Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.
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The White Fang Hunt
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Adam's escape sends Blake into fear and a frenzy, and towards her obsession of canon. Fear because Adam knows from the docks that Blake is at Beacon. A frenzy because Blake is desperate to not lose her friends or the place she's found. And obsession because, well, Blake. Blake is determined to find Adam and stop him once more.
Her friends will help, of course. Though Penny is still absent and hasn't been seen since her last battle with Adam, taking away the heavy-weight who beat Adam in the first place, JNPR is happy to help. A breakup along partner lines seems obvious… until Ruby surprises everyone by suggesting shaking things up a bit, and not sticking to partners. They should all meet up before getting into a fight anyway, so Ruby suggests this could help them get used to working between the teams more. The Great White Fang Hunt, an epic adventure by Teams RWBY and JNPR.
It's a credit to Ruby's growth that no one even thinks this is about Ruby being with Jaune anymore. The much more obvious suspicion is her first suggestion of Jaune and Weiss... but with a careful, perhaps deliberate, framing of words of how it will show there's no problems working between the teams, Weiss goes along rather than objects. Yang is the first to jump aboard her sisters idea, and picks Nora to have fun. Blake chooses the discrete and stealthy Ren with an idea of infiltrating the faunus quarter. Which leaves, by process of elimination...
Ruby's real objective. The point of the mix-ups wasn't to get Jaune and Weiss together- it was so that Ruby could talk to Pyrrha alone and in private, without causing a scene.
It's about Jaune, of course- and the upcoming dance later this semester. Ruby knows Pyrrha is interested in Jaune- even beyond her earliest suspicions, Pyrrha as good as told her when she warned Ruby that she'd comfort Jaune if his heart was broke over Weiss- but she also knows Jaune is still interested in Weis. Knowing Pyrrha is interested in Jaune, Ruby checks if Pyrrha intends to make a move, and asks her to support Jaune with Weiss even so. It's a frank request, but not a zero-sum one for Ruby's benefit. Pyrrha asks Ruby why- asks if Ruby's past feelings are influencing her- and Ruby explains the promise from the end of her crush. Ruby just wants him to be happy, to put his feelings before her own, and asks Pyrrha to help that as well. Pyrrha agrees to what she would have done regardless, however grudgingly given the context, and the girls come to agreement. They'll both support, or at least not trying to stop, Jaune's crush on Weiss come the dance.
Jaune, meanwhile, gets a rare partial POV session as he and Weiss investigate the dust shipments the White Fang targeted, hoping for clues. From Jaune's thoughts, we can get a sense of his attraction and admiration for Weiss as she confidently comes up with a plan and knows how to execute it, but also his deliberate mental discipline as he restrains himself from flirting or making a fool of himself and reminds himself of the sort of courtesies Ruby taught him- opening doors, letting her pass first, but most of all listening attentively and not just fawningly. Jaune asks questions, and even questions if something will work, but in a respectful way that lets Weiss know he's actually listening and trying to help. Weiss, by her reactions, is pleased and not uncomfortable. While Jaune's presence was unsought, it's not unwelcome she assures him during a break while Jaune subtly brings her coffee, prepared just the way Ruby has told him she likes it.
He and Weiss chat easily, even amiably, as Weiss explains the history behind the CCTV. The post-War kingdoms gave gifts to the world- like the CCT- as gestures of peace, cooperation… and a bit of national posturing. While Atlas gave the world the CCT, Vale's gift included, among other things, 'gifting' Valean knights to serve as guards to the other remaining royal families, as the remaining knights of Vale have become something of a lost wonder and mostly known for being among the best bodyguards in the world. All Kingdoms had their enforcers, but the Valean knights stood apart, and it was in their honor that Atlas's new battle-mechs are called Paladins. Even if the golden age of the valean knights is past, those that remain are often in high demands as guardians and some of the world's best bodyguards.
