that she was expecting any kind of immediate response to begin with.
The very sight of her let alone the fact she'd interacted with one of her teammates would be enough to put Blake on alert, by now she'd already clued the rest of her team into just who she was. But since she was still sitting here and none of the teachers or worse Atlas, had tried to confront her about her past and haul her off to a cell between now and then was as good a sign as any in her opinion.
Blake might not be willing to face her right now, but she knew her presence at the academy was too much for her to just ignore in the long run. Eventually, her need for answers would outweigh her suspicion and she'd come to her for answers of her own accord. All she had to do was keep her distance and let things progress on their own, the last thing she wanted was for it to seem like she was trying to corner her or force an interaction between them.
If all went well then she'd be able to steer Blake away from anything to do with the White Fang, and she could keep living this little fantasy of hers as if everything that happened before was nothing but a bad dream. If not then she'd try to minimise the damage as best she could before there was a chance of any orders coming down for her to do anything...drastic.
Ilia shook her head slightly, pushing that train of thought to the darkest corner of her mind, that scenario was the last thing she wanted to consider right now.
Turning her attention back towards the lecture she tried to distract herself by focussing on finding the lesson the rotund huntsmen was trying to convey through all the swagger and bluster she was seeing right now.
However, the more she listened, the more she began to question just how this guy had managed to stay in a position like this for so long. Some of what he was saying was at least believable up to a point, then it all seemed to go off the deep end, I mean come on beating an alpha Beowolf to death with your shoe? The part about his weapon breaking during a fight with an Ursa was at least believable.
She'd helped defend a few Grimm incursions in the past, be that in defence of one of their camps, a settlement friendly to their cause or Kuo Kuana itself, and even just a few dozen Grimm were more than a threat for even the most experienced huntsmen they had among their ranks. A frontier town might be able to stand up against that, so long as the walls held and the Milita force kept their cool and didn't draw more in by panicking.
But fighting in an open field, against a force of Grimm a hundred strong, all by yourself?
Yeah, say what you want, but she wasn't interested in participating in a glorious last stand against overwhelming odds, anytime soon.
Maybe this was meant to be a lesson about picking your battles, if so all the embellishing he was doing would probably have the opposite effect, then again maybe that was the point. Make the whole thing seem so unbelievable that you couldn't help but pick it apart and come up with a better strategy to deal with that situation, in this case swallowing your pride and knowing when to turn tail and run in the opposite direction as fast as you could.
Oddly enough though, it wasn't the most outlandish thing she'd heard in her lifetime.
She'd heard more than her fair share of stories around the fire while out on the road with her brothers and sisters. Almost everyone she met during her time in the White Fang had one to tell. Tales of their battles against their human oppressors, of the victories they'd won, the brothers and sisters they'd liberated from their shackles, and the justice they'd dealt out.
Some people tend to exaggerate, blowing the number of defenders they'd felled or those they'd saved out of proportion to varying degrees. It was good for a laugh every now and then and helped keep people's spirits up while they were out in the wilds.
Maybe she just expected a Huntsmen Academy to be a lot more serious.
Beacon had one of the best reputations for a reason, after all, so she'd been expecting the teachers to be less...Quirky and sterner about things like the deputy Headmistress. Then again, the only real example of a Huntsmen Academy she had to draw on came from her home kingdom, a place where the school, their government, and their military were practically one and the same.
Just as their professor seemed to be reaching the climax of his story he was interrupted by the low chime of the classroom bell, the portly professor glanced up at the clock in alarm and hastily checked the pocket watch tucked into his vest to confirm the time. A look of alarm and slight embarrassment flashed over his features for a brief moment "Well, it seems I timed that one wrong." Port said, clearing his throat he tucked his watch back into his pocket and turned back to look over his class "The stunning conclusion to this tale will have to wait until next time!"
"Finally," Ilia muttered to herself, she and her 'team' moved to collect their things. 'Mint' slipped out of the row behind her as she stowed her notepad and textbooks back into her satchel and skipped off into the crowd of students making their way up towards the exit. The diminutive woman glanced back towards her as she left her bright green eyes flashing back to their usual mismatched pair of pink and brown, her lips twitching up into a smirk as if to say 'Good Luck' before she slipped out of sight.
'Bye.' Ilia thought to herself with a small shake of the head.
Out of all of her 'teammates,' Neo was probably the one she got along with the best, she kept to herself most of the time and despite what her disability might lead you to believe, she made a decent enough conversationalist when they were forced to spend time together on campus to keep up appearances. She chalked it up to both of them being stuck in a situation they'd rather not be in and just trying to make the best of things while it all played out.
It was a better deal than she'd expected when Adam first mentioned her role in all of this.
