Trust was a funny thing.
It was something everyone wanted from everyone else.
Some people trusted no one, some people only trusted close friends.
And some people were complete idiots and trusted everyone, from the charismatic mercenary with a gruff exterior, but a heart of gold. To the poor wounded civilian that was dying in an alleyway.
That was the mistake of the kindly old folks that took him in.
They had been a great help in nursing him back to health these past few weeks, telling him about this new dangerous and exciting world he found himself in.
They told him about such awesome things as Aura, Grimm, hunters and what really got his blood pumped was Semblances. the idea of him having some kinda hidden power unique to him was a game changer.
Still if this world was to be a fresh start, then Isaac Gates and the couple that nursed him back to health need to die a tragic death in a home robbery gone wrong.
But Felix would survive.
"Ah Isaac, what are you doing up this late?"
The old fart that found him in the alley all those weeks ago walked in, carrying that stupid little bag of his that he carried to work every day.
"Waiting for you actually," Felix told him. "I want to have a talk, but your wife wanted to see you in the kitchen first."
The old geezer nodded, set the stupid little bag next to the door like he always did and went off to the kitchen. Felix leaned back in the one seat chair he was sitting in and fiddled with his knife, the only one he had left from his world.
As expected, a scream came from the kitchen. In a casual, almost leisurely way, Felix went to the small kitchen to find the old man crying, over the broken body of his wife.
It was fucking hilarious.
"What happened to Mrs Grey?' Felix asked voice full of 'concern' and 'shock.'
Yeah that was another weird thing about this world, everyone was named after a colour for some reason, it was fucking weird.
"She's dead," The old fart said with deep sadness in his voice. "Whoever stabbed her, whoever killed her will pay." He promised with rage in his voice.
What a fucking drama queen.
He was also wrong, Felix made sure to correct him.
"Actually, the cause of death was drowning," He drawled out. "The stab wounds were added in post death, for dramatic reasons."
"What?" Oldie said in disbelief.
Now came one of Felix's favourite parts.
"She drowned," He informed the idiot. "Never saw it coming, she kicked and screamed, but I guess Aura doesn't stop drowning, huh?"
"You killed her," Was oldie still going on about that? Really?
"No, no, no. The water killed her, haven't you been paying any attention? I just held her under as she thrashed and screamed."
The old man then gave one of those wordless screams of rage, the type Feds and Rebels would sometimes give when he killed their friends. Old and ugly then charged, but Felix simply sidestepped him, and sliced open his throat using his knife.
The fact that his knife from his home universe could cut through Aura was sure to give him an edge in this world.
The old man was now on his hands and knees, blood coming from his throat like a waterfall.
After rolling the old man onto his back, Felix looked him right in the eye.
'You know I have to thank you, you and your wife have been a great help." Felix told the dying man, "And because of that, your death will be quick."
With that he stabbed the old man between the eyes ending him instantly.
See? He could be merciful.
Now to destroy all evidence of his existence, find some where to fix his armour, and then find out the world's situation.
Then the fun could begin.
"It's awfully busy today," Ruby observed and Wash had to agree.
Even for a Friday afternoon, the Vale docks seemed to be awfully crowded.
"Yeah cause of the festival," Yang informed her sister.
"But that's months away!" Ruby cried, "Why would they set up for it now?"
"That's right, but the students from other academies are arriving months in advance," Blake chipped in. "For example the Vacuo students are arriving today," Blake then frowned. "I hope that it doesn't make the lines too long."
That was the reason for visiting Vale today, Ruby's birthday was a week from now on Halloween. And with the week-long Halloween break started, it was decided to go shopping for presents today. Blake had agreed to run distraction by running Ruby to a book store, while Yang and Pyrrha got gifts and costumes.
Of course when Wash had overheard this, he kept it from his fellow loose lipped troopers.
"Yeah," Ruby agreed, before turning to the other two, "What will you guy's be doing?" She asked.
"Just some shopping," Caroli- Pyrrha answered.
Yang nodded along, "Nothing major just some-" Yang stopped mid-sentence as they all stopped in front of store that had all of its windows broken and police tape everywhere.
"What in Sam hill happened here?" Sarge asked, a question that Ruby repeated to out loud to the detective outside the store.
"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week," The officer shook his head. "This place is turning into a jungle."
"That's terrible," Yang sighed.
"Yeah! If they keep stealing Dust, how can the tooth fairy fly?" Caboose agreed.
"They left all the money again."
Wait, what?
The detectives continued. "Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?"
His partner looked annoyed, "I don't know, an army?"
"You thinking the White Fang?" The first detective shared his theory
"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough," The other replied.
