Chapter 1 — Not a Good Day

Ilia Amitola was not having a good day. It was bad enough that it had been necessary for her to take Banesaw's place on this suicide mission, but now there was a team of human Huntresses on board.

This mission wasn't for Ilia. Her skills involved spying and subterfuge. That didn't change the fact that besides Torchwick and his crazy partner, Ilia was the best fighter here.

This isn't right, she reminded herself. These men are all being sent to die. All so a human's plan can be furthered.

A breach on Vale. That was what the humans wanted. And Adam was willing to sacrifice his men, to risk sacrificing her, for it to succeed.

Not that Adam or Ilia planned on her dying. She had enough aura to survive the crash, after all. She could escape in the chaos, leaving Torchwick to be arrested.

A large explosion shook the train above her. The Huntresses were getting closer.

This was why Ilia had to spend weeks in dirty caves, taking orders from a human. Banesaw had been killed by a Huntsman, leaving the Mountain Glenn mission without a strong Faunus fighter. That was, unless Ilia took his place. The Huntresses' presence only proved Adam was right to request that she join this mission.

Ilia lowered herself onto one of the cargo boxes. Her knuckles were white from her grip on her weapon. Not for the first time, she wondered if she should have refused Adam.

She had never denied an order before. Even if she sometimes questioned the White Fang's actions, she always went along with them, because the humans deserved to suffer. If there was any reason Ilia had doubts, it was because she didn't want her actions to cause more pain for the Faunus.

She could see the results from this attack. Faunus would be discriminated even more. How many would lose their jobs? How many would be forced to work in a dust mine? How many would die in the same way as her parents?

Why, Adam? she wondered. What will this achieve?

She steeled herself when she heard three thumps in the next car. The Huntresses were inside.

She rose slowly, setting herself into a guarded stance. Now wasn't the time for doubts. The humans had attacked them for so long. No matter her thoughts on this breach, at least it would give them a chance to attack back.

"You two go on ahead," Yang said. "This one's mine."

Weiss flashed her a worried look, but just a glimpse of the blonde girl was enough to tell Weiss she wouldn't back down. Neither would the multi-colored mute, if her cocky smirk was anything to go by.

Weiss nodded to Blake, and the two of them ran forward. The mute let them go. Part of Weiss wished she hadn't, so that they could have stuck together.

We have to stop the train, she reminded herself. Besides, Yang can take care of herself.

She shook the thought off, running into the next car. Her eyes hardened at the sight of another obstacle. A White Fang member stood before them, whip raised and ready to lash at them.

Weiss turned to Blake so she could tell her to go on ahead, only to see Blake was a few steps behind her. Her eyes were wide, focused on the White Fang girl. Weiss glanced at the one who had put Blake in this state, only to see her whip had lowered and her jaw was hanging.

"B-Blake?" the White Fang member choked.

Whoever this girl was, hearing her voice made Blake's eyes narrow. "Ilia," she growled.

"You know her?" Weiss blurted. She looked back at Ilia, who had once again raised her whip. She pulled it backward, as if to lash forward. Seeing that, Weiss made a decision.

"Go ahead," Weiss said. "Stop Torchwick."

Blake's eyes widened. "But—"

"Go!" Weiss summoned a time dilation glyph under Blake.

Please. I don't want you to lose your focus against her.

Blake complied. With the glyph's assistance, she flew forward. Ilia finally lashed out with her whip, aiming for Blake. Weiss was there, catching it on the edge of her sword. By the time Ilia pulled it back again, Blake was gone. Without the distraction, Ilia's full attention was on Weiss.

"Schnee!" Ilia snarled. Her face was hidden behind her mask, but Weiss could imagine her expression was an ugly one. "How many more lives will you ruin? How many more of my people will you make suffer?"

Weiss took up a fencing stance. "I will not speak to a criminal like you," she snapped. "You White Fang are a stain on the world. As a Huntress, it is my duty to stop you."

"You Schnees are the criminals!" Ilia roared. "You oppress the Faunus, look down on them when you're the ones killing us! You're the ones who murdered my parents!"

Her parents? Weiss shook her head. If Ilia believed Weiss' hatred of the White Fang came because they were Faunus, she was wrong. There was a time where Weiss hadn't trusted the Faunus. That was before she had met Blake.

Now, she wouldn't let Blake's work on her be tarnished by Ilia's accusations. She surrounded the girl in glyphs, and leaped forward.

She had been hoping to bounce from glyph to glyph, striking Ilia enough times to end the fight before it really begun. She should have realized someone who had been close to Blake wouldn't go down that easily.

