Disclaimer: I own nothing but my two OCs.


Divine Intervention

Chapter 8: Black and White


"So, you want to know more about me," Blake said as she and Dante sat on the balcony of a café.

Dante took a sip from his cold drink and set the glass down, "only what you feel like sharing."

Taking a deep breath, Blake looked at Dante, "how familiar are you with the White Fang?"

"I doubt there's a Faunus on Remnant who hasn't heard of them," Dante replied, "they did good work until Sienna Khan took-"

Dante stopped abruptly and looked at Blake in shock and realization.

She cocked her head slightly, "what?"

"You're Ghira Belladonna's daughter, aren't you?" Dante said quietly.

Blake looked down and pursed her lips, "yes… I am."

Dante put a hand over hers, "Blake, that's nothing to be ashamed of; your father is an inspiration to Faunus everywhere. I remember hearing stories of all the good he did as leader of the White Fang."

A bit of red dusted Blake's cheeks as she looked back up at Dante, "things were different back then. The White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between humans and the Faunus."

Dante's face became one of understanding, "but we still suffered from discrimination and hate."

Blake nodded, "the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people… and I was born into that life: at the front of every rally, taking part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference, but I was just a youthful optimist."

She clenched her free hand into a fist, "when my father stepped down five years ago, Sienna Khan took his place. A new leader with a new way of thinking… Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. And the worst part was, it was working. We were being treated like equals. But not out of respect... out of fear."

"And now they're the very thing they swore to stop," Dante concluded.

"So I left," Blake went on, "I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence and instead dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So, here I am: a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow."

She wiggled her ears under the bow to emphasize her point.

There was a brief silence before Dante broke it, "and you never told the others until they found out?"

Blake lowered her head, "you heard how Weiss was talking; how could I tell them something so… intimate when one of my own teammates hates our kind?"

"I don't think she does," Dante replied, "she only seemed to hate the White Fang, not Faunus in general."

"You… might have a point," Blake said, "but it still doesn't change the fact that I used to be part of the White Fang."

"Until you saw what they were becoming and left while you could," Dante pointed out, "Blake, you need to remember that Weiss' family has been the main opposition for the White Fang for longer than either of us have been alive. I'm not saying that the entire family is guilt-free, but Weiss has never actually gotten to know a Faunus; she's just heard how bad the White Fang are through stories. If you judge her for the sins of her ancestors, then what does that say about you?"

Blake took a few seconds to process this before curling her lips in a slight smile, "you know, if being a Huntsman doesn't work out, you'd make a great diplomat."

Dante shrugged, "I just like pointing things out; not my fault that people like what I have to say."

They shared a laugh and spent a few minutes just enjoying their drinks.

"So I've told you why I hid my ears from others," Blake eventually said, "but why do you wear those glasses?"

Dante took a few seconds to gather his thoughts.

"When you saw me defending Velvet," he replied, "what did you see?"

Blake looked confused before answering, "I… saw someone protecting someone else."

"Exactly," Dante smiled, "you didn't see a Faunus helping another Faunus, you just saw a person doing a good thing. That's why I still wear them: to prove that anyone can step in to help others, even if they're different."

"Still wear them?" Blake noted.

Dante's hand went up to touch his eyewear, "originally, it was for the same reason you wear that bow; where it differs between us is that where you hide your ears from humans, I hid my eyes from humans and Faunus."

Blake's eyes widened, "why would you do that?"

Looking down and taking a deep breath, Dante went on, "because I'm a half-breed; my mother was a Faunus, but my father was human."

All Blake could do was gasp.

"That's why my eyes are like this instead of having ears, horns, or a tail like my mom did," he continued, "she was a traveling dancer while my dad was a Huntsman in Mistral. One day, they met in Argus and fell in love. When I was born, they knew that I would face discrimination from both humans and Faunus alike because of my mixed blood, so they gave me these sunglasses to hide what made me different."

"Oh, Dante…" Blake whispered.

