Chapter Text
Blake watched as the gangway lowered, looking up at the mountain rising up ahead of her. It was her first time setting foot down on Mistral, and it felt surreal to think that she came here with Ilia and her parents following closely behind her.
Their ship wasn’t the only one accosted, although most others seemed much larger, and transporting goods, not people. Blake imagined travelling between kingdoms had gotten a lot scarier after Beacon’s demise. From the vendors on docks Blake could easily smell fish wafting through the air, the shouting of merchants and dockers adding to the chaos. Sun had told them that the port was a neutral area, but that straying from the road would easily get them to the shadier parts of the city. Blake could see dark silhouettes and rich visitors mingling around and taking care of business as if nothing was amiss.
As much as she travelled during her time with the White Fang, she had never been to Anima. It was a nice middle-point between Menagerie’s scorching heat and Vale’s humidity. Adam told her about it, once upon a time, and so did Sienna. After meeting Sun and his team, she dreamt of taking missions to other continents, to visit Vacuo and Mistral with people she cared about, doing something she loved.
Mistral was beautiful. Buildings and intricate pathways littered the mountain of Mistral, a labyrinth to explore and get lost in. To combat the Grimm, Mistral used very little space, rising up over one single mountain entrenched in-between the gigantic Lake Matsu and the Eastern Sea.
The city was seamlessly integrated into the environment, sprawling up in plateaus around the mountain, Mistrali style buildings rising up expertly from the steep cliffs. An intricate system of waterfalls had been built to accommodate the heavy rain that could fall during the more humid seasons, the water falling down to the plains then to Lake Matsu, or directly back into the sea.
They knew there was a lot of work to do, but they were two weeks early, and Sun was excited to come back to Mistral, and be reunited with his team. He’d been ecstatic during the entire trip, starting conversations with just about everyone on board and talking about Mistral, and his experience in Haven Academy. Ilia was surprised to learn he even had a team. She’d stared at Blake, as if wondering how anyone would ever look at someone like Sun and think he would make a good leader. Blake had just shrugged, remembering none of the team leaders she’d met during her stay at Beacon were particularly conventional. Sun was a goof, Jaune was terrible at fighting, Coco was incredibly temperamental, Ruby was two years younger than everyone else… And yet, they all managed to bring their teams together, to be the bridge between people that were so different a simple fight might tear them apart. No one was ever a lost cause, to them, even though it was so clear they were wrong…
Blake was shaken out of her thoughts: Sage, Scarlet and Neptune would probably be happy to help them fight the White Fang, and classes wouldn’t be in session for another month, so Blake expected to spend a lot of time with the boys. It would be a painful reminder of a better time, but Blake was over that. Maybe.
Sun had gone ahead and was already on shore and talking animatedly to a worker, having jumped from the ship as soon as he could.
She and Ilia reached Sun as he thanked the man, waving at him in grand gestures. Her parents followed closely behind, her father looking at Sun suspiciously, as usual. They had been cramped on the boat for a week, and Blake was certain that he was about to snap.
“Guys!”
“Hey Sun. Did you learn anything?”
“Apparently they’re having trouble importing some of the more common goods. Animal products, mostly, but to be fair Mistrali’s cuisine is mostly fish.” Really? Blake stored that information for later, suddenly very interested in Mistral’s culture and traditions.
“We’re interested in political news, Mr. Wukong, not food related issues,” her dad seethed, failing to see his daughter’s interest in the topic. “How has the council reacted to the fall of Beacon?” Sun laughed nervously, his tail swishing around.
“Ah, the guys here don’t know much. Apparently the council’s been staying quiet, but people think it’s mostly because of the Dust embargo, and Atlas closing their borders. They seem to think that Atlas is the big enemy here, right now.”
“Atlas? They’re not at all worried about the White Fang?” Ilia wondered. The white fang had become such an important part of her life for so long that it was difficult to believe other people didn’t think about it much. Or maybe she was projecting.
“Well,” her mother answered, “I would think the most advanced military power on Remnant would appear much more threatening than an unstable group of faunus rights activists, as powerful as they might be.”
“We need to warn Lionheart that his school is going to be attacked. He’s going to need more reinforcement. A lot more than what we had at Beacon.”
“Yeaaaah, but Beacon had all the teachers, students from all the hunting academies, AND the Atlas military. What else can Haven do?” Sun countered. Blake blinked.
“Haven has Menagerie now. Hopefully that’ll be enough.”
“The white fang – I mean, Adam - isn’t expecting as much trouble as in Beacon,” Ilia added. “There isn’t going to be as many people, or as many Grimm.”
