I Fought the Law (And Atlas Won)
For a moment, Blake tensed to run. If she could make it past the cops – and using her clones, that shouldn’t be impossible – then she could sprint down the corridor and…
And what?
Even if she did get out of the gallery, even if the shocked and outraged look on Cardin’s face and Nora’s expression of confusion and the way that her own team looked as though they’d been collectively pole-axed meant that they were all too stunned to try and stop her, even if one of the literally hundreds of students in the classroom didn’t catch her before she could get out, even if she did get out of this room, out of this immediate situation… did she really think that she was going anywhere? Did she really think that she could escape from a whole school full of huntsmen, from the professors and the upperclassmen, from Professor Goodwitch?
Did she really think she was going to escape the grounds, and even if she did, what then? Where would she go? Tukson was in intensive care under Atlesian guard; there was no one she knew to help her move on to somewhere else, start afresh with a new life in Vacuo or someplace.
Where would she go? Would she hang around the streets of Vale, dumpster diving, and avoiding the cops? What kind of a life was that, and was she willing to drag Sun – sweet, loyal, utterly foolish Sun – into that sort of miserable existence when he followed her, as it seemed almost certain that he would? Would she stowaway on a boat to Menagerie and crawl back home to face the disappointment of her parents?
Where would she go?
There was nowhere she could go.
She didn’t want to go.
She didn’t want to leave Beacon, she didn’t want to go anywhere else, she didn’t want to leave the people that she’d met here.
The friends that she’d made here.
But she had no choice but to go; not to run, but to go with the police to wherever they intended to take her. She couldn’t run; she couldn’t run because she wouldn’t escape, because she had nowhere to go even if she did escape… but also because, as she contemplated fleeing from this as she had fled from all her problems in the past – fled from Menagerie, fled from her parents and her home, fled from Adam and the White Fang – she caught sight of three faces; two faces which, amidst the crowd of shocked and frightened and furious expressions, looked to be on her side.
Sun, Sunset, and Rainbow Dash.
Sun was closest to her, both physically – whether she wanted him to be at that particular moment or not – and emotionally too. He had been there for her when she had been at her lowest ebb; he had approached her when no one else would. Even now, it seemed that he was trying to reach her, trying to shake off the hands of his friend Neptune and his teammate Scarlet as they tried to sit him down and keep him away.
Sunset stood at the front of the classroom, barely a few feet away from the cops and the headmaster; her look was tense, and her hands were beginning to glow with the energy of her semblance. Sunset didn’t seem to actually like Blake very much, and Blake had to say that the feeling was mutual; if she were to choose a single word to describe Sunset at this moment, it might well end up being ‘callous,’ reflecting the lack of concern or fellow feeling that she had for anyone outside of her very narrow social circle. But Sunset, for all that she might act as though Blake was an idiot, had nevertheless never failed to support her, to help Blake when she had asked for help, to back her up even at the risk to her own life. And if she had done so reluctantly and accompanied by a great deal of sour grumbling, did that really matter? It seemed that she was even ready to defy the law for Blake’s sake, just as she had once defied Rainbow Dash. That had been payment of a debt, but the debt was paid now, so then why did she go so far for Blake?
She must have meant it when she said she felt a kinship between us.
If Blake decided to run, then it seemed that Sun and Sunset would both try to help her get away, at least away from here.
And then there was Rainbow Dash. The Atlesian student did not seem quite so ready to leap into action on Blake’s behalf, but in her magenta eyes, there was a sadness and an understanding that Blake had not expected to see. Her expression was pinched, as if she would have liked to do something but was not entirely sure yet what to do. Blake still thought of Rainbow as one of those privileged faunus who did not really understand what their race went through – how could she, being so well-connected as she was, soaring as high as she did? – but as she looked into Rainbow’s eyes, perhaps Rainbow did remember what life for the average faunus was like after all.
She could not run. She wouldn’t cause that kind of trouble for Sun and Sunset.
Blake stood up, and as she stood up, she glanced at her teammates, not realizing how much their reactions would hurt her until she saw them: outrage from Bon Bon, open-mouthed disbelief from Lyra, and from Sky, her partner, anger that verged on hatred.
Whatever came next, whatever these cops wanted from her, a part of her life was over now. She could never go back to being just plain Blake Belladonna. Whatever happened, if she ever came back here, it would be as Blake the Faunus, Blake the Terrorist, Blake of the White Fang.
She would no longer be a person in this place, but a symbol of her kind.
