I own nothing. RWBY is the property of Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth Productions.
The dead man lay sprawled in the middle of the street, his lifeless eyes staring blankly at the darkening sky. His body showed no obvious signs of trauma, though his skin was a sickly gray color, like that of rotten meat. His eyes were a strange shade of yellow, the pupils massively dilated. And there was a greenish tinge to the small trail of liquid that trickled from his nose.
The police couldn't seem to figure out how the man had died, but Weiss Schnee knew. She had seen this before and the thought of it made her sick. That Dust could be perverted in such a way was bad enough, but the fact that it was being used on humans was even worse. It was disgusting and Weiss was determined to find the culprits behind this new found criminal enterprise.
She had a few theories on that, but so far none of them had yielded any results and Weiss was beginning to get frustrated. She was a Huntress, after all. She should be better at following the clues the culprits left behind. But for whatever reason she wasn't having any luck and it was driving her insane, especially because of her connection to the Dust market.
Weiss was the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy anywhere in the world. She was also a graduate of the esteemed Beacon Academy and a former member of Team RWBY, Beacon's most accomplished team. As such, this case and its predecessors, were extremely personal for her, as not only were the culprits getting away with crimes, they were doing so at the expense of her family's livelihood. And that was something Weiss could not abide.
"Fifth one this week." a deep, gruff voice said then, tearing Weiss from her thoughts.
She turned to find the captain of the Vale police department staring at the dead man, his brow furrowed in thought.
"Captain." Weiss said, with a curt nod. "Yes, he appears to be another victim of this Liquid Dust we've been hearing about."
"Yes." the captain agreed. "It is quite unfortunate. But I'm still confused as to how these people are getting the Dust into their systems like that. Dust is an energy source, not a drug."
"I am aware." Weiss said, her tone polite. "Perhaps it's what our targets are doing to the Dust that makes it a drug."
"An interesting theory, Miss Schnee." the captain said. "And how would such a thing be accomplished, exactly?"
"You ask as if I've tried it myself before." Weiss said, honestly a little offended.
"My apologies." the captain said, hastily avoiding her gaze. "I meant no offense. It's just that, given the family from which you come-"
"This has nothing to do with my family!" Weiss snapped, cutting the captain short.
"Of course not." the captain said, flustered. "All I meant to imply was that the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company must have some knowledge about how the substance can be turned into a highly toxic and addictive drug."
"Unfortunately, I don't." Weiss said, her tone curt. "It was just a theory, is all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an investigation to complete."
With that she turned her back on the captain and walked away, her left hand reflexively closing on the hilt of Myrtenaster as she did. Weiss wasn't an actual member of the Vale police department, but she had taken to using her skills as a Huntress to assist them in cases that were a bit more unusual. She and the captain often disagreed about how to pursue criminals and she had little liking for the man. But her years at Beacon had taught her to be more accepting of people's quirks, amongst other things, and she was at least able to tolerate him. She wondered what Ruby would say if she could see the way Weiss acted around the captain. Probably something witty and sarcastic, knowing Ruby.
The following evening, Weiss made her way down to the Vale docks to continue her investigation. She had hit the docks before with little success, but the previous night's investigation had ended in failure, so she figured she might as well try the docks again. Besides, a big shipment of Dust was coming in from her family's mine tonight, so at least she'd be there if anything did happen. Not that she was expecting anything to happen, but one could never be too careful.
The docks were eerily silent as she approached, immediately raising her suspicions. With a big shipment of Dust coming in, the docks should be alive with workers preparing for this ship's arrival, but there was no sign of anyone anywhere and Weiss could tell something wasn't right. Sensing a fight was likely imminent, she drew Myrtenaster and readied herself, all of her senses on high alert for the first sign of trouble.
As she scanned the area for potential threats Weiss noticed something she had not expected to see. There, right in front of her, seated on a large wooden crate was Sun Wukong, whom Weiss hadn't seen in years. The monkey tailed faunus waved at her, grinning, before leaping off the crate and making his way over to her.
"Hey snowflake." he said, still grinning like an idiot.
"What are you doing here?" Weiss hissed, annoyed by his genial demeanor.
"Just scoping the place out." Sun answered. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm investigating a criminal case." Weiss answered, her tone terse. "And I'm not about to share the details with you."
"Still as cold as always, eh?" Sun asked, grinning again. "Well, look, I might be able to help you with your little investigation."
"Oh really?" Weiss asked, her tone disbelieving. "And how would you do that, exactly?"
"Well, for starters, I can tell you that there's about thirty or so armed men on the other side of that wall." Sun answered, pointing at the retaining wall to their right. "Oh, and they have some sort of giant robot with them."
