The final chapter for the Volume 1 arc is here. I had to make some major thoughts as to what was going to change and what was going to stay the same, and I think I have some good idea now. Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or Devil May Cry.
Chapter 10: Fleeting Innocence
Nearly two days had passed since the group of friends had seen Blake. Two days since they learned that she was actually a Faunus. Weiss was really starting to question a lot of things she knew, since what she knew about Faunus was fed to her by a very biased source. It was only recently that her viewpoint started to change, and the revelation that one her friends was a Faunus, yet acted nothing like what she thought they did, was really hammering that point home. Finally, Blake contacted the group. Turned out she had been spending the last two days with Sun.
Yang naturally couldn't resist teasing her partner when they met up again. "So, getting up close and personal with a boy, huh?" Blake smirked. "I'm not about to make a litter if that's what you're thinking." Weiss actually laughed at Blake's counter, while Yang was rendered speechless. She then smiled. "I wasn't about to make a Faunus-based joke, but since you're letting those on the table..." The eight friends plus Sun sat around a table at a local cafe. "So," Sun said, "You said you had something important to say?" Blake breathed deep, then gave a heavy sigh. "The truth is... I used to be a member of the White Fang."
Weiss did a spit take while Sun choked on his coffee. The others just started at Blake. Shaking her head, Weiss asked, "Since when? And when did you quit?" Blake closed her eyes as she began her story. "Well as you may remember from Oobleck's lessons, the White Fang began as a symbol of peace between Humans and Faunus, but in those days Human discrimination of Faunus was still high, prompting the White Fang to become the voice of the people. I was practically born into membership, in the days when they still practiced peaceful protests. I was there at every protest, every rally, every boycott..."
She shed a tear before wiping it away. "At the time, I really thought we were making a difference. But that all ended five years ago. On that day, the former leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. One with more violent and radical ideas. Suddenly instead of peaceful protests, we were making organized attacks and hijacking businesses that refused to serve us or used Faunus labor. The worst part was... It was working. But not in the right way. Instead of being respected, we were feared. Instead of seeing us as equals, Humans saw us as monsters."
"Harsh," Jaune said, "And they unknowingly fall in line with what more xenophobic people think of them without even realizing." Blake nodded. "At first I simply retreated to the shadows, no longer wanting to be part of the White Fang's actions. But then my ex-boyfriend, Adam Taurus, noticed that I was awakening to my Aura and possessed a Semblance. He somehow convinced me to take on a simple job. I thought it was just a recon job, until we began it. It turned out, Adam had plans to steal an entire train from the Schnee Dust Corporation. To make matters worse, there were innocent people onboard. Both Humans and Faunus. He didn't seem to care..."
Weiss then realized something. "Come to think of it, part of that train, the passengers cars specifically, was returned to my family's property shortly after it was announced to have been hijacked. People who went to check on the passengers saw what looked like a girl in black disappearing from the area. Was that you?" Blake nodded. "I had come to hate what the White Fang was becoming, and decided one way or another that job would be my chance to leave. Hearing someone I had trusted my whole life act with such disdain for others only strengthened my resolve. So I cut the passenger cars loose and just rode away with it."
Weiss nodded. "While I don't like that you were once involved with those terrorists, I can believe you when you say that's no longer the case." "Yeah," Sun said, "And it's not like you're alone in this. Lots of Faunus hate the White Fang just as much as Humans. Stupid holier-than-thou creeps if you ask me. And Jaune's right. Their actions are doing more harm than good, even if they don't realize it." Blake smiled. "Thanks guys. I feel a lot better after talking about this." "You still haven't explained why you wear a bow, though," Pyrrha noted.
"Even if I only ever participated in one job," Blake replied, "And even then backed out of it in a big way, I was still part of a terrorist group for a time. I was afraid people would find out about my affiliation, and what would happen after that. Knowing all the terrible things they've done, I can definitely see why the police suspect their involvement in the recent Dust robberies. But I'm still having a difficult time really believing it. They only ever attacked stores and companies to send a message, and if they stole anything it was usually Lien. If they wanted Dust they would just buy it from Faunus-friendly stores."