Sienna would say that that’s exactly why we need the White Fang. But the White Fang had set her up – Blake had no doubt that they had ultimately tipped off the cops and sent that video, if only because there was no one else who could have done it – so she wasn’t feeling too inclined to grant the validity of Sienna’s talking points.
If there was one thing in this awful situation that consoled her, it was the thought that, although she had barely begun to fight back, she had somebody sufficiently worried that they had done this to stop her. If she ever had the liberty to pursue it further, she would do so confident that she was on the right track.
If they allowed her a phone call, she would let Sunset know that she had to keep going, because they were onto something for a certainty. It was true that Sunset had been decidedly unenthusiastic about pressing on, but she’d been unenthusiastic about it yesterday and had nevertheless agreed to help Blake regardless; Blake was confident – Blake hoped – that it would be the same again, that Sunset would grumble but ultimately do the right thing.
But such thoughts were for later, for whatever ‘later’ might mean and hold for her. For now, she had to face the music.
Slowly, and feeling a surprising sense of liberation, an un-knotting of the constant feeling of tension that had been a part of her stomach for so long that she had learnt to live with it, with a weird feeling of relief that the worst that could happen had happened and she no longer hard to worry about her secret getting out any more, Blake untied the bow from on top of her head.
She heard a few gasps as people beheld her faunus ears, jutting out sharply like knives from the top of her head.
She would have liked to have said something to Sun, but the rest of the world wasn’t going to stop for them to have a moment. This wasn’t the kind of story where she’d have all the time in the world to say goodbye, to get him to promise to forget all about her or not, to say all the things that she found it so very hard to say.
She leapt from her seat and landed down on the stage of the lecture theatre in front of the cops and Professors Port and Ozpin.
“Here I am,” she told Lieutenant Martinez. “I’m Blake Belladonna.”
Rainbow Dash was surprised and not surprised.
She was not surprised that Blake was getting arrested. Or rather, she was and was not surprised. She was surprised that Blake’s secret was out like this, although when she thought about it, maybe it wasn’t so surprising that somebody had taken steps to shut Blake up through other means, since killing her was starting to look like a non-starter. It took guts to do it, though; she wondered how they had tipped off the cops without getting caught themselves, and to send this video so that even if Blake got her legal troubles cleared up, she couldn’t go back to school and try to brazen the whole thing out… it was a gutsy play, that was for sure.
The kind of guts that might, with a bit of luck, prove to be the undoing of their enemies.
She was a lot less surprised that the cops had taken the bait and arrested Blake. Rainbow hated to sound like… well, like Blake, but in her experience, police had a habit of locking up a faunus whether they deserved it or not. She’d first met Twilight when she’d tried to help her out from a bit of trouble she was in, and she’d been the one to get arrested for it, even though she was only trying to help because she was a faunus. She was lucky that Twilight and her folks hadn’t seen it the same way: they’d bailed her out of jail and given her a place to stay for the night, which had then turned into a place to stay for the next several months until they both went to Canterlot that fall.
But if Rainbow wasn’t surprised that the cops had come to arrest the person with good intentions but too many ears, she was more surprised that Blake so meekly allowed herself to be taken into custody. When the lieutenant came in waving her warrant,. Rainbow had thought for sure that Blake was going to run. She’d looked as though she was going to run, but then… she had looked at Rainbow, and it seemed that she had spotted the fact that Sun and Sunset were both prepared to help her out and decided that she didn’t want to cause them the trouble.
She’s got a good heart underneath all that stubbornness.
She reminds me of myself, a little bit.
Rainbow had never considered trying to hide her ears and pass for human; some did, of course, like Blake’s old buddy Ilia from Crystal Prep who had kept it up for years, but Rainbow had never contemplated it for herself. What would have been the point? She knew who her friends were; they were the girls who had accepted her for who and what she was. She didn’t need to hide her ears around Twilight or Pinkie or any of the others. She didn’t need to pretend to be human at Sugarcube Corner, or even in the halls of Canterlot.
Some might have called what was happening now justice. Not too long ago, Rainbow would have said that it was no more than Blake deserved. She had been a member of the White Fang, after all. But now… now, Rainbow wasn’t so sure. Blake was a lot of things, including a former terrorist and someone who had been brainwashed with an unthinking dislike of all things Atlas… but she was also trying to do better, and she knew things that could help them stop a major terrorist attack on Vale.
And she wasn’t going to be too much help to them in a Valish cell, was she?