The White Fang… that was an organisation that Wash had mixed feelings about.
On one hand the noble goal of helping out all Faunus kind. On the other they were now a terrorist organisation that was making life harder for everyone. In a way, it reminded Wash of project Freelancer. A group that also had started with a noble goal, but had descended into nothing more than a big experiment that dabbled in acts of terrorism.
He wondered if the leader of the White Fang was anything like the Director.
The group was silent for a few moments as they walked away, before Blake spoke up.
"It's not the White Fang," Everyone looked at her. "I mean the White Fang didn't rob this Dust shop, it was probably a criminal like Torchwick or something." Blake elaborated, looking nervous.
"Alright," Yang shrugged, "Makes sense." Pyrrha and Ruby nodded along, but Wash wasn't convinced.
"It could be the White Fang," Wash mused out-loud. "It could just be for some secret purpose, perhaps a sabotage operation, or maybe for weapons."
"Do you want me to repeat that Wash?" Ruby whispered.
"No Ruby," Wash shook his head. "No need, I was just thinking out-loud. Besides a secret purpose, could just be to sell the Dust at a higher price or something."
The group walked on, as Sarge gave his thoughts.
"Well you could build a mighty fine bomb from all that Dust," He mused. "Kinda of like that bomb that sent us back in time."
Wash cringed at the mentioning of that. From the reports, Sarge's bomb only sent the sim troopers flying, but they all mistook it for time travel.
Then as the group went off, a monkey tailed Faunus ran past the group, and team SALN slammed right into their backs. Pushing them forward into yet another poor girl. Leaving everyone, excepting the red and blues, in a heap on the floor.
"Hey!"
"Watch it!"
"Scuse me."
"Sorry!"
"Get off me!"
With everyone up, Blake asked, "What are you doing?"
"Chasing that Faunus rapscallion!" Weiss said animatedly before looking around. "Where did he go?!"
"I guess he's gone then," Jaune shrugged when there was no immediate sightings, to which Weiss disagreed.
"No. We can catch him!" Weiss then turned to Nora. "I know we did not have the best start, but if you find the Faunus, then I will buy you the best pancakes money can buy."
At this the lighting Viking grinned like the lunatic Wash knew she was, followed by Caboose, who said "I also want pancakes!"
"Come on Ren!" Nora squealed before bursting off at surprising speed followed by Weiss and a reluctant Ren and Jaune.
With team SALN gone, team RPBY was left alone.
"That was weird," Yang said.
"It is? Then I simply must note that," The girl on the floor replied.
Wait, what?
His eyes were not deceiving him, a teenaged girl was still down on the ground, smiling widely.
"Sal-u-ta-tions!" She waved from the ground.
"Um… hello," Ruby said awkwardly
"Are you… okay?" Yang asked.
"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking," The strange girl said.
"Do you... wanna get up?" Yang continued sounding as confused as Wash and the other felt.
"Yes," The strange girl said after a moment of consideration before she jumped back onto her feet, causing the team to step back a little.
"My name is Penny!" Penny told them. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"Hi Penny, I'm Ruby."
"I'm Pyrrha."
"Blake."
'Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Blake hit her partner's side "Oh, I'm Yang."
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny smiled brightly. At least she seemed kinda of sweet.
"You already said that," Blake pointed out.
"So I did!" Unnervingly sweet.
"Well, we are very sorry for running into you," Pyrrha told her, and the group finally went back on their way.
"Take care, friend!" Ruby shouted back as they left.
"She was... weird..." Yang muttered.
"Oh I don't know," Sarge said thoughtfully. "For a robot she's more normal than Lopez. Lot less Spanish at least."
Wash and Ruby did a spit take.
"Robot!?" Wash yelled.
"What did you call me?"
Penny appeared directly in front of the group with a scary amount of speed.
"Oh, I'm really sorry," Yang apologised profoundly "I definitely didn't think you heard me!"
Penny shook her head, "No, not you." She pushed through the group and leaned her head down towards Ruby "You!"
"Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..." Ruby stuttered out.
"You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?" Penny said with far too much hope in her voice, did she really not have any friends?
"Uuuum..."
Blake and Yang made "No!" Absolutely not!" Motions behind Ruby's back while Pyrrha gave a small reencouraging nod.
"Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?" Ruby told her newest friend.
Penny looked overjoyed and laughed "Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"
He was suddenly glad Donut wasn't here.
Ruby groaned but big sister Yang went for the rescue.
"So… what are you doing in Vale?"
"I'm here to fight in the tournament," Penny said proudly.
"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Yang said confused
"I'm combat ready!" Penny said with even more pride, honestly Sarge's idea that she was a robot made sense by the minute.
