Welp, here you go, new chap, although it's a bit shorter than most.
…
You know, I don't know what's the deal with RWBY fics…
Other fandom fics (as you can see on my profile), I struggle to reach 3k words in a chapter… now 4K word chapters are on the short side…
Am I just getting better, or…
I===I
Time for da Review thingies!
DaToskin: No she doesn't… XD as for attack frequency, that will be resolved either in the next chapter or the one after that.
Guest:
*Reads Review*
*switches to google doc and continues writing story*
And now, story time!
=====Chapter 7 | Blake Belladona: White Fang=====
Ozpin's momentus reveal was met with silence.
"Can't… regain control…"
"I'm afraid so."
"My team and RWBY must know, in case something goes wrong."
"I agree." Glynda. "But what should we tell them? It would not be wise to reveal Salem."
"Tell them what, not why. If his aura drops to zero, then he becomes a feral grimm."
"We can't exactly remove me from all combat classes, that would raise suspicion."
Glynda spoke up. "We can raise the 'zero' bar on your scroll. Make zero your current ten percent mark."
"That could work. It is settled then." They shifted as the bullhead began descending. "We will discuss this with Ruby, Yang, and CNPR."
I===I
Saying they were shocked would be an understatement.
Ren, although he didn't say anything about the theory, grimaced at the thought of a feral Grimm with aura.
Pyrrha looked afraid at the prospect, and even the ever-energetic Nora stood still.
"There's nothing we can do about this?" Pyrrha asked.
Cole answered. "Aside from being careful, there's nothing we can do now. Perhaps in the future, but not now."
I===I
Upon telling his sisters[*], Ruby was on the verge of tears, and Yang was shell-shocked.
"Well… damn… this might be a problem." Yang said. She brought Cole and Ruby in for a group hug.
[**]
Life resumed as normal in the next few weeks. Despite Cole's 10% decrease in aura pool usable for matches, he still won often. He still trained as he hadn't before, intending to become as unbeatable as he could. He wasn't going feral if he could help it.
A couple months later, on a Friday after school, RWBY announced they were headed to Vale, to meet (read: spy on, for Weiss) the new festival competitors coming into town.
Cole asked if any of his team wanted/needed to go to Vale. Ren and Nora needed to stock up on dust, but Pyrrha declined.
I===I
"Aww, its broken…"
Indeed, the store was broken.
All of it.
"Umm… I think there's another Dust shop down at Prismarine Wharf," Cole told them after a moment.
They headed down to the docks, and turned to walk along the oceanside, when suddenly: "A no-good stowaway would have been caught! I'm a great stowaway!"
Cole immediately spotted the monkey faunus leaping off the light pole, landing easily, and running past RWBY.
Sun turned away from winking to Blake to find himself face-to-face with a beowolf.
"Whoa!"
To gain a better view, Cole had inadvertently stepped into Sun's planned path. The monkey faunus was not deterred, opting to leap up and over Cole's head. Spinning midair, he drew his bo staff and stabbed down. Cole blocked the strike off his gauntlets, and Sun used the extra leverage to send himself farther down the road, figuring the four trainees coming after him could take care of the 'rogue grimm'. He turned the corner as RWBY pursued, intent on 'scouting the competition.'
There was a loud crash as RWBY turned the corner and Weiss smashed into Penny. CNR couldn't see it from where they stood, but they could hear it.
Ren merely shrugged and kept walking. Nora zipped to the corner, staring at RWBY and Penny, before zooming back and saying, "One of them is a robot!"
Ren sighed, shaking his head. "Nora, you can't just run around accusing people of being robots—"
"Actually, I think[***] she's right," Cole said.
Ren looked to Cole, curious to hear his explanation.
"Her emotions are not like a normal person. Everyone, unless they're an idiot, have an underlying fear of the Grimm, or that something might go wrong, etc. There's none of that there. She's the ultimate 'happy-go-lucky.'"[+]
Cole could barely make out Ruby wishing Penny well.
"... you guys go on ahead, meet back here when you're done."
I===I
Cole rounded the corner to find RWBY and Penny parting ways.
"Oh hi Cole!" Ruby said when she noticed him.
"Whatcha doing in Vale?" Yang asked. "You don't normally come out to the city."
"Same as you, meet the competition. Figured it would be better that they knew there was a friendly beowolf now, than have it a surprise later." That was a side-task of his. "I take it you saw Sun then? And met Penny?"
"Who's Sun?" Weiss asked, still eyeing the beowolf.
She was one of the people who still hadn't fully become accustom to a creature of Grimm at the school.
