Chapter 11

(AN: This chapter will cover the official end of Volume 1 - which is the docks, but there'll more content on the way afterwards.)

Blake and I were silent at the docks that night. She refused to look at me, likely realizing how much pain she was causing to me and her team. I felt bad about making her feel worse about the situation, but we had no time to talk things out now.

I ended up muting my scroll completely from the incoming calls and texts, Yang and Ruby spamming me nonstop the whole time. My thoughts on how to talk to the others on this were interrupted when Sun and Liya came back. "Nothing so far. Just a handful of guards on the far side of the docks," my partner said as she settled herself between me and Blake. "Not much suspicion now. No sign of any movement yet."

"They'll be here," Blake said as she eyed the containers thoroughly. "A stockpile this big is too much to pass up."

"Wonder how they'll sneak all this Dust away," Sun said as he plopped his butt down next to Blake. "Chances are we're gonna have to fight these guys."

"Yeah," I said quietly. "Pretty sure all the robberies were small time, some professionalism but no super skilled stuff. Taking them should be easy."

"If anyone's gonna be fighting, it won't be you," Liya said as she strictly shook her head at me - like a disappointed parent. "You don't have your Neural Dust."

"What, it's not like you two have your weapons either," I said before instantly remembering what happened in the last episode of Volume One. Blake pointed at Gambol Shroud on her back and Sun pulled out Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang at the same time. I groaned and banged my head on the building. "Shit."

We were interrupted when the sound of several loud engines filled the air, spotlights lighting up the cargo seconds later. A bullhead hovered over the containers before it landed right next to them, opening its bay doors and lowering ramps. "Not very subtle," Liya muttered.

A dozen or so men and women in White Fang uniforms disembarked from the Bullhead, pulling out tow cables and various other forms of equipment, getting ready to rob the Dust. "Oh no..." Blake whispered, abject horror on her face.

"It's them," I muttered sadly, despite seeing this coming so easily. "Guess it was too much to be hopeful, huh?"

"Yeah," Sun said to Blake. "You...didn't really think it wasn't them, did you?"

"I...I just didn't wanna believe it. Though deep down, I probably knew it was true. I just-" Blake began before another voice entered the fray.

Right on cue.

"Hey! What's the holdup!?" The four of us and the White Fang soldiers looked up to see Roman exiting the Bullhead and gesturing wildly with his cane as he left the ramp. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?" he asked.

"No, wait. This isn't right," Blake said as she stood up. "The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." She leapt off and dashed for the others, leaving Sun and Liya gobsmacked for a second. Sighing, I groaned and rubbed my face. "Of course she does that."

"Come on," Sun said as he unfolded Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang to full staff configuration, and he and Liya dashed off after their runaway. I jumped off as well, but Liya stopped to glare at me. "Stay put," she ordered before running back to Sun.

"But I...fine," I grumbled as I settled for watching from behind a pile of wooden crates as Blake began to shake down Romand to no avail. "Great...helpless."

"Now you know how that feels," Yang said out of nowhere. I nearly screamed but settled for bumping my head against the crate and wobbling it. "Fancy finding you here."

"H-how did you find me?" I said nervously. Yang looked pissed as she stormed up to me, fists clenched. The worrying thing however was how her eyes were crimson red, frightening me.

"Liya left her scroll transponder on. We all thought she was still searching until I saw her come here. I thought that was strange," Yang said, her calm voice doing nothing to hide her raw ire at me. "But I could see she was with you too."

"Yang, I-"

"How could you?! Hanging up on me, knowing how gods damn scared I was for the two of you? You were missing, Markus!" Yang cried. "Then Liya has to go and make us even more worried for you guys!"

"Don't blame her, we wanted to keep things quiet until we could prove Blake's innocence-" I protested.

"Did you honestly think we thought Blake was guilty? Her teammates, her friends!" Yang cried. "Weiss maybe, no- definitely! But us?"

