Content Warning: The Blake/Adam relationship, which we are going to get into a little in this chapter, necessitates a warning for sexual violence and assault. If these things make you uncomfortable, the offending passages will begin and end with *** asterisks. If you replace passages marked as such with "And then a bad thing happened to Blake," you'll still get the gist of things, though I won't promise the story will read exactly the same.

Chapter 4: The Runaway

Blake Belladonna couldn't remember ever being so happy. She was lying in the grass on Beacon University's campus staring up at the stars overhead. The moon was full that night, big and bright. A good omen, Blake had thought to herself. A light to guide her, to give her strength.

Not warmth, though. It was unseasonably cool for this late in spring. Fortunately, Blake had the best heater in the world. Yang had always been like that. The girl practically radiated heat, something that Blake was all too happy to take advantage of in the dark corner of campus they had found for themselves. Tonight was the night of the opening ceremonies. After a year of excitement and anticipation, the Vytal Festival was finally here. A celebration of the peace reached between the four great nations fifty years ago, the festival was a celebration of culture as much as it was one of unity. Students, artists, and athletes from all over Remnant would gather once every four years for one of the greatest spectacles the world had to offer.

However, instead of packing themselves into Amity Colosseum with the other multiple thousand people to witness the start of the games, Yang had grabbed a soft old blanket, and dragged Blake away from the dorms. From where they were lying, they could see the colosseum lights and hear the faint roar of the crowd.

A breeze blew by overhead and Blake clutched tighter to Yang, pressing her face into the space between her neck and her shoulder. If Yang found the touch of her icy skin startling, she didn't show it. Instead, she wrapped her arm around Blake and pulled her closer beneath the blanket. Blake didn't know if they had said a word since leaving the dorms, but that almost made the night more perfect. They didn't need to say anything.

Of course, Yang always did say something eventually. She brought her lips close to the top of Blake's head, and even through her bow, she could feel her warm breath on her concealed cat's ears. "You know Blake, there's something I've wanted to tell you for a long time. I just wanted the right time to say it. I think this is it." Blake's heart began to hammer in her chest. She felt her breathing stop. "Blake, I think I-"

"Yang, wait," the dark-haired girl interrupted, craning her neck so that she could look into her partner's eyes. They were soft, and concerned, the light making their usual lilac into a deep purple instead.

"What's wrong?" Blake fought the urge to look away, but only barely. She had never been good at this, at talking about how she felt. Especially when it was something as silly as this. But Yang had always encouraged her to say exactly what she felt, always stopped at every juncture of their relationship to make sure that Blake was comfortable, that they weren't moving too quickly. That she was okay. She'd never had anybody care for her the way Yang did.

"I just… I don't want you to say it yet. Please." She buried her face in the blonde's neck again, feeling loose strands of her hair tickle her nose and cheeks as she did. Please don't let me mess this up, she thought to herself.

"Is it okay if I ask why not?" She was so considerate. Blake had told her precious little about her past relationship, if it could even be called that. She didn't want to admit how broken she was, how he had ruined her. But somehow, she didn't have to. Yang seemed to sense the things that Blake couldn't stand to say out loud, and she was always endlessly patient with her. She didn't deserve someone like Yang.

"I… I don't know if I can say it back. Not yet." Blake clutched her partner harder, hoping beyond hope that she would understand. "It's not that I don't care about you, because I do, so much more than you know. It's just that things are so perfect the way they are now. What we have… I'm not ready for it to change yet." She told the truth, or most of it. The part of it that mattered.

Yang seemed to consider that for a moment. As she did, her fingers traced lazy circles against Blake's back. She tried to focus on that sensation and nothing more. Anticipation and fear dragged the moment across an eternity.

"Okay," Yang finally said simply. There was no anger in her voice, no doubt or sadness. It was as though she had agreed to coffee later, or to go study in the library. Blake looked up to try and gauge her expression, but Yang had turned her attention skyward and she couldn't see her face.

"O-okay? That's it?" Blake said, pushing her luck despite herself.

"Of course okay." She rolled over and suddenly Blake's world was filled with Yang's smiling face. Her endless mane of hair draped over both of them, spilling across Blake's own, black and gold tangling together. "I wouldn't be happy saying it anyways. Not if it made you uncomfortable." She leaned down and placed a kiss against Blake's forehead. Blake felt a tear roll down one cheek as she did, and she had to wipe it away. She cried a lot more with Yang, but it was the good kind. The kind that came from overwhelming happiness.

"But," Yang said, "if you don't mind me asking, I'd kind of like to know where we're at. Because I really, you know, like you and care about you a lot. And I just want to make sure that this is… I mean, it's just us, right? It's not because there's um… you know…" Blake found the usually brash girl's sudden awkwardness adorable. She reached up, kissing her gently on her lips. Yang answered it in kind, easing Blake back onto the grass. She savored the kiss, enjoying the warmth that spread through her. Yang tasted like strawberries and summer. When she kissed her, Blake felt whole.

When the two finally parted, Blake was smiling. "It's just us. It's always been just us."

Yang let out a deep breath. "Good," she said, returning the smile. "I would have hated to have to break someone's leg during the Vytal Festival. I think that would probably disqualify me from the Silvers." That made Blake giggle, and as she nuzzled her face against her partner's cheek, the fireworks began. Yang flopped back down in the grass to watch. They weren't as close as they would have been in the colosseum, but then, they wouldn't have been cuddling together if they were either. That would have been a real shame.

