AN: Over 1k follows? Damn guys, thank you. Have an extra long chapter.


The Semblances We Keep: Volume Two, Chapter Two


The next weekend, Blake and Pyrrha strode towards Tukson's Book Trade. Unlike last semester, their visit had nothing to do with an investigation into criminal activities, but the mission was no less important to the disguised faunus.

"I still don't understand how a man with four souls makes for a good sequel, that doesn't sound like a very original idea." Pyrrha said skeptically.

"I can't say I disagree, but Ursula Berpdioloo has never lead me wrong before. Besides, you're the one who asked to go with me. Nothing better to do this weekend?"

"I can't train all the time, and our workload has been dwindling ever since all the visiting students started showing up. I think even Dr. Oobleck is starting to feel a bit overworked with all the preparations for the Vytal festival. I'm looking forward to fights with actual guidelines and not well..." Pyrrha's face took on a complicated expression "...murders."

"And Jaune isn't around either." Blake noted with a smirk. "I'm sure coming here has nothing to do with you borrowing 'Ninjas of Love' the very day after he left, does it?" It had been the strangest thing ever when Pyrrha had broached that subject. She had asked so timidly that Blake couldn't even bring herself to feel self-conscious about lending it to her. The whole team knew what other kinds of literature she read anyways, so there wasn't really a point in feeling bashful about it around them. It was both uncomfortable and liberating for her, since she was neither able to, nor needed to, hide anything from Team Brandy.

Pyrrha certainly felt like she had something to hide, however. "If you try to tell Jaune I was reading that, I will tie you up with your own weapon," she threatened.

Blake wasn't falling for that. Pyrrha might be unmatchable in the dueling ring, but she was far too kind to have her threats hold any weight when directed at her friends. "Kinky. I can see that book is having its effects on you already."

Pyrrha reacted about the way Blake had expected her to. The poor girl was so confident when it came to things like killing Grimm and facing down people like Cardin, but was a bit lacking in the social confidence department. She wasn't awkward like Ruby, but her life of fame had clearly stunted certain aspects of her behavior. Even though she must know that Blake was joking, Pyrrha's face still reddened. "I didn't mean it like that…"

"Relax, I already caught Ruby with it once. Despite how much she yelled at me for it, she seemed to really enjoy the katana bit. I'm pretty sure that girl has repressed desires for all things mechanical." Blake glanced at her. "Also, you do realize that Jaune will probably figure out that you've read it eventually."

"I finished it yesterday, he can't read minds, he'll never know." Pyrrha responded far more confidently than Blake had expected for a topic this risqué.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I've uh, tested things. He definitely can't figure stuff like that out." Pyrrha coughed. "A-anyways, let's get you that book." Pyrrha held the door open for her and quickly ushered her inside before Blake could ask her what she meant by that.

A tall, light-skinned woman, with straight dark-blue hair, that fell well past her shoulders, was standing behind the counter. Tukson would never have allowed anyone else to manage the store alone; he cared about the place too much. He didn't really need any other employees either, considering the size of the store. He must have taken her advice, finally given up on the White Fang, and left Vale entirely.

Pyrrha wandered off to the left side of the shop, inspecting titles with only a mild interest. While Jaune might not be a mind reader, actually buying something and bringing it back to their dorm would probably be a dead giveaway. After a brief search in the new releases section, Blake found the not very originally titled "The Man with Two Souls II: The Man with Four Souls" she had been looking for. After spending some time 'educating' Pyrrha on the finer points of literature, Blake moved to the center of the shop.

"Are you the new owner?" Blake asked as she approached the counter and the woman rung up her order.

"Yes, I moved in just a few weeks ago." The middle-aged woman said as she took Blake's lien and bagged the novel. Pyrrha began to finish up her browsing and walked up to join Blake. She didn't seem to have wanted to do more than look at her options.

"Tukson sold it to you then?" Blake conversed as she took her purchase back.

"Oh no. I bought it from Vale itself."

"Vale?"

"He was found dead and he didn't have any next of kin, so it was reclaimed by the city council."

Blake's heart dropped slightly. "Found dead?"

