A/N: School is tow days away! Help!
"Blake-"
Yang was cut off just as the huge screen before them blinked and displayed two sets of camera feeds, enlarged within the centre of the screen, grabbing everyone's attention.
The feed was in black and white, a group of about a dozen men, shaded in with greys and blacks were piling in to two different vehicles which were currently parked behind each other in an alley way somewhere within the city.
What caught Blake and Yang's attention about the scene were the white and grey mask that were covering their faces, as well as the poorly hidden weapons underneath their jackets and coats.
"They're making a move." Leone mumbled.
"Do you know where they are going?" Blake asked, moving next to her sister.
"They've been staking out a few stores around the city for the past few weeks. That might be a good guess." One of the agents called out from their desk.
"Put them up on the map." Leone ordered.
Not a second later, the two camera feeds were minimised and pushed to the side of the screen and an overhead map of the city appeared, four red pings flashing regularly, marking the stores mentioned.
"Four stores, two cars." Yang muttered, assessing the situation as well. If Blake was she might as well.
"How do we know which ones they're going for?" Yang asked.
"Do you have details on the stores?" Blake asked the agent who had spoken before.
The agent glanced over at Leone, before Leone nodded and he brought up the details of the stores. Their addresses, names, opening hours, size in square meters, owners, what they sold, everything really. One café, a dust shop, a clothing shop and an ammunitions store.
"Hey that isn't the store we shopped at is it?" Yang pointed to the dress store, but Blake was busy thinking and talking to her sister.
"Any ideas? You would know more about them then me." Leone asked. "Which is another reason why you should stay." She added quietly.
But Blake didn't seem to hear it, or if she did she ignored it for the time being, although it would have been hard to from the way she felt Yang react to it.
"Well if you're saying they're just the first group, they'll probably be wanting to set up a firm foundation in the city, utilities and supplies would come after. So if I was with them it'd probably be the dress store and the café."
"The café and dress store?" Leone repeated.
"It's not uncommon for them to inconspicuously take over stores without notice and use them as fronts and somewhere for their agents to hide." Blake explained.
The vehicles on the camera feed had started moving now, the feed switching to a new set of cameras on the street where they pulled out from, watching them go down the road until they were out of range and the feed switched again.
"Orders?" An agent asked.
Leone began to think. If she stopped them now, there were two possible outcomes she could think of. One, they stop them and then they would wait to try another time and probably another place. Two, they stop them and they leave the city. Or they could do nothing and let them get cosy and comfortable for now, but that would mean sacrificing the two stores and their owners.
"We wa-"
"I'm going." Blake stated suddenly.
"What? Going where?"
"Where do you think? Going to stop them."
Yang shot her partner a surprised and confused look.
"On your own?"
"No, Yang will come with me."
'I will?'
"Blake we don't want to scare them off." Leone explained.
"No, you don't want to scare them off. Besides, if I go they'll recognise us as from Vale and won't think Vacuo has any hostiles watching them." It was a fair point, but still.
"Blake-"
"Leone I'm not going to just watch them ruin two more families' lives, okay? It's not how I work. Plus I highly doubt they'll give up with this city so quickly."
Yang and Leone watched Blake walk past them and toward the door, before opening it and stopping to look back at her partner.
"Are you coming?"
"Do you even know where to go?" Yang asked as they moved through the building.
"The dress store was the one we went to, as for the café I looked at the route from the dress store." Blake explained.
"Blake are you ok?" Yang asked, after a short silence, sensing that she was not ok.
"I'm fine."
"Of course you are. I'm just not sure we should be doing this, we don't exactly belong here and your sister seemed to have a good plan and they do seem like a very capable bunch of people."
"So? Like I said, I'm not going to do nothing."
Blake stormed out the front door, her brisk exit startling the receptionist who was still stationed at her desk.
"Are you sure that's the only reason?" Yang asked carefully.
"What else is there Yang?" Blake snapped, but the blonde was undeterred.
"I dunno, maybe something like staying here in Vacuo with your sister."
Blake stopped, Yang saw her ear twitch slightly before she turned around to face.
"Can we not talk about this now?" Blake managed to say evenly. "We need to hurry."
Blake turned away from Yang before she could say anything and ran across the street, leaping high into the air before kicking off one the buildings, grabbing the street light and then leaping onto the roof of the building. Yang sighed as Blake was hidden behind the roof of the building before chasing after to her.
"Do you think they split up?" Yang asked as they sat perched on a roof across the street from the clothing store.