"Alright, so, I'm totally fine with not saying it yet," Yang said after a few minutes, "but here's the deal. When- or, sorry, I guess, um, if-" Blake pushed herself up so that was over Yang now.

"When," Blake assured her with another kiss.

That made Yang's smile brighter. "When you're ready, I get to say it first, deal?" Blake settled back down against her partner and stared up at the bursts of light in the sky with her. She breathed in the night and hoped that moments like these would never end.

"Deal."

When Blake opened her eyes, it wasn't the starry sky or the moon above her that she saw, but the splintered wooden beams of the warehouse she'd spent the night sleeping in. Instead of wrapped in her lover's arms she was curled up on gathered canvas sheets and tarps piled together to create a makeshift mattress. Instead of blissful happiness, she was filled with soul-crushing regret and guilt that threatened to drown her. She yearned to close her eyes, to return to perfect days and more perfect nights. Her heart ached with longing. With a massive effort, she pulled herself off of her bed - for lack of a better word - and stretched, trying to work out the kinks in her back and neck.

There wasn't any time for self-pity this morning. She had a meeting. She slid on her belt, buckling the white leather over a pair of tight black shorts that reached to mid-thigh. As she did, her hand brushed over the angry red scar on her stomach, the flesh knotted and raised. It was a familiar sensation, but no less welcome for it. Before, she had wrapped her stomach in gauze, but once the wound had healed as best as it could, she had decided to leave it uncovered. Yang wouldn't be able to hide her scars, why should she be given that luxury?

She pulled on her boots next. Their tops overlapped with the bottom of her shorts, covering her completely from the waist down. Already she could feel the sweltering heat of the Vacuo summer starting to get to her. She glanced at where her coat was hung and decided to forgo it for the moment, preferring to just wear her black halter top instead. She grabbed a simple grey bandolier and slung it over her back, cinching it tight so the magnet that was attached to it rested squarely between her shoulder blades.

Lastly, she reached down and picked up Gambol Shroud, holding it lightly in her hands. She had never wanted to take up her weapon again. When she had first come to Beacon, she had made sure it was hidden very well, deep in a part of the Forest of Forever Fall where it would be safe. She had walked away from it, away from her life with the White Fang, determined to make something of herself. Determined never to come back. And yet, here she was.

At first glance, the sword seemed to be an enormous cleaver. It had a long square blade that was deadly sharp on one edge. The dull side had a cut out of it, perfectly shaped to fit Blake's hand. Concealed inside the first blade, was a second. Thinner, more delicate, but just as deadly and ending in a wicked point. The hilt had a ribbon tied around it, long enough to occasionally be a nuisance.

Of course, like most weapons owned by thieves, miscreants and outlaws, the blade also concealed a gun. With firearms being a hot commodity, not to mention the fact that being seen with one could be tantamount to suicide in some parts of the world, it was necessary to keep such components well hidden. In Gambol Shroud's case, this meant hiding the mechanism in the sword's crossguard. The blade folded back and over to reveal the barrel and the trigger extended from inside the hilt. At a glance, it would be impossible to tell the true lethality of the weapon. She was back alright.

With a sigh, she snapped her sword to the magnet on her back. At the same time, she heard a noise from the window high above her head. It creaked open and a familiar face slipped through awkwardly, his arms full of fruit, bread and cheese. Despite this, Sun Wukong landed lightly on his feet, even having managed to close the window behind him on the way down with a flick of his long prehensile tail.

"I stole you some food," he reported, chipper as always. Morning people. Blake accepted a loaf of bread and an apple, perching herself on a crate to eat it.

"You picked a different place than yesterday, right?" she said as she tore the bread into smaller chunks.

"Sure did," Sun replied cheerfully, his cheeks already packed full. He watched Blake pick at hers as he swallowed. "You know, we wouldn't have to steal to eat if we'd stowed away on the boat from Menagerie like I suggested," he said.

Blake glared at him. How many times had they had this conversation? "Sun, the trip took weeks, there was no way we could stay hidden for so long."

"You couldn't maybe. I happen to be a master stowaway," he answered with a grin before shoving a whole banana in his mouth at once.

The ears on the top of Blake's head lay flat against her skull, but she otherwise didn't respond to him. There were times when she was genuinely glad that she had Sun around. He was surprisingly street smart, and his childhood here in Vacuo meant he wasn't a stranger to breaking the rules. He could even manage himself in a fight, having competed in the Silver-Tier MMA Tournament in the Vytal Festival, representing the University of Haven. Still, he was an unwanted companion at best, and a nuisance at worst. Besides, having an energetic and unflappable blond hit on her constantly dredged up memories she'd rather lay dormant.

She maybe could have avoided the issue of Sun's painfully obvious crush, but that would involve not being a massive coward for once in her life, and everytime she considered it, it made her stomach churn. Her life had been hard enough as it was, watching as the people around her discriminated against others of her species, calling them animals and worse behind their backs. She'd endured prejudice, stereotypes and hate her whole life for being a faunus. Somehow she couldn't imagine waving the fact that she was a gay faunus around would make her life any easier. Even if such things were more widely accepted these days, she just wanted something about her to be normal.

Besides, she'd only ever really come out to two people in her entire life, and one of them had turned out to be a monster.

"Today's that big meeting, right?" Sun said, apparently sensing Blake's mood and deciding to switch the subject. She nodded.

"The White Fang representatives should be here in another hour or so. We should get set up so that we can see them approach."

"Right," Sun said, his tone uncertain. "So, just one more time, what's the plan here exactly?"

