Chapter 15) Why is it always the docks?


A/N: We're in the endgame now… the first of twelve(ish) endgames, assuming the twelve volumes theory is correct…


As Roman continued to take shelter behind a charred hunk of bulkhead fuselage beside several White Fang soldiers, with the sounds of gunfire and panicked yelling filling the air around him, he found himself wondering if maybe, just maybe, he hadn't been quite as clever as he thought he was when he was putting this operation together.

He pondered that particular possibility for around half a second, before ultimately deciding that all of this was quite clearly not his fault, and one of the White Fang idiots must have blown their cover on the last robbery and allowed themselves to be followed back to the docks. It was probably that idiot of a Lieutenant. The guy was way too gigantic to be stealthy and sneaky, and he used a huge chainsaw as a weapon for crying out loud. Honestly, it was a minor miracle that guy hadn't ruined the entire operation from the start.

Between Junior's goons-for-hire and now these morons, I don't seem to be having the best of luck when it comes to hired help at the moment. I knew I should have brought more of the guys with me from Mistral.

But there was no time for Roman to lament his lack of foresight, not when it was quite apparent that a full Huntsman team plus backup had decided to come by and say hello. Two entire bulkheads had already been reduced to piles of spare parts, and a good chunk of the cargo they had been loading was gone along with them.

At this point, the smart thing to do would be to just cut-and-run, but if they lost all of the ships then they were sitting ducks with no way out, so simply grabbing Neo and running wasn't really an option.

Not to mention how he would likely react when Roman came back empty-handed and without any of the White Fang that had been loaned to him for the job. The Lieutenant may not have intimidated Roman, but that guy was the poster-boy for fanatical and crazy, and Roman had the strong suspicion that he was the sort who would take less-than-well to being told about any setbacks in his grand master plan.

So, while he continued to remain crouched behind the still-smouldering remnants of the bulkhead's wing, and while the White Fang soldiers carried on returning fire sporadically to keep their adversaries at bay, Roman weighed up his remaining options. Thanks to Neo grabbing the spare bulkhead earlier, they still had two functioning vehicles available, provided they also didn't get blown up anytime soon. They had just about finished loading the majority of the Dust before they were ambushed, so between those two ships they would still have a decent haul to show for their efforts.

The only slight issue was that there clearly wasn't going to be enough room for everyone to pile into a single pair of getaway vehicles. Not unless they dumped out some of the cargo to make space.

Well then, I guess it's time to find out just how 'loyal to the cause' these guys are.

During a brief lull in the frenetic exchange of fire, Roman rose from his position and fired off three rounds from his cane, aiming them at the ground beneath the feet of the three who were shooting at them. The resulting trio of blasts created a tall wall of debris, briefly obscuring the enemy's line of fire and throwing them off balance.

"Alright, get to the ships!" Roman barked, moving out from behind his cover and mingling with the small group he was with to stay out of sight. "We need to go now!"

But just as the group began to move out, a shadow passed overhead, and Roman had the realization that, despite seeing three people shooting at them just now, he could have sworn that there were five of them at first-

A pair of feet landed on top of Roman's head, sending him stumbling into the White Fang soldiers he was with and knocking them all down as well.

"Hold up there, pal! You're not getting away that easily!"

Roman groaned, both from the pain of having his head stomped on and from the irritation of hearing someone say something so...cliché.

Getting back to his feet, Roman saw the monkey-tailed one standing before them, smirking cockily as he spun his staff around like he was showing off. Now that Roman had a closer look, this one seemed to be a bit on the young side, too young to be a licenced Huntsman.

Roman again groaned inwardly as he realised that his crew had been jumped and his operation blown sky high not by actual Huntsmen, but by a bunch of schoolkids.

Roman fired on the boy, his irritation taking over and making him lash out without thinking.

It was a blatantly telegraphed shot, and the boy blocked it without issue, deflecting the round with a casual spin of his staff.