“I know that some of you will have questions,” Professor Ozpin said, grave-faced and leaning upon his cane as the police led Blake away. “I know that some of you will be confused and alarmed by this development. I ask you to remain calm and to remember that I – and the entire faculty – treat your safety at this school as our highest priority. That said, Peter, I’m sorry, but I think it best to dismiss this class for today; I’m not sure if you will all be in a fit state to continue learning. If you have questions or concerns, my door is open. I ask only that you remember that everyone is the hero of their own story and consider carefully whether they must then be the villain of yours.”
“What are you thinking?” Ciel asked as the other students began to rise from their seats amidst much hubbub and babble about what had just occurred.
I’m thinking of a faunus girl locked in a cell and the girl who took a chance and opened the door for her. “I’m thinking that we can’t exactly fulfill General Ironwood’s orders with Blake thrown in prison,” Rainbow said, “and I have the start of a plan, not all the details yet, but… Twi, can you find out who sent that video to everybody?”
“I’m already working on it,” Twilight replied, “but I’ll be able to work faster if I can get back to our room and use the computer there.”
“Do it and take Penny with you,” Rainbow said. “Penny, go with Twilight and keep her safe until Ciel and me come back.”
Penny saluted. “She’ll be safe with me!”
Rainbow grinned. “Sure she will.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Ciel.
“We… are going to talk to Sunset,” Rainbow said.
How quickly the smiles die, Sunset thought, as she watched the shock and fear and anger blossom on the faces of her classmates. How swiftly affection is replaced by fear and hatred. If you could see this, Princess Celestia, would you not understand how easily I could turn my back on friendship and affection? There is no loyalty to be found in it.
None, save in the rarest of cases.
Even you, even we... one mistake, and all that has been done and shared is fast forgotten, all memories of happiness fade, and there is nothing but disgust and disdain.
If Blake had decided to run, then Sunset would have helped her. She'd been prepared to help her: her plan had been to block the doorway with a shield once Blake got out so that she couldn't be pursued. But Blake decided not to run, for reasons that Sunset honestly couldn't fathom. In the face of all the shock and anger, in the face of the dying of all the smiles, she decided to stand.
It fits her nature and pattern of behaviour, I suppose.
Sunset turned away as Blake, vested of her pitiful disguise, walked down to deliver herself up into the custody of the Vale police. That wasn't something that she wanted to watch: Blake being marched out in the custody of the guards under the eyes of those who had once called her friend. She remembered what it felt like too much to want to watch it done to another.
Besides, by turning away… she could likewise turn away from the fact that there was nothing she could do. That she was helpless in the face of the majesty of law and state and all the prejudice that went hand in hand with the same.
She didn’t see her team approaching her, but they must have been on their way because she heard Rainbow Dash say to them, “Hey guys, I need to borrow Sunset for a bit, is that okay? Great, thanks.”
Rainbow didn’t wait for a real response, but took Sunset by the arm and steered her out of the classroom and down the corridor – in the opposite direction to that which most of the other students were heading in. Her teammate Ciel followed them both like a silent shadow.
“Guys!” Sun cried as he raced after them, heedless of Neptune’s attempts to stop him. “You have to do something to help Blake! I mean, you know she’s not a terrorist, right? Just because she used to be doesn’t mean that she ought to be punished for being one now!”
“You should have studied law,” Sunset muttered. “You’d be a marvel at the Inns of Court.”
“Relax, Sun,” Rainbow assured him. “We are going to do everything we can to help Blake out of this fix.”
“You are?” Sun asked. “Like what?”
“I don’t know yet,” Rainbow admitted. “That’s why you need to trust me and give us some space to work it out, okay?”
Sun nodded, if a little reluctantly. “She’s not a bad person, you know.”
“We know,” Sunset said. Just an occasionally infuriating one.
Sun didn’t follow on but allowed Rainbow – trailed by Ciel – to drag Sunset farther and farther away. “Good luck guys!” Sun called, as he receded behind them.
Rainbow paid him no mind. "Do you think Blake trusts you?” she asked.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s a simple question: does she trust you?”
Sunset thought about it for a moment. “I… think so?” she ventured. “It’s weird, but I think that I might be the person she trusts most.”
“Is that so bizarre?” Ciel asked from behind them.
Sunset looked over her shoulder. “Yes, firstly, because she has a boyfriend, and second and more importantly, I don’t even think she likes me. But she does trust me. Or perhaps she just really doesn’t care whether I live or die and wanted someone expendable to help her out.”
Rainbow snorted. “Yeah, don’t discount that second one.”
“Why does it matter to you, anyway?”
Rainbow didn’t reply to that. Instead, she asked, “You were going to fight for her, weren’t you?”
Sunset pouted. “Why do you care?”
“Humour me?”