Dante clenched his fist, "when your father stepped down, Sienna Khan declared interspecies marriages a disgrace to Faunus-kind and outlawed them. I tell people that my parents were killed by monsters and they always assume that I mean the Grimm. The truth is… they died at the hands of radical villagers who deemed them traitors…"

A few tears escaped from under Dante's sunglasses.

Blake moved closer and put her hands on his cheeks, brushing the tears away, "I'm so sorry…"

Dante put a hand over hers.

They stayed like that for a long while.


dXb


"Feeling better?" Blake asked as they walked down an alley.

Dante nodded, "yeah, it helps to get it all out every now and then."

Blake gave him a warm smile, "so, who else knows?"

"Nora's known since we met, Ozpin and the upper staff knew from the start, and I told Pyrrha and Iris a few days ago," Dante replied before pursing his lips, "so, what now?"

Blake contemplated for a few seconds before answering, "I still don't believe the White Fang is behind these robberies. They've never needed that much Dust before."

"What if they did?" came another girl's voice.

Dante and Blake both yelped and spun around with their swords drawn to see the fox-eared girl from the previous day.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, putting up her hands, "didn't mean to sneak up on you, I just smelled that you were nearby."

Blake kept her guard up, but Dante relaxed and put Ascalon away, "what was that you were saying?"

"I mean…" the girl rubbed her neck sheepishly, "the only way to prove that the White Fang didn't do it is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it… and not find them there, right?"

Dante put a hand on Blake's shoulder and she reluctantly sheathed Gambol Shroud, "the only problem with that is we have no idea where that would be."

The girl smirked, "well, while I was on the ship, I heard some guys talking about offloading a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas."

"How big are we talking?" Dante asked.

"Huge," the girl said, "like, big Schnee Dust Company freighter."

Dante looked at Blake, "it does sound like a pretty big target."

The girl in black was quiet for a bit before nodding, "alright, it's at least worth checking out."

"Then what are we waiting for?" the other girl beamed, walking down the alley.

Blake looked at Dante, who just shrugged and followed after their new friend.

She sighed and brought up the rear.

"You got a name?" Dante asked.

The girl bowed slightly, "call me Kiriko."

"Dante," he replied, returning the bow, and they shared a smile while Blake just rolled her eyes.


dXb


Night had fallen by the time Blake and Dante had set up positions on a rooftop near the docks.

"Are you sure we can trust her?" Blake asked.

"Enough to help us with this, at least," Dante replied, "I can tell she's got a good spirit."

Blake arched an eyebrow, "and you're not just saying that because she's cute?"

Dante scoffed, "of course not… that's just a bonus."

The brunette rolled her eyes as Kiriko appeared carrying a box.

"Did I miss anything?" she asked.

Blake shook her head, "Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just… sitting there."

"Cool," Kiriko replied before opening the box to reveal two rows of donuts, "I got you guys some food."

Dante licked his lips and grabbed one while Blake politely held up a hand, "thanks, but I'm trying to watch my figure."

Kiriko shrugged and wolfed down another one.

Dante licked his fingers, "how is it you can eat so many of these anyway?"

"A neat little byproduct of my Semblance," Kiriko beamed, "I can use my Aura to make small constructs, heal others, and heal myself… which includes balancing my blood sugar."

She snatched another donut and twirled it on her finger, "I could eat these for the rest of my life and never gain a pound!"

Blake sighed while Dante's jaw dropped, "and I thought my Semblance was awesome."

All of a sudden, Dante's hand jerked up and slapped him in the face.

He groaned in pain and rubbed his sore cheek.

Kiriko opened her mouth to say something, but both Blake and Dante said, "don't worry about it."

Before anything else could happen, the wind picked up as a small Bullhead landed right in the middle of the Dust containers.

A hatch opened up and a figure clad in a white jacket and black hood with a metallic mask over his face.

A familiar red logo was painted on his back.

The three crouched down to stay out of sight.

"That's them alright," Dante said in a low voice.

"Yes," Blake managed to say, "it's the White Fang."

The soldier turned to his fellow members as they got off the ship, "all right, grab the tow cables!"

"You really didn't think they were behind this, did you?" Kiriko asked.

Blake looked sadly at the scene in front of them, "no, I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right."