"Terrible thing, murdered it seems, sounded like a robbery gone wrong and this is normally such a quiet part of town too." The woman said in a disappointed voice.

Blake had a pretty good idea as to the real cause. The timing was far too perfect for it to have been anything other than the White Fang. Once she might have never believed it, but now she wasn't going to dismiss the thought just because she didn't find it pleasant. Blake had never known Tukson all that well, but he wasn't a bad person and, given the number of things the two faunus had in common, the only reason she hadn't known him better was just because of their respective locations within the White Fang itself. He certainly hadn't deserved his fate and Blake couldn't help but feel partially responsible, though she knew that she wasn't really to blame. At least the new owner seemed torn up about it, even if she hadn't known Tukson personally, and she seemed to be running the store about how Tukson would have. "It was nice of you to keep the old name."

"I just haven't had time to change it, unfortunately. It'll be nice to be rid of it, maybe I won't have so many of his type dropping by then."

Well, so much for that sentiment.

Pyrrha twitched a bit beside her. "His type?"

"He was a faunus, I'm afraid."

Great. So the White Fang scare off and then kill one of their own members and it clears the way for a bigot to start up a business in his place. What a fantastic precedent for them to be setting.

Blake forced herself to remain calm. This wasn't some fellow student like those on Team Cardinal whom she could take her frustrations out on in Professor Goodwitch's class. She was a civilian, who likely didn't even have aura. Arguing with someone like this would get her nowhere and anything more extreme would land her in far worse trouble. Blake grabbed Pyrrha before she could change her mind. "Come on, we'd better get going." Blake glanced at the woman's dark-blue hair again as she made to leave the store and felt a creeping suspicion. "I don't think I caught your name."

"Mrs. Lark, my dear." The woman said with a pleasant smile. "I do hope to see you again soon." Blake couldn't bring herself to respond, she just let the door shut behind her in silent anger.

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked as they walked away from the shop and down a deserted street. "From your last talk with Tukson it didn't sound like you two were close, but…"

"We weren't, but I still considered him a friend, if a distant one. If the White Fang has started killing people who try to leave…"

"Should we be worried about you?"

"No, I doubt it. I was never a part of the Vale branch. It's more what it says about the organization as a whole. Working with criminals was the last straw, but now they've resorted to murdering fellow faunus even."

"We drove them to this," Pyrrha said with a sad expression. "It's nothing new, there are humans back in Mistral that were no better than that woman."

"Don't blame this on your species Pyrrha, that's as bad as blaming me or Velvet for the current state of the White Fang." Blake scowled. "I just wish I'd known what she was before I bought this book off her. Giving someone like that profit irks me to no end."

"I don't think you should be too worried about handing over your lien." Pyrrha gave her a smile out of the corner of her mouth. "She probably won't be having too many more customers today."

"Why's that?" Blake felt curiosity come in to replace her previously sour mood.

"Front doors don't tend to open when you mangle the hinges as badly as I did." Pyrrha said nonchalantly.

"You didn't?!" Blake wondered what she'd ever done in life to deserve having Pyrrha on her team.

"I might have."

"What if they catch you?"

"How could they? Nearly no one knows my Semblance. I just wish I could have stuck around long enough to see her face when she figures it out."

Blake smiled. "I'm not sure if it was ever required, but you officially have your team leader's blessing to date Jaune."


"Are you okay in there, Jaune?" Pyrrha's voice came through the door.

"I'm totally fine." Jaune lied. He was once again kneeling before the porcelain throne. It was where he ended up during most flights into Vale. His friends did not need to know about the finer details of his stomach contents, thank you very much.

After his stomach no longer had anything left to lose, he rejoined Blake and Pyrrha as the ship made its final descent. At the insistence of Pyrrha, they were about to begin their quest to find Blake a bookstore that was both up to her standards and not run by a casual racist. Short of pulling off her bow or asking the owner directly, there wasn't really a way for Blake to find that out, hence Jaune's presence and the Pyrrha that came along with it. "Are you sure you two don't mind doing this? I can't imagine this is the most exciting way to spend your Tuesday afternoon."

