Shadows and Silver Eyes (RWBY crossover)

[DarthOne]

Story Summary:
A team of would-be heroines looking for their wayward friend, an ancient guardian who's begun to realize the center will hold no longer, a woman who would burn down nations to sate her ambitions, and others would find themselves set down different paths in the wake of a mysterious explosion. And two interlopers find themselves amid this tale of heroes and monsters, gods and magiks with an alien agenda of their own.

(No OC/RWBY shipping!)

Shadows and Silver Eyes Cover Art [RWBY Fanfic]

 

[DarthOne]

Part 1: New Kids on the Block

CHAPTER 1


It was a fine morning late in summer when two agents of chaos arrived to Remnant.

The amber light of the rising sun slid through the tall windows that lined either side of Beacon Academy's massive central cafeteria. Inside was alive with activity, with many of it’s adolescent students moving too and from the long rows of wooden tables. A steady buzz of voices filled the air as students who’d finished their breakfast began talking more freely with their friends and teammates.

Off to one side, Yang Xiao-Long watched her little sister Ruby Rose with purple eyes dark in concern.

Ruby, in her black blouse along with a waist cincher with red lacing and a combat skirt with red trimmings, was scraping the remains of her breakfast into a trashcan. A breakfast of pancakes with strawberries that Ruby had done little besides pick at, despite strawberries being her favorite food after chocolate-chip cookies.

Not that she could blame Ruby; Yang hadn’t noticed the taste or texture of most of her own meal. And when she had, the breakfast had tasted like ashes going down.

Even as Yang followed her sister’s example with the remains of her own breakfast, Ruby deposited her tray and dirty dishes into a nearby receptacle in the wall. Before Yang could speak to her, Ruby walked off, the red cloak pinned to her blouse by a pair of silver crosses, seemed to hang limp from her back in a mirror of it’s owner’s dejection.

Yang's heart twisted in her chest and she bit the side of her cheek as her older sibling instincts kicked in. Being accepted into Beacon two years early and given command of her own Huntress team meant that people tended to forget that Ruby Rose was a fifteen-year-old girl. But Yang would never forget, and to her Ruby would always be her baby sister.

It was rare for her half-sister to bottle her feelings in about something that bothered her. But it didn't take much effort from Yang to know why her little sister felt not just worried, but uncertain about how they'd find Blake after she’d ran off two days ago. Both of them knew that finding Yang's partner was going to be difficult. At the same time, Yang knew her sister was too much of an optimist to believe that Blake wouldn’t want to come back with them if they could find and talk to her. That and Yang couldn't help but worry that something might have happened to Blake.

Yet, Yang had managed to tuck her feelings away to give encouragement and support. To let Ruby know her big sister had her back. To help her hold what remained of Team RWBY together. To try to keep Team JNPR or anyone else from getting suspicious.

But with that sight came a stab of emotion at how Blake’s absence had affected Ruby and their team. An ember of hurt and anger.

With a huff, Yang pushed the feelings aside. Setting her tray down, Yang headed towards where her sister and five other people stood at a fast walk. She knew all of them of course. Weiss Schnee, the ‘W’ in Team RWBY. Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren of Team JNPR.

Like the rest of her friends, Yang wasn't wearing Beacon's school uniform. In the athletic, buxom teenager's case, her customary clothing was black shorts, heavy leather boots and a tan leather jacket. The last one was worn over a low-cut yellow top with her stylized insignia of a heart engulfed in flames.

“....going to see that new Spruce Lee film, 'Enter the Nevermore,'” Pyrrha was saying as Yang walked up.

“Even if it won't be the same movie theater we’d normally go to,” Jaune sounded a little sad about that as the little group walked out of the cafeteria, passing through the carved double doors.

Emerging out into the warmth of the morning sun, the six adolescents stepped onto one of the stone pathways that ran through the ornamental pools and green fields that comprised the campus' wide, sprawling grounds.

It was a sight that still sent a spark of excitement and wonder through Yang. After so many years of hard work, she was at Beacon Academy.

“Why, what happened?” asked Weiss from besides Yang. The white-haired teen looked as prim and proper as always in her white dress and jacket. On her back and somewhat hidden by Weiss's off-centered ponytail, the snowflake symbol of the Schnee Dust Company stood out proudly.

Nora Valkyrie's partner and long time friend Lie Ren spoke up. The boy, his black hair disrupted by a pink streak, wore a long-sleeved green Mistrali-style tailcoat and white pants. “They still aren't happy with us after Nora got too carried away playing 'Whack-a-Grimm' in the lobby arcade with Magnhild last month,” he explained.

Nora had the decency to look a little embarrassed at this between chews. Despite having eaten a near mountain of flapjacks with enough syrup to induce a diabetic coma, she was still eating an apple.

Weiss stared at Nora, dumbfounded. Yang, however, was less surprised by Nora's antics, even if she thought that was going a bit too far, even for what passed as normal for Nora.

“Geeeez Nora!” Yang laughed. Not for the first time this morning, Yang hoped none of them noticed how fake and forced her smile felt.

Yang had always worn her heart on her sleeve, sure, but she'd kept her fair share of personal secrets. Her dad didn't know about some of Yang's dates back at Signal, or why she'd come home late the night she'd visited TheBear Necessities and ended up trashing Junior's club. Even when they'd started at Beacon, Yang had managed to restrain herself from doing anything about Ruby wanting Weiss to respect her as leader of Team RWBY. But none of those had been as big as what had happened to Blake.

Noticing her little sister’s continued silence, Yang glanced over at Ruby as a light breeze ruffled the other’s red-tipped black hair. Ruby had barely spoken when everyone had been seated at breakfast, but had made some attempt to involve herself.

The distant look in Ruby’s silver eyes and glum expression told Yang that Ruby wasn’t paying much attention anymore. All of JNPR’s talk about plans for the day and teammates must have been a painful reminder of Team RWBY’s own situation to her.

Placing an arm across her sister’s shoulders, Yang gave a quick squeeze of a one-armed hug. There was not much she could do to put her sister’s mind at ease in front of JNPR. Not without revealing the situation with Blake. But Yang could at least do that.

Ruby shot Yang a relieved smile. It was a small smile, but it was there.

Yang remembered how when Blake had run off, Ruby had wanted to go after her right away. But she and Weiss had talked her out of it.

Just let her get it out of her system. She needs time to calm down, Yang had told Ruby.

And if she comes back on her own, Weiss added, we don't have to worry about attracting attention and getting all of us in trouble.

That decision was one Yang had started to doubt more and more as the days had passed. She knew that sometimes people walked away because they want to be alone, but sometimes they walked away because they want to see if people cared enough to follow them.

“Are you alright Ruby? You’ve been acting weird.” Jaune’s voice brought Yang back to the present, her moment of introspection already forgotten.

The usual boyish enthusiasm in the tall blond boy’s blue eyes had been replaced by one of concern, his eyebrows knitting together as he watched Ruby. The rest of JNPR looked just as curious and worried.

She barely noticed Weiss frozen in indecision; Yang’s attention was on Ruby. She recognized the look on Ruby's silver eyes. Ruby was going to start babbling, like she almost always did when she was uncomfortable or had no idea what to do. Even more so with Jaune. After all, the pair of team leaders were best friends, and Ruby had probably wanted badly to tell him what was going on.

"Oh she's fine. She just didn't sleep well last night," Yang jumped in. She tried not to grimace, that had been about as subtle as an Ursa.

The reaction from JNPR was mixed. Jaune and Pyrrha exchanged glances. Nora looked more puzzled than anything else. Ren gave Yang a searching look; she answered with her best expression of polite confusion. For a moment, Yang worried that they would try to dig deeper.

“Oh. Well, if you feel better later, maybe all of us could meet up and have lunch?” Jaune suggested. Yang knew he was just being well-meaning and hoping to make Ruby feel better.

Besides her, she was aware of Weiss relaxing. She might have been better at hiding it than Yang or Ruby, but the white-haired girl had a nervous edge to her in recent days.

“Sorry, Jaune, but we’ve already have plans.” Ruby answered, with some measure of her normal chipper tone.

“Yeah! We were planning to visit Patch for the day and visit my dad.” Yang forced a somewhat apologetic expression on her face. In truth, she knew Ruby wanted to spend today searching Vale for Blake. She didn't know if Ruby had told Weiss about her plan.

Weiss shot Yang a glare out of the corner of her eye, but gave no other reaction.

“Oh I see.”

“So is Blake coming with you guys?” Asked Nora.

Without thinking, one of Yang’s hands brought her waist-length wild mane of curly blonde hair around her shoulder and began stroking it for a moment. She gave a small shrug that she hoped looked casual. “Maybe.”

In spite of this being the two-week break between semesters, they'd known that sooner or later, someone would notice Blake's absence. So, the rest of Team RWBY had told people she was off visiting relatives outside the Kingdoms. That she'd lived outside the Kingdoms was a fact Blake herself had mentioned the few times she'd talked about her past.

“You don't know?” Pyrrha asked, puzzled.

“Well, Blake said she isn't sure if she'll be back in Vale today or not. And Scroll reception is not good where she is at." Weiss explained.

Anything Yang might have said next was forgotten. As in the next second, several things happened at once. On the edge of her vision, she caught a lightning-flash of purple and gray light in the direction of the forest of Forever Fall. In what must have been only a heartbeat later, a tearing rumble, like a thunderclap of sound, slammed into her ears.

Yang jerked in surprise, her hands clenching and moving without thought into a fighting stance. But almost stumbled back as the heel of a boot caught on one of the walkway’s flagstones.

Around her, she could see and hear others reacting with sharp cries of surprise. Including Ruby jumping into the air with a startled squeak, leaving short flurry of red rose petals behind from her Semblance. Weiss, meanwhile, had cringed into herself, clapping both hands over her ears.

“Huh. Well, that was a thing.” Yang remarked as the others began to recover from their joint shock.

“What was that?” asked Ruby. It was plain to Yang that any potential embarrassment she might have at accidentally using her Semblance was the last thing on her sister’s mind. As her sister was busy peering towards a gap between two buildings in the direction the light had come from. To Yang’s surprise, there wasn’t any sign of smoke or fire.

“I have no clue sis. Some kind of weird lightning bolt?” She’d only caught a glimpse of the light, yet Yang felt troubled. She almost felt that there’d been something wrong about it. But she couldn’t figure out what. Perhaps she’d just been seeing things, given how fast the flash had come and gone.

"Oooh!" Nora interjected as she pulled Jaune to his feet. "Maybe it was the climax of an epic battle between some lone, grizzled Huntsman and the giant, one-eyed Ursa that took the life of the woman he loved! Fueled by love, vengeance, and a convenient vein of burn Dust beneath their feet he destroyed the monstrosity!"

The ginger-haired teen then went from manic to melancholic, as if someone had flipped a switch, "But tragically the wounds he took in the battle were too great even for Aura to heal and perishes. In his last moments he thinks of his love hoping that at last, they'll be reunited in the afterlife."

"Nora," Ren said slowly, "that was the plot of the movie we saw last month."

Pyrrha, who Yang guessed had been subtly stunned by what had happened, spoke up. Her tone one of polite skepticism, “I'm not quite sure Huntsmen being the cause is very likely.”

“Pyrrha’s right. Unless they were carrying a whole shipping container worth of Dust, it's not possible,” chimed in Weiss.

Nora let out a disappointed, “Aww.”

“I dunno Ice Queen, you might be onto something. Maybe it was a natural pocket of Dust that got set off somehow.” Yang mused, teasing Weiss with her nickname. Though it seemed to have flown over the Schnee heiress’s head, as a thoughtful frown appeared on Weiss's face.

“Maybe, but I can't imagine what could have ignited it. Raw Dust isn't anywhere near as volatile as processed crystals or powder. And I'm certain that any Dust deposits that close to the surface and near to Vale would have been found already.”

“Maybe it was a meteor instead?” Jaune suggested.

Weiss scoffed, “Frankly, that’s about as likely as aliens being responsible.”

Jaune looked disappointed at how fast Weiss had shot his idea down, while his partner winced at her words.

"Well, I'm sure the authorities are in route to the...” Pyrrha paused, searching for the right word, “disturbance and we'll find out the cause."

Which, Yang had to admit, was probably how they would find out what they had just seen. Even if they were willing to give up on looking for Blake, she could not imagine Ozpin or Goodwitch allowing them to wander around Forever Fall. And the authorities at Vale allowing a bunch of first-year student huntress to go? Forget it.

“Assuming there’s anything besides a crater to find.” Weiss concluded.

-RWBY-​

Paula Ravenwood rolled from where she'd fallen on her side. Moving without thinking, she raised herself up with none of her usual catlike grace. A slim and shapely human woman, she was almost thirty, with dark red-gold hair that reached down to her shoulders. She wore her normal attire: black dress jeans, black boots, a blood-red shirt and equally red leather jacket.

Still dazed, she remained doubled over, gasping as she struggled to get her breath back. The fall had been punishing; hitting the ground had pushed out what little air that had remained in her lungs and made her see stars. Her hands, encased in tight-fitting opera gloves that reached up to her elbows beneath her jacket, rested on her knees. Paula forced herself to take in slow, measured breaths, letting the cool air fill her lungs and ease her racing heart.

Her dark gold eyes flicked to the fallen figure a few feet away, who'd almost gone face-down in the dirt along beside her. Even through her mental barriers, at this close range she could still feel his now-familiar presence. One of the hardest things about explaining what her telepathy could do was when she had to talk about auras, how they felt. It wasn't something she could really describe. But if she had to, the man known as Shaidar Gorthule was like when a cloud covered the sun, dropping everything into shadow.

That was not his birth-name of course; that had been Justin Chapman. But he’d been given what was more than just a new name, but a title and rank, years before the two of them had met. So far as Paula was aware, she was among a handful of people who knew his original name.

Even as she thought this, he unsteadily rose into a sitting position, much like she had. A thick layer of oily material covered his lean form from head to toe. The armor wasn't a solid color, but a motley mosaic made up of small, misshapen black segments on a lighter charcoal background. Several short curved spines of the same bio-metal protruded from the back of his upper arms. Likewise, four similar- if larger-spikes projected from his upper back in vertical pairs: two to each side of his spine.

Through the disheveled strands of her hair, she saw the black armor covering the front of his head flow back. It revealed the familiar face of a man in his late twenties as his head turned, looking at her.

His lean face and short dark hair were ordinary enough to disappear into a crowd with little trouble. His eyes were the lone alien feature on an otherwise-human face, with dark green irises flecked with orange, cat-like slits for pupils and a black sclera. They were eyes filled with intelligence, of someone who missed little of what they saw.

“That was close. You alright?” Shaidar questioned in his mutated British accent.

Even out of breath his concern was clear to hear. Though Paula knew the motion of looking her over with his eyes was a holdover from his old human life, the one he'd had before they'd even met. He could—and probably was— using his cybernetic sensors to examine her from head to toe.

Paula couldn't help but offer the cyborg a little smile. They weren't the most touchy-feely people around and their relationship might not be the most openly affectionate. They still loved each other regardless.

She shrugged, her red-gold hair shimmering with the movement. “I’ve been better. You?” she asked, still panting a little. Her voice carried a trace of a drawl typical to the American south.

“Tolerable.” He coughed as he tried to catch his breath. “Nice thinking back there. I'd say you got us out in the nick of time.”