Throwing her bag over her shoulder she glanced up towards the rest of her team just in time to catch their 'leader' reaching over to deliver what looked like an aura-fuelled flick to her partner's ear. The slumbering human snapped up into his seat with a small gasp instinctively reaching up to cover his ear as he shot a small glare towards the culprit, Emerald shot him a look before scooping up her bag and making her way up the opposite stairwell towards the exit Mercury slipping out of their row and following behind her.
Ilia stepped out into the crowd of students falling in line beside them as they made their way up the stairs towards the exit, the sound of idle chatter and laughter picking up as she stepped out into the hallway.
With classes out of the way for the day and no homework -One of the things she didn't miss about school life- she had a couple of hours of free time before she'd be expected to turn up back at the dorm. The combat arena seemed like a good option for today, the training droids she'd spotted earlier in the week had piqued her interest and she could use some time to herself to blow off some steam.
Not the worst way to spend her afternoon, considering the alternative was either sitting in the library on her own starting at her scroll for four hours or spending more of her free time with her 'team' back at the dorm and weathering the awkward silences or attempts at normal conversation.
Though if she had to, the choice between them was pretty obvious all things consi-
Something bumped into her from behind snapping her back to reality, the sudden, unexpected impact making her stumble and almost drop her bag. 'Again' Ilia thought, her head snapping to the side towards the one responsible as they slipped past her in the crowded hallway. Whatever retort she had planned died in her throat as her vision was filled with a fair-skinned face framed by raven black tresses and a pair of amber eyes staring into her own, their owner's gaze filled with trepidation but also a mix of... hope.
A warm hand slipped into her own, its skin smooth as silk and feather-soft, the contact was brief lasting perhaps less than a second before it pulled away leaving something else in its place, but Ilia's mind was far from that at the moment, her attention focussed solely on the girl in front of her.
She opened her mouth to speak but found she had no idea what to say to her at that moment. She'd expected some form of contact in response to her interactions with her teammate, but having Blake confront her in the middle of the hallway after class was the last thing she ever expected.
Before she had the chance to try and string together a sentence of some kind, Blake pulled back and slinked backwards into the crowd, her form fading away like a shadow among the mass of bodies taking up the hallway.
She didn't know why she did it, yet at that moment all her perfectly crafted plans, any prior thoughts of a slow cautious approach to the situation went out the window and she found herself following after the cat Faunus. Whispering out some half-hearted apologies as she veered around or cut between one student after the next, trying her best to keep Blake in her sights.
Despite her urge to rush ahead and confront her old friend, she kept her pace even in an effort not to draw attention to herself and little by little she began to close the distance until she was almost within arm's reach, but just as she was about to reach out to her Blake darted around the corner at the end of the hall.
She couldn't have been out of her line of sight for more than a few seconds but when she rounded the corner after her she found the cat Faunus nowhere in sight.
Ilia slowed to a halt her eyes, darting around the corridor towards the windows lining the right-hand side and the doorway to another lecture hall further down the hallway, searching for any sign of Blake. The windows were closed their latches still in place and the door was too far for someone even as agile as Blake to have reached it let alone ducked inside without her being able to see it.
It was almost as though she'd disappeared into...thin...air.
'One of her clones' Ilia realised glancing back over her shoulder back down the way she came in hopes of catching sight of her quarry. The hallway on the opposite side of the junction may have been a little less crowded than this one, but she wasn't holding out much hope of spotting her among the shuffling bodies at this point, she had to be long gone by now.
'Then why?' Ilia asked herself resisting the urge to palm her face in frustration. Let out a small breath in and out through her nose she carried on her way down the corridor before she had a chance to draw any more attention than she already had.
She didn't understand it, why would Blake show herself like that and then run off without a word, if she wanted to avoid her she could have gone the other direction or hung back until she'd gone her own way. Instead, she'd practically dangled herself in front of her, then ran away, Blake had to know she would try to follow her afterwards, so why do it at all if she didn't want to talk?
'What the hell am I missing?' Ilia thought to herself clenching her fist in frustration, the object in her palm crumpling between her...
Swallowing, Ilia slowly raised her hand up into view revealing the slip of folded paper resting in her palm, she stared down at it long and hard for a few moments in silent consideration, the contents of which were obvious to her.
While she managed to show no outward reaction to the note Blake had passed onto her, inside however, she both dreaded and dared to hope about what it was she'd find inside.
Taking a deep breath through her nose, she unfolded the note, her eyes running over the single line of cursive text inside once and then twice again just to be certain.
XXXXX
'Meet me in the library tonight at 9:00, Study Room 11.'
...
'Come alone.'
XXXXX
Ilia felt her shoulders slouch, a small sigh of relief slipping past her lips. This was the chance that she'd been waiting for, a face-to-face meeting with Blake.