She looked down and closed her eyes as Dante put a hand on her shoulder.

It was quiet for a few seconds before a new voice spoke up.

"Hey, what's the holdup!?"

The three were shocked to see a familiar red-haired man with a top hat and cane.

"We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment," the man said, gesturing around widely, "so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

"Torchwick?" Dante gasped, "here?!"

"This isn't right," Blake growled, rising to her feet and unsheathing Gambol Shroud, "the White Fang would never work with a human. Especially not one like that."

Kiriko's eyes widened, "what are you doing?!"

"Blake, wait!" Dante tried to grab her arm, but she jumped off the roof just before he could reach her.

She landed in a crouch and hid behind a container.

"Is this a regular thing with her?" Kiriko whispered.

"Pretty sure it's just instinct," Dante replied.

Blake peeked around the corner to see Roman and a White Fang grunt holding a rope.

"No, you idiot," he berated the underling, "this isn't a leash!"

Blake appeared behind him and leveled her blade across his throat.

Roman let out a yelp of surprise before rolling his eyes, "oh, for f-"

"Nobody move!" Blake snapped.

Of course, no one listened to her and instead readied their weapons.

"Woah," Roman said, not sounding worried at all, "take it easy there, little lady."

The White Fang members began to close in on Blake and her hostage so she used her free hand to rip off her bow and reveal her ears.

"Brothers of the White Fang!" Blake declared, "why are you aiding this scum?!"

The soldiers froze and looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

After a few seconds, Roman laughed, "oh kid, didn't you get the memo?"

Blake tightened her grip, "what are you talking about?"

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together," Roman smirked.

"Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation," Blake demanded.

Before Torchwick could reply, two more Bullheads flew onto the scene.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation!" Roman yelled over the sound of the turbines.

As Blake dropped her guard in horror, Roman leveled his cane, Melodic Cudgel, at the ground underneath her and fired off a round.

The resulting explosion knocked her onto her back, but quickly regained her composure just in time to dodge more of Torchwick's explosive shots.

These rounds ended up destroying more cargo in the process before Blake hid behind more containers.

Dante manifested his gauntlet and looked at Kiriko, "go on ahead; I need to build up my Semblance."

Kiriko nodded and jumped off the rooftop.

Roman grinned like a hunter cornering his prey, "here kitty, kitty, kitty-"

His taunt was interrupted by an empty donut box falling onto his head, causing him to growl and yank the thing off of his face… only to see a foot shooting out of the sky to kick him right on the nose.

Kiriko then used Roman's face as a springboard to jump back and land gracefully nearby.

"Hahaha!" she giggled, "oh, you have no idea how much I love kicking baddies in the face!"

It was around this time that the other two Bullheads landed and opened up to reveal even more White Fang soldiers, who quickly surrounded Kiriko.

Roman dusted himself off and smirked, "you are not the brightest fox in the henhouse, are you, kid?"

Kiriko returned the smirk as her eyes began to glow a bright cyan, "you'd be surprised how bright I can get."

"Draconic Pawn!"

In a flash, Dante's armored form jumped down and landed in a small crater in front of Kiriko.

"You wanna dance with the devil?" he growled, "try me!"

Dante looked over at Kiriko, who shook off her initial shock and gave him a smiling nod.

She then brought up her fists and four claws of blue energy popped out of her gloves, "I got your back!"

The two then went to work on the charging White Fang soldiers, Dante punching them away like ragdolls while Kiriko used her claws to block their attacks and then kick them away, a pair of blades occasionally popping out of her shoes.

Dante punched one soldier so hard that he was sent flying right at Torchwick.

The crime boss ducked out of the way and grunted in annoyance before aiming Melodic Cudgel at Kiriko, who didn't see him as she was too busy fighting another group of thugs.

Dante saw the shot coming and jumped in front of her to take the hit. He slid back a few inches and let out a pained groan, but it didn't look like the shot made it through his armor.

"He's mine!" Blake shouted as she lunged at Roman from her cover.

The girl in black became a blur of afterimages as she slashed both of Gambol Shroud's blades at Roman.

