Here we go

Cover Art: Serox

Chapter 44

The overall consensus among the White Fang was that Beacon had stolen the show. His allies were mostly content with his performance and the fact Ironwood and the Councillor hadn't been able to pin them as the bad guys, but there was no denying the most memorable parts surrounded Ruby. Not only had she come out smelling like roses, fitting given her name, but people were now clamouring to see more of her on TV. More guest appearances, more talk shows, and they were even asking her to be involved in the next political debate when elections came up.

Jaune Arc, meanwhile, and the White Fang, were just sort of that group in the background. Yeah, they did good work and nobody had come out of this thinking they were evil, but could he call it a win? Probably not. It wasn't a loss either though, so they hadn't lost anything.

At least Lisa was happy.

It didn't stop Jaune scowling at Perry when he came in wearing a `Ruby for mayor` T-shirt. "What?" Perry asked. "What? It was on sale, man. I can't say no to a sale."

"Maybe we should start merchandising." Deery said. "I bet there are people who would buy our products, and we could use the money to help faunus. Set up charities and the like."

"That…" Jaune trailed off, about to say it was a stupid idea before he really thought about it. They were terrorists, sure, but good terrorists and people liked them at the moment. "That's an idea. I doubt we'd legally be able to pocket any of the money we'd make though. The police would get involved between the wholesalers and us and confiscate it all as criminal assets."

"Then we say it's all destined for charity and the sellers should send it straight there. The police would be stupid to take and try to hold onto it in that case."

It wasn't a bad idea. If the money went to pro-faunus charities then it would be helping the cause, and it was another peaceful manner of protest. "I guess I should ask Lisa to get in touch with some people. Let's leave that for now. We've survived the TV Debate and people aren't after our blood."

"Because they're more interested in Rose than us." Yuma said.

"We did get something out of this." Sienna said. "Confirmation that Ironwood and the Council of Vale are unified against us." Everyone nodded and mumbled their agreements. It was painfully obvious those two had been trying to work together to undermine the White Fang in the debate. "They're taking the vigilantism angle pretty hard, trying to paint us as if we think we're above the law."

"Don't we think that?"

"Well, yes, but that's not the point."

"The point," Jaune interrupted, "is that if they have to paint us as vigilantes and not evil monsters, that means my – our – plan is working." He was smiling widely, and why shouldn't he? Things were finally going their way. "Vigilantes are dangerous, but they're not usually hated unless something goes wrong. Huntsmen do it all the time and they're loved for it. We have to keep up the offensive."

It was the only thing he could do. They'd finally started to push forward and if things continued like this, the White Fang might legitimately end up being seen as good guys. Or at least his group of them would. From there, he could clear his name and be a free man again.

And then what? Leave? Go to Beacon? He wasn't sure, but that didn't matter. If the White Fang were seen as good guys, he could pick come the time. Maybe he could even continue to help them out. It'd be like working part-time for a local charity or community group at that point. All they needed to do was keep pushing the envelope, keep showing that they were the good guys, and that meant one thing.

"We need to take down another gang."

There were mumbles from the assembled faunus. No one seemed against the idea, not even Sun in the corner. He was eating some doughnuts in a desperate attempt to add a little flab to his washboard abs. It wasn't working.

"Do you already have one in mind?" Sienna asked.

"I asked Hei to find another and send it along to Ilia. Has he sent you anything yet?"

"He's sent two that we can pick between."

Ilia placed her scroll on the table they were sat at and pushed it forward. Everyone else leaned over. Eyebrows were raised and Yuma reached out to pick it up, inspecting the screen and then Ilia again. "It's a tough choice," he admitted, "but I'd go for the blonde myself. Bigger knockers."

Flushed bright red, Ilia snatched the scroll back and furiously hammered some buttons, then slid it back with an embarrassed whine. This time, she hadn't left it open to whatever dating app she was on. It was instead a map of Vale with two locations highlighted.

"They're on opposite sides of the city." Sienna noted.

