First of all holy crap guys thank you guys for the 20 follows and 10 favorites so far! This means a lot to me and tells me that you enjoyed my work so far and I hope I can continue to live up to your expectations. As usual, get on with this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY only my OCs. RWBY belongs to Rooster teeth and their creator (bless his soul) Monty Oum.
"Hi I'm bob" exterior conversation
"hi I'm bob" interior talking
Chapter 8
The Stray and the Changer of Fate
A week had passed since Jade received a kiss from Blake much to his surprise and as of now, everyone was having lunch at the dining room. Nora was telling her wild tales while Ren was busy explaining to everyone the truth as Nora continues to exaggerate her stories. Jade on the other hand, looked dazed which Blake noticed.
"Jade are you ok?" She asked and got no response from him.
She then shook him on the shoulder, that did the trick as Jade snapped out of it and and using his left hand, he massaged his forehead while seemingly in pain before looking at Blake while muttering
"I'm sorry about that, I am not sure what happened, my mind just goes blank if you know what I mean."
"No I don't. And besides, you're been doing this for the past two days, are you alright?" Blake told him back.
"I'm fine Blake, thank you for your concern, I meant it. But perhaps I should go get myself checked out." Jade assured Blake before nodding as he stood up from his seat. He then smirks before whispering to Blake.
"By the way, don't forget to tell the guys where I go, won't want that awkward situation to happen again would we?"
"Right I'll tell them. Oh, by the way, Weiss wants us later after class to go to Vale for something."
"Ok I'll take note of that." he nods as he waved to her as she does the same. Jade then left the dining hall to pay Ozpin a visit. Ruby noticed Jade leaving and notified the rest who all looked at Blake.
"Where did Jade go?" Ruby was the first to ask Blake."
"He went to get help."
"What! What happened to him? I can't have my Lemon-honey maker be sick!" Nora yelled in surprise. Ever Since that dinner, Nora had been bugging him to make lemon-honey for her constantly, much to his displeasure (he really needed to teach Ren how to make it stop her from bothering him).
"Have you noticed in the past two days Jade looked dazed?" Blake responds back with a question.
"Come to think of it yea, he has been doing this." Weiss responds.
"It did happen back in the middle of Mrs Goodwitch lesson yesterday, did any of you remember that?" Yang confirmed it with her memory.
"I think something is bothering him." Jaune pointed it out.
"Yes, but the question is what is causing him to daze out?" Pyrrha joined in.
"We won't know anyways, Jade went to go get help but I trust he would tell us later in class." Blake tried to assure her friends for Jade's sake.
"Hope you're right, I refused to let him hold us back when the Vytal Festival hit Vale." Weiss states.
"I hope he's ok…" Ruby says as she received various nods from her friends.
Jade was walking down the corridor towards the elevator that would take him to Ozpin's office, the man he dislikes a lot for Ozpin had blackmailed him to join his school so as to not get sent to jail, and that Ozpin is hiding something, and people who hide secrets made Jade nervous of their intentions. Some would call him paranoid, but to him, its security and safety even if he does not show it. As he continued walking down the corridor, A sharp pain in his head caused Jade to wince and leaned against the wall in an effort to not collapse. As he struggled to get his footing another bunch of memories flowed through his head.
The memory showed team RWBY(without him much to his surprise) at the streets of Vale while being decorated, them chasing a monkey faunus and running into a Orange haired girl named Penny, Both Weiss and Blake arguing about the White Fang, them back at night continuing arguing till Blake accidentally revealed her origins much to Jade's dismay that it happened. Blake runs away from her team and meets the very same monkey faunus from earlier and many more of that scene flooded into his mind.
At the end of everything Jade was on the floor leaning against the wall while in cold sweat and breathing heavily. While he tried to get himself back on his feet, Jade's thoughts were in overdrive.
"What the hell was that?! That is not like any other dream I had in the past. Is that a vision of the future? But… Where am I in it? If that's the future then I should be with the team right? This does not add up…" His thoughts continue to run as he gets up on his feet and heads towards the elevator and boarding it and trying not to collapse again..
At Ozpin's office,
Ozpin was looking outside his window over the entire Beacon Academy with his mug of hot chocolate when the bell for the elevator rang and opened revealing Jade. As he walked out of it, he collapsed to his knees while groaning in pain as his left hand was clutching his head. Ozpin, seeing the state of his (reluctant) student quickly put his mug down on the table before rushing to assist his student. As he got close to Jade he asked,
"Mr Grayson are you alright?" Ozpin asked with concern in his voice.
"Yea… I'm totally fine…" Jade managed to sarcastically groan it out as he accepted Ozpin's assistance.
"Ah I see you still have your sharp tongue after all of this." Ozpin stated as he helped Jade up on his feet.
"Yea thanks Ozpin, I came to you about this, much to my displeasure and hesitation." Jade explained the situation as Ozpin helped guide him to a chair opposite to his table.
"And how can I be of assistance to you Mr Grayson." Ozpin asked Jade as he sat on his own chair opposite of Jade.
"I'll cut straight to the point Ozpin, I don't like you, but I've been told by my friend that I've been dazing out, heck just yesterday I dazed out in the middle of combat in Mrs Goodwitch class." Jade told Ozpin as he got comfy in his chair.
