Cat's Out of the Bag

"...A White Fang... Right underneath our noses..."

Weiss was freaking out. It was understandable, really. Atrament himself was not sure how to feel about the whole Blake situation, and he had no strong opinion on the White Fang in the first place. Of course Weiss, who hated them, would have a much stronger reaction. The question was of course, how and why...

Oh, of course. That's where he knew her last name from. Still, that opened up other questions, namely how involved she was in the Fang's switch, and why she came to Beacon. He needed to find her and talk to her. It wasn't the most immediate concern, however. Even if Blake decided to flee Beacon, she wouldn't be able to do it until the morning, when the Airships would make the commute between the Academy and Vale. What he needed to do was snap Weiss out of her spiral and try to get her to at least listen to Blake before passing her judgement.

"...don't even know what she was planning... Oh my Brothers, what if she's here to murder me!?"

"That seems unlikely," Atrament pointed out. "I doubt your decision to go to Beacon was publicly broadcasted, and if the White Fang had decided to send an assassin after you, they would rather have tried to infiltrate Atlas Academy."

"I... can't really argue with that," Weiss replied slowly. It seemed that, as far as she was concerned, this disagreement fell under the purview of Atrament's rule, which hopefully would make it easier to talk her down. "Still, even if she was not after me specifically, I have no doubt that she would have seized the opportunity eventually. You saw how hostile she was towards me, and Khan would greatly reward any of her operatives who managed to kill the Schnee heiress."

"But we don't know exactly how involved she is in the Fang," he countered. "Nor if she is even still a member."

"Faunus who join the White Fang aren't exactly the most respectable members of their community," Weiss pointed.

"That's true for the modern Fang, although I doubt all prospective members are bloodthirsty lunatics. But in any case, the White Fang was originally a civil rights movement. It could be that she left the organization when they switched towards political violence."

"You don't know that for sure," Weiss protested. "You don't even know if she joined before they became terrorists, she'd probably have been too young to join before that!"

"I wouldn't be that sure of that," Atrament countered. "I hadn't made the connection before, but the man who founded the White Fang in its pacific iteration is named Ghira Belladonna. Blake is affiliated with the Fang since its very creation. But you're right on one thing: I don't know for sure. None of us do. That's why I want to ask you to at least give her a chance to explain before judging her."

"But... How can we even be sure that she would be telling us the truth?"

"Simple. We talk to her here. That would count as resolving a disagreement and thus she would have to be honest." Yes, Atrament had been prescient when he came up with that rule. Of course, the current situation was unforeseen and more than likely would be unique, but he had no doubt that the rule would continue to show its use for the rest of their stay at Beacon.

"I... Fine. I will agree to listen to her before passing my judgement."

"That's all I ask of you." That was at least one problem settled, at least provisionally.

"Just one problem with that," Yang pointed out. "How do we get Blake here? I doubt she'll just come back and apologize for the misunderstanding."

"Yeah, that will be a little more difficult," he sighed. "Unfortunately, we don't know Blake well enough to predict where she is going to go, and Beacon is too big for us to search. The good thing is, we don't need to. Either she's going to come back, in which case the problem will fix itself, or she will try to leave Beacon. Assuming she won't want to risk the trip through Emerald Forest, then there are only two paths she could take: the aerial docking bays or the port, both of which are inactive at this hour. Therefore, we can intercept her at these spots tomorrow morning, before she has a chance to leave."

"And try to convince her to come back and talk it out," Yang added.

And that was the other problem Atrament had to worry about. "And that."

"Well, don't count on me to convince her. I accepted listening to her justifications, that's more than enough."

"I wasn't going to ask you that." How to formulate it diplomatically... "I don't think your presence would make Blake receptive. Now let's get to sleep. We'll have to get up early tomorrow."

"You are up early, I see."

It was indeed early. 5:17 AM, to be precise. The first boats left Beacon at 5:30 AM, so Atrament had to get up at 5 AM. Yang was still sleeping, as the Airships would only be active at 6 AM, and Weiss decided to get up at the same time as Atrament, to 'take an early start and be properly awake for the difficult conversations'. He appreciated the show of support, whether Weiss intended it as such or not. Still, the harbor was plunged in darkness, with only a few light poles for safety. Which meant that it was quite surprising to see that Professor Ozpin was waiting there, a coffee mug in his hand and his dark glasses on his nose.

"Good morning, Professor." Morning was a bit of an exaggeration, but 'good night' had different connotations and it wasn't dawn just yet. "I am indeed. I have a... Team issue that I need to fix."

Ozpin hummed. "In the harbor."

"Potentially." Ozpin took a sip from his mug. The smell that hit Atrament's nose wasn't coffee, but hot cocoa. How did he manage to stay awake? "What about you, sir? You're up early too."

"I am waiting for a shipment. Running a school involves more resource management that you would expect. Now if you don't mind me asking, what kind of issue is your Team facing? Perhaps I can give you some advice."

"Well, sir... Are you aware of Blake's... past?"