"Don't worry about it, Blake," Pyrrha assured. "We're happy to help." They all swayed a bit as the airship touched down and shielded their eyes as the doors opened and the sunlight came in. Stepping off the airship, the trio took a brief walk and arrived in the mild bustle the commercial district normally experienced for a late weekday.

Jaune looked down at the map he had up on his scroll and gestured down the street to the right of them with his hand. "The first store three blocks that way."

The trio jokingly discussed the questionable veracity of Port's latest self-congratulatory story as they walked the distance to reach Lagune's Literature, not exactly a promising start, given the name.

"You don't even need to help me with this one." Blake gave a look of disgust and irritation at the front of the first store. "Neither of you will be able to hear it, but they have a high-pitch noise emitter of some kind. It's more common in Mistral and Atlas, they use it to discourage faunus from loitering in an area."

"That's barbaric," Pyrrha scowled.

"The device is near the top left corner, above the doorway," his Semblance indicated, after Jaune failed to located it himself.

"There." Jaune pointed at the small gray box which was well hidden under the overhang.

"Should I...?" Pyrrha held up one hand and made a squeezing motion to indicate her willingness to vandalize the device. Pyrrha was so straight laced right up until she saw something unjust being done to another. When that happened, pray that you weren't the cause of it.

"No Pyrrha, not this time," Blake answered quickly, lowering the girl's arm. "I don't want anyone to start investigating why a string of bookstores is being vandalized. Plus it's already going to cut down on their profit. Unlike TBT's new owner, this person has made it very clear to faunus, or at least those of us with enhanced hearing, that we just aren't welcome." They moved on and traveled about two-thirds of the way to the next closest bookstore when Jaune was warned of the incoming incident he was never a fan of.

Someone had noticed Pyrrha.

A girl with mousy brown hair, perhaps a year younger than Ruby, was staring wide-eyed at his partner from the other side of the street. After a moment or two of hesitation, the girl raced across the road, giving only the slightest glance to the sides to make sure she wasn't about to be flattened. She reached them and timidly spoke up. "A-are you Pyrrha Nikos?"

Pyrrha nodded and gave the smile she always did in these situations. The girl pulled out her notebook from her backpack and asked for an autograph in an equally timid manner, face brightening immensely when Pyrrha did so. Jaune felt his heart go out to the girl, this was clearly going to make her day. His mood still soured however, as the rest of the girl's friends noticed where she had gone and five more rushed over to make the same request. That was the problem.

It was never just the one.

There were around a dozen other people within shouting distance of them right now, and people noticed when crowds gathered. They started paying attention to the tall Mistral girl and trying to place her face. Thirty percent or so would figure it out and would drift closer, hoping to get a word in edgewise, and the process would repeat. As expected, an elderly couple came up soon after and asked for a photo as politely as they could, seeming concerned to be taking up her time.

"No, its fine." Pyrrha said with a smile. "I'd be happy to oblige."

Jaune frowned as his Semblance told him quite the opposite. Pyrrha just didn't have it in her to say no. He wasn't bothered so much that it separated him from her, it was much more what it did to Pyrrha everytime it happened. They didn't mean her any harm, and on the physical side that was never a concern when it came to Pyrrha, but he hated watching her having to put up that wall of false happiness for people she'd never met before. Jaune watched in frustration from his new position a few yards away as two or three more groups approached her, each less timid about making a request, the vague semblance of a line began to form, and Pyrrha soon resembled more of an attraction than an actual person. She fell into the standard pattern of exchanging meaningless greetings and accepting compliments she didn't want, from people she didn't know.

In one of the pauses in between fans, she looked past the dozen or so people around her to him and Blake. "Go on ahead, I'll just catch up with you later." She made shoo-ing gesture at them with her free hand, the other busy signing a loose article of clothing.

"Pyrrha." Jaune made sure his face indicated that he wasn't falling for that.

"Really, I don't mind." Pyrrha said with another smile that would have been convincing, were it not for his Semblance, which disagreed strongly. Pyrrha wasn't going to change her mind however, and if he kept pushing, it would only make her feel like she was being rude to him instead. He didn't want to put her in a position where she felt like there was no right choice to make. Jaune turned around and jerked his head at Blake and the two moved off down the street.


"I'm sorry for that." Blake gave the small crowd a forlorn backwards look as they reached the next block.

