(A/N) Hello again!

Cover art by DownSmashJon.

Playing Our Roles

Chapter 39

Slacking off is much harder to do when you are constantly surrounded by fanatical Faunus that glare at you if you do so much as breathe in their general direction. Oh, I knew what these guys think of my leadership over them. I've been going out of my way to just barely scrape the required quota of Dust while Cinder was gone for the first semester of Beacon and they know that was what I was doing because we could easily be able to increase our stealing if I just gave the order. Even if they know that I was purposely doing minimal effort they can't actually say anything about it because I was still technically doing a good job.

Oh sure, I always said something about how professional thieves do things. How we can't just steal everything from stores all the time when they reopen for business. How an endless stream of crimes is going to be noticed by people and let the authorities track our location. But doing only a single, albeit rather large, robbery every now and then and just sitting still for the rest of the week makes the minions antsy and in need of a reminder of who was in charge.

Personally beating the crap out of the people that try to tell me off about the direction of my leadership here tends to keep most of them in line.

Sadly, for me, I can't always brush off my so-called duties to Cinder's plan and every once in a while I needed to get up off my ass more than usual and steal something. Granted, there really isn't much else for me to do anyway as anything that is useful to change to be against Cinder happens after the first semester of Beacon. Really, this is just me playing the waiting game right now. Anyway, thanks to my efforts the Schnee Dust Company started sending more Dust overseas to vale and every now and then the White Fang and I would go out to the docks and steal containers of Dust. I didn't expect that I'd be stealing from the docks before meeting Blake and Sun but that's how things have happened.

A lot of the less intelligent members of the White Fang often question why we don't just steal everything from the docks after they've been unloaded. Whenever I am asked something like that I would put my best grandfatherly smile on my face and calmly explain to them why I thought they were worth less than the ground they walk on and why they personally lowered the intelligence of everyone on Remnant just by existing. If one needs to ask why a single group of criminals, even ones with access to Bullheads, can't just steal an entire freight ship's worth of Dust by themselves in a single night without being caught in the act or caught trying to hide that much Dust in one go then perhaps they should be taken to the hospital to be tested for mental retardation.

Besides the logistical nightmare of trying to quietly move that much Dust at once before the authorities take notice, there is also the fact that the city needs Dust to function as well. I might not be patriotic to Vale or Remnant as a whole, but I'm not so cruel and callous enough to let the city suffer too much. The people in the city are my primary sources of money, entertainment, and experience from crime and I can't let that go to waste.

Regardless, tonight I had to lead some of the White Fang on another excursion to liberate a few containers of Dust from one of the newest big Schnee freight ships that arrived in Vale and offloaded its cargo. I wasn't expecting trouble anytime soon as I have yet to have gotten another quest, and I expect the next quest to be when Blake and Sun interrupt one of my heists on a big Schnee ship. Well, all of these Dust ships are Schnee ships technically, monopoly and all. I'm pretty sure that episode happened sometime in the middle to the end of the first semester and Beacon's school semester was in the right time frame for it to happen sometime soon.

As the bullhead I was sitting in with a bunch of White Fang mooks shook around during its flight I had a bit of an epiphany.

"No…" I inwardly groaned to myself. "This can't be the mission where I fight with Blake and Sun. I haven't gotten a quest yet! I've always gotten a quest before a major point in time!"

The airship landed on the dock and the side door to the ship was opened, the grunts filed out of the airship the second the ramp was extended to the ground and quickly gathered around the base of the walkway. One of the grunts, a bit higher up on the food chain but not by much, held a gun in his hands as he ordered the other White Fang members around, "Alright, grab the tow cables!"

I groaned audibly as I watched the stupid grunts fail to quickly set everything up. It wasn't even hard to attach the cables to the ship and a container of Dust, how the hell were they screwing this up?! This is why the only grunts I trust were the ones I picked and trained myself over the years, but I had to keep reminding myself that losing any of them to this farce with Cinder would be worse than dealing with these clowns.

I roughly pushed myself out of my seat and stood in the large doorway of the airship in order to call out to the incompetent fools, "Hey! In case any of you mismatched mutts haven't noticed this isn't exactly a quiet robbery, how about you gather some brain cells between the lot of you and hurry it up!"

I grumbled to myself as I got off the bullhead and walked around, watching the Faunus get things set up. I rolled my eyes dramatically when one of the grunts came forward with some cable in his hands, I pointed him away without a word and continued my walk.

And yes, I was entirely aware of someone hiding behind one of the Dust containers.

And yes, I knew that was Blake because who else could it be.

She was clearly waiting for her chance to get the drop on me and I realized that I may have gotten rid of her first chance when I sent that idiot away without a word instead of confronting him. Well, we can't have that now, can we? To use a phrase that doesn't fit well with the character in question, I decided to throw the poor girl a bone and stood in front of the container she was hiding behind.

I was rewarded with a blade at my throat not a second later.

"Finally," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

"Nobody move!" Blake yelled to the White Fang grunts as they reacted to her sudden appearance by surrounding us and pointing their weapons at her. And me.