"I have no idea what you're referring to." Somehow, Atrament didn't think Ozpin was telling the truth. "Unrelated, but there's something I want to say. People make mistakes. I myself have made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet. But we shouldn't let these mistakes define us. We should learn from them, move past them and become better. Beacon is a place of second chances, a place where people can get the opportunity to become more than our past."

That was a good speech. A bit hyperbolic, Atrament didn't think it was possible for Ozpin to have made that many mistakes, but a good speech nonetheless. "I think Blake needs to hear this more than I do."

"I see. Then you should tell her that. And mention that the beds in the dormitories are rather comfortable compared to a cargo hold." He gestured towards one of the boats moored in the port. So that was where she had hidden. Atrament would never have found Blake without Ozpin.

"Thank you, sir." He started to leave, but stopped. "Actually, I have one more question, if you don't mind."

"Well, I am a teacher and it is my job to give you answers. Ask away."

"Is Ozpin your first or last name? Everywhere I look, you are just listed as 'Ozpin' with no other indication."

For the first time in this conversation, Ozpin seemed surprised. "Is that so?" He wasn't surprised by the fact that his full name wasn't listed despite what he was implying, but by the fact that Atrament had even asked. He clearly had not anticipated this turn of events. Still, he recovered admirably quickly. "Well, I suppose I'd better fix that. And it's my last name. Now off you go, before the ship departs."

Atrament still wanted to know what Ozpin's first name was, but the headmaster of Beacon was right. He was a leader, and he had to take care of his Team.

The hold was plunged in darkness. Not surprising, of course, as Blake was trying to hide and most Faunus had heightened senses, night vision being especially common. Still, it was inconvenient and Atrament struggled for a few seconds to find the light switch.

The lights weren't that powerful and there was still a lot of shadows, but it didn't end up being an issue. The hold was mostly empty outside of a few crates (which made sense, this being a cargo ship that had already delivered its cargo to Beacon), and Blake wasn't trying to hide, having probably guessed that it wouldn't deter Atrament. Instead, she was sitting on a crate not far from him. She wasn't wearing her bow, revealing a second set of cute black cat ears.

"You should have let me go," she said quietly. "It would've been better for everyone involved."

"I disagree," Atrament replied as he sat next to Blake. "Running away from your problems doesn't make them better."

"So you're here to lecture me, then."

"I'm here because you're a member of my Team, and it is my responsibility to help you."

Blake gave a deadpan look to Atrament. "Right. And does everyone in the Team feel the same way?"

"Everyone is at least ready to listen to your side of the story. Even Weiss."

"Really? She's ready to listen to the White Fang member?"

"You said it yourself, they didn't start as terrorists. The White Fang your father founded was a peaceful activist movement."

Blake startled at that. "You know? How?"

Now, it was Atrament's turn to give Blake a deadpan look. "Blake, you didn't change your name. Putting a bow on your ears is not exactly a master disguise." She started to blush in embarrassment, realizing that she didn't have her master disguise on. "I know, Ozpin knows, I think all of the teachers know and a lot of the students will probably connect the dots once we start to cover the White Fang in History." Alright, maybe it was not the most diplomatic way of putting it.

"Ozpin knows?" Fortunately, Blake didn't focus on that part of his speech.

"Yeah, he's the one who told me where you were. Basically, he doesn't care about his students' past as long as they try to be better."

"I..." Blake was briefly at a loss for words. "Maybe Ozpin doesn't care. Maybe the teachers will follow his lead. But do you really think the students won't have an issue with my past? Do you really think Weiss will actually listen to me?"

"Our discussion would take place at my dorm," Atrament explained. "That's how I got Weiss to agree to it. As this counts as a disagreement, you would have to be truthful about your past. But it goes both ways. Weiss also has to actually listen to your side."

"But not accept it."

"Weiss is not as bad as you seem to think. That was what started your argument in the first place, if you remember correctly."

"She's not perfect either," Blake protested. "You didn't hear what she said when we were fighting the Alpha Boarbatusk, before arriving at the temple."

"You're right, I didn't hear it. What did she say when she was under the mental influence of the mind-controlling Grimm that makes people irrationally angry?"

Blake glared at him. "You can really be an asshole sometimes, you know?"

Atrament winced. "Sorry. You're right, it wasn't the best way of putting it. But at the same time, my point still stands. What Weiss said under the Grimm's sway doesn't necessarily reflect what she really believes, it's just what she thought would hurt you the most. And I'm sure you said things that you wouldn't normally when you were under the Boarbatusk's spell."

Blake stayed silent for a minute, before sighing. "Fine. I suppose you at least deserve to know who I am." She stood up, pulled her bow out and looked at it for a moment, before putting it back in her pocket. "You're right. I'm done running away. If I do this, I'm going to do this as me."

The atmosphere in the dorm was tense. Weiss and Blake were staring at each other with mistrust, and Atrament and Yang were in the awkward middle. Still, he couldn't help but think this was in a way better than the day before. All the issues were being aired and would be solved right now, one way or the other.