Jaune sighed, "It's not your fault. This happens about a quarter of the time we visit Vale anyways. The time and location just made it more likely that this would occur, but it could have happened either way. I just wish she didn't let others dictate her life so much. She could learn to take a page from your book every once and awhile."

"What do you mean?"

"You've perfected the 'leave me alone or I will murder you' glare." Blake looked at him and Jaune laughed at her. "Yeah, that one. I doubt we'd have this problem if she was capable of using that expression."

Blake growled as they reached their destination. "It doesn't seem to work very well with you three, so I must be doing something wrong."

"Speaking of not leaving you alone, are you sure you don't want me to look into Tukson's murder?"

That had been Pyrrha's first suggestion when Jaune had come back, but Blake had shot the idea down, just as she forced herself to do now. "Yes, I'm sure. I hate to admit it, but I already know the cause and I doubt the police would let you look at the evidence anyways." Blake was sorely tempted to say otherwise, but she couldn't justify the risks and it wouldn't bring Tukson back.

Jaune and Blake entered the second bookstore, Hywell's Books, a much larger one than the others. Probably the largest in Vale actually, considering that there was even a second level above the back half of the store, overlooking the first like an indoor balcony. Vale didn't have any bookstore chains, but this one was certainly large enough to look like one.

Nearing the center of the store, they approached a large circular help desk, where a sharply dressed, heavyset, middle-aged man was assisting a female customer. He could almost be described as Port, if Port lost fifteen years, twenty pounds, and the facial hair. The man, who, based on his attire, was a manager at the very least, perhaps even an owner, moved out from behind the desk and off with the woman, deeper into the store, probably to help her locate something.

"Well?" Blake asked, "Get anything from him?"

"I think you're safe on this one." Jaune nodded to the desk, where a photo of the man's family rested. The man's wife was quite clearly a faunus, dispelling any concerns of that nature.

"I'm sold." Blake almost purred in satisfaction, looking around at the massive selection available to her. After Blake bought 'The Third Crusade', a book Tukson never seemed to carry for some reason, and Jaune bought a comic, they both sat down in the café attached to the store to wait for Pyrrha to catch up. The first few minutes passed by in silence when Blake closed her book, keeping her spot saved with a finger, and spoke up again. "Can I ask you something?"

Jaune looked up, "Something troubling you?"

"Not really, you said that you figured out I was a faunus on day one, but how long until you knew…?" Blake trailed off as she noted that the café, while not crowded, wasn't completely empty either.

Jaune nodded in understanding and waited a few minutes for the tables near them to clear out a bit. "I figured out you were either currently or formerly a member of the White Fang a few minutes after the faunus part."

Even with Jaune's Semblance, it was less than ideal that he had figured it out so quickly. "What tipped you off?"

"You walk funny."

Blake nearly choked on her tea. "I walk funny?!"

"It's- that's-" Jaune stammered a bit. "That's not what I meant. You walk silently, but without slowing your pace, that's not something you pick up and make a habit without a reason. That was enough for my Semblance to put the pieces together."

"And the rest of it? My father and that I'd left?"

"I didn't know who you were or whether or not you were still in the White Fang until after initiation, but hearing your last name when they presented the new first year teams was enough to learn the rest. Despite what you might think, your father isn't exactly low profile. I'm honestly surprised no one else has figured it out."

"You knew all that and still wanted me to be on your team?" Jaune had clearly already figured out how the chess pieces worked when she and Ruby had met up with them at the ruins during initiation. All he'd really known about her at that point was that she was maybe a terrorist and yet he proceeded to toss Ruby the other white knight piece anyways.

"No offense to you, but Ruby was kind of my only friend at the time, so I was willing to take the risk," Jaune jokingly gestured at the aisles behind him. "And I've learned not to judge a book by its cover. What made you ask?"

"I was just thinking about what might have happened last semester if you hadn't done that. Ruby is a great friend and all, but you and Pyrrha..."

"Aren't dense?"

Blake gave an affirmative half-shrug, half-nod. "I'm not sure Ruby would have chased after me if you hadn't told her to, she doesn't always think things through. If you'd not done that and I gained enough distance to lose her... I'm not sure if I'd have come back to Beacon."

