Beacon Academy: Team RWBY's Dorm
Nighttime is present as it is about an hour before midnight. After spending half a day at Beacon with classes, followed by unfortunately injuring his friends during a sparring session, having lunch with his faunus friend Velvet Scarlatina and then relaxing and then taking his mind off things for a few hours. Link finds himself at Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang's dorm but one of the four members of the team is missing. Despite asking what happened multiple times nobody was giving answers as the remaining girls were not sure about airing out Blake and Weiss' business, but after demanding answers eventually Weiss speaks up.
"Let me be very clear right now too, I want the hundred percent truth. If the roles were reversed and you guys were questioning why I made someone cry and run off I would give nothing but the full truth. And I'm mainly talking about you Weiss." Link crosses his arms. "I don't know much about you but I know you come from Atlas. I know for a fact all their people care about is their two things more than the truth, their status and reputation."
"That insult can slide this one time. As much as I know I'm right and maybe you'll agree with me when I'm done explaining." Weiss frowns and exhales as she explains everything
Team RWBY continues their day after resting by traveling to the city of Vale to witness the preparations for the Vytal Festival as ships and boats begin to arrive. On Weiss insistence, the team heads all the way to the docks with false intention when she stated that she wants to welcome students arriving from Vacuo on the behalf of Beacon Academy, but Blake sees through her rouse and knows that the entitled Schnee simply wants to examine the competition, something she makes apparent later on. During their journey, Ruby realized that a store had been vandalized and robbed and shortly after she notices, the whole collective team follows suit. The four girls, after overhearing two detectives from the Vale Police Department talk, make out that it's the second time that week a dust store has been robbed and wiped clean of just their dust and not anything else. No valuables, goods or Lien was taken and despite having no concrete evidence, the officers conclude that it was likely the White Fang that are the robbers. This is where the problems begin when Weiss agrees with the detectives' suspicion or in this case assumptions of the White Fang, and calls the Faunus group 'degenerates' which angers Blake. This sparks an argument between the two girls, where Blake makes a fair point that troubled faunus' are misguided. Ruby agrees with Blake and points her finger in a direction that makes more sense when she suspects Roman Torchwick, due to a previous run in with the criminal that culminated in Ruby stopping the robbery and was eventually accepted into Beacon by its headmaster, Professor Ozpin
"Okay I'm following along." Link nods. "So Ruby made a good point and then what? Surely that single brief argument didn't last all day, right?"
"You would be correct." Yang shrugs. "Because more happened not long after when we went to the pier and-!"
"H-hey! I'm the one telling him what happened!" Weiss swings her arms rapidly like a child throwing a tantrum. "ANYWAY, AS I WAS SAYING..."
What happens next is what Yang said, 'because more happened' in the form of Weiss bringing the topic back up when she reiterates her disdain for the White Fang and states that faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal. This angers Blake even more but Yang cuts in and voices her opinion on their discussion by saying the way Weiss feels is not true. Then their conversation is cut short when they hear and then soon witness an unknown monkey faunus getting chased off a ship. The crafty faunus successfully evades the crew and also the police, making a grand escape and zooming right past the four girls in the process. Yang then leads Weiss to believe that he is a participant in the tournament and thus the chase for a faunus continues
"Normally I'd love every single detail but I'd seriously like to know about Blake right now." Link glares at Weiss. "Although I do appreciate the effort."
"Okay..." Weiss frowns. "Then I won't mention that weird girl Penny who rudely ran into me when we were racing to observe that faunus riffraff."
"Actually Weiss." Yang snickers. "I think you ran into her, if I'm not mistaken anyway. She was standing perfectly still and you were so focused on that guy that you didn't even notice Penny annnd-!"
"Who ran into who isn't important!"
"Wait what?" Link shakes his head in confusion. "Who is Penny and why-!"
"NO!" Weiss snaps. "You said you only wanted to know about Blake! Weren't those your exact words?"
"Fair enough." Link shrugs and admits defeat, promptly dropping the topic of Penny
Excluding the interaction the four girls had with this Penny person, it is followed up by Weiss yet again saying derogatory about the faunus they were attempting to chase, calling him a 'rapscallion' and a 'filthy faunus' and these comments predictably further infuriate Blake and soon devolves into another argument between the two. This argument involves insults as Blake calls Weiss an entitled brat and the latter calls the White Fang terrorists. Thye continue to fight with one another throughout the ENTIRE afternoon and it even continues all the way back into their dorm room. Completely ruining their plans to enjoy a nice peaceful day in the city with some scouting to be done here and there as students from other schools arrive
"You're kidding..." Link sighs in disappointment. "So you guys continued fighting all the way up to now, so when I crossed paths with Blake, you guys were still fighting a minute prior?"