"Alright," Weiss said stiffly. "Let's get this over with."

Blake took a deep breath and sat down. "So, as Atrament has deduced, I'm the daughter of the founder of the White Fang. Originally, it was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and Faunus. But still, Humanity thought of us as lesser beings and hated us. When we won the Faunus Rights Revolution, we were promised equal rights, but Humans went back on their word as soon as they could. We were still exploited and discriminated against while large companies like the SDC became even larger on the back of Faunus workers with no rights of their own."

"So you turned to violence," Weiss added.

"So we turned to activism," Blake countered. "We started to boycott exploitative businesses and protest against discriminatory institutions. We even had human members who joined our efforts. I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist. Every boycott was labeled as an attempt to disrupt the economy, every peaceful protest was depicted as a violent riot. When the media covered police breaking our rallies with unnecessary force, they called us the aggressors, they used the images of White Fang members defending themselves to call us rabid beasts. Change did happen, but it was slow, too slow for some."

"Like Sierra Khan," Atrament pointed out.

Blake nodded. "She believed that Humans would never give us more than scraps if we did nothing more than ask for equality. She believed that we needed to show strength, that we needed to show racists that there were consequences for their bigotry. Her rhetorics resonated with a lot of the Faunus that felt like Dad's methods did nothing for the cause. So, five years ago, Dad stepped down and Sienna became the High Leader of the White Fang."

"And you?" Yang asked.

"I... I agreed with Sienna too. I admired her, at the time, saw her as a woman of action while Dad was content with words. In hindsight, that might have helped give her some legitimacy. Anyways, we started to fight back. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. And the worst part was, it was working. Stores stopped banning us, some companies started giving their Faunus workers more considerations, and the media was already depicting us as violent anarchists, so it didn't get worse on that front. And I told myself that it was worth it, that when people turned away from us in fear, it was respect. But not everyone cowered before the Fang. Some companies started to push back, the SDC chief among them."

"So this justified murdering them!?"

"No, of course not. But it led to even more escalation. When SDC executives called for stricter measures against the White Fang and their affiliates, which in their eyes meant the whole Faunus population, the Fang started to target them, to beat them up, then when it didn't work, to make them 'disappear'." It was no longer 'we', but 'the Fang', Atrament noted. "I wasn't involved in these. I haven't killed anyone in my life. But I still turned a blind eye, told myself that the people targeted were ones that deserved it. It was the Schnee Dust Company, after all. They had brought slavery back from the ashes of the Great War, in all but name."

Weiss scoffed at that. "Please, don't you think you're exaggerating just a little? Sure, my father isn't the greatest boss, especially to his Faunus employees, but calling it slavery is quite the stretch."

Up until that point, Blake was visibly ashamed of her past, but Weiss' dismissive remark visibly struck a nerve. "Did I ever tell you about my ex-boyfriend? He used to work in an SDC camp when he was a child, one that relied on Faunus labor. He was often stealing food from the Human overseers and brought it back to the workers. Eventually, he was caught. Do you know how he was punished, heiress? The overseers summoned every Faunus worker and branded him in the face with a Schnee Dust Company branding iron, to remind every Faunus that they belonged to them! He lost an eye! When he was eight! And he's not an isolated case either. When members of the White Fang begin to flag in their convictions, Sienna send them on raids against SDC work camps, because she knows that seeing how their fellow Faunus are treated there will remind them of who the enemy is!"

Weiss paled at that. She seemed to want to dismiss Blake's words, but Atrament's rule meant that she knew they were nothing but the truth. Atrament himself was pretty disturbed at that, as was Blake. "So how did you end up in Beacon?" he ended up asking after a short while.

Blake sighed at that. "Eventually, I could no longer ignore how bad we were getting. Adam and I attacked a Schnee cargo train full of Dust, and he was ready to leave the crew to die. I wasn't. So I made sure they survived and I left the White Fang. I left him." So this 'Adam' was likely the ex-boyfriend Blake had mentioned earlier. "Instead, I decided to dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress, to help people instead of killing them, and I enrolled to Beacon. So what do you think, Weiss? Do I pass your judgement?"

"I..." Weiss looked uncomfortable. "All of this, all of what the SDC has done, what my father allowed... It doesn't erase the White Fang's own actions, their violence, their murders. But at the same time, you're not one of them. You're not a murderer. If you want to leave your past behind, to become a better person... well, I can't really blame you for that, it would be pretty hypocritical of me. So... partners?" She tentatively held out her hand.

Blake carefully looked at Weiss, her expression unreadable. Finally, she held out her own hand and shook Weiss'. "Partners."

Yang let out a relieved exhale at these words. "Good. I'm glad all ended well. So... now what?"

"Well, it's pretty early, but still too late to go back to sleep," Atrament pointed out. "So, I guess we've got some time to kill." He picked up the replica of Pyrrha's shield that was still lying at the bottom of Yang's bed, and held it out to her. "Who's up for some decorating?"

Author's note: This story is now cross-posted on AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/92550136/chapters/246730336