"That faunus stowaway you were just chasing."
Yang frowned. "Since when did you meet a monkey faunus from… wherever? I don't recognize him from Patch, and he obviously came from overseas."
Ruby instantly changed demeanor from 'bubbly' to 'Detective Ruby.' That was a thing.
"Yeah… and how did you know about Penny! We barely met her!"
"Yeah…" Yang added, "I would have remembered meeting someone that… weird."
"What did you call me?" Penny had decided to interrupt.
"Oh sorry I definitely didn't think you heard me!"
"Not you…" Penny walked past Yang, then saw the beowolf.
Instantly, Penny got into a battle stance, and her backpack opened up, revealing a sword, which hovered over her head. It split into ten, but Ruby quickly stepped in front of Cole, arms stretched out.
"Waaaaiiiiit! He's friendly!"
Penny held back the swords to keep from hitting Ruby. "There is no such thing as a friendly Grimm. Beowolf, class One Grimm. Travel in packs, aim overwhelm enemies. Despite being only Class one, they lead in civilian killcount."
Cole grimaced at the statistics. He'd done the research a while back. Yang shook her head. "Well this one has a kill count of zero. And is six years old."
Blake and Weiss glanced over, surprised. "Wait, what?"
"Later." Yang replied.
Cole stepped in front of Ruby. "Surely you have built-in aura scanners. Use them!"
Penny could understand perfect VSL, and heeded the Grimm's (strong) suggestion, not caring about his word choice.
Yang was confused about the 'built-in' part, but said nothing.
Penny relaxed her stance and her swords retracted back into her backpack.
"Oh. Well, it would seem that indeed, this is a unique specimen." Switching to VSL, Penny said, "Salutations! My name is Penny, a pleasure to meet you!"
"Hello, friend! My name is Cole, and I am here as a student of Beacon Academy."
"What did you call me?"
"Friend?"
"Am I really your friend?"
"Isn't that what you came to ask Ruby? And yes, you are."
"Sensational! And regarding Ruby Rose… yes, so it would seem."
Reverting to speech, Penny turned to Ruby. "You called me friend! Am I really your friend?"
WBY: No
Cole: Yes
"Sure why not?"
WBY collapsed to the ground.
"Sensational! We can go shopping, and paint our nails…"
Cole chuckled internally as he began to move away, after saying bye, of course. Penny, even if her lack of social skills was a bit off-putting, was a good friend. Also… Cole's mood dipped slightly, becoming more determined.
He would not let Penny die.
I===I
"So, that girl was a robot?" Ren asked Cole on the bullhead back to Beacon. They were alone (aside from Nora, and the pilot in the cockpit), so Cole felt more free to speak.
"Yeah. Don't tell anyone though… I think she's trying to keep it a secret…"
"But with aura?"
Cole shrugged. "I'm a Grimm with aura. Why not a robot?"
"Robots are coool!" Nora exclaimed. "Where can I find her?"
"I haven't the faintest idea."
It was true. Cole had no idea where she would be until Sunday evening.
"Aww." A personal rainstorm appeared above Nora's head.
Cole stared for a few moments before deciding to just let Nora be Nora.
I===I
General Peterson won which three critical battles near the end of the Faunus Rights Revolution?
Cole racked his brain, trying to mentally sort who did what and when, when his thought process was interrupted by muffled, barely distinguishable shouting coming from across the hall.
Despite keeping his eyes on his paper, his ears twitched, turning to allow him to better hear what was going on across the hall.
It was a trick that took him a few years to master to be automatic, but it helped greatly in combat.
"You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"
There were some serious levels of hate, anger, and frustration coming from across the hall, from both parties.
"Well maybe we were tired of being pushed around!"
Silence. Cole put down his pencil, resolving to finish the assignment tomorrow.
At this point, RWBY was quiet enough that Cole couldn't make out what they were saying, but he didn't miss Ruby yelling to Blake to come back, after her big reveal.
Cole opened the door to see Ruby staring down the now-empty hallway, Yang looking shocked in her chair and Weiss standing in the background, dumbfounded.
"Is everything okay over here? I heard shouting."
Ruby took a moment to respond. "Yeah, but… Blake, she's…" Ruby paused, unsure whether or not to reveal Blake's secret.
Looking quickly for unwanted watchers/listeners, Cole continued Ruby's sentence, "She's ex-White Fang?"
Yang narrowed her eyes. "Okay, seriously, how do you know this stuff. Were you eavesdropping?"
"She was quite a prominent member back in its peaceful days, showing up on-camera during protests. I just recognized her."
The girls seemed satisfied with Cole's explanation.