Sunset snorted. “I wasn’t going to fight. I was going to help her get away from the cops like I helped her get away from you.”
Rainbow winced at the memory. She scratched the back of her head. “I think the cops might have given you worse than a punch to the gut,” she pointed out.
Sunset lifted her head proudly. “I’ve been picked up by the cops more than once since I enrolled in Canterlot; I can handle a night in lockup.”
“But why would you?” Rainbow asked. “You said it yourself: Blake doesn’t even like you.”
“Blake doesn’t like anyone – except maybe Sun – and I get why,” Sunset declared. “She doesn’t have to like me to trust me, and since she does trust me… I hate the fact that I have to leave her hanging.”
Rainbow was silent for a moment. "You're really not the same Sunset I knew in Canterlot, are you? Back then, you wouldn't have given a damn about any of this."
"Thank you for noticing the change," Sunset growled. "Get to the point."
"We think we have a plan," Ciel said. "A way to get Miss Belladonna out of custody."
"We need to sell it to the general," Rainbow said, "and maybe to Blake herself too. If we offer her a deal, can you get her to take it?"
"What kind of deal?" Sunset asked. "The fact that she'd need to be persuaded to take it makes me nervous."
"I'll explain on the way," Rainbow said. "For now, we need to make a call to the general."
"Wait," Sunset said, unmoving. "This is about getting her to help you against the White Fang, isn’t it?"
"It’s about helping Blake too," Rainbow insisted. "But... yes, it’s also about helping Atlas, stopping the White Fang, and saving Vale. So come on, let's get to it."
Sunset sighed and shook her head. “You know, if Blake does go for this, there’ll be an irony to the fact that it took getting arrested to make her do the sensible thing.”
“Some people,” Ciel declared, “cannot be reasoned with save by the inescapable force of events.”
“So what is your brilliant plan, anyway?”
Ozpin sat in his office and watched the news on his scroll. It was not live, but it was only slightly delayed from when it had taken place.
“A startling development in the saga of the White Fang activity in Vale took place today at Beacon Academy,” Lisa Lavender reported, “when police arrested a first year student, Blake Belladonna, for membership of the White Fang and in connection with the recent robbery of a Schnee Dust Company train loaded with dust.”
Ozpin frowned as the image switched to a shot of Miss Belladonna, bound in aura-suppressing restraints, being walked by the police towards their waiting van in full view of the kingdom’s media. As the reporters showered questions at the silent Miss Belladonna, Ozpin thought that they resembled a mob as much as they did journalists.
The scowl remained on Ozpin’s face as he turned off the broadcast and called First Councillor Aris.
It took but a moment for his image to be projected onto the same screen where the news had been playing just a moment earlier.
“Ozpin,” she said coolly, “in light of recent developments, I’m forced to wonder if you’re slipping.”
“And I am forced to wonder what you were thinking, Madame Councillor,” Ozpin replied, “putting on that little show on my school grounds that way.”
Novo Aris stared at him from the other side of the screen. “My God,” she muttered. “You knew all along, didn’t you?”
“Most of my students are too young to arrive with a past,” Ozpin declared. “Miss Belladonna was one of the exceptions.”
“Being a member of the White Fang is more than just having a past,” Novo replied.
“Former member,” Ozpin corrected.
“The White Fang isn’t a country club; you can’t just quit and be done with it.”
“You would know more about country clubs than I, Madame Councillor.”
“Don’t get cute with me, Ozpin, not when you’ve been harbouring a damn terrorist underneath your roof!” Novo snapped. “My daughter was just at your school yesterday!”
“And there was never any danger of Miss Belladonna going on some kind of crazed rampage that put Miss Aris – or any of my students – at risk,” Ozpin said firmly. “I resent the implication that I would have allowed Miss Belladonna to attend Beacon if I thought for a second that she posed any danger to her fellow students.” Ozpin was silent for a moment. “I’ve spoken to her and looked into her eyes,” he said quietly, “and I believe she deserves a chance at redemption.”
Novo inhaled through her nostrils. “The law only grants redemption in exchange for punishment.”
“If you don’t think being a huntress is a punishing path, Madame Councillor, that only shows that you have never tried to walk it,” Ozpin said. “In all likelihood, Miss Belladonna would die in battle long before she would have completed any as-yet hypothetical prison sentence.” He let that hang in the air for a moment before he added, “Besides, there is also the issue of her relationship to the High Chieftain of Menagerie.”
“Menagerie is a small land of little account,” Novo said dismissively. “Vale doesn’t even recognise it as a kingdom! How they feel about this matters much less to me than the fact that I can finally tell the public that we’ve caught at least one terrorist!”