"Come on, is that all you've got?" quipped Monkey Boy playfully. "I thought you were supposed to be some big-shot crime lord?"

Roman felt his eye begin to twitch. He wouldn't ordinarily have been so annoyed by such basic taunts, but his patience had understandably been worn out entirely by recent events.

He cast a frustrated glare around at the soldiers he was with. "Can one of you please get rid of this idiot?"

All four White Fang soldiers decided to take Roman up on his request, fanning out and surrounding the boy with weapons at the ready.

"Why are you getting in our way?" one asked. "We should be on the same side! We're trying to help you! We're trying to help all Faunus!"

"I don't remember asking for your help," Monkey Boy replied.

No more words were exchanged. The four soldiers charged together, and Monkey Boy met them all at once with his staff.

Roman chose not to stick around and see the results. With the wannabe hero occupied, he was free to continue making his way towards the bulkheads…

"Stop right there!"

A wire wrapped itself around Roman's arm, stopping him in his tracks. He was yanked hard and spun around, his face coming level with the point of a sword.

"Drop your weapon and surrender. The police are already on their way."

This boy (because of course they were all children, as if Roman weren't feeling humiliated enough) had red hair, and looked like he was cosplaying as a pirate. His sword and gun even looked like the sort of things someone in a cheap pirate movie would use.

"Drop my weapon, huh? Alright, you're the boss." Roman let go of his cane, and with his newly freed hand grabbed the wire that was wrapped around his other arm and yanked it towards him. Pirate Boy stumbled forwards, and Roman stepped to one side to avoid having his face skewered on the boy's sword.

In one smooth motion, Roman wrapped the rest of the wire around Pirate Boy's neck, forcing him to cut it with his sword to avoid being choked. This freed Roman from its snare as well, allowing him to quickly draw his spare pocketknife and slash at the boy's face.

Pirate Boy leapt backwards to avoid the hit, and Roman took the opportunity to kick his cane back up to his hand. Now fully armed and unhindered, Roman swung into action, cane and knife dancing in his hands in tandem as he forced Pirate Boy to defend himself from his assault, not allowing the kid a moment to breathe.

Roman could at least appreciate that this one had a decent amount of skill. He ducked and dodged and blocked with remarkable efficiency, and Roman was only able to land a few glancing blows in their duel, not enough to have any real effect.

But skill could only take one so far in this world. At the end of it all, as Roman had learned a long time ago, the value of talent would always take second place to the value of genuine experience.

And Roman was pretty certain he had seen more fights in the last year alone than Pirate Boy had seen in his whole life.

Roman threw his knife upwards, grabbed his cane in both hands, and swung it hard into the boy's ribs, slipping through his guard to land a solid blow that sent the boy reeling backwards, Aura flashing and gasping for breath as the wind was knocked out of him.

The knife fell back down, and Roman swung again, hitting the knife like he was hitting a baseball and sending it flying towards Pirate Boy's hand, knocking his gun out of his grasp and leaving him with only his sword.

Roman dashed forwards again and resumed his attack, taking full advantage of his opponent being winded and off-balance to get several more solid hits in, before jamming the barrel end of his cane into Pirate Boy's stomach and pulling the trigger.

The point-blank round exploding with full force shattered Pirate Boy's Aura, launched him across the docks, and sent him slamming against a shipping container hard enough to dent the metal.

The kid slumped on the ground, motionless, a small trickle of blood flowing out of his mouth.

Roman winced. His own Aura had taken a bit of a battering from the recoil of that particular tactic, but he wasn't too bothered. He had never really been one to rely too much on his Aura for defence anyway, preferring to guard and parry manually as much as possible. In his opinion, Aura was for emergencies only, or for facilitating kamikaze attacks that would catch less-experienced adversaries by surprise.

Experience trumps talent, every time.

"SCARLETT!"

Oh, so that's his name. Ah, who am I kidding, I'll forget it by tomorrow anyway.