'Y-yeah..." Ruby is embarrassed when she answers. "It was hard to watch and we should've spoken up sooner. Yang and I kind of just watched it unfold."
"In all fairness." Yang sighs as well. "It wasn't really our place. When we tried talking or inserting ourselves in the conversation, nothing really came from it."
"I'm almost done, SHUSH!" Weiss audibly shushes everyone and even puts her index finger over her mouth as she gets ready to wrap up the recap of the entire day for team RWBY
When Blake accuses Weiss of being discriminatory, it does not sit well with Weiss who claims that she is a victim and has been affected by the White Fang's actions, surprisingly Blake enough to go silent. The proud Schnee considers skimming through her family's history against the White Fang as this isn't what was asked for regarding information, but this information is crucial to what led Blake to run off. The Schnee Dust Company has been at war with the White Fang for as long as Weiss can remember, and important people have been killed such as numerous family friends and company board members, along with an entire train full of Dust being stolen. Furthermore, the White Fang's doing did not sit well with anyone, especially Weiss' father. Resulting in a rather rough childhood for Weiss whilst hinting at having an abusive father. Weiss angrily declares that she hates the White Fang because they are liars, thieves, and murderers. And this is what leads to current events as Blake yells that the White Fang were tired of being pushed around, making the crucial mistake when referring to them as 'we', revealing she is a Faunus and that she has connections with the White Fang. After that, Blake, Weiss, Yang and Ruby had no words to say until Blake decided to run and never turn back. Even seeing a neutral and respectful face in Link does not cause Blake to stop as the newly revealed faunus is completely gone
"So Blake is a faunus huh? That's pretty cool, I didn't suspect it at all aside from always having a tuna sandwich during lunch." Link chuckles but his good mood almost immediately goes away. "Anyway... to think you are extremely condescending to literally everyone except Pyrrha and our Professors. You discriminate too..." He frowns. "I don't know how else to express my disappointment in you even if my words mean nothing, you definitely need to hear this the same way Blake needs to be talked with as well."
"I'm not wrong about the White Fang you know." Weiss angrily turns around so that her back faces Link. "Stereotypes aren't just made up, you know? They exist because they are generally true. They come from a place of truth."
"Are you kidding me?" Link shakes his head, "How dare you discriminate and then have the audacity to stand on this pedestal of self-righteousness!" He balls up his fists, slowly getting angry. "Why stop at the White Fang? Go on show us how much your Atlas roots have rotten you to the core. You think all Faunus are the same don't you? Well let's just say that is very ignorant and moronic of you! And you are the lowest form of human if you think that way you know."
"How dare you-!" She stammers. "You are putting words in my-!"
"Yes of course. How dare I talk back to the ice queen... I'm so sorry Weiss that something finally doesn't go your way." Link mumbles. "So tell me, what do you think about Velvet? You sure seemed on the side of a faunus that time. Remember, when Cardin and his friends were picking on her. What changes between Velvet and Blake? They are both faunus who have been discriminated against by people like you, Cardin, his team, and I'm sure thousands more if not hundreds of thousands of people." He finishes his sentence with a firm tone, the severity of it makes Ruby and Yang gasp in shock
"Um..." Weiss puts her head down. "Those are two different people and I will not-!"
"Go ahead, say it. You think she's a part of the White Fang too, isn't that right? She's out to get your family too? Why don't we march down to team CFVY's dorm and demand answers from Velvet right now!" Link gestures with his hands for them to exit the dorm and make the walk to the dorm of the mentioned team
"Listen here you!" Weiss shouts but doesn't know quite what to say next. "I wasn't trying to imply anything about Velvet, but-!
"No, just stop, there shouldn't even be a 'but' because you can do much better than that Weiss!" Link lets his anger get the better of his as he swings one his balled up fists and it slams into the door. But that is where his anger peaks as when his left eye flashes that golden color already seen today, the one man team turns his back and successfully suppresses it. "Say whatever else you have to say about her or other faunus' not even affiliated with the White Fang, I know you want to."
"I..." Weiss turns away and does not reply any longer. "I have no other comments to make about what you said."
"Then let's stop discussing that specific topic and focus on Blake again." Ruby mumbles and turns to her friend in green. "Link, she will be back. I'm sure of it."
"I'm confident about that too. But we don't know when that'll be and even if she does come back there's no guarantee she'll come back to you guys. How long should we give it before we start looking for her?" Link glances around for feedback, even from Weiss
"Hmmm, I'm not sure." Ruby smiles nervously. "I think she will be back by tomorrow but if she doesn't come back then... the day after?"
"I say we should look first thing starting tomorrow morning." Yang shakes her head
"Alright then, that leaves it to you Weiss." Link sighs and glances at the bitter girl
"Me?" Weiss looks surprised when her assessment is requested. "If she isn't back by tomorrow morning WE can look for her, as a team just us three." She speaks coldly. "If we don't find her by tomorrow, we will require your help."
"As much as I'd like to disagree and tell you that you can't tell me what to do, the fact that you've even included me at all means a lot. So fine, twenty four hours and then you come to my dorm or contact me through our scrolls so I can come help." Link says with respect and grace shown to the Schnee despite his earlier anger, although it does not last for long. "Oh and Weiss..."
"Huh?" Weiss turns around to look at Link
"You better hope you never have to spar against me again. Or if we do ever get matched up again, fight me with your full power. Because I will not hold back and that's not a threat, it is simply what will happen." Link finishes his sentence and walks away, clearly not interested in any sort of response from Weiss or even bothering to say goodbye to Ruby and Yang
"Wow..." Yang sighs as Ruby closes the door. "He was serious, wasn't he?"
"Mhm." Ruby nods. "I bet it's just heat of the moment anger, he wouldn't really hurt one of us intentionally."
"What makes you say that?" Weiss whispers
"Because in case you forgot, as soon as he defeated us in our fight he checked on us and even helped us back to our dorm. He even carried you Weiss." Ruby smiles at her teammates
"I..." The heiress slowly steps aside and sits on her bed. "I suppose you're right."
The next day comes and it is not an eventful one for team RWBY as Ruby wakes up first and sees no sign of Blake with her perfectly made bed untouched, later in the day they find themselves in the city of Vale and even return to the same places they went the previous day in hopes of spotting her there. Ultimately their efforts to find Blake as a threesome are futile and when the sun begins to set, the three girls of team RWBY are forced to fly back to Beacon and give up for the day. Knowing it's about to be twenty four hours since Blake went missing, Ruby quickly sends a message to Link begging for help...
The Following Day: City of Vale
"We didn't exactly promise that we'd contact him." Weiss frowns
"Well another set of eyes, hands, and feet couldn't hurt." Yang nods to herself. "Besides, he was respectful enough to give us the time to find her ourselves, I think it's only fair to include him now."
"I'm going to start to agree with Weiss however if Link takes any longer." Ruby paces back and forth
The young team leader checks the time on her scroll frequently in five seconds intervals as she has gotten no messages from Link other than the two he sent her last night and today in the morning which were, 'okay I will help' and 'I will be there' when asked for help and then the next day being told to meet team RWBY in the City of Vale. Her thumb hovers over the call button as her five back to back messages get no response but luckily for her the waiting is finally over. Right as she is about to click and call the one man team, he is seen coming around a corner urgently. Team RWBY quickly runs to meet him halfway as they come together. Now the almost complete team and Link roam around the streets of Vale, attempting to find Blake together.
"What took you so long?" Ruby slaps Link's arm
"I might have missed one of the ships taking students to the city because I was getting a second coffee. So I had to wait for the ship to come back to Beacon and return to Vale."
"You kept us waiting for coffee?" Weiss' eyes widen
"Not intentionally. Sorry I lost track of time." Link sighs
"It's alright, you're here now like you said you'd be so let's just find Blake that's our number one priority." Yang nods as she and Ruby lead the way, with Link and Weiss behind them
The scene remains as daytime with Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Link walking through the city and after ten or fifteen minutes of silent searching where all four of them try their best to locate Blake. In stores, alleys, on top of buildings, anything that could contain a hiding seventeen year old girl who does not want to be found. Feeling as if their efforts are no long viable, three of the four begin calling out in vain for the missing faunus
"Here goes nothing." Link cups his hands over his mouth and inhales. "Blake!"
"What are you doing? People are staring at us!" Weiss furrows her eyebrows
"You got any other ideas?" Link shrugs his shoulders and continues. "Blake!"
"Doesn't hurt to try anything we can." Ruby nods "Blaaaaaaake!"
"Blaaaake!" Yang joins in with the two of them
"Blaaaake, where are you?" Ruby shouts
"Blake!" Yang continues and within a second after her last shout, her head along with Ruby and Link's, turn to face the only person not trying
"Weiiiiss! You're not helping!" Ruby frown
"O-oh, you me to add to what my current efforts?" Weiss mumbles. "I know who might be able to help, the police."
"Very funny..." Link whispers sarcastically
"Ugh, Weiss..." Ruby crosses her arms and walks faster to leave her behind
"It was just an idea." Weiss rolls her eyes
"Yeah I know, but it was a bad one." Ruby continues to walk
"Weiss I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions." Yang says as she trails behind Ruby
"Yes, because Weiss will totally do that..." Link mumbles and stays behind Yang and next to Weiss. "She is the reason Blake is gone."
"I think that when we hear her out, you will all realize I was right!" Weiss speaks with confidence as she and nobody else realizes they are being followed
"And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today." A girl with a very artificial and almost not real voice speaks. Her skin is light and she brandishes curly short orange hair that comes down to her neck, along with a ridiculously big pink bow on her head. Additionally this girl also has bright emerald green eyes and perfectly placed freckles directly under her eyes
"Aaaah Penny! Where did you come from?!" Ruby jumps and spins in place as she is scared by the surprise, Yang and Weiss also turn in shock
"Hm?" Link turns back, seemingly unfazed at first but he also takes a delayed backwards step when Penny is way too close to comfort to both him and Weiss
"Who are you?" Penny after getting close to the White haired student, she glances at Link
"I think the better question is who is this?" Link says as he protectively hold out his arm in front of Weiss to prevent Penny from getting any close
"O-oh." Weiss sighs in relief and promptly backs up
"Penny, this is our friend Link, he also attends Beacon with us." Ruby speaks up
"Oh another friend, splendid!" Penny forcefully grabs Link's hand and shakes it
"Likewise, I suppose." Link smirks and feels the very strong and cold grip. "Wow, that sure is some power for someone who looks like she's never fought before"
"So, what are you up to guys?" Penny says with her strange but otherwise clear communication
"Uhhh..." Ruby stalls and glances at Yang for assistance
"We're looking for our friend Blake." Yang nods. "You met her yesterday she wears all black with really beautiful amber eyes and-!"
"Oooooh." Penny nods excitedly. "You mean the faunus girl."
"Huh?" Link leans backs and asks Weiss in a quiet voice. "How did she find out? I don't imagine she was in your dorm when all the arguing happened."
"Of course not!" Weiss shakes her head
"Wait, how did you know that?" Ruby's eyes widen
"Ummm, the cat ears." Penny points at her pink bow, the exact way Blake wears her bow as well
"Wait, what cat ears?" Yang asks as it slowly begins to sink in. "She wears a... b-bow."
The realization of how Blake uses her little black bow stuns Yang, Blake, Ruby, and Blake into silence as a tumbleweed blows through in the wind. Nobody even wonders or questions why there's a tumbleweed in the grand city of Vale as they realize how easily they have been fooled for an entire semester
"Well..." Ruby leans over and whispers to yang. "She does like tuna a lot."
"So where is Blake?" Penny asks
"We don't know Penny. She's been missing since Friday." Ruby sighs. "We tried looking for her yesterday, just the three of us." The silver eyed student points to herself, Weiss, and Yang. "But we couldn't find her so now we recruited Link for additional help."
"Oh no!" Penny pushes past Link, Weiss, and Yang with ease, then tightly grasps Ruby by the shoulders. "Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate!"
"Aw, that's really nice of you, Penny. B-but we're okay, truly! Right, guys?" Ruby slyly shakes her ahead and looks for Weiss, Yang, and Link. However, out the three that were just standing there moments ago, Yang and Weiss are completely gone
"Oh, they left... maybe that's a sign." Link slowly walks away, only for Penny to grab him by the bicep and roughly pull him back as a tumbleweed blows past them again while it is dead silent
"Boy it sure is windy today." Penny smiles
(Link's POV)
It's only been a few minutes since Weiss and Yang abandoned us and left Ruby and I stuck with... whoever this is. It's tough to make out where she's even from. She doesn't make anything significant to her that ties her down to the academies of Atlas, Vacuo or Haven. I think something else is going on here but I can't exactly go around pointing fingers out loud so I will speculate to myself. I think this girl is some sort of spy, she is a terrible actress and she isn't fooling me with this innocent naive girl act. Unless, she IS NOT a spy and there's another twist I still don't know? Either way, something is up with her
"So Blake is your friend?" Penny asks the most obvious question on the planet. "But she ran away?"
"Agh, yes penny." Ruby sighs, glancing at the sky for a moment. "And yes she did run away."
"Are you mad at her? Did she do something bad?" Penny asked
"Mad at her? Yes-! Well, I'm not, Weiss is though."
"Is she friends with Blake?" Penny asks
"Well that's kind of up in the air right now." Ruby nods. "I'd like to think we are still friends. We are supposed to be a team for the next four years so it wouldn't feel right if we never saw Blake again and then had to continue as a team of three or got a replacement."
"Buuut why is Weiss mad at her? Blake is so... nice?"
"It's a difficult and long story Penny." I clear my throat to grab the girls attention. "I got the watered down version because I just wanted to know about Blake but it's got more layers to it than we could understand. It leads back to the war between humans and faunus that is still ongoing to this day."
"Oh, that sounds really bad." Penny shakes her head before turning her full attention to Link. "Would you consider me your friend?"
"Y-you? I only just met you and-!" I stop what I'm saying when I can practically feel Ruby's glare, so I quickly pivot and change the direction of what I have to say. "Yeah why not? You seem like a nice girl so I don't imagine anything bad will come from befriending someone like you."
"That's great!" Penny cheers. "So... where are you from?"
"M-me?" I tense up quickly and do not know what to say next. I haven't exactly told anyone where I come from or anything about me for that matter. Velvet and Coco know about my family but that doesn't say a lot. "I'm from..."
"Come on Link, you can trust us." Ruby smiles
"That's true." A smile arises and I feel a niche of confidence within me to give them a proper answer. "I'm not from any major city or Kingdom, I grew up as a traveler really. Outside of the kingdoms and a complete opposite of how you guys grew up I'm sure."
"Really?" Penny squints her eyes. "Because you look familiar to me."
"Huh?!" The tension dissipates and anger begins to set in, although I try not to show it. "How is that possible? This is my first time meeting you."
"Yeah, somethings fishy here..." Ruby mumbles but for some reason she is looking at me more than the creepy girl who somehow has seen me before
"Maybe I have just mistaken somebody else for you." Penny lowers her head in sorrow
"It's alright I suppose." I shrug and decide to let it go. I'm not exactly ready to reveal my past especially when we're supposed to be looking for Blake. "The story that led to her running away basically goes like this. Ruby and her team-!"
"We should keep it short just in case one of us spots her. Penny... Blake may not be who we thought she was." Ruby slowly explains
"I see" Penny gasps and leans forward. "Is she a man!"
"What?! No no Penny, she's not a man." Ruby quickly clarifies. "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off.."
"I wish she did but Weiss didn't exactly give her the chance now did she?" I mumble and continue to look up at the rooftops of buildings, figuring Blake's speed and slickness gives her an edge to hide anywhere, especially a dark ally any rooftop in the city
"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things."
"Me too." Ruby whispers and then shoots me a second glare
I wonder what was all that about? Maybe she wasn't satisfied when I answered where I was from. Sadly for her or even myself I don't have a lot of backstory to tell since... I don't remember a lot about my life up until I was a teenager learning how to fight on his own and with no traditional training at a proper combat school like Signal or Sanctum. And I am scared that I will paint a bigger target on my back if I were to say my current skill level was just me fighting to survive and teaching myself everything I know. Most of it was me killing grimm or evil humans, while others you could say are stolen moves, maybe one day I speak more about me. However, it certainly will not be today. The two girls continue speaking among themselves, but I was done talking to them. They didn't exclude me by any means, I simply drift away from their conversation, and begin thinking of other things. Like how I lied to Velvet about my family regarding everyone dying. Nobody died, not even my evil, selfish, bastard father who still roams around alive. I thought moving far away from home would change everything, but deep down inside I know I am still out for revenge, and NOT just revenge against the man that I call 'father'
(3rd Person POV)
Seconds turn into minutes, which then turn into hours and next thing the concerned students know, it is getting extremely dark outside and there is still no sign of Blake. This unfortunately lowers their odds of finding her and considering Yang and Weiss are nowhere to be seen, they have also not found her
"Whoa..." Ruby looks up as she, Link, and Penny glance at a black cloud of smoke that was not too far away, indicating it was an obvious explosion that just occurred
"Oh no." Ruby mumbles and immediately she and Link meet each other's gaze both of them have a gut feeling that this surely has to be Blake
"We need to get closer to that explosion but not directly charge into it, follow me!" Link says with a commanding presence as he sprints to the nearest building and scales it with ease by using his hook shot to begin the sequences and following it up with another showcasing of athleticism when he climbs the building with sheer speed and strength. Behind him meanwhile, Ruby and Penny trail behind, the two girls use their own way to scale the building and at one point almost surpass the one man team
BANG! BANG! BANG!
CLANG! CLANG!
The sounds of bullets being fired and deflected, along with metal colliding together is heard as a battle ensues at the docks between Blake who is finally spotted at last. She and another blonde boy, a monkey faunus, are fighting. It's Roman Torchwick, a notorious criminal that has been all over the news lately
"Him!" Ruby growls as the three sneak up and witness the scene for themselves whilst trying not to get caught
"Old friend of yours?" Link asks sarcastically with a scowl on his face
"Yeah, I never got to thank him for getting me into Beacon actually."
Just as Roman Torchwick deals with Blake in a briefly but rapidly paced one on one fight, the unknown monkey faunus assists her by vaulting over Blake as Torchwick knocks her to the side. The monkey faunus lands a flying side kick to the chest of the criminal. Although it only pushes Torchwick, it gives the casually dressed monkey faunus enough time to disconnect his staff into a pair of nun-chucks that also fire flame bullets mid swing, showing off his weapon to be a regular staff that is flexible but can also turn into shotgun nun-chucks. Blake's new ally lets out laughs every time he swings each gun at Roman while firing everything in the shotgun nun-chucks at him. Despite the rapid amount of shots, flying bullets, and fire, Roman manages to block and deflect every single bullet and hit with his cane and athleticism, until a split second pause allows Blake to return to the action and strike the criminal with a slash of her sword Gambol Shroud, which sends Torchwick back with enough speed and power for him to slam down back first onto the concrete
"Ah!" The annoyed criminal growls and then notices he a perfect shot on a giant cargo container of Schnee Dust Company dust
Whilst still on his back, Torchwick plays possum as Blake and the faunus boy regroup and think they are close to putting a stop to this. The former gets up and fires his cane at the support of the container. The powerful chain immediately snaps and the container falls fast. Blake backflips away from it, and the monkey faunus barely avoids it when he jumps forward and rolls to avoid the container. Unfortunately, he ends up of Roman Torchwick, who has his cane aimed perfectly at his head
"We have to help." Back on top of the building across from the docks, Link speaks as he grabbed his bow and aims perfectly at Torchwick's general direction, but even squinting his eyes does not give him a better direct shot
"I got this!" Ruby makes her presence visible to everyone on the rooftop overlooking the docks, she has Crescent Rose fully extended and ready for action. "Hey!" She loudly shouts and predictably gets the attention of Torchwick onto her
"Oh hello red, and look at this you brought friends, isn't it past both your bedtimes?" Roman Torchwick speaks with a big smirk on his face and arrogance radiating more than aura
"Ruby, are these people your friends?" Penny approaches Ruby cautiously,
"Penny! Get back!" Ruby demands and loses focus in the process
"Hmph!" Torchwick snarls and fires his cane at her
The shot he fires is a powerful, unsteady and destructive flare that would normally incinerate grimm into dust, kill the average human, and injure or at the very least send a huntsman or a huntress flying back. And that is his intention, to launch her off the building or critically injured the young huntress in training
"No!" Link drops his bow and quickly slides in front of Ruby with his shield drawn, the one man team plants his feet and attempts to block the attack with resistance and leg strength
Unfortunately for him, tonight it is not meant to be as the flare that is not a normal flare but actually made of dust makes contact and immediately explodes. Although any intended damage is averted thanks to Link's shield, the impact of the explosion still knocks him off his feet, sends him flying and colliding into Ruby back first, and sends both of the Beacon students crashing down. Penny now makes her appearance to Torchwick, stares him down and it's like something within her clicks to attack as retaliation for her friends getting hurt. The innocent looking girl slowly walks towards the edge of the building...
"Penny, wait!" Ruby quickly sits up and raises her hand as an attempt to stop her. "Stop!"
"Don't worry Ruby, I'm combat ready." Penny announces with a stern voice
Penny's small gray backpack opens up very mechanically as if it was programmed. Out comes a single sword that extends and multiples into several blades hovering over her back, Penny leaps from the rooftop with the weapons acting as wings. Before she even lands on the ground, she sends three of her swords to knock down two White Fang soldiers. She then proceeds to fling all her swords at one enemy, knocking them out of the equation before swinging her swords to the opposite side and impaling another White Fang soldier against a shipping container. More soldiers come charging at the girl, who creates a shield in the form of her swords spinning around in a circle in front of her. This helps against two soldiers who fly in recklessly and get punished for it promptly as their flying kicks are blocked and the two soldiers are sent flying back. Finally to wrap up this sequence and deal with the remaining charging soldiers, Penny manipulates her swords to spin in front of her, but instead of the swords pointing upwards to create a shield for protection, the swords are pointed straight ahead and when they all spin around in a circle it is like a massive throwing star. Penny smirks and swings her spinning swords to knock multiple Faunus off their feet and essentially take them out of the equation
"Well, we could just sit here and watch or we can try and contribute." Link gets up and helps Ruby to her feet as well. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'll be fine, the better question is are you okay? You took the entire attack after all." Ruby mumbles
"I'm okay. I have experienced stronger attacks than that, I guess I just underestimated him or didn't react quickly enough."