"We'd have found you."

"And if I found Torchwick before that? Or gods forbid Neo? I would have been all by myself and alone in Vale. What was I suppose to do? Find some person I'd never met before to help me? I'd probably have gone to Tukson and ended up sharing his fate. And this scenario is still one where you and Pyrrha are on my team. I'm not sure just anyone would have even wanted to find me after that, Weiss certainly didn't at the time."

"If this is a thank you, it's a pretty round about way of doing it."

"Don't ruin it," Blake grumbled. "It's more than just the docks though, it's the little things too. Cardin brought up my bow again in Goodwitch's class last Friday, when you were gone. It seems he's not above hinting at it."

Jaune leaned forward in concern, "What happened?"

"Pyrrha overheard and asked Goodwitch for a match with him."

"Ah," Jaune leaned back with a small laugh. "I'm guessing he won't be making that mistake twice?"

Blake let out a sadistic chuckle, "Not if he wants to keep what's left of his teeth." Pyrrha had taken his aura below the safety line so fast Professor Goodwitch hadn't even had the time to stop the match before the damage had been done. Pyrrha had apologized profusely for it of course, but it had been terrifying to watch.

"I'm sorry for making that necessary in the first place."

"Jaune, despite your Semblance, you really can be dense sometimes. I came here looking for a fresh start and I hoped that I'd be able to just blend in and graduate. I've pretty much failed to blend in, but it's happened in just about the best way possible." Blake wiped something out of her eye that was definitely just dust and continued. "It's been nothing like I thought it would be. I can't say things are perfect, but..." The words weren't easy to get out, but it needed saying. "Just...thank you for giving me a chance."

"Most people deserve a chance at a new start, Blake."

"Most people?" There had been something hidden in Jaune's voice.

"Not all," he confirmed with a more serious expression.

Blake made to ask him to elaborate, but the distant jingle of the doors interrupted her thoughts. A drained looking Pyrrha entered the store and looked around with a tired face and hopeful eyes. It was probably for the best that Jaune's back was to her and had yet to spot her. Pyrrha's expression would not have put him in a good mood. Blake raised and arm up, which Pyrrha quickly spotted and her face brightened. Blake had no Semblance like Jaune's, but she knew Pyrrha well enough by now to see that this was not the same forced smile she had hidden behind when interacting with her fans.

Pyrrha walked up behind Jaune and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Any luck?"

Jaune tilted his head as far as he could to look up at her with a smile. "I think we've found the one."

"Glad to hear it." Pyrrha looked to Blake, almost seeming to be searching for something. "If there's anything else that's been troubling you, you know you can tell us." Jaune shifted a bit under Pyrrha's hands.

Blake hesitated before giving them a smile, "I'm fine Pyrrha, this place is perfect." Pyrrha didn't quite seem to believe her, but didn't press the issue.


A few days later, Ruby was in the midst of conquering the world.

Or trying to at least, her rivals weren't exactly making it easy. "Pyrrha Nikos, prepare your kingdom for battle!" she shouted at one of her three opponents from across the large table. Beacon's librarians had long since given up trying to keep their two teams silent.

"I shall ready my defenses." Pyrrha nodded, playing along from her seat on the Anima side of the board.

"I deploy, the Atlesian Air Fleeeet!" Ruby yelled excitedly. "Looks like I get to fly right over you Ursai and attack your walls directly!"

"I'm so sorry Ruby, but you just activated my trap card." Ruby's opponent revealed a card and reluctantly presented it to Ruby. It had a giant Nevermore on the front. At least Pyrrha was trying to be nice about it. Ruby prayed for Pyrrha to roll a six or lower, having the Nevermore turn on her own forces and spare Ruby's loyal Air Force.

No such luck. Pyrrha rolled an eight and fatal feathers massacred Ruby's fleet. "Noooooo! My fearless soldiers!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Well Blake, it's your turn!" Yang moved over to the faunus with a cunning gleam in her eye.

"Huh?" Blake looked up. "Yang, I have no idea what's going on."