"Thanks. You know what they say— timing is everything." It was a weak quip. She'd all but thrown herself at him in a last desperate measure and teleported them both through the portal he'd linked open. All while fighting to hang on to him against the pull of decompression into the vastness of space.

Shaidar's lip twitched into a small smile. “They have indeed.”

Getting to her feet, Paula frowned at her outfit, which was covered in a thin grime of dirt. She brushed herself off with gloved hands, making a quick check of her coat pockets and belt. Luckily, she'd landed on her other side, so all three of the glass vials were intact. Likewise, the snub-nosed energy pistol was still in its holster on her belt.

That done, Paula raked her hand unevenly through her hair and got a good view of her surroundings for the first time. Her eyes widened.

“Oh, what the hell have we gotten into now?” she murmured, not without a hint of trepidation.

Overhead, a faint canvas of stars hung in a dark blue sky. All around her, a vast hillside crimson forest stretched into the distance under a morning sun. The cool air was quiet save for the sound of the creaking and groaning of trees. But this wasn't the true cause of her concern.

In the sunlight, Paula could make out a ragged circular clearing around her and Shaidar. It had to be several hundred feet across; about the size of a parking lot. The ground beneath her feet was stripped clear, exposing hard soil. Bare of bark and branches toppled trees littered the ground or lay splinted against a white boulder at the edge of the clearing. Paula only now became aware of the nose-wrinkling stench of ozone mixed in with odors of decaying leaves and earth.

All this radiated out from the central point- where she and Shaidar Gorthule now stood. As if there could be any doubt for the cause of the newly created clearing.

“Well. This is different.” Shaidar said, looking around. At five foot eight he was only a little taller than her. A ripple passed through the armor as it changed from its default black to a vivid red and orange autumn forest camouflage pattern. Paula could tell he was trying to be nonchalant, but she knew better. He was worried, just as she was. But they'd both seen and done too much in their lives to let that fear rule them.

"More like the start of a bad horror film." Something caught Paula's attention, and her golden eyes gazed up into the clear sky above. To her left and low above the treeline, a shattered half-moon glowed down, faint and white. Paula's eyes traced over its craters and pockmarks, noting the similarities to others she'd seen on other worlds on its unfamiliar face.

"And I don't think we're in Kansas anymore,” She added, causing Shaidar to glance up from the portal device strapped to his left arm.

“Oh dear,” he said, peering upwards at the broken alien moon. As the light changed, a deep orange gleam flickered to life within his eyes, making them resemble a pair of faintly glowing coals.

“You're saying the obvious darling.” Her voice was laced with a playful tone that was only slightly forced.

“Little bit,” he agreed, looking back to her, the motion making the orange glint in his eyes die. “Can you sense anything out there?”

Lowering her mental barriers for the moment, Paula reached out, scanning for other minds. "No one but some panicking animals in my range, so on the upside we haven't been seen. On on the downside we're definitely in the middle of nowhere. You?"

Unlike herself, Shaidar Gorthule wasn't a telepath. Nor was he a Preternatural—the name used by the few aware of her 'world' and the existence of people born with supernatural abilities.

Shaidar Gorthule was a Techno-mage. Like the rest of his order, his abilities were the result of a network of bio-mechanical cybernetic implants throughout his body. That technology had been created and supplied by an ancient race of aliens known to most as the Shadows. The Techno-mages served the Shadows in variety of ways, but mostly as elite agents, soldiers or some mix of both.

"All's clear on my end too. But I'm getting metal, probably train tracks, and a signal from over there. I'd say it's an automated hazard alert.” He said, gesturing towards several of the fallen trees at the far edge of the clearing. Paula thought she could see a metallic glint underneath.

“As for long range,” Shaidar Gorthule continued, “I'm detecting a lot of communications traffic from the south west. Almost certainly from a major city, but it's out of scanner range. And we can’t stay here; our arrival has been noticed by the locals. Seems we created quite the light-show.”

"Damn. Well, if the locals don't like visitors, we'll be busy soon. It was your portal. Any clue where we are?"

"Yes and no,” the Techno-mage replied evenly. “From what fragments I can pick up, the city is named 'Vale' and the people of this world call it 'Remnant'. Unfortunately, I've never heard of either before and we're too far out for me to access any computers wirelessly. I don't suppose any of that sounds familiar to you?"

"No, I don't know the names. It...it feels a bit like the Underworld or one of the other pocket Realms might have felt, back home. Not quite the same but... Of that nature, if less so. Other, is the best word I've got, in a magical sense."

"Now that is intriguing, if not what I'd hoped for. At least on the bright side, this place beats the vacuum of space."

Paula knew that, as a Techno-mage, Shaidar had been accused of being an actual wizard, warlock or even less flattering names. When in truth was he and those in the Techno-mage Order simply used technology to emulate magic. Although he rarely said anything about it, she knew that was also why even after almost a year, some part of Shaidar still wasn't used to the idea of what she and her people were capable of. As far as even the Shadows were concerned, Paula's abilities both looked and acted like magic. And he wasn’t used to being the one trying to figure out how things worked and he didn’t like it.

Of course, as far as Shaidar and his associates were concerned, that didn't make it mystical or magical. Merely a science they hadn't yet been unraveled.

"There is that. Still, this could be complicated. The last thing we need is people figuring out we’re outsiders.” She grinned, a sharp smile. "Let's hope they don't burn witches or things may get messy."

Paula was far from stupid. She knew how dangerous their situation was and that Shaidar undoubtedly was aware of it as well. They outsiders in a strange world, with no allies or friends to turn to. There were a dozens, if not hundreds of reasons why someone desperate or unscrupulous enough would want to cause them harm or kill them as a potential source of trouble. Not to mention how easy it would be to put a world-wide target on their backs.

Still, Paula refused to let herself be swallowed up by fear.

“For them, I'd think,” Shaidar Gorthule commented dryly. “We should get a move on. As much as I don't fancy strolling through a strange forest, I'd rather we weren't here when some spooked and trigger-happy natives start showing up.”

Here he glanced down for a speculative moment, before continuing, “Still, all things considered, I think we'll remain on foot for a bit. At least until anyone who does manage to track us will think they lost the trail in the forest. It should be safe enough- I'm not detecting anything dangerous with my scanners. And once we get into the air, I should have an easier time intercepting signal traffic.”

"Can't portal us out then?" Paula asked as they started walking between the fallen trunks, their feet leaving almost no impression on the hard earth. Shaidar’s armor flowed back over his face while she spoke. Only when it settled into place did he reply.

"Afraid not. The linking device was damaged by our arrival here.” He said, referring to the mechanism wrapped around his wrist like an over-sized watch. It was now hidden once more beneath his armor. “In fact, I've shut everything down except diagnostics until I can give it a good look over. Preferably somewhere secure."

His words sent a cold trickle of uncertainty creeping through her gut. She’d never tried to teleport through one of the linking device’s portals until now. That they’d ended up here instead of their intended destination and that the device had been damaged in the process meant that both were probably her fault.

In an instant, Paula shook the thought off before it had time to grow. There was no sense in allowing herself to feel guilty or worked up. It wasn’t as if she and Shaidar had any other way out back then. And it had hardly been intentional on her part to have them wind up here.

"Well. That is inconvenient. And being only half Cerberi, I can't teleport between dimensions." Not to mention she couldn't teleport them to this 'Vale' city. She'd never been there before, didn't have a line of sight and was certain she didn't know anyone living in it either.

"Assuming this place is like one of your people's pocket dimensions, is it possibl-” His head snapped around, peering out into the forest as his voice dropped off into a sharp whisper. “Unknown contacts inbound!"

His warning came only a fraction of a second before a chorus of guttural and undeniably enraged howls filled the air, along with a cloying and horrific scent.

Paula stopped, turned, her right hand coming to rest on the grip of the energy pistol hanging on her hip. She reached out, scanning with her mind again instead of her eyes. For an instant, she felt, sensed nothing. Then there was a hint of minds that weren't quite minds at all. They were empty, hollow shells. Twisted. Animalistic. Filled with hate. And a yawning, ravenous hunger. Her heart went cold in her chest.

Quick as lightning, a dozen nightmares of black fur erupted from the underbrush at the edge of the clearing. The creatures were in the broad outline of a wolf, if a wolf had aspirations to become human. Each was roughly bipedal, with bodies that were slumped forward as they ran on all fours. Even in the faint sunlight, fangs glistened in muzzles. Burning, hate-filled red eyes glared out of faces masked by bone.

In that instant, Paula lashed out with her telepathy. But she'd never encountered anything quite like this before. Her attack wasn't coordinated enough to do more than disorientate them. Several creatures stumbled, a few even colliding with each other or fallen tree trunks.

Even while they stumbled, Paula was running through her few spell-casting options. She almost drew her pistol, but stopped before she'd barely begun. She had a better idea. These things could well be magical—she'd try an attack on those lines first.

As her hand darted to her coat pocket, the creatures shook themselves, staggering but ready to continue their attack. They never got the chance.

Two dozen bat-winged imps flickered into existence above the creatures. Each was the size of a large dog. Dark copper armor covered much of their gray bodies. Long steel teeth gleamed in crooked mouths. Paula recognized the imps for what they were of course; hard light constructs. Solid holograms of Shaidar's creation. Holo-demons.

Like a swarm of furious hornets, the imps dove on the wolf-creatures. Bear-trap jaws and arms ending in claws or short blades stabbed and tore chunks out of black-furred flesh. Again, the creatures fell into disarray. They shrieked and swatted at the holographic imps, who darted through the air or clung to their enemies as they hooted, hacked and bit.

It was then her searching fingers closed around the distinctly shaped glass vial holding an explosive potion. Paula pulled it out of her pocket, when she felt Shaidar wrap an arm around her waist and pull her close to him. She felt his breath on her cheek. “Hold on,” he said in a short, clipped tone.

She felt something shift under her feet. Her gaze flickered down involuntary. She could almost see a rippling distortion under her feet in the shape of a flat, translucent square. The platform looked to be a little over a yard wide and across but only about an inch thick.

Like all Techno-mage platforms, this one was an extension of the 'mage who generated it. So, Shaidar had an instinctive ability to keep his balance through various maneuvers. But, any passenger on the platform—such as herself—had to either hold tight to the Techno-mage or hope for a gentle ride.

As they shot upwards, a guttural snarl ripped her attention back to the fight. The holographic imps were fighting well, but even as Paula looked, one fell prey to a beast's attack. Its body fizzed into nothingness as it 'died'. But that was not what drew her gaze.

One creature was bounding forward, a pair of imps still stubbornly clinging to it. This one was larger than the rest, with scattered white spines protruding from its back and arms. Its eyes, shining with menace, were fixed on her- on them.

The platform jerked sideways as the creature leaped for them with claws splayed. Paula drew her arm back, almost whacking Shaidar in the face with her elbow, and threw the explosive mixture right at the creature. More by pure luck than by design, the glass vial hit its face and shattered. There was a cough of an explosion. A burst of pallid green fire. The creature tumbled back down into the dirt with a ragged yelp.

About a dozen feet above the treetops, their ascent stopped. As the platform spun in place, Paula caught a final glimpse of the clearing before it was behind them. Their purpose now served, the holographic imps had dissipated. The other wolf-creatures were now glaring up at them, snarling and scrabbling around under them like dogs who'd gotten a cat up a tree. The larger creature she'd hit was getting to its feet. It was still smoldering, with large swaths of fur and skin burned away.

Then the creatures were gone, left behind as she and Gorthule flew out over the forest. The whole fight had only lasted a handful of seconds.

"Sorry for that," Paula said, almost absently to Gorthule. His armor had returned to its default black color. “So a little like Hadean demons—well, obviously not but in theory, could be similar. That's a bit of useful information."

“It's fine," he replied, "But I'd rather you hadn't done that."

"I just wish I'd killed the thing." Paula's eyes were still narrowed in thought, the wind ruffling her red hair. She felt more shaken than afraid by what she'd felt from those creatures. There was a pause as the rest of Shaidar's comment registered then. "I thought I only almost hit you?"

"It's not that. I'd planned to get us out and leave behind as little evidence as possible for the locals to puzzle over. If they learn about us, I want it to be on our terms. So the more we can mislead them about our capabilities the better. They can't fight what they don't know. Besides, we would have gained nothing by staying there and battling it out with those creatures.”

As Shaidar elaborated, the platform beneath them grew by several feet and darkened to the color of smoke-blackened glass. She'd seen for herself in the past how platforms could be created in various shapes, such as a chair, a chariot and so on. All which would be more comfortable and easier to sit on. But, as he'd explained to her, simple designs were easier to create, maintain and also change to a degree while in use.

"Ah." She wasn't too inclined to apologize, largely since she was a little skeptical that the platform had been moving away fast enough, but it was a potential problem. But it explained why Shaidar hadn't just killed them. After all, bodies and battlefields could be examined. "Better a potion than a phaser then."

Now that she thought about it, Paula realized his decision to use holo-demons had been more than just a way to keep those creatures busy while they escaped. It was another attempted deception on his part. Anyone who investigated would probably think the creatures had been fighting some other animal. Yes, the fight would have still looked odd given the location. But, it might have been enough to allay suspicions. At least for a little while.

"True. Still, it's not your fault. I should have made my intentions clearer before those things showed up. Speaking of which, how well could you detect those creatures back there?” The platform slowed a little as Shaidar let go of Paula's waist and sat down.

“Not very well,” Paula said, sitting down as well. “I've never sensed anything quite like them before. Their minds were almost empty. It's like they were some sort of projection. Which explains a little why I didn't sense them earlier.” A thought struck her, “Come to think of it, I don't think I saw any of those creatures bleed. Which isn't normal, even for demons.”

She'd thrown in that last sentence for Shaidar Gorthule's benefit. When Gorthule's associates had shown up in her universe early in 2010, her people's secretiveness had been directed at them, much like it had been with the rest of the human race. Of course, few people of Earth were aware of the Shadow's true nature as being from another universe. They'd gone to great lengths to hide where they'd come from and instead claimed to be from a distant galaxy.

“Neither did I. And I couldn't get a reading on them with most of my sensors. My motion scanners only picked them up as intermittent contacts and that was at a reduced range. They barely showed up on infrared as well.” There was a definite trace of unease in his voice at the end.

Paula fiddled with a knife thoughtfully for a moment, its blade a dulled gray that did not reflect the light, before returning it to it's forearm sheath. "So, we know we're in a preternatural world with the weirdest damn moon I've ever seen. We've got a couple names. And we can't get out, for now."

-RWBY-​

Ruby followed her big sister into Team RWBY’s dorm room, her mind an uncomfortable mess of emotions.

An uneasy silence had descended on the three remaining members of Team RWBY after they’d left JNPR. So that right now, the sound of Weiss’ heels clicking on the wooden floor of the hallway was the most noise being made between them.

The strange light they’d seen had been a welcomed distraction from Ruby’s worries about Blake and discomfort of lying to JNPR. Although even now, Ruby couldn’t shake the feeling that there'd been something wrong about it. Light shouldn't behave like that. Shouldn't be oily and twisted. But no one else seemed to have noticed it. So she’d kept quiet.

With a click, Yang closed the door behind Weiss, her shoulders slumping somewhat. The sight unlocked something within Ruby. It hadn’t escaped Ruby’s notice that, despite trying to walk with the usual spring in her step Yang had been uneasy the whole way here.

