Blake was peering down an alleyway as Sun went another direction to the docks to scout ahead of her.
Weiss had just entered a shop down the street when Blake peered out only to get shoved to a wall by an aggressive Yang.
"Yang?!" Blake was concerned now.
"Found you!" Yang was about to call for Weiss when Blake put a hand over her mouth.
"Yang... Look I just..."
Yang moved Blake's hand, loosening her grip on the faunus. "I know... Weiss clearly stepped out of line back there." she looked to Weiss who seemed to annoyed with how long the people at the shop were taking to get to her.
"We've been looking for you for these past couple of days Blake. If we don't take you back to Beacon then you're gonna be replaced on the team." she explained.
"I can't go back yet. Not till... Not till I prove to Weiss that the White Fang isn't the gang of thugs she thinks it is." Blake looked away.
"Then let me help you. Let your friends help you." Yang insisted.
"I... I can't I'm sorry... The White Fang has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and I just... I need to answer this for myself." she took Yang's hand off her now and turned back towards the alley.
"If you have to do this on your own Blake. Then please... Call me if anything goes wrong." Yang insisted.
Blake looked down sadly for a moment but then responded with a nod. "I will, I Promise."
She then ran down the alleyway as Weiss had just exited the store.
"Yang? Any luck around here?" she asked.
Yang just took a deep breath. "No..." she started walking ahead of Weiss again hoping that she made the right choice.
Jaune let out an exasperated sigh as he exited another shop, meeting Alix who was calmly waiting outside of the shop. "This is hopeless... She's no where to be found."
Alix frowned a bit but put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, it's only been an hour and we haven't even gotten more than halfway down the first street we've started on."
He was peering into some alleyways that they were walking by now.
"I hate that you're right." Jaune took his scroll out and decided to call his teammates to check up on them.
"Ren how're things with you and Nora?" Jaune asked.
"Well.." Ren let out an exhausted sigh as Nora laid on a bench right next to him. "Nora's eaten her fill for now... Though she's not gonna budge for a while."
Nora burped loudly as she dropped her finished cotton candy cone onto the ground.
"There better be some there later!" Jaune whined as Ren just sighed.
"Pyrrha how are things going with you and Cinder?" he asked.
"Well we have heard some rumors about a girl with a bow running around here nearby... But we're not certain if it's Blake." Pyrrha explained.
Cinder peered into a shop's window, looking for any sort of lead only to find nothing.
"Well, let us know if you have anything more solid." Jaune stated.
"Will do." Pyrrha hung up the call as Cinder opened the door to a shop that sells ribbons, she followed her in.
"Have you seen a girl, long black hair wearing a black bow like this?" Cinder asked.
"No... But I'll definitely see one if you buy it." the shopkeeper joked.
Cinder chuckled a little before holding out a small stack of lien. "How about now?" she asked.
"Come to think of it I might have seen a girl like that out by Tukson's this morning."
"Tukson's?" Pyrrha asked.
"It's a book store run by some animal lover." the man scoffed. "The damn fool has strays going into his shop all day."
"Thanks for the info." Cinder gave him the money before the two left. "So... Tukson's?"
Pyrrha entered the name into her scroll. "Says it's just a few blocks east of here." she stated.
"Well then, let's go." Cinder walked ahead of Pyrrha.
"Cinder..." Pyrrha paused for a moment. "Why did you wanna go with me?"
"Well I mean who wouldn't? You're the invincible girl and all." Cinder reasoned.
"But I mean... Most people are usually too intimidated to even talk to me."
"i see." Cinder looked away. "I can give off that impression at times too."
"Really? I guess we're kind of kindred spirits in a way." Pyrrha laughed a little bit.
"I guess so." Cinder smiled.
The two would eventually reach Tukson's Book Trade.
Upon entering the shop Tukson immediately recognized Pyrrha. "Pyrrha Nikos! The invincible girl! Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade! Home to every book under the sun!"
"H-Hey... We're uh looking for someone." Pyrrha began.
Cinder stepped forward. "Have you seen or met a girl recently with long black hair wearing a bow?"
"Long black hair and a bow..." Tukson paused, he definitely knew exactly who they were talking about. "Why? Is this someone important to you?" he asked.
"She's a classmate of mine who ran off." Pyrrha stated. "We're worried about her."
"I see." Tukson crossed his arms. "I'm sorry to say, but you just missed her. She left a while ago."
"So you've seen Blake?!" Pyrrha leaned forward.
"Yes." he nodded.
"Where'd she go?" Cinder asked.
Tukson looked from side to side. "The docks. The White Fang is apparently planning some big heist there. Blake's determined to prove it's not them. But between you and me, I'm worried for her safety as well... Please, if you could go there to make sure she makes it out of there alright, I'd appreciate it."
"Of course." Pyrrha nodded and turned to Cinder. "You heard him."