The Black Beauty

Blake Belladonna Lv47

"Might want to take it easy there," I said, not bothered in the slightest at all of the weapons pointed at me. "You're not exactly with friends right now."

She ignored me, kind of irritating, to be honest, and took her bow off of her head to reveal her cat ears to everyone present, "Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum?!"

The White Fang looked uneasy at Blake's Faunus feature and calling them brothers. If my memories of this part of the show are correct then it's up to me to get this fight underway. I chuckled at Blake and said, "Now really kid, have you been living under a rock?"

"What are you talking about?" Blake demanded.

"The Fang and I have been quite close these days. Lots of shared friends and business ventures between us," I explained with a smug grin.

"Tell me everything you know or I'll put an end to this little operation of yours," she replied, bringing her blade closer to my neck.

"Well," I said as the wind from two descending bullheads battered against us, "It's not the size that's important, it's how you use it."

With Blake distracted by the two flying airships, I took that as my chance to start the fight. I grabbed the hand holding her blade to my throat and threw her over my shoulder, kicking her in the small of her back for good measure and making a few of the White Fang members stumble a bit when they got in the way.

"Watch it!" one of them yelled before Blake quickly sprung up with her hands and kicked him in the jaw hard enough to send him flying away. Gambol Shroud was flung in the face of another grunt before it fired a shot and swung back to hit a second on Blake's opposite side.

The White Fang wasn't idle, the closest grunts rushing in to confront her in melee while the ones farther back aimed with their guns. It wasn't a kind match-up, Blake tore through the poor souls and on the final grunt she tripped him with her weapon and landed hard on his face, knocking him out. I didn't give her any rest and swung a fist into the side of her head.

With a yell of surprise and pain, she quickly backed off and took cover behind a container. I slowly followed her, knowing what was about to happen, "Here kitty kitty kitty." Sure enough, a banana peel fell on top of my hat and I quickly brushed it off and glared up at the monkey Faunus, quickly getting out of the way of his attack.

With a roll and a bit of acrobatics, Sun got up and stared me down. I'll give him props, he didn't flinch at all when confronting me. "Leave her alone," Sun said to me.

The bullhead above us opened and a gaggle of White Fang grunts fell out and landed around me with their weapons ready. "You know," I said, wanting to pull out a cigar but figured it wasn't the time for that right now. "She's the one that started it."

With that, the grunts charged at Sun and unsurprisingly were getting their collective ass kicked by him. When the final grunt was finally taken out I pointed the cane that I had yet to use during the fight at Sun and fired. With a show of surprising reflexes, Sun twirled his gun-chuck bo-staff around and redirected my cane's explosive round off to a safe distance at his side.

"He's mine!" Blake yelled. I didn't know exactly what I had done to piss her off so much but whatever.

She charged me and we entered into a furious exchange of cane versus whatever the hell her weapon was (I kind of forgot, I never paid much attention to her). Well, perhaps it was a furious exchange for poor Blake here. Admittedly I was going ungodly easy on the girl and sticking to pure skill, stats, and plain physical attacks and moves. But our differences in levels and stats were so great that it felt like she was moving in slow motion the entire time.

I parried and dodged every attack she threw at me and threw hit after hit at her. She did have good battle reflexes and instinct, I'll give her that, as she managed to barely dodge some hits or use her semblance to get out of the way of my other attacks. I wasn't giving this my all in our first exchange but her Aura took a heavy beating nonetheless.

Just as I slammed my foot into her stomach and sent her tumbling away Sun came in to rescue her from the beating I had been giving her this entire fight. With his gun-chucks on full badassery, he proceeded to spin and fire them at me in rapid succession, showing his skill at using such an unconventional weapon. I still managed to block and avoid all of his shots but it was slightly harder to do so with him.

The Shining Sun

Sun Wukong Lv51

Well, he is a higher level than Blake is, and is the team leader of his team so it should be expected. Blake rejoined the fight and tried to hit me after Sun and I's exchange, I weaved around her blade and jammed my cane handle into her side, right into her ribs. I ducked under a swing from Sun's weapon, now in its staff form, and hooked my cane on its length. With a quick tug my superior strength won out and I wrenched the staff out of his hands before getting into a hand to hand fight with the kid.

It ended poorly for him as it did for Blake and after a series of heavy punches and kicks I finished off the exchange with a blast from my cane straight into his face. With a cry of pain, he flew backward and dented the side of a Dust container.

"Sun!" Blake cried.

"Oh come now kitty cat," I said as I sauntered and circled around Blake, Ruby was taking a while to get here so I needed to stall a bit. "If you didn't want this to have ended so poorly then you should have brought more friends along. You're strong for a brat so you must be a Beacon student I'm sure they'd be happy to join a fight like this."

She picked herself off of the ground, holding her side, and glared at me, "I don't need to burden them with my problems. I lied to them about who I am and I will not put them in danger."