"And what was that when you entered my office?" Ozpin asked as he took a sip of hot chocolate from his mug.
"That… just recently started to happen to me, a few minutes ago while I was going to visit you, but that was not the strangest part of it." Jade explained about what happened a few minutes ago.
Ozpin's eye raised a bit which Jade immediately noticed before continuing with his explanation.
" I.. got visions of the future? More accurately, what's going to happen later today when my team and I pay a visit to Vale." Jade explained.
"Can you tell me some examples?" Ozpin questioned Jade about his 'Visions' as he called it.
"Well the details are confusing even to me, for one, I don't appear to exist in the vision of mine, it's as if I don't exist in it. The next thing is that they were chasing a monkey faunus student. I guess he's from another academy, next is Weiss running to an orange haired girl, she acted strange… as if she is not human to begin with." Jade continued explaining his vision while Ozpin continued to listen with interest.
"Or she could just have no social interaction with people before." Ozpin suggested.
"To live with no social interaction," Jade chuckled before continuing, "not the kind of life I want to live at all…" Jade mumbled.
"I may not have an answer to your visions nor how do they show up suddenly but, if they represent the future, the question I think you should be asking yourself is, what are you going to do with it?" Ozpin offered an idea on what to do.
Jade noticeably paused as if he is thinking of an answer to respond back. Within seconds, Jade sighed and gave his answer.
"I am not sure… For one thing if that's part of the future, I should step in and make it different but, at the same time, I shouldn't." Jade finally gave his answer as Ozpin put his hand on his chin as he sat through it before speaking.
" And why is that so?" He continued questioning Jade.
"I don't know to be honest, I just felt that I'm meddling in something I had no control over and that it may backfire in my face." Jade gave his answer.
"I suppose some questions must remain unanswered but nevermind that, are you feeling better?" Ozpin asked Jade.
"I suppose I am." Jade took out his scroll to check the time and put it away before continuing. " Sorry headmaster, it appears we are all out of time, I still have classes after all." Jade says as he gets up from his chair.
"Of course Mr Grayson, if you need me, I'll be here. But please if this continues Mr Grayson, feel free to seek medical help, I cant have one of my top students die or go insane on me when they show potential on me." Ozpin gave Jade some advice with concern (unsurprisingly) in his voice as Jade left his office and entered the elevator to go back to class.
Much time later in the streets of Vale…
The streets of Vale being decorated in time for the Vytal Festival. Red, yellow, and green streamers and balloons are proudly on display, and Team RWBY (and Jade) is strolling through it all with an awed Weiss Schnee in the front. A sign is being put up by the elderly Shopkeeper that reads in bright red letters "WELCOME TO VALE!" for all the foreign newcomers from their respective kingdoms of Remnant.
"The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!" Weiss cheerfully comments
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss." Ruby frowns a little before continuing on. "It's kinda weirding me out..."
"How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breath-taking!" Weiss continued her yapping.
"What a waste of resources... All these could be put into making sure that we have strength to fight off the Grimm and maybe push them back." Jade muttered in annoyance
Yang sighs before adding in her comments. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."
"Quiet, both of you!" Weiss snapped at both Yang and Jade
"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?" Yang questioned Weiss.
"Ugh, they smell like fish!" Ruby voiced her disgust while covering her nose.
"Perhaps to you Ruby, but to me, it seems fine." Jade says back to Ruby.
"I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!"
"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament." Blake says as Weiss walked away from the group.
"You can't prove that!" Weiss scoffs at what Blake says about her.
"Whoa." The team looks at a shattered window down the street and a door full of yellow caution tape of the Vale Police Force before walking over to the detective in front, who is writing on his pad. "What happened here?"
"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." Shitty detective number 1 says as he walks towards his partner.
"That's terrible." Yang sadly sighs.
"They left all the money again." Shitty detective number 2 says back to his partner.
"Huh?" Ruby was bewildered when she heard about it.
"Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?"
"I don't know, an army?"
"You thinking the White Fang?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."
"Or maybe you guys suck at your jobs if this kind of shit keeps happening" Jade thought to himself as he stared at the useless detectives.
"Hmph! The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates!" Weiss states with a hint of anger in her voice.
"Degenerates really? Last time I checked all White Fang are Faunus yes, but not all Faunus are White Fang." Jade inserted his thoughts of being compared to a terrorist group.
"What's your problem?" Blake yells angrily at Weiss.
"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths." Blake crossed her arms, before getting a serious look on her face, "They're a collection of misguided Faunus."
"So the visions are accurate, to a certain extent. Best I can do is to reduce the tension I hope." Jade hoped as he prepared to intervene.
"Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!" Weiss angrily yelled at Blake who also returned the favor.
"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!"
"Guys guys! Please! Stop!" Jade stepped in as both girls angrily glared at Jade who flinches before continuing on.
"Both of you are indeed correct in certain aspects but please let me explain." Jade nervously tried to explain to both of them.
"Weiss is correct that the White Fang is indeed getting more dangerous than expected recently and I fear they may be planning something big." Weiss gave a smug expression while Blake had a look of betrayal on her face.