Authentic Valean knights are notoriously non-mercenary, likely a result of the training and conditioning that makes them fight to the death before desertion, and it's apparently not at all uncommon in this age of peace for a knight to spend their entire life in service to one person until death do they part, no matter the fortunes or lack thereof. The Knight chooses who they serve for their own reasons, but very few are motivated by money. Weiss's recounts a story her elder sister told her, of how their father once tried to procure the services of a knight as a status symbol for family prestige. The knight, who had no Lord at the time, chose a mere babe over one of the most powerful men in Remnant. Weiss's lips curl upward at the thought.
It's tension-less conversation that only gets awkward Weiss finds need to call the SDC for information, and when the SDC receptionist- seeing Jaune in the background- assumes that he's Weiss's boyfriend and puts her through to Winter. Winter is connected, only having been told it was her sister and her boyfriend, and what follows is a long-distance third-degree that Weiss can only partially shield Jaune from. Jaune gives a good enough showing- claiming his intentions are honorable, he's here to help Weiss with something- but he doesn't absolutely refute any interest, even as Weiss squirms uncomfortable and Winter raises a knowing eyebrow. It's alright, though- or at least Winter is more bemused than protective after Weiss protests in Jaune's defense and that he's been a gentleman- because Winter reveals Jaune's name has reached as far as Atlas. Not in any big way, but a minor curiosity for anyone who's been watching the news from Vale.
Winter's heard the same stories everyone else has- of the no-name nobody who captured Roman Torchwick, managed to earn a spot in Beacon, and keep it despite no prior training. The country boy who not only came to big city, but became the victor of his very first tourney tourney.
If he was of better stock he might have a chance.
Jaune and Weiss both hem awkwardly, knowing his genealogy but not wanting to bring it up, and Weiss covers for him by revealing the Arc's more public past, as a family of Hunters. That's workable, and the fact that Weiss speaks in Jaune's favor clearly puts Winter on more favorable terms towars Jaune. Winter makes a show of not believing in Weiss's denials as to how she knows Jaune so well, and leaves with a parting tease of Weiss 'investing early' before she goes and leaves them with their data. Weiss has a dusting of red on her cheeks, to cute to resist, and Jaune can't help but tease her some more.
'Investing early,' huh? What did she mean by that?
Weiss takes Jaune at face value at first, and tries to explain... but flusters and chokes in embarassment, and stops when she sees Jaune's smile. Weiss glowers and looks away, red still apparent as she sulks. Why's he being so mean to her? Isn't he supposed to like her or something?
Jaune laughs, and lets up on the teasing, giving Weiss a chance to recollect her bearing and change the topic. Weiss laments embarrassing sisters to break the silence, and Jaune relates, and Weiss starts to open up and talk more about her family as they go down the elevator. Jaune is surprised that Winter was surprisingly okay with his lack of class, and admits that he was surprised she didn't care about his wealth. Weiss explains that, aside from Winter's own differences with their father, when compared to the Schnees even real nobles are relatively poor. Most nobles are old money, spending what they do inherit on pretensions or pet causes rather than business. Weiss again references that some ambitious people have sought arranged marriage with her, but one reason her father has refused was that for most nobles it would be marrying up, and thus a bad deal for the Schnees.
It's here that Jaune finally asks just how rich the Schnees are- prompting disbelief from Weiss. Didn't he know? Jaune didn't, but before she can tell him the distress call from Blake (and Ren) comes in. As Weiss and Jaune hurry, Weiss reminds Jaune of his question and offers to tell him, but Jaune dismisses it as unimportant and hurries on towards Ren and Blake.
Weiss slows at his response, an ambiguous expression on her face, before she shakes her head and follows.
In the city, the chase sequence is of Adam in the Paladin. Though mostly a story told in another time, what basically happened is that while Ren and Blake infiltrated the Faunus quarter of the city, the slums where most of the city's faunus are forced to live, they caught wind of Adam's escapees from prison. Investigation led them to a White Fang safehouse, where Adam had a suspiciously large amount of dust and experimental Atlasian paladins. Blake and Ren were discovered after taking pictures, and the pursuit began first as an attempt to stop them from spreading the evidence and now more likely as Adam chasing out of both revenge and to cause a distraction for his comrades to escape.