"I find that hard to-" Weiss began, before she was cut off by a massive humanoid shaped robot that came crashing through the wall, lunging right at her.
"Told you." Sun called, as he effortlessly rolled out of the way.
Crap, Weiss thought, leaping to her left to avoid the charging automaton. She hated that Sun had been right, but there was no sense in arguing with him now, not with this giant hunk of scrap metal to deal with.
Taking a deep breath she drew Myrtenaster spinning the rapier's Dust chamber to ice before launching her first attack. She used her glyphs to augment her attack and the added speed gave her the momentum to drive Myrtenaster through the automaton's tough metal chest. Ice exploded from the blade, filling the automaton's chest and bringing its charge to an abrupt halt.
The ice didn't hold the automaton for long however and Weiss was forced to change up her strategy. But no matter what she used the automaton always seemed to have a counter. When she used ice it overheated. When she used fire it super cooled. When she attempted to alter gravity around the automaton, it dug its feet into the ground to hold itself in place. And with each failed attack, Weiss could feel her strength fading.
It was at that moment that the automaton struck, its blow sending Weiss tumbling backwards. She hit the ground with a thud, pain shooting down her right leg as something popped in her hip. Grunting she pulled herself to her feet, her leg screaming in protest, but before either she or the automaton could launch another attack, Sun appeared between them, his collapsible bo staff held out before him in a defensive position.
"Stay back princess." he said, grinning. "I've got this thing."
Weiss's temper flared at being called 'princess', but she obeyed Sun nonetheless. Her leg was killing her and Sun seemed to have a better idea of how to combat the automaton. Weiss watched in awe as he effortlessly deflected its attacks, before switching the bo into Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang it's alternate nunchaku/sawed off shot guns form.
With a grace that Weiss had never known Sun possessed, he swung the nunchaku in rapid circles, firing off shot gun blasts on each alternating spin. Each blast struck the automaton with tremendous force, forcing it back towards the wall. But just when it looked like Sun was about to score the win, the automaton lashed out, sending him sprawling, before turning its attention back to Weiss.
Weiss steadied herself, bringing Myrtenaster up into a defensive position. It was then that she realized why the automaton wasn't falling. The head, she thought. We need to hit it in the head.
With that in mind she got into position, steadying herself with a deep, calming breath. She then activated the red glyph in Myrtenaster's hilt, propelling herself at tremendous speed towards the automaton. As she reached her target, she activated the light blue Dust to create more ice, before driving Myrtenaster's blade through the automaton's head. Ice once again exploded from the entry point and the automaton was driven backwards with tremendous force, its head cleanly severing from its body with a satisfying crack.
Weiss rose from the rubble, her injured leg trembling with pain. It was then that she noticed the men Sun had spoken of exiting the ship that had arrived from the Schnee mine. Horrified, she moved to stop them, but Sun caught her from behind.
"Let me go." she shouted, struggling to yank free of his grasp. "I have to stop them before they make more of that stuff."
"Weiss no." Sun said, his tone surprisingly gentle. "There are too many of them and you're hurt. Let them go."
"You don't understand." Weiss said, her tone pleading. "They're going to make more of that vile drug. They're using my family's livelihood to kill people."
"I know." Sun said. "But you can't stop them now. Better to wait until you have the advantage and then strike."
"Is that something they teach you in faunus combat school." Weiss spat, her emotions getting the better of her.
Sun made no reply and Weiss immediately felt ashamed. It wasn't right to take out her frustration on Sun, least of all because of his race. Weiss knew better than to act in such a manner, especially after all the time she'd spent with Blake.
"Sorry for that." she said, avoiding Sun's gaze.
"Hey, no problem." he said, grinning. "I don't mind. It's not like you're calling me a rapscallion or anything."
"Fair enough." Weiss conceded. "I still think I could have stopped those men though."
Sun just grinned before saying, "Come on, let's get you to a hospital so you can get that leg looked at."
Weiss nodded and followed, limping with each step. She was disappointed that the criminals had escaped, but at least she knew it wasn't faunus who were behind the manufacture of the drug. And Sun was right, some day she would have the advantage and then these criminals would pay.
End.
A/N: And that's Weiss's one shot. As you can see, she's been investigating the manufacture and distribution of a drug that uses Dust as one of its base components. More will be explained on the front in my multi chap RWBY fic, but, as with Blood Red, this fic is a set up for that, meant to lay the ground work for the larger story to come. I threw Sun in for laughs, as his interactions with Weiss in the show are quite funny. Also, this fic is loosely inspired by the White trailer for season one, at least the the fight with the automaton is anyway. Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Hope you enjoyed. Cheers, KT.