The redhead backed away and deflected each would-be blow with Melodic Cudgel at unbelievable speeds.

Blake dashed, hopped over, and slid around Torchwick to try and find a weak spot. She finally landed a blow after using her Semblance but he quickly recovered.

He then went on to deflect several more attacks before attempting to punch her in the face, only to hit a clone as she flips away.

The two weapons clashed again before Torchwick jabbed Blake in the side.

He laughed and landed a few more hits on Blake until one final beating to the head with his cane caused her to go down.

"Blake!" Dante shouted, "hang on!"

He vaulted over her and kicked Roman back, Ascalon's blade sliding out of his right fist.

They went at it with Dante landing stronger blows, but Roman managed to block them all.

"What is this cane made of?!" Dante growled in between blows.

After what felt like forever, Blake noticed a drop in Roman's guard and managed to get a slash in.

The force was enough to knock the crime boss on his back.

Quickly getting back up, Roman noticed a huge container hanging above his two opponents and fired a round at the supports.

Dante realized what was happening so he tackled Blake into a roll to get out of the way.

Unfortunately, they rolled up right in front of Roman as he aimed Melodic Cudgel right at their heads.

Dante curled up to protect Blake from the blast when a familiar voice caught everyone's attention.

"Hey!" Ruby called out from an overlooking rooftop, Crescent Rose out and ready for action.

Roman dropped his guard and looked up at the new arrival with mock joy, "well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Penny then walked up next to the cloaked girl, "Ruby, are these people your friends?"

Ruby quickly looked over at her, "Penny, get back!"

Seeing that Ruby's guard was down, Roman fired off Melodic Cudgel.

The shot didn't seriously hurt her, but it did throw her back and knock Crescent Rose out of her hands.

Roman took the moment to let out a professional-level evil laugh and was promptly sucker-punched by Dante.

"Sick prick," Dante muttered before looking back at Ruby and Penny.

The latter was glaring down at the scene while the former was struggling to get back up.

"Penny, wait!" Ruby said, reaching out a futile hand, "stop!"

"Don't worry, Ruby," Penny replied before focusing back on the shipyard, "I'm combat ready!"

A small pack between her shoulders opened up, letting a single sword float out that extended and multiplied into several blades hovering over Penny's back like an orchestra of helicopter blades.

This was Penny's weapon: Floating Array.

Leaping from the rooftop with the weapons acting as wings, Penny sent three of her swords to knock two White Fang soldiers off their feet before she even hit the ground.

She then flung swords at one enemy, impaled another to a wall before creating a barrier of spinning steel against a running attack.

Leaping over a goon with her swords in tow, Penny finally made a wheel that she threw to knock multiple Faunus off their feet.

"Dang…" Kiriko muttered under her breath before hearing a sound coming from above.

She turned around to see three more Bullheads flying onto the scene, guns already firing.

"Oh, crap," Dante growled before turning to Kiriko and Blake, "get to cover!"

"What about you?" Blake asked.

Dante held up his right arm, the blade retracting and the emerald in his gauntlet already flashing, "I've got something special for these bastards!"

After a second, they both nodded and ran to safety.

Penny formed a shield and launched two of her swords into the wall behind her, which in turn pulled their wielder back with their almost invisible strings.

After she was at a safer distance, Floating Array swirled around in front of Penny, opening their points and building up a large glowing ball of green light.

With a punching action, several bright lasers cracked the pavement as they fired at the transports and sliced one clean in half, causing several of the White Fang members inside to fall and letting Ruby watch as the Bullhead fell in pieces behind her.

"Draconic Bishop!" Dante roared as he was engulfed in light once again.

When it faded, his form had again changed. His arms were more or less the same, maybe a little bigger, but the armor on his legs was thicker and more sturdy. The most prominent part of this form were the two large cannons mounted on his shoulder blades.

The emeralds at the base of the cannons began glowing with an intense green light with no sign of dimming down.

When the cannons were glowing as bright as they could, Dante aimed them at one of the remaining two Bullheads.

"Dragon's…" he yelled before firing two beams of red light coated in green, "ROAAAAAAAAR!"

