RWBY: The Novelization: Black and White

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RWBY: The Novelization is not endorsed by Rooster Teeth in any way. Views, opinions, and thoughts are all my own. Rooster Teeth and RWBY are trade names or registered trademarks of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. © Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC.

At Sun’s confusing suggestion, Blake found herself at Vale’s dockyard watching over a Schnee Dust Company shipment that had just come in. She kept a low profile lying prone on top of a warehouse roof overlooking the shipping yard. Night had fallen and she scanned all the hiding places, shadows, and edges of the Schnee shipping containers, but there was no movement.

“Did I miss anything?” Sun plopped down next to her, clutching a bushel of apples to his chest.

“Not really. They’ve offloaded all the crates from the boat. Now they’re just sitting there.”

“Cool. I stole you some food,” Sun said, casually offering her a granny smith.

“Do you always break the law without a second thought?”

“Hey, weren’t you in a cult or something?”

She gave him a smoldering glare.

Sun crumbled. “Okay. Too soon.”

Suddenly, a strong wind kicked up around them as an whirring engine roared. An airship was above. Tensions slightly rose as they watched it drop into the yard. The boarding ramp shot down and Blake felt sick.

“Is that them?” Sun spied a man with a white coat that had a red tiger’s face and claw marks on the back. He wore a white mask that vaguely resembled a Grimm.

“Yes. It’s them.”

Several more disembarked from the airship, one carrying a gun. He ordered, “Grab the tow cables. Let’s get the Dust and get out of here.”

Sun said, “You really didn’t think they were behind it, did you?”

“No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn’t want to be right.”

Just then, there was a new voice coming from the airship. “Hey! What’s the hold up? We’re not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment,” said Roman Torchwick. “So, why don’t you animals try to pick up the pace.”

“This isn’t right,” said Blake. “The White Fang would never work with a human. Especially not one like that.” She jumped off the warehouse ignoring Sun’s protests and charged into the shipping yard.

Blake peered around a shipping container and saw Torchwick scolding a White Fang member holding a steel cable. “No, you idiot. This isn’t a leash.”

Blake leapt forward and put the back of her blade across Torchwick’s throat.

“What the—? Oh, for f—”

“Nobody move!” demanded Blake. Several of the White Fang drew weapons on her.

“Whoa, hey!” said Torchwick. “Take it easy there, little lady.”

As more White Fang surrounded her, Blake undid her bow. “Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum?!”

Some of the White Fang seemed ashamed and lowered their weapons.

Torchwick laughed. “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, there were two more airships kicking up fierce gusts at their arrival.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a ‘little’ operation.”

Blake looked up at the airships and was distracted momentarily. Torchwick pointed the end of his cane at her feet and fired. The resulting explosion sent her flying back.

Elsewhere in Vale, the explosion caught the attention of Ruby and Penny. Ruby groaned. “Oh, no.”

Torchwick continued to bombard Blake with his cane. She dodged the shots expertly, but found it necessary to take cover, dodging behind a shipping container.

“Here, kitty, kitty,” taunted Torchwick. But then, something floppy fell on his hat. He cleared it off and found it to be a banana peel. He looked up to see where it came from just as two feet landed on top of his head and knocked him to the ground with force.

Sun rolled and jumped back up to his feet. “Leave her alone,” he threatened.

Seven more White Fang members jumped down from the two airships still circulating the yard. They surrounded Sun.

“You are not the brightest banana in the bunch, are ya kid?” said Torchwick.

The White Fang charged Sun. He took them on using only fisticuffs proving to be a capable fighter not even taking a single hit and using his tail as an extra appendage. Eventually though, he pulled out a rod that extended into a bo staff. With each hit, there was a small fiery explosion suggesting that there was Dust embedded into the staff. He knocked back several of the White Fang before slamming it on the ground creating a shockwave that felled the nearest three.

Torchwick, exhausted with his inept crew, took things into his own hands and fired. Sun however managed to block it and dissipate the shot by spinning his staff.

Suddenly, Blake jumped out from behind Sun. “He’s mine!” She charged Torchwick and dueled him fiercely. She used both her sword and sheath as well as her Semblance to dodge attacks and burst forward. Torchwick however proved to be more than a capable opponent with his cane. He parried every hit and dished out some of his own despite his undisciplined fighting style.

Torchwick managed to catch Blake off guard by whacking her with the crook of the cane. He followed that up with three more attacks that eventually knocked Blake to the ground. He laughed, but then Sun was on him.

Sun broke apart his staff into two sets of nunchucks and went at Torchwick flipping and spinning them. Sun fired one of them revealing that they were actually shot-chucks possessing a lever and handle at each end of the chuk and a gun barrel on the other.