Blake hoped she was right. Haven wasn’t away from the city like Beacon was, and it would be easier for the Grimm to overrun the city. She looked back as her father tried to rally every faunus who had come with them. The boat would stay docked until tomorrow, and the captain was nice enough to let them go about on it as they pleased. He asked everyone to please come back to the ship once they were done exploring, and they would take care of living arrangements for the following weeks. As a precaution, everyone should go out in groups, if possible. After so long spent in Menagerie, Blake had almost forgotten that seeing faunus out and about was not as familiar a sight in other continents. Mistral was not too discriminatory, but a boat full of faunus would probably turn some heads. Ghira was clearly anxious at the thought of everything that could go wrong. Kali put her hand on his arm reassuringly.
“You four go talk to Lionheart,” Kali told him. “I’ll try and keep things tidy down here.” Ghira smiled at her lovingly, and she bumped her head on his arm. Everything would be fine.
__
Sun lead them along winded pathways, dark tunnels, and steep stairways. Every time Blake got a glimpse at the city and the sprawling valley below she felt a bit more hopeful about their odds. The city would be incredibly difficult to attack with an army, since there were no easy way to get to Haven at the top. Because of her dad’s stature, they couldn’t even all fit in one neat line in the tunnel they were currently walking in.
Maybe it was fine that the authorities had let a boat full of faunus get into the city without checking them. It showed that Mistral wasn’t racist, at least. Still, Adam could easily do the same.
Blake was taking in the scenery, a few steps behind Sun and her dad. Ilia’s shoulder bumped into her arm.
“Are you… okay?”
Blake looked her way for a second, but quickly turned her gaze to the side. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“It’s Adam, Blake. I…” She seemed uncertain. Blake noticed from the corner of her eye her resolve growing. “I know how hard it must be for you.” Blake frowned.
“What? Ilia, he’s a monster. We can’t let him hurt any more people. He needs to go down.” The memory of his standing over her prone body, his sword glistening in the dim light, wouldn’t go away. The screams…
Ilia gulped. Blake wouldn’t even glance her way, but she was looking straight at her, refusing to back down. Blake had shown her that staying true to her principle could still lead to what she wanted, to good deeds, that sacrifices weren’t necessary for the betterment of faunus conditions. She didn’t need to be conflicted anymore – actually, she didn’t even feel conflicted anymore, a state she had been in seemingly her entire life. And with a clear mind, came some harsh realizations.
Suddenly, Sun’s laughter rose up from the end of the path, his arm raised towards a tall building behind him. Ilia deflated.
“You don’t have to deal with everything on your own, Blake. I’m sorry I wasn’t there before, but I am now. Please, let me help you.”
Blake didn’t answer and just kept walking toward the courtyard of Haven Academy, joining Sun and Ghira’s conversation.
“No, we just need to tell them what we’re here for, I’m sure they’ll let us talk to Professor Lionheart! He’s a cool guy!”
“Don’t we need an appointment?” Blake asked.
“No, no, you’ve got me! They’ll listen to me, easy! I’m difficult to forget, remember?”
“No, we remember very well,” Ghira deadpanned. “But who exactly, is this “they” you keep talking about?”
“What do you mean?”
Ghira, Blake and Ilia looked around the courtyard pointedly. It was a squared garden encased in between academic buildings. There were benches and tables beneath every trees, hinting at a lively student life. Right now, it was completely empty. A butterfly flew right in front of Blake’s eyes, and she could hear bees buzzing around a patch of garden flowers next to them. No one was in sight. Sun scratched his head.
“It’s usually crowded. I always end up in this tree over there because there isn’t any place to sit left!” He started walking toward the large gate.
“I’m pretty sure he’s never sat in a chair in his life though,” Ilia whispered to Blake. Ghira snorted.
“True.”
They reached the gates only to find them closed. Sun was pulling on the handle without any luck, his face reddening through the strain.
“Is it closed? Shouldn’t there be added security because of what happened in Beacon?” Ghira asked.
“That would be the sensible thing to do.”
“Nnngh!” Sun released the handle, out of breath, and bent over, his hands going to his knees. “Well, clearly that door,” he pointed at the huge gate sluggishly, “is a better deterrent that any Huntsman. I’ve never seen it closed. It’s the Hunting Hall! Where do all the hunters get their mission if it’s closed?”
“The Hunting Hall?” Ilia asked. Blake smiled at her gently.
“It’s where hunters can sign up for missions.”
“Can’t they do it on their scrolls?”
“All the hunting missions are stored in a database, sure, but you don’t get all the details right off the gate, since that could be seen as a breach of privacy. You need to sign a contract and read a lot of paperwork before taking on any kind of mission.”
