Title: Running Away

Fandom: RWBY

Author: Risa

Disclaimer: not mine, all rights go to RT

Spoilers/Warnings: minor ones covering volumes 1-4. Blake's POV right before Sun wakes up. Missing scene set during 4x11. Also a little something to celebrate my 55th story posted to this site as of 10/1/2017. Here's to many more in the future!

Summary: She had to stop this. Stop running. From her past. From her present. From herself. But that was easier said than done.

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"You can't run from your past. You'll just end up running in circles, then fall down the hole you originally escaped from, only this time, it's deeper."

-Max Payne

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Blake Belladonna sat motionless in the straight-backed chair in her family's spacious living room, head bowed as her hands rested on her thighs, curled into fists. Slightly across from her, an injured Sun Wukong lay shirtless on the large couch, a tan field bandage and gauze dressing over the wound inflicted by Ilia Amitola. One of many faces from Blake's shady past as a former White Fang specialist. And while Blake made the fateful decision to leave during the train heist, most of her old friends did not follow her example. That made her sad.

Blake fought back tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. This is all my fault. Everyone keeps getting hurt because of me. First Yang, now Sun...no more. I refuse to let any more people get hurt because of me.

Running wasn't the solution. She thought it was. She believed it when she cut the train tie, separating herself from a man she once admired, loved even. She believed if she left, things would get better and maybe, just maybe show Adam that there was no need to resort to violent force to achieve equality for their race.

She never thought he'd take her departure so hard, so personal that he would go so far to attack her school, and cut off Yang's arm just to prove a point. Even in after the fallout of that horrible event, she still held out a small spark of hope that he could be saved. She didn't want to hurt him, but he had made a chilling promise to destroy anything good in her life. Blake wasn't sure if she could face him again after that. She ran from him in her dreams, even as he attacked her as she raised her hands, palms up. Unwilling to draw her weapon. Trying to be the peacemaker, the voice of reason even as he slashed at her in a calm, deliberate fury.

She wasn't sure if that was a sign of future things to come. But if it was, it was ominous.

She was still running away. No change there.

She believed if she pushed her friends away, they wouldn't get hurt or killed just by being associated with her. It was how she salved her conscience when she hopped a boat from Vale to Menagerie, leaving Yang behind even though she was aware of the blonde's abandonment issues, she prayed the bruiser would forgive her once she had a chance to explain.

But knowing the hot-tempered girl, she doubted it. Yang would probably beat her ass for leaving, and she would let herself take it because she knew it would be well-deserved. She didn't expect the others to forgive her for what she did, but that was fine.

She could learn to live alone.

But.

Deep down, she didn't want to. Didn't want to believe everything wrong in her life was because it was her that was the problem. How could she hope to make a difference, take back the White Fang if she didn't practice what she preached? How could she hope to be an ambassador of her people when she refused to change her self-righteous attitude towards humans? She recalled the first words she spoke at Beacon Academy was her accusing Weiss Schnee-a very powerful influential human-of her family's shady business tactics when she herself was nothing more than a trained criminal and terrorist.

And when she was outed as a Faunus during a heated argument with the Ice Queen, she did what she did best. Run.

She had to stop this. Stop running. From her past. From her present. From herself. But that was easier said than done.

How do you tell someone-whose very Semblance was derived from fear-to be brave? Face your fears head on. Confront your demons. Look them in the eye and say, "You have no more power over my life? I am strong. I am beautiful. I can do anything I set my mind to."

It would take practice. Something she didn't have time for, but there was no more time. She'd have to learn the hard way. As long as Sun was with her-and she could somehow figure out a way to keep him safe-then she could work on it. She had to.

During that recon mission to Mountain Glenn-when team RWBY was intact-she recalled Dr. Oobleck asking her motivation for becoming a Huntress.

She clearly remembered her response, but he challenged her with a simple question of his own.

How?

At the time, she couldn't answer. But now that she'd returned home and had her priorities and head set straight, she believed she found the solution. It wouldn't be an easy road. She'd be mocked. Ridiculed. Lose more loved ones. The last one terrified her but she knew she couldn't prevent that. Any major change required sacrifices. The ability to make hard choices when they really mattered.

The question was: did she have the stomach for such a task? Could she kill her former friends if they refused to see reason? Ilia refused to hurt her and the feeling was mutual. For now. But that could change once the hunt was on.

Sun stirring brought her out of her brooding thoughts.

She would think about this later. For now, her purpose had become clear.

She would retake the White Fang. Not by violence but by appealing to reason. And looking at the blonde monkey Faunus coming out of his injury-induced slumber, she had her purpose right in front of her.

"Blake? Where-what happened?"

All she had to do was to convince him of her reasons. One of which was explaining why she abandoned her team without mentioning Adam's name.

She didn't want anyone else to get hurt. She couldn't lose Sun. It would probably destroy her.

So she raised her head, cleared her throat and began.

Starting today, she would stop running.

Baby steps.

-end

A/N: alrighty guys. Since I've focused a lot of time towards other characters-this'll be a brief one-shot over Blake and her future choices. The path she's chosen isn't going to be the easiest, nor the safest, but let's be honest. She was never really going to escape the White Fang, no matter how hard she tried. Her usual method of running from her problems-starting with cutting the train in the 'Black' trailer up till leaving Vale and team RWBY behind in V3's finale-came back to bite her big time. And even in her V5 character short, she's STILL having trouble fully committing to her destined path. She can't bring herself to harm Ilia and vice versa. Which again begs the question: how is she going to change the White Fang back into a peaceful organization when she can't raise her sword to one of her former best friends? The issue's gonna be forced sooner or later and then Blake-as well as Ilia-will be forced to choose between duty and everything they've believed in. And there's a possibility Ilia might die as collateral between Adam and Blake's opposing ideas and methods on how the Fang should be run. We'll just have to wait and see.

Enjoy and don't forget to review, friends. Not only is next week the V5 premiere, Yang's character short is due to drop any day now. Get hype!