Torchwick was surprised, but he held his ground. He managed to deflect or block each shot so well, he didn’t take the fight seriously even managing a laugh until Blake charged and slashed across his chest with Gambol Shroud. He was knocked back several feet, but as he got up, he saw a shipping container suspended by a crane. He shot the cable holding it hoping to flatten Sun and Blake. They dodged it, but Sun went forward as Blake went back. Sun hadn’t stuck the landing and as he was getting up, he found the business end of Torchwick’s cane pointed at him.

Suddenly, there was a “Hey!” from atop the far warehouse and Ruby appeared, flourishing her scythe.

“Oh, hello, Red!” said Torchwick. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

“Ruby,” said Penny, “are these people your friends?”

“Penny, get back.”

Torchwick took the opening and fired at Ruby. The shot hit her and she went flying, losing her scythe in the blast. Torchwick laughed evilly. Penny’s eyes narrowed and she stepped up to the end of the roof.

“Penny, wait! Stop!”

“Don’t worry, Ruby,” she replied. “I’m combat ready!” A panel in Penny’s back opened and out sprung a long object. It paused in mid air, extended into a sword, and then multiplied into ten swords.

Penny ran and jumped off the warehouse. She landed amongst several White Fang and with the slightest stretch of her arms, the ten swords danced through the air knocking them back. More joined the fray, but Penny sent her swords flying forward and they sent the charging White Fang flying back en masse.

Three airships targeted Penny and started firing their 20 mm Dust cannons. Penny merely spun her swords creating a shield deflecting the projectiles while two more swords shot directly out of her back. They embedded themselves in the warehouse wall and the almost invisible wires that attached the swords to Penny became taut pulling her all the way back to the warehouse.

She formed the ten blades again into a spinning circle, but their shape slightly altered so they looked like guns, their ends pointed at the airships. As they spun, a ball of green energy began to grow in the center of them. Penny waited a second, then pushed both of her fists forward. The ball of energy turned into a beam and split into several smaller beams slicing two of the airships in half. Their crews fell into the yard and the airship halves wrecked in the bay.

The other airship was beginning to cart away a Schnee container, but Penny aimed six of her swords at it. They flew upward and dug into the ship’s steel hull, the wires became taut again, and Penny began to back up, pulling the airship with her.

Ruby was in awe. “How is she doing that?”

Penny had a brief tug of war with the airship before pulling down with all her might making it crash into the yard.

Torchwick, amid all the chaos, made good his escape on the first ship. Before closing the hatch, he commented, “These kids just keep getting weirder.”

***

Sometime later, the Vale police showed up and started casing the scene. They took statements from Ruby, Penny, Sun, and Blake, and got to business investigating the rest of the yard.

The four sat off to the side by themselves. No one spoke. Ruby had called Yang and Weiss on her scroll, and they waited for them in silence. Both Ruby and Blake were anxious to hear what Weiss would have to say. Finally, they appeared.

Ruby was first to approach Weiss. “Look, Weiss. It’s not what you think. She explained the whole thing. See, she doesn’t actually wear a bow. She actually has kitty ears, and they’re actually kind of cute…” But Ruby’s plea fell on deaf ears as Weiss strode up to Blake.

The two stared at each other for a while. Blake broke the silence first. “Weiss. I want you to know that I’m no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was—”

“Stop. Do you have any idea how long we’ve been searching for you?”

Blake went blank.

“Twelve hours. And, you’ve been missing for two days. Meaning, I’ve had a lot of time to think about this. And in that whole time I’ve decided… I don’t care.”

Everyone seemed dumbfounded.

“You don’t care?”

“You said you’re not one of them anymore, right?”

“No. I haven’t been since I was younger—”

Weiss quickly hushed her. “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…” glances were shot at Sun, “and not someone else.”

Blake wasn’t really sure what to make of Weiss’ request. But considering everything that Blake knew about her, this was as personable as Weiss was going to get. If Blake read between her words, she discovered that Weiss was actually saying a lot more. She did feel a little touched as betrayed by her necessity to wipe away a small tear that had developed in the corner of her eye. “Of course.”

Weiss nodded and smiled.

Ruby blurted out, “Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!”

But then Weiss turned to Sun. “I’m still not quite sure how I feel about you.”

He laughed nervously.

Ruby and Yang joined their teammates, but Ruby noticed something was wrong. “Hey, wait a minute. Where’s Penny?”

Some distance away in a Forge Model V, Penny looked out its tinted windows, longing to be back with her friends.

“You should know better than to go running around in a strange city,” said an old, raspy voice, sitting right next to her.

Penny looked at the car’s floor. “I know, sir.”

“Penny… your time will come.”

*** 

    Back at Beacon tower, Ozpin had been contacted by Vale police that his students were involved in an incident at the docks. He was watching the security footage with his scroll, trying to piece together what was going through Ruby’s mind at the time, when suddenly he received a message. The message was from Qrow and it read “Queen has pawns.” Ozpin grunted in interest.

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