Yang and Nora had just taken off from the club when Nora's Scroll started ringing.
"Ren, what's up?"
"The White Fang stole a military mech! That Torwick guy is in it! We're leading him to the docks by way of Angel Street!"
"Alright!" Nora heard Jaune say. "Me and Weiss are on our way!"
"Wait, all the way from campus?" That was Ruby's voice.
"I'll figure something out, don't worry!" said Weiss.
"Yo, Ren, don't die! Tell that to Blake and Sun, too!" Yang said.
"Will do!"
The road forked ahead. They were supposed to go right, to head back to where the Beacon shuttles stopped, but with that call, Yang took a left. Things would've been a lot more complicated if Ren was just a few seconds late.
"Last thing I was expecting tonight was a mech!" Yang said.
"Sounds like it'll be fun, though! Can't wait to see what Magnhild does to it!"
As Yang drove, the ground started shaking. It grew more and more violent the closer they got to the docks. Two roads converged, and then Yang and Nora found themselves alongside the massive metal menace Ren had called them about. It was a lot larger than either of them thought it would be.
"You're on, Nora!"
Nora aimed Magnhild at the mech's side and fired. One of her grenades exploded into a blast of pink smoke on impact, making the mech stumble. It pointed one of its arms at them, and they were staring right down the barrel of a gun.
"Shit!" Yang slammed on her breaks and weaved out of the way of the gunfire.
As she was trying to make sure that she and Nora didn't fall off of her speeding bike, Weiss appeared out of nowhere, standing in midair. Rather, she was standing on one of her Glyphs. She jumped at the gun and swung, freezing it and ending the hail of gunfire. She caught herself with another Glyph and then jumped onto the roofs with the others.
"What in the-?" Torchwick's voice came through some sort of intercom. "I've got the whole nursery on my ass!"
Ruby Burst out of the air, Crescent Rose aimed at the mech. She fired then Burst away just as suddenly as it swung at her. It didn't seem phased by her gunshot in the slightest. More and more people were peeking out from buildings along the street. Yang was relieved to see that they had gotten out of harm's way, at least. The same couldn't be said about the road. The mech's steps were so heavy that it broke the road wherever its feet fell.
Yang saw the others jump off the rooftops. They must've arrived at the docks. Yang drove to the side of the road they were all on, and Nora fired another grenade at it. The mech rushed them, breaking through the barrier separating the rest of the road from the docks below as Yang jumped over it. The landing was rough, and she could only keep the bike steady a few seconds before she and Nora went careening into the air.
"Yang!" Blake helped her up as the Mech slowed down. It was just approaching them menacingly now. "Are you alright?"
"I've been worse."
"Most of my Aura went into using my Glyphs to get Jaune and I here," Weiss said, "I can't do much, but I'll support you all however I can."
"Just don't over do it, Weis," Ruby said.
"So, what's the plan?" Sun asked.
"We'll handle this, Sun. You go and get the police," Blake told him. He nodded and hurried off.
"If it's made of metal, then…" Pyrrha walked forward. "Leave it to me."
Pyrrha held her hands before her, concentrating as hard as she could on the giant metal man before her. All of the metal around them began to shiver and quake, including everyone's weapons. Pyrrha pushed, and in just a moment, the Paladin would be flying into the bay behind it. When it should have been knocked off its feet, though, it shattered.
"Damn, Pyrrha!" Yang said. "I didn't know you were going to hit it that hard!"
"No… that's not supposed to happen! Behind us! Everyone, get down!"
Pyrrha turned, and the mech had reappeared. It swung at the group as they all rolled out of the way. Jaune shrieked as he dove.
"How did it do that?!" Jaune cried.
"Maybe that's his semblance?" Ren asked.
"No. It must've been him." Ruby pointed towards one of the crates behind the Paladin. A young man was sitting on it, one of his legs drawn up to his chest. He dropped to the ground as the group stood up, weapons at the ready.
"Silver, old buddy, old pal! Never thought I'd be so happy to see you!"
"We aren't friends, Torchwick."
He pulled himself up, drawing the saber that was at his side. Its metal gleamed in the moonlight that showered them from above. Ruby and Yang faltered when he looked at them.
"No way…" Yang whispered.
"His eyes…" He looked right at Ruby, and his silver eyes met hers. She'd gone eight years without seeing another person's silver eyes. She finally saw another pair, and finally someone other than her mother, and they were standing alongside someone like Torchwick?
"You… It makes sense now. The resemblance is uncanny."
"What're you talking about?" Ruby asked. "What makes sense? Who are you?"
"Torchwick, the girls are yours."