"BUT!" Jade raised his voice louder which got both their attention before continuing on.
"At the same time, not all Faunus are White Fang, to judge them based on what they do before is the peak of being an idiot." Jade finished as Blake looked to him with hope and Weiss didn't take it well.
"Are you calling me an idiot?!" Weiss turned her anger on her only male teammate.
"I didn't say you were an idiot, you did it to yourself and besides, we are getting distracted." Jade flatly stated to Weiss as she started to sputter.
Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale" Blake said while calming herself down.
"Hmm... Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him." Ruby offered her opinion.
Weiss: "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." much to Blake's growing anger and Jade facepalming and groaning in frustration as Weiss continued.
"Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."
"That's not necessarily true..." Yang said.
"Hey, stop that Faunus!" A voice can be heard yelling
As the team overhears the cry for help and rush over to investigate, a Faunus with a golden monkey tail is seen running down the length of the boat and leaping on to the edge as the two sailors are about to apprehend him.
Sun: "Thanks for the ride, guys! Haha!" he laughed as he jumps off and hits the dock running
You no-good stowaway!" Another sailor yelled in anger.
"So this is the faunus called Sun Wukong... it's scary how it is playing almost exactly the same in the vision."
The Monkey faunus used his tail to hang on a lamppost while he peels back a banana before talking back at the pissed off sailors, "Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" Before he eats, one of the detectives down below throws a stone at him to get his attention.
"Hey! Get down from there this instant!" Shitty detective number 1 yelled at him.
Sun drops the banana peel on the detective's face, who growls in return. The monkey-like Faunus twirls up to crouch on the lamppost, laughs in amusement, and proceeds to leap off and run away from the detectives. As he runs past Team RWBY(and Jade), he winks at an astonished Blake which Jade notices and it pisses off Jade which responds by giving him death glares at the monkey faunus he continues to be chased by the officers.
"Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes..." Yang says as they watched the Faunus get farther and farther away.
"Quick! We have to observe him!" Weiss commanded her team.
Weiss, Yang, and Ruby give chase. Blake stands still with Jade still glaring at the direction of the monkey faunus, runs off, Blake was lost in thought, then comes back to reality as Jade called her.
"Blake! Our team is leaving without us." Jade called her as he still glared at the monkey faunus.
"Uh yea got it." she says back as both of them follow their team.
As both continued to run towards their teammates, Jade was thinking to himself.
"Guess that proves that I had feelings for her… I guess I will address it with her when this shitshow is over."
As the team rounds the next corner, then Weiss bumps into someone and trips. She looks up only to see Sun jump on to a building and disappear from her view.
"No, he got away!"
"Uhh... Weiss?" Yang called her teammate as she pointed strangely at the girl underneath her.
Weiss finally sees that she fell on a smiling girl, which startles the heiress and she hastily gets up.
"Sal-u-ta-tions!" The orange girl called them out while still on the floor and with a wide smile on her face.
"Um... hello." Ruby greeted the girl.
"Are you... okay?" Yang instead questions her sanity.
"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking." The girl assures everyone else.
the team looks at each other in bewilderment while Jade remained blank at what he saw before Yang speaks up again
"Do you... wanna get up?"
The girl gave a delayed response before giving an answer. "Yes!" As she leaps back on her feet while the team steps back a little except for Jade who continued to stare at her.
"My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" The totally human girl introduced herself.
"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."
"I'm Weiss."
"Blake."
"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" (Blake hits her side) "Oh, I'm Yang."
"And lastly, I'm Jade, it's a pleasure to meet you Penny." as he gave a small bow.
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny greeted back as she forgot she already did it a while ago.
"You already said that." Weiss stated back.
Penny pauses again before commenting. "So I did!"
Weiss: "Well, sorry for running into you!" Everyone turns around and starts walking away from Penny.
"Take care, friend!" Ruby says back as she waved back
"OH NO!" Jade thought to himself as he remembered his vision. He nevertheless followed them knowing what's going to happen.
"She was... weird..." Yang commented as they get far enough away from a startled Penny
"Now, where did that Faunus riff-raff run off to?" Weiss commented as Jade's annoyance and frustrations continued to grow, his ears twitching to prove it.
"What did you call me?" Penny asked as she suddenly in front of a surprised Weiss.
"Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me!" Yang looks apologetic as Weiss looks back and forth in shock.
"How on remnant did you travel so fast from there to here? Jade asked Penny as she completely ignored Jade.
"No, not you." Penny walks through the group and leans her head down to Ruby
"You!"
"Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..." Ruby asked while startled.
"You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?" She questioned Ruby.
"Uuuum..." Ruby looks over Penny's shoulder while her teammates motion to deny her while Jade is looking through his scroll.
"Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?"
Ruby's teammates comically faint while Jade stared at them as if they went to drama school or something, but Penny looks overjoyed and laughs.
"Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys over there!" She points at Jade who was still staring in confusion at the rest of Ruby's team.
Ruby groaned to Weiss as she brushes herself off "Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?"
"No - she seems far more coordinated."
"So... what are you doing in Vale?" Yang asked
"I'm here to fight in the tournament." Penny answered Yang's question.