When Ilia's whip flung forward, Weiss spun. The action tightened her body enough to dodge the electric attack, but put her off course from her glyphs. She landed on the ground, backflipping to dodge another attack from Ilia.

A foot struck Weiss' face, knocking her onto her back. It was only the swift summon of a gravity glyph that let Weiss throw herself back before getting electrocuted from Ilia's whip.

Weiss knew her limits. She was at her best when supporting her team, not in a one on one fight. If she did get stuck in one, her best option was to use her mobility to outpace the opponent, ending the fight swiftly.

That wasn't an option with Ilia. She had even more mobility than Weiss, and seemed completely at ease in a one on one. If Weiss wanted to win, she needed to outsmart her opponent.

With that in mind, she brought her fire dust to the front of Myrtenaster. When Ilia attacked her, Weiss leaned sideways and let the fire loose. Three different fireballs all shot after Ilia, one after another.

Rather than dodge, Ilia swung her whip, catching each fireball. Her fourth swing was aimed directly at the spot where Weiss had been.

Had been. Because Weiss was already moving. In the time Ilia had spent defending herself, Weiss had formed a time dilation glyph beneath her. Once again, she surrounded Ilia with glyphs.

This time, Ilia didn't have the chance to stop her. Weiss cut through Ilia. The hit didn't do any real damage thanks to the girl's aura, but it stunned her enough for Weiss to jump on the nearest glyph, then throw herself at Ilia again. She jumped from glyph to glyph, striking Ilia each time she passed her. Finally, Weiss swung downward, knocking Ilia to the train car's floor.

Ilia recovered quickly. She pushed herself up, moving into a flip when Weiss swung at her. Weiss' sword grazed the air directly above her stomach.

So close, Weiss thought, doing a similar motion to Ilia when the White Fang member swung at her once more.

Dodge complete, Weiss summoned a wall of ice between the two of them. Knowing it wouldn't buy her much time, Weiss summoned a gravity glyph below her, lifting herself into the air. Another glyph let her hang there while she waited.

Her prediction had been correct. The ice cracked, then splintered into pieces. Ilia charged through the falling pieces. Her skin was a deep read.

A chameleon Faunus, Weiss noted. Not that the information helped her much right now.

"You Schnees are all cowards!" Ilia roared. "Quit hiding and face me!"

If that's what she wanted. A glyph formed under Ilia, launching her into the air like it had Weiss. Weiss leaped off her own glyph, striking Ilia's side with Myrtenaster. A glyph caught both of them before they could hit the ground.

Controlling the battleground they fought on was Weiss' best chance. She'd had more than enough practice jumping from glyph to glyph, and while Ilia was acrobatic, she wouldn't know when the platform beneath them would vanish.

That didn't seem to deter her. Ilia jabbed her unextended whip at Weiss, who caught it on Myrtenaster and pushed forward. Weapons locked, the two gritted their teeth as each tried to overpower the other.

"You call us cowards," Weiss hissed. "Yet you're the ones trying to let the Grimm do your dirty work on Vale."

To Weiss' surprise, Ilia paused as her face twisted in discomfort. Weiss almost won their struggle due to the moment of hesitation, before Ilia redoubled her efforts.

"You have no moral high ground to stand on!" Ilia retorted. "Not after all your family has done."

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "If you judge me because of my family, then you're no better than those who discriminate the Faunus."

She dropped the glyph, causing both of them to fall. Ilia cried out, and in the time she took to recover, Weiss managed to pierce her stomach, ramming her into the ground. The girl's aura crinkled, but didn't break. Would she have given up if it had?

It didn't matter, because she grabbed ahold of Weiss' arm, pushing her down and into her whip. Weiss bit her lip at the pain that struck her stomach. She tried to rise, but had to duck when Ilia, now standing, extended her weapon. Weiss let the movement take her into a roll, which gave her momentum to rise and thrust Myrtenaster forward.

Not enough. Ilia blocked the attack, activating the electricity to send a shock through Weiss' hand. Myrtenaster went flying from her grasp.

Weiss' eyes widened. She whirled back on Ilia, to see her smirking. With a gasp, Weiss threw herself to the ground, toward Myrtenaster.

Ilia's whip got to it first, sending it flying away just as Weiss reached it. When Weiss tried to catch it on a glyph, Ilia just struck that.

Weiss knew what Ilia was doing, and after missing Myrtenaster two more times, Weiss refused to play along. Ilia wanted to wear Weiss out so she could strike when Weiss wasn't prepared. After all, it wasn't like she had to worry as long as she kept Weiss from reaching her weapon.

That must have been Ilia's thought, because she was entirely unprepared when Weiss swung a fist at her. Weiss wasn't a hand to hand combatant, but she was nowhere near as bad at it as Ruby. When her punch connected, Ilia's head snapped backward, and Weiss was able to follow up with a kick.

