It had taken Alice time, but she finally had information on the envelope Blake had confiscated from her friend's mailbox. It didn't clear up all the questions. In fact, as always seemed to be the case, the answers they did get were only causing more questions.
Their source was not one of the questions that were answered, much to Blake's frustration. It wasn't from the Schnee Dust Company. In fact, the last envelope had specifically targeted an SDC facility. The number of faunus it portrayed as being there had been exact, and the condition of the living facilities, security, and working conditions were accurate.
They were, as of a year ago. If you compared those numbers with the numbers today you would get a totally different picture however.
The facility, #587C, had been a failing venture. The amount of dust produced from the mines was progressively shrinking with no new veins discovered in almost six months. They were scheduled to be closed down, the remaining labor returned to Vale for redeployment to other facilities, those willing to do so at least. That would have been a very small percentage normally.
Then seven months ago the facility had begun to change. Which exact pressure applied to SDC that caused the change was hard to say, but new money had been put into it, adding to the security of the facility and overall care of the labor.
Unexpectedly, at least to the company, the previously failing facility found three new veins that month, all of them large enough to keep it profitable for another year, at the very least.
Alice had backtracked on the reports Phoenix had gotten from Ruby and Weiss, removing any leads that Phoenix had given them, and looked at the ones they "happened to come across." Nine out of ten of them had a similar turn around until two weeks prior to the pair arriving. Then they simply stopped. No data could be found indicating what happened between those two weeks. By the time Ruby and Weiss arrived the facility was normally destroyed, apparently by grimm attacks.
What that could mean Blake didn't want to guess. Nothing good was obvious. That her friends were being massively manipulated by someone was severely pissing her off.
The worst part was of the nine that disappeared seven of them were SDC facilities. Whoever was doing this was purposely fueling Weiss's anger with false information.
Driving to the Rose's house, Blake stewed on what could be happening. She had tried calling Ruby yesterday after the meeting (and the distraction of a certain lion faunus) several times, but she hadn't picked up once. Blake continued to try that morning between meetings and helping Weiss and her wing leaders where she could. Weiss had said her wife was in a deep depression, suggesting that may be why she wasn't responding when Blake had questioned her.
Weiss's own depression was evident. Who could blame her? Whether she was disowned or not the loss of her father had to hurt, and then getting the insult of being barred from the funeral... It was cruel. In response Weiss had buried herself in her work. If she had her way Whicker Mining was going to be bankrupt when she was done. Even she wasn't that good, but the ferocity from her misplaced anger was the same.
Blake was playing hooky from her responsibilities this evening. Phoenix would survive without her there for the rest of the night, but the need to tell Ruby what she had found wasn't the driving force anymore, it was the real fear of something being wrong between them. Yesterday had not been the first time she had tried contacting her friend with no response. It had been that way since the day after she'd taken the envelope.
Had Ruby figured out Blake was the one who took the envelope and was angry about it? Good intentions or not Blake had invaded her privacy by taking it, but she didn't seriously think Ruby would be that sensitive for this kind of snub.
Was it that Blake had started monopolizing Weiss's time? The couple had so little down time between their forays into the forest. Maybe talking Weiss into helping had actually been a mistake? She knew the first time Blake had asked for Weiss's help back when they were in Beacon she had been worried about that, but that had been years ago and she thought the circumstances were different now.
She didn't know. It could be what Weiss had said: Ruby's depression. If that was all then Blake wanted to be there for her friend even more. A depressed Ruby was impossible to imagine. It meant she needed Blake's support. She needed her wife's as well. It added some validity to her fear that using Weiss was the problem. That Weiss was so intent on burying herself in that work though... Blake didn't know what to make of that.
Her thoughts were driving her hard to get to Ruby's house. Perhaps too hard, as she saw the flashing lights in her rearview mirror. Looking at her speedometer she noted she was doing five over the limit. It shouldn't be enough to get pulled over normally.
The key word was normally. This could go several ways, both good and bad. Being as the figurehead of the faunus movement she could be welcomed and let off with a warning, or she could be harassed and given even more contempt than a bigoted officer would give an unknown faunus. The outcome that would be the most reassuring would be fair treatment. A speeding ticket, oddly, was reassuring. It meant they were becoming equal in more people's views.
Pulling over slowly she stopped at the curb and waited for the officer. She consciously placed both hands on the steering wheel at ten and two in textbook style to be sure there was no confusion on if she was holding a weapon. The fact Gambol Shroud was in the car at all was possibly an issue if the officer somehow didn't know who she was until she showed her Emblem for identification.
She hated the feeling, but she was itching to have her bow on to hide her ears. It would take the guess work out of how this was going to go down. The fact she wanted that protection proved Phoenix had a long way to go still in their fight.
When the officer reached her door, he looked immediately at Blake's ears with narrowing eyes. It didn't add to Blake's confidence on her leaving with only a ticket. "License and registration," he said gruffly.
Reaching slowly towards the glove compartment for the requested documents, a new sense of panic hit when she realized it could look like she was reaching for the machinegun sitting on the passenger seat. At least it could look enough like it for a cop intent on causing trouble for a faunus.