"Ooh, I should go get her," Ruby said after a moment.
Cole lay a paw on her shoulder. "No, let her process things for a few days. And you still need to convince Weiss—" Cole glared at the slowly-recovering Weiss, "—to not turn her in the second you find her, because right now, she wants to."
Cole re-entered CNPR's room, closing the door behind him.
"What was that?" Ren asked. He was finishing off some minor weapon maintenance before going to bed.
"Not my secret to tell, but you'll find out soon enough."
Putting down the grease bottle, Ren placed Stormflower on the desk before turning his attention to Cole. "I'll be honest, I do not understand you. Often, you're eager to solve a problem, and just happen to be there when the problem occurs. And… you just know things. Yang told me that you knew that faunus's name despite having never met him before. And you chose today to go to Vale, but students had already been arriving for a couple days."
Cole wasn't quite sure how to respond. Perhaps he should've been a little more careful when throwing around names he shouldn't have known… but it certainly gained the attention of those who he needed to bring into the equation.
Unfortunately, it would seem Ren was getting suspicious of the inconsistencies.
Admittedly, this wasn't a confrontational situation he'd expected.
"... remind me again after the Vytal Festival Tournament is over, and I'll tell you everything."
In fact, he would tell everything to both teams, because if Beacon did not fall, then events would be very different, and what they knew then wouldn't matter, because they would be in unknown territory.
Ren continued to gaze at the beowolf as he put away the weekend's homework, for tomorrow.
After a moment, he decided to accept the delay, and returned to lubricating Stormflower.
I===I
After Ren finished and went to bed (Pyrrha and Nora were already asleep), Cole grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from his binder, resolving to add one more paper to his bag of future facts.
Confirming that his teammates were asleep, he turned off the light, so that only moonlight filtering through the curtain was present to light up the room. That didn't bother him, with his night vision, but it would reduce the possibility of unwelcome eyes. Sitting at the desk, he began to write:
If you are reading this, then it means that I am either dead, have become a feral grimm, or just am not available after the Vytal Festival is over, one way or another. I have instructed Ozpin to show you the contents of this bag should either of the aforementioned situations occur…
When he finished, Cole sent Ozpin a message detailing his request to inform RWBY and CNPR if the time came, as well as the location of the hidden papers.
I===I
Sunday Morning.
"Hey, have you seen Blake?" Ruby ran over to Cole's team, who was having breakfast in the dining hall.
"I'm sorry, we haven't," answered Pyrrha. "Why, is something wrong?"
Ruby pouted,staring down at the floor. "Blake's been missing all weekend! We're going searching for her in Vale, but we hoped you have seen her or something."
"Thanks anyway," Yang added.
The group turned away, toward the bullhead landing docks.
"We should probably help them out," Cole said after a moment. "I mean… Avoiding her team for almost two days? That's a bit excessive, even for Blake."
"And with only the three of them to search all of Vale? That could take days, but we should help if we can," Pyrrha added.
"Well… not if we gave Nora a coffee, tasered her, and told her that Blake has some of Ren's pancakes."
Ren opened his mouth to object the idea, but then reconsidered. "Is it a bad thing that that might actually be a practical plan?"
Nora finished eating her pancakes and joined into the conversation. "Ooh! It's a manhunt! Or girlhunt! Like a game of hide and seek! Ready or not Blakey, here I come!"
She zipped out of the room, likely to 1) catch the next bullhead to Vale and/or 2) grab her hammer.
"I guess that settles it. Ren, you get the coffee. Pyrrha, find a taser. I'll convince Nora that Blake has pancakes."
I===I
Unfortunately, Beacon had permanently banned Nora from being within ten feet of any coffee, and nobody wanted to loan CNPR a taser, knowing just who was on the team. Plus, Nora was not so insane as to not realize that Ren could not have given Blake pancakes if she was missing.
As such, they were forced to look the traditional way: wandering the streets of Vale, looking for their target. They split into two groups: Nora and Pyrrha calling out for Blake from the streets, and, being the more agile of the four, (and Cole being unable to yell anything comprehensible), Ren and Cole leapt from rooftop to rooftop, searching from above.
Cole's Grimm senses were almost useless out here in the city, as the sheer number of scents present confused all but the most powerful smell trails, and with so many people around, it was impossible to pick out any one negative feeling that might belong to Blake. It didn't help that he didn't know how bad she was feeling.
As a Grimm, he could, of course, sense the presence of negative emotions around him. But he could only feel the blanket emotion, not what they were feeling unhappy/afraid/frustrated/etc. about.