"She's likely going to be staking out this 'planned heist'. We'll step in then." Cinder reasoned.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Pyrrha nodded before the two left the shop, Pyrrha sending a text to the rest of her teammates.
Later into the day...
"So... Blake's your friend, right Ruby?" Penny asked her.
"Yes Penny." Ruby rolled her eyes.
"But she hid something from you."
"Yep..." Ruby nodded along.
"You know, if I had some big secret that might be important to my friends... I'd wanna tell them about it." she suddenly hiccuped.
"You okay, Penny?" Ruby asked as the girl laughed awkwardly before suddenly the sound of an explosion was heard in the distance and smoke rose up from by the docks.
"Oh no..." Ruby remarked as she ran ahead, Penny following behind her.
Blake grunted as she picked herself up off of the ground only to have to dodge another shot fired from Roman Torchwick's cane. She dodged that one, backflipped from the next one and left a shadow clone behind to take the hit for the next one as she turned a corner.
"Find her." Roman ordered as a few of the grunts would run after her along with Corsec and Fennec, who walked at a slower pace. "Neo, stay by the ship!"
Neo simply rolled her eyes and sat herself down where she was on the bullhead.
"Here kitty kitty kitty..." Roman snickered before a banana peel landed right onto his hat followed by Sun Wukong who had jumped down off of a crate.
Roman groaned while picking himself up, brushing his coat off as several soldiers surrounded him now, including the now camouflaged in black one.
"Not the brightest banana in the bunch, are ya kid?!" he taunted.
Sun then dodged the swipe of a sword, punching a White Fang grunt in the face, and spun kick another one before they could follow up from the previous attack and he then took his cane out and smashed it into the head of another one, and another solider that came at his flank. Slamming the blunt end of it into the face of another and then slamming his cane into the ground creating a shockwave that knocked everyone back.
The camouflaged White Fang member took their weapon out which unfolded into a rapier that she swung out at him with, revealing it to be a Whip as well that Sun barely dodged out of the way of.
Blake on the other hand was keeping her head down as she hid behind a crate. "Sister Blake, we know you're here." Corsec spoke out.
"If you come out peacefully we promise you won't be harmed." Fennec stated in an almost calming tone. No, she wouldn't be tempted back. Not after all that the White Fang had done.
Blake stepped out from her hiding spot with Gambol Shroud drawn out in it's gun form.
Before she could fire her first shot however, an arrow flew out and hit the ground near the Albain twins and the other White Fang members, exploding shortly after impact.
Blake turned around, surprised to see Cinder, Alix and Team JNPR entering the scene.
"You guys?!" Blake was surprised.
"A friend of yours was worried about you." Pyrrha stated.
"Good thing we showed up when we did." Alix nodded, holding his daggers in front of him.
Corsec and Fennec glared and ordered their men forward before falling back to regroup with more reinforcements.
"Blake, go on ahead. We'll handle this." Cinder insisted with a smirk on her face as she took apart her weapon's bow form into it's twin swords form and blocked the sword from a White Fang grunt, kicking them in the stomach.
Nora was having the time of her life, she slammed her hammer into one of the White Fang soldiers, slamming them into a crate, leaving a pretty hefty dent.
Jaune was starting to get ganged up on by a few White Fang soldiers, taking hit after hit when Ren jumped in, firing shots from his Stormflower at them, knocking a couple on their back as he delivered a kick to the chin of another and slashed at the last one on Jaune's left flank with his weapon's blades, dusting himself off. Jaune, seeing another soldier attempt to attack Ren from behind with a gun, jumped in front of him and blocked a bullet with his shield, the bullet ricocheting off the shield and into the faunus's shoulder. Pyrrha then knocked him out by throwing her shield at him, smiling to Jaune before turning her attention to the other soldiers that were rushing at her.
Alix ducked and weaved slash after slash, before rolling away and activating the wind dust in his daggers, creating a vortex that blew all the White Fang soldiers into a crate, a few of them however got back up and kept rushing at the group.
Sun ducked and backflipped from the Camouflaged White Fang member's whip, jumping onto the back of a downed soldier and flinging him towards Roman who ducked the attack and fired off a shot in Sun's direction that he deflected by spinning his staff around.
"He's mine!" Blake rushed in and swung her sword at Roman, who raised his cane up to block it. She then followed up, separating her weapon from it's bladed sheath, now dual wielding and attacking Roman with a flurry of blows, each of which he deflected with ease till he found an opening on her in the middle of another attack, hitting her with the handle part of his cane, then quickly spinning it around and hitting her on the head with the blunt part and then knocking her back with a blow to her chin from the bottom when Sun suddenly interjected.
Sun separated his staff into a pair of nun-chucks that also doubled as sawed-off shotguns, firing shot after shot at Roman that he was having an increasingly hard time keeping up with, yet he still managed to parry and block each one before Blake, seeing a chance, struck Roman in the gut with her katana, knocking the thief onto his back.
