The following chapter contains spoilers for RWBY: Ice Queendom, Chapter 3

"Finally, she speaks! Nearly two days and you've given me nothing but small talk and weird looks!" Blake gives Sun a firm look. "Yeah, like that."

Blake rolls her eyes before closing them and looking at him sadly. "Sun... Are you familiar with the White Fang?"

"Of course! I don't think there's a Faunus on the planet who hasn't heard of them. Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks, if you ask me!"

Blake sips her cup of tea while listening until she speaks up for the big reveal. "I was once a member of the White Fang."

Sun promptly goes cross-eyed and chokes on his own cup, making him put it down and wipe his mouth as he holds up a hand to process this information. "Wait a minute, you were a member of the White Fang?!"

"That's right. I was a member for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it..."

"Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus. Of course, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people. And I was there. I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist. Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one 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."

Blake puts down her teacup in front of a stunned Sun.

"So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would 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 wiggles her cat ears beneath the fashionable disguise to demonstrate.

"So... have you told your friends any of this?"

Blake merely looks down in shame and says nothing.

"Did you find Blake?" Ruby asks as she, Weiss, and Yang all meet up by the statue just outside Beacon. Weiss has her hands crossed

"No luck, I couldn't find her anywhere." Yang responds with a hint of sorrow.

"If she wants to go, let her." Weiss says coldly. Yang turns to Weiss. "She's our teammate!" Weiss doesn't even budge at her response. "You heard her, she's one of them!" She adds, her tone just as cold. "We need to find her." Yang insists.

Ruby chimes in saying: "I can... check around the warehouses."

"huh?" Yang and Weiss turn to face Ruby who instead of giving an answer makes a run for it. "What? *sighs* Ruby!" Yang holds her arm out in vein. She then turns to Weiss with her hands on her hips. "If you hate her for being a faunus, then you're exactly what she said you are, Weiss!"

Weiss lowers her head slightly "Maybe... I did go to far... but I... it's the White Fang!"

"Ugh! That's enough okay! Drop it!" Yang waves on arm and walks away. Weiss runs after her. Unknown to them a shadow of Weiss was lurking in the distance.

Sun and Blake are then seen walking down an alley.

"So, what's the plan now?" Sun asks

"I still don't believe the White Fang is behind these robberies. They've never needed that much Dust before." Blake contemplates

Sun suddenly had a breakthrough. "What if they did?" He lowers his arms and pacing in front of Blake as he continues his theory. "I mean... the only way to prove that they 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?"

"The only thing is, I've no idea where that would be."

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

"How huge?"

"Huge. Big Schnee Company freighter."

"You're sure?"

Ruby sits along nearby a statue of an armored knight. She sighs to herself. "Where could Blake be?"

"You mean the faunus girl, right?" Ruby jumps to her right in shock. "Ah! Where did you come from?!"

Penny slowly turns to face Ruby but doesn't say anything.

"How... did you know about that?"

"I saw her cat ears."

"Ears? Not a bow?"

"I saw her without it."

"But where?"

Yang walks out of a shop with Weiss, waving to the person inside Thanks anyways! She sighs. "This is hopeless." She then turns to Weiss who looks around nonchalantly. "You don't care about what happened to Blake at all, do you? I bet you're only pretending to be nice to Ruby too. All that stuff about wanting a bunk bed!" Yang shouts to Weiss angrily who only groans in response.

"Hey why aren't you saying anything?!" Yang continues. Weiss finally snaps, spins around and pushes Yang back a bit. "Because I don't know what to say alright!" Yang appears started by this. "I wasn't made leader, I didn't get put on Pyrrha's team, one of my teammates is a Faunus!" As Weiss continue venting her tears began to well up in her eyes and her voice began to croak. "Nothing is turning out how I imagined it. Not how I imagined it at all... not at all..." She began sniffling"

"Crying?" Yang comments as Weiss began crying into her hands.