Blake closed her eyes and briefly imagined a world where she didn't have to deal with the ridiculous boy beside her. It was pleasant. "We have an appointment with recruiters from the White Fang. They need security detail for some big event they're apparently a part of. The event is illegal, but it's not like it's some big heist or something where somebody might get hurt. It's an easy job that will get us in with them."

Sun nodded. "Yeah, I got that part. And we're using the fake identities we picked up in Menagerie so nobody you used to know gets word who just joined up. The part I don't understand is what comes next. Are you really serious with trying to get in with the White Fang? I mean, you spent so long trying to get away from them. I could see if this was some, like, destroy the enemy from within thing, but you haven't talked about actually doing any kind of destroying yet." Blake looked away to hide the guilt she knew was written on her face. She felt Sun take her hand.

"Look, I know things have been hard for you, okay? And I've been cool with letting you do your thing and just watching your back, I got no problems with that. But it's been a whole summer, Blake, and I only barely know what's going on here."

"Then maybe you should just leave." It came out harsher than Blake intended, but instead of pulling away from her, Sun just squeezed her hand tighter.

"You know there's an easy way to get me to go."

There was. He'd offered as soon as they'd landed in Menagerie. He'd told her that he would gladly hop on the next boat back to Mistral if she would send word of where she was and what she was doing to her friends. Blake had refused, and Sun had stayed.

"I just really don't think you should be alone right now," the faunus boy continued, "especially if you're dealing with those creeps."

"I can handle them," she said, but the bite had gone out of her voice. "Look, Sun, the truth of the matter is, I don't know what I'm going to do when I get back in with the White Fang. All I know is there's somebody looking for me. Somebody with a lot of power and influence who will stop at nothing to make life hell for me and anybody close to me. The last thing he would expect me to do is to come back, not when I've spent half my life running from him."

Sun's expression was uncharacteristically grim. "It's that guy, isn't it? The one they're saying organized the attack?"

Blake nodded, swallowing past a heavy lump in her throat. "Adam Taurus."

Sun let out a low whistle. "Okay, so we're hiding in plain sight from one of the White Fang's biggest baddest boogeyman, got it. What's his beef with you?"

*** Hands, rough and calloused grabbed Blake's arms, forcing her on her back. He was above her, his face bathed in shadow. The horns in his hair caught the dying light of the flames, illuminating them and only them. Blake struggled against his hold, but he had always been stronger than her. "You don't know what you are," he had growled, "how could you? You do love me, Blake, you just don't know it yet. But you will…" ***

Blake pulled away from Sun, her heart beating wildly, her breathing too shallow, too fast. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried desperately to put herself anywhere else. She settled on her dorm room, back at Beacon. Sitting on her bed, Yang snoring in the bunk above her. She was looking at the shelf she kept beside her, the one that had held all her favorite books. She named them, whispering the titles to herself, trying to see each one in her mind as she did. "A Man with Two Souls, The Lost River, World of Night, Gold and Glory," the list went on until she felt her breathing was under control and her heart wasn't about to explode out of her chest. She opened her eyes.

Sun was staring at her, worry written across his face. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I will be," Blake lied. "I don't want to go into it, all you need to know is, he's a bad guy."

Sun seemed to accept that. "Bad guy, got it." He still looked troubled. "So, what happens if we get in with these guys and they want us to do something bad too? Like, I'm not sure how on board I am for trashing another school or a government building or something, are you?" He tried to keep his tone light, Blake wasn't sure Sun even knew how to be completely serious, but she could tell that this whole situation was making him more uncomfortable by the minute. She felt a stab of pity. He shouldn't be here, he was just trying to take care of her. He should have realized by now what happened to people who tried that.

"Sun, I owe you my life. There's no way I can repay you for what you did that night. If it hadn't been for you or Neptune, or Sage and Scarlet, I might not be here right now." They had found her, after. Dragging an unconscious Yang across campus, blood loss already making her head spin and her vision fade. Sun and his friends had gotten them to the docks, kept them from bleeding out before the paramedics could arrive. Blake owed them more than her life - she owed them Yang's too. "But this is something I have to do," she continued, pushing thoughts of the past aside. "As long as I'm in the open, I will be hunted, and the people around me will suffer the most." She looked up at him, her deep amber eyes imploring him to understand. "No matter where the road takes me, it's better than where I am now. I don't want this life for you, I wouldn't wish it on anybody, but if you follow me, then that's the road you're taking too."

Sun looked away from her. He drew his legs to his chest and wrapped his tail around them, resting his chin on his knees. He stayed that way a while, staring off at something Blake couldn't see. "You're a lot of things Blake, but you're not a bad person." He turned to look at her again, that mischievous smile back on his face. "I'm coming with you. I'm watching your back. And when you do decide you're ready to kick some asshole terrorist butt, I'll be there helping you do that too."

Blake didn't know what to say. "There's really no stopping you, is there?" she finally responded, a small smile creeping across her lips despite herself.

"Nope!" Sun confirmed, leaping to his feet. "Now, let's go have a date with some crazy people."

They clambered up the stacked crates until they could reach the window Sun had come in this morning. The warehouse was one of hundreds that were contained in the shipyard. Breaking in hadn't been too difficult, and port towns like the one they had been frequenting in their time staying here were good places to catch up on news from all around the world. Not that much interesting had happened. All Blake had managed to learn over the summer about the attack on Beacon was that very few members of the White Fang had been captured alive and that Adam had safely escaped, brutally butchering a whole unit of soldiers who had thought to try and apprehend him. It wasn't surprising given his training and what he could do. Blake doubted that there were many people in all of Remnant who could have hoped matched his skill with Aura. She certainly hadn't been one of them.