A white and yellow blur approaching from the corner of his vision spurred Roman to spin back around, just in time to intercept a blow from Monkey Boy's staff.

"You are not the brightest bulb, are you?" Roman sighed. "You should just grab your friend and go on home, before this gets worse for anyone."

"Like hell I will!" Monkey Boy growled. He twisted his hands around the shaft of his staff, and Roman heard a series of clicks as he did so.

The staff split apart, first into two shorter staves, then those staves split as well, separating out further. Chains held each part together, forming two pairs of nunchakus.

Nunchakus that Roman realised, after narrowly dodging a bullet that whizzed past his cheek, were made from shotguns.


"Wait a minute… you were a member of the White Fang!?"

Blake grimaced, flinching at the accusatory note she heard in Sun's voice.

"That's right. I was a member for most of my life. I was almost… born into it."

"You say you were once a member," said Scarlett slowly. "Meaning you aren't any more?"

Blake shook her head. "I left about a year ago now, when things started to get worse."

Sage crossed his arms. "Define worse."

Blake closed her eyes and sighed, setting down her tea and wondering how best to explain all of this.

"It used to be different. Back when it all started, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace. A way to show that Faunus could stand alongside humanity, as equals. But things weren't changing the way we had been promised they would, so the White Fang changed instead."

Blake leaned back in her chair, staring up at the sky to avoid looking at the others directly as she spoke.

"We organised. We protested. Boycotts and rallies and petitions, and for a while we had hope. We thought that if we tried hard enough, showed the world that we weren't going to be silent, we could make them listen to us."

"But it didn't make any difference. The only responses we got were complaints about all the trouble we were causing. So, we changed again. Switched from peaceful protests… to violent ones."

"The White Fang have been violent in their actions for a lot more than one year," Scarlett commented.

Neptune elbowed him in the side, shooting his teammate an unamused look.

"You're right," Blake replied. "This has been going on for a long time. And for a long time, I was a part of it. Setting fire to businesses that refused to serve Faunus, stealing cargo from companies that used Faunus labour, threatening politicians and officials who supported anti-Faunus laws…"

Blake trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut. "I kept on telling myself that it would all be worth it in the end. And I convinced myself that the people we were hurting deserved it for the way they treated us. And I reassured myself over and over that it was just property damage and empty threats, and that we would never, ever go so far as to actually kill-"

Blake stopped, her voice cracking as she fought to keep herself from breaking down, the weight of everything she was saying, everything she was confessing to…

A hand grabbed hers, gently squeezing it. She opened her eyes to see Sun looking at her with concern.

"But you got out," he said softly. "You turned away from all that."

Blake nodded, finding her voice again. "It just kept on piling up. And it still didn't help. We still weren't getting anywhere, so all of that chaos we created was pointless. But some of us… a lot of us… thought we just weren't going far enough. So someone else took charge of the White Fang, and she took things to a new extreme."

"Sienna Khan, right?" asked Sage. "The Militant?"

"Militant is putting it mildly," Blake said, her voice low. "She doesn't care if other people get hurt. As far as she's concerned, anyone who doesn't support the White Fang is an enemy to be targeted, no matter how small a role they play in the systems that oppress us. To her, it doesn't matter if you're a CEO of a megacorp, or the driver of a cargo train that works for the megacorp. They're both just as guilty in her eyes, and just as deserving of punishment."

"That's insane!" Scarlett exclaimed. "The world isn't as black-and-white as that! She can't just tar everyone with the same brush!"

How many times had Blake heard that phrase now?

"Scar," Neptune chimed in. "I don't disagree with you, but try and think about it from their perspective."

"No, Scarlett is right," Blake said. "She's wrong. Sienna… her worldview is broken, and it pulled a lot of people down a path that had no way back. So… I left. I didn't want to go down that path with her. I wanted to help people, not cause more pain. So I thought about what I could do to make a real difference, and… well, I decided to follow an old childhood dream of mine, and become a Huntress."