"They must be rival gangs," Trifa said. "Operating out of their own territories. What do they do?"

Since everyone was too busy trying to read the tiny font, Jaune sighed and picked the device up, surrendering to the peer pressure to read the thing out loud since obviously no one else did. It was presumably his job as the boss anyway. Stupid gang rules. Why couldn't he delegate this stuff?

"Ahem. The first gang works on the north side of Vale and mainly has their business in drugs, illegal casinos, brothels. They're pretty much an entertainment-style gang. Huh. I didn't realise those existed."

"Not all criminal activities involve shooting and murder." Trifa said. "Some are more low-key."

"A little too low-key for us, isn't it?" Sienna enquired. "While I don't doubt they're fleecing people in the casinos and that the drugs are bad for people's health, this isn't exactly something we'll benefit from cracking down on."

"There's more." Jaune said as he scrolled down. "That was just the basics Hei sent over about them. The reason he thinks we should want to go after them is – whoah!" Jaune reeled back. "Oh shit."

"What?"

Everyone leaned in.

"Okay." He winced again. It wasn't something he wanted to say, let alone wanted to exist in a place like this. "Apparently, their brothels aren't staffed with prostitutes who are exactly…" Jaune swallowed. "Willing."

Silence.

For about two and a half seconds.

"WHAT!?" He wasn't sure who shouted out first, but Sun, Ilia and Yuma were on their feet. "The hell? No. Just no. We're going after them."

"Wipe them out." Yuma agreed. "What the fuck, Vale?"

"It's not what you're thinking." Jaune said as he kept reading. "Or it is, but it's not as bad as you're thinking." Or, well, it was but… it could have been worse. "According to Hei they take advantage of people wanting to live in the city but who can't afford it by making them work in these places so they can earn money to live here normally."

"Illegally low-paid labour for those who don't have any other choice." Sun let out a long and pointed sigh. "That happened in Vacuo, too. Usually more of the backbreaking labour than anything."

"It's what the SDC mines do," Sienna agreed. "The question is, would we be helping these people by liberating them? If they have no other options, aren't we as good as forcing them out of Vale? I imagine they don't have homes and that's why they came here this desperate in the first place. To check," she added, "It's exploitative labour and not forceful?"

"As far as Hei knows the only crime is how low they're paid."

Sienna hummed. "What's the other one?"

"South side of the city," he read. "The gang is a more traditional one. Holds territory, takes money, puts a tax on just about everything, from houses sold to business profits and just existing in their area. The odd gang fight, but nothing too extreme. They try and keep the people in their territory away from any fighting. They sound responsible enough." For a criminal group anyway. "I don't see what they – oh wait, I've found it. Damn it all to hell."

"That bad?" Trifa asked.

"They run a hospital."

Yuma blinked. "You mean they have one in their territory?"

"No. They operate one."

"How does a crime gang operate a freaking hospital?"

"Apparently, the hospital came first," Jaune said, reading. "The current gang leader set it up as a legitimate company, but then they started to get more power and he began doing a little extra on the side. I guess getting addictive drugs is easy when you're already in the business. It started as peddling those off, then they realised they could make more money doing it directly and things evolved from there."

He kept going, scrolling down as he read. "Now, they've taken to running the place like a car repair shop. They intentionally misdiagnose people and treat them for problems they don't have and hit them with huge bills after. Hei says they even use actual medicine to make people feel bad and simulate symptoms they can later treat for bigger profit. If anyone complains or tries to look into it, they end up disappearing. They haven't killed anyone as far as Hei can tell, not intentionally or beyond people dying of actual problems they've tried to treat, but they're wringing every last lien out of people who go there. A lot of people who leave do so in crippling debt, but also convinced it was worth it to save their lives."

Chairs and cushions squeaked as people leaned back and digested that. It was somehow less and more horrible than the first, with less of an immediate knee-jerk reaction and more long-term body-horror. Quite literally in some cases.

"And Vale lets them get away with this?"