"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Weiss asked, seemingly shocked as what she heard.
"I'm combat ready!" Penny cheerfully says as she salutes
"Is the saluting really necessary?" Jade said only to get ignored again much to his irritation.
"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part." Weiss told Penny.
"Says the girl wearing a dress." Blake shot Weiss with her words
"It's a combat skirt!" Weiss protested as she crossed her arms.
Ruby speeds over to Weiss' side "Yeah!" Weiss then holds out her hand and Ruby low-fives it.
"Wait a minute." Weiss then walks over to Penny and grabs her by the shoulders.
"If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed... rapscallion?"
"The who...?" Penny asked with confusion in her voice.
Weiss then holds up a poor drawing of the criminal-in-question "The filthy Faunus from the boat!"
"When did you draw that? I don't remember seeing you drawing anything at all." Jade asked honestly only to get ignored for the third time today.
"Why do you keep saying that?!" Blake yelled at Weiss
"Huh?"
Blake then walked over to Weiss, "Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!"
Weiss: "Oh, I'm sorry." Weiss releases Penny and motions to objects around her, "Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?"
"Are you kidding me Weiss?" Jade's frustration only continued to grow further.
"Stop it!" Blake yelled at Weiss.
"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang!" She yells back.
"Then what about me? They asked me to join them but I refused and tried to have me killed! Does that make me one of them because I was a mercenary and did shady stuff?" Jade pointed at himself and having enough of this nonsense joined in the argument much to the surprise and shock of the entire team.
"You see! They are a bunch of psychopaths if they are willing to kill him for refusing to Join them! The White Fang are scum!"
"You ignorant little brat!"
"How dare you talk to me like that! I am your teammate!" Weiss yelled at her teammate as she walked away with Jade following her
"What great teammate you are…" Jade mumbled as he followed Blake
"You are a judgmental little girl."
"What in the world makes you say that?"
"The mere fact that you would sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group solely based on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be!"
"Um, I think we should probably go..." Yang looked really uncomfortable and offered a suggestion to her sister
"Where are we going?" Penny popped behind Ruby while still obviously smiling.
"So you admit it! The White Fang is just a radical group of terrorists!"
"That's not what I meant, and you know it!"
Jade just sighed and facepalmed as he just knew whatever he did, nothing would change, not yet at least.
Back at their dorm at night…
Yang, Ruby and Jade who looked really frustrated continued to observe the situation as both Weiss and Blake continued their arguing.
"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!" Weiss yelled at Blake who retired.
"That is the problem!"
Weiss got up from her bed and continued speaking. "You realize you are defending an organization that hates Humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"
"Weiss they hate ALL who oppose them. Not just humans." Jade said and continued to get ignored.
Blake got on her feet as well. "There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate Humanity so much? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"
"People like me?"
"You're discriminatory!"
Weiss: "I'm a victim!" Weiss and Blake stared at each other down in silence, Weiss leans in close, leering as she speaks quietly
"You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus?" she leaned against the bookshelf by the window.
"It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed; an entire train car full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood." she bangs her fist on the bookshelf next to her, startling some of her teammates.
"This is stupid, why can't they not try to stab each other in the throat when there's monsters barring down on us… Perhaps I'm a fool that we can come together against such hardships if such petty stuff can tear us apart." Jade just continued to stare at the situation.
"Weiss, I-" Ruby tried to comfort her teammate much to no avail.
"No!" Weiss turns away from the window and walks back over to Blake. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"
"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"
"And the cats out of the bag." Jade internally sighed.
Silence drops down on the scene again. A surprised Weiss backs away slowly, and Blake realizes her mistake as she looks around at her teammates with Jade giving her a saddened assurance.
Blake: "I... I..." Blake dashes out the door without looking back.
"Blake, wait! Come back!" Ruby runs over to the door and calls to her down the hallway as Yang sits herself down and Weiss looks down.
"I hope you are proud of yourself Weiss, I should get you a medal for being best teammate ever." Jade snarked at Weiss as he walked towards the door.
"Where do you think you are doing Jade? Are you going to join them?" Weiss accused Jade.
Jade stared at her before sighing and commenting, "you truly are a lost cause aren't ya? I thought you would be different from your father but here you are… hiding your true self from everyone else… You disappoint me."
Weiss just stared at Jade in shock as he opened the door only for Ruby to call him.
"Jade, where are you going?"
"I got to make sure she does not get herself killed or something. Oh, and don't bother calling me or Blake, we all need time to recover from this mess."
With that Jade left the dorm with a sadden Ruby and a silent Weiss as Jade's words haunt her.
Blake runs outside and arrives at a statue of an armored man with a sword and a hooded woman wielding an axe on an outcropping, staring at the Beowolf under the stone heroes in closes her eyes and slowly lifts her arms up to her bow and pulls the string to release the bow from her hair and revealing her cat ears. She then wipes a tear away from her eye as Jade catches up with her.
"Blake! wait up!" Jade called to her.
"Jade?" Blake asked back."
Jade then rushed to Blakes side and gave her a hug, though she hesitated when he hugged her before embracing back. Blake begins to let her tears lose as she begins to cry into Jade's shoulder.