That didn't mean she didn't have some training, however, and as she and Sun scrambled onto the roof, she reached within herself and extended her senses. Adam had trained her as best as he could in its use growing up, but like anything in life, some had a more natural aptitude for it than others. It didn't help that many discredited the idea of Aura altogether. It had certainly sounded like gibberish when Adam had first explained it to her. According to him, it was an extension of one's soul, a manifestation of who they were projected outwards to be used as a shield, and sometimes even as a weapon. He had called it a relic, a part of human and faunus kind alike leftover from days when they had had to scrape their existence out of a world infested with soulless monsters. Now that those days were past, Aura, like so many other things in Remnant, had faded into myth and obscurity, largely written off by the general population.

Blake, however, had seen the true power of somebody trained and skilled in the manipulation of their Aura. She knew what Adam was capable of. It would take more than mere soldiers to bring him to justice.

They huddled on the roof a moment as Blake let her Aura surround her. Even with what training she had, it could be difficult to tell the difference between what her new senses were telling her and what were just the usual feelings of paranoia and distrust.

Sun watched her intently. He didn't truly understand Aura, though she'd tried explaining it to him a couple of times, but he did understand that she had some ability to sense danger around her. "What are you getting?" he asked quietly.

"Something's not right," Blake muttered. It was early, but dawn had already broken over the horizon. Fishermen, sailors and the like all started early, milling about the docks sometimes before sunrise, preparing ships and loading cargo. By this point, the docks should be alive with voices and the sounds of labor.

Instead, silence surrounded her. The docks were empty. Well, not quite empty. Her senses were telling her she was being watched. She didn't know from where, but somebody knew they were there. "We're not alone."

Sun seemed to pick up on her meaning, looking around them for the first time. He reached behind him and under the hem of his perpetually unbuttoned shirt to pull out a collapsible bo staff, forged inexplicably from four pistols. When Blake had first seen the weapon, she had been shocked. She'd known Sun was the rule breaking type, but such a blatant display of weaponry of that caliber just didn't fit. He'd explained that weapons like his were Vacuo's way of getting around the firearm ban. The pistols fired specialized concussion rounds - short ranged bursts of dispersed kinetic energy. Painful, but ultimately nonlethal.

"What do we do?" Sun asked, looking at her.

"We go to the meeting," she said, drawing Gambol Shroud from its sheath. "If this is all for our benefit, it'd be rude not to show up."

Sun smiled, a gleam in his blue eyes. "Ladies first."

The two took off, keeping to the rooftops. They had camped out on the opposite side of the shipyard from where the meeting was going to take place, and Blake was sure she wanted to have eyes on who was there before she stepped into a trap. Coming to Vacuo had been an easy way to assure that she didn't run afoul of any former companions in the White Fang who would recognize her, but it wasn't worth taking the risk that somebody from her past life had ended up on assignment here. Always better safe than sorry.

They slowed their pace as they approached the meeting area. Blake crawled over the crest of the last warehouse roof, her senses on high alert. The warehouse in question was open, the interior completely dark. The door was facing away from the sun, and if it had windows, they'd clearly been boarded up. It was a favorite precaution of the White Fang - faunus were quite adept at seeing in the dark, but humans struggled at the best of times. Perfect home-field advantage.

From what she could see, they were the first ones here. Three white claw marks had been painted onto the side of the warehouse, assuring her at least that they'd found the right place. Now, all that was left to do was wait.

It didn't take long. She felt them before she saw them, two more faunus approaching the warehouse. They were dressed in jeans and heavy boots. The one with a lizard's tail wore a green leather jacket, while the one with boar's tusks wore a sleeveless tank top. Both of them looked tough, but neither looked like White Fang. They were, however, armed, the former with a more daggers than Blake cared to count strapped to him and the latter with a heavy double-bladed axe. They inspected the marking on the side of the warehouse and looked inside.

As they did, Blake felt the presence of two more: a woman with a deer's antlers growing from her forehead and a man with a large pair of bat's ears. If they were armed, it was more subtly so, though Blake could see a bulge in the woman's jacket that indicated one of those concussion pistols. They were approaching the warehouse slowly, heads darting in every direction looking for someone.

"I don't think this is a meeting," Sun said quietly.

"No," Blake agreed, "it's an audition."

That feeling of being watched hadn't left her yet, and now she knew why. They were being hired as security. Whoever was doing the hiring wanted to make sure that they could handle themselves. On the ground, the pair in the warehouse had seemed to come to the same conclusion. She saw the lizard faunus turn and draw a pair of daggers. He hurled them with deadly accuracy at the approaching pair. The antlered girl already had her pistol in her hand and she fired twice, knocking both the approaching projectiles off course. The man with the boar's tusks charged, hefting his axe as he went. The bat-eared faunus met him, flexing his arm as a pair of blades slipped out of the sleeves of his black jacket. Their partners circled the two as they clashed, each looking for an opening to hamper the other party.

"What do we do?" Sun asked.

"We fight," Blake said, her jaw set in determination. She reached into the ammo pouch on her belt and pulled a magazine from it, filled with concussion rounds. She'd had Sun acquire them for her when he'd first mentioned his own weapon used them. She swapped it with the magazine already loaded into Gambol Shroud's hilt. Real rounds were expensive, and besides, she wasn't trying to kill anybody. Not today at least.

