Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.

CHAPTER 16

The two teams of RWBY and SPGL woke up the next morning with a bed empty in each of their rooms… Black and White had both gone missing. One likely hunting the other. Their lockers were cleaned out in the night, each having taken their weapons. Clayton looked at the bed Pale had left in perfect condition, hospital folded and wrinkle free, as he'd always make it in the mornings. Clayton closed his eyes… He had lost a friend.

Two days of searching yielded nothing, and truthfully, there were a few among the teams who wished for one to never return. Weiss wanted nothing to do with Blake, Siniy equaly so, Clayton had his reservations about the girl now, but he wouldn't drop the search for the two because of her, and Ruby… Ruby honestly didn't want Pale to come back. He'd tried to kill Blake, and it was clear he was dangerous and had more than likely disliked Clayton from the beginning. "Damn dirty ape!" The words kept playing over and over in her mind. Was that all Clayton was to Pale, an animal? Did he think she was a zoophile for dating him like the kids at Signal did? Regardless, everyone was out searching Vale for them.

Team RWBY was in mid-town along the riverfront of the commercial district, sweeping the streets for Blake, while SPGL was on the industrial district's border with the agricultural distric in the south. They'd planned to cover as much ground as possible before the weekend was over and classes started up the next day. Weiss however was not helping much. "You know we could always go to the police." Weiss said, earning her a stair from her partner and teammates. "It was just an idea." She said, defending herself.

"An awful one." Ruby muttered.

"We should hear Blake's side of the story before we jump to any conclusions. She might not be part of the White Fang." Yang reasoned.

"You heard what Pale said. "This is for Sakkura." That sounds like something right out of a revenge plot centered movie. If Blake or the White Fang did something to him he'd be willing to kill someone for, we should be on Pale's side." Weiss said, only for a new voice to surprise them from behind.

"What are you on Boyfriend Pale's side about?" Penny asked, shocking the three into a momentary state of panic.

"Gah, Penny, where did you come from!?" Ruby asked, slightly jumping at how close Penny had been walking to them.

"Hey girls." Penny said with a smile.

Yang sighed before she answered. "We're looking for Blake and Pale." Penny nodded in understanding.

"The faunus girl and Boyfriend Pale." She said. Ruby gave her a confused look.

"How did you know about Blake being a faunus?" Ruby asked.

"The cat ears." Penny said, pointing to her own head.

"What ears, she wears a… Bow…" Yang trailed off.

"Man, I feel dumb…" Weiss said, wishing she had noticed sooner.

"She does like tuna a lot." Ruby pointed out.

"So where are Blake and Boyfriend Pale?" Penny asked, cocking her head to the side.

"We don't know, there was a fight and they've been missing since Friday." Ruby said, only for Penny to suddenly lock up.

"That is terrible. Don't worry Ruby, I will not rest until I find Blake and Boyfriend Pale." Penny said. Ruby scratched the back of her head.

"Well… That's really great Penny. I mean, I'm glad you care about Pale so much, and I appreciate you helping us look for our partner." Ruby said, looking over Penny's shoulder to see that Weiss and Yang had ditched her to deal with Penny on her own. Ruby sighed. Penny was weird.

Meanwhile downtown, on the waterfront. "I don't get it. Why would Pale draw on Blake like that… Even if she was in the Fang, he looked… Livid." Clayton said, leaning up against the nearest wall.

Siniy shrugged. "His hatred runs narrow and deep. It is possible the place or person he mentioned was destroyed or killed by the White Fang, or even Blake herself. His actions may be a form of revenge if the name holds as much significance as he made it sound like it did." Siniy said munching on 1 of 20 corn dogs he'd gotten from a street vendor.

Halcyone sighed. "Knowing he's got that kind of mindset might actually help us find him." She said.

Siniy grunted. "How so?" He asked, tossing one of the corn dog sticks into a trashcan.

"He's caught in a personal war. I've seen it before. Men fixatin' on one goal or one idea, and they live and die for it. They go kamakrazee, burn themselves out, or go up in a blaze of glory… But that makes them predictable…" Halcyone said, scratching her ear in thought.

"Predictable?" Clayton asked. Halcyone nodded.

"Pale hates the Fang, hates Blake, he's gonna be gunnin' for her and them, and if that means anything, we'll find Pale and Blake, if we find the Fang." Halcyone said.