"Get away with that?" Ilia asked. "As far as anyone knows, these people are being healed. You don't ask for a second opinion when the hospital says you're suffering from something."

"They hold all the evidence," Sienna agreed. "Even if the police wanted to investigate, what can they do? The hospital will provide evidence the person is sick, the person feels sick, and they are being treated. What can anyone say to argue with that?"

That was it, wasn't it? The average person couldn't determine what was wrong with their body and you were trained from a young age to trust your doctor. To be fair, most doctors were trustworthy. They were held to high standards by larger authorities, and faking your ability there was a crime. According to Hei's info, the hospital had once been a legitimate one. It was just that the person currently running it had gotten greedy, either for more money or for power.

"We're putting a stop to that one, right?" Trifa asked.

"But what about the people being used as sex slaves?" Sun argued. "We can't leave them like that."

"They're on opposite sides of the city. We can't do both."

"We could do one and then the other after."

"Or…" Jaune tapped the table to catch their attention. "We can do the hospital and leave the gang to our friends in Beacon."

Everyone considered that.

Ilia raised a hand. "I volunteer to go with Beacon's team."

"Denied."

"But why?"

"Because they're going to try and rescue sex slaves, not recruit one for Blake."

/-/

Ruby Rose was used to being socially awkward. She was used to hiding away, being shy and not enjoying attention. What she was not used to, however, was shuffling around on a street corner in a huge brown overcoat with a pair of sunglasses and a brown hat like someone out of a discount spy movie, and yet here she was.

Tensing up, she glanced left and right, scanning the pedestrians out on the warm day, many of whom were giving her odd looks, in search of her target. She spotted him quickly enough, or who she thought might be him. He'd agreed to meet her on a bench near this point, and there was a man on the bench feeding breadcrumbs to some pigeons. She couldn't make out any details because of the hoodie drawn up to conceal his hair, the black aviator shades over his eyes and the scarf wrapped tightly around his neck and jaw.

He, too, was drawing his fair share of odd looks for being dressed like it was the middle of winter.

In, you know, the middle of July.

Ruby shuffled over, nodded once and swept her coattails back to sit on the bench. The pigeons inspected her for food, realised she didn't have any and promptly gave her the birdy equivalent of the middle finger before flying away. Rude. Ruby huffed and sat back, eyeing the man from the corner of one eye.

The man straightened. "Rose?"

"It's me. Arc?"

"It's me." He let his shades slide down a fraction of an inch, just enough to show his blue eyes. "I get that I have to dress up to hide myself. I'm a wanted criminal. Why are you dressed like that?"

"A-Also hiding," Ruby admitted with a frustrated whine. Her patience snapped and she grabbed his arm. "You don't get it! People want autographs, they want photos, they want me to sign letters to their family members. T-They ask me questions. Like when am I going to fix the traffic issues and when am I going to solve the debt issue. I-I don't know anything about that! I'm me! I don't know anything about anything! Except weapons. And cookies. And being an awesome huntress-"

"And modesty."

"And modesty!" she agreed with a hurried nod. "But I don't know anything about politics, and everyone has already decided I'm the next coming of… of… of someone who came and did a load of political stuff!"

Jaune Arc was looking at her with a heavily raised eyebrow. "Got it out?"

"You don't know what it's like to be pushed into a role you have no experience in!"

"I… think that I do."

"You don't," she argued. "I wasn't born to be some kind of revolutionary."

"And I was!?"

"Probably." Ruby cracked a nervous smile, suddenly recalling that not only was she secretly meeting with a wanted terrorist, but that she was also venting to him. Not the best choice on her part. "Um. So, I got your message saying you needed to talk. And I'm here, even though I shouldn't be," she added under her breath.

"Did you come alone?"

"Pft. No."

Did he think she was stupid?

"Fine. I can accept that. You didn't bring Blake, did you?"

"Pft. No."

Did he think she was stupid?

"Okay, that's fine. As long as I'm not about to take Gambol Shroud to the back of the head, I'm cool with it. I didn't come along either."

