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Volume 1, Chapter 16, 'Black and White'


"BLAAAKE?!"

"BLAAAKE?!"

"BLAAAKE?! WHERE ARE YOOOUUU?"

"BLAKE!"

Ruby and Yang alternated their shouting through the streets of Vale, earning confused looks from other pedestrians. Weiss followed a few steps behind them, her expression unreadable yet masking her still-turbulent thoughts.

"Weiss, you're not helping!"

The heiress snapped to attention. Ruby was looking at her with a look mixed with annoyance and concern. She had felt sorry for Weiss this morning but they were three hours into their search and Weiss hadn't even done so much as LOOK interested in finding their missing teammate.

Weiss shook her head, trying to get her thoughts straight. "Oh! You know who might be able to help?" She managed, "The police."

Ruby couldn't help but groan. "Ugh, Weiss…" She hissed.

"It was just an idea." The genuine and nearly-apologetic emphasis underlying her words cut off any reply her team leader may have had. Admittedly, one that sounded better in my head…

Weiss truly wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation; on one hand, the police WOULD be useful if they were going to find a missing person. On the other hand, it would be bad if…

Would it, though? We still don't know if she can be trusted.

She may have had a long night of thinking behind her, but that didn't mean Weiss was any closer to reaching a conclusion on her thoughts on Blake than she had been in the moments after said girl had ran out of the dorms. She was still conflicted with what she should be feeling after learning that Blake was associated with the terrorist group that had plagued her family since the earliest memories of her childhood.

Not that that stopped me from trying to chase her down.

Weiss sighed to herself. The look on Blake's face in the last moments she could recall seemed eerily familiar. Almost like… she was looking in a mirror. Was it really because I felt sorry for her or… Once again, the white-haired fencer drifted off into ambiguous thought, trying to answer a paradox she had little hope of solving without more information.

Maybe if we just ask the girl herself

Weiss looked up at the large mass of blonde hair in front of her. Might as well start with the closest alternative… "Yang, you're her partner. What… well, what do you make of all... this?" For some reason, she couldn't think of the right way to put her thoughts into words; though, if she had to guess, it was due to her thoughts' lack of… of…

Yet again, for the latest of who knows how many times, Weiss almost slipped back into her mind's confusion when Yang finally managed to answer her question, "I-I think we should at least hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions."

"I… I think…" Weiss's words got caught in her throat.

I think you might be rig-

"WELL, I THINK WEISS'S HAIR LOOKS WONDERFUL TODAY!"

The trio spun around at the sudden, disconnected comment. The quirky girl who they had run into yesterday was following right behind them.

"Agh! Penny! Where did you come from?!" Ruby's voice was edged with shock from the unexpected interruption and frustration from her own fatigue.

"Hey guys. What are you up to?" Penny didn't even seem to hear the question aimed at her.

Ruby started to wrestle with the idea that latching onto this odd girl yesterday had been a sound plan. "Uuuhhhhh…" was all she could manage.

"We're looking for our friend Blake." Yang covered for her sister.

"Oooh! You mean the Faunus girl."

Team RWY's initial reply was a collective blinking of eyes. "Wait. How did you know that?" Ruby asked, still slightly reeling from Penny's insight.

Penny gestured to the pink ribbon atop her own head. "Uh, the cat ears?" She replied, as though it were the easiest question in the world.

"What cat ears?" Yang voiced her disbelief, "She wears a… bow…"

In this extended moment of silence, a tumbleweed had the audacity to pass down the sidewalk from seemingly nowhere.

Weiss heard Ruby whisper something about tuna, but she didn't bother listening. Despite knowing that Blake was associated with the White Fang, she somehow hadn't entertained the possibility that Blake herself was, in fact, a Faunus.

It all pieced together. The holes in Weiss's logic were quickly filled. THAT was why she had been so defensive of the monkey boy yesterday! Why she had fought back against everything I had said, even when it wasn't about the White Fang. Actually, why did I even think a human would have joined the White Fang in the first place?

A new kind of feeling boiled in Weiss's stomach: Anger.

You mean to tell me that I've been living under the same roof as a… And she didn't even have to decency to tell us this? The girl that's been… that…

And just as quickly as it had risen up, the rage subdued.

that cheered for me on during my first fight in class. That had fought alongside me since our first outing in the Emerald Forest. That… spent every night at the academy sleeping only a couple of feet from me and never once took advantage of that.