"I only saw one commander, so no. The commander is usually the one to intimidate and scare off the owners, so if there was only one they'll be doing each store separately."
They watched as the store owner they had chatted to earlier in the day began bringing down the shutters for the store windows, trading hours had passed and it was time to close up and head home, perfect for the White Fang as there were no customers, or witnesses.
"Look," Yang began just as the owner closed the third last shutter. "I can understand what you might be thinking and feeling right now."
"Yang pl-"
"But I think, given the circumstances, you shouldn't let me and Ruby and Weiss hold you back from staying with your sister."
"Yang!"
"AAhmm!"
Both Blake and Yang turned their heads toward the store, just as someone hurriedly stepped up to the last shutter and closed it shut.
Blake cursed, "Let's go."
They leaped down from the roof and ran up to the front of the store, everything was locked up tight.
"We'll have to go round back." Blake stated.
"Why I can just…" Yang drew her arm back as Ember Celica whirred to life.
"No. We can't make too much of a ruckus." Blake warned. "Just boost me up." Blake pointed up to the roof.
Yang practically threw her partner up and onto the roof of the building before she let down her ribbon and helped Yang up as well. They heard a crash from beneath them as they ran along the roof and jumped down behind the store. They landed and moved to the back door, pausing before the charged in.
"There's probably someone watching the door." Blake whispered.
Yang nodded.
"Knock, they'll have to open if they want to avoid suspicion, I'll knock him out." Blake explained.
Yang sighed, once again she was the blonde distraction. Blake rolled her eyes at her partner and moved to the other side of the door as Yang took her position. She stood straight and dusted herself off, causing Blake to roll her eyes again before Yang knocked softly.
It took a few seconds, but just as Blake said, someone had opened the door, making a very poor attempt at hiding their weapon behind their back. Yang smiled brightly and waved to the man just before Blake quickly reached around the door frame, grabbed the man by the collar, pulled him out the door, spun him around onto the wall she had been leaning against before holding him steady and kneeing him in the gut with her hand over his mouth before bringing his forehead down into her knee.
Meanwhile Yang had rushed forward to quickly grab another White Fang member standing behind the one Blake took. Yang had rushed forward as quietly as she could, which was surprisingly so, before she picked him up by the collar, hand covering his yelp, before throwing him as far as she could back out the door. Black watched as another White Fang agent soared through the door and landed on his back with a solid thud and before a scream could leave his throat Yang was on top of him and he was out with a single punch.
Blake watched her partner get off the ground and walk up to her.
"What?"
Blake didn't bother and stepped into the store. Before she did she took note that only one of their vehicles were parked outside, meaning the remaining six were not present, leaving four inside. The rest of them were probably at the café store watching it and waiting for their commander.
As they entered they heard the cry of a woman quickly followed by a calm, deep voice and the sound of something falling over which sounded like the cash register.
Blake and Yang shared a glance before they proceeded.
"So really, you have no choice. I'm sorry to say but this store no longer belongs to you."
"Y-you can't do this. I need the money! I need the job!"
"Aww what a shame." The commander teased, bending down to grab her cheeks like a baby.
"Life's a bitch honey, get used to it." He stated. He got back up and motioned to his men, two of them moved forward toward the woman and she tried to scramble away just as they were about to grab her.
"Hey Alex? Sorry to come in after hours but the dress I bought doesn't seem to fit me anymore, can I get a size up? It seems my chest got a- oh."
Yang strolled in through the back as if it was any other normal day, chuckling at her own joke before looking up and seeing the group of White Fang within the store. Alex, the store owner, recognised Yang immediately as her customer from earlier today, her and the cat faunas, it wasn't easy to forget a couple like that. But what confused her was why she was here, actually all of this was confusing.
"Hey I didn't know you did men's clothes." Yang said with a grin and her head cocked to the side.
"It's that stupid blonde from Beacon!" The commander growled. "What are you doing here?!"
"Well I did come to change my-"
Yang stopped mid-sentence as her aura flared slightly and she instinctively spun around, Ember Celica deploying just in time to stop a blade from slicing through her arm. The White Fang agent was startled by the speedy reaction and even more so by Yang's smile and wink before she flicked his sword to the side and punched him straight in the nose.
The two men beside Alex left her for the time being and rushed toward Yang, although one stopped to lift his rifle up and point it at Yang's back while his partner continued with his sword drawn, or he would have if a boot didn't smack him in the head.