The table was silent for a few moments, as the other four took in what Blake had told them all.

"So…" Sun began. "Have you told your friends any of this?"

Blake's grip on her teacup tightened enough to make the cheap ceramic creak under the pressure. "How could I? They already hate me enough as is."

"So why tell us, then?" asked Neptune. "I mean, I know Sun here insisted, but why did you agree?"

Blake shrugged. "Honestly? I don't really know. Maybe I just felt like I needed to tell someone, and you just happened to be here?"

"My I ask another question?"

It was the longest sentence Blake had heard Sage say the entire time they had been sat together.

"If you knew that the White Fang were going to take action here in Vale, and you could stop them, would you?"

Blake blinked. "Huh?"

Sage continued. "You said you got out because you didn't want to be a part of their violence. But are you willing to act to stop that violence? Or are you OK with staying out of their way and letting them act without you?"

Blake's teacup shattered in her hands, spilling its contents all over the table. She surged to her feet, angered by Sage's insinuation.

"I'm not with them anymore!" she snapped. "I left!"

"I know," Sage replied calmly. "I don't doubt that. What I'm asking is if you would oppose them now, or would you allow them to carry on so long as they didn't drag you down with them?"

Blake didn't hesitate for a moment before answering resolutely.

"If the White Fang were going to attack people, and I could stop them, then I would do everything I can to stop them. I meant what I said, Sienna's way is wrong. All her ideology is going to achieve is make humanity hate us even more."

Sage smiled a small smile. "There's a stockpile of stolen Dust being moved out from the dockyard tonight by members of the White Fang."

Blake stared at Sage. "What?"

"I overheard some stuff when I was looking around town yesterday," Sun explained. "We did a little digging, and it seems like all that Dust that's been stolen lately is for some big job their planning."

Blake sat down in her chair, dumbfounded by how casually Sun had just said that. "Have you told the police?"

Sun gave Blake a look. "Call me crazy, but I get the feeling the police around here wouldn't be too inclined to take anything I have to say seriously."

"So we figured we'd go and stop them ourselves!" Neptune said excitedly. "Someone has to, after all!"

Blake looked from Neptune, to Scarlett, to Sage, to Sun.

They weren't joking.

Blake hardened her gaze. "I'm in."


The White Fang soldier's blade narrowly missed Blake's head as she dodged to one side, but she was unable to avoid the spray of gunfire from her opponent's partner. Her Aura strained to absorb the impact of the bullets, just about managing to hold out without breaking.

She wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.

Leaping as high as she could, Blake flipped through the air and took aim with her weapon, firing off the last of her ammo to draw the attention of the sword-wielding soldier. Just as the soldier swung her blade upwards, Blake used her Semblance, the shadow of her taking the hit as she was launched that little bit further upwards by the displacement effect of her power.

She threw Gambol downwards, the blade embedding itself in the ground between the gun-wielding soldier's feet. Yanking on the ribbon, Blake pulled herself down at speed and swung Shroud, channelling just enough of her precious remaining Aura into its edge to allow her to slice clean through the rifle, rendering the gunfighter member of this particular tag-team defenceless as she landed a swift kick to their stomach.

Landing in a crouch, Blake rolled to avoid another attack from the swordfighter. Springing back to her feet and pulling Gambol back into her grasp, Blake blocked with Shroud and used her second blade to deliver a final slash that broke the soldier's Aura once and for all. A follow-up strike with Shroud's handguard to the soldier's masked face rendered her out cold.

Blake could feel her Aura flicker as she gasped for breath. She could maybe take one more hit before it broke which, given the situation she was currently in, was not ideal.

"SCARLETT!"

Blake whipped her head around in the direction of Sun's shout, and froze as she saw Scarlett slumped motionless against a shipping container.

I need to get him out of here. I need to help. I have to help.

But Blake did not move. Her legs were rooted to the spot, and her body would not obey her wishes. Panic and terror and pure exhaustion had rendered her immobile.

"BELLADONNA!"