The battle on the highway looks a lot like the one from canon at first, except that Adam is far more aggressive as he chases after them, causing Ren and Blake to rely on automated cargo trucks and such rather than risk drawing Adam's fire towards passenger cars. Ren and Blake are a poor match against it- their weapons too weak to do anything but shoot down any missiles- and Adam's pursuit is more brutal than Roman's. Adam viciously stampedes over and through vehicles, causing frightening car wrecks, and a news bullhead with Lisa Lavender is flying alongside and taking in the carnage on camera. Yang and Nora arrive, using Nora's grenades to stagger Adam away from knocking one family vehicle over the edge, even as Ruby and Pyrrha get on an overpass ahead and start sniping Adam from range.
Adam could ignore them- besides some damage to the cameras they're doing no real damage- but Ruby's idea of jumping down on him as he passes change when Weiss and Jaune arrive behind Ruby and Pyrrha. Adam sees Weiss, and focuses on her out of hate for the Schnees, and instead of being tripped up and falling down to the ground he jumps the Paladin to the top highway, even as Ren and Blake are carried away and out of the fight by the vehicles they're surfing on.
This starts an Adam vs. Ruby/Jaune/Pyrrha/Weiss match, with Lisa Lavender catching it all as she circles around. The matchup favors Adam, especially as Jaune-the only one Lisa recognizes at first from the air- lacks the speed, agility, or weapons to fight safely from a distance. Jaune has no choice but to stay close and try to be underfoot, while Ruby, Pyrrha, and even Weiss dart in and out to keep Adam distracted from squishing him. It's a harrowing sequence- one wrong move and Jaune would be squished- but the Signal Fundamentals and training keep him dodging and alive and getting in the occasional blow at the joints, which Crocea Mors sparks off of as it scratches. From the air, Jaune's proximity looks even more daring and impressive, even as Adam gets increasingly frustrated that Jaune won't die and starts to focus on him to get him out of the way first.
Things start to turn around more in the teams' favor as the rest join the fight. Yang and Nora come in with a save for Jaune by staggering the Paladin, which leads to Jaune and Ruby simultaneously coming up with the idea of knocking it down off the highway to damage it. The first attempt involves Nora and Yang sending it staggering backwards, while Jaune, Ruby, and Pyrrha attack the joints to make it fall. The giant falls back onto the first highway, and when the team pursues Jaune gets an especially impressive looking one where he jumps down on the Paladin itself to stab it in the head.
But here Adam gets serious, and starts using the full arsenal of the Paladin to better effect. Adam knocks away Yang, shoots a slower Nora, but most of all uses his rockets to bring down the top highway after he forces the rest to fall back under it. The rockfall staggers everyone under it, dazing them with the explosions, but even worse is when Weiss is trapped. Adam takes the opportunity to go after a pinned Weiss, who's helpless against an over-head hammer blow.
Jaune takes the blow for her. Full shield, both hands bracing, stopping a rain of over-hand blows as Adam tries to crush him by brute strength. Jaune's aura takes visible flash-damage with each blow, even as his ankle-armor and the pavement beneath start to crack under the blows. In her addled state Ruby thinks the flashes of Jaune's aura linger, an addled thought that clarifies into a dreadful certainty.
It's clear that a furious Adam intends to kill them both, and there's nothing anyone else can do about it. Ruby and Pyrrha, too far away and still stunned by the bridge collapse, watch in horror. Ruby screaming Jaune's name but unable to focus due to a being dazed from the fall and explosions, and Pyrrha reaching out impotently towards him suffering the same. Weiss, between frantic and futile attempts to pull her legs from the rubble, begs Jaune to leave her and save himself. He doesn't, of course, and angrily shouts at her to not even say that. She knows why he wouldn't, a reminder that makes Weiss pale in horror. Watching from above, Lisa's news crew scrambles to tries to cut the live feed as Adam winds up for a final strike.