Blake seemed to come out the roof somehow, hidden in the shadows, when in actual fact she leaped over the counter beside Yang, used a clone to reach the roof and spun around horizontally so that her boot hit one of the agents in the head while her sword smacked the other agents rifle toward the ground just as he pulled the trigger. Blake landed in front of the rifle man just as he brought it up to try and shoot at this new target, but Blake flipped backward, kicking his gun up to the roof where it fired off its mark another time.
Just as he was about to bring it down Blake slid to her knees and spun around, Gamboul Shroud lancing across his knees before she rose up and her blade lanced across his stomach as he fell. Blake came out of the spin with Gamboul Shroud coming down in a great vertical arch that slammed the agent into the ground painfully with a grunt and knocked him out.
The other agent that she had kicked in the head was about to make his move when the opponent Yang was dealing with came flying through the air and smashed straight into him. The two of them fell backward, smashing into a table of tops and jeans, toppling it over and drowning them in women's casual wear.
"Ooh, sorry about that Alex." Yang winced as something else crashed on top of the two agents.
Which left just the commander.
"Shouldn't you two be in school?" He asked, drawing his two club like cleavers from his back.
Yang shrugged, "Yeah, we should be."
Blake chose the moment to rush forward, a shadow clone throwing her forward. She quickly lashed out, separating both portions of her weapon and using them in unison. A series of purple slashes danced across the commanders front and his blades, sparks flying from metal on metal. Blake quickly used another shadow clone to push her into the air above him, where she spun around, her blades just slashing across his own before she flipped forward and passed over him, kicking him in the back in the process.
He stumbled forward, right into Yang who brought her arm forward, putting her weight behind her fist. The commander was quick enough to bring his cleavers in front of him to form an 'x' and take the punch right in the centre of the formation, but even still the force was enough to have him sliding back on his feet and put a slight dent in his blades.
He slid past Blake, who was waiting and spun around as he past and kicked one of his arms away from his body. His arm swung out as Yang rushed forward, taking the opening her partner made in his defence and bringing her right arm around in a powerful uppercut that slammed into his side and effortlessly broke his ribs. Yang quickly followed up and brought her fist around against his jaw, swinging his head to the side painfully.
He stumbled back but orientated himself enough to spin into the action and bring his own weapon down on top of Yang. Yang easily lifted her arm above her head and blocked the attack, his blade slid off her gauntlets and just as she was going to rush forward he quickly brought his weapon back up and thrust it toward Yang.
Yang found it odd that he was pointing a, not-pointy object, at her before he pressed a button near his thumb and a shotgun round blasted from the barrel currently pressed against Yang's chest. Yang yelled out and crashed into another table in front of the cash register and sent splinters of wood and items of clothing flying across the room.
"Yang!" Blake yelled out after her partner was hidden from sight by the pile of clothing, just as the commander levelled his other weapon at her and fired.
The shot bounced off Gamboul Shrouds blade with a loud ding as Blake ran toward him. Despite the pain pounding in his ribs and broken jaw he was still performing quite well. He brought around his own two swords and swung them down at Blake, but only managed to pass through a shadow clone. Blake had jumped up, passing between the blades of a ceiling fan and lashing out at its support with her sword.
The ceiling fan, along with Blake herself, fell to the ground on top of the commander. He lifted his arms up to protect his head and grunted when he felt the weight of the fan slam into him and buffer him backwards. Blake ran forward, lashing out at his shins before jumping over his shoulder, using it as a support to leap towards the wall which she then used to push off and kick him in the back.
As soon as her feet touched the ground she was in the air again, a shadow clone pushing her toward the back of the commander as he continued to stumble away. With a shout, Blake re-joined her two blades mid-flight, grasped it in both hands and spun around, bringing her cleaver around with all her might to slam it into the back of the man's head.
He yelled out on impact and lurched forward into a wooden set of shelves holding various forms of clothing. The shelves broke and collapsed as he smashed into it and stumbled away, shirts, and tank tops falling to the ground in a heap. Blake took one shot at the back of the commanders knee as he stumbled back toward her, the bullet hit its mark and caused the leg to collapse from underneath him.
He slipped on a pair of denim jeans and was falling backwards to the ground. Just before he hit the floor, the flat side of Gamboul Shroud came down in one powerful swing and its purple hue was the last thing he saw before everything went black with a loud ding.
When Yang clawed her way out of all the clothes she found the store in worse condition then she left it in, Blake standing next to the commander breathing heavily, her knuckles white around Gamboul Shrouds grip.
Yang turned to find Alex watching on with bewilderment, gazing over the destruction of her store.
"Alex, I'm really sorry."