"This sucks! We should just tell them, except it might get Blake in trouble, and we don't even know where she is, or if she's coming back," Ruby burst out unable to keep herself contained for any longer, her words coming in a rush. Her eyes felt hot and she forced back what felt like the beginning of tears with a sniff.

Ruby saw Yang take a step forward, but stopped her with a shake of the head. She turned to face her partner, who was watching them with an unreadable expression.

“Weiss, I know she’s been gone all weekend, but we need to find Blake,” Ruby insisted.

“I'm sure she's fine, Blake's a big girl; she can take care of herself,” Weiss said. Yet Ruby thought she could hear concern in her partner’s voice.

“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, she's missing and we need to try and find her,” Yang retorted, taking a step forward. Her voice and stance showing that what remained of Yang’s temper was fraying fast.

“Weiss, she's one of our teammates,” Ruby interrupted before her sister and Weiss' argument could continue further, her voice making them turn back towards her. But most of Ruby’s attention was on Weiss, trying to make her earnestness show through her expression and silver eyes.

Weiss arched her scarred eyebrow at her. For a moment, it looked like she was going to try and argue. Then, Weiss sighed, her shoulders slumped in resignation. “Alright, I'll help you look for her.”

Ruby did not see the somewhat surprised look her sister shot at Weiss.

“Thank you Weiss!” Ruby almost squealed, bouncing into action as she did.

Snatching up a long cardboard tube near the foot of her and Weiss’s make-shift bunk-bed, Ruby pulled from it a map of Vale she’d gotten from Beacon’s library the other day. Before spreading the map across Weiss’s bed. As the map is too big to fit on any of the four small tables in their dorm.

Ruby's stomach twisted in nervous excitement as her teammates gather around her. Pulling one of several cheerios she'd snuck out of Beacon's cafeteria from a pocket, Ruby placed it on the map.

From one side of her, Weiss looked on. On the other, stood her Yang. Ruby couldn't be certain, but she had a feeling Yang was trying to hide a smile.

“Okay, so we'll check out the places Blake likes to hang out at first,” Ruby said, moving the lone cheerio with down the streets on the map. She thought of the list of addresses she and Yang had spent yesterday coming up with.

“If she hasn't been to any of those spots, we'll...” Ruby searched her vocabulary and tried to copy Weiss. “Reconnoiter any hotels we can find.”

Despite whatever arguments they had, she and Weiss where still friends. And she kinda hoped that it'd help make her partner more comfortable with what she had planned. Going by the look on Weiss’ face, Ruby could see that she was only somewhat successful.

“Um, Ruby, I don't think hotels are going to tell us who their customers are,” Yang pointed out.

“We can always ask right?” Ruby replied, deflating a little. She wondered how Yang knew that- but she was the older sister after all. It made sense she'd know more.

The blonde shrugged. “Might be worth a shot.”

“I know it’s a little...unorthodox,” started Weiss, “but I’d suggest...”

And with that, the three remaining team members of RWBY soon found themselves caught up in discussing places of interest and suggestions.

-RWBY-​

Surrounded by a crowd of people, Penny Polendina waited patiently for the pedestrian crossing light to change.

Illuminated by the rising sun, the street around her was busy with cars and fellow pedestrians like herself. Although today she was was cataloging a major increase in activity compared to the correlating time on the previous days she'd spent in the city.

Given the grumbling she'd overheard, this activity -and delays, which seemed to be the cause of the grumblings- was 'typical Monday morning [expletive].' Few, if any of them, seemed to be putting much thought into the unidentified explosion in the Forever Fall she'd seen earlier.

As she pondered this, the pedestrian crossing light changed color. Penny hurried across the street along with the crowd of people, none of whom gave more than a passing glance at what, to them, seem to be a short, ginger-haired girl with bright green eyes and a freckled face.

It was almost an hour after she'd left that main street behind that a car that pulled up next to her. The vehicle appeared to be an expensive Atlas-designed civilian model, but Penny recognized it and knew that beneath its plain gray exterior it had been heavily modified. Including a reinforced chassis and armor plating.

Likewise, she recognized the man who peered back at her through the open driver's window, an expression of obvious relief on his face, “Penny, please get in.”

Climbed inside and closing the door, her hearing picked up the sound of a window rolling shut. Like all those in the car, the driver’s window was bullet-resistant and tinted so those outside would have a harder time looking in.

As the car began moving down the road in the direction Penny had been walking towards, the driver spoke up again, “You should know better than to go running around in a strange city." He admonished her.

Penny bowed her head, subdued, "I know, sir. I came back as fast as I could when I heard the explosion."

The man turned his head so he could look at her. His next words where said in a tone that meant to sound reassuring, “That's very commendable of you Penny. And I'm sure your father will be pleased to hear that.”

The rest of the ride back to the house where Penny was supposed to be staying at was spent in silence.


Chapter Note:
Apologies all around for the delay; the past few days have been exceedingly difficult for me. Long story short; first my Internet went down for several days, then I got sick.

Anyway, read! Enjoy! Review, whether to tell me what you liked or to scream at what you didn't!

I'm very curious to hear people’s thoughts so far and how well I portrayed the canon cast and my original characters. For the canon cast, it’s very important to me that I got them down right; I’d certainly like to think that I did. After all, if I can’t write the characters of RWBY well, it rather defeats the whole point of the story.

As for my original characters, I did my best to put a lot of thought into them. Which is why I've tried to get across that while they might be intelligent, experienced and generally competent, they're not perfect by a long shot and make mistakes. After all, they've accidentally ended up in an unknown universe. Which is the very definition of messing up with style.

As a pair of side notes, Shaidar Gorthule is pronounced 'Shade-are Gore-thule'. Also, while I'm not usually one to recommend music for my stories, but I personally view the track ‘Gehn’s theme’ from a game called ‘Riven’ as Shaidar and Paula’s theme.

 

[DarthOne]

CHAPTER 2

Far across the ocean from the Kingdom of Vale and high over the eastern edge of the continent of Anima, the Mistrali passenger airship Allure of the Skies continued its days-long journey towards Beacon Academy.

The Allure of the Skies did not resemble the airships used by Atlas or Vale. Bare brass and steel supports strengthened key portions of its hull. Large canvas sails, ribbed with reinforcements like a fish’s fins, had unfolded from the bottom and sides of the vessel. The majority of the ship seemed to be made out of wood- while in truth, the material was layered over the Allure's huge metal hull and was more decorative than functional.

Inside, it's ornate passenger cabins were filled with the chatter of the students from Haven Academy, who were traveling to Vale for the upcoming Vytal Festival.

Within one such cabin, Cinder Fall paused over her meal. Her attention now fixed on a holographic projection showing a Vale News Network report. The anchorwoman, helpfully labeled Lisa Lavender, was speaking.

[...Details are scarce at this point about the cause of the blast the shook Vale this morning. We have still unconfirmed reports that a Schnee Dust Company rail-line in the area many have been damaged. The SDC has refused to make any comments at this time on the matter....]

Dimly, Cinder was aware of her two servants, Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai, had caught sight of her reaction and were now watching the news story as well. The majority of her thoughts, however, were focused inward.

Cinder's fingers—her nails painted and manicured—wanted to curl into claws because of the anchorwoman's words. To bunch up the checkered gray skirt she wore. It, along with the black jacket that made up the uniform of Haven Academy, were more conservative than what she preferred.

She and her servants had spent the last three months there, pretending to be students under the watchful eye of its headmaster, Professor Lionheart. The same man who'd provided Cinder with the papers that had allowed them to pose as students in the first place.

During those long months, Cinder had comforted herself with the thought that all the play-acting would be worth it. Beacon would fall and when it did she would learn where Ozpin was hiding what remained of the Fall Maiden.

There had been times where she could almost taste victory and couldn't wait to finally clutch it with her own two hands.

Now her careful mask of calm was being eroded away. No plan ever survived contact with the enemy, she knew, but this was unexpected. Her mind startled tumbling through possibilities, even as she returned to eating.

Was Roman behind this? Could the White Fang have somehow slipped from her control in the months she'd been gone?

Cinder choked her fear down with effort. Neither of those were possible. The White Fang had everything to gain by following her commands. And like Roman, they knew what would happen to them if they disobeyed. Besides, for all his moments of flamboyance, Roman was more interested in making money over headlines. It was part of why she'd procured his services in the first place.

Cinder felt the return of her old confidence. This event could be made to work in her advantage. The spreading of fear and paranoia had always been part of her plan.

On the other hand, this could provoke a reaction beyond what she wanted at this time, so there was a potential, no matter how small, of this backfiring.

"So... the plan is still going ahead, right?" ventured Mercury, breaking the stillness of the cabin.

Clicking off the projector with delicate press of a button on the remote, Cinder rose, turning to face him. She took in the scene before her with a glance of her pale, golden eyes.

Mercury was leaning back on his chair, gray hair disheveled as normal, regarding her warily. Sitting in a nearby chair, Emerald was also watching Cinder.

The fourth member of their team of faux-students, Neopolitan, had left several days prior. She'd gone ahead to help Roman pull off the planned Dockyard heist. The earlier Dust robberies had been done with cars and other ground vehicles, as without Neopolitan's illusions to hide behind, Bullheads would be spotted and heard long before they could escape with the stolen Dust.

"Yes," Cinder replied, using her usual assured lilting tone. "We'll need to make some changes, but the plan will still proceed."

I will be strong. I will be feared. I will be powerful. I will never be weak again.

The thought was almost enough to make her ignore the remaining clammy tendrils of fear around her heart.

-RWBY-​

Meanwhile, as the afternoon sun shone down on the sweltering streets of Vale, Weiss Schnee couldn't help but regret her choice in footwear, which was now dusted with dirt. Her white boots, an expensive Atlesian design with wedge heels, had been chosen for comfort that belied their ball-room appearance. Despite that, walking around almost all day meant Weiss's feet were aching something awful.

Weiss wasn't as sure that she regretted her decision to come along this morning.

"Blaaaake!" Yang shouted from besides her as the three teens passed into one of the many shadows that fell across their path from the buildings that lined the street.

Weiss had spent the last two days in quiet emotional turmoil. She'd been worried about her father finding out about what happened and using it as an excuse to pull her out of Beacon. All while she and her teammates had struggled with the revelation of Blake's identity.

To be blunt with herself, Weiss had agreed to come along out of both worry and frustration over the whole situation. She'd been too tired to argue with Ruby and Yang. She'd felt the need to take action, the desire to do something. It was either that or fret the whole time at Beacon about a person who she may or may not hate. But her pride and her anger at the White Fang wouldn't allow her to come out and admit that. Until Ruby's pleading had just given her an out to go along with the search.

Weiss's stomach let loose a low growl, reminding her of the lateness of the hour. It'd been a little after one o'clock when the three of them had stopped to eat lunch at a small diner. Even as they'd ordered a small meal, Yang had tried asking some of the less-preoccupied employees if they had seen Blake. All she received was shaking heads.

"Blaaaake!" Ruby called out, cupping both hands up near her mouth.

Not for the first time that day, most people continued to go about their business, some pausing to give the three teenagers curious looks. Others went about with faces that were pale and worried. They traveled in small groups of twos and threes. Almost all of the groups were human.

The few Faunus Weiss could see around walked alone or in pairs. They seemed all too aware of the stares and wary looks they were getting from the groups of humans. Reactions were equal between hunched shoulders or studious ignorance.

Here and there, Weiss could hear people speaking with each other in voices that were little more than low murmurs.

“...bit overkill for just some train tracks.”

“What are you saying? They didn't mean for it to blow up?”

“How'd they get so much Dust out in the middle of Forever Fall like that?”

“I'm saying, it makes more sense for them to be storing it there. Either to take it away to Menagerie or god knows where else. But something must have happened and it all get set off early.”

“Nah, the bastards probably wanted to hijack a train, load it full of Dust, send it back to the city and blow up the rail yard. I remember hearing something months back that the White Fang robbed a Schnee train for Dust.”

“You don't need something that powerful to wreck a railway. Hell, wouldn't make more sense to rip up the tracks with crowbars and what have you, then run off and wait for the train to derail and have no one know about it until they can swoop in and take everything that isn't nailed down...”

It wasn't the first time that she'd heard talk like that. Once news had gotten out that the mysterious explosion had damaged a Schnee Dust Company rail line, it hadn't taken long for people to start suspecting the White Fang for being the cause. It also hadn't taken very long for people to start guessing at why the Fang had so much Dust out there.

A selfish part of her was glad that no inquiring individuals, who recognized her or saw the crest of the Schnee Dust Company on the back of her bolero, had tried asking her questions.

And yet, Weiss could see that there were some people who seemed to be taking some measure of reassurance from the sight of the three Student-Huntresses. If that was so, she could understand why given what had happened. Not for the first time in the past few minutes, Weiss thought about thumbing through the daily news on her Scroll for updates or any messages from Winter or the SDC.

“Blaaaaaaaake! Where aaaare youuuu!?" Ruby yelled as they rounded a corner and began walking down a lightly populated side street.

As a car sped by them, Weiss almost didn't hear Yang mutter under her breath to herself, "This is hopeless."

Weiss found herself agreeing with Yang. Vale was simply too large with too many people. It seemed more and more ridiculous to think they could find their missing teammate in all of that. Weiss had thought that since Blake was a Student-Huntress would make her more conspicuous. Even if the average person on the street might be used to the sight of a Huntsman or Huntress, it didn't mean they didn't stand out thanks to their appearance. As well as the fact that Huntsmen and students of Huntsmen Academies where permitted by law to carry their weapons with them.

Seeming to finally notice Weiss's inattention, Ruby stopped and turned around to address her partner. “Weiiss, you're not helping!” she almost whined, gesturing with both arms, almost imploring her teammate.

At times, Ruby could surprise Weiss with moments of maturity. Other times, such as now, she acted more like a little kid.

Weiss favored Ruby with a look of exasperation, "Oh, you know who might be able to help? The police. We should have gone to them hours ago.”

"Ugh, Weiss..." Ruby growled between clenched teeth, crossing her arms tight against her chest. That she was so irritated by her words did not escape Weiss. Ruby was just as frustrated as she was. Good. This could be an opportunity to talk some sense into the leader of RWBY and her sister.

That knowledge wasn't enough to keep Weiss from reacting to Ruby's words. Flinging her arms out to the sides for emphasis, she protested, “It was just an idea!"

"Yeah, a bad one," Ruby tossed back, along with another annoyed look in Weiss's direction, before she turned around and continued walking down the pavement.

Moving from where she'd been standing off to one side, Yang followed in her sister's lead and falling into step behind her. "Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions."

Despite the gentleness in her voice, Weiss wasn't fooled by it. The hard edge it held betrayed what her words and tone did not. Yang was not really making a suggestion.

Weiss had to stop herself from pointing out that she'd heard Yang say moment ago about how the search for Blake was hopeless. Yang was just making excuses and just didn't want to be the one that crushed Ruby's hopes of finding Blake. Weiss wanted to talk sense into them, not enrage them.

“The innocent don't run Yang. And if we haven't found her by now, we aren't going to. Besides, she might have run off because she knew about what was going to happen today ahead of time,” Weiss replied, following behind Yang.

"You really don't care if she's innocent, do you?" Yang asked, her voice rising.