"Guards?" she guessed, looking around. There were a few faunus out but too many to all be guilty. And yikes, was it racial profiling for her to have done that? Surely not when the White Fang literally only hired faunus. Maybe not. Maybe? "Ugh…"

"Their original intention was to be guards, yes," Jaune growled. "Not to piss off and buy ice-cream. Damn it, guys. Whatever. I have information," he said to her. "We want to co-operate again."

"You need our help?"

"I didn't say that." And he wouldn't if the lessons Coco had drilled into her head were any indication. In the same way that she'd been told time and time again that it was okay to work with them, but that she should never make it sound like they owed the White Fang a favour. "This won't even be us working together. Not really. There are two places we would really like to hit, but we don't have the numbers. We'd like you to deal with one of them."

"I'm not sure you can pick and choose who or what we do, Jaune."

"I know that. I'm just hoping you'll find this as disturbing as I do." He slid a small bag onto the chair and opened it up to show her a bunch of printed-off papers inside. He then closed it and passed it to her. "This has everything we know, including the gang's location."

It was a gang, then. As bad as The Legion? Ruby itched to open the bag and find out. Weiss and Yang could go through it with her later, though, and Weiss was probably antsy enough as it was. She hadn't nearly been as positive about this meeting as Ruby had.

"Can you give me the basics?" she asked.

Jaune Arc nodded. "Imagine people fleeing their ruined villages. They have no homes, no money and no hope for survival other than that they can make a new life for themselves in Vale. You got that?"

Ruby hummed her agreement. It was a common and sad thing, especially when Grimm so regularly attacked people living in the far-flung settlements. The worst part was that it wasn't rare for that to happen, just for any survivors to make it back to Vale at all.

"Now imagine they arrive and want to live here because it's safe, but they can't because the living costs are sky-high, and they have no jobs. Worse, they might have families to feed. They're desperate. They need paying work, any work, and they need it now or they'll be left homeless and destitute."

"This gang offers them jobs, doesn't it?" People called her naïve and innocent, and maybe she was, but that didn't mean she was dense. "Is it as drug mules? Do they have to smuggle things?"

"Not exactly…" Jaune Arc winced. "The gang runs brothels."

Ruby's eyes widened.

"Very… cheap brothels…"

"Oh." That was all she could say. What was she meant to say? The economics of how they could afford to run them so cheaply wasn't lost on her, nor the implication as to how happy these desperate people – likely women – would be about their new jobs. "Oh. Oh…"

"Yeah." The leader of the White Fang grimaced. "We think it's both human and faunus being exploited and we really want to go and stop it, but we're kind of busy elsewhere."

"Where?"

"You know I can't answer that."

Ruby eyed him warily. "You're not doing anything bad, are you? This isn't a distraction? Because if so, it's not fair. These people need help."

"What? No, it's not a distraction. Hells," he swore, "I wouldn't leave people in a bind like this. I wouldn't take advantage of them like that." He sounded so offended, so upset, that she believed him. You probably could fake a reaction like that, but she didn't think he was. "We've found something worse," he said. "I promise we'll be helping people on the other side of the city-" He cut off and she had the feeling he hadn't meant to reveal that. "We'll be busy," he finished. "We can't be in both places at once."

"Can't you give me an idea what you'll be doing?"

"It's best I don't. It's a little less legal than your target. Still a gang!" he hurried to say when her eyes narrowed. "But they pretend they're not and we need to break into somewhere we shouldn't to find proof."

Ruby hummed again. It wouldn't be the first time the White Fang broke the law to reveal something worse – they'd snuck into that business before to reveal how the boss was taking advantage of its workers, and that was worse than what they'd done at the fashion show because they hadn't really broken any laws to walk down the catwalk and show off. If the evidence they needed was locked behind a legally protected premises, then it really wasn't something Team RWBY could do. Beacon had to follow the law after all.

"Promise me you won't do anything bad."