This was taking too long, they should have arrived minutes ago, they were never late. It shouldn't be that hard to get one dress shop off one woman, unless they were having a little fun with her, then that would explain the delay.
Trent checked the time again, tapping nervously on the steering wheel as he peered out the window toward the café store for another time.
"Should we call them?" Someone asked.
"Yeah I think we should-Whoooa!" Trent was cut off as the car suddenly tilted forward and started moving, as if something had lifted it off its rear wheels and was moving it along.
"What the hell!?"
He checked the rear view mirror and found a blonde girl lifting the car by the tail bar and pushing it along the road. She looked into the mirror and winked at him.
"What the fu- Get out!" He yelled, "Get out and stop her!" He commanded.
But just as their hands touched the door handles, Yang threw the car onto the ground and sent one powerful kick into the back of it, Ember Celica providing the required force not only to dent the boot shut, but to push the car down the alley way she had carried it into.
She laughed as she heard them yell as they were flung, no doubt, from their seats. It took them a moment after the car had come to a halt until they all burst out the vehicle, at which point Blake burst from the shadows and took three of them out before they even noticed, an almost invisible shade hidden by the darkness. The remaining three tried to run away before Yang slammed into the ground in front of them, ginning broadly as they literally shook in their boots.
Needless to say, these grunts were much easier to deal with than the other six, and a lot funnier.
Even if it was quick, Yang could still tell that her partner was feeling a lot more tense than usual, besides feeling the way her aura thrashed about haphazardly instead of its cool, smooth wavering, Blake was attacking with ferociousness she might not have intended, perhaps fuelled by anger and frustration.
As they made their way back to Leone Yang spoke up, "Blake I-"
"Yang!" Blake held her hand up. "Just, don't."
"I just want you to know we shouldn't hold you back from making a decision." Yang pressed, chasing after her partner who was failing to ignore the blonde.
"I know it seems like the opposite of how I should be feeling but I know what it's like to have a sister and it wouldn't be fair if you missed out because of us."
Blake tried to squeeze the words out, tried and failed.
"Blake of course I want you to stay with us," Yang grabbed her arm and turned her around. "Blake I love you, more than anything, you know that and I hate it when we're apart. But because I love you I want you to do what will make you happy."
Yang paused to wait for a response, but none came, Blake continued to avoid eye contact even as Yang fought to see her eyes.
"Blake?"
"Yang I don't!- Look- I don't know!" Blake yelled, stepping away from Yang.
"Know what?"
"I don't know what will make me happy! You've just assumed staying here will!"
"Well yeah don't you want to be with your siste-"
"Of course I do! Of course!"
"Then why-"
"Because Vale is my home now! Beacon is my home!" Blake snapped, her thoughts still battling amongst each other even as she yelled.
"For two years that was my home! It took me one of those years to realise that it was and another of those years for me to move on and accept that fact and that made me happy. Being with you made me happy and it still does."
"Leone doesn't make you happy?" Yang asked carefully.
"Of course she does Yang! She's my sister for christ's sake! My sister!" Blake motioned to herself.
Yang hated that all she was doing was watching her partner struggle to come to terms with what she wanted, something that was clearly painful to the faunas.
"Seventeen years Yang. Seventeen. I had forgotten about her that's how long it's been. But I loved her so much, even it was for a short time, I loved her more than anything. And now she's here, alive, and she wants me to stay and help her against the White Fang, something I had no clue how to do until now, something I so desperately want to achieve.
But how can I do that if I'm leaving everything that I've come to love and be grateful for behind?"
Blake looked Yang in the eye and Yang could see just how torn her partner was by the way the usual bright amber colour of her eyes had dimmed and quivered lightly.
"Blake, she's your sister, we can't question something like that. Family before frien-"
"Yang you are my family! You!"
The way she said it just showed how desperate Blake was to get Yang to understand just what she feeling.
"I had no family before Beacon, before team RWBY. I left the White Fang and everything and everyone, all I had was my books, my bow and my weapon. I had no family. But then I met you and your sister and Weiss and we became a team. In the beginning you guys were my teammates, but two years later, a few difficult times and a huge wake up call, I felt like calling Ruby 'baby sis' and Weiss 'sister'. You had already passed all that and got to me first, but Ruby and Weiss became my family."
Blake paused, taking a breath and letting it sink in.
"Do you understand now Yang? Not so long ago I realised where I wanted to be, who I wanted to be with, I was happy, I knew what I wanted, but now, now I have another family and I don't know where to go anymore."
A/N: I feel kinda bad for all the crap I've put Blake through...