She'd admit that the time and the place were more than a little suspicious, enough so that if it was any other time or anyone else that she was dealing with right now she'd have suspected it was a trap and reported her findings back to command, biding her time while she waited for orders on whether the opp was worth salvaging or if it was better for her to bug out before she was compromised any further to come through.
But this was Blake she was dealing with, and threatening people into silence or making someone disappear seemed counterproductive to what she was trying to do by coming here, not to mention that from what she'd seen from the rest of her team, they might have had something to say about that if that turned out to be her plan.
Speaking of which there was no way this was happening without them being a part of it in some way, so she could expect to have one or two of them in the room with them while they talked or hanging around close by in case anything happened, it was how she would have done it if she was in her position. 'That means it's going to be either Ruby or the Blond' Ilia surmised.
Bringing the Schnee of all people along would just cause trouble, especially with her past. Hell, even if her cover had been genuine, she doubted she would have been able to keep herself from lashing out in some way at the sight of her.
Something she might have to consider getting used to if she managed to pull this off.
A small grimace formed across the chameleon Faunus's face, it wouldn't be easy for her by any means but for the sake of the mission she could try and be a little more... diplomatic when around her. If Blake had found a way to put up with that Prissy Atlesion Princess after being stuck living out of the same room as her for the last few months, then she should be able to do the same.
As for her own 'team'... they might not care about her mission, but they'd made it clear to her from the start that they wouldn't risk letting themselves be exposed because of it either. And while even she knew this meeting was bound to be more than a friendly chat, Emerald couldn't just tell her to ignore it either. Especially not with all the effort she'd put into making contact with their team in the first case, so ghosting Blake like that would make her look more suspicious.
That didn't mean they wouldn't try to interfere though, Emerald would want at least one of them to come along and 'make sure everything went well', and she wouldn't have room to say no.
The things she put herself through in the name of a better future for the Faunus.
'Better get this over with now' Ilia thought to herself. Pocketing the note with one hand while retrieving her scroll with the other, swiping through her scroll's sparse contacts she tapped on the silver-haired girl's icon and brought it to her ear, the slow rhythmic dial tone greeting her. 'Come on, pick up already.'
The sooner she got this out of the way the sooner she could focus on her own prep for the meeting, her cover story should hold up against most of the obvious questions Blake would ask, the most glaring being the reason behind how and why she was here. The answer she had in mind for that line of questioning would be closer to the truth than what Blake would have expected.
As for the meeting spot itself, she'd had more than enough time to scout out the library throughout the week, her cover demanding that she make an appearance there at least once or twice this week to check out books or look up articles online for classes.
The line clicked to life, Emerald's voice coming through the other end "What is it?"
"I'm going to be late back to the dorm tonight" Ilia replied keeping her voice low enough that any passersby wouldn't hear her, cutting straight to the point of the matter "I just received a response from my contact here at Beacon and they want to meet in the library tonight."
"Okay and there wasn't a chance you could have just pulled them aside and you know, had your little talk then and there?." Emerald asked over the line, the subtle hint of sarcasm that slipped in her tone causing a small scowl to spread across Ilia's features.
If she'd been a little faster and caught up to her sooner before Blake had been able to pull her trick she could have tried, maybe, but right now she didn't have much of a choice otherwise. "I got slipped a note in the hallway right after class, I didn't have time to ask any questions." Ilia replied keeping her tone as even as possible.
"And you're sure it came from her?" Emerald asked, her tone taking on a more serious edge, the implications of her words were not lost on the chameleon Faunus.
"It's in her handwriting, and if she told them I doubt they'd waste time playing games like this." Even if it hadn't been Blake who passed it on, it hadn't been so long since she'd last seen her old friend that she wouldn't recognise her handwriting from memory or detect the signs that the note was a forgery of some kind.
The silence was broken by a low scoff from the other end of the line"...Great." Barely a week into the operation and they were already at risk of being discovered, they needed to fix this, quickly. "What time did she want to see you?" Emerald asked.
"9:00 O'clock" Ilia replied pushing open the door at the end of the hallway she brushed past two students from Mistral, the blue-haired one shooting her a smile and wink before his Faunus teammate dragged him away. Ilia rolled her eyes in return, stepping off the cobblestone path and making her way along the edge of the building towards the main courtyard far out of earshot from any of the other students that may have been lingering around the building.
"And you can't just call her teammate to try and sort this out" Emerald felt the need to point out.
"The last time we saw each other was on Menagerie before she left with Adam for Vale, finding out I'm here as well after what happened at the docks will have put her on edge, if I go, I can smooth things over before she starts trying to look into things herself." And even if she did reach out to Ruby, she'd be surprised if Blake's own teammate wasn't at least aware of her plan.
