Disclaimer: Fate/Stay Night is property of Type-moon, RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. This work is purely fanfiction and as such earns me no income.
*May receive some edits in the future and maybe additional dialogue.
*This is sort of a rough draft since I feel like I still need to work on this. There have been circumstances that prevented me from working on this in the right state of mind.
It took Weiss a bit of time before she went to apologize to their server and the rest of the staff for her improper behavior, mostly due to the fact that she was unsure of what to say. In the end, she managed to say sorry to Euly and Sakura, who was comforting the distraught maid at the time.
The situation was very awkward for everyone involved, but it was more or less resolved after Euly accepted Weiss' apology.
"It's good that you've got that over and done with." Yang said as their team were now heading back to Beacon. "I'd hate to be banned from there like Cardin's team."
"It was a simple misunderstanding," huffed Weiss.
"I'm just glad everything's fine now," said Ruby.
Weiss stopped cold in her tracks. "No, everything is most certainly not fine. This is all the White Fang's fault."
"Weiss," sighed Yang. "Didn't you promise not to talk about them anymore?"
"I only promised the staff at the café that I wouldn't speak about them there. And besides, if the White Fang hasn't been causing trouble lately, I wouldn't have made Euly cry in the first place."
"Well at least she admits that she made the maid cry..." Ruby whispered to Yang.
Not hearing that comment, Weiss had a thought and said, "Maybe if we put a stop to the White Fang's robberies…"
Yang groaned. "Please don't tell me you're planning on playing the vigilante." She could already see the wheels turning from inside that Snow white hair of their Ice Queen. She turned to their other team mate and said, "C'mon Blake, tell her how that would be a bad idea."
To Yang's surprise, Blake was actually silent and contemplating it.
"It… might not be such a bad idea," said Blake.
"Thank you!" smiled Weiss in triumph.
"If we could catch the thieves then maybe it will be enough to stop the White Fang from continuing their activities here, or at least make them hesitant enough not to do it so brazenly."
Blake said it from a logical perspective, but she had other thoughts as to why she was in agreement with the idea. She wanted to know why the White Fang needed so much Dust in the first place when they never needed that much before. There was also the faint hope that maybe the thieves weren't really members of the White Fang.
"But we wouldn't even know where they would show up," stated Ruby.
Weiss smirked, "You can leave that part up to me. It would be easy enough for me to find out which stores the Schnee company just recently delivered to."
"Then what about spying on the competition for the Vytal Festival?" asked Yang.
"I wasn't going to spy on them!" Weiss looked offended at Yang's comment. "Like I said earlier, I was merely going to try and welcome them." The rest of her team mates just gazed at her doubtfully. "Besides, this is much more important than that. My integrity— I mean, the reputation of the innocent faunus of Vale is at stake."
"Weiss' integrity aside," said Blake, causing the Ice Queen to pout at her. "Stopping the White Fang can only be a good thing for the whole city. If we have a chance of doing so, then the least we could do is try."
Ruby and Yang looked uneasily at each other but both nodded their consent.
"Do you think we might need some help with this?" asked Ruby.
"They're just a bunch of low-class thieves," said Weiss indignantly. "I doubt they could put up much of a fight against a team of Huntresses-in-training. We'll be sure to wipe the floor with those rabble."
"We'll be going now then."
Rider was bidding farewell to Rin and Shirou at their home. She was going with Roman and the rest to intercept another robbery by the White Fang.
"Be sure to tell me if you have any problems with the Dust crystal," said Rin. "I'm confident I made it perfectly, but I can't really say I know enough about Dust yet to be fully sure."
Rider touched the Dust crystal that was embedded on to her leather choker. "Understood," she said.
"Be careful, Rider," said Shirou.
"I am a Servant, Shirou." Rider said impassively. "There is no need to worry. As long as I have Sakura as my Master, I will perform my duties to my utmost."
Shirou smiled warmly at her, impressed at how dedicated she was. "I know how strong you are, but that doesn't mean I would stop caring about your well-being. Please continue to do your best and return safely. I'm sure Sakura would say the same thing in my place."
