AN: This was supposed to be Harry's first chapter. Then my PC died and this became Harry's POV companion story when I decided Harry's chapters would make the mystery pointless. Then it became filler to set up some new characters and problems. Somehow, it became this.

On the bright side, I have a lot of future scenes all done unless I go changing things again like an idiot.

Schoolwork was strange in Beacon.

The errant thought was not the first to cross her mind, but it was the one that convinced Blake she needed a break. With a muted sigh, she leaned back in her seat until her back popped and closed her eyes.

One unexpected advantage of spending more time with her team was how much easier her classes became.

In Yang's ongoing effort to bring her closer to the team, she had been asked to help the sisters with their Grimm Studies homework. Blake replied she had not finished it either, and in a handful of minutes found herself in the middle of homework-slash-study session with the rest of RWBY and their friends' team, JNPR.

Ren, who had already done the paper, let them have a look at it and shared some notes while Weiss and Pyrrha worked ahead on an assignment for Oobleck and Jaune caught Nora up on something from one of their less… memorable classes.

She meant no insult to the professors, of course. One did not get hired for such a role in the prestigious Beacon Academy on accident.

But it did seem as if some of their courses were much more clearly useful for their chosen profession than others. Knowledge on the different creatures of Grimm, for example, could prove life-saving. Economy and Finance, on the other hand…

Additionally, most students had no sort of choice on what courses they took during the earlier of their four years in the Academy. That meant someone had sat down somewhere and thought 'You know what Huntresses really need nowadays? More math!'.

Now, she was not lacking in brains or dedication, as her scores so far proved, and the professor had raised some good points in favor of the subject, but that did not mean she enjoyed the rather mundane nature of it.

Even Professor Peach's class felt more relevant, boring as only plants could be.

And yet, she had not heard of any students having to retake a course or being held back. As far as she knew, the only purpose of their academic results was to provide a ranking at the end of the semester. Would a village in peril ask to see her grades as she stepped between it and a horde of monsters?

It could be worse, at least. She could be two years behind everyone else like Ruby. The poor girl spent almost all her free time, since one of the extra lectures she and Jaune attended lately, slowly reading up on what she'd missed by being moved ahead.

"Is everything alright, Blake?" Ren interrupted her thoughts.

That immediately caught Yang's attention. Blake could spot the sudden scrutiny despite the blond girl's attempt at subtlety.

She made sure to inject sincerity in her response.

"It's nothing," she lazily closed her eyes and massaged the skin over them. "I'd been falling behind a bit - spent all of yesterday working too."

Yang returned to her work, her mood temporarily lifted from the work-induced dullness. Blake pretended not to notice.

Ren hummed, his face blank as ever, and offered what comfort he could.

"Friday's classes are usually more relaxed because of Combat Practice." He turned his head and caught Nora's eye quickly before speaking to her again, "Also, since most of us are so new to Vale, our team is planning to go explore the city this Sunday - I am sure Jaune means to invite your team along."

She had to blink in surprise at that. Not only was this the longest she'd heard JNPR's quiet boy speak being directed at her, but it sounded like he was making the effort to ensure she tagged along for a social outing.

Blake could not remember the last time someone had invited her to anything so… normal.

Was that sad?

"We'll be there!" Yang was quicker to recover with a wide smile. If there ever was a sign that she was burning herself out, this had to be it.

Ren nodded politely, then bent down over his own work. Yang gave her one last excited look and did the same.

She eyed her own warily. It still lacked any form of conclusion, but the body was mostly there. Just as it had been for the past… how long had it been like that?

With a disappointed sigh, she shoved it in her bag and pulled out her scroll to find out exactly how long… then promptly forgot all about her exhaustion.

She was almost out of her chair before she could force herself to stop and check that none of her friends had noticed her reaction.

After finding nothing unusual in them, she made a show of tiredly collecting her things and mumbled a 'see you later' while waving in response to the farewells sent her way.

She kept up the slouch and bored face until she reached one her favorite, more private, spots near the back of the library. There she put her back to a wall and retrieved her scroll with eager fingers.

'Sorry it took so long, things changed and I had to wait until the reports started making sense again.

Turns out the police somehow discovered and raided a White Fang recruitment operation in Vale a little while ago. Low level stuff but a few veterans were captured and the whole op was scattered.'

She hadn't learned anything about that. Which was not too surprising - the Council would want to keep how close the terrorists really were from the population unless it was some great victory to feel smug about.