Pyrrha stepped forward with her usual optimistic smile.
"Well, I think you will do great in the tournament, after all appearances can be deceiving."
Penny continued to smile, "Thank you for your support!"
"Now if can excuse us, we are going shopping," Yang bluntly told the probable robot.
"Oooohhhh, shopping is a great activity for friends, can I come?"
"You can join me and Blake, we're going book shopping," Ruby offered before Yang could say no.
"Sen-sational!"
As the group walked away, Wash noticed that Blake stole a glance at the robbed store and sighed.
On a nearby roof top, Felix observed.
He was looking at his surroundings, but something had caught his eye, a group of weirdly dressed students. Or rather the three soldiers that were next to said students, in very familiar full body power armour.
What do you fucking know, Agent 'More cryptic than batman' Washington, and two of those idiot sim troopers were here as well.
Did that mean they were also dead?
Felix really fucking hoped so, he could just imagine what gory, violent and painful deaths they had suffered.
Furthermore, it looked like no one could see them, in fact those students they were with, just phased right through them like ghosts, except for the small one with black hair and red highlights.
Interesting, everyone could interact with and see him, perhaps it was different for every person?
Regardless, if these idiots were here, he needed more weapons and his armour fixed. Fast.
Focusing on the sim troopers and Freelancer, he made a note to find out why they were with that particular group of students.
After all, when he got all of his stuff back, he was going to get his revenge, and it would be fun.
Meanwhile, in the forests of Mistral
After walking day and night, they were still pissed.
Attack after attack, from some weird ass fucking monsters all night had been the norm for them. Ever since they woke up on this, weird ass planet.
Most of their equipment wasn't working, damaged from their last battle with those idiots.
Still, they were strong enough to beat the crap out of what ever came across their path which fine by them.
They just hoped they would find civilisation soon, otherwise they might just lose it.
Blake was lying on her bed with a book, but she just couldn't focus on any of the words, her mind far away elsewhere.
It had been several hours sense they had left the docks, but Blake could not stop thinking about what had happened.
She couldn't stop thinking about what the detective had said.
"You thinking the White Fang?"
She knew logically that it was possible, but she simply couldn't believe it. The White Fang simply had no reason to rob Dust stores, they could get all they need from raiding the SDC. They wouldn't start robbing stores in vale. Case closed.
So why couldn't she stop thinking about it?
She needed proof.
She needed proof to calm her mind from this idea that had been put in her head.
The only thing was, she had no idea where she would even start.
But her team might know.
When she had first started Beacon, she believed that she would never have to tell anyone anything. That her past would be a secret, long forgotten. She never expected to be even considering telling her team about some of her past. But here she was, thinking about doing that exact thing.
Everyone on her team were good people, Pyrrha was a fantastic person, helping everyone who needed it.
Yang always spoke her mind and wasn't afraid to break some rules to do the right thing.
And Ruby had the same morality as a hero from an old fairy tale.
They were all good people, so it wasn't out of the question that they could help her on her quest to prove that it wasn't the White Fang behind the dust robberies.
Setting down her book, Blake took the time to look at her team, her partner was in the shower, probably using water that was as hot as the sun. Ruby was working on her robot which now had two half build legs and Pyrrha was reading in her own bed.
Giving a small sigh, Blake looked into her knees like they held all the answers.
Should she trust her team?
Would they react positively or negatively to her being a Faunus?
What would they think about her past with the White Fang?
But she knew the answers wouldn't come from looking into her knees or self-reflection.
There was only one true way to find out.
Stealing herself for all and any possible reaction, Blake prepared to get up and grab their attention, when Ruby moved back to reveal what part of her robot she had been working on.
It was a… switch.
A switch placed in a very… familiar place.
As Blake watched in confusion Ruby took out a tub that was clearly labelled 'Jenkins's metal cleaner: making things so clean it doesn't seem physically possible.'
Her team leader then put on some gloves, took some of the liquid and started rubbing the switch all over.
Blake could only watch in abject bug eyed horror as Ruby's hand went up and down, and up and down, the very unfortunately placed switch.
Blake wasn't the only one, Pyrrha had also noticed what Ruby was doing and found it incredibly uncomfortable.
"R- R- Ruby?" The spartan called for her partner.
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing?" Pyrrha asked with an embarrassed tone and blushing red, as Ruby kept up with her task.
'Just working on cleaning the self-maintenance switch," Ruby said casually. "If it's too dirty when I finish installing it, then it could short out the leg mortars."
"Oh, ah… okay," Pyrrha said, as she tried to avert her eye's but like Blake couldn't.
