A few weeks have passed since teams were assigned. But time at Beacon wasn't without its occasional problems. One of the main problems Cardin Winchester who, along with his teammates, was in the same year as Team CMSN and Team SLVR. Lapis had even challenged Team CRDL's leader to a fight that resulted in the former winning and the latter starting to bear a grudge against her. His animosity towards her grew more after she, against her better judgement, saved him from an Ursa Major in the forest of Forever Fall. Things seemed peaceful in Vale for a little while after that.
One Friday, though, the Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren were in the conference room next to Weiss's office.
"Everything is on schedule. The Dust shipment will be here in two days." Weiss said.
"And most of the Dust shops have been cleared out again with the prices skyrocketing." Ruby said. "Roman will be ready Sunday night to nab the Dust."
"My troops he'll receive that night will be ready too." Blake said.
"Pyrrha, be ready because you'll be going too." Weiss said.
"Understood, Weiss." Pyrrha said.
"I'll supply some of my own people once we make a public partnership, sis." Yang said.
"Tomorrow night." Ruby said and her half sister nodded.
Meanwhile, Team SLVR was out in the city as the Kingdom was getting ready to host the Vytal Festival, which was a time to celebrate peace and the cultures of the world. Team CMSN was with them, all of them enjoying their day. That is, until Cinder saw a raided Dust shop then all eight walked to the crime scene.
"What happened?" Simin asked.
"Second Dust shop this that's been robbed." One of the two officers said then walked closer to the building, commenting how the city's become a jungle.
"They left the money." The other officer said.
"Again?" The first one asked. "This isn't making sense. Who needs all that Dust?"
The other officer shrugged.
"Think this was the White Fang?"
"I think we don't get paid enough."
"Why am I not surprised those scum had a hand in this?" Emerald said.
Lapis frowned at her. "What's with you?" She almost demanded.
"Me? I just don't care for crazy people."
"The White Fang aren't psychos. They're misguided Faunus."
"They want humanity extinct."
"Then they're very misguided. But that doesn't explain why they'd rob a Dust shop here in downtown Vale."
"Lapis has a point. Maybe the Black Rose did this. After all, they haven't caught Torchwick."
"I stand by what I said about the White Fang being scum. They lie, they cheat, they steal." Emerald said, unaware of Lapis glaring daggers at her..
"Not necessarily true." Ragora said.
The two teams soon heard a commotion from a boat at the docks and ran their to see a Faunus with a monkey tail jumping off the boat. He then avoided the cops from earlier and ran up to the streets, passing by Team CMSN and Team SLVR in the process and winking at Lapis. The two teams ran after him, Lapis lingering for a second before joining the cops in chasing the Faunus, only for the eight students to be cut off by a girl with chin length orange hair and bright green eyes.
She simply smiled at them. "Salutations."
"...Hi." Vella said.
"You...okay?" Mercury asked.
"Wonderful. Thank you for asking." The girl said. "My name's Penny."
"Hi, Penny. I'm Cinder. This is Emerald, Mercury, and Neo." Cinder said.
"Hello." Emerald said.
"Sup." Mercury said.
Neo smiled and waved.
"You don't seem shy, Neo." Penny said.
Neo used sign language.
"I'm not shy. I was born mute." Cinder translated.
"I'm sorry." Penny said, but Neo shook her head with a smile.
"My name's Simin." Simin said to Penny.
"I'm Vella." Vella said.
"Lapis." Lapis said.
"Ragora." Ragora said.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Penny said.
The two teams smiled softly at Penny. "So, what brings you to Vale, Penny?" Ragora asked.
"Fighting in the tournament. I'm combat ready."
"No offense, but you don't look the part." Vella said.
"Says the girl wearing a skirt." Lapis teased.
"Wait, then do you know that no good Faunus?" Emerald asked Penny, much to the annoyance of Lapis.
"Who?" Penny asked.
"The monkey tailed ne'er-do-well."
"Stop that, Emerald!"
All eyes turned to a fuming Lapis.
"Stop what?"
"Calling him a no good ne'er-do-well! He's a person!"
"A person? Ha! And a trash can isn't a trash can."
"I said stop it!"
"I repeat, stop what? Telling the truth? He broke the law! Twenty Lien says he'll join the Faunus in the White Fang in time."