Whoever this Silver was, he launched himself at Pyrrha. Nora jumped in his path, swinging her hammer at him. Just like the Paladin from earlier, the young man shattered like glass. He appeared behind Nora, right before Pyrrha, swinging at her with his saber. She just narrowly evaded, backflipping away. Jaune and Ren went in from behind him, but he was just too fast. The two just barely missed him, but all of their attacks were either dodged or parried. Jaune and Ren backed away as Nora fired off at him from a distance.
Ren and Pyrrha held their guns at the ready, scanning the area around them. If he had disappeared once before, he could always do it again. Pyrrha could've sworn she heard something like a glass breaking in the loudness of the explosions. Jaune called out and Pyrrha turned just in time to see him slinking behind her. She dodged, using her semblance to push his saber away, but it still cut away a few strands of her hair. If he moved so fast that her semblance couldn't even save her from getting her hair cut, she shuddered to think that would've happened without it.
Jaune joined Pyrrha, and Ren supported covering fire from a safe distance away. Silver danced between his two opponents to try and disrupt the third firing away at him. Pyrrha felt something odd going on. Just like before, he glided through their moves with almost inhuman grace, but she felt like some of her attacks shouldn't hit him. She knew that they should've, yet they still missed. Some of them by only a few centimeters. It only happened once or twice, but it bothered her all the same.
"Electromagnetism!" Pyrrha called out. Nora fired a grenade at the three of them. It soared over their heads, and Pyrrha pulled it. The grenade curved in the air, heading right for them. Pyrrha and Jaune got out of the way as the grenade collided with Silver. The two of them got back to back, looking around for themselves. There was no sound like glass breaking this time. Instead, they heard a lone cough. Nora rushed into the cloud of her smoke.
She swung wide with Magnhild as the smoke cleared. He pulled back at one of the last moments, and Nora's hammer just barely flew past his head. Magnhild was heavy, but it was odd for Nora to miss like that. Ren descended on Silver in the same breath, sweeping at his legs. With Nora striking high and Ren low, there shouldn't have been a way for him to get out of the encounter unscatched, but he shattered again.
"Jaune, you, Ren, and Nora keep him busy when he shows up again. I need to test something…"
"Yeah, sure!"
Jaune ran off towards Ren and Nora. Pyrrha was ready this time. When her back was exposed, she twisted and raised her shield. Silver's sword bounced off and Jaune threw his shield. Silver knocked it out of the sky, but Nora and Ren took advantage of the brief opening to go in. Pyrrha rounded him as he was busy fighting off three people at once. She shifted her weapon into its spear form, ready to throw it at any time. She just needed an opening.
Jaune glanced over at Pyrrha, and when he saw her, he must've picked up what she was planning. He thrusted, and Silver jumped back. At that moment, Pyrrha launched her spear. Silver looked at it, though he looked more irritated than anything, even though he was moments away from being skewered. He thrust out his hand and the spear bounced off of nothing, flying through the air and landing on the ground near Pyrrha. As he did, his Aura shimmered and shattered, and he began breathing heavily. Pyrrha was right, then. She hadn't missed naturally, and neither had Nora. That was Polarity he was using.
Though, now he had no Aura. That was good for them. It was only a matter of time until they won. He gripped his saber with two hands, the look in his eyes becoming more intense and intimidating. Even though the group had a massive advantage now, there was something about him that unnerved even Pyrrha.
As JNPR was busy with Silver, RWBY was trying to chip away at the Paladin, but its armor was too hard for them to do any lasting damage. Even with them not being able to do much damage, Ruby tried to learn what she could, but she was coming up short. She had an idea to make it harder to see them, and a plan to stop it in its tracks, at least for a little while, but if she couldn't figure out how to actually break it, what was the point of either of those?
"Yang!" Ruby Burst over to her sister. "Do you think you can take a hit from that thing?"
"Hell no," Yang said, "One hit from that and I'm done! I've been in Just Right this entire time since I don't want it to break me in half!"
"See how hard you can hit it! If you can get some good damage on it, Bumblebee might be able to end this without you needing to stockpile!"
"Got it!"
Yang sprinted at the Paladin and leapt. She went Hot, just for a moment. That was how she hit the hardest. It was risky, but as long as she was alright for that split second, everything would be fine. Before her fist collided with it, the Paladin's arm swept through the air at her. She went back to Just Right just before the impact. It knocked her right through some of the crates.