The beams crackled through the air and sliced a wing off of one of the Bullheads.

It spun and fell into a stack of crates, going up in a large explosion.

Penny then shot her swords at the last Bullhead and started pulling on her wires strong enough to start dragging the aircraft down.

Dante's cannons vanished and a pair of bat-like wings unfurled to replace them, flapping a few times to lift Dante into the air.

He flew up to the Bullhead and tore out a thruster before shoving it into one of the turbines.

It started smoking and falling to the ground even faster, the extra Dust causing an even bigger explosion.

"These kids just keep getting weirder," Roman muttered before closing the door on the only Bullhead left before flying off.

Dante landed gracefully in front of Blake and Kiriko just as his armor dissipated.

Blake caught him just before his legs gave out.

"Thanks," he panted before looking at Kiriko, "enjoy the show?"

She smirked, "to say the least."

They all turned at the sound of police sirens getting closer.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun," Dante said dryly.


dXb


As the police secured the area, Dante, Blake, Kiriko, Ruby and Penny all sat on boxes while a very angry Officer Jenny paced in front of them.

"Breaking curfew!" she snapped, "trespassing! Inciting a firefight! Damage to private property! Not to mention operating without Hunting Licenses! Do you have any idea how much trouble you'd all be in if any of you weren't Students?!"

Ruby raised a finger, "uh… kind of?"

Dante cleared his throat, "well, at least the White Fang didn't get away with all the Dust."

"How could they?!" Jenny threw her arms up in the air, "you five somehow managed to blow up most of the rest!"

Dante pointed at Ruby, "to be fair, she didn't really do anything."

Jenny just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "I'm gonna have enough of a headache explaining this to the SCD… fine, you're free to go, just know that Ozpin will get a very long message about this."

She turned around and started barking at her men.

It was around this time that Weiss, Yang, Nora, Pyrrha and Iris showed up.

The latter three rushed over to Dante and formed into a huddle/group hug.

Ruby and Yang shared a smile before the younger sister noticed Weiss heading straight for Blake.

"Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing," the female leader said quickly, "see, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute…"

She trailed off when she realized that Weiss was only focusing on Blake.

The girl in black took a deep breath and spoke first, "Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-"

"Stop!" Weiss cut her off, "do you have any idea how long we've been searching for you?!"

No one said anything.

"Twelve hours," she went on, "that means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in those twelve hours, I've decided…"

Everyone braced themselves.

"I don't care."

The air was dead silent before Blake spoke up, "you… don't care?"

Weiss' face didn't change, "you said you're not one of them anymore, right?"

"No," Blake said quickly, "I-I haven't been since I was younger-"

"Ah-Ah-Ah!" Weiss cut her off again, "I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that next time something this big comes up, you'll come to your teammates and not some…"

She looked over at Kiriko before turning back to Blake, "someone else."

Blake looked at Ruby and Yang as they all shared a smile.

Then she wiped away a tear and nodded, "of course."

"Yay!" Ruby cheered, "Team RWBY is back together!"

The others stood up and gathered with each other.

Weiss then glared at Kiriko, "I'm still not quite sure how I feel about you."

Kiriko just shrugged, "yeah, that's fair."

Ruby then looked around, "hey, wait a minute… where's Penny?"

Everyone else looked around to see that their newest friend was nowhere to be seen.

Dante just smirked, "I have a feeling she's exactly where she needs to be; we'll see her again when the time is right."

He put an arm around Nora's waist and smiled at everyone, "come on, let's go home."

They all returned the smile and started walking.

Once they had left the docks, Dante looked at Weiss, "I'm proud of you."

She didn't reply, but still smiled and blushed a little.


dXb


After they had gotten back to Beacon, everyone went to their rooms for the night.

Once Dante was ready for bed, he noticed two shadows at the bottom of his door.

He looked around to see that the only one besides himself that was still awake was Fifi.

He kissed Nora on the forehead and went to open the door.

Blake stood there in her pajamas.

Dante stepped out into the hall and shut the door behind him.

"I… I want you to know something else," she said softly, "about my time in the White Fang."