Meaning, he couldn't detect Blake by her worrying about Weiss, or how her friends would feel, etc.
So, instead, he resorted to rooftop hopping.
Cole marveled at how quickly he could travel like this, not having to worry about being careful to not scare people with a sudden movement, or by looking in their direction funny.
Granted, anyone underneath in an alley who happened to look up was in for a surprise, but still…
When their efforts proved useless, they contacted RWY and took a break for lunch.
"I just don't understand why we don't tell the police! I mean—"
"No." Yang interrupted Weiss. "We already discussed why that's a bad idea."
"Why don't we tell the police," Pyrrha asked. "Surely they would be able to help."
Yang glanced at Pyrrha before turning her attention to Cole. "You haven't told them?"
"Ooh! Told us what?"
"It wasn't my secret to tell… fine, I'll tell."
He turned to his team. "Don't freak out… but Blake is ex-White Fang."
Ren merely raised an eyebrow to show his surprise.
"Blake… what?" Pyrrha was honestly surprised. But she was was willing to hear her side of the story before passing judgment.
But the most unexpected reaction came from, of course, Nora. Why's that? She didn't react. At all.
Cole noticed this. "Nora? You ok there?"
"Yeah. why?"
"You seem… surprisingly unfazed by this."
"You told me not to freak out. So I didn't."
The group was at a loss for words. Cole, despite having spent months being on the same team as this girl, still didn't understand what made her tick.
I===I
A few hours later, after they had split and kept looking, Cole caught sight of a yellow-furred monkey tail disappearing over the edge of a rooftop. It was across a wide street, so he had to backtrack a bit.
He and Ren had split up, so he was alone.
By the time he (stealthily) made it over to the balcony with the two faunus (fauni?), Blake was already mid-way through her White Fang monologue. They was so focused on the exposition, they didn't notice the beowolf slowly easing itself down into one of the overhangs shading the tables by the wall.
"…so here I am. A criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little, black…"
Blake trailed off, noticing Cole lounging on top of the overhang, eyes closed and very much in a 'resting-not-sleeping dog' position.
Sun saw what caused Blake to stop and instantly stood up, drawing his pistols, and inadvertently causing his chair to topple, creating a loud clatter. Cole opened one eye, taking in the scene before him, before shifting his head to gaze at Blake, making a 'go on' gesture.
Sun cocked back the hammer on the gun, ready to fire. Blake got up, saying "Sun, wait!"
When Sun didn't shoot she turned to Cole. "What are you doing here? How long have you been lying there?"
"Eh, about a minute. I was looking for you."
"It can type?" Sun asked, thoroughly baffled.
"Yes he can," Cole responded. "Hello, Sun."
"Uh, hi? How do I say hi to a Grimm?" Sun stage-whispered to Blake.
"Most Grimm would say—" Cole gave a threatening growl that, as far as he knew, didn't mean anything. "—but then typically try to kill you on the spot."
While the two boys discussed Grimm etiquette, Blake considered how she felt about Cole's presence. The answer? Conflicted.
On one hand, she didn't really want to talk to anyone from Beacon right now. Sure, he recognized her from the peaceful protest days, but did he know what she had done under the new white Fang?
Still, he knew that she had been involvement with the Fang, old and new (since he had been listening while she explained to Sun) and he hadn't made any (public) harsh judgements, or called the Police.
"Cole, just… why are you here? I'm not going back… not yet."
Cole became a bit more serious, ending his conversation with the still-somewhat-puzzled Sun
"Why not? Your team is worried about you. They've spent the last… eight hours looking for you. CNPR too."
"But… why? I worked with the White Fang! And Weiss… she'll turn me in, won't she."
"First off, was that past tense I heard? Second, Weiss is looking along with the rest of the team. You've given her a lot of time to reconsider her words and actions."
"You don't understand… even if she's nicer to me, she's still going to be against faunus. When she was asking Penny about Sun, Weiss called Sun a degenerate, a rapscallion, a filthy faunus! People don't change that much in such a short time!"
"And I suppose Ruby is still a childish, immature, idiotic girl who should not have been made a leader."
"... What?"
"That's how Weiss felt about Ruby, right? And that took, what, a week max to solve?"
"But—"
"But nothing. People can change. Anyone can be a good person, if they just try. Weiss may not realize it yet, but she's re-evaluating her views on you, Faunus in general, and herself as a person."
"..."
"Give her a second chance, Blake. Weiss is willing to give you one."
"... Fine… I'll go back."
"Besides, there's school tomorrow. I don't think you'd like your grades dipping."
Blake's mood rose slightly.