He grunted in annoyance just as Nora had sent a White Fang goon flying into a crate that was hanging from a crane. Roman smirked with an idea now and fired off a shot at the crate, Blake and Sun barely able to dodge it as Sun landed right at the Camouflaged White Fang soldier's feet, now pointing her weapon's rapier form at him.
"HEY!" Ruby yelled out as she stepped into the scene now with Penny standing right behind her.
"Oh, if it isn't little red! Out past your bed time?!" Roman taunted.
"Ruby, is this person your friend?" Penny asked curiously.
"Penny, stand back, I'll handle this." Ruby saw a shot from Roman's cane flying at her and fired a shot into the ground to dodge it and landed right in the ship yard as a few White Fang soldiers including the large one wielding a chainsaw surrounded her.
Just outside this scene Yang and Weiss were running over before seeing a flare shot blur by them and explode upon hitting a building. "Ruby." she looked to Weiss who nodded, calling her rocket propelled locker over that arrived after a couple of seconds, opening with her weapon that she took.
"You know, I never get tired of that." Yang chuckled.
"Me neither." Weiss admitted coyly before nodding to Yang, jumping up onto a glyph to get a better vantage point on what was going on by the docks.
Yang continued ahead, running through a ripped open crate only to come face to face with Neo who simply smirked at her.
"I don't have time for you." Yang insisted as she walked ahead only for Neo to appear in front of her and hit her cheek with her umbrella.
"You wanna fight?!" Yang glared as Neo smiled, shattering into glass as Yang punched her. "W-What?!" she was caught off guard as Neo was now behind her. Yang grit her teeth and fired a shot off from her weapon at Neo, again shattering. "You're getting on my nerves!" Yang groaned as she was now surrounded by copies of this girl.
The camouflaged White Fang member was about to attack Sun when suddenly a glyph appeared over her hand and pulled her back much to Sun's surprise as Weiss had arrived on the scene.
"Weiss?!" Blake was surprised to see her.
"We'll talk later..." Weiss stated. "It looks like Ruby could use your help."
Ruby was keeping good crowd control with the regular soldiers, however the chainsaw wielding soldier wasn't giving her any easy time at all as each shot from her sniper didn't seem to phase him much. Each attack he did was giving Ruby a tough time as both of their weapons required heavy swings, yet his swings were still faster than her's.
"Right." Blake nodded and ran to Ruby's side. "Ruby!" Blake called out.
"Blake!" Ruby then fired a shot off behind her, propelling her forward, Blake pushed herself forward with one of her shadow clones, the two slashing at the White Fang Lieutenant in succession before, their final joint attack had them both diving forward at the Lieutenant who was launched backwards and into the back of one of the bullheads.
"Good one, Blake." Ruby smiled to her teammate. "We have GOT to name that one!" she insisted before a flare shot hit her, sending her flying back, knocking Crescent Rose out of her hand.
Roman laughed as he had gotten a successful shot off on little Red, looking back towards the airship where Neo suddenly reappeared with a smirk on her face. "Playing with the kids now?" She simply rolled her eyes as Yang now rushed onto the scene, her little diversion only really wasting the blonde's time.
"Ruby!" Yang and Blake called out to her in a panic as Penny jumped down and rushed to her friend's side.
"Are you okay, Ruby?" Penny asked.
"I-I'm fine." Ruby sat herself up, holding her side as Yang's eyes turned red and Penny turned around in Roman's direction, glaring at him now.
"Penny wait!" Ruby panicked.
"It's okay Ruby." Penny assured. "I'm Combat ready!" Suddenly six swords protruded from her backpack as she then ran forward.
The Camouflaged White Fang member grit her teeth in anger as she lashed out her whip at Weiss who dodged and parried each attack. "Schnee!" she yelled as Corsec and Fennec, having stuck to the shadows for most of this battle leaped out at Weiss with daggers in their hands, only to be stopped by Sun getting in their way and blocking their attacks with his weapon's staff form.
It was here when JNPR, Alix and Cinder all rushed onto the scene to provide backup to Weiss and Sun, the three White Fang operatives were now surrounded.
Thinking fast the Camouflaged soldier, used her whip to smash the controls of a crane, causing it to spin out of control, accidentally slamming into a bullhead, but providing a distraction for her, Corsec and Fennec to escape from the group. TThe crane, spinning around eventually came down where they were just standing a second ago.
Penny effortlessly cut down enemy soldiers with her swords that spun around her almost like a shield except for when she sent them forward with basic movements. A White Fang soldier in one of the bullheads wielding a minigun opened fire onto her. Her swords quickly spun in front of her to protect her as two more came out from her backpack and pulled her back to a warehouse where she then held her hands out. Penny's swords started circling around her hands and focusing into an orb of energy that then shot forward and cut through 3 of the bullheads.
