The Master Thief

During the visit to the city with her team, Blake had heard mutterings about the White Fang, working with a known thief to steal Dust.

It was hard for her to believe that her old colleagues work do something so detrimental to their cause, as while striking against their oppressors could be forgiven as part of the struggle, stealing Dust would simply inconvenience civilians and Huntsmen who relied upon the stores.

And that was before considering the odds of the remaining members of the organisation working with a human.

The assembly so soon after the visit interrupted her plans to figure out what to do about the White Fang and proving they weren't involved in the robberies.

That, or find out why they abandoned the goals of the Fang.

The problem was were to find them, and who to take with her.

After all, her time in the White Fang had demonstrated the need for a partner on missions, someone you could always trust to have your back.

In the end, the way Adam acted was enough to break her trust in him, and without any way to trust him, she had felt the need to escape the entire organisation, as if the person she trusted most in the Fang could betray her trust, how could she have faith in any other member of the White Fang?

It had taken time for her to start to open up to her team, and the trust wasn't there yet.

The agreement between Russel and Cardin, for him to avoid picking on Velvet as long as their team helped her confidence, had helped draw the team together, though she was left wondering why Cardin had screamed, when she had intended to talk with him one morning and had headed to his room, but before she'd knocked.

The agreement wasn't one she'd expected, and she'd wanted to talk with Cardin privately to find out how she'd been quite so mistaken about him.

She could, potentially, ask her team to help her investigation, but the team leader and Pyrrha were much too obvious for the stealth she would need.

That left Russel, her partner.

But she was planning to investigate the White Fang, so did she really want someone close to Cardin with her? How could she be sure about trusting him?

To have any certainty about him standing with her when she investigated the White Fang she would have to reveal her secret to him, but if she did and discovered she couldn't trust him with it, how could she stay in Beacon?

It did occur to her that she could ask Velvet, but they weren't exactly close, and Faunus who didn't support the White Fang were known to hate those within for how they caused distrust amongst the populus.

"I'll have to speak with Russel," she finally muttered to herself.

"Speak to me about what?"

Blake started. She hadn't noticed his approach, despite her normal paranoia.

She hesitated. How to raise the topic...

"What do you think about Faunus?"

"I never really thought about them at all," Russel admitted. "About all the exposure I had was from hearing about protests about unfair treatment. At the time, I just questioned people wanting special treatment. It was only when Ooblecks lessons brought up the White Fang and their beginnings that I started to hear about the actual circumstances."

That wasn't something that had occurred to Blake.

"You didn't realise Faunus were mistreated?"

"It seemed that being able to protest meant they had enough freedom. I mean, it felt that if Faunus really were so badly treated they wouldn't be able to organise a march... or something..." Russel trailed off, clearly uncertain about what he was saying.

Blake considered what he said. If he was lying about this, surely he'd have come up with a proper story, rather than just never realising, which after all was the main problem the White Fang had sought to overcome, so he might be telling her the truth, in which case...

Blake sighed, and checked to make sure nobody else had managed to sneak up on her.

They were in their dorm room, her, Russel and the Ursa. Pyrrha had mentioned earlier that she was going to keep up with her training, which was much tougher than what the rest of the academy faced, as befit someone who joined the tournament circuit young and still became a champion, and wasn't likely to be back soon.

"Russel, there's a secret I need to tell you."

"Are you sure?"

She immediately glared at him.

"I'm not about to share what you tell me," he assured her, "but we haven't know each other long, you probably know Pyrrha just as well as you know me, so what secret do you have to tell me that you can't tell her? I mean – oh..."

Blake blinked for a second or so as she processed what conclusions he had come to, before blushing.

"Nothing like that," she all but shouted, before forcing herself to calm down. "It-it's easier to show you," she decided, and reached up to remove her bow.

Russel blinked at the reveal. "That's why you started with those questions," he commented.

"You're okay with it?"

Nobody would be able to get Blake to admit she was nervous. Despite that, there was a certain tone in her voice.

"I told you, the problem I had was the idea of people seeking special treatment. Trying to pretend you were a regular human would have prevented my distrust even before I found out about what happened with Menagerie. I guess there is a reason you brought this up so soon?"

Blake had nearly finished retying her bow when he asked the question. "Yes, people are claiming the White Fang are stealing Dust with someone," she hadn't exactly memorised the name of the thief they were working with.

"You want to investigate, to clear the name of the Faunus and prevent people turning on you even more," he stated with confidence. Seeing her surprise, he rubbed the back of his neck as he replied. "I'm not exactly confident with the leader role, but time as a follower has left me quite able to predict what my leaders leading to."

Blake nodded. "I'm not about to try and investigate alone, but I need to prove the truth."

"You want me to come with you. Do you have somewhere to start looking?"

"No," Blake was forced to admit. "I was... less than willing to investigate without someone I was confident would have my back."

"I think the Dust stores have all been hit recently, so there isn't much Dust available in the city," Russel mused, to which Blake nodded.

"My semblance works better with Dust, and I haven't been able to get any to use," she confirmed. "The thefts left it too expensive."