Turning her back on the two, Rider said curtly, "We will return shortly." She had faced away from them to hide the small blush that had appeared on her face.
After finally having seen there comrade off, the Master and Servant went back inside their home to Rin's office. It was just the two of them and Illya at the house right now since Sakura and the rest of their faunus were finishing with closing up at the shop. Saber was currently out of the city, culling the Grimm that had encroached near it.
"Do you think she'll encounter any problems?"
Rin looked up at Shirou's question as he handed her a cup of tea. "If it's the same as last time, then I doubt they'll have much to deal with," she said casually. "You shouldn't worry too much."
Shirou knit his eyebrows, still worried. "What if she encounters these hunters we've heard about?"
Rin sighed, placing her teacup on her desk. "If they haven't done anything about the robberies before, I doubt they'll start taking action now. So far, they only seem content in handling problems regarding these Grimm."
"I guess that's true…"
"Like Rider said, she is a Servant, Shirou. I doubt she'll encounter any problems that she wouldn't be able to deal with." Rin stated that fact with certainty.
Shirou still felt uneasy about not knowing the capabilities of their enemies, but he supposed there wasn't anything much he can do about that until they actually fight the warriors of this world. He just wished that it really wouldn't come to that since he had heard that these people are the protectors of the world. It was there duty to defend the people from the monsters, something he could honestly relate to.
"Do we really still need to hide ourselves?" He said while grimacing. "Wouldn't the people here be more willing to help us if we told them our plans?"
Rin scanned her lover's face calmly. "You know why we can't Shirou," she said in a serious tone. "You understand that better than most of us."
He had shared some of the memories that Archer had with her and the others. It wasn't a very happy experience for any of them. EMIYA had done everything he could to try and save everyone. More than a few of those memories involved being a little too naïve at trusting the world. The betrayal counted very heavily in influencing how the Counter Guardian came to be the way he was.
Shirou balled his hands into a tight fist. "I do…" It would haunt him in his dreams sometimes, how different he was from EMIYA, but still how close he resembled him. Not just in appearance anymore, but also slowly agreeing with some of his beliefs, which is what scared him the most.
Gentle and soft hands held his cheeks, as Rin turned his face towards hers. "You have Archer's memories, his skills, and his body," she spoke clearly. "But you are still the boy Sakura fell in love with…" She pulled his face down and pressed her warm lips unto his for what lasted like a minute. "The one Saber and I had fallen in love with…"
Shirou held Rin firmly in his arms, just staring at the woman that left his heart aflutter. They continued to gaze into each other's eyes, oblivious to the world around them. Their bodies were warm at their touch and the kiss had left them both quite a bit excited. The man pressed the woman's body closer to him…
"RIN!"
Illyasviel came bursting through the office door.
"How long are you going to keep me waiting?! I can't start working on the Dust crystals until you finish testing them out first!" said the irate little magus.
She glared at Rin who was standing at the center of the room by herself. "What was taking you so long?! And why are you—," Illya gasped as she saw the wall to her right. "Shirou! What happened?! Are you okay?!"
Her Oniichan was, face-first, plastered deep inside the wall, unmoving.
"H-he's just fine, Illya," laughed Rin nervously, her face flushed. "We were just testing out a martial arts move I wanted to try…"
Shirou's body dislodged from the wall, falling heavily to the floor.
"...Yeah, Illya," Shirou laughed monotonously. "Just trying out some new moves…"
It looks like his E-rank luck would be the only thing he could count on to stay the same.
Team RWBY ran quickly towards their destination. Weiss and Ruby in the lead while Blake and Yang trailed after them. The students had sneaked out of their dorms that night in order to enact Justice upon the White Fang.
"C'mon! We might be able to make it before they strike if we get there a little faster," said Weiss.
The group arrived just a block away from a large Dust shop. They stopped to make sure that they wouldn't be seen by the thieves. Blake moved forward to scan up and down the street before looking closely at the shop.