"It's ok Blake, everything will be fine." Jade tried to assure her.
"No it not! I messed up badly. I cannot go back they would never accept me so please le-" Blake continued to ramble till Jade stopped her.
"Blake! Please listen." Both of them stopped hugging each other and Jade grabbed her hand as both of them stared into each other's eyes.
"I ain't leaving you now because of a mistake you made, you helped me a lot when I first joined beacon, heck you were the first person I trusted in a long while and you were always there to help me. You are very important to me and I can't see you upset. So please, let me help you because I care for you." Jade confessed to Blake.
Blake went eye-wide and stopped crying when she heard Jade's confession on why he stayed by her side and she could only mumble.
"Jade…"
"Besides… it appears we have a unwelcomed guest here." Jade says he is ears twitched and he looked at the tree near them.
"Oh wow… you noticed me?" The familiar monkey faunus from earlier dropped down from the tree as both cat faunus watched him.
Jade smirk before saying back, "when you constantly had to deal with ambushers, you would learn when there was someone nearby. Besides we should go now Blake."
Jade stood up and extended his hand with a smile on his face; Blake smiled back at his hand and took it.
Next morning at a café,
Blake is sipping a cup of tea and sighing while Jade is beside her with his own cup of tea. She looks up at Sun sitting across from her, who holds his drink with his tail as his hand props his head up. He takes a sip when Blake puts her cup down.
"So, you want to know more about me..." Blake asks Sun while Jade stared into his soul.
"Finally, she speaks! Nearly two days and you've given me nothing but small talk while Jade over here has been more willing to speak but if you spoke, it is mostly to you boyfriend." Sun spoke
Both felines blushed at Sun's comment as Sun chuckled and Jade coughed into his own hand before addressing him.
"I would prefer very…" Jade glanced at Blake who was looking back at him as if to tell him to watch what he is saying.
"Never mind… Blake I still need to talk to you personally once we are done here."
"I suppose that we can do it later. Besides that, Sun... Are you familiar with the White Fang?" Blake agreed to put the issue behind before addressing Sun about the White Fang.
"Of course! I don't think there's a Faunus on the planet who hasn't heard of them. Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks, if you ask me!" Sun voiced his opinion on the Fang.
Blake sips her drink while listening until she speaks up for the big reveal "I was once a member of the White Fang."
Sun promptly goes cross-eyed and chokes on his drink, making him put it down and wipe his mouth as he holds up a hand to process this information. "Wait a minute, you were a member of the White Fang?!"
"You heard her Sun, she was part of the Fang, not anymore." Jade backed Blake up.
"And how did you know about it? Were you part of the White Fang?"
Jade looked at Blake who nodded back looking back at Sun with a smirk before speaking.
"I have my ways, besides, we are getting distracted. Blake?"
Blake nodded before continuing on. "That's right. I was a member for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it..."
"Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus."
"Of course, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people. And I was there. I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist. Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking. Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. And the worst part was, it was working. We were being treated like equals. But not out of respect... out of fear." Blake finished her explanation before taking a sip.
"And such actions are going to have massive repercussions, but they don't realise it yet because it was producing results. Results that would see us faunus suffer in its consequences in a few years from now unless they are stopped." Jade added his own thoughts in the discussion.
"So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am: a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow." she wiggles her cat ears beneath the fashionable disguise to demonstrate.
"To be fair Blake, most people tend to not observe things closely enough. Though I guess you can say you were lucky and didn't get caught." Jade adds it in because he can.
"So... have you told your friends any of this?" Sun asked.
"Well, she did… it did not go well." Jade answered for her.
Team RW_Y got tired of waiting for both Blake and Jade to come back and went out to search for them. As of yet they were currently walking through the streets of Vale looking for their missing friends.
"Blaaaake!" Ruby shouted out.
"Jaaaaade!" Yang also called out
"Blaaaaaaaake! Where aaaare yoooouuuu!?" Ruby continued to call her out
Yang: "Blake! Jade!"
"Weiiiiss, you're not helping!" Ruby asked her white haired partner
"Oh! You know what might be able to help? The police!" Weiss offered a terrible suggestion.
"Ugh, Weiss..."
"It was just an idea!"
"Yeah, a bad one."
"Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions." Yang suggested to Weiss
"I think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right!" Weiss countered Yang.
"And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today!" A familiar voice spoke behind Weiss which spook them out.
"Aaaah! Penny! Where did you come from!?" Ruby demanded Penny.
"Hey guys! What are you up to?" Penny completely ignored Ruby's question to ask hers.
"Uhh..."
"We're looking for our friends Blake and Jade." Yang answered.
"Ooooh, you mean the two faunus!"
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang stare at Penny before Ruby spoke.
"Wait, how did you know that Blake was a faunus?" Ruby asked.
"Uhh, the cat ears?" Penny points to her head as she answers the question.
Yang laughs a little before saying back, "What cat ears? She wears a... boooohhh..."
The realization leaves them in silence as a tumbleweed blows through in the wind. (Ok seriously where do the tumbleweeds keep coming from?)
"She does like tuna a lot..." Ruby whispered to her team.