After that hit, her Aura should've just been broken. It wasn't, though. Yang felt oddly good; really good. Getting punched by a robot shouldn't have been as pleasant as it did. Yang had felt that sort of euphoria plenty of times before. It was when she had used Cold to stockpile Aura from the hits she took. Just Right wasn't supposed to do that, though. She burned her Aura when using Hot and Just Right. So why did it feel like she had gained more of it?
She picked herself up and launched herself at the mech, screaming at the top of her lungs. It wasn't very stealthy, but it wasn't supposed to be. She wanted Torchwick to know she was there. She wanted him to hit her. And he did. Yang didn't feel the impact when she hit the ground. With all of the Aura she had now, whatever damage she had taken was healed almost as suddenly as it had been inflicted. Then she started laughing maniacally. Just Right was doing exactly what it advertised, combining Hot and Cold. It gave her some extra firepower, but it was converting the damage she took to Aura, just like Cold. The Paladin was just hitting her so hard she ended up with more Aura than she started with.
"What the hell is wrong with this chick? Listen, blondie, I don't want anything to do with your sick kinks!"
Ruby didn't quite understand what Yang found so funny, but with the situation they were in, Yang wouldn't be so excited if things weren't about to go very well for them. Ruby had a plan, and now was as good a time as any to put it into motion.
"Weiss, you still good on your Aura?"
"Only for another Glyph or two."
"Then we'd better make the most of it. Weiss! Yang! Freezerburn!"
Weiss spun Myrtenaster's cylinder until there was ice Dust in the barrel. She ran forward, thrusting her rapier into ground, channeling her Aura through Myrtenaster to freeze the ground. Now she only had enough left for one good Glyph. Yang leapt off of another crate right at Weiss. She fired Ember Celica right above the ground, creating a mist that covered their half of the dock.
The girls got out of it as quickly as possible, and Ruby ran to Weiss. Weiss conjured a Glyph, and Ruby thrust Crescent Rose into the ground, pointed right at the gylph. She might not have been able to see it in the mist, but the red flashes of the mech's sensors all had to be coming from the same place. She aimed low and fired several times, each of her rounds enhanced by Weiss's Glyph. The sounds of the mech's footsteps stopped when she ceased her fire. When the Glyph disappeared, Weiss's Aura broke, and Ruby caught her as she stumbled.
"Bumblebee!" Ruby ordered.
Blake threw Gambol Shroud, and Yang caught it. Yang ran, firing Ember Celica to build more speed. Blake swung her as hard as she could, and when Yang let go, she flew towards the source of the red lights in the mist. She went Hot, putting the force of all the excess Aura she had stockpiled into her fist. With how large of a target she was aiming at, she couldn't possibly miss. She swung, and her fist hit something.
There was a deafening crash as the smoke was blown apart and the Paladin broke apart, with Torchwick landing in a heap on the ground among it all.
Silver being out of Aura should've put him at a disadvantage, but he boasted some sort of superhuman strength. Even with no semblance or Aura to support him, he could still keep up with them. When they heard the sound of the Paladin breaking apart, JNPR paused to see what had happened. Silver bounded over them and headed towards Torchwick as he pulled himself to his feet. Jaune and the others hurried after him.
"And I just got this thing cleaned!" Torchwick said, brushing himself off.
Yang fired Ember Celica at the two of them, and the woman that Blake and Ren had seen with Torchwick at the rally appeared. She opened her parasol, effortlessly blocking Yang's blasts.
"Well, ladies, gentlemen, it's always a pleasure to have these little run-ins with you, but duty calls. Neo, if you would."
Neo bowed, and Silver sheathed his sword, looking right at Ruby. Yang and Nora started running at them, they were so close, and the battle had been won. They couldn't let them go now.
"To answer your question from earlier," Silver began, looking at Ruby, "I will at least tell you my name: Silver Rose. I doubt this will be the last time our paths cross."
When Yang and Nora attacked, the three of them shattered into shards of glass. The whirring of an airship's engine soon appeared overhead. The eight of them craned their heads up and saw their enemies looking down at them as the hatch closed. There was nothing to do, now that they were gone. They had sent Sun to get the police, and now they couldn't exactly just leave. They all sat around the crates, waiting for the authorities to arrive, so they could fill them in on what had happened.
Ruby was sitting atop one of the crates, staring into the bay. The others were sitting on the ground, underneath her. Yang was looking up at her younger sister, straddling Bumblebee. It was clear to Yang why Ruby isolated herself from the others. It was bad enough that he had silver eyes, just like her, but the same last name? Summer had known their dad the entire time they were at Beacon, so it wasn't like he was a long lost brother, but what if he was a long lost cousin? What would that do to Ruby?