Blake's eyes widened as she heard that all-to-familiar voice bellowed her name. Slowly, she turned her head see him.

Bane Gainesboro. One of the White Fang's most infamous Lieutenants, and someone who Blake knew all too well.

In one hand he was holding his weapon, that enormous chainsaw that Blake had witnessed cutting through armour plating like butter.

In his other hand, bloodied and unconscious…

"Sage!" Blake cried in horror. He looked in even worse shape than Scarlett did, and Blake couldn't tell if he was even breathing or not.

"You threw in with these humans!?" he roared. "After everything they've done!?"

"Let him go," Blake replied weakly, fear robbing her of the ability to do anything else.

If Gainesboro is here, then that means-

"You traitor!" Gainesboro spat. "You will answer for this, Belladonna! Just as this one will answer for his crimes!"

Gainesboro dropped Sage, grabbed his chainsaw with both hands, and moved to bring it down on Sage's head.

Adrenaline cut through the fog of terror clouding Blake's mind, and overcame the paralysing fear that had her frozen in place. She surged to her feet, Gambol Shroud at the ready…

But she was too far away. She would never be able to close that distance in time.

No no no no NO!

Blake didn't think. Not consciously, anyway. She did not deliberately do what she did next, but she acted on pure instinct, driven only by the knowledge that she had to save Sage no matter what.

She was at least ten metres away from Gainesboro, yet in an instant she was in front of him, Shroud held high to stop his chainsaw's descent before it could take Sage's life.

Ten metres behind her, her shadow flickered out of existence, its purpose fulfilled.

Blake's Aura broke, the last of her energy having been spent in forcing her Semblance past its limit. She tasted blood in her mouth, and her vision blurred, but she pushed back against Gainesboro with all of her might and forced him back away from Sage.

"Get away from him."

Gainesboro snorted behind his mask. "Fine, if you are so eager to die first, then so be it!"

Gainesboro raised his weapon, and Blake knew that she wouldn't be able to avoid his attack. Her Aura was gone, her body well past its limit, and even if she wasn't utterly spent, she had never been able to match up to him anyway.

The roaring blade of the chainsaw descended towards Blake, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She was going to die.

The blade was close enough that Blake could feel the air it stirred up tickling her face…

And then her vision was filled with red, and the wind roared in her ears as her end came and the blade of the chainsaw-

Stopped.

Silence filled the air for a brief moment, then-

BOOM!

It was as if a bomb had gone off right beside Blake's head, such was the volume of the sound. Her ears rang from the sudden noise, and she was knocked sideways onto the ground from the force of… whatever that just was.

Her vision blurred again, but she could just about make out a red flower petal floating down to the ground in front of her…

Is that..?

Blake lifted her head, struggling to focus her vision on what was in front of her. She squinted; the blurry shapes began to sharpen…

And then her eyes widened in shock.

Gainesboro's gargantuan chainsaw, which Blake had personally seen tear through people's weapons before, had been halted entirely by a gleaming silver-and-red scythe, the edge of which had jammed the spinning chain and stopped it from running.

Holding said scythe was a girl in a red hood, flower petals drifting to the ground around her, and sparks of electricity crackling across her arms and legs.

"What? Who are-?"

Gainesboro did not get the chance to finish asking who this was, because in the next moment, the hooded girl had spun her scythe around, knocked aside his chainsaw, and proceeded to fire a sniper round into his chest, launching him backwards and sending him sprawling across the ground.

"Ruby?"

Ruby turned to face Blake. The younger girl's eyes were puffy, as if she had been crying, and she was wincing in pain as the last of the sparks danced along her body, but she still gave Blake a small smile.

"Glad I m-m-made it in time. Are y-y-you h-hurt? N-no, s-stupid question, of course you are…"

Blake's brain struggled to process what had just happened. It was as if Ruby had just appeared out of nowhere. The girl was fast, sure, but Blake never had trouble tracking Ruby's movements, even when she used her Semblance.