Jaune Arc blinked. "What?"

"Promise me," she insisted, more than aware that asking a promise from a terrorist was an exercise in stupidity but doing it all the same. "I want you to promise me that you're not going to do anything bad or evil if I lead Beacon away from you. And if you break it, I'll never trust you again."

The man beside her snorted, then smiled. He offered his finger. "Pinky promise."

Ruby glowered back.

His little finger bounced up and down.

With a heavy sigh, she linked her own with it.

/-/

"You went to meet with a wanted terrorist?" Glynda Goodwitch was, as one might expect, not best pleased with Team RWBY's actions. Ruby hadn't thought she would be, which was why she'd decided to come deliver the information to Ozpin instead. Unluckily, Miss Goodwitch happened to be in the room. Crud.

"We were cautious." Yang said.

"You met with a very dangerous individual without alerting us, Miss Xiao-Long. I believe you and I have a very different definition of what `caution` is."

"It's too late to change that now." Ozpin said. "I've gone over the information provided. This is obviously a rather disturbing set of circumstances."

Ruby bounced in her seat. "Then we're going to go in?"

Ozpin winced.

"We're… not going in…?"

"Forgive me, Miss Rose, Team RWBY." He addressed them all with a hefty sigh. "After the events of the TV debate I've been under a bit of pressure from several parties. I'm sure you can guess which. They are not exactly pleased with Beacon skirting legality to work with the White Fang."

"You mean the Council is pissed because Rubes looked better than them." Yang said. "Tell it like it is, sir."

"It's exactly that." Ozpin didn't even try and hide it. "I have been told, in no uncertain terms, that the next time we have any information, I am to pass it onto the proper authorities, who will act on it themselves. This, in their words, is to bring back the proper rule of law and order to the city."

"Translation, they want to look good for once." Yang said.

"Maybe if they did their jobs properly in the first place, they would," Weiss threw in. "So, that's it? The police are going to save these people and claim all the credit for the work of the White Fang finding it, and us doing the diplomatic work to get the information into our hands. Will we even receive a mention or is this to be the city's glorious victory over crime?"

"I'm sure you can guess which it is, Miss Schnee."

"Tch. Of course."

"My hands are tied," Ozpin said sadly, spreading them out in defeat. "It is not as though I can have you act and claim I didn't know. They would accuse me all the same and might even go after the four of you. I will not allow that. Instead, we have been asked to `do our duty` and arrest the White Fang should we see them."

"I'd be alright with that." Blake said.

"Uh. How about no?" Yang snarked, elbowing her partner. "We're not doing the council's dirty work for them, not when they're only acting this way because they couldn't outdebate my sister on national television." She slammed her fist on the desk. "Ruby for mayor."

"No!" Ruby cried. "Ruby not for mayor!"

"The people have spoken, sis."

"What about my opinion!?"

"Please refrain from attacking my desk, Miss Xiao-Long. It did not vote against your sister." He accepted the nervous laugh and apology from Yang with a pleasant smile. "Regardless, I cannot offer anything more than what I have already said. I apologise. I will, however, be keeping a close eye on the police operation. If it seems for even a moment that they cannot handle this, I will push for our intervention. We will not leave these unfortunate souls in such a position."

"What about what the White Fang are doing?"

"If we knew, we would have to try and stop them." Ozpin said. "So, it is perhaps better that we do not. The Council and the police want us kept out of proceedings because they believe they can better take down the White Fang without us legitimising them. Personally, I think the approach flawed, but words are cheap. Let them see with their own eyes where this leads."

"So, we do nothing?" Ruby asked.

"For now, yes. I'm sorry."

It wasn't his fault and yet Ruby couldn't deny that she felt upset. Angry, even. People were in trouble and needed help and they weren't allowed to save them because politicians were worried it would make them look bad. Stupid. It was all a waste of time.

"Miss Adel has something interesting to show you while you're free," he said. "The White Fang's latest initiative. I expect you to familiarise yourselves with it, and by all means, make accounts."