"So, where are they?" Penny asked.
"We don't know. Both have been missing since Friday and Jade told us not to call him."
Penny gasped before speaking "That's terrible!"
"Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammates!"
"Uh, that's really nice of you, Penny, but we're okay! Really! Right, guys?" Ruby asked her teammates.
She looks over Penny to direct her question at Yang and Weiss, who's blinking outlines are all that's left of their sudden departure from the company of the strange girl. A tumbleweed blows past them again in the quiet. (again with the tumbleweeds cliché!)
"It sure is windy today!" penny comments as another tumbleweed blows past them.
Sun, Jade and Blake are then seen walking down an alley.
Sun with his hands behind his head asked. "So, what's the plan now?"
"I still don't believe the White Fang is behind these robberies. They've never needed that much Dust before." Blake was busy contemplating before Jade spoke.
"I have to disagree on you Blake."
This earned a curious look from Sun while a confused look from Blake.
"Allow me to explain, it is true that the Fang usually don't usually rob dust stores but what if they need it for a project? With the amount of dust getting stolen recently they could potentially make a bomb that could theoretically cause massive collateral damage." As Jade finished what he said, both Blake and Sun went wide-eyed at the damage such a dust bomb could cause.
"I mean... the only way to prove that they didn't do it, is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there! Right?" Sun offered a suggestion.
Blake: "The only thing is, I've no idea where that would be."
"Ditto." Jade agreed with Blake.
"Well, while I was on the ship, I heard some guys talking about offloading a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas." Sun says back.
"How huge?" She asked.
"Huge. Big Schnee Company freighter." Sun threw his arm out wide for emphasis.
"You're sure?" Blake asked with suspicion in her voice.
"At this point, this is the only clue we got so we should prepare for it." Jade says as all three of them walk towards their destination.
"Thanks anyways!" Yang sighs before continuing on. "This is hopeless "You really don't care if we find her, do you?" Yang asked Weiss.
Weiss: "Don't be stupid; of course I do. I'm just afraid of what she'll say when we find them both. Jade probably knew about Blake's origins the whole time. The innocent never run, Yang!" Weiss told Yang as she walked off.
Yang looks down in thought "I believe that Jade would have an answer to why he knew about it but, I'm not him so I don't know."
Amidst the chirping of crickets and darkness of night, both Blake and Jade lay flat on their stomach on the rooftop overlooking the shipment of Schnee Dust containers.
"Don't you find it weird that they don't guard all these dust when there's cases of dust theft going on?" Jade pointed out as they continued to observe.
"That is indeed strange." Blake agreed with Jade.
"Shitty security system." Jade scoffs
"Did I miss anything?" The faunus monkey asked as he dropped down.
"Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there." Blake commented as continued to observe the Schnee dust shipments.
"I don't even know anymore, why would they just leave it there?" Jade grumbled as he used binoculars to observe them.
"I wish I knew why as well Jade." Blake told Jade who nodded in agreement.
"Cool. I stole you some food!" Sun holds out one of the green apples in his arms towards both Blake and Jade.
"Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?" Blake asked Sun as she gave Sun a questioning look on her face.
Petty theft for a huntsman, oh how have we fallen." Jade mumbled before looking back. Both Blake and Sun heard him much to the latter's annoyance at Jade's comments.
"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" Sun tried to defensively counter both Blake and Jade's comments. Only pissed both of them off and got angry glares in return.
"Okay, too soon!"
Just as he says this, the winds blow all around them, and they look up to see a Bullhead's searchlights flashing around for a landing spot, descending in the middle of the cargo containers and extending a ramp for a black hooded individual with a metallic fanged mask to come out of.
"Oh no..." Blake muttered.
"Is that them?" Sun asked.
"Yes... It's them." She confirmed.
"Well looks like I was right… They are planning something." Jade Joined in.
"All right, grab the tow cables!" One of the White Fang Soldier yelled at his compatriots.
"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun asked Blake.
Blake staring sadly at the scene "No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." she closes her eyes in despair, only to open them suddenly when she hears a new voice.
"Fate loves disappointing people." Jade muttered.
Roman: "Hey! What's the holdup!? "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"
"No shit sherlock." Jade thought to himself.
"This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." Blake mutters before she stands up and unsheathes the katana of Gambol Shroud before walking off the edge of the roof.
"Blake! Don't just rush in there!" Jade silently yelled as he unsheathes both Lumina and Thorn and followed after Blake.
"Hey, what are you two doing?!" Sun yelled with alarm in his voice.
Blake falls to the ground in a crouch, then continues on to hide behind one of the containers, peeking around the corner to see Roman berate a White Fang member
holding a coil of rope. Jade hid behind the other box just beside Blake and proceeded to lecture Blake.
"What the hell are you thinking of doing?!" You don't just rush in there!" Jade angrily whispered to Blake.
"I got to do this Jade! This is my responsibility!" Blake argued back.
"I get it. But I'm not saying don't". Jade then changes his guns into swords before continuing on. " I'm saying don't do it alone, I prefer not seeing you dead anytime soon."
"Blake then nodded as she began her move.