He lands it… but not before Jaune's shield shines in an undisputable light, and Jaune is pounded through the street, meteoring down below. The roadway crumbles and Weiss falls as well, and freed from the rubble Weiss uses her semblance to slow Jaune's descent and catch up herself to save him from a certainly fatal impact. Even as Adam jumps down after them, Weiss just manages to reach Jaune and hold onto him, before they are both caught mid-air by a swinging Blake. The last two members of the teams have returned, though Blake's catch of Jaune is rough and knocks him out of Weiss's arms… and under a plummeting Adam, who is preparing to smash Jaune. Ren makes his dramatic appearance when he lands before Jaune and uses an aura-projected blow to cancel out Adam's would-be smash in a perfect parry. Though the impact stumbles Ren and leaves them both open to a follow-up, a glyph under them throws them back to safety. Jaune is saved.
Adam's pursuit stalls when explosions shower from above and his joints freeze. A glimpse of a still-punching Yang and a white-faced Pyrrha with her hand extended hint as to why, but both Ruby and Adam's attention are occupied by Ruby and Nora, quickly descending. Between gravity and their own weapon recoil, both girls crash with overwhelming force. Nora Smash crushes one arm, and a screaming Ruby cleaves the other shear off. Both girls impact hard enough to take considerable aura damage, but Adam's mech is literally disarmed.
From there it's a short fight as Adam attempts to flee while he still can, trying to bulldoze through the wounded Jaune that others are protectively clustered around. It fails, and not because Jaune gets out of the way. Weiss jumps forward and creates an ice sheet beneath the Paladin. Ruby races forward, cutting a Paladin 'tendon' that Jaune had already weakened, before using her rifle-recoil to race back toward to Jaune and stand by Weiss just in case. Blake throws Nora part of her weapon, and with Ren's help they use the ribbon to trip the unstable Paladin and make it slip on Weiss's ice sheet.
The Paladin falls, sliding to a stop right before Jaune, who has Weiss and Ruby infront of him. The Paladin ends up kneeling position before Jaune, and is unable to rise as its servos give up. When Adam attempts to open up and bail out, it's to the sight of Weiss with an ice glyph ready, Ruby aiming straight into the cockpit, and Jaune between and behind them telling Adam to surrender.
Adam snarls, reaches for his blade, and finds himself frozen inside of his cockpit when Ruby fires. Circling above, Lisa Lavender caught it all on live broadcast, and thanks herself failing to cut the feed. She directs the pilot to come in close enough to shine a spotlight on the still-kneeling mech… and Jaune.
Knowing it's only a matter of time until the police arrive, and that they can't get away anonymously this time, Teams RWBY and JNPR stay to secure Adam until the authorities arrive.
Blake has a private talk with Adam- willing to let him be arrested and risk exposing her rather than free him and risk her friends. Adam curses her as a traitor to her species. Blake rejects that she's a traitor, saying she wants a Kingdom for both species, Human and Faunus, and that Adam's the real traitor to that ideal. Adam glares, and Blake leaves resolved and willing to accept the consequences of her past, even if she has to take solace in that the only villain she helped stopped was Adam. Blake resolves to tell Ozpin the truth, and let the consequences be what they may rather than live in fear of the truth. Yang promises to support her partner to the end, and Nora throws an arm around Blake as well as Ren says they will to.
Amongst the rest of the friends, though, the center of attention and worry is Jaune, who's alive but unable to stand back up once he finally collapses before the Paladin. His ankles were put under severe stress, enough that Weiss and Ruby have to carry him so that he can sit on the Paladin, and Weiss takes strict and total control as she demands he not move at all until the paramedics can come and look. Not content with that, though, Weiss insists on taking a closer look and ends up using a handkerchief to tie around Jaune's ankle in an effort to help immobilize it. Ruby and Jaune both watch her silently, even as Weiss fixates on it with a certain sort of mix of dedication and fearful relief.