Not for the first time, Weiss wondered if Blake's anger and outburst had happened because she'd had some sort of foreknowledge about the explosion.

"You really don't care if she's innocent, do you?" Yang asked, her voice rising.

"Don't be stupid; of course I do,” Weiss was honestly insulted, “I'm just afraid of what she'll say if we find her," which was the truth. She did care. But the mounting evidence was enough to put Blake's innocence in serious doubt so far as Weiss was concerned.“You heard what she said. She could have been sent to Beacon to spy on everyone.”

Ruby whirled around in a blur, leaving Weiss to wonder if the younger girl had used her Semblance. That though was pushed into the back of her mind at the glare Ruby was giving her. “Weiss, Blake is our teammate. She deserves a chance to explain. As her friend, as her leader it's my responsibility to give it to her. So we're going to keep looking.”

Weiss was startled into silence. This was new. She'd never been under the illusion that Ruby didn't have a backbone to her. But even as leader of team RWBY, she still tended to fade into the background on occasion. More often than not, this meant letting Yang take the spotlight.

“Come on, we need to keep looking before it gets dark.” Ruby continued over Weiss's surprise. She saw Yang give Ruby a sisterly look of approval as the pair resumed walking.

Helpless, Weiss followed them. As she lagged further and further behind in thought, the more her emotions in her chest festered. Chief among them being anger, resignation and bitter disappointment. The comparative silence was broken only by the click of her heels on the pavement.

Weiss' train of thought came to a sudden end as a shop door in front of her swung open. The thick glass smacked against the side of her head. Caught off-guard, in mid-step and in high-heels, she fell, knocked onto her back.

Dazed, Weiss lay still for a second, gazing at the brilliant blue of the afternoon sky. When she recovered enough presence of mind to start sitting up, a hand appeared in her field of vision, reaching down towards her. It was covered in, of all things, a black opera glove that reached up towards its owner's shoulder.

At that instant, she heard an unfamiliar woman's voice, “Hey, are you alright?”

Weiss looked up. Bending over her was a golden eyed, red-haired woman in a plain black shirt and pants. Weiss guessed her to be around Winter's age, if a little older.

In the shadow of the store behind the woman, stood an almost nondescript dark-haired man in jeans and a dark green shirt. Both he and the redhead held several of shopping bags in one of their hands.

-RWBY-​

“Hey, are you alright?” Paula asked, bending forward to offer her hand as the white-haired teenager propped herself up. Shaidar stood alongside her. As had been the case when they’d first entered Vale, the Techno-mage's form was hidden behind a full-body hologram to hide that he wasn't totally human. They'd done some shopping earlier in the day, but had taken a break to freshen up and to avoid running themselves into the ground before resuming.

A look of confusion flashed across the girl's pale blue eyes and delicate, almost aristocratic face. At the girl's waist was a rapier, with what looked like a large revolver cylinder built into its hilt. Thanks to how she'd fallen, it'd been almost pushed out from where it was tucked into the girl's belt.

Paula could sense that the girl's Aura had been unlocked. Though how strong it was, Paula couldn't tell. Like all Auras, unlocked or not, it felt almost-but-not-quite unrecognizable as magical. Which was unique to her despite her exposure over the years to various forms of magic as a Cerberi.

The Cerberi were a breed of magic users who served the Preternatural faction known as the Hadean Throne. They were an upper class, but some worked as hired guns or mercenaries to leaders of the Underworld. Save for their alliance to the Throne, their roles made them the mirror-image of the Guardians that served the Aegis.

Despite her telepathic shielding, if Paula hadn't been distracted by her conversation with Shaidar, she might have realized that the girl had been walking by. The teenager had been projecting a fair amount of anger before the door had opened.

Those brief touches she'd received were enough for Paula to get a feel of the girl's telepathic signature. The teenager felt like cracked ice. Strong, but brittle and quick to anger if pushed in the right place.

For all of Paula's years of experience and her adopted mother's lessons, she'd never had the best control when it came to her mental shielding, so she couldn't block out strong emotions or thoughts.

As a result, instead of a teeming anthill of mental activity, she lived with the occasional thought or dozen from people around her making it past her shielding to babble in the back of her mind. It was like staying in a hotel room where she could, on occasion, just hear the people talking next door. She wouldn't lie and claim it wasn't a small part of why she loved Shaidar. Around him, she could relax her guard at least a little and not worry about easily picking up on his thoughts.

As for the white-haired girl, the stunned mix of surprised confusion Paula had seen on her face was giving way to a different set of emotions. Though not quite to the point where the redhead could detect more than a bare whisper of them.

Not taking Paula's offered hand, the girl started getting to her feet. When she spoke, her voice was stiff with bruised pride, “I'm fine, thank you.”

Shrugging, she withdrew her hand as the teenager adjusted the rapier that hung at her side. A scowl flashed across the other girl's face at the sight of smudges of dirt on her dress.

Before the white-haired teenage girl could finish standing up or say anything, Paula heard a pair of concerned female voices cry out, “Weiss!”

The embarrassed pink flush on the teenage girl's face darkened a few shades as she spun in the direction of the voices. This time the red headed Cerberi detected a sharp flare of embarrassment and flinty irritation through her mental shields.

A pair of teenage girls were approaching the trio at a half-run- a younger girl with a red cloak, followed by an older blonde. Given the distance between the two groups, Paula guessed that Weiss had fallen behind the other girls and it'd taken them a moment to realize what had occurred.

Like with Weiss, Paula sensed that the two girls had their Auras unlocked. But besides Aura, there was something else that she was picking up. That something both intrigued and worried her.

"Are you okay?" the younger girl asked as she and the blonde drew to a halt.

"I'm fine Ruby. I'm not made of glass," Weiss replied, sounding exasperated. But beneath it, Paula could detect an undertone of I'm not helpless in her voice. She was more than sure Shaidar picked up on it as well.

Between the weapons, choice of brilliantly colored clothing and age, it didn't take any sort of genius to realize what the three teenagers were. They were Huntresses. Well, Student-Huntresses, given their age. Shaidar had been quite informative about them, as he had with many other basic facts of Remnant.

Next to Dust, it was Aura that intrigued Paula the most. And not just from the fact that the Remnans could track Aura levels electronically on their version of a mobile phone. Like Aura, magic always drained something, if one used enough of it. This was true in particular when it came to active powers. Making Aura sound to her like a magic system primarily based on active powers. So most Huntsmen tended to be more conservative with it’s use to avoid running out of it in the middle of battle.

On the subject of Huntsmen, he'd been very emphatic that they were warriors, not soldiers. At least outside of the Atlasian Specialists. Paula personally thought 'glorified mercenaries' might be the more accurate description. She'd said as much to him too, and commented that the 'whole system sounded open to all sorts of abuse'. Which Shaidar had found entertaining and agreed with her on.

As for them, she and Shaidar agreed that if forced into combat against the more powerful and experienced Huntsmen, having fear, surprise and intimidation on their side would be best to ensure they would have a clear certainty of winning. That Aura had to be called up in order to protect a Huntsman made them particularly vulnerable to ambushes.

Quirking a brow as the three girls descended into a conversation of their own, Paula exchanged glances with Shaidar. He shrugged and jerked his head off to one side. Seeing the girls were likely going to ignore them, they turned to leave.

“Hey do you guys have a minute?” a voice called after them. Turning back, Paula saw it was the blonde teen. There was a look of determination in her purple eyes. At this close, Paula realized the blonde was an inch or two taller than herself and was about Shaidar's height. “Just need to ask you something real quick...it's important.”

“Sure, what is it?” asked Paula.

“We're looking for friend of ours, she's our age. Long black hair, amber eyes, kinda broody,” the blonde pointed at her head, a look of uncertainty flashing across her face for a moment, “has a black bow on top of her head? You two wouldn't happen to have seen her? Just a sec, I've got a picture.”

The other two girls had stopped their conversation and were giving the blonde a look of concern. Paula also caught a glimpse of a windblown tangle of thoughts and feelings from Weiss.

As much as she might want to know what the whole story here was, Paula wasn't the type to start looking into people's heads out of mere curiosity.

By now, the blonde had fished out a Scroll from a pocket and was holding it out for them to see. On the screen was an image of the four girls in a selfie-style group photo. Three of them were the teenagers they'd just met. The fourth was the girl that the blonde had just described, with a small but happy smile on her face.

Besides her, Paula saw Shaidar slowly shake his head and she could feel the deep disappointment from the three girls. The glimpses she'd gotten of their mental signatures blossomed into full clarity in her mind.

Paula sensed that, despite the bad news she'd just heard, Ruby's telepathic aura was like a summer breeze. Bright, with an underlying earnestness and optimism for the world. To an extent that Paula found almost gratingly naive.

As for the blonde, Paula could feel a fiery passion that billowed like an open furnace. Protective and also consuming of anything that threatened those the blonde cared about.

"Are you sure?" Paula asked him, searching her memories. "Didn't we see her almost an hour ago with a Faunus? A blonde one that looked like a surfer dude?"

"You know, I think your right," his voice was low, thoughtful.

There was a sudden cocktail of triumph mixed with sadness from Weiss that splashed against Paula's mental shields like venom. If Paula had to put it into words, it would be 'Why did I have to be right?'. But just as quick, Weiss' reaction was buried under the emotions of the other girls.

“Really?!” that was Ruby, perking up like an excited puppy. An eager gleam appeared in her silver eyes. With it, came a resurgence of that almost endless optimism that Paula had an instinctive distaste for.

“Where were they?” asked the blonde at almost the same moment, giving off a momentary flare of relief and hope, though unlike Ruby she was trying to temper these feelings.

Paula paused, thought. "I think it was a street or two over?"

"That sounds right.” Shaidar answered her. Then to the teenagers he said, "I believe they were heading towards the docks."

For a moment, Paula wondered if Ruby was going to hug either her or Shaidar. Instead, Ruby grinned and said “Thank you!” with that she took off with a “Come on!”

The blonde followed after her, as did Weiss with a cry of “Hey! Wait up!”

“You're welcome!” Paula shouted. Besides her, Shaidar called out, “Good luck finding your friend!”

As the three girls vanished around a corner, Shaidar turned to face her.

“Well, that was different,” he said, shifting the shopping bag from one hand to another as they began walking away.

“In more ways than one,” Paula mused, keeping her voice low. Sure the street might almost be empty, but that was no reason to throw caution aside. “Besides Aura, I picked something unusual from Ruby. Some sort of magic that felt more like the kind I'm familiar with.”

“Are you certain?” he asked, his voice also low. Before she could answer, he said, “No, of course you are. Forget I asked. Do you have any idea what it might be?”

“I'm pretty sure that it's some sort of active power. Whatever it is, it hasn't been awakened yet. Beyond that, I don't know.”

There was a thoughtful look on Shaidar's face and in his illusionary green human eyes. “It's an interesting complication. But not one I think we have to worry about. At least not yet. In the meantime, we have more pressing matters,” he shrugged, “I doubt we'll run into any of those girls again anyway.”

Despite their original plans, they hadn't been able to find an apartment. Not that they'd had much hope of doing that on their first day here. Especially with the upcoming Vytal Festival.

Of course, it was thanks to Shaidar that they’d managed to integrate into Remnant so quick. It had been one of his stored programs that had been let lose into the CCTN. Inserting the false identities and other necessities, such as a modest bank account full of Lien, needed for blending in with a modern society. All of the forgeries had of course been made to look as if they'd existed for much longer than they really had.

That said there were some limitations to what he could do. If Shaidar kept adding cash in their accounts via hacking, someone would notice sooner or later. And should that happened, their false identities might be able to stand up to some scrutiny, but not for long. They were, after all, just words on digital paper. So, they had to take precautions with their money.

-RWBY-​

Blake shifted from where she was laying. The concrete roof was not comfortable to begin with. Now a chill was seeping from it through her clothing and exposed midriff. The sound of distant foghorns reached her ears.

Hours had passed since she and her companion had set off for the dockyard. By the time they’d neared the docks, the sun had been a red orb dipping towards the horizon. Still more time had passed while she’d waited. Now the last thin sliver of sunlight had vanished completely, taking with it the last remnants of the oranges and purples that'd colored the sky. The gathering gray fog Blake had noticed not long after arriving at the docks had finished drifting in from the ocean. It was so thick that the rising moon was visible only as a hazy glowing sphere.

Even with a Faunus's night vision, Blake was having a difficult time seeing any great distance. Her hearing, however, still worked fine. Over the slapping of waves against the docks, she could hear footsteps. Beneath Blake's bow, her cat ears twitched and swiveled towards the approaching person.

She was tensing up and getting ready to move when a voice, one she'd become familiar with over the past two days, spoke up.

"Did I miss anything?" asked Sun Wukong, and Blake turned her head to see him land alongside her. The blond monkey-Faunus held with what looked like several green apples.

Unlike herself, Sun hadn't been as willing to wait around. About two hours after they'd climbed to the roof of one of the various warehouses that lined the docks, his patience had given out. So Sun had left to stretch his legs, promising to return soon. He didn't think that the White Fang were going to attack until everyone was gone. While Blake could see his point, she hadn't been willing to risk it.

"Not really," she responded, "They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there."

Turning her gaze away from him, Blake looked back down on the area below. Her gaze came to rest on the collection of blue, red, and green shipping containers that filled the dockyard in ordered rows. Each one was the size of a bus and, unsurprisingly, had the words 'Schnee Dust Company' along with white snowflake symbol of the corporation on their sides.

It all reminded her too much of the containers she and Adam had stolen from the Schnee Dust Company train they'd infiltrated. On the same rail-line that's been mysteriously destroyed this morning and had caused so much unease and speculation.

It made her uneasy. It was as if her past was nipping at her heels. It made her think back to the days before she'd left the White Fang. Before this morning, she'd been almost sure they weren't behind the robberies. But with the explosion in Forever Fall, she wasn't nearly as certain anymore.

"Cool," came Sun's absent-minded reply. Taking one of the green apples, he held it out to Blake, "I stole you some food!" he exclaimed, almost proud.

Blake eyed the proffered apple, before raising an eyebrow and turning her questioning gaze to Sun, "Do you always break the law without a second thought?"

Considering she was trying to prove that all her kind weren't thieves and criminals, Blake wished her fellow Faunus would put more thought into his actions.

"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?"

Blake glared, her feline ears flattening back in anger beneath the fabric of her bow. As sympathetic as he'd been and as much as she'd enjoyed his company, Sun had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth.

"Okay, too soon." He glanced away from her, metaphorically backpedaling.

Whatever words she might have said next blew away and vanished in the sudden gust of hot air and the roar of turbine engines.

Blake jerked her gaze upwards, just in time to see the bulky shapes of a trio of Bullheads swoop through the fog. Each aircraft had a pair of searchlights attached to their fat metallic bellies.

She stared, distantly aware that Sun, having dropped the apples he'd held, was doing the same. Bullheads were a familiar sight around Remnant thanks to their versatility. So there was no way she could be mistaking them for anything else.

But even with the fog what Blake simply couldn't understand was how they could have gotten so close without either her or Sun seeing them. Not to mention hearing them! It was as if the three aircraft had popped out of nowhere.

While Blake grappled with all this, her eyes tracked the three aircraft as they maneuvered themselves. Fog whirled and swirled as they landed in various open patches of ground throughout the dockyard. Two of them landing near the entrance; as for the third...