"I dunno," Yang said, "If they went out of their way to steal an entire train..." Sun seemed to be thinking about something. "Well, if we're gonna solve that mystery, our best chance of finding out is to go stake out a target these Dust thieves would find irresistible. If the White Fang don't show up, we know they're not involved." Jaune nodded. "Sounds good. Any ideas?" Sun nodded. "Back on the ship I overheard they were off-loading a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas." "I know the one you're talking about," Weiss said, "It was a special order that came in last week, likely in response to all the robberies."
"That's right," came Penny's voice, causing the others to turn towards it and see here sitting there with them. "Penny!," Ruby said, "When did you get here?" "Sorry for eavesdropping like this," Penny said, "But I overheard you talking about finding out about the White Fang. Anyway, that shipment you were just talking about is supposed to be a very expensive one. Judging from the cargo manifest, the revenue from the order will barely cover the cost of the shipment." "Yeah, I know," Weiss chimed in, "Dad's not too happy about that. One more reason to make sure it isn't stolen." With their goal in mind, the ten of them made their plans.
That night, the students took up their positions at the docks. Ruby, Penny, Weiss, Sun, and Blake were on top of one the warehouses, with Yang, Nora, Ren, Jaune, and Pyrrha down below inside the same warehouse. Weiss pointed out the Schnee family logo on the side of one of containers. "This is the right shipment. Now we just have to wait." Penny, who had been brought up to speed on what she missed, was thinking to herself. 'This Adam Taurus must not be a very nice person if Blake decided to break up with him.' Her thoughts were soon interrupted when the trademark presence of a Bullhead, a type of VTOL, made itself known.
The Bullhead landed amongst the unsupervised crates and opened up, as several armored individuals got out. Blake took one look at them and muttered, "Oh no..." She pointed to the emblem on the back of their armor, a red picture of a wolf head over three scratch marks. "That's the current emblem of the White Fang." As the White Fang members got to work, Weiss turned to Blake, "I guess this confirms it. Sorry..." "Don't be," Blake said, "Deep down I knew they had to be involved. I just didn't want to be right." Just then an adult male could be heard yelling, "Hey, what's the hold up!?"
Ruby gasped. "That's Roman Torchwick. He was in charge of the thugs at From Dust Till Dawn. I only heard his name later in the news." "Something's off," Blake noted, "The White Fang would never work with a human." "This might explain why even Faunus-friendly shops were hit," Penny noted, "This Roman fellow wanted to disguise their involvement." Weiss contacted the second team via her Scroll. "We all remember the plan?," she asked. After a quick confirmation, she nodded to Blake, who leapt off the roof and snuck up to capture Roman.
As Blake tried to talk down the White Fang and get them to explain why they were working for a criminal like Roman, the second team was waiting just in case trouble started. "Think she can get them to stand down?," Yang asked. As if in answer, more Bullheads showed up, distracting Blake. Roman took the opportunity to fire a shot from his Melodic Cudgel to escape Blake's grasp. Once free, he spun around to face her, only to get fired upon by several of Blake's friends. The White Fang members moved to retaliate, but quickly found themselves overwhelmed.
Sun and Weiss then jumped down to help Blake deal with Roman, while Ruby stayed on the roof with Penny to start taking down the Bullheads. One of the Bullheads landed to drop off several more White Fang, but they quickly got swept away by Jaune and Pyrrha's Semblance. Roman wasn't having an easier time. With Blake's Semblance distracting him, Weiss' Semblance keeping him on his toes, and Sun's Ruyi Bang and Jinju Bang keeping him from effectively retaliating. Finally Roman managed to line up a good shot, but had to duck as what sounded like a rifle shot struck near him.
When he looked to where the shot came from, he was surprised to see the same girl who gave him trouble before. "Why hello Red. I wasn't expecting to see you again." He quickly fired a shot from his Melodic Cudgel. Penny quickly dove to get Ruby out of the way, then dropped off the roof. "Nobody hurts my friends!" Her backpack slid open, and out of it popped multiple blades that seemed to circle around Penny. She quickly knocked away several White Fang that tried to rush her, then noticed the Bullheads coming in firing chin-mounted machine guns.