"In that case they shouldn't be planning to hit another store, which is lucky."

"We wouldn't be able to stake out all of them," she agreed.

"If the stores are out of Dust there should be a delivery on its way," Russel continued. "If we can figure out where and when the delivery comes through we can find them. What then?"

"We should find when the shipments come through first," Blake decided, "and the where is easy. There have been... problems with trains recently, so they'll be using sea or air. And a shipment that will restock all the shops-"

"Would be too heavy for air transport," Russel finished. "So, the docks. Who do we ask about the timing?"

"The only person here involved in the Dust business," Blake responded, frowning. "The problem is how to ask the Schnee..."

[]

Blake hesitated outside team RWBYs room.

There was the sound of excited girls, and barking?, inside.

She hadn't exactly had the best of experiences with dogs in the past, mainly due to the clear dislike they had for her.

Beowolves were different; it wasn't personal in the same manner, and the only reason she couldn't feel at ease around one was the Grimm thing, which she was learning to cope with, what with sleeping in the same room as an Ursa.

The barking could be 'Drei', as the team called the Beowolf, and what else could be barking in there? It wasn't as if they could have smuggled a dog in.

So decided, she brought up her to knock on the door.

When they opened the door, all thoughts of asking Weiss about the SDC delivery were driven from her mind by the presence of the dog they had indeed managed to smuggle in somehow.

Realising that they weren't about to let the dog loose into Beacon, she took the chance to run away into the halls.

It was Russels idea to find the delivery, he could ask her himself.

[]

Weiss blinked at the way Blake, that was her name right, had knocked on their door only to flee as soon as they opened it. She looked around to the rest of the team. "That was weird, right?"

"Definitely," Yang responded, hand somewhere between stroking Zwei and holding him back from Drei.

"Right, so what was with your dad mailing a dog anyway?"

"He does things like that all the time," Ruby assured her, playing her part in keeping Drei away from Zwei, "and he could hardly take care of Zwei on a mission after all."

"And its not like its caused any problems with any of us," Yang continued, happily settled between her dog and the beowolf her sister was cuddling with.

Weiss was prevented from having to figure out an answer by another knock on the door.

Seeing as she was already at the door, she just sighed and opened it again.

"Hello?"

It was Blakes, maybe? She really needed to confirm her name, partner.

"Er hi, Weiss. Can I ask you something?"

She sighed internally. At least it didn't seem likely to be anything about being a celebrity, those sorts of questions tended to happen much sooner. "What is it?"

"My partner wants to investigate the White Fang, find out why they're reported as working with humans," he started.

"Why can't she let the legitimate authorities deal with it?"

"I don't think she has any faith in them," Russel admitted.

"I can understand wanting to deal with it herself in that case," Weiss admitted, it being similar to her own reasons for leaving Atlas. "But what does that have to do with me?"

"The stores are out of Dust-"

"Not quite out, just low."

"There should be a delivery soon, shouldn't there?"

"I suppose so," Weiss allowed, "any night now."

"The deliveries show up at night?"

Weiss sighed. "Yes Ruby, it takes long enough to reach Vale from Atlas that if they leave as soon as the ship is loaded they have to travel through the night, whereas if they are kept loaded in dock until morning they arrive too late to be unloaded, but it's safer to leave them at the docks overnight in dock than try to deal with night attacks at sea. But what does the delivery have to do with anything?"

"Your partners worried about the White Fang intercepting the shipment aren't they?"

Weiss froze, having clearly not considered such a possibility. She wasn't helped by Russel not denying the theory.

"I need to warn my sister," she declared, preparing to rush straight to the CCT.

"You think there's time to get more SDC guards to the docks?"

"My sister... isn't really connected to the SDC anymore. She is in the Atlesian military."

"So while you're talking with your sister, we should stay here and encourage Zwei and Drei to get along?"

[]

It wasn't too hard for Blake and Russel to sneak out to stakeout the docks.

There was no guarantee that the delivery would come in tonight, but she didn't want to risk missing the robbery.

She had removed her bow and placed it in her pocket, just in case there really were White Fang present, and to help with her ability to hear enemies around her.

She hadn't realised before using her disguise in training how much it would affect her hearing, which her fighting style relied heavily upon. It had occurred to her that she could try and train herself in a style that didn't use quite so many flips and other movements that broke sight with her enemy, but had realised that changing up her fighting style in Beacon would only serve to raise suspicions.

She would only be able to fight at her full potential when she no longer had to hide her heritage, which meant she would need to be certain that the friends she had made would still trust her even when she revealed how she'd been lying to them this whole time.

In any case, she and Russel had found a vantage point on a warehouse, overlooking the rest of the docks.

The containers of Dust had already arrived, as had many figures in White Fang uniform and a thief in flamboyant outfit, with bowler hat and cane.

"Impostors?"

It was clear that Russel trusted her opinion on the chances of the White Fang actually helping steal the Dust.

Blake sighed and shook her head. Even from here she could tell that the Faunus traits on display were real. "They are the real White Fang," she was forced to admit, especially upon seeing a couple of grunts she had encountered before leaving.