Peering over the edge of the roof, Blake watched as that Bullhead settled into the open space opposite of the warehouse she and Sun were on top of. While the roar of engines faded to a dull whine, its searchlights, like those of its partners, died.

A door in the aircraft's side slid open. A boarding ramp barely finished being lowered, when several figures hurried out. An action that was repeated by the other Bullheads seconds later.

Blake felt her heart sink in her chest."Oh no..." she breathed.

Despite the dark hoods they wore, she could make out the fanged steel masks covering the upper portion of their faces. Like the identical masks, they all wore the same uniform; a white jacket that was matched by black underclothing and pants. All of them carried weapons in their hands or belted to their waists; melee weapons of various designs and assault rifles. Here and there, antlers or Faunus ears poked through the top of hoods. Others had tails or hands covered in reptilian scales.

But it was the symbol on the back of their uniforms that drew Blake's eyes.

"Is that them?"

"Yes... It's them," she answered, her voice filled with quiet anguish.

It was impossible for her not to recognize that mark; a crimson wolf's head with three jagged scars running down its face. The symbol of the White Fang.

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun asked, giving her a look of concern.

Even while she looked on, orders were being barked out. More than half the men and women hurried back towards the Bullheads and began unloading thick steel cables from the aircraft's rear compartments. While the remainder started spreading out, some heading towards the landwards entrance and others taking up guarding positions around the Bullheads.

"No. I think deep down I knew." She shut her eyes, unable to stand the sight any longer."I just didn't want to be right."

"Keep it moving people!" A new voice ordered and Blake's eyes snapped open.

Stepping from one of the Bullheads was a man wearing not the uniform of the White Fang, but a white suit and a black bowler hat. Gesturing with the cane he held in one careless hand, he continued,"We're not the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves right now. So make sure you anim...people keep up the pace!"

That almost-slip of the tongue removed any thoughts Blake had about him being a Faunus who'd chosen to hide whatever non-human features he had beneath his hat or other clothing. What made the scene below all the more surreal to her, was that the Faunus didn't object or make any sort of protest. Instead, they hurried on with whatever they'd been doing before.

Blake shook her head, stunned. "This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a human." She stood, drawing Gambol Shroud from it's sheath. "Especially not one like that."

The White Fang might not have been a dream when she'd left, but things must have gone seriously wrong since then. Why else would they be taking orders from with someone like that?

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sun hissed.

Ignoring him, Blake jumped off the roof, her Aura cushioned her landing when she landed on a hand and knee. The she was hurrying towards the stack of crates that lay between her and the thieves.

Drawing closer, she slowed to a cautious prowl as she slipped through the rows of containers. Blake knew she needed to be careful. Besides having better night vision than humans, many of the White Fang shared her enhanced Faunus sense of hearing.

This wasn't about finding out if the White Fang were responsible or not for the robberies anymore. She'd run away from Menagerie, refused to listen to her parents. She'd run away from Adam; from the White Fang. And now Blake had run away from Beacon and Team RWBY. From her friends.

Whatever was happening here, she wasn't going to run away from it. And from what she'd seen, there was only one person and one way to make him tell her what was going on here.

"No, you idiot!"

Peering around the blue bulk of a container, Blake heard the human snap off another insult. She saw him standing in-front of a hapless Faunus, hands and cane held behind his back.

"This isn't a leash!" he continued with a sneer, referring to a length of cable that the masked Faunus man carried.

The insult burned hot in Blake's ears. Taking advantage that his back was to her, Blake moved. In a burst of speed she was on him. One hand went to grab the back of his suit, the cloth bunched in her fist. The other held the edge of Gambol Shroud at his throat.

"What the-?!" The human stiffened, startled. Blake could make out his dark green gaze darting down to the black blade, before getting a glimpse of her through the red bangs that covered one eye.

Across from Blake, there was a clatter. The Faunus had dropped the cable he'd been holding. His hands fumbled for the pistol at his belt as he shouted for help. Now a half-dozen nearby Faunus were hurrying forward, weapons at the ready.

The human stank of tobacco. "Oh for fu-"

"Nobody move!" Blake snapped, interrupting his exasperated words. His reaction and lack of fear hadn't escaped her, but she had more important things to consider. Around her, the Faunus who were surrounding them slowed to a halt. None of them lowered their weapons.

For a split-second, the Student- Huntress looked at them in disbelief. They'd actually come to the defense of the man who had just been degrading them.

Releasing her grip on the fistful of suit, Blake's hand lifted towards her head and tugged her bow off in one easy motion. Revealing the two furry black cat ears beneath the bow she always wore.

Her Faunus ears exposed to view, she spoke in a voice loud enough to be heard across the docks, "Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?"

The masks couldn't hide their surprise or the uneasy glances some of them exchanged. The weapons being pointed at her were lowered. It was obvious they hadn't expected any opposition from a fellow Faunus. Much less one who apparently has some ties with the Fang.

With what she'd seen, could this whole thing be some sort of mistake? Now that they knew she was one of them, maybe she could find out what was going on here. Or convince them to stop.

Any faint hope she might have had was shattered by a chuckle from her captive. "Oh kid, didn't you get the memo?" he asked. Blake could see the edge of an easy grin on his lips. It was unsettling how calm the man was, as if he wasn't being held hostage with a blade to his throat.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded, drawing on her anger, hoping it would shake his confidence at least a little. Her grip tightened on Gambol Shroud.

The human didn't even flinch, "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," she threatened.

He laughed, "Why? You think a little bow on top is gonna make people forget who you were? What you've done...?"

"Shut up!" Blake hissed, feeling her feline ears drawing flat.

"Oh, we won't forget," said a deep, somewhat accented male voice.

Blake felt her eyes go wide as something icy settle in her chest. She knew that voice. Even as the realization settled in, Blake jerked herself and the human around so that her hostage was shielding her from the new arrival.

Stepping around the row of shipping containers was a towering giant of a man. Beneath the bristles of black hair, a white mask marked with red designs on the cheeks and eyes covered his face. Yellow eyes glared at her through it's eye-slits. Like those of a wolf. Horribly familiar tattoos wrapped around bare arms that were thick with muscle. In his hands he carried a massive industrial-grade chainsaw, almost longer than Blake was tall.

Save for the heavy gray breastplate covering his chest, 'Lieutenant' Garnet Hendee was as Blake had seen him last. The wolf Faunus, having joined the White Fang soon after his tail had been hacked off by a group of humans, had run the White Fang cell in Vale for years and was Adam's right hand man. As evidenced by the tattoos he wore; they'd been copied from the ones on Adam's mask. Blake realized he must have arrived on one of the other Bullheads.

"She's a coward and a traitor. Without any right to call us 'brothers'," Garnet continued, his voice scornful.

Still startled by the wolf Faunus' sudden appearance, Blake didn't notice how the tip of the human's cane had discreetly come to point at her feet. Until the ground beneath them exploded.

One moment, Blake was flying head over heels through the air. Next she knew, she slammed into the ground, Gambol Shroud skittering away across asphalt. Now on her hands and knees, she shook her head, struggling to get up. Her ears ringing with a high-pitched whine from the explosion, she almost didn't hear the roar of the chainsaw, or the pounding footfalls charging towards her.

Blake barely had enough time to throw herself into a roll. She felt a tugging at her scalp as the whirling chainsaw teeth bit into her long black hair. Claiming a ragged chunk off near her right elbow. Garnet gave a savage growl, and the blade swung at her again. And again.

Each time Blake was forced to roll away, aware that Garnet was driving her away from her fallen sword towards the rest of the White Fang and the human, who'd picked himself up from the ground. The explosion hadn't treated him well either.

When the next blow came, she was ready. Tapping into her Aura, Blake twisted into a series of handsprings. As she tumbled away, Blake heard the tone of the chainsaw change to a snarl. And caught a glimpse of an afterimage created by her Semblance collapse to the ground before fading away. It'd been sliced in half at the waist.

Blake scooped up Gambol Shroud's blade as she finished her acrobatics and forced down a shudder. She might have practiced and studied her Semblance as soon as she discovered it. Honed it to the point that activating it was as second nature as blinking. However, it was still unnerving to see a copy of herself perish. Knowing that even with her Aura, if she hadn't been fast enough, it could've been her.

A yell and a cry of anger drew her eye back to Garnet. Having turned to chase after her, the wolf Faunus was staggering forward. In an instant, Blake saw the cause. A familiar figure was leaping away from where he'd delivered a dropkick into Garnet's head from behind.

Sun!

Blake took a step towards them before she'd realized what she was doing. Even as she did, the monkey-Faunus' jump had transformed into a series of flips that ended with him on his feet, a red-gold staff in hand and standing between Garnet and herself.

Any further thought or observation was pushed aside as three things happened at once.

Sun, his back to Blake, spat; "Leave her alone!"

Garnet, his attention now on Sun, began to circle him. Blake knew he was trying to force Sun to attack him, or move with him and have Sun expose his back to the gathered White Fang.

As the two Faunus began to fight, Blake caught sight of the human pointing his cane at her, it's base flipping open to reveal an aim sight. She was already moving when there was a loud bang, followed by a high-pitched whistling. With Garnet no longer in the line of fire, the human had decided to take matters into his own hands.

Leaping into a backflip, Blake felt heat against her back as a brilliant red flare arced past her. It didn't have time to explode against the asphalt before the sound of further flares being fired had her frantically zigzagging towards the nearest gap in the stacked cargo crates. Each miss pockmarked the docks with more craters.

Dodging two more shots, she could feel the heat and pressure of each explosion sapping a little more of her Aura's protection. She was almost there. Escape was so close…

An explosion at her heels caused Blake to stumble. She could hear the whistling of another flare shooting towards her. There wasn't time to dodge. Letting her stumble become a fall, Blake watched as the projectile screamed overhead to slam against one of the Schnee-branded cargo containers a short distance in front of her. Then Blake's world vanished in a flash of light and a thunderous roar.


Author's Notes:
Well, this really where the fun begins.

To explain any confusion, Paula’s bit about Aura and how huntsmen using it conservatively in battle is my attempt to get a sort of middle ground between the over-the-top fights from the first three Volumes and what we’ve gotten in later Volumes for this story. As well as to explain why, even in the early volumes, the capabilities of various Huntsmen seem to fluctuate somewhat from scene to scene. I am NOT trying to nerf Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Also, I might have just killed Blake. Oops.

 

[DarthOne]

CHAPTER 3

A Short While Earlier…

Paula’s eyes flickered from her Scroll; one of a pair she and Shaidar had bought earlier in the day.

Through a nearby window, she saw night had fallen outside the hotel room she and Shaidar Gorthule had rented. Located within Vale's Industrial district, the room faced towards the nearby seaward dockyards. Although spartan and inexpensive, they'd made sure the room was in good condition before renting it.

The sound of a movement drew her attention to where Shaidar had risen from small table in the corner of the room and was making his way towards her. For the past hour, he'd been carefully opening up his damaged Linking Device with the tools they’d bought. Both to avoid causing any further damage and to avoid setting off counter-measures built into the device.

Given that Shaidar had a digital copy of the blueprints, opening up the scanner-dampening covering would be enough for him to get a reading with his sensors and compare the results.

Unable to help him and with nothing better to do, Paula had spent her time familiarizing herself with the Scroll. Which hadn't proven too difficult. Even if she still wasn't comfortable with how over-designed and fragile the mobile phone seemed to her eyes.

"So how bad is it?" Paula asked, putting her Scroll down on the small bedside table.

"Very. Parts of the Linking Device have been almost completely fried." Shaidar settled beside her on the king-sized bed.

Since they were no longer in public, he'd dropped the illusion that gave him a wholly human appearance by hiding his eyes and their vertically slitted pupils. Although he still wore the clothes they’d bought in Remnant. The black uniform, with it’s golden accents and rank collar pins with the image of a black hand, that he’d worn under his bio-armor when they’d arrived on Remnant was stored in a box under their bed.

"Any chance you can fix it?"

Paula was aware that her lover did have some technical know-how, but it wasn't his area of expertise. That said, being part Shadow as a result of genetic manipulation, Shaidar Gorthule had what he'd called a 'watered down' version of their vast genetic memory that contained their philosophy, history and technology. But even a cliff-notes version was enough to give him a level of instinctive control over Techno-mage cybernetics that took normal Techno-mages years to learn. Though he'd told her exceptions had occurred.

Shaidar shook his head, "Even if I had the technical skill to do it, Remnant's technology just isn't advanced enough. It'd be both difficult and prohibitively expensive."

"So we're stuck here," she summarized.

"I wouldn't rule out all chance of us being rescued just yet. But even if it comes, we could be stuck here for a very long time," Shaidar told her.

Paula nodded slowly. She wasn't thrilled at being stranded on Remnant, but knew things could be much worse. Already, most of her focus is on making this new situation work. But she still felt a sliver of guilt about her actions having stranded them here. "So what now?"

He took a deep breath, the motion making a deep orange gleam flicker to life within his eyes. Reminding Paula of how the eyes of the alien Shadows always glowed. "I'll have to destroy the Linking Device. My associate's Operation Security is quite clear about ensuring they stay out of the hands of third-parties."

Paula wanted to tell him not to. Even through her barriers and his telepathic defenses, she could sense the sudden spike of discomfort; a quiet fear, an anxiety simmering in the back of his head. She'd also seen the look on his face before, albeit not often. The way his eyebrows furrowed and his very controlled tone told her that destroying the device didn't sit well with him. Doing so would destroy their way home, but for Shaidar it would mean destroying the symbol of the new life he had built.

She knew of that his old life had been torn apart by forces beyond his control. Yet he’d done his best to carry on, trying to live his life in the wake of the alien calamity. It’d been almost a year after the attack that he’d stumbled into contact with the Shadows, the ancient beings who's outlook resonated with his own. He’d joined them and they gave him a new purpose, a new name, a new life that he'd embraced.

He'd been a commander, both on and off the battlefield, a field agent and, perhaps most important of all, an emissary of the Shadows. The last role wasn't unusual- his associates had long used servants from younger races, such as humanity.

What was unusual was the lengths they'd gone to in Shaidar's case. For his role as their emissary had been a key reason behind why, thanks to genetic manipulation, he'd been transformed into a Shadow-human hybrid. Though not the sole reason for that metamorphosis-or the purpose behind it.

Now he would be forced to destroy a symbol of that compact. That it was also a literal link to his patrons, even if damaged beyond easy repair, was salt in the wound.

But even ignoring all the problems the device could cause for them in Remnant, if they were rescued, the Shadows wouldn't be pleased if Shaidar had failed to follow procedure. Paula cared too much to risk that, so she told him what he needed to hear rather than what he'd want to hear.

"Then that's what we need to do," she told him firmly while placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, "a civilization like this getting their hands on the device could be a disaster."

"You're right," he said gently squeezing her hand, "as always. They're at that troublesome threshold of development as a civilization. Smart enough to make use of the technology, but reckless enough to be a danger to themselves. And if by some minor miracle they manage to repair it, others."

"Can't say I see Earth and Remnant being guaranteed to get along either," Paula mused. "A world without Grimm, where they'll be superhuman compared to almost everyone else? It'd look like paradise."

Which was all the more reason why they couldn't risk trying to ask the Remnans for help. Should things go badly, all they'd be doing is walking up and making themselves targets for the rest of Remnant. As Shaidar would say, it was all a matter of relative strength.