"Oh no, gimme a break!"

Yang looks down in thought.

"So, Blake is your friend?" Penny asks as she walks with Ruby.

Ruby sighs as they make their way down the sidewalk. "Yes, Penny."

"But you're mad at her?"

"Yes. Well, I'm not. Weiss is."

"Is she friends with Blake?"

"Well, that's kind of up in the air right now..."

Penny is trying to contemplate this. "But why?"

Ruby sighs again, "Well, you see, Blake might not be who we thought she was..."

Penny gasps, "Is she a man?"

"No! No, Penny. She's..." Ruby stops and sighs, looking at Penny as she talks now. "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."

"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things."

Ruby turns her gaze downward sadly. "Me too... (they continue walking."

Amidst the chirping of crickets and darkness of night, Blake lays flat on her stomach on the rooftop overlooking the shipment of Schnee Dust containers.

"Did I miss anything?"

Blake looks up as Sun drops down to her right. "Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there."

"Cool." Sun holds out one of the green apples in his arms. "I stole you some food!"

Blake gives Sun a questioning look. "Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?"

"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something? Sun counters only for Blake to delivers an angry glare at him. "Okay, too soon!"

Just as he says this, the winds blows all around them, and they look up to see a Bullhead's searchlights flashing around for a landing spot, descending in the middle of the cargo containers and extending a ramp for a black hooded individual with a metallic fanged mask to come out of.

"Oh no..."

"Is that them?"

"Yes... It's them."

"All right, grab the tow cables!" A White Fang member calls out.

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?"

Blake stares sadly at the scene. "No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." she closes her eyes in despair, only to open them suddenly when she hears a new voice.

"Hey! What's the holdup!?" the soldiers look up at Roman gesturing widely and coming down 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?"

"This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." She stands up and unsheathes the Katana of Gambol Shroud before walking off the edge of the roof.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" An alarmed Sun calls out.

Blake falls to the ground in a crouch, then continues on to hide behind one of the containers, peeking around the corner to see Roman berate a White Fang member holding a coil of rope.

"No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!" As he's looking around, Blake suddenly appears behind him with her blade at his throat) What the- Oh, for f-" he rolls his eyes when he's cut off by Blake.

"Nobody move!"

The White Fang soldiers ready their guns and equip their swords in response.

"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady."

As the White Fang closes in on her, Blake uses her free hand to go for her bow and remove it, causing the ribbon to fall away as her Faunus ears are shown to the world.

"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?"

The White Fang members lower their weapons a little at this development, unsure of what to do, when Roman laughs.

"Oh, kid, didn't you get the memo?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together!"

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

Suddenly, the air is filled with more turbines blowing the wind wildly around the holdup.

Roman looks up. "I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation..."

Two more Bullheads are hovering above the heist, and as Blake watches in horror, Roman smiles and manages to fire his cane at Blake's feet, resulting in a large explosion.

Penny and Ruby turn around upon hearing the noise, seeing the smoke rise from the docking bay just a few buildings away.

"Oh, no..."

Weiss is sitting on a set of stairs which her chin resting in her hands. Yang is still with her, standing at the bottom of the stairwell.

"You're coddling Ruby, that's why she's always showing off you know? She's trying to get your approval. I'm not wrong."

"Okay okay fine, but you could stop making yoursef out to be the perfect teammate Weiss. Maybe you should trying being a good friend first. They suddenly hear a man shout in the distance: "aye it's another robbery! Let's roll!" The two exchange a look.

Blake, dazed but relatively unhurt on the ground, quickly rolls and runs out of the way of Roman's continued attacks, flaming missiles destroying cargo behind her as she flips and uses her semblance to dodge then retreats behind more cargo

Roman approaches slowly. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..." his taunt is interrupted when a banana peel lands on his head, causing him to toss it aside then look up and growl at the assailant eyes widening

"Woohoo!" Sun leaps from the container above Roman and drops down on the criminal's face feet-first, rolling up and readying himself to fight.