Weiss was expecting the attack to knock Ilia down. She wasn't expecting it to break Ilia's aura.

She must have been lower on it than I thought.

Weiss' eyes fell on Myrtenaster, laying against one of the car's many crates.

She dove for it.

Ilia grunted when she hit the train car's floor. She took a deep breath before pushing herself to her knees, then standing. It was too late. The Schnee had her weapon, and Ilia had no aura.

Her stomach churned. After everything, she had lost. She lowered her eyes at the sight of the Schnee walking toward her, weapon raised.

She truly believed, in that moment, that Weiss Schnee would kill her.

She sighed, letting her shaking hand drop her weapon when the Schnee was only a few feet away from her. Close enough to cut Ilia's head off.

Had it been worth it? Had years of pain and sacrifice been worth ending up here, dying to one of her greatest enemies on a pointless mission? All she had wanted was to let her parents' death mean something. She didn't want another Faunus to suffer what she had. In the end, she'd failed.

Just make it quick, she pleaded, closing her eyes.

"Hurry up." The sharp voice snapped Ilia's eyes open. Weiss Schnee was glaring at her, but her weapon was put away.

"W-what?" Ilia silently cursed the Schnee for making a fool of her. On the outside, she could only stare, slack jawed.

"We're heading up," the girl said. "Unless you want to stay down here and die in the crash."

She was . . . sparing Ilia? Even saving her? Why?

It had to be some false sense of honor. If the Schnee killed someone directly, she wouldn't be able to lie to herself any longer.

That had to be it. Ilia kept that thought in mind as she picked up her weapon and followed the girl out of the hatch at the top of the car.

I could stab her in the back right now, Ilia thought. She dismissed the thought as soon as she had it. The Schnee still had aura, while Ilia didn't. Besides, she would be prepared for Ilia to attack. It was only that foolish sense of honor that had kept her from killing Ilia, but even she surely wouldn't risk her life to help an enemy.

Or was it something else? This was Blake's teammate, after all. If she didn't know Blake was a Faunus, she could be helping Ilia as a supposed favor to Blake.

Blake. Ilia still couldn't bring herself to think about her. Blake was working with a Schnee. What had happened? Didn't Blake remember all the Schnees had done to victimize their race? Hadn't she cared about what she had done when leaving the White Fang? Hadn't she cared about how Ilia would feel?

No. Blake didn't know how Ilia felt. Ilia had been too much of a coward to tell her the truth. Just like she was too much of a coward to fight the Schnee to the death.

And accomplish what? she wondered. Throwing my life away just so I could inconvenience a Schnee for a few seconds longer?

Ilia shut her eyes when she poked her head out from the hatch and the air blew into her face. She opened them after, only to see blackness from both sides. The tunnel continued to stretch on in front of her, while behind her, hoards of Grimm ran to keep up with the train. Ilia couldn't help the gulp that escaped her upon seeing so many Grimm at once.

"Why?" She didn't realize she had spoken until the Schnee turned to face her.

"Why did you spare me?" Ilia continued. "Why didn't you leave me down there?"

The Schnee huffed. "Unlike you, I have morals." Ilia's blood boiled at that, but the girl continued. "And . . . Blake worked with you, didn't she?"

Ilia took a step backward. "What do you know about her?"

The heiress glared at her. "She's my teammate and friend. We've had each other's backs countless times. I know of her past, but I don't care. She taught me to see the better side of people, and to forgive. She would want me to give you a chance."

Where the hell had that come from? Ilia was a terrorist, enemies with this girl's family for years! She had just tried to kill her! But since Blake might want the Schnee to spare Ilia, she was risking herself to do so?

Her head spun. She could almost hear a buzzing above her. Or was it . . . creaking?

"What is that?" the Schnee asked. So Ilia wasn't just imagining it. She looked up, which let her see the roof of the tunnel bending. Her eyes widened, before the steel popped free, on a course to land directly on top of them.

"Weiss!" A high pitched shout earned Ilia's attention just in time for her to see a red blur. Before she could even register what had happened, both she and the Schnee had been moved a single car forward. Ilia winced at the sound of steel striking steel. The impact shook her bones long enough for her to watch the plated ceiling slide off the train and onto the track.

"Ruby!" the Schnee exclaimed. Ilia glanced right, then blinked at the caped girl standing between her and the heiress. Had she been the one to save them?

She pushed the question aside, knowing what was coming. It had only been a few seconds since the ceiling had been broken through, which was long enough for the Grimm to make its way down. Ilia grimaced when she saw what flew above them.