"Not to mention that it'll attract attention we don't need. Even broken, its technology obviously isn't native to Remnant."

It was as those words left his mouth when a brilliant flash of light shone through the thin window curtains along with a distant rumble as something far-off exploded.

-RWBY-​

Darkness surrounded Blake Belladonna. For several long seconds, she had no sight and no sound but an awful, high pitched ringing. Then sight and sensation returned to her once more.

Sprawled out on the ground, Blake coughed as the smell of smoke, burning metal and Dust filled her nose. The hiss and crackle of fire made her look up.

Different temperatures hit Blake in waves. Reaction after reaction chasing each other as ice and burn Dust fought each other for victory. From the torn top of the container, spurts of fire mixed with smoke shot skywards into the night sky. While across it's surface, jagged ice crystals formed and melted. Perhaps the mixtures of Dust were some kind of safety feature- Blake didn’t know.

Almost all the force of the explosion had been directed upward, leaving only a small hole in the container's deformed sides. But in the process, it'd toppled the containers and shifted the crates around it. Erasing the path between the crates she'd been running towards.

Blake took all this in a split second. She grimaced, blinking her eyes to clear the phantom blotches that filled her vision. The cat ears atop her head pulled flat as those sensitive eardrums rang. Her Aura had done very little to protect them from the painfully loud explosion. The explosion had also thrown her back. Nothing was broken, but her body felt bruised.

As Blake forced herself to her feet, she heard Sun call out her name. And bursts of gunfire filled the air. She whirled, Gambol Shroud in hand and the world threatened to spin around her. Staggering, she saw Sun skid to a stop in front of her. His staff spinning as he deflected the bullets set their way.

Past him, through the veil of black smoke, Blake caught flashes of the attacking Faunus. She couldn't see Garnet, and didn't spend time to wonder how Sun had managed to slip away from him. The sight of the human from before leaning comfortably on his cane made Blake bristle. Whatever was going on here, she knew that he was somehow at the heart of it all.

For an instant, Blake wavered, indecisive. Between Garnet and the rest of the White Fang, they might be getting in over their heads if they stayed and fought. But letting the White Fang escape with Dust would be running away again. Then the moment passed, and she made her decision.

"Sun! Come on, this way!" she yelled.

With bullets hissing through the air around them, she led Sun away from the White Fang. Schnee Dust shipping containers flashed by them as they ran. Trying to jump over them wasn't an option. Even if she and Sun managed to pull off the jump, she didn't want to risk a repeat of almost getting blown up.

Behind her, Blake could hear Garnet bellowing orders. “Team four, with me! The rest of you start loading the Dust like we planned, we need to be out of here before the police and Huntsmen show up!”

At his words, the gunfire died down. She did not turn to look back, instead allowing the man's words to urge her on even more. One way or another, she was going to keep her promise to stop running. If she and Sun were quick enough, they could still reach the Bullheads by the entrance and stop them from loading Dust. Even if there were more Faunus there, being closer to the exit also would give the two of them a better chance to escape.

Unless, a part of her mind pointed out with dread, Adam was here as well. That thought made Blake stumble as they neared the end of the row of shipping containers. Sun shot her a worried look.

Recovering, she reached her left hand over her shoulder to Gambol Shroud's sheath. Now using it as a cleaver-like secondary sword, Blake sprinted around the corner. An instant later, she was batting aside bullets as the White Fang opened fire, with Sun alongside her doing the same with his staff.

Continuing her charge, Blake's eyes darted from one bunch of White Fang to the other. There was no sign of her mentor and former lover in either of the groups by the two entrances to the pier. Blake was so relieved that she almost didn't her Garnet shouting orders. Her head snapped in the direction of his voice.

He hadn't chased after them like she'd thought. Instead, he'd backtracked, leading his group of Faunus around the shorter route to the opposite side of the wall of shipping containers. So that they were now only meters away from her and Sun.

Even as she realized this, the White Fang at the entrance to her front were reacting to their commander's order. They rushed forward, closing the short distance that remained between them and their enemies with melee weapons in hand.

Without breaking stride, Blake lashed out at them with Gambol Shroud's tethered blade. But her range of motion was limited with Sun alongside her. And these weren't Grimm or lightly armored, Aura-less androids. So the sloppy blow did little more than stagger some of the Faunus. And not enough to disorganize them or give her and Sun the openings they needed.

As the two groups slammed together, Blake alternated between slashing away with one blade and using the other to block the attacks being hurled at her. Besides her, Sun had separated his staff into two sets of nunchucks. Spinning them in his hands, he fired shotgun blasts into the crowd of White Fang. The line of masked Faunus bent and for a moment, Blake felt a surge of hope, sure that she and Sun would be able to break through.

Then hope died. Having used the time brought by their brethren to close the gap, Garnet and his group hit her and Sun from behind. Swinging her blades desperately, Blake tried to dance back from the blows that were raining down on her. She heard Sun stop firing. Fear clawed at her for an instant and she risked looking over at him. Not having time to reload, he'd reformed his nunchucks back into a staff.

The sound of approaching Bullheads caught her ears, but she had little time to think about what it might mean before a sword stabbed against her chest. Shocked that she'd gotten so distracted, Blake instinctively tapped into her Semblance and leaped back. She didn't get far. A blade rebound off her neck, draining her Aura further. Spinning, she struck low with Gambol Shroud. Only to find herself forced back as a Faunus with deer antlers stabbed at her from the side.

It was a tactic the White Fang had created for it's rank and file should they encounter Huntsmen or the older creatures of Grimm. Like the pack of beowolves they resembled, they were bleeding her and Sun with numbers and feints. Attacking, then backing off whenever retaliated against and hit from another angle. Try to focus on one of the pack and get mauled to death by the rest. Between their tactics and combined strength, she and Sun were being forced back.

Swaying to the side, Blake brought her curved blade down on his sword. With a hash crack, the cheap and poorly made blade snapped beneath the blow, leaving it's owner to gape in disbelief. That was enough for Blake. A flurry of strikes chipped away at his Aura in seconds and he stumbled back, clutching a bleeding gash in his side. Any shock she might have felt at spilling a fellow Faunus's blood was lost beneath the need to survive.

As she cut, slashed and whirled away from another attack, Blake caught sight of Garnet again. He was prowling around the outside of the ring of fighters, purring chainsaw in hand. She knew he was ready to step in if she and Sun started breaking through, or to intercept them if they tried to escape.

Blake also knew she and Sun could take Garnet if he was alone or with a few people to back him up. He did have some familiarity with her fighting style, as the train robbery hadn't been her and Adam's first visit to Vale. But that knowledge went both ways. Which was part of why he was hanging back. If he charged in, the White Fang would risk getting hit by their own leader.

Hot air buffeted the fight as the two Bullheads she'd heard earlier swooped low overhead. Blake's ears- the set that weren't still ringing- told her that one of them was moving off to land behind the wall of shipping containers. Probably to help the White Fang there secure more Dust, Blake thought with despair. But she didn't have much time to think about it. From her left, Blake glimpsed several more masked men and women jump down to the pavement to join in the fight from an open hatches.

Another shadow-clone and Blake was back at Sun's side. She ducked a swinging ax blade and swung her blades in growing desperation. All around her was chaos. The blows were raining down on her so quickly now and from so many different directions that even her Aura-augmented reflexes couldn't block more than half of them.

The only reason why she and Sun still had any room to move was that their enemies would end up getting in each other's way. Not that it mattered, they still couldn't retreat. It was all her fault for charging in. Now she had to be the one to try and get herself and Sun out of this.

Caught up in the swirling melee, she almost didn't hear the roar of the Bullhead by the other entrance take off. A glance upwards only showed her a glimpse of the aircraft slowly pulling itself into the air, a shipping container dangling beneath it. Before she was again batting strikes aside with her swords.

Then, over the sounds of battle and though the roar of engines, Blake heard something else. Shouts and cries of alarm from where the Bullhead had just taken flight. Followed by the noise of assault rifles spraying gunfire. Busy blocking another strike, Blake didn't dare let her attention waver from the fight right now.

Gambol Shroud blocked another blow, this time to her ribs, with a clank. It was then that the sound of a deeper sounding gun interrupted the chattering of automatic gunfire. A shrill war-cry screamed in an equally familiar voice pierced Blake's ears.

Blake smashed a Faunus on the side of his head with her sword, using the flat of the blade to send him stumbling back. Having gained a few precious seconds, Blake risked a glance in the direction of the commotion. To see one of the Faunus by that entrance get bowled over. His attacker, trailing flower petals behind her, was a red-cloaked teenager holding a large mechanical scythe whose menacing, curved blade was as tall as her.

-RWBY-​

Rose petals still tumbling after her, Ruby fired the high-caliber sniper-scythe known as Crescent Rose again. This time at the ground. Augmented by a touch of her Aura, the gravity Dust in the high caliber round threw her skyward. Up towards the Bullhead, her flowing red cloak billowed out behind her.

Now airborne, Ruby switched her weapon to it's war-scythe form. Gears within Crescent Rose shifted, hinging the curved blade back. Spinning the scythe in a whirling arc, Ruby flew through the space between the rising Bullhead and it's stolen cargo. The razor-sharp blade sliced through the four cables holding the container to the aircraft in two swift sweeps of steel. Sending it falling two dozen or so feet to the ground, while Ruby continued her dive forward.

With a loud crash, the blue box hit the ground several yards behind and to her left. A heartbeat later, Ruby landed with her beloved weapon back in scythe form and at the ready. But her booted feet scarcely had time to hit the ground before she was moving. Swapping out her weapon's empty magazine for a fresh one as she ran forward. Towards Blake and the monkey Faunus she'd recognized as the stowaway from days before.

"Team seven! Kill her! Kill her!" snarled the deep voice of a towering man who carried a massive chainsaw. Ruby saw several of the White Fang react to his command and start towards her. His voice also snapped a handful of his goons who'd been frozen in surprise at her sudden appearance back into action.

A sense of recognition from a Dust-shop months ago hit Ruby as she heard a rising whistling sound from her right. A glance showed her a bright red flare screaming towards her. She pulled the trigger of Crescent Rose, her sweetheart flinging her to the right. As she was thrown into a new direction, the flare shrieked by her to slam into the empty space where she would have been standing. Still, the near-miss was close enough. Ruby felt it the heat and shock eat into her protective Aura.

Regaining her footing, Ruby spared a glance in the direction of where the flare had come from, only to glimpse a man she recognized as Roman Torchwick turning tail towards a half-hidden Bullhead. But that was only for a moment as she turned her attention towards the goons who'd been sent her way.

As a Huntress, her focus was on fighting the Creatures of Grimm. Not people. But in combat a lot of the same rules still applied. Still, her first instinct with fighting people was to hold back rather than kill. At least if she could help it.

Falling back on an old strategy, Ruby sprang forward, blurring an erratic path from opponent to opponent. Between using the recoil of firing and the weight of her weapon, she performed acrobatic feats that would be impressive enough without the added speed of her Semblance. She'd used it to get close to the docks in order to avoid being heard, only switching to Crescent Rose once she'd been seen.

Even as the air began to grow heavy from the scent of dust-powder and roses, she caught glimpses of the blond Faunus and Blake getting pushed back. The big Faunus who'd been hanging back shouting orders had joined the fighting. The giant chainsaw he used as a weapon made it difficult for him to land a hit against the more nimble Blake. Or for his goons to directly assist him. But each sweeping attack was making Blake dodge or give ground. But that wasn't all.

Even as a blow from the blunt side of Crescent Rose sent one of her opponents flying, Ruby saw a goon charge at Blake when she backed away. Forcing Blake to divide her attention and use her Semblance to keep from getting pinned down. The monkey-Faunus was trying his best to keeping the White Fang goons away from Blake. But there were too many of them and he could only be at one place at a time. To make matters worse, every time he tried to help Blake, he'd get attacked from several directions.

Speeding towards another goon, she swept him up with her scythe. Before bringing Crescent Rose around again, knocking him back to the ground. From behind her came a hoarse roar of anger. A pull of Crescent Rose's trigger, and Ruby hurled aside at dizzying speed.

Her opponent, one of the goon that Ruby had taken out earlier, charged after her. The woman's mask had been knocked aside, letting Ruby see a pale face freckled with green scales. She slashed with her sword, but Ruby was already moving, stabbing Crescent Rose into the ground. The other's red eyes went wide as Ruby used scythe’s haft like a gymnast's balance beam. Spinning atop it, Ruby smashed her feet into the woman's chest and sending her flying back.

Yanking Crescent Rose from the ground, Ruby heard the tall Faunus shouting orders. "Fall back! Fall back to the Bullheads! Now!"

Without thinking, Ruby pulled back the bolt on her sniper-scythe, ejecting the spent shell and chambering a fresh round. That done, Ruby ran forward towards Blake and her companion. Any goons nearby gave the young Huntress-in-Training a wide space as they fled to the remaining Bullhead by the entrance. Several of the goons were carrying unconscious comrades.

Ruby thought she could hear what sounded like Ember Celia drawing closer. She smiled, warmth flooding her chest. She had nothing to worry about. Soon she'd have the rest of her team with her. Together, they'd save the day and Ruby didn't feel sorry for what that was going to mean for the White Fang and Roman Torchwick.

As the main group of the White Fang retreated deeper into the dockyard, Blake and her companion chased after them. With Blake's companion spinning his staff to deflect away some of the bullets sent their way. Blake meanwhile was firing away with Gambol Shroud. She'd switched one of her swords back to pistol mode and the other blade held in a clenched fist. But both of them seemed to be moving slower than normal to Ruby's eyes.

This prompted Ruby to speed up. As she drew close, Blake whirled around. Having heard the sound of booted feet approaching her from behind, she had her sword at the ready. For an instant, a snarl was plastered across her features before she saw who it was.

Moving past Blake past in a blur, Ruby swung her scythe at the throng of attacking White Fang, sweeping them away with the blunt side of Crescent Rose. In the face of the sudden attack, the masked goons fell back. Ruby skidded to a halt, rose petals tumbling off her.

"You okay?" She asked her teammate. Blake was breathing hard, her face smeared with what looked like soot and dirt. Ruby felt almost overwhelmed by both relief at having finally found her missing friend and concern over her current state.

"I'm fine." Ruby didn't think she looked fine, but Blake continued before she could say anything. "Look, we need to hurry if we're going to stop them. If we don't they're going to steal more Dust and escape!"

The younger girl nodded and looked ahead to the White Fang who had regrouped around a mountain of a man, who raised his weaponized chainsaw in challenge. One the silver-eyed girl wouldn't let go unanswered.

"Yaaaaaaaaah!" Ruby shouted, flourishing Crescent Rose and shooting forwards to charge right at the White Fang's forces.


Author’s Notes:
I'm particularly eager to hear what people think of how I handled the fight and if I did Ruby and Blake's fighting style justice. I’ve tried to strike a balance between the Monty-style fights we got in the earlier Volumes and the more restrained ones that the series seems to be leaning towards now.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments, as I love to hear them. It's always good to hear input from my readers.

 

[DarthOne]

CHAPTER 4

Hang on guys, we're almost there! Yang Xiao Long thought. Once again, a blast from Ember Celica launched her forward into another low-leaping arc down the empty street. It was the same tactic she'd used after being launched into the Emerald Forest during her initiation at Beacon.