"Leave her alone!"

The Bullheads open to let more White Fang members descend on the scene, standing by Roman as he gets up and surrounding Sun.

"You are not the brightest banana in the bunch, are you, kid?"

With that said, the White Fang charge at the monkey Faunus, but he manages to dodge slashes and get some of the soldiers with his fists and kicks until he rolls out of the way of one's sword.

"Haha!"

Pulling out a collapsible red staff. He quickly uses this to beat down on each opponent that nears him, felling each one in a single flaming blow when he twirls it around, even creating a scorching shockwave to beat the last of them.

Blake peers around the corner of the container to watch Sun jump around and beat another White Fang soldier, landing on his back and causing him to fly over toward Roman's head. The crime boss ducks then growls in annoyance and aims his cane at Sun, firing a shot that he defends himself from just when Blake leaps into the action.

"He's mine!"

Blake goes in close and becomes a blur of afterimages as she slashes both blades at Roman, who backs away and deflects each would-be blow with his cane at unbelievable speeds. Blake continues to dash, hop over, and slide around Roman to try and find a weak spot. Finally landing a blow after using her Semblance but he quickly recovers, deflecting several more attacks before attempting to punch her in the face. Only to hit a clone as she flips away. The two clash weapons again, then Torchwick jabs her in the side.

"Hahaha!" Roman lands a few more hits on Blake until one final beating to the head with his cane causes her to go down.

Just as Roman deals with one opponent, Sun appears right behind her. Vaulting over Blake he kicks Roman in the chest and disconnects his staff into two spinning circles of flame-firing shotgun nunchucks that only slow down once to show the audience what they are before becoming twin arcs of offense again. Sun swings each gun at Roman while firing everything he as at him, but even with the rapid series of shots and flying bullets, Roman manages to defend himself against every bullet and hit until a millisecond-long pause allows Blake to get a slash in and knock him back.

On his back, Roman notices a container hanging by a crane right above the two warriors, and gets up to fire his cane at its supports. Blake leaps behind it, but Sun barely misses when he jumps forward, ending up right below the nozzle of Roman's cane. Just as he's about to fire, his and Sun's attention are drawn to a familiar voice.

"Hey!"

Ruby appears on the rooftop overlooking them, Crescent Rose extended and ready for action.

Roman loses interest in Sun, and waves to her "Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Penny approaches Ruby "Ruby, are these people your friends?"

Ruby looks behind her, "Penny, get back!" While her attention is diverted, Roman snarls and fires his cane at her, launching the young Huntress-in-training back from the explosion's force and sending her scythe flying away. "AAAAAH!"

Roman gives off a professional-level evil laugh at his attack on the young girl. Penny turns her head toward the criminal and gives her first glare, walking forward while Ruby tries to get back up.

"Penny, wait! Stop!" Ruby raises her hand in a futile attempt to stop her.

"Don't worry, Ruby. I'm combat ready!"

Her backpack mechanically opens up, and from its dark depths comes a single sword that extends and multiples into several blades hovering over Penny's back. Leaping from the rooftop with the weapons acting as wings, she sends three of her swords to knock two White Fang soldiers down before even landing on the ground, where she proceeds to fling the swords at one enemy, impale another to a wall, create a barrier of spinning steel against a running attack, leaping over a goon with her swords in tow, and finally making a wheel that she throws to knock multiple Faunus off their feet.

"Whoa!" Sun comments in amazement before he runs off to safety."

Three Bullheads come from the skies and open fire on the battle, but Penny merely forms a shield and launches two of her swords into the wall behind her, which in turn pull their wielder back with their strings. When her swords swirl around her again, she commands them to open their points and build up a large glowing ball of green light. With a punching action, several bright lasers crack the pavement when they fire at the transports and slice each one in half, causing several of the White Fang members inside to fall and letting Ruby watch as Bullheads fall in pieces behind her.