Though her mind once again descended into disarray, a familiar feeling made itself distinct within her:

Shame.

She jolted back to reality, having missed an unknown amount of the conversation going on around her, when the redhead that had suddenly tagged along let out a small gasp and walked right through Weiss's field of view, grabbing her team leader. "That's terrible! Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate."

Rest. Weiss was suddenly hit with a renewed wave of fatigue that she somehow managed to suppress. She quickly decided that putting as much space between herself and this… strange young lady as possible would likely do wonders for her mental capacity. Assuming, for once, that having just Yang around would be preferable to having TWO likely inseparable goofballs in her range of hearing, she pulled the blonde (who willing obliged her actions) into the nearest shop to get a head-start on their search before the mentioned two realized they were gone.

The sun was already setting by the time they reached the last of several shops they had planned to check that day. It was becoming harder and harder to stop exhaustion from overtaking her. Combined with the mental battle still raging in her head, Weiss had to lean on a wall while Yang left the shop behind her, thanking the shopkeeper for their time despite the lack of useful information they had provided before letting out a scoff and a pessimistic "This is hopeless."

Weiss was inclined to agree. For all we know, she could've taken a ship to another continent last night.

"You really don't care if we find her, do you?"

That comment hit something in her mind. Even though she knew that Yang's comment came from her own concern over Blake's wellbeing, Weiss wasn't willing to let the brawler put words in her mouth.

"Don't be stupid," she practically snarled back, frustration winning out over manners, "Of course I do. I'm just…" Afraid of what she'll say when we find her. They knew nothing about the past of their Faunus 'friend' and Weiss's mind had moved onto the argument over whether they should be willing to look past what it held in store for them.

Yang didn't look convinced, but also didn't produce a counterargument, instead opting to look down at her feet and grimace.

The heiress felt another pang of guilt, this time for snapping at her teammate. Especially since she knew that Yang was going through the same kind of pain that she was. In fact, since she was Blake's partner, it was probably even worse.

Deciding that they had done enough searching for the day and resigning her mind to bed before they even got back to the dorms, Weiss was about to voice her thoughts about ending the search for the day when her blood ran cold. Both girls turned towards a loud sound coming from the city's port.

A huge explosion, followed by

Gunshots.

In spite of the fact that they were still technically huntresses-in-training, Weiss took off with a glyph under her towards the docks with Yang sprinting after her, letting out several blasts from her gauntlets to try and keep pace with her teammate.

Both had heard, amongst other conventional weaponry and what seemed to be a rapid-fire shotgun, the sound of a disturbing familiar pistol.

Blake took yet another hit from Torchwick's cane, flying back onto the ground and landing on her back. She had heard of his abilities from her team leader's description of the fight that had gotten the younger teenager into Beacon, but she hadn't been expecting him to put up THIS much of a fight. Off to the side, Sun was busy fighting off another wave of White Fang members, doing quite well with his staff despite being considerably outnumbered.

The redheaded criminal smirked before firing another shot from his cane into the air. Blake noticed, far too late, that he had fired it at a cargo container hanging straight above her. Propping herself up on her elbows, she tried to throw herself out of the way with her shadow clones, but a mixture of pain and exhaustion caused it to fail. She barely heard Sun's shout as she braced herself, eyes snapping shut and gritting her teeth, hoping that her aura might be tough enough to keep her from being crushed.

*TWANG* *THUD*

Blake couldn't help but jolt from the sudden noise and rumble, before slowly opened her eyes when she realized she couldn't feel a massive weight on top of her. Looking off to her side, she saw the container, several feet away from her. Confused, she looked up, only for her eyes to widen even further from what she saw.

An enormous white circle, containing the Schnee Dust Company's logo, was spinning right above her.

Before her mind could catch up on what had just happened, Blake heard a grunt from Torchwick as a white figure came between herself and the aforementioned criminal before launching itself at him. This was followed by a recognizable sound of flowing dust and the movement of metal followed by several shotgun-like blasts. Then, a growl from the criminal 'mastermind' and another loud explosion, which Blake just managed to shield her face from. When the smoke settled, three airships were soaring off into the sky and Torchwick was nowhere to be found.

When Blake looked back at her saviors, she knew exactly what she expected to see; that didn't make it any less shocking.