"It's quiet," whispered Blake to her team.
"I guess we made it…" Yang was panting a little from the rush. "Thought we were going to be late for sure."
"I think we are…" Blake saw the bodies of some White Fang members sprawled nearby the store entrance. "I see a bunch of people from the White Fang—,"
"I knew it! I knew those dirty rapscallions couldn't keep themselves from a freshly resupplied Dust store," said Weiss triumphantly.
Before Weiss could annoy Blake any further, the former White Fang said, "It looks like they're all on the ground unconscious."
"Well that's weird." Ruby scratched her head in confusion. "Did the police get them already?"
"I don't think so," said Yang cautiously. "I don't see them anywhere. Usually they'd be all over this place if they were here already."
The entire street was empty from what they could tell. There were no lights or sirens that are commonly associated with police presence. In fact, the entire area seemed eerily quiet and abandoned. Only the light of Remnant's shattered moon illuminated the place. The store itself was completely dark and even Blake's enhanced vision couldn't see clearly that far. They would have to enter the store if they wished to find out more.
"Do you think maybe we should go in?" asked Ruby.
Slamming her fists together, Yang said, "Well, I don't really see any other options we have."
Everyone nodded their agreement and started walking cautiously towards the store entrance. They made it a few paces from the entrance before a passing shadow from above landed between them and the store entrance.
A woman of divine beauty stood in front of them. The short black dress she wore did little to hide the lascivious curves she possessed, and her long purple hair that almost touched the ground swayed bewitchingly against her body. But what stood out the most to them was the eye cover that almost entirely covered her face.
"Uhm… Weiss," said Ruby. "I don't think she's with the White Fang."
"We can't be sure of that."
"I'm pretty sure she isn't," answered Blake.
The black clad woman stood firmly in place. "I advise you to get away from here," came the weirdly toned voice from their mysterious beauty. "It would be wise for all of you to return home."
Team RWBY didn't really felt like they were being threatened. Actually, the woman's weird tone almost seemed genuinely concerned about them. However, that did little to change the fact that they were being stopped by a suspicious woman from checking on the White Fang.
"Are you a Huntress with the police?" Ruby asked a little too excitedly. The girl does little to curb her admiration from leaking out. It was much the same whenever she met any professional Huntsmen or Huntresses.
The question, however, was met with only silence.
Not bothering with the intimidating presence of the woman, Weiss stepped out and asked, "Are you the one responsible for knocking out these White Fang members?"
A nod came in response.
"Ooookaaay…" said Yang. "That's good enough for me. Let's leave it to a professional to clean up this mess."
She was about to leave before Weiss pulled her back. "Not so fast! Aren't you even a little suspicious about this Huntress?!" she demanded.
"What's there to be suspicious about? It looks like she came, she saw, and she conquered," said Yang. "The robbery has been stopped and the White Fang defeated. I thought that was the whole point of us coming here?" She took a step back from Weiss. "I'd really like to get back and get some sleep already."
"I'm not so sure it's that simple, Yang." Blake was still on guard and stared warily at the blindfolded woman who continued to firmly hold her ground.
"C'mon guys! She's a Huntress!" said Ruby enthusiastically. "It's not like she's out here to steal Dust like the White Fang were."
A man stepped outside the store carrying a box full of Dust crystals in his arms. "Hey Miss Rider, I think we're just about done he—,"
Team RWBY and Rider were all staring at the still form of Roman Torchwick.
"I can see that you're busy. I'll leave you guys alone." Roman made a hasty retreat back into the store.
"I knew it!" Weiss took out Myrtenaster and pointed it straight at Rider. "You may not be with the White Fang, but you're still a thief. As a member of the Schnee family responsible for providing Dust to Remnant's citizens, I will not allow you or your associates to roam free."
"Uh… Weiss?" Ruby tried to calm her team mate down. "Maybe there's been a misunderstanding." She glanced at the unarmed blind woman who made no gesture of attacking them, even after having a weapon brandished against her.