"Ugh, you are such a little brat!" Lapis said then turned around and began to walk away, only to feel metal around her wrist and she saw one half of Thief's Respite around her wrist.
"Don't you dare turn your back like that!" Emerald said.
"Penny, maybe we'll see you later." Cinder said.
Penny, oblivious to what the two were arguing about, nodded then walked off.
"Why are you defending a group of terrorists?!" Emerald demanded as their argument carried into the night with both teams in Team SLVR's room.
"I'm not defending them! Least of all to a judgmental girl like you, Emerald! Why do you even hate the Faunus?"
"Because I lost my family to the White Fang when I was very little! Because of them, I grew up on the streets, stealing what I needed in order to survive! Face facts, Lazuli! the White Fang are liars, thieves, and murderers!"
"Did you ever stop to think that maybe we'd had enough of being pushed around?!" Lapis snapped and suddenly, the room was silent and Lapis realized what she'd said and bolted out of the room.
"Lapis, wait!" Simin said, but the girl was already long gone.
At the statue of a Huntsman holding a sword in the air and a Huntress with an axe blade on the ground while standing atop a Grimm that was in the courtyard, Lapis fell to her knees, crying as she slowly took her helmet off to reveal wolf ears underneath.
"I had a feeling you'd look better without the helmet." A voice said and Lapis looked behind her.
The following night, Yang arrived at a warehouse with Nora, Ren, and some of her soldiers from the Burning Suns. Ruby was there with Roman, Jaune, and some of her Black rose thugs. Blake was there with Adam and some of her soldiers from the White Fang. Weiss was there with Pyrrha. Blake had her helmet in the crook of her arm.
"Commander Xiao Long, I'm glad you made it." Ruby said.
"It's an honor to meet the legendary Red Reaper." Yang said then looked at Blake. "And High Leader Belladonna, who's even more beautiful in person."
Blake nodded as Ruby and Weiss sat at a square table. "Please, have a seat, ladies."
Yang and Blake sat down, but the back of Yang's chair was against the table.
"Now, to business. Commander, I've begun a little...collective, you might call it." Ruby started then gestured to Weiss. "Miss Schnee here overlooks the Dust robberies my boys commit against her company." She added then gestured to Blake. "Miss Belladonna provides additional manpower in exchange for weapons and half of the Dust my guys take. I believe the services of your band of mercenaries could make this collective even stronger. I can pay you very handsomely in whatever you desire be it Lien or Dust. Name the choice."
Yang thought for a moment then looked at Ruby. "How much Dust do you have, Miss Rose?"
"More than I know what to do with already."
"In that case, we'll take money and 25% of the Dust you steal."
"Objections, ladies?" Ruby asked Weiss, and Blake, but both just smirked and shook their heads. "Then we have a deal."
The two sisters shook hands and the thugs cheered. Roman, Adam, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren just smirked.
Ruby poured four glasses of champagne and handed one each to Weiss, Blake, and Yang. "We're now four heads in this operation, so from now on, let's call this whole thing...the Hydra." She said, raising her glass while the other women nodded and raised theirs. "Then a toast."
"To the start of a beautiful partnership." Weiss said.
"To expanding our horizons." Blake said.
"To us hard working ladies." Yang said.
"And finally..." Ruby started.
"To the Hydra!" The four women said in unison as they clinked their glasses then took a swig.
In the morning, Simin saw Lapis's bed was undisturbed.
Ragora was the next person to wake up and she looked at her partner's bed. "Okay, now I'm worried."
"Me too." Simin said.
"Me three." Vella chimed in as the door opened and Team CMSN, already dressed, looked at them.
"She's still not back?" Cinder asked.
Team SLVR shook their heads.
Emerald looked down and sighed. "Now I feel like an idiot..."
Neo put a hand on her teammates shoulder and everyone looked at the shorter girl as she began to sign.
"Don't beat yourself up. None of us knew she had was a member of the White Fang. I say we go look for her and get her side of things." Cinder translated.
"Good idea, Neo." Simin said then Team CMSN shut the door. Team SLVR soon stepped out then headed to the city to find their friend.
Meanwhile, Lapis was having tea with the monkey Faunus who'd winked at her.
"So...you said you wanted to know more about me." Lapis said.
That's chapter six
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