RWBYA: Volume 1: Vale. A RWBY AU/Fanfiction.

Chapter 22: Discovery and Capture.

The moon shined brightly across Vale as the ruins of Mountain Glen cast shadows on the ground and rubble. Ruby kept a watchful eye, as Zwei stayed by her side. As for the rest of team RWBYA, they were restless and unable to sleep. Yang, having enough, was the first to speak.

"Blake, are you awake?"

Blake sighed and grunted as she too stopped trying to force herself into sleep.

"Yeah. I am."

"Why do you think Oobleck asked us about being a Huntress? Like, what was he trying to say?"

"Maybe he was just curious."

Yang wasn't exactly convinced.

"Are you absolutely sure about that?"

Blake sighed.

"No."

Yang then turned to Weiss.

"Weiss, are you awake?"

"Of course I'm awake!" Weiss soon snapped. "You two are talking." She then sighed. "And I think he... When I said I wanted to honor my family's name, I meant it. But, it's not what you think. I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a... moral gray area."

Blake frowned and spoke flatly.

"That's putting it lightly."

"Which is why I feel the need to make things right." Weiss soon remarked in clarification.  "If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it."

Blake then sighed as she began to think about her reasoning for being a huntress.

"All my life, I fought for what I thought was right. I had a partner named Adam. More of a mentor, actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place. But of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be not perfect for everyone. I joined the Academy because I knew that Huntsmen and Huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world. Always fighting for good. But I never really thought past that. When I leave the Academy, what will I - how can I undo so many years of hate?"

Yang spoke kindly to Blake.

"I'm sure you'd figure it out. You're not one to back down from a challenge, Blake."

"But I am!" Blake cried out with emotion. "I do it all the time! When you learned I was a Faunus, I didn't know what to do, so I ran! When I realized my oldest partner had become a monster, I ran! Even my Semblance! I was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself; an empty copy that takes the hit while I run away!"

"What you do in the past doesn't matter, Blake. All that matters is what you do now."

Everyone looked over in surprise as they found Aoihi awake and listening to them. His voice was more vulnerable and his expression of pain yet determination.

"I've seen and faced a lot of horrors in the mining town of Jundo. All of it very gruesome and mentally scarring. And yet, when I was saved on that fateful day by Ozpin. Something in me awoke. A realization. I WAS lucky. I was lucky to be even saved from being killed for just existing by Theodore Ashward and the Human Purity, and was lucky while others were not. Each and every day, people suffer just like how I did, and are not lucky enough to be saved from such horrible people and beings. My initial wish to become a huntsman just like my father, became something more. A wish, a desire, a need to become a huntsman to protect others from the same suffering I was dealt and hopefully end the Human Purity, so no one in the next generation will be attacked so brutally. True, the discrimination will never end, but an example needs to be set so discriminatory people learn that they will not get away with murder done out of Racism and ableism."