Emerald relented "Alright, I see your point but take Neo along with you." Sensing an argument coming Emerald carried on before Ilia had a chance to disagree "You want her to think you've gone straight, don't you? Showing up to this meet-up with one of your human teammates in tow will help sell the image on that." It seemed like the most obvious solution to the situation, then again outside of keeping up appearances around the other students she rarely gave the rest of them the time of day, so the idea of relying on them probably never crossed her mind.
Ilia paused at the edge of the building, leaning up against the masonry she stared out over the courtyard her brow scrunched up into a thin line "What about you and Mer- Ray." She quickly corrected herself, out of all the people she expected to be suggested to tag along with her she would have assumed it would have been one of them.
"I already have enough to deal with as is right now and I sincerely doubt you really want 'him' of all people sitting in on this with you?" Emerald asked the silence she received was enough of an answer for her "Look, just focus on making sure your friend doesn't rat us out before we have a chance to do what we came here to do, either that or get rid of her, can you do that, lizard girl?"
Ilia bit back a retort the edges of her lips peeling back into a snarl "Fine" she bit out fighting to keep her tone as even as possible.
"Good" Emerald replied dismissively her attention elsewhere "We'll talk again in the morning." The call went silent.
Lowering her scroll Ilia stared down at the darkened screen, burgundy-tinted eyes staring back up at her from her reflection the spots running up her cheeks and forehead sporting a dusting of gold. 'Bitch.' It was the first of a long string of choice words she had for her 'leader', and all words she knew better than to say aloud for fear of the repercussions... even if she would have enjoyed the reaction.
Shaking her head lightly Ilia pushed that train of thought to the back of her mind, stirring the pot and alienating herself from their 'allies' wouldn't do her any favours in the coming weeks. 'Just stay the course.' Ilia thought to herself turning so her back rested against the brick wall she looked up out across the campus grounds taking a few deep breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth to get her eyes and spots back to their usual colour.
Glancing back down to her scroll she thought back to emerald words, despite her overall attitude she'd made a somewhat decent point towards the end...'Ngh, fine.' She relented swiping through her contacts she tapped on the icon featuring a black-haired girl with emerald, green eyes and began typing. 'Are you free right now, I need to ask about a favour.'
She waited for a response for what felt longer than it should have, the message showing it had been received but there was no indication of a response or that it had even been viewed. Just as she was about to give up and carry out three dots began to flash up on the screen, a few seconds later a message came through. 'What kind of favour?'
/
They say eyes are the windows to the soul, that they show the truth behind a person's thoughts and feelings even when they might try their very best to hide or fake them, it was a lesson taught to her by her father when she was young, a lesson that had served her well over the years and had let her see past the masks -both metaphorical and literally in some cases- her former brothers and sister would don and to the person hidden underneath.
She remembered looking into Adam's eyes before they set out on their raid on the SDC train, he'd been confident, reassured but most of all determined, as though he knew the outcome would result in a victory before they even set out to the rendezvous point.
At the time it had reassured her about their mission, that her doubts about him had been for nothing, and so she hadn't thought twice about the purpose behind the hijacking, at least not until they'd reached the lead storage car, and he'd started planting the first of the charges.
Almost immediately she'd challenged him, asking about the fates of the crew onboard if they went forward with this, in the moment she thought her words would be enough to make him pause, to make him consider another way, or at the very least make him remember the promise he'd made to her about avoiding unnecessary casualties like this.
Instead, her words had been met by confusion, indifference and a fleeting look of satisfaction as he offhandedly dismissed her concerns and the lives of the human workers as if they were nothing.
She'd had her doubts for some time up until that point, and time and time again she'd brushed them aside despite how long they'd been eating away at her in the late hours of the night, she still clung to the hope that Adam, really was trying to stay the course, that the after action reported she'd read had been wrong or blown out of proportion.
That he was still the Hopeful, idealistic young man she'd met all those years ago, the young man who mentored and trained her in preparation for the harsh road she intended to set out on. The same young man who'd comforted and supported her in the aftermath of her argument with her parents, the man who had wiped her tears and helped lift her back out of her sorrow and compelled her to fashion that pain into the resolve she needed to push on.
But in that instant, when she'd looked into the eyes behind that mask she'd been able to see the anger that had dwelled inside him, the cruelty that he had hidden away or that she had ignored in favour of her idealism and misplaced fantasies.
Adam had been so different in the beginning and by the end of their time together, he had changed so much in such a short time, and despite appearances otherwise, a part of her was still afraid that something similar may have taken root inside of Ilia as well.
Leaning up against the window frame, her topaz eyes peered down towards the courtyard below, watching on silently as the secret chameleon Faunus strolled along the cobbled pathway below, texting away on her scroll.