Several cars pulled onto the docks. They weren't police cars, though. They were far too fancy and ornate. One of them, weirdly enough, was a limousine. They had sent Sun to get the police, not whoever he had brought them. Uniformed men and women piled out of the cars, standing at attention. One of them opened the back door to the limousine, and a woman in a highly decorated uniform emerged. Weiss scrambled to her feet, and the others picked themselves up, one by one. Ruby was the last one to join them, jumping down from the crate.
"Yeah, I guess this makes sense…" Yang said.
"What's up?" Nora asked, "Who is she? Why is Weiss… you know?" Nora gestured to her. She was frantically trying to fix her dress and hair.
"That, dear Nora, would be the queen's younger sister." Yang bowed to the woman as she approached, Sun behind her. They made quite the pair. "Hello, Your Highness. We, uh… we weren't expecting to be seeing you here this late… at the docks."
"I wasn't expecting to be out this late." She scanned their faces. Yang was the most casual around her. The others seemed a bit perturbed by her presence. "All so young… and you four… My sister's met you before. To think you'd be here of all places. Allow me to introduce myself. I am General Meghan Rosario, of the Valean Army. When your friend showed up at one of the police stations, the chief contacted the palace. Her Majesty the Queen sent me to escort you all to her, so that she can hear about what's happened here tonight from you directly."
"The queen wants to see us?" Weiss asked, her voice cracking.
"I do apologize, given how late it is, but this is a matter of the utmost importance, so I must ask that you all come with me. My soldiers will see you to the cars."
At her command, the soldiers came over to guide them and hold the doors open for them. They filled up four cars, and once the last of them were seated, they started on their way. Yang was glued to Ruby, so the two ended up in the same car. Yang was a little hesitant at first, but she entrusted her bike to one of the soldiers so she could stay with her sister. As they pulled away from the docks, Yang saw Ruby crane her neck to continue to look at them, though with the tinted windows, that was easier said than done. They had all gone out on this recon mission to learn more about what the White Fang was up to, for Blake's sake. Yang definitely wasn't expecting the night to end with them being whisked away to meet the queen, and she doubted that any of the others saw it coming either. Though, if that's what it was coming to, just how serious a threat were Torchwick and the White Fang, really?
It was oddly terrifying. Ruby and her friends were before the most powerful woman in Vale, in her own home, surrounded by trained soldiers who would probably riddle them with bullets at the slightest sign of a threat. Yang was the first to take the knee before her, and the others followed her lead. For as carefree as she was, Ruby found it odd just how well versed she was in all of these royal formalities. The queen sat before them, one leg crossed over the other. Her sister was standing at one side of her, and on the other another man in a military uniform stood, and a boy was next to him. Professor Ozpin and Glynda were there, even.
"You may rise," the queen said. "All I know is that about an hour ago, I was alerted about a lot of buzz on the internet. 'Atlas is attacking!', 'There's a wild mech in the streets!', 'Is this some sort of weird parade?', and the like. Then Mr. Wukong rushes to the police and tells them about a stolen piece of military equipment at the docks. I'd like the full story from you, who witnessed it first hand."
Yang opened her mouth to speak, but Blake stepped forward before she could.
"It was the White Fang," she said. "I don't know how, but they stole it."
"Your name was… Blake, was it? How do you know this?"
"We infiltrated a rally they had in the city. That's what we've been doing all day. We've been trying to figure out anything we could about what they've been up to."
"And what have you learned?" The queen leaned forward in her seat, fingers intertwined.
"They must have something big planned in Vale." Weiss stepped forward. "Of any and all Dust thefts that've been committed against the SDC recently, most of them have been in Vale. I can't think of why, unless they want to deprive any opposition of the fuel they need for their weapons."
"They're acting even weirder than we thought, too," Yang added. "We knew they were working with Torchwick, but he has some friends of his own. I have it on good authority that he has a few ladies he goes around with. We saw one of them today. And there's this guy… Silver is his name. That's what we heard."
The three of them looked at Ruby. She didn't learn much, but if she was going to learn anything about it, it would probably be here.
"Your Majesty, you go around the capital a lot, right? Talking to everyone?"
"Well, I do it when I can."
"There's a lot of people in the city, so I get it if you don't, but… do you know the name Tukson?"
"Tukson? That guy from the bookstore?" Blake asked. "What does he have to do with this?"
"Tukson… I know the name, yes." The queen stood from her throne. "I think it's starting to make sense. Depriving our soldiers of their Dust, cooperating with the humans they so hate, stealing state of the art Atlesian technology, silencing dissidents… this is a perfect store for something massive."
"Silencing dissidents?" Weiss asked.