"Blake needed this!" I hissed, trying to lower my voice. "She would've left the city if it weren't for me trying to-" I was cut off when several other Bullheads filled the skies. Three of them were armed with chin mounted rotary cannons of some sort, and they were all filled with White Fang personnel.

"Oh, man," Yang said before an explosion filled the air. Liya, Blake, and Sun were sent flying back as Roman unleashed all hell on them. White Fang troops opened fire on the three, and Yang immediately jumped in, firing explosive blasts at the goons that were already on the ground as more troops jumped out of the Bullheads to join the fight.

"Yang, wait!" I yelled, unable to comprehend the amount of chaos that had suddenly unfolded right before me. It wasn't this bad Racing forward, I jumped over to help my three friends and girlfriend- likely ex-girlfriend after this- fight off the Dust thieves. "Dammit, this wasn't how things were supposed to go! This is worse, oh ho, so much worse!" I thought before frantically jumping into the fray.

Like in the show, Sun was occupied with the White Fang goons, and Blake was locked in combat with Roman. Yang was running towards Blake and Roman while Liya was dodging and firing up at the Bullheads, which were strafing the ground around her with their rotary guns. Explosions rang out as I joined Sun against the various White Fang pawns. "Help Blake, I got this!" I yelled as I drop kicked one of the goons and took his sword.

Sun nodded and jumped towards Roman, who was fighting off Blake and Yang simultaneously, while I blocked a glancing strike from one of the White Fang goons, swinging back and knocking him out with the hilt of my pilfered sword. While I wasn't the best fighter in Beacon, some training was leagues better than no training. These guys weren't coordinated or composed at all, rushing forward and swinging with no control whatsoever.

It was easy to dodge their punches and swords and their guns weren't even that powerful, likely very cheap weapons if they could get them en masse. My aura took hit after hit as I knocked out and cut down Faunus after Faunus. Luckily, I could avoid any deaths since these guys folded like houses of cards after one or two hits.

"Markus!" I could hear Liya's voice behind me. Instinctively, I dodged just as a massive strafe of rounds tore up the ground in front of me, concrete flying as I flew and landed onto one of the Dust containers these guys were trying to rob. The night sky lit up with fire as one of the Bullheads took an anti-material round into one of its nacelles, setting its engine and wing on fire before it collided with a stack of containers, sending them crashing down violently as the docks erupted into more chaos.

Roman kicked away Sun into Yang before smashing across Blake's head with the cane, diverting her into a crate. "This is too damn much! Get us out of here!" he yelled up at a nearby Bullhead, waving at it for it to lower. His waving was cut off when Sun delivered a roundhouse kicked that sent Roman tumbling, before he rolled to his feet, just in time to deflect a round from Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang.

Liya turned and opened fire on the tail of the descending Bullhead, which sent it into a spiral and forcing Roman to run for cover, straight into Blake's foot. As Roman slid back from the kick, the Bullhead landed violently, tilted several degrees. I was barely able to dodge, but two of the grunts I was fighting weren't so lucky and were knocked back by the kick violently into a nearby shipping container.

Seeing all of the Dust containers in a mess, I felt my heart rate spike even higher in raw anxiety when I realized that all this Dust could go up if just one of them was hit indirectly. Jumping over to Liya, I grabbed her shoulder to grab her attention. "We can't keep fighting here, all this Dust is in danger of exploding!" I warned.

"But the White Fang-" Liya cried before dodging a bullet from one of the White Fang grunts and firing a round at a pile of wooden crates, sending them crashing down onto the ground, blocking or burying a group of guys who had no idea what spacing was.

"Will be dealt with!" I yelled. "Right now, ignore the Bullhead and help out against Roman!"

"Those three can handle it!" Liya said, transforming her rifle into her massive bladed weapon and frowning at me. "You need to stay back! You don't have your weapon!"