"Accounts…?" Weiss asked.

"Miss Adel will explain it better. I will inform you of what happens with the police investigation when I have news," he promised. "Until then, you are all dismissed."

Outside and down the long elevator, Team RWBY stomped back to their rooms with an air of frustration. Even Blake, who more wanted to prove the White Fang wrong than anything else, was annoyed at being told they could do nothing. Yang was more vocal about it, complaining the whole way, even as Weiss tried to explain why the Council made their choice.

"I'm not on their side," Weiss explained when Yang lost her patience. "I'm just playing devil's advocate."

"Yeah, well, stop it. They're rich enough to afford their own defence attorneys." Yang unlocked the door to their dorm and stormed in, freezing when she realised someone else was in the room, then relaxing again when it was just Coco. "How did you even get in here?"

"Ozpin gave me access."

"What if we had porn or stuff we wanted to hide?"

"First of all, you do. Secondly, it's not exactly hidden." Coco pointed to the books stacked up as a pillar and keeping Yang's bunk bed suspended above Yang's.

"Touché, bitch." Yang grinned and flounced down on the bed next to Coco. She had a laptop open before her, which was presumably what Ozpin wanted them to see. "So, what's the news? Exciting?"

"A little. Welcome to the White Fang's new official forum, news service and donations page."

Ruby's brain went blank for a second. "Whut?"

"Exactly as it sounds. The White Fang, or the Vale sect, have gone and set themselves up a way for people to donate money to them."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Oh, for sure, but the link to donate is actually going straight to various charities, so you're actually giving money to charity in their name. That means the money never reaches them."

"The good will certainly does." Weiss said.

"Bingo. It's another genius PR move, but it's better than that. They're running forums on here where people can talk to them and each other. They're legit chatting with random people right now – sharing stories, opinions and other making memes."

"Memes." Yang said, laughing. "They're going to win the war with memes?"

"They… kind of are." The serious way Coco said it made them all pause. "You don't get it. Do you know what memes do?"

"Make people laugh?"

"Precisely. They humanise people. They make things relatable. One of the biggest things people had over the White Fang was that the White Fang are faceless, masked, psychopaths attacking innocent people without rhyme or reason. Jaune Arc started fixing that when he showed his face and made sure everyone could see he's a normal guy with a nice smile. Now, his people are on here joking with people and flexing their muscles cracking jokes and talking about why they do what they do."

"They're becoming relatable." Weiss said, eyes widening. "They're convincing people that they're not the White Fang, but those friendly people they know online, the ones who tell jokes."

"Exactly. Look at this, HotBatDaddy and SpiderMommy are having an argument over their names, apparently BatDaddy chose her name and she's not happy about it. They're fighting like an old married couple. It's stupid, but it's funny, cute even, and people are enjoying it. Meanwhile, Sienna_Khan is explaining the White Fang's primary motives and admitting to people online that some of their past actions went too far. They're communicating with people in a way they never have before, and between you and me, that's kind of a big deal."

"What is this one on about?" Yang leaned in and read, "The best huntress is Blake, who always helps us so much in saving people. She's so pretty and I think she and the red-haired girl from the White Fang would make such a cute couple. Omg."

"There's a post below it from as well," Ruby pointed out. "It just says, I thought we told you to swipe on the blonde and stop chasing cat tail." Ruby blinked. "Huh. I wonder what that means?"

"Not sure." Yang said. "The tag for the first person is literally BlakeXIlia4ever, though." Yang looked back to her partner. "Someone you know?"

Blake slapped a hand to her face. "Damn it, Ilia…"

FangBook? MyFang? InstaFang?

I was thinking of actually writing out some posts from it in a forum-style column in next chapter. It would be story relevant since it's to show how the White Fang are going about their PR blitz, but let me know if you think it would be something you like or not.

Note: I obviously don't mean a full chapter of it – that'd be a waste of my time and yours – more a first 1,000 words being it or something.

Next Chapter: 24th August

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur