บท 25: Where White meets Black
A building of modest design was currently occupied by the terrorist organization known as the White Fang. After the restructuring of command ordered by Cinder, Hei Xiong was coerced into taking over the dust robberies that Torchwick used to head.
After a few robberies during daylight, Hei had a ton of problems from the start. The White Fang was obviously still pretty mad about being led by a human so Hei had problems with insubordination. Not only that, unlike his own men, they were terribly incompetent at their jobs.
Blake had been watching this hideout in previous days. Observing their movements and taking down their routes. She was a bit more exhausted than usual because her last sabotaging operation forced her to sleep at an outstanding seven thirty in the morning.
She put away her concerns and prepared herself for what she was going to do. She would knock out and move away the White Fang and anyone inside unless Torchwick himself was there.
She was going to make sure she was going to keep the casualties low. They were just misguided Faunuses, she wasn't going to kill them with the bomb.
Blake climbed up the rooftops and infiltrated through a skylight present. Men were taking a break in an isolated room, something she had learned was their routine.
She silently landed behind a grunt and choked them before getting up and looking at her surroundings.
'There should be another one around here.'
She peeked around the corner and spotted the grunt leaning on the wall sound asleep. She dashed in front of the grunt before punching them as hard as she could in the face, knocking them out.
She dragged their bodies towards a window, ready to be retrieved once she took out everyone that was in the danger zone. Blake slid over to the center of the dust stockpile and got out the bomb in her bag.
The explosion would be strong enough to destroy the building so she needed to get out while the rest of the White Fang was still in the break room for a while.
She laid low to the ground while confidently sneaking around corners and taking out more White Fang members. She was now ready to set up the bomb she had in her bag. She reached for the bomb and planted it in the middle of the dust stockpile.
She had a few minutes to get out once she activated it. As she heard a small click coming from the bomb she nods to herself and dashed towards her escape route.
An open window was present where she started escorting the unconscious White Fang members further away from the building. The rest would receive wounds but nothing too life-threatening.
She came back for the final unconscious grunt and reached for the window before hearing a loud click behind her.
"Hands where I can see them."
She turned slightly and used her peripheral vision to see another grunt but in a completely different uniform, more importantly, the man was human.
Blake was beyond confused.
'A human working with the White Fang? Did Torchwick find more people to employ?'
She immediately dropped the body she was holding and used her ribbon to knock the grunt's gun upwards before it fired up into the ceiling.
The grunt reached for his melee weapon, and Blake responded by kicking him towards the shelves behind him. A loud crash followed after sending the grunt flying. Dozens of tools, metal equipment, and other miscellaneous items create a large disturbance that echoed throughout the hideout.
The loud noise alerted the rest of the White Fang along with some goons that belonged to Hei Xiong personally. Blake was in trouble, she didn't account for Torchwick hiring other people. The rest of the goons quickly arrived at the scene and were now pointing their weapons at her while a large man walked behind them.
"So you're the one that Roman was having trouble with." He pointed his club towards the now wary Blake.
"Who are you and why are you working for Torchwick!" Blake yells.
The man steps forward, fixes his shirt, and squares his stature before introducing himself.
"Hei Xiong, otherwise known as Junior. As for Torchwick, he recently vacated his position." Blake was taken aback by the revelation.
'Torchwick left?'
Torchwick had been the top dog in the criminal underworld; it was hard for Blake to believe that he'd just leave on a whim. Yet for some reason the White Fang are still operating, she thought.
'Was there someone else behind this?'
A crack forms on the floor as Hei's club impacted the ground. He stretched his neck before pointing at Blake.
"Enough talk, get her." Blake was suddenly attacked from all sides, not letting her think about the news she heard. Blake's movements have been slowing down from her fatigue but she was confident that these undertrained henchmen are no match.
She dodged and weaved through the various sluggish and haphazard strikes Hei's men were throwing at her. White Fang members were quickly disposed of while the rest were tossed and thrown around by Blake's superior martial skill.
Each grunt gets knocked out by Blake's expert use of her weapon and as the battle comes to an end, Hei himself sighed in disappointment. Teenage girls being able to take care of an army of men was getting way too common for his liking.
"Melanie! Militia!" Hei called.
Two girls who were behind Hei the entire time walked in tandem with each other. A pair of twins with white and red clothing respectively confronted Blake.
Without saying a word they rushed forward to the tiring Blake. She had been surprised at the speed they had. Blake was faster but because of her constant sleep deprivation, she began to slowly lose the battle.
After each strike, she tried to counter only for the twins to cover each other's blind spots to counter her instead. Exchange after exchange of blows was performed but a mishap by Blake created an opportunity for the twins.
She had been careless and left her side open after an attack, which Melanie exploited by kicking her as hard as she could while Militia followed up with a devastating strike at the defenseless Blake.
Blake felt every hit, which broke her aura, and she was left with her breath feeling heavy and the exhaustion peaking. Trying to stand up she meets another strike directly by Melanie straight to the gut and Blake keels over in pain.
Right before another hit connects, a flash of white suddenly happens. Pillars of Ice formed in front of one of the twins before the twins both got knocked out by a familiar group of friends.
"Yang? Ruby? Weiss?!"
"Hmmph, don't go dying on us before we finish the school year Blake." Weiss adjusts her stance before attacking Hei with ice dust. The rest of team RWBY soon arrive to assist Blake after they finally caught up to her.
"We've got to get out of here! The bomb has less than three minutes left!" Blake informed them.
Upon hearing of this, the now recovering goons of Hei panic and try to save themselves before the entire base gets engulfed in an explosion. They rush towards exits while Hei himself starts to falter his resolve as soon as he sees Yang and the rest of team RWBY arriving.
"Hang on Blake." Yang carries Blake bridal style in order to escort her out of the soon-to-be-destroyed building. They all rushed outside towards the alleyways and found a secluded portion of the street.
The rest of the men inside the building scramble a far distance, and team RWBY does so as well. After a sizable distance was put between the volatile hideout and the group, Yang made Blake lay down on the ground while supporting her body with her arms.
The rest of the group still standing stays still to observe the hideout and what's about to come. An explosion rocks the entire block they were in as the hideout bursts into flames. Another series of explosions occur soon after, the dust reacting with the initial blast.
Team RWBY stares at the resulting damage before Weiss turns her heels and stomps over to Blake and stares her down.
"You! I knew this would happen!" Weiss dug her finger straight at Blake's forehead, leaving a mark while Yang and Ruby just stood still to observe the scolding Weiss was about to make.
"If we were not following you around, what do you think would happen?! You are the biggest moron I've ever met, Blake!" Her brows furrowed even deeper. Blake could feel her ears dropping down as more words escaped from Weiss' mouth but luckily the bow she had on would at least keep it from being seen.
"Not only did you hide what you were doing, but you also had the gall to hide who you are!"
Blake stared wide-eyed. She could feel her heartbeat already reaching quadruple digits, the words kept repeating as she finally realized something. She reached up her head before Weiss interrupted her action.
"Your ears." Weiss already knew what was written all over Blake's face. Saying Blake was horrified was an understatement. She could feel all the guilt of lying to her teammates piling up.
"When were you going to reveal you being a faunus?" Weiss was now on the verge of tearing apart Blake with words. Blake didn't know what to say, she was surrounded, weak, and feeling horrible. She dropped down, even more, not letting her even look at Weiss.
"You weren't going to tell us at all did you?" Weiss crossed her arms.
Blake shot up at the assumption.
"No! After I eradicate the White Fang's influence I plan to show myself to all of you!" Blake explains.
Weiss scoffs at her.
"Even I know how unattainable that goal is. Those savages don't know when to stop-"
"Stop that Weiss." The voice came from Ruby, a surprise for Blake. She hadn't heard Ruby being that serious in her voice or action at all.
"Blake is our friend regardless if she's a Faunus." Yang added on who also came to Blake's side.
"But it's their race that led to this whole situation happening anyways!" Weiss justified.
"Hasn't Blake already been doing this for a week straight? You said it yourself, she's been doing classes and doing all this work since the beginning of the semester." Yang knew that Blake was already doing more than anyone would at trying to fix the strained relations between the two races by going against an extremist group of faunuses.
Weiss thought about it, perhaps she was wrong at thinking all this time. Yang had a point. Blake was willing to take down the terrorist organization that held hatred for her family despite being a faunus herself. The thoughts ran in her head before coming to a conclusion.
"...Okay I admit there are some Faunuses that are redeemable in quality," Weiss admits.
"There are humans who do horrible things too, Weiss. This isn't a case of a bad apple spoiling the whole bunch." Yang said.
Weiss started to seriously doubt everything she just said against Blake. The band of criminals they fought were human, people like Cardin were human and perhaps the best example for her was her father. Were these not also equally evil? Weiss considered the thought.
"Why do you have something against the White Fang anyways?" Yang questioned Blake who jumped at the question.
Did Blake really want to say who she actually was?
'No… no more hesitation.' Blake steeled herself to tell them everything about her.
She wasn't going to keep her friends in the dark any longer.
"...I…was once part of them, the White Fang, from a very young age. I realized soon after, that the equality we fight for was turning into something else, supremacy over the other. I left and I met… someone that wanted me to change by dealing with it so that someday I could–"
Weiss put her hand to cover Blake's mouth, shushing her from finishing her sentence. Her eyes met Blake's own as they had a few seconds to look into the expression of the other, a solemn face met one full of remorse.
"Blake." Weiss simply called her name.
"Weiss?" Blake's voice was shaking from the sudden move by Weiss.
"Not only are you a liar, a cheat, and a criminal; you are also unwilling to trust-"
"Weiss-" Blake tried to interrupt but curled up to herself even more as Weiss kept on going.
"-any of your supposed friends. You were part of the organization that terrorized my friends, family, loved ones, anyone related to me just because of their affiliation to my family name."
"Weiss…I'm so-" Blake was getting more and more guilty about what she and the White Fang had done to her friend but still even when she tried to apologize, Weiss carried on.
"You are a hard person to deal with but most of all…. you are still my friend."
Blake was suddenly hugged deeply by Weiss. She could only feel confused before her watery eyes finally burst into a single tear traveling down her cheeks. A sniffle escapes as she returns the gesture to Weiss.
"I'm still not sure if I can pardon the White Fang and those who join it, but if you are willing to go so far then it won't change anything between us. I don't care who you are anymore, I understand that, what's more, important is what you do from now on." Weiss said with a smile.
Weiss admits that they might not be that much different at all. If Blake of all people could work hard to change who she is, why can't Weiss do it herself?
"I too have something else to change, I knew deep inside that the SDC and its workers are not the most honest bunch of people, my father included. So I guess there is something for both of us to change." Weiss continued.
The rest of team RWBY finally join in on the hug as each member relishes the feeling they had with each other.
"Just don't keep any secrets from now on." Weiss releases herself from the group hug and fixes herself and stands up. Blake wipes her eye and remembers something she had to say.
"About that."
Everyone looked at her to confess something else to the group. They didn't know there was more to the recently revealed faunus.
"You know that someone who made me follow this path of a vigilante?"
Everyone remembers every word the conversation had so they knew she said someone helping her.
"He… is a bit special." Blake was unsure at the first part of her statement but she continues trying to tell them another secret she had. Yang tries to lighten the mood by trying to tease Blake.
"Ohhhh, a boy eh?" Yang says.
Blake looked up to the sky for a moment before turning back to her teammates. They were curious as to who she was referring to.
"Not exactly… though I guess I'll let you meet him rather than explain myself."
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