I held up the sword I stole from one of the grunts earlier, and Liya glared at me. "I don't need it against these guys!" I said. "No aura, no training, just a bunch of mooks with crappy guns and swords!"

"Mook?" Liya asked in confusion.

"My point stands, I don't need my belt against them. I've been handling my own so far, and it'll only get easier with you around," I said. Liya sighed, conceding my point as she held up her much larger weapon.

The two of us turned to see the last few dozen grunts rushing us quickly, all armed with a melee weapon of some sort. "You ready?" Liya asked. Nodding, the two of us dashed straight for the charging group of Faunus.

Roman dodged a blow by Yang before jumping up and flipping over Sun's gunchucks (such a cool weapon) before landing atop the wrecked Bullhead towards the one that had landed at the very start, which was slowly taking off.

"Sorry to cut things short, but I have somewhere important to be!" Roman said as he jumped into the rising dropship, which took off before the doors fully closed. The last surviving Bullhead followed suit, and the docks were left silent with us five and several unconscious White Fang grunts.

Yang sighed as she looked around. "You've been busy," she said as she saw all the knocked out masked men and women on the ground.

"I'll say," Sun remarked as he folded up Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang and holstered them.

"So were you!" I said. "Fighting Roman?"

"Yeah, he wasn't too hard to keep up with. It's his dodging that pisses me off," Yang said as she stretched her arms. Blake walked up, hands against her sides as Yang turned to look at her.

"I'm...I'm sorry I-" Blake said before Yang bopped her on the head with a closed fist, luckily not too hard. As Blake clutched her forehead, Yang began to rip into her for leaving and causing so much trouble. Meanwhile, police cars were arriving, as did another Bullhead.

Liya, Yang, Blake, and I were questioned by the police for about an hour before they let us go to the Bullhead where Ruby and Weiss were waiting alongside Professor Goodwitch, who was not happy.

"I see you two got yourselves into trouble. Again," Professor Goodwitch said sternly. Yang scratched the back of her head while I looked sheepishly down. Sighing, the professor rubbed between her eyes and frowned. "Detention for two weeks. Now go back to your team, Miss Xiao Long. Miss Eyla and Mister Onissa, you may wait on the Bullhead for us to leave after I talk to the police."

I turned to Yang, grabbing her hand before she could turn away. "I'm...I'm so sorry," I said nervously. "I promise to make this up to you."

Yang smiled. "I know," she said, watching as Ruby tackled Blake in a hug while Weiss berated Blake for her actions. "Thanks for being with Blake when she needed it. Still super pissed that you hung up on me."

"Think they'll be OK?" I asked, looking over at the scene as well. Yang chuckled as she patted my head. "Weiss was-"

"I'll talk to her. Though it doesn't seem like she's that mad about it anymore. Not after seeing the damage we did to the White Fang," she said. "I'll see if I can get her to apologize to you."

"Oh, you don't have to-" I began to say before Yang shook her head to cut me off.

"She was pretty rude about it. Ranting over being fooled. You weren't there but she said some pretty nasty things about you too," Yang explained. "Thought you were in cahoots with Blake as some sort of sleeper agent for the White Fang."

"Oh. Meh, I don't blame her," I said. "Honestly, I can understand why she was so upset. Isn't her family constantly targeted by these guys?"

"Maybe, but she was still super rude. So she's gonna get a talking to from me," Yang said. "I should probably make sure they're being civil back there."

"Are...are you still upset at me?" I asked awkwardly.

"No," Yang said. "Not too upset. Hanging up, yes. But everything else, no."

"Why? After everything I did-"

"You were looking out for Blake. Not exactly something to be mad at," Yang interrupted. "Even if you should've gone for help instead."

"I mean...yeah," I said quietly. "Alright. Umm, I'll see if I take you out on another date tomorrow. Is that good with you?"

"I dunno," Yang said as she looked down. "I'll think about it."