Which this cop did.
Most cops would take a step away from the door at a perceived threat into a firing stance while drawing their weapon. It was textbook, and how they were trained. This officer didn't.
Whether he thought it was more intimidating, which was Blake's guess, or more effective was a matter of debate. The officer leaned into the car to get a better angle as the barrel of the gun was placed directly against her spine. It was a stupid move. It took on average between two to three seconds for a person's reflexes to act. Even if she hadn't been a huntress that would be enough time for Blake to counter and have the gun out of the officer's hands. Being a huntress meant she had at least two additional counter moves available after that which would leave him incapacitated.
She didn't do that however, pausing and moving her hands out slowly to either side to again make it clear she was unarmed and cooperative. "Out of the car slowly," he said with what was probably meant as menace. Cardin was more intimidating than this guy.
She obeyed; doing everything she could to appear docile. She suspected the only reason he hadn't tried to shoot her was because of the necessary investigation that would come after. She had enough lawyers to represent her that no matter what trumped up charge he came up with it could be defeated. She couldn't afford this looking like it was her fault in any way however. The head of Phoenix attacking a cop would be a great blow to her cause.
"I'm a huntress. By law we are permitted to carry our weapons. I had no intention of drawing her. I was reaching to get the paperwork you asked for," Blake explained calmly. That she was a huntress was general knowledge in Vale. Her face had been shown everywhere with Simon's PR engine. It was always best to be sure however.
The cop snorted. "Faunus shouldn't be allowed to be huntsmen, Belladonna," he said, making her name sound like a slur.
Well at least she knew he knew who she was. Now to see if that was a good thing or a bad. She didn't have much hope however.
"Now put your hands on your head," he continued.
She didn't like the sounds of this, but again didn't see any real choice in the matter. As expected the man put cuffs on her. His excuse was her extensive combat skills made her a risk. It was trumped up, but she dealt with it as best she could.
After the cuffs were secure he sniffed the air noticeably. "Have you been drinking?" he asked, nearly crowing with joy.
Well this just went from annoying to dangerous in a flash. She actually had had a few drinks before heading over. Nothing too bad of course, especially with the regenerative abilities of her aura, but it would affect a breathalyzer she figured.
Again, this was something her lawyers would get her out of in only a few hours. Simon, on the other hand, was going to have her skin as soon as his hands were free from the nightmare the press would be handing him.
A few minutes later her fears were proven true and she found herself in the back of the police car. She was sure he wrote down the wrong numbers. Even by huntress standards that blood alcohol level should have been enough to make walking difficult. Anyone without control of their Aura would be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning.
On the drive to the station she tried to recount how many glasses she'd had, and flinched realizing the numbers he had written were probably right.
Two hours, and one count of "resisting arrest" later Thompson picked her up from the station. The resisting arrest had happened at the precinct office, with plenty of witnesses to her "violent behavior." All of them had helped "pacify" her.
Even with aura it was going to take some time to mend her wounds. Aura didn't fix dental damage, so that was going to be a wonderful office visit she would rather have avoided. At least the internal damage had been kept to a minimum. A couple of broken ribs at most.
If she had resisted, truly resisted, she would have been able to walk out with the entire precinct unconscious. That would only have proven they were right in trying to take her down. This way, at least, they would have a harder time proving anything besides eye witness testimony that was automatically suspect.
She hadn't expected the men to start staging the scene, delivering blows to a couple of the officers, causing bruising that looked worse than they were to prove how dangerous she'd become. The entire event was going to be a nightmare when the media got a hold of it.
"So, how much did you really drink?" Thompson asked, sounding both worried and annoyed. Maybe even angry, which she admitted was justified.
She wouldn't lie to him. With embarrassment she answered "Just under a bottle of whiskey."
"A full bottle?"
She automatically got defensive. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Huntsmen have a good resistance to alcohol."
His voice moved from annoyance with hints of anger to full anger. "Don't tell me about resistance. I am ex-military, remember? I've worked with enough huntsmen to know how resistant you are. Even you had to have been feeling the effects."
That hurt. Partially because he was right, but mostly because of the disappointment beneath the anger of his voice. She never wanted to hear that again. "I'm sorry. I didn't think I'd drank that much. Half a bottle at most," she told him with true humility.
Her lover sighed. "Are you okay?" he asked gently, moving away from the subject. Unlike most humans he didn't just know what had happened. He understood it. Nearly every Faunus in Vale would.
Blake rolled her right shoulder once experimentally, grimacing slightly at the pain it caused. "I've had worse."
"We've all had worse," he replied, glancing sideways and his eyes showed sympathy as he looked over the damage. "More than you can heal by yourself?" he asked.
Shaking her head in denial she replied "They had Gambol Shroud far enough away from me I couldn't keep them from hurting me, and it stunted my ability to heal afterwards. Now that I have her back it won't take long to heal most of it. Two days at most. I'm hoping Simon can use pictures of the superficial damage to counter whatever backlash this has."
"It'll be bad."
Sighing, Blake replied, "I know."