"Tukson was killed in his shop some weeks ago." General Meghan stepped forward now. "He started it up after a brief stint in prison. For vandalizing an SDC Dust shop as a member of the White Fang."
"He was in the White Fang?" Ruby asked. "I couldn't even tell he was a faunus!"
"Not all of our traits are obvious like mine, or Sun's. I couldn't tell, even when I was face to face with him…"
"Did you learn anything else during your excursion?" asked the queen.
"We did. They're planning something in the southeast. I don't know what, though. That Torchwick guy just said people who wanted to stick it to the man should join them there." Sun said.
"Then that's where we'll strike," Meghan announced. "We'll put together an army and then march as soon as we can."
"Then allow us to help." The other uniformed man finally spoke. He clearly wasn't Valean. Ruby could tell that much.
"Sorry, James, but that's out of the question. It was an Atlesian Paladin that they stole. One of your men has turned traitor."
"That's preposterous! No one in my army would dare do anything that would hurt the image of our kingdom!"
"Yet here we are. If we allow Atlesians to go, then some of your men are liable to sneak off and alert the enemy of our plans. Even if we allow your men to know what we're planning in the first place, there's a risk."
"If there's ever a time we needed more help, it would be with some mysterious disaster looming like this," the queen said. "Oz, dear? Do you have anything to say?"
"Well, something did cross my mind, though I'm ashamed to have even thought of it, if I'm being honest."
"Well, what is it?" Meghan asked.
"It's quite simple. Keep the faunus in the dark. After all, if we're worried about someone betraying us to the White Fang, then it only makes sense to not include those most likely to turn traitor, no?"
"Professor Ozpin, you-!"
"As I said, Miss Belladonna, I was disappointed in myself to have even thought of it. You know I bear ill will."
"He's right, but it leaves a bad taste even in my mouth," Meghan sighed. "We will discuss it."
"Even if we can't provide personnel support, we'll do whatever we can to help in this," said the little boy.
"To the nine of you, thank you. You've done your kingdom a great service. And to those of you not native to Vale, I want to thank you for doing so much for a foreign country, as well. The world is in good hands, if you're the next generation of huntsmen who will be protecting us. You're free to go."
Professor Ozpin and Glynda ushered them outside. As they were escorted towards a private airship - the shuttles weren't running this late - Blake was lagging behind. When Ruby noticed, she slowed down to keep her company. She saw that Blake was looking right at the back of Ozpin's head.
"Still thinking about what he said?" Ruby asked. "Does Professor Ozpin know about… you know…?"
"He does. That's what he meant earlier. If he let a fresh White Fang drop out into his school, he'd be more than alright sending a faunus right into Fang territory if they convinced him they were on his side."
"Well, don't let it get you down, okay? Look on the bright side, we got to talk to the queen herself about this. We know that the military is going to do something about it now!"
"Yeah, I guess you have a point… I'll just try to have faith, then. With the dance so soon, maybe I can relax a bit, and clear my head. Then we can think about things some more?"
Ruby sighed, but smiled at Blake all the same. "Alright, we'll talk about it a bit more. Just be sure to treat yourself for a little while. We did good today."
Silver marched back into their hideout, Torchwick and his associate, Neopolitan, behind him. As he walked, he called for everyone to gather in a large, central area. Things had definitely changed now, so they had to make the most of these unforeseen circumstances.
"Silver, what's wrong?" Cinder asked. Mercury and Emerald were with her. "I wasn't expecting you to call a meeting like this."
"There's been a change in plans," he told her. "Listen up, everyone! The rally tonight was infiltrated. There's a good chance that the Valean authorities are aware of our location and the fact that we have Paladins. We're moving the Breach up. We'll finish our preparations as quickly as we can, and then launch."
"Now? I thought we were supposed to wait until the middle of Vytal!" Emerald said.
"Sounds like we do it now or get busted. We'll just have to make do." Mercury said, "What about us?"
"Just continue masquerading as students from Haven. We can't have your position compromised if you're implicated," Silver said. "That's all, so you're dismissed! Continue as you were until you receive your new orders!"
As the rest of the White Fang dispersed, he looked towards Torchwick. Silver couldn't quite blame him. His presence at the rally tonight, and his attempts to win more faunus over to their cause had been greenlit weeks ago. He couldn't exactly be blamed for not planning ahead for a spy to be there. Still, Silver couldn't help but be frustrated at how the night had gone. They had lost the element of surprise, and accelerating the Breach like this was the only way they might be able to keep it. They had no idea of knowing when Vale would strike, but now it simply became a matter of who would act first.