The question of why they were working with him burned within her.

Forgetting her stealth, she darted out into the docks, dodging Russels attempt to hold her back.

She got to the thief safely and without being spotted by the White Fang, and placed Gambol Shroud against his throat.

"Brothers of the White Fang," she called out, "why are you aiding this scum?"

For being the victim in a hostage situation, particularly one without any sign of aura to hold back her weapon, the thief remained remarkably calm.

"Didn't you get the memo," he said in a joking manner, "the White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together. You know how it is, when two groups have their goals align for a time..."

She automatically tried to jab Gambol Shroud against him harder, only to hold herself back at the reminder of his lack of aura. "Tell me what you're up to before I put an end to your little operation."

"I wouldn't call it a little operation," he responded, looking up as Bullheads, clearly for the White Fang to retrieve the Dust, seemed to appear in the air.

With aircraft approaching, and her hostage looking up at them, Blake instinctively looked up as well, drawing slightly away from the thief, which he had clearly been planning on, judging by the way he used the opportunity to aim his cane back towards her, and fire a Dust explosive, since when did thieves have weapons capable of such a thing anyway, aat her feet, blowing her away from him.

It took her a moment to recover, and realise she was surrounded by White Fang who saw her as enemy, without a hostage to protect herself.

This was hardly the plan.

[]

This was not the plan.

Russel didn't exactly know what the plan was, but considering how stealthy they'd been on the way here, suddenly revealing themselves when surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned was no time for a 'situation excellent, prepare to advance' response, like Blake (aka the sneaky one) had taken.

He hesitated a moment, considering sending a message to Cardin, but decided against it, given how Blake clearly didn't want anyone to know she was a Faunus and wasn't wearing her bow.

Without other recourse, he jumped down, using his aura to resist injury from the drop.

On the ground again, he dashed towards his partner, blocking a few opportunistic attacks from the White Fang, before he was able to help her up.

"You alright?"

"I can't believe," she began, but Russel interrupted her.

"Now isn't the time to think about it. Worry about why when we're safely out of here," he told her, readying Silverwing, his knives, again.

The two of them fought the grunts together, using their own methods to dodge and counterattack rather than blocking techniques like so many Huntsmen built their styles around.

Normally people would talk about fighting back to back with their partner, but with them both using acrobatic styles, fighting back to back would leave them vulnerable to attacks their partner dodged.

Instead they fought separately, but aware of each other, occasionally helping with grunts the other didn't seem to be ready for.

All the while he was aware that the thief, Roman Torchwick he believed from the news, was trying to get away, and Blake was attempting to follow, still keen on finding out why the White Fang were working with him.

As such, when Blake made a break for Torchwick, he was able to see a grunt, too far away for him to reach in time, preparing to shoot her in the back.

Problem was Blake was too focused on Torchwick, made apparent by her failing to notice the grunt in the first place, to the degree that she might be letting control of her aura slip.

And if her aura was indeed slipping, a single bullet could be enough to kill her.

Russel didn't even stop to think, moving swiftly to place himself between the grunt and his partner.

The shot was painful.

He had never had the strongest of auras, the main reason he chose an evasive style of combat, and the force of the impact drove the air out of lungs.

His scroll beeped, informing him of the state of his aura after using himself as a human shield, not to mention that it sent an automatic notice to Beacon that a student was in danger.

"Are you alright?"

He looked back, and saw that his partner had turned back, realising that something was wrong.

He struggled to his feet, finding that the White Fang had them surrounded. He considered his chances of using his usual style, but dismissed it. The level of aura his style used was normally small enough that he would regenerate it at about the same rate as it was used, but with his aura so low already, it would be suicide.

Looks like it would indeed be two partners fighting back to back.

"You stupid animals," he heard Torchwick shouting, "knock them outt, but leave them alive! Do you have any idea what the consequences would be, killing a pair of Hunstmen in training?"

The White Fang didn't seem interested in paying any attention to his warning.

Russel tightened his grip on Silverwing.

If he was going down, he would go down fighting.


AN: And a sudden dark note for a cliffhanger. Sorry about that, but there are hints as to how it could be dealt with (and also why Zwei is introduced early). I'm hardly going to kill of a character while reinterpreting them in a redeeming manner (and sort of setting up a romance with the other apparently doomed character) am I?

Part of ending it here is actually due to not wanting to take too many breaks in writing, as it does have an impact on my writing quality (as will be noticeable in one of the one-shots I've been working on for April 1st), and rather demanding cats (relating to why its been so long since the last chapter).

If you follow my other stories, you may have noticed that I have placed one on hiatus, as writing it somehow wasn't as fun as it should have been. This should speed up update rate on my remaining stories more than you might expect, and I will be continuing the story at some point (barring unexpected complications).

Finally, I recently realised how much this story was inspired by 'Professor Arc'. In my defence I have a bad memory, otherwise I would have mentioned it in the first chapter.

Now, feel free to expect the conclusion to the cliffhanger in a fortnight.