Stunned, she turns back to Penny as she aims her swords at the remaining Bullheads holding the crate of Dust and pulls back on their wires, tugging the aircraft with them.

Ruby watches in awe. "Whoa... How is she doing that?"

Seeing the Bullhead's flight fall under Penny's control, Roman grimaces and turns to run towards the last transport.

Penny, after her large green pupils dilate for a second, pulls with all her might on the strings, and the aircraft crashes into a stack of crates, causing an explosion as a result.

"These kids just keep getting weirder..." with his observation made, he uses his cane to close the doors, and the jet lifts off, flying away from the lost battle.

Later, a handful of police cars are at the docks, where Ruby, Blake, Sun, and Penny are sitting on boxes in silence. That is, until Weiss and Yang appear on the scene.

Ruby tries to approach Weiss and tries to explain the situation. "Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute..." Weiss ignores her though and squares off with Blake.

Blake calmly looks her down. "Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-"

"Stop! Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?" she pauses. "Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided..."

Yang, Sun, and Ruby look on, worried.

"I don't care."

Blake is surprised "You don't care?"

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?"

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

"Ah-bahp-bahp-bahp! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to your teammates. And not some..." she looks at Sun behind her as she catches herself. "Someone else."

Blake looks at Ruby and Yang grinning at her, she wipes a tear from her eye, nodding. "Of course."

Weiss smiles and nods. The moment is serious for a second more until Ruby screams waving her arms wildly: "Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!"

as the five gather with each other, she points accusingly at Sun. "I'm still not quite sure about how I feel about you!" Sun laughs nervously.

Ruby looks around. "Hey, wait a minute... Where's Penny?"

From the darkened back seat of a limo, Penny watches the group of friends reuniting with each other.

"You should know better than to go running around in a strange city."

Penny lowers her head, sadly. "I know, sir."

The car drives off. "Penny, your time will come..."

Meanwhile, Ozpin is seen holding a Scroll showing a "LIVE FEED" of Ruby at the docks. He closes the video and opens up a communication with Qrow, whose team name and other information is left blank and his only message is: "QUEEN HAS PAWNS."

"Hmmm..."

Roman walks into a large warehouse with a shadowy interior. He goes over to a table and places down a case of mysterious contents, sighing in tiredness.

"How very disappointing, Roman."

"Whoa! Hehe... I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon..."

of the three figures before Roman, only Cinder's head, containing yellow eyes and flowing dark hair, is seen. "We were expecting... more from you."

Roman laughs a little before getting serious. "Hey! You were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang."

Cinder chuckles darkly, "And you will continue to do so." She summons a fireball in her hand and steps out of the darkness with her two companions, a gray-haired man and mint-haired, tanned woman. "We have big plans for you, Roman. All we ask is... a little cooperation."

Weiss over looks her dorm as the moonlight shines through the window. She was alone in the room. She tilts her head down slightly. "I wasn't lying... about the bunk beds."

"You have buried all of your most precious dreams." Weiss is visibly scared upon hearing this voice. "You pretend not to care? The Faunus, the white fang, you'll never truly forgive them." Weiss finds herself in a void with stage lights surrounding her. A single light shines down as she sees a reflection of herself. She slowly began to be consumed with despair. As this shadow of her bowed. Thorny vines began to surround her as this shadow of her was now inches away and upside down.

A/N: Welp that wraps up volume 1. As I mentioned before, I will be diving into Ice Queendom which canonically take place between Volumes 1 and 2. There will be plenty of Whiterose to come. The first volume obviously didn't have too much and this is because when I did this back in 2019 a lot of people complained about how it felt rushed so I've decided to pace it a little more. But expect more Whiterose in the next in the next couple of volumes. As always thank you so much for reading. I will be getting started on Ice Queendom as soon as I can. I promise the wait won't be another 8 months.

#Greenlightvolume10