"I'll get the girl," she said. With that, she lept off the roof, landing nimbly on her feet. She rushed towards the deer faunus, trying to keep her steps as silent as possible. Still, even with her attention on the fighting pair, a faunus's hearing is nothing to joke about, and she turned when Blake was still a dozen or so strides from striking distance. She saw the pistol come up to face her and Blake reached out with her mind, imagining shadows gathering over her skin, feeling the surge of power as she drew her Aura around her. It wasn't much, but it was enough to pull off a trick or two. She leapt upwards, and as she did, she imagined herself peeling a tiny piece of the humming energy that surrounded her off. In her mind, she shaped that piece with a practiced, easy stroke, forming it into a perfect image of herself. It was paper thin, but there. She sprang off its shoulders, giving herself more height as two shots rang out from the girl's pistol. The shadow clone evaporated in a haze, but it had served its purpose. Blake flipped over once at the apex of her jump, landing easily in front of her opponent. Her sword lashed out once, twice, her strikes precise and calculated. The cuts she left in the girl's exposed forearm were long, but shallow, and enough to force her to drop her weapon. She bent over her arm, clutching it in pain. She didn't even see Blake's kick as it collided with the side of her head, sending her sprawling to the ground.

Blake grabbed the pistol off the ground and hurled it off the edge of the dock and into the dark water beyond it. She took a moment to take stock of the rest of the battle. Sun had apparently taken the lizard faunus off guard. He was lying several yards away from the last point she'd clocked him at, groaning audibly. Sun had then thrown himself at the dueling pair, his staff easily giving him an advantage when it came to reach, but he was forced to fight defensively, constantly checking the more lethal weapons swinging for him. He swiped aside a heavy blow from the axe and turned his momentum into a spinning kick aimed at the bat faunus. He dodged the attack, but it gave Sun enough room to bring his staff down, twirling it above his head with a highly unnecessary flourish before slamming the ground between the two. As he did, he pulled one of the triggers on his staff. There was an enormous bang as the gun went off, the energy dispersing right at shin level, knocking his two opponents to the ground. He kicked away the axe the boar faunus dropped and placed the butt of his staff against the bat faunus's back.

"Don't even think about it buddy," he said as behind him, the lizard faunus got back to his feet.

Blake didn't have time to warn him. She pulled Gambol Shroud's crossguard, folding the blade back over itself and revealing the barrel of the gun. She hurled it at the last remaining opponent, pulling the trigger as she did. The recoil from the shot sent the weapon hurtling towards her target and went sailing over his right shoulder. She grabbed the end of the ribbon before it sailed beyond her reach, and yanked on it hard. The gun went off again and boomeranged back towards the boy, this time coming the other way. The ribbon wrapped around him as he lifted an arm to throw another dagger at Sun.

Blake gave a cry and pulled, reaching out to her Aura once more. She felt strength flood her limbs, and her tug lifted the faunus off his feet, sending him hurtling towards Sun who had now turned his attention towards their last foe. He smirked and aimed a two-handed swing at his head, pulling the trigger right at the moment of impact. The lizard faunus joined the pile of fallen foes, pinning the others with his unconscious form.

Sun glanced back at her, grinning that big stupid grin of his. "That wasn't so hard!"

Blake was about to answer when she heard clapping behind her. She whirled around, pulling the bladed sheath off her back and holding it in a reverse-grip. Approaching the group was a tall woman with a full-faced Grimm mask ornamented with red markings. It was a status symbol, one that denoted her as a ranking member of the White Fang. The two who flanked her wore the more standard, unornamented masks that left their mouths uncovered.

Even without the mask, the woman struck and intimidating figure. She was tall, well over six feet before the heeled boots she wore. She was dressed simply in the outfit standard for the White Fang; dark, tight-fitting garments woven from special metallic fibres meant to better defend against edged weapons with a white armored tunic over it. She had a long sword laid across her back, her red hair spilling over it. Blake couldn't tell at a glance what her faunus lineage was, but that wasn't so uncommon amongst their kind. Even though Blake couldn't see her face, when she spoke, she could tell the woman was smiling.

"Well fought, all of you," she said. Her voice was pitched low and held traces of Menagerie's distinct accent, the one Blake herself had tried so hard to get rid of. One of her men went to go check on the girl, making sure her wounds weren't fatal. Sun moved away from his pile of conquered foes, letting them pull themselves to their feet. "Unfortunately, the White Fang will not need the services of those defeated today. However, your zeal and prowess in combat have been noted, and you are all encouraged to continue seeking ways to help our cause. You will leave us now."

Her voice carried absolute authority, and the others began shuffling away from the warehouse, though not without a fair few dirty glances at Blake and Sun. The antlered girl in particular, clutching her freshly-bandaged arm, looked as though she were ready to go for round two right then and now.

"As for the two of you," she said, turning her attention toward her champions, "follow me." She strode past them and towards the dark interior of the open warehouse. Blake looked at Sun who just shrugged and collapsed his staff, following the woman. Blake collected Gambol Shroud from where the lizard faunus had dropped it on the ground as she pursued them. She noticed the men who had accompanied the tall woman took up positions on either side of the warehouse. Lookouts then, or backup.

The warehouse was still dark enough for a human to have a hard time seeing in it, but the sun had risen high enough that a few stray shafts of light came through the boarded up windows. It was more than they needed to see each other well. The woman perched herself on a wooden crate and assessed the pair.

"You have good instincts," she said finally. "Sitting back and evaluating the situation, waiting for the others to engage and distract one another before striking, these are the kinds of qualities we are looking for in our security team."