Yang was aware of Weiss following close behind. Her teammate propelling herself down the street with a series of white glyphs, her sword in hand. But Yang's purple eyes were fixed ahead on the black smoke that coiled up in the moonlight one of the dockyards that lined Vale's shore.

It'd been almost an hour since she, Ruby and Weiss had run into anyone who'd seen Blake or the monkey-Faunus she'd been hanging out with. The three of them had been walking along a city street that paralleled the ocean shore when they'd heard the distant explosion. Before either of them could say anything, Ruby had taken one look at the growing tower of smoke. Then she was racing away out of Yang's sight. Despite their best, they couldn't match Ruby's speed Semblance and lagged behind.

Now, over the rushing wind in her ears, Yang could make out the sounds of gunfire. She thought she could hear Crescent Rose firing. But nothing that sounded like Blake's Gambol Shroud. And she couldn't see anything with the warehouses blocking her view of the docks.

Another pull of the trigger propelled Yang ever closer to her target. If Blake was there, if something had happened to her...or if Ruby got hurt before Yang could get there...

Yang didn't let herself continue that thought. Her friend would be okay. Her sister would be okay. This wouldn't be like Ruby in the woods- she wouldn't let it be. She pushed herself that little bit harder. Both feet slammed against the street as Yang fired the weapons built into her gauntlets one more time. Pushing herself off the ground with another pair of Aura-augmented shotgun blasts.

She landed almost on top of the entrance to the dockyard. Yang ran forward, leaving Weiss to hurry after her.

They arrived at a scene of chaos. Gunfire filled the air as a large group of Faunus wearing the uniform of the White Fang retreated deeper into the dockyard, fending off a battered Blake and a blond monkey Faunus.

But none of that mattered to Yang. Not as much as the sight her sister, with Crescent Rose in hand, darting forward with a high-pitched cry towards a tall, armored Faunus in a trail of red rose petals. Leaving a battered Blake and a blond monkey-Faunus behind her.

In an instant, the tall Faunus smacked her sister aside with a blow from the massive chainsaw he held. Her Aura might have saved her, but Ruby was sent flying backwards, tumbling and skidding. Before she jabbed Crescent Rose into the ground to stop herself. The blade caught, tearing open a deep trench into the asphalt.

Yang's gaze snapped away from where Ruby was picking herself up to the man who'd knocked her sister back. Yang took a step forward, her first clenching within Ember Celica.

Then she stopped. Something about the wall of boxes the tall Faunus and his allies were heading towards drew her attention. There was a familiar logo in white on the sides of the shipping containers. Her mind flashed to the explosion she'd heard and the pillar of smoke that'd led them here. Everything clicked together. They were in the middle of enough Dust to flatten everything for miles. That cold, sobering realization turned the embers of Yang's anger to ash.

It was then that she heard the roar of jet engines. She glanced to her right to see a Bullhead pulling itself into the air, a hatch on it's nose sliding open to reveal a mini-gun.

Before Yang could shout any sort of warning, the weapon chattered to life. But Ruby, Blake and the blond Faunus had noticed the Bullhead taking flight as well. The trio were already scattering as gunfire chewed up the asphalt where they'd been standing. Meanwhile, the Bullhead had started to swing sideways towards the center of the dockyard.

"Weiss stay here. Get ready to help Ruby and Blake!" Yang had to yell to be heard over the sound of gunfire.

She heard Weiss shout something back- it might have been "What are you going to-?"

But by then, the blonde was already moving, her mind whirling as she tried to work out a plan. Yang knew she'd have to careful about this. She had no idea how tough the containers were or what protection they had to keep Dust they held from exploding. And the Aura-flames her Semblance created, as well as the Aura-enhanced rounds she could fire from Ember Celia, might easily set off the Dust the containers held. As would the Bullhead if it lost control and crashed into the shipping containers.

Even as Yang charged forward the Bullhead was sweeping out a stream of bullets and tracers. The aircraft was trying to force her teammates and the monkey-Faunus back towards the entrance of the dockyard. She could see it was doing a good job of keeping them preoccupied.

It was then that the Bullhead noticed her. Immediately, it switched targets. A messy hail of bullets began shredding the ground around Yang, while others smacked against her Aura. The combined hits staggered her for an instant. The blonde Student-Huntress could feel her Semblance start to roar to life. Sending energy coursing through her body and a fiery glow began to spread through her hair.

Not wasting a second more, Yang fired Ember Celica at the ground one, twice; her weapons sending her hurtling into the air. Draining her Semblance and the growing red tinge in her purple eyes. She caught a brief snatch of surprised faces and cries of 'Yang?!' from Blake and her sister as she shot overhead. But she had little chance to think of them right now.

The Bullhead was still trying to hit her, but it couldn't bring it's gun up fast enough. Cocking her arm back, Yang brought her fist into a vicious right hook that ripped the chain-gun clear off its mount. Pushing off against the bottom of the aircraft, Yang twisted into a backwards flip that sent her down towards the ground. Where her team had continued their fight against the White Fang.

Aiming Ember Celia downwards and firing to slow her fall, Yang angled herself towards the White Fang. They'd used the distraction created by the gunfire to get closer to their remaining three Bullheads. Though to her surprise, they hadn't gotten as far as she'd thought they would've.

That thought was on the edge of her mind however. Before it could make any progress, a large black glyph blossomed beneath the Faunus's feet, holding them in place. Though not all them were trapped; they were too spread out for that. Yang glimpsed some of those who hadn't been caught turning back to try and help. While others continued running towards the Bullheads. Then she was too low to see over the wall of containers.

Over the sound of the Bullhead she's damaged retreating, Yang could hear her sister shout something, but wasn't sure what at first. Until she saw Ruby, Blake and the blond Faunus starting to move from where the Bullhead had scattered them. They were already starting forwards in a ragged charge by the time Yang hit the ground. Off to the side, Weiss was still hanging back, Myrtenaster held in one hand and pointed at the enemy. A faint glow issued from the rapier's chamber as she used the gravity Dust within to augment the glyph holding the White Fang.

Yang's hair fluttered behind her as she rushed to catch up with the others. She'd practiced together with her team enough to know how Weiss's glyphs worked. Weiss would have to drop the one she had when they got to the Fang. Otherwise, they'd all be stuck together. Which also meant they had to reach the White Fang at the same time to ensure Weiss didn't drop her glyph early.

Running alongside her teammates, Yang felt the thrill of the fight itself, the nightclub music beat of adrenaline rush for the first time since she'd arrived here. Drawing closer, Yang could clearly see the dread on the Faunus's masked faces, with some struggling even harder against the slowly spinning Schnee crest beneath their feet. The big Faunus wasn't one of them. He stood on the edge of the crowd, the engine of his chainsaw purring as he stood ready for them.

The sight brought a wide grin to her face. A chance of payback against someone who hurt the people she'd cared for and a challenging fight? Oh, she was going to enjoythis.

With a burst of Aura, Yang leapt up into the air, her fist drawing back as she dove into the midst of the White Fang. She could see him trying to bring the heavy chainsaw up, but it was slow, too slow.

Her grin widened. This will be so easy. Her arm rocketed forward, ready to send him stumbling backwards. Ready to carve a space for herself among crowd with Ember Celica.

Yang's fist met his face and the Faunus shattered like glass.

What the-?!

"GAH!" Yang cried, stumbling, spinning. Wary and confused as she tried to figure out what'd just happened.

Around her, she could hear and see her stunned teammates reacting likewise. Until the scream of Bullhead engines drew Yang's eyes upwards. Only to leave her staring dumbly, her arms going slack at the three aircraft soaring away over the bay with Dust containers pulled tightly beneath them.

"Oh come on!" the monkey Faunus shouted, his voice shrill with exasperation.

As if those words were a key, Yang suddenly found her body would move again. She focused the crackle-hum power of her Aura into her fists. Her arms snapped up, punch after punch throwing Aura-enhanced round at the quickly receding Bullheads. Around her, she was aware of the heavy clicks of weapons shifting as Blake and Ruby started firing at the Bullheads as well. Yang hoped they'd be able to get some good hits in. She didn't have a much accuracy with Ember Celia at this distance.

But they seemed to amount to little. With most of their energy burnt out by the time they reached the target, the few fiery hits she managed did little more than leave scorches on the aircraft's hulls. And even while Yang watched, the three Bullheads vanished into thin air without a trace. Taking with them the sound of their engines, leaving only the mocking gentle slush and hiss of the sea.

Yang clenched her teeth, any trace of joy or celebration she might have felt lost in the bitter taste of frustration. The fact that the White Fang had managed to make off with so much Dust could not be a good thing. But the worse part for Yang was how little she'd been able to stop them. All because of where they'd been fighting.

That she might be so handicapped by something as simple as the environment chilled Yang. Sure, there'd been occasions where she'd had to hold back in a fight. But those had always been friendly sparring or practice. What's more, she knew she couldn't rule out something like this happening again. All this passed through the blonde's mind in a flash. Before she latched onto a train of thought that took her in a completely different direction.

Wiping away the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead, Yang glanced over at her sister. The normally energetic leader of Team RWBY was relaxing a white-knuckled grip on her scythe's staff. Then with a flourish, she reverted Crescent Rose into it's more compact carrying mode in her left hand, before returning the weapon to its resting place at the back of her waist.

"Are you okay?" Yang asked, her eyes searching Ruby for any signs of serious injury. To her relief, outside of the few light cuts and scrapes that littered her clothes and skin, she seemed okay.

Ruby glanced over, meeting her sister's questioning gaze. Beneath the sweat, dirt, and ash, dejected silver eyes stared back up at Yang. "Don't worry, I'm fine."

Yang nodded, feeling her heart ache. Closing the distance between them, she placed an arm around Ruby's shoulders and gave her sister a gentle, reassuring squeeze. A breeze picked up the downtrodden young team leader's cape, billowing it out.

Yet, she couldn't ignore what Ruby had done. Not for the first time, her sister had split up the team to run off on her own. Maybe if they'd stuck together and been able to work as a team, they would have enough firepower to overwhelm the White Fang before they could escape.

For a moment, she considered speaking to Ruby about it. But it wasn't the time to bring that up. Ruby was already in the dumps, and she didn't want to undermine her little sister's position as the team leader in front of everyone. Besides, Yang couldn't be completely sure if Ruby running off had even helped Blake out, or if it'd just make it easier for the White Fang to escape.

The thought made Yang pause. Actually, where was Blake? Guilt stung her. She'd been so focused on her sister, that she hadn't stopped to see how her own partner was doing. Shifting her gaze from Ruby, a fresh surge of guilt hit Yang as she got her first good look at her partner.

Even in the dim light of the moon and the burning Dust, Blake looked like a battered mess. Her clothes with were splotched with dirt and streaks of blood. And it seemed like every part of her body that Yang could see had some sort of cut, scratch or bruise.

Yang took a step forward, wanting nothing more than to engulf her in a hug. It took everything she had to force herself to stop, not wanting to cause Blake any further pain.

"Blake, you’re hurt!" Ruby yelped.

“I’ll be alright—it’s just some cuts,” Blake assured her, her voice even. But with a hint of weariness that betrayed her exhaustion.

Several things flashed through Yang's brain and were forgotten as something on top of Blake's head moved. She stared, seeing for the first time that her friend wasn't wearing her usual ribbon atop her head.

It was only as the exposed Faunus ears flattened, almost as if they were trying to hide themselves, that Yang broke her stare. And saw the uncertain expression on Blake's face as her dark-haired partner stared back at her. A little off to the side, Yang could see the monkey-faunus, who looked just as battered as Blake looking concerned. Heat coiled in Yang's stomach, but she couldn't figure out if it was sadness or shame. Nor did she try to.

In two long steps, she crossed the distance between them. Yang felt her friend freeze at her sudden, enthusiastic hug. A second later, she felt Ruby join them as well, gently wrapping her arms around both of them.

"I'm just glad you're okay." Yang said and felt Blake relax, then return her embrace around her shoulders.

"T-Thanks to you." Blake mumbled into Yang's shoulder. Yet the sincere appreciation and relief in her tone was clear. Yang felt a lump form in the back of her throat and she swallowed thickly.

For a moment the three of them remained in each other's embrace. Then they parted, stepping back, their friendship a little stronger because of their words and actions.

Then Yang saw Blake's smile fade from her face as the partner's eyes settled on something past Yang's shoulder. Yang followed Blake's gaze and saw Weiss was drawing close to them, Myrtenaster at her hip. Despite her steady steps, the heiress's face and body was stiff, her expression one of a person who was conflicted, yet also determined.

Besides her, Ruby had also followed Blake's gaze and stepped forward to approach Weiss. "Weiss, it's-" the heiress's name slipped from her sister, worry creeping into the edges. Only to cut off, her silver eyes flashing up at Yang, who'd tugged her sleeve. Yang shook her head no. Even if some part of her wanted to say something, Yang knew that Blake and Weiss needed a chance to talk this out between themselves.

Yang watched as Blake walked forward, until she stood alone. Her partner and the heiress stared at one another. Blake started to say something but hesitated. Weiss looked equally uncertain about what to do. Then, without warning, the Ice Queen fixed the other girl with a glare and Blake flinched in surprise.

'Oh no Weiss, please don't...'

"What were you thinking!" Weiss snapped, "Running away like that!? With that rapscallion!?" she gestured to the monkey faunus. "Do you have any idea how worried I -" She stopped herself and glanced away for an instant, "...we were about you? Do you how know hard it's been to cover for you?"

Yang let out a breath she didn't even know she had been holding. Blake blinked in surprise, then glanced over to her with a questioning look. The blonde nodded.

"I-" Blake began in a tight voice, "thank you, but...I'm surprised you didn't repor-..." she trailed off.

"I thought about it," Weiss admitted in a quiet, clear tone, "But it was suggested that I hear your side of things first...I suppose maybe they were right. We were both feeling very...high-strung. I know I said things that I regret and I'm sorry," the heiress admitted, she looked up at Blake, "Maybe in the heat of the moment you did too? Maybe even said something that wasn't true?"

"I did and I am sorry." Blake looked down at the ground, "I want to explain wh-" The approaching sound of sirens cut her off.

"I guess we have more immediate things to worry about." Yang could hear the relief coloring Weiss's tone.

"Weiss-"

"We need time to sort this all out, but right now," The heiress said, stepping in close, "we need to figure out what we're going to tell the authorities."

"...You're right," Blake admitted, "Another time?"

"Another time." The heiress assured.

"Are they okay?" Ruby asked quietly, glancing away from their distant teammates to Yang.

"They will be little sis, it's just gonna take time."

As Blake fished her bow out from a pocket and tied it around the ears atop her head, Yang became aware of a growing dull ache throughout her body. Pain danced at the edge of her senses. With the adrenaline fading her muscles, overworked from the long run here and the fight, were were finally beginning to protest. Still, Yang wasn't too concerned. This wasn't the first time she'd pushed herself a little harder then she should've. Her Aura should have her healed by morning- at worse she'd be a little sore.

Though as the wailing sirens grew closer, Yang took a moment to glance around at the battle-worn docks and warehouses. Wondering exactly how they were going to explain all this to the police.

-RWBY-​

A dozen yards away on a dark rooftop several stories above the battle-scarred ground, Shaidar Gorthule rose up to his feet from the low crouch he'd spent the past few minutes in. Besides him, he was aware of Paula Ravenwood doing the same with her customary predatory grace. They could afford to now that the battle was over.