"We're the fuck would we start to even do that?" Clayton asked, pushing off the railing.

Siniy shrugged again. "Fang's been stealing dust right? Shops are all cleared out, trains from the refineries on the north Sanus coast stopped coming in… That leaves the seaborne freighters that ship directly from Solitas mines and refineries… If the Fang were to hit a target, it would be the north side industrial docks across the river… A shipment did come in today." Siniy said.

Halcyone looked at him. "How'd you know about the ship?" She asked. Siniy pulled out his scroll and opened up a parcel tracker app.

"I made a bulk order of cartridges for my machine gun. The app says the order arrived in Vale today." Siniy said, jostling the compacted weapon on his lower back. Clayton raised his eyebrows.

"Well then, what are we waiting for, we've got a stake out on our hands." Halcyone sneezed after she was done talking.

"Are you alright?" Siniy asked, leaning over his partner.

Halcyone wiped her face and shook her head clear. "I think so?"

"So Blake is your friend?" Penny asked, as she and Ruby walked down the street.

"Yes Penny." Ruby said with a sigh.

"But you are mad at her?" Penny asked.

"No, not really, Pale and Weiss are though." Ruby responded.

"Are they friends with Blake?" Penny continued.

Ruby shrugged. "I don't know… I think they hate her now." Ruby said.

"But why?" Penny asked.

"Because Blake and Pale aren't who we thought they were." Ruby said, getting slightly annoyed.

"Is Blake a man?" Penny asked in a conspiratorial whisper, only for Ruby to shake her hands.

"No, no. Penny, she's… We don't know what she is. She didn't tell us anything before Pale tried to shoot her." Ruby said.

"Oh my. Boyfriend Pale must be very different than he seems if he tried to shoot Blake. He seemed so polite." Penny said.

Ruby shook her head. "Yeah… He did seem polite." Ruby said, before the two continued their search.

Far away, Pale sat perched in a church bell tower overlooking the riverside docks. When he saw Blake sitting on a rooftop in passing, he went and found a place to make a guaranteed shot from… Then his curiosity was piqued. She was waiting for something, or someone. Her position could have been better, but it wasn't terrible. She had a clear line of sight of the center of the docks, and more than enough space to run if need be. The question was why was she prowling the docks instead of acting. SDC marked 20 foot container expresses were all over, and she could bust open locks if need be… Unless she was waiting for backup.

The amount of dust in one conexe would be too much for a single person to steal on their own. Knowing the Fang, they'd bring in trucks or an air lift to boost it. New question. How much would they steal? That was proportionate to how many trucks or bullheads they would need, and that correlated to how many of the animals would come out with them. With the amount of space at the docks. 5 airships maximum, 12 to 13 2.5 ton trucks. More than enough targets to build up his semblance to begin making kill shots. The monkey faunus from two days ago jumped up on the roof with her. Now they were both waiting. Odd. Two people staking out the place. It was possible he was scouting for her.

The bell tower was perfect. Clear view of the well lit docks. Lots of sight lines. High angle of attack. 500 meters away from the docks was just close enough for his bullets to impact before they slowed down under drag and the sound outpaced them. It was overcast and just passed sunset, so the moon was hidden, providing no light to be reflected off of his rifle scope, and in either case the moon was to his back, so what light was shining was behind him, hiding him in the shadow of the bell tower. Even a faunus with night vision would be unable to see him in the pitch black. And the Pièce de résistance, it would soon be 2000.

Pale loaded a round into Pride of the East, set his pocket watch on the sill of the bell tower, the chain keeping it attached to his waistcoat, and lit a single cigar, then laid it on the sill next to the watch so he could gauge the wind. Checking his digital wrist watch for station pressure, temperature and humidity, Pale was prepared to shoot. Then he saw his team on the far right end of the docks, breaking through a chain link gate, their position obscured from Belladonna's view by containers. "What are you guys doing?" Pale asked himself.

"You guy's know we're screwed if they have enough people right?" Halcyone asked, as Clayton snapped the lock off of the gate to the dock's side entrance.

"We're not here to get into a fight. We go in, poke around, find our guy and girl, then get out. No shots fired, nobody dies. If, and it's a big if, we hold an advantage we can try to press for a surrender." Clayton said, as Siniy went through the gate first.