She stepped back from the window, Blake let out a soft breath she didn't realise she was holding. 'No going back now.' She thought to herself as she fiddled with the pendant hanging comfortably around her neck, trailing her fingers along the chain and down across its face, she traced the symbols engraved across its surface, trying her darndest not to let her building anxiety towards the situation get the better of her.
Letting the pendant rest in her palm she stared down at it intently, her face reflected back at her in the polished metal, anxious, weary, but determined. Tracing her thumb across the edge of the face, the metal gave off a dull aura of warmth that brought a feeling of calm reassurance to her, which helped to quell the cold mix of anxiety and dread she felt deep in her chest.
For a moment she wondered if she should have held off on this for another day or two to give herself more time to think things over, more time for her and the others to plan in the event of the worst-case scenario coming true, but it was too late to turn back now. The second she passed off that note, she set everything in motion, trying to stop it now would be pointless and a waste of all the time she'd spent planning with her team these last few days.
Much to her surprise, the others had been far more receptive to her plan than she'd first expected, she'd assumed she'd been hiding her reaction to Ilia's presence quite well, though that assumption had been thoroughly put to rest when Yang revealed she and Weiss had been eavesdropping on her and Ruby the night after their tea party with Winter.
She'd admit to being more than a little embarrassed, not because they'd overheard but because she hadn't considered just how obvious she and Ruby's sudden bathroom conference had been at the time, looking back on it now they may as well have been broadcasting to the rest of her team that something was wrong.
Although maybe that was just proof of how much Ilia's presence at the academy had impacted her over the last week.
While she'd been so absorbed in thought about how to explain the situation to the others, Ruby, Weiss and Yang had already been hard at work putting together their own plan and theories about the best way to confront Ilia.
To the point that by the time she finally sat down with them and started to put forward her own ideas, the others had already put together most of the plan themselves. She had been both flattered at how much thought they'd put into this for her and a little annoyed that they hadn't come to her sooner for her input on the finer details of things.
Not that she was going to complain.
The talk about who would be the one accompanying her into the room had gone about the same way she expected it to go, Weiss and Ruby had abdicated, the first for obvious reasons, having her there would be a distraction from the main point of this meeting at best and a blatant provocation towards Ilia at worst. However, the Schnee Heir had also been adamant that she and Ruby would remain in the library listening in from one of the study rooms above their own.
As for Ruby, given just where exactly they planned for this to all go down, she'd realised her weapon was more likely to cause more harm than good in such a confined space. While she still had that strange glass knife she'd brought back with her from Apocrypha, she'd admitted herself that her capabilities with small blades were a fair bit lacking compared to her skill with Crescent Rose... and the less said about her hand-to-hand combat ability the better.
This left only one real choice for the role, and while she was confident just Yang's presence would be enough to make sure things remained civil, if things did end up going south then she was their best bet at ending things as quickly and decisively as possible before their brawl had the chance to spread to the rest of the school.
She wasn't expecting things to get violent, not only would starting a brawl at the heart of Beacon serve no purpose what so ever; but if violence had been Ilia's goal this whole time, then given she already knew where their dorm was she'd had more than enough chances to try something if she wanted to.
The fact that the first thing she'd tried to do was just walk up and talk to them despite knowing how she would have been received when her past came to light, combined with her first interaction with Ruby spoke well enough of her intentions that day.
Still, while she hoped what they had seen of her so far had been the genuine article, as a wise man once said, it was better to hope for the best but to prepare for the worst. Given what she and her team had all experienced these last few weeks, she was certainly beginning to see the relevance of that phrase now more than ever.
"Hey, you good?" her partner asked from her position against the wall to her right, lavender eyes regarding her softly.
Blake regarded her partner, the niggle of doubt in the back of her mind making itself known once again, before with a soft shake of her head she forced it back down inside her. "I'm fine, just... worried about tonight." Blake blew out a long breath, how she wished she could just look at the situation and believe it was just a happy little coincidence.
She was sure she'd be sleeping better at night if that was the case, unfortunately, her conscience wouldn't allow that. "I want to believe she left like I did, that I'm just letting our past muddy things between us like with Weiss, but I just... I don't think I'll be able to relax until I confirm it myself."
"I get it." Yang pushed off the wall and moved beside her, taking her partner's hand into her own and giving it a soft reassuring squeeze. "Well, not 'get it', 'get it' but I get that the two of you were close back then so seeing her again now and not knowing if, well..." Yang trailed off, wracking her mind for something she could say to reassure her.
Sure, she'd gotten herself in her fair share of trouble over the years, but she'd never even been part of a schoolyard gang, let alone anything along the lines of what Blake had with the White Fang.
Despite how much she wanted to empathise with Blake about this, she felt like anything she said right now would just ring hollow. "Sorry, I'm rambling." She lamented scratching the back of her neck nervously.