"So, uh, what about the White Fang?"
Sun, who had been standing in the background through this whole conversation, decided to speak up.
Blake's mood dipped again.
"... I still don't think they're behind the attacks. They've never needed that much dust before."
"Weren't you still in when they started stealing dust?"
"Yes, but back then, we were only targeting SDC supplies, so it made sense. But random small shops? That's new, even if they're run by humans. It can't be them."
"But… what if it is them? Then the way to prove that its not them would be to go where they would most likely go if they were the ones behind it… and not find them there!"
"Wasn't there a big shipment of dust about to be unloaded today?"
"How big?"
"Huuuge. Giant Schnee freighter."
"You guys sure?"
"Absolutely. Now, we have a few hours before they finish offloading. Let's go find the rest of RWBY."
I===I
Ruby pulled out her scroll when it beeped with her 'new message' tone. After reading the message, she almost squealed with joy.
"What is it, friend-Ruby?"
"Cole found Blake!"
"Sensational!"
I===I
Yang opened her scroll in record time as soon as it buzzed, announcing its new message. She read Cole's blurb telling her and Weiss where to go, before handing the device to Weiss.
"Cole found her. And she has something she wants to say."
I===I
6:00 PM. 3 hours till Torchwick.
The rest of CNPR were the first to arrive at the town square, but sun had already left to go buy everyone a snack (bananas for all!).
Pyrrha broke the silence. "So… you are really… ex—"
"You told them?" Blake glared at Cole.
"Well, we met for lunch, and Weiss almost let it slip… plus they would have found out one way or another."
"... I guess."
"Blaaaake!"
There was a loud boom, and a supersonic red missile slammed into Blake, knocking her off her feet. When the dust and cloud of rose petals cleared away, Ruby was squeezing Blake in a hug strong enough to rival Yang's… normal hugs.
Yang, Weiss, and Penny came in after her, the two humans panting, from a lengthy sprint, Penny completely unfazed.
"Met Ruby *pant* half way here *pant* insisted on running *pant* the whole way," Yang explained.
"Forgetting that," Pyrrha added, adressing Cole and Yang, "Did your sister just break the sound barrier?"
"She does that sometimes. Rare, but it happens," Cole explained.
"Hey guys! I'm back!" Sun entered the town square, presenting nine bananas, one for each person.
Having pried Ruby off, Blake introduced him. "Everyone, meet Sun Wukong of Team SSSN."
"Ello!"[++]
Making sure only his target could see, Cole secretly signed to Yang, "Blake x Sun. I ship it."
He got an amused grin in response.
Anyway, this is about me, so… As you all know, I was a member of the Fang… for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it. Things were different…"
I===I
"... and so, I left, and dedicated my life to being a huntress, to helping people… So there you have it. A criminal—"
"Nope."
Blake was surprised at Weiss's interruption. "What?"
"I don't want to hear that."
"But—"
"No. Do you know how long we've been searching for you?"
"Eight hour—"
"Rhetorical question. *Ahem* Eight hours. I've had eight hours to think about it. And you know what? I don't care."
"... But I—"
"You said you were no longer with them? Then I don't care."
"I… thank you."
Sun coughed. "Sorry to inturrupt, but we still have a possible robbery to prevent."
"Huh?" Nora asked. "Ooh! Bad guys! Let's break their legs!"
"You know what?" Sun said after a moment, "I like how this girl thinks."
Sidling up to Ruby, Cole asked, "Did you finish that weapon I asked for?"
"Yes," Ruby whispered back, "You just need to make or find the right ammo."
"I'll get Ren on that right away."
"So what's the plan, oh fearless leaders?!" Nora asked the two team leaders.
"Blake, Sun, and I already did some planning," Cole told the group. "We shouldn't have the police come, they're to public, so here's what we're going to do…"
I===I===I
[*] that still feels weird to write/type
[**] I'm not usually this dark, I promise
[***] Read: know
[+] *Shrugs* Robots
[++]pronounced 'hello' without the 'h'
I===I
That was a chapter! No fight scene this time, but hey, it's good to have a break from that every once in a while. And I've pretty much set one up for next chap, so there's that.
And I guess there was almost one w/Penny, but… Ruby stepped in first.
Also, Weiss said they had been looking for 11 hours in the show. It was dark out, so I assumed that it was, say, 10:00PM when they finally spoke (I'm assuming one hour not searching, due to talking w/police+getting there)
So I'm assuming they left at ~10:AM, which makes it 6:00 when they meet up.
Also, Grimm etiquette. *gives thumbs up*
—dragoncraftertex