Penny smiled as two more blades popped out of her backpack and shot into the nearby warehouse. Using them as an anchor, the blades she was attacking with re-configured into miniature guns and spun around, charging some sort of laser. The laser fired off several times, easily cutting through two of the Bullheads. The third one had landed long enough for some of the White Fang to strap a shipping container on it, but Penny quickly lodged several blades into the side and began pulling it down almost effortlessly. Seeing this, and noting his ground troops were now dealt with, Roman decided to make himself scarce and hurried onto the first Bullhead. "These kids just keep getting weirder," he muttered as he closed the hatch.
The students spotted Roman and another Bullhead escaping just as Penny finished bringing down her quarry with the container intact. "Well," Ren noted, "Roman got away, but at least we stopped the robbery." Jaune nodded. "I think now would be a good time to call the police." When the police arrived, lead by Leonidas, the students explained everything. To Blake's surprise and relief, Leonidas decided not to have her arrested for her former association to the White Fang. "As far as I'm concerned," he explained, "You've only ever been a protester. If anything, you saving those civilians on the train and becoming a Huntress could be considering community service."
Blake smiled as Sun put his arm around her shoulder in reassurance. That's when Ruby noticed someone was missing. "Hey, where's Penny?" "Oh, her?," Leonidas replied, "She got picked up by her father, Dr. Geppetto Polendina." Sure enough, Penny was sitting in an old-fashioned car next to her father. "That was very reckless of you, Penny," Geppetto said, "I know you're eager to test your abilities, but we don't know if anyone would really accept you for who you are." "I know Daddy," Penny said, "But what I really wanted was to make some friends." Geppetto smiled. "Well, I'd say you accomplished that at least."
Back at the docks, Leonidas took out his scroll and contacted someone. 'Why Leo,' came Ozpin's voice, 'This is a surprise. I thought you didn't want to get involved after your wife's injury.' "Circumstances have changed," Leonidas replied, "I have several White Fang members in custody, several confirming a report that they were working with the notorious criminal Roman Torchwick." 'This gets more complicated by the day,' Ozpin noted, 'I just received a message from Qrow, saying only "Queen has pawns". I think you know what that entails.' Leonidas nodded. Their enemies were mobilizing in secret.
Back at his hideout, Roman took a puff of his cigar as he noticed Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald enter. "Things got out of hand," he said, "Somehow we attracted more attention than you predicted. Rather than two or three, there were ten in total." Cinder frowned. "Then our enemies are more tight-knit that I expected. We'll have to work around this." She eyed him carefully. "Don't go getting any ideas now. Don't forget they are just students. So long as you don't underestimate them, they shouldn't pose a threat." Roman nodded. "Very well, but I am going to need more resources and manpower for the next phase of operations."
"You'll get it," Cinder said with a cruel smile, "Our contact in the White Fang is readying a recruitment drive. And while circumstances at the docks means performing more robberies here in Vale is out of the question, I have connections that can get you the Dust you need within the week." As she and her cohorts walked out, she noted, "Don't disappoint me, Roman. We have high hopes for you." Once they were gone, Roman thought to himself. 'There's more to this than she's letting on. She almost seemed worried that so many interlopers took notice of our operations. Granted she did stress the necessity for secrecy, but it sounded as if she expected someone to show up.'
He popped his cigar into his mouth. 'If things deviate too much from her projected scenario...' He got out his Scroll and made a call. "Neo, have our usual reservation booked. I think we may need to discuss an escape plan." 'Starting to lose confidence in Cinder's schemes?' came the voice of Neopolitan, Roman's female partner. "I won't say anything about that yet," Roman said, "But we both know that if things do go wrong for Cinder's little group it will end badly for them. I've only stuck around because I've seen no reason to believe it can fail. At least not yet." Neo nodded. 'Gotcha RT. See ya at the usual time.'
To be continued...
As fans of RWBY know, Neo is mute throughout the entire run of RWBY so far, and even in RWBY Chibi she communicates with word signs (or maybe just the one sign which she writes on using her Semblance). There's been speculation that she and Roman are either like The Joker and Harley Quinn or a father and daughter. I'm going with the former, and also with the idea that she will only speak with Roman, and even then only when they're alone. Anyway, next chapter starts the Volume 2 arc. Read and review.