"Begin," Blake said as the SDC convoy approached their position.
The convoy – several all-terrain trucks transporting Dust from Mistrali mines to the port city of Argus – was lightly defended. There were Knights, of course, and about two sections of human soldiers, but no heavy droids and no Huntsmen. It was understandable: there weren't many Grimm on the route the convoy took, and SDC, like any corporation, didn't like to spend any more Lien than necessary on things like security. From their point of view, their convoys were protected adequately enough against most threats – and whatever losses did occur didn't merit the additional cost it would've taken to prevent them.
For Captain Belladonna of the White Fang, that bit of corporate greed presented a golden opportunity.
Just as Blake gave the order, the convoy was engulfed in a sea of gunfire. Her fighters blasted away, not bothering much with accuracy – the sheer volume of fire was enough, and the armoured walls of the trucks prevented any stray bullet from igniting the Dust inside.
The Knights protecting the convoy were destroyed right where they disembarked the stopping trucks – being programmed to fight the Grimm, the machines simply did not know what to do when caught in a kill zone. The human soldiers, on the other hand, quickly dropped on the ground, crawling to the trucks for cover. That didn't save them, though – while Blake's main force was laying down suppressing fire, Ilia's team quickly flanked them in a textbook maneuver. One grenade toss later, it was all over.
Some of the soldiers were still alive. When Blake reached the convoy, her second-in-command, Lieutenant Amitola, had the prisoners stand on their knees in front of one of the trucks, with two of her fighters watching them.
"What do we do with them, Captain?" Ilia asked her commander.
"We don't need any of these humans," Blake waved her off, ignoring terrified gasps from the captured soldiers.
"Understood," Ilia responded calmly.
Suddenly, one of the soldiers ripped off his helmet in one motion, so fast that his guards couldn't even react.
"Hey!" he yelled at them, "look, I'm a Faunus!"
He was one, indeed. Now that the soldier's helmet was off, Blake could see that he had small antlers growing on his head. He was clearly young, his pale face covered in freckles.
"All Faunus are brothers, right?" he continued, speaking quickly. "I'll tell you whatever you want, just don't-"
A single shot rang.
"We don't spare traitors, either," Blake said, lowering Gambol Shroud. "Carry on, Lieutenant."
"That was cold, kitty-cat," a loud voice said suddenly.
Blake quickly turned, raising Gambol Shroud in a defensive stance.
A tall young woman stood before her. She wore a brown longcoat, and her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail. But what caught Blake's attention the most were her gauntlets – large and bright yellow, they were obviously Huntsman-grade weapons.
Quick glances to either side confirmed Blake's fears. Armed men and women were surrounding her forces. They weren't armed as well as her group, but there were more of them, and they looked ready for a fight.
"What do you want?" Blake asked the woman cautiously.
"Oh, isn't that obvious?" the blonde laughed. "Our tribe needs the Dust from that convoy. We were just going to ambush it… but it looks like you beat us to the punch, huh?"
Blake noticed that the other woman was doing the same thing as she – her eyes darting rapidly, the raider was accessing the situation. The blonde's glare lingered for a moment right behind Blake's right shoulder – doubtlessly, that's where Ilia stood, ready for a fight.
"In fact…" the raider drawled. "Since you did all that work for us, why don't we make a deal? How about we give you ten percent of all that Dust, and then we'll part our ways? Although…"
Here the blonde smiled at Blake, catching the Fang captain by surprised.
"I wouldn't mind if you want to swing by sometime, kitty-cat."
"Hey!" Ilia yelled from behind Blake. "This convoy was captured by the White Fang! Why should we give it up to you?"
The raider's smile slowly turned into an unpleasant smirk.
"Because," she said in a much less friendly tone, "this route belongs to the Branwen tribe. We don't mind you sticking it up to SDC one bit, but this is our territory. Trying to steal from our territory makes me really angry… and trust me, girl, you won't like me when I'm angry."
This was bad. Normally, the Fang wouldn't have any trouble dealing with raiders… but this time they were outnumbered and taken by surprise. Not only that, but it was just Blake's luck to face off against the Branwens of all people – the one tribe that could present a legitimate threat even to them.
"All right," Blake said, lowering her weapon slowly. "Let's talk."