"Misunderstanding…? That was Roman Torchwick carrying a box full of Dust crystals for crying out loud!"
"Maybe he's with the White Fang and she just missed him?" offered Yang weakly.
Blake rolled her eyes at the thought of Roman Torchwick working with the White Fang. "I doubt it."
A commotion rang from inside the store. "Out the back! Out the back! You idiots! The lady has her hands full so we're getting out of here while we still can!" Roman's words were clearly heard among the ruckus inside.
Weiss gave a questioning glare at her two reluctant teammates, as if daring for them to make any more arguments against the facts. It was pretty much clear cut what was happening here.
"Looks like that idea burned to the ground," sighed Yang as she readied her gauntlets.
Ruby and Blake followed suit and took out their own weapons.
"Glad to see everyone's on the same page now," said Weiss.
Team RWBY prepared themselves to face off against Rider. They would need to make this quick if they wanted to catch Roman and the rest of the thieves in time. They believed that wouldn't be a problem since they had the advantage in numbers.
Yang, being the brawler, began the first move and attacked.
She closed in on the enemy and aimed her fist directly for the face. Rider merely shifted her head from the incoming blow, and also countering the yellow-haired fighter with a forward kick that she barely managed to dodge in time. A second kick came quickly after that which Yang blocked with her gauntlets, but the strength of the blow sent her skidding against the ground and back to her team mates.
"Damn, she's pretty strong." Yang smiled as her arms shivered slightly from the blow she had blocked.
"My turn," said Weiss before she took off and thrusted out her rapier at Rider.
Her thrusts came furiously and rained quickly at Rider, causing the woman to slowly move back. However, each and every thrust was dodged as Weiss continued her assault. That didn't detract the Schnee heiress, as she had her Dust readied to fire for an opportune moment.
That moment came and she thrusted out a blaze of fire from the tips of her blade. That seems to have caught her opponent off guard. The fire sizzled and faded soon after, leaving Rider with her arms barely singed after blocking.
"No way…" whispered Ruby in disbelief.
"Her aura's quite something else," whistled Yang, impressed.
Meanwhile, Rider glanced at the arms she used to block the fire. Finally, two menacing long nails with chains attached to them materialized in her hands. She threw the nail-like daggers with frightening speed at Weiss who barely dodged one before deflecting the other with her rapier.
"Tsk!" Weiss was forced to fall back. "She's durable and flexible."
Not settling for standing around anymore, Rider started walking toward the girls with her daggers in hand, causing them to get their guard up. She disappeared in a burst of speed and appeared right above a surprised Weiss with a drop down heel kick.
A pang from hitting metal was heard as her foot connected with Ruby's Crescent Rose, which also caused the small girl's feet to sink slightly into the ground with a grunt. A dust round fired from the deadly scythe at Rider, causing her to twist her body in the air to avoid it. Before she landed on the ground, she sent each of her daggers sailing through the air at both Ruby and Weiss. The daggers were intercepted by Blake and Yang, while their two comrades recovered from the attack.
Weiss and Ruby followed up and charged Rider, who had pulled back her daggers to meet their combined assault. Sparks flew as Rider blocked and dodged the blades that came at her in furious speeds. Her chains rattled and twisted as they deflected the dust rounds aimed at her, but Weiss and Ruby kept attacking regardless.
Rider broke the offensive by tangling her chain on Weiss' foot and pulling her towards Ruby. "Look out!" warned Weiss.
The two collided with each other spectacularly.
More Dust rounds forced Rider to flip away from the downed students. She saw Yang and Blake firing their weapons at her. She moved her grip from the daggers to their chains and whipped them towards the two fighters. The dagger and chains crashed and gouged the street as Rider attempted to hit her moving targets.
Ruby and Weiss got back up and joined in on hailing Dust rounds at the nimble black-clad woman, who kept evading with ease. It didn't take long before the team ran out of ammo and Rider was now at a distance from them, illuminated by the light under a street lamp, no worse for wear.