"And if they've got an airship?..." Siniy asked, looking into the distance.

A bullhead flew past the bell tower, and came to land in the center of the docks. Pale could see everything. 4 White Fang Vale Chapter members came out of the bullhead. Not nearly it's maximum passenger capacity, but enough to tow cable a container and still fly. Scratch that 5… No, that 5th person wasn't a faunus. It was Roman Torchwick… "Why would he work with the Fang?" Pale asked himself. Adjusting his aim, Pale saw Blake jump off her rooftop, weapon out, and ran through the maze of containers. She wasn't going directly to them… Was that a flank? Saving the question for later he refocused his attention on Roman, only to see Blake put her sword to his neck and reveal herself to the Fang as a faunus… Then he saw his teammates come out from cover to confront the Fang members.

Sighing, Pale shifted his target. The one on the far left with a gun. The Fang only gave guns to their weakest members, ones with no melee experience, or no aura… Given his stance, Pale was betting on him having no experience seeing as he held his gun looking like a 7, his shoulders back and feet too far forward, and if he had a gun and no experience with it, it meant he was new, and had no aura. Poor kid.

Clayton, Siniy, and Halcyone all had their weapons ready. They'd found Blake, and came out of the shadows of a shipping container, coming on line to aim at the four White Fang members and Roman Torchwick. "Oh not you." Roman said, recognizing Clayton.

"Well well well. Looks like the cavalry arrived just in time." Halcyone said with a snicker, as two of the four Fang members turned their weapons toward the three new arrivals, only to lower them when they saw Clayton's feet.

"Roman Torchwick, whatever it is you're doing with the White Fang, it ends tonight. You're under citizen's arrest." Clayton said. "Blake, so glad you could help us capture him." He continued.

"Oh, my dear Monkey Man… What I'm doing is only the beginning." Roman smirked. Two more bullheads flew past the tower, coming to hover over the docks, and Clayton cringed.

"We might be screwed." Clayton said to Halcyone.

Pale cursed to himself, hating that he was right about there being multiple bullheads. Pale shifted his stance, then… Inhaled, took note of the wind, looked through his scope, rested his cheek on the padded leather of the stock, kept his eye just close enough to the lens, placed the pad of his finger on the trigger, picked out the button on the shirt of his target, lined up a shot, adjust for environmental factors, glanced at his pocket watch with his left eye, smirked, exhaled… And squeezed.

Church bells rang loudly over the sound of the two bullheads, and suddenly one of the Fang members dropped to the ground, blood leaking out of his chest. Everyone reacted differently. The Fang stood in shock, while Team SPGL recognized the sudden death of the Fang member was due to sniper fire, and with who they were expecting it to be, ran for what looked like cover within a 90 degree arc from the front of the Fang member that got hit, expecting to become potential targets for an unstable Pale Lee. Roman on the other hand took the moment to shoot an explosive flare at Blake's feet.

Pale flung the lever on his gun and ejected the spent casing, before shoving a new round in, racking the lever back up, setting the hammer, then the set trigger, and repeating his aiming process. He didn't have enough damage built up from the one shot to penetrate someone's aura yet, but it would be enough to knock someone down. He watched as Roman let rip an explosive, and took a shot on the other Fang with a gun using the bells, the bullheads, and the explosion to mask his gunshot, putting a round into the back of the animal's leg, causing him to fall. Repeating the reload process, Pale put the next one in the Fang member's heart when the bell tolled, again masking his position. Taking note of the new Fang dropping in from the bullheads, 7 by his count, all with aura if the height of the drop was any indication… Stupid of them, they waisted aura to look cool. One more shot would be all it took for Pale's semblance to be built up enough to begin penetrating their auras full stop.

With Blake running from explosions, and Roman thoroughly distracted with the monkey faunus from earlier, the leader of Team SPGL sat back and tried to formulate a plan. Engaged by the White Fang, Clayton, Siniy, and Halcyone stood on opposite ends of the dock's cleared out section, spread out between two containers, the Fang, pointing outwards at them. Occasionally Clayton and Halcyone would exchange shots with the fang, but Siniy was adjusting the rate of fire limiter on his gun. A third White Fang member got hit square in the chest and looked to be winded and knocked over as the bell tolled once again. Clayton realized what was going on, and ran out from his cover, putting himself between the fang member and the bell tower where the ringing was coming from. His hands spread wide, Clayton blocked Pale's shot.