"ᵈᵉᵃʳ ˡᵒʳᵈ ˢʰᵉ'ˢ ʷᵒʳˢᵉ ᵗʰᵃⁿ ᴰᵒⁿᵘᵗ."
Then Ruby started to hum some tune, it reminded Blake of scene from ninjas of love where-
No.
She was not going to think about that. Only someone with a very dirty mind would think about that now. No, Ruby was just doing some harmless maintenance work.
Blake's face went red as Ruby's hand started twisting. And now Blake was hoping for something, anything, to end this.
"RUBY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Yang yelled from where she stood, fresh from the shower.
That would do nicely.
Using her well-developed parkour skills, Blake jumped out from her bed, swung on Ruby's and darted into the bathroom, all in one fluid motion.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE TO ME!"
She would tell her teammates tomorrow, Blake decided.
Pyrrha never liked Pumpkin Pete's Cereal.
Sure she did that advert for it and she was on some of the boxes, but cereal was far too sweet for Pyrrha's tastes.
So it was fortunate that at Beacon, they only did proper breakfast foods, hence her lovely bacon and eggs.
As she ate her meal, the rest of her team arrived.
"Yang, I said it wasn't like that!"
"Ssuuuurrrreeeeee," Yang drawled out with a lazy smirk on her face. "I believe you."
Ever sense the incident last night, Yang (once she had gotten over her initial anger), had been teasing Ruby, nonstop for her accidental, uh, handling of her robot.
The two sisters sat down on either side of Pyrrha with their own meals, Blake sat down next to her team leader.
Everyone sat in relative silence as they devoured their individual meals, Yang having bacon and mashed potatoes, Ruby had sausages and Blake some cooked fish.
Pyrrha finished first with Yang right behind her.
The blond brawler then took a long good look at Ruby and her meal, waiting for her sister to be in the middle of a big bite before speaking.
"Enjoying your… sausages?" Yang asked as innocently as a serial killer, covered in the guts of his victims.
"Huh?" Ruby questioned blankly, causing Blake to lean over to explain the innuendo in whisper, making Ruby turn a bright red and chock on her meal.
"Yang!"
"You should see your face," Yang cackled as Ruby continued to be as red as her cloak. Deciding to put her partner out her misery, Pyrrha asked an important question.
"Do you guys have any plans for today?"
The other three paused.
"I was planning to do some maintenance on Crescent Rose," Ruby answered. "Then I was going to do some costume shopping."
"I'm going to the gym, then I'm joining Ruby," Yang chipped in. "What about you?"
"Me and Jaune are going to the movies," Pyrrha told them, "But I have no afternoon plans."
With her super natural sense for teasing, Yang asked, "Is this a date?"
"No, just us hanging out as friends," Pyrrha blushed.
She and Jaune had been flirting around each other sense they first met, but neither really knew how to move forward about it. Still if they got together, at least it wouldn't be as awkward as if they were on the same team.
Yang opened her mouth to presumably to give out some more teasing, but was cut off by Blake.
"I, actually would like to talk about something with you guys," The normally quite girl spoke up.
"What is it Blake?" Ruby asked, voice filled with concern. "Is something wrong?"
"Yes," Came the quite answer. "If you can, I want you guys to meet me at the Vale docks at eight o'clock tonight, at the same Dust shop as yesterday," Blake finished with a quiet voice. "Now if you can excuse me, I have things to prepare."
With that the bookish girl stood up and went out of the room.
"What was that about?" Yang asked the table rhetorically.
"I don't know," Pyrrha answered anyway. "But I think we should meet her there tonight."
Pyrrha then almost missed what Ruby said next.
"Wash could you-" The red reaper whispered.
"ᴿᶦᵍʰᵗ, ᶦ'ᵐ ᵒⁿ ᶦᵗ, ᶦ'ˡˡ ˡᵒᵒᵏ ᵃᶠᵗᵉʳ ʰᵉʳ ᴿᵘᵇʸ."
It was unnervingly foggy when they all arrived at the robbed dust shop at eight on the dot. And the streets were utterly barren, devoid of life.
Yang thought that it really added to the tense atmosphere between the three girls.
"Here we are," Pyrrha said simply, "But I don't see Blake." The spartan added with concern in her voice.
Yang rolled her eyes, "Well it is exactly eight, we probably couldn't expect her to be here on the dot." Yang crossed her arms and looked around, peering into the fog as best she could. "Besides, with this fog we might just not be able to see her."
"Right," Came Pyrrha's reply. "I just hope Blake is fine."
Yang nodded and placed herself on a wall, turning her head in time to see Ruby muttering something indecipherable.