"No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!" As Roman was looking around, Blake suddenly appeared behind him with her blade at his throat "What the- Oh, for f-" He rolled his eyes when he's cut off by Blake mid-swear.
"Nobody move!" Blake Yelled to her fellow faunus.
The White Fang soldiers ready their guns and equip their swords in response.
"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady."
"Na you better watch out, she's under my protection!" Jade yelled as he walked out with his mask out, causing some of the White Fang grunts to shiver a bit.
Blake uses her free hand to go for her bow and remove it, causing the ribbon to fall away as her Faunus ears are shown to the world, She then yelled.
"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?"
The White Fang members lower their weapons a little at this development, unsure of what to do, when Roman laughs and talks back.
"Oh, kid, didn't you get the memo?"
"What are you talking about?" Blake questioned the master thief.
"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together!" Roman then answered.
Tch, Always knew you were scum, but to work with terrorists? Now that's low." Jade walked towards Roman and stared into his eyes.
"Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation." Blake demanded.
Suddenly, the air is filled with more turbines blowing the wind wildly around the holdup.
Roman looked up before commenting. "I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation..."
Two more Bullheads are hovering above the heist, and as Blake watches in horror, Roman smiles and was about to fire his cane at Blake's feet only for Jade to bind his arms and send a punch to his face, Knocking him back.
"Damn that sneaky semblance you have there kitty cat." Roman muttered as Blake pursued and dodged Roman attacks.
Jade on the other hand, dodged the incoming bullets before pulling out a flare gun and firing it into the air much to everyone's surprise.
"Now all of Vale knows you are here!" Jade yelled as he proceeded to knock down the White Fang Grunts surrounding Him and Blake.
More Bullheads begin to land and let more White Fang members descend on the scene and surround Jade and Sun who had just joined in.
"Sun!" Jade Yelled.
"Ya Jade?"
"Go help Blake! I'll deal with the grunts!"
"Ok You got it!" Sun says as he dodge slashes and gets some of the soldiers with his fists and kicks until he rolls out of the way and runs towards Blake while Pulling out a collapsible red staff to know any grunts that got in his way, Blake was still pursuing Roman by herself.
Blake peers around the corner of the container to watch Sun jump around and beat another White Fang soldier, landing on his back and causing him to fly over toward Roman's head. The crime boss ducks then growls in annoyance and aims his cane at Sun, firing a shot that he defends himself from just when Blake leaps into the action.
"He's mine!" Blake yelled.
Blake goes in close and becomes a blur of afterimages as she slashes both blades at Roman, who backs away and deflects each would-be blow with his cane at unbelievable speeds. Blake continues to dash, hop over, and slide around Roman to try and find a weak spot. Finally landing a blow after using her Semblance but he quickly recovers, deflecting several more attacks before attempting to punch her in the face. Only to hit a clone as she flips away. The two clash weapons again.
As both of them had their weapons clashed, Jade's foot came out of nowhere and slammed Roman in the face, sending him away as Jade got up from his drop kick.
"Ya good Blake?" Jade asked Blake with concern in his voice.
"Yes I'm good."
While on his back, Roman notices a container hanging by a crane right above the two cat faunus, and gets up to fire his cane at its supports. Blake leaps behind it, but Jade was unfortunate enough and got crushed by the container much to both Blakes and Sun shock and terror.
"Jade!" Blake called with fear in her voice.
As if by command at Blake's voice, Multiple metallic tendrils erupted from the broken container and tore it to shreds revealing a very pissed off Jade who had bruises all over his body.
"Oh you done it now…" Jade grumbled as he took a step forward and dashed straight for Roman. Roman on the other hand, prepared to fire a shot off at Jade only for a very familiar voice to be heard.
"Hey!"
Ruby appears on the rooftop overlooking them, Crescent Rose extended and ready for action.
"Ruby, are these people your friends?" Penny asked Ruby as she approached her.
"Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?" Roman asked Ruby only to get hit by a sword and slammed into a wall near a Bullhead by Jade who muttered.
"Here's a lesson thief, don't lose focus…"
"Good advice I'll take note of that in the future." Roman sarcastically commented as he got up to his feet.
"Penny, get back!" Ruby frantically asked Penny to stay back
"Don't worry, Ruby. I'm combat ready!" Penny assured Ruby.
Her backpack mechanically opens up, and from its dark depths comes a single sword that extends and multiples into several blades hovering over Penny's back. Leaping from the rooftop with the weapons acting as wings, she sends three of her swords to knock two White Fang soldiers down before even landing on the ground, where she proceeds to fling the swords at one enemy, impale another to a wall, create a barrier of spinning steel against a running attack, leaping over a goon with her swords in tow, and finally making a wheel that she throws to knock multiple Faunus off their feet.
Three Bullheads come from the skies and open fire on the battle, but Penny merely forms a shield and launches two of her swords into the wall behind her, which in turn pull their wielder back with their strings. When her swords swirl around her again, she commands them to open their points and build up a large glowing ball of green light. With a punching action, several bright lasers crack the pavement when they fire at the transports and slice each one in half, causing several of the White Fang members inside to fall and letting Ruby watch as Bullheads fall in pieces behind her.