Pale looked at Clayton through his optic. "Get out of the way." He muttered, and as if he'd been heard, Clayton shook his head. Taking initiative, a Fang tried to abuse Clayton's gesture of peace, and raised his sword. Pale shifted his aim, and pulled the trigger, sending the now aura piercing round right through the Fang member's kneecap without the bells covering his gunshot, crippling, but not killing the faunus. Clayton looked back at the fang member as he passed out from blood loss, and nodded at Pale, who silently understood the situation.

Clayton had won on his gamble. Pale wouldn't be killing anybody else, and was definitely on their side. With that out of the way, there was only one thing left to do. Take down Torchwick, and that ment they needed to first gain controle over the air. "Siniy, the bullheads! Make 'em piss off!" Clayton shouted at his friend, as the Fang on the ground began to attack him. Clayton, pumped off 6 shotgun shells as if his gun was automatic, proceeded to swing the axe affixed to the muzzle end, into the gut of an approaching dual sword wielder, and then spin around to block an overhead kick from a second swordsman, kicking them in the chest, and landing on him, pinning him with a balled foot. Halcyone joined Clayton in the scrap by swinging Road Rage into the back of a Fang Member, and kicking their knees out from under them. Then punching them in the face, which slammed them back first into the ground. The two nodded to each other, and stood back to back, as every few seconds a loud gunshot rang out crippling an older and more experienced White Fang NCO, as Pale covered Siniy's advancing into the open to pelt the bullheads with gunfire.

Siniy slapped a Fang member across the face with Two Theater's shovel, then converted it into it's machine gun form, and dropped it to waist level, gripping the stock and carry handle to spray into one of the bullheads, roaring loudly as he let rip a steady stream of bullets at a rather controlled and slow 600 RPM, knocking two out of the sky, one going up in flames while in the air, the on board Fang grunts bailing out to the ground. He felt gunfire impact his haversack, and helmet. Turning to shoot at the two Fang members that attacked him, Siniy, put one round into each of their torsos, stunning and winding them greatly. Eyes wide, Siniy watched as Roman shot a flare at a shipping container above Blake and the Monkey faunus that were fighting him. Moving before the flare even made an impact, Siniy put himself between the two faunus, and the container.

Blake was on the ground, and feared for her life as the container above her came falling down. She closed her eyes, feeling that it was too late. When suddenly she heard a familiar grunt and the groaning of metal. Opening her eyes she saw Siniy kneeling over her and Sun, the 40 foot container full of dust held over the giant's head, bent under the pressure of dropping onto Siniy's small in comparison hands. He looked only mildly strained by the weight. Blake couldn't help but gawk, as Siniy grunted, and then roared as he got to his feet. Blake had no clue how much that container weighed when full, but 30 tons was a good estimate. Still roaring, Siniy chucked the container at Roman like it was a log.

Roman raised his cane, and sent a cluster of explosive flares into the container hoping to make it burst and ignite before it reached him. And burst and ignite it did. The giant in blue would be caught in the fireball at that range. Roman laughed to himself, as the explosion covered his field of view, the heat from the blast washing over him safely. However, the laughter ended when a noise like an inhale came from within the fireball. Roman watched as the giant before him stood still, the flames seeming to draw itself out of the air towards him, as if all of the heat was taken right out of the atmosphere, and suddenly it got a few degrees colder.

Pale had been taking carefully placed shots to ensure that nobody would be more than permanently crippled. He intentionally had to keep watch on Siniy because the giant was tunnel visioned on dealing with the bullheads, then saving Blake and her new friend from being squished. Looking to the flanks to ensure no more reinforcements were dropping out of the airships, Pale saw… Penny and Ruby… And they were kicking ass. By his count the Fang topped off at about 40 boots on the ground total, and that was plenty enough for his friends on the ground to deal with. Keeping a watchful eye for more bullheads, he saw that the original was starting up it's engines again, and another set of bullheads was flying in. One of them was different… It was a gunship. "Ah shit." Pale muttered to himself.