And what had that explosion been?

And why did she have sparks running along her..?

Blake stared up at Ruby, stunned. "Did you just go supersonic?"

Ruby's smile grew a little wider. "Yup."

"Get out of my way, little girl!"

Gainesboro was back on his feet, chainsaw running again, the sound of it filling the air as he advanced on them once more.

"Ruby, run!" Blake cried. "He'll kill you!"

Ruby did not reply. She simply settled into a fighting stance, scythe at the ready, placing herself in front of both Blake and Sage.

Gainesboro closed the distance between himself and Ruby, swinging his chainsaw and roaring in fury, his own voice blending with the roar of his weapon, both drowning out Blake's frantic pleas for Ruby to just run and leave her behind-

Ruby spun her scythe around her body and swatted the chainsaw aside with the blunt end, knocking Gainesboro off balance and following up with a blow to the side of his head. He recovered quickly however, and resumed his attack, swinging for Ruby once more, this time aiming for her legs.

Ruby slammed the end of her scythe's handle into the ground and used it to vault over the incoming attack, flipping around and landing behind Gainesboro to deliver a blow of her own, sending him reeling once more.

Blake watched in amazement as Ruby followed up with another strike, and another, and another, and another. She was relentless, her scythe spinning so fast at times that it almost resembled a buzzsaw as she forced Gainesboro on the defensive, not allowing him to launch another attack, lest he open himself up to a devastating counter once more.

Blake had seen Ruby fight before. She was watched Ruby duel Weiss, and had observed the younger girl during training, so she was well aware that Ruby was a skilled combatant.

But this? This was something else. This wasn't the careful, practiced style Ruby used in training. This was ferocious. Angry.

Gainesboro stumbled as Ruby hammered him with an overhead strike. His legs buckled, and he fell to one knee.

Ruby drew back her scythe and leapt forwards… but something seemed off. Blake couldn't be sure, but Ruby seemed to be moving a bit slower than she had just a second ago.

Gainesboro rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding Ruby's strike as he swung his chainsaw at her again.

His attack landed.

Blake cried out in alarm as Ruby's Aura flashed brightly to absorb the impact, but judging by the yell of pain Ruby let out, it hadn't quite managed to block the hit in its entirety. Ruby was knocked aside, landing roughly.

The Dust! The Lightning Dust she used to boost her Semblance was boosting her normal speed as well, but it wore off! She can't move as fast anymore!

"I admire your ability, girl," Gainesboro sneered. "But it would seem that this game is now over."

Blake forced herself to stand up on shaking legs, gripping Gambol Shroud in her hands. She wouldn't let him do to Ruby what he did to Sage. Even if all she managed was to buy Ruby a few seconds, she had to try and do whatever she could to save her.

"Leave. Her. Alone." Blake growled.

Gainesboro ignored her and advanced on Ruby.

Ruby moved to guard with her Scythe.

Blake stumbled forwards, determined to at least do one good thing, save one person…

There was a flash of green, and Gainesboro was knocked off balance.

Half a dozen more green flashes followed suit, forcing him back.

"Ruby! I am here!"

A girl in a green dress and with long orange hair landed beside Ruby, a curious-looking array of guns seemingly floating behind her.

"I told you not to go on ahead without me! What if you had gotten seriously hurt?"

"S-sorry Penny. I'll m-m-make it up to y-you, I promise."

The girl, Penny, huffed. "You may make it up to me by promising not to be so reckless in the future."

Ruby, in what Blake considered to be an uncharacteristic display of sass from the normally shy girl, rolled her eyes. "Y-you s-sound like C-Ciel."

Penny blinked. "I suppose that means I will need to apologise to Ciel after this is over."

The sound of approaching footsteps jolted them all back to their senses, just in time to realise that around ten White Fang soldiers had moved to surround them as another pair helped Gainesboro stagger away.

"Kill them all," he snapped.

The soldiers advanced, weapons at the ready.