"Alright," I said again before we split, me approaching Liya at the Bullhead while Yang joined her team. "Eyla?"

"What?" Liya asked in confusion.

"Your last name. Eyla?" I said, entering the Bullhead.

"You don't remember?" Liya asked sardonically. "It's been said before. Multiple times in class. Wait, I forgot you barely pay attention in class."

"Yeah. It's a nice name," I said as I sat down next to Liya on the Bullhead, sighing. "By the way, what's your weapon's name? I'm not sure if you mentioned that. Unless I didn't pay attention then too."

"No, I didn't say. It's Kābā. What about you?" Liya asked.

"Honestly, I just called it belt. Pretty simple and confusing," I said. "Like my life."

"Your life is anything but simple," Liya said, and the two of us chuckled. "We really fought the White Fang, huh?"

"Yep," I said before seeing that I hadn't let go of the sword from earlier, the small White Fang emblem on the handle being visible. "Think I can keep this?" My question was answered when a purple aura surrounded my sword and pulled it out of my grasp. "Aww..."

"Your belt can make as many as you want, quit whining," Liya said as team RWBY entered the Bullhead. Weiss had trouble making eye contact with me as they sat opposite us. Professor Goodwitch sat next to Liya as the VTOL dropship slowly began to lift off.

"Wait, where's that girl you were with?" Liya asked as the ship jolted, likely having just started accelerating for Beacon at once. "I just realized she's not here."

"You mean the girl you stranded me with?" Ruby asked, Yang wincing sheepishly before Ruby sighed and rubbed her eyes. "She was picked up by guys in a limo earlier."

"Wait, she was kidnapped?!" Yang cried out of sheer surprise before Ruby shook her head.

"No, she knew these guys. They talked to her like she broke some rule. I wouldn't be surprised, she probably snuck out of the house but..." Ruby said. "I can't help but be worried."

"So, uhh, Ruby made a new friend?" I asked awkwardly.

"Yep! Her name is Penny," Ruby said, smiling reminiscently. "I hope I see her again. Even if she is a bit of a robot."

"You have no idea how accurate that sentence is, Ruby," I thought to myself as I looked back. "Guess, we should go to bed, huh?"

"Where's Sun, by the way?" I asked as I stretched my arms left and right.

"He said bye, thanks for the fun, and left," Blake said. "Police didn't get to question him."

"Didn't even say goodbye," Liya added.

"Heh, I have a feeling we'll see more of him later," I said. The others looked at me and I shrugged. "What? He's a student from Mistral."

"Not sure he mentioned that to me," Liya said.

"It was before," I said as Professor Goodwitch cleared her throat, silencing us. "As calming as it is to see you make small talk, the fact that you fought in a public area with weapons and aura remains painfully clear," she said.

"What's gonna happen after all this?" Yang asked.

"Seeing as four of you here are directly involved," Goodwitch said. "You will speak to Ozpin directly, and you will all serve detention. Xiao Long and Onissa will serve two weeks while Eyla and Belladonna will serve one."

"Why two weeks for us?" Yang complained.

"Because this will be the second time you will be punished under Beacon's rules," Goodwitch replied without missing a beat. "You do not wish to have a third offense, Miss Xiao Long."

Yang pouted as Weiss cleared her throat. "Markus. I'd like to apologize for everything negative I've said over the beginning of the semester. It wasn't right and I'd like us to be friends if that's OK," she said, about as professional as the president himself.

"Weiss, we've been friends since after initiation," I said. "I appreciate the apology but we're on good terms already. Even if you did talk smack about me while I was gone."

Weiss flushed and didn't say any more. As the bullhead landed, the doors opened and the seven of us climbed out. "Xiao Long, Eyla, Onissa, and Belladonna. Report to the headmaster's office," Goodwitch said. "Miss Rose, Miss Weiss, it is past curfew so you may find it best for the two of you to go to bed. I assure you your teammates and friends won't be kept long."