The four man crew of the freshly armed gunship did a weapons check before getting into position, as it's accompanying bullhead moved to the edge of the docks for extraction away from the fighting. The dog faunus that got to man the prototype Atlas 7.62mm "Minigun" smiled. The minigun was a smaller version of a weapon first used in the Great War, the hand cranked Gatling gun. Atlas had made and used fixed rotary machine guns on airships for years, but never scaled it down to the size of the original Gatling. That was until they observed a huntress in training the year prior, modify one from a fixed man powered weapon into an automatic one with the implementation of a dust powered electric motor, and looked into making their own. The minigun was lighter, and had a higher rate of fire than the fixed guns and huntress weapon it was based on thanks to the motor being faster, and it's power supply larger than what could be carried on the huntresses weapon. And lucky for the White Fang, they had one of only 7 in existence. Spooling up the door mounted gun, the gunner got a fix on the sniper in the bell tower, and shouted. "SUPPRESSING FIRE!"

Pale rolled into the corner of the bell tower, hiding behind the giant steel bell, as the ungodly first BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT ripped through the air. Bullets ricocheted off the stone walls of the tower, shreding the wooden shutters, and making an unbearably high pitched ping noise when they hit the bell he was hiding behind. Once the first round of fire stopped, Pale baled up with the barrel of Pride of the East firmly pressed to his cheek, shouting as loud as he could. "THAT ALL YOU FUCKING GOT!?" He yelled, drawing Guerrilla warfare from his rifle stock, pointing it around the corner to blindly shoot at the bullhead. There was a second wave of continuous gunfire, and Pale covered his ears. He wouldn't have any permanent damage, but the sound was making his ears ring in the short term that was for sure.

Nodding to himself, he was confident he knew all he needed to. He had exactly 2 seconds between being spotted and the gunfire starting. Looking at the shutter that was blown to bits next to him, and the bullhead to his back, he figured there'd be enough time to pull off something stupid. Taking three deep breaths, putting his now empty revolver back in his rifle stock, Pale stood up, then fixed his grapple bayonet to his rifle, and faced the now open shutter to his left. "One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place." Pale said to himself in a whisper before he ran and jumped out the window with his back to it at an angle. The gunner of the bullhead turned his aim to the falling sniper. Pale fired off his grapple, snagging the very tip of the steeple, and his momentum transitioned. The gunner depressed the trigger, and the minigun started spooling up. Now swinging past the wall of the bell tower, Pale let go of his rifle with his right hand. The minigun had now started firing, and the gunner tried to trace Pale along his arc of travel. Once Pale had cleared the other side of the tower, and was almost level with the bullhead, he jerked his right hand forward, and extended the Cattle Driver from up his sleeve. Lining up a shot with the bullhead pilot at the highest point of his arc, Pale activated his semblance, and sent one round into the man at the stick. The shot rang out, and with a minor drop due to gravity, the bullet went through the glass cockpit, and dug right into the head of the pilot.

Pale didn't get to see the bullhead spin out without it's pilot. Didn't get to see the copilot take control. Didn't get to see the copilot fail to set it down gently. Didn't get to see the bullhead go back over to the docks and crash into a crane. But what Pale did get to see, was the priceless look on the door gunner's face as he realized that he had been outplayed. Stopping his momentum by grabbing at the side of the tower, Pale sighed. His night of excitement was over.

Penny for her generally positive disposition was a fighting machine, taking on droves of Fang members with Ruby, Halcyone and Clayton, as well as bringing down the original bullhead being cabled to the small dust contaner on her own with a laser, leaving Roman to deal with Siniy. The giant shoved Blake and Sun behind him as he walked forwards. Roman fired off more and more shots from his cane, and with each consecutive shot, Siniy removed his helmet, backpack, kit vest, and coat in one motion, before he finally ripped off his undershirt to lessen his restriction of movment, revealing the scars covering the body of the linebacker physiqued giant. Blake couldn't believe what she saw. Not only were there the gunshot scars and burn marks on the front of his torso that Weiss told her about, but there were scars all over his shoulders and across his back, what looked to be from lashings… Just above his waistline sat a brand she'd seen before, SDC in wire letters and next to it, an ink tattoo I-4859. Just beside the more professionally done markings, the word "pet" was carved into his skin. Blake now understood why he considered the White Fang degenerates.