"What can I say? We're the best of the best," Sun said with his usual machismo. Blake resisted the urge to slap him, though it was a close thing. Fortunately, the woman laughed.

"Well, you're certainly the best of my candidates," she agreed, "and that's good enough for what I want." She reached into her tunic and pulled out several sheets of folded paper. She unfolded them carefully and discarded a few sheets. Blake recognized the faces of the faunus they had faced outside. "So, Amber Azalea, is that right?" she said, glancing at Blake, who nodded. "It says here you have something of a criminal record. Spent some time on the Vale Police Department's naughty list. Even did a stint in prison." She looked up at Blake. "What did you do?"

She'd memorized her story earlier, anticipating the question. "I had a disagreement with a human shopkeeper. He attacked me and I defended myself. The police thought that warranted aggravated assault. Somehow the security footage that would have exonerated me was not recovered, and as a result, I spent eight months locked up before they let me go on probation."

The woman nodded in understanding. "Rest assured Miss Azalea, many in the White Fang will have stories like yours. We have all faced discrimination because of what we are. You will find no lack of support among our organization." She turned her attention to Sun. "As for you… Scarlet Ayana is it?" Blake was going to kill him.

"The one and only!" Sun said, beaming.

"You have a spotless record," she mused, glancing over his paperwork. "Martial arts training as well. Competition in some minor tournaments… tell me, what is it that makes you want to join the White Fang?"

Blake knew she should have helped Sun come up with his new profile. She braced herself for a disaster.

"Well, it was when I met Amber," Sun said, looking at her. Blake looked back at him, masking her bewilderment as best she could. "We met when she got out. They'd fired her from her job, and nobody was willing to hire somebody with a violent record. She was alone and hurt, and I couldn't just stand by and watch that." He took her hand then and Blake felt the heat rise in her cheeks. What the hell was he doing?

"I realized, I've been really lucky," Sun said, turning his attention back to the woman in front of them. "I didn't have to go through all the bullshit she'd been through. But that doesn't mean I should just look the other way and hope I keep getting lucky. Not when I could be making a difference." He squeezed her hand. "Besides," he added with his usual smile, "she's not the kind of girl you just leave in her time of need."

No, I'm much better at doing the leaving, Blake thought to herself.

When she finally managed to tear her eyes away from Sun, she saw that the woman was nodding solemnly. "You two are lucky to have each other," she said. "The road has been long and hard, and sometimes we have to walk it alone. But hopefully, you two will never have to worry about that again." She pulled a smaller scrap of paper out of some hidden pocket and passed it to Blake. She let go of Sun's hand to take it. "That's the address for the job. You have a few weeks to get there, but I wouldn't dawdle. You'll have a member of the White Fang as your supervisor, helping you with the work and keeping tabs on you. Her report will determine your future with our organization, but something tells me that that future is bright."

"Thank you," Blake said. "Is there anything else you can tell us about the job? All we've been told so far is that it's security work."

The woman seemed to consider that for a moment. "Like any organization, the White Fang needs money to survive. Lien pays for labor, supplies, weapons, anything we need. As you're probably aware, we recently staged a rather large-scale operation." Blake clamped down hard to suppress the memories of Beacon as they flashed through her mind. "We had a financial backer who helped, but the lion's share of our operational costs came directly from our coffers. We need to replenish."

"So, it's some kind of fundraiser?" Sun asked.

The woman laughed. "Something like that. As you can imagine, most traditional avenues for gathering revenue are closed to us. But there are less reputable ways of earning money. We've organized an underground fighting tournament to be held in Vacuo City, one of the largest in recent memory. Skilled opponents, a steep buy-in to participate, and live weapons allowed - within reason, of course."

"Of course," Blake said, considering the proposal. It sure would make a lot of money very quickly. Tournaments like that were hugely popular in the anarchic-leaning city of Vacuo. Most of the other major cities were too tightly controlled by the government to get away with something of that scale, pushing those who truly wanted to try their strength out to the western world. "I'm guessing you've taken steps as well to make sure that the White Fang's name stays out of the mix?"

"Correct," the woman answered. "It's one of the reasons we're reaching outside the organization to hire security. Easier to distance ourselves from the event."

"So, what's the money for?" Sun asked.

Another pause. "I like you two," the woman said. "Like I said, I think you will both do well with the White Fang. But that doesn't mean I can go around telling you everything right now. You know enough, more than enough in fact, to do your job. Do it well, and we'll see where things go."

She stood, and Blake understood them to be dismissed. "Come on Scarlet," she said, taking his hand. He'd played the card, for better or worse, she might as well try to back him up. There was a boat sitting in the water when the emerged into the morning sunlight, two more White Fang members standing on the deck. No doubt the lieutenant's ride waiting to take her back to safety. Blake had toyed with the notion of following her to see if there was any more information she could glean, but the boat killed any hope of that.

Besides, it had worked, hadn't it? They were in. Now they just had to figure out how to get to Vacuo City. The continent of Sanus was mostly desert, and not terribly friendly to travelers. And that was if you didn't count the locals, many of whom seemed to still idolize the days before the Last War. Back then, Vacuo had been dominated by nomadic tribes who operated on their own sets of loose codes, rather than the comparatively draconian laws of their formal government.

As they left the docks, Blake noticed a sign that mentioned temporary maintenance, and two burly looking faunus men standing guard on either side. There was a gathered crowd of sailors and shipwrights gathered, looking at them as they emerged. One of the faunus said something about how the repairs must be finished, and removed the sign. Blake and Sun stood clear as the men and women returned to work, some of them glancing uneasily at the pair. Feeling uncomfortable, and more than a little exposed, Blake dragged Sun away from the docks and through the main town, allowing themselves to get lost in the crowd.