When Dante didn't say anything, she continued, "back in those days, I had a… partner."

"A partner in more than one sense?" Dante asked gently.

Blake nodded and fought back tears, "he's the reason I didn't leave sooner. He… he kept telling me that we were doing the right thing, that the humans we attacked deserved to suffer…"

"But you finally realized he'd changed just like the White Fang had changed," Dante pieced together.

She sniffled, "and I left him. I ran like I always do and didn't stop running until I got to Beacon."

She lowered her head as Dante pulled her into a hug.

"You're not the coward you think you are, Blake," he whispered, "not everyone is brave enough to walk away."

Blake returned the hug and they stayed like that until the tears were out of her system.

"Can… can I stay with you tonight?" she eventually said, "I don't want to be alone."

Dante smiled, nodded, and led Blake into the dorm.

Soon, they were both sound asleep next to Nora with the soft sound of purring in the air.

It was a little odd since Fifi was in a different bed, but no one complained.


dXb


In the dreamscape, Tiamat was jumping for joy.

"Finally!" she cheered, "I thought it would take a whole semester before you had someone else in bed!"

Dante smirked, "sounds like you want to do something big to celebrate."

Tia returned the smirk, "I say it's about time we had a beach day!"

It's said that most people forget what they dream about the following morning.

Dante never forgot that night.


dXb


That same night, Torchwick walked into a warehouse and set a case of Dust on a table.

As he sighed in exhaustion and frustration, he was startled when a voice came out from the darkness.

"How very disappointing, Roman," a woman's voice purred.

Torchwick spun around to see three figures hidden in the shadows of the warehouse.

He chuckled nervously, "I wasn't expecting to see you so soon, ladies."

One of the figures stepped out of the shadows.

She was a young woman with shoulder-length dark hair and sharp yellow eyes wearing a modest red dress and a pair of black high heels.

This was Cinder Fall.

"We were expecting… more from you," Cinder added.

Torchwick scoffed, "hey, you were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang!"

"And you will continue to do so," Cinder went on, lighting up a fireball in her hand.

This revealed the other two figures.

One was a tanned girl with mint-green hair and red eyes clad in tight white pants and a green top.

The other was a caucasian girl with silver hair and blue eyes wearing a white shirt under a black leather jacket and matching pants and boots.

"We have big plans for you, Roman," Cinder smirked, "all we ask is… a little cooperation."

"Well, this is what my 'cooperation' was worth tonight," Torchwick replied, "thanks to those Beacon Students, I barely made it out of there."

Cinder raised a delicate eyebrow, "a few Students were enough to give you trouble?"

"I could've handled most of them one-on-one," Roman replied, "but there were two brats that wiped the floor with us. One of them was definitely a robot, but the other guy…"

He trailed off and looked at the silver-haired girl.

Cinder's smirk grew, "really? Tell us more."

Then she snapped her fingers and the flames went out.


To be continued…


Author's Note:

That's a wrap!

First off, I want to say that I'm sorry for the delay in getting this published. There was a change in my job's work environment and I haven't had as much free time as I used to. I've also been bouncing around some ideas for other stories that I may or may not write later on, but we'll see what happens.

Anyway, Volume 1 has now officially drawn to a close! Blake is spending the night with Dante and you can bet how excited Nora and Tia are for that.

Like I said in the last chapter, I decided to give Kiriko a new weapon since her usual arsenal feels a little lackluster compared to other weapons in RWBY. Her new weapon, Foxtrot, is based on the climbing claws from the jungle world in the Netflix series Sonic Prime.

And we also got a tease of Cinder and her crew. I know I said I would keep Mercury as long as I felt that the story would be better with him, but I've come up with a better idea. I'll leave it to you guys to figure out who this new girl is for now, but she will be more prominent in the next chapter.

Speaking of next time, we'll be starting Volume 2 with my favorite episode of the whole series, so I hope you're hungry!

Again, feel free to favorite, follow, and/or review. All I ask is that you keep things friendly and professional, both in your praise and your critiques. Suggestions are always welcome, just keep in mind that I might not see or reply to every single review or message.

That all said,

Later Bros!