Team RWBY quickly tried to reload their Dust rounds for another clash, but had stopped when their enemy suddenly sent a dagger at the lamp above her, causing it to spark and the street to darken immediately.
They finished reloading their empty chambers and prepared their defense for any attack from the darkened area they last saw the woman. They waited and waited but an attack never came. It wasn't until Blake sighed that the team finally let their guard down.
"It looks like she's gone," said Blake.
"And so are Roman and whoever else was with him." Weiss added while looking frustrated.
Yang unceremoniously sat on the ground and gave off a big sigh of relief. "Ugh! My arms are still shaking from that kick she gave me!" she complained.
Sirens blared as the light and sounds of incoming police vehicles came from the down the street they were on.
"Uh oh," said Ruby. "I think it's time for us to make our exit too. I don't think it will look good for us if the cops finds us here. The school probably wouldn't be too happy with us being outside at this hour either."
And with that, Team RWBY fled from the scene, leaving only the scars of their battle behind in their tracks. This would only add to the troublesome speculations that the police would have when they arrived at the location.
"Here, have some tea Rider."
Sakura placed the warm drink on the coffee table in front of her Servant before she poured more for herself and the rest. She sat down alongside her Servant with Shirou, Rin, and Illya. They had just been discussing the recent turn of events that occurred that night.
"So does this mean the hunters are finally starting to move against us?" asked Shirou.
Rider denied this with a shake of her head. "I don't believe so. They had seemed to have been acting on their own accord."
"If it's Ruby and the rest then they're still just students, not fully trained hunters yet," said Illya. "They told me they were still in the beginning of their first year at Beacon so they weren't allowed to go on any missions for now." She nibbled on a piece of cookie that Sakura also brought out for snacks.
"Hmm…" Rin furrowed her eyebrows in thought. "Did they recognize you at all, Rider?" she questioned.
The Servant answered, "The crystal appeared to have worked fine, considering even Miss Blake was unable to recognize my altered voice."
The Dust crystal that Rin gave Rider was made to further hide her identity when out performing her duties as a Servant. It was an item Rin had decided was needed since it wouldn't do for someone like a customer of theirs to recognize their maid.
"That's good," nodded Rin. "As long as our cover isn't blown, then we should be fine." She took a sip of her tea before asking, "How where their combat performance though? Did you have any trouble handling them?"
"I only attempted to delay them so I am not sure I saw the full extent of their capabilities from that short skirmish but I believe that I would have no problems facing them once more if needed to," said Rider modestly. "However, they did manage to surprise me with their usage of Dust."
"Did they injure you?" asked Sakura worriedly.
Rider smiled at that. "It was barely a scratch," she reassured. "My magical resistance is only a rank below Saber's so their Dust was not very effective against me."
"You didn't hurt them though, did you? Ruby is fine, right?" worried Illya.
"No, Miss Illya. I may have landed a blow or two to test out their strength but I can assure you that they were perfectly fine when I left them."
Illya sighed in relief.
Shirou smiled and petted his little sister's head. "I'm glad you made some new friends Illya."
The little girl's face turned red and started pounding no her Oniichan with her two fists. "Don't say it like that, Shirou! You're making it look like I can't make friends!"
The brother only chuckled as he received the small punches of his sibling.
"So do we have enough Dust crystals now, Neechan?" asked Sakura. "Even if Rider is fine, I don't really want us to end up having to fight against the people here." She looked unsure after saying so.
"We nearly have enough," said Rin. "If what Roman said was true, then the next robbery we hijack tomorrow should give us all the Dust crystals we need."
'Hijack?' thought everyone.
But they understood when they saw the gems reflected on Rin's eyes whilst she thought of her victory already.
"Fufufufu… A big load he said…" Rin mumbled fervently to herself. "Cargos full of the finest quality Dust crystals in Remnant… I can't wait for tomorrow."
The rest could only feel their anxiety rising at their current plans.