“And the huntsmen who are employed by the Academy are also employed by the Kingdom. They’re… official, in a way. The kingdom tries to keep track of where they are. It’s also a way to see quickly if anything is amiss, or if a huntsman has gone missing,” Ghira piped in. Blake raised one eyebrow. She’d never considered that. She knew kingdoms could recall every huntsman when they needed extra protection, but never thought about how important it was for them to keep track of everything. But then…
“So, if it’s closed…”
“That means something is really wrong,” Ghira said. He walked up to the gate and pushed on the door.
It opened with a loud creaking sound. Ghira closed his eyes and hung his head down, his fist tightening on the wooden surface. Blake looked at Sun pointedly.
“Oops?” he tried. “In my defense, there isn’t any “push” or “pull” signs, okay?”
__
Professor Lionheart’s office was at the very end of the pathway, and they would need to go through a couple more buildings to reach it. It was odd that Haven was so sprawled and flat when Mistral itself had been built so vertically.
If Sun hadn’t been there, Blake would have thought they were lost. It didn’t look at all like what she expected of Haven Academy.
They entered the Hunting Hall, Sun telling them of his first few days of schools – something about Neptune refusing to even go near the fountain on the corner. She followed Sun’s gesture to a corner on their right, and stopped short. She quickly stumbled and almost fell down when her father bumped into her.
“Blake! Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes, I…” She looked back to the right, where a couple of doors led to what appeared to be simple corridors. Yet… Yes, she saw it again! A green light, coming from somewhere on the left corridor. “There’s someone here!” She exclaimed.
They walked swiftly to the corridor, and realized that the light came from a digital display. The corridor led to smaller rooms equipped with the same computers as the Hunting Hall, where huntsmen could browse through missions with a bit more privacy. The second door on their right was ajar, and Blake was suddenly reminded of Beacon’s cafeteria, trying not to get caught as she watched a terrifying silhouette appear through the half condemned window.
Ilia took the lead and opened the door silently, taking a peak into the room. Blake wasn’t even sure why they were being so cautious. They knew the White Fang wouldn’t attack for another two weeks…
Ilia only shrugged, clearly not having recognized whoever was in there. Blake’s father decided he had enough and simply knocked on the door.
“Uh. Yeah?” a voice rose from the room. Blake’s eyes flew open wide. She knew that voice. She dashed to the door and threw it open. A scruffy looking man was looking back at her, his red eyes darting from her to Sun, to her dad. “Oh.” He finally said.
Sun reacted faster than Blake. “Hey! Aren’t you Ruby’s uncle?”
Time seemed to have stopped for Blake. Seeing him there, she was transported to Beacon, to her time there, with people she couldn’t believe she’d grown to love so much. Ruby’s uncle. That was who he was, but that’s not who Blake thought of when she looked into his eyes. She had built a wall between Beacon and Menagerie, with Adam as the division, always the catalyst to all major events and changes in her life – a wall only Sun had managed to go through because he wouldn’t let her go through this alone. Because he always followed her when Adam would rather have her be alone.
“Qrow?” she said, still in disbelief.
“Mmh. Hey.” He waved, a little lost.
Ghira and Ilia were tense, confused by the situation.
“You… know him?” Blake’s father asked tentatively. Qrow seemed to remember his presence, and he began assessing him before turning back to Blake.
“Blake, uh? And you’re…” he asked Sun.
“I’m Sun! Sun Wukong!”
“That’s right. I remember. You got completely trashed at the tournament.” Sun deflated, remembering their crushing defeat. He and Neptune hadn’t held very long against Pyrrha and Nora. To be fair, they weren’t the most conventional of opponents – Sage might have been a better choice against them. Qrow continued. “What are you doing here?”
Blake wasn’t sure where to start, and before she got a chance to figure it out, her father was already answering.
“We’re here to see the headmaster. We have some… information to give him.” Qrow narrowed his eyes.
“What kind of information?”
Her dad and Qrow were now looking at each other suspiciously. Ilia was confused and as usual retreating to a tense behavior. Now that she was – somewhat – over the surprise, Blake could see all the opportunities that having a trusted huntsman in Mistral could bring.
“Right! Qrow, this is my dad, Ghira Belladonna, and hum, Ilia is an old friend of mine,” she said quickly, hoping to nip the animosity in the bud. “Dad, Ilia, Qrow is a huntsman from Vale. We can trust him.” She didn’t exactly know why, but she purposefully stayed vague. Sun wasn’t so cautious.
“Yeah! He’s Yang and Ruby’s uncle! According to Ruby he’s the coolest!”
“You bet I am!” Qrow couldn’t help but boast, cocking his hips and taking on a roguish smirk. Blake had once been familiar with that sort of façade. Ghira’s brow furrowed in thoughts, and he looked at Blake.
“Your teammates?”
“Yes. We can trust him,” she repeated.