Stunned, she turns back to Penny as she aims her swords at the remaining Bullheads holding the crate of Dust and pulls back on their wires, tugging the aircraft with them.
"Whoa... How is she doing that?" Ruby asked in awe.
"Ok now that's just bullshit right there." Jade grumbled as he watched Penny get to work.
Seeing the Bullhead's flight fall under Penny's control, Roman grimaces and turns to run towards the last transport.
Penny, after her large green pupils dilate for a second, pulls with all her might on the strings, and the aircraft crashes into a stack of crates, causing an explosion as a result.
"These kids just keep getting weirder..." Roman muttered as he boarded the last Bullhead and made his escape.
Later, a handful of police cars are at the docks, where Ruby, Blake, Sun, Jade and Penny are sitting on boxes in silence. That is, until Weiss and Yang appear on the scene.
"Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute..." Ruby tried to explain to her partner but she ignored her and headed straight for Blake. Jade noticeably tensed up.
"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-" Blake tried to explain herself only to get interrupted.
"Stop! Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you? Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided..."
"I don't care."
"You don't care?" Blake asked, surprised.
"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?"
"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-"
"Ah-bah-bah-bah-bah! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to your teammates. And not some..." Weiss looked at Sun behind her as she caught herself.
"Someone else."
"Of course. Thank you Weiss."
Weiss smiles and nods. Jade on the other hand approaches her.
"I'm glad to see that you both had worked it out but…"
"Jade I'm sorry for what I accused you of and I had thought through what you said before you left." Weiss apologized to Jade while he just looked at her in the eye.
Jade just smiled as he extend his hand out to her. "Apologies accepted Weiss."
Weiss smiled and shook his hand. The moment is serious for a second more until Ruby screams
"Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby cheered as she waved her hands around.
"I'm still not quite sure about how I feel about you!" Weiss points her finger with accusation in her voice as Sun laughed nervously.
"Damn traitor…" Jade noticed one of the White Fang members waking up and for some reason, he isn't tied up. The Grunt then pulled a gun out and aimed at Blake in the back while she was distracted.
"Blake watch out!" Jade dashed in while taking Thorn out of its hostel and shoved Blake aside as the grunt fired his shots.
Multiple bullets hit Jade, shattering what was left of his aura as a few more bullets hit Jade in the arm, and torso. Jade on the other hand, fired at the grunt's gun, destroying it and rendering it useless. The police on the scene quickly arrested the disarmed White Fang grunt. While team RWBY (and Sun) moved to check on Jade.
"Jade!" Ruby called him out as he started to collapse from multiple gun wounds on his body.
"Oh my Oum, Jade!" Yang rushed and caught him as he fell down.
Weiss just stood there shocked and horrified at what happened but the person most affected was Blake.
Jade! Nonononon! Don't die on me yet!" Blake reached Jade as tears began to pour out of her eyes as Jade was laid on the ground and Sun rushed to get the ambulance.
Jade begins to cough out blood before speaking." Damn… got me in the lungs."
"Jade please don't leave me!" Blake called out to Jade as she sat next to Jade trying her best to comfort the man who saved her life.
Jade could only weakly chuckle as his eyes began to droop and spoke to Blake. "See? I protected you, like I promised."
"You did…" Blake could only say as Jade slowly lost himself to unconsciousness as he the last sounds he hears is Blake's sobbing.
Authors notes
And there's that, Chapter 8, HOLY FUCK I can't believe I managed to write near 9 k worth of words in this chapter and I want to die right now though that a new record for maximum words for me.
Ok, in this chapter a lot of things had happened in this chapter so I would go through those I believed you guys need me to explain about.
First of all, the vision that Jade received, the reason Jade suffered such debilitating effects from it is due to his own body unable to sustain that much information flowing into his mind at once. When he receives more in the future it won't be so bad hopefully.
Next on our list, Jade's plan on how he uses the information. As we can see Jade tried to stop the argument using the information he gets but with no success. It's a bit like how you tried so hard and yet you still fail.
Next would be Jade's intervention with Sun and Blake, as we saw Jade prevent Blake from getting yeeted by Roman Torchwick and also utilizing flares to alert the rest of his team which no doubt were looking for Blake and himself. I always wanted to make this scene different so this is my way.
Next is Jade whacking Torchwick when he was distracted with Ruby, this scene is quite explanatory, Jade was angry and also won't hesitate to attack when the opponent is distracted as shown when he kicked Torchwick when he clashed with Blake.
And as why Jade's aura shattered from basic bullets? It was shown in the previous chapter, Jade doesn't have a lot of aura, so having a container that no doubt contains very heavy items dropped onto Jade would do a lot of damage to his aura thus easily shattered from bullet fire.
Last, Jade's OOC moment and comments later in this chapter is a side-effect of his visons he got earlier, as the previous soul's personality clashes with his own causing slight personality shifts though he isn't aware about it. Don't worry Jade would revert back to his original personality quite quickly.
Anyways, I'm tired of typing and I want some sleep. So I'll end it here. Feel free to leave a comment, I will read your comments and also follow me to keep track when the next chapter of this series would be out.
That is all for now and I will see you guys in the next chapter RGQC out!