"That's alright, professor. Come on, Ruby," Weiss said before Ruby could potentially demand that they stay out any longer than they need to. Professor Goodwitch escorted us four to the tower, where the several minute long elevator ride was awkward until we reached Ozpin's office.

The headmaster was scribbling something down on a piece of paper when he saw us enter. "Do you know why you are here?" he asked.

"The docks?" I asked.

"Not only that. Desertion to Vale yesterday night. Not returning from curfew, not telling a single faculty member where you were or what you were doing," Ozpin said. Blake and I winced at every little detail before the headmaster sighed. "But, I may be lenient if you explained exactly what you were doing."

"We...I was investigating the White Fang," Blake said. "I couldn't stand the thought of the group I fought with becoming so low...I guess I was hoping for too much when I found out. Markus was just trying to stop me, but I made him promise not to tell anyone."

"She left out how I volunteered to go with her," I thought as Ozpin crossed his fingers on his desk as he listened.

"And what did this investigation find out?" Ozpin said.

"Roman Torchwick has been employing the help of the White Fang to rob various dust stores, and a massive shipment from the Schnee Dust Company just an hour earlier," Blake said. "And I don't understand that. Torchwick doesn't seem like the type to work with someone."

"Roman Torchwick may have a boss," I added. "I don't think he'd ever work with the White Fang voluntarily. Especially since we heard him call them animals on a few occasions."

"He's right," Blake said, stepping up. "And the White Fang wouldn't be this direct. We used to operate under stealth rather than insert into locations loudly. This isn't normal White Fang tactics."

"Yeah, I think it makes more sense that Roman Torchwick could be taking orders from someone. He didn't exactly look happy to be there either," I brought up helpfully, trying to foreshadow future events and truths. "Maybe someone's been forcing him to do stuff for them?"

"Plus these guys have had no training whatsoever. They could do a flip or something, but other than that; they suck," Liya said. "Markus was taking them down in seconds even without his weapon." I chose to ignore that last implication.

Headmaster Ozpin pondered, before clearing his throat. "I see you have been very extensive over your reconnaissance. Despite me not approving the intentions you have or the manner in which you've done your actions, you've done it with great efficiency," he finally said, after some degree of thought. "I'm having all of your detentions completely removed, and the four of you instead relegated to teacher assistants tomorrow."

"What?" we all said, including Professor Goodwitch.

"It's nothing too serious," Ozpin said. "The four of you will each be assigned to teachers and assist them for 6 hours from 8 in the morning to 2 at noon. Miss Xiao Long, you will be assigned to Professor Goodwitch, Miss Eyla will be assigned to Professor Port, Miss Belladonna will be assigned to Professor Peach, and Mister Onissa shall be with Professor Oobleck."

"That ain't so bad," Yang said as she laid back against her chair and rested her head on her hands. "I could do with a bit more training."

"Oh, we won't be training," Professor Goodwitch interjected. "In fact, we shall be going over plenty of exciting documents such as financials, curriculum material, processing, and much much more." As calm as the combat teacher sounded, her facial expression oozed with clear disapproval.

Ozpin shrugged as Yang paled immensely. I gulped when Yang turned to glower at me and Blake, practically blaming us for her situation. "I'm a dead man..." I thought. "And I won't even be able to take her on another date either."

"I-I mean...at least it's not Port?" I asked. Yang's glowering expression left her face at once as Port's endless stories and horrible flirting skills flowed through her head. At that, Liya shuddered when she realized what she was up for.

"That shall be all," Ozpin said. "You are dismissed. Get some rest, you will need it." The four of us left the building, walking to the dormitories.

"Markus? Blake?" Yang asked. "You owe me an entire night of letting me pet your ears."

"Y-yes ma'am," Blake and I whispered.

"You know, you probably should think of a better disguise," Liya said. "Your ears are super easy to see with the bow."

Blake sighed. "I know."