As the pair stood, Shaidar dispelled the energy shield that had protected them in favor of a soundproof barrier. At the same time, he enlarged the illusion he'd created around them.

Having arrived just before Yang and Weiss did, Shaidar hadn't doubted for a moment that his shield would protect himself and Paula from any stray shots or debris kicked up by the battle below. Instead, his concern had been more focused on avoiding being noticed. Which was what would happen if anyone would happen to see a piece of shrapnel bouncing off of what was appeared to be thin air and decided to investigate.

A risk that was made all the greater thanks the Fanus's better-then-human night vision. That was why they'd been crouched low on the roof- to make themselves as small of a target as they could, while still being able to to get a good view of what was happening. Like all Techno-mages, Shaidar could choose to see in the dark thanks to his cybernetics that further augmented his already inhuman eyes.

Of course, they could have used his sensors to remotely view the fight at a greater distances. There were certainly Techno-mages in the Order who would have. But there was something to be said for seeing a battle in person.

Peering over the edge of the roof, Shaidar and Paula looked on as several police officers left their squad cars and approached the five teenagers. And from an official-looking gray car, strode a stern-looking blonde woman in business-attire, as well as a purple and black cape of a strange design. She moved with speed the self-assurance of someone who did not have time for delays.

As he'd done since the battle ended, Shaidar continued to use his Techno-mage cybernetics to filter out background noises and enhanced others so he could easily hear what was being said between the people below. He fed the result through a hologram in the palm of his hand so Paula could hear it as well.

The conversation that followed mostly focused on police procedures and the various individuals agreeing to come to the police station to tell what had happened. Outside of learning some more names and a few tidbits about how the police operated in Vale, it didn't tell Shaidar anything he couldn't have found out otherwise.

Which couldn't be said for the earlier conversation between the five teenagers that had been interrupted by the arrival of the police. Any thoughts or concerns about the broken Linking Device had been swept aside for the moment at this new development.

Back when he'd arrived at the dockyard, Shaidar Gorthule had though back to his encounter with the three teenagers and wondered if Blake's friends were unaware that she was a Faunus. Or if they had known but simply had decided not to say for one of any number of reasons. As his scanners had easily picked up that she was a Faunus when she and Sun had walked by himself and Paula even earlier in the day. At the time, all this had been a momentary curiosity on his part. Now, it could mean something more.

It was only after the teenagers had departed with their professor- Glynda Goodwitch, if he'd heard right- that he shut down the hologram and the transmission. He turned his inhuman eyes, dark green irises flecked with orange, cat-like slits for pupils and a black sclera, to Paula. Her hand still hadn't left her holstered energy pistol.

He broke the silence the pair of them had held for what might seem like a medium-sized eternity.

“Well, that was unexpected. Still, I've found this whole experience to be rather enlightening.” Shaidar Gorthule said, his voice almost conversational. After all, it was always better to know of a potential enemy's existence before they knew of yours. And what he'd seen here had revealed much to him.

He recalled the words of an ancient Terran military treatise, the Art of War. ‘Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If you are ignorant of the enemy and yourself, you will succumb in every battle.’

That understanding was part of what had driven him when he'd first started learning about this world. To discover as much knowledge as he could of its strengths and weakness before taking any serious action- both for Paula's sake and for his own. Besides, it was common sense to seek out understanding instead of committing blindly. At least so long as circumstances allowed for it.

A breath of air off the harbor carried a tang of salt, replacing the smell of burned metal and Dust from the battle below.

“That's one way of putting it. So much for Faunus extremists not being a problem. Assuming that this is the same White Fang you mentioned earlier and that we've been hearing about from the news.” Paula's voice carried the same undertone of quite concern that'd been in his own.

Shaidar thought of the Faunus they'd seen retreating. The blatant symbolism behind the White Fang's Grimm-masks and secretive outfits hadn't escaped him. Be it the first time he'd seen them or here. Stuck halfway between a street-gang and army, the White Fang were forced to lean on intimidation to make up for it.

That such conflict had happened was unsurprising under the circumstances. But then, adversity and chaos were the natural order of things. Facts that the Shadows had long known.

Because of this, the Shadows and those who served them had embraced a philosophy of evolution through chaos for since ancient times. And so sought to help encourage competition and turmoil to ward off stagnation. Societies and species had to adapt or weather the storm of conflict as best they could. Those who did not would perish, leaving room for those who survived to rise up stronger and better than before. It was a struggle he'd experienced for himself on a personal level.

With all that said, too much chaos -anarchy- was as harmful as no conflict at all. Chaos in the Shadows’ philosophy was a means to an end, not the end goal itself. Too much conflict would wear a civilization down to nothing. And a civilization that continuously fought and back-stabbed among itself would likewise collapse in short order.

“That they are. Obviously the local intelligence on them was inaccurate, if not outright wrong. Did you pick up anything from them?”

Soon after they'd arrived at the docks, Paula had suggested using her telepathy to 'listen in' on the surface thoughts being projected by the people below. Shaidar hadn't even considered it before she'd suggested it. Which hadn't stopped him from agreeing to it. He had no qualms about accepting a useful idea merely because it wasn’t his own.

Neither Shaidar or Paula had been concerned about possible telepathic defenses. From what Paula had told him earlier that day, whatever defenses Aura might grant against telepathy, they hadn't stopped her from accidentally picking up on people's stray thoughts. Plus, doing this would be a passive use of her abilities. It wouldn't intrude into anyone's mind and set off any possible defenses there.

“A few things. Our friend with the black bowler hat is named Roman Torchwick. Seems he's human- and I got the impression they weren't happy about working with him. He treats them like he's famous or some sort of big shot. He thinks he is too. Loves the sound of his own voice. Does all that mean anything to you?”

Data scrolled across Shaidar's eyes as he searched the CCTS for information. His sensors had already told him that Roman was human, but he didn't bother pointing that out to Paula. “From what I can find, he's an impressive thief. No sign of him working with the Fang before now. Which isn't half as odd as them working with a human. Anything else?”

“From the Fang? Nothing besides a few scattered names from people who were checking to see if their buddies made it. Most of them were too busy to be broadcasting their thoughts about anything useful. I did get a few thing from Blake and the teacher."

"Go on."

"It might be nothing, but Glynda seems to think that Beacon's Headmaster has high hopes for Team RWBY." Here, Paula's voice turned thoughtful. "Which could just mean he sees them as promising students. Even with them holding back, I can see why too. Doubly so with Ruby. Recklessness aside, the kid has potential. More than I thought she did at first, given her personality.”

Shaidar would have found it hard not to agree. Team RWBY had fought with a level of not just skill, but teamwork that he wouldn't have expected from teenagers, even first year students. They'd preformed moves together with barely a glance between them. Trust like that did not come easy.

Without it, even the best trained troops would hesitate; thinking through their actions rather than reacting according to their training. All the more impressive was that the Huntresses-In-Training managed to hold out when they couldn't use most of their abilities with the risk of setting off the Dust in the cargo containers.

Even before Paula had spoke, Shaidar knew he wasn't the only one to notice RWBY's leader. While one part of this mind had focused on the battle going on below them, another part had been keeping track of his companion's expression and actions.

“They are quite impressive.” He agreed. “From what I've seen of students their age, I'd even go so far to say that they're prodigies. Speaking of which, you mentioned Blake?"

“Yes. I got the feeling that there's more going on here between her and the White Fang." Paula replied, "Her reaction, her emotions to everything that happened tonight was too personal. Even more so about this Roman Torchwick and the White Fang working together. That was a big shock for her. She was carrying around a lot of guilt too. Mind you, I'm not certain. But between her feelings and what I could pick up from Weiss, I think Blake might be ex-White Fang.”

He was not surprised that Paula had managed to uncover so much just from listening to surface thoughts. If accidentally picking up on people's thoughts was like catching snatches of conversation in another room, then intentionally listening in, with her barriers down, was like pressing your ear against the door to that room.

For a long moment, Shaidar Gorthule stood there, the possibilities and potentials flipping through his mind at top speed as he gazed out on the wreckage of the battle and the police officers scurrying through it.

His mind, like those of many who served the ancient alien race known as the Shadows, had been augmented with neural cybernetic implants. Among them was a database that helped increase his tactical and strategic awareness on an almost instinctual level. They were much like his watered down version of the Shadow's genetic memory in that regard.

As with his primary set of neural implants, the combat database was not uncommon among those who worked for the Shadows. The Shadows had long used them to quickly ingrain the knowledge of the ways of war into the minds of new servants. Though even with their advanced technologies, there were limits on how many neural implants their servants could have, with two being the limit in his case.

Turning back to Paula and meeting her golden gaze, he said, “I think we can both agree that there's something more going on here. Even with someone who's Semblance can hide Bullheads, this is a major change in scale and tactics for the Fang. We need to investigate what's happening. See if we need to involve ourselves- I don’t see the point in borrowing trouble. Our situation isn’t exactly all fish and chips to begin with.”

“Sticking our heads in the sand won't help.” Paula agreed. “Though I'm curious to hear why you think this isn't some act of desperation to get Dust to use or sell. Or maybe a feint to draw attention towards Vale? Even if Team RWBY hadn't shown up and there wasn't a fight, I'm sure someone would have noticed the crates missing in the morning. With how much the Fang hate the Schnees, they'd be a prime suspect.”

“Those are possibilities." The Shadow-human hybrid agreed. "Although I find it difficult to imagine how the Fang would have allowed their situation to become this desperate. Then there's the matter of why they'd need so much Dust in a hurry. That they did this here instead of a more remote spot is also telling. The Fang need the Dust in Vale. If not, they're going to have a difficult time selling that much Dust or getting it out of the Kingdom undetected. Those VTOLs don't have much range and an illusion Semblance can only do so much.”

He wondered if the upcoming Vytal Festival could be the White Fang's target. It was possible, but also an obvious target. Perhaps too much of one, Shaidar reflected. It could be that the Fang wanted their enemies to assume that they would attack Vytal Festival as an elaborate distraction to hide their true objective.

There was also the manner of attack to consider as well. An incident at the Vytal festival could serve as a statement against the Kingdoms and a way to further divide and radicalize the Faunus, driving more of them into the arms of the White Fang. But it would carry with it considerable risk of backfiring. Justifying the Kingdoms taking major action against the White Fang in a war the Faunus group could not win. All were things that any leader would have to consider.

“As for a feint," he continued, "our arrival already gave the Fang a more than adequate distraction. Having a raid occur on the same day risks drawing too much attention for too little gain. Consider that and their willingness to fight until the last moment. The Fang were worried about being able to acquire Dust before everything had calmed down from our arrival. So they're on a time table of some kind.”

That the White Fang were willing to work with a human that they disliked could mean that their racism against humans had been overstated. Though Shaidar Gorthule found it more likely that their alliance came from Torchwick being able to give them something they wanted. Perhaps they were even a catspaw for someone else. Maybe even both; maybe any number of other reasons. There were too many unknowns and variables to be certain yet.

Still, it could open up the possibility of him and Paula allying themselves with the Faunus group. Though personally Shaidar was skeptical of the viability of such an arrangement. Also, he knew Paula wouldn't easily go along with it.

“Well, that makes sense," Paula acknowledged. "Speaking of which, I assume that we'll start by looking into Torchwick's background? Because if we are, we should try to look into the other names I picked up as well. They could be in a criminal database or watch list.”

He nodded. "An excellent idea. As for Team RWBY," Shaidar Gorthule, Hand of the Shadows, personal servant of the Lords and Ladies of Chaos gave a faint smile, "if what you're saying about Blake is true, they might be worth keeping an eye on as well.”

-RWBY-​

Deep in the Forest Of Forever Fall, a woman in red and black stepped over a toppled tree trunk, thigh-length black boots moving in measured steps. Like the rest of of her clothing, her boots were well made, but had seen much wear.

As she moved, the woman played the beam of a small but powerful flashlight across the ground as she continued to survey the desolate clearing. An elaborate helmet obscured most of her head, except for her long black hair and the raven feathers twisted into it. The helmet itself was white with red accents and shaped like the fearsome head of a Grimm bird of prey. One gloved hand never strayed far from the sword sheathed in the heavy scabbard that hung at her left hip.

Hidden behind the helmet, Raven Branwen’s crimson eyes were narrowed in frustration. Not for the first time, she bit back a curse. She was too late; despite having come here as quick as she could once news had reached her, the militia and specialists sent here to investigate from Vale had made a complete mess of things. Any signs of what had happened here this morning were next to impossible to find beneath their boot-prints and dirt they’d kicked up.

Still, there were things Raven could tell from signs of how the militia from Vale had behaved and what they’d taken from the site before they’d obviously left some time previously. All the signs she could see pointed to magic, powerful magic at that, to create a clearing several hundred feet across. Which was what really mattered to Raven. Had this been caused by Dust, she would have found some trace of it or fragments of bomb casing, and there was no way someone with so powerful a Semblance could have escaped her attention before now- or that of Ozpin and Salem. The power that had done this was equal to that of a Maiden.

To Raven, this almost had to be the doing of one of Salem or Ozpin's pawns. A third party was possible and not to be discounted, but there was only a small chance of that. Ozpin and Salem jealously guarded what power and knowledge they had.

If it was so easy to acquire such power outside serving in their cabals, Raven would have discovered it long ago. As for stealing it from either of them, that would be a foolish errand unless done carefully. Her misguided brother might have failed to protect the Fall Maiden, but Raven knew that to be a fluke.

That the Fall Maiden had been overcome so easily and had needed a guard at all revealed how weak Amber had been. Inexperience alone could not excuse what had happened. She'd been little more than a figurehead propped up by what Raven saw as a frightened old man who dared only to tell his servants riddles and half-truths. Raven only regretted it had taken herself so long to realize the extent of this.

The idea that Ozpin might have been the cause of this desolation almost drew a snort of laughter from Raven. For all his claimed knowledge and wisdom, he was far too careful and cautious to allow such actions. It was but one reason among many that Beacon would fall and he would fail. Followed soon by the Kingdoms and the fools who cowered within them. It was the natural order of things. People who were weak would die and those who were strong would live.

Reaching to her hip, Raven drew her curved crimson sword. The blade doubled to over twice it's length in an instant. There was a high pitched thrumming and the sword flashed downward through empty space. The blade left a red rent in its wake. It was as if the air itself was wounded.

Determination and focus enveloped her, hardened her mind to ice and her will to steel. If this was some new twist in Salem's scheme, she would uncover it and plan accordingly. And should it turn out to be the doing of someone else...she'd ether recruit them by any means necessary or deal with them. One way or another, it would be before Ozpin or Salem could so the same.

What sort of leader would she be if she wouldn't do whatever was necessary to ensure the survival of her people...and herself?


Author’s notes:
To quote an alleged ancient Chinese curse ‘Maybe you live in interesting times.’ I hope I did a good job showing how things are beginning to diverge from the canon timeline, as well as continuing to get the characterizations of the various characters of Team RWBY as well as Sun and Raven down right.

And yes, one of the reasons we get to see Raven and Shaidar’s point of views back to back in this chapter is to contrast the views and philosophies of the two Social Darwinist. I’m curious to hear what people thought of this and the two character's personalities. As I’ve tired my best to humanize them both. Of course, if you have anything else you’d like to say, I’d love to hear your thoughts on that as well.