Weiss was standing with her back to her and her hands on her knees, likely gasping for breath. Yang was standing to the girl's right side, an arm on her shoulder. Blake's partner took a look over her shoulder, her eyes showing a strange mix of relief and concern.

"BLAKE!"

The girl in question turned her head towards the sound, her exposed feline ears twisting and twitching as the ringing from the explosion began to fade. Her red-cloaked leader was running towards the group, Penny following right behind her. Sun was dusting himself off and checking himself for wounds, his assailants having disappeared in the confusion.

Blake managed to pick herself up from the ground when she froze. Weiss had turned around and was giving her what definitely seemed like a glare. Suddenly, she started walking straight towards her black-haired teammate. Blake winced internally for the likely punch that was coming, not daring to move.

She felt her body shake as the expected contact was made…

…only for her eyes to fly open once again when she realized Weiss had thrown her arms around her.

Blake didn't know how to respond, but decided to return the hug, hoping it wouldn't anger the girl who likely had every reason to NOT be hugging her right now. Feeling Weiss's full weight against her, she lowered the both of them until their knees were on the ground. Her ears laid flat against her head with sorrow. "Weiss. I want to you know… that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with-"

"Stop."

Weiss cut off her words even before she could put the rest of them together. The ears on top of her head shot up.

"Do you have any idea how long we've been searching for you?"

Blake didn't know how to respond to this. She didn't even bother opening her mouth. Her amber eyes didn't move from the back of the heiress's head, having widened as much as she possibly could in disbelief over what she was hearing. "Twelve hours." Weiss said simply, "So I've had twelve hours to let my anger burn out."

Blake simply couldn't find her voice. I-is she… trying to apologize? To ME?

Ruby reached the group and stood next to Yang, her silver eyes glazed and relief radiating off of her from the sight she saw. Her two teammates that had been the root of this whole search were embracing each other and it washed away any residual pain she had felt since the previous night.

Weiss was exhausted and her vision was blurry but she managed to at least keep her voice above a whisper. "I don't need to know anything other than that you aren't a part of them anymore. I've heard enough to know that I can trust you. Because you're my friend."

Yang managed to wrap her arm around her young sister, who responded by reaching up to hold onto it and smiling. Sun and Penny should off to the side, both smiling and observing the situation but making sure not to interrupt it.

Blake's mind had almost gone blank. She thought that, if she ever saw Weiss again, she would be on the end of a long string of insults and curses, having already admitted to being a member of the organization that had ruined the girl's childhood and likely killed close members of her family. Instead, here she was, wrapped in Weiss's arms and being assured of their bond after simply explaining that she was no longer a member of the group.

Blake looked over at her team leader and her partner. Both of them looked like they were going to start crying in spite of the huge smiles on their faces. She looked back at Weiss's hair when the girl started again, "Just… Please promise me that you'll come talk to us the next time something like this happens. I will- I'll make sure to treat you exactly how you deserve to. As a person. I swear."

Blake couldn't take it anymore. She felt like Weiss shouldn't been giving her this kind of faith, yet… Tears came streaming down her face and she buried her face in the mass of white hair next to her. "Of course." She somehow managed to sob out.

Yang released her little sister and helped Blake bring the heiress to her feet, in spite of her own fatigue. Walking over to the rest of her team, Ruby finally managed to speak up, "Well, uh, I think we've all earned a good night's rest, don't you think?" She asked, looking towards her Faunus teammate.

Blake managed to wipe away a tear and grinned. "That sounds nice," she replied hoarsely, turning her head towards Weiss.

Yang also looked up at her sister and nodded. She shook Weiss a little to make sure she was still awake before asking, "What do you think, princess?"

For the first time since yesterday, Weiss smiled.

"Yeah."


Yay! Everything's okay! Blake's back! World Peace! Now that I've set up the premise, I can finally get to the point of this fanfic.

Sorry for anyone who was expecting an awesome scene from Penny. I felt like solving this scene in the way I wanted to required Weiss (and Yang) coming in to save the day. Plus, I believe Penny's amazing weaponry was originally supposed to be revealed AFTER her robotic reveal, so just imagine it occurred at another point in the series. You know, while she's still *SPOILERS*

Edit: I removed a note that was in the middle of the story, as per GoldenArbiter's request because they were right, it did interfere with the flow and didn't add as much as I thought it would. Oh well, carry on folks!