The person who speaks first is Pyrrha, who's been hovering and uncertain of if- how- to help. Pyrrha is white as a sheet and radiating concern and bumbling apologies. The reason for concern is obvious, but the apologies are less so. Even though Jaune magnanimously forgives her and doesn't mind, his pardon clearly does little to alleviate Pyrrha's guilt at Jaune's near-death experience.
When the police finally do arrive, it's once again in the form of the Royal Police- and once again lead by Lord Mordred in particular, with his black knight still by his side.
Mordred recognizes the girls, and is polite enough even as he briskly moves past any familiarity in order to take custody of Adam personally. Adam is silent when Mordred greets him once again, and Mordred taunts Adam of the futility of rebellion. Mordred gives an ominous feel when he leaves Adam with parting words about how perhaps this time Adam will reconsider betraying his hospitality, and maybe next time Adam will listen to what he has to say. Adam glares, and Mordred leaves him, tasking his knight Garnet- the silent, imposing figure with stone-black armor and a huge obsidian greatsword- to make sure nothing happens.
Stepping back, Mordred looks around for the cameras and sees the (Bullhead) spotlight still on Jaune. Frowning, Mordred makes his way over. It's Mordred and Jaune's first meeting, and it doesn't go well when Jaune doesn't rise to his feet in the presence of a noble. He can't, of course, but the explanation from Weiss as to why doesn't make Mordred any happier. Mordred, it seems, expects a bit more courtesy even from children.
Mordred gives Jaune recognition and congratulations tinted with disdain- that helping capture someone like Adam was an achievement considering his common station- and the elitism grates on nerves. It's reversed when Jaune- unlike the girls of RWBY, who had been polite with 'sirs' and respectful when dealing with him at the docks- offers no such deference and simply asks who Mordred is supposed to be. Maybe it's because of the pain, but Jaune responds to Mordred as an equal, and admits he's never heard of the self-important nobleman. Mordred's elitism bubbles to the surface as he claims his credentials- a noble from the victorious side of the Vale War of the Roses, Lord of Royal Police, heir to one of the richest estates in Vale...
And, he insists, the rightful heir to the throne.
Jaune's too ignorant to be impressed, and asks Weiss for context of if it's a big deal or not. Mordred starts to be furious that Jaune is so casual with Weiss Schnee, but Weiss's ire pops in defense of her friend and recent savior. Weiss undercuts Mordred's pretensions by not only pointing out how far from the throne he is as Lord of the Royal Police, but by 'reminding' him of why she implicitly rejected an offer of marriage before- that he and his estate weren't rich or powerful enough to be attractive to a Schnee. He's only a nobleman, after all- "not even a Prince"- and Mordred colors darkly even as his Black Knight ominously moves closer when Weiss says that. Weiss and Mordred have a history- or at least an unwelcome awareness- and Weiss's scorn clearly makes Morded color.
Mordred is angry, but the presence of cameras and the restraining hand of his knight stop him, and he makes his leave. Weiss is asked what that was about- she dismisses him as an unwanted prospect from long ago- but turns the topic towards their hurt friends. Ruby watches from the side as Weiss calls over medics directs them to the most seriously wounded, and while Ruby doesn't frown or fret like Pyrrha while Weiss worries over Jaune and takes control of his care...
She doesn't smile either.
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The White Fang Hunt
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Author Note:
Le gasp. Ruby might not be delighted that Jaune raised a flag with Weiss? Why ever could that be. Ruby swore she'd bury her feelings, and that always works without issue.
And more world building/other stuff, which I think makes this story both one of the most and least subtle stories I've ever written, but which I feel I can't go into now lest I ruin the surprises for people who don't yet see it yet. Le sigh.
As always, please share thoughts and opinions. It's hard for me to know what to draw attention to here without spoilers, so if there are any thoughts/confusions/questions I can address, be sure to let me know.