Roman immediately turned tail and ran as the other students started to approach, Cinder firing a set of 3 arrows at the bullhead, only one of them impacting and causing it to shake as it took off.
"These damn kids just keep getting weirder!" Roman remarked.
Corsec, Fennec, the Lieutenant and the Camouflaged soldier all flew off in another bullhead as Penny hooked onto an adjacent bullhead that was attempting to make off with a crate of dust with her swords. She immediately pulled it down and it exploded while all the others got away even with Cinder, Nora and Yang attempting to stop them with their explosive firepower.
"Dammit... They got away." Yang grunted in annoyance as Ruby leaned on her scythe to stand up, smiling to everyone as they all gathered together.
Cop cars showed up shortly after and everyone's statements were being taken, with Nora clearly exaggerating on some parts, much to Ren's slight annoyance.
Weiss finally returned to her teammates whom had all gathered by their own little corner and Blake immediately spoke up.
"Weiss, I just wanted to say that I'm no longer associated with the-" Blake was cut off when Weiss raised a hand up to shush her.
"I don't care." Weiss stated.
"You... Don't care?!" Blake was surprised.
"Yes, you said you don't work with them anymore, right?"
"Yes, I haven't worked with them since I was-"
"Ah-bah-bah-bah! I don't want to hear it." Weiss stated. "All I want to know if something this big comes up again. You'll come to us, your teammates first and not..." she looked in Sun's direction, him smiling cheekily. "Someone else."
Blake wiped a tear from her eye as she smiled to her teammates. "Of course." She was pulled into a group hug with her teammates.
"Woo! Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby cheered.
Weiss then shot another Glare at Sun. "I still don't know how to feel about you..."
"Eheh... No hard feelings?" he asked.
"Well you did save me." Weiss nodded. "I suppose I'll thank you for that act."
Sun just rolled his eyes and looked to Blake. "This one's really an Ice Queen, isn't she?"
Everyone but Weiss laughed at that joke. "Oh that won't catch on." Weiss scoffed.
"Sure it won't. Ice Queen." Ruby snickered.
Team JNPR, Cinder and Alix had finished giving their statements when they approached the group.
"Say, where's Penny?" Ruby asked looking for her among the group.
Penny looked down sadly as she sat in the back of a black car.
"You should know better than to run around getting into fights, Penny." the voice of a mysterious man stated.
"I know, Sir..." she frowned.
"Your time will come, Penny." the voice assured her.
Back at Beacon, in his office Ozpin took a sip of cocoa from his mug, watching the live feed by the docks when a message came onto his scroll. It was from a Qrow Branwen and simply read: THE QUEEN HAS PAWNS
"Hmm.." Ozpin sat down.
Roman groaned as he entered a dimly lit warehouse, carrying a single case full of dust, dropping it onto a table as he leans on it. Neo frowned a little before slinking back into the darkness of the warehouse, clearly not wanting to bother Roman in this state. "Dammit..." he groaned. "Half of those damn animals left!" he threw his cane to the ground in annoyance. "Ran back to their dirty zoo of an island!"
"How disappointing, Roman." a slightly deeper yet familiar female voice called out to him as he stood up and grit his teeth.
"Whoa! I wasn't expecting you this soon!" Roman straightened his posture a bit.
Cinder Fall stepped out of the shadows wearing a different outfit, it looked to be a very ornate outfit of red, gold and black with a long coat tail.
"It was your dumb idea to work with those stupid mutts from the White Fang! And you certainly didn't make my trip back here any easier!"
"I had to keep my cover..." she explained. "Needless to say, we still were expecting better from you." Cinder shook her head. "And you will continue working with the White Fang."
She held her hand out and a flame formed in it. "We have big plans for you, Roman." she stepped forward, her eyes now glowing a sinister golden as two more individuals stood behind her. One of which a young pale man with Silver hair and an outfit of silvers, blacks and grays and the other a young dark skinned woman with mint green hair, wearing a short white and green top and white pants. The two of them looked rather amused to see Roman looking this threatened.
"All we ask of you is... A little cooperation." Cinder smiled sinisterly.
Commentary: With this, Volume 1 has wrapped up! Much larger scale finale than the original, eh? Yang and Blake having a scene before the docks as a slight flash back just felt a little right to me especially if we wanna establish them a bit earlier on as being good with each other. Then the dock fight... I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun writing this one out. Obviously some things from the original Black and White stayed, but much more was added in that wasn't in the original. Certain rivalries are somewhat teased here, oh and another team attack does end up happening here as well. I'm just happy with how this finale turned out when I originally wrote it a couple of months ago. I didn't have to do too much editing here either, so that's a plus. Anyways, Volume 1 is done, next is Volume 2!