A/N - Sorry for taking a looong time writing this, but I had IRL problems that kinda didn't let me proceed with the story as fast as I wanted to. This time the one-shot was a request from my friend Sparks, or /u/MontyOhm, and it also has different shipping. As per usual, this story's theme in general was based off of a song, also requested by Sparks, called Sunrise by Our Last Night. I hope you enjoy it!
Also a great thanks to everyone who proofread it too, you guys are awesome.
Team RWBY was currently landing on Solum Woods. Their objective was to infiltrate a White Fang encampment that was suspected to exist in the location, gather information and return safe as soon as the mission had been completed.
While there were older teams that many thought fitter for the job, Ozpin himself had pointed towards the first year team to participate in the mission, especially towards Blake, who as a former member of the Faunus organization would know the layouts of the encampments better, and was also a renowned stealth expert.
Finally touching ground after the trip, they waved off the pilot and walked off to the coordinates they had been given.
When they reached said destination, they hid behind the forest's foliage and started scouting the encampment, or rather, what they had been told was an encampment, but more like a small, or even a medium-sized base.
"That looks a lot bigger than we were told.", Weiss said, now feeling somewhat insecure about proceeding with the mission as planned.
"Let's take a closer look! It might not be such a big deal.", her partner replied, having no sense of fear of what could be hidden inside the steel walls of the base.
"Yeah! I mean, Ozpin did pick us specifically for this mission. Can't go back empty handed now, can we?", Yang chimed in, backing up her sister.
As the rest of her team were discussing for a way to approach the base without getting noticed, Blake spotted the familiar face of Adam in the distance and, paying no mind to her remaining teammates, got on his trail.
Adam was currently with his scroll pulled up to his face, apparently on a phone call with someone else and kept proceeding further to the base gates. Blake kept moving through the foliage, trying to be as quiet as possible, but still able to maintain eye contact with him at all times.
At this point, Adam had started walking back and forth next to the wall he was at for at least a couple of minutes, presumably just for privacy reasons relating to his scroll call.
Blake kept watching her target closely, but made the mistake of keeping her eyes solely on her target, paying no mind to her surroundings. She had no clue she was walking right into a trap until she was suddenly hit hard in the back of her head with a blunt object, knocking her out.
Blake woke up, feeling lightheaded and immediately felt the back of her head in pain. She winced, reaching out with her hand to measure the damage she had been dealt. Using her enhanced sight, she managed to locate herself inside of what she assumed was the building that her team and herself had been scouting moments ago, and she was trapped inside a cell, in complete darkness.
Suddenly, a flash of white temporarily blinded her, as a giant screen popped up from inside the wall she was turned towards. A familiar face appeared in said screen and greeted her from who knew where.
"Adam...", she muttered, as soon as her eyes allowed her to see properly.
"Hello my darling, aren't you happy to see me? After all, you were the one that chased after me.", Adam mocked her, making Blake turn her head to the other side of the room she was being held on.
Deducing he was not going to be given anything in reply, he resumed his speech, "You know, I am surprised you'd do that after what happened on the train. Maybe inside you still want to be a part of us. Maybe you still desire for the freedom we can give you? Maybe you never left at all?"
At this point the camera faded into a shot of the rest of her team surrounded by White Fang members, fighting them with relative numbers disadvantage, but still doing pretty well. The camera cut out to Adam again, and he simply stated, "All you need to do is to go out there and fight for us.".
Blake again refused to answer her former partner and simply sat back against her cell bars. "Well, you're not leaving your cage for the time being then. Too bad.". With this the call was ended, the screen retracted back to the wall where it had come from, and Blake found herself surrounded by darkness once again.
The minutes of waiting felt like days to her, wondering how were her teammates doing outside, or even how had she been caught off guard like that. She got up and tried to reach for her scroll, but it wasn't there anymore, so she fell back and slumped against the wall.
Even to someone that appreciated the complete lack of noise every now and then like Blake did, the complete silence that filled the room was starting to get to her and she started to feel like she wasn't leaving anytime soon. She didn't even know what the situation was on the outside. Had they given up on her? They wouldn't, or at least she thought they wouldn't. What if they had gone back for help? How much longer would she still be kept prisoner? And worst of all, what would Adam do to her if she didn't comply with his demands?
Deciding it would serve her no good doing this, she inhaled deeply and attempted to take her mind off of the worse thoughts. She laid on the cold floor, trying to force herself to sleep, but her mind kept being overwhelmed with memories this time. Memories of her time in the organization. Adam had said that if she returned she would be freed from her cage, but then again, how trusting would he be after she had left him hanging the first time?
Not to mention she'd have to fight against what she now considered her own. Her new family. Which was something she was not going to do in a million years.
She shook her head again, trying to keep her head clean of those thoughts, and tried to think about the new path she had been following in her life. Ever since leaving the White Fang, she had felt more at peace with herself. No more stealing, no more assassinations, no more being an outlaw.
Even though she felt in debt towards them for raising her, and towards Adam for all she had learned, she was grateful she had left the organization and was not planning on returning any time soon.