Only when she felt like they were a safe distance away, did she let go of his hand and slap him in the back of the head. "What the hell was all that back there?" she growled through gritted teeth, her ears laying flat against her head.

"Woah, okay, ow! I was just giving them a convincing back story! Weren't you the one who said the best lies have truth at the heart of them?"

Blake grudgingly had to agree. It was one of the first things they'd had to cover when she figured out, for all his street smarts, Sun was actually a pretty terrible liar.

"Well, there you go." There was an awkward pause. They were wandering through the streets of the port town, past shops they couldn't afford to buy anything from, moving aimlessly. They'd spent more than a few days like that, just trying to stay inconspicuous, to learn as much news as they could. It would be nice to finally get away, to be on the move again. But even the prospect of trying to figure out how to get to Vacuo City wasn't going to avoid the inevitable. It had been building all summer.

As if he could read her mind, Sun cleared his throat. He took her arm gently, stopping them on a mostly abandoned street corner. She turned so her body was facing him, but she could only manage to stare at the sidewalk.

"Blake, this is dumb, okay? I mean, come on, you're a smart girl. I know you know how I feel about you. And if you know, that means that you don't feel the same way, or you would have said something by now. I hope. Seriously, if I'm wrong, let's clear that up now before I make myself look like an even bigger idiot than usual."

Blake sighed. "You're not wrong," she said, her voice small. She glanced up at his face. He was smiling, how was he smiling?

"I figured as much. That's cool, I get it, the heart wants what the heart wants or whatever. That doesn't change the fact that I'm your friend, or the fact that you need somebody around to watch your back. You've been carrying some pretty heavy shit around this summer. If there's anything I can do to make it easier, then I want to help."

Blake felt her eyes tear up. What did she do to deserve a friend like Sun? What did she do to deserve any of her friends? She was a liar, a thief, and worse. She'd done so many terrible things. She deserved to be alone.

"All the people close to me end up hurt, Sun," she said, her left arm unconsciously drifting to grip her right.

Sun didn't miss the gesture. "You mean what happened to Yang? Blake, that wasn't your fault-"

"Yes it was!" she cried. She turned, pacing away from him, unable to be near him any more. She'd spent too long running from the truth. "She was trying to protect me. From him."

"I should have known I'd find you in a library." He'd been waiting for her when she'd run outside, the building behind her engulfed in flames. The red light highlighted the red embroidery on his otherwise entirely black outfit. The corners of his mouth were turned up in a victorious smile. "Hello my darling."

"What are you doing here?" she'd said, her voice weak, her legs trembling. She was living a nightmare.

"I've come to take you back home, to bring you back where you belong, my love. By my side, watching the fires of revolution spread across all of Remnant, just the way we always wanted them to."

"I didn't want this!" she cried, pleading, gesturing to the raging inferno behind her. "I wanted equality! I wanted peace!"

He gripped his sword, a straight-edged chokutō in its sheath, more tightly. "What you want is impossible." He strode towards her, the firelight reflecting off the half mask he wore and the horns in his dark red hair. He reached out a hand-

Blake moved, pulling her Aura around her, filling it with defiance and fear. His hand passed through her shadow clone and she lashed out, the heel of her boot smashing into his knee. He stumbled, but stayed upright, his teeth bared. When she came again, his free arm came up, blocking a blow meant for his jaw. A pulse of burning red energy washed over him, almost invisible in the firelight. He aimed a kick at her stomach in retaliation, but there was another clone in its place before he could connect, and used his momentum against him, slamming her shoulder into his chest and forcing him back towards the burning building.

He gave ground easily, far too easily considering he was armed and she was not. But Blake hadn't thought about that at the time. All she could think of was pulling him into the roaring fires, of ending the monster he had become. The beast that wore the skin of her oldest friend and mentor. She let fury enflame her aura, pulling speed and power she never knew she had to aid her as he rolled out of her grip and she pressed her attack. She hit him again and again, most of the blows landing harmlessly, even those that managed to slip past his defenses or the hilt of the sword he still had yet to unsheath. Each hit sent another pulsing wave of red energy across him. Eventually his back was against one of the broken library windows. She could feel the heat of the flames against her cheek. She lunged for him one more time.

He sidestepped her, a grin on his face, reversing his grip on the sword, the hilt of it pointed at her back. He pulled the trigger concealed on the sheath and the blade shot forward with a bang. It hit her square in the back and, combined with her own momentum, carried her over the edge of the window, winding herself as she hit the floor. She lay there on the ground as the inferno raged around her. The heat from the flames was intense, and immediately she felt the effect it had on her as her Aura fought to protect her from the worst of it.

He followed her into the building, collecting and sheathing his sword as he went. He knelt beside her.

"I had truly hoped you would come to your senses my love," he said. "This could have been our day, together."

"You're a monster," she'd said, trying to sit up. His hand lashed out, knocking her back to the floor. His strength was incredible and the room spun as she felt her own strength fail. He'd been toying with her until now, she realized. He had made her think she actually stood a chance.

"I am what the world has made me, what these miserable humans have forced me to be. Now they've taken you from me as well." She opened her mouth to speak and his hand closed around her throat, her protests cut short. "You want so badly to be a part of their world? You love being their pet so much? Fine. I'm done trying to save you, Blake. From this day forward, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love."