"Look, it's easy." Yang leaned over Blake's shoulder. "You're playing as Vacuo, which means all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus. See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge Oh! Oh! Resourceful Raider…"

"Okay…" Blake still seemed pretty disinterested, but Yang didn't seem to have noticed that Blake had stopped listening almost right away.

"…And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance boost against natural hazards, you could use Sandstorm to disable Pyrrha's ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate her kingdom." Yang clearly had it out for Pyrrha. No one was allowed beat Ruby's sister at this game, not even Qrow.

"Fine, whatever," Blake shrugged. "Let's do that."

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha said, as she played yet another trap card, this time against Blake.

"You don't sound very sorry," Ruby grumbled. Since when is Pyrrha this good at board games?

Blake glanced at the card. "Death Stalker Swarm? What does that mean?" she asked in mild curiosity.

"Your armies have been destroyed," Yang said with a sigh.

As the game continued to tilt in Pyrrha's favor, a disheartened Ruby looked at the next table over to see what the others were up to. Weiss and Ren were studying on opposite ends of the table, Jaune was typing something on his scroll, and Nora was drooling on Ren's textbook, snoring softly. Back at her own table Ruby realized she'd missed Pyrrha's turn and looked in despair at how few territories the self-proclaimed 'Queen of Mistral' now had left to conquer. At least Yang had some fight left in her. "Alright Nikos, it's my turn and you're going down!"

"Actually," Pyrrha coughed lightly as she spoke up. "I still have to draw my rewards, which I believe are doubled this round, thanks to the Mistral trade route."

"Bah," Yang scoffed.

"And ummm…" Despite how apologetic she sounded. It looked to Ruby as though Pyrrha had a small, but very satisfied, smile on her face. "I do also have Smugglers of the Wind Path, so I'm afraid I'll be taking two cards from your hand as well Yang."

As Yang crossed her arms in frustration, Ruby looked over at her team leader and unenthusiastic ruler of Vacuo. Blake was being even more Blake-like than usual. She'd fallen asleep twice during their game already, resulting in several awful, and possibly offensive, catnap puns from Yang. Besides the circles under her eyes, Blake seemed even more distracted and distant than she normally was. Ruby continued to worry about her partner as the game gradually progressed to what had become its foregone conclusion.

Pyrrha laughed maniacally as she wiped out the last of Yang's forces and won the game. "Yes! Fear the almighty power of Mistral! Cower as we pillage your homes and weep as we take your children from your very arms!"

"Pyyyrrhaaa..." Yang glared at her suspiciously. "Has Jaune been texting you?"

"What? Nooo!" Pyrrha flushed with guilt and tried to cover something up under the table. Ruby zipped over to grab Pyrrha's scroll from her lap before she could hide it and tossed the incriminating evidence to her sister. Yang briefly browsed through the scroll with a scowl.

"This is why we can't have nice things," Yang said, lobbing one of the tiny metal Beowolves at Jaune's head. "Are we going to have to ban your girlfriend too, lady-killer?"

"Oh come on guys, just let me play already!" Jaune said from the nearby table. "Wasn't this supposed to be a team activity?"

"Sorry Jaune, you know why you can't join us." Ruby understood now why Taiyang had never let her try out for track back at Signal. Getting your butt kicked because someone else had a dumb Semblance was definitely not the bee's knees, whatever those were.

"You guys are the worst friends ever," Jaune complained with false irritation. Ruby and Pyrrha began to reset the board, while a disgruntled Yang kept ahold of the latter's scroll to insure that a repeat of the previous game's one-sidedness did not occur.

"Sup losers!" Sun called out as he walked up to their table along with Neptune.

Blake quickly used the distraction of their Haven friends to excuse herself from the game and leave the library completely. Ruby sighed and looked sadly after her partner. Something had to be done about this. Pyrrha, it seemed, had noticed Ruby's expression and stood up. "I think Ruby and I are going to head back to the room as well. Maybe Sun and Neptune can take over for us next round?"

As Ruby got up to leave, Sun quickly took Blake's chair. "Sweet, I love this game!" Sun pointed a thumb at his chest. "No way I'm playing as anything other than Vacuo!"

Neptune sat down soon after to replace Pyrrha. "I'll be defending my home Kingdom as well then."