"Why won't you die?!" Roman shouted, as Siniy got within 20 feet of him.

Siniy growled before preparing to expend the heat he'd built up with his semblance. "Only the gods decide when that happens." Siniy said in Cyrillic, before raising his fists, and turning slightly to the left of Roman. Slamming his fists into the pavement like he had with his shovel into the bridge during initiation, Siniy unleashed everything he had into the ground. The pressure and heat flash boiled the asphalt, and kicked a wave of molten rock and tar into the air.

Though he wouldn't have been hit, Roman still ran as fast and as far away as he could, gunning it for the bullhead that was parked by the edge of the docks for extraction. He'd had enough near death experiences thank you. "What the fuck is he?" He asked himself as the airship took off with what limited amount's of Fang had made it to the extraction site.

With the remaining fang having been mopped up, and the police and EMTs arriving minutes later. The gang gathered around a few wooden crates, wrapped in trauma blankets, and in Siniy's case he's simply put his clothing back on, as the EMT's had nothing that would fit him. Weiss and Yang approached them from the street, Pale following closely behind them. Nobody noticed as one of the people standing with them slipped away.

Blake's attention was caught by Weiss and Pale. She looked at her own feet, before mustering her courage to speak with them. "I… I'm no longer associated with the White Fang, back when I was a kid it was different, and I left before I came to Beacon, because I wanted to change who I was." Blake said. Only for Pale to cut her off with a hostile edge to his voice.

"Shut up." He said, clenching his fist.

"Wha-" Blake started, before Pale continued.

"You answer me one question. Were you at Sakkura?" He asked.

"I… I didn't…" Blake trailed off.

"Were you there in Sakkura, the day Adam Taurus and his heathens burned the village down?" Pale asked, his teammates intently paying attention. "Were you there, when he orderd his men to rape my sister, cut my dad and her into pieces, fed them to the dogs, locked everyone who resisted behind the village walls and firebombed it until there was nothing left but ash?" Pale asked, looking directly at Blake, who couldn't keep eye contact.

"No… I wasn't there… But I know of Sakkura… And I'm sorry that it happened to your people… If there is anything I can do to make up for that day-" Blake said, before Pale held a hand up to silence her, then lifted his left pant leg, revealing to everyone for the first time the wood prosthetic underneath. A bullet from the minigun had splintered a good chunk of it right before where his organic knee joint started.

"You can mail Adam Taurus the bill to replace my new leg." Pale said, before he dropped his pant leg, and sat against a crate. "Other than that… Stop wearing the bow, and I forgive you… You fought off your former allies tonight, and that proves to me you ain't one of the bad ones... That at the least, you got the balls to face the Fang's executioners if you ever get caught for leaving. But I don't want someone I'm gonna call a good person acting like they ain't what they ain't, so leave the ears visible." Pale said, causing Blake to look at him.

"You… Think I'm a good person?" Blake asked, feeling unsure of his words.

"I might not like you Blake, but I can at the least admit you're not one of the people who needs killin' no more. What the fang'll do to you now that you ain't one of 'em, that's the sort of evil I'm fighting against, not for. Being cruel would serve no purpose." Pale said tersly.

Weiss took over the conversation with a huff. "I've had 48 hours to think about this. Since you aren't with them anymore, we're not going to treat you like a terrorist, because like Pale said, what they'll do to you if you get caught is punishment enough. And I never though I'd say this, but faunus or not, you're my teamate... And I thought for a little while we were on track to being friends. Which is why you should have brought this up to us a long time ago. So promise us that next time you drop a bombshell, you come to us first." Weiss said. Blake had to wipe a tear from her eye, before being enveloped in an unsual hug from the Heiress.

"But I... Your family?" Blake mumbled.

Weiss let go of the cat girl, and put her hands on her hips. "It's like you said, the White Fang is a collection of very misgueded Faunus. Therfore, it's our job as huntresses and huntsmen to guide those lost indivduals away from evil... Even if it's just one... Besides, I'm not my father." She said.

Blake couldn't belive what she was hearing. For once in her life the mistakes she'd made were being forgiven. "So I guess you know about my dad?" Blake asked Pale.