"Not that I'm complaining, but tell me again why you invited us here today?"
Jaune asked as the rest of his team were joyfully eating their lunch. They had suddenly received an urgent invite from Ruby to meet up at their usual table at the café. It was unexpected but wasn't too much of a problem for them, especially when Ruby said that Weiss would be paying for their meals.
"And may I ask why Ruby is not with us here again?" added Pyrrha.
Weiss sighed. "Ruby noticed a small dent on Crescent Rose this morning and wanted to fix that first. She'll be arriving shortly, I'm sure."
"A dent?" said Ren suspiciously, having looked up from his meal at that. "That is... surprising. How did she get a dent on something like Crescent Rose?"
There were few things that could cause such damage against a weapon created to fight against Grimm. Ruby was especially careful with her own weapon, not to mention all the various modifications and enhancements she most certainly have done on for her baby. It would suffice to say that she would not have mishandled her weapon in any way that would have resorted to denting her precious creation.
"That's kind of part of what we wanted to talk to you guys about." Yang's smile seem to radiate mischief.
"I don't think I like where this is going…" mumbled Jaune uneasily.
Team JNPR was told the tale of Team RWBY's late night passed as they ate while listening to Blake, Weiss, and Yang's recollection of that night until all their food was gone and only their dessert was left.
"So let me get this straight," said Pyrrha. "All of you snuck out of Beacon last night to try and stop the White Fang from robbing Dust, but when you arrived there, you encountered another group who had dispatched the White Fang already in order to steal from the store themselves. And now you want us to help you on staking out another potential location you've found that may be targeted once more, in case that mysterious blind woman shows up again." She looked steadily at their fellow students. "Is that correct?"
Yang and Weiss both nodded vigorously, while Blake stayed silent.
Pyrrha turned toward her teammates. "Well? How about it?"
"I don't know…" said Jaune. "I mean that woman sounds awfully strong from what you guys told us."
"Oh, please!" huffed Weiss. "We totally could have taken her out by ourselves if we wanted to!"
"Then why do you need our help?" said Ren.
Weiss looked away from them and said, "I-It's just because we want to make sure they don't escape this time…" She wasn't willing to admit that there was a good chance that the battle wouldn't have gone in their favor if they had continued. Their team didn't receive any serious damage from the confrontation but the same could be said for the mysterious woman, who they now understood had only kept them distracted long enough for Roman to get away. Weiss wasn't keen on thinking of what might have happened had they fought head on seriously.
"Sounds fun!" said Nora excitedly. "Nothing like a secret late night expedition to build trust amongst friends!"
"Uh, guys?" said Jaune. "Shouldn't we let the police handle this? I mean we should probably tell them what happened." He really did not want to have any more reason for the school to expel him.
"The police haven't been able to do anything about it much at all," said Blake with a shake of her head. "I'm sure we can handle this much better than they can."
"Yeah!" Agreed Yang wholeheartedly. "C'mon, it's just going to be just like the time during our initiation, our two teams against the world!"
That statement didn't really do much to ease Jaune's anxiety. He could perfectly remember their initiation, and it took him a considerable amount of time to try and forget all the times he could've died then.
"I think… I'd really like it if maybe we had someone more experienced with us," he answered.
Weiss was about to try and throttle him out of frustration into going with them when someone shouted at their direction.
"Hey guys!" It was Ruby and was waving at them fervently, followed closely from behind by someone they know. "Look who I met on the way here!"
Weiss smirked triumphantly back at Jaune. "I believe we found just the right person you were asking for."
A/N:
This may be the last update for this year. It may be possible that the next one will come in about a month or so. Hopefully I can get it out sooner if my situation gets better. Its not bad enough that I'll stop writing so rest assured I will post an update on my profile if I can't for some time.
I may work on this chapter for a while though since I want to polish it a bit more. I doubt I could even get to that on time though. This ended up a bit rushed is all I can say.
As always, please read and review. It will help me if you can point out some mistakes in spelling and grammar as well.
You can check my profile for updates.