“For how long?” Ozpin whispered. And what will the public say once Miss Shimmer and Miss Dash are done?
“Excuse me?” Novo demanded.
“Nothing, Madame Councillor, just thinking aloud,” Ozpin said calmly. He might have warned her that she was about to be gravely embarrassed by the power of Atlas, but quite frankly, the First Councillor had not endeared herself to him today, and he felt under no obligation to endear himself to her in turn. “Now, I won’t keep you any further, unless there is anything else you wish to say to me?”
“Not at the moment,” Novo declared, “but I hope that there aren’t any more skeletons hiding in Beacon’s closets, Ozpin, or I might be forced to reconsider your future as Headmaster of Beacon.”
“Duly noted,” Ozpin said. “Good day, Madame Councillor.”
“Good day, Ozpin,” Novo said, and her image disappeared, to be replaced mere seconds later by a notification of a call from James.
Ozpin accepted it, and the face of General Ironwood, transmitting from his ship, took the place of the recently departed First Councillor.
"So, it seems that one of your students used to be in the White Fang," Ironwood said.
Ozpin sipped his cocoa as he gazed down at the image of the general's face on his screen. "So it would appear."
"But you already knew that, didn't you?”
“As you knew that I knew from what Miss Dash told you,” Ozpin replied mildly. “To be perfectly frank, I’m a little surprised we haven’t discussed this before.”
"I knew that you trusted her," Ironwood said. "You wouldn't let her into your school if you thought she was dangerous."
"I'm glad to see that you still trust me enough to credit me that much."
"I've never stopped trusting you, Oz; I've only ever wished that you'd extend me the same courtesy," Ironwood replied. "So what do you plan to do now?"
"Well, once Miss Shimmer and Miss Dash have secured Miss Belladonna's release, I believe that I have enough influence with the Council to approve Miss Belladonna's return to attendance at Beacon," Ozpin said. In truth, the real difficulty there would be objections from the more prominent students, like Mister Winchester. His name and reputation carried a lot of weight, but ultimately, the Council answered to the voting public, and they wouldn't risk the wrath of public opinion if it looked to be set too fiercely against him.
It would be interesting to see how Miss Shimmer intended to manage the situation.
James looked both exasperated and secretly amused. "For a man who claims not to be omniscient, you certainly know a great deal."
"In my position, I can hardly afford not to," Ozpin replied. "I must confess, General, that I'm a little surprised. You're putting a great deal of credibility on the line for a former member of the White Fang."
"Rainbow Dash thinks it will be worth it," James said.
"And you trust Miss Dash that much, to wield your influence on your behalf?"
"I do," Ironwood said, without hesitation. "You must trust Miss Belladonna almost as much if you're willing to go against the council for her sake."
"I believe in second chances," Ozpin said. How could he not, when he had required so many second chances of his own?
The interrogation room stank of cigarettes, like the ones that Detective Yuma, Lieutenant Martinez’s partner, was currently smoking, filling the room up with smoke as he did so. It congealed on the table like old gravy, rising over her hands like a tide lapping on the shore.
Detective Yuma, a square-jawed man with a pair of navy blue eyes, took the cigarette out of his mouth long enough to blow in her face. She didn’t cough or splutter, as much as she wanted to. She wanted to avoid showing weakness more.
“You have the right to remain silent, but you may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something you later rely on in court; anything you do or say may be given in evidence,” Lieutenant Martinez said. “Understand?”
Blake glanced at him. “Yes.”
“Good,” Yuma said. “Now, why don’t you tell us what a White Fang agent is doing at Beacon? You hoping to get close to the Schnee heiress, huh? Kidnap her for ransom?”
“No,” Blake said firmly. “I’m not with the White Fang anymore-”
“But you were,” Martinez interrupted. “For the benefit of the tape, you admit that you were a member of the White Fang?”
Blake’s jaw clenched. “I… I came to Beacon to train to be a huntress.,” she said.
“Why?” Yuma asked. “I’m a bit of an expert on train robberies, and jJudging by that video of you on the train, you’ve got some serious skills already.” He smirked. “Why do you think Deej here needed a huntsman and a full tactical team before she felt brave enough to bring you in?”
“Bite my ass, jerkoff,” Martinez hissed. She scowled, though whether at Yuma, Blake, or at herself for her outburst, Blake couldn’t say.
“Beacon doesn’t train warriors,” Blake explained. “Beacon trains… heroes.”
“Oh, so you think you’re a hero, do you?” Martinez demanded.