The boy nodded. "Took Chief Belladonna off my kill list when I found out he wasn't leading the White Fang when Sakkura burned… That's actually how I found out about you… Princess Belladonna." Pale said with a smirk.

Yang's eyes lit up. "Wait... Princess?!"

"What happened to the name Beaumont?" Clayton asked.

"I thought you were an orphan." Weiss said.

Blake sighed. She was just that unlucky. Blake wasn't trying to hide from anybody in particular, save for Adam. After all nobody but Pale knew who she was based on her face, which was really just very bad luck. Everyone just knowing who she was would be like knowing some council members' kid, and that was even less likely given she was born on the other side of the world in an isolated island nation that was basically the ugly sweater in the closet humanity refused to look at… But alas the cat was out of the bag... Metaphorically speaking.

"My real last name is Belladonna, not Beaumont, and I'm not a princess. Menagerie is a democracy, not a true chiefdom, so I don't have a title or anything." Blake said, rubbing her arm.

Halcyone sighed. "This has been a huge pain in the ass you know. If you drop out of the team, I'm gonna' be pissed after we went through the effort of finding you." She said to Pale.

"Well you ain't gotta worry. I ain't leaving." Pale said, geting pulled into a crushing hug from Clayton.

"Figured you wern't." The gorilla faunus said, before Pale simply patted his back thrice, then shoved him off.

"Don't make me reconsider." Pale chuckled, before Ruby stepped up to Pale, frowned at him, and promptly used her semblance to smack him across the face. It wasn't a very strong hit, but it was so fast it stung and left a mark. "I feel like I might have deserved that." Pale said, rubbing his face, a hand outstreched to prevent Ruby from hitting him again.

"I'm willing to belive that you wern't in the right state of mind Friday, but if you every try to hurt anyone on my team, or your own again, I swear, I will have you arrested." Ruby said pointing a finger in his face.

"You're boy and I just hugged, I think we're past needing that kind of warning." Pale said, as he stopped rubbing his face to pull out a cigarillo.

"So is everyone cool now, or am I missing something?" Yang asked, earning a chuckle from Siniy.

"I think we can all agree we've changed as a result of our time at Beacon." Siniy said, standing up, and ruffeling Pale's long hair through his hat.

"Hey where'd Penny go?" Ruby asked, looking for their missing friend.

About two hours later, Roman Torchwick and the 3 Fang members that he escape with, placed the one case of dust they'd managed to steal on a table within a warehouse. Roman pulled out a cigar, then tossed it aside. He'd had enough fire taken out of him, literally and figuratively. "It wasn't enough." Roman said to himself. The extra bullhead, the stolen prototype minigun, the enriched weapons grade dust he risked blowing up his cane with, the 20 extra foot soldiers. "It. Wasn't. ENOUGH!" Roman shouted, sweeping the table's paperwork contents all over the floor. Taking two deep breaths, he straightened his jacket, as the roll up door behind him opened, his new boss coming to gloat.

"How very disappointing Roman." Roman didn't even bother turning around at first when he heard her voice.

"I wasn't expecting to see you so soon." He said, before turning to face his current employer.

"We were expecting more." She said, as her two little helpers came in behind her. "20 extra guys and one prototype gun… Appreciate it." Roman said. "You said it would be more than enough." The woman said with a frown. "It was enough. Enough to handle one roid using monkey and his girlfriend. Not a squad of huntsmen in training, with sniper coverage, and a hulked out machine gun toting POLAR BEAR!" Roman shouted, having had it with the kids he'd been tasked to deal with.

"Watch your tone with me Roman..." The woman said coldly, igniting a fireball. "Or a bear will be the least of your concerns." She said. Internally, Roman was laughing. He wouldn't outwardly give any indication he found her threat amusing, but it was. She thought that after tonight he was still scared of her. She thought wrong.

Authors Note.

Onto Volume 2.

Hope you guys and gals are liking the alterations so far, minor as they might appear right now. The biggest one being Ruby's official age being 17 instead of 15. A part of me really didn't want to up age Ruby for this fic, but when I drafted Clayton initially I didn't intend for them to be dating, just friends, possibly through Yang as she was supposed to have a crush on him at some point in V1, (that's why I alluded to Yang liking Clayton at some point in reference of a dead timeline,) but I scrapped that idea early in my revisions because that was just too much brawler and shotgun using energy for a couple to have, and I wanted to make some changes. The predominant one being that pairing Ruby with Clayton would be cuter, and the red on red theme led to the whole Crimson Couple nickname.