I scoffed, "Sounds to me like you're just abandoning them, running away from your problems like a coward." I tapped a finger to my chin and pretended to think, "Or is it a scaredy-cat?"

"I don't abandon my friends!" Blake suddenly yelled out.

I frowned when she said that, remembering all too well that she did, in fact, abandon her partner. Not even giving her a farewell after her crazy ex-boyfriend chops Yang's arm off and sends her into a depression. She didn't necessarily have to stay forever if she needed to get home and all, but Hell she could have at least stayed until Yang woke up. I really fucking hate people that do shit like that.

Great, now I'm pissed.

I growled and rushed at Blake, I still wasn't using any skills but it didn't matter as she was taken completely off guard. My fist buried itself into her stomach, briefly folding her around my arm until she was launched into the other end of the container Sun hit. Blake's weapon skittered off somewhere but I paid it no mind as I just hit her over and over wherever I was able to reach at the time, and in my rage, it took every bit of self-control I had not to kill her.

In the end, she was retching and coughing, a bit of blood and spit was caked around her mouth and she huddled on the ground with her hands over her stomach staring at nothing. I pulled a foot back for one more hit and lashed it out, aiming for nothing in particular.

"That's enough!" A sudden shout came from my side and a yellow blur jumped in front of my foot. Sun grunted in pain as my kick nailed him in the spine but he didn't budge from his prone position over Blake. I was a bit surprised because I was sure he was knocked out, but he must have just come out of it. "You won, you beat us. Just leave her alone," Sun said, glaring up at me. His aura was weak and he looked beat up, but he refused to move from his position and looked me straight in the eyes.

I respect those eyes.

I looked back at Blake, from what little I could see with Sun covering her up, and took in the damage I had done to her with Observe. Her aura was gone and she had bruises and cuts, and what had to be a couple of broken bones and ribs. My mouth twitched a bit and I had to stop myself from grimacing.

Her health was really low, like, it only had a fourth of it remaining. Even with aura doing a lot of the heavy lifting she'd be looking at a stay in the hospital for a while. Low health is hazardous for normal people, it carries a lot of risks and means that their body is close to failing them. Some people have their health pools permanently lowered due to many different things like age or disease.

I… from what little I can actually remember about my life I knew that I never really liked Blake in the show and the deal with abandoning Yang just sealed it for me. But… I'd never want her to be so badly hurt. She was one of the good guys, one of the people that is going to help save the world from Salem.

I palmed my face and rubbed my brow and muttered softly enough to not be heard, "Fuck, what the hell is wrong with me?"

The screeching of bullheads was heard and I looked up to see a few of the other airships of the White Fang flying around with some Dust containers underneath them. One of them touched down in a more open area of the dock we were in and I knew that there wasn't much time. I sighed and held my cane in a more relaxed manner and slowly made my way over to the two kids before me.

Sun immediately got defensive and I just held a hand out with a tired sigh, "Relax kid. I'm not going to hurt her… more. Just watch."

I held up a single finger and slowly touched Blake's forehead, using Aura Mend on her without a Dust crystal as I don't want her aura to be recharged just yet. Sun watched in stunned awe as he saw Blake's wounds and injuries go away right in front of him. At the same time, I used a sleep spell that I learned in the wizard book on her to keep her out of the way until she reunites with her friends. It'd last maybe ten minutes.

With that done, I got up and walked away without saying a word. I had many things to reflect on. Like, why in the world did I get so angry when I was reminded of Blake abandoning Yang. Sure, she was a great character in the show but I am certain that she wasn't all that important to me. That anger… didn't feel like it was specifically about Blake and Yang…

[For defeating Blake and Sun you have received 80,000 EXP and 30,000 Lien!]

(A/N) Honestly, I really need to get to the second volume of RWBY. Nothing noteworthy happens for Roman in the first, it's all just stealing Dust and robbery. Would anyone really want to read chapter after chapter of that?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you next time!

Name: Roman Torchwick

Age: 30

Class: The Gamer

Level: 149 (Next Level: 7,441,872/11,016,000)

Title: Crime Lord(u)/Partners in Crime

Bounty: 925,000 Lien

HP: 9,718

HP Regen: 194.36/min (2%)

MP: 23,540.4 [13,078 + 653.9(5%) + 9,808.5(75%)]

MP Regen: 5,437.8/min [2,589.4(base 11%) + 2,589.4(100%) + (259(10%)]

STR: 249.2 [Base 178 + 53.4(30%) + 17.8(10%)]

VIT: 226.8 [Base 162 + 48.6(30%) + 16.2(10%)]

DEX: 625.25 [Base 305 + 45.75(15%) + 91.5(30%) + 30.5(10%) + 152.5(50%)]

INT: 562.8 [Base 402 + 120.6(30%) + 40.2(10%)]

WIS: 112 [Base 80 + 24(30%) + 8(10%)]

LUK: 100 (Max)

Elemental Affinity: Earth (40), Wind (40), Fire (40), Ice (40), Lightning (40)

Attribute Points: 0