"Believe me it's fine." She said, noticing her partner's troubled expression, she offered a small smile back to her friend. "Still, I'm glad you guys are here with me, I don't think I'd be able to do this on my own."
"Perks of having a team to back you up." Yang nudged her in the side with her elbow, a knowing but good-natured glint in her eye. "Nice to see you've learned your lesson after last time." And by the end of today, their team would have either helped their friend reconnect with a long-lost face from her past or uncovered an attempt by the White Fang to infiltrate not only one of Remnants Four Huntsmen Academies but probably the most anticipated public event of the year.
"But" Yang went on, tilting her head back towards the window, she nudged it to the side, gesturing outside and across the courtyard towards the combat arenas. "I still think we should have brought the prof in on this." It didn't take much to realise why the White Fang would be so interested in having one of their own get access to such a high-profile event, and out of all of the faculty, he was probably the one who'd have listened about their plan first instead of just completely vetoing the idea like Miss Goodwitch might have.
Plus, there was an advantage to having a powerhouse like that keeping an eye on things. While Blake seemed confident that their team would be more than enough for this, for all they knew, Ilia may not be the only White Fang operative here, given the situation, it was a real possibility that her entire team could be plants like her.
From what Ruby had told her about what happened at the docks, the only credible threats they'd encountered had been Torchwick and the White Fang manning the bullheads that strafed them. The ones on the ground had been a bunch of pushovers that went down in one or two hits, which wasn't all that surprising given most probably didn't even have their aura unlocked.
But Ilia was different.
Just like Blake, she'd never set foot in a combat school like the rest of them and still qualified for a spot at one of the four biggest huntsmen academies on Remnant, not only did that mean she was far more skilled, but better armed than the rank and file guys her teammates had fought back then. So, at the very least they should assume each member of that team was at a skill level on par with Blake, maybe even above that.
Blake shook her head slightly, turning to regard her partner. "Normally I'd agree with you, but I think we all know he has enough going on right now and the last thing he needs is any distractions."
Yang grimaced. "You got a point there." He and his sister were the only people with the knowledge of how to fight back against Mora, the stress of that alone, not to mention all the drama that had gone on these last few weeks had to be massive. Sure, things had settled down a bit since then, but none of the responsibilities or expectations hefted on him had changed that much.
'The guys' blood pressure must be through the fricking roof.' Yang lamented to herself, she hoped she and her little sis's talk with Uncle Qrow would help take some of the edge off, though it may as well have been a drop in the bucket compared to the grand scheme of things. 'At least we take care of this for him, before things get out of hand.' She thought to herself as she dug out her scroll from her blazer pocket. "We should start heading back to the dorm." Yang said, they still had around five hours until the meeting, enough time to go over everything and fit in some last-minute prep work.
Blake nodded, and the two stepped out of their alcove and back into the main hallway, making their way back towards the stairwell. As they walked, Yang began swiping through her apps, pulling up their group chat history. She glanced through their most recent messages from throughout the day. Blake leaned over, glancing down at her partner's scroll "Anything from the other?" she asked.
"Nothing right now." Yang replied. The last message in the chat had been dropped in by Ruby just before they arrived for class that morning, saying she'd found a way to sneak their weapons into the study room for tonight and then another from Weiss that she'd be helping test it out. "Hang on," Yang began typing away on the screen before pressing send, and a gold text box appeared in the chat. 'Blake and I are all set on this end. How are you guys doing?'
Arriving at the end of the hall, Yang pushed open the door into the stairwell with her free hand, Blake slipping under her arm and onto the landing. As the door clicked shut behind them, Yang's scroll buzzed signalling a response from her teammates, she glanced down at the screen, a white text box popping up beneath her own.
'It took some doing but it worked' Another box appeared underneath the previous, with an image showing the inside of the study room, Crescent rose and Myrtenaster laid out on the table, behind that stood a very proud-looking Ruby.
Below the image was another line of text 'There's an out-of-the-way section between the library and the administrative building, we were able to use it to get up to the second-floor bathroom' A few dots popped up on the screen, followed swiftly by another text box 'The lock looks like its seen better days, I tried it myself and the latch doesn't seem to catch so we should be able to use it to get in tonight.'
Yang nodded, turning the scroll around towards her partner "Looks like we're set." she said, passing her scroll over to the cat faunus to read over the message. "We should grab some grub on the way back?" Yang suggested. Her partner was already on edge, and she could already feel her own anxiety starting to seep in, better they take care of that now, than later. "I think we could all use a break before tonight."
Blake paused for a moment, almost refusing her friend's offer out of instinct before her stomach growled in agreement, her face flushed a bright red as her partner hid a snort into her hand. Looking away in embarrassment, Blake held out the scroll to her friend "...That sounds good." She said.