“No, I… I’m trying to be a better person,” Blake said.
“Oh, so this is some sort of redemption story?” Martinez asked. She glanced at her partner. “Well, forgive me if I don’t buy it. People don’t change, not like that.”
“Maybe not,” Blake admitted. “But I’d like to try.”
Martinez stared down at her for a moment. Then she sat down upon the edge of the table, perched awkwardly upon it, her body half twisted away from Blake. “You want to be a better person? How about you start by doing the right thing now?”
“Help us by helping yourself,” Yuma added.
Blake’s eyes flickered between them. The lieutenant was a faunus, but… that kind of thinking had gotten her into a lot of trouble in the past.
But what excuse did she have for lying? If the White Fang were on the march, then somebody had to stop them, and it wasn’t going to be her… but then, it probably wasn’t going to be these cops either. They might mean well, they might even be good at their jobs, but that didn’t make them equal to this challenge.
“I don’t want to get anyone hurt unnecessarily,” Blake answeredsaid.
Martinez frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means she doesn’t think we can handle ourselves,” Yuma translated.
“Oh, is that right?” Martinez demanded. “Listen here, you little-”
“El-Tee, calm down,” Yuma said.
“No, I am not gonna calm down when I’ve just been insulted by some snot-nose kid straight out of diapers!”
“Do you have children, lieutenant?” Blake asked.
Martinez’s eyes narrowed. “Not that it’s any of your damn business, but I have two sons. Two human sons. Does that bother you?”
Blake frowned. “Does your husband treat you well?”
“Like a queen.”
“Then it doesn’t bother me,” Blake said, and she meant it too. Rainbow Dash had taught her that faunus could be happy amongst humans and also demonstrated the importance of taking the word of a faunus who said they were happy in their situation instead of assuming that they were suffering the pangs of false consciousness. She continued, “And I won’t be the reason you didn’t come home to your sons by giving you information that will put you in danger.”
Martinez scowled. “Are you trying to get me to beat the crap out of you so that you can scream ‘police brutality’ at trial?”
“Lieutenant,” Yuma chided.
“Because if so, you’re doing a pretty good job!”
“Lieutenant,” Yuma repeated.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re incredibly annoying?”
“Yes,” Blake answered.
Yuma rubbed the space between his eyes. “It’s cute that you’re worried about us, kid. And I get it. I don’t plan to be involved in any bust on a White Fang base.” He leaned back in his chair and tucked his hands behind his head. “I am going to sit back at the station letting the tactical teams do all the work.”
Martinez snorted. “Instead of worrying about us, how about you worry about all the felonies that we’re about to throw at you? Armed robbery, membership in an illegal organisation, obstruction of justice for all of our questions you’re refusing to answer.” She stood up. “You in the White Fang-”
“I’m not with the White Fang.”
Martinez ignored her. “-might think that you’re helping solve the problems of race, but as far as I’m concerned, the only problem of race in this kingdom is that people like you won’t shut up about it, so if you don’t start talking and help us out, I will make it my business to dig up everything that you have ever done down to that one time you loitered on private property, and I will pin all of it on you until you won’t get out of prison until you’re a shrunken old hag, do you understand?”
The door into the interrogation room opened, admitting a bald man in a cheap suit. “Detective, Lieutenant, outside.”
The two detectives glanced at one another. Martinez said, “Captain, we’re in the middle of an interrogation.”
“Not anymore you’re not,” said the captain. “You’re done. Outside.”
Martinez frowned. “Captain, is something going on?”
“I’ll tell you outside,” the captain said, calmly but insistently.
Yuma shrugged as he stabbed out his cigarette. Martinez growled wordlessly between clenched teeth. If this was a tactic, she was doing a good job at seeming genuinely annoyed.
They trooped out, and Martinez slammed the door behind them.
Blake waited, alone, and stared at the glass. Were they all behind that window now, watching her, deciding how best to come back and break her?
They could try. Adam hadn’t broken her, and neither would they.
If she’d known anything about possible future attacks, she would have told them; if she’d known anything that would help them save lives, she would have told them. But she didn’t know anything like that, and even if she gave them her entire life story, there was no way they were actually going to talk to a prosecutor on her behalf. Not for a faunus like her.
The door opened. Blake blinked in surprise.
“Sunset?”
Her fellow huntress-in-training walked in, breathed in, and immediately started to look a little green in the face.
“Who set off the smoke machine?” she gasped.
“Sunset, what are you-?” Blake stopped as Rainbow and Ciel followed her inside. “What are you two doing here?” she asked.