"Splendid!" the blonde woman replied, all smiles again. She put her arm around Blake's shoulder (the Fang captain had to quickly gesture her fighters not to act, Ilia most of all) and started leading her away from the convoy. "Name's Yang, by the way – Yang Branwen. Tell you what, I might even bump your share up to twenty percent – but in exchange, I want you to-"
"Sorry, but that's not going to happen."
Both the Fang commander and the raider leader stopped, Yang's arm tensing on Blake's shoulder. This voice was a new one, and neither woman recognized it.
For the second time today, Blake turned in the direction of the voice… and barely held back a gasp.
The one who addressed them was another woman, who stepped from behind a tree a couple dozen feet in front of them. She was shorter than either Blake or Yang. The newcomer's figure was partially concealed by a red cloak, with black fatigues underneath. She had tan skin, white hair, and silver eyes – Blake has never seen such eyes before. Not that she didn't recognize the woman – there were few Faunus in the White Fang who didn't know that Huntress.
"Red," Blake said slowly. She felt Yang remove her arm from her shoulder, the raider stepping away, ready to get into a fighting stance.
"In the flesh," the cloaked woman replied dispassionately. "You know what I'm going to do now."
It wasn't a question.
"Damn vigilante…" Yang growled, ready to fight.
Blake tried to keep her cool, even though she'd rather face a team of Atlesian Specialists than the woman standing in front of her.
"Listen, Red," the Fang captain said, feeling a slight sense of déjà-vu. "There's no need for us to fight. You know the White Fang aren't mere criminals…"
She felt, rather than seen, Yang give her a dirty look at that.
"We fight for justice. We fight to save our people from oppression. You're the same, aren't you? I've heard of what you did – travel from place to place, protect the weak, punish the crooked and the evil… don't you want to protect the Faunus, too?"
Red was silent as she listened to Blake, never taking her eyes off her. When the Faunus finished speaking, she replied.
"I protect the Faunus. Human, Faunus, rich, poor – it makes no difference to me. My goal is to protect everyone I can."
As before, Red's voice was utterly dispassionate. Her silver eyes seemed to stare right through Blake.
"But then-"
"Unfortunately, I cannot join or aid your organization. You claim that you want to protect Faunus – but you're willing to do so at the expense of the humanity. That is not something I can agree with, Captain Belladonna."
This time, Blake couldn't quite hold back a surprised gasp. She even knows my name?
"My goal," Red repeated, "is to protect as many people as I can. But sometimes, to save ten people, you have to kill one… to save a hundred, kill ten… to save a thousand, kill a hundred."
The Huntress took her weapon from under her cloak. A red longbow, its limbs doubling as scythe-like blades.
"Which is why…"
Yang roared, charging her.
Faster than anyone could've expected, Red nocked an arrow – Blake noticed a large Dust crystal inside the arrowhead – and shot.
In a moment that felt like forever, Blake realized, with painful clarity, that the arrow was flying right at her, and she couldn't dodge…
Then she realized that the arrow missed her.
And then she realized that the arrow hit exactly what Red was aiming for.
One of the Dust trucks had its back doors open, boxes with Fire Dust clearly visible inside. The arrow struck one of them, the Dust crystal inside glowing brightly…
Blake saw Ilia running towards her, rapier at the ready.
"Get down!" the captain wanted to cry.
She didn't make it.
The last thing Blake saw was Ilia's alarmed face, before the chameleon Faunus was engulfed in flames.
Then her world was fire.
Blake woke up with a gasp.
It was the middle of the night, she realized. A second later, another realization came – she wasn't at a White Fang base. No, it was her dorm at Beacon.
Home.
She cast a quick look at her teammates. Weiss seemed to sleep soundly, but Ruby was fidgeting, as if she, too, has seen a nightmare.
She does look a little like that Red from my dream, Blake though briefly, before dismissing the though as ridiculous. No way Ruby of all people was going to become someone like that.
"Hey," she heard Yang whisper from the lower bunk. "You dropped this."
Blake's partner was holding an opened notebook in her hand. The Faunus girl took it, quietly thanking Yang. Briefly, she looked at the pages of the notebook, noticing two drawings in her own hand.
A rose, and a man with a sheathed sword.
Quickly closing the notebook, Blake Belladonna went back to sleep.
A/N: Thank you for reading!
This time, the prompt was about members of Team RWBY having a nightmare about a dark version of themselves, à la Weiss from Ice Queendom. I'd like to note, however, that this was actually written before IQ even came out.