Link shrugs but once he makes sure Ruby is okay and on her feet, the huntsman in training grabs his bow and safely places it on his back and behind his sheath. Rather than getting involved with Penny as she's having an easy time with Roman Torchwick and the White Fang soldiers, he decides to help Blake and her friend so they can at least get out of there. Link jumps off the building and slams into the ground feet first, his aura bears the brunt of the fall and quickly runs to Blake and monkey faunus who are both unharmed for the most part. The boy glances to see the spectacle of blade's courtesy of Penny's doing, the swords suddenly plunge into the large ships previously being used to haul the large shipping containers. Penny, with impressive strength and a calm and relaxed composure, pulls at the aircraft and drags it back with her witch what looks to be telekinesis but a slight gleam reveals the blades are being controlled by wires attached to Penny's hands
"You guys okay?" Link rushes over and helps the monkey faunus to his feet, Blake needs no help as she is already on her feet
"Link?! What are you doing here?" Blake asks. "And w-when did you-!"
"I know it's a lot to explain but for now come on, let's not get caught in the crossfire, okay?"
"But. " Blakes points at Torchwick who is running away to his own ship. "What about him? We need to-!""
"It's okay." Link points towards Penny. "Look, Penny knows what she is doing. Now come on." Link says and doesn't wait for an answer as he grabs Blake's hand one one of his hands, whilst grabbing the monkey faunus' forearm with his other hand and dragging them both away from the action that appears to be dying down
"Hello Blake's friend. It's nice to meet you. Link is it? I'm Sun!" At last the monkey faunus has a name and along with that comes a goofy smile and an even goofier laugh
"Likewise, it's nice to meet you too. That is correct, my name is indeed Link." The one man team nods as he gets Blake and Sun out of immediate danger by around a corner and taking cover behind a container
"STOP!"
"WE GOT YOU!"
There are two White Fang soldiers waiting and ready to apprehend or kill the three teenagers, both of them wield weapons as one has a gun and the other a sword. With urgency, Blake and Sun break free from Link's grip and get ready to fight but they are both stopped when Link takes out his sword and shield, then extends his arms to stop the two faunus' from continuing any further
"I got this." Link smirks as he steps forward
The one person team from Beacon Academy sprints at the two White Fang soldiers and decides to first make quick work of their weapons. With the raising of his shield, Link blocks all of the incoming bullets, when he gets close enough, Link plants his feet and with his sword locked and loaded behind his back, the boy unleashes a power overhand slash that breaks the gun in half with a clean slice.
"WHAT THE?!"
Link follows up with a basic half spin slash to knock the sword out of the other soldier's hands and then attacks the faunus' themselves first with a very low sword swing that sweeps the two off their feet. Acting quick while his sword touches the ground and the White Fang guards are falling, Link brings his arm upwards in a wide swinging motion. The huntsman's sword collides with the soldiers and sends them both up in the air, to promptly come crashing back down in no time
"Time to wrap this up!" Link nods and a smile appears on his face
Link plants his feet into the ground and slightly twists his body, then the boy sprigs up in the air, timing his jump well enough to be underneath the soldiers as he intends. What comes next is a powerful aerial attack where Link, while being in the air, finishes off the soldiers with rapid mid air spinning slash, where he spins not once, not twice, but wildly spins in air five times and successfully lands his attacks on the White Fang soldiers with every spinning slash
"AHHH!"
"OOOF!"
"Whoa." Sun chuckles. "You sure know how to make powerful friends. Not that his moves were amazing but the power behind them is something else."
"..." Blakes says nothing but is also impressed
Link smiles as he lands on the ground safely, the two soldiers both land awkwardly on the ground, and no more soldiers come from around the corner or visibly from anywhere else to put a stop to the persistent students. However, despite Penny's best efforts, a handful of White Fang soldiers along with Roman Torchwick escape, which angers Blake and leaves Sun feeling dejected as their plan was to stop them
"Damn it, he got away!" Blake frowns. "And I didn't get any useful information out of him."
"One day Blake, guys like him aren't going to stay away. He will be back and when we get our hands on him next time that's when he'll spill everything he knows." Link mumbles as Ruby and Penny are nearby and running to catch up to them
"BLAKE!" Ruby quickly hugs her missing teammate. "Where have you been we have been worried sick?!"
"R-ruby..." Blake sighs
"Hey, it's okay. You should tell your team, at least her." Sun puts his hand on Blake's shoulder and encourages the ashamed girl to speak
"Alright then. But we can't even leave yet." Blake shakes her head. "The police will be here soon, and we'll have to explain."
"I can talk to them. You tell Ruby everything" Link nods
"R-really? Why?" Blake asks
"Because it's the least I can do, we all care about you Blake and it's probably smarter to not have the people most involved during this battle at the docks today. That being you, Sun, and Penny."