'A former Faunus extremist turned White Fang malcontent agent by the name of Addison Rinder made the most of the chaos to cut and run with a few others. Nobody knew, of course, until all sorts of undesirables started popping up dead and branded by the Fang.

That's when she began reaching out to people, sharing what she knew and declaring her desertion. She also blamed the White Fang and had enough evidence that no one believes it's a frame anymore. It hasn't made life any easier in the Faunus districts, but with both sides of the law hunting for these murderers life isn't really any easier anywhere.

The people I have in the Fang deny responsibility, as they always do when it's not convenient for them or they just have no idea.'

That wasn't what she wanted to hear, even knowing that to hope for an abundantly obvious framing was naive. But it was also not completely damning, this evidence could easily be a play for protection.

'Then Rinder tried to build bridges with Liam Fink and never came back. The man is bad news, he has ties to the Families in Mistral and deals a lot in human traffic but his operation is small. He's been moving onto Faunus now, and made some comment about his new prize pet. No one cares enough about the deserter to rescue her.

Her band of runaways has gone to ground, and if Rinder is still alive, she's probably wishing she wasn't.'

It suddenly dawned on her that she had seen the woman.

During her failed infiltration, the brunette with the tail talking on her scroll. She had been too focused on her surroundings to catch more details about her, for all the good it did her in the end.

And now that woman, who'd talked of house-shopping in Vacuo with so much hope, was captured and on her way to a terrible fate.

Oh, she knew exactly what happened to victims of human trafficking. It was not unheard of the further you got from the Kingdoms and their law enforcement. Even if it was usually labeled for the public under a more palatable name like 'Banditry'.

It wasn't so rare for small settlements or nomad caravans to vanish. With so many already falling prey to the Grimm, a few here and there went unnoticed until a bandit camp got cleared out and their captives were discovered.

And it wasn't so rare either for immoral economical groups to hire bandits to inconvenience the investments of their competitors. These mercenaries, who had little use for money, usually took payment in a variety of goods to cover their needs.

Some more twisted than others.

Blake had seen a few such cases in her time with the White Fang. For all the hatred humans held for Faunus, nobody could deny the exotic appearance of many.

She had justified murder to herself a few times in the past. But fewer were the times she felt so little guilt.

"Oh..."

A small sound escaped her when she realized that could be the price of her freedom.

She did not know if Black had shared the blackmail he used to ensure she would stay out of his way. But if his client had been taken and her group disbanded, he had to be either dead or out of a job.

If this Liam Fink or most anyone else saw the picture it would have little meaning.

The number of people out there who might both have the it and the knowledge to use it was possibly down to either one or zero.

Blake wanted to hope for zero, but that would mean hoping for one death and one woman who would spend the rest of her life as a slave.

She needed air.

Some students turned when she moved past them, but they spared her little attention. Steps somewhere between a jog and speedy walk took her to one of Beacon's gardens and the first bench she found there.

Blake just… didn't know.

There were so many things. Essential things that she absolutely had to know but didn't.

Who had the picture of her in the White Fang? What was the Fang doing in Vale? Had they changed so much that they might be behind the murders? What was Adam planning? What happened to James Black?

Her hands shook as she brought up her scroll and looked at is as if the answers might suddenly pop on the screen.

Well, she could at least solve one of those questions.

The roof of the rundown car repair shop was too windy. She would not hear any conversation below.

Mechanical tools whirred and clanked beneath her feet while piles of rusted junk all over the two-story building creaked and groaned as the wind rushed over them.

A few blocks down the street, the warehouse where she'd been captured looked as abandoned as before.

For the past hour, she had moved steadily closer at a snail's pace. There had yet to be a sign of Black or any sort of surveillance but she stayed careful.

Blake peered carefully into the alley below her. The wind was strong enough that she had to lower herself and brace both hands on the edge of the roof.

Closer to the street, a figure covered in rags and dirt slept in the space between two dumpsters. She had watched him for a while until she could be sure it was nothing but an unfortunate homeless man trying to get some rest.

Far more interesting were the men directly underneath her.

Bent over the open hood of a beaten old truck was a man sporting a dark green jacket and bright red hair.

'Not visibly Faunus, unarmed if there's not a holster covered by the jacket.'

Opposite him, another used retractable claws to open one of the boxes at his feet and cram as many weapons as he could fit in the trunk. Anxious eyes a duller shade of amber than her own jumping to every passing car from his hairy face.

'Faunus, very armed, very jumpy.'

To anyone one passing him on a sidewalk he could have seemed a large but ordinary human.