"Blake!" a girl's voice rang out across the campus. She knew that voice "Blake, where are you?" Please, let it be anybody else. Blake's eyes widened in terror, she grabbed Adam's arm, trying desperately to pry him off her.

One look at her face was all it took. "Starting with her," he growled, releasing her and pushing himself to his feet. He grabbed Blake by the hair and dragged her outside. She gritted her teeth, but refused to make a sound, refused to draw attention to where they were. He dropped her at his feet. "Call her," he said. Blake wouldn't. She would never. She'd die before she let him hurt-

His sword flashed bloodred in the firelight. She felt it shatter what was left of her aura as he plunged it into her stomach. Pain lanced through her, and she screamed in agony. Her vision went white as he drew the blade back, the pain nearly unbearable. As her vision cleared, she saw a familiar mane of blonde hair emerge from behind one of the buildings nearest to them. Yang took seconds to evaluate the scene, seeing him standing over Blake, blood pooling around her and dripping from the blade.

"Blake?"

She rushed forward, stumbling as she ran, but before she reached Blake's side, Adam stepped between them, sheathing his sword. Yang stopped, staring at him, fury igniting lilac eyes, turning them a burning red.

"Get away from her," Yang said, her voice trembling with fear and fury. Adam simply smiled at her.

"No, please," Blake tried to say, but her voice was so weak. Not her, anybody but her.

Yang lunged at Adam, shouting as she drove her fist at his jaw. Time seemed to stand still. There was a flash of red light, and Adam moved faster than could be seen. One moment, he was standing, still and calm, directly in the line of Yang's attack. The next, he was beside her, naked steel in his hand. Yang stumbled and went to her knees, staring at where her right arm used to be. It ended in a stump and her blood was spilling onto the ground. From where she was lying, Blake could see confusion in her eyes. Her brain hadn't even registered the pain yet. That would come later. She collapsed, unmoving. Adam stalked towards her with cold purpose.

Then Blake was between them. She couldn't have said where the strength to even crawl had come from, but it was there. A sliver of her Aura, ignited in an instant. If he was going to kill Yang, he'd have to kill her too.

Adam seemed to come to the same conclusion. "Why must you hurt me, Blake?" He said, raising his sword.

There was a noise, and bright searchlights flared up all around them, their cones sweeping the entire campus. Adam looked up, assessing them, and Blake moved. She peeled the last of her Aura from herself, shaping it, molding it into not only herself, but Yang too. The image flickered in the firelight, more transparent than usual, but it was enough. She felt it shove her away as she dragged Yang's remaining arm over her shoulder, stumbling away from Adam, moving as fast as she could. Her vision was growing hazy, she could barely remain upright, but she had to keep moving. She had to…

"That's when you found us." She and Sun were sitting with their backs against a brick building. The shop across the street from them had opened, and a few people were beginning to trickle into this part of town. "The threat of a whole army bearing down on him probably forced Adam to back off. Either that, or something else caught his attention. I don't know for sure why he didn't follow us, all I know is, we both should have been dead." She'd told her story without all the color that was still vivid in her memory, but she could tell that Sun got the point. He leaned his head against the wall.

"I'm so sorry Blake," he said after a long moment. "I didn't know."

"Nobody does," Blake said.

"So, you and him were…" he didn't seem to know what to say.

"It's complicated," Blake said. "I knew him for so long. We were close, but-" but he abused that closeness. He thought he could own me. He thought he could make me something I'm not.

"It's okay," Sun said. "You don't have to get into it. Like you said before, he's a bad guy. That's all I need to know. " She was grateful to him for that.

"That's why I had to leave," she said. "As long as I was still in Vale, still near my friends, they were all in danger. I couldn't do that to them."

"You know they wouldn't care-"

"Of course they wouldn't!" Blake said, frustration forcing her to her feet, pacing across the sidewalk once more. "You think that I don't know that! They would have insisted on helping, they would have insisted on doing everything in their power to try to protect me. Then Adam would have killed them, one by one, just to hurt me. Just to prove to me that he could." She stopped, her back to sun, arms wrapped around herself tightly.

"Okay," Sun said. "I get it. I don't know that I agree with you, but I get it." She turned to face him. He was back on his feet, arms resting behind his head. "So we keep going with your plan. Hiding in plain sight, right where he'll never look. And when he least expects it, we pay him back for everything he did and then some. He's got to slip up eventually, right?"

Blake wasn't sure she shared his optimism. She didn't think she had managed to convey just how much of a threat Adam posed to anybody who stood in his way. But he was a world away right now, and it would just be easier to agree.

Besides, if they crossed paths again, she wasn't planning on letting anybody stand between her and Adam. Nobody else would be hurt because of her.

She took a deep breath. "So, you're the native. How do you suggest we get to Vacuo City?"

Sun grinned. Blake was reminded at that moment the reasons she liked Sun. She shouldn't be, but for a fleeting second, she was glad he was there.

"Ever hop a train before?"

A/N: Oh man, this one was a lot of fun to write. You know, in a "man I'm a bad person and I enjoy torturing my characters" sort of way. Brief apology to Eclipse/Black Sun shippers, but if you managed to get this far and somehow didn't think this was going to be a Bumblebee story, I encourage you to evaluate a few things about your critical reading ability.

So yeah, first confirmed character sexuality in my story. Fun fact, this whole ridiculous project started out as a Bumblebee angst fic idea that was going to be maybe three or four chapters. Then I made a whole fleshed out timeline and started piling in characters by mistake. Oops. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed reading it, please leave a review if you have any feedback/comments/critiques/personal attacks, what have you. Cheers.