"We still need a fourth," Yang returned Pyrrha's scroll and called out to the next table. "How about you, Ice Queen? You're from Atlas." Now that Neptune was playing with them, Weiss seemed to be debating if she would actually cease her studies to join the fun.

Before she could make up her mind however, Jaune took a seat on the Mantle side of the board. Yang opened her mouth to object, but Jaune cut her off with a wink. "You know Yang, I hear Atlas and Vale have had quite good relations lately."

Yang caught his meaning and grinned wickedly. "I suppose I could forgive your recent transgressions in that case, the Kingdom of Vale could use a win." Ruby rolled her eyes as she turned around and followed Pyrrha out of the library. Sun and Neptune didn't know about Jaune's Semblance or Yang's competitive streak yet.

Vacuo and Mistral were about to get torn a new one.


Blake glanced up from her bed as Ruby and Pyrrha entered. Blake didn't really want to deal with her team right now, there was too much on her mind. She got up and tried to open the door to leave, but the metal handle seemed to be stuck on something. Blake turned around to see Pyrrha sitting on her bed with a hand glowing black.

"Do you mind letting me out?" Blake asked in irritation. I swear, someone designed this entire team specifically to annoy me.

Pyrrha looked away, but kept the door shut with her Semblance as Ruby spoke up. "Something's bothering you Blake. Lately you've been quiet, anti-social, and moody."

"Uh, Ruby…" Pyrrha seemed hesitant to point out whom it was she was talking to. I've been team leader for over a semester now, do they still think I'm that bad?

"Which I get is kind of your 'thing'," Ruby added. "But you've been doing it more than usual and we're worried about you. Please just talk to us."

Not like Pyrrha or Ruby was going to let her do otherwise. She couldn't even leave the room right now, but she didn't really want to talk about it either. "It's nothing."

"You're still worried about Torchwick and the White Fang, aren't you?" Pyrrha asked perceptively. Blake had been trying her best not let her concerns show, but between Tukson's murder and all the dust Roman was stealing, it was hard not to think about it.

"Yes," Blake admitted. Not much point in lying, they'd just drag Jaune in if they thought she wasn't telling the whole truth. He always figured this sort of thing out eventually.

"Then let us help you," Ruby said. "We beat them last time because we went as a team."

Blake wanted to, she really did, but there was a good reason she hadn't brought it up weeks ago. The first time hadn't gone nearly as well as her partner seemed to think it had. "We only drove them off at best. Pyrrha ended up in the hospital, Ruby."

Pyrrha shyly stroked her ponytail as it hung over her shoulder, her soft smile and distant expression made it clear that she was recalling a fond memory, "I uh... I'm actually kind of okay with how that one ended though."

"Something is wrong with you, Pyrrha." Blake rolled her eyes. "Getting stabbed isn't how most girls get a boyfriend, I hope you realize that."

Pyrrha looked embarrassed, but Ruby wasn't about to give up. "Then we take Weiss along with us too. You did promise her on the way back from the docks that you would let her know if something like this came up."

This team was indeed the worst and the best at the same time somehow. "Fine," Blake sighed. "But I don't want any more people than necessary, just our team and Weiss, okay?" She could at least try to keep things subtle this time and not go looking for a fight like she had previously.

"About that…" Ruby said timidly, hiding a scroll behind her back. "Yang would kind of kill me if I went running off with you again like I did at the docks last semester…"

"Ruuubyyy…" Blake glared at her. "What did you dooo?" Ruby refused to look Blake in the eyes. Blake felt the idea of subtlety slowly turn into a pipe dream.

A few minutes later, the door behind them swung open with a bang and three blondes entered the room. "Sup losers!" Sun said again, following behind Yang and Jaune. "I hear we're going after the White Fang!"

Blake continued to glare at Ruby while she squirmed. "I only told Yang! I swear!"

Neptune and Weiss came in several seconds later, deep in conversation. Weiss didn't even seem to have noticed that it wasn't her room. Ruby kept trying to dodge Blake's angry looks. "See Blake, they didn't even bring Ren or Nora along. It's totally still a small group!"

"I regret every day since I became your partner."

"I'm the bestest teammate ever!" Ruby insisted.