Ah great, looks like she was doing that again.
"Anything to add Rubes?" She asked her sister rhetorically, causing the younger girls eyes to widen comically like she always did when Yang caught her talking to herself.
"Nothin- I-a, I mean I uh, think Blake is close by." The silver eyed girl spluttered out.
"ˢᵐᵒᵒᵗʰ." The wind whispered, which caused Yang to do a double take. Did the wind just say something?
Shaking her head Yang dismissed the thought as stupid, then addressed what Ruby had said.
"What makes you think that?" She asked, pushing herself upright, off the wall.
"Probably because I'm right behind you."
Yang, Pyrrha and Ruby all jumped. Blake stood there, her arms crossed, with some who looked sorta familiar, but Yang couldn't place him.
"Blake!" Came Ruby's cry of relief, the team leader then used her semblance to run over and give Blake a brief hug, which seemed to shock the bookish girl, before pulling away.
"You're alright! Is everything okay? Are you in trouble? You had us so worried! 'Cause you just ran off! What happened?" Ruby rambled, faster than a Grimm after a wounded person.
Pyrrha put a hand on her partner's shoulder to calm her down.
"It is good to see you Blake, but you did have us worried," The gladiator told Yang's partner.
"I can explain, but it- its-t is complicated," Blake told them.
"Well whatever it is I'm sure we can handle it," She assured her partner in an easy going tone.
It couldn't be that bad right?
Blake shifted nervously, "Promise that you'll let me talk first? And hold all questions to the end?"
"Of course."
"Alright."
"Sure."
Blake then removed her bow, the same bow she wore all the time, even when sleeping, to reveal a set of cat ears.
"I am a cat Faunus and former member of the White Fang."
Wait, what?
When she saw her teammates, stumped reactions, Blake sighed and continued.
"I should start at the beginning, I was a member for most of my life. You could almost say I was born into it..." Blake paused as if in remembrance, "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." Blake gave a small bitter chuckle. "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." At this Blake started fiddling with her hair. "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." A dark shadow came onto Blake's face, "Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking." Getting passionate, Blake continued. "Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organised attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labour. 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 speech, and took several, calming breaths, before saying one last sentence.
"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." at this she looked at her bow and then at her team.
The group stood in silence in the foggy alley, digesting the bombshell that had been dropped.
So Blake was a Faunus and ex-White Fang member. Yang took a few moments to continue to digest this.
"Cool, what else did ya need?" Yang told her partner.
Blake for her part seemed shocked. "That's it?" The cat Faunus demanded, that's all you have to say!?"
"Yeah, you where ex-White Fang, so what? Everyone has a past."
Blake seemed unable to formulate a response to that, opening and closing her mouth several times.
Pyrrha was the next to speak, "Yang's right, everyone has their past. Besides you've left the White Fang once they lost their way." Pyrrha put a hand on Blake's shoulder, "You are a good person Blake."
Ruby then shrugged, "Yep." She popped the 'p' "They're both right, we're all behind you."
"N- none of you care about my past? Or that I lied to you?" The not-so-secret Faunus asked nervously.
"Nope," Ruby replied, proceeding to give Blake another, longer hug. "I'm just glad, that my friend is alright."
"So if I may interrupt, this really heart-warming moment, we should probably start getting to the docks," The stranger Blake had bought with her interrupted.
Yang had sorta forgotten about him, and from the others looks, they had as well.
"Right, sorry," Blake said sheepishly as she pried Ruby off her. "Everyone, this is Sun, Sun, this is my team."
"Hello," Pyrrha greeted. "You look familiar."
"He was the Faunus being chased by SALN yesterday, for being a stowaway."
"Yeah they tried to catch me, but I got away." Sun chuckled and paused for a moment, "But the ginger one nearly had me, she was scary."
Yang put the conversation on track, "What's this, about the docks?"
Blake suddenly got a serious edge on her face, "Well, with the dust robberies being blamed on the White Fang, I was hoping to catch whoever was stealing all of the Dust at the docks tonight, who are getting in a big delivery. Then we can catch who it is and prove that it wasn't the White Fang."
"Yes!" Ruby exclaimed, "We could catch Torchwick!"
"We would be bringing dangerous criminals to justice," Pyrrha smiled at the thought.
Yang shrugged, "Why not? I had no real plans tonight anyway."
Blake gave a proper smile.
"Thanks guys."
"Don't worry Blake," Yang told her with a mischievous smile. "After all this is the purfect opportunity to work together as a team."
The team looked in horror at the realisation that Yang had a whole new way making puns.
Yang laughed.
Note:
And that's the end of the chapter. Thanks for reading!