She had worried for a moment that the White Fang had already moved on the deserters, but then she remembered seeing a redhead of that same tone in the warehouse before she focused on Addison taking her call.

Besides, if the White Fang had gotten here first she probably would have found some bodies and fire.

In truth, this find was extremely lucky. She did not have to approach a stronghold on full alert with this opportunity literally right under her nose. She didn't have to call James Black and surrender her information to him and his unknown loyalties and the blackmail he still held over her either. The very moment she had realized this she had almost jumped down in relief.

All she had to do was say she wanted to help and knew what had happened to their leader. No way these Faunus would be willing to abandon their missing friend.

Whatever else they may have become, the White Fang was a family. Blake knew that time and hardship had changed much about their methods, but they would remain the same at the core.

Her remaining hesitation was due to the more visibly nervous of the two also having a whole arsenal within arm's reach. Even if she was almost certain her fellow former terrorists would not just shoot her on sight - especially if they remembered her as she did the one in the jacket.

But as she was still not sure how she survived the last time she came across this group, she decided to be as safe as possible. With a deep breath she relaxed her grip on the edge of the roof and settled down.

Blake saw three possibilities in front of her.

First, she could jump down waving a white flag and hope the burlier Faunus was not scared enough to shoot before hearing her out.

Second, since they were clearly in a hurry, she could wait until they finished loading the truck and approach when they were at a safe distance from the guns.

Or third, more Faunus could come join these two and either make things easier or more difficult.

The wind kept blowing and the men kept working, but no burst of inspiration struck her.

In the end, her thoughts chased one another in circles until the trunk slamming closed chose for her.

Finished with the loading, the larger man walked around the vehicle to talk with the other. Blake strained all four ears but could not make out anything over the wind. Their conversation seemed short and to the point, with the redhead returning to his work and the dark-haired one leaving to enter a door on the alley wall.

With an outcome better than she had hoped for in front of her, Blake did not try to stop herself from quickly leaping down to land behind the apparent mechanic.

She made sure to rise with her hands up in a gesture of peace and speak quickly. Not that it stopped the surprised Faunus from jumping onto the engine block and throw a hand out as if to ward her off.

"I'm not here to hurt you!" She exclaimed, staring into his eyes. "I know what happened to Addison Rinder and I want to help."

The man stayed frozen for a short time, staring back wide-eyed and breathing hard. Then, slowly, he removed himself from his impromptu seat and looked all around her and behind himself. Blake kept still with her hands up and her eyes on his.

He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He swallowed once and visibly collected himself.

When he met her eyes again she had the weirdest feeling that she would have been safer approaching the gun loader.

"You... " he stopped for a second, his eyes flicked behind her shoulder and up to the roof she'd come from, "You know where she is?"

At least he was listening.

"No, but I know who took her and-"

'Click'

There is something about the disengaging safety of a gun that gives pause even to someone entirely unafraid of one.

She froze mid-sentence, shocked by this unexpected threat but painfully aware that any sudden movement could escalate this out of control.

A very slow turn of her head surprised her even more than Adam Taurus standing there could have.

'The hobo?'

"Girly, you must think I'm some kind of stupid if that disguise is supposed to fool me." The man before her spoke, his casual tone sharply contrasting the previous one.

From inside his jacket he withdrew a small handgun and raised it. In what was either a mistake or a move to give her false confidence, he kept her directly between the two armed men.

She was surprised and tense but not scared. With her semblance, it would be easy enough to dodge. She could even make them hit each other.

But they were supposed to be allies! Both on the run from the White Fang and trying to live out their lives as best they could. She didn't want to hurt them.

"I am not trying to fool anyone." She tried to relax her stance, but her tense muscles would not obey when staring down a gun barrel.

"You put on a ribbon and forgot to change your colors, so I'll believe you aren't trying too hard."

It took her a moment to look down and realize, in her haste to build herself a new life, she had never actually found new clothes since leaving the Fang.

'Of all the stupid…'

She could almost feel a noose tightening around her. These Faunus had already been discovered by the White Fang once, the only thing that kept them alive then had been-

"I know James Black, and he knows me." A day ago, she had been hoping they would never meet again, now she was name-dropping him. "I know he's at the warehouse and was on my way to meet him."

She just needed these men to listen. Once they weren't suspicious of her she could prove they were all on the same side.

"Warehouse is quite hard to miss, I'd say." He had become more focused the moment he heard the name, that had to count for something. "Why take this detour if you're old friends?"

"We're not friends." Blake knew better than to stay silent for long to avoid suspicion, but she needed this misunderstanding over and done with and her frustration was rising.

"Business acquaintances?"

"You could say that, it's complicated," the way that came out just irritated her more.

"He is always so secretive..."

Blake knew this man was fishing now, feeling confident with his iron sights set on her and his friend as backup. But she had no patience for it and every second that passed like this was another where something could go horribly wrong.

She lowered her hands, dropping the subservience and embracing the fact that even with all their perceived advantages she was not really threatened by a pair of guns. "Look, I have a lead on where your leader could be and reason to believe she is in a lot of danger. Are you going to abandon her when she needs you?"

He frowned at her a few more seconds.

"What's your name?"

Blake Belladonna had not been a well-known name in the White Fang. But that was no reason to go spreading it around. And who knew if her popularity had increased as a traitor? She saw these people as allies but she couldn't risk some desperate soul connecting her with an opportunity like a large bounty.

On the other hand, if Black was as good as he seemed to be, he already knew half her old names.

"Donna," she hissed.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a scroll. Eyes still on her, he pushed a button and brought it to his ear.

She had expected his volume to be set low, but her tense body still coiled imperceptibly tighter when an indecipherable whisper came across.

On the other side of that call was a man whose abilities had kept her up at night. Who with almost absolute certainty could destroy her life with a few taps on a screen.

Who, it dawned on her, stood to gain if his previous employer was removed from the equation.

If there were not two guns on her to reinforce the severity of the situation, she would have slapped herself for not thinking it earlier.

If her previous - brief and now dead - blackmailer could be believed, Black was the only reason this group had survived as long as it had. In the absence of the woman who brought them all together and gave them a chance to escape the White Fang, it was likely that they would turn to him for safety.

It filled her with a righteous fury to think these desperate Faunus could be manipulated towards whatever goals the mercenary wished.

The alleged White Fang murders immediately came to mind, but those had been going on longer than Addison's abduction. Still, whatever he was ordering them to do could not be in their best interests.

Her focus returned to the man standing before her as he spoke up.

"Hey, got a 'Donna' here who says she knows you and what happened to Rinder."

The answer was as inaudible as before but the redheaded man remained on guard and turned an eye on her.

"Black hair, pale skin, yellow eyes," he took a sniff in her direction, "some type of cat Faunus."

If there had been any chance that Black hadn't known that from the first time they met, it was gone now. She was almost angry over that, but then remembered he had seen her picture in the White Fang and that was much worse.

This time the answer seemed to slightly calm him. Blake tried to make herself relax a bit too.

"Yeah… ok, be there in a minute."

She had hoped there would be a way through this without running into him again, but she understood it was very likely the only way any of the rogues would consider hearing her out.

Now she was walking into a room where the only man who didn't think she was a murdering terrorist was not only blackmailing her to not walk into the room, but also probably manipulating the rest.

She would need to make sure everyone heard what she knew about Addison. The chance of getting her back would be more important to them than whatever Black had them doing.

With something resembling a plan in mind, she felt more confident waiting for the man to put his scroll away.

His gun remained on her as took one last look around the alley, most likely looking for some sort of trick. She waited quietly.

"Alright, stay in front of me and don't try anything," he gestured to the same rusted metal door the bigger Faunus had left through before. He looked over her shoulder and spoke to the homeless man, "Thanks, Finn."

Nine times out of ten, Blake would have come to her senses and ran like hell. Maybe ninety-nine out of a hundred. But she had failed to stop her friends in the White Fang from turning to hatred and violence, and to walk away now would doom Rinder and leave her friends dependent on a man who would care little for them.

Plus, a single gunman unaware of her semblance was really a small threat to her.

The door opened too smoothly for its appearance, beyond it she saw a short hallway with another open door leading to descending stairs.

She'd known they had been using the labyrinthine underground passages to move around, and as the man directed her through them now she knew it went beyond that.

Despite the smell and various puddles, this entrance was fortified.

There was just enough light for her to see clearly, heavy debris littered the floor almost to the point of slowing them down, and the tunnels branching off from the one she traveled were sealed off with so much garbage it would impossible to dig through quietly.

Even a team from Beacon trying to storm through here would find themselves blind, stumbling, and lost.

The echoes of their footsteps reminded her of her own team's mission into those Schnee mines. With how everything had turned out, she counted herself extremely lucky to have come out mostly unharmed and with her secret intact.

She wondered for a moment how Yang would react to what she was doing before dismissing it. Her last excuse would buy her a few hours at least until her partner grew curious. If Blake knew herself at all, the time limit would be the only thing keeping her from leading the rescue of Addison Rinder.