She had never seen a Griffon so large. Based on the plating covering nearly its entire body, it had to have been an Alpha. It had lived long enough to grow three times the size of a normal Griffon.

It flew above them, but despite never landing on the train itself, the Griffon managed to keep up with them. It's red eyes bore into Ilia, who was keenly aware of her lack of aura.

"Ruby!" another voice exclaimed. A blonde huntress climbed out of the train car Neo had been assigned to. Ruby ran over to her.

"We have a problem!" It was Blake's voice from behind them. Ilia whirled around to see Blake was pointing at the end of the tunnel. It was walled off, and it was approaching very, very quickly.

"Get close to—" the Schnee began. She never got to finish before the Griffon finally dove forward, aiming for her. Blue eyes widened, and her sword rose to deflect the incoming attack. Her teammates all fired shots from their weapons at the Griffon. It didn't look like it had even felt them. It only continued its charge at Weiss.

The closer it got, the larger it seemed to be. Ilia was beginning to wonder if she had underestimated its size. It looked nearly large enough to sweep them all off the train, had they all been standing on the same car.

Its aim was on the heiress, though, and the only one still standing on the same car was Ilia. Ruby had gone to help her sister, while Blake was one car behind.

Had either the Schnee or Ilia been in better shape, they both could have gotten off it time. As it was, their battle had left them both exhausted. They had raised their weapons, but not nearly fast enough. Ilia lost her breath as the Griffon collided with both of them, sending them flying off the train.

For a moment, Ilia felt a strange calmness wash over her as she hung there. Hundreds of Grimm stampeded behind them, but her thoughts felt almost muted.

The moment ended before she could even take a breath. She landed on a glyph, the wind once again knocked out of her.

The Schnee stood on a similar glyph beside her. She turned back around, as though to jump back on the train. She hadn't realized just how fast it was. Ilia saw her eyes once again widen at how far the train had gotten, before it finally reached its destination. An explosion shook the entire cave, making both of them throw their arms over their faces.

Ilia's ears rang, but her vision was clear. She fell to her knees, watching as debris flew throughout the tunnel. The moment seemed to last for eternity, before it finally died down.

The platform below her dropped so suddenly that she barely managed to land on her feet. She turned to glare at the Schnee, but stumbled back when she pushed past Ilia.

Ilia grabbed her arm a moment later. "What are you doing?" she shouted, since that was the only way she would be heard if the Schnee's ears were in a similar state to hers.

"Saving my friends!" was the response.

Ilia glanced back. The Grimm were almost on top of them. There were so many that Ilia couldn't even make out individuals, beyond the large ones such as Deathstalkers. All she could see was a black mass about to descend on them.

She had no choice. The Schnee was still stunned, so she wasn't prepared when Ilia yanked her into a crack in the tunnel, leading deeper into the cave. She tugged when she realized she was being dragged, but by that point, they were already pushing through. The Grimm rushed by the area they had once occupied, but none could fit through the crack to go after them.

The sound of the stampede was all Ilia could focus on. She swallowed at the sight of it blurring past them to bring death to Vale.

She shook the thought off, turning her attention to the other occupant of the narrow tunnel. The Schnee glared at her, but Ilia met it with her own glare.You know as well as I do that moving out of here now would be suicide.

"I could have made it to them in time!" the spoiled girl snapped. "Why did you pull me in here?"

"Because you're wrong." Ilia said through gritted teeth. "Do you think I wanted to be stuck in here with you of all people? If we had tried to catch up, the Grimm would have gotten to us first. You're welcome for saving you, by the way."

The Schnee crossed her arms. "I didn't need saving! I wouldn't have gotten into this situation if I hadn't been so distracted by you in the first place!"

Ilia rolled her eyes. "A human blaming a Faunus for her problems. Typical."

"That's not—" She cut herself off with a sigh. "Forget it. We're stuck down here, and because of you, our only option is to go deeper into the cave." She craned her head around to stare at the path before them. She couldn't see the same thing as Ilia. The tunnel was small, leading into a more open area of the cave. Given enough time, they could find a way out.

"Trust me, I don't want to be stuck with you either," Ilia said. "Luckily for both of us, I'm not dumb enough to traverse Grimm territory alone."

The heiress scowled, then strutted forward. "Can we get moving? I need to get to Vale in time to help my team and everyone else contain this breach."

Ilia sighed, but followed after her.

After all she had done for the White Fang, how had she ended up here? The girl walking in front of her may have believed they could find a quick exit to Vale, but Ilia knew better. If there were any other entrances to Vale or the surrounding area, they would be just as sealed off as the entrance the train had blown apart. They would have to go much farther to find a way out.

Trapped in a cave full of Grimm with Weiss Schnee. This was not a good day.