But then comes the question of how is it Yang isn't actively killing someone dating her little kid sister? Simple, she's not so little, and it's been going on for at least 4 years now. With the age gap being closed it feels less weird, and as a result I had to make Ruby slightly more mature to match. Hence that little bit of anger in the Emerald Forrest where she hit Weiss for being racist, 15 year old Ruby would never do that. On top of the increase in maturity comes physical intimacies with the guy I pared her with, and if you caught any of the little party they threw for Jaune, you should know this is supposed to be taboo in my version of Remnant society, much like how in our own interracial unions were illegal in most countries, meaning that those friends Ruby said she had in Signal from the original series, were people who bullied her and Clayton in my version. With Yang being who she is, regardless of if her charm and sociability are just a faced for her crippling loneliness, (We can all relate to that at some point,) she'll still beat those people up, probably more people since she doesn't have any friends that would think less of her.

Physically Ruby looks closer to how she does in V8. being two years older she'd have grown and got taller. Closer to Yang, but physical descriptions can wait until V2, because leaving things ambiguous in the early stages prevents people from having preconceived notions of what a character should look like outside of the visual medium.

Changes with Weiss. Boy was she fun to write. Made her slightly more racist, and slightly more restrained when in the presence of the two big guys, alluding to her being afraid of reprisal for her words in the presence of people physically stronger than, or more imposing than her. I.E. her father, who we all know physically and emotionally abuses Weiss in cannon. As to her comment in the first meeting with Clayton and Ruby, I lore fixed the comment about "The Schnee Quarry," and removed it, because it no longer fits into the size and scope that Remnant has evolved into, with comics and the show providing multiple examples of the SDC having mines and refineries all over the place, not just a dedicated quarry. (I am very selective of the comic material, as some of it can be either 4th wall braking "These timelines are so confusing" levels of omake, or just downright stupid in the case of the DC comics overlaying V4 with a bunch of bumblebee shipping wank, {not that it's a bad ship, hell, I actually want it to be cannon, I just hate that they won't give us a solid confirmation on the two after literally years of hinting at it while also not going anywhere with said hinting} Ruby getting high off of roses, and all the other shit... Ok, Weiss riding a polar bear into battle might have been cool but those things actively seek out humans to eat them, so that's highly unrealistic... But we'll see.)

Blake, and the white fang. Anyone else find it weird that she wasn't going by a false name the entire time she was in Beacon. Literally a terrorist using her real and known name to enter the equivalent of a special police force... So obviously Ozpin had something to do with it, but how come nobody else knew? Because do you know Osama Bin Laden's family? The only people from Anima who would likely even know of her, would have to already be looking for her. Jaune was a hick as far as we know, Ren and Nora probably never stayed in one place long enough to ever get the news, and Pyrrha doesn't seem the type to focus on the doom and gloom of MSM. Pale knew her from the start because he's been hunting her. On that note. Sakkura... Yeah, Adam and his terrorist's don't really get seen doing terrorist things in the show, sure Weiss says they kill people and arson, but that's all impersonal stuff compared to what I'm going for. I had to go out of my way to make Pale's backstory as bad as I could. With Adam's chapter of the Fang migrating to Vale after ripping through Anima like locusts, burning down villages, raping people, and cutting them up, as seen with real world terrorism. Blake having not participated in this is in line with her character as she's grown disgusted and afraid of Adam, hence why she ripped out those drawings of him she originally kept in her notebook. The train robbery was just the last straw, and the fastest way to escape him and the fang so near to Vale. (Note, I know I didn't write it in, but it's implied through Pale remarking on the train not passing by when he was walking through the woods, and Weiss talking about the train being destroyed that Adam did in fact kill everyone on board as Blake saved her own skin.)

Yang. So clearly she's not the same girl she used to be, befriending Jaune on the first day instead of Ruby doing it, being slightly more apprehensive about fighting bigger opponents. You won't see it yet, but the whole persona of a casual cool girl as a front for her loneliness will come up again.

Place your bets on shipping now before the dance arc.

Hint: It'll change anyways so you might be both wrong and right.