“They’re the bad cops; I’m the good cop,” Sunset said, as she lounged against the wall.
“Don’t listen to her; the bad cops just left,” Rainbow said with a slight snigger as she and Ciel sat down opposite Blake. “We’re not cops.”
“Obviously,” Blake said.
Rainbow grinned. “Do you know why those two cops just left the room?”
“No,” Blake replied. “What’s going on?”
“The cops left you alone,” Rainbow said, “because their captain just got a call from the Council’s office, who just got off the phone with the Atlesian consulate, who just spoke to General Ironwood, who placed you under the protection of Atlas for the time being.”
“How long that protection lasts is up to you, for now,” Ciel said.
Blake leaned back in her chair. “Let me guess. You have a way of forcing my hand, so you’re going to make me help you whether I want to or not?”
“You don’t have to help,” Ciel replied. “You can always choose to go to prison.”
“Ciel,” Rainbow said reproachfully.
“It’s true, is it not?” Ciel asked.
“Yeah,” Rainbow conceded, “but don’t say it like that.” She placed her hands on the table and swept some of the vestigial smoke away with a wave of her hand. “Tell me about the White Fang.”
Blake scowled. “You’re not cops, but you ask the same questions?”
Rainbow shook her head. “I mean tell me why you joined the White Fang. That night at the docks, I asked why a girl with a stick up her butt about faunus rights quit the White Fang, but I never asked why the Princess of Menagerie joined the White Fang in the first place. I’ve never been to Menagerie, but my parents moved there when my Dad retired. They say it’s a magical place. They also say that folks move to Menagerie; they don’t leave Menagerie. But you did. I want to know why you ran away from paradise and joined a terrorist organisation.”
“Just because it’s paradise doesn’t mean it has what you’re looking for,” Sunset muttered.
“I didn’t join the White Fang; I was born into it,” Blake said. “From the time I could walk, I was going on rallies, marches, peaceful protests, and from the time I was old enough to understand, I could see that it wasn’t working. We marched, my parents made speeches, we delivered petitions to the councils of the Four Kingdoms, and none of it worked! Nothing changed! I wanted justice!”
“Until the killing got too much for you,” Rainbow murmured.
Blake scowled and leaned back in her chair. “Now… I see that all the violence, the bloodshed… it still hasn’t changed a thing.” She closed her eyes. “All that we wanted… all we ever wanted was a chance to live our lives, to choose our own path, the freedom that every human takes for granted. But then we started taking lives, taking that freedom away from people, and now…” Blake looked away, and for a moment, her thoughts flew elsewhere. She remembered sitting at the feet of Sienna Khan and listening to the leader of the White Fang talk about her love of gothic romance, one of the strongest women Blake had ever met recommending books about helpless maidens held hostage in gloomy castles by brooding aristocrats; she thought about Adam, talking about how once the war was won, he meant to found a new city in Anima where all faunus would be welcome. He had promised to build her a house in that new city, a home where they could live together in happiness and peace. Was anything left of either of them now but bitterness and hatred?
“Look at me,” Rainbow said.
Blake turned her head slowly, until she was staring into Rainbow Dash’s magenta eyes.
They stared at one another for a moment, and then another. Then Rainbow glanced at Ciel and nodded.
Ciel said, “Miss Belladonna, have you ever heard of the Legion of the Damned?”
Blake hesitated, the name sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. “No.”
“During the Great War, when Mantle had suffered severe losses, it began to be difficult for the kingdom to replenish the ranks of its armies,” Ciel explained. “As a result, the prisoners languishing in Mantle’s jails were given the opportunity to serve their nation: any man willing to take up arms for Mantle would be granted an unconditional pardon for their crimes and allowed to go free once the war ended… if they survived. Though they knew the fighting would be desperate and the risks would be great, nevertheless, thousands jumped at the opportunity for a second chance. They were called the Legion of the Damned.”
“How many of them survived?” Blake asked. It sounded like the kind of unit that would be used as cannon fodder.
“Six-hundred and ninety-three men mustered out at the war’s end,” Ciel said. “As promised, they were given their freedom and allowed to go wherever they wished.”
“Which is more than can be said for the Servian Legions,” Blake said. “I may not have heard of the convicts, but I know that during the Great War, Mantle and Mistral were so desperate for troops that they also offered freedom to any slave – human or faunus – who was willing to fight in their armies.” She snorted. “And then the war ended, and slavery was abolished anyway. Those who had died had done so for nothing.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Sunset said. “If it hadn’t been for that hard core of Great War veterans, the Faunus would have been screwed, come the Revolution. It was the refusal of the so-called Servian troops to be disarmed and deported that started the revolution in the first place.”