Blake hadn’t spend too much time with Qrow. He came to their dorm a couple of times, but that usually meant shouting, loud video games, and the occasional personal story. Weiss was spending time with her sister, and so Blake, not wanting to intrude, preferred to excuse herself, pretexting some homework or hanging out with team SSSN. But she knew he was a good man. Ruby thought he could hang the moon, and Yang, always pragmatic, acknowledged that his good heart always overcame his bad habits. He was always there when they needed him, she said.
There was a moment of silence, until Qrow, mollified, leaned back against the electronic table he was looking at.
“Leo isn’t here right now, I’ve already tried. So, what kind of information?” Blake gestured at her father to explain. He nodded, trusting her.
“We have reason to believe that the White Fang is going to attack Haven at the next full moon, two weeks from now.”
Qrow didn’t seem surprised at all.
“That’s consistent with the intel we’ve got.” He looked to the side, deep in thoughts. Blake surmised that he was here for a reason, and it was probably to defend Haven. He was close to Ozpin, after all. It was reassuring to know that Mistral was already protected.
“We brought some help. A lot of people from Menagerie want to fight back against the White Fang, so we’ve come to take a stand.” This seemed to surprise Qrow.
“You brought people? An army?”
“Not quite,” Ghira answered, uneasily. He didn’t know what to think of this man. “Concerned citizens, rather.” Qrow got up, and started walking toward the door.
“Okay. Well staying here isn’t going to do any good, and I’d rather talk somewhere more secure. Come on, I have a place, it’s not far.”
He left the room, the four other occupants scrambling behind him. Ghira swiftly engaged the conversation.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”
“Oh right. Qrow, Qrow Branwen. I’m a huntsman.” And he whipped out his professional hunting license, as if he was used to people doubting him. Maybe her father was making an impression.
“Nice to meet you. Can you tell us why the school seems completely empty?” Qrow sighed.
“It’s because it is. It’s a long story…”
__
They quickly arrived to a rather big house on the edge of a cliff, something far bigger and far more luxurious than wherever Blake expected Qrow to stay at during his stay in Mistral. The sun was coming down, and from so high up, it seemed that the setting sun was tinting the sky orange just for their eyes.
Qrow and her father talked about politics the whole way down, although Blake only listened distractedly. She knew Qrow was in Vale the night Beacon was destroyed, she’d seen him come back, carrying Ruby’s unconscious body. He must have hung around Vale – Patch – for a while, made sure his nieces were fine… And yet even thinking about asking him completely paralyzed her. Sun frequently sent her worried glances, and even Ilia caught on.
Qrow pushed the entrance door open – it apparently wasn’t locked - and signaled for them to come on in. They walked into a spacious living room, red sofas and armchairs brightening the earth tones of the room. The stairs on the right meant that there was a second floor. Qrow led them forward, toward the kitchen and the door to the left. The next room was an actual training room, complete with an armory where a few axes and sword were displayed. Blake was very confused that an actual huntsman would choose to live in such a place. Professor Lionheart might have simply given it to him during his stay…
Suddenly her ears caught the sound of a commotion outside. The training room led to a large terrace overlooking the cliff. Blake heard laughter. The sun was right in front of her, setting lower as the evening came, and it blinded her, so that she couldn’t make out the features of the two figures facing off on the training grounds.
She’d trained a lot of people in Menagerie, helping young faunus who hadn’t ever needed to learn more than the basics improve, or just helping others spar with a challenging opponent. With her mind set on Haven and nothing else, she didn’t think of the last time she’d trained like that, when the most important thing was to win a tournament.
“You need to work on evading your opponent if you hope to win the solo round! Blake will help with that. Weiss, try and slow her down at the same time!”
Training wasn’t exactly dull in the white fang. She and Ilia had a lot of great time sparring, testing each other. Even Adam had once been patient and gentle with her… But the mood was always serious, the stakes always high, and the weight of responsibilities crushing. It was at Beacon that she understood that resting and having fun were essential, that losing herself for a victory meant not winning at all.
Her heart beating fast, she walked toward the familiar sounds, the silhouette on the right becoming clearer as the unmistakable sight of a cape clued her in to her identity.
“Ruby?” she choked.
Silver eyes snapped towards her as fast as they could. Blake didn’t even see Jaune, Ren and Nora leaning on the side of the house to her left. The boy Ruby was fighting took a few steps back, his eyes wide open, recognizing the importance of the moment.
“B- Blake?” Ruby whispered confusedly. Her eyes started to fill with tears but before Blake could notice anything else her arms were full, as Ruby had sped to her side, and engulfed her in a warm and desperate hug.
“Blake!” Ruby was crying, and it took Blake a moment to realize she was, too. It was obvious that Ruby had grown taller, and that realization made her indescribably sad. She placed her arms around her waist and squeezed hard, as if to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming, that she was actually here.
She’s here.
She’s here.
She’s not here.