The blond smiled. "Alright then, that's one spicy meatball sub for me and a Tuna melt for you?" Yang listed off, her partner nodding back silently while her bow twitched at the mention of one of her favourite snacks.
As the two began their descent down the stairs, Yang began typing away at their chat once more. 'We're going to swing by the cafeteria on the way back to the dorm, you guys want anything?' Pressing send, a red and white Icon appeared above her message showing it was received. Her scroll Buzzed once more just as they reached the ground floor a pair of white and red text boxes popping up beneath her own.
'If you could, a turkey club, with brown bread, iceberg lettuce, chopped tomato and sliced cheddar with black pepper and light mayonnaise.' There was a pause and then another white box appeared, 'Also a can of iced coffee if you wouldn't mind.' Yang rolled her eyes a little at the Ice Queen's order, before dipping her gaze down to the red box underneath.
'Can I get a sweet chilli chicken wrap, with extra sauce and a cola?' The red one followed.
Yang nodded to herself, taking a moment to commit those orders to memory. 'We'll see you guys back at the dorm.' she typed back.
Another string of dots appeared under her message before a red text box popped up with a small chime. 'See you there, sis, ' Yang read. Pocketing her scroll, she pushed open the side door back out onto the campus, the afternoon sun blanketing the stairwell in a gentle amber light.
As she stepped outside, the playful look in her eyes left her and was replaced by a look of silent determination.
'Five more hours' she thought to herself.
Five more hours before they walked into that room with little more than this plan of theirs and a hope for the best.
Five more hours until they came face to face with this Ghost from her partner's past.
Five more hours to prepare for what could be the worst scenario.
Would all their planning and prep be enough in the end, even with all they'd done so far, she still felt like they could do more. If they were lucky, they could put some of that into action with what little time they had left. Would it be worth it, maybe, maybe not, there was no such thing as a foolproof plan after all, and for all she knew maybe they wouldn't even need it in the end or maybe it would buy them that split second to act and save their asses in the fight to come.
Either way, they might as well make it count. '...No turning back now'
/
The walk from the Red Baron was probably less than twenty minutes to the cafe, she'd been there enough times after shift or on the occasional lunch run for her and Ron that she knew the route to and from off by heart. She moved at an even but brisk pace, weaving between the crowd, taking up the majority of the sidewalk with practised ease and a whispered apology to the occasional passerby she drew too close to.
Most hardly even paid her any mind beyond a firm look in her direction when she got too close, Alana didn't care, her eyes focused down on her scroll.
When the Nightingale had first suggested exchanging scroll numbers back at the docks, she'd had her reservation, the adrenaline from their fight had faded from her mind, and the shame and regret towards her inaction back at that village had driven her to follow him down to the docks had been replace by shock and terror at what she'd done.
How she walked right into the middle of that place and fought her former brothers and sister all to defend an SDC shipment, no mask, no hood, her face out in the open for all to see.
She knew more than a few of the group that had been with her at the mine had escaped into the forest when the battle turned against them, whether they made it out of the frontier and back to their sect to report she couldn't be sure, and even if they did they had to have assumed she was dead.
Except she wasn't and she'd given the faunus that fled the docks with Torchwick a good reason to remember her face and they'd be certain to share the story of the three faunus that fought against them that night. She and the others had all been a close-knit group back then, brothers and sisters in all but blood, if any of them made it out, her description would have earned more than its fair share of attention, and that wasn't even considering Blake's involvement in the whole debacle.
To think Adams' own lover had taken up arms against them and led the charge against the very organisation her parents had built, it must have been a shock. Enough so that she was certain if not Adam himself then some of their best would have looked into not only her resurgence but just who her accomplices were, and lo and behold, they'd find not one traitor, but two.
Only this one didn't have the same skillset, nor the type of security provided by a Huntsmen academy that would have even the most skilled assassin thinking twice, instead, they'd find a regular teenager held up in a dingy one-bedroom apartment in the south side of Vale. Granted she was one of the rare few outside of actual huntsmen to have their aura unlocked, with some limited training in firearms and hand-to-hand to boot.
But all that would mean nothing against someone sent to hunt down and deal with traitors like her, and he knew it.
That night after the police let her go he'd walked her back to her apartment, passing off his scroll number to her and promising he'd be back in a few hours once he'd dealt with the aftermath of his students running amok.
She'd spent that time hiding away in her bathroom, half expecting a squad of masked killers to break down her door in search of her, instead, she'd received a call a little after midnight, followed by a knock at the living room window from the fire escape outside. He'd stayed with her for the rest of the night and into the early hours of the morning, until it came time for her to head off to work and for him to return to Beacon, she'd thought that was the end of it only to find him at her front door around nine that evening.