Blake was silent for a moment. “Why the history quiz?”
“Like we said,” Rainbow told her. “You’re under the protection of Atlas.”
Ciel pulled out her scroll. “The paperwork was a little rushed, but in order. All you need to do is sign.”
“And then what?”
“And then you join the Atlesian military; like the Legion of the Damned, you fight for us, and we give you a fresh start,” Rainbow said. “You help us stop the White Fang here in Vale, and everything that you did before gets wiped away. No cops, no cell, nothing. You can walk out of here. You can even go back to Beacon if they’ll let you in. All you have to do is help when we ask, and the rest of the time… you’re free to do as you like.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Rainbow said.
“And when that’s done, then what?” Blake said. “Will you want me for something else? If I take this offer, then Atlas owns me, and I don’t get to say when I walk away.”
“You’re not walking anywhere right now,” Rainbow said. “If it helps, I give you my word that I won’t ask you to do anything else other than help defeat the White Fang in Vale.”
“Your word?”
“My word,” Rainbow repeated. “Which I never go back on. Once I make a promise, you can bet I stick to it. So what do you say?”
Blake said nothing. She didn’t know what to say. Yes, they were offering to let her walk out of here a free person, with the threat of law permanently banished from her life… but on the other hand, in order to do it, she would have become a soldier of Atlas, a part of the military that did more than anything else – maybe even more than the Schnee Dust Company – to keep the faunus in their place, to maintain and defend the system of the world that was so stacked against their kind.
And she would have to give up her freedom. No longer would she be free to go where she wished, when she wished. She would be bound to the will of Atlas, to the will of Rainbow Dash until she and Atlas both were done with her.
And only Rainbow Dash’s word – and her assurance that it was her bond – that Atlas would be done with her before she died.
“We’ll give you a minute to think about it,” Rainbow said as she got up. Ciel followed her example, and they both left one after the other. Sunset remained, leaning against the wall, arms folded, not looking at Blake.
“It’s a good offer,” Sunset said.
“Would you take it?” Blake asked.
“I’m not the one looking at prison.”
“That’s what I thought,” Blake said.
Sunset walked towards her. “I’m not going to say that this is the only way to save you, Blake. Because it might not be; I haven’t had a chance to think. But it’s certainly the easiest way.”
Blake looked up at her. “Why do you care about saving me?”
Sunset shrugged and was silent for a moment. “I… I care because you wanted more than the world was willing to give you, and so you tried to take it regardless. I… I admire that. I guess I can relate.” Sunset leaned on the table. “Take the offer.”
“They want my freedom.”
“They want you to do what you wanted to do so badly anyway,” Sunset said. “Stop the White Fang, find out the truth, save Vale.”
“I wanted to do that alone.”
“You wanted to do it with me, but that was never going to work, was it?” Sunset asked. “Two of us, alone, against the whole White Fang? We couldn’t even take out Torchwick and Adam by ourselves. I’ve been telling you since yesterday that we couldn’t do this alone. I’ve been telling you since yesterday to take Rainbow Dash’s help.”
“You didn’t say that I should join the Atlesian military.”
“It’s a paper thing!”
“It’s my name,” Blake said.
Sunset sighed as she straightened up. “They’re going to throw the book at you if you don’t do this. And it’s just what the White Fang want, too.”
Blake cocked her head a little. “You guessed that as well.”
“It seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?” Sunset asked. “Someone wants you inside a cell, not out on the street. I say you should never give your enemies what they want.”
Blake hesitated.
“Where do you want to be?” Sunset asked. “In a cell, accomplishing nothing while things get worse? Or out on the streets stopping a terrible tragedy from unfolding?”
Blake closed her eyes. Her freedom or her cause? Her principles or her dislike for Atlas?
In the end, there was only one adult choice that she could make.
She nodded her head.
She heard, rather than saw, the door to the interview room open. “Well?” Rainbow asked.
“I’ll do it,” Blake said. “Though I still don’t see why Vale is agreeing to this.”
“Because Atlas desires it,” Ciel said, “and Atlas tends to get what it wants, these days.”
That, Blake reflected, was uncomfortably true. She opened her eyes to see Rainbow smiling at her.
“Congratulations, you’re about to join the greatest fighting force Remnant has ever seen,” Rainbow comforted her. “Trust me, one day, you’ll thank me for this and call it the best day of your life.”
“I somehow doubt that.”
“Give it time,” Rainbow told her. “Now, let’s get you signed up and get out of here.”