Author's Notes:
Well, I wrote the chapter for "Burning the Candle" and it wound up being a lot shorter than I would like. So, I thought I'd ask if y'all have any ideas for possible storylines to run parallel with Volume 2. Go ahead and review or PM me with any suggestions. All ideas are welcome, although I make no guarantees to use any of them. I'll keep y'all posted on the chapters I'm writing as I release the ones I edit.
Team RWBY headed back to the school for the rest of the day. Ruby and Yang decided to take Clark to go visit Team JNPR in their dorm. Weiss and Blake both silently agreed to stay behind and talk it out.
Weiss started, "You know, you told me to stop calling Sun a degenerate, but I never called him a degenerate."
Blake laughed, "You called him a rapscallion."
Weiss nodded, "I was discriminating against him as a criminal, not as a Faunus. I guess you didn't quite pick up on that."
Blake confirmed, "Yes, I'll admit, I assumed you were bias against him because of his species. I thought that the heiress to the Schnee Dust empire had to share the bigotry of her company."
Weiss shook her head, "You know, we've been raising a child together for several months now that might not even be from the same planet as us. Looking back, it seems outright laughable to me now that something as silly and superficial as a pair of cat ears might matter to me at all."
Blake looked at her, "Looking back?"
Weiss explained, "When we first met, I was exactly what you believed me to be. I was every bit the inconsiderate brat. If I had found out what you were back then, I would have called the authorities and had you expelled without so much as a blink of hesitation."
Blake asked, "When do you think that changed?"
Weiss looked over at the cat-eared girl, "I don't know exactly. I guess it started a week or two after initiation. Actually, I remember now, I was feeding Clark on the first day of classes. I was looking at his face and he just looked… Anyway I realized that I had more reason to fear him than any Grimm or any Faunus on Remnant, and yet there I was, going out of my way to protect him. I guess after that the prejudice just sort of… faded away."
Blake smiled.
Weiss looked up at Blake's bow, "Why don't you take that thing off?"
Blake raised an eyebrow.
Weiss laughed, "We're alone behind a locked door. No-one is going to see anything unless there's someone hiding in the tree outside our window."
Neither of them heard the resounding crash of Sun Wukong falling off his perch hanging on one of the branches.
Blake reached up and hesitantly undid the carefully constructed black bow.
Weiss looked at the cat ears on top of her teammates head, "There, now isn't that more comfortable?"
Blake smiled, "Yes, thank you."
Ruby and Yang returned to the dorm, along with Team JNPR. Blake quickly redid her bow.
Ruby said, "We should probably head to the rendezvous point to meet up with Sun and Penny before the Dust shipment comes in."
Yang pointed back at Team JNPR, "Fluttershy and his Howling Commandos are coming along too. Once they found out what we were up to they insisted on helping. We can get Velvet to babysit Clark for us while we're all out."
Weiss walked over to Ruby and took Clark's basket from her, "Actually, I think I know a faster way we can meet up with those two. Clark, can you point me towards Sun?"
Clark's arm stuck out of the basket and pointed almost straight down and a bit towards the window.
Eight heads stuck out the window in perfect unison.
Sun looked up at them from the ground below, "Oh, hey guys. I was just trying to find the front entrance to the building. This school is a maze, am I right?"
A few hours later, ten people arrived at the docks to wait for a Dust shipment to arrive. They had decided to split into groups. Ruby, Weiss and Penny watched from a nearby rooftop. Blake, Yang and Sun hid in the shadows of a different building. JNPR was hiding behind various large crates on the docks.
Sun returned to his position alongside Blake and Yang, "Did I miss anything?"
Blake answered, "No, the shipment hasn't arrived yet."
Sun held an apple out to Blake, "I stole you some food."
Blake gave him a look, "Do you always break the law without a second thought?"
Yang teased Blake, "Weren't you in a cult or something?"
Blake glared daggers at her partner.
Yang held up her hands defensively, "Ok, too soon."
They were interrupted by a Scroll message from Ren that indicated the boat was about to land. They looked back out at the docks and saw the ship reach the docks. Not too long after that the workers started to offload large amounts of Dust. A few minutes later, an airship landed in the middle of the clearing. Several men wearing Grimm masks stepped off.
Blake looked disappointed more than anything, "It's them."
Yang sent the message through her Scroll to the others saying that the White Fang were in fact responsible. She said, "Alright, well, I can take a few pictures as proof and then we can go. We only came here to find out who was behind it. Our job here is-"
The three started watching the activities on the dock again when they heard a distinctive voice yelling orders to the White Fang, "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace."
Blake's eyes narrowed, "This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a human, especially not one like that."
Blake pulled out her weapon and ran off on her own.
Yang cursed under her breath and spoke to the rest of the group over her Scroll, "Blake has engaged the enemy. I repeat, Blake has engaged the enemy. Our first priority is getting everyone out of this alive."
Blake appeared behind Roman and put her blade to his neck. She removed her bow and spoke her case, "Brothers and sisters of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum?"
Ruby saw Roman's cane and remembered that it was his weapon from when she had fought him before. She spoke over her Scroll to the group, "Roman's weapon is his cane. We need to get it away from him before he tries anything. I don't have a good angle to make the shot."
Roman talked to her, "Look kid, the White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together."
Pyrrha responded to Ruby's message, "I'm on it."
Roman's cane was knocked out of his hands by a rifle bullet. His eyes darted around, trying to identify the location of the sniper.
Blake held Gambol Shroud a bit tighter up against Roman's throat, "Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation."
A second airship roared its engines above them. One of the White Fang soldiers took the prime opportunity of distraction to line up a shot. He hesitated, not wanting to risk hitting Roman on accident. Roman saw the soldier and gave the slightest nod to his underling as he spoke, "I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation."
The White Fang soldier fired his weapon, hitting Blake squarely in the shoulder.
Roman twisted Blake's arm until she dropped her weapon. Having worked out the probable location of the sniper, he promptly relocated to place Blake between himself and them, holding her arm painfully behind her back the entire time.
Pyrrha rapidly considered her options. She had lost her angle. She contacted the others, "I've lost the shot. Ruby, do you have it?"
Ruby responded, "No, I still don't have it."
Jaune spoke over the team channel, "Pyrrha, how accurately can you throw your shield?"
Ruby asked, "What are you thinking?"
Jaune answered, "Ruby, I hope you've brushed up on your geometry recently."
Roman spoke to the girl he was holding captive, "How many of your friends are out there?"
Blake refused to talk.
Roman twisted her arm a little further, "You know, I bet that bullet wound really hurts." He dug his finger into the bleeding hole in her shoulder, getting a pained sound in response.
Blake looked up at the crowd of White Fang soldiers around her. She kept looking until she had identified the one who shot her, a short, skinny boy, no older than 20, standing in the back with an ordinary magnum pistol.
She saw a glint of metal moving through the air above. She looked up and saw Pyrrha's shield flying through the air. Then, the shield made a loud noise, not unlike a gong. A deafening whistle grazed right by her ear. Roman fell to the ground with a thud behind her.
Then all hell broke loose.
Author's Notes:
In case it's not obvious enough, this isn't the end. There's one more chapter in Volume 1. I almost called this chapter "Black" and the next chapter "White", sort of like what I did with "The Badge and the Burden", but I decided against that as to not confuse with the trailers. The next chapter is called "Wings", after the song that plays during the Volume 1 credits. I can only hope that that doesn't turn out to actually be an episode name later in Volume 2. If it does, I guess I'll figure something else out.