It went on like that for around two weeks. He'd come at night and watch over her while she slept and then see her off to work in the morning before returning to the academy himself. Eventually, they'd both grown confident enough to say the worst of it had passed and his nightly visits ended, though he still called her every couple of days to check in and make sure she was doing well.
She was and had been keeping her head down since then to make sure it stayed that way, although she'd gotten a little worried when his calls stopped almost a month ago. She didn't know whether to wait or call to check in, but she held off on it for fear something big might have been going on. Then, just the other day, she received a call from Mikael asking if she'd be willing to meet and share some information about the White Fang.
It was the last thing she'd expected considering all he'd done to keep her out of the White Fangs' notice, which is why she knew something had to have happened for him to ask her to do this.
She wasn't aware of the finer details, what she did know, however, was that it was big enough that he had his hands full dealing with it right now, so she'd be meeting with someone he trusted explicitly instead.
She didn't pry any further, the less she knew what was going on behind the scenes the better chances she had of maintaining this life she'd built for herself in Vale.
And if her knowledge of the white fangs' inner workings -however limited it might be- could help her repay some of the debt she owed him for helping to keep it that way, then she'd do her best to provide.
Pausing at the corner bus stop, she glanced down the street to her left, spotting the cafe on the corner at the other end. Fishing her scroll out of her jacket pocket, she began typing, 'I'm just around the corner now.' She pressed send and a new message appeared alongside the string of texts she'd received from Mikael that morning.
She waited a few minutes, watching as he read over her message, and then another box appeared below it. 'Good, Serana will be waiting for you on the second-floor balcony.' The text from Mikael read.
Alana's lips quirked down into a frown as she typed back. 'I'm still not even sure if what I do have will be worth anything.' She was just a grunt, sure she'd been moved around a lot between different outposts for missions, but most of those had been on the frontier, she'd only been in the city maybe two or three times, and even then it wasn't for anything big.
Glancing both ways, she quickly jogged over to the other side of the street, a few doors down from the cafe, she could make out what looked to be a lone figure sitting at one of the tables on the upper balcony.
'Maybe, so.' Came Mikael's reply 'But given the current state of affairs we can't afford to overlook anything that might be useful.' Another box appeared below the other 'Regardless I understand the risk you are taking by bringing this information to us, you have my gratitude as well as our discretion should anything come of it.'
Alana let out a small breath at that, typing out her response and pressing send. 'Thank you, I'm just here now, I'll call you once we're finished.' Arriving at the storefront she pocketed her scroll, glancing inside the front window as she passed by Alana noted the dozen or so customers still inside. From the look of it, most of them were just finishing up and would be leaving soon, a good thing considering the subject of conversation to come.
Rounding the corner, she paused at the foot of the stairs leading up to the balcony. A small part of her couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't too late for her to apologise and ask to call this off. She shook her head lightly, forcing down her doubts and began her ascent up to the balcony. As she stepped onto the second floor a tremor passed through her, her tail instinctively tucking itself in around her waist as an unseen weight settled upon her shoulders.
Swallowing, she slowly turned towards the source, jade green eyes locking with a pair of molten amber orbs, their owner regarding her with a predatory gaze as she sipped almost daintily from her teacup. 'This... This is his sister.' Alana thought to herself as the woman's eyes ran across her body studying every inch of her form intently, she didn't move, she didn't even breathe until she was certain the woman had finished her... 'examination' and those eyes returned to her own.
A slender eyebrow rose in what Alana hoped was approval.
Lowering her teacup, the woman tucked a lock of raven black hair behind her ear "Alana, I presume." Her voice was soft and welcoming but also commanding at the same time.
Serana gestured with one hand across to the seat on the other side of the table with one hand and with the other poured herself and the new arrival a fresh cup of tea.
"My brother has told me quite a bit about you" She smiled softly, a pair of fangs peeking out from behind her lips. "Would you care to join me?"
AN: A new chapter and a new year, 2025 ladies and gentlemen, perhaps it won't be as shitty as the last, who knows.
To the individuals who have been spamming me and my stories with AI-generated messages about artwork commissions in the reviews, or who plan to in the future don't expect a reply when you do it, I'll make it clear now that I have no interest in commissioning artwork for my stories.
If people want to make artwork about this then they can, but don't expect me to pay you to do it especially when you ask through what looks like a copy and paste of nine other messages I've gotten myself and seen on the reviews for other authors, talking about how 'amazing' and 'unique' our work is, it comes across disingenuous.
With that little rant of mine out of the way I hope you all enjoyed this chapter of Shadows Rising, as usual, feel free to leave a review below if you're up to it all constructive criticism is welcome, as it helps me improve as a writer, I will see you all in the next one.