"That's fair." Blake smiles as the four of them walks across the street from the docks and find crates to sit whilst Link hangs back to be the first person the police see when they arrive
Later On
Handfuls of police cars are at the docks and after plenty of talking done by Link to the police, who understandably were very skeptical of the story the Beacon student gives them. It isn't until they see the unconscious White Fan soldiers on the ground that the story adds up, but unfortunately with no Roman Torchwick apprehended there is not much else they can do besides arrest who they can and continue to investigate. Eventually they allow Link and his friends to walk free, and the boy returns to Sun, Blake, Penny, and Ruby where he sees Ruby giving her RWBY teammate a big hug and exchanging words he cannot make out. The four of them go silent as Link approaches them and it remains that way too. That is, until Weiss and Yang appear at the docks after being in the city looking for the cat faunus all day.
"Yang! Weiss!" Ruby gets up and runs over to her other teammates. "Look Weiss, it's not what you think, Blake explained the whole thing to me. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute."
"Hmph." Weiss ignores Ruby and squares off with Blake who has also risen to her feet
"Weiss, I know I shouldn't have run away the way I did." Blake looks at the ground. "But, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with them I-!"
"Stop!" Weiss pauses her before Blake begins to ramble about an organization she hates. "Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you today?" She raises her hand and brings it up to Blake's mouth. "Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in those twelve hours, I've made a decision."
Yang and Ruby look at each other nervously, the two half sisters are very worried over what is about to come next. Link and Sun look with internalized anger waiting to emerge if Weiss' answer is not what they want to hear. And Penny mysteriously is nowhere to be seen but nobody else seems to notice this
"I don't care. You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" Weiss raises an eyebrow
"Huh? I mean no I'm not, I haven't been since-!"
"Ahhh bahp bhap shhhhh!" Weiss raises a finger and places them over Blake's lips. "I don't want to hear it. What matters is you are not part of them right now. What matters is you aren't a criminal and living a double life pretending to be a student while at night you do the White Fang's dirty bidding. And all I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up, you'll come to your teammates. And not some." Weiss looks at Sun and almost blurts out something offensive but stops herself. "Someone else."
"O-of course!" Blake looks at Ruby and Yang who are both grinning at her. The cat faunus wipes a tear from her eye and nods when she too gets a grin from Weiss
"Yeahhh! Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby waves her arms in celebration
"I'm still not quite sure about how I feel about you! I remember you being a stowaway after all!" Weiss points a finger accusingly at Sun
"Eh hehe..." Sun laughs nervously
"Hey wait a minute, where's penny?" Ruby asks as she does multiple double takes but her new friend is gone
"She must have left while Blake and Weiss were speaking." Link mumbles. "That's the only possible explanation I have."
"Where could she have gone...?" Ruby sighed
"Who knows? But what I do know is that definitely won't be the last time we see her." Link nods
"Right." Ruby smiles. "Let's go home everybody."
"Sounds good to me, I've done enough walking for an entire week." Yang chuckles as the blonde girl yawns loudly as the team of four along with Link and Sun begin their long journey back to Beacon
"Weiss." Link reaches for her and grabs her elbow
"What?" Weiss continues to walk but the strength of Link is too much and soon enough she concedes and falls back
Ruby, Blake and Yang walk at the very front of the entire group. Sun walks behind them as he and Blake exchange glances occasionally. Finally, Link and Weiss are now at the back, the keep up with the ground but stay far back enough to talk in private
"What do you want?" The previously empathetic Schnee turns her head to the left and does look glance at the person who wants a second of her time
"I'm sorry." Link, on the other hand, keeps his gaze on Weiss the entire time. "For what I said two nights ago. Regardless of how much it upset me to hear what you said, that's no excuse for me to say what I said. If we ever spar again, I won't purposely go out of my way to hurt you for any reason, especially to be petty and get back at you. Rather, I'm going to fight to help you improve as I expect you to fight to the best of your abilities to help me improve. And if we were to meet each other in the tournament since I don't know if I will even want to participate in it, we will both try to win and bring home a victory for Beacon. It won't be a personal fight, just business and mutual respect as warriors. We may have our differences, we may not even be friends, but deep down I do respect you."
"You do?" Weiss' eyes widen with the last words, before she clears her throat and shakes her head. "What I actually meant to say is thank you. That really does mean a lot, considering..."
"I understand what you're saying. If you don't want to repeat anything you certainly don't have to, I know where you stand." Link lights grabs her arm with his having, giving her an assuring squeeze
"Thank you again." Weiss turns her head to give the one person team a smile. "If we ever meet in another spar, let's do our best anyway. We cannot get better if we hold back. And if we do meet in the Vytal Festival-!" She stops herself. "More like you better be in the tournament, because you are going to be one of the strongest people to enter the entire tournament. If we do meet, may the best warrior win."
Weiss slowly extends her left hand, a small gesture to cater towards Link being left handed. He promptly extends his left hand and proudly shakes the privileged heiress' hand. Although the two still feel disdain for one another, tonight is a night of reconciliation and respect for more than just Blake Belladonna