"Ruby, take Sage and get out of here," ordered Blake, taking as good a stance as she could, given her less-than-peak condition.

"I'm n-not leaving y-you, Blake," Ruby replied, her stammer not taking away form the firmness of her tone. "I w-wasn't there f-for y-you when y-you n-needed me before, s-so I'm not m-making that m-mistake again."

"I think it would be wise if you were the one to take this 'Sage' and escape," suggested Penny I do not believe that you are in any condition to assist in this battle anymore."

Blake grit her teeth. "I'm not running. Not this time."

Blake raised Gambol, ready to intercept the incoming attack from the soldier closest to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ruby and Penny stand back-to-back, covering each other's blind spots.

They make a good pair.

The soldier in front of Blake swung his hatchet, and Blake prepared to parry.

A yellow-gauntleted fist slammed into the side of the soldier's head, sending him flying away from the force of the impact.

"Anyone else wanna try their luck!?" yelled Yang. "I'll send you all to the hospital one by one!" She slammed her fists together to emphasise her point, taking position beside Blake and staring down the entire assembled force of soldiers.

"Not by yourself you won't!" another voice added. A strange yet familiar sound rang in the air, and another new arrival descended to land beside Blake on her other side.

"Weiss?" Blake gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"Shopping for furniture," Weiss snarked back. She gestured to Sage on the ground. "I take it he was the one who called for help?"

"I… I don't know. But… why did you come?"

Weiss looked Blake directly in the eye. "Because we're a team."

"Because we're your friends," added Yang. "And whatever it is you think you need to run away from us for, we don't care."

Blake was speechless.

They already hate me enough as is.

That was what Blake had thought all this time, yet here they all were.

Because they don't know the truth…

"I… I'm not who you think I am. There's something I've been-"

"Here's an idea," Weiss cut in. "How about we save the explanations for after we survive this life-or-death encounter!?"

"She's got a point," Yang said, just as another soldier charged towards her. "Let's take care of these guys, then you can apologise for making us all worry."

As the rest of the soldiers surrounding them advanced once again, Blake nodded.

"Alright then. Let's finish this."


Hello again to my patient audience, and greetings to any newcomers. I'm Not Scot.

Poor Team SSSN. They look so cool, yet we never see them again after Volume 3 (besides Sun himself). I wanted to include them a bit more in this fic as a result, so I decided that in my version of events, Sun doesn't just ditch his entire team constantly, and they did in fact all arrive together. Sun just got lost when he first arrived in Vale, hence why the rest of his teammates weren't there when we first met him. So here's Team SSSN… getting brutally beaten by Roman and co to establish the threat of the bad guys.

If your curious about why I called the Lieutenant Gainesboro, it's part of an idea I came up with for my last fic that I decided to reuse. Since I don't plan on continuing that one, I feel OK with repurposing some of the ideas I never got around to fully exploring.

Next chapter will be the conclusion to Volume 1 of 'RWBY Re:Mixed'. Blake's Aura is broken, Scarlett and Sage are down, Ruby has overstrained herself by forcing her Semblance past its natural limit, and the heroes are outnumbered and surrounded. Will they prevail? You'll have to read the next chapter to find out!

I was considering having each volume be a separate fic, but I decided instead to have this all be one giant fic. Then I may be able to eventually claim the crown for longest single RWBY fic on the site!

Truly, an achievement to hold in high regard.

As always, feel free to leave a review/comment if you enjoyed the chapter, and thank-you to everyone for continuing to support me. You have all been very patient with the constant hiatuses, so I hope you all enjoy the next chapter when it arrives.

For now though, I shall take my leave.

Until next time,

Not Scot.


P.S: Any Owl House fans in the RWBY community? I need to know if I was the only one who cried when _ in the latest episode. (If you saw the episode, you know what I mean.)

Also, any Bleach fans here as well? I'm so excited for when the new anime gets around to animating _'s Bankai. (Again, you know what I mean if you're a fan.)