[ON HIATUS] We're Not Dreaming (Mercury x OC)

Relaxing Before the Anxiety Hits

After leaving Ozpin's office, I popped by the dorm room to find it empty. I figured everyone must have gone to breakfast already, and since my stomach was starting to growl, I hurried down to the cafeteria. I found my team sitting with RWBY and JNPR, Byzantine and Nora fighting over the last of the pancakes while Ren and Ming shook their heads at their partners. Pyrrha was helping Jaune study, and Ruby and Yang were playing Monkey in the Middle with Weiss' binder while she fumed in between them. Xander and Blake had their noses in books. Blake, I wasn't surprised with. Xander, I was. 

I was about to approach them when I spotted the three imposters. Cursing, I ducked around a corner and quickly shapeshifted into a different appearance, making myself look human. It was one of the many alias I had used in my time with the Fang, and it was surprisingly becoming useful again. I slipped back into the cafeteria to grab some food before sitting down next to my team. "Um, can we help you?" Byzantine asked me in confusion. 

"Wow, you can't even recognize your own leader?" I grinned at her, everyone at the table relaxing when they heard my voice. "Why do you look like that? HOW do you look like that?" Xander asked me in shock. "I'm hiding from someone. Look, it's one of the many tricks I have up my sleeve, for the rest of the day just call me Orchid," I mumbled to everyone else. I saw Blake narrow her eyes at me over her book, and I winced internally. "Well, at least there aren't classes today. So who are you hiding from?" Ming stared at me. "I can't tell you, Ozpin swore me to secrecy," I replied. "Ozpin?" the rest of the table chorused. I shushed them before taking a bite of my waffles. "Again, secrecy being the key word," I mumbled through the forkful of waffle.

"Well, since we don't have anything to do today, let's go to the library!" Ruby piped up. "We should study, we have exams soon," Pyrrha started gathering her books. "I agree, Oobleck is going to kill us if the class fails this one again," Weiss stated firmly. "Aww I wanted to play Remnant: The Game!" Ruby whined. We tossed our plates into the recycling bin before packing up. I looked out of the corner of my eye and watched Mercury laze around on the table while Cinder glared at him. Emerald looked infatuated with Cinder. I shook my head and followed my team out the cafeteria. 

We got to the library and took up two tables. Team JNPR and my team shared a large table while RWBY grabbed the small one and started setting up their game. Ruby and Yang had managed to drag both Blake and Weiss into playing with them, and JNPR had begun their usual routine of Pyrrha attempting to teach Jaune while he read a comic book, and Ren reading a huge tome while Nora napped on the pages he had read already. Xander was busy playing games on his scroll while Ming practiced his calligraphy, one hand holding a brush while the other held Byzantine away from the ink. I pulled my laptop from my bag and started searching around the internet for the three criminals.

I found something about Mercury first. It was an article about the murder of his father, and how police speculated it was Mercury who had committed the crime but did not have the evidence to support it, as everything on the property had been set ablaze. I internally snorted, I knew Mercury had killed his father. The bottom of the article advised civilians to avoid confrontation if possible, and to contact the police if seen. That was all that was on Mercury. It seemed that he had been keeping a low profile ever since his father's death.

Emerald had a slew of articles on her. Nothing had happened in Vale, but the police were out for her blood in Atlas and Mistral. She was wanted for multiple counts of theft; most of the thefts were small crimes, lien or jewelry that was stolen. She was suspected to have taken part in a large heist that had relieved the Atlas Museum of several valuable jewels and paintings. Her semblance was illusion, which explained how she got away with stealing so easily.

There was nothing on Cinder except for a missing child statement from an orphanage dating more than 10 years ago. The Cinder in that paper had been nine years old; she couldn't have been more than 20 now. Something about her was dangerous though, or at least she was someone to be wary of. Ozpin's reaction was more than enough to convince me to be cautious. Speaking of the devil, a notification from him popped up on my screen.

[Blanche, I don't think I need to tell you this, but this situation must be handled delicately. Please keep quiet, I will call you soon to see what else can be done.]

I rolled my eyes before responding.

[Professor, you know of my past. Discretion is my trademark.]

A bubble appeared showing he had seen my reply, and I closed the tabs on my computer. I shut my laptop in time to hear Ruby scream,"NOOOOO MY FEARLESS SOLDIERS!" accompanied by Yang's evil laugh. I looked over to see Ruby in despair as Yang wrecked her kingdom and took control of it. Weiss looked utterly confused and Blake just stared at them unfocused. 

They were interrupted with the arrival of a blond Monkey faunus and a guy with electric blue hair. I recognized him instantly. I had met him while I was with Ozpin visiting students in Haven when I had first been accepted into Beacon and didn't have a team yet. "Neptune!" I jumped up happily and hugged him. "Umm...." the blue haired boy looked at me confused. "Oh. Right." I shifted my appearance back to normal and was awarded with a tight hug and sparkling smile. "Blanche! I haven't seen you in ages, how are you? I see you have your own team now," he nodded at the rest of BRBN. 

"Riiiiiight. Sorry to interrupt you two, buuuuuuuuut," Sun grabbed Neptune,"I never got a chance to formally introduce you to my old friend. "Uh aren't libraries for reading?" Neptune cut in. "Thank you!" Ren yelled from where he was sitting with his book, Nora shooting up yelling,"Pancakes!" before toppling back down. "Shut up. Don't be a nerd," Sun replied. "Asdfghjkl. Intellectual. Okay. Thank you," Neptune and I both shot back in unison. "Now this is why you're my book buddy," Neptune slung an arm around me. I grinned at him and slugged his arm lightly. "Wow Blanche, you never talk this much with us unless you're yelling at us for doing something stupid," Xander chuckled. I glared at him sourly but he just laughed more.

"As much as it is nice seeing you again, I need to go back to the dorm to go do some research. I'll see you guys later alright?" I waved at them before grabbing my stuff and turning to leave. A few seconds later, I heard Blake excuse herself as well. I turned around a corner and turned invisible, waiting for her to walk past me before grabbing her wrist. I set up an illusion before turning visible again.

"Look, you've been glaring at me ever since breakfast and I know you've been wanting to interrogate me. So shoot," I sat down on the floor, Blake settling next to me. "You're in the White Fang," she snapped bluntly. "Used to be. There's a difference. If I remember right, you used to be as well. Adam's got both of us on his hit list, and I honestly don't know who he hates more, the one who broke his heart or the one who broke his face before leaving," I sighed. "Broke his face? What do you mean by that?" Blake looked at me confused. "I left earlier than you did. I'm the reason why Adam wears a mask all the time. I gave him a couple ugly scars when he tried to stop me from leaving," I replied shortly. "What were you to the White Fang? I know I've seen you in that Orchid getup around camp," Blake looked at me curiously.

I gave her a raised eyebrow,"I thought you had figured it out already?" She shook her head. I reached for a piece of paper and drew a symbol on it,"Do you know this?" Her eyes widened in horror as she recognized the black snowflake carved with skulls,"You were the White Fang's top assassin?!" "Believe me when I say this wasn't something I enjoyed. It was just what I was good at," I sighed. Blake shook her head at the floor before looking at me again,"Do you know what we used to call you?" I tilted my head towards her in confusion. "We used to call you Frostbite," she continued,"Because after you passed through, nothing lived." I got up from the floor, offering a hand to Blake. I hauled her up and we dusted ourselves off.

"Not a word to anyone about this," I mumbled to her,"I don't want my past following me when I'm trying to start anew." "Same with me." I shattered my illusion and walked back to the dorm.