Blake rolled to her side, body shaking from how cold she felt. She assumed night should be falling by now and she decided she would try to do something on her own in the morning to get out of this hole she'd gotten herself buried in. Having forcefully adapted to her cold steel makeshift bed, she finally managed to force herself to sleep.
Blake woke up feeling sore from the position she had slept on, not to mention the floor was not the most comfortable place she'd slept on. The room was still dark, but tiny cracks in the windows allowed the sun to shine through. Now that it was clear the night had passed, Blake decided to get up and search for a way out of her cold prison.
For all she knew, the door was completely locked, and the closed windows probably wouldn't budge a single bit. Besides that, she knew the base was pretty well armed and guarded, not to mention there were permanently two guards on the other side of the door.
She looked all the way up to the top-left corner of the cage she was being kept on and saw an electronic pad. Further inspecting the room and the cell itself, she found out the door had a similar pad on the opposite end of the room and quickly deduced that the pad she saw earlier should be the lock to her cage.
As she couldn't sneak her head out of the cage to give her a better view, she extended her arm and felt the lock. It looked like a normal numpad with 7 little windows for what she assumed were the windows where the numbers she'd write would appear.
She tried to think of what combinations Adam could possibly have arranged for her cell, but nothing was coming to her mind. She tried to insert the date when she had enlisted herself as a White Fang member. The door didn't budge. Afterwards, she attempted the date Adam had rose to power, but to no avail.
As she was thinking of what could possibly be the answer to her cage's lock, she heard rustling in the room's door. Thinking fast, she quickly laid on the floor and went back to the sleeping position she had taken the night before, trying to delude the guard that had just entered the room.
The guard, carrying a plate with some bread and a water bowl, laid them down right next to the cell door and turned away to leave. As he was accessing the room door's keypad, Blake slightly turned her head towards it and managed to catch the last couple of numbers he had used to lock the door when it closed.
"...3-5-5-6-0-8".
Well, this made her life a lot easier, the possible combinations having just been reduced to 10 from the former who knows how many possibilities.
Ignoring the food and drink she had been given, she immediately returned to her cell's keypad. Deciding that 10 combinations weren't that many, she attempted to start with the first number on the keypad, which was number 1.
Inserting the code, she was expecting to fail, but to her surprise, she heard a "click" coming from the cage door, and she carefully opened it and stepped out, avoiding as much noise as possible.
She heard a bit of commotion outside the door, but thought nothing of it and proceeded with her plan. Reaching for the window, she attempted to uncover the glass in order to see if the height was low enough to jump, but as she had thought before, the window did not budge in the slightest.
Deciding that the only alternative she had would be to either find the keycode to the other door or breaking it open, whichever she picked she knew she'd be in for a fight, at least with the two guards right next to the door and reinforcements that would be sure to come right after.
Blake scouted the room for the best possible weapon she could use. She felt naked without Gambol Shroud, and decided the first thing she'd do after leaving the room would be finding where had it been hidden.
Spotting what looked like a toolbox right next to her former confinement, she quickly opened it and retracted the first sharp object she laid eyes on: a screwdriver.
Quickly cleaning it up, she reached for the door and inserted the same code again.
"1-3-5-5-6-0-8"
Again, like the first time, Blake felt the door click, and she knew she had made it. Quickly, in order to take advantage of the element of surprise, she dashed to the door and opened it, only for something blunt hit her straight in the face and knock her down.
Opening her eyes, she quickly met the familiar face she had seen the night before through the camera, though still dressed in common White Fang guard clothing, his weapon slung, now leaning backwards on his shoulder and Gambol Shroud in the other hand.
Adam threw the smaller weapon across the room and spoke firmly, "You have one last chance, Blake. Things are not what they used to be. You either take your last chance to fight with us against your pesky little 'friends', or you'll fight me. Right here.", Adam took a deep breath before finishing, "Right now."
Blake crawled over to her weapon, head still buzzing from the strike she had just been delivered by her former partner, grabbed it and turned to Adam, shifting into a fighting stance.
"Wrong choice, my love. Too bad."
As soon as he finished his words, Adam leaped towards Blake, bringing his sword over his head, just to be met with Blake's own, parrying the strike. Getting some distance from the older man, Blake barely had time to activate her semblance in order to dodge again, and over again.
She was getting worn out very quickly and there was no stopping in sight for Adam's relentless aggression. Seeing that it was impossible for her to win the fight against her former partner, she quickly tried to find a way to lure him out of the way of door so she could escape that way instead.
She waited for Adam's next attack and tried to counter with her own, sheath and sword in each of her hands, evading the man's strike and cleaving at him from both sides. Adam jumped in between Blake's weapons and hit her with a knee in the face, making her lose grip on her weapons and knocking her down again.
Adam looked down towards his fallen partner, a hint of disgust in his face. "You would've had everything you ever wanted…", he said, stabbing his sword in her lower abdomen, "...if you just hadn't left me.". With this being said, he retrieved his weapon and swung back again at the defenseless huntress, this time directing the strike to her head.
Blake managed to call upon the last remaining bits of her aura to reactivate her semblance, disappearing in a puff of smoke as soon as Adam's blade connected with her clone's neck.
Managing to stumble past Adam and into the hallway, Blake tried to search for an exit, or a way to contact her teammates, which at this point she had no clue if they were even there anymore or what had happened to them at all.
Suddenly, she heard running steps behind her and was forcefully shoved to the ground again. Knowing there was no way out now and having ran out of Aura, she waited for her death as Adam readied his rifle for the killing blow.
With her eyes semi-closed, bleeding stomach, and starting to feel light-headed, Blake thought that she could hear the weary voices of her teammates behind her, but at the same time she realized it was probably just wishful thinking at this point and closed her eyes, red flooding her vision just before blacking out.
Blake opened her eyes, the bright lights coming from the ceiling immediately above her flooded her eyes and rendered her momentarily blind. She tried to shift her body but a sting of pain jolted through her body and noticed that her right arm wouldn't move.
"You know, you probably shouldn't move too much right now…", she heard a quiet voice across the room and instantly recognized it as her partner's, "...not to mention she's been like that since we've arrived here.".
Blake's eyes adjusted to the lights and scanned the room. It looked like a normal hospital room, Yang was sitting on the opposite end of the room, Weiss sleeping leaning into her shoulder.
She immediately looked towards where Yang was pointing and she saw Ruby on a chair, by her side, using her arm as a pillow and sleeping peacefully. "She wanted to be here, awake, when you woke up. I guess only half of it will do for now." Yang's lips curled into a smile.
"How long have I been out?", Blake asked, a look of concern appearing in her face.
"Assuming you just woke up, about a couple of hours.", Weiss said, stirring, still in a notably tired voice.
"Is Adam…", Blake tried to ask about her former partner, only to be interrupted by her new one.
"Yes Blake, as dead as dead can be.", she said, no visible hint that could possibly tell Blake her partner was lying.
"I see…", the black-haired huntress simply lowered her head in deep thought.
Yang, mentally deciding it was better if they didn't press the matter for the time being, slightly nudged Weiss to get up from her leaning position, and quickly got up and motioned towards the door.
"I think we should catch some sleep for now.", the yellow-haired girl took Weiss' hand on her own as they headed towards the door. She turned to Blake, "If you ever need anything, we'll be in the dorm room...". She then turned back to the door, "Not that you'll need us anyway…", eliciting a small smile from Blake.
Yang and Weiss passed the door for the room, Yang closing the door with a lot more strength than needed and earning a reprimand from Weiss.
"What do you think you're doing? You are going to wake up Ru-". She suddenly got a hold of Yang's plan and punched her girlfriend softly in the shoulder. "You fiend.", was all Weiss said, leaving Yang quietly laughing as they headed towards the bedroom.
Inside the hospital room, the booming sound of the door closing had Blake sigh mentally at her partner's actions.
Ruby had also been woken up by the same noise, startled, not realizing where she was or what had she been doing.
As she looked around the room she was currently on, she realized Blake was now awake and that she was leaning on her, gripping her arm tight and quickly retracted her body from the black-haired girl's.
"Hello… how are you feeling?", she asked, genuinely concerned about the condition of her friend.
"Better…", Blake started, before trying to shift her body so she could face Ruby better, before wincing in pain, "The wounds still feel sore though… I'm sorry.", she said, slightly turning her head away from the red-dressed girl.
"Don't worry about it, you'll feel better with time! What matters the most is that you're free of danger now!", Ruby said happily, earning a smile from the older girl.
"I'm still sorry, what I did was reckless and unnecessary, and put myself, and most of all, you and our team in extreme danger, just because of…", Blake started issuing her apologies, before Ruby cut in.
"But you don't need to worry about him anymore, you're with us, with me. We're your team now, you're free from them.", she said, placing her hand over Blake's once again.
"Thank you, you don't know how much that means to me.", Blake said, gripping Ruby's hand that was close to hers.
"Don't mention it!", the younger girl spoke up, happily as ever, before suddenly yawning.
"Sounds like Yang and Weiss are not the only ones that could use some real sleep right now.", Blake said playfully towards her.
"Yeah…", Ruby started, "Guess I'll head to the dorm room now, then.", and tried to get up only to be stopped by Blake, still gripping her hand.
"Stay with me...", the black-haired girl said, shifting carefully to one side of the bed, leaving room for another person to join her in bed.
Ruby, accepting the invitation, did her best to not mess with the wiring attached to Blake, or to touch Blake herself too much, in order to cause as little pain as possible to her teammate, and joined her in bed, yawning again.
"Thank you…", Ruby said, feeling more and more tired by now. She shifted even closer to Blake. If her sister had her partner with her, it would only make sense for her to have her sister's partner too.
"I should be the one thanking you… for coming after me, for saving me. For staying with me.", Blake said, looking at Ruby, only to find her already peacefully asleep. She sighed and smiled, hugged Ruby closer as much as she could without hurting herself too much, and drifted back to sleep.
From time to time, there arise among human beings, people, who seem to exude love, as naturally as the sun gives out heat. Ruby was just like that. And she loved every single bit.