That was good. She would help these people because it was the right thing to do, but she kept in mind that they were in a dangerous situation and she could not compromise her stay at Beacon.

And that was before considering the weapons stashed behind every other turn and explosives at the exit. Dangerous indeed.

"Don't mind those," said the man behind her, "depending on what you've got to say we might get to remove all the bombs around this place."

The statement itself did a poor job of calming her, but the casualness of his tone let her feel a bit more reassured that her plan could work.

She knew she was under the warehouse because the room she entered was in a much better state than the tunnels. Smooth concrete replaced old bricks, the air was fresher, electrical lighting glowed overhead and the holes in the walls that presumably lead to more tunnels like hers looked like someone had cut the wall away instead of just blasting through it.

The redhead removed his sights from her back once inside, and used his other hand to gesture to the metal stairs leading to the upper floor.

Across the room and up the stairs she went, swallowing her last-second doubts with a hand on the doorknob.

As deep as she appeared to be, Blake knew she could incapacitate her escort and retreat back through the tunnels to be lost in a crowd in a minute or two. If she chose to ignore that Black could probably find her and definitely force her back with the picture, she could pretend she was in control here.

"Black says you're that girl we caught and let go," she turned her head to meet the gaze of the man she'd idly been planning to disarm. "As I remember, you snuck into our base and he found you lurking over Rinder with that sword of yours in hand."

She could not honestly remember if she'd had a chance to draw Gambol Shroud, but she turned more fully towards him and wondered what he was getting at. He must have noticed her curiosity, because he put his gun away and leaned on a shoulder against the wall.

"My point is: the only way he and Rinder let you go after that is if they didn't think you're our enemy, so you can stop looking like you're walking into an ambush. It's making me antsy."

It wasn't so much the unexpected pep talk that made her open the door, but the fact that he'd tried. It reminded her of what she already knew about these Faunus.

They were good people in a bad situation. Like countless others trying to make a difference but not knowing how and refusing to accept the Fang's way as the only one.

She could not do anything for every lost Faunus out there, but she could save these. She just had to be brave.

With a final nod, to herself as much as him, she marshalled her courage, turned the knob, and pushed forward.

Her first, brave step into the warehouse was quickly aborted and she almost fell backwards against her escort. A young woman with canine ears atop her head rushed past her, overburdened by so many boxes that Blake immediately dismissed the possibility of an attack.

The other girl did not stop to apologize or even look back. Shocked, Blake took a second to remind herself of the situation and her goal here; but she failed to spot James Black among the dozen or so Faunus running around moving equipment and supplies.

She only recognized the gun loader from back in the alley. Now he was unpacking disassembled assault rifles from a large container branded with a very familiar snowflake symbol and repacking them into a shopping cart while another man disguised them with scrap metal from a pile on the floor.

She must have stared for too long. Suddenly the controlled chaos slowed and the noise went with it until everyone was staring at her, except for one thin man cross-legged on a table with a scroll in one hand and a notebook in the other.

While Blake had considered something like this happening, she did not expect it before she'd even had a chance to speak.

She tried to do just that, to get a hold of herself and repeat the statement she'd given in the alley. A knot formed in her throat and all that came out was a quiet grunt. Attention was never something she had been comfortable with, she had even trained to avoid it. All the stares made her hands clammy and her back hunched subconsciously. Whispers broke out.

'Come on, speak.'

Again, she wondered why it had never occurred to her to throw away the pseudo-uniform she wore for many of her missions in the White Fang.

She was reluctantly – and very briefly – thankful to the enemy she'd been expecting for saving her from her social anxieties.

James Black stood from a seat she hadn't noticed before. There was no time to criticize her most recent mistake before he clapped his hands twice and called out, "Enough with the suspense, people, there's too much work to do and our newest informant is on the clock."

Some looks sent her way were mistrusting and other hopeful, but everyone obeyed quickly. Even the man who'd walked her through the tunnel went back down the stairs and shut the door behind him. She felt the opportunity to turn the crowd against the mercenary slip away from her unresponsive fingers.

"And you, my newest friend," he walked towards her relaxed, like she was no threat to him at all. She would have been offended, but he wouldn't be wrong. He gestured, "Why don't we step into my office?"

She swallowed the last of her hesitation and nodded.

AN2: I am unhappy with this chapter. Am I alone in that? It feels wrong but it's now been months since I decided this needed